Evaluation 5 - Top Trumps skill development cards

Top Trumps Skill Development Cards

Codes and Conventions - 
When I first was introduced to codes and conventions of thrillers I was not completely sure I got the absolute right idea about what it is. When we did a mix of a phycological/film noire thriller I knew that film noire was in "low-key black and white style/visual" but other than that I didn't know what the other code and conventions were. By the end of the course having research of our sub genre films however, I knew that film noir not only that it is in "low-key black and white style/visual" it includes a murderer, silhouette, distorted images and that you would usually expect guns/pistols. At first I thought the credits order were random and didn't really matter what order it is. Although, that is not the case, we watched a film opening of various different movies (e.g. Se7en/Dexter), then as a class we identify what the order is.

Planning & Organisation - 
My first piece of work/task that I had to do was the 'One Minute film challenge'. We needed to make a 1minute film, either a remake of a movie or heist. We pared up into groups and then went straight to shooting the film without much planning, well we did have a brief storyboard of what we want but mostly it is just re make. We went out and we were having difficulties of how we should shoot each scenes and what props we needed and where we want to film it. So we left to our improvisation. With my most recent work, 'IDENT' even if there were difficulties we had a clear idea what we wanted, who we want to act for us, the places we would shoot at etc. The theme was Sci-fy thriller and therefore there was a lot of editing and photoshoping scenes and making them 3d, which my friend (George) and I learnt through looking up for tutorials on youtube on CGIs and how to make a HUD. we prepared all the digital scenes on our own time and learnt all these things on our own time way before the project is supposed to start. We research about our theme by using other Sci-fy thriller movies as inspiration, such as 'Ex Machina" and an Ps4 game trailer "Kara" also a game trailer called "Cyber Punk 2077" which we then involved all those ideas into our film opening concept.

Camera Work -
My personal hobby is photography and so therefore I am familiar with cameras and its settings, so I thought that it'll be about the same in how I think about my composition before I take the shot or to take importance of the lighting of my surroundings. I was pretty confident with my camera skills however, moving the camera whilst shooting has become a problem because the film turn out looking shaky. In some scenes then I try to use the tripod but in the end I wan't a fan of it at all. I like to hold the camera myself to be able to move it freely without limitations. So in the end I don't feel like there is any significant difference. Although I have learnt what different shots has a name and that each of them can help to portray to the audience what we want them to know. (e.g. two shot, reaction shot, close up etc.) 

Visual effects - 
At the beginning I knew nothing about photoshop, knew some basics of after effects and premiere but it was just knowing tools and what its purpose was. Through out the process of making 'IDENT' Sci-fy thriller, I had learnt how to use photoshop easily with the help of my team mate that knew a lot about photoshop already (George). The scene in IDENT where there are empty corridor and city scene are painted by George and I. We spent a lot of time on our own experimenting before we were able to do what we had aimed to do. The eye HUD that I made was also from a tutorial on youtube it shows me steps to how to make a "cyborg" eye using multiple layers and playing around with the tools. Then using Moca AE to motion track the eye, however I don't know why but it didn't seem to work at the time so instead I did it manually. Going frame by frame change the position of the HUD to fit my protagonist eye.

Editing - 
Editing is a very tiring and most of the time frustrating when there is technical difficulties and such and such. I was pretty satisfied with my first project that I edited, one minute film challenge where I had a pretty good continuity to my shots, the scene where Snow White is given the poison apple and ate it. However, in some scene such as when the witch came into the frame the shots were not the same and therefore when I put the transition edit to it, it makes the footage move and seems like she glitch. Same goes with my psychological/noir thriller which has the same problem as "Mirror Mirror" my one minute film challenge. "IDENT", however didn't have this I have learnt to make my editing smoother and without a lot of distortion if not needed. You can tell it is more stable as in the shots are all clear and not fuzzy. The continuity is still present when the protagonist falls and hits the ground there are two different views, from behind and on the side. There are also the part where she wakes up and then walks out and to the lift where she calls for it. There were many shots from different angels of the scenes and to make it all fit together that she was going downstairs.   

Creative confidence - thinking of interesting ideas and making them happen.
In our first few projects I spoke my ideas and thoughts so I was confident to a certain extend about what I'd like to do. Although I didn't really think out of the box and stuck with whatever that is given to me and did what as a group we decided on so that it is safe and we would get grades for it. Furthermore keeping things simple enough so that we don't work ourselves to hard and especially on myself since I usually do the editing and most of the camera work. Those two things certainly takes up a lot of my free time that I had. In my last project my friend showed me this video of "Kara" a Ps4 game trailer, at that point we had a couple of ideas in mind and planned already but once I saw the video I was really excited about it and on the spot I felt that I wanted to try to do animation/CGI something along those line. I immediately told my friend that can we drop all the other ideas and do this? I really wanted to try and learn how to animate and just figuring out how the professional did it in general. So we did some research of different Sci-fy thrillers and their "codes and conventions" so we knew roughly what we should put in so that the audience see it as a Sci-fy thriller not just a thriller. We mixed different ideas from each of the different movies/media and put it together (Ex Machina, Kara, Cyber Punk 2077). This is very ambitious of me that I suggest we should do it, because when I said that my friend thought I was joking and when he learned that I wasn't joking he was even more startled. I knew it was because if we didn't succeed it would be risky for us to start on a new project in the middle of the way or even worst near the end. Therefore we needed to plan carefully and well so that our plans are solid and we knew exactly what to do.