Initial Learning, Practise Exercises & Prelim

Some of my favourite films are Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Snatch, Inglorious Basterds and The Wind That Shakes The Barley; Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds all being films directed by Quentin Tarantino connote to me having a specific taste in films and enjoying Tarantino's techniques and methods such as not being afraid to be explicit with violence and use completely wild ideas that are just passed as being the standard norm in the films. Also, Tarantino's films can usually have a twist or leave a lot of things untold to confuse the audience. Sam and I could include some of these ideas in our media product and take a look as to how Tarantino portrays violence in his films, how he films it as in the shot types etc, the length of the shots and how much he reveals and how much he leaves to the audience's imagination.

Tarantino often uses the technique of keeping his characters secretive when they are first introduced and doesn't give a lot away, for example by maybe showing extreme close up shots that aren't revealing and only give away small features about the character. I think that this is a good technique as it builds up suspense and when the character is revealed, it's more effective. Sam and I did some practise filming and filmed some shots of an action figure moving; we don't intend to use this action figure for our real media product but we haven't yet bought a doll to use for the real thing. Watch the video to see some of the shots we filmed such as a shot under the door, filming from  a dark room into the light where only the action figure's feet can be seen. I like this shot as it doesn't show a lot of the action figure, yet it's effective as it shows it walking.

When LS29 film again, I think that we need to improve on the mise-en-scene which is the design of the set such as the scenery, people and objects etc and how they're portrayed such as the positioning of objects and the arrangement of them. This can normally be a visual theme, and used to both connote and denote certain aspects of the film. Sam and I could improve on our mise-en-scene as we didn't include a lot of visual representations in our practise footage as we filmed the doll in the light breaking through into the room where as the rest of the room was dark and therefore the posters and objects left lying around on the floor, connoting to the room being that of a teenage boy, can't be seen.

Sam and I have been using Sam's own HD Camcorder rather than the school's and this is simply because we are more familiar with it and it's easier to access, however, we have done some practise filming with the school's camcorders and we got on well with them. We picked up quickly the settings on it and how to record and play back our footage, although we would rather film with Sam's camera as it records the footage onto an SD memory card rather than a tape which we can only upload onto the school's computers rather than our own computers at home and this just makes our work more difficult to access. Even though Sam and I are using a camera that we're familiar with, we're still learning more things about it and improving our knowledge, especially with the lenses and learning which one to use and how to focus it. Another aspect of our filming that's used to us is using a tri-pod and i'm pleased that i've now learnt how to use one well and know which each turning does.

When editing our footage, Sam and I have been using i-movie and final cut. We made our own prelims using practise footage that our media technician filmed. I don't like using i-movie as I think it's too simple and basic and there's not a lot that you can do to make your product individual and therefore a lot of people's media products created on i-movie are similar and not unique. I much prefer using Final Cut however as it's quite similar to Sony Vegas which I have used before and I really enjoyed using it. Final Cut however does have its unique points that I have been picking up and becoming familiar with and i'm very pleased with my progression using both new software and equipment.

Untitled from Sam Daffern on Vimeo.