Film Opening Feedback

We presented our film opening so far, getting close to the completion, to the class and received both positive and constructive feedback. Overall they liked it and wanted to see it finished, but we did get some helpful criticisms with some fresh ideas and opinions outside of our group. we will take all of the feedback into consideration as we finish and tweak with the opening to make it the best we can.

We received feedback like some of the transitions were a bit repetitive being used throughout the opening, and some selection of the scenes during the close-up of the helmet were not as effective because of lots of traffic and having Tesco in the background during some of it. They recommended using more obscure and enigmatic backgrounds to keep the full focus on his helmet and to leave the audience wondering where he is/going.

Filming and Editing update 3

The third day of filming was Thursday, after school we went back to Harrison's house for the victim's house scene, we refilmed a few shots because after we reviewed them all we thought that we could improve some of the shots and add some extra shots to make the opening flow better. So we reshot some scenes that we know would not cause continuity errors with the background and acting,
we also spent some time filming various shots of the bike and the deliveryman's journey to the house, we filmed a few long bike rides around market rasen with the camera and tripod mounted to the front of the bike to get close-up shots of the deliveryman in the pitch black streets with streetlights reflecting along his helmet and visor and still keeping his identity a mystery.

We had the task of taping the tripod to the front of the bike for filming the close-up of the deliveryman in his helmet, we had some trouble figuring out how to mount it and make it secure to reduce shaking, but we managed to mount it to the desired effect with some time and testing. We also had a problem during the second take of the helmet close-up where the camera on the stand loosened itself and slipped out of frame to the side and filmed houses and streets instead. We overcame this by keeping the footage we had and stopped filming because he had all we needed for the opening anyway so we finished filming.

In class we designed the film title for the end of the opening, where it reveals the name of our film after fading to black in the end of the opening. we decided on calling it 'The Courier' and its design with the film's themes in mind, based on the use of low key lighting/dark colours and scenes centred around the main character, the deliveryman. We have completed all of the filming for the film opening now, with all of the raw footage on the computer along with all of the audio components, we just need to trim it down and actually piece it together.

Filming and Editing Update 2

Day 2 of filming was on Monday, we organised the next location a while in advance for the victims house scene, it was a good location for filming but the lighting was not as good as we hoped, as we wanted the lighting to be very high key throughout the house to contrast with the darkness of the other character and his environment. We overcame this by bringing in a new source of light, from a lamp, into the darker scenes such as the kitchen. It worked well but meant we needed to take precautions like watching that the shadows aren't seen on camera, and that we keep it consistent for shots in the same rooms. never the less it was a good scene for a home atmosphere and accommodated all of the shots we needed for the opening.

We followed the storyboard to know the general shots we needed to film and what we wanted to get, we tried lots of different ideas with camera position and scene management, taking our time to find what works well and what could be done better in our environment. After the filming we were happy with what we had but still needed one of the most important shots, which was shots close-up from the camera mounted on the front of the bike. We will capture this and possibly recapture any footage that we aren't completely satisfied with in the next and final filming session.

In class we had plenty of footage to use for editing into the final product, this was our first big start into editing the opening, the first big step was to get all of the components we are going to use in the opening and discard the other clips. This is done to reduce the amount of clutter and footage to go through in editing and means that only the best clips are used, once they had been selected we started laying them all down in the video editing program, we could trim the footage down to how long we wanted each shot as well as how to piece the shots together with transitions. basically all of the visuals and sounds are coming together and just need arranging.

Filming and Editing Update 1

Day 1 of filming was on Saturday, we had organised a location for the garage scene in Market Rasen with a large driveway. It was a good place to film as the garage lighting was good for the atmosphere, the garage itself was smaller than expected but it came together well by compacting our ideas for shots a bit more.

We took a lot of consideration into the lighting of the scene, one of the lights was obscured by things on a shelf so we tested how much light we aloud through to light the counter. We also tested many different camera positions and found some very good shots in the process, we have a few scenes still to film that we will film in the next week or so, which includes the go-pro bike shots and a low-angle close-up, as well as the scene in the next victim's house.

We followed the storyboard to be sure that we covered all the shots we set out to get, but as we were experimenting with shots and lighting, we got a few really good unexpected shots that we will try to implement into our opening.
After the first filming session and classes between the next filming sessions we managed to design and complete our production logo as well as record both of our news reporters audio.

Previous Student Film Opening Analysis

I have chosen Lewis Hodson's group's film opening entitled 'Fall of Justice', I will be analyzing its Mise-En-Scene, Editing, Lighting, Costumes and Sound. I will talk about these in detail and discuss why they work well in the opening, as well as what I like and dislike about each aspect.


Mise-en-scene

Costume - The key actor is wearing a suit and tie throughout, with some scenes of him without his blazer jacket on but still wearing a smart shirt underneath. This is used to show him as a formal character playing a serious role as a detective, its effective in making the opening look official and professional as well as fitting the genre of a crime/ film noir. I liked the costume use as it reflects the style and genre of a black and white film noir, with the use of a black and white suit.

Lighting - The lighting used is varied dependent on the location, but it mainly used natural lighting such as from windows or daylight. The film noir genre iconicly plays with shadows and silhouettes to create atmosphere and is clearly taken into consideration in this opening. This is done with the black and white editing in mind to ensure that the scenes are well lit and not over or under lit, its effective in capturing the atmosphere of the scenes for example, the shot of the third victim at night, its lit enough to show the details of her body but have it focused on by surrounding her in pitch black darkness.

Actors - The key actor is a tall, male with a stone, tired face. He was a good choice of actor for the role as he embodies the character very well with the use of gesture and facial expression. I though he was especially good in the last scene where he confronts the suspect with the case file and pushes it towards him confrontationaly but staying calm and reserved, as he has done it a thousand times and has lots of experience in his line of worm.

Make-up - The opening uses make-up to make the crime scenes loot authentic, by the use of blood on the victims, as well as some facial make-up like the third victims dark red lipstick, this is effective as it is iconicly dates the to the late 1940s, when film noir was most popular, making the film look authentic.

Props - The opening uses no note-worthy props.

Sound - The non-diegetic music used is a mellow/blues type of music that you would hear iconicly in a smokey jazz club in the 1940s, and to set create a slow calm pace for the opening. The use of the old fashioned camera flash click is effective in dating the film to the late 1940s film noir time period. The opening also has the key character narrating along side the opening filling the audience in on the case and effectively setting the scene for the rest of the movie.

Editing

The film opening used a variety of editing techniques to fit the desired theme and pace of the opening. The opening uses basic cuts and fades to black to set the pace of the film, also in contrast of this they use a fast-paced montage of still pictures with a white camera flash between each of them, this is very effective in the theme of the crime scenes. 

Risk Assessment

Shooting Schedule

Shot List