commentary

Here I am talking about several aspects of the making of this film for example to obstacles I faced during the process of this film.  I also understood what the crowd favorite moments of the film were which was extremely useful. It gave me time to address the problems I faced during the production of this film. Additionally it helped me to understand the strengths within the production. I could also explain reasons behind some of my decisions such as the location and meaning which allowed my peers to get an in depth understanding of my film. I believe strength is also the use of technology I used and therefore I could express this here.

I then received feedback from my peers about the production of the film, I found this extremely helpful as I now know what I need to improve on and will have a good starting point for next year. Many people found that they didn't understand the meaning behind the opening and that it seemed slightly fragmented. I understand that I need to make that very clear next year and perhaps make the overall production simpler. Overall The feedback I received was very complimentary which was a huge boost of confidence. 

Evaluation 8

There have been many aspects of this journey to make the opening of the film that I have regretted and would change if repeating the process. I am certain to carry on this course as of next year and therefore I need to establish the highlights of the process and what went well. I believe that the software that I used and the technology such as the camera worked very well and therefore I will not change them. This will be very helpful as I will be confident and used to the equipment making it not be such a stressful scenario.

I think that next year when the production is being made I will have more fun going out and experimenting with more time, locations and characters. The weather when filming was extremely cold which meant we wanted to get the filming over and done with as soon as possible also affecting the quality of work.  I think that if I enjoyed the experience a lot more the quality would have been better. Whilst filming I seemed to get bored incredibly easily which meant I gave up a lot easier and not aiming for excellence. I think this was also due to the choices of locations. Quite a few times I had to suddenly re-organize my plans for filming due to the weather and lighting, if I checked the weather before maybe this would have helped. one of the days when I went out filming I realized that I'd been filming for over an hour and it was around 6:00am which therefore mean that the sun was starting to go down. Therefore the first shots were lighter than the later ones. this meant that i had to go out another day to receive the same lighting. 

Overall, there is a recurring factor which keeps coming up which is the lack of preparation and organisation I had, this is for definite my main aim for next year. Also the more preparation allows more time to write the evaluation and revise for the final exam. This therefore allows my time next year to be less stressful and more enjoyable which will make the course less of a task. 

Evaluation 7

Looking back at my Preliminary task, I have learnt a lot about the production of films and how to make a successful opening. Doing the Preliminary Task gave me the opportunity to experiment with the technology, which I opted not to use, and the editing skills which I knew I would have to encounter at a greater detail for the opening two minutes. Another aspect where the Preliminary Task was useful, was knowing how to and when to use different shot types, this meant that for the final production I could evaluate whether a certain shot type would be appropriate for a certain place, or, if I could find a more effective shot type which would appear more sophisticated.

The Preliminary Task gave me an opportunity to experiment with different shot types. I have used some similar shot types for example the close up shot of a girl’s face which shows the emotion and feelings. in the Preliminary task i had it so that there was something going on in the background over her shoulder however i discovered that this distracted the audience and drew the attention away from the prominent character. i believe that it also looked bad because it added no dramatic effect. Therefore in my final film i made her face closer to the camera in order for it to fill the whole frame.

Additionally I used the same editing software and therefore could use similar techniques such as the fades and tools to make it slick and smooth. After editing the Preliminary Task together i noticed that the angle of the camera at this point was not accurate, which meant that it made the continuity disorientated and it did not fit together. I learnt from this that it would be difficult to produce a successful cut between the two shots because the angle of the camera needs to remain at the same level. It is also difficult to make the cut to the next shot accurate, because a different shot type will be used, which may not like effective in our film.

Evaluation 6

To create a very professional and effective film it need to have a good quality camera with a good editing software. The camcorder was very good quality to allow the film to look clear, and also enhance to level of sophistication. The audience would prefer to watch a film that looks as close to real life as possible and therefore it would help to create a look that is just like the eye sight.
Due to the high definition of the camera and the settings on the camera, the shots appeared clear. However I shot some of the opening shots on an iPhone when I spotted good establishing shots on the way to school. This therefore meant that it had a less clear image and it was slightly more pixallated. Another problem we occurred with the compatibility of the camera to the editing software was the difference in color, despite remaining in the same location. This was disappointing because despite how precisely i made the cut, the color was still disorientated which made it look like we changed something, affecting the theme of continuity.

I decided to use an extremely good editing software- Adobe Premiere Pro. I was going to use Premiere Elements however it believe that Pro has a more sophisticated and advanced software and can allow me to have freedom to use. At the beginning of the course I was oblivious to this software and really struggled to come to terms with it and how it works. It took some time, but when i got the hang of I began to experiment with editing tools and techniques.

Another problem i had in the process of editing this opening was when i tried to make the conversation flow around the table. I discovered that it was very effective to separate the audio from the picture and make it so the shot didn't just start when the dialogue start. This meant to make the picture linger for longer in order to make it flow well and look less bitty. i also believed it made it look like a real film as the conversation didn't look awkward or staged. 

Evaluation 5

I have added annotations to the original film to talk about the conventional features of the genre. This allows the audience to see my thinking behind the shots and editing.  

Evaluation 4

This is the target audience for my film- I have chose to address the audience to a 14-18 age group. this is roughly the same as Taken which was the inspiration for this film. Any younger than this age range would mean that the appreciation of the film would be decreased, because they do not understand the plot, along with the real-life scenarios we are creating. An obvious factor for not having a target audience of any younger would be because of the disturbing atmosphere we portray. However, on average, any older than the age range we have given may not understand as to why the plot is the way it is and would lead to a very critical audience because they have grown up in a different era, surrounded with different genres of films, which have populated the film industry.

The teen-aged audience would be expected to have an interest in popular culture and listen to the modern day popular music such as song in the top ten music charts. This made me think that it may be quite effective to have some well known youth pop songs to allow the audience to connect with it. This could also mean that they film industry will earn  more money from record sales. This could mean that the company- Ripple Film- could be vertically integrated allowing money not being wasted on buying companies.

Evaluation 3

When thinking about suitable film institutions to represent my opening two minutes, along with my own institutions, I have chosen to research some institutions which maybe are not so well known. I believe that many people will just choose a world famous company because they are well known for representing popular films and although this would probably be the easier option, I have chosen to put a bit more thought into it to see if I can find anything a bit more relevant to my opening.

Another institution I researched was Phase 4 Films which produced a film called Eden which is based on a true story of a teenage girl who is abducted and sold for prostitution. I had never heard of this company before, but found it from looking at the film Eden which is the last film i watched  in the hope for inspiration. I think that this company would be a good choice for me as they produce low budget films which mean our film will be more realistic than if I choose a larger company and I know that they have produced films of a similar genre and theme to mine which would help enforce the realism of my film and make it seem a relevant choice.