Directors Commentary

Day One Evaluation Interview

Evaluation Question 6

Question 6)

I think through the process from planning and research to filming and editing I have learnt a lot. When we first did our first set of filming we didn’t have the right concept on what type of shots would look interesting for the chase scene, when it came to editing we realised we need more short and snappy shorts rather than long ones and this would make the chase scene look better and more fast paced and it would help build tension and help interest the audience. We also found that when it came to filming the dialogue we were still unsure with the camera. Although I felt more confident in this project than I did in past ones I still help like I needed to organise where to put the camera and how to film a interesting dialogue scene with various different angles and shots. We also had some trouble with continuity and decided to film again. This time we were more aware with where to put the camera and what type of things we wanted to include. We were able to film better footage because we were surer and knew more interesting shots to use.  

We found that by the end of editing and putting our media product together we were a lot better with the software we used and had picked up and discovered a wider variety of effects and were able to cut the different shots in a more neater and effective way.

The main thing I have learnt over all is o film as much footage as possible. This helped me and Louise a lot when it came to putting it all together and editing because we were able to use put of shots we had filmed which weren’t necessarily filmed for the certain scenes. Although when we were filming it seemed like we had filmed what we wanted and everything would look as we wanted it was clear when we were putting the chase scene in particular together, that certain parts needed to be refilmed. By the time we were on our third set of filming we made sure we did each shot at least 3 times and loved over it to make sure it was as good as possible. This meant we had a lot of footage to include instead of not enough. I think if we were to do the project again we would manage to film everything we needed in one day of filming because we now know better ways to film and experiment with adventurous angles that we wouldn’t have wanted to when we first started out project.

When editing Louise and I both had a lot of ideas for our piece and we made sure we tried a trial piece to test how each of our ideas looked and I think this helped our piece look as well thought out as possible but also helped us work well as a team.  

Day One Storyboard

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5)

I found when it came to filming and using the camera in this media project, we were a lot more confident with experimenting with different shots than we had been in past projects. When we started using the camera for our first time filming we didn’t really take any adventurous shots but this time we were able to get some quick and snappy short shots which contributed really well to our chase scene at the beginning of our opening movie sequence. 

We also did 3 different sets of filming during our project and each time we were able to improve the shots that we took. I think the fact that we kept reviewing the shots we had took and picked out where we had gone wrong and where we needed to improve helped us get an even better set of shots the next time we went to film. We realised that in past projects and in the first part of filming we did that we tended to cut the shots too early and this made out film look messy and poorly filmed. This was then improved and by the third set of filming we did we were able to make sure each cut and transaction when it came to editing was as neat and quick as possible, giving us a better end result. We also found that a lot of the time we didn’t film enough footage and this resulted in us having poor shots for our running scene and especially our dialogue scene, this is visible in our rough cut as the continuity is extremely poor and we weren’t able to fit to the 180 degree rule. But by the time we went to film again we made sure we filmed more footage than needed rather than not enough at all. This made sure we had some really quick and well thought out shots for our chase scene and in the end our dialogue scene looked interested and filmed well.

When we were using the software to edit we began to get more and more confident with the different techniques we wanted to use and ended up experimenting with different effects and transitions. We found that each time it came to editing we were adding more and more click and snappy shots and were able to make the cuts a lot quicker which helped build the tension and fast pace movement that we wanted to interpret to the audience with our chase scene.

When we were doing out research on looking at the different title effects used in action/spy and spoof films we came to the conclusion that it would look a lot better and more professional to make the titles stand out in bold and large font and the transitions that would be fast paced. We experimented with various different fonts and fades etc and discovered a lot more things that we didn’t know the programme had, and this helped us improve our find product and made the titles and edits look good. 

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4)

When making the opening sequence of Day One we thought a lot about how we could attract our audience. We thought if we made the two main characters at the beginning to be quite young characters it would help involve and be of interest to the audience that are around the same age group. I think when I watch a film; if there are characters around my same age group I find that I am a lot more interested in the film and what role they play. 

Because our primary audience is males we made sure to include a decent amount of action in the opening sequence. This ensures that they are immediately interested in the film instead of bored and waiting for the action to appear. I think the guns that are used in the films help attract the male audience because males can be seen as being more interested in violence and weaponry.

I think the song choice we decided to do with also make the film a lot more appealing. Because the song was an old and very popular song it helps the fan base for it be more interested in the scene because of the well known and successful song that is being played. In my opinion I think films that have good music and soundtracks immediately become more appealing and likeable. I think because the song is very upbeat and catchy it helped build excitement and involvement of the audience, it helped make the running scene more fast paced and interesting to watch.  

Our secondary audience is females and we also wanted to make sure the opening of our film appealed to them as well. This is why we made the two main characters of the opening scene female. This helps the films seem less ‘boyish’ and serious and helps involve the female audience as well. 

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3)

The primary audience for Day One would be young males around the age of 14 to 30. This is because action/spy films tend to appeal to the male audience and are almost guaranteed to have at least a small fan base because of the genre film that it is. However because there are no visible male characters in the opening of our film this would help bring in the female audience because it seems more appealing and ‘different’ to  a typical action/spy spoof genre of film. The fact that we have used two females as two big parts in our film helps the male audience to be interested through various reasons such a sex appeal and interest in the female characters, like the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider because this helped a wider range of viewers and I think it was down to the female main role, this means males are interested and females are able to relate and take more interest if the film offers a different style of action.