Sunday, 1 May 2011
Evaluation
'Shadow'
‘Shadow’ represents two very diverse social classes; the working class and the upper class. Nema, the protagonist, is portrayed as having literally nothing, through the use of her costume, her makeup, her hair and the mise-en-scene. The film starts with a mid shot of Nema sitting on the floor in a bare, dark room, which connotes poverty. The walls are also a dull beige-grey colour, which implies dirtiness. This links back to a stereotypical image of the working classes.
Azia, the other protagonist, is wearing a dress, with her blonde hair neat and brushed, connoting ideas of cleanliness and organisation. Her lips are red, which connotes danger, as is the door behind Nema. Azia also holds the power in the conversation, insinuating that she is in control, which again relates back to the upper class’ idea of the working class.
We chose to dress Nema in ripped, dirty looking clothes, with messy hair, and Azia in a dress, in order to clearly show the juxtaposition between them. We used Levi Strauss’ binary opposites theory to create an idea of the difference between the two protagonists and emphasize the suggestion that they are very diverse in terms of social class. The character representation helped us with this as we knew how we wanted to portray the characters and therefore it was easier to depict them as we imagined them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
During our pre-production work, we did not stumble across too many obstacles except with the location of the movie. Our original location was exactly what I had envisaged, but we were forced to find somewhere else the day before filming as the owners of the shed we were going to use changed their minds about us using it. Consequently our location is not the way we had planned it, but I think it actually works better to create the correct portrayal of the character than the original location would have done. Nema was supposed to live in a cluttered, messy room, but the location we used was completely bare and empty, which still connotes ideas of poverty and therefore creates a realistic idea of the character’s lifestyle, and the empty spaces creates a bit of a claustrophobic feel at the same time as implying that it all looks the same to Nema and that she feels lost there.
A location as cluttered as our original one would also have meant that getting the desired light quality would be difficult and therefore we would not have been able to suggest the characters' emotions to the audience as we did by using light and dark locations.
During the conversation scenes, we filmed the two characters against a brick wall, which, in terms of mise-en-scene, represents how the main character feels caged in and can not escape. The character getting left behind is always filmed against a red door, which connotes ideas of danger, whereas the character who was leaving was always filmed against a clear door, which signifies how she is almost free; however this is ironic, as we would see later in the film that the reason she is leaving is because she has to – she has no free choice about it.
We also encountered a problem with editing; we used a voice over to replace the camera’s poor sound quality and in one place I was unable to synchronize it properly, so it looks like one of the characters is not speaking on the screen when we hear her voice on the voice over. I did try to correct this but I was not able to sort it out without re-synchronizing the entire voice over with the video, so I left it alone as it does not really compromise the film. When choosing background music, Hannah and I searched through all the relevant sections of www.freeplaymusic.com and eventually selected a suitable song after approximately two hours of looking. Unfortunately the song we chose was twenty seconds too short for the video, so I had to use Audacity to cut the music and then merge it with the same song at an appropriate place in the music. The cut itself is barely discernible, but there is a jump in the song just before it which is very obvious, so it sounds like I was unsuccessful in trying to make the cut unnoticeable.
While we were filming, we were forced to start again almost halfway through as people were fixing lights in our location and we were unable get the same light quality after they had finished, which would have resulted in continuity issues had we not decided to redo the shots. There are a few other continuity issues in the film, such as the fact that Nema picks up the candle with her hand upside down, which is inconsistent with the next shot, in addition to the aforementioned one in which she is speaking on the voice over when her mouth is not moving on the screen. I did try to rectify both of these but I was unable to, as there were no other shots I could have used in both cases. The fact that we were using a voice over meant that we did not have to worry about external noises during our filming, as all the clips we decided to use in our film would be muted anyway. I did experience some problems during the editing of the clip in which the door opens and closes, as I needed to keep the sound of the creaking door and the bang as it closes in order to create verisimilitude. If I had the chance to remake the film, I would add more sound effects to it, such as footsteps while the characters are walking. This would also add to the verisimilitude of the film.
I feel that the voice over was fairly successful; it meant that we did not have to worry about sound quality in our rushes, which was extremely useful as the people fixing the lights in our location made a lot of noise - if we'd had to worry about that being in our rushes, we would have had to delay filming and it would have put us back by a huge amount of time. The voice over also added verisimilitude, as it created a more realistic and lifelike sound quality - people do not sound tinny or with large amounts of background noise in real life. If I had been able to synchronise it perfectly, it would have been a great addition to the film, but as it caused some continuity issues, it was not as good as it could have been. However, I don't believe it compromises the film any more than having terrible sound quality would have done, so therefore I still think it was a worthwhile addition to our opening sequence.
Evaluation
Our project was to produce a two minute opening sequence for a film, according to a short story we had written. My partner, Hannah, and I chose to work together as we had previously made a successful team during the making of our preliminary film.
To plan our film, Hannah and I had various production meetings, in which we did things like deciding whose story to use and distributing tasks between the two of us. We split the pre-production work equally, so we each had the same amount to do, which was useful as our planning work was completed quickly and to a reasonably good standard.
In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film conforms to stereotypical conventions of the fantasy genre; the use of mysterious music, for example, which automatically connotes adventure and danger; and the shadowed lighting to create a sense of foreboding, using pathetic fallacy. The conventions of real media products of the fantasy genre have been challenged by the use of Barthes’ enigma theory, which was to immediately instigate a problem; fantasy films usually set the scene before launching into the narrative. However we did not feel that this would instantly engage the audience in this case and therefore was not a successful way of beginning our film, especially as we had time constraints of two minutes, so it was important to engage the audience as quickly as possible. We also conformed to conventions of the fantasy genre by using slow, epic music to create tension and hook the audience in as soon as we could. Fantasy films often use this type of music as they rely on soundtracks more than most other films; they have very strong emotions, such as fear and suspense, to instil into the audience, therefore keeping them on the edge of their seats. You can hear the soundtrack here:
How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?
How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?
Azia, the other protagonist, is wearing a dress, with her blonde hair neat and brushed, connoting ideas of cleanliness and organisation. Her lips are red, which connotes danger, as is the door behind Nema. Azia also holds the power in the conversation, insinuating that she is in control, which again relates back to the upper class’ idea of the working class.
We chose to dress Nema in ripped, dirty looking clothes, with messy hair, and Azia in a dress, in order to clearly show the juxtaposition between them. We used Levi Strauss’ binary opposites theory to create an idea of the difference between the two protagonists and emphasize the suggestion that they are very diverse in terms of social class. The character representation helped us with this as we knew how we wanted to portray the characters and therefore it was easier to depict them as we imagined them.We followed up on the binary opposites theory by choosing to film the scenes where Nema is alone in dark, shadowy rooms, connoting depression, and the conversation scene when they are together in a light area. This implies subliminally to the audience that Nema feels better when she is with Azia.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by conforming to a specific genre stereotype, i.e. fantasy, which means that the fans of fantasy films would be the most likely to watch this movie. People tend to choose films that they can classify into a specific genre so they know what to expect - as going to the cinema is quite expensive these days, people tend to want to know what they are going to be seeing and therefore are more likely to enjoy it. However, films rarely only belong to one genre these days and 'Shadow' is no different, including elements of other genres, such as drama and science fiction; by including these extra genres in our film we are widening our potential audience and attracting fans of these types of films to watch it. As we have no famous actors in our film, we have already lost a large section of our prospective audience: those who only go to see a film because it has their favourite actor in it - so attracting the audience through the use of genre and obviously narrative was very important for us.
Who would be the audience for your film?
By having two female teenage actresses, we included female teenagers, who would easily be able to identify with the characters. Similarly, by having two fairly attractive teenage actresses, we also hoped to attract male teens. Finally, by having a storyline to which everybody can relate, i.e. the story of having lost somebody you love, we are including everyone in our prospective audience. Our film is low budget, using local locations, low budget costumes and volunteer actors. The target audience for ‘Shadow’ is young adults between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, as they are the ages surrounding the ages of the two protagonists and therefore will be most able to identify with them.
What kind of media institution might produce your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your film?
By having two female teenage actresses, we included female teenagers, who would easily be able to identify with the characters. Similarly, by having two fairly attractive teenage actresses, we also hoped to attract male teens. Finally, by having a storyline to which everybody can relate, i.e. the story of having lost somebody you love, we are including everyone in our prospective audience. Our film is low budget, using local locations, low budget costumes and volunteer actors. The target audience for ‘Shadow’ is young adults between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, as they are the ages surrounding the ages of the two protagonists and therefore will be most able to identify with them.
What kind of media institution might produce your media product and why?
Our media product is most likely to be produced by the British Film Institute, as it uses public funding and aims to encourage the growth of culture in Britain
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the making of our film I have acquired various technological techniques. I have learnt how to use the cameras, which will be useful in the future. Due to previous experience with both video and sound editing, I already knew how to use Windows Movie Maker and Audacity, which sped up the editing process as I did not have to learn how to use them and made synchronizing the voice-over easier than it may otherwise have been. I have also learnt how useful all types of technology are when creating something like this, not just the ones that are specifically directed at film making - I used my email, MSN, Facebook and my phone to communicate with Hannah and our actresses and my external hard-drive to transport work between home and college. I also used my phone camera to take pictures of the props and emailed them to myself using my phone, which I could then receive on my computer. I used the internet frequently, including Google, Blogger, www.freeplaymusic.com and even www.thesaurus.com while writing my evaluation; and then there are programs like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Audacity, Movie Maker and Paint, which I used frequently throughout the production of our opening sequence.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Whilst editing our preliminary film, we stumbled across many obstacles that we didn’t consider while filming, such as our actors moving position slightly between shots. The preliminary film gave us a lot of practice in areas such as continuity; because of that, we knew what to look for when we filmed ‘Shadow’, and though there are continuity issues in our film, there are nowhere near as many as there would have been without the practice from the preliminary task. We also learned how to upload our rushes from the camera to the computer and make sure we did not lose any of it.
Another useful point we learned from the making of the preliminary film is how much extra noise there is in our shots. This is why we decided to use the voice over for ‘Shadow’; that way we did not have to worry about what extra sound there may have been while we were filming.
For the making of our film, I was made director as we were using a story written by me and we felt that I had a better idea of how I wanted the end result to be. It was also my job to do the tasks relating to character representation, such as the script and mood board, as I had created them and therefore knew them better, and all the editing. Hannah did all of the filming, as she had had a lot of practice with the cameras, which resulted in better quality filming. She also did the tasks such as the storyboard and timeline, which she again knew how to do. The actresses we chose both did a very good job of portraying their characters accurately, and I think that, considering we are amateurs, our movie is of a fairly high standard and all the pre-production work we did successfully helped us to know exactly what we were doing whilst we were filming, which made the filming process easier and quicker.
During our pre-production work, we did not stumble across too many obstacles except with the location of the movie. Our original location was exactly what I had envisaged, but we were forced to find somewhere else the day before filming as the owners of the shed we were going to use changed their minds about us using it. Consequently our location is not the way we had planned it, but I think it actually works better to create the correct portrayal of the character than the original location would have done. Nema was supposed to live in a cluttered, messy room, but the location we used was completely bare and empty, which still connotes ideas of poverty and therefore creates a realistic idea of the character’s lifestyle, and the empty spaces creates a bit of a claustrophobic feel at the same time as implying that it all looks the same to Nema and that she feels lost there.
A location as cluttered as our original one would also have meant that getting the desired light quality would be difficult and therefore we would not have been able to suggest the characters' emotions to the audience as we did by using light and dark locations.
We also encountered a problem with editing; we used a voice over to replace the camera’s poor sound quality and in one place I was unable to synchronize it properly, so it looks like one of the characters is not speaking on the screen when we hear her voice on the voice over. I did try to correct this but I was not able to sort it out without re-synchronizing the entire voice over with the video, so I left it alone as it does not really compromise the film. When choosing background music, Hannah and I searched through all the relevant sections of www.freeplaymusic.com and eventually selected a suitable song after approximately two hours of looking. Unfortunately the song we chose was twenty seconds too short for the video, so I had to use Audacity to cut the music and then merge it with the same song at an appropriate place in the music. The cut itself is barely discernible, but there is a jump in the song just before it which is very obvious, so it sounds like I was unsuccessful in trying to make the cut unnoticeable.
While we were filming, we were forced to start again almost halfway through as people were fixing lights in our location and we were unable get the same light quality after they had finished, which would have resulted in continuity issues had we not decided to redo the shots. There are a few other continuity issues in the film, such as the fact that Nema picks up the candle with her hand upside down, which is inconsistent with the next shot, in addition to the aforementioned one in which she is speaking on the voice over when her mouth is not moving on the screen. I did try to rectify both of these but I was unable to, as there were no other shots I could have used in both cases. The fact that we were using a voice over meant that we did not have to worry about external noises during our filming, as all the clips we decided to use in our film would be muted anyway. I did experience some problems during the editing of the clip in which the door opens and closes, as I needed to keep the sound of the creaking door and the bang as it closes in order to create verisimilitude. If I had the chance to remake the film, I would add more sound effects to it, such as footsteps while the characters are walking. This would also add to the verisimilitude of the film.
I feel that the voice over was fairly successful; it meant that we did not have to worry about sound quality in our rushes, which was extremely useful as the people fixing the lights in our location made a lot of noise - if we'd had to worry about that being in our rushes, we would have had to delay filming and it would have put us back by a huge amount of time. The voice over also added verisimilitude, as it created a more realistic and lifelike sound quality - people do not sound tinny or with large amounts of background noise in real life. If I had been able to synchronise it perfectly, it would have been a great addition to the film, but as it caused some continuity issues, it was not as good as it could have been. However, I don't believe it compromises the film any more than having terrible sound quality would have done, so therefore I still think it was a worthwhile addition to our opening sequence.
Overall I think that the making of our film was relatively successful. We were well organised with the pre-production work, which helped us get our filming done quickly and to a good standard, and even though there were a few problems with both the filming and the editing, we overcame most of them fairly easily and as a result our film now looks professional and we are both satisfied with it.
Sound research
'Shadow' belongs to the fantasy genre. Fantasy movies generally use very dramatic, low, dark background music in order to create and build tension.
We went through some of the music that www.freeplaymusic.com had to offer, eventually deciding on 'Abandoned', as it had the feel we were looking for.
Here are some clips of some songs we considered:
Abandoned - yes
MC Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Opus - too depressing
Forever and Ever - too upbeat
MC Tchaikovsky 2 Chanson Triste - not the right mood
MC Tchaikovsky 3 Marche Funebre - too depressing
Apocalypse - too many drums - too rocky
Apocalypse Underscore - too rocky
Cutting Through - too rocky
Monster Masquerade - too rocky
Phineas Underscore - too many drums
The Guild Settlement - too depressing
Rebound - too upbeat
Xenon Lights - too upbeat
Lightning Steps - too noticeable
Pathfinder - too boring
Waves Are Coming - too boring
Coral Reef - too sci-fi
Beethoven Piano Sonata 12 - too depressing
Symphony 3 Eroica - too depressing
Complex Sequence - too upbeat
Oh Cruel Fate - too upbeat
Dot Dash - boring
Apeture Set - boring
Six Frames Missing - too dark
Abbey Road Double - too boring
Paregoric - too boring
Portent - too boring
Rue Christine Pluie - too boring
Soul Implode - too busy
Milli - too war-film-esque
Soldiers And Pilgrims - too battle-fied
Bach Brandenburg Concerto 3 - too fast
High Ground - sounds too much like Jaws
The Open Plains - too wild west
Heirloom - too happy
Chameleon Waltz - sounds like Poirot
Of The Moment Vocal - too poppy
Melodic Atmosphere - too vibrant
Beautiful New World - sounds like The Lion King
Invisibility - sounds like a fairytale
Safe Passage - too happy
We went through some of the music that www.freeplaymusic.com had to offer, eventually deciding on 'Abandoned', as it had the feel we were looking for.
Here are some clips of some songs we considered:
Abandoned - yes
MC Mendelssohn Songs Without Words Opus - too depressing
Forever and Ever - too upbeat
MC Tchaikovsky 2 Chanson Triste - not the right mood
MC Tchaikovsky 3 Marche Funebre - too depressing
Apocalypse - too many drums - too rocky
Apocalypse Underscore - too rocky
Cutting Through - too rocky
Monster Masquerade - too rocky
Phineas Underscore - too many drums
The Guild Settlement - too depressing
Rebound - too upbeat
Xenon Lights - too upbeat
Lightning Steps - too noticeable
Pathfinder - too boring
Waves Are Coming - too boring
Coral Reef - too sci-fi
Beethoven Piano Sonata 12 - too depressing
Symphony 3 Eroica - too depressing
Complex Sequence - too upbeat
Oh Cruel Fate - too upbeat
Dot Dash - boring
Apeture Set - boring
Six Frames Missing - too dark
Abbey Road Double - too boring
Paregoric - too boring
Portent - too boring
Rue Christine Pluie - too boring
Soul Implode - too busy
Milli - too war-film-esque
Soldiers And Pilgrims - too battle-fied
Bach Brandenburg Concerto 3 - too fast
High Ground - sounds too much like Jaws
The Open Plains - too wild west
Heirloom - too happy
Chameleon Waltz - sounds like Poirot
Of The Moment Vocal - too poppy
Melodic Atmosphere - too vibrant
Beautiful New World - sounds like The Lion King
Invisibility - sounds like a fairytale
Safe Passage - too happy
Production log
Production meeting one - 16th December 2009
- Decided to work with Hannah due to successful teamwork during the making of our preliminary film.
- Pitched our stories to each other and decided on mine.
Production meeting two - 15th January 2010
- Decided on a name for our film.
- Decided on costumes
- Dress for Azia
- Messy, ripped clothes for Nema
Production meeting three - 18th January 2010
- Wrote script, shooting script and storyboard.
Production meeting four - 22th January 2010
- Wrote concept and treatment.
- Chose and asked actors to be in our film.
Production meeting five - 25th January 2010
- Wrote proposal and shot list.
- Sent actors relevant information, i.e. script, shooting script, etc.
Production meeting six - 29th January 2010
- Did lighting research.
- Did character representation.
Production meeting seven - 1st February 2010
- Did location recce.
Production meeting eight - 5th February 2010
- Did sound research and chose song.
Production meeting nine - 10th February 2010
- Filmed half of 'Shadow'.
Production meeting ten - 12th February 2010
- Filmed remaining part of 'Shadow'.
Production meeting eleven - 22nd February 2010
- Edited film.
Production meeting twelve - 23rd February 2010
- Recorded lines and inserted them into the film.
Lighting
Cinematographer: the person responsible for the overall picture using light.
Black flag: restricts light from the side.
History of lighting:
Earliest cinema used natural light; studios had glass ceilings. As narrative became more complex in the 20th century, the shooting schedule became more demanding - therefore natural light could not be relied upon and artificial light was introduced.
Artificial lighting:
1901 Mercury Vapour Lamp
These were based on blue or green wavelengths to suit the orthochromatic film stock, which were sensitive to blue and green, not red and yellow, based on chemical film. This created a soft look but could not provide directional light.
1933 Klieg Lights
This made day-night shooting available.
1934 Arc Carbon Lights
Arc carbon lights had a strong light, which made shooting at night possible; however they were expensive and noisy. These lights evolved into everyday light bulbs.
Effects of lighting:
High key lighting
Bright, glossy look used in comedies and musicals to portray a happy mood.
Low key lighting
Dim, lots of shadows used mainly in film noir to create a sinister feel.
Top lighting
Highlights hair and cheekbones, producing a glamourous effect.
Side lighting
Highlights subjects in a distorting unnatural way.
Under lighting
Shadows eyes, creating a haunting look.
Back lighting
Completely hides the face, therefore creating mystery.
Hard lighting
Sharp shadows, from a small directional source, giving a dramatic effect.
Soft lighting
Large source, portraying a more natural light, less focused on a particular subject.
As 'Shadow' is a the opening of a fantasy film which focuses very heavily on mystery and fear, we chose to use low key lighting. This helped to create the dark, sinister atmosphere we were hoping to portray and our location worked well in that type of light, as it was a very bare, stark area, helping to add to the idea that Nema had nothing and was therefore unprotected from danger.
Black flag: restricts light from the side.
History of lighting:
Earliest cinema used natural light; studios had glass ceilings. As narrative became more complex in the 20th century, the shooting schedule became more demanding - therefore natural light could not be relied upon and artificial light was introduced.
Artificial lighting:
1901 Mercury Vapour Lamp
These were based on blue or green wavelengths to suit the orthochromatic film stock, which were sensitive to blue and green, not red and yellow, based on chemical film. This created a soft look but could not provide directional light.
1933 Klieg Lights
This made day-night shooting available.
1934 Arc Carbon Lights
Arc carbon lights had a strong light, which made shooting at night possible; however they were expensive and noisy. These lights evolved into everyday light bulbs.
Effects of lighting:
High key lighting
Bright, glossy look used in comedies and musicals to portray a happy mood.
Low key lighting
Dim, lots of shadows used mainly in film noir to create a sinister feel.
Top lighting
Highlights hair and cheekbones, producing a glamourous effect.
Side lighting
Highlights subjects in a distorting unnatural way.
Under lighting
Shadows eyes, creating a haunting look.
Back lighting
Completely hides the face, therefore creating mystery.
Hard lighting
Sharp shadows, from a small directional source, giving a dramatic effect.
Soft lighting
Large source, portraying a more natural light, less focused on a particular subject.
As 'Shadow' is a the opening of a fantasy film which focuses very heavily on mystery and fear, we chose to use low key lighting. This helped to create the dark, sinister atmosphere we were hoping to portray and our location worked well in that type of light, as it was a very bare, stark area, helping to add to the idea that Nema had nothing and was therefore unprotected from danger.
Shooting script
Nema is sitting on the floor against a wall in a dark room, staring unseeingly at the door. (Mid shot). She is in a dream-like state. Eventually she falls asleep and we see her thoughts as she is dreaming. She hears a knock at the door, opens it (Medium close up) and sees her best friend Azia standing there. (Over the shoulder shot.) They hug (two shot) then have a conversation in which Nema discovers that something is wrong.
Azia shakes head. (Medium close up).
Nema: (Urgently) What's happened?
Azia: (Whispers) I'm sorry... (Close up Azia/POV shot focusing behind Nema ).
PAUSE: 5 SECONDS
Azia: (Takes deep breath, gets grip on self) Nema… this is so hard for me to say – I don’t know how—
Nema: (Abruptly) Just say it, Azia, please! (Mid shot).
Azia: This will be the last time you ever see me. (Close up).
PAUSE: 3 SECONDS.
Azia: (Says nothing. Looks distressed. Two shot.)
Nema: (Stands as though struggling to breathe; shocked) What? (Over the shoulder shot).
Why? What's going on? Please, tell me what's going on! (Medium close up.)
Azia: I... (gasps) I have to go!
I'm so sorry, but Nema - remember this: you are never alone.
(Fade to black)
Nema: (Narration - opens eyes, gets up and walks across room. She lights a candle and watches as it casts shadows on the wall.) I awoke to silence. It was familiar to me now, the sound of the emptiness, just as my heart reflected. Somehow, I knew life would go on, but I didn't know how to begin. I didn't even know I was supposed to feel this way - surely it was not possible to get so attached to a friend, someone I had met minimal times in my life, but still had somehow become the centre of my existence. She belonged in my life, and now life without her would be intolerable.
(Shadows break away from wall and run towards her - blows out candle - room goes into darkness.) (Wide shot.)
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