Rough cut feedback

Here is the feedback our class gave after watching the rough cut of our film, we hope to use this feedback to improve our film for the final cut.

Rough cut

This is the rough cut for our film.

Filming diary

Filming diary

Thursday 10th March

Sam and tom began filming the start of the film, I then later joined them after a driving lesson which they were aware i had so had known i was going to be slightly late,when Miss Smith walked down the corridor. Sam and myself tried several different camera angles and shots; filming through windows, low angle shots looking at feet and tracking shots. Whilst Tom directed the actors.Filming was productive getting more filmed than anticipated, because we just wanted to film the corridor and we ended up filming the scene when Mr Jones enter his office.We filmed two takes of everything, so that we had enough footage to edit.
Adam did not attend this shoot.
Monday 14th March 

we all started the filming of the CCTV footage in the classroom, which will be played on the screen of the headmaster’s computer. A small number school students attended, although further recruiting by Adam and tom meant that we had sufficient numbers.However the filming did not go to plan as our "actors" did not act there parts well enough meening a re shoot would be neccesary.


Tuesday 15th March

we all continued  filming even though only 1 student turned up to be filmed along with the actress playing Miss Smith. We filmed several shots with these 2 actresses. We watched the footage back at the location to make sure the quality was of a high standard. .
.

Tuesday 22nd March (lunch)
Sam and Tom filmed the scene where the students stand up (leaving 4 students still standing, we changed it to 4 becuase we just didn't have the students avalible) and leave the classroom. The 4 students left standing were fantastic at standing still and not moving which had a little bit of fear factor.
I wasn't there becuase I had Forbidden Planet rehearsals and Adam wasn't there either becuase no one could find him to tell him.

Tuesday 22nd March (After school)
We all continued to film the last remaining scenes after school becuase this week we were told by a teacher that some students would like to be in our film and are going to media now, Tom went to fetch these students so that we could complete the filming. Meenwhile myself Adam and Sam filmed the few shots we could do with Miss Smith and the 2 actresses that turned up on the day. Tom later returned after 10 minutes looking for the students that wanted to help us, but they didn't turn up, this meant we could not do any more filming and we caried on editing our film.

Audiences

These are the categories the bbfc uses to label all films

The Categories

The BBFC endeavours to classify submitted works in one of the following categories:

The following pages set out guidance on how the main issues (for example, sex and violence) are specifically applied from ‘U’ through to ‘R18’. The criteria should be read in the light of the general approach set out earlier under ‘General Principles’, ‘Overarching Factors’ and ‘Main Issues’.

Because works from time to time present issues in ways which cannot be anticipated, these criteria will not be applied in an over-literal way if such an interpretation would lead to an outcome which would confound audience expectations.

I Think that our film would be labelled as a 15, this is fine for our film as our target audience was 16-25 so doesn't really cut into our audience base

add-Lighting and tracking techniques

We were set some small tasks involving 3 point lighting tracking dollies, these were set so that we would be able to employ these techniques again in our film if necessary.

Potential filming issues

This is a list of issues that can come up during filming, this list states the issues and how they will either not affect our shoot or how the issues will be managed.


Costume Changes;
During our film, we have no scheduled costume changes as we are setting the film to be on the same s
school day.
Travelling between Locations
Our filming location has been decided to be filmed within school, so travelling between locations will all within walking distance.
Producing same shot/angle
We are planning to film in order of location, to ensure that we are using the same shooting angle if a duplicated shot is required.
Weather Conditions
We are filming all scene's inside the school, so even though the weather may change this may just be a way of showing time past.
Changes of Natural Light
If there is a drop in natural light, we may possibly use production artificial lighting to compensate for the drop in light to the shoot. If there is a increase in natural light, then filming may have to be halted and timing schedule be changed to allow for this delay, although we can not completely eliminate this problem, as the level of natural light will change from hour to hour.

Shooting schedule

This is our shooting schedule that we prepared to organise our filming to ensure that everyone would know who was needed and what props are required for each shot.

Shooting schedule

Animatic

After making the story board we turned it into an animatic this helps to give us a better idea of what the end film would be like and to give us an indication of the length of the film.
To create this we imported all of the still frames from our storyboard into final cut.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard this helps to visualise what shots are used and how they will look.
This will be especially useful when setting up the camera at a shoot.
To create this we used Storyboard Quick to construct each frame importing some images were necessary.

Catechize Academy Storyboard

Costume research

Mr Jones

We have looked at a few teachers, researched by ourselves and have asked others members in our media group, what teachers should look like. The overall results were;

Image 1 - Geography / History

Image 2 - Head-teacher / Senior Teacher

Image 3 - Drama.

We can identify that our headteacher (Mr Jones) can fit the describtion of picture two  becuase of this characters smart business clothes with his cufflinks showing and his top button done up. Picture 1 is a young teacher, stylish shirt, loose tie and shirt, showing that he is new to the job and is very relaxed. Where as picture 3 shows a older member of staff in a plain shirt and tie. We can also see the importance of each character because of the way they dress.

Miss Smith

We are going to cast our character, Miss Smith, in line with the photos above. We have researched the pictures from google and have found that common female teachers should wear;

Cut off blouse (simple colours - blue, red, pink and white)

Cut off High Jumper

Black trousers.

High Heeled shoes or stilettos.

Jack Costume

For the general costume for the students, we are going to use the standard GWPAHS uniform;

Jack  - White trainers (reason for detention), Black trousers, White collared shirt, tie and Spiky Hair.

Boys - Black trainers or Shoes, Black Trousers, White Collared Shirt and Tie.

Girls - Black shoes, Black trousers or Skirt and White blouse.

Location research

As our film is based around a plot of a brainwashing headmaster in a school, we have decided to film in Great Wyrley P.A. High School. This decision was made through the ease of accessing the location and the low shooting problems within the school. We have taken images from our location and inserted below.

Here is an image looking down the main corridor of GWPAHS. I am planning to use this corridor to track Miss Smith walking down and meeting Mr Jones. We are able to use several camera angles to produce a good edit.

Here is an image looking down the main corridor of GWPAHS. I am planning to use this corridor to track Miss Smith walking down and meeting Mr Jones. We are able to use several camera angles to produce a good edit.

This is our chosen location outside of Miss Smith's classroom where the two brainwashed block the entrance to Miss Smith's classroom.

Here is an image of Miss Smiths proposed classroom, i have taken a photo from the corner of the classroom where the CCTV effect will be created. We have chose this classroom as it is of a good size and we are able to create the whiteboard opening titles effect along with the door and teachers desk being in a good place. The classroom is also near to the corridor above so it will be easier to film with hopefully less jump cuts.

Here is an image looking up the corridor in which we will use to film the running scene. We have chose this location as we are able to position the cameras in many angles to show a fast paced running when editing. We can film from outside in through the windows and use both the top and bottom of the corridor.

Here i have added an image of the location we will filming the head teacher in his office, and also where Miss Smith gets dragged into the head teachers office.The office will also the camera will go to black out and the door will then slam. We have chosen this office as it is along the corridor in which Miss Smith will be cornered into along with also be very close to other shooting locations so the travelling between shoots will be much smaller and further filming and perfection can be acquired.

Props list

This is a props list to take on shoots to ensure we have all the props in the correct scenes.
Props List New

Script

This is the final script for our film.
This had to be written so that the actors will know what they need to do when we come to filming so there will be no time wasted on having to decide exactly what they will say when we come to filming.

Final Script for CATECHIZE ACADEMY

Film treatment feedback

This is a recording of our group reading our treatment to a group of sixth formers who are in the target audience for our film of between 16 and 25.

Treatment

This is our treatment for our film.

Catechize Academy Treatment Changed

Treatments Research

In preparation to pitching our film to the class, we need to wright a treatment, but  before we can do that we need to know exactly what a treatment is.

A film treatment (or treatment for short) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline (or one-page synopsis), and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits. They read like a short story, except told in the present tense and describing events as they happen. There are two types: the original draft treatment, created during the writing process, and the presentation treatment, created as presentation material.

Treatments are important because they clearly show what happens in each scene aswell as were the scenes are set and at what time.

Treatments are widely used within the motion picture industry as selling documents, whereas outlines are generally produced as part of the development process. Screenwriters may use a treatment to initially pitch a screenplay, but may also use a treatment to sell a concept they are pitching without a completed screenplay.

The original draft treatment is generally long and detailed. It's compiled of full-scene outlines put together. These are usually more than about 30 standard letter size/A4 pages (Courier New 12 point), less than about 80 pages, and an average of about 40 pages. For example, The Terminator original treatment is 44 pages. More elaborate forms of the draft treatment are the step outline and the scriptment.

Class pitch with feedback

We prepared a pitch for our idea and presented it to the class to see what they thought of our idea.
Their opinions will help us to predict how well our film will be received as they are within the planned target audience.
here is their feedback.




From the start until 2:40 is our pitch for our idea and after that is the feedback.
At 2:40 right after our pitch josh raises a concern that it might not actually be a thriller, we were already aware of the fact that if we arent carefull it could start to leak into a completly different genre but we are confident that we carefull thought and good planning we can prevent this from happening and keep the film on thriller grounds.At 4:40 sam asks if we think we will actually be able to fit it into 2 minutes, again we think with carefull planning there will be no problem with fitting it in. At 5:40 Rob suggests ways for us to use sound in the film to enhance the film, the sound will be smething we think carefully about because it does have a big effect on a scene so thinking carefully about the choices of sound we use will make abig difference. at 6:30 matt gives the idea of having the nqt have a quick conversation with the headteacher in a corridor this is similar to what we had first planned but we originally planned to have the nqt talk to another teacher were as having her speak to the headmaster will kill two birds with one stone and help to introduce the two characters faster. At 9:00 mr hood came up with a good idea of repeating the bell ringing but with 2 different sounds and showing the two different reactions to it, this is a good idea that we are thinking of adding in. At 10:00 mr hood gives us a list of a few films he thinks we should view to give us ideas on how to show certain conventions in our film. At 10:30 mr hood points out that we will need to make sure there is an age difference between the people playing the teachers and the people playing the students so we will make sure that there is an clear age difference. At 11:50 mr hood suggests using a contrast between black an white and coulor to show the differences between the hypnotised students and the regular students, this is another very good idea that we are looking at adding in. the rest of the recording is mostly either people asking questions to clarify things in there head or people suggesting ideas that are already ideas that we had planned to implement. over all the reception for the idea was good aslong as we think carefully about how we go about showing everything.

Conventions

This is a list of conventions we plan to use, develop and challenge during our film.


Conventions being 'Used'

• Crowds of people
• Good Teacher/Bad Teacher
• Brainwashing
• Physco people
• Day and Night Scene's
• Uniformed Personnel (Suits, School Uniform)
• Cliffhanger

Conventions being 'Developed'

• Schizophrenc
• Tension building - slow editing and music
• Camera work - Panning

Conventions being 'Challenged'

• Teacher's personalitity changing to bad
• Children split personalitity
• Challenge school - Nice and safe enviroment - Evil
• Using the school bell for bad convention
• A Female being Captured

Group ideas

• A mentally ill police man commits a murders subconciously and then investigates the case, only to discover it was himself who commited the crime, he then tries to pin the murder on a fellow police man, unsuccesfully. We thought this idea may be very difficult to achive, aquiring police uniforms, police locations and fitting enough information into the short clip we thought would be difficult to do. This idea was put forward by me and our group helped develop it. It uses alot of Thriller conventions.
•  A school is training children to kill, we extended this idea further thinking about hypnosis from items such as school bells or school screensavers, we also thought of the teachers bieng in control of the pupils using the school bell. This idea is much more approprite, locations, props and costume would be very easy to aquire and there are lots of conventions which could be challenged with this idea. This idea was put forward by Adam Holland and the group developed it to this stage.
• Tom Fisher came up with the idea of having a Tree which could spread its roots throught the ground, breaking through the surface and taking people, this idea develops and challenges alot of thriller conventions but with no access to specialist special efects we doubted this film would look proffesionall enough or believable. Our group discussed these points to develop the idea further.
• Sam Clarke put the idea forward behind a film about a hanging incident, the effects and make up are possible for this idea but no one in or group could think of a believable story line to fit this idea into but it was a very good approach from sam as it challenged a lot of thriller conventions.

Out of these four ideas, our group came to the conclusion of using idea 2, we felt it was the easiest to produce but could be done to the most professional standard aswell. In my next post we discussed the conventions this film could use, develop and challenge and later we will present the idea to our peers to gather feedback and help improve our idea.

Opening titles

Here are some example opening titles, as our film will only be about 2 minutes long titles  will play an important role.

the star wars titles are the first thing the viewer will see and are before the film actually begins,they use a clear fairly bold font that scrolls upwards, it is a very simple title but is effective.The back ground to the text is space which clearly demonstrates that the film is a sci-fi.










the titles appear just before the start of the film and are very short, they feel very modern with computer type font and an animated "thing" next to it.










this simply starts with hitchcock introducing the film instead of using text this is an interesting way of introducing the film which hitchcock used several times so this could be thought of as a conventional thriller opening.








the titles are played in a crystal ball and are kind of played as the begginig of the film is paused in the background.










as in psycho this simply starts with hitchcock introducing the film instead of using text.

Thrillers-examples

Here are a few examples of existing thrillers to give us an idea as to the kind of thing we will be making.



This clip demonstrates a seemingly common convention of normal people getting caught up in things outside their control, were by a seemingly normal and mundane circumstance rapidly changes into one that is traumatic or potentially life threatening.





in this clip things are a little bit more psychological as we are unsure of what exactly is happening but we are given a sense or urgency and the feeling that something big is going on.

Thrillers- Conventions

We will be making an opening for a thriller film for our course work, here is some initial research on the conventions of thrillers.


Conventions Of thrillers

Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.
 plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers, menace, violence, crime and murder The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres. Though each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods. Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings and, more common in mystery thrillers are, investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality and obsession. While elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.
Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.
Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs/cities. Though sometimes, they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. However, more common in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger, like, police officers and detectives. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.

Famous thriller

The god father

The dark knight

Fightclub

Psycho

vertigo

The Main Task

Our task is to film the opening two minutes of a full length fictional film, we will be making a thriller as we decided that it is the easiest genre for us to do as a sci-fi would have required a large special effects budget a rom-com has a smaller target audience and is harder to write and a period drama would be difficult to create because of the level of accuracy required in costume and set creation.

Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task, we were asked to make a short film that demonstrated our understanding of the rule of  thirds, the 180 degree rule and that we know how to avoid jump shots and how to use the shot reverse shot technique including two lines of dialogue dialogue and how to do a match on action sequence. 
Making this short film helped us familiarise ourselves with everything that we will be using for our actual film.
I think for what it was it was successful, all the parts of the task were met and achieved.
We learnt how to do a match on action shot and a shot reverse shot as well as learning how to avoid jump shots and continuity errors. 

Welcome

Hello this is my as media blog, it will follow the flow of my work through the course.
I am working in a group with Adam Holland, Sam Clark and Tom Fisher. Our group is called Atlas productions.