Technology Standard

Operating a video camera: The video camera that I used to was fairly straight forward, and I managed to teach myself within approximately 20 minutes. I worked on using the zoom to emphasise certain features of each scene, while this worked on some scenes I found that often the shot worked better if I simply walked forwards. Though it may seem simpler, it meant I had to understand when using the zoom would be better or when simply walking forward would suffice.

Recording or using sound effects, dialogue or music: Since I choose not to include a script for my film opening, it gave more opportunity to work and focus on the musical side of the opening. This meant that I could develop the technical side of the sound track more. For example I found that using an exponential fade works well when transitioning between two audio tracks. Also, I had to equalize and use the decackler on one of tracks due to the quality of the recording, this insured that the audio transitioned between each different tracks better.


Importing images & video files: To import the files into Premiere Pro, I first had to convert the file so I was able to run in the program. I did this by changing the file tag from .MOV to .AVI this resulted in the file restoring itself so it was able to be accessed in Premiere Pro.


Editing images for moving image production: Due to the lighting of my film, I had to go through and for every shot put on an equalizer and a fast colour correcting effect.

Song Choices

"She's so Lovely" -Scouting for Girls

"Walking on Sunshine" -Katrina and the Waves

"Accidentally in Love" -Counting Crows

I choose these songs specifically due to their generally happy and joyous mood. This conveys the theme of no matter how bad things get you can always find happiness in small things such as cooking. Love also comes into this theme, which is expressed through the songs "She's so Lovely" and "Accidentally in Love". It represents the stages the main character progresses through the film, at the start while people admire her she keeps to her self and her cooking. By the middle song she has progressed on, shes seeing things in a different light and is letting people into her life, and by the end "Accidentally in Love" shows both the love for life, people and cooking.

Production Evaluation

The positive aspects of this production was that I really enjoyed not only filming and learning how to use the technology behind film, I also learnt and realised how much effort goes in to film. It makes finishing it feel even more rewarding. Specifically, I really enjoyed learning how to use Adobe's Premiere Pro program, and I can see myself further learning how to use it.
Something I could have done better was filming, while I shot several retakes on each scene, I could have shot more on each scene, as some shots were unusable due to the camera quality. This would have resulted in better shots as some of the shots I ended up having to use, were slightly shaky. Next production I direct and shot I will plan the shots better and use a small tripod in order to counter the shakiness of the hand held camera. However this shakiness did contribute to the homemade style footage that I was trying to achieve.

Pre production

The main character aka the baking girl shall be played by Carissa Sinclair. I was going to use other characters but upon reviewing the clips I have decided to cut them out as they distract from the main motif of happiness.

Art Department: The creation of the "Slice Of Life" Cooking book needs to be designed. It will consist of a picture of a cupcake and the title for the film, this continues the motif of a home made style of filming which I am aiming to create. Premade cupcakes will be cooked on the day of filming so time will be saved while filming. I shall also design the top decorations of the cupcakes, it will be a flower to continue the light-hearted style of the film.


As I am filming in my own kitchen, I do not require location permission (apart from my mum). :)

Footage log

1. Carissa walking with bowl -to shaky
2. Carissa walking with bowl -less shaky but lighting bad
3. Carissa walking with bowl -good
4. butter to bowl -good
5. sugar to bowl -shaky
6. sugar to bowl -good
7. mixing -beaters didn't start
8. mixing -good
9. eggs -good
10. sieve -shaky
11. sieve -good
12. flour to sieve -good
13. sift flour -lighting dull
14. sift flour -better
15. milk to mixture -only 1 shot
16. dancing feet -good
17. dancing -shaky due to laughter :)
18. dancing -good
19. to oven -almost drops camera
20. to oven -shaky
21. to oven -good
22. out of oven -good
23. Icing cupcakes (blue case) -shaky
24. Icing cupcakes green -good
25. sprinkles green -lighting bad
26. sprinkling green -good
27. mixing and dancing -outside distraction
28. mixing and dancing -good
29. mixture spooned in to each tin -good

Research

I looked at other examples of film openings that included cooking and/or baking, and noticed they all had similar features of slow calming music and long sweeping shots. I, however believe that this calming feature of baking that they reveal, is not as relavant to opening. I plan to use short scenes to portray excitetment and music that goes along with this theme. This angle will give a '"life is amazing" feel to the opening which is what I am trying to achieve.

Exam Reflection

During this exam I studied the most for the genre study, I got extremely involved in this essay as I found it fabulously delicious and spell-boundingly enchanting. However, my obsession with female victims took me to a dark place to which I have no excuse. My essay took me to such extremes, that it was expressed through physical means. Through testimonies of the supervises you will come to learn that during this particular assessment I displayed many features that could be regarded as an uncomfortable amount of perspiration and uncontrollable facial expression of distress. This was due to the immense physical toll that my love for female victims put upon my delicate deposition. A product that was directly proportional to my addiction would be the lack of an essay for representations. To which you have my sincerest apologies and my hard earned cash for which I hope you will except in place of an excellence exemplar.
Best Wishes
Jordan Renaud
15/19/11
:)

Treatment

A cook book is seen with the title A Slice of Life with the subtitle "When life gives you lemons make lemon cupcakes". A hand comes into view and flicks through the book to find the right page. It arrives to a page and zooms into the recipe title. LEMON CUPCAKES. The camera hovers over the ingredients as the hands pull the matching ingredients out of the cupboard. Then similarly with the steps of baking. The timer is then set on the oven and you see the character making teas. Once the timer goes, you see the main character's hands taking the cupcakes out of the oven and ice the cupcakes. It the cuts the scene of the main character and her friends having tea and cupcakes.

Colour

Tim Burton has made the use of colours, a huge influence on not only Sweeney Todd but also all of the other movies he has directed, and from this, dark, gloomy colours have become a trademark of his work. For example, some of his films that show this are "The Corpse Bride", "Edward Scissorhands" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Also this is illustrated in Sweeney Todd through the dark colours mainly greys, in the background with the only contrast being the slightly brighter blood.

The dark, gloomy background helps to both set up the scene and the genre of this film. The use of dark colours is stereotypical of the horror genre as it gives the since of fear of things that can happen in the dark to the viewer. As Sweeney Todd is directed by Tim Burton this is another reason why the colour pallet is very dark. The tradition of Burton's work being quite dark and gloomy with the characters having dark undereyes and being almost cartoon like which the viewer can also see in the animation of the opening which is made to look fake and cartoon like.

The use of the blood being brighter than the background means that the blood is highlighted as being an important symbol of the film. While the blood is still dark and is in the same group of colours it stands out, because of its difference. This helps to illustrate the main theme of movie: revenge. As previous stated the blood is a symbol of how bloodthirsty and full of revenge Sweeney becomes and as the amount of blood increases during the opening sequence (until the sewers is full of it and blood flows out to sea), it foreshadows the amount of blood and death at the end of the film. At the end, the large amount of blood which comes from Sweeney's death, flows down into the sewers and out to sea, reflecting the opening of the film and ending finally where it begun.

My Concept

The genre for my idea is a kind of baking, comedy cross, named "A Slice of Life". Where the plot follows a group of friends in coffee group as they journey through life. I want to explore the idea that no matter what the circumstance, people should always be able to sit down and enjoy the small things in life, such as eating cupcakes with your friends.
The emotions I wish to evoke is that of happiness and joy overcoming depression and desolation life can bring.
When life gives you lemons, make lemon cupcakes. :) The message that I want to be seen and impact upon in this movie is that of enjoying the small things in life. The opening will be a series of clips a group of friends baking, spliced together to form a montage of baking.

Female Victims -- Explain

Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead, uses the convention of female victims, to invoke the feelings of protection towards the character of Barbra. In typical Hollywood style, the use of making Barbra a helpless female further gives shock value when she is murdered. Especially to those who might have expected the traditional Hollywood ending. This contributes towards the idea of nihilism. As female victims up to this point, even though helpless, were always saved by the stronger male lead, however, true to the idea of nihilism (where there is no point to life, utter chaos rules and where we care about no-one apart from ourselves) Barbra is killed in a sudden moment which happens so quick that it leaves the audience stunned. The audience response to this is key, as it prepares them for the end of the film, at which nihilism triumphs and none of the main characters survive. While a normal "Hollywood Ending" would stereotypically end in the main characters all surviving, this film breaks away from tradition where the female victim is killed rather than saved.

In Scream, the director, Wes Craven, uses the complete contrast towards female victims, making them the victim and the hero. This makes the viewer of the film identify with the character more. As in tradition, females were helpless and nowadays females are considered to be tougher and wouldn't associate with them. In this film, Sidney (the female lead) survives without help from a stronger male. As this film is all about breaking away from the traditions of the horror genre, this convention being broken is a perfect example of this.

Female Victims -- Describe

Two horror films that explore the convention of female victims are Night of the Living Dead (1968) directed by George A. Romero, and Scream (1996) directed by Wes Craven. While Night of the Living Dead explores the helplessness of females, building on the cliche that the stronger male must save the day. Contrasting to that, Scream's female lead is less of a victim and more of a heroine.

Night of the Living Dead's female lead, Barbra, sits in stunned silence through out most of the film and even at the end when she comes to her senses somewhat and tries to help with the destruction of the zombies, she ends up being killed instantly.
Scream's female lead, Sidney Prescott, contrasts completely to that of Barbra. Every scene in which the villain and Sidney coincide she succeeds in escaping and injuring the assailant, Ghostface. At the end when she finally ends up killing one of the murders but cannot manage to kill the other another female called Gale Whethers, comes in to save the day instead of a male.

Camera Shots

Tim Burton uses camera shots to emphasis and reflect parts of Sweeney Todd life. For instance this can be seen where he uses shots such as a close up of Sweeney's chair and the extreme close up of the blood on the cogs of the chair, to show the main symbol of his revenge. Also the close up of the Victorian silhouette pictures of Sweeney Todd and his wife which emphasises the reason behind his revenge.
 
The close up shot of the blood on the chair is extremely important because it both foreshadows the fact that Sweeney will use it to kill his victims, also in a way, it is a symbol of how blood-thirsty Todd will become as the film progresses. This foreshadowing helps to connect the whole film together as when the viewer goes to watch the film again they realise that in fact that in the opening the director doesn't just use random images because they are actually depicting the plot of the film.

The close up of the Victorian silhouette pictures of Sweeney Todd and his wife helps the viewer to focus on the relationship of the two characters and to show why Todd did the things he did. The fact that they are drawn in blood helps to illustrate the destruction of the both characters from Sweeney's revenge. This also helps to emphasis the feelings of viewer towards Sweeney as they find out that he is not entirely to blame for his madness and accidentally killing his wife. This provides the viewer with a psychological problem as they understand why Todd did those things but he is condemned for it. The close up of Sweeney and his wife together at the opening further implies that everything was perfect until the judge came, this is symbolised with the pictures being painted in blood.

Sound

Sweeney Todd was originally written as a musical, so the director, Tim Burton, had to add to sounds to the music so to adapt it to Sweeney Todd. He managed this well, through the use of amplified diegetic sounds.  Deigetic sounds are sounds which source is visible on the screen such as voices of characters or in this case, sounds made by the objects in the film. Here it can be heard as lightning and creaking cogs.

The lightning is the first deigetic sound heard in the film, at first all you can hear is the musical introduction but when the lightning strikes it brings a sense of reality to the film. This way, it makes the viewer see the film not just as musical as it was always seen. In a way, the deigetic noises are part of Burton re-inventing the film for television.

The creaking cogs also add to this and also makes a more dramatic scene as it sets the viewer on edge. By doing this, the viewer expects something bad could happen at any time which helps to set the genre of horror. As they sounds are stereotypical of the horror genre and are used typically to build up suspense other horror movies.

Music

The well known original score, composed by Steven Sondheim, is heard through out the opening. However, the music is an instrumental version of the choral song that opens the musical. This helps to not distract from what is happening on the screen as that is what is mainly setting up for the film. Nevertheless the use techniques such as shrieking, high pitched violins and the contrasts between the brass section and flute solo, are used by Sondheim either set the genre or to reflect on parts of the film.

The use of the shrieking, high pitched violins is stereotypical of the horror genre, as it has been used in the famous shower scene in "Psycho". This helps the viewer to instantly identify which genre they are watching and enables them to know what to expect. For example the feelings of fear, alarm and suspense are often included into this sound, once the viewer hears this, they get the same emotional response and therefore get more involved with film.

Another technique heard in the use of the high pitched flute solo. The flute can be heard from a picture of Johanna’s mother, this shows the innocence of both the mother and the daughter as they are going through dark and unhappy times of Todd's revenge. This reflects parts of the film as it shows Johanna's innocence which helps to balance out the darker side of the film and helps the viewer to understand Johanna and the problems of her life. That then contrasts to the louder and stronger brass section which comes in afterwards. This represents the way that Sweeney Todd comes in and unintentionally invades their lives, with him killing Johanna's mother and almost killing Johanna. The aforementioned acts as foreshadowing to make the ending seem less of a shock.

Genre / Atmophere

Tone

The overall tone of this film and opening is that of something disturbing. The director, Tim Burton, achieves this by using symbols such as blood to reflect the horror genre and Sweeney's revenge. This also means that everything has a second or hidden meaning, making it even more sinister. For example the blood starts off with just little drops of blood amongst the rain which shows the way Todd builds up through the course of his revenge. From there the camera cuts to silhouette pictures of Sweeney Todd and his wife which are dripping blood, this symbolizes the way Todd's happiness with his wife is destroyed by the judge sending him to prison. The camera then follows a drop of blood running down Todd's barber chair on to cogs, then runs down the floorboards to form the title and then into the sewers. The amount of blood increases until the sewers are full of it and it runs out to sea. This symbolizes the way Todd gets more and more blood thirsty during the course of his revenge until he is killed.


Mood

The mood of the opening is that of anger and sadness which can be seen in the music and lighting. For example the use of the solo organ introduction gives the feeling of anger as it is loud and in a minor key. From there the sense of sadness is heard with the high innocent flute line This shows the overall sadness in Todd's life from being separated from his wife and daughter. It is also used to tie the opening sequence with the rest of the film as it is a reference of the plot. The use of lighting in the opening is dark, dull colours, even the blood which still stands out more compared to the others. This makes the mood more sad which increases the feeling of sadness.

Sweeney Todd

This film is about a barber called Benjamin Barker (aka Sweeney Todd), who was arrested on false charges due to the fact that the judge of  his trial had an obsession with Todd's wife. When Sweeney returns to London, he decides to take revenge on the judge and kill him. While practising killing others he has to find a way to hid the bodies so the woman that he is staying with (Mrs Lovett), suggests that they turn the bodies into pies. Sweeney Todd is a film fully about how taking revenge, the destruction of innocence and how it can take over your life and destroy it. This is proven at the end when Todd is killed.

This is the link to the film opening:
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=YIOX0LFZ

Film Opening Ideas

I have thought about which title sequence to study and I have decided to do Sweeney Todd. I like this opening sequence more than the others that I have watched, due to the fact that it sets the scene and uses techniques such as music and sound extremly well.

It starts off with a solo organ introduction, and then you see a pan of chimneys and then a close up through a window of a barber’s chair. From there it cuts to a painted silhouette of a young man and woman with blood running down from it. After that a drop of blood runs down the chair, through the chairs’ cogs and down a trapdoor to form the title. It then cuts to meat being pushed through a mince maker, which then turns into blood. Next you see flames and as the camera pulls back there are pies cooking in an oven, the camera pulls back more and then moves forward to follow a drop of blood down a sewer, which is full of bloody water.

I found that this fit into the rest of the movie well due to things such as the overall symbol of blood which is used consistently through the opening sequence, is carried through the rest of the movie. Another point is the way the colour is very dull and dark through the whole movie as well as the opening.

I found that this opening sequence was more interesting to study due to the fact that the music and sound techniques play a major part of the introduction which I find interesting. Another was the fact that its is also my favourite movie and I saw it live on stage, which I thought could provide a different view point since this was originally written for stage.