Today a group of us filmed an interview between two of our classmates. We filmed in the morning using a Sony z1 camera and a 416-shotgun microphone that required phantom power. We choose to use a shotgun or rifle microphone because the 416 dampens and blocks out sound from around and behind the microphone and focuses on picking up the sound in front of it, this makes rifle microphones ideal for capturing interviews.

Here is the finished interview.

Mike And Kirsty Interview from Tom Charnley on Vimeo.

The film was edited Using Final Cut and took around forty minutes to complete.
I have mixed feelings about the final product. The negative points would be; the interviewee found it hard not to giggle (MIKE!) the room was pretty dark and some times the sound could have been better in part. Positive things I would have to say are that I like the shots and also there is a good feel to the interview, even when mike laughs it kind of makes it more entertaining.

Sound-Editing

This week I have completed adding sound to a clip from the film 'City of God'. To do this I used the sound-editing program Soundtrack Pro. I was interested to find out more about sound editing and thought that animation would be a good area to look at as the sound is obviously added separately to the motion.




This is the trailer to 'Kung Fu Panda' an animation film made by DreamWorks studios. I though this was quite a good example of sound editing as there is lots of action scenes with punching falls and the sound of limbs swinging through the air and also atmospheric sounds e.g. the wind and sounds of cymbals. There is some good dialog in this film but I was more interested in looking at the natural sounds.

Here are basic instructions to adding sound to animation.

Treatment

Our piece is going to be a short gangster film. We want to have a classy feel to the piece and also want it to have comical edges to it. We have sighted Quentin Tarantino and (more importantly) guy Richie as major inspiration for the project. We are aware that these are amazingly successful directors but we have decided to aim high and hope to perform as best we can. The piece will be clever and humorous with excitement provided through action scenes/chases.

We want the film to be clever yet easy to follow. To achieve this we have decided to file down our original complex storyline into a more manageable yet still engaging narrative.

Here is a taste of the storyline;

Main characters: Johnny & Adrian

1. Johnny finds lots of unpaid bills, electricity goes, milk off etc. Everything going wrong. Chats to Adrian, suggests dealing drugs to earn some more money. Adrian against the idea, too much at stake ie girlfriend.
2. Adrian meets girlfriend Cheryl, for lunch, she looks fed up. He asks if she can pay. Then asks if she can sort out his rent. She's pissed off and leaves him. Also leaves her wallet. Adrian eyes up the wallet & takes it. BINGO!
3. Adrian calls Johnny tells him to meet him at certain street.
4. Walking shot of Adrian telling Johnny he is now keen to deal and that he has money to do it but doesn't go into detail. They walk to their old dealers, Oily Pete.
5. Inside their oily Pete's house, he thinks he's a bit of a G will try and make it funny(?) Both want to know where they can get hold of something stronger. Oily Pete says he is about to go down to Big Druggy Raggy who may be able to sort them out. Oily Pete calls Raggy and gets the go-ahead.
6. Johnny, Adrian & Oily Pete go to Raggy's and negotiate a deal. Adrian hands the briefcase of money to Raggy, Johnny appears shocked that he has all that cash. Raggy barely checks it but remains intimidating. Raggy eventually hands over the drugs, saying something like "I like you guys, I feel like I can trust ya".
7. J&A exit Raggy's. Johnny asks how Adrian got the money but Adrian says to start running.
8. Back to Raggy & co, one of his cronies checking the money. "Boss, we've got a problem..."
9. Raggy & co "OOOOOIIIII!!!!" Start to chase them.
10. Big chase scene Raggy & co vs J&A
11. Police notice Raggy & co with gun so chase them & arrest them
12. J&A get away, with drugs.
13. Stills of successful drug deals with captions underneath.
14. Stills of the other characters, Raggy & co behind bars. End of story!!!!

This is a general outline of the narrative and changes will surely be made during production. We are thing of filming in bath and Bristol. We believe that the piece would benefit from filming in Bristol when filming some of the outdoor shots due to bath looking to posh. Reconnaissance has been performed on possible shooting destinations. Are main issue at the moment is finalising the script and casting.

Product Research Into Short Films/Gangster Films

I am researching for ideas for a short gangster films to further my understanding of the genre. i intend to look into not only gangster films but also films by other british directors.

First off I took a look at Jamie Thraves, who has directed such short films as 'I just want to kiss you'



and the video for 'Coffee and T.V.' blur.

I liked a few things about 'I Just Want to Kiss You'. I liked the very British feel it had to it, this film oozes working class England, with its rough settings and jazzy music and that’s really the kind of film I’m hopping to create. I also found the editing style interesting, the way it cuts sharply between scenes is something I could see being a stylish way to edit our groups project, which is essentially going to be a British gangster film.

I found the 'Coffee and TV.' music video less helpful as it was a film based around a carton of milk. Having said that it still had that very English atmosphere about it and that is something I have become interested since taking a look at some of Jamie Thraves work. Though I didn't find much to take from 'Coffee and T.V.' I still found it interesting to look into as my initial idea was to create a music video.

After looking into Jamie Thraves I moved onto another more obvious director, Guy Ritchie.

I’d seen a few of Ritchie’s main classic gangster films such as; ‘Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, ‘Snatch’ and ‘Rock n Rolla', but the film I wanted to take a look at was one of the first Guy Ritchie made called 'The Hard Case'.

What interested me more about ‘The Hard Case’ than other Ritchie productions was that it was one of his firsts and also it was a short film (it only runs for twenty minutes). I found it interesting to get an insight into where one of the most successful English directors in the world started out.

Watching ‘The Hard Case’ was very useful to my research. It clearly had a lot smaller budget than you’d expect from a Guy Ritchie film, yet it still showed the class and griminess that he often brings into his work. It also had a very British feel akin to Jamie Thraves work. Though this piece was closer to what I would like to create than ‘I Just Want to Kiss You’ it was still a bit too heavy for my liking. I want the film my group creates to be slightly more light hearted and humorous.

Paintworks Pitch

Our group has recently pitched our idea for our short film at paintworks studio, due to illness the only members able to give the pitch were me and Harry.

We decided in the meeting prior to the pitch that we would go ahead with the drug deal story line as we both understood it the best and it was the most developed idea.

The basic idea for the film is three short story lines interweaving with each other and eventually coming to ahead at the climax of the short film. The story is based around a drug deal with the dealers, the undercover police and the buyers all having the separate narratives that join together at the end. I cited Guy Ritchie’s work as an example of the kind of thing we are taking inspiration from. The working title for the piece is ‘The Smart, The Serious and the CID’.

We still need to decide on the main structure behind the film but we are at this point laying down some firm foundations for the piece. We also need to decide on cast and settings. The film will all be shot by Kieran, Carlina, Harry and I.

Proposal For My Groups Short Film

For project production we have been assigned a short movie project. The movie should last between 5-7 minutes. Are class is to do this in groups so I have teamed up with Kieran Jones, Carlina Flood and Harry Symes, as we all want to create a short fictional movie.

I choose to work on a short film because I have only done a couple in the past and I wanted to branch away from making music videos as that is what I usually choose to do when given this kind of free rain.

As a group we have discussed several different options for the story line, here are some of our potential ideas;
• A gritty film based around a homeless persons love for a woman/drug
• A horror film about a killer ghost
• A action/comedy involving three separate storylines that come to a head at the climax of the film which would be a drug deal
I find myself leaning more towards the last idea than any of the others. I believe that this idea would be a lot easier to make look believable and would be more entertaining idea for a short film, though I should stress that a final decision on the storyline is yet to be made.

Our main intentions for the film are to make it entertain and captivating through out and every member of our group is well aware that it can be difficult to achieve this.