Evaluation Question 7

I was very fortunate that Meg and I get on really well and we both had a very similar vision for the film: the style, the tone, the look, the shots. We realised that we were going to have to thoroughly plan everything as much as we could, and our research and planning we had already done before working together, and our interest in other specific films really helped us to construct the look we wanted for the film.

The style and narrative

It was really important to both of us that we made a film that had a quite complex plot, had a social realist tone, and that it looked like a real film. We went through extensive planning, looking at specific examples from our favourite films, particularly those of the social realist and thriller genre, of location, style, plot, characters, semiotics and colour palettes that we could emulate in our own work. We looked at casting meticulously, working with our friends who we knew were reliable, could work with our schedule and could appear to be the right age (Tom older than Sonia). We cast our friend Sonia as the protagonist, and though she was different to our original character profile (as Sonia is black and we had originally planned to cast someone who was white), but we actually preferred this as we thought it would be important to portray different social groups and have an interracial relationship. Looking back through our evaluation questions, Meg and I have realised how layered the narrative really is and how detailed our purposes for each shot were. There are multiple different readings that could come from this opening (which you can read about in evaluation question 2 in greater detail), and though we know how the rest of the film would have developed through negotiated readings, it was really interesting to see through feedback from surveys and friends what they thought really happened, and what would happen next.

Shotlist

As we thought in such similar ways we were already visualising the same sort of shots we would use for the opening, and our narrative helped to shape this too: close up match-on-action shots on the phone and the knife; shot reverse shots in the coffee shop; establishing wide shot across the road at the bus stop; and low-angle shots looking up to the coffee shops sign, but at different times of day.  Developing from the preliminary task, we knew the importance of having a groundwork of shot reverse shots, using the 180 degree rule, and match on action shots, but to also build upon these basics. Unlike the prelim, we planned an extensive shot list, and Meg drew up a story board. We also, however, gave ourselves leeway to work around the locations we were working in, and leeway to experiment on location with different shots.

Location

From doing the prelim task we knew the importance of finding appropriate locations to suit the narrative and the style of the film. We were very lucky that our friend lived in an area which would work really well for our film: it could look like a rough and busy area on the main road, but the side road on which he lived would juxtapose as it is much quieter. It also worked well as he lived right next door to a coffee shop, which we had to ask the owner’s permission to film in, and fitted perfectly with the narrative. Having everything in one place also helped because we didn’t have to shoot in multiple different locations on different sides of London. We also just loved his house: it had everything we needed there, we didn’t have to bring anything else with us- it already looked like a film set! At school we also used the darkroom to film the second flashback as it would mean we got to shoot in a room with red lighting – an aspect that was very important to us since the start of the process- and we didn’t have to edit in the red in post-production.

On the day

We planned to film separate scenes on separate days, but fortunately the filming process didn’t take very long as everything was in such close proximity. We spent one evening filming all of the shots in the house, and some shots on the main road. It was a great surprise on the day as by using a specific lens on my camera, the lights in the background of each shot blurred. Using this to our full advantage, we experimented with many different shots to make the best use out of it which created a really beautiful effect, and we think added a lot to the film. The golden hour flashback was very important to film at a specific time of day, about 4 o’clock, so we had a very limited amount of time to get everything we wanted before it got dark (about 5 o’clock in winter). We were also pressed for time as the coffee shop closed at about 4:45, so we had to work very quickly. On that day we then waited for it to get dark do we could film extra shots and diegetic sound on the main road that we didn’t get on the other day of filming. We filmed the second flashback in the darkroom on a separate day.

Technical development

I have progressed a lot from when we first started the course, which I think you can clearly see when comparing the prelim to our final film. In particular I have learnt how to use sound equipment correctly, and how to edit this successfully along with a soundtrack that reflects the mood of the film. As you can see in our evaluation question 6, we learnt more about the benefits and problems with using a Conon 550D and f1.4 lens- the shots were really beautiful with a very precise point of focus, but the manual focus was very difficult to use, particularly during walking shots. I think we actually got around this very well, and managed to edit the most successful shots to create a really beautiful opening. My editing skills greatly improved, and I think that in particular through post-production our soundtrack was really strong, and our transitions between the present and the past were very clear.

Teamwork

Meg and I tried to split the responsibilities evenly with each other: Meg did most of the filming while I did all of the sound, and we played to our strengths, so as Meg is really arty she made the storyboard and complied the shotlist, while I did more work in post-production through editing, and putting the soundtrack together. We also shared the evaluation tasks. It was great to work with Meg as we had such similar views and we knew exactly what we wanted for the film, and she and I cared so much about wanting to bring all our hard work to fruition. I think the result was really successful, and it turned out even better than we wanted it to.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

F.L

In this video I have summarised what we have learnt from all of the technologies from the process of constructing our opening. These include:

• Using Final Cut Pro
• Editing sound, constructing a soundtrack using stems and ensuring that it flows well throughout the opening, reflecting the tone of each scene
• Editing colour in our first flashback, making the colour palette more golden to distinguish between the present and the past.
• Using titles from dafont.com, and why we chose them
• Using a tripod, and why we used it certain scenes and not in others
• Using a Canon 550D with an F1.4 lens, the difficulties and benefits of it, and how the way our film was shot reflects other scenes from thrillers.

Evaluation Question 5

M.H.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our aims

As a whole:

• Achieve a sense of tension, suspense and mystery in order to entice the audience and make them want to carry on watching the film to find out what is truly happening.
• Using the social realism to build a stronger relationship with the audience as they are able to relate to the content of the film further.
• Use modern aspects of cinema (e.g. inter-racial relationships) to address a young adult audience as it is a realistic representation of today’s society.

Camerawork and editing:

• Using a shallow depth of field (so the protagonist is in focus and the background blurred/out of focus) in order for our cinematography to look aesthetically pleasing, and to help the audience build an intimacy with the protagonist as she is the centre of focus.
• Using a combination of lengthy shots and fast paced editing/quick jump cuts, as the contrast between the two enhances the tension at the end of the opening - the fast pace is juxtaposed with the poignance at the start which emphasises the suspense of the red flashback and the phone call.
• Using a combination of handheld and tripod shots. The handheld shots helps to build intimacy between the audience and the protagonist as it gives the feeling of a personal insight. The tripod shots help to frame the shots and improve the cinematography.

The flashbacks:

• Helps to break the opening up into sections which adds another level of depth to the film and adds further intrigue and complexity.
• This also allows further emotions to be conveyed which will help the audience to connect further with the film.

The use of red and ambiguity:

• The red colouring gives semiotics and colour connotations to the film; red usually signifies danger, blood, death and threat. This will give the audience to an insight to the themes of the film, and also help them to understand what is going on in the scene.
• However, the use of ambiguity prevents the audience from knowing what is fully happening. This helps to entice the audience as they want to carry on watching to find out more.
• Both the red colouring and the ambiguity masks the person in the flashback, which heightens the mystery and suspense. This is good as it keeps the audience guessing.

Music and sound:

• We chose to use an emotive soundtrack rather than using dialogue. We did this for a number of reasons.

1. The protagonist appears alone for most of the opening, so dialogue is not necessary.
2. We wanted to give the cafe flashback a hazed/distant feel, and the lack of dialogue gives this distance.
3. Soundtrack can intensely build an atmosphere and emotion. This helped us convey sentiment and the start of the story in the street scenes even though the protagonist was doing nothing but walking. This keeps the audience engaged and allows them to build ideas in their heads
4. Most importantly, we decided to use soundtrack instead of dialogue as it aids to build the mystery and suspense, as the audience are revealed much less about both the story and the characters, and will therefore leave them guessing and wanting to watch more. It also hides what is truly going on as the audience do not have the clarification through the use of dialogue.

• We used ambient sound in order to ground the film and help build the atmosphere.

1. We used it for sound bridges and soft background noise - helping to enhance the street scene and to give an immediate feel for the location. This places the audience in the film and helps them to engage.
2. Sound matches - helping to blend the memories of the past with the present. These sounds are enhanced and louder than they would normally be, so the audience acknowledges the sounds.

• For a little part of the opening we used no soundtrack at all, which helps to break up the scenes and allows a new atmosphere to begin. This helps the audience notice and understand the change in mood.

These are some responses from our target audience. In the video they talk about aspects of the film that they enjoyed, and why they were drawn to them.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be your audience for your media product?

F.L.

We had a screening of our film to an audience of 14 people, 7 men and 7 women, all in the age range of 15-25, and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about our film. Having this audience worked really well as this was our target audience anyway, so their feedback would likely represent how our demographic may also feel as a whole.

Summary of feedback:

When asking about gender of protagonists, 3 prefer female protagonists, and the rest don’t mind. It was useful to know that for most people it didn’t matter either way, but it was also clear to see that people would like to see more women in lead roles.

It was good that the majority of our audience recognised that our film is part of the thriller genre, with the opening also developing some of the tropes of psychological and crime thrillers, and horror movies.

When asking about what the plot of the opening was, most people understood the dynamic of the relationship between two characters, and most recognising that the coffee scene and the scene with the knife was in the past. All of the viewers knew that the man getting coffee with the female protagonist was the man that she later calls.

We asked our audience what their favourite part of the opening was to see what really drew people to our film. 7 people preferred the way the film was shot, the bus stop scene in particular, with the stylised mood shown through the lights. 1 person said that the clarity of our shots made our work look very professional, and not cliché, which our social-realism themes contributed to. 3 people said the flashback scenes were their favourite, as they brought a lot to the mood of the opening. 1 person thought the casting stood out too. 3 people liked the sound the most, as it added to the general tone of the opening, with 1 person specifically mentioning how the unanswered call tone at the end was especially creepy.

For some of our viewers, which some mentioned in the penultimate question about what they would change, the ending was quite confusing. When we asked our audience to summarise the plot, some didn’t know who had been killed, or who was the murderer in the final flashback. However, we still think this is a positive: our aim in the second flashback in red was to make it ambiguous as to who the killer and the victim were due to the use of black gloves to conceal identity and focus on the movement of the knife. By leaving questions unanswered at the end of the opening we hoped people would want to keep watching the film, which is exactly what we achieved: 100% of our viewers said they would keep watching the film in our questionnaire.