Theory: Visual Components Lecture Notes

Research: The Pleasantville Effect (Secondary Colour Correction)

Lynda.com Article:

• Secondary colour correction isolates "a range of colour, saturation and brightness values and make adjustments in only that range" 

- Kennedy, A (2014), Beyond Pleasantville and Sin City: Secondary Color Correction, https://www.lynda.com/articles/secondary-color-correction-sin-city

This article helped me to get a better understanding of what the Pleasantville effect actually is in technical terms. Thus, it helps me to explore the possibilities of using this effect in my short film.

Films that use the Pleasantville Effect:

Pleasantville:

Where the effect gets its name from. the use of colour in the film is limited as the protagonists enter the sit-com "Pleasantville" and more colour is added as more rules of the world they are in get broken. Colour is this form is used as a method of literally standing out from the world in which the characters are in.

This is highly useful for our short film as the protagonist does not belong in the world she is in. Her love of creation in a world where it is illegal confines her to the space of her own make shift art studio and so using colour to make her stand out as in Pleasantville is a highly effect use of contrast with this visual component.

Sin City:

A more obvious use of the Pleasantville effect in Sin City is to isolate the colour red and de-saturate all other colours to make the red much more outstanding when it meets the audience's eye. The director's may have chosen to do this as an emphasis on the colour of blood marking the foreshadowing of the violence of the film or to add on to emotions of anger and lust.

This way of using the effect can prove useful for highlighting the red of the blood in our short film. As the protagonsit is painting with her own blood, having red as the only saturated colour will make it much more horrific to the audiences eye; by the means of contrast in saturation of the visual component colour.

Pre-Production: Script 2nd Draft (current latest version)

Theory: Editing Preparation

X Fix in post

• Planning is KEY

First Step:

• The paper edit (pre-visualisation) Storyboard + Script etc combined
• Show what shots are used where
• Shoot master shots first
• Paper edit will reference a separate storybaord with coded entries
• Allows all members to understand what you're working towards

Second Step:

• GET ORGANISED
• Media management
• Meta logging - log takes and review footage

Editing The Craft:

*In The Blink of an Eye* Walter Murch

Concepts:

• Rule of 6

Emotion - 51% of the time emotion motivated

Story - 23% does it advance the story

Rhythm 10% does it occur at a moment that is rhythmically intersting and right

Eye-trace 7% does it acknowledge point of interest

2D plane of screen 5% does it respect planarity  

3D space of action 4% does it respect 3D continuity

Subjective over objective

• Don't worry it's only a movie

Brain buffering

Blinking makes the end of one moment

Hide cuts with blinking

Use emotion as a sign of when to cut

Edit Types:

• Matched action
• After action
• Before action
• Entrance/exit
• Foreground wipe
• Look off
• Dialogue referred (end scene of Dark Knight)
• Reaction
• Thought referred
• Visual Link (Beginning of Hook; more childish cut)
• Dialogue overlap
• Audio linked
• Loud sound (Indiana Jones plane explosion)

Only cut when there's purpose

This workshop was useful in helping better understand what we need to gather in production which n turn will determine what we have to work with in terms of what cuts we can use and how well we can hide them.

Pre-Production: Script 1st Draft

Lecture: Happy Mondays (The Visual Rave Culture)

Summary:
This lecture touched upon the rave culture and its progression through the years in regards to political movements like that of Margot Thatcher. Rave culture in itself has since brought out its own visual aesthetic and graphical portrayal of a more cultural  approach to politics and it has also shaped the fashion and the environments it associates itself with; embedding that impact in societies culture and progression through history.

Story Ideas Pitch and Feedback

After we discussed the themes we came up with, my group and I prepared to pitch 2 ideas:

Idea 1 was then selected for us to develop into a script and then shoot as a our short film. Evaluating the pitch, I think we put our ideas across fairly. On my part, I could have simplified the explanations of the ideas to make them less complex for Matt and Kelvin to picture there and then during the presentation.