A2- How to be creative

Screening and feedback for our film

Here is the screening and feedback from our audience. The first clip is of the group watching the film and their reactions. We did this just to see what parts of the film we could improve if we were to carry it on into the future. The feedback was extremely positive but there were some areas that we could work on in order to make our film even better, thus making the session extremely helpful.



Here is the feedback from one of three groups that watched the film. We used a group of students our age to  get feedback on the people who we are aiming to appeal to - Teenagers. However they are females, as we know, the male audience are who we were mainly trying to appeal to, so it was nice to get some feedback from a different audience who we weren't sure would like the film. So it was nice that they then gave us good feedback and seemed to enjoy the film. They especially liked the gripping nature of the clip, which we aimed to get done through the music and lighting. The lighting was another element that helped them understand what the genre was. Being in charge of lighting, it was very important for me to make sure that the lighting reflected the thriller conventions.




Here is our second feedback group. They are three teachers from our school. There is an English teacher, an ICT teacher and a drama teacher. This is a good mix of teachers as they are all professionals in different areas that relate to media and different aspects of our film. They all agreed on what they liked and what they thought could be improved. They thought the transition to the young girl walking through the door, they believed this was too much of a sharp transition and didn't fit with the conventions of the rest of the film. I agree with this and don't think this moment quite works with the rest of the film and if we were to carry on creating the film this is something we would change. However they really liked the lighting and thought that it properly fit the conventions of a thriller except for that one moment.




This is the last extract of feedback and probably the most useful. It's our media teacher discussing our film. It was so helpful because of his honesty. He believed (like the second feedback group) that the cut to the young girl didn't quite work with the film and also believed that the end of the film when the music changes wasn't a smooth transition. This is the case and the transition was somewhat jarring and this stems from doing the music on a separate application, so it was almost impossible to make it perfect for the film as it would need to be adjusted alongside the film which wasn't available to us as it could not be changed when transferred onto i-movie.



Overall the feedback was extremely successful for us. They really enjoyed the film and believed it fit the conventions and had potential. They also believed that there were some wrinkles that had to be ironed out. This really helped us.

Main Film synopsis

A Guide to Kill

After the death of his wife, a man sets himself out on a violent, bloody mission to put down the men who killed his pregnant wife by taking the law on his own hands. What the men don't know is what the punishment for their crimes will be, with prison certainly being out the question.

The Synopsis

 The scene begins with dead bodies scattered around the room, with a mysterious figure appearing to walk around the bodies later to be identified Damien Tucker (Brolin Zinga). A beaten up figure appears laying on the pillar of the room, Mr Gilstrap (Charlie Jones) demanded Tucker to kill him. Mr Gilstraps daughter then appears to the room staring at her father in shock then taken to the chair and is told by Tucker a story of the bad things her father has done.

The film then begins with Tucker and his wife, Delores Anne-Tucker, who looks between 4-6 months pregnant appearing out of church as they have just been married. On their way home, Tucker tells his wife how he would never let anything happen to her because of the work he does, as he is part of the metropolitan S.W.A.T team. Two days after their marriage, just when the newlyweds are about to sleep, a car pulls over outside their suburban house, with five armed men bursting through their door. Tucker runs downstairs with a baseball bat only to get knocked out by tallest of the armed men with his M16. Delores is then dragged out of bed and is whispered by one the armed men "your required answer from Gilstrap" and is then shot in the head and stomach with a 9mm pistol. The men plant the gun in Tuckers hand run out the house.

In prison, Tucker meets up with Tommy Twotakes, a man who used to work for Gilstrap but is willing to testify against him, tells Tucker that the woman who was murdered was killed because she wanted to run away with Gilstrap and have his baby, which she was carrying and if he didn't agree, he would tell his wife, not knowing that the woman he was talking about was Tuckers wife, laughing about it. Tucker then asks how he could get hold of Gilstrap and work for him and Tommy reveals all.

Tucker, released after 2 years with not enough evidence to put him away, goes to the bar where Mr Gilstrap owns. Gilstraps bar is attack by 3 columbians and Tuckers takes out 2 of them, and then is offered a job for Gilstrap.

As time passed, Tucker becomes his right hand man shown through the montage then returns to Tucker and Gilstraps daughter who pleas to Tucker not to kill her father, but instead, Tucker shoots him in the head 3 times and tell his daughter it wasn't business, it was personal.

Main Film

Here is our final film! This is what we have all been waiting for. It took us a LONG time to plan and light and film and edit..... But it is finally done, on youtube and now on the blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Planning for our main task

After our preliminary task, we realised that thorough planning for our main was a necessity. We therefore split off to create different parts for the plan. We had the ideas that we would use Mr Hughes' office (headteacher) as a location. However his busy schedule meant we couldn't have the office for long enough, we therefore went to the common and only used a section to for filming. We tried to make it look like a penthouse or hotel room with its high windows etc.. However the plans created were for Mr Hughes' office. If we had time we would have changed the plans for the new location, however we were very pressed for time due to light constraints and various deadlines.

 

I created the call sheet, this was important as we need to know who needs to turn up when and so on. If we neglected to make the call sheet, it would have resulted in chaos and people turning up when they werent needed and vice versa. Organisation is key for anything that requires team work. This is why the call sheet was important for our groups success.

Brolin created the shot list, we both worked on the storyboard so we know what we wanted to do in the film, after this we created a label for each shot, we then listed the time we would be filming it, the shot number, a description of the shot as seen on the storyboard, the location, characters seen in each shot and props (mise-en-scene) in each shot. This was important as it meant we knew what we had to do. If we had left it and gone with the flow like our preliminary task, we would have been stuck and the filming process would have taken a lot longer.

I then created a storyboard so that we could plan what was going to happen in each shot. It's an important part of the process as it can make the filming process a lot more efficient if you know what you want from each shot. Here are our storyboards:





We also created floor plans. We inspected the set so we knew what it would look like when were filming. We did this to know where the props were, the actors, camera and lights were. This is very important in the planning process. Also We did it to ensure we never broke the 180 degree rule. Yusuf drew a line to indicate which side of the action we had to be when filming. This made the actual filming of the film much more efficient.

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

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

Our Preliminary task.

We learnt many things from our Preliminary task.

What skills did you use in your preliminary task?

The skills we used in our Preliminary task included: using a camera effectively, finding the right setting, match on action, over the shoulder shot, shot reverse shot and using mise-en-scene effectively. Whilst some of these things went well, others didn't and we subsequently learnt from these for our main task.

What went well?

We accurately used match on action when Daniel walked into the office, we showed him walking toward the door, and from inside the office we had his face appearing from the opening door. This worked well as it created a sense of fluidity in the scene. We also effectively used an over the shoulder shot of Brolin looking over Daniels shoulder. This aided us in creating a sense of cohesion. Without an over the shoulder shot the scene can lack a sense of togetherness, if we only had them in separate shot reverse shots we would lose the other person in the scene and it would no longer feel like a dialogue but more of two people separately talking to the camera. As the cameraman I didn't use the camera stand very often which meant I had to try and keep myself very still in order to create a professional nature to the film. Also when following Daniel toward the door I had to move without wheels or tracks so it was quite hard to follow him and keep the camera steady, however I think the group managed this quite well.

What went wrong?

Well, using the camera effectively didn't always go according to plan. Many times Brolin would lean forward in his chair as a sign of 'passion' in his acting, however he neglected to let me know that he was going to do it, so when he did, I often cut out most of his head as I wasn't ready for it. This wouldn't have been the case if myself, Brolin and Daniel had sat down and planned every shot rather than going with the flow. Also, as we were pressed for time, we often didn't watch them back until we got to the editing process. A lack of planning meant there was only so much effectiveness we could have through camera shots, etc. However we learnt from this and myself, Brolin and Yusuf planned our main task thoroughly so that if circumstances forced us to change location or actors couldn't make certain dates, we would plan for this and make sure we had enough time to get everything done.

Using the shot reverse shot didn't work quite as well as we would have hoped. The main issue was the eyeline match. If you watch our Preliminary task, the main problem is the eye contact. Brolin especially was looking all over the place, Daniel was a bit more accurate however not totally. When filming Brolin, Daniel would move out of the way for myself and the camera to get into space, this meant that Brolin had no idea where Daniel had been in the previous shot, this meant it wasn't accurate and it took away from the professionalism and accuracy of the scene. Again, we all learnt from this and Brolin and I would sit in the positions we needed to be in when the other person was in the shot, this meant our eyelines matched throughout and the accuracy of the scene was maintained.

Another problem, and problem the biggest was the breaking of the 180 degree rule. Throughout, when filming Daniel I was slightly too far left of Brolin which left us with a confusing scene. Also at the end of the scene, the 180 degree rule was completely broken. As Daniel left, we were on the right hand side of the scene as he left. We then filmed Brolin shaking his head, again breaking the 180 degree rule. We subsequently made sure that in our main task we remained on the right of the scene the whole time and never broke the 180 degree rule. This meant our main task made sense and we have a fluid, clear scene. IF we were going to break this in our main task, it would have been a deliberate choice, like The Shining when Jack Nicholson is talking to himself in the bathroom. However thrillers rarely break the 180 degree rule. The Shining was a psychological thriller/horror and this meant it would have tried to mess with the audience.

Here is a moment from our film. I believe it highlights everything that is correct with our main task compared to our preliminary task. If you notice, the camera stays on one side of the action. Never breaking the 180 degree rule. Also we used real lights, being the gaffer it was my responsibility to ensure that the lighting created the atmosphere that I wanted, whereas in the preliminary, we didn't know how to use the lights and therefore we had to use natural lighting, the location chosen was right by a glass roof which allowed a lot of light to flood into the office through the windows of the office. This ruined the conventions of an action thriller, which we made sure didn't happen in our main film.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Different types of media use in 'A Guide to Kill.'
by: CharlieJonesCJ