Lumiere Brothers
(Science+ Media Museum, n.d.)
My own classical film example
Reflective Blogs
week 16
This week we started a new topic looking at the evolution of cinema starting from the very start, to understand how cinema started we watched small documentary's about the Lumiere Brothers who invented the Cinematograph and Thomas Edison who developed the Kinetograph. We then watched and analysed some early films, this helped me to understand the patterns of what most included (no sound other then music, filmed in colour, mainly comedy, kept very short). From this I learnt how much we have evolved, but also what we still use today from all those years ago. To then develop my knowledge of early cinema further I need to watch some more documentary's as well as examples of old movies. This week we also filmed only a 30second silent film using our research of what the early films looked like, giving us our own example. Overall the transferable skills I developed thus week were my analysing skills which can be used on any future projects needing to be analysed. As well as learning about early cinema which can be used to see the development of filming and technology today.
week 17
This week we looked at classical cinema to understand the development's made since primitive cinema, to do so we watched examples on YouTube analysing the changes/improvements but also the similarity's. This then helped me to develop my analysing skills ensuring to give examples when making a point. I then felt comfortable to plan and recreate 'Partie de cartes' using the techniques that I analysed from classical films. When filming I was also the director which was difficult as I was not able to explain myself properly to develop this skill I will ask for some help and write down beforehand what I want to say as well as getting more experience. When editing my aim was to make my own example look similar to the classical film we were recreating which is why it has such a long establishing shot modernizing it slightly with the ending shots keeping it simple. Over all the transferable skill I learnt this week would be the experience I gained from directing, the mistakes I made have given me the knowledge on what to do next time to developed further. The knowledge I learnt this week was how much cinema managed to change over a short period of time due to factors such as technology, and even the audiences influencing the type's of films being made.
week 18
This week we looked at the evolution of sound, to understand this we firstly looked at key words (Diminution, Accentuate, Impression, Expression) this then enabled us to look at examples of expression and impression in sound in scenes from movie/Tv clips. This helped me to understand the importance of sound and how much it can change a scene and cause emotion's. From this I learnt how controling the levels of sound to make something not repetitive is very importance to keep your audience interested. I then felt happy working on making our own sounds out of paper to put over the cartoon 'Steamboat Willie' the first thing we did as a pair was pic out the 20second clip we wanted to put our own sound over, then trying to recreate the sounds already on the cartoon. When recording the first set of sounds we managed to find a quit area upstairs but once we listened to the audio we realised there was too much background noise, to fic this problem we decided to use the Radio room which was deadly silent allowing our audio to be crisp and clear. When editing I decided to add some more sounds to the characters actions then there actually was on the original cartoon this idea came from watching other peoples edits seeing how they didn't have big gaps between sounds , also making sure to control the volume of the sounds causing a nice flow between sounds. The knowledge I gained this week were the definitions of diminution an impression as well as how sound has developed and came about, how it was not accepted at first due to technical problems. The overall skills I learnt this week were how to control the sounds you edit onto a video, and that you need a really really quite space when recording sounds to make editing easier this I now know for when working on future projects.
week 19
This week we worked on our Foley work to do so we watched 2 videos showing the work and creativity that goes into creating the sounds for a scene, this then gave us an idea of what typed of objects and movements to use when making a sound. I then felt comfortable working on making our own Foley sounds as a group to put over a 1 minute clip from 'The princess bride' from this project I learnt that Foley work is acting itself re-enacting the movements of characters. I also need to develop my skills in editing and become more confident with using Audacity to make the sounds even more crisp, along with this when recording the sounds we need to be 100%quite to enable for all the audio to be used. This knowledge I will take with me when making Foley sounds again. When editing my aim was to get all of the sword movements in sync to do this I separated all of the sounds we had created for this point to then align each sound to the point, therefore gaining a skill to use next time when editing. Another skill I learnt this week was how to manipulate an object into sounding like something else, the main transferable skill would be noting how loud a action has to be in order for it to be picked up by the microphone.
week 20
This week we looked at the evolution of colour in film, to do so we watched some YouTube videos explaining the development and how long only about 10years ago the process of changing colour on film actually was. We then looked at some diagrams of the colour wheel and key words such as complimentary colours which are colours opposite each other on the colour wheel that pair well together, and monochromatic which are different shades/tint of the same colour hue. This then enabled us to analyse the colour meaning from three different scenes from three different movies, from this task I learnt how important each costume and set design (props) are to a scene how subtle everything may be they make a huge difference, once you understand the meaning behind them. I then felt happy working on coming up with my own 30-45second scene based around the use of colour used to communicate an idea to the audience, when developing the idea I noticed I need to improve on my storyboard to then have further evidence of the planning. When filming we did run into a problem with the lighting as it was making the actors too bright on the camera, to overcome this problem we added a magenta gel to the LED light which over exaggerated the pink making the scene even better. We also developed our final scripts, I sent my draft script to my teacher to gain the necessary feedback to finalise the script and back up my evidence of research further.
week 21
This week I edited the Colour in film video we filmed last week, when editing I decided to enhance the colour's green and pink to make both stand out against each other; to understand how to do this I asked for help from my teacher. Gaining feedback from my peers as i went along to see if the adjustments were a bit too much. From this I learnt how to accentuate and highlight a specific colour from the rest in a scene. This week we also had actors from the theatre department to act out our scripts, I first practised my directing skills by getting people in the class to act out the script, this enabled me to see how clear I need to be with certain instructions. I then felt comfortable with my script and knew what areas needed to be pointed out to the actors however, upon working with the actors I had become nervous and was not then able to be clear enough when giving advice on what to do. Therefor i need to work on my Directing skills with actors, to do this I need to work with more people in the class and when working with actors build my way up to directing in front of the whole class again. Overall the skills i learnt this week were my editing, learning a whole new area which will be applied to all future editing projects, and from the points I have noted from the directing experience I will be able to improve next time.
week 22
This week I researched the evolution of cinematography to write a script for my video essay on a specific area of the evolution of cinema, to understand how much cinematography had developed I went on to various websites improving my skills of research, discussing with others what they have discovered. I then felt comfortable to record my script in the radio room, and then start editing. When editing I did run into the problem of sourcing videos to go support what I was speaking about, I therefore need to work on my time management skills. To overcome the problem i turnt to a peer and got the help I needed to proceed with editing. I decided when editing to incorporate videos and pictures, referencing as I went along which did make editing a lot longer. Over-all the transferable skills I learnt this week was my researching, and my script writing when writing my essay script I needed to make sure the points were quick to not make it boring. I also further developed my editing skills.