2. Evaluation Activity 1 The title of the film had to be short and sweet, that’s why ‘Obsessed’ was a perfect title to use. When choosing the title I thought of several longer titles, like ‘The Murder and I’ or ‘Teen Suicide’, but I thought the simple ‘Obsessed’ gave a vague title instead of an obvious one like, teen suicide. Obsessed leaves the imagination to the viewer, making questions like, who’s obsessed? With what? And why? The setting of the video either had to be dark or extremely light to make the impression on audience of shock. Tension is added with the darker scenes, adding mystery to the scene. The costumes had to be something that younger people would wear, so baggy clothes, hoodies and jeans would be the typical costume for my characters, these have been shown through out the opening. When shooting the suicide scene I have used camera shots which don’t show the characters face to add mystery to who he is, this is also typical of a thriller film to not show the mystery to the film straight away, they build it up to a high climax before they are shown. The font was just a bold font . If the opening was made for a major company, there would be logo design to go with it, but since this is an independent film with no budget, then this was appropriate for this opening. The plot of this film is, ‘The young life of Jess Collins is thrown upside down when her best friend commits suicide. She finds it strange when he was always happy. Jess will search for the answers she is looking for, with only a suicide note to go on. Along the way she will find help by one of the suicide victim’s friend, but who can she trust? What she finds may not be easy to life with...’ with this in mind if the film was to continue the opening has added mystery for the audience to keep watching, why has he killed himself? What will Jess find? The opening of films are extremely important they show the audience the mood of the film, the type of script it will have, and what to expect throughout the film. When introducing characters I didn’t want to show the victim of the film (suicide victim) straight away, there had to be some build up till he was introduced, keeping the tension high, this was mastered by the shot of the dark house for a few seconds then a mysterious girl emerging.
3. Evaluation Activity 2 – Character Similarities Jess Collins (Obsessed) Juno McGuff (Juno) Similarities: The character Jess Collins is female, same as Juno McGuff The age of both characters is 16. They both seem singled out, away from everyone else. They aren’t in massive groups of jocks or plastic girls, so they are of normal popularity, the images show them alone but they both have similar social grouping, not massively popular with one or two friends they are close to, Juno has her best friend (Female) and boyfriend and Jess Collins has here friend James (Male) and later on in the story, Tom Standing (Male), So Jess is more popular with the males when Juno is with equal. They both like is quite quiet peaceful locations, this is shown by the plants and houses, it would be different for the characters profile if they lived in a busy location like London, there would be apartment blocks in the background, the style of the characters costume would be more related to social grouping. The costumes for the character are classic teenage style, jean, shirts and hoodie, used for both characters. They are both the protagonists in the films, Juno is even named after the character of the movie, while Jess is just the main character, most of the camera time will be on this character and it follows the story of her life after her best friend, James dies. Differences:The genre of each film is different as Juno is a comedy about teen pregnancy, and Obsessed is a thriller involving suicide and teenage life. The style of the shots are different, Juno has a more colourful, easy going look about it where as Obsessed uses darker scenes, harsher brightness and a eerie feeling about each scene to enhance the Thriller genre. The soundtrack to Juno is bouncy and cheerful to add to the comedy of the film where as Obsessed uses eerie music to give a creepy sound.
4. Evaluation Activity 3 Hello, this is Keefer Bishop the Director of this film opening. I am going to talk about how this film would be distributed and what exactly a production company does. Let’s start with what a production company does production companies are responsible for the development, production and may also be responsible for raising the funds for each film it is backing. For my film it would be an independent film, as it consists of a low budget. Since my film would be produced by an independent film company, it would not be budgeted with enough to produce the distribution of the film too, so I would find another company to pay for the distribution, this also gets there name and logo at the start and end of the film. In the title sequence the main names that are mentioned the main actors/actresses and the producer and director of the film, the producer is normally mentioned first then the actors/actresses and last the director as they will want that to be the last thing you remember from the titles. The script writer and the music composer are also mentioned. The major film companies consist of Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures/ Touchstone Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures. The minor film companies consist of Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, The Weinstein Company and Spyglass Entertainment.
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6. 3-4 films watched per week (Mainly Action, Thrillers/Horror and Comedy genre of films)
7. 5 hours of reading per week.These factors make it perfect for these people to be the target of my film, they like the genre of film I have made, they will enjoy the car chase which would be shown later on in my film. They humour will be there type because it won’t be aimed at children, and the films certificate would be ‘15’ because of the language used, (swearing, sexual references) the violent scenes and the scenes of a distressing nature.
9. iMovie – Editing software Evaluation Activity 6 Adobe Flash – Used for the Animations Sony HD Camcorder Flip Camera YouTube This website is a major advancement in film making, making it easy for amateur filmmakers to upload there talent onto this website and have people watch them for free. Garageband - Music software (Look back at previous post related to Garageband) Tripod One of the most important tools of film making, a tripod steadies your shots, adding balance to the camera keeping it stable for the best shots. When using the tripod you can easily change the angles and direction the camera is facing.
10. Evaluation Activity 7 I find the establishing shot of the school to be effective but the zoom into the doors seems misleading as the character is entering the scene from the staircase, maybe I should have used an establishing shot from the other side of the stairs but that would break the 180 degree rule. I think the idea of the character walking into the shot has been used well, by using a panning shot of the scene from a long shot into a medium shot of his body we can follow the character into the shot, while keeping the mystery of who the character is, sending the message that they don’t want to be seen. There is no transition between the two shots it just cuts. This makes use of a long shot following the character to the door where the editing has been extremely precise to get the match on action correct of the mysterious character opening the door to enter the room, when editing this scene it was quite simple to do but the effects on the film is very good, helping the continuity of the video. In these shots I have shown shot reverse shot, of a conversation between two characters one is seen as nicer than the other, where the other is rude and obviously doesn’t care about anyone. Since the Preliminary exercise till the Film Opening I have became more comfortable with editing the films with iMovie, the program is easily used adding voice over to the video, cutting the shots, taking sound out, changing the brightness and using different effects are just a few of the features I have learnt to use. The types of shots establishing shots, long shots and medium shots are all similar to the preliminary exercise but I have made use of extreme close-ups, close-ups and panning shots. The sound wasn’t really an aspect to change in the preliminary exercise but when working on my film opening I have found it to be a really key factor to work with, it can control a whole scene, making it work or not.
