Mind Map

Mind Map from Millett

This is my mind map for my 2 minute horror film

House of Balloons: Story Board

This is my story board for House of Balloons. This is important to refer back to as it helps me shoot the film and what types of camera angles I'm going to use during the film.

House of Balloons: Shooting Schedule

This is my shooting schedule for House of Balloons. This is to help me decide when to shoot each individual shot for the film.

House of Balloons: Mind Map

This is my mind map for my 2 minute film. I need this to get some ideas for what I want to do for my film and give myself a brief outline of what I want to happen within each idea.

House of Balloons: Mood Board

This is my mood board for House of Balloons. I need this to visualize what I would like to be in the film and putting it into a mood board help me see what I really want to show in my film clearly. With the mood board it will be easier to see what I want to show when shooting my film.

House of Balloons: Call Sheet

This is my call sheet for the House of Balloons film. I need this to outline the times for shooting for the film and the cast who will be attending and at what times. This is important for the organisation of the film and who can be available for the recording of my film.

House of Balloons: Treatment

This is my treatment for my House of Balloons film that I am trying to create for my coursework. I need this to show the outlines of the film,cast,locations,costumes etc. I need this so I can have a clear outline of what I want to achieve with this film I'm going to make and how I shall go about it.

The Dark Knight Sound Task: Evaluation

The Dark Knight Sound Task: Evaluation

This task was very difficult in my opinion as I found it very tough to time the music effectively to the video itself while it was muted and made an out of tune piece. I was also frustrated by the lack of sounds I was able to use as they did not fit the theme of the story for the majority of the time which caused problems for me.

I also found it took a very long time to find the sounds that fitted and even then I had to edit them notably for a long time just to get the sound to make logistical sense to what was happening on screen. I also found it hard to make an echoing noise in Garageband which I needed for drum beats within the song which made the music for the opening scene sound wooden and ridged. I also found the some of the sounds to be either too short or too long for me to use in the scene.

In conclusion I feel that this task was very hard to do. I do feel that I will get used to using GarageBand over time but this was quite a significant step up from the previous sound task and was a little irritating due to the lack of choices for the opening scene!

This is my evaluation of the sound test we were given in lesson. This task was necessary for me to learn how to use garageband and get used to soundtracking films. It is important for me to learn from this and improve in my garageband skills. 

Sound Experiment: Evaluation

Sound Experiment: Evaluation

The quick sound experiment that we did in Media Studies was a good way to start working with Garageband. It really gave people the chance to experiment with the different sounds in the programme and how it could affect the theme and atmosphere of the short film that we briefly filmed. However at times it could be frustrating as the amount of sounds available on GarageBand are very limiting and I had to end up directly altering some of the sounds just so I could get the ideal sound required for my film piece which I found quite annoying to do.

I felt that I would have to spend an extremely long time trying to establish the sounds that I needed for my piece as I felt I had little time to do such a thing. The sounds that I could use were quite tacky and lacked in a wide range of variety and would only cater towards very cheesy work and maybe not to any media productions on television or film.

In conclusion I found the experience very interesting and unique but I felt I was limited to only certain tools which would possibly limit the quality of my work in the future.

In this task I have evaluated my first experimenting with Garageband. It was important to do this lesson as it helps me get the basics of Garageband so I can use it in the future.

Powerpoint on grossing figures of the Horror and Thriller genre

In this task I was told to research the grossing figures for horror and thriller movies of all time. This is what I have discovered. I needed to do this so I can see what types of films are the most successful in the selected genres I am studying. With these figures in mind I can see what themes and conventions my film could use to be popular with the public.

The History of the Horror Genre

This is a slideshow detailing the history of the horror genre from the late 19th century to the present day. This needed to be done to see how horror has evolved over the years and what influence on cinema it has had over this period of time. It is important for me to check the history of the genre as I will be making a film within the same genre.

L.A. Confidential Film Sequence Remake: Evaluation

L.A. Confidential Film Sequence Remake: Evaluation

I had a lot of fun remaking the scene in L.A. confidential as it gave us a challenge as far as camera angles go and within the editing suite. It was interesting to try out all these camera angles and to try and replicate them as much as the original. It was a lot easier to do than our first effort in The Night Before as we were much more prepared to change the location if need be and improvise with what we could use as the location.

We wee limited to only two people in this task we had to work together very closely as only one of us could see the camera angle at a time and it can show as some angles are very different to the original film. We also had issues with tracking shots as the camera shakes quite a lot when we are tacking shots. The location we were in was also a tough place to tracking as there was limited space to move and keep the camera straight. We also had issues with certain angles, as we did not get them to the point where it looked total unlike the original film. Some shots were not for example, zooming in during the sequence or on a low angle.

In conclusion this task was good overall. Although at times I wish we had a better idea of the shots in the original film I feel that it was a good attempt which was very fun to parody and film.

In this task I have been told to evaluate the scene we remade from the L.A. Confidential clip that is 2 minutes long at the most.

The Night Before (Prelim)

This is the full recording of the first film I have shot in Media Studies. This is my first experience with a film camera as far as making an actual film. It is important to see what I can create with next to nothing.

L.A. Confidential Film Analysis

Confidential clip analysis

The first shot within L.A. Confidential is a wide, tracking shot, which establishes a dark and rainy scene with the protagonist (played by Russell Crowe) running quickly inside a house. The shot makes you think that the protagonist wants to get inside quickly because of the rain or that he really wants to get inside quickly as it may be urgent.

The second shot is a tracking camera shows the protagonist entering the house; which has three men inside it. Two are stood up with one sat down handcuffed. This is a medium shot as it gives a clear view of the three characters but it can be seen as also an over the shoulder shot as one man has his back turned to the camera.  This can be seen as intimidating to the man hand-cuffed as he looks a lot more vulnerable due to him sitting down and the man standing up.

The third shot is a 180 degree turn of the previous shot which is now debatably a wide shot as it now shows all four characters looming over the hand-cuffed man which makes him look vulnerable and in a bad situation. However you do not feel sorry at any point for the handcuffed man as he is portrayed as a stereotypical gangster in the clip and he is not on the side of the protagonist in the clip so you do not feel any sense of worry for the character.  

The fourth shot is a close up of the handcuffed man’s face. This is to show what he is feeling in this current situation. He looks nervous, scared and arguably lying to the men. This makes you feel that the character is not to be trusted and is lying to the what appears to be policeman up to this point due to the interrogation on him and his characterization as well as a gangster makes you believe he is being interrogated for information by policemen.

The seventh shot is a low angle shot of the handcuffed man being punched in the face by one of the men. This makes the man stood up look intimidating and strong in comparison to the man handcuffed. At this point you feel that the policeman are ruthless and need whatever the gangster is hiding so much that they need to physically harm him to try and get it. It also presents the idea that the gangster is hiding very important information if the police are involved.

The tenth shot is a close up of the handcuffed man’s feet moving in a jerk reaction after getting punched again. This shows the pain he is in if he is reacting with a sharp reaction like the one seen in the shot. It makes you feel that the punches that the gangster is receiving are full force aggressive punches that are definitely trying to make him talk about the information that the police need.

The eighteenth shot shows another low angle shot of the handcuffed man being punched in the stomach by the protagonist. This is again to show the superiority of the men standing up to the man who is handcuffed on the chair. This makes you feel that the protagonist is angry and may have a personal tie to the information that they are trying to get out o the gangster.

The twenty-eighth shot is the shot of the chair being ripped from the ground by the protagonist after taking a disliking to something the handcuffed man said. This shot is meant to show how angry he is with the situation as he is able to rip the flooring of a house off in rage. This confirms that he has a personal tie to the information, as he gets very angry when the gangster mentions a girl that could possibly mean he has an association with the girl.

The thirty-ninth shot is a high angle, close up shot that shows the protagonist throwing some photographs onto the floor. This scene shows that the protagonist is shocked by what he is seeing and does not want to see them any further. It also adds to the fact that it is raining during this scene making the situation seem a lot more grim.

The 50^th shot is a close up shot of the handcuffed man’s face with a black leather glove over his face. The shot shows the terror and fear in the man’s face as he is visibly struggling and dying because of it. It confirms the feeling that the police were ruthless but not to extent that is seen in this shot. You feel scared by their actions and feel they are dangerous.   


In this task I was told to evaluate a clip of a thriller of my choice and analyse 10 shots of my choice that were used in this film. It is important to know how to analyse and review shots as they may come into use in my own experience when producing a film. This is one to benefit me in the long time.

The Night Before (60 second evaluation)

The Night Before (60 second evaluation)

I enjoyed the experience while filming the short film very much so as it was highly exciting to see something I have wrote to be presented in film format for the first time ever.

It started with the writing of the script and the storyboard, which was done by Jack, and me, which was a very cool experience. However we had issues printing of the script on the day of filming due to technical issues that set us back quite a bit and limited the time in general to film on the first day. On top of that the location that we would have liked to use for the film (the library) was too busy to use for the recording of the film so we had to relocate to a picnic bench outside the college which made us have to rethink the camera angles that would be used in the final cut.

On the second day we did the filming easily as we were 100% certain on what we needed to do for the film. We mainly used a point of view perspective for the film, as it would give a sense of a real conversion that would happen to anyone. We then edited the film in final cut were we cut down the majority of the shots and made the film about 60 seconds long. In conclusion I feel that it was a helpful experience that was a very enjoyable thing to film, edit and I can’t wait to film another for my coursework!

In this task I was told to evaluate how I did in the 60 second film we made. This is what I did. This is important because it shows that I can evaluate and discuss my film in depth and appropriately.

Opie Task Evaluation: Tom Millett

Opie Task Evaluation: Tom Millett

This was my first ever experience with Photoshop and I am happy with the result overall. At first, we created the hair layer using the loop tool to create the hair for our Opie design. I had then realized that I had started editing the photo on the wrong layer, which had made the photo itself have rather dodgy looking hair and questionable highlights from the hair highlights layer. This was because I had to erase my real hair from the photo due to me creating the hair on the photo layer instead of the hair layer by accident. I did then fin the rest of the task fairly easy afterwards; maybe apart from when I had to draw the outline of the t-shirt, which was a bit for me as I am sat in the corner of the class and have a lack of width. This made it tough for me to outline the neck of the t-shirt. I did feel that at times I was lagging behind in lesson due to my previous errors also.

 

However I am happy with the final result to be completely honest. There will always be a first time at everything and I didn’t expect to be the Photoshop Picasso in my first lesson and I am pleased with what was produced at the end.

I feel this was a good starter lesson for Photoshop as it was a basic, fun activity that everyone could do and I am looking forward to more advanced lessons in Photoshop. I found the lesson interesting for starters like myself and enjoyed the task at the end of the day. I found the help very useful to get me on track to finishing the task!

In this task I was told to evaluate my performance in the Opie task that I was given. This is what I had to say. It was important for me to start with this task as an introductory one as it introduced me to Photoshop and what you can be able to do with it.