Evaluation

Using the evaluation questions

Throughout planning and filming, we used multiple sources to help us gain the marks we needed. We also took note of the evaluation questions which we felt would aid us in planning.

• 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 considered each question carefully and reflected regularly  ensuring we would gain high marks and make evaluating the project easier. These questions also steered part of our development as it opened us up to the idea of targeting a particular audience which further led us to decide on taking a more political approach to the idea of a terrorist. This spurred the idea of the threat video and moved us away from the idea of using much action in our opening.

We also decided that we would aim for a different take of the thriller genre due to the first question. This is mostly apparent in the music choice as we decided not to use a generic thriller soundtrack for the opening. However, we eventually decided that a more conventional soundtrack suited the opening much better. 

Oblivious (final cut)

This final cut includes all that our group have been working towards for the past few months, a 2 minute opening to a thriller including most of what was on the mark scheme. This cut of course includes the soundtrack we felt suited the piece more, as well as changes in shots and titles present in previous drafts. Overall, I feel that this piece has been greatly improved from the first draft due to criticism from the teacher and other peers as well as a greater understand in film making.

4th draft

This draft includes all the re-shot footage including the threat video in the beginning which wasn't present in the previous drafts. Personally I felt that the titles used were a bit too overwhelming, which most of the group agreed on. Therefore the final cut would include smaller and possibly less titles as well as new soundtrack which was decided during the editing process of this draft. Another change, again, would be the extension of some shots and removal of others in order to change up the pace of the final sequence. Overall though, most of the group as well as the teacher were happy with where the project was going, and we were anxious to complete the final cut.

3rd draft feedback

The main focus from now on was sound, as teachers and ourselves were equally unhappy with the music currently chosen and volume of the bomb ticking. From now on my group and I each searched for a more suitable soundtrack, whilst Benoit made final changes to the edit; cutting out some unnecessary footage and replacing it with longer shots.

The music we finally settled on was a more up-beat and generic thriller track which felt much more authentic and suited to the track. However, as we were still undecided whilst editing the fourth draft, it is only included in the final cut.

3rd draft

Again, much like the 1st and 2nd drafts, we had still not fully edited the font and colour correction. This was due to the expectancy of another editing session to improve on the flaws of this draft. In saying that, we felt that we had almost finished this project as all the footage was acquired and up to standard, and we believed we would not need to re-shoot. Main differences in this draft are with the editing throughout, and camera work in the final school sequence. The most noticeable improvement is that that sequence is far more fluid due to the use of still shots. Additionally, the hold on Joseph's stare towards the end creates tension, the angle of the camera also helps to build this as it is angled almost directly into his eyes from Ashley's point of view.

Filming 3rd draft

Unfortunately I wasn't present for the re-shoots for the second draft, so Jordan and Matthew decided to help out by acting as students in the classroom alongside Ashley. The re-shoots went according to plan as we were well prepared and had discussed what shots we would be taking before shooting. As we had already re-shot, we wanted to ensure we didn't have to yet again, so took multiple takes that would enable Benoit and myself to edit them together and change what worked. In this draft, we mostly focused on the camera work as Mr. Ford had made comments on the way the camera moved during shots- stating that tracking and panning shots were often unnecessary. Therefore, most shots are still; making the transitions more fluid. Not much else changed in these re-shoots, so yet again we did not draw up another storyboard.

2nd draft feedback

As we had used the editing list after the first draft, most of the feedback was positive. However there were, as expected, still minor edits that we must make in order to produce our final piece to the best standard we can achieve. For example, our teacher and other people we had screened the second draft too had made various comments on the music chosen. Although it connoted that the character Joseph was disturbed, it was fairly overpowering and moved a bit too far away from the 'thriller' genre. In order to change this, our group began to focus on searching for music during lessons, as well as discussing further changes we needed to make for our third draft.

Another change we had decided on was cutting out some filler clips, such as walking, and replacing them with extended shots of Joseph's stare to create suspense, as well as more dialogue. This slowed the pace of transitions and lowered the length of some shots towards the end; making them less frantic and more calm and systematic. This reflected Joseph as a character, as he is much less active when in school.

2nd draft

As we planned on re-shooting some shots as well as deciding on which font to use, we did not include titles or colour correction in this edit. Instead, we have just replaced footage from the old draft with the new re-shot footage. Our group was mostly happy with the footage we had taken by this point and decided that the only re-shoots possibly needed would be one's from the school scene.

Filming 2nd draft

For our second draft we decided to re-shoot the majority as there were multiple changes we had to make. This took up a lot of time, therefore Ashley was unable to make it to the re-shooting at Elk meadows, however he did view the footage before it was edited- giving his input.

Before filming at Elk meadows, we re-shot the footage at school which went rather smoothly. We added extra dialogue as we felt that a discussion between two people would gain more marks that just one persons dialogue alone.

In doing this, the character of 'Joseph' was better established as we were able to present his calmness and other persona when in public. This adds to the creepy and thrilling nature of Joseph. As we did not change too much, we decided not to draw out a storyboard, and instead proceed with filming in order to keep the project moving and allowing more time for re-shoots.

Filming at Elk meadows again was just as beneficial. We decided to shoot in the evening in order to acquire darker lighting to fit the opening threat video which is set in the morning- when it would be dark.

This shoot went very quickly as we understood the set more and had less camera angles and shots to decide on. Most shots were kept the same, we just ensured there was no shaky-cam or bad match-on-action between shots, unlike last time. This greatly improved the look of some shots when reviewing the footage. Unfortunately, as Ashley could not make it, preparing the scene took a little bit longer.

Title sequence planning

My group and I each had input in deciding what our titles would be for the final cut, and stuck to that for most drafts. Benoit done most of the editing for this point in as they were only small jobs which he was capable of achieving himself.

The font we decided on was very similar to that of the opening title, however we did change it throughout drafts as we felt it could be improved multiple times.

The final choice was clean and small; enabling the viewer to focus most of their attention towards what was going on in the shot as oppose to being distracted by an overly large title.

Evaluation after first draft (editing list)

After showing the teacher our first draft he gave us very useful feedback which we will take into filming our next draft. We have added our own notes as well as points made by Mr.Ford into this editing list.

Overall we are happy with our first draft as the feedback was somewhat positive, meaning the improvements we need to make are clear and achievable. Hopefully, we will only need to re-shoot once or twice in order to achieve reasonably high marks on our coursework.

Final piece (draft #1)

(1st draft)

This draft is far off of our final piece as we had not yet edited in the titles and final audio pieces which we may dub in. This is just a rough idea of the shots we will use which has helped us to decide on changes we will make in the second draft, which we will again re-shoot at least one more time.

Editing 1st draft

Here is Benoit's blog post on editing the first draft:

'Preview screen from the editing session'

For the first editing session my aim was to at least have a complete draft of our entire sequence that only included the footage itself without the credits or any other visuals added within post-production.

As the director of this project I wanted to approach this editing session with the intentions of taking the footage we had captured throughout the entire course of filming and then edit the sequence to match frame by frame with the animatic. 

'Editing timeline from the rough-cut'

I approached this idea by overlapping the edit I had made for the animatic with the footage for the sequence to ensure that the shots played for the exact amount of time it was intended to last instead of possibly changing the way we planned the sequence to be.

Once the sequence had been assembled, co-editor 'Jamie Gerrish' and I spent a large amount of time playing the sequence repeatedly and analysing our project in order to then see what's the most logical way to handle our project throughout the rest of post-production.

After Jamie and I spent while screening the sequence, we had compiled a list on what needs to be altered within the edit of our sequence; we then came to a conclusion that we must re-shooting the entire sequence. This decision was made after looking at the footage we had already taken and realising what worked and what didn't; then caused us to learn from our first attempt and execute it better in the re-shoots.

Once we all had got together as a group, we all had watched the sequence then Jamie and I explained our thoughts on what we need to change in terms of the editing of the sequence but also explaining why we should re-shoot the entire project. Once the rest of our group had understood our judgement and came to terms with this idea we all collectively agreed on the decision.

Personally I found screening the first draft very insightful as it gave both Benoit and myself many ideas of things we needed to change in the re-shoots. After consulting with our teacher and the rest of our group we made a list of parts of the opening that we needed to fix or change completely.

Filming final piece (At Elk Meadows)

As we had already prepped the set for our opening the day before, we began early so we could complete filming for the day. However, as it was very sunny outside, the lighting was inappropriate for the threat video at the start. Despite this, we decided to go ahead and film it as this would only be one draft of many that we would change later in the course.

Everything else was already prepped and I assisted Benoit with selecting shots and camera angles as well as recording the audio. Ashley managed us and ensured we stayed on schedule as well as obtaining all the shots we needed. Most things went according to plan, however we decided to move away from the storyboard slightly in order to save time for extra footage, and acquire some more interesting shots.

(Shot of Aayush as Joseph)

Already we had began to take notes of assets we would change for the next draft. For me, as cinematographer, I was looking mostly at the mis-en-scene and how come colours related to the character 'Joseph' and what significance to the story they had. For instance, warm colours connote danger and anger are lacking on most shots. One way around this would be to colours correct the shots with an orange filter, but we will see if that works during editing.

Music and dialogue

My group and I have each discussed multiple ideas for music we should use throughout our piece, each giving equal contribution. This was one of the areas of production that our group had not fully researched, therefore we drafted ideas together and tested them with the animatic before shooting.

Two films that come to mind when finding the most effective uses of music are 'American Psycho' and 'Reservoir dogs'. Each film uses music to juxtapose the nature of the scene, signifying the character in shot is either disturbed and calm about a gruesome or horrific situation. This use of music is very relevant to our own project as 'Joseph' is a very disturbed character whose radical nature drives the plot line at the opening of the film. Therefore we are considering using a feel-good and light-hearted track for Joseph to listen to whilst finalizing the bomb and carrying it into school.. Furthermore, this choice of music is different to the music used in most modern thrillers; breaking the stereotype.

We have also decided on using another atmospheric track to create a more suspenseful and thrilling tone. This will be played all the way throughout the opening as it is completely non-diagetic and has no relationship with the music Joseph is listening to. During editing and drafting we will decide on a final choice for which song we will use, but for now we have rough ideas to build on when the time comes.

Filming final piece (at school)

Before filming at school, we decided to location scout to find a suitable location that would compliment the storyboard. For this we found two main locations, a corridor to show the subject entering the school, and our classroom where we would film the end of our piece.

After deciding on the two area we would shoot, we began to clear the sets, this mainly involved re-positioning stationary in order to give Joseph more space on screen whilst still signifying he is in a school. There were no other props we needed to include other than the bag Joseph would be carrying and then laying down by his chair.

Whilst filming the shots we would use, we used my phone to record audio to get clearer dialogue with less background noise and interference than if we were using the camera mic. We planned to then sync this audio with the footage during the editing process. Myself and Ashley also feature in the opening now as we decided having 'students' in the class would make the school look more believable.

We may also change this scene in our second draft to include dialogue from Ashley and/or myself as we feel a conversation will enable us to explore new areas of filming audio and possibly gain us higher marks.

Set for final piece

For the part of our opening which is to be filmed outside of school, we are simply looking for a room with a table and office chair. We decided to film at a guest house which included all the necessities after Benoit had been location scouting.

Before filming, each member of the group brought their props to the location to set up before filming. We then developed the set into how it would look for the final shoot. As we will most likely re-shoot after the first draft, we only made make-shift props, for instance the desk, chair and bomb will be changed before the final cut.

In order to achieve low-key-lighting we blocked up natural light from windows as much as we could, then used a table lamp which would focus on the objects being filmed, whilst keeping the subject mostly in the dark. This enabled for the character to look more mysterious when filming.

Discussing film name

Throughout planning and researching my group and I have thought of multiple names for the film. For our final title we are looking for something thrilling as well as relating heavily to the characters personality and intentions which will initially drive the film.

Here are some rough ideas for names we have drafted for the film:

- Oblivious
- Snake of England
- Interloper
- Joseph

We decided on the name Oblivious because it's short and clean as well as tying into the plot of the film. It directly relates to the protagonist 'Joseph' and how everyone perceives him in a way that is heavily contrasted to his actual intentions.
This is possibly the most thrilling part of the film as the opening focus' on establishing Joseph and signifying that nobody else is aware or suspects his role as a terrorist.

Prop selection

For props, we mostly need scraps of work and tools as well as the bomb. The tools are required to make Josephs desk look messy, signifying that the bomb is homemade as well as enforcing the intelligence and dedication of Joseph in achieving his goal. The tools which I will provide will consist of items such as screws, wire cutters, screwdrivers etc...

I have also been given the task of making the bomb which I have aimed to look like a block of C4. The draft bomb has been made using wires, candle sticks wrapped in packing tape, and an old clock. For the final bomb I will not use a standard clock as we want the time to stay still and not count down. This enables us to film multiple shots of Joseph crafting without the clock counting up or down. I will also try to make the bomb timer lit so that it is clearer to the audience as we are using low-key lighting. This reinforces it's significance in the scene.

Further props include article cut-outs as well as propaganda featuring previous terrorist attacks. This establishes the motive of Joseph, introducing the idea that he is obsessed with terrorism, aiming to perform an attack of his own.

Each of the props we are using therefore add to Josephs character development which we feel is important in the opening, by introducing these props gradually, the audience will become more intrigued and disturbed by the character Joseph. 

Costumes for final piece

We will only focus on one character in the opening; Joseph played by Aayush. Our goal for his costume is to have his clothes and acting from in school to outside of school to contrast one another. Therefore he will be wearing dark clothes (connoting danger) when he is outside of school, then lighter clothes (connoting innocence) inside of school. This will reflect his change in personality within the two environments, as secretly he is a terrorist, but in public he presents himself as a normal student in order to blend in with the other students.

In addition to this, when in school Joseph will have to look more nerdy to compliment his disguise. We have therefore decided that in school Joseph will wear both a fully buttoned up light shirt as well as glasses.

When Joseph films his threat video he will be most immersed in his terrorist personality, therefore he will be wearing the darkest and bold clothing. He will also be very well covered up, not revealing his identity, so a mask will be used, both disguising him and creating mystery.

Whilst assembling the bomb, Joseph will be wearing his school clothes, just without the glasses as well as his shirt being unbuttoned. This signifies he is in transition between the two personalities.

Jobs for our group

After evaluating each others strengths during the continuity task we have a better understanding of who will be given which tasks when planning/filming/editing our final piece.
Here are the roles we have decided.

Benoit - Director, writer and editor.

Jamie - Co-editor, writer and cinematographer.

Aayush - Story-writer and actor.

Ashley - Co-editor and cinematographer.

Each member of the group will have input on deciding on mis-en-scene, shots and sound before and during filming. However, me and Benoit will be writing most of the screenplay and directing Aayush, hence we both drew the storyboard.

Shot list for final piece

To ensure we met the 2 minute time frame with out final piece we decided to write a shot list from our storyboard. This will also guide us when filming to know which shots are required. I am happy with the variety of shots we have chosen, although we may cut up some shots when filming to give multiple perspectives on objects and the character; this will also aid our match-on-action objective.

Storyboarding final piece

As I had been given the role of co-editor and writer, I drew out and planned the storyboard along with Benoit (the director). Our goal was to make the shots as fluid as possible with match-on-action and fluid transitions. Whilst storyboarding, Benoit and I discussed other film-making techniques we could us to present the character as deranged and mysterious. This led to us deciding to use low-key-lighting in the first few shots, as well as choosing the most important aspects of mis-en-scene, for example: the items on the desk would relate to the bomb; the colours featured should convey danger and mystery etc...

We then decided that these features could play in contrast to the one's used when filming in school. In effect a clear divide between the two locations, and the characters personality in these locations, would be signified more clearly.

Therefore, high-key-lighting will be used when in school, where as low-key-lighting will be used in his own environment. In addition to this the diegetic music will also fade out when in school to establish that the subject is trying to appear less disturbed in order to fit in.

As the genre we are aiming for is 'thriller', the shots chosen had to build up tension in some way. We decided the best way to do this was to reveal very little, and simply tease the audience of what the subject is doing/looks like until he enters the school. Therefore no shots focus on the subjects face until the end of this short scene, instead he will be blurred in the background as medium and close-up shots of other objects are used. We have chosen for these objects to relate to the character in order to gradually give the audience a better understanding of him and his intentions. Pans across and towards these objects will be use to dignify their importance.

After finishing the storyboard the group is happy to film and see how it turns out in editing. We have decided that is the rough cut is not how we visualised it we may tweak the storyboard and re-film certain areas of the opening.

180 degree rule research

The 180 degree rule is a rule used in most film-making to ensure shots appear fluid and continuous. It does this by featuring an imaginary axis between two characters, the camera stays on one side of this line. When the camera crosses the line it's called 'jumping the line' and if the 180 degree rule is broken by shooting on both sides it's called 'shooting in the round'. In order to avoid this, the camera must always stay on one side of the imaginary line for all shots filming the two characters/objects.

Although following the rule enables audiences to connect with movement in the background and visualise the scene more clearly, sometimes film-makers break the rule for good reason. This creates an effect of distortion to represent a scenario, environment or object. This is famously used multiple times in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'.

Despite this, my group and I are unlikely to break this rule throughout our opening as we aim to keep the cuts smooth and consistent which means following the 180 degree rule. However, we will consider breaking this rule as we are presenting a disturbed character and environment in our opening scene.

Final planning before storyboarding

Before storyboarding the final task, my group and I decided to discuss how we would implement the learning from the previous task into this one. One problem we encountered with the previous task was that our cam was often shaky when performing handheld and tracking shots. Therefore, we have agreed to use a dolly or tripod for the majority of the shots we take. After going over this with our teacher and reflecting on the mark scheme we decided this was a necessity as steady shots account for a large portion of the marks.

Moreover, this gave us further inspiration for the shots we had previously brainstormed. We adapted the plan to reduce the amount of handheld by using more steady shots and close-ups. Despite this, we can still edit the footage we take to look distorted and disturbed through editing or using canted angles. We then researched more ways to represent a disturbed character and setting, for example: colour-correcting shots, changing focus throughout shots, erie or sharp diegetic ambience etc...

As I am drawing and planning the storyboard along with help from Benoit, I have decided to do further research into camera angles and mis-en-scene. Before doing so, I drafted a storyboard with shots I could possibly use throughout the intro to signify that the character is disturbed in a dangerous environment. In doing so, I hope to have more inspiration when drawing out the final storyboard.

[Draft storyboard]

180 degree rule task

For help on planning our shots, my group and I have been given the task of planning, shooting and editing a clip with the following criteria:

[Criteria]

In order to succeed in this task our group first decided to plan out the shots we would take- scripting and dialogue was less important in this task as that was not what we were being evaluated on. We chose to use a variety of shots to build suspense in our clip as that would prepare us for the final task of making a thriller.

1. (MS) Character #1 (Aayush) slowly walking towards the camera whilst on the phone.
2. (ECU) Of the phone displaying a text message received by character #2 (Ashley) telling (Aayush) to meet him in the cafe.
3. (Tracking Shot) tracking (Aayush's) movements from his location to the cafe, then meets (Ashley).
4. (Pan) round (Aayush) to reveal character #2 sitting down as character #1 takes a seat opposite character #2.
5. (MS) cut-in = Character #1 sits down. He begins to talk to character#2 
6. (Over Shoulder Shot) shot over character #2's perspective as character#1 talks
7. (MS) character #2 responds to the dialogue.
8. (CU) character #1 expresses facial expression 
9. (CU) character #1 clenches fist
10. (MS) camera placed behind character #1 as he swings his arm to punch character #2.
11. Over shoulder shot of character #2 as he reacts to the punch.

In addition to planning the shots, we also had to storyboard them to complete our planning for this task:

For our final piece the storyboard will be much more developed with more detailed pictures and more annotations as the dialogue and transitions will be more complex. We will also used more advanced filming equipment and an actual set rather than only filming in school.

Once we were happy with our planning we collected the equipment, we took a tripod as well as a camera to ensure we got steady-shots where we wanted them. The rest of the filming was fairly straight forward, however we made a few continuity errors when filming as the props in some shots were not included in others due to lack of proportion. As a result we had to re-film some mistakes we had noticed in editing. However, this also gave us a chance to re-shoot some shots that we thought could be improved or changed to give a different effect on the audience. As our main focus was continuity, we decided to replace the shots where the background changed at different angles, as the lack of continuity took away some immersion from the clips.

Furthermore, we decided to re-shoot a couple of shots featured which gave an unnecessary affect. For example, one zoom pan seemed particularly out place, as well as a tracking over the shoulder shot. By replacing these two shots with multiple still shots the final product resulted in being more continuous.

Here is our final piece for this task: