The Message

The message of my film is moral. The message is to not treat people badly as what goes around comes around. Another message is not to take life for granted. There are many messages. It depends on how the audience interprets it. This is usually the same with all films.

The tagline to my film was "To Live is to Suffer, but to Survive is to find meaning in the suffering". This goes well with the film. The main character is suffering in his life, so consequently he tries to end his life. He then saves a boys life and the boy shows him gratitude. The main character then feels good about this (he has found meaning in the suffering). He feels accepted in life.

Effects

One of the main effects in my film is the stabbing scene at the end of the film. Fake blood was used to produce this effect. It looked a lot more real than I thought it would.
Another effect in my film is the near miss with the car. Maxine Eldret was driving the car which earned her a `Thank You` credit.

Lighting

The lighting in my film is that of a natural, average winter day. There weren’t many resources available that we could have professional lighting. I wanted natural lighting for my film so that there is as much realism as possible.

Mise-en-Scene

The mise-en-scene in my film is gloomy and dull. This is to represent the loneliness and misery of the main character. The main character wears dark clothing to represent his mood. The weather is gloomy like his mood. The car park at the beginning of the film is empty which represents the emptiness of the main character’s life. These are just some examples of mise-en-scene in my film.

Music

After months of searching for the right music, I have finally found the music most suitabl efor my film. There are two tracks that will be used. One will be used at the beginning and one at the end. Both tracks are by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and they are actually from the film: "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford". The tracks are called: "What Must Be Done" and "The Legend Of Jesse James". The former will be used at the beginning of the film and the latter will be used at the end of the film.

Beginning of Film.

End of Film.

End of Film.

Reshoots

While reshooting the first scene I took a lot more care in making sure the actors stood in the perfect positions so that the continuity wouldn't be such an issue. I used all the same shot types. The filming of that scene didn't take very long.
I then filmed the second scene. I didn't use the tripod for any panning shots, however I did for still shots. I think the handheld effect works out to be more effective as it makes the audience feel they are following the subject.

For editing, I did exactly what I did before and replaced the old footage. There are still minor continuity issues, but that is expected. It is very rare that a film has perfect continuity. Also the handheld effect worked well, I feel, after seeing it on the screen.

Editing Part Three

The editing for this scene didn't take very long at all. There were no problems at all. The finished scene was just how I wanted.
However, I realised that the continuity in the first scene wasn't that good and the tripod in the second scene had made a lot of noise and you could here it on the film. Therefore I need to reshoot these scenes in their entirety.

Shooting Part Three

I have shot the final scene in my film. The main problem was timing the car and the actors at the right time. There were many takes where the car was much too far away from the two actors. The main actor was pushing the younger actor out of the way of the car so the car has to be close to the actors so that it shows that the car almost hit the actors. We got it in the end.
Another problem that occurred was the camera's battery ran out when we needed another three shots. It was getting dark so we needed to hurry. We ran and charged the camera for about ten minutes which was just enough. We then ran and filmed the rest of it. It was still the same level of brightness outside so the scene is good and it is finished.

Editing Part Two

For this part of the film, I mainly used straight cuts. However I used a couple of fades. I used a fade to show thet time had passed within the scene. I had the main actor walk towards a tree with a rope in his hands. Then there was a fade and the main actor was sitting in the tree with the rope around his neck and the tree. I did this to save time and also to make the film more interesting. If the audience were watching someone set up the rope, it would be very boring and time consuming. I feel the way I did it as the best way to do it. I also used a fade at the end of the scene so that I can add the next scene onto it.

Shooting Part Two

I have just finished shooting the second part of my film. I had no problems but I think I will reshoot some of it because I think another shot would be suitable rather than one I have used. Also, the tripod made too much noise when I was panning the camera to the left. It made a creaking noise.

Filming was not interrupted at all. It was delayed at one point because my lead Actor couldn't get up the tree in order to get one of the shots.

Editing Part One

I have just finished editing the first part of my film using "Pinnacle". It is very easy and Straight forward to do at the moment. However, I think it will get harder as I progress because I have to do different things, such as add transitions and music.

Shooting Part One

I have just shot the first part of my film. It went according to plan. I got all of the shots I needed. My actors did everything I told them to do.

It was hard to get certain shots due to the public interfering and getting in the shot just because they were wondering what we were doing.

I recorded each shot three or more times just in case something was wrong with one of them (e.g. if the tape gets scratched).

Cast Change

My Cast:
Alex Varney
Stephen Shaw
Nick Craske

I chose Alex Varney to play the main character in my film because he is the only actor I know that can convey emotion in such a way that will connect with an audience. I had other actors in mind if Alex Varney couldn't play the character but Alex Varney was my first choice.

I chose Stephen Shaw for the role because he is good at playing serious and emotional characters.
However just as we were arranging to shoot the first part of my film Stephen Shaw decided that he didn't want to do the film after saying weeks before that he would. I have found a replacement for Stephen and the replacement should be better. Stephen Shaw's replacement is Harry Ebsworth. Harry Ebsworth will be better because he is a much funnier individual, and seeing as my film is a comedy, I feel that it is appropriate. Stephen Shaw on the other hand isn't very funny at all. I feel that Harry Ebsworth will be able to reveal a funny side to such a serious, disturbed character.

I chose Nick Craske for the role of the young boy because I've seen him in stage productions that required him to act naive and pathetic and he was very good at it. It is a small role in my film but it is an important one. He was my first and only choice for this role.

My New Cast:
Alex Varney
Harry Ebsworth
Nick Craske

Finished Review Page

Finished Poster

Cast

My cast is going to be:
Alex Varney
Stephen Shaw
Nick Craske

Creating Poster

Credits

The credits at the bottom of most posters. The font used is "Bee One". The computers used for creating the posters do not have this font so I have used a standard font.

Photo

This is the photograph I took for my film poster. I was satisfied by everything about the photograph apart from the face of the facial expression of the main character, so I took the photograph again. The only good thing about the new photograph was the facial expression of the main character. So, what I did was take the head from the new photograph and place it onto the head of the old one using Adobe Photoshop. It didn't look legit right away but after I adjusted some of the settings it looked just fine. Below is the photograph with the new head.

Blocking

I have done all of my blocking. I will be filming in South Woodham Ferrers Town Centre, Bushy Hill (a.k.a Radar Hill) and South Woodham Ferrers Industrial Estate. There is nothing stopping me from getting the shots I need so everything should be fine.

I'll be filming in the town centre early in the morning so that there aren't a lot of people around. When there are a lot of people, they tend to interrupt and thwart our efforts at getting the film completed.
I'll be filming up bushy hill at about midday as that is when the lighting will be best to film. This is important so that the audience can see clearly what is happening on screen.
I'll be filming at the industrial estate on a sunday at about 2pm. On a sunday there tends to be no one working so we won't be interrupted and the road will be clear for us. I'm filming at 2pm just so that the lighting is just right. It should work out that the lighting in my film is just like that in a normal day. We filmed the first scene in the early hours of the morning, the second at midday and the third just after midday, so the lighting should be perfect.

Poster Design Brief

After researching posters for black comedies I now know what I am going to do for mine.
The title will be in big writing across the top, with the tagline underneath it in smaller font. All the text will be over the picture which will take up the whole page. There will be the credits at the bottom of the poster in small font as that is the conventional way.
The picture will be of a miserable looking man with his arms crossed and a noose hanging round his neck. Behind him there will be buildings and a tree. The sky will be cloudy to represent the gloomy subject. The character on the poster will be wearing mostly black to represent his moodiness. The character will be looking at the camera because on posters the characters often look at the camera.

I haven’t followed the conventions of a black comedy poster completely. For example, I don’t have a very funny tagline. I didn’t want a humorous tagline because I decided to challenge this convention and be creative. Also I feel that my film deals with quite a serious issue.

Review Page Design Brief

After researching film review pages in magazines, I now know what I am going to do for mine. It will be done in Microsoft Publisher.

I am going to do a double page review. The left page will consist of the review itself, the cast and crew of the film and the title. The review will be written in three collumns as I feel that that is adequate space for a full film review. Also in the competitor magazines, they use three collumns most of the time. The main text will have a number of quotes from the text in big font in amongst the text. It will be seperated from the main text by red horizontal lines.

The right page will consist of a photographic still taken from the film and a caption underneath it. There will also be a box at the bootom of the page containing interesting facts about the film.

At the bottom of both pages, there will be page numbers and the magazine name and website.