The intricacies of research, planning, filming and editing
Research is always a vital part to any project. To get a full understanding of the film you are working on, you need to have a thorough understand of the principles of a certain genre or, in this case, a film opening. However, in both of our preliminary exercises, there was minimal research and more concentration on skill involving editing and filming.
Planning, however, was a central aspect to the continuity tasks. For the first exercise 1, which involved re-making a clip of Life on Mars to match the audio, there was a lot of planning on how long each shot was required to be, and the correct angles needed to re-make the clip. We created a lengthy shot-by-shot timeline which listed timing and where the shot was set. We also noted down what effects and transitions were used for each particular shot.
Filming was hardly an issue, although the locations did not precisely match up to the original clip. We used a variety of locations such as the school grounds and the school car park for the beginning shot of the part by the car. Luckily, the sun was also shining that day which made the lighting in the footage perfect and more effective for the wooded parts.
Editing was pretty basic and easy to do since we used iMovie.
For planning on the continuity tasks, we created storyboards which illustrated shots and how long they were supposed to be. This helped greatly for organizational purposes.
Your use of technology
The preliminary tasks used a range of filming equipment such as a video camera, tripod and dolly. The editing was simply done using iMovie, which was a very basic and easy to use program regarding the arrangement of clips and transitions. The dolly was a tricky device to use with the limited space we had because we had to do a 360 shot around a character. We overcame that though through practice and a rearrangement of objects in the room.
The use of technology put us into good practice of the use of the equipment, so we knew exactly what to do for certain shots when we went to London to film our film opening. Also, the base functions of iMovie is similar to Final Cut Pro, so we applied the basic knowledge of iMovie into the film opening when we were using Final Cut Pro (splitting clips, overlapping audio, placing the clips at the right place on the timeline.)
The importance of organization, time management and effective teamwork
I felt that both of our preliminary tasks were highly organized and we used time well whilst planning out location, actors to use and the shot lengths. I believe we worked very efficiently as a team and put in a number of ideas and strategies to help us overcome certain obstacles such as the lighting in a certain shot or better locations for a more effective sequence.
I think working together on the preliminary task made us feel more comfortable with suggesting ideas later on in the process when we created the film opening. We felt much more confident to suggest what did work and what didn't, letting us self-improve along the way with constructive criticism and new stances on techniques.
Organization, like mentioned before, is vital and I believe that our group worked really well on hitting the deadline for our film opening. We mapped out our free periods and spare time to arrange filming days (as half of our film is set in London and at a friend's house) and we stuck to our schedule very efficiently. We knew that we could trust ourselves to put in the effort when required, and I think trust is a very vital part of teamwork.
The different roles within the creative industry
Our group have all dabbled in different roles regarding to make a film opening and we were always able to bring ideas on different aspects, whether it was costume design (the outfits required for each scene) or lighting and angles.
The eminence of cast and crew required for a full feature length film is overwhelming and a film opening is the perfect chance to portray that as the opening credits illustrate a vast variety of names. Some of these roles are:
- Writer - writes the script, commentary and dialogue
- Producer - raises money and is responsible for the overall production
- Director - interprets the script and directs the actors on how to act during filming
- Cinematographer - sets up shots according to the director's wishes
- Composer - composes theme music for the film
- Assistant camera - sets up camera, keeps it at the required angle, cleans it, loads film, operates the clapperboard, is in charge of the camera report sheet
- Art director - can create atmosphere for the film through set, lighting, costuming etc.
- Actors/actresses - play the characters needed in the film
- Sound editor - synchronizes the sound for the film
There are many more roles involved of course, but these are some to list.
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