Monday, 2 April 2012

Preliminary Task

Planning-
For the planning our preliminary task we did a number of things to make sure we knew exactly what we were doing.
firstly we created a shooting shedual that looked like this:




Then we created a script for the characters so they know what they need to do adn say during the filming of the film, and that looked like this:





Evaluation
The task set was to create a short film showing someone walking down a corridor, using a shot-reverse shot to show them, firstly walking towards the camera, then secondly them walking away from the camera but still walking in the direction of where they’re going. Then a close-up of their hand grabbing onto and pulling down the door handle. After this there was a shot from inside the room of the person entering the room, a match on action shot showing them crossing the room and sitting at a table, then a series of over the shoulder shots of a conversation of two people, when X spoke the camera was looking over Y’s shoulder and when Y was talking the camera was over X’s shoulder. During this process we had to make sure we were observing the 180° rule to make sure the audience wouldn’t get confused at little things you wouldn’t think are noticeable, such as, what hand people are holding something in can look different depending on how it’s filmed.

For the filming of our film we used a Canon Digital Camcorder. During the filming process we went down to an empty corridor to do the filming, we took several shots of each part of the film several times, so to make sure we had as many good shots as we could get, Approximately we took about 6/7 shots of each part. The filming process was the longest part of the production of our film as we had to do numerous takes of each part of the film.
For the editing process we used adobe premier elements. In the editing process we looked through all the shots we had videoed and removed all of the ones we didn’t need, leaving us with the better shots from what we’d filmed, we then added a fade in at the start and a fade out at the end if the piece. Once the film had been put together we added a title screen and the rolling credits, we also added an extra bit of film on the end after the credits, this was of the ‘bloopers’ things that actors did during the filming, we did this to make the audience have a laugh at the end of the film.
After sorting out all of the visual editing we looked at adding sound to our film, We added a sound taken from the folder 'bedtime stories' on the school sysytem, it was a slow relaxed song to make the scene seem very relaxed and problem free. this was really difficult as we didn’t have a proper theme to our film so we couldn’t find a soundtrack to go with it easily, in the end we found one that was acceptable, we added to our film and adjusted the timing of when it starts and stops, to add extra effect to out film we added a fade in and a fade out to the music, the fade out was just before the first character spoke which gave a good effect to the film and left no silent parts, Also when we added the sound to the film, we added it to the part where she’s walking down the corridor so we took out the sound of the footsteps to add more emphasis onto the soundtrack.
During the process of producing our film I learnt a lot about film production, such as, there needs to be a minimal of 6 shots of each part so to make sure that the final piece all fits together, I also learnt how to add and take away sounds from the film during editing. Before this task I didn’t really have any experience using the adobe premier elements used for editing and I didn’t know how to use it to start with, but now I’m much more confident in using it and find it quite simple. I also learnt that even during editing it’s quite hard to make all of the filmed scenes fit together without it looking like they were filmed at different times and not all in order.
In conclusion the end product looked quite effective, however, the over the shoulder shots composition wasn’t arranged very well and were taken from a high angle, and this made it look less effective than we wanted it to. This is defiantly something I’ll remember for the production of my final short film. Also I will think more about the soundtrack to the film during the story board process to make it fit in a lot more with the sequence than what it does in out prelim because we added the sound last.


Target Audience

It's important to consider a target audience when creating any type of media text. In this case im creating three, as they're all based on my short film i only have one target audience to consider.

considering audience types in film

The target audience of a film depends on the genre/content of the film, i looked at 3 different film's and analysed them to show the target audience and why that target audience is chosen for the genre/content of the film.

DR SUESS' CAT IN THE HAT




Genre: Family
Age Rating: PG
Content: Contains slight inuendos for adult understanding

"Sally and Conrad are two bored kids whose life is turned up-side-down when a talking cat comes to visit them."-IMdB

The Target Audience for this film is Families, so suitable for all ages, it contains a number of inuendos that make the parents laugh and then funny jokes and characters that make it a child friendly film, most family targeted films contain inuendos to involve the parents as they are very well done it isnt noticable to young children that there are adult jokes within the film because they dont understand The storyline and characters have been made to keep the children entertained and wanting to watch the film over and over.

ROCK'N'ROLLA












Genre: Action
Age Rating: 15
Content: Fighting, Gun violence, crime, drugs, mild language, sex references.

"In London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, attracting some of the city's scrappiest tough guys and its more established underworld types, all of whom are looking to get rich quick."- IMdB

The target audience for this film is older teenagers and adults, it is quite a male targeted film due to the content of violence and guns which are of an interest to them. such as the violence, drugs and sex references, it wouldnt be suitable for a young child to watch and could have a bad influence upon them.


P.S I LOVE YOU







Genre: Romance, Drama
Age Rating: 12A
Content: Moderate language, brief nudity and sex, alcohol use, death references.

"A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life." -IMbD

The target audience for this film is younger teens and adults, or if adult say so any aged child may see the film but in the cinema must be accompanied by an adult.Due to the content and influence the content may have on the child. The film is aimed very much toward the female gender as it is a romance.


Target Audience of my short film

As the storyline of my short film is very much like 'P.s- i love you' with having a loved one pass away and the main character still getting used to them not being there,  I'd give it same target audience of younger teens to adults.

Design Process

The start of my production proccess was to write up my own storyline and script

Storyline-

A young man is trying to do everyday things such as cooking dinner, coming home from work and even going to bed. But he just cant do anything without being reminded of the memories shared with his girlfriend who had not long passed away, it is not clear until the end of the film that she's died, it jsut seems like she isnt there at the time.

Scripting-


I wrote up a script based on the storyline i had previously written, including camera shots adn angles, setting and time of day:
CONDOLENCES
By Danielle Herbert




BLACK SCREEN
FADE IN
QUOTE: "If the people we love are taken from us, the way they live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever." – The crow- 1994
FADE OUT
BLACK SCREEN

TITLE SEQUENCE
FADE OUT
FADE IN
INT. COURTYARD TO A SMALL HOUSE WITH SEVERAL OTHER HOUSES- EARLY EVENING
(CAR ENGINE SOUNDS)
LONG SHOT showing a car driving round and parking in front of a small house.

CUT TO:
INT. INSIDE THE HOUSE/KITCHEN- EARLY EVENING
(SOUNDS OF THE DOOR OPENING)
CLOSE UP of the door handle as it’s being pulled down and the door starts to open. Camera zooms out to show a smartly dressed young man walking through the door.
CUT TO:
LONG SHOT of the young man walking toward the kettle.
CUT TO:
CLOSE-UP of his hand as he places the keys on the kitchen side.
FAST TRANSITION TO:
INT. INSIDE THE HOUSE/KITCHEN- DAYTIME
MEDIUM CLOSE-UP of the young man with a young girl playing around with the key, both characters looking really happy.
FAST TRANSISTION TO:
INT. INSIDE THE HOSUE/KITCHEN- EVENING
Back to the CLOSE-UP of the young man’s hand still holding onto the keys, he squeezes the keys and then places his hand next to them.

CUT TO:
LONG SHOT of him filling up the kettle and putting it back on the stand.

CUT TO:
CLOSE-UP of his hand flicking the kettle on. As he flicks it down…
FAST TRANSITION TO:
INT. INSIDE THE HOUSE/KITCHEN- DAYTIME
LONG SHOT of the young girl holding the young man from behind whilst he’s making two cups of tea.
FAST TRANSITION TO:
INT. INSIDE THE HOSUE/KITCHEN- EVENING
(KETTLE SQUEELS)
MEDIUM CLOSE-UP, TRACKING SHOT of the young man picking up the kettle and throwing it into the sink. After he’s thrown it into the sink he stops and throws his head into his hands
FADE OUT
FADE IN
INT. INSIDE THE HOUSE/KITCHEN. EVENING
MEDIUM CLOSE UP of the young man getting a pan out of the cupboard
CUT TO:
MEDIUM CLOSE UP TRACKING SHOT showing him walking to the sink and filling the pan with water.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP of the hob as he places the pan of water on it.
CUT TO:
MEDIUM CLOSE-UP TRACKING SHOT of him picking up the box of rice from the side.
FAST TRANSITION TO:
LONG SHOT, OVER THE SHOULDER of the young man showing the young girl cooking his dinner and she turns to smile at him
CUT TO:
CLOSE-UP of the rice in his hand, he lets go and drops it.
CLOSE-UP, TRACKING SHOT of the rice falling and hitting the kitchen side.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. INSIDE THE HOUSE/ KITCHEN- EVENING
LONG SHOT of him walking towards the sink with his empty bowl. He begins to wash the dishes.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP of a tea towel on the side, his hand enters the shot, as he grabs the tea towel….
FAST TRANSITIONG TO:
LONG SHOT of the couple playing around hitting each other with tea towels (laughing)

FAST TRANSITION TO:
LONG SHOT of the the young man as he snaps out of the memory, he throws the tea towel onto the floor in distress.

CUT TO:
CLOSE-UP of the tea towel on the floor. His hand enters the shot to pick the spoon up. As he goes to get the tea towel…



FAST TRANSITION TO:
INT. OUTSIDE ON SOME GRASS- DAYTIME
CLOSE UP of his hand in some grass
CUT TO:
MEDIUM CLOSE UP of the couple lying together on the grass. The young girl turns to the young man.
GIRL
I love you

FAST TRANSITION TO:
LONG SHOT, TRACKING him walking up the stairs to his room.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM- EVENING
MEDIUM CLOSE of him sat by the DVD shelf looking for a DVD to watch.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP of his hand as he brushes it along the DVDs.
FAST TRANSITION TO:
LONG SHOT of the couple play fighting about what film to watch, they both have a film each in their hands, as he leans in to kiss her…
CUT TO:
MEDUIM CLOSE UP of him leaning like he’s about to kiss someone but there isn’t anyone there. As his hand reaches for the floor to stop him falling..
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP of the film in his hand as it hits the floor. It’s the film she was holding in the memory.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
INT. BEDROOM- EVENING
LONG SHOT from the end of the bed showing him lying alone. He rolls over to face the empty side of the bed. He bunches the duvet under his arms. Almost like he’s cuddling it.
FAST TRANSITION TO:
LONG SHOT from the end of the bed showing the couple lying together. He rolls over to face her.
YOUNG MAN
I love you

CUT TO:
LONG SHOT from the end of the bed showing him lying along with the quilt bunched up in his arms.
PANNING SHOT from the LONG SHOT of him lying in bed, to a small table in the corner of the room.
ZOOMS to show a photograph of the young girl surrounded by flowers and condolences cards.
FADE OUT
END CREDITS

"when the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them, buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever"

Casting-

Casting can be a tricky thing, you have to find people that can play the role exactly how you want it to be played and to connect to the other characters the way they need to.

There are only two characters in my film, a young couple.
i chose my boyfriend Lewis Warren to play the male part and therefore it would be a good idea to play the female role myself, hoping it will make it easier for Lewis to play the role of a young man who has lost the love of his life.




Setting-

I chose to use the male roles own house as the setting, again to make it easier for him to get into character and show what i intended in the scripting. i also think it portrays well what a young couple with not alot of money's house would be like, it's almost like a flat.



Costume -

Again i used the actors own clothes/uniform in my film to make their characters work well nad how i intended. it also shows the age of the couple well without having to say anything.


After designing the script and all the mise-en-scene parts of my film i designed my own production logo to go at the start of my short film.





I also created the title sequence that will appear after this in my short film, before the actual film.