Media Evaluation - 'Conscience'

Final Cut!

That's right even with all our problems we managed to get it in on time!!

The Media Vlog - WITH MARKERS

Throughout the making of this film we encountered a lot of problems. This is why I made a vlog capturing these problem  and how we overcame them. However I understand that this blog is very long as it does capture everything so I have made markers for each day and will be making markers for problems within my evaluation.

THE MARKERS FOR ALL THE PROBLEMS:

- 0:32 Fixing light - 1:23 Cleaning wheelchair- 1:51 Getting people and Reflector - 2:06 Van In the way of the house- 2:40 Cleaning - 3:15 Makeup- 3:30 Wheelchair dolly- 4:10 Improvised lighting - 5:08 Wrap and Solo filmmaking - 6:04 Editing - 7:30 Not enough crew- 7:50 End off school- 8:37 Soaked actor - 9:00 Bathroom walking - 9:22 Reflection time!- 11:01 Wrong angle - 11:26 Colour correction change - 12:50 Fence problems - 13:40 Fence explained - 14:45 After effects - 16:14 Field locked - 16:38 Stolen costume - 17:18 Makeup- 19:35 Can't film outside shots - 21:00 Don't use shinny spray - 22:27 Re-creating set - 23:01 Set team acting/can't open window - 23:40 Lighting - 24:39 Shots to fill gaps/window- 25:01 Window - 26:20 DELAY and ill - 27:18 After effects glow- 28:21 Still ill and gun arrest- 29:15 Re-Edit- 30:12 Gun confiscation - 31:15 Getting gun- 31:37 Gun still- 32:50 Editing and hard drive crash - 34:13 Story change - 35:39 Missed Mock Exam- 36:00 Credits - 37:37 Blog

Semi-Final Cut

The reason this is our Semi-Final cut is because we feel that the new opening shot is out of time with the rest. To change this I will have shorten both so that is doesn't mess up the pacing of the shots. Excluding the first shots pacing we are happy with the final product because even with all the changes we feel they were necessary and improved our opening dramatically.

Changes To The Storyline & Title

Through talks with our teacher examining the rough cuts of our opening we found that our original storyline didn't really hold. The old and young man didn't look similar enough for them to conceivably be the same person. This changed the whole of our original  premise. However we discussed what was feasible considering the opening is 95% done and came up with the idea that the young soldier is the old man's best friend who died in the war. This would explain the PTSD and the flashbacks he was having, and would explain away how different the characters looked. Because of this we wouldn't keep the names we were playing around with as they all centred around the idea that the two characters were the same person (e.g. a War on Two Fronts). We came up with a couple of names to fit the bill including for example guilt and corrupt memory but eventually through lots of group discussions settled on 'Conscience'. We like this title as it incorporates the guilt, and flashbacks and eludes and creates suspicion in regards to the rest of the film. 

Credit to Mariella.

Survey: Audiences Response

Survey: Audiences Response

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DG7NVMC

This is a survey we made once we finish our film opening, so that we can get an effective and easy to handle response as if we to make a paper based copy most people would not fill it out as well as it would prolong the process of the working out the results. The questions that we have included in the survey are what are group best think will give us the most relevant feedback that we need. We will then analyse the results once a good amount of people have watched our opening and stated their opinion of it. These responses will allow us to see if we have met our targets initially set for our group.

Credit to Katy Ward.

Full Cast Roles

Full Cast Roles

Crew
Director -  George Turner
Editor - George Turner
Cinematographer - Mariella Devoil
Producer - Mariella Devoil
Assistant Director - Mariella Devoil
Production Manager - Katy Ward
Art Director - Katy Ward
Hair & Makeup - Mariella Devoil & Mellisa Askew
Costume - Katy Ward
Props - George Turner & Tamara 
Researcher - Katy Ward
Location Scout - Katy Ward
Location Help - Donald & Sheila Turner
Catering - Sheila Turner

Runners / Assistants -
Louise Tomas
Katherine Packer
Shawnean Milton

Special Thanks - Simon Ford & Kate Brown & The Postman

Cast 
Old Man - Frazer Camp
Young Soldier - George Turner
Stunt Man - Ed Cummings

All above credit To Mariella Devoil

Obviously we can't credit these people in the opening sequence like we did in our drafts because it makes the film look unprofessional due to the mentions in it. This mean't that I as the editor only used some peoples names in order to have more than the four-five main people involved. These people were not given roles but instead were put there as their part played in the making of the film was important. For example I used Melisa because the makeup was essential.

Forth Rough Cut Of Our Opening & Improvements To Be Made

• Text change to white not green
• 'Producer and Cinematographer - Mariella Devoil'
• Change title
• Make up production companies -> Copyright issues
• Smaller/ Subtler names
• Consistent placement of names in the bottom left hand corner
• more of a match on action on Frazer on the water scene
• Include the bucket shot?
• 'Set team' take this out  - too ammeter
• Names don't need to be true
• Include surnames
• Aspect Ratio change?

Credit to Mariella for the list

The text is always an issue in this opening because we wanted it broken and jittery but does prove hard to read. To overcome this I made the text bigger however this resulted in the titles being to 'in your face' and taking away from the actual story. To overcome this we are changing the colour to white instead of yellow/green so that it is a bit easier to read. Mariella also wanted to be credited for everything so I have to change that. We also changed the title to Conscience because our previous title is not linked well to our new storyline. I am also keeping the text consistently in the corner because otherwise it is distracting. I again used 'Lionsgate' and I will have to change that to 'Tigersgate' because of copyright grounds. I would change the aspect ratio however it looks ridiculous with the genre of film we chose.

Third Rough Cut Of Our Opening & Improvements To Be Made

• Shot of Frazer looking out the window is still too long
• Sound compression is off, sound effects too loud, backing track too quiet
• At the beginning the gun sound effects should start quiet, and one loud explosion should trigger him waking up

Credit to mariella for the list

For the sound I decided to bring the sound effects down and boost the soundtrack because it seems lost in all the other noise. The to build up the tension my group wanted a build up of noise until he wakes up.

Second Rough Cut Of Our Opening & Improvements To Be Made

• Production companies at the beginning
• Better pacing at the beginning
• No shot variety- of Fraser waking up
• More intercutting - so the audience know right away that it is PTSD 
• No Soundtrack
• POV shot of washing the hands
• Motivation of movement
• Need actual titles
• Hold the flashback and forward shots for an extra second each - the audience is too confused - the cutting is too quick
• Frazers reaction to the flashback in the mirror 
• Inc a shot of the house not exploded
• Inc a sound that makes Frazer want to look out of the window
• Frazer looks out of the window for 3 seconds too long - more consistency in lengths of shots
• The pacing lacks any consistency 
• More high / low / canted / distance - more shot variation
• Maybe needs something at the very beginning  
• Needs more engagement of the character

Credit to Mariella for the list

When I got this list of improvements I immediately looked into what production companies and directors put at the start of their feature films because I wanted to either make out own fake production company or if we lack time just put a name. The pacing was tricky because initially the film was jumping through days but due to complications we decided not to do that, This meant that I had to shorten shots especially the opening ones because they took up a good 25% of the opening. The shot variety was by far my biggest concern because Mr.Ford wanted the shots to always be dead still because otherwise it would show bad camera work. However when on set I decided that we could get away with having a hand held shot if done correctly so I grabbed a few from various distances and the extreme close up worked really well because it varied from the other shots and showed the panic in the character. The intercutting could only be done after our next shoot but will be there in the final film. For the soundtrack I got Katy to research 1940's music continuing on from my earlier research and to pick her three favourites then we picked our favourite two and I dragged each one onto the timeline just hearing the soundtrack without my mix of sound effects. This allowed us to better decide on which we preferred In the end I mixed together my music mix and 'My Little Sunshine' because the upbeat contrasted well and the ending line suited the scene perfectly. The flashback scene didn't mix well so I added in another shot which linked the two together. This allowed for a quick link to be made between the scenes and would avoid the audience being confused. I also have started work on the actual titles and I added in another shot which I felt was needed on set which was Frasers reaction to the flashback. This avoided a reshoot. Instead of just showing the house not exploding I decided to reverse it to provide an imaginary effect denoting that its in his head. For the sound to make him go to the window my group suggested a car however I felt that if we were to go to the window every time we heard a car we would be more like a dog. Therefore I used an air raid siren which would link to the explosion and create tension when the noise builds up. 

The Cameo!

So, due to our younger actor not being on set I had to take the lead role because Mariella with her hair tied back was not going to work. This meant that I had to make myself an actor profile and why I chose myself.

Name: George Turner
Age: 17
Occupation: A level drama student 
Previous work: Youtube videos on 'GeeEpic' and school productions

 The reason I chose myself is because my range of acting abilities are endless. I can range from miming a door to being a young soldier who meets his old best friend when returning from the dead. Furthermore I am reliable and am always on set, this is necessary because we fired the last guy who wasn't... anyway another reason is because of his understanding of film because of the vast amount of videos I have made. this meant that my movements were consistent and easy to edit compared to stage actors who change every scene.

Evaluation Questions For Our Opening Sequence

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



• How does your media product represent particular social groups?



• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?



• Who would be the audience for your media product?



• How did you attract/address your audience?



• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We have much much more skill in terms of lighting and movement shots than we did in our continuity task. 

Improving 'N' Painting Our Props

Yesterday during our single lesson we brought the spray paint as well as the props in as we wanted to make sure they looked authentic and fitted in with the theme and time period of our film. Therefore Katy and I used a hammer and made dents into the bucket so that it would look old/used. Then I then sprayed the bucket with primer/silver spray paint, to cover up the markings that were previously on it. After that I added a little black spray paint to add effect to the look, and as the paint was drying she used other materials to scratch/ mess up the pain to make the bucket look dirty and used.


Then to go into the transformation of the gun, it started off as orange however George decided that he wanted parts to look like more realistic, e.g wood and black metal, so we decided to cover the wood bits up with marking tape as Katy sprayed it. Katy painted the gun and after it was sprayed George added some silver bits of acrylic paint which we mixed up with black to make it darker to make it look even more authentic, this was are final outcome and process.





The last prop we improved was the sack to possibly go over our stunt actors head (undecided due to safety hazards). First I cut it in half as it would be too big on top of his head otherwise, and then I added black and green, in both light and dark shades, to make it look as if it was worn and used giving it more authenticity and a rustic effect.

Credit Mariella

Props

Today during our single lesson we brought the spray paint as well as the props in as we wanted to make sure they looked authentic and fitted in with the theme of our film. Therefore we used a hammer and made ​​dents into the bucket so that it would look old / used, Mariella then added primer / silver and black spray paint to add effect to the look, as the paint was wet she used other material to make the bucket look scratched / misused.

Then to go into the transformation of the gun, it started off as orange however George decided that he wanted parts to look like wood and the rest to be black so we decided to cover the wood bits up with marking tape as we sprayed it, we both contributed to painting the gun and after it was sprayed we added some silver bits of acyrlic paint which we mixed up with black to make it darker to make it look even more authentic, this was are final outcome and process.

The last prop in which we improved today was the sack which will possibly go over are actor head (undecided due to safety hazards), we cut it in half as it would be too big on top of his head otherwise and then added black and green both light and dark to make it look as if it has been used giving it more authenticity. Credit Katy Ward

Test Shots

Our test shots were purely to test our camera, location and our actor. Our actor was now able to experience the character on set for the first time after we had run through what we wanted. We discovered that our shots that involved camera movement would take a lot longer because we didn't have access to a dolly track or any stabilization equipment. This then lead to us having to use the tripod as fly cam tool. The problem with this is that it takes a lot of body movement to bring the camera down from the light, which creates the shaky camera. However the tracking shot from behind (mimicking a dolly shot) surprisingly worked well except for the framing where the head is cut off. Our lighting was poor in these shots due to us not having our lighting equipment.

Shot List

Scene 1
1. extreme close up- shifty eyes
2. medium shot, movement shot - young soldier running
3. medium shot, low angle, still - young soldier running
4. wide angle shot, still- soldier jumping down
5. close up, still - young soldier's face on the ground
Scene 2
6. close up, still, match on action ^ - old mans face
7. wide shot, still / dolly movement - old man sits up
8. extreme close up, still - water rushing out of a tap
9. extreme close up, still, match on action ^ - water rushing out of an old hose pipe
10. mid shot, still - pipe pouring water in to a rusted bucket
11. close up, high angle, still - old man splashes his face with water
12. close up, still, - [i have no idea whats going on in this shot]
13. close up, still, camera faces vertically upwards, match on action ^ - young mans face shoved and held in water. N / B camera will need to be in the water
14. close up, still - old mans hand gripping the basin
Scene 3
15. wide shot, dolly movement / still - old man walking his dog
16. medium shot, pan up - old man looks up (camera follows his gaze)
17. medium shot, pan down, match on action ^ - young man looks down (camera follows his gaze)
18. close up, still - barrel of gun, being shot, mussel flash
19. close up, tracking movement, match on action ^ - lit match to a candle / light bulb
Scene 4
20. medium shot, still - old man lights a candle out of shot (if light bulb this shot is not necessary)
21. medium close up, over shoulder, dolly forward movement - old man looks out of the window
22. close up, still - old man's face curios / knows somethings wrong
23. wide shot, still - though window you see the house opposite explode
24. mid shot, still - flashes between young and old man being horrified and scared
24. mid shot, still - flashes between old and young man being horrified and scared
25. mid shot, tracking movement - young man stumbles backwards
26. wide shot, still - back to house, now in smoke and still aflame
27. mid shot, still - old man falls into wheel chair
28. extreme close up, still - belts wrap around the old mans hands and hold him there, struggling
29. mid shot, low angel tilt, still / movement - young man in wheel chair freaking out
Scene 5
30. close up, still - belt strap becomes hand of carer
31. wide shot, tracking movement, over the shoulder - over young solider shoulder shows old man with a carer and another person
32. mid shot, still - young solider looking worried, watching
33. wide shot, still, over the shoulder - young soldier moves out of shot, old man's eyes following
34. wide shot, dolly movement (out) - slowly moving out, young solider walks half into shot and places his hand on the old mans shoulder. "Child, its time I told you my story": old man.
35. Cut to black. Name of film appears, then fades out.

Credit: Mariella

N / B every shot that is of the young man will be shot handheld, and every shot of the old man will be shot on tripod. This is so the audience are part of the young man's battle, therefore they will empathise with him more.

35 shots
5 scenes
2.5 ish mins
150 ish seconds

Location.

The location for our protagonists house was originally my house. However we soon came to realise that my house, although old was filled with lots of modern technology that we believed someone from the older generation wouldn't have. To overcome this we researched a care home instead. However we thought that it would take to long to get into contact with them and would be inconvenient if we needed to reshoot. 

To overcome this we decided that instead of the care home we looked at other houses belonging to the older generation (grandparents). The decision we made was that our group would film In my grandparents living room and either  have to change the setting of our scene to the living room or have our character go downstairs. 

The reason we chose this location is because it's a genuine elderly persons home, which allows the film opening to become more real and believable for the audience. 

decision

What is copyright and why is is Important?

UWhat is copyright and why is is Important?

It is a legal right made by the government or part of the law to the country. It Benefits the creator of any original work with exclusive rights in equal. This provides the creator with control over the work by use and distribution with all Intentions of Enabling the creator of whatever work is normally specified for a Limited Amount of Time. It is Intellectual Property ownership in the form applicable to any sort of original work. It is MOST USED seen them swear within each of multiple authors say hold equal set of rights to use or license the work in equal ever wish to do so broke, poke people use are referred to either the "right-holders". The rights in equal broke the world have access to is reproduction, distribution, public performance, moral rights or attribution. 

Credit: Katy Ward

 

The reason this  is important is because if we want to use certain music or footage we would have to get permission or film our own. I our film however I be composing the music for our film using either samples I've made or default ones, which are royalty free. 

BrainStorm Film Names

 

 This was a brainstorm we created for our ideas on what we wanted our film to be called. As of yet we haven't decided on a name but we have highlighted certain names. These names either are ones we like or ones that we like the concept of. When creating names we wanted it to link to both the war that our protagonist experienced and the psychological war inside him. Another idea we focused on was the that idea that there was a never ending war inside him, which focused more on the psychological; side of the film.

Costume

 After talking to Mr. Ford about our props the other day we decided to see what school resources we could use in our short film. The first prop in which we decided to search for was the wheel chair, therefore we went to the medical room and asked the nurse if it would be possible for us to borrow the wheel chair, in which she responded to agree as long as she knows where we are with the wheelchair due to incase of an emergency and she needs it back immediately. Due to the wheelchair being a success we moved to our next prop of the World War II helmet which we decided we would search for up in the art department, we went into the cupboard where all the ornaments are kept and asked Delaxie if it was okay for us to borrow the helmet which she responded to agree as well as we saw an old fashioned bucket with she also allowed us to take when needed. However as the hat had minor adjustments made to it by other student we then asked if it was okay to fix the helmet back to how it was for this we had to ask for an art teachers promission so we asked Miss Crow Stewart who was more than happy for us to reconstruct it back to how it was. Therefore I then mixed up some paint until it nearly matched the colour it was and painted over the top of what was already on the helmet, we took some pictures 

Credit Katy

Our Actor

 Name: Fraser Camp
 Age: 16?
 Occupation: A Level
 Previous Roles: School Productions


The reason behind our choice of actor is because he has experience within acting due to him staring in many school performances and drama exams. His role in our film in-tailed him having to play the part of both the older man and the younger man. This would mean that we wouldn't have to  use an older man, which could of created problems due to reliability. This leads onto why we chose him for bone structure, weird as this sounds we could see this actor being an older gentleman. This was important to us because we wanted to sell the illusion that he was older in the modern world and younger within World War Two. To show why we could see this actor as the older character as well, I made him face the sun so he would squint making him look older.

Who's getting what...

Once we had completed our story board we Realised that we needed to update our props list as parts of o ur story line had been adapted. 

Updated props list and who is getting what 

• WW2 Gun - For the main protagonist as a young man [George]

• Modern Tap - For the close ups [location]

• 1940s hose pipe - For boarding [Mariella]

• 1940s bucket (Metal) - For water boarding [Mariella]

• Dog - For old man walking [Katie]

• Dog leed - Old man walking [Katie]

• Match/ lighter - Close ups [George]

• Wheel chair - End scene [George]https://www.wheelfreedom.com/products/adult_wheelchair_hire/lightweight_foldable_wheelchair_hire

• Belt Straps - End scene [George and Mariella]

• Cloth - Waterboarding [Katie]

• Bed [Location]
• helmet [art- will need painting though]Who 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Research

The reason in which we decided researching into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is for the reason that our persona will be suffering from it. Therefore we did not want to start filming or make assumptions on how they would act without even going into any research. 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or a longer term PTSD is an anxiety disorder that is caused due to stressful, frightening or distressing events which have happened within someones past. Events that can lead to a disorder such as this are: 

• Road Accidents.
• Violent, sudden personal assaults such as sexual abuse, mugging or a robbery.
• Consistant sexual abuse, violence or severe neglect.
• Witnessing murders / deaths.
• Military combat.
• Being held hostage.
• Witnessing terrorist attacks such as 911th
• Natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

It can be developed immediately after an experiencing of an event such as the above or it can occur weeks, months or years after the event. It develops in about 1 out of 3 people who experience severe trauma which can not be explained why some people experience it and some people can go without it.

People with PTSD their brain has parts involved in emotional processing appear different and brain scans. One part of the brain is responsible for the memory and emotions that us as humans consume which is known as the hippocampus. People with PTSD their hippocampus appears smaller in size. It is thought to be that the changes in this part of the brain can be related to fear and anxiety, memory problems and flashbacks. If the hippocampus malfunctions and may prevent flashbacks and nightmares from being properly processed, therefore the anxiety they begin to generate does not reduce over any time period. Treatment of PTSD results in processing their memories so that over time the flashbacks and nightmares will eventually and gradually disappear.

Credit: Katy Ward

Animatic

We made an animatic showing all the shots within our film. This allowed us to see if our idea actually fitted the marks scheme for example the dedicated time limit. However the time that this animatic is actually is shorter than what we originally wanted. This was due to some of the shots being shorter than original idea because of no dialogue or sound leaving it the animatic with an exsrtention of silence

CrossHair Official Film (Typography Practice)

Typography Practice

As the main editor in the group I felt that it was important to practice my typography before we had even shot the film so that I could develop my understanding and skill on it. The reason for this is because I want to be able to achieve what ever effect we desire without wasting time learning to edit it. In this final title screen I felt that for a first attempt this was not to bad because it went in time with the non diegetic soundtrack and came in and out without any jujump cuts or bad editing. However I do think I could've used a variety of texts to make certain words stand out.

To make this I was going to use after effects but that crashed so I took the long route and used final cut's built in motion software.
Firstly I had to cut out Joe, which I'm supposed to use a mask for in after effects however that was unavailable so I just did it on photoshop using a freeze frame from the video.

Then I had to get a text. I spent a good forty minutes looking through texts because I wanted one that looked right and fitted the tone of my film. Before I chose the text I used I tried western fonts because I thought this title screen could be similar to 'The good the bad and the ugly' because of the use of red. However I decided to go down another root and looked at more modern texts.

To add some depth I used a grunge background to have my freeze frame on. Another thing I added was the smoke. I got this from an earlier film poster, which I made for this film. The text had to be made so that they interacted with each other this took a long time because I had to use lots of key frames.

Main Problems

Within the making of this film we are going to encounter a lot of problems along the way. One of the best ways I believe to tackle those problems is looking at them early on, this is why I have listed some of our initial problems with the film.

The first problem is a big one... actors. Although we only have about four characters but one splits into a possible two roles their age is a problem. The reason for this is our main protagonist is considerably older than any of the students or teachers at Chalfonts. The reason is because we want someone this age is because they have to look like a World War Two veteran. This is going to be very hard to find someone that age willing to act for free.
Our initial thoughts on this problem was to use grandparents from our families to act in it but this film is going to take up a lot of they're time so we decided that we needed a back up plan. A way around this is using the young actor as the older man as well by using makeup or a mask.

Another problem is to do with location such as the retirement home and the battlefield because these locations are specific and require a lot of aspects that have to be right. The battlefield for example can't have anything modern on  it within the shot because this would take the audience out of the time zone therefore ruining the film. To avoid this I made sure that the war scenes were medium or close ups so that not much of the background is seen. Another option is to have the flashbacks take place in a kind of cross over time zone where the young character is back in World War Two but this takes place in the current year. This would avoid the problem of the background however I don't think this would be as gripping as the first idea.

Lastly the visual effects, this isn't as much of a problem as the other two because I can just learn how to do them effectively. However I think it would be important to have some test shots for the visual effects and transitions because then we will have confidence in what we are doing.