More Research

Because I am still out of town, I decided to continue doing research.

I came across this video, “Opening Shots Tell Us Everything," which shares why an opening shot is very important in a movie or film.  It shows examples of great opening shots from movies like Silver Linings Playbook and The Silence of the Lambs, which are both compacted with information about the characters and the plot.  I learned that the opening shot's goal is to show as much information about the movies in as little time possible.  For example, in The Silence of the Lambs we find out that the main character is in the middle of an obstacle in her life and is working to overcome it.  She is training to be in the FBI to help other people overcome their own obstacles.  All of this informations is portrayed in a 10-15 second clip.  

For my opening shot, I plan on showing the murderer (Geoffrey) sitting in a chair watching news coverage of a murder that has just occurred.  The news will be talking about the description of the murderer and this will lead the viewers to believe that the murderer is Geoffrey. 

N. (Producer). (2015, June 31). Opening Shots Tell Us Everything [Video file]. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhFtd1QZWc

Research

Due to a last minute change of plans and my being out of town, I haven't been able to film yet, but this gives me an opportunity to learn more about different film techniques that will hopefully make my video better.

I watched a Youtube video called “How To Make Your Location Seem Like Something It's Not - Indie Filmmaking Tutorial.”  This video focused on how one can manipulate sound and color to depicted different locations.  One of the examples shown was how different places give off different color schemes.  A city could have grays, blacks, and blues, but the African jungle in contrast will have greens and tans. Knowing what colors a certain location gives off is very important. If you can't get the colors in the area where you live, you can always play with colors in PremierPro and try to get the scheme as close to that of the location you're trying to portray.

In my film I have two scenes: one in the forest and the other in a dark room in a house.  I don't have a problem filming in a forest because the park near me, Markham Park, has a forest already perfect for the location I am trying to depict. For my house scene though, I need to make it look like a abandoned warehouse.  From what I know, the color scheme should be gray and black (dark colors), so I would also have to play with lighting in this scene. 

U. (Producer). (2015, June 1). How To Make Your Location Seem Like Something It's Not - Indie Filmmaking Tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ymVO7sxBg

Planning ahead

During class Charlie and I made our storyboard.  We chose the name Geoffrey because I have always loved one named movies. They always create a sense of curiosity by keeping it simple.  

We chose to possible scenarios to how we can relive Geoffrey at the end. First being in the reflection of a television screen and second being ass he washed his hands the camera tilts up to his reflection in the mirror. As we wrote some more scene down we would like to get we decided not to have the titles in real life because there are not that many places to incorporate then in what we plan on making. Here are some of the important scene we would like to get.

After we finished planing we went out to gather some props that we needed. We drove done to party city and found some fake blood and a table cloth that we are going to use as a tarp for the dead body. The entire time Charlie was convinced we needed a wig and maybe tried on 8 until I convinced him we don't need one.

The Discussions

On Tuesday March 21st, I met up with my fellow classmates to discuss all of our final projects. 

During my discussion I first showed everyone my blog posts. This allowed them to get a full feel of my progress so far. Then I began to pitching my idea as if I would as a professional, starting off with my setting.  As of now we are not sure of our location, but the places that we were thinking were Markham Park, or someones house. Some other locations that my classmates suggested was the hill top.  After, I told them that our idea was solely about the mood development not the character development to allow there to be a bit of curiosity for the character.  I then explained that my idea was to have the titles in the real world rather than a text on the screen.  Everyone seemed to like this idea but only if I could pull it of which I believe I will.  I suggested that the entire video be a long take but it didn't take long for everyone to shoot down that idea, so then I compromised with them and suggested I shoot everything then go back and do one long take just to see how it would look

Now that Charlie and I ran our ideas passed our classmate and are finally finalized we plan on making a storyboard and a shot list to help with the production process. 

Shulkin out.  

....

After we picked our genre, I decided to look at a couple of videos to help me understand how to create a high quality film opening. 

As I watched "The Art of the Opening Shot" on Youtube, I gathered some ideas on how to make incredible opening shots. Some shots presented in the video were from movies I was familiar with and some were from movies I'd never seen before. I noticed that all of the opening shots were visually appealing—a quality I'll strive for when creating a shot of my own. My attention was drawn to the beautiful shots, and I was curious to see more. 

After looking at this, I came up with a couple of cool opening scene ideas:

1 A low zoom across the floor of a dark room. As the camera continues, titles pop up in a “scary” font. 

2 A drone shot of the abandoned prison as an establishing shot (without titles). 

Another helpful video was "Great Cinematography with Only One Light!"  In this video, I was taught how to utilize a single light to create the perfect scene. Now, the video only demonstrated how to use the light in a interrogation scene, but I feel like I can apply the techniques to any scene. I found this video to be very helpful because I don't have access to much professional equipment, so I think it's good to learn how to make the best of the materials I have.. 

I plan on continuing my learning process as I try to make this opening scene as professional as it can be. There is still more to read and watch up on, but given all the knowledge I've learned in class, I am confident enough that I will create a good piece.

The Art of the Opening Shot [Video file]. (2015, July 6). Retrieved March 19, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1lMnbvf5eM

Great Cinematography with Only One Light! Prod. Ryan Connolly. Perf. Ryan Connolly. Youtube . Domain.com, 5 July 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

A list of things

Today in class Charlie and I made a checklist so that we stay on track and are able to get or work done.

Pre-production

• Come up with plot and characters 
• Make storyboard
• Scoute location  
• Cast characters 
• Make a shooting schedule 
• Create props 
• Find music

Production 

• Start shooting 

Post-production 

• Watch footage back. (If needed re-shoot)
• Name clips so that it is easier to edit
• Start editing

We plan on utilizing our friends and family to be our main actors but in the worst case scenario we will have either me or Charlie as actors. For our location we haven't come up with a set plot but I have been looking for any scary location near Weston and I have come up with markahm park because the forest,  with the right lighting, would look perfect.  After watching, How To Make Your Location Seem Like Something It's Not, I learned that you can make one location be something completely different. 

U. (Director). (2015, June 1). How To Make Your Location Seem Like Something It's Not - Indie Filmmaking Tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ymVO7sxBg

Change of plans

After Charlie and I talked, we agreed that a horror film would best portray the way we would like to set up our scene. I still envision our titles appearing in real life—just like those in the Napoleon Dynamite opening scene.  But, we do plan on making the titles relate more to the new horror genre. 

After doing some research on horror films, I have come to understand certain aspects of the genre that are critical for our film opening.  For example, lighting in horror films is essential to creating a perfect opening scene.  Also, I plan on working a lot with the background music, whether it be serious stings, synchronous sounds, or diegetic sounds. Along with all of that, I plan on working a lot with the setting to come up with proper placements for the titles. I want to make sure the titles work well with both the setting and the scene as a whole.

I will read some articles and watch some "how to" videos to further my knowledge and help me perfect the art of lighting and set design. This will ensure our film opening is as realistic and professional as it can be. 

In the next blog, I will discuss our story board. I'll explain how we came up with those ideas and how we plan on turning them into a reality. I want to display our story board through the blog so everyone can get an idea of what we plan on doing.

       

Reggio, R. E., PH.D. (2014, October 21). The Top Ten Things That Make Horror Movies Scary. Retrieved March 17, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201410/the-top-ten-things-make-horror-movies-scary

I think we've got it

Finally! It took some convincing but I did it.  Our plan is to make a realistic fiction film open. 

Given my three years of TV production knowledge, I am comfortable and confident creating this film opening.  I have been certified in Adobe CS6 Premier Pro although the editing software is the more recent updated version of premier Adobe CC .  Along with my certification, I have numerous tv production awards including two FSPA awards, one SkillsUSA award, and two STN awards. 

Moving passed what I can bring to this group, my partner, Charlie Eiglarsh, has been blessed with a very creative mind.  He is a fantastic writer and knows how to come up with ideas that I  will intern make a reality. Even though he is a twin he is one of a kind and is very eager to get this project started. 

As I said in my previous blog, I plan on putting the titles in real world objects. as seen in the photo from Napoleon Dynamite. Although I would like to put the titles in a more creative place. Somewhere that the audience wont see right away and once they do see it they would be amazed of how clever the placement was. 

We plan on starting the story board in class Monday and I will document how that went in my next blog. 

Shulkin out.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) — Art of the Title [Photograph]. (2010, August 30). Napoleon Dynamite, Art of the Title In A. Ulloa (Author) & I. Albinson (Ed.).

   

It continues...

Welcome Back!

My partner and I still haven't decided on a topic, so we decided to pitch some ideas to each other. My idea was to create something along the lines of an everyday experience, a scene that everyone can relate to. Example like a morning, car ride, or a day at school. I believe that if you can relate to your audience, then you are doing something right. 

After looking for some examples, I came across the Back to the Future opening. This Gives a sense of mystery because you don't know who the main character is yet all you can see for the first two minutes is a a room with weird looking contraption.  This was a good example of what I would like our movie to resemble. 

There are some things I would like to change, however, like having all of the titles appear in the real world instead of as text generated on the screen. An example of this would be the opening to Napoleon Dynamite.  Like this film, all of our opening credits would be placed creatively along the sequence but with a little more variety.  I believe that this would be more visually appealing to the viewer and display creativity with regard to our setting.

Hi—I’m Ethan! Welcome to my fantastic blog!

For this project, my partner and I will be creating a film opening and I will be documenting our progress through this blog. Personally, I hate reading long paragraphs, so I’ll to break everything up into short steps. 

Step 1: Obviously, we have to come up with an original piece, but we first need to determine what type of movie we would like to work with.  My partner and I know we wanted to create a fictional piece, but determining the specific type of piece will be very difficult for us to do . Ultimately, we came up with three possible fictional genres: realistic fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction.

Step 2: After we determine what type of movie we will make, we’ll then discuss a specific idea that goes along with the genre. Just like professionally-made movies, we want to be sure to pick an interesting concept. To ensure to success of our concept, we plan to pitch our idea to a small group of friends and family members, get their opinions and advice, and work off of that.

Step 3: After we pitch our idea, we’ll sit down to talk about characters. It’s important to figure out how many characters we’ll want and what their personalities will be. Further, we’ll discuss whether we want the characters to be male or female, black or white, old or young, etc.  All of these small details will be figured out before we start production so that everything goes as smooth as possible.

For my next blog, I hope to have determined the film’s genre and the outline for our storyboard.