PHOTO-The Thought

Looking around these days...when some people receive gifts it has to be something expensive like a ipad or something, in order it to be counted as "thoughtful". 

What happen to the "The thought that counts"?

Where the price of the item does not matter aslong there is a thought to it or it is something that someone likes. For example... one of my friend was given a iphone for his birthday, me and my friend we baked him a variety of cupcakes and we turn it into a giant tower and spell out his name with mini cupcakes. We choose cupcakes as he loves them.... The look on his face was much more happier than when he was receiving the iphone from his parents, according to his parents....

In total it did not cost me and my friend much, buying all the ingredient but it's the thought that count right, not the price?

To me...something being made or be given something simple is better than receiving something expensive. As people who tends to buy you something expensive put lack of thoughts within it, as they know it is something you want and like, but you simply cannot afford it but they can. While something simple or hand made, is done with care and alot of thoughts. Since they will have to spend some time figuring out what to make and how to do it, along being patient. Or figure out what is best to get to you such as what you need or is worthy for you to have OR something that represent each other, like something represent your personal joke...

Another example... a leaving present, a photo frame or a hand made photo album tends to be a good gift as it holds valuable memories of good times...

So what would you pick? Expensive gift with lack of emotion to it? Or something different and simple but is filled with love and care?

Showing that you appreciate the gift, matters...

But...yet....there some people out there who does not care or appreciate any item they receive... sad thought really....

Thriller editing evaultion

Our thriller is about a successful businessman who is on his way to work like any normal day. However he meets an accident and ends up in a coma, where his conscious haunts him. He does not realise that he is in his dream world and not reality. However within the dream world, his life depends on it, as another mistake can lead him to death straight away.   

This project was edited under the program Adobe Premiere Pro, in the setting of DV-PAL, Widescreen 48 KHz (UK format).  We created a new project in the program and imported the files in. From there we sorted out the clips, separating them into folders, making them easier to search for when it comes to editing that part.

 For example Damian (Tony) accidents shots, we put all the footage for it together. 

Within this photo you can see it named under as “Damian accident dead scene”. We originally used a normal camcorder to film most of the scene's, however at one point we had to use the mini HD camcorder which made Premiere Pro crash, but not as bad as we thought, which we were lucky.  

When we started editing this project, I started of the block cuts, so we have an outline of the story. Which made it easier for us to edit as the whole story is there but just need fine edit on it and add on extra few scenes or touches up.

When we were picking out the clips, we double click on a clip and a mini box would pop up and play the clip. Watching the clip in this way is much easier and more convenient, than dragging the clip and loading it on the timeline and then watches it.  As that way waste more time and knowing Premiere Pro, loading a clip on the timeline every time then delete it, it will increase the chances of Premiere Pro crashing more often.

Though there is times where we reused a clip more than twice, for example the scene where you see Hannah (Margaret) appearing everywhere. You see Damian (Tony) turn around countless of times; if you look closely it is the same two shots of him turning around. The reason we did this, was that it was sadly the only footage we have left of that scene, as we lost some footage and could not get time to refilm. 

However within this section I edited it all mainly. I went through several clips of Hannah (Margaret) appearing everywhere and picked out the ones that suited that situation the best. In these footage’s I did quick cuts of it, so you don’t get to fully see the scene but yet enough to understand the situation that Tony is going through.  Along with the quick scenes going, it makes the situation seem tenser and build up the suspense. If you look at the photo above you will notice that there is no affects added between the shots, neither in the audio either. But the sound of the wind in the footage gave it an effect of quick passing sound.

But as for sounds, I mainly edited the sound, making it level or some parts not to over powering. Such as for the scream for example, I wanted it loud and stand out but not exactly piercing. Otherwise it would hurt the audience ears and make it too dramatic. If you look at the photo you would notice that scream audio bar starts of from low and fade in and then gradually go louder. This is to make it easier for the audience to hear and as the scream fades towards the end. As making it louder towards the end, it will not make a big difference part from making it stand out a bit more.  

 But speaking of sound levels, I listen through to the audio countless of time to make it sound natural. If you look in this image, you can see that not all the audio level is the same. Due to the fact that some audio bars are naturally much louder than others, the heartbeat audio for example. I put it low so it would blend in better with the other audios, though it is still much louder than other audios. Which is not too bad as this heartbeat audio meant to overpowering, to make the death of Margaret scene more dramatic and so that the audience can feel what the characters are feeling at that moment too.

If you look at this photo, you can see that in some footage I added affects, such as fade to black. To link it with the following scene, using black for that scene in the photo. Black is a colour where it is mysterious and creates questions, you never know what could be in there and what may happen. So I choose fade to black in the aims to lead the audience to Margaret pass. To the point where Tony see’s Margaret, just before she dies. To make the audience see for themselves in Tony place and understand how that moment feels for him and her.

Too show that we try to make the audience feel what the characters feels was a success. Was that when we showed it to our class, people seems to be interested in watching it and some people even got freaked/scared of Margaret when she appeared everywhere or go up close to the camera(example shot in the photo).  

Also people understood the storyline this time. Which is a complete success and better outcome compare to the children drama we created before, where not many people understood the storyline. Also for a good couple of days people kept singing the song “Sweet dreams” by Marilyn Manson, which was played towards the end of our thriller. From this we can tell that people remembers our thriller.

Overall I mainly did the first edits and some edits during the point where it is nearly finish, then the final touch ups.

As I was in Berlin, I could not take part in the final editing, so I mainly did them when we started editing it. In order to make it fair for others, such as we all edit the same amount but in different sections and time. For example, due to the fact that I was in Berlin while one of the members of the group was not, it is only fair if I edited in the beginning instead of her, since I won’t have any other time to edit. Also the fact that she will be in college still when myself and another member of the group is away in Berlin, so she would have plenty of time to edit.

I personally believe I edited better this time as I manage to edit shots where it is the final cuts (Margaret appearing everywhere), compare to the children drama where I did not do any final cuts. However I still continue in doing the final little cuts along dealing with the sound levels. From looking at some second year work, I now know how to improve on my sound editing as some of them shown me how it works and the reason why. However In improving the thriller, I would personally try to get rid of the wind sound in some footage and refilm some parts. In order to make it flow better and much easier to listen too.    

       

Dreamworks Studios-Pair work

Within this work, I worked with my friend Hannah. Doing research on DreamWorks.  

HISTORY

DreamWorks Studios was originally founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Their first film feature was “Peacemaker” an action thriller released in September 1997. After this Steven Spielberg released his first film for his studio “Amistad" which earned him four Academy Awards and his eighth Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination.

In 1998, DreamWorks released the critically acclaimed World War II drama, “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as its first two animated features, “Antz” and “The Prince of Egypt.”

“Saving Private Ryan” which was a co-production with Paramount, was the biggest movie release of the year and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and out of them won five, including Best Director for Steven Spielberg.  

The studios have made a lot of big movies over the years - Academy Award winning American Beauty in 1999, In 2000 Gladiator (which won them a Best Picture Oscar), Almost Famous, The Contender, Castawayand Meet the Parents. These films in 2000 by DreamWorks made $2 Billion worldwide at the box office.

In 2001, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures produced the Academy-Award winning film; A Beautiful Mind.  In that same year, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks partnered to executive produce the landmark HBO miniseries, “Band of Brothers.” Other film releases for 2001 included A.I: Artificial Intelligence and everybody’s favourite ogre Sherk and that film won them their first ever Best Animated Feature Film Oscar. 

It wasn’t until 2004 after a lot of good movies did the Studios build a spin-off company – DreamWorks Animation which solely produces animated feature films and television programs. One of the founders Jeffrey Katzenberg became its CEO – the head of the company.

Now that Jeffrey Katzenberg oversees the animation movies the other two founders Steven Spielberg and David Geffen focuses on live-action movies. In January 2006, the company was sold to Paramount Pictures. The movies that they produced and developed together earned them eight Oscar nominations including a win for Dreamgirls (Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Hudson)

A few months after Paramount Picture bought DreamWorks, Stacey Snider joined the team with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Stacey Snider had been Chairman of Universal Studios so it wasn’t surprising that after her arrival as CEO and Co-Chairman made notable run for the new company. The first four movies after Stacey Snider’s arrival – Norbit, Blades of Glory, Disturbia and Transformers all went to Number 1 at the Box Office and each earned $100 million worldwide.  Transformers alone made $700 million worldwide.

It wasn’t until the end of 2008 that David Geffen left the company, while Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider charted a path for their new partnership. With David Geffen’s assistance, they found a financial partner in Anil Ambani, chairman of The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. After a year of deal making, DreamWorks secured $325 million from Reliance, which was matched by a consortium of investment banks.

In 2009 after the studio is secured with more money to make movies, they and Walt Disney made a deal, they will handle distribution and marketing for six live action DreamWorks films a year and with that they began the process of ramping up their slate. Movies since then with Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment and Walt Disney were Dinner for Schmucks, Real Steel, Cowboys and Aliens, The Help and War Horse.

DreamWorks Studios is currently making these movies – People Like Us and Lincoln. There is also the remake French/Canadian movie Starbuck currently in the pre-production stage with Vince Vaughn as its star.

HOW IS IT FUNDED?

DreamWorks Studios is a motion picture company formed by partners Steven Spielberg, Stacey Snider and The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The studio currently has a worldwide distribution deal with The Walt Disney Studios, who will market and distribute their films. In the past though they have partnered with a lot of famous film companies – Universal Studios, 20^th Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Touchstones and so on – the list could go on forever. Partnerships like these are the best to combine forces and together make a lot of money to make more movies.

I say that the amount money they get the most is from The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group as they helped DreamWorks in 2009 and 2011 for money problems.

With Walt Disney they made a distribution deal saying that with DreamWorks they will market their films 6 times a year and since Walt Disney has been famous since the 1920, there is a lot of money behind them to help DreamWorks out. It also helps when Walt Disney needed to replaced the deal with Universal Studios that fell apart in a few weeks when the deal was made. This was due to DreamWorks when they asked for help from The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group for money to financing their movies.

 They also partnered up with Fox in the upcoming movie Lincoln which is based on Abraham Lincoln’s life and with Touchstones they have made a 30 distribution deal with DreamWorks.

THE DELEVOPMENT IN TECHNOLOGY

  

In 2007 both DreamWorks/Paramount and DreamWorks Animation support HD DVD Movies on a worldwide basis, for at least 18 months. Movies like Transformers and Shrek The Third were HD movies only. They then went to Blu-Ray as the sales went sky high.

When it comes to 3D format there are a few movies in 3D (Sweeney Todd, Cowboys and Aliens) so far there isn’t any word that more movies are going to be made in 3d as Cowboys and Aliens is the last film that was released in 2011 however it was released on Blu-Ray and HD when it was came out on DVD.

Most of the 3D movies however are released from DreamWorks Animation and even the CEO is having doubts about the whole 3D thing. He quoted in an interview for The Guardian online "It's really heartbreaking to see what has been the single greatest opportunity that has happened to the film business in over a decade being harmed," Jeffery Katzenberg told the Hollywood Reporter. "The audience has spoken, and they have spoken really loudly.”

IS IT PART OF COMPANIES?

DreamWorks studios are formed by a group of partnerships; Steven Spielberg, Stacey Snider and The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. One of the DreamWorks first productions was the long running sitcom “Spin City” in 1994, and then in September 1997 they produced “The Peacemaker” starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Though DreamWorks was originally founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen, as the years gone by everyone went their separate ways such as Jeffery Katzenberg became the founder of DreamWorks Animation and became CEO of it.

However DreamWorks has produced some well known films such as Saving Private Ryan. Dream Works does a lot of co-produced work with a variety of companies such as Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bro. For Example Saving Private Ryan is co-produced with Paramount Pictures.

IS IT OWN?

It used to be group of partnership, Steven Spielberg, Stacey Snider and The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. But in January 2006 DreamWorks Studios was sold to Viacom and Paramount Pictures where they have developed Dreamgirls.

DOES IT OWN OTHER COMPAINES?

It does own other companies, though many people mistake DreamWorks Animation to be part of it but it is not.

References

http://www.dreamworksstudios.com/about/history
http://www.dreamworksstudios.com/about/faq
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-09/entertainment/dreamworks.disney_1_dreamworks-with-steven-spielberg-hollywood-studios-walt-disney-studios?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ
http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60630.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/10/hollywood-3d-profits-jeffrey-katzenberg