Creative Task 3 - Remake of Coming of Age Film

This is the original opening of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Opening.

And down below here is the remake of the opening scene.

What went well

          The non-diegetic audio, fits in the clip very well. The background noise sounds perfect; we got the same music like the original, and the voice over sounds great. Although the voice over sounds a little bit more quiet compare to the background music, and we had to do a some edits on those. Also, we turned off the background noise from the clips, so we could hear the non-diegetic sounds better.
          The clips are spot on. We had to do 3 takes of each clips, which I think makes it easier for us to improve from the first take, see the difference, and compare them to see which one is better and looks similar to the original.  The zoom is good too, although I think it needs improvements - for our opening sequence; practice to not make jumpy zoom.
          The lighting is great. We used the flash from our phones to make the effect of the study lamp, and another lamp to support the whole lighting. Even though it is a little bit hard to take the shot from the exact same angle like the original clip; it looks great.
         When we do the editing, we had to make the clips and the sounds fits together clip by clip. It took some time to do it, but the result that we get is amazing. We also edit the clips where it zoomed in and out; so to make it look like more of a smooth zoom.

Although we struggled while we're doing the shooting - when we try to take the shot from the exact same angle like the original, and we struggled while editing - because the iMovie wasn't working properly, I think our remake of the opening scene has come out really good.

What I have learnt
Through this task, I have learnt on how to shot from a different angle and practice on how to zoom in and out without it being so jumpy. I also learn a lot while editing, even though we struggled a lot to figure out other ways to do the sound editing, I learnt on how to add effects to the clips and I have improve my editing skills. Using simple things as camera flash to imitate a study lamp, has also made me realise that we don't need to use over the top things / props to remake the opening scene. 

Director Case Study

John Hughes

http://tinyurl.com/hqlc52o - Voki

John Hughes was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter that died at the age of 59. He was born February 18th, 1950 and died on August 6th, 2009. Hughes was know for his work on teen films and helped numerous actors to launch their career. He has directed and/or scripted some of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s and early 1990s, including; Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Trains, Planes and Automobiles (1987), Uncle Buck (1989), Home alone (1990) and its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

He moved around a quite lot when he was little, and when his family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, his father found work selling roof materials. There, He attended Glenbrook North High School, which gave him inspiration for the films that made his reputation in later years. He began his active career from 1970-2009, but he retired from the public eye and moved back to the Chicago area in 1994. He was considerably shaken by John Candy's sudden death of a heart attack that same year. his friend, Vince Vaughn says, "He talked all about how much he loved Candy-if Candy had lived longer, I think John would have made more films as a director."

Since his films are about teenagers at school times, in his opening sequence, typically, he always shows a school and how life at school would look like - with a pinch of comedy in it. Also, there are lots of dialogue between the parents and their children (student) on the opening scene. And the way he take a shot of a building, it is always in the same angle; from the distance, and not centred - always at an angle from the left. He re-use actors on a couple of his last film. Like, John Candy, he's in his film twice, and also little Macaulay Culkin starred 3 of his films.


What I have learnt

Through this task, I have been able to recognise how a producer do their film professionally in their own style, and how other producers has got their own style as well. I now also know how to add a little bit of comedy in an opening sequence to make it more interesting to watch. John Hughes has a great sense of humor, in my opinion, and I think I'm going to use that idea for my opening sequence, so it won't look so boring to watch. Although, I might not use a lot of dialogue straight away on my opening sequence, cause it's way easier to do without, but I'll try it anyways to see the difference so then I can compare.

Producers and Distributors

What I have learnt

During this task, I've done lots of research and now I know more about producers and distributors films. It helped me to understand / see the difference between major and minor producers and distributors. And I realised that lots of the major producers and distributors are based in America.

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

This is our opening sequence analysis on the film "21 Jump Street" and "An Education".

Task Three from sam palmer on Vimeo.
#Credit to Sam's work.

What I have learnt

From this task, I now know how to analyse an opening sequence, although my analysis for this task is still not good enough, in my opinion. I am able to talk about more than just the typography and sounds, but also the lighting, the position of the shot, and some noticeable things on the scene.

Creative Task 2 - Match On Action

The storyboard:

This is a scene about Abil's first day at school; experienced a really embarrassing experience. Using Match On Action.

First Shot

Abil's First Day

What went well

• Audio 

The non-diegetic sound that we put into the clip went very well; matches the scenes. Think using different sounds made it better and more interesting. The diegetic sound, compare to the first task we've done, is less. We put non-diegetic sounds throughout this clip.

• Shot

The clips that we put in together went really good and looked fluid. The cuts were on point, which made it look like it happened on the same time and we filmed this clip pretty fast and easy as well.

Problems

The problems that we've had:

1. After we filmed the first shot, we had problem uploading the clips to the computer. Because of that, we need to film again with a different camera.
2. The first scenes we've done are not met our satisfaction, so we delete all of it and made a new one with an improved story board.
3. We overlapped clips. so when we went editing, we need to carefully picked the right one to edit.

All in all, we don't think we need to do another shot for this task, since this clip is already looking good.

What I have learnt

From this task, I get to learn different new technique; how to shot match on action. This one is easier to do, because you just need to record short clips and no conversation. Although now i realised that background noise is important to look at, cause it could affect the clip, and when editing, putting some non-diegetic sound could make the clip more interesting. We, here, have done some experiment, adding some sort of comedic scene to the clip so it's not all boring, and it's quite fun to do!

Creative Task 1 - Making Opening Scenes

The storyboard:

This is a short scene of someone asking where Media Class is - a conversation, breaking the 180 Degree Rule shot.

First shot

Problems

When we put all the clips together and began to edit, we have noticed a few slight problems:

1. The "looking at the watch" scene; was not clear on who's looking at the watch.
2. When the girl actor drops the book, it looks like she dropped it on purpose. Where on the script, we planned it to be 'accidentally dropped it'.
3. When the boy actor runs through the hall, he is not using glasses, yet when he opens the class door, he uses glasses.

To solve / To improve

We have planned on re-do the shot when the boy actor was looking at the watch. Going to change the point of view to make it clear who's looking at the watch. Re-do the shot where the girl actor coming down the stairs, showing her turning from the corner so the viewers knew she was coming. Also, we're going to re-do the 'Dropping book' scene, to make it so it looks like she's accidentally dropped it. We might as well re-do the 'Running down the hallway' scene, so the viewers don't get confused about the glasses.



Second shot

This second shot has been re-touched and improved in some ways.


Improvement

This scene is much better than the first one and much more understandable, even though the first one was really good, just by adding (+ edit) extra shots to the old clip; the extra shots makes it more clear for the audience to understand. We have solve the all the problems from the first shot, also, we have added some things on the clips to make it more dramatic -since the scene is about being late.

All in all, the improvements makes this clip more understandable and much better, although we noticed a few problems still.

1. When the girl actor showed the time table to the boy actor, the audience will be able to see me standing in the frame on the background.
2. Also the same on the next clip, where the boy actor took the diary and looked surprised, the audience will still be able to see me in the frame on the background.
3. On the clip, where the boy actor pushes the girl actor, we have to mute the sound, because there was someone laughing (me) in the middle of the clip.

These problems are "minor" and mostly unnoticeable (for most people; i think), but we agreed that  this second shot is good already, so we might not do some improvements to this clip.



What I have learnt

After this task, I now know how to structure an opening scene, and make it so the audience understands what's going on. I have also learnt a new technique; how to do a shot reverse shot using the 180 degree Rule. Even though we have break the rule, I think it is a good experiment to do, so we know how to do the shot reverse shot without breaking the rule and with breaking the rule.

History of Coming of Age Films

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/1342457/edit


What I have learnt

This task made me do lots of research of different coming of age films, which then I need to compare to each other. By doing lots of research and comparing them, I get to know lots of different films that I didn't know / haven't heard before, and I get to see the similarities / common media elements in between the coming of age films.

Research into Coming of Age films

Famous Opening Sequences:

Almost Famous

Opening sequence - These are the production companies and the names:

• Columbia Pictures
• DreamWorks Pictures
• A Vinyl Films Production of
• A Cameron Crowe Film
• Untitled
• Billy Crudup
• Frances McDormand
• Kate Hudson
• Jason Lee
• Patrick Fuqit
• Anna Paquin
• Fairuza Balk
• Noah Taylor
• Zooey Deschanel
• Jimmy Fallon
• Bijou Phillips
• and Philip Seymour Hoffman

The first text was large, white coloured and centred on the screen. The rest of the texts was shown close-up and handwritten on a lined paper.

Camera

Close up shots showing someone hands writing the names. After the production name has been written, the camera shots a drawer being opened; the drawer were full of stuff like books and miscellaneous, which suggest that the character is a teenager. In between names, the camera show close up – moving shots showing several of personal stuff and collection. The writing and the books indicates that the character is a writer or a journalist.

Sound

Diegetic sound from the hand writing names and background noise of a non-diegetic sound; a simple, calm, fun music, which suggest that it’s not a very serious film and it was aimed for any age.

Boyhood

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• IFC Production Present
• A Detour Filmproduction
• Boyhood

Camera

Black screen at the start, and it starts to show a blue sky. In the middle of the sky background, there’s an animation of writing the production company, followed by the title. The camera then shot a boy starring to the sky, which suggest that he’s daydreaming – the shots starts from up close shot and slowly zooming out. And it changed to shot the mother –moving shot, and shots both of them having a conversation – still a moving shot from the right side. After that, the camera shots both of them from the right in a moving car having a conversation.

Sound

It start off with a non-diegetic sound of a song called ‘Yellow’, and it starts to fade away after a diegetic sound of walking heels starts, followed by the conversation. The music fades/stops when the scene changes to both having conversation in the car.

My Girl

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• Columbia Pictures Presents
• A Brian Grazer/Imagine Films Entertainment Production
• A Howard Zieff Film
• Dan Aykroyd
• Jamie Lee Curtis
•  Macaulay Culkin
• Introducing Anna Chlumsky
•  My Girl

Camera

Start off with a full screen Columbia Pictures. Next, it shows a black background, with a large font white coloured text of the production company names. Followed by the actor’s names – in a large font and white colour. After the names, the camera shots this girl’s head from the front. Nd it chang to a more wide shot, showing the girl and the father in the kitchen. The last, it shows the title in the same large font in white black background.

Sound

Non-diegetic sound of a light, peaceful music throughout the names introduction. Next, diegetic sound of the girl talking to the audience and when the camera shots both of them; the father and the girl talked to each other. This suggest that the film was aimed for family and children.

  

Dazed and Confused

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• Gramercy Pictures
• Gramercy Pictures Presents
• An Alphaville Production in association With Detour Filmproduction
• Dazed and Confused
• Casting by Don Phillips
• Costume Designer Katherine (K.D.) Dover
• Editor Sandra Adair
• Production design John Frick
• Director of Photography Lee Daniel
• Co-producer Anne Walker-McBay
• Produced by James Jacks, Sean Daniel, Richard Linklater

Camera

First, it shows an animation of Gramercy Pictures, followed by a medium font, white text of the production name at the centre of the screen. Next, the camera shots this moving yellow car from a distance and follows it. Then it changes to show the bottom part of a woman’s face, licking a paper roll, and changes the view again – from behind, to show the girl’s hands rolling the paper roll.

                  That suggest, this film was not aimed at children, but young adults and adults. The camera then shows short clips of school environment.

Sound

A non-diegetic sound of a rock music throughout the opening sequence. In the middle of it, there are some diegetic sound of people doing their things.

Clueless

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• Paramount
• Paramount Pictures Presents
• Clueless

Camera

It starts with an animation of Paramount Pictures, and it changes to this un-matched colour background with the production name in the middle, followed by the title with the un-matched colour choice, which indicates some sort of confusion. The camera then shots a panning shot of the car from above, changes to show the main character’s life – having so much fun. Then the camera follows her around, showing what she’s doing.

Sound

Non-diegetic sound of a music called ‘kids in America’ and in some parts, as the volume of the music is reduced, there are some diegetic sounds of people laughing, followed by a non-diegetic sound of the main character talking. Near the end, diegetic sound of a conversation between the father and the girl.

An Education

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• BBC Films Presents
• A Finola Dwyer Productions/Wildgaze Films production
• In association with Endgame Entertainment
• A film by Lone Scherfig
• Peter Sarsgaard
• Alfred Molina
• Rosamund Pike
• Dominic Cooper
• Olivia Williams
• Cara Seymour, Sally Hawkins
• Ellie Kendrick, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes, Matthew Beard
• Emma Thompson
• Carey Mulligan as Jenny
• An Education
• Casting Director Lucy Bevan
• Line Producer Caroline Levy
• Music Supervisor Kle Savidge
• Make-up & Hair Designer Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
• Costume Designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux
• Music by Paul Englishby
• Editor Barney Pilling
• Production Designer Andrew McAlpine
• Director of Photography John De Borman BSC
• Executive producers; James D. Stern, Douglas E. Hansen, Wendy Japhet
• Executive producers; David M. Thompson, Jamie Laurenson, Nick Hornby
• Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber
• Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• Produced by Finola Dwyer & Amanda Posey
• Directed by Lone Scherfig 

Camera

On the screen, it shows a black background and an animation showing what looks like ‘subjects’ that are taught at school and some other school-play activities. And after a while, it shows clips of the students activities while at school.

Sound

Non-diegetic sound of fun music throughout the opening which suggest that this film was aimed for children, family or any age.

Submarine

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• 4 Film
• UK Film Council, The National Lottery
• Film 4 and the UK Film Council Present
• In Association with The Wales Creative IP Fund and The Film Agency Wales
• In association with Optimum Releasing and Protagonist Pictures
• In Association with Red Hour Films
• A Warp Film Production
• Submarine
• Prologue  

Camera

Start off with 4 Film animation and followed by the UK FILM | COUNCIL animation. It then changed to a blue background with a large spacey white text of the production companies’ names. After the text the camera shots a panning shot, in the bedroom. In the middle of the panning shot, there are some text (the production company names). After the panning shot, it shows pretty views of the seaside and the title was shown in a large white text – with a background of the ocean.

Sound

Just a non-diegetic sounds from 4 Film at the start. And a diegetic sound of seagulls, followed by another non-diegetic sound of a boy talking in the background. After he stopped talking, a non-diegetic sound of a calm music.

                  This suggest that it aimed at teenagers or family, and the film might a sad film.

Stand By Me

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• Columbia Pictures presents
• Stand By Me 

Camera

Starts with a black background and white large text of the production company names, followed by the title in the centre of the screen. Next, the camera shots a long distance shot of a car, and get close and changes the point of view to showing a man in the driving seat. The camera then show a glimpse of a close up look at a newspaper, and back to the man. After that, the camera zooms in to the man’s face slowly, and changes the image to a close up shot of a boy taking a magazine. The camera changes the view again to shoot a boy coming out from a building – camera took panning shots.

Sound

Silence at the start, and a diegetic sound of chirping bird’s starts, followed by a non-diegetic of calm, peaceful music plays throughout the opening; and fades. And as the music fades, another non-diegetic sound of a man talking in the background starts.

Garden State

Opening sequence – These are the production companies and the names:

• A Jersey Films/Double Feature Films Production

Camera

A back background with a white medium text of the production name at the starts. Followed by a moving shot of an intense moments of an airplane that looks like having a major problem and about to have an accident – in slow motion. After that, it changes to showing a white bedroom, with a man lying in bed – looks like he’s having trouble sleeping.

                  This suggest that his film wasn’t aimed for children.

Sound

A non-diegetic sound of people talking and in radio, followed by a non-English music – quite dramatic, which makes the audience think that it’s going to end badly at the beginning. After, a diegetic sound of a ringing phone sound and there’s an old man talking on the phone.



What I have learnt

During this task, I have learnt how the structure of an opening sequence is structured. It always starts with the name of the production company, followed by the names and so on; sometimes they don't include the names. I have also learnt that, different shots angle, lighting, sounds can effect an opening sequence. How it can give the audience different feelings or can give them an idea of what the film is going to be; sometimes it can confuse the audience as well.