2013 Post 21: Production Report

The production process to create our film was the most challenging task given to us and in our group we had to work as a team to complete the challenges given. We were all very excited to begin filming and we thought that this would be the most exciting part of our project; however half of our group did not have past experience within filming so we come across many unexpected errors that we had to face and deal with. The main errors that evolved in our production process was the time that our actors had, we found it very hard planning dates and letting all of our cast know when to be available so next time we will spend more time in planning and letting members of our group know when to be available for filming. An example of this was when we were trying to film the swimming pool scene, some of our group wasn't available so we found it hard to film but we took the task on and gave it our all, the task was more challenging and needed to be completed but might have been produced at a lower standard as this project was also time consuming.

When creating our film there were many skills that I got taught from the people in my group. I myself didn't have a lot of past experience with filming and media so I learnt a lot of new techniques that I wouldn't have known before and this will help me for future references. If there was anything that I wasn't sure about then I would simply ask a member in my group as I like sharing idea’s with other people to try and make the task more efficient and less time consuming. This happened on a number amount of times and we revised the task and spoke about it wisely.  We all helped prevent make tasks longer then they should have been and we all stuck together on the hardest parts of the filming.

Throughout the project we all gave it our best effort and all participated highly when needed to. Throughout the production of our film some massive decisions were made that would affect are film as a whole, the decisions were mostly needed when a shot size was wrong or the framing of the clip wasn't suitable for what we were trying to achieve, we had to alter shots and agree with each other to perform certain type of shots. A great example to use would be the office scene where Alan is helping Sophie do her Maths homework, we had to adjust the objects in the background of the shot several times to make the scene suitable and to avoid continuity problems.

2013 Post 19: Ancillary Task 1 - Postcards

The Grey is a well known Hollywood film that is a action, adventure and drama genre, the film stars some famous actors such as Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney and Frank Grillo and the film was released In January 2012. I will be analysing this poster and comparing a Hollywood movie poster compared to a British film poster to create ideas for my own poster. When looking at this film poster the colours used are grey and doll and you can also see snowflakes that are out of focus, this indicates to the viewers that the film will be based in arctic scenery as the colours used are also winter replicated. The main figure in the poster is the main actor Liam Neeson himself who stares in many successful films such as ‘Taken’, ‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘the A team’ etc. In the poster it is clear that Liam Neeson has a large graze on his left cheek and some small grazes on his forehead, this will help viewers decide which genre the film is and also tell the viewers that some form of action is involved. There are no objects in the poster but the blue eyes of Liam Neeson have been edited to be more visible and dramatic to make the poster more meaningful. The poster includes text near the bottom of the page and uses a message saying ‘live or die on this day’, this sentence makes viewers think about what the film will be like and gives the viewer more of an idea of what the film will be about. The text at the bottom of the poster shares credits with viewers and simply tells the viewers who does what in the production line of the film; it also includes who stars in the film using the most famous names first so viewers will know that the film will be worth watching. This poster is very simple compared to other film advertising posters as there is nothing in the background and focuses on one main object and that is the main characters face. This is how my poster will look like as I will be using two faces from both characters from our film and merging them together, I will be focusing on the eyes making them stand out more by the use of editing.

Casino Royale is a very famous English film that has been a large hit with all age groups. The genre of the film comes under action, crime, and thriller and this is not told on the poster, this is because the 007 films are a great hit in the UK and viewers will understand what the film will include as James Bond is very famous for his work as a secret agent. The poster design is fairly simple and there are no bright colours used, this is because if the colours were vivid then the poster would create a happy mood rather than creating a mysterious surprising effect. In the poster it shows the main character of the film ‘James Bond’ with a silenced pistol in his right hand, this clearly shows the viewers who the main character is and the pistol also replicates that he is a secret agent. The clothing of the main character shows that he is a very fortunate person as the suit makes the agent look very professional, the agent has been highlighted so viewers know that he is a important character. In the background of the poster there is a attractive female with a long black dress on, this would hint to the viewers that James Bond is a ladies man and she could be a big part of the film. The title for the poster is very clear and the colour white highlights the font used, I will be taking this into consideration when creating our poster as this is very important to the viewers. The credits at the bottom of the screen are clearer then the Hollywood poster design and I will be using the clearest font possible when editing the credits at the bottom of the poster.

2013 Post 18: Pre-production Documentation

In this post I will be explaining who contributed which role of our pre-production in my group and I will also be explaining some of the problems that occurred for each role and the highlights of the pre-production.

Script

When creating our script we all wanted our idea’s to be put forward to we performed this task in a group all giving thoughts and opinions for our film. This got completed in two days and had a lot of adjustments up until our filming.

(Me, Alex, Bobbi, Katie)

Character Profiles

The character profiles needed to be precise and as the two members of the group had had past experience with media and production it would be a good idea if they was given this job.

(Katie, Alex)

Storyboard

I wanted to do the storyboard as I put my name forward for the specific task as I like drawing and enjoy doing art work. I completed the storyboard within a week as I needed to include detail and make sure the story was being shown on paper clearly with crisp drawings.

(Me)

Shot list

Alex has had past experience of creating a shot list for a GCSE film that she produced and as a group we knew it would be a good role for her. She did this very well and the shot list helped us and made it easier to film as we had a plan of the shot sizes, number of shots and the size of shot suitable.

(Alex)

Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedule was most appropriate to give to Alex and Bobbi as Alex has had past experience with this role and Bobbi has a good understanding and can easily type out dates and times.

(Alex, Bobbi)

Production Design (Props/costumes/set design/

There were many tasks offered by the Production Design of our film and the role was given to Katie as she had back ground knowledge of designing. I also helped her when needed as I can use Photoshop and other technical programmes.

(Katie, Me)

Location Recce

In our group we had to decide where we were going to film and whose house would be most suitable. We had to find out with parents before we had made our decision as we needed permission. We decided that Alex’s house was most appropriate as she lives down the road from our school so we could simply walk down and start filming.

(Alex)

Technical Recce (camera and lighting positions/colours)

In this section we all helped participate as it would help group members out and would take less time to complete a task. For example I had some great ideas with the lighting so I directed members from our group to perform the task given, this was crucial as I used my creative side to perform high standard work in a small time. The camera skills were done by Katie as she has had past experience using a camera but we all helped her out when needed to. We all wanted to get involved in this section but some of us did more than others and this was clear.

(Me, Katie, Alex, Bobbi)

Equipment list

This was a large part of our production as if we didn’t have the equipment then it would have been a lot harder to film for our project. The person in charge of bringing the equipment was Alex, Bobbi and I. We informed each other of what we need to bring and who was taking what to Alex’s house.

Here I have included a Prezi to show the use of different media used with a more simple lay out that can be easily understood.

2013 Post 17: Job Roles Research

When creating our film there are many job roles that need to be covered and this is crucial for the production of our film. In our group there are four members so we have to decide who takes on what task and is the task suitable for that person. As we know there are many roles to be offered and we had to be reasonable with the jobs given to take on. We got together in our group and we sat down and spoke about who would do what and shared opinions and thoughts within our group, by doing this we all had a say and offered useful ideas to develop the production of our film. In this post I will be using key words and job roles that I will be defining in the simplest way.

Direction: The direction of the camera is crucial when creating our short film and this is the degree of the camera and the angle that the camera is facing. When filming we used the shot list to focus on which direction the camera would be facing, this also helped with the angle and size of the shot.

Camera Operator: The camera operator must check that the equipment used is safe for the required set up, for example they must check all equipment over and the shots taken must also be checked. This is because continuity and inconsistency can be seen throughout a film and the camera operator must be consistent in what he or she films. The camera operator must also be able to multi task as there is a lot of listening, moving and adjusting when filming to capture the most creative shot.

Lighting: The lighting operator will be given the task of providing equipment in television and in film, generally specialising in one or the other as the techniques and equipment often differ. There are many techniques and different lighting skills that can be used to create different lighting effects with the different use of equipment. The lighting director should have a detailed plan of where lighting will be needed to use and will have a small team to help make any adjustments needed.

Production Sound: The sound supervisor must be in charge of making sure they maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound. The job role requires making sure sound levels are suitable to record and making sure all recordings are done suitably and saved so they can listen to them back.

Art Department: The Art department is crucial and have a large role in making the actors used have a different visual appearance giving detail to the set design rather than the practical filming side. The Art department can often have hundreds of people setting up a design and making actors suitable for the setting required.

 

There are many Job roles offered in the production of a film as there are different techniques and skills that need to be used to perform a specific task given. In a production cast there can be up to a thousand or more people needed to produce a film of a very high standard. In our group there were four members so we all needed to take on a specific task. The role I got given was to create a story board for the start of our film to then develop the plot of the story, I also helped film all sets and controlled the lighting in some shots when needed. In film production departments must talk to each other when filming to create a film that works well, if departments did not communicate with each other then there would be errors and the film would be unprofessional as the work they produce is different so they need to emerge their work together. 

Each job was crucial to the production of our film and we needed to make the effort on several occasions to complete a task that we needed to do. The main job role was The Directors job, the Director in our group did their job very well but I could tell it was difficult as she had many tasks to deal with. I found the jobs given to me were challenging as I had to be creative, the main difficulty for me was trying to think of what to use for the story board, as I didn’t want to create something my group didn’t like.

2013 Post 16: Why make a short film? Who is the target audience?

I have read both Articles 'The long history of short films' and 'Short Films That Launched Big Names Telegraph', in both the articles it explains why short films have been made and the purpose they have been made for, for example the public want to be enetertained at what they view. The first films were presented to the public in 1894 through Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, Edison produced films that contained information about celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life. Here are a few reasons why short films would have been created and this would have then developed films from being watched and would have gained a large reputation with the public.

 

The articles given to me to read were very helpful and have made me think more about who our target audience will be for our short film. This is because we want to get as many viewers for our film as possible and the genre must also be very popular with the public. Therefore we must create a film that teaches viewers about grooming and the stages followed by a groomer; this will create a large audience as they’re being entertained by watching the film whilst also receiving useful information about groomers that can happen to anyone at any time.

 

In our group we have thought about who would be the audience so that we can target our audience effectively and understand the best ways to distribute it. Previous research into our film helped us to establish the genre of film we were making but also the age certificate. My group decided the certificate should be for ages 18+, this is because the film needs to be understood and ages below 18 wouldnt understand the film, the film contains information that can help parents prevent there children from becoming in danger.

 

There are many distribution methods that can be followed and distributing the film well will receive a lot of attention from the media and public. The film can be spoke about on social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or Bebo to get more reputation, this will also give the public an idea of what our film is going to be about and why we have made this film for the specific audience chosen. We also know that ages from 18-40 are mature and by watching the short film produced by my group they will care for younger children more and be a lot more aware of their children’s safety.

 

Film festivals happen all around the world to promote short films to inspire people to create films that have a meaning behind them. A very known festival is Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival (Bristol, UK) and is the UK’s longest running competitive short film and animation festival. At festivals like these short films have been made because people enjoy creating short films with the use of editing and recording, there films will also get judged by experienced professionals and the public audience can also give feedback to the producers of the film. Festivals like these can promote films through advertising there short film to their target audience, and festivals like this one would help promote and give experience to younger generation.

 

The films that I have looked at are all averagely between 5-10 minutes long, this gives us a short amount of time to create a short film packed with information about our chosen topic which is grooming. When considering that we have a time of 6 minutes for our short film we need to think about making the script to as much detail as possible, keeping scenes short but effective giving a simple story across to the audience so it’s easy to follow. The effect that we want on our audience is to realize how crucial grooming can be and to make the audience realize how easy grooming can be done. By doing this it will make audiences more aware of their child’s safety and will give information about how stages of grooming can work.

2013 Post 15a: Media Language

In our film we will be using sounds to build suspense and help create drama, this will help maintain the audiences interest. The characters of our film also play a major role in creating suspense during certain scenes in our film. For example when the groomer Alan is sitting on the sofa with Paige the sound builds up to create tension for the viewers, the sound effects will be non diagetic to enhance the drama of the scene.

The film that I have researched that contains a lot of non-diegetic sounds to create a low, cold mood involving horror and suspense is the film ‘Insidious’ which was made in 2010. I have chosen this film as an example because the music that has been used has a low tone and at some parts of the film is very aggressive. 

When the film wants to build an aggressive mood the music starts off quietly. The sound then builds up getting louder and faster to make viewers aware of something bad is about to happen. This can be used throughout our film with adjustments to the sound levels according to the amount of tension we wish to build. Increasing some levels in this way is often termed as hyperbolic.

2013 Post 15: Media Language: The Five C's of Cinematography

Camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, and composition.

In order to learn more about camerawork and lighting I read an article written by a cinematographer. The article explains how the five C’s that have to be considered when creating a film, in the article a sentence says “Cameras don’t tell stories, people do. Since this is the case, there is really only one thing you need to tell great stories with the videos you produce, YOU”, This informs my group that its a great script and the interpretation of a great script that will make our short film successful.

The five C’s are camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, and composition, all of these individual definitions must be considered and looked at very carefully if a successful film wants to be made. In the article it explains that it is not all about the quality of the camera and the skills required to create a short film, but throughout the article it tells the reader that the five C’s are the main factors that need to be focused on and gives a short analyses of what each C word means. After I had read the information in the article I now know that it’s not about what is used when filming, but it’s mainly about the people used and creativity put into the shots taken and the story of the film must also be effective to be successful.