Life on Mars filming experience

Life on Mars filming experience

I was mainly used throughout filming to mark off what shots had been completed and was also used as the girl in red throughout a shot of the recreation. Rachel was the camerawoman, getting all of the shots.  Harriet played the protagonist, also inputting her views on the shot order to prevent us missing any shots.

I found playing the woman in red attire difficult as the group found it hard to find a flat area to film on, despite finding a flat area, it was difficult to run fast as I was continuously stung by nettles when running.  The group generally discussed the shots as we filmed them in order to ensure we missed the least amount of material as possible, this also made it easy to share ideas about how to complete the next shot.

I helped to input what I thought about the lighting in some segments and also had to view the extract of life on Mars multiple times during the long shot at the end, where the protagonist is spinning, in order to get the pacing right. This was a particularly difficult segment of filming and took multiple attempts to get right, due to many interruptions on the part of others walking through the filming area. We also had to redo the shot due to difficulty in getting a smooth transition from a low angle to a mid-angle shot.   found it particularly hard to get out of the shot in the 360 spin segment as I had to walk around at the same pace as Rachel, whilst avoiding the edge of the stairs.

Analysis of Life on Mars

Over the course of the lesson, we watched life on mars analysing the shot duration, effects and transitions of a segment of life on mars. This is so that we could go off in our group and recreate the shots. To ensure accuracy, we tried to put the shots in chronological order and related camera angles in a nearby box. This would make it easier to match up with the timing after we re-created the segment in our groups.





For the remainder of the lesson, the class split into groups. We decided to shoot the section in front of the cars in the car park and the woodland section in the grounds behind the school. For health and safety reasons, we are not allowed to film behind a car, this is to avoid laying down in a crowded area with cars to avoid injury. I think we will shoot this segment outside the car park in order to maintain good lighting as the inside of the car park has less natural lighting. The area that we are shooting the woodland section in is spacious with lots of natural light.


Our group plans for Harriet to be the protagonist as she has had no screen time in the previous continuity exercise. I will be the woman running in the red dress, for a brief shot, Rachel will be the main camerawoman, though we may alternate filming segments.

Napoleon Dynamite analysis

Napoleon Dynamite has an interesting opening in that through it's micro-elements, it does not try to be glamorous, this is particularly shown through the food used in the opening, that appears to be not very high in quality. The objects in the opening all have the credits of the people who worked on the movie attached to them, such as food having key names in sauce and chap stick having the producers name put on the back through a fake label.
 

The music in the opening is very upbeat and cheerful, the lyrics being school related, foreshadowing the primary setting of the movie.
 

The main character is only alluded to through a short shot that lingers on an identity badge for his school, linking into the song through how much of a big part school plays in his life.
The camera shows more shots of the things Napoleon is interested in, such as drawing, reading and playing with ninja stars. This makes Napoleon seem very passionate about his hobbies and that they mean a lot to him.
 
Overall the hobbies seem rather childish and set the age for the target audience.
The changing backgrounds give a domestic sense to the opening as the settings are all indoors, this, coupled with the moor bookish hobbies make the character Napoleon seem somewhat inactive, not the stereotypical movie hero wit a key sense of purpose. The overall use of domestic objects leaves the plot of the movie ambiguous.

Continuity exercise

Continuity exercise



I found

 the continuity exercise to be easy for the most part, however, my group had to film a second time due to breaking the 180 degree rule when character A was walking into the room as the camera broke the 180 degree rule as they walked in to start the conversation with character B. I found editing to be much harder with this version due to putting all the clips in the timeline at once. After discovering the flaw during the walk on sequence,we re-shot the entire conversation in the room, using over the shoulder perspectives in order to maintain the 80 degree rule . The only footage carried forward was the close up of the door handle and opening of the door from the outside.

I found editing this section far easier as I went through each clip methodically, editing them down, then positioning them as needed, in a spaced out manner to avoid accidental cuts. This took much less time than the first attempt .

I will take forward the skills of zooming into the timetines in order to get a clear cut and cutting out unwanted parts of the clip.