Construction: Shoot#1

We have finally began our shooting!!

Since me and my partner were involved in a extra curricular activity involving making a music video of any available song in the market, we have had our reasonably fair share off shooting, editing etc before hand. We took part in this project so as to polish our film making and editing skills. Although throughout that projects we made countless mistakes in shooting, lost our entire data once, messed up the whole video 1 day before the submission because we didn't know how to use Adobe Premier,we managed to pull it off somehow. Even though we secured 1st position in the music video(ha ha!!!how did that happen?!?)we realized then and there being media students,Experience and Exposure  to media is very important. The rules of filming, taking shots, setting angles, adjusting lights, managing sounds , directing actors, placing Mis-en-scene and inspecting locations and finally Shooting are all those things that together make a film. Blindly going on to shoot a scene never produces the right results and going without proper knowledge of how to shot will result in the audience not understanding what we are showing. 

Thus We(me and my partner) decided to start of shooting those scenes which constituted of locations that were closer to our work area( the media lab!!).

We decided to start shooting  scene 5 to start of. Since the location for this scene was closer to our work place it was sensible to start of here. Also we wanted to have some feild experience before we went to different locations else where, so that we could deal with the few basic problems that we might encounter. Like something related to the camera, or tripod or sounds. We did encounter some problem with the lighting here. though the main light was the tungsten light the camera tweaked the light adjustment accordingly. Since Sir Waqas sat facing the window we did not have much problem in the lighting there. Howrever when we got to Hamzas part we faced some problem. Since his back was towards the window his face would automatically go very dark and the light behind him would go very bright. Thus i had to play with the aperture, the shutter speed and the ISO here. Though we managed to get desired result almost the difference could still be noticed if one looked very carefully. Though we did have time constraints as we were allowed to use the office of our school coordinated for a limited period of time only.

Although we wanted to shoot this 180 degree shot with both of our actors- the protagonist Ali Hamza Mahmood played by Hamza Khan and his Colleague played by Sir Waqas- we weren't able to do so. 
 

Hamza Khan as Ali Hamza Mahmood

Sir Waqas as the Colleague

Since both men had different jobs, getting them together at the same time had been tough. Although we did try this but unfortunately our main actor wasn't able to make it on time. Also due to lack of technological facilities(-we were only working with one camera, cut us some slack!!-)we had to first film a one sided conversation entirely with Sir Waqas and then with Hamza Khan. Both of us played the missing characters part whilst the other character was being shot(Whilst one of us would be busy in the acting the other one would be shooting). We had to do this also because unlike Hamza who was confident enough to act well enough once we directed him, Sir Waqas was not at all! 
Thus we had to shoot his dialogues more than 2-3 times until we got the right shot.
We also gave him quite a few motivational speeches to encourage him to act.

Now when i say experience and exposure, I mean it!
We practiced the 180 degree shots beforehand with a few friends to try out how we would do it in the final scene. Therefore when on the final location site we knew exactly how and where to set the tripod and a which height and angle, what were to be the setting of our camera etc. We took 2- 3 trail shots of each other to adjust the framing, composition, lighting and the leading room and headroom in each shots. Once all of our camera related things were set we begin the final shooting of the scene with our actors.

Trying out the 180 drgree shot before the actors got here

We had a problem in arranging for a collar mic and the one available in our work place was not being detected on the camera therefore we used two different alternative. Either we used the handy cam or the recording on the phone. For the scene with sir Waqas, we used the handy cam that we hid behind the monitor. The advantage of doing this was that the sound recorded was clear and easy to interpret. The disadvantage of doing this was that as the handy cam was placed very close to the subject, the creak of the chair, the clinking sound of Sir Waqas metallic strapped watch on the glass plated desk and external sounds were pitch perfect clear. In ha,zas part that we shot seperately as i mentioned before we used the mobile phone recording. This was a good alternative for us because these days every one carries phones with them so if they came in our shots we wouldn't have to conceal it or anything and being close to the person the voice would be recorded as well.since the mobile phone recording isnt so high in quality, we were able to gets hamzas voice

I also shoot part of scene 4 today. I shot the slight panning, zooming in and changing of depth of feild shot of Hamza. moving the camera at  an angle and tracking in simultaneously to focus on his signature. This shot required for a steady hand and I had to give it two three tries before.
 

Aiza 2 from Aiza Yasir on Vimeo.

Ancillary task:Review Page analysis

Codes and Conventions of a magazine review page:

• having the film name and the year of release
• name of director, screen writer, actors etc
• review begins with a Quote or Reference from the actual film, though this is sometimes missed in short films
• first paragraph of the review contains a summary of the film followed by the review writers own personal opinion
• second paragraph usually contains the synopsis of the film though it is kept brief and the ending is usually kept a mystery.
• one paragraph on the positive aspect of the film and one on the negative aspect.personal opinion comes here mostly or reviews of other known people.
• focus on the actors good and bad quality, though not always a feature of a short film review
• date of the review published
• quote in italic style 
• larger first letter of the text so the audience knows where the review is starting from
• page number
• images with captions and annotations
• 5 star rating though this is not a feature of a short film usually

This is the magazine review page that I analyzed. the layout is quite simple and clean. There is not too much cluster of either colors or images. The color codes used are simple and neutral colors. As we can clearly see the color codes have been inspired by the colors worn by our characters in the image. Since the colours are soft toned it gives an insight into the type of movie it might be. However the image here is misleading where on first look it looks as if the story might be about a romantic young couple, though what we see here is opposite to that. Both the female and the male are rather looking at each other as it happens in romantic movies are instead looking behind them almost in a defensive, flight or fright manner.

The expressions convey the emotions of the charcters to the ausience therefore the visaul image has to be strong enough to convey the right message.

The writing style is very simple.the font style is bold which adds to the integrety and to the boldness of the title.it gives it a slightly masculine look.

The main text has been written in a very simple column form manner.A special highlighted vertical line has been drawn at the left side of the page, right under the picture.This line also plays the part of a leading line as it leads the eyes from the image to the text next to it due to its different color tone. this line has been drawn so in order to bring attention to the content written next to it which is particularly important in this page as it highlights the release date, the production company, the director, the running time of the film etc.

The significant sentence that has been taken from the review is a line that the audience will read before reading the whole review. this line has to have the jist of the review and must attract the viewers to read the rest of the reviews as well. Also the different color bar that has been used to highlight it also attracts the eyes too it.

The name of the magazine, the date of issue and the magazine email id page have all been written on the bottom of the page at both corners. The name of this specific page, that has been allotted to it by the magazine is written on the top left of the page.The color of all the written material has been inspired by the image from the movie.

The verdict has been given at the right bottom corner, right underneath of where the review ends. This is important to the audience as they want to see if this movie is worth watching.

This magazine review page is of the movie 'Easy A'.

The main image is used a the background of the page. since the background also feature people in colored clothes the fonts used for this movie reviews is in a more grey-blackish tone.the selective statement from the review has been highlighted and written in a different font color.

The thing i really liked about this review page was that instead of just making a separate box that would tell the audience information related to the production, the directors and the film release the magazine has uses a different innovative technique. They have taken the DVD cover page and/or the poster page and just used the image and various other logos and made a collage of the image. Since the logos are something that most people are familiar to, the need to write extra text or content is no longer required.

 There is only one main image on the review page.The text has been written in a simple font, in white color so that it is easily readable.

We can also see the tag line underneath the main title, however this is in a different font. Usually its done so in order to draw attention to itself but also to give the audience the magazines view relating to this film.

the font size for the review is small, some where between 10-12 most probably. Also the review has mostly and commonly written in a column form so that it is easier for the readers to read the text without losing the line.

Some other posters covers that inspired me where...

Ancillary Task:Poster Options

When we started discussing the idea for the poster one thing that me and Aiza agreed upon unanimously was that our poster page would only feature the main character. Not the background or any other excess image or characters but just the main characters. Since i had Khaled Hosseni book 'Kite runner' cover page stuck in my head I was determined to have a image of a child peeking from behind the wall with maybe a pencil in his hand. I wanted to keep half of the face hidden so as to convey to the audience that there is another side to this story that they don't know. Also i wanted the main ficus to be on the expression of the child and on his eye that holds a array of emotions. 

althoiugh in the inspiration the child is shot facing the other direction  for my poster page image i wanted the child to be looking at the camera so as to make a association with the audience. also by doing this we are showing the emortions of the character to the audience so that they can undersatnd and relate the image to the title of the film. this was my idea.

Aiza's idea was also very good. since to her understanding the eyes play a huge part. and it is true, the eyes sre the gateway into the soul. she wanted to show the eyes of all three characters on the poster page.

though when we thought about it in terms of how the audience would preceive it we thought that they would more likely be confused with this poster page. so we dropped this idea.

the third poster page idea that we decided to use was the faces of the protagonist looking at the camera. this was to be a close shot. but the thing that we wanted to do was to merge the faces of the two characters that were potraying Ali Hamza Mahmood. we wanted to show half the face of one phase of Alis life and the other half, the other phase of Alis life.but we could not decide which phase to show since each phase held its own importance and significance.. therefore we decided to drop this idea as well and moved back to My idea.

Ancillary task-Poster analysis

Following the codes and conventions of poster, we can see the main characters of the film on the poster page. They are also in the forefront of the page which shows their significance. There expressions are important as they give a slight inside of what are characters are feeling which will help the audience understand the mood of the film.

The colors used on the posters are very clean. The poster is not clustered with too many images or colors.

The fonts and the background color and the looks of the page is something that is very familiar to any person since it is inspired by 'Google' and is also associated with it. The font and style that is clearly inspired by 'Google' makes it very clear to the audience that the film it self f has been associated with 'Google' and it forms an integral part of it. 

The release date is at the bottom of the page in a larger font size and different color as compared to the rest of the text on the poster. This has been done so that people can easily see the release date.

The name of the character and the tag line has been cleverly written in the form of  tool-bar of  'Google' where you can type in content that you want to search. This gives the audience the impression that this movies can be based on wide areas of the life of a person, related to many aspects. Letting loose of a different variety of good and bad information about out characters since 'Google' is a vast searching network that can provide a lot of different type of information in respect to one subject.

The production details, the cast and crew, the name of the director, editor and producer have all been written on the poster page. This is a Theatrical poster.

The theatrical poster for Brad Pitts movie 'MONEY BALL'' follows the same codes and conventions of a movie poster.

The main image of the protagonist is on the poster and the background that features a play ground can easily show the relationship of the character to the location. The color of the poster has been inspired by the colors of the location and the clothes of the character.

The main characters and  supporting actors name have been written in a larger font size. Though the font style is simple and uses a neutral color-white, which signifies purity. Since the movie is based on real life events the white here can signify the simplicity and realism.

The poster that me and Aiza have in mind is to show only part of the face of our character. I particularly like this idea because there is always two side to a story and by hiding one side we wanted to show the mysteries that can take place on the other side. A persons eyes and lips can tell a lot about their emotions and other feelings as well. This is in it self a form of art. 'How much are you able to convey with just the eyes of a person?'

The poster for 'HOST' is closer to what our poster image would look like.

However again in all three poster simple colors have been used.As far as I have seen in these posters is that a tremendous part is being played by the imagery. The background colors have been used in simple manner and not too much cluster as well. The 'HOST' uses a slightly dark color, which might be to give the audience a sense of mystery, danger and darkness. Whereas compared to that the poster for 'CLOSER' and 'THE IDEAS OF MARCH' uses neutral simple colors like white to give it a slightly more serious and reality based look.

The codes and conventions of a poster page:

• large and crisp title
• a tag line complementing and giving further meaning to the title
• release date of the film
• name of the well know and main actors of the film
• basic information i.e the production house
• image of the main actor of the film on the poster page, usually to attract audience.

For me visuals appeal more then the written content so  my focus would be on the visuals. However the title of the film and its font style and color matters a lot as well so we'll focusing on that too. The rest of the text, like release date, cast and actors name and the production house information would be done in a simple font style.

Cast list

Aftab as the younger Ali Hamza Mahmood.

Aftab on the left

Moeez Khalid as Ali Hamza Mahmood in his youth.

Hamza Khan as the adult Ali Hamza Mahmood.

Riffah Munir as the mother.

Mahzaib Khalid as the lady in the rickshaw.

Sir Waqas as the colleague

Planning:Shotlist

Scene		shot	Location	Description
Scene1		Shot 1. Wide angle Medium long shot	Area where the kid lives	Ali (kid) is running from his home to the school.
		Shot 2.  Static camera. Front view of the kid running towrds the camera.
		Shot 3. Mid long shot.	School	Ali is peeking from a wall nearby school.
		Shot 4. Long shot of the houses and the road where Ali is standing
		Shot 5. Macro shot of Ali’s eyes
		Shot 6. Wide angle Long shot
		Shot 7. Mid close up		Ali turns back and runs away.
Scene2		Shot1. Wide angle Long shot	Ali’s Home	Ali is cleaning his rickshaw
		Shot 2. Close up
		Shot3. Long shot
		Shot 4. Mid long shot	Mr.Mahmood’s home
		Shot 5. Mid shot
Scene3
		Shot 1.  Long shot	Road side	Woman walking towards the ricshaw
		Shot 2. Medium shot	Office	Woman asks Ali to drop her home
		Shot 3. Medim shot		Conversation of woman and ali
		Shot 4.Long shot		Back of the rickshaw, ali drives away
Scene4		Shot 1. Mid shot		Mr.mahmood is working in his offcie
		Shot 2.Mid Long shot		Colleague knocks and enters
		Shot 3. Mid Shot (180degree)		Conversation between Mr.Mahmood and colleague
		Shot 4. Close up with camera slightly moving, zooming in and changing depth of feild. Camera starts from moving from an over the shoulder shot till it comes closer to his hand as he writes.
Scene5		Shot 1.  Over the shoulder	Car	Flash back with scene 4
Scene6		Shot 1. Long shot	Ali hamza’s house	Ali arrives from office
		Shot 2.Mid shot		Hamza gets of the car
		Shot 3. Long shot		Ali’s house shown
		Shot 4.Mid shot, camera pans		Ali walks towards the house
		Shot 5.Over the shoulder( Ali’s)		Opens the gate
		Shot 6.Over the shoulder(Ali’s mother)
		Shot 7. Macro shot of Ali’s eyes		Ali looks and smiles at his mother