Evaluation

My short film uses the forms and conventions just like actual films in the industry, to follow our genre into it becoming a psychological thriller. We thoroughly thought through ideas as a group to make our film a success and to give the audience the expectations in what they are looking for whilst watching a thriller film.
The opening to my film gives the audience big clues as to where the locations might be set, and shows the title ‘Sedition’ in big lettering. My film starts off by having quick pace edit shots which gets the attention of the audience and gives them the impression that something has happened or is about to. We introduced our main character Megan with a medium close up of her from the side shutting her car then we showed that she was now inside the house by having a long shot of her walking in through the kitchen door coming closer into the shot. We wanted to try and show her face from a distance and as little as possible to keep her identity a mystery and also because it’s a classic thriller technique by leaving the face of the villain out so the audience are left to guess who it could be. We added in an effective looking angle in the scene of Megan and the devil at the sink, as we placed them in these positions on purpose so that there was a close up of Megan washing up whilst showing the devil in the shot but from a slight distance. Overall the angle was beautifully filmed. We used a close up of Megan’s hand consistently scrubbing the floor to clearly show an important part to the story to get the audience in thinking that she could be cleaning up blood, giving the idea that someone has been in danger, also to show that she suffers from OCD and has an obsession. A submissive shot was used on the character Megan in the kitchen scene with her kneeling down on her hands and knees whilst again scrubbing up any evidence. This is showing a more weak and vulnerable side to her through the use of this camera angle. We also show her in a dominant shot when she is opening the boot of the car showing her looking in control and powerful. The camera in this shot was placed in the boot directing up at Megan to get this effect, also it’s the first time the audience gets a real look at the characters face.

When going through our editing process we got the chance to experiment with different tools available on the programme to help make our short film look more visually interesting to watch. Whilst editing we were able to be more creative and started to include different effects. We over lapped images, such as the first two images shown in the opening title sequence, and throughout the film we blended some scenes into one another making the transition from scene to scene easier on the eye to watch. We used the use of slow motion when the three female characters are standing in a line side ways facing towards the sea, showing a more emotional element to the film. The idea of the beach scene with the lead character reflecting on her thoughts, came from the film ‘This is England’. We used a similar idea from this film as it would make the audience connect more emotionally with the character Megan. We super imposed some images together, creating the effect of being able to see double, showing an unsteady dizzy look, which related well with our idea of someone not being mentally well. We applied these when Megan was standing on her own whilst facing the sea, when she is standing sideways on the beach alone, and the ending image of her face as a close up. These fitted in well with the thriller theme.

Throughout my film we had special awareness and used the idea of tight framing frequently. The idea behind this was to give off the impression that the main character was trapped just like the thoughts in the her head was. These tight framing got to show the audience the tension within the scenes and the stress that the character was feeling. In order to get this across we made sure that the character didn’t have much space around her so she was placed in between people or put next to objects. Some examples of when we used this in our short film was when the three characters were sitting closely at the table and bench after the zoom out effect was used, the main character appears to look very closed in and her facial expressions of looking troubled adds to this idea. Whilst she was on the kitchen floor cleaning, we made her kneel close to kitchen appliances such as the washing machine and oven showing the hardship of what a woman’s stereotypical every day role is, which we wanted to show as it ties in well with the idea of her stressful thoughts being influenced by her mental illness. Also in this shot we had her in the middle of the angel and devil showing her closed in.

The dialogue in my film starts by having the angel talking, then the dialogue switches to and from the angel to the devil character. The devil says a line such as ‘use bleach, bleach gets out everything’ in the film which we use repeatedly throughout over other scenes which adds affect, as its suggesting that she gets rid of the guy to get rid if her problems. The repetition of this also goes with the idea that all of the lead characters thoughts repeat themselves and goes round in circles, again relating back to her illness. The lead character doesn’t contribute any dialogue until a minute into the film when her first word is ‘shit’. This shows that this film isn’t for young children due to the language used, but as our film is a 12a this type of word is acceptable. In the second half of our film we use previous lines from what the angel and devil have said to Megan, and we put them over the scenes where Megan is revealed to be on her own showing that these were all in her mind. We show the line ‘be merciful, no be forceful over the imagery of the sea, which goes well visually as the word force is relating to the motion of the waves. We use this line over the top of another scene also, but we distorted the sound of the voice making it sound deeper so it sounded abnormal and slightly evil. With some of the dialogue we cut and faded some parts making the conversation more quiet showing that she knows what is being said as she has heard it in her head so many times. The audience would still know what was being said judging by the hand gestures and facial expressions of the characters.

My film used two locations which we carefully thought about as we wanted these to represent our topic whilst linking in connotations using these settings. An example of this is the kitchen scene which we specifically chose to film in this particular one as most of the room was white and this linked in with the obsessive cleaning idea, and her having a mental health issue, also relating to the condition of having OCD, which shows an obsessive side. The audience got to see the type of area that surrounded the lead character when she was leaving the house and whilst driving. This showed the setting of her on an urban council estate and her trying to escape the pressures of her everyday life and some aspects of her illness, leaving her time to think and reflect in a more peaceful setting. Having chosen to film at the seaside town of Felixstowe we wanted to show a contrast which surrounds this idea of it being a pleasant and enjoyable place to having a criminal trying to plan a way of seeking revenge. We purposely got a shot of the warning sign in the sea to go with the idea that the character Megan was being warned by the angel of what damage her actions could cause. It also shows the idea of the dangers that can be created by having a mental illness.

The type of music that we had were two very different sounding pieces, and were the opposite to each other, but both fitted in well with our film. The instrumental piece used in the first half is a form that is often used in short films, as its very common and recognisable for this type of sound to be used in them. We used a piano instrumental that was by the artist Ludovico Einaudi which was called ‘Fuera Dal Mondo’ as it had the perfect sound of making any one that listened to it become emotionally connected as its sad sounding. This song also featured and worked well in having an affect on the audience in the film ‘This is England’ which we had previously watched and researched. This song worked well in our short film as it also had the sound of being in a romantic genre, which would possibly have tricked the audience. Our second piece of music that we chose fitted in more with our genre and was a classic sound found commonly in thriller themed films. Our soundtrack choices were different to average thriller films as we used a contrast in the two types of music. We started the change in music when the audience got a better picture of what was going on from the shot of the lead character opening the boot of the car and revealing that someone was inside it. The facial expressions on Megan’s face at this point really added to the fact that she was being known as the villain. To add to the music, we also used the sounds of the original wind that was picked up on the camera whilst filming and we amplified it, making it sound more loud and aggressive.

We purposely waited for a day where the weather would suit the atmosphere to our storyline, and we filmed at our locations on a day when it was dull and grey. This would go well with the mood and it related well with having bad thoughts being involved in the characters head, and there being a sense of bad energy. We made sure that in some scenes in the kitchen there was natural bright light to reflect on the all white colours to show it being spotlessly clean going with the obsessive idea. We also pulled the blind down in the other scenes of the kitchen to add a darker tone, giving off an orange tint which was another different type of lighting.

For costume ideas we thought carefully how each individual character was going to look and what they were going to wear which would best suit their role in the film. For the character Charlie who played the devil, we used the iconic colour that comes to mind when thinking of a devil which was red, and dressed her in a red top and made her lips the same to match to add to the idea of a femme fatal image. The devil also had a black cardigan over the top which symbolises death also could relate to feeling of negativity. Dark black eye liner was worn on the eyes of this character to add boldness and look evil. The angel who was named Catherine was wearing a white top representing the purity and innocence of her role, she also had a purple cardigan on representing her being honourable. The lead character known as Megan wore a variety of mix matched colours, which went with the idea of her personality having many different sides to it. We made her wear pink rubber gloves whilst in the scene of her washing up at the sink to show the domestic work of what a woman is typically known to do.

I think that my film turned out to be a success when fitting in with the thriller genre and whilst following the codes and conventions. Me and my group worked well in coming up with ideas, listening to each other and co-operating together to plan and produce our short film.

I then went on to making a film poster to go with my short film. Prior to making this I had done some research to find out a bit more about them and how they are so important when it comes to advertising in the film industry. I wanted my film poster to represent the genre of it being a thriller and make it look appealing to the eye. I had looked at previous film posters that already existed to get an idea of the layout so that I could make mine look realistic. I noticed that the title of the film was usually in the biggest font and at the top of the poster, that the film strap line was always catchy sounding and in smaller font than the title. The names of the actors and director with the film company would often be in a ‘diamond’ type shape at the bottom of the poster in very small print and in alphabetical order. The main image on the poster would always be big with the main star of the film on it.

When putting together my film poster I tried to follow the structure of how real film posters are put together. I placed my title ‘Sedition’ in white which was in the biggest lettering in order to grab the audiences attention. The font of this was very sharp and edgy to go with the type of genre, and overall It gives off a stressful feeling due to this. The strap line ‘be careful who you listen to…’ was placed just underneath the title in white smaller lettering and sounded like a warning message towards the viewers, with the words ‘be careful’ implying that they need to watch out goes well with the thriller theme and will intrigue the target audience who like these scary genres. They in particular will want to find out what to be careful of therefore wanting to see the film. The strap line always goes well and is clever worded which goes with the storyline. I used dark colours on my poster to give it a mysterious atmosphere, the main colour on the poster is black and the contrast in lettering which is white really stands out when against this colour. I wanted my image to be in the centre of the poster as it was a picture of an eye, therefore when the audience will look at the poster it will seem as if the eye is looking directly at them. I also made the image to look as if its looking through something and made it look an evil eye by adding the deep colour green in the pupil suggesting envy, with a blood shot effect around it, with the red representing anger. I added the necessary film information at the bottom in the smallest print, in the typical ‘diamond’ looking shape. I mentioned the company, director then listed the actors names and other people that were involved in the production of the film. I feel that my poster clearly anchors the film showing that its specifically aimed at adults, and overall I am pleased with the end result with how my poster looks.

I researched how film critics wrote a review on different films and became familiar with the structure they used when writing one. I noticed some of what they mentioned when making a review such as they add in important film information for example the director and length of the film, how they use formal words aiming at a more educated audience, and how they would mention another film name if it was similar to the one they were talking about in the review. Whilst studying existing film reviews made it easier to write and produce my own as I became familiar with structure of one.

My film review starts of with the film details such as the certificate, length of film, the distribution and the release date. I then mentioned a rough outline of the film making it sound intriguing to the readers and I added in the directors name showing that the director came up with a brilliant twist in the storyline. In more depth and detail I then discuss what the happens in the film mentioning the characters, how the film is structured as a double cycle, comparison to other films that have already been done with a similar theme, and included a negative and positive comment, ending with a line involving an opinion on the film overall. I set out my film review in two columns as if it was in a newspaper article to make it look more realistic as this is the layout of most reviews.

I think that my review matched up well with a real film review and therefore came across believable. I ended with a line of positive comments and included ‘definitely one to see’ making it sound persuasive as it’s the last thing the viewers will read.

By having the ability to be in a position to be able to use different programmes through the use of new media has helped my project, for example being able to show anyone my work, and make it easier to do my work and make it look as professional as possible.
Having an online blog meant that anyone could have access into viewing my page at any place and any time they wished to. This is a good thing as a variety of people world wide could then look at my blog and even communicate by posting a comment if they wanted. The blogs were also a great way to distribute, as our film could of been uploaded onto the site and be watched by millions of people within seconds.
New media has enabled anyone to produce something that is high quality and to look almost like the real things, for example, designing and making a web page, making films, posters, magazines and leaflets. Prior to having new media and technology, rich and high end business people would be the only kind of people who were fortunate enough to be able to produce things that would look decent. Through the use of new media and democratisiation anyone can now successfully make something through the use of technology and programmes which will be alomost be just as good as the people working in the media industry.
New media has helped me and my project as it made things a lot easier and quicker. The use of having small digital min flip cameras to film on was good as they were wasnt heavy whilst holding them and they could be taken anywhere. When uploading them onto the computer to watch what you had filmed took a matter of seconds which was good time consuming. The editing process was useful as we got the chance to be more creative. We could play around with different effects and make it more personalised. When editing our film and poster we could make them look better by using the various options and tool with just a few clicks on the mouse it could be changed in minutes.

My film review

Film review

‘Sedition’

12, 4 ½ minutes, distributed via the internet, available from April 20th

Starring Jazelle Johnson, Jess White, Natasha Arcuelo, Joshua Wade

In this film the title ‘sedition’ compliments the film in the sense of there being drama involved as it has the meaning of trouble making. This physiological thriller directed by Sophie Copsey combines the idea of someone seeking revenge with a twist of there being madness, with the underline serious issue of the main character suffering from a serious mental health condition.

The film is based on a female who is left heart broken when realising that the man she thought was deeply in love with her has in fact been unfaithful. However this is no ordinary storyline as this woman deals with her emotions very differently to the average female, and sets out to plan and get her own back with the clever idea of having a good and bad conscious whirling around inside her, leaving the audience at the edge of their seats, intrigued to find out what crazy idea she has next. The character Megan (Jazelle Johnson) captures and locks away her cheating beloved in the boot of her car with her thought to be friends Charlie (Jess White) and Catherine (Natasha Arcuelo) who are constantly persuading Megan in to what she should do, whether it being good or bad. These two characters are later revealed to be non existent and just part of Megan’s imagination. The character Megan will leave the audience with their own opinions which will be debatable, as the role she plays is controversial, however she does manage to get sympathy with the her having a mental illness.

The film is clever and executed well with the structure, as it involves the idea of having a double cycle which goes over the story twice with the second time revealing the unexpected and a different view on the storyline. The idea of finding out that the leading character is mentally ill gives off the idea that anything can now happen, therefore leaving the audience excited and making them want to watch it until the end to see what the intentions are of this infuriated heart broken female, and to see what she is capable of and what dilemma she will get herself in to.

The film itself is dominated by an all female cast including Jazelle Johnson, Jess White and Natasha Arcuelo who are the only actors, apart from the short two shots of the male victim who is played by Joshua Wade. Although these actors are not that well known, they take their role in the film very seriously when it comes to getting in to character and give off a believable performance. The audience then surprisingly start to feel sympathy towards the main character Megan when ideally she should be seen as an unpredictable, mentally ill woman who is committing a crime.

The different techniques used throughout this film gives it justice and makes it more appealing. The soundtrack idea is a beautiful choice of song. An instrumental piece carried out on the piano, which gives the film that emotional element which really captures the viewers hearts. The music also changes to a more thriller type sound, which compliments and gives off the codes and conventions of the genre, which would be expected by the audience. The editing is cleverly thought of by adding in shaky effects to images to give off an edgy look and to go with the idea of the leading character having mental issues. Also the use of slow motion and quick edit shots adds to this effect and makes the film more visually interesting to watch.

If you loved the classic films ‘Fatal Attraction’ and ‘Sixth Sense’ then this is the film to go and see. With the use of an all female cast and the main character as a strong leading lady this is definitely aimed more towards a more female audience as the film is unsurprisingly not taken over by male roles. As this film is being distributed on the internet there will be easy access when wanting to watch it and can be seen by anyone who has the possession of a computer, however this short film is not suitable for children under the age of twelve as the certification is marked as a 12 film.

The film itself does have a negative on the area around the cost in making and putting the film together, as its obvious to see that film was on a low budget, however if there had been more money put into the process of making the film it could of turned out even better. Overall the film is a success despite the small issue surrounding the funding and that can be dismissed as the simplicity throughout the short film does work and still gives off a good affect due to the great efforts put in by a talented director.

Intriguing storyline, good British talent, expect the unexpected, defiantly one to see.

My finished movie poster.

This is my finished movie poster for my short film. I am very pleased with it. The purpose of this poster is to promote the film generally. I have used layout very carefully, at the top of the poster is the film title, with a strap line beneath, the central image and the film details centred at the bottom. This follows the conventions of a normal film poster. I carefully chose my fonts, the title is used to create a stressful feeling due to the sharp and edgy look. The tagline is also in the same font as the title, but looks slighty different as its in smaller lettering, but has a creepy look and feel to it. My poster clearly anchors the meaning of the film as an adult, serious text which is in the thriller or suspense genre. This would attract the right target audience for my film. It also suggests that it is about voyuerism or looking into something, which suits my film very well and the image helps this to do so. When looking at this film poster you instantly know that the audience will be for adults, and the colour helps suggest this as there isn't a wide range of colour used, and no bright colours have been included. The use of dark and dull colour suits the genre of my film and by using these colours the audience instantly knows what sort of film it most likely to be. The image i chose to use and put on my poster suggests that its a thriller as the eye gives off the impression of that person or something being evil. I also edited this image by adding in the green pupil and red around the outside to help make the eye look hateful. The text is kept simple but still looks effective. The title 'Sedition' compliments the film with the idea of there being trouble. The tagline is catchy and goes with the story of the film well, it will also intrigue the audience into going and seeing it. As all film posters have, i've included the film information down at the bottom as its important to have this displayed, it also makes it look realistic. I am pleased with the end result of my poster as i believe it fits in with the genre of my short film and looks effective.

Film posters

Film posters are used all around the world and are very important to the film industry, as these posters help advertise and promote the film. Film posters have to be able to have an image on them or a certain type of text that will make the film look interesting and will therefore be able to draw the attention and attract an audience. By looking at a film poster you can often tell what type of genre the film will be and whether you will be interested to go and see it. An example of this would be if a poster had some sort of weapon on, you could suggest that the film is more action based, or if there was an attractive male and female closely together with feminine colours surrounding the image you could say that its a romantic genre. Film posters typically have an image of the main characters, the title of the film which is usually in the largest font size, the directors name, and most importantly the release date. When being advertised, sometimes the poster is altered slightly depending on which country it is being advertised in, often to make it fit in with the culture. Tag lines and slogans can persuade people to go and see it, also they anchor the poster. Film posters are not just advertised in the cinema, but on the sides of busses, in shops, billboards and on the internet.

Film sources

I like the fact that me and group came up with the idea of the female being the dominant figure and who over powers the male character. In the majority of films it is the male role who is in control and takes charge of the situation, therefore we wanted to add a twist and change the audiences usual expectations of how the two gender's stereotypically act when playing roles in films. When i tried doing some research in finding some films which this applies to i didnt really come across any, but found the 1987 film called 'Fatal Attraction', and from finding out this information it shows that not many films has a female lead character who plays the 'bad guy'. In our short film the leading female character is committing a crime and is seen to be the 'villain'.

Overall i think that it was a good idea to have a change to the average typical narrative, as its something that isnt seen very often and its something different for the audience to watch.

Shots

Our short film contains a various selection of different shot sizes to either show facial expressions, body gestures or for fitting a whole length of a person into the shot.The specific type of shot sizes are extreme close up, close up, medium close up, medium shot, medium long shot, long shot and extreme long shot. We used close up shots to show emotion on a person's face, for example when the character Megan was sitting on the bench looking puzzled about what to do, towards the end when she was standing alone on the beach showing a very serious and slightly evil face, and when she was driving in her car showing frustration. We used an extreme long shot to show the beach and location, and a long shot where the three characters were walking along the pavement next to the beach. We used an extreme close up in the last scene where megan closes her eyes, to leave the ending a mystery to the audience and to not find out how it ended and what actually happened.

Lighting

We had diverse lighting in our short film and this altered due to filming in different settings and locations. We had shots from inside and outside which gave us various colours. The footage from our beach scene was all completely natural lighting and the colours in the shot were very neutral, the lighting naturally looked bright. When we filmed indoors in the room of the kitchen we made some adjustments that would change the lighting slightly, which was pulling the blinds making it look less vibrant, although when Megan was doing the shot at the kitchen sink we drew the blinds up letting abit more natural light reflect onto her which made the character show up better on the camera and in the film. Too much light was coming in the shot when we filmed the guy in the boot scene, therefore we moved the car more into the shade to make the atmospthere feel more dark and gloomy, to give off the impression that he was in danger. We could also adjust the lighting making it unnatural by using different tools on the editing programme which in some circumstances we did, for example making the lighting in the boot scene just a little bit more darker.

Title sequence

For our opening title sequence we wanted to use some key images that stood out from the film to use as the background, so that the credits could run over them. We chose the image from the beach scene showing the tidal waves moving in and out crashing onto the beach, and we used the character Megan consistantly cleaning and scrubbing the floor. We slowed both of the images down making them go at the same pace and blended them together. These two images go well with eachother as the moving of the waves are constantly being repetative, the same as Megan moving the cloth up and down on the kitchen floor.

For our ending credits we used the classic white writing on a black background making it clear for all to read, and even though it is simple it is still effective. The more plain and practical it looked, the more we thought it would adress that there was still a serious message and topic to get across which was mental health issues. Using this straight simple format it could look like it was specifically designed to be showcased at a traditional film festival where we had planned to distribute our short film.

Editing process

Editing our film was quite a long process as we were very particular with how we wanted the film to look. We knew from our last project that Jazelle liked and was good at the editing process therefore this year she took over this specific part with the help of myself and jess's input of ideas. The editing programme allowed us to do various things throughout the duration of the film to help improve the overall look of the film. During the first half, the use of quick moving edit shots are used often to create a sense of panic reflecting off the main character, also the feeling of urgency suggesting something is going on. This will keep the audience watching and will intrigue them into wanting to find out what will happen next. The next half is the opposite to the first as the edit pace gets slower which changes the mood, its shows slow motion which contrasts with the short and quick shots that were shown previously. To show the scenes changing into the next we used the dissloving method to blend them together to change the scenes over in a nicer way. By changing the edit pace in the second half gives a chance to show the audience whats been going on and to help them understand it more.

Special effects

In our film we did use some special effects to make it look more interesting and less amateur, we also wanted to use effects that would go with our topic and portray someone being mentally ill and having certain types of issues. An example of this is where we super imposed some images together to create the effect of  being able to see double, suggesting someone having unsteady vision and showing a dizzy effect. This links well with the mental health issue to represent someone not being well, it could also indicate someone having two different sides to them through the illness. We used the zoom effect to get a more in depth view, for example when the three characters were standing in a line on the beach with their backs towards the camera. Using the articial zoom it could give a sense of being trapped when visually looking at the zoom scenes in the short film. We used this technique on several occasions, for instance when Megan is sitting on a bench with the angel and devil beside her, the shot then zooms onto her face to show a close up of her looking and feeling confuesed. Also when the boyfriend is stuck in the boot of the car with the effect leaving him looking trapped. We used the method of slow motion in the part where the three females are standing together looking towards the sea giving time for the audience to feel some emotion towards the situation of Megan.

Music

When thinking of music we wanted to choose something that would make our audience feel some sort of emotion whilst watching the film. We came across a piece of music which we really liked as it connected well emotionally with the sad narrative. The song that we chose was 'Fuera del Mundo' which is played on the piano and is a very relaxing piece of music to listen to, also i think the sound would touch and move the audience. When hearing this music before it made me think it had more of a romantic feel to it, so therefore the viewers could think in the same way and be mislead at the start and have a surprise by the end. When hearing this sound it does have the effect of making you start to sympathise with the characters regardless of the situation or if they are good or bad characters, and in this case the audience do not yet know that the lead character has committed a crime. The music does change in the second half of our film to a thriller sound which will make the audience know that something isn't right and that something bad will be revealed.

Costume ideas

When we were thinking of costume ideas, we straight away thought of what type of characters were involved and what sort of personalities they had, and then came up with clothing suggestions that would best bring out the character and their role.
The colour that first springs to mind with the character of the 'devil' was red, therefore Jess Whight who played this role wore a red top throughout the film which represented danger, something evil along with the idea of hate. She also had on black which went with the idea of bad thoughts and even death. Wearing make-up helped bring out this character more as having black around the eyes and red lips went with the whole devil image. The costume and image of our angel character would be the complete opposite as we made natasha who played this character wear a white top to represent the purity and innocence of this role. For the character megan who was played by Jazelle Johnson we went with any sort of colour worn together to help go with the impression of her suffering with a mental illness and having two different types of personalities. Towards the end of the film the character was wearing a black coat done again purposley to represent her commiting a sin along with the dark colour of  showing a bad energy which was surrounding her.

Film locations

When thinking of film locations and where we could film for our short film, we took our time and discussed it carefully within the group as the locations would be a crutial part into moving the storyline along and would help the audience understand what was going on better. We needed to get across that the main character was leaving her boyfriend, a type of incident had just happened and also show that she wasnt in the right state of mind mentally. We decided to firstly film in a kitchen as we could link her doing various things with objects such as cleaning products to go with the idea that she had some sort of illness, for example her consistantly scrubbing and cleaning. Also the kitchen area can be linked with where 'bad things' are more likely to happen within a household, for example, as it contains sharp objects that can be harmful or cause harm. We also done some filming in felixstowe and this was because the beach setting went well with the idea we was going for, and the idea behind it was to show the contrast, as usually felixstowe is a place where groups of people go to have fun and enjoy a day out somewhere different, where as in this case it was a place where 'megan' went to think about the innapropriate thing she had done whilst having a mental breakdown of good and bad thoughts rushing round. On the day of filming it was very windy and cold, with the sky dull and grey and this helped go with the concept that there was the sense of a bad atmosphere and that megan wasnt content with what was happening in the world around her.

Chosen certificate for our short film

From doing some research on the British board of film classification i believe that our short film best suits the certificate of a 12/12a as it doesnt involve any bad language, sex scenes or nudity and no type of drug use are used in any part of our film. The topic of our film would be acceptable for this certificate as its a psychological thriller with the element of mental health issues ivolved which is focusing on a more realistic storyline to other films that are in the film industry and therefore teenagers would cope more when watching certain scenes and also have more of an understanding to whats actually going on, rather than a PG rating where the child would be confuesed and mistunderstand certain situations, and could find themselves becoming distressed. Our film does include some inappropriate behaviour, but is only shown in quick brief shots, for example when the leading female character 'meagan' is shown to be opening the boot of her car which then it is revealed to the audience that there is a male trapped with tape over his mouth, but there are no scenes actually showing how the character ended up there and no domestic abuse or physical violence were shown. Our film does only contain one swear word throughout which is accepted. As our film is rated to be a 12, anyone of this age and above will be accepted to watch this film, where as anyone under this age the rating would be classed as a 12a and it would be up to the decision of a parent or gurdian to allow the child to see it but the adult must also accompy them.

The UK film certification

I did some research into finding out the terms and regulations of the british board of classifications, to see what ages you have to be to view certain types of films. This will help me and my group come up with a suitable certificate for our short film.

A U film is suitable for all audiences aged four years and above. U films should be set to have a positive moral and shouldnt upset the viewers with any violence, threat or horror.

A PG film is for anyone in general but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. Unaccompanied children of any agee may watch. A PG film should not disturb a child around the age of eight or older, however parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.

A 12A and 12 are suitable for people who are aged twelve years and above. A 12A category exists only for cinema, and no one younger may see a 12A film unless accompanied by an adult. The responsibility for allowing a child under this age to view lies with the accompanying adult.

A 15 film is suitable for anyone this age and older. No one under the age of 15 may see a 15 film in the cinema or to buy or rent a film with this certificate.

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A R18 film is a special and legally restricted classification for showing explicit sex or strong material involving adults. These types of films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas and video works may only be supplied to adults in licensed sex shops, and these videos may not be supplied by mail order.

Creativity

During the making of our film and also just being A level media students we found that we couldnt be as creative as we wanted to be due to the casting, genre, money, time, our group and technology.
Money was an issue as the film we were going to make would have to be funded by me and my group, so we were limited to how far we could travel to film and what we could use prop wise. Therefore we ended up going to the closest location due to petrol fees to film on a beach, which was felixstowe, instead of wanting to go further a field.
Time wise we had to think wisely as we didnt have long to come up with an idea, to plan everything and to actually film it, and this restricted us as we had to come up with suitable ideas which were possible and realistic to do in the amount of time we had to do it in.
Working in a group can limit your own creativity as you cant just do what you want to do, listening and putting everyones ideas into the process is part of the project. Certain ideas of your own may have to be put a side due to disagreement from other members or if another idea is liked better than your own.
Casting people for our short film would not be an easy task if we needed a lot of characters in it, as finding people who arent neccessarily actors to be in it would be difficult also getting a lot of people to be free and meet at the same time on the same day in order to film would be a hard task. With not a lot of people being willing to be on camera whilst having to find people who suited the types of characters we needed, it makes it harder to find and cast people.
With the lack of reasonable didgital technology our short film could of been better. We were given a small mini flip camera to use, and the issue with this was that the screen was rather small, so when filming on it it wasnt that clear and would have to wait until we had loaded it up onto the comupter to see it more clearly.
With any film in order to make it work and meet the expectations of the audience the codes and conventions need to be followed but whilst doing this we have to cut back on our creativity.

Casting decisions

In our short film we had a relatively short cast as we only needed three actors shown throughout as our storyline was just based around this number of people and there was no reason to cast more. I feel with this number of actors in the film it will be more of a success as it keeps the storyline simple and the audience can get to know the characters better.
The character 'Megan' would be played by Jazelle Johnson as she has a good ability to act out this role well, also a lot of our film involved a car which she was able to drive and provide us with some good shots.
The character 'Katherine' who was the angel would be played by Natasha Arcuelo as shes got an innocent look about her, her voice is very calm sounding and suttle and a petite frame which goes well with this whole 'angel' image.
The character 'Charlie' who was the devil was played by Jess White as she was able to get into character and act this part well as she could use a loud stern voice, and use serious facial expressions, overall she was a believable character.

Target audience

The type of audience we are ideally aiming for would be more towards women, as the characters in our film will be an all female cast and i think they would understand and sympathise with the situation more so then men, as usually its the female who has more emotions towards and within a relationship. Also when being cheated on by a boyfriend would either make the female stronger of crush her. I feel alot of women could relate to this topic as probably most have experienced this or something similar. The issues that our main character would have, i feel that females would accept this type of behaviour more,due to being sensitive where as men would see it as being 'crazy'.

Distribution context of the film

As we are making a short film which contains a serious issue about mental health we could distribute this across the internet which could then be seen by everyone and even viewers from different parts of the world, and this is a good idea if you are looking to get a message across to a wide range of people. Other than this i think our short film would best and most likely be distributed at a film festival which would show off how well it was filmed and put together.

institutional context of the film

Our short film will be able to touch on a serious and very relaistic topic that is not often shown in mainstream films and that fits in well with a short film as you can get a strong message quickly across. It will show the viewers what a person can go through whilst having to live with a mental illness, and how they can have two sides to them, showing completely different personalilties within them. In our short film we are concentrating on a female suffering this illness therefore the audience watching are more likely to be female.

Filming diary

On the day of filming we started In the morning and began at school to film with josh who played the boyfriend, to do the scene where he's in the boot of the car. Other shots included was the dominant shot of jazelle shutting the boot of the car, and a shot of josh being trapped inside.
Next it was the scene at Jess's house which was round the corner from our school, this is where the kitchen scene was filmed.
The shots of just the character Megan was the shot in the kitchen. Then film the shots of just the devil.
Shots of the car were then filmed, for example, Megan getting in and out of the car, the door shutting, plugging her seat belt in, Megans first word, turning the key, and reversing the car.
Then back inside the kitchen the shots of the angel and devil scenes were filmed. Also with the character Megan.
At lunch time we then went to our next location which was at the beach in felixstowe. When we arrived we got set up ready to start filming.
We filmed all three main characters on the beach, walking beside the beach and sitting on a bench near by the beach.
Early afternoon we then made our way back to school to load up our film ready for the editing process.

The day had been successful and we were pleased with how things had went and worked out, no major issues were caused through out the day of filming and we managed to get all our filming done in one day as we had planned and expected.

Planning our film

Me and my group arranged to sit down to work out a plan to prepare ourselves for when we would have to start filming. We had to organise certain things like where our final locations would be, what props we would possibly need, what day we would start filming, with taking into consideration what days everyone was free. we talked about various shot sizes and angles we could use whilst looking at our story board as a guide to help. We decided that one day should be enough time to complete our filming and that we would spend a few hours each at the two locations that would feature in our film. In having this meeting with my group its helped us to arrange when and where we will be meeting up and how we will go about filming our short film.

Final idea for short film

After thinking of other different ideas and directions we could go in whilst thinking of what to do for our short film, we came up with the idea of having a conscience playing on someone’s mind and making them question on what they should be doing, for example what’s the right thing to do and what’s not acceptable . We came up with the idea of having an ‘angel and devil’ constantly saying the opposite things, playing in the back of someone’s mind. It will show what’s going on through the persons head whilst thinking of what to do. The rough outline of the story is that the lead character will be seeking revenge on her boyfriend after finding out that he has been cheating on her, she then goes on to kidnap him and locks him in the boot of her car. However the twist will be her having and suffering from a mental health illness and the angel and the devil characters who are named Katherine and Charlie in the film will not actually be real, but they will be in the mind of the female character Megan.

Another short film idea

Another idea we came up with was to show how the truth changes when a story is told and passed on through a group of people. The narrative structure would be a tripple cycle of the same narrative, told and changed each time the story was re told, and each version of the story would get exagerated from the truth of what actually happened. The main event would be set and filmed at a house party, with typical characters that are shown in society to then be exagerated into common well known stereotypes each time the story is past on. The intended target audience would be aimed at everyone, due to the stereotypes, mostly girls would find it interesting as its based around gossip. The stories surrounding the event would be passed on through phonecall conversations, starting with the host of the party telling the origninal version of what actually happened, to her sister which then gets passed onto her sisters friend, then her sister's friend tells a different friend which would be the exagerated version. This idea to write the storyboard and to film is quite complex, also we would need to cast and rely on alot of characters to feature in the short film.

Short film-'Chicken a la carte'

This film is showing the seriousness of poverty and world hunger that is still going on to this day, and is trying to send out an important message showing that this is a true story and how thousands of people die each . The story starts off by two people going into a fast food place ordering food and sitting down eating it, the camera work is unsteady making you feel that you are also there with them, similar to how a documentry is filmed. The music is sounding quite serious and dramatic at this point. The story then goes on to reveal that the left over food from the restaurant gets taken and goes to families and young children who are too poor to afford to eat and they then start to eat the left over chicken half eaten by other people. This is when the sad music starts to kick in, roughly half way through when showing that the left over’s are being taken. This is to create a sad emotion by the audience for these people having to go through this. This type of film is aimed at any person who comes across this and views it, as its something everyone should be aware that this is going on. This film was made to be entered into a competition to be shown at a film festival, and won most popular short film as a result of this.

Short film-'Signs'

This film has a clever idea when thinking of a way to meet someone new. The theme of this short film is 'communication' and how by being non verbal and using just signs to have a conversation speaks volumes and shows silence is golden. It also shows the simplicity of finding love. The start of the film introduces the main character to the audience by showing his day to day life in normal pace edit shots, without showing too much detail and unnecssary shots. By the expressions on the mans face you can tell that he isnt completely happy with his life and is missing something, for example he looks lonely as he lives by himself and doesnt seem to fit in or have friends at work. Whilst this is being shown, the music in the background goes with this as its very slow and a sad sounding piece of music, which goes with how he's feeling inside. Which also helps the audience to connect emotionally. The story then progresses when he starts to communicate with a female in another office with the use of messages shown through the windows, and roughly half way through the film the edit pace starts to speed up as he starts to feel happier. The music changes also, to a more cheerful sound and speeds up which then indicates that something good is going to happen. The film ends with a happy ending with the two main characters meeting. Throughout the film there is no verbal dialogue just the use of story telling through signs, and the use of camera shots and filming tells the story with no complications.This film would be shown as a showcase of the directors work.

Short film-'Lovefield'

This film was well executed and cleverly filmed. When watching this, your feelings at beginning are very different to when it ends. The opening to this short film comes across rather mysterious, as you are unaware of where the location is, the colours are dull for example the sky, the background music sounds like something out of a 'thriller' genre and the crow which represents 'death' makes you feel something bad is going to happen. Throughout the first few minutes of the film you are lead to believe that a woman is being attacked and murdered, the camera helps create this effect as its slowly revealling objects on the ground such as 'blood on a napkin' and a knife being put into the ground. The location of the film is set in the middle of 'no where' which adds to the suspicion that a murder is being taken placed. The story then goes on to reveal that the woman who we thought was allegedly being killed was infact giving birth with the help of the man. Therefore the theme to this is 'prejudice'. Therefore the subject to this short film is not to judge too quickly. The camera shots doesnt show you alot, just specific objects to make u think something bad is happening, until the end, when the shots get more distant and shows the audience the whole location and whats going on. The weather then turns very bright and sunny, which is reflecting the happy atmosphere. The style to this is very filmic, and would be the sort of film used to showcase somebody's work to get into the film industry.

First idea for a short film

For our short film for A2, we havent been given a specific topic, except to come up with something that highlights a problem. Therefore me and my group have had a discussion and came up with the idea surrounding the issues based on domestic viloence. The idea would have a twist, as in this situation the male would be the victim, and we thought this was an unusual and a different side, as in most cases the woman is infact the victim. The main characters that would be involved in this, would be the male who will be the victim, his female partner the abuser and their young child who is witnessing what is happening. We thought it would be a good idea to have the story be looked at by the point of view of their young child, as this will have an emotional effect by the audience. The setting of this would ideally be the 'family home' as its in private and thats the main place where these sorts of situations happen. For an editing technique which would go well with this idea we thought of having the camera go from room to room which is called the 'transparent wall' to show around the house and add more effect.

Brief/Last year overview

My name is sophie and i am currently studying media at A2 level. For our AS project, last year me and my group made a two minute openeing to a film with a 'high school musical' theme, and we was the only group to have come up with a comedy piece. In my group there were four of us including myself, and we each had different roles within the group aswel as all working together. Harry was the script writer, Jazelle was the editor, Jess was the director and i did the storyboard. We all helped and came up with different and good ideas for the project we was doing, we all worked well as a group and got on good with eachother which helped us manage to complete the work we had to do on time. From doing this project, it will help us with our new one as we are a little bit more experienced with filming and digital technology and therefore we can use that knowledge and produce something better.

New project

Our new film for A2 is to produce a short film lasting no longer than five minutes long, addressing some sort of issue with a message. I feel this theme will be good for my group as the theme is the complete opposite to what we came up with last year. The theme is based on a topic abit more serious and will be a contrast to what we did last year, and will therefore show the examiner we can come up with something different. To get an understanding of what short films are like we watched a few in class to help show us what we should aim to produce. In my group there are three of us including myself, and we know each other well as we have worked with eachother before. Jazelle will be the editor, Jess will do the storyboard and i will be the director.