Evaluation

Film Premiere

Soon after the deadline for the AS film openings and the A2 music videos, our school held a premiere where they were all shown to friends, family and students. It was a great success, despite it being a little embarassing hearing my 'Swedish voice' again. Questionaires were continuously being filled out whilst everybody watched the videos and after the event finished, cameras were set up to ask the audience questions on what they thought of our film opening. 

Staring in Andrea's Media

As part of Andrea's comical film opening, Miss Foster, Millie, Mollie, Heather and myself were asked to take part in their last section of filming. It is apparent to see I played the 'stupid' one, I got pushed off the bus seat as well as running for the bus a great deal later than the rest..

Editing of our Title

Further editing of our 'Prey for Her' title has been made. We, as a group, decided that the moving sky did not fit our opening at all and instead included another shot from the Priory. This shot includes Annika walking down the steps - along with her movement slowly appears each word from the title. We are a little unsure with whether we should include a sound behind this shot. 

Limitless

The special effects and editing of this film are something I played particular attention to when watching this film. As director, Neil Barker's film was based upon the superhuman abilities of an individual using the entire capacity of his brain by the use of this dangerously clever drug, special effects were ought to be outstanding. 

From the beginning right until the very end - the continuos movement of the transitions between shots were very fast, creating a hectic, thrilling adventure for the audience. As the main character, Eddie (Bradley Cooper), gained his powerful skills both physically and mentally, the film was forced to include visuals of these. A specific shot I remember was one where he was in the process of completing his novel and in order to represent the ideas and words flowing out of his brain instantly onto a word document, letter shapes and forms were surrounding him in the shot. 

The lighting of shots were highly relevant in the whole film. In relation to the characters who were consuming this magic drug - the lighting was brightly lit, simply because of the positive atmospheric vibes. In contrast, as soon as the pill was unavailable, the character (especially shown by Eddie's ex-wife Melissa)who appears dull, tired and worn out due to her lack of the drug. 

                                           

  

Although this film as no connections to our film opening, it was very interesting to watch a completely different genre of film that has managed to capture aspects of suspense, darkness and fear with the great use of special effects and editing.

Title of our Film

P R E Y   F  O R   H E R 

As a group, we were raking our brains to decide on a suitable title for our film... our ideas ranged from a variety of things - from symbolic dates/times in relation to our initial thoughts of Annika's father phoning her and ordering 'same time, same place'. Another idea was tied in with the religious/spiritual theme, perhaps, including something to do with Satan or a Devil worshipper. 


We eventually decided to go ahead with the religious concept  - many of us really liked the idea of something involving a Prayer. We experimented by incorporating both numbers and letters into the title: 'Pr3yer' -- the 3 illustrating the Trinity (similar to the title of se7en), however, it was simply a case of trial and error and we decided against this. We finally set our minds on the idea of 'Prey For Her' - can be thought of in two separate meanings - as it sounds like PRAY, yet is PREY. Again, allowing the religious idea of praying (for justice/freedom?) to seek through as well as her being her father's prey...

Amen!

After several failed attempts to insert the 'Amen' text just as it is spoken onto the screen, we finally sorted it! The slow appearance is timed perfectly. We managed this by inserted the a range of screenshots of the religious verse them simply adjusting the clip so that the 'Amen' came in around 2.8 seconds after.

Second Draft

Here is our second draft, with everything very nearly finished! We were able to complete the film company logos this week, along with fixing the frustrating problems we were having with the zooming in and out of flashbacks.

We again researched into the way in which, se7en presented their title. The small title was initially in the upper right hand corner where it continuously zoomed into the centre and flickered back again. We still have to think of an actual name for our title -- we were thinking along the lines of 'Invalid', 'Expired' or 'Fallen', however, after translating these into Swedish, they do not look at all attractive in our opening.

Hole in the Middle

Here is a gif file of the 'Hole in the Middle' film company logo we have created, after making the 'o' flicker. Perhaps, needs a little more work done to fully complete it - the idea of have only the 'o' flickering at first then the rest of the title emerging onto the screen may be a possibility. 

                                   

Gradual Progress

After viewing our first draft again, the flashbacks began to look rather out of place - similar to a series of snapshots moving at a fast pace. My group and myself attempted to fix this issue by taking out the previous Snorricam footage and using a lengthier clip instead - which, appears far more effective and breaks up the flashbacks. Also, previously (although not greatly noticeable) the flashbacks tended to do a zoom in each time the snapshot changed - very irritating - instead, it now simply flickers!

Broken Clock Archive + LGFL Audio Work

Our scary film company logo was finally completed on Friday. We produced the logo on iMovie, having created the text by downloading an 'Urban Font' - a scratchy, typewriter effect - then made it flicker using 0.1 second flashes on each new text box created. Not much other editing was done on this logo, as the image itself was quite a clever shot of me (photographed outside Forty Hall).

As our entire opening does not have any consistent music/soundtrack except from the reversed Swedish talking/whispers, we thought it be perfect to add a good set of sounds to our film company logos. LGFL Audio Work do a website where we are permitted to use their music for our exam! We searched "scratch" and once finding the one we liked, we recorded it on iMovie microphone and added it to our piece. I think the music really completes the logo, making it appear much more professional - allowing the audience to focus on the sudden appearance of our logo - Broken Clock Archive.
[include screenshot of the music we used]

Cat Theme

Cats have always been an animal associated with mystery and uncertainty - sometimes, even considered to be the Omen. Their startling eyes have always struck people to assume their presence is somehow related to Satan or perhaps, a religious spirit. Our film opening is not an outright horror genre as such, however, after seeing The Rite, it is apparent that cats do add a creepy element to any film which is why we chose to include it in ours. The cat in our opening is a small flashback (during Annika's thought process after being asked an interview question) - the cat suggests an aspect of childhood and youth, which she casts her mind back to.         

                                  

First Draft of Opening

Here we have our first draft of our film opening, although it still needs a few tweeks! We've added in our scary film logo, however, have to also include our comical/indie one in our next draft. At 0.15 seconds, 'Amen' pops up on the screen, there is a slight movement between both the Swedish religious quote and the English translation - we will have to sort this issue out perhaps, using Final Cut or various YouTube tutorials. Also, the name of our film has not been confirmed...we have had many ideas for the name, yet the Swedish translation of it must sound good, which is why we are having some difficulties with that.

The Rite

During our school cinema trip to watch The Rite -(directed by Mikael Håfström, written by Michael Petroni and Matt Baglio)- I came across many links and similarities to our film opening. 
Unfortunately, I was sandwiched between Mollie and Millie - who were both screaming and swearing at every scene...
The film revolved around religion - a huge similarity to our opening - I especially picked up on the font used for the credits(similar to the one used on the title) with the religious cross.
Demonic possession and exorcism were the key themes of this film and it contained many explicit, particularly distressing scenes. Unlike our opening/film, which would be implied.
Close up shots used in very dark lighting were especially significant in this film, as it focused on horrifying the audience. I also noticed there was a frequent number of flashbacks used in this film - similar to our opening, they were particularly effective, when showing the boy at a younger age about how his views and beliefs had changed since.

Cinema Trip

Tonight our media class is going to the cinema to watch The Rite, a supernatural horror film, starring Anthony Hopkins. It takes alot for a film to scare me so I hope this one actually does especially as it considered to be based on a true story!

Subtitling

As our film is in Swedish, it will contain English subtitles throughout, so I thought it be rather essential to do a bit of research into this process.

The process of subtitling can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, the original language script is split into scenes. In the second phase, the text is extracted and translated. The third phase comprises the substantive part of the process: professionals attempt to time the translated part to the film.

After subtitling the film, it can either be fixed - the movie is broadcast in such a way that the subtitle cannot be turned off; or optional — in the case of digital TVs, the viewer can choose to watch with subtitles on or off (and, in the first case, choose the language of the subtitle).

POSITIVES
Subtitles have in fact, been proven to have a positive effect on the audience of the film. The audience are more likely to improve their reading skills, faster and more accurately. Furthermore, the film being in a different language does not forbid anyone of any other race to be discriminated.
NEGATIVES
Subtitles can also be considered a negative, as reading and interpreting them may seen at the same time easily becomes annoying, regardless of the type of movie. Some argue that it may "take away the movie experience".

This information I found covered a well-balanced view of subtitles, considering all the elements that may both educate and irritate the audience. One thing I keep in mind after reading this article is that: "They must be well-times, tell all it should but still, it must be read in the time provided".

New Footage/Walking Shot

After going through everything we filmed last Tuesday at the Priory, despite the majority being outtakes - we realised we had the two clips which are perfect to slot into our opening. 
The first being inside the car - Annika is being filmed from the side, looking through the car window -- appearing deep in thought, whilst she is being driven away to the Priory. During this, we have decided to have a background sound of the interview questions Annika was asked - repeatedly going through her mind. 
The second being a dolly shot of Annika walking - We filmed from the back of a car Annika walking through the pathway of the Priory, where the camera dollied away from her...increasing the isolation and desertion of the shot. Absolutely no sound will be in this final shot, as it emphasises the amount Annika is reflecting about what has and will happen. 
Overall, we are really pleased with Day 5 of filming and it seems to be that we have infact, completed all our filming! (unless we still need to film some small clips of Lilly?) but all our stuff with Annika is done, and we can now concentrate on making everything perfect. 

Banned Films - EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED?

For the written section of Media, we have to create various Case studies on films. I have now researched into two films - Crash and A Clockwork Orange - to find that both films suffered public scrutiny and caused major controversy for the directors. 

A Clockwork Orange caused an uproar due to its portrayal of "ultra-violence", despite it not being pornographic or violently explicit - it initially earned itself a X-Rating. However, after being re-submitted to the BBFC, it became an 18 certificate. Whilst the film Crash seemed to fit the criteria of moral corruption because of the pure subject matter.This made me think about our opening and what our film would be like if we had the chance to create the entire thing. 

My first thoughts on this would be that our film would be implied -- this allows deeper layers of meaning to evolve throughout the film, where the audience would be forced to question and interpret the films for themselves. If we intended to create our opening/film with severe explicit nature - where it included scenes of domestic abuse, rape or aggressive behaviour, the story behind Annika's life would be too obvious. This too, would create great conflict in the public eye, particularly to people who disagree that such specific detail should be shown. The film classification may also appeal to a wider audience if our opening/film is implied, as the age certification would therefore be lower.

Filming Archive: Day 5

Miss - I'm still unable to comment on your blog or reply back to any of comments!

Day 5 Filming

Finally! We set a filming date and stuck to it. 
Today we met in the afternoon at Southgate Priory where we drove inside to the main building. We were given a few funny looks and were eventually told that filming was not allowed as it is 'private residence', however, we luckily filmed everything we wanted to before being caught. Photos and videos will be uploaded soon, we managed to get a few car shots with Heather and Mollie in the back filming Annika through the window as she walked down the pathway - these I found to be effective. Due to the fact, we were not really allowed to film, we did not have many chances to film Millie near the actually building, although we may reshoot at Forty Hall if these turn out to be unsuccessful after uploading them onto the Macs. 

Market Research

Within the last week, I carried out a film questionaire on twenty people. 

I sent out fifteen questions via Facebook, to find out if there was a general relationship between their age, their favourite film genre and the essentials they wanted to see in any film.

These were my questions:

1. Male/Female?
2. Age?
3. Favourite movie genre?
4. How often do you watch films?
5. Least favourite movie genre?
6. Do the actors in a film influence you to watch a film?
7. Which age certificate do you mostly watch?
8. Name three elements you think a film must ideally contain:
9. Where do you tend to watch most films?
10. Does the advertisement of a film matter before you watch it?
11. How important is the first 2 minutes of a film to you?
12. Who do you watch films with?
13. What is your favourite film?
14. Why is it your favourite film?
15. If you could go behind the scenes of any film, which would it be?

I tried to make my choices in people to ask as balanced as possible, using 10 girls and 10 boys - ages ranging from 12 - 20. 

The comedy, horror and action genres were the most frequent answers I received when asking the boys about which favourite movie genre they preferred. The girl's general feed back was comedy, romance and thrillers.Comedy gained the most popularity with both the genders - particularly as humour was one of everyone's three elements which a film must ideally contain. 

The majority of girls listed Sci-Fi as their least preferred movie genre, whilst many of the boys revealed their greatest fear - putting horror films at the top of theres! 

Movies with the film classification of a 15 were the most common among my interviewees - even the younger ones who had not even turned 15 yet! It became apparent as to why this is after asking the next question. Only 5 out of the 20 people I asked tend to watch films at the cinema (being the older teenagers), whereas, the young ones who may not be served a '15' ticket would just watch the film at home by themselves or with friends. 

All of the interviewees agreed that the advertisement of a film is extremely important and determines whether or not they should see it or not. Specifically mentioning how the trailer of the film has great effect on this. 

Whilst all the girls stated the 2 minutes of the film as being highly significant, as it is the underlying part of the film that decides whether or not to continue watching or simply switch off... half of the boys agreed whilst the other half said they don't usually even notice the first 2 minutes. 

There was a great range of answers when asked about their favourite films:

The favourites being - Superbad, Hangover, Saw 3, Sex + the City, Harry Potter, Twilight series, Clash of the Titans, Shaun of the Dead. The current favourite trends for movies seem to be comedies - as films such as, the Hangover and Superbag. The reasons behind this were given that they have had great publicity and remain famous comedy classics despite no longer being on at the cinema anymore. The Twilight Saga also seemed to internet the girls I interviewed, as they explained how the cast of these films effected their choices - Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner being the main reason.


The actors also controlled the answer to the last question I asked my interviewees, as they answered considering the actors they would love to be behind the scenes with - again, the Twilight Saga was mentioned in a couple, including 17 Again. The more cleverly put together films were the majority of most answers - such as Lord of the Rings, Avator, Harry Potter and Charlie + the Chocolate Factory.

After carrying out my Market Research, I was able to come to a conclusion about the levels of popularity between various genre and what effects this. In relation to our film opening - despite, the most popular film genre being of humourous nature, the horror/thriller genre was also rated highly. It has also become apparent that the first two minutes are crucial to a film, which is why we have to ensure our film opening contains all the essential elements, its audience is looking out for. 

Day 4 Filming Outtakes

A few out of the hundred outtakes from Day 4 of filming:

Black Swan

Surprisingly, I finally found a film that I focused on fully without fidgeting or talking through! Black Swan was the film I chose originally for my Case Study in the exam section of media, so it was definitely a film I had intended to see. 

It's sheer psychological complexity became only apparent towards the end. Director, Darren Aronofsky, created two ballerina characters - both of individual difference. The delicacy typically associated with ballet, became juxtaposed with the almost, evil darker side to life. Aronofsky has allowed his audience to come to view with the overpowering role of the ballet coach - urging the metamorphosis into evilness to take place.

Whilst watching the film, I was able to notice that the suspense and thrill was portrayed in particular, by the use of an over the shoulder shot. This was frequently used when the character was anxious or rushing somewhere. Editing and effects of this film were also of fantastic quality - one that struck me was a clubbing scene, the flickering lighting superbly portrayed the hectic atmosphere and suggesting the abuse of alcohol and drugs. 

In relation to our opening, I think the emotional and uneasiness of Black Swan could have a great influence on our film. Similar to ours, it shows both strength and weakness within the female gender and is able to generate a beautiful empathetic understanding towards the issues shown.

"It's time to let her go. Lose yourself. ..."

Second Logo Idea

The creation of another possible logo...

As we are going to have Mollie and her doughnut, as our other logo - we decided to produce something a little more sinister. This is me! Standing outside Forty Hall after Millie used a fancy effect on her camera. 

Film Classification

For the exam part of our A level in Media, we did a lesson on the British Board of Film Classification - formally known as the BBFC.  As our idea consists of incest/child abuse/rape - whether it be explicit or implicit - the genre and context of our film is one of perhaps, complex subject matter. This could therefore, fit into the '15' certification. 

                                       

Filming

Unfortunately, although we decided to film this morning - at the last minute things changed because some of our group became unavailable to film, leaving it with only Millie and myself. This caused a slight problem, as we cannot shoot everything we would like with only two people. We also had the problem of no available car that we could use to do the ideal shot we intended on. Instead we MUST film this week where everyone in our group is able to show up. 


Miss Foster: For some weird reason, I'm able to access your blog yet I cannot "Post" a comment and it doesn't allow me to see what I am writing -- sorry for not replying on there.

Film Company/Logo Idea

The Stories Behind Hollywood Studio Logos was a site recommended by Miss Foster, as were discussing possible Logos etc. for our opening. Had never really thought into logos very much, however, this shows that there are various logical meanings behind them. Eating doughnuts last Friday seemed to have inspired Mollie into thinking about a "Hole in the Middle" logo - pretty comical and consisted of taking photos of her and her doughnut having a good time. The only possible issue with this idea, is that it quite indie/funny and does not fit exactly with our genre. Although, after further discussion we decided that we could also include another logo suitable for our opening as well as that one. 

Opening Few Seconds

We finally managed to convince Mr Saunders to be our Swedish narrator/father of the first few seconds of our opening. He reads out a religious passage in Swedish and shocked us all with his surprisingly good accent! The last word is "Amen" and we're currently attempting to make this word appear just as he says it instead of already being on the screen - we may have to make use of Final Cut for this effect. 

Forty Hall - possible location?

May be slightly more accessable filming somewhere such as Forty Hall instead of the Priory.


Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Swedish Translation

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

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Därför lät Gud dem åt orenhet genom lustar sina egna hjärtan, för att förnedrar sina kroppar med varandra:

Som bytte ut Guds sanning mot lögn, de dyrkade och tjänade det skapade i stället för skaparen, som är välsignad i evighet. Amen.

Religious Idea

Inspired by Devil: 
The film opens up with a quote from the bible, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, 1 Peter: 5-8,” to where the plot of the film follows this quote.
                                                          
After doing a little group research, we found some religious verses which we may extract and translate into Swedish.


1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature

Font

Having watched Se7en and thoroughly analysed it, even the opening font of it's credits build up the suspence and tension of the entire film. I did a little research and came to realise, that Richard Francis-Bruce (who is responsible for se7en's editting)used photoshop filters to create the decayed text. Our group want to incorporate this sort of style into our opening, attempting to find something similar to download and use for our own!

Sound

Unintentionally, our group have created this sinister, rather haunting sound to use for our opening simply by reversing the Swedish audio clips we had recorded as a voiceover. At some points we have had more than one voiceover with a small whisper or soft calling of 'Annika', adding a peculiar effect to our entire opening. From the very beginning, we were in two minds as to whether to use a a soundtrack throughout and didn't even know where to start in GarageBand. However, now we have found this simple reversed technique, we can always add small accents of different sounds using GarangeBand further into our project.

Linear Sequence

- Begins with flickering close up - out of focus - of Annika along either a credit, production company or name of the film

- A low angle shot of the sky with the clouds moving sped up or perhaps, even a shot of the sunset instead


- First question of the interview is asked with English subtitles.

- Fast flashbacks of Annika smoking on the balcony, walking in the snow and still camera shots are used. Reversed sound is heard throughout although it fades out at the silence before Annika finally comes into focus and answers.

- Interview continues, as further questions are asked yet Annika remains silent and thoughtful refusing to answer. During these moments, various flashbacks are shown.

- Small clips of her sister, Lila are also shown.

- Shots of Annika walking through the long pathway of the Priory also need to be filmed

A possible shot we have come up with of Annika abandoned at the Priory - possible long shot whilst camera is located at the back of the car whilst driving away. The idea of isolation and loneliness could really be portrayed in this shot.

Final Cut Pro

Along with our new beautiful iMacs, Final Cut Pro has also been installed! As we are complete newbies with this program, my frees today consisted of Millie, Nicola and myself doing a 'Tour of Enfield Town' purely for the benefit of later uploading our ridiculous clips and being able to play around with the program. 


(yet another embarassing video will be uploaded soon)

Mollie's Amazing Edit no.2

Yet again, Mollie decided to create another edit of our Day 4 of Filming. As you can see, she practiced with the voiceovers, which will have to use when editing our opening. Thanks, Mol!

Apologies

Somehow the death of the dolly was discovered and part of today's media lesson consisted of apologising to the poor owner of "Ugly Doll" - Ms Williams as well as attempting to bid for another identical doll.  Miss Foster recorded our heartfelt speech, as we begged for forgiveness.. 

Millie's Previous Acting Days

Turns out Millie has in fact got past acting career behind her, in this brilliantly edited footage that she produced in about year 8? She puts her Swedish role to shame..

Consequences of Annika's Curse

RIP Dolly..

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Day 4 Filming

Today our group decided to re film our Interview with Annika after school in the photography room - with the exact same set up, characters and script as filmed before. With Heather filming the entire thing at different shots, it left Millie playing Annika and Mollie and myself turning on the professional lights before my great Swedish acting as the Annika's psychologist.

After about 25 (seriously) attempts where we ran hrough the five - rather short - lines of our Swedish script, Millie and myself finally managed to keep a straight face. We ensured we filmed using a variation of different camera angles such as, a medium shot, close up, side shot, Snorricam-style shot and even a birds eye view from above. We were pleased with the outcome of this filming day, as we feel like we did capture things that will be of great substance to our opening. Friday's lesson will consume of sorting out all our clips and editing!

Unfortunately, there was a downside to all of our hard work this evening...we got rather excited towards the end of our filming and decided to replace Annika with a dolly that Mollie had kindly found for us - video evidence of the death of this dolly will soon be available. 

Photographic Archive: Filming Day 4 on Prezi

Representations of Disability

Our exam section for our Media A Level consists of a range of representations within British TV Drama. Disability is one of the seven representations, which we may be asked to focus on during our exam. This powerpoint shows greatly a range of characters that prove this to be true, also presenting the facts of how disability provoke certain thoughts and opinions from society - whether it be a certain simplicity/dumbness or even aggression/evil.

Media Magazine

We were kindly given our very own copies of Media Magazine, perfect especially for our written exam. It displays a great range of sources about a variation of media within society, describing the forever evolving technologies and even the changes in the representation of women.A particular article that really struck me was Roy Stafford's "Do We Have To Live Like This?" piece. 

Filming Day 3

Here's a small archive of our third day of filming, which includes all of the snow shots. Unfortunately, Millie and Heather were left to edit the last section of this and put in a horrifically bad clip of me.

Reviewing our iMovie Library

icationRecently, we wanted to review our iMovie library simply to see if we could find any useful pieces from what we have already shot. We have come to realise that all of Annika's smoking shots must be re filmed. Perfect timing as our new Flip has arrived!

Annika's Walk of Shame

It was during the evening when Millie and myself had a long walk home in the snow, where we decided to film a 'walking off in the distance' shot. We were a little worried it may not come out properly due to the lack of lighting but surprisingly I am pleased with the little we managed to film especially due to the composition. Now that all the snow has disappeared, we will be unable to re film yet I think it is still possible to include this into perhaps, a flickering shot of our opening.