Obsessed from Scott Smith on Vimeo.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Monday, 26 April 2010
This is our Prelim Task:
Our prelim task helped us alot with our main task in the end and was really helpful to us. The preliminary task gave us an understanding of continuity, which is a fundamental principle of film and tv production. We leaned as long as continuity rules are followed our narrative can unfold in such a way that we can assume what happens between each shot or sequence
Match on action:
We learned this is a cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity, such as Mair closing the door in our video.
Shot/reverse shot:
This is a film technique where one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. This is shown here in the dialogue between Mair and Robyn and we used it in our final product during the Warehouse scene.
The 180° rule:
We learned that is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. As you can see we have tried to keep to this wherever possible in the prelim task and also in the main task.
Our prelim task helped us alot with our main task in the end and was really helpful to us. The preliminary task gave us an understanding of continuity, which is a fundamental principle of film and tv production. We leaned as long as continuity rules are followed our narrative can unfold in such a way that we can assume what happens between each shot or sequence
Match on action:
We learned this is a cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity, such as Mair closing the door in our video.
Shot/reverse shot:
This is a film technique where one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. This is shown here in the dialogue between Mair and Robyn and we used it in our final product during the Warehouse scene.
The 180° rule:
We learned that is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. As you can see we have tried to keep to this wherever possible in the prelim task and also in the main task.
This is our pitch to camera with our moodbord at the begining of the main task.
We thought we would show this as it shows how much we had to adjust the original when katie decided to leave college, and how far the film has come along. Another video will follow shortly showing our final presentation to the class, voicing our reasons for certain decisions and an overall evalution of our product.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Editing
Scott has started to do the majority of the editing and we can say that the film is really starting to come together now. We are currently sorting out problems with sound. It turns out we had to mute the original and add natural sound effects and some dialogue that Robyn and Sam recorded. This worked alot better by also adding an echo sound to make it sound like they are actually walking though a tunnel. It is still realistic as we filmed it so that you purposefully can't see their mouths/faces. This adds to the tension and allows their emotions to be heard in the dialogue:
As we're nearly done editing the final aspects of 'Obsessed' we can see all has gone well with what we've done so far, and big thanks to everyone.
But how has our film abided by the 4 main elements of film?
Look out for future posts explaining how we have tackled Camera, Mise-en-Scene, Sound and Editing :)
As we're nearly done editing the final aspects of 'Obsessed' we can see all has gone well with what we've done so far, and big thanks to everyone.But how has our film abided by the 4 main elements of film?
Look out for future posts explaining how we have tackled Camera, Mise-en-Scene, Sound and Editing :)
Newsflash
We decided a newsflash would be the easiest way to get information across to the audience about the stalker escaping from prison. We found a willing actress from our class (susie) and proceeded to film it in the tv studio. We got susie to wear formal clothes and glasses as costume so that she looked like a real newsreader. We set up a desk with a keyboard and papers for her to sit down at, and filmed all this infront of a greenscreen so that we could edit the news behind her.
We also filmed a sequence of sam and a robyn watching the news on a television, so it was like they were recieving this information at the same time the audience is.
During editing we will add a news studio in the background behind susie to make it more authentic, and a helpline to call if anybody comes into contact with the stalker.
Thanks to Susie for helping, as she was a great actress and remembered all the lines :)
Update:
Here is a screen-grab of the finished newsflash
We also filmed a sequence of sam and a robyn watching the news on a television, so it was like they were recieving this information at the same time the audience is.
During editing we will add a news studio in the background behind susie to make it more authentic, and a helpline to call if anybody comes into contact with the stalker.
Thanks to Susie for helping, as she was a great actress and remembered all the lines :)
Update:
Here is a screen-grab of the finished newsflash
Argument scene
On Thursday evening we filmed another sequence for our film. (the argument scene)
We found a few places in which this scene could be set we then chose the place most suited to our film this was an underground walk way to an old abandoned school (The Groves.) This place suited our scene the most because it was out of the way nobody can see you there and it was dark. This all added to the tension we are trying to create in this scene.
Here are some shots of us filming on location:
This was one of the other choices:
We decided however that this was to open and not dark enough for the effect we wanted to create.
Some of the problems we encountered were the noise of the traffic overhead and sadly it was an extremely windy day so this added to some camera shake and disrupted alot of the speech between robyn and sam with wind noise. Hopefully this is something we will be able to fix during the editing and if the speech is incredibly unclear, we can hopefully record robyn and sam's dialogue in a quiter area and add it over the top.
We found a few places in which this scene could be set we then chose the place most suited to our film this was an underground walk way to an old abandoned school (The Groves.) This place suited our scene the most because it was out of the way nobody can see you there and it was dark. This all added to the tension we are trying to create in this scene.
Here are some shots of us filming on location:
This was one of the other choices:
We decided however that this was to open and not dark enough for the effect we wanted to create.
Some of the problems we encountered were the noise of the traffic overhead and sadly it was an extremely windy day so this added to some camera shake and disrupted alot of the speech between robyn and sam with wind noise. Hopefully this is something we will be able to fix during the editing and if the speech is incredibly unclear, we can hopefully record robyn and sam's dialogue in a quiter area and add it over the top.
The warehouse
In our original script the main scenes/murder take place in a field during a camping trip. We have decided to change the setting to an abandoned warehouse in favour of a field. We feel this would add much more flexibility to filming as we can do so inside of the TV studio rather than waiting for dusk each day to film outside, and is much more weather permitting. I also feel that we can work alot more with isolating the characters within the warehouse moreso than in a field as it makes them seem much more vunerable and trapped.
(Image of Warehouse from google images)
The setting should be quite simple with achieve in the TV studio with the already simple background and a few scattered boxes and low key lighting with carefully placed beams of light, we should be able to achieve a good realism of a warehouse allowing us to film during the day :)
Note: Filming of argument scene postponed due to prior commitments in the group
Weather problems
The next part we are going to film is outdoors and is the camping scene of our project. This is causing some problems for our project as it has been snowing now for a week and is due to snow for another week to come. Also we need to find some more people to act in our film this is also proving hard to find as many people are busy at this time of year with exams and work.
The next step
The scene has been scripted by the group which contains an argument between Robyn and her boyfriend Sam. This was written for the main reason of seperating Robyn ( the protaganist) from the safety of her boyfriend, isolating her character within the film, creating tension for the audience and vunerability for Robyn. This is great as the scene after this contains building up alot of tension around Robyn to reach an anti-climax.
We need to rememeber for Robyn and Sam to be wearing the same clothes for all the scenes and to bring some props to add to the verisimilitude of the scene and to rule out any continuity errors.
As the director and camera man I will take what I have learned from the prelim task and make sure not to break the 180 degree rule and to enforce good match on action. :)
Update:
also here is the now finished shrine with the pictures of Robyn
We need to rememeber for Robyn and Sam to be wearing the same clothes for all the scenes and to bring some props to add to the verisimilitude of the scene and to rule out any continuity errors.
As the director and camera man I will take what I have learned from the prelim task and make sure not to break the 180 degree rule and to enforce good match on action. :)
Update:
also here is the now finished shrine with the pictures of Robyn
The shrine scene
As a group we decided that the shrine scene should be the opening sequence as it quickly establishes Robyn as the main character and also as the victim of the film.
I got the inspiration for the shrine from other psychological thrillers, such as "enduring love" in which the protaganist stumbles upon the stalkers shrine and realises he is the victim all along.
To create it we will take a camera and go walking around Wrexham taking various pictures of Robyn in very candid poses and from behind fences and doors to make it look as if a real stalker had taken the photos. We will then cut them up and arrange them onto a black piece of card, as if a real shrine and hang it up above some candles to create an eerie atmoshpere around it. The flicker of the candlelight should add real depth to the scene.
During the editing we will try include a fast editing pace to disorientent the audience to establish that the shrine is out of the ordinary and that the film is going to shock. Over the top of this we intend to add very eerie music to create an even more tense atmosphere which furthered the audience into fearing for the life of Robyn (the girl in the pictures on the shrine)
(Shrine used by stalker in an episode of skins)
Examples of shrines in thrillers:
* The perfect stranger (2007) - Rowenna finds a shrine in Mile's apartment.
* One hour photo (2002) - Sy has a wall with over 600 photos of the family he is stalking.
* Conspiracy Theory (1997) - Protaganist makes one of the female lead
* Being John Malkovich (1999) - Lotte finds a room dedicated to Malkovich
* Proof (2005) - Celia creates one over her obession of a blind man
-Scott
I got the inspiration for the shrine from other psychological thrillers, such as "enduring love" in which the protaganist stumbles upon the stalkers shrine and realises he is the victim all along.
To create it we will take a camera and go walking around Wrexham taking various pictures of Robyn in very candid poses and from behind fences and doors to make it look as if a real stalker had taken the photos. We will then cut them up and arrange them onto a black piece of card, as if a real shrine and hang it up above some candles to create an eerie atmoshpere around it. The flicker of the candlelight should add real depth to the scene.
During the editing we will try include a fast editing pace to disorientent the audience to establish that the shrine is out of the ordinary and that the film is going to shock. Over the top of this we intend to add very eerie music to create an even more tense atmosphere which furthered the audience into fearing for the life of Robyn (the girl in the pictures on the shrine)
(Shrine used by stalker in an episode of skins)
Examples of shrines in thrillers:
* The perfect stranger (2007) - Rowenna finds a shrine in Mile's apartment.
* One hour photo (2002) - Sy has a wall with over 600 photos of the family he is stalking.
* Conspiracy Theory (1997) - Protaganist makes one of the female lead
* Being John Malkovich (1999) - Lotte finds a room dedicated to Malkovich
* Proof (2005) - Celia creates one over her obession of a blind man
-Scott
Producing the storyboard and script
As a group we all began by sitting down and discussing our different ideas and the different themes for our story. We drafted these ideas onto a moodboard and gave a presentation infront of the class about what we can come up with.
Our original idea was that there is a stalker on the loose that has escaped from a local prison. The audience is aware of this, but our protaganists are not. The main characters, robyn, sam, katie, and katie's friend are all going camping in the woods, which eventually turns out to be the place where the stalker is hiding. Previously, the stalker has already killed another character, mair, due to her trait of wearing bright red lipstick (which is his fetish as a killer). Unfortunately this is a trait that the main character Robyn also shares. We find out he has been stalking robyn for the past few weeks and has made a shrine about her, all due to her bright red lips, the motif sticking throughout the story. The killer finally kills robyns friends one by one in the woods, until there is just Robyn left and there is a final dramatic climax.
Sadly, due to katie leaving, we had to tweak the script quite alot, to include less characters.
The new idea is that Robyn and her new boyfriend Sam are the main characters. They witness a news report telling them a local stalker has been on the loose from prison and robyn begins to panic because she believes that she is being stalked. They shrug it off and decide to continue with their plan to go camping, on the way to the location, robyn and sam have an argument causing robyn to storm off and continue to the secluded location alone, she eventually finds her friend mair already there. They begin to get quite scared, so robyn runs off to find sam. This is the point at which mair is left alone, and she is killed. The story plans out to eventually reveal that Sam was the killer all along and that Robyn has been in danger.
Our original idea was that there is a stalker on the loose that has escaped from a local prison. The audience is aware of this, but our protaganists are not. The main characters, robyn, sam, katie, and katie's friend are all going camping in the woods, which eventually turns out to be the place where the stalker is hiding. Previously, the stalker has already killed another character, mair, due to her trait of wearing bright red lipstick (which is his fetish as a killer). Unfortunately this is a trait that the main character Robyn also shares. We find out he has been stalking robyn for the past few weeks and has made a shrine about her, all due to her bright red lips, the motif sticking throughout the story. The killer finally kills robyns friends one by one in the woods, until there is just Robyn left and there is a final dramatic climax.
Sadly, due to katie leaving, we had to tweak the script quite alot, to include less characters.
The new idea is that Robyn and her new boyfriend Sam are the main characters. They witness a news report telling them a local stalker has been on the loose from prison and robyn begins to panic because she believes that she is being stalked. They shrug it off and decide to continue with their plan to go camping, on the way to the location, robyn and sam have an argument causing robyn to storm off and continue to the secluded location alone, she eventually finds her friend mair already there. They begin to get quite scared, so robyn runs off to find sam. This is the point at which mair is left alone, and she is killed. The story plans out to eventually reveal that Sam was the killer all along and that Robyn has been in danger.
Minus one group member
We're sad to say that Katie Tickle has left the media course. She was a good addition to the group, and she had some ideas for our final sequence. Thanks for helping whilst you were there, Katie.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Introductions
Welcome to the blog of Penguin Productions, an AS Media Studies group based at Yale College, Wrexham. We're working on filming an opening to our fictional film, entitled 'Obsessed'. This blog hopes to follow up the goings-on of the filming and editing and such.
We chose Robyn for the main character because she does drama AS level and also did it at gcse so has experience. Mair also wanted a chance at acting and Scott (me) was the only person in the group that had done media at gsce and therefore had experience with camerawork and film-making so it seemed like an obvious choice for me to take on this role.
.:Members of Penguin Productions:.
- Robyn Bellingham - Starring Character/ Editor
- Scott Smith - Producer / Director/ Chief Editor
- Mair Dulson - Starring Character / Blog Editor
We chose Robyn for the main character because she does drama AS level and also did it at gcse so has experience. Mair also wanted a chance at acting and Scott (me) was the only person in the group that had done media at gsce and therefore had experience with camerawork and film-making so it seemed like an obvious choice for me to take on this role.
.:Basic Plot:.
Most people see the life of Robyn Bellingham go on as normal...but is it all that it seems to be? Not entirely. Lately, Robyn has been feeling very scared. She's sensed someone, something, a presence of somesort following her...watching her...wanting her...
This feeling has only been known to her and to her boyfriend, Sam, who tries to convince her that there's nothing to be scared of, she's just being paranoid...
...but unknown to him, maybe there really is something to be scared of out there...
----------------------------------------
I hope this intro post helps in understanding whos-who and what's going on within the filming!
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