Introducing my evaluation.

Now that I we have finished editing and finalising our final piece I am now ready answer the seven evaluation questions I have been set. There are different ways in which I shall approach answering these. Firstly I shall use the Prezi software on the internet. This offers a less con formative way of reprsenting data and answers. Its a more interactive and modern day tool. Moreover It differs from the colloquial writing of an essay and offers a more technological alternative. I am also planning of setting up a Wix account. This is an online website creating tool, whereby I can present even more than one answer on an online database.

Audience feedback for Final Cut

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Our final cut, with a title sequence.

Here is our improved final cut, it includes a new title sequence along with new dialogue and perfected cuts.

Risk Asessment

Risk Assesment

Title- 'Unforeseen Emissary'

We came up with an executive title for our film. We thought considering that it is a spy thriller, we should include something to do with espionage in our title. So we came up with 'Unforeseen Emissary'

Our new script, on revision is:
Smith and Johnson are both secret agents involved in espionage.

Smith: 'Glad you could make it'

Johnson:' I haven't got much time, can we hurry it up, you know I'm not supposed to be here.'

Smith:'I need you to do one more thing for me , one more mission, she'd want you to do it.'

Johnson:' She's not here anymore, I quit along time ago, i'll nee you S.'

Audience feedback on rough cut

Audience Reaction on Prezi

Audience feedback on our Rough Cut

We showed our rough cut to some people in our class and asked them to say features that are good and things we need to change.

Sound: It was effective but the dialogue was drained out by the sound of traffic in the background. Also our actually dialogue was apparently not good, in the way we gave too much away for an opening sequence. So we have cut all this out of our opening sequence and are going to re-film it.

Camera Work: The camera work was very effective, a huge variety of shots and movements were used in a very effective way. The only problem was the shake of the camera when Ricardo enters the school.

Conventions: Follows the mysterious conventions of the Thriller Genre. The strange camera angles make the audeince nervus and on edge. The only concern was the reality of it at times. Such as the dialogue, however we are definately changing this.

Obviously there was no feed back on title sequence as we have not yet completed these on Motion. However they are a working progress and should be completed by the end of the week for our second edit.

Here is our Rough Cut of our final opening sequence

Making fake blood

This was done by our group, we used the blood in the rough cut and I'm sure it will feature in our final opening sequence. It was used making flour, red food colouring, maple syrup and water

I have set myself some questions about the current footage we have filmed

Have we got all our footage?
-Yes


Are all our scenes not shaky?
-Out of 5 i gave ourselves 4. Their is one scene that we shall have to re-film due to the tripod dolly not handling cracks in the pavement well when doing a tracking shot.


Is all our framing ok?
-To a point, some areas the framing was rushed and we had bits we didn't need, especially in the background of some scenes in Ricardo's bedroom.


Is all our diagetic sound ok?
-Yes, apart from our one scene with dialogue, cars in the background drowned out the dialogue.


What camera angles have we used?
-We used Shot reverse shot, match on action, establishing shot, pan, a range of different angles; including low angle, high angle, mid shot etc.

Was Mise en scene good?
-Yes, within the school we did our best to make sure that school, were we filmed it didn't look like a learning environment. But in Ricardo's bed room it was hard at some parts not to include some unwanted background posters, etc, but we successfully edited these out.

Was their continuity?
-Yes we made absolutely sure that sound, miss en scene and framing were all continuous.

Does our footage look authentic?
-To a point my only query would be our fake blood, it may look too fake!

The equiptment we shall use.

Tripod:
This is used to stabalise the camera and ensure that a fixed steady framing is on the scene. One can adjust the angles and height of the camera using the treaded screws on the top of the stand and changing the clasps on the feet of it.

HD camera:

The camera obviously is used to record the motion, it also has a still setting so one can take pictures with the device. It also has a zoom function and different settings on its software. This ensure's a good motion is caught.

Still Camera:
We use the still camera to capture images of us working as a group together, we also use it for pictures of our sets and miss en scene. Its a Nikkon and does a purposeful job.

Opening title sequences.

The opening sequence of a thriller nearly always contains a title sequence, probably the most famous designer of title sequences is Saul Bass. Bass was involved in the production of a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's title sequences, although not a Hitchcock film one of Bass's most famous opening sequence was for the film 'The man with the golden arm' which can be seen here: Furthermore 'North by Northwest' was probably bass's most famous Hitchcock opening title sequences, it can be seen here: By looking at both these bass title sequences one can notice a pattern, Bass tends to use the line going down the page and in effect pushing the title on or off the page. It adds an interesting effect of cynicism. Bass also uses white lines generally. The film 'The man with the golden arm' was a taboo subject in 1955 when it was released due to it being about a heroin addict. Bass's use of the Black on white paper in the opening scene caused a stir due to its connection to the arm which is associated with drug use. This shows the power Bass's image has projected. Moreover Bass's work has been emulated in 21st century productions such as Catch me if you can (2002)

Celluliod pictures

Here is a picture of the Celluloid pictures crew, from the left- Dauud, Ricardo, Johnnie (me)

Mise en scene

The concept of Mise en scene is basically the referral of everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement-composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. It also incorporates the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. This is why it is nessacary to have have directors, this is also a small part of their job on set. 

For thriller films, the mise en scene is usually low- key for lighting, the sets are dark and associated with black that is considered a sinister colour. Red is also a common colour used. In the movie 'We need to talk about Kevin' in every scene something red is shown, this represents 'Kevin's' association to the devil.

Thriller conventions

I have been speaking about thriller conventions and how we are incorporating them into our opening sequence. But in order to fully understand I going to do more research. Firstly, we are basing our sequence on a spy thriller; such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or James Bond. The conventional prop to see in this type of thriller are:
-Fake blood
-Guns
-Suits/overcoats
-Knife
-Handcuffs







Furthermore, red herring-we shall be using this in our sequence. A red herring, as the name suggests, is a decoy or distraction from the actual target or objective, designed to 'lead' them -usually the protagonist- in the wrong direction. Agatha Christy used it in her spy thriller Novels. It tends to be a regular feature in detective or spy thrillers. Also in the film Memento, the main character and protagonist Lenny is constantly searching for the 'Red Herring'

Lastly we are also using a cliff hanger. This is one of the most common conventions in Thriller movies is a cliff hanger. Naturally as we are only doing an opening sequence its no surprise that our movie will feature a cliff hanger at the end.

Shooting script

Shooting Script

Our company

'Our company' is called Celluloid Pictures. We found it quite difficult to think of a name at first. But then we had the idea of Celluloid as its the compund of nitrocellulose and camphor which form 'Celluloid' which is then the substance used to make film reel. We then added pictures as it composes as catchy name-

This is our animatic storyboard. It includes the basic scenes and sounds we shall be incorporating into our opening sequence, furthermore it shows the title sequence that will show during the sequence. Where it says 'working title' that is where we are still looking for a title for our production. From doing this I learnt that the approximate duration of our openming sequence will be around the standard 2.00 minute mark.I also learnt that the props we will have to include will be ones that fit the thriller conventions. We will need-fake blood, suit, alcohol containers...The research I had to do in order to complete this was just a genral look at other animatics such as the Gorillaz one I posted earlier. To do the sound for the shower we had to record an actual shower, the other sounds mostly came from Imovie.

We have associated are production company (celluoide pictures) most strongly to the small independant film company Warp Films, here is a short bit of info about Warp:

Launched in 2001, Warp Films leads the way in exciting and original British Filmmaking. The company has been behind an array of critically acclaimed and award winning films, including several BAFTAs. Warp Film productions include Rubber Johnny, Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England, Donkey Punch, A Complete  History of My Sexual Failures and Four Lions.
Currently in post-production, as part of Warp’s digital slate Warp X, is Kill List, written and directed by Ben Wheatley. Shortly due for release after its premiere at Sundance 2011 is Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine's directorial debut, starring Peter Mullan and Olivia Coleman.
Richard Ayoade’s debut feature Submarine starring Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins and Paddy Considine premiered at the Toronto in 2010 and was released in the UK during March 2011 and June 2011 in the US. Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, David Slade, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Lynne Ramsay.
Warp's most recent television production for Channel 4, Shane Meadows' This Is England '86 has received numerous plaudits and reached record viewing figures^. Warp is currently developing several television projects with Channel 4 and the BBC.
Upcoming short films for Film4 include The Organ Grinder’s Monkey, a short written and directed by Jake and Dinos Chapman, and Matt Holness’ debut short A Gun For George.
Warp Music Video and Commercials has an impressive roster of directors including Shane Meadows, Richard Ayoade, Robert Hales, United Visual Artists and Eric Wareheim. Their inaugural commercial 'The Boost Mobile Shuffle was for the prestigious Super Bowl 2010 spot. They have made music videos for Flying Lotus, Vampire Weekend, Tinie Tempah, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Warp Films' first film My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 by Chris Morris won the Best Short Film award at the BAFTA Awards.Warp is closely associated with Chris Cunningham, who was responsible for Aphex Twin's videos Come To Daddy and Windowlicker. He is responsible for an abstract short film called Rubber Johnny, which features the music of Aphex Twin and was released on May 23, 2005.
Shane Meadows has made three films with Warp Films Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England - which won a BAFTA - and most recently "Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee".
The Chris Morris film Four Lions was twice-BAFTA nominated.In April 2008, Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment announced "a collaboration" with Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least 2 films together over the next 3 years." with Warp setting up an Australian branch in Melbourne. The first film to come from this collaboration is the Australian drama, Snowtown Warp Australia also announced the development of Partisan, a feature film by Ariel Klieman and Sarah Cyngler in 2010.
Warp Films are currently crowd-funding four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival by Vincent Moon, using the website Kickstarter.com. The project will need to reach its goal by 15 October.

Film	Year	Director	Notes
A Complete History of M Sexual Failures	2008	Waitt, Chris ! Chris Waitt
All Tomorrow's Parties	2009	Caouette, Jonathan ! All Tomorrow's People & Jonathan Caouette
Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo	2008	Ayoade, Richard ! Richard Ayoade
Bunny and the Bull	2009	King, Paul ! Paul King
Curtains	2009	Barratt, Julian ! Julian Barratt	short film
Dead Man's Shoes	2004	Meadows, Shane ! Shane Meadows
Dog Altogether	2007	Considine, Paddy ! Paddy Considine	short film
Donkey Punch	2008	Blackburn, Oliver ! Oliver Blackburn
Four Lions	2010	Morris, Chris ! Chris Morris
Fur TV	2008	Waitt, Chris ! Chris Waitt
Grow Your Own	2007	Laxton, Richard ! Richard Laxton
Hush	2009	Tonderai, Mark ! Mark Tonderai
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee	2009	Meadows, Shane ! Shane Meadows
My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117	2003	Morris, Chris ! Chris Morris	short film
Rubber Johnny	2005	Cunningham, Chris ! Chris Cunningham	short film
Scummy Man	2006	Fraser, Paul ! Paul Fraser	short film/music video
Submarine	2010	Ayoade, Richard ! Richard Ayoade
The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour	2009	King, Paul ! Paul King
This Is England	2006	Meadows, Shane ! Shane Meadows
This Is England 86	2010	Meadows, Shane ! Shane Meadows & Tom Harper
Tyrannosaur	2011	Considine, Paddy ! Paddy Considine

This is the trailor to a big Warp Films success- This is England-