The Questionnaire

This is the crime questionnaire our group made and handed out to 10 people, these are the most popular answers they gave:

Do you like crime film?
Yes
If so, name 3 you enjoyed in this category?
Shawshank, shifty
Do you prefer crime movies found at art-house or multiplex cinemas?
Multiplex
Do you find a protagonist is needed to complete a crime film?
Yes
Do you prefer urban or rural settings?
Urban
What is the best certificate for a crime film?
15
Do you prefer mystery/crime or action/crime films?
Mystery
Do you like it when there are characters in a movie you can relate to?
Yes
Are there any elements in crime movies that you find unrealistic?
Bloody murder
If so, how would you improve those elements to make them more realistic?
More action

More filming and editing + Art Of The Title

Hey guys, in this post I’m going to show all the software I’m using to create that 2 minutes film and also how “Sherlock Holmes” inspired me for its titles in the beginning. (If you haven’t seen that film, you’re missing out!) Anyway so I got this clip which shows what I’m talking about for those of you who still haven’t seen Sherlock Holmes.

I really liked that effect and I’m going to make something similar to it but my camera is not as good to capture all those details and the shot is not going to be as dark and contrasty because it’s taken in daylight.

I Found the clip after looking for some beginning titles on Art of the title website.

Ok so software wise I have Photoshop for all my 2D editing and textures for 3D animation and basically all the pictures which I’m going to use in the film.

Cinema 4D (for 3D animation) and I’m using this software to render the animated car and all the 3D data.

After effects (editing) this is the main software for my film editing.

I’ve done most of the hard parts of this film and I’m halfway through the film. lol here's me taking a high angle shot!

Filming In Progress!

I started filming yesterday! I know I still haven’t uploaded my story board on the blog but I will soon.

The first scene was in an empty street and it was so hard to go in the middle of it and start filming because the cars kept coming! But after around half an hour of trying I achieved 15 seconds of good filming! Although some people in the cars swore at me several times, shame on them! lol

I am filming with my Panasonic lumix camera (it’s for taking pictures but the video quality isn’t that bad)

This first scene is going to be my beginning of the film and also, the first 10 seconds is for titles.

p.s. I will upload my story board after half term ;)

Ideas for the 2 minutes film

I’ve been thinking a lot about my coursework idea and it’s completely changed from fighting to a car racing scene with loads of action and drifting! So far this is my latest idea and since I’m getting closer to start filming, this thought most likely stays as my final idea.

I’m planning to take some shots of my friends driving a normal car around so that I can sort of understand the way cars turn in the corners, speed up, drift and basically I think I’m going through what game makers do before start making a racing game. Experimenting with real cars can make the 3D model animation look so much more realistic.

Also, speed limit here is usually 30mph and to create a car racing film with all the cars going less than 30mph sounds awful! But if I only take the car-less shots of streets and then add fast animated cars it would look much better. Well this is the plan and I think it’d be tough to mix animation with real life shots and blend them together in a way that they’d look real.

I’d try to create super cars with 3D animation software and replacing them with my friend’s car in the shots and speed them up.

Once again, this is not the final plan yet. I’m considering it but the only problem is... time! I’m still not sure if I’d have enough time to finish it by deadline but I really like the idea, I guess I’ll give it more thoughts and I’ll let you guys know if its confirmed next time I update the blog!

Leaving the group

So I decided to do the whole coursework on my own as I was uncomfortable to work in the group and I didn’t want to let my whole group down by not doing the work or doing the wrong work. However I’m still finishing the edits for our previous filming which we did in the class.

First filming session

Hi everyone! Today we started some continuity filming and we tried to include some shot reverse shot and film within the 180^o rule using 3 different cameras. One hand held and two on tripod. I changed the position of the cameras a few times to take the same shot from similar angles.

The dialog between the two characters in the shots went like this:

C1: Hi, have you got my iPod?

C2: Yeah, here you are. Thanks for letting me borrow it. (Character1 takes the iPod and checks if it works fine but the headphones are not working)

C1: The headphones are broken!

C2: I haven’t done anything to it do not blame it on me!

C1: whatever! (Walks out of the room)

This was shot in series of different angels and after editing I will post it on the blog. The purpose of this activity was to show how the 180 degree rule works and also to include shot reverse shot and continuity filming while the character enters the room.

Definition of the 180 degree rule: The 180 degree rule is used to avoid confusion to the viewer when shooting 2 subjects in a scene When 2 subjects (characters or props) are situated opposite each other (example: 2 people having dinner), the 180 degree rule states that the camera should stay one side of an imaginary line like in the diagram below:

If the camera was to cross over this imaginary line, it is known as crossing the line. This rule is used because viewing one shot from one side, then viewing a reverse angle shot (a shot from the other side of the imaginary line) is very confusion to a viewer and can damage the viewer’s sense of realism.