Production Log #1: Team Roles

Captain America: The Winter Soldier OTS Deconstruction (Comparison) (Draft)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a Action, Sci-Fi Film about the Comic Book character, Captain America. Here is the OTS:


This too also includes the main features of an OTS: Credits of cast and crew, in this one the director comes first like in most OTSs whereas in the Watchmen OTS, the director comes last.

Neo Noir - A Genre (Draft)

Neo Noir is practically the same as Film Noir but the main differences are that the themes, settings, visual elements, props are all updated to the modern day. The main principles are still there:

• Main Protagonist is a detective or police officer or an Anti-Hero, does good but not in the law's good books.
• Main Antagonist is a drug dealer, black market arms dealer, anything related to illegal activity to contrast with detective/police.
• Femme Fatale, is a very beautiful sexual woman normally used by the Antagonist or for herself to lure the protagonist and break him down using love and lust.

These are all updated like a more modern style of dress, modern guns, modern settings. It started to happen with directors in the 1970s when they felt like the genre would appeal to audiences more if they made it more believable by updating to the current generation.

Watchmen OTS Deconstruction

Watchmen is a Mystery, Neo-Noir, Comic Book movie. It follows many typical conventions of the Film Noir genre but also adds new ones as this incorporates politics and superheroes. Here is the OTS:


This OTS follows an alternative timeline of American history, where superheroes are a part of everyday life. It incorporates many conventions of an Opening Title Sequence such as credits of the cast and crew, Footage, giving the audience a brief understanding of the film without spoiling any of the film. Every mini-scene, has very smooth camera movement because its all in slow-motion. They follow the lives of superheroes, past ones and the heroes that are the main characters of the film. Each one almost has its own story behind it and they're very understandable as it shows very iconic scenes in American history such as the assassination of J.F.K but then each one has its own twist such as one of the superheroes were responsible for the killing. This is relatable because at the time there were conspiracies going around that the CIA hired someone to assassinate J.F.K. Each scene lets the audience know what period of time. Such as when a TV is playing news, it is about the Vietnam War you know its around 1965 - 1968.

Influences on my own ideas:

• The audience easily pick out different characters through the use of visual semiotics - The use of masks and capes, guns, suitable clothing to their profession.
• I am interested in the way the titles are positioned and angled to look like they're physically interacting with the environment of the shot
• I like the way attention is drawn to key characters by use of depth of field/pull focus / colour and other characters pointing

  

  Example of, a) How the titles interact with the background - shadows, depth of field
  b) How other characters have a different depth of field to  
  others, and how pointing focuses our attention.

• The references of iconic scenes from global events e.g. nurse and soldier kiss, J.F.K assassination

In my Opening Title Sequence I intend to have titles positioned in such a way that it looks like they're interacting with the background. This'll thicken the texture of the OTS, hopefully immersing the audience much more than just plain straight text over the top of the clips. I also want to use props to help the audience know what the time period is or what the current situation is, like a TV or a Newspaper, also positioning the actors in a way that emphasises who the audience should be focusing on most like have some actors looking in the direction of the main characters or directly at them. Using colour to emphasise key objects or characters is another way of drawing audiences focus and increasing their immersion.

Film Noir Photoshoot

We were assigned to create a Film Noir style photo-shoot based on a children's film. We chose to do Harry Potter but unfortunately it turned into a normal Film Noir shoot. After taking the photos using proper studio lighting and also natural outdoor lighting, Me and Aidan got working on the editing process. Here are the finished products:

1. I tried to give the illusion that Aidan that was going into the wall so I darkened the entire picture so his jacket merged with the wall. I then photoshopped a cigarette into his hands as we posed his hands to look like he was.
2. Using studio lighting we managed to create a good shot with lots of shadows but the lighting brought it out enough to be able to tell what it is. I then cut the background out and replaced it with a scenic city background.
3. This is my favourite edit because the angle at which it was taken gives the subject a sense of power over the viewer as it simulates the viewer as the person who's about to be shot. Also I made the background of the shot look very cartoon like. I made it very obscure by using Photoshop to make it look like he has chunks flying off of him. This highlights the fact that he is like a shadow, very mysterious.

Continuity Task

Adam, Aidan and I grouped together to make a Continuity Task. The brief that was given to us was that it needs to show someone walking up to and going into a door, sitting down and exchanging dialogue with another person already in the room. We accomplished the task and met the brief. Here it is:

We achieved continuity by counting my steps, remembering where i was positioned on the stairs, and remembering which foot i started on. By looking back at footage we already filmed we could see where my feet were so continuity was present in the raw footage as well as fixing a few bits in the editing process. We only used one camera so we couldn't use the 180 degree rule.

The 180 degree rule is a basic rule of filmmaking which regards the on-screen relationship between two objects or people in a scene. The cameras can't be on opposite sides of the two objects in question. They must be on the same side of an imaginary line going through the center of the two objects to make sure you can't see the other camera.