Evaluation 5

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 3

Evaluation 2

Evaluation 1

Final Film

Developing story telling

When trying to develop my ideas and develop my skills in keeping the viewer guessing and interested in the story, a small difference can make a huge difference in terms of how exciting a scene is, and when researching this I came across a book that represents this perfectly. The name of the book is The Far Side by Gary Larson. There are many illustrations showing how perspectives and little differences can have a large influence on the viewer and how the viewer feels when looking at the illustrations.

For example, look at the difference in these two illustrations:-

The difference is very small, but there is a significant difference on how the viewer interprets what's about to happen. On the picture on the left there seems to be a large cat or dangerous animal and a crowded elevator. If you look clearly you can see that the man's arm is on the animal, showing that the animal is in a calm state and is relaxed in its surroundings. There is no tension created or problem to be expected by the audience. But then if you look at the picture on the right there is already a significant difference as the large animals tail isn't completely in the elevator and the viewer can predict that that when the door closes it won't end well. Larson does this very well in all of his drawings and I highly recommend buying his book. The same effect wouldn't happen if the situation was set in a different location, angle or even if it was just the large cat in the elevator and not a crowded elevator, here are some examples to demonstrate this effect:-

Production schedule

For our production schedule we had Amber, put together a table that we all agreed on. This way we were time efficient, since me and Jacob, our Producer and Editor, worked on our different shots and how we want to represent all the characters in the camera work we were using and on top of that, we had Adam, our main actor, work on his characters costume brainstorming ideas to discuss with Amber later on, since she is in charge of making decisions in terms of clothing and make up.

Make Up Planning and Practicing

With our make up. Since the shots used and how the film is represented was decided by me, the Director, I had told Amber, our Actress/Costume designer, that I wanted scars on the villain in our film opening, this is very common in film as it adds a sense of mystery, danger and pain in the characters background story or past. Here are a few examples:-

Most of these effects made by major film making studios are done with CGI, this means it is very hard to recreate such complex make up with very little experience in the industry. So this means we have to be very strategic in our design so that less, is more. This was a challenge since we had to strategically place scars and injuries to give enough mystery about our character but not too much so that its over used. So the decision was to have a scar on his arm, this scar will be introduced at the start, and either scars on the villains lips or across his checks. We haven't decided since we will be practicing, giving him scars on his lips, but if it doesn't look professional or realistic then were going to simplify it to just a scar across his face. Here is an attempt at having scars on the lips:-

How we made the all the scars are the same and is going to shown in the following example:-

- First, glue is applied to the skin

- Then bits of tissue is stuck onto the skin to create a scar resembled texture

- After this, skin coloured foundation is used to cover up the tissues and make it look more and more realistic.

- Finally, the use of glue to give the final touches to the way the scar looks.

Deconstruction of First Shots

The following shots are mistakes that we should be conscious about ;-

For the first two shots, we noticed some shots mistakes and how bad the choice of shots used. In the first shot, Amber, our actor, looks into the camera as she turns to look at whats going on behind her. And the second screenshot used is a hand held shot of the sand as it turns to Amber in the distance. After watching it a few times in post production it is evident that the shot was unnecessary and boring for the viewer. The viewer will easily lose attention since the shot goes on for 3-5s. As well as, a non moving long shot of Amber would be far more professional looking, and more interesting to the viewer since it portrays the characters loneliness.

Here we can see another bad hand held shot of the sand, and its straight after the previous shot. This is very boring and could make the viewer not interested in continuing the movie. Multiple shots of such a plain environment, is extremely uncommon. I think for a cut to happen without any dialogue the viewer should learn something new to at least foreshadow upcoming events.

Here there was a mistake in the editing in post production, since in a cut her scarf went from being off her head to back on. We should look out for mistakes like this in our editing before finalising our final film.

Communication between the group

For our main source of communication, we used Facebook Messenger App. This was very easy and a quick way to make important decisions between all group members at once.

Location Planning

When it came to deciding the location in a place like Qatar, there were 3 main options, cultural buildings and structures, the city or the desert. For our location, we wanted to film our scene in the desert to the the emptiness and how stranded the character is and the most stranded area and empty area in Qatar is the desert and we want to take full advantage of it.

In Qatar, the added value we can give to our film that not a lot of people around the world have the privilege to. We will take full advantage of having so much space and take really long shots to show how insignificant and lonely the character is. The crash site is going to be behind a sand dune, this will give us a chance to build up tension the closer the character gets to the crash site. 

Peer Assessment

Peer Assessment Video

We asked a Media Studies student, Josh Carr. We chose a Media Studies student like Josh, since he can give us good constructive advice since he has done Media Studies for GCSE and also does Photography A-Level and English Literature A-Level. This means, with Josh, he can give us good criticism in all aspects of the film opening.

First Draft

For the first draft I think it was good overall but, clearly needs more work on it and more shots need to be taken, this means we will have to have another day of filming. There are problems with doing that though. Our main actor (Amber) dyed her hair dark brown, this means we can't use any old footage, this means we will be short on time when it comes to filming. 

Since this was our first draft, Jacob, our editor, didn't do any special effects, so we can quickly find faults and mistakes made in the first draft in terms of acting, camera work, the length of each shot, etc..

Music

When it comes to music, i think it was way too dramatic from the start. The scene is set in the middle of the desert, and shit should be reflected in the music by having really simple or music with a small number of instruments unlike the one used in the draft. This will give a sense of loneliness to the viewer and this will really emphasise how stranded the character is.

Camera Work

When is comes to camera work, it can be broken down into a few aspects:-

- Camera Placement

- Camera stability

Shots

Some shots used are pointless and looses the viewers interest and not only that most of our shots were hand held, and were very shaky even after we stabilised it in post.