Director's Commentary

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Evaluation Pt.7

"Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have developed a few skills that I did not have before because the prelim task has made me use different skills and technologies I have not previously used before. One such thing would be the Final Cut Pro software. As our filming was completed, we had to edit our footage using the software which I was completely unfamiliar with due to a lack of experience. While making our final product, I have further developed my skills with the equipment and software that we used throughout becayse of my experience of handling them. Also, my mental skills have developed because I have learned how some things can be encoded into films so the audience have to decode it while making it not too obvious.

While doing all the editing on the computer, I enjoyed learning how to do all the things that I did not know how to do such as using the colour corrector tool and controlling the speed of a clip. While filming, I enjoyed getting in the action and filming different takes at different perspectives as well as redoing takes when we made mistakes in the voice acting.

As a member of the group, I was responsible for many things. One of the responsibilities I had during the production was that every other day/week, I had to make sure we had all the blog work up on our individual blogs while checking with others in the group if they had it. Another responsibility was that I had to make sure that the filming equipment was functioning well so that we could record with no problems as well as making sure that it got back to school safely. Other numerous responsibilities include creating the shotlist we needed to keep track of film progress, creating the storyboards that we needed also to keep track of film progress to stick to ideas and editing film footage when others were not present.

Although as a group we tried to work together our best, we did not work at our most effective due to absences of members every now and again and individuals having different, conflicting ideas for the production which affected the pace at which we worked at. Also, as individuals we had different work ethics so some were not quite as efficient and dragged the group a little as a whole. However, with all the setbacks, we managed to complete the product as a group and we are happy with it.

To improve, I may change the group a little as we did not work as well as we could and should have and make the title credits more clear as to what they are since they can look like random text being typed on different websites. To the audience there is no evident indication that they are credits rather than being part of the footage so it can be confusing.

Evaluation Pt.6

Evaluation Pt.4/5

Evaluation Pt.3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that an independent studio would distribute our film because our film has been made on a small budget which means that it does not have all the best actors and does not have very sophisticated effects therefore putting off major studios. The limitations that held back the film would mean that major studios may be unwilling to invest in the distribution of the film since this is the first film from our company and we would not have broad advertisements due to the budget.

Our film is produced to cater to a mass audience, specifically from a range of teenagers to middle age people. This is because of the action in the film and having horror elements which make it appealing to the younger audience and having thrills as well as an interesting plot for the older audience.

Our film can be compared to se7en as many of the elements from it are present in our film opening such as the montage editing and quick cuts. The film was directed by David Fincher and distributed by New Line Cinema which is an independent studio.

Evaluation Pt.2

Evaluation Pt.1

Final Production

Mise en Scene

For our opening sequence we decided to focus on including the following:

Tape: This was used to cover one of the actresses mouth to show that she's vulnerable and can't scream for help, she's isolated. This shows the twisted nature of the protagonist that's followed throughout the sequence. Tape was also used to tie her hands together, this shows that there's no escape for her and that she's weak, showing the dominance and authority the protagonists withholds.

A computer (and its accessories): This communicates to the audience that the protagonist is an internet stalker as he's seen focusing on a computer and typing on a keyboard. This shows the audience how he finds his victims and therefore sets the mood for the film by defining it with a clear genre of a techno thriller.

Wire: This was used to again, tie an actress up showing that she's alone and defenseless. The choice to use a wire/ cable instead of tape, this time demonstrates how dependant modern society is on their electronics as they're what are accessible in the common household. This also vindicates the protagonists dependency on cables that allow him to find his victims when connected to the back of a computer, and later claim them as his own when they're dead.

12/02/14

Today, we filmed the last scene for our film which involved Richard Harrison and Natalie Gardner at the front of the school. This is the part after our entire sequence and leads the audience into the film. This scene is where the film begins and tells us gives an idea of who the characters actually are which is not clear in the start of the sequence because of the montage editing which makes us think that the protagonist is a psycho.

Creating the Title

Using After Effects, Nader and I decided to create a unique title intro which would be used for our thriller opening sequence.

Using the unique font that we chose for our intro, Nader and I decided to use different tools in After Effects to be able to create an effect which allows for the text to look like it has been coded in to be able to end up with the name of the film "Requested".

Since we used a Facebook layout in our other footage to give the audience the impression that the antagonist is a social network stalker, Nader and I decided to give the title intro a light blue background which looks quite fuzzy. This was to make the whole opening sequence link in with each other.

In the end, Nader blended all of the individual effects together to give it a final look which looks like the image above.

10/02/14

Today, we made the music for our opening sequence and we added it to the footage. We made the music quite fast paced so that it fit in well with our montage editing since we have many quick cuts. The music we focused on making was a bit difficult as we needed to fit it with the footage where parts builded up to a climax and had to be higher pitched. We also updated our blogs making sure we had everything that we needed on there.

Title 'Requested'

05/02/14

Today, we filmed the title credits for the group members, Blaine, Molly, Nader and Tony. To do this we found several candidate websites to choose from and we decided to use the best ones with the least search results so that the typing can be focused on. Then we added these to our film footage using them as transitions and splitting footage making different scenes clear without losing continuity.
We also updated some blog posts as well as creating the one for the day.

Shotlist

03/02/14

Today, we filmed some shots of Richard Harrison and we got some close up shots of his nose, eyes, eyebrow and ears. These gave us the ability to improve our production further, in the sense it allowed us to make it more montage and non linear which is how we wanted it to look.
Also, we did some editing on the film footage putting newly filmed scenes in and making them fit in the right place as well as filming The third Victim, Natalie Gardner. We filmed her in a dark room tied up with wire to a black chair. We filmed close ups and various other shots, allowing us to merge these with her Facebook picture in various transitions such as graphic matches. We are also planning to film Natalie and Richard on Wednesday, we are going to give Natalie more of a storyline in the sense that we will uncover the fact that Natalie is actually Richards student and he does in fact know her. Adding a further sense of mystery but also adding a further emphasis on the non linear side of the production.

Film Ident

This is the ident for our film which we made. It is flames which pulse through the "Ace" cards which make it Ace Productions. We chose to make it like this because we feel that the colours fit in with our theme and the flames signify danger.

Font for title

These were some of the fonts we were considering using for our title which we found on DaFont website.

Music for film

These are some of the music clips we looked at for the music in our film production.

29/01/14

Today, Blaine continued to edit the footage of the opening sequence, adding the new footage in and giving the shots some effects such as a colour filter on top of the clips and some transitions in between the clips.
Also, Molly, Nader and I all worked on the Blog posts at the same time so that we could make the work efficient and ensure that we have covered all the posts that we should have had. We all finished some posts and added more detail to some of the older posts and added new posts in.
Posts that I made were a couple of diary posts and mopped up and improved some older posts.
Posts that Nader made were some new posts, one was the creation of the new villain character who is significantly different to our old antagonist.
Molly made some new posts about title fonts we used, risk assessments that we had to use during filming and a filming log of what we did during filming.

Production Logo

We used Adobe After effects to animate the flames for our company production logo. We took the logo we made with Photoshop and created the effect using a tutorial. We did this because we feel that it fits in with the look of the original logo and the film idea itself. We decided to make this effect rather than other effects because the flames look interesting and they go well with the burnt looking part of the cards.
We used many different tools to be able to produce the ring of flames which expands and reveals the logo and we had to change quite a few of the default settings such as how fast the flame expanded.

Change of Idea

Our initial idea which was to have a 70's theme and feel with some other elements that would make it seem quite old such as the colour. In order to do this we had to organise and plan everything such as the clothing and looks as well as edit the footage to make it look old. This proved to be a difficult task however as it was hard to get the theme right with all the different elements so we have decided to change our idea so it is slightly easier to organise and more realistic to produce. We have decided that we want to have a stalker who looks at some young girls on a social networking site and he ends up finding them, drawing them in to a location and then torturing them before he kills them.
We did this because we feel that it is more accomplishable and would end up more successful than an amateur film that has a good idea but not executed well.

Creating a Protagonist

Since it was quite difficult to get the costume and characteristics right for the first character we created, we decided to go with something a bit simpler that can give off a very similar effect.

We decided to use a stalker character who uses social networking to target his victims. We thought this was a very good idea as in today's society, young people enjoy sharing their everyday lives on social networking sites so using a stalker antagonist is very effective.

We also decided to keep this character's identity hidden as well as his features throughout the opening sequence, we think this would be very effective when looking at a thriller opening sequence. The point is to tease the audience with a restricted narrative, this is done by only showing the audience extreme close-ups of the character such as their eyes/hands/etc...

27/01/14

Today Molly and Blaine went out filming the scene of the second death with Becky in an alleyway. There were some Point of View shots, close ups and some other shots of her which we will use in our opening sequence by editing them into little brief clips that will make a montage effect.
Nader edited the company production logo by making changes to it and adding sound to it.
I  did some editing on the opening sequence adding some scenes in and making them short.

22/01/14

Today we filmed Richard Harrison who is our mysterious antagonist and we got some shots of him looking at the social network page as well as some close ups of his eye and his mouth. These shots made him look like a stalker as you can see him browsing the profile pages of some girls and clicking their pictures. After this we added the new scenes onto the film footage and edited it in Final Cut. We used a spotlight to add light to the scene because ceiling light in the room was too bright and this allowed us to make it look just right, not too dark or light and showing that the rest of room isn't particularly bright since you can tell looking at the wall.

After school, Blaine went out to film Jessica who is one of the victims in our film and filmed some torture scenes.

Call Sheet

Film Title: Requested Date 1 of filming: 22/01/14(Jess)
Time of shoot: 4:00 - 5:00
Weather Conditions: N/A
Meeting point: Jess's house Date 2 of filming: 22/01/14 (Mr Harrison)
Time of shoot: 10:00 - 11:00
Weather Conditions: N/A
Meeting point: Media room Date 3 of filming: 27/01/14 (Becky)
Time of shoot: 12:05 - 12:55
Weather Conditions: light rain
Meeting point: Media room Date 4 of filming: (Natalie)
Time of shoot: 2:05 - 3:05
Weather Conditions: N/A
Meeting point: Media room Date 5 of filming: (Duo cast) Time of shoot: 2:05- 3:05 Weather conditions: light rain Meeting point: Media room Contact Details:

Blaine Anderson = 07585445242
Molly-Ann Macken = 07411054187
Becky Jeffrey = 07544351818
Tony Wu = 07828927805
Nader Antar = 07883432822

Technical requirements

Item	Source	Department
1 Canon Camera	school	Filming equipment
1 Tripod	school	Filming equipment
1 Role of tape	Blaine	Props
1 Mascara	Actors own	Props

Risk Assessment

Site Risk Assessment

Location	Royston Park
Description of activities to be undertaken	Filming all scenes, including make-up preparation beforehand and mise-en-scene focus on prop assemblance for each shot.
Number of people present	Fluctuating from 4 to 6
Person in charge of activities	Tony Wu, Nader Antar, Molly-Ann & Blaine Anderson.
Hazard and Risk Level	Trees and Brambles may cause blistering. Minimal Risk
Hazard and Risk Level	Ditches and mud may cause falls. By filming in dry areas these risks are greatly reduced to minimal risk.
Hazard and Risk Level	Make-up may cause rashes or irritation. Small amounts will be applied beforehand to check for any discomforting reaction.

These are some of the photos we took of the location before we started filming to show what was at the location and good places we could film. We believe that the location was good because some parts looked quite deserted so it fit in with our theme and idea. We had some footage of filming but it looked too amateur and wasn't particularly good so we did not use it.

Creating a company logo - Ace Productions

Using some resources we found, we created this logo using Adobe Photoshop.
The first thing we did was find a few photos to support our idea of a creative production logo and move them around to be able to put them in the right place, this was to create an interesting logo which links in with our production name and ideas.
We used the 'Charlemagne Std' font to try and keep with the font theme of the Ace and we feel that it closely resembles the one used for the cards.
We modified the colour of the ribbon to something that is quite similar to the colour of the cards as well as the background though we may change the background colour later.

08/01/2014

On Wednesday the 8th January, We went out on our second day with a whole new cast, better props for mise-en-scene and the weather was also better. We kept the same location but changed where we filmed on that location. The actors costumes fit them. We managed to get 5 shots done and we also managed to film a risk assessment.