Directors Commentary

This video is our sequence with a commentary voice over as the sound to explain what we did in certain shots.

This medium shot of Aaron, denotes his 'schizophrenic twin' behind him, which suggests the troubled thoughts and images he has to put up with all the time. The music also changes in this situation as the music turns to a more tense moment.

Here is an over the shoulder shot of the twin, looking down and watching Aaron which is part of Aarons mind. He then walks out of the shot whilst the camera remains stationnary, adding a unsettled atmosphere.

This two shot shows the divergence of Aaron and Stacey, as Stacey doesn't believe him telling her that he didn't kill the girl. This is why Aaron is lower, to show his inferiority. This additionally follows the rule of thirds, as Aaron is in the bottom right and Stacey being in the top left showing her superiority and authority.

Audience response to our film

After we made our film, we asked our peers what they thought, so we could get an in-sight into the general opinion on our film;

David Lowes
'I thought the story line was gripping, and the editing was good, especially the slow motion effect you used when the other person appeared behind Aaron.'

Matthew Finnegan
'It was extremely proffesional, however, the story line was not 100% clear'

Ryan Boylan
'It was good, i enjoyed it but the begining effects were the best.'

Guy Winn Davis
'It was a great in sight into how some one can be percieved and stereotyped.'

Most of our feedback shows that our editing is of a high standard and the story line adhers with the young British generation.

We asked this particular group of people, as they are our target audience, however, we also asked a wider audience, including our teachers, and their response was;

'Your film is very professional and intriguing, also the opening sequence generally makes me want to carry on watching.'

So from our feedback we can positively say that our film was successful within most generations.
The general over view is that of good, high quality.

Problems

There were some problems which occurred during the making of our film. For example, the first day we started filming, we had the camera completely still, at a medium shot, all the way through the conversation, after looking back at this we decided it looked week and uninteresting.

So we decided to film again, this time we took various shots, including high angle, low angle, to show power and authority, shot reverse shot, to show conversation, and a range of medium shots, medium close ups and long shots to show the setting and the characters.

Also, the sound was another problem during the conversation scene, the first time we shot, we realised that it was hard to hear the conversation, so when we went back to re-do the scene, we used a microphone, and the sound was much better.

Another problem

Links to the films we used as inspiriation.

These are the links and clips from the films, which we used as inspiration, and linked into our film.

Link one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5HrHcgnWRw

Dead Ringers is a 1988 Psychological horror film starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as Identical twin gynaecologist. Director David Cronenberg co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider; their script was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland.

Link Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGkM8txx8mQ

Donnie Darko is a 2001 American science fiction film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, and depicts the reality-bending adventures of the title character as he seeks the meaning and significance behind his troubling Doomsday-related visions.

Representations

In our film we have young white females and a young black male, which represents the multi-cultural Britain, connoting the urban mixed cultural heritage of Manchester. This impacts towards the everyday lives of the characters, as they visit the church, representing religion, culture, and the norms and values of the society. The character Stacey also makes references to the police watching him, this suggests the typical young black male suffering from being labelled, which is a common stereotype in modern culture.
As he lives in a predominantly white Catholic area, Stacey refers to everybody 'knowing' it was him, this could suggest racial discrimination, as the stereotype of a male black youth could be seen as intimidating and aggressive.

Evaluation of main task

We have filmed an opening scene of a thriller, with the purpose of the story line being controversial. The scene takes place in a church, where Aaron seems to be tired, alone and with his own thoughts. As the flashbacks occur, the story seems to be set around Aaron murdering an unknown woman, however he is adamant he is innocent, non the less, everybody still thinks it was him, and has been avoided and neglected from his friends and his family. But although it looks like he is suffering from an afflicted mind, the inextricable thoughts are enhanced by his illness of schizophrenia, and his religion collides with his illness which creates the indispensability of his confessions.

The scene had presented a stereotypical view of ordinary people going to church, which Aaron who plays as a young adult makes an attempt to confess at the church for his murder. His delinquency was also presented through the use of key props and specific camera shots; such as the over the shoulder shot, of Aaron looking at the 'Reconsiliation' leaflet. This shot shows how he didn’t know what he was doing and also showing his state of confusion.

The costumes also contributed to the young adult connotations as their dress code was casual,
and that of the young generation, which sets the scene. Also, the church, along with the music and the general, cold, lonely feel of the story, connotes a genre of which is a thriller. For instance, a film such as ‘Paul’ produced by Working Title uses costume, actors and locations to show the audience the genre and type of film it will be.

This type of mise en scene applies to the young generation, another example; the setting is England, and by their accents alone you can tell further that the young characters are Mancunion. This and many other factors of mise en scene can attract a certain type of audience, which would be the young, British generation (our target audience), mainly because they can empathises and understand the film, it being a low budget British production.
However, the main location, a Catholic church connotes an older, more sophisticated story line, this, and the fact that it is a thriller, may grip an audience of an older generation.

We have produced a production company logo using software called Motion. We named our company ‘Cotton Pickin’ Productions’. We created a cotton raining motion and also used it as our production logo, creating the realistic terms of British companies. The sequences also play a part of specific genres the company usually produces for example, a cartoon film would have the Walt Disney productions and logo, or Comedy Central being distributed by Viacom and MTV Networks. An institution that would distribute our film is Working Title, as our film is British, we would need the funding of a conglomerate such as Working Title, however it would be vertically integrated and controlled by Working Title as our company wouldn't be a conglomerate. Meaning the company could provide us with advanced screening, merchandise, outdoor advertising, premieres etc.

We had based our opening scene on specific films and played an indispensable role of the story of our opening scene. A film called 'Donnie Darko' was about a teenager suffering from schizophrenia, where a man in a menacing rabbit costume called Frank told him that the world was going to end. This merges with our story through schizophrenia, as our character poses an extrasensory perception. We also looked at a film called 'Dead Ringers', a film about twins which also has a relation to our film. Dead Ringers had an inspiration on our film because it's about twins which we interpreted the narrative in this film to our film. We have used 'twins' in our film which relates to the Dead Ringers theme. Meanwhile with it linking to schizophrenia, we had searched to find a title to our film relating to schizophrenia and found a word 'Ipseity', which means self hood, distinct identity and individuality. We found this to be a strong word, as the main character is clearly struggeling with his self identity.

What we had learned from our main task were the technical factors, such as slow motion. We were able to control the speed through percentage which became very useful to enhance speeds. The speed of the sequence when slowed down were for the dramatic effect at some places for example, when Aaron puts his head down after Stacey walks out, this part was slow motioned to show the drama and because he is hallucinating his 'twin in his head' sat behind him. To add more of the dramatic effect, we edited an eerie sound effect when his 'twin' is revealed.
We had a problem with the slow motion, we used the de-interlace feature on effects to get rid of the jumpy slow motion so it ran smoothly. We also had to move all the audio on the film as the sound was out of sync.

When we first started filming, we came across some bad shots that we had to change for example, when Stacey and Aaron are having a conversation we had the camera still in one place and there wasn't a variety of shots. We altered the position of the camera so that we had a different shots to use. The most effective shot we used was the over the shoulder shot reverse shot.

In comparison to the preliminary task, timing the opening scene was of the essence, the progam Motion was used which was new to us, and getting the camera shots we wanted played a major part. It was important as we had to capture the right camera shot to allow it to make sense to the audience. We used shots which had had a diversity of low angle shots, high angle shots, 180 degree rule etc. Additionally we had to make sure the sound was accurate as we had used a microphone which we had'nt used for the preliminary task, with the main task to make sure the spoken diologue was not quieter than the ambient sound. And finally, putting the music, sound clips and volume levels had to be done correctly in order to create the ideal film piece we had anticipated.

The editing process

After we filmed our two minute opening sequence to our film, we uploaded it onto Final Cut Pro, where we were able to cut and edit the scenes into the two minute opening sequence.
We cut each scene to the sequence we wanted, added effects such as fade and cut, we then added the titles, which basically named the actors involved, who edited, wrote the script, did the camera work and added the music.
We then created a music sequence that we thought was suitable for the film and added it onto some scenes in the film. We reversed the music, when the flashbacks start, to show the characters state of mind, which is schizophrenia. When the main character puts his head in his hands we added some music to help build the tension and create a creepy/distorting effect.
We used slow motion in two scenes to help build up the tension and also to show the characters paranoia that he is being watched and also how he is hallucinating, thinking that somebody is there. The slow motion shot of the main character being watched was jumpy so we had to de-interlace it to fix it.
Some problems we came across whilst editing were, making sure each scene was rendered also the edits such as fading, as we had to make it look smooth and professional. Also a main problem we encountered was the sound in the speaking parts in the video became out of sync so we had to re-sync all the sound.

Location Shots/ Story

Location Shot:

This is the first shot of the church, the scene lasts about 4 seconds and shows the church in our film. This is an establishing shot , to set the scene and show the audience where the characters are. This is a medium shot, as this then shows what it is but also the detail of the church.

This shot shows stills of various parts of the church to show the setting. These are also establishing shots, to set the mood of the scene, the will music also help this.

This shot is a medium shot from the alter showing the seats and the people in the church.

We need this as there is going to be a long shot of the people sat in the church, amongst Aaron. The extras will slowly fade away, leaving Aaron alone. This shows time passing, and him thinking for a very long time.

This is a shot of the main character, it a medium close up, to show his body expressions and facial expressions, to set the mood and express to the audience that something is wrong.

These scenes will be the flashbacks that Aaron has, the camera shakes as it is filmed to show haste and panic. They will also be in black and white to show the past. They are medium shots to show detail of both people and so you know what is happening.

This is an over the shoulder shot of Luke, looking at the back of Aaron, and Aaron doesn't know. This is also edited to be slowed down, to empasise his presence.

This scene is where the two characters talking, there are also shot reverse shot, high angle low angle shots in this scene. This shots is to show coversation between the two.

Script, camerawork and editing.

Camera work (and editing)

Dialogue

Script (directions)

Music

Music begins, soft piano tune.

'Cotton Picking Productions' This title was made in Motion and shows the producers of the film.

Low to high angle panning shot of front of church, this is a location shot.

Still shots of inside the church. Location shots.

High angle shot of inside the church, looking onto Aaron and other people sat in the church, They slowly fade a way with editing, leaving Aaron sat on his own, this shows passing time.

Music changes, we reversed the original tune to create a distorted sound.

Medium shot of Aaron, sitting alone in church, this shows time passing. Over the shoulder shot behind Aaron, showing a 'reconciliation' leaflet, this is is a key prop.

In between this shot, inserts of 'flashback' (killing of Andrea) 1-1.5 seconds, there are about 4 flashback during this shot of Aaron, this shows he is thinking of what has happened.

The flashbacks are black and white to show it is in the past.

Then a fade cut to an over the shoulder, high angle shot of a misterious person, watching Aaron from the loft of the church. Slow motion as he walks away.

Music stops.

Stacey walks in.

Camera shot from the right, sees Stacey walk in and Aaron sat down.

Stacey: Aaron?

Walks forward, and hastely sits next to him.

Aaron what are you doing?

Sits down, Aaron has his head in his hands, looks up.

Aaron: I didn't do it.

Reaches out and leans towards her.

Stacey stands up.

Camera, medium shot, both showing Aaron and Stacey from the side.

Stacey: Look, I’m not here to listen to your lies, it’s all over town, we know you did this.

Whilst getting interrupted by Aaron: I didn’t do it.

Shot reverse shot, high angle and low angle between the two to show coversation, but high and low angles to show Aaron is inferrior to Stacey as she is angry at him.

Stacey: The police are everywhere, you need to come clean, everyone knows it was you.

Aaron: you have to listen to me!

Stacey: stop lying, how could you do this?

Aaron: It wasn’t me!!!

Slams hand on bench, in anger.

Music starts.

Stacey walks off in anger.

Medium shot, shows Stacey walking towards the door.

Medium shot back to Aaron wating Stacey then turning to face the camera, sat up, then puts his head down into his hands, then his 'other' appears behind him, then heavy music fades, also this cut is in slow motion.

Cuts to titles. The names of the producer, writer and diretor, to show who worked on the film.

Ipseity, this title was chosen as ipseity means a person's identity, and in the film, Aaron seems to be struggling with this.

Preliminary Task Video

Evaluation of Preliminary task

First of all we learned how to use the camera, how to record and play back etc. We learned how to attach the camera to the tripod, and use the tripod successfully to create the shot we wanted, the tripod is useful when you want a fixed shot with no camera movement, as its distracting to the viewer.
We also learned to use the whole editing programme, we learnt the basics for example cutting the film, placing the shots in order, and adding music.

The final film looked okay, we got the right shots and the music fit well, however, somethings didn't work, like continuity, for example the sound, as we filmed in a very noisy place, it was hard for it to look smooth, and was also hard to hear the dialogue. Also some of the shots where cut to soon and so it didn't look smooth.

We used a shot reverse to show conversation. When the characters were sat down at the table the camera was placed over the boys shoulder to get a shot of the girl. Then we placed the camera over the the girls right shoulder so that there would be a shot of the boy. When these shots are placed together after one another, going from boy, to girl, back to the boy, this is shot reverse shot.

When we filmed, we left the tape running for 5 seconds after we shot, so that when we editing the clip we could cut it at the appropriate point in the scene.

We kept the camera in the same place when filming the 180 degree rule. The camera followed the girl as she walked across the canteen. We did the rule correctly as the camera was kept still and did a full 180 degrees around the room.

Overall,the prelim looks good with how we have edited it, but we have to make sure we don't make the same mistakes in the real project.

The Usual Suspects

In the opening scene of “The Usual Suspects” there are many indications that this is a thriller movie. For example the key props are the matches, a gun and Kaiser Soze’s black suit and hat.
At the beginning there is a panning shot of the water and the reflections in the water, this shows that the scene will be on the water and showing the darkness of the scene.
Throughout the first scene you do not see Soze’s face, and so he is left as a mysterious character. This adds to the intensity of the scene, he is a silhouetted character. The gun in his hand shows that he is going to kill the man he is talking to. There is a high angle shot on the man sat down to show his powerlessness towards Soze as he has a gun. There is low key lighting on the scene to show the suspense and connotes mystery.
The lack of speech used in the scene helps the tension build as it creates suspense and creates a mystery in the scene. The location of the scene is on a remote boat to show the lack of threat there is as there are only two characters in the scene.

Preliminary task

For the preliminary task we had to create a short 30 second film which included certain camera shots, including the 180 degree rule, which is panning of the camera around the room, 180 degrees to show movement, and the whole setting. We also used camera shots which we can edit to make a shot reverse shot, which is a shot between two people, to show conversation. We also did a medium shot to show two people in one shot. Next we did over the shoulder shots which showed conversation between two people, and finally an eyeline match to show the person talking and looking at the person, and medium close up to show facial expressions.