initial inspiration

SMALLVILLE


Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Miller based on the DC comics character Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

i have been quite a fan of this series, despite only really getting into it a couple of months back. The series is obviously based around the 'superhero' element, and action sequences are not a rarity throughout, but it was the insight into Clarke Kents personal life and human emotions that allowed me to respect the complexity of the program. The general narrative arc of the entire series  basically shows how Clarke develops into 'the man of steel', which is influenced by powerful factors in his life, for example, love, hate and moral values. These factors are indeed present in the old  DC Comics, and also provide a solid structure to the storyline of each issue. But to what effect? the concepts i mention are used very broadly in the old paper format editions, which collectively create the image of a caricature. Alternitavely, the protagonist shown in this series comes across as a true character, with his alien abilities fused with his complex human emotions.

In response to these ideas, Paddy and I have agreed that a less straightforward story of a superhero would be more suitable for short film. It would allow us to raise more enigmas, which would hopefully captivate an audience more effectively. We all know classic superhero storylines e.g. the hero defeats the bad guy and gets the girl etc. but we don't want to abide to such stereotypes. It's a short film-we can explore!

use of sound

From the inception of motion pictures, various inventors attempted to unite sight and sound through "talking" motion pictures. The Edison Company is known to have experimented with this as early as the fall of 1894 under the supervision of W. K. L. Dickson with a film known today as [Dickson Experimental Sound Film]. The film shows a man, who may possibly be Dickson, playing violin before a phonograph horn as two men dance.

The concept of marrying sight and sound in film has developed greatly since. Through developing factors such as diegetic & non-diegetic sound, soundtracks and other effective techniques, the use of sound in moving imagery has been effective in enhancing miss en scene and creating a larger impact on the audience.

framing, tracking & camera angles

Extreme wide shot, very wide shot, wide shot, mid-shot, medium close up, close-up, extreme close-up and cutaway. These are your eight basic shot types and will form the foundation of your framing choices. Of course you can experiment with them and perhaps fuse one frame type with another, for example, combing a closeup with an extreme close up, cutting off the top and bottom of a subjects head.

The rule of thirds divides the frame into nine sections as shown in the picture below....

Points of interest should be positioned away from the centre of the key, adding a bit of variation, hence making what would normally be a boring scene a little more interesting.

You also need to think about the space in your shots strategically, for example, if a man is looking at a woman walking across the road, you need to place spacing in front of the mans face for him to look into and spacing in front of the woman to walk into. It simply makes the sequence look less awkward and more natural.

I found that a lot of the framing within my AS level piece didn't abide to these rules, and hence degraded the flow of the piece. To improve, I will keep these beneficial techniques to the forefront of my mind when producing mine and Paddy's short film!

examples of camera angles include: eye level, high angle, low angle, birds eye and slanted.
Camera angles influence how a shot is interpreted and effects the implication of a particular shot, for example, a low angle shot of a fully grown man can make him appear more domineering and all powerful, although he is actually 5 foot 7 inches (Tom Cruise).

tracking includes movement of panning, titlts, dolly shots, hand-held shots, crane shots and aerial shots. These are all possible within our production, apart from maybe the crane and aerial shots. Hand-held shots are fairly hard to pull off well as, although they provide a jerk, ragged effect, they need to be treated with professionalism and can easily be seen as amateur if executed wrongly.

I believe that i will use at least one of these tracking techniques within my piece as they can be use to convey movement, establish a scene, create variety within a static sequence of shots and so on. A very handy factor in filming.

This short preview from Merlin, series 4, episode 2 demonstrates some of the tools that I've mentioned-


Camera Panning becomes prevalent throughout the first half of the clip, as emphasis is put on the armoured characters while they talk. Alternitavely, as emphasis is put on Merlin e.g. being carried, the shots become still. Perhaps this signifies how lifeless Merlin is at this time. He seems cold and deathly, and it is as though time has almost run out for him.

The framing abides to the rules i stated earlier, in that when one or two characters are in the shot, they are positioned off centre. This ultimately makes the scene more interesting, without changing the action on screen.

Camera angles are used subtly, but effectively within the scene e.g. while the soldiers talk, their heads occasionally reach the top of the frame as the camera is tilted slightly upwards. Where as shots of Merlin, up until him mounting the horse, reveal a clear and distinctive gap between his head and the top of the frame. It is subtle, but the state of power between the characters are revealed through the camera angles. Even when Merlin is on the horse (higher position), the soldier in the scene appears to be higher up (superiority), suggesting how extreme Merlin's state of weakness is.

brainstorming short film ideas...

Recently, our class were directed by our teacher to produce a 'visual diary' if you like of our accumulated ideas up until now. Originally, Paddy and i had planned on setting up a camera to blandly film ourselves explaining our thoughts and future plans on our short film. But we're media students, so of course we're going to put a little twist on things....

 This is what we ended up producing. We structured the film around breaking the 'fourth wall', as the audience can see through our eyes and think how we think (brainstorming)...Great examples of breaking the fourth wall include the material of 'peep show' and 'scrubs'. We hoped to have created a similar, more subtly comedic effect than these examples.

editing styles

Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of film making of narrative films and television programs. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. However, some films incorporate cutting to continuity into a more complex classical cutting technique, one which also tries to show psychological continuity of shots. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity.

Discontinuous editing describes the deliberate or accidental violation of rules of continuity when editing films. As a deliberate technique, it may be used to connote authenticity or to create alienation. The viewer's expectation of continuity can be violated by such methods as changing image size or tone between shots, changing direction or changing shots before the viewer has time to recognize what is happening.It is also known as montage editing, and employs a series of often rapid and non-matching cuts which creates a style the audience is conspicuously aware of, or alternatively that create uneven and unpredictable rhythms and emphasize the rapidity of movement between images.

Knowing that i'm creating a short film, i realise that i should captivate an audience, whether it's through the presentation of enigmas, or drip feeding them a bit of what they like (or not). It is indeed true that discontinuous editing can be put to great effect when referring to short film. I mean, you can jam as much information as you desire within the piece. But i don't believe it would be very adequate for mine and Paddy's desired plot.

Our idea involves the story of a young super human being, leading a somewhat 'normal' life in a normal community. Now how can we present this 'blending in' of culture through editing? Perhaps a more linear narration would suit....

flash animation practice

just a very short clip of a superhero. Of course i keep it relevant!

George pal

George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980), born Gyorgy Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe. He was nominated for Academy Awards (in the category Best short subjects, Cartoon) no less than seven consecutive years (1942–1948) and received an honorary award in 1944.

George went through a period of creating what you call 'Puppetoons'. Now the stop-motion technique used for these animations were what set him apart from other animators, for example, in this short film, George carved and sculpted many different heads which conveyed different facial expressions. This would make the final picture look more natural than if he were to use dolls or other malleable objects. Just imagine the amount of time it must have taken just to construct this 1 minute long short!

Obviously this technique is beyond my current capabilities, but i find it very unusual and captivating. Such an innovative idea for the time period of invention (1940's)!

short film exercise (started something i couldn't finish)

This film is based around a title which was chosen from a limited selection, and issued by our teacher.