Preliminary Task

Genre – Horror

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. This task demonstrates match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Roles within the group:

Director – Mica

Camera girl – Reanne

Lighting & Preperation of Props – Nga

Sound/editing – Jodie

Story line:

A student falls asleep in class and wakes up to a dark empty school, he/she panics and then run out of the classroom down a long corridor (dark and spooky) opening doors on their way but all doors are closed with empty classrooms. He/she finally gets to the end of the corridor to an empty room where there is a person in a seat in the room with one spotlight on the person seated. The person is turnt away so we are unaware of his identity, the person then turns around which twists the story from a horror to a comedy as the theme of christmas is introduced although the beginning of the story generated a horific atmosphere.

Script

Character 1 (Pants whilst pausing): Sorry I’m late

Character2: I’ve been waiting ages for you (DEEP AND CYNICAL VOICE)

Character 1: I came as quick as I could, I didn’t realise the time

(Character 1 looks at clock to show eye-line match)

Character 2: Oh well it doesn’t matter now, take a seat

Character 1: Ok (nervously and takes a seat)

(Character 2 slowly reaches for a briefcase & opens it)

(Spins chair around)

Character 2:  So which one should we give mum for Christmas (JOLLY TONE)

(Lays out a pack of cards in front of character 1)

Props/Objects needed:

·                     Briefcase	·                     Desk	·                     Computer Chair
·                     Christmas Cards	·                     Onesie	·                     Clock

Story Board: 

We developed a story board to focus on how we are going to present our story and focus what shots we were going to use to present this, and how we were going to involve our camera techniques within the story.

ADD JPEG IMAGE

STORYBOARD SHEET 1:

 

Floor Plan:

Schedule:

Influences on our Preliminary Task:

Our group decided to set our preliminary task in school as it is considered a safe and caring place, enhancing the theme of horror as there is a sense of fright and suspence when character 1 wakes up. Nga was also able to handle the lighting better in such an enclosed space, considering our theme was horror so we was able to adjust lighting efficiently generating a dark and gloomy setting. It also helps to connect with the audience as it allows them to sympathise with the actress, being in such a gloomy and dark enviroment watching her panic.

Scary Movie 1

The scary movie films influenced the twist behind our preliminary task as it allowed us to use specific shots to generate a specific horror and reverse it. It also tested our editing abilities as in this clip the suspence comes partly from the music being played. This clip begins with a clear genre of horror, then has a comedy turn around, this is what theme my group has chosen to follow for our preliminary task.

Film Reveiw

This weekend I watched a selection of movies as you do on a Sunday and focused on the way the camera is used to create specific effects which contribute to our hegemonic reading due to the mediation used.

I watched the final Twilight and was absolutely amazed by the way the camera is used to show specific aspects of situation to contribute to my opinion of the storyline. As it was a cinema trip I was sadly unable to watch it more than 10 times as I would have loved to, so instead I decided on focussing on other movies I enjoy:

Avengers

Although I'm not a big fan of action movies I really enjoyed this film and thought the camera shots were used to help build up tention and make the fighting scenes alot more dramatic.

I focussed on certain scenes in the film that I thought were particularly important:

This clip starts with the camera on eyelevel with the character in the shot, the camera slowly closes in on her building up the tention for the upcoming fighting event. As soon as the action begings with her fighting it switches to jump cuts to emphasise the speed she is fightinng at. Jump cuts are crucial in a action movie as it helps generate the fast movement and also help show how much is going on at one time.

This clip is full of action yet still sticks to the 180 degree rule regrdless of its dramatic events, the takes are fairly long keeping the focus on the two characters in the shot although the use of speed ramping is present to emphasise the power and stength involved. Also there are various wide shots which shows there surroundings showing us the damage they are creating whilst fighting which also emphasises the stregth and power between them both.

This clip has a twist to it as the camera influences our predicted outcome to be totally different to the actual thing. The hulk appears to be extremely aggressive although the shot then transforms to slow mo calming things down then suddently camera then switches to the other character by looking up at him almost representing his power in the situation, he is then  taken out of the shot by the hulk pulling him to then beat him.