A2 Film Studies FM3 Unit 3 Creative Project Evaluation
Katie Nethercoat
The brief for this project is to create a short film or sequence 3-5 minutes long. We must use skills that we learn in FM1 and apply them to our sequence or film. I decided to make a scene from an imagined film, which I named ‘Hereafter’. I decided that my scene would be the ending of the film and would be the resolution of the characters. All of my progress and planning I posted on my film blog: http://katienethercoatfilm.blogspot.com/
The aim of this scene would be to create and emotional response from the audience through the use of mise-en-scene and sound. As the genre of my film is family drama the scene is about the characters and their own experiences. I decided to choose the genre ‘drama’ as it was different rather than creating a horror and I wanted to use the skills I had learnt in editing to apply. I decided to use the sub genre ‘family drama’ so that the audience was broader and it would also be suitable for mainstream and older audiences. The context for my scene is especially important because the use of the camera, props and costume will express more than the dialogue. The equilibrium of the imagined film is the friendship between the characters, Tina and Megan. The disruption is the car accident which claims the life of Megan and her quest to reconnect her friendship with Tina. The climax is when Megan realises that she is dead and finally the re-equilibrium for them is coming to terms with their losses and moving on.
due to the scene being similar and the plot is slightly similar. It is also a film in which the editing and the use of camera work is important and is more important, at times than the use of dialogue. In the scene I chose it was heavy on the dialogue but it was the positioning of the mise-en-scene that I was also looking at and how it worked within the scene.
I also chose to look at ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ (Jonathan Dayton, 2006) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BmJLxPHLkE as it a very good example of family drama. The sequence I looked at was very well edited and had heightened as the scene was to show the tension between a family and the divisions that they each had. In both of these I looked at the mise-en-scene and how they were used further on in the film. The editing was also important, as I wanted to see how they structured each scene. The conventions of a drama is to focus on real life and more on the emotions of the characters and use camera work instead of a lot of dialogue. The mise-en-scene is also a feature which is important in drama films as unlike horror it is not relying on jumpy camera or editing to scare the audience but to set a scene that connects the audience to the narrative. When I was looking at current examples I also did audience research on my blog and created polls in which people would answer. This helped me confirm my audience and what they like or dislike in films. As my sequence is family drama the gender I would be aiming for would be women as statistically they are more interested in drama films than males. When doing my textual analysis I looked at stylistics’ such as cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. I looked at these so I could apply them to my own film and show what I learnt in FM1.
When choosing what I would include in my scene and the diegesis I would create, I decided that I would use a flashback sequence. I chose this because I believed that this could show the level of editing I had learnt in the first year and I also wanted the sequence to express a friendship that was broken.
I chose to film it at the beach because the beach is a place where people feel most free and peaceful and this is what I wanted the sequence to express. I chose to add the essence of fun so I filmed the shots handheld and I asked my performers to act natural in front of the camera and to act like it wasn’t there. This also adds to the sense of realism in the diegesis I used a Canon HV20 video camera as I was able to film in HD. As this sequence is connotating freedom and fun I didn’t want the costume to be too heavy so they wore loose clothes. I decided to use a range of shots including close ups, medium and long shots so that it looked more natural and when it came to editing it would look spontaneous and natural. The cinematography in this sequence is more free so that it connotates the mood in the shots and also makes it more emotional and it enables the audience to see the characters when they were happiest. As I was including a flashback sequence I looked at films, which included similar footage. ‘No Reservations’
(Scott Hicks,2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i84EXf7pO4&feature=related has a scene in which the two protagonists are watching a home video of a relative who has died. Whilst filming this scene on the beach, I wanted the sun to be exposed well in the camera as the sunlight made it seem dreamlike. I have some shots of
When the time came to filming the rest of the scene I decided to film it at my house and mainly in a bedroom. I chose this because the bedroom is a place where people feel most safe and content. I wanted the room to connotate a feeling of loss and bare so I made the mise-en-scene connotate this. The walls and the bedding are all pale colours. This is because I wanted the room to express the emotions of the character Tina as being very lost and drained. I used the positioning of the bed to my advantage as it is in the centre of the room and acts like a barrier to Megan when she tries to communicate to Tina. The costumes also link in with the theme of loss. They are both wearing grey which connotates that something is missing. I wanted this to be the main theme as the whole film/sequence is about losing a close friendship. This is adding to the sense of verisimilitude because it is similar to real life. I chose to have an effect of the bare mirror so that it would shock the audience. This is also a common feature in films which involve ghosts and their realisation of their death.
Finally, when I had finished filming I was able to upload all of my footage onto the edit suites and start the editing. I used Adobe Premier Pro CS4, to edit my footage. As I used a HD camera the edit suites were also in HD. This enabled my footage to be in great quality. When editing my sequence I soon realised that I had missed out on small shots which would have been useful but I was able to overcome this. As I wanted the flashback sequence to be an important feature I made sure that the audience would be able to identify it as a flashback. I did this by changing the exposure, brightness and contrast on the footage. I also added slow motion effect to make it look more like memories. I chose these effects as they made the footage more like memories and more emotional for the audience. When looking at current examples I identified effect such as echoing the diegetic sound and adding non diegetic soundtrack.
Following the conventions of the ‘drama’ genre I did not include a lot of dialogue, as I wanted the editing and the use of cinematography to tell the story. Adding non-diegetic music and echoed diegetic sound also followed the conventions of a drama because it makes you empathise with the characters and it conveys their emotions to the audience. When planning this scene I always wanted to add very emotional music but I wasn’t sure whether to add a song with vocals or just music. I sampled 6 options of music which I thought would work well. I sampled Cyndi Lauper ‘Time After Time’ which was a recent collaboration with Sarah McLachlan. I thought this was going to work well because it was two vocalists and it was a acoustic version which I thought would work well with the narrative. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use this song as I couldn’t use a transition which would allow the song to work well when the flashback sequence would end. I then decided to use piano music which had no lyrics so that I was able to end the flashback more fluently. I finally decided on using Kerry Muzzey’s ‘Thankyou’ which works really well. Using this kind of music makes the flashback sequence more emotional for the audience and again helps me accomplish my aim.
After I had completed my sequence I asked six people, 3 males and 3 females to fill out a questionnaire which asked them questions about their reactions to the film and if they understood the narrative. For example: Did you notice the flashback and how? All of the participants knew the genre of ‘drama’ due to the stylistics I used and they all understood the narrative. As I asked an equal number of people and both genders I was able to differentiate males and females and their views. Females felt more emotional about the sequence than males. This demonstrates how my aim has worked as I have created emotional response from my audience. All of the responses agreed that the music was a great way to make it more emotional and they all thought that attracted them to the film. The use of these questions enable me to know that I have achieved in varied stylistics and they work well together. As my target audience is mainstream I selected age range on the questionnaire to be 15-18+ as not only does this cover the mainstream audiences but also these are the BBFC ratings for films which include films of Drama. One things in which my audience noticed was the use of editing when the sequence went into a flashback, as I used a fade into white and used slow motion. This is one aspect which was important as I needed the audience to identify the use of flash back by the editing and the cinematography. The participants didn’t write about how I could improve it, which is a great result.
This audience feedback is a great help because it shows how the editing and filming I have done has worked well overall and my audience understands the narrative. This shows how I have completed my aim for audience emotion through the use of the film language I learnt in FM1. Overall, I have enjoyed putting what I learnt in the first year and applying it to my own project. I feel that I have done well in this project and that I have done my best to portray the narrative through the use of cinematography and editing.
To conclude I feel that I have done well in this project and I am happy with the overall product. If I had more time and planned better I think the use of angles and juxtaposition could have improved. Overall I think I have put all of my skills and knowledge form FM1 and applied them to my sequence.
