Media Evaluation- Nephthys Foster

Media Evalutation- Robyn Archard

Here is my media evaluation...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLNeqd-c27s&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Preliminary Task (Feed The Fish)

This is our Preliminary Task, Feed The Fish,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7K63whp6ww

Director's commentary of train-station scene (Robyn)

Shot 1/2 (Close-up of Jade crying and smoking)
We really liked this close-up shot of Jade because she was crying and so it would immediately draw the audience in. In instantly creates enigma, as the audience questions; who is this girl?, why is she crying?, how did she get a black eye? The enigma we created here is important because the audience will want to get these questions answered and thus watch on. We can see from this shot what social group our media product will 
represent, for example the cigarette, black eye and the fact that Jade is crying, show that it will represent a troubled teenager. 
Shot 5 (Long-shot of Jade kicking bag off bench)
We used this long-shot because we can see the whole of Jade, meaning the clothes she wears and the setting that she is in. These both represent connotations of her as a character and of the genre of our film. For example, we can see that Jade has spoiled make-up, messy hair, dirty tracksuit bottoms, the pink holdall and the parka jacket, showing that she has been living rough recently, and has ran away from home. The fact that the clothes cover up her entire body signifies that she wants to cover up as she has been exposed, which we will see through the film, particularly within the theme of prostitution. 

Shot 7 (Close-up of Jade texting)

We decided to include this shot because it creates tension, as we wonder who Jade is texting, telling them that she is 'coming'. As this scene will be shown again at the end of the film, we will be watching with extreme worry over whether Jade will go back home, back to the gang, or commit suicide. However, by showing this at the beginning of the film, the audience are completely unaware of who she is texting and where she is going. We also liked this shot because it showed Jade's hands, which relates to the bedroom scene where she writes the letter to Emily. We also decided that later on in the film, when we have gone back in time to before the train-station scene, we could show Jade painting her nails in the orange colour that we seen in this shot; relating the two together. The painted, clean nails represent how Jade is trying to do anything she can to make herself clean, and to cover up the sinful things that she has been forced to do throughout the film. Throughout our production, it was important for us to consider that the train-station scene would be shown twice, once in the opening, and once in the ending. This meant that it was important for us to bring up significant themes that would relate to other times in the film.  

Shot 8 (Extreme Long- shot from behind pillar, panning Jade walking to the rails) 

We really liked this shot, particularly at the beginning when the pillar takes up most of the frame. By the shot focusing on the pillar, the audience can recognise the rough and grimy setting that Jade is desperate to get out of throughout the film. The fact that Jade walks away from this and the camera pans away from it, could signify that Jade is finally escaping. The fact that Jade is walking slowly really forebodes that something bad is going to happen. 

Close up of Jade sitting on edge looking to the right

This still shot really shows the audience Jade's feelings. Particularly when we see this shot again at the end of the film, as we have watched the whole film solely about Jade, this shot will really touch the audience as we have seen everything she has been through. 

Last shot (Empty bench)

This shot really emphasises the fear that the main protagonist, Jade, may have just killed herself, and we will not find out until the end of the film what actually happens, creating a mystery within our film. By showing the empty bench we really notice the fact that Jade has gone, as we have watched her in the station for the whole of the first scene, the audience will now be completely shocked, and engaged to find out why she killed herself. 

Things we learnt through editing.

During the editing process, we have learnt many things that have helped us to improve our film:

• We found it really helpful that before starting we had copied and pasted all our clips, so that we had two of every shot, in case we edited a clip and wanted to use it again in the future.  
• Due to the two times that our work got completely deleted, we learned the importance of regular saving and saving our work in many different locations. 
• When we filmed, for some reason, the camera didn't record any sound, meaning that our opening is completely mute. Fortunately, there is not any dialogue in our opening, but we now have to edit sounds into our film, in particular, the sound of the train coming, the ambient sounds in the background, and the noise that Jade hears to make her jump. 
• We learnt how helpful it is to have a second opinion on the opening as it is always hard to find criticisms in your own work.  

Editing- Titles

Today during editing, we added titles to our sequence. We had to come up with a name for the production company, and we decided on using Greenway Pictures, as we thought it sounded professional and fitted in well with the tone of our film. As the tone of our film, particularly the music, is quite slow rather than high packed with action, it looked nice to have the tiles come up separately, rather than over the shot. Therefore at the beginning of the film I added a black shot with the title of Greenway Pictures, and then the first two shots of the film play, and then another title shot comes up, saying "A CNR film, as these are the initials of all of our first names. This adds to the tension of the opening, and emphasises the slow pace that we tried to achieve. It also makes our opening look much more professional, especially as we made it so that the music starts before the first title appears, and we made the singing start again whilst a new shot comes up.
We also added titles over the shots. Although all of us took on each role of production equally we decided to make the titles: Directed by: Robyn Archard, Camera by: Chloe Thomas, and Edited and Music by Nephthys Foster. Unfortunately, for some reason the shots that this titles are over have gone blurry, for some strange reason!! We are hoping to fix this in our lesson on Monday.

Actor/Model Research

HANNAH WATSON

To play the role of Jade Owen we chose Hannah Watson. Hannah is an A-level drama student and achieved high grades in her GCSE drama exam. We chose to use Hannah because she is one of our good friends and she can adapt into different roles regardless of who is around her or where she is. Which is a good quality seeing as she did not mind that people where staring at her when we filmed the train station sequence at Hampton wick station. She was also very professional when it came to filming at both locations and she got involved and shared her ideas as to where the camera should be which was very helpful and fun.

JADE OWEN


The character Jade Owen is a troubled 16 year old who has overcome many problems in her past such as her mum dying and her dad falling into a deep stage of depression and alchaholism. Up to now Jade has stayed at the family home with her sister Emily (12 years) however her dads depression is increasingly getting worse and as he takes it out on her she feels the need to run away and start a new life .. leaving behind he young sister Emily. Jade is a delicate character but she also knows how to stick up for herself as she is very streetwise. However she tends to often get involved with the wrong people which lead her into more trouble. Throughout her journey she has a deep feeling of guilt for leaving her sister at home with her dad. Another increasing feeling of hers is loneliness which she tries to overcome during the film.

Problems during editing!!!

On the 17th of march we experienced a huge problem whilst editing, As we started to edit our final shots the hardrive unexpectedly shut down. Because imovie was still running it had deleted near enough all of our work!! which we all found very frustrating. However our teacher brought in the technician who was still unable to retrieve our previous work. Therefore we had to start all over again. But fortunately the clips where still saved onto the computer meaning we did not have to upload them again. Because Robyn and Chloe had a lesson to attend i offered to stay behind and begin editing them again and was joined by Chloe after school. After around 2 hours we had finished the editing and was quite relived. HOWEVER the next day we went to our lesson and got told that once again we had lost all our work this made us all even more frustrated because of the time we had both put into it the previous day. Our teacher brought in the technician once again yet he was unable to restore our work, this time all our clips where gone as well. Therefore we decided to use a different computer and Robyn uploaded all of our clips again and began editing them. Myself and Chloe then stayed after school to just run through the sequence one more time shortening the clips as we had run over the time limit and also adding the music to our sequence. We have now finally saved our work and hopefully it will still be there tomorrow.

Recording Song - Nephthys

Today I wrote and recorded the song to go over the sequence in which Jade is packing her stuff to leave. The lyrics and pace of the song symbolise her feelings representing her as a girl who believes that she does not need anyone to guide her into adulthood instead she can now stand on her own two feet and fight her own battles In order to do this she shuts down her blinds symbolising a new start. However throughout this bravery she experiences many painful memories which she tries to overcome and not think about yet they only bring her down. I named the song "Shutting the blinds" because it is one of the main phrases I use during the song as it expresses Jade's feelings towards preparing herself for a new start by shutting everyone and everything in her old life out by metaphorically "shutting her blinds". I recorded the song on abelton live which is a digital audio work station (DAW) also using the recording equipment i have at home. The song was not that difficult to write as I had a lot of support from my group giving me ideas of what the song should represent and what feel and effect it should have on the audience.


You can listen to the preview of the song here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb-7SF6kN0c&feature=channel_video_title

Filming

Today we filmed our opening sequence. Here are some photos:

Location Research

Today we researched into our locations. We only need two different locations for our opening sequence, and have chosen to use a bedroom and a train station. We decided to use Nephthys' bedroom, and used Google Maps to find close stations that we may be able to use. Eventually, we decided on using Hampton Wick as it is small and 'trampy', which would therefore give off the right vibe that we wanted to set. Here are some photos of our locations:

Hampton Wick

Nephthys' bedroom

Today we researched into how to make a bruise, as we want to do this when we film on Thursday. We watched a video on Youtube on how to make a realistic looking bruise, and we followed the steps on Nephthys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BAf1yiXehs&feature=related
We were quite successful and think the black eye looked quite good. However, we think that we might buy some theatre make up or face make up to give a more realistic effect.

Audience research.

The target audience we have decided to go for are teenagers (around 14-17), simply because it is based around a girl of the same age, they may be able to relate towards the film or may be going through the same kind of troubles. Their attitudes and expectations towards such films are intriguing. After seeing a trailer for this type of film, they may want to see it to find out what happens simply because it's someone around their age group, this has inspired us in a way to keep the audience wanting to watch. Parents may also want to watch the film, so they can bond with their children more, also helping the parent see what may go on when their child is out with their friends. Many children hide troubles from their parents and this could help them be more honest if they don't want to be put in a bad position, so our film  may help prevent that.

Research - Analysis of a film poster - Chloe

Analysis of an opening sequence - Chloe

I chose to analyse the opening sequence of The disappearance of Alice Creed, written and directed by J Blakeson, as it inspired us in some way and is similar to the type of film we are willing to make. The low budget film was shot in the Isle of Man and is based in an apartment, where Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston) keep Alice (Gemma Arterton), for the majority of the film. It is fairly simple and I think we could create something similar to it. As we are hoping to create a drama film it also links to it. The title 'The disappearance of Alice Creed' describes the fact that Alice goes missing, in a way we have used this as an idea for our film to keep the title simple. The film starts in a car park, there's no dialogue, just sounds from outside and of Vic and Danny's ''mission''. It's not very clear as to what is happening and what they are trying to achieve but it becomes clear that they're dodgy and up to no good. The music when they are in  the warehouse store seems more upbeat, and as we're taken to the abandoned apartment it changes, showing its more serious than we may of thought. As they put the sound proof walls up and put the bed together, the music has a ticking noise behind it, representing the race against time. For the first five and a half minutes there is no speech, which is finally broken with a simple 'Ok', this creates suspense and tension because the viewer has to create whats going on by themselves before they see what actually happens. This inspired us for our film because we would like the audience to be in suspense to what happens next so they carry on watching.

Research into media institutions

When researching into similar media institutions, we looked at similar films and who made them. A similar film to the one we would like to make is "London to Brighton". This was made by a number of institutions, one being Steel Mill Pictures.
"London to Brighton won a British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production. The director also won several awards at various film festivals. The film had a budget of £500,000 and made an approximate total of $449,681
Steel Mill Pictures were formed in 2006, with their first feature film "London to Brighton". They have 2 more feature films, "The Cottage" and "Cherry Tree Lane". They get most of their funding from the UK Film Councils Premiere/New Film fund. They generally use one company to distribute within the UK, and one company to distribute globally. For example Pathe UK distributed the film "The Cottage" domestically and Pathe International handled worldwide sales. Sony picked up the film for North America and several other territories. The company also make many short films and promos.
Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established.  Film4 releases in 2010 included Sam Taylor Wood's Nowhere Boy, Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, Chris Morris' Four Lions, Hideo Nakata's Chatroom and Mike Leigh's Another Year.
Mike Leigh's "Another Year" had a budget of an estimated £10,000,000. In its opening weekend the film made $111,869, and in total the film has made $1,645,606, so far.

Analysis of similar film poster (Robyn)

Analysis of Opening Sequence. (Robyn)

Cherry Tree Lane, 2010
I chose to analyse the opening sequence of Cherry Tree Lane as it was similar to the type of film that we would be able to make. The low budget film was shot in Muswell Hill in London and only one location is used the entire film. As all of this would be available to us, I thought that it would be interesting to see what we could do. The major themes in the film are the crossing of cultures, middle classes fear of youth, drugs and crime.
The first shot is the only shot taken from outside the house in the whole film. It immediately tells the audience that the people will be middle class. The camera tracks towards the door, getting closer into their lives, representing that we as an audience will be thrown into their lives. The connotations of the door are that people will be disturbing and walking into, and perhaps out of, their lives. An eerie noise is used to accompany this, introducing the thriller and horror genres.
Completely randomly we are put in front of boiling pasta and the noise of this matches that of the eerie noise. The ambiguity of this shot creates tension, as we are aware that something bad is going to disturb this completely normal activity. The time is shown at the side of the shot foreboding the action that will happen. We see a lady in the distance, but she is out of focus as we are still in the same shot. The fact that the camera does not move creates a suspense because we are unaware of what is happening in other areas. We find ourselves wanting to find out more about the lady by the stairs, but we are left by the pasta, keeping us engaged. We are even more intrigued when we can subtly hear a phone conversation. The lady then comes towards us, and her movements are the only thing that changes the type of shot.
The realism that we have been exposed to, makes the audience much more attached to the film as it is largely relatable. The pasta boiling and the phone conversation are everyday happenings and this makes it even more disturbing as we now something will erupt.
There is no music and hardly any dialogue, which adds a spooky sense of silence leaving us waiting for something to happen. We are put in the bedroom and again left in the same position. We hear her talking to someone downstairs and then we move into the kitchen. We now see a man preparing a bottle of wine which again is hugely relatable to an audience. The audience are forced to ask a few questions, who should the lady have talked to ?, and who is Sebastian?. By leaving us asking these, the director has made us want to know the answers so carry on watching.
There is tension between the spouses and the new comes on. This is largely relatable to an English audience because it is about the 7/7 bombings. By doing this it makes the audience feel closer to the film. The camera is placed at a long shot of the couple eating their dinner, and we wait in suspense for something to happen. The an-ambiguity of what is happening, becomes the narrative and we are focused on finding out.
At the end of the opening sequence we hear a doorbell. This disturbs the subtle silence that we have heard so far. This represents that the people at the door will disturb the peace and normality of this couples life. We are now aware that the action we were wondering about will soon begin, and we are hooked on watching it and finding out the answers to the questions that have arisen.

Research - ( Analysis Of Opening Sequence) - Nephthys

Control (2007)


Control is a biolographical film exploring the life of joy divisions lead singer Ian Curtis. The film is filmed in black and white to enhance the fact that it is a film about the past. We are introduced to the scene with a stunning photgraph like close-up of Ian sitting beside his bed. Almost as soon as the scene begins a voice over of Ians inner thoughts play giving the audience an insight into his delicate state of mind. As the camera slightly moves and his facial expressions get clearer we get a feel of his emotions that he is experiencing at the time making us sympathise with him. During the scene hard light is used lighting up the side of Ians face symbolising his dark emotions and thoughts. Slowly he bows his head and the shot cuts to a long shot of the room that Ian is in. Once again only hardlight is used making the room seem dark and mysterious. The position that Ian is sitting in symbolises his character as being lonely and scared. The voice over stops and the scene cuts to the opening credits of the film making the audience wonder if the previous shots were a flashback of somesort. The credits fade into an establishing shot of what seems to be Ians home as he is walking up to it, over the shot written in a white plain font is the location and date where the film is set. As he walks out of the shot it cuts to another shot of a couple of children asking him to pass a ball as they kicked it towards him he ignores them and walks on establishing his character as being an outsider. As he walks away David Bowie "Drive in Saturday" Begins to play showing the era that the film is supposed to be based on. The music still plays as he enters his home, there we get a glimpse of his relationship with him family. The camera then tracks him walking into his room. The lighting of the corridor is dark until he opens his door representing his room as being a place of freedom and joy for Ian. However as he enters his room he shuts his door leaving the audience outside experiencing a feel of not being wanted inside his room. Again symbolising his room as being a somewhat hiding place for him and a comfort zone.

Research - ( Textual Analysis Of Similar Media Text ) - Nephthys

London to Brighton

During our research we looked at various films from the same genre that influenced our own ideas for our opening sequence, one of which was called "London to brighton". London to Brighton was written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams in 2006. The film is said to be a crime thriller but also appends upon the idea of social realism, drama and child prostitution. The film is low budget as they worked off of £500,000. The title "London to Brighton" describes the journey that Kelly and Joanne take as they flee from Kellys' pimp. The opening credits are very moronic and plain representing the film as being mysterious yet serious. The film starts with a bang as Kelly and Joanne burst into a rundown london toilet. It is clear that something has happened as Kellys' face seems to be heavily beaten and Joanne is hysterically crying, As people try to acess the toilet Kelly shuts them showing that they may be hiding from someone inparticular. However Kelly then asks Joanne if she wants some food and then sits her down in one of the cubicals and tells her "not to open the door to anyone". This exhibits motherhood and emotions portraying the film as being a drama. During the film we observe a series of flashbacksof how the pair ended up in the situation that they got into making them run away to brighton, the state of Kelly's face instantly tells us where we are on the timeline .There are five key sequences in the film these are the opening sequence, flashback scenes, the scene in which their location has been found, the scene where Joanne and Kelly are taken to Stuart and the final scene when Joanne returns to her grandmar. These scenes are key because without them the storyline would be difficult to understand. The director of the film uses a cluster of shots where juxtaposition is shown. For example when Joanne and Kelly are on the train to Brighton, We see Joanne looking out of the window we then get a tracking shot of the bright view of the feilds outside representing a new start for Joanne and Kelly, however it then cuts to a chain of rundown shops in the middle of london this juxtapositions the state of mind that they used to be in and the state of mind they are in now. Because there is a lot of tension created in the film they used a lot of quick cuts to make the audience feel the tension. The film ends with the scene where Joanne has returned to her grandmothers house and from a distance Kelly stands and observes. The director left us this disunity for the audience to continue the story in there own mind. It also suggests that behind a person that may seem tough there is also another person inside them that holds strong emotions, As she walks away and returns back into london we feel obliged to have sympathy for her. This film relates to our ideas a lot as our film is also being based around a runaway that gets involved with the wrong crowd. It has also given us the idea of using flashbacks to make the storyline more intresting and gripping, and to changing our genre from just a drama into a crime drama. 

Research - ( Annotated Deconstruction Of Film Poster ) - Nephthys

Preliminary Task

Firstly we were given a shooting script by our teacher in which we could adapt, and then we chose a location in which we could film. We chose a local car park as we felt it had the right mysterious feeling that we wanted to give and we knew our way around it. We then began to storyboard, we adapted the shooting script in our own way, using a range of shots, and angles, and thinking about our characters. Whilst story-boarding it was clear that it would have been easier if we were at the location. Therefore, we will story- board our opening sequence at the chosen location.
During filming, we overcame many problems, such as the public, the weather, the lifts (the doors kept opening and closing whilst trying to film!) and forgetting to stop recording after the shot. However, except for this it all went really well and we have learnt a lot of new tips for the future.
Whilst editing we realised that we hadn't recorded some of the clips, and that we could see people who weren't supposed to be in the shot. This was very annoying when it came to editing, and we will take extra care in the future.