Audience Feedback

 

  

 

 This is all of the audience feedback that i got from the people in my class. I think that it was very helpful with giving us suggestions for things that we could do and also it was very encouraging to see that people enjoyed watching our short film.

Test Footage

When filming we tried lots of different ways of filming things and most of the time they worked straight away. However we couldn't find away to film the both of us in the car talking whilst having good sound, good camera positioning and a good quality shot. Below is all of the test footage that we got from trying all of the ways we could think of. Also the last video on this post is of the after effects attempt we had for when we do the murder scene.

Door Camera from Harry Base on Vimeo.

The above video is when me and Harry had the idea of trying to tape the camera to the door. We thought this would be a nice camera angle but when we thought about it Harry's hands would have been blocking the view when he was driving so it wasn't very good. Also the tape wasn't strong enough to hold the camera up because it is quite heavy so when we went around the corner the camera fell off completely as you can see in the video. Also you can see the set up of the taped camera in the picture to the right.

Unscripted Dialogue from Harry Base on Vimeo.

This is our first attempted at filming the both of us driving and talking. We decided not to use this one because we hadn't actually scripted what we were going to say before we tried doing this. After watching this back we thought we definitely needed a script so we have made one and you can see it by clicking on this link - http://year13tavi8403.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/script.html

Holding Camera from Harry Base on Vimeo.

The next attempt was with Harry holding the camera himself and trying to film me talking. This obviously didn't work because Harry had to concentrate on the road ahead of him to drive and not crash. So because he couldn't look at what the camera was doing the shot was terribly positioned, out of focus and very unstable. Because of this we decided that it definitely was unusable so we haven't put it into our short film.

Bad Sound from Harry Base on Vimeo.

This is the final attempt we had when trying to do the dialogue. As Harry was driving I held the tripod and put the camera out of the window so that the shot could see both of us. The sound on it was terrible as you couldn't hear anything that was said.  A way we got over this problem was by using Harry's microphones and putting it in the car. However the camera then needed to be linked to the microphones so we decided that we should do any dialogue when the car was still and film through the windows.

In the photo to the right you can see how we were filming the get away that Harry's character did. For this we put the passenger seat as far forward as it would go and knelt on it whilst putting the camera out of the sun roof. By doing this we thought that it would be good footage to use to show them get picked up by the police. However when filming this the road was very bumpy so i found it very hard to keep the camera still enough to get a good quality shot so in the end we decided not to use it.

Again in the photo to the left you can see a different way that we tried to film the car driving away. This time as you can see we set up the tripod on the roof of glens car so that we could film the back of Harry's get away car. We thought that we would do this because then it would almost look like we were the police car who were after them and coming up from behind. This technique would have been effective if we could keep the camera still because as i said even with the tripod the road was still the bumpy and the camera kept juddering.

 



In the shot to the left you can see the set up we had when we were doing the tracking shots that are at the beginning of our short film. I really wanted to try and put tracking shots into our short film as i think it looks really effective. so we did the by getting a skateboard and piling things on top so that it was at the right height for us to film Harry when he is reading the letter from his girlfriend. I think in the end when we finished filming them they looked really good so we have used all three angles.


I think when we filmed all of these and realised what we were doing wrong they helped to improve the overall look of our final product. I think this because when we first went out to go and film we went out without planning any of what we were going to do or what we were going to say so the next time we went out we were prepared for what we were going to do and the equipment we were going to need. Also looking at how bad some of the shots were it helped us think of different ways of over coming the problems that we had to then get that part done a lot better than we had done it before. So all of the footage that is on here may not be in our actually final product but it has contributed by showing us what we were doing wrong.



Costume Board

This post is all about the costumes that the different characters wear when they are acting in our short film. I have pointed out the main points on each of the different characters outfits and underneath i will write more in depth about what there outfit might suggest about there lifestyle and what they think about themselves when they are going out.

The character above is Nick (Sam's character). I think that by looking at the clothing of this character and how he is wearing them and how he has styled his hair i would say that his lifestyle is quite hectic ad quite active because he is a student at university. I would say this because when you look at this character hair it is quite messy and it looks like he has done it very quickly as if he is in a rush which could suggest and show the hectic lifestyle of a student. Another point would be the lack of a belt. I think that this could mean that the character doesn't have much money because of debt from student loans and not having a job so he has decided that the belt isn't necessary so he doesn't spend any of his money on it. Another point is that he is very stylish because of the skinny jeans and the in trend trainers that he is wearing. However as you can see from the picture both of there are a bit beaten up like he hasn't had the money to go out and buy new ones. Another thing that i saw was that he is wearing his jeans very low. This is then reinforcing the stereotype that youth have.

This character here is the complete opposite of the character before. I think that by looking at him  would say that he has quite a comfortable lifestyle because of the nice belt and watch he is wearing. I would say that these cost quite a lot of money which would suggest that he doesn't really have to worry about money because he has a well payed job as a teacher. Another point i would make is the way that he has styled his hair. It looks like he has spent lots of time on his hair making sure that it is just right. This could suggest that he is wary of how he looks in public and that he takes pride in his appearance. All of his clothing is very slim fitting. I think this could suggest again that he has a well payed job because he might like to stay in fit by paying to go to the gym which again says he has a lot of money. However this also might suggest that he again just likes to take pride in his appearance and takes care of himself by having a healthy diet and maybe goes for runs in his spare time.

Props Board

For our short film we used many different types of props and some were a lot more used than some of the others but they all helped in making our film a lot more realistic and a lot easier to film different things. All of the props that we used are listed below.

The picture above is the prop that we most used in our short film and it was also the most helpful to make it look good. It is Harrys' car which we used for his character to be driving. By using this car it gave us more freedom in what we wanted to do instead of having to wait for people who can drive to help us. Also we didn't have a lot of choice in using this car because only Harry can drive so we had to use his one. This prop allowed us to do the majority of our filming as it was in the part when Harry picked up the hitchhiker and it drove us to where the murder was going to be committed. Overall this was the best prop that we have used.

This is an Ariel Atom that Harrys' dad owns. We thought that we could use this because when Harry has committed the murder he needs a get away car so instead of using just a normal car we thought we should try to use it to our advantage when we were filming because normally in films get away cars are fast and look cool which is what the Atom does very well. This enabled us to film a big chunk of our film so it was very effective when filming.

Another very important prop that we used was the sledge hammer which was the murder weapon. We thought this would be ideal because we wanted to make the murder scene almost over the top gross and we thought by caving somebodies head in with a sledge hammer would give this effect nicely. Also the hammer wasn't an overly big prop so it was easy to take places when we needed it. This prop made this part of the film look very realistic so I am glad that we used this in our short film.

Location Recce and Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment - Woods

Location: Woods

-          Murder scene -          Little bit of dialogue between Sam, Harry and Glen -          Both characters getting to location

Hazard	Person/s at risk	Likelihood of hazard (1-5) 1= least likely	Severity of outcomes 1= lowest risk	Risk level Likelihood + severity ÷2	Measure to reduce risk	Final risk level acceptable?
Weather – equipment gets wet	Actors	3	3	3	Make sure that we are outside the shortest amount of time possible	Yes
Fall into ditch	Actors	2	4	3	Make sure that we try to film as far away from this as possible. Make people aware of it.	Yes
Jumping down verge	Actors	4	4	4	Try to help each other get down the verge or find another pathway down.	Yes
Trip and drop equipment	Equipment	1	5	3	Try to be extra careful with it or get something to protect it when we carry it.	Yes

Location Recce - Woods

Description of the chosen location
This is a wooded area which has a lot of trees around with a small lake running at the bottom of it. Its at the side of a road so it is easy to access and there is parking there.
Issue	What to look for	Notes
Access	Bus stops and train stations	There are no bus stops or train stations.
	Parking facilities	There is a small car park but will only take about 4 cars.
	Lifts/stairs	There are no lifts or stairs, just a verge which you have to jump down or you can walk about 20 meters down the road and there is a concrete ramp.
	Doorways (Width – consider equipment as well as people)	There aren’t any doorways as it is an outdoor location.
Space	Enough room (for cast/contributors, crew and necessary equipment)	This is a very open space so there is plenty of room for everyone.
	Immovable objects (Are there any that will get in the frame?)	There are lots of trees but there are more open spaces if the trees are in the way.
	Set dressing requirements (esp. for dramatic production)	There aren’t for this location. However my characters don’t have any other costumes than the ones they are wearing.
Lighting	Windows (Are there blinds/curtains to minimise changes in daylight during the shoot?)	It is an outdoor location.
	Lighting appliances (Fluorescent/tungsten? Can they be switched on and off?)	There is only sun light because it is outdoors.
	Plug points (If lighting kit is to be used)	There aren’t any plug points at this location.
Issue	What to look for	Notes
Sound	Traffic noise	It is right by the road but it is not a busy road at all so this shouldn’t be a problem.
	Air conditioning (If yes, can it be switched off?)	Outdoor location.
	Computers (These have a low level of hum that, if in use, will affect nearby audio recording)	There are no computers at this location.
	Other people on location (Might people who live/work on location be disrupting the shoot?)	There won’t be anybody else at this location during the time of our filming.

Location Recce - Kitchen

Description of the chosen location
This is a location recce checklist for the kitchen. It is a large space with lots of lighting however it has lots of things in the way such as tables and work tops so these would need to be put somewhere else so that it would make a bit more room to be filming in.
Issue	What to look for	Notes
Access	Bus stops and train stations	There is a bus station which is about a 10 minute walk so it is easily accessible for people who don’t drive.
	Parking facilities	There is some parking down along the street however there isn’t a lot of it so any more than 2 or 3 cars could struggle.
	Lifts/stairs	The room is on a ground floor with one small step to get into the kitchen so it would be a problem for anyone.
	Doorways (Width – consider equipment as well as people)	The doorways are very wide so there would be any problem with anyone or any equipment getting through them.
Space	Enough room (for cast/contributors, crew and necessary equipment)	This would be a struggle because although it is a large space it is filled with lots of stuff so they would have to be moved or it would be unusable.
	Immovable objects (Are there any that will get in the frame?)	There are no any immovable objects.
	Set dressing requirements (esp. for dramatic production)	There is plenty of space to change as there is an upstairs with many rooms.
Lighting	Windows (Are there blinds/curtains to minimise changes in daylight during the shoot?)	There are lots of lights which is good for when you want it to be lighter. However if you want it darker the curtains are quite thin so this may be a problem.
	Lighting appliances (Fluorescent/tungsten? Can they be switched on and off?)	They can easily be turned off at the switch.
	Plug points (If lighting kit is to be used)	There a 3 plug points with 2 sockets in each so there is lots of places that will be able to take the light plugs.
Issue	What to look for	Notes
Sound	Traffic noise	There is no traffic noise here.
	Air conditioning (If yes, can it be switched off?)	There is no air conditioning.
	Computers (These have a low level of hum that, if in use, will affect nearby audio recording)	There are no computers.
	Other people on location (Might people who live on location be disrupting?)	No there won’t be any disruptions. Because there are no other people there.