Over all I felt that our thriller production went well. I felt that our production for filled everything we wanted it to be. It was suitable for our target audience; this is shown from our questionnaire results. Another thing shown from our questionnaire was the certificate rating given as 12a, which is the same as we wanted our film to be.
We had many problems throughout the filming, but as a group we were able to work past these. I feel that our biggest problem was getting used to the new version of iMovie as we were unable to get on with our work for some time as we had to come to terms with all the few features. Also as cutting scenes was different to the version of iMovie we had previously used this took a lot longer than previously anticipated. We are also used to putting our film from the tape’s to the Apple Mac’s via a firewire quickly and easily, this however took a while on the new version as we has to work out how to do it. Many people would see working with a three year old child and a dog a problem, however our group saw it as a challenge. By using Sophie’s niece and dog, they were both used to listening to her and doing as they are told. For Charley, having her mum, Emma, playing her mum within the thriller it is convincing to the audience their bond, as they are actually mother and daughter.
If we were to do this production again, a key point would have to been more organized. As with the day with film we just randomly picked when the actors were able to be in it, it was just by chance it was good weather. Even though it was windy we were able to work past this, this although has been a learning curve together and if we have to for fill another production in media we will know to organize our time better.
I really enjoyed working on this production and I hope I get the opportunity to do something similar again.
Sunday 26 April 2009
Saturday 25 April 2009
Film Evaluation - Danielle Irwin
After the long process, our film has finally been completed, in time for the deadline. Overall, I think it has gone relatively smoothly, with problems being solved as soon as we came across them. By working as a team, we overcame lots of difficulties, be it technical troubles or weather problems.
I think filming went particularly well, as we got on it with it and worked well with our actors. The shot types we had predicted to use turned out as we thought they would, and the cuts we wanted to use also worked out well. The day we shot our production was quite sunny, but also windy at times. This meant the sound wasn't of high quality and some shots couldn't be used, therefore, the transactions weren't as smooth because of the missing shots. We had to improvise by putting in extra shots of the stalker pictures on the wall, so it ran a lot more smoothly and made sense.
The film was transferred to an Apple Mac using a Firewire, before the editing was to begin. It was difficult at first because we hadn't used the new version of iMovie, so it meant we had to figure out how to do different things ourselves. We used the help menus, our classmates and our teachers to work out how to use it, and after a week or so, we were able to use iMovie with ease.
At one point during editing, we realised the new iMovie we were using, didn't have the special effects we wanted to use, which the older version did have. These included the ghost effect, which we used in our preliminary, and the slowing and speeding up of clips. We really wanted to use these effects, so attempted to move our project to another iMac. It took three hours to transfer the clips to a memory stick, then another two hours to put it on the other computer. We were glad to have finally done it, but unfortunately it wouldn't work correctly on the older iMac. It was extremely frustrating, and we wasted a lot of time doing it. We had to get on with the editing quickly, and were unable to use the effects we wanted.
When we finished editing, and had to start putting on the sound effects and music, I had to go on an AS Geography trip for three days. This meant Charlotte and Sophie had to do this alone, which was unfortunate. When I got back, I could see what they had done and put my own inputs in.
Inserting the credits was the final thing we had to do. Our film was exactly two minutes (the length it should be) before the credits, which meant we had to make it an extra 15 or so seconds. We had to leave out the name of the director, producer, sound editor etc, because of our time limits, but we decided that they would have been at the end of the film anyway. This worked out well, as we chose to just have the names of the actors and the film. We were unable to put the credits on a plain black background on the new version of iMovie, and could only put them on to clips we had already filmed. We had to improvise by filming a black camera charger on the fitted iMac webcam, to create a completely black shot. We cut this and copied the shots, so we had enough for each credit. This worked out really good, and I think it looked quite professional.
Another issue, was the fact that other students were using the same computer as us. In the final few days before the deadline, we all wanted to use them at the same time to do the finishing touches and burn the productions to disc. We all managed to work around each other though, and got everything done.
If we were to do our production again, I think we would have made some improvements. We would have chosen a more appropriate day, so the wind didn't effect us. We also would have had make do with the iMac's we were using, rather than wasting time trying to transfer the project. If we hadn't done this, we would have had a lot more time to focus on the sound and other features. We wanted to alter the colour of the shots, to something less saturated, but not quite sepia or black and white. Overall, I think everything went well, and we all worked really well together. I thoroughly enjoyed the project, and hope it's at a good standard.
I think filming went particularly well, as we got on it with it and worked well with our actors. The shot types we had predicted to use turned out as we thought they would, and the cuts we wanted to use also worked out well. The day we shot our production was quite sunny, but also windy at times. This meant the sound wasn't of high quality and some shots couldn't be used, therefore, the transactions weren't as smooth because of the missing shots. We had to improvise by putting in extra shots of the stalker pictures on the wall, so it ran a lot more smoothly and made sense.
The film was transferred to an Apple Mac using a Firewire, before the editing was to begin. It was difficult at first because we hadn't used the new version of iMovie, so it meant we had to figure out how to do different things ourselves. We used the help menus, our classmates and our teachers to work out how to use it, and after a week or so, we were able to use iMovie with ease.
At one point during editing, we realised the new iMovie we were using, didn't have the special effects we wanted to use, which the older version did have. These included the ghost effect, which we used in our preliminary, and the slowing and speeding up of clips. We really wanted to use these effects, so attempted to move our project to another iMac. It took three hours to transfer the clips to a memory stick, then another two hours to put it on the other computer. We were glad to have finally done it, but unfortunately it wouldn't work correctly on the older iMac. It was extremely frustrating, and we wasted a lot of time doing it. We had to get on with the editing quickly, and were unable to use the effects we wanted.
When we finished editing, and had to start putting on the sound effects and music, I had to go on an AS Geography trip for three days. This meant Charlotte and Sophie had to do this alone, which was unfortunate. When I got back, I could see what they had done and put my own inputs in.
Inserting the credits was the final thing we had to do. Our film was exactly two minutes (the length it should be) before the credits, which meant we had to make it an extra 15 or so seconds. We had to leave out the name of the director, producer, sound editor etc, because of our time limits, but we decided that they would have been at the end of the film anyway. This worked out well, as we chose to just have the names of the actors and the film. We were unable to put the credits on a plain black background on the new version of iMovie, and could only put them on to clips we had already filmed. We had to improvise by filming a black camera charger on the fitted iMac webcam, to create a completely black shot. We cut this and copied the shots, so we had enough for each credit. This worked out really good, and I think it looked quite professional.
Another issue, was the fact that other students were using the same computer as us. In the final few days before the deadline, we all wanted to use them at the same time to do the finishing touches and burn the productions to disc. We all managed to work around each other though, and got everything done.
If we were to do our production again, I think we would have made some improvements. We would have chosen a more appropriate day, so the wind didn't effect us. We also would have had make do with the iMac's we were using, rather than wasting time trying to transfer the project. If we hadn't done this, we would have had a lot more time to focus on the sound and other features. We wanted to alter the colour of the shots, to something less saturated, but not quite sepia or black and white. Overall, I think everything went well, and we all worked really well together. I thoroughly enjoyed the project, and hope it's at a good standard.
Thursday 23 April 2009
Film Evaluation: By Sophie Dow
Evaluation of Production
Rapire
It took us approximately 5 weeks to film and edit our production, and I am very pleased we the final outcome. I think the film title Rapire, which is Italian for kidnap, is perfect for the storyline because it is based on a child being kid napped.
Overall everything ran smoothly throughout this project; however we did come across a few problems. For example when we were filming a strong wind picked up and this affected the sound quality of our production, some clips were so badly affected that we had to cut them out completely.
During editing we discovered that there were only a limited amount of special effects, this was a problem because we had plans to edit all the clips to make them have a disorientated atmosphere. We were going to transfer our work to another Apple Mac computer, which had a larger variety of effects. However it would have taken hours to transfer and we would have wasted 3 lessons. Therefore we stayed put with what we had.
If we had the chance to redo our film, we would definitely make some changes and improvements. We would ensure we are fully prepared for filming e.g. good weather conditions, we would make sure the dialogue was at a high sound quality, use more suitable lighting and ensure we used equipment that has all the features we needs e.g. a appropriate computer.
I am extremely happy with our film Rapire, and I fully enjoyed this project. Overall I don’t think there is any major disadvantage within our production.
Rapire
It took us approximately 5 weeks to film and edit our production, and I am very pleased we the final outcome. I think the film title Rapire, which is Italian for kidnap, is perfect for the storyline because it is based on a child being kid napped.
Overall everything ran smoothly throughout this project; however we did come across a few problems. For example when we were filming a strong wind picked up and this affected the sound quality of our production, some clips were so badly affected that we had to cut them out completely.
During editing we discovered that there were only a limited amount of special effects, this was a problem because we had plans to edit all the clips to make them have a disorientated atmosphere. We were going to transfer our work to another Apple Mac computer, which had a larger variety of effects. However it would have taken hours to transfer and we would have wasted 3 lessons. Therefore we stayed put with what we had.
If we had the chance to redo our film, we would definitely make some changes and improvements. We would ensure we are fully prepared for filming e.g. good weather conditions, we would make sure the dialogue was at a high sound quality, use more suitable lighting and ensure we used equipment that has all the features we needs e.g. a appropriate computer.
I am extremely happy with our film Rapire, and I fully enjoyed this project. Overall I don’t think there is any major disadvantage within our production.
Wednesday 22 April 2009
The Questionnaire Results
Added By Sophie Dow:
Here are the questionnaire results. They are in chart format to make them easier to understand.
Overall the results show very positive feedback. This informs us that our film, Rapire met the high expectations of the audience.
We are very pleased with these results, and the final outcome of our production.
Here are the questionnaire results. They are in chart format to make them easier to understand.
Overall the results show very positive feedback. This informs us that our film, Rapire met the high expectations of the audience.
We are very pleased with these results, and the final outcome of our production.
Rapire- Film Questionnaire
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Editing - Charlotte Coyle
Once filming had finished we were more than ready to start editing. We had around 40 minutes worth of filming to cut down to two minutes. We started by choosing what scenes we didn’t think were necessary to our production. Once we had got rid of these, we had to reduce the time of the scenes we needed. Our main problem was when Emma, Charley and Riley were walking into the grave yard. We had too much footage of this and felt it was hard to reduce it; however as a group we made difficult decisions of what parts to delete. Another problem we hit was what parts of the dialogue to use. At times we all disagreed on what worked well within our thriller, however instead of having a big argument over nothing, we decided to work together as a group and put all of our ideas together. By doing this our dialogue works perfectly for our thriller.
When we had cut our footage down to the correct length we began to edit the sound part of our thriller. We first of all had to decide which scenes to mute, as the day we filmed was fairly windy so obviously the camera picked this up. The sound of the wind affected the atmosphere our thriller created, so muting certain scenes was our only choice. The scenes we muted we added sound to. We decided to use Ship Ambience, the same sound throughout the thriller, so there won’t be any confusion. We used it, as it had a deep and eerie feel to it which is part of a thriller convention. In our thriller we have shots of a notice board with things about our child actress on; they appear once every so often. When they appeared we wanted it to have a dramatic feel. While looking through sounds we came across a ship horn. We tried it with the scene and it went flawlessly, although on one of the longer shots of the notice board the sound had to repeat itself, this did not work as it was clear it was a ship horn and made our thriller more into a comedy. As we had our hearts set on using that sound, we simply decided to cut the scene of the notice board down so the ship horn only had to play once. When Charley is taken, we used a piercing sound, so that the viewer can feel distressed like the child is. As a group we decided to use a hockey shot sound when Emma realises her daughter has gone. This is a peculiar sound to put in, but nevertheless it works well. The last part of the sound editing, was adding sound effects. To make the scenes look natural we added a seagull sounds into the background of certain scenes we felt didn’t have enough going on in them. Another sound effect we used is when Emma’s phone rings; we chose to put in a ringing tone as we felt hers wasn’t in keeping with the tone of the thriller, as it was an upbeat tune. The last sound effect we used was the dog bark, as our dog ‘actor’ was unable to bark on cue; however we were able to solve this problem with the sound effect. All sounds we used are non diegetic apart from the characters dialogue which is all diegetic.
As a group we added our credits to our thriller. We chose to use a black back ground for the credits as it would keep within the thriller conventions. We used white coloured font to stand out from the black background. On the credits we used the actors name and the film name at the begining of our thriller. At the end of our production we added a fact, this is to make our viewers to feel more involved with the film and make them more aware that it was a kidnap that had just happened.
If we had had more time we would have adjusted the colour, so that the viewer would feel more disoriented which would help them relate to the characters, as they would feel disoriented too. Another advantage of adjusting the colour of the film would make it more adjacent to the thriller convention of being dark and confusing.
All together I felt the editing went well, even though we had a few disagreements, we were able to resolve them by putting all our ideas together to get, what we feel, is a brilliant thriller production. One of the main problems we had was by using the new Apple Mac's, as we had never used this version of iMovie. We spent around two lessons to become familiar with the program. The time we spent learning how to use the program was worth while as we were able to excel on it later on in the production.
When we had cut our footage down to the correct length we began to edit the sound part of our thriller. We first of all had to decide which scenes to mute, as the day we filmed was fairly windy so obviously the camera picked this up. The sound of the wind affected the atmosphere our thriller created, so muting certain scenes was our only choice. The scenes we muted we added sound to. We decided to use Ship Ambience, the same sound throughout the thriller, so there won’t be any confusion. We used it, as it had a deep and eerie feel to it which is part of a thriller convention. In our thriller we have shots of a notice board with things about our child actress on; they appear once every so often. When they appeared we wanted it to have a dramatic feel. While looking through sounds we came across a ship horn. We tried it with the scene and it went flawlessly, although on one of the longer shots of the notice board the sound had to repeat itself, this did not work as it was clear it was a ship horn and made our thriller more into a comedy. As we had our hearts set on using that sound, we simply decided to cut the scene of the notice board down so the ship horn only had to play once. When Charley is taken, we used a piercing sound, so that the viewer can feel distressed like the child is. As a group we decided to use a hockey shot sound when Emma realises her daughter has gone. This is a peculiar sound to put in, but nevertheless it works well. The last part of the sound editing, was adding sound effects. To make the scenes look natural we added a seagull sounds into the background of certain scenes we felt didn’t have enough going on in them. Another sound effect we used is when Emma’s phone rings; we chose to put in a ringing tone as we felt hers wasn’t in keeping with the tone of the thriller, as it was an upbeat tune. The last sound effect we used was the dog bark, as our dog ‘actor’ was unable to bark on cue; however we were able to solve this problem with the sound effect. All sounds we used are non diegetic apart from the characters dialogue which is all diegetic.
As a group we added our credits to our thriller. We chose to use a black back ground for the credits as it would keep within the thriller conventions. We used white coloured font to stand out from the black background. On the credits we used the actors name and the film name at the begining of our thriller. At the end of our production we added a fact, this is to make our viewers to feel more involved with the film and make them more aware that it was a kidnap that had just happened.
If we had had more time we would have adjusted the colour, so that the viewer would feel more disoriented which would help them relate to the characters, as they would feel disoriented too. Another advantage of adjusting the colour of the film would make it more adjacent to the thriller convention of being dark and confusing.
All together I felt the editing went well, even though we had a few disagreements, we were able to resolve them by putting all our ideas together to get, what we feel, is a brilliant thriller production. One of the main problems we had was by using the new Apple Mac's, as we had never used this version of iMovie. We spent around two lessons to become familiar with the program. The time we spent learning how to use the program was worth while as we were able to excel on it later on in the production.
Beginning to Film - Danielle Irwin
After completing the preliminary task, it was time to prepare for the main thing. This involved casting, storyboarding, and scripting. We chose to use Sophie's older sister, to make it different to other student's films, who mainly used similar aged actors. This gave a more professional edge, as it was more believable and made more sense for her to act as a worried mother. We also used Sophie's niece for the young girl's part, as she would listen to Sophie, and work well with Emma, her mother. In some parts, it was hard getting Charley-Faye, the young girl, to do exactly what we wanted, being only 3 years old, but we tried hard to get the shots how we intended them to be. The third 'actor' we used was Sophie's dog, making our thriller more interesting as it meant we could expand on our ideas, and try out different things. Some parts were difficult to film with the dog, so we had to do it quite a number of times to get the result we were looking for.
After choosing our actors, it was time to storyboard our thriller introduction. We worked together doing it, working out what angles and movement we would use, and sketching images to represent these. There were no problems completing the storyboards, however, a week was wasted due to waiting for a weekend when our actors were available. We tried to make as much use out of this week as possible, pushing away the fact that we needed to get on with the filming and editing.
The third thing that was part of the planning stages, was writing the script. Fortunately, our introduction had few lines of dialogue, so this didn't take us much time or thought. It mainly involved of a small bit of interaction between the mother and daughter in the first scenes, and the mother on the telephone later on.
We picked a graveyard as our location, because of the eerie connotations they have. We wanted this atmosphere to be relatively obvious, as the other hints that something bad was going to happen, were quite subtle. Our props gave hints like this, such as the red balloon and coat, signalling danger. We had expected to get the balloon filled with helium, so it blew in the wind well, however, the shop wouldn't fill them with helium, due to the type of balloon they were. This posed to be a bit of a problem, as it wasn't very windy, meaning the balloon dragged along the ground at some parts, not giving the effect we were looking for. As well as the graveyard, we also used a garden for the home-movie style shots, to give a friendly, recognisable feel to the shots.
The first problems we hit, were the other people in the graveyard, just walking past or visiting a grave. We didn't want to seem loud and disrespectful, filming in this location, so we chose a quiet, less visited corner. Another problem was keeping the continuity. We experienced the importance of noticing this when doing our first shots of Emma and Charley-Faye walking. In the first few we did, there was a car in shot, and by the time we filmed from a different direction and angle, the car had gone, meaning we had to do the first shots again. This wasted time, but we had to make sure it looked natural and realistic.
We were surprised at how easy it was to work with Charley-Faye and Riley, the dog, as we were expecting to have trouble getting them to do the correct things. Sometimes, it didn't go exactly as planned, although this occasionally turned out for the better. For example, Riley was supposed to simply drop the child's hat into Emma's lap, who actually ended up having to fight for it. When viewing it on the computer, we realised this looked a lot better. Many things turned out to be quite spontaneous, although we tried to follow the storyboard as well as we could, to ensure we used all the angles and movement we wanted to include. Something that wasn't planned, included the home-movie clips. The idea had been discussed during the planning stages, but it wasn't until we'd basically finished filming, that we thought we would try it out. It turned out well, and in my opinion, really emphasised the contrast of the happy, beginning scenes, and the edgier, uncomfortable scenes nearer the end.
Sophie, Charlotte and I all worked together well whilst filming, and sorted out disagreements easily by negotiating and choosing a mixture of all our ideas. An example of a shot that took a lot of thought between us all, was the worms-eye view of Emma and Charley-Faye's feet as they walked to the graveyard. It emphasised they were walking fast, and on their way somewhere. Charley-Faye is skipping, which is clear in this shot, showing she is a happy, carefree little girl. The eery, atmospheric music is relatively contrapuntal as at this point, nothing bad has happened. Another one of my preferred shots, is the wide shot of the balloon flying away, over the graveyard. It look us a long time to get it right, as it wasn't a very windy day, but the last try was suitable and effective for the closing shot.
After choosing our actors, it was time to storyboard our thriller introduction. We worked together doing it, working out what angles and movement we would use, and sketching images to represent these. There were no problems completing the storyboards, however, a week was wasted due to waiting for a weekend when our actors were available. We tried to make as much use out of this week as possible, pushing away the fact that we needed to get on with the filming and editing.
The third thing that was part of the planning stages, was writing the script. Fortunately, our introduction had few lines of dialogue, so this didn't take us much time or thought. It mainly involved of a small bit of interaction between the mother and daughter in the first scenes, and the mother on the telephone later on.
We picked a graveyard as our location, because of the eerie connotations they have. We wanted this atmosphere to be relatively obvious, as the other hints that something bad was going to happen, were quite subtle. Our props gave hints like this, such as the red balloon and coat, signalling danger. We had expected to get the balloon filled with helium, so it blew in the wind well, however, the shop wouldn't fill them with helium, due to the type of balloon they were. This posed to be a bit of a problem, as it wasn't very windy, meaning the balloon dragged along the ground at some parts, not giving the effect we were looking for. As well as the graveyard, we also used a garden for the home-movie style shots, to give a friendly, recognisable feel to the shots.
The first problems we hit, were the other people in the graveyard, just walking past or visiting a grave. We didn't want to seem loud and disrespectful, filming in this location, so we chose a quiet, less visited corner. Another problem was keeping the continuity. We experienced the importance of noticing this when doing our first shots of Emma and Charley-Faye walking. In the first few we did, there was a car in shot, and by the time we filmed from a different direction and angle, the car had gone, meaning we had to do the first shots again. This wasted time, but we had to make sure it looked natural and realistic.
We were surprised at how easy it was to work with Charley-Faye and Riley, the dog, as we were expecting to have trouble getting them to do the correct things. Sometimes, it didn't go exactly as planned, although this occasionally turned out for the better. For example, Riley was supposed to simply drop the child's hat into Emma's lap, who actually ended up having to fight for it. When viewing it on the computer, we realised this looked a lot better. Many things turned out to be quite spontaneous, although we tried to follow the storyboard as well as we could, to ensure we used all the angles and movement we wanted to include. Something that wasn't planned, included the home-movie clips. The idea had been discussed during the planning stages, but it wasn't until we'd basically finished filming, that we thought we would try it out. It turned out well, and in my opinion, really emphasised the contrast of the happy, beginning scenes, and the edgier, uncomfortable scenes nearer the end.
Sophie, Charlotte and I all worked together well whilst filming, and sorted out disagreements easily by negotiating and choosing a mixture of all our ideas. An example of a shot that took a lot of thought between us all, was the worms-eye view of Emma and Charley-Faye's feet as they walked to the graveyard. It emphasised they were walking fast, and on their way somewhere. Charley-Faye is skipping, which is clear in this shot, showing she is a happy, carefree little girl. The eery, atmospheric music is relatively contrapuntal as at this point, nothing bad has happened. Another one of my preferred shots, is the wide shot of the balloon flying away, over the graveyard. It look us a long time to get it right, as it wasn't a very windy day, but the last try was suitable and effective for the closing shot.
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