Write a list of things to do in order to complete the Independent Study effectively. Suggest a timescale for each stage, working towards a final deadline in May 2012. List even the obvious things (like choosing films, watching films...)

• Pick two films from two differen countries
• Watch them
• Investigate its movement, themes...(cinematic terms) of the movie
• Analize the movie, scene, sound/editing techniques etc.
• Plan the documentary/script
• Do it
• Plan the Rationale
• Do it

Production Porfolio

Pre-Production:
During this project, I had the responsibility of being the director of my group. We had some ideas of what we could have done in the “Barrio Chino”, but as had never visited the place before, we couldn’t make strict arrangements in terms of cinematography. Anyway we did had to plan some technical issues. I knew our cinematographer had had some experience in filming, so that was not a problem. For the editor we needed someone who possessed a Mac Book due to the fact that editing is much simpler there. We had to find somewhere to record the sound which was not a problem because we had a cell phone with a good recording quality, as well as the camera and the tripod which was given by the teacher.

Production:
Once we arrived to China Town, we went to eat and had a more certain idea of what the filming was going to be about. Before we started, we went outside and have a look at the shop we were filming at. I had a look to their script, and in spite of the fact that I didn’t understand a word; I gave an idea of the duration and structure of the conversation so that I could, with the help of the editor plan some of the shots. After that, together with the cinematographer, we also film some establishing shots we thought of in the moment. While we were eating, I told the Chinese group people who were talking in the shop what they were supposed to do and how the conversation was going to be filmed. We were going to film the conversation twice from two angles: behind the boys, and behind the owner of the shop.
When we finished planning everything we needed, we went to the shop were we planned everything, and after a few words with the Chinese teacher, the owner refused to be interviewed.
That was a huge problem, because we had to find another shop were to film and try to plan it as good as possible. We went through different shops trying to find someone but no one wanted to be filmed. We were about to surrender, a woman in a shop said she had no problem in being filmed. So we set everything in place try to plan some details and started filming. The problem we had there, was that the Chinese guys didn’t understand what the woman was saying, so after some minutes of hearing: “I don’t understand what she is trying to tell me”, and having no reaction from the woman, I decided the subject wasn’t the appropriate and left, even though I knew it was going to be difficult to find someone else who would like to be interviewed.
We wondered for about an hour through different shops having not good answers from the owners. Until an owner of a shop which sells chicken said he had no problem in talking. So as I had the camera, I took the role of the cinematographer, set the shot tell the cinematographer to put his phone in the desk in order to record the sound and start filming as better as I could.

Post-Production:
During the post production, we had trouble transferring the files to the editors Mac. Because of this we were forced to use another’s cinematographer computer which was not a Mac and our editor had no idea of how to use. However, he learnt with the help of his colleague and edited together with him. During this process my participation was active giving orders of how I wanted the final product to be, and not acting because: it was not my role, and I had no idea of how to use the program.

Evaluation:
As mentioned before, during all of the processes we had some problems. With respect to the Pre-Production, even though it wasn’t assigned, we could have gone to the China Town before planning and make sure everything was going to be fine the day we were going to film, this includes talking to the owner of the shop basically. Having done this, we wouldn’t have experienced the problems we had in the Production. Another of the things we should have done was to prove that the files filmed in the camera had no problem being transferred to a Mac. The final product wasn’t as bad as I expected after all of the problems we had, anyway I would have I liked to have more response from my editors which at certain point did what they felt and I didn’t like.

The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man is a British film-noir directed by Carol Reed. It is a paranoid story of social, economic, and moral corruption in a depressed, rotting and crumbling, 20th century Vienna following World War II. In the story, pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime.

The word ‘noir’ is literally French for ‘black’, giving us the concept of ‘dark film’. French film critics coined the term soon after the end of WWII. In the early part of the 1940s France was occupied by Nazis, making it enemy territory forbidden to receive Hollywood product. By war’s end there was a half-decade backlog of American movies which hit French viewers suddenly in one rush, rather than gradually over the years as usual. From a Hollywood point of view, they’d been an audience asleep for half a decade.



http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961208/REVIEWS08/401010366/1023

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/specials/greene-astory.html

Short Film

Barefoot Children

The trailer show the condition in which kids without home lives. This is achieved bu the author with the use of several devices.

In this trailer, we could hear only to one type of sound, we can say this one is a non-diegetic. Its a common street sound that remains during all the video. This gives us an auditive idea of what they suffer every day. The combination of pictures and texts, creates the tone the director wants us to feel, reflection.     

Waiting for superman

Sound:
In this trailer, we cna hear in total about 17 voices. All the way from little, 10 year-old kids, to college students. We can also here different teachers between a large range of ages. We could also hear the speech of important business man, Bill Gates.
In this scene, also many non-diagetic sounds are used. There´s a voice that is the narrator, which is non-diegetic and appears randomly during the film.
We can also consider as non-diegetic, the voices of the characters that at some stage are non-diagetic, as some parts their image is not shown. 


Footage:
We can see that the only part wich was not filmed for the movie is the kid riding a bicycle trying to make a trick and failing.


Sources:
School girl; she is interviewed in the school.
Young kid; she is interviewed at her house.
Michele Rhee (Chancelor of public schools), she is interviewed in a conference room.
Geoffrey Canada, (education reformer) he is interviewed in a classroom.
Young boy; he is interviewed at the school.
School teacher, he is interviewed at the school.
Mom and dad of a boy who is about to enter College; they are interviewed in their house.
Bill Gates, (Founder of Microsoft), he is interviewed in his ofice.


Text:
In this video, texts with short sentences are presented as giving point about each theme. The purpose of this short sentence is to introduce the theme and afterwards the interview supports this point.


Editing:
The trailer starts presenting the idea that every child has dream. After this, the big problem is introduced: the education system is failing them. Then the consequences of this issue is presented in form of graphs and videos that prove this. At the end we can see the images of the lotery in which kids education depend on.

Strangers

Strangers, the short film written and directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv, show us the story of how two men religiously confronted turn to be allies in order to escape from a difficult situation they are suffering.


The film begins when a man walks into the train and sits right opposite another one. We know nothing about them but that one is a Muslim and the other one a Jewish. This is shown by a close up of the newspaper one of them is reading which is written in Arabic and by the reaction the other one have pulling out of his shirt a Jewish necklace.
They cross views to each other critically. A lot of tension is build.
After another stop in a station a group of gangs approach the two guys and surround them. It’s clear the gangs don’t like them and it’s even more evident when one of them paints a Nazi symbol on the newspaper the Muslim was reading. Here things get much tenser, the two men feel in a very uncomfortable situation. They both know there is no way to escape except they work together.

The structure of the novel is devided in three main parts. The first one when the two main characters are sitted in the train and they cross views judgin themselfs. The second part is when the group of gangs intimidates them. And the third one when they get to escape from the gangs.

This is a very interesting film to watch, and analyse taking into account there is not even a word said in the whole of it. There is a very good labour of the directors that by the sounds and camara shots transmit the exact emotions the film goes through. First when the two men are sited alone the camara shots and close ups of their faces and main objects transmits us the rivality it exists between them. When the gangs appear, the sound plays a very important role that, together with some camara shots, builds up the tension which is actually a lot.

I think this short film was very interesting and had a lot of aspects I could focus in for being the first film I had to analyze.