On Thursdays lesson we filmed the public service announcement about rape, we tried a variation of risky shots that may of just been a waste of time and may ruin the narrative, although if they do work and they pay off I'll be really pleased because our filming has a lot of potential, if it can be edited into the product we were hoping for. We did plan other routes though so even if our complicated shots do not work we have a back up plan in place. I do think ours will turn out well though, we kept with our original ideas and we know how we want the end product to turn out this will help the editing as we won't need a lot of actual thought process during the edit, as we know what should go where.
One potential problem I foresee about our film is that there is too much build up without actually getting the point across that it's a rape awareness video, this can be solved when we add in the rape statistics however so I hope this balances the video out and the final product will be up to the standards of the rest of the class
Monday, 29 June 2009
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Rape Awarness Research
On Tuesday's lesson we learnt that we would be producing another short film in thursday's lesson, this has to be a public service advertisment in which we heighten rape awarness. The first step was brainstorming ideas, it was hard to set the theme as we know filming would take place in the middle of the day, meaning that the typical advert of a woman walking home from the pub and being attacked when it was dark had to be thrown out of the video, we then decided that the scene could suit being indoors, someone in our group lives near the school and she said we could film at hers. So once location was sorted all we needed to do was a storyline, we decided to carry on with the idea that danger can come to your house so we decided to make the attacker be a workman or plumber or something along those lines.
After this plan was formed we had to start making it realisitic, the hardest part of our project was the multiple costumes necessary to fulfill a plan to slowly change what the attacker was wearing, to indicate that danger can come from anyone, so as soon as we had some free time the group went down to drama to see if they had any costumes we could borrow some, we were in luck and the drama teacher lent us three costumes that would be useful for our film.
The next step after this was to do research into other rape awareness adverts, here is what i found:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHzwxfWTm6g
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmPBP-uP48s&feature=related
The final step in the research process is to get some statistics and facts that can be used in the advert to get the risk factor across to the audience, so i went searching online for some stats and here is what i come up with:
After this plan was formed we had to start making it realisitic, the hardest part of our project was the multiple costumes necessary to fulfill a plan to slowly change what the attacker was wearing, to indicate that danger can come from anyone, so as soon as we had some free time the group went down to drama to see if they had any costumes we could borrow some, we were in luck and the drama teacher lent us three costumes that would be useful for our film.
The next step after this was to do research into other rape awareness adverts, here is what i found:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHzwxfWTm6g
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmPBP-uP48s&feature=related
The final step in the research process is to get some statistics and facts that can be used in the advert to get the risk factor across to the audience, so i went searching online for some stats and here is what i come up with:
| Complete Sample of Cases | 100% (n=483) |
|---|---|
| Crimed Cases | 75% |
| Detected Cases | 64% |
| Defendants Charged | 31% |
| CPS Prosecuted | 23% |
| Court Proceedings | 21% |
| Conviction (All Offences) | 13% |
Conviction (Rape) | 6% |
- Over two-thirds of cases dropped out at the police stage and did not make it as far as the courts.
- One quarter of incidents initially recorded as rape were subsequently 'no-crimed' by the police.
- Cases where the complainant and suspect were acquaintances were most likely to be 'no-crimed'.
- Half of all the cases that were 'crimed' resulted in 'no further action' (NFA) by the police.
- Cases involving intimates were most likely to be NFA-ed or discontinued by the CPS.
- In the small minority of 'stranger rape' cases (only 12% of the full sample), where a suspect was identified the case was more likely to proceed to court than in those cases where the complainant and suspect were previously acquainted.
| Finding | Source | Method |
|---|---|---|
| 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape | Painter, 1991 | Survey of 1,007 women in 11 cities, Northern England |
| 1 in 7 women have been coerced into sex, rising to 1 in 3 among divorced and separated women | Painter, 1991 | Survey of 1,007 women in 11 cities, Northern England |
| The most common perpetrators of rape are husbands and partners | Painter, 1991 | Survey of 1,007 women in 11 cities, Northern England |
| 97% of callers to Rape Crisis Lines knew their assailant prior to the assault | Rape Crisis Federation of England and Wales | Analysis of RCF members' records, England and Wales |
| The majority of perpetrators are known to the victim | Kelly et. al, 2005 | |
| During 2001 it is estimated that 190,000 incidents of serious sexual assault and 47,000 female victims of rape/attempted rape | Walby & Allen, 2004 | British Crime Survey 2002 |
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Evaluation
As you can tell from my last post the task set for us last lesson was to create a short film in which a new student or visitor is to be given a tour of the school, after completing this the films were presented to the whole class.
I believe the task held huge learning possibilities, as there is no better learning technique than practice, making short movies like that will increase or skill with the camera and will improve our knowledge of shot type and when to use appropriate shots, the only way the last task was lacking in learning possibilities somewhat was in the sense of editing, but our next task enables us to do this fully.
Every group's video had it's good and bad points, in general the groups camera work was a bit shaky and every group's narratives needed development, as some groups did not seem to be showing off the school at all.
Film A's main problem was confusions in cuts, at one point we tried to get the same action from different angles, this meant stopping filming and starting it again in a different place, on one occasion the actors forgot where they were standing and someone jumped across the room in one cut. Film A's camera was often shaky also and the narrative was off at certain points. One of the good points of film A was the way they took their own view on the task and personalised the task by shooting it in a david attenbrough type documentry.
Film B also had it's good and bad points, one of the many good points was their establishing shot, film B probably featured the best establishing shot of all the group's film A failed to have any establishing shot, while film C did, but it isn't as clear as film B's. Film B also held the best actors, they kept our class laughing, however they occassionally talked too quietly and this lead to some confusion over what was actually going on. They did use a huge variation of shots, however in their hasty attempts some shots were not relevant, e.g. they used a canted shot while two subjects were walking along, this was not necessary and there was some confusion as to why they used this shot. Film B's biggest problem was talking behind the camera, as occassionally laughter could be heard, this ruined the film somewhat and made the narrative break down. Shaky camera shots and a confusing use of actors also plagued this group, at one point there was just one actor giving a tour and in other shots there was another actor walking along with the tour guide, this confusion in the narrative made it difficult to understand the whole film.
Film C again had it's advantages and disadvantages, some good shots in lessons made the film more believable, however some confusion over camera shots ocassionally ruined the film slightly. The main problem with film C was the misenscene in some shots, in one shot tables were wonky and looked scruffy, this would not look good to a viewer of the tour, as it would give the school a bad impression, another issue with film C is that they had to reuse actors, this resulted in one teacher for 3 or 4 lessons, this resulted again in some confusion. The best point of film C was the clips they done in a lesson enviroment, as it looked natural and believeable.I believe the task held huge learning possibilities, as there is no better learning technique than practice, making short movies like that will increase or skill with the camera and will improve our knowledge of shot type and when to use appropriate shots, the only way the last task was lacking in learning possibilities somewhat was in the sense of editing, but our next task enables us to do this fully.
Every group's video had it's good and bad points, in general the groups camera work was a bit shaky and every group's narratives needed development, as some groups did not seem to be showing off the school at all.
Film A's main problem was confusions in cuts, at one point we tried to get the same action from different angles, this meant stopping filming and starting it again in a different place, on one occasion the actors forgot where they were standing and someone jumped across the room in one cut. Film A's camera was often shaky also and the narrative was off at certain points. One of the good points of film A was the way they took their own view on the task and personalised the task by shooting it in a david attenbrough type documentry.
Film B also had it's good and bad points, one of the many good points was their establishing shot, film B probably featured the best establishing shot of all the group's film A failed to have any establishing shot, while film C did, but it isn't as clear as film B's. Film B also held the best actors, they kept our class laughing, however they occassionally talked too quietly and this lead to some confusion over what was actually going on. They did use a huge variation of shots, however in their hasty attempts some shots were not relevant, e.g. they used a canted shot while two subjects were walking along, this was not necessary and there was some confusion as to why they used this shot. Film B's biggest problem was talking behind the camera, as occassionally laughter could be heard, this ruined the film somewhat and made the narrative break down. Shaky camera shots and a confusing use of actors also plagued this group, at one point there was just one actor giving a tour and in other shots there was another actor walking along with the tour guide, this confusion in the narrative made it difficult to understand the whole film.
In conclusion everyones films had their own unique advantages and the same basic disadvantages, such as poor sound quality or shaky camera, these problems can be fixed easily with practise however and i'm sure the next tasks editing aspect will help raise the standard of work.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
First film in sequence
Today we were again given a task that would develop our skill with film, we had to shoot a guided tour of the school, and due to the lack of editing we had to ensure it was filmed completely in sequence, this caused some confusion during film but overall I believe our group completed the task well.
We started with some brainstorming before putting our ideas on the storyboard. The whole group agreed that a usual tour of the school would be a bit dull and that we had to mix it up a bit, as we didn't want the same results of every other group in the class, to settle this issue we decided to do the tour in a david attenbrough style documentry, in which a new student to the school embarks on his nerve racking first day, on this day he goes from shadowed outcast to accepted 'herd member'
Due to the lack of editing we had to improvise and use cuts in filming to give it an edited style, this ended badly in one scene in which some confusion resulted in too many cuts and a slight ruin to the narrative, this taught us always to review what we just filmed, so we can perfect the filming before we return for the whole class to judge our video
We started with some brainstorming before putting our ideas on the storyboard. The whole group agreed that a usual tour of the school would be a bit dull and that we had to mix it up a bit, as we didn't want the same results of every other group in the class, to settle this issue we decided to do the tour in a david attenbrough style documentry, in which a new student to the school embarks on his nerve racking first day, on this day he goes from shadowed outcast to accepted 'herd member'
Due to the lack of editing we had to improvise and use cuts in filming to give it an edited style, this ended badly in one scene in which some confusion resulted in too many cuts and a slight ruin to the narrative, this taught us always to review what we just filmed, so we can perfect the filming before we return for the whole class to judge our video
New Year, New Project
On Tuesday's lesson (9th June '09) we were told that the main focus for our A2 course will be film and our task today was to start development on our shooting techniques, we started slow today, which was helpful, our task was to merely film the following shots:
- Close up, a zoomed shot on one subject
- Extreme close up, further zoomed shot, focussing on one aspect of said sucject (in our case a person's eye)
- Medium shot (A 'medium' amount of space between subject and camera, this may be 10 - 15 feet)
- Long shot ( The camera is a long way from the subject, say the width of a football pitch if not longer)
- Over the shoulder shot (The shot is filmed from over the shoulder of a subject, usually while talking to a subject whom is standing in front of them)
- 2 shot (A shot involving two subjects comfortably)
- Canted shot (The camera is slanted during the shot)
- Low shot (The camera is placed low to the ground and pointed up to look up to the subject)
- High shot (The camera is placed high up and looks down on the subject
- Panning shot (The cameraman stays still while pivoting slowly on the spot, this pans the landscape of the video)
- Tracking shot (The camera simply follows (or tracks) subjects)
Our filming of these shots probably could of gone better, due to the sun being inconvenient and causing or clapperboard to be unreadable for many shots, also a little mix of whether the camera was recording or not meant our tracking shot was ruined
- Close up, a zoomed shot on one subject
- Extreme close up, further zoomed shot, focussing on one aspect of said sucject (in our case a person's eye)
- Medium shot (A 'medium' amount of space between subject and camera, this may be 10 - 15 feet)
- Long shot ( The camera is a long way from the subject, say the width of a football pitch if not longer)
- Over the shoulder shot (The shot is filmed from over the shoulder of a subject, usually while talking to a subject whom is standing in front of them)
- 2 shot (A shot involving two subjects comfortably)
- Canted shot (The camera is slanted during the shot)
- Low shot (The camera is placed low to the ground and pointed up to look up to the subject)
- High shot (The camera is placed high up and looks down on the subject
- Panning shot (The cameraman stays still while pivoting slowly on the spot, this pans the landscape of the video)
- Tracking shot (The camera simply follows (or tracks) subjects)
Our filming of these shots probably could of gone better, due to the sun being inconvenient and causing or clapperboard to be unreadable for many shots, also a little mix of whether the camera was recording or not meant our tracking shot was ruined
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