Upcoming movies – ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ (2016)

Recently the trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996), was released.  The movie is directed by Roland Emmerich and set to be released in June 2016, 20 years after the first movie, also directed by Emmerich.  The film is set around yet another attempted alien invasion of Earth, but this time the Earth is better prepared.  Humans have used recovered alien technology from the first invasion (shown in the first movie) to upgrade their weaponry and create a defence network around the planet.  This technology can be seen in the trailer in the form of upgraded fighter jets and other various turrets and weapons.

Jeff Goldblum returns as David Levinson from the first movie and is joined by Liam Hemsworth who plays Jake Morrison.  However, Will Smith’s character, Captain Steven “Steve” Hiller of the USMC, is not present in the trailer or in the movie at all.  20th Century Fox provided a reason and a backstory for his absence to put fans minds at ease, claiming that Hiller was killed in 2007 whilst test flying and jet with alien technology and it went wrong.

Now this movie looks like its not going to be too bad, but I’m not super excited about it.  In my opinion it should’t have been made and Emmerich should have just left the idea alone after making the first Independence Day; it should have been left as a stand alone movie and not turned into a series.  I don’t think the film will be bad and I will probably watch it at some point, but probably not in the cinema, I just think that the whole alien invasion idea can be a bit over done and ruined if not careful.  However there is one element of the trailer that I do like, and that is how the famous speech from the first movie, about how the 4th of July will be known as the world’s Independence day, can be heard in the background.  I like this as it is a reference to the first movie, although I don’t think that too many references to the first film should be included as it will most likely ruin it; if references are included they should be subtle.

Coursework project: Filming

On Monday Patrick, Tom, Charles and I traveled to Patrick’s grandparent’s farm, the Moat Farm that gives its name to our film.  There we spend the majority of the day filming and managed to get all of our intended and planned shots filmed, plus a few more, so we have plenty of footage to use when it comes to editing.

The first thing we did was take photos of our two actors, Olly and Lewis, looking at the scrapbook on the bed so we had a photo to stick in at the end of the scrapbook.  It took quite a while messing about with the lighting and the ISO settings of the camera to create the shadow that we wanted by the doorway where our killer would be standing.  We couldn’t get it quite how we wanted but we discovered that we could just darken the photo to emphasise the shadows on the laptop before we printed it.  Of course, typically, we came up against another problem when the printer ran out of ink and we had to spend a short while trying to figure out how to change the ink cartridges.  But after we sorted it everything went rather smoothly and we didn’t have many other problems.

After taking the photo of the boys and printing it, we decided to get all the outdoor shots done and out of the way before the light started to go.  We encountered a slight problem there as when we were trying to film the shots of the farm sign we couldn’t get the camera at a suitable height on the tripod.  So we had to prop it up on a bin, but that wasn’t particularly stable due to how windy it was.  However, we managed to work together to stabilise the camera as best we could and get the shots we needed, and any shots that are a bit wobbly we can stabilise post production in editing.

Once we had taken all the exterior shots of the farm house we went inside to film the rest of the shots that were needed, which thankfully were all inside the far house where it was warm and out of the wind.  Then we got on with filming the rest of the shots and managed to do so without any problems.  We filmed all the shots we had planned to film and also filmed some extra shots so we had filler footage if it was needed; we filmed shots of a clock and also out of the bedroom window, as well as some footage taken on Tom’s phone from inside a drawer when one of the boys opened it just as an experiment.

We purposely decided to break the 180° rule at times when the boys are running through the house up to the bedroom as we wanted it to be a bit disorientating.  This also made it a bit easier for us when filming because of parts of the house and where there was space to film properly and get good shots.

All in all it was a very successful day of filming and we don’t think we are going to have to return to film any more footage as we are all very happy with what we’ve got.

Upcoming movies – ‘Hateful Eight’ (2016)

Hateful Eight is ironically set to be the eighth movie by the infamous and insanely talented Quentin Tarantino, and I cannot wait to see it when it is released in January 2016!  The film is set in the West of America in a harsh winter not long after the end of the Civil War, when the country is at its most divided.  It follows a group of 8 people, the eponymous Hateful Eight, who are trapped in a stagecoach stopover in a mountain pass during a harsh blizzard.  However the 8 are all very bad, all hate each other, and all have guns.

I am really looking forward to this movie as I am a huge fan of Tarantino and his work, but also because it just looks like its going to be an amazing film!  At one point it wasn’t going ahead because someone leaked the script and Tarantino refused to make it after that, but after a reading of the script everyone involved was blown away by the plot and convinced him to make it.

I really like the whole idea of the plot and how it all seems to mainly  be set in one location, the stagecoach stopover, with intermittent flashbacks and scenes to show who all the characters are and how they all got there; it is very reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s first movie, with a tremendous sense of cabin fever and tension.

I also really like the era in which the movie is set, just after the American Civil War, and how it is a Western but not in the traditional sense; the movie seems to be set in a more Northern location and in  a harsh winter, as opposed to deserts and the stereotypical ‘Wild-West’.

Coursework project: Ready to go!

Tomorrow we are planning to go out and film all the footage for our two minute film introduction at Patrick’s grandparent’s farm.  Tom has got all the equipment, such as the camera, tripod, lights, microphone, headphones, boom pole, laptop and clapperboard ready to go, and I will be bringing the scrapbook prop and SD card, as well as the storyboard.

We weren’t able to procure a boom pole for our microphone as there weren’t any spare ones, so Tom had to improvise and make his own; he made it out of a telescopic cleaning pole, and it holds the microphone and recorder securely.

After toiling away and completing the whole Pre-Productions process, I look forward to moving on to the Production process and actually filming our coursework piece after so much planning and research.

Coursework project: Digital storyboard – Patrick’s work

Over the past few lessons Patrick has been working hard to create a digital/cartoon storyboard for our two minute movie opening on the website Storyboard That:

We wanted to have a storyboard like this as well as a hand drawn one so we had a variation and also to give us a slightly more accurate one, as my drawings weren’t the best; a digital one is slightly clearer and easier to understand.

Coursework project: Finished scrapbook

I finished adding the pictures to our scrapbook that we are going to use as our main prop in our two minutes film opening.  We had already added the main pictures of the medieval drawings/photos and I added the photos of the two boys, Tom’s nephew and his friend, who are going to be acting in our piece.  We decided that we wanted a photo of the two boys together at the start of the scrapbook and then we had already decided that we wanted the boys faces stuck on to the main pictures in the book; I crudely cut out their faces and stuck them over the top of the faces in the pictures.
  
  

I have left the last page blank because that is where we are going to stick the photo of the two boys looking at the scrapbook when we start filming.

Coursework project: Shooting script

Over the past few weeks within the group we have been writing a shooting script to go with our storyboards.  This tells us what shots we are going to shoot and the rough length of each one.  We left the audio column empty apart from the dialogue, of which there isn’t much as it is a relatively silent piece in terms of audio; we plan to use more diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.

Upcoming movies – ‘X-Men Apocalypse’ (2016)

Last week the official trailer for the upcoming movie in the Marvel Comics X-Men franchise, X-Men Apocalypse, was released, and I have to say it looks pretty darn good!  The movie, directed by Brian Singer (X-Men, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Valkyrie) is set to be released in May 2016.  It apparently follows Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) who must lead a team of fellow mutants, the young X-Men, to stop the immortal and legendary mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) and his Four Horsemen from destroying mankind.

This is yet another superhero movie being released next year, so I’m sure all the super hero and comic book movie haters rolled their eyes when they saw the this trailer had been released.  But I for one am looking forward to it, partly because I am not a hater of the super hero and comic genre, but also because it does look like a genuinely goof movie!  From the trailer we see the iconic team of X-Men that we are introduced to in the original 3 X-Men movies, but as teenagers/young adults who are just getting to know and understand the extent of their powers under the watchful eye of Professor X.  Some of these are clearly characters such as the young Jean Grey, played by Sophie Turner who plays Sansa Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones, and also Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and Jubilee (Lana Condor).  Characters such as Magneto (Michaels Fassbender), Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) can also be seen, with Magneto appearing to be one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen.  Also, rather excitingly, the final shot of the trailer is a bald Charles Xavier in his wheel chair, in what appears to be the X-Men base under Xavier’s mansion; this  indicates that James McCoy’s character is slowly becoming like the older version of the Professor played by Sir Patrick Stewart in the original X-Men movies.

Needless to say I am very excited for this, but along with movies such as Captain America: Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Deadpool and Suicide Squad, we are going to be very spoiled for choice with comic book movies next year!

Coursework project: Music research

Last week Charles and I did research into various different sound clips of suspense and mystery music to try and find out what kind of music we want to use in our coursework piece.  We mainly looked at Soundcloud as that was the website that seemed to have the biggest library and also was a website that wasn’t blocked on the school system.  Both Patrick and Tom, neither of whom were present when Charles and I were doing the research, listened to all the music links that we gathered and highlighted the ones that they liked and didn’t like.

From here, now we have decided which sound clips we preferred, we can start to decided where in the piece we want the music to be and what music we will actually use, but this will be more key when it comes to editing after Christmas when we have filmed.

Coursework project: Camera settings and Adjustments – Tom’s work

As part of preparation for filming Tom, who is providing the camera, decided to look at the camera and the different settings that it has so that we will be more confident and we will know how to use the camera properly when actually filming our two minute film opening.  Tom looked at the 3 main manual settings of the camera, which are the ISO, the shutter speed and the aperture.

ISO
Tom first looked at the ISO settings. The ISO setting changes the camera’s sensitivity to light, therefore allowing more light to hit the sensor, or less, depending on the circumstances. This can be used along with the shutter speed, to change the amount of light let into the camera over a certain period of time, and can completely change how the footage looks.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed changes the number of times the shutter opens and closes per second, to let the light into the camera, and onto the sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the more light let into the camera over a certain period of time, and the crisper the footage looks. This can sometimes look less professional as using a fast shutter speed looks unnatural compared with the view from the human eye. When recording, the shutter speed should be about twice the FPS of the film, therefore if you are recording at 24FPS, the shutter speed should be around 1/50th of a second.

Aperture
The aperture changes the size of the hole, at the front of the camera, that lets the light into the camera. Changing this setting changes the exposure of the video. The higher the aperture, the more light is let into the camera. The lower the aperture, the less light let into the camera. This can be a useful setting to change if filming in an area of low light or high intensity light. This allows for better control of the light in the shot, and makes lighting the scene not so much of a problem, as the aperture can be adjusted to compensate.