Friday, October 29, 2010

For the rest of the semester

November 4 - Ready for Grading - Post all in one. BEFORE NEXT CLASS
    Script (Fully developed)
    Storyboard (Completed)
    Shot list (Completed)

November 11 - No Class
     Go to MIT List Gallery

November 18
     Viewing of final 1-3 minute films
     Assign Final Product

November 25 - No Class

December 2
      Final

Thursday, October 28, 2010

story board draft




Storyboard Yibiao



Storyboard -- Yao






Dream Storyboard- Lauren


I will be using a combination of still images, video, and motion graphics to create the look i'm going for. Storyboard images are courtesy of Getty Images.

Story Board from Naveen




I have used Photoshop to make these frames. I will also use After Effects to give some motion to the Static frames to make it visually enriching and binding to the script.
Image Courtesy-Google Images, Google Sketch...

Story Board from Yu SUN (Max)



I've already upload my script last week, please check "Assignment 5" tag, or click here.
Please feel free to comment on both script and storyboard.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Storyboard -- Natthaphol


here is my storyboard. I may change about shots and story during working to make it fit the duration.

Storyboard - Nat Paosong


Here is my first draft, i used photoshop to make my storyboard.



script - Anne Kane

EXT: Campus Day

The dreamer is walking across campus and everything is blurry. There is a mist in the air and nothing is in focus. The shots are all POV of the dreamer unless indicated otherwise. A long shot shows the campus and shows people walking by not paying attention to the dreamer. The dreamer looks at his feet and hands in close-up shots.

Two 360 degree shots, one POV and the other reversed showing the dreamer build tension and confusion. Someone bumps into the dreamer but continues walking away without an acknowledgement. A friend of the dreamer stops to talk.

FRIEND A
Hey

DREAMER
Hi, do you feel how strange it is out here today? I feel like I'm not even here.

FRIEND A
I think you need to get some sleep man.

Dreamer stands still as friend A walks away. The dreamer then reaches out to touch the shoulder of a passer-by. The passerby turns around and gives the dreamer a weird look then walks away. Dreamer then walks into a wall. Fade to black.

Storyboard - Anne Kane


Here is my storyboard. Some shots were harder to show as still images because the camera will be moving.

Storyboard---Chuan


This is my draft of storyboard, I may make a lot of changes during the video precess.
PS: This is not my drawing.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Memento Review - Anne Kane

Watching Memento is like putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Not only is it that way for the viewer but for Leonard as well. By having the narrative structured the way it was it allows us to be in a similar situation as the main character. The story seems to be told backwards. This is done well by showing a scene and then immediately showing the scene that led into it in the story.

Flashbacks are also used but at times it is hard to tell when the flashback took place. Most of the flashbacks seem to use black and white which does make them more obvious as flashbacks. Time for Leonard now means nothing. He has no idea how long he has been like this. He isn't even really sure what memories are his or which ones are even real. The photographs are his puzzle pieces. He doesn't remember taking them or writing on them and must rely on them as facts.

At the end of the film we are still questioning exactly what happened. In a way it is fitting since Leonard will be facing this battle the rest of his life.

Dream Treatment - Anne Kane

This is a treatment for the dream interpretation of Yibiao Huang. His dream takes place on campus and everything is misty. There is a strange feeling and visibility is very poor. He talks to a friend who says that he needs more sleep and tries to talk to a passer-by who in turn looks at him like he is crazy.

I would like to show this as a series of still shots with video. These images will have to be manipulated to make things out of focus and smeared by rain/mist. I would like to have the colors be unsaturated with people going by represented as motion blurs. I would like to show most of this as a POV to give the feeling of being inside the dreamer's head.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sample Scripts

Sample Scripts

Storyboard template

Animatics

http://bit.ly/cwkPoT



A more developed:

Shot List

Types of shots video: http://bit.ly/duqhrh

A student wants to do a documentary video about a person who walks
dogs at the SPCA as a volunteer. A typical shot list might look
something like this:
  • Interview of the Volunteer who walks dogs
  • Close up of a dog
  • Medium shot of a dog
  • Long shot of the halls in the SPCA
  • Exterior shot of the SPCA
  • Exterior shot of Volunteer walking down street
  • Exterior shot of Volunteer walking into SPCA
  • Interior shot (medium) of Volunteer entering SPCA
  • Interior shot of Volunteer checking in at reception desk
  • Medium shot of Volunteer walking down hallway
  • Medium shot of Volunteer walking up to cage with dogs
  • Medium shot of dogs being excited, and leaving cage
  • Close up shot of dog being excited
  • Close up shot of cage being opened
Coverage: The purpose of getting all these shots is to make sure there is
enough footage (coverage) so that when the editing begins, the editor has
enough material to work with and cut with. This allows for much more
creativity when editing to tell the story. Do not limit yourself to just one shot.
If you only have one shot to use when editing, it doesn’t allow for very much
room to cut and play with the edit. You’re forced to use the one shot you got.

storyboard samples

Illustration Storyboard:


Photographic Storyboard:

Script,dream tour

Dream tour
by Yibiao

Kane was driving, we saw it from the inside of the car, back from the chair. She drived for a long time(like 40 or 60 seconds in the timeline so long to make the audience feel bored). Then she stopped, walking out of the car. We can see the bridge as a background. She kept walking until the edge of the bridge. She was watching the sight in front of her. Then the background was twisting and change to a wasteland(wired background music, and mist spreading). Every where is like in the video game Fallout. The bridge was still there, but it was very crashed form. She didn't know what to do so she just walked. She saw someone then she ask him. She keep walking until she saw a river(the river is dark and full of something strange). Two men came, and put her in a raft. She travelled along the river. Along the river side, there are very strange animal and thing keep bouncing. At last she came to a cliff, the raft fall. She screamed and fall of. Then She waked up

Memento critic

I saw this movie for two time, yet I still don't understand some of the sences. It is kinda bored story if it told story as the way most movies did. But Christopher made it totally different. The story is up-sit-down, so I discovered thing through the time, and got confessed meanwhile because there was to much information. I can tell Teddy was actually helping Lenny, Natalie was using him, but I don't know if Lenny killed his wife or did she died in the accident. It is a really amazing, the movie worth watching a few times.

Script-Naveen

LOST IN TIME

Written by NAVEEN KHAN

INT. CLASSROOM – INSIDE AMBIENCE LIGHT

The film fades visually and with a soft music fade and establishes in the classroom of students all lying on the floor and the professor leaning against the wall. A black & white film is projected on the screen.

There would be establishing shots of the classroom and soon it would zoom into the Protagonist.

The music fades down and her narration would pick up the moment she is in the fixed close-up shot of the camera.

As the narration rolls out the students are shown lying on the floor, Professor etc from the perspective of the Protagonist. There will be cutaways of the Screen showing the black & white film in wide shot, and other shots wandering in the classroom, till the time the narration says I am supposed to be there.

Cut to the Protagonist in mid shot: Zoom into her eyes gradually and then the short dissolves to the sky with the stars. The music mood keeps the same while the scene dissolves to next one.

EXT. BEACH WITH THE PROTAGNIST IN THE HOT TUB, DAY

The Protagonist is in a Hot tub and gradually the Tub starts to move. The background is Ocean tides and the tub eventually gets into the ocean. There would be no music rather the ambience of the ocean tides and the sea birds etc.

The next shot establishes a Dolphin in the vicinity of the Hot tub and vanishes back into the water.

While the tub is floating a giant hump black whale surfaces and starts spraying water on the Protagonists. The act is joined by other whales that seem to be synchronized in joining this act along with the dolphins as well. The ambience sound changes mingles with the audio of the whale spraying water, till it fades out and dissolves to the next scene.

INT. CLASSROOM – INSIDE AMBIENCE LIGHT

The Professor is distributing examination papers to the students in the class.

The music mood changes tense to alarm the audience something unusual is about to happen. The sudden movement awakens the Protagonist and she realizes that she was daydreaming while the Mid term review was being delivered. She starts arguing to the Professor, who keeps cajoling the Protagonist about the test and eventually tries to convince hard, but the argument gets heated up. Finally the Protagonist yells out, all the other students gets distracted and turn their attention towards the sound, causing much embarrassment to the Protagonist.

The film fades to black along with the music.

Script, Chuan

This is the draft, I will make some changes during this week to make it more interesting.

comments welcomed. HAHA



INT: LIVING ROOM, AFTERNOON.

Several people are sitting in the sofa. They saw the Red Sox’s first game are going to start. So they decided to buy tickets to see it.

SFX: Red sox game ambience.

A man looking the tickets online, but he found that it is very expensive.

SFX: searching for internet

A man “Totally crazy, why all of the tickets are cost so much money!”

EXT: OUTSIDE OF FENWAY PARK, LATE AFTERNOON

They come to Fenway Park to find tickets. However, most of the tickets are expensive. Finally they found a man who sells cheaper tickets, which are 200 dollars each .

A man “We’ll buy it, although it’s not cheap.”

“ Let’s go and buy some beers to celebrate it.”

SFX: happy. Everything goes good.

They go to a shop and buy some beers. They are happy, dancing around and singing.

SFX: street sound, people singing.

EXT: INSIDE OF FENWAY PARK

They are sitting in their seats, while a man come to them. He side “Those seats are not your seats.” They are arguing with him.

(SFX )

Then the security come, and found their tickets are fake tickets.

They have to leave.

EXT: OUTSIDE OF FENWAY PARK.

They are looking for some bars, but all of the bars are fill too much people. They can not get in the bar to see the game.

So they decide to go back to home. When they get home, the game already done. So they did not see anything.

(SFX: sadness music)

Memento Critic

I can like a movie for multiple reasons, it might be a new concept, very imaginative, funny or for many other reasons. Sometimes I would even like a movie I didn’t enjoy, but from which I learned or saw something different, and this is what happened with me and the movie Memento. I found the unconventional narrative and the use of time and space in this movie unusually complex but very well formed and achieved, I particularly liked how the use of color (or better said the lack of color) arose many different emotions to everyone in the class and even though we all felt something is theses scenes we had trouble describing it or pointing out exactly what they made us feel . I usually don’t like open ended movies because I believe we go to the movies to see the directors idea take form and I like to understand and see his idea of the end and feeling that I got “some closure”.

Also I am the type of person who goes to the movies to relax and enjoy, and usually go with very light type of movies. After 2h of watching memento I was very tired of trying to follow the plot. This movie requires a lot of attention and can be at points frustrating and complicated to follow. I could compare this movie with a piece of art you find intriguing and very well created but that you will never put in your house.

This movie is the perfect movie to show in class because during the hole movie it shows the use of time (linear and non linear) and space.

Dream Script- Lauren

INT: NIGHTCLUB

Hundreds of people packed in the club excited about the act they are watching on the stage. Some are cheering with their hands up, others swaying or jumping. We move through the crowd to the front of the stage to see what it is everyone is watching.

On the stage stands a tall, thin man named MAX. He is alone onstage and has a bicycle by his side. The bike is a beaten up and black. He looks around and into the crowd seemingly confused as to what he is doing there. A spotlight shines in his face making it hard for him to see the full audience.

Max gets on his bike and starts riding around the stage. The scene changes from live action to animation as Max and his bike start flipping around doing tricks.

Max is now back in live form sitting on his bike staring ahead into the light and into the crowd.

V.O.
What are you doing here?

Max hears the muffled voice and turns his head. It's his friend LUCY.

Lucy
What are you doing here? It's terrible.
We're gonna be late for the class. Let's go.

Max is confused why Lucy's voice has been replaced by a man's voice so he closes his eyes.


INT: CLASSROOM- day

Max has his head down on the desk, apparently sleeping. An arm is on his shoulder shoving him to wake up. It's Lucy.
Lucy
Let's go. We're gonna be late for class.

Max slowly comes to then realizing he fell asleep in class, again, snaps his head up. Lucy's voice is back to normal.

Lucy
You might want to start sitting in the back.
And check the drool (gestures to her mouth).

Lucy walks towards the door. Max quickly wipes his mouth and grabs his bag. They head out of the classroom.

INT: HALLWAY- day

Lucy
Let's try to grab some food. I'm starving.

They begin to walk down the hall.

Max
Oh I need to get my bike (looks around).
Lucy
What bike? You don't have a bike, buddy.
We walked to class together.

Max
Yeah...right.

They continue to walk down the hall away getting further and further away. The camera pans over to the left where the beaten, black bike is leaning against the wall.







Storyboard - Natthaphol

Naveen's Dream:
i'm not sure that story will fit within length 1-3 minutes. if it is longer than that i might eliminate some scene ;(

Script - Natthaphol


INT: HOUSE - EARLY MORNING, DAY
Naveen is talking to his wife about what are they going to do when they have a vacation time.
After a while, they decided to go to Niagara Falls and if they have a spare time left enough, they might go to Taj Mahal.

EXT: CITY - AFTERNOON, DAY
Naveen drives to Travel Company to buy some Tickets.
Unfortunately, He doesn't have enough cash(short about 200$).
Then he risks his luck with 20$ lottery. Luckily, he gets 500$.

EXT: STORMY CLOUDY SKY - ON THE PLANE - EVENING, NIGHT
Naveen and his wife get on the plane right away after bought tickets.
Unfortunately, that air plane is being hijacked.
Every passengers get kicked out of the plane.

EXT: CLEAR SKY - MORNING, DAY
There is somebody flying around with the magic carpet.
Naveen and his wife are falling down but suddenly hit that man.
Then they fortunately take the magic carpet.

EXT: AMAZING GIGANTIC FALLS - MORNING, DAY
Finally Naveen and his wife get to Niagara Falls. They take a moment to be satisfied with the beautiful scenery.
They continue their travel by going to India with magic carpet.

EXT: CLEAR SKY - MORNING, DAY
Alien comes picking Naveen and his wife up because thought they were friend.
Fortunately(again), Alien's secret base is underneath Taj Mahal.
They are pleased viewing Taj Mahal untill the Sun sets.
End.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Script - Nat Paosong

EXT: Downtown Boston in 19th century

A girl is walking on an 18th or 19th century street with a detective who is her mentor, old buildings and small stores are straight lay down both side of the street.

Detective
"It's getting dark, we better hurry up before he get away"

A girl
"Yes i think he is still around"

EXT: In front of coffee shop

A pair of gray eyes are staring them. suddenly her mentor took his pistol and shot to it, at the same time, a thin wood-made sharp stick inserted the mentor’s head and they both dead.
After seeing that, a girl was quiet sitting next to her mentor without tears. She remembered they were here to catch an underwear thief.

EXT: On the side of the street

A girl saw a pair of shoes stopped in front of her; she lifted her head up to look.

A girl
"Are you Sherlock Holmes!!!"

Sherlock Holmes
"Yes, I'm here to investigate. Let's get on my britzka and talk about what
was happening."

EXT: On britzka with Sherlock Holmes

While they were talking about the crime. A girl was hit by a stone and she fainted away.
She woke up very soon in a motorbike withfour wheels; She only could open one eye and driving
in a dark path, which is toward to car maintenance store,

EXT: Car maintenance store

She stopped the motor and went in, saw three fancy, clean, bright rooms with sunshine, She was invited
to come in, she chose the room with a huge bed, went to the bed, lay and fell asleep.



Script - Max (Yu SUN)

In order to keep the format easy to read, I uploaded the script to my host, click here to see.

Treatment, Chuan

Style: based on what I heard from Michael, I will shoot a short film about his dream.

Subject:

Dream of Red Sox.

Plot:

Start with a small group people looking for the tickets of Red Sox game, they are really want to find some cheap tickets. After several search like looking online they decide to go to the Fenway Park to find tickets. A man sell some tickets to them, but it is very expensive almost 200 dollars each ticket. They are very happy, they buy some beers and snacks for the game. However, after they get into the park, they find out those tickets they just bought were fake tickets. Of course they don’t believe at first, so they arguing with the man who should sit it that seat. Unfortunately, the cops come to the park, and they have to leave the game. When they get home the game already done. So they did not see it at all.

Technical

I will divide this short video into three parts. In these three parts I will use different sound effects to present the emotions. And using different types of shoot to present the background.

Memento Review, Chuan

This is the second movie that I remembered using reverse order to present the story. it uses two different types of narrative, one is black and white, the other one is colored. This movie was divided into several small parts to use reverse order, it attract my attention to figure out what’s going on with the main character, although I still can not understand the movie clearly. When the first scene came out, I had no idea about what happened, it seems like follow the character’s memory. I tried to find some information through the internet, after I read some articles about this movie, I think if this movie were in the right order, it must be a boring movie. So the director divided this movie into several parts, it used the result to be the beginning.

Memento Review- Lauren

It has been a few years since I've seen Memento and ironically i had forgotten alot of what happened in it. I really like Christopher Nolan's style. He is a very smart and inventive filmmaker who tells a story through the fluidity of time and space. In Memento, we see Leonard trying desperately to solve the mystery of who killed his wife. Clearly, he is at the end of his rope, he has nothing else to lose since he has lost everything. His wife was his weight that tethered him to the reality of day to day life. He has lost all ability to form new memories and can only remember everything that happened before the murder. The intrigue of the story and the whodunit aspect are what draw you in as a viewer for almost the whole movie until the very end when it is revealed that Leonard may have been delusional this whole time. Everything about the end leaves all conclusions up in the air.

Along with Nolan's Inception, Memento is really the story about a man who goes to great lengths to redeem the life of his dead wife that which is driven by his own guilt. In essence, it is these base emotions, guilt, vengeance, anger, helplessness, and desperation, that drive these characters to create in their own minds a way to escape from this painful reality. Once Leonard has finally been told by Teddy what had happened in his past and he was doomed to repeat the loop of finding the anonymous killer of his wife forever, Leonard could have made a choice. He could have come to terms with what he had done to his wife and tried to atone and move on or he could ignore it all and continue to look for John G. which gave him some redemption. The convenience of his loss of short term memory worked in his favor. I love that the ending is left up to the audience to decide what happens. You really don't know who it is you should trust and who is telling the truth. Maybe everything that Teddy told Leonard was a lie. Most likely Natalie was using Leonard for her own gain. You want to feel for Leonard, and you do for most of all the film. You want the destitute husband to enact revenge on the brutal killer of his wife. The last few minutes of the film turn your expectations on their head and make you think that all you have seen is one big lie, just like Leonard may have seen, except the fact that he is now a lie himself.


Script -- Yao commens welcomed

City dweller’s village dream
Written by Yao XIAO
INT. FARMHOUSE – EARLY MORNING, DAY
Sunshine comes through a small wood-framed window; it drops on a bed next to the window. There is only a woman sleeping on it, half of the bed is empty, it seems the husband Nat.L. has left.
EXT. LARGE FARM, FAR FROM THE FARMHOUSE – MORNING, DAY
Farmers are working in the farm, one of them is Nat.L., he is working with his small cute red and green tomatoes, a Scottish collie named Wolfy is following him, running and jumping happily.
EXT. GREEN PASTURE, NEXT TO THE FARM – AFTERNOON, DAY
After the farm work, Nat.L. changes his clothes, he wears his cowboy hat and boots, goes to his stable, brings out his favorite red brown long hair horse and ride it on the pasture with his hair blowing in the wind, he rides from this side to the other, warm wind surrounds him with the clop up and clop down in the air, sometimes dog’s bark floats with the clop, his dog Wolfy is running behind the hourse from left to right.
EXT. A CORNER OF PASTURE – AFTERNOON, DAY
Some sheep are taking a walk, eating the grass, Wolfy is leading them and gathering them from outside. Nat.L. is laying down the near place on the grass, look at his sheep, his dog, and sometimes, he just lift his head and half close eyes to play with sunshine.
EXT. A PATH ALONG THE PASTURE AND FARM –SUNSET, DAY
Nat.L. walks back to his home from the pasture, he pasts the farm and pasture, as the same, his dog is walking with him.
INT. FARMHOUSE – SUNSET, DAY
A woman is cooking dinner, children are chasing and laughing around the dinning table, a pot with soup is boiling on the stove, some dishes are put on the table.
INT. FARMHOUSE – SUNSET, DAY
Looking through the window, Nat.L is walking toward to this house.

Memento Review - Max (Yu SUN)

After I saw the movie again during last week's class, I watched it again for the fifth time because I still got some questions I couldn't explain. Every time I saw it, I got more information, or say clues. Some of them helped me understanding what the movie was trying to say, others would give out more question marks. But I have to admit that I love the movie somehow, because it was cut in a very unique way. The two different time lines (the colored reverse order and the B&W normal order) really provide the audiences an opportunity to play a time-line puzzle with the director. We were forced to pay full attention the the movie in order not to miss a single detail. And I realized suddenly after the fifth time watching that I trusted the protagonist (or the direct) so much that I was losing the ability of distinguishing the true from the false. There is a man named Sammy, but he is not the person who killed his wife by injecting over-dozed medicine, it was the protagonist- Lenny, at least I thought about it this way. What made me feel this was that the direct put a few alternative shots about the same scene, this could explain why different audiences gave different clues. It is because that is the canny director's ultimate purpose.
My version of the storyline should be like this: Lenny was some kind of detective, he had a client named Sammy who was suffering the fake Anterograde Amnesia in order to get something. After Lenny's wife was attacked by two criminals, he shot one of them to die but was beaten by the other. His was survived but he had this Anterograde Amnesia. His wife sacrificed her life to test whether Lenny's disorder is true. And Lenny killed his wife by accident. He was so remorseful about what he had done, so he CHOSE to pick some of the fake things (including tell himself Sammy is the guy over-dozed Sammy's wife, his own wife was killed by the two criminals) to remember in order to reduce his pain. So he kept telling himself that he must find the escaped criminal named John G. to revenge. The rest part of the story I think most of us had an agreement on what was happening, and like I said above, it is the part which the director force us to believe the facts that Lenny had written down on his snap-shot pictures. But still, some of the notes Lenny took were true, some of them were Lenny's PICK "Truth".
I love movies that are full of "surprises" like Memento. For example last year, there was a movie named The Time Traveler's wife. I was a little bit confused with the movie's time sequence because the time jumped forward or backward with the protagonist Henry some times and also with his wife's. What makes this movie a good movie is that even though I feel confused some time, I could still get the main story line without losing a single detail, because the director told me the thing that I had to know at what time I had to know. And this is the difference between Memento and The Time Traveler's wife, because the director of Time Traveler's wife does't play time puzzle with the audience, which I prefer.

Memento - Natthaphol

The first time saw this movie was when Lisa brought it to the class. I'd heard some reputation about this movie before. It's non-linear narrative movie which has 2 themes; Color theme indicates the story from the future to the present and Flashback(Black&White) theme indicates from the past to the present. The two story meets when Leonard's looking at Jimmy's picture and the theme is fading from black&white to color at the very end of the movie. I was kind of confused with the sequences of the movie but I understood the movie clearer after watching twice.The movie cuts almost every around 15 minutes like Leonard's memory. After each cut, the movie keeps giving a new clue to an audience. I felt like Leonard can't trust anyone even himself like he once said "memory is unreliable". He can trust only the facts however, the facts that he tattoo on himself might be his fake memory that he put into his brain instead of painful truth. The truth is Leonard and his wife survived an attack but he become an amnasiac man. He somehow confusedly think he was the con artist named Sammy, but real Sammy has no wife like Teddy said. I think Leonard and Sammy(in Leonard's imagination) are the same person and the person who kill his wife who died from overdosed insulin is himself. To prove it, there are scenes that Leonard sitting and watching ads on the sofa in Natalie's house. He watche it just a few second then quickly ignore it as same as Sammy did in his imagination. Also a scene that Mrs. Jankis tests Sammy by telling Sammy to give her an insulin shot. Once She got a shot she waits around 15-20 minutes (camera close up at her watch) adjusting her watch back to 3:00 pm then tell Sammy to give her a shot again. It imply that Sammy is Leonard himself. Leonard tries to escape an anguished truth by remembering only things that he would like to and also making up story about Sammy and Mrs. Jankis to avoid the fact that he killed his own wife. The movie end up with the scene which is going to lead to the death of Teddy. I like the little clues that producer adds such as a few second of the scenes i've talked about before. I, now, start thinking about myself. Who am I? my memories, my feelings Have it been distorted by people surrounding me?
How do I remember my truly identity? arghhhh i'm confused.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Momento review - Nat Paosong

In my opinion, Momento is a nice film in term of story sequence and film production.This film is often used to show the different between plot and story. The movie's events was show in two separate way, one in color, and the other in black and white to give some sense of the past time or imaginary scenes. The black and white sections are told in order, showing the main charactor conversing with an unknown phone caller in his motel room. Leonard's investigation is show in color. The color sequences are in the reverse order. As each color sequence begins, the audience does not know the preceding events which give us a sense of his confusion and his bad memory. However, i think the storyline itself isn't that good. Although the movie was nicely made to confuse the audiences, I could predict the end. When i watched this movie, i thought to myself that the old short memory man was Leonard' imagination. Therefore, when the movie show that his wife was killed by himself. I predicted that Leonard kill his own wife. Nevertheless, The film production was very nice, each scenes was shot in many different views and techniques. The actors and actresses in the film was very professional. So overall i think this movie is worth to watch.

movie script example - Nat Paosong

I found an example of movie script, it should be useful to some of u guys that have never written one. Here is the link
http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/tenthings_transcript.html

Monday, October 18, 2010

Momento Review - Michael

I had seen the movie Momento a few years ago but had forgotten what the storyline was. Once the movie started in class and the the star walked on the screen, I instantly remembered the plot of the movie. I also remembered that I didn't like it which is odd because I usually like those kind of movies. For some reason, this movie just didn't do it for me. I liked the concept of the movie but I just didn't like the way that they put it together. I think my main problem was that I just didn't care about the characters. That might be because we were just thrown right into the movie without knowing anything about them. Also, right off the bat, we knew that Teddy was killed by Leonard so we knew his demise right from the start. If they left his murder until the end, I might have been shocked. Also, if we were supposed to think that Teddy killed Leonard's wife (who I envisioned differently), it didn't work, I didn't. You knew that there was going to be a surprise ending with someone else killing his wife. That is another problem I had. They tried too hard to have an "M. Night Shyamalan ending" and for me, it was a disappointing. The one thing that I did like about the movie was the use of black and white in the scenes where Leonard was on the phone talking about his experience with Sammy Jenkins and his wife. I thought that their story was really interesting and I cared about those characters. You can imagine my frustration when we learned that that whole storyline was not true. There was no need to spin the story and have that whole plot line really be about Leonard and his wife's experience. There was also too much going on with Natalie, Dodd, etc. If the filmmakers had kept to the basic storyline instead of trying to keep the viewer confused, I think the final product would have turned out much better.

Memento Review

The first time I started watching the film, I was puzzled with the sequence of events taking place back and forth. I was confused with the alternating sequence of the colors and black & white. I recalled an Indian movie very soon, which was greatly inspired and adapted according to the taste of the Indian sub continent. It had the mantra of having various things packed together with high voltage drama, emotion, romance, action, song, dance etc. In the end, it had a social message that contributed to the remarkable success of the movie at the Box Office. While watching memento, I kept that Indian movie in my mind as a reference guide which aided me a lot to piece together the plot coming forth.

Memento indeed was quite an unconventional revenge saga, in the form of unraveling the story line. Rather than moving the film sequentially, it dwelled into the aspect of revealing facts based upon the Protagonists point of view. I think this forms the connection between the black & white and color sequences. Every time the movie lurches backwards, I had to mix and match the story line in my mind, which kept me attentive while the two time zones kept criss-crossing each other. I think there is an emotional connection between the Protagonist and the audience, as all the time I was chasing the plot, just as he was struggling to catch up with his medical condition, which was quite daunting. It was quite puzzling to watch the story unfolded backwards and at the end of the film whether the Protagonist got the true Character Jonny G or his hunt would keep going on.....If the Protagonist had amnesia then he will surely forget that he nailed down his wife's assassin...Hence, the mystery deepens further and this would have also propelled filmgoers to have a second look at the film.

Memento demonstrates how a nonlinear narrative film making, can enhance and elevate the concept of a revenge saga. The story unfolds back and forth, with so many twists and turns that it was difficult to guess what is next. It is a huge task for the Protagonist to perform in the utmost perfection that leaves the viewer spell bound while he adopts various means to keep track of his drawback by clicking a pocketful of Polaroid photographs, tattooing his body, making notes on the wall etc. It was heartening to see the Protagonists anterograde condition kicks in every fifteen minutes, which means he has to now restart investigation, scribble refreshed notes, and get back on track. And he's very well-versed in habit; at a point when he's suspicious despite having no self-scribbled clue to guide him that would eventually lead him to avenge his wife's murder.

I was intrigued when they drew parallels between the Character Jimmy and the Protagonist. Another mystery which was thrown in when Teddy reveals that Jimmy did not had any wife and all of this kept my mind boggling....I would like to see the film again at my leisure to make some more conclusions about the incidents and characters.

Storyboard templates for next class

Here are a couple of links for templates online

http://xinsight.ca/tools/storyboard.html

Also a GREAT pdf on digital storyboard templates.
http://bit.ly/dazUFv

Types of Shots

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Film Review(Yao) -- Memento

At first, I didn't know we will watch the movie in class, so I watched it on Wednesday night, then I totally confused by its narrative structure, I felt so lucky that I checked the blog then I found we will watch it in class. After watching Memento for twice, I still didn't quite understand the story, even I found some movie reviews from other people... but anyway, I will try my best for the below review!

The main actor Lenny is a man who has short-term memory condition, his wife was killed and the rest of his life is for revenge.
It is only a 90 minutes long movie, but it represent a person's life for several months. It has two story lines -- black and white, colored. The black and white story is in sequence of time, the colored story is flashback. At the first 10 minutes, I didn't know it is flashback, we could only saw the main actor Lenard/ Lenny killed Teddy and the glasses fell away, then it played backward, the glasses flew back to the Teddy's face and the bullet went back into the gun. Actually, it is already started the flashback, but we just did not notice it. Every piece is about 5 minutes long, and the last scene of the new piece always over lapped one shot with the last piece, so the audience could tie the two pieces together that make it clear to understand the narration, at the last of the movie, Teddy told Lenny the whole thing and it also gave us some clues to thread all of the pieces together, so the story is, with the help of Teddy, Lenny killed the John G., and he forgot he did it, he found another John G. to kill and another, finally, Teddy was killed because Lenny found the initial of Teddy’s real name was John G. too, since then, we understood that Lenny is a patient who forced himself to have a purpose to live, but what is the relationship with the black and white story?

The story in black and white used the sequence of time, every time we watched scene, Lenny is talking on phone, from his words we realized he was investigating a fraudulent claim, the man Sammy had the same condition with Lenny, Sammy’s wife did not want to believe this fact, in order to wake up Sammy, his wife let Sammy gave shots to her till her die, Sammy was sent to hospital as the end. It seems that this is another story with nothing relationship with Lenny, but at the last, before Teddy died, he said Sammy didn’t have a wife and some other details that proved there was no such Sammy story, the story is Lenny himself, Lenny killed his wife by giving shots to her wife, because he didn’t want to remember this history, he got the memory condition, I think that is one kind of the self protection, Lenny only remember the thing he wanted to.

I never watched a movie like this one, the director broke the story into so many pieces, and use a complete flashback way to represent the whole story, it is like a puzzle, every piece is a clue, only could we finish the movie then could solved all the puzzle and found the answer.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Treatment

Style:
black and whit animation.

Plot:
Days started as normal. Kane was driving and she stop by a bridge. She went to the edge of the bridge then all the suddent she was on tour. She didn't know where the place was and she got stuck in the end of the tour. Then some one told her if she want to leave she has to go down to a
horrible full of garbge or else she would spend the rest of her life here. Tow empolyee came and put she in a raft on a torrible river. She didn't want to touch anything on the river. Eventually, she leave the awuful place.

Treatment:
I am going to search photo on internet and use photoshop or illutrator to make it black and white as back ground and, then use flash to draw charater.

Treament- Lauren

Style
Slow motion, foggy lens, surreal video in color and black and white.

Theme
Showing how fear manifests itself in the strangest of ways.

Plot
A man is on stage as the main event for a live crazy concert audience. He is to perform tricks on his beaten up black bike except he knows no tricks. The spot lights are so bright in his eyes that he can't see the audience and is confused and sweating. His friend joins him on stage and asks what he's doing. We close up on the friend who asks what he's doing again and it's revealed that they are now in a classroom and the friend is shaking the man out of a daze. They are the last two in the class and they leave. Outside the room, he asks the friend where his bike is since he left it outside before class. She tells him he doesn't have a bike. Fade to black on the man's confused face.

Technical aspects
I'm planning on using stock footage of the concert crowd and manipulating it a bit. I will shoot the rest of the scenes on video using the stage location and classroom and two actors. I'll edit in Final Cut.

Treatment - Nat Paosong

Style

black & white film to give the 19th century feeling

Central theme

Base on her dream, my central theme would be a murder in the middle of downtown in 19th century.

Plot

In 19th century,Yao was walking in downtown with the detective. They walked pass many stores. It was dark at night and suddenly they saw a pair of eyes from the dark staring at them. The detective pulled out his gun and shot at that guy while that guy was throwing a wooden chopstick to the detective head. the bullet went in his head as the chopstick somehow pierce through the detective head as well. They both died. Yao sit next to the detective dead body and saw some one legs walked toward her. she looked up and realize it was Sherlock Holms!!! Sherlock Holms help her up and they both got in a car. they started driving then a stone hit Yao and she pass out right away. She woke up in the motor 4 wheel with only one eyes open. She found a room and then went to sleep.

Technical consideration

I will record the scene by a video camera, and also i'll shoot some still images to use in my film. I'll use adobe premier to edit my film and audacity to edit the sound. Hopefully it'll be a good film.




Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Treatment

Title: Please Wake Me Up
Date: October 13
Dream and Voice: Chuan
Producer: Joel Goldenstein


Style

I would try to represent Chuan's dream through a cartoonish style animation

Central Theme

The wacky adventures of Chuan dream

Plot

Chuan sitting in front of his computer when suddenly spiders start appearing all over the machine, Chuan gets very nervous and start hitting them just to realize that he has broken his computer, suddenly he appears in a bus station , he goes into some bus with a unknown destination, however during the trip he starts to see animals along the way, there where monkeys, tigers pigs. Without knowing how, he finds himself in front of the driving wheel of a car, he looks up just to realize that there was a man flying just in front of the car, and after a cordial hello he invited Chuan to fly with him, he very nervous declines the invitation and then after a while he crashes, thank god he is alright, he get out of the car and stat walking to finally arrive to a house.

Technical Considerations

For this dream I will use a cartoon creation software (ex. ToonDoo, Cartoon creator) if none of this help me achieve the look and feel I am looking I will use print screens created with Sketchup and later on exported to imovie or Adobe Premier, I am planning on adding some sounds to support the story probably some sound effects and maybe some background sound.

Dream Treatment from Naveen Khan

Title: Lost in Time
Date:14 October'2010
Erwin's Dream
Style: This presentation would be done through a series of still images, which will be paced alongwith the narration of Erwin.
Central Theme:It would consisit of the point of view of the Protagonist who seems to be lost in every scene, which would be well established in space.There would be shots to establish the Protagonist in the environment/space, and other characters. The focus would keep shifting between the point of view of the Protagonist and with him in the frame.

Plot: While listening to the narration and finalizing my scripts/treatment, I had to remove all the pauses and re-pace the entire narration. It would start with the establishing shots from the Protagonist's perspective by populating the classroom and having close ups etc. As the scenario builds up, there would be a change of environment from realistic to a dream sequence. The details spelled out during the narration would be depicted well with images and as the dream gets over, the environment would come back again to the classroom. The Central theme is based upon wandering and trying to figure out the space, so music would be quite supportive to emphasize the emotion being described.

Technical considerations: I would be using Google Sketch to build the environment apart from other images acquired from the web.Once I have set designed on the sketch, I will extract frames on the Google Sketch and compose them in Final Cut Pro and use Sound track Pro to compose the Background score.

Assignment 4: Treatment -- Yao Xiao

Treatment

Project Title: My ideal life in village

Dream Owner: NATTHAPHOL LIKHITTHAWORN

Dream Maker: Yao Xiao

Date: Oct 13th, 2010

Style:

Based on the dream I listened, I decided to use several stop motion videos and/ or sets of pictures to produce an animation or comic books in a cartoon style.

Central Theme:

After hearing NAT’s dream, the central theme of his dream expresses his ideal life in a small village far from city and with few villagers, and he is also one of them, like any other villagers, he owned a simple but happy life with his wife and children.

Plot:

In order to emphasize the feeling “simple” and “happy”, I am going to use some symbol to stand for it, such as bright orange warm sunshine, white clouds, vast pasture, farm, etc. For the first scene, I am going to shoot a window with sunshine comes in, then camera zoom in the window and go trough the window to outside, the camera gives a general view from high place, the scene is a green vast pasture, some farmers are in the farm but small like a dot, some moving white dots are sheep, some farmhouses are build on the green pasture, some black dots are moving which stand for villagers. The camera gives a very low angle from the grass and move fast forward till a horse leg comes into the scene, camera tile up and the audiences see a smiled young boy is riding a horse on the green pasture, his Scottish collie is following and running with him, the camera zoom in to the dog, slowly out of focus, the scene becomes white. Zooming out from the white and focusing to the dog, it is running after some white fat fuzzy sheep far away, camera pans to left, the young boy is laying on the grass, some musical notes come out from his mouth, pan from his feet to his head, his hair is moving by wind, then, camera pans from his head to left, some cows are eating the grass. The next scene is the sun is setting, the clouds are colored in orange, camera moves down to the ground and a young boy is walking toward to a farmhouse, camera is following behind him. In a farmhouse, a woman is cooking and children are playing around the dinning table, seeing through the window, that young boy is walking back here.

Technical Considerations:

To complete this dream stop motion animation or comic book, I would like to use some software such as Final Cut Pro for videos, as well iMovie for photos. Also, I will think about to add some soundtrack to the animation, if do so, Soundtrack Pro will be used as well.

Based on the theme of this dream, all scenes will be slower than usual scenes to emphasize the quiet and slow paced life.

Treatment - Michael Canavan

Project Title: The Start of a Relationship
Date: October 13, 2010

Style:
I am making this film about a man's memory about his first date with the woman who was to become his wife.

Central Theme:
"The start of a relationship" is about a man and woman on a first date but they know that it will turn into something more serious.

Plot:
Start with an outside view of a museum in the pouring rain. Next, a shot of man inside the museum from the waist up, looking forward, staring at something far away. We then see what he is looking at (a far away shot of the woman enjoying the art, not noticing him yet). A shot of her looking up, smiling. A faraway view of them hugging. A shot from behind as they walk into the exposition. At exposition, woman's eyes closed, as in a dream state. Shot of her at a museum with her parents when she was a child. Back to woman whispering in man's ear. They leave the museum and walk outside to a sunny day. They walk along a river. They get into a boat (Swan Boat?). Separate shots of them laughing and enjoying themselves. Shot of them together laughing. They walk through a park when woman looks at her watch. She looks up sadly. He looks sad. A far, rear view of couple leaving the park. Couple stopping in front of an office building in the city. They kiss. She smiles and goes inside. He stands there looking at the empty door way. He then smiles and walks away. Ariel shot of man walking down street.

Technical Considerations:
I will use photos, some that I take and some from the internet. I will use photoshop to edit the pictures and then I will use iMovie to make the movie. I might use minimal sound effects (the rain) or a soundtrack with Soundtrack Pro.

Treatment from Natthaphol

Style:
I will use Flash to make a cartoonish-style animation.

Theme:
It's from Naveen' dream. I might add something funny to it.
the theme is going to be sort of colorful adventurous trip. He and his wife will go along the trip together.

Plot:
It's all about the trip. So, the characters will travel around the world map until they reach their destination (Taj Mahal and Niagara falls). Their would be some funny obstacles for example encountering a shark/crocodile while they're traveling in the sea something like that to keep the audience's attention. I will use Zoom in/Zoom out shot when they meet some event. Once they get to their target. i will use some pictures of that place and the characters will do some interaction with it.
I will add a classical music playing along and put some of Naveen speech together

Technical Considerations:
I will mainly use Flash for entire clip and Animation parts as well.
once it finish, i will move on to soundtrack pro to add music and sound FX.
combine it together with Final cut.
and might use After Effect in addition.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Treatment from Yu SUN (Max)

Project Title: A Tour to An Alien Planet
Date: Oct 14, 2010
Story and voice: Nat Paosong
Producer: Yu SUN (Max)
Style:
This little piece of video will be present as a stop-motion animation.

Central Theme:

This is a scene of Nat Paosong’s dream, which could be considered as a scary dream. Something horrible happened when “he” was touring to an alien planet.

Plot:
I am going to set up a scene to give a sense of sitting inside of a huge space shuttle, passengers are sitting next to each other while the PA is broadcasting Jazz music. Gradually zooming out of the window, the overall look of the spaceship fill the whole screen and suddenly it accelerates to the alien planet. After a short period of white scene, the spaceship is performing a low-altitude flying, the camera position should be under the ship so that the audience can watch a totally different view of the savage planet. After landing, the guide says something and the tourists dismiss, I am going to cut a chunk of voiceover from the original sound file and sync it with the guide’s mouth. Now the main perspective is from the protagonist’s sight of view with occasionally panorama shots from the side of the protagonist. Now the BGM should be something light and relaxed. Fast forwarding to the gathering time, the protagonist runs back to the landing point. The music beats are going faster and faster, the whole view becomes unstable, because no one is there expect the main character. The main perspective switches to the protagonist’s view. The overall color turns cold and faded, also the BGM fades out. With a huge sound of explosion, a big, ugly creature stands up in front of the protagonist staring straight to him. Then the protagonist turns around and starts to run, in another word, the main perspective turns around with vibrated view and heavy breath sound as the SFX. The whole screen is turing black when the last scene happens.

Technical Considerations:
I am planning to use pictures that I will take and parts of pictures from others’ works, using Photoshop or other still picture application to post-produce each picture as a individual frame of the videoclip. Because the limitation is around one minutes, so that means there is going to be at least 100 frames. The rate of frames is not permanent, it will change with the plot going up or down. The assembling work which contains locating and speed controlling will be finished in Final Cut Pro, and at the very end, SFX tracks and BGM tracks will be assigned in Soundtrack Pro.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Need HELP !!!!!

Hello everybody, if anyone knows Canavan's email address, please email m. My email address is qinchuan0314@gmail.com. Or please check this email (en@elisabethneville.com), is this professor's email correct?

I need Canavan's sound file, he saved the wrong format, I can get anything.

Please email me ASAP, I can not pick up my phone Friday and Saturday because I have to work every week. So Please Help me to find Canavan's email address...

I appreciate your help..

Thanks Soooooooooooooo much!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Next Class - Week 6

For this class you already Posted your dream as comment on blog.

Next class we will go over

2. Storyboard your "dream" w/ identifiers.
3. Create a shot list.
4. Shoot shots (w/ "slates" aka wipeboard text).

Also we will be watching Momento - (about 1hr 45 min)

Assignment 4 - Narrative

I would like everyone to take their sound bytes and to write their treatment. Thank you for the sample to go by.  (Treatment Sample)

This is going to be a 1-3 minute video in the end, so think about what you are going to be doing with this.
Think about how you will be putting it together and the idea you have from the main story line.

Please post this to the blog.

Please use "Assignment 4, Dream Treatment" for the labels. (As this is posted.)

I will be assigning each person's dream here.

Student - Assigned sound byte for the project:
  • Canavan- Goldstein
  • Erwin- Sun
  • Huang-  Kane
  • Kane - Huang
  • Likhitthaworn - Khan
  • Qin- Canavan
  • Goldenstein- Qin
  • Paosong - Xiao
  • Xiao  Likhitthaworn
  • Khan - Erwin 
  • Sun - Paosong