Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 12th December

Monday 12th December 2016             Comparative Digital Practices       Dan Poalantonio

Digital vs Analogue - Initial ideas

Location Idea: Wembury Bay

For my final piece for comparative film practices, I decided to outline Digital vs Analogue, I decided to talk about the way that both film or digital cameras function, outlining some of the key features that you are given to create any type of image or film that you desire. My whole piece explores the differences or pro's and con's with film and digital through a short 3:30 piece shot around the seaside at Wembury Bay.

Plans
Idea of shooting the seaside using a digital camera, my nikon d3300 with a range of interchangeable lenses, I would like to use the possibility of colour correction to recreate a film feel to certain pieces of footage where the VO that I am creating talks about analogue etc. The content for the short film would include surfers, wide angles of the beach, over exposed, under exposed shots to link with the analogue possibilities within camera, idea for panning shots to be a inside camera editing technique, possible flickr for the colour corrected shots to make them stand out and signify film stock. 

Foley ideas
Waves crashing
Background sea noise
Whistling

Idea for voice over 
With digital image sensors, we determine resolution by counting the number of pixels within a given area, a wide angled panning shot of the seaside would reach up too around 24 mega pixels, using a nikon d3300 and a 10-20mm sigma lens.

Film puts a practical limitation on the amount of shots you have available to you at any given time, tending to amount towards exposures between 24 and 36 in a 35mm camera, it all comes down to the types of film or camera that you use.

The dynamic range of digital cameras is inferior to film stock.

You become conscious of your shots, paying close attention to your subject.

Nothing matches the organic tones grain and flickr that are achievable with film, but with the digital sensors we can expose the frame to capture the clouds in the sky or even the mist covering this mewstone., but i feel like the effect within a film camera is still much more organic and beautiful.

Film typically has more latitude than current digital sensors, exposing negatives by a stop means we still have the ability to create detail from the highlights, there's very little room for error with digital sensors.

I believe that there is still a growing community of camera operators who opt to use both mediums as a way to expose, highlight a particular time and space.

Behind the scenes for the editing and foley creating (All shot using an iPad and iPhone)

 

Think about the materialistic nature of analogue

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 8th December

Wednesday 8th December 2016                 Comparative Film Practices             Dan Paolantinio

Super 16mm Film 

The shoot itself was very organised, 5 people were on set at all times which meant that the workload was shared out evenly amongst the group, first off we set the camera up to our desired angle, next we would use a tape measurer to establish the gap between the camera lens and the subject we were filming to get a focus, finally we took a light reading of the brightest point within the frame to establish our aperture for the shot.

Behind the Scenes - Photos taken using my iPhone

Actor in Silhouette

Positioning the camera - Wide angled shot

Camera setup, measuring the focus

Cutaway shots - Autumnal Leaves

Super 16mm Arri 2 - Kit Ready

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Shot List

Shot 1 - Wide Angled Shot - 17 seconds 

Shot 2 - Mid Shot - 15.1 seconds 

Shot 3 - Close Up - 16.6 Seconds 

Shot 4 - Blowing of Leaves - 22.4

Shot 5 - Unconventional over the shoulder - 5.7 Seconds

Shot 6 - High angle of the steps - 9 Seconds

Shot 7 - Shadow on trees - 18 Seconds 

Shot 8 - Shadow of the Trees - 9.5 Seconds

Shot 9 - Long shot of Steps - 8.5 Seconds

Shot 10 - Footsteps up the stairs - 17 Seconds 

Shot 11 - Picking the tree - 11 Seconds

Shot 12 - Tracking shot following actor - 10 Seconds

Moving Narrative 2 BAFI202 - 7th December

Wednesday 7th December 2016                    Moving Narrative 2                    Kaz Rahman

The Bicycle Thief - The Bicycle Thief. Italy: Vittorio De Sica, 1948. film.

I found this film really interesting the way that the main leads son witnesses his father, an honest man who turns into a thief due to someone taking his bicycle, important mode of transport for Ricci to get to work as a poster hanger - Almost felt like he is carrying on the theft and poverty as one will miss out like he did, times are tough after the second world war. 

The search for his bike becomes an impossible task in the wilderness of Rome, and the police are no help. I remember Ricci saying to his son Bruno "You live and suffer" which I thought was very powerful towards the events that took place on the screen in front of us.

All the way through the film I thought that the lighting played a huge part towards the emotion of the characters i.e. at the start the footage is very low contrast, exposed high and this is around when Ricci is offered a job, however towards the scenes when the bike is stolen the footage gets a lot darker, hard times for father and son in the streets of rome.

The film reflects to poverty in many ways - Italian Neo Realism - the soup kitchen with the homeless, the way the characters are dressed, the way that they use non professional actors which makes for a much better film as we get an insight into the real life after the second world war in Italy.

After watching this film, not only have I become aware of the poverty around Italy after the second world war, I have also noticed that directors like De Sica have used real life actors which has taken away from the hollywood gloss that we are used to seeing on screen, where wealth is shared out equally within economies.

Practical Screencraft 2 BAFI201- 2nd December

Friday 2nd December 2016              Practical Screen-craft       Andy James/Russell Cleave and Dom

RAD Film Project 

As the sound supervisor for this Sci-fi I feel as if I did a really good job with organising my team, developed a further understanding as too how to tackle work load for people who don't turn up. 

Examples of how I supervised and took charge of the sound crew. 

Firstly myself and the boom operator went through the script and noted down any ideas for foley within the film which proved successful as we could tally whether or not we had achieved the sounds required. 

I held regular contact and group meetings, kept a schedule of every persons availability, made those who weren't in, aware of the work that we had been set, organised folders for the sound bites to go into, uploaded and categorised all the foley from both sound groups.

When it came too the set I ensured that both the sound recordists had a list of the equipment that would be required for the shoot to go successfully, I even created a new role of a second boom operator to subsidise having two sound recordists, I wanted to achieve the same dialogue but at different pitches so we used a MK70H and an MCE86 which worked really well to achieve different sounds for the main actress (Chelsea Marie). 

Behind the Scenes for RAD 001

Setting up the lighting - Linda's Transparent Screen

Adjusting the exposure, checking the frame

Checking audio, adjusting the gain

Sound supervisor (myself), camera operator (Jan) and Grip (Constantinos)

(All images taken by Dan Discombe using his phone)

Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - 1st December

Thursday 1st December 2016              Contexts of Practice 2            John Sealey/Lucy Leake

Developing my Literature Review 

Aims 
Start my literature view with a killer argument (of my choice, towards the end I will sum up the research and whether my opinion has changed towards my argument.

Content  

Look into the behaviour within modular narrative film as well as wildlife documentaries, are there any similarities, do the movements in front of camera between these two topics give off the same emotions to there viewers. On closer inspection and research I feel as if there is a similarity between the way narratives loop.....Oman Fast and The towering inferno

(Talk about examples and think how I can link my ideas)

Heavily influenced by Oman Fast short film "5,000 feet is best, talk about the way that the film didn't have a start, middle and end I feel like it shared the same physical emotion with the viewers to that of a wildlife documentary. However I feel like the story for Oman Fast, the way the pilots story changes and gets interfered, this could be linked too the types of action that go on between species of animals when one trespasses on another habitat.

(Text to back up or even talk about - linking to my ideas)

Possibility of using Leonardo Da Vinchi's image for evolution of man - Cycle of life, cycle of narrative within these two different types of films, one the cycle is about the action that is going on, the way he enters a room over and over but tells a different story, the same process is repeated within wildlife where we will be introduced to the species, the narrator will talk about the habitat, lastly they will show action where an animal is being disturbed or threatened by another species presence or violent behaviour.

Central Topic - loops in narrative and documentary wildlife filmmaking, is there a link - examples using Steve McQueen films, Cincinnati kid and towering inferno, loops with the card playing for Cincinnati kid, loop in heading to every floor in the building to evacuate the people within Towering Inferno. 

Sub Topic - behaviour of characters and animals within film, do there movements present different emotions. -

When we see animals being hurt onscreen, the majority of people will feel some kind of sadness which leads to anger, how about in Cincinnati kid where Steve Mc Queen is caught cheating at the start, the actors around him build up anger where as we as the audience will find this funny, we still get mixed emotions through modular narrative films and wildlife documentaries.

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 29th November

Tuesday 29th November 2016.     Comparative Film Practices.   Dan Paolantonio

My Group: Josh Timbrel, Ed Mawhood, Nathaniel Marklew, Matt Miller and Dan Discombe.

Location Scouting - Super 16mm Project

My group decided to go location scouting today, we had the idea that we wanted to film a location where we could highlight the shadows of our character as they move around. The first place that we went too was the park out the back of the hoe, we saw potential through the open area, the way the trees were aligned on either side of the path, however we wanted somewhere that had an aura too it, we felt like the park looked too clean and so we wouldn't have been able to use our ideas of a rustic look for the film.

We then moved over towards the pavilions where we found a small wooded area, this was perfect for our film, we were able to reflect shadow on the trees as we ran past, we thought about utilising the lonesome park bench as a point of contact for our main character who is never revealed on screen. We thought that this small part of ground could be seen as a place for reflection, perhaps something has happened too the character within this location.

The second location that we visited was on the marine football ground, this place was old, had a great aura and we all planned out 6-7 camera angles that would work well for the film. I took a few pictures and videos of the location.

Behind the Scenes - Super 16mm Location Scouting

Marine Football Field - Trees behind the shot, shadows on the trunks as someone dashes past

Hoe Park - Idea of utilising the trees for exterior shots - shadows along the floor as someone travels through the woods.

Capturing the light as it just peaks through the gaps in the tree branches, aiming the camera towards the top to capture the beams of light as they reflect down the trunks. 

(All photos taken by myself using my iPhone 4)

Shot List - Cinematographer 

Panning shot leading across the tops of the trees - In a rainbow shape (up and down), starting from a really old architectural building and leading too a rusted old looking building.

Panning shot of the architectural steps or the entrance to the marines football field park, pillars either side, characters shadow outlined as if he's walking inside. 

Various close up shots of trees - seeing the characters shadow moving across the tree trunks and displaying an outline of their clothes on the ground.

The sun beams shining through the tops of the tree branches, forming an outline on the ground.

Close up along the floor with the grass being blown, perhaps we see a hat rolling along the ground or someones old glove. 

Leaves being blown across the ground in front of the camera

High/Low angle shots of the park to give a sense of space - the location is pretty open, giving an insight into the landscape.

Wide Angled Shot - Portrays a bench at the front of the frame, with a bowling green in the foreground and a monument thats visible in the background. 

Moving Narratives 2 BAFI202 - 29th November

Tuesday 29th November 2016       Moving Narratives 2.      Kaz Rahman

The Third Man

Locations - In today's session we watched the 1949 film "the third man". The film itself was interesting too watch as it was set in Vienna, the main shots were all around the city and I thought it was clever the way they used old stock footage at the start to signify the end of the Second World War, the film featured many bombs out buildings associated with post war.

Story - I thought the story for this film was interesting, the way the main character played by Joseph cotton went about his life, it was evident that he was a well known author for his western interest. He almost became somewhat a detective as we discover that one of the main characters played by Orson Welles (Harry Lime) is not actually dead. The whole film has become centered around the death of Harry Lime, also good to note that citizen Kane was another film that was played by these two main actors, after watching both I feel as if citizen Kane had a big influence on the making for "The Third Man"

Cinematography - one key element that I picked up was the way that almost half the shots within the film had been tilted, after researching about this film I discovered that it's called a Dutch tilt, good way to set the scene within a film, we can get a feel that an image is out of place. From watching the angles and taking note of the story as it unfolds, I feel as well as the music that the tilts make the piece feel out of place, until the very end we as the audience members don't understand the whole plot twist which is made clear towards the scene where a cat wanders off into the shadows of a dark alley where a man stood in the pitch black, holly Martin (Joseph cotton) referred to the man as a spy.

I felt that the use of low key lighting was fantastic, it's what's to understand who we are looking at until they step out into the open, gives the characters a sinister look. I thoroughly thought the film had been lit well, especially within the sewer scene, it wasn't until the dark tunnel chase as the end that we were unable to struggle to find Harry Lime.

The music I thought was somewhat upbeat, it reflected the tragic situations that we were viewing on the screen, I though that the tube was very catchy as well, it felt like the tune was always played as a signification that Harry Lime was about to appear.