Yesturday night I watched Shelock Holmes. I've been wanting to see it for ages now. It was so cleverly made and I spotted loads of really good shots, sadly far too sophisticated for us to try and use. A shot that really stood out was when Holmes was being chased down the street by the bad giant man. The camera is placed up quite high (birdseye view) and the shot begins with the camera shooting upside down. As they run down the street the camera follows them as they pass underneath it, eventually turning itself the right way up. It then continued to film them running further away from the camera. Another main thing that stood out to me was the location of the sewer. They were able to capture some amazing shots because of it, I loved it. Also when Holmes jumps out the window of palament into the river, I thought the framing of that shot was stunning, however I couldnt help but laugh, as Holmes looked really tiny from such a far distance.

Here's the trailer for the film, you might be able to spot some of the shots which I was talking about..



Here are some of the other shots that I also really liked.

Shot from underneath, making Holmes look bigger, stronger and perhaps more intimadting.

Even though Blackwood is behind the bars he seems a lot more in control and here Holmes looks perhaps weaker and more vulnerable. Of course we know that Holmes knows exactly what Blackwood is up to, perhaps he is covering this up which is why he is appearing to be weak infront of him.

I thought this was a very clever well thought out shot as it almost represents her character. She has two different sides to her, her good, caring side and her tough bad side.

This shot must have been done using graphics, however it is still a really amazing shot, it is just as effective and does look realistic.

This shot has been cross focused. The camera focuses on Holmes but still has the other fighter in shot. The effect almost seperates his character from the rest of the world whilst he is thinking of what injuries to inflict on his apponent. During this section the footage has been slowed down showing us the fight in 'slow motion'. This creates more impact for when he attacks the other fighter. It was infact a really effective clever idea.

Here's the snorricam, and as you can see the main thing holding it in place is the big velcro belt (actually used for back problems). The tripod is nailed into the thick wooden block which is pressed against my belly however it can be removed and placed back with the original tripod when needed. The metal pole can be adjusted allowing the camera to move closer to me or further away, which will be really handy. It feels surprisingly comfortable and secure and overall I'm really pleased with it. Obviously it doesn't look like a professional one but it works just as well and I can't wait to use it when making our film!

Excuse the quality of the picture it was taken on my phone, and the case slightly got in the way..

Ok everyone..moment of truth!

The Snorricam has finally been made and heres a little video to show the effect of it. This is most likely how it will be used in our film (getting out of bed) although I'm obviously not in costume or on set.

Just thought I'd update on our progress for making a snorricam, this time not made out of cardboard boxes which we did in lesson. I've told my dad our ideas and showed him some designs of the snorricam and he's decided to have a go at making one for us. I've spoken to him and disussed ways in which we can make one using the limited materials we have around the house, however we have some really well thought out, realistic ideas! He's really good when it comes to inventing or making things so I'm hoping if all goes well it'll be done by this week!

Over the Christmas holidays it snowed! So because of this we couldn't do any of our filming in the first week as some of the scenes we need to re film is outdoor, and obviously we have to take continuity into consideration. We then wanted to try and film this Monday on our inset day, however our location isn't available, therefore we will have to arrange another day to continue with our film.

Me being me, I wanted to make the most out of the snow and so I decided to go out into my garden in pitch dark, 11 o'clock at night and film something. The original footage was just of me literally walking around the garden ruining the fresh snow. However when I imported it off of my phone onto imovie I had some ideas, although not much to do with our genre of comedy. I managed to cut the footage, muddle it all up to make some sort of storyline and produced this little film. It's no Oscar winning film and it's not suppose to be completely serious, however it gave me something to work on and experiment with over the holidays.

I used imovie HD to make this and so it was nice to experiment with something a little more advanced. Its all point of view footage and all the sounds were recorded over the top, most of them me (quite embarrassing), except for one or two sounds and the music which I found off of YouTube and converted into mp3 sound tracks.

Considering it's only 28seconds long, it took me ages to put it together. Recording all the dialogue over the top was particularly time consuming. I had to record it through photobooth,  then import the clip into imovie HD where I then had to extract the audio and delete the visual clip. I had to do this with nearly every single sound heard in the film, and some I had to re do a number of times. However because I used imovie HD I was able to adjust the volume of particular words in a sentance or specific sounds that I wanted to make louder or quiter which saved me having to re record certain parts. This saved me a bit of time. Also because the film wasn't planned it was hard to find footage that all ran smoothly together and so I spent ages finding the right place to cut and edit clips together. Also when I eventually came to edit it, I had a number of different perhaps better ideas that I could have done, however by this time the snow had melted!

Anyway..here's my little film..

Lately this has been my all time favourite advert, it's just so funny, I love the lyrics especially, and just the whole idea of the snowman flying threw the sky. Everytime it comes on I make everyone be quiet just so I can watch it and hear the song! I love it. It sounds silly but I think it's worked really well advertising the drink, I know a lot of people who have bought an Irn Bru just because of this advert..."I'm falling through the air... I wonder where i'm going to land... He nicked my irn brew and let go of my hand..." It's Brilliant!

Seen as it's Christmas Eve me and my family have pretty much spent the day watching films and eating lots of food! Its tradition for us every year to watch The Grinch, definitely one of my favourite films.

It's directed by Ron Howard, produced by Howard and Brian Grazer, and starring Jim Carrey, it is the first Dr. Seuss story made into a feature film. DreamWorks Pictures was originally planning to co-produce the film, but dropped out at the last minute. The Grinch is the highest-grossing Christmas film of all-time with $345,141,403 worldwide.


The film is based on the book by the famous Dr. Seuss. Inside a snowflake exists the magical land of Whoville. In Whoville, live the Who's, an almost mutated sort of munchkin like people. All the Who's love Christmas, yet just outside of their beloved Whoville lives the Grinch. The Grinch is a nasty creature that hates Christmas, and plots to steal it away from the Whos which he equally abhors. Yet a small child, Cindy Lou Who, decides to try befriend the Grinch.


It really is a beautiful film, funny and entertaining. I especially love Jim Carrey who plays the Grinch, he is one of my favourite actors, I just find him hilarious. I think the film in general really highlights the importance of Christmas, as it sends out a lovely message to everyone that Christmas is not about presents and lights and all the materialistic things, but its about love with friends and family and being grateful for the things that we do have. Definitely adds to the Christmas spirit.