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excellent work on both Juno and SuperBad ! well done!

Green Screen Exercise

After having re-created the Juno openig sequence we were shown how to use a green screen to try and create a Juno Effect from the film opening.
I did this by firstly opening a picture of the front of college in photoshop and editing it using tools such as the pen tool to create paths and then fill and stroke them until I was left with this

After this our class took a visit to our gym where a green screen had been set up behind a treadmil with a camera and lights positioned, which looked like this

As a class we all got to have a go at either operating the camera or the lights or the treadmil (speed and such). We also had 4 different volunteers who had a go at walkig on the treadmil whist being filmed.

Back in the class room I captured the footage onto Final Cut Express and began to edit away.
My final video is on youtube, here is a screen grab of it

Cristina's greenscreen exercise from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Case Study of a Film Opening

The film opening I decided to analyze is Super Bad (Greg Mottola, 2007)



I chose this film because I like the use of green/blue screen effect. I also like how the dancing and the non-diegetic soundtrack work well together to give a comical feel. This sets the atmosphere of the film so you know it’s going to be funny. The song used is called Too Hot To Stop by The Bar-Kays, which is a funk soul band.

The sequence begins with the studio logo, (Sony Pictures Entertainment company). As the camera zooms in the picture changes to the production/distribution company (Columbia Pictures) and then silhouetted figures appear on screen, you don't know who they are, but you can assume they are main characters in the film. As they begin to dance titles continue on.



The titles used aren’t very focal in the sense that the kind of just blend in to the background and don’t stand out very much, no special font or colour has been used and the name of the film is no different to the rest of the titles, expect maybe it’s a bit larger. The titles used include (in order of apperence)
Main Characters
Casting by
Costume designer
Co-producer
Music Supervision
Music by
Edited by
Production Designer
Director of photography
Executive producers
Produced by
Written by
Directed by



I think the use of colours fit in with the song. The kind of relaxed greens, blues, oranges/browns that you would associate with funk music.

There isn't any action as such, nothing that gives away the storyline. However I don't think this film opening needs action to caputure the audience for the following reasons. Firstly the cast drew my attention in first, if you have heard of hese actors before (which i'm sure everyone has) you'll know they have starred in comedy films before. Secondly the music and dancing work so well in creating a comical atmosphere, for example at 1:13 on the video, where it looks like the two silhouetted figures get a bit too carried away with their dancing and end up dacing over each other.

JUNO Film Opening Sequence

We have been looking at film openings for the buid up to our own film opening project.
As part of this we had to look at and re-create the opening sequence to Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007)

You can also watch this video on the shadowplay website.

Here is a screenshot of the opening to Juno

Before we began to film we planned what we were going to need (props, costumes, etc) and then we started to storyboard each scene to shoot. We looked at camera angles, character positioning, camera movement, locations, props and costumes used, we also looked at titling.

My group consisted of myself, Jahmal, Emma and Max.

We allocated roles so we knew who was doing what on the day of filming. We decided Max was going to be our Juno and myself, Jahmal and Emma would all have a go at filming different shots, as well as acting as the joggers (or any other extra needed). This way we all got to take part.

The footage I ended up editing (with Elliott) was from Chloe, Elliott, Liam and Sophie’s group.

Here is our take on the opening sequence of Juno

We used video transitions such as slide to re-create the sequence as close to the original as possible. We also used the key frame tool to pin point the places we wanted the footage to move. Such as this shot (I placed the same Juno shot underneath so you can see what we were trying to do)

Where we wanted the camera to start on the feet and then move upward to a head shot (like it does in the original). This was all one shot so we zoomed in and used key frame to create this effect. It needs to be trimmed at the top and bottom of the clip as it’s larger than the rest of the footage.

If we had had more time to edit, I think it would have come out a lot better, and we would have included titles. There also wouldn’t be a blank screen for the last 20seconds of the song.

Feedback

This blog will be the evidence of your research and planning for the AS coursework, so there needs to be lots on it and lots of detail to it. All the tasks set will help build up this evidence, so if you don't complete them you will not be able to access the higher marks/grades.

You haven't done the student film task and you need to talk about the Final cut tools that you used- even though you are familiar with the program, it doesn't hurt to say what it can do.

Your points on the film opening are good but could do with some expansion.

Pete

Film Openings

The task given was to watch three film openings and then write about one.
The three film openings I watched on youtube were
1. Mean Girls
2. Kill Bill Vol.1
3. Napoleon Dynamite

The film opening that had the biggest impact on me was Kill Bill Vol.1. (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)

The plot summary of the action/thriller Kill Bill on IMDB is
The lead character, called 'The Bride,' was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, lead by her lover 'Bill.' Upon realizing she was pregnant with Bill's child, 'The Bride' decided to escape her life as a killer. She fled to Texas, met a young man, and on the day of their wedding was gunned down by an angry and jealous Bill (with the assistance of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad). Four years later, 'The Bride' wakes from a coma, and discovers her baby is gone. She, then, decides to seek revenge upon the five people who destroyed her life and killed her baby. The saga of Kill Bill Volume I begins

The film starts with a black screen. Titles then begin to fade in and out, as these titles appear on screen, audio of a woman struggling for breathe is played. The film then continues and the black screen quickly changes to a close up of a beaten woman lying on the floor, with blood dripping from her face. This creates the whole atmosphere of the film which draws the audience in at a very early stage. The camera changes once to a low close up of a man walking along wooden floor boards, this may be used to introduce the character. No location is given away yet, and the plot is unclear but interesting. The whole opening scene is in black and white, which I think is used to make everything seem more intense. The camera focuses on this distressed beaten woman and her emotions. As a gun is shot you see blood splatter, and the screen fades to black and titles continue, this time with contrasting calm music in comparison to the visuals just seen.

The second task was to look at a Student film opening on youtube.

The Student film opening I found is called Virtual Paradigm Situation and can be found here.

The description on the video info says

in this scene Kafka (co-lead character)
runs away from home taking a gun and his father's money - and then there is the crazy dancing titles for introducing each character.
Expect guns, funny dancing, jamiroquai music, bikes, black and white stills and some titles for the awesome hour long film Virtual Paradigm Situation

The Strengths of this video are:

- Good variety of shots

- Nice introduction to characters

- Music works well

- Main title at the end looks good

The Weaknesses of this video are:

- Drags on a bit for a film opening, lasting 3:22

- Too many shots of the character on a bike

- Shaky camera

- Titles don't start till 2 minutes into the opening

- Titles are hard to read

Creative Media Postcard

The task given was to create a postcard design for the Creative and Media course.
To do this we used Flickr to gather two images of our choice and manipulate them using Photoshop to come up with a whole new graphic.

This is the postcard design i came up with

I don't like my final postcard, particularly the font. It just doesn't stand out enough and looks too dull for something that is mean't to be creative.

I wasn't too sure how i wanted my postcard to look, however i thought it should represent the course in some way, i guess thats where the film reel and coloured lights come in to the design.
The first image i found was of lights on an iPhone, this became my background image. The second image i found was a photo of a film reel. I cut this image in half and took the background out, using the magic wand tool, to place in the curve of the lights. I then faded the image and added text.

This image along with the other Creative and Media postcards can be found here.

Induction to Final Cut Express

We all had an induction to Final Cut Express yesterday morning.
In Final Cut Express we edited audio and visuals together using different techniques such as cutting, fading, and titling.
We then looked at the opening of Matchstick Men where we looked in detail at the titles used, we were then asked to try and use interesting titles in our editing.
 I've already used Final Cut Express before, so i didn't really learn anything new.

This is the video Rob and I made

This video along with everyone else's videos from the induction can be found on youtube.

SHIFTY

On Friday the class made mood boards for the film Shifty
Here is one of the mood boards they made

They used colours and images they thought would suit one of the scenes they had a script copy of best. Just by looking at this moodboard I can tell they thought the scene was gritty and quite dark.

welcome