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