Evaluation

From the time we first wanted to make our film, we had always felt we wanted to be different in our delivery of the forms and conventions of ‘Fatality’, but remain traditional in a sense that we did keep some of the typical elements. Our varied used in our casting and costume has challenged typical conventions of a psychological film by having our leading character being a victim. Because we cast Gareth to be our leading male, he is not a person to have been particularly seen as the type to become a victim to our attackers as the film progresses. Our main aim of making ‘Fatality’ was to make our audience feel uncomfortable but to also showcase our own media talents in all aspects of creating a film form the storyboarding different chapters, to the editing of each one. I feel that we have been able to do this in a different and effective way because it had been made apparent that our film was impressive as a whole through our audience feedback.

When it came to shooting our film throughout we have made sure to use a variety of camera shots and angles, this is to give it a different effect rather than just looking at it from one view. We show this in the fourth day when the clown starts to go insane and you can see the point of view both inside and outside the box when it switches backwards and forwards. We have also made use of our camera movement throughout, by having backwards tracking at a long shot almost in the style of a documentary like a person could voice over what was about to happen. One of my personal favourites when it came to our filming in terms of camera shots and movements was the way we had been able to create diagonals. It is a skill to be able to create diagonals within a film at the right time to give it a certain atmosphere, therefore, by having the camera making slightly choppy movements when the clown comes to life it disorientates the audience making them feel uncomfortable and uneasy.

For our lighting within the film we wanted to create a naturalistic form of light for all of our scenes. This was a hard job as we needed to film the same shot four times before it got too dark to film as it would have looked strange otherwise. We learnt this lesson slightly late as towards the end in the final chapter, it had been a different type of light when we had been filming, but ran out of time to go back to Felixstowe to shoot that scene again. Adele did however make the most of a bad situation by cleverly editing to make the scene look as similar to our other scenes as possible. We did also make a good creative choice in lighting by making an atmosphere in which the film does get progressively darker, in both a literal and metaphoric sense. Our film gets darker and twisted so we then made our lighting get progressively darker.

With our dialogue we don’t actually have much at all, just the speech which is featured in Chloe’s scene before the females attack the lead male. We had done this on purpose because we didn’t really feel the need to have dialogue throughout; just to make the audience feel confused when there was talking as it had been a biblical text. This was when we wanted to make reference to famous directors such as Quentin Tarantino and the film kill bill. It is a rare occasion that a short film would have the capability to make reference to Tarantino with a film like this. Although we do not have much dialogue in our short film, we do have a good soundtrack to our film and like the short film ‘Signs’ used music to carry the story along a lot as well. From the very start of our film when the tiles begin we wanted to make the audience feel uncomfortable and slightly confused and so we found a sound on our computers called distortion. This eerie, confusing sound was deliberately added to make the audience think bout what our film may entail. By using distortion it is also mechanical sound to it and so adds to the suspense and the question of what the film will be like from the close ups of the clown’s face and the mechanical noise in the background. Our sound bridges were used to move the story along and progress. Then when it was unexpected changed it to creepy clown music when the clown comes to life and speeds up as it gets creepier and creepier through the rest of the film and stops abruptly when everyone thinks he was escaped the clown.

When it came to our costume for the film, we needed to find a way to have our leading male in something which could distinguish him from passersby when we were making our film and so we had the idea of making him wear his suit but to change ties each day to make the audience aware that it is a different day. We felt that this was going to be our way of making our film just seems average but it was the costume of the female attackers which we wanted to challenge forms and conventions of our film. By having our female attackers wearing brightly coloured hoodies, it was completely unexpected that they would be the type to attack anyone let alone a fully grown man against two young women. Our clown costume was especially impressive in the way that we were able to find such a scary costume to make our audience feel scared as it is a known fact that one of the most common things for people to be afraid of is clowns.

With special effects we used a lot of slowing down and speeding up of different parts of the film. For example, when we originally filmed our scene with the clown in the box giving the ticket, it was faster than seen in the film, we then therefore wanted to slow that down so that it was a better effect.  We also used zoom ins to make the clown look especially scary towards the end to give it the scary last picture before our end credits start. When a scene was too light we also used the darkening technique for example the very start of the film with the clown the room was too light in which we filmed in and so I had to darken the background and enhance the red on the clown to give it a better effect.

Our setting of Felixstowe was a good choice in my opinion because of the fact that it was a small seaside town which not too many people actually go to nowadays. It is also close and was easy to get to and form. In terms of our narrative and challenging forms and conventions of our film we felt Felixstowe was the perfect place to film because it was like a twisted irony that the place which has brought so many people joy and happiness in childhood, could bring about so much trouble in adult life.

Our main prop was the old box which contained the clown. This was used in our film to make it seem creepier than just having a plain area and so with the help of Adele’s granddad we were able to create a creepy looking box to be hold our clown and look old and dilapidated. We also had our tickets which were able to give a clue as to what was going to happen in our film without giving away too much.

For our titles we felt that it would be most appropriate to have just plain black and white titles with the word ‘Fate’ changing into ‘Fatality’. It was also a good choice of play on words because of the fact that no one is able to escape their fate and that it could lead to a fatality. Our choice of title style is very much typical of the short film genre and looks like the style of writing which break through directors and editors would use in Hollywood as a showcase short film. By using the font impact it does exactly what it is supposed to do, give a scary effect and add to the confusion of what is about to happen and the inevitability of karma and fate.

With the editing in our film we were all in charge and had to take the responsibility for our computers which we did to make the editing a fair process. As I had the task of doing the first to chapters I had to make them look almost identical in terms of editing with the exception of the different fates. For my scene I had a very slow editing pace and as able to just make the simple edits to create ellipsis when editing the scene with the leading male and the clown giving him his fortune. We also used a range of dissolves and fades to give the impression that time had passed.

I would say that our film could be considered a good short film because it follows along with the conventions of most aspects of short film that there is a twist in the tale in the form of the clown cause all of the man’s bad luck and eventually wants to get to him itself. We also follow along a function to which there is limited dialogue within the film and that music carries along the piece. Our film was to mainly showcase our talents as editors, story boarders, script writers and directors in our own right.

With my poster for our film I was basically trying to promote the film and advertise that it would be available to watch on http://www.fatality.com/ . By promoting our film to an online audience it automatically brings in our target audience and others due to the fact that it can bring in a new type of audience and by promoting for the website it can actually create a viral buzz. I think that my layout for the poster of the clown on a tilt gives the impression of unease and the effective use of our tag line ‘You can’t escape your fate’ brings a sense of excitement to the film and anchors our target audience of young adults.  By making the colours dark for my poster it brings about a sombre atmosphere. In this case, our use of the colours red, black and purple could be a representation that this film was particularly for a male gender audience however the use of the colour purple could be seen as more feminine, which could appeal to a female. In terms of our actual film because it is a 15, it is expected that we will have many people in the 15-23 age bracket to go and see this film.

Following in terms of my film review I feel that as a reviewer, I was able to take on that persona and be both light hearted and itty about my film criticising any parts of the film which could seem a little far-fetched. My review was for a target audience of people who read ‘Empire’ film magazine and this is normally for an audience of fairly high literary standard. I was sure to make use of the fact that I could be either highly critical or deadly horrible about the film but I was able to make criticism which was realistic to our film bringing a fair and balanced argument.

We showed our film to a group of people and asked their opinions of the film as a whole and also how it was structured in a simple questionnaire. After receiving feedback, we found that most people liked the story as a whole and were scared of the clown as we had wanted and interpreted, however found it was odd seeing two girls attacking a fully grown man and were a little confused as to why he got into bed when he was being chased, but other than that felt that the music was a good way to change the scene and also set the tone of the whole film.

Old media was previously linear and so was only really interpreted in one way; there was no way in which you could work in an interactive way. Nowadays everything technological is interactive, from sky TV, to fun and games on DVD’s and the birth of the YouTube generation which I can say I am a part of, has now given everyone the opportunity to have their own media democracy of the right to produce texts of a high quality meaning the gap between professionals creating amazing texts compared to an amateur producing a high quality piece of text as well.

The use of a combination of posters with our film is the fact that the poster is used to promote the film and also anchors the audience which it is targeted for. The poster may limit what people expect of the film and the review gives an expected opinion of the film. This could then go two ways; the review could give a good reflection on the film or give a bad impression of the film and then make the film seem even worse. In a way however it could be a matter of he directors or studios may own other forms o media meaning that the reviewers cannot be completely truthful. For example, Rupert Murdoch owns a substantial amount of the media and a range of newspapers, therefore any films which are under 20^th Century Fox, could never be completely trashed in a newspaper like The Sun simply because it would insulting another company which is owned by your boss.

We have used many forms of media technology throughout our research, construction, planning and evaluation stages. The internet and YouTube were especially important when looking up different types of short films due to the fact that there are not a great number of ways to get a hold of short films which will always be there in order to analyse the same or a range of films. In addition to this digital camera are helpful with the planning of our film as it means that we can get an accurate idea of what our film will look like through a camera and how our choice of location can effect the film as a whole. The construction of our film as a whole was obviously down to using digital cameras. We were given the flip cameras which are producing high quality video as well as the editing software which is on computer meaning that we can distort, change colours, backgrounds and even add our own titles. As much as these are all important we clearly have to remember that the way in which we are submitting all of our work is through computer technology and the use of the internet and blogger to create these posts.

Personally I think that as a group we completed our main and ancillary tasks to a high standard and if I could have changed anything, it would have probably have been the time constraints in which we actually did our filming and also the speech in the idle as that was one of the main causes of confusion for the rest of our audience who we had received feedback from.

Poster Analysis 3

2 Fast 2 Furious is very much the type of film designed for a male audience. The use of a bold, striking silver font with the tag line ‘How fast do you like it?’ asks the audience a direct question and entices them to go and see the film for not only the cars but the experience as a whole and the actual narrative of the film. As much as the Fast and Furious franchise is supposed to be about the cars, the image itself actually makes the audience realise that there is a deeper sub-plot about the main characters. By having Paul Walker and Tyrese as the central characters at the top, with Eva Mendes and Devon Aoki at the bottom it gives the representation that men would be more likely to go and watch the movies for the women and the cars and it would also bring in a female audience by having attractive males for the lead.

Poster Analysis 2

‘Mean Girls’ is a different form of film poster in the way that it is a different type of lettering and style in comparison to ‘Bring It On’ due to the fact that it is blatantly obvious that it is aimed for girls. The main use of the colour pink for most of the writing emphasises the fact that this is definitely a girly film to go and see. The billing block is structured differently in the way that it is in the middle and written in a small white font, which is admittedly slightly hard to read and so does not give a brilliant effect if people wanted to know who else was in the film if they couldn’t remember characters or directors. The iconography of the poster itself with the divide with the letters ‘Mean Girls’ in a pink font and bolder writing on the word ‘mean’ emphasises that the film itself is going to show the fact that Lindsay Lohan is seen as an outcast.

Poster Analysis 1

The film bring it on is mainly for a predominantly female American audience. Or so it would seem. In actual fact the film ‘Bring it on’ is targeted for young male adults in the way the iconography has attractive young females on the poster.  This text in the billing block is not placed in its typical place and it set at the top below the titles leaving room for a full picture of the leading characters. By having the simple but memorable tag line ‘may the best moves win’ it brings about the male conventions in a way that with the art of war it would typically be the phrase ‘May the best man win’, it also shows that through the bold use of writing is actually more suited for males which is another reason for attracting a male audience to go and see the film. At the time of this film coming out Gabriella Union and Kirsten Dunst were up and coming actors and were wanting to prove that they could have a polysemic view of being more than just a pretty face or good at acting, but to also have the skills do all of the cheering involved in the film itself. The white on black writing gives a harsh effect that there is more to the film than what the poster may suggest. As much as the film is called ‘Bring it on’ the suggesting conflict between two groups of people the image based around the text could not make that any clearer because of the bold black line down the middle.

Finalised Editing

After editing our individual chapters of our film all that was left to do was add the titles and also add our sound. When we connected our scenes together we left a small space after our opening credits to have the chapter setting “The first day” and planned to start the music as this titles faded in to create a tense atmosphere. When I was doing the editing for the first and second days I had left a small space for room for error, it was the perfect place to put in the title for ‘the second day’ to fade in and out. We did this for ‘the third day’ as well but for the last day rather than just putting the fourth day we felt that putting in ‘the final day’ to make the audience think what will the final day entail. At the end of this we have just got a simple black and white writing for our end credits. The only thing which we need to do now is to add our sound. 

Rough-Cut Meeting

When it came to almost completing our editing we had a rough cut meeting to discuss what we could do to make our filming better. We looked at each other’s work and picked out any mistakes and changed them to make our film as good as possible. In addition to this we also listened to some of the music we could use and where to place it in each scene. 

Editing

When it came to our editing process, we as a group had to take responsibility for our chapters and so i had to edit the first and second days. When we were working on our film we decided to make each day look the same until the clown starts to go insane, this meant that I had to keep as many shots the same within both scenes as much as possible. I used long edits and dissolves to give it a good effect when fading into each day. In addition to this when editing towards the end of the first chapter I had to darken the scene slightly as it was still a bit light when we were filming however we couldn't really let it get any darker in Felixstowe or we would lose the sufficient amount of light we needed. As far as the clown in the box was concerned when giving the man the ticket I slowed down his movements to make it seem slightly eerie and also increased the red colour on screen to emphasise the costume. This was done for both scenes. 

Shooting Diary 5

The final lot of shooting we did was for our title sequence. We did this by filing with nothing but a torch and a dark room to emphasise the scary features on the clowns face. We made use of just having the clown stand still as we slowly panned around the clown and also panned the torch around slowly to also make it seem creepy.  

Shooting Diary 4

We went to film some last minute footage of the clown in the box at Adele’s house as we realised there was still a few imperfections about some of the shots within our film and so used Adele’s summerhouse in her back garden as it was a sufficient amount of light which we needed. 

Shooting Diary 3

With this being our second day of filming in Felixstowe we were determined to be able to film all of the scenes which we need to reshoot and also do the mugging scenes and the backward tracking as it had looked slightly shaky after looking at it at school. Our filming ran very smoothly and we were able to get the filming that we needed. 

Shooting Diary 2

This was our first lot of filming in Felixstowe, Adele and I went to the Forum amusements to ask permission for the use of the outside of the amusements in order to be able to film there because it was the perfect location to put the box and also get a god establishing shot for each opening scene. As much as we had aimed to get all of our shooting in Felixstowe done in one day, this was very much an unrealistic plan due to the fact that we needed to film certain things multiple times and could not do that because we needed the same lighting for each scene and the sunlight was fading too quickly meaning that our footage would look completely different no matter how much we tried to lighten it with our editing process meaning we would have to go back another day to finish off our filming with the poor quality of the camera in dark light.

Shooting Diary 1

On our first day of filming we did most of our filming within the house which is where the clown is alive and is going to pursue the male. We tried making Paige’s mum’s room look more manly by taking off the flowery bedspread and also bringing in some props of male aftershave and hair care products. We did feel slightly disorganised because it was our first day of filming and we were not sure what to film first and because we were concerned about getting all different angles we felt that we were taking longer to film the same features over and over again. Hopefully our next filming session will go better.

Planning Schedule

 We knew we had to do our filming during the half term, so, as a group we decided to do our filming on two different days. We can then shoot all of the house scenes on one day, and all of the scenes to be filmed in Felixstowe on another day. It is of course always important that we have a back up day in the event that one of us cannot make filming on that particular day and you can never tell whether or not we would be able to get all our filming done in just two days as they are supposed to be set at around the same time of day each afternoon.

Target Audience

With our film we have decided that we want to have a target audience of young adults and so have made this short film a 15 through the fact that the concept of the film is more of a young adult’s theme with the concept of tempting fate and also the fact that the clown looks scary. We have also felt that we would make our film suited to young adults because of our casting making young adults our lead female roles and have a tall male in his 20’s to be our leading male. We chose to have females in their late teens to show that it was not always very young people who are seen as thugs or deviants and that it is not always young males who are at fault.

Dialogue

With the first two chapters I am in charge of I have decided that I was not going to have a particular form of dialogue at all due to the fact that the music carries everything along and as the leading male is on his own it would not make sense for him to talk at all unless it was in the form of monologue which would not suit this genre of filming.

Costume

For costume as we would be filming as though it were four different days we needed to make sure that we could still distinguish our lead character but to also signify the changing days. To do this we had our lead character in the same suit but changed his tie each day to signify time passing.   For the attackers in our scene we wanted to go against the traditional conventions and have the girls dressed in bright colours to give a twist to our story as it is highly unlikely for anyone, let alone a fully grown man, get attacked by two girls dressed in bright hoodies. Finally for our clown we wanted to have it so that we could find the scariest costume possible and to also find a mask which would go with the outfit so that it an create a sense of unease with the audience when watching the clown in Adele’s scene where the clown breaks our of its animatronic state and takes on its own evil personality

Locations

Locations were a key point for our film as it was all about mind tricks and the fact that there was a clown enhanced the fact that we should set it in Felixstowe because of the fact that there was amusements and as it is an old seaside town in close proximity to Ipswich meaning that it can be easy to get to and from. By choosing a location near the pier it meant that we could have a creepy location and even though we plan to do our filming in half term that it can still have a serene atmosphere.

Production meeting

 When it came to our box we knew that due to having our location in Felixstowe with the amusements we wanted our box to still look authentic but to be easy to transport. Adele’s granddad was happy to make our box and fitted it with bolts which could easily be put together to make the box stand up. Once we had figured out who would be making the box we had to think of how we would actually get the box to Felixstowe. After trying in Chloe’s mum’s car and it didn’t fit we were able to fit the box inside Luke’s car however it had to be secured properly and only have one passenger. Our lead male was able to drive and so was able to take us to and from Felixstowe when we were filming with the box.

Casting

 When it came to casting we had to make this decision as a group. To challenge the typical codes and conventions of this genre of film we made our leading victim a male. We ended up having Paige’s sister’s boyfriend Gareth to be our leading man as he didn’t look like a typical type of person to be a leading character in a film however we wanted this effect because it meant that it would be a twist. For Chloe’s mugging scene we completely changed our codes and conventions of what a mugging scene would look like by having girls to be the muggers. Also by having one girl shorter than the other it creates a slight comedic element that it is very unexpected for two girls to be the attackers and with one of the females being black it goes against the convention that it is all white males to normally make attacks.

Distrubution

As a group we decided that we would mainly be distributing our film onto websites such as www.youtube.com . This is where many starting directors and actors themselves start off to get into the filing industry. It is normally where they can use their films to either make a cause film which brings about issues which are important or to showcase their talents to get into the filming industry.  

Rough version of the film

As a group we have been given the opportunity to film scratch version of our film and so were able to film the first two chapters of our film. We used people from within our group and set it around our school as we could not have our actual characters at the time and it could give us a basic idea of what would happen within the film. As I have the first and second revelations of the man’s fate we just made a simple version to establish which shots we wanted to create and the parts in which the man is bumped in to and the parking ticket. When making our scratch versions we were able to see that if we added in a variety of viewpoints that it can add more dimensions and layers to our film and also be able to make cut ins throughout the film. 

Idea for my part of the film

I have been given the responsibility of the first two chapters of our film. These are the first and second days which the man receives his fate. The first day sees the man walking past a clown machine (on his way to get his car) to go home. He spots a coin on the floor and decides to put the coin into the machine to test his fate. The first message reads ‘Beware of things from the left’ we deliberately chose to say about being weary of the left because it is said in superstitions that the left brings about bad luck. The man walks on anyway and then gets pushed by a man walking in from the left. He doesn’t seem to have particularly picked up the fact that it was on the fate and carries on walking to his car. The second day plays out almost the same as the first with the man walking to get his car after work, seeing the coin and putting it in the machine to receive his fate. This time it reads ‘Do not spend too much time in one place’. Following receiving his fortune the man then goes to the pub for a while and come out to get his car and then finds a parking ticket on there. This makes his fate slightly worse and it is scary that it has come true yet again. 

Outline of finalised decision on film in terms of narrative and themes

For our film we have decided to make our film about fate and fortunes. We thought this could be a good idea because although there have been films on fate we could make ours different by having a clown give the fates to the same person four times before going insane and escaping his box to seek out the same man it had been giving the fates to, which slowly but surely get worse and come true each time. We have also decided to set our film in Felixstowe where  the amusements were to create a creepy atmosphere.
We thought that we would set our film into five chapters so that we can show how the man’s luck and fate gets progressively worse. We have got ideas for what we want each fate to be and have thought about designs for the fates to be on card or paper. We also have thought and decided upon making a box for the clown to be in when handing out the fates. In addition we have made a decision as to who would be taking responsibility of each chapter of the film working together on both the opening and closing credits.  I would be responsible for the first two chapters which have the first two fates, Chloe would be responsible for the third chapter and fate, Adele would be in charge of the fourth fate and finally Paige would be responsible for the moment that the clown escapes and pursues the man it gave the fates to. We have decided on a script however still need to determine who our target audience would be and also what exactly our theme would be, however we have made sure that we will keeping our idea to fate and fortunes. And so research can be done to look into superstition. 

My Idea

My idea:  After researching and analysing a few short films I have come up with my own idea for a short film. It would not be classed as a typical showcase film but more artistic by filming the film to go from colourful to black and white. For my film I wanted to have just one person sat their describing how they felt when their father has left them and started to neglect them. This is a raw subject to undertake and as much as it may be slow for an editing pace it could show the effects of how they felt previously to how they feel by the end of the film. The classification for the film would possibly be a 15 as the language content may be a bit strong for younger audiences and could be distributed to schools and possibly www.youtube.com  to give the message that there are more people who do go through this sort fo thing and that their emotions are not always taken into account.   

Certification

Certification: when making any film it is must have a certification. This is ruled by the British Board of Film Classification which is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since 1912 and DVD’s/ videos since the Video recordings Act was passed in 1984. The BBFC have made seven types of classification on films to determine which age groups the films were to view, they are;

-          Universal (U)  This means that the film is suitable for all. Although it is practically impossible to predict what may upset any children, ‘U’ films should be suitable for audiences aged four and over. If a film is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone, this will be included in the Consumer Advice. There would also be no form of discrimination, drug use swearing or imitable behaviour which could put the child in danger.

-          Parental Guidance (PG)  This type of film may be slightly concerning for parents to let their children under the age of eight actually see the film as there may be mildly offensive language or frightening scenes  

-          ‘12A/12’ 12 films basically mean that the film is not to be viewed in the cinemas by anyone under the age of 12. This is because there will be stronger use of language and possibly more imitable behaviour. This would be because as a 12 year old, the child would be able to distinguish what is real or fantasy and so can see more far- fetched or disturbing sequences. Violence is allowed to be featured but not to an extreme extent. 12 A’s go under the guise that as long as an adult is there to view the film and they feel it is suitable for the child who is under the age of 12 to see, then they can see the film in the cinema. It does not necessarily mean that is designed for children under the age of 12.

-          ‘15’ films of a 15 classification means that no people under the age of 15 can buy or rent films under that classification. There may be features of strong violence, nudity without strong details or dangerous behaviour. There should not be details which could be copied and easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised as it could cause the audience serious harm.

-          ‘18’ no person under the age of 18 can view an 18 in a cinema. In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC’s public consultations and The Human Rights Act 1998, at ‘18’ the BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override the principle that adults should feel free to choose their own entertainment.

-          ‘R18’ this type of film is only to be shown in licensed cinemas or to be supplied only in sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years old. 

Lovefield

Lovefield is a 5 minute short film from French director Matieu Ratthe. It is a story with a twist in the tale and completely goes against people’s expectations of the audience in this deceptive film. By creating tension through use of both location and the use of the crow throughout, this creates the illusion of something bad about to happen. With the location of Lovefield being in a field the title itself shows that there must be some form of romantic atmosphere but still challenges the typical conventions of character. The leading male character has been dressed to look scary like a killer with the blood on his hands but it was purposely done to have the male dressed this way and the leading female to scream in the background as though she were in pain combined with the blood on the males shirt leads you to suspect that she was going to die and then with the silence used to think that she was dead. Then the crying of a baby gives the film a completely different twist as it was not interpreted by the audience for the woman to be having a baby in pain. The use of sound and camera angles within the film were impressive with this film because it was completely covering the fact that the female was in labour and looked as though she was dying. I felt that this was an impressive artistic film to show off the talents of Ratthe’s camera crew.

Spin

Spin is an 8 minute film directed by Jamin Winans, which entails a DJ in a city block with a set of decks which can rewind time and undo mistakes. The location of a city block in America is effective because it gives it a creepy atmosphere for a random guy to just set up some decks and play them, however it is the effective use of diagonals to make the audience feel uncomfortable that something is going to happen. The lighting in Spin is naturalistic to the atmosphere and the range of extreme close ups of both the mans face and the decks when he rewinds time.  

signs

Signs is a 12 minute short film which explains a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance filmed with the main characters (Jason and Stacey)  building a relationship through the impressive use of notes to each other through their office windows. The film itself is actually that of a silent movie music being the main bridge to carry the story along. It was produced in 2008 with Patrick Hughes. The impressive use of editing and music within the film is most delightful and a joy to watch with the tempo of the music following along the story. The uses of locations are also good as they make a typical office atmosphere into a romantic setting which could start off a relationship. As the story progresses the increasing camera use of slow panning and point of view shots which also shows the emotions of Jason.  

Roles revised

Since we originally had the idea of the seven deadly sins and also the amount of people in our group we have changed our role as well. Rather than creating a piece based around the seven deadly sins we have changed our mind on our idea to be around fate and the dangers of tempting fate. 
We have also decided that instead of having specific roles within our film that we could actually change it and have seperate parts of the film which means we will all take on the positions of director, editor, story board artist and script writer. By doing this it means that we can take charge of all roles and also be responsible for our own part of the film.
The main reason behind us changing it so we all undertake all of the roles is because we originally had five people in our group and so this would be the way in which we would have previously undertaken this situation as opposed to just having one role each.

Research

Since films have first been made there have been many technological advances in the media. The first materials to have recorded action were on plastic. In 1888 the world’s oldest recorded short film was two seconds long and was called Roundhay Garden Scene by inventor Louis Le Prince. It was recorded at 12 frames per second. The following year, US inventor George Eastman developed the first roll of film made of celluloid which could easily bend to fit around the reel. It was made of gun powder and camphor and is moulded to the desired shape through heat. It was said that the first movie made was called ‘The Waterer Watered’ a French film in 1895. The original title was called 'L'Arroseur Arrosé'.
 

Early films did not have sound already added to them so in theatres they would usually have a pianist to give it a better atmosphere to give films another dimension so to speak.  The first film with all talking was made in 1927 called ‘The Jazz Singer’ made by the Warner Brothers. With the increasing amount of ‘talkies’ it severely hurt the careers of those who had been in silent films and also the musicians who would play music at the theatre alongside the films.

Creativity

Creativity is a complex and independent process which is limited by four factors. These factors must be taken into consideration when making my own creative process of my A2 short film project. We have been thinking about what we could potentially create as an effective piece of filming and had quite a few different ideas. There may be some problems when it comes to the creative process as the determining factors can include the matter of how much creativity can be shared with a certain genre of film and also because of having to compromising with others in a group. In theory there is no form of complete creativity when making a film in a group. The collective identity within the media is especially important to consider when it comes to making a film due to the fact that if we don’t think about your audience then you would not have an audience for our film itself and no one would want to watch it. I think that the main problem that we may face will be putting together everyone’s opinions and ideas together rot create a piece which will attract a large audience.

Roles

Since last year we have changed our roles within our groups at A-Level media. Our group previously had myself as the script write and although I enjoyed this I have decided that I would like to change my role to that of the story board artist as it seems like it would be interesting and creative. It also shows that I will be able to do more than just draw as there is always the option of using a camera to then give the correct shot sizes and also it gives me experience on photographic story boards. Chloe enjoyed her role being our editor last year and so she will be staying as the editor. Paige was the story board artist last year she is now going to arise to the challenge of becoming the director and Adele was previously our director however she has changed groups.

Review

For our AS course we were told to make the opening two minutes of a film. I was in a group with Chloe, Adele and Paige. We were given many options of what we could make our film opening about but we chose to venture into the horror musical genre. We chose this style in particular because we felt it was something different to the typical conventions of a horror film. I also think that through our good use of camera movement and lighting techniques that it gave us another dimension to our film and also the way in which Chloe did our editing in an effective and scary way to emphasise the film itself. When it came to making out film last year I found it a very rewarding experience to see what our hard work actually achieved, having only ever watched films before I was not aware just how much work was needed to be put in to make a great film and felt that the hard work which we put in was very effective for our opening two minutes.  I think the next time we do any filming that we should make sure to plan effectively to get the best out of our filming time and to maybe also help Chloe with editing as we found out that was the hardest job.