Preliminary Task - Film Evaluation Questions

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Maz, Wez and Josh. We managed the task by deciding that Josh was going to film and me, Maz and Wez were going to be in the film.

2. How did you plan your short filmed piece? Did you use any other films for your inspiration?

We planned our short film by drawing a storyboard. We decided our storyline would include Maz walking into a room, sitting down at a table with Wez and having a conversation. Maz splits up with her boyfriend Wez. Wez cries followed by me shouting "so you got dumped then." We took this line from the film "about a boy" as this was our inspiration for our film.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

For our task we used a video camera, a tripod, a tape, a firewire lead and an Apple Mac to edit.


4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

When planning we had to take into account what our storyline was going be and how it was going to work. When shooting we had to take into account what camera angles to ues and to include mise - en- scene. When editing we took into account what we needed to get rid of and what to add to make the film more effective.

5. Which film conventions does the piece follow? e.g. music, match on action, 180 degree rule, camera work etc

We used the 180 degree rule around Wez when he was crying in our film, we also used match on match action and used a variety of different camera shots.

6. Which does it break?

We broke the film conventions of music as we couldn't find a suitable song on rockband and weren't able to copy other songs.

7. How did you consider mise en scene? e.g. lighting, camera work, setting, costume, props etc

Mise en scene was carefully considered because it was important that we included the right mise-en-scene in order for our film to look realistic and work effectively. Because our scene was a "cafe" we kept the lighing bright. We managed to move the tables and chairs so it looked more realistic and we got mugs and biscuits to make the scene look like a cafe would do. We made sure when filming that we didn't include certain areas of the classroom or else it would have ruined the effect. We had to film the whole of our piece again as we realised we had missed a shot and because we didn't have the same clothes on, we wanted to make sure it looked consisternt.

8. How did you consider narrative? Is there a sense of a storyline? Can any theorists be applied e.g. Barthes, Todorov, Propp, Levi Strauss

Yes, there is a sense of a storyline and we used some of Barthes' Narrative Codes in our film. We used to Enigma Code to make the audience ask questions as to why Maz is splitting up with Wez. Maz says "you know why I'm dumping you" which uses The Semantic Code because there's an additional meaning and Wez knows why she's breaking up with him. Propps theory is kind of used as we see Wez as being the heroes and Maz being the villain but we don't entirely know the reasons behind her splitting up with him. Todorov's theory is used as there is a state of Equilibrium at the start where the protagonist appears to be happy, this then is disrupted by another protagonist. Because it is such a shot film we don't see it return to the state of New Equilibrium but it would have done if we'd made a longer film.

9. How successful was your filmed piece? Identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

For a first piece, I think our film was very successful. We were enable to include a variety of shots and camera angles. We worked well as a group and included everyone's different ideas. I would improve is by using more props, spending more time on the filming and finding music that would go with the piece.

10. What have you learnt about producing a short piece of film? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

I have learnt a lot about producing a film as before I had never filmed anything before. I enjoyed leaning about it but despite this I'm thinking of doing a magazine cover as I found it easier than filming and enjoyed putting my creative ideas on paper.

Magazine Preliminary Practical

Today Me and Maz designed our front cover for the magazine. As I had never used Photoshop before Maz helped me learn how to use it and by the end I was confident with using Photoshop. Our first job was to change the background to a light green- which fitted in with our colour scheme. We cut the background out of our picture and put the picture onto our magazine. We then added a title and a variety of healines. We changed the colours and fonts. Then we added a price tag, bar code and which months addition it was. I enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop so thanks Maz!!!


16th October 2009

Today, Me and Maz did the finishing touches to our Magazine Preliminary front cover. We added more headings and made the picture bigger. Then we worked on our Contents page. We kept the background the same colour as the front cover and also the font so it looked consistent. We added a title which was black. Then we added three pictures. One of Maz playing the double bass, one of me on an excercise bike and one of our friends Luke and Hannah acting out Hamlet. We placed the pictures in random places on the page and put headings and page numbers in various places before and after the pictures. I enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop and found it was easier to use second time round. Although I did make a few mistakes and found it hard at times. Overall, good lesson.

Planning Our Magazine Cover.

Today, me and Maz planned our preliminary magazine cover and contents page. Firstly, we were told to plan our magazine cover on paper. We decided to keep it simple and call it LC mag and our genre of the magazine was a "general" magazine. We wanted a general magazine because it had a mass target audience and wanted to appeal to everyone. We wanted to include general issues in the school such as: fashion, careers, music, sport, exams, food and even advice. We also decided on the colour schemes of black font, pale green background, turquoise and blue. We also made some headline for our magazine these included:

"Find out what's in and out this month- What to wear this winter"
"Football- First match of the season- Will we win or will we lose?"
"School band make it big this month."
"How to cope with A Level stress!"
"MC Lutto- Whatever happened to Jamie Oliver?"

We also decided that our contents page would consist of three pictures on the right hand side and a list of the headlines.

I look forward to using Photoshop as I've never used it before and look forward to learning how to do so.

Then we were told to get a digital camera and take a variety of pictures which were relevant to our magazine genre. We took a picture of our friends Abbi and Luke acting out a scene from "Macbeth" and also pictures of Maz and a double bass and me on an exercise bike. There were for the contents page. Maz also took a variety of pictures for the front page of our magazine. I enjoyed taking pictures and planning the magazine.

Here are some of the picture that we are thinking to use on the Contents page of our magazine:





Here are some of the pictures we are thinking to use on the front cover of our magazine:

Editing our Preliminary Piece

Whilst uploading our film onto the Mac, we discovered that a few of our shots were blurry. So we decided to do the whole thing again as we had to include that shot and the clothes that we were wearing were different to when we have filmed. We had a variety of out takes but due to the fact we were wearing different clothes we weren't able to use them. We had to crop a few of our shots out to make them fit together and we added titles to our film. When this was done, the shots moved smoothly and the film looked much better. We added a song but deleted it shorly afterwards due to a copyright issue. We were going to create our own music from "Garage Band" but decided not to as there wasn't anything we really liked on there that we thought would fit our film.