‘Broken’ evaluation

Is this essay I will be evaluating on the work that my group and I put in to create the opening of a thriller. In September we started to study one of the video units in our BTEC. We had to plan, shoot and edit a 3 minute opening to a thriller. We had to work in groups of 3, my group was: Me, Sam and Lydia. We quickly decided what would happen in our opening and planned it out including storyboards. We then shot the opening of the thriller with a Sony Z1 camera. We had 6 and a half weeks to film and edit our thriller to get our final product which we named ‘Broken’.

To produce Broken we used Final Cut Pro to edit all of the footage we had shot, as I have used Final Cut Pro before I felt confident enough to work with it and help my group in using it when editing. In editing I feel that I may have done too much and not given the other two members of my group an equal chance in editing, even do we all did some editing I feel that because I was confident using the programme I rushed into the editing without checking how well the other members of my group knew final cut pro. Also while using Final Cut Pro I learnt how to deinterlace footage before exporting it, you have to deinterlace because we filmed in HD.

After editing we needed to make a soundtrack for ‘Broken’ to do this we decided to use Sound Track Pro, as I had not used this programme before I found it a bit harder to use this programme, as we had not used this programme before we decided to spend as much time on it as possible as we wanted our soundtrack to be as good as our editing but due to unfortunate events at school we only has two lessons to make our soundtrack. I don’t feel that I really worked on the soundtrack because I was not in the lesson that the soundtrack was made in but I think that the soundtrack works well within the finished sequence. I think that the soundtrack we have in the final version of ‘Broken’ fits well because it is tension building and changes with the shots.

I think that a lot of stuff in ‘Broken’ worked, one of these things is the “Fridge Cam” and “Bag Cam” I think these two shots worked because they were filmed on a second, smaller, camera which gave us the opportunity to try out different shots where we couldn’t possibly put the camera, for example a fridge and the bottom of a bag. We feel confident about the camera shots we have in our final product because when we watched it back in class a lot of the feedback was about our shots. Another thing that I think worked really well was the acting from both of our characters, because they where such good friends they already had good chemistry with each other. Also, I feel that the way we planned our shot worked really well because we planned it shot by shot meaning that we had enough shots to work with and when we got to the shoot we didn’t sit around for an hour deciding what to do. Finally, one of the main factors of ‘Broken’ that works is the juxtaposition from the couple happy together to the violence that happens so quickly together, this was also another main factor of the feedback that was given back to us.

Also with all projects some things didn’t go well. I think the biggest thing that didn’t work well in our original shoot was the use of a baby because he was very tired by the time that we worked with him meaning we didn’t get the shots we needed from him. We got around this by deciding to re-shoot and changed the story so that there was not a baby in it. Another problem that we faced was during re-shooting, when we arrived on the set for the re-shoot we started to set up the kit when we discovered that we didn’t have a base plate for the tri-pod and also we didn’t have any tapes for the camera, we could work around the fact that we didn’t have a base plate but we could not work without tapes but the problem was easily fixed because I lived close to the house we were filming in I had some tapes so I went home and got cameras.

In our group I feel that we did swap roles well so that we all had a chance to do a bit of everything in the filming and post-production parts of this project. In filming I started off by being the boom operator for all of the scenes in the kitchen when our male actor, Joe, was making the cup of tea. When we moved onto shooting in the front room where Joe and Amy, our actress, watched TV and hugged for the scenes to symbolise a happy relationship I was on camera. Once we had finished filming in the front room we went up to the bedroom and took a break, after the break we started to film the violence scenes, for the shots we got showing violence we didn’t have set jobs but we took it in turns to be on camera, we felt this worked better because if one of us couldn’t get the angle that we wanted one of us would be able to. After the violence scene Amy did her fake blood makeup and then we got straight back into shooting, Sam and Lydia mainly did camera for the bedroom shots of Amy being dead and for this I mainly did sound. When we finished the bedroom shot we filmed the shots of Joe in the bathroom cleaning his hands, we each to equal chances at using the camera for this point. When it got to Joe walking down the stairs I was on camera for the first 6 shots and then we swapped again, once Joe walked out the door because it was only 3 shots I went outside and filmed them with Joe. I do feel that our group had more equal opportunities in the filming stage of ‘Broken’

I think that we used technology to our fullest because we used Final Cut Pro to make Freeze Frames of the dead body so that it looked more still and more like it was dead. Also we used Final Cut Pro to do the Ghost effect that you see at the end of our opening. Another reason why I feel that we used technology to its full potential because after we had edited we took our film into Soundtrack Pro and made a soundtrack to fit perfectly in with the final edit. Because of various reasons we could not all  be together when the soundtrack was being made meaning in the morning Sam and Lydia made the soundtrack in the morning and the afternoon Lydia and I checked for audio peaks in the soundtrack and confirmed that the edit was finished. Also we used technology well with “Bag Cam” and “Fridge Cam” because we used a second camera to film this and then edited the shots together in post production.

If we did the shoot differently than I think that we would get the second set of actors the first time and shoot it without the baby from the start, also we would get more shots in the first shoot so that we would have less possibility of a re-shoot.

I think that as thriller ‘Broken’ is conventional, the first convention we used was black background with white text. This worked because it built tension and it doesn’t give away a lot of clues to what is about to happen. I also think it is conventional because of the juxtaposition from love to violence. This works well because it starts with the couple looking all happy and in love and then it quickly shows the different side of the relationship. I think that if I could improve anything in the opening it would be that we concentrated more on what was in shot when filming because a couple of times we had packets of crisps and crew members. Also another I would improve was that if we could shoot the “Bag Cam” and “Fridge Cam” again I would film it in HD.

Exporting

Self contained is the biggest file out of the three but it is also the quickest way for you to export a video.
Quick time conversion will support your video to play on any computer.
Compressor will convert your video into any format of video.

When you have finished your video follow the next steps to export:
1) Mark in and out points of your video.
2) Check your work for audio peaks (this is important so the sound does not distort)
3) Check the lighting of your video (this is vital as you do not want it to bright or to dark)
4) Select all of your finished video work (To apply deinterlace)
5) apply deinterlace (only do this when you are 100% finished)
6) select the clip in browser and follow these instructions: file > export > quick time or browser > file > export > quick time compressor

Blogging our shoot

My group and I planned to meet each other for filming at 10 am, we arrived at our filming location at 10:30am. Our first job was to collect our baby actor, Luke, who lived two doors away from our filming location. We planned to start filming as soon as we had our actors but the female actor, Georgia, had not arrived and had phoned me to say she would be at the location by 11:00am. We decided that we would wait for her because we could not film most of the shoot properly without her being there. At 11:30 we decided that we would change the shoot a little bit and film the bathroom scene first, the problem we faced with this was that we could not put blood onto the male actor, Jake, because if we did it would ruin the continuity for the rest of the shoot.


At around 12pm Georgia arrived for filming, when she arrived we had not finished filming so we asked her to sit in the room we would be filming in and play with Luke while we waited to film her scenes. As we were filming the last 2 shots of the bathroom scene which included a cat running down stairs we heard a loud cry come from the bedroom, Georgia then carried Luke out to the hall way of the house we were filming in and we noticed straight away that he was tired and need a sleep before we could film with him, but we did not have enough time for him to have a sleep.


Luke's mum then took Luke off set for 30 minutes while we put Georgia's fake blood make up on and filmed parts of the scene that Luke was not needed for, he had seemed to calm down. As we put Luke into position to film he started to cry again and was getting restless, my group and I (mostly me) started to get annoyed with the fact that we were struggling to film his shots because he was so restless and crying, but we could not blame Luke as he is just a baby and if our actors were on time it would have been fine. We then decided that we would have to work with what we had of Luke and moved on with the filming. We then filmed the rest of the scenesin the bedroom where Luke could not be seen, this took us around 30 minutes and then we decided to move onto the final scenes.


From filming in the bedroom we decided to film the final bits where Jake leaves the house and walks down the street. This was an easy and simple procidure and took us around 30 minutes. If my group could do this shoot again we would plan it without a baby and we would put more time into it and get a lot more shots.

Synopsis

18 year old Georgia has a 10 month old baby, Luke, she still lives with the father, Jake, but it seems that she has become a victim of teenage domestic violence. All do Jake is not seen you can get the sense of him being slightly scared when Georgia’s phone rings and the caller id reads “MUM”. The whole scene takes place on a sunny day which goes against thriller conventions. You can first tell that this is a family home when you see a cat run down the stairs of the house and then you see Jake pick up Luke. The presence of Luke shows innocence as he is clearly unaware of why Georgia is lying on the bed with blood running down her face.

Story Boards

Stort Board

LSC productions - equipment , location and cast

Equipment

•  Camera

• Tripod

• Boom Mic

• Fake Blood/Blood capsules

• Mobile Phone

• Rucksack/Bag

• Baby Toys

• Blood Stained T-Shirt

• Black cat

• Hoodie

• Baby

• Male actor

• Female actor

• Female v/o (different to female actor)

Cast

• Female Victim - Georgia O’Keefe

• Male Attacker - Jake Woods

• Baby - Luke Powell

• Female V/O – Sasha Powell

Location

• Family House

• .Bathroom

• Childs Bedroom

• Adults Bedroom

• Hall way

• Stairs

• Kitchen

• Dining room

• Front room

• Street outside house

Filming Shedule

Who	What/What’s needed	Where	When
Jake Georgia Sam Lydia Charlie Luke Sasha	Everything	Family Home Street outside home	Monday 11th October 2010 1000 – 1500

Shooting Order

1.       All the bathroom shots

2.       All of the body shots

3.       Shots of baby

4.       Shots of baby getting picked up

5.       Shot of the cat

6.       Killer walking from bathroom to bedroom

7.       Mobile phone

8.       Shots of killer packing bags

9.       Killer leaving house

10.   Killer walking down the street

11.   Record voice mail messages

12.   Light flickering

Equipment, Location and Cast

Equipment

·         Camera

·         Tripod

·         Boom Mic

·         Fake Blood/Blood capsules

·         Mobile Phone

·         Rucksack/Bag

·         Baby Toys

·         Blood Stained T-Shirt

·         Black cat

·         Hoodie

·         Baby

·         Male actor

·         Female actor

·         Female v/o (different to female actor)

Cast

·         Female Victim - Georgia O’Keefe

·         Male Attacker - Jake Woods

·         Baby - Luke Powell

·         Female V/O – Sasha Powell

Location

·         Family House
Bathroom
Childs Bedroom
Adults Bedroom
Hall way
Stairs
Kitchen
Dining room
Front room

·         Street outside house

Future Technology

Internet Tv Redo

Thriller Conventions

The Music - Has to be fast, dramatic and intense to build up tension with the audience.


The Titles - Black and White, Simple and In sync with the music.


The Shots - Camera shots are vital for a thriller, they have the be quick and mysterious.


The Actors/Speech - Normally in a thriller there will not be much diaolge in the opening sequence and you will normally not see a characters face.

Camera Test

1. What are 2 effects of increasing video gain ?
The image gets grainy
More light is made available so you can shoot in the dark
 
2. What should the shutter speed usually be set to ?
50 frames per second


3. When should you increase shutter speed and what is the side effect of doing this ? When you are planning a slow motion you should increase the shutter speed to make the slow motion look smooth, the side effect of doing this is that your light becomes limited meaning you need more lighting.

4. What is the pupose of doing a white balance ?
To set the colour balance.

5. What is the effect of increasing the audio gain ?
Makes the volume higher but may distort the audio


6. Describe the stages of focusing a camera.
Click focus button, zoom into hair, bring hair into focus, use expended focus to get in a little further to check it is perfect.

7.Why would you use the ND filter ?
For shooting in bright positions outside and to shoot stuff like clouds in more definition


8. If you are shooting in a dark location, would the exposure be better at F1 or F8 ?
F1

UK Broadcasting Systems

In the UK today there are many ways of broadcasting television to people through out the country, including; Satellite, cable, terrestrial, digital and internet. Broadcasters include companies like BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and more. The television providers like Virgin Media and Sky are also part of the broadcasting process as they are the companies who bring the picture to your screens. The original broadcasters of terrestrial TV are BBC, ITV and Channel 4.


The first form of broadcasting I am going to look at is terrestrial broadcasting or digital video broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T). Terrestrial broadcasting is broadcasting which doesn’t involve satellites or cable. Terrestrial broadcasting uses radio waves, the radio waves are sent from the big local antennas to the smaller antennas or aerials in or on your house. Terrestrial broadcasting was one of the first ways of broadcasting television to a wide mass of people. The size of the signal is also known as a bandwidth; This way of broadcasting has been out for decades but in the modern day we have even better ways of broadcasting now. The main problem with terrestrial broadcasting is that radio waves only travel straight meaning that if your local antenna is based on one side of a hill and you live on the other side of the hill you will not receive the radio waves meaning you will not have any television channels. Anther draw back of terrestrial broadcasting is that if there is poor weather then your television will not receive the transmissions in the correct way meaning certain channels will not work, also radio waves are limited and don’t travel far. The best example for use of DVB-T in the UK is Freeview, Freeview picks up the channels with the box when an areal is plugged into the box or television and then it transmits the signals onto your screen as moving images.


The next form of broadcasting I would like to look at is satellite TV. Satellite TV is mostly connected in the UK to the television providers Sky who use satellites to transmit their channels. For satellite TV to work you need a satellite dish fitted to a part of your house to pick up the transmissions. Another use of satellite TV is for live transmissions in programmes like the news where the footage is being sent live to the news studio and then sent to our televisions. One of the main benefits of satellite TV is that terrain does not affect the satellite signal as the satellites are much higher up compared to antennas meaning that terrain does not block signals. Also another benefit of satellite television is that it provides a better bundle of higher definition, interactive TV. A big step for satellite TV and other forms of broadcasting was being able to pause, rewind and record live television, television providers Sky where the first to make this available with there now famous Sky+ box which later was available in HD as well. Another benefit for satellite TV users is that there is nearly no restriction on where it can be broadcast but this is a challenge for cable TV.


Another form of broadcasting as I have mentioned is cable TV. Cable TV is one of the most competitive markets within television providers. Cable TV provides TV via signals which are transmitted through fixed optical fibres and coaxial cables located on the subscribers property. There are many benefits and drawbacks for cable TV. The main benefit for the broadcasters is that once a company has laid cables on a road then that is the company you would have to go with if you wanted cable TV, this meant that companies would compete against each other to lay cables first. Virgin media, one of Britain's top cable providers, made a big but clever move between 2006 and 2007 when they bought and merged with NTL: Telewest to create Virgin Media. Following this Virgin Media followed in the footsteps of Sky and released the V+ service. Along with there V+ Service they had Virgin on demand services where they had catch up, TV choice, music and films all on demand to there customers for no extra fee, depending on the costumers package. All do virgin took this approach on the cable TV market they do not occupy the whole cable TV market. The drawbacks of cable TV is that if your area is being maintained then your TV will not be received until the providers feels it is safe to turn the cables back on. This means that a lot of people that live in the middle of a city where there is a lot of maintenance work would find it less hassle not to have cable TV.


Finally I am going to talk about internet TV. In the 21st century most UK residents will have access to broadband or the internet. Many TV providers also offer broadband services. In the last few years TV companies have realised a new way of making the younger audience watch more of the shows they offer and to earn more money on advertising. This was the birth of Internet Television. After a show had been shown on the televisions channel for example Channel 4 the company would then put it onto there website in the form of a television player on the internet in this case 4OD (where you can watch a show for up to 7 days after it was first shown). Other companies have there own internet TV players, for The BBC it is the BBC iPlayer, for ITV it is the ITV Player and many channels now use YouTube. The main advantage of internet TV is that you can watch a show when you want to watch it instead of when it is scheduled for the television. The main drawback is that you have to have internet connection to watch the shows and in increasing popularity some channels may start to charge for there players for exclusive viewing or other perks of membership. I predict that in the near future internet TV will have taken over the broadcasting system and many people may stop watching there televisions as much if they can choose when the watch it.


My conclusion is that the older versions of broadcasting like analogue terrestrial broadcasting will slowly die out making more room for internet TV and maybe even new forms of broadcasting like mobile TV, which is currently available but not as successful as other forms of broadcasting. Also I think that when cable TV does find an even faster way to transmit the television it may become the more popular choice between cable TV and satellite TV but people will feel disappointed when they lose their cable TV while the wires are replaced. So my final conclusion is that; all the currently popular ways of broadcasting TV have now been around for about 10-20 years, apart from terrestrial broadcasting which has been around for 60 years, and are no where close to stopping yet. In addition to the broadcasting market growing people will start to face even more choices when choosing how to watch TV programmes especially with the newest release of 3D TV being broadcasted into your home coming soon and the competition of cable against satellite being its best for years.

Digital Video Technology

Digital video technology has changed television broadcasting because it means that we can be offered a wider variety of channels rather than just BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Also digital technology means that the quality of content is better than analogue content. Without digital technology we would not be able to record TV at the standard we can now, for example with Sky+ you do not have to rewind your recording like you do have to on an analogue VCR deck. Editing is helped by digital technology because it means that you can add effects so much more easily.

TV and Your Brain

TV Pixels and Your Brain

If you divide a still image into a collection of small coloured dots, your brain will put together the dots into a meaningful image.

TV Motion and Your Brain

If you divide a moving scene into a sequence of still pictures and show the still images in a quick succession, the brain will puts together the still images into a single, moving image.

British TV uses 25 frames per second to make a smooth moving image.

Aspect Ratio

- When you pan and scan the picture of the film blurs and you lose the full affect of the film and picture.
- The ratio for wide screen is 16:9
- The ratio for full screen is 4:3
- For the past 50 years most films have been filmed in wide screen

This is a 16:9 TV – This gives the viewer a more panoramic experience.




This is a 4:3 TV

There are many ways of converting widescreen onto a 4:3 TV and full screen onto a 16:9 TV. For example for widescreen on a 4:3 TV you could letter box the image and for 4:3 image on a 16:9 TV you could pillar box the image.