Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

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WORKING-IN-CLASSWORKING-IN-CLASS

productionproduction

• Written and Directed by Pete MortonWrote story, directed filming and edited a

successful opening sequence.

• Filmed by Darryl KingFilmed the bulk of the opening sequence.

• Assisted by Karisma JarakanaAssisted with filming and assessed lighting.

• Featuring Beci HudsonActed as main character and assisted filming.

Production team

Introduction

• As a group of four, we were set the task of creating a two minute opening sequence using a story of 1500 words, created by one of the group.

Pre-production

• We initially wrote our own stories and discussed as a group which we thought would be most effective as an opening sequence.

• We chose Pete’s story because we felt we could show a lot of representation and emotion through the filming of it.

• We edited the story down to what we felt would provide us with a two minute opening sequence script.

• Before editing the script, each member of the group picked out their favourite part and we tried to incorporate these lines into the final script.

• We made a storyboard that consisted of the angles, framings, camera position, camera movements and some notes on how we planned to edit it.

• Once the storyboard and script were finalised, we went on a number of recce’s to find suitable locations to shoot our crucial scenes.

• Whilst doing this we also found areas around to shoot other scenes, such as transition scenes (e.g. walking scenes and establishing shots)

Production

• On our first day of filming, we shot the bedroom scene to begin our sequence. This was to be used as our establishing shot.

• For our second day of shooting we filmed in Henley town centre. This was to get the ‘missing the bus’ scene as we felt it was a vital part to the story.

• We also filmed a lot of walking scenes because originally the plot was focused on the theme of time and how little we have of it. For this we used various shots and low angles.

• The third day of shooting was another day spent in Henley, getting the last few shots of the bus and walking up the hill to emphasises the point of ‘Everest’.

• During this it started to rain, which helped accentuate the feeling of depression and exhaustion.

• On the fourth day we filmed the kettle sequence which consisted of shots of the kettle boiling, and our protagonists switching the kettle on and off.

• On the fifth day of filming Karisma and Beci collectively filmed the last few scenes including the plot twists.

• The first twist was the watch being thrown away and reappearing again.

• The second was revealing the gender bias to be female.

Editing

• Both Beci and Pete took a copy home of the rushes to edit over the Easter break.

• Upon our first lesson back, Pete was not present and none of the present group had any idea if he had edited it, so we set about spending the lesson editing the rushes.

• This took time but was a good precaution.

• The next editing lesson we found out that Pete had in fact edited the rushes and produced a very good opening sequence.

• As a group we decided to use his version rather than ours. Pete explained that he had tried to create a voiceover but after trying several time with both himself and others, he gave up and decided to use subtitles instead.

• We all felt that this was a good decision to make and resulted in a good sequence.

Evaluation

• Overall we think that the group was happy with the outcome and our final opening sequence (mainly thanks to Pete’s editing).

• We came across many problems in the process of production as well as editing. However we overcame these and managed to continue through the process.

Conventions

• Within this piece we believed it challenges a gender related convention. The monologue was initially written for a male part but was altered for the filming to a female role. The convention which has been challenged is focused on language and behaviour, and how typically you would expect the characteristics shown from a male.

• In this piece it is not revealed until one of the final shots that the character is in fact a female where throughout the piece appeared to be male.

Social groups

• The final piece represents an individual who dwells at the lower end of society, poor housing, lack of motivation towards a career, a disregard for society in general. This represents a fairly large social group in modern day society, by no means a direct representation but the character could be a stereotype of a ‘Chav’ or ‘Hoodie’.

• Due to the structure of the piece and the connotations involved we would suggest that the piece would be more appropriate for a film festival style event rather than a block buster as it is more common to address controversial issues with film festival production.

Audience

• The target audience for the piece is young western adults as it is something which relates to them; seeing as it is something which originated in western culture and common sight.

• More openly the audience is anyone who encountered an individual who would fit this stereotype or anyone who can relate themselves to the stereotype.

• We believe the piece is for a mass audience. The aspect of the film which we believe attracts the audience is the fact that the character is so distant and as it progresses it becomes intriguing to learn more about the individual.

The Technology

• As a group we all learnt a fair bit about the technology used in the making of our opening sequence.

• We each had a go with the camera and the use of various angles and shots. All members of the group also experienced the repetitiveness of getting the desired and intended shots.

• The editing process also introduced another side to the technologies used in this project, and again we all had a go at this.

Overall

• All in all we feel that we have experienced the stresses and strains of working in a group to produce an outcome that we are all happy with.

• As a group we became victims to lack of communication, lack of time planning and clashes of personality. However we all overcame these issues and managed to pull together and produce a solid opening sequence.