Our Final Film: Tested

Tested NEW fixed audio and titles from Joshua Coombe on Vimeo.

This is my final film that I have produced named "Tested". I think, all in all, my film went extremely well and it all came together very nicely. I particularly think that my editing went very well and my match on action is very consistent throughout my whole film. One thing that I think could have gone better, and that I will do better next time, is the organisation of our filming because, although we managed to save the film through editing, half of our shots are filmed during the day and half of the shots are filmed at night. Although we managed to get around that problem this time, we might not be so lucky next time so we defiantly need to be more organised with our filming for our next project      

Location Recce

Shooting Schedule

Before shooting our film, we had been planning our filming days for weeks. It was surprisingly difficult to find days that we could all get together and film. This was because we were unable to shoot during free periods at school because Katie, our main character, was only in year 11 so she was still in lessons all day. We could not film after school because it was winter and it was too dark to film after school. This meant that we had to find a weekend so that we could film. This was also difficult for many reasons. It had to be a Saturday because I had football on a Sunday and Tei had work in a Sunday. Both Dom and Katie worked on some Saturdays so we then had to find a Saturday that both Dom and Katie were not working was extremely difficult. Never the less we managed to find a Saturday and we used it to film most of our film. The only thing that we needed to film after this was our interrogation scene. This was filmed after school as it was inside and we did not need natural light. However this was also a difficult task to find a day as we needed to avoid after school clubs and after school revision, which was crucial as there was a lot of revision classes due to Christmas mocks. Again, we managed to find a day and we managed to film everything else that we needed for our film in one shooting session.  

Props and Costume Board

 Costumes

Our main protagonist will be wearing these clothes. This is the school uniform that Katie is wearing when she is walking to school before she gets kidnapped. She also wears the same school uniform when she is running through the woods. The fact that she is wearing a school uniform reflects how young and innocent she is which adds to the sympathy the viewer has for her because she hasn't done anything wrong and she is the victim of a random crime. 

This is the type of clothing that the antagonist wears that kidnaps Katie. The character wears dark clothes and a balaclava to hide his identity. Although he is only seen for a brief moment, This characters appearance is crucial because this character must look like a common criminal to suggest that the main antagonist, which we do not see, is a very powerful criminal with the ability to send other people do his "dirty work". The characters common appearance suggests that, although he has kidnapped Katie, he does not have a lot of power in this mysterious group of criminals, that the main antagonist is the leader of, and he is very low down in the hierarchy.

Props

     

This is the type of phone that Katie uses when she is on the phone to the main antagonist. This is also the same phone that Katie drops after she gets told what has happened to her family. This is an Iphone 4S and it is a very commonly used phone in the real world. This also adds to the feeling that Katie is a normal young girl and that this is a random crime that Katie has been unlucky to be involved in. In our real film this phone has a case on it to protect it from the fall that we have shot in slow motion.

The Setting Of Our Film

This is a shot of the wood that we will be filming our movie in. This woods is located in Crapstone and we decided that this would be a good place to film as Dom, a member of our group, lives in Crapstone and he knows the area well. We chose this spot in particular because there was enough space for Katie to run, safely, through the woods and we had many places where we could get shots from different angles.

This is a shot of a different part of the same woods that we filmed in just a few meters from the last shot. In this particular spot, Katie appears from behind the bushes and runs down the slope. Again we chose this spot because Katie could run down this slope safely and there were many places for us to get shots from different angles of her running down the slope.

This shot is of Dom's house and we use it in our film as Katie's house. We chose to film at Dom's house because it isn't too far away from our location in the woods where we filmed the first part of our movie and there also is plenty of spots to film different angles of Katie walking out of house and this gives us a lot of opportunities to film the same thing numerous times to make sure that our match on action is absolutely perfect.

This is a shot of the car park outside of Dom's house where we filmed the scene of Katie on the phone to the mystery antagonist. This was a vital location for our film because the most important scene is set here so we needed an open space where we could get lots of shots from different angles and enough space and time to shot things again and again. We also needed a open space to show how isolated Katie feels in this important scene.

      

This last shot is of an alleyway near Dom's house. This was a good location because is was close to where we had filmed the rest of our scenes and is was extremely desolate which again portrayed how isolated Katie feels after the phone call scene it also had many places for Katie's kidnapper,Tei's character, to jump out at Katie to abduct her.

All of these locations enabled the filming of our movie to run smoothly as all of the locations were close to each other and all of the locations fitted the criteria that we needed them to. The research of each of these locations before filming them enabled us to assess if they were safe enough to film in and if it was worth filming there.

      

Cast and Crew

Storyboard

Creating a Vimeo of my storyboard and narrating it has enabled me to get a better understanding of what my film will look like visually. For example:

• In shot 6 I have chosen the long shot of Katie walking out of her house to portray how normal things are for her as she undertakes her daily routine.
• In shot 8 I have used a close up shot of Katie's phone whilst it was ringing shot that the viewer connects with the character to the extent that the viewer feels like it is their own phone ringing and the anxiety of finding out who is calling enters the viewers head.
• In shot 19 I have used the over the shoulder shot of Katie in the dark ally as the car pulls up to cover the exit of the ally. This almost gives the viewer a better understanding of what exactly Katie is seeing at the time of the shot and this helps the viewer connect with the character and makes them feel the way Katie is feeling as well as building up the adrenaline of the events that are unfolding in front the viewer.

Synopsis Of Our Film

This Prezi of the synopsis of our film was a useful thing for me to do because I feel like I have gained an understand of how I would like my full film to and what characters I would introduce in the full movie, even though I am only filming the opening two minutes.

Script

Institutional Research

From doing my Institutional Research I have learned many things about film Production and Distribution. 

• I now have a better understanding of what companies, such as Lionsgate, spend their budget on for example Lionsgate spend a lot of money on their actors such as Christian Bale, Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Lawrence. I know that I do not have a big budget for my film so I will only include a total of 2 people in my opening scene instead of spending money on things like extras and professional actors. 
• I have also learned the importance of channels such as Netflix and Sky Movies to keep the interest of the film when the film is no longer in cinemas. 
• Also I now know that we need to keep to the age rating that we said we would make our film so that we can open our film to a larger audience to increase revenue so that we can cover the production costs and maximize profit.  

Regulation Research

Through doing my Regulation Research I have learned:

• What is required for a film to be in each age rating
• What age rating I would like my film to be
• What the BBFC is
• What their job is and what they aim to do

Although we are only showing the first 2 minutes of our movie for our project, we still need an idea of the whole plot of our film to make a quality opening 2 minutes. We now know that we want our film to have an age rating of 12 or 12A and now we also know what is required to make our film have this age rating. Now knowing this we will have some, non graphic, violent scenes however we will not dwell on the infliction of pain. We know that we can use occasional bad language however none of the strongest terms. Taking all of this into consideration we will try to make the opening 2 minutes of our film meet this criteria so that we can achieve the age rating that we desire.

Audience Research

Our Survey

As part of our Audience Research we had to produce a questionnaire to gather information on our target audience. Please find the time to participate in the questionnaire that we have produced on survey monkey by clicking on the link below! 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GM62VNZ

Audience Targeting

Through doing my Target Audience I have learned many things. I learned:

• What type of movies and TV programs my target audience watch.
• What my target audience like to do with their free time such as play video games and participate in sports.
• What my target audience think is essential in a thriller movie and what they enjoy in a thriller movie.

All of this has enabled me to gain a better understanding of my target audience and what I need to include in my movie. This will enable me to produce exactly what is wanted by my target audience so my movie can be the best it possibly can be. 

Textual Analysis

From doing my Textural Analysis I have learned many things. I have learned:

• That the opening 2 minutes of a film should get you hooked to the movie and not give too much away. This can be done through mystery or anticipation. The Bourne Identity uses mystery to get you hooked because you don't know anything about the main protagonist and you want to find out more about him. American Psycho uses anticipation to get you hooked because you know, from watching the first 2 minutes of the film, that Patrick is a psychopath and this makes you anxious to find out what he is going to do later in the movie.

• I have learned that the use of music can help to manipulate the mind of the viewer to believing that what they are watching is true. Music also reflects the characters mood or personality. For example, In The Bourne Identity the use of mysterious music reflects how the viewers and other characters feel about our main protagonist. American Psycho uses calm music played on the piano to reflect his masked personality as a psychopath because through the use of the calm music, we are fooled into believing that Patrick is normal.

All in all i have learned that the opening 2 minutes of a film should hook the viewer to the movie and should fill the viewer mind with questions that they desperately want to know the answer to. Also the opening 2 minutes should trick the viewers mind into believing that what they are watching is real.

  

   

Practicing To Use Software: Prezi

One of the tasks that we were given in media studies was to produce a Prezi on our favorite movie. I chose to produce a Prezi on American Psycho because this will link to my Textural Analysis ,that I am yet to do, because I will be analyzing the opening 2 minutes of American Psycho.

Our Practice Film

This is my practice film that I produced with Tobias to build my knowledge of film making. From making this film I have learned:

•  The importance of the 180 degree rule
•  The importance of match on action
•  The importance of taking various shots of the thing

After gaining knowledge of the above, I now feel confident about film making and editing and I feel that I now have the knowledge and skills to produce my own film.

With the 180 degree rule, I have learned that this is an extremely important tool for film making and not breaking the continuity of the film. On our first attempt of making this practice film I discovered that we broke the 180 degree rule and this made the film look unnatural. After this we were forced to go back out to shoot that practice film again.

Also, I have discovered that match on action is equally as important as the 180 degree rule for keeping the continuity of a film. Whilst editing this film, I discovered that one of our actors, Ben, had opened the door with his hand upside down which did not match the close up of him pulling down that handle of the door to open the door as he did this with his hand right side up. This taught me that I should have should have taken more shots of him opening the door so that this issue could have been avoided. Nether the less I had to use match on action and editing to get around this issue, as you can see from withing the film above, to avoid having to go out for a third time to shoot it again.   

   

Codes and Conventions of the Genre

After doing my Codes and Conventions of the Genre i have learned many things and also gained a better understanding about many things. I have learned:

• What a makes a good thriller movie
• What effect a thriller movie has on the viewer
• All of the different sub-genres to a thriller movie
• What type of characters you can typically expect to see in a thriller movie
• What type of setting a thriller movie is usually set in

Through doing my codes and conventions I have learned the ins and outs of a thriller movie and now I know exactly what a thriller movies needs to be successful which I can now take on board and now I can apply my knowledge to our thriller movie when we make it.