Proposed Workflow

Now that we're set in groups for our Final Product this year, and our film has been pitched and commissioned we created a workflow to follow to create our film. This workflow is filled with the tasks we've got to do and the order we will follow them in:

Sometimes we may need to twiddle things around abit and hopefully we can leave the 'Go home and cry' situation out of it! Now to get started! We created a timetable style sheet to follow with individual tasks written to do and key dates:

HERE WE GO!

Target Audience Profile

This is Kate Marshall. she is 20 years old and is a student at Staffordshire University studying English literature. She studies this subject as she has a big interest in the arts including drama specifically plays. 

She currently shares an apartment with 3 other students from her university which isn't far from Stafford town centre. This is of interest to Kate as her and her flatmates like to go out at night. This can be to the cinema or a nigh out at the local bars and clubs. 
Kate's past times include going out to the cinema to watch the latest films. Her favourite film genres include romance and drama themed films. Kate does find socialising with her friends important and so makes use of many social networking sites available for this generation. 
As a student, Kate is within the E band of classification having a part time job working at a retail store. She shows an interest in fashion and earning around £3000 per annum working about 12 hours a week. This enables her to work around her uni schedule and have enough time for a social life. 
When travelling to and from work, she drives a Kia Picanto which she bought using her student loan and a little added payment from her parent who she regularly visits back home.
Over time, some of Kate's favourite films include Time Traveler's Wife and The Notebook, both of the drama and romance genre which she takes much interest in.
Aside from from films, within her spare time , Kate has a passion for country music specifically artists such as Johnny Cash and more recently some of the work by Taylor Swift. She has been to a few of her concerts but as a student she can't afford to go to all of them as she has to save up for her essentials for University. 
Kate does enjoy watching movies on site such as Netflix and love film but does like to go to the cinema especially on Wednesdays to watch a film with her flatmates.

Target Audience and BBFC Rating

To set a target audience for our film we need to look at the classification for our film and what the rating would be if it was released by the BBFC film board.

BBFC Classification

PG Entitlement:

Mild bad language can be used such as B**** and S***, however they must be used in a non aggressive violent manner to prevent them from being rated a 12. Repeating these words is also not allowed.

Smoking and drinking cannot be promoted and encouraged.

Sexual references can be made but not shown in full 

No detailed violence is allowed. Blood is permitted by the cause of the injuries are not allowed to be showing in great detail.

Drugs can be spoken of and shown but they cannot be focused upon unless it is an anti-drug film or has an educational message that children over 8 will understand.

Our film would fit into the PG rating, at first we thought about giving it a rating of U, however, with the idea that our Male character would be murdered and 'dead' effected it due to the violent nature of this. 

We also believed that the classification would be PG because of the wider range of target audience we can achieve. If it was classed as a U people might think of the film as childlike and wouldn't appeal to a wider audience as we would like the film to do.

A similar film to ours would be the 2009 film, The Time Travellers Wife:

It has a 12A rating as the storyline includes some swearing and obvious sexual references. This rating is the one a little bit more adult than ours however the film does follow the same conventions as ours, just with some more graphic content making the rating higher. According to the website www.cinemareview.com opinions on this film are high through all different ages and genders which is what we wish our film to be.

Final Film Pitch

For our final film idea we chose to use the basis of Charlotte's original idea of 'The Illusion of Existence' and began to look at the different elements of a film and how it would portray the story how we wanted to show it.

We then had to put it into a pitch and see if we could have it commissioned by Mr Hood for his permisson for the group to carry on with creating the product. Here's our pitch:

After the pitch our film got commissioned, we also have been given an idea of how to go into a further narrative in our story line where we see more of a character development of our Female lead showing the audience a much more multi-faceted view of her by using the Todorov theory of the character achieving a greater equilibrium at the end of the story, making them happier than what they were at the start of the story.

But now that's out of the way, we now get to move onto creating our product and developing our idea into a physical piece of film!

Team Members Original Pitches & Evaluation

Tom Bentley - Separation

• We all liked Tom's basic idea for the film, with the story being about to long lost siblings. However the age of the two characters being 20+ is a little difficult to do/get away with by having younger actors. The actual story line of the film is simple and easy to follow however would be a little too hard to film and get certain people or props.

Charlotte Billingham- The Illusion of Existence

• The film appeals to a wider audience range than the other three, by it being a mystery/romance type of film. It follows more of a story line of a short film with the twist at the end. However there may be some location issues with our safety and the equipment's safety. But that's nothing a risk assessment can't fix.

Jack Parkes - Replay

• Jack's film is a good initial idea with the big twist at the end. However all the details are a little cliche and there is the technically difficulty with creating a 'car crash' style scene with both the logistics and filming of the scene. The ending of the 'remote getting broken' is a little too cliche and if we chose this we would look at changing the the ending to step away from the same old ideas.

Overall, everyones film ideas and presentations were good with a lot of varied ideas. For the next step, we have to work out our final film idea and start our preparations to film it. We will look again at each of our film pitches and work our film out.

Production Team Logo

We have come up with an example for our production team ident/logo, this incorporates the 'Libra' star sign symbol along with our company name and the sound of a court mallet on a desk. The whole group like the idea but we have time to improve our logo but at the moment we think we like this one.

Production Team

So we have the final production team, time to welcome 'Justice Productions'

Jack Parkes, Tom Bentley, Lucy Smith and Charlotte Billingham

So this is our official production team for the product we're making this year, we've named ourselves 'Justice Productions' as we feel that we're all equal in ability and mindset. We're well balanced and are looking forward to creating this years products. However we do have our own personal strengths and weaknesses and told them to the group:

Hopefully as we go through this process as a group, helping each other and creating our product, the things we've pin pointed should develop and our weaknesses become obsolete and that should hopefully set our product apart from others!

Here's to the next year!

Practice Run With The DSLR Cameras and New Software

For our final product this year we will be using the new DSLR cameras from the school, which improves the film quality and if used correctly gives a cinematic look to the film. To practice using the cameras and get a hands on experience with the way they work, we got commissioned to do a short documentary style video about 'litter'.

DSLR Training

Because these new cameras are completely different to what we used the past year, we had to get to grips and learn how to set them up to get a much more cinematic look than our films last year. One video that really helped us with understanding the way the new cameras work (even if the screen is in another language)

And also this handy diagram to help get the perfect picture with the main three aspects of getting the right image: Apature (Depth of Field), Shutter Speed and ISO (The sensitivity to light)

Sometimes even if you feel that everything is correct and no adjusting is needed, you sometimes have to have different lenses that effect the colouring of the picture with the amount of light that its let into the lens. 

The Documentary
We began looking towards something for inspiration and at first we thought about a mockumentry style film based off the YouTube video 'A Majestic Plastic Bag' where we would follow a similar idea and film style. Check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw

But that idea got shot out of the sky, by being told that we had to do something serious when we were given some criteria to follow and then go out and film our version of what we wanted in a group. Here was the criteria:

As a group, Tom, Charlotte, Jack and I went out to Chasewater and filmed our documentary. Here have a look:

At first the new editing software looked a little daunting, last year we used Final Cut Express, which has now been upgraded to Final Cut Pro X that comes with a completely new interface.

Final Cut's new look

As a class we first went through all the new features of Final Cut and what it can do differently from the previous version that we used. One thing that I found especially different (however, very useful) was the timeline with connected clips and the ability to expand the clips and use the roll and trim tools a lot more efficiently.

After editing we then exhibited it to our classmates and teacher and received feedback about the content of the documentary and the quality. This was recorded as the feedback was given, to help us improve on our camera work and editing skills with all the new hardware and software. Here was the feed back that we received:

Overall I think we we're pretty proud of our project and we just need to improve on a few things, hopefully the final product should go well. We just need to work on the focusing of the camera more, maybe using an external monitor might help with the fine tuning of the footage and with the editing everything comes with practice so hopefully all should go swimmingly for our final product!

Film Pitch Idea

So over the summer we we're put to the task of making up film ideas and then pitching them when we came back for our first lesson. I think my presentation went pretty well and explained my film idea as well as I could without showing the actual film or revealing too much.

Here's my pitch:

No one had any questions about the plot line directly, which shows that everyone understood the plot. Someone raised a question regarding the cinematography of the possible film, how I could get it to look as indie/artsy as I can and I explained it would be through hand held camera work with filters and light tricks to make it into my desired looks and feel.

Overall I think my pitch went well and achieved what I intended it to

GW-HS Short Film Festival

In lesson we had a 'Short Film Festival' by submitting one of our films:


Daniel Vidmar: Inside


The Film: 8/10
Pitch: 3/10


Tilly Whitehouse: One Man's Loss

The Film: 9/10
Pitch: 4/10


Charlotte Billingham: Waste

The Film: 9/10
Pitch: 7/10


Deanna Hopps: Post It

The Film: 8/10
Pitch: 7/10


Jack Parkes: Writers Block

The Film: 9/10
Pitch: 7/10


Dan Springthorpe: Awake

The Film: 8/10
Pitch: 3/10


Sam Lenton: Knowing Too Much

The Film: 7/10
Pitch: 6/10


Tina Vidmar: Time
The Film: 10/10
Pitch: 5/10


Tom Bentley: Perfect Life

The Film: 6/10
Pitch: 4/10


Cameron Hargreaves: Alone

The Film: 7/10
Pitch: 6/10


The overall winner of GW-HS Short Film Festival was Deanna's film 'Post It' winning by the film and the pitch. However our opinion of the best film, was Tina's choice of 'Time' that really hit home with everybody.

Further Short Film Research

I went away to find three short films, no longer than 5 minutes and analyse them and give our opinions:

Many Moons

This short was made by young British Film Maker, Bertie Gilbert. He specialises  in 'indie' type film making and makes shorts without any context to let the audience figure out themselves.

What Was Good?

• The edit of the shaky cam, blurring the lights around the city.
• The idea that the audience get to figure out their own.
• Lighting and set is great overall.

What would the audience find appealing?

• They can make it relate to their lives as they make their own context.
• It makes you think and engages the audience well.

Possible Target Audience

• 16-24 a very 'teen drama' based piece of work

Dead Girl

This short film 'Dead Girl' was made by Jack and Dean, two actor/director/editors on YouTube that create short comedy films.

What Was Good?

• Camera work for the opening shots was well done, with the tilt up and down and depth of objects in the room.
• The comedy aspect throughout by a well written and acted script.
• The editing of the sound as though they were talking through phones and sounds to accent words or phrases.

What would the audience find appealing?

• The comedic elements that give people laughs.
• The twist at the end with Dean's grandfather.
• The style of acting used to create the comedy.

Possible Target Audience

• 15-21: This style of comedy appeals to young audiences.

Link's Shadow

Link's Shadow is a short film based of video game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time produced by Corridor Digital who specialise in Video Game based media. 

What Was Good?

• The special effects from digital to make up based effects were excellent quality and tie the whole film together.
• The music in the feature that was played by a real orchestra for the feature itself.

What would the audience find appealing?

• It relates to a video game that they know and love
• The quality of the product produced is a very high standard
• The effects and the storyline stay true to the Zelda franchise 

Possible Target Audience

• 16-25 with a mainly male demographic
• Fans of the Legend of Zelda series

Initial Short Film Research

So as a class we watched three short films, 'The Black Hole', 'What's Virgin Mean' and 'Strangers' all had very different feels and appeals to them so we analysed them:

The Black Hole

What Was Good?

• Acting style and the way the character is portrayed.
• The atmosphere of the film (set, props, lighting and colour)
• The sound effects (especially the warped sound)

What would the audience find appealing?

• The comedic aspect portrayed by the actor
• The film engages the audience quickly 
• Cliffhanger/Karma style ending that is also funny

Possible Target Audience

• Young Adults 17-24

What's A Virgin?

What Was Good?

• The symbolism by the use of props
• The setting is very realistic and relatable for the audience
• It's very comedic from start to end

What would the audience find appealing?

• That it's an awkward but relatable situation in family life
• The twist at the end 'What's extra virgin mean?'

Possible Target Audience

• Parents of Young Children 
• Teens and Young Adults

Strangers

What Was Good?

• Features a huge political statement
• No/Little dialogue needed to portray the story line
• The sound editing, the music reflected the situations perfectly
• Camera work was very well handled with the close ups, P.O.V shots etc.

What would the audience find appealing?

• That it makes a political statement during the current affairs
• It's very bold to create a film like this

Possible Target Audience

• An older audience that would understand the politics involved in the film

What Is A Short Film?

A short film is any piece of film that isn't long enough to be a full feature length film. For a film to be considered a short it is generally 40 minuets or less including a title and credits. Short films can be both made by amateurs or professionals (Pixar and Dreamworks both make shorts) and can range from mostly small or no budget but others can have as much budget as a feature film.

One of the most famous shorts are 'The Three Stooges' shorts that were shown in cinemas in the 1930's-1950's. Like alot of shorts they were full of comedy and slapstick lasting about 15-20 minuets. Modern shorts have become alot more sophisticated with a variety of different genres and styles from jokes to serious matters.

Coursework Brief

This years coursework is compiled of a main task of a Short, 5 minute film and two ancillary tasks related to the product of either, A Film Poster, A Radio Trailer or A Magazine Review for the film. Here is the task in OCR's words:

So this blog will follow my progress in making my final products, along with any knowledge I find along the way.

Welcome

Welcome to my A2 Media blog, that is following on from my AS course after it's completion. This will be where I will post my coursework as I go along from new things I've learnt to a final A2 Media Studies short film in a step by step showing what I'm up to as regard to my Media work.

Lucy