Final Film Opening

Self Evaluation - first edit

I think that my overall first edit of my opening came out better than I expected it too. The only issue with my shots were the continual change of natural lighting which differed from shot to shot. This meant that I had to edit a few shots using the 'Brightness and Contrast' video effect in order to make it look a little better. I still think that changing the brightness of the clips resulted in a more realistic outcast of the opening.

When putting the video clips in order of how I wanted them, I was able to notice that there is a section within the opening that hasn't been correctly shot. Towards the beginning of the opening, my actress is seen leaning on her hand and then the next shot that I tried to use was of my actress when she wasn't leaning on her hand. This change in movement wasn't documented within the opening and was easily recognisable when put next to each other. In order to make it look like there is no movement error, I added in the title between the two shots. I decided to use fade to black with the title 'Love Never Dies' and then fade it into the next shot. When the class watched it back, they were not able to notice this movement error which therefore resulted in me not having to reshoot this shot because it was not recognisable.

I think that the shots follow better than I was hoping for as they seem to match up a lot better than I thought they would when I first started editing. I think that taking more than one of the majority of the shot was a good idea as it meant that I was able to decide between the different clips in order to get the best result for my opening. I also think that my zoom in and panning shot was better than I expected when editing my first opening. This is due to the fact that when I was recording, I thought I was having difficulty keeping the same speed and timing, but when I looked at these two types of shots when I was editing they came out better than I had previously thought. I was happy with the end result of my first edit practise because I tried to make the shots flow one after the other, which they appeared to do within my opening.

Although the overall outcome of my film opening was good for my first edit, when I compared it to the storyboard that I created it wasn't quite the same. The overall timing of the videos meant that there wasn't much time for the flashbacks so it had to be extended and the ending reduced. This meant that there were no shots about how the couple first met, as it ended when the woman read the letter where the flashbacks would've occured. Although it didn't follow the storyboard towards the end 100%, it still had the basic storyline in which I intended in the first place.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel like I have learnt a lot from the progression of the task to the full product.  I feel that my final product is a lot different to that of my preliminary task. The overall appearance of the two are contrasting and are very different in how they're presented. I learnt a lot more doing my full product as I had a lot more work to do on my own that I had with my preliminary task. Although I worked on the preliminary task on my own as well, the depth of my planning and research of the full product was a lot more intense and therefore I learnt how to work hard on my own and use time management well - compared to the preliminary task which didn't take as long. 

From the outcome of my preliminary task to the development of my product, I think that I learnt a lot regarding the shooting. For my preliminary I only took one shot of each and therefore the outcome wasn't as great as it could've been. I therefore decided that my full product should have a lot more shots of the same in order to be able to pick the best possible one. I learnt this from the outcome of the preliminary task. I also learnt about camera movement during this process. During my preliminary task, my camera movement was quite sloppy and when I looked it over, I wasn't 100% satisfied with it and therefore learnt that it was important to take your time when doing camera shots - especially if it uses tilts, pans or zooms. This new information that I had gained was put into consideration when doing my product and therefore I took my time and ensured that I had the correct camera movements I needed. This therefore made my full product look a lot more professional than my preliminary task. 

I also think that I have learnt how to maintain the best flow throughout when it comes to the camera shots. For my preliminary task, the shots didn't follow each other 100% and therefore didn't continuously flow (as actions did not match one another very well). I thought that this didn't look very good in the outcome so I therefore decided to ensure that the movements within each shot followed one another for my final product. I learnt to ensure that the shots flow in order to create consistency. This made the overall outcome of my full product a lot better than my preliminary task as it looked more professional and smooth. Overall, I think that doing the preliminary task helped me to develop my understanding of shooting and therefore enabled me to feel more confident when I was shooting the final product. I think that this was important as it gave me a sense of direction as to how I envisioned my final product. This therefore gave me the knowledge and experience I needed to ensure a good outcome.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 2

I have created a website for this evaluation question:

Link: http://stephwebb97.wix.com/evaluationquestion2

Talent Release Forms

Talent release form for the actor who played Arthur (Callum Vallard):

Talent release form for the actress who played Young Dorothy (Louise Painter):

Talent release form for the actress who played and narrated character of old Dorothy (Thirza Robinson):

Talent release form for narration of Arthur (Michael Webb):

Research existing film logos - analysis

Analysis of existing logos from StephWebb

Initial ideas

Initial ideas from StephWebb

Choosing names for Characters

Options for the female character:
- Rose
- Ellen
- Iris
- Pearl
- Dorothy 

Options for the male character (husband of the woman):
- Andrew
- Charles
- Arthur
- Albert
- Frederick


In order to get the best names for my two characters, I decided to ask a sample of people to see what their favourite choices were. The sample of people that I asked where 10 friends of mine. This was then put into a tally chart and totalled up.


FEMALE:     Tally          Total                                  MALE:      Tally       Total
Rose               | | |               3                                     Andrew        | |             2

Ellen                |                  1                                     Charles         |              1

Iris                   | |                 2                                     Arthur          | | | |           4

Pearl                                  0                                     Albert            | |             2

Dorothy           | | | |             4                                  Frederick       |               1

Codal Analysis

Codal analysis of existing romance films from StephWebb

Narration

Narration from StephWebb

Call sheet

Production Schedule

Production schedule from StephWebb

Location Release Form

Location scouting sheets

Evaluation Question 1

Treatment

Treatment from StephWebb

Shoot list

Shoot list

Pan shot – This will be of the old woman as she is sitting looking out at the grandchildren. The shot will start from the left and go towards the right at a slow pace where the woman will then be revealed.

Medium – This will be of the woman looking towards the left of her (looking at the grandchildren in the garden).

Medium close up – This will be of the old  woman during the narration as she stops looking out of the garden and looks up at a picture. 

 Zoom in - This will be of the picture on the wall that the old woman is looking at.

 Extreme close up  – This will be of the old woman as she is smiling, looking up at the picture.

Tracking– This will be of the old woman as she gets up from the armchair and walks over to the cupboard.

Extreme close up – This will be of the handle of the cupboard, as it’s being opened.
Extreme close up – This will be of the old woman’s hands taking out the box from the cupboard.

 Tracking – This will be of the old woman as she walks back with the box to the sofa.

 Medium – This will be of the old woman as she is sits back on the arm chair and puts her hands on the lid of the box and removes the box.

      Extreme close up - This will be on the contents in the box.

Medium - This will be of the old woman as she puts her hand in the box and pulls out a letter.

      Over the shoulder - This will be of the old woman as she looks at the letter.

      Extreme close up - This will be a close up of the actual letter.
     Over the shoulder - picks up a picture and holds it in front of the letter
      Extreme close up - of the picture.

Extreme close up - This will be of the old woman as she is smiling at the picture/letter.
Medium - This will be of the old woman as she puts the picture back in the back and reads the letter - continues to look at the letter. 
Extreme close up - This will be of the letter.
*Zoom in - This will be a zoom in of the woman's face before the flashback occurs*
*Tracking - This will be of the camera as it moves to the side of her head in order for the flashback to occur from fade out*
*FLASHBACK*
Zoom in +tilt - This will be of the young couple as they stand near each other and lean in for a hug (or) kiss. They then move away from each other and the filming stops.

I    

    

I

Storyboard

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 3

Q3 from StephWebb

Evaluation Question 4

Q4 from StephWebb

Film - genre

Genre: Romance.
Title: Love Never Dies


Conventions within genre: 

• Affection.
• Argument/conflict
• Narration.
• Two main characters - usually male and female, quite young.
• Love.
• Tradegy - Either a death, illness or break-up.
• Love at first sight.
• Sexual attraction. 
• Happy ever after.
• Attracted towards female audience.
• Follow daily routine of a character.

Conventions that are going to be used:

• Narration.
• Two main characters - usually male and female, quite young.
• Love.
• Tradegy - Either a death, illness or break-up.

Possible names of characters:

• Main man -  Andrew, Charles, Arthur,  Albert, Frederick.
• Main woman - Rose, Ellen, Iris, Pearl, Dorothy.

Production company:
New Line Cinema

I have chosen this production company because they are famous for their films which include films of the specific genre I have chosen. Their romance films include films such as 'My Sister's Keeper', 'Valentines Day' and 'The Notebook'. These films are known for their interesting storyline and they way they they have been produced. The films have been successful within the genre and have caused emotions to spill - which is what I want my film to do.

Main influences

Main influences from StephWebb

Sample Script

Script 1 from StephWebb

Risk assessment

Risk assessments from StephWebb

Planning for shoots

Edit decision list

Edit decision list table 1 from StephWebb

Audio permission

Audio permission from StephWebb

Opening detail research

Site plan

Above: This is a site plan of the bottom floor of the house that my film opening is being shot in.

Above: This is a site plan of the top floor of the house that my opening is being filmed in.

Above: This is a site plan of the field that I am going to attempt to shoot my film opening in. This is where the flashbacks will occur.

Edit practise

Flashback practise

Preliminary task

Evaluation:

Strengths: 
A strength of this preliminary task is that when using the over the shoulder shots, I didn't use unneeded space and therefore didn't waste potential space. I tried to ensure that both Amelia and Beth could be seen when shooting behind Demi and I think that this shot worked quite well.

Another strength is the shot of Beth as she walks towards the door. This shot looked quite well because I used a tripod so the camera didn't shake and therefore made the shot look more professional in the tracking of Beth. The fact that this shot wasn't too long either was good because if it was, it would've got boring and not of been as effective.



Weaknesses:
A weakness within this preliminary task that I shot was when Beth entered the cafe to sit with Demi and Amelia. A shot is taken of her standing by the table and then the next shot is taken of her sitting down and talking to the girls. The flow of shots isn't accurate and therefore hasn't been shot properly. 

Another weakness of the preliminary task is the fact that the music just suddenly stops in order for Demi to speak. As this was the second time I've used Premier Pro, I didn't quite know how to fade the music out which would've made the overall appearance and sound of the video better. Instead the music just came to a stop in order for Demi to speak, which I didn't think worked very well.

Sweet Life - College