Week 14: Task 3

Pre-Production report by Daniel Storey

1) Type of production

The type of production that I am making for my short film will be a feature as this is part of my coursework for BTEC Media Level 3 at Christ the King (St Mary's) and after it has been completed, it will be uploaded onto YouTube where my target audience which are teenagers between the age of 13-18 year old can watch my short film but it follows the character's story-lines through one video. My short film will be a non-linear production because it will show flashbacks and flash-forwards which will give mystery and suspense for the audience whilst they are watching this film.   

2) Finance

BFI or also known as the British Film Institute is where it supports to provide Lottery funding through a film's development, production and distribution activity in the United Kingdom which is the largest public film funding as well. Every year, they make exactly £26 million but the budget of that will increase £30 million by 2017. With the National Lottery Funding, the money is given to 12 independent organisations where each of them got a very good knowledge of different sectors that they work on but if the British Film Institute applies to get funding from the National Lottery, they would get between £10,000 to £30,000. 

The production

Equipment and its costs:

• Sony HXR-MC2500E Camcorder: £1,073.36
• PhotoSEL LS21E52 Softbox Studio Lighting Kit: £85.00
• RODE Boompole 3m: £80.19
• RODE Deadcat GO Microphone: £17.99
• Hama Star 61 Tripod: £16.85

The total cost is £1,273.39.

With our college, you not have pay for anything as the equipment can be used at any given time due to the fact that they pay for it. Transport will be free for us as we got Oyster Card Zip to use to get on the bus, train and underground tubes but using this means that you will be able to carry the equipment with me.

3) Time

In the film industry, you have to schedule the time of when you have plan what area of the Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production stages that people will be set to working on. When a deadline is set to finish making your film and if you do not meet a certain deadline, then you have to pay for insurance for not completing the film or carry on filming it until it is completed but in other colleges including CTK, the teacher will mark your work as unmarked. At CTK, we have a booking system where you can book a time to use a editing suite or use the equipment for filming like a camera, tripod etc. But you need to make sure to return to them but if it is lost or damaged, then you will have to pay for new one which will come out of your bank account.

4) Crew and Personnel

Before undertaking of starting making our film, we need to get a crew to work on my short film like Director, Cameraman, Sound engineer etc. This is because if you do not have a crew to help produce your film, then you will be struck to do anything but with your plan in ruins but the crew that I will pick needs to have certain skills and experience to be able that the job is being done correctly which in the film industry, they do the same thing by checking people's CV to see if they got the experience and skills to do an certain jobs in a film but also they make sure it is right decision to get that person.

5) Facilities

After completing the Pre-production stage where I am planning the fil
The Production equipment that I will need: Camera with a SD card, Tripod, Rode Microphone ,Rode Boom-pole 3m. These types of equipment is available at any time in the college but in the film industry, you will have to pay for the equipment

Post-Production equipment: Editing suite with a Mac computer that has Final Cut Pro X. An editing suite can be used at the college anytime but in the industry, you have to pay money to a company for you to use an editing suite.

6) Materials

Copyright free music is where a buyer pays for a music license but after that is done, they are able to use it for long as they want but with Royalty, if a person wants to use a copyrighted piece of music then it is possible for them to phone the people that hold the rights to the music and pay £500 in advance so they will not strike you with a copyright infringement.

7) Contributors

Before you start making your short film, it is very basic that you will need to get actor and actresses to be part of it as well because they will be playing different characters in it which will get him or her credited at the end of the film or web-episode but will earned the most money in the film industry.

8) Locations

I will have someone to scout for finding good locations as someone will may consider them if it good enough but I will need ask the local Council for a Kent film license because if a person goes and films in public without permission from the authority, then you will get in trouble and possibly get charged by them. Also, you need to check the weather everyday to make sure that you will go on the right day to film but depending on the and I will need access to transport my crew and equipment to site which it needs to get permission.

9) Codes of practice and regulation

BBFC (British Broad Of Film Classification) is a non-governmental organisation where it gives a classifications of film and games like for example: U, PG, 12A/12, 15 and 18 ratings depending on how much strong language, violence, sex etc is in a single film by which they watch a film which is sent by a big film companies like Universal Pictures or Warner Bros. With my short film if I sent my film to them, they would watch it and give you back information of what rating they are giving it but since it is going on to YouTube, it will not need to be sent to them.

Week 14: Research and Ideas generation (Task 1)- FSA

Task 1

The genre of the short film will be either a Thriller or Horror due to the fact that a thriller film does create tension and suspense for the audience watching it as the makers of the particular thriller film is to keep the audience on the edge of their seats but with Horror films, it is made to create a sense of fear and panic for the audience watching the film that is related to this genre as it needs to rely on the film to scare the audience through our fears and nightmares. So I have thought it through and I have decided to make a short thriller film as we did make a film that was related to this genre before but the whole first film that was made in a group of four which did involved myself was OK and could make it better which is my objective this time around.

Hook (Filming)

A screenplay is a writing which is intended to be turned into a film where it is written to show what you want the audience to see and hear within that you want to put in it which shows that the writing of the screenplay of your creative idea is yours only. But if your creative idea is put into film and does get made then the director could have a whole new vision of a film that he wants to make, actors or actresses makes change to the dialogue and an editor for the film will order the shots in the film to create an meaning behind the film which does mean that your movie is not yours anymore.

A Hook in the film industry is a brand new idea for a story where it keeps the audience interested in watching the film and the business people take notice when they are reading your script for a film that they want to make. Here are some examples of hooks being used in modern films:

• Four Jamaicans decide to enter the Olympics as bobsleigh team although their country has no snow at all.
• A lawyer lose his ability to lie (Liar Liar). 

My 1 minute Short Film and Hook

Title: Price of Friendship

There is a sound of something (possibly a object) falling and landing on the floor of the house where it wakes up a person sleeping in the bed where the audience find out that it is a man and he decides to see what was that sound and check the house to see if anyone is in his house. As he walks down the stairs to check, the whole house is in darkness as he checks around but finds that anything did not drop at all but looks at the front door to see if  it is locked. He checks and finds that it is locked but as he turns around to get some sleep, a unknown person wearing a hood puts the man against the door and holds him by the neck with a use of a arm (This is hook for the 1 minute short film).

Influence:

My Influence for to make this 1 minute short film is from a film called What Lies Beneath which a couple look into their past.

Mood Board:

Beginning

This is a object that falls on the floor mysteriously which is unknown in the short film.

This is a bedroom where the character wakes up from the sound of a object falling on the floor but the room is dark as the light is off.

Middle

He decides to check what was that sound and checking the whole house as well but it is in darkness




He walks down slowly which is creating mystery and tension for the audience of teenagers between the age of 13-18 years old. The lighting will be still dark to build tension in this short film.

End
                                              

The Unknown person in hood pushs the man into the front door and holds him by the neck with a use of a arm. The hood that the unknown person is wearing is covering his face to create mystery for the audience watching this short film.

Week 14: Task 2

Task 2 

For this task, I have to look at the most popular Horror or Thriller short films play-list which is on YouTube of sizes of likes that people have put for the short film that was posted by filmmakers, the views that single video has got over time and have a look at the comments as well their profiles while considering of what age that people are at and their gender but the reason why I need to look at this is because the people that are possibly the target audience that are into to short films as well the two genres of Thriller and Horror. But I also to need inform my intended target audience about people's social network profiles by checking what are their interests and what they would be able to relate to for example because it will show understanding of undertaking primary research, so the whole objective is to present all of primary research as evidence with screen-+grabs of it.

The thriller short film that was first on the Short Horror playlist on Youtube and looked at was 2AM: The Smiling Man. The views that the video got is 3,704,354 million views which shows how much the short film caught the attention of the audience who watched this which also showed by the likes left on in the video of 28,598 likes which is also good as it is showing that the audience liked watching this short film.

 

This image is showing how many views did the 2AM: The Smiling Man got by the audience and how many likes or dislikes it has now.

After the watching this short film, I started to look through the comments of what the audience had said about this film. As I was looking through it, it was mainly positive comments about the film which is good for the person who uploaded the video as the audience were interested into seeing this short film and by leaving comments about it will show that people want to see more different short films has been uploaded by Micheal Evans (the person who uploaded this short film). I looked at some profiles from the people who commented on the short film. The first person that I looked at was YouTube channel was called Digscomics who left a positive comment on the short film of the Smiling Man but when I looked at his channel, he was not one of popular You-tubers on YouTube like KSI or Pewdiepie for example,  as he had seven subscribers on his YouTube channel but he did have a Google+ profile which I clicked on to see what age and gender it is but it did not say at all. His interest is that this unknown person is into thriller films as it is their favourite genre of the movies he likes to watch and likes also some short films that is interest him or her.

This is one of the commenter's that was in the 2AM: The Smiling Man video and his YouTube Channel is called Digscomics which has seven subscribers.

Digscomics' Google Plus Profile

Another YouTube channel that I looked at who commented on the short film of 2AM: The Smiling Man is called TheLiteralMuffin but her name is Evie which shows that she is a girl. The channel is mainly based around of the game of Minecraft which is one of most popular games out today where the whole purpose of it is to be creative by building different constructions by the use of of textured cubes in 3D but this channel is not really that known by lots of people as she has 111 subscribers as she has made videos based around the game. So I decided to look at the profile on Google+ where there is a link to the YouTube channel to go on this profile but the only reason why I did this to see what age is this person at as I know already that the gender of this person is female but her profile on Google+ did not show what age she is. The interest is that she is into thriller short films where she wants the film to build tension throughout it because it is common in these types of films to get an climax to make it more interesting for the audience.

TheLiteralMuffin's Google+ Profile

In general, both genders (male and female)  were commenting on the short film of the 2AM: The Smiling Man so therefore the target audience is for these two gender but who are into these thriller/Horror short films but the age of them is unknown as they did not disclosed it but it could be between the age of 13 to 18 years old

Section 3: Video Guide Conclusion

Video Guide Conclusion

With early cinema's editing, it has developed and influenced the modern period because continuity has become the dominant use of editing being used in the film industry rather than Montage. There is big difference between these two editing techniques as Continuity has become mainstream for audiences because it looks in the story and drama behind a film but also by keeping a sense of space and time plus an closed ending so the audience will know that the film will come to an end by using the linear narrative (Beginning, Middle and Ending) in meaning that, this style of editing is used to entertain the audience.

As for the Montage style's of editing, it is used to make the audience think about what is going on in the film and may become confusing for them because it is breaking continuity by the use of jump cuts and a open ending which means there would be cliff-hangers at the end of the films, the audience would not know if the film that was shown to them has ended but this made things harder for them to follow because it was done to create a artistic style by creating emotions within the film. This all started due to the fact that the Soviet Union and the USA were in a battle to become the dominant style of editing by which, they were represented by Griffith and Eisenstein. Today not only Continuity has become the dominant style of editing, it is still being used in the film industry because the audience does not have to think about what is going on in the film but there is some sign of Montage being used to make the film more interesting for the audience.
 
The techniques that is associated with Continuity are 180 degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot, POV (Point of View), cutaway, cross cutting, seamless and motivated cut but the edits of this are not seen in the film. Montage and Discontinuity was also developed in the early cinema period to modern period to give a challenge to America's Continuity as it was starting to dominate the film industry but did start with Griffith where he went to make his most successful movie called Birth of the Nation in 1915 where it was deemed racist. D.W Griffith is the one who discover Continuity where he came across the 180-degree rule through trial and error as he wanted to see if would work well with the films he made but would also develop other techniques that were associated with Continuity.

Kuleshov and Eisenstein were making films for propaganda in Soviet Union.The theory of Montage (or known as the Kuleshov Effect) came around where Lev Kuleshov did a experiment where he took three shot of a man smiling, a close up of a gun and the man looking frightened but when it was shown to a audience, their reaction was that he is in fear of dying so he changed the shots, the audience had a different reaction to it as the shots was changed to create a different meaning which showed that his theory worked but Eisenstein would push this theory by being the first person to use it in his films. In Strike, he uses a same shot of the labourers cutting up in which killing a cow where this was showing that they were getting treated like animals but overall this was making the audience think of what is going on in the film and work out the meaning for themselves where in Continuity editing, the audience would not need to think of what is going on in a film because this style of editing is use to entertain them.

The Kuleshov Effect

Strike (Scene of the people cutting open killing a cow) by Eisenstein 

Alfred Hitchcock was influenced by the work that Eisenstein put into his films which included the use of Montage techinque where he uses this in the film of Psycho that was released in 1960. In the scene where the unknown figure starts stabbing Marion Crane who is in the shower, the pace of each cuts starts to pick up due to the fact it was slow at first which this type of montage is called Rhythmic but the soundtrack of the music was getting louder mainly because it was showing the violent side of the sequences of the stabbing shots. After she was fully stabbed, there was a shot of the bath plug where it cross-dissolve to a close up and long take of Marion's right eye which it was showing that the bath plug had a dark hole which is showing that she is close to deaths after getting stabbed so many times.

Jean-Luc Goddard was one of most famous french citric-turned filmmakers who was influenced by the work that Hitchcock put into his films like Psycho and his use of the alternative technique of Montage which he considered an Auteur (Artist) but his own film of Breathless, he used a different technique to bring something different to audiences. That technique was the Jump Cut where it was first discovered by George Meiles where he used it his films of A Trip to the Moon and The Haunted Castle but Goddard would used this technique to create his own style so he would developed this more than Meiles did as he was using as a special effect. At the beginning of Breathless where one of the character is driving a stolen car until two Police Officers on Bikes start chasing him, he uses the Jump Cuts because he wanted to give America's Continuity a challenge as this editing technique was dominating the film industry and since Continuity was getting broken, there was another name was came up for breaking Continuity was called Discontinuity.

The Jump Cuts in the beginning of Breathless

Christopher Nolan is one of the contemporary directors who used discontinuous editing which he was portraying the narratives of non-linear and Multi-Stranded while bridging a gap between the visuals in the film and the story itself but also using the technique of Montage to make the audience think and understand about of what is going on in the film. As he was influenced by the auteur's (artist) predecessors of Continuity (Griffith), Montage (Kuleshov and Eisenstein) and Discontinuity (French New Wave) which he absorbed of the techniques that they developed in the past and created his own artistic style because the future directors will look to the past, modern and contemporary artists and use some of their styles in their own films that they will make.

In Batman: The Dark Knight where Batman interrogating the Joker about where is Harvey Dent and Rachel have disappeared. During the conversation between Batman and The Joker, there is a use of rhythmic editing when the cuts do start slowly but the pace starts to build up with the soundtrack so it creates tension for the audience but also there is a use of cross-cutting to show a different character's version of events when the Police Officer of James Gordon is running to the door as the events in the interview room starts to get heated.

Usually in his films, Nolan uses the editing style of Continuity so it keeps the audience entertained through the story that is being told in the film but in the film of Inception, Nolan uses the alternative technique of Montage that was developed from Kuleshov and Eisenstein would go on to use this theory in his films to make the audience think of what is going on in the film which Nolan did this by using flashbacks and flash-forwards so it makes the audience think of what is the story is trying to tell them with the characters as well.

 

 

Quentin Tarantino was another contemporary director who created his own mash ups from his favourite genres of films that he watched but he was also influenced by the auteur's (artist) predecessors of Continuity (Griffith) and Montage (Kuleshov and Eisenstein) which he absorbed these techniques that was developed in the early and modern cinema and created his own artistic style but this style was brought to Hollywood to show something new for the audiences who like watching new films so future directors would be able to look up to these directors that are from the past, modern and contemporary periods and use some of the styles that they used and put it into their own films. 

The styles that Tarantino created can be seen in the film of Pulp Fiction where Mia overdoses after taking the wrong drug which Vincent administer an adrenaline shot to her heart where she is revived. During this, there is a use of rhythmic editing where the cuts starts to get quicker so it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats but he uses Continuity throughout it as well so it shows that Tarantino is influenced by DW Griffth's use of Continuity.

 

In the Kill Bill 2 where Bride is training with Master Pai Mei, he uses continuity editing but it does get broken when she is showing her sword skills as part of her training which Tarantino did on purpose to show that the film is staged or in other words: not real (not a true story) but there is a use of rhythmic editing which is part of Montage where the cuts of camera shots between Bride and Pai Mei starts to pick up pace with the soundtrack because the cuts at the beginning of the clip are slow at first.
 

    
In Inglorious Bastards, Quentin Tarantino shows his influence of using Continuity and Montage techniques in his films by combing both in this film to not only entertain the audience by using continuity throughout the film and also having the use rhythmic editing which is part of Montage to keep pace of the action happening in the film but in this clip of Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, it is a montage sequence due to the fact that there is a flashback of who is this character by looking into their past which it did in this film because Tarantino wanted the audience to think who are the characters in the film.

Also in the film of Death-Proof which is coming toward the end, Tarantino was using the continuity methods that was developed by D.W Griffith as he was trying to stop the audience to stop thinking about the movie unlike Montage does this. In the chase scene in Death-Proof, he broke the 180-degree rule of Continuity which is creating discontinuity within the film and showing it is staged and not real at all. There is rhythmic editing to the chase scene as it is creating a fast scene between the shot changes that happens and make the audience feel entertained and do not feel boring at all.

 

Conclusion: The use of Contemporary editing is used to pass time without needing the audience to think about what is going on in the film so this became known as the Hollywood Montage because it was completing with the Soviet's Montage that Kuleshov and Eisenstein that they came up with and used in their films but Hollywood Montage was used to entertain the audience but there was the uses of Montage techniques like Rhythmic for example.                  

Unit 16 (Editing)- SHE

Rough Cut:

Final Cut:

Editing Log with (Screen-grabs)

Train Station

Home

Street

Log

On Final Cut Pro, I needed to create an edit decision list (EDL) so I know what shots that I am going to use for the editing of the short film called 'SHE'. To make it possible, first I have to get a folder that contains the clips from the short film and import them into Final Cut Pro by creating three different bins that was called 'Train Station', Street' and 'Home' (The images above) where the camera shots of each section of the film will go into these bins because I will not get confused what camera shot is needed for the next scene which could be important and may have lost it so it is important to have different bins for different camera shots that the film crew filmed on a location or in the studio.

After doing this, I had to look at all of the clips to see what ones are good or bad from the three different bins which I did by labeling it either 'G' (Good) or 'B' (Bad) as a editor in the film industry, they need to find the relevant takes that could be part of the short film and the takes that were bad like for example: there could be zooming into something that makes the shot look amateur due to the cameraman changing the zoom more, so therefore they need to look throughout to see if they is important parts that is being missed. When this is done after arranging the shot into 'G' or 'B', I can drag into the timeline on Final Cut Pro and start editing the short film which at the beginning, I did a rough cut of what possible camera shots that I am to use in short film of 'SHE' and then we did the real edit of 'SHE' in our own version of what happens throughout the film.
       

EDL

A editing decision list with the shot that the editor is going to use to make a film by using the right shots is part of the post-production stage of the film industry where it keeps the footage in order for the editor which he or she can choose what pieces of footage do they keep or get rid of it as it maybe wrong about the footage for example: the actor or actress getting a line from the script wrong but also, it keeps the editing that they done together.

During the production of filming the movie, a camera take is noted down in a list of shots that is important to the film but since there is no database that is filled in with metadata so it is making the editor to bring up any shot that the director has asked for which is written down on paper to make easier for the editor but the more precise the edit list and information that is in there, the easier it is for the editor to get the footage quicker.
 

XML File of my Video Guide

Timeline (Final Version)