The Making of Our Version of Reservoir Dogs-Planning

Our task was to recreate the opening scene to the film Reservoir Dogs, we were put into 2 groups, one of just boys and one of us girls. Then between us we all made the decisions on what characters we were and how was were going to achieve this task.

Here is the clip from the film Reservoir Dogs which we were copying:

To achieve this piece of filming to a high standard we had to assign roles to each other in the group. There was a director which was Jess Marshall, Jemma was organizer and made sure that everyone had a role and we all knew what we were doing. Grace looked at the clothing and wrote down what each character from the scene wore so that we could copy it. Lucy was the cameraman and filmed the whole thing. Lauren looked at location and where we could film each scene where it would look closest to the film as possible. Me and Rosy did the story boards, most of which was Rosy’s handy work as she took the story boards home and worked on them. Robyn and Kate helped with costumes and props, as when we watched the clip we wrote down as many props as we could notice which we would include in our version.

We had 3 lessons to plan our filming, which meant we had to focus and keep motivated to the task. In each hour of lesson we talked about what we needed to do when filming, practiced our walks and watched the clip endlessly to get down every piece of detail we could. We examined the positions and order of the characters, their clothes, hair, wrinkles, what was on the table in the diner etc.

Each character in the film had a specific ‘look’, my character for example was Joe who is a big old guy, He wore a brown top and grey trousers and he had quite big bags under his eyes. From this we all decided as a group that we would go for pencil skirts instead of trousers because we are an all girl group so we thought we should enhance it. I borrowed Graces grey pencil skirt and my mums turtle neck brown top. For the wrinkles, Robyn used an eyebrow pencil and drew bags under my eyes, lines near my mouth and between my eyebrows and lines at the corners of my eyes. I also stuffed a couple of hoodies up my top as my character is fat.

We are marked on our skills on how close to the film we can get it so we need to pay particular attention to what each character does and how they do it. We wanted it to be obvious which characters we were.

Techtalk: Camera Movement

A crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane. The most obvious uses are to view and film the actors from above or to move up and away from them.

A Tracking shot is when the camera is mounted on a wheeled platform pushed on rails, it is also known as a dolly shot.

A Panning shot is a shot where the word panning refers to the rotation in a horizontal motion. Panning a camera is like the same motion to someone shaking their head from side to side.

The Tilt shot is similar to the pan shot, however it moves vertically instead of horizontally. This shot can be done either hand held or with a camera tripod.

A Camera Zoom is where the focal length of the lens is altered to be closer or further away. When this is used in film making it gives the illusion that the object is getting closer or going further away.

A Crash Zoom is an extremely fast zoom in, it is widely used in horror films as its good for editing shots to make them more dramatic and speeded. The Crash Zoom in this clip is at 2:00.

A Dutch Tilt is when the camera is tilted to one side when filming to create variation from filming horizontally or vertically. It is best used when filming drunk people or injured people. It makes the shot look more attractive and interesting to the human eye.

A Handheld shot is a technique where the camera is held in the camera mans hand instead of a tripod. The allow a greater freedom of motion whilst filming and more can be captured though the shot.

A Steadicam is a brand of camera which allows for a smooth shot and is used instead of a handheld camera or a dolly track, this is because it absorbs bumps or shakiness from the camera operator or the floor.

Re making our Video

Thomas, Ben and I decided that we would re make our Preliminary exercise video, therefore, we stayed after school, used the really good camera and got to work in having another go at our video. An advantage of us filming after school meant that we got the pick of pretty much any classroom we wanted to film in. We picked room 18 because it was most suited to our storyboard.

We altered our story just a tad, by making Ben’s character quite creepy as if he knows that the world is ending, we included some creepy laughing from him and ditched the cup cam as it was too obvious that there was nothing in it when Ben was drinking.

After an hour of trying to get all our shots done and include a good match on action, we packed up and finished. We now have to put it all together on the macs so I’ll make sure it goes up when its all done and dusted.

I also think it would be a good idea to put our other one on as well because it will show how we’ve altered it, made it better and learned from our mistakes.

Here is the new video which Ben uploaded to youtube, hope you like it better than the other one!!!:

First Impressions of Filming

Today my group and I began filming the shots for our preliminary Exercise. We encountered several difficulties whilst filming such as starting filming in one room and then the room have a class in when we needed to film again. To over come this, luckily we had only taken two small shots when we first started as the lesson ended, so we just started fresh in the free room in the next lesson and had a whole hour. Another problem was constantly using the 180 degree rule, it just made us have to be more careful when filming different shots.

We decided to film our task in the hall as it matched the room fairly well that we drew in our storyboard. We also used props in our shots such as a mug and attempted to use shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action. Overall it went fairly well and we managed to over come most of the problems that faced us.

We used a hand held camera with a screen aside it, and we attached it to the tripod which helped us have smooth movements in shots. We also included a handheld shot where I carried the camera across the room whilst filming to accentuate someone shakily watching the scene going on infront of them.

I was in charge of the camera for this exercise so that Ben and Thomas could act. This meant that I had to be really careful when filming shots to make sure I was including them in the shot if it was an over the shoulder shot for example.

I also learned how to get that hang of using the microphone to pick up speech as its clearer than the camera. Luckily I had brought my earphones so I could listen to make sure it was picking up sound. This does mean that when we eventually put all the shots together we need to lay the sound recording over the top. I have no idea how difficult it will be to put the sound recording over the top of the video recording, but it will definitely be a learning curve for me.

Overall i think the whole exercise went pretty well as Thomas and Ben took GCSE Media so they were there to help and educate me at the same time as doing the task. Obviously it wont be a perfect video but I believe I have made a good start to filming and understanding camera work.

Shotlist

We had to create a shotlist of the camera angles we were going to use in our task, this is what we came up with:

Mid shot Looking out from door window as Thomas walks into frame

Wide shot Looking at door from inside room as Thomas opens the door

Wide shot Opposite direction to previous shot. Establishes the room and introduces Ben sitting down at the table.

Wide shot over the shoulder as Thomas looks at Ben

Wide shot of room, Thomas slams the desk

Mid Shot Thomas closes the door

Mid Shot Thomas: “What are you sitting here for?”

Mid shot close up of Ben turning round to look at Thomas

Mid shot of Ben: “Just having a cup of tea.”

Mid shot over the shoulder Thomas: “Haven’t you seen what’s going on?”

Wide shot ‘Coffee’s POV’ Thomas: “It’s Armageddon.”

Close up of Thomas’ face Thomas: You idiot. People are dyeing outside.”

Mid shot over the shoulder Ben: “No I’ve been here all lunch.”

Mid shot tracks Thomas as he stands up

Close up Ben: “I had no idea why haven’t I heard about this?”

Wide shot from outside the room looking through window, ‘shaky/handheld’ Thomas walks down and sits in seat