Evaluation (Part 3)

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In making this film, we have used several technologies. The most obvious is the Internet - this was very important for research and we gained a lot of knowledge and assistance from Google.

Another way in which we did research was to watch DVD commentaries and the opening sequences of films. From director's commentaries and behind the scenes footage we learned a lot, and were able to incorporate this into the way we made our sequence.

We had to use a camcorder to film the sequence, and this took some time to work out - the technology was complicated, but we were able to gain an understanding of it in time to be able to use it effectively when shooting the sequence. We also used a camera to get pictures for the Location Report, and the storyboard.

Editing was much more complex. We used the Vegas program to cut and edit clips and both diegetic and non-diegetic sound, but also had to record voiceovers, using the Microsoft Windows Sound Recorder. It took a few weeks to complete, several hours at a time. We had difficulties with this, because we found that we were unable to use what was already done on a different computer, and we couldn't transfer it onto someone else's userspace, so we were limited in terms of times when we could work, but were able to complete it in time.

In terms of audience feedback, I had the final film uploaded onto an encrypted site and we sent the link to certain individuals who we trusted to give us serious feedback, and through this were able to gain a range of opinions which proved to be very helpful in the development of our film.

In all, the use of technology was essential in every stage of making our media product, and my skills in these terms were improved greatly over the production period.

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

I have learned a lot over the production periods of both the preliminary and final products. The most obvious skills might include the use of a camcorder and tripod, and the Vegas program, but I have developed other skills in the time.

The production stages of creating a film are pre-production, production and post-production. Pre-production is what happens before filming - storyboarding, writing, etc. Production is the filming process, and post-production is the editing process.

I found that pre-production was the easiest stage for me. As a writer, this stage comes somewhat naturally to me, and I learnt only a few skills that I did not already have - the effective use of a storyboard, to name the most significant. The pre-production process developed a lot between the preliminary and final piece, however - we spent much more time planning the final piece than the preliminary, partly because of its significance and partly before its length, and possibly too much time was spent on this, so I have effectively learned the importance of time management.

Production, too, was a fairly simple stage. The most important skills learnt involved camera angles, which we were not so successful with in the preliminary task, and the use of a tripod, which we found to be important when we saw the effects of filming without it in the preliminary. I was also involved in directing, and had to be careful to ensure that the actor was in a position that worked for the camera.

Post-production was the most challenging stage. I found the Vegas program difficult to use, and the process of editing was complicated and stressful. However, I did learn a lot about it, and we were able to use it to a much greater effect than in the preliminary task. We also added music, which we found to enhance the film and make it more interesting for the audience, especially in the silent parts, which seemed to drag before the use of music. Even with music they went on a bit, so we added voiceovers - extracts from Sophie's diary, and were able to shape them around the film so that they drew some attention away from the action, or lack thereof, and onto the diary. This was most effective in one of the last scenes, when Sophie is sat in the living room, watching TV, and takes painkillers in an attempt to kill herself. This scene went on for a while, and we cut it down, but it still seemed to be lacking something. With the voiceover, we were able to draw attention away from the images, where it took a while for anything to happen, and onto Sophie's thoughts. I learned a lot from this, and would consider myself much more able to include conventions like this in future.

In all, the learning process was a difficult, but rewarding one, and I would now fee much more competent in making a film than I did at the preliminary stage.

Evaluation (Part 2)

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

The film we have made is a low-budget, independent British film. It would probably be made in association with the BBC or Channel 4 – we added “In Association with Film4” in the credits of our film to demonstrate the way this occurs. On their website, Film4 state that “The company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established.” Working with Film4, we would share the profits in return for their assistance in making and distributing the film.
There have been many similar cases in the past. Probably the most famous is recent hit Slumdog Millionaire, and there are several others coming up and recently released – including The Scouting Book for Boys, Looking for Eric, The Lovely Bones, and many more. Other famous films distributed in this way include About a Boy, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Bridget Jones’ Diary. Without the assistance of Film4, none of these would have been so well-received, and we think that they could do the same for our own film.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary audience of our film would probably be teenage girls and young women – people of a similar age and gender to our main character, Sophie. They would generally be within the same Western culture, although subculture might be less of a significant factor, since Sophie is somewhat a misfit within society. As many people feel like this at times, a wider audience would be attracted as more people would feel identified with her. The most important factor, of course, is genre – this is a melodramatic film, which generally attracts women.
We looked at the BBFC’s classification guidelines and decided that our film would probably be rated 15. Discrimination is not encouraged, drug misuse is shown, but discouraged, and the self-harm is not too detailed or glamorised. Language is not a major issue, and neither is nudity. There would be sexual references later in the film, as Sophie is abused by her father, but it is shown in a negative light and consequently, as the detail would not be explicit, it should be acceptable. Violence is, of course, a major issue, especially considering Sophie’s self-harm and her father’s abuse, but is not dwelt on too long to be acceptable by the standards of the BBFC. These considerations in mind, we are targeting our film at a young adult, over-fifteen, female audience.

5. How did you attract or address your target audience?

To make it most appropriate for our target audience, we considered the conventions of a melodrama. As women have always been the target for this genre, we thought that by using these conventions, we could make it more appealing to the female audience. We used music to enhance the audience’s understanding of the narrative, creating an effect of continuity and consequently suggesting that the events of the sequence are an everyday occurrence, and to establish Sophie’s emotions. We created a situation in which social pressures prevent her from acting on her situation, by placing her within the demanding world of living up to parental, educational and social expectations – this appeals to our audience especially, as it is still felt in some circles that women are not treated equally, and are still expected generally to be involved in the “softer” jobs, such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children.
Using these conventions, we were able to create an effective opening sequence which would enable us to attract the audience we would be targeting.
Another way in which we addressed the target audience was by gaining audience feedback and making changes to suit this. We were told that it would be better to remove the first minute, which showed the credits on a background of several shots of Sophie writing in her diary, followed by a scene in which she almost self-harms, but is interrupted. After consideration of these responses, we agreed that the shots of writing did go on for too long, and that the first scene was not an appropriate opening, so we cut it out, thus preventing the drag of the film and getting straight into the story. The audience agreed that this was much better than the original.

Evaluation (Part 1)

1. How does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

The use of an opening sequence in the creation of a film is generally to introduce the main themes and characters, setting, genre and narrative. In our opening sequence, we create a melodramatic tone, demonstrating the negativity surrounding Sophie, our main character, in her everyday life. We allow the audience to see Sophie's solid depression, her interaction with her parents, and her need for solitude and control, neither of which she seems able to get.

The main characters are established immediately - Sophie, a teenage girl suffering from depression; her mother, a quiet woman who doesn't really understand what's going on, and her father, a man used to being in charge, and frustrated by his lack of understanding and control concerning Sophie.

The setting is established with little doubt - costumes, accents, attitudes and general mise-en-scene clearly show the film to be set in modern-day England.

Conventions of the melodramatic genre are threaded throughout the opening sequence. Sophie feels pressurised to behave in a certain way, to be happy with what she has, to achieve certain things, to enjoy her life. However, she feels incapable of this and cannot act on her situation. Consequently, the catharsis is a masochistic inner conflict, rather than a confrontation between several characters. The characters are fairly two-dimensional and can be categorised into "Good and Evil, Innocence and Villainy" (Elsaesser). Therefore, to make the characters more relatable, they must be juxtaposed to create clashes between the characters and contexts. The melodramatic genre is often on the side of the victim - those in power (usually male) to be considered evil, and the oppressed (female) to be good.

The narrative is introduced in the opening sequence to be a small-scale story - personal rather than public. The characters are ordinary people, and are placed in a situation which might also be considered as fairly normal. The audience immediately know that the story is about the consequences of leaving depression untreated, and are drawn in by a compassion for Sophie, and a curiosity to find out how she deals with her depression.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Refer to Character Representation Analysis.

The main character in this film is similar to the target audience, thus allowing for them to identify with her. Sophie is a British girl, about fourteen or fifteen years old, living a normal, everyday life. She goes to school, lives with her parents, and has the same struggles as everyone else. However, she is also suffering from depression, and is consequently, albeit inadvertently, victimised by her parents, her peers, and herself. The catharsis of a melodrama such as this is, rather than a physical confrontation between multiple characters, an inner conflict of the protagonist. Sophie's inner conflict is her depression, and her personal catharsis demonstrates the social group of teenage girls as victims, with a lack of control over their own lives, and struggling to deal with the overwhelming turmoil of emotion alone.

Parents of teenage girls are also represented in a specific way in the film. Sophie's parents are the main example of this, and show how dangerous a lack of understanding can be. They don't understand exactly what she is going through, and cannot emotionally support her. They make mistakes that lead to Sophie feeling alienated and alone, and don't make quite enough of an effort to comprehend what she is going through. They demonstrate the significance of parents in the lives of their children, and are a clear representation of how important it is to get things right. Also, we would later in the film show Sophie’s father as an abuser. He puts his own sexual needs first, with no consideration for the feelings of the other characters.

...

It's finished...

We've finally finished the opening sequence. Our first version was too long, so we're having to cut it down, but it should be done very soon. I'm a member of a large online writers' community, and have asked four friends from that community, who I know to be excellent and detailed reviewers, and who are moderators on the forums - thus proving trustworthy in the eyes of the actors, who had concerns - to give audience feedback. I have uploaded the film here, onto an encrypted page, so that the only people who can view it are those we send the link to.

Credits

Because of the difficulties in filming, we decided that instead of putting the credits into the start of the diary, we would edit them in afterwards. The credits we are using are:

Starring Lucy Formby
Directed by Kayleigh Protheroe and Ruth Halliday
Produced by Samantha Protheroe and Lucy Formby
Music by Lucy Formby and Chris Formby

Research

As the focus of our opening sequence is depression and abuse, we looked at several charities to help us develop and understand the characters and storyline:

The Mood Foundation is a charity set up by a former sufferer of depression, to try and find the best treatment for individual sufferers, and to help them pay for it. Mood has many facts and statistics about depression on its homepage, and we were able to use them to help us develop our film and main character.

Mind exists to help people deal with their mental health problems. It helped us develop our story and characters by providing information about charities.

Women's Aid is centered on domestic violence and the protection of women and children living with abusers.

Beat is focused on eating disorders - a major aspect of Sophie's depression.

The information we learned from all these charities was very helpful in developing our storyline and the character of Sophie.

Storyboard and Shooting Script

From the storyboard shown above, I wrote this script over the weekend, and it still needs a little work but in general it covers what we need to show in the film.

SOPHIE (V.O., THROUGHOUT)

(Various words picked out from the diary, finishing with
“And I just feel so alone”.)

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie walks into her bedroom and sits at the desk. She opens the diary, which has the title “Welcome to MY World” on the cover, and flicks through several pages, which contain the credits and the first page of writing.

INT. BATHROOM – EARLY EVENING

Sophie is sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, holding an open pair of scissors to her arm, preparing to cut herself. She hesitates, then closes the scissors, putting them down on the edge of the sink.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie turns the page of her diary and picks up the scissors on her desk with her left hand, looks at them, and puts them back again.

INT. DINING ROOM – EARLY EVENING

Sophie is sitting at the table at dinner with her parents. She is not eating; instead pushing the food around on her plate.

FATHER
Sophie, eat your dinner.

SOPHIE
I'm not hungry.

FATHER
I don't care if you're hungry or not, eat it!

MOTHER
Just eat it, sweetheart.

SOPHIE
I'm not hungry!

Sophie gets up to leave.

FATHER
Sit down and eat it.

Sophie runs out of the room.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie looks down at her right hand, wrapped in a bandage. She pulls down her sleeve to cover it, and turns another page of her diary.

INT. BATHROOM – EARLY EVENING

Sophie slits her right wrist.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie's tears fall on the diary and smudge the ink.

EXT. SCHOOL PLAYGROUND – LUNCH

Sophie is leaning against a wall, standing with a group of friends, who are talking amongst themselves. None of them speaks to Sophie.

EXT. SCHOOL PLAYGROUND – EARLY AFTERNOON

Sophie is still where she was earlier, but the playground is now empty. Sophie pushes herself up and walks across the empty playground to the gates.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie gets up and walks to her bed, lifts a sheet and takes a bottle of alcohol. There are several other bottles, full and empty, under the bed. Sophie walks back to the desk, opens the bottle, and drinks. She turns another page of the diary.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT (ALT #1)

Sophie is lying on her bed, face down, screaming into her pillow.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT (ALT #2)

Sophie is lying face down on her bed, crying.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie turns another page of the diary, and removes a plaster from her arm. Blood drips onto the diary. She puts the plaster back on.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

Sophie's father is standing in the doorway to her bedroom. Sophie is sat on the bed, duvet pulled around her, looking scared.

INT. BEDROOM – LATE EVENING

Sophie closes the diary, turns off the light, and gets into bed. She lies awake, staring at the ceiling.

Start of film

Props

For our film sequence, we will be using many props to help us create an effective opening.

The scene that connects the sequence is Sophie sitting at her desk, writing in her diary. The diary is an effective tool which creates a further insight into the way Sophie sees the world, and serves to pull together seperate incidents in the confusion of her mind.

One important scene in the opening sequence is that in which Sophie self-harms. She uses scissors to cut into her wrist, and they serve as a significant prop, only used very briefly, but with a huge effect both on the character and the audience.

Another similarly significant scene is the one in which Sophie and her parents eat. The main props are the cutlery, plates and food - Sophie doesn't eat, creating a greater image of the depression from which she is suffering.

In the scene in which Sophie contemplates suicide, we use the television remote, and the paracetamol she takes in an attempt at killing herself.

In all, the props help shape the story and enhance clarity throughout. They serve a significant and necessary part in the sequence, making things easier for the actors and filling the important plot points.

180° Rule

This image (left) shows the 180° Rule and how to follow it when filming. It means that, when you have two characters in conversation, you cannot cross the straight line between them without showing the camera move across, because this would seemingly switch their

positions in the shot. If the 180° rule is broken, we have this problem (right). The characters have switched places on-screen and the visual effect is ruined.



Another time where the 180° rule is important is with one character, who is moving. If the 180° line is drawn in the direction the character is moving, this problem is avoided (right). The character in this image appears to have switched direction.

Character representation analysis

Our main character is Sophie, a 14-year-old girl who suffers from depression. To deal with her emotions, Sophie has turned to self-harm to distract from the emotional pain of her life. She is representative of the depressed, and is used to demonstrate the cost of leaving illnesses such as this untreated. Throughout the film, the audience would see Sophie getting worse and worse, leading to tragic consequences.

Sophie's father is an irritable, easily angered character. He is unsure of how best to handle his daughter, and is infuriated by his lack of control. He cares about his family but expects everything to run smoothly and can't understand when it doesn't. He retreats to anger when things don't work, rather than sitting down and talking them through. He represents the people who don't understand, or make any real attempt to understand, the seriousness of depression.

Sophie's mother is a quiet, gentle woman who isn't really sure what's going on. She understands her husband's anger, and sides with him in most arguments, but tries to keep the peace, and is incapable of shouting. She is representative of the people who aren't aware of what's going on, and don't see the obvious when it's happening right in front of them.

Location report

This is the desk where Sophie writes her diary, used in several scenes throughout the opening sequence, serving as a connection between the different scenes. Sophie's diary is significant because it gives the audience another form of insight into her emotions, and draws all the events of the sequence together.

Sophie runs up these stairs after an argument with her parents over dinner. This creates a physical barrier between her, upstairs, and her parents, downstairs, allowing her to run to her bed (below) and cry, feeling safer and more secure with the separation.

Music

We considered several songs for our film - including Martina McBride's Concrete Angel, Kelly Clarkson's Low, and Relient K's Be My Escape. The lyrics for the last song suited the film best, but the music was completely wrong, so we thought about getting the musical score, having Lucy play it on piano, and have a friend of ours sing it, because this would give us much better control over the speed of the whole thing where it was really far too upbeat for a melodramatic, saddening film; we could edit the lyrics where necessary - the first verse on its own would have been better suited to what we needed; and our friend's voice suited the whole thing much better than the vocals of Relient K, whose members are all male and enthusiastic.

We also considered using a more oxymoronic song - for example, Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

Eventually, we made the descision to have Lucy and her brother compose and play a piece for us. We are using this and an extract from Leona Lewis' Homeless in the final piece.

Positions and Crediting

Because I plan to do the credits in the same format as the title, I need to limit each position to one page so that I don't wind up using too much paper. So I've been thinking about the positions that need to be accredited and we think that this just about covers it:

1. Writer
2. Director
3. Actors
4. Camera Operators
5. Costume Manager
6. Prop Manager
7. Make-up
8. Sound
9. Special Effects

We haven't made all the decisions about who will be doing what here. Lucy is an actor and will be playing the main character, and we are considering further actors to play the parents; I am a writer and intend to write the script as soon as we have completed the storyboard. Any further than this, we are not sure what everyone's strengths are, and we prefer to wait to allocate these positions to the people who suit them best.

Preparations

We've been planning the coursework film, which is supposed to be the opening four minutes of a feature-length film, and we now have a good idea of what we want to do.

The film is going to be a melodramatic piece, with a focus on the main character, a depressive, abused teenage girl. At the moment the idea is to tell the end of her story at the beginning - with her writing in a diary, picking out certain words such as "slashing", and other words with similar connotations. We will add flashbacks in to show the events related to those words actually occuring.

I've been learning calligraphy for a couple of months, and we thought that some styles might suit the opening page of the diary. We tried these styles:

This style was nice, but it didn't suit the diary cover for a manic depressive teenage girl, which is what we needed. This was much too old-fashioned and we decided that it was the least suitable for what we needed. The style is also complex and to get it exactly right I would probably have had to go through several pages, leaving much less space for the credits and the actual diary.


We also quite liked this style, but it was far too fancy and flourished for our tragically abused character. It, too, would have taken several sheets to get it completely right.

We also liked this. However, there is no way of differentiating the "my" as the font has no capital/lower case options - just this one format. Also, in calligraphy, the height of the letters is measured in "nib-widths" - and as I had to use my largest nib for this so that the titles were big enough to read, I couldn't make the "my" larger.

The last two styles were difficult to choose between. Originally, most of us preferred this, because the other was much more basic. This style is decorative and yet not complicated - it still looks simple enough to suit the character without being boring or difficult for me to get right. However, the main feature of the font is the loops on the capitals - see "W" and "Y" - and we didn't like this at all. Eventually, and after a very long discussion, we decided to use the other font.

This is what we eventually chose. The font is basic, but effective, and has no real defects. Because of its simplicity, I can easily get the title finished on one page - and I can do the credits in calligraphy as well, as we are planning to incorporate these into the diary. This should look excellent and work towards the effectiveness of the piece as a whole.

The Preliminary Film

We finished editing this yesterday and today managed to save it in the right format, which did take some time, but here it is... and we are rather proud of it, and although there were a few disagreements about what we should do with it, we have now reached a conclusion which we are all happy with.

This took about 15-20 minutes of filming, spread out over several hours in two days, but we feel that this is a good result and worth the extra effort. Having made this piece successfully, we now feel much more comfortable with every stage of the production process, and will be much better prepared for the actual coursework piece.

The Preliminary Film

This is the original storyboard for our preliminary film:

It shows the original sequence we had planned for how the film was going to work. We just finished editing the film, and later on, it will be uploaded.

When filming, we had a lot of difficulties to overcome. We had to keep within the 180° Rule, which meant we were limited by what angles were available. As the corridor was too narrow for us to show the camera moving past the two characters, we couldn't shoot anything from the other side, which meant that we had to sacrifice the use of some angles which we would have liked to use. However, we were able to complete the film and have now successfully made it work as an effective piece.

Filming the Preliminary Piece

Saturday: So, yesterday we filmed most of our preliminary piece.

We had to find an appropriate place to film, which didn't take long, as there is an old, mostly disused block in our school which we found had the right atmosphere for the film once the lights were turned off. Actually, since we put the compulsory table and chairsunder a skylight so that we could see the characters in the film, we found it was too bright, but if we moved them away it would be too dark, so we will have to add an effect on afterwards, which we hope won't be too hard. We filmed most of the sequence, only one essential part missing as we ran out of time, so we will finish filming on Monday. For the sake of continuity the actors will bring in the clothes they were wearing yesterday, so that they don't suddenly change clothes half-way through the film.


We filmed out of sequence, so as to make the process simpler, and started with the main conversation, during which the two main characters are both sat at the table. Then we filmed the opening, in which the first character gets up and bumps into the second as she tries to leave, and they both sit down. Finally, we filmed the corridor - empty, and with the third character, who discovers the apparently illegal meeting, standing in the corridor. We still have to film the incriminating speech - "If you tell anybody about this, I will kill you" - that is shown between the two shots of the corridor. This should only take a few minutes, and the editing should also be done by the end of the day.

Monday: We tried to get the footage onto the computer today - we failed, because the camera ran out of battery, but at least we understand how to do it all now. It took Sam and me at least a quarter of an hour to work out how to use the Vegas program. Now we understand, the footage shouldn't be too hard to sift through.

Good times.

It starts...

So I'm starting from here. We're just about to make a preliminary film which will be nothing more interesting than a conversation, lasting about 20 seconds. It seems a bit pointless but I can see where it's coming from, that we have to be able to make a film before we try to do the real thing. The idea is that we can get used to using a camera to make a film and that just means we have to practice, really. We're struggling to find the time when we can all get involved because we have different free periods and live far apart, and we want to try and get it done when there are less people around. So it looks like we'll have to use the lesson-time, which isn't so bad except it's limiting us and could be a little problematic. Still, we don't really have much choice so we'll have to go with what we've got. It doesn't look like it'll cause too many problems.


We've done quite a lot of research, studied a few films, and we're beginning to get the idea of what we're going to do. We've just scripted and storyboarded our preliminary piece. It is going to be very simple with three characters - two are discussing something that seems to be illegal and the third overhears them. We will be filming the start in the dark, which has atmospherical advantages, but it means we have to time it just right so that the amount of daylight is enough that the audience can see the action, but not so much that it defeats the objective of the action of turning on the light half-way through.

The first character we see is nervous, sitting alone in an interview room - we will be using the school to film, although the piece isn't necessarily set in a school (it is part of the mystery that the audience doesn't know exactly where it is set). She glances at her watch and gets up to leave, bumping into the second, who is much more threatening - she is the one who arranged this meeting. She seems to think that the first is backing out, and acts particularly threateningly to keep her in. They sit down together - a little more threatening is added in for good measure - and the light switches on, apparently by itself. They get up and look down the corridor, which is empty. Turning back, the second tells the first, "If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you." Then, sensing something, they both turn slowly - and see a man standing there, watching them accusingly.

Which should be fun to shoot, just as soon as we can act it out without laughing. We can get a teacher to play the part of the third character, and we can shoot that bit first so that he doesn't have to stay long. He's only in that one shot and nobody else is, and the lighting can be all artificial so the daylight doesn't cause any continuity issues.

So, with any luck, it should go okay. We've had to make amendments already to fit the criteria - we were going to film it in a corridor in the school (where there happens to be a convenient staircase located across from a classroom, which would have been handy because the actor playing the malicious character is shorter than the more innocent one, and we wanted to do POV angles while making the "evil" seem larger and more threatening physically), until we realised the characters had to sit down.That wasn't what we'd hoped for, but it wasn't too hard to develop the script to suit the new criteria, so no harm done, as it were.

Introduction

This, apparently, is my research blog for my AS Media coursework. In the next few months, my group will be working to create an opening sequence to a film. We have recently been looking at the openings to different films, considering how they are created in reference to these specific areas:

1. Mise-en-scene

2. Camera Angles, Shots and Movement

3. Sound

4. Editing

The main films we have studied are Dirty Harry, The Usual Suspects and Seven.

We will be incorporating our understanding of the main four areas into the making of our coursework film.

And that about covers my introduction, so that'll be all for now. Ta-ta!