Vlog 2

This is our second vlog showing our second location and going to film the risk assessment for it, and the odd 'leaf test' for the wood scene.

Blind Faith Titling Tests and Feedback

Titling Tests

In the process of creating the titling - Draft 1

I am, at the moment, in the process of creating our iconic title to go on our poster and review and feature in our short film. 

Finished titling - Draft 2 - Ready to invert and use in our short film.

This is the finished product I created using Photoshop, I have received feedback from our target demographic in passing conversation and below are a few quotes of what they have said.

"I love the idea of the braille being part of the title and I think it fits well with the name."  - 17 year old female

"The font is simple but looks good, the dots don't make the words too hard to read either."   - 17 year old male

"I think the title looks really good after hearing what the film is about. Maybe some colour could be used to make the title more interesting"   - 16 year old female

Here is some more feedback that I received via Facebook

"What do you think of this idea of titling for a short film about a blind girl named Faith?"

"Have you got any ideas on how to improve it or anything you think will make it look better?"

Filming, locations and permissions!

Asking for permission

 Here we are on Tuesday afternoon asking reception for permission to film in the common room after college hours and requesting a locker key for this part of the film. We were given locker key B22 to use!

Jack setting up the tripod

Today, Thursday 23rd October, we went up to Blunts wood in our double media lesson to have a look round for a location for our filming and to then record a health and safety video before our actual filming takes place.

(Health and safety video will be added in another post!)

Brighton beach from the eye

Here is a shot I took from the Brighton eye to show our location as a whole- Brighton centre and the beach!

On the beach we will be filming a conversation between Faith and Ethan. 

We will need to make sure when filming on the beach we film in appreciation of other people enjoying the beach- it's a public place!
We will need to respect them in they don't want to be in the background

We will also need to be careful of the weather- as it can change quickly and dramatically- if we are filming on the sea edge.

As I was in Brighton I decided to have a go at one of our last shots of Ethan getting hit by the bus. We were concidering using a shot from the bus as if a personal point of view and as an alternative angle to create a more dramatic sense. 

(The video wouldn't upload of my phone so i have 2 screenshots to show)


The shot on the right shows the edge of the traffic ligh-t an idea we proposed as the bus goes through a 'red traffic light' as the audience cannot see it is green.

Vlog Update 1

This is our first time vlogging. We decided to vlog in the costume cupboard as we decided what Faith should wear. This hopefully gives you an insight to the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that took place before we filmed.

Titling

 

This is a video Jack, Maisie and I created yesterday (Monday 20th October) Showing how our shots between 3 and 4 were going to connect together through the use of titling. 



We are doing this by placing the titling on a brick wall and fading to black. We then used a camera right next to the wall and backing away while panning to create a focus-pull too our main character- Faith. (Who was acted out by Jack in this video)

Risk Assessment

This is the risk assessment for the 'bullying' scene. There are captions describing the location and what hazards there are, with a small amount of ambient background noise.

Update - 21/10/2014

Update - 21/10/2014

After looking on eBay, we soon realised that our costumes would take a while to arrive. So, me and Katherine (our actress playing Faith) visited a range of charity shops today along with the costume cupboard in theatre studies. We managed to buy a couple of various outfit changes for Faith and have made a vlog (behind the scenes video) of us in the costume cupboard deciding what to choose (uploaded in the following post entitled 'Vlog update 1'. Whilst choosing the costumes Katherine and I sent pictures to Megan and Maisie via Facebook Messenger to gain feedback from everyone in the group. This ensured that we got the costume which we all envisioned and looked best. 

We soon realised that the costume cupboard was the most beneficial idea as the costumes were free!

Music Research - Soundtrack

Music Research - Soundtrack

Within our short film we will use the famous George Michael song 'Faith' however, for copyright purposes Jack's friend will have to play the instrumental on guitar. We also feel that an acoustic soundtrack will convey our meaning better, and paired with the singing of the female protagonist, will act very successfully. The following embedded YouTube video is how we expect our soundtrack to sound, if not slower in some places. 'Faith' is an obvious soundtrack for us to use in our short film as the female protagonist in our short film is named Faith.

Update: In the end we did use a combination of the Faith singing and guitar playing performed by our very own actress playing Faith- Katherine Hastings!

Actors and Planning Schedule!

We are planning to film our first couple of scenes on Tuesday the 21st October in the Common room after college. (3:45 onwards)
This will be because it will be much more quiter so we can hear our actors and there will be no background noise.
This is also an avaliable time for Jack, Maisie and I to be able to film this together and is a time where our character playing Faith- Catherine and Jack is free as stated above to play Ethan. 
The props we will need to bring that day will include Faiths outfit (60s style), her blind stick, books/folders for her to carry.
We will obviously need to bring camera and tri-pod to each filming session




We are planning to film some scenes in Brighton Wednesday the 22nd October from 2pm onwards as this is when all group members have finished college activites and our college actitives.
In brighton we will be filming Faith and Ethan on the pier, beach, starbucks and the bus scene at the end.
The props we will need to bring to Brighton will be a couple of costume changes for each character to show the passing off time as elipsis- this shows the friendship growing stronger.



We are planning to film one of our scenes in the Canteen on Thursday the 23rd October in our double period between 11:05 and 13:05. We will be filming the canteen scene where Ethans friends turn against him.

Our Film Title!

Our Film Title

After a week of collecting feedback from our audience on SurveyMonkey we have finally recieved 10 feedbacks. As shown on the graph below our title choices recieved a 50/50 vote!

Below is a screen grab of a second question that we asked on our survey to discover the age of the member feeding back. The graph shows that 70% of the feedback we received is from our target demographic which is perfect.

Below is another graph which shows the results of our final question on our survey which asked whether the audience member was male or female. As shown, 90% of our feedback was from females. This is seen as beneficial to us as our target demographic is females. Our genre is teen, romance and drama which, evidently, appeals mostly to younger females, which our feedback mainly consists of.

Here is a picture of me collecting the feedback from the audience and discovering the name for our short film!

Second Animatic

This is our completed second animatic, with the group's recorded voiceover describing and explaining the different shots. Captions are also used to help with explaining the shots.

First Animatic

This is our completed animatic, edited on Final Cut Pro. This animatic shows the timing of all the shots. Our second animatic with commentary will be uploaded soon afterwards.

Collecting Feedback from our Audience

Collecting Feedback from our Audience

We created a survey using the 'SurveyMonkey' software and here is a screen cap of our questions. The next post entitled 'Our Film Title!' shows the responses we got, followed by a range of charts and tables showing the preferred choices.



https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFVYCXJ

This survey is directed at our audience to decide a name for our film by seeing which name is preferred. We will be putting this out to our audience by using social media to connect with the correct target age group (15-25)

Applying Narrative to our Final Idea

 Applying Narrative to our Final Idea

Beginning with narrative structure, the final idea for our short film follows a linear structure with both restricted and unrestricted narration being used throughout. Every event within the short film happens in chronological order so as to not confuse the spectator massively. We would rather the focus were on the relationship between Ethan and Faith than the chronology of the plot. The restricted narration we will use will be at the start of the short film, through finding out who Faith is and her disability, to the bullying that takes place. To create the effect of restricted narration we will use extreme close ups, big close ups and close up shots.

Bordwell and Thompson's Story and Plot

Story - The story behind our final idea is that Faith is a girl with the disability of being blind which developed when she was only three years old. She attends college but is majorly bullied and is therefore very introverted. One day she arrives at college where she is bullied at her worst yet. Unexpectedly, a boy named Ethan of whom she'd never met came and attempted to help her. The two introduce themselves and become very close friends. The friendship builds to a climax after more and more meetings and the spectator wants a relationship to evolve. Unfortunately, Ethan is now getting bullied by his old friends for hanging around with Faith, but takes her side. The couple get closer and Ethan wins Faith a bear on a stall at the Pier - assumed by spectator to be start of relationship. As the return to cross the road to the train station Ethan gets hit by a bus. Faith is left mentally damaged and forgets completely about her disability; all she cares of now is the times she spent with Ethan.

 

Plot - Faith is shown to be a blind girl who attends college but gets bullied. A boy named Ethan rescues her and they immediately become friends. Their friendship develops majorly overtime and Ethan's old friends aren't happy about. They soon begin to bully Ethan but he ignores it all for the love of Faith. The couple's friendship reaches it's climax after meeting many, many times and Ethan winning Faith a teddy bear on the Pier. As they return home after what may be the evolution of their relationship Ethan is hit by a bus.












Todorov's 5 Stage Theory

There are two applications of Todorov's theory in our final idea:

• Equilibrium - Faith walking to college
• Disruption - Bullying her as she arrives at college
• Recognition - Ethan watching her get bullied
• An attempt to repair the damage -  Ethan helping her collect her things and becoming friends with her
• New Equilibrium - Ethan and Faith becoming friends and moving on

OR

• Equilibrium - Faith and Ethan become friends and spend a lot of time together
• Disruption - Ethan gets hit by a bus
• Recognition - Faith screaming his name
• An attempt to repair the damage - Police and ambulance arriving at the scene
• New Equilibrium - Ethan dead and Faith left emotionally scarred

Key - Highlighted = In the story rather than the plot

Barthes Enigma and Action Codes

Enigma Codes:  

• Singing diegetic on screen sound - Who is singing?
• Shoes as part of the costume - Why are they odd?
• Stick prop begins to emerge - Why has she got a stick? Is she blind?
• Titling - Why is it called that?
• Walking down the hallway setting at ELS mid angle - Who is she? Where is she?
•  Low key lighting - Why is the lighting all of a sudden darker?
•  De-saturated colour - Why is the colour desaturated? Is something bad going to happen?
• Ethan winning Faith a teddy bear prop - Are they going to get into a relationship?
• Traffic light prop - Why is the traffic light becoming so prominent? What will happen in relation to the traffic light?

Action Codes:

• Stick prop shown in shot with female protagonist - She is blind.
• ECU and CU shots at low angle - She is being bullied.
• Spending so much time together in different settings - A relationship is forming.
• Ethan recieves texts from friends - Clear they have begun to bully him.
• Facial expression and body language of Ethan and Faith - Suggests they don't care about what anyone else thinks, they are both so euphoric together as a unit.
• Ethan wins Faith a teddy bear prop on the Pier - They are developing feelings for one another.
• Masses of checks (facial expression and body language) along with close up shots - There is going to be an accident in some way.

Levi Strauss' Binary Opposition Theory

Happy	Miserable
Dark	Bright
Love	Hate
Black	Colours
Boy	Girl
Rich	Poor
Extrovert	Introvert
Ability	Disability

These are the basis of the binary oppositions created within our final idea. More may come about throughout our production and post production routines.

Propp's Character Types Theory

The Hero - Throughout the short film Ethan will be viewed as the hero of the plot. He is Faith's rescuer when she is being bullied and for that reason is viewed as a hero.

The Villain - The villain within our final idea consists of more than one. Of all the people that bully Faith, they are all villains in the spectators eyes.

The Princess - It could be definitely be interpreted that Faith is the 'Princess'. As she is the object/reward for the Hero's actions - which is saving her.

The other character types of Propp's theory cannot be applied to our final idea as there are too little characters.

Vogler's 'The Hero's Journey' Theory

Vogler's theory could be very difficult to apply to our final idea as the genre is not adventure - which is suggested through the 'call to adventure'. Though, after looking at Propp's theory we know that Ethan is the Hero of our short film.

• Ordinary World - The Hero's (Ethan's) ordinary world is hanging around with his fake friends of whom he wishes to leave behind. 
• Call to Adventure - Watching his friends bully Faith.
• Refusal to the call -  Not going and assisting his friends in bullying Faith.
• Meeting the Mentor - It can be assumed that Faith is Ethan's mentor throughout, so the meeting is him helping her with her book props. 
• Crossing the threshold - Becoming friends with Faith and hanging around together a lot more.
• Tests, allies, enemies - This is where Ethan ignores his friends who are now bullying him for hanging around with Faith.
• Approach - This could be seen as how Ethan approaches Faith and their relationship starts to go somewhere.
• Ordeal - This is the re-birth of their relationship, perhaps being that they are now something more than friends.
• Reward - The reward for Ethan is Faith for helping her and being her friend.
• The road back - This could be interpreted as the road back home from the beach and pier - perhaps returning back to reality.

The Resurrection and Return with Elixir cannot be applied to our final idea as our short film does not have a 'happy ending'.

Key - Highlighted = In the story rather than the plot

Applying Representation to our Final Idea

Applying Representation to our Final Idea

Ethan's costume, hair and make-up will consist of predominantly dark colours such as black. This will create the representation that he perhaps a much darker and more mysterious character than at first may be thought.

Faith's costume, hair and make-up will all be either simplistic or colourful, to show she is similar to others, but has a happy impression within her. This will also create the representation of her perhaps not knowing of her appearance, but really, she feels unfazed by how she looks.

 

Though her costume, hair and make-up may not suggest it, Faith is an extremely introvert being. The facial expressions and body language she has will create this representation and define it within her persona.

Through use of a crab camera movement the representation of time is manipulated and gives the impression of Faith seeing no escape from her predicament. This is also assisted with the blocking, slit shots, close ups and shadowing.

The range of shots which will establish different settings is used to represent the manipulation of time, with time passing. It creates the representation that the pair have been spending a lot of time together and by using costume; hair; make up and setting changes this can be conveyed.

With Faith being blind the death of Ethan does not seem imminent. One could assume that Faith would be the one to die, just gathering from her disability. Ergo, her disability creates the representation that perhaps something with a negative impact will happen to her specifically.

Within the medium close up at low angle of the bullies attacking Faith, Ethan will be lurking in the background with a disgruntled facial expression and body language. This creates the representation that he is not one of the bullies and that he continuously feels out of place.

Many of the settings, props and decor used will generate the representation that the spectator can see more of things around Faith than she can herself, creating a sort of dramatic irony. Props such as the coffee cup and teddy bear will do this.

Ending Ideas

Ending Ideas

We've decided from audience feedback that it'll be Ethan getting hit by a bus rather than Faith so the ending is twisted and more unusual and unexpected.

However, we have many ideas of how we are going to make the death seem realistic through the use of the camera work and editing.

Idea 1: Using the camera from behind the 2 characters at a medium shot as we can then see the bus 'hitting' the character before we cut to a black screen. 

Idea 2: Showing the couple through a long shot or extreme long shot at mid angle from the other side of the road will create an impression of point of view. This will also show the facial expression and body language of the two as they look to cross.

Idea 3: We may also have a shot (if permission is granted) on the bus as the camera approaches the pair. This will create the sense that the bus is actually going to hit the two. 

Idea 4: Close ups of the red traffic lights, traffic light button, etc. Showing the realism of the bus needing to stop, but not stopping and therefore hitting the couple. 

After watching a compilation of shots in the video 'Hit By A Bus' on Youtube. A character is shown getting hit by a bus, this short film appeals most to our idea and is most ideal for us to film.

 

Please click on video to view.

This shot is a medium long shot showing the male protagonist in an attempt at starting to cross the road.

This shot is soon followed after a cut transition - manipulating time and adding to the fast pace. The setting of the zebra crossing also creates the sense that it is safe to cross. This will be a technique we use also.

Having a medium close up at high angle or mid angle allows the spectator to get an understanding of the POV of the bus prop. This generates a representation of the crossing being completely normal, interrupted by the soon-to-come drama.

This final shot is a big close up shot at high angle, shown after a fast pace zoom movement. This creates the impression that the bus is getting progressively closer to the victim at a massively high speed.
 

Location Research

Location Research

First Location - College common room

Don't need acceptance to film here as it is open to filming by all college students.

Second Location - Haywards Heath Town Centre

Permission is not required to film in the town centre as it is a public place.

Third Location - Blunts Woods

Permission is not required to shoot in Blunts Wood  as it is a public place. Additionally, as there is rarely anyone in  the woods it means we will not need to worry about other people interfering with our shots.

Fourth Location - Brighton Beach and Pier

Again, no requirement of acceptance as both the Beach and the Pier are public attractions.

Fifth Location - Starbucks Cafe

Permission might be needed in order for us to film inside Starbucks, we shall contact them ASAP and discuss requirements and permission.

Sixth Location - Bus Stop

Below is a range of bus stops (red dots) surrounding the Brighton Beach area, we may need to ask permission to film on a bus, which will be done on the day of shooting. Though, no permission is required for us to film near a bus stop in Brighton.