Video feedback

Titles and studio logo are effective and they link well with print products showing an understanding of the medium of the short film and the institutional context.  There is an implicit awareness of how new media and social media has helped the short film gain a new audience. 

Excellent use of locations and actors including adults.  Excellent technical skill in audio and editing. Use of transitions are selective and appropriate. 

A  full range of shots are employed showing a full understanding of film language. 

The narrative is clear and thought has gone into the concept. Clearly evidenced in the web-log and details of the creative journey.

The script shows the mature and disciplined approach taken by the group. Software was explored and ‘writer duet’ was used so collaboration online was enabled.  There is lots of dialogue which is ambitious and usually is a weak point in student film. However, here it is a strength as boom mics have been used and audio has been mixed in post production. 

Two point lighting was used for interior shots and diffusers were used outside to control natural light. 

Flashback shots allow a sense of the interior conflicts within the protagonists mind. 

End credits show the amount of collaboration and organisation of actors and crew.

The short film demonstrates excellent technical skill and is creative and imaginative.37/40

'Choice' - Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms of codes and conventions of real media texts?

'Choice' - Evaluation - Question 2

"How Effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?"

'Choice' - Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Production

When we was first proposing the idea of this film to the class we got audience feedback though doing a pitch that meant we could change some of the ideas that we had to go in line with what people told us.

We then got audience feedback after we had done our first cut. This meant that we could adapted what we had already got to make the narrative clearer because this was something we had battled with from the start was to let people know the narrative but not give it all away.

After the feedback we got about the narrative being hard to follow we decided to add an In Media Res at the start of the short film. We trailed this to a test audience and the feedback that we got was good from it and people thought that by adding this in the narrative was easier to understand.

We had been getting feedback all the way through the creative process of making ‘choice’. This was something that we really needed because there was some moments that we didn’t know what to do and the audience feedback helped us make some creative decisions that we had in the film.

The Audience feedback when the film was finished was mostly good, as most people liked the camera work and editing and the story line of the film. We did get some negative feedback however. This was due to the fact that some people didn’t get the story line and thought it wasn’t clear but after I had explained what the story line was and how we went about it in the film to not make it too obvious. The people that thought it wasn’t clear then got it and how we did it and they liked the film.

From all the audience feedback we got it shaped the way that the film was made and the creative aspects of the film. This was due to the fact that some of the time we had been unrealistic when it came to things we could and couldn’t do. Through the audience feedback this helped us narrow down different things we had previously done to create the final product.

Film Poster

For the film poster we had made a 4 different first drafts of posters. We then showed an audience for feedback on to what one they through was best. The audience picked a design that they though would look the best and we used that and built on it.

We then made a second draft which has some screenshots that we took from the production and built a poster around that. We then ask an audience to have a look at this draft to see what they thought of it and what we needed to improve on. They thought that the pictures wasn’t good enough quality because they were screenshots. But they thought the lay out of the poster was good.

For the final draft we took on all of the feedback that we had got in the previous 2 drafts and we created a poster that combined the layout of the product that the test audience picked from the first draft and the pictures from the second draft. We took our own pictures instead of using a screenshot, this came together to make a good final draft that we got feedback on and the audience though it was a good film poster that looked like a real film poster. We also got some feedback and it said that it is anchorage for the short film as well because there is a similar composed shot in the film.

Magazine article

We did a similar thing with the magazine article as we did with the Film Poster. For the first draft we made 4 different designs that we thought best suited the magazine article, and we showed these to a test audience. The audience then gave us feedback on what they thought was the best design to go with and we went with that one.

For the second draft we made, we used the layout that the audience picked from the first draft and we started adding our own pictures and information. After we had done this we took it to a different target audience to get more feedback. The feedback we got from this test audience was mostly good but with a few alterations with the grammar and spelling of some of the sentences and some of the pictures were asked to be improved.

For the third and final draft of the magazine article we took our second draft and made a few corrections to the grammar and the pictures we changed as well. This was the final change that we had to make to the magazine article. All of the information was in the article and our audience thought that it looked like a proper magazine article that you would see in a magazine.

To conclude, we have had and used a lot of audience feedback throughout the creative journey of our media production. We had it in the pre-production, the post-production stages and for our print artifacts. We took on board what people thought we adapted to suit what the audience thought.

'Choice' - Evaluation - Question 4

'Choice' - Final Production and Print artefacts

Final Production and Print Artifacts

Final Production

This is the finished draft of the short film 'Choice'. 'Choice' is about a young person called Eric who has to make a very difficult decision  to stay with his mother who never loved him, or to go with his abusive farther that did love him.

Print Artifact

Film Poster

This is the film poster that we had made for our final product. This has anchorage to the main production as the same shot appears in the main production.

Film Review

This is the magazine print artifact and this has been made in the style of Empire Magazine.

'Choice' - First Draft Feedback

My views on the first draft so far; 

• There is some out of focus shots that we are using in the first draft,
• Some of the shots aren't very stable such as the tracking shot,
• The audio in the scenes isn't very good at the minute,
• Need to finish the editing to make sure that the video flows from one shot to another,
• The dialogue audio is good and clear,
• There is props and lights in the background

My questions;

1. How would you rate the quality of the shots?
2. What did you enjoy about the video?
3. What needs improving?
4. Can you see the pieces of the narrative?
5. Were the locations varying enough?
6. how was the acting?
7. From what you have heard, What did you think of the dialogue?
8. Can you see the David Fincher Conventions? Are the Obvious?
9. What part of the editing did you like? Why?
10. What level would you give it and why?

November feedback

You have added character outlines

Production schedule and shooting schedule shows planning and an equipment list shows an understanding of technology and shows ambition in planning.

A list of shots for scene 1 shows attention to detail.

The post on a target audience needs writing. It has been left unfinished which seems to be a theme. This lack of completion needs to be dealt with before submission.

The script is excelllent showing collaboration and planning at level 4. However, you must ensure that you play a full part in all elements of the prodiuction.

Documenting the process is essential and there are gaps at present.  Make an effort to publish all research and planning

Move on to gain audience feedback about your first cut.

Avoid complacency and keep posting regularly.

Document your creative journey and your involvement.

This production shows promise and you should be gaining the higher grades.  It would be a shame if you flatter to deceive.

Stay on task.  I know that you are spending a lot of time editing and we are about to see the results of this. However, don't lose marks for the other parts.

'Choice' - Day 4 of filming

We have finished filming choice after 4 weeks of filming. We have done the re-shoots that we needed to do and all of the shots that we set out to do even some of the experimental ones. This is a big part of the film finished now because  I had looked through all of the shots to determine that they where good enough and the dialogue was clear enough. Now Me and Tony start on the editing. This is something that will probably take the most time because it is the thing that needs to make the film perfect because we have to edit all of the 200 shots that we got down into and edit. But then we have to colour grade, sound mix and remove anything from the shots that shouldn't be there. The post production is by far the biggest thing we have to do.

'Choice' - Day 3 of filming

Today was the Third day of filming and this was the longest day and that was because we were filming next to a road and because we had a lot of dialogue to do we had to keep cutting everything a car drove past. There was also people that kept walking past as well and the bus that came every 30 minutes.

That

'Choice' - Day 2 of filming

The second day of filing is complete and the shots we got today where really good at first thought. But what didnt show up on the camera was that the camera hadnt captured the colour correctly for the shots that we filmed and this might have been because the camera card corrupted part of the footage. There was a weird colour glitch that means we cant use the footage we filmed today.

To go along with this one of the crew members failed to turn up but there was someone else that we used instead.

The dialogue that we filmed today sounded really good and that was because we tried something different with the boom mic. We learnt so much from today and it was a shame that we cant use the footage. After we have filmed the rest of the footage we will then worry about reshoots.

'Choice' - Day 1 of filming

We have just finished the first day of filming.

The filming day went really well after all things considered. Charlie forgot some equipment and we have a long set up time with setting up an conference room as a hospital waiting room and setting up all of the equipment including the boom mic we used and a monitor so we could see the camera more clearly.

All of the framing for the shots that we did were perfect and they followed all of the rules that we needed them to such as the 180 degree rule. the rule of thirds and depth of field. There was on shot that we had to change that broke the 180 degree rule that I noticed when setting up the camera for that shot but apart from that we followed the story bored exactly.

We also had a second camera for behind the scenes that we used. which was good to show how we were setting up the shots and good to show the creative journey that we have taken with the film.

'Choice' - David Fincher Influences

As mentioned previously, the screenplay will be largely influenced by the work of Arron Sorkin (The Social Network), Robert Graysmith (Zodiac) and Jim Uhis (Fight Club). With Jim Uhis being the main inspiration.

I aim to direct 'Choice' in a similar style to David Fincher. This post is going to explain exactly what that entails.

David Fincher began his career creating popular abstract music videos for popular artists of the day such as Michael Jackson and Madonna. His music videos were widely acclaimed for how different they were and how memorable they were. 

After many successful music videos Fox Studios hired Fincher to create the next film in the highly acclaimed 'Alien' series. Fincher had a vision and a dream to create one of the most tense films in the series, he wanted to bring it back to the horror that began in the first film of the series and stray away from the all-out-action James Cameron kead the series with in the second installment.

However, not everything went as planned as Fox constantly reduced the budget, scrapped sets and asked for constant changes from the director himself. All of these cutbacks and stress lead to a mediocre first feature by Fincher that was panned by critics and the viewing audience. Upset by this, Fincher disowned the film and refused to accept it as his debut. What I learnt from this is that your vision can be sacrificed if you work for the wrong people.

It was only 3 years later however that New Line Cinema took a risk and allowed him to film 'Se7en' with an all star cast of Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. This film brought back the Noir genre that began decades earlier and carried on the tradition of neo-noirs like Roman Polanski's Chinatown with Jack Nicholson. The film was directed beautifully with visual elements that told the story without being spoonfed details. Fincher captured the growing relationship of Pitt and Freeman's character brilliantly by using his subtlety such as how they were positioned, how did they sit when the other was around, he was standing when they spoke? who had the control of the scene? another great example of where fincher did this is at the very end of the film. When Pitt learns about 'what's in the box' when the camera is on him it shakes slightly as he frantically panics, whereas when it cuts to Kevin Spaceys character the camera is steady with no movement whatsoever to indicate he is stable and he has control. I love this attention to detail he has with the films.

Finchers next film paired him with the extremely talented Michael Douglas in the conspiracy-thriller 'The Game'. This film threw plot twists at the audience and kept them guessing until the end. Despite what some may argue is a weak ending the journey that David Fincher takes you on with Douglas in the front seat is an exhilarating ride. The ending of Se7en taught me a lot about suspense in film and thrillers, and this film continued that. It was also the first screeenplay I had ever read, written by John Brancato. It taught me a lot about dramatic beats in a screenplay and how to structure them so the next one is always bigger than the previous to grow the tension and each have a satisfying pay-off. 

Finchers fourth film in my opinion, is his magnum opus; Fight Club. This was the film that introduced me and a lot of people to the work of Fincher. It was the first time I had ever watched a film with controllable depth and layers. The film, stripped of everything, subliminal messages, Easter eggs, hidden hints to the narrative is still a brilliantly directed thriller however, Fincher went one step further with this one. He added hints throughout the entire film revelaing the infamous plot twist, he added a Starbucks coffee in every scene at least once to take a giant stab at commercialism and corporations (a common theme of the film). This film taught me that a screenplay, despite being a visual storytelling element is not enough, if you want to achieve greatness you need to go one step beyond and visually create the world needed for your film, film is a visual medium so it can't just be heard it has to be shown.

 I am borrowing  lot of themes and conventions from this film and Jim Uhis' screenplay as well as Chuck Palanuik's novel. Fight Club explores the themes of duality and conflict, media conglomerates and capitalism, wanting to be something else but wanting to know when to stop. The first one is definitely a theme I will be exploring in 'Choice' with Tony as we finish writing the screenplay.

Finchers digital work has proved to only enhance his abilities. When he jumped to digital when working on The Social Network with Jesse Eisenberg he created a film that got me into the work of cineamatographer Jeff Cronenworth. He acted as the director of photography on The Social Netowrk and since then I watch anything he works on. The cinematography in this film was incredible. The lighting immaculately reflected the mood of any scene, even if there were contradicitng moods from differing people in the room, rule of thirds was used brilliantly in this film to allow for symetircal shots that look great on film, and the art direction gave the film a unique feel that changes as Eisenbergs idea grows and grows. For example, I always associate the start of the film with dark colours and low key lighting, however, once Facebook gets started you start to see bright colours and high key lighting being introduced into the film. Showing how the cinematography changes with the narrative but it's extremely subtle you barely notice.

Fincher is known for his extensive amount of takes (mirroring the work of Kubrick), perfectionism and being difficult to work with however, despite this he always manages to create brilliant cinema. This shows that perfectionism can pay off once you have the reputation. I agree to the perfectionism behind the camera and can understand how that may lead to difficulties behind the camera but I also agree that it gets results. From all of Finchers conventions I am aiming to to use his passion for eveything in the shot being important, every last detail in my film I am hoping to have some meaning, it helps immerse the audience and allows them to believe the world is real. For exmple we are planning to film in a hospital waiting room, however if this is not possible we will have to use a spare room and dress is up like one, if this is the case I can put this convention to the test and make sure the room feels believable by focusing on what is in the shot. I can add health posters, fire safety notices, quit smoking flyers, magazines. Anything to make the setting more believable.

Source: http://www.slashfilm.com/trivia-for-gone-girl-david-fincher-averaging-nearly-50-takes-per-scene/

In conclusion I feel Fincher is a shining example of a great director. He's inspired me greatly to want to one day produce films of his quality, and hope to begin to do so with this short film for our production.

'Choice' - Shooting Schedule

Date	Time	Actors	Scene	Location		Props	Clothing	Equipment
19/10/15	Meet at 9:00am at the library Finish at 4:00pm 9:00am – 10:00am - set up and sound tests 10:00am – 3:00pm – Film the scene (including lunch) 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds Samantha Bell	Scene 1	Library		Water fountain, Clock, Posters	Suit (Charlie) and normal clothes (extras)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flags
20/10/15	Meet at 10:00am Finish at 3:00pm 10:00am – 10:30am – Set up and sound test 10:30am – 2:30pm – Filming (Including Lunch) 2:30pm – 3:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds	Scene 2 and Scene 3	Abandoned Garages		Mobile phone Cigarettes	Suit (Charlie) Scruffy Clothes (Ashley)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flag
21/10/15	Re- Shoots if Needed (Time Appropriate)
22/10/15	Meet at 9:00am at the Bus Stop Finish at 4:00pm 9:00am – 10:00am - set up and sound tests 10:00am – 3:00pm – Film the scene (including lunch) 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds	Scene 4		Bus Stop	Cigarettes	Suit (Charlie) Scruffy Clothes (Ashley)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flags
23/10/15	Meet at 9:00am at the Bus Stop Finish at 4:00pm 9:00am – 10:00am - set up and sound tests 10:00am – 3:00pm – Film the scene (including lunch) 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds	Scene 4		Bus Stop	Cigarettes	Suit (Charlie) Scruffy Clothes (Ashley)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flags
24/10/15	Scrub Through Footage (Pick out Reshoots if needed)
25/10/15
26/10/15	Meet at 9:00am at the Bus Stop Finish at 4:00pm 9:00am – 10:00am - set up and sound tests 10:00am – 3:00pm – Film the scene (including lunch) 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds	Scene 4		Bus Stop	Cigarettes	Suit (Charlie) Scruffy Clothes (Ashley)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flags
27/10/15	Meet at 9:00am at the Bus Stop Finish at 4:00pm 9:00am – 10:00am - set up and sound tests 10:00am – 3:00pm – Film the scene (including lunch) 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Packing up and goodbyes	Charlie Bell Ashley Edmonds Samantha Bell	Reshoots		Bus Stop Library Abandoned Garages	Cigarettes Mobile Phone Water fountain, Clock, Posters	Suit (Charlie) Scruffy Clothes (Ashley) normal clothes (extras)	JVC 3CCD Camera Stabilizer Camera Dolly 4x Tripods 2x Rode Boom pole 2x LED Lights 2 x 5in1 lighting reflectors/diffusers/flags
28/10/15
29/10/15
30/10/15
31/10/15	Scrub Through Footage (Pick out Reshoots if needed)
01/11/15

'Choice' - Target Audience

All media texts are made to be consumed by an audience. The aim for a media texts is to have a specific audience that it is aimed at and this is because not everyone will like that particular media text. This is called the primary target audience and this is the main audience that will consume the product.

The target audience for 'Choice' is similar to most of Denis Villeneuve's film "Prisoners" which is likely middle class, college-educated moviegoers with a taste for art cinema. This is what we are going for when we make the film so we will be paying close attention to the audio and the Cinematography of the film as this will be what the target audience will pick out on the most. The audience that goes to the Cannes Film Festival will be the type of audience that will like our film due to the fact that it is a middle class sort of film festival. The Cannes Film Festival is also called the 'Art' Film Festival because it focuses on more of the cinematography art of the film and this is what we are going for in the film 'Choice'