Weeks 10, 11 &12

Our task this week was to identify a documentary that we had seen and analyse the editing techniques it utilised. The documentary I am choosing is called "First Decent" and is on the origins of snowboarding. The film begins by introducing the sports pioneers and the foundations of the snowboards. They then group together some of todays best riders and they search out some of the most untouched mountains in Alaska only accessable by helicopter. The editing is somewhat sports orientated, ie, 30 - 60 sec shots of runs down insanely steep mountains. Most of the interviews are talking heads, which break up some of the action to make the film interesting. Some of the slow-mo's are shot in incredibly high detail which makes for some awsome action. Overall the editing is tight, and it is clear to see that this doco had a fair bit of budget.

Week 9 tute task

For our blog this week we are to write about the 4 elements of the soundtrack in the b grade horror movie "The Woods" (insert extraneous doom music here)

The movie opens with a light hearted old 60's tune, which, at the begining is extraneous. there is light road ambience with the odd bird tweeting and tooting and the sound of the car driving along the road. As the car drives along, the bizare 60's extraneous music transforms into practicle and starts to blare on the cars radio.

The car pulls up to an old mansion/boarding school with great gravel SFX and totally in synch footsteps, door closures etc as the family get out of the car. Most of the SFX are frame accurate.

The first bit of dialogue is said and it is clear, concise and a bit creepy.

It is interesting to note that throughout the short segment of the film that we saw, there was a fantastic ambience that continued without fail.

The scene dragged on and there was a dream sequence. A girl was sitting demonically and let out this insane, high pitched wail that must have been created by a foley artist, or at least manipulated. It was frame accurate and in sync.

Thankfully, the movie finished just before I wet myself from fright.

Week 9

Week 9 was all about sound. Shotgun mics, Booms, plant mics, lav mics and the like, you get the picture. The 4 soundtrack elements were also covered in this non-stop learning fest, which coincidentally is also the topic for our blog task this week. The 4 elements are Music, Narration, Sound FX and Dialogue.

Narration is usually one of two techniques. The first, is Sync to picture where the narrator reads the script as he is watching the film, and the narration is recorded in one take. The other, more prefferesd style is to read the script as isolated takes, which allow the narrator to focus on the enunciation etc.

Music is heavily relied upon in all movies. It is essential for creating mood and tension, emotion and also tell the audience how to react ie, happiness, laughter, sorrow etc. There are two types of music in a movie: "Extraneous", where the music is heard and effects only the audience, an "Practicle", where both the audience and characters in the film can hear the music, and it often sets the mood for the characters.

Music can either be produced from canned sources, or produced by original score. Canned is where the music is accessed via an archive of music, usually catalogued in emotions and feelings etc. And, of course, original score is made from scratch by a composer specifically for the movie. Producers can pay for canned music by - Needle Drop : Buying music on a per-selection per-use basis. Blanket - which permits unlimited usage of an entire library. Sreen Minute - where the producer pays a certain rate based on track time appearance on screen.

Sound FX are sounds, other than dialogue and music, that people and objects make. For eg, natural clothes swooshing, footsteps, doors closing etc. SFX can either be frame acurate or Wild. Frame accurate is when the SFX is in synch with whats happening on screen (HARD), whereas wild is referred to as when frame to frame accuracy is not important, such as wind blowing and ambience (SOFT). Foley work is done by a foley artisist who creates sounds of things that don't exsist, such as 11 ft mosquitos.

Dialogue is in 1 or 2 forms. On screen and off screen. On screen = lip sync, off screen = wild. (ADR - recorded after filming)

Week 7 & 8

Well, I was sick for week 7 but I'm pretty sure that for both week 7 and 8 we didn't have any homework! WOOO, PARTY! We did however learn about video lighting and a bunch of "This will be on your exam hints", which I jotted down. Things such as : HMI - Hydragyrum medium-arc length Iodide. These lights are the same temperature as sun light. We also learnt about Incadescent lamps and their different types - Tungsten, Halogen, Quartz (500w - 2000w) We also learned an interesting technique to turn day to night. Simply use a blue filter and perhaps decrease the exposure. There are also two very important terms to remember : Fresnels (soft light) and Ellipsoidal Spots (Spot lights).And remember to always follow source! a light isnt coming from the left hand side of a room when there is a window on the right!

Week 6: Dogville... What the?

This week's lecture was about production design,including sets, props, locations, costumes, etc. and it also determines the feel of the movie. We watched Fat Albert, which used elaborate production design through costuming and set to help tell the story, and in contrast, Dogville, a "Dogme 95" film which used one set and minimal props.

Logging onto the Dogme 95 website (http://www.dogme95.dk) one is confronted with an eyeball implanted into a pigs arse.... Hmmmm, interseting. This is what the website had to say:

"The Dogme95 rules were conceived in the beginning of 1995. Lars von Trier had the rough idea of some sort of new manifest and called Thomas Vinterberg to ask him if he “wanted to start a new wave with him?” He accepted and according to Thomas it took 45 minutes to formulate the rules. They were presented at the Odéon - Théatre de L’Europe in Paris on the 20th of March 1995, where Lars was invited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of film." Make sense? Didn't think so...

Here's the idiots guide:
Apparently, back in '95, to dudes (Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg) created a genre void of any "good taste and aesthetics". No extra lighting, minimal props, hand held cameras, no additional sound or music. Unvieled in Paris at the 100th anniversary of cinema, Dogme 95 was a hit.

I guess the genre allows for a completely objective view of a story, with no interference by special effects and the like. My take on it is that it is basically theatre on film.

Intriguing...

Week 5: Momento

This week's task is to analyse the first 30 minutes of the film "momento", starring guy pearce, in terms of character, setting and direction set-up.

The film is unorthodox in the sense that it plays backward. Now I know what your thinking... You do know the ending BUT you don't know how it all happened, which is what keeps the audience watching.

It begins with leonard (don't call him Lenny) killing a man. Ultimately, this is the end of the film, but each scene starts about 5 minutes before the begining of the previous scene, so the movie keeps revealing and reverting back, revealing and reverting back. Its confusing for about 7 minutes but then you get the hang of it.

Early on we learn that Lenord has a bizarre condition where he has no short term memory. We also find out that he tattoos himself with clues and facts about something. This "something" is later found out to be Leonards search to find and kill the man that raped and murdered his wife, who is also responsible for his condition.

Its quite a challenging movie to watch, however the plot eventually ties in at about the 20 minute mark and everything starts to make sense.

I definitely recomend it.

Week 4 Tute task

In order to get your head around screen writing our task this week was to download a script from www.script-o-rama.com and outline in detail the 3 basic elements of Act 1. The script I chose was "Enemy of the State". This was a movie I had seen before though I was interested to see how different the script was from the actual movie. Basically, within the first 30 pages (or 30mins) the movie sets up characters, setting, and the direction the movie is going. It begins with an "off the cuff" meeting between Hamersley, a member of the US senate, and Reynolds, a corrupt CIA officer. They are discussing a contraversial bill that Reynolds wants to get through congress and allow him to put camera's everywhere in order to fight terrorism. Hamersley is appauled by this and refuses. This pisses Reynolds off and he sets him up to be killed. The death is made to look like an accident and Reynolds has another obstical out of the way. However, Daniel Zavitz is a nature documentarer and gets the whole ordeal on film. He is inadvertantly thrown into the thick of things and realises what he has stumbled across. The CIA chase him and try to steal the footage back, but Zavitzevades them and runs into an old friend Robert Dean (Will Smith). Dean is an honest union lawyer. Family orientated, he is good at his job and when confronted by Zavitz, notices the fright in his eyes. Zavitz, overwhelmed by fear as the Agents pursue him, he secretly puts the films into Deans bags. Zavitz escape ends as he runs out of the department store and is destroyed by a bus. And so begins Deans pursuit on trying to find out why his life is being de-railed by the CIA and what the videos he found in his bag are all about...

Week Four: Into the Abyss......

This week we looked at the introduction to the dark art of screen writing. We covered pretty much everything you need to know to write a script, from character development to the "Sid Fields Screenplay Formula", which is basically the format of every successful screenplay ever. We also learnt that each page of your screenplay should equal 1 minute of film.
Here's a crash course: In Act 1 you should answer 3 basic questions.
1: Who is the film about?
2: Where is the film taking place? and
3: What is going to happen.
This should take up about 30mins of screentime. After this comes plot point 1. This is a hook in the action that spins it around and gives it direction. Now that the characters have purpose, they'll spend the rest of Act 2 doing it.
Act 2
Basically, act 2 should go for around 60 mins, and during this time you should be throwing absolutely everything you possibly can at your characters. Let them struggle as much as possible toward their goal. Then SMACK in the middle of act 2 should come the mid point plot. This mid point plot can sometimes be split up by "pinches".
Plot point 2 is at the end of Act 2 and is always the worst possible scenario. The characters are all like "YES, I'm actually going to do this!!!" and then wham, their smacked in the face with plot point 2.
Act 3
The Resolution! what more can I say? Though the actual resolution usually happens within the first 5mins of Act 3.

Week 3 tutorial task!

All story ideas come from a handful of structures:
1. Coming of age plot: The younger character matures to understand somethingabout the world he/she lives in, and his/her role in it. Some examples are :
"Thirteen" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328538/ ,
"The Lion King" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/ ,
"Forest Gump" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/
2. Redemption: The character is saved, or saves someone else. Some movies that use the redemption structure are :
"Behind enemy Lines" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159273/ ,
"Big Daddy" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/ ,
"Monsters inc." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198781/
3. Punitive: The character is punished for his/her wrong doings. Some movies where the characters are punished are :
"Emporers New Groove" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120917/,
"Liar Liar" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119528/,
"Chicago" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/
4. The Test: The character is tempted or challenged, but retains his/her values. For example:
"Lord of the Rings" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/
"Bruce Almighty" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/
"Waynes World" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/
5. Education: The character makes a deep change in his/her veiw of life, almost always from negative to positive. Some examples include :
"Spider Man" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145487/
"Jerry Maguire" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/
"Finding Nemo" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266543/

Week 2 Lecture

Ahoy hoy,
Week 2 lecture rolled around and we're into the 'learning' phase. Josh talked about the production process and although it was based on a larger scaled hollywood feature, it was nonetheless interesting. It was good for getting my head around some of the terminology I've always wondered about and learning all of the numerous jobs available on a set. The lecture for some reason got me thinking about scripts alot, and I'm glad Josh mentioned that it is important to have good acting (I used to be an actor and I'm the kind of person that needs to hear those things :) ). The feature we watched was awsome. It was called "Brick" and it had that dude from 3rd rock from the sun in it. I loved the wide shots that were used, yet it was still able to capture accurate detail with well timed close ups. We were discussing it in the tute with Salvidor who is the most chilled out guy ever, which made for a really relaxed and comfortable environment. We also talked about our fave films and what we want from this course. I'm excited about learning more and am looking forward to next weeks lecture.