In the morning we met at the Picture house in Oxford to watch a British film called 'The Worlds End'.
After watching the film we met back at Film Oxford to speak about writing film reviews.We looked into what language we should be using when writing a critique as well as what technical terms we should be referring to. Our task is to Write a film review either on The World's End or a preferred film of our choice.
Looking at film reviews Watching The Worlds End at the Picture house
The Second half of the day was spent in our production teams discussing and developing our ideas. looking at which ideas are going to be more realistic and achievable.
At the end of this discussion we came to the conclusion of further developing the 1st idea...
We started today's trip with a visit to the national film and television school. we went through a presentation that showed us the type of films and careers post graduates of that school have achieved. we also spoke about the residential course that takes place in the Easter break of next year (2016) and how we can apply.
We then went on a tour around the school to check out it's facilities, we saw the sound editing studio as well as the set room and equipment storage.
Afterwards we went to the Warner Brothers studios where we took the Harry Potter tour, as well as getting to meet its sight manager/director.
The Harry Potter tour was most enjoyable as i was able to see the pre production stages. This included extremely detailed drawings of the sets, characters, creatures and much more. There was also sculptures of the different creatures they had made. The part that stood out to me most were the card models of the buildings and the detail they went into. But mostly the Scale model of the Whole of Hogwarts that was made from materials such as plaster board, MDF, polystyrene, clay, card, paint etc. It was amazing to see the amount of work that went into producing such a film, it also emphasised how many roles can be filled within one production.
The second part of the Warner Brothers trip was spent with the awesome opportunity speaking to the head of the Warner Brothers london studio.
Today we were lucky enough to have someone visit who works within the Tv industry making documentaries. I enjoyed the time he spent with us because he was very honest about his career and some interesting questions were asked about previous work he has taken part in.
As we will be going on a trip tomorrow, we spent the second half of today finishing off the organisation of our productions. We did an equipment check to make sure all of our equipment was ready and working for Friday's filming day.
Today we had a visit from Nicholas who specializes in computer generated image. It was interesting to see behind the scenes of animated picture, how it's done technically but also how real and unnoticeable it can be when done properly. On the other hand when you know what mistakes to look for they can be quite easily noticed. This didn't just involve Television and film. Nicholas was very involved with gaming and advertising for that type of market. It was amazing to see all the individual graphic techniques that go into such a short space of time and what skills it involves.
In the afternoon we moved on to story boarding and planning our production that was soon to take place. It is incredibly important to organise different shots that are needed as well as props, equipment, Mise-en Scene and actors. We each had a role in the group so that we could all be in charge of one element, this way we werent all wasting time doing the same thing. Although it was a struggle to work creatively and cooperate as a team on occasions, we managed to produce a well organised plan of action by the end.
Today we had learnt a bit about screen writing and how it is done most effectively and what effects it has on the industry. We then looked at the structure of short stories as well as presenting a production pitch.
Short Film
looking at short stories i learnt about the genres that are unique to short films, mostly the genres are the same as feature lengths but because of the time limit, some parts of the structure have to be altered in order to get the story across.
We then tested our knowledge of short film structure by watching a short film called 'Sebastians Voodoo' . while watching this we had to identify the following: Hook/initial image, Inciting incident, plot/turning point 1, Midpoint (key decision), Plot/turning point 2 and finally the climax. This was an interesting task as different people had different opinions on which parts where the turning and mid points as different parts of the story line stood out to people differently.
Presenting a Production Pitch
When talking about how to present a good production pitch, we spoke about why production pitches are so important, especially in the industry, production pitches are used to get funding and companies on board with your film so that it is able to go ahead. Essentially, without funding or a team that is willing to produce your ideas, you won't be able to produce your product to a decent standard.
We looked at what to include when giving a pitch, such as the genre of your film, some information about the main characters, what the goal of the characters is, what obstacle they have to overcome to achieve that goal and finally what the outcome will be. It is important to use dynamic language, imagery and references to current productions as it gives your audience chance to visualize it in their mind and form an opinion.
Later on...
Later on during day 2 at Film Oxford, we gathered as a production team to discuss our different short story ideas. we then had to choose 2 out of our 6 ideas to carry forward, develop and present a pitch to the other production groups...
The very first thing we did was introduce ourselves to the rest of the BFI team, and go through the course details. It was a good way to break the ice for the first session and it made me realise that we were all there for the same reason.
Shoot Out
The beginning part of the first day was spent in our production teams. We got given a shot list of 10 camera angles and recreated them using various equipment E.g. Tripod, Camera, Boom Pole / Microphone etc.We assigned each member of our group a role so that the rushes would be more efficiently carried out.
doing this exercise improved and clarified our knowledge on camera angles and movement and what each of these is used for. We also got an introduction to the equipment that we would be using throughout the course, we started with the camera and microphones.
Production Meeting
Later on in the day we got together as a team to discuss our different ideas for our short film production, we had to think about what ideas were achievable and realistic for the budget and time limit that we were restricted by.
