Test Location and Blocking!

I got my actors to block out the scene and I took some pictures. Some of shots to come and others to remember the placing of people and the camera within the location. 

This is my actor Lydia where is is going to be found after being kidnapped.

The location from a different position. 

This is my second main actor George Blocking out a scene for me so I could plan shots. 

George practicing blocking and his acting the Point Of View Shots where he finds the character Emma. 

This is the location and position my actor has to put himself in to get the shot.

Test Shots!

These are my test shots in playlist mode. Test shots are very important because they allow the cast and crew to become familiar with working with each other in specific locations during scenes. The allow time for blocking with actors and trying camera shots and angels for the crew. It is a crucial time for editing and refining. *WARNING -  these test shots are really not very good.* They lack lighting and stabilisation and I'm really actually quite disappointed in them. They did however give me the chance to      get a feel for the scene and this shot which I had predominated as the most difficult one in my whole storyboard. Next time I shoot these shots for real I will be borrowing my school's camera stabiliser which was not available when I shot this. This will make all of my shots so much smoother and professional looking. I have high hopes for my film.

Photos from my first day filming test shots!

My actor is too far away

Maybe too close

Actor blinked

Blurry! 

I like this photo the framing, lighting, and actors expression is all good!

This was the first location perspective I was trying out. 

This is the second location perspective I was trying out. I am not sure yet which one I like better. 

I have decided that to make my actor look older (the character is 19-20 but my actor is 17) next time I will ask her to take her hair down, and maybe get some more sophisticated clothes. 

I couldn't back up further enough away so I had to zoom out as much as I could and it created this strange fish eye sort of lense. I don't like it at all. 

This is my actor showing the location off. 

Survey Analysis - Part 3

For the final question of my survey I asked if people could tell me what they specially liked in short films so that I could incorporate these ideas into my own work. Some of the most common responses were quite vague ranging from "anything really" to "entertaining" and "engaging". I understand that this may be partly my fault, leaving the question so open ended and vague. There were however a couple responses with more specific anwsers. Things like "Not so long", "interesting characters", "artsy". The film being shorter in length came up the most often and this is defiantly something I will take on board when making and editing my film, as something my target audience want. 

Survey Analysis - Part 2

[The other responses were the website put-locker, and that they buy the films.]

Overwhelmingly the responses came back for this question as on Youtube, with nearly 80% of the replies. I feel that this is because Youtube as a platform is free, easy, and accessible for both content creators and viewers. This is something I need to bare in mind when I am creating my media product,  as the way media pop. in post production I will have to change the formatting to H264, this format is supported by youtube which means it will process faster and provide a smoother viewing experience. Another format is MP4, which is the same as H264, just less compressed. Peoples attention span on Youtube is a lot shorter due to the shear amount of content on the platform. To combat this I will make the into to my film particularly interesting, to retain engagement. I will also keep my film to a shorter length to ensure people watch until the end to get the full picture of my film.  I will also bare in mind that nearly 30% of people said they watched short films on the website Vimeo.  

I have looked at and researched the films written in the free text box for my 5th question. I will take on board what my survey responders liked, including genre, length, target audience, and aesthetic. 

Survey Analysis! - Part 1

It has taken me along time to gather responses to my survey, as I needed over 100 responses to have a suitable amount of data.

My first two questions from my severe i cannot analyse by themselves as they are just who filled out my survey, I can however analyse them in relation to my other question in that I know these are the opinions of 55% females and 43% male people's opinion. I also need to bear in mind that 30% of my survey responses were from people who were 13 or younger, this is not directly my target audience  as I was aiming a little higher for my thriller film (about 14 - 29 years old). The 30 - 60+ bracket also isn't my target audience but these together only add up to about 15% of people who filled in my survey. 

[Q4. The other responses were all horror or music orientated.]

From these questions I can gather that comedy, thriller, and drama are the most popular genres of short film, with the smallest being period/ historical, documentary, romance, and others that were specified. I think that comedy may have been so popular beach of they young age of many of my survey correspondents. My film will not be of the comedy genre but my film will also not be targeting  people of ages 13 and younger. I do not feel as if I could pull of humour in my film as it does not fit, especially slapstick humour of which young people are particularly partial to. I also feel that These young people who filled out my survey were the ones to say that they do not watch short films. It is not so common for younger children to specifically seek out and watch films which are shorter in length as they do not appeal as much to this age range. One may think that younger people would enjoy films that are shorter in length as they have a shorter attention span than most, but this does not seem too be the case. 

The second and third most common answers were 2 - 4 times a week, and 5 - 7 times a week. Interestingly not many people picked the once a week option, despite my personal prediction of ascending numbers for this question. Now that I think about it believe this to be because if someone likes short films then they would watch more than one a fortnight as this isn't a lot, but if people aren't interested then they may watch one or none. A few people even said that they watch short films more than 10 times a fortnight! These are the people that I am trying to appeal to. 

Filming Schedule!

It is very hard to schedule time to film as I have 2 actors and myself who all live and different places who have different school timetables and work schedules. However I have pencilled in Friday with my actors as a time to film at the school as it will be relatively empty but still open because it is parent consultation day.

Things to do before then!

• clear my SD card
• make sure it is okay for me to film at school
• borrow tripod and Mac (and maybe a light) from school
• sort out costumes for the scene
• borrow my actor's go pro camera
• sort transport

Storyboard!

I realise that it may not make perfect scene, because I wrote some notes in short hand and slang. But I understand it because I made it so I can explain it to anyone. Animatic coming soon!

I hope that this film is going to be effective and engage the audience. I will try and make it so that makes the audience question their viewpoint on films themselves and how they see the world around them. My research has inspired me to create my storyboard in this way, as I have taken shot types and styles from the short films that I researched, and made them my own and incorporated them into my film plan. For the CCTV scene at the end for example I was inspired by the short film "The Mass of Men", as they have a similar shot in their film. I have changed it up and made it my own with the idea of having it in the beginning of the film and the end, and the fact that I am planning to use silence with it to make the shot more powerful. The use o having the camera up so high makes the characters look small, insignificant, and weak. This is how I want to portray the characters at this point of the film, and therefore this shot will help me achieve this effect.

Actor Profile 2

Name: George Turner
Age: 17
Occupation: A level Drama/ Media Student
Previous Experience: School Productions/ Multiple Short Films

Firstly, in the beginning I had trouble finding an actor for my film. I had asked around and no one came forward, and I didn't have any relatives I could pester into helping me out. It was becoming a real problem because I wanted to start filming! Finally, when I was talking about it to my friend George he said he didn't mind acting for me. This was great news because not only do I get along well with George but he is a competent actor with some acting experience behind him! However, as George was going to help me out on set, I am thinking about enlisting the help of other people. This is so I have enough crew hands around to allow me to focus on directing, and other important jobs when filming. Overall I think this was the best way I could of dealt with the actor problem and I am sure I will be happy with our outcome of the shots and filming experience.

Representation was also something important to consider, as this character isn't exactly the best role- model around, I had to be careful to not stereotype or make represent social groups in a way I didn't want to. George being a middle class, white British male, and a teenager playing a younger adult, I think he is suitable for the role as generally in the media this group of people are stereotyped as being saviours within media, and are generally not presented how I have written this character. In the beginning of my film he is seen as the saviour, but later on you see that he was the one that kidnapped her in the first place. This goes against convention, and I have done this on purpose to differentiate my film from others within its genre and maybe show a different side of this social group that people may not expect. 

Costumes Research

Paramedic-




I will probably just use a green shirt and crop the shot so it wont matter that the shirt doesn't have any of the logos.


Pharmacy Worker-



For this costume I will just get my actor to wear a white shirt, as this is what my research shows me most of them wear. This is also within my budget and easily accessible.


Councillor-



Smart clothing seems to be what therapists wear, and this costume is definitely something I can find clothes for.


Chef-



If my budget was large I would try and get my hands on one of these chef jacket costumes, but unfortunately my budget isn't big enough. So I researched again and found an alternative option to the expensive chef shirt.




I am going to get an apron instead and put a white shirt underneath it to give the same professional look as the chef shirt does.

Symbolism and representation within my film - Initial thoughts

• Everyone is centred in my story board except the antagonist/ when the antagonist is in shot. 
• Emma is the character, with in the film, that the audience leans the name of , and everyone says her name alot
• Emma never speaks, but is spoken to alot
• POV shot at the beginning
• The first time you see Emma's face is in act 2, when in a therapists office
• There are no setting shots -  disconcerting, and most scenes & acts start with close ups. 

Lists! Locations, Props, Characters, Costumes, & Other Production Things To Consider!

Locations

• Professional Kitchen
• Bin shed/ Skip 
• Pharmacy
• Girls bedroom
• Living room/ Kitchen 
• A front room/ small cozy room that could pass as a councillors office
• A street/ Path

Props

• Prescription bag/ tablet boxes
• callender & pen
• mug 
• Councillors certificates and frames
• headphones
• kitchen utensils and dish cloths

Characters

• Emma - female - 18 year old - Main protagonist
• Jack - male - 25 year old - main antagonist
• Extras of both genders around the same ages of emma and jack
• councillor - female - 30ish y/o - side character
• nurse/ pharmacy worker - either gender - 40 ish y/o - extra
• Doctor - either gender - 30 y/o - side charceter

Costumes

• Chef costumes/ overalls
• posh clothing for councillor
• casual normal clothes for every other person
• Green shirt for the paramedic
• White shirt for the pharmacist

Other Production Things

• red and blue police lights
• camera stabiliser 
• Borrow strong school lights from school
• Need a new SD card - fast writing and 34 GB
• Borrow George's reflector
• Borrow school Tripod
• Need a wheel chair or dolly or something that moves very smoothly

Casting Problems...

I have had problems finding a male actor, to be the antagonist of my film. There are very few male actors around who are suitable for this part who are willing and able to be cast. I admit the representation of the male gender in this part is hardly positive, and I feel this may have had a negative impact on this scouting process. To combat this I am going to continue to ask around, and maybe approach a local drama group to see if anyone is willing to participate in the making of my film.

Plot Changes

After thinking about my film for a very long time and discussing it with my teacher and friends I have decided to change the the setting, and some of the plot of my film. Before it was set in a school, and my main character was a student, but this would look unprofessional and have a very student-film vibe, something that I am keen to shake within my work. Now my main character is a trainee chef, who works in a restaurant. This takes my character and location out of the school setting snd will hopeful make my film have a more professional feel. The plot is mainly the same as the setting before but now the middle section won't have definitive scenes, but more a montage of her recovery.  This is so the middle section of the film doesn't feel stilted, and the whole thing flows nicely. The denouement of the film is yet to be finalised but I know that it will be revealed to the audience and main character that the head chef, her boss, was the one that kidnapped as in his hero-complex he hoped that she would fall for him as he was the one to 'rescue' her. 

Evaluation Question 4 - My Current Thoughts

• How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction, and evaluation stages? 

I have as of yet only done the research stage and have only just started on the planning, so I can only really evaluate the research section. 

The internet is an endless source of information and considering the brief for the A2 part of the course is to successfully produce a short film, and create a poster to match. The internet was invaluable in researching similar films, aspects of art films/ film noir, and the impact of these films on the representations of characters within them.

My media blog is enormous aid in creating a 'live' effective portfolio into the A2 part of the media studies course. It has enabled me to create a visualisation of my ideas and get prompt feedback, advising me on other research areas to look at. I am currently using this blog to create a series research and planning posts containing everything that I am doing for this project. By scrolling through you can depict where my influences come from. Research in this unit was imperative in understanding how to challenge the generic conventions of thriller (short) films and posters.
Research is so important for this second year in media studies as you have to be able to actively identify the 'generic rules' for each genre. 

 The above examples are a prime examples of the power of the internet and new media technology.  I used the google search engine to generate results.

By using google I was able to expand my research at just the click of a button I was able to get hundreds of pages of information on films, their production crews, and their influences and inspirations. When I had chosen my genre, I then started to research similar films. Because the film I hope to make is a mix of genre's I had to be disciplined in my research. By using blogger I was able to input video, scanned images and music video's for free in an updatable online style document, this is not possible in any other format. This allowed me to create an adapted visualisation in my posts of different things, and in my research bring together all the different combinations of genres that I wanted within my film.


When researching into film posters, I used a few different websites that had film posters on, often ones that also reviewed the film, but I also used google images because of its variety and convenience.
I wanted to see if my film would have audience appeal. So I used the website Survey Monkey, which allowed me to make and edit my survey online, and get to keep it in a digital format so the results would be formed into graphs and statistics for me with minimal effort. I also used social media websites such as Facebook share my digital survey with over 500 people instantly. Something which prior to the age of the internet could not have been achieved.