Possible Titles - Dom, Josh, John

Here is a Brainstorm of all the ideas we could think of, the list is growing!

• Hand Frames
• Another day, another Monday.
• In Perspective
• Out of Focus
• In focus
• Point of View
• View Point
• View Finder
• Capture - (Too thriller like!)
• Shutter Speed
• Slow Shutter
• Picturesque
• Frame
• Perspectives

This is the very start! we will finalise a name shortly!

Film poster research Josh Brown

Rocket - Virgin Media Shorts

The short film Rocket is an award winning short film directed by Jennifer Sheridan. It is about a dog who decides to build a rocket out of household items and go to space.

The poster includes all the basic subjects in the film; the dog and the rocket. This makes the poster identifiable and relevant to the film. From first glances, we can see that the poster looks like it has been made from coloured paper or cardboard. Not only does this give an eye-catching and intriguing appearance, it is also relevant because in the film, as the dog makes a rocket from cardboard. This short film is not like any other British short film. British short films usually incorporate British people for actors, however Rocket clearly uses a dog, which might have resulted in a surprise for any audiences watching Rocket after seeing the poster.

The short films that appear on Virgin Media Shorts that have posters look mostly the same. They all look cartoony or hand drawn because none of them have used famous actors that audiences would recognize. Another fact I have realized is that the majority of posters do not use any ratings, certifications, quotes or film production company logos. Rocket is exactly the same. It only consists of a main image of the dog and the rocket, the title and who it is directed by. The title for this movie has been really well constructed. It appears to be made out of cardboard and stuck together with tape. This is a very nice effect because it is unique and readable for the audience. It also has meaning as it relates back to the film.

Narrative

From the poster, the audience can gather that the dog is the main character, as a result of it being the largest object in the poster We also recognise that there must be some connection between the dog and the rocket. We gather this because these are on the same image that takes up 3 quarters of the poster, so our attention is immediately attracted to this. Themes that I could have extracted from the poster would have been space exploration, rocketry and maybe animal curiosity.This is because of the way the dog appears to be looking towards the rocket and the stars, so maybe he is curious about it all and wishes to find out more.

Representation

Rocket's poster does not incorporate many representations. It does not represent and location or nation. Nor sexuality or class. However, it could represent a particular theme, which could be recycling. When we initially look at the poster, we can see that it has a coloured paper or cardboard appearance which adds to the theme. Then, once we have watched the movie, we see that this theme is well applies because the dog makes the rocket out of of recyclable items such as plastic bottles and cardboard and at the end of the film after the credits have rolled past, it reads "please recycle". So it is obvious that this short film was made to represent the awareness and improvement for recycling.

Genres

Just looking at the film poster, we see that the dog appears to be gazing up at the rocket and stars. So we could guess that possible genres might be science fiction or action and adventure. These predictions are correct when we watch the movie because there is a sense of adventure and definitely a theme of science fiction. We see science fiction because the dog makes a rocket out of cardboard. Obviously making a rocket is possible for a human, however a cardboard rocket made by a dog would never work. There are also conventions of adventure too. The dog is preparing for a journey to space. The audience do not know if this is his first journey, but it still counts as an adventure because he travels far into an empty sparse atmosphere.

Audience

Trying to debate which audience this poster would attract makes a challenge because it seems to appeal to many audiences. The cardboard effect, I thought, would strongly attract a much younger audience because it looks slightly like a cartoon. Adventure or sci-fi audiences especially may spot the rocket taking off in the poster and may be curious to see how the dog and the rocket relate.


Media Language

If we look at the bottom of Rocket's poster where the title is, we can see that it has been given a really good font that suits the film itself really well. It appears to be created from cardboard, just like the rest of the poster has which keeps up the level of consistency in the poster. It also seems to be held together with some black tape which, in my opinion, is a great effect because it shows the sense of improvisation and the fact that the dog put the rocket together with tape and glue in the film. If we also look at the rocket, that also appears to be put together with balck tape. So if we looked at the poster for the first time, we would be able to see a relation between the two and guess that the dog is building this rocket with cardbaord and tape. So all this put together makes it relevant to the film. The title is easier to read than it sounds because it is written in bold and is equadistant from the sides of the poster.



The Inbetweeners Movie


The Inbetweeners Movie is about 4 school boys who have just finished their time in college and have decided to go on a summer holiday to Malia in search for a good time.

Narrative

By looking at the poster, we can see that there are themes of teenage holiday dreams, clubbing and drinking. If we watched the movie, we would also see a theme of girls and the pursuit of girls. However, girls are not seen in the poster because the four boys hardly ever get any girls. We see the clubbing are drinking theme from the background. The high exposure, high saturation, vibrant colours of the clubs and bars seen, are the reason why we retrieve these themes. Aspects of the story can be guessed by the themes we recieve. We know that the boys go to abroad to a land where young people go to party and drink because we see them against the setting. The boys appear to be wearing clothes that they would have protrayed to be cool or smart. The far left and far right characters seem to be more formal compared to the two characters in the middle. This maybe to their method of attracting women.

Representation

From the poster, we can extract some representations. We can see that the background represents a place of livliness and clubbing because of the signs such as bar and club. However, we do not really know where they are in the world because there are clubs and bars everywhere. Only from watching the film do we understand that they go to Malia. We can see that from the clothes the boys are wearing, we can gather that they are from higher working class families.

Genre

There are not many conventions of this film poster that would imply that it is infact a comedy. The facial expressions of the four boys look quite comedic. However, if somebody that had never seen the series before hand would not get the idea that it is a comedy. There are no quotes on this film poster from newspapers or film critics either to give a clue of its genre.

Audience

Types of audiences that would watch this movie as a result of seeing the poster would be people who would like teenage holidays to similar locations to Malia. This is because we can see bright saturated colours and signs for bars that represent that young energetic teenage holiday type of audience. This could also appeal to people a little older who may have experienced it before and may wish to see it as a reminder of their fun times abroad.

Media Language

Looking at the title on the poster, we can see that it is hollow and outlined with a neon appearance. This  again reinforces the clubbing and partying theme of this film because clubs and bars use neon lighting to look vibrant and eye catching to attract more customers. This may have been used for the same effect. If we look at the title again, we can also see that it has no capital letters. If compared to other film posters, we can see that they usually do contain capital letters for the name. This adds to the theme of informality immaturity because we know that names should begin with a capital letter.


Harry Brown

Narrative

Representation

Genre

Audience

Media Language

Initial poster idea - Dom

here's a very rough idea to get started on the poster for our film.

Audience will THE deciding factor on what to include in our poster. I think if the bbfc rating isn't include it, it will attract more of our target age because the audience might associate 'U' universal, as being childish This sin't strictly true as star wars and other films etc are rated universal.

here's a first thought of a film poster, this will probably change as we discuss more!

NOTE: the poster will all be saturated and in black and white. I would like to experiment with splashes of colour on certain things such as the car lights, but I'll see if I can create this in the editing software.
 Main character appears in the centre of the poster: hence to tell it's the main character.
Everything moving will appear blurred: to put him context and show that he is stuck in the mad rush of the working world. John will be in focus
The light son the poster are supposed to be car lights, when John stands still he will be in focus and everything else that isn't moving. However, everything that is moving will be out focus/blurred. This can be interpreted 2 ways. Firstly that John has taken time, amongst the chaos, to stop and appreciate the smaller details OR and more likely because of his facial expressions, that he is trapped in the chaos and wants out!
The 2 characters either side will be blurred/moving on the phone etc. This will signify that they are not really significant but just like a prop to show the pace of the world around him.
His facial expression will be drained and lifeless to show his hate for the 9-5 lifestyle- giving a brief idea of how he is feeling.
The title, to be honest I'm not entirely sure where to place it at the moment, I think when in the editing software It will become more apparent. I may redraft the initial design to show the title in the poster.
His body language will be hunched and tired, the bag and coffee cup etc are props to show he is a working man.
another possible adaptation of this poster is to have John with his hands point upwards towards the camera (in the framed position). This (being the main theme of our film) might be more relevant then having him standing there looking 'lifeless'. so potentially, him with his hands up or just looking drained
Film reviews down either side or down the centre middle bottom, where title C is written. Film reviews from independent reviewers maybe even LWlies! Also, film festival awards in these positions as well, as this is a major aspect short films. Possibly Edinburgh film festival as it's in the UK
using a slow shutter speed everything that moves appears blurred, the lights form cars blend into one stream.
shutter speed of about 1'' or maybe a bit less should do it.

I found this image online, but it's a similar thing to what I am after.

Title font etc is better to be decided when we are PhotoShop and can see first hand and experiment, but I may draw a rough copy with a title included i.e the font as well.
Box credits down the bottom right hand side along with sponsors and possibly notable members of those who took part in our film creation.
This shot of John is actually at this place in Brighton where we were filming, this puts the character in context with his surroundings. Also the fact its a mid long shot of John makes him seem small compared to the busy city scenes around him.
Lighting may be needed to illuminate John as this has to be taken at night for the blurred lights to appear.
costume is what John is wearing in the film, i.e the black coat and trousers and smart shoes, once again to show he is at work.
To be honest a lot of the film posters I have researched don't have bbfc rating on them, so I don't think that we will include this on ours. A Universal rating on poster won't be very attractive anyway!

Here is a possible font I would like to use for the title.

NOTE: this title may change!

This would be in white as the image is saturated. This is similar for all text on the poster.

Also margins will apply to our poster.

Poster Research - Dom

Below are some film posters, analysed for the common traits of a successful independent British film poster.

• Narrative: The skeleton coming out of the closet, and the 2 charters looking away ( at the audience) suggest that the story will revolve around the theme 'skeletons in the closet' saying. this could imply that they are digging out their own past secrets or other peoples.
• Genre: The expression on their face, saturated colour of images, graphics on background and the title font all suggest that this film could be a mystery. Also the expressions on the characters faces and the facial expression also suggests an element of comedy (this is backed up by the reviews).
• Representation: The characters are dressed in suits and one is carrying a briefcase. You could associate this with a business man or a detective. It could even be a cross between the 2. Their facial expressions and semi hunched body language also shows their your 'hard-nosed detective'. thus they represented in a sort of semi serious fashion. Class, social status etc is a bit hard to identify, but simply by judging on the costume I would say middle class. In terms of gender the 2 men are main characters. In a way they look like salesmen/ sale partners. In a way this stereotypical.
• Audience: target audience could be readers/listeners of Total Film or Radio 5.  Maybe those interested in detective/mystery films, but want  a more "light-hearted" film. The age is probably 15-55 male and female. The audience are likely to us social networking, as there is a Facebook group.
• Film Language - There seems to be top lighting which distorts the characters a bit but mainly, in my opinion, is similar to an interrogation light, enforcing the idea the film could be about detectives, or investigators of some kind. Maybe private investigators because of the non official uniforms.

 Notes about poster

• Actors main focus of the poster. Actors are in character, their names are relatively small. 
• Colour scheme of orange and blue, actors very saturated, complimentary colours.
• Actors are looking at audience, in front of closet, suggesting mystery; they are looking around almost to check if anyone is watching.
• skeleton coming out of cupboard, initially associated with horror/fantasy, yet faces and body languages of actors suggest comedy: black comedy? or more fantasy/comedy?
• the background is graphic, bulls eye brings attention to the two characters with the cupboard in the middle, making us think of 'skeletons in the closet' saying.
• reinforced by title over image, title large font and stands out from other colours
• awards, nominations and criticism at top
• Box credits and film sponsors below title, below this are tour dates for what looks like independent cinemas or other film festivals (including the mention of its success at the Edinburgh film festival)
• website and social media page at bottom.
• tag line under title, gives us an idea of what its about.these are the 2 main characters and the film is something to do with 'skeletons in the closet' i.e secrets that they find out about potentially?
• 'A film by' is above title, could be a selling point for a renowned director etc
• no certification rating on here

5 Key Concepts 

• Narrative - The tear in the characters face could suggest that the character goes insane or maybe has multiple personalities. It could also suggest that there are 2 characters: the one most frontward being the antagonist and the more backwards being the victim. This is suggested by the serial against scared facial expression. Themes could be a murder story or a kind of similar concept to 'The Shining'
• Representation: Looking at the poster, I find hard to see if the character most backwards is a man or woman. If this was a woman, then as mentioned above regarding victims etc, it would be conforming to stereotypes i.e the women being the victim and the man being the attacker. The man in front is represented in a  cynical and very stern manner with the facial expression and costume (suit), once again being stereotypical. You could argue that their is a sort of female side of the character, but this is unlikely because of the red tint over the whole image
• Genre: I would first expect this film to be a horror/thriller. This is because of facial expression of the characters and the overall red tint suggesting danger and semantic codes. Moreover, I am lead to think that this film is a psychological horror
• audience: Because of the suggested horror/thriller  genre I would expect the audience to be older maybe 15 upwards. the poster also suggest a complex psychological theme. Male and female are included in target audience.
• Film language: the close up of the character/s show their scared/stern emotion/s. The black background aided with top lighting on the both frontward and backwards images distort the faces of the characters also suggesting this film could be a horror and that the front character is cynical

Notes About Poster

• Title obvious, in white stands out from rest
• font is similar to something from  a classic horror movie.
• title suggests film is not modern
• once again tag line is under title.
• Two characters on the front suggested to be main characters
• for me, the tear in the middle of the characters suggests that it could be the same character potentially this characters goes insane, has dual personalities
• sinister look on front characters face suggests horror/thriller and scared look reinforces this, i.e the other person is the victim
• or as mentioned, possibly 2 personalities of the same character
• the red tint to the whole poster gives a horror feel 
• once again awards and criticism are towards side/top of page.
• box credits below title  at bottom, with sponsor at bottom as well
• Target audience readers of the telegraph and empire: 
• production company, directors etc are mentioned before the title: all wordings have a logical flow to them
• The red could potentially suggest a dark room used for photographic editing. 
• low key lighting also gives us an impression of a horror/thriller
• the filter over the poster, is similar to when you look at a newspaper really close and you can see the 'printed dots' that make up the image. I'm not sure but i think was more the case in earlier newspapers, suggesting the film is pre 2000. 
• clothing also suggest this film is based pre 2000, maybe 60-80s

 

 

 5 Key Concepts

• Narrative:  The male characters facial expression looks angry and frustrated, and the woman characters facial expression looks confused and troubled. This could suggest the the male character loses his temper and does something drastic. this could be murder? The tag line suggests this. The film seems to be set in rolling hills of Yorkshire which isn't the stereotypical place I would expect a killer to be! This is appealing to the audience and want them to find out more.
• Genre: Initially I thought that this film was a drama, because of the setting in the background and the 2 male/female characters. However, with a further look and a read of the tag line, you could think that it was a thriller. Also, the costume of the characters if very 'friendly' with the 'happy camper' badge. The dog in the background also suggest comedy. This ironic theme suggest that the genre is a black comedy. the reviews on the side also suggest that this film is a black comedy.
• Representation: the 2 characters seem to be at first your normal holiday maker going camping. this is suggested by the use of clothing and props. The facial expressions however tell a different story. What I noticed is that the male character is in front of the female character with a more stern and angry look (the women looks a bit confuse), suggesting he is in control/more dangerous.
• Audience- People who can relate to the stereotypical person who goes camping/caravanning .This is because when the characters are maybe shown as killers, it adds comedy to the situation considering the stereotypes associated with caravanning: i.e the quiet holiday maker! the audience will also be those who are looking for a 'black comedy' like Hot Fuzz for example
• Film language: the use of colour  makes the poster vibrant, not only eye-catching, but is ironic considering the tag line. The mid shots of the 2 characters allow us to see their costume and facial expressions. the 2 combined makes this film seem more like a comedy, due to the fact they don't really match. 

Editing Decisions Part I - Dom

We edited our shots using final cut pro

To get the point that his life was really dull without him capturing moments, we decided to saturate the whole film. The to emphasise the point that the girl was his way out of this depressing lifestyle, we use a gradual increase in colour when he gets closer to the girl.

Moreover when the main character captures something, I didn't bother saturating the footage. I used a video filter called 'light rays; this was to really show that was he was seeing (in his eyes) was spectacular. It makes it appear almost like a fantasy, i.e unrealistic.

as shown here

I also played around with the contrast and colour of the footage to make it appear really vibrant.

continuity editing was used throughout to keep the film flowing, most of the cuts are standard cuts.

Editing of the office scene is found here!

There is a part of our film where we show the passing of time through multiple cross dissolves of a static shot. so it appeared as time was passing. this gives us time for us to add more speech in the monologue to get across how he is feeling.

Fades are used to create a smooth transition and also to show the passing of time, thorughly throughout.

At one point, where our protagonist is looking for the girl. A series of short cuts of town/city scenes are used to create the impression he rushing around trying to find her. This emphasises his desperation to get out of the lifestyle he is in: this is his opportunity to escape.

The Office Scene Filming - Dom

We wanted to do this scene because we felt that the footage of we had of his commute didn't really emphasise his entrapment in the working dull humdrum. Even with a monologue over the original footage we feel that this will add more depth to his hatred of his work and how he really wants out.

jus' chillin

For our setting we were lucky enough to be allowed to use a private study room, thanks to our college English department, to resemble our office. |It was perfect for us because it was exactly the type of small, boring and just depressing environment we wanted to show our character in.

here the animatic of the office scene with rough timings of each shot.

The Shot choices.

The first shot, we wanted to show our protagonists feelings to being at work. its a mid close up to show him in an office and the depressed and bored emotion on his face.

These shots are 'twitchy' to try and portray how uncomfortable and awkward he feels in the office and his lack of motivation for what he is doing. In a way, our target audience our bound to have been in this same situation, whether this have been in a dull lesson form when they were at school, or they are in the same situation in a job they hate. this will hopefully allow the our target audience to sympathise for him!

this shot is an over the shoulder high angle shot of his boss coming in. this shows his authority over our protagonist and shows him as weak, and really not in control of his life. the next is a shot of the tedious amount of work he is forced to do. and a reaction shot from our protagonist, showing a depressed look.

The choice of clothing and props can be found here, in the costume update.

Here is the finished scene.

Adaption and Development of Plot- Dom

Our plot has changed quite a lot through out this process. the main reasons for this is because when we were filming on our first attempt, we though about a large range of new ideas and plot developments that we could use. Also we encountered some limitations with our shots and this also shaped it. we now have a final plot that varies form our initial idea, yet still goes along the same theme; the main character looking for the good things to try and escape from his dull 9-5 lifestyle; meeting the the girl.

The synopsis is still the same.

Our opening shot was firstly, across the south downs. We thought that the same effect could be achieved by using a panoramic shot of the seafront. In fact, its probably better because it places our character in context with his setting. Heres a link to the opening shot in more detail

Title might change!

A major change is that we arent showing any shots of his commute to work. we still show our character before work, taking images through his hands. In a way, to prepare him for his day, or to get him through his day.

NOTE: this looks awful right now! but will get better as we tidy it up!

Moreover, we are actually showing him at his work place now. We thought that this would give a better sense of why he hates his job. Here's a link to this explained in more detail.

The actual images he captures, were going to vary on the day of filming, so this was inevitably going to change.
Here a few of the ones we chose to use!

Filming on the 3rd of Janurary: Things we learnt - Dom

For how our day went on the 3rd of January, click here

To be honest the 2 different weather changes, as we decided to make the film black and white, mentioned in the editing decisions worked out well.

To read about how our day went, click here!

so, left is how our main character see the image, and right is how it actually is.

We really want to use some of the shots that we captured during the first day. Our idea is to use editng to combine the 2 different scenarios. For example, in the opening shot we are going to have a tracking shot across the sea (as shown below). The first shot will be from our initial filming and the second from our new footage.  This would be accompanied with a narrative explaining this is how our main character sees the world, and this how it is in reality. In a way is fortunate that we have the 2 different weathers and 2 different footages.  This way we can really contrast them to compare reality to what our main character is feeling/seeing.

We cant really use too much of this effect however. This is mainly because the cameras we used are different quality; one is 1080p and the other is 720p. They are both HD but the difference is definitely noticeable (seen below). For continuity purposes we will try and limit the mixing of footage from the two different cameras.

We used different cameras because  we were unable to get the same camera due to cancelled trains. The camera we actually used wasn't capable of focus pulling, although HD, so some of shots were compromised.

To be honest, this first trip turned out to be a test shoot rather than a final shot. we learned about our limitations of what we could and just simply couldn't do. It served really useful for us. Also we went away with ideas that we hadn't had before as now we actually went to the location with a camera and filmed, we could see how the shots would look and adapt them.

The shot below however, we cant see the effect where showing his view and reality, because the shots are different sizes so we cant use them.

This also means that we can add in extra shots that add depth, that we hadn't included in our storyboard. Such as the shot of the town, to make comparisons between the peace of the sea and the hustle non stop of the city.

Inital Filming on the 18th of December - Dom

handheld shot, discussing next move

Initially we wanted to have an actor playing the main character outside of our group. Although, as college students, and other workloads timetables etc, it  turned out way too  inconvenient to arrange a time where we would have sufficient amount of time to film the shots we need. An alternative would be filming shots on different days but the weather is a concern because we are filming outside. This really limited the times we could film, so it was more practical using John as our protagonist.

The opening shot for our film was the first part of our day, the weather was good, sunny and dry. This meant the shots where we wanted to show his view on things, would be vivid and bright: getting the point across how he sees the 'bright side' of things.

We then continued by filming the shots up to number x on our storyboard.

We lost the tripod shoe on the beach at one stage (which was nearly impossible to find again!) which gave us a problem of stability when filming some of our shots. For example this shot of the west pier, ( to be used later as a green screen image), and you can see the problem with steadiness. However, time was of the essence and having spent a long time searching, we decided to carry on. Eventually, Josh found the tripod shoe, making us all very happy!

We shot footage up to shot the encounter with 1st the girl then we called it a day, until our next filming shoot.

Due to the dawn light, on intial inspection on the camera the fottage seemed to be white balanced- we assumed the camera auto white balanced. However on further inspection in the editing suite we noticed a distinct cyan tinge toi the majority of the fottage. Thus, this lead to our refilming day.

To be honest, this day was a really valuable expereince. we were able to see first hands what shots would/wouldnt work and aslo drew new ideas and inpiration.

This lead to our second filming day.

Costume: Update - Dom

Our protagonist, the main character.

A shirt, tie, black trousers and smart shoes, generally to represent his working 9-5 life. In a way its stereotyped look of your junior office worker.

Also our main character is wearing a plain black jacket. this again gives him lack of being individual (conforming  to the 'live to work' lifestyle).  It was very cold too!

The Girl

Red somewhere on her  clothing is important, but in general fairly casual and unwork related clothing. i.e Jeans, Jacket T-shirt: more colour is a better contrast to our character. The red suggests the possible romance to come. Her costume is to help show the contrast between him and her.

This was added after our film was completed

The Boss

Black pinstriped shirt, and black trousers to show authority and coldness.

Uncuffed sleeves suggest he isn't under the regulations of being smart, implying he is above the rules

The watch suggest he has money, and status.

This costume intends to show the boss has authority over our protagonist.

The brown belt will not be in frame in film: it looks very out of place!

Props:update - Dom

The use of props isn't really essential to get across our ideas to the audience. They are mainly used to represent the characters and the settings they are in.

for example the props for the office scene, are there generally to just show he is in an office environment. they include.

office props (minus the camera!)

more office props...

• Folders ( we filled them with text books to make them appear full of paper data reports!)
• Computer and Monitor
• Mouse and Keyboard

The girl he meets is carrying a camera to imply that she see the world aorund her, just like himself. The hands "capturing the moment" is similar to that of a photograph. Hence, we wanted to show the relationship, and views they share

The 5 key concepts applied to our film - Dom

Genre and style

Our short film is very difficult to place in a genre. We know the message we want to get across (focus on the positive elements of the day and remember them etc) but it's hard to classify it in genre. Romance is a possible genre due to the ending of our story. The syntactic and semantic codes, i.e a change in the non diegetic soundtrack, Close ups to show facial expression and 2 shots to show their body language towards each other, could imply its a romance. However, this is  relatively small proportion of our film, and therefore would probably not be classed solely as a romance. Our film definitely resists sticking to one genre. In fact its hard to even call it a hybrid of different genres. Mainly, it's the world from someone point of view and how they interpret and remember. Maybe realism is appropriate but, then again, I find it hard to judge it!

Representation.

We hone into a very common social group - the unhappy employee, trapped in the 9-5 cycle. Also in a few shots their other classes represented in our film.

We show the protagonist unhappy and does not enjoy his job. In a way this could represent a large group of people regardless of class ( then again maybe tending towards more middle class people). It give us the idea that a lot of people live to work rather than working to live. They are miserable in their jobs but don't change anything because they are scared to or just can't afford to take the risk of having no income.

In a way, stereotypes of male and female characters occur This is because we chose our main character to be male, therefore he is the one after the girl: stereotypically.

Media Language 

For this section I'm just going to pick out a few of my favourite techniques we are considering to use. 

Firstly there is the technique where we capture an image using hands, Josh already covers this. Click here to read more!

In terms of camera work, we are going to use plenty of close ups and long shots to mix between showing emotion and putting our character in context. Focus pulls will also be used, to bring focus from our character to what he is capturing. This also simulates the idea of capturing/focusing an image (as you would with a camera). OVTS shots work quite well because we can get a glimpse of the characters face, i.e emotions, and we can see what is casing his emotion. Low angles and high angles are used quite a lot. One example I like is the low angle of the female character because it reminds me a of 'Romeo and Juliet  type scene (Romeo looking up to the balcony) suggesting the romance that is to come at the end.

low angle

Editing will be paramount for our film. Using Adobe After effects will probably occupy most of our time! going for this effect where we capture an image, will require green screen and precision editing to make it look good. Moving images could also be more of an issue. An editing technique I like, is where the character is walking down the seafront and fades are used to manipulate time. Of course, continuity editing is essential for our film to flow.  To show time has passed to the evening when he has finished work,

As for lighting, considering most of our filming is outside we will be using natural light for a lot of our shots. However, we will use a few lamps probably with orange filters to give an ambient feel when the 2 characters meet at the end.

fade cuts will be used as well to show the passing of time.

Narrative

The way in which our plot is presented is linear with closure. The closure is being the meeting of the girl at the end. Its not omniscient narration, its restricted as the story is told by our protagonist through a monologue. Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposite doesn't really apply here. I think it the narrative applies mostly to Todorovs theory of classic narrative.

• Equilibrium: our characters monotonous life, (still 'captures' at this point)
• Disruption: His first encounter with the girl
• In a way this an unsolved disruption when he is at work as he is there thinking about the girl etc.
• Confrontation: encountering the girl for a second time
• New equilibrium established: when he meets the girl for the final time.

Audience

Our target audience would most likely be

Age 16-35

Male and Female

Possibly student or young adults with and interest in film

Ideally our film would be screened online, on popular short film websites such as Virgin media Shorts. A website devoted to short films, hence are target audience is most likely to view our film here, if anywhere.

Other sites included are Vimeo and Yotube

Although considering our audience age ranges mentioned above our film doesn't contain any violence/gore, obscene language or sexual content. So therefore, I would place it in the universal category. 

Looking on the BBFC website helped me make a decision.

Click here to find it!

Little Larry (great comparison!!)- Dom

I just found this short on vm shorts and realised it very similar concept to what we are doing!

'In Larry's life every day is the same. Lonely. He is a mid-twenties, professional, single man who still feels like a child inside. Something is missing. Larry is finding growing up and fitting in so hard that he still sees himself as an 8 year old boy. Can Larry find the missing link that's stopping him grow into the man he longs to be?'

Opening shot

For our opening shot, we have decided to use the shot we had captured of the Palace Pier on the first day of filming when the weather was nicer. Our initial plan was to try and fade the two opening shots of the different filming days together. However this turned out to be very difficult and did not give us the result we wanted. Then we were given the idea of making all the clips of our character black and white (desaturated) when he is not chasing the girl or not visualising the world through the window of his hands. So for our opening shot, we debated about fading the higher quality opening shot to black and white whilst it is tracking.

Below is our first attempt at making the opening shot. This is the attempt where we tried to blend the two opening shots together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrmXMinM5NY

Below is our second attempt at making the opening shot. This was the attempt where we desaturated the higher quality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANV7Ox84cow

Monologue

Our protagonist's monologue throughout the film will be one of the ways we portray the story to the audience. At this moment, there is no dialogue in the film - if there will be, the only dialogue might be between the protagonist and his boss at work. Because there will be little to no dialogue, the monologue will be crucial to our short film's success. For the time being, this is just a template with ideas for lines we could say. This is not final

For now, we have the outline for what we want to say and when, we just need the actual time restrictions on the footage we will be voicing over. 

 

The following are some lines we plan to start the film off with (subject to change):

Monday. What a lovely day… well, not really. Mondays never seem to be “lovely” for me.

 

It’s the start of the week in the nine-to-five job I loathe.

 

And here I am, trying to make the most of the start of the week. Start strong, stay strong.

 

I decided about two weeks back to try and iron out the negativity and replace it with a positive outlook.

 

Two weeks ago, there was something missing… two weeks ago, I was close to quitting my job… two weeks ago… (Purposefully trail off)

 

In short, I decided to start taking any opportunities I had rather than ignoring them. In truth, everyone has an incredible amount of opportunities. We just lazily ignore them.

I saw a paradise that nobody else saw.

Hands acting like a portal.

A full list of lines will be published after we have everything finalised. 

Filming over Christmas Break - John Hodge

We have finally managed to get some footage without any technical errors or technicalities being overlooked - the film is in much lower quality than it was before, but this was unavoidable as no one was available to pick up a camera on the last day of college (with trains being cancelled across the board). We stayed in Brighton from roughly 9am to 3/4pm capturing as much footage as we could during the day. The following are pictures with annotations of what we were doing, what difficulties we might have had and any other problems that might have occurred. (the annotations correspond to the pictures above them.)

Our first problem came with the camera we were originally going to use. It was borrowed from Dom's girlfriend and none of us had used it before. It would start filming then stop automatically about 5-10 seconds later without any buttons being pushed. The memory card had been wiped prior to filming, we had cycled through the settings for about fifteen minutes trying to find something that might be causing it - in the end, we opted for using a lower quality point and shoot camera.

Sorting out the angle for the opening shot - this had to, in our eyes, be perfect and match the previous footage we recorded. The previous footage was to be used in comparison to this dark, dismal day and allow for some comedic narration from the main character. "This is what the weather could have been like - but, as usual on my Monday mornings, walking to work is like this." or something similar. We will be finalising the script soon. 

Myself (left) getting in shot while Dom and Josh (both right) check the framing and smoothness of the pan.We wanted the protagonist to be looking out onto the beach as though he was looking for something in the horizon. We also wanted to try and portray how he's looking for something new, but he's not sure what it is yet. He's had the same job for a while and is trying to take as many opportunities that come to him, whether that be to choose to get up early and go out a bit before work, like he does.

Quickly checking white balance before we start the shoot - we didn't want the same problem as last time! Looking back on the footage it seems like we successfully kept the white balance in check throughout the entire shoot, which is a relief.

It took us a few attempts to get the opening shot pan as smooth as we wanted it to be. The tripod would sometimes get stuck when we tried to rotate it, even if we had loosened it as much as far as it would go. Soon, we found a spot where it didn't hit this "bump" and were able to get this shot done.

Dom testing the the camera rotation - the job of filming alternated between Josh and Dom a bit while we were there. I could only be in front of the camera while filming, though. A few times we've swapped myself with either Josh or Dom so I could check what the shot would look like behind the camera so I could get a say in where to point and how to pan.

 Shot from the path below down by the beach looking up at us capturing the opening shots.

I used the blue ring that held the wooden bar in place to my left in order to keep my place in the scene each time, to try and keep continuity and not jump around in the frame. Last shoot, we were more to the left, but the problem with the original placement was that there was a large metal pole blocking the left part of the frame. Moving to the right was a good choice in retrospect, as we could see the much more scenery and not have anything obscuring the audience's vision.

I can be seen (ever so slightly in the thumbnail) about to be walking down to Josh who is lying just behind the railing. We tried many ways to get the shot where you get a close up of the hand hitting the rail but, in the end, this ended up being the easiest way.

Checking my path walking over the camera. Dom can be seen looking down to see if I am keeping in frame and to tell me if I'm veering too far to the left or the right.

Filming a bit of the waves before we film the protagonist by the sea. Most of the film consists of following the protagonist on his journey to work, and where he goes before hand to try and shed a positive light on the day rather than heading straight to the office and nothing more.

Checking the shot / angle / framing. Dom needed to know where I was going to start and where I was going to end up in the frame so he didn't follow too far or jolt to a stop.

Same as above.

Doing our long take of people walking around a bend in the pathway. (can be seen better in the below shots.)

We tried to act nonchalant about filming this, whenever we'd been obvious about filming people refused to pass or went around the shot. Thankfully, this worked and allowed us to film people walking by.

These two gentlemen stood in the shot for a couple of minutes before moving on - not what we originally had in mind, but it could be used. I walked past about half way through, with this being my journey back to the way I came in, and so did Dom and Josh in order to add a few extra faces walking through.

Standing like a soldier in frame to make sure everything was angled correctly. I was going to briskly walk up to the camera, look around and finally spot the girl who is to the right of the protagonist.

This is the location for our final scene, where the protagonist finally comes face to face with the girl.We thought this would've been perfect for a meeting place for the two characters. We originally had planned to film this at night, but we were pressed by time and decided to just do it in the lighting we had. We would've had to have waited around an extra two to three hours before we could get remotely any darkness.

Once again checking white balance before we proceed.

Discussing the ways in which we could construct this shot and where we wanted to point the camera and have the characters in frame.
 

Getting into position to half walk half jog into frame. At this point, the protagonist has seen her more than once and is looking to finally talk to her.

Filming the girl the protagonist meets. In this shot, you can see a very crucial prop to our story that links the two characters - the camera. The girl takes a picture of the fountain and looks at the shot just like the protagonist was doing with his hands.

 
Checking the framing of the second shot with someone other than myself so I could see the effect.

A shot of the fountain from the girl's point of view.

Discussing with Josh how he wanted me to come in and how he wanted me to act like - we'd tried a few times but my facial expressions and walking didn't seem to match the situation.

Overall, we feel very pleased with the footage we've gotten out of the day. It's lower quality than we'd like it to be, but at least we have something to work with after the second time filming that doesn't have a huge flaw that ruins all of the footage. If we fall short on footage, we plan to add some scenes inside the protagonists work place, perhaps with a conversation between himself and his boss. Using this we can portray his work place and how dull it is, and also add a space between seeing the girl and finally meeting her. We're currently putting together a rough cut and will update the blog with results on current length of the film, what we may need to change and any other ideas we have.