PRE-PRODUCTION DIARY 6

I am overall very happy and confident to produce a well made short film as everything went how I planned until now. I intended to start the filming today but couldn't do it due the weather. As most of the filming will be done outside, the weather is an important factor. I am just a bit worried as the winter has started now, therefore I will have to be prepared and keep an eye on the weather to know when I will be able to get it done. I couldn't do it today as it snowed a lot and the temperatures were extremely low.

I would like to get it done by or during the Christmas break so that I'll have plenty of time to edit it.

PRE-PRODUCTION DIARY 4 - SCRIPT

I made a couple of modifications on my script, as after reading through it over and over again, I felt like I had too much dialogue. My idea is to let images tell the story and dialogues could make the film look less professional as the actors will not be real actors, therefore it might be complicated for them to talk in front of the camera. I decided to add a voice-over as well, as I thought it would give an extra touch to the film.

Updates script

PRE-PRODUCTION DIARY 3 - LOGO

My logo, LP stands for Loop Productions.

Ancillary Task Flatplans

Here are my Ancillary flatplans
                                      

PRE-PRODUCTION DIARY 2 - PERMISSIONS

 


 

PRE- PRODUCTION DIARY 1

#PROGRESS UPDATE 18/11/2015

 

After doing some research on scriptwriting, I felt confident enough to start mine today as it will be easier later on to decide the different camera shots/ angles and the music that I will use for each scene.

Shot List

Shot List

Risk Assessment

These are my risk assessment sheets which have been helpful as I know how to avoid and prevent risk better

Outside/Street:

GYM:

Basketball Court:

Advanced portfolio Pitch and Audience feedback

Pitch Presentation

The feedback that I got from my audience was mostly positive, they all liked the idea of this short film. In terms of Health and Safety some said that the different locations could have dangerous stuff. One of them also suggested me a song that I could include in the short film to improve it which I intend to do.

Production Schedule

This is my Production schedule

Audience Research Analysis

Audience Research Review

Institution Research

 

To have a rough idea of the different (short) film companies and to know what films they have produced to influence my production plan, I did some research on them that were very helpful.  

 

Ancillary Task Deconstruction 2

Ancillary Task Deconstruction 2

More presentations from Éric Loop

Ancillary Task Deconstruction 1

1. Harry Potter 7

The first poster that I will be deconstructing is a poster of Harry Potter and the deathly hallows. By looking at this poster we immediately notice how directors paid attention to details. The poster is a picture of the main character, Harry Potter ( Daniel Radcliffe). His body language and facial expressions shows that he is watching out for danger, his face also looks a bit sweaty which shows fear as well. The only prop that the directors used is Harry's magical wand which is a sign of protection and increase the sense of danger. On the top left of the poster, is the logo or abbreviation of the film as HP7 stands for Harry Potter 7 as this is the 7th film of the saga. I noticed how the directors made use of a colour scheme as well, which is red, light blue and black. As we know the red can stands for a lot of things, in this case it might be for blood as people die and get hurt in the film. In this poster, directors have used a blurry background to make the main character stand out which is to show how important he is and that the story is about him. In the background you can see people coming after him. The mise-en-scene, the way they're walking and blurred and dark, also highlight the fact that they are the bad people in the film.
To conclude, this poster shows how the film, again will be full of heroic achievements with loads of adventure andchallenges for Harry.

2. Batman Begins

This poster is a poster of Batman Begins. I have chosen to deconstruct this Poster as it is slightly different from the first one and as it includes features that I intend to put on my poster as well. The similarities that this one has with the first one is how the directors have put a mid shot of the main character as well and a couple points in a dark blurry background that say more about the story of the film. On top left of the poster the directors have put the names of the actors followed by the title just underneath. In terms of mise-en-scene, there isn't really a lot to talk about apart from Batman's costume. On this poster, the body language plays a huge role though as it, according to me, tells a big part of the story. The way that Batman is looking towards Gotham City in the background shows how he is looking after the city even though he stays isolated like it's showed on the poster. His facial expressions show how he closely pays attention to the city which makes you know that the movie will be full of adventures and challenges like in the previous movies.

3. Coach Carter

The last poster I am going to deconstruct is a poster of the film Coach Carter which is a classic in terms of basketball films, one of the best and most successful basketball film. As my main topic is basketball as well I thought that deconstructing this poster would definitely help me to use,develop or challenge the same forms and conventions when I will start on creating my poster. This poster is very complex, and includes different features that are not on the two previous ones. The main image is a picture of the main actor, Samuel Jackson, with a basketball underneath his foot. This automatically implies that it is going to be about him and basketball. The title being coach carter and as he's wearing a suit, the audience knows that he's the "Coach Carter". The background includes a blurred picture of the players running which matches very good with the first picture as it makes it stands better out. I also intend to reproduce a similar montage of the different pictures underneath the title as it looks good and tells more about the film.

Main Task Deconstruction 3 - Coach carter

Main Task Deconstruction 2

   

I have decided to deconstruct the short film "Enjoy your sport" although this short film doesn't really have a story, it includes different shots of people performing a sport, therefore  it encompasses different camera angles, shots and movements that I intend to use in my short film so I thought that using it for my deconstuctions could be very beneficial.

Camera Angles/shots/movements and sound

Like most short films, this one starts with an establishing shot. This is used to introduce the audience to the location of the scene, as it was filmed outside (park,street,..) the two first establishing shots have no specific code to discuss about, the first one is a skyline shot of nature and the second one includes birds flying. To highlight the sports theme, the directors of this short film used a close-up of sports shoes which I will use as well to introduce the audience to the main theme which is sports.  The following shot is a two shot of two people playing football, followed by a long shot of someone skating. The directors made use of the same establishing shot after this but this time with the title "Enjoy your sport written". The next shot is a mid-close up of someone's calves and feet walking, following by a long shot of people jogging and riding a  bike. The scene of people playing football came back after this but this time they made use of a mid-shot it is followed by another mid-shot where people are jogging, here again you don't see their faces. This is to highlight the fact that it's not about who they are but about what they are doing. The following shot is a brief tracking shot of dogs running and playing in the nature. The directors of this short film used similar shots over and over again so far. This changes now, they made use of an over-shoulder shot while someone is walking following by a close-up of someone's calves running. The next shot is a POV of someone biking ( I presume) as you only see the road he's on. The directors then made use of a montage including 3 tracking shots, the first one is of a dog, the second one of someone roller skating and the last one of a different dog. This is followed by an establishing shot of the location just to remind the audience and switched to another close-up of someone's calves running. To conclude, the last shots are longshots of people biking following buy another establishing shot of the sky. It then fades to black at the end.

In terms of sound, the directors made it very easy: the soundtrack includes the same non-diegetic sound which is remix of the song Lullabies by Yuna.

Main Task Deconstruction 1 - Dedication Short Film

I have chosen to deconstruct the short film "Dedication" by Tony Nova. I have picked this short film because most of the camera shots, angles and movements used would fit perfectly in the short film I intend to produce as the theme is kind of the same. I also intend  to use the same type of transitions and effects in my main task and therefore I thought that this short film would be a good one to deconstruct.

Editing, Camera Shots/Movements/Angles (and their representation)

This short film starts with a quote of Theodore Roosevelt saying "It is hard to fail, but it is even worse never to have tried to succeed" which immediately puts the audience in context as the title and the quote both let you know that the short film is about hard work to achieve your goals in life. The first shot is a close-up of the character’s alarm showing 7 o’clock. By showing this, the director used a code to reflect the character’s dedication as most young people wouldn’t wake up at that time if it’s not for school. The second shot shows when the character wakes up, with a basketball in the background which is to let the audience know that the short-film is about basketball as well, the audience therefore can put the three elements that were given together (the title, the quote and the basketball) to exactly know what the short film is about; Hard work to be a successful basketball player. The following scenes include close-up shots of the character's feet and shoes while he is getting ready. We clearly notice the brands on his socks, shoes and basketball, Nike and Spalding, which are two of the biggest basketball brands in the world. This emphasises the basketball theme/topic. As soon as the character is ready, a tracking shot is used to follow him downstairs where a match-on-action is also used by the directors when he opens the door. When he walks out, a mid-shot is used to introduce the character as this is the first scene where we actually see his full face. He walks then to his back yard where a close-up, tracking shot of his feet is used.  An over-shoulder-shot is used when he stops walking with the basketball rim in the background. The director made then use of a montage which includes several camera shots and movements such as long shots, tracking shots, match-on-action shots when the ball goes in the hoop, tilt shots and over shoulder shots.

Sound

In this short-film, the directors used both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. It starts with a narrative saying a quote, he then continues by explaining what the quote means. Meanwhile he is talking , diegetic sound was used at the same time which is the alarm of the main character when he wakes up. While the character gets ready, we only hear non-diegetic sounds; the voice-over and a ambient sound in the background which puts the audience into the movie. The part where we hear diegetic sounds is when the character starts training, we can hear when he dribbles with the ball and when the ball touches the rim. The directors also made use of an ambient sound in the background but a different one, which is more dynamic to emphasise the intensity of his training.





Video Skills Development

In order to gain and develop filming and editing skills, we produced a 30-seconds video around college including different camera angles and movements.

Editing

The editing software that we used is Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. As this was our first experience with this software, we learned basic stuff such as how to drag a video to a different platform, unlink the sound from the video in order to put another music with the video and how to export the final video from the software to upload it on youtube after. Two important things that we learned and used today as well was how to add text to our video and also how to put effects to transitions.

Filming

In terms of filming, we had to make sure that we tried different camera angles and movements. We started the video with a POV of someone walking up the stairs following by a mid-shot of himself to introduce the first character to the audience. We then continued with a POV and used a mid shot of the second character with a shot of him leaving the room. The last scene includes a long shot of the first character looking towards the window following by a close up of his face.

Advanced Portofolio Initial Ideas & Audience Feedback

Initial Ideas

Feedback:

The feed backs received by my target audience were overall good. I noticed a preference for the second Idea which is the short film about basketball. Some feedbacks were very constructive as some parts of this short-film might be difficult to realise like filming in a medical office, and therefore these feedbacks opened my eyes to those kind of problems I might have during production. Now that I have identified the things to change, I can now find solutions to make it happen.