Response to Feedback

After receiving feedback about our opening, we made a few changes:

Firstly, we added heavy breathing over the beginning and ending of the film to ensure there were no awkward silences.

Secondly, we overlapped the sound from one shot to the next shot to make the change in frame less abrupt and make it more authentic.

Thirdly we changed the font from red and white to just plain white, which we felt worked in favour of our film opening. 

We altered the sequence of the shots slightly in order for the audience to understand that he has just left home and is now returning to fulfil  his motive. We added the only dialogue to the film opening "Did you forget something?" in order for the audience to realise that he has only just left home, and is returning very shortly after leaving, which is why he turns around when he reaches the crossroads as  he  has 'made up his mind. 

Evaluation Activity 7

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

Evaluation Activity 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Activity 6

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

Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Activity 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Film Opening

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

1)     The font we have used for our opening title is American Typewriter, we have used this font to highlight the military feel of the opening and we believe that this conforms to the genre, as typewriting is normally associated with war and the military. For example, the font used in Atonement is typewriting and this also reflects on the genre conventions as it creates a harsh and regimented atmosphere

2)     An upward panning shot is used to introduce our main character. The first thing that the audience sees is their feet. We used this shot to create an atmosphere of mystery; the main character could be anyone, emphasising the fact that anyone could be affected by the consequences of war. We believe that the silence of Tim enhances the mystery of his character, which is very similar to protagonists in other films of similar genres, such as Dead Man’s Shoes and Full Metal Jacket, who are introduced as secretive. The reserved introduction to our main character therefore conforms to genre conventions. 

3)     The close-up, panning shot, which focuses on the picture, establishes the family aspect of the film. The drained colour and grainy quality highlights the tension between the relationships. A key feature in social realism is conflict between characters and the shots of family photos throughout the opening hint to the audience that the film will focus on the relationships and how they are affected and changed by war. A similar concept is used in films such as Private Peaceful and American Sniper. 

4)     This close-up shot of Tim’s trousers focuses on his military uniform, allowing the audience to understand that he is a soldier. The shot also highlights the gaffatape, which is being used to repair his uniform, representing him as rough and resourceful. This representation of character also conforms to film openings of a similar genre, with characters such as Anthony in Jarhead and Eversmann from Black Hawk Down.

5)  The setting used for our film opening is very rural, shown in this shot.  The overgrown and harsh surroundings emphasise the roughness of Tim's character, and his internal struggle.  The colour of the location is very earthy and dark, further highlighting the lack of colour and brightness of Tim's character.  Harsh settings are commonly used in film to reflect the mood and atmosphere of the plot, and we feel that our opening therefore conforms to convention once again.

6)  An extreme close-up of Tim's eyes is used to enhance the intensity of the opening.  The closeness teases the audience, as so far Tim's intentions are unclear, and the extreme close-up could lead the audience to think that they're about to uncover the mystery.  Instead the Extreme close-up is contrasted with a wide shot and an extreme long-shot, creating an anti-climax for the for the audience, playing with their emotions.  This subverts the typical genre conventions of social realism, as situations are often established quite early on in this genre,such as Submarine.

7)  A long, POV shot of Tim looking at the house could challenge conventions of Social Realism.  The dark, contrasting shade of the trees and sky, combined with the shaky camera and heavy breathing could conform to a genre such as horror.  However, the themes and mood of the film is more associated with Social Realism.  This shot provides the idea of mystery, and the inevitability of something bad happening, which builds on the genre which focuses on conflict, a key aspect of Social Realism.

8)  Special effects are often not used in typical Social Realisms, as the aim is more focused on real issues and authenticity.  Therefore, we have only incorporated basic effects into our opening as we wanted the audience to focus on the issue the characters are facing.  We used slow motion to build on the key moment of the opening, and linger on the tension between the characters.

9)    The title of our film was inspired by the poem Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, an 18^th century prayer which contains the lines ‘If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take’. We chose it to reflect the uncertainty that soldiers face in war and also reflects the non-linear chronology of our film as the scepticism of the opening is rectified when he shoots the gun. This structure challenges Social Realism conventions as they are normally chronological and have a clear plot.

Feedback

We showed the first draft of our cut to fellow Media Students, both AS and A2, to get some feedback on our opening. This was some of the feedback we received:

--> Filling the silence/adding more sound
--> Lack of understanding
--> Quickening the pace
--> Red and white text didn't work

Technologies Used

iMovie
We used iMovie to edit our film as it is easy to use and we had easy access to it through school computers. There are lots of features of iMovie that allowed us to get the desired effect that we were looking for when we storyboarded our piece. This included their predesigned titles, which allowed us to choose from a wide selection of looks for our credits, and we could also change the font.

Our final font choice is American Typewriter:

Camera

The camera we used to film our piece is the Canon EOS 600D DSLR. The quality of the camera is brilliant and although its primary purpose is for photography, it is recommended for young filmmakers as the film quality is very good. This made our opening look a lot more professional than if we were to use an iPhone or cheaper camcorder, as the use of focus was very important in our piece and it would have been more difficult to produce the desired effect on cheaper equipment. 

 You can see from the quality of the stills (left) that the camera was very effective in producing footage of a professional quality. 





Sound Recording
Our opening required a lot of sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic that we needed to record separately. We used the voice recorder app on an iPhone (iOS 7) to record sounds that we could then lay over the footage. 

Costumes

The costume for the character Tim was simple. A black jumper with trousers and a rucksack that were army print, to make clear that Tim was a soldier. The audience should be able to establish this from his appearance.

Talent Sourcing

As a group, we decided that the look of our main actor was more important than their acting skills. This was because there are no speaking parts in the opening, and the requirements of the role are not difficult, so for us, getting the right look was important. 

Lead actor:
Robert St.Pierre

Aged:
20

Playing Role of:
Tim

Hair:
Short, medium brown

Facial Hair:
Short stubble

Eyes:
Blue

Height:
6"1


We wanted a young man to play the part. If he were too old, we would lose some of the vulnerability of the character, which we didn't want to happen. The facial hair made him look a rougher which worked in our favour as the character himself is a soldier and quite rough. 

Health & Safety

Our biggest concern in terms of Health & Safety was our location, as a large quantity of our footage was filmed on or near roads. There was 1 actor and 3 crew members during the filming of these shots, and this worked to our advantage, as while 1 member of the crew was using the camera, another could direct and assist in the filming and the third crew member could look out for any cars or other dangers while we were filming. We rotated these roles so that everyone had the opportunity to film and so that there wasn't just one person checking to see if it was safe to film. Our actor was over the age of 18, so we were not responsible for his safety, which means we were able to concentrate on our own well-being and not that of the actor. 

Film Classification

These are the age ratings according to the British Board of Film Classification

These guidelines are put in place to:

- protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content

- empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions 










According to the British Board of Film Classifications, we decided that the most appropriate rating for our film would be Suitable only for 15 years and over. 

Although the nature of our opening does not incorporate the majority of elements associated with 15 rated films, the likelihood that they will be incorporated into the rest of the film is high. For example, it is likely there will be strong violence and strong language throughout, as it is set in a war environment. 

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our Film Opening. We created it on FlipSnack to show the progression of the opening with the individual shots, which we drew ourselves and scanned into a computer. It is in two parts, shown in the links below:

http://www.flipsnack.com/XyliaGrey15/if-i-should-die.html?b=1&p=16

http://www.flipsnack.com/XyliaGrey15/if-i-should-die-fdh3ypjuw.html?b=1&p=16

Iconic Director

Trainspotting (1996) - Danny Boyle


One of the most iconic British Social Realisms, Trainspotting surrounds the issues and influences of drugs in Edinburgh. The director, Danny Boyle, also directed major features such including Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and 127 Hours (2010), which are also both hardcore films that surround views of modern day issues. 

Genre

The decided genre of our film is Social Realism, which is a typically British film genre that focuses on current issues in modern society such as money, drugs and illness but can also delve into issues surrounding religion and politics. Although our film is strongly related to war, it focusses on the issue of mental illness, as our film follows the development of mental illness of our main character, Tim, who gets to the point of mental stability where he feels he has to kill his own sister in order to fulfil his purpose as a soldier.  

Some of the main conventions of social realism are:

- using unknown actors
- working class social status
- current issues
- political or religious views
- young actors/characters, normally between the ages of 13 and 20.









The company we would use to produce our film would probably be Film4, because they are famous for producing British Social Realisms like ours.

Tinnitus Sound Effect

After the gunshot in our opening, we want to create a disorientated effect. One way we were thinking of going about it was by recreating  the sound of Tinnitus or ringing in the ears. We looked at some scenes from films where there is a similar sound. 

The first one is Hunger Games. It is effectively used here to create a chaotic atmosphere and is quite disorientating. (Watch from 1:40)

Another scene in the Hunger Games if after an explosion. (Watch from  3:20)

We recreated our effect using the Air Bells Synth on Garageband.

FILM RESEARCH

As part of our research, we thought we would have a look at the trailers and various interviews for new releases that our of a similar genre of our film. 

The most relative film we looked at was 'American Sniper', directed by Clint Eastwood, which was released in the USA at the end of 2014.  A feature we took from this film was the colour levels. We faded out the clips once we had edited them together as the dullness really complimented the war theme. 

Another film similar to 'American Sniper' is 'Good Kill', directed by Andrew Niccol, which will be released April 2015 in the UK. Although the theme of war is still significant, as a group, we felt the atmosphere of the film and the colours used were not exactly what we were looking for in our piece; it was a lot more technical and elaborate than for the style we were going for.

MAKING A GUNSHOT

The making of the gunshot was done by experimenting with different sounds that we recorded and then layering them in iMovie to recreate a realistic Gun Shot sound effect. Here is the process and the final effect that we will use. 

Sound Effects

A key moment of our piece requires a gunshot sound effect. After doing some research we found out an effective way of recreating a realistic sound. 

This is how we made the effect. We will layer the sound made with crackling from plastic bags and possibly with the sound of a staple gun to create an effective gunshot.