Emaze on props

I have created an Emaze on implementing props into my short film.



Reflective Comment:
I am looking forward to adding props to my film. I think it will add more content to the film and add more depth to it. It'll also allow me to add more meaning to my film. 

Music for short film

For the music in my short film I turned to my friend Greg. Greg does A-Level music and was a part of my group last year for our starter task. I showed Greg my first draft and told him what type of music I wanted. I told him I wanted a curious and dreamy song, and he said he'd get back to me. Soon after he sent me a draft of a song. I liked the song and me and Greg had a bit of back and forth on how to improve the music.

I have now sent Greg my second draft of my short film with notes on what type of music I want for each scene. Greg is currently on holiday but once he is back he's going to work off my notes to make some more draft songs. With those we can test it with the footage and go forward from there.

I am having issues with attaching the music to my blog, but I will try get this sorted soon.

Reflective Comment:
Music is something that I really struggle with so I am glad that I am starting to make progress with. Hopefully I can get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

Audience feedback survey

I have completed and have just sent out my survey. My survey focuses on both the poster and the short film. Anyone doing the survey looks at the poster first, saying what they like and do not like and what they can infer. Then they watch the short film, and give me feedback on that. Then, they look at the poster again after watching the film and understanding the plot.

I'm putting my survey on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. I'm hoping to get a lot of responses that are honest. When you show someone in person they're always too nervous to say anything negative, so once they can analyse it without me over their shoulder they're bound to be more honest about it.

Here are some screenshots of my survey.

Reflective Comment:

I am hoping to get real feedback which is critical and helpful. Hopefully with the feedback I receive I can better improve my short film in it's third draft, and the poster if need be. 

Dying Denial Second Draft

I have completed my second draft of Dying Denial. I have added the new footage that I filmed on the 23rd, and started the process of fixing the sound. (To an extent.) I am very happy with this draft, and I feel I only need one more day of filming to iron out any remaining issues. I still need to add some music, but I will be uploading a blog post soon about the music situation.

I am planning to put my second draft on Youtube soon and then posting the link on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. I am going to create a survey and I am going to try receive helpful feedback. Twitter will have mostly teenagers answering, Facebook will have older people answering, and Reddit will be a bit of a mix.

Below I have attached the second draft. If that does not work you can watch it on Youtube.



Reflective Comment:
I am very happy with my second draft. Things are really starting to come together and I feel confident that I will be meeting the deadline that I have been set. The poster and magazine article are coming along nicely as well. 

Dying Denial Third Poster Draft

I have completed the third draft of my poster for my film! While it isn't finished yet, I think it's getting much closer to the being finished. The photo used is much better and I think my typography is getting better. I am soon going to show off my short film and poster together. The poster first, to see what people think the film is about, then after the film to see if they think it fits with it.

The effects on the typography.

Reflective Comment:

Just like my film, my poster is coming along nicely. I feel like I am getting closer to the final product with each attempt. The photo is much better and I am getting much more confident with my Photoshop skills. I believe I am on target to having my poster finished for the deadline. 

Photos for the posters and outside lighting

While I did spend the most of my time on the 23rd filming, I did try get a better photo for my poster. I was able to get some really nice photos that I think will fit very well. It was 2 o'clock when I started meaning that I was fighting against the sun, but I managed to make it work in my favour. Thankfully my good friend Fabian let me borrow his camera.

We will now go through the photos.

So first we tried from behind the two actors. The sun was coming in the from the top left corner, and made the lighting a little too harsh. I didn't really like what the lighting was looking like. However I did still like the way the sky faded with the blues.

I then tried the photo from the front. This worked even less. For a start, I don't want the poster from the front and this didn't convince me otherwise. I think it's too bright for the subject matter of the film and you can also see the shadows. The sun was behind me.

I then tried directly from behind and closer up. but this again made the sun too bright. Also, I didn't like the shadows that the actors were casting. It's also a little too close for my photo. The sun was directly on my left during the shot.

I then moved in line with the sun to experiment with what it would look like. This was a lot closer to what I wanted, just a bit too close and not at the correct angle. The lighting just looked perfect for the poster.

This was the photo I most happy with. I think the lighting here is best, with the two actors looking like silhouettes and the sky looking a nice faded blue. I think the photo is taken at a good distance, and the photo fits the rule of thirds quite well. I can have the information at the top, the title in the centre, and the two at the bottom. To capture this photo I had to go down the hill slightly, crouch down, and keep the out of shot. The sun is just on my left. This is the photo I am going to be using for the poster.

Reflective Comment:

I'm really happy with the photos that I was able to take. Working with natural light can be difficult and I'm glad that I could test out different angles. I am hoping to get another draft of the poster ready for the end of the week.

Poster Drafts

So below I have attached two posters ideas that I have created. The main difference being the location of the title and the second photo. My teacher suggested having two photos, one at the top and one at the bottom.

I also liked the idea of having just one photo, because I quite liked the emptiness that came along with it. I think with a cloud it looks quite good, however for the real poster I am going to need my own photo of a cloud, as I do not own the photo I have used for the draft.

I have got some better photos from my second day of filming, so I am going to re-create both the posters with the better looking photos. I will update the blog as soon as I have completed this.  

Reflective Comment:

I am quite happy with the progress I am making towards the completion of the poster. I am looking forward to using my new photos to try create a more professinal looking poster.

2nd Day of Filming 23/01/2017

So on the 23rd January I met up with my actors again and got some filming done and also took some photos. The photos look pretty good and can be used for testing my poster ideas. For the footage, I filmed the waking up scene and re-shot a few scenes that need to be re-shot.

All the footage and photos.

So for the next few days I have several things that I can be working towards. I can create a better poster draft with the photos taken, I can also update my draft of my film and in edit in the new footage. I also still need to make a blog post on the music that my friend Greg has made for me.

I was unable to film a additional scene that I had planned where the two characters cross the road. I realised the cars were going to be too loud and we didn't want to distract any drivers and cause any accidents!

I also wanted to reshoot the bench scene, however the wind was even worse than before! Also, a plane seemed to be circling above making a large amount of noise.

Reflective Comment:
I'm pretty happy with the filming done overall. We were unable to film a few scenes due to weather and sound, but I was still able to film the crucial scenes. I am looking forward to editing it all together. 

Analysing IndieWire

So I've started analysing the reviews from IndieWire. I'm trying to identify what common similarities all the reviews share. From the mode of address to how they actually review the film.

Content
The reviews often start with either a key quote from the film or by identifying the key characters and their motivations. The reviews then often break down the basic narrative of the film without giving away too much of the plot, only highlighting key scenes. The reviews then end with a grading, ranging from A-F. A being very very good, F being terrible.

Mode of Address
I found a really useful article that talks about the Modes of Address. It can be found here.
The article is written with an indirect mode of address, and is quite optimistic and slightly humours. The article also make mention of the fans of other films, and how they may be interested in whatever film they're writing about.

The Review
When it comes to writing the review itself I've found a useful article on how to structure a film review, that fits with IndieWire. It can be found here. IndieWire reviews often focus on the characters and the writing the most. In many reviews music and cinematography do not seem to be focused on.

Language
IndieWire article writers tend to use quite smart sounding words when writing their articles. Some sentences are written in such a way that they sound like something from a creative writing piece. When I write my review I'll have to make sure to replicate this way of writing.

Examples:

• "Indeed, “We Are the Flesh” is so instructive that it’s hard to find any wiggle room for even the most amenable viewers to think for themselves."
• "Some passages manage to provide both, as protracted close-ups of the actors’ genitals are sustained for long enough to go from amusingly confrontational to intellectually bankrupt."
• "Mexico may be eating itself alive, but there’s only so much that can be gleaned from watching it chew with its mouth open."

Reflective Comment:

I'm quite glad I've done a analysis of IndieWire, as there seems to be a lot more how to you write an article than I originally realised. What I wrote a few weeks ago is not suitable for IndieWire and I now know that I have to write it again in a more suitable fashion. 

Magazine article analysis: IndieWire

I have decided that IndieWire is the website that I think I will be writing my review for. IndieWire is a long standing independent magazine about film, tv and radio. They review both big films and independent breakthrough films. My film is perfect for this website.

I went over to the reviews page of the website and took some screenshots to some links that lead to reviews of independent films.

I then quickly edited one of these article openers and replaced it with a picture from my short film and changed the text. It fits in with the rest of the reviews and I think shows that my film fits well on the site. 

Reflective Comment:

Knowing what website I'm going to put my review on is very helpful with moving forward with my ancillary task, as I can begin to identify what mode of address they use and how they format their articles.

First Draft audience feedback

Today I faced my nerves and showed off my first draft to members of my class. I showed around six students my first draft. I created a temple in which I could take note of what people liked, disliked, what their favorite part was, and how I could improve.

What is good
Most of my watchers all found they liked similar things about the movie. The most common aspect of the film that everyone seemed to enjoy was the narrative and the character of Death, played superbly by Peter Long.

Also mentioned was the camera work, the light-hearted humour and the lighting in certain scenes.

What is bad 
I had one constant complaint from each viewer of my short film, which was about the sound quality of my film. During the scene on top of St.James Hill the audio is hard to understand and unpleasant to listen to due to the wind.

Favorite Parts
While everyone seemed to favor different things about the short film, they all came down to the atmosphere and characters. The character of Death, his personality and the general flow of the film. People seemed to really understand what I was going for and enjoyed it.

To Improve
What I need to do to improve is to iron out the issues that I'm currently having with the audio. My friend Greg has possibly suggested using Audacity, and if this does not work I should be able to do some re-shoots.

Reflective Comment:
I am overly relived that my first draft has been well received so far. I'm hoping to get the rest of the filming done and complete a second draft, to re-complete a similar process.

Another Poster draft and comparison

I've finally managed to uncorrupt my first poster draft and now am able to upload the poster to my blog. I definitely need to work on the typography, but I quite like the simplicity of it.

Now that I have both poster drafts, I can conduct some audience research on which poster people actually prefer. I have a feeling that the end product will resemble something in between the two, but we will see. To remind you, this is the other poster.

Reflective Comment:

I'm glad that I have two drafts for two different posters, as it gives me a few options that I can explore going forward. I'm planning to have some form of audience feedback by this time next week.

Pixlr and drafts

I created a draft poster using screenshots from my film on photoshop, but for some reason the file became corrupted. As I do not have photoshop at home, I looked for other photo editors. What I ended up finding, was Pixlr.

                  
Pixlr is a free photo editor. While not as complex as Photoshop, it offers the same basic features. Curious to what the program could do, I started messing around with the pencil. I realised that you could create some quite intersting typography with it.

That took about about a minute or two to make. I continued to mess around with the program and eventually made the following.

Looking a bit better now. The black cloud looks a bit rough but I think the typography looks good, reminds me of chalk writing. I then took a few minutes just creating a rough draft of a possible poster idea.

While not perfect in any way, I think that this is quite a good draft for another option for my poster. Originally the only other option I had was the film screenshotted one. Now I have two options. 

Once I recover my first poster draft, I can get other people to decide which one they think looks better. While I think I'd rather do my original idea, it'd be a good idea to do some audience research and get some feedback. Perhaps I could even somehow mix the two together.

Reflective Comment:

Considering I only found Pixlr about 45 minutes before making this post, I think my little tests are okay. They aren't overly great, but for rough drafts I think they'll do. I could always mix the typography of these tests with my pre-existing idea. However I think the best way forward is to do some audience research.

Filming Dates changing

I had originally planned to finish up my filming on the 14th/15th. However one of my actors (Ronan) is now unable to film on this date. I am unable to do the 21st but am available to do the 22nd. We're now planning to film on that day.

However I am still waiting to hear back from Ronan, and if he can't film on the 22nd I'm in a difficult position. Peter cannot film on the 28th/29th. This would only leave me one weekend to film, the 4th/5th. This definitely too close to the deadline of the 10th.

To counter this, if need be I can film on several Thursdays. Thursdays I have media P1/2, and the rest of the day free. This would offer plenty of time to get filming done. If my two actors could do just one of these dates, it should be fine. The dates for these would be 12th/19th/26th.

Reflective Comment:
Working with actors is stressful. They cannot help it, but you rely on them massively. You have to work around their schedules, which can make planning production very difficult. However it does make the film look a lot more professional rather than using student actors who aren't overly keen about being on camera. 

Deadlines

We now have just over two months to finish our media coursework. While that seems like a lot of time this time is likely to fly by, as first we have mocks to do. After mocks we just have over a month to finish everything up. Our final deadline is the 10th of February. To meet this deadline, I have set myself miniature deadlines.

I want to have both ancillary tasks done by the end of January. This is a realistic target, as I am getting closer to finishing up with them. This gives me a few weeks tweaking time if I need to fix anything.

I want to have all my filming done by the end of January also. I've already got a large amount of my filming done, so this should not be too difficult. I have one more scene to film, and a few re-shoots. This will leave enough time just in case I need to do some more re-shoots, but I think that this should be fine.

I want to have a final draft of the film completed the week before the deadline. I can edit fast so I know this will not be a problem, and will leave me time to fix any errors that I may find. This also allows me to make changes if audiences believe it can be improved.

Reflective Comment:
I feel pretty confident about meeting my deadlines. The only deadline that worries me slightly is the filming deadline, as filming is always the most difficult part of media. Several things can go wrong, however with the time I've allowed myself I should be fine.