Evaluation

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

From our prelimanary task which we did at the start of our project, we have taken the skills we have used and applied them to our main task of a film opening "Runaway" we have also learnt new skills during the process of production using the cameras and editing suite "Final Cut Pro 7".

Some of the skills we took from our preliminary task were basic knowledge such as simple use of the camera i.e. turning it on, stop start filming and using the camera with tripod. We also learnt some camera techniques such as obeying the 180 degree rule, we used this in our piece by making sure we obeyed the rule constantly, in our piece there is one instance where we don't obey this rule, however we rectified this in post production when we were editing by using a effect on Final Cut Pro 7 called "Flop", this flipped the shot, so it appeared our character was on
the correct side.

This is a example of where we used the technique "Flop" in our piece, notice the watch has switched hands.

From our preliminary task we also learnt basic editing skills such as adding footage to the footage pool and using simple editing techniques to put together a small sequence, we used these simple techiques for our main task but we also used new techniques which we did not in the preliminary task.

One of the skills we have gained from our main task was our managment of sound. In our preliminary task there was no ambient noise as we were inside but in our main task we had to deal with the wind and adding a soundtrack to our piece. We dealt with the added challenge of the wind on the beach by reducing the sound on the footage so we could hardly hear it as it changed between shots we thought this was the best option we had. We also had to add the soundtrack which we had created using "Garageband". This was effective in our piece as it helped mask the wind noise and adding the sad atmosphere to the piece, our voiceover which we recorded and added also helped with this. We didn't have a voiceover in our preliminary task so we learnt how to record this and save it onto the computer using "Soundtrack Pro" for our main task.

For the filming of our project we used some more difficult camera angles and shots. We felt this was neccesary to ensure our piece looked authentic and wasn't boring. We used different shot angles when we were on the beach such as a low angle shot when the character is climbing up one of the sad dunes, as it makes the sand dune seem steeper than it actually was. In our preliminary task we noticed the filming was quite fast paced this was mainly due to our camera being still when filming and having to use lots of cuts to show what we wanted. In our main task we solved this by using "Pan Shots" which track the characters movements rather than cutting to another shot. We also used slow blurs on our titles both of which were not in our preliminary task.

From doing our main task as a group we are not as naive about filming times and know it some times takes quite a while to get the desired shot and sometimes it is not enough to do one take of each shot. Also we have learnt to be more adventourous with our filming rather than doing simple still shots.

Directors Commentary

Evaluation

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

Throughout our project we have many different technologies in all stages of our work from research through to production.

One of the technologies we learn to use was our camcorder, “Canon Legria FS46”. With the camera we learnt simple operational functions such as inserting the memory card, turning on the camera and how to stop and start recording. We also learnt how to use the zoom on the camera and how to view files we have just recorded on the camera, this was a useful skill as we could look back on our shots and decide whether they are ok or if we need to re-shoot.

Canon Legria FS46, this is the camcorder we used on our project

A different technology we used was “Final Cut Pro 7” which we used on the “Macs”. We used the Macs to research different film openings and then post these on our blog about what we like about them and what we would try and replicate. We used Final Cut Pro for the editing part of our task. Here we imported the footage from the memory cards on the camera which we had converted to “Quicktime” into the footage pool. We learnt how to go through footage and use the “mark in, mark out” technique to select the footage we wanted and then drag the desired footage on the timeline. We then trimmed any footage that needed to be trimmed using the “blade tool”. We also added "effects" such as "bad film" to get the desired effects.

Another thing we added to create a authentic piece using Final Cut Pro was our production company titles and titles such as "Cinematographer" and "Costume Design". We also looked at exhisting films so we could create a realistic piece. We added some slow blurs using the effects on Final Cut Pro this added to the feel of our piece.

Here is a example of a Final Cut Pro 7 although this is not our timeline the layout is similar to our own.

Runaway

This is the final cut version of our opening of a film, Runaway.

Evaluation

How did you attract/ address your audience?

One way in which we attracted our audience was through the use of the characters emotion. Our character was a regular 17/18 year old male, so hopefully some of our audience could have related to the characters emotions and understand him. We did this purposely for that reason.

We also heightened the characters mood and emotions throughout our piece through our use of mise-en-scene, soundtrack and camerawork. Through the mise-en-scene we had quite dull and drab locations rather than bright locations with a warming feel places. (see below screen grab) This allowed us to portray the characters emotion onto the screen, therefore we feel our audience will be able to feel the protagonists emotions better. Also with the dark grey setting and the characters lack of coat we hoped to put across this feeling of vulnerability to the character.

Dark, grey setting of beach area

Another way we portrayed our protagonists emotion was through our use of the soundtrack. We had two different scores being played for each half of our piece. The first score was intense for the flashback sequence and almost acted as a warning of something to come, we chose this as it would capture the audiences imagination and hopefully make them want to watch on. In the second half of the sequence we have a very different score. Compared to the other score it is softer and incorporates the use of the piano. We feel this score more reflected the characters depressed state of mind. This was vital in attracting the audience as it helped them feel the emotion of the character, which is what people going to watch emotional dramas want.

Through our use of camera work we helped portrayed our characters emotions further. This is illustrated in the picture below where we have a close-up on the protagonists face, this shows his sadness and emotion and it is clear for the audience to see and feel also.

Close-up on protagonists face to show emotions

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We see two main points of attraction for our film in terms of target audience. One of them is the story line itself of the orphan finding his way in life, so the emotional drama story. The other point of attraction for our film is for people who are interested in low budget independent British cinema as our films sits into this catergory, so people would come to see it because of this.

One other audience this could attract is people with a adopted background, as they could possibly relate to parts of the story. The main audience for these types of film is the older teenager young adult, we specify this as being the 15-28 age range. The protagonist in the film is 17/18 so therefore the audience will be able to relate to our character. The pieces itself would not so much be aimed at a particular sex such as male or female as we hope it would be universal in that respect as it does not specifically target male or female issues.

Due to the content of the film in general we would suggest it has 15 rating and this is what we would aim it at, this would not really affect our audience for the film as people under the age of 15 are unlikely to be interested in such subjects.

Evaluation

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

We would describe our film in the catergory as a British, low budget emotional drama. Therefore the companies that would work on production and distribution would be based upon this.

One production company we would look to which produces films similar to ours is Shane Meadows : Big Arty Productions. This has produced British films such as “This is England” and “Dead Mans Shoes” both of which are directed by Shane Meadows. The films above are similar to our piece as it is a low budget british movie but also as the two films above are both emotional dramas.

WarpFilms works on Low budget British Films

Another production company which was involved with “This is England” and “Dead Mans Shoes” is Warp Productions. It specialises in British Independent films so our piece fits the bill in that respect.

Optimum Releasing is a British Film distributor which has distributed films such as "This is England" and other low budget British films.

A company which may be interested in terms of distributing our films would be Optimum Releasing. Optimum Releasing is a independent film distributor and has worked in distribution with many low budget British films. Optimum Releasing is UK distributor company so therefore it would be able to get our film across the UK. It also has connections with Studio Canal who have worked on small budgeted films in the past.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening would mainly represent male teenagers. The story itself is of orphan teenager who is beaten by his adopted parents and it is his story of coming to the age being independent and being able to leave home, hence the name Runaway. Predominately the film is about teenagers and growing up, however certain groups could be specified within the age range of teenagers.

One clear representation is orphaned children. We hope our piece would show them as being just normal people, that is why in our piece we had our protagonist who is a orphan wearing regular clothes just like any other teenager. We wanted our character to be viewed as a regular teenager and not some stereotype of a orphan, so the audience can relate to the character and understand his emotion, rather than having him as a stereotypical orphan which would be a false representation. We showed the characters emotion through the use of close ups on his face and the dark, grey, dull setting of the piece. This helps the audience in identifying his emotions.

Our piece itself does not look into male or female representations, we decided we should not draw into particular issues of male and female and rather focus on issues in general as being a teenager or being a orphan.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our piece which we chose to create was a Emotional Drama. From the title of the film “Runaway” we can see what the film will be about and a idea of what the film will be like. For our opening we researched other openings of films in similar genres and a lot of our ideas and inspiration come from these. One way in which we added emotion to our piece was through the use of our voiceover, where our character is using several different emotive lyrics from bands such as Joy Division. Voiceovers are used in other emotional dramas and openings we looked at such as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” where the audience can see the protagonists depressed state through his monotonous voice. In our piece we tried to do something similar, where our audience will hear our character saying things such as “I can feel my life getting harder, I don't think it will get any better” and then they will have a insight into the characters emotion.

Protagonist in open spaced beach area

Another way in which our opening sequence is similar to other emotional dramas is the setting. We have our character walking through the seaside area and near the beach then walking off down the beach, this sets up questions in the film such as where is he going to and why. Also the wide open spaces of the seaside mean you can focus on the character and his emotion and it also signifies his aloneness. We see something similar to this in the opening of Dead Mans Shoes where we see the characters walking through the countryside dragging something behind them. The open space there signifies there loneliness also, also we hear the soft music which sets the tone for the piece, giving it a solemn feeling. We have a soundtrack on ours which we feel reflects the protagonists mood and sets the feel for our piece. The soundtrack to match the characters mood is quite a common feature in Emotional Dramas.

Use of flashback in our sequence

One thing we thought we were original with was our use of a flashback. The use of flashback is quite common in Emotional Drama as we see in Dead Mans Shoes where we see the two characters as toddlers. We used similar techniques as in making the shots “grainy” and using a “sepia effect” all of which we did in post production on Final Cut Pro 7, both of the techniques help distinguish between the present and the past. However we did something original in the size of the screen. For the past aswell as the techniques said above we changed our screen down to a smaller size as to further help in distinguishing between past and present. We did this with the idea that there would be more flashbacks in the film and throughout and that the same technique of making the screen size smaller would have been used.

Screen captures of our procution companies highlighting the use of slow fades

In terms of the piece as a whole it is similar to other emotional dramas due to the slow cut rate, which helps the audience come to terms with the characters emotions. We see the slow cut rate when we cut from the shots and the titles seen above with the use of a slow blur.

Locations

For our main task locations was a key aspect of the idea. As he is running away from the urban enviroment we had to try and get both aspects of the urban and the vast open spaces of the beach. We researched our locations before we chose where to go using "Google Earth, Street View". This allowed us to plan our shot lists. We also checked the weather for each of locations before we went so we could maintain continuity in our sequence.

Below are some shots of the locations we used.

Train Station

This is where we filmed where the main character gets the train from. One of the reasons we chose this train station was the variety of shots we could acheive on the stairs also as it is not a very busy station there was less to worry about in terms of members of the public being in shot which could affect the continuity later when editting the piece.

Train to Ainsdale
Part of the opening piece features our main character sat on the train on his journey. For this part we took several short shots of the character from the same position we then used a fade transition and cut the shots together, this signified the characters journey, also it allowed us not to worry about continuity in terms of people moving around on the train.

Shore Road

This was the road between the character getting off the train and going to the beach. Although we didn't see it as neccesry we thought it would be good to have this part in the sequence as it shows the difference between dark grim brick urban and the naturistic open spaced beach, this signifies the characters escape from his troubles.

Sand Dunes at Ainsdale
One of the reasons we chose to film on the sand dunes as we found them interesting to look at. Also due to the different sizes of the dunes and the tunneling pathways it allowed us to create a more varied amount of shots, such as high angle and low angle shots.

The Beach
The whole reason we went to the beach for this was wide open spaces we could show. We chose to go to the beach rather than say the countryside where we could still have the wide open spaces but we felt with going to the beach we would be doing something different and we feel as a location it is visually good.

Shotlist - Main Task

Here is our proposed shotlist

1. Long shot of house from outside
2. Close-up of character walking out of door
3. Long shot of house from outside as character walks away
4. Long shot of character walking into station
5. Cut to medium shot whilst waiting at the station
6. Close-up as character looks at his watch, point of view
7. Long shot of character waiting, train pulls into shot
8. Medium shot of character walking onto the train
9. Medium shot from inside train, character takes his seat
10. Shot sequuence of character on train changing position (4/5 shots)
    
11. Close-up of characters face on the train
    
12. Medium shot of character walking towards the door
13. Shot from across the platform as train pulls away from revealing character on platform
14. Long shot of character walking out the station
15. Medium shot of character walking down the road
16. Low angle shot from the floor looking upto the character walking up a sand dune
17. Long Shot from atop the sand dunes looking at the character walking down upon the beach.
18. Medium tracking shot on the beach as the character walks along the beach
19. Close up on the characters face as he stands on the beach as he turns away
20. Medium Shot as the character walks away from the camera, with a the camera beginning to fade and blur.
    

This is England

From "This is England" we wanted to achieve the style used by Shane Meadows. This particular sequence seen above is not the exact start as their is a montage sequence in which it shows clips of England from the 1980's. We choose to look at this particular sequence as it the first instance involving the characters, which ours does. One of the main aspects we want to take from this is the cinematography. The colours of the room and the outside are quite grey. We wanted this to represent the urban in sequence, as one of our main aims is to show the dark grim greys of the urban, in contrast to the bright wide open spaces of the beach. This shows the grim urban as being a place of conflict and sadness for the character, whilst the opposite can be said for the wide spaces of the beach which act as a release for the character.

Another reason we chose to use this sequence to analyse is we have a particular interest in one of the shots. The long shot of the shop when Shaun exits is very similar to the long shot we want to achieve at the beginning of our sequence when you can hear the noise of the character being beaten/attacked.

Dead mans shoes

This is the opening sequence of Dead Mans Shoes directed by Shane Meadows. We chose to look at this opening as it has elements of a flashback in it and we also see the two characters walking in the countryside area, similar to our character walking in the open spaces of the beach.

In the sequence it cuts to and forth between the present time and what seems to be almost a home video of the two characters as children. One way in which the flashback is acheived is through this sepia colour and grainy film we see, this gives the impression of a home video feeling. We also see the screen is smaller than that of the screen which shows them in the present. All of these elements help distinguish between the "flashback" and the present.

In the present we see the two characters walking in the wide open space of the countryside dragging a back. The sequence has a feeling of sadness, this is partly due to the soundtrack and the slow cut rate seen in the sequence. Throughout this sequence we have the slow song playing as they walk through the hills. We also have quite a lot of long shots, these show their lonelyness, in such a wide space. With so many elements similar to our own production this was a vital piece of research.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

One of the reasons we chose to look at this sequence for our opening was the scene at the trainstation. We wanted to acheive the same feeling as lonelyness as seen above. One way in which Eternal Sunshine achieves this is through the use of colours. There are no bright colours in the above sequence it's almost as if all the colour has been washed out and all that is left is greys and blues, both colours which represent are dark, sad mood.

Another part of the sequence of particular interest was the look of the beach, as in our sequence our protagonist visits the beach. On the beach itself we see Jim Carey is on his own apart from the one woman who is part of the films plot. This lonelyness is essential to the mood and feel of the sequence, one which we want to recreate in our opening. Also as said before the colours at the beach is washed out leaving a dark grey sea and sky, which reflect the mood of the sequence.

In the opening sequence we hear a voiceover from Jim Careys character. He talks in a monotonous almost moody manor throughout about how he is lost him memory. This voiceover adds the sad feel of the sequence and coupled with all the other elements mentioned above creates a sad, dark opening to Eternal Sunshine, something we want to acheive in our opening.

Production Treatment for main task

The Opening of a short film : The proposed title of our film is "Runaway". The genre for our piece would be a emotional drama focusing upon the story of a young adult in care of his adopted parents.

Duration : The proposed time for the piece would be around the 2 minute mark.

Audience : The audience we identified our film would most interest and who we would target would young educated students in the age range or 16-24. We chose this audience as we feel they could relate and understand the emotion of the film and appreciate the sometimes dark feel of the piece at times.

Resume : For the opening sequence which we will be shooting it will feature the boy effectively running away from his house and his adopted parents and escaping to the seaside. The opening sequence would start with the viewer being able to hear the protagonist being beaten and some sort of argument occurring. We would then see the protagonist leaving the house wearing his backpack and travelling down the street and catching the train/bus to the beach.

Suggested Elements :

Performance : The main performance in the piece will be of the main travelling to the seaside from the house.

Costumes : The costume of the protagonist would be normal young modern clothes, as it shows the protagonist is no different from any other sterotypical teenager so the audience will be able to relate to the character. The character will be wearing his back pack to show that he is always on the move, almost as if he is just waiting to go.

Props : Aswell as coming under costume we would also class the backback as one of the characters props. We would also class the train and/or the bus in which the character travels on as a prop.

Key Locations : For the first half part of the sequence in the urban area we are going to film in a area that is local to us all so we are going to film this in swinton as it is quite a urban area. As for the second half where the protagonist runs away we are hoping to film in a seaside location however we can easily change and adapt our idea to work in the countryside. Some of the locations we have already scouted as possible locations include "Lytham Beach", "Ainsdale Beach", "Southport" and "Dovestones" all but the latter are seaside resorts with the latter being set in the countryside. For more on locations see seperate post.

Title/ opening credits : We have decided to have two production companies in our credits one being "GTC" and the other being "GeoHar" both of these we made up ourselves. Also in our opening sequence we are going to credit the protaganist the cinematographer and the director. We see this as essential in creating the opening sequence of a film.

Filming Dates : One of the problems we faced was finding a day when the whole group was free for the day when we travel to the beach. We wanted when we travelled to the beach to ideally go on a weekday as this would be better for the film as it would be more quiet. However this was not possible to find a week day when the whole group was free, so we went on a weekend which we arranged in our group, but we chose to go on a day when it wouldn't be particularly good weather as to avoid other people who may be at the beach.

Initial Ideas

For our initial ideas we came up with a number of ideas. One of our first ideas was a story of a depressed lifestyle of a young man and how his life is destroyed after a break up from his current girlfriend. The film would have documented his fall into depression as his life spirals out of control. The opening of the film would show part of the break up between the two. We planned for the film to be quite dark to try and get the emotional feel over of the young mans depression.

One of our other ideas was the story of a adopted. The boy is beaten by his adopted parents. The story would focus upon the aspect of the boy running away from his adopted parents and issues he has in his life. The opening would feature the boy running away from his adopted parents house and to the countryside/seaside. It would be suggested he is getting beaten at the start of the film he then runs away, hence the name "Runaway". We planned to film this in the same style of our original idea i.e. dark grim setting. We planned to show the grimy urban setting of the suburbs and the wide open spaces of the calm seaside/countryside. We chose this second idea as well there was more substance to this second idea. We chose to follow up this idea as we felt there was more interesting things we could for the opening sequence compared to the first idea. Another reason we chose this is we could hopefully show the contrast between the dark grim urban areas to the wide open, calm space for the 2nd half. We felt the juxtaposistion of the two locations would help with showing the characters different emotions.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

Some of the skills we have learned come from the very basics of filming and editing. We learned basic operational skills with the camera, we learned about composition of shots and framing. We understood to achieve continuity, we must follow the 180 degree rule and we learned to put this into practice. We also learned how to operate the tripod and how to use this to create a varied amount of shots.
Through our preliminary task, we learned how to edit using Final Cut Pro 7. We learned basic skills such as importing clips, starting a new project and selecting specific footage for our time line. We learned how to trim footage using the 'mark in' 'mark out' technique and using the blade tool. We also learned to manipulate the image and sound using the effects available.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

We had a variety of shots which made the sequence look interesting. However, with the many shots at points, the piece may have looked over edited especially at the beginning of the sequence when the character walks through the door. Although we had a lot of editing, we feel we achieved good continuity. At one point we did not obey the 180 degree rule at the beginning when the character walks into room. We film other one shoulder of the teacher then when the character sits down we then obey the 180 degree other the shoulder. Although it is not majorly noticable, it does break the 180 degree rule we feel however that it does not affect continuity.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot reverse shot combination in your film.

We had a conversation between a student and a teacher. The student walks into the room and sits down then the two have a conversation. We had a shot reverse shot combination when the two were talking. We obeyed the 180 degree rule during the shot reverse shot. This helped to the continuity of the piece. We shot these over the shoulder of the character being spoke to, so you can then see the student/teacher speaking. We kept to filming over opposite shoulders of the two to keeep to the 180 degree rule.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you acheived match cuts during the editing process.

One example of when we used match cuts in our preliminary task was when the student opens the
door and walks into the classroom. We have a shot of the character walking upto the room, this is followed by a close up of a hand reaching out for the door. We then have a medium shot from inside the room. When editing we looked for the point between the shots so they matched up. We used the "mark in mark out" technique to take snipets of footage from each take. We then used the blade technique to trim footage then we placed the footage together. All of this was done on Final Cut Pro 7. The match cuts helped with continuity of the piece.

How did you achieve continuity in this task? Or if the transitions weren't entirely smooth, what have you learnt from this?

To achieve continuity in our preliminary task we used standard conventions when filming such as obeying the 180 degree rule and using match cuts. By using these conventions it made the piece feel more realistic so the piece had some continuity. We used match cuts for the character walking through the door and speaking to the teacher, where we had a shot sequence where we had a medium shot of the character walking towards the door followed by a close up on the characters hand as he begins to open the door, we lastly have a shot from inside the room of the character coming through the door. All of these shots run together so this shows the continuity we had in our preliminary task.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task - Shot List

For our preliminary task we must create a shot list of the shots we propose to use. Here is a draft shot list we have made however it is subject to change.

Shot List

1. Medium Shot from behind the character walking down the corridor, wearing headphones

2. Close up shot with camera on the floor of characters feet as he past

3. Medium shot of character walking towards the door to open it

4. Close up on characters hand as he begins to open the door and walk through

5. Medium Shot from inside the room as character comes through the door

6. Point of view shot of character looking at the teacher as she looks at her desk

7. Long Shot as door shuts and student makes his way towards seat, teacher can be seen looking up from her work

8. Close up on the teacher looking over at the student

9. Over the shoulder shot of character looking from the teacher, student character is unaware the teacher is speaking to him as he is still wearing headphones

10. Long shot as teacher stands up and walks towards student

11. Point of view shot as camera pans up from characters desk to see teacher stood facing him

12. Over the teachers shoulder shot as student takes off his headphones

13. Over the students shoulder of teacher as they have a conversation

14. Medium shot of student standing up walking towards the door

15. Long shot as students makes his way to the door

16. Close up on hand on the door as student begins to open door

17. Over the shoulder shot of teacher as student leaves with the door shutting

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we have to plan, film and edit footage to create a short media text. This must include a character walking down a corridor, into a room, sitting down and having a conversation. It must demonstrate a use of continuity editing, shot to shot and a understanding of the "180 degree rule".