Character Task

For this task we had to create a character in depth, by thinking more about their story, background and behaviour.

 

 



Name: Roy Marshal

Age: 36

Nationality: American

Profession: Engineer, ex-pilot

Marital Status: Widow

 

Roy is a quite held back person, who prefers to listen rather than voice his opinion. He's not hot headed and doesn't get angry but, even though he's quite everyone listens when he talks and he takes control of the situation even if it's not his intention. He is a born leader with peoples' respect though he doesn't normally take charge. Roy didn't come from a rich background but is still well educated, with good grammar and vocabulary. They rarely swear and have a low pitched voice.

 

As a person they are very knowledgeable and experienced, their life has been a course of challenges  which they have overcome. They have had to deal with the passing of their wife which has left them unhappy and pessimistic. They have become quiet and feeling to toll of day to day living without their other half. Roy is beginning to lose his will to live and his grief is starting to consume him, his outlook on life changes. He shuts himself off from the world and is now untrusting of others though in the past he was selfless, generous and sensitive to others.

 

The character is very traditional and is not interested in the modern era. He listens to old records and read a newspaper. He is pleased by the simple things in life and is not obsessed with technology or social media. They played American football in school and loosely follow the sport. He was brought up as a Christian and has a strong tie to his religion. 

 

Their past is very complicated they finished school and went straight into the RAF to train as a pilot and learn skills as an engineer. After spending about 10 years serving his country Roy left the RAF. He sets up a garage and meets his wife, a childhood friend, in next 8 years he marries and buys a house before his wife dies in a car crash.

The house becomes his main hobby as he renovates it into their dream house, its old, large and in the country. He lives there alone apart from his German Shepard who is his only companion and best friend.



Analysing Soundtrack

Horror
Music is used to build up tension, it normally starts of rather quiet with long pauses between the sounds. The use of staccato helps create an atmosphere which can escalate and increase in suspension as the mu gets louder, quicker and more dramatic. Some soundtrack use a piano to create an eerie feel to the listener. They are distinct, cold sounds which fit with the generic features of horror, its important the music creates suspense so the watcher anticipates something scary is to come.

Western
All western soundtracks have a similar sound to classify that genre. There's typical a use of traditional instruments like cowbells or a acoustic guitar. They traditional have lyrics and are rather upbeat linking to the action in the genre.

Sci-Fi
All the soundtracks were bold, dramatic and loud. They use a orchestra to make the music seem to surround us a create a new world, which is important for sci-fi is set normally on a different planet. The music is very large scale to empathise the importance of the setting.

Romcom
This genre has typically used popular songs that are upbeat and have lyrics. To create a happy mood and make the watchers feel good. The use of famous, known songs is important as it makes it relatable and they are normally pop songs because everyone knows the words.

Film Language - Genre

I filled in this grid to help understanding of what makes up different genres and start thinking about what genre I would like my opening to be and therefore what I should include.

Opening Sequence Planning - Content

Diamond 9

What I think is important to include:
I chose to put creativity as most important because the openings that interest me most in films have to be different and that is what makes people watch on. Introducing characters and setting is always fundamental to openings but doing this in an unusual way is what makes an opening stand out to others. I put ensure you audience gets it at the bottom because if you explained the whole story in the opening 2 minutes nobody would watch till the end. There has to be some confusion to intrigue a viewer into watching on.




What the exam board thinks is important to include:
I thought use a variety of camera angles would be more important to the examiner because it shows a level of skill and thought to filming. I moved ensure your audience gets it higher as well because that can demonstrate a well thought and planned plot and showing where the storyline is going. Demonstrating creativity was a lot lower as this would be less important as long as you shown certain skills. Use dialogue is at the bottom because there doesn't have to be any for the opening to be good  and at a non-professional level dialogue can lower the quality of the end result.

The Finest Hours Trailer

Walt Disney Pictures has released a new  trailer for director Craig Gillespie’s upcoming disaster drama The Finest Hours, which is based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias and the true story of the 1952 Pendleton rescue mission.

Submarine - Final Cut and Evaluation

 

 

The Submarine opening was a lot more difficult to recreate than I first thought as smaller details were really the parts that made most difference and made the clip better. Obviously certain restrictions meant it was harder to add this extra level of detail and therefore restricting the end project. These things being funding, time, choice of actors and location. Which if we would have had more time ways could have been found around problems. To improve I would have liked to spend more time designing the settings especially in the bedroom as key items were missed. I think what was in our control was done well for example the editing we had a large range of sounds to choose from so were able to find the rights one to fit with the original. Overall I feel the project went well and will definitely help when doing our own opening.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Breaking the fourth wall is when an actor directly talks to the audience or camera, this can be used to encourage audience participation. Also its used in Submarine in the opening sequence.

Black Ops III Seize Glory

Submarine - Cast

                                         
We had a hard time finding someone who looked similar to the character Oliver; so we went for someone who was available, willing and could pass for a distant cousin. Unfortunately Richard who had arranged the actor couldn't make it to the filming  so I was left to find someone who was on site, luckily one of the chefs from the pub beneath the apartment was willing and not to dissimilar from Oliver though a little older. This however limited my filming time to about 5 minutes so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to get a really good shot.

Submarine - Filming and editing

                     
                                                                         Filming

In the bedroom I did a slow panning shot from one side of the room to the other, using a tripod to keep the shot steady and level. In the original I first thought the shot zooms in at the window, trying this proved hard to move the camera and zoom smoothly. however watching it again the camera actually moves and lowers to change the angle. For the close up shot I did a low angle shot looking up and then a more level shot. I would have liked to spent more time filming to try other camera angles but the wasn't possible.
Filming the outside locations was easier because it was just a still shot and living in the countryside meant I had access to many good locations. however timing was hard because sometimes cloud meant the sun disappeared earlier than you were expecting. Also the in the original the sun is captured just before it completely goes meaning it was all about timing.


                                                                        Editing

Adding the tittles in between the footage was   
really easy on premiere pro, unfortunately we didn't have a production company name so we couldn't add that in. For the footage between tittles I use two different shots and cropped them so they appeared to be one take. For the long shot of the window it was hard to get the exposure right and I had to spend longer editing the colour because at the window there was more light than at the start of the shot. The shots were actually a lot darker than I initially thought so I had to increase the exposure but  I couldn't change it too much because the shots needed to be consistent. I also used a warp tool so when the camera is panning it has a smooth motion.   The main part of editing was the sound, not just adding the soundtrack but also ambient noises like the seagulls, the ticking and general background noise which I all added.

Submarine - Setting and Location

                               

The opening clip from Submarine is set in a boys bedroom around the late 90s. For our location I knew an empty apartment which could have a suitable room for us to use to recreate the bedroom. We decided it would be better to use an empty room rather than one of our own rooms because then we have complete control over what went in the setting and we could add specific props. the one problem was there was no furniture we could use so the setting was abit bare compared to what we wanted. When designing the setting we really tried to keep it in the correct time period by adding older posters. Certain items we added was the lamp and the wooden ship which was the closed thing we had to a submarine. To make it seem more like a bedroom we added books and clothes. If I could have I would have spent longer on the setting as we missed out certain props like the telescope and skeleton.


 For the outside footage, I live in the countryside so it was easy to find places where the sun was setting but the sun was normally hidden behind trees and the settings are all very similar. In the original clip there is one of a town so I decided to try and film around Norwich to get a clip.