Nisserin Bessioua - UCA Television Production

This is my basic film schedule for my first shoot day on Tuesday the 9th. When I have more details from my actors and specifics on my location, I will be able to create a more detailed one. 

Directing the Story - Francis Glebas  After reading this book, it really made me think about the shots I had chosen for my drama and whether they we all necessary. There's a section in the book called 'Every shot is a close up' where it talks about how each shot is framed to show something important and points the audience towards what they should be focussing on. It explains how films and tv use visual sequences and composition to tell a story rather than having the characters explain everything in their dialogue.  I went back to my storyboard and looked at all the shots I had planned out and it became clear to me that some of them weren't showing the audience anything, they were just for effect. I have since then been through and looked at each shot, seeing if I can change it so that it points the audience towards something in the scene that will give them an idea about the story or maybe what might happen next. For example, I have included more shot...

For my script feedback, I was told that my script was very dialogue heavy and would require good actors.  The first scene I chose was more dependant on the locations and the set design rather than the dialogue because I knew my second scene was quite dialogue heavy and required lots of good sound design.  I agree that a good location will be key for the establishing shots of the location of the scene as this is the first shot in the video and will set up the scene for the rest of the video.  I chose my second scene because I felt that it would give me a good opportunity for sound design. In the scene, the main character walks inside a building but the camera stays on the outside, following him along the different floors of the building.  In order to build up the tension  and suspense in the scene, sound is used rather than the audience seeing the action, they hear it. Lots of the sounds used are gun shots and people shouting. I will pre-record...

I have planned out the set up for my drama, including where I am going to place my characters and where I want the lights and camera to be. I have decided to use two lights in my set up, one to light up the background and create some depth in the shot, separating the character from the wall behind him, and the other to light up the face of the main character.  For my production design, I will bring in props to make the room look more like an office. These are some images that I used to give me an idea of what I want it to look like and the kinds of things I will need. I have included pictures of the characters children as that is part of my script and drawn pictures to put on the wall to emphasis his family orientated character. 

I have created a shot list to help on the day of filming. This is the shot loft for my first scene. 

To cast actors for my drama, I used Casting Call Pro. I described all our characters that I was looking for and made sure to mention their personalities and what I wanted from them. I also mentioned my location and filming dates.  When actors started to reply to my post, I looked through their profiles and watched their showreels to see which ones best suited my character descriptions. These are the ones i have chosen for far, I still need one more to play one of the Police Officers.  These are the two actors I have chosen to play my main characters. I think they best suit the roles of my characters are they are both have experience in acting and I think they'll both be able to take on the roles of my characters. 

Today we went to Whitstable to film my self portrait video. I also filmed Becca's as we had the same location. We went early in the morning so that it wouldn't be too busy and we'd have lots of space to film.  We had a few problems with the weather as it was very cold, windy and heavily raining. However this added to the whole effect of my self portrait and gave the videos and cold and moody tone which I like.  Filming the video went well as I knew what shots I wanted and had my storyboard and shot list so Becca who was filming could see the kind of shots I wanted. On a few of the shots, you can see some water droplets on the lens which at first I though would be a problem but after watching them through again, I liked the way they made the video look as they gave it a distorted and blurry feel.  Recording the sound was also difficult because the wind was quite strong which was mostly what we could hear I the microphone. Some of the sounds we recorded we ok to ...

In our directing workshop on Monday, we were shown a clip of Atonement without hearing the sound as we were looking at the different shots and what we could tell from the way it had been framed. This showed me that choosing what type of shot you're going to use is really important because they can show the audience the tone and atmosphere of the scene without the aid of sound.  I leant that being a director means that you have to be able to communicate with lots of different people as there will be many people looking at the director, waiting to be told what to do. I think that as a director on this project, I could have been more instructive to my actors and given them more information about what I wanted them to do.  Although I got most of the shots I wanted in the time we were given, I found it difficult to work with a director of photography because I found myself making adjustments on the camera and not trusting that they would be able to capture th...

Today we were given the task of sound design for a 3.5 minute film clip. I worked with Sammi and we decided to use sound effects from YouTube and iTunes. We watched through the video and made a list of all the different sounds we might need and then went looking for them.  At first we found it quite difficult to find realistic sounds effects as they all were quite fake and unnatural.  Breathing traffic atmosphere footsteps (Walking and running) dog barking heavy traffic children playing in a park trees wind phone ringing one sided dialogue punching a tree sighing  walking on gravel echoes in a tunnel After finding the sound effects we wanted to use, we edited them into the video. We decided to layer up some of the sounds, for example the children playing and the sound of trees moving in the wind. We also changed the volumes of some of the tracks so that they sounded more like you would actually here them if you were in the same location as th...

The Maltese Falcon (1941) I like the way only one side of his face is lit and the other side is full of shadows, this gives the sense of two different sides to the character and creates an enigmatic and mysterious look.  The Maltese Falcon (1941) The key light slightly to the left of the camera  creates a shadow across her face, giving the image an interesting look. Double Indemnity (1944)  The shadow on the wall of another person makes the scene more mysterious as we can't see who the character is. I like this shot and the lighting style, I want to include a similar shot to this in my self portrait film.  Double Indemnity (1944) The lighting in this shot creates a silhouette of the character. In our self portrait film, we have to appear in the video at some point. I am thinking of maybe trying to recreate this shot for my film, this being the scene in which I appear in the video. 

In this image we used the sun light as our key lighting on the subject, this made it really high key so we had to change the stops so that the image wasn't over exposed.  Over out key light we used the gauze and an ND filter to soften the light. We used a fill light on the right of the image to to light up the othe side of Sammi's face and remove any shadows cast by the key light. Over this light we put a blue gel to make it a more natural colour as it was very warm and yellow compared to the sunlight. Our camera was set to F6.7 and out shutter on 1/100.  In this image we tried using all 3 lights to create a high key look. With our back light, we used it to create some shadows on the background and add some depth. We used a hanging coat to form some interesting shadows. Our key light was slightly to the left of our camera, this created lots of shadow on the right side of the subjects so we used our fill light to remove some of them. This created a harsh li...

Jake Cauty // Self Portrait  Self Portrait By Jake Cauty. "A short award winning film delving deep into the disturbing mind of Jake Cauty. Try to understand the powerful imagery that is his mind, emptied out onto your screen. 'This is my Self Portrait.' " This self portrait film is all in black and white and has been edited to make it look like it is on film. I like this style as think that the looks gives it an old fashioned feel and gives it an interesting look that's different. I like the use of the jump cuts and how they're effective in the way they add a sense of distortion to the shots. They also keep up the pace of the video and make them more interesting to watch.  There are lots of extreme close ups used which are unnaturally close and makes the audience slightly uncomfortable when watching. These shots draw your attention to specific things the director wants you to see.  Each action that happens in this self portra...

For my self portrait film, I have chosen Whitstable as my main location for filming. Today, I went to the location to find specific areas that I would like to film.  I chose this location because it is a place that I spent lots of time at as a child and I wanted a location that would mean something. Whitstable has quite a long beach meaning there is lots of different places along the coast I could film. By choosing a seaside location, I can try to achieve the reflection shots I wanted and it also allows me in the editing stages to change the way the sky looks to portray the mood and tone of the film.  I have decided to film some of self portrait video at an indoor location so that I can use some of the lighting techniques we learnt in our workshops earlier this week.  

This is my initial storyboard for my self portrait film. I found it helpful do draw out the shots I'm going to film and making notes underneath the images means that when I come to filming, I won't forget when kind of shot I had in mind. After doing some more research into other self portraits, I have changed my idea slightly and I have planned some different types of shots that are not on my storyboard yet. From our lighting and camera workshops this week, I want to change some of the camera angles and shots to reflect what is happening in the scene rather than just including shots to get lots of coverage. I have also planned some shots using some of the lighting techniques we learnt.     

Today we looked at the Canon 7D cameras. We looked at how to use the cameras, the different settings we can use and how they compared to the Sony EX cameras. Using a DSLR camera takes some time to set up so are best for slower shoots where you have the time to change the settings and try out different looks. However if you needed to film something quickly and didn't have much time, then using a Sony is good because you can easily set up the camera. Using a DSLR is still good because you can put the camera into auto settings and it can focus and light balance for you, however it might not be the look you want.  We also looked at sound and how you would record audio if you were using a Canon to film with. The camera does have a build in microphone but it's very small so we would either have to attach a rode microphone to the camera which is mounted at the top. This can be difficult when filming because if you're want a wide shot of two characters talking then you wo...

In our lighting workshop today, we looked at 3 point lighting and how there are many different lighting set ups. We looked at how lighting can set the tone and mood of a scene depending on the way they are positioned and we then tested this out ourselves in groups.  Using two lights, I directed on towards the background in order to create some depth and separate Ellie from the background. This gave some nice shadows in the background and make it look like she was closer to it than she actually was, pulling them together.  There was also another light in front of her to light up her face, slightly to the right of the image. The light was set to full flood and we used some black wrap to create a small section of light to go across her eyes. We used tried out different ND filters to soften the light and make it less harsh on her face.  On the camera setting, we went trough and looked at the different aperture settings to see which one was best. this clip wa...

In a group of 4, we were given the brief of creating a 2-4 minute video that was a self portrait of each member of the group. We then had to film and edit the video to show everyone later in the day.  When trying to come up with ideas for the video, we struggled to stick to one plan. We tested out our first thought but came to a dead end and realised that we couldn't take it any further. As a group, we sat down and brainstormed some more ideas. We then then took part of our original idea and developed it into something we believed to be much better, it gave a better sense of the characters which was the main part of the brief.  Although we had some issues coming up with an idea for the video, we all worked really well as a team, contributing ideas and communicating with each other. We each took turns to direct our own sections of the video and everyone had the chance to film.  I think our sound design worked well in showing the audience each aspect of the di...