YEAR 2 PORTFOLIO
Idea 2 - Cinematography
Old work relating to this project:
Looking back at this blog, it reminds me just how important the requirements of a creative media production is. It all comes down to the target audience and the needs to succeed with your product. A script, storyboard, shot list, risk assessment, contingency plan, test shoots and location shoots, timetable, proposal and legal documents for location and events.
All of these documents are essential for a production as they allow for you to plan everything before shooting so you know what shots you need to do, how you are going to do them by scouting the location first and hiring out the location so you will be sure to only have your actors in shot and no one else.
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Colour theory relates to both cinematography and graphics design. It can help me out with advertising by looking at colour schemes, what works with what colours, how they compliment each other and how certain colours are aimed towards a certain group of people or stereotype. Colour can also implement feelings such as anger, horror, happiness or sadness. This can be key with advertising.
Within cinematography, colour grading and colour mapping can also be key due to it giving the overall look and feel of the film. For example, if the film was sci-fi, the colour grading would need to be slightly more blue to show technology and advancement rather than yellow and warm which is more of drama type of loo to show happiness. Colour theory can say a lot about the film or scene whether the audience realise it or not. It directs the audience into feeling what the director wants them to feel rather than
This blog reminds me of how I would use a clapper board. I have not used a clapper board in a while but this blog allowed me to have a quick recap of what the clapper board is and how I would use it. This will help me when it comes to filming my product because I will be able to record my audio and film my visuals separately while knowing I can align them nicely when it comes to editing as I would film the clapper board and read it so I know exactly what audio and visual clip is what and where it should go. This is extremely useful to remember.
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The genre of films, music videos and even advertising, is extremely important. Re-capping this information is relevant and necessary as whatever idea I decide to pursue for my FMP, will need to follow the requirements of the target audience for the product. If I do not understand the genre, what each genre within the product contains and why, my product will not be successful as it will not follow the requirements or mise-en-scene
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Lastly, camera techniques is crucial when it comes to cinematography as the camera angle and movement will set the whole look of the scene. It should be done professionally and creatively in order to look good. If done right, the audience should not realise the camera is there. The audience should focus on the characters and the action rather than thinking about the shot. Even a tracking shot when the camera is following a person, the audience should be thinking about who you are following this person not about the camera.
Advice and knowledge from Ben whom was a teacher at MidKent college:
Ben was covering a lesson for Ross Buttery, my tutor on Thursday 15th March and he showed the class some of the projects he has worked on and he showed us how he edited them in Premiere Pro. Shown below is some of his work.
I like the camera techniques that Ben has used in all three of these videos as it keeps the audience entertained. The way the last video shown above is edited in slow motion to match the music, that also makes the audience entertained as it flows creatively yet the video is clearly professional by the shots and camera movements.
A few things that Ben has taught me after showing some examples of his work on the board was how to colour grade, he said to try and keep the colour grading as neutral as possible and that you can use a two or three tone colour grade to give it that look. The image shown below is the two toned colour grade using cyan and orange. Ben told me that this look is very popular in cinema at the minute and has been for a while. It is contrasting the blue and the orange together so that they please each other although they are opposite to each other on the colour wheel. He showed me how I can create this look in Premiere Pro while slightly adjusting the contrast, definition and a few other elements of the picture to make it a whole lot better. The slightest adjustments can really just set the image.
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The next thing that Ben taught me was how to set my work out in Premiere Pro. He taught me that you should put the main audio of the backing track that is just one audio, at the very bottom. This way you know not to touch the bottom audio track as it is the main one that plays throughout the video. Then you should make a separate audio line for each person speaking in the interview. Every single thing that each person says, should be on their own line so it is less confusing for you. You should then have the A roll on top of all of the audio which is the main chunk of visuals for the video. The A roll is the main visuals for the video which in this case is the interviewers. This is the most important part of the video. It is also what you refer back to every single time you put in a piece of B roll. The B roll is the not as important visuals. It is what breaks up the A roll to make the press conference or interview a whole lot more interesting. If you had only the A roll and no other visuals, people would not be interested in watching it. The B roll of the audience or other angles or relevant environment shots of the people speaking doing something maybe in the building of where the interview is, makes it more entertaining. I learnt a lot about the B roll, A roll and how to set thing out in Premiere on my work experience with Chris Newberry whom is the manager of Wildwood Media. I had to film and edit two behind the scenes films, one being in London when him and a team was filming for a fashion trailer for a new sports shop opening and the other being photos for the fashion trailer also. I then expanded my knowledge on Premiere Pro by edited a NHS press conference for Wildwood Media. I was taught how things should be laid out and edited and how to understand the rhythm of the B roll. Which was inserting the B roll of the audience and long shots so you could see the powerpoint roughly every 30 seconds. Just to keep things flowing more.
This breakdown of the film Baby Driver, really inspires me because of how thought out and creative the first scene is without even realising. What I mean by this is that I have watched this film before many times and I loved it but, I never really understood how technical it was until watching this. The math behind the film is insane.
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Within the first scene, the speaker talks about how the first shot tells you exactly where the shot and film is set. Not only in the film but in the place they are actually filming also. It shows you the bank of Atlanta so already in the first shot, we know where it is set. Within this same creative shot, we see a driving wheel stop in front of the left hand side of the frame. Instantly we know the car has something involved in the film.
We then see the main character in multiple shots with earphones in. This suggests that earphones are playing a main part with the main character that we see. We then see a jump cut to the action and we see a close up of the main character once again meaning he may be involved in crime. This is showing us a lot about his personality. We also see how the backing music is played in the same time and pace of the next characters walking in frame after the crime event is taking place. Showing both music and main characters play a crucial part in the film. We notice all of these little things already and the film is only multiple shots in. When watching the film through, we do not necessarily pick up on all of the minor details but we do see them even if we do not notice them. This is what makes the film a whole lot more natural.
If I were to create a short film, I would need to make sure the camera was always stable so that the audience do not think or pick up n the camera and I would plan it a lot before even doing test shoots. Everything needs to be in place and add up before carrying on. This breakdown scene of this film has helped me a lot as I was able to see just how much thought goes into a film without the audience realising.
Survey:
The analysis of the first question asked in my survey, suggests that the majority of the public I had asked, was aged 16-18. This means most of these answers are from the perspective of a slightly younger target audience.
From the analysis of my second question, I can see that the most popular genre of film is action. This suggests that people aged between 16 and 18, love the thrill and jump cuts of shots showing action. The second most popular genre in film is thriller, horror, adventure and musical. One thing each of these genres have in common is entertainment. Adventure, Horror, thriller and musical all aim to entertain the audience just in slightly different ways. Because the target audience for this questionnaire is 16-18 year olds, it means I know what direction I should aim more product towards. Because the audience have specified that they enjoy entertainment the most out of all genres.
This question analysis suggests close ups are key for the audience to be engaged. This is because you are up close and personal with the event that the character in the film is involved in. It makes the audience pay extra close attention as it is so close the the main event happening in the shot. The director wants the audience to pay close attention to this due to the shot being shown closer than usual. The second most popular shot as you can see, was the extreme close up shot meaning you are even closer to the action than usual. The target audience range of 16-18 likes to be up close to the action as seen by the results of this answer.
The answers to this question shows that tracking shots are the most popular due to the audience being put on the edge of their seat. When the camera tracks a character in the film, it puts the audience in a tense position because we feel as if we are the ones who is following the character in the film and we do not know what is about to happen. This is a useful piece of information to know that my target audience likes tracking shots as I could potentially take this advice on board if I am going to make a short film.
This analysis shows that film trailers are actually the most popular product rather than a short film because it is short, sweet and straight to the point. Meaning we see what the film is about without giving too much away. It shows just enough for the audience to be excited to watch the film. Film trailers were proven to entertain my target audience the most just before a documentary. This surprised me because I thought that either a short film or factual production would have been the most popular for a younger target audience due to them having more of a story.
This last piece of information shows that flashbacks and montages are the most popular type of editing technique. Shown below is a montage of two famous YouTubers that a fan has made. This shows exactly what a montages is by adding multiple clips and blogs together with some backing music to potentially tell a story or go over old times. I can see why the audience has favoured these two types of edits the most as they are very popular on YouTube, however, I would have thought jump cutting would have been favoured the most as it is quick and shows lots of action.
To conclude, I found this survey very useful as it has provided me with evidence I did not know about my target audience. If I chose to do cinematography as my final product, I believe my target audience would like me to do a film trailer or a product that provides some short of action and entertainment.