Directions Unit Research Part 1: My Director - Contextual Analysis

The director I have chosen for this unit is John Fawcett. The reason I picked him is because I love his work on Orphan Black and it made me want to do more research into him and also see why what he does is so great to watch.

He is still a young director so his catalogue of films and shows he has directed in not that extensive but he has managed to show in a short space of time what an incredible director he is. After a series of short films he got into TV in 1996 and that was with sci-fi comedy which was recieved well by critics and was a success.

Joh  Fawcett's best received work has generally been in the Drama/Horror genre and he was known for directing "Ginger Snaps" "The Dark (2005)" and "The Boys Club". Whilst at the time of writing I have not watched these films I have read into them and they are interesting because 2/3 are with women lead actors. I like this as it shows John does not feel he has to stay with the standard stereotypes and possibly the safer option of having a male lead, he went for something different which seems to benefit his work.

His big break however was on Orphan Black, a show made by BBC America. I personally had watched this show for years of a friends recommendation and I have loved it ever since.
Once again it has a female lead actor in Tatiana Maslany. Whilst I know he has not directed all of Orphan Black episodes, John has made the most out of any single director so I feel the series bares his style more that most others. He does an incredible job of building and squashing suspense meaning you are never sure what's going to happen next. This means the viewer is always on the edge of their seat.

After reading an interview with John Fawcett, he revealed that horror films are what drawed him to film making in the first place. And whilst Orphan Black is not particularly a horror show it does bare many traits of one. I will continue to research John, and hopefully get round to watching his other shows and films very soon. However from a quick search it may be hard to see all of them.

Red Riding - Directing Unit Research Task

My challenge is to read the Red Riding script and decide on the Crew (DOP). Production designer, Composer, Editor, Locations, Tone and Style.

After reading the script here are my ideas:
Director:
Not sure if it is suppose to be realistic on who could direct it but someone like Alfred Hitchcock was great at making mystery stories and from the opening scenes of this film it seems like he could really work with this.

Production Designer:
Rick Carter from previous experience would be good for this. I loved Back to the future in which he did a great job and I think even though this is a different genre he can add his expertise well.

Composer:
Bernard Herrmann's work in psycho would be my reason for choosing him. he knows how to evoke a response in the audience and he certainly did that with psycho and even though that woukd seem to be a different genre to Red Riding I think it could work well.

Editor:
From some of the films that Thelma Schoonmaker has edited I would say she could be a good choice. You want someone to know your genre and from the work she has done it looks like she could edit this into a very good show.
Location:
From reading the script I would say somewhere in a working town up north or even into Scotland. I would probably pick the highlands in Scotland. Somewhere very remote so that the story makes sense with someone going missing and no possible leads.

Tone And Style:
From reading the script I get the feeling that it would be a serious tone and everything would be seen as it would be in real life, no little jokes in there for comedic effect. In terms of style I think you would film it a little like a documentary to try and get all the facts but at the same time you would need to get backstory in a different way that you would not be able to in a documentary.

Directing Unit Lecture Notes

- Make sure scenes are dramatic, make sure they are full scenes.

- Don't extend a short scene to a long scene with more shots.

- Main 2 considerations
What is happening in front of the camera
Where the camera is positioned

- Break the script down, and find questions to answer that we will need to answer.

- How/Who/Where/What Will need to be answered.

- Need to know your script, this means you can answer the important questions.

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500 Word TV Review - Top Gear Season 22 Episode 1

Today I wanted to review one of my favourite shows, Top Gear (This episode is S22 EP1). Whilst I have watched the show for years I never really thought about how it's made and shot so that's what I'm going to reflect on today.

Sound:
Sound is a big part of Top gear, we have the usual opening sequence which has symbolic sound as even if you don't watch top gear regularly, you would recognize it. The use of a live audience is interesting for the audio as well, live reactions make things inherently more funny. However you do suspect that many of the shots are retakes and the audiences laughter would not be as much as when the joke was first made. Diegetic sound is used mostly in the studio as when they are setting up a piece no background influence is needed, but once the get into a car review or a race against each other there a mix between non-diegetic and diegetic sound as the extra music and sound effects used.The reason background music is used to to heighten the drama and make us feel that is more intense than it probably actually is.

Editing:
Editing in Top Gear is vital, it is what makes a good scene into a great scene in my opinion. Some of the sequences in this particular episode are great as the action cuts so quickly it means the viewer doesn't have much chance to see a particular shot and means we instinctively move through the scene very fast. As what they are doing in this episode is a race they need to make sure the editing. The term used for this sort of editing id temporal editing as it manipulates time to seem faster than it is. Continuity editing is used to we have a correct timeline of what is going on in the scene.

Cinematography:
Multi camera is used in Top Gear and they have so many shots for the same segment it means we have great coverage of what is going on and shows they really have though about how they wanted this sequence to come out. I would say that telephoto lens are used in Top Gear so they can get all the action needed and also zoom into certain areas in which smaller lens types could not.Some angles are shot from Normal/Medium telephoto, especially the in car shots looking at the presenter but in the most part a long lens is used for the best coverage of a scene.

Mise en scene:
In Top gear all the presenters dress like us, like normal people. Whilst they are probably multi-millionaires they dress like us so that they engage with the biggest audience. Whilst in some scenes they may dress in suits its normally jeans and a shirt. The most part of this film is located in Russia but the show is broadcast from the UK and that is where the main hub is. The main props that are used are vehicles but sometimes as comedy gags they will buy each other presents and that will be a funny gag for the scene. In terms of lighting they mostly use natural lighting whilst outside, but in the main studios they use focused lighting so that we focus on the main 3 not the people in the crowds behind them.

Summary:
A lot of effort went into these episodes and I now realise that through doing this review. It makes you really respect the levels they go through for one shot but that can make or break a scene so it is totally worth it.

Contextual Studies: OBSESSION 1976

De Palma uses some very horror-like music in the opening title and it is very similar to Halloween.

Gothic connotations in the opening sequence and also a big house show the type of amercia it is being shot in. The camera is constantly moving in the opening sequence which i think draws in the viewer as they are intrigued about what will happen next.

The gun at the start of the film is a great reveal as in a way it's not very subtle and forces you to realise that danger is a real possibility. The camera never seems to stop moving.

Having to physically dolly the camera into something as zooming was not as easy at the time meaning you had to interestingly use the camera. They do this to show us the ransom note.

There are a lot of simple editing techniques in the opening sequences but it keeps the start of the simple enough for the viewer to follow. Without narrative context however you may not completely understand some of the shots.

The use of certain camera shots what's to insinuate what the relationship of some characters towards each other are. We see us looking up/down at certain characters so that shows us who is in power and the one who is likely to be the lesser. Looking down at the camera diminished the subject and shows they have little power.

The subtext of what is being said makes it more interesting, we know what's being said has an underlying message.

Tracking shots used to move through time easily. Zoom was used to look closer up at the painting and then to reflect back to her eyes which have a similar pose to the painting.

Circular motion and pushing forward are motions that are used a lot throughout this film. The use of no dialogue through sme scenes is very different as it is a prominent feature in most films.

Soft focus throughout the film makes the lights look a lot different.

The use of a freeze frame at the end of the film is an interesting ending. As we know the relationship when they don't, it doesn't really conclude the film for some.

Final Critical Evaluation

I am going to review making my film and all that has gone with it.

My film started as a 25 word pitch back in September has has developed a lot since. I feel that my biggest problem throughout making my film was getting a really good reason for it all to happen. I have a good beginning and end but the middle of my story always struggled. It actually really took off only recently whilst talking to Mike Rymer I feel I now have a really good middle of the story to make it all make sense.

Screenwriting
I knew from the start that this was the part of the course that I would struggle with most, I know that my writing ability is not the best but part of the reason I wanted to do this course was to test myself and try things that I haven't wanted to do before. Actually I did end up enjoying writing my screenplay. I assume when it's going to be marked there will still be flaws with it and it could be improved vastly. However I would say that i have personally learned a lot through this part of the course and I am happy with how my knowledge has developed.

Filming 
I was disappointed with one day of filming my film because Andrew could not turn up for one of the days meaning myself, Connor and George had to shoot scenes needing 4 people with 3. This meant for me personally that a lot of the shots around the beach are nowhere near as good as I wanted. It was very frustrating at the time but we had to deal with it and we did end up with some very good shots. The fact there where only 3 of us meant a lot of the shots where on a tripod when I wanted them handheld but they still looked ok. We also had to change characters to what I originally planned, I had planned to place people in what I thought was their best role but the fact that Andrew didn't show up meant that I had to change around the roles. We also has to physically play 2 characters whilst at the beach which was annoying meaning that the continuity was not very good. I feel that this would confuse the viewer so they may think that it was badly done but it was really just improvised as best as possible.
Whilst filming in maidstone we only had one small problem, the path I planned to use wasn't that great so we switched to another, it wasted a little bit of time but in general it ended up better than planned as our path we used actually was great for the shots. The last thing I wanted to mention was that I did break the 180 degree rule twice whilst filming. It was easily corrected in editing, but it annoyed me that I have learnt this rule and it all up there but somehow in the heat of the moment I did forget to make sure it was right.

Editing
I enjoyed editing in Premiere pro. It did take time to learn the basics but Ferg was very helpful in his lessons as well as when I just knocked on his door he was always happy to show me the best way to edit. I had not used Premiere pro before but I have enjoyed this a lot. I think my film ended up looking ok, I would say with more time it could be a lot better but I guess that is the same for everyone.

General Conclusion
I know we have done more than the three subjects than I have mentioned but I feel that in all areas I have definitely improved in all areas from when I started and that is thanks to all the people that have helped throughout. In general I enjoyed everything we did, which honestly was surprising because I thought I'd only like the filming and editing. Overall I am happy to what I have learned and I hope to progress further in next unit. I know personally what I can improve on still so I push myself to improve in the next units.