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Henry Rees

Month

December 2016

Unit 11 Evaluation (2.1 and 3.1)

My skills as a filmmaker definitely helped me make a successful show-reel as I know how to make a video that sells me to a potential employer. Because of this I feel my show-reel is very successful, its short so it keeps peoples attention and it shows my best work which will really help sell me.

I think that the interview went really well. I answered all the questions I was asked, I was polite, shook her hand, dressed smart and was on time. For the interview I looked at the job advert ad tried to gain as much information about the job as I could from it. The advert didn’t show company that was hiring but just the job description. It said the job was Documentary Assistant. I researched what this job entailed and I found out that it was a general assistant for the production. I would be helping with equipment, assisting the producer with schedules, locations and people. The questions I asked were how long would the job be for? And would travel expenses be covered? I asked these questions because I felt that they were important for me to know to decide weather I was suitable for the job. I showed my show-reel to her and she liked it which was a big positive point from the interveiw.

Looking back I don’t know weather I would have done anything better. I did everything just as I should have. The notes I was given back from the interviewer was to improve my CV by adding references at the bottom and focus the key skills slightly more towards the field of film and documentary production. The notes I was given back for the job cover letter was that I had spelled Skill without the k and that I put the abbreviated word DP instead of director of photography and was told that I should probably change it because not everyone will know what the abbreviation means.

From this mock interview I have learned to research the company and the job before so I know how to answer the question during the interview. I have also learned to spell check the CV and cover letter with another person before submitting. I’ve also learned that employers like the references at the bottom of a CV so I will need to add them. These will all help me in the future because they will increase my chances of getting a job.

Evaluate and reflect 10.3.1, 10.3.2

I think that in comparison to most feature films social media campaigns, like God Help The Girl, my social media campaign was fairly unsuccessful. I only managed to get 60 likes after 6 weeks of regular posting and updates so it didn’t reach as many people I would have liked it too. This compared to Passengers, a recent movie with a very successful social media campaign which has 357,170 likes,the campaign  would be classed as a failure. I think that the main reason my social media campaign failed to reach a large number of people was the low demand and large number of short dramas. I tried to make my film stand out from the crowd but I feel that it wasn’t original enough so people didn’t share the page so it was difficult to get it out to allot of people.

The first strategy I did to increase followers was to post images to catch peoples eye and inform them about the film. This was fairly successful as one of the posts managed to reach 162 people and got 14 likes. The page gained 2 more followers from this post and didn’t get any negative feedback.

Screen Shot 2017-01-05 at 11.31.11.png

Another strategy I used which I found to be very popular and affective when doing research on other films campaigns was the use of days to go posts for the trailer and the film release date. This also worked well on mine as the post saying the film will be released tomorrow got 14 likes which was quite allot for the page.

screen-shot-2017-01-10-at-13-18-54

The next strategy was posting videos. On the page I posted three videos, a behind the scenes/bloopers reel, the film and an alternative edit. All the videos received some likes but not as many as the photo posts did. The behind the scenes video and the final film was the most successful posts on the page with them getting 14 likes each and boosted the follower count like count by several likes.

I also posted a link to the film that gave me inspiration for portrait, I didn’t get great feedback from this as it wasn’t any updates on my film so people who liked the page wont care as much about it. it only received 4 likes. Then I posted a poll asking people to like or heart to vote for which edit they preferred of the film. Like for the first standard edit and a heart for the french new wave edit. The post was successful in catching attention, it received 10 likes and 1 heart meaning that the audience liked the traditionally edited first video.

I think that my crowdfunder went okay but not as well as I had hoped. The campaign is running for 30 days and as I’m writing this its been live for 7 days. In these 7 days I’ve received £65 of the desired £500 goal. I think that this is a good amount but I’m not on track to hit the goal. The £65 was donated by 3 different backers, non of whom selected any of the incentives and just donated instead. I think that for this reason I could have made my incentives more desirable and maybe for lower prices, this may have encouraged more people to donate. As for the page itself I think that its quite successful despite the low number of donations. I have a well produced video of me explaining the film and what I need the money for, a good description of the film and the production plans and plenty of photos. One thing that I could do better with the page is post film updates more often. I’ve posted one in the 7 days, I should and will post more in the rest of the campaign, this will hopefully persuade more people to back the film. Here is the link to the crowdfunder-https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/portrait-short-film-drama#/

campaing-2

 

campaing 3.png

I haven’t received any feedback form my audience regarding the campaigns. Even without this feedback I can guess based on the amount of Facebook likes and crowdfunding donations that my campaigns need some work. What I would change for the social media campaign would be more images from set and screen grabs from the scene, and maybe release part of the full films script to draw peoples attentions. For the crowdfunder I would have a different campaign thumbnail image as the current one isn’t the most visually appealing shot, a better one would draw more attention. I would also spend a bit more time on the header video, this is the main source of information that backers will use to decide weather or not to back the project, for this reason a better produced video would help gain more donations.

 

Unit 9 Reflective Journal

Reflective Journal 1

I started the week with planing the idea for my film. I know that I wanted to do a coming of age film as I like the genre so it will interest me whilst I make the film. I began by looking at some existing films, both feature length and shorts on YouTube and Vimeo. I watched three films on YouTube and Vimeo that really stood out.

I decided that I liked the second film (Viewfinder) allot and thought telling the story of there meeting from the male characters perspective would be interesting. I began to map out a story line of events leading up to there meeting and then remembered a film I watched (500 days of summer) which has a non-linear story line and thought that would be a cool feature I could use in my film to engage the audience. I decided that starting with a breakup scene and then going on to tell the events leading up to there first meeting would be best.

I looked into writing story’s and found this website which helped me a little, it taught me to keep it short so I will keep my scenes short and too the point. http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I then Googled best screenplay writing programs and eventually found Adobe story which was good, cloud based and free so I decided to use this as the program for writing the script. I started by learning how to use the program to properly write a script. I looked at google images of scripts from films. After I had an Idea of how too set out the page I started writing the initial action for the first scene and giving the characters names (Harry and Leah).

adobe-story-1

 

 

Reflective Journal 2

I started this week by completing the first draft of the 1st scene f my film which would be the scene I will film for my proof of concept. Here is the script. Its not very long, only about 1 minute of screen time but I don’t think that I need that long for the first introduction scene. I showed the script to some people and they all thought that it could do with some work, I also thought that it could be better. They all said that people don’t speak how I had wrote so it needed to all be re-worded. I then decided to start from scratch and properly think about the scene and how the dialogue will work with the action in the scene.

As the location was key to the scene I started to have a think about where I was going to shoot the scene, I had always pictured it in a kitchen but I couldn’t think of any kitchens that I could use that would be suitable to the scene. I then thought that as he was developing film why doesn’t it be set in a darkroom? I asked my lecturer and he said that there was a darkroom in college that I may be able to use. I went to go and check if it was suitable to film in. I think that the red light could allow mew to do some interesting experimental cinematography. After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable. I then completed a risk assessment sheet for the location. dark-room-risk-assesment.

20161108_14500820161108_14465920161108_14500220161108_14470820161108_14470520161108_144648

We would be shooting at the end of next week so I needed to sort actors this week. As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to help with audio on the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

Reflective Journal 3

I will be filming at the end of the week so I needed to start finish all the pre-production work. I began with completing the script. I rewrote the script for the location being the darkroom and I considered the action of the characters whilst writing the script which makes it work allot better. The script portrait-film-ii-script-2. Next I worked on the Storyboard. This wasn’t too difficult because I had been picturing the shots in my head as I was writing the script, making sure that it would all cut together properly.

20161207_16263920161207_162505

For the shot list and running order I considered the lighting arrangements and the shot angles to minimise moving equipment around the set on the day. shot-list-and-running-order. The last bit of pre-production work to do was the call sheets. I completed the call sheets and then emailed them to all the cast and crew so that they know what they were doing on the shoot day and when we would be starting and finishing.

the shoot day went quite smoothly. We all arrived on time. We all set up the lighting and camera equipment in an hour whilst the actors rehearsed lines and we were ready to shoot by 10:30. on issue that we came across when lighting was that we only had one large red gel. to get enough light we required two large flood lights, and because we only had one large red gel that we couldn’t cut up I had to place the lights right next too each other and span the gel across the two lights. The filming went smoothly from then on until around 12 o’clock when there was a charity karaoke being held in the building so we had to stop filming for an hour until they had stopped because we kept picking up the music through the microphones. this filming break was one of the reasons that we didn’t get completely finished that day. I didn’t manage to film the entire scene again in portrait orientation like I had originally planed. I did however manage to get it all filmed in landscape.

Reflective Journal 4

I started the week out with file organisation. I went through the log sheet and renamed all the clips to the shot number and take to make the edit process easier and quicker. I then opened the edit program (adobe premier pro) and organised the editing suite. files screenshot.pngediting screenshot.png

Once I had imported all the clips into the edit suite and selected all the takes I wanted to use, I brought them into the timeline and ordered them. it was at this point that I realised I had forgotten to get Foley sound and missed one cut away clip. The next day I took a light into the darkroom and got the cut away shot I needed. At home I then recorded all the Foley sound that I needed, theses included footsteps, water and a tap sound so they were easy to get. I then completed the first cut of the film, it was very simple because I logged all the clips and stuck to the storyboard so it was simple to drop the clips into place and trim them down. I showed the first cut and I found that there were a few cuts that felt a bit off. I then went back to the edit and tweaked some of the cuts and adjusted the audio. Now the edit was sorted i went over too the colour tab and adjusted all the exposure and shadow levels to match all the other clips and to make it the correct exposure for what I wanted. Last I exported the film in H.264 with a target bitrate of 100Mb/s, this is to maintain as much detail in the image without the file size being too large as the only place this will be seen is on YouTube and Facebook and they will take a while to upload too. Here is the film

reflective journal 5

I started the week by posting the film on the films Facebook page. I received all around good responses but with some criticisms. I found some people thought that it was a bit short and it made it feel rushed. After this I then reedited the film but in french new wave style using the other clips I had shot. The aspects of french new wave that I adopted is quirky camera movement (panning for a conversation) and a long continuous take for a conversation. I then posted it to the films Facebook page and asked for feedback on it.

french style edit.png

 

Unit 9 Video and Evaluation

Video & Evaluation

Above is the finished proof of concept film. Once I had completed it I arranged a focus group of people in my class (who are in the target audience) and I asked them to watch it and give me feedback on the film, this is what I got.

Camera work

  • Liked the shot of the picture in the fix bath
  • Good strong shot at the beginning and other strong visual imagery
  • Liked the main shot of him hanging up the photo, keeps both characters in focus and doesn’t distract the viewer.
  • Liked the red but it needs to be not blanket red but needs to have a key fill and back lights.

Edit

  • Cuts to too many angles too quickly, have less shots
  • Its not the amount of shots but the coverage, the cuts aren’t in the best places, they cut before action not on it.

Sound

  • Allot of echoing
  • The volume changes from shot to shot because of the distance the boom operator is from the subject changes.

Concept

  • They understood the relationship between the characters
  • Didn’t understand the story line or where it would go from then.

Overall they seemed to like the cinematography but the sound and edit needs allot of work. They also seemed to have an issue with understanding the characters relationship.

From my point of view i’m not too happy with how it turned out. The scene feels too rushed to me and it doesn’t encapsulate the feel of a connection between two characters that most coming-of-age films have. What went well though was the cinematography, I am happy with most of the shots that I got from the shoot and i’m mostly happy with the lighting as it was my first real experience with lighting.

From this proof of concept I have learned to make the script a bit longer to make the scene less rushed, I need to cut on action rather than before it to make a smoother less clunky image, I also need to alter the script to make the audience clearer about the characters relationship and situation.

Unit 9 Planning

Planning

  • Planing and ideas

The idea for my film came from researching short films and coming of age films as I knew I wanted to do a coming of age film. I watched back a short I had worked on a year ago and decided it would be nice to know the story from the unnamed male characters perspective. I started by giving him a name (Harry, the name of the original actor playing him) I then deiced that her personality would be nice at the beginning of the relationship but go on to resent him because of his job later on in the relationship. The audience knew that photography was his job or a hobby from the first film so that set a plot device up for me. I realised the first scene should show the audience that the job does distract him and she hates is so I decided to have him developing film in the fist scene as its a process long enough to span an argument.

  • script 1&2

I started by doing some research into scriptwrighting first. I found this website that helped me develop the story http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I developed the script in Adobe Story as it allowed me to set the script out easily in a profetional way. I completely rewrote the script and did several alterations, script 2 is the final one.

portrait-film-ii-script-2

portrait-film-script-1

  • location recce

Next I had to decide on a location. I was originally thinking a kitchen and he could be developing the film in the kitchen sink but I couldn’t think of any kitchens accessible to me that I wanted to be the set for the film. I wanted a flat or apartment because that’s what I pictured the couple having, the kitchen would also need to be open plan and light so it could be suitable for filming. I though Why not use a dark room as he is developing, with the red light I could try some experimental lighting and some interesting cinematography. I asked around and found college had a dark room so I went to have a look to check if it was suitable to film in.

20161108_14500820161108_14500220161108_14470520161108_14465920161108_14465620161108_144648

After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable.

  • storyboard, shot list and running order

20161207_16250520161207_162639

shot-list-and-running-order

  • Casting and crew

As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to assist with the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

  • Call sheet

call-sheet

  • risk assessment

dark-room-risk-assesment

Unit 9 Characteristics Presentation

 

presentation1-pdf

Presentation script

Hi, my name is Henry. My film is a short coming of age film about the relationship between two photographers. It will be set in modern day Britain and feature two main characters, a girl galled Leah and a boy called Harry. They will both be photographers. The film is a continuation of another short film called Viewfinder but the story is told from the male character (Harry’s) perspective.

I want to tell the story in a slightly different way to normal with a non-linear narrative. I’m going to start with showing the audience the ending of there relationship and then them having a good time in the middle of there relationship and then go on to tell the story of the events leading up to there first meeting. I’m going to tell the story this way because I think that this way will keep the audience interested for longer. and make it a bit more original compared to the other short coming of age films. Some feature length films like 500 Days Of Summer have also decided to tell the story in a non-linear manor to stand out and be original. Story lines in coming of age films and other types of dramas usually use linear story lines but allot use non-linear as they are the only genres that can get away with using this interesting method.

Some of the conventions of a coming of age film is that its main characters feature a boy and a girl, they are usually between 15 and 19 but the most common age is around 17. The film will tell the story of one of the characters struggles to get over something in there life. The classic story line is boy-meets-girl but recently more and more coming of age films like Its Kind Of A Funny Story have been highlighting the extremely common mental health problems amount teenagers and have been telling the story of there mental health problems along side the relationship problems and these films have become really popular. Some plot devices that have a massive affect on the film can be school which was common in older coming of age films like The Breakfast Club and there is parents break ups like in Boyhood or a terminal illness like in Me Earl And The Dying Girl or The Fault In Our Stars.

The cinematic conventions within coming of age films are fairly easy to pick out. They always use medium wide shots showing the characters whilst there having a conversation as seen theses three images, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Art Of Getting By and The Spectacular Now. Other camera angles will usually include a medeum close up taken from between the two characters conversing as this is in personal space and brings the audience into the scene and conveys more emotion than if it was shot from further away. Colour is also notable. A warmer image will be used when the characters are happy or feeling safe and warm with people they love, like in the top left image where hes just received a gift from the girl he likes. On the other hand though a colder harsh image will be used if the characters are upset or arguing like in the top right image where the male character is angry with the female character. Coming of age films are also know to include some experimental features such as implementing some French New Wave style into the films. Wes Anderson is the most popular person to have done this with his film Moonrise Kingdom, he used centre framing like in the bottom left image and non-natural tracking motion to show the quirkiness of his characters as he does in all his films.

French New Wave is a cinematic style about breaking the rules and coming up with new and exciting ways of storytelling. I’m going to adopt some of the features of this style and use them in my film to emphasis Harry’s quirky character. a bit like Wes Anderson does in Moonrise Kingdom.

The conventions of sound in coming of age films are that they use music to enhance emotion and they tend to use popular indie rock music for other times that music is played. They often have the music as non-diegetic. Coming of age films quite often have non-diegetic voice over of the main character explaining the scenes occasionally through-ought the film.

I think that the most popular place that my film could be screened would be through online video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. This is because I wont have the budget or the length for a large scale cinema release but I could get the film out to a larger amount of people via the streaming sites.

Thank you for listening, are there any questions?

 

Bibliography

500 Days Of Summer – Marc Webb – 2009

Boyhood – Ritchard Linklater – 2014

Its Kind Of A Funny Story – Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden – 2010

Me Earl And The Dying Girl – Alfonso Gomez-Rejon – 2015

Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson 2012

Pierrot le Fou – Jean Luc Godard – 1966

The Art Of Getting By – Gavin Wiesen – 2011

The Breakfast Club – John Hughes – 1985

The Perks Of Being A Walflower – Stephen Chbosky 2012

The Spectacular Now – James Ponsoldt – 2013

Unit 9

Characteristic Presentation

presentation1-pdf

  • Presentation notes

Hi, my name is Henry. My film is a short coming of age film about the relationship between two photographers. It will be set in modern day Britain and feature two main characters, a girl galled Leah and a boy called Harry. They will both be photographers. The film is a continuation of another short film called Viewfinder but the story is told from the male character (Harry’s) perspective.

I want to tell the story in a slightly different way to normal with a non-linear narrative. I’m going to start with showing the audience the ending of there relationship and then them having a good time in the middle of there relationship and then go on to tell the story of the events leading up to there first meeting. I’m going to tell the story this way because I think that this way will keep the audience interested for longer. and make it a bit more original compared to the other short coming of age films. Some feature length films like 500 Days Of Summer have also decided to tell the story in a non-linear manor to stand out and be original. Story lines in coming of age films and other types of dramas usually use linear story lines but allot use non-linear as they are the only genres that can get away with using this interesting method.

Some of the conventions of a coming of age film is that its main characters feature a boy and a girl, they are usually between 15 and 19 but the most common age is around 17. The film will tell the story of one of the characters struggles to get over something in there life. The classic story line is boy-meets-girl but recently more and more coming of age films like Its Kind Of A Funny Story have been highlighting the extremely common mental health problems amount teenagers and have been telling the story of there mental health problems along side the relationship problems and these films have become really popular. Some plot devices that have a massive affect on the film can be school which was common in older coming of age films like The Breakfast Club and there is parents break ups like in Boyhood or a terminal illness like in Me Earl And The Dying Girl or The Fault In Our Stars.

The cinematic conventions within coming of age films are fairly easy to pick out. They always use medium wide shots showing the characters whilst there having a conversation as seen theses three images, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Art Of Getting By and The Spectacular Now. Other camera angles will usually include a medeum close up taken from between the two characters conversing as this is in personal space and brings the audience into the scene and conveys more emotion than if it was shot from further away. Colour is also notable. A warmer image will be used when the characters are happy or feeling safe and warm with people they love, like in the top left image where hes just received a gift from the girl he likes. On the other hand though a colder harsh image will be used if the characters are upset or arguing like in the top right image where the male character is angry with the female character. Coming of age films are also know to include some experimental features such as implementing some French New Wave style into the films. Wes Anderson is the most popular person to have done this with his film Moonrise Kingdom, he used centre framing like in the bottom left image and non-natural tracking motion to show the quirkiness of his characters as he does in all his films.

French New Wave is a cinematic style about breaking the rules and coming up with new and exciting ways of storytelling. I’m going to adopt some of the features of this style and use them in my film to emphasis Harry’s quirky character. a bit like Wes Anderson does in Moonrise Kingdom.

The conventions of sound in coming of age films are that they use music to enhance emotion and they tend to use popular indie rock music for other times that music is played. They often have the music as non-diegetic. Coming of age films quite often have non-diegetic voice over of the main character explaining the scenes occasionally through-ought the film.

I think that the most popular place that my film could be screened would be through online video streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. This is because I wont have the budget or the length for a large scale cinema release but I could get the film out to a larger amount of people via the streaming sites.

  • bibliography

500 Days Of Summer – Marc Webb – 2009

Boyhood – Ritchard Linklater – 2014

Its Kind Of A Funny Story – Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden – 2010

Me Earl And The Dying Girl – Alfonso Gomez-Rejon – 2015

Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson 2012

Pierrot le Fou – Jean Luc Godard – 1966

The Art Of Getting By – Gavin Wiesen – 2011

The Breakfast Club – John Hughes – 1985

The Perks Of Being A Walflower – Stephen Chbosky 2012

The Spectacular Now – James Ponsoldt – 2013

 

 

Planning

  • Planing and ideas

The idea for my film came from researching short films and coming of age films as I knew I wanted to do a coming of age film. I watched back a short I had worked on a year ago and decided it would be nice to know the story from the unnamed male characters perspective. I started by giving him a name (Harry, the name of the original actor playing him) I then deiced that her personality would be nice at the beginning of the relationship but go on to resent him because of his job later on in the relationship. The audience knew that photography was his job or a hobby from the first film so that set a plot device up for me. I realised the first scene should show the audience that the job does distract him and she hates is so I decided to have him developing film in the fist scene as its a process long enough to span an argument.

  • script 1&2

I started by doing some research into scriptwrighting first. I found this website that helped me develop the story http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I developed the script in Adobe Story as it allowed me to set the script out easily in a profetional way. I completely rewrote the script and did several alterations, script 2 is the final one.

portrait-film-ii-script-2

portrait-film-script-1

  • location recce

Next I had to decide on a location. I was originally thinking a kitchen and he could be developing the film in the kitchen sink but I couldn’t think of any kitchens accessible to me that I wanted to be the set for the film. I wanted a flat or apartment because that’s what I pictured the couple having, the kitchen would also need to be open plan and light so it could be suitable for filming. I though Why not use a dark room as he is developing, with the red light I could try some experimental lighting and some interesting cinematography. I asked around and found college had a dark room so I went to have a look to check if it was suitable to film in.

20161108_14500820161108_14500220161108_14470520161108_14465920161108_14465620161108_144648

After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable.

  • storyboard, shot list and running order

20161207_16250520161207_162639

shot-list-and-running-order

  • Casting and crew

As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to assist with the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

  • Call sheet

call-sheet

  • risk assessment

dark-room-risk-assesment

Video & Evaluation

Here is the feedback I received from my focus group.

Camera work

  • Liked the shot of the picture in the fix bath
  • Good strong shot at the beginning and other strong visual imagery
  • Liked the main shot of him hanging up the photo, keeps both characters in focus and doesn’t distract the viewer.
  • Liked the red but it needs to be not blanket red but needs to have a key fill and back lights.

Edit

  • Cuts to too many angles too quickly, have less shots
  • Its not the amount of shots but the coverage, the cuts aren’t in the best places, they cur before action not on it.
  • They understand the relationship

Sound

  • Allot of echoing
  • The volume changes from shot to shot because of the distance the boom operator is from the subject changes.

Concept

  • They understood the relationship between the characters
  • Didn’t understand the story line or where it would go from then.

unit-9-feedback

Reflective Journal

1. Reflective Journal 1

I started the week with planing the idea for my film. I know that I wanted to do a coming of age film as I like the genre so it will interest me whilst I make the film. I began by looking at some existing films, both feature length and shorts on YouTube and Vimeo. I watched three films on YouTube and Vimeo that really stood out.

I decided that I liked the second film (Viewfinder) allot and thought telling the story of there meeting from the male characters perspective would be interesting. I began to map out a story line of events leading up to there meeting and then remembered a film I watched (500 days of summer) which has a non-linear story line and thought that would be a cool feature I could use in my film to engage the audience. I decided that starting with a breakup scene and then going on to tell the events leading up to there first meeting would be best.

I looked into writing story’s and found this website which helped me a little, it taught me to keep it short so I will keep my scenes short and too the point. http://www.raindance.org/7-rules-for-writing-short-films/. I then Googled best screenplay writing programs and eventually found Adobe story which was good, cloud based and free so I decided to use this as the program for writing the script. I started by learning how to use the program to properly write a script. I looked at google images of scripts from films. After I had an Idea of how too set out the page I started writing the initial action for the first scene and giving the characters names (Harry and Leah).

adobe-story-1

2. Reflective Journal 2

  • Complete the 1st draft of the script
  • get feedback on the script
  • start the second draft
  • Actors
  • Location Recce

I started this week by completing the first draft of the 1st scene f my film which would be the scene I will film for my proof of concept. Here is the script. Its not very long, only about 1 minute of screen time but I don’t think that I need that long for the first introduction scene. I showed the script to some people and they all thought that it could do with some work, I also thought that it could be better. They all said that people don’t speak how I had wrote so it needed to all be re-worded. I then decided to start from scratch and properly think about the scene and how the dialogue will work with the action in the scene.

As the location was key to the scene I started to have a think about where I was going to shoot the scene, I had always pictured it in a kitchen but I couldn’t think of any kitchens that I could use that would be suitable to the scene. I then thought that as he was developing film why doesn’t it be set in a darkroom? I asked my lecturer and he said that there was a darkroom in college that I may be able to use. I went to go and check if it was suitable to film in. I think that the red light could allow mew to do some interesting experimental cinematography. After looking at the location I decided that its the look that I wasn’t for the scene, it has the space for the lights and the angles I want and it has plenty of power sockets so the location was suitable.

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We would be shooting at the end of next week so I needed to sort actors this week. As this is a proof of concept I have no budget for actors or crew so I asked around my friends. I found two friends Leah Bradbury and Alastair Littlewood who were perfect for the roles and said that they would do it. For the crew I asked my friend Jake Bennit-Young to assist with camera who would bring his easy rig and camera cage and Sony XLR to hotshoe adaptor to help with audio on the shoot. I also recruited two class mates, Tiarnnin Meely-Clarke as audio and Dylan Hickman as Lighting and grip.

 

3. Reflective Journal 3

  • Story board
  • shot list
  • running order
  • risk assessment sheets
  • call sheets
  • Shoot day

4. Reflective Journal 4

  • File organisation
  • edit organisation
  • Foley
  • 1st cut
  • 2nd cut
  • colour
  • sound
  • export

5. reflective journal 5

  • post
  • feedback
  • starting edit for french new wave

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