Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research & planning and evaluation stages?
This is our fourth and final evaluation question where we talk about media technologies and how we used them in our coursework. We screencasted a presentation on these technologies.
Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Throughout the length of this course audience feedback has been a great help to us. Almost everything we did was not complete first time. So we created our first draft, and relied on various audience feedback to improve our documents/products further. Without this feedback our documents would not be up to the standard they are. We gained various forms of feedback, including audio feedback and written feedback.
At the very start of our A2 Course, each member of our media class had to write up an idea for a 5 minute short film, and pitch it to the rest of the class. After creating our presentations and talking our class through our ideas, there was time for questions, and any feedback about the idea was welcomed greatly. Here is an Embed of my pitch, and earlier in my blog i embedded my groups pitch's (our final idea was gathered from a combination of everyones ideas).
The feedback received by the audience really made me think about my idea, and what would be achieveable, and whether the idea would work, such as the issue with finding an office that actually looks like a business office. It definitely made me and the rest of my group all think about our ideas and really what would be achieveable in the time we had and the resources we had available. In the end after sitting down and discussing our ideas, the audience feedback about each of our ideas really played a part in deciding what elements of each others ideas we would use to create our final idea.
The audience for our feedback was our Peers, who are fellow film makers. By presenting our pitch to this type of audience, it meant we could gather feedback about a variety of topics. As fellow film makers they know the difficulties and potential problems one might face when producing a film. So they have an informed opinion on which ideas might be pheasable and which would be difficult to create. As people who make films, and teenagers who watch plenty of films, they also know what makes a good storyline. The target audience for our thriller includes teenagers, so as teenagers we need to be sure that they would like the idea. So by our class presenting our pitches to our peers/fellow teenagers we could gather feedback about the storyline as well as the production problems.
After all deciding on an idea, we had to write a treatment for our idea as all film makers do. This was merely a draft treatment, and we needed to be sure it was up to standard, and gather feedback on the idea. If our audience didnt like our treatment idea, then it would be pointless to continue with that idea. So to be sure the idea would make for a good thriller short, we presented the treatment to an audience. Here is an embed of our treatment.
On the Edge for Love
Our audience was once again our Peers and our Teacher. As i have already said, as experienced film makers and regular viewers of film products, our Peers can give very informed feedback. They know the workings of a film product and how it is created, so can give us technical feedback, but also as viewers can give us narrative feedback. Our teacher has watched many AS and A-level films from past year groups, and knows what sort of idea would work well as a thriller short. As a media teacher, he knows the technology our school has available and what would be possible to create. So as an audience this was a great source of feedback, as we could get various type of feedback to help make our treatment/idea a lot better.
This is an embed of the feedback we gathered from our audience about our draft treatment.
This reading helped us greatly with our treatment, we managed to answer a lot of people's questions about our film, and gathered a lot of advice about how we could improve the treatment. A lot of idea's were bounced around between the class and it got us thinking about some of the things we could employ in our film to make it better. A few of the things we considered from the feedback was.
This questionnaire showed us that our film treatment was successful, people knew clearly from our treatment the conventions of our film, the genre and the target audience. This feedback helped us gather that our treatment was a successful one, and also our audience told us some weak points in the plot of our film that really motivated us to not mess up. As you can hear from the end of the feedback, we tried to keep our film not cheesy, and we wanted to ensure our shots are executed perfectly. This feedback also helped us greatly, mostly through motivation to do well in our film.
The next thing we gathered feedback on was our rough cut, this helped us learn a lot about our film, and how to change it to make our film better. Here is an embed of our rough cut.
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2An2uYUPtIE" width="560"></iframe><br />
We presented this rough cut to our class and teacher to gather feedback on it, as we have already said they are experienced audience members, who watch a lot of film, and also produce some film. So they can give a very accurate opinion on our film.
This is a summary of the feedback we were given by our audience to change in our film.
On the Edge of Love Review
We presented these to our teacher, as he has an experience of past movie posters and reviews, and has seen many reviews and posters in empire magazine and other places. So our teacher could give very reliable feedback on our ancillary products and whether they followed the conventions of real media products. Here is the feedback we received from our teacher about our ancillary products.
Our feedback really helped us and here is a summary of the changes our feedback inspired to make.
We have made the less important characters from the poster black and white, as they are not actually in the film, and merely part of the crowd. This allows the characters of the film to be seperated from the rest of the poster. We added the coming soon with the red lines at the side to make it a bit more like a proper movie poster. We changed the font of the title to make it look a bit better as the old font looked a tiny bit out of place.
Here is an embed of our final movie review.
On the Edge of Love Review_Film Review Test Feedback really helped us gather information about how to change this to, and this is a summary of the changes we made to our review.
We changed the quote to something from inside the text.
We made the text slightly smaller.
We added bullet points to the look closer section.
We changed the colours of some of the texts to make the review more colour co-ordinated.
We closed a gap between the picture and the title.
We added a page number, website banner and a edition bit of text at the bottom.
Made the indents around the text slightly bigger.
Added a drop capital at the start of the text section.
Changed the size of the stars slightly so they don't touch the sides but are all the same size.
Overall we learnt a lot from feedback gathered, and throughout our movie product and our ancillary tasks, feedback inspired a lot of changes that would not have been made without it. So feedback really helped the progression of our products and feedback should be a key part of anyones media productions.
At the very start of our A2 Course, each member of our media class had to write up an idea for a 5 minute short film, and pitch it to the rest of the class. After creating our presentations and talking our class through our ideas, there was time for questions, and any feedback about the idea was welcomed greatly. Here is an Embed of my pitch, and earlier in my blog i embedded my groups pitch's (our final idea was gathered from a combination of everyones ideas).
The feedback received by the audience really made me think about my idea, and what would be achieveable, and whether the idea would work, such as the issue with finding an office that actually looks like a business office. It definitely made me and the rest of my group all think about our ideas and really what would be achieveable in the time we had and the resources we had available. In the end after sitting down and discussing our ideas, the audience feedback about each of our ideas really played a part in deciding what elements of each others ideas we would use to create our final idea.
The audience for our feedback was our Peers, who are fellow film makers. By presenting our pitch to this type of audience, it meant we could gather feedback about a variety of topics. As fellow film makers they know the difficulties and potential problems one might face when producing a film. So they have an informed opinion on which ideas might be pheasable and which would be difficult to create. As people who make films, and teenagers who watch plenty of films, they also know what makes a good storyline. The target audience for our thriller includes teenagers, so as teenagers we need to be sure that they would like the idea. So by our class presenting our pitches to our peers/fellow teenagers we could gather feedback about the storyline as well as the production problems.
After all deciding on an idea, we had to write a treatment for our idea as all film makers do. This was merely a draft treatment, and we needed to be sure it was up to standard, and gather feedback on the idea. If our audience didnt like our treatment idea, then it would be pointless to continue with that idea. So to be sure the idea would make for a good thriller short, we presented the treatment to an audience. Here is an embed of our treatment.
On the Edge for Love
Our audience was once again our Peers and our Teacher. As i have already said, as experienced film makers and regular viewers of film products, our Peers can give very informed feedback. They know the workings of a film product and how it is created, so can give us technical feedback, but also as viewers can give us narrative feedback. Our teacher has watched many AS and A-level films from past year groups, and knows what sort of idea would work well as a thriller short. As a media teacher, he knows the technology our school has available and what would be possible to create. So as an audience this was a great source of feedback, as we could get various type of feedback to help make our treatment/idea a lot better.
This is an embed of the feedback we gathered from our audience about our draft treatment.
This reading helped us greatly with our treatment, we managed to answer a lot of people's questions about our film, and gathered a lot of advice about how we could improve the treatment. A lot of idea's were bounced around between the class and it got us thinking about some of the things we could employ in our film to make it better. A few of the things we considered from the feedback was.
- Pre suicide shot with vertigo type effects added to them.
- Tracking forward as zooming out.
- The shot of the main character standing still, with everything zooming past behind him in fast motion. This was a crucial shot that we used in our final film product, that we gained from the feedback.
- The motivation of our title change came purely from our feedback, our new title was much better as it didn't make the plot of our film to obvious. So without gathering this feedback our title would still be the old title. Making this feedback a crucial bit of help.
- The focus pull while Joe was watching them in the cafe, we actually used this idea from the feedback and employed this into our final film product, we thought this would work really will, so we took the audience feedback and used this in our film.
- The shot where he see's the part where he is sitting, and it fades to him actually sitting there. We used this shot in our final film also, and this was a crucial shot as it showed the fade from flashback to real life, and signified the end of the flashbacks. This was a great idea from the audience, and it really shows their experience in film making.
They also gave us their opinions on the treatment, and the audience thought our idea was a very good idea, and as long as we made the shots correct it was a great idea. This boosted our confidence, and we learnt that we needed to put a lot of effort into our film. Looking at our final product and comparing it to the feedback, a lot of the ideas were learnt from our audience, and the feedback really helped our film progress to what it is now.
We also gave our audience a quick questionnaire, just to test if our audience could figure out the target audience, the conventions we have used and whether our story was established clearly enough. Here is an embedded audio recording of our feedback.
This questionnaire showed us that our film treatment was successful, people knew clearly from our treatment the conventions of our film, the genre and the target audience. This feedback helped us gather that our treatment was a successful one, and also our audience told us some weak points in the plot of our film that really motivated us to not mess up. As you can hear from the end of the feedback, we tried to keep our film not cheesy, and we wanted to ensure our shots are executed perfectly. This feedback also helped us greatly, mostly through motivation to do well in our film.
The next thing we gathered feedback on was our rough cut, this helped us learn a lot about our film, and how to change it to make our film better. Here is an embed of our rough cut.
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2An2uYUPtIE" width="560"></iframe><br />
We presented this rough cut to our class and teacher to gather feedback on it, as we have already said they are experienced audience members, who watch a lot of film, and also produce some film. So they can give a very accurate opinion on our film.
This is a summary of the feedback we were given by our audience to change in our film.
- Production company ident has been made in Livetype. That's fine, but you need to change Livetype settings to PAL and 16:9 so that it matches the rest of your film. You can change the settings and then just render & export it again. (At the moment you are using NTSC and 4:3).
- The Glam Productions ident disappears just a little too quick.
- Same applies to the film title; wrong settings and not on screen long enough.
- Establishing of shot of train station with train movement is good, but maybe the 'starring' text needs to be a little bolder.
- Music fade-up at 0.35 needs to be a little slicker (perhaps more gradual).
- Dialogue in 'swing scene' needs to be clearer (overdub whole film?) and the camera moves just at the end of the shot. You seem to fade over Stevie's last bit of dialogue.
- Love the way that the photo blows away. Was this deliberate?
- At 1.26, it isn't clear that he tried to kiss her until she slaps him. Perhaps a change of angle is called for?
- Some of the shots of Rob at the station linger just a little too long (1.58 for example). Keep the pace moving.
- Shot of Stevie at the bus stop is crying out for a focus pull.
- At 2.10 we have a shot of Rob's bum. I know he bends down into shot, but I'm not convinced that this is the best choice of shot distance. Can you make it more obvious that he is watching her?
- At 2.16 it seems funny that Rob to talking to her on the phone and then we see her raise the phone to her ear. Was he leaving a message?
- Again, the grass in the foreground is in focus and surely we want to see the characters at the bus stop?
- At 2.26 there is a sudden colour change.
- At 2.30 (and other places) the camera shutter effect is too prominent in the mix (do digital cameras have shutters?)
- Love it when she turns round and Rob ducks; good editing. Would be even better if we could see the couple in the distance from behind Rob.
- At 2.35, the POV shot is too shaky don't you think?
- At 2.42, it would be good to cut to the medium shot of Rob sitting back at the station first; before we cut to a close-up of the next photo.
- Cafe shot, at 3.05, is out of focus. Again, begging for a focus pull to Rob in the background. I expect that this is what you attempted, but it didn't quite work.
- POV shot at 3.13 works great.
- Where is the ambient sound at 3.23? We can hear the camera, so why can't we hear the wind & traffic?
- When Rob walks out of shot here (which is a good idea), he doesn't quite walk out of shot. You need him to do it in a more assertive/aggressive/intimidating manner than his previous movements; to represent the building of his emotions; moving from hurt boyfriend to suicidal psycho. The way he stays on the edge of the shot doesn't quite work; you don't need to show him at all as we know that he is still watching them. It is more tense if even the audience doesn't know where he is!
- Inconsistent ambient sounds around 3.50.
- Photo shot at 3.53 is a little weird. Wouldn't Rob be seen if he was that close?
- Tracking shot at 3.58 is effective.
- Rob still looking down at 4.16 is a little strange. The other bloke is now standing up! I know Rob is probably just hanging his head in depression, but it doesn't quite look right. Get him to look at the other character.
- At 4.18 he walks too close to the camera and the framing is now weird. This would work is Rob continued to walk towards the camera (until it goes dark) and then you can cut to the opposite view showing Rob approaching the other bloke or walking off. That would make a good march-on-action. Are there any MOAs in this film?
- Need shot/reverse shot during the dialogue between the two blokes (just before 'Joe' runs off). The editing needs to be fast pace here to represent Joe's building stress.
- At 4.42, Rob looks a little weird. I know you are using green screen, but I'm sure this can be improved now that you have a little experience.
- Cross-fade jump shots of Rob walking up the path need to be symmetrical; he should 'miss out' the same amount of path each time for this to work really well.
- When Rob stands up in the train station shelter, you cut his head off. This is sometimes ok, but you need to be able to demonstrate the advantage of only showing his torso at this point. I think you can't! Remember, you are assessed on framing; what you exclude as well as what you include.
- When he walks to the train tracks, why would he think to put down his camera/phone? He's just about to commit suicide, why would he worry? Would be more tense if he walks slowly and erect; imagine how someone would walk if they were sleep-walking; that's what I'm talking about. Would be good if you could then introduce some kind of shot of a train speeding past (perhaps via a cut-away so that Rob doesn't actually have to jump in front of a train to get the shot). Or maybe a more shocking sound effect!
- At the end, Stevie should run up the path and stop dead in her tracks; cut to close-up of her shocked face and scream; on the scream, cut to her falling to her knees (in a much more convincing way than she did here. Sorry Stevie).
- Slower fade required at the end; to represent life fading away (both his and hers).
- End credits are not good. Not enough of them and too big. Why not differentiate between the job titles and the person's name? Consider all the roles of all the people; including production crew and actors. Consider all the roles you see at the end of a real film. You can put the same person's name forward for several roles if that helps.
- Excellent use of fades throughout; even though I usually advise against using them, you've used them in a totally appropriate manner here. Well done.
This feedback helped us greatly in changing our film, we learnt a lot about it, and were very grateful for the positive and negative feedback. Without this our film would have achieved a much lower mark, and would have been a lot lower quality. So gathering feedback was definitely an essential part of our production. We did not follow every piece of feedback due to time constraints and some of them would have been difficult to implement.
After making the changes to our film here is an embed of our final cut.
The feedback from our audience really helped us, and here is a quick summary of the changes the feedback inspired.
- We changed the Livetype settings on our title and ident to make it clearer and better quality so it matched the HD content of the rest of our film.
- We made the Starring text of the titles a little bit bolder so it is more user friendly and easier to read.
- We cut the shots at the train station a bit earlier to make it a bit more fast paced, and so it didn't linger for so long. This made the film more entertaining for the audience.
- We edited the colour change at one of the shots as it looked unprofessional and was a generally bad shot.
- We made the shutter sounds a little less prominent throughout our film based on the feedback given.
- We replaced the shot at the start of the fight scene to something a little more easy to understand and something that adds the creepiness to scene.
- We re-filmed the green screen as there were numerous problems with it, and we had new equipment in school to film a new one with.
- We made the cross-fades as Joe is walking up the ramp more symmetrical and this made our film look a lot better.
- We re-filmed the shot of him jumping on the train tracks as this was unprofessional, so we made it look more realistic and better quality.
- We edited the credits to make them slightly longer and better.
This feedback really helped the progression of our film, and we learnt a lot about it. Feedback was an essential part of the construction of our film.
We also gathered feedback on our poster and review.
Here are embeds of the first draft of our poster and review.
We presented these to our teacher, as he has an experience of past movie posters and reviews, and has seen many reviews and posters in empire magazine and other places. So our teacher could give very reliable feedback on our ancillary products and whether they followed the conventions of real media products. Here is the feedback we received from our teacher about our ancillary products.
This feedback helped us greatly improve our poster and review, we learnt a lot from our feedback and it helped us improve them so they looked more like a real movie poster/review.
Here is an embed of our final movie poster.
 |
| This is the final version of our poster. |
Our feedback really helped us and here is a summary of the changes our feedback inspired to make.
We have made the less important characters from the poster black and white, as they are not actually in the film, and merely part of the crowd. This allows the characters of the film to be seperated from the rest of the poster. We added the coming soon with the red lines at the side to make it a bit more like a proper movie poster. We changed the font of the title to make it look a bit better as the old font looked a tiny bit out of place.
Here is an embed of our final movie review.
On the Edge of Love Review_Film Review Test Feedback really helped us gather information about how to change this to, and this is a summary of the changes we made to our review.
We changed the quote to something from inside the text.
We made the text slightly smaller.
We added bullet points to the look closer section.
We changed the colours of some of the texts to make the review more colour co-ordinated.
We closed a gap between the picture and the title.
We added a page number, website banner and a edition bit of text at the bottom.
Made the indents around the text slightly bigger.
Added a drop capital at the start of the text section.
Changed the size of the stars slightly so they don't touch the sides but are all the same size.
Overall we learnt a lot from feedback gathered, and throughout our movie product and our ancillary tasks, feedback inspired a lot of changes that would not have been made without it. So feedback really helped the progression of our products and feedback should be a key part of anyones media productions.
Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
This is our second evaluation question, where we talk about the effectiveness of our Ancillary products, and our film, also about the brand identity, so the effectiveness of the combination between them.
Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
This is the first of our 4 evaluation questions, where we discuss the conventions our film has used from real media products. We have used a screencast with images to talk about this part of our evaluation.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Final Cut
This is the final cut of our film "On the edge of love" we will be making no further changes to our film.
Re-Shoots and Re-Edits
Re-Shoots: This went fairly well, as the train scene was done a lot better than before, it looked a lot more realistic and we faced no problems. The green screen was also done a lot better as we had a new piece of equipment to green screen with known as a Chroma-Keying kit. Despite this we did run into some troubles. We could not refilm the scene near a bush, as the bush had been cut down since we filmed our Rough cut, this would mean massive continuity errors and made this part impossible to refilm. It was also hard to get our actors together around this point as our female actor was away Ill for a couple of weeks. Eventually we got all the shots we could possibly re-film done though, and got rid of any continuity errors such as the green screen clothing change.
Re-Edits: Re-editing our film was a very difficult task. Adding the new footage in and trimming down all of our shots was very easy and was done very successfuly. The green screen also edited a lot smoother with the new equipment so this went very well. The difficult part of the editing was getting the soundtrack to match up now we had added new bits of footage and adjusted the length of the shots. This took many hours of moving the soundtrack bits around to match the video shown on the screen, and we basically had to start our soundtrack again from scratch. We overcame this though and changed a few of the songs on the soundtrack around. Eventually our film came together well, it was a lot more fast paced than before, and generally flowed a lot better and looked more professional with the new shots, and the new titles/ident to compliment it.
Re-Edits: Re-editing our film was a very difficult task. Adding the new footage in and trimming down all of our shots was very easy and was done very successfuly. The green screen also edited a lot smoother with the new equipment so this went very well. The difficult part of the editing was getting the soundtrack to match up now we had added new bits of footage and adjusted the length of the shots. This took many hours of moving the soundtrack bits around to match the video shown on the screen, and we basically had to start our soundtrack again from scratch. We overcame this though and changed a few of the songs on the soundtrack around. Eventually our film came together well, it was a lot more fast paced than before, and generally flowed a lot better and looked more professional with the new shots, and the new titles/ident to compliment it.
Evaluation of Peer Feedback
Each and every bit of feedback from our class is helpful to us and we are very greatful for it, after reading through the feedback we have come up with a list of changes that we plan to make, and we are going to try and make as many of these changes as possible within the time allocated to us for Re-films and Re-edits.
- We are going to change the Livetype settings of the Ident and titles, and probably change the titles themselves to something a bit more advanced.
- We are going to make the "starring" text at the beginning of our film bolder so it is easier to read.
- We Will try to reshoot the kiss/slap from a seperate angle.
- We Will cut the shots at the train station earlier to keep the pace of our film moving quickly.
- We will edit out the colour change mentioned at 2.26 as this is a major flaw and looks very odd.
- We are going to make the shutter sound effect a lot less prominent as it is to loud and noticeable.
- We will try to film the cafe scene again in focus, as it is slightly out of focus in one of the shots as this is very difficult to notice on the camera preview screen.
- We will replace the shot at the start of the fight scene with something a little more self explanitory.
- We are going to Re-film/Re-edit the green screen as there is a continuity error and it just doesnt look good in general.
- We Will try to make the cross-fades of Joe walking up the ramp more symmetrical.
- We are going to re-film the shot of Joe jumping onto the tracks to make this look more realistic.
- We will improve the credits and make them a bit longer.
Feedback on our Rough Cut
We have presented our Rough Cut to our media class and teacher, and asked them to state what they think about our film. Their opinions are highly valued as they have all produced a film of their own and they know what it is like. So they have experience in spotting errors as they know how the production of a film works. Our Teacher is very experienced at reviewing these films as he has watched many Rough cuts and can easily spot an error. So we made sure to gather feedback from our class so we knew what to change in our film.
Here is what our media class said about our rough cut.
Here is what our media class said about our rough cut.
- Production company ident has been made in Livetype. That's fine, but you need to change Livetype settings to PAL and 16:9 so that it matches the rest of your film. You can change the settings and then just render & export it again. (At the moment you are using NTSC and 4:3).
- The Glam Productions ident disappears just a little too quick.
- Same applies to the film title; wrong settings and not on screen long enough.
- Establishing of shot of train station with train movement is good, but maybe the 'starring' text needs to be a little bolder.
- Music fade-up at 0.35 needs to be a little slicker (perhaps more gradual).
- Dialogue in 'swing scene' needs to be clearer (overdub whole film?) and the camera moves just at the end of the shot. You seem to fade over Stevie's last bit of dialogue.
- Love the way that the photo blows away. Was this deliberate?
- At 1.26, it isn't clear that he tried to kiss her until she slaps him. Perhaps a change of angle is called for?
- Some of the shots of Rob at the station linger just a little too long (1.58 for example). Keep the pace moving.
- Shot of Stevie at the bus stop is crying out for a focus pull.
- At 2.10 we have a shot of Rob's bum. I know he bends down into shot, but I'm not convinced that this is the best choice of shot distance. Can you make it more obvious that he is watching her?
- At 2.16 it seems funny that Rob to talking to her on the phone and then we see her raise the phone to her ear. Was he leaving a message?
- Again, the grass in the foreground is in focus and surely we want to see the characters at the bus stop?
- At 2.26 there is a sudden colour change.
- At 2.30 (and other places) the camera shutter effect is too prominent in the mix (do digital cameras have shutters?)
- Love it when she turns round and Rob ducks; good editing. Would be even better if we could see the couple in the distance from behind Rob.
- At 2.35, the POV shot is too shaky don't you think?
- At 2.42, it would be good to cut to the medium shot of Rob sitting back at the station first; before we cut to a close-up of the next photo.
- Cafe shot, at 3.05, is out of focus. Again, begging for a focus pull to Rob in the background. I expect that this is what you attempted, but it didn't quite work.
- POV shot at 3.13 works great.
- Where is the ambient sound at 3.23? We can hear the camera, so why can't we hear the wind & traffic?
- When Rob walks out of shot here (which is a good idea), he doesn't quite walk out of shot. You need him to do it in a more assertive/aggressive/intimidating manner than his previous movements; to represent the building of his emotions; moving from hurt boyfriend to suicidal psycho. The way he stays on the edge of the shot doesn't quite work; you don't need to show him at all as we know that he is still watching them. It is more tense if even the audience doesn't know where he is!
- Inconsistent ambient sounds around 3.50.
- Photo shot at 3.53 is a little weird. Wouldn't Rob be seen if he was that close?
- Tracking shot at 3.58 is effective.
- Rob still looking down at 4.16 is a little strange. The other bloke is now standing up! I know Rob is probably just hanging his head in depression, but it doesn't quite look right. Get him to look at the other character.
- At 4.18 he walks too close to the camera and the framing is now weird. This would work is Rob continued to walk towards the camera (until it goes dark) and then you can cut to the opposite view showing Rob approaching the other bloke or walking off. That would make a good march-on-action. Are there any MOAs in this film?
- Need shot/reverse shot during the dialogue between the two blokes (just before 'Joe' runs off). The editing needs to be fast pace here to represent Joe's building stress.
- At 4.42, Rob looks a little weird. I know you are using green screen, but I'm sure this can be improved now that you have a little experience.
- Cross-fade jump shots of Rob walking up the path need to be symmetrical; he should 'miss out' the same amount of path each time for this to work really well.
- When Rob stands up in the train station shelter, you cut his head off. This is sometimes ok, but you need to be able to demonstrate the advantage of only showing his torso at this point. I think you can't! Remember, you are assessed on framing; what you exclude as well as what you include.
- When he walks to the train tracks, why would he think to put down his camera/phone? He's just about to commit suicide, why would he worry? Would be more tense if he walks slowly and erect; imagine how someone would walk if they were sleep-walking; that's what I'm talking about. Would be good if you could then introduce some kind of shot of a train speeding past (perhaps via a cut-away so that Rob doesn't actually have to jump in front of a train to get the shot). Or maybe a more shocking sound effect!
- At the end, Stevie should run up the path and stop dead in her tracks; cut to close-up of her shocked face and scream; on the scream, cut to her falling to her knees (in a much more convincing way than she did here. Sorry Stevie).
- Slower fade required at the end; to represent life fading away (both his and hers).
- End credits are not good. Not enough of them and too big. Why not differentiate between the job titles and the person's name? Consider all the roles of all the people; including production crew and actors. Consider all the roles you see at the end of a real film. You can put the same person's name forward for several roles if that helps.
- Excellent use of fades throughout; even though I usually advise against using them, you've used them in a totally appropriate manner here. Well done.
Friday, 10 February 2012
On the edge of love rough cut
This is the Rough cut of our film "On the edge of love". I am very happy with this product, as i feel we have worked very effectively as a production group and a cast to produce this, and we have done very well at overcoming the difficulties we faced in the construction of our film.
I am very happy with some parts of the film, Mainly the fight scene of our film, as this went very well and it was one of the most difficult parts to film as it contained a lot of shots and it was a challenge to ensure there was no continuity errors when shooting this scene.
There is nothing i am majorly unhappy with, but there are a lot of shots that could be done a lot better we just did not have the time in this first cut, the green screen is poorly edited and there is a major continuity error that we need to fix, and there is a shot in the cafe scene that is out of focus. However we can fix this, and despite these i am very happy with how this short has turned out. Of course we will gather some peer feedback next so we can gain an outside view and see if they can suggest any changes to our film.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Editing Our Film
To edit our footage, we would capture the filmed footage from the tape of the camera using final cut express and its capture feature. We would then begin to edit the video side of the film using Final cut, and use Soundtrack pro to edit the sound and add the soundtrack in.
Editing Stage 1: The first session of editing was very hard as we had to keep referring back to our animistic to get the shots the right length, and some of the shots lingered on for far to long on the camera, so we had to try and trim it down to only the necessity's. This was just the day for piecing our film together and adding fades etc. This went fairly well it just took a while to add the correct fades to certain parts of the film without cutting out an essential part of the footage, or leaving in an error. Overall this was a successful day of filming as we managed to piece together our footage nicely and add all the neccesary fades in.
This is a screenshot of us adding a cross dissolve to one of our clips in final cut.
Editing Stage 2: This is the session in which we started to edit our soundtrack. This went extremely well as we could use the same music we had already preselected for our animatic in our film. A lot of the soundtracks seemed to fit perfectly into our film with little editing needed so we were really lucky in this sense. We did face some difficulty as we had to adjust the sound levels at certain parts so you could hear the speech over the music. We also had to leave some sounds from the animatic out such as the sound of the paper ripping, as it was very hard to make this sound realistic and fit in with the video. Apart from these difficulties it was a very succesful day of editing and our soundtrack worked well.
This is a screenshot of us adding a fade to one of the tracks on our soundtrack.
Editing Stage 3: We would now have to add the final bits of video editing, and ensure everything is going ok. This was a fairly succesful editing session as crossfading Joe walking up the rank went very well and did not pose much difficulty to do. However the green screen did not go as well. It was very difficult to edit the green screen, as you have to be very precise so there is no green showing but you dont cut parts of the actor off. It took a very long time to edit this as there was constantly a glow around the actor, but we got round this by softening the edges of the green screen. Overall this was a very succesful day of editing.
This is an image of us working on editing the green screen and fiddling around with the settings to try and make him look real.
Our next step would be to upload our rough cut and gain some peer feedback.
Editing Stage 1: The first session of editing was very hard as we had to keep referring back to our animistic to get the shots the right length, and some of the shots lingered on for far to long on the camera, so we had to try and trim it down to only the necessity's. This was just the day for piecing our film together and adding fades etc. This went fairly well it just took a while to add the correct fades to certain parts of the film without cutting out an essential part of the footage, or leaving in an error. Overall this was a successful day of filming as we managed to piece together our footage nicely and add all the neccesary fades in.
This is a screenshot of us adding a cross dissolve to one of our clips in final cut.
Editing Stage 2: This is the session in which we started to edit our soundtrack. This went extremely well as we could use the same music we had already preselected for our animatic in our film. A lot of the soundtracks seemed to fit perfectly into our film with little editing needed so we were really lucky in this sense. We did face some difficulty as we had to adjust the sound levels at certain parts so you could hear the speech over the music. We also had to leave some sounds from the animatic out such as the sound of the paper ripping, as it was very hard to make this sound realistic and fit in with the video. Apart from these difficulties it was a very succesful day of editing and our soundtrack worked well.
This is a screenshot of us adding a fade to one of the tracks on our soundtrack.
Editing Stage 3: We would now have to add the final bits of video editing, and ensure everything is going ok. This was a fairly succesful editing session as crossfading Joe walking up the rank went very well and did not pose much difficulty to do. However the green screen did not go as well. It was very difficult to edit the green screen, as you have to be very precise so there is no green showing but you dont cut parts of the actor off. It took a very long time to edit this as there was constantly a glow around the actor, but we got round this by softening the edges of the green screen. Overall this was a very succesful day of editing.
This is an image of us working on editing the green screen and fiddling around with the settings to try and make him look real.
Our next step would be to upload our rough cut and gain some peer feedback.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Filming Our Short
Filming Day 1: Our first day of filming went very well, we followed our shooting schedule well and got all of our shots done. All of our shots went well, and we worked together effectively as a group and a cast to get our shots done quickly and efficiently. On this day we did not face any trouble with any shots, as they all went well.
Filming Day 2: Today was a lot harder to film for, while it still went well, we had trouble placing the cast in such a confined space in the cafe, and still fitting the camera in the right place so we could frame our shot correctly. We had to get the characters to edge in as much as they could to film this shot correctly, but it turned out ok at the end. Today was also the day of our fight scene, probably the most difficult part to film, however it went excellently, the actors did a great job of getting their lines correct and getting this done quickly. The only problem we did face was that the tracking was difficult to keep steady on such uneven ground, and people kept knocking the edge of the track as they walked. We solved this by having one person operate the camera as everyone else stood a good distance from the tracking. We have learnt to plan where we are going to stand people ahead before we go film, and when filming in such tight spaces, you may have to get the production crew to stand elsewhere and let one person operate the camera. In learning this we can make our next shoot a lot easier by planning ahead.
Filming day 3: This was the final day of fimling for our rough cut. This final day went very well again, and everyone did a superb job, but it was very difficult to position the characters correctly in such a confined space when filming our bedroom scene. We managed to move the camera around enough to eventually get a good angle to film from, so this scene faced no real trouble apart from angling the shot correctly. The largest scene of the film is the footage from the train station, this was a very difficult place to film, as there was much of the public around, we needed to wait for trains to go past, and there is not much space inside the shelter. So this was a very difficult scene to film, but we overcame this by waiting for the public to leave, and waiting around to film the shot of the train we needed. As for the little space in the shelter, we had to raise the tripod to the highest it could go to angle the shot right but we eventually got it correctly and this was a succesful day of filming.
Now we have filmed all of the footage for our Rough cut, it is time to edit our footage.
Filming Day 2: Today was a lot harder to film for, while it still went well, we had trouble placing the cast in such a confined space in the cafe, and still fitting the camera in the right place so we could frame our shot correctly. We had to get the characters to edge in as much as they could to film this shot correctly, but it turned out ok at the end. Today was also the day of our fight scene, probably the most difficult part to film, however it went excellently, the actors did a great job of getting their lines correct and getting this done quickly. The only problem we did face was that the tracking was difficult to keep steady on such uneven ground, and people kept knocking the edge of the track as they walked. We solved this by having one person operate the camera as everyone else stood a good distance from the tracking. We have learnt to plan where we are going to stand people ahead before we go film, and when filming in such tight spaces, you may have to get the production crew to stand elsewhere and let one person operate the camera. In learning this we can make our next shoot a lot easier by planning ahead.
Filming day 3: This was the final day of fimling for our rough cut. This final day went very well again, and everyone did a superb job, but it was very difficult to position the characters correctly in such a confined space when filming our bedroom scene. We managed to move the camera around enough to eventually get a good angle to film from, so this scene faced no real trouble apart from angling the shot correctly. The largest scene of the film is the footage from the train station, this was a very difficult place to film, as there was much of the public around, we needed to wait for trains to go past, and there is not much space inside the shelter. So this was a very difficult scene to film, but we overcame this by waiting for the public to leave, and waiting around to film the shot of the train we needed. As for the little space in the shelter, we had to raise the tripod to the highest it could go to angle the shot right but we eventually got it correctly and this was a succesful day of filming.
Now we have filmed all of the footage for our Rough cut, it is time to edit our footage.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Preparing for shoot
We will need to gather equipment and decide on work allocation to prepare for our first day of shooting. There is a few pieces of essential equipment that we would not be able to film without. First of all, obviously we will need a camera, and we will also need a HD tape to put in the camera.This is an image of the camera's we are going to be using to film our shorts.
This camera is a HD video camera that will capture the footage for our short perfectly, it has the mic attached to capture sound to, and many settings that can aid the capturing of our footage. We will then need to add this onto a tripod so we can adjust the height we want the camera, and also ensure there is no shaky cam from handheld camerawork. This is the Tripod we will be using to stand the camera on.
This tripod will allow us to hold the camera in a steady position, we can adjust the height of the legs, and make the top part higher by extending it using the wheel. You can also use the handle to adjust the angle, or pan the camera.
We are going to do the camerawork as a group, so we can get 4 different opinions on how the angles look and whether it fits the shot. This is much better than allocating one person as other people can be standing around doing nothing when they could be helping get the shot as perfect as possible.
Adam is going to be responsible for prop collection and distribution as we assigned him this role at the start of the planning of this film, and he drew up the prop list himself. Luke is going to be monitoring costume and ensure that all of the cast are wearing the appopriate costume for the scene, and also ensure that their clothing doesnt change between days of filming.
Me and Grant are going to be responsible for continuty, ensuring everything looks the same when filming different shots on different days, and that nothing changes between shots. We will watch each clip multiple times to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Our next step is to actually go film our footage.
This camera is a HD video camera that will capture the footage for our short perfectly, it has the mic attached to capture sound to, and many settings that can aid the capturing of our footage. We will then need to add this onto a tripod so we can adjust the height we want the camera, and also ensure there is no shaky cam from handheld camerawork. This is the Tripod we will be using to stand the camera on.
We are going to do the camerawork as a group, so we can get 4 different opinions on how the angles look and whether it fits the shot. This is much better than allocating one person as other people can be standing around doing nothing when they could be helping get the shot as perfect as possible.
Adam is going to be responsible for prop collection and distribution as we assigned him this role at the start of the planning of this film, and he drew up the prop list himself. Luke is going to be monitoring costume and ensure that all of the cast are wearing the appopriate costume for the scene, and also ensure that their clothing doesnt change between days of filming.
Me and Grant are going to be responsible for continuty, ensuring everything looks the same when filming different shots on different days, and that nothing changes between shots. We will watch each clip multiple times to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Our next step is to actually go film our footage.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Test Shots
We have recorded some test shots to see if some of the more difficult shots in our film are capable of being done, and if we have the ability to do them.
They were very successful, and we will attempt to use these shots in our final film product.
Our next step is to prepare for our first shoot and get ready to start producing our film.
They were very successful, and we will attempt to use these shots in our final film product.
Our next step is to prepare for our first shoot and get ready to start producing our film.
Our Groups Ident
We have produced this ident using LiveType to present at the start of our film. This is the ident we would use in all of our productions if we were to go on and create more. This helps our production company build an image, and when people see our ident they will recognise it as a film by our company.
Many great media company's such as universal and Warner Bros. have great idents that clearly establish the company. When people see a film, they know the ident and it can automatically hook them to the film. So it can establish the film as a good film before the main feature has event started.
We will now test some shots to see if they are going to fit into our film, and test if we have the knowledge to get the shots correct.
Shooting Schedule
A shooting schedule is a document written by producers to note down dates of filming, so the actors and other procucers can be notified about the filming dates. It also provides a guide on what the requirements are for the scenes, such as what actors/props and weather/time of day requirements.
Shooting Schedule
This is the shooting Schedule for our film, this is so we know when we are filming each section of the film and what we need for each section. We will be constantly referring back too this. Please note the dates are subject too change.
After writing our shooting schedule, we shall create a company ident to use, test some of our shots. Then begin to construct our film.
Shooting Schedule
This is the shooting Schedule for our film, this is so we know when we are filming each section of the film and what we need for each section. We will be constantly referring back too this. Please note the dates are subject too change.
After writing our shooting schedule, we shall create a company ident to use, test some of our shots. Then begin to construct our film.
Props Research/List
For our film we will need some props mostly we need a camera and a scrap book that Joe can use to put all of his photos. A prop is an object that we give the actors to use when acting in our scenes, this is something that the character actually interacts with in our story.
Camera
For the camera, Joe can either have an old professional camera so it looks as if he wants to be a photographer when he is older.
He could have different kinds of lenses and flashes so it's as if he has puts lots of money into buying these specialist cameras but this camera would be hard to find unless we know somebody who has this type of camera.
Or we can have him using a normal type of camera that most family will have this cameras quite cheap so it would be easy to find a camera like this, as we can just borrow one off some body's parents.
Notebook
Joe will need a photo album for him to be ripping out the photos. We could get a normal photo album but for Joe to rip apart the album that we have paid for then that might be a waste of money. So I thought that we could just buy a scrapbook, stick in the photos and decorate the cover. This won't cost as much as a proper album and it's will look just as good, and create more of a stalker image as its something he has thrown together.
Soon we will begin to produce our film, the next thing we shall do is draw up a shooting schedule so we know when we are going to be filming and what actors/props we need for each day.
Camera
For the camera, Joe can either have an old professional camera so it looks as if he wants to be a photographer when he is older.
He could have different kinds of lenses and flashes so it's as if he has puts lots of money into buying these specialist cameras but this camera would be hard to find unless we know somebody who has this type of camera.
Or we can have him using a normal type of camera that most family will have this cameras quite cheap so it would be easy to find a camera like this, as we can just borrow one off some body's parents.
Notebook
Joe will need a photo album for him to be ripping out the photos. We could get a normal photo album but for Joe to rip apart the album that we have paid for then that might be a waste of money. So I thought that we could just buy a scrapbook, stick in the photos and decorate the cover. This won't cost as much as a proper album and it's will look just as good, and create more of a stalker image as its something he has thrown together.
Soon we will begin to produce our film, the next thing we shall do is draw up a shooting schedule so we know when we are going to be filming and what actors/props we need for each day.
Location Research
We are researching into possible locations for our film, and this presentation provides a rough guide of what our locations will look like, and what our location requirements are.
After Deciding the locations we are going to film at, we will create a list of all the props we will need to give our actors to include in our scenes.
After Deciding the locations we are going to film at, we will create a list of all the props we will need to give our actors to include in our scenes.
Revised Treatment and Script
We have reached a difficulty in finding a suitable location for the current film idea, so we have changed the location of the narrative slightly, and replaced the cliff with a train station. So the main charachter will now committ suicide at the train station, rather than jumping from a cliff.
We have revised our Treatment and Script to fit the new filming location, we have changed these so the actors know what to do on set. Every other aspect of our film apart from the location of the cliff will remain the same, so it should look very similar to how it would have done beforehand.
Storyboard
Storyboard Finished (Altered Version)
Script
Script Final Draft
Now these changes have been made, we can continue to research our locations and continue with the planning and production of our film.
We have revised our Treatment and Script to fit the new filming location, we have changed these so the actors know what to do on set. Every other aspect of our film apart from the location of the cliff will remain the same, so it should look very similar to how it would have done beforehand.
Storyboard
Storyboard Finished (Altered Version)
Script
Script Final Draft
Now these changes have been made, we can continue to research our locations and continue with the planning and production of our film.
Costume Research
There is not a lot of costume research to be done for our film. It does not have any specific requirements as to what people would wear. In the majority of the scenes throughout the film, all 3 characters should just wear casual everyday clothing that they might go to work/sixth form in, or just walking around the streets with their friends in.
So for our film we are leaving the majority of the clothes to the actors discretion, however we are providing certain bits of clothing:
We will provide some of the actors with Jackets, as we are filming on different days, they may not necessarily wear the same clothes on each day. So to make the film work and make sure they are wearing the same clothes when they should be, we are providing them with jackets so they can wear it on each filming day.
The only proper costume requirement is a Hoodie for Joe, he needs to wear a hood to show his depression and give him more of a stalker look. We will just use a black Hoodie for this, as it is easy to obtain and represents the scenes perfectly. At the start Joe will be wearing more casual non hooded clothing to show his innocence, then when he evolves into this stalker persona he will be wearing a black Hoodie, the black to represent the evil side of him. A good example of the Hoodie we will be using is this one.
After deciding what costumes our characters are going to need, we are going to research some locations where to film the different scenes in our film.
So for our film we are leaving the majority of the clothes to the actors discretion, however we are providing certain bits of clothing:
We will provide some of the actors with Jackets, as we are filming on different days, they may not necessarily wear the same clothes on each day. So to make the film work and make sure they are wearing the same clothes when they should be, we are providing them with jackets so they can wear it on each filming day.
The only proper costume requirement is a Hoodie for Joe, he needs to wear a hood to show his depression and give him more of a stalker look. We will just use a black Hoodie for this, as it is easy to obtain and represents the scenes perfectly. At the start Joe will be wearing more casual non hooded clothing to show his innocence, then when he evolves into this stalker persona he will be wearing a black Hoodie, the black to represent the evil side of him. A good example of the Hoodie we will be using is this one.
After deciding what costumes our characters are going to need, we are going to research some locations where to film the different scenes in our film.
Animatic
An Animatic is a rough guide of what your film is going to look like. It contains the shots from the storyboard, or rough recordings used for animatic purposes only. They may not use the same actors in the shots, or same voices when overdubbing the animatic. It provides a video and audio guide on how the film will look overall, and how it fits together.
This is the animatic for our film "on the edge of love" it gives people a rough idea of what our film will look like, it contains the slides from our storyboard, with the speech, sound effects and similar music added in over the top too make it look and sound similar too what we want our final product too look like.
We will now research into the costume and locations for our film.
This is the animatic for our film "on the edge of love" it gives people a rough idea of what our film will look like, it contains the slides from our storyboard, with the speech, sound effects and similar music added in over the top too make it look and sound similar too what we want our final product too look like.
We will now research into the costume and locations for our film.
Storyboard
A storyboard is a guide of the shots in a film, so the producers can use them on set so they know what shots to film, it tells them the angle, who and what is in the shot etc. It is an essential tool when producing a film.
Finished Storyboard
This is the storyboard created for our film "on the edge of love" it contains a slide for each shot, and a description of each shot and why we implemented it into our film. We will now produce an animatic as a rough guide on what our film is going to look like.
Finished Storyboard
This is the storyboard created for our film "on the edge of love" it contains a slide for each shot, and a description of each shot and why we implemented it into our film. We will now produce an animatic as a rough guide on what our film is going to look like.
Script
A script is a document written by film producers to give to their actors so they can learn their lines. It contains a brief description of the video shown on screen, and gives all the speech associated with that video in that scene.
Script
This is the script for our film "on the edge of love", created in final draft AV, it contains what happens in our film, with audio for each corresponding video part. We will give this to the actors so they can learn their lines, and it can help us produce our film more effectively as we know which audio sections correspond with which video sections.
We will now produce a storyboard to go with our film, so we can use this on set so we can be sure of what shots to film.
Script
This is the script for our film "on the edge of love", created in final draft AV, it contains what happens in our film, with audio for each corresponding video part. We will give this to the actors so they can learn their lines, and it can help us produce our film more effectively as we know which audio sections correspond with which video sections.
We will now produce a storyboard to go with our film, so we can use this on set so we can be sure of what shots to film.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Possible Difficulties When Producing Our film
Throughout the production of our film, we are bound too face some barriers that may slow down production, or require us too change some of our treatment. I will discuss these potential barriers and talk about how we might combat the barriers.
- As he is flicking through the photo album, we need too make it look authentic when it fades from the photo too the scene related too the photo. The fade might look messy. To tackle this problem we will take our time in using these fades too get them just right.
- We will have too angle our shots just right when doing the cliff scene, so that you cannot see that he is not sitting on the steep part of the drop, as we are using the less steep part so that we can do the jump effectively.
- We will have too make the jump look realistic, as he cannot actually jump off the cliff. So we are going too either film him jumping off the smaller part, we will have too judge the camera shot too see if it looks realistic, or we will film him running towards it, and maybe film a manequin being thrown off, from a very large distance away, then maybe him at the bottom. This is going too be one of the biggest difficulties in producing our film, but we will find a way too solve it.
- It will be hard too show the girl walking towards him as he runs off, because we are going too try do it as a point of view shot of him falling, we could probably make this look authetic by walking backwards down the steep part, or standing further away from the edge than it actually looks and fall backwards.
Final Treatment
on the edge of love
This is our final treatment, i have implemented the few changes i mentioned last post and our treatment will now no longer be edited. We will now look at whether this story will actually work, and potential difficulties we may face when trying to film this story.
This is our final treatment, i have implemented the few changes i mentioned last post and our treatment will now no longer be edited. We will now look at whether this story will actually work, and potential difficulties we may face when trying to film this story.
Summary of Treatment Changes
After gathering feedback from an audience, there are no major changes that we need too make too our treatment. As reading i noticed a few grammar mistakes which we will change.
The only thing we will be changing to the idea is the name of our film, as it is suggested that "on the edge for love" is too obvious, and it gives away a lot of our film, so we have decided too change too "on the edge of love" As it gives away less of the plot too our film.
The only thing we will be changing to the idea is the name of our film, as it is suggested that "on the edge for love" is too obvious, and it gives away a lot of our film, so we have decided too change too "on the edge of love" As it gives away less of the plot too our film.
Audience Questionnaire (Target Audience and Conventions)
We gave the audience a questionnaire too see if they could figure out the target audience and conventions we have used purely from our treatment. This is too test if our treatment is giving a clear enough representation of our film.
Reading of treatment with Peer Feedback
We read our treatment out too our class and asked them for any feedback they felt necessary too our treatment.
Draft Treatment
A treatment is a piece of pose, that sets the story for a film. Film makers use this so they know their story all the way through, and it is not just merely an idea, but a full document of text explaining what is going to happen. This is usually done just before the script and storyboard that comply with this treatment are produced.
On the Edge for Love
This is the Draft Treatment for our 5 minute short film, we will now present it too an audience and gather feedback on how too improve it so it is up too full standard.
On the Edge for Love
This is the Draft Treatment for our 5 minute short film, we will now present it too an audience and gather feedback on how too improve it so it is up too full standard.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Target Audience Research
My target audience is people who watch thrillers between the age's of 16-55. Although there is no specific type of people who watch thrillers. The main people who watch it are middle aged people. This is for a number of reasons. Most people younger than 16 are not exposed to thrillers due to film classification (Will speak about this soon) as thrillers contain violent scenes which younger kids are not allowed too, or will not usually watch. People over the age of 55 tend to lose their normal taste in films, and prefer to watch quiet, less gory films. This is not all cases, but most of the time this does happen. So the typical people who watch these films are between the age group i have chosen.
With my film being a romantic Thriller, the audience ages might stray slightly. Woman are more likely to take an interest in my film, as one of the main audiences for romance films are females. Having a strong romance may also attract the attention of older people as it is not all based on action and excitement, there is a tragic romance to it, which can help widen the target audience of the film. This may also apply to couples, as tragic romances are a common genre for couples to watch together.
Film classification largely effects young people. Every film has an age classification which is set by a special institute which decides the classification. This is a legal recommendation, which means people who are not over the age restriction cannot buy the film. This does not stop them seeing the film all together, but it helps prevent people under the age from viewing it. For this reason most of the people under 16 will not watch thrillers due to most thrillers having a fairly high age classification.Our film contains a suicide which could potentially upset people, so our film should probably be shown to no-one younger than 16.
We should now begin to write the treatment for our film, so we can get a full story finalised, and begin to produce our film properly.
With my film being a romantic Thriller, the audience ages might stray slightly. Woman are more likely to take an interest in my film, as one of the main audiences for romance films are females. Having a strong romance may also attract the attention of older people as it is not all based on action and excitement, there is a tragic romance to it, which can help widen the target audience of the film. This may also apply to couples, as tragic romances are a common genre for couples to watch together.
Film classification largely effects young people. Every film has an age classification which is set by a special institute which decides the classification. This is a legal recommendation, which means people who are not over the age restriction cannot buy the film. This does not stop them seeing the film all together, but it helps prevent people under the age from viewing it. For this reason most of the people under 16 will not watch thrillers due to most thrillers having a fairly high age classification.Our film contains a suicide which could potentially upset people, so our film should probably be shown to no-one younger than 16.
We should now begin to write the treatment for our film, so we can get a full story finalised, and begin to produce our film properly.
Thriller Research
For our short film we have chosen to do a thriller, as the term "Thriller" covers a wide array of conventions and ideas. So we are not as limited when doing a thriller.
A thriller is a genre of film/television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements to grip its viewers and tell the story.
I did some research into thrillers last year for my AS media coursework, and here is an extract from my AS blog on the subject of sub-genres of thrillers.
"Conspiracy thriller: In which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes. An example of this would be no way out or the domino principle.
Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses. An example of a crime thriller is bad blood.
Medical thriller: In which the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem. An example of a medical thriller is the hot zone
Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. An example of this is psycho
Religious thriller: In which the plot is closely connected to religious objects, institutions and questions. While suspense stories have always shown a significant affinity for religion and philosophical issues. Examples of this are the da vinci code, or the devils advocate.
Supernatural thriller: In which the film brings in an otherworldly element mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometimes the hero and/or villain has some psychic ability. An example of this is possesion.
Mystery thriller: Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in, a mystery. An example of a mystery thriller would be flightplan
Enviromental Thriller: In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster. This includes such films as 2012, or the day after tomorrow."
This year our film short falls under the category of romance thriller. This was a category i did not cover last year, so i researched them.
A Romantic Thriller is a cross genre between romance films and thrillers. So the storyline is often based around a romance between two or more people, however it uses thriller conventions as its main element, such as suspense and tension. Not many of these are made as it can be difficult to weave a plot together that includes both of these elements.
A very good example of a romantic thriller is Mr and Mrs smith. They are both assassins and are married to each other, but neither of the characters know the other one is an assassin. This causes great amounts of conflict and action. They combine these two genres extremely well, including a strong romance with scenes of heavy action.
Here is the trailer for mr and mrs smith
After Research into this film there are a few conventions we would like to use in our film.
Taxi driver is a psychological thriller with many similarities to our film, so it is good for my group to analyse and draw conventions from.
Taxi Driver
This film has some very similar traits that our film does. It is about a taxi driver, who also gets rejected by a woman (as the main character in our film does), which drives him too violent thoughts and tries too assassinate a senator (Similar too our film where the main character tries too fight with the girls new boyfriend) and in the end attempts too kill himself (In our film also). So the film is very similar too ours in many ways, and it may help us with some idea's.
After Researching this film we have found a few conventions taxi driver uses.
After Researching thrillers and coming up with a few conventions we could use in our film, our next step would be to research into the target audience for our film short.
A thriller is a genre of film/television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements to grip its viewers and tell the story.
I did some research into thrillers last year for my AS media coursework, and here is an extract from my AS blog on the subject of sub-genres of thrillers.
"Conspiracy thriller: In which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he/she recognizes. An example of this would be no way out or the domino principle.
Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses. An example of a crime thriller is bad blood.
Medical thriller: In which the hero/heroine are medical doctors/personnel working to solve an expanding medical problem. An example of a medical thriller is the hot zone
Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. An example of this is psycho
Religious thriller: In which the plot is closely connected to religious objects, institutions and questions. While suspense stories have always shown a significant affinity for religion and philosophical issues. Examples of this are the da vinci code, or the devils advocate.
Supernatural thriller: In which the film brings in an otherworldly element mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometimes the hero and/or villain has some psychic ability. An example of this is possesion.
Mystery thriller: Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in, a mystery. An example of a mystery thriller would be flightplan
Enviromental Thriller: In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster. This includes such films as 2012, or the day after tomorrow."
This year our film short falls under the category of romance thriller. This was a category i did not cover last year, so i researched them.
A Romantic Thriller is a cross genre between romance films and thrillers. So the storyline is often based around a romance between two or more people, however it uses thriller conventions as its main element, such as suspense and tension. Not many of these are made as it can be difficult to weave a plot together that includes both of these elements.
A very good example of a romantic thriller is Mr and Mrs smith. They are both assassins and are married to each other, but neither of the characters know the other one is an assassin. This causes great amounts of conflict and action. They combine these two genres extremely well, including a strong romance with scenes of heavy action.
Here is the trailer for mr and mrs smith
After Research into this film there are a few conventions we would like to use in our film.
- There is plenty of action throughout this film, while our idea is not easy to incorporate action into, we will try to include an action point in a film where there is tension and conflict between two of the characters, but it will not be anything ass strong as mr and mrs smith as our film is not based around assassins or guns etc.
- The characters are together at the start, then they split apart then at the end they come back together again. We are going to try and follow this in our film, showing them happy together at the start, but then she pushes him away. At the end they are going to attempt to get back together again, but this is where we shall add a twist to our film.
Taxi driver is a psychological thriller with many similarities to our film, so it is good for my group to analyse and draw conventions from.
Taxi Driver
This film has some very similar traits that our film does. It is about a taxi driver, who also gets rejected by a woman (as the main character in our film does), which drives him too violent thoughts and tries too assassinate a senator (Similar too our film where the main character tries too fight with the girls new boyfriend) and in the end attempts too kill himself (In our film also). So the film is very similar too ours in many ways, and it may help us with some idea's.
After Researching this film we have found a few conventions taxi driver uses.
- There are shots that shows him stalking the girl, and portray the main character as a bit of a weirdo, such as talking to himself etc. We are going to try and use similar sort of shots to portray our main character as a creepy stalker. We are going to try and portray him as even slightly insane, just like in taxi driver.
- They both go on a date together, and she gets offended by the date he has taken her on. This is going to be similar to our film, where he tries to kiss the girl in our film but she doesnt like him in that way and puts violent thoughts into his head, just like taxi driver.
- At the end our character is going to attempt to kill himself, unlike taxi driver however he will be succesful in our film.
After Researching thrillers and coming up with a few conventions we could use in our film, our next step would be to research into the target audience for our film short.
Roles and Responsibilities
We sat down as a group and discussed who's doing what for our film. We gave each member 3 responsibilities. These are subject too change, and some of them may be reviewed by each member.
Mitchell Surplice
-Editing
-Continuity
-Storyboard
Grant Tonks
-Location Research
-Costume
-Script Writer
Luke Chidlow
-Director
-Set Design
-Sound and lighting
Adam Hemingway
-Props
-Artistic Director
-Thriller research
We are going too do camerawork as a group effort and look at each shot personally, so that we have 4 opinions on each shot too make sure we get it right, as in our film idea we need too be extremely careful with each of our shots.
Our next step would be to do some research into thrillers and conventions of thriller movies.
Mitchell Surplice
-Editing
-Continuity
-Storyboard
Grant Tonks
-Location Research
-Costume
-Script Writer
Luke Chidlow
-Director
-Set Design
-Sound and lighting
Adam Hemingway
-Props
-Artistic Director
-Thriller research
We are going too do camerawork as a group effort and look at each shot personally, so that we have 4 opinions on each shot too make sure we get it right, as in our film idea we need too be extremely careful with each of our shots.
Our next step would be to do some research into thrillers and conventions of thriller movies.
Treatment Ideas
Each member of our media group had too write a treatment and produce a presentation too present too the class.
My Presentation
Mitch A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Grant tonk's Presentation
Grant A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Luke Chidlow's Presentation
Luke A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Adam A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
After this we sat down as a group. Looked at the bits we liked and didnt like about each of our ideas. There were a few "blank" moments where we just didnt know what too do, but in the end we agreed on a final idea. We used little bits from everyones ideas and came up with a final storyline.
In the end we decided on the idea about a stalker. The whole film is based around a man flicking through a photo album, looking back at the memories he shared with a friend he loved, and also at the pictures he had taken while stalking the girl. They had been friends for a long time, he is in love with the girl, but they fallout because he gets the wrong idea. From here on he ends up stalking the girl, and her boyfriend she has just got with.
Our next Step is to allocate some roles and responsibilities to our group and decide who is going to do what in the production of our film.
My Presentation
Mitch A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Grant tonk's Presentation
Grant A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Luke Chidlow's Presentation
Luke A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
Adam A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.
After this we sat down as a group. Looked at the bits we liked and didnt like about each of our ideas. There were a few "blank" moments where we just didnt know what too do, but in the end we agreed on a final idea. We used little bits from everyones ideas and came up with a final storyline.
In the end we decided on the idea about a stalker. The whole film is based around a man flicking through a photo album, looking back at the memories he shared with a friend he loved, and also at the pictures he had taken while stalking the girl. They had been friends for a long time, he is in love with the girl, but they fallout because he gets the wrong idea. From here on he ends up stalking the girl, and her boyfriend she has just got with.
Our next Step is to allocate some roles and responsibilities to our group and decide who is going to do what in the production of our film.
Short Research
A Short is any film that is not long enough to be classed as "feature length". While there is no strict boundary to say how long a short should be, it is typicall 40 minutes or less including all credits and titles. The most common place for a film to be screened is at a film festival, or on the internet. They are usually non profit films as the majority of them do not enter the cinema's. Smaller film companys often make short films to prove their talent, as they do not have the money to make a full length film.
A company that make a large range of short films are "FutureShorts" they operate out of a youtube channel and make a wide variety of shorts on an array of different topics. They are a very big company and some of their videos gain upwards of 10 million views.
Black Hole
Black Hole is a short film made by FutureShorts.
This film has no clear storyline, and is based entirely on this hole in a piece of paper that allows the character to reach through any solid surface. It is very cleverly done though, because one of the main conventions of this short is that it has no dialouge. They manage to present this film, so you clearly know whats happening without the use of speech at all. At the end of the film, another common convention of shorts is shown. There is a big twist to the storyline where the man gets stuck in the safe. Twists are very common at the end of shorts and sometimes have shocking effects on the audience. The titles and credits in this short are very basic, and are on a black background. This is common on shorts as in feature length films, the titles can grip the audience, but with a short film, you do not need to catch the audiences attention as much due to the fact the film is not as long, so the audience needs less encouragement to pay attention.
Occupied
Occupied is another film short made by FutureShorts about a woman who is on a plane and in the toilet.
In this film the woman in the toilet is seen unveiling hidden objects hidden all over her body. In todays modern world, some would assume she is a terrorist, from the nature of her actions on a plane. This film short also has no dialouge, which is commonly used throughout shorts. It also has a twist at the end, where she is doing all of this just so she can have a ciggarette. So these are two common conventions of shorts. The titles are also simple much like the black hole. Except this time the titles are over a video background of something relating to the film, to set the scene.
After analysing these shorts, we have noticed a few conventions we are going to try to use when creating our film short.
A company that make a large range of short films are "FutureShorts" they operate out of a youtube channel and make a wide variety of shorts on an array of different topics. They are a very big company and some of their videos gain upwards of 10 million views.
Black Hole
Black Hole is a short film made by FutureShorts.
This film has no clear storyline, and is based entirely on this hole in a piece of paper that allows the character to reach through any solid surface. It is very cleverly done though, because one of the main conventions of this short is that it has no dialouge. They manage to present this film, so you clearly know whats happening without the use of speech at all. At the end of the film, another common convention of shorts is shown. There is a big twist to the storyline where the man gets stuck in the safe. Twists are very common at the end of shorts and sometimes have shocking effects on the audience. The titles and credits in this short are very basic, and are on a black background. This is common on shorts as in feature length films, the titles can grip the audience, but with a short film, you do not need to catch the audiences attention as much due to the fact the film is not as long, so the audience needs less encouragement to pay attention.
Occupied
Occupied is another film short made by FutureShorts about a woman who is on a plane and in the toilet.
In this film the woman in the toilet is seen unveiling hidden objects hidden all over her body. In todays modern world, some would assume she is a terrorist, from the nature of her actions on a plane. This film short also has no dialouge, which is commonly used throughout shorts. It also has a twist at the end, where she is doing all of this just so she can have a ciggarette. So these are two common conventions of shorts. The titles are also simple much like the black hole. Except this time the titles are over a video background of something relating to the film, to set the scene.
After analysing these shorts, we have noticed a few conventions we are going to try to use when creating our film short.
- A lot of shorts have single or very few characters. So when thinking of film ideas, we are going to try keep the number of characters in our film to a minimum.
- Little or no dialouge, it is very difficult to explain a story without the use of dialouge, and FutureShorts do this very well. In our short, we are going to try and keep the dialouge short and only use it when we have to.
- Titles and credits are very simple, We are going to keep simple fonts and keep them short. We will incorporate both conventions of short titles, and put the main part of them on a background seperate from the film, then try and work a part of the titles into the background of the film.
- We will try to put a twist at the end of our short, as it is a common technique that seems to work well.
Group Members
Me and 3 other media students are working together too produce this 5 minute film short.
The members of my group are:
The members of my group are:
- Grant Tonks
- Luke Chidlow
- Adam Hemingway
Welcome
Welcome to my A2 media blog. I will be using this blog too present my media coursework.
This year we are required too produce a 5 minute film short. We have chosen too do another thriller.
This year we are required too produce a 5 minute film short. We have chosen too do another thriller.
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