Task 2: Skills development and analysis (Yes Boy)

The task was to create a short scene form a potential movie based on a scenario given. The main idea for the movie was about a boy who would constantly say yes to things. For example, if something went missing and he was asked if he was the one who took it, he would reply with yes. The consequences of this would obviously lead him into lots of trouble with people. in my group (Me, David and Abbie) we decided to make our scene about the boy getting in trouble with the teacher for something another student did ( the Bully). 


Analysis:

Camera:

The first shot is a wide shot which helps establish the audience to the setting which is a classroom. The camera is placed in one corner whilst the characters are in the other further away. This is done because it makes the audience feel as though they are observing the lesson. 

A match on action is used when the bully is seen scrunching up some paper and then throwing it at the teacher . 

 

After this a P.O.V shot from the teacher's perspective is used which shows that the teacher honestly has no idea who threw the paper and so it could be either student. A tracking shot to over the shoulder shot shows the teacher walking to the boy asking if he was really the one who threw the paper. This suggests that the teacher is still a bit confused as to the real culprit. 

A high angle shot is then used to make the boy look inferior. He says "yes miss" which is his down fall and so he is shown to be weak because he took the blame even though he is innocent.

Mise-en-scene:

The location for this scene is the classroom and so general classroom items are found in the frames. This is because it helps the audience to get more information about the characters. For example, as it is in a school the audience can clearly see that the boy is a schoolchild and is fairly young. 

Editing:

After the title screen, a fade is used to show the first shot. This helps the audience to establish when the scene has started. Transitions were used to make the shots flow better. At the end another fade to black has been used to show that the scene has ended. The titles have special effects/ transitions added to them as well so that it makes them more active and interesting for the audience. 

Sound:

The teacher has the most dialogue as she is the one who is teaching the lesson to the students. There are not many ambient sounds in the scene and so at times makes the scene quite boring. 

Skills development:

From this task I have developed my skills the following areas: camera,editing and scripting. We created the following script to follow when we produced the scene.

Script

Titles:The words YES BOY appear on a black background for 2 SECONDS.

FADE OUT

INT.CLASSROOM-DAY

FADE IN

A WIDE SHOT of a classroom is shown. The TEACHER is at the front of the class by the whiteboard talking the students through the lesson plans. The BOY sits upright and is paying close attention to the teacher while the BULLY is slouched on her chair.


TEACHER: Today we will be doing a lesson on media and we are going to go through the different types of...

CUT TO CLOSE UP of BOY nodding his head, showing he is listening to the teacher.

 ...camera shots....

CUT BACK to WIDE SHOT

 ...and angle typically seen in a short film.

CUT TO MID SHOT of TEACHER

Teacher: First we are going to learn about an establishing shot which is everything in the mise-en-scene....

CUT TO a LONG SHOT of the BULLY. The Teacher continues to talk whilst the BULLY scrunches up some paper. Looks around her and then throws it at the TEACHER.

CUT BACK TO MID SHOT of TEACHER

The paper ball hits the TEACHER and she turns around angrily. 

...Who threw that?

CUT TO a P.O.V SHOT from the TEACHER'S perspective. The camera moves from the BULLY to the BOY back to the BULLY.

CUT TO a MID SHOT of the BULLY.

BULLY: (pointing at the BOY) It was him miss, not me!

CUT TO a TRACKING SHOT of the TEACHER walking towards the BOY.

CUT TO an OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT.

TEACHER: Did you really do it?

CUT TO a HIGH ANGLE looking down on the boy and teacher.

BOY: Yes Miss

Fade to black.

When we were filming I helped do the tracking shot as well as setting up the camera on the tripod to make the high angle shot. I developed my skills by having to remember to leave a few seconds before and after the acting took place so that it was easier to edit. During the editing stages, I decided that we needed to label the footage and put them into files so that they could be found and accessed much easier. When we were editing we found that at one point in the footage the teacher made a mistake by repeating a word twice and so we decided to edit it so that the word was only said once. As the footage didn't flow very well, we decided to do a cutaway from the teacher to a close up of the boy nodding so that it flowed much better. At another point we had to add a transition again, between the P.O.V shot and when the bully says it was the boy who threw the paper. We added titles to make the scene look more professional and at certain times, such as the final shot, the audio had to be increased because it was too quiet. 

To improve, we need to focus more on mise-en-scene and have tighter frames because at certain points such as the bully speaking scene it was too "loose". Another improvement we could do would be to re shoot some footage such as when the teacher was speaking so that we didn't have to spend a long time trying to fix it when we edited. More focus on the sound elements are needed as we could have added special effects or made sure there were ambient sounds so that none of the shots are silent. We could also get more actors to be in the scene as by only having two students, during the wide shot, it looks unrealistic as it is meant to be a media class taking place.