Saturday, 30 December 2017

research different edits

This is the research that found by Melissa about the different edits:
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF EDITING
Terms in editing can be confusing to a new author, especially because the terms are often used interchangeably and may have different meanings within the industry. However, here are the most widely accepted terms and their meanings. When hiring an editor, always speak to him or her about exactly what the editing includes.

COPYEDITING
Copyediting, commonly called line editing, is a light form of editing that applies a professional polish to a book. The editor reviews your work, fixing any mechanical errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Copyediting is the least-expensive version of editing.
Some professionals divide copyediting and line editing into two separate edits, copyediting being the lighter, grammar-only edit, and line editing being a more intense look at each sentence’s meaning. Always clarify with your editor what is included in his or her copyedit to be sure.

LINE EDITING
Line editing is often used interchangeably with the term copyediting. However, when it is distinguished from copyediting, it refers to a unique edit that falls between copyediting and developmental editing in intensity. In line editing, the editor looks at your book line by line and analyses each sentence. The editor considers word choice and the power and meaning of a sentence. The editor considers syntax and whether a sentence needs to be trimmed or tightened. Line editing helps to makes your prose sing.

MECHANICAL EDITING
Mechanical editing refers to the application of a particular style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style or Associated Press (AP) Style. The editor looks at punctuation, capitalization, spelling, abbreviations, and any other style rules. Mechanical editing is sometimes included in copyediting.

SUBSTANTIVE EDITING
Substantive editing considers a work’s organization and presentation. It involves tightening and clarifying at a chapter, scene, paragraph, and sentence level. Unlike developmental editing, which covers the big-picture issues and deep-level restructuring, substantive editing deals with the actual prose. Substantive editing is sometimes referred to as line editing and can also be confused with developmental editing. Always check with your editor and put in writing what his or her services cover, regardless of the term used.

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
The developmental editor looks deeply at the organization and strength of a book. Think big picture. The editor considers everything from pacing to characters, point of view, tense, plot, subplots, and dialogue. Weak links are exposed and questioned. The editor scrutinizes order, flow, and consistency. He asks questions such as: Is this the right number of chapters? Are the chapters and paragraphs in the right order? Are there any places in the book where the pacing lags? Is there a hole in the information or story presented? Are the characters likable? Developmental editing considers all the aspects of a manuscript that make the book readable and enjoyable. Because of the extensive nature of this form of editing, it is more time intensive and costly. However, it is worth the investment if you are serious about succeeding as an author.

The information from: https://www.archwaypublishing.com/Resources/Editing-and-Design/The-Different-Types-of-Editing.aspx

Different Types of Edits


Thursday, 28 December 2017

Watch and review noir film - Sin City


Today, I watched the first series of Sin City. And I would like to write a review for this.


Sin City, also known as Frank Miller's Sin City, is a 2005 American neo-noir crime film. It is written by Frank Miller, produced and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. It is really famous because there are many very famous actors and actress joined in.

This film is based on the first, third, and fourth books in Miller's original comic series. The Hard Goodbye is about a man who embarks on a brutal rampage in search of his one - time sweetheart's killer, killing anyone, even the police, that gets in his way of finding and killing her murderer. The Big Fat Kill focuses on an everyman getting caught in a street war between a group of prostitutes and a group of mercenaries, the police and the mob. That Yellow Bastard follows an aging police officer who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured serial killer. The intro and outro of the film are based on the short story "The Customer is Always Right" which is collected in Booze, Broads & Bullets, the sixth book in the comic series.

The first thing about this film that really impresses me is the opening. Here is the opening:
First, it uses the establishing shot to show the city, it is dark, the colour is mainly black and white. When it arranges for the title - Sin City, it adds colour: red, which means danger, anger and blood. And the colour appears just like the blood that dyes the title. This shows that the city is dangerous and always have crime. I like this opening is because of the characters: it uses the characters look in comics and then adding the actors or actress name that who act this character. These comic looks give the narrative of each character in the film. Also, one another interesting thing is that the characters are in black and white, but the actors or actress name are in red. All the names are in the same size and colour, but when it changes to the names of directors, at the start it changes, not only the font but also the colour (the colour of the writer Frank Millers is in white). But as soon as the next person, the colour and the font style of the name change back to the same as the actors and actress.

Another thing that really makes me feel interesting is the colour. In this film, the main colour of it is similar to the film that in classic film noir era (the 1940s to 1950s) - black and white. But it highlights some specific objects by adding the colour.

For example, in part 1 That Yellow Bastard, the skin colour of the character Roark Junior is yellow.

Here, the yellow skin colour of Roark Junior is really conspicuous

This makes him really specific when the others are all in black and white. Also, it tells us that this guy is the Yellow Bastard. In addition, yellow means greedy, sexy, and bad things, this tells us that he is the villain in this narrative. Also, when the police officer John Hartigan killed Junior and walked away with Nacy Callahan, the blood of Junior is not red - it is yellow.This shows that he killed the Yellow Bastard. 

Another example of colour is this woman:
Her red dress is really specific here. And red refers to danger, love, and blood, this may tell us that she might die. The red dress also shows her sexiness, which means she is really attractive. I think she has the femme fatale style.

I think in this film, the use of colour is very unique. Since they rendered most of the film in black and white while retaining or adding colour for selected objects.

Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Exploration of Camera


Explore camera





HOW ISO, SHUTTER SPEED AND APERTURE WORK TOGETHER



Let's look at this diagram to learn a little more about how 3 of these elements work together to create a picture.



image courtesy of my-photo-school.com 



An example would be of you are creating a more shallow depth of field then you are allowing more light to come into you picture. You will have to either adjust the shutter speed or ISO to compensate for the change in light.



I used my mini SLR camera to find that the results of changing ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed are the same.They all lead the light brighter or darker.



There are some images that I took when I went to Xing zhong shopping centre with my mom at night.






Also I explored the change of different Shutter Speed when I went to park with my cousin. There are some pictures of my cousin.



It is the picture with high Shutter Speed.






I found lower Shutter Speed would lead less light go through the len. However, high Shutter Speed allow more light to go through the len.



It is with low Shutter Speed.

Saturday, 23 December 2017

script of opening

This is the script that was written by me for the opening. Melissa and I still not think about the dialogue yet, but the other things have done. But this may not be the final script, as we may make some change:

FADE IN:

EXT. KILLER STREET – NIGHT

In the East of Los Angeles, there is a historical street which not many people would like to walk on, especially at night. It used to be the killer sites. That’s why it is called “Killer Street”. There is only one street light so that this is quite dark and hardly to see at night.

GEORGE, a killer which had recently become famous, was wearing a big black coat and using a black scarf to cover half of his face, walking on this old and dark street.

 

EXTREME CLOSE UP – GEORGE’S EYES

The light illustrated George’s eyes. Although he seemed to be calm, his eyes still showed that he was going to kill somebody.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

EXT. GEORGE’S ORIGINAL HOUSE – DAY

In the west of New York, at the corner of White Street, George’s original house was there.

GODFATHER, used to be a killer, later became George’s foster father. When he was still a killer, he got a mission which was to kill George’s father. He choose the time when George’s mother, AMY, the younger sister of Godfather, was taking George to school.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. KILLER STREET – NIGHT

George was walking on this old, dark street.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

INT. GEORGE’S ORIGINAL HOUSE – DAY

When Godfather assassinated George’s father, suddenly, Amy came back to home to fetch the book which George forgot to bring. Godfather killed her accidently, with a shock expression on his face.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. KILLER STREET – NIGHT

George was walking on this old, dark street.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

INT. GEORGE’S ORIGINAL HOUSE – DAY

Godfather adopted George after he killed his parents. Also, after this mission, he dropped his job and brought George to a new house.

DISSOLCE TO:

EXT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – EVENING

This new house is in Los Angeles, it is at the corner of the Milton Street, where very close to the Killer Street.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. KILLER STREET – NIGHT

George was walking on this old, dark street.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

INT. AN ABANDON WAREHOUSE – DAY

On the left hand side of the Killer Street, there was an abandon warehouse.

George started secretly to learn how to kill people with Godfather’s old fellow, JOHN.

 

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – NIGHT

When George was 14, one of Godfather’s enemies broke into the house and wanted to kidnapped him. But George shot him down.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. KILLER STREET – NIGHT

George was walking on this old, dark street.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

INT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – BASEMENT – NIGHT

After Godfather knew that George was learning the skill of killing secretly, he started teaching him in the basement of his house.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – DOOR – NIGHT

George went out the Killer Street, and he walked towards to the door.

 

CUT TO:

(Memory)

INT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – BASEMENT – DAY

When George was 20, once training, Godfather told him that now his ability of being a killer is as well as him.

 

CUT BACK TO:

EXT. GODFATHER’S NEW HOUSE – DOOR – NIGHT

George picked up the gun from his big black coat, which has been already prepared for a long time. He loaded his gun and hold it with left hand, his right hand took the door knob and opened it slowly.

 

FADE INTO BLACK

 

Thursday, 21 December 2017

Exploration of music in noir

When I have a look on Youtube about the music in noir style film, I find that there are plenty of pieces of Jazz music. That is Jazz noir music. Here is one of the Jazz noir music that I have found on Youtube:
The instruments that have used in this pieces that I can hear are the piano, the saxophone and the drums. I know that saxophone is a really important instrument in Jazz music. Its tone is low and it lasts quite long I think in this pieces. I think this non-diegetic sound is more likely to use when the character was in the bar or chat with the others. 
But, Jazz music is not the main music to the classic era of film noir. It is more likely to use as a source music, which is the stuff that comes off jukeboxes, radios etc. in the scene.
Most of the music in film noir is modernistic orchestral music. But here, I just can find the modern noir songs. So here I give one of the songs:

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

Plot over view

Today, me and Melissa have talked about our plot of final project - filming an opening. We think we will film about revenge. This idea is from Cynthia, and we think it is great to film in noir style.

The title of the film is ''Knowing that you can't do it''.

·The story is about a man sets out on a journey of revenge that he knows is doomed to die. The whole process of filming is that the man from the start to the destination, interspersed with memories, at the end of the plot, the man took out a gun, calmly pushed to open the door.

·And here I also want to write some about the film:

·The Godfather was a killer when he was young. One of his duties was to kill the man's father(this man is the main character), and he accidentally killed the man's mother by mistake in the execution. And the male owner's mother is godfather's biological sister, and she has not known her brother is a killer. Out of guilt for his younger sister, and because he had broken the rules about not killing women and children, the Godfather adopted the man and dropped his job. (When the Godfather assassinated, he chose his sister to take him to school. He didn't know that his sister had come back to fetch the book which her son had left behind.

·After Godfather has dropped his job, because of his fame and hard work, he gradually became a big shot. In that time, he is raising the man. He wanted the man to lead to a normal life, but the man seemed to be ill-natured at heart. One time the enemy broke into the house to try to kidnap the man when he was only 14 years old. The man shot down the enemy and cleaned up the scene calmly before the godfather came back. The Godfather found that the man had been secretly learning the martial art and the skill of killing with one of his old fellow, so he finally gave up and let the man take over the mantle and become a killer.

·In fact, the man has already known that the Godfather was the murderer of his parents' death. In that day, he also went home by hiding himself in his mother's trunk, since he didn't want to go to school. And he had seen everything. Yet for more than a decade he has said nothing, and perfectly concealed his hatred. At last, at the age of 20, he finally has the same ability as his master, the Godfather. This means that the man is as well as the Godfather. So now, he began to delay his revenge for 11 years.

·He knew this trip would never come back, and if succeeded, he would kill himself after killing the Godfather for returning his foster care. If, after all, the Godfather is still better than him, he will attack the Godfather as killing himself and they will both die.

Saturday, 16 December 2017

Research lighting in film

This is the research that written by Melissa:
There are some information from internet :

Soft front light / hot backlight

A popular technique in film lighting is to use a soft (diffuse) light source from the front and a stronger, more directional light from the  back, so that your subject has a hot edge. The soft frontal light is known as the fill light; the light at the back is known, unsurprisingly. As the backlight.



We can also arrange the lights to leave darkness between the area illustrated by the backlight and the area illustrated by fill light, just depending on how moody you want the shot to be. It is very hard to control, although the moodiest films tend to avoid leaving dark shadows on the faces of female talent.

If you want a different look, backlight can also be soft, but it should still be hotter than the fill.

And we should light our film or video shot by shot. I mean that when you relocate the camera to shoot a different angle, the light must be move as well to ensure the subject is always lit correct. I think it is very important, because audiences will feel involved in your film or video when you did light your film or video shot by shot.

Mixing color temperatures

Using different color temperatures can be used to great effect. This simply means using lights of different color in the same shot.

This was used to great effect by James Cameron in the steel mill scene of “Terminator2”, in which he used blue and orange light ( consistent with moonlight and molten steel respectively ).

The only caveat with this is. that you must determine the relationship between the two different color before filming, because it is not really possible, for example, to make the blue bluer without also making the orange bluer ( i.e.less orange )


Examples
1.Putting real film lights outside windows instead of relying on natural light - always worth it

Tips : Filmmaking is all about designing a look from scratch and then executing it on the shoot itself, which means that control is everything in filmmaking.
2. No color in your shots must ever be an accident
3. A beautiful blue can be achieved with HMI lights and a digital camera set to tungsten balance


4. A beautiful “Matrix” - style green can be achieve by shooting with regular florescent lights with the camera set to tungsten balance

5.Soft pools of light on actors’ faces can produce a very interesting look
There are three light sources in the shot: hot light from the back, dim soft light over the whole scene and a brighter soft pool of light in the top half of the singer’s face.

This shows how the most interesting discoveries in filmmaking are made while you’re actually shooting something, but it will only happen if you keep an open mind and are not too stressed.

6.Daylight-balanced light in the background with tungsten—light from the front, with the camera set on tungsten balance
The still below uses exactly the same technique, with a different subject ( a porcelain rose )

7.Backlight vs. no backlight
There two frames are taken from my first film: the first has no backlight and the second was shot with backlight ( a daylight-balanced Kino Flo):

Tips : The effect of backlight is clear: it increases contrast, reduces “muddiness” and enhances perceived sharpness.



Thursday, 14 December 2017

Set up a scene and experience with lighting

I set up the scene in my room, it is for creating different lighting. Since Melissa and I couldn't use the studios in the Culture and Art Centre(we have to book it before), it is not very professional.

I used my bed for the scene, and the subjects I choose for lighting are these two bolsters. My room have one window and two doors, which can create three different directions of light. In this picture, the light is from the window on the right of the bolsters (the other two directions of light I have covered by curtains,as the curtains can completely cover the lights from outside). Therefore, the light on the two bolsters is brighter on the right.

And in this picture, I change the direction of light to the right corner. The shadow of the bolsters can show the direction of the light.

And this time, I change to the left. But the light is quite far away so it seems to be quite dark. Well, I think we can still see where the light from since the light on the left is brighter than the other places.

I also used the light of my phone to create different angles and direction of the light to the bolsters.
Here, the light is from the front of the bolster, it highlights the front of the bolsters and the back is almost all in shadow


In this picture, the light is more likely from the bottom of the bolsters, the light is quite strong and make the subject looks quite mysteries and evil.
I also place the light at the front of the subject, but I make it a little bit farther (comparing to the first picture).
Also, I make the light to the left, that is, the light is from the left corner. Therefore, the shadow of the subject is formed at the back and it is slightly on the right.

Here I place the light on the left hand side of the bolster which has a tomato on the top, so the light on the left of that bolster is brighter than the right hand side. Also, because my light is quite strong, it seems to be a hard lighting which can create a sharp edged shadows. If it is use on a person, it can show that the person may have a dark side or a dark past.

Here I place the light on the right of the bolsters. But the light illuminates on the right one is more likely to be a back light, since it illuuminates that one by highlighting its back.

This time I place the light on the top of the bolsters. Since it is hard for me to place the light just above the two bolsters and take the picture, I place it more above the left one. It highlights the top of that bolster and below that the subject is almost covered by shadows.

Because I didn't use the studio light, I just use my phone light and the light from nature(by sun), this is not really professional. But I can still find the difference by using these two type of light. The phone light is stronger than the nature one and it often creates the hard lighting. I think it can also be the example of low key. And the nature light is softer, often creates the soft lighting. Comparing to the phone light, the nature light is more likely to be the high key.
Next time, I hope I can use the studio light to experience the different angle and direction, I think the illumination of the light and the differences will be more clear than this time.

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Exploration of lighting in Noir

This video is talking about the basics of lighting for film noir. It is on Youtube. It gives much information about the lighting that is really useful. So I really recommend to watch it!

Also, I have created a voicethread for lighting in noir. I find some shots in films which is in film noir style and some shots in Blade Runner which is neo-noir style. Some of my knowledge is from the video I have given on top.

Here is the link:
https://voicethread.com/share/10172460/

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Setting Collage

Melissa and I have also created some collages for setting as well, and here they are:
This is the collage made by Melissa
 Melissa's collage mainly focuses on the traditional film noir settings, she find most of them in some films which was in the classic film noir period. The settings often in a dark, quiet and old place, which can make people think it is dangerous and contain mystery.
This is the collage made by me
My collage is not only find the pictures from the setting in the film which has film noir elements, I also find some other pictures which I think they have some connection with film noir. In my opinion, I think the setting in film noir is often in a dark, quite old place. And things are always happened at night. I think these places can make people feel dangerous and mystery. Therefore, when I am considering my setting for my production, I may find a place which is dark and seems to be dangerous or containing mystery.

Costume Collage

This is the collage which is made by Melissa. This is about the costume, here is the collage:
It is quite interesting that Melissa not only choose the western costume of film noir, but also choose the eastern one. She finds some pictures of Japanese women's wearing which is called kimono, and the picture of cheongsam which is a really typical Chinese style clothing. But in that picture, it is not a traditional wearing style of cheongsam, it is more likely to be the modern one. In that picture, the woman looks quite sexy, this can tell me that I can also choose eastern style clothing for femme fatale. She also find some western clothing which seems quite wealthy(in my own opinion), the wearing of men are always having a hat and a big coat, this might be a good idea of the character of detective.

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

The review on Headmaster's speech

Today, our school's headmaster, Brendan Wignall, came to our media class and gave a speech about Blade Runner and film noir. He had written lots of science fiction stories on magazines. He has a great passion for science fiction film, especially Blade Runner. He watched Blade Runner original version about 21 or 22, and he had watched it 5 times.
The picture of our school headmaster, Brendan Wignall
He thinks that Blade Runner is film noir look, which means it contains the elements of film noir. He mentioned that Blade Runner is the last major film which made without any computer graphics, so all of the tower, the city, the car, the spinners are all models, they are not made by computer graphics. And the reason for most of the scene in Blade Runner took place in the dark or in the rain is because they were the places in the daily life and they seemed to be perfective but actually, they were plastic. And this is because they didn't have enough money to give a good set, that means, they couldn't make the set good enough. According to this, the headmaster said that we have to always consider the money when we are producing a film as it is important.

About Blade Runner, the headmaster also says that the original one(which is the first one) was too dark and too European, which was the answer of the audiences in America which were the tested audiences for this film. And if he can make some change in the new Blade Runner, he says he will make less sexiness, since in Blade Runner, even in Blade Runner 2049, there are so many scenes which contain sexiness. Also, when one of the students in the class asked him about who did he think is the femme fatale in Blade Runner 2049, he said that it is hard as there is no a really definite answer. Since Blade Runner is just contained the elements of film noir but not all of them. It can just contain two or three elements, therefore, in my own film(which I have to make it relevant to film noir), I can just get three or more elements from film noir, but not that all. Well, in this question, the headmaster view is that we can just find the character which has more elements of femme fatale, for example, sexy and dangerous, than the others, that could be the femme fatale of this film.

At the last, the headmaster also talked about our coursework, which is that we have to create 2 minutes opening of a film which is relevant to the film noir. Our teacher asked him about what story or the topic should we use for our film in nowadays, and his answer is that we can make a film in far Eastern, such as Japan, China(Shanghai, etc), he didn't really recommend the British film noir as he thinks it is not quite suitable. He also gives a suggestion about how to make an opening of a film. He recommends us first to sketch out the whole story of the film, and then go back to the beginning since it can be easier if we do like this. I think this is a good suggestion which I may use it when I am doing my coursework.

And finally, I took a picture with him for a memory. Here is the picture:
The picture of me and the headmaster
Well...I think it is not really good so......

Saturday, 2 December 2017

Make-up Collage

This is the collage of make-up, which is created by me. As we work separately - I do the make-up collage when Melissa does the costume one.
Here is the collage:
I like the red lips of the femme fatale, and actually, I have found some other colour of the lips of the femme fatale, such as dark purple. But in my opinion, red is much better and I may use this colour to my character. For the eyeshadow, I prefer the colour which is more likely to the cold colour. For example, the purple colour or the blue colour. But I also will consider the brown colour, since it looks great to the femme fatale as well.

I also find some hairstyles, for example, the hairstyle of the woman which is a single horsetail. This is the one that I like the most. As it looks really nice. Although I know most of the femme fatale will let the hair down to show more sexiness, I think this hairstyle is also really attractive and sexy. Therefore, I would like to use this hairstyle to my character.

Character Collage

Melissa and I have created some Character Collages. Here are my two Character Collage:
Character Collage for a Japanese anime 
 This is the collage of a Japanese anime call'Bungo Stray Dogs'. The story centres on individuals who are gifted with supernatural powers and use them for different purposes including holding a business, solving mysteries, and carrying out missions assigned by the mafia. The story mainly follows the members of the "Armed Detective Agency" and their everyday lives.

Most characters in the series are named after famous literary authors and/or characters in their works, including Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Atsushi Nakajima, Agatha Christie, Osamu Dazai, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Rampo Edogawa, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Kenji Miyazawa, Doppo Kunikida, and Akiko Yosano.

I choose six characters in this collage since the settings of them are really suitable for film noir style character. There is a detective which have a dark past. And he is not always positive and he will do anything to get the truth or his want. This is really similar to the character of detective in film noir. The clothing of them also can inspire me, since the clothing is quite similar to the clothing in the 1940s. I might use this anime as an example.
the character collage 
 This is another collage of film noir. In this collage, the picture of the detective can show the characteristic of this character is that although he is a good person, the hero in the film noir, he will have some bad habits. In the first picture of detective, it shows that the detective is not always positive, he might have a dark past, this can give a good inspiration for me.

Also, the pictures of femme fatale show that the femme fatale always shows her sexy but she is independent and powerful. She might attract men but she won't rely on them. I might set my character of femme fatale as a sexy and powerful woman. Her appearance will attract men, but she is an independent woman.
And this is the character collage created by Melissa:
The pictures that Melissa has chosen are mostly from the films that are in film noir style. In these pictures, it shows that the characters in the film noir style often contain some mysteries, they might be a good person, they can also be a bad person. I might set some mysteries to my character as well.