Directors Unit (my idea so far)

Project Titile:
A Heroes Tale


Chosen Director Style - Peter Jackson

When it comes to Peter's work, he is very colourful and always has an eye for detail when it comes his films. The visuals are always a sight to behold his visions are always seen thought each specific shot and his characters for me are always enjoyable to watch.

But when shooting a film almost entirely though his eyes I thought this could be the challenge I could take on.

When it came to location I knew that I needed a country, shire, farm looking place to capture the New Zealand feel to it.

Now the key stylistic and creative methodology surrounding my Director that I will draw into my project. The style will mostly conceit of outdoor exteriors and show slow yet smooth camera panning and tracking shots, following the character as he goes through his daily commute.

The look will be colourful and bright but yet detailed. I will be using the SONY EX as I would like to use more focus on other surrounding rather than a single point when I used my Nikon D5200 for "The Meeting"

The Lovely Bones - 2009

The Adventures of Tintin 2011




















The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of The Ring 2001























The Lovely Bones 2009



Here is an example from "The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey", the scene will hopefully show what kind of camera movements I will be using and the look and detail to hit when it come to editing.

My Character(s):

Main Character (Hero/ Loner):

Hobbit - Jacob Poole 

The Reason I picked Jacob was because he was just the right size and has some experience when it comes to acting in the media industry but not much which is where a lot of my directing will come in.

He has got the right attitude and has the edge I need for a hero/ loner character. He also had the costume design that I needed as well so he could just put it on and he would be a Hobbit character all the way through.

Cameo: 

Gandalf - Lawrence Sedgwick (Me)

Extra:

Secondary character for Dialogue Scene - Lisa Huntley

I have chosen Lisa as she has experience of acting before and is looking to do more and I think this part is right up her alley, I have known Lisa for quite a while and in terms of directing she can understand me and present herself well. I wanted her to play an elfish role, as like a companion to the hero near to the end of his journey.

Crew:
Cinematographer/ Cameraman - Antony Goldsmith

Sound - Not appointed yet.





Story - Character:
Story and chosen sequence -

Hero, Daily Commute

Character goes through a daily journey to search for his meaning in life. He meets up with his companion to finish his journey and discover who he truly is.

Using the location to my advantage I will try to show a beautiful visual journey about a character finding his own path. I wanted the story to represent the way a Director finds his own voice but from within story.


How I will introduce my character:
In a very gentle yet mysterious way, I will use panning shots to show parts of my character as well as his surroundings to describe what type of person he is. After he gets up, I will use tracking shots, which will follow him and finally the last bit of tracking will be the camera panning up to reveal his face, symbolising the journeys beginning.


Idea shots for beginning:

Story - Sequence:
About the sequence:
Using the daily commute sequence I would show the journey of finding this hero's voice though the art of story telling. There will be forests, fields and lakes, as this character travels to find his inner soul as a hero, symbolising a film director finding his voice.


Using mostly tracking shots and wide panning shots to show the background, it will help show the style of Peter Jackson because when it came to things like Lord of The Rings and King Kong, Peter Jackson showed me that film could be sometimes more than a story but an adventure which is what I often find in his films. Seeing if they can take me out of my seat and into the minds of the characters and feel like I am going with them on an epic adventure to far away places.



Here is an example from Lord of The Rings to show the type of visual style I would be going for in this part of the film.

Here are also some shot possibilities for the sequence filming:

Story - Conversation:
About the Dialogue scene:

There will be a introduction to Lisa's character (The Companion) who will meet up with the main character and will talk to him about what he is doing and how he is finding his voice. Eventually the main character will continue and finish his journey but will bring his companion with him.

When it comes to the conversation, it will involve mostly still shots (Mid Shots, Over The Shoulder shots,  and close ups of the characters faces).


Here is a potential shot ending for my dialogue scene:

My Location -

Location Possibilities:

Gore Farm -  Rainham

Kent Life - Kent's Premier Heritage Farm Attraction - Maidstone 

Capstone Farm Country Park - Chatham 

Sound Design:


I have plenty of royalty free music that represents country middle earth with a sight pinch of adventure. At the beginning it will be slow but as the adventure goes further the music will be more upbeat and faster until the climax at the end when the music will get slower again and then have a gentle ending.

here is a example from the second Hobbit film, at the beginning for the title sequence:
( 00:00 - 01:12)

Schedule:


Filming

Start Date - 31st January

Time Start - 10:00

End Date - 8th February




Editing

Start Date - 9th February

End Date -

Workshop Exercise 09/01/15

In this workshop we were learning about visual quality and audio when making films. We were introduced to the Cannon 7D Camera, a powerful digital camera that some in the industry use for film making.

Coming from me, a guy who uses mostly Nikon Cameras, I still found it challenging to use this camera to it's full potential.

The most struggling thing about it was trying to adjust the aperture as most of the photography came on darker then usual and we were using Maidstone studios's biggest studio and the lighting was pretty low.


For those who don't know what aperture is in photography, according to Webopedia:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/aperture.html

Aperture is - A device that controls the amount of light admitted through an opening. In photography and digital photography, aperture is the unit of measurement that defines the size of the opening in the lens that can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or digital sensor.

Then came to the filming exercise, without any sound, we were to check out the quality of the camera and make a short video. Either a music video or a old style video telling a story. My group made two videos, one music video, and one short film. I decided to make the short film telling a story made within an old style film from the 1920s with a hint of slapstick humour to it e.g. Laurel and Hardy.

 

Director's Unit Exercise 2 05/01/15

First day back from the Christmas holidays and this exercise was put onto us to help get back into the swing of this once more, in this piece I wanted to practise a little bit on making a short sequence in the style of my chosen director, Peter Jackson.

In my opinion my directions to the camera work could have been a bit more detailed, but my actor played his part very well by being a somewhat Frodo/ Bilbo character.

Contextual Studies Notes 23/10/14 part 2

AFTER EMPIRE

• The Colonised and the Coloniser. / Inter Relationships - civilized is seen as the ‘Other’ and the Oriental is seen as the ‘Uncivilized’.
  

Image: MC Escher – Drawing Hands.

Image: Karate Kid / 007 James Bond. – Baron Samedi – Live and Let Die.

Image: 1950’s British Colonial posters and advertisements.

Image: Suez Crisis: The Suez Crisis, also named Tripartite Aggression, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by Britain and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian president Nasser from power. After the fighting had started, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations got involved diplomatically, forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw.

• Technological advances -Japan are world leaders / with brands like Sony and Honda made in Japan and Companies like Samsung from Korea, Apple in America etc., Britain has fallen behind in its advances and has fallen behind.

Image: Comparisons – British train v a Japanese Bullet Train.

Image: Expectation and Reality -

Image: UKIP poster / Nigel Farage – What might the effect be when you show your dominance as a country? On a world stage?

Image: Bombing of Iraq.

• Newspapers showing headlines about the countries decline due to increased immigration.

Image: No More Mosques: Quote from David Cameron. David Cameron has declared that “ Britain is a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so”, in a speech to mark the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible.
Cameron told Church of England clergy gathered in Oxford that a return to Christian values could counter the country’s moral collapse and blamed a passive tolerance of immoral behavior for this summers riots, Islamic extremism, city excess and Westminster Scandals.
The Guardian, 16^th December 2011.

Multiculturalism - Is the cultural diversity of communities within a given society and the policies that promote this diversity– Everyone can become British, articulating difference and a cultural Identity.




Image: The Olympics 2012 – The pride of British sports people. Sportspeople from all the home counties are playing a ‘Part’.

Image: Non- naturalistic Identities. 
‘Nerve Fighters’ – online gaming communities.

Image: Hyper Japan – New Hybrid of different cultures – Non Traditional British Cultures are accepted and woven into subcultures.

Image: Film: This is England by Shane Meadows –

This Is England is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West Indian culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music,[4][5] became adopted by white nationalists, which led to divisions within the skinhead scene. The film's title is a direct reference to a scene where the character Combo explains his nationalist views using the phrase "this is England" during his speech.


Image: Film: In the Loop.

In the Loop is a 2009 British satirical black comedy directed by Armando Iannucci as a spin-off from the BBC Television series The Thick of It. The film satirizes Anglo-American politics in the 21st century and the Invasion of Iraq.[3] It was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.In the film, the UK and the US are both on the verge of possibly launching a war in the Middle East.[4] The plot follows government officials and advisors in their behind-the-scenes efforts either to promote the war or prevent it.





Image: Teamwork – Find a common goal! It doesn’t matter how different your characters are.