During my last lesson before half term, we were set about the task of designing our own film opening in small groups. We were asked to think about the subject of the film, the genre and the characters involved. Working with Tom and Amber, our idea soon became apparent;
- Girl in red coat
- Girl running away from something
- Ambiguity of what she is running from
- Instant audience engagement
- Inaccurate represenation of the innocent
We also wanted to use the song, 'CMYK' by James Blake as it rather appropriately features the lyrics,'red coat', and the general tone and style of the music is some what dubstep like, which creates a lack of clarity as to what the song is about. However, despite the great relevance pertaining to the song, it is unlikely that we will be able to use it due to CopyRight Prohibition.
Initially, we all thought it sensible and appropriate to entitle the production, 'Red' as that would be the most significant colour featured in the film opening, but also because the colour itself has perhaps the most connotations of any colour; the symbolism of love, lust, anger and rage afloat when the colour red is observed.
During the 2 minute film opening, there will be a chance for numerous stylistic features to be used; the manic running through the trees will be shot through a variety of shots, such as hand held, tracking, point of view and over the shoulder, which will cut from one to another quickly to intensify the pace.
A brief summary
The story of a troubled girl who never quite fitted in at school; an estranged child who was always the outsider, who sat alone, away from everyone else. She never joined in with any childhood games. Never made any friends. Never laughed or played with any other child. There was nothing particularly distinctive about her, nor especially unusual. She liked her own company; what was wrong with that?
Her home life was never much fun; she would often come home to an empty house, or a violent domestic dispute. It is not exactly clear how she came to her untimely end... All that we know, is that she was last seen, running through the forest, in her little red coat.
The possible location for the filming is by the old Church in Thundridge. Here are some photographs of the chosen setting:
Film - Kidulthood
The opening sequence of Kidulthood is very effective as the quick paced camera movements, and general unsteady shots reflect the manic and rushed feel of a typical Secondary School. The frequent pans and zooms to different social clusters symbolise the great social partide that most schools have; it becomes apparent that there is tension amongst some of the groups, and that some people are more dominant than others.
From the 9 shots taken from the film's opening, it becomes clear that these people are typical, troubled teenagers from a relatively rough area, (London). There is clearly some form of bullying taking place; top right hand corner shows a girl being pinned against a wall, showing her lack of dominance, which is further peptuated in the bottom left hand corner, as the bully's victim appears very shrew and weak.
The opening immediately throws the viewer into the deep end; we are instantly plunged into the fast paced life of a stereotypical teenager without any fancy titles, which would simply take up too much time, and distract the viewer from the overall tone of the film.
Preliminary Exercise Final Cut
At the editing stage of our Preliminary Exercise, we split into two different groups to allow everyone to have a chance to edit; Jimmy, Harry and I were in one group, and Megan and Shannon were in the other. Our camera work was steady and smooth as we made sure that we filmed each shot on a tripod, which prevented any unwanted jerky camera movements, as a hand held camera shot was not needed for our video. Despite this, there was one particular shot which was poorly framed; the over the shoulder shot of Jimmy from Harry's point of view made Jimmy appear incredibly distant, and did not mirror the better framed over the shoulder shot of Harry from Jimmy's point of view.
As we filmed inside, the dialogue was loud and clear, and there were no unwanted or distracting background sounds during the scenes in the office; however, the sound in the corridor was particularly bad, and unnecessary; this however, was a likely outcome as we filmed during the midst of the lunch time rabble, and we were positioned next to the canteen.
The editing was efficient in the sense that it strictly obided by the 30 second maximum time limit, yet as a juxtoposing negative consequence of this, a lot of the shots were removed, which made the video appear rushed, and generally uninteresting. Though match on action was included, where Harry walked through the door, and shot reverse shot also played a significant part, the actual events themselves were relatively boring; it was simply a 10 second conversation. Although, due to the fact that the 180 degree rule was obided by throughout, and due to the other editing techniques used, I would state that my current editing level is intermediate; My group and I exhibited skilled editing techniques to excel beyond basic, yet we were not good enough just yet to be labelled as advanced.
The shots/techniques used during the Preliminary Exercise:
- Point of View (POV)
- Over the Shouler (OTS)
- Medium Close Up
- High Angle
- Match on Action
- Shot Reverse Shot
Group Members:
- Daniel Faint (far left)
- Megan McMillan
- Jimmy Beaton
- Shannon Pratt
- Harry Mead (far right)
This is a photograph of our group, taken by our Media teacher, in the Headteacher's Office, as we set up to film the 30 second clip.
After receiving permission from the Head regarding us filming in his Office, we started to film the first few shots, which were outside in the corrdior, before we then progressed into the Office. The filming took around 45 minutes as we wanted to achieve the best look possible.
Equipment
- Camera - Canon Legria Camcorda Plus
- Editing Software - Adobe Premiere
Skills
We used numerous skills during the production process of the preliminary exercise, such as Shot Reverse Shot (SRS) and Match on Action, whilst taking into consideration the 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds.
Positives and Negatives
Some of our production successes include our Shot Reverse Shot skills, as although Harry's and Jimmy's lines were filmed seperately, they do appear to run together rather nicely, giving the impression that they are actually having a conversation. The 180 degree rule was also obided as both characters maintained their positions, rather than swapping sides, which made for good continuity.
However, as we were pushed for time, and because the conversation went on for too long, we had to cut the end of the video short in order to keep within the 30 second time limit.
