1A) SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Creativity:

How creative were you at AS?

Motion

-       We did not use motion to create our ident as we did at A2 – we drew it on a piece of A4 paper and scanned it into the Mac, then we put the images together on Final Cut Pro and transformed it into a moving ident.

-       We also did not use Motion for our graphics, which resulted in our graphics being far more simple in our AS coursework than our A2 coursework. In AS, our graphics are simply white text appearing on a black background, where as in A2, our graphics are text fading in on a video of candles, which we took close-up, and slowed down to 50% using Motion.

Camera

-       Our camera framing was less tight and close in in our AS piece than our A2 piece. We filmed more panning shots because our main character is running through the city, so we used panning shots to follow her. We also used pan focus at the beginning of the film when ‘BRITTANY JOHNSTON’ and ‘LUKE FORRYAN’ appeared on the screen, which worked well to create a professional and upper budget feel. We used an extreme close up to show Ally’s shower, where we used influences from the iconic film ‘American Psycho’.

Narrative ideas

-       Our narrative idea in AS were less thought through and made clear. However, our narrative in our trailer was not extremely specific and obvious because of the genre of it. We chose to do a romance trailer, and when we researched other romance trailers such as ‘Dear John’ and ‘Like Crazy’, the narrative is not overly clear, nor is it the component that is stressed the most in the trailer. Instead, it is the lighting and the relationship between the characters that comes across the most.

-       In ‘Malice’, our AS film opening, the narrative was rather unclear and we found that it caused some confusion amongst our viewers when we asked for their feedback, whereas our A2 coursework was not questioned as much narrative-wise.

Location

-       Our location in our AS film was urban and modern and looked rather grey and desolate. This was because we used influences such as ‘Fishtank’ and ‘Shifty’ when considering how we wanted the look of our film to appear. Having said this, however, we did use some bright colours deliberately such as the bright yellow staircase to create some variation.

-       This contrasts to our A2 work, in which we used the beach and naturalistic locations such as grass. We also used inside a lot more than we did at AS, in which we used soft and warm lighting to indicate a romantic and calm mood.

Costume

-       For the costume planning of our AS work we looked at Google images of men’s suits for when we were considering what Jasper would wear to court, and the same for Ally. When Ally is running at the beginning, she is in simple running gear; we looked at influences such as the trailer for ‘Shame’ where the main character is running through the city.

-       At A2, we did far more research into our costumes because we looked at fashion and the clothes the main characters wore in other Romance trailers, and tried to somewhat combine replicating this with reflecting the age and stage of Grace and Isaac (our main characters) through what we chose for them to wear. For example, when Isaac is in a highflying job, we wanted him to look smart and successful whilst also retaining an era of quirkiness and individuality.

Editing

-       In our AS work, we did not pay as much attention to editing as we did in our A2. This was because we did not know how to use Final Cut Pro in the detail that we knew in year 13 after a year of using it. We used many more effects such as fade to colour and we added filters such as ‘Glow’ and ‘Hard light’. Also, for our graphics we used ‘zoom’ to make them seem more professional.

Magazine Cover Draft

Poster Planning

For our poster, we decided to use these two Blue Valentines posters as direct influences. This was because we enjoyed the colours and we loved the fact that it was only the couple in the photo; also the intimacy of the whole poster appealed to us as it reflected exactly the type of film we were attempting to sell.

Poster Construction

For our poster, we had three different versions of the same poster so that we could compare them and decide which would work best. We interviewed our target audience to help us choose the final poster.

1:

 

2:

3:

We eventually chose to use number 2 because it got the most positive response from our viewers and it had the most complex tagline. Also we wanted to use a higher contrast between the three green colours of the words 'DEGREES OF SEPARATION' as it made the title stand out. We also did not want to include 'COMING SOON' on our poster because it is not supposed to replicate a teaser poster, but a British film poster. We included the '15' certification as a final touch of professionalism and because it is common on most posters.

Planning and Construction - Magazine Cover

Planning and Construction - Magazine Cover

I really liked a lot of the photos we took so wanted to use as many as possible. Also, as our film is arthouse, we needed to make it appeal to the audience of British Independent films so our magazine would have to display something for avid film fans. Therefore we decided to go with the theme of 'behind the scenes' and use lots of photos from the photoshoot.

We looked at proofsheets as a way to make it look professional. 

We then cut these images out to make a basic template to put our own photos in. We also changed some of the colouring of the photos to make it match this classy black and white look.

Whilst playing around with these images, we considered using it for our poster instead of magazine cover and so added text and colour.

W.H

Plot Change

Following editing our footage from Tuesday, we decided that it would have too much footage time in the office if we had both characters working in offices. Therefore we have got rid of Grace's job as we feel this also makes it more clear that Grace is dependent on Isaac and therefore may cause more problems in the relationship.

W.H.

Filming Diary 3

Filming Diary Entry 3

Yesterday's filming was extremely successful as we managed to get all the shots we need in good time. We started off in the office, doing all the shots of both Grace and Isaac's work places. The office we used was perfect as it was big enough to look professional and successful for Isaac's job but at the same time, it was small enough for us to be able to frame it well. For Grace's office it was a bit more complicated as it was hard to disrupt a busy office to film. Instead we used the empty office next door to Isaac's and used the photocopier to make it look like she was lower down than Isaac's position. We also used articificial lights to make it look like it was later at night to suggest that she was overloaded with work. 

After lunch, we went back to Clapham to film the scenes outside and in the house. We used Bea's car in place of Isaac driving away and then took a number of shots from different angles of Grace running after it. This was quite difficult as although we wanted the handheld effect, by running with Thea, the camera work was too bumpy. We then tried a mixture of both zooming and running with Thea from both behind and in front. The lighting was perfect as the sun set was just beginning and so it was quite grey and depressing light.

Following this, we used the light to create an even more dark and depressing shot when Isaac walks away from Grace. We used the alley at the bottom of Bea's road which echoed the shot of the argument on the bridge in Blue Valentine. We were really pleased with the lighting and composition of this shot as it helped show how their relationship going downhill.

We then went back to my house to film all the argument shots of them at night. This was perfect timing as by this time it was dark so we used the glass area in my kitchen with the natural nighttime light from outside whilst using artificial lights as well.

W.H.