Group Questions & Test Screening

On Wednesday 14th December we had a test screening of our film. This was displayed in front of the class, which consisted with a short unfinished scene of our film. A questionnaire was handed to everyone in the room who was watching our footage which is shown below:

Favourite thing about the scene?

The most popular answer was that the overall pace of the scene seemed good. Other answers were the cuts, the opening of the scene, and a good mixture of shots with the music.

Least favourite thing?

Most people said that it was a bit too short, although we are working on making it longer. Also someone didn't like the extra-diagetic gaze of the characters, and that the introduction felt too 'classic'.

Natural cuts/shots?

The majority of people thought that the shots flowed well and they didn't feel too abrupt, which is what we wanted as they had to be in sync with the non-diagetic music in the scene.

Film areas results

The most common results for each aspect of our film out of five were:

Sound - 5                    Lighting - 5

Characters - 4            Setting - 4

Camera Angles - 4       Editing - 5

What should be improved?

The most common answer that almost everybody mentioned was that it should be longer as the footage that we showed them was only about ten seconds. We are planning on making it longer by adding more shots to fit in with the music.

What's the genre?

Most people thought that it felt like a comedy, although other answers were drama and social realism. We planned for the genre to be drama. Most people probably thought it was comedy because of the bold mixture of characters and the light-hearted music on the scene.

Overall, we mostly got positive feedback from the class. The main criticism was that it was too short, although it was mainly due to the fact that we did not film a lot and could not do much with the footage that we had at the moment. Some people also said that it felt comedic on it's own, but when the film is finished it should look more normal and appear to fit in more with the storyline.

New Shooting schedule

Due to the unexpected weather conditions we were set back a week with our filming schedule so we are planning to make up for the time we missed so we created a new filming schedule.

Saturday 18th December -
The interaction scene including dialogue

Needed on set - Alex Eagles
                         Feargal Parham
                         Maurice Enwright
                         Nathan Jameson
                         Adeel Khan
                        
Camera crew- Aidah Namugenyi
                       Conor Bunn
                       Ryan Haughly

Time : 12:00 pm
Location : Mount Nod Road

Wednesday 23rd December-
The Bathroom scene

Needed on set - Alex Eagles
                         Feargal Parham
                         Maurice Enwright
                         Nathan Jameson
                         Adeel Khan

Camera crew-Aidah Namugenyi
                       Conor Bunn
                       Ryan Haughly
Time :3:00
Location : Lilys house

Wednesday 29th December-
Cafe Scene

Needed on set - Alex Eagles
                         Feargal Parham
                         Maurice Enwright
                         Adeel Khan
                         Ellie Goffe
                         Aidah Namugenyi
                         Alice Marks

Camera crew-Conor Bunn
                       Ryan Haughly

Time :1:00
Location : Tokyo Jo Restaurant

Film Poster

 After spending some time on Adobe Photoshop, I have now successfully completed our groups mock film poster.

At first we had captured two images: Side of Conors face and a group shot. After having removed the background for these images, I placed them according to what we had planned the poster to look like (as seen in previous post). In order to achieve a more 'filmy' and proffesional look, i played with the group shot changing the brightness, contrast and the highlights and shadow levels.

The main issue i had was the image in the foreground of Conors face, the fact that the lighting was different made it stand out too much - making it seem odd - in order to sort this out i focused on the Images colour levels. After experimenting different tones and touches of colour. I was able to get my final product.

Credits

At the start of all films, there are credits which contain The production company. Some examples of well known companies are Universal, Paramount Pictures or Warner Brothers.

They also have the title of the film.

Aidah & Ryan have been using PhotoShop and Livetype.
The original plan was to use Adobe AfterEffects, however, after some trial and error, this program was not quite working well for us. We decided to use Livetype instead to achieve the correct design.

The photo above shows Livetype and the name of our film, Exodus. This program was used to create the movement of the Title and Production Company. 

The photo above shows the production company (Spiral Productions) taking transformation using Live Type. 

The image above shows Conor researching different font types using 'DaFont' website and Microsoft words list of fonts to find a suitable font that will correlate with our genre and style. 

Editing Process

After collecting all the footage from Saturdays Filming and capturing it using Adobe Premier Pro, we are now adding the soundtrack. 

The image above shows an example of one of our clips that we had to sort through. This shows the four characters (Eddy, Parham, Maurice and Alex) walking on the pavement. The program being used is called Adobe Premier Pro. 

The editing process is one of the hardest parts.
This is because we have around 80 takes of the four boys walking together, individually and close ups of their faces and costumes. We had to scroll through and select the best takes. Once we had done this, we were left with one take from each clip.

These clips then have to be trimmed and sorted. The hardest part is matching the characters walk to the beat of the music. An example of this is when the four boys are walking towards the camera, and take a chunk out of their walk. This is otherwise known as an ellipsis. This gives the effect that they have jumped ahead of time. This must match the beat of the music perfectly to give the right effect. 

The images below show this effect.

Filming Saturday 11th December 2010

Once the snow had cleared this meant we could carry on filming. The snow on the ground would mean that the continuity from previous shoots would not match the shots when it was dry. This is a very key point when thinking about filming. Other examples would be the type and amount of light, cars parked and costumes. All these aspects have to be discussed and though about prior to filming.

Once the snow had cleared this meant we could carry on filming. The snow on the ground would mean that the continuity from previous shoots would not match the shots when it was dry. This is a very key point when thinking about filming. Other examples would be the type and amount of light, cars parked and costumes. All these aspects have to be discussed and though about prior to filming.

On Saturday 11th December, Group 2 completed just under four hours of filming.
During this time, the weather was very cold, which worked well for us, as people would be less inclined to go out, so there would be less interference with our filming.

One of the main problems of shooting handheld was the shakiness, however, after many takes, i managed to find a solution. If i locked my arm into my chest, and tried to walk as smooth as possible this would produce a clean shake free shot. If there is a good take, but you can still detect some movement, we can edit this out and make it smoother by using a program called 'Adobe After Effects.'

During this time, we filmed the rest of the opening sequence when the four friends are walking down the street. During these shots we experimented with focus pulls, shooting from different angles and shooting behind railings to give a different effect.

We filmed on Mount Nod Road which is located beside Dunraven School. This was an ideal shooting location, as it has 'no entry' from one direction, which decreases the flow of traffic. This was perfect for us, as there would be minimum interference with our filming.

These images show some screen shots from Saturdays filming.



Some walking shots

   

"Reveal" shot behind the scene

Digital Poster Creation

We started to make a digital mock up of our poster based on the drawn design. Conor posed as the main character (Alex) who stood closest to the camera and stared to the side. The rest of our group stood in the background looking towards the camera (who would be Alex's three friends on the proper poster). We made sure the background was plain so it wouldn't distract anyone from looking at the characters.

Afterwards, Adeel used Photoshop to select Conor's face and superimpose it in front of the other three people, as there were photographed separately from him. It is still in the process of being completed and the finished result will be shown soon.

Font choices

I decided to look for the font for  our film as typography plays a huge role in what the final poster will look like, the  font gives the audience an idea of the themes within the film and the connotations of the stylistic origin suggests the mood of the film.I looked through various font websites and looked through the font options within photoshop before short listing these five fonts. I thought it was important to look at the font with the name of the film to see  what it'll look like on the poster.

Final Film Poster Brainstorm.

I produced a film poster Brainstorm which compiled all of the information which needs to be on a film poster. These were Title, Font, colour, ratings, tagline, production company, the main picture and actors. Each section was broken down into sub-sections.

The title.
We had come up with three titles, these were, Exodus, CrossRoads and Four Minds. We decided to go for 'Exodus.' The dictionary definition states 'as a going out; a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people: the summer exodus to the country and shore'
This was similar to the departure or journey of our main character Alex.
Bob Marleys song Exodus also had an influence.

Fonts for the title.
We have broken the list of fonts down to four. Hoefler Text, Wide Latim, Trajan Pro and Silom.
We have decided to go for the font named 'Trajan Pro.' This font works very well with out genre, it is also very clear and easy to read, that is why we have chosen this font.
The colour of the title will be Black. We feel that this colour represents sadness, gloomyness and creates a dark atmosphere. We feel this will complement our genre or a drama well.

The Picture.
We had ideas of Alex (Main Character) Facing at a 90 degree angle to the camera. With the top and bottom of the picture in Black. The black areas would have the other information such as title, ratings, the actors list and production information. This idea can be viewed on Aidah's blog.
We have decided on Alex being at a 90 degree angle to the camera, which his three friends, Parham, Adeel & Maurice beside him. Below is a mock drawing of our final film poster.

The Final Poster drawing was completed by Ryan Haughey. 

The Tagline.
We have come up with three taglines.
- The Journey, are you ready?
- Thing's you don't know about don't harm you
- Some things are better left unsaid.
We have decided to go for the second Tagline. Thing's you don't know about don't harm you.
As a group, we decided this worked well with our genre and conveyed the story well without giving too much information about the film.

Rating.
The rating of the film (12) is shown in the bottom left hand corner. Our research showed us that the majority of films ratings are located here.

Production Company.
Our research of current film posters show us that this information is generally listed along the bottom of the film poster. It is here so it is not in your face, however, it has to be on the film poster.

The Actors names are going to be written across the top of the film Poster. Example's of current film posters which have this are IRobot, Rescue Dawn and The Matrix.
The actors names are ALEX EAGLES, ADEEL QURESHII KHAN, MAURICE ENWRIGHT, FEARGAL PARHAM.

Reviews.
On nearly all film posters, reviews are completed by independent and non biased people/companies or film critics. We have decided to place the reviews on the right hand side. Of course, as it was a Mock Drawing, we gave our film a 5 Star rating.

Editing Process

Today Adeel was working on the footage captured. Preferred softwares such as Adobe Premiere and after effects were used. Most of the time was spent putting the footage taken in the right order as well as editing and deleting footage which was not needed. Adeel was experimenting with this powerful software in different ways from Editing, Colour correcting and playing with features such as the 'film look/circle effect'

The sequence i worked on had a back score to it therefore timing and actually getting the footsteps to meet the beat of the music was a difficult task.

Filming Monday 29th November 2010

On Monday we began filming. We started with the scene of the four friends walking down the road before they meet Nathan across the road. We did not need to use any of the sound equipment at this stage as we would be using non-diagetic music for the walking scene. We initially filmed on Friday but it got too dark too early, which meant that things were not visible on the camera and there would also be continuity errors with the daylight.

We got a large mixture of shots in such as a side tracking shot of them walking together and a ground angle of them walking towards the camera. and in total we spent around two hours rehearsing and shooting the scene. If we were to improve anything, it would be to film a bit more footage so that we could experiment with more shots and see what is best.
  
Our street location                       

We filmed on this road as it was quiet and has a lot of space which was perfect for the scene. There wasn't many cars passing or people in the way of our shots. However there might be future problems involving continuity if we film here later on, as the cars would be in different positions and also there might still be ice or snow in the background.

Rehearsal of the walking scene

Shooting Schedule

after scripting and and the shot list being made - Adeel produced the filming schedule.

Group Two Powerpoint

Final Presentation.

PART 1



PART 2



PART 3

Shot List

In order to make our film look good, I created a shot list which contained brief information on what each shot looked like and what scene it was from. I based this off the animatic and we will refer back to the sheet and the animatic during the filming of our film so that we can make it look how we imagined.

I made it very brief and not too detailed incase any problems occured such as if we had to film in a different setting or if we use different actors instead. The shot list is very similar to our storyboard except the fact that there is no visual images, but it is instead much more descriptive.

Animatic

On final completion of the Storyboard, shot list and script, we made an 'Animatic.'

An animatic, is a video, which shows all your shots put together, like a mini film, with a voice over placed upon it.

This means we can view what our film will be like.

I photographed all the photos, and edited them in Final Cut Express, a program used on a Mac.

Adeel & I recorded the voice overs.

Music

For the non-diagetic music in our film, Aidah and I searched for copyrighted music which would be suitable for certain scenes in our film .

The opening cafe scene - The music here will be upbeat and quite gentle, which signifies the positive friendship between the characters while they are in a friendly environment. There could be generic soft rock music or typical pop music.

The street scene - When the characters are all walking down the road after the cafe, the music will be a bit louder and also more cheerful which again represents the togetherness with them walking and interacting with each other. It could be more louder rock music while still being fairly calm so it's still happy.

The house scene - Techno/Hip Hop sounding music will play in the background as diagetic music which makes it feel more like teenagers going out to get ready for the party and it will suit the intimidating masculinity of the scene. It will sound noticeable more darker which shows the change of the character's personality but also the time of day.

Typical video game music will be used as well with the quick shot of Tyreece as he plays a video game. I was thinking of using normal 8-bit music which helps to immediately code to the audience of what he is doing. This like the other music in the house will be diagetic, or part of the scene.

The end shot - For the last few shots of the film when he finds out he is in fact isolated, disturbing music will build up from this scene and slowly get louder to raise the tension. We wanted it to sound intimidating so we were thinking of using choral music to make it scary, or use tense orchestra music.

Casting

The casting of the film was a fairly difficult task - we were in look for people with good acting ability as well as having the right look for the character. Below is the cast overview:

Alex Eagles as: Alex

Alex Eagles is a A-level drama student and has experience in previous theater and film related performances. We thought Eagles would be the best choice for this character as we were in search for some one who can pull of an average boy look however give of a popular appeal at the same time. His character is the protagonist of the film therefore a lot of time was spent thinking on who to play this role. After short listing a few other actors we decided Eagles would be the best choice.

Adeel Qureshii Ikram as: Eddy 

Adeel Qureshii Ikram's role is one of the prominent roles within the film - he is playing the role of Eddy - one of Alex's main friends. Eddy comes across as an extremely aggressive and short tempered individual - we were in search of an actor who also has previous experience within acting as well as some one who will be able to express the characters emotions in an appropriate manner - Qureshii was suggested by the group and was casted for the role.

Maurice 'Juniour' Enwright as: Maurice

Maurice is also another one of Alex's main friends who are always with him. This specific character is quite different to the others due to the simple fact that he is American and in comparison to the other boys slightly more sensitive and mature. When deciding who to cast for this role Enwright was the groups first choice as his looks are what we had in mind for the character, some one bubbly,jolly but at the same time quite intellectual looking.

Feargal Parham as: Parham

Feargal Parham has been chosen to play the role of 'Parham'. This is the final friend out of the group of boys that are always around Alex - Feargal Parham is also studying Drama, he has been chosen to play this character as he fits the role the best. the character 'Parham' is known to be quite a bold character he comes across as a well known, confident, oversexed individual. Feargal was chosen for this role as he is quite versatile and will be able to convey such characteristics.

Ellie Goffe as: Stacey Taylor

Ellie is another prominent character within the film - she is shown as Alex's love interest. The character Stacey Taylor conforms to all the existing high school girl stereotypes: popular, good looking and rich. Ellie was chosen to take the role of the lead girl as she has previous acting experience in various workshops and theaters as well as being a versatile actor.

Nathan Jameson as: Tyreece 

Tyreece is another one of Alex's friends, however he is not always seen around him like the other three - Tyreece and Alex are quite similar - they go to the same school, both very average looking however unlike Alex, Tyreece is a bit more lively and vibrant. Jameson was chosen for this role as he meets the character demands and will be able to give off a very convincing performance.

Aidah Namugenyi as: Imogen

Aidah will be playing the role  of Imogen - one of two the supporting characters along side 'Stacey Taylor'. For this particular role their was not much character demand however more of a simple outline - some one loud, jolly and young was needed - the group decided Aidah would fit best for this character. 

 

 

Alice Marks as: Bianca

Bianca is the second supporting actor with 'Stacey Taylor'. For this role we needed some one who looks very fresh and young - Marks met the need of the characters appearance and was casted by Adeel and Aidah. 

CLC Sound Workshop

For a trip on Wednesday, we went to the City Learn Centre in Clapham where we focused on sound in movie making. This included looking at different types of microphones (which each have different functions and work differently

 Some of the equipments which we had the chance to experiment with included:

BOOM MIC

A boom microphone is a directional microphone mounted or attached to a pole or arm. It is mainly used in film and television, a boom microphone frees the hands of actors or reporters while allowing them to enjoy the amplified audio of a traditional microphone.

using this specific instrument, we as a group acknowledged the fact that Boom mics were best used when there was a group of people talking - the sound quality was clear on the head phones and it also reduces the stress of having wires all over you.

Merantz

Another equipment which we used at the CLC was the Merantz. This was another piece of equipment which we found would be very useful for our own personal films -  it enables you to connect a microphone to one of the ports as well as inserting your headphones so you are able to record and hear sound clearly.

After carefully going through a variety of various sound equipment at the CLC - we as a group established that these two were the ones we found most appropriate for our film. We believe a Boom Mic would be suitable for our film as their are many actor and most of the shots are group shots therefore should be able to record the discussion much clearer.

Questionaire

In order to find out what people thought about certain types of films, i created this questionnaire.
We plan to ask a minimum of twenty people, as we think there will be sufficient people, so we can compare results. Any less than twenty participants may not give us an accurate result.

We plan to upload the results of the questionnaire in due course. 

I decided to create a moodboard consisting of various films that I felt had relevant themes. The films within this mood board I found to be particularly interesting and I felt our group could use it as a stimulus for our idea.

I also conducted a focus group with eight people of similar ages to the characters within our film . i found that after compiling the notes i had  made during the focus group, most people felt they could relate to the characters myself and Adeel had created. Members felt very strongly about the character 'Parham' a member of the group added " everyone knows a someone like that". This information made us feel comfortable in the knowledge that we would not have to alter any of our characters. The plot was also very popular with the focus group members felt that it was definently something they would enjoy watching and it was an interesting concept in the portrayel of isolation. Noone withn our focus group had seen a short film and or knew where they could go to watch one. six out of eight members strongly expressed there love for comedy as there preffered genre. 

Genre Research-Drama

Our short film is going to be a genre-based one which will be drama. We thought that doing drama will be good as it focuses on emotional characters and the situations which they come across.


Drama is mostly based on realism within the world. This could deal with everyday character struggles and are can usually cover a negative portrayal of today's society. But how is ours a film drama, and not a thriller or even a comedy? This is because we do not have any humorous parts, or moments where we want the audience to feel frightened. There are no special effects used in our film as we are aiming purely for realism.


Some famous drama films are the Shawshank Redemption which is about a banker's struggles throughout his two decades in prison, Brokeback Mountain which is about a relationship between two men, Wall Street and Slumdog Millionaire which is a romance with dramatic elements in it. The similarities between all of these films is that they are all about struggles within either a society or a small group of people. Our film is going to be about a problem within one person only. 

Film Idea & Inspirations

We have finally decided on our idea. It's going to be about a teenager who at first appears to be yet another average boy living in London. He is reasonably popular which is shown by his three friends who are constantly surrounding him throughout the film. However, we then find out through flashbacks towards the end that these people aren't real, but instead are completely imaginary. It's going to be ambiguous to the audience so there's no exposition of why he sees/imagines these people. Possible reasons could be:

• Multiple Personality Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• His conscious thoughts

One of the main influences for our film is Inside directed by Trevor Sands. This short film is about a man who has a multiple personality disorder which is represented by various actors surrounding him. As they speak, he speaks along with them which is the film's way of showing his disorder to the audience. The twist is then revealed; a psychiatrist who was first thought to be a real person is then revealed as another character in his head. We liked the idea of those people surrounding the character.

Another influence was Fight Club starring Edward Norton & Brad Pitt. All the way through the film Norton is shown engaging with Pitt such as fighting with him in the street and arguing with him, however after a series of flashbacks from a different perspective we realise that he's actually shouting and beating up himself due to his insomnia causing these imaginations. Although the reasoning behind his imagination is different in this film to ours, we still think that it's similar to ours as we want to show same events from a diffferent point of view.

Photo & Mindmap

For our media coursework, we had to do a short film which could be either fictional or documentary-based on a photograph. The untitled photograph was the winner of the 2009 World Press Photo and this was our main basic influence on what our film would be like. This image depicts a middle eastern woman as she stands on a rooftop, and she seems to be calling out for someone. After a few lessons of deciding exactly what we should do a film about, we chose to use isolation as our main theme.

We started by making a mind map. Some of the words we initially came up with were fear, dystopia, gritty urban area, imprisonment, poverty, entrapment, war and religion. Although these all had connections to the photo, these were also all main issues happening in the world at the moment. We chose isolation because we felt this word was very diverse.

After deciding to do the theme of isolation, we then had to think of basic but interesting narratives. At first we were set on doing a documentary but then we turned to fictional narratives as we found that making a documentary might be harder, such as with the fact that we had to use real people who actually had experiences involving some sort of isolation.