After making my film i can see that there are many weaknesses and strengths in my final piece. I also have realised the mistakes i made whilst making the film and how i could avoid these in the future.

I encountered several problems whilst filming mostly due to continuity and technical problems. Keeping continuity throughout the whole film proved a difficult task due to things like the actors hair growth and the brightness of the sun. To prevent this from being a problem i would of, at the start, identify potential problems and try to make sure they don't become them. For example you could film inside to prevent lighting issues or film all of the footage within a short period of time.

Another problem was more technical in nature where my footage would either not upload or not record all together. This meant the the footage had to be reshot further adding to the problem of continuity. In order to avoid this i would carry out checks on all the equipment before filming and check that all the footage has been saved on the camera before stopping filming.

Some things went well with my film however. For example i think i was able to create a tense atmosphere using lots of camera movement and quick cuts. A problem with this technique is that it requires alot of footage and i had not realised this i would of filmed more footage had i known.

Overall i am satisfied with my final product and feel that i have learnt from it.

in my production i aim to make a 5-7 minute live action film about a person being mysteriously chased. It will start with the main character getting up just like a normal day how ever as he ventures outside he is face by an unknown enemy who chases him around. i will aim to create a sense of urgency film using quick cuts and lots of camera movement

My film will fit into the formalist genre as it is not very realistic. It could also fit into several other genres such as horror due to the facts it is essentially a stalker film or the action genre as it focuses on the chase that the main character finds himself in. by using the quick cuts, camera movement and narrative devices that are typical of both the horror and action genres

The first thing we see is the main protagonist sleeping. the camera then pans to position behind his head. He then gets up and goes downstairs and enters his bathroom. He then exits the bathroom fully dressed and continues downstairs to the kitchen. As he sits down and starts to eat breakfast another person walks past the camera and as they go past it cuts and the main character has finished breakfast. He then walks out of the kitchen and to the door he walks outside and the door shuts in front of the camera. He then walks outside and as he turns the corner we see him turn around and run. He is then chased through the street till he turns another corner where he sees another person. He keeps running until he reaches a cross roads where he looks around and realises there in no one there.

My final piece will also include an animated title sequence. I would like to experiment with animation and feel this would be a good way to do this without compromising the atmosphere that i wish to create that would be compromised by animation. i have decided not to storyboard this part in order to create a fluid animation because a storyboard can often make the animation look unnatural and no as aesthetically pleasing.

In this shot the lines of the bars and the walls lead us to the center in the bike shed. the two walls on either side create a sense of illegitimacy like a back alley. The walls also create claustrophobic feeling like they are closing us in.

In this shot the use of the blue mesh netting creates a calming atmosphere. the line s of the over pass and lines on the fence draw our eyes to the darkness creating a sense of mystery by making us wonder what it hides.

Hollywood Style

Nowadays Hollywood films always have the biggest actors and best sets but that was not always the case as the hollywood genre has changed greatly over that last 50 years. originaly the studios had all the actors, directors and other crew on contract meaning they had no choice on which films they appeared in this lead to some actors becoming very popular. films also contained a moral story and didnt show things like graphic violence or sex as they where sensitive issues in the time.

here are some features often seen in the classic hollywood style

• Clear hero and villain
• expensive sets and costumes
• individuals triumphing over the masses
• obvious story line
• films follow Todorov's theory of narrative

at this time there where 2 main studios MGM and Warner Bros. They both chose different methods to get through the depression that america was facing.

MGM made few big budget films. These films would have elaborate sets and costumes costing millions of dollars. the used lots of new technology including technicolor with was the first color film. A lot of the films where set in historical or fantasy settings allowing people to escape out of the poverty they faced into theses fantastic colorful places. one notable example of this is the wizard of oz where Dorothy goes from kansas , one of the worst effected places, to the wonderful land of oz. they also used long shots to show these costly sets and this meant that the actors had to exaggerate similar to theater performances.

Warner Bros took almost the opposite approach making lots of smaller budget films. the actors and set where reused many times. the costumes where of the time and the set where just normal rooms. because of the re used sets the studio used close up shots tho hide the fact that the sets where the same. the films where usually alot more realistic set in the time and about more realistic things.

German Expressionist Sets

Artists and their influence on film makers

The artists Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer have all influenced filmmakers over the years with their paintings. their use of lighting, framing and many other things have influenced many great films.

Caravagio

Caravagio lived in italy during the 16th century at a time where violence was just part of life. His work was very dramatic and often reflects this violent time he using normal everyday people as models for example using them to act out biblical scenes. his work is very contrasting with use of chiaroscuro(strong contrast in lighting) to draw the audiences eye to the characters or objects illuminated. the illumination often mean something like the representation of a holy person.

His influence on film can be seen in many of Martin Scorsese's films such as Mean streets and Raging bull. it can bee seen in this still of mean streets where half of the characters face is illuminated creating a strong shadow on the other half this is an example of chiaroscuro.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt was a Dutch painter during the 17th century and has also influence many filmmakers. AS with caravagio he used strong directional light likein this photo where the darkness has an almost vignette effect drawing the audiences eye to the center and the body.

Rembrant's works unlike Caravagio often depicted more every day scenes althoght not to the extent tat Vermeer did.

Vermeer

Like the other artists Vermeer uses chiaroscuro in his pictures again to make the lighter colors of the people and objects in focus although his subjects tend to be more everyday. he also was one of the first artists to use negative space in his art as shown in this picture where although the main subject is mainly to the right the artist leaves the whole scene.

expressionism

The expressionist movement in Germany originated in the early 20th century, just before the First World War. It sought to express feelings and moods by abandoning naturalism and impressionism in favor of a simplified style that allowed for a greater emotional impact.

In the visual arts, especially print making, German Expressionism was characterised by the use of distorted perspective, geometric shapes, often at unnatural angles and high contrast in the images with the use of a lot of black. In film these features were present in set design, lighting and makeup.

A classic example is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919) in which the sets are highly stylised and have a dreamlike or nightmarish quality.

In some scenes shadows were painted on to the sets to further exaggerate the distortion and sense of unease.

Make up was also used in the film to make the character of the hypnotised man seem tired and almost corpse like.

The war had been a cataclysmic event. Millions of people died. There was destruction on an industrial scale never seen before in the world. This made a massive impact in Europe and influenced artists profoundly. Nothing was certain any more, civilisation itself appeared to break down and governments could never be trusted again.

This is seen in the film Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) in which the workers are depicted as being pawns of the owners, doing their bidding like machines. This can be compared to the First World War, when the generals sent people to their death like pawns. The machines in the factory swallow up the workers through a giant mouth like the mouth of a beast.

By the 1920’s Freud’s theories were becoming more well known. Freud argued that everyone’s brain was divided up into three parts, the id, the ego and the super ego. The id is the part that contains the basic unconscious drives of the human mind (things like hunger, thirst and sexual desire). The super ego was the part of the brain that creates feelings of guilt and guides us through society, this part is the opposite to the id as it suppresses those primal urges. The ego was reason, acting between the id and the super ego in the real world so that the desires of the id could satisfied in an acceptable manner.

This theory is explored in The Hands of Orlac (G.W. Pabst, 1924), in which a musician loses his hands and gets a transplant from a murderer. Does he control the hands or do they allow him to act out his secret unconscious evil desires ? A striking image from the film shows the musician holding up his hands to the camera as if they are not his own.