Alice Boxall Evaluation

I was in a group with one other person, and this meant double the work load, however this didn’t make filming the scene any less fun, and it was probably more rewarding at the end of it, to see our finished piece.

I took the roles of cinematographer and director. However, these roles didn’t go to my head. We based our film on teenage drama and the situations that young adults find themselves in.

Lewis and I started out with a lot of different ideas, ranging from a teen drama to comedy and after talking to Tom, we decided this would work best, as most simple things do.

Although we deviated from the script that we had set out, we managed to improvise, and it turned out quite well.

The point of writing a script was that we had a basic outline to go on, so that the actors weren’t stalling in front of the camera.

Lewis and I spent a lot of time trying to work out a script and a basic plot that we could use, as we realised that if we included a lot of swearing or offensive language, it would automatically be less viewable by a large audience.

During the editing of our film, Lewis and I found making the shots join together without jumps quite difficult.

Due to the lack of shots that we could use, we had to use some shots that don’t really fit with the whole scene, such as the cat on the stairs. It is also a lot shorter than it should be.

The part where Liam hits Lewis is rushed and doesn’t make complete sense.However, the sound from the camera wasn’t at all bad, and therefore we didn’t have to add much in the way of sound clips. We enhanced the sound of Lewis walking on the gravel, and the traffic, as well as adding a punching sound, and a crash for when Lewis fell on the floor.

We spent a lesson getting some music together on Garage Band to get some music to use and the beginning and end.I think that considering that there were only two of us in a group, so we had double the work to do, our finished product, although short, isn’t of a bad standard.

If we had had a chance to re-film some of it, we definitely would have done, because there is a lot of things that we could have improved.

The film that our scene comes is based on two university students who are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with each others habits. One of them is a party-animal, and likes nothing better than to go to the pub or a club and stumble home at three in the morning. The other is much more concerned with his studies, and tries to look out for his housemate as much as he can.

As I was the director and cinematographer I had complete control of the camera, and I realise that I could have shot a lot more, so we might have had a chance to make it longer and run more smoothly, and make more sense.

However, when we got given advice by Jake Wynne, it was too late to film anymore, as the deadline for the rough copy was the following Monday, and we would not have had time to edit and redo all the sound, so we tried to make it better on the advice that he had given us, although there wasn’t much that he said other than work on the sound a tad more that we could do.

Both actors used aren’t used to acting in front of the camera, and we didn’t really film in a tradition film set manner, so there was quite a bit of laughter, which we’ve edited out.

I think that the fact that there were two in our group should be taken into consideration, as we had double the workload to everyone else, and were the smallest group in the class, but I think that we overcame the problems by trying our level best to double our efforts.

However, I don’t think that that is an excuse for our shortfalls, and gladly accepting that had we filmed more shots, we could have created a longer film.I think that although the film is shorter than we anticipated, we put our best efforts into it, and as director I am pleased with how it turned out.

Lewis's Evalutaion

Alice and I had designed and filmed a scene from a fictional film about two uni students living together in a small house and their difficulties with each other.

During the making of this scene, we experienced several problems. Most of these problems occurred during editing due to a lack of shots and a lack of appropriate planning. Towards the middle of the film, there are several missing shots, mainly due to the fact that any shots displaying this part of the scene where either not good enough or weren’t even filmed. Again, this was mainly due to lack of appropriate planning. This also made editing footage that we actually did have very difficult and the outcome was very fast, confusing and unprofessional looking when it could have been a lot better.

However, there were certain things that did go well, mainly sound. Some Diegetic sound was added in during editing, however, a lot of the Diegetic sound recorded while filming was of good enough quality so most of it was used and emphasized by raising the volume in certain places. Diegetic as well as non-Diegetic sound was added during editing and this also worked very well. We used pre-recorded sound effects to add emphasis on the footsteps walking towards the house and dogs barking with other background sounds when my character is walking down the road.

Having said this, when our scene was viewed by others, most people said similar things that where all related to the lack of light in the shots. Many suggested to us was that if we where to film this scene again, another light should be switched on whether it be the landing light, the hall light or the front door light, it would have added more light to the shot making the image a lot brighter. However, this was touched upon during editing and almost every shot was made a lot brighter and a pink tint was added to all outside shots to emphasize the traffic lights and streetlights.

We chose to make our film a teenage drama, similar to skins, as we realized that this is currently a very popular market as proved by the success of skins. This being the case, we chose to deal with the issues of immaturity being linked with a sense of freedom. We decided that this was a wise topic to choose as we could focus more on getting camera angles and styles right rather than trying too hard to explain to much of the story in a small amount of time.

One thing that I was quite adamant that the film displayed was mainly handheld shots to add a more uncertain feel to the scene. However, the finished product did not display this as much as I would’ve liked it to. Instead, several short duration and steady shots where used giving the scene a much more stiff and jarring feel rather than a set of fluid and flowing shots. This could have worked to our advantage have it not of been for the lack of certain crucial shots.

We also looked at scenes from other teen dramas and tried to mimic the use of many over shoulder shots and close up handheld shots. However this was not displayed as well as it should have been.
As well as this, I felt that most of the dialogue and movements could have been dragged out to give the scene a slower feel.

However, again, this could’ve worked to our advantage to give the scene a more edgy feel and make the scene more uncomfortable but it didn’t in a way that looked good enough to have worked well. Instead, it made the scene feel very amateur and poorly made. Another factor against us was the fact that we did not have the actors that were capable of displaying the tension or emotion of the scene and unfortunately, this scene does heavily rely on the actors capability to keep the audience feeling involved and connected to each of the characters individually.

In conclusion, many things that we were counting on to work to our advantage, e.g. the rough and edgy style of camera work and darker lighting did not in fact work in the ways that we had planned they would. Unfortunately this lead to a roughly made scene that was very confusing and uncomfortable to watch and I was not entirely satisfied with the outcome as I know I can do a lot better.

have now decided on music, many thanks to Lewis for being garage band masta ;)

Script;

Enter Lewis, street corner, stumbling along.
Lewis (to himself): nearly home. nearly home.

we see Lewis at the front of his house, close up of key going into lock.
Lewis opens door, drops coat.
Pan to the living room door, enter Liam.
Liam (angry): where have you been?
Lewis (slurred): just at the pub.
Liam pushes Lewis against the wall.
Shot to Liam's mouth during the next speech;
Liam; what are you playing at? why do you always get pissed you twat. you shouldn't drink so much, we've got a lecture tomorrow morning.
Lewis (slurry); Oh dear. *laughs*
Liam: I GIVE UP.
Shot of Liam walking away.
Lewis; why aren't you going to hit me? you're too pussy to hit me, aren't you?
There is no reaction from Liam.
Lewis; LIAM, you should have hit me! but no, you're too scared to. *laughs*
Liam turns round, walks smartly up to Lewis and punches him in the face.
Liam: HAPPY NOW?
Shot of Lewis falling to the floor
Shot (outside)
Liam walks out the front door.
Lewis (in background) wipes his nose, it is bleeding. He looks at the blood and laughs.
Lewis (shouting after him): That's it, now you're getting it. *flumps over*
Camera follows Liam as he turns the corner.
STOP.

ideas;

uni student, flat share.

2 characters, ADHD (Lewis), other is fed up with his behaviour (Liam), argument ensues.

script; stilted, Lewis is distracted, everything other than the conversation interests him.
Liam is getting more and more frustrated, bursts with anger, holds Lewis against wall, Lewis antagonizes Liam, Liam lets go, Lewis mocks Liam for not hitting him, Liam turns round, hits Lewis, Lewis falls to ground.

Sounds; diagetic, door opening, closing, opening of beer can, Liam breathing. until last scene, lewis on floor, music (broken social scene?)

Shots;
Medium shot of Lewis coming round corner, we see Lewis at his front door, followed by key going into the door.
Lewis coming in, cantered angle, slurring his words.
Pan to living room door,
Over the shoulder shot, shows Liam coming out of living room, angry look.
Pushes Lewis against wall, shouts at Lewis, focus on mouth.
Lewis, focus on eyes.
Shot to Liam's face, anger.
Long pan backwards, taking in both characters.
Liam goes to leave, follow Liam with camera shot.
Shot back to Lewis, jeering, focus on eyes and mouth.
Short duration shots of Liam running towards Lewis.
Long shot of Liam punching Lewis, Lewis falling to floor, camera follows him.
Disjointed shot of Liam walking away.

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