Narrative Theory

Todorov - Stated that all narratives follow a basic structure. This structure involves an equilibrium (a period of calm which introduces us to the everyday life of the main characters), then a disequilibrium (a period of unsettlement in which the main character has a problem to solve) which is finally followed by a new state of peace and harmony known as a new equilibrium. This is often refered to as the'classic' or 'hollywood' style of narrative and is the simplest form. It can also be described as equilibruim, disturbance and resolution.

Propp - Discovered that there are 8 basic character types. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. His theory did not state that all these characters had to be seperate people and so a particular character could be more than one of these character types. He stated that each character type has a 'sphere of action' and once you have worked out the character type it is easy to work out what their role will be within the narrative (for example the hero will save the maiden or defeat the villian or both).

Barthes - Established that a narrative will establish enigmas and mysteries as it goes along. These enigmas provide clues as to what will happen at the end of the narrative and the aim of the narrative is to solve the mysteries that are established throughout it. This is known as the enigma code.

Levi-Strauss - The theory of binary opposition states that narrative tension is based on conflict or opposition. This can be through two opposite sides fighting which is the simplest form of binary oppostion but is often on a more ideological level. Often the conflicting sides will embody different ideologies eg. in Star Wars the rebellion represents good and the empire represents evil.

Second Day of Filming

The second day of filmimg took place on saturday 3rd of December with me, Jonny Sollo, Arron North and Sam Dixon present. We managed to film a large proportion of our opening sequence and in fact have only one scene left to film which we have agreed will be filmed during the Christmas holidays as more dialogue needs to be written in order to make it long enough to meet requirements. We were forced to adapt our film as it became clear to us that many of our original ideas would not work and that it would not be possible to use certain camera shots which we had originally planned to use however we were able to overcome this eventuality as we worked out ways of creating similar effects using different camera positions and techniques. In our film we included a POV shot which had not originally planned to use but felt it was good for creating a desired effect. This initially caused some problems as it was difficult using a handheld camera technique, however we eventually overcame this and I feel that this will help us prove that we are able to use a varied range of camera shots and techniques.

We also recieved a reply form Jamie Joslyn (the singer of the Vindickers) giving us permission to use their track 'These Love Songs Don't Make Sense' in the opening credits of our film. This was the track I originally intended to use and is useful as it now means that we have music to fit the different camera shots to and can begin to think about where to cut in order to create maximum effect on the viewer. The proof of permission can be found below:

First Day of Filming

We began the filming for our opening sequence today and have started to make progress with the project. We have scripted much of the dialogue and already filmed a couple of scenes which we will use to build our opening around. We also started to think about sound for our film, having chosen a possible soundtrack and emailed the copyright owner in order to get their permission to use it. The song is 'These Love Songs Don't Make Sense' by The Vindickers. The song is relevant to the genre of our film (romantic comedy) as it deals with the theme of love, also dealt with by this genre of film. It is also useful as the Vindickers are a local band that I am in contact with and so it should not be difficult to obtain permission for use of their material.

We encoutered some problems during filming; mostly because of the time of year in which we are making our film meaning it gets dark fairly early, limiting the hours in which it is possible to film outside. We did not forsee this as a problem but are now aware of it and can therefore prepare more effectively for this eventuality by filming outside scenes earlier in the day and leaving inside seens for later as we can use artificial light for these. Another problem which we encoutered was the camera running out of battery. In future we will make sure it is fully charged before we begin filming, hoever this time it was not a huge problem as in the time it took to re-charge we were able to script a large proportion of the dialogue from the later scenes which we are still yet to film. We also managed to arrange the next day of filmimg which will be saturday providing that the weather is still workable with.

This Is England (2006) - Opening Sequence

The opening sequence from This is England, directed by British director Shane Meadows in 2006, is interesting because we are not introduced to any characters or narrative within the first 2 minutes. However we do get a strong sense of setting from the genuine 1980s footage (the film is set in 1983) and the music which we hear over the top of the footage (54-46 Was My Number - Toots and the Maytals) gives a strong sense of the skin-head subculture which the film portrays. This has made me consider how I will create a sense of setting in the opening 2 minutes of my film whilst at the same time introducing characters and providing a backstory for the events that occur later in my film. It has also affected my decisions regarding music as I have decided to use one track playing throughout the opening of my film which will fade out into the first scene much like in This Is England.

Halloween (1978) - Opening Sequence

The opening sequence from Halloween, directed by John Carpenter in 1978, has made me think about the choices i need to make for my own opening sequence. For example what credits should I include in the opening 2 minutes of the film. Carpenter's film is unusual as it shows a large number of the credits at the start of the film before the narrative has begun and before we have been introduced to any characters. The affect of this can be quite boring for an audience and therefore for my own film i have decided i will scale down the number of credits within the opening sequence. It has also made me think about whether I want to cut away from the narrative in order to show credits or have them as part of the shot. In Halloween all the credits are shown before the narrative begins, a technique which would not be suitable for my own film as it limits the amount of action i can include in the first 2 minutes. After the credits, most of the opening sequence is filmed in one take and we do not cut away from the POV shot used for a long time. This idea is also not suitable for my film as it does not show that i can use a number of different camera shots and techniques however it did make me think about how i would present a backstory for the characters of my film. In order to make a decision on this i will need to conduct further research into the openings of films.

Post Filmimg

Filming was completed fairly succesfully and we overcame any problems which occured during the filmimng process. There are a few errors in our film, most of which can be addressed in the editing process however there are a few continuity errors which will bring the overall realism and effect of the film down. The sound will need to be heavily edtited as there is alot of background noise and some of the dialogue cannot be heard clearly which means that we may need to re-record it and sub it over the footage. One of the most successful aspects of our filming was the lighting which is good all the way, we found this to be an advantage of filmimng outside as opposed to inside as we had the benefit of natural light. We used a variety of camera shots in order to make our film interesting and used alot of panning in order to show that we are capable of more complex filmimg techniques however we avoided using moving shots in order to eliminate the possibility of jerky camera movements and losing the frame, although this did occur occasionally during filming.

First Preliminary Film

The scene which have decided to shoot involves a drug trade, although it is humourous as we are actually using polos. In our scene we are planning to use a number of different camera camera shots:
Shot 1: Mid Shot
Shot 2: Mid Shot
Shot 3 :Long Shot (establishing)
Shot 4: Long Shot (pans)
Shot 5: Over the Shoulder
Shot 6: Reverse of shot 5
Shot 7: Close Up (showing exchange)
Shot 8: Mid Shot
Shot 9: Low Angle Mid Shot
Shot 10: Mid Shot (pans)

 We decided that for a location we would use the school grounds as it is convenient for us to film here as there is lots of space to use. It will mostly be outside although the opening shots will involve the client coming through a door out of a building. We will use a few lines of dialogue which have been written by the group, these are:
Dealer: I'm over here.
Client: Have you it?
Dealer: Got some good stuff here.

We plan to film some shots from a different angle in order to give us more options during editing.

Unfortunately this film did not meet the criteria and therefore we have filmed a new preliminary.

Experimental Footage

I feel that the experimental footage we shot for our preliminary film work was very successful and enabled us to learn about what problems can occur during filming and how to over come these problems. We discovered about how the distance of a shot affects the narrative of a piece of film and learnt how to communicate different emotions using shot distance. We also discovered the problems that can occur when filming moving shots such as jerky camera movements and losing the actors face when moving the camera. We overcame this by using panning shots rather than tracking shots in order to keep the camera steady and the actors in shot. We shot some experimental dialogue using over the shoulder camera shots however I believe we need to become more confident in using more adventurous shot types when filming dialogue. We became able to plan and set up a shot effectively and learnt to rehearse the shots before filming in order to get the best possible footage. We also discovered the benefits of shooting a scene from several positions in order to give us more options when editing our footage.