Filling the Time in the Prisoner Project

Since this project was completed last year, this year I will look into creating short pieces where I can train my abilities with camera movement, angling, framing and general placement of characters and Items on screen. A lot of my previous pieces contain large numbers of still shots, while still shots can be used effectively in some cases, it is my over use that masks the piece in an amateur sensing. To test my camera skills, one particular idea of mine is to voice over the piece with an attempt at creating a dramatic script to move alongside the piece, not only would this help my camera skills, I can also develop my writing skills as well.

Suggestion about what to do with the Media Idea

I am particularly disappointed about this situation I am in but a suggestion has been made to me that I quite like. While I cannot shoot this piece for the first scripted shots project, I can however plan to use it or at least certain parts of it, for the final project as I quite like the idea as it stands.

Difficulties with the current Attempt

There are a monumental number of issues with my current plan for the scripted project.

1. For the story to work I would need approximately 4-6 people and sadly I have not been able to collect anyone for the filming due to others being busy with their own projects and friends and other colleagues being busy working in their own subject areas on top of working on their UCAS applications.

2. The Delivery for the cosmetics that I was going to get would take longer than the time I have been allocated for the project itself.

3. A lack of people means I don't have anyone to hold the camera while I was in the shot, making things extremely difficult as well as stopping me from having any scenes where it isn't just a set up tripod shot, in addition to this it makes the scene seem wooden.

4. In replacement to the ordered cosmetics, I am having to refrain from using regular make up and certain props due to falling into serious problems with a current medical condition involving foreign chemicals on my skin.

While the recording of this has been made near impossible, I am going to substitute this piece for my original piece which I will link below. To illustrate what I would have done in detail I am going to add some videos and storyboards to this blog so you can see where I was going to take this idea.


TH3 PR150N3R from David Smith on Vimeo.

Script/Play By Play of the Scene

This is essentially how the scene is going to look and what sort of narrative the film will follow.

SCENE:

OPEN LANDSCAPE SHOT: Nature Landscape Shot, Several turns which fade out and on the third turn we come to the shot with a couple sitting on a hill. Thing appear calm and relaxed. CLOSE UP: Shot of hand in hand. LONG SHOT NEXT TO CHARACTER/OVER THE SHOULDER: Shot changes to long shot from main character. He sees the couple and MOVE TO CLOSE UP: Looks down at his hand. Narration starts. *Scene continues with an over the shoulder shot with the main character being seen through many different shots as he explains his story.* MEDIUM SHOT POSSIBLE SLOW MOVEMENT TOWARDS HIM: The narration dies down and we end with our main character CLOSE UP: looking intently at his own hand. SIMILAR SHOT BUT CONTENTS CHANGE: The scene then flashes to our main character looking at his hands, now covered in blood, then flashing back. STARTS IN LONG SHOT, CHANGES TO MEDIUM SHOT FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE: Our main character puts his hands on his head and curls up slightly. *The scene then shoots back to a flashback where our main character is covered in blood being dragged away by men in suits. The screen flashes black and then we hear a number of clanks and bangs. On the last one we immediately cut to a chase scene, later on at night. Our character is frantically running through a forest where he collapses against a tree. He touches part of his arm and a hologram appears with a company logo. The main character huddles himself and the scene jumps back to our character in the present where he clenches his fist and punches a wall then immediately swings around.

The narration ends with the line. “I’m taking my life back, today, Mark my words Exo-Corporation. There is no place you can hide.”

Narration for * “ Have you ever felt that you were sitting behind a looking glass, that your whole existence could be compared to a one way mirror. Silenced, and unseen. I have no Humanity left to share. What do you do, when everything is taken from you, even… your… soul.”
“This unfair crime that I am accused of, is but a fragment of my suffering. To be accused of ending the life of the one you loved. To be branded, as a murderer. Is difficult to bear. Yet now, It doesn’t affect me, Murder is a Human word. Much Like love. Or (Screen goes black) Mutilation.”
“On that day I may have lost my heart and my body. But what was left. Was my cruel hatred, imprinted from the cynical mind of the Exon-Corporation. I’m taking my life back, today, Mark my words Exo-Corporation. There is no place you can hide.”

Title card.

After Effects Testing for Titles

Raw Construct of Title

I have been working on a title for my new project and I think it would be interesting to share my experiences with after effects:

1. This Piece itself looks rather jumbled and sketchy, I myself see that every time I look at it. I have had some experience with after effects in the past but I found this one particularly difficult because it involved an additional camera layer which in turn required a lot of editing small details such as changing expressions manually by typing in numbers, which was perplexing to say the least.

Typing in values can be jarring at first

2. I witnessed a large amount of slowdown while creating this piece, this was due to the program having to render each frame on each layer with hundreds upon hundreds of different particles. I think I have actually learned something here in an interesting way. Patience is a virtue.

Shots Movement Project from Last Years Media Course

Given that I have previously completed this project, I am instead going to show the video and then explain the positives and negatives of its production and execution, I should also be able to remember some key aspects of editing the video. For the video itself, I am going to have to link anyone who wants to see it, to my recording partners old page, as this is the only place where it can be found.

http://07k3stja.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/this-is-my-video-showing-different.html

Pros: All or most of the shots are present here. The conduction of the task was pretty straight forward. This was mainly due to the fact that we were just starting our first experience with filming and we wanted to get it done and then reflect on where we needed to improve.

Cons: The cons come where there is a serious issue with lighting, sometimes scenes are blurry, e.g. one of two hallway scenes. In addition to this, we made a number of amatuer mistakes such as recording a reflective surface. e.g. The window in the main hallway moving scene.

Possible Title for Upcoming Film Project and Alternative

I believe that I have found a suitable set of titles for my film. It will most likely be one of the following, those marked with an asterisk represent ones with which I think are the most suitable:

-Killswitch
-Charge.exe
-Extension*
-Internal Server*
-White Wire

The other slight difference that I may implement, is that I could change the story so that he is a man that is caught in a chemical explosion which disfigures him and leaves him with the need for digital enhancement, Which was given because of society's plunging into a new electronic era.