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. 

One Day Presentation

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2)

I think Paramount Pictures is the institution that would distribute our film because during our research into the genre of film that we chose, we found that on the website BOX OFFICE MOJO the most successfully ranked action films, spy films and spoof films mostly fell under the institution of Paramount. Some of the most successful films that this institution had distributed are Top Gun which grossed $353,816,701, All the Mission Impossible films, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Because these films are so successful and are similar to ours in various different ways, I think if Paramount Pictures were to distribute our film it would be more likely to be a success because of the big name and previous successful films that they have distributed.  We also wanted to produce our own identification for an independent institution of our own. 

When deciding how to design our logo for our independent institution we thought about how the type of mood and feel the opening sequence gave off and we thought if we made it more "retro" and up beat it would link in well with the genre of film, relating to the spoof part of Day One.

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1A)

For our film One Day we wanted to represent it as being a action packed film but with comedy. When doing our research we found that the majority of action/spy films focused mainly on male characters and a male audience. We wanted to make our film different in a way which would make the female audience more involved and likely to want to see this film. We thought it would be a good idea to focus a lot of the film on a female role and this is shown in the opening sequence.

When considering the type of things that we wanted to show in the opening we looked at various films such as The Bourne Identity. We focused on only the first few minutes of the film and this helped give us an understanding of what to include. We wanted to include some action in the opening but also leave it open and keep the audience wondering what would be coming next. This is used a lot in spy films and helped it seem like a film that was about spies as well as a good story line, instead of having a film which is mainly about the action involved and exciting scenes; we made sure our film included both of these features.

Because a chase scene is typical feature of an action film we thought it would be good to use this as soon as the film started, this basically threw the audience into the action part of the film immediately, making it more exciting and interesting.  But because we were aiming for a spoof style film we wanted to make it seem more amusing than serious, we did this by using a style of music which wouldn’t necessarily be used in a serious action film. We made sure that we didn’t introduce the characters in our opening scene and gave little information about what was about to happen in the rest of the film, this would ensure the audience would be more likely to want to know about the characters and what was the meaning of Louise’s character getting shot, and why.

Mise En Scene

During our opening sequence we made sure we used props such as a gun, this is a typical feature that the audience would expect to see in a spy/action film and it helped show our film was representing this.  We put Louise’s character that was a good in dark clothes, this is because we wanted to stay away from the stereotypes and keep the audience questioning what might be unravelled during the rest of the film.

Question 1B)

What we initially wanted to do was dress the bad character in dark clothing, and this would fit to the stereotypes of a typical young character. But instead we changed the idea around and instead of representing the typical stereotype of a young male being involved in trouble, we decided to dress the good character in dark clothing and having it be a female. This went against what most of the audience would think a good character would be seen as and helped make our film challenge the typical conventions of a real media product. 

Problems With Filming

When we were filming the quick shots for our chase scene we thought about doing a close up of one of the characters faces as they were running. We thought this would be good because it helped give us more variety in shots and would improve the chase scene but when it came to filming the shot itself we had some difficulty. Because Ellie's character was running we found it hard to get a stable and good shot which would show her facial expression because the person filming would also have to be running. We did a trial shot but unfortunately it was too jumpy and we decided to leave this shot out of our orginal final piece.

From past filming projects we had done through out the year we decided it would be best if we started the scenes with a establishing shot to introduce the audience to our location. We thought it would be good to have a pan establishing shot because it starts the scene with energy and movement and this helps introduce the chase scene. I think using a pan helps vary our shots and over all makes the whole scene seem interesting and more exciting. However we decided that this shot didnt really fit as well with the mood of the chase and the upbeat running because it seemed quite peaceful and didnt fit to the genre as well as it could have. After reviewing this shot, if we were to film again we would have used an extreme long shot to get a sense of geography but it would also flow well with the chase scene.

 

For our first draft of filming we scouted out the location and looked around to see where we could film the dialogue scenes to make it fit well to our genre. We found a archway which was slightly shaded and it looked like a good area for the dialogue scene. Unfortunely we had some trouble with the amount of space we had to get the good shots that we needed and we couldn't set the tripod in the right way which meant we constantly had a problem with continuity. Instead we decided to film the dialogue scene somewhere else in order to get a better overall piece.

One Day Presentation

Extra Editing

On 7th March we got permission to use a computer in our media classroom during a lesson to do some more editing with our film. We tightened up the cuts and this made it flow better. We also experimented with some titles and thought more about whether we wanted to position them over the clips or on a separate title.

Editing

While we were editing our opening sequence we found some new effects and me and louise both came a lot more confident and I think our final edit ended up looking good. On our past projects we  realised that we used the fade in and fade out effect to much and this stop the sequence from flowing as well as it could have. For this piece of work we only used the fade effects when it was necessary and made sure it was more fast paced to fit with the chase scene which opened our sequence.

When me and louise were filming we made sure that it would be better if we filmed too many shots for too long rather than too shot ones. This made the editing of each clip a lot easier. For example when it came to the short dialogue scenes we made sure we started filming a few seconds before the dialogue was introduced so when we added all the dialogue sections together it flowed better and didn't cut any of the speech off like we had done in past projects. Me and Louise both came a lot more confident with the programme and were able to improve the clip each time we edited it and managed to tighten up the cuts and make sure the continuity was as good as we could possibly get it.

We also found that we still had some problem with fitting to the 180 degree rule and this effected our continuity in some of the running clips that we had shot. But in the end we were able to flip the two clips that didn't fit to this rule and in the end all the running scenes seemed to flow really well and we were pleased with the pace and the way we had edited the chase scene. 

I have a few posts based on my project that I have not previously posted.

Man On Fire movie effect

When thinking about the effects and titles that we wanted to include in our film I watched some popular action films to get some idea of the types of effects that we could try out. I watch the film Man On Fire staring Denzel Washington and it has some excellent effects throughout the film.

I think the broken and jumpy effect that is used in the trailer and through out the film makes it seem a lot more exciting and gives short action involved clips of the movie to stimulate the viewers imagination and views on the rest of the film. This is something me and louise have decided to use in our opening sequence. We have chosen to put something similar to this at the end of our clip as we think it helps open out the rest of the movie and make it more interesting for the audience and more likely for them to want to watch the rest of the film.

Running split screen trial

This is one of our running scene trials that we did when editing our film. We decided to use the split screen effect. This gave a retro type feel to the film which works well with the type of film we were aiming for. It also keeps the audience interested and makes the whole chase seen look more fast paced.

Final Piece

Me and Louise are back friends and have apologised. Sorry Lou :((((((((((xxxx

I REFUSE TO WORK WITH LOUISE BROWBANK FOR THIS PROJECT. :((((((((((((

Music

We handed in our rough cut of the opening sequence for our project and the song that we originally chose to use "Walk The Line" by Johnny Cash but we spoke about it with our teacher and the song didn't seem to work very well with the type of style that our opening clip had. Instead we did some research and looked at some songs that would be more suitable. We found a cover of "Taper Jean Girl" By Kings Of Leon on youtube and this seemed quite a good song to use. Instead we kept looking and decided the instrumental of Johnny B Good was the best an it made the whole film a lot better. This song was recorded over 50 years ago so we didn't need copy right permission.

Call Sheet

Meeting times	Saturday 21st January Saturday 28th January Sunday 19th February
Location	Wharton Park
Cast	Kelly Senior, Ellie Snowdon and Louise Browbank
Props	Toys guns
Extras	Catherine Kirk as a stand in

On Saturday we chose to meet up and film a few more shots that would go towards our chase scene at the beginning. Once we got to our location we had some trouble finding places to film because it was a sunny day and this meant that the lighting didnt fit the previous clips that we had already filmed.
I think this shot above was good because it gave us more varied shot as it was the first close up that we had included.

Rough cut

This is our rough cut for the final media project. This is not complete and we need to refilm most of the dialogue and various other shots. We are also going to add more running shots which i have mentioned on a previous post.

Re-shoot (This post was saved in my drafts from an earlier date)

When editing the rough cut of our final project we realised that the continuity was not good and made the whole clip look unprofessional and of low quality. We  have decided to finish the rough cut with the poor continuity and make it look as good as possible and then in the half term we are going to refilm again.

Although the beginning of our scene, where it shows the chase I think we have included some very successful and effectve camera angles. But we spoke to our teacher and we all agree that we should take more shots from more varied angles, for example
- Close up of actors feet running
- Point of view shot of victim running
- Point of view shot of 'bad character' running
- Close up of face
- Close up on weapon
- Shot of feet running at the camera

We also need to include a successful shot/reverse shot to show the conversation. In the past we have struggeled with this because we always find that when it comes to editing the contiunity is off. To shop this happening we have decided to take several different shots from different angles. We are going to position the camera as a over the shoulder shot focusing on Louise and film the whole dialogue scene, then do the same with another over the shoulder shot of Ellie. Then we will take some other shots of them talking from side medium shots etc. This means when it comes to editing our clip we will be able to take shot clips from each over the shoulder shot and medium shot to go together and make a successful take.

We chose to film on Saturday the 21^st quite early on the morning, this ensured that we would have enough time to get the shots and scenes we wanted before it got dark.  We wanted to start by filming an action chase up the stairs and around the Wharton Park area. Each shot we took we wanted to film it more than once to make sure we got it filmed correctly and gave it more chance of it looking like we wanted. At some points we had trouble filming as the sound of the wind affected the dialogue. And also our location was next to a train station which sometimes became a problem and was able to be heard on various shots. I think the location was good because it gave us the opportunity to film in open field spaces as well as dark forested areas which added to the action and spy genre.  I thought some of our chase shots were extremely effective and well positioned. 

For example, in this shot we wanted to have Ellie (the person being chased) coming from the side of the camera, as if its part of the action. This long shot helps establish the setting well and the shadow gives the scene a unknown mysterious feel.

I think this shot is also effective. We wanted to film the shot to be slightly tilted and off which gives the illusion that something is wrong and distrubed in the scene. The old fashioned location is also very interesting.



Change in Genre

Over the past few weeks we have done research on the spoof film genre as we thought it would be a good type to do for our opening sequence. But when it came to planning we realised that although this is a popular genre and one of our favourite types of film it would be easier and overall alot better to stick to making a spy action film instead.

location pictures

This is one location that we found for our film. I took various pictures of the location and thought about where we could film each part of the opening scene. In the end we thought that this location was more suitable for a film with the genre of horror etc. Instead we found a location that fit more to the action and spy type. 

rough mind map of planning

When looking through my research i found that the majority of the results from my questionnaire helped a lot when it came to planning out my film. A lot of people think that a female main character or a female villain is a good idea as it goes against the stereotype and makes the film different from others of its genre.