Grim Reaper Wedding Ring

When showing my short film to a few friends a couple of days ago a friend of mine pointed out how the Grim Reaper was wearing a wedding ring. While my friend thought this was an accident,  it actually was intentional.

When we started filming Peter (My Grim Reaper) asked if I wanted him to remove his wedding ring. I decided that he should keep it on, as it gives the Reaper another dimension.  I am already trying to push the idea that the Grim Reaper is actually just a normal person. Having him wearing a wedding ring and implying that he's got a wife adds to this.

Reflective Comment:
The Grim Reaper's wedding ring is more of a subtle signifier compared to other props. I feel this would not be noticed by everyone and would more likely be observed on a re-watch. 

Music Implemented into Film

A couple of weeks ago I sent my friend Greg a small table of timings for the music that he was going to create for me. The table, which can be found here, also included atmosphere examples.

Greg has now sent me four pieces of music. So far I have used two of these pieces. The first piece I have used for the opening scene, as it's quite dark and foreboding. The musical cues match with the cuts in the scenes. The second piece, is more ambient. It's dream like and fits well with when Nathan and the Grim Reaper are talking. Due to the length and variation of the piece, I can cut and splice what pieces of the song I want and different times.

Reflective Comment:

I didn't realise until I added some music how empty my short film sounded. The music compliments the scenes nicely and make for a more enjoyable overall viewing experience. I can't seem to find a way to upload the music to my blogger, but if I can I will add it. 

100 Blog Posts!

Wooooooooo!

Magazine Article Survey feedback

Earlier last week I created a survey to get some feedback on my second draft of my magazine article. I posted it on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. The responses are mostly positive, but with some suggestions on how to improve the magazine articles. With this information I am going to update my Magazine article and hopefully create a better draft.

Reflective Comment:

I was hoping for a bit more feedback from my survey, but that responses I have got have been very helpful. I'm hoping that with this information I am going to create a better draft.

Marking Criteria for Evaluation and Media Texts

This is the marking criteria for the ancilliary task and the evaluation. I have been refering back to this several times over the oast few weeks. Refering back to this means that I can make sure to maximise my marks.

Second Magazine Article Draft

Above I have attached a second draft for the magazine article. I think it's definitley an improvement on the first draft and is closer to resembling what a review article from IndieWire looks like. I have added a banner on the side, with the 'most popular' articles on the site at that time. I have also shifted the article and main photo to the left to accomdate for the banner.

It does still need some work however. I can't really seem to place where the grading of the film should do. I also feel that some of the proportions of the article themselves are a little off.  I also still need to add a author to the post.

For the 'most popular' banner, I created fake articles about productions from fellow students. These include Max Shephard, Adam Anderson and Fabian Harrison. 4 is a previous project that I have helped create for media and 5 is a mockumentary that I starred in year 10. I added a photo from Fabian's production as the most popular article always has an attached image with it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the final ancillary task. Before it overwhelmed me slighlty, but now I understand what I have to do and how I can improve. My next plan of action is to show my magazine article to some people and get to complete a survey for me.

First Magazine article draft

Above I have attached my first draft of the magazine article. My film would fit well on the IndieWire website as they have a large portion of website dedicated to short films. I used one of their articles as a template and worked off of that.

To improve I think I need to improve the layout of the text and the grade. (A staple of IndieWire's reviews.) I think the photo and everything above it works very well and looks good, and would certainly fit it in with image of IndieWire. 

Reflective Comment:

I'm pleased with my first draft of the magazine article and how it has progressed. It looks like it would've fit in with the IndieWire website. I've already had some over the shoulder feedback and I know how to improve the draft futher.

Class Feedback on Poster

I decided to show my poster to my class to receive some feedback. The poster I showed was my sixth draft. I had a few questions on the board to indicate what I was trying to gain from my feedback. I have attached a Vimeo video below of the feedback. With the feedback, I made a few slight changes.



Below is the improved poster with the feedback I received.

The changes that I have made to the poster are only slight but I do think they improve the overall quality of the poster. First I removed the WordUp logo from bottom left corner as it filled too much space and didn't really fit in with the atmosphere on the photo. I also made the block credit bigger and easier to read. The other change I made was the addition of a scythe for the Reaper, making it much clearer who he is and what the film is about.

Reflective Comment:

I'm happy with the changes I have made and feel like with a few small tweaks I'll have a finished poster. I'm planning on showing my poster infront of my entire year in assembly, as they won't know what the film is about like my class do. Their view will be unbiased and much more truthful.

Title Card Planning

After filming today I finally decided on what I want my title card to be. I want the film to have a short 'cold open', with a montage of grim woodland shots mixed with dark shots of the Grim Reaper, with the sound of Nathan's heavy breathing playing over the top. Then cut to the title card.

The title card itself I want to be all black. I want there to be a silhouette of the Grim Reaper with his scythe, and the text above him. I don't think this will be too hard to create. I am planning on using the photo below for the outline of the Grim Reaper. The only part that I think will take lots of experimentation and audience feedback is the typography.

Reflective Comment:

I am regretting leaving the title card so late, but it's not a major problem. I think that I should be able to complete it in good time, enough time that I can get a bit of a feedback and refine it if I need to. 

Emaze on my props

This is an emaze on the actual props that I will be using. If you are looking a more indepth look at my props, please head over to this post. This post is just outlining that I have found my props for the filming on this Saturday.

Reflective Comment:
Having the props is making me look forward to filming this Saturday. With the props I'll be insert more symbolism and new scenes into my film that will improve the overall quality of the film.

Magazine article contents 2nd attempt!

So after my first attempt at writing a film review for my ancillary task, I now am going to attempt to write a second attempt. This time I have a better understanding of the mode of address that IndieWire uses so I can better replicate the way they write.

Article

"I don't really know." The following line is said quite a few times during the short film about the Grim Reaper and his unfortunate friend. While many would expect the Grim Reaper to know everything and anything about life and death, but Dying Denial offers a much more humorous and clueless Grim Reaper.

Dying Denial leads with only two characters, however they are extremely strong characters. Nathan, who has recently died, is perplexed about his current predicament and just can't stop asking heavy loaded questions. Asking about religion and the meaning of life, Dying Denial explores several different subjects, but does not offer a definite answer to anything. The film is very open ended and definitely up for discussion.

A highlight of the film is certainly Peter Long's portrayal of the Grim Reaper. Serene, wise and amusing, Peter excels in the role. Acting as a guide for Nathan, and in part the audience, you'd hope that the Grim Reaper is quite alike to how Peter portrays him. His chemistry with Ronan is strong, as Ronan plays the poor guy who has unfortunately died. Ronan plays his role exceedingly well and convincingly.

When you break the film down, all it is is one man's passing on. It doesn't focus on dramatic goodbyes or second chances. Death comes, and there is nothing you can do about it when it does. It's a sombre ending, but as an overall film, it's quite a touching take on dying. The film is open-ended and open to interpretation, so much to the point where anyone could enjoy it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm still not overly happy with the article contents. I feel I am struggling to do it correctly . I have analysed IndieWire so hopefully this second attempt will be closer to the mark. 

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. 

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.

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. 

Assessment Criteria

Level 4 16–20 marks

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;
• There is excellent work on shot-lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or story-boarding;
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;
• Time management is excellent.

To achieve a level 4 in my short film which is what I aiming for, I will need to meet all of these targets. So far I believe that I am on track.

Celtx

A couple of days ago I thought it may be a good idea to find a script writing software, as it may just help my final product in the long run. What I found was Celtx, was looks like it's going to be very useful for my production.

Celtx is a video production manager site. On the website, you can keep scripts, budgets, storyboards and more all in one place, which then is easy to share with others. I've been using it for one of the scripts, and it's really useful. 

When you create a project, you can enter the information for the following.

• Script
• Budget
• Catalogue
• Index Cards
• The breakdown
• Shot list
• Schedule 
• Storyboards
• Photos/Film

So far it's been really helpful when writing the script. I imagine that I will be using this site for the rest of my production, as it seems to cover all bases that we have to use for our final product.

Reflection: I'm really happy I found this software. I feel that with it my production is going to benefit a whole lot from it, but also I feel that it'll help my script writing skills, something that I feel I've always struggled with. 

August 3rd update.

We have just over a month left of the summer holidays, so I thought I would make a little update on what I've been doing.

So I've stared scripts for the three briefs that I've chosen. (Short film, Documentary and Teaser trailer.) Out of these three, I've completed the Documentary script's first draft about videogames, (Which can be read here!) and I've nearly finished the script for the short film about the Grim Reaper.

I've also completed a survey that is going to help me get a better understanding of the target audiences for each brief, which brief is most popular and what I can do to make these briefs more appealing. I've only recently sent it out, so expect a follow post in a few days. You can read/do the survey here!

Before the end of the next week, I want to have completed a prezi about each brief and it's target audience and conventions. Doing this will not only help me decide on which brief to do but it'll also help make sure that when I create my product, that it is aimed at the correct audience.

I also want to have completed a storyboard for each brief. Just one scene, so I can get a better picture of what each will look like. It'll also help me later on when I'm trying to explain my ideas to others. I'm still undecided on if I am going to create these storyboards digitally or not.

Reflection: I feel like I'm making good progress over the holidays. If they continue the way I am, hopefully come September I'll be prepared to present my ideas and possibly even start pre-production sooner rather than later.

What I have learnt from last year

So in year twelve we had the task of creating a noir OTS for our coursework. I feel that while my group's final product was good, we still made a few mistakes on the way, and I feel that I actually learnt quite a bit from this.

I think my biggest three mistakes were time management, organisation and having no storyboards.

Last year my group and I started pre-production in Decemeber, but it still wasn't early enough for our project. We found ourselves struggling in Janurary to finish up our OTS and we had to rush our final scenes.

To combat my time management problems, I am starting pre-production extremely early to keep ahead. This way if I do make any mistakes, I'll have plenty of time left to solve any problems. It also means that if I need to reshoot any scenes, I'll have plenty of time to do so. Finally it also means I'll be able to be more ambitious with my ideas, as I'll have the time to play with.

Last year my organsitation skills were rather poor. I managed to get all the actors to come at the location, but when they arrived they didn't really know what was going on. I failed to actually inform them on what we were doing, which meant that it slowed production and caused more problems.

To better improve my organisitaion skills I'm going to try better inform my actors, letting know before hand what they're doing. Also, since I'm working by myself I will have to assemble a small crew, so I'll make sure they have there own scripts and storyboards so they are well informed.

Finally my final mistake last year was having poor storyboards. Because of this, as script writer/co-director it made it very difficult to put across my image for the OTS. It also meant that the actors didn't quite know what to do without futher explanation.

Hopefully this year for my media product, whatever there may be, I will have storyboards for the entire thing. I'm hoping to create these storyboards before production so that when I come to actually film my product I will have everything planned out, so my actors and crew both know what I want to create.

So in conclusion I am try to take every precaution I can to overcome the problems I made last year. I think the hardest challenge will be the time management, because even with my head start I feel that at times I will struggle to juggle my media coursework and all my other A-level lessons.

Reflection:
In reflection I think looking at my previous works and the mistakes I made is going to help me in long run. While I'm sure I'll run into new problems as I start pre-production and then production, I feel overall that I will be better prepared to face any problems that I come across.