Year 11 Term 4 - Production

A few days before the shoot, we had to make plans. I, as the cinematographer and editor had to come up with a floor plan. Due to a lack of actors, we decided to shoot the scene where Taylor examines his sister's bedroom first.

The final floor plan for the sister's bedroom scene.

We ended up not following our initial shooting plan at all, and instead based our shoots on availability of actors/actresses since they all had different schedules. We also did not use a shooting script as we were able to memorise how each scene would have played out, and it also allowed us to have more room to improvise each scene on set. However, we did not use slates nor a shot list to sort good takes and bad takes (which in hindsight was a bad idea). Usually though, we would end up choosing the last take. As the editor, there was not much planning I could do other than discussions with the director to ensure the flow of the scenes.

When the day of the shoot came, we arrived on the set, a friend's house, somewhat early in the morning and began setting up the equipment which consisted of one LED light, a tripod and camera (Canon EOS Rebel T6i) , and a boom mic. My principal role in this film is as a cinematographer, and I decided to shoot in 720p at 60fps because based on the resolution of the computers and projectors at school, I didn't think 1080p would have made much of a difference, and 60fps would have given more headroom for things like slow-motion in editing. I already considered converting the framerate to 24fps in post. I also set most of the camera settings to auto to make it easier to do tricky shots. I had a 64GB SD card to store a maximal amount of footage.

The first problem we encountered was that our main and only actor for the scene arrived late since he got lost. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do much until he came. When our actor finally arrived, the director re-briefed him on the scene, and I was given more specific instructions on how to film the scene. It starts with the camera looking at door, until Taylor walks in and we both had to walk straight past each other, camera focusing on him and finally, the camera would look inside the room, towards the wardrobe, from outside of the door. The tricky parts were keeping Taylor's face in frame while having to move past right next to him, moving the camera still attached to the tripod, and landing it smoothly outside, all while keeping the image stable. I tried my best to keep the footage as stable as possible, and it turned out to be good enough, if not we hoped to optimise it a bit more in post. 

The "sister's" bedroom, this shot is roughly where the camera should be upon landing.

The reason why we had to attach the tripod while moving was because the director wanted the next part of the scene to consist of jump cuts of Taylor examining different parts of the room, with the camera in the same exact position. The plan for this was to shoot one long take and cut on the action in post. In addition, the position of the LED light was thought up of during the shoot, after a few takes because the lighting was too dark. We actually did not consider using an LED light for this scene.

I started an assemble edit to see if the shots worked or not. Unfortunately, the camera moved a tiny bit between takes and thus the jump cuts weren't as seamless as we had hoped, and we plan on doing a reshoot. However, I applied a stabiliser effect to the moving scene and it looked much smoother without sacrificing the natural look too much.

One noteworthy scene in a later shoot we did involved Taylor walking down a hallway and meeting his friend who's looking at a baby picture of him. We had to cheat the shot because it was not actually a hallway, but a wall. 

Taylor walking down the "hall" (from camera left to right)

The actual "hall", perpendicular to where Taylor walks in the scene.

For this scene we used two LEDs in addition to ceiling lights as fill lights to make the scene look more natural. While we planned to reshoot this scene due to a lack of continuity, we may not use it at all because it is too long to fit in the film and the film flows well without it either.

About half of the scenes we shot were handheld, the other half were tripod-held. Of those shots that were handheld, half of them required me to walk. The other half were shot in handheld to increase tension and more precise control over the tracking.

Other noteworthy shots we did were of the father. In two different scenes, we shot him from a low angle to increase tension as well as show that he has a dominant power. One is a shot of him hitting Taylor as a child while the other is of him seeing Taylor holding a doll in the present day. 

Taylor's father hitting him as a child

Taylor's father seeing him holding a doll.

Since the scene where Taylor is being hit is a flashback, we gave it a different hue from the rest of the film. The whole flashback scene was given a blueish tint in post to show that it is disconnected from the present, and is an emotional moment for Taylor. Conveniently, the lighting in the room was already somewhat blue in real life, and we used yellow lighting on the LEDs for every other scene. 

During the flashback scene, Taylor walks into his parents' bedroom and sees a vision of him as a child. In this scene, the camera moves towards young Taylor's head and fades to black and transitions to a first person view of the father hitting him. While shooting this scene, when the belt hits the floor in front of the camera, I flick the camera upwards or backwards a bit to symbolise the impact.

Then there's the scene where Taylor finds the dress in the wardrobe in his bedroom. We wanted to show this from multiple angles, one of which is from inside the wardrobe. Luckily I managed to fit inside to hold the camera.

Taylor grabbing the dress as seen from the wardrobe.

We didn't light up his face from inside the wardrobe to make it look more natural, but we later realised we should have used a bit of lighting just to make his face more visible because in the final take it ended up being pitch black.

The last scene we shot also happened to be the first scene in the film; the scene where we see Taylor's friends surprising him for his birthday. This scene became vastly different from what we planned and was heavily improvised. In addition, the shooting took place in a different house, however the continuity still worked. 

The scene, and therefore the whole film, starts with Taylor opening the front door and his friends come marching loudly in. However, the twist is we shot it from a low angle, only showing the characters' feet. While it was originally done due to a logistical and continuity problem with Taylor's shirt, we realised that it also acted as a great hook. By not showing who the characters are at first, it makes the audience curious as to what they will look like. In addition, it also makes the scene more relatable for the audience, giving it a sort of "day in a life" feeling. 

Taylor opens the door only for his friends to just burst in.

We think that this scene works perfectly with the rest of the film. We wanted to show Taylor as a manly but emotionless character, so it fits that his friends are all stereotypical, loud boys who talk about girls and make fun of each other. So, while they are doing all that, Taylor just sits there awkwardly and tries to laugh along. It can also be seen that Taylor doesn't exactly follow his friends' views of fun, as he gets surprised when they supposedly sneaked into his house without him knowing, and questioning the idea of a "treasure hunt" in his own house. This whole scene then contrasts with the rest of the film, being lighthearted and relatable, while everything else is deep and emotional.

In total, we have currently 116 clips before any re-shooting.

Year 11 Term 4 - Short Film Pre-Production

In the beginning of Semester 2, specifically this February, we began our short film project. Since I am in SL, I only need to make a film up to 5 minutes long. We also needed choose our roles, so I chose to be a cinematographer to improve my skills with a camera, as well as an editor. After that, we took the first step in making this film; pre-production.

Brainstorming
We started pre-production by brainstorming ideas for what we were going to make. Our initial concept was making a romantic comedy, but with a twist; the characters would've been IB students. Since the IB programme is often teased by its students, we considered making use of that humour in our film. We considered making the programme an obstacle for the couple from getting closer due to its difficult nature.

In the end we decided to make a film exploring issues within society. We continued with the romantic comedy genre, and decided to make a film about online dating and fake identities, because we thought it would've been simpler. The idea was that in the end of the film, the protagonist (who would've been male) meets his online 'girlfriend' which is revealed to be a creepy old man. While we were exploring the romance/romantic comedy genre, I imagined the film to have a warm, yellow look and lighting, which would've been added in post-production. However, we thought that making a romance would've been difficult.

Finally, we decided to make a drama film and base it around a boy who secretly wishes to be a girl. The inspiration for this came from a certain classmate who dressed up as a girl as a joke. We also thought it would've inspired people around our age to find their own identity. The story basically goes that a quiet, emotionless boy, whom we decided to name Taylor, just turned 17, and is holding a birthday party at his house. At the end of the party, Taylor's friend, Derek, hides a gift in the house and tells him to go find it. As Taylor explores, his house, he finds different things which bring back bad memories. In the end, he finds the gift in the closet in his bedroom; a girly dress. Thus, we decided to name this film "Gift".

The story went through a couple of revisions to make shooting easier, and to make the story shorter but more concise. We had just learned about narrative when we began this project, so we considered implementing concepts such as flashbacks, 'in media res', cause and effect, etc. We initially planned to have a few flashbacks, but settled on one. We also considered putting the ending of the film in the future, where Taylor's friends hold a high school reunion, and when Taylor arrives, we show 'her' appearance from the back.

Treatment, Scrip, and Storyboard
The script and treatment was written by a teammate, and since we were a team of three, we split the workload of making the storyboard, with me and the director giving input.

Script sample

Storyboard samples

We tried out two different storyboard formats, one with a diagram and a description box, and one with a diagram and two description boxes.

Treatment 

The film follows Taylor, a quiet American high school student who rarely shows his emotions, yet is popular. He is the epitome of a stereotypical tough man. The audiences discover Taylor’s life-changing secret, his belief that he is a girl, that he’s been hiding for all of his life at his 17th birthday party. He explores his own house to find a birthday present that Derek, his best friend and fellow classmate, hid somewhere. Along the way, he comes across objects in his very own home that gives the audience insight into his harsh life, which includes his abusive father who believes Taylor should be a stereotypical strong guy. Some of these insights are shown through flashbacks. When he finally finds the present, which is a dress, he becomes happy for the first time in his life.

Logistics
For location, we decided to rent a friend's house to shoot most of the scenes. One problem we discussed is what if the house doesn't match our needs, such as not enough rooms, or not the right arrangement of furniture, etc. We then decided that we could shoot specific scenes and rooms in other people's houses, as long as in the end, it all looks like one house, and that the audience wouldn't be able to tell.

For our cast, we chose some people who were taking theatre, some people in other year levels, and some people outside of school.

For equipment, we plan on using boom mics, a tripod, and for the camera; a Canon EOS Rebel T6i (aka 750D).

Shooting Strategies
When discussing with the director, we decided that it would be best to prioritise shots that have a large amount of people so that we could dismiss those who are no longer needed. The next priority was shooting from wider shots to close ups, and finally we decided to shoot by location.

There is one shot that is particularly tricky. We wanted the camera to go over someone standing in a doorway, and continue on in the other room. We considered several approaches, such as holding the camera on a stick, or having someone pass the camera into someone else who is inside the room.

Role Assessment

My main job as cinematographer is to bring out the director's vision of the film. Therefore, I need to talk with them about what shot types they want to use, what angles to shoot from, and what movements need to be done such as panning, tracking, or zooming, as well as telling them what can work, and what won't. I am the one holding the camera so it's my responsibility to get the shots to work as intended. The camera we will be using is a Canon EOS Rebel T6i, also known as the EOS 750D, with the 18-55mm IS STM lens. This is my personal DSLR, it's not quite 

Year 11 Term 2 - Nosferatu: An Analysis of Horror

Horror has been a staple genre in films for many years, going all the way back to the silent era of films. It is arguably the most popular genre of film of all time, spanning different time periods and even cultures. Despite inducing fear and terror and maybe even trauma, people continue to be to entertained by this frightful genre. While classic horror films typically feature undead, supernatural beings such as as the main villain, sometimes monsters, humans and even aliens can become the antagonist. Even tyres can be something to be afraid of. But, no matter what time period, culture, or antagonist, horror films have one goal: to make the viewer feel scared. While we might think that horror films at the time aren't as terrifying as they are now, they surely were to the people who first watched them.

Horror films typically feature a villain with malicious
intent bent on killing the protagonists.
Image courtesy of nofilmschool.com

Nowadays, horror films are typically divided into 3 main sub-genres: psychological, slasher, and gothic. Psychological horror films usually have the most supernatural elements to them, as they want to have a 'psychological' impact on the viewer, using emotions such as fear, guilt, and paranoia and effects such as sounds, lighting, mise-en-scene, and character designs to keep them scared even after the film is over. One popular example of a psychological horror is The Ring (2002). Slasher films, on the other hand, focus more on a psychopathic killer who goes on murdering people in violent ways, and therefore contain aspects of gore. They aren't as mentally scarring as psychological horror films, but can still be quite disturbing. Examples include Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Finally, we have gothic horror films. They combine elements of death, horror, and often romance. The typical conventions of a gothic horror include a gloomy setting, supernatural beings, curses, prophecies, damsels in distress, etc. The most well known gothic horror films were made by Universal Studios in the 1920s to the 1950s, with the collection of these films usually referred to as "Universal Horror".

One particularly famous example of a gothic horror film is Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922), also known as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, or simply Nosferatu. It is an unauthorised adaption of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, and produced by Prana Studio. The film stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, the main vampire in the film. To avoid copyright infringements, Murnau made several changes to the characters' names, settings, and even the story to some extent. Ultimately, the studio was forced to file for bankcruptcy because they were sued and all copies of the film were ordered to be destroyed. Fortunately however, some copies have survived to this day and were restored, and the film itself is considered to be a classic.

An original 1922 poster of Nosferatu, taken from traileraddicts.com

Nosferatu is known for being a German Expressionist film, where conventions that started outside of Germany are rejected, and the reality within the movie is shown to be heavily distorted, with wild aesthetics. The movement started due to Germany's rejection of foreign films. The film is also known for using real locations rather than exaggerated sets. The film also uses iris lenses for shooting dark scenes, as cameras at the time did not work well in the dark. Therefore, the film shot night scenes in the day, while trying to make it look like it was night. Being a silent film, Nosferatu uses intertitles to show dialogue as well as narration. The effect of the intertitle may vary from person to person, but it may add suspense to the film as it can create short pauses during tense scenes, but they may also reduce suspense since they take the viewer out of the film for a second. The intertitles in Nosferatu tend to be short and only contain a few words, unless it is a narration, where it becomes very descriptive.

A very descriptive intertitle that appears in the film

The word "Nosferatu" is, in fact, made up for the film. While it is presented as a Romanian word synonymous with "vampire", there is no such word in the Romanian language. However, some theories suggest that the word does indeed have some Romanian origin to it. Some people suggest that the word may have been derived from or misinterpreted from the Romanian words "nesuferitu" and "necurat", meaning "the unclean" and "the insufferable" respectively. Because vampires are considered to be "unholy spirits", these possibilities make sense. The word may also stem from the Greek "Nosophoros", meaning bringer of plague, as in the film Count Orlok spreads the plague with him everywhere he goes.

Because of how early in film history it was produced in, Nosferatu is considered to be an archetype of the vampire genre and even the horror genre as a whole. It defined various aspects of vampires that later films would follow, and we can see various conventions that are present in this film commonly found in modern horror films. One of the most iconic scenes in Nosferatu being the scene where Count Orlok climbs the stairs to Ellen's room and his shadow is cast on to the wall.

The scene towards the end of the film as Orlok approaches Ellen.

This technique has been used time and time again to show the villain approaching one of the protagonists, usually in a helpless state. This technique is also done at the beginning of the film where the Count approaches Hutter in his room.

Orlok's shadow cast on the wall while Hutter hides helplessly at the bottom of the frame.

The above shot also happens to be a subjective shot, since we are seeing it from Orlok's point of view. It creates a sense of dread and terror as he approaches Hutter.

We can assume that Nosferatu is a gothic horror film, as it does have elements of goth, curses, prophecies and even a damsel in distress. It can't be a slasher since the Count does not go on a violent killing spree, and it also can't be a psychological horror since it doesn't leave a psychological impact on the viewer (at least in modern times).  Therefore, Nosferatu is a gothic horror.

It is easy to spot some common tropes and conventions of modern horror films in this film. For example, Nosferatu may have popularised the idea that sunlight is deadly to vampires, and doesn't just weaken them like in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Another trope of the gothic horror genre that appears in the film is the "henchman" archetype, in the form of Knock. We can see that in contrast to the Count, Knock looks much less threatening, and does not seem to have supernatural powers of his own. Also, at one point of the film the setting becomes that of the Count's castle in Transylvania, with castles being a popular setting in the goth culture. The music is also orchestral, typical of the gothic culture. When Hutter first meets Orlok, he does not realise he is a vampire until he starts sucking his blood, a common trope where the protagonist does not realise the presence of 'the bad guy' even though its somewhat obvious. The film also gives the Count ghost-like abilities, such as revealing himself to a sailor on the ship and then dissapearing again, and in a later scene he physically passes through the door to his new house in Wisborg. Finally, there is the trope where the castle gates open by themselves, as well as the other iconic scene where the Count raises himself from the coffin on the ship.

The iconic scene where Count Orlok raises himself from a coffin.

Another memorable scene from the film,
most known for its appearance in Spongebob Sqaurepants.

However, some conventions in Nosferatu never really caught on with modern vampire or horror films. For example, Count Orlok is portrayed as being hideous and having a skeletal figure with long fingernails and a bald head. In modern times however, vampires are portrayed as suave, cunning, handsome, and overall attractive. Additionally, vampires today are shown to be able to turn others into vampires, while in Nosferatu Orlok simply kills people after he sucks their blood. The Count is also able to spread disease in this film, while modern vampires don't. Also, in Nosferatu it is shown that Count Orlok has some association with rats, while modern vampires are usually associated with bats, and may even be able to transform into them.

The film also uses chiaroscuro lighting heavily, where lights and shadow are starkly contrasted. Despite being used in many scenes, only some scenes have succesfully used it to create a unique effect, particularly the scenes where Ellen gets attacked by Orlok.

Orlok entering Ellen's room

Ellen after being bitten by Orlok

In both scenes, there is a clear contrast between the blacks and the whites. This accentuates a feeling of dread and mystery within the scene. It may also create a feeling where the darkness takes over the light, or that evil has triumphed over justice. This form of lighting also contrasts the scene right after, where Orlok gets killed by sunlight.

While the previous scenes have stark contrast between whites and blacks,
here the contrast is much more subtle.

F. W. Murnau was an apparent homosexual, and this was exaggerated in the metafictional adaptation of Nosferatu's production, Shadow of the Vampire.While not shown directly in the film, some aspects may allude to his repressed homosexuality. For example, Orlok's lust for Ellen may have represented Murnau's feeling of frustration and restraint. In the film, Orlok lives in a castle isolated from civilisation. Orlok's isolation may also represent Murnau's feeling of loneliness. It is also interesting to note how Orlok interacts with Hutter. When Hutter first arrives at Orlok's castle and cuts himself during dinner, Orlok suddenly and forcefully tries to suck his blood. In fact, during the whole dinner scene Orlok is shown to simply be watching Hutter as he eats, while seemingly reading papers. Finally, while Orlok usually kills his victims including the ship captain ultimately Ellen, Orlok leaves Hutter alive. This may be hinting that Murnau is inserting part of his personality into Orlok. Orlok is also shown to have interest in Ellen, but when he actually meets her, Orlok only wants her blood and kills her. This could show how Murnau has desires to be with people, but in different ways than most would expect.

Nosferatu is considered to be a legendary film for its time, inventing some conventions that horror films would follow today. While it may not seem as terrifying compared to modern horror films, it does set a great example of a classic vampire film, and is still entertaining even today.

Sources
www.slideshare.net/lalaland_xo/horror-film-forms-and-conventions
http://study.com/academy/lesson/gothic-novels-characteristics-examples.html
http://eric.b.olsen.tripod.com/nosferatu.html
http://www.liquisearch.com/nosferatu_word/origins_of_the_name
https://news.artnet.com/market/art-house-an-introduction-to-german-expressionist-films-32845
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Nosferatu
https://www.academia.edu/5328269/Murnau_and_the_Evil_of_Sexuality_A_Look_at_Nosferatu_and_Sunrise
https://pinoy-comics-tv-movies.blogspot.sg/2010/01/filipino-boy-and-death-of-murnau.html

Year 11 Term 1 - Passing the Salt

The first project we did this term, and therefore this year, was a short practice exercise called 'Pass the Salt'. During this exercise, we practiced about not crossing the '180 degree line', as well as the different roles, such as the cameraman, director, assistant director and actor. The basic premise of the film would be about 4 people eating at a table, and asking and passing the salt around.

The first step we took in making the film was planning and storyboarding. During this step, we as a class created the 'story' and shot types, as well as considering the genre of the film. The storyboard we created included 12 shot types.

The storyboard draft (top) and final version (bottom)

The first draft was drawn on a whiteboard. We later transferred each panel onto sheets of paper and continued from there. After we finalised the storyboard, we created a shot list to know which order we would shoot in to make filming easier. We also deviated from the storyboard a bit, and changed the last shot where C passes the salt to D. We made it so that C drops the salt and D gets upset about it, filmed that from two angles, and added an additional shot where A and B look at each other awkwardly. We decided to shoot everything in order of wideness, with wider shots being done first, midshots in the middle, and things like closeups done last.

After we completed the shot list, we decided on a place to film. We needed to film in a place with a projector since we wanted to connect the camera to the projector so everyone could see the footage more easily. We considered shooting in MPR (multi purpose room) 1, however we decided not to because the lighting was bad and wouldn't be able to connect to the projector in that room. So, we instead decided to shoot in one of the classrooms in the library.

Shooting took a total of two lessons, or two hours. While we were shooting, we each had to rotate between director, cameraman, assistant director (who managed the slate and shot list), actors, and being idle. Because we had to rotate actors, it created inconsistencies in the clips. 

The establishing shot with Sam and Shila as A and B respectively...

...but later becomes Shila and Shona as A and B in the final shot.

For equipment, we used one Sony camera, a tripod, dolly, and of course a projector, We didn't need any boom mics because it was a small project and the camera's own microphone was able to pick up the sound quite easily. When we were about to get ready for the shoot, we realised we had the french fries, yet we forgot to bring the titular salt, so we ended up using a glue stick with the word 'salt' stuck to it. Also, production took two days, and on the second day we forgot to bring the fries, so we had to disguise the containers to look like they were boxes of fries. Since we were shooting in limited space, it was sometimes difficult to do wide shots since we couldn't walk out any further and were constrained to the walls of the room. For example, the shot where Sam passes the salt to Sebastian but was intercepted by Shila could have had Sam and Sebastian within the frame, but because the room was quite small we could only get Shila and Sam partially in the frame.

In this shot, we originally planned to have only Sam (A) and Shila (B) in the frame (storyboard panel 4), however we decided it would make better sense if we included Sebastian (C) as well. Unfortunately, we couldn't get them all in frame due to space limitation.

Since the practice was supposed to be about the 180 degree rule, we needed to go around the table circularly to get everyone in. But, there were times when we actually did break the 180 degree rule, such as when C passes the salt to D and the camera looks at A and B.

Camera positions and 180 degree lines in shots 9-11

Shot 10a

Shot 10b

Shot 11

We can see that shot 11 crosses the lines of both 10a and 10b, therefore breaking the 180 degree rule. However, we concluded that despite crossing the line, it still makes sense because we already know the spatial relationship between A and B and C and D. The audience still maintains the orientation of characters from the backgrounds of the shots, even if the characters themselves have switched roles.

After filming, we realised that we forgot to shoot shots 2, 5 and 7. Looking back, we realised that those shots were combined with others. For example, shot 5 was supposed to be a close up of the salt being passed from A to B, but it was integrated into shot 4.

This was supposed to be a close-up on the 'salt'.

Most shots only took 1 or 2 takes, but shot 10, the shot where D asks for the salt, took 7 takes. We decided to change the story somewhat by adding more dialog and some acting. The shot ended up having D (Sam) getting suddenly upset and frustrated at C (Sebastian) for dropping the salt, and C acting like he doesn't care.

After we completed shooting, we all had to edit the piece individually. We were allowed to choose the genre, music, sound effects by ourselves. I decided that I would make the genre be suspenseful. I decided to keep the entire film keep the sound but add suspenseful music when D gets frustrated. I also considered adding some subtle salt shaking sounds. For my edit, I decided to make it so that shot 10 switches angles whenever needed, such as to show Sebastian's indifference when he drops the salt and then cut back to Sam. I will be editing the piece in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Editing the piece together in Premiere Pro. I had to synchronise the audio between the two clips to see where each action happens.

In the end, I decided to put the music throughout the whole video, but at a quiet volume which goes up as the video goes, and suddenly become more tense when Sam asks for the salt. The music I used is "Seeking the Truth" by Greg Noblin.

While trying to come up with an ending which is not too abrupt, I ended up expanding the last clip where Shila and Shona look at each other. I played the clip again if I could use something from that clip for the ending, and noticed that the music got cutoff right when the director says cut. I thought it would be an interesting twist if the video ended like that, so I left it so. 

In the end, I exported the project in the H.264 format at 25 fps. Rendering took ~1 minute using CUDA hardware acceleration. The final product can be watched here.

Year 11 Term 1: Independent Research - History of Technicolor

In a previous post, I mentioned how I was interested in the history of Technicolor. I have done my own independent research on the topic, and here's what I found.

The Technicolor Corporation was founded by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Comstock and W. Burton Wescott, to develop a "flicker free" movie color system. The word "Tech" in Technicolor actually came from Kalmus' and Comstock's association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Technicolor’s first color process was a two color additive system that recorded red and blue-green images simultaneously. It did this through a single lens using a beam splitter and color filters to record the images stacked one on top of the other. Their first camera, the Technicolor Process 1 was made in 1916. The first and only movie made using this process was ‘The Gulf Between’, produced in 1917.

How video is captured through the Process 1 camera.

How the video is projected. Note how it requires a specialised projector
as well as manual adjustment of the prism to get both colours aligned.
Images above are taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

A surviving still from The Gulf Between.
Image taken from America Pink

Technicolor’s second innovation was the Process 2 in 1922. Unlike its predecessor, Process 2 uses subtractive color. This made a huge difference in overall color quality and also made it easier to project the colors on screen. Additive systems used a black and white image projected through color filters, resulting in loss of the light absorbed by the filters. The film strips were also able to be played on normal projectors, unlike in Process 1 which required specialized projectors. The first film to be shown in Process 2 was “The Toll of the Sea” produced in 1922.

How the Technicolor Process 2 camera captures video.
Image taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

The camera negative carries both the red and blue-green records of the scene. The blue green record is upside down to the red record, and two separate prints are made on matrix films that are half as thick as standard matrix films. The red and blue-green matrices are printed as mirror images because they need to be placed back to back after dye application, which is also why each matrix are half the thickness of standard matrices.

From Left to Right: Camera matrix, red filtered matrix, blue-green filtered matrix.
Image taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

After Process 2 came Process 3, which had similar technology to Process 2, but mostly used in a different way. The camera used was the same, but instead of producing a duplicate negative that generated the matrices that would be dyed and cemented, the matrices were optically generated from the camera negative and were used to make other prints. This process eliminated some problems with Process 2 and used the matrices to transfer dye to a specially prepared clear base film. Process 3 received critical acclaim and Technicolor's output increased from 1928 through 1930. The first film to use Process 3 technology was The Viking, produced in 1928.

A still from The Viking (1928), the first sound film produced in Technicolor.
Image taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

In 1931 Technicolor went on to develop a three strip camera that would be able to capture red, green and blue rather than only red and green and to refine the dye transfer printing that had been introduced in 1927. In 1932 the first 3-strip camera was completed, becoming known as Process 4. The first commercial film to use the 3 color system was Flowers and Trees, produced in 1932, by none other than Walt Disney. 

The Technicolor Process 4 three-strip camera.
Image taken from the-culture-counter.com

How the camera worked.
Image taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

Flowers and Trees (1932). Produced by Walt Disney.
Image taken from www.widescreenmuseum.com.

Later on, Becky Sharp, produced in 1935, was the first live action film to be recorded in 3-strip Technicolor.

Comparison between Becky sharp in the inferior Cinecolor (left) and Technicolor Process 4 (right).
Click to zoom in.

Technicolor's 3-strip film process ended up becoming a huge success and raised the standard for color film in the industry. Their innovations have been used to create hugely successful films such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and more. While films now are much more sophisticated and do not require 3-strip film to record colour, some films try to recreate the look and feel of these old colour technologies in post-production for reasons such as achieving the early 20th century look. Without Technicolor, films probably would have taken longer to reproduce natural colours, and maybe colour films would decline in popularity during those days.

Sources:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/condensed-history-color.html

Year 11 Term 1: History of Film

A new school year has begun, and so has a new year of film studies. We started our first film class in the DP by watching a presentation about the history of cinema from the early 1900's. We learned how much film has evolved over the course of a century and what technologies and innovations defined films we see today. While watching the presentation, we each learned some new things. The 5 main points which I found the most interesting are mostly in the form of technological innovations within the films themselves.

To start off, of course the most interesting thing I found out about was the earliest form of film, or back then was known as a motion picture. I learned that the earliest form of film was known as a "motion peep show" created by Thomas Edison and W. K.  Dickson. It worked by moving pictures through a light, and was only view-able by a single individual at a time. The other name for this device is the "Kinetoscope".

The kinetoscope, image taken from Reflexions ULg

The next point I found interesting was when the Technicolor company was formed in the late 1910's, which offered some groundbreaking new innovations in colour technology in films. Later on, they would be the first company to offer a full spectrum of colour in films. I ended up researching more about the history of Technicolor individually, which I will discuss in the future.

The Technicolor Process 4 three-strip camera, the first capable of
recording a full range of colour instead of the usual red and green at the time.
Image taken from www.the-culture-counter.com.

Next, in the 1920's, sound started appearing in films. However, back then, sounds were not directly "attached" to the video, and had to be synchronised manually. One such film was Steamboat Willie, a short created by Walt Disney featuring Mickey Mouse. This short ran for about 7-8 minutes, and is notable for debuting the Mickey Mouse character to the public.

Jumping to the 1970's, Dolby Stereo was introduced, producing sound with the effect of being all around the viewer(s), allowing them to have a sense of positioning of the source of the sound. While Dolby Stereo wasn't the first form of stereo, it was important because it was backwards compatible with traditional theatre speakers.

And finally, the film Casper was produced in 1995. This film is notable for having a fully CGI (computer generated imagery) character play in the main role. The film was directed by Brad Silberling.

Christina Ricci as Kat, the protagonist of the film,
and Casper, voiced by Malachi Pearson.
Image taken from Buzzfeed.com.

These are the 5 things I found the most interesting in the history of film, because it makes us wonder how films will continue to evolve through technological innovations. While it seems that films now are as lifelike as ever, with full and accurate colour, surround sound, HD video formats and realistic CGI, they can and probably will continue to improve in the future. My guess is that films may start getting into VR (virtual reality) technology, putting the viewer inside the film in a 3D environment, creating full immersion. While it sounds crazy now, it may become the norm in a decade or so. Personally, I found the history of film to be an interesting and exciting topic. It really is fascinating seeing how films started out as short moving pictures to becoming immersive, expansive stories that can really take the viewer into another world.

Term 4 LiaD Trailer and BtS - Production

The Plan
Our plan for the behind the scenes was to interview different people. We wanted to follow kind of a BuzzFeed format where people are interviewed in front of a green screen while providing not too long answers. At first, we wanted to include everyone's answers for each question, but since we interviewed so many people we had to cut it down. At that point we decided to select what we feel are the best answers for the questions.

The Shooting
Since we had to interview different people, and the fact that we had to book the studio and equipment and whatnot, it was a pain to get everything and everyone together and we struggled to follow our schedule. In the end, we ended up interviewing a total of 12 different people. The equipment we used was a camera, tripod and 2 LED lights. Minkee and I were the cameramen and Fajar was in charge of asking the questions. I also helped set up the lights and provided the SD card. Minkee and Fajar helped set up the rest of the equipment. On some shoots, one of us could not make so we sometimes needed help from the interviewees to setup.

On our very first shoot, there was a second camera available on the set. We decided to use that as a prop to give the scene a more 'behind the scenes' feel, and to help construct the image that we are film makers. However, the camera did not appear again in subsequent shots and thus we had to live with a continuity error. We can try to edit it out in post production if possible, otherwise we'll have to let it slide. Another continuity error we found is that in some shots the table has a green cover while in others it doesn't. This one we can't really fix without putting a lot of effort because of the shadows and arm covering.

Camera present on desk

Camera not present on desk

Table cover present

We think the lighting is OK but in order to really use the green screen we have to get it to be more consistent and have lighter shadows. We also think the sound is a bit 'echo-y', but it's not much of a problem.

We also had to reshoot some people a few times because of a few reasons. Some people weren't satisfied with their answers, and some needed to reshoot because of lighting errors or other things. Some also needed to reshoot because we came up with an extra question ; "Why should people watch it?" to get the audience more interested to watch our Life in a Day.

Aside from the interview shoots, we also shot scenery from around the school to use as filler footage and maybe cutaways, but our main purpose for them is to blur them out and use them as the background for intertitles. However, after looking at them, we think some of the clips can't make it.

The Trailer
We have looked at several trailers to give us inspiration to make our own. The first one we looked at was the original Life in a Day Trailer.

One of the things we decided to follow from this trailer was the jump cuts from different scene to different scene, like in 0:22 to 0:30, but instead of going from random scene to random scene, we want to make each scene connect to each other, but from the perspective of different people. For example, we want to show someone waking up, then cut to someone else brushing their teeth, then to someone else having breakfast, etc.

Other trailers we looked at included the Captain America Civil War trailer and the X-Men Apocalypse trailer if we wanted to go the "action" route.

In the end we were satisfied with what we did so far. We think the interview shows a bigger picture of people's opinions on the documentary. We believe most people answered truthfully, but some may not really have. We now have to face possibly the most frustrating and intense process of film making: post production.