Rosie Andrews Evaluation

We had many ideas about the genre and making of our 3 minute film. I am quite happy with the way it has turned out after our research and experimentations. Our initial ideas were to base our clip on the effects of drugs, and psychosis which may be induced by this. We liked the idea of a psychological thriller which. However the outcome was a little different. Instead, we used the idea of the mental disorder schizophrenia, which made it easy for us to stick with out chosen genre. This change in ideas was due to the fact that we had no real storyline or way of placing the scene together to make a complete sequence. We wanted to film the beginning sequence or opening credits for a film because we liked the idea of making it look quite stylised and abstract. We could achieve this by using the effects available on the editing software. We watched a lot of clips and were mainly influenced by the trailer for the film Requiem for a dream (Daren Aronofsky, 2000) and the opening credits of, Se7en (David Fincher 1995). However with the footage we had show we decided it would be better to make an exposition sequence which would appear a third of the way through the film.
I took on the role of director in my group, which meant i was mainly responsible for things such as script, costume and blocking. One we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do, we drew out a story board with sketches of some of the shots we wanted to include in our sequence. This helped us plan the filming and made it clear and easier for the cinematographer to shoot. We faced many difficulties in the making of our clip, not just with directing but other things such as sound design and editing. One of the problems we faced was the recording of the dubs and sounds effects we wanted to use. We did all out filming on college grounds. This meant it was at times hard to find a silent place for us to do these recordings. They also didn’t always come out as clear as we wanted at times which meant we had to take more than one recording. The recourses which were available to us enabled us to add in the effects we wanted to make out film look stylised and creative. For example there is a part when one of our main characters fall over and hit their head, and as they get back up there is a blurred point of view shot of our female character, Jess. We experimented with many effects to see which one worked best to create the effect we were hoping for.
As director I had to put some consideration into our setting. We had considered a few locations to shoot our film. We had the idea or using a quiet abandoned area or woodland space. We wanted our clip to be slightly eerie at some points. Therefore we thought either of these would be the perfect place for us to set our film. We were considering the setting to be in Cottenham, but it was difficult for everyone in our group to arrange a time. In the end we decided that the woodland area around the college grounds would also be a perfect place for us to shoot. The costume design was kept casual and realistic. Our male character George is a normal teenager. Therefore we let our actor wear whatever clothes he decided. This turned out to be a normal pair of blue jeans and black coat. Similarly we wanted our female character Jess to be dark and mysterious. We decided to have an all black costume. Black jeans and coat with a hood, which is pulled up at some points to add to the mystery effect. Another aspect of our film i had to focus on was the script. As we said we wanted our piece to be eerie and abstract at times, we decided it would be good to keep dialogue to minimum. We only used around four short lines of script so it made it easier for the audience to understand the film as it’s only a short sequence.
We received some positive feedback from the other groups in the class which we were happy about. The effects went well and made it easy for the audience to understand why they were used. A criticism we received was the ending of out sequence could have been done a little better. We ended with George reading the definition of schizophrenia in the dictionary. However we realised this could have been done slightly better. We had many troubles filming and editing, however overall I think out film turned out to be a success.

Michael's Evaluation ...

During the making of our 2 minute extract, I was mainly responsible for the editing aspect, therefore; it was for me to decided how to cut scenes together, what effects to use, etc. The difficulty of which varied, due to our ever changing idea's. For, to brgin with, our idea as to what our short film extract was going to be, was completely different to it's outcome. This is because, the film's of which we were influenced by may have influenced us a little too much, and thereby hindered us in a way.



We had seen such films as Se7en (David Fincher 1995), the opening title sequence of which inspired us to want to creat something abstract, surreal, something other-worldly. We were also heavily influenced by the film Requiem for a dream (Darren Aronofsky 2000). Why? Again, because of the styleised and abstract shots, editing, and cinematography - Of which this film so beautifully excentuates. We watched the trailer together as a group, and agreed that we would like to create something similiar.



So, we decided that the best way for us to integrate these abstract shots, use of fast pace editing, and surreal effects - Was during that of a psychological thriller, most probably drug-induced. This is imply because we believed it would be easier to justify the use of styleisation, if the central character was a drug addict. As, when he/she was using the drug(s), they would see the world in a different light, and any POV shot's we decided to use could be altered to look more abstract. However, upon going out to shoot our first scenes, etc; i.e. those abstract shots, of which would be integrated into, most likely the opening sequence of our film, came to be rather dissapointing. Post shooting, when we watched over what we had, or rather the lack of usable footage. We came to realise that we were heading in the wrong direction. Back to the drawing board, so to speak, we made the decision to lose the cliché of teenage drug problems; and thought harder about how we could justify the procurement of a psychosis. Finally, we came to an idea of schizophrenia, we drew up storyboard's, had an entire story for a full length film, and got to work on shooting the necessary scenes.

Post shooting, once we had all the needed shot's, and sound - It was primarily down to me to cut it all together. It was imperative that there was a consistent through line narrative, that the storyline was complete, not too obvious; and yet not too complex so as to confuse the audience. Finding the right balance, was half the struggle. We also wanted their to be a reasonable range of shot's, etc, throughout this extract - So that this small 2 minute piece was neither too 'samey' nor boring. Here are some examples of what shot's we used, in the form of screen grab's.

As you can see we have a POV shot, some establishing shots, an over the shoulder view, a pan, and a few medium and long shots. When editing these together, it was important that they flowed well, and there was continuity throughout. We also wanted parts to seem surreal, and at times shocking. SO, the POV shot of which we used had effects added to make it look unreal, and slightly dreamy - As it was through the eyes of the central character, 'George', who was very confused and didn't know what he was seeing was real, or a dream.

Overall, I believe that as a group, we have worked together well, and the final product; i am reasonably proud of. In terms of editing, i believe what i have accomplished is strong, in the syncing of the sound of which we dubbed over, the cutting and placement of shots, and the narrative in general.

Lauren's Film Evaluation

Looking back on the two-minute extract my group produced, I am quite pleased with what we created. The idea of a psychological thriller definitely appealed to us, and we were influenced by the opening credits of Se7en (David Fincher, 1995), scenes from Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001), the trailer for Requiem for a Dream (Daren Aronofsky, 2000) and we admired the cinematography in the opening scene of Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994). At first, we wanted to concentrate upon an opening sequence, because we thought it would be easier to make this part of the film more abstract, and we considered the genre of drug-induced psychosis, but after realising we had no real narrative, characters, or way of piecing things together, we decided to keep the psychological thriller idea, but lose the drugs cliché.





I was responsible for the sound design in our piece. I wanted to have music in the background in some parts of the extract, and we enjoyed the music soundtrack from Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006), but wanted the piece to be more dream-like. So after cutting the sound up and applying it to the appropriate places, we filtered echoes and reverberation into it and achieved the desired sound we were after. I think it goes well with the nature sounds of birds and wind in the background, making the forest location creepy.



For our dialogue, we considered having a voice over during the entire extract, as influenced by Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996), but decided on just having dialogue, because we also have non-diegetic sound in the extract, and it would be too much to have both. All dialogue in our piece is dubbed over, and luckily synced perfectly when applied, but we encountered some problems whilst we were recording. For example, when our actress speaks in the extract, there is a slight buzzing which the microphone picked up from an electronic appliance in the room, and we couldn’t re-record this. However, this sound adds to her character, because she is a hallucination, therefore is not real and neither is her speech, so the sound wouldn’t be as clear as our main character’s voice because she isn’t really there.

The other sounds that we recorded came out well in the extract. We spent a few lessons recording any sounds we could think of that could create an effect. We tried whispers, heartbeats, and paced breathing, but none of these sounds came out how we wanted them; the whispers were really weak when put with the music, the heartbeat wasn’t needed in any of the scenes we had shot and since our character is more confused than scared, paced breathing was pointless. In the film our main character is walking through the forest, so for recording the sound of footsteps our actor held the camera by his feet and walked through the leaves which, when listened back to, sounded clear and crisp.

At the end of the extract, the main character reads out the definition of schizophrenia, and realises this is what he has and shuts the book. I thought about recording this and having it as the ending of the extract and the sound; a complete blackout. However, as we have piano music in the background, we decided it would have more effect to fade the music out after the blackout rather than to just cut it off completely. It also lets the audience see his reaction. We included an overhead view of the dictionary he is reading out of (as seen bottom right in the screen grab) so the audience can see everything from his perspective. We also added a close up of the definition itself over the top which faded out. However the close up wasn't needed, as 'George' is reading aloud, and it seems too much is going on. This realisation may have been more useful at the start of the extract, as in reality most schizophrenics don’t know that they have schizophrenia, and it may have been better to inform the audience of the illness before he started hallucinating.



The screen grabs above show a range of different shots we used in our extract, including a POV shot, long shots, medium shots and an establishing shot. I think that the blurred POV shot is one of the most effective, because it suggests that the female character 'Jess' is a hallucination. We only have two locations in our extract: a forest and a schoolroom. We wanted to emphasize the difference between these two locations; the forest is the creepy, unreal place where the main character hallucinates, and the schoolroom is familiar, comfortable, and ultimately the place where 'George' finds out he has schizophrenia. I wanted the sound to be different in these two places, so in the schoolroom, we lost the nature sounds, the footsteps, and loud music, and were left with just the character’s voice and softer music. When we were filming in that space, we could hear students walking past, laughing and chatting. At the time we decided not to include this, because we wanted the character to be alone, and if you cannot hear anyone else he is completely isolated. Looking at the bottom left image above, it is not apparent that the second location is a schoolroom, which is something we could have made clearer– maybe by adding in the sounds of students, some more school props or even a teacher walking past would have made it more understandable.

I am happy with what we achieved in our extract in how the narrative, sound and cinematography came together, but there are certain areas in the narrative and elements in the set and sound design which if improved would have made the film more coherent.

Screen Grabs

These are our screen grabs from our extract. They show a range of shots including long shots, an over the shoulder shot, a medium shot and an establishing shot. We added an effect to the POV shot to make Jess seem unreal. We were particularly lucky when shooting the location because the lighting in the establishing shot worked surprisingly well. Apart from the establishing shot near the end, the way we have placed the shots within the grid still make the story understandable.

Sound Design

Our short film extract is set in the forest, so my original ideas for sound were footsteps, breathing, nature sounds including birds and wind (obtained from youtube). I thought maybe a heartbeat could be effective, with it pacign whenever our main character hallucinates, but i don't want to over-complicate the extract and have too many things happening at once.

It took lots of time to record all of these different sounds. To get the footstep sounds, I got our main actor playing George to hold the camera close to his feet and walk over leaves. The sounds of his frustration as he struggles to figure out what is going on, the book shutting at the end and voiceovers were recorded shut up in a classroom. We had a small problem, because in the film he trips over a log, and we didn't know how to create this sound, so we actually just got him to trip over on purpose and recorded that sound.

The dubs of the character's voices luckily synced really well, and we recorded those seperately, however the room we recorded them in had an electric appliance in the room so there is a slight buzzing over the top of the recording, but i did not notice this until it was too late and the actor was away so we couldn't re-record it - i don't think it sounds bad though; it can be seen as dreamy dialogue.

The soundtrack i decided to use from Pan's Labyrinth, because it is very creepy and good for our extract, as it is a psychological thriller idea. We filtered echo and reverberation over it to give it a dreamy effect. I wasn't actually there when this was done, as i was ill, but our editor cut up the soundtrack before it was filtered and put fades in the appropriate places. For example, around halfway through the extract, our main character george bends down, and behind him is his hallucination standing there, and that is where the music comes in.

There are two locations that are used for our film, the forest and a school room. In the school our main character discovers what he has, when he reads about schizophrenia, and i thought about adding in some students maybe walking past (what was actually happening as we filmed), and their footsteps and laughter, but the point was to make George feel isolated and trapped in with his disorder. So it's just George talking, and then a final shutting of the book.

In the film, George tries phoning his friend, but there is no answer. For this i actually wanted to use a voicemail sound from the phone, but when we tried to record this it wasn't coming out how i wanted it, so i ended up finding a phone ringing sound, and a beeping sound (for the keypad) so he's not waiting for the voicemail at all, just hanging up.

I think that in adding sound to the film it is really difficult to get the right atmosphere, but a group decision was to not add too many bodily sounds such as breathing and a heartbeat, to keep it more dream-like.

A twist in the story ...

So, our initial ideas; were a drug based psychological thriller.

We decided this simply because we wanted to do some cool abstract shots, with some weird effects, and we felt a character high on drugs - Seen from their point of view, would give us the ability to use such shots. However, we were very naive in our thinking; and all did not go as planned. We quickly realised that all we had were ideas, no real narrative, no characters, and no way of piecing together these abstract shots. So, we completely changed our idea, had a total re-think; and this is what we came up with:

- We liked the idea of a psychological thriller
- But, wanted to lose the cliché teenage drug problem

We decided upon a central character named 'George', and another called 'Jess' - We gave George the psychological affliction; Schizophrenia. Then we had to find a way of justifying why, and how he had procured such an illness. It was decided that Jess and George were the best of friends, George had feelings for Jess that he didn't feel were reciprocated - So he took her out for a meal to speak to her about it. He was old enough to drive so picked her up, on the way to the restaurant however, infatuated with Jess in the passenger seat; George's concentration is stolen from the road for a split-second, and he crashes. George survives, Jess was not so lucky. George must now; live with the survivors guilt, the loss of his best friend and coping on his own. It is because of this and more that he contracts the mental illness, schizophrenia.
The extract of the full length film, of which we have concentrated upon; is the exposition. The realisation of what is happening to him, he finally understands that something is wrong - But the question is what to do, who to go to, and how to put an end to his struggle. We show his psychosis through hallucination's of Jess, his appearance on screen shows him to be stressed out and in trouble; our extract shows him searching for something, moreover, someone. She seems to be everywhere yet he cant reach her, the final scene of our extract shows how he finally realises what is happening to him ...

After Preliminary Shooting ...

During last lesson we took out a camera to practice some experimental shooting, such as; Some point-of-view shots, a first person shot and other more abstract shots. Our intentions for this were to get used to shooting, practice our techniques and get a better idea for how our film will be shot, and inevitably look.

We covered a few basic shots, and even got some audio done ... But the weather conditions left much to be desired - Therefore, we were unable to shoot as much as we would have hoped. All things considered however, we were reasonably productive and covered an adequate amount.

:)

Initial Thoughts ...

Here are some influences from which we will use techniques, and ideas:









These films are influences to us because we admire the cinematography and/or the techniques used in these extracts. For example, we like the progression of the camera in both the Donnie Darko scene and the opening of forrest Gump. we also like how styleised the opening of Se7en is, and the entire film; Requiem for a Dream. We are considering delving into the genre of 'Psychological Thriller' - As this leaves enough freedom for us to introduce qwerky/styleised film techniques. The part of our film of which we would like to concentrate upon is the opening sequence, as it is generally more acceptable for this scene to be of an abstract nature then, for it to randomly appear in the middle of the film. Due to the influences of such films as, Requiem for a Dream, or Trainspotting - We are very much considering jumping into that genre of Drug-induced psychosis, as once again, this gives us the oppurtunity to exacerbate this abstract idea.

As fore-mentioned, we would like our extract to exemplify that of the opening of the film, in terms of establishing characters and setting, 2-3 minutes (in our opinion) is enough time to do so. We have decied upon a setting for which this opening sequence can be shot, and have several ideas as to how we will do so. In terms of narrative arch, and how we would like the story to un-fold, we were thinking in terms of conventional 'Drug Films'. For example, To begin with the central characters get into this Drug hait for fun, it is entertaining and they are not necessarily addicted ... as the film progresses - They of course do become addicted, their health, social lives are affected as a result. And due to a complication, along the lines of, a drug induced death of a close friend; the film could take a turn for the worse. The film would follow the parallel lives of these young, naive individuals as their fate becomes ever more clear when this drug-habit takes over their lives, and consumes them entirely.

We would like the opening scene to show the carelessness, naivity and freedom that these characters so refreshingly excentuate. A such, we will more than likely show them enjoying themselves, having fun, whilst suggesting the subtle differences in theire personalites - Which will of course become more clear, as the film progresses.