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.

 -------------------------------------------------------


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