A2, Post 11, Filming update

Just a quick one this time,

The first major technical issue has been encountered;
>Basically, my camera no longer retains it's power after being put on charge, I'm hoping that the problem lies within the battery and not in the camera (Although the equipment is very old).
>As a temporary measure I'm using one of the school's cameras but hope to continue filming on the old cam ASAP.

In other news, posts will be few and far between for the next 2 weeks or so due to me going home for Christmas and having limited interent access. I will try to schedule some posts to keep you entertained (hopefully including a Christmas film quiz) but until then, Merry Christmas and see you next year!

The Pipeline: Vol 1, part b.

This is the second part of this week's pipeline where I will post the promotional posters for the releases mentioned in the previous post... Enjoy!

Cowboys and Aliens  

The Green Lantern

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Thor

Captain America: The first avenger

Cars 2

The Muppets

(As there is no promotional poster as of yet, I thought I would just publish a slab of nostalgia...ahhh, good times)

The Pipeline; Vol.1

This is the first of a new series of posts that will give short summaries of movies that are currently in production or scheduled for release, Some may also include my 'Cover judging' in which I make a judgment of the film based on the concept not a good way to review films, but it is a good excuse to exercise a few puns, the following is a list of new releases and I will go into detail on a few:

• Cowboys and Aliens (Rustling the former concepts of invasion);
• The Green Lantern (Should light the way for future action hero movies);
• The Chronicles of Narnia; Voyage of the Dawn Treader (another chapter to come out of the closet...well, wardrobe);
• Transformers; Dark of the moon (forever transforming the face of action movies);
• Thor (Buy a ticket and marvel at this action hero);
• Captain America (Should bring worldwide audiences to a united state of entertainment);
• Cars 2 (Racing to our cinemas within the nest 6 months);
• The Muppet's (Giving Statler and Waldorf more to complain about).

1. The near future (The next few months):
Pirates of the Caribbean 4

The 4th installment of the franchise and possibly the start of a second trilogy. The film is set after the first 3 and features Jack and the crew questing after the fountain of youth, however, little do they know that the feared and mighty Blackbeard has also joined the hunt! Jack and the crew must battle their way through fierce pirates, privateers, strange hostile waters and the full might of the British Empire!

Personally I think this film is a good idea as I love the PotC series. However, it also has to be done PERFECTLY as the franchise is in danger of overdoing it, especially as this is set to be the start of another trilogy.

Pirates of the Caribbean; On stranger tides is set for release on May 20th 2011.
The Pipeline; Vol 1, part b will be posted in the near future featuring promotional posters for most/all films mentioned.

A2, Post 10: Filming update

Got back from Northampton and unfortunately did not have time to film the water meadow due to sporadic living arrangements, but i did mange to track a duck across a pond, and although this does not sound like much, its a huge step forwards as I have finally located wildlife, which is by the far the greatest challenge of the brief.

I have also received a tip-off of a fox that hangs around the area near me, so I am now planning on setting up a small temporary hide in the woodland. Other than that, the establishing shots are coming in thick and fast, with almost all types of weather in the shots, from sun to fog and clear to torrential rain.

To sum up, despite a few minor set-backs, filming is well and truly on track...

Film 1: The Expenables (WARNING: Contains spoilers)

The Expendables... Where to begin:

As the poster shows, the cast of this film is enough to turn even the hardened action fan to jelly. And as a result, there was a huge risk of it being nothing but 2 hours of guns and explosions. And although I have never seen so many flying bullets in one film, I have to say; it worked.

Written by Stallone himself, the plot allows each character to have his own moment of glory (resulting in a huge array of explosions and fire fights) which produces a hugely over played 'stormtrooper effect' (trained villains are awful shots and are all killed with minimal effort from the good guys (such as imperial stormtroopers)).

---SPOILER BEGINS HERE---

The plot is centered around a small group of hardy bikers led by Barney Ross (Stallone) that are hired guns in their spare time. When a CIA agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts) defects and sets up a multi-billion dollar drug trafficking operation in South America, they are called to deal with it (if the CIA took out one of their own it would make bad press, and if the mercs die no-one cares, thus 'expendables'). Church (Willis) acts a front to the CIA and attempts to hire the expendables, when Ross initially refuses, Church plays his trump card, which is to bring in trench (Schwarzenegger) after a short but hilarious exchange between the The plot becomes deeper and it turns out that Munroe is actually the puppet master behind a South American dictatorship, therefore having complete control over the countries armed forces.



A small dispute amidst the team



After a 'subtle' recon mission to the island, Barney and Lee (Statham) come across a young woman who turns out to be the dictators daughter, Ross attempts to convince her to leave but she refuses to leave her homeland stating that one day it will be free. She hates her fathers oppression of the people and openly defies the regime before being captured and tortured. Barney and Lee then make an explosion exit filled involving planes, guns, fuel tanks and half the military that alerts Munroe to the fact he is a target. Ross vows to return and free the island (more for the sake of the girl).

 Later Ross returns with the rest of the gang and make a quiet entrance which is succeeded by laying explosive charges upon literally every surface which results in the destruction of the entire imperial palace. During the ensuing chaos each cast member gets their own moment of glory in a series of insanely brutal fight scenes. Finally, Ross tracks down Munroe to find he has taken the girl as a hostage; after a short standoff in which Ross is shot in the shoulder, Munroe is shot 3 times in the chest at the same time as being impaled from behind by Lee. The expendables then leave in time for the rest of the place to go up in flames and everyone lives happily ever after.

---SPOLIER ENDS HERE---

It makes pretty intense viewing and may be over done in places, the point is that it was meant to be action packed and in that respect it did not disappoint.

The film received mixed reviews by critics, some complementing it and others slating it's 'lack of imagination'. However, the point that the critics are missing is simply that the whole point of this film was to bring all of 'action kings' together and face them off and the film achieved this flawlessly. Some films are designed for deep meanings (Inception/Avatar) whereas other are purely meant to be an entertaining few hours that can simply be watched for the sake of being watched, The Expendables is one of the latter and in my opinion there are not enough of these films around anymore.

A2, Post 9...Filming, update

OK, filming is now well and truly in progress! I have acquired my Dad's old camera which is substantially better for what i intend to do than my original equipment as it comes with a torch, infra-red night vision and high def.

So i have gone out an re-filmed all of the previously mentioned shots and have gone on to record some additional footage:
> I took advantage of a heavy fog and recorded eerie footage of the school field, featuring silhouetted trees in the distance shrouded in a vale of fog;
> A 'jaws' shot (zooming out while tracking in), on a cobweb, still needs some tweaking but when finished should successfully play with perspective;

I am heading to Northampton this weekend in order to film a water meadow and hopefully manage to get some water fowl.
I will post an update on that on Monday and hopefully also post a new film review (finally)

A2, Post 8, Filming update

I did manage to get a few shots filmed last week but sadly not as many as anticipated due to adverse weather conditions, today they are even worse so I will spend it researching similar products and planning a rough guide for the ancillary texts.

The shots I did manage were the following:
> A long panning shot of the school field, taking in the tree line in the background;
> A panning shot of a pond that works nicely with the overhanging foliage which creates a sense of wilderness (although it was behind the school);
> I also experimented with a rising spiral shot around the trunk of a tree, I was pleased with the effect and hope to re-produce it to a higher standard in the future.

Due to the weather at the time the shots were less than satisfactory through the poor light, heavy rain and strong winds, having checked the forecast it would seem that the situation will not improve in the near future so I will attempt to do whatever I can despite this.

A2, Post 7, Filming

FINALLY, after 2 months of planning and storyboarding (which is still in the pipeline), filming has officially begun! Beginning with a few preliminary attempts at panning shots and the first phases of the time-lapse piece.

In addition, I have narrowed a range of possible soundtracks to a short list that will be posted shortly (tech permitting).

Ok, that was a short and marginally pointless post but I will leave it there in order to go out for some filming

A2, Post 6, Ideas and Concepts update

The storyboard I mentioned in the previous post HAS been completed. The issue is that I'm having trouble getting the scanner to agree with it, so fingers crossed, it will be up for all to see shortly.

As for ideas;
I have decided to centre the theme around rural and urban wildlife (the kind of stuff you would not expect to find in your garden or in the fields by your town), so as a rough idea, I thought of opening with a simple shot of an ordinary house (calm music), then suddenly zooming in and almost through it (music building up), then a series of quick changes that illustrate the wildlife drama that goes on in the area (crescendo) before zooming back out in to the quiet, calm street.

A2, Post 5: Ideas and concepts

I will be posting a rough story board in the near future that will showcase some of the shots I plan on including, but in the mean time, I will quickly run through some of them:

>One of the more ambitious shots I plan on filming is a time-lapse sequence showing the construction of a cob-web, and I intend to go about this by placing a spider or two within a prefabricated environment and being optimistic about the spiders' accommodation plans.
>Remaining on the same theme, I plan on another time-lapse shot. This one however is far more ambitious as I plan on exhibiting the seasonal change (Summer (just)to Autumn to Winter), by taking a few seconds of footage from the same place everyday for the next 6 months.
>Other intend shots include two create will hopefully include animals such as wild badgers, fallow and muntjac deer as well as red-kites and otters...all of which I have tracked down in the past.

A2, Post 4: Photo set 1

OK, so they may not be wild, unpredictable and free-ranging, but it's a start. The following are a few recently taken stills of 3 of my rabbits, they're not particularly impressive but as I said earlier, it's a start;  

A2, Post 3: Experiments

As part of my project this year, I am going to have to dramatically improve my skills with recording equipment; So, over the next few months I will produce and post some practice clips of wildlife. Some of these clips have already been filmed ('stock footage' from holidays gone by), so I will also be able to compare how my filming has improved.
I am also experimenting with wildlife photographs, again to get used to cameras, but also to practice getting close enough to animals to produce worthwhile results, most of which will also posted.

A2, Post 2: Inspiration

Having recently posted a presentation outlining my plan for the year, this post should make things clearer as it contains the links to the promotional trailers mentioned in the PowerPoint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoqCcHQZlWw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JysWJD5Koc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9hr9Ucyftg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JysWJD5Koc&feature=related

Having watched the trailers...I should hope that my intentions are now somewhat more understandable, and just how ambitious this project could be.

(The links to these will be available in the side bar in the near future)

 

A2, Post 1, Advanced Portfolio plan

A2 Media Studies, Portfolio Plan (Scribd)

A2 Media Studies, intro

OK, here we go again. Only this time I really do know what I'm doing. Over the course of the next year I will be posting regular updates regarding my progress with A2 Media as well as a few film reviews etc...

Shortly a power point will be posted illustrating my plan of action and how I hope to achieve my goals.

Existing posts will remain on the blog for all to see, mainly for my benefit so that i can compare my AS and A2 work, and all posts regarding this year's courses will be labelled from scratch. (post 1 of A2 will be called Post 1 etc...)

(Main task) Post 6: Camera shots

Again, due to the technical difficulties with my computer, i am unable to upload any stills from our main task, however i can still talk about them...

In order to better portray our theme of a dual personality, we required some way of showing that our character had two very different sides to him. Eventually, we located a means of achieving this, when our character is walking through the bar, he passes by a glass display cabinet, the bent glass on the cabinet creates two images of the character as he walks past, painting a perfect portrait of split personalities.

Another shot perfectly shows the internal struggle of the character, just as he enters the bar, he turns and closes the door, he leans his head against it before continuing, at the moment when his head is upon the door, the scene moves to a close up of the face, the expression shows that something is not quite as it seems, that something is wrong.

Finally, the flashbacks....in order to show that the viewers are being transported back in time, we tinted the screen blue, this showed that what is being viewed is in very different circumstances to the previous scene, also, the dialogue used came directly from the camera, and therefore had acquired an eerie echo, these factor combine to create a feel of looking back into the shady, almost forgotten past.

(Main task) Post 5: Time management and filming

Managing the time in which we filmed our final piece was one of the most challenging tasks owing to the differences in our timetables. By simply allocating a few weekends to the job, we succeeded in filming the piece

The remainder of the filming was to take place at the 'Black Bull' in Launton, but due to an event taking place there it was unavailable, so after a search of local pubs, we eventually used the 'Kings Arm's hotel' in Woodstock, the setting was ideal as it offered a wide range of themes and spaces. We spent a morning filming in the restaurant area.

Post 8: Film of the week (WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Clash of the Titans:

A recent remake of the 1981 film of the same name. Was a huge success in Cinema, raising an overall gross of $385,563,557 worldwide. It was quite poorly received by critics, who stated that there were not enough visual thrills and that the film did not live up to its potential.

The films begins with a prologue that briefly explains the legend of the Titans and how they were defeated by a creature of unimaginable size and power that was born of Hades himself...the Kraken

The narrative begins with an old fisherman who finds a young boy in a floating coffin, his mother dead, and the old man takes the boy in. Over the years, the small family comes across increasingly hard times, with the fish disappearing from the oceans, but they remain adamant that they will not blame the gods for their troubles, unlike the rest of mankind, all of whom has waged war upon their creators. When they come across the statue of Zeus being attacked by army of the 'local' king, they witness the power of Hades, who appears and disintegrates into a horde of demons that lay waste to the army; Hades then plunges toward the fishing boat and destroys it, killing all but Peruses (the young boy, now grown up).

Peruses is taken to the king's court in the city of Argos, where he is questioned about the events on the cliff top. Then, as soon as the king curse the Gods, Hades appears in a shroud of smoke, disabling the palace guard and ageing the queen to death, he warns that if the faith of the people is not restored, he will release the Kraken upon them, and only way they can stop this and prove their faith is to sacrifice the princess to the beast. Before leaving he reveals that Peruses is the son of Zeus (The god became human for one night and impregnated the wife of a former king and enemy). Enraged, Peruses makes an oath of vengeance for the death of his family, and with the entire palace guard, they ride out in search of a way to defeat the enraged Gods.

Hades makes an agreement with a disgraced king (horribly disfigured due to a bolt of lightning from Zeus), and grants him limitless power with which he intends to kill his illegitimate son (Peruses), Hades reveals that his plan is gain power form the fear of the people and overthrown the Gods on Mt.Olympus.

The place guard has now virtually been wiped out by various attacks from both the disgraced king and a horde of giant scorpions controlled by the desert Djinns (Beings of pure magic and driftwood). The leader of Djinn's joins forces with the soldiers and together they hunt down the stygian witches, who reveal that the only way to kill the Kraken is to turn it to stone, which can only be done using the head the gorgon Medusa, (who will not give it up without a fight), they spend the next week traveling across deserts and mountains and make their way to the gate to the underworld, where they find Medusa's temple and eventually kill her, but at the cost of all the remaining soldiers.

The God's have now reached the end of their tether, Zeus is filled with wrath at the disloyalty of the people, and Hades finally convinces his brother to release the Kraken. After such an action packed build up, the Kraken does not disappoint, it really is huge. The beast begins to wreak havoc upon the city just as Peruses arrives sporting the head of Medusa, after an action packed chase from the flying demons of Hades, he kills them and proceeds to the head of the Kraken where, just before it devours the princess, the head of Medusa is thrust in to it's gaze. Once the Kraken has been turned to stone, it crumbles into the sea, Hades; Wrathful at having been defeated attempts to kill the demigod once and for all but fails and is sent back to the underworld.

On the whole, I thought the film did not live up to its expectations; it had a huge amount of potential to grab audience. Throughout the duration of the film, the characters are slowly building up the image of the terrifying Kraken , but when it eventually appears, you never really see much of it and it is killed before it has a chance to any real damage.

Evaluation

The evaluation PowerPoint has just been uploaded to the blog, how ever due to technical difficulties I am unable to upload the accompanying audio file, i am working on rectifying this. And i also do not have any notes to post along side it as the audio file was improvised without a script/notes.

Evaluation, Media

Post 7: Film of the week (WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Film 4: The bucket list

Featuring the perfect combo of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, Isee this as a very effective feel good film...

When, old mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman), and billionaire hospitol mandate Edward cole (Nicholson) are both diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, they gradually learn to accept each other for their differences, Cole with his expensive jet set life of cars, money and holidays, and Chambers' finding the best things in life are the little ones. Reluctant to share a room with Chambers', Carter begins complaining and demanding that his every need be seen to, whereas Chambers is perfectly content reading his book and writing out his 'bucket list' (All the things you want to do before you kick the bucket). As the course of thier respective treatments progress, the pair grow close and become friends.

However, upon discovering he only has a year left, he scraps his plan and resigns himself to his book once more, Cole finds the list and desperatley tries to convince his friend to go for it and offers to finanace the trip, against the wishes of Carter's wife, they decide to go on the trip of a life time.

Across the year they take part in many experiences that range from skydiving to the most expensive meal they could buy, Halfway round the trip, they fall out over a dispute about Cole's family issues, and Carter returns home, only to later 'die on the table' after a siezure caused by cancer reaching his brain. Just before he dies, he convinces Cole to continue and finish the Bucket list.

Cole later reconsiles with his family and lives to the age of 81. In the epilogue, his ashes are placed next to those of Carter on a mountain in the himalayas whcich Carter would have liked because 'he was buried on a mountain... and that was against the law'.

Overall this is a very  good film in my opinion, there is some very heavy material when dealing with the cancer, but on the whole its full of laughs and feel good momenst, and despite the fact that they die in the end...although you may miss them, its a satisfiying ending as they achieved all they wanted to and died happily. The film was well recieved by audiences, achieving an over all gross of $174,310, 293. But was not rated highly by critics for the fact that it innacturatly protrayed the life of cancer sufferers as ' a daff riot, followed by a dime store epipheny'. Personally, i believe this is a very good film and if you are in the right mind set, a great pick me up.

Post 6: Film of the week (WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Just a quick note, due to computer problems I have been unable to post the weekly film review, so I will now do 3 at once followed by the overall film of the month all in one go, and then hopefull I will get back into the routine of weekly posts...

Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith,
Widely acclaimed to be Episode 2's greatest rival, George Lucas created the prequel trilogy in order to both expand the ground breaking sage and the lining of his pocket, unfortunately however, the first 2 films are known to be among the biggest anti-climaxes in film history, in both films (Episodes 1-2), the acting was amateurish, the storyline were weak, and nothing really happened, Lucas apparently hoped to make up for this with the CGI, which was also a disappointment to the once vast fan base. Episode 3 however broke away from the saga's new dead beat image, bouncing back with stunning effects, a strong storyline, and improved performances from the cast...

The running theme through out the film is the slow yet inevitable rise of the Sith empire to power. The short sighted Jedi are more intent on meditating and acting upon what they believe to be best for the republic. This angers young wayward Jedi Aniken Skywalker who seeks the council of the wise supreme chancellor Palaptine (who is later revealed to be the hiding Sith lord who has orchestrated all of the previous and coming events), Skywalker gradually grows apart from his old master Obi wan until he consumed by the dark side and becomes the infamous Darth Vader.

The final few scenes are a masterpeice of film making, (and for many they were a real 'lump in throat' moment), through a series of slow motion clips with a huge orchestral soundtrack in the back ground, the viewers witness the macabre destruction of the Jedi by their former allies, followed by the epic culmination of the 3 films; dubbed, 'The duel of fates', former master and padwan (now sith lord), come together to fight it out on the boiling lava world of Mustafar, after a slightly over timed fight scene, Vader is mortally wounded and Obi wan leaves the planet. Aniken is found by the Sith emperor (Palpatine) and is almost completely reconstructed, thus giving birth to the iconic and feared masked villain of Darth Vader

The film on the whole was actually very good, this surprised me after the veritable farce of its two predecessors, both through storyline and the stunning CGI that really enhanced the final battle scene (featuring shooting plumes of lava and boiling pits of liquid fire). On the other hand however, it takes a while for the story to find its feet and it can be painfully slow when re-watching it. But to conclude, in comparison to the other prequels, this is a must see, the only downside of this being that a minimal amount of it will makes sense if the other two have not already been endured.

Post 5: Film of the week (WARNING: contains spoilers)

Right, it’s finally here, the first edition of film of the week:


This week’s film is the recent sensation that is Cameron's Avatar, critically to be a marvel beyond its time, and it has become the highest grossing film of all time (making $2.605 billion within 41 days). It has been declared as the Star wars of its generation and has captivated audience’s world wide...

The plot: the film is set in the early 22nd century on the rich, Earth like moon of Pandora, in the process of a mining operation, the colonial humans come across an indigenous humanoid species (the Na'vi), who just so happen to be located upon the richest deposit of the priority mineral. In a bid to relocate them diplomatically a program is set up that allows humans to take control of Na'vi bodies and join the people and convince them to leave. This plan is not welcomed by the sadistic head of security, Col.Quaritch, who is seemingly hell bent obliterating the Na'vi completely.

While on the Avatar program, Jake Sully (our main protagonist), becomes so connected with the Na'vi that he begins to prefer his new life and eventually decides to stop Quaritch himself before it is too late. After diplomatic strategies fail, Quaritch rolls in a huge fleet of gunships to destroy the population, but what he has not counted on the deity of the Na'vi being all too real. Jake, with the help of Eywa (the deity), amasses a huge force consisting of the almost all of the moons life forms and the outcome is a spectacular action scene. After a good old fashioned one-on-one between Quaritch (in a combat suit) and Sully (as a Na'vi), the Col. is killed and the humans are shipped off from Pandora and back to Earth.

Views: The film its self is very long, personally I prefer this as it gives the audience a more realistic feel of this new world as it is not cut off after one and a half hours. The CGI in this film is simply spectacular there are no two ways about it; Cameron's attention to detail has proved that there are still some people in the world that know how to spend $200million effectively. One the other hand, it suffers from a very weak plot line of Jake falling in love and changing sides etc... A story we have seen in many other productions in the past (E.G: Lion King 2, Stardust (to a point)). But Cameron has managed to compensate for the lack of depth with the stunning visual effects and even a new language. It may well be possible to relate to the characters and become almost emotionally attached to some of them despite the story as some of them are quite literally put through hell, but personally I did not get this effect.

To conclude, Avatar is a visually stunning film though it lacks in the plot department, though i feel this can be forgiven when looking at the film's other good points, which are abundant in number

(Main Task) Post 4; Part 2: 10/04/10/ Casting

When it came to choosing a cast for our production, we thought of a number of candidates from our school/ social groups/ parents etc... however, due to the nature of our storyline, a large cast of extras was not required. We therefore decided to use ourselves with the exeption of the pub scene, in which external cast members will be required

(Main Task) Post 4, Part 1: 04/04/10/ The technical stuff... (locations)

The filming for the main task takes place in a variety of locations, as well as this, there is a wide range of shots and other technical aspects to consider:

-The locations are from all around the county. The flashbacks have been filmed in the village of Stratton Audley at the house of Elm farm. We chose this location because of its dated appearence and wide range of environments. Some footage has also been shot at the Marlborough school in the drama studio, this was for a scene that takes place in a poilce interview room, and we were forced to compromise when the local police branch refused us filming rights on their premises. The drama studio provided possibly a better atmoshphere than the police station could have, with dimmed lighting and black walls, the scene takes on an intense feel which compliments the dramatic content.
There is also a major part of this production to be filmed in a public house, but due to organisational difficulties there will be another post on this at a later date once the filming has been completed at a confirmed venue.

(Main Task) Post 3: 04/04/10/ The Main Task

This is the major task of the AS media studies course, it comprises of a 2 minute film in the stly of a thriller opening:

Our film centeres around an ex-officer who has recently left the force and unknowingly suffers from multiple personalties, and once his sister disappears without warning, he begins to loose the plot. After a few months the case has been dropped due to a lack of leads, his sends our character of the rails and he hits the bottle and spends all of his time in pubs drowning his sorrows. Once he begins to see vivid flashbacks of happier times, he begins to piece his past together through his visions and eventually believes that he has discovered a crucial lead in the cold case of his sister's disappearence.

Upon following this up, he comes across harrowing clues about his sister and believes he can finally solve the case, this is until his alter ego makes and appearence and turns the tables....

Post 2: 04/03/10/ Back again

Ok, apologies for the gargantuan length of time between posts, this has been due to a regretable issue with personal organisation that has caused a few problems to say the least, but, hopefuly, that is now all sorted out and i can get back to regular blog posts to keep you updated with the progress of the AS media studies main task...