Evaluation part 8

From the preliminary task to the final product I feel that I have learnt a lot. Refining is key going back over things and adjusting, what helps this is feedback. The more feedback we got when creating the title sequence the more we found faults or ways to improve our idea this helped because by questioning what we was creating we went back and was able to create and edit so that our story was more clear. For example due to the order the footage was in the audience was given the impression that the woman was his target and he was going to shoot her. To solve this we placed the push tracking shot of the door after the shooting scene to give the audience the real understanding that the man’s target was his home.

Creativity, research and planning was mine and Michaels best areas, from the start we had an idea strait away of what we wanted and our planning was strong. We produced a clear story board and I animated what we wanted our title sequence to roughly look like.

Our less successful area of creating the title sequence would be digital technology at the beginning as we used the wrong type of camera which had negative effects on the overall video quality which caused us to reshoot.  The editing software caused issues as we could not add effects or render work at some points during production this caused us to slow down our working speed however we looked for other elements to work on such as sound to be used in the title sequence.

evaluation part 6

We attracted male audiences using mise en scene, we feature weaponry such as guns which males are stereotyped to like and find fascinating. especially as there are war games like battlefield and modern warfare which are predominantly played by males.

Our title sequence attracts females due to the planning and idea of a wedding happening within the film the magazines used show dresses that every woman would want and also shows jewellery such as the rings which is something women would be stereotypically interested in.

I feel we successfully reached our audience as we produced a title sequence that show male and female interests such as jewellery and wedding material for women and weaponry that would interest men. our title sequence is also realistic and mature which is what the target audience would want as there interested in finding out about real experiences and action that revolves around a soldiers life.

feedback we was given was that the shot of the wedding rings was good as it clearly showed marriage and romance so when we re-filmed we tried to keep that feel of the scene but aimed to make it visually better by increasing the amount of light in the scene so that the jewellery would shine more.

the least successful part of the title sequence according to feedback was how the shoes were placed infront of a door in which they felt it was too staged so when re filming we placed them by a wall to make it seem more spontaneous and real.

evaluation part 5

Our characters in the film Half-way home are British and this has been represented to the audience through the stereotype that British people drink tea. This is done using mise en scene in the shot were the female makes herself a hot drink which we decided should be tea because of where she comes from and other cultures relate tea drinkers to British society. We also represented soldiers as people who are distant from family as in our title sequence we never showed the male and female in the same scene suggesting they are apart from each other, we tried to emphasise this a lot using mise en scene and cinematography to create symbolism like the couples items being apart and distant this is done to reflect that he is a soldier and away goes away from home.

 Our title sequence also represents men as having more outdoor life styles and doing more active activates as the man is shooting outside compared to the woman who is only showed indoors. The title sequence is also stereotypical of women suggesting they like to look at magazines as the female character observes a wedding magazine when planning for her own wedding.

The man also uses a gun (air rifle) in the title sequence this is aimed to express that the man is in the army as they are usually the only people allowed to shoot so by showing him holding a gun the aim was to present him as a soldier which he is. Being a soldier he is also presented as strong and dominant this is a stereotypical view and attitude about men this is important because the male character fight his way to get back home to his fiancée in the film.

Evaluation part 2

Evaluation part 3

Evaluation part 7

Evaluation part 1: Brief

I worked alongside Michael and our brief was to create a story for a film and produce a title sequence for the film idea. We came up with three film names and collected opinions from audiences and as a result of the research, we went with the title 'Half-way home'. Me and Michael wanted to create an action based film but didn't want the typical single genre so we decided to add romance making the film an action-romance which we was both happy with. also this multi-genre allowed us to attract a wider audience (females).

In our title sequence we have placed symbolic clues and meaning using mise en scene and cinematography. for example  the camera tracks upwards from the plane so that it vanishes below this a subtle insight into what shall happen as in the story the soldiers plane goes down. we also separate the man and woman onto two sides of the screen this shows there distance, especially when there objects are in the same scene like the shoes there is distance between them because in the film the move apart.

news report second edit

the news report final cut

Final cut

This is the final cut of our title sequence we added music and credits to the video.

video cut 8

This is cut 8 of changes to the video however now we need to apply music and credits to finish the title sequence. To get to this point we trimmed clips we thought were too long and deleted one of the stirring scenes as we felt it was too repeated and didn't want that. We are happy with the outcome of using  DSLRs to film as we feel it title sequence is better visual quality as we was able to focus and blur out the background. We also like the timing of the sequence and we feel it is not too long or too short.

video of our second pitch

            

first cut of title sequence

This is the first cut of our title sequence.

example animation of our title sequence

                            

This is the animation i created which we presented to the class during our second pitch.

The animation is designed to show what we want our title sequence to look like. The animation includes shots and camera angles we want to shoot, and also camera movement we want to add.

uk gun laws

 

 

The laws for owning air rifles and there usage can be found on The British association for shooting & conservation (BASC) website: http://basc.org.uk/airgunning/basc-air-rifle-code-of-practice/

The main rules for using an air rifle is not to point the gun in a direction that could be dangerous if its loaded or not. following this rules stops any accidental vandalism like breakages and stops people getting hurt.

Air rifles are classified as firearms meaning there are at least 38 offences if the laws are not followed. Although they are classed as firearms if the gun is under 12ft/lb in power you do not need a firearms certificate.

Being 18 means that there are no restrictions on buying, using  or owning a legal air rifle. also shooting an air rifle is allowed anywhere as long as you have permission from the land owner.

the gun used

For the filming we had the choice of two guns a .22 calibre air rifle and a .177 calibre air rifle.
We chose the .177 air rifle that was a vintage Ussr made gun because it looked better than the larger calibre gun also it was easier to work with as it had  a scope attached.

locations

we plan to film the gun scenes at frylands wood activity centre because it has the equipment we need ( air rifles and shooting range).

For the indoor scenes with the woman we plan to use my house as the setting.

video cut 7

After editing further the second 7th cut of the title sequence is a lot shorter and near the 2 minute mark with is ideal. We took out more of the woman in bed because we felt like the moment lasted too long, it was not so much of a significant part of the storyline in our title sequence. However we kept one shot because it shows that someone was on the other side of the bed which is the male (fiancée), so this scene begins to show the link between the two of them.

new rifle shooting location

the original shooting location was on the edge of London which was far to travel also it cost to film there so we found somewhere closer to film which  didn't cost us. We decided to reshoot the air rifle shooting and target scenes at a friends back garden we are also allowed to use two air rifles to shoot with. This gives us more freedom to film as we would have unlimited time to record.

mise en sen list

List of props we will need for filming:

 

gun: options are an airsoft gun because they are replicas of real life guns or we could use an air rifle because they have a nicer feel and look because they have recoil ,there made of wood and metal unlike airsoft guns and when an air rifle shoots its harder to see the projectile which makes it look and feel more like a rifle.

 

two wedding rings: this is to show the couple are getting married we feel showing this is really important because it is a main part of the film idea that they are engaged.

 

a wedding magazine: this shows the audience that there is a wedding being planned which in the film gets disrupted by the man going to war.

 

Wedding dress: this is also to highlight that there will be a wedding.

 

targets: to shoot at.

 

boots and high heels: this is to show that the man is tough and in the army and the high heels show she is a woman and they give an impression that she dresses for an occasion like the wedding.

 

plane: we want a plane because in one shot the camera moves up making the plane look like its going down, this is symbolic because in the story the man is in a plane crash.

 

calendar: to show that a wedding is planned on dates.

 

picture frame: to put a picture of a the guy in army uniform in to show he is a soldier.

Not using news report

We decided not to use the news report scene we created in the title sequence. the reason we didn't use the news report is that we felt the actor did not give a serious performance as he seemed to happy which did not match what was going on in the back ground. Also the style of the news report didn't seem to match the other shots in our title sequence, it felt too tacky and fake.

title sequence ending eperimentation

 

From the feedback it was shown that the title sequence ends too abruptly. to solve this we added fade outs the end of the shot of the phone the text ran over and faded out after this gave the white text a black background for a few seconds which I really liked. finally I faded out the music and stretched the fade so it would slowly end. After the editing I watched it all and found the title sequence ended a lot smoother and I am very happy the changes were made.

Filming equipment

To film the title sequence we will need.

2 cameras: this is so we can film the same scene from two angles in one take. this creates better continuity and smooth transition from angles.

2 tripods: this is so when we film using two cameras both are able to be steady when recording.

1 dolly: a dolly would be useful to film smooth tracking shots without having the shake which a steady cam would give.

story issues with video

After looking back at the title sequence and looking at the feedback given, the first draft gives the impression that the man is going to kill the woman. This is because the dress scene fades to a target that gets shot so it looks like he's going to shoot her. to solve this issue we decided to change the order of the scenes so that the target would not appear near something of her to avoid the impression that she is the target.

starting of editing

today we started editing, we put all of our videos that were .MOV into one folder and then using  a program called Mpeg streamclip which converts media files we changed the .MOV files to DV.
Once all the videos were converted we imported them to final cut pro were we could start editing and from then on we organised which order the clips went in and cut them down if they were to long.

smooth cam issues

we have had issues with smooth cam were at the beginning of the clip it is smooth but then at the end it glitches and jumps, it seems no matter what we do to fix this problem it doesn't work. so we will have to start the smooth cam over again without credits over the video because we think that could be the reason its jumping.

re shooting plane scene

Today me and Michael decided to reshoot the scene were the camera tracks from a plane to a picture on the wall. we reshot this because steady cam didn't work it was too shaky. To solve this we decided it would be smoother if the camera was running along a solid sturdy surface. we got a plan of wood and rested it at an angle then placed a book which the camera sat on top of and we pushed the book up the plank of wood. This created a smooth scene and we was really happy with the shot.

video cut 6

This is the sixth cut of our title sequence. here we have taken out some of the scenes we feel make the video too long but does not add anything for example we took out the part where the woman gets out of bed not only is it unnecessary but it does not match the lighting in the other shots of the bedroom. we also took away the push on the door as we didn't like the effect the sun had, it created light shapes on the lens which we found distracting.

After looking over the video multiple times we noticed the woman features more than the man however we wanted to keep an equal balance which is why we put in so many shots that involved her because the previous cuts were more focused on the man.

video cut 5

After re-filming everything with DSLR cameras and other camera equipment this is the first new edit using the latest final cut pro. We added some new scenes that we thought would improve the story and express our symbolic messages better and we also deleted some shots that we didn't like or just thought something else worked better. This cut of the title sequence is also too long at over 3 minutes but this features all the footage we liked so now we can cut down what we want, don't want and need which will eventually make it shorter.

smooth cam

Some of our shots were we tried to do steady cam turned out really shaky however we was told about a effect that makes the video less shaky during our feedback. the effect is called smooth cam and it should make the video look much better however we have been told it takes a while to render.

third cut of title sequence

THis is the third cut of our title sequence. one main issue with this is the steady came of the calendar and the tracking shot from plane to photo is too shaky. Also the image quality on some shots are poor and its been suggested to re do them on a better camera.

second cut of title sequence

             

second day of filming

Today we filmed the indoor scenes of the woman reading the wedding magazine and filmed objects around the house that we wanted to use to have symbolic meaning and give hints to what happens further on in the film.

green screen

using a green screen enables us to place someone in front of a video this is done by recording a person in front of a green screen. when editing you remove all the green and the video behind becomes visible.