Evaluation

My Evaluation:

Lewis Underwood's Media Evaluation A2

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Final Cut: Short Film

This is my short film in its final cut:

Ancillary Task: Poster and Film Magazine

These are my two ancillary tasks.
My final film poster:

My final magazine spread:

Extra Scene

With the addition of the extra scene I'm shooting I've seen it as an ideal opportunity to give more depth to my short film. Instead of getting the protagonist to take just any picture, he will be trying to take a picture of a white lily he has found. The connotations of a white lily are known to be of death which is relevant to my story. This isn't obvious but it is known to be related to death and I can include this to give a clue as to what has happened to the protagonist. Furthermore the flower is aesthetically good looking and will be believable that the student will try to take a photo of it.

Rough Cut + Feedback

Rough Cut:

Feedback:

Seeing as my conceptual idea was a bit too abstract to understand within my short film and wasn't executed as well as I would have liked, this has led to some changes to make it a bit easier to digest and watch.

• The protagonist needs to be seen taking more pictures to solidify his role as an 'art student' etc. Furthermore shots of him looking frustrated is slightly confusing. Perhaps emphasis on trying to take a good picture and failing at finding one, may support his attempt to climb out and take the lake shot.
• Need to see protagonist drowning, visual pleasure and understanding of what the plot revolves around. Currently the screen cuts to black and you hear the audio of the fall. Initially my plan was to film him 'drowning' but my actor wasn't keen on the idea and i've had to work around it.
• There is no audio in the shop scene to relate that the protagonist is not really there. The shop assistant is seen on his phone talking to someone "It's been dead in here all day, ..." etc. This would help to support the plot.
• Remove the car scene at the end, it gets too surreal and is confusing. Also bring forward the bystander saving him section to keep the narrative simple and easy to follow.

To do list:

• Film: The protagonist taking more pictures,
• Film: The drowning scene,
• Record: The shop assistant audio for background sound
• Edit: Re arrange the order of some sequences in adobe Premiere.

Marxist Film Theory

What is Marxist film theory?

Marxist film theory is the opposition to traditional Hollywood narrative structures in which it shuns featuring a singular protagonist and promotes group decision making. Essentially Marxist films will promote marxist ideas through film such as far right political views and believe Hollywood narratives promote capitalism.


How I think it has influenced my work.

When reflecting upon my rough cut I found it interesting that I had structered my narrative in a very Hollywood style in the sense it revolved around one protagonist and his represented the story from his perspective. I had also used shots of the character eating the well known "snickers" and drinking "Coke".
Furthermore I used the ultimately original male protagonist... These aspects generally popped into my head whilst brainstorming and I didn't question their relativity.

Initially I generally regarded myself as a independant thinker, whereas this research revealed to me how much my ideas can be influenced by what i've been watching and also as a result of advertising. Hopefully I will be able to consider these factors next time im going through the brain storming creative process, as this was quite a scary revelation.

Shoot 4

This is hopefully my final scheduled film shoot to gather the required footage for my short film.

This shoot included reshooting the panning shot which I felt went well, the only issue I had encountered is that I was unable to get the same SLR camera and had to settle for a slightly smaller version which means I will have to try to mitigate this during post-production.

The filming went well and I felt I was well prepared with props and shooting schedule regardless of the SLR camera issue. I employed the same technique which had worked well in previous shoots in which I prepared a small list of shots I needed and had sketched some of them out.

This helps me to get straight down to shooting the specific shots and angles I needed.

A further problem I had when filming was that I needed a shot of the mobile showing the protagonist receiving a text from his father. When I was filming the close up it was reflecting a lot of light which resulted in not really being able to see the text and also showing me in the reflection. To combat this I may try taking it again with a polarising lens to reduce this negative effect or perhaps I will animate the phones screen into a full screen shot. This would be an interesting extreme close up and should work as it follows a shot of the protagonist taking out his phone and looking at it.

Feedback

I received some feedback on some of my filming:

• A pan on one of my opening shots had a judder about mid way. I could either reshoot it or cut it into two shots. I will try the cut too see what it looks like but I will reshoot the scene in my upcoming final shoot, so I have both to choose from.
• I was suggested about adding in a final shot of wiping away the water from the shop counter. This could symbolise the end of the ghosts existence and is a nice way to end the short with a meaningful shot.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster

Dimensions: (width) 11'' by (height) 17''.

birds - mindil beach markets - dusty walk off.. end of short.

-slightly eerie, but funky and summery.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster w/e Image

Shoot 3

I've filmed at the Colne Valley visitor centre this time with my second actor and I feel it went quite well, I had followed example from my second shoot and created a shoot schedule so I knew what I needed to shoot and what angles I required so I wasn't left unsure of what I had to do.

I still feel that I'm not taking control completely in the sense I feel I have to rush to get the shooting completed quickly and get out of their hair. Due to this I often don't have a majority of shots or reshoots which means I may have missed or made a mistake with a shot and wont have many takes to choose from.

To improve I think I will just have to take control more and slow down the process to ensure that I get the best camera takes. I think I've filmed about 60% of the total amount of footage needed, my next shoot is once more at Black Park, so ideally I will shoot the remaining bulk in the coming few weeks due to my actor going away on holiday relatively soon. 

This gives me a good opportunity to really fine tune the shooting schedule and also work on my other ancillary tasks.

Ancillary Task: Film Review

People often say less is more, and in the art of film too subtle or too much can be the making or breaking. Perhaps director Lewis Underwood took this too literally in his upcoming short film "Cloudy Skies" with his plot line, somewhat falling short of sense. Regularly left wondering what it is you are watching the film struggles to portray its meaning to the audience. One major flaw in the film is that it doesn't accept that one major rule cant be broken, "all films must have a beginning, a middle and an end." As the film doesn't manage to establish a strong meaning in the early stages it's left struggling to pick up the pieces as it moves on at pace.

That said its plain to see the film has good intentions; with the easy to digest screenplay and a strong onscreen presence with actor Paul Scicluna, "Cloudy Skies" is a film to watch with an active mind. The short follows art student Paul as he attempts to get to grips with what it is that is happening to him. Think of a slightly skewered, darker influence from "Ghost Town" (Ricky Gervais 2008.) The fleetingly poignant camera work will allow viewers to absorb snippets of close emotional breakdowns as Paul comes to realisation that he might be unable to see the people he loves ever again.

When we spoke to Lewis (director/editor/producer) we realised that he himself was also unhappy with the final product, "I see myself as a perfectionist, and what Ive created isn't perfect - a lot of blood, sweat and frustration went into this project and although there are parts I love; the entirety of the piece is missing a few key elements." We recommended him to not beat himself up too much as he himself said their are masterful snips throughout, a constant mental relay race relating focused points throughout the film.

The velocity of pace is the definitively unique aspect, as CS attempts to divert from a traditional editing structure, with shots often cut seconds short and the pace always quickening. It definitely adds to the intensity of some scenes, which makes the film worthwhile as it showcases some of Underwood's finer film making qualities. These speedy increments allow the pace to peak alongside emotional feedback from Paul, to really come across quickly and effectively.

Verdict:
Its frustrating to see that this is a film that was undertaken without laying down the groundwork, however it excels in its editing sequences and thus doesn't cease to keep the viewer interested. We hope to see improvement and big things for Underwood in the future, however "Cloudy Skies" remains a sail short of a boat. ***

Film Review Research

I've looked at "Empire" film review and "Rotten Tomatoes" both online reviews. I picked these two because I wanted to experience two types of reviews, as Empire have a print based magazine version coexisting with their online counterpart and will have a more professional style of reviewing than R T as they are based off user reviews and casual critic reviews.

Empire:
Empire use a very sophisticated language style; the pace of the writing is swift and smooth whilst always referring back to film throughout the review. However although the language is at a high level in generally steers clear of film terms such as mise-en-scene etc as it knows that their target audience may not understand these terms.
"In a way, the story is practically a Biblical parable, since it involves many of the elements you might find in the scriptures: hubris, repentance and deliverance."

This is an example of the level of review that Empire exhibits as it delves deep into the plot. Empire succeeds highly in portraying when a viewer will watch the film what its likely they will think and feel.

The review looks over the entire plot line and highlights the better and worse points of the film. Empire writes in a respectful way, always complementing where deserved and not mocking too much when a film is rated low. Although a pun here or there is always present.

Overall: Empire writes in an elegant manner so its easy for the reader to trail through whilst getting a good understanding on what the films about and if its made well. Humour is sometimes used to engage the reader into an laid back, social manner.

Rotten Tomatoes:

It can be seen from looking at the main web page for RT that they do things a little differently, detailed by their rating system (Rotten or Fresh.) Although I'm a little unsure of what details a good film, with the two sub ratings I'm pretty sure a rotten 10% for Little Fockers isn't great. Especially with my first hand experience of that film being that upon exiting the cinema feeling somewhat deflated and wincing at the thought of the ticket price, a rotten 10% seems to sound fairly accurate regardless of its ambiguous nature.

Almost instantly my first thoughts are is that RT is a website to engage viewers, with various polls, picture galleries and film news floating in and around various sub-sections, I root around to find what their take is on the new and highly rated "The King's Speech." (Below)

RT tends to conducts their film reviews to be very much publicly controlled as users are allowed to post their own thoughts on films in little snippet quotes. Furthermore they incorporate the views of top critics and other film reviewers giving it a very collective and perhaps reliable rating base. However it doesn't quite help me in as it wont directly fit to what I have to produce for my ancillary task.

Rotten Tomatoes:

(Click to enlarge)

Magazine:
Due to Rotten Tomatoes not really fulfilling one portion of my research I've decided to look at Total Film magazine. I bought a copy of their latest film review magazine and jotted down some notes about how they write in a informative yet informal manner. It's as if they are having a conversation about the film with you.

Furthermore I've noted how TF lays out their bigger reviews on double page spreads and carefully position images and certain chunks of information in and around the main article and image. This gives the article a layered depth whilst not cluttering it too much so that its overpowering.