Evaluation- Forms and Conventions

Group Discussion

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Evaluation- Distribution of our Film

Distribution Discussion

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Evaluation- Technology we Learned to Used

Technology Used

Pre-production:

The only piece of outstanding technology we used during pre-production was celtx which is a free online screenwriting software which we used to format our script. Sam had used this product before so was familiar with it, and it proved very useful in the process of writing and planning our film. We could have written the film in Microsoft Word, or even by hand, but using celtx made it much quicker and easier to format our idea into a screenplay style.

     

Production:

Instead of using the school's camcorders for our film, we decided to use Sam's Canon 600D DSLR camera. DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex) generally have a more cinematic quality to them than camcorders because of their larger sensors (APSC in the case of the Canon 600D), plus they have the ability to use interchangeable lenses. Because we knew the film would be set at night and would therefore be very dark, we chose to use lenses which opened up to f/1.4 and f/1.7 to let in as much light as possible. However this also meant that the depth of field was very shallow meaning that focus was an issue. Fortunately Sam had some experience in focussing manually while shooting wide open, so it was less of an issue than it could have been.

We used two lenses in our film, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and the Yashica 50mm f/1.7. They are both quite sharp and opened up very wide to let lots of light in. However, neither of the lenses has IS (Image Stabilisation) and so we had to use a camera rig to stabilise the footage.

The one major drawback of using DSLRs for filming is the poor quality of the on-camera microphone. If we had dialogue in the film, we would have had to use a boom pole with an additional audio recorder, which we did not have enough crew members to use. However, as we didn't need dialogue, we attached a Rode Videomic to the top of the camera to pick up ambient noises, and decided to record most of the sounds through foley and add them in post.

To light the film, we used one 800W tungsten redhead with some CTO (colour temperature orange) to act as a key when the spy sits down at the table. We also used a small table lamp to illuminate the hallway. By pointing it to the floor, and bouncing it off some CTB (colour temperature blue) it gave the light a very diffused quality which contrasted well with the key light at the table. We also turned on a bathroom light in the corridor to stop it from being too dark (as can be seen on our behind the scenes video).

     

Post-production:

We edited the film on Final Cut Pro X on an iMac. Before this film, none of us in the group were experienced in using macs, but we very quickly became used to the operating system. Nonetheless it was quite easy to learn and the computer was very quick which meant that render times were low so we could experiment with various edits easily. We exported the film in ProRes which was a high quality option so we could preserve image quality.

Sound:

We had to record foley for most of the film, and so we used the Zoom H1 because it is a very compact and easy to use audio recorder with a built in microphone. It was easy to bring to school when necessary and can record very high quality audio.

Overall:

Throughout the making of this film, we learnt a lot about how to make technology work for us, and not the other way around. We learnt how to confidently edit on Final Cut Pro X, how to use macs, and how to use blogger.

Evaluation- Representation of Social Groups

Representation

As there are only two characters in this piece, very few social groups have been represented. Our opening involves a young adult Caucasian female and a Caucasian male in his mid-twenties. In terms of gender this is fairly representative of the general population, although it does not represent people who do not fit into the gender binary. In terms of race and age this is not very representative of the whole population as it pretty much only represents Caucasians in their early/mid-twenties.

The spy:

When deciding the character of the spy, we wanted to stick to genre conventions which generally involve a 30-something year old Caucasian man. This character is used because it represents the sort of person the film is targeted towards, as action/thrillers are generally targeted towards young men. This can be seen in a multitude of spy films, including very famous ones such as James Bond films, Mission: Impossible, and the Bourne series. We tried to make our character as close to this as we could, although we had a fairly limited selection of people to choose from. As a result we cast Oliver as a spy, even though he was slightly younger than the 'typical' spy.

The assassin:

I was the role of the assassin. Our main debate about the assassin was about gender, as the gender of assassins in movies is quite varied. In the past, killers have almost always been male - however, in recent times there has been a huge influx in the number of female assassins, although there is still variation in gender. In films like the Bourne series, for example, assassins are male, whilst in others, such as Kill Bill, assassins are female. In the end we decided to go with female. I was chosen as the assassin partly due to the fact I was available and willing to act. Female assassins often seem to be more mysterious and dangerous compared to male ones (this is evident in films such as Kill Bill where the women come across as more aggressive, this is probably played by the stereotype "men are the stronger sex, women are nurturing") thus making it seem more exciting and fit into slightly more modern action-thrillers. 

Age and ethnicity:

In terms of age and ethnicity, our film is not very representative. Both of the actors are young adults, and both are Caucasian. However, there are reasons for these choices. As for age, we decided that using fairly young actors made sense, for both spies and assassins the jobs are quite active and dangerous, therefore requiring younger people. The level of risk means that older people are less likely to survive and their experience would make them more likely to have jobs in organisation or leadership. Therefore don't fit the convention in using young adults exactly.

However, for ethnicity we decided to stick to genre conventions in our choices. The genre conventions of action/thrillers is to have Caucasian actors as the main parts. Some examples of this would be James Bond and Jason Bourne in terms of spies and Mad Max, Die Hard and Taken in terms of action/thrillers generally. In all of these, the main protagonist(s) are white. As well as this, in the context of the film it makes sense to have Caucasian actors considering it's set in England where the vast majority of the population are white. It therefore makes sense to use Caucasian actors in our opening.

Evaluation- Target Audience: who and how

Audience Approach 

ln order to assess our potential audience, we decided to research what sort of people would be interested in action/thriller films. Generally speaking, action/thriller films are targeted at young men aged about 12 - 30. Since our film is a 12, it is less likely that people younger than that age will watch our film. However, we decided to do our own research to see how true this would be. Below are our findings from the surveys.

These findings confirm the belief that males prefer action/thrillers more than females do, which is shown by the fact that 9 males listed action or thriller as their favourite genre compared to 5 females. However, the result for age was different compared to expected, as the age for both genders is very spread out. One interesting feature is that thrillers are enjoyed much more than action, which suggests that the combination of the two genres is likely to attract a larger and more varied audience of all ages.

Audience Attraction:

We decided to create our poster in order to attract an audience to our film. We ensured it would match the genre by both looking at genre conventions and asking people what our poster sketches suggested about our film. This was, in fact, how we decided to scrap our original plan - when asking around, people thought the idea sounded more like the poster for a horror movie, which is not what our film is. We therefore came up with another sketch, and showed it to the people who took our survey. We recorded the responses, and found that the majority of people recognised it as being an action/thriller, although a few still thought it might be a horror. We then asked if they would want to see this movie, and those who enjoyed action/thrillers said that they would. This shows that it would be a good way to attract an audience.

Another way in which we could have attracted an audience would have been by producing a trailer showing some of the good (but obviously not best) moments of our film. We would need to intrigue them in a way that would make them want to come to our film and without giving the whole plot away as some trailers do. This would be a good way to captivate an audience and draw them to our film.

Evaluation

Comparison to Preliminary Task

Since my preliminary task I have gained more experience and techniques required in film making. I knew that teamwork and communication was very important in what I was doing so it was important to work with people I can both get along with and get work done.
Sam (a member of the group) has been making films, YouTube posts and much more and has some great high tech equipment we were able to use. When I did my preliminary task I was using a camera with the basics - zoom, record and picture taking whereas now I am able to access a camera with a great focus range, interchangeable lenses and depth of field. We also had access to great lighting equipment... as for sound we used a digital sound recorder for foley (we didn't need microphones for dialogue since there wasn't any). This contrasts with the preliminary task as we only used pre-recorded sound made available on Final Cut Pro-X and the dialogue was sound the camera had picked up.

For my preliminary I was in a group I hadn't really socialised with before so communication was difficult as we couldn't really get along. Deadlines and time schedules were rarely met meaning the story line wasn't followed completely. I felt like it comes across as a very rushed piece.
However, my new group were very eager, we contacted each other often and made sure everything we did worked for everyone and that we were all comfortable in what we were doing. We really listened to each other and made things as even as we could, everyone was involved and we each had our input.

The way transitions were done were changed to. I learnt that transitions are very key parts of a film and usually change atmosphere. I knew that the transition from my preliminary task (first image below) is unnecessary and the final task (next two images below) are more professional and give it a more defined look.

Another thing changed would be the use of titles. My preliminary task didn't have any titles an there wasn't even one for the clip other than "Prelim Task". However, for the final piece there were titles included which make is look more like group work and gave it a firmer beginning and finish.

Here (first image above) we can see a title. It doesn't really fit any criteria and was chosen more for the fact that it looked different. The next two images are of the end, there's nothing significant happening and it just ends with 3 seconds of darkness, this is an ending of somewhat but isn't clean.


The images above are from the final task. We have titles throughout the beginning and chose to do this because it fits in with our genre- we know this because we watched several opening sequences and found this common in most. The font is consistent and doesn't change; it also was chosen specifically. Whilst investigating into our genre we found the vast majority of fonts were smart, straight edge and nothing fancy. We found this most appropriate.

Final Video

Veiled Facade

Here is the final edit of our opening sequence:

Sound Recording

Foley

We had to focus on many different things for our opening sequence and one of which was sound. We already how the natural sounds for the filming which were being recorded along with the film but that made it very limited. We knew we wanted music throughout the opening sequence because several action thrillers do, but we didn't want to add dialogue. Another thing to look into was foley sound, this is the sounds you'd expect to hear e.g. footsteps but they were recorded at a separate time to the film.

This could have been done online (royalty-free) but we found it more sufficient to make our own recordings due to the fact that we could get it exactly how we wanted them.
Some recordings we made were:

Assassin's footsteps

Spy's footsteps Paper rustling

Spy sitting down

Grunt as spy is being stabbed

We made our own table that told us what the sound effect was, where it was in the opening sequence and how long it was for.

Recording clip:
Play Here

Here is the table:

 

 

Editing the Shoot

Multiple Edit Drafts

Prelim:
Play Here

Rough:
Play Here

Conversations

Group Conversations

Conversation 1:
Rough Edit-
Click here

Conversation 2:
Continuity Edit techniques-
Click here

Set Design

Set Design

When it finally got to the stage of filming we had to get ourselves prepared for it all. Of course we all had a rough idea as to what we were doing but setting it all up physically is another thing. Thankfully our group get on incredibly well with each other and it really brought a benefit to us.

Prop use in set-up:
Setting up was great fun due to a great deal of it being just mess making. Some props we used were great at creating an atmosphere. Paperwork was used to encourage the viewer into believing it has some significance in the householder's (the spy's) life. The reason for the paperwork being a mess is to show some disturbance.

Surroundings:
It also came in very handy to use objects that were already in the home. As you can see above we used a table but below you can see a coffee table and unit was used that weren't even seen in the opening sequence much at all... This was done because we felt like it made it look more realistic instead of staged.

Lighting:
Lighting brings an incredible contribution to atmosphere in films and so, we used it for our opening sequence set. Thank goodness Samuel (a member of our group) has a professional lighting set which we used to our benefit. Different coloured lighting gels were used to change what colour of light was used. Toward the main door we had a tint of blue (CTB- Colour Temperature Blue) because it was a very calm colour and reflected the wallpaper. The main room was an orange sheet (CTO- Colour Temperature Orange) so it was more neutral, without the sheet it would have been over powering and less effective for the genre we are using (action-thriller).

Props

Props:

 

This is a fire poker from Hannah's house. We wish to use this as a self-defence weapon for the spy as he enters his home. Our aim is to make it at close reach-perhaps in a nearby room-to show the spy has instantly adapted to his threatened surrounding.

 

Here is some fake blood. Our group feels like this is a strong benefit for an action movie. After looking into it we discovered it's both easy to make and cheap to buy! However, it is rather ironic I still have some left over from Halloween that would be easy to use.

 

Blades. Of course we're not going to stab someone with a real knife even if would look more effective. Samuel kindly bought in his own money to buy two fake knives that retract which is very useful.

 

A top secret file would be helpful to use as it notifies the audience that something is important (even if it seems a bit cliché it is a very useful way to project significance). I have brown paper envelopes that will be used and red pen to write "TOP SECRET" onto it. 

Destination

Destination:

We decided that our film should be set in an urban location, which fits in with our genre; this is considering the fact that the opening scene would be set in the spy's living quarters (of which the assassin has broken into and searched). As a group we thought it would work well if the spy was to be living alone due to his dangerous profession. He would also want to live in an inconspicuous place that is easy to miss. At first we were thinking of using a house but this didn't agree with the whole group. We asked around to see what was available and when I found my friend's flat was accessible we discovered it fit the story better.

A friend of mine was more than happy to let us use his flat and so was his mum which made it so much more easier for our group. This enabled us to link the story boards to the location since one of us knew it so well. The flat is a common place for someone to live in everyday life and it is therefore an ideal place to film. It is relatively small and fairly homely which is best suited for an individual character. The setting is a very normal neighbourhood and has nothing extra tire to it.

Here are some images of the location:

Exterior:

On the exterior we can see an alleyway which will come in very handy for some camera shots that we are intending on using.

Interior:

One useful thing we have for the interior is an empty hallway leading straight from the door to the next room. This will be helpful for a certain technique our group wishes to use. The flat is laid out in a simple structure and has the main room leading directly to the others which will make it far more appropriate for filming.

Casting

Casting

Possible Actors/Actresses
Crystal Brain
Reuel James
Oliver Nicholls

Crystal Brain:

I have always been into drama. I've taken the BTEC, GCSE and am currently taking A-level Theatre Skills. As an actual member of this group it made things a whole lot easier especially as some of my performed monologues have been somewhat 'chilling'. I haven't been in any professional productions but I think this is a great way of getting a small taster.
The part I am interested in is the assassin; she is an emotionless character and full of mystery, gets joys from killing and just does her job as swiftly as it comes- another fun fact was that she always wore heels and with a job like this, she needs to be prepared for anything... Thankfully, I can run in heels.
I think I would be good in this role because I enjoy the acting out of 'disturbed' characters. After reading the screenplay I immediately thought of how exciting the role of the assassin would be.

Reuel James:

Reuel was a potential character to play the spy who we knew through a group member (Hannah). Reuel has been in a selection of his own short films and after watching a couple of them we decided he was a fairly good actor.
Unfortunately we decided he was a bit too young to play the part of the spy and we didn't think he could convince an audience of his age.

Oliver Nicholls:

Oliver was another option to play the part of the spy. We could tell he was the right age for our character and he has done a lot of stage work. Oliver is a very outgoing person and easy to contact, this made it very efficient to us. Oliver was also available at such short notice which was very helpful for us.