Location/Drama- Research into Documentaries

For this assignment focusing on the reconstruction of a film scene (My groups scene been "IT") I am working on the documentary side of this production and my role is camera man working with Chloe Lowe who is the director for the documentary. Since I want to be able to capture footage and document the process professionally and successfully, I've begun some research into different types of documentaries and the different camera movements and angles that are common within documentaries.

I started to look at popular television documentaries like "Planet Earth" and watched a variety of short clips so I could observe the camera skills and movements. I looked into it more and found that the cinematographer for the show was a man named Doug Allen, who has had experience at film and photographing many aspects of wildlife and has worked other documentaries such as "Frozen Planet". I liked his use of focus and how he could frame two important things into his shot but make you focus on one and then reveal the second slowly through focus. 

I also looked into a few websites that explained and described the difference camera movements and angles used in documentaries. A popular technique I found was the Tracking Shot, this has been used plenty of times in documentaries and is quite effective for long takes of observing someone doing something. I like the idea of having a nice focused shot without cuts to take people's attention away. But with the documentary been limited to around 5 minutes so I don't want too many extended shots that will end up been cut anyway. Another important thing I learned about documentaries (mainly for interviews) is symbolic placement, this is a method of placing something of relevance in shot weather it be the background or the foreground but it helps compliment the overall look and feel of the shot, so this will be fun and interesting to apply to a few of my shots.

I'll continue to try and gather more research on different techniques and methods but I'd prefer to try and experiment and get experience with the methods on the cameras and maybe film some unrelated topics to gain experience. 

Scriptwriting- Writing Kickstart

This week in scriptwriting we started to prepare for writing our screenplay ideas and did a few exercises and tasks to help us kickstart our writing, we started to draw from existing memories and feelings and it helps to understand it more when your writing what you know instead of making something up out of the blue. The first task was to write down something you dislike and why you dislike it, I wrote about how I dislike people talking and using their phones in the cinema while watching a film, because it's the exact opposite of what you should be doing while your at the cinema. Knowing this is what some people do or what some people also dislike it would be a good characteristic to use in a story because people will be able to relate to it and connect to the story because theres that shared opinion. We also talked about habits and habits that we know we or other people have that were quite interesting, I recalled a habit someone had at my college of always going around tidying up and an obsession for things to be clean and for everything to be in it's place which sometimes could get out of hand. This can be used to a similar use by giving a character this habit or obsession because I know more about it because I'm drawing from experience of knowing someone who does have it so it's a lot more realistic.

We ended the session by each writing a short paragraph or two about someone and incorporated these habits and ideas or memories into the character and story. I wrote about a man waiting for his coffee shop to open in his car trying to get across that he is addicted to get coffee and is always on time or early for anything he needed to do.

Will Taylor waited for a quarter of an hour in his car. He was early. His daily coffee shop 'Coffee Empire' had yet to open although a small queue started to form outside. Will remembered the days when queues would lead around the corner for a drink from 'Coffee Empire' and to tell you the truth, it doesn't even taste very good. The doors began to open and Will made his way over, with the correct change in hand, Will joined the queue and continued to wait.   

That was my small narrative story that I put together using what we had talked about earlier and what we had learned in previous lessons. I like the detail it goes into about this mans life and his habits but it doesn't seem to go anywhere narratively very fast and needs to continue more for a story to develop but overall I think its a nice build up to a story.    

Production Meeting- Reconstruction of "IT"

20th October 2014-

We had our first production meeting on Monday for our group who is reconstructing a scene from Stephen King's IT. We were given our roles earlier and I was given the role of camera man for the documentary side of the assignment, Chloe is the director of the documentary as well as sound while Stephen is the director of the drama and reconstruction of the scene with Simon working as production manager for both and Jacob taking lead on the camera for the drama. We had a production meeting to make sure we could set off all the tasks that we need to do individually and start putting key parts into play. We started to organise when we need to have certain tasks completed by and that we all should get familiar with the roles that we would be performing as on the team, we also set a goal of finding a location to shoot on for the coming weeks but needed ASAP.

Because Chloe is the director of the documentary she started to map out what she wanted to film and what should be included in the documentary, she also started a draft of questions that would be relevant to ask the cast and crew so the audience would have a wider knowledge of what was going on. So far our team is working well together and offering up great suggestions and ideas to work with, hopefully we will be able to find all the components needed to successfully complete our task.  

A Trip to Newcastle

Recently we visited the city of Newcastle with our course Creative Film and Moving Image Production at CCAD Hartlepool. The trip consisted of a guide around the magnificent Tyneside Cinema and a visit to the famous Baltic Mill for a look at some contemporary art. When we first arrived in Newcastle we made our way over to the Tyneside Cinema first and waited for our guide to begin. We started on the ground floor where the box office was and made or way up the building, we found out that the cinema was designed and built by a man named Dixon Scott who was also the uncle of filmmakers Ridley and Tony Scott who are famous for films such as Alien, Blade Runner, True Romance and Top Gun. The cinema has five screens on various floors of the building that the use to view films and also allow to be booked out for any occasions you may have, the cinema had recently gone through a renovation and restoration back in 2006 but tried to keep it's classic style and design by recreating some of its patterns and tones on different floors. We were able to sit down and enjoy an old news screening in a screen they call "The Classic" and got to experience how people would find out about news back in the times it was created. It was an interesting view on how important the cinema was and still is and how it could be used for much more than just film. The further we went up the building we were introduced to different screens and cafes the cinema had and it was nice to see that each screen had it's own design and wasn't an exact copy of the previous. It was a great experience visiting Tyneside Cinema and a pleasant surprise to see an independent cinema doing well and still having that love for film and cinema after all these years.

After Tyneside Cinema we were given a lunch break and then it was off to the Baltic Mill to have a look at some of it's new additions and presentations. The Baltic also had many floors, each filled with a different artists work that you could walk around and view and each offered a different experience than the last. There was some very intriguing pieces of art and some that were either to complex for me to understand or just not to my taste but it was nice to see peoples thought process and how each individual interprets the art differently which is one of the best things about art. We finished up at the Baltic after just over an hour and then made our journey back to Hartlepool. I really enjoyed the trip to Newcastle and both the experiences we got to enjoy, it was definitely worth the the trip and the insight gained from visiting places like this is very valuable.

Visual Culture- Visual Language and Knowledge

This week for our visual culture lecture we were introduced to The Continental Renaissance and it's impact on art throughout history. The Continental Renaissance was a cultural movement from the mid 14th century to late 17th century and originated in Italy, it came around due to all the war and disease (Black Death) that happened in the 14th century and led to a decline of the medieval world in the 15th century that encouraged European discovery and prosperity. The survivors of all the war and disease believed they were saved by God which links to the name Renaissance meaning rebirth. Florence, Italy was the centre of trade banking and the centre of Christianity, this all helped to develop the city life in Italy and resulted in Europe looking to Italy for help and knowledge. The rebirth meant starting again but they used the past as inspiration for the future so there wasn't huge break of originality that kickstarted the Renaissance but it did lead to amazing works of art such as The Scrovegni Chapel (1305) and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

During this time of art there was the discovery of perspective and foreshortening that changed the way art could be seen and viewed by everyone, this even has a huge impact on us today with how we design and view art. Also in this stage there was a switch from religion to mythology and we started to see more depictions of Roman and Greek Gods in pictures and been presented in the style of allegory, which was a device that used characters or events in literal or visual form and represented them as a symbol. There was also an increase in nudity in art where they would use the nakedness of a male to represent perfection and the nakedness of a female to represent beauty.

This was certainly an interesting time for art with the cultural movement been at it's peak and there is so much inspiration from this era that has impacted our society and culture in the present which I was uneducated on before this lecture. It's interesting to see how much of history is used and repeated throughout time to work towards something new.

Scriptwriting- Narrative Structure

Our second lesson on screenwriting explored the topic of Narrative Structure and it's importance in a story or script, I learned about the origins of Narrative Structure and how it can be traced back to a Greek Philosopher by the name of Aristotle who noticed the importance of a plot and how they must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Of course their are also Non-Narrative plots and stories in the form of documentaries and commercials but the more common and popular structure is narrative. A great way to create a narrative structure is to give your story some pre-narrative stability by giving the setting and the characters of your story a history so they don't seem like they were instantly created, another point to making a strong narrative is making sure that the narrative gets disrupted at some point and sets off a chain of events for your characters to follow which you can end with a solution to close the narrative.

I also learned about Diegesis, which is the specific world that the story creates and inhabits by using tools like Mise en scene, characters and costumes. This helps set a tone and a history to the world your story takes place in and gives you a foundation to build on. Of course your story won't move anywhere unless you have Motivations that move the story along, these are events that occur in the narrative that function in the overall plot. The motivations need to be justified and can't just appear to be random and need to be believable in the world your narrative takes place in. These are all great guidelines to follow and consider when writing a screenplay with a narrative structure, they make sure your ideas become a story and not just random scenes and dialogue so I'll defiantly be thinking about where and when to use this information when writing a screenplay.

Scriptwriting- Mise-En-Scene

We started a new lesson that focuses on screenwriting and explores all the needs and options you have when it comes to writing a screenplay, the first week looked into Visual Style and Iconography which Mise-en-scene falls under. Mise-en-scene is a word used to describe the design of a shot and the arrangement of the framing, actors and even the lighting and pretty much anything you see in your shot. It's always related to the narrative and is ProFilmic (staging of events for the camera), there are so many details in a shot it's important to recognise all of them and have them correctly positioned or stylised such as the setting, the costumes, the proximity, the acting, the lighting, the camera movement/angle and the framing. Their is a popular tracking shot at the beginning of 1958's Touch of Evil (Orson Welles) that lasts three minutes and twenty seconds that shows the amount of effort and planning you can put into a single shot/scene.

Each genre has its own visual style so it's important to use this to your advantage and take this visual style and it make it your own without disfiguring it too much, like film noir is known to be dark and gritty while a comedy would be more lighter and playful. It's great to break films down into single scenes or even single shots because it reveals the effort and planning that goes into films and how difficult it is to create a successful film.It's important to capture everything you want in your shots and to know everything thats in your shots and not leaving everything to chance and I'm starting to learn some key elements to filmmaking from Mise-en-scene.    

Visual Culture- Visual Language and Empire

Visual Culture is a weekly lecture my course has that explores the history and the impact art has had on the world and the impact art has had on history. The first lecture was about The Symbolic Arts of Imperial China and showed the basic history of Imperial China and how it's influenced modern times. It was interesting to learn about it's religious heritage with the likes of Taoism (Daoism) and Buddhism been huge contributors to the empire. The Emperor and Empress of china were depicted as a five toed dragon and a phoenix to show their great power in this ancient civilisation, with the Emperor known as the celestial being and the Empress known as the celestial servant. Art was a big part of Imperial China and symbols in ceramics were used as gifts but it was more about the meaning of the symbol than the material object given. Decorations in this culture were never purely ornamental and always had a symbolic meaning behind them, it was also interesting to find out about colours and how they can auspicious or inauspicious and the Emperor would wear certain colours reflecting his feelings such as:

Black-Water
Red-Fire
Blue-Wood
White- Metal
Yellow-Earth    

These were all known within this culture and was a way of expression without words. There is also the language of the plants where certain plants and flowers would represent a season like:

Peony-Spring
Lotus- Summer
Chrysanthemum- Autumn
Plum Blossom- Winter

It was interesting to see all these hidden languages and forms of expression Imperial China had and in some cases still has but is becoming a lost art, Imperial China has become lost in modern China with it evolving with technology and global affairs but it's culture was and still is rich and offers lots to learn.

Health and Safety

Because of all the equipment we'll be working with and all the locations we'll be working on we can be put in some potentially dangerous situations, so we have to go over all the health and safety aspects of working in film and on film sets. The health and safety rules help us to prepare for the worst and make sure everyone is as safe as they can be, we were introduced with a presentation of risks that you may find on a film set, we were also shown previous mistakes and in some cases deaths on film sets that happened due to lack of health and safety procedures. The main example that stuck with me was the accidental deaths on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie where actor Vic Morrow and two Chinese child actors were killed in a helicopter accident, it shocked me because you automatically assume that on such a big production you were safe and that many people were there to ensure that but even on huge film productions things can still go wrong.

We were shown the risk assessment papers that have to be filled out before any shoot, to show you have recognised all potential risks with your production and that you have done all you can do to make people aware of what hazards the location, props or actors may cause. There is a certain way of ranking these risks and there are charts that help you decided what type of risk they are depending on there likeliness to happen and the seriousness of the risk. We were also visited by a member of Cleveland Police to show us about counter terrorism and received a presentation on what it was and how we can help. Because of the situations we may find ourselves in due to our productions and studies, we may be seen as acting with suspicious behaviour so it's important to let people around us know who we are and what were doing, it's also important to let the police know where we are and what were doing if it's in any public space where we might cause a disturbance or any dangerous place where we might need permission.

Many of the health and safety risks in a film study are quite obvious but many times forgotten, equipment like studio lights and cameras are quite hazardous because there heavy and connected to many wires that run all over the set, it's key to make sure everything is set up to the high standards they need to be to ensure the safety of the cast and crew. It was great that we had these lessons and presentations to remind us of the dangers that we will be working on and with throughout the coming years, they were many risks that I had already known about and some that are common sense but there was also many that I was unaware off and I am now far better off with this new knowledge.

-Mikey Barker  

Production Skills- Camera Angles

After testing and experimenting with sound, we moved on to camera angles and the effects they can give, we started learning about many different camera angles, some we already knew and some we hadn't heard of and looked into the effectiveness of the angles and shots and what each one can mean. We touched on the length of shots and talked about the Extreme Long Shot which can be used as an establishing shot which helps with setting the scene, this led to the Long Shot which generally gives a life size effect with the audience,  a Medium Shot which would normally show an actor or figure from the knees/waist up, a Close Up which concentrates on a face or a detail leaving the background out of focus and then finally the Extreme Close Up which is a close up of a object or person which would commonly be of the mouth or eyes and features no background detail at all. These were all good at framing the shot in a still scene so we moved on to camera movement which included Pan shots, Tilt shots, Dolly shots and Zoom shots which will also come in handy.

Once we understand the basics of the shots and angles we started experimenting and filming or own shots with this knowledge, we split off into groups again and searched around campus and Hartlepool for interesting features to include in our shots. We tested out a wide range of different shots on people and buildings and tried to make them as engaging as possible. This was a good exercise to work on because it helped develop some peoples camera skills and even directing skills with what people wanted in their shots.

-Mikey Barker

Production Skills- Intro to Panasonic Camera

After we were introduced to the Canon camera we were given an introduction to the Panasonic camera, both cameras have a lot of similarities and the Panasonic camera has a lot of features that the Canon camera has so I won't go into too much detail about that. The Panasonic camera can film in both 16:9 and 4:3 unlike the Canon camera, when using microphones for sound it is important to know there is a line option and a mic option so you need to have it correctly set up for the use of the mic. We were informed about OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) which can help when using the camera handheld with any sudden movements or vibrations that camera picks up. We were also made aware during this intro about Interlace and Progressive frame rates/scanning. Interlace is two images/fields that come together to make one image, there split into odds and evens and it's main benefit is that it can give detailed images within a limited bandwidth. Progressive gives a more filmic look, it delivers the whole image and allows for images to seem smoother and sharper.

-Mikey Barker

Production Skills- Microphones and Sound

Sound is one of the most important aspects of making a film and is normally overlooked during productions, to get some practice at using the sound equipment and to test our creativity we were set a task to go out around the campus and Hartlepool to record some sounds that we would then playback as sound effects and have the rest of the course guess what they were. We split off into groups and used the Canon camera as our recording equipment with an external microphone which we plug in to capture our audio, to make sure we all got some experience with the equipment we rotated job roles every now and then, we would have one person holding the camera, one person holding the microphone, one person listening with headphones on to the sound and another creating the sound. We had equal turns in the job roles and each role was interesting. We didn't want to be completely average so we tried to search for sound effects that were too obvious or common so we experimented with the sounds in a phone box, the sound of a pen rolling off a table onto the floor and even a mobile phone vibrating on a table. We weren't 100% sure what the quality of the sound was until we played them back for the course but we were quite proud and impressed with the quality once we heard it, it was nice and clear with the audio not too loud or not too quite.

It was a great exercise at getting used to the sound and camera equipment and even helpful at showing how difficult it can be to get great quality sound.

- Mikey Barker

Production Skills- Intro to Canon Camera

On our course we use primarily two brands of digital cameras, the first been the Canon camera and the second been the Panasonic. We were introduced to the Canon camera first and were explained all the technical aspects the camera has, we were taught how to set the camera up for specific shoots and even a little intro to microphones and how they work with the camera. The Canon camera has custom presets that you can customise to your liking so you don't have to keep reconfiguring every time you use it, you can save your chosen settings under custom presets. The Canon only shoots in 4:3 unlike some more modern cameras that can shoot in both 4:3 and 16:9, this is important to remember so you don't film with this camera if you want to shoot in 16:9 because it's not something that is easily fixed in post-production. The camera also has a zoom grip that you want to keep the same speed throughout filming, the options the zoom grip provide are Variable, Low, Medium and Fast. When going deep into the settings you can change and adjust modes such as Rec Mode and Audio Mode which need to always be Rec Mode- Short Play and Audio Mode- 16 Bit, this is compatible with the rest of our equipment and gets the best out of our equipment. An interesting new setting I learned was Zebra Levels, these are zebra lines that appear when above the set number on the camera and are affected by light exposure, commonly you'd have it set to 85% because this is the recommended setting for skin so if you start to see zebra lines your light exposure is too high. The camera also has features such as Manual Focus and Auto Focus (Manual Focus is the better option, Auto Focus should not be used when filming). White Balance is a key feature the camera offers as well because it helps you achieve the right colour for your film and can be adjust for whenever your filming outside in sunlight or inside with studio lights.

This was my basic intro to the Canon camera and I'm sure I'll pick up more when I have more experience at handling and using it on projects.

-Mikey Barker

Location Doc/Drama Pitch

The next step in our Location Doc/Drama module was to pitch a scene from an existing film that we think would be fun and challenging to recreate in groups, the scene needed to be no more or no less than 2 minutes and I needed to convince the course why this film would be perfect for this task. I was shown examples of what we would be doing by watching previous groups recreation at scenes from films such as A Clockwork Orange and The Godfather so I knew what some challenges I might be faced with were.

The scene I chose to pitch was from Up in the Air (2009) starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick, I choose a scene that was quite early on in the film and only required 3 actors. The scene is contained in a room in an office building so there were no extras wondering around in the background, I was attracted to this scene because of the strong dialogue and amazing acting that occurs during it. The film is modern day so there were no complications in trying to find costumes or props from 20-30 years ago and there are no long monologues that would be too hard on an actor. Unfortunately the scene did have windows behind it giving a view of a city street which would be hard to find and would only be achieved with green screen, it also had multiple cuts which was a concern for some people and the location itself was a concern for me. In the end my scene was not selected to be recreated but it helped me understand some complications with the scene and that it wasn't as appealing as other scenes that were pitched.

- Mikey Barker
 

Location Doc/Drama Practice Pitch

One of the first tasks that I was set was to pitch one of my favourite films in preparation for a future pitch that could lead to the film been chosen to be recreated as part of our module. The practice pitch film will not go into production but is been used to gain us confidence and give us an idea of how and what to pitch for future cases. The idea of the pitch was to talk about the story and the characters and all the positives about the film without giving away the name of the film leaving the rest of the course to guess, this will help develop pitching skills and to only include what is important about the film.

The film I chose to pitch was the 2014 remake Godzilla, I knew when phrasing the idea of the story and the fact it was a remake would open up multiple options and not make it extremely obvious like other films. My pitch focused on the main plot points, the director, the budget and the benefits of it been an existing franchise. The pitch was good to help me understand my weak points about public speaking and it was also helpful to see other students on the course pitch their films because it helped me understand what they were doing that I wasn't. I think it went smoothly but I now know what improvements to make for future pitches like memorising key points instead of reading them out and how to engage your audience or future employers.

- Mikey Barker

Visualizing My Time

This is a document I created to help me organize my time and balance the time I spend at university/working with my free time for resting and socializing. I tried to pick up on every detail of my life and incorporated how much time I would be spending traveling to and from university and how much time I would be spending at university, this left me with a number of hours I could spend sleeping and socializing. It also shows my lessons for this term so it can help remind me where I need to be and when. I think it's good to take time to create a chart like this because you become more aware of your responsibilities and it helps create a schedule and a routine.

Introduction to WatchLearnCreate

Welcome to WatchLearnCreate.

This is an introduction to my blog which will consist of all my university work and detailed notes on my lessons explaining what I've learnt and how it can be developed into a new skill. Throughout my time at university there will be updates on all my studies and lessons on an almost weekly basis. In my free time I will also be reviewing films and posting them to this blog on a not so regular basis.

My names Mikey Barker and I'm currently studying Creative Film and Moving Image Production at CCAD Hartlepool, I'm a huge fan of Television and Films and also enjoy reading books and graphic novels. I hope to find a career in the film and television industry so I can be creative and entertain people on a wide scale.