Sheryl Teather - 3200

Evaluation

  

Feedback on Finished Production

After my production was completely finished I gathered feedback from all of my classmates to find out what they thought the successes were, what generic features I used, the narrative elements used and the audience pleasures (uses/theory).

Successes:
• audio – breathing/heartbeat/pulse
• flashes/fades at start
• music – coincidence done well
• effective transitions – flashes/fades
• menu – bloopers & trailer
• the beat on the flashes/fades to black
• good mise-en-scene
• CCTV editing
• good shots
• genre
• clinking of the chains
• cuts

Generc Features:
• action/crime/thriller genre
• titles were effective – worked well to slow & contrast from the fast paced action – fits well to genre
• coming soon
• web address
• fast paced shots
• good use of bad villains

Narrative Elements:
• character distinctions through costume; protagonist/antagonist
• characters worked well & costumes good signifiers or character types
• distinctive who is the villain through clothing
• intense beginning
• good questions – “what would you do?”

Audience Pleasures (uses/theory):
• escapism
• identify with the characters (identification)
• Aimed at teenage group
• Enigma
• Social interaction with characters

My Finished Production

Screenshot of My Film Poster

Sketches of My Film Poster

Conventions of Film Posters

  

Screenshot of My DVD Cover

Screenshot of My Magazine Cover

Finished Website

Click here to enter website

Screenshots of My Website

Sketches of My DVD Cover

Conventions of DVD Covers

  

Sketches of My Magazine Cover

Conventions of Film Magazine Covers

  

Template for My Website

As well as looking at the big-budget Hollywood films, I have looked at some low-budget UK film websites to get inspiration for my own website. Below is one of the websites I thought I could aspects of to create my own website.

Sketches of My Film Website

The sketches above are based on the websites for 'Green Zone', 'Case 39' and 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

Conventions of Film Websites

  

Critical Perspectives

I have already talked about how I used intertextuality within my production, but there are also some other conventions of postmodernism that I used.

There is a fragmented narrative with both the woman and man's life being shown at different times. Also, it starts off with the ending and then shows the lead up to it, with the man already tied up in chains in the beginning and then being shown how he was taken as the trailer progresses.

Another feature I used is multiple conflicting identities, with the woman the victim but also the hero as she is the one that is able to save the man.

Results from Trailer Questionnaire

  

More Feedback

After gathering my other feedback I made some changes to my production and decided that I needed to reach a wider demographic to get feedback as the target audience includes different ages.

To do this I decided to put my teaser trailer onto YouTube, gather some feedback and make some final changes to my production. I had my trailer up on YouTube for about a month and although people had watched it, no one had commented on it.

So I have decided to create a questionnaire about my teaser trailer and give it to people of various ages after they have watched my trailer, and then make some final changes according to the results.

Intertextuality in My Production

Intertextuality in texts is where one text borrows and transforms factors from a previous text, this is associated with postmodernism.
There are many examples of this, like the spoof genre, this uses the conventions, characters and narratives of existing films and creates pastiches ('Epic Movie', 'Date Movie', 'Scary Movie' etc.)
One of the most common texts which many people have borrowed ideas from is Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' which in turn created 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'Twilight', 'Vampire Diaries' and many more.

In my production I have borrowed factors from 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Mission Impossible 3', and 'Taken'. The idea that I used in 'Taken' was the kidnapping, however I changed the woman getting taken to the man getting taken. The same idea of the kidnapping was used from 'Mission Impossible 3'. The idea that I borrowed from 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' is the criminal side of things and the way the criminals act. I think looking at and using different aspects from various texts has made my production look more professional and seem more realistic

Feedback from Rough Cut

Here is the feedback which I gathered after showing the first draft of my teaser trailer to my classmates.

· Add institutions at the beginning
· Look at the conventions of the coming soon title to make it more realistic
· Maybe include voice over on the titles
· Add music, maybe different pieces for the shots of the man and woman
· Add in a new scream as it doesn't sound realistic
· Add CCTV recording symbol, so is clear to the audience what it is showing
· When man screams add music of a violin maybe, so makes it more intense for the audience
· Add music when the woman talks to show her fear
· Maybe have more heartbeats or thumps on the transitions

The things that they liked about my rough cut were:

· The heartbeat for the transition
· The black and white camera shot for the CCTV
· The titles
· Mise-en-scene of the villains gives a clear representation because of their outfits
· The tilted camera shot of the wheels driving off, because it puts the audience in the scene
· Good forms and conventions
· My idea of having the music looped/repeated, because it will show that the man is trapped

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing would be a good idea to help promote my film; this is because people my age spend lots of time on social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube.
One of the films that done this was Cloverfield. Each of the characters had MySpace pages, to advertise the film. All the characters last logged onto them on January 18, 2008 - the release date of the film.

The teaser trailer didn't feature the name of the film - this led to a great deal of blog discussions, this led to yet more online fans. When the theatrical trailer was released it featured a film website leading to the lead characters social networking pages, an important element in building up a postmodern sense of the reality of the user-generated fiction.

Also, on the main Cloverfield website a widget was offered to web visitors that embedded the opening of the film into the users own social networking page. A range of extratextual games and video-blogs appeared that are related to the characters. Both of these things attracted more fans on the Internet.

Exhibition

One of the ways that I could exhibit my film would be to contact and show it at the film festival in Southend. Unfortunately I can’t find out any more information on the festival as on the website it says coming soon in 2010. So if I was interested in exhibiting my film there I would have to keep checking for when the website is up and running. I contacted one of the organisers of the festival and I will not be able to enter into this festival because you need to live or study in the districts of Southend-on-Sea, Rochford or Castle Point.

Another festival that I could have entered into would have been the European Film Festival hosted in Essex. The requirements are: film must have been completed after January 1, 2005, must be in English or subtitled in English and must not have had any commercial theatrical play in the EU. Unfortunately, the final deadline for entering into this festival was September 5, 2009. I would have to keep looking on the website to see if the festival comes to Essex again next year and enter then.

An exhibition that I would be able to enter is the Aesthetica Short film competition. The enter requirements are: the film has to be less than 20 minutes long, English or with English subtitles, to be submitted by DVD and have to include Director’s name, country of production and running time. However, in order to enter the competition you have to pay a fee of £15.

Distribution

One of the local companies that I may be able to get distribution from is Shorts International. They distribute new short films, and have different outlets such as an ever-expanding TV network, iTunes distribution and over ninety partners worldwide. To apply I would have to download and complete a form a send either a DVD of VHS copy of my film. If my film is selected they would send a licence agreement to me that requires exclusive rights over the licensing period and a detailed breakdown of the delivery materials that they require.

I will use this information in my own promotional campaign by adding credit on to my poster that I will make to advertise my film.

Funding

There are ranges of organisations that offer funding to filmmakers. I could apply for funding from the Small Awards Fund from Screen East. They can offer up to £500 for individuals. My application wouldn’t have to be completed and sent off at any particular time as long as the application gets to them 10-15 working days before the project begins. To apply I would have to complete and send two copies of the Small Awards application form, along with two copies of a relevant CV, detailed project budget, as well as any marketing materials or course materials related to the project.

I could also apply for Short Film Completion Fund from the UK Film Council. This would give me funding for a short film (less than 12 minutes), I would have to ensure the film does not extend this time length, is available to view on DVD, has main elements (producer, writer, director, location and story) which are substantially British in nature. I would have to apply by 30th November 2009 and the film would have to be completed by 2010.

Another company that I could apply for funding would be First Light. I would apply for The Young Film Fund, which is for 5 to 19 year olds. There are three types of funding that you can apply for in this section the one that applies to me is the Pilot Grant. This offers funding for one short film of up to five minutes in duration, maximum grant of £5,000 and 20% match funding requirement. I would have to get my application into them by 19th January 2010 and the decisions would be announced 2nd March 2010.

I also contacted Arts Council England but they were unable to offer me funding. Along with the Big Lottery Fund as they don’t offer one-off donations to individuals.

Music

As the music needs to be non-copy righted I needed to find some original music. I know a boy in a band so asked him if he had any music that I could use for my production. He said that he would be willing to create a music track for me. I gave him ideas of what I wanted the music to be like and he agreed to make and record one for me.

Unfortunately, the person who was going to create the non-copy righted music for me was unable to do it due to coursework deadlines that he had. This resulted in me having to find the music myself. I searched several websites that had non-copy righted music on them and found two tracks that would suit my teaser trailer on www.unsignedbandweb.com. I also needed to find some suitable sound effects as the ones which I recorded weren't to a very high standard, I found these on www.freesound.org.

The Shoot

The people that I was going to use for my production were Jamie, Reece, Ryan and Ryan’s girlfriend Charlotte. However, a couple of days before the shoot Ryan split up with his girlfriend and therefore I was unable to use her in my production. I had trouble finding someone suitable for the role but eventually found someone – my sister Hannah – who was willing to do it in time for the shoot.

The shoot at the final location went well. The only problem was that there was a lot of rain, so we had to wait until it had stopped so we could film the outside scenes. The props worked well in the scenes and made them look more realistic for the viewers. The only problem with the costumes were that Hannah had the wrong type of shoes so we had to find different ones that were suitable and also Ryan didn’t have a white t-shirt, only a light blue one but it looks white on the camera. One of the shots that was difficult to get was the aerial shot as I didn’t have anything to stand on, I had to climb up a ladder which isn’t as high as I would have liked the shot to have been but once I include the time stamp and recording symbol onto the shot it should look like a security camera. Another problem was for certain shots such as the aerial and low level shots I was unable to use a tripod, so had to make sure that the camera was kept steady and was leaning against something to get a steady shot.

Time Management Log

25th October 2009:
Location: Westminster, London
Filmed: Outside the Royal Court of Justice
Cast: None

26th October 2009:
Location: Essex Police Museum - Chelmsford, Essex
Filmed: Witness box
Cast - None

14th November 2009:
Location: Wickford, Essex
Filmed: All the rest
Cast: All

Casting

· Ryan Thacker - Man
· Reece Price - Criminal 1
· Jamie Barrett - Criminal 2 and 3 - couldn't find another suitable male for the role so will use him for two characters, won't matter because in one scene he will be wearing a mask so the audience won't be confused with what is happening
· Charlotte Tyler - Woman

Mood Board

Possible Locations

Scene 1:
· Inside of garage

Scene 2:
· I contacted Basildon court and was not allowed to film in the courtroom
· Essex police museum in Chelmsford?
· Outside of a court in London?

Scene 3:
· Outside of garage against brick wall

Scene 4:
· Outside Southminster library?
· Outside of court up London?

Scene 5:
· Inside of garage
· In house (doorway)?

For the first scene of my teaser trailer I needed a dark room with low-key lighting and brick work. I thought of a range of different locations for this scene but settled on using my Aunt’s garage, as this fit the description.
For the seconds scene I needed the inside of a courtroom. I contacted some local courts but they said I was unable to film inside the courtrooms. I then contacted the Essex Police Museum; they have a witness box set up so that would be a good thing to set a shot of – they said it would be fine for me to film inside the museum.
For the third scene I was originally going to use an office but couldn’t think of anywhere that would be available to use. I then decided it would be better to use the outside of the garage of the first scene where there is a brick wall. I thought this would be a good idea as it would then be easier to get the aerial shot as there are lots of things higher up where I could gain access to.
For the forth scene I needed the outside of a court, I’m either going to film the outside of the library in Southminster which used to be a police place. Or go up to London and film outside one of the courts.
For the fifth and final scene I needed a dark room with a doorway in it. I decided to film it inside the garage again and then switch and film the doorway inside someone’s house and make them look like they are in the same place.
One of the things that I need to ensure is that the weather is the same throughout the entire film. I need to be aware of the daylight fading to will need to complete certain scenes quickly - the ones that are filmed inside the garage doesn't matter as much as you won't see the daylight.

Possible Props

The props that I need for my teaser trailer are a pair of black gloves which I managed to borrow. I also needed to have two balaclavas I managed to get hold of one easily but had trouble finding where I could get another one from; I ended up buying the other one from Camden market, London. I may need a gavel to make my courtroom scene realistic and I have found one on the Internet for little money which I would be able to buy if necessary - after much consideration I decided that the use of a gavel would not be needed. I also needed a briefcase for the woman to hold – I will see if I can borrow one, buy one or if neither of those is possible just use a normal hand bag. The last prop that I needed was some chains which I borrowed off my dad as he had some in his garage.

Possible Costumes

I found all of the images above on the Internet; this was to give me an idea of what possible costumes I need for my teaser trailer. For my female protagonist, I wanted her to look smart and professional yet stylish. So I decided to go for a monochrome look with a pencil skirt and white blouse – as this would be suitable for her job role. I also wanted minimal make up and a smart up-do with her hair.
The male lead needed to look casual and when he is tied up he needs to look dirty so I may make the white t-shirt look dirty and ripped so that the scene looks more realistic. He will look slightly smarter in the 3rd scene as that is before he is kidnapped. The effect of a white t-shirt is also to symbolise that he is a protagonist in the film.
The criminals in the teaser trailer needed to be dressed all in black symbolising that they are the antagonists. The ones that kidnap the man will be wearing balaclavas so that their identity can be kept a secret from both the man and the audience – and making them look scarier. The one in the room, who takes the woman, won’t have a mask and will be dressed slightly more smartly; this is so that he looks like the leader of the gang. He will also be wearing black gloves when he takes the woman so that the audience are aware that he is a bad guy.
The use of the costumes for the various characters should help to express Propp's character theory to the audience and so that they can have a better understand of what role each of the characters have.

Script

Scene 5:

Man:
"You're gonna do what you're told to do"

Woman:
"What do you want with me?"

Man:
"If you wanna see him again you'll do it"

Criminal:
“We’ve got him”

Photographed Storyboard