Shooting Schedule

This is our most recent  shooting schedule.

Poster Mock Up

In order to better understand how we want our poster to look we designed a mock up and edited the photograph using Adobe Photoshop. We experimented at first using different filters and different techniques to try and give the photograph the type of look that would suit our film. We came out with this at first.

We used a filter called diffuse glow to give it a brighter appearance and used a font called Dead Kansas for our title, tag line and names of cast members. However we decided that this didn't suit the genre of our film and decided to progress with the editing. 

We decided to keep the filter as it gave it a nice glow, however it was still too bright so using the burn tool we edited a few parts of the picture, touching it up to make it darker and suit our theme and genre more. We also overlaid another diffuse glow filter to make it seem even brighter and give a contrast within the image. However, looking at it we saw that it looked too re-touched and decided to tone it down. 

We eventually came out with this picture. It's not too dark, but not too bright, giving a nice contrast to the image and somewhat representing the story-line, the photograph is battling between light and dark just like our main character. The tag-line we isolated and laid another filter over the text to make it look more faded. We made the crack in the ground slightly darker as well as this matches the tag-line of "isolation never ran so deep." 

This has helped us decide what our official poster will look like, we've learned techniques we can use to manipulate the image to get exactly what we want and exactly what message we want to get across. 

questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I made. I wanted to make sure that it was not too long or short, and that the answers would get us the feedback we wanted, without having to be written in a complex form.

By Maurice Enwright

Designing the film poster

As part of this project we have to design a film poster. So the first thing we decided to do was to brainstorm some of our ideas. Some of idea's that we came up with is:

When we then had some idea's our group came up with a rough mock up of what the poster would look like. Our poster has all of the main conventions of a title, tag line, an image of the character and the cast's name ect.

Filming House Scene

 We have now begun the filming of our interior scenes where the characters are in the living room. We had to film the scene in two parts, because the first time we shot, we did not finish all of the necessary shots that we wanted, due to an unexpected cast member having a family emergency and needing to leave. So we then had to reschedule and continue filming the following day.














Above is a screen shot of when captured the footage on to final cut express and reviewed what we had filmed to decide to see if any of the shots needed to be reshot.

Our presentation video

This is a video recording of our presentation:

Feedback from our presentation

After pitching our presentation, one of the main questions asked was how were we going to target other audiences other than the ones stated in our presentation. In the presentation we said that our main target audience would be university graduates.

How are we going to target an audience of 14-20

• The characters used. We hope to represent the characters in a way which an audience of teenagers will feel that they can relate to. Costumes will be one way in which the audience may feel similar to characters as the costumes will be what stereotypically what the audience will wear.   
• The non diegetic music that we are going to use. This music will be music in which an audience of 14 to 20 would be familiar with. By including this we feel that it will make the overall short film more interesting for that age range to watch. 
• Another way in which we will target an audience of 14 to 20 is from where we are going to exhibit our short film. For example youtube. A high amount of people in that age bracket will be very familiar with this form of exhibition. Other places which our film may be independent film festivals and the Adobe youth voice contest.  

How we would target an audience of 20+, (non uni graduates) 

• From the narrative of the film. The narrative covers many subjects which they feel that they can relate to for example, racism. This is a subject that from our audience research we found that nearly everyone had been affected by. So that this age group will be able to understand and can have an opinion, which could in turn make the film a talking point.  

Prezi Presentation

Pitch Presentation on Prezi

Anamatic

As part of our planning process we have made an anamatic. This shows in which order the shots will be shown in and also the ones with dialogue and certain sound have also been included. 


Our anamatic is only 2 and a half minutes long. This is because When creating the anamatic, as some of the shots will not have sound. So we shortened some of the timing of the shots to what they will actually be. We decided to do this so that the anamactic would be more interesting and not drag on and have long periods of silence where there will be non diegetic music.


Another issue which we found in out anamactic was the use of bad language, after reflection we have chosen to take this out and show the characters anger in others, ways like body codes e.g facial expressions. 


The fight scene is not included in the anamatic at this point because we wanted to make sure that it would be most effective, and that it would not inculde too much violenece but that it would still have the same effect. This is why we story boarded that last.     

Planning

Whilst planning our short film, their we many aspects which we need to work on and plan as a group to make sure that we can produce this to the best of our ability. These included scripting, storyboarding and making it in to an anamatic, looking for suitable locations and finding the right cast. 


The first thing which we started to do was to storyboard. We did this on post it notes, as it would be easy to change the order of the shots if wanted, and would be easy to correct mistakes. 

After doing the storyboarding and putting it in to the right order and making sure that the whole group was happy with everything, we uploaded them in to final cut to make the animatic. After putting them in to the right sequence, we wrote a script to go over this we recorded the voiceover for them. In the voice over it stated what was going to happen in each shot and also the dialogue if their was going to be any. 

After doing this the next thing that we decided to do was to write the script. Hector was the main script writer but all of the group made contributions. 

When the script was written, we thought about who we would cast to play certain characters, there were many things that we needed to consider when casting, like their acting ability, availability, and if they looked right for the character. After searching through many actors, we were able to decide on the final cast members. These will be Alex Eagles and Adeel Ikram.  Alex will play the main character and Adeel will play his Asian friend. 

One of the final parts of our planning decide on the locations that we are going to use. From looking at film is out genre we have decided to use various locations. These will include a kitchen, bedroom, and a street. These are perfect for our 'at home' scene as it represents our main characters background. We've also looked at different streets for when we are filming the boy leaving home.  

 We also made a shot list. This in detail shows and describes what is going to happen in each shot. Also it talks about any sound that we are going to have. We thought that this would be a useful tool to use so that when it comes to filming, it will make it easier and quicker, as we will not have to carry around many other sheets of paper it will be all in one.

Overall Research

When doing our reseach we all decied to each choose a differnet type of reseach. By doing this we made sure that we would be able to ask as many different types of questions as possible. Therefore giving us a wide varitey of answers. This would then we able to give us good results helping us in the decison making process. Kelly did a questionaire, Lee held a focuas group, Morris made an online survey, and Hector held interviews.

The main answers that we got from our results were that the two most popular genres were drama and social realist. This was a positive outcome for us as the film opening we are making is in the drama genre, and also has some of the same conventions as a social relaist film opening. Another conclusion which we gathered from our combined results was that people did think that racism was an interetsing topic to be incorporated into a film, but also that it was not covered enough. When asked why they thought that it was not a much covered subject, some people said that it was a very tricky thing to do without affending the audience. This made us relalise that we have to be very carful when filming and also writing the script to make sure that we do not affened anyone. 

Another thing which we were able to conclude from our results, was that everybody that had taken part in our research, had been a witness, victim, or guilty member of being racist. This showed us that racism is a massive topic, and that everybody is aware of it. We were also able to gather that not many people feel that they can talk openly about racism with others, and also that many have different views to thier parents.

CLC Workshop of sound

On the 14th of October we went to the CLC (city learning centre) here we took part in a work shop and learnt about different ways of learning about sound, different ways of recording sound. In previous experiences when using a camera, we did not fully understand how technology of sound could have a massive impact on the final outcome. We also discussed previous group work, and how they could be improved. From the workshop we learnt that sound is not all that it appears to be and takes a lot of time and effort for it to be of a good quality, especially during a big Hollywood film.

During the workshop we were able to test out a wide range of equipment, for example a boom. The Boom is a microphone used to record sound by being held up just a little bit above the action. The Boom will never been seen in any of the footage when being shown. This method of recording sound will make the sound more clear rather than what it would be when recorded off of a standard camera. One person is only needed to operate this piece of equipment, but it will need to be held very still so that the sound can record very clearly what is happening in the scene. A thing which can be attached to a boom is a wind jammer, this is to lower the background noise.

Whist at the workshop we also were able to test out other types of equipment, like Merantz. This is a piece of equipment which allows a microphone, to record and headphones to be connected so that you can hear a clearer sound to be recorded and be listened to. This is best used when recording a conversation between two characters.

From being able to test all of the equipment, and seeing ones which would suit us when filiming best, we decided that we would use a boom mic, although we would not be borrowing this from the CLC as one of our group members already has this piece of equipment. 

The narrative of our film

We had many different ideas on what the narrative of our film should be. The ideas ranged from, abuse, racism, religion, struggle, family relations, and drug misuse. We decided to come up with a few different narratives, and then pick the best one which we thought would work the best, considering we have limited equipment and cast. In the end we decided to choose a narrative which is about a older teenage boy, struggles with a theme or racism, in relation to his father. It will begin with a shot of a family sitting on the sofa, within this scene the father will make an underlying racist comment. In the next scene the boy is going to have a confrontation with his father, and will result in the boy leaving his house. After which he will go and get someone to get served alcohol for him and then head to his friends house. Whilst at his friends house, he is talking to his asian friend, and begins to get stressed as his friend is questioning him about the racism of his father. This will lead to the two of them having a fight. Following this the boy realises he has done wrong, and runs away. The final shot will be the beginning shot of him sitting with his family on the sofa. 

We are considering doing it in Tarentino style, of showing it in reverse. Although at the moment we are not to sure if the audience will be able to understand or weather it will be too complicated. We are going to decide the final order of the short film in editing, of if we going to show it in a normal or backwards style.          

About a Girl - short drama film from Louis Wong.

The film conforms to the traditional drama conventions. the film concentrates on a protagonists' struggle. this is what drives the narrative. her actions are also what drives the narrative. the film follows the Todorov theory of an equilibrium and then a dis-equilibruim. the film also looks very conventional. it uses lighting in a very dramatic way. the lighting is very dark and moody , creating the dramatic scenes the music also reinforces this.

By Maurice Enwright

Kelly's Research into chosen genre with "My name is lisa"

For this part of my research in to the short film i am going to conduct an analysis of short film. The name of it is "my name is lisa" This is in the genre of drama. 

My name is Lisa follows many of the conventions of short film drama genre. One of the things that supports my point is that it has a narrative meaning that it has a specific beginning middle and end. This is curial to any film, so they audience has a clear understanding that it is actually a film, and that the audience know that something is actually going to disrupt, and cause entertainment. Also it follows the conventions of the genre drama but tackling a real life issue. The issue in this film is a girls struggle with her mother, who at first seems normal, but then the discover that she is mentally unwell. By tackling a real life issue, it gives the film a more realistic sense over all. Another convention that this also follows, is that it mergers with another genre. The genre in which it merges with is, melodrama. Melodrama, is  sub-type of a drama, characterized by a plot to appeal to the emotions of the audience. Another convention that this film sticks to from the drama genre is, having realistic characters. Before the characters talk the audience already can guess who the characters are and their relationship. This is also a convention used short film, because as there is less time to get to know the characters they want to be quickly established. 

This films follows Todorov's theory of equilibrium it starts with an equilibrium then has disequilibrium then has equilibrium again. This is a highly used theory in the drama genre. My name is Lisa also follows conventions of drama because it is realistic. It does this by taking all the issues seriously, does not try to be comical. This makes the audience, believe the narrative more, making them connect with the characters on a higher level. 

First task

The picture above is an untitled photograph. One of our first tasks that we was asked to do was to look at an image. From this we had to brainstorm ideas, themes and concepts which we got from the picture. We came up with many different concepts from this, ranging from love/hate to poverty. From the picture we decided that one of our main themes will be racism, and relationships. This is going to be put with our chosen genre of drama.