Scene 1:
mid shot, mid close,closeup
Scene 2:
Mid shot
Scene 3:
Mid shot, closeup
scene 4:
mid shot, mid close,closeup, OTS
scene 5:
long shot, mid close
scene 6:
Mid shot,
scene 7
mid shot, mid close,closeup:
scene 8:
Mid shot
Scene 1: INT
Guy is sleeping on bed, flashbacks of pasts appears in his dream and shows signs of fear in his sleep.
scene 2: INT
Guy wakes up from his sleep, reflects upon what he saw in his dream. Exits the frame/stays in shot.
scene 3: INT
Guy washes dishes when accidently turns on hot tap water, he sees the fumes and stares at it for a while, the flashbacks starts again and the whole scenario runs back and forth. Guy comes back to his senses and turns off the tap water.
scene 4: INT
Guy warms himself nearby heater, thinking about what is happening to him recently, as his eyes struck the flames of the heater, he again revisits his vision from past and after the same voice “You failed”, he comes back to his present state and loses his mind.
Scene 5: EXT
He comes out to his backyard and sits on the ground, asks himself why is it happening.
Scene 6: EXT
That same voice appears in a figure form. Starts to speak his dialogue.
scene 7: EXT
The figure will continue his dialogue and will go back forth with the guy’s expression, the figure slowly appears close to the guy and speaks his final words.
Scene 8: INT
Guy wakes up and indicates that it was just a dream, but that figure appears in the far back alley way.
END
Well the week is almost over, today each of us had a discussion with Robin regarding our projects. So after going through storyboarding and the dialogue that I wrote, Robin and I discussed the final approach that I’m taking on. So unlike the conventional method and the business practice of filmmaking where shooting is not in chronological order, well I’m taking that approach, the only reason is because I want my actor to go through the journey of the character and to connect more with it as story evolves.
The Camera equipment that I’ll use is my own DSLR. I mentioned in my previous post about technological advancement of DSLR but I have to be careful regarding sound as sync is an issue in DSLR, but then again, I don’t have much dialogues so I think I’ll be alright with it.
Now I just have to test my DSLR in the environment where I will be shooting just to see if the lightning is enough. I’m hopeful that it would work out well. I’ll put some test shoots in coming days.
Today we looked at one of the key aspects in documentary filmmaking (well not really) and in tv production, interviewing. Robin mentioned that mostly student tend to do interview in their documentary projects. That being said, He showed us different filmmakers approaches in interviewing, from formal style of interviewing, where camera remains still with two or three camera setup and either with one more take to it. The second style is informal where the camera is not still mostly and keeps on moving and follows the interviewee. All of the approaches had different aspect to it according to what the director or producer wanted it. Both have its own perks. I really like the informal way as the whole process is unscheduled and comes out naturally on screen. It feels more ‘real’ in terms of actuality of the situation.
When I watched Errol Morris’s clip, I was really intrigued of his approach, the key element of his approach was that his subject or interviewee was looking straight at the camera. It seemed powerful and convincing. Also to add on was Morris’s voice when he questions the statement of his subject and to which the subject conforms. It felt so convincing.
After that we did a small class exercise of doing a interview practice, I took responsibility of camera operation. Again I say, sound mixer is always a struggle, too many wires and consumes time, I wonder how the professionals on field cope with this struggle. Anyways, so with this exercise, I experimented with different camera angle and positions for this interview with extreme closeups to mid shots. I think over the shoulder shot seemed appealing to me, maybe because of the depth and both of the participants involved within the same frame. I personally wouldn’t go with interview in documentary filmmaking, I’m more towards the observational mode (Term coined by Bill Nichols) of documentary filmmaking.
After discussing my idea, Robin advised that it is always better to have some notes or either storyboard for smooth flowing in the process of filmmaking. Thus I created one just now.
Note*: I’m not good at drawing
I know many of you may not understand, but it gives an overall view of 8 scenes of my film.
What do you think?
So today I experimented with my approach of improvisation. It turned out well. I described a situation to my performers and they acted accordingly. Here are the following videos:
Screen Test 1:
Screen test 2:
Screen test 3:
I think test 2 and 3 were up to Par and this is what I had in mind when I gave the situation to them. What do you say?
Introduction:
For the final project, I have thought of a short film idea. This project is a bit different as it won’t follow the conventional style of script and screenplay and then act. My approach is more towards improvisation and will have some elements from classic Italian Neorealism Cinema which means using of non actors, on spot locations and less usage of artificial lights. Regarding sounds, It will consist of both diegetic and nondiegetic sounds, usage of these sounds will depend when it comes to editing of what suits best.
Story of the film:
A man in his early 20’s has nightmares of a being haunting him in his sleep. He doesn’t know who he is and why is it after him. The images that appear in his dream are of fire and related elements and finishes with the word ‘You Failed’. Later he starts hearing the same voice and flashback images of that fire. He finally loses his mind and calls out to confront him. The devil being approaches him and he issues a statement of his dreadful past.
In the end the man losses his will and as it appears the devil is about to finish him off, The man wakes up from his sleep and is relieved that it was just a dream, it’s only when devil appears from the corner and laughs out devilishly while the man is not aware of his presence.
Location:
The setting of this film will be in a house.
Main Focus and reason for this kind of project:
To see whether working with non actors and improvisation gives out the desired results of what the director wants for the film.
D- Day:
Week 8:
-Formation of groups
– Decide the Location
-Finalising all of the crew roles
Week 9:
– Book any equipment (if required)
-Conform with the crew roles for the shooting in week 10
– Organise delicacy for the shoot in week 10
Week 10:
– Shooting over the weekend
Week 11-12:
– Editing the first draft and then see where to go from over there, (hopefully no re shoot is required)
Week 13
– Present the atrtifact
I’m still sticking with my original thought of film idea which is about this guy in his 20’s and his past is haunting him in his dreams and eventually starts to appear in day time. At first I thought to make a devil appear in his dream and later in physical form, but then I realised that would be too cliche, so instead I added a voice to my idea and later on this humanly figure at the end when this guy faces the being.
I think this is an interesting element, as it would appear to the audience that this whole situation is his conscious state of mind but then in the end the question will rise amongst the audience that is it still a dream for the main character or he doesn’t realise that voice has now become a part of his conscious state of mind.
In regards to the plan, I’m trying to take a different approach, It’s not conventional style of filmmaking where there will be a script and then things go along. I’m thinking towards improvisation technique and see where it leads to. So there will minimal script and screenplay as such. The whole film is focused more on impression and expression of characters.
Let’s see what more I can think about regarding my idea
New media is not new, yet transforms into different devices we see around from time to time. According to me “media” is a tool to change the minds of masses. So basically if we see this definition the tool existed at cave men times when the people drew cave paintings and others perceived the message and reacted according to it. The very first form new media emerged in the 19th century when Lumiere Brothers projected the moving pictures of few seconds. Then the first featured length film was made in 1906 “The story of the Kelly Gang”. Later on Radio emerged after World War and became an access to everyone and one could get easily tune into the desired frequency and listen to it. After the radio, television emerged and became a new media, then the new media of “home entertainment” Tapes and cassettes came. And now in today’s world we have internet, online video watching facility, smartphones and communicating with close ones with just click of a button. As time will progress, there will be new updates to the technology. Like for example smart watches are being developed which will have everything just like any other smartphone and the transfer of new media’s device will shift towards a smart watch in near future.
For me I think new media it not over hyped but a revolution. The biggest aspect is that it has given a free will to the audience to express their views and thoughts. The biggest platform ever for a common man includes Facebook, YouTube and twitter. With just these 3 aspects a revolution came in the countries of Middle East and toppled down the government. In just recent in Pakistan, the murder of Shazaib bought many supporters in thousands to support his family and to bring justice. One another example is that Shia killings in Pakistan have bought many supporters on Facebook and with just a single click; thousands received the message and went on the protest areas to join them in the procession.
The experience between virtual community and real community is different. Community means a group of living in a same society having more or less the same quality of lifestyle. Virtually means the interaction between two groups without being present actually in the same location and having no sense of touch and smell between the two groups. That includes using of social websites like Facebook and twitter, Chat rooms and virtual worlds (Sim City). Even though communicating and sharing knowledge and information with one another is faster and easier approach, people can shop different things by sitting just at home and can view other friends doings by sitting at home but the problem is that is heavily affects their grooming with their peer groups and their socialization with the real world out there.
For example one cannot judge ones personality by just looking over their online profiles and their pictures, they have to at least physically see what the reality is. Another major aspect is the communication problem. When a person does not hang out with other peer groups in real life, then confidence problem builds up and would be bound to face issues in real life. Lastly the problem is that people create avatars on their profile which in some way portrays them but in fact it’s not. Creating avatar basically shows that this is what the people want to be in real life. Avatars hide the true personality of a being thus insecurity also arises and it affects when they both meet up in real life and hardly talk to one another but in fact chat more in virtual world.
In real life when we communicate with authority, we do it with respect, honor and dignity. It all somehow changes when we interact with them virtually. Probably because we hide our own identities and thus we believe that it would be difficult for the authority to track us which is a completely false belief. For example hypothetically speaking when we meet the president of our country, we greet him with respect and on the other hand when we social page of the same president, we will brag and bash the president and opening up facts against him as if we would kill the president the minute we see him/her. Same is the case with the police; there are higher chances that one can miscommunicate with them and when facing them in reality, they would have to pay for the crime.
To conclude yes it does change because that is how we have been trained and constructed to behave and perform according to what the society and the surroundings have made. With the help of Social Media the respect boundaries between the authority and us vanishes and the biggest examples have been the downfall of Arab empire in Egypt and Libya.
It’s not the best acting I suppose, but they worked hard for it. What do you guys think?