feedback on film posters and review

Our group pitch on posters and film review

6 mini case studies on film posters

Trailer Target

here is a trailer we have produced for our short film, this was done to understand the use of tools of final cut pro.

feedback to our short film

uploading our feedback onto our blog

today we uploaded our feedback onto our blog as well as short film

target trailer editing

We were working on building a trailer for our film, our group agreed it would be best as it would help us get to know final cut pro tools and how to function it so that when we come to edit the film we work on the film quickly without no issues.

Looking at front covers

letter from police regarding risk

Prop used: Pellet Gun 

During our video we were aware with the risk of shooting in public with a Pellet gun due to that fact it could make the public very uncomfortable. We therefore took this into consideration and went to the Metropolitan Police Town Centre in Walthamstow. The police said it was fine and gave us permission with some guidelines.

The following guidelines:
.The pellet gun must not contain bullets whether it be plastic or metal or any sort of object within the gun.
. It must be put away out of sight when finished filming.
.The trigger cannot be pulled in any circumstances.
.Failure to follow these guidelines will result in prosecution.

We took these guidelines very well into consideration and followed these steps. In addition the two main reasons which made the police comfortable was the fact the the actual pellet gun itself could not function properly in any way and was completely disabled and we kept a sign saying "Filming in Progress" which made the public feel more comfortable. Which is why the video shoot went efficiently and safely .



For safety we took permission from our local police before using the prop so that without any concerns we would have a proof if any concerns would arise. 

Deciding on case studies

As a group were deciding on case studies

Beginning of our case studies

Our teacher began telling us of how to plan our research on six mini case studies

question 4 evaluation

our short film - Target

Finishing final movie

We today corrected from what we heard from feedback such as correcting the sound and exported it ready to be put on our blog

Feedback on videos

Today we looked at everyone's final short films or music videos and gave feedback

Recording part 2

Our second recording commenced here is a pic of our actor getting ready to perform

research and planning - video- recces locations

This is our out door location scene 2 after the office, here are one of the angles we will be shooting

the advantages of this area is that the amount of public coming and going will be less so this will allows us to shoot without any problems it will also allow us to get a high angle birds eye view shot the only problem is we must be very careful while shooting as it is from a high point another factor is the traffic passing constantly we must make sure we film at a suitable time. 

here is the office location for our first scene, the benefit of this office and location is that it is inside our college so time will not be wasted in terms of travelling another is that there are no costs, usually to hire an office you have to rent it out in this case we have the opportunity to use this place for free.

This is the last shot for our outdoor scene the benefit of this is that it is in alley way so it is all quiet, we will be able to perform our shootings without no trouble or delay as the location is off the main road. we have had permission from neighbours to record.

research and planning - video - location release

Research and planning video - talent release

Keeping up to date with blogs

Today the teacher were reminding us about updating blogs

Soundtracks for short film

Today I have used some time to look at ambience sound effects that could match  the sequence of our film

research and planning - video - outdoor location shots

here is our location shot  were we will be filming

research and planning - video risk assessment

sound effects for short film

here we looked at the soundtrack we were going to include in our short film

Editing our footage

Today we were editing our footage we have completed our clips of what footage we have ...We were working on sound effects during this lesson

Editing footage

Today we continued editing our footage

re shooting in the office O20

today we  shot again  our scene at the office, we came up with better angles and shots as well as a different idea on the beginning

meeting sheet

research and planning - video Call sheet

research and planning - video moving image question 1 ,2, 3 and 4

research and planning - video moving question 3

research and planning - video moving question 2

In the improvement of our treatment and pitch, then from looking at our case studies, we initially went ahead looking at knowing to much as we all felt that this was the film to analyse according to its features regarding what it connotes in terms of what target audience is it aiming at. It was really short in terms of how long the video was but it also matched our ideas in terms of theme and genre.  Diving into more detail we examined on the number of viewers that viewed the film we likewise particularly took a look at the remarks that would empower us to suggest the gender of these viewers.

From our inducted research we found out that There were around 14,329 that had viewed this short film. Presently, in terms of viewers by gender, there were considerable measure of  comments given, we generally said that the audience were mixed in terms of the around of male and female commented on this video. As well as asking class mates if they would watch this type of genre in regards to our story line, most had said yes therefore we agreed that our target audience will be aimed at both male and female at the age of over 18+ as the film involves weapons and violence.

In terms of last years coursework, I believe I have experienced a  lot of additional knowledge as well as gaining experience on how to gather research and conducting useful information that enables me to move forward with my work for example listing different number of ideas for my film. In regards to using a new method in presenting, i can say that i have used a treatment, producing a pre production, an insight on our film.

In relation to gathering target audience last years task consisted of looking at media magazines press packs, which was a quick and easier way of telling who the target audience were.

research and planning - video Booking Confirmation for room O20

Today we went and booked our room at O20 for wednesday at 2.30pm for us to shoot our first scene in the office.

research and planning - video - storybaord script part 2

Storyboard Text

• shows hitman running after
• hitman running up hill or something
• victim turns left into alley way
• different angles and of alley way
• hitman steps in front
• different angles shots of the two standing
• hitman floors victim
• different shots of him flooring victim
• pulls out the gun - hitman standing pointing gun to his head
• pulls trigger
• sees third man infront of him
• falls backwards

research and planning - video final storyboard complete

research and planning - video - storyboard second half

   
    here i have created a second half to our groups story board which i should be merging the whole story board

Research and planning the moving image work

today our task is to complete and answer the following questions

Research - what research did i carry out into similar products

Research -what research did i carry out into my target audience

Logistic planning- how well did we organise our characters

narrative planning- evaluate our story boards or scripts.

and finally evaluating my own and group management.


What research did you carry out into similar products?

The first stage of our research were looking at short film case studies,  In relation which was similar to our genre that we were initially thinking of, which in this case was thriller/action. The case studies I personally looked at were Victim – short horror film, knowing too much thriller short film and Closed doors – thriller short film. Which were all related to our ideas that we wanted to do.

I looked at these short films as my case studies in order to identify how successful in both horror and thriller the short films were, how they appealed to the audience, how the effects were used, the camera angles as well as the use of soundtracks.

Once looking at these elements consisting within the short films, we noted down how they appealed to the audience as well as the use of soundtracks building suspense.

After major discussions and meetings with our group we outlined what will fit best to suit our genre and therefore came up with a final idea.

With gaining skills from last year course , I believe it will help me towards this year’s course such as conducting research using technological presentations, Identifying camera angles for the right purpose for example,  the use of  a shaky camera to create a fast pace pulling the audience, the correct use of colour; red emphasizing  anger or control  or black  room a fear and tension.  Elements like these will help us build a creative short film; if we have a correct structure I believe our film will turn out to be very good. 

Finishing our post schedule

This lesson we handed in our post schedule which included all the elements for us to start shooting.

The elements were

call sheets
risk assessment
team meetings
storyboard
script
hazards

research and planning - video production of story board

here is the creation of my storyboard. 

research and planning - video screen shot of our group convo on actors

here on our group chat we agreed and got our actors together confirming they were willing to act.

research and planning - video task 4

This is the lesson were we evaluated our feedback, changed our treatment were we felt needed to be improved, as well as upload our videos to our blog

research and planning - video FEEDBACK ON THE GROUP PITCH

We presented our pitch to the class and gained useful feedback.

The class agreed with most of our ideas they said it is something they would watch

we discussed with the group and they said what will our sound effects be....they gave us the idea of using ambient sounds such as leaves, gun shots, loading gun.

They asked if it was achievable or complicated, we showed them our ideas and how simple we wanted to produce, and therefore we think that it is achievable.

They also talked about the use of blackmailing the hitman, they said we could cut that bit out and have the hitman fighting his inner conscience.

I think i agree on this too, i think it drifts the plot away.

with most votes on internal struggle they also said that we could have a voice over portraying the character.

However we feel that our scriptive and plans are good and that we will stick with most of our ideas as the feedback we mostly got were positive. Although we had other ideas we think that by adding those ideas it will slightly drift the plot to a different direction therefore stick to our initial ideas but we agreed that the use of ambient sound effects could develop our production and make it realistic.

research and planning - video group treatment pitch

research and planning - video treatment lesson

group talk and feedback on the pitches everyone was made to do this task was beneficial as it allowed everyone's ideas to be shared as well as the feedback being valued.

research and planning - video Treatment - 15th september

research and planning - video VICTIM - Short Horror Film (Based on Slender Man) third case study

research and planning - video knowing too much - second short film case study

Research and Planning - video CLOSED DOORS (2011) short film case study one

Short film analysis of – Closed doors (2011)

Closed doors- A dark thriller written & directed by James Button (Orpheus, Rocket Boys)
Starring: Connor Jenkins, Luciana West & Craig Beedim
Shot by Kristaps Kazaks of galjafilms (Orpheus, Rocket Boys)
Produced by Peter Wolf. Sound by Liam Bauckham.

I have chosen to look at this film as I intend to produce a similar short film based on this genre which is thriller/horror, this short film consists of some elements that I could consider using in my production.

Closed doors consists of a linear structure as from the start of the scene we follow that one character throughout the film till the end. The structure does consist of a flashback.

The film is shot in live action

The film plot is about a student hearing noises from the next room while working and so he goes next door to investigate with unexpected consequences. The characters are based around the same age all categorized as students. You can say that the main character who we follow is more educated neat looking, whereas the other two boy and girl sort of are presented differently, this is shown by their outfit.

                                                                

Camera techniques:

Throughout the short film there are many techniques that are used which establish he scene such as

: Long shot - the main character standing in the all way at a long distance

: Medium close up- of all three characters, used quite oftenly 

: Extreme close up- of the women bleeding from her nose.

: Over the shoulder shot - of when both male characters are speaking to each other

: Shot reverse shot -when there is conversation going on between all characters. 

Editing

: There is an order of shot starting  with the main character and end with the same character (privileged)

: Cutting shots to tell a narrative story – continuity which helps the viewer make sense of action by implying 

 spatial relationships and ensuring a smooth flow form shot to shot. This creates realism which makes editing invisible so the action appears real rather than constructed.

: Match on action – we see the character move in one shot having continuous movement. 

: Shot reverse shot – having a conversation which makes it clear of who the character is speaking to.

Mise en scene:

Location: the location is set in a block of flats where there is student accommodation.

Lightning: the lighting plays a big part in this short film. Especially the use of dark colours to portray a 

suspense effect. Being a thriller film it is important to follow the codes and conventions therefore using dark colours relates to violence.

Props: the costume used in this film is very simple and casual, the main character wears casual clothes which looks normal for a student whereas the other two we see the other two male and female in black clothing representing a rough class. The use of glass to hear through the walls so that we can listen closer to the noises, the bottle used in a fight between the two male characters. Also the use of laptop used by the main character portrays he may still be in education due t the fact he is in a student hall. 

Make up: not much make up is used, however the use of blood dropping from the girls nose as well as the male figure that is beaten up by the main character during the fight.

Sound:  Sound used in this film has a great use especially being a thriller movie. The use of sound diegetic sound such as the dramatic sound effects that lead to suspense keeping the viewer engaged. Which include the use of echoes, which gives a hollow effect, which leads the scene on. Also the use of heart beat where everything slows down, which creates real tension emphasising fear of the character. The sound effects used in this film is really good and I plan to do the same, throughout the film through the use of sound effects the feeling of tension stays put throughout the film which is ideal for a thriller movie.

Target audience:

The ages targeted is around 17-24, those that are currently studying, the film uses students or young age characters simply portraying a student’s life as we see the main character studying/ doing some work.

What ideas can you take to help you in your own short film?

I could utilize various things from this short film as I plan to make one of a comparable kind, however i would not take any plans from the story yet the way this short film figured out how to make anticipation by taking a gander at the altering and sound impacts in subtle element and take a gander at the why the short film is shot, for example, by utilizing low lighting.

Narrative: 

within this sequence there is different elements of telling the story, for instance looking at genre we arent quite sure at the beginning of what the genre is about but the sound effects give an insight towards horror/thriller.

in this film i think that this is an open structure as we do not know most of the times how the ending will be therefore, i would say it has a minor ending. 

The plot consists of enigma where, there is a puzzle for us to solve for example figure out how the ending will be or what will happen next. 

characters that are functioned in this plot are different, the main is wearing casual and the other looks wild. 

Location set is in a student accommodation which is one of the reason it is an open structure. 

there is sort of plots that lead to suspense and create a tense scene due to sound effects. 

reflect - practice task

Reflecting on our first task of which we had to record a short film as a group, i can say that what i learnt from our first shooting is that we did not get enough shots by all means the clips were too short to illustrate and therefore could not work enough with it. A major error that occurred was pressing the record button which led to a few shots not being recorded. we also did not have a tripod which led to the shots being unbalanced. the quality of the sound was also not great as it was not clear due to the heavy wind in the background.

However, the positives that we achieved from this task was good communication, we worked together and negotiated well. Our focus was great the camera shots were clear and visible. our location set was in a good place. We took a variety of shots at different angles but felt we could have done more. Our acting was also poor which we need to work on, I would say that we need to be more enthusiastic

Our editing was good we managed to gather our video shots and put them in order  but felt as we lacked in more shots being taken there wasn't much to work with.  we all worked independently which shows we are a good team working group and looking back at our pros and cons we can improve on our final shooting.

teaser of making a short film produced in our group

scheduling

DSLR CAMERA INDUCTION

Here is the following notes i had gathered from the induction from using the DSLR camera

- DSLR is mainly used for still camera shots and video recording

- The on button tells us that it is on picture mode which is known as other ( normal mode)

-Shutter speed- If you increase the shutter speed, the exposure decreases and the photo will turn out darker

: If you decrease the shutter speed, the exposure value increases and the photo will turn out to be brighter

: If you increase the lens aperture, the exposure increases and the photo will be brighter. 

: if you decrease the lens of aperture, the exposure decreases and the photo will be darker. 

: If you increase ISO SENSITIVITY, the exposure value increases and the photo will be brighter

: If you decrease the ISO SENSITIVITY, the exposure value decreases and the photo will turn out to be darker. 

ISO number the lower the better the image

white balance is usually telling the camera to make the colours of the image to be more natural 

fixed lens are zoomed in.