THE NURSERY- Opening Sequence

My Prelim Task

Location Reece

 Location Reece- The location reece involved us looking for locations that would be suitable for each scene, we choose to shoot in school and so scouted around the school premises.


Outside Locations- We had to shoot a scene where the police man ran into the building descretely. We therefore scouted and found the outside of our media block to be most suitable for our scene.
We decided to use the gate and the lane inside the bushes for the shots at the start of our opening sequence and then the door that leads into the building for another shot.
We felt that these locations were suitable because they looked natural and could be suggested to be a nursery.




Hall way location- We chose the hall way as it was an open space which allowed us to have a large variety of camera angles to shoot from. Also we chose the hall way as it gave us a chance to modify and change an area by the use of props and lighting, in order for the location to suit the thriller genre of our opening sequence.

Main room (Nursery Room)- This is the location we chose as the nursery room; we did design the classroom hence by adding many more props such as several nursery toys, drawings to make it look more like a nursery. The reason why we picked this particular location is because it had good spacing to turn into a nursery room. We also included scary looking items such as frightening nursery drawings, scary props i.e. a creepy teddy bear and we also incorporated dark lighting to give it that horror feeling.

Moodboard

Moodboard - The Nursery idea from MichaelLam1997

Fonts for Title

Final Idea

Templates

In this task I had to create several different fonts for my film title to give a sense of idea of which one we will go for. In the end I decided to go for "The Nursery" font as it captures the real child orientated them of our idea with the form of scribbled writing. It represents the theme of the film, giving it that horror thriller feeling.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary task- 

For our preliminary task we had to create a scene where a character opened a door, crossed the room and sat down in a chair opposite to another character inviting them to a party with a few lines of dialogue. The preliminary task had to demonstrate the use of match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task-

For our main task we had to create an opening sequence for a thriller movie, in comparison to the preliminary task we had a lot more freedom in terms of the plot and setting.

Pre production- I have learnt in both the tasks that pre production is extremely important, in both tasks we had to create a storyboard in order to help guide us when shooting on the day. the preliminary task restricted us to a story line and so when making our main tasks storyboard we were given a lot more freedom to explore different types of shots, from this I learnt to work effectively with my group as we were all working creatively together as a team.
Our main task involved a nursery scene in which we had chosen as our setting and to make it look realistic we had to make sure that during pre production we had acquired everything to help make the room look like a real nursery, my group and I had to prepare a lot of props for use during filming, this helped me to learn the importance of organisation and the communication between my group in order to gather the props for shooting.

Production- The preliminary task provided us with knowledge of how to properly set up and use the camera making sure it was positioned well abiding to the 180 degree rule, the experience helped us learn to be more efficient when using the camera during the main task.The only problem we had with hardware when filming in the main task was that one of the batteries died during filming and had to be replaced whilst the other battery was charged. This problem taught me the key lesson to keep an eye on battery levels when shooting and to double check the equipment before shooting.
Unlike the preliminary task where the setting was not as important, in the main task the setting we were shooting in was a nursery and therefore we had to use many props to make the room in which we were using look realistic, using many props has taught me to pay careful attention to continuity when filming.
During the shooting of our main task one of our actors had to leave early so we had to quickly shoot some of the shots at the end, this meant that some of our shots felt rushed, however during editing we managed to make the sequence feel well paced. This was not a problem during the preliminary task as we managed our time well. This problem helped me to learn that we had to be more aware of  things such as time management when filming in order to create a professional film.

Post production- In post production of the preliminary task we learnt many things when editing, such as how to piece together shots. In our preliminary task we did not use any music, during our main task we had to apply music and sound effects to our opening sequence, editing music along with video helped to educate me on the importance of sound in films as they help to set the tone of the film.
We received feedback of our preliminary task after we had completed it, we got a lot of criticism and improvements for the editing which we then applied to our main task when editing. We took a lot of time editing the main task when compared to the preliminary task as we wanted it to be of a higher quality. This helped me to learn that it is essential to spend time on editing to make the finished product look professional and of a high quality.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Hardware

The process of filming our opening sequence for this task required us to use hardware such as a Canon XH A1 camera and torches for lighting. Using the camera during this task has helped me to learn about the important film techniques and the requirements of using a camera when producing a piece of media.
From this task I learnt how to appropriately set up a camera during shooting. When setting up the camera for a shot we first adjusted the tripod to the appropriate height for the shot, we then checked that the spirit levels were accurate for a level shot. Lastly, we attached the camera to the tripod making sure that it was placed securely on top to prevent it from dropping accidentally. We had to do this every time when shooting a new shot in order to make the shot look good and also professional.

In class we were taught about the film techniques and had to put to them use when creating our opening sequence, one of the main film techniques that we had to acknowledge and incorporate into our filming was continuity. Continuity is the unbroken and consistent existence or operation of something over time. An example of this during our filming was our shots in the nursery room, we had to make sure that the lighting, props and positioning of the actors were consistent. This means making sure everything is the same in each shot, this prevented a lack of professionalism if something is out of place in two shots, like if an actor is holding his gun with his right hand but is then holding it with his left hand in the next shot.
Another filming technique is that we used was the rule of thirds, this is a concept in video/film production where the frame is divided into 9 sections as shown in the picture on the right.
Important elements should be placed on the intersections or along the lines of these guidelines to make the shot more interesting than just placing the element in the middle.
Match on action is another filming technique we learnt and had to pay attention to during filming, match on action means that when something happens in a scene and there is a cut the action must be still going on. Doing this helps the audience continually understand what is going on, this is an example of continuity editing.
Other filming techniques I had learnt and had to abide by when shooting were: framing, action/reaction shots, total shots, safety shots, different angles and the 180 degree rule to name a few.

Software

Adobe Premiere was the editing software that we used, this is were we edited and assembled our shots and also added sound and music.
Before editing our own work we did a task where we edited a different scene, this was done to help us learn the basic tools in Premiere such as cutting clips or moving clips and how to add things to the timeline. During the editing of our opening sequence I had learnt many more important editing techniques that will help me in the future.



One of the editing techniques that I had learnt when editing was how to manipulate the brightness and contrast of shots, this helped in making bright shots in the daylight look dark, fitting along with the dark atmosphere and tone of the opening sequence.
I also learnt how to fade into black or fade out of black in video, this transition helped to set the pace and create a dreary tone.
Other editing techniques I had learnt was: how to edit the volume of sound clips, how to overlap video, how to create titles and how to make them move across the screen.


The key lessons I have learnt from using the hardware and software that we were provided with was to be precise and composed when editing and handling the camera, as well as to be patient and to take time when editing and shooting in order to make our opening sequence look professional.