AS Media: Foundation Project

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Feedback

What connotations does the title of the film ‘Splintered Kin’ convey?

Answers:

‘A broken family with problems’

‘Separated from family’

‘Broken family’

‘A fractured family relationship’

2. What codes and conventions of the thriller genre are conveyed through the opening sequence?

Answers:

‘Darkness and murder’

‘Mystery, death, killing’

Mystery, dark, location’

3. What narrative features are present?

Answers:

‘Death is shown as a narrative’

Mystery’

‘Death, a murder’

‘Murder’

4. How effectively do the camera angles and movement create meaning?

We chose the rating '15' because after reading the BBFC website to research the classifications for each rating. Having read the U, PG. We looked at classifying our film as 12a. However after reading the violence section saying "Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context." we felt that the film was too violent for a 12a. We then looked at the classification of '15'. "Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification." We felt that our thriller fell into this catergory as we did not dwell to long on the violent scenes. There were few references that could be called 'sadistic'. We had no sexual violence so didn't need to go up another rating. Therefore we left it at '15' feeling that was the best rating we could give it.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Filming Today

Myself, Zoe, Luke and Lucy went down to our location to film today having gotten out a camera. Unfortunately we weren't able to film as the camera turned out to be out of charge. We decided that we would have to find time soon to just touch up the few clips that are needed.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Soundtrack

Today in lesson, myself and zoe started to try and export the soundtrack to our film project, however we found that it was very difficult to transfer files from garageband to final cut pro, we spent at least 10 minutes trying to transfer it then finding that it seemed impossible began to rework it into soundtrack pro, which has a section for the video so you can see what the sound is like with the video. However there is a limited range of sounds that limit us to a smaller sound collection.

Script

Zoe has patiently put together our original script ideas for us, and here I have typed it up, keeping to a basic script form.

[Zoe and Lucy walk into view of camera. Lucy staggers around. Zoe keeps a grip on Lucy, holding her upstraight]

Zoe: You always get me to pick you up when you're drunk!

Lucy: I know, it won't happen again - I promise!

Zoe: Too right it won't happen again, I'm never doing this for you again

Lucy: I wasn't my fault... I got carried away

[continue walking to underpass. Lucy starts patting her pockets searching for phone]

Lucy: Mum, I can't find my phone anywhere? It's gone!

Zoe: [sighs] Where did you last have it?

Lucy: [looks frantic] I thought I had it walking here, it might have fallen out of my pocket. [looks at the ground, fumbles for phone]

Zoe: [Rolls her eyes] Look stay here. I'll quickly go and see if I can find it. But please stay here! [volume rises throughout speech]

Lucy: [shrugs] Okay.

[Mum walks off to look for phone, finds it then wanders back]

Lucy: [screams, and is dragged off screen]

Monday, 23 January 2012

Interviewing

Zoe and myself got the chance to interview some of the cast and crew of 'Defining Fay' I started to write the answers down, before switching to recording them. Here are the answers that I had written down.

How Different is it working on a short film to working on any other project?

Joe and David - "Not very different at all, it has a smaller cast, the pay is different but the process is all the same, and in fact it is more enjoyable."

Does it get tiring repeating the same shot over again?

Joe and David - "It's just a job. You can handle 5/-7 times for a project like this. When working on a feature film you might do 1/2 of the scene months apart"

What's it like working with Sacha (the director)?

Joe and David - "We really like him, Directors vary some are really clear about what they want you to do, others concentrate on the technical stuff. Sometimes on a feature film, its you who gets shouted at by a director rather than the big stars"

What's the script like?

Joe and David - "The script is good, you only really go for a job if you like the script"

Do you find it easy to remember your lines?

Joe and David - "It varies on the writing, how long scenes are. If it is really good writing then it is easy to read. There is a big difference in writing especially on soaps as there are loads of different writers. You can also only retain so many lines."

Seeing an actual film set.

Today myself and Zoe had the chance to go to Suffolk One and watch the crew of 'Defining Fay' film 3 or 4 shots, which in all took around 5 hours. We had the chance to talk with the Director Sacha C. Damjanovski, the director, we got to speak with the producer - Mark, and we had the chance to speak with Joe Absolom and David Hounslow, two of the actors in the production. It was a very rewarding experience. We got to watch the director and crew set the cameras up, and how they aligned the shots together. Everyone was very friendly and very helpful, they answered all the questions we asked. We asked if they would need to come back and re-shoot if one clip wasn't right, and was answered by Sacha with "We unfortunately don't have the budget to be able to come back to re-shoot". So every shot they did had to be perfect. They had to take and re-take each shot till they were as close to perfect as possible. It was very interesting to watch, and amazing to see just how long it took for them to set it all up.