My name is Jerom Thambipillai (8692). I am part of Group 2 consisting of Olamide Ajisafe (8010) and Matthew Davies(8511). I have completed Brief 1: Film. To see my portfolio evidence please click on the labels on the right named "A2 research and planning plan, A2 construction A2 evaluation"
music video
Below is our finished music video
Group 3 Music Video Layla Obi- Blue Lights
digipak
Below is the outside panel of my Digipak Album cover
Group 3 DIGIPAK FRONT COVER
Album cover
Below is the inside panels of my album cover
GROUP 3 DIGIPAK INSIDE COVER
Click on the picture below to be redirected to our website
I had a lot of fun during the workshop day and it was definitely the most fun I've ever had at media, and probably the most fun I'll have during my time at Latymer. I particularly enjoyed...
Learning how to perform and gaining confidence in front of the camera
Observing and talking to professionals that work in the media industry
Trying on a variety of costumes and thus taking on a variety of personas
Spending time and getting to know the other media students/crew
The fun, yet professional, atmosphere of the set
During the workshop day I was kept busy with a variety of roles such as robot dancer, backing contemporary dancer, backing hip hop dancer, end scene dancer, backing cheerleader and saxophone player. A large variety of roles meant that I was kept busy for the entire day thus making my time on set exciting and enjoyable.
me as a robot dancer
me as a contemporary dancer
me as a hip hop dancer
me as a saxophone player
me as a cheerleader
me as a end scene dancer
During the day I was guided by Dom (our director), Ed (our camera man) and Amy (Our assistant director). These crew members were vital in terms of the workshop day running smoothly.
Amy-Our assistant director
Dom- Our director
Here is a time-lapse of the day which reflects just how busy the workshop day was
In conclusion I had an amazing time throughout the day. It was very tiring but was even more rewarding. By the end of the day I have obtained a number of skills that will help me for my music video.
Although singing along to "Uptown Funk" doesn't see very educational I learnt a lot from the process. For example I learnt how to lipsync with confidence. Although I was quite uncomfortable and felt awkward at first as we progressed I became more confident in front of the camera. This was a vital skill I needed in order to perform for the remake.
Me lip-syncing
Whilst editing I also learnt how to sync our lip syncing video with the overlaid music. After a while this became quite easy and was an essential skill needed to edit our remake.
Task 2: Learn and practice your performance
In order to be ready for shoot day we had to do two-weeks of rehearsals before hand. This ensured we were ready to perform in front of the camera straight away and cut down the time of the shoot massively. Without the dance-rehearsals, the shoot day would be near impossible. The dance rehearsals also helped us become more confident in performing in front of each other and proved beneficial on shoot day.
Our Timetable
Tasha, our dance teacher, uploaded videos of her performing the dance moves. This made sure we could memorise our routines outside of rehearsals if necessary. This was helpful as we all needed to know our routines of by heart by shoot day in order to efficiently shoot.
In addition to learning how to dance we also learnt how to perform from Jasmine. This included skills such as confidence, eye contact, performing to camera and generally embodying a role.
me using performance skills to perform to the camera
Task 3: Help to plan and organise costume
For our costumes we were given a set list of things needed.
The majority of my costume was brought in by me, with some accessories borrowed from fellow students and the media department. After items of clothings were brought in they were altered and sorted into costumes by Olivia. We then designated each costume their own hanger which helped organise the costumes and thus make the shoot more efficient. I wore the following costumes
Robot costume
Contemporary costume
Hip hop costume
End dancer costume
Cheerleader costume
Band member costume
Me with all my different costumes
From the planning costumes I learnt a lot. For example I learnt how to organise costumes resourcefully, I learnt how to be resourceful and learnt how to find creative solutions from what we had. I also learnt how important attention to detail is in crafting a costume. These lessons have prepared me for making my actual music video next term.
Task 5: Complete the remake edit
For my edit I worked with Olamide and Phoebe and we completed our edit in a two week period. This was done by maximizing any time possible through making a timetable. This ensured we finished the edit efficiently and by the deadline. During the edit I improved upon my existing skills such as sequencing, syncing to audio and grading as well as discovering new editing features such as levels.
me editing the remake
Overall I am quite pleased with the edit and I think I am well equipped with editing skills for next year
Although singing along to "Uptown Funk" doesn't see very educational I learnt a lot from the process. For example I learnt how to lipsync with confidence. Although I was quite uncomfortable and felt awkward at first as we progressed I became more confident in front of the camera. This was a vital skill I needed in order to perform for the remake.
Me lip-syncing
Whilst editing I also learnt how to sync our lip syncing video with the overlaid music. After a while this became quite easy and was an essential skill needed to edit our remake.
Task 2: Learn and practice your performance
In order to be ready for shoot day we had to do two-weeks of rehearsals before hand. This ensured we were ready to perform in front of the camera straight away and cut down the time of the shoot massively. Without the dance-rehearsals, the shoot day would be near impossible. The dance rehearsals also helped us become more confident in performing in front of each other and proved beneficial on shoot day.
Our Timetable
Tasha, our dance teacher, uploaded videos of her performing the dance moves. This made sure we could memorise our routines outside of rehearsals if necessary. This was helpful as we all needed to know our routines of by heart by shoot day in order to efficiently shoot.
In addition to learning how to dance we also learnt how to perform from Jasmine. This included skills such as confidence, eye contact, performing to camera and generally embodying a role.
me using performance skills to perform to the camera
Task 3: Help to plan and organise costume
For our costumes we were given a set list of things needed.
The majority of my costume was brought in by me, with some accessorises borrowed from fellow students and the media department. We then designated each costume their own hanger which helped organise the costumes and thus make the shoot more efficient. I wore the following costumes
Robot costume
Contempary costume
Hip hop costume
End dancer costume
Cheerleader costume
Band member costume
Me with all my different costumes
Task 5: Complete the remake edit
We completed our edit in a two week period. This was done by maximising any time possible through making a timetable. This ensured we finished the edit efficiently and by the deadline. During the edit I improved upon my existing skills such as sequencing, syncing to audio and grading as well as discovering new editing features such as levels.
me editing the remake
Overall I am quite pleased with the edit and I think I am well equipped with editing skills for next year
I am extremely pleased with our final edit. I didn't expect the final product to look as professional as it did. After showing family and friends they also picked up on this and were astonished at the level of professionalism produced by the school. I think this is due to the amazing sets, film makers and editing resulting in a really nice end product.
What works really well
I think the majority of our remake went quite well. For example the basic sequence matches quite well, such as cuts and grading. Our performance also matches quite well thus making all our shots instantly recognisable to Taylor's.
Another shot that looks extremely similar
one shot that looks extremely similar
A grading before and after shot
What would you change
Due to constraints we weren't able to remake the first 15 seconds of the music video, if we had more time and props I would definitively add the section as I feel it takes a bit away from the whole remake.
The section we missed out
Also some of the moves were far too complex for us to do thus we chose to use simpler alternatives. Although there was no way we could've changed this, I feel it impacts the remake slightly.
Our next big project will be to make our own music video from scratch for a song that isn't mainstream. During this remake learnt many skills that I can carry over and use for the next project.
Shooting in a studio will heavily impact my music video. During the remake we were shown the possibilities shooting in a studio had. For example there are numerous lighting possibilities with the the lighting desk and infinite white can be achieved using the cyclorama Also the professional look from studio shooting cannot be matched by any other setting.
Our set with the cyclorama
This shot filmed in the studio looks particularly professional
After the Prelim I am much more likely to perform in my video. Both my confidence and performance skills greatly improved during the last few weeks. We were taught to perform by Jasmine and taught to dance by Tasha, the skills we picked up include
maintaining eye contact with the camera
lip-syncing
basic dancing
overall confidence in front of the camera
Phoebe maintaining eye contact and lip syncing to the camera
The whole dance confidently dancing to the camera
These lessons means if necessary we can star in our music video which will make the project more efficient as we wont have to rely on external actors.
Also with grading the possibilities for mood, atmosphere and color are countless using a studio. I learnt to utilize premiere pro properly such as levels, saturation.
Three-way hue balance and angle used for grading
I also learnt just how much preparation is needed in order to make a music video. Things that need to be handled before the shoot include
Costumes
dance rehearsals
Make-up/styling
Props
Cast/Crew schedules
Refreshments for shoot day
Knowing this I now will start preparation for our music video as it is an extremely long process that requires a lot of time and planning. In conclusion I think the prelim task will have a great impact to my music video and I'm looking forward to starting the music video making process again.
This blog is now closed and no posts will be made from now on. I hope you enjoy reading the blog and watching our sequence as much as I enjoyed making it
Our film is called Algorithm 404. Its plot centers around a hacker who hacks into a conspiracy organisation. He obtains a file which he transfers to a USB. He then gets a phone call from a fellow hacker to meet up. On the journey he realizes he is being followed so he begins to run. He runs to meet the other hacker but finds him being held at gunpoint by members of the conspiracy organisation. He is then tackled to the ground by one of the members of the organisation.
Form
Our opning sequence follows many conventions. Please view Prezi where I identified the conventions and showed how/why we used the conventions in our sequence.
An example of a real film opening sequence that uses the conventions mentioned is "Se7en"
Although "Se7en" is of a slightly different genre of psychological thriller instead of our genre of cyber-security action thriller, it still adheres to many of the conventions mentioned. It introduces the companies and institutions behind the film, it introduces the genre, builds suspense and includes titles.
Genre
Our chosen genre for our film is the cyber-security action thriller. This genre incorporates elements from the cyber-security genre as well as both the action and thriller genres.
Cyber-security
The cyber-security genre is a relatively recent genre. This made it especially hard as we didn't have much to work from. However we still managed to get inspired by the limited media that was already out there.
Firstly we made sure out titles connoted this genre. We took inspiration from "The Matrix" and the new TV series "Mr.Robot" as well as incorporating our own ideas such as trying to replicate the font used in CMD. For example a convention of the cyber-security genre is animated titles. This gives off a very tech vibe which we tried to replicate.
You can clearly see how our titles were inspired in the following GIFs I made.
Our Titles
Title from Mr.Robot
Another title from Mr.Robot
Other ways we connoted genre was through events that take place, props and themes.
A common convention of the cyber-security genre is the event of hacking. We made this a key event in our sequence. This also linked into a common theme of the genre which is usually hacking a big organisation. In our case we had a conspiracy organisation being hacked. This screamed the genre of cyber-security really well. A main prop that we used was a laptop. This is yet again another convention of the cyber-security genre.
A snippet from Mr. Robot of him hacking on his computer
A snippet from our sequence of our character hacking on his laptop
Action and Thriller
Typical conventions of the action/thriller genre are
Fights
"Cat and mouse" chase
Fast-Paced music
Tense atmosphere
Narrative revolves around an enigma
Guns
These conventions can be seen in movies such as "The Dark knight", "Inception", "I,Robot" and "Se7en".
Our sequence adheres to all of the conventions listed. We have a chase scene followed by a short conflict scene. Fast-paced music is used throughout and I feel that a tense atmosphere is created. The narrative revolves around a mysterious file on a USB and guns are used. Using these conventions made sure our sequence is instantly recognisable as part of the genre
One convention we did challenge was having an adult male main character. We chose to have our character as a teenage male which is usually not done. Films of the genre such as "The Dark knight", "Inception", "I,Robot" and "Se7en" all use adult male characters where as we used a teenager.
Narrative Structure
We used many narrative theory's in our sequence by incorporating narrative techniques. Below is a slide presentation outlining the techniques and theory's used.
Style
Here is a prezi identifying how we made our film look and feel, and why we made it look and feel the way it did.
