Welcome Moderator, this is my A2 blog, I am Constance Dwan Candidate Number:1188 Below is my short film, "Checkout" and my two ancillary products to accompany it. On the pages above you can find my four evaluation questions as well as a page on my radio trailer and one for my film poster.
The construction of our radio trailer relied mostly on editing and creating a engaging and enticing narration and structure. We wanted to instantly convey genre whilst simultaneously drawing an audience in we felt that the way to do this was to start the narration with, "Once upon a time" as this suggests the beginning of a fairytale. To fit with the conventions of a professional radio trailer we ensured we had all the institutional information presented at the end this included a selling point, "A modern day fairy tale", the name of the film "Checkout" and the release time, "July 2015".
To record the radio trailer we used iMovie, we took the audio clips from our actual film footage to act as the quotation clips in the radio trailer. We used the voiceover tool to record the voices of the two narrators, (Myself and Georgina), and then added the music over the entire collection of audio clips.
A difference between our radio trailer and the professional radio trailer, was the certificate rating as research proved that this was only used in larger blockbuster feature films and not in short films. Other than this exception out radio trailer fits to the conventions of a radio trailer.
The usual time limit for a radio trailer is 30 to 35 seconds we made sure we were in this time bracket as we didn't want to make the trailer too long, giving away to much or too short and not give enough information.
Over all the radio trailer is effective and successful in attracting and addressing audience, as it draws in an audience, provides them with enough dialogue to be intrigued in the film and finally gives them the information regarding watching the film and when.
After creating our first draft of our radio trailer we previewed it to a small target audience focus group. The feedback we got was both helpful and reassuring, as it was said that the trailer was effective in captivating and addressing and audience. Although we were presented with a suggestion as to how to improve the trailer to make sure it is as good as possible, it was though that perhaps the sound of the quotes taken from the film were not clear and crisp enough to be heard. We sorted this problem by lowering the background noise go the clips and raising the volume of the dialogue,when listening to it again this proved successful.
Today we did research into the backing track that goes with a radio trailer, we wanted something that conveyed our genre of film as well as something that directly links to our film. We found that usually the main music or a certain soundtrack piece from a film is what is used in a radio trailer, this is called a leitmotif, these are used in films such as The Hobbit, Titanic and The Breakfast Club, they connect a certain song or musical piece to a certain film or character from a film helping to make an association between the two. This led us to chose the main soundtrack song from our film as the backing track for the radio trailer thus linking the two.
Below is the script we wrote for the Radio trailer, we chose to use three different voices, one to act as the main narrator as is conventional with professional radio trailers, one to be a contrasting voice to the narrator to add interest and excitement to our trailer and the final ones being the voices from our film.
The narrator, (in purple), is a clear and distinguished voice, which acts as the method of hinting to the audience the plot of our short film. The second narrator, (in red), acts a contrast voice to the initial narrator suggesting a confrontation or issue, which again hints at the plot. The final voices, (in black), are quotes taken directly from the film which give a flavour of our film and provide context for the audience without giving to much away.
Once upon a time... Shh quiet in the library
There lived a young girl she was young and looking for love
Why cant real guys be like the men in my stories
When one-day love found her
I see you got my sticky notes
But is all, as it appears to be?
“I love romance stories!”, “ours is a better love story though, right?”
Today we mapped out a script and thought about what we wanted to include in the radio trailer. We wanted something sweet and original. We decided to start it off as if it were a story, this instantly gives away the themes of the film and gives a suggestion into the plot line.
Following on from previous research, we had to ensure we stuck to typical codes and conventions that go with a radio trailer and so made sure we included factual information such as what, where, who and what. We also wanted to use our tag line of "Shh quiet in the library" which gives hints as to the genre and style of our film. We followed this up by thinking about using a snippet from the film itself and perhaps using the music from our film or a sound effect taken from it.
Today we created the final film titles to appear at the end of the film followed by an official end credit role. We chose to do this electronically as we felt it would look weird and unprofessional to go from our film title appearing electronically to a stop motion real life titles.
We started by using the sticky note heart we had previously created on Photoshop, and putting the image into PowerPoint. We then added movable sticky notes onto it using screenshots of the sticky note feature on MacBooks. To add text to these we used text boxes which we then placed at angles to fit over the sticky notes and look as if they were written onto the notes. We had to decide on a text font that would work well with our overall look and thought that a handwriting font would look the most effective.
After showing the first draft of our film to a small target audience these were some of the comments made by the audience.
This exercise proves both helpful and effective for us as we can now ensure the necessary changes are made to ensure a high quality and successful short film.
PRO'S
The voice over was really good in sync explain plot could
tell what she was thinking
Really like the different effects cut away editing tell reminiscent
Looked professional
Liked that Zack featured in the background out of focus
Delivers the narrative subtlety
Like the appearance of the film title on electronic sticky notes
CON'S
Not so sure on the music/ needs to be silent in certain
moments.
Some kind of melody appropriate.
Music in the library needs to fit better with the visuals.
Noise levels of the library. not able to hear the dialogue between the player and the protagonist. in their initial meeting.
Dubbing in sound seem fake.
The reading scene seems to quick and ends abruptly.
Solutions
We decided to select an instrumental guitar soundtrack we purchased off of artist Luca Stricagnoli, which provides a soft melody to go over the library scenes.
We decided to use Iphone application of Voice recorder, to make sure the dialogue was clearly picked up and sounds authentic.
We also thought about muting the background noise of the library or perhaps turning it down to ensure that the dialogue is the main sound feature of the scene.
We decided to extend the scene by making the final smile photo from the protagonist last longer, we also slowed down the whole scene to symbolise time passing.
Today we recorded the monologue to go over the beginning scene. We had to work on expression, pace and timing. So we did a run through initially to get a feel for how to set it up. We had to ensure complete silence whilst we were recording and make sure that Aggie was close enough to the computer so that her voice was clearly picked up and the recording was crisp and of high quality.
After initially trying the monologue recording, when we heard it played back it sounded odd and warped. We discovered it was because she needed to be closer to the mic and facing it straight on. Due to this I sat with Aggie and told her when to speak each line, so that Aggie could face the mic and focus on the lines and the delivery of them. Monologue Script
I wonder what’s in the
romance section...
hang on what’s this , a note..
You make time stand still..
Who, What, who left this, is it for me?..
Wait..
There’s more down here..
Awwww how sweet..
My smile? Where did these come from, who left them?...
Here’s another one and its right next to my favorite love
story...
We decided to create a co production company Ident as during our short film research we found that due to a small budget and not being able to have access to the resources a large budget production has,short films usually have more than one production company. As Aggie was missing during the creation of our first production company Ident she made another one to go with ours. To keep in with the genre and theme of our film she made a Ident which features a monkey popping up all around the screen with the production company name of "Monkey Moves Productions" We felt that this humour full company Ident worked well with our other one and stuck to the codes and conventions of short films.
We started by sourcing larger Jenga bricks to act as our "building blocks", We then set up a shooting area in our classroom. We connected the HUE camera to the computer and opened Istop motion. We placed a white sheet of paper down onto the desk in order that nothing would interfere with what we were shooting. We then got a desk lamp and used it to flood light over the set, to ensure a high quality of footage. We started by building up the jenga pieces in rows of three and then taking a screenshot and then repeating this process. After we had built a tall enough tower we then started to take away bricks, and then take a screenshot, eventually the tower started to fall and we were left with the collapsed bricks to finish the animation. After successfully filming this we put the footage onto iMovie, where we started to edit it slightly, and add titles to it. We chose to use a simple and clear white font that would appear at the beginning of the Ident.
I have made a Animoto to display the making process.
Editing this scene was mostly continuity editing and mixing all the different camera angles and shot types together. We decided to place a non diegetic musical track over the initial tracking shot to make the sequence look as if it were a dream sequence. We wanted to show a clear swap of mood between when the girl is in her dream like state, and when she gets knocked down by the guy rushing past her and so we included the diegetic noise of the books hitting the ground, this interrupts the soft music and alters the mood for the audience and the protagonist setting up her first line of dialogue, "why can't real guys be like the men in my stories".
Today we started editing the final scene to ensure the desired effect on the audience.We wanted an ending to fit with our genre of romance and so following the codes and conventions we had to ensure a happy outcome for the protagonist.
We started by selecting the best footage we had gotten and trimming it down so that one camera shot type flowed and fitted in with the next. For the pan up shot and the two person close up shot we wanted to hold the audience in suspense and so we chose to slow motion the clip, which made the footage look more romantic and effective.
The final bit of editing we did was add non diegetic music over the top of this footage to add to its overall romantic look and suggest to the audience that the protagonist has found love and happiness and all is well in her world just like in her fantasy stories.
Our target audience of younger women use social media in every aspect of their lives, making these platforms an obvious source of information about films such as mine. Therefore I have used these platforms to promote our film.
Below is the SLIDESHARE that I made to display the research and work involved with creating a Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page.
When we invited feedback on the first cut of our finished film, one major criticism was the way that the film started: we went straight into the female protagonist talking to herself as she waked around the library. The issues raised included:
the voice over comes in rather abruptly
the context is not yet established
the audience does not know how they are supposed to 'read' the text, that is, how we should feel towards the girl
we intend the audience's reading of the text to be in sympathy with the girl (the preferred reading)
So we devised an additional scene to place before the old opening scene, It improves our narrative in a number of ways:
Its slows down the opening, to allow the viewer time to take in the setting and situation and work out the context, whilst also giving us time to lead up to the voice over.
It positions the protagonist as helpless and unnoticed, when she gets knocked into by a boy.
It suggests that the girl is looking for love, through the books she is carrying and her daydream like state.
It clearly expresses how we want to position the protagonist and our preferred reading.
Today we created a video of us making a voice over narrative to go over our opening scene of the girl in the library. We started initially by trying to improvise the dialogue, but found this to be ineffective as we were unable to create the right tone and rhythm we wanted for the scene. So we decided to create a script. We watched the scene back and I wrote down a simple script that worked well with the scene. We decided to film this process using photo booth we then used a tool to record the screen so that both us recording and the film playing would be shown together. Amber then edited these two clips together on imovie in order to have the sound match up to the movement.
Today we filmed the final scene for our short film. We wanted an ending which had a happy outcome, and that shows good triumphing over evil, as these were the codes and conventions we had found when researching professional short films in our film genre.
To ensure continuity in our filming we watched all the footage we had shot and looked to see were we had left off in terms of costume set and camera angle. The last scene had been a shot of Aggie running out of the library. We started the filming with a establishing shot to show the corridor leading up to the library doors. We then had Aggie run around the corner and bump into Zack, (the nice guy); and making him drop his books upon which there was a sticky note with 'I see you got my sticky notes" written on it. We used an extreme close up to show the sticky note clearly, to suggest the idea that it was the nice guy leaving the notes all along.
We used a pan up to show the nice guy and Aggie both holding the book with the note on it, rising up together. We then end on a two person close up of the pair gazing into one another's eyes. I used PicMonkey to create a collage of the photos taken from the film as well as action shots from the filming.
After gaining feedback on our film, we were faced with the problem that it began very quickly, coming straight in with a monologue, We decided we needed an additional beginning scene whereby we ease the audience into the film and set the tone and genre.
We wanted to show the protagonist in her own little world, daydreaming and showing her as a hopeless romantic. We did this by using a tracking shot as well as by having holding a collection of romance books. We used a mid shot/ reverse tracking shot to clearly display her. we then want to position her as unlucky in love and romance and so we chose to have a short confrontation with another boy, where the protagonist gets knocked and drops her books to the ground and delivers the line "why can't real guys be like the men in my stories".
We chose to have her say this as it positions her as a bookworm who prefers fantasy to reality. We used a two person wide shot to show this altercation and then an over the shoulder shot to display the books falling to the ground, we chose to do this as it gives the audience a clear view of the type of books she was reading, romance novels. Thus reinforcing the idea that she is a hopeless romantic. One of the book titles is "Love is Blind" this symbolises to the audience the idea that the protagonist dosent realise the player is a bad guy and that the other boy is the true loving romantic.
The shot of the protagonist dropping her books is a match shot to the end scene where the nice guy accidentally bumps into her, this makes the connection between what she said about real guys being like the men in her stories. It shows that the nice guy could be the man of her dreams just like the men in her stories.
Today we brainstormed for our company Ident using stop frame animation. We wanted something that acted as a pun. We wanted to create something artistic that could lend itself to a short animation sequence. We also had to think about what would work with our genre of film. I thought of the name "Built up Productions"- from this we thought about perhaps creating a city skyline, but thinking practically about creating this we felt it would not look as effective as we would have hoped. So we decided to use Jenga bricks and build up a tower, once high enough we would then remove a selection of bricks until the tower tumbled down. This produced a comical meaning for our company Ident name and proved effective to watch.
I have made a Bubbl, to display the thinking and planning process:
We decided that to maintain a high quality and sleek look to our short film, we would once more re-film the date scene for our short film. We decided to set the scene in Ambers kitchen, setting it up to look as if it were a modern cocktail bar. We chose to write a rough script for the actors to follow so that the scene had direction and did not become silent or dull. This alternate location meant we were able to place the camera a lot closer to the actors, which meant there voices were picked up a lot better, by the camera and sounded clearer as well as there was no issue of background noise to interfere with the main dialogue.
The previous footage lacked in skill full and eye catching camera angles and movements and so we wanted to include a range. Previously we had only used wide shots and over the shoulder shots, whereas this time we used shots such as two person mid shots, extreme close ups, focus pulls and reverse zooms. The pull of focus proved effective as it communicates to the audience what is really important in the shot, it goes from putting the glasses in focus to placing the couple in focus. This is done to show the two engaged in conversation and clearly getting along well.
I made an ANIMOTO to display the film making process:
Important aspects we wanted to focus on in the editing process of this scene included:
Sound- We used a sound bridge to connect a change in dialogue and visuals, to suggest a change of time, as if the date had progressed.
We used a cross dissolve, to make sure the footage didn't look choppy and that it flowed together smoothly, this feature also helped to suggest the movement of time, so that the audience know the date is longer than the footage they see.
To ensure our extreme close up was as tight as possible, whilst still being in focus and that it only showed two champagne glasses we cropped the shot using iMovie.
To document the filming process, we wanted to use a new media platform that we had easy access to. As we all have iPhones, we were able to download the application, Vine. Vine is a social media app which allows users to to film small 7 second videos, which they can then upload, so that all there followers can view it. The videos are clever as they allow you the option of filming one thing and then coming back to it and filming something else, it then plays all these clips back together as one. We chose to have Amber use this app to film Me filming, Aggie acting in the getting ready scene. Once put together it proved effective in showing a summary of the filmmaking process and gave a visual into how we filmed what we did. Here is the Vine:
To ensure continuity and high quality in our film work we chose to re film these two short scenes, as the feedback we had received after viewing it, was that it had not been of a high enough quality and that the footage lacked visual variation. Previously we had found that the footage was out of focus and there was a problem with consistent costume. So we ensured we had the correct costume and made use of our nearby location of Amber's room. We used camera angles we hadn't used before to make the scene more visually effective and interesting.
We used a Pan to display the protagonist applying her makeup, this type of shot allows the viewer time to see the protagonist debating which makeup to apply, suggesting she cares about her appearance and loves the idea of beauty and attraction. We then used a crane shot to clearly display the protagonist on her phone playing with her library card and lying and lying next to her book.
We used close ups to highlight important props and moments in the scene, such as the library card and the phone. We did this by using a zoom, going from the protagonist lying on her bed to her hand fiddling with the card, as she is discussing the boy she me at the library, making the connection between the two.
We wanted to find a way to not just show the protagonist the whole time, whilst she was on the phone and so we decided to use cut-away editing, to show both an extreme close up of the protagonists mouth mouthing "I'm so excited" as well as a shot from before of the protagonist and the guy together in the library.
To conclude this scene we have a cut to a mid shot of the protagonist fully dressed in a smart red dress, flicking her hair over her shoulders, ready for her date.
Today Amber and the rest of us to assist and offer opinions started to edit the "getting ready scene".
We experimented with cut away editing, we placed a clip of Bryn flirting with Aggie onto of the scene where she is talking to a friend about her date. We did this in order to show a connection between the two, making it very clear to an audience that Aggie feels hopefully and passionately about this guy.
I made an Emaze to document the filming and editing of the getting ready scene:
This short clip is the footage we had shot of the date scene, it clearly shows some of the major issues we had with, space sound and visual variation.
These pictures illustrate us filming the scene and also demonstrate some of the practical issues we came across.
This photo shows, the issue of space and how large the table was.
This photo shows a close up of me filming the long shot, it shows how it was difficult to pick up good sound from such a distance.
Some major issues we came across were:
By filming outside we had the issue of background noise, which distracted from the dialogue and made the mise en scene and ambiance unnatural and unpleasant.
We found that the table we used looked big in the shot and the strong white colour made it stand out over the actors.
The dialogue seemed forced and dull to watch.
The scene lacked in visual variation, and became boring quickly.
We tackled these issues by:
Deciding to change locations, from outside to in, as well as modernising it by making a more casual cocktail bar setting. This allowed us to position the couple closer, as well as adding a more sophisticated and rich look to the footage.
Using bar stools and a bar like table, meant the set looked sleeker and not clumsy and clunky. We also found that we wanted to interject colour into the scene, and so chose to make the scene look warmer and more visually vibrant; by adding in pink and yellow flowers and using bright and stronger lighting.
We wrote a rough script for the actors to follow rather than improvisation. This gave the scene clear direction and somewhere to go, it also hinted at each characters intentions; revealing the 'players' alternate agenda.
We incorporated a range of alternate camera angles and movements, such as a reverse zoom, a pull of focus and a pan.
