Whilst producing our film Torn, a variety of different technology has been used. Here is what our group used.

We used the Panasonic AG- HMC70 HD camera to film all but 1 scene in our film. This is because it’s better quality and you can really tell the difference when used and it’s easier to use. We also used the Panasonic GS230 DV for the bully sequence in the forest due to the big camera not being avaliable for use. The microphone that was used was the Breyer Mic.

To capture all of our footage, we used an Apple i-Mac G5 computure to convert .mts files to .mov files which could then be edited on Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 on a normal computure. Adobe Premier Pro was used as it’s easy to use and we know how use it to edit. It has a lot of effects on it. Adobe After Effects was used for our titles and Photoshot created our poster.

A few websites were used for research such as Youtube, freesound and Jamendo. WordPress was used for our blogs to record our progress.

Here is our Director’s commentary on our film, poster and radio advert. Enjoy!

Now the film is completed, we showed it to an audience of 30 students, from all ages in the school, who were kind enough to give us feedback. Here is the summary:

A big point the occured alot was whether they liked the flashforward ahead a flashback transition used throughout the film- this was a mixed view with some people liking it and some people not  liking it at all. We used this because it helps to show the characters state of mind and helps share some of the disorientation that the character feels. I  saw this technique used in a film called Easyrider (1969) directed by Dennis Hopper. The characters in this film are really drugged up most of the time so they use this transition instead. If I was working for a commercial organization, then this type of editing style and most likely the style of the film would have to play more to conventions in order to sell well at all.

Another point that the audience mentioned was that some of the dialogue was not as clear as it could be, which in some areas of the film it could be clearer. We have tried to use diagetic sounds such as  rain in our film and it’s on these areas that the dialogue could use some work. We have tried our best to make sure that the dialogue can be heard all the way through the film and I think we have acheived this to a certain extent.

Another point raised was that our characters and the general storyline were believable and realistic which is fantastic! We tried hard with our costumes and the locations to try to make it as believable as possible. Also, when choosing our actors their age is important, as too young a lead actress would make the story less believable for the audiende, and too old may not be too believable either especially as it was the mum who died. We think we have chosen the right actors here and that the character age wise, is capable and responsible to make rashs decisions in her life. Also, another viewer mentioned that our characters were quite likeable which is a great comment! We especially wanted to acheive this with our character Angus, played by Jake, who we hoped people would like even though he isportrayed as one of  meanest characters in the film.

Some audience members may need to watch the film more than once to fully understand what each character represents. Angus is a representation of Sian’s father and this is shown in his dialogue, where he repeats a phrase her dad previously said. Faith is a younger version of Sian before her mum died and is playful and really outgoing. Some of the other characters may be a bit difficult to figure out who they represent for the audience, indicating the 2nd viewing.

In the real world, Film companies would do test screenings of a draft for their film. If the audience does not like something, the company changes it so it’s more likeable and enjoyable for the audience. This process can happen a number of times before the audience and the production company are happy with the finished product. They also do focus group screenings in which the audiences opinions are recorded. These can include interviews, questionnaires and group dicussions after the showing. Views can be recorded by them pressing buttons during the film to indicate whether they like it or not.  We did not change anything from our audience feedback. If we were a real big production company, we would be able to complete a both types of screenings to get a product which all memebers of the audience would be satisfied with.

For part of our evalutation we have to create 2 moodboards with 9 still frames; 1 from different films which have influenced our film, 1 from our film. Here is the moodboard with 9 frames from 9 different films.

1. Van Helsing, 2004. In this film coloured filters were used, green and blue. This was chosen as we intended to use filters to alter the background colour in our film to create a darkened mood.

2. Pan’s Labrynth- This film includes a young girl and her contact with a mysterious land. We based Faith on the character of Ofelia in the film as they were both young and wanted to help so that everything would turn out right. You can see the similarities between the 2 characters as happiness is reflected in them.

3. Sense and Sensibility- In this film the character Marianne walkes for 5 miles in torrential rain and heads towards some cliffs. Within our film we used cliffs as the climax point with Sian threatening to jump so she can be with her mother again. The cliffs were an important part in out film.

4. King Kong- A long tracking shot is used in this film, of the female lead, Ann Darrow. We used tracking shots quite a bit in our film in both flashbacks and present day footage. The tracking shot in King Kong is extremely long and uses a track but unfortunately we didn’t have access to that equipment, not that we needed it as ours were very short shots.

5. Annie- This film was used for the Character on Annie which were based our character Faith on. We chose it because of the outfit Annie is wearing, which is very similar to Faith’s and Sian’s. Also Annie is very outspoken, loud and a bit irratating and we wanted Faith to be like this.  Sian feels like she is not wanted in the film and in Annie this is also shown.

6. Alice and Wonderland- This is a picture of Johnny Depp playing the Mad Hatter. Our character Angus is partly based on him because of the Top hat that they both wear and the blazer. The outfits are very important in our film as the signify the personality of the characters.

7. Inside- The idea for our film came from this short film from youtube, whilst researching for them at the beginning of coursework. We liked the idea for having someone with multiple personalities which would be present throughout the film. Each charzcter represents someone and we have also taken that idea of using a variety of different traits, of different ages and gender.

8. It’s a Wonderful Life- Tis classic film is significant to our short film as it includes an Angel trying to help out a man through his life. A few characters in our film represent that Angel by attempting to guide Sian the right way. These characters include Faith and Pete. This film had a big impact on what we wanted our final idea to be for the short film.

9. Domino- This film has a female lead character and in our film, we use a female lead. We oringinally thought about using a guy but a female character seemed to be more interesting.

Hope you guys enjoy the film!

The main issue we have is With the recordings of the counting to 10. As this was recorded walking round Honor, some of the numbers are hard to hear. When I put them into the sequence, they were really quiet so I turned them up, but a fuzzing noise was constantly playing. I did my best of what could be done, the Katie K took a look at it and managed to fix it! yay!

The 1st poster is taken from our footage of Sian sat down. There’s really good shading which creates a darkened mood which relates to Sian’s character who is in a really dark place at that point in time. However it doesn’t show or tell much about the film as She is not walking. You get the feeling of lonliness from Sian’s character which is a key point in her mental stabililty.

With the 2nd poster, it’s more clear about what is going on with Sian. She is standing on the cliff with her imaginary characters around her faded out. This draws in the audiences attention. We have used the same titles on both our posters as they are relevent to the film and making it more interesting. The slogan ” Would you take this shortcut?” has been used and it doesn’t give too much away about the film.

We have decided to go with the 2nd poster as it looks better and is more interesting to look at.