Editing - Day 4

Well this is my finished piece. I went into the lesson at lunch time, though didn't really do much until the lesson actually started. When the lesson did start, i deicded i would messa arounf putting credits and stuff on because that is one of the more annoying and dull tasks. Once i had finished with all the credits, i realised i had put half of them in the wrong order, so i then had to go through and reorder them all. I didn't really do much witht he music as given how little time i had left i figured it was probably a better idea to get what i could finished and see what was left.

When i had finally figured messing around with credits and names and things i set to work on music. I tried ots of different music to go with the latter part of the film, but none of htem seemed to fit - so i decided not to give it any music and just elave it how it is. I think it works quite well, as there is a fair amount of talking in the latter part, even if it does seem un-important.

If i had another lesson to work on my film, i would probably sort out the sound that i do have, as parts of it are out of place or seem to cut out halfway through - i'm not entirely sure why this is, but i didn't have time to figure it out on friday so i just let it slide. It's not that bad, people i've shown it to didn't really pay attention to it, but as i made it i find it a massive problem as i don't like things being wrong.

Other than a few sound problems, and a couple of other problems, overall i quite like my film opening and think it is quite good.

Feedback

We watched all the rough cuts and got some feedback from each member of the class.

My feedback was mainly that the shots were held for far too long, and there were not many close ups, or shots from different angles.

My rough cut was basically 4 shots, all held for abour 30 seconds, which got incredibly boring. So i changed it and during the credits, the image faded in and out of close ups and different shots of what was going on, so there was close ups of the fire, then a med shot of the monk digging, then a long shot of the people running, and these were all interchanged until the monk ran off and got chased off screen. This pleased people as it included close ups and the shots were much shorter so it kept your attention on the film better. Unfortunately it didn't include many shots from different angles as we tried to get the fire shots done as quickly as possible so we didn't set the incredibly dry floor on fire again, so we got the necessary shots and moved on.

I then changed the second part so instead of having the annoying zooms in and out on my characters, i had it fade out so it simply faded back in to the zoomed in shot, then faded and zoomed out again. This was good as the inital zooms were quite sloppy and i think it looks better without them. This pleased Pete as he also didn't like the zooms, but did like the shots they zoomed in to. So instead of cutting the whole shot, i just used the bits we liked and made it look better.

Editing - Day 3

Today was alright. We started off watching all of the sequnces so far, unfortunately the speaers had broken so we didn't have any sound. After a while, someone got some portable speakers out of the cupboard and plugged them in and they worked - yet for some reason they got unplugged after another of the videos so we went back to no sound. This was terrible as watching the sequences with no sound simply seemed pointless - especially when it came to Xander,Mike's and Mine, as ours are heavily based around sound. For some reason, after watching ours silently so they made no sense, they decided to plug the speakers in again so some of the others had sound. I got annoyed after a while of this so when it came to editing i was more than happy to listen through mine with sound again.

After we watched each clip we had to give feedback on a certain area and then give them to the person at the end - using this we were supposed to change our film in order to make it better. The basic idea of mine was that the start was simply a guy digging. Then it showed people chasing him. The guy walked over and suggested i mix it up a bit by cutting bits and swapping them around so it wasn't the sae shot for a minute, but different shots all put together. After i did this, i started to put some music on. Initially it faded in and out with the heartbeat, but after i put some music on your couldn;t really hear the heartbeat so it just seemed random. Then this guy suggested making it fade in and out with the music so i tried that a bit and it seemed to work.



Tomorrow i simply have to finish the music and touch up a few bits here and there - I am confident i will get it finished in time.

Editing - Day 2

Today was marginally more successful that the previous. I started to edit all the footage and put it all in order, only to remember i had actually just put it backwards. But that made it much easier to edit and make right, in my opinion. After a while, i realised that i should probably be using headphones to make sure the sound all synced up and everything, so i plugged my headphones in and waited. I then realised i had no sound. Hoping it was only on Final Cut, i loaded the raw footage from the folder on the desktop and alas, i had no sound. I screamed at the machine some more, then told Nick. He suggested i should go ask Kirk if he still had his camera so i could get the files again, but we then decided it would be easier if we just put the files on his laptop (where we knew it worked) and then cut the audio.

So what we ended up with was one MP3 file of all the sound to the movie. Once i had copied it across and synced it up with the actual footage, i though "Great finally i can start" but when i started cutting the footage, i forgot the audio was not cutting with it, so i had to undo it all and resync everything.What i ended up doing, was cutting all the audio where the movie clips began and ended so they were all split up into 30 odd files instead of one big one so i could move and delete them appropriately. This made it slightly harder, but also saved a lot of time i think. Once i started to put the files in the right order i got the hang of it again. While it's not as good as i'd like it to be, it's alright. Though there are a few errors and jumpy bits that i can't do anything about as i don't have enough footage - which is a mistake on my part i will admit.

Once i finished putting all the files together in an order i am content with, i realised it was incredibly boring. I really hope that this is because currently it has no music. If my sequence dsoesn't get better with music i will be incredibly disappointed. I suddenly had this idea that instead of the beggining simply having some guy digging, i should have a heartbeat sound and the image fading in and out accordingly. I quite like this idea, but i will wait for some feedback before deciding if i will keep it in or not. Another problem i have to deal with is the fact that the camera picked up a lot of wind, so the voice track is quite distorted, but i'll try and sort that out later. That's about as far as i have got today. I shall do some more tomorrow.

Editing - Day 1

Today was awful. It was out first day of editing, and when i put the footage onto my laptop it didn't work. After screaming at the machine for a little while i deicded it was probably better to ask Nick for help than to try and figure it our myself, and so i did. He came over and was like "Umm, ask Rik, he'll know what to do". So i did. Then Rik came over and told me that it had been recorded in MPEG2 or something, which was nearer professional standard and our machines didn't have the programmes to work with them. So after he yelled at the computer for not letting him get on Gmail, he wandered off for a while. I was quite worried i was going to have to re-shoot, as that would have been a real problem - but luckily he came back with some program and installed some things that made it all work again. Then we realised i had copied the wrong footage onto my machine, so after that we copied the correct footage onto my machine and the lesson was over. That was all i got done for the first lesson.

Titles and Fonts

Grave Danger.

Part of filming i'm happiest with.

The moment i thought i was most in charge of my filming, was when we were making the flaming torches. Whilst we were just filming the guys digging and finding the treasure chest, it was fun, but it was, like, anybody could have been doing it. There was nothing special about that scene. I could easily have shot that scene anywhere, and while it would have looked out of place in most environments, nobody would really have given us a second thought. When we got ready to do the torches, however, when we were trying to figure out the best way to coat them it was great. Once i decided to just throw it on the floor and pour it on, then tie it to the sticks, there was a sense of accomplishment. A lot of people i talked to didn't think i'd do it because it's kinda hard for a 17 year old to get bottles af parafin nowadays, or they figured i'd just do something easier, so it seemed like i had proved something. More to myself than anyone else but it was great. But the bit that made me feel best was when we lit them. As we only had 6 matches we were completely counting on at lighting quickly, and the minute it did i was overwhelmed with joy. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the massive flame it gave off, and when i managed i was just sat there thinking "Yeah.. None of the other guys have done this!". While everyone else in the group did their own thing, and the ideas all sound very good, i couldn't help thinking that mine, in my opinion, was the best. Which most people would say was obvious, as everyone thinks they're better than other people, but it's very rare for me to tihnk i have done something incredibly well, so i'm just hoping that i can edit it all together and make it work.

Future Changes

When i go to the next project, i will have to ensure i plan my time better. The footage i have is very good, but we had 3 hours to kill halfway through filming waiting for it to get dark. Fortunately we found things to do while we were waiting for this project (we planted some 20ft tall dead trees) but if i i am filing somewhere were there is nothign to do it will be much less fun trying to pass the time.

I would also spend more time planning costumes and props because, while the costumes i had worked very well, it was really a coincidence that i had them, and the cast are wearing trainers in the bit set in medieval times or whatever, which obviously if it's really obvious is a continuity error that i shouldn't have though of before.

I also need to put more thought into the music, as that will be the hardest part for me, i think. To get osme inspiration for the music, i decided to watch Bonekickers, which i thought was probably as close as i was going to get to a similar thing to my film. This might have been helpful, i can't decide. In the show they don't use that much music, which either suggests i don't have to, or was no help at all. I need to spend a lot of time making the music as i am not very good, and thus should probably have starteda while ago.

Characters

This section is about the characters you have seen in the film so far, i may talk a little about some characters you have yet to meet, i haven't decided yet.

This character is David Jones or "Maddox". He is not in the least bit interested in archaeology or history or anything. He joined the group simply because of his brute force and he likes to beat up bad guys and save the day. He is the leader fo the group, mainly because nobody dares challenge him. He basically hangs around with the group so he can tell them what to do and beat up anybody that gets in the way or threatens them.

He was raised in a town riddled with crime and corruption, yet excelled in nearly everything he did. He was a straight A student and had a really bright future, until one fateful day when his parents were murdered infront of him. He was saved because he heard a lot of noise and decided to hide in a cupboard and try to see what was going on. Unfortunately, this meant he saw his parents getting dismembered by the sword wiedling posse, an incedent that scarred him for the rest of his life. He started missing school, simply because he couldn't see the point anymore. This is when he started to take as many martial arts lessons as possible, so he could defend himself. Unfortunately, he didn't really like the whole punching and kicking scene and preferred to simply beat beat down with whatever he happened to find in the surroundings, be this a small rock or a TV. As he is so distrubingly violent, he is wanted by many countries all over the world, but as he is capturing bad guys and killing them, he is really doing the world a favour and nobody really wants to arrest him for it, so they find reasons to keep him out.

Unfortunately as he gets older, hid enemies don't but they do always think of more crazy and elaborate ways to try and stop him and his team of archaeologists from discovering anything. Maddox fights for revenge, not justice as many do. He doesn't care about catching the bad guy, just ensuring nobody hurts anyone wthat doesn't deserve it. The traumatic experience he faced as a child has had it's effect on Maddox, who is now quite mad.

The name "Maddox" was given to him after his therapist told the newspaper he was "As mad as an Ox". While this phrase doesn't really make sense, the media licked it up as soon as another case was racked with the headline "Mad Ox Kills Again" all over the news. The team simply stole the name from that.

This section is about the character George Fothering Smythe IV. - A.K.A Squinty.

This member of the group is the more sciency person. His main area of focus is running tests and all that jazz, like they do on CSI when they're looking for DNA or fingerprints. While he has an interest in archaeology, he is also more interested in the sciency side of things so he can find out new and exiting information that could be valuable to the case. As the name suggests, he was raised by a very wealthy family Squinty is rarely violent, but should he deem in necessary or important that he gets his hands dirty and beats the hell outta some people he will. While not as angry as Maddox, nor as pacifistic as Matt, he is the sorta of middle-man, that will help when he has to ort thinks his friends are in danger. He, however prefers to use the weapons he was given naturally as uses his hands and feet more often than physical weapons.

This section is about one of the characters known simply as Matt. At the beggining of the film you know nothing about this character. You continue to know nothing until about halfway through the film. This is entirely intentional. It is meant to make the viewer come to their own conclusions about who he is working for and what they think about him with no knowledge of his, simply jedging by his actions and appearence. He never talks about his past, and the only thing anyone knows about him is that he tells people to call him Matt. He admits this is not his real name, but will not reveal what that actually is. He has no interest in archaeology or history, and is a pacifist, so it is unclear why he joined the group until you find out some more about him. He seems realtively normal whilst on digs, he talks freely and openly to the other characters but if anyone tries to bring up his past he simply ignores them for the rest if the dig.

Despite being the most mysterious character in the film, you are given the most insight into his personal life as the film progresses. After the dig, each of the characters goes home, and you are shown their daily routine very briefly. Cup of tea, watch the news, go to bed etc, whereas 'Matt's' night is different everyday. This means you are shown what he gets up to, not in any great detail as that would give away to much, but you are shown brief parts of his evenings to try and sway you opinions one way or the other. Despite being a pacifist and not caring about what he does, he is a vital member of the group for several reasons. I am not going to explain these as that would ruin the film, so you'll just have to watch the whole thing to find out.

The final character in the group is known as Skully, due to his love of archaeology. He was not featured in the opening scene, because of an injury he sustained during the last case. He was caught in a car while it span out of control after getting shot at and blown up and stuff. Unfortunately for him, he is the only one of the group with a worthwhile knowledge of preserving archaeological finds, and therefore when the team find the chest in the opening, they merely pick itup and throw it around as if it is worthless.

Raised in a small village away from the big suburban areas of the country, Laurence was born to a middle class family and discovered his love for archaeology when digging in his garden. He was trying to plant a tree, when accidentally hit a smooth round white stone. He tried to dig it out, and realised it was a skull. Any normal child would have screamed and been scarred for life, yet he was fascinated. He kept digging, carfeul not to break anything and eventually uncovered an entire human skeleton. He watched from his bedroom window as police swarmed the garden taking notes and photos, the whole time simply amazed at what was going on. From then on, he decided that is what he wanted to do - dig holes and find cool things that people would want to look at.

He met the rest of the team at a medieval dig, when they tried to get past the guards and see what was going on. These guards tried their best to stop this 'gang' getting in, and yet two unarmed people managed to knock out 30 armed guards, while one more simply stood and watched. While confused as to exactly how these men had done such a thing so quickly, he soon decided he would probably be better off with them, instead of trying to fight them, so they joined forces and started doing things. He has no problems fighting, but obviouly would prefer it if he didn't have to.

Cast and Crew

So we had a small cast and crew of about 6 people. 3 of these people were in the film, i filmed it and Kirk and his brother were there helping out. This was a good amount because more people would have got in the way and less people would have made it very hard to shoot the film properly. Having two people who were not in the film and weren't doing vital roles was quite useful as i could ask them to do things and help out in other ways that wouldn't necessarily be able to be done by me or the cast as we would be pre-occupied by filming.

Filming

We went out to film my sequence today, and it went amazingly well. Once we had picked up the cast and driven down to Kirk's house so we could walk to the set we started to film the second half of the film. We had to film the second part because it is set in the day, and the first part is set at night, so we decided to record it backwards.

It started out a little badly, because the cast weren't exactly sure what was going on, i had given them the idea and shown them the storyboards and whatnot, but it's a little different when you actually try to record it. So after we had recorded it all we went back and decided to record it again as now they knew what they had to do, they could do it better and more proffesionally. This would then look better when i come to edit the footage and wouldn't look so 'studenty', although i wasn't sure what archaeologists wore so i told them to turn up in casual clothing and gave them some archaeology hats to wear.

I spent a while looking for the mise-en-scene i would need for this scene to work, and while not perfect i managed to find costumes, a sword, and a tresaure chest. Luckily, i also managed to get hold of some cloth and some parafin so we could make the flaming torches, we found suitable sticks on the way to the set. Unfortunately nobody bought any string so i had to sacrifice some of my hairbands to help the cloth to the sticks, though it was totally worth it! Also, we only had 6 matches, and i had lost my lighter, nobody in the group smoked and we didn't have any spare matches, so we were counting on the parafin catching first time.

After we filmed the initial footage, we decided to do it from some different angles to make the film more interesting, unfortunately, we got most of the film done in the first few takes, so turning up at 2 was possibly not the best idea as we then had 3 hours kicking around until it got dark. We decided we should change some of the scenery around to kill some time. Unfortunately as we were in a forest there wasn't very much we could do to change it... Or was there? As we had so much time we decided we would put some extra trees in the film. As the beggining but was set hundreds of years ago they would probably have been cut down anyway as they were in the middle of the path. They also made it look much better when the soldiers ran towards the monk guy as they had to run around the trees instead of having a clear path. I think this looks much better than it would have done.. It also killed the time quite nicely as we had to dig holes about 2 foot deep so the trees wouldn't fall over.

When it got to about 6 o clock, it wasn't really dark, but dark enough for the camera to think it was and give the much desired effect i hope the torched would give. We weren't quite sure how to get the parafin onto the cloths we used as torches without setting ourselves on fire, so somebody decided to dip the rag into the bottle, but that didn't work. In the end i threw the cloth on the floor and pured some on that way, then tied it to the stick and lit it. Luckily the parafin lit with the second match, and we lit the other from that same torch, which was a good idea. The container said you should use dirt to put out the fire, should it get out of hand and we had been digging all afternoon, so we had plenty of dirt and were right next to a lake - so we decided it was safe enough. We set the first one alight, and it looked amazing. It gave a better effect than i could have hoped for - or at least i think it did - i won't know for sure until i can edit the footage but from the cameras perspective it looked amazing. We then proceeded to light another one for the soldiers to carry while they chase the man, this worked quite well but then fell apart as was tied on with an elastic band which melted. So we gave them another one and re-filmed it. It looked fantastic

New Continuity Task

We recreated our continuity task using the nice expensive cameras.

This is the one using the normal camermas



This is the one using the HD cameras



Honestly, i can't see much difference when it's on YouTube, but hopefully you can see a difference when it is actually full quality on the laptops. There are a few, like, continuity errors such as my arm being up and down with no evidence of me moving it, but this was more to get used to the new cameras than anything so it doesn't really matter. obviously anything like that in my opening will be terrible and could ruin it.

Props, Costumes and Location

Right. My films is going to be hard. This much i know. I need various things to make it work, many of which i don't have, but i shall make do with what i have.

Costume wise, i have a few suggestions, many of which it turns out i have had for years, and must have been massive when i had them because they are still a fair size now, i just need to find people to wear them.

You probably can't see this, but it is a brown top and white trousers.. I guess this may be the kind of thing peopl eused towear, and if not, that's what they wear in this film. I have no idea what the white square thing is, but i'm sure it goes with the outfit somehow.

This is some sort of long shirt... I have no idea if this is anything similar to what they would have worn but it is now.

Depsite just looking like a large brown sheet with a bit on the end, this is infact some sort of cloak with a nice hood. This is kind of thing i think a monk or someone would wear, again, probably not but who cares... Nobody cares about historical acuracy anymore so y'know... The person burying the rteasure at the beginning of the film could wear this

This is my brothers sword. He said i can use it, providing he is there, but i'm pretty sure he'll let me anyway. Many people seem concerned about me using a sword, but i am only going to use this one, and i'm pretty sure it's not sharp enough to do any real damage without intention.

This could be wielded by one of the people chasing him. I am still working on flaming torches, i can go but some parafin tomorrow..

-

Location-wise, Kirk says i can probably use some land near him, which simply means travelling to Babraham for filming, which although potentially annoying, not too bad. After looking at this piece of land, i realised it would probably be very good for filming, and isn't too hard to get to - although we later realised that if you are carrying lots of things it makes the walk seem much longer. But it was very good, it had holes in the floor already, which is great as we would have had to dig a really big hole in order to bury the chest we used, and was very out of the way so not many people bothered us apart from a few people walking their dogs. We got some very odd looks when they walked past.

If you look in the film, there are two trees that we planted right in the middle of this path :D

Potential problems with my film

Nuisances:

I need contact details of the people who are going to be in my film so i can get hold of them and find out where they are and stuff.

I also need basic archaeology type things, such as digging stuff and brushes. General things that archaeologists have when they are digging stuff up.


Minor Concerns:

The weather could pose a potential problem, not so much in the first bit, in fact if it raining that would probably look even better, but it is unusual for archaeologists to dig in the rain unless they know they have found something, and thus would look a little weird in my film. But if that's how it plays out..

I need to dig a hole to bury the chest in, though i really can't be bothered to dig a hole big enough.


Major Issues:




Realistic performance - To pull off this film, the acting has to be real. There is a shot were the guy look really scared and fearful for his life, and this isn't going to work unless the actor can pull off 'scared'. Again, while chasing them guy the people chasing him need to look angry, or at least purposeful. There is another less important part where they find the chest and need to look exited.




Flaming torches - An important factor, even though it doesn't seem it. to give the viewer the idea that this part of the sequence is set in the past, i want them running around with swords and flaming torches. The main problem with this is that simply setting fabric alight doesn't burn for nearly long enough, so i will need to cover it with something. In the movies they use pitch, i believe, but that is going to b quite hard to get hold for so i will have to do something else. For my photography project last year we poured some diesel on an action man and that burned very nicely, so i may have to cover the fabric with diesel before setting it alight, i will test this at the weekend.

Location - This is very important. if i don't have a suitable location(s) the film will not work. I need somewhere i can run around in the dark with swords and flaming torches, and not get yelled at. I have a location that i can dig a hole in the dark, but it is quite a long way away and difficult to get to, so as the fist part of the scene where the guy is digging only has one person in, i may use that location for that scene. As it is going to be dark, nobody will realize that the chasing has been filmed in a different location, or that when it is dug up i shall be somewhere else. I am still working on location.

I need costumes - As this sequence begins set in sometime in the past, i need costumes that emphasize that. If i have people running around in jeans and a shirt, people are not going to look at and go "Wow, this bit is set in the 14th century". I'm not sure what people wore back then but i'm sure i can figure something out.

Swords - At the minute, i have one sword. If my sequence sticks to my storybopard and animatic, i need more than this. Unfortunately, people don't seem to like me running around wielding swords and flailing them around like some sort of crazy ninja. To get past the lack of swords, Ash said i could borrow his, however i think an easier and probably more sensible idea would be to not physically show swords, or just use the one i have and pretend to have others but ensure they stay in the little holdy things people had on their belts back in the day. This way i just need a sword like looking handle, and something that i can make look like a sword holder. I can probably make these easy enough so may try and do this.

Animatic Storyboard

Shot List

1 - Long shot of figure digging a hole, camera pans round and zooms in towards the figure.
2 - Medium shot of figure digging a hole, not close enough for extreme detail, but not too far away to see what he is doing. (Will be lit up with flaming torch giving cool shadows on his face)
3 - Production Company Logos - Long Road, Point Pedro etc. (Dog barks whilst this is on screen)
4 - Cuts to digger looking round, shocked. Seems scared/terrified.
5 - Camera pans round to show flickering lights in distance - digger stars to panic
6 - Cuts to close/medium shot of people running towards him with swords and flaming torches.
7 - Shows digger shoveling dirt back into hole and patting down soil as quickly as he can
8 - Medium shot of digger running away, towards the camera.
9 - Camera pans round as he does, a few seconds later, the people chasing him runs past, too.

UNTIL HERE IT IS DARK

10 - Fades to black - "X years later" in big white lettering.

IS NOW DAY

11 - Close up of spade of something
12 - Camera pans up to show a group of people digging.
13 - General look around, tools and boxes of labeled stuff suggests archaeologists.
14 - One of the archaeologists hits something hard - loud clunk noise
15 - Everyone rushes over to him as he gets a brush and starts brushing away loose dirt.
16 - Shot from below the soil, looking up at people brushing loose soil from above it.
17 - Shot above soil again, looking at archaeologists pulling stuff out of the hole
18 - Open container

THIS BIT MAY NOT BE IN FINAL VERSION

19 - Remove a piece of parchment like material
20 - Close up of letter
21 - Well old, hard to read, one of the archaeologists vaguely translates it - basically says what they have found and why it was hidden.
22 - Put letter in bag and put in tray

THIS IS IN FINAL VERSION

23 - Everyone leans forwards to see what is in chest
24 - Camera pans from looking up on the floor, around the container and goes to show you what has been hidden.
25 - Cuts before you are shown - This entices the viewer to watch and see what has been found

Key Frames and Potential Stills

After we created our mood boards, we started to create a list of everything that had to be in our sequence. This was sort of like a time line of what was going to happen. Once we had created this we started to work on creating an A3 sheet of paper with 9 key frames on, like the website artofthetitle do. These frames are supposed to give a basic idea of what happens in the sequence very quickly.


As you can see in the first frame, the sequence starts of with a guy digging a hole. The next shot is just the various production company logo's and usual jazz films have at the start. While these logos are playing you will hear a dog barking, and the image will very quickly cut back to the guy digging looking scared. Frame 4 shows a group of people running towards him with flaming torches and swords. This could potentially be hard as i don't know how i will keep the flaming torches alight for long enough. Shot 5 is of the man very quickly burying whatever he has and running off into the night. The screen fades to black and the words "X years later" (i haven't decided how many yet) come up in white lettering. Screen 7 shows a group of people you learn to be archaeologists digging holes when someone hits something hard. Screen 8 is a shot from under the soil, looking up at the people brushing dirt away from the thing. Shot 9 is back above ground watching them pull the thing out of the ground.

Next we did a few potential stills form our mood boards.


My first one is a close up of a pick axe digging a hole. I probably wont use a pick axe, but i didn't have a picture of a spade digging a hole and that was as close as i could get. It also shows the initial part of the guy digging. The second frame is of the people running towards him with swords, however it doesn't really look like they're running anywhere. The last frame is 3 more people digging a hole, to show the archaeologists digging later on and finding whatever was buried.

Moodboard

This is the moodboard for my film opening. Many of the pictures may seem completely irrelevant, and many unhelpful but as my tagline fort the film is "Time Team meets Die Hard" it seemed like an idea to have pictures of archaeologists and digging and stuff, topped off with some clips from the Die Hard movies to remind people it isn't just going to be 2 hours of digging. Some of the images show drawings and stills from movies simply because they are an idea as to wha the film could be. It is hard to capture the modd o th film as it is completely varied. Bits of the film are really dark and slightly creepy, then there are other bits which are filled with completely over-the-top gunfights, car chases and explosions. This is the main reason the images are completely varied - the film is as well. If i had been planning to do a film that was about archaeology, the images would be more heavily based on archaeology and digging etc. Similarly, if i was simply doing another action film, the images would be more heavily based on guns, cars and fighting. One of the images is some sort of crazy monster, it has been hand-drawn, i think, and i added this because i though it looked cool. If i was making the entire film, there is a chance i would include sort sort of mystical beast, which this image reminds me of, but i have neither the time, nor the budget to do that.

Moviestorm

We created this animation using a program called Moviestorm. We started off, knowing very little about the program, and had to create a short film using it. It started out quite hard as, even though tips and help is given, very few people decided to use it and we just went straight on and started to create. the first problem we had was that textures just appeared black, no matter what settings we changed or turned on/off, nothing would happen. Then Matt turned around and showed us how to fix it and we were off. After a little while of messing around, we decided to create a very short version of Terminator. Obviously we were quite heavily restricted to what we could do, but i was very surprised about the amount the program could do, and the amount of options you had for various things. One of the main problems we encountered was, as you will notice if you watch, the mouths didn't move. We tried as hard as we could but we couldn't get the lips to sync with the words. This, we decided, was quite a trivial problem, and not worth wasting our time over so we went on and finished our film without moving.

Another problem most people had, was that when you get a certain amount of props/people in your film, the computer starts to slow down, this is far worse if you have another program such as media player/iTunes playing in the background, so the program uses a large amount of your computers power. From this i concluded that the program is very good, providing you make a short film or don't use much stuff in it. It also probably isn't worth using any other programs on your computer because it will be too slow. other than that, it's alright.

My Pitch Revisited

Synopsis:

Long ago, a lone man risked his life to steal something from a secret society. This man was chased and tortured but the lost artifacts were never recovered. Hundreds of years later a team of crime fighting archaeologists stumbled upon it and became part of the greatest secret in history. Unfortunately, there is a spy amongst them and the secret society are still willing to blow up anyone who steps in their way or threatens to expose them. Sure to be filled with car chases, explosions and more over the top fight scenes than you've ever seen, this film is very vaguely based on the comic by Laurence Tureaud.



Tagline:

Think Time Team meets Die Hard


Working Title:

Die Team - This IS going to change, but until i think of a better one i am just playing on the titles. As the tag line for the film is currently Time Team meets Die Hard i just played with the words and created Die Team.

Essential elements for an opening sequence

Eye catching intriguing imagery
Institutional detail (production company, distributors etc)
Makes you want to watch rest of film
Good relevant soundtrack
Don't give away too much story
Build up tension
Title of film itself
General credits

Production Company Logos

I made these logos with after effects, i am going to use the first one as my actual company, as i believe it would be easier to use as a physical logo, using the shield instead of just having a rectangle with some coloured squares. The second i like, though I may not use the actual logo with the shapes and whatnot, but i will probably use the name as i think it's awesome.

Comparitive Research

The first video i am going to analyse is the original Batman movie with Adam West (1966). The opening credits are incredibly simple as it is mainly just the various characters of the film funning past the camera being followed by searchlights. Although a big difference with these credits is that right at the beggining the searchlight finds some messages that appear to be written on the walls to all the fans and viewers thanking them, and general messages from the producers of the film. These messages are shown using a plain white light, to make the messages easier for the viewer to read. Next pops up the original Batman logo and the music. The logo moves across the screen where it fades out to show someone running along a dimly lit "green" alleyway. Next, Batman appears from the left side of the screen, lit up by a light blue light. The camera then pans along to show Robin coming out from the right side of the screen lit up by a yellow light. Where appropriate the character name comes up above the actors naem, for example when Batman walks on it says "Batman... Adam West". If the person being mentioned does not have a charcter, they are simply just the words saying what they have done and their names. For the next minute and a half the various different characters of the film appear on screen lit up by different colour searchlights. I am unsure wether the colour of the light relects on the character or not, but i think it has some relativity. For example, in this film, the Joker wears green and is lit up by a green light. The names of all the people starring in the show and the producers etc all appear in simple white letters on top of the film, and fade away to let the next set come up. It is very hard to tell how many shots this scene has as between every shot it fades to black and isn't clear if the camera has moved, or if they just turned the lights off in order for the next character to be introduced.

In contrast to this, the new Batman film, the Dark Knight has no credits at all at the start of the film. It goes straight into the opening scene where you see a bunch of clowns, you are supposed to assume they are working with the Joker (most people will have either seen a Batman movie or at least vaguely know the characters, so as assumption like this is easy to make). This goes to show that as the Batman franchise has grown and the movies become bigger and bigger the need to waste time and money telling people who is in the film has become less and less important. This is one of the few films that has no credits at the start of films other than the production company logo's. They are able to do this because when new Batman films are planned to be released, the amount of Media hype they get and they amount of attention the fans give to the cast lists means that most people who are interested in the film knows exactly who is playing who before the film has even been released.

On the other hand, some films from different parts of the world, such as Dragon Tiger Gate based on the Hong Kong Manua (comic book) Oriental Heroes. This films starts with a couple of characters sitting around they appear to be small children. You hear them talking, although it's in Chinese or something so i found one with subtitles, but basically they are talking about why you learn martial arts. Then some text comes up naming the production company, theres isn't an apparent logo, simply the name in Chinese, then underneath in English. The music then gets much faster and more intense as you get thrown into some big, very impressive fight scenes, which i assume gives you a general idea of the movie. Then it shows some text and various different images for the different people, there's a bolt of lightning for one person, a scorpion for someone else etc.

As this opening sequence is very intense, there are many quick cuts between scenes. Even though the opening scene is only 2:45 there are about 131 different shots or angles in that time. That is a new show or different angle every 1.12214 seconds. As some of the shots at the start are much longer, many of the shots in the middle are split seconds, literally blink and you miss them shots. I watched the clip several times and still couldn't count them all exactly.

I really love how "Th1ng" created the sweeney todd opening sequence. After the Dreamorks and Warner Bros logos have come and gone, it takes you to an animated, stormy, Victorian style London. The slow, yet eerily intense organ music gives the film a suitable start as it instantly suggests what kind of film it is going to be. While the scrren appears to be panning across London, it is raining. If you look carefully, you can occasionally see drops of blood falling in the rain. It is not frequent, it is just the occasional drop, which i think is amazing because it just goes to show the detail they went into to give the occasional person who is paying hilariously close attention to small details such as that something to think about.

It then succesfully sets the scene by showing you the house in which the majority of the film is set, and a drop of blood flowing down the arm of a chair. The camera then follows this line of blood as it shows the ineer workings of the chair and is finally drained into the sewers. It then shows you the machine they use to turn the people they've killed into mincemeat, which then drops another droplet of blood down into the sewers. This time, however the sewer zooms out and spins round until it simply shows a blood red spiral on the floor, an image which is quickly engulfed by flames as the next part of the credits take over. The intense flames then zom out slightly to show that they are in fact cooking pies, again, with a pool of blood ready to drip over the side and continue the story. The oven door then shuts and you follow the drainage bit as the blood flows into the sewer. It then follows the sewer as it takes the blood red water and deposits it into a larger body of water, assumed to be a river.

What i love about this opening sequence is that it is entirely animated, but unlike most titles tells you basically what the film is about. You could only watch the titles sequence and understand that film is about a guy in a house who puts people on chairs and kills them, he them turns them into pies. This, for the most part os true, there is slightly more to the storyline than that, and if you watched the film you would understand most of it, why he is doing it, how he is doing it etc. The other thing i like is that you aren't shown a single character. It tells you the basic storyline, but reveals nothing else about the film. You aren't shown any characters, any locations apart from a building somewhere in a city somewhere. If you only wanted to get the basic jist of the film, you could watch the titles and leave, but that wouldn't give away nearly enough information to satisfy most people, and makes you watch the film to find out what the titles are about.



The comapny who made this sequence, "Th1ng" have also produced many adverts, music videos and film openings for various people. Many of these videos, especially the adverts appear to be animations or stop-motions. I think this is good because while it is easier in a sense that you don't have to hire actors and film during certain times, i think creating good looking adverts using stop motion is very difficult, and subsequently very rewarding if it works.

This opening sequence is fantastic due to its simplicity. It is simple the Batman logo, that appears to be carved into stone or something. Basically all it does is start off in an extreme close up and rotate the image while zooming out until it ends with the entire logo filling th screen. There are very few actual credits, and strangely, as there are so few, none of the cast are mentioned, which is strange as the main actor(s) are usually names quite early on in the sequence.



I like this advert because it's quite childish. Not in a sense that it is in anyway immature, but in a sense that the backing song would appear to be sung by small children and the letters at the end, are the same as the sticky magnetic letters you stick on the fridge when you are small. I'm not entirely sure what these are for, but i'm sure they come in handy occasionally. I think the advert is very cleverly done, and the fact that it will appeal to younger audiences as well as older ones is very good because it is easier to buy things for children if they want it, too. As this advert will appeal to young children, with the happy song and the beans on toast man etc they are more likely to eat it than if it was just an advert of a guy standing there going "This stuff is better for you. Buy it." It is very cleverly tailored towards all age ranges that are likely to use the product.

Film Pitch Feedback

Popular and humorous idea
Plot slightly vague at the minute
Interesting idea, obscure mix suggestion (Time Team and Die Hard)
Interesting idea for film
Could be good if done well.

Film Opening Pitch

A group of archaeologists stumble upon a chest buried hundreds of years ago that people will kill to protect. Some secrets are best left undiscovered. Think Time Team meets Die Hard.

It may sound bad, but it'll be awesome

Film Opening Ideas

I like the first brief, as i think it sounds best. Action movies basically only need action and a very vague storyline, to patch the action scenes together. Basing it on a comic book could seem tricky, but realistically comic books are relatively simple. When i think of comic book i think of superhero (spiderman, watchmen, X-Men etc) which suggests that a film based on a comic should involve some dude with special powers, but Batman is considered a superhero and he's just some rich guy who appears to be incredibly strong. This means that all you need for an action movie based on a comic is some guy that manages to do things and not die. Now if you're making up a comic, this could be easy. You just need to think of various situations your character could be found in, and how he would escape in the coolest way possible, preferably with lots of gunfights, car chases and explosions (because that's what makes good filmsm, especially when aimed at 16 - 25 year old males).

I have yet to think of a suitable storyline, but i know exactly how i want to do the opening credit sequence, think like the superbad opening sequence:



While that film is a comedy and they have the main characters silhouetted and dancing around the opening, i would like to have the main character with a similar style, but as this is an action movie there would be fights and stuff instead of dancing to give the film a sense of what it's about before it even starts. This would be relatively easy using a plain wall or greenscreen and after effects.

I found some very short overviews of some action films which i think could be useful in helping me to decide what i want to pitch.

The Transporter: This film is about a man (Statham) whose job is to deliver packages without asking any questions. Complications arise when he breaks those rules.

Casino Royale: In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

However these are only action films, here's some i found that a related to films based on comics or graphic novels.

Spiderman: When bitten by a genetically modified spider, a nerdy, shy, and awkward high school student gains spider-like abilities that he eventually must use to fight evil as a superhero after tragedy befalls his family

X - Men: Two mutants come to a private academy for mutants whose resident superhero team must oppose a powerful mutant terrorist organization

Watchmen: When an ex-superhero is murdered, a vigilante named Rorshach begins an investigation into the murder, which begins to lead to a much more terrifying conclusion

Superman: An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest super-hero.

From these plot outlines, it seems most films based on comics contain superheroes of some kind, or people pretending to be superheroes (think Batman or Iron Man)

Blade: A half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires

Iron Man: When wealthy industrialist Tony Stark is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he ultimately decides to use its technology to fight against evil.

I have decided to change my opening credits idea. It seemed like a good idea before i had an idea for my film opening, but now i believe it would be innapropriate and out of place. Instead i shall simply put text over the top of my footage naming the appropriate people.

Animation of School Logo

Here is my animation of the college logo using after effects

AS Media Project.

I foun this video on YouTube, along with hundreds of other that come up when you type in "A Level Media". What i find particularly interesting about this video is theuse of music and sound effects. At the start, when the text appears on the screen, all you hear is a single, slow heartbeat. This suggests fear or panic and the viewer should be scared, or at least, worried. What i love about the next scene, is it's simplicity. All it is is a close up of a door and a guy walking through it. He is wearing plain black clothes and carrying a book. I instantly thought it was a priest. This is a very clever shot as it is counting on the mise-en-scene, such as the door, the clothes and the book to suggets who the person is, or is pretending to be.

You then see the man walking up the isles in a church, i was right, he is a priest. The music here is very effective, there is some gentle violins or something initially and then a choir starts, but fades in and out very quickly. You then see the priest holding and admiring some jewelery. It then cuts to show the Columbia logo, which i'm not sure the should have out on, but still with the violins and the choir. It then flashes to a view through some tree branches, and a crash of thunder.

The music is getting gradually louder, and suddenly you are shown the roof of a house. The camera then looks down to see a person walking past. There is a very loud breath in the background, but at the same time on top of everything, as if from behind the camera, as if the viewer is looking out of the persons eyes. This happenes 2 or 3 times as the camera follows the girl, gradually getting closer and closer, all the time the music building up. Until it gets to it's fastest moment so far, and with a crash you see a man leap at the girl and start to drag her away, kicking and screaming. It then goes to a quick cutaway of the priest wandering up and down the aisle of the church, in the dark. This could suggests he is not the good "man of God" all priests are made out to be.

It then cuts and shows you a shot of two legs hanging out of a tree. Then there are a series of shots showing different things including fire, and several crosses and finally landing on Jesus on the cross. This screen then cuts black and a bell sounds as the title of the film "Genesis" appears on the screen. The bell sounds again when the actors name appears, "Liam Neeson". This is trying to tell the audience that he is the main character in this film, when he isn't and they shouldn't have put this in. It then sounds again ever time some new text comes up on screen giving quotes from big newspapers such as the Daily Mail, which, i guess you can do i'm not sure.

I really like the whole dark, religious atmosphere as it seems like a good film simply because of the suspense the trailer had, it was dark and fast paced and intense. The religious aspect of the trailer is merely another twist that loops into the story to enthrall and attract the viewers into watching the actual film when it comes out. They have, however, given quite a good phrase for the date, playing on the religious theme. Instead of simply putting the date they used the phrase "redemption begins". This i find interesting because redemption is instantly recognised as religious. People go to church to redeem themselves of past sins or something, so to suggest redemption begins when this new horror film comes out is another interesting use of language to attract readers.

Unfortunately, they didn't really think it through. They put a website on the end of the trailer, http://www.genesis.com/, which is infact a website for internet security, not a film. They also used a real production company claiming it was being made by them, and have suggested Liam Neeson (Star Wars, Taken, Batman) was gong to be starring in their film, which isn't true. Apart from that though, i think the trailer is fantastic.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb39ViimmNY&feature=related

AS Thriller Blog Homework

I thought overall the finshed piece of footage was quite good. There were bits i'd have take away or changed, but generally it wasn't horrible. The blog, on the other hand, is very thin. There are only about 16 posts between a group of 3/4, which, to be honest is pitiful as that's either 4 or 5 posts per person, dependsing on the size of the group for the entire project. I have this many posts on my blog and i don't even kow what kind of film i'm making!

However, there are quite a few videos on the blog and it is all explained extremely well, so they obviously knew what they were trying to do, because of the detail they went into. There are different posts for each stage of the process, shooting, editing, soundtrack, etc. The process was planned well, there is even a list of what shots they are doing in which order so anyone reading can get an idea of what the film will e without watching it, or seeing how it ends without it being finished.

Unfortunately, they let themselves down by claiming John McLane was going to be starring in their film, which he clearly isn't, and i somehow doubt one of the people in their group had that name. If he does, cool, but it's not a good idea to put real stars names in your movie. Another problem is the name "Seymour Butts" They have clearly tried to be funny by adding this name, but it appears immature and they should lose marks for it.

I don't like the start of the film. The way they have cut between shots of the eye looks a mess and i'm not entirely sure what they were trying to achieve by doing it. It just looks like they were editing and just randomly clicked the cut button and stuck the together. I do like the bit showing the drugs, the fire and the clock though, i think that worked very well, any quicker an it would have been too quick to see what was going on, and much slower and the effect would have been lost. That part i do like. My main problem, however is it's not much of an opening sequence. You see him get up, go to the bathroom and for some reason he changes into a different person, then he goes and lays down on the bench again wile the screen fades to black and the title appears. To me, this just seems like a long film condensed into 2 minutes, as there doesn't appear to be much further the film can go. The guy got up, did something and went back. That's a beggining, middle and end right there, what else is there to do?

http://50thrillerproject08.blogspot.com/

Homework (Production Logo's)

So this is a relatively simple logo. It is an orange diamond shape thing filled in with blue. In big gold letters are the initials "W.B." for Warner Brothers. Across the front, again in gold itsays "Warner Home Video" The gold suggests it is important, and is shaped similarly to that of a police badge. Whether the last bit is relevant or not i am unsure, but i felt like it should be pointed out.

Another logo i found was the 20th Century Fox logo. It is not overly complex, and appears to simply be the words 20th Century Fox, the words appear to be some sort of monument, possibly suggesting that Fox believe they are incredibly important, which undoubtedly they are. It is surrounded by massive searchlights. These lights move around occasionally but apart from that the image doesn't move. The company sometimes changes the logo to suit the film or show that it has made, for example before each episode of Futurama it changes to 30th Century Fox, because the show is set in the year 3000.

The next logo is also very simple. It is simply a mountain with some stars around it (i would give a number but i looked at many images with varying amounts of stars. In the new logo, the stars swoosh in from behind the camera and arrange themselves around the mountain. This is a very effective logo, even it it doesn't outwardly mean anything. The picture changes, or more the weather changes behind it depending on the mood of the film, sometimes it appears suny, others it appears darker and more myserious. This could be coincidence, but i doubt it.

The next logo i found does many films, many of which are animated. The 'default' logo, is a boy, who appears to fishing from the moon. This is quite a strange logo as it is probably one of the hardest to make. Initially it was hand painted, but the company decided they liked the CGI version more and used that. I like this logo, because it is very smple, but is also changed quite frequently to make it more appropriate for the film. For example, at the start of Bee Movie the boy is removed from the moon and replaecd by a bee. Or at the beggining of Madagascar they boy it beaten up and thrown behind the moon by the maniacal penguins, which appears to be the only thing that movie has to offer other than Chris Rock and giving David Schwimmer a job. Even when the logo is changed it is such a recognisable logo that changing it still tells the viewer who the company is. Obviously the name and most of the picture stay the same, but still...

Homework (Wild Wild West Credits)

So i got the wrong idea here and put something about EVERYONE mentioned in the titles, not just production etc.

The first name that appears, is Warner Bros. This is currently the world's largest film and television producer. This is obviously the company that has made the film and has done hundreds of others, including The Exorcist, The Life of Brian, Blade Runner, Space Jam, The Matrix films, The Harry Potter films, and quite a few of the Batman films. As you can probably tell, Warner Bros mainly deal with big blockbuster films, rather than small independant films as they don't make as much money.

The next names to appear are "A Peters Entertainment/ Sonnenfeld Josephson Production" A quik IMDB search brings up a small page about these two companies. The don't appear to have done very much at all. Peters Entertainment appears to have made 8 films, while Sonnenfeld Josephson only appears to have made 6.

In Association with Todman Simon LeMasters Productions. This guy appears to have only done Wild Wild West.

A Barry Sonnenfeld Film. I assume this guy is part of the "Sonnenfeld Josephson Production", though i can't be sure. IMDB says he has produed and directedmany films, including Big, Men in Black and Kingdom.

Next the name Will Smith comes up. You don't even need to search this name to know who he is. Newsweek named him one of the most powerful and influencial actors on the planet, conquering not only film but TV and music, too. He is the only actor to have 8 consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and is currently th only actor to have had 8 consecutive films opening at #1 in the domestic box office as a lead actor.

Kevin Kline is next on the list. Kevin has been in many films, none as massive as Smith, but he has starred in films such as A Fish Called Wanda, Orange County and The Tale of Desperaux.

Kenneth Branagh is most well known for his film adaptions of Willim Shakespeare's work, apparently. He has also been in many films, but again none that were as big as even Kline's films. These include Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet. However he also starred in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is a fa bigger film than anything else i know of him doing.

Salma Hayek has starred in films such as Dogma, 54 and Spy Kids 3D: Game Over.

Ted Levine is noted for his parts in such films as The Hills Have Eyes, The Silence of the Lambs and American Ganster.

M. Emmet Wlash has appeare in over 100 films, although not many of them as notable as other. These include Twilight (1998), Snow Dogs and Racing Stripes.

Bai Ling has starred in many films including Star Wars III, Lords of Dogtown and The Hustle.

Rodney A. Grant has been in such films as The Killing Ground, Safe Harbour and Don;t Come Knocking.

Garcelle Beauvier has been in very few films, including Manhunter, Coming to America and I Know Who Killed Me.

Museta Vander has been in several films including Oblivion 2:Blacklash, Motal Kombat: Annihilation and Oder of Redemption.

Sofia Eng has apparenly only beenin Wild Wild West and Ivansxtc.

Frederique van der Wal is best known for he appearances in celbrity, the million dollar hotel and celebrity mole: hawaii.

The casting was done by David Rubin, who was also the casting director for Men in Black, City of Ember and Yes Man.

Ronna Kress was also doing casting, and has previously casted for films including The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Rush Hour 3 and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

The film was co-produced by Graham Place and Doug Lodato. Graham, who produced Hostage, The Addams Family and Men in Black, and Doug who only produce Wild Wild West and Pharaos Army.

Eric Brevig did the special effects for the movie has alo worked on Men in Black, The Day After Tomorrow and The Village.

I then says the song that plays over the end credits "Wild Wild West" by Will Smith. This just enforces the idea that Will Smith is the main focus of the film, as they have allowed him to do the song to play over the credits. (It's also an awesome song)

The Music was compose byElmer Bernstein, who also composed much of the music for such films as Airplane!, An American Werewolf in London and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The costume designer was Deborah Lynn Scott, who has worked on many films including Titanic, Bad Boys II and Get Smart.

The film was edited by Jim Millerwho has done films such as Men in Black, The Addams Family and Agent Cody Banks.

The production designer was Bo Welch, who has wored on films including Men in Black, Ghostbusters II and Space Chimps.

Michael Ballhaus was the director of photography for the film, and has worked on other films such as Goodfellas, Air Force One and The Departed.

The executive producers were Bill Todman Jr, who has worked on X-Men, Ace Ventura and Strange Wilderness. Joel Simon who has worked on X-Men, the Condemned and Looney Toons: Back in Action. Kim LeMasters who worked on Threshold, The Magicians and Jfets-D. Tracey Glaser who appears to have only worked on Wild Wild West, and Barry Josephson who worked on Like Mike, Hide and Seek and Bones.

The Story was by Jim Thomas who Wrote Predator, Predator 2 and Alien Vs Predator. It was also written by John Thomas who has written Predator, Predator 2 and Behind Enemy Lines.

The screenplay was by S.S Wilson, who worked on Tremors, Batteries not Included and M.A.S.K. It was also done by Brent Maddock, who worked on basically the same films apart from M.A.S.K.

The film was produced by Jon Peters, who worked on Ali, Batman and Superman Returns. It was also produced by Barry Sonnenfeld who worked on Men in Black 1 & 2 and Space Chimps.

Barry Sonenfeld also Directed the film.

What i though was amazing after researching the people credited in this sequence, was how man of them have gone on to work on Smith's other films, or had worked on his films previously. This may be a coincidence, but perhaps it simply means that if you do well in one film, you may get asked to help other people out with their future films.

Film Opening Sequence

I like this opening sequence because it is quite simple. The majority of the images are almost silhouetted against an orange background. There are multiple images on the screen at one time, however they are generally just close ups or different shots of the same picture. occasionally it does a close up, such as the gun spinning around the characters finger to emphasize it. It shows all the main characters in the film, and by the way they are dressed - it does several close ups on clothing such as the boots with the spiky heel bit, and the coats - all things associated with, and linking the characters to cowboys, and suggests the film is probably set in that time. This is obviously enforced by the title "Wild Wild West". The music is quite classical, but quite fast paced at times, especially when Will Smith (the main character) is on the screen. This suggests he is going to be the good guy, as the music is quite cheerful compared to the slower heavier music when someone else comes on screen, suggesting a bad guy, or 'villain'.

Continuity Task

This is the continuity task we did to show the 180 degree rule, a shot reverse shot and match on action.

Film Opening Project

This video was made by putting images on top of a soundtrack. After playing around with the lengths and fading of the images to get what i decided was quite good, i tried playing with titles. Initially i simply had words appearing on the screen, but then i decided it would look better if the words faded in and out and moved slightly. i think i went a little over the top with the motion of the words, but i also think it is quite a good title sequence.

CSI: Miami shot by shot

The first shot shows two people speding down a river in an airboat. One of them is sitting down, and the other is standing behind him, as id observing. This could be seen as showing power or authority over the other person as he could be his superior officer in the case they are working on.

The next show is only on the screen for about a second, and simply shows two characters, who, if you don't know the show will have no significance whatsoever, but if you are a fan you will realise that they are very important people within the show. They appear to simply be standing around talking when they suddenly turn to look at where the camera is, though past it, not at it. If you look carefully, you can see they are stood behind a police car, and are probably discussing whatever criume scene they happen to be at, when something else attracts their attention.

In the next shot, you see one of the people from the airboat. A ginger guy in sunglasses. Again, irrelevat if you don't know the character but as i do i will refer to them by name where appropriate. This guy is called Horatio. The camera is slightly angled up towards him, and the look on his face with his big sunglasses (which have great significance throughout the course of the series) is surprisingly calm, considering they arespeeding along a river, possibly chasing someone.

Then the camera switches to a pan over a city. I'm not certain, but i am almost positive this city is going to be Miami, as that is where the show is set.

It then shows a woman doing something, but the effecs over the camera limit you to what you can see, so it is hard to register who she is or what she is doing.

The next shot is of Horatio. When the camera turns to him, he looks round so you can see who he is, although he is relatively recognisable if you watch it.

It then cuts to a shot of him getting out of a lift, looking slightly concerned.

Again him. Although this time in a whitey orange coloured background, and he simply changes from looking at the floor to looking up. Something has either caught his attention or he is looking at something. The fact that his character profile came up first in the order of appearance suggests he is probably the main guy you want to be looking at.

The next shot is of him leaning over a desk, possibly talking to someone. These shots individually don't suggest much about his character, or even that he could possibly be a cop. However all played together you get the impression that he is the guy that wanders around the crime scenes vaguely looking for evidence, but his main job would be talking to or interrogating the suspects when they have arrested them.

The shot after this changes to show a Blonde woman aiming a gun towards the camera. Ordinarilly anyone aiming a gun at someone/something would be portrayed to be the "bad guy" in the show, however as she has big ear defenders on to pretect her ears from the deafening bang a gun makes, it suggests it is her job to shoot it for whatever reason.

It then changes scene and appear to be following a cord of some kind. The then rolls up to the phone, being held by Calleigh (the blonde woman)as the appears to be talking on the phone while writing something down, or dusting for prints or something. I'm not quite sure, these shots are all very quick, however they suggest her role in the whole "gang" is to carry out some experiments to try and work out who did what, with what and where.

The next scene simply shows her turning her head tolook toward the camera. Though again, some of these shots are similar to those of Horatio possibly suggesting she is also important to the show and general running of the team.

The next show shows an autopsy. Someone is standing in the ofreground, but the camera is looking past them toward the computer screen, showing what is going on.

There is then a shot which is very dimly lit, showing someone who appears to be looking at some tweezers. Probably examining evidence or something.

Suddenly, the camera switches to a brightly lit, outdoor scene, when a guy appears out of the water in diving gear.

You are then shown a close up of a guy, you assume to be the same personholding a torch, looking through a small gap in a wall or something (?). These two shots suggest his role is to look for evidence, which is why he was diving in the lake and why he is looking through all the little bits to see if they've missed anything.

The next scene is a shot of Miami again.

Then it shows a computer screen displaying a fingerprint and the computer is doing something.

It then shows a black woman in a white coat leaning over a body. The fact the she appears to be examining the body and is prodding it with something suggests her role could have something to do with the morgue and corpses.

The next shot is just her looking down.

The next shot is of a long pair of womens legs walking past the screen.

Then there's a couple of shots of... something...

It then changes to a guy in a white shirt with some sunglasses on, Though this guy has short dark hair, which is what differs him from Horatio. This character, Speedle, appears to be looking at a gun in a plastic bag. Probably examining evidece as you are led to believe these guys are all cops. It then shows his lifting a nice big camera up to his face to take a picture. This suggetss his role is to take pictures of the crime scene and everything that is in it before anyone can come in and contaminte it.

It then shows some woman taking her sunglasses off.

Then shows her opening a door. In the background you can see a whole wall of identical shiny metal doors, so i think it's a morgue, though i could be wrong.

She is then shown outside. Though you can only see her face she appears to be sitting down. I say this, because you can see some guys back arched forward, slightly in front of her. She looks up.

It then cuts to an overview of Miami and the title comes up.

It then cuts to the back of Horatio's head, looking into the distance still with the titles up.