Unit introduction

People make short films for lots of purposes. Music videos, films and advertisements are all types  of product that use the skills you will develop in this unit. The tools to make a short film are easily available and now with video streaming services, anybody's short film can reach an audience all over the world. 

In this unit, you will develop the skills needed to turn an idea into a film that can be shared online with your audience. You will find out about the different functions of a camera. You will plan a film shoot and set up and capture shots. You will learn about problems that might occur and how to solve them. You will also learn how to use your initiative on shoots to meet your goals. The transferable and sector skills you develop in this unit can enable you to progress to further learning. They will also support you in completing the core skills units in Group A of the qualification.

Learning aims

In this unit you will:

1. Plan a film shoot and solve problems
2. Capture footage while demonstrating self-management.

Planning a shoot

Types of film

Action

Adventure

Animation

Biography

Comedy

Crime

Documentary

Drama

Family

Fantasy

Film Noir

History

Horror

Music

Musical

Mystery

Romance

Sci-Fi

Short

Sport

Superhero

Thriller

War

Western

using the list of the film genres above create a table listing the genres, then identify a film against each that you enjoyed watching. As an extension to the task explain why you enjoyed the film.

• Locations, e.g. recce, walkthrough, suitability

Films are shot in a number of places around the world and in some cases these can be used together in one scene of a film. People will go out an do what is called a "Recce" to look at the suitability of a location for the purpose of the film.

What locations around the college and the local area could be used in a fill. Research and find out what fillms have used locations around the college for films and tv productions.

Lighting

Lighting is key to all films and TV as it can envolke a sence of mood and setting to the productions.

• Available Light
• Motivated Lighting
• Low Key
• High Key
• Hard Light
• Sidelight
• Back Light
• Fill Light
• Key Light

Create a presentation, one slide per lighting style and add a picture of what it looks like.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Learning Capture - Teachers allocate time at the end of the session for the group to write down what they think they have learned. The information shared helps the teacher to see which content he may need to revisit and so shapes future planning.

Planning a shoot

• Resources.

Props and assets are key to almost any film as they can make a set look authentic, realistic and in keeping with a theme of the film. 

Using the below clip create a list of the assets and props that you can see.
 

Personnel, e.g. talent, background artists.

Whats a talent?

When you are creating a film you need to look at your casts and actors, these are your "Talents". When it comes to your planning you need to organise your talents so that they have an understanding of what they are required to do. If you have people/talents that are in the background of your filming you will need to get their consent to be in your films, this can be done through using a "release form" this is similar to the one that you may have got from your school or college. 

Deadlines.

Whats a deadline? what's the point of a deadline?

In filming and production of videos, a plan of action is essential to the successful completion of the project. In most situations, a person (The Boss) will require things to be complete by a certain time. Planning is where these deadlines can be met. 

Create a plan with deadlines for your trip to school/college, try to include your college timetable. create your plan in excel using the below table headings

Order of shots

Think about how you get to school or college! Is there a routine that you have? Can you do things in a different order?

When you come to create your film production you will need to consider the order of your shots, as you have just discussed about the order of your trip to college. The sequence in which clips are will enable your target audiences to understand the flow of the film, for example, you wouldn't put a clip of people leaving school or the college at 4:00 at the start of a video about coming to school/college. So planning is key! 

Using the provided planning template, create a film proposal for your trip to college, consider the clips that you would use to describe your stages, and give an idea of the camera angles that you might use (we will cover camera angles more later)

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates

Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Planning a shoot

• Potential issues and solutions, e.g. storage, personnel availability, contingency plans.

What problems could happen when planning the creation of a film?

Think about the films that you have watched, its there a theme in weather, lighting, surrounding! Often films are shot in multiple locations to give the impression of a larger area.

A good example of this is the Lord of the Rings films, they used the whole of New Zealand to film different parts to give the feel of the film. But what about when it rained! Snowed, got dark earlier because of the time of year.

Other issues to think about are the talents and actors that are used, what happens if they get ill, become pregnant. 

You as the director or producer of the films and videos need to take these things into consideration and look at ways that you can avoid any delays to your production. 

Complete the below table offering your suggestions to contingency
 

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Types of shot

When it comes to creating a film, tv program or informative video you must think and plan how the video will be shot. 

Movies will use a number of different angles and camera shots to convey a number of moods and settings that help give an identity to a film. 

Long shot. 

Long shots are done by positioning the camera at a distance to be able to get all assets and actors in the shot.

Medium shot, e.g. singles, group, medium wide

Medium shots are used allow the actor to be in focus but not filling the complete frame of the film

Find films that are your favorite and search for where these above shots have been used. Reflect on why they have been used. What other shot could have been used?

What type of camera shot is this?, What is used for?, What can we tell about the character/background from this shot?

What type of camera angle is this?, What is used for?, What can we tell about the character/surroundings from this shot?

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Just a Minute - At the end of the lesson teachers ask learners to summarise their learning. The comparison of these summaries against learning objectives informs planning.

Traffic Lights - Learners use green, amber and red traffic lights to indicate levels of understanding and to attract support from peers and the teacher.

Types of shot

Close up, e.g. extreme, lean in, lean out.

This type of shot, the subject of the shot is the area of focus, for example, it could be a certain feature. The shot fills the screen and is clearly the central focus of the shot.

The extreme close-up is a uniquely special shot and you should plan it into your production very carefully before you use it.

Extreme close-up Lean-in

extreme close-up shots of Caesar in the Planet of the Apes is using both the lean-in and the lean-out. Above is the first frame of the film it uses an extreme close-up shot which then pulls back into a medium shot. At the end of the film, the reverse is presented. This is utilized to draw the audience's attention to the eyes, which in turn make Caesar more human, and more sympathetic.

Find films that are your favorite and search for where these above shots have been used. Reflect on why they have been used. What other shot could have been used?

What type of camera shot is this?, What is used for?, What can we tell about the character/background from this shot?

Panning shot, e.g. whip pan, open matte.

BREAKING BAD - Motivated Camera Movement from Vashi Nedomansky on Vimeo.

The following is an example of a Whip pan shot from Hot Fuzz

Shooting in an "Open Matte" is the process of achieving a different aspect ratio than the one you are shooting in by masking part of the full frame image with black bars.

Find films that are your favorite and search for where these above shots have been used. Reflect on why they have been used. What other shot could have been used?

What type of camera shot is this?, What is used for?, What can we tell about the character/background from this shot?

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Assignment 1 out - Class Discussion and refection of the task,.

Working in small groups mind map your approach to the assignment task, look at how you will be filming, what you will be filming, think WHY? what impact do you want your film to have?

Open up OneNote to add your presentations that you have created to date.

You can use the above video as inspiration for your productions, look at the shots that have been used, the content, locations, questions and the answers, the transitions.

Types of shot

• Close up, e.g. extreme, lean in, lean out.

• Panning shot, e.g. whip pan, open matte.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a vital stage to enable clear direction and flow to any film, animation or even a game. It provides starting points and important stages along the journey to the end point.  

Why are they important?

Create a storyboard of your journey to college

Discuss your storyboard to the class

Camera functions 

• Components of a camera, e.g. lens, viewfinder, control interface.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Camera functions 

• Functions to control the image. 

• Zoom to control the size of shot.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Capturing shots and camera movements 

• Positioning a camera.

• Mounting a camera.

• Framing different shots.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Capturing shots and camera movements 

• Adjusting size of shot.

• Moving the camera while shooting.

• Reacting to situations on a shoot, e.g. change of light, planned shot not working.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.