Showcase Feedback (Written response)

During the showcase everyone had a feedback form to fill out containing four questions:

• What did you understand about the narrative? (Quick synopsis)
• Did the chosen genre fit its conventions?
• How did the 'ending' make you feel?
• Any suggestions for improvements, if we were to shoot the whole thing again?

Overall we received 38 responses and 23 of them had a form of criticism.

I created this bar chart showing the types of criticism we received.

Lighting was mainly about how dim our opening sequence was and it should be a little brighter to make things clearer, however we wanted it dark to fit the conventions of our genre and also make the audience question what is going on.

Camera was about the camera quality and how it was slightly grainy, but this is because it was filmed in the dark.

Speech related to the fact that we were not clear enough when talking.

We also received 6 unique responses.

• More shots of the boy investigating
• Re-think about how to end the opening
• Film landscape, not portrait
• Better environment maybe? More of an office would be cool
• Title fonts
• When the video clips are bad quality looks like Snapchat quality

Regarding the ending of the sequence I stick by how we ended it because the boy rushes off in a hurry. This makes the audience question why the phone call made him leave and it makes them want to watch more to find out.

For the filming comments, we did use Snapchat to film our handheld clips because it is realistic as to what teenagers would do. It is rare that teenagers will film themselves in the park on a traditional video camera, they would use Snapchat on their phones in landscape mode. 

Restarting

As a group we watched over our recordings and we thought that the first half, the part where the girl kills another person, was terrible. We like the second part as that bit had good camera angles and techniques but we thought that it would be too short and too boring if it was just that part, as most groups film someone in their house making tea ect. Miss Foster spoke to us too and we decided to restart so we will have to plan, storyboard, film and edit all over again.

Second Day of Filming

On 16th November we filmed first half of our opening sequence. We filmed from 4:30pm-6:30pm for lighting purposes as we wanted the windows in the background to show that it was the evening. Even though the main character, me,  kills Yasmin by suffocating her, we used fake blood to show that she was already injured. The audience can assume that she was injured by the knife I put in my bag in the second half of the opening sequence.

Once we filmed we uploaded all our footage to the Mac.

First day of filming

We filmed for the first time today and overall, it took almost 2 hours. We filmed from 1pm-3pm as we wanted to use natural light coming in through windows. Morgan did most of the filming, Yasmin helped direct and I acted. We were filming the second half of our opening sequence at my house, and we had to film this half first because the clothes Yasmin and I wear get blood on them in the first half, which we did not want in the second half. We used our paper and youtube storyboard to remind of us what scenes we had to shoot.

First we filmed from the beginning of this half, with the camera zooming out of my eye. The lighting where we were wasn't great, so we used a LED camera light borrowed from school.

 This made the shot brighter, and it allowed the camera to zoom closer and stay in focus.


For one of the shots Morgan was filming from the top of the stairs for a high angle shot, however she couldn't just hold the camera as her hand was shaking. Therefore, she used a stabiliser and this made the shot steady.

We will film the first half of our opening sequence on Monday 14th November 2016 after school.

Age certificate

The age certificate for our film would be a 15 as there is violence and blood and it would be quite detailed. Also there may be a reference to drugs and other adolescent illegal activities depending on where the storyline would go if the film would be made.

Mise-en-scene

In the bathroom the only extra things we will add is the blood. This is because in the story we are unaware of how the girls ended up in the bathroom and this means that it is not their bathroom. Therefore it is just a normal bathroom and the only added things is what the girls bought with them.

At the girls house it will be normal daily items around such as a cup of tea and a bag. We are also having my brother there to represent a casual, normal family house so that it doesn't look suspicious. We will also be having a knife come out of a wooden table and this knife is put into a bag. This is a type of foreshadowing as we have already seen that she kills someone but does this by suffocating her, so it is a mystery to the audience as to when the knife comes into play.

Storyboard

Once Morgan and I completed our storyboard at my house, Morgan made the storyboard film. This is our opening sequence in storyboard form with potential sound effects. We will work off this when we film.

Actors

In our opening sequence I will be playing the main character and Yasmin will be playing a supporting character who I end up killing. We decided to use ourselves as we can film whenever we want to and don't have to wait for anyone else.

Script

For our opening sequence we didn't have a script as there will be no talking, only movement. For that aspect we directed what to do when it was needed.

Storyboard Timings

On the 18th October Morgan came over to my house to finish storyboarding and discuss timings for our opening sequence. We did this at my house because that is where we will be filming the second half of our opening sequence. After we drew the rest of the shots on the storyboard, we take about titles and timings.

We knew we wanted the titles to come in the second half of our opening sequence because we wanted the audience to focus on the first half as, if we were to finish the film, that part would be a huge key in the rest of the story as it is a flash forward. We decided to have the main title when the scene changes from the bathroom to the house. In the bathroom, the camera zooms into one of the girls eyes, then she closes her eye. The title will appear over her eyelid, fade away, and then she will open her eye and the camera will zoom out and she would be at home.

For timings, we timed how long 4 seconds were just so we had an idea of how long we should spend on each shot. I then worked out that we have 24 shots, so if we spent around 5 second on each shot, it would equal the 2minutes required. So we then put timings on each shot, and once we did that we added it together and it only came up to 84seconds. We decided not to change anything else as we would do that with the third member of our group, Yasmin.

We then wrote down potential names for this film.

 

 

Pitch

On the 5th October 2016 our group pitched our idea to the class. After presenting our ideas, we received other ideas from the class that we could incorporate in our opening sequence.

We talked about setting, such as where we would film; the school old building toilets and my house.
We were asked questions about why the character is killing the person, mercy or gleeful killing, to which we answered that it is a bit of both. The girl is already in pain before she is murdered.

Our original plan for the second half of the opening sequence is for the girl to wake up, but we realised that this is a common shot used in opening sequences and is unoriginal, so we asked for ideas for another shot we could use, but our conversation drifted from that topic to us talking about the man/shadow that enters earlier.

One thing we did not mention in our pitch which is crucial is where we will be adding the opening titles. I believe we should do it in the second half of the opening sequence when the girl is getting ready, as the first half with the killing and blood is important for the storyline if we were to continue making and finishing the film. The second half is just the girl getting ready to meet her friend, and is not as important so this is where we would include the titles.