Comments and Feedback

Ok, so now I have completed my video which shall appear on this blog shortly, it is now time to begin to evaluate it:

Having completed my video, I decided to post it up on my Facebook account for my friends and family to see and comment on. After two days, it received over 34 likes and 11 comments.
In all the comments however, there were no posts about how to improve it. Many of the comments were simply praise, with no areas for improvement. This leads me to believe that to the 'untrained' eye that the video is as good as it can be. They all understood what the video was about, the flashback to some point in her past was clear and that she has been taken over by the number Pi by the Evil Professor Hawk.
For the people who knew the people featured, they all thought the casting of both Rory and Fionna was perfect for the roles they were playing.
I received no negative feedback about any of these areas of the video from the public viewing and this leads me to believe that the video is fit for purpose, delivers its message effectively and is well presented to the audience.

Discussing with my fellow Media Students, a few of them noticed a few irregularities concerning the two different train scenes.

 In the first scene, Lucy is shown to be sitting looking out of the window as the image super imposes on her eye, sitting in a seat with a wall behind it.

 

However, in the second scene, she seems to have change seats and is now wearing headphones when she wasn't before.

However, I had anticipated these queries. I explained how this would be part of how the film would move on from this point. I explained, how this was to show how she had been somewhere without the viewers knowledge, how she had changed trains and had put in her headphones. For what reason they then asked. I explained how this would have been the scene where we would then learn what affect the Professor was having upon Lucy. She had just been travelling to a targets home. She had left the train at the point where the flashback had begun, the idea for this was to express how the Professor was still controlling her even then. She had broken into the home and murdered the target (I could not be more exact in how, where or when as I only designed it to be an outline of what would have happened from this point). She had then boarded the train just as the flashback ended, put the headphones in as a method of hypnosis applied to her by the professor. So when the final shot comes on, this then explained the irregularity. 

Film Music

Now I have completed my editing of the actual video, it is now time for me to begin work on the film music which I plan to go with it.
The idea for this will be to add suspense to the video and create a further sense of panic within the viewer. I hope to achieve this in a number of ways:

• To create a tempo beat which would match the heart rate of my main character, this would then emphasise the feeling of panic within the character. I've researched the human heart beat to be 65bpm, so have set the tempo of my film music to be 65bpm also to match. 
• The increase in heart rate would then be mirrored in the tempo of the piece, so as our main character gets more agitated, the faster the music gets.
• Strings are usually used to create an extra feeling of dread/tension in the viewer, thus I hope to use the string sounds to create a typically dangerous sound for the piece.
• As this video is called 'C.O.D.E.S' it seems fitting that there should be a short of rhythm running underneath the music, like morse code. This would add to the idea of the control being hidden within the psyche, that the code is controlling you on a far deeper level. 

I believe these effects added to the music will complete the overall feel of the video and ultimately help to increase its effect on the viewer and the improve the idea of the message trying to be put across.

Small details

In preparation of the final shoot, I have researched the necessary material for the various smaller details of my video, in particular Professor Hawks presentation on 'C.O.D.E.S'.
Within the presentation there would need to be shown some sort of number sequences and series for the whole story to be based upon, numbers and series which can be used to control a persons subconscious. I searched for Maths most famous and most commonly used number sequences and series in everyday life. I searched for sequences used most in everyday life so as to create a psychological aspect to the audience that maybe its everywhere, hidden within their own lives these sequences and series play huge roles in their own lives. Eventually, I happened upon the following website:

Famous Mathematical Sequences and Series

On this website, I found sufficient sequences and series for which I thought suitable for the role of the Evil Professors arsenal of control series. The fact also that some were recognizable series such as the Fibonacci Series and the Square Numbers Series full filled the criteria for some series to be recognized by the audience, but also others not so well known such as The Lazy Caterer’s Sequence and Magic Square series intentionally creating a atmosphere of mystery and unknown which is also what I would want the rest of the film to be about.

I also did some research into the title of the film, C.O.D.E.S. The title is meant as an Anachronism, standing for a certain method of controlling the mind of a chosen victim. I wanted at least one of the words to refer to some part of the brain which could potentially control the body. So again, I researched the different parts of the brain and their functions in the control of the body and I found this website:

Key Brain Vocabulary

On the website, I found two potential areas of the brain which could be suitable for my anachronim.

Cerebrum: The largest and most complex part of your brain. It controls all your conscious thoughts and learning, including setting goals, your memories and your decisions to act.

Cerebellum: The part of your brain below the back of your cerebrum and behind your brain stem that regulates your balance and helps you coordinate your muscles and control your body movements.

Both these words would be suited to go at the beginning of the anachronim. I decided to use Cerebrum rather than Cerebellum as it fits better with the type of genre the film is set to be, that rather than a physical connection to the victims body, it would rather be verbal communication which would be used to achieve the control over the victim and so controlling the part of the brain which controls the thought processes and decisions to act seems most appropriate.

From this, I wanted the rest of the anachronim to be about control of the Cerebrum using number series/sequences. After a little deliberation I riddled it down to as follows:

C.erebrum O.rdering (by) D.irective E.nigma S.eries

I believe this break down of the title suitably covers the essence of the film.

Preliminary Video

Ok, so I have now finally finished my preliminary video. Our Brief: Man opens a door, closes a door, dialogue occurs, the end. So that's what this is:

We set it in our schools music department as this we thought would be the most suitable area and would allow us to create a partial story line. We casted a boy and a girl (Courtney & Ollie) to create a more even mix of actors and so create a more relaxed mood. If we casted two boys/girls, the scene may have been seen to be more of a bully situation (in our opinion). However, with this mix, we consider it comes across as a more friendly environment between two friends. We did 6 takes in all, two in the opening corridor and 4 in the main piano playing scene. We changed the camera position with each take so as to ensure best camera coverage of the action and make the final video more interesting with more camera angles/shots. The idea being the more material we hold, the easier it is to edit into a decent video. The end result we believe is an effective video full filling the set criteria.

Previously in the year, we had completed a similar task with maybe a little more intricacy. It is a scene from the film 'Love Actually' where Bill Nighy is being interviewed about his new song 'Come on and let it snow':

The scene went with great success for us and really helped broaden our ability to blend different shots and audio together into one product. We set it in our schools music studio for extra effect from the real film. We intended to cast two male actors for the roles, but unfortunately we were only able to get one so had to make do with a female actress for the interviewee, which actually turned out just as good.

Extended film opening ideas and thoughts.

This post serves to update current basic ideas for my 2 minute film opening and the more real life technical parts of it e.g. time set etc and methods of creating my video.

For my film opening, it's actually based in two time era's, one at present day during my main character's life and during their past both merged together. For my film opening, I intend for the establishing shot to be set during present day, about half way through the sequence of events which the whole film would then portray with flashbacks inter-twined with it of when the troubles of their life began which the rest of the film would then show. These two sequences would then continue, how the character then continues on from the establishing shot and also where they go from their first trauma scene. By the end of the film, the audience will fully understand each of the characters actions in each situation due to knowing their past and what might cause them to do what they do.

The target audience for this film would be a more mature audience, maybe 15 to 70. Basically, all ages with a comprehensive understanding of how people work and how important past experiences affect future decisions. The venue I would imagine this film being shown in would be a late night, wide scale cinema picture, not quite a blockbuster but a definite multi-viewing film.
I have completed a short target audience research which I have put into a video as shown below:

I asked my interviewee's:
1. What is your favourite film?
My interviewee's showed no definite preference towards one particular film and what type of film I should aim for, suggesting to me that audience's are open to any type of film, meaning I can have free choice.
2. Was it on DVD, at the Cinema, Streaming or on TV?
All of my interviewee's saw their favourite films on DVD, suggesting that DVD is still one of the most popular media sources, rather than the more modern streaming technique, telling me to design my video for DVD release.
3. What is your favourite genre?
Again, there seemed no clear favourite genre among my interviewee's, so suggesting to me that I can have free choice of genre.
4. What do you consider to be typically in the opening 2 minutes of a film?
The general consensus from my interviewee's is that it should be intriguing, provide some form of enigma (a clever idea which makes the audience want to watch the rest of the film) and that should provide an idea as to where the film is going to go.
5. What is your opinion on flashbacks?
Again, all my interviewee's considered flashbacks to be good, so long as they were made obvious e.g. by de-saturating the video, adding a date etc.
6. What do you think of my idea? (As described above)
They all thought it was a very good and interesting idea, all that they thought would be required in a film. For that reason, I think I will take it further into my final 2 minute coursework piece.

While I do not intend to use Stop Motion in my film opening as I do not consider it the correct genre for the media type I enjoy, I have still done some research into it. My attention has been brought in perticular to the work of Jan Svankmajer. My favourite video I found from him:

I thought that this is possibly the most impressive piece of work I have ever seen. I like the close attention to detail he uses in his animation and the way he is able to make the dolls literally come to life. However, bearing in mind the amount of work he must have inputted into just one of his videos means it would be impractical for me to do anything similar if I had any hope of reaching my desired deadline for completion of this task. I also do not like stop animation, while I find it very impressive and have a lot of admiration for, my interests lie firmly within the realm of real time video, just because I prefer that area of film, I find it more aesthetically pleasing. Hence I shall not be using Stop Motion in my final video.

Final Preps:

Now all of our preparations are finished, I am now ready to write up the final idea for my 2 minute film opening! What follows below will be what all filming will be based upon and followed to as a strong guide.

In this post, I am going to incorporate the following points:

• Detailed biography's of the characters
• Who are the actors
• Script
• Plan
• Prop List

Final 2 minute idea:
Well, our main character is a very disturbed girl, and goes by the name of Lucy Maverick (Fionna Monk). She was an ordinary girl for most of her life until one fateful day where her life changed forever. Attending a lecture at one of the most prestigious universities in England, LSE - London School of Economics, taken by Professor Hawk (Duncan Rowe) of the Universities Theory of Maths department she finds herself being drawn into a mysterious and savage world, where numbers are used to control people's lives and are made to commit some terrible acts of robbery, murder and gene side. Our two minute opening begins with that fateful lecture where her life begins to be taken over by the Evil Professor. It generally sets the scene of who our characters are, whats happening and vaguely why.

Lucy Maverick: Born and raised in Oxford, she attended Headingtons School for Girls where she developed a great passion for Maths and the uses of it in real life. With her Father gone, she has only her rather old and senile Mother as family. At the age of 13, she was walking along the streets of oxford late at night on her way home when she witnesses a murder being committed just down the road from her. She is instantly traumatized by this event and lays the groundwork for how she comes to be possessed in the film. Keeping this a secret all her life that she knew anything of this terrible tragedy. Now at the age of 19, the event still haunts her to this day, she still feels responsible for this event, that she did not rush over and help the poor victim. It is not until the end of the film does she reach a form of peace with herself. Achieving an A+ in her Maths and Physics exams at A-Level, she then decided to follow on her skills in maths by attending the London School of Economics where the film begins. We see her right from the start of her year right through to the end.

Professor Hawk: The Evil professor hell bent on recruiting as many servants for her devious scheme of mass murder of all the people he faces to lose too. For about 20 years now he has been hypnotizing his lecture students and using to do his dirty work. He has no morals from a very restricted background, of a very punishing Father and with no Mother to look after him and show him love he is a lost soul hell bent on revenge on anyone who has ever angered him by the cruelest means. Now at the age of 55, he is more dangerous than he has ever been before. It was he who organized the murder in Oxford to which Lucy was an unfortunate bystander. He is a predator of the young and disposable, using them for his own devious ends, hence the name 'Hawk'.

Script: The script is very minimal for the most part of the opening sequence. The only real dialogue spoken is by Professor Hawk during his opening Lecture:

Stage opens to a typical lecture theater. Students are dotted around the seating at irregular intervals. The overall impression is that this is not a popular subject by the lack of students attending. Our main character is seated nearer the top of the auditorium closest to the stairwell, away from the main speaker down below. She is wearing smart-casual clothes, maybe jeans and a jacket and is listening with mild interest at the speaker below. The Speaker in question is Professor J. Hawk. He is an older Gentleman. He wears a formal suit and stands to the left of the projector screen which is taking up much of the main stage holding a small remote which will later be used to control the screen. At this moment, nothing is being shown.

P.Hawk: Ok, quiet down please, quiet down. Welcome to the Theory of Numbers. I am Professor Hawk, I will be taking all of your lectures for this subject.
Numbers can be used to manipulate, intoxify and destroy a computers line of code so that the hacker may gain access to the information stored upon it. The most common examples are up on the screen now.

Professor uses the remote to activate the projector. On the projector screen flash up lists of number codes all in uniform grid pattern, distinctly separate from each other.

Continuing... P.Hawk: These are all examples of codes which can be used to take over a computers data base. They can be used to make it do anything to our will.
Now of course, I am not talking about any particular computer, the computer in question is the human mind. Using these codes, we can use them to break into anyone's subconscious, including this one...

He uses the remote to the projector. Behind him flashes up the symbol for Pi (3.14...)

Continuing... P.Hawk: (With a menacing grin). Pi.

From this point, concentration is now back on our main character as she has a nervous breakdown at seeing the symbol. In the background students may begin to murmur in surprise. Lucy after a few short moments collapses in her seat and falls out onto the stairwell, there may be a few gasps from students as she falls.

End of Scene.


Character choices: 
Fionna Monk (Lucy Maverick): I chose Fionna to play the lead role, not only cause she herself is Asian in origin appealing to the audiences stereotype that all Asian students are some of the cleverest in our Universities, but also cause she herself is quite experienced in acting and came highly recommended to me to play the part. She also fills the ideal criteria for the role. Shes short, Asian but with a strong sense of assertiveness and is very confident in playing her role.

Duncan Rowe (Professor John Hawk): I chose Duncan to be the Evil Professor cause he too has experience in drama and performing, but also he can bring across a real sense of forbidding about him, making the audience immediately feel completely anti his character. His features create a feeling of presence and power and make him ideal for the role.

Prop List: I require very few props in my video, however the few I do are listed below:

• Mobile hand-held audio capture device
• Projector remote
• Projector screen + projector
• Podium
• Maths booklet
• School bag
• Headphones + audio player

Plan: I'm splitting the different sections of the filming processes into weeks, one particular task per week:

Week 1: Organize casting; Find date where both actors can be on one set, book venue for filming, organize extras to act as other students, collect together necessary props.

Week 2: Brief both my main actors on their roles and assign scripts to both of them to learn. Create other material which I would need in the video e.g. power point with numerals on

Week 3: Film the entire of the lecture scene and load into editing software. Film entire of other scenes and also load into editing software

Week 4 & 5: Edit video together, adding in desired audio effects+music.

Week 6: Finalize video and finish.

Use of Film Techniques

In this post, we are looking at various different techniques used in film to help tell the story of the film. These include: Use of Narration, Use of Sound, Camera Angles and Editing styles.

Narration: Narration is used typically to add either a  particular characters perception of the film, or to add an outsider's view of the events and portray to the audience the deeper levels of what the characters are thinking/what they've done while we haven't been watching. They can be set at any time during the film e.g. they may be spoken as if the film events have already happened and gives the audience an idea of where the film is going. Equally, narration can be set at the same time as the film and simply helps tell the story as the film goes on. Basically, it voices the events of the film in more depth than what we as the audience can see or hear from only watching the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1MoVHrxRIA

Through the opening sequence of American Beauty, the main character (Lester Burnham) tells us through narration, the key facts about him and his family that we as the audience need to know. We learn how he is a run down, very low adult man. He has a wife and child, both of them despise him, and how he has ambitions to change this. His narration is set from his future e.g. he is telling the audience about his past as we watch it.

Another, slightly different use of Narration which is used in films can be found in the film "Big Fish". Narration does not necessarily have to occur only at the beginning of the film. Through out the film, narration is used to tell Edward's story's as we watch them.

The narration of these stories also creates a happier feeling to the film and makes it more of a familiar sensation to the audience, how they had parents/relatives telling them story's of their lives similarly to how Edward is telling his story's to his child.

Sound: Sound I feel is the second most important key element in a film, second only to the actual video. If you ever watch a film without sound, the film itself becomes very difficult to understand/follow/keep interest in. There's two types of film sound, there's diegetic and non-diegetic sound, the difference being diegetic sound is the sound within the film that the characters can hear e.g. the sound of a passing car. Non-diegetic is all the sound which the characters cannot hear e.g. background music. Background music is particularly important. The music can express the feelings/mood of the scene far better than the dialogue/facial expressions of the characters. A film without background music makes the film feel strangely empty. It makes it seem bland and uninteresting. There are awkward silences in the sound when you would expect noise. Its what turns an amateur video to a professional masterpiece. Anyone can film a decent sequence of shots on a given location for a set film plot, but its much harder to get the sound just right to compliment those video shots and to make them work together, with the diegetic sound still coming through clear enough to be audible.

An example of how this perfect blend of sound can be seen in almost every film/TV drama. My favourite is from the film Chariots of Fire.

When Britain has just won the race, the sound is perfectly balanced to capture not only the sound of the cheering crowd, but also the footfalls of the runners and the dialogue from the members of the audience. Then this balance is also continued when the narration of the winning runner comes on over the top. Then the main theme music comes on which takes over the main body of sound, but still the sounds of the crowd and commentators continue in the background, adding to create a much more realistic scene and keeping the audience's attention on the film and not creating awkward silences. This all adds up to create the desired feeling of happiness in the audience that Britain has won the Paris Olympics.

Sound can also be used to break the 4th wall. This is the divide between audience and characters. The 4th wall creates a separation from film and audience and keeps the audience separate from the action. When this wall is broken, it means the characters in the film/media being shown have acknowledged the audience watching the film, like what you would find in a pantomime where the characters are constantly aware of the audience watching them. My favourite comes from the TV comedy show "Two and a half men" in the following clip:

At the end of this clip, Alan looks directly into the camera and says "or can we?(!)". This implies he is talking directly to the audience of the show asking if they could indeed vote on who's dinner was the worst. This includes the audience in the action and makes for amusing watching when we are shown that non of this is real (which of course we realized from the beginning, but is amusing how we are reminded about it).

Camera Angles: "The function of camera movement is to assist the story telling. That's all it is. It cannot be there just to demonstrate itself"-Mike Figgis. The use of camera angles is key to showing the viewer what they are required to see, how they are supposed to see (e.g. from who's perspective) and from where. There are a variety of different camera angles which can be used to change the viewers view point of a situation. They allow the producers to control what the audience sees, how much of it they see and for how long. This can all add to create different emotions/feelings in a particular scene. This video I found illustrates this very well (excuse the music). It visually shows different types of camera angles/shots and what their general use is.

Editing Styles: Editing styles are how two different shots merge together in a film. There are different types of 'cuts' for different scenarios. This video I think illustrates this point very well (again, apologies for the music).

These are the most common cuts within a video and are very few other's worth mentioning which are used.