The Game criteria

The Game: Unit 22, Criteria

Peter Hennigan

Monday, 15th October 2012

Format: In our video the genre is Sport/Comedy, we choose this genre because Sport can be various, you can choose from football, basketball, baseball, athletics, swimming etc… we also wanted to make the video into a mild comedy, mild so it doesn’t take over the genre from sport.

We did this by choosing football as our sport, we wanted to do a freestyle video in which the freestyle tricks aren’t done properly, showing the characters failing to do tricks, this will lead to the comical side of the video as well as the sport side. At the end of the film it shows John Acquaviva actually playing a video game (which turns out to be the video showing the two other characters), it ends with him saying, “This game sucks!” this can also link to the comical side of the video.

We introduced comedy to sport to liven the video, if it just showed two people kicking a ball around a college campus, it would be seen as boring.

In my edit, I arranged the clips in such a way, that the video turns into a short-film, the full edit lasts about 3 and half minutes, however, in the cut to shorten the video to 2 minutes, the format of the film may change from a short-film.

I achieved this by adding titles and credits to my video, it starts off with the film introducing itself, ‘Jeff Productions present…’ followed by the names of the actors/characters on screen. The film ends with credits, ‘Edited by Peter Hennigan’, there is also a message at the end of the video saying ‘The Game, it takes over your life’.

This will give the video a short-film effect.

I did this to introduce, and exit the video in a style I see fitting. The video itself shows the journey of the ball and the mischief of the characters, I found it would be too ‘cheesy’ to make it into an advert format, even though I did include narration.

Narrative Structure: Our narrative structure is a closed narrative, as it doesn’t end on a cliff hanger, or a way where there could be a sequel.

We did this by showing John free-styling in the credits of the full edit, in the cut edit, it doesn't show John at all.

I did this because ‘The Game’ project is just one video and it will only last 2 minutes, resulting in less time for a open narrative storyline, and not much point in leaving it on a cliff hanger, as there wont be a second linking video.

My video edit is a linear edit, as the edit has a timeline in one direction, a start, problem and ending.

I made the edit into a linear edit because a non-linear would take too much time to edit and the finished edit would be too long, as a non-linear edit is a video that has different times and dates in different scenes, for example, a film that starts with a brief scene from the ending, the following scene will be the starting of the film.

Also, the scenes in the video only focus on one subject, football, there wouldn't be any point in putting a non-linear storyline in the video, as the video focuses on the football.

I did this by fitting together the sequence of scenes that we filmed.

For example, we first shot the entrance to the college scene, where me and Sean are walking into the college. This shot is the first scene in my edit.

Technical Equipment: The main piece of equipment we used was the camera; this was used to capture footage of our film and was essential in the making of our film.

One person (John) maintained the camera throughout a majority of the film, in fact, the only time; he didn’t maintain the camera was with his scene at the end of the video.

We also used different lenses and a tripod with the camera.

We used different lenses for different shots, for example, in the frame where Sean steps in the puddle, a protective lens had to put on the cameras lens to protect the camera from water damage.

We did this by first, unscrewing the original lens and replace it with another different lens.

The tripod was used with the camera to steady the camera on uneven ground, or if the cameraman’s hands were too shaky.

The tripod can be adjusted to difficult ground, like a slant, sometimes; slanted ground can have a great view. To use the tripod, it would first have to placed in the desired place, with an feature in which you can lengthen or shorten the legs for different shots, we would then place the camera or camcorder on top of the tripod, where it will be clipped into the slot on the tripod.
We used the tripod in many shots during our video, including almost all shots in the auditorium scene.

In editing, the main equipment was of course the Apple iMacs.
We used them to edit our scenes into a full video for our first project as Apple iMacs have great software for editing, photoshopping and introducing effects to your video.
We did this by first filming the scenes we were to use in editing and saving them on to a SDHC memory card and inserting it into the iMacs.
We would then  use the software, Adobe Premiere, to edit our scenes into sequence.
You can also use other Adobe software to produce special effects and titles as well as edit a whole song. I used Adobe Audition to edit my chosen song (Kasabian - Underdog) in a way in which the pace of the song fits my video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfx3qGYSG6o
(Unable to embed video due to music copyright).

PAL, NTSC and SECAM

Around the world, there are different frame rates, sizes and pixels with each country.

In the United Kingdom video is shot at 25 frames per second (fps).

Europe again uses 25 fps.

The United States of America uses 30 fps (it is approximately 29.97 fps)

PAL (short for Phase Alternating Line) is a colour encoding system used in the United Kingdom as well as some countries in Europe, Africa and Asia along with Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina. Its frame size is 768x576 for broadcast using square pixels. In PC PAL, it uses a frame size of 720x576 using rectangular pixels.

NTSC (National Technical Systems, Incorporated) is (like PAL) a colour encoding system generally used the United States, Canada and Mexico; it is also used in some South American countries as well as Japan and South Korea.

For broadcast, it uses a frame size of 640x480, where it's PC format runs at 720x480.

The third colour encoding system, SECAM (Sequential Colour with Memory) is used in countries including Russia, France, some countries in Asia and Africa. It uses a PC format frame size of 720x546, while its broadcast runs on a format size of 768x546.

Overall, PAL uses a more detailed image than NTSC.

However, NTSC has a better movement quality.

The PAL, NTSC and SECAM information were relevant before the arrival of HD television.

In HD (High Definition) the standard frame rates are 1920x1080 which when calculated will come to a ratio of 16:9.

There are two versions of HD, usually a letter found at the end of 1080, 1080p and 1080i


The p stands for Progressive, which is where the image displays both odd and even field at the same time, resulting in better image quality.

The ‘I’ stands for Interlaced, which rotates between odd and even fields every 30th of a second.

Contingency for The Game

Contingency (plan B)

Depending on how the weather will be, all but one shots will be taken outside, within college grounds.

We cannot film inside the college as the football may damage something very easily. Outside, there is a lot more space and a lot less damage risks.

However, if the weather is bad (raining), the filming will have to be postponed until a day (or time) where the weather will be suitable.

If the weather is unsuitable to film outside, then we can film the ending scene with John inside, this will save time and actual recording will have taken place on the day.
There are other possibilities if it is raining, for example, you can cover the camera in a plastic to protect it from damage, or we can film in the sports hall, but it may look unproffesional.

Preproduction script for The Game

Script:

Title shot: The Game

Peter’s Edit Music – Kasabian: Fire (edited) and Kasabian: Fire (Premier League Intro music (for credits)).

Peter and Sean are seen walking, the film starts with a close up on their shoes walking, they are walking towards the camera, possible quiet-talking, the pass a football and pick it up which has the words ‘The Game’ printed on it.

Peter – “The Game?”

Camera changes to long shot showing both characters.

Sean – “Go on, pass it”

Montage of both characters playing football, taking place in different locations.

Montage will include different tricks (keepie – uppies (both feet and head), basic passing, long passes, lobbed passes (may include ambitious lob), basic and advanced control).

Montage may also include script.

Ending at the auditorium, screen freezes and the words “PAUSED” appear in the middle of the screen, sound of a mobile phone in the background.

Screen cuts to third character, John, who is shown with a games console controller (XBOX 360, PS3 etc…).

John picks up and answers the phone.

John – “Hey, man. No I’m not doing ought. Yeah all right, I’ll be out in a minute”

Screen returns to the TV showing the others characters frozen with the words “PAUSED” still on screen.

Screen fades to black, the words “The Game, It takes over your life, Coming soon” appear.

Credits (will include John’s freestyle video in the background).