In Dianne's session we planned (plots and shots) foreach scenario/genre we could get for our 24 hour film challenge- romantic comedy, musical, western or sci-fi. Our strongest was definitely western and possibly musical. Sci-fi was our worst. In Mike's session, we looked at turning a script into a shot list. I was already familiar with making a shot list from my A Level media so I grasped it fairly easily. We then did a budget challenge where we went out in groups to try and find props we could use for the 24 hour film challenge for a pound for each in our group. We felt adventurous and widened the budget.
We came back with all sorts of goodies- a pipe, a dagger, a champagne party cannon, fake blood, western 99p shop guns... However every group bought the 99p western guns so now we have like 20 western guns. That's handy for whoever gets Western!
Today we went to Newcastle (our first Uni trip!). First, we went to the Baltic. All the exhibits were fab but the film viewing one was particularly interesting to me with how exactly they set out the screens. In a small room, there was loads of small screens, each playing a different shot or continuing a shot from another screen.
I then went to the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle (I have been here before to see Only Lovers Left Alive which was an amazing experience and an amazing film- one of my favourites!) to see Macbeth. The Tyneside also have a small museum of cinematic relics such as cameras, which really enhanced the viewing experience for me.
Even had a cheeky glass of wine at the cinema!
Macbeth (Justin Kurzel, 2015) - Review
Macbeth clearly has it's own visual style and is a beautiful film. It's colour filters, lighting, camera angles all have thought put into it and it shows. However, I felt that the film was too arty-farty and took less time to focus on the storyline and the characters.
Yes, it is faithful to the play (after studying it for A2 I know it like the back of my hand) but I still found it hard to follow and who was who. Fassbender gave a wonderful performance (accent a bit dodgy in places but it didn't take away from the cinematic experience) but I didn't feel any sympathy towards him like in the play. He is a barbarian, and yes he is this in the play too but in the play you feel empathy towards him when Lady Macbeth dies.
This brings me nicely to Lady Macbeth. Another wonderful performance but I was not happy with the infamous 'out damned spot' scene. Again, this might just be my personal preference, but I always thought of it to be insane and vicious, but it was shown in the film to be emotional and sad.
The very beginning scene with Lady Macbeth's child's funeral was a nice touch after the play only infers that she has lost a child, which made us sympathise with them.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience, sat in the back row with my glass of wine, more than the film to be honest. Not recommended if you want a strong narrative driven film with its convoluted and glossed over plot and characterisation. But a great film to analyse for its visual style and more for independent viewers than regular multiplex viewers.
This week we looked particularly at cameras. I have some pretty hefty notes for this lecture so bare with me. I'm just going to jot them down as I have in my notebook, in note form, not full sentences. Why? Because...
Exposure= amount of light (iris control). Gain standard = +0db. Makes more sensitive to light. Can degrade quality. Shutter speed= 50i, button behind iris control. 1/50= standard shutter speed. F.__ = iris. The higher, the less light goes in and the shallower the depth of field. F5.6-8 standard. Neutral density filter (NDF)= on or off. Sunglasses for camera.
Stability function= for handheld camera. Reduces shake but not all of it.
AF button- focuses in one push
White balance= next to gain button. Light bulb= indoor. Sun= outdoor. Triangle, square, triangle button= fix white balance. Use white sheet of paper to correct.
Audio 1, left - mic plug in. 'line' = mixing desks. 'mic' = microphone
Canons= no phantom power. Use rode mic.
Gain= increasing sensitivity. Audio and video gain. Background hiss.
Zoom. W- wide. T- telephoto. The closer, the more shake.
Eye piece= near and far settings. Don't trust in built monitors.
Use record button on SIDE.
Lower the lens, the wider. 25mm= stretches perspective. 50mm = observer. 100mm= tighter crop and foreshortens perspective.
Panasonic 3CCD
Gain= low/med/high
White balance= tungsten and daylight settings. AWB button- use white paper.
ALWAYS ON MANUAL. Manual iris, next to gain option. Do not want it 'open'. 2.8= safe.
More control of NDF filters.
Zebras= exposure range. 85% for white skin. 70% for black skin. 100% overexposed. Striped lines.
Shoot in 4x3- aspect conv. option in menu
Progressive= filmic but tears and ghosting if movement too fast.
Interlace= fast action and can fix tears but can cause artefacts/blur.
50htz refresh rate (double the frame rate)
Phew I think that's it! We then filmed a tech demo of one of the cameras. We got given the Panasonic and we had to talk about setting up the audio and the white balance.
This week, the study skills was about Academic Research. Again, I know already how to do this as I studied A Levels. To be honest, I'm not really learning anything new in this lecture. It is a bit pointless that this is the only thing I'm in for on a Wednesday. But it's only for 6 weeks.
Just a few reminders for myself: quotes are not part of the word count as they are not your words, and keep focus.
This week, we looked at Symbols of Imperial China. We mostly looked at colours and different symbols and their meaning behind them.
The Emperor is typically symbolised with a '5 toed' dragon and the Empress, a phoenix.
http://giphy.com/gifs/fall-out-boy-mBZFAfcUp7QXe
What I found interesting is how different colours mean different things in our culture compared to Chinese culture. For example, here red is a colour of danger, whereas it is a symbol of luck and good fortune in China. Colours are 'auspicious' and 'inauspicious'. Here are some colours and their meaning behind them in China:
Black- water, heavenly emperor.
Red- fire, good luck.
Blue/Green - wood, spring
White - metal, purity
Yellow - earth, neutrality, the centre of all things, the emperor
Happiness in Western culture does not have a specific symbol (which... is quite depressing now I think of it) whereas in China, they use the Buddah. Objects also have special significance in Chinese culture, not just colours. Here's a list of a few that hold special meanings;
Pearl - good luck
Musical stone - perfection
Lozenge - success
Coin - wealth (you don't say)
Mirror - fidelity
Artemisia leaf - luck
Scrolls and two books - wisdom
Wheel of law- path to perfection
Victory - happiness
Parasol - protection
Cotus - purity
Vase - contain treasures
Twin fish - freedom
Endless knot - wisdom and compassion
Butterflies - joy and fragrance
Eternal disk - wealth
Ruyi - ceremonial sceptre. Power and good fortune.
Conch - teachings
Conch shell - happiness
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/magic-conch-shell
Different symbolic motifs;
'Washing the elephant' - 'breaking through illusion' and the path to wisdom
Two boys - material and spiritual success
Dragon - forces of nature, bringer of rain, protection, Emperor
Dragon and the Phoenix - man and woman, yin and yan
Ch'i-ling - 2 creatures mixed together, usually hoofed
Hongfu (red bats) - good fortune
Fish - unity and fidelity. Usually presented as a wedding gift
Lion - protection. Associated with the Chinese army.
Tiger - yin (dark force) but tamed (yan)
Buddism paintings contrast to actual Chinese paintings as they are less detailed and bright so people can focus on enlightenment. A landscape painting is often symbolised as good luck. Painters depicted their feelings through their work even though they are often oppressed, such as a painting of a starving horse suggesting they are too, starving. In Di's session, we looked at visual style in different countries in cinema. I focused on City of God. I studied this last year so I was already at an advantage. City of God challenges the 'picture postcard' ideal of Brazil and shows the violent reality of the Brazilian facelas (shanties). This clip shows this, with the symbolism of the chicken being chased - they are trapped in the favelas just like the chicken. The film also has different colour filters in each decade: it starts off open framed with a gold tint to suggest there could be hope. But becomes more closed framed and blue as time goes on to suggest hopelessness.
We then had to say 5 different sentences starting with "You are....." to the person on our left. We basically learnt how little we know about the people in the room, how unimaginative we are and how cold we all were. We then came up with our own story grids and filled a blank one in. Our group did conventions of Horror/Thriller/Psychological genres. Despite a few silly ones, ours worked! We tested out each other's and came up with brief story lines for them. My favourite one was for the Action/War genre where an alien invades a restaurant taking over our chefs and poisoning the food. The humans find out and revolt. Dianne was more concerned about what weapons they will fight with (a giant food fight?) than the whole concept. In Mike's session, we looked at roles in the industry using the website creativeskillset.org.
Master shot- something to edit with. Shot of all the action and dialogue
Coverage- all the other shots. Could be a two shot, CU, etc.
We then filmed a short narrative using 7 different shot types, with a torch being in at least 3 of them. We tried to put a story to ours but ran out of time to film all the shots! We managed to get a CU, MS, and WS. Our framing was good though. However the very first shot was too dark and is hard to tell what it is, even though we were shining a torch onto it.
This week we looked at sound and its importance. Sound is often recorded in 'bits'- the higher the bit rate, the softer the edges and the more info and layers. 16 bit is the standard we use. Cinema can offer a 24 bit sound.
Phantom power - power from another device, where power is transmitted through microphone cables to operate microphones that contain active electronic circuitry. The p+48 button on the camera.
http://dannyphantom.wikia.com/wiki/Cryokinesis
No not that kind of Phantom 'power'
Remember, if using phantom power, switch the mic on the camera off to save battery.
XLR cables are a must. However, they are not always for sound, but can be for lights as well. They have three pins with male and female sides- the male goes into the female.
Always wrap the cable up properly so you are able to throw it in one go and for it to be flush on the floor, for quickness and ease. Do not wrap it too tight or it could damage the cable and be harder to gaffer tape down. Wrap it in nice, flushed circles.
Watch out for electronic hum! This is the mobile phone feedback you hear in electronic equipment when you get a text message. Always switch phones off, not just on silent.
The 'pistol grip' goes on the end of a boom pole and holds the microphone. When holding the boom pole, do not tap it and be careful and silent where you step. Be a ninja.
If the camera/mic has a 'wind dampener' setting, do not use it. Use a muffer instead. The standard mic we use is the directional and omni. Levels should be within '12-9dbs'. Always note that headphone levels are different to what is being recorded.
When using the Canon cameras, use 'imput 2' if you are using just the one mic.
Record some 'atmos' at the start of a shoot. This is 30 seconds of conditions just in case the editor needs to cover up anything in the edit.
When using the 'lapel mic' (the one that clips onto clothing), be careful when shooting a long shot so the sound isn't too loud and looks weird. When using this mic, also watch out for bra creek. Yes, that is a thing.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/438819557415917839/
In the morning we did a 'wildtrack' activity where we had to record 10 different sounds and try to identify what they were. In the afternoon, we did another activity called 'a shot in the dark', were we did this narrative with a conflict using only sound. We used techniques foley artists do and use different objects for a different sound, e.g. our group used a set of keys as jingle bells. We could only use 10 words. We did a short story about Christmas and a young boy discovering his Mam having sex with Santa. HOWEVERRRR we recorded it all and it was great but when we played it back, there was nothing there. We have no idea what happened since we definitely pressed record and did a play. I think I prefer shooting with digital memory cards rather than a tape as FOOTAGE DOESN'T JUST RANDOMLY DISAPPEAR! ... Yeah that was depressing.
http://www.reactiongifs.us/nooooooooo-elf/
Note to self: always use the record button on the side of the Canon cameras, NOT THE TOP ONE! And always film in digital.
