About me

Candidate name- Ricardo Da Silva

Candidate number- 1219

Evaluation Question

Follow this link to see my evaluations questions
http://www.wix.com/06rdasilva/evaluationquestions

Unforeseen Emissary opening sequence and feedback

How will attempt to answer my evaluation questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Prezi

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 I will make a copy of  our final piece and add annotations during the video showing the various ways in which we have represented social groups.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Prezi

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Voki- I will use an avatar I have created as a means of answering the question

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Glogster poster- The poster will show the two phases taken from

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



Prepare a script ready with what I have learnt and write on Cards keywords that have relevance to what I'm saying.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Pixton- I will create a comic that will depict the journey from beginning to end with lessons learnt in between.

Rough Cut

This is our first draft of our opening sequence

Audience Reaction- Rough Cut on Prezi


Audience feedback- Class

Today as a class we took some time to get reaction from our fellow classmates. We sat around as a class and devised questions as group on what we wanted to find out. My group divided it up into Camerawork, Music, Titles, challenging conventions and other general points.

Camerawork

Good

• Good variety of shots that make the story easy to follow. Especially the low angle shot of the protagonist in the bathroom and the high angle shot of him walking on the road. 
• The shots for each scene were appropriate and allowed us to see the characters emotion. Also allowed us to spot any important features such as the blood on his hand.

Improvement

• Shake of camera before entering the building is unprofessional and distorts the audiences view of the film.
• Shot reverse shot is needed in order to make the exchange between the two characters more realistic. Also there needs to be a cut to another image while they are talking.

Music

Good

• Original and well constructed music. The fact that you did not add pre-made Imovie songs made it look authentic.
• Background sound in exchange of dialogue makes it hard to follow the conversation.

Improvement 

• It is important that your Non- diegetic sounds like the alarm clock sync in perfectly or it makes it look a tad 'tacky'

Titles

Good

• You added Imovie ones whihc are ok for now.

Improvement

• There were non and they need to be added. The title of the movie came up as a separate frame on a Imovie background and that is a shame as you have worked hard to make it look original.

Challenging conventions

Good

• Murder and blood make it look and feel like a thriller film.

Improvement

• Cuts are too slow

General points

Good

• You have grasped the general aspects of a thriller and it genuinely looks like a thriller

Improvement

• Scripting is bad, 'killer is on the loose'
• Acting needs to be sharper as the supporting character doesn't look a genuine character in the film.

Batman Dark Knight- Action Thriller

The Dark Knight is a superhero thriller directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman. Christian Bale plays the lead role of Bruce Wayne, with an additional cast of Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. The film introduces the character of Harvey Dent, Gotham's newly elected District Attorney and the cohort of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Rachel Dawes, who joins Batman and the police in combating the new rising threat of a criminal calling himself the "Joker".

Inspiration
The fact that this movie was amazing helps us form an opinion about it. Although i believe technically it is a masterpiece of what cinema can achieve with great talents. The use of non diegetic sound (See sound post)

Location shots

There are a few reasons why we have decided to use this first location in our filming. Firstly it is free and available meaning that we wouldn't have to rely on help or favours which can tend to be unreliable. Secondly my room is large enough to film and allows us to create the right feel to our film that is needed. While the actual building can be considered quite ugly and aesthetically unattractive, this does not matter as the exterior will not appear in the opening sequence. Furthermore filming at my house allows us to have a lot more freedom in moving things around and changing it to suit our needs. Furthermore we are not tied by time constraints and it is of easy access to everyone in the group.

12 Lambeth Towers Kennington Road, London, SE11 6NJ

 

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Our second location we have chosen is our school for very similar reasons to our first location. Our school is willing to help us with the any assistance needed in terms of classrooms and timings. Furthermore we wouldn’t be reliant on others to help us and we could easily communicate with our teachers to aid us in our accessibility to certain areas. We are trying to use that fact the school has a very corporate look and feel to it. In other words it doesn’t look like your typical school. This will allow us to give off the illusion that it’s a secret spy headquarters. In continuation we have an abundant amount of resources at our disposal from computer to chairs and so on.

Chelsea Academy Lots Road, London, SW10 0AB

Motion

Motion is a software application that is used to create and edit motion graphics, titling for video production and film production, and 2D and 3D compositing for visual effects.

Equipment

Film cameras are used and produced today, especially for the production of full feature movies. Film cameras take a series of images; "frame". The frames are later played back in a movie projector at a specific speed, called the "frame rate". While viewing, a person's eyes and brain merge the separate pictures together to create the illusion of motion.


As a class we are lucky enough to be using the latest handheld Sony cameras that really make it easy to film and upload videos. Our teacher gave us a quick demonstration on how the battery works and what we needed to do to change certain settings. After the tutorial we used the camera to film the preliminary task and got a real feel of how they responded to certain lighting and movements. As a group we decided that the main priorites to dow ith the camera was the charging of it, safety and making sure the setting configured to the scenes we needed to shoot. We made sure that before filming the cameras were fully charged and any additional items such as lighting were with us.

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A tripod is a portable three-legged frame, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. A tripod provides stability against downward forces, horizontal forces and moments about the vertical axis. The positioning of the three feet away from the vertical centre allows the tripod better leverage for resisting lateral forces. Tripods have the disadvantage of being heavy and bulky although they can be used with large equipment.

I found the use of the tripod to bring more positives than negatives. While it was extremely heavy and inconveient to transport and sometimes didnt allow for flexibility it helped us a great deal in shooting our openig sequence. It allowed for swift camera movements and excelent control. We are fully aware that the examiners will be looking at the steadiness of the shot and I beileve it wouold ahve been near impossible to achieve such a high level of stability without it.
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Lighting illuminates the performers and artists in a live theatre, dance, or musical performance, and is selected and arranged to create dramatic effects. Dimmers, colored filters, reflectors, lenses, motorized or manually aimed lamps, and different kinds of flood and spot lights are among the tools used by a stage lighting designer to produce the desired effects.

Although artificial light normally plays a huge role in many major productions, we found that we didnt have to use it. We prefred instead to use the natural light becuase it gave our film more of an authentic look and we beieved that any over imposing light would detract from the narrative. However the lighting equipement would have been extremely helpful had we filmed any outdoor night scenes and allowed us to see our protagonist clearly.
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A camera dolly is a piece of filmmaking production equipment designed to create smooth camera movements. The camera is mounted to the dolly and the camera operator and focus puller or camera assistant, usually ride on the dolly to operate the camera.

The use of the dolly was crucial in obtainig many of our shots. We thought it added great variety to our shots and allowed us to film ceratin tracking shots smoothly. There were a couple of negative points that included when filming outside the dolly would shake quite viagoursly if the ground wasnt completely smooth and made the shot seem unprofessional. However indoors with a much smoother surface it worked perfectly helped us piece the opening together nicely.
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Sound recording is a re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording. Acoustic analog recording is achieved by a small microphone diaphragm that can detect changes in atmospheric pressure and record them as a graphic representation of the sound waves on a medium such as a phonograph.

We used the sound recorder mainly for sounds that the camera didn't pick up too well. This included the alarm sound, dialogue and keyboard typing. It was extremely easy to use and i believe will allow our film to sound more clearer to the audience, this will add the feel of authenticity which is important in adding tension. The only problem that could arise is whether we are able to dub in the sound inappropriately. During editing we are going to have to work hard in making sure that everything fits and is appropriate. 

Memento- Psychological thriller

Memento is a psychological thriller, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia, which impairs his ability to store new explicit memories. During the opening credits, which portray the end of the story, it is shown that Leonard kills Teddy  who is played by Joe Pantoliano. The film suggests that this killing is vengeance for the rape and murder of his wife based on information provided by Natalie who is played by Carrie-Anne Moss.

Inspiration
The Non-linear sequence will be extremely hard to copy and we have no intention to even attempt to create such a complicated narrative. What i did enjoy and what we are trying to use as inspiration is the fact that the films starts at the end and the subsequent scenes go some way to piecing the jigsaw together. Our film will also posses a fragmented structure in order to create mystery with the audience but if done well looks quite sophisticated and shows off our qualities in terms of editing. Leonard is man trapped in the journey to avenge his wife's death and this makes for a gripping story line.

Inception- Sci-Fi Thriller

Inception is a science fiction thriller film which was written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film features an international cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a specialised corporate spy and thief whose work consists of secretly extracting valuable commercial information from the unconscious minds of his targets while they dream. Wanted for murder and unable to visit his children, Cobb is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "Inception", the implantation of an original idea into a target's subconscious.

Inspiration

The film has a very smooth and sophisticated look to it. The dialogue is sharp and reveals information at appropriate times. However the most poignant area of the film that i would like to emulate the soundtrack to the film. The recurring motifs of Non-diegetic orchestral music really help this film create a unique identity. It not only creates tension but also allows us to form a relationship with characters and action. it would be amazing to get close to the high level that Inception manages to create. We will do this by using Garageband to create a unique soundtrack that works well with our film.

Celluloid Pictures

Celluloid pictures was established in January 17th 2012 as a small independent company making opening sequences of Thriller films. It is based in London, England. Since its initiation as a production company for the younger generation, Celluloid pictures have taken inspiration from companies such as Warp Films. Created by Ricardo Da Silva, Johnnie Huddart and Dauud Ali with the ambition to bring character concentrated films to the youthful generation.

Celluloid Pictures is attempting to create exciting and original British Film's to a niche audience. Currently in production, Celluloid pictures debut film FILM X. It depicts the life of a distraught spy who wakes up after a mission to the realsiation that his wife is dead. The spy goes on to find out that the murder who he believed to have killed is in fact alive and the film follows his journey as he looks for revenge.

Celluloid pictures founders (Left to right) Dauud Ali, Ricardo Da Silva and Johnnie Huddart.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a video editing software. The software allows users to log and transfer video onto a hard drive, where it can be edited, processed, and output to a wide variety of formats. Final Cut Pro has developed a large and expanding user base, mainly video hobbyists and independent filmmakers. In later years especially, made inroads with film and television editors.

Evaluation Questions

Questions for evaluating your animatic:

- What did I learn from my research into animatics? What are they and why are they used?

I have learnt a huge amount from my research into animatics. Firstly i learnt what they were as i had no previous knowledge of what they were. I had seen one before but didnt know what they were called or what they were used for. I know that an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. They give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with timing.

- What are they key conventions / form of an animatic?

Often storyboards are animated with simple zooms and pans to simulate camera movement.These animations can be combined with available animatics, sound effects and dialog to create a presentation of how a film could be shot and cut together.

- What are the benefits of using an animatic in my planning for the thriller title sequence? Who will see it and why? (link to audience research)

As mentioned previoulsy it helps us get a sense of timing, whether were running over or too short. Its also a satisfying feeling seeing the first stage of the opening sequence being created and it makes you even more eager to get filming. Some feature film DVD special features include production animatics.

- How did you plan your animatic? what did you need to consider in doing this?

Our group started of by agreeing on the shots we wanted, then we proceeded into drawing our storyboards. We all drew an individual one and match up all the similarites and altered any differences. We had to decide whose storyboard drawings were the clearest and best represented our image of the film. We decided that Dauud's storyboard was the best artistically so we decided to use his.

- Which programmes did you use to create your animatic? How did you create the sounds?

To create the animatic we used the MAC. iMovie and iphoto was used to create the final animatic. After scanning the storyboard and cropping each individual image we put them in iPhoto and dragged them to iMovie and started our creation. Most of the sounds that we used came from the archive provided by the software. However some sounds had to be recorded manually. We obtained sound of shower spraying water, keyboard tapping and a man sighing.

- What challenges did you face when producing your animatic? how did you overcome these?

The toughest challenge i faced personally was getting the additional sounds that we required to complete the animatic. It was frustrating as it took a great deal of time and effort to gain what was 30 second of sound overall. However I was determined to have an accurate animatic as it helps a great deal in the shooting of the film.

- How did your focus group / audience respond to your animatic? www / ebi?

On the whole they understood what the animatic was trying to convey. They were surprised at the level of the drawings, they believed that they were perfect in displaying emotion and actions. the feedback we received their main point was that would like there to be more images included at they believed that some gaps in knowledge were missing. Furthermore they would have liked dialogue between the two characters right at the end, this would have just made it a more realistic.

Questions for evaluating your shooting script:

What did I learn from my research into shooting scripts? What are they and why are they used?

A shooting schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production. While doing research i learnt how important a shooting schedule is to the overall organistation of a film. It is useful at every stage in order to evaluate whether your falling behind and also if all the props needed are on set.

- What are they key conventions / form of a shooting script?

The key conventions of a shooting script are;

• Location- Address and what room
• Time- Including day and hour
• Props- Everything you are planning to use to set the mise-en-scene
• Equipment- the components that will help us capture the shots

- What are the benefits of designing a shooting script for my product? Who will see it and why? (link to audience research)

Overall organisation improves massively. Without one our group would be lost lost and would rely on constant communication to make sure we knew when and where we had to film. It can be said they need a lot of time and work but it is worth it because the amount of time you save after is invaluable. The only people that will see the shooting script will be the members of the group to make sure that we all have an understanding of when we are filming

- How did you plan your shooting script? what did you need to consider in doing this?

After much discussion we agreed on the dates we were able to shoot our opening. Our teachers kindly composed a template that we had to fill in. We proceded to completing it and adding all the vital information. We made sure that there were no schedule clashes with the locations such as our school. We found out that we were able to film on these times which help us greatly.

- What challenges did you face when producing your shooting script? how did you overcome these?

The main challenge was making sure that every single detail was included in the shooting script. There were occasions in which i forgot to add vital information and had to go back in order make it adequate. On a group level i say the days we chose had to suit everyone and that was difficult as we all have clashing schedules that doesnt help.

- On reflection, www / ebi? What might you need to change in your revised version? Why?

WWW
Agreement on the time and location was done quickly and without arguments
Grasped the basic requirements of a shooting script
Worked in cohesion to make sure that we realised when information had been left out

EBI
More detail required when it comes to transportaion of equipement and who is carrying what
Every member of the group have as much input as the others
be flexible on days and times as it is important that we work as a unit in the production process.

- How will you now improve your finished piece, based on what you have learnt from completing this task?

I will take my first draft shooting script and attempt to add more detail and information. Im happy with the structure and layout of the shooting script. I believe that adding that little bit extra will fill the group with more knowledge come shooting day.

Film editing

Film editing is part of the post-production process of film making. It involves selecting and combining shots into sequences, and a film. Film editing is the only process that is unique to cinema, separating film-making from other art forms.

A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling the footage. However, the job of an editor isn’t simply to put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates, or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole.

Continuity is a film term that suggests that a series of shots should be physically continuous, as if the camera simply changed angles in the course of a single event. Many people regard inconsistencies in continuity as mistakes, and often the editor is blamed. In film, however, continuity is very nearly last on a film editor's list of important things to maintain.

Continuity is the responsibility of the script supervisor and film director, who are together responsible for preserving continuity and preventing errors from take to take and shot to shot. The script supervisor, who sits next to the director during shooting, keeps the physical continuity of the edit in mind as shots are set up. He is the editor's watchman. If shots are taken out of sequence, as is often the case, he will be alert to make sure that that beer glass is in the appropriate state. The editor utilizes the script supervisor's notes during post-production to log and keep track of the vast amounts of footage and takes that a director might shoot.

Casting Shots

Ricardo Da Silva- Protagonist

Johnnie Huddart- S

Preliminary task

This is my groups preliminary task


Evaluation

Filming the preliminary task was a good learning curve for me personally and also for my group. We learnt a great deal. We learnt how to use the equipment we would be using such as cameras and dolly. It was tough to start off as I believe we underestimated the difficulty of the task. The filming wasn’t too bad as we keep the scene as simple as possible. However the editing was the toughest part. We ended up cutting a minutes worth of clip time in order to make it as smooth as possible. It was difficult as for many of us it was our first time using iMovie and some of us struggled with the timings. Although we all had a same image of what we wanted the finished video to look like. Another point to improve on in our final piece was the mise-en-scene of the video, while not of great importance now it will in the final piece. There were some amateur mistakes such as boxes lying around, bags on tables in the frame and also students nearby. We have taken this into consideration and already organised the props and look of our set before filming. Furthermore while not a qualified actor I believe my performance as 'misbehaving student' could have been better. I’m aware that we will not be graded on quality of acting but if there are any flaws in our final piece it will divert the attention of the drama and intensity we are trying to create. I was nervous and sometimes looked at the camera, so it’s important that I learn from this and improve.

On a positive note, we worked well as a group with everyone pulling together in order to create a preliminary task. Everyone did something and we all took responsibilities from any mistakes and tried to learn from them.

Film company case study

Warp is one of the foremost and most respected creative independent companies, now composed of Warp Records, Warp Films and Warp Music Videos & Commercials. It is based in London, England and Sheffield, with a further office now in Melbourne, Australia. Since its inception as a shop and record label in 1989, it has been a platform for innovative and boundary-breaking talent.

Warp took an ambitious step in 2001 with the launch of Warp Films, winning a BAFTA for the very first production, Brass Eye satirist Chris Morris’ film debut My Wrongs… Since then high-profile features have come courtesy of Shane Meadows, whose masterpieces Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England have enjoyed widespread success, the latter winning ‘Best British Film’ at the 2008 BAFTAs. 2009 sees development on more features with directors Chris Morris, Richard Ayoade and Paul King.

Over 20 years, Warp has developed into a multifaceted creative company, able to forge a unique path through a rapidly changing and unpredictable landscape. In 2009, Warp will celebrate by bringing together its roster of artists, directors and associates for a series of multi-platform events, new music and film releases.

Warp Films was established by Warp Records founding partners Rob Mitchell & Steve Beckett.

Productions

Film	Year	Director	Notes
My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117	2003	Chris Morris	short film
Dead Man's Shoes	2004	Shane Meadows
Rubber Johnny	2005	Chris Cunningham	short film
Scummy Man	2006	Paul Fraser	short film/music video
This Is England	2006	Shane Meadows
Grow Your Own	2007	Richard Laxton
Dog Altogether	2007	Paddy Considine	short film
Fur TV	2008	Chris Waitt
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures	2008	Chris Waitt
Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo	2008	Richard Ayoade
Donkey Punch	2008	Oliver Blackburn
The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour	2009	Paul King
Curtains	2009	Julian Barratt	short film
Hush	2009	Mark Tonderai
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee	2009	Shane Meadows
Bunny and the Bull	2009	Paul King
All Tomorrow's Parties	2009	All Tomorrow's People & Jonathan Caouette
Four Lions	2010	Chris Morris
This Is England 86	2010	Shane Meadows & Tom Harper
Submarine	2010	Richard Ayoade
Tyrannosaur	2011	Paddy Considine

Warp Films biggest success to date came with Shane Meadows’ This Is England; the story of Shaun, a boy who is adopted by a local skinhead gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. Since its release in early 2007 it has gained many awards including the Best Film at the British Independent Films Awards, the Special Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. At the same ceremony Warp Films received it’s third BAFTA as Paddy Considine’s directorial debut Dog Altogether won the Best Short Film award.

Shooting schedule

A shooting schedule is a projected plan of each day's shooting for a film production. It is normally created and managed by the assistant director, who reports to the production manager managing the production schedule. Both schedules represent a timeline stating where and when production resources are used.

This is an example of a professional shooting script-


From taking a look at this shooting schedule we have noticed the level of detail you must go in order to achieve a high standard. Although we dont have soo much equipment and staff it is still important to make sure that everyone knows their roles clearly. This will allow us to be more efficient with our time. Furthermore

This is our groups first draft shooting schedule for our opening sequence-
Shooting Schedule

Animatic storyboarding

In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together.

This allows the animators and directors to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected. Editing the film at the animatic stage can avoid animation of scenes that would be edited out of the film. Animation is usually an expensive process, so there should be a minimum of "deleted scenes" if the film is to be completed within budget.

Often storyboards are animated with simple zooms and pans to simulate camera movement. These animations can be combined with available animatics, sound effects and dialog to create a presentation of how a film could be shot and cut together.

Examples

Pyscho research- Suspense thriller

Psycho is a 1960 American suspense thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. The film is based on the 1959 novel by Robert Bloch. The novel was loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.
The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane, hiding at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner and manager, Norman Bates, and the aftermath of their encounter.
Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and is highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics.


Inspiration
The movie that started it all. It impossible not take some inspiration from what is a great thriller film. Despite not having much of a choice back in the 60's, i like the fact that it is in black and white which for me always adds more tension because of the historic feel it transmits to the audience. I have considered perhaps shooting our film in color and then editing it to look black and white. This would help us to keep the film simple as it would not mind if an object was not the appropriate color. Technically i can also take inspiration from the camera angles. The famous shower scene embodies what all thriller's should contain. A graphic match from the shower head to the plug hole is something we might add considering we too are adding a shower scene; although keeping it original.