Production Diary

Class Feedback: First Draft

Today all of our classmates watched the first draft of our film and they all gave us feedback in order to improve our film. We took on board all of the feedback and decided to make amendments to our film. 

Improvement comments:

• A low angle camera shot could be used.
• You could put transitions on the titles to make them more interesting.
• Make all the titles the same colour so it looks professional.
• The voice-over is too quiet at times.
• I think you need to justify the black and white scene.
• Make the shots transition better as it looks jumpy. 
• The shot of the teacher getting angry at the end goes on for too long.
• Text messages could be displayed to show more of the abuse she receives.
• Foley sounds could be used.
• It ends abruptly with no direction.

Our response and improvements we made:

In response to our feedback we included a shot of the actress walking down the stairs with it focusing on her feet and legs as this adds more variety. We decided to add cross fade onto the titles so that they flow better and seamlessly. Also we changed the font and made all the titles black so that it looked more professional. These also now reflect the nature of a drama, which is our genre, as they look formal. We moved the voice-over of the insults so that they could clearly be heard and also we increased the volume of the main voice-over to 22 decibels as it is very important for the story-line and needs to stand out. We decided to have the 'in-mind' scene in black and white to make a clear contrast between her normal life and how the girl actually feels. Depression and other mental illnesses make you have very dark thoughts and many people feel trapped in a never-ending dark place where there is no escape so by putting the shots in black and white is reflects this and also makes the point that we are inside the girl's head. We filmed and added more shots in order for the story-line to flow better and for it not to be jumpy. The shot of the teacher getting angry has now been cut and a few shots follow this as it became uninteresting and didn't really add any enigma to our opening. We took into consideration the feedback and decided that it would be a good idea to include a shot of abusive text messages to emphasize why she is depressed and what she's having to deal with. The shot also breaks up the multiple long shots included and also gives more variety to the shot list. We decided to add foley sounds of the character walking up and down the stairs and also of the door opening/closing so that it sounded clearer and realistic. We noticed ourselves as did others that our film opening ended abruptly with no real direction therefore we decided to add more shots of her walking out the classroom with another section of voice-over and introducing a new character which will help the girl and tell her story of her battle with depression. This would allow our film opening to seem like an actual film opening as it now would have direction and could be actually seen as carrying on. 

Teacher Feedback: First draft

The feedback we got from our teacher was that the sound and voice over was really good, but needs to be separated so that the viewers don't get confused as to what they are supposed to be listening too. Also there needs to be more to the ending of the opening such as more enigma code, as it is not clear as to what is going to happen next. The titles need to be adjusted to the same font, the correct order and the same length. Finally put Film Nations sooner in the opening, and justify why we have used black and white on our blogs.

Film opening daft

Our final titles

When researching our titles we decided to follow Zodiac however along the way some titles changed and we also decided to change the font and colour due to class/teacher feedback. Below is the order and timings of our titles that appear in our final draft. The majority of our titles our four seconds long excluding the film institutions. 

Title one: 0-0.12 

This is our first production company: Association of Technical Collaborative Media and this lasts for 12 seconds. Since this is our main and original film company we wanted it to go first and also be on screen for the longest time as we aim to get publicity from this.

Title two: 0.13-0.18

This is our second production company: Film Nation Entertainment and it lasts for 5 seconds. 

Title three: 0.18-0.23

This is our third production company and it lasts 5 seconds long as well. As these two production companies are equally weighted within our film they share a 5 second gap each. 

Title four: 0.24-0.28

This is our first title of the film 'A Film Nation Production' and we took inspiration from Zodiac. This is on screen for 4 seconds. 

Title five: 0.32-0.36

This title says 'In association with Focus Features' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title six: 0.36-0.40

This title says 'Shot and edited by Toby Lee' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title seven: 0.41-0.45

This is the main title of our film therefore it is in capital letters and much larger than the other titles. This title again lasts for 4 seconds however the bigger font makes it draw in the audiences attention more. 

Title eight: 0.45 - 0.48

This title says 'Directed by Maisie Smith' and it lasts for 3 seconds. 

Title nine: 0.49-0.53

This title says 'Written by Clare Kelly' and lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title ten: 0.53-0.57

This title says 'Audio Director Lucy French' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title eleven: 0.57-1.01

This title says 'Lead Cinematics Oliver Brown' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title twelve: 1.03-1.07

This title says 'Lead VFX Toby Lee' and lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title thirteen: 1.07-1.11

This title says 'Music by Maisie Smith' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title fourteen: 1.14-1.18

This title also lasts for 4 seconds and has the main actors names 'with Clare Kelly And James Fussey'. 

Title fifteen: 1.24-1.27

This title lasts for 3 seconds and says 'Edited by Toby Lee'.

Title sixteen: 1.29-1.33

This title says 'Casting by Meg Kitley' and it also lasts for 4 seconds. 

Title seventeen: 1.33-1.37

This title says 'Produced by Ellie Reynolds' and lasts for 4 seconds.

Film poster

Displayed above is our film poster. When designing the film poster I knew it had to be dark and hazy just like the feelings and thoughts our main character would be going through. to achieve this I used Adobe Photoshop CS6. After capturing the picture of our main character I imported it into Photoshop and immediately coloured the background a dark grey. Because there is noting else in the poster you are really attracted to the expression displayed on the main characters face. I then used the fill tool to gradually fill in parts of the hair and face in the same shade of grey to accent darkness and to bring her face out even more. I then added the title right in the centre in blood red so that it would stand out and people would be drawn to it. The credits box at the bottom was always a priority. This is because it adds a professional feel to the poster. I used a template in order to achieve this look downloaded from videocopilot.net.

How our titles will appear in our film opening

We decided to copy the running order of the film Zodiac: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/zodiac/

Our titles will appear on the screen in the following order:

1. A Toby Lee Film
2. Clare Kelly, James Fussey, Maisie Smith, Alexander Steele, Martyn Gray, Eddie Hamblin, Josephine Worsley....
3. Casting By Clare Kelly
4. Costume Design By Clare Kelly
5. Sound Designer Maisie Smith
6. Original Score By
7. Music Supervisors Clare Kelly and Toby Lee
8. Edited By Toby Lee, Clare Kelly and Maisie Smith
9. Production Designer
10. Director of Photography Toby Lee
11. Executive Producer
12. Produced by Clare Kelly, Maisie Smith and Toby Lee
13. Screenplay by
14. Directed by Maisie Smith