Harry Potter Swede

Harry Potter swede, made by myself and 6 other media students.

Making and Filming 

We began organising and making the swede in the media studies lesson, we started by making a note of all the scenes we could include from the trailer and drawing them out in order on a large sheet of paper. To make it clearer and add more information we transferred it to a shared document and created a table, It included the scenes, people, props, date, time, location, and shots. This can be viewed here

We started filming in the next lesson and split the group into people who would do the filming and actors, we worked together as a team to bring the shots together. We came across a few difficulties such as how to make the boat scene and the mermaid scene. The continuity of the props was also a difficulty. When making the mermaid scene we did not have access to the swimming pool so we filmed it in a sink in a classroom instead, you can see the surrounding area of the sink and the persons arm who was holding the mermaid however we decided this made it look more like a swede. When filming this we took into consideration shot types, white balance, and ISO, by shooting with the main source of light facing the actor/s.

Editing 

We split our group into smaller groups to each edit 3 different swedes, I worked along with Alex and Amy. To make the idents and titles we decided to draw them to make it more like a swede, we took a short film of the drawing, then flipped it to make it the right way round and placed the clips in the right order. For the scene with the dragon chasing Harry we filmed someone in my group's lizard infront of a green screen to use as the dragon. We used the Ken Burn tool to move the background image for Harry and the 'dragon' to make it look as in Harry is travelling fast. After securing everything in place we watched it over a few times and picked out faults to edit. Some re editing included making some shots shorter or dragging others out and ensuring the green screen shots ran smoothly.

Assessment current attainment and predicted grade

Overall I feel that you have made a very strong start to the course and clearly have a love of film that is great to see and will be of real benefit to you going forward. You are currently working at a high Proficient level (B); in order to improve your work to comfortably fall within your targeted B grade, you should do the following going forward:

Get your work up to date; Your 5th Film Opening should by now be on your blog; please complete this by the end of this week.

Highlight all terminology in pink. If you get into the habit of doing this for each post, you won’t need to go back and do lots of highlighting.

Start to refer more to genre and genre signifiers in your analysis.

Now that we are approaching production, I would recommend that you start blogging more regularly on everything that you are doing on the course. This could start with your swede; write a blog (or do a vlog) on your contribution to the production and what your challenges/difficulties were in achieving your swede.

Keep it up! You are on target and I’m looking forward to seeing you work on your film opening.

Thanks

Mr VZ

Film ideas

Title

Genre

Synopsis (a brief overview of how the opening would play out; remember that the opening must only be 2-3  mins long)

Possible locations for shooting

Strengths

Difficulties

You could also include images of locations or anything else that is relevant.

Title: ?

genre: drama 

Synopsis: rain, birds eye view medium close up of face, person laid on bed, second shot: long shot of the bedroom showing bed window and person, legs off the side with feet on the floor. close up shot of the rain drops falling down the window. Shouting voice can be heard shouting the protagonists name, protagonist walks into the room a group of teenagers can be seen planning and conspiring over something, messy papers and low lit lighting is shown. The audience should wonder why protagonist was distracted, they are also shown to be awkward and uncomfortable.
Possible locations for shooting: Volunteered house
Strengths: Can be filmed easily, accessible location, props aren't extravagant,
Difficulties: The cast, the right lighting

Title: ?

Genre: thriller(?)

Synopsis: man running from something  through the moors, dramatic music is played, dramatic shots of him and the landscape, follows him stumbling through trees and uneven ground, either looking back on something or looking forward purposefully. Shots of the landscape can be seen with a superimposed double exposure of the side of the protagonists' nose. This creates a personal feel connecting the audience to the protagonist, as it looks like the audience is viewing the the landscape through their own eyes catching a glimpse of the nose that you wouldn't normally notice. A heavy sound of a heart beat and muffled voices could also achieve this. The muffled voices and sounds adds mise-en-scene/genre.
Possible locations for shooting: Ilkley moor, other possible country sides, abandoned rural/urban areas
Strengths: easy location , only needs a tiny cast, can use natural lighting
Difficulties: editing and sound to get acquired effects

Title: The Shirbit Culture 
genre: fantasy 
Synopsis: Children running and playing in an old house(?) one child hides from the other under a window box seat, shouts of a strict adults voice can be heard, shouting the child's name and telling them to come, child pushes further down into box, falls through bottom, child screams, they appear in an underground tunnel. Tunnel is covered in warning signs pointing up (to the window box), child is scared and confused, they follow a path of tiny lights and open the door into a festive room with two elf like creatures arguing.
Possible locations for shooting: old house, 3 walls of a large cardboard house, underground tunnel, old style room in old house.
Strengths: smaller cast, mystical 
Difficulties: costume for elf like creatures, location for underground, children as cast 

Pitch Presentation

Title: ?

genre: drama 

Synopsis: rain, birds eye view medium close up of face, person laid on bed, second shot: long shot of the bedroom showing bed window and person, legs off the side with feet on the floor. close up shot of the rain drops falling down the window. Shouting voice can be heard shouting the protagonists name, protagonist walks into the room a group of teenagers can be seen planning and conspiring over something, messy papers and low lit lighting is shown. The audience should wonder why protagonist was distracted, they are also shown to be awkward and uncomfortable.

• Title
• Genre
• Synopsis (a brief overview of how the opening would play out; remember that the opening must only be 2-3 mins long)
• Possible locations for shooting
• Strengths
• Difficulties
• You could also include images of locations or anything else that is relevant.

Title: ?

Genre: thriller(?)

Synopsis: man running from something  through the moors, dramatic music is played, dramatic shots of him and the landscape, follows him stumbling through trees and uneven ground, either looking back on something or looking forward purposefully. Shots of the landscape can be seen with a superimposed double exposure of the side of the protagonists' nose. This creates a personal feel connecting the audience to the protagonist, as it looks like the audience is viewing the the landscape through their own eyes catching a glimpse of the nose that you wouldn't normally notice. A heavy sound of a heart beat and muffled voices could also achieve this. The muffled voices and sounds adds mise-en-scene/genre.

Opening scene analysis: Boyhood

Boyhood

Director: Richard Linklater 
Production company: IFC Productions Detour Filmproduction
Distributor:IFC Films (US) Universal Pictures (International)
Domestic box office: $25,352,281
Year: 2014

Titles:

The titles appear right at the beginning of the film stating the production company and the name of the film. The font has a child like feel to it, because of its resemblance to drawing with chalk, this can also be seen through the way in which it appears on the screen- looks to be written across the shot.

Sound:

Yellow by Coldplay is the first thing and sound presented to the audience, after the first ten seconds into the song the opening shot is finally shown. The song continues until the next scene where it is then faded out. The choice of song reflects pensive connotations which contrasts with the imagery of youth and innocence.

Mise-en-scene:

The mise-en-scene is that of circa 2003, in an american kindergarden, this is seen through the school building and the swing set seen in the background. The song and the clothing fits in with the mise-en-scene also.

Shot types:

The opening shot is a point of view and worms eye view shot of the sky and clouds, this is the background for which the titles are displayed. 

The next shot is an extreme close up of the protagonists face which then zooms out to a mid shot, this shot brings to the audiences attention who this character is by zooming out from him instead of zooming in to him. The fact the shot first shows the boys eyes gives the audience connotations of dreaming, the symbolism of his dreaming eyes intertwines with the whole feel of the movie being one innocence, growing up and the future.

The following shot is one long tracking shot that films the protagonist's mother from a long shot to a medium close up. This tracking shot gives the audience a sense of the pace of life for this boy once people are with him compared to the laid back dreaming pace he had before. The tracking shot stops as the next scene shows the two characters together in a car. The end of that shot signifies the end of the opening.

Opening scene annalysis

500 Days of summer

Director: Marc Webb
Production company: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures, FilmFlex
Domestic box office: $32,391,374
Year: 2009

The film opens with a birds eye view of an engaged\married couples hand. This gives immediate genre indication to it being one of a romantic film, this is solidified by the prompt use of a voiceover telling the audience the nature of the story. The sad whimsical music also sets the scene, giving the audience an indication to wether the love story is a happy one or not. 

 

The second shot is an animation of numbers in brackets going down as the tree turns from brown to green, this gives connotation that the lower the number the newer, thus nicer it is.

The architectural drawing of the buildings adds to the mise-en-scene as the film is set in a city and the main character being interested in architecture as the audience finds out later on in the film.

The next shot along with the voiceover gives the audience a large insight to the exposition as it explains who the protagonist is and back story to his life. This shot is a medium long shot which zooms into a medium shot. The reflection of how much the audience knows about the character is shortly seen through the camera zooming in - as we find out more we get closer to him. The fact that the length of take is long gives the audience chance to dwell on the characters.

These medium long shots zooming into medium shots are also used when the audience gets introduced to the protagonists younger past selfs. In this shot the we can get more insight to the character as the props in his bedroom tell us about the boy, along with the information being solidified by the voice, "this belief stemmed from early exposure to sad british punk music"- this is seen through the posters and t-shirt.

When the 'girl' is introduced the same shot types are used showing continuity, however she is faced away from the camera suggesting a sense of mystery. This shot is set back in present day and in the same work environment as the 'guy'. The music and tone of voice continues in the same sound reassuring the audience that it is still the introduction.

The shot of the female protagonist in her childhood is an over the shoulder shot focusing on the reflection in the mirror as the camera zooms in to reveal more about the character visually as the narrator tells the audience audibly. The fact that the girl loved that could easily cut off her hair and "feel nothing" gives the audience exposition but also shows a sense of mystery.

This next shot is a medium shot of the male protagonist that pans across to an extreme long shot of the female character, The music changes at this point from less melancholy to a more hopeful tune as the audience is informed that this is the point in which the two characters meet.

The last shot before the titles is a medium close up tracking shot, of the character Summer, she looks calm and content giving the viewer peaceful connotations. The introduction to the characters ends with the words "this is not a love story", this is said with a blank background to emphasise the words. This may give negative connotations as the beginning shot of the engaged couples hands is being contrasted therefore the audience may feel let down. However the music changes from the instrumental song to a much happier song. as the titles are displayed.

After the character introduction the feel of the film completely changes because of the music and the happy home videos of the actors, acting as a background to the titles.

It is also edited so that the videos fit together showing each side of the two characters along with the titles of the cast and crew. This also gives the audience the sense that they understand them on a deeper level because they have witnessed the characters' personal childhoods through the home videos.

The home videos are shown in chronological order as the audience gets to witness the characters growing up this continues on until the song comes to a close ending the list of titles. This is a clear ending to the film opening.