Practice shots and inspiration

I watched the film ‘Taxi Driver’ and found the final scene in the film very interesting. There are two main techniques used. One was a fade to black to show different areas of the character’s life, and the other is a birds eye view pan.

The clip below is the scene from Taxi Driver.

Taxi driver – End scene

I decided to try and replicate this scene, however, I don’t have the equipment that Taxi Driver had and so I have had to try and replicate it, with equipment such as a monopod, canon 600d and standard 18-55mm lens, which are all pictured below.

Below is my own version of the ‘Taxi Driver’ end scene. I created height by standing on a large object and used the monopod to remain steady and create a smooth panning shot.

I used iMovie in order to edit this clip, I cropped out the beginning and end of the clip, as these were a bit shaky. I then split the clip in multiple sections and cropped out small sections of the clip to give a distorted shot.

I like this idea, as the use of the black fades can help make the panning shot look much smoother and consistent. This will make my film look more professional, while adding a more aesthetically pleasing view to the film, while also helping me when physically filming the sequence.

My final practice inspiration shot can be seen below.

My ‘Taxi Driver’ practice sequence

Music

I have had a thought, but it may not work..

My film is based on juxtapositions and so I feel it would only be appropriate to mimic this in all aspects of the film – including the music.

I have already decided that I want the Beach Boys ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’ to be incorporated in my film, this will probably be through the flashback scene and at the end. I love the juxtaposition of the music contrasting with the circumstances of the environment. In the case of the beach boys, the ending suicide would be the contrast against the jolly music.

The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t it be nice

However, I am also debating whether or not to include ‘Mr. Sandman’ by The Chordettes, right at the beginning of the film. This will introduce the characters, while making the scene look more sinister, due to the juxtaposition. The words within the song also contrast against the scene will also add to the chilling truth of the situation, words include ‘send me a dream’- making the audience question whether or not the murdered mother is sleeping or dead. This means that when the audience find out the truth, the visual along with the song will make for a spine-chilling moment.

Mr Sandman – The Chordettes

Practice shots and inspiration

A while back, when analysing the film ‘frenzy’, I had noticed a very interesting shot that showed a tracking shot going down some stairs. This shot was extremely effective as it portrayed the murder very well. However, I was intrigued to see whether or not I could replicate the shot. The shot is midway through the film, there is a famous continuous shot in which the camera backs away from the door of Rusk’s upper-floor apartment and descends the staircase, seemingly without a cut, to the ground level, out the building’s front door, and then to the opposite side of the street. The interiors were shot with an overhead track in a studio, and there is an imperceptible cut as a man passes by the front door, carrying a sack of potatoes. This is subtly blended into a new shot of the camera pulling away from the building exterior that was actually used on location.

The famous Frenzy tracking shot

But first, I wanted to find out how Hitchcock created this incredible shot, and if it was simple enough to re-create it myself. I found the following article interesting when I was researching the shot.

Obviously, I will not have the space, time or budget to fully recreate this shot, especially with technical equipment such as Jibs and Dollys. I began to think of alternative ways to film this shot and made a few attempts, trying different techniques.

The technique shown below is my preferred choice, and while the camera may be slightly unstable, I can fix this in the editing process during the final edit for my film. Here, I simply used a monopod, canon 600d body and the standard 18-55mm lens, which are all pictured below. I recorded the shot moving forwards, and then reversed it in iMovie. Here, I also found there was a lot of background noise and the sequence was too fast. I fixed this by muting the entire clip, reversing it and slowing down the play time.

Overall, this was just a small experiment to see how certain shots would look and I began testing my editing skills in iMovie. If i were to include this shot in my film, which I am planning to, I would like to take more time doing the shot to insure that it is steadier and I don’t move too fast when recording. This should make the final edit much easier.

My practice sequence of Frenzy

Equipment list

I will need a variety of equipment in order to create my short film. I think that in order to create the most aesthetically pleasing film possible, I may need to invest in some other equipment. However, my current equipment list is as follows.

Canon 600D DSLR

Standard canon lens (18-55mm lens)

Canon 50mm lens

Shoulder mount

Tripod

Monopod

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

What I want to get done this week…

Location Scouting! I have some ideas in my mind of what I want things to look like, it’s just a case of finding the right set

FIND MY ACTORS  Again, I know what I want them to look like, but it’s very difficult finding that one person that ticks all of the boxes. With a little bit of hunting, I hope that I will find someone this week! However, the mother is slightly more difficult to find. This is only due to the fact that there aren’t many mum-aged actresses out there, and I certainly don’t know any! I could ask my own mum, or someone I know, but this may not make the film look very professional- a feature I definitely want to have.

 

Hopefully I will come up with a resolution by the end of the week!

Shot sketches of my film

Here are my hand drawn sketches of my film, going through every scene.

Another script adjustment

I made another script change. I did this because I felt that the ending was too vague and that there was no urgency with just the one zombie, this contradicted the urgency that I was trying to create using all of my film techniques and codes.

I got the visual idea from Shaun of the dead, another zombie movie, but taking inspiration from their promotional movie poster. I felt that having the group of zombies, as opposed to having a single zombie, would give the audience a larger sense of realisation, something that I am aiming for from the beginning of the film.

I may have other ideas or edits for my script, I will put all improvements to my script on here, and when I am happy and I have had my script proof read by multiple people, I will upload a finalised copy of my script. Then to start shooting!

Slight updates to my script

Once reading over my script multiple times, I realised that there may be some large plot holes in my narrative. I went back into the script and included a flashback scene. This shows the reasons behind the ‘murder’ of the mother, but it will also change the audience’s perception of the main character, who they once thought was a villian, is now a hero. I put this at the end of the script so the audience’s views and beliefs would be challenged and there would be a sudden realisation of why the girl did what she did.

Below I have marked the change to my script. I think this change will pull together any loose strings in my narrative plot, pulling the film fully together at the end.