Hardware

We used the school video camcorders, Canon digital video camcorder MD101 which were easy to use, we just had to make sure that we rewound the DV tape properly so we didn’t recorded over anything before we put it on the computer. Before we shoot each scene we put a blank piece of white paper in front of the camcorder to make sure each shot had the same white balance. It was also easy to put the footage from the camcorder to imovie, all we had to do was get the correct cable and connect it to the camcorder and the computer and put it on the right setting on imovie and press import. We made sure we had rewound the DV tape before we did this.From using the camcorder I found it was better not to use the zoom option as the quality of the image was not as good so instead we just moved the camera further. For example when we wanted a close up of the photo on our first shooting we used the Zoom tool on the camcorder but it was a little bit blurry so on out second filming session we just put the camera closer, but zoomed out.We also used a school tripod so our shots weren’t shaky.

Software

When Editing are film we noticed a lot of advantages with using imovie 06. We were able to use the fading into black transition as it was already set up for us and all we had to was highlight the clip we wanted and click apply. We were also able to turn our entire film into black and white as this device was already on imovie as well and was very simple to use. It turned our whole film into black and white in only a couple of minutes. We were able to cut out the bits we didn’t want very quickly but we had to open a new imovie account if we wanted to save the existing clip.It was also very easy to extract audio, all we had to do was film someone speaking, then click 'extract audio' and then all we had to do was drag the sound were we wanted.What we couldn't do was turn the clips into sepia as imovie 06 doesn't have that tool. What imovie 06 doesn't have which would be useful is to be able to cut into the frames, like Photoshop, if you didn’t want something in the scene.But it is very easy to add sound; all we had to do was drag it from iTunes into imovie and is also very easy to remove sound and to vary the levels in each clip.The software was suitable for what we wanted, as all our clips had to be steady and had to flow so the editing was fairly simple and was easy to see which ones were shaky and which ones weren't.

Casting

For are female we used our friend Brooke Shipley who does A level Drama. In our rough cut her acting fitted the part perfectly and she really understood what we wanted and her facial expressions were great. We made her look older by putting on lots of make-up and bright red lipstick on by doing her hair up in a 1940's style. This also made her look older as we wanted the female protagonist to be in her early twenties. Having a central female protagonist would attract alot of female viewers, having a young actress would attract the younger generation. For example Keria Knightly in 'Pride and Prejudice' which attracted a lot of older female viewers as it was a well known book and TV series as well as the younger viewers who are fans of Keria Knightly as she is a well-known actress. The fact that it is set in WW2 would attract many of the older generation.There is a man in our film but only for a few seconds, signifying that he is not an important character in the play. However the letter he is holding is important and we have shown this by shooting a close-up of the letter.We used Tom to play the role of the army officer as in the 1940's there was only a small population of non-Caucasian and so we felt that a Caucasian actor would of been better fitting for the role. We also had to hide Tom's hair in the hat as stereotypically in the army; the men have short hair as they have to cut it off.

Film synopsis

Our WW2, 1940's themed movie can be summed up in these short words:

Atonement meets the Notebook.

Auidence feedback

We showed a few people our film but we told them it was unedited and it needed some work:

Charlotte, Abi and Emily (17 yrs old) - that it looks 1940's but there are too many shots of the letter towards the end and abit too long. The setting was really good, as were the costumes.

Tina-(40) setting and costumes were excellent and the actress had a good 1940's face. The shots from frame to frame were nice and smooth with little jerky camera work.
Chris - (40)liked the camera work and also the use of objects to tell the story and how we didnt need dialogue and also the music is very effective.

We also put our film on Facebook and got a few comments:

'it was really impressive. Loved it. Music is really fitting'

'Looks very professional, wouldn't change a thing!!'

'Like how the music makes it more dramatic'

Because are auidence has a wide age range we tried to get as much feeback from different ages as possible.

Because some people said that some of the shots were too long towards the end we did try and edited as much out as possible but still also considering the pace of the film as well.

We then showed it again, to the same people and generally they all really liked it but they did suggest that we needed a logo at the beginning. So we then went back and created a logo which we put into our film.

Katy Perry's 'Thinking of you video'

This is roughly what are idea is based on. This video came out around the time we were coming up with ideas and this is what influenced us in making our film. We took influences from this music video such as the telegram she gets saying her husband is dead.

Microdrama and narrative theory

In our micro drama we used Propps character types, the villain, the magical helper, the princess and the hero. Other 3 characters that we did not include are the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero. In this task we dressed Helena up in boy’s clothes and put her in the role of the 'stable boy' whose in love with the princess. He rescues the princess when the evil witch kidnaps her. When we were shooting this we were not really concentrating on camera angles but we did managed to get some varied shots for example a close up of the hero when he’s looking at the princess and an over the shoulder shot when the princess is looking in the mirror. A high angle show when the witch is dead, lying on the floor to make her look weak and vulnerable. We did not apply Propps narrative theory into our main film ' Lost in Love and War' as we only have one main character in the first two minutes.Todorov's narrative theory is that stories should begin with equilibrium, where opposing forces are in balance until they are disrupted by an event, setting up a chain of events.You could say we briefly incorporated this theory, as in our film, at the start things are fine until she gets this letter which sets of her great unhappiness.

Target audience and BBFC

The age range for our film is 15 - 35 females based on the actors ages and also because it is a war romance which in general is appealing to women. It is appealing to a range of ages because firstly because it’s set in war times this would be appealing to the older generation and the fact that it is a romance appeals to females of all ages. But there is cross-over appeal to an older generation due to the period, music and setting. The main protagonist is a young woman which would appeal to the younger generation. The BBFC which stands for, The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. We have decided to put our film at a BBFC rating of 15, which means 'Suitable only for 15 years and over. No-one younger than 15 may see a '15' film in a cinema.' If we were going to do flashbacks of her husband in war then it would contain moderate to strong violence and not be suitable for viewers younger than 15. Because the main character is early 20's then there might 'contain strong language choices' and also 'moderate sex references'. Atonement (Joe Wright 2007) which influenced our film is at a BBFC rating of 15 because of the sex references and the war scenes.In the first two minutes of our film the only characters are both Caucasian but I don’t think that this would affect the appeal to a non-Caucasian audience, Atonements central characters were both Caucasian and in their opening weekend in the UK they took over 1.5 million pounds. It is also due to the time period our film was set in, it was not as common as it is now to have a multi-ethnic society.Our main target audience are females because our film is a war romance which is seen as a female film. Our main protagonist is a young woman which means you could apply the male-gaze theory which would be appealing to males. Also woman would take their boyfriends and husbands to see this movie as a romance is a typical date movie. Another factor is that we have incorporated the theme of war which is a stereotypical male theme, for example war films such as’ Saving Private Ryan' (Steven Spielsperg 1998) and 'Apocalypse Now' (Francis Ford Coppola 1979).

We have tried not to restrict our audience so we tried to avoid stereotyping, we don’t have anything that suggests it’s centred around one region. Because our film is set in the 1940's the majority of our audience wont of been around at that time so Our film, in this first 2 minutes the characters do not speak as such but we do have dialogue, whilst the woman is reading the letter we have dialogue of the letter been spoken by her in the future. The woman who is reading it is older and has a clear, well-spoken accent with no regional content so it has a larger UK-wide audience as it does not discriminate against any regions. It also would be recognisable for foreign audiences and the American audience, as it is easy to understand. We have also set our film in London so again it is easier for the American and Foreign audiences to understand. Working title often set their films in London, such as Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire 2001) as it is familiar and more understandable to an international audience. Either that or WT set it in a rural countryside location, such as Wild Child, (Nick Moore 2008) which is stereotypical British.

In our film we've tried to leave the borders of class differences blurred but because of the period and the setting and also the music at the beginning I would say this helps attract the ABC1 market, the upper, and middle class. . Mise-en-scene along with costume seems to suggest that the characters within the first two minutes are of upper middle class, though this isn't exactly that clear. Research shows that most period/wartime drama's appeal to the upper class but the incorporation of the actual war scenes would hopefully attract other classes as well.Are film is similar to Atonement, the Notebook (Nick Cassavetes 2004), Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright 2005), so we already have a fan base of people who enjoy period films. It also has the appeal of a romance which has a wide audience appeal.If we were to do the whole film then to create some tension between some characters then a gay character would be used as at that time period it was not greatly accepted and would create some dramatic devices and would also draw in the 'pink pound' appeal. The main protagonist is in love with her husband but as she thinks he’s dead, she would have an affair with another man, so where sexuality is concerned it has a wide-audience appeal.

rough cut

Our rough cut was 80% filmed on my phone camera as the battery ran out on our video camera. We edited it in black and white to make it look aged as it is set in WW2. We are still deciding on our music, old 1940s music, radio announcements etc. Because we were restricted with the amount of filming we could do as it is shorter than we hoped and we didnt get all the camera angles we wanted, for example, the panning at the beginning.

Locations, Mise-en-scene, costumes and props.

Costume ideas for our female protagonist who has to wear clothes in the style of the 1940's.
These are just a couple of options for the female protagonist to wear which we found in the costume cupboard in school.
We also have a costume for the army officer which we borrowed from air cadets.



But we finally decided on a blue and red floral knee length dress which fitted the critera of what we wanted, 1940's but not too posh. It co-ordinates with the hair and make-up as well as fitting into the setting. It is similar to the style and dress of what Keria Knightley wears in the Edge of Love (John Maybury 2008).




Keria Knightley and Sienna Miller in the 2008 'The Edge of Love.'

We checked out many locations for our film but we decided on this one as it fitted perfectly into the whole genre and time period that we want our film to be. The house itself is very dated and was built around the time of the 1850's. The garden is run-down but has a tranquil feel to it. There is a stone arch which will look great in the background. The gate, which is very important in our film, fits well as the design and colour is dated and not at all modern. Also the gate is a barrier bewtween the Man and the Women to signify the contrast. Because the house is looks like it could be in a WW2 film then it does not matter too much if we catch the house in our shots. The doorstep is going to be included towards the end of the 2 mins but there is nothing that symbolises modern day.

Hair Ideas

Keria Knightley in The Edge Of Love,

• Loose natural looking


• Clipped to the side to show actress's face.


• Natural hair to show that shes in a comfortable, relaxed and natural situation and cant afford to have it styled.
  
  
  
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2QyEWv4WDo

We also managed to get a very old photo taken in the 1940's and a very old, aged book which also would help identify the time period.

Names for films

Possible names for our films, 'engaged in war', 'make war', 'take the field against', 'warfare', ' give up arms' ' war valentine', 'my wartime love', 'Cost of war', 'Lost in war'.
We finally decided on 'Lost in Love and War.'

Storyboard

The establishing shot is going to be a long shot of a tranquil garden, peaceful.

It then moves into a high angle focusing on a woman lying down reading a book, front view.

We then move to a side view of a medium shot of her turning her face towards the camera. It then goes into a medium shot her leaning up, still looking at something in the distance.

The camera then goes into a long shot of a man waiting at a gate, then goes quickly into a medium-close up shot so we can see some emotion and identify the new character.

We then go to an OTS shot from the man (army officer) looking at the woman walking towards her

When she is nearer we are in a new shot, a medium-close up of her face.

There is then a close up shot of hands passing the letter, then quickly an over the shoulder shot from the man to see the woman's emotions.

Then there is a medium-long shot of her walking to the doorstep.

There is then a medium long shot of her sitting down an the doorstep, then going to an OTS shot of her looking at a photo and a close-up of the photo.

Then it goes to a medium-long shot of her opening a letter

Then a low angle

Then a OTS shot of the letter

We then go to an extreme close-up of her face, to show her emotion.

It then ends with a medium-long shot, while the woman walks out of the shot but the camera does not track her.

This is what is on out storyboard so a couple of the camera angles might change depending on when we film, what we feel works better.

spotlighted - production company

We have decided on the name of our production company, 'Spotlighted'. We initially wanted to use 'spotlight' but from our research on Google we found out that this has already been used.
We also thought of another name, 'scripted' from scriptwriting but we preferred spotlighted.
Our logo we have designed is going to be of a city e.g. New York at night time and on Photoshop apply a spotlight through the middle and in the middle have the words 'Spotlighted Productions.'

Other ideas for our film

For our film we have discussed the possible idea of a flashback at the beginning, of an old woman reading the same letter, now old, that will be shown later on. This idea was influenced by the film 'Titanic' (James Cameron 1997).This letter would include the words 'august 1943' and the surroundings would have to signify that this is now the present day, this flashback will help break up the present from the past. - We were going to have a few fade into black transitions but instead we would use these flashbacks to help break it up.
There is hardly any speech in our film; it’s going to be a slow-paced film so we need the correct music in it. Another possible idea is that we could have the radio on in the background, playing old 1940's music and this would die down when she sees the man and/or the music would change.
We also discussed the idea of having a child, who would be the woman’s son or daughter. They would be in the long shot at the beginning only to identify she is a mother right at the beginning. When the woman has read the letter the child would say' mummy where daddy' to get an emotional response from the audience as they audience are now informed of the situation.
We have also decided to change the storyline of the film slightly. Instead of the letter saying her husband was killed in an accident it is going to say that he is 'Missing and presumed dead'. This gives the audience hope that there will be a happy ending, which if we were going to film the whole film then there would of been, her husband still would be alive.
We also have decided not to have all those fade in, fade out transitions in-between each shot as we didn’t think it would help the coherency of the film and have just decided to have the black fade transition and the beginning and the end.
We also had the idea of having a voice over when she is reading the letter so the audience can know what it says on the letter so it’s easier to understand and adds to dramatic effect. It could be the main character or an older woman, her in the future reading it or it could be a man who wrote the letter. This would help provide anchorage to the reader.

final group idea for film

Genre: Drama
Setting: England during World War II
Target audience: 15-35+ Women
Rating: 15
Music: Slow paced piano music.
Throughout shots - sad, slow tempo
Location: In a cottage garden
Casting: Early twenties woman and man.

Starts with black screen which fades into production logo and then fades into a long shot of a garden with a woman sitting down, reading on a rug. It then goes into a high angle shot of her reading and then quickly into a medium shot where she looks up and sees something in the distance. It then goes into a medium-long shot of her standing up, pausing and walking out of the shot.It then goes into a medium shot of a man in an army uniform at a gate holding his hat in his hand and a letter in the other.It then goes into an OTS shot from the man’s perspective and we see the woman walking towards him.We then go into a close up of them passing the letters.
It then goes into a long shot of her walking and sitting down.A medium shot of her sitting down opening the letter.An OTS shot of her reading the letter.Close up tracking shot of writing on a letter 'inform you that your husband is missing presumed dead.' with a tear dropping onto it - exaggerated diegetic noise then the ink running.The shot will then fade into a close up of the woman's face with tears falling down her face.The shot will then switch to a long shot of the woman getting up and walking out of the shot.

Prelim task - soulja to cry on

Prelim task - overview

Me, Holly, Helena, Megan and Saskia all helped film and create our prelim task - 'A soulja to cry on'. Generally I feel that the finished product fulfils what we wanted but there are several areas we could have improved on. We had to rush the storyboard a bit so we could have spent more time on discussing camera angles and shots. From this the quality could of been a bit better, at the start the camera work is a bit shaky. I do believe we incorporated the 180 degree rule and it is easy for the audience to understand what is going on. I feel even though we had a very short time to prepare it, we did quite well and we got a successful film. We filmed it at school, in one lunch time; we chose to film it at school because it was easy to access. I feel that the transition between some shots could have been a bit smoother but I feel the music went well with it. There could have been more fluidity between certain scenes to make the whole thing more coherent.
Next time I will have a more detailed storyboard and plan, with more time working out camera angles etc.
It goes against the convention that the girl is always the weak and venerable one whereas here it is the guy and the girl is being the stronger one. It represents the social group of young adults; teenagers as all the characters are 17/18 and it is set in school which is a signifier that it is about youths. Because of this the audience would be teenagers, females and males.
What I've learnt from this experience is that unless you are doing a social-realism film you really need a tripod as some of the camera work is shaky and you want your audience to think it is realistic.