Post 30 - Working from a script (Making Narnia)

For our process of making Narnia, the people shown in the photograph mainly worked with the camera work, directions, sound, and the two characters of Narnia Mr Tumnus (second from the right) and Lucy (third from left sitting down).

Post 29 - Working from a script (Directing Style)

For our Narnia scenes, I looked at multiple directors, each with their own distinctive styles. I specifically looked at Wes Anderson, as his warm hues and centralised characters create interesting final outcomes.

These images show how we have used the warmer hues and tried to centralise the characters. The lighting also created this warmer effect as the sun had been setting. These images are stills from the first part of the scene, when the two characters - Mr Tumnus and Lucy are outside, and when they first meet. The camera work was important, as we wanted to capture the bewilderment on Lucy's face as well as Mr Tumnus' shock of seeing a human. The directing style itself had been quite simple, because I didn't want to over complicate it. As I also played a large role in creating the storyboards, it allowed me to direct each scene nicely.

DID ANY OF YOUR STORYBOARD IDEAS CHANGE ON SHOOT?

During our shooting for the exterior scenes I chose to look closely at our storyboards, however, as we were limited with time due to the weather and lighting of the sun, as it had been around 3pm when we finished. By the time all the shots had been completed almost all the light had vanished. We also decided to create some more adventurous shots, to create interesting compositions through the shots, for example, there are a couple of shots that had been taken above - from a tree.  

HOW WERE YOUR CAST TO DIRECT?

As there had only been two characters to direct, it had been easy to create the scenes that I wanted that were shown on my original storyboards. The only small issue had been the weather, as it had been cold the day of the shoot. So some lines and camera shots had been rushed due to the cold weather. 

Post 28 - Working from a script (Directing your actors)

Here are some pictures of the script that I have annotated explaining at points how I want the actors to perform through voice, expression and movement. 

I had a discussion with the editor about what I wanted for the final piece, and how I wanted each part to look and sound. We made two different cuts using the same footage to get an idea of how we wanted each scene to look, one by the editors, one by the director and camerawoman we discussed the different shots that we had and went through each cut and picked out the ones that we wanted to use. The editors captured our ideas really well and the final piece is very similar to what we had imagined and the storyboards shown below. 

After reading through the script, annotating it for the actors' directions etc. the editor drew some storyboards to get a better idea of what the final piece was going to look like. We had the storyboards with us when filming so that we could position the actors according to the drawings, we did change some of the positions to fit the setting and the camera angles but the final piece is relatively similar and worked very well. The storyboard gave us some flexibility with the filming because we had an idea of how we wanted the actors and the setting to look beforehand so it made the process a lot quicker, although we could have left the storyboard a little more to get a bigger variety of different shots and camera angles. The editors and sound person helped with the directing because we all had different ideas about different parts of the scene so we took ideas from each other and compromised until we created one final idea that worked for all of us. The actors were very good and took the directions very well which made the directing a lot easier and quicker for the lines to be said, which left more time for us to repeat the dialogue at different angles, although because of the cold temperatures at the different settings, it did limit the time we had to film because the actors were so cold between takes. 

Post 27 - Working from a script (Editing)

After reading the script it is clear that it uses linear narrative, which is when a scene or story has a defined start, middle and end with no cutaways from that order. This is the traditional way of telling stories as it is straightforward to understand, which is especially helpful in Narnia, as it is a children’s story. Linear narrative is used to great effect in this scene to build audience engagement in the world inside the wardrobe, as it allows them to take in the new surroundings at a good pace, in the scene there are a lot of long drawn out parts which help ease the viewer into taking in the new environment. This is often used in films, one example could be Star Wars, every time they visit a new planet there are usually slower paced conversations or shots of the environment to help the viewer adapt from environment to environment.

A theoretical effect we could use within our video is the Kuleshov Effect. An example of a location within the script where we could use this is when Lucy and Mr. Tumnus first meet. The effect of this is that we are able to see the reactions of both characters without them actually speaking to each other. It allows the viewers to take in more meaning of the story. It makes the viewer more engaged as they think the character is showing a different expression every time but in fact they are using the same. This scene is a tense moment in the story where the viewer and the character knows nothing of what is happening or where they are. The viewer will be very engaged.

Post 26 - Working from a script (Storyboarding)

INITIAL STORYBOARDS: To make these we had to communicate with each other, as myself as the director,

the editor and the camera person, so that we could all agree the angles of each frame. 

FINAL STORYBOARD:

The final decisions for the storyboard were very important because we wanted to get it right.

The images below show how the storyboards were before filming, they also include how we

thought  the timings would be. However, the exact timings were not used in the actual process

of making the scene.

EVALUATION OF STORYBOARDS:

We stuck to these storyboards very closely, however some scenes were difficult due to the weather mainly. For example, when the sun was setting it was very difficult to get our angle right. 

Post 25 - Working from a script (Sound)

With the sound for our scene I began by thinking about the setting of our scene and what sounds might be linked with those pleases. For example with the scene that was set in the forest I thought of many different sounds that linked to a woodland like birds chirping, rustles in leaves and a light breeze blowing threw the trees. When Isabel who paled Lucy was walking threw the woods I thought that it couldn't stay silent and we needed to maybe have music playing to emperies the curiosity and wonder of Lucy.