Evaluation

For our evaluation we decided to record it using a dictaphone as there were others in the class who still needed to film. However when we tried to upload the sound clip to the blog we found that only movies or pictures could be uploaded so we used Garage Band and iMovie to create our evaluation piece.

Audience Response

After we completed our film, 'If Only', we showed it to a few people and asked them to answer a few questions that we had prepared. After this we then responded to what the audience had said and put it all into a powerpoint using a programme online called Prezi. Below is a link the the presentation that we made on prezi.com:
Audience Response Presentation

Completed Film - "If Only"

After looking back over our film we decided that it would be best to add background music to the opening credits and also towards the ending of the film opening. We decided to use sad sounding music as we thought it would have more of an effect on the audience. The music played during the opening credits is a sound clip that we downloaded from freesound.org and then put it into GarageBand to make it long enough to fit the opening credits. We also downloaded Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts instrumental for the ending of the film. We then had to use GarageBand again to cut the first 7 seconds of the song away as the version we downloaded didn't start until 7 seconds in. We then added both of these into the film at the appropriate times and adjusted them in iMovie to ensure the timing was correct and the sound clips were long enough.

Final Film Idea

This is the final idea we had for our two-minute film opening and it shows how far we have progressed the original idea and filming. This film is a lot shorter than our original idea so we decided to add opening credits to the beginning of the film opening to make it look more professional. We have also decided to add background music to two parts of the film opening to add to the intended effect.

Production Logo

For our film we decided that in the opening credits we would like to use a Production Logo. First of all we came up with the name "Aziz Productions" as the name for our production company. We then used Photoshop to create the logo using a range of tools to make it look like a chalkboard effect to show the creative side of the company. We then used iMovie to place this image of the logo for our production company onto the opening credits of the film. We feel this logo looks realistic and is a good representation of our imaginative work.

Original Film Idea

For our two-minute film opening we came up with two different ways to use the recorded work. Our original idea is below and lasts for 1 minute and 53 seconds. After creating this one we thought it did not have the desired effect that we had hoped for so we re-edited the shots to create an alternative opening. If we had used this one we would have inserted the credits onto the film itself while the two actors were walking in the first shot. Although this is closer to our final draft idea we decided against using it as the final product due to the other opening reaching the effectiveness of which we intended.

Shot List

Below is the table we made of our shot list which includes all of the shots we have used, possible issues we thought we might have came across and also whether or not the shot worked while we were filming.

List of Shots	Possible Issues	Is the Shot Okay?
Long wide shot of the street with the actors walking along.	The actor not walking in the same pace and not being able to zoom in at the right time.	The shot worked well when filming but we did have to do a re-take to get it right.
Long shot of the actors sitting down.	We do not see any possible issues with this shot other than framing.	We believe this was our best shot and had no issues when filming.
Mid-shot zoomed to extreme close-up on eyes.	Issue on zooming in because the button on the camera is broke making it difficult to zoom in and out.	Although the zoom button was broken we feel that this shot has worked very well other than not being able to zoom in as close as we would have liked.
Extreme close-up of other eyes.	Zooming in at the right pace, making sure the timing is correct is difficult.	We feel that we did well with this shot as it went straight from one person’s eyes to another’s.
Extreme close-up zooms out into close-up of the face.	Keeping the camera at the right angle and zooming out at a steady pace.	We managed this well and we are happy with how the shot turned out.
Wide long shot of person sitting alone to create isolation.	We see no possible issues for this shot.	We had no issues when filming this shot.
Long shot of person walking alone.	Being able to move the camera quick enough may be a little difficult because of the zoom button, which could cause the quality to not be at its best.	For this shot we tried a number of ways of filming this until we were happy with the result.
Tracking shot following the person up the path.	An issue we may have is getting the right amount of framing to ensure it looked the same as the scene before.	We were happy with the tracking shot and how realistic the movement looked.
Mid-shot of person opening the door and stepping inside.	Being able to keep the camera steady, as the cameraman will be walking behind the actor to use the tracking shot.	The camera was held steady without the tripod and the shot worked well.
The camera zooming in to follow then zooming out as the door is shut.	The timing of the door shutting and the camera zooming out may be a little off.	We are happy with this shot and we came across no issues while filming.

Tester Eye Shot

For our film idea we wanted to be able to zoom in on the eye of one character then switch to the eye of the main character to zoom out on. We hoped that the shot would be able to go right into the pupil to make it look black before zooming out of the blackness to the main characters eye. To see if this would work we first tested it before filming. We found that with the camera we were using we would not be able to zoom in on a single eye without the quality of the shot becoming blurred. To work around this we decided it would be best to zoom in on both eyes of the first character and then switch to a shot of the main characters eyes to zoom out on. We found that this worked, as it was no longer giving a blurred shot but think that if we had been able to use or original idea it would have worked better. Below is a recording of our tester eye shot.

Peer Assessment

We wrote down a brief description of our film and handed out what we had wrote to five of our peers. They then assessed our idea for our film without seeing any of the filming we were going to use and wrote down their thoughts. We received a lot of positive feedback from our peers which helped us to make any final adjustments we needed to make before starting the filming.

Photos of Locations

We took pictures of the possible locations we would be using to do the filming of our two-minute film opening. After looking over the pictures we decided on area's we thought would be best to use for the filming. Below are the locations that we have decided to use for our filming.

This shows where we plan to do the first section of our filming showing the path we will be using and also the wall. It also shows the position of the camera where we hope we will be able to record from.

The above image shows the areas where the rest of the filming will be taking place. It also shows the areas of where the camera will hopefully be positioned.

RECCE

Location

The location we’ve chosen to record our two-minute film opening is close to Chelsea’s house.  We have chosen this area because it is an easy place to get to with a bus station close by. It also has a wall near it which is what our opening will be filmed around.

Advantages

The advantage of having this location is that its always available, we will most likely have good lighting with it being outdoors and we can easily go back to it if we needed to re-shoot any parts.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of this may be if people get in the way of our shots such as members of the public. Travel may also be an issue for the bus timetables, however, we will be able to check the bus schedule beforehand. Also due to the seasons changing the nights are getting darker which means we will have to ensure the timing for each part of the opening is timed right so it doesn’t suddenly go dark and also that we ensure we finish so that everyone can get safely home.

Health & Safety

There are some health and safety factors that must be considered when filming our opening. One would be travelling home afterwards, we would have to ensure that everyone got home safely. To do this we would have to make sure all filming is done before a certain time. Another issue is making sure there is nothing in the area that could harm us such as broken glass. Before filming we would have to ensure to check that there is nothing that could be harmful. A health issue could be staying out in the cold too long as there would be a possibility of someone becoming sick. To ensure this doesn’t happen we would have to ensure we had regular chances to go inside and warm up and we should also wear warm clothing. This wouldn’t be too difficult as we would be filming close to Chelsea’s house.

Draft Ideas For Our Film

We came up with a range of ideas for how we could make our two-minute film opening. Below are the different draft ideas that we had.

First Draft

Our first idea was to do the filming of a person coming in from the cold and sitting alone on a sofa and have a close up of the person crying. They would then go into a flashback of them self and their sister sitting together on a wall talking. The reason we decided not to use this idea is that we thought it would be better to show the flashback first as it would reinforce the feeling of isolation and loss.

Second Draft
Our second draft started with the flashback of the sisters walking and talking, they then sat down on a wall and continued talking. The camera then cuts to a close up on the main characters face with their eyes closed. While still in a close up they open their eyes and say "If Only". The camera is then taken into a wide long shot of the main character sitting alone on the wall looking upset. This shot will enhance the feeling of isolation as it will show that there is no one around her and that she is alone. She then gets up and walks home and goes into her house and the film ends with her walking through the door. We felt this was better than the first draft but still had other ideas for what we could do.

Third Draft

For our third draft we added more detail to aspects like the flashback and also came up with an idea to have the camera fade to black and then come out from an extreme close up on the main characters eye into a close-up of their. This would show the character looking sad and they would then say "If Only". The camera would then cut into a wide long shot of the character sitting on the same wall as in the flashback but this time they would be alone. She would then stand up and walk home and the door would be shut on the camera as though she was shutting the audience out and further isolating herself from the world.

Final Draft

After looking at the other three drafts we came up with the idea for our final draft piece. We took ideas from the other drafts that we liked and thought would work well in creating the effect we were looking for. We decided that it would be good to have the characters walking and then sitting on a wall showing that they were having a good time. After thinking about different eye shots we could do we came up with the idea that the camera could zoom in on the eye of the person who has died and then zoom out of the eye of the living person after they have come out of the flashback. We then decided to show the isolation with the use of a long wide shot of the person sitting alone on the wall before walking home alone. Another idea was to have the camera follow the person up the footpath and the door closing as if shutting the camera and also the rest of the world out.

Mood Board

For our Media AS coursework we had to come up with ideas for our 2 minute film opening. There were a number of basic ideas that we thought we could use which we wrote down before deciding which we wanted to use. After we had decided we represented all of the different aspects of the main idea in a Mood Board. We then outlined all the ideas we thought of in a coloured pen to show which idea's we decided on using.

Audiences

Each film has an audience that it was aimed at which are to do with age range, gender, interests, genre, media habits, and sub-cultures. We have analyzed each of our inspirational texts to find out what audience each was aimed at and also to give us an idea of the audience we should be aiming to attract.

About Schmidt

This film was awarded an age certificate of 15 mostly due to the strong language, which occurs throughout the film. This will limit the target audience although it will not have that much impact as we feel the film is most likely to appeal to a more narrow older audience, about 35 or over and may also appeal to cinephiles (those who regularly visit the cinema). ‘About Schmidt’ may appeal to Jack Nicholson fans in particular, as this film was the winner of two Golden Globe Awards. One was for Best Actor awarded to Jack Nicholson. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards, one being the Best Actor award for Jack Nicholson. ‘The Guardian’ even commented ‘A Masterpiece, Nicholson gives one of his finest performances’. We feel our target audience will be similar to that of ‘About Schmidt’ because both aim to make the audience feel emotional with the themes presented and hope the audience can on some level relate these.

P.S. I Love You

This film is a Romantic/Drama and is rated PG 13 due to sexual references and brief nudity. This would limit the audience, as some parents would not allow their children to see such things. Also due to the genre of this film; the audience is more likely to be more female than male and also from the ages of teen to mid to late twenties. A number of names such as Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank and other would draw audiences from past films. This film was also originally a book and would make a number of people who read the book want to see this film. We think that this is a similar audience to what we would like as we also have similar themes.

Remember Me

This film is a Romantic/Drama with an age certificate of 12 which is most likely due to the fact of some language used. We think that the target audience is more aimed at females from teenagers to women in their mid to late twenties. However this film would also appeal to fans of Twilight and possibly Harry Potter as Robert Pattinson appears in both films and is the main character in Remember Me. Robert was also awarded the Choice Movie Actor: Drama Award in the Teen Choice Awards in 2010 for his role in Remember Me. Emilie De Ravin also starred in films such as The Hills Have Eyes and Santa’s Slay which may also help to draw an audience from those who enjoyed those films. Remember Me was given a 4 star review from the Daily Mirror and The People whereas Now gave it a 5 star review. This would probably have a similar audience to ours with the theme of loss.

Our Audience

We feel that our audience will be along the same lines of the audiences of these films. This is due to the similar aspects such as loss. Our film will have an audience that is more aimed at females around the ages of teens to late twenties which we feel is a more narrow audience range. We also feel that people who are more middle aged would be less likely to wish to see this film. It is most likely to attract an audience that regularly go to the cinema but may also appeal to those who do not go as much. This film would be more likely to appeal to an audience who likes to see a happy ending at the end of a film which again makes the audience more narrow than mainstream. Our film will have aspects of drama due to the loss represented in the opening which would appeal to a more narrow audience.

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema (or New Line) was founded in America in 1967 by Robert Shayne and Michael Lynne. It was originally formed as a film distributor before becoming an independent film studio.

In 1976 New Line gained the funding needed to produce its first full length film which was released in 1977. In 1981 and 1983, New Line produced three more films one of which (Polyester) had a sensory side to it as the audience were provided with scratch and sniff cards.

The first really successful film produced by New Line, after it suffered financial difficulties, was A Nightmare on Elm Street which was released in 1984. After this success, New Line went on to make a further two A Nightmare on Elm Street films which were each more successful than the last.

In 1993, New Line was bought by Ted Turner and became part of the Turner Broadcasting System which merged with Time Warner in 1996. Although the other studios owned by Turner merged with Warner Bros., New Line stayed as a separate film industry until 2008. However, even though now merged with Warner Bros, it was announced that New Line would continue producing its own films still under the name of New Line but releasing a smaller number of films than in past years.

Institutions

All films have institutions that produce and distribute the films. It is the names of the people who produce the films and the companies that distribute them that draw the attention of the audience. This is because if the audience have seen other films by these institutions they are more likely to see the new film if they enjoyed the other films and when they see films that are out by the same distribution company, they will also advertise a few other films in the opening credits.

About Schmidt

This film was directed by Alexander Payne who has also directed “Election”, “Jurassic Park III”, “Sideways” , “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”, “Gray Matters”, etc. These are all award winning films and have a budget in millions. New Line Cinema distributed “About Schmidt” whilst Michael Besman and Harry Gittes produced it.

P.S. I Love You

This film was directed by Richard LaGravense; who is best known for his work “The Fisher King”, and produced by Wendy Finerman, Brodricj Johnson, Andrew Kosove and Molly Smith. They have also produced films such as “The Devil Wears Prada”, “The Blind Side”, “Stepmom”, etc and have a number of successful films. This film was distributed by three well known institutions; Summit Entertainment, Momentum Pictures and Warner Bros. Each of these would have helped to attracted a wider audience.

Remember Me

This film was directed by Allen Coulter; who also directed “Hollywoodland”, and was produced by Nicholas Osborne, Trevor Engelson, Erik Feig and Robert Pattinson. Remember Me was distributed by Summit Entertainment which would help to draw an audience from people who have enjoyed films from this institution in the past.

Summit Entertainment seems to be well known for distributing films like “Remember Me”, “Twilight”, “Penelope”, etc. These seem to be more aimed towards the teenage to mid to late twenties females. These films are known to be “Chick Flicks”. They are a fairly successful institution but have had a couple of films that haven’t worked as well.

Warner Bros. is known for distributing a wide range of films from a number of different genres. They usually appeal to a wider audience due to the carrying films for age range and gender. They are a successful distribution institution due to people recognising the name.

Momentum Pictures distribute a range of different film with different genres. This will appeal to a wider audience range as there are films for different age ranges, genders and different people’s interests. They have had a lot of success with the films they have distributed and are a fairly well known name.

New Line Cinema seem to distribute a range of films from different genres. However in the past their films seemed to be more Thriller, Action and Horror films but have become more varied since the merge with Warner Bros.

We feel like the industry that is more likely to distribute a film like ours would probably be Summit Entertainment or possibly New Line Cinema as they have distributed two of our inspirational texts.

Inspirational Films

There are three films which really inspired us and gave us creative ideas for our Media Studies AS Level coursework. 'P.S I Love You' is composed of the same themes that we are planing to use for the opening of our film which consists of loneliness and loss in a strong relationship. 'About Schmidt' features similar themes with the main character being portrayed as isolated and actually quite delicate which we wish to portray of the character in our opening. The third film which we find an inspiration is 'Remember Me'. As well as sharing similar themes of sadness and loss to our film, the main inspiration we take from this film, especially the particular clip we have attached, is the many various camera angles used and the background music that is played. This clip demonstrates mid-shots, long shots, zooming, close ups and the camera is positioned in higher angles, straight on and is seen panning. We have uploaded to our blog, a scene from each film which we feel best relate to our opening and inspire us most.

P.S. I Love You

This film is about a young widow who was happily married and was deeply in love with her husband. The female lead character discovers that her late husband has left her 10 meaningful letters before his death with the intent to help ease her pain and help her continue to life her life once he has passed away. This film is an inspiration for our film as it is also about loneliness and loss which are the main ideas for our film opening. It includes the theme of the loss of a relationship which is relevant to our film as we plan to also show the loss of a loved one of the main character. The clip attached has given us ideas on how to act and display our emotions and possible body language. The themes are very similar to ours and the director has made the scenes more effective.

About Schmidt

‘About Schmidt’, starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Alexander Payne, features a strong theme of loss. His character comes to several crossroads in his life when his wife suddenly dies which also brings the themes of sadness and loneliness to the movie.  We see this as inspirations for the opening of our film as we plan to highlight these themes in the scene we shoot for the opening. Our film and ‘About Schmidt’ could not be classified as a ‘family film’. This is because of the themes, which make the films more mature, and very delicate, which in our opinion are not appropriate or suitable for the whole family. ‘New Line Cinema’ distributed ‘About Schmidt’, whilst Michael Besman and Harry Gittes produced it. On the critic’s site www.rottontomatoes.co.uk, it is praised with many comments stating they were ‘deeply moved’ by the film. Another critic comments ‘About Schmidt is undoubtedly one of the finest films of the year’. It received an average rating of 7.7 out of 10.

Remember Me

Produced by Nicholas Osborne, Trevor Engelson, Erik Feig and Robert Pattinson, Remember me is a Romantic/Drama film, which incorporates the theme of loss. It in centred around Tyler (Robert Pattinson) and Ally (Emilie de Ravin) who both have lost loved ones in their lives. They meet and fall in love but of course, it is not that simple as they came together through a bet Tyler made with a friend. Ally discovers, but later things are resolved. The section of the film we take inspiration from is further towards the end when Tyler is killed in the Twin Towers attack. Various camera shots and angles then capture the reactions and emotions to his death by different people in his life, and then how they handled it and moved forward in their own life. 'Remember Me' is a inspiration for the ways it displays the emotions of sadness and the camera shots and angles used.