Short Animation

 

 

Above is a short animation I have created using 3D modelling software to help add a certain level of professionalism to our psychological thriller opening. This is why I have created the colour scheme and lighting effects to set the mood and follow the conventions of the genre. Overall the designing, creation and rendering process of this short clip took roughly 12 hours.

Audience Representation

Gender:

Gender in film is represented very differently now-a-days, whereby the male protagonists play the role of an action hero that has the violent, more aggressive scenes. Whereas the female characters are involved in the romantic/damsel in distress scenes.

Age:

The typical age of characters in films usually depends on the genre. If for example you have an action packed adventure film, it will usually contain characters within the age range of 20-30. Whereas in documentary style films you will tend to see an older cast due to calmer nature of the movie.

Ethnicity:

Race and ethnicity is a controversial topic that has been under a lot of criticism from the media, and in films its no different. It is often stereotyped in movies that “black people die first” or something of that nature. However this is just a subtle stab at racism. Most casts these days involve a whole range of races and cultural backgrounds making films more diverse and immersive. However saying this, racism is often used in films for its ‘comedic value’ and how it affects the more immature or socially unaware audience.

Sexuality:
Including homosexuality, the beliefs are often contested by childish comments. They are commonly used for gossip and are portrayed very negatively in films originating from The United States. Like ethnicity and race, sexuality is often used its comedic value to immature audiences.

Preliminary Report

For our preliminary task we had to film a short clip of a character walking into a room, sitting down and conversing with another character. We also had to include examples of the 180 Degree rule, a shot reverse shot and match on action. The decision we made was to adapt our short clip around the idea of an action parody. We originally based the idea of our film and got inspiration from other action films such as "The Matrix". As we felt having some sort goal to aim for was the best way of replicating the action, from a slightly more comedic point of view. As we did focus on the light hearted side of action films we hoped to achieve a more relaxed and enjoyable film for all audiences.

During the planning and storyboarding process of our film we tried to make sure it was clear what we needed to do and how to lay it out. However when it came to actually filming our clips, we did have to improvise during the latter half of the film. This is due to new ideas that we discussed and decided would fit the previous clips better than our planned ideas would. Although after filming we did return back to our storyboard and finished adding the shots we did end up filming. We strongly believe that having a well thought out storyboard and planning ahead of time will help us achieve the best possible outcome in regards to film quality and variety of camera shots and angles.

We knew we had to incorporate match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule somewhere within our shot clip, therefore we decided to get them out of the way first, just to make sure we had them. We experimented with multiple variations of match on action, but found the idea a shot from the back of Tyrone opening a door, then switching to a front shot the best way of showing match on action effectively, and as we all agreed on this, it is what we proceeded to create.

The Shot reverse shot on the other hand was fairly limited when it came to ideas and options, as a group we discussed ways of showing this however a basic conversation between two characters seemed the most logical of ideas. As we all understood the concept of shot reverse shot it became extremely easy to apply to our clip in both the filming and editing stages.

Finally, taking in to consideration and applying the 180 degree rule was challenging at first, however as we got the hang of it and practiced it a couple of times, we were able to use it what we considered effectively during the over the shoulder shots and alongside the shot reverse shot whilst the conversation was taking place. We used this rule to make sure the narrative made sense throughout the entire scene. By breaking the 180 degree rule without showing the audience the transition would cause confusion as both characters would end up facing the same direction when talking, making the audience think that the characters are possibly talking to someone else out of frame.

Throughout the duration of filming our clip we tried to use a wide variety of other camera angles and techniques, however there were some we were not able to pull off, such as the Ariel shot we wanted to badly. Our group was unable to film this as we did not have any sort of camera equipment. Although in the future we may take this into consideration and perhaps plan ahead for an alternative piece of equipment to be used. Thus giving us a broader range of shots and angles to film from.

During the editing part of the process, we had lots of ideas that we were feeding to each other to try and make it look as good as we could. For example the transitions we could have used was a vast collection of presets and templates. However we decided as a group to not add any sort of special effects or transition in during the editing process as in our eyes it took away from the use of shots and cuts that were already naturally in the short film.

As an overall project we agreed that the final result and planning stages went pretty well for a first task, and we have learnt from our mistakes and we’ll make sure not to repeat them for any future projects we are set. We are all happy with the outcome and are excited to move on to the analysis and planning for the two minute intro to a psychological thriller we shall be starting soon.

Preliminary Task

Match-on-Action, Shot-Reverse-Shot and Eyeline Match

Match-on-Action:
This refers to the switch in camera shot to show a single action from a different angle. Below is an example of match-on-action:

Shot-reverse-shot:
This style of shot is used commonly in a conversation between two characters. The camera will show a shot of the first character looking at the second character, then the second character looking back at the first. There is an example of this below:

Eyeline Match:
An eyeline shot is based on the audience wanting to see what the character on-screen can see. For example, if a shot shows a character looking at a TV, the next shot will be of the TV from the perspective of the character.

Progress

Progress


12/09/14 -

Our group has just finished planning our prelim task, its controversial to say the least. We have chosen the theme of the prelim to be a parody film. We have incorporated the 180 degree rule within our storyboard and are planning to use it effectively.