Feedback and Comparrison

After completion of my coursework task, we all sat in the class and watched each others videos. After these screenings, we filled out certain criteria for each film and gave it a mark out of 5. To gain this feedback from my viewers, i created a questionaire (which i posted on this blog).

When i recieved the feedback i took everything into consideration. It was commonly stated that the storyline was confusing and blurry. I feel this is because certain parts of the footage were unable to be used due to the 2 minute time limit. However I had a lot of positive feedback from my target audience saying that the opening credits of the film. I am very pleased by this as I feel that the credits are the best part of my film, the part which I like the most.

 

Many people also said that one of their favourite shots of the film was one of the last shots, where the camera is on the ground and Nick is seen running away in the background, whilst the camera shows a picture of Sam on the LCD screen. However, people said that there wasn’t enough dialogue in the film, and that there needed to be more when the reach the chicken shed rather than walking straight in without saying a word. Looking back at the film after people had said this, I feel the same, as it is a little bit too quiet as they enter the shed.

 

Looking back at my film opening I feel that at the start of this course, I was very naïve. During this task I feel that I attempted to tell a whole story in the 2 minute time limit, rather than just the opening to a film. This is what I feel let my product down the most, as it took its toll on the storyline, which now, doesn’t fully make sense, and that is what lets my finished product down the most.

Feedback questionaire

Here is a copy of my questionaire i used for people to respond to my video.

 

Exposure – Feedback

 

 

1. Are the credits effective, are they too short/long?

 

 

 

 

 

2. Is the storyline confusing, if so, what could be added to make it make sense?

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Is the genre clear during the film?

 

 

 

 

 

4. How does the setting of the film help to establish the genre of the film?

 

 

 

 

 

5. Which is your favourite shot of the film? (excluding the credits)

 

 

 

 

6. Are there any shots which are particularly bad?

 

 

 

 

 

7. How does the script help work with the film? Is there too little or too much?

 

 

 

 

8. Finally, did you enjoy it? What could have been done to make it better?

 

 

 

Thanks for answering this questionnaire.

Planning my film

After this stage of developing a strong storyline in which I had chosen to stick to, I then had the task of choosing the setting, the actors, props (if there were to be any) and script.
 
As the film genre is a thriller, I didn’t want to have much dialogue in the opening 2 minute clip as I was aiming to build up the suspense of the viewer, and in the thrillers I had researched and the questionnaire feedback I had received, many of the viewing audience believed more suspense was built up through little dialogue than lots of dialogue. As of this I chose to have a small piece at the introduction of the actors when they first appear on screen. Nick says to Chris “what are we going to do for this photography assignment then?” In which Chris replies, “I dunno, but we should find somewhere soon I reckon.” I felt this gives a little insight into the storyline without having too much dialogue it doesn’t make the genre clear.
 
To choose the setting of this film, I visited certain places around my local village of Woodhall Spa, as I was aware that there were many old disused buildings which could be host to my film. I took photographs of two main places which I thought were very close to what I wanted, a disused chicken shed, and an old farm building. (These photos are attached to this document). The old farm building had more colour and life to it than the chicken shed did. This wasn’t what I was looking for, I wanted a gloomy dark looking setting which was a large building that had room to run about and around in. This was the complete opposite of the old farm building, which was small and cramped. Therefore I chose the chicken shed. It had multiple entrances and was a long, dark, empty building which was exactly what I was looking for. I chose this as the setting, chose my actors, spoke with them and arranged a date for filming. I booked the equipment, which was the camcorder and tripod and gathered the two props for the film. These were the digital SLR camera which Nick carries and drops during the film, and the blue light shade from outside the chicken shed which Chris throws into the shed.
 

My management of time, I personally feel could have been a lot better than it was. I left the filming a little later than I would have liked to have done, looking back at the project. I didn’t leave myself enough time to have another day of filming if problems occurred on the first day, or when uploading the footage onto the computer. This meant that when all of my footage was uploaded and ready for editing, I only had a short period of time, a week, to edit it all. However, during this week, I feel I managed my time greatly as I didn’t rush with the editing, and finished it all with a day left to spare, to add finishing touches and go back and change certain things about it, if I felt they weren’t as I would have liked.

 

Here are the links to some of the photos i took during planning.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/3056088741/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/3056086447/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/3056911414/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/2958242797/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/2958246137/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamallen/2934796571/

Storyline…

At first I found this task daunting and thought it was going to be more difficult than enjoyable, however, when I started my planning, I realised I was going to enjoy this a whole lot more than I originally thought.
 
Firstly in my planning came the storyline as I thought I would be able to base all of my other planning around this after I had a basic idea of a plot. This was as follows… ( I have put the actors names in to make it easier to understand…)
Two young students, (Nick Atkinson and Chris Browne)  who are keen photography have been set an assignment to take a series of photographs of something which they found interesting. They are stuck for ideas so go out in their village near the woods looking and hoping to find something worthy of this assignment. They stumble upon an old disused chicken shed, which they decide to investigate further as it may hold the key that they are looking for in this project. They enter into the building without knowing a homeless man (Sam Deary) who is running from the law for multiple accounts of assault, armed robbery and money laundering has taken refuge in this building. He doesn’t like the boys snooping around and decides to silence them. After they have entered, one of the boys isn’t seen again. However, when the other boy manages to hide in the toilet of the building, he becomes puzzled as to where he is. Hearing a bang outside, the man runs out, then to the back of the shed, Nick, the boy still involved, runs out of the shed through the side door as the front entrance has been locked. When Sam see’s nick running away from the building, he runs after him, Nick drops the camera and continues to run, unaware that all Sam wants is the camera and the memory as there is no longer proof of who this man is.
 
During the rest of the film, after the two minute introduction, it is about Nick trying to get justice for what happened to his friend Chris, who was killed in the chicken by Sam. It is also about Sam running away from the law and Nick trying to hunt Sam down himself, which poses difficult for both Nick, and the Police.

Planning and Research.

During the first few weeks of starting the AS media studies course, we were set a preliminary coursework task to introduce us to using the camera equipment and the editing software. To make things easier, we were given set groups in which we had to work. This helped us realise whether or not as individuals, it would benefit us more if we worked in a group and shared the work load, or worked by ourselves and had complete control over what we did during our coursework film project. I feel that this task (preliminary) didn’t turn out as well as I would have wanted it too. I was the camera man for the task and as the camera man, it was my fault when the 180 degree was broken. However, I am glad that I made this mistake when I did, as I knew from then on that I wouldn’t make it again in my film project.
 
To start this project, I originally started to work with a partner, unfortunately, this didn’t turn out for the best, as we argued over many things during planning, and therefore decided to work separately. Firstly, whilst researching and choosing the genre, we looked at comedy films, hoping that we could make a funny 2 minute opening to a comedy film. However, due to the split in group, I decided against this idea and chose to research films under the genre of thrillers. I noticed in many of these genre’s, that the settings were in a dark disused place in which someone either finds or is a part of something that they shouldn’t be. The music appeared to be low and very weary, with a build up in suspense and the title credits were cleverly editing. They were quick and jumpy. When I chose this genre, I wanted to recreate this effect in my title credits.

One of the main films i researched for this tastk was Dont Look Now, a film made in 1973 which was directed by Nicolas Roeg. The storyline was written by Daphne Du Maurier and screenplay by Allan Scott. The film is about a couple who’s daughter drowns in a pond near their house. After her death, they move to Venice where they meet a women who claims to be a psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of their dead daughter. The father of the daughter, John, resists the idea as he himself has his own visions of his daughter walking the streets in her red coat that she drowned in.

It is a cripping thriller film which i really enjoyed. This is what inspired me for the credits of my film. (the photos falling onto the artbook). This is because during the opening minutes of the film, John is looking at slides through a microscope whilst the credits are shown. I thought it had an effective feel and look to it, and i wanted to do something similar, however different at the same time.

One way in which I researched within my target audience was through a questionnaire which I produced and handed out to 20 people about thriller films and what my target audience thought about the genre and what it stood for. I looked at the responses which I got for these and took into consideration what people had said. When I was coming up with a storyline, actors, setting, script and all other necessary features towards my 2 minute film, I used this as a guideline to help me create a film in which people would find interesting and thrilling.