Final Film Opening

Filming Schedule for Speedy Dave

Monday the 7th of December = Filming
Friday the 11th of December = Filming
Monday the 14th of December = Filming/Editing
Tuesday the 15th of December = Editing/Uploading final film to blog.

Props & Mise-en-Scene in Speedy Dave

We will mainly be using backgrounds such as greenery and cardboard, with drawings of the crowd and environment. A sky background shall be used during scenes of the track and also the crowd background will be used on the home straight. Additionally, in the podium clip we will be using a background with sponsors and cardboard to make the podium. Also, our main props will be lego people and cars throughout the clip.

Analysing opening credits of Cars

We have chosen to analyse Cars as it is the closest animation movie to ours. The credits are shown during the race and the title of the movie is on the finishing line, which automatically indicates the theme of the movie. Furthermore, the music and sound throughout the opening scene is matched to the action and there is a lot of diegetic sound as most of the sound is coming from the cars who are either racing or in the audience, although there is some non-diegetic sound, for example the music.

Location, Props and Costumes - Speedy Dave

The location will be mostly filmed within the classroom as we shall be using iStop Motion.

The props will be a range of lego characters, toy cars and perhaps some scalextric tracks to help us with the filming and to add to the theme of racing.

We shall try to incorporate these as much as we can, for costumes the lego characters would already have some type of design on them so there will be no need to add additional costumes unless the design isn't what we are looking for.

Storyboard and Timeline of Speedy Dave

These pictures show our timeline at the top, with the storyboards starting in order after that. We have designed our whole film in the storyboard and shall be following it.

idea for childrens film

We are going to do a film about a young racer who loses his arm in a crash and now is a disabled child who aspires to be the greatest race driver that ever lived. David and Gary attended the local race day where David stumbled across a great idea to be the greatest. As the race is over, David begins to realise that his dream is possible, and with the help of his friend Gary, he works hard to practice and achieve his goal. Also, in the crowd next to him, Lewis Hamilton overheard his dreams and decided to help David achieve his lifelong dream. However, in a horrific accident David loses his left arm and is out of action for a couple of weeks. The film will be called SPEEDY DAVE.

Story board of back to the future

The task was to observe the clip from back to the future, we had to look at certain parts of the clip including; camera movement, character position, mise-en-scene and sound.
George looked at camera movements, Julian looked at the character position, Chloe observed the sound and Alex looked at the mise-en-scene.
The entire clip was based on one camera movement which was tracking with lots of close ups for example, the close up of the television when the lady was talking about the stolen plutonium. The character position was quite dominant as he knew the household, however the camera only captured the feet and legs of the character.
The clip began with all the different clocks ticking, a radio then turned on to a car advert. Next the news came up on the tv, the newsreader was talking about the stolen plutonium. The toaster then started popping up and down, the shot then moved onto another machine, which opened the dogs food. It made a buzzing noise before opening it. When the boy enters the room, you hear the keys dropping onto the ground. Finally, you hear the skateboard roll across the floor and hit the plutonium box.
Mise-en-scene reflects the theme of sci-fi by showing scientific/futuristic machines also the costumes reflect the time it is set along with the age of some of the things in the workshop.

Classification of our film

As a group we have decided to use a PG classification for our childrens film. A PG classification is suitable for 8 years and over but if the children are younger then it is the parents responsibility to decide whether or not the film is suitable for the child. In this classification, the film can include; discrimination but only for educational purposes only, drugs yet they must carry an anti-drugs message, horror but must be short and not intense. They can also include more grown up themes.
The genre we will be using will be an action/adventure and we shall be using iStop Animation to produce our film.

E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Analysis of the Opening Scene

We have chosen E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as our clip to analyse due to it covering all three types of genres that have been given; Fantasy, Adventure and Sci-Fi. The opening title, credits and choice of music creates an atmosphere that is relevant to the genres that E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) covers. The non-diegetic music builds a tense atmosphere before E.T is chased by the investigating humans, this adds to the adventure side of the film. However, as E.T. is an alien and therefore non-human, this gives the film an element of Sci-Fi along with the spaceship in the first establishing shots. The fantasy side is also represented by alien life-forms being introduced in the very first stages of the opening scene. The microelements are used very well in this film, for example at the beginning there is an establishing shot to show where the spaceship has landed and a pan of the area which gives the audience a very good idea of the location. Also, there is a shot of the city to show that E.T is intrigued by the view and perhaps wants to discover more, furthermore to be part of human life down in the suburbs. The sound is represented throughout the opening scene by non-diegetic, orchestrated music that adds to the sci-fi and fantasy of E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

Evaluation of preliminary task

Throughout the preliminary task, i have adjusted to the new techniques which were needed such as; performing the camera actions which we have learnt during class this helped alot, as we would of struggled without knowing them. Also, i learnt how to use the camera software whilst recording our clip. After recording the clip we had to edit the clip, we used the applications such as; final cut express & garage band, this then gave me more of an insight of how to use them gathering experience as i go along which will be helpful in the future.
The 180 degree rule was vital in our conversation part of the conversation, this refers to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle. We used shot reverse shot to add effect to our clip. i feel this is important because it has properly prepared me for the childrens task which is soon to happen.

Evaluation Of Preliminary Task

While doing the preliminary task i have learnt new techniques and skills to make the film better, this include camera skills and editing skills.
Whist filming i learnt where to put the camera to make each shot as best we can that was backed up by what we learnt about in the theory lessons.
We learnt how to use final cut to edit our film to what we wanted we also used garage band to add a sound, this was good as i now feel confident using these programs for future use.
We used the 180 rule to effect in the vedio clip, this was filming one side of the converstion and the other then cutting it to make the shot reverse shot effect. we used this because it is important in film production, this refers to the imaginary line which cuts through the middle of a scene, crossing the line would cause the viewer confusion. you also have to cut the film so it is smooth.
I feel this has prepared me for the childrens film task as i now feel confident using the camera and all the editing programs.

Evaluation of the Preliminary Task

Throughout the duration of the preliminary task, I have learnt many new techniques, for example with the Camera and using the Software to edit and make our videos better. Whilst we were filming, I learnt how to perform the camera actions and views that we had learnt about in theory in class. This gave me a good scope on how to use the equipment. After our filming, we used Final Cut Express to edit our film and this gave me more experience on how to use the program. Also, we used GarageBand to import a song into Final Cut Express, this also gave me more experience in the use of GarageBand and how to choose a right song for our film.
The 180 degree rule was a vital ingredient in our conversation part of our film. This gives the audience both points of view from either character without comprimising the way in which they are filmed. There is an imaginary line that cuts through the middle of the scene, crossing this line would change the viewer's perspective which would cause confusion. Therefore, crossing this imaginary line is mostly avoided. We used this during our conversation to cut the conversation without big pauses in the speech. Using the 180 degree rule, we let the conversation scene flow consistently throughout.
This preliminary task has given me much needed experience for the tasks that will be infront of me in the weeks ahead, especially during the editing parts with the use of Final Cut Express and GarageBand.

Preliminary Task - Badman

Story Board

This is our storyboard to show how we have planned our continuity task and the variety of different shots used.
A storyboard is used to show people how we have designed and illustrated our clip, giving them an insight into the process we had to go through to create our clip.

Continuity task - 'Badman'

Group: George, Julian and Alex

Role: George & Julian = Actor's
Alex = Director

The continuity task
We will be performing different camera shots to assess our ability in camerawork. This will give us and our teacher a good gauge on how well we would perform in the upcoming tasks in the following weeks.
Today we are designing our storyboard for our preliminary task. We are naming our task, 'badman', we have many camera shots to replicate such as; establishing shot, closeup, match-on-action shot, reaction shot, long shot and a conversation (shot reverse shot).
Badman 1 = Julian
Badman 2 = George
Victim = Alex
The Script
During the conversation part of the task we have a script setup between one of the 'badmen' and the victim. The script is as follows:
Badman 1: Oi bruv, east side.
Victim: 'low it man.
Badman 1: Oi don't mess
Victim: Put the gun down! I know kung fu!
*BANG BANG*
*Victim falls to the ground*

Welcome