Edit analysis

In the film Mad Max: Fury Road, they use a lot of editing techniques that are popular and most used in action film. Lots of cut techniques are used through out the film. At the very beginning of the film the colour used is quite dark and red as the producer want to create the atmosphere of the desert and to show what happen slowly. However for the rest of the film, the colour changes to bright and red and the action happen on the desert.

One of the special editing technique used in Mad Max: Fury Road that makes the film successful is how the shots are framed. Almost every shot are centre framed, which is against the rule of third that is popular in filmmaking. By doing this, the viewer doesn't need 3 or 4 frames to figure out where to look, the focus is always in the same spot.

Film trailer
1. The Hangover part III
_The trailer introduce us to the main three characters. One of the main character seem to be a nerd, he wears baggy clothes, sings female funny voice at a funeral and acts strange. And one of them is a cool guy wearing nice clothes, looking tone. And a smart looking guy. They seem to be a group of best friend as they appear together in many shots of the trailer, they stand close to each other. However, from what I see from the trailer the film focus on the nerd character.

_  The trailer start with a song sang by one of the main characters which is a unique way to get the audience's attention. And then the music become strong and fast which give us the idea of an action thriller. Also there are some parts that only contain dialogue without music to create a more serious of the action scenes.

_ The lighting used in the trailer is quite dark which suggests there are lots of action scenes in the movie, there are also some shots with bright lighting as it is comedy part of the trailer. However, despite the fact 

_ As watching the trailer, I expect the movie contains lots of action and chasing scenes. However, as it is a comedy movie I expect more joke to include in the trailer but there are not many and they do not seem to excite the audience. 

_ I would love to watch this film as I am a young person and I am into action film. To me the most appealing part of the trailer is the first scene because the film was introduced as a comedy so a funeral at the beginning make me excited to see what happens for the rest of the trailer. 

2. White chicks. 

_ The trailer introduce us to the two main characters as two undercover cops, they work together in a mission where they have to undercover themselves as two white rich girls. The main characters seem to be close friends as they appear together through out the trailer. 

_The music used in the trailer is fancy and strong type of music to create. Some parts are disco music.

_The lighting used throughout the trailer is high-key lighting and very bright without a lot of contrast as this is a comedy type of film. By using this type of lighting, the film brings the warm feel, comfortable and fosters an environment of laughters. This strategy of lighting is also used in 'Dumb and dumber' and 'Anchorman'. Therefore, these movies maintain a contrast bright atmosphere, where by humor can be conveyed. 

                         (A scene with bright lighting in 'Dumb and dumber' trailer )

( A scene with bright lighting in 'Anchorman' trailer )

_What I expect from 'White chick' is lots of laughters, a good story developed. I would love to see 'White chicks as comedy film is my cup of tea, and the trailer of the film makes me very excited and curious. 

Representation in media

Within the media, representation is concerned with the way that people, Ideas and events are presented to us. The media therefore needs to be viewed through a vehicle for beliefs, values and attitudes, which can either be reinforced or challenged by the audience. The media constructs meanings about the world in order for the audience to make sense of it.

In the film "Gone girl" the main actress- Amy Dunne is presented in an opposite way with most of female characters in movie. Amy Dunne is presented as a 'countertype'. Normally, the "murdered wife" in a story like this is nothing but an object. However, Gone girl is complete opposite. In the film, Amy has all the power, a type of female character that we rarely see in movies- a female psychopath. We've seen lots of women in movies who can be violent. But often those women are usually really masculine, often telling weaker character to stop being such 'girls' or 'pussies'. For example we can see from the movie 'Mad max' the main character 'imperator Furiosa' is a strong female leader that often shout at the weaker female characters. Amy, on the other hand, is opposite.

However, Amy represents a negative stereotype of women. In my opinion, this type of representation is not accurate and is hard to see in reality. Familiar representation keep reoccurring to break out the traditional stereotype of representation. This type of representation is mainly to maintain those views by a higher power.

Genre

Genre is a French term for type of kind. In media studies it is a theoretical term for classification of media text into type grouping.
( Branston with Stafford, 2010.74, 436)

1. Ted
_Ted is a comedy movie
_The poster presents two main characters, one of them is a teddy bear holding a beer bottle( which is a funny image), there are laughter between them, the colour used is very bright.
_The poster is very effective as it shows exactly what the film is about ( friendship between Ted and ...)

2. One day
_Is a romantic movie.
_The poster present two main characters, they are kissing. Also above the title of the movie is the sentence "Twenty years. Two people.." gives the audience the idea of a long lasting relationship between the two characters.
_ The poster is very effective as it describes exactly what the film is about- a love story.

3. 2012
_It seems like a sci-fi movie.
_There are the Earth and space.
_This poster is not designed well as there are not much we can see from it.

pre-production

My group intended to make a more interesting version of "How to make a cup of tea"

The script was written by Stanley :
People leave the baron computer room laughing at something leavening a lone boy on his own in the computer room staring at a blank screen. The screen is on word with the continues flashing line jumping on and off the screen but nothing is getting written. The boy's eyes start to droop like he is about to fall asleep, he makes himself awake. He gets up and make himself a cup of coffee he then takes a sip and starts to write. He does this for a little bit and then realise he has no more coffee he then gets up and repeats the process of making and drinking coffee over and over again. Then as he writes his work starts to descend into gibberish and his vision starts to blur and as he turns to see that he has just knocked over the cup of coffee he falls to the ground and the coffee just spills on the ground then the words "caffein is a drug not a beverage" appear on the screen and then fade to black.

The storyboard drew by me:

Genre conventions 

1. What is genre.
Genre is the category of any type of art or literature. For example the categories of movie are horror, action, comedy...

2. What are codes and convention.
_Codes: is everything that you see or hear to produce the connotation of the genre. For example gun is the sign of an action movie, horror music presents a horror movie ....Codes can be divided into two categories-technical and symbolic code.
+technical codes are all the ways in which tools are used to acquaint with the story in the media text. For examples the lighting used in the film.
+Symbolic codes show what we see.
+Some codes fit both types. For example music is both technical and symbolic.
_Conventions: how something is presented to the audience.

3. Six types of genre.
1. Horror movie: scary music, someone be killed in the first 5 minutes of the film, the vehicle won't start, phone lines are cut,..
+conventions: extreme close up shot of facial expression, diegetic sounds, hand held cameras, located in a place where there are no one around, dark...

2. crime : guns, low hey light, car chase, gangs, police..

3. comedy: funny jokes, love story, stupidity, bright colour clothes,....

4. action adventure: chase scenes, battles, heroes, rescue...

5. sci-fi: aliens and monsters from space, aliens kidnap, spacecraft, science technology,...

6. romantic: high key lighting, love story, happy ending, letters, smiles, tears....

4. Examples.
1. Crimson peak, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is a Gothic horror movie.
the establishing shot is at a dark and isolated cattle, picture of a woman is blurred, shadows walk around  the cattle, blood coming out from the sink...  a classic genre opening for any horror. The film itself plays on horror convention and dark fairytale, with a otherworldly mise en scene and period costumes that accentuate the mood and tone. The music itself is quite sweeping a dark to suit the themes and the characters themselves fit into the genre with typical representative types of the damsel in distress and the creepy guy.

2.

Practical Assessment – Shooting a short (How to make a cup of tea)

Students will take on their roles for the shoot and will be assessed on the filming as a group and the ability to fulfil their role on set. The edit will be individually assessed for each student. No more than four in each group.

Group: ………………………………………………………….

Role: ………………………sound recorder……………………………………

Student name: …………Chung Nguyen………………………………………

Shot/ Set up	Assessment	Grade
Evidence of planning – storyboard, shot list, meeting minutes of roles and expectations, location report.
Props – Mug, Kettle, Milk, tea bag, Water, Table	The props were prepared well, everything was clean and positioned well.
Shots (number)	6
Close up	Was pretty good as the camera got the water being poured into the glass.
Medium shot	The medium shot was good as well as it captured the whole scene in that shot.
Long shot	Long shot was good as we captured the actor and the background nicely.
Establishing shot	I put the establishing shot as the beginning of my film and start to edit from there because it works really well as the beginning.
Extreme close up	I am not really happy with this shot as I think it is better I capture the steam coming out from the kettle instead of the actress’s face.
Over the shoulder	This shot was not done well as the actres’s shoulder get in the way of the camera so it’s a bit hard to she what happened on the table.
High angle shot	Was good because the angle I chose make the shot look really nice.
Use of tripod	The tripod helped a lot as it make most of the shots easier.
White balance	We set the white balance as tungsten because all the shots was taken place in the studio.
Lighting/ set up	I only used key and back light as I was satisfied with how the light look without using the fill light.
Acting	The actress did really well as she acted comfortable and naturally.
Post production
Editing – Intro/ outro	I made the intro with the establishing shot as it captured the actress slowly walk toward the table and say that she was going to make tea.
Titles	I did the title by using crawl effect so it looks really nice as the title appear when the actress walk in.
Effects	It is a simple make tea film so there is not much room to add effects.
Titles	I made the tittle by using Motion.
Sound Effects	I kept the sound as it was recorded really well.
Music	I think the music I chose is very good as it match well with the content of the film.
Must export to YouTube and post on blog

Editing 

In this article, I have learned about how to edit a film and video. I have learned that there are two basic styles of film editing which are continuity and montage editing.

1. Continuity editing or narrative-based editing
_The idea of continuity editing is to put the separated shots together to create a logical coherence between shots

*Some of the temporal continuity editing technique are: cross cutting, fade-in and fade-out, continuous diegetic sound, flashback..

*Spatial continuity: establishing shot, the 180 degree rule, the eye-line match and match on action.
_180 degree rule: is to orientate the viewer, to establish the placement of characters.
example: 180 degree rule often used in Car chases scene. If the car leaves the frame on the right side on the first shot then the next shot the car will appear on the left.

2. Montage editing: emphasizes different between shots, call attention to itself. Some of montage editing: jump out, freeze frame, ..

3. Transition :
_Refers to how one shot ends and the next begins. There are many types of transition:

* Cut: the most basic and common. A cut happens when one shot instantly replaces the next shot.
_Example: from a scene in Hangover, on the shot showed in the top picture, is a close-up of one of the main characters Stu, wake up in the morning. the second shot in the second picture cuts to a long shot show the messy room.

* Fade in/ fade out: Fade ins and fade outs are the second most common type of transition. Fade outs happen when the picture is gradually replaced by black screen or any other solid colour. Traditionally, fade outs have been used to conclude movies. Fade ins are the opposite: a solid colour gradually gives way to picture, commonly used in the beginning of movies.

4. Effects
_B&w: used to show memory or time period.

_Blur: to show fuzzy memory or flashback.

_Animation: title of shows or cartoons

_Colour: to show specific mood.

_Fast forward/ slow motion: speed up or slowing down footage.

_Contrast: to altar the lighting.

_CGI: computer generated images

_Ghost trail: see multiple action to show someone drunk or on drugs.

Self assessment

In this article, I will assess my work on "How to make a cup of tea" short film assessment. As this is my first time shooting a film, I think it is really important for me to evaluate my project as I can whole reflection on my progress as a film student. I can review how I have developed after the exercise, find out what is my strengths and weaknesses so I can either promote the strengths or improve the weaknesses.

1.The shots

I am quite satisfied with all the shots. In my opinion, the shots were setup well and the focus was really good. However, with the extreme close up shot I think  it is better to shoot the steam coming out from the kettle instead of the character's face. By doing that, the shot will look more interesting and also give more details to the process of making tea as the assessment is about how to make a cup of tea. Also, I am not happy with the over the shoulder shot as the angle chosen did not really well and made the shot looked uncomfortable to see.

2. Editing

With the edit, I think my choice of the shots was not very good. with the sound and music I think I did pretty well on that. I did not put away the sound of Aliyha talking because in my opinion the film is more interesting. However, if some information of the ingredients and the process of how to make the tea were included, it would make the film better.

By doing this exercise, I have learned a lot of useful skills of how to make a good short film. I have learned how to take good shot, how to setup the lights better, how to edit the shots to produce a good film. Also, my teamwork skill has improved a lot as all group members agree on what needs to be done and by whom.

  

Pre-production 

In film making and video production, preproduction begins once a project has been started.at this point, we need to break down the script into individual scenes (storyboard) and prepare all the locations, props, special effects.

For this article, the teacher put Charlie, Stanley, Aliyha and I into a group. Stanley takes care of writing the script.

I do the storyboard which is a sketch of how to organize a story and a list of it's contents.You can either draw one by yourself or go on to www.storyboardthat.com as all the things you need to create a storyboard are on this website. This is how the storyboard looks like:

Aliyha do the risk assessment and location report. The risk assessment covers and manages health, safety and the risk we can create in our production. Basically, what you need to do with the risk assessment is what hazards may be presented, assess the risk of people being exposed to these hazards and find way to control them. However, with this "How to make tea" film there aren't much thing to worry about as we shoot in the college's studio. This is how a risk assessment looks like:

Location report is to identify and find idea location for a film shoot which is easy for Aliyha as we shoot in the college's studio.

Last but not least, Charlie took care of the shot list which he need to include the shot number, shot type, action and notes for the film. A shot list should be written in order that would be logical to shoot on the day.

how to make tea

     Sound recording 

In this article I will attempt to understand some basic knowledge of sound recording, which covers types of microphone, types of sound in a movie.

 1.Microphone

 There are two basic types of microphone: the short-gun microphone and parabolic microphone.

 *Short-gun microphone: get its name from its shape, is a highly directional mic, which used to isolate the sound you want to record. This type of mic is all-times favourite on movie and TV set and is also used in many others situation too.

*Lavalier microphone: is very tiny thing that is clipped to a shirt,jacket or tie. This mic is often used in interview.

2.Types of sound.


There are lots of different type of sound used in film and TV but there are 4 main types of sound:
1. Atmosphere: sound of background noise on the movie set.
2. Dialogue: sound of people talking to each other on screen.
3. Sound track: song included in the movie (which wasn't created specifically for the film)
4. Narration: is often the sound of the narrator telling the story.

What I have learned from writing this article is how importance the sound is to the film. Picture is far less important than the sound.Also when we record the sound we need to make sure that the sound is clear, we do not really need to focus on the volume.