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Over two days of lessons we went through a PowerPoint and discussed very first old short films like ‘Arrival of the train’ by the Lumiere Brothers 1895. It was a short French documentary film which was only 45 seconds long. The train arrived with what was described as dramatic impact at the time and was like nothing that has been seen before and shocked it's audience.  I have previously looked at the history of the Lumiere Brothers and have again looked at this to refresh my memory. As inventors and film makers they were the creators of the Cinematographer motion picture camera. We also watched part of the film Hugo where the history of movies was feature and the Lumiere Brothers were mentioned. We also watched the short silent film ‘The Kiss’ 1896 and another Lumiere Brothers film ‘The boat leaving the port’ 1895. We then talked about film Characteristics and what characteristics these films are lacking. I learnt that the films did not have any characters, there is no set genre, no sound, music or dialogue. The films relied on images to create feeling and any dramatic impact. All in black and white with no colour and no change in camera angles.

We then watched the Short Films ‘The Big Shave’ 1967 and ‘Locks’ 2009.

The Shave had very disturbing imagery in combination with disturbing music creating a sense of discomfort for the viewer. The imagery of a person shaving themselves to the point of drawing blood creates a story for the viewer to figure out. Perfection with the shave, calm as blood covers their face and neck with repetitive actions. I did a detailed analysis of this film to add to my research discussing the characteristics in detail. I found this very helpful to use key words to describe the characteristics. I detailed the Character, Narrative, Genre, sound, camera, lighting, imagery, editing etc. It helped me to learn the importance of characteristics in films to create the mood, intensity, emotion, look and feel to a film. It helped me to explore how these characteristics contribute to the final film and the importance of their effectiveness. When doing the analysis, I had to break down the film a bit at a time focusing on various elements.

With Locks a short film about a man who cut off his dreads to avoid being stopped by the police.  A story about mistaken identity. There is no dialogue, but imagery depicts a lifestyle and how someone must decide to change how they look to protect themselves. Again, I was able to look at the characteristics and try to understand the meaning of the film as well as the elements that make up the film.

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Today we did a lighting workshop where we had to create a small film sequence utilising various lighting techniques. We watched a clip from Leon the film the scene ‘Leon Open the Door’. The girl walks down a dark lit corridor and carries on past the place where she lives as her family including her four-year-old relative possibly her brother has been killed by gangsters. Pretending not to live there to save her life she begs Leon to let her inside. Natural and brighter light is inside Leon’s apartment making you think it is light from a close by window but really the source is unknown. As Leon’s door opens the corridor is lit up and the light source inside enhances the filming and a reflection can be seen in her eyes. Light from a window when filming can create a natural ambient light but as the door is opened to produce more enhanced light professional studio cinematic lighting equipment was more than likely used. This demonstrates a very effective powerful use of lighting, possibly LED lighting. We could possibly use this type of lighting in our film idea if when filming we need to enhance a person or object.

We then went on to learn about different lights-

Tungsten bulbs are small, bright lights. Tungsten and daylight colored light mark each end of the color temperature spectrum. Tungsten light produces a powerful hot light source and produces a very powerful light source and is used in studios when making filming come to life and has been used in filming for many years. We use these lights in the college in the studio. The lighting can be used as a backlight enhancing the characters, this would create a dream like effect. It can also be effective in separating your subject from a dark, cool background in select interior scenes. We talked about colour temperature going from hot bulb lighting to sunlight throughout the day which is a natural light source. We then talked about CTO and CTB gels being used to cover a flash in filming to create different warm and colder colours. By covering the flash with a coloured translucent gel you can effectively change the colour of the light to match the source that currently appears on set.

We went on to film a short film using a senario with no dialogue but using various light sources, equipment and techniques. I did the lighting for this and used a dark lighting effect using a gel cover over the light and a spotlight on the main character focusing on the person on the floor from what would appear to be an unknow light source. Also, with the object using light when it comes into view edited with suspenseful music. I then did the editing of suspenseful music and the sound effects of the chain.

I was pleased with the finished film after editing. I learn how lighting can be used to enhance an unknow light source and create suspense when filming. I learnt new lighting technical skills during this workshop which maybe can be used in my short film project. I also learnt how to use the gels to change the lighting effects and colour which I may also use in my project.

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The proposal was put together as a group, and I added details of my role and responsibility being editor. As editor I will manage the footage, visual effects, sound effects and music. I enjoy and feel confident with editing and have a good idea of how I can do this to capture and enhance the overall finished product being an emptional film and clam mood. Any visual changes I make I plan to fit with the theme and colour pallet. I need to take into account what is happening on screen using visual awareness, to ensure the editing will sync well with what’s on screen, the dialogue, camera angles, lighting so that the editing enhances and supports the overall finished product. Putting the proposal together went well but it did take a while to come up with an idea we were all happy with.

Our group discussed how we needed to ensure that our pitch was a brief overview of our short film idea and vision, how we wanted the story to be structured and how we wanted our audience to feel. The film genre was discussed and the target audience. We considered unique concepts of the story that would be what makes the story appealing. The visual aid we decided upon was PowerPoint as we felt this would be the most appropriate way to present our idea. The technical elements of filming needed to be added to the pitch including filming, editing ideas and location. As we wanted to film outside, we had to consider and mention on the pitch what we would do if the weather was bad. Our vision was a message about valuing life so that the audience would feel emotionally connected to it and may reconsider their approach to life.  The colour pallet we wanted to stick to would be the outdoors, nature colours, dark and foggy. We felt this colour pellet would help with the film's mood being emotional and heartwarming. The target audience we felt would be families. We wanted to detail and explain in the pitch the technical elements. equipment, camera, lighting etc. We mentioned how we would ensure the equipment and props would be set up safely.

The pitch went well but it took a long time to reach a film idea and my views and opinions were hard to put across. I had a confident and strong understanding of what was best in relation to the technical elements and when pitching I had a lot to say about this, especially editing as this would be my role.

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I missed the first part of this workshop due to absence, so I was not involved in the introduction to the workshop and the short film with dialogue idea but was able to catch up with my group to help with the lighting and filming and I did the editing. I was not involved in the film idea.

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For the first part of my research, I did analysis of the film The Shave and the film locks which was part of the short film analysis lesson. I did a detailed analysis of the film The shave and Locks.

For my research I researched two short film clips and I had to explain how characteristics were used to communicate information to the viewer. Characterization is everything that makes the character who they are.

The first short film was a story about 3 men fighting off a big robot that was trying to steal back something they stole
The second clip was a sequel to the first short film of the same 3 men infiltrating a base to resteal what they stole as it got stolen back off them

I had to analyze each short clip so that it would help and support me in developing my group film idea. It will help us to decide what characters we want, the message we want to interpret and how we can create creative solutions for our chosen idea.

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Planning and production - For the planning as a group we were able to progress with a chosen film idea and start filming. A script was put together in line with the pitch. I was unable to attend the filming on medical grounds, but my group informed me that the original idea was changed at the last minute, and the script was changed. I was able to complete editing of the final film recording. The editing went well, and I was pleased with the result. Although I was very frustrated at my group for not providing me with enough resources and forcing me to improvise

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For the evaluation I answered questions on a word document that was sent to me by my teacher instead of being filmed doing the round table with the rest of the group as I was unprepared for it.

The questions were:

What did you think and feel about this project before, and after it was completed? (i.e ‘I was nervous because ...  ‘I was pleased with the end product because...)

How did the project work in relation to the characteristics (character, narrative, music, genre, technical elements lighting/ camera/ editing, etc) and the context that you researched?

How the film meets the brief and your proposal?

What was your role, and duties and responsibilities in the project?

How did you contribute to the development of the project? What did you do well? What could you have done better?

How did you contribute to the development of the project? What did you do well? What could you have done better?

What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?

How did you develop your professional skills (i.e. organisation, communication, time management, working with others, leadership, problem solving) and technical skills?

I answered all the questions will full honesty whilst reflecting on the project. The most talked about subject in the evaluation was the fact that I had to improvise when it came to the editing and the lack of communication with the team. Whilst reflecting on this I felt very irritated as I felt like I was left out, out of most of the project because of my team's lack of communication with planning and production

A part of the evaluation I felt proud of is when I was writing about my adaptability because I was proud of myself for being able to adapt to the lack of resources given to me by my team and creating something that I was proud of

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Student Media Equipment Request Form 2023 1.docx