I have created this blog to document my progression when going
through this Media Studies A-Level course. Through the AS section of the
course, I will be taking on most of the roles myself - meaning that I will be:
director, actor, cinematographer, producer, etc. when doing these projects. I
will of course enlist the help of friends where appropriate and will also
document their contributions to the projects on this blog.
For the preliminary task I will have to create a short sequence.
In which a character opens a door, crosses a room, sits down in a chair and
exchanges a few lines of dialogue with another character. I will have to
demonstrate knowledge of the 180 degree rule, and show a match on action and
shot reverse shot in my film.
I love the idea of experimenting a lot with this task because I
have seen many other student's preliminary tasks and they are very similar. So
I will write a short script, but won't actually create a shot list or
storyboard as I like the idea of looking at so many different ways of doing
simple tasks - and I cannot do that by simply coming up with ways in my head (I
will have to get a camera and 'play around' with the same action a lot of
times). Hopefully this experimentation will help me be more precise when approaching
my main task - as I will have some favourite shot types and ways of showing
simple things on camera.
I think this approach will be very useful when approaching my main
task, however it will take a little time to do and I will not be able to
practice creating shot lists or storyboards. The preliminary task will not by
any means be a 'perfect film' however it will feature the techniques listed and
will be a great stepping stone to creating my main task.
For the preliminary tasks I have had a lot of different ideas,
such as: a secret agent being given orders to kill someone; a parent meeting a
teacher about their son in school; a police officer interrogating a criminal;
and simply a character meeting a friend for a drink. But I have decided to
create a sequence where the protagonist has been accused of something illegal
and is meeting the person that has accused him; the conversation gets heated
and in the end the protagonist flips the table over and breaks down in tears.
This will show a match on action when he flips the table over and
a shot reverse shot when the two characters are arguing. I will set to work
creating the first draft of the script as soon as possible, then will enlist
the help of two friends - one who likes to act for camera and another who can
film it for me.
For my main task however, I have decided to go down the route of
science fiction. This is because I (like a lot of us) enjoy films about very
special people, and who are more special than superheroes or aliens or any
other science fiction genre cliché? But to go with my experimental way of
filming, I would like to shoot the entire 2 minutes without showing the
protagonist's face - until the final shot that is. I want to do this because I
feel faces just show the audience exactly what is happening, when I can show
the audience what is happening in a less 'in your face' way (i.e. the way the
characters walk, or the way they are standing, etc.). During the 2 minute
opening, there will be a voice-over telling the audience a little about the
character, ending with the last shot where the camera will tilt up to the
protagonist's face and a cut to black for the final part of the voice-over
(leaving the audience with an enigma of who the protagonist really is).
When I explain it, it may seem a little confusing. This is because
some ideas aren't entirely thought out, and I find it hard to explain these
thoughts in words - it will become clearer when I start to make more progress
in the course.
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