Sunday, 24 April 2016
Analysis of questionnaire
I believe our questionnaire provided a relatively good amount of information that we could look at and improve on in our next project. We only included 10 questions but this was because we wanted to make it a clear round number. In reality this does not matter and we should have added at least another two questions that asked specifically what we could have improved on or what we should have included less/more of.
Questionnaire answered 2
What is your age? 17
What is your gender? Male
1 2 3 4 5️⃣ 6 7 8 9 10
2. How well do you think the acting was performed?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7️⃣ 8 9 10
3. What do you think the movie was about after watching the introduction?
A story of two guys getting revenge
4. Do you think the filming locations were appropriate for the theme?
Yes as they seemed like places bully characters would hang out at
5. Were the roles of the victims and the attackers obvious?
Yes
6. What was your favourite part of the opening and why?
My favourite part was the dream sequence as it added another dimension to the film
7. Were the different forms of camera angles used well and at the correct times?
Yes they added dramatic changes and mood
8. Do you think the clothing was appropriate for the characters roles?
Yes
9. Was the editing of a high quality?
Yes James did well
10. Would you watch the rest of this film?
Maybe
Filming Setup: Camera Work
Camera work:
By using a range of camera shots the film has kept interesting and unique in each scene. Most of the filming was done free hand to make the viewer feel as if they were in the scene themselves and add realism. One of the best shots in the short is just before the two victims see Jack, in the dream. We see the camera rise up and slightly pan to follow them.
Filming Setup: Sound
Sound:
As we did not have any external microphones when filming we relied on the in-built camera one. This resulted in a substantial amount of background noise and interference, like wind noise.
To solve this we have done some voice overs to reinforce the loudness of speech. We have also added music in some parts where there is no sound to keep the scene entertaining. I believe that the music we have used is very appropriate as it fits to the rhythm and style of our piece.
Filming Setup: Mise en Scene
Mise en Scene:
For our short piece we decided to use several props. Whilst at the second filming location, the hall, we decided to have the bullies smoke. By doing this we intentionally made them fit the 'yob' stereotype even more and raised the level of fear they emit.
A second prop that we used was a toy baby. This was in place as part of an extra scene that we were never able to put into the final cut. The scene showed a girl that was out playing and got scared, dropping her doll in the process, the leaving it.
Filming Setup: Costume
Costume:
When it came to costumes we felt that what we had in our own wardrobes was auspicious for portraying the character we were set. James and myself, the two weaker individuals, had general clothes that showed we were a normal pair of teenagers. On the contrary Jack and Tom wore outfits of a lesser educated and 'yobbish' kind. Together these showed the variation in our characters backgrounds.
Character Profile: James
James:
James is 17 and comes from a rich household. He is also well educated like his friend Dexter and is doing very well in school. James enjoys playing Xbox, doing puzzles, being with his friends and going out with his family. James is 6'0" and has a fear of failing his exams even though it will never happen. His weakness is being easily tempted.
Character Profile: Jack
Jack:
Jack is 18 and comes from a poorer household with family issues. He is not well educated and hardly attends his school. Jack enjoys spending his time sleeping, watching television, wasting time with his friends and getting high on recreational drugs. He is 5'10" and claims he has no fears, but is truly terrified of heights. His weakness is not kowing when to stop...
Character Profile: Dexter
Dexter:
Dexter is 17 and comes from a relatively rich family and is doing well in school. He is a well educated character who tries to be kind and considerate at all times. Dexter can drive, has a job and enjoys going on bike rides with friends, playing Xbox, doing work and earning money. Dexter is 6'3" but has a fear of spiders, he also has a weakness, trying to be a hero at every opportunity.
Saturday, 23 April 2016
Our studio logo
Our film logo is a design James made, one of our team members. It includes stars to represent the nominations it's films have won. A shark, to depict how it is a predictor towards its completion and bold colours that make it stand out.
The equipment we used
The canon 1100D we used to do all of our filming on, all data saved on to a 16GB SD card inserted into the bottom.
The tripod we used.
The Mac we used to do our editing on, inserting the SD card into a USB 2.0 card reader adaptor and uploading our film.
Apples iMovie that we used on the Mac. We edited all of our film to make a single movie on this.
The USB 2.0 adapted with SD card inserted.
About a typical comedy film
Comedy is a genre in film where the theme of humour is regularly heightened. This genre of film is designed to make the viewer amused and laugh more frequently. More often than not, by exaggerating humour with actions and script. Comedy films usually have a happy ending. One of the oldest genres in film, some of the first movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relied on picture without needing sound. Comedy films are now one of the most popular genres for cinema goers with more than $40 billion revenue in the U.S. over the last two decades.
Titles timeline
Titles and Personnel: North by Northwest
Minute:
0.05 - logo
0.20 - credits start
0.25 - metro-Goldwyn Mayer presents
0.30 - Cary grant
0.35 - Eva Mary Saint
0.40 - James mason
0.45 - in Alfred hitchcocks
0.50 - north by northwest0
0.55 - co stars
1.05 - more co stars
1.10 - written by Ernest Lehman
1.15 - music by Bernard Herrmann
1.20 - director of photography Robert burks
1.25 - crew members
1.35 - more crew + company logos
1.45 - film starts
1.50 - disclaimer
2.00 - producer Herbert Coleman
2.05 - directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Friday, 22 April 2016
Mid way through editing
Editing our film took a longer time than we had originally believed. There were a few reasons to this that I will express below:
Firstly we did not take illness into consideration and the absence of even one of our team members caused troubles. We each had a task to do, be it editing, organising sound and creating a title sequence. As this was the case it's obvious to see what happens when a lesson is missed. A few sessions were missed so our progress was partially halted every so often. We did however get around this problem and managed to get most of the issues sorted.
Another problem we encountered was our skill ability. None of our team had used editing soft wear before hand so we were forced to teach ourselves and learn as we did it. Also when making our logo we had to experiment on how to do it best. Finding sound effects was also an issue as royalty free music is very limited and nothing suited our film. Again we did eventually manage to get these issues sorted at only the cost of extra time.
Pitch for our film
Our film details the lives of two average kids who are subject to bullying. They have been victims to the same group of friends for their whole school lives, and are now far too tired of it... After going out on a normal walk together, the two friends, James and Dexter, they encounter their bullies once again. Thoughts instantly turn to the most recent attack where Dexter was left badly hurt. None the less they carry on and decide to take them on. All we want to know, is what happens next. Do the bullies win or are they put in to their place?
Thursday, 21 April 2016
Evaluation 7
I'm Our preliminary task was a huge introduction in to film making for us. None of the three members in our team had done any form of filming prior to A-levels so we had to learn quick. When it came to filming after our planning and brain storming I myself had the most experience due to my interest in photography. We used my Canon 1100D and tested out multiple angles. This was successful after a short while as we got the hang of framing and where we were in the frame.
The first image is taken from our actual film. The framing of the two characters is much better than in the second screenshot, from our preliminary. We learned quickly after this how to effectively frame characters and keep the camera on them. We also improved our match on action and over the shoulder shot here:
Our oreliminary task included many professional camera shots like match on action, 180 degree and shot reverse shot. This was very good as it deemed the product well made. However, when it came to sound we failed. We did not have any purposefully includes dialog nor music. This made it very poor and left it at a moderate level.
The finished product, therefore, was less impressive than we would have liked. We used our knowledge of mistakes in our second film to ensure it was of a higher quality. We believe that we were successful in a way as we then had a knowledge of what we did well and not so well to improve drastically.
By using this information you can clearly see how the preliminary task aided our skills hugely.
For example:
As you can see all four of our characters can be seen so nothing is missed. We have also situated key lines in the frame on the rule of thirds grid to provide a more aesthetically pleasing picture.
All in all doing the preliminary task helped hugely and I would definitely recommend it to anyone doing this task in the future if the are coming from the same inexperienced position as us.
Evaluation 6
Whilst making our film we learned how to use many things we were naive to before. For starters none of us had used iMovie before so it was very good to familiarise ourselves with the new software. This took a while as we really were starting from scratch. Our preliminary very much helped with this as we began to explore its features and get to a skill level that was high enough to create a good piece.
We also had to familiarise ourselves with the Mac. None of us are very used to apple products as we have Windows run computers. This however was far less of a challenge, all we needed to do was understand what the new terms referred to and where the things that we wanted were.
Another new technology we had to use was royalty free music. Given, this isn't a technology in itself, but it is an application of technology we hadn't used before. This was simply a case of finding a website that offered free, royalty music and that fit in with our film style.
Evaluation 5
The real life movie that I feel is most similar to our creation is Revenge of the Nerds. This movie depicts the lives of two men who have recently graduated from high school. They then go to an American university but have to deal with a group of stereotypical sport loving Jocks. They are constantly hassled and humiliated by the sports team, with assault included into their methods. Later on in their education they plot to get revenge on the Jocks and do eventually get what they wanted, after some initial fails, exactly like our films plot.
A lot like our film the two victims are less well respected in the school I comparison to Jack and Tom which would be the Jocks. Revenge of the Nerds uses lots of slap stick style actions to exaggerate humour. Our opening has one moment like this but the film would also contain more. In terms of music our film uses songs that you would expect the bullies to listen to more so than the victims. As in our film, revenge of the nerds uses a soundtrack much more exclusive to the Jocks lifestyle. This effect shows the transition from nerd to popular.
Evaluation 4
This is an example of a typical member in our films audience. He is 17 years old and lives in Bristol, England. He comes from a relatively wealthy background and enjoys action comedies. He goes to the cinema once every two weeks on average and is most interested in films such as Kick Ass, Rush Hour and 30 Minutes or Less. He also enjoys listening to Hip-Hop which matches the films soundtrack and riding around urban spaces rather than the countryside. He also adornes the same outfits as some of our characters so could relate to them. We feel that he would enjoy watching our film as it incorporates many of these themes.
Evaluation 3
Our Production Company:
Our film logo is a design James made, one of our team members. It includes stars to represent the nominations it's films have won. A shark, to depict how it is a predictor towards its completion and bold colours that make it stand out.
What do production companies do?
A production companies job is primarily to help produce a film. It is involved in funding, casting and script writing, among many other things. They stay with the films creators from the idea of it on pen to paper all the way to on DVD's. As these companies are usually so popular, they are responsible for hiring actors and directors that will make the films s successful as possible. They are also held accountable if things go wrong, such as accidents or the film flopping massively at the Box Office. Key players in the UK include Warp Film, Working Title and DNA Films.
What is a distributor?
A distributor is a large company that is relied upon to get a film into the market. They are responsible for getting it into cinemas and on to DVD. Another one of their jobs is to advertise the movie, this can consist of TV adverts, posters and any other marketing schemes. Some of the largest examples of this in the UK are 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures.
Our Funding:
We felt that if we were to use a large production company to fund our film as it would have merged our core themes too much into a Hollywood style blockbuster. This is not what we wanted so we got funding from the Film Council and used less well know British actors to give it an indi vibe and not one of a multi-million dollar earning film. I believe that a film like ours would make around £2 million at the Box Office after taking away the funding budget. This would be enough for us to make another film and hopefully rise higher in the industry.
Evaluation 2
Jack (The Clutch), Biff Tannen (Back to the Future trilogy), Johnny Lawrence (the Karate Kid)
I feel that Jack, one of the bullies, has a number of similarities between Biff and Johnny. In our film Jack has an accomplice, the same as the two famous characters. They are always seen in or around their crew members. The gang also goes around causing trouble, doing illegal things and causing a ruckus. Jack is seen doing all of these thing in our introduction so I think he relates like this.
The two famous characters are also always seen in top of the line fashionable brand clothing. Jack is seen in clothing equivalent to this but in the modern era. He is also one of the 'popular' kids at school, which the other two characters are. This gives them all a notoriety to be well known and makes everyone look past there malicious activities.
In our film Jack's role is to be intimidating and as stereotypically mean as possible. This can be seen throughout in the forms of his body language, hang out spots and activities. Biff is like this in his use of language and the way he uses hi height to be intimidating. Johnny does this in the form of physical attack, one of Jack's most used techniques.
Evaluation 1
The title of our film:
We felt that this title was suitable for our film. The term 'clutch' means to comeback at the last opportunity and win. Every time that the two victims are attacked and bullied they lose. But at the last chance, years later they decide to fight back and do in fact win, showing that they clutched. We put the title at the end of the film as this is common in real life, it builds up the introduction and can make people understand why it's called what it is.
Special effects, match on action:
We used match on action here to add a second and clearer angle on to the attack. It enabled the viewer to see what was happening with detail. The use of match on action is massively reknown in the film industry as it can show different perspectives as well as add effect. We felt that our use of it did this perfectly.
Credit style:
The style of our font and placement can be seen often in film. It is a bold, very clear colour and style which enables the viewer to read it with ease. It is also situated at the bottom of the screen for the same purpose, clarity.
What makes our film a comedy:
We feel that our use of a random object in the film is very relatable in modern comedy movies as it adds another dimension to the story. It also has a comic effect due to the randomness of it.
An insight into our setting:
As depicted one of our settings is in an abandoned area. In movies abandoned buildings add a more sinister effect. We thought this was appropriate to heighten the notoriety of Jack, one of the bullies, and his feared presence.
Outfits:
The outfits we used can be similarly seen in films. The more 'chav' labelled Adidas and Nike clothing on the attackers made them more stereotypically rough. James and myself had less bold outfits on and stayed relatively neutral, making us blend more.
Introduction of our characters:
In films, rougher characters can be introduced in multiple ways. One of these ways is seeing them using drugs. We felt that by introducing Jack and Tom like this it increased their fear factor and shook the viewer more as they were depicted as being 'harder'.
How our opening sets up the film:
This part of the film shows how the two groups of characters have a history. Movies use this and especially show time shifts. We used a dream sequence to go back in time and let people know how the two had met before.
Camerawork:
This was our favourite shot in the film due to its stand out appeal. It made us want to rewatch the short 5 seconds over and over. Films use these techniques to embed certain parts of films into the head of the viewer. This was right before the flash back attack so made that stay in the memory even more.
Evaluation of preliminary
Our preliminary task was a huge introduction in to film making for us. None of the three members in our team had done any form of filming prior to A-levels so we had to learn quick. When it came to filming after our planning and brain storming I myself had the most experience due to my interest in photography. We used my Canon 1100D and tested out multiple angles. This was successful after a short while as we got the hang of framing and where we were in the frame.
Our oreliminary task included many professional camera shots like match on action, 180 degree and shot reverse shot. This was very good as it deemed the product well made. However, when it came to sound we failed. We did not have any purposefully includes dialog nor music. This made it very poor and left it at a moderate level.
The finished product, therefore, was less impressive than we would have liked. We used our knowledge of mistakes in our second film to ensure it was of a higher quality. We believe that we were successful in a way as we then had a knowledge of what we did well and not so well to improve drastically.
Character profile: Tom
Tom:
Tom is 17 and from a household with an average income. He is doing well in school but hangs around with the wrong crowd. He enjoys doing sports, taking drugs, working for money and being with friends. Tom is 5'11" and has a fear of his parents finding out about his anti social antics. His weakness is being easily pressured.
Risk assessment
To film our movie we had to ensure that things were first safe for us and those around us.
Our flashback location was at an abandoned building so we had to check the area for glass and hazardous items that we would not fall on or accidentally hurt ourselves on. As I had to be knocked over after I was hit I did not want to truly hurt myself.
Another risk we faced was other people seeing an assault. Of course we knew that the attack was fictisious but from a third party perspective a genuine attack could have been taking place. We did not want the police to be called so we made sure we filmed whilst no one was around. A less time consuming option would be to inform anyone that witnessed the attack, it was not real. However the only people that would have seen it were in cars so we could not chance them down or shout to them.
Audience member information
This is an example of a typical member in our films audience. He is 17 years old and lives in Bristol, England. He comes from a relatively wealthy background and enjoys action comedies. He goes to the cinema once every two weeks on average and is most interested in films such as Kick Ass, Rush Hour and 30 Minutes or Less. He also enjoys listening to Hip-Hop which matches the films soundtrack and riding around urban spaces rather than the countryside. He also adornes the same outfits as some of our characters so could relate to them. We feel that he would enjoy watching our film as it incorporates many of these themes.
Script for our film
James and Dexter walk into shot from around the corner.
They spot Jack and Tom shortly after and a flashback occurs to the last time the two encountered them.
The two quickly retreat and converse about what they should do.
James: "it's them again, man!"
Dexter: "what are we gonna do? We can't let this happen again!"
James: "let's go, this, this is our chance!"
Dexter: "we gotta go c'mon let's do it!"
James: "c'mon!"
They then attempt to confront the two bullies but are frightened and once again run away.
Dexter: "Oi, let's have em!"
Jack: "Fuck are you two doing here!? You fucking want some!?"
Dexter: "Na!"
Jack: "c'mon then!"
James kicks a baby, resulting in its head coming off.
Tom hits Dexter with the babies head, knocking him over. This is where Jack and Tom attack him further.
James can be seen running off into the the safety of the distance.
Film ends.
Questionnaire answer 1
What is your age? 17
What is your gender? Male
1 2 3️⃣ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. How well do you think the acting was performed?
1 2 3 4️⃣ 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. What do you think the movie was about after watching the introduction?
I couldn't really tell. Possibly a film about bullies being overcome?
4. Do you think the filming locations were appropriate for the theme?
Yes they were relatively well chosen.
5. Were the roles of the victims and the attackers obvious?
Yes.
6. What was your favourite part of the opening and why?
The part where the two victims debate on what they should do at the second location.
7. Were the different forms of camera angles used well and at the correct times?
Yes.
8. Do you think the clothing was appropriate for the characters roles?
Yes, other than the victims clothes was partially similar to the attackers.
9. Was the editing of a high quality?
Yes but sound was a little off.
10. Would you watch the rest of this film?
No.
Our questionnaire
What is your age? _______
What is your gender? _______
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. How well do you think the acting was performed?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. What do you think the movie was about after watching the introduction?
4. Do you think the filming locations were appropriate for the theme?
5. Were the roles of the victims and the attackers obvious?
6. What was your favourite part of the opening and why?
7. Were the different forms of camera angles used well and at the correct times?
8. Do you think the clothing was appropriate for the characters roles?
9. Was the editing of a high quality?
10. Would you watch the rest of this film?
Thursday, 11 February 2016
Filming Setup: Location
The Location:
The original filming of our project was difficult as finding an appropriate location proved challenging. Eventually we came across an abandoned urban building with an open surrounding area. We felt that this was well suited due to the graffiti, decay and crumbling nature of the structure. We shortly began filming and did in fact realise how good the location was.
Because of The thug character (Jack) being a large role in this film we felt he should be loitering in a reflective place. So the street art situated along the exterior walls was an ideal scene for our assault scene.
When it came to finding our second filming location, the local community hall, we felt the characters should be more furtive. By adding a second guest actor (Tom) the general secrecy of their actions was heightened. Also we stood the two thugs in a doorway, making their mannerisms even more suspect.
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