Evaluation Question 3

From my initial planning I knew my target audience who are Business men with different social class. When I finished my film I showed it to the audience and I had some positive and non positive feedback. The Audience liked the camera angle I used ‘Tilt up’ during the first scene when Laura walks in to see the technician because it was managed professionally after me having few practices. It also showed slowly from bottom to top what she was wearing. I also used the advantage of natural light from outside, where I and Laura are discussing about the business plan on the laptop after I have returned it. The light was enough to cover the whole location and could see the face expression in more detail. Before I started filming I did a structured questionnaire about my film such as if they like the films name ‘Optiplex’ and however we got 90% audience who liked the name. The audience also liked the location we used, Mima Museum, because it was structured as a modern building. And was the meeting point for the technician (Ahmed) and the Business women (Laura). The Audience also liked the location on Mima terrace near the end because this location indicated many signs to the audiences such as I am rich and have control.

I also looked on other films feedback from the audiences. I used ‘Rotten Tomato’ to look at ‘Paul’ (2011) Which is an comedy film, the average rating was 6.3/10

Audiences comment:

‘Here's a movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way.’

‘Well you go in thnking that this is just going to be a simple nerdy sci-fi flick and thats what you get, however it is surprisingly funny and enjoyable!A great cast and an enjoyable movie to keep you entertained!Its Not one of my favourtie Pegg and Frosts movie, however bring in seth rogen and 'anal probe' then its still entertaining and keeps you very much amused!’

(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paul/)

Batman Begins (2005) Average rating 7.7/10

‘The character development/theme/plot all mended together so well. In my opinion, better than iron man. Great movie’

‘Its a great introduction of a darker batman from director christopher nolan. Truly a treat!’

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_begins/

However having feedback is important for the producer because it shows them what they have done well at and what they could improve on. If the producer gets mostly all positive feedback on the film then the producer may decide to make a second part of the film.

Throughout the audiences feedback there are some areas we could improve on. For example as I was talking about taking an advantage of natural light for out location, we have used it many times in different scene and some lighting have exaggerated our face expression during the scene at Thistle hotel entrance but however this was something we had no control of. During the scene of the film, I am coming up the stairs to meet Laura and when I reach the end point of the stairs the light is low and was hard for the audience to see the face expressions. I personally think our planning for the lighting was not good as it could be. In some point we thought about relaying on natural light and not use any of our own light. If we used any of our own light we could control the light and able to see where are we using extra light and where there is low light.

OPTIPLEX FILM

Evaluation Question 2

The ancillary tasks I have done are related with my short film. I have chosen to make a poster and a radio trailer to make my film more effective to its target audience. As you know my target audience are working class people such as business men. On my poster it has a picture of my laptops keyboard. This indicated to the audiences that laptop has a main role in the film. The colour of the poster is white because (white keyboard) in the film we use white laptop. The white colour also suggests time because as you go back in time the colours fade away in white. However this indicates the theme of our film is ‘time’. If I was to do it again I would add darker colours rather than just adding light colours because the poster will stand out and catches people eye. As market wise the poster will be shown externally around offices and companies because it will catch employee’s eyes as they are going to work. I have shown the poster to the audience and they had a positive feedback, however they were impressed by picture of keyboard because the letters on the keyboard showed it’s targeted at people with different profession. I enjoyed making my radio trailer because it was very creative and something new for me. I liked editing the most because this was the point where we could delete the recording that wasn’t perfect and redo them to make it perfect and more professional. I did a research about how film trailers are presented, I looked at ‘SAFE’ 2012 trailer where I got an idea of narrator and from there I decided to add film dialogues because this can give the audience a small snap of the film. It ends with an rhetorical question because it gets the audience thinking and imagine themselves in the same position as the character of the film.00The Radio trailer will be played on the morning times when people are going work and during rush hour time when they are on the way back from work.

Key term used in Adop Photoshop to make my Poster:

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4 on Prezi


GARAGE BAND

Evaluation Question 1

Before we started filming we looked at short films and some the main stream such as ‘Paul’ it was set on western desert, it was more of a road trip/comedy genre. The starting of the film was Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. These are the comedy actors from previous films such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’. I looked at the camera shots they have used such as shot reveres shot. The theme of the film was buddies, how two friends get along from there I got an idea of having a opposition character where I look like an helpful technician but I turn out to ruin Laura’s life with a twist in the end. I needed a futuristic building in one of my shots so I decided to shoot at Mima Museum which was very modern building and the idea of futuristic location was also related to the film ‘iRobot’ starting with Will Smith. The internal of the Mima building was bright Wight matching the colours of the robots in the ‘iRobot’ and other buildings in the film. To decide the genre of the film we looked at different short films such as ‘Across the Hall’ by Alex Merkin a thriller genre. From there, I decided to have a thriller genre this may keep my audience suspense to see what will happen next. For example as Ahmed takes the laptop to fix it he goes in the future twice with different situations in the scene and it suspense the audience what’s he going to do.

Throughout the film we have used natural light for example when we were shooting at the entrance of Thistle hotel the sunlight was reflecting where Paige was acting, which this created a natural light effect on Paige’s face showing her face expression more effective. What we could improve in the film that when we were shooting at Thistle hotel entrance that light was very low when I was saying my dialogue, we were depending on the natural light from the sky to help us but for next time we need to prepare our own lightings. We have used smart business clothes representing middle class people such as dress pants, suite etc. The clothes were also part of indicating that its audience are business class people. As you can see during the film am wearing normal shirt and dress pant and at the end am malformed in to higher class by wearing suite. It’s showing change from one social class into higher social class. We followed rules for the short films such as it should not be too long, so we had to make within 10min. We followed the script that is on the blog but we added few of the changes which made our script much better.

According to me editing has helped me allot in the film, it has played 70% of the role because that is the point where it makes the scenes more professional and can cut the scenes that you don’t need. It is also is the fun part because my group and me enjoyed editing.

Before we started making our posters we looked at short film poster such as ‘Across the hall’. The way the poster was presented as it was a mainstream film. I also analysed other short film posters such as ‘George Lucas in Love’ so we can get an idea how short films poster appear like and what techniques are being used such as tag line. If you look at mainstream posters such as ‘Cowboy and Aliens’ they don’t have too much writing on and have fewer pictures on. If you compare it with short film poster such as ‘George Lucas in Love’ it contains many character pictures and writing. By analysing these posters thought of wanting something different. So I decided to have a picture of my laptops keyboard because rather than exposing any characters i thought about the keyboard picture and it also shows more of a business look.

Location:

Mima/Terrace

Inside Mima

















Thistle Hotel Reception

Teeside University (close up on the suite, hand etc...)

OPTIPLEX Trailer New

OPTIPLEX Trailer ( Draft)

OPTIPLEX Poster

Planning & Research

January Contingency Plan

Changes in Script

Few days before the shooting we got told that Abby will turn up late, and we didnt had enough time so Laura acted insted of her place as a business women. As we shooted the film we added more dialogues as we went along. We changed one of the location, where I take my laptop at my house and use my room as a office but we decided to do it in our college (Media Room).

OPTIPLEX New Script

CA= Camera angles
MS=Music soundtrack

Scene 1:

[Opens with blackout. Knock at door.]

Ahmed: hello Miss Warren, I’m here to fix your laptop.  CA- Close up of face (cross cuts between Ahmed and Laura)

Laura: yeah… I’m glad you’re here! I’ll just fetch it. [exits (30 seconds) returns with laptop] problem is, I spilt coffee all over the keyboard and now the laptop’s not working. Could you fix it by tomorrow? I have an important meeting in the morning…

A: yeah sure, no problem. It’ll be back by nine in the morning.
 (Medium shot of Ahmed with laptop)

La: cheers that will be a great help!

[exits scene.]

Scene 2:

Camera angle- Medium shot of Ahmed. [Ahmed’s sitting at a desk studying laptop. ‘Optiplex’ suddenly appears on the screen. It requires a password to access the content. Voiceover: ‘p a s s w o r d’. CA-camera zooms into screen, eye match shot Screen fades to black, Ahmed thinks laptop has crashed, presses keys persistently. Eye match shot .Screen then suddenly becomes bright white. Ahmed is alarmed – close up of face. Intrigued, Ahmed touches the screen. Giant portal appears on the screen.]

A: woah!

[Camera angle- Zoom into laptop, fades to white – next scene]

Scene 3:

[Fade to white, Ahmed is stood stage right just in front of the right business woman. Business woman is waiting anxiously for her boss to arrive, fiddling with bits of paper on desk and drinking water which is located on the desk. Laura walks in] medium shot of positions of characters- switches to eye line match of Ahmed.
Medium shot looking up at Laura and business woman
La:  Samantha can you hold my calls please? I need to make an important call.
[La is picking up envelopes and flicking through them expression turns anxious]  

S: Miss. Warren I’m afraid this can’t. The accountant has gone through the accounts for the business… And…

La: [Looking worried Voice tone ragey] what? Samantha spit it out! I haven’t got all day?! 

S: Miss Warren. If we don’t claim this endorsement, then we’ll have to declare bankruptcy.
[La looking pale, supports herself with desk while S speaks]
Medium shot looking up at Laura and business woman
We’re going to lose everything. We really need to pull of this presentation tomorrow, the bank won’t wait any longer. Now I’ve called an emergency meeting with HR and humanities to produce ideas. Miss Warren… are you okay?
eye line match of Ahmed

La: [Looking pale, crouched over desk, still holding side of desk for support] Yes. Yes I’m fine. Bring the meeting to 9. [walks over to other side of desk and sits down. Opens laptop up]  What time is the meeting tomorrow?

S: 10 tomorrow morning.

La: Well… [heavy sigh] Let’s get cracking.
[A turns pixelated- screen fades to white. exit scene]

Scene 4:

[ Screen turns to black- Ahmed is stood in the middle of the street, under street lamp. Stood near La. A walks up to La so he is stood right behind her.]
[Camera angle turns to La’s view point as the cash point shows her no balance. La walks away and sits down next to the cashpoint in the shadows. Huddled  up]
[A pixelates again, exits scene]

Scene 5:

[Knocks at door. La opens door.
A: Hello Miss. Warren, I’ve just come to drop off your laptop again. I’ve just made a few changes to your laptop, I’ve interjected a new anti-virus to help reboost your pc at a faster speed [La opens up her laptop and analyses the laptop.] Also I couldn’t help notice your business plan and added a few changes that I think you will benefit from.

La: [ Sits laptop down on coffee tLale opens up laptop] This is really good. Really good. [Looks at A] Can I make a suggestion?
I actually really like your ideas and I really would like to see more of them.  Would you mind, sitting in my meeting tomorrow and explain the ideas to the team?
[A walks over to La]
[Shakes hands]

A: I would really like that
[Exit scene]

Scene 6:

[screen goes white A returns into reality. Sits at his desk and ponders for a few seconds. Max 10 screen fades black]
[Opens with blackout. Knock at door.]

A: Hello Miss Warren, I’ve brought your laptop back for you.

La: Oh thank you! You’re a life saver!
[A hands over the laptop, turns and exits the scene for 10 seconds,]
eye line match shot of A sneakily glancing at the business plan left on the coffee
[La returns]

LA: Give me one minute I’ll just put this back into my office.
[Laura exits the scene]

A: [Sits and glances at the business plan for 3 seconds] [Ahmed has disappeared with the business plan]

[Laura re-enters the scene]

L: Right  Mr Ahmed… Mr Ahmed? [Laura Walks in to the middle of the scene,. glances round the location, realisation dawns on her face] The business plan. Where’s the business plan? Where’s the business plan? [Frantic] Mr Ahmed?! Mr Ahmed!

[Change of location]
[Mr. Ahmed is walking across a balcony overlooking the city.]
[section of scene blends in with other section of scene. Attention turns to A walking out a building. Cross cut of different sections of A’s suit leading up to the briefcase and finally his face. (Background music projected).]

Camera shots, Location and Props

Plot

Film opens - black out, door bell rings - then cameras roll to middle close up, tightly framed shot of Laura and Ahmed talking at the door. close up of laptop when she hands it over to him. Fade to black.

Camera techniques-

Fades from white to situation.

shot reverse shot

Close up of character’s face

Long shot showing the technican walking away

Next scene opens with Ahmed sitting at a desk, studying the laptop - high key lighting, makes it eerie, foreshadowing something serious/ impactful. Ahmed notices 'OPTIPLEX' on side of laptop, he has never heard of that brand before. Touches the screen (virus on laptop sends him through time) - dissolve transition - camera 'zooms' into computer screen, fades to white.

Close up of laptop,
extreme close up of laptop / technician’s face

'fly on the wall' - Ahmed witness Laura's meeting with executive, discovers her company is going under, she is distraught. Fade to white - Ahmed is back in the present, sat at the desk.


Ahmed feels sorry for Laura. Suddenly, dissolve transition - camera 'zooms' into computer screen, fades to white. Sends him to 'bad' future - Laura is roaming the streets in shabby clothes, she stumbles to a cash point and there is no money, she is in despair. Fade to white - Ahmed is back in the present, sat at the desk.

Long shot of business meeting with business woman and her executive following into a close up of business woman’s face
Close up of technician’s face.
Long shot of business woman, shows her roaming around the streets,
Close up of bank balance then goes to close up of business woman’s face.
Medium shot of business woman curled up on floor.

Ahmed is determined to help her. dissolve transition - camera 'zooms' into computer screen, fades to white, inspiring music plays. Laura's door bell rings and Ahmed is standing there, he hands over the fixed laptop and Laura is ecstatic. Cross-cut to Laura's flat, they are sat at her table, she asks him to join her company. He smiles, close up of their hands shaking.

Film ends with fade to white.

Medium shot of technician coming out of laptop, and back to desk
close up of technician’s face when giving knocking on door.
shot reverse shot again.
extreme close up of the exchange of the briefcase.
close up of business woman’s face as she closes the door.
close up of laptop moves into a long shot showing technician sitting at desk.
fades to black.

Costumes:
Technician: Throughout the beginning scenes technician wears blue shirt, jeans, geeky look with glasses.
End scene wearing a black suit- a business look-

Business woman: Smart suit- blouse, skirt high heels hair messy, looks tired
3^rd scene wearing same suit accompanied with blazer, hair nicely up, nice makeup
executive, skirt blouse, blazer, high heels

4^th scene: Business woman wearing smart trousers smudged with mud, shirt dirtied with food stains etc.

Props:
Laptop, sunglasses, briefcase, bankcard,

Optiplex Feed Back

Optiplex (Pitch)

OPTIPLEX... on Prezi

Practice trailer Task

Trailer task (practice)



Script:

Wally Croft

CBA: V/O
One Girl. One Mission. One town.

Music- 5 seconds

CBA: V/O

Wally Croft- An outsider searching for an unknown destiny.
A glamorous companion (ahem) tracked down by a murderous villainous gang,

(music 10 secs)

(dialogue from film-
Chav: Awa lassa we’ll well mash yah up daft lass! Dissin’ owa city! Yerh that’s it bike away!!!!

(Sounds of explosion)

Wally Croft:

Dirty stinking cyber-chavs

Music …

CBA V/O
Wally Croft …. 23rd February 2012

Evaluation: 

Its been a great fun working on the radio trailer in a group of fours. This is one of our practice task and now I will be able to identify what things I can improve and what I did better. I was the narrative who was telling the story and creating suspense for the audiences. It took me few practices for to say my lines because I wasn't saying my words clear and smooth, but then I got hang of it. I still think it could be done better. I had fun creating the background music because I was using 'Garage Band' and it had all different category of sounds. The reason for choosing grove and energetic sound because the dialogue was more of like fighting back and sticking up for your place or town and this can also identify the genre of the film which is action. One of the good thing about the trailer was that when Laura said her dialogue in different accent. I still think that music was too loud and my voice wasn't loud as I wanted. For the future I know what I need to improve on the most. We used Apple Mac for our radio trailer which was much more easier to use because it had built in mic.

Online reviewing

Online Reviewing is important and easy for audience to review on films because you can directly connect to internet at home review on the film online. Reviewing is important because the audience can say their opinion about the film and what they liked and what they didn't like. However this can also help the producers and the director to identify what could they improve on more. However reviewing on conventional channels such as TV can be uncomfortable for some audiences because they may not want them to expose themselves on TV front of massive audience, but some people may feel comfortable and wont mind reviewing on TV channels. I personally think online review is better and safe to do because you can review by emailing where your email can be just between you and the sender. For example 'The Big Hit' (1998) the reviews have effected the film and its sales because there have been negative ones 'The script, by rookie writer Ben Ramsey, is among the most disgraceful screenplays ever to be produced by a major studio'  however on 'Rotten Tomato' 41% were positive reviews.

Reviews for the short film 'Across The Hall'

Across The Hall is a american short film, it has two different versions. The storyline of this short film is where Julian gets call from his best friend Terry and he suspects his faïence cheating on him. She's with Terry's best friend Julian in  a hotel room. The film is directed by Alex Merkin. The genre of this film is Thriller.

Rotten Tomato:

Their is no average rating yet from 'Rotten Tomatoes' but however 66% of audience want to see the film.

Dislike:
Critic review: Merkin tries too hard for stylistic flourishes (as the hyper set-designed, claustrophobically seedy hotel underscores) and winds up almost sinking the noir-ish tale he's telling.


Likes: 
here's a plot twist in the middle of the movie. The thing about this plot twist is that I guessed said plot twist reading the back cover of the DVD. This is a better move than my Matchstick Men trailer prediction. So be warned for some predictability.


IMDL:

Likes: 'I immensely enjoyed the cinematography and effects .. it created a dark and brooding atmosphere that had me mourning the conclusion before it came about. The acting was fairly good, no real complaints. I especially enjoyed the hotel concierge character, who added an old-school feel to the film'
This relates to the Director Merkin, how he cinematography and add effects to the film and as he goes on he comments about the Acting which relates to the actors of the film.

Dislike:
'I was completely caught off guard by this film. It has a great classic film/noir feel to it which is far too uncommon these days. That it was clearly accomplished on a smaller than Hollywood budget is all the more impressive' 


This can relate to Narrative and the director because they were not success of attracting audience by the script and the direction of the film. However the other reason may be for person not liking the film is that it was a low budget film because he compares it with how Hollywood film are.

This picture is been taken from one of the shot of the film and its also used as a poster is well. The reason for this is because this picture explains about the  film in detail. However it shows the person who's hiding from another guy who's coming across the hall. It shows the character is frightened from him and does not want to be seen by him.

Kingdom of Heaven (Full length feature Film)

Kingdom of heaven is directed by Ridley Scott. Its 2hrs and 25min long. This film has hybrid genre 'Drama, Action & Adventure'. However theory of Christine Gledhill comes in where she says that is becomes difficult to identify genre's because their is mixture of genres, but its not simply given they are in development every time. This film is based on epic historical event in the time of Crusade in the 12th century. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a humble French blacksmith who is searching for a reason to go on after the death of his wife and children. He goes to aid the city of Jerusalem in its defence against the Muslim leader Saladin, who is battling to reclaim the city from the Christians leading to the Battle of Hattin. The review for the film from 'Rotten Tomatoes' is:

1. Average rating is 5.5/10.
2. Rotten Tomato gave39% positive reviews and 72% of audience want to watch it. (Average 3.5/5)
3. Their was 185 review counted altogether

Likes:
Review 1: Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut is not just a 2-star movie that earned itself two more stars, but one of Ridley Scott's best, and a film that deserves its place in cinema history - even if that place could only be located on DVD.

Review 2 : ... an extraordinary work of art, a plea for religious tolerance that works because of sheer film making prowess and good, old-fashioned storytelling. (Director's Cut).

If you analyse these reviews they are aiming to the director of the film how its been cut and the audiences are surprised by the way he has directed the cuts.

Dislikes:


Review 1: Since we barely know what's at stake -- we're too confused and bored to care -- all this fighting means nothing to us, and yet Scott still hopes to rev us up with it.

Review 2: Ridley Scott's breathtaking historical epic is let down by patchy script.


These comments are again aiming at the director. Some audiences are confused because they don't understand the storyline of the film. However some audience think the script was not good enough to impress its audience. 

Outsider

This poster indicates you a horror genre of the film, this is because you can tell by the colour that poster has (dark colour such as black). It also include billing block at the bottom of the poster this is because it shows the credit of the film. It has a picture of a road which matches with the title of the film 'Outsider' because the road shows someone coming from different place and it has no traffic because again it means that the person who will arrive will be unknown to everyone. It has a tagline 'See things you don't' which is used for marketers and film studios to advertise and sell the film, how ever this creates excitement to its target audience. In the poster it also gives you hint of the characters such as who's the unknown person is on the left side of the poster. However theory of Barthes  come in that narrative is interwoven with multiple codes. As we look at this poster this may refer to the hermeneutic (mystery) enigma code because the story of not fully explained and its hold back to increase the effect of the final revelation of all code. It also show the action code because it builds interest and suspense by looking at a angry character face.

In this film their will be group of friends going away on a holiday. They are friends from college and celebrating together of finishing college. The name of the characters are James, Steven, Laura, Sammy and Mark. The props that may include in the film are Games console such as psp because the boys like playing games and this will show their what character type they are. We also need  mp3 because the girls will be into music and there also will be use of mobile phones during the film scenes. As I have explained the features on the poster which shows its a horror film, I will look forward to use the sound during the film which will grab the audiences attention.

Mainstream feature film poster & how they are different from Short film poster

The film 'Gladiator' is directed by Ridley scott. This is a mainstream film poster where the main character of the film is standing with a sword which this also can tell the genre would more likely to be Action. The enigma code of this film also supports Barthes 'The proairetic code', which is building interest and suspense.  However there is a similarities between 'Across the hall' where one of the character is with ha gun. The audience will be able to tell the story of the film is set in past where there use to be gladiators and can also tell by the clothes his wearing and the armour. The background of the poster shows Coliseum in Rome which again it shows the location of the film. As you can see this poster there is not much of writing included because they may not want you to give out any future information and keep the audience in surprise. However the short film poster 'George Lucas in love' has given out more detail to give the audience a hit what the film may be about. e.g. 'Dozens of years ago, in a nearby galaxy...' Even the colour of the poster can still indicate you that its based in past. The colour of the  poster 'Gladiator' uses brown to make the film ancient. Mainstream film poster have the billing block at the bottom of the poster.