Evaluation

Audience Feedback

During one lesson last week, we had the chance to watch everyone else’s films. Each time someone film was played, 5 questionnaires were handed out to various people in the class. We had to evaluate each others coursework by filling in the questionnaires and handing them back to them. This way, we each got random opinions of our work.
The questions that had to be answered included-
1) How well did the film follow the codes and conventions of the Romantic Comedy genre?

2) From the evidence you have seen, how well planned was the coursework?

3) How much imagination did the coursework show?

4) On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being excellent) rate –
a) Shot Composition
b) Mise-en-Scene
c) Editing
d) Sound and Music
e) Titles

5) Any other comments

Out the five people, 3 said that our production had excellent codes and conventions. The other 2 people said that they were good. I agree that we followed the codes and conventions of a romantic comedy effectively. This is because the lead couple are split up and are not together, providing the romance element. The comedy comes from the friends trying to cheer Nova up.
People thought that our film was well planned. I agree because we stuck to our action plan as much as we could. The only thing that slowed us down and affected our plan was missing a week of filming. Otherwise, everything went well.
Four of the people asked said that our film showed high imagination and creative flair. We all agreed with this because, even though our film was a typical romantic comedy, we still tried to make it unique. An example of this is when the couple are not together at the beginning of the film, which will make the film different to most. It will also make it unpredictable and intrigue the audience.
On question 4), we were mainly given one’s and two’s. When editing, we aimed to put as many different shots in as possible without taking away the simplicity of the film. We focused on making the mise-en-scene as effective as possible e.g. example the pink furniture, girly clothes, and bottles of wine. We were really proud of our editing, as we had worked really hard on making the film professional and seamless. We added dissolves in so the film would be more effective and realistic. From the beginning of the coursework, our group loved the songs that we used, so we were glad when people said that the sound and music worked well in the film. The credits of the film were also given high marks. We though that the pink and white went well with the romantic comedy genre. Also, the font of the writing was simple to go with the film.
All of the comments that people made were fair, and as a group we agree with them…
-‘Music went well’
-‘Good, creative editing’
-‘Singing and dancing in street could have made more sense’
-‘Didn’t need improving’
-‘Very good’
-‘Music suited well’
There are certain things in the film that each of us would change if we had the chance of one more editing session…
-Nova looks at camera when she finds the bra
-Bit blurry when they run down the stairs
-Singing in the street was a bit out of sync
That being said, we are all very proud of our film, and the little things that we would change don’t make the film bad.

Editing

On the 28th January, we put together a Recording Log of all the shots that had been filmed on our tape, whether we wanted to use them or not. After this, we had to decide which shots we wanted by viewing the clips on the computer and putting together an Editing Decision List. When we had completed this we had to log and capture the shots. Myself and Hannah did this as Matt was away. We had to make sure that we left two seconds at the beginning and end of the shot so that nothing was cut out. It took quite a while to make sure that all of the shots that we wanted got onto the computer properly. Also, because of the amount of footage we had, loading the shots we had decided on took an hour and a half.
When we put together a rough edit of clips according to the storyboard, we found that what we had was too long to fit the criteria of the film being 3 minutes long. When we were about half way through the storyboard, our film was already 2 and a half minutes. This meant that we had to go back over what we had put in place and cut it down. A major part that we altered in the film was the beginning. Instead of panning across the pictures of them happy, we decided that it would be better for the sequence of the couple together to be a sequence in itself. This way, it would seem like a dream sequence that the girl has just before she wakes up. We decided that this would still fit in with the film whilst taking up less time, allowing us to make the whole film less than 3 minutes. We also shortened other shots that we had put on so the film looked more fluid and a lot more professional. An example of this is when she is chasing him down the stairs, the sharper editing makes the sequence flow better than it did before. After we cropped some of the shots, we found that we had reduced the film by about a minute.
The songs that we chose for the opening were: Joss Stone- L.O.V.E, and Gloria Gaynor- I Will Survive. We felt that these two songs would fit perfectly in our film. For the first half, when the couple are breaking up, L.O.V.E is playing, and the words of the song assist in the telling of the story. We edited the pace of the footage and music to play parallel to one another. When Nova finds the bra under her pillow, the words “love is more than just a game for two” are sung. This plays until Nova’s friends say “Let’s put some music on!!”. The song fades out at the same time as the screen cuts to black. This connotes a new chapter in her life. Whilst the screen is still black, the introduction to I Will Survive is playing. It sounds almost magical at the beginning, like the girls are in a fairytale. The song, I Will Survive, is a very popular karaoke song, and a real feel good song for girls who have just split up from their boyfriend. When this song is playing, Nova’s two best friends are miming to her to make her feel better. The tone of the film at this point begins to change, as Nova starts to get over James. The words of the song could easily be a metaphor of what Nova wants to say to James. When the words “thinking how you did me wrong” are sung, Nova’s friends are trying to pull her up to dance, but she is clearly thinking about James.
One of the major things that we had to consider when editing was the timing of the shots. This is especially important as the friends are meant to be singing in the film. Although we couldn’t get the timing with the singing exactly in sync, we still felt that it was believable. The songs, as I have already mentioned are crucial in the opening to our film, as they tell the story. The first song, is slower and more romantic than the second. We chose these songs because there is a significant difference between the two, which coincides with the tone/mood of the film. We had to put all the shots we wanted onto the timeline, as well as the music that we had chosen. Then, we had to decide how long we wanted the shots to last for, so that we could edit them together. When we had synced the songs to the shots, we locked the audio so that if we changed the length of the shot, the music would also change at the same time. We found that this saved us a significant amount of time later on in the process of editing. Whilst we were still in the planning stages of our film, we knew that we wanted the music to tell a story, and for the significant parts of the film to be accompanied with specific words from the songs. Although we found this really tedious and frustrating at times, we knew that it would only add to the effect of the film.
The words in the song are especially in sync with the significant points in the film. To emphasise the importance of this, we decided to put transitions and effects in at those points. This is also because we didn’t want the rest of the film to be too busy. When Nova discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her the song explains that “Love is more than just a game for two”, to connote that their relationship is being ruined by a third person. During the second song, the words “thinking how you did me wrong” are sung, we felt that this was a really significant part of the film. To emphasise this, we dissolved together two shots – a shot as her friends are trying to get her to dance, and a shot of Nova and James happy together, to show that she cant forget him. Also during the second song, some of the words are “and I grew strong”, this is the point in the film when Nova’s friends persuade her to enjoy herself, and she gets up to sing and dance. Also, James is trying to get back into the door as the words “I should have changed that stupid lock” are sung. Even though Nova is getting over James, it is clear that she is still thinking about him. “You’d be back to bother me”, as these words are said, there is a black and white shot of them together that was originally intended to go at the beginning. We had cut it out, but decided that it fitted in with how Nova would still be thinking about her relationship with James. Another edit we used was a fade towards the end of the film when all of the girls are dancing in the street. This editing decision was made for two reasons. Firstly, we wanted to show a passage of time. We also needed to put the fade in because the two shot that had been filmed had the girls at different places in the road, so by putting the slow fade in, it looked more believable. At the very end of the film, as the title appears on the screen the words being sung are “I will survive, as long as I know how to love I know I’ll stay alive…”
Not all of the edits in the film were done just so they went with the music. We didn’t want all of our shots to have effects on them, as this would make it less realistic. However, I feel the edits we used worked really well with the shots they were used on. One of the hardest things to edit in the film, was the split screen when the two girls are singing. Not only did we have to distort Kirsty’s frame, we also had to make it look like the girls were singing in time. The main reason we had trouble aligning the two shots was because of how the girls were standing, and dancing. Kirsty moved a little bit more than Sinead so she took up more space. To make the split screen, we had to view the images with wireframes enabled, and put them on op of one another. This allowed us to move them around and position them how we wanted. This was also frustrating as when we got one girl how we wanted, the other didn’t fit in the frame. At some points when we were editing, we discovered that unfortunately, we had not captured some of the shots that we wanted. An example of this is when Nova has just thrown James out, and she slides down the door. The problem we had was that Nova’s hair was on different sides for the shots. However, the fade hides the mistake. In our preliminary task, we had to use a match on action, we also decided to use 2 matches on action in our film so that the editing would look seamless. They are when Nova rolls over to kiss James in the first half of the film. The other match on action, which is less noticeable, is when Nova is eating crisps. The film is from Nova’s point of view, we decided to reflect this by using point of view shots to show the audience the film from her perspective. This is shown in the picture as Kirsty and Sinead put make up on Nova to try and make her feel better. At certain times in the film, we faded and cut the screen to black or white. We did this to connote the lightness and darkness of the film, and also to mirror how Nova is feeling. When the screen cuts to black as the girls put some music on, there are connotations of a new chapter in Nova’s life starting and she is forgetting the bad times. This could also be perceived as a passage of time. At the end of the opening, the camera tilts up to the sky and fades to white to show how the sky is her limit. Also, the lighting is brighter in the second half as she begins to get over James. When we started to watch our film back, we noticed that when Nova screams, there is a change in her voice because it is a mix of two different shots. To get over this, we made the first audio clip of the scream longer so that her voice didn’t change. When the friends arrive at Nova’s house, they bring with them the essentials of a girly night in – alcohol and junk food!! There is a pan across empty bottles and glasses, not only to show a passage of time, but also to show that the girls are gradually getting more and more drunk. When the girls are outside dancing, there is a particular shot when they point to the sky, that we wanted to be in time with the music. When we did, we found that the rest of the footage was out of time. This meant that we had to spend extra time making everything fit together.
When we had finished putting the shots and music as we wanted them, we had to put credits on top of the shots. When we were waiting for the editing suite one day, myself and Hannah decided to call our production company Minted Pictures. We also decided that our credits would be pink and white, to connote love. There is also the connotation of two different sides to everyone. Kirsty’s and Sinead’s names appear when Nova discovers the bra, this is to show that they are there for her when she is in trouble. For the rest of the credits, we tried to put them evenly throughout the film, so that it wasn’t to busy at one point. Also, we positioned them at different places in the frame, so that they weren’t covering anything. This could also be thought of as unpredictable, like the characters themselves.
We handed in our final edit on 27th February, and we were all really happy with our film. Although we did have a few disagreements along the way, I think that this proves that we all wanted the film to be the best that it could be. I also think its good how we were all passionate about the end product.
In our film, we mainly represent the differences in gender. As the film is a romantic comedy, and typically more females will go and watch this sort of film, we wanted females to be represented as strong and able to cope without a man. Although our film was largely influenced by Bridget Jones, we didn’t want to have the typical formula, in the sense that the couple are broken up at the beginning instead of later in the film. In the film, it is the female who throws James out, representing her as strong. However, when he isn’t around, she breaks down. When she is upset, it is her best friends that are there to help her, as soon as she texts them, they are at her door. Also, it was the female in the relationship who made decisions i.e- most of the furniture is pink, which is obviously down to her. It is also her who is making the effort in the relationship as she leans over to kiss him , whilst he seems less concerned. The male in the film was represented as an idiot. He is meant to be cheating on his girlfriend, but he is so stupid that he hides a bra under her pillow. Also, he is humiliated by her . The separation between the two characters is shown as they lie in bed facing opposite way, and also they are shown in separate shots when they are arguing.

Filming

According to our action plan, we should have started filming on January 18th. However, as Matt was hungover, we had to postpone filming until Saturday 24th instead, so we were a week behind. Fortunately, the whole thing was shot in one day. There were still problems with filming on the day. There were some shots that were planned that sadly didn’t work out on the day because of various reasons, the lighting being the main reason. An example of when the light got in the way was when Nova was in the hall on her own. There was glass at the top of the door, so the sun was shining through, making it difficult to film scene that was intended to be dark to reflect her situation, this was resolved by covering the glass so that the light didn't get through to the hallway. As some of the shots didn’t work, we added more shots so that we had extra to look at when editing, even if we didn’t use them, for example – the girls going conga outside. Also, when we were going to film on the 18th, most of the props were at my house e.g. the knickers. For filming at Matt’s house a bra was used instead. Other than this, everything else went to plan, and we were all happy with what had been filmed. The house that it was filmed was believable as the girls own house. The bedroom was easily recognisable as that of a young girl, because of the pink and girly furniture. Also, we made it clear that she was the type of girl who would have her friends around when she is upset, this is also relevant in terms of what she is wearing. We had to consider our target audience when filming, and what they would expect to see. The cheating boyfriend was wearing just his boxers and a tshirt. His tshirt was black and there was a slogan on it, both of these things made the boy look like a dark and nasty character. Also, the bra that Nova finds is black, so there is a clear link between the boyfriend and his cheating ways. It is contrasted with the light pink that she is wearing. Both of the friends were wearing heels, which makes them look stylish, and also professional. They are wearing scarves and cardigans – what they are wearing makes them look like older middle class girls – which is our target audience. The living room was full of bottles of wine (well, ribena!), some of which were empty, this makes it look to the audience that they have been drinking all day. The three girls who were playing the friends were great for the film as they looked like good friends, and it was easier for them to act together. A reason for this being that a theme that we are trying to portray in the opening of the film is girls being able to cope on their own without men. Also, James and Nova, who play the couple who break up in the film, are an actual couple. This meant that they were comfortable with each other and what they needed to do ie- lying in bed together. Each shot was filmed more than once so that we could edit the best shots together. It is easier to have lots of footage and have to cut it down, as oppose to searching for clips to make the sequence longer. As it turned out, we had more than enough footage and thankfully didn'y have to arrange to film any shots again.

Action Plan

To make sure that our coursework was completed by the deadline of February 27th, we made an action plan to give ourselves plenty of time to the filming and editing. We also had to make considerations for if anything went wrong.

Sunday 18th January – Start filming
Saturday 24th January – Finish any extra filming
Wednesday 28th January – Complete recording log. Log and capture the shots
Thursday 29th January – Rough edit
Friday 30th - Continue editing
Saturday 31st January/ Sunday 1st February – Time for any extra shots that are needed
Wednesday 4th - Thursday 12th February - Continue editingFriday 13th - Sunday 22nd Feb - Half TermMonday 23rd Feb – Adding music and transitionsWednesday 24th - Friday 27th - Put together final editFriday 27th - Deadline

Directors – Hannah, Lauren and Matt
Filmed by – Hannah, Lauren and Matt
Editing by – Hannah, Lauren and Matt

Cast –
Main Girl – Nova Arkasrivorn
Cheating Boy – James Alexander Smith
Best Friends – Kirsty Louise Lloyd and Sinead Wakefield Smith

Setting –
Main girls house – Matt’s house

Main Props –
Knickers
Wine
Chocolate/Crisps
Ice CreamCD Player
Hairbrushes

Costumes -
As he is the cheating boyfriend, we wanted James to wear a dark t-shirt, which would be contrasted with Nova's light pink pyjama's. This would show a dinstinct difference between the two of them. Also, we wanted the underwear that Nova finds under her pillow to be either red or black, to further continue the theme of betrayal. When the friends arrive later on in the sequence, we wanted them to look young and stylish, without looking too overdressed. This is so that our target audience can relate to them. For the very start of the film, where it in black and white, we want Nova and James to look quite similar in their styles. It is easier to achieve this as they will both appear to be in black and white.

Our Final Idea and Storyboard

We have chosen to do Moving On. We chose this because we felt it would be the easiest to make in terms of following the codes and conventions of a Romantic Comedy. It will also be the easiest for us to create i.e- settings, characters, props etc.

Below is the outline to our storyboard...

1- Black and white photos on the bedside table of them together (Music: Joss Stone - L.O.V.E)
2- Pictures start to develop into footage of them happy
3- Pan across them in bed, high angle shot
4- Long shot of them from bottom of the bed, they are facing seperate ways
5- Match on action - She rolls over to kiss him on the cheek and rolls back over
6- Puts her hand under her pillow and feels a pair of knickers and pulls them out
7- She sits up and screams, go to extreme close up of her mouth
8- High angle shot of them arguing in pyjama's
9- Reaction shots/Medium close ups of both them as they argue
10- Insert of her hand on the door handle
11- She puts the knickers on his head and kicks him out, slams the door
12- Medium shot/Tilt as she slides down the door, crying
13- Insert of text message "He's been cheating on me"
14- Wide shot of her on her own, fade to black
15 - Low angle shot of stilettoes running up the drive, bright colours
16- Medium close up of friends coming in the door with wine and chocolate
17- Over the shoulder of her friends, girls reaction
18- Close up of the girls face, make up has run all over her face
19- Shot of putting last wine bottle down. Pan across the full bottles
20- Point of view shot, friends wiping her face and putting make up on her
21- Pan across the now empty bottles of wine, the last one knocked down and dripping
22- Point of view of girl as her friends stand up and say "You don't need him", low angle
22- Girl sits on the sofa with her pyjama's on, but make up done, eating ice cream
22- The friends say "Let's put some music on" (L.O.V.E starts to fade out)
23- Insert of finger pressing Play button on stereo (Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive)
24- Friends singing a line at a time into hairbrushes
25- Try and pull the girl up to sing and dance
26- "But I grew stong" She stands up and they all sing and dance together
27- Medium shot of door - they all run towards it
28- Shot of door left open
29- Various shots of the girls dancing outside
30- Whilst still dancing in the road, the camera tilts up to a clear blue sky, and the title "Moving On" appears
31- Fade to white

Initial Ideas For Our Film

After looking at all of our research combined, our group decided that the best genre for our film would be a Romantic Comedy. We chose this genre for a number of reasons, as well as our research. In the time we have to make and edit the film, and considering our resources, we felt that we could most justice to the Romantic Comedy genre.

As a group, we came up with 4 initial ideas that we could possibly use as the opening to our film...

1 - GAY BRIDGET JONES
We thought that a male main character would not follow the conventions of a romantic comedy, but still feel like one when watching it because of the characters. We decided that it would be a subtle but postivie twist on the genre. The opening of the film would be the man gettting ready to tell his family that he is gay, and their reactions to the news. His family are religious, so they obviously disagree. Even though it is a serious subject that we would be confronting, the humour emerges from the reactions of his family. We wanted the main character to be like a friend to the audience, so we would include a voiceover at the beginning, because this worked so well in Bridget Jones. The voiceover would also make the serious subject funny.

2 - RICH MAN / POOR GIRL
A poor girl lives on a council estate with her Mom and little brother, where she meets a well educated, rich and handsome business man - the complete opposite to her. She gets a job as an intern where he works, everyone else is really bitchy and stop them getting together. The opening would show them both getting ready for work, and the differences between them and their ways of life. We thought this idea reminded us of Ugly Betty.

3 - LOVE STORY
An author, who writes love novels, can never seem to find love for herself. She is very eccentric, which would probably be the main source of comedy. However, as she writes one of her stories, it starts to come true and she finds herself living her own novel. The opening would be the woman at her type writer starting her story. As she types the introductions of the characters, they fade onto the screen. The opening would end with her writing about the main character, there would be a close up of her face.

4 - MOVING ON
A couple have been together for a while, they are happy together. We would show ths by having some black and white images of them together. However, the girl finds out that he has cheated on her, and immediately kicks him out. The first thing she does is texts her friends, who turn up at her house with the essentials - wine and chocolate. They get drunk together, and the girl starts to forget about her ex. The humour would come from the girls breaking into song at the end and dancing about with hairbrushes to a song like 'I Will Survive'.

We love all ideas, but unfortunately can only choose one.