Pitt's Media Blog

Evaluation

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:48:51 +0000

Opening Sequence Feedback and Analysis.

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:47:48 +0000

I showed my opening sequence to a group of 5 people who all agreed on one thing to my dissapointment. The voiceover wasn’t long enough, didn’t give enough information, and wasn’t typical of the genre. I didn’t want the voiceover to be typically social realist, as the story had adapted to being a story of a man who’d lost it all, and therefore didn’t need a distinct accent of a working class man. However, the first two points I began to agree with after watching it through. There were also issues with the soundtrack, as I didn’t feel it fit well enough to my storyline. It wasn’t fast paced enough and didn’t fit the mood as well as I’d hoped. There were also issues with some of my match on action in terms of the protagonist falling at the beginning. Aside from that though, I was happy with the sequence. I felt the titles added to the atmospher by being cut in instead, and overall the work has been a reasonable success. My evaluation is to follow.

Final Opening Sequence

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:33:46 +0000

Editing

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:31:37 +0000

The editing process started with me deciding which shots to include, which not to, and where to cut in and out of each shot. This went well, and I had a decent amount of footage to use. However, I noticed that by having to use different parts of each shot to create a whole shot of the standard required, I would struggle to avoid some continuity errors, especially in the opening seconds which involved the protagonist to fall down. I decided that because I was missing shots that I’d have wished from my animatic, I would use shots I’d taken from different angles to extend the time of my sequence. I also decided that instead of having the titles run below during the opening shots, I would have them pop up seperately to take up more time. Once I’d placed my shots and titles in the order I wished, I began to work on transitions between the shots. The transitions were generally kept in the order and choices that I made during the animatic process. However, with some shots missing, I had to make decisions as to which transitions to make between new shots being placed in a new order. In terms of sound, I had to adjust my soundtrack to the new timings of the shot transitions. I also decided to slightly adjust my soundtrack at the opening, with some music included in the opening shots. This took time sort out, as I had to be precise witht he times of shots, and the times of the soundtrack. The main change I made however, came in terms of the soundtrack. After talking over how my actor felt about the opening sequence, he (also a media student) told me that I should keep the voiceover to only a section of the sequence and not throughout. Therefore I decided to only include about 20 seconds of voiceover after the main title. These changes I made led me to believe that my opening was of the highest standard I could achive under the circumstances.

Filming

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:14:09 +0000

Filming, unfortunately, didn’t go to plan. Only one of my actors could make it in the end, so I adjusted my original plans to include the same shots that I could, and just extend them. I felt I wasn’t properly planned for the situation, and therefore many of my shots had to be taken multiple times. Some shots, which involved another character, had to scrapped due to this, which meant I didn’t stick to my animatic as thouroughly as I’d hoped. However, I feel that the shots I did take were as I’d hoped. I decided that by my protagonist having a cigarette during some of my filming it would add to the aspect of depression, as a cigarette is often a symbol of these themes. I feel that given the circumstances filming went as best as I could manage, and therefore was confident going into editing.

Audience Reaserch post Animatic

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:42:18 +0000

After posting the animatic I got 8 people from my target audience to have a look at it. Having listened to what they had to say, a popular thought was that drug references should be lost, as the appeal of a man who’s lost all from his life would be more popular. I therefore decided when filming to not include drugs in shots and to instead have the protagonist homeless and having lost it all through a previous addiction to drugs.

Animatic Explained

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:37:57 +0000

Through my audience research and the synopsis I posted before, I decided my storyboard and therefore animatic would follow the synopsis exactly. I decided at the beginning to have a more calm focussed approach. The aim of my opening shots would be to build tension before the opening, while running the titles below as this would fill a less dramatic scene. This would follow the example of ‘Control’ as a thought provoking opening. After the title of the film, which fit the synopsis that I laid out before, it would continue to a voiceover to introduce the character and give an indication as to what the film would be about. I chose close up shots at the beginning to show detail of struggle on the protagonists face. Afterward the tracking shots would show a progression through the stages of the day in the protagonists life. The flashbacks would also give an insight to the characters mental state. These were the primary decisions through my storyboarding.

Animatic

hornetcp — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:25:35 +0000

Developing Ideas – Locations

hornetcp — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:51:55 +0000

This location would be a fitting location for a social realist film as it’s a fairly run down and uncared for road, which would fit location conventions of a social realist film.

This location also fit’s the mould as it’s run down, unmaintained. but is also dimly lit, which would be perfect for a Social Realist film.

This alleyway is also dimly lit, but has the advantage of graffiti on the walls which also add elements of a working class environment.

These were the three main locations I considered for filming as they covered many social realist conventions.

Developing ideas for props

hornetcp — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:32:35 +0000

In terms of my original synopsis idea, very few props would be needed. In theory, if my character was very casually dressed or in old tattered clothes then props would be unneeded for my opening sequence, especially with the plans I have in my mind for the opening sequence. This is similar to many social realist films, such as control, where cigarettes are the only props seemingly used.