Evidence of time management

As you can see in my evaluation of the main task below, time management was one of the things I think we needed to improve. This is because we were set-back at the beginning of the task because of difficulties regarding outside weather and our audio. I have labelled each of my blog posts and you can see that each post is spread over a period of time which may act as some evidence that on the theoretical side, time was managed very well in reporting on the blogs.

Aside from this, we had storyboards that are also available to see on this blog- these boards helped us plan our time when filming because we had already done the hard work, so to say, we now had to put the plans into action and film the story we had in our hands.

Other evidence for time management is the blog posts included on here, such as planning for the scenes. The fact that we had planned well in advance for our filming shows that we knew what we were doing and at what point we had to begin. Deciding important factors like costume and location in advance really helped us save valuable time which we really needed towards the end.

Similar products to: Brian

Similar products to Brian include television programs such as:

The Inbetweeners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZlxbfEdy7Y

This is purely for the fact that it depicts a British teenager who is a stereotypical representation of a 'geek'. This is shown in the character 'Will' played by Simon Bird.

Simon Bird plays Will McKenzie

The Inbetweeners logo

We may also compare the television show which our film is actually based on. Brian Cox's wonders of the solar system was the inspiration for our piece, the character himself of Brian, is not based on Professor Cox- but he is referenced several times, so I believe it to be appropriate to add him in here.

Wonders of the solar system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUfd7RLMScU

Prof. Brian Cox

Risk Assessments

When we were filming we needed to be sure of a number of things to ensure that we were safe throughout the production of our film. This in turn means that we should compile a risk assessment in order to enforce this.

Risk	Likelihood
The group should travel always travel around in two’s or more. This will ensure that nobody gets harmed by strangers, especially when carrying expensive equipment.	Low if in an open area and in a group, medium if in a dark, enclosed space and high is alone and down a dangerous place (e.g dark alley)
Injury could be obtained if equipment if not used correctly, can also be harmed if equipment is carried in a manner which is unsafe.	Low if all the equipment is used properly and carried safely
Tripping on wires or tripods that are being used during filming	Low if the group is briefed beforehand and care is taken

How have you contributed to the production?

I was the person in the group responsible for Mise-en-scene. This is definined as: "French term from the theatre that literally means “what's put in the scene.” In the cinema it refers to the elements of a shot—the set, the props, the actors, the use of color and light—and the way these elements are composed or choreographed."


This in turn means that I was responsible for a number of different things that I will go through now.

Props


This means that I had to decide on all the props for both tasks, retrieve them and then put them into the film. There was not much use of props in either of our pieces- for the preliminary task we only used a sheet of paper, which I got from college and my own ID pass which I have on me at all times. For the main task I provided the books that we used in the library- both of the Brian Cox books belonged to me.

Costume


The preliminary task required that both myself and Jack wear our day to day clothing. I decided that on the day, we were both wearing appropriate costume and we used what we had. For the main task I decided that Sean needed to wear a suit, so asked him to bring in this- (so that it fit him correctly). Mario, played by Alex- was also in need of a costume. We decided that a red hoody would be most suitable as it fits in with the stereotype of a bully- we asked for Alex to bring this in so that it would fit. We wanted to hood to be up to reinforce the notion that he is the 'bad guy'.

Location


As both of our tasks involved students, it seemed logical to have both locations in college. I believe this made it very realistic- we used various points in the college, such as corridors and outdoors to make this seem authentic. We also used a public library for a scene in 'Brian'.

Lighting


In the preliminary task we were filming outside, this in turn means that we did not require any additional lighting and used the natural sunlight (hard light). For our second piece we were inside the entire time because we had learnt our lesson from the preliminary task! The lighting inside was artificial light from the light bulbs inside the college, we also received some hard light from the sun which was coming through various windows.

From all of this we can see that I have contributed a number of things to the production, I have arranged everything that you see in the film and made sure that it all works together and is realistic.

- google images

Preliminary Task: Screenshots

Below are some photographs that were taken by Charlotte on her phone, they represent and show evidence for the preliminary task that was filmed in February 2011.

This is the bench that both Charlotte and Jack sat during the preliminary task. It is just outside of college and this encountered problems when the weather started to go bad.

This is a very long shot of the same bench that is mentioned above. In the preliminary task we also see Charlotte walking (in the Point of view shot) and this is close to the shot she sees.

This is the ID pass that we see Charlotte using at the beginning of the film, it is required to get in and out of the doors at the college we filmed at.

This is the camera which we used to film the preliminary task on. 

#2 of the camera we used.

This is the college which we filmed at. This was also a similar view that Charlotte would have seen when she was sitting down and talking to Jack (during the shot reverse shots)

Main Task: Evaluation

This is a personal reflection on what I think went well and what needed improving in the overall production of 'Brian'.

What went well:

• I believe that as a group, we worked well together and devoted our time to making our specified micro-element the best it could be
• 'Brian' is intended to be a comedy film, from the audience feedback we can see that it achieved its purpose of being humorous
• The locations worked well for the film as it made it realistic
• The costume added to the humour and suited the character perfectly
• We did not encounter any technical difficulties which would harm the making of our film
• The music that was used really emphasised the humour and made the film funny from the very beginning

What we needed to improve:

• Time management- as we got pushed back when our preliminary task encountered technical difficulties regarding the audio, we were then rather behind for the remaining time in the project. I believe that if we had more time then we could have perhaps made a higher quality video that was either longer or had more interesting locations. 

Main Task: The Video

Please see the completed main task video of 'Brian' below.

Preliminary Task: Inspiration and planning

In class we watched a few examples of title sequences  to give us ideas about making our own. We found that in many of the examples the characters were introduced in unusual ways (for example their name on a handkerchief) and the genre could be introduced through the use of music, sounds and the connotations that the audience can gain ideas about the genre (for example blood used on someones face can be seen as introducing the genre of action or horror. 

IMAGES OF THE TITLES

FILM		HOW IS THE STORY SET UP?		HOW IS THE AUDIENCES CURIOSITY PROVOKED?		HOW ARE THE CHARCTERS INTRODUCED?	HOW IS THE GENRE ILLUSTRATED?
Don’t look now	Music, voiceover, red coat, photo, girl dying.		Music shot of her out of by the river and then dead.		Girl walking, boy riding a bike, two parents talking inside.		The image of the picture running whilst the father is holding the drowned dead girl.
Halloween	The titles on the screen, the shot of the pumpkin revealing it is halloween, shot of the knife.		The killer is seen to be the little boy at the end.		Shot of them through the window and the little boy at the end.		Shot of the house in the dark and the clock ticking and chiming creates a dark atmosphere. The POV shot is used for the killer (little boy).
Kill Bill vol 1	Close up of woman and only seeing the man’s feet who is standing above.		Black and white. Close up image of the woman makes the audience wonder how she got there.		The close up of the woman and the handkerchief reveals her name and the POV shot of the man standing above her.		Footsteps, blood, close up of her getting shot in the head.
Stranger than fiction	The narrator and the drawings on the screen.		The narrator in the background.		The narrator’s dialogue reveals his name.		The comedic dialogue.
Casino Royale	The writing on the screen. The flashback reveals what has already happened.		The scene is in black and white. The flashback reveals the actions of the past.		The mention of ’00’ reveals he is James bond.		The guns and violence in the flashback.

Main Task: Audience analysis- Questionnaire

When undertaking the audience analysis the group composed a questionnaire. I have included this below in a written format which matched the actual hard-copy distributed to the class.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Media Questionnaire “Brian” – Charlotte Harbour, Rachel Davis, Vicky Hart

1.                  Did the opening make sense to you?        YES           SLIGHTLY         NO

2.                  Did you enjoy the film?                                   YES           SLIGHTLY         NO

3.                  This is a comedy film, how funny did you find it on a scale of one to ten? (one being the lowest)  

 1             2              3              4              5              6              7              8              9              10

4.                  Did this opening sequence make you want to watch the rest of the film?       YES                    SLIGHTLY         NO

5.                  Did the range of camera shots keep you informed and interested?                  YES     SLIGHTLY         NO

6.                  Were there any continuity errors that you noticed at any time?                        YES         NO

If yes please state what and where: _________________________________________________

7.                  Do you think it is a positive or negative representation of social groups?

 POSITIVE            NEUTRAL             NEGATIVE

Please expand on your answer:______________________________________________________

8.                   Would you recommend this film to a friend?         YES      NO

9.                  Did you like or dislike the fact that there was no dialogue, only a voiceover?         YES        NO

10.               Did you believe that the costume was appropriate for the characters?        YES    NO

11.               Was the setting believable/realistic and did it fit in with the representations of the characters?    YES     NO

12.               Would you buy a copy of this on DVD if it were available to you?   YES     MAYBE    NO

If no, why not? __________________________________________________________________

13.               Does this film follow the usual conventions of media products?     YES      NO

Please expand on your answer:_____________________________________________________

14.               Did you lose interest at any point, if yes- please expand?   YES     NO

If yes, please expand:_____________________________________________________________

15.               What did you think we were trying to achieve in our film?

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

We tried to include a variety of different questions which were both open and closed. We wanted mainly closed questions because these allowed us to analyse the data more effectively. This also helped us because we wanted to included qualitative and qualitative questions too.