(POST 31) Narnia Essay

Narnia Essay

1.a

Our task was to recreate a scene from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, our scene was the part where the Pevensie's meet the Beavers. We had to work as a group to divide up responsibilities and complete this task on time. We had many things to take in to consideration when doing this.

We included a range of camera shots and angles in our filming. We included close ups, eye level, over the shoulder, high angle and low angle. We wanted to include many different camera shots to add more tension and build up. I feel the close up to Lucy when she says "it’s a beaver" was one of the most successful part of the video. The reason we used more closes up shots was due to the fact we couldn’t included any wide angles as we feared we would ruin the immersion.

When we were first given the script we made a list of the key Characters we needed and made links to costume, expression, movement and interaction ideas. We then began to hold auditions for the younger members in our school for these roles. Our actor for Lucy was a year 7 student. For her character we had many people audition however we felt Hannah played the role the best and had great enthusiasm. For Peter we had Elliot play the role and Marcus for Edmund, they both are taking drama at GCSE and from their audition played the characters extremely well. One of our group members, Lauren played Susan, she is taking drama A-level. For both beavers we had one GCSE drama student play the role of Mrs Beaver however we changed this part to a male to fit. The other main beaver was a year 10 student Ben Cook, he had taken drama and fitted what we wanted the character to be like. Once we had our casting we completed some after school script readings before we started recording certain sections.

When we planned the costume for each character we went through the script and decided to note any key items the character had, or any ideas anyone had to what each character could be wearing. We wanted to them to be periodically correct. We started with key ideas like, Lucy to be wearing a knee length skirt, collared shirt, cardigan, hat, scarf, gloves and smart leather shoes. However after meeting Lucy and talking to her about are suggested ideas, she then brought her own costume with her. We decided she should wear a hat, scarf and gloves, this mainly is because she is the youngest character, who is looked after well by her siblings. She wore a patterned cardigan which I feel adds a lot of outgoing personality to the character being played, which is what we want to show the audience. The actress for Lucy played her character amazingly well and used her facial expressions to show how she was the youngest of the siblings and also her enthusiasm was shown throughout. For Susan we wanted her to wear trousers, top, coat, scarf and smart leather shoes. However on the day Susan wore a grey coat and minimal colour to contrast the outfit to Lucy, as there is an age difference between them both. We gave Susan a scarf for overall warmth, she wore dull colours as we wanted to show she was the oldest and maturest. Susan also had an overall confused expression. For Edmund we wanted him to wear trousers, jumper, scarf and comfy shoes. Edmund wore a jumper and trousers, as we wanted to show how Edmund is the youngest male, out of the four siblings. This outfit shows how Edmund is quite lazy, and is the less smart and brave one of the family. Edmund is quite adventurous which is why we chose to style him in a casual look. Peter is the oldest character, so we decided to not give him a coat mainly because we needed to show the audience how brave he is, and how he cares about his family and younger siblings. We gave him a smart look, which included a collared shirt, jumper and black trousers, this shows how he is part of a well brought up family. Peter always puts his family first, which is what we wanted to show through this outfit by not including a coat or scarf. He also acted the oldest with his expressions and way of speaking his lines and addressing other characters.

For the beavers we found some large fur coats which we felt worked really well for the beaver’s body because of its warm looks which represents the beaver’s skin. I think the colours work really well and texture is perfect for the characters they are playing. Both the male actors playing the beavers did extremely well with their expression and movement. The beavers were dressed in fur coats that were brown colour we chose to dress them in this to give of an animalistic feel to them without having the key characteristics on the face, this along with the beavers house it all adds to the feel of a mythical world. All of the Pevensie's are dressed in ordinary clothes which are customised depending on the character, all of them have clothes hat and scarfs to add to the winter weather we tried to portray to the audience. The costume allowed us to show clear differences between each character. We decided not to do any makeup on our cast, this was mainly due to timing, however if we were to complete this task again we would of liked to experiment with makeup for the beavers to add more detail to our work.

For the setting of Narnia we decided that we would use a summer house in one of our group member’s gardens.  We chose to use a wooden shed as we decided that this would give off the impression  that they are not humans they are beavers crossed with humans making to seem more mythical to the audience. We decorated the interior to how we felt best fitted the beavers house. We had log piles, warm lighting, two candles, rugs, miss matching chairs and table, old vintage books and a "family" hand painted portrait of the beavers in the house. We also used a location behind the school for the forest section. We wanted the setting to be in the woods to create a natural setting that isn't man made, this creates a woodland feel and transports the audience to another out of this world place which is not on earth all adding to the feel of Narnia. However after we filmed our script, we had a snow fall so we also took separate clips to add in, these clips were taken around the school site.

There was lots of movement in our work for the actors and filming crew, when filming, we decided to film without a tripod, there was quick changes in the shots where we needed to be able to move to change the focus. The actors would need to move, and the cameraman would also need to move during a shot. The actors worked really well together which allowed their lines to flow well and link their movement. The Lighting for Narnia was done by our group member Emily, Emily is interested in the lighting and focal aspect of film. She also is experienced in her photography projects with different types of lighting. Emily used her knowledge well and created very successful outcomes. She used soft warm lighting in the beaver’s house, which in the final video created a red affect once edited. Emily also noticed when we were filming outside to take into consideration of the natural and manmade lighting around us. There was a contrast between the light inside the beaver’s house and the natural lighting which I feel worked really well. Over all I feel Emily did really well which allowed us to record some successful clips where the lighting added atmosphere to the scene. For the Props everyone took part in helping to organise and collect items we needed. Emily made fake snow, Lauren and Justine both helped to create an embroidered handkerchief, Aston and Lauren collected wood chips and Lauren made a "Woodios" cereal brand to add an element of humour to our short film. Emily collected plates, lamps, candles and books to put in the beavers house. Emily also painted a Portrait for the house too. All the props looked great and added to our overall interpretation of our version of Narnia.

Aston had the role of editor, once each part was recorded we then gave Aston the footage where he then edited them together. He also changed the colour tones which made the footage have a mystical atmosphere and also adds to the overall sense of coldness due to the use of blue tones. In the final cut the editor has used the original soundtrack used in the film. Aston, the editor also lowered some of the background noise so that shouting, by a near-by football game could not be heard. I feel this was extremely successful. He also removed the unnecessary video and audio, for example the behind the camera noises which allowed it to flow correctly when put together. Also when the videos were put into the correct order he could correct the colours and nay other after effects needed.

1b

As a group as a whole we worked on different aspects of planning, some members of the group worked on story boarding, where they planned camera angles on and what each clip was going to contain. The planning was effective, we each had our separate parts to plan out. We would constantly ask each other for their opinions, in case they had other ideas to include.  We worked together to brainstormed ways to create Narnia, we came to the conclusion we would use weather as our main element for this. From our role distribution we worked together to in pairs or more to plan out each section, this included detail sketches, screenshots of emails, pictures from possible setting ideas and much more.

We first made a group chat for our group to keep in contact with so everyone knew what the plans where for the days we filmed, stayed late or lesson time. This also allowed us to regularly keep in touch and share any new ideas we had. Once we had our cast we took contact numbers for them. We would regularly email them about reminders of meeting times, costume and if they had any questions or queries. I feel one thing our group did extremely well was communicating with one and other, everyone was always prepared for each day and always worked well together. We communicated well throughout the task, making sure we understood what everyone was doing and if we could offer other ideas or support. Many of the different roles needed to communicate between one another to make sure that everything fitted together, so everything was coordinated.  We all worked well together, and when it came to the actual filming everyone helped when they could and worked together to achieve our best outcome as a group.

I feel our organisation in the end was good, and the outcome was better due to this. However if we had become more organised beforehand this could of led us to achieve more in the time we had. I felt we were limited due to the time which meant we had less time to film and them to edit together. We overcame this however, and when it came to the days of the filming we had a lot already prepared and clear ideas of what we wanted to do. The Beavers’ house had to be set up a couple days before, which again meant on the day we had more time to film. We managed to film everything quickly too mainly due to the fact our actors had learnt there lines.

We were given the script of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as soon as we were given this, we started off by reading the script through and brainstorming any ideas in which we might have to make this short film come together in our group. We then started thinking about allocating roles to each other within the film studies team. Director - Joe Lee*Joe decided to be director as we feel he best fitted the leadership role, He is a good team leader and can communicate well with everyone. Joe did amazingly well, we completed all his work on time and faced each problem head on when they occurred. Co-director - Lauren Webb, We all felt Lauren would be good for a second opinion and to ensure everything runs smoothly. Lauren stepped in when we lost a member of the cast and this allowed her to help Joe more, they worked incredibly well together even under pressure. Producer(s) - Lucy Foreman and Keri Kennett, Lucy and i decided to be the producers as we both could work collectively and can make sure all our task are completed in the time space we were given. And also to make sure everything is presented to the highest quality possible. Myself and Lucy worked well together and completed our work on time, we also helped the others when they needed it. Film Crew - Ellie Wigney and Emily New, Emily and Ellie have decided to be the film crew as we all felt having a joint effort ensures we are always able to film even if another one isn't present. As a group we felt having more than one person filming allows us to collect the best angles in our locations and refer to each other’s knowledge for second opinions. Ellie and Emily developed their ideas together and filmed some beautiful pieces from a range of angles, which all worked well together in the final film. Lighting - Emily New, Emily is interested in the lighting and focal aspect of film. She also is experienced in her photography projects with different types of lighting. Emily used her knowledge well and created very successful outcomes. Props - everyone took part in this. We are all going to supply individual props for all of the filming. We wanted to use

-Fake Snow - Emily New

-Embroidered Handkerchief - Lauren Webb

-Wood chips - Aston Jones

-Plates and Cutlery - Emily New

-Portrait - Emily New

All the props looked great and added to our overall interpretation of our version of Narnia. Costume and Make up - Justine and Ellie, We feel as a group Ellie and Justine are good for the role as they are both creative and will make sure their clothing looks suitable to the time period. As a group I feel we distributed the role well, from the very start of the project we allocated suitable roles, we all knew we had to pull our own weight in getting our work done on time. We all helped each other when needed, we shared responsibilities and supported each other.