BFI Trip

Our class was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to visit the British Film Institute in London as an extended teaching session related to our main task. We were one of many schools and colleges that attended this event. There we had a few sessions with a renowned media teacher, showing us various examples of opening scenes and teaching us various factors to include in them. These sessions were incredible helpful as it brought to life many ideas and questions people had related to what was to be done for our main task.

Secondly, we had a Q and A with a film maker called Corin Hardy. Corin came in to promote his new film "the hallow", critique some of our ideas for opening scenes and give us an insight into the development of ideas and the amount of effort put into filming. He also showed us the opening scene of his film before it had even been put in cinemas!

here is a link to his web page; where you can find trailers, interviews and much more- the website

Never Back Down: Scene Analysis

In a media lesson last week, Mrs Banks tasked us with finding a clip from a film or TV show and making a short presentation on it in front of the class. I chose to analyse the final fight from Never Back Down (2008). This scene combines aspects of dialogue with high adrenaline action.

Firstly, there is evidence of close up shots of Jake and Ryan ( the two fighters) where Jake is talking about it being "a spectator sport". The close up here emphasizes that there is no other focus on anyone else in the scene accept for the fighters. This is further accentuated by shifts in camera focus as Jake begins to walk away from Ryan. During the fight there is the use of Go pro cameras to provide the audience extra immersion as these cameras give a good POV shot. This paired with: the superb choreography, the special effect used to accent the power behind Ryan's strike to Jake's side and the graphic match at the finishing moments of the fight linking back to Jake's first fighting lesson make for a great fight scene.

As this scene is only available on vimeo, i could only link it rather than including the clip in this post. Apologies for any inconvenience.

The scene on Vimeo

Preliminary task: Finished clip

Here is mine and Alyx's finished preliminary task starring Jay Ford. This task has aided my understanding of the amount of work that goes into making a film and all of the little things such as; making sure the camera's reflection isn't caught in the window, and that the slightest mistake in a scene can cause big problems later on in the editing stage. Enjoy.

Preliminary task: description

We were tasked with a preliminary task to show our understanding of camera work and action in a scene. In this task we had to include examples of; match on action, shot and reverse shot and a small section of dialogue. we were given the equipment we would need for the clip. The list included a camera, tripod and SD card to save our work on to. after filming, we were given some lesson time to complete the editing on the task. this included learning about cuts, transitions and credits; all in aid of finding the right balance for the short piece. This task has helped my understand some of the intricacies of working on a film set and that it is okay to be picky and want things to be perfect.

Editing- Cuts

Last Thursdays lesson we were focused on cuts. Primarily, how cuts can change the pace and feeling of a scene. A good example is a car chase scene, like this one from the "Bourne: supremacy":

This clip clearly shows how Quick cuts can make a scene seem quicker and more action packed. Because of the speed of the cuts, it  adds to the overall speed that boost of adrenaline this scene is trying to achieve. The quick shots mean that there is little time for the audience to think about or dwell on each shot. Yet when the action stops or slows down, the shots get longer, giving the audience some "breathing room"

dialogue scenes or scenes where there is a lot more information to process tend to have slower shots due to the fact that they are trying to get you to absorb new information; often so the info is fresh in your mind for later on. An example of this from "in Bruges" (apologies for the language...)

The History of Editing

In one of last weeks lessons we learned about the history and development of editing. This was displayed to us through the use of a very informative video linked below:

Camera shots

In Wednesday's lesson, we learned about different camera shots. To help cement our understanding, built up examples of each one that we learned about and put it in a power-point.

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Camera Shots

Camera and Shots

In today's media lesson, we were focused on elements of film language. Specifically camera shots. These are the audiences method of seeing what's going on screen. Because of this, the cameraman and director can manipulate your field of view to get across certain moods and feelings towards characters and landscape. Examples are Extreme close up, Low angle shot and establishing shot.This is the clip we studied in today's lesson from superman returns.

This clip has great examples of how camera shot can manipulate the audience. For example; the use of extreme close up on superman's eye when a round is fired into it is used to focus the audiences view, and accentuate the power of superman. Furthermore, there is great use of the high angle shot to illustrate the power of the police officers compared to the villain. The effect of this makes the target in the shot look smaller; therefore, making then look weaker.

Introduction to the course

I was introduced to the course roughly a week ago, I can already tell that I am going to have great fun doing it; and, hopefully, produce some good quality work.

I have been briefed on some good online resources to access during the course. Here are a list of them

• http://www.bbfc.co.uk/
• https://vimeo.com/
• http://www.bfi.org.uk/
• http://www.movieclip.com/