Voice Over

In our clip the we will be using a voice over. With the use of a microphone we have recored the voice over and we are now going to use software like garage band to adjust it to make it sound the way we want. After we have done this we are going to add this on to our filming and edit it so our sound effects can be placed in the areas we want them. Once we have this done we will be on the final stages making our clip.
After playing the audio back to listen to we have realised that there is some background noise so we will need to record more times to ensure the sound quality is a lot better. The voice over will allow the audience to get a bit of information about what the movie will be about, in the hope they will be more intrigued into the story line.
We have decided to use an american accent for the narration. We think this will make it more professional and add more uniqueness to it. We didn't think our normal accent would be appropriate as we did not think it matched the genre of our film. We think this accent will add more context and make it more interesting for the audience to watch.

After finishing the editing of our film we have decided not to use the voice over. When we began to add it in we felt that it didn't fit right and took away from the professional look we hoped to achieve. Without the voice over the opening its simple yet effective as it does not reveal much about the story line yet intrigues the audience.

Update

We have now complete all of our filming and we are now beginning to edit the scenes and piece them together. Beginning to do this has now showed us the problem that our original script draft is too long and we need to cut it down to allow the sound effects, music and voice over all to be heard. We are aiming the voice over to last around 30 seconds so its long enough to make the audience become enticed but no so long that the story line becomes confusing and the viewers loose interest.

New Script:

Charlie: Someone once said, "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.". However, i like to think life is just the beginning, death must be so great, because no one has came back to tell me differently.. 

*music begins in the background* 

36 days, 5 hours, and almost 27 minutes. 

You, me, your world, my world, all changed by that split moment. 

*noise of car crashing* 

.. I remember that time we went to the park, it was a park we came across by accident. It was so beautiful. She were so happy and playful, so at ease with everything. *echoes laugh* I thought I knew at that moment, she'd always bring happiness to my life.
*doors slam*
That night i lied to the police, I confessed to a crime someone else did, someone I made a vow to love and protect. Did i make a mistake, a mistake decided in a moment, a mistake that cant be undone, a mistake perhaps so insignificant as it wont bring back the life of an innocent child.  
*sound of ambulance*
What is someone suppose to do when the person they protect doesn't protect them, the person who moves on in a matter of weeks, and betrays the love use once had together.. nothing but manipulation. 
*sounds of handcuffs* 

all my love, charlie 

Script Idea

This is something I just came up with for a shortened script.

Dear Soph, 

Someone once said “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” I like to think the same, death must be so great, because no one has came back to tell me differently. 

You know, I was sitting yesterday, just sitting, thinking,  thinking about that moment, that moment everything changed. You, me, your world, my world, all changed by that split second. 

When someone dies, they seem to be remembered by their death, but you, you were the most fun loving, laid back, love of life girl anyone knew, and that's what you should be remembered by, not one accident, not MY accident, nothing else but those qualities should identify you. 

Your mom was over yesterday, she brought some photos of you when you were younger, she gave me a box of home videos, that's what I'm going to watch tonight. She said she wanted me to have a little bit of your past because she thought I was going to be such a big part of your future. She forgives me. But I don't care, you're the one's whose forgiveness I want, you are all that mattered, you're my world.

I don't know what else to say, so I think I better go now. I'm so so sorry Soph, you know I never meant for this. One final thing, when some day I do see you again,  I hope to see that bright shining smile I loved so much. 

All my love as always,

Charlie

SHOTS

This is an overview of the clips I got shot today.

Titles

To help us decide which style of titles we are going to use in our opening clip, we have researched different types in other film openings. Styles of titles can vary greatly, because our film is a romantic drama, we aim to get a theme of titles that will add to our chosen genre.
In our clip the idea of the voice over is that it is what the man is writing down as a letter. The first clip is the letter being wrote and the sounds effects add to this. Therefore we decided to use writing which was in the style of hand writing that the timing of the sound fits to. We think this makes it seem more professional, as the titles used have a professional look whilst also adding to the theme of the movie.
As we have not yet finished the editing of the clips in our film we have not yet decided the positioning of the rest of the titles. Once all of our editing is complete we will go through the final stages of adding in the titles.

Storyboard

   

Lighting

In our film we are going to rely mainly on natural lighting. This means we are going to have to rely heavily on filming outdoors and in well lighted rooms - big windows. This shouldn't be too difficult especially considering many of our scenes are set outdoors or are from the past - this should be easy enough to do with the use of editing.  The only problem is that our filming might be set back if it isn't a good day outside, we will not be able too or will find great difficult in maintaining this natural light and therefore the reality of the scene. Other methods of lighting will include backlighting and coloured lighting.
      An area when  we will have to pay specific attention to lighting is when we are filming the man sitting in the room. WE want to give the aura of a cell, therefore we are going to use a spare room in my house - the room is completely plain with only a bed and we can customise this is to make it as cold and unwelcoming as possible. There is however a problem when it comes to restricting the natural light here, as there is a big window. We therefore might need to look at covering this partially to restrict the light in this room. I will have to look into this further.

Sound

Throughout our clip, narration, music and sound effects will be used.

Narration - The narration will be spoken by a male, this will be the only voice heard the duration of the opening. The male will be speak in a soft manor and slowly to entice the emotions of the audience.

Sound Effects - At various points of the clip, sound effects will be heard in the background. These will add to the story that the narrater is telling and help the audience to understand it more clearly. The sound effects that are going to be used are:

• Crashing sound of car
• Echoing of laugh
• Door Slam
• Sound of Handcuffs closing

We think that the noise of these in the background will add to the feel of the movie and make it more dramatic which will intrigue the audience.  We began looking for free sound effects on line but after we realised that the sound effects we needed were all provided on final cut pro.

Music - There will always be music heard in the background of our clips, at different points of this clip the music will become increasingly loud and at other times increasingly softer. This will help add to the feel of our clip and add to the emotions of our audience. It will also make the genre of our clip more clear as its romantic with a sad, dramatic feeling. Songs that we are thinking of using are:

Costume

All of the costume in our film we have decided would be best being casual - this therefore makes it more natural. Below find different collages of different outfits of the style we are considering.

Above is a combination of different outfits we think would be suitable for our female character. We want to go with a summery casual look. Although the above outfits aren't the costume we will be using, it gives a fair idea of what we are aiming for with pastel colour blouses, skirts, jeans and skirts.

The baby in the film we will be using from our already existing home video footage. Therefore it is hard to say very much about what there costume is. However the above collage gives a rough idea of the costume - the baby in the home videos in wearing typical clothes for a baby colourful skirts, tops, baby grows. Again this all add's the natural effect we are trying to portray with our film.

Above is a collage of the costume we are wanting to use for the male character. Again, the above pictures is not exactly what the character would be wearing though gives a fair idea of where we want to go with his costume. This will involve shirts, possibly with slogans, jeans and jackets. This is all typical clothes to man/teenage boy today, therefore preserving the reality of the overall film.

Above you can see a rough idea for the style of costume for the male from whom the flashbacks are coming from. He will be wearing typical blue denim jeans in a plain, blank white top. Therefore the above collage gives a better picture of how we will have this character dressed. We think that by keeping his costume so simple, it will draw attention more towards the setting. We again want to try create as real a look as possible therefore trying to maintain the naturalness of the scene.

Editing and Camera Angles

Editing and Camera Angles:
The methods of editing we have decided to use in out clip are:

• Dissolve - We are going to use dissolve in our clip as it will add to the sense of distant memories and allow the audience to understand that some of the clips are from the past. The images on screen will fade-in and fade-out allowing some images to overlap working some shots to come together. A dissolve is when one shot fades out while another one fades in simultaneously. The result is a blurring together of two images.This indicates the passage of time and the flashbacks of these memories. 
• Slow Motion - Throughout our clip slow motion will be used at various points. This will also help portray the sense of distant memories, but will also make the scene seem more dramatic and help draw the audiences emotions in. 
• Bridging Shot - This shot will portray the discontinuity in the clip and the jumps of time from each of the scenes. 
• Ellipsis: This refers to periods of time that have been left out of the narrative. The ellipsis is marked by an editing transitions which, while it leaves out a section of the action, nonetheless signifies that something has been elided. 
• Fade in -  The screen is black at the beginning; gradually the image appears, brightening to full strength. This will help make the opening of the film more dramatic and draw the audience in.
• Whip pan - A type of pan shot in which the camera moves sideways so quickly that the picture blurs into indistinct streaks. It is commonly used as a transition between shots, and can indicate the passage of time. 
• Shallow Focus - This keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the opposite of deep focus. This keeps the focus of the audience of one aspect of the scene. Shallow focus suggests psychological introspection, since a character appears as oblivious to the world around her/him. It is therefore commonly employed in genres such as the melodrama, where the actions and thoughts of an individual prevail over everything else.
• Focus Pull - The focus pull is useful for directing the viewer's attention. For example, if there are two people in shot but only one is in focus, that person is the subject of attention. If the focus changes to the other person, they become the subject. We will use to this to draw the audiences attention to the  specific aspect of each scene we want the most focus to be on. 

Letter

This letter was written by someone who was in a car crash. I think we could take some ideas from this, there are some points within it which we wanted to add into our story. 

As the car made contact with my fragile body, all our memories passed by my eyes. I didn?t think about the pain. I thought about the things I would miss: My High School graduation, getting married, having children. And then, I thought about you. Your smile, your soft hair, the sound of your laugh. All of that would be gone, out of my reach, but the memories will never fade. I will never forget you. You will eventually move on, but all I ask from you, is remember me. Remember our good times, and remember our bad times. Remember our fights, and remember our apologies.

My body lands in a heap on the side walk. Blood forms a pool around me. I hear screams from all directions. The car swerves and hits a tree. The driver, injured and clearly intoxicated, stumbles out of the car to my side. ?I?m so sor-? He slurs before I lose consciousness.

After what feels like century , I come to my senses. Brief images are played like a movie. People are yelling as ambulances arrive on scene. I formed a lump in the back of my throat, when I saw that you weren?t there. The pain of the accident sank in, and I quietly cried out in pain. My Mother rested my head on her lap as she silently wept.

A car tore down the road and stopped by one of the ambulances. Out you stepped of car and my slowing heart skipped a beat. Before you could get to my body, a paramedic stopped you and said something I could not hear. You ran past him to my side and knelt down. Tears streamed down your face. 
?I love you,? You choked. I could feel myself being lifted up onto the stretcher.
You took hold of my hand, and kissed me on my bloody lips. I looked you straight in the eyes and said, ?I love you too?, but it only came out as a whisper. Doctors all around me rushed, but it was as if they were in slow motion.
I realized that my final seconds were passing. I gripped your hand and said,

?Don?t forget me?, as my heart beat it?s last time.

Super 8

We have decided that in our film opening we would like to incorporate the style of super 8. We think that this will add more individuality to our clip and will make it more unique to other clips being made. Because of this we need to research into different methods of this style being used. Some useful examples we have found:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cE6wxDqdOV0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4ICwknDOI6s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


The use of super 8 in both of these clips has helped us understand the effects it have. It shows how easily it is to portray a sense of memory in a film. The old style shows it as an event that happened distant in the past. With the addition of dissolving titles on top of this will also add to the sense of memory in the opening clip.

Images:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd87_jjK1-8

Blog

Check this blog out as well Maria - this contains letters from different people to anyone that they loved that has passed away. I think this would be a useful place to get some idea's for our monologue.

Letters to the dead - Blog

Script Ideas

For the narration in our clip we want to have the voiceover speaking of emotions. For this we want the wording to have an impact on the motions of the watching audience. Possible quotes we are going to use:

• "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." 
• "Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same."
• "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
• "Death must be great, because no one has come back from it."
• "A farewell is necessary before you can meet again".

Script Draft:

Charlie: Someone once said, "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.". However, i like to think life is just the beginning, death must be so great, because no one has came back to tell me differently.. 

*music begins in the background* 

36 days, 5 hours, and almost 27 minutes. 

Since that moment. That one moment. One split moment. Changed it all. 

*noise of car crashing* 

..Remember that time we went to the park, that park with the biggest maple tree we'd ever seen. 
Where it started off as a beautiful sunny day, then out of no where the rain came pouring down. I thought you'd be mad, but your laugh was so loud and you just couldn't hold it in.*echoes laugh* Almost to the point you were laughing with tears in your eyes. That was the moment, the moment I knew I couldn't live my life without you. Who would have thought such a simple moment would change the rest of my life...
Words are all I have. A pen. Some paper. And the words I write down. Thats all I have. No romantic gesture, no grand apology, no excuse or reason to make all this disappear. Not even a goodbye. But 47 years to sit in these 4 walls and think about it. Just think and relive that one moment that defined everything..
*doors slam*
So here it is.. my letter.. explaining it from my point of view.. my story being told.. the night i lied to the police, to confess to a crime someone else did. Someone who i made a vow to love and protect no matter what. Was it really the right thing to do? or did i make a mistake, a mistake decided in a moment, a mistake that cant be undone, a mistake perhaps so insignificant as it wont bring back the life of an innocent child.  
*sound of ambulance*
child who will never experience graduation, marriage or having a kid of their own. all because of a moment. a moment that defined what their life will always be remembered by. 
What is someone suppose to do when the person they protect doesn't protect them, the person who moves on in a matter of weeks, and betrays the love use once had together.. nothing but manipulation. 
*sounds of handcuffs* 

all my love, charlie

Home Videos

I began to look at home videos on google. I know i have several of my own at home, so I will look through those tonight. I first typed home videos into google. This didn't turn out the sort of results I was looking for, rather just video sights like vimeo, youtube and metacafe. I therefore decided to look for home videos on these sights and soon I began to find quite a lot. I found them by typing phrases such as 'our son doing/learning/being...'.

I then thought that before I started to look at home video clips I should recognise the important stages of life that would be recorded - especially in the sort of film we are planning doing it is only the important areas of life which would be important for the viewer and help maintain there interest. Below is a list of what I think are the more important areas of growing up we need to recognise in children -

• Birth - child being born - maybe not suitable to include the video of a birth but maybe clips of a newborn baby?
• First words - a child first speaking - this might be hard however as we are not intending to include sound from the video clips. Might be more wise to get pictures to represent this event.
• First steps - an easy clip to find.
• First Christmas - a baby on their first christmas - this shouldn't be too hard to capture in a video.
• First Day of School - might be hard to get a video clip of this, more likely to find pictures - i know i have pictures of my first day. 

* A point to note - maybe include videos and pictures of the boy and his girlfriend he speaks of - it might be easier as we are both girls and it will be easier to find home footage and make it more personal for us.

• Learning to ride a bike - I think this would be nice to include as it would make it quite emotive as it includes the more minor details.
• First Communion - This area would be easier captured with pictures.
• First Date - This would be an area we would possibly have to record ourselves.
• First Day of Secondary School - we will have to record this ourselves, or make use of our own pictures.
• Passing Driving Test - we will have to record this ourselves.
• Passing Exams - we will have to record this ourselves.
• 18th Birthday - we will have to record this ourselves.

So as you can see from the above list - by no means exhaustive - there are a lot of areas we could focus on with our opening scenes for the film. I'm going to get 2 examples of each of the above if I can - not those where I said we will have to record this ourselves. 

Super 8 effect

We want to give our videos that antique look, so as Mr Tierney suggested we have looked into this effect that is the super 8 effect. On final cut pro they have their own version of this effect. I tested this out on a test clip from our preliminary, I do like the effect it creates-
There are also other techniques which we could use that could emphasise this antique feel. I particularly like this because it is used in My Sister's Keeper's opening -


I think this is effective as it gives an idea of memories - which I believe is a good way to go with our monologue because it keeps a personal feel to the overall movie.
Super 8 originated in 1965, also known as Super 8 mm film, by Eastman Kodak as an improvement on the previous type of film. It has been largely replaced now as a filming format but is often used to imitate the look of old home movies or create a stylish look - we are trying to create this look of old home movies, therefore i think this technique could be very useful to us.



The above video shows an example of super 8 in use. I think this clip is really well done and I like the focus of detail on small things such as the small droplets of water. I would like to imitate some of the effects carried out in this clip in some of what we do.

General Idea + To do List

Our general idea is as follow - A boy is narrating . He should have a deep voice. Starts off black. We find out that he died recently in a car crash and that this story shows how the people he loved have moved on, eventually ending with his girlfriend finding a new love. When we find out that he died and a bit about his past, a series of moving images along with the titles are on screen ( similar to the layout of the opening scenes in Dear John and My Sisters Keeper.) The moving images, will include a video from when the speaker is quite young, up to his death. We only get blurred scenes of his death scene, and after we see pictures of family, friends - mourning. Monologue being spoke by a boy will be as if he is speaking to the audience - really speaking to girlfriend. Light colours/older images - edited images to be used to show that this in the past. During the beginning when black, have the sound of writing possibly? Only sounds to be used are diegetic - those which tie in with the memory being recounted.

In monologue use quotes which have meaning - look up quotes and be selective about the ones which affect me and maria personally - our target audience is going to be mainly teenage girls/women - as they would be more interested in this genre so by choosing things which affect us we will attract our audience better.
Look into home photography and videography - internet and personal. When recording also remember images must not look posed - get examples of such home imagery.
Keep language highly emotive.
Keep images and language personal - therefore more likely to engage audience on a personal and emotional level.

To Do List

• Type up main plot onto blog
• Begin research for monologue of main boy character.
• Start to research home videos - what makes them so natural - camera/mise-en-scene
• Look at personal home imagery/videography. Anything you could use.
• Think of structure - STORYBOARDING
• Think of writing monologue
• Look at titles - which types of fonts and titles could work. 
• Think of actors/actresses - who to use according to behaviour, suitability - voice
• Locations
• Angles/editing/mise-en-scene - storyboarding camera use
• Draft a shooting schedule.

Opening Narrative

We want to use a narrative at the beginning of our film. This is a common feature of most romantic dramas which can be seen by our individual research. A Narrative is defined as 'a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious'. With this definition it is obvious therefore that when we have this narrative it needs to be something which is heartfelt, or genuine, in order to make it believable and therefore make the story of the film believable. It is therefore important that we include a lot of personal sentiments within it.

Previous

Above is a previous example of a romantic drama made in media studies. I really like this example and feel we could take something away from it. I like the different camera angles used and how each of them don't necessarily fit together, but i think this would be good for the opening of a film because it means we don't give a lot away. This example received an A and this is the blog for the makers of this film emmajeremya2.tumblr.com. Although this is an a2 example i still feel there are many things within this film which we will be able to use. The one thing i notice about this film is the lack of titles, so we therefore should look at another film were titles are used. I personally like the above example. I feel it captures the teenage romantic genre and the titles that have been used are very creative and make the most of everything available to them. I would like to follow with titles similar to this film. I think to make opening titles successful we need to not focus as much on actors but more on the titles and mediums which we use. Also, we need to try not to reveal our story but to simply give the audience a feel of what our story is about.

Opening Methods

From looking at different methods of opening filming methods I have found about different techniques and the impact they have on the viewers. Different styles can be used, for example, for sound narration or music can be used. The way in which the titles are presented can also vary, they can be used as simple words or they can be used to add to the story of the film. This has helped me to expand my knowledge on methods and will give me a better selection of possible techniques to use when it comes to making my opening.

Romantic Drama

From the research into my chosen films I have recognized that their are several things which romantic dramas all seem to have in common, especially in their openings. Below find a prezi of the different things i found in common, and then another below that of the things i think are good and which we could bring into our film:

Our Genre

We decided last night that our genre would be a Romantic Drama. We decided on this genre because we wanted to do something different and feel that this would be the best way in which we could show our creativity. We thought because Romantic Drama is ultimately the collaboration of the two genres Romantic and Drama, we would look in depth at both genres seperately. Find below wordles containing words relevant to each seperate genre.

As you can see from the above word clouds relevant to each genre, there are many ways in which they can be interlinked. Because drama is such a large genre, it is often divided into sub genres. Drama is mostly based on the events happening within a family or relationship, this therefore makes a romantic drama a good collaboration because we can focus on the vital parts of both genres.

Conclusion

WHAT ARE THE KEY LESSONS YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT WILL ENSURE SUCCESS IN YOUR MAIN PIECE?

We learned that unless care is taken, the 180 degree rule can be easily forgotten about and broken. We have learnt that unless it is successful the structure of our film can be a failure and look unprofessional. We also learnt a lot about continuity and how it contributes to the accomplished piece and that measures must be taken to ensure it it done the correct way. We now have an understanding of how to work Final Pro X, this will allow us to be able to use more advanced editing skills and allows us to edit films we make more efficiently. 

Editing

How did you manage continuity using editing software?When we first started filming I was very aware that this task would be centred around continuity and I was worried how we would be able to use varied shots and camera angles, yet still be able to keep the flow of the film. When it came to us using Final Cut Pro, it was revealed to me and maria that continuity wasn't actually that hard to achieve as it allowed you to cut the film at specific points and enter a new film at the same point where the action from the previous point was being repeated. Therefore, while it seemed initially it would be difficult, when you use the software, it is actually not as hard due to its precise nature. Did you encounter any problems in the editing stages of your production?We did encounter a few problems at the editing stages, I think this is partially down to the problem that neither of us had encountered Final Cut before, and therefore using tools within it was our first time. Such problems included the use of transitions, there were various places we thought that a transition would be ideal, but when we used final cut, when we inserted transitions we felt it gave quite a tacky touch to our film. Also, as I said above, where it allowed us to cut the film at precise points we had some problems, these were linked simply to our difficulty in working Final Cut, but obviously these difficulties will disappear the more practice we get with Final Cut. What new processes/techniques have you learned using new software and how has the use of software enhanced your production? I would have to say the big technique I learnt was the cutting the film at precise points, I knew that this was something that was able to be done, but I never thought I would understand how it works. I think this enhanced our production simply because it allowed us to be successful in our continuity which overall made a successful production. Another tool I learnt through Final Cut was the ability to crop frames within the video. At one stage during filming Maria accidentally came into the shot, we were able to cut her out via this tool therefore meaning we didn't have to get rid of a good shot. This meant that production time was quicker as we didn't have to go back and re-film. What successes and difficulties have you experienced during editing?Editing overall is quite a difficult area for me, even when writing about it and analysing the effect it has for the viewing audience. One particularly obvious difficulty I experienced with editing is my impatience, I wanted it to be done automatically, however to edit a film well you need to put time and effort into it, so this was a particular difficulty for me. Another difficulty I had was when I had specific ideas and didn't know how to do them. This then led me to play about with different features which maybe I didn't want to put into the film and therefore I had to go back each time I did it. I had trouble when working with the colours in the clip, in some clips the colours were darker than in others, this meant we had to get quite technical and neither of us really knew how to go about this. We therefore had to ask for assistance from Mr Tierney, and eventually we got there. We were quite successful with the use of slowmo and using music. I seemed to be able to pick up the skills required and had no real problems in this area. I particularly enjoyed being able to fade the music in and out of the clip, and this therefore was a quite successful area for me. Another successful area was the insertion of credits and titles. We chose very basic ones as we thought that this would contribute to the minimalist nature of the video. I enjoyed this area going through each title and seeing the different effects it had. Overall, this was definitely one of the more challenging areas. However, I would definitely say with my new experience with Final Cut Pro that my editing skills have definitely improved and therefore will help to contribute to successful final piece.

Filming

What was successful in your filming? Throughout our filming continuity was a success. At first we struggled with this, due to lighting and background noises. However, when we found these problems, re-filimg of specific scenes solved this problem. As well as this we made sure that costumes, characters hair styles and positions of props were all kept the same so that continuity throughout worked well. Did you use a variety of shots? What were you trying to achieve with certain shots and why do you think your choice of shot mattered? The majority of our clip was filmed with the use of a medium shot, we used this because it helped create a more natural feel to the interview and also made the scene more realistic. At the beginning of the clip a jump cut is used, this is used to draw attention to the constructed nature of the film and we decided to use it as it as it made the clip seem more like a normal situation for the viewer. Over the shoulder filming was also used, this made the conversation more interactive and flowing between the two characters. How well do you feel you are framing shots, positioning subject, using camera techniques? To improve the use of our camera techniques the use of a tripod was required, this allowed the camera to be held in a steady position through out and made the film seem more professional. The positing of subjects allowed us to focus in on the more important character and different parts of the film, this drew more focus to the character that was speaking and helped keep the attention of the audience. Continuity successes and difficulties? One frequent problem we found with the success of continuity was the positing of the box of pens on the table, filming on different days made it more difficult to keep its position exact and we found that this was often noticeable when we watch the scenes back. However, we solved this problem by looking back on previously filmed clips which allowed us to see the exact position. Another problem we encountered was the background noise of the air conditioning in the room, some days it was off and some days it was on, therefore it was very noticeable in filming. To solve this problem we re-filmed the effected scenes. Continuity was successful in regards to the appearances of the actors, which gave a more professional look to our film. Did you observe the 180 degree rule? We discovered that we had broken the 180 degree rule, this was a major problem and we knew we needed to solve it for the success of our film. So we edited and re-filmed scenes in order to solve this problem. How did you manage lighting, sound, mise en scene? Lighting became a problem as we filmed at different parts of different days meaning the amount of sunlight coming through the video. To solve this problem we simply closed the blinds and depended on artificial light in the room. Sound and mise en scene was successfully the same throughout the filming. Costumes remained the same which was a success. Background noise experienced problems but was edited to make it less noticeable.

Preliminary Evaluation - Planning

How well you managed to plan your storyboards, scripts and how you managed actors, location and props; Did you encounter any problems at various stages with theses? Did you make any changes to your original plans? Why? How did you overcome any difficulties? At the beginning we thought that planning our storyboards and scripts would be a relatively easy task, it was only when we attempted to begin filming we realised that it was a lot harder than we presumed and required us to go into a lot more depth than what we initially thought. We changed completely from our original storyboard and script. We did this because it was obvious when we began filming that our original idea would not work and was not substantial enough to make a good video. The actors we began with were ideal for the original roles however when it came to filming it was hard for them to take their roles seriously. I (Rachael) found it very hard to focus on the lines written in front of me while I was aware a camera was filming. Laith, the original boy actor we used could act the role but however when we attempted to film one day and he didn't turn up we knew that he wasn't reliable. Location for our original idea was also hard to come by in school, we had the idea of a boy and a girl on a date, this wouldn't work in school, therefore this idea after taking into account all factors such a storyboarding, filming, actors and location that this original idea would not work. Now we were back to the stage where we had no idea. Then Maria came up with the idea of a job interview, we still wanted to stay with our original genre idea which was comedy - we got this original idea after we first watched Ted where incidentally there is also a job interview. To further assist us, we typed funny inteviews into youtube and came across this - Awesome _26 Funny. Once we completed this area, we found it relatively easy to complete our script, and soon enough we began filming. The actress and actor we used were much better suited to this role. We used Orla Bradley as our girl, she is a drama student and therefore was at ease with the camera on her, she was able to carry out her actions and lines naturally therefore creating a natural aura overall. The actor we used was Christopher McLarnon. I first of all was quite wary of this, as I have grew up with Christopher my whole life and I know sometimes he can be a bit immature. However, with this role he completely felt comfortable, it allowed him to be humorous, but also to have serious moments, which reflects his personality. I think therefore actors in this instance were perfectly chosen and allowed us to create a sense of normality. Location was also easy to use in school because this idea would be set in an office, and this setting is abundant in a school, therefore we encountered no problems in this area. Because of the nature of our story props were not as big a deal, being dressed in uniform it was not hard to change costume, we simply gave Christopher a tie, and Orla changed her top and put a blazer on. In the room all we used was a box of pens and a page. This was all we felt was needed in order to make the scenario real, we took a minimalist approach. Overall, while we did encounter many problems at the beginning, as we got into it and began to realise what was suitable and what was not, we didn't find it as difficult, and in the end feel that the planning, and going through the failed ideas was what helped us to contribute to an overall successful end product.

Script

Fade in Mrs Sheenan walks down corridor and enters the room, Mr Conolly is already sitting at desk. Mrs Sheenan: Hiyah Mc Conolly: Welcome Mrs Sheenan, Eh, Im Mr Conolly and ill be holoding your interview today Mrs Sheenan: Ok, its nice to meet you Mr Conolly: Well ive been looking at your resumé and I'm very impressed. In fact your.. over qualified to be an accountant Mrs Sheenan: Oh thank you. thats good cause i wasn't planning on working very hard anyway Mr Conolly: oh really? Mrs Sheenan: absolutely, infact i only intend to show up when i feel like it Mr Conolly: (confused) oh.. hm.. ok.. so.. tell me a bit about yourself? Mrs Sheenan: Well ive got terrible hygiene and i have quite a few annoying personal habbits Mr Conolly: oh ok.. well i really don't think your suitable for this job Mrs Sheenan: thats ok, i quit Mr Conolly: you cant quit? you dont work here.. Mrs Sheenan: yeah i know, why would i work here? Mr Conolly: Like we would ever hire you and even if you did work here, you wouldnt get the chance to quit, because wed fire you first Mr Sheenan: