2013 Post 17: Job Roles Research

When creating our film there are many job roles that need to be covered and this is crucial for the production of our film. In our group there are four members so we have to decide who takes on what task and is the task suitable for that person. As we know there are many roles to be offered and we had to be reasonable with the jobs given to take on. We got together in our group and we sat down and spoke about who would do what and shared opinions and thoughts within our group, by doing this we all had a say and offered useful ideas to develop the production of our film. In this post I will be using key words and job roles that I will be defining in the simplest way.

Direction: The direction of the camera is crucial when creating our short film and this is the degree of the camera and the angle that the camera is facing. When filming we used the shot list to focus on which direction the camera would be facing, this also helped with the angle and size of the shot.

Camera Operator: The camera operator must check that the equipment used is safe for the required set up, for example they must check all equipment over and the shots taken must also be checked. This is because continuity and inconsistency can be seen throughout a film and the camera operator must be consistent in what he or she films. The camera operator must also be able to multi task as there is a lot of listening, moving and adjusting when filming to capture the most creative shot.

Lighting: The lighting operator will be given the task of providing equipment in television and in film, generally specialising in one or the other as the techniques and equipment often differ. There are many techniques and different lighting skills that can be used to create different lighting effects with the different use of equipment. The lighting director should have a detailed plan of where lighting will be needed to use and will have a small team to help make any adjustments needed.

Production Sound: The sound supervisor must be in charge of making sure they maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound. The job role requires making sure sound levels are suitable to record and making sure all recordings are done suitably and saved so they can listen to them back.

Art Department: The Art department is crucial and have a large role in making the actors used have a different visual appearance giving detail to the set design rather than the practical filming side. The Art department can often have hundreds of people setting up a design and making actors suitable for the setting required.

 

There are many Job roles offered in the production of a film as there are different techniques and skills that need to be used to perform a specific task given. In a production cast there can be up to a thousand or more people needed to produce a film of a very high standard. In our group there were four members so we all needed to take on a specific task. The role I got given was to create a story board for the start of our film to then develop the plot of the story, I also helped film all sets and controlled the lighting in some shots when needed. In film production departments must talk to each other when filming to create a film that works well, if departments did not communicate with each other then there would be errors and the film would be unprofessional as the work they produce is different so they need to emerge their work together. 

Each job was crucial to the production of our film and we needed to make the effort on several occasions to complete a task that we needed to do. The main job role was The Directors job, the Director in our group did their job very well but I could tell it was difficult as she had many tasks to deal with. I found the jobs given to me were challenging as I had to be creative, the main difficulty for me was trying to think of what to use for the story board, as I didn’t want to create something my group didn’t like.

2013 Post 16: Why make a short film? Who is the target audience?

I have read both Articles 'The long history of short films' and 'Short Films That Launched Big Names Telegraph', in both the articles it explains why short films have been made and the purpose they have been made for, for example the public want to be enetertained at what they view. The first films were presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, Edison produced films that contained information about celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life. Here are a few reasons why short films would have been created and this would have then developed films from being watched and would have gained a large reputation with the public.

 

The articles given to me to read were very helpful and have made me think more about who our target audience will be for our short film. This is because we want to get as many viewers for our film as possible and the genre must also be very popular with the public. Therefore we must create a film that teaches viewers about grooming and the stages followed by a groomer; this will create a large audience as they’re being entertained by watching the film whilst also receiving useful information about groomers that can happen to anyone at any time.

 

In our group we have thought about who would be the audience so that we can target our audience effectively and understand the best ways to distribute it. Previous research into our film helped us to establish the genre of film we were making but also the age certificate. My group decided the certificate should be for ages 18+, this is because the film needs to be understood and ages below 18 wouldnt understand the film, the film contains information that can help parents prevent there children from becoming in danger.

 

There are many distribution methods that can be followed and distributing the film well will receive a lot of attention from the media and public. The film can be spoke about on social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or Bebo to get more reputation, this will also give the public an idea of what our film is going to be about and why we have made this film for the specific audience chosen. We also know that ages from 18-40 are mature and by watching the short film produced by my group they will care for younger children more and be a lot more aware of their children’s safety.

 

Film festivals happen all around the world to promote short films to inspire people to create films that have a meaning behind them. A very known festival is Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival (Bristol, UK) and is the UK’s longest running competitive short film and animation festival. At festivals like these short films have been made because people enjoy creating short films with the use of editing and recording, there films will also get judged by experienced professionals and the public audience can also give feedback to the producers of the film. Festivals like these can promote films through advertising there short film to their target audience, and festivals like this one would help promote and give experience to younger generation.

 

The films that I have looked at are all averagely between 5-10 minutes long, this gives us a short amount of time to create a short film packed with information about our chosen topic which is grooming. When considering that we have a time of 6 minutes for our short film we need to think about making the script to as much detail as possible, keeping scenes short but effective giving a simple story across to the audience so it’s easy to follow. The effect that we want on our audience is to realize how crucial grooming can be and to make the audience realize how easy grooming can be done. By doing this it will make audiences more aware of their child’s safety and will give information about how stages of grooming can work.

2013 Post 15a: Media Language

In our film we will be using sounds to build suspense and help create drama, this will help maintain the audiences interest. The characters of our film also play a major role in creating suspense during certain scenes in our film. For example when the groomer Alan is sitting on the sofa with Paige the sound builds up to create tension for the viewers, the sound effects will be non diagetic to enhance the drama of the scene.

The film that I have researched that contains a lot of non-diegetic sounds to create a low, cold mood involving horror and suspense is the film ‘Insidious’ which was made in 2010. I have chosen this film as an example because the music that has been used has a low tone and at some parts of the film is very aggressive. 

When the film wants to build an aggressive mood the music starts off quietly. The sound then builds up getting louder and faster to make viewers aware of something bad is about to happen. This can be used throughout our film with adjustments to the sound levels according to the amount of tension we wish to build. Increasing some levels in this way is often termed as hyperbolic.

2013 Post 15: Media Language: The Five C's of Cinematography

Camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, and composition.

In order to learn more about camerawork and lighting I read an article written by a cinematographer. The article explains how the five C’s that have to be considered when creating a film, in the article a sentence says “Cameras don’t tell stories, people do. Since this is the case, there is really only one thing you need to tell great stories with the videos you produce, YOU”, This informs my group that its a great script and the interpretation of a great script that will make our short film successful.

The five C’s are camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, and composition, all of these individual definitions must be considered and looked at very carefully if a successful film wants to be made. In the article it explains that it is not all about the quality of the camera and the skills required to create a short film, but throughout the article it tells the reader that the five C’s are the main factors that need to be focused on and gives a short analyses of what each C word means. After I had read the information in the article I now know that it’s not about what is used when filming, but it’s mainly about the people used and creativity put into the shots taken and the story of the film must also be effective to be successful.

2013 Post 14: Research Short Films and their use of lighting.

The short film that I am going to be analysing is called 'Mud Boy' and I will be focusing on the editing that has been used in the short film as this will help me throughout my project and will give us idea's toward our final outcome.

The start of Mud Boy a Title is displayed and this then fades away when the film starts. The first shot is a tracking shot that shows a shovel dug into the ground, this tracking shot follows the garden footpath and then cuts to a young girl named 'Mina' who is playing on her nintendo games console. The editing focuses on the young girl and views different angle shots of the main character Mina, it then cuts to her mum and dad arguing and again shows different close ups of facial expression and emotion. After this it has another tracking shot of Mina running out the back door down her garden foot path to a small location of her own, the editing then cuts to Mina on the floor focusing on the ground as if she has found something. Throughout the short film the editing uses a lot of cuts and only uses the effects fade in and fade out and the start and end of the film. When watching this film the editing is applied is fairly simple, when editing this film the main character is focused on and uses tracking shots to follow her roll, by doing this the short film is easier to understand and gives the audience something to follow. By watching this film it gave me a clear idea of what needs to be edited at the start and end of film, and if a character has a bigger roll then others then the character should always be focused on with the use of editing to make it easier for the audience to understand the film.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p009d657