Link to Final Sequence –

Reflection of Creative Work

C. Reflection on collaboration in the core production team (8 marks ) REFLECTION The post where you assess what you have learned and what you’ll do next time.

Post Production

Once we had filmed our shots, we each had a copy of the rushes and edited them to each of our own styles, so we each had something personally creative. I edited in Adobe Premiere Pro as that is what i am most familiar with.

Overall, I think our film/sequence turned out ‘alright’ but nowhere near the standard that we desired. I think once we reflected as a team, on what went right and what went wrong, we were definitely ready to give it another go on the next task that is set. I am going to explain what i think went well first, and then what i think we could have done to improve our standard. First of all, what went well. I think the main thing that we did quite well was equipment. We all communicated well, on when we were going to shoot, as so we all turned up with all of the right gear at the right time, meaning we had everything we needed for the shoot. Also, I think, our planning for location was quite good, as we went on a location recce, to help our ideas flow so that we felt more ready on the day of filming, to get going. Now onto what we could’ve done better in order to make our film better. First of all, a huge thing that we definitely got wrong was planning. We did not have a definitive written plan before we started filming, we only had a rough idea of what shots we wanted. This lead to our film, looking ultimately, rubbish. You could 100 percent tell that our film was a student film and now we have reflected, we now know what we could’ve done to improve. One main thing, for me, is that we could’ve added a greater variety of shot types, to make our film less confusing, or at least easier to watch. For example, we could’ve used an establishing shot for the start and used close-ups with zoom to build tension. More suitable outfits could’ve been worn in order to present characters more, and the actors would’ve maybe been able to present their acting better. Overall, i think we need to take our time more next time.

Peter is walking out of the school with Mary Jane when they are ambushed by Flash.  He starts to ridicule Peter,
then threatens him.  Peter just clenches his jaw and backs
away.  Peter does not believe in violence... and he has
never thrown a punch in his life.  It just wouldn't occur
to him.

Through a row of bushes he sees Flash grab Mary Jane by
the arm and spin her around.  They are arguing.  Flash
slaps her across the face.  Peter is so enraged his hands
snap a four inch tree limb without him realizing it.

Flash is walking to his car after gymnastics practice.  It
is dark.  A figure drops silently down from behind him.
Flash spins and sees a guy in a black fishnet mask.
Thinking it is a robbery, Flash swings... only to grab his
own fist in pain.  It was like hitting oak.

Peter holds Flash with one hand and slaps him hard.

                          SPIDER MAN
          How do you like it?  Huh?

He slaps him again, backhand.  Then he cocks back his fist
and BLAM!

Punches Flash so hard he flies ten feet.  He picks him up,
gets him in a painful armlock... marches him to his
beloved Porsche and slams him brutally against it.  He
pounds Flash into the car until the jock collapses, semi-
conscious.  Peter then rips a signpost out of the ground
and pounds the car into junk.  Glass flies everywhere.

Peter leans close to Flash and tells him to stay away from
Mary Jane... or else.

Justification of Creative Work/Pre Production

Justification of creative work in one chosen film production role (8 marks ) INQUIRY The post on why you chose the screenplay you worked on.

For this screen play mini film, I chose to recreate the Peter Parker Fight Scene, in the school. I chose this screenplay because I thought that we would be able to recreate this screenplay quite accurately, whilst also adding our own little twist. We wanted our main message for our film to be treat others how you want to be treated. The main reason that we chose this screenplay was because it was based around only 2 lines of dialogue, but they were powerful lines. We decided to use the most powerful line of “How do you like it? Huh?” because we thought that the use of only one line would make the audience think more about what that line means, and would maybe walk away from it thinking hard about the way they treat others. I think, through this screenplay, we knew we were going to be able to show emotion with emotions, tones of voice and actions. Fight scenes present quite a simple way of showing emotion because they are packed full of action and violence and in my opinion, action is the easiest way, on screen, to replicate emotions and feelings. For this i worked with 3 others: Morgan, Micah and James, who are all relatively experienced when it comes to filming. For this project, Morgan was an actor as an extra, as she has had a little bit of experience in drama and acting. She was also a director, as she was the most familiar with this scene and this screenplay, as she loves the film. as Micah was an actor also, as he has also had experience with acting before, as I have too. And finally, James was the camera man, because he works with cameras almost everyday, and had a great idea of what shots would look best. We used a Canon DSLR to film, with a Rode Video Mic in order to create a look as professional as possible.

The Screenplay:

Peter is walking out of the school with Mary Jane when they are ambushed by Flash.  He starts to ridicule Peter,
then threatens him.  Peter just clenches his jaw and backs
away.  Peter does not believe in violence... and he has
never thrown a punch in his life.  It just wouldn't occur
to him.

Through a row of bushes he sees Flash grab Mary Jane by
the arm and spin her around.  They are arguing.  Flash
slaps her across the face.  Peter is so enraged his hands
snap a four inch tree limb without him realizing it.

Flash is walking to his car after gymnastics practice.  It
is dark.  A figure drops silently down from behind him.
Flash spins and sees a guy in a black fishnet mask.
Thinking it is a robbery, Flash swings... only to grab his
own fist in pain.  It was like hitting oak.

Peter holds Flash with one hand and slaps him hard.

                          SPIDER MAN
          How do you like it?  Huh?

He slaps him again, backhand.  Then he cocks back his fist
and BLAM!

Punches Flash so hard he flies ten feet.  He picks him up,
gets him in a painful armlock... marches him to his
beloved Porsche and slams him brutally against it.  He
pounds Flash into the car until the jock collapses, semi-
conscious.  Peter then rips a signpost out of the ground
and pounds the car into junk.  Glass flies everywhere.

Peter leans close to Flash and tells him to stay away from
Mary Jane... or else.

Pre-Production:

We chose this screenplay to shoot because it had a school setting and as we had to shoot in school we thought it would be easier to fit to a location. Another reason we like this screenplay is that it deals with bullies and shows them being inferior.

I worked with Harvey (actor – Flash – the bully), Micah (actor – Peter Parker/Spiderman – the hero) and Morgan (actor/director).

Production and Post-Production:

We kept the essence of the scene (bullies do not get away with everything) while changing some parts of it, such as, we only had one line of dialogue when the screenplay has two. We did this as the second piece of dialogue could be replaced with shot types and body language and we felt that this would be more effective. I had watched this scene and another scene from a different Spiderman film the night before and I decided I would merge the two scenes together from the parts I liked. We changed the location as the other scene was at lockers and I felt it was more effective staying in one location.

Then we each took the rushes and edited them individually; this means all are edits are similar while having our own editing style on them. Below is the timeline from premiere showing that the edit is pretty basic, while I have colour graded the footage and edited the audio to get rid of the hiss from the mic. The green tracks are the rushes and the blue tracks are the sound effects I added to make the hits when Micah is on the floor more impactful.

The Remake of the the Scene:

Reflection:

I think the sequence was ok but there is a lot of remove for improvement. Firstly, I feel like the scene looks like a student film, the only way we can fix this is to make more films and improve each time. I would also like to include more shots and a variation of shots. I feel that the scene needs an establishing shot of the location. I would also use a gimbal/glide-cam to make my footage less shaky and I would use a go pro to get some POV shots to add another aspect to my scene.

Other than the technical side of production I would like to have planned the scene better as I felt it was rushed. I would plan to have a couple extras in the establishing shots and that the actors had outfits that are closer to the character they were playing as I feel this would not only look better but help the actors embrace the character so they perform better. After Reviewing the screenplay we noticed we changed it more than we thought and that the scene did not have much dialogue. This is another example showing it was rushed too much as if we had planned it more this could have been altered and checked.

I would then spend more time on editing and sound mix adding many layers of sound effects as this will make the video seem more professional.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

The group project although was completed, it had many difficulties such as unintentionally ‘crossing the line’ and the acting could have improved. However the quintessential essence and mood of the scene, as it is still best friend tries to council friend with corny dialogue that benefits the comedy of the film.

No Country for Old Men

This was a solo attempt to bring a screenplay to life. It worked better than the Scott Pilgrim piece as the cinematography was in still shots and so impossible to mess up as well as I believe the lighting is quite good. It was effective in portraying the mood of the screenplay of a scared women and an intimidating man who is about to kill her, however at point Carla seems to be more inquisitive than scared which can change the tone of the scene

Verisimilitude means to be believable, or having the appearance of being true or real. Some of the best examples I have found recently are within three films, these are:

Interstellar

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Nightcrawler

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Birdman

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Who were Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and are they still considered to be great cinema practitioners? Name at least one film made by each director.

Buster Keaton: He was an American film director and comedian. He would always use dead-faced expressions for his creative and inventive visual comedy. One film that he directed was “Sherlock Jr.” in 1924.

Charlie Chaplin: He was a British comedy actor and director. He became world famous through his alter ego, “The Tramp”. He was also known for his dangerous stunts and his unpredictable style of comedy which the audience received well. On film that he directed was “The Kid” in 1921.

Why was DW Griffiths film ‘Birth of a Nation’ so successful when it was released in 1915 and why is it so controversial now?

It was successful because it was longest film of the time which made it a major blockbuster Hollywood hit. It was 3 hours and 13 minutes long and was the first 12-reel (which lasts 11 minutes each) ever made. Its also controversial because it features a white supremacist group. Despite it being a nostalgic look back at the American Civil War during the mid 1800s it implied that it was okay to be racist towards people of color.