Sequence Shoot 2- Dialogue and Sound

Today, we learnt to use the rifle Mic to record sound combine with the filming skills we have experienced last week.

First of all, you need to connect the Mic with the camera by a wire. To input the wire, you need to rotate it. The other head of the wire needs to be plug on the top of the camera.

During recording, do not tap the mic holder or the wire, otherwise, the extra sound could record in the audio and disrupted as sound travels quicker in solids than gases. Also, try not to challenge yourself: avoid overlap dialogue, and be quiet when it's recording.


We filmed a short sequence and the scene was:
Bella knock on the wall
Constance:"Come in"
Bella walks-in
Bella:"I am sorry to tell you, Madam"
Constance: "Go on"
Bella: "Unfortunately, Mr.xxx has left us."
Constance: "NO..."
Pen drop.

For the sequence,  we recorded a buzz track(room tone) and some extra sound effects(e.g. Pen dropping/ knocking on the wall)
In addition, we applied Master shot to show the room first
Also, mid-shot, over the shoulder and close up.

Test shoot evaluation

Today, we took roughly 30 mins for our first test shoot on the field. Bella asked two students to join our test shoot in their free time. The location we chose is a wide field near the art department in the school.

The good things are: we are more clear about the process of filming, and we kinda know how to organize a group of people. However, during the shoot, we always ignored that the sound is very important as well, and people always speaking and shouting which could affect the effect. If we can keep silent when we are shooting, that would make the editing easier and do not need to find the sound online or record it again.
Also, I think we should take the shoot more serious.

Furthermore, we should choose relatively weather to shoot, because the natural light is changing all the time.
     

Edit Suite Introduction

On this lesson, we used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the shots that we filmed on Tuesday.
There are some 'code words':
Rushes--footage
Bin--Folder
I--select the piece of the fragment from the shot
O--Out
C--Cut
V--Turn back to Arrow
Command S-- Save

1.Create a new Bin( Log bin)
2. Select the shot that you like from the '' Big bin"
3. Copy the shot
4.Paste in the new bin

To apply the piece that you like
5. Press 'I'
6.Grag into the timeline
7.Grag the red thing to delete the piece you don't want

Practical Workshop Week 2

We had a lesson in the studio today, and for this lesson, we learnt about how to shot a movement, for example, a girl picks up a water bottle from the table. In addition, the composition of the image(rule of third), and the effect of shooting from different views, also the rule of 180 degree.

 The flow we need to say at the beginning of every scene is: 

Stand by-->Roll camera-->Rolling-->

Action------>Cut

We need to shot at least 1. Wide shot 2. Close up

3. Mid-shot 4. Change the camera position ...

Constant, Bella and I experienced three roles: Director, Cameramen and actress respectively. At the end of the lesson, we finished 3 different practices.

Summary of Idea1

storyboard 1

Location: Surrey Hill (Next to the Art department)

Casting:

Shooting Time:27/01/20

1. establishing shot 

she is walking through woods 

2. long shot 

she continues walking 

we are filming behind her

3. close up 

she sits down on a stump / or on the ground 

4. close up 

of her picking the petals off a flower one by one 

they fall to the ground 

5. wide shot 

she’s sitting under a tree 

6. handheld mid-shot 

a man runs through the woods, the camera follows in a frantic way

this shot contrasts to that of the girl, the peace of the sequence is interrupted 

7. extreme close up 

of her neck and hand 

she plays with her hair showing her dainty jewellery

8. close up 

on the man's feet running 

frantic mood continues 

9. tracking up 

from his feet to his face (side profile) 

he is looking startled

10. mid-shot 

of her side, she suddenly looks at the camera 

11. close up

he reaches into his pocket for his gun slowly and cautiously 

12. wide shot

they are standing about 10m away from each other 

13. mid-shot 

he brings up the gun 

14.  close up 

of his face down the barrel of the gun 

he’s looking stressed out 

15. close up

she smiles at him patronisingly and looks scary 

16. black screen 

gunshot noise

Move board for test shoot

Feedback
Timescale-->Focus on which character-->change the direction of the sequence
Location-->seurity
Casting-->Special make up
Props: Flower/Gun/black contact lens/white dress(with blood)/army clothes

Our following step:
On next Monday, we are going to do the test shot on the 'plain'  near the art department. We already asked two students from the school to act the two characters.

(Bridge)Group initial Idea 20th Jan

Today, Constance showed us a picture of her creepy garden and talked about her idea. We all really like the location. It's a pond in the woodland and there is a weak bridge. Her idea was, there are two characters, a woman standing on the bridge, and there is a shooter behind her. After the shooter shots,  he realised the woman has disappeared. Actually, the woman is right there just behind him.
I think this is a really cool idea, and I like the location that we don't need to do a lot of setting.  However, as we considered, the location is too dangerous to film in. Also, personally speaking, the storyline is a little bit similar to the other film, and it's not impressive enough. In addition, we need to think about how's the storyline going to develop. The most important things are we have to make sure the safety issues and filming condition, like the temperature. So actually, the location has many limitations, we need to develop a more realistic and attractive idea for the next step.

Camera Introduction

15th Jan
Today, we are grouped in 4, my teammates are Bella, Constance and Cecilia. On this lesson, we have talked about our ideas. Even though we don't have a clue yet, we all agreed that the opening sequence should follow a storyline, rather than just 'PowerPoint' showing visual pictures.

17th Jan
On the Friday lesson, we went to the studio to learn the basic skills of how filming work.
First of all, we have learned how to set up the tripod.
1. Unlock the three 'legs' from the bottom, otherwise, the tripod would tip.
2. Adjust it until you feel comfortable (similar height), the tripod should be a bit shorter than your height, because the camera needs to put on the tripod later.
3. Make sure it's stable(check the bubble is in the centre of the circle)
4. Put on the bar
The reason to use a tripod is to ensure that the image is stable and it's not shacking. In addition, you can film yourself in a situation that no one can hold it for you. Also, it's professional.

After setting up the tripod, we put the camera on it.
the camera is heavy and expensive, so when we pass the camera, it's better to say "yours", and the person who gets it should repeat"mine" in order to make sure it is carrying safely by somebody.
To put the camera on, you need to turn the lock that on your left-hand side anti-clockwise, and then to hind the metal which locking the camera, you need to turn the little lock clock-wise on your right-hand side. After these steps, carefully slide the camera in.

One of the most important steps is, place the battery in from up to down.
Then, open the viewfinder on the left-hand side, you would see many buttons, press the 'power'(to shut down, long press).

To adjust the focus, the inner circle on the lens is the one. Firstly, enlarge the image to your focus point, adjust the focus, and then it's clear.


To make the picture look normal, white balance is the thing you need to change. There is a place for adjusting the white balance on the screen.
 (Tips: focus on a white paper and change the white balance until it is white.)

Opening Sequence Initial Ideas

14th Jan
Today, we pitched our ideas in the class, I've talked about one of my ideas, but I think it's boring at some points. However, I am not interested in doing something meaningless, so I think the Illegal Immigration one would be a good theme to work on. These are my ideas:

Initial Ideas

1.Taxi Driver

In a dark foggy night, a taxi driver taking 4 girls to their school, where is at the middle of nowhere. The driver was so nervous and keep asking the right destination and is the GPS works in the dark forest. Suddenly, there was a crush on something, after a while of hesitate, the driver went to see what happened. Nothing!!! Not even a dead body!! And suddenly, the car lights turned off. You can only see the scary eyes shaking in the darkness. He looks in the car, no girl is in there. He slowly turned his head backwards. One of the girls shows a creepy smile and says:” don’t worry, your GPS is working.”

☑️2.Illegal Immigration—Adapted from the Vietnamese immigrants deaths

The door of the freezer truck closed, you can see their families are farewelling to the people in the truck. (slow motion) 

They transport across countries illegally with hope and ambitious of supporting their family. However, accidentally (need research) the freezer bottom has been turned on:

On the first stage, they pray, a kid cried, some people patting the truck

On the second stage, they crumb together to get some warm

The third stage, people jostled one another to get clothes. 

Finally, the door open, light in.

3.Superstition
shaking images of
-Don't put the shoes under your bed
-Don't write your name in red pen
-Don't use wooden brush to brush your hair at the midnight
etc

Feedback(2.)

-Think about what is going to happen after the opening sequence.

-Casting              --> Difficult to find a child in the school

                            --> Ethnic Problems

                            --> Focus on one or two characters, for example, the driver(Business Deal)/ One of the victims.

-Location-->Dark Empty room

The next step is:
Put in group of 3/4, according to our interests and personality. Then, we will come up with an idea that we all agree, and then we will develop the idea.