Finished film

Evaluation Q.7

Preliminary film

It has been less than a year since we created our preliminary film and after watching it I can clearly see the vast improvements I’ve made in developing my skills.

Firstly this entire sequence was pieced together using Final Cut Express a software outdated by Premiere pro, due to this the sequencing appears fairly sketchy, and the soundtracks were downloaded from poor online sources and their sound levels do not match and often does not coincide with the video.
The sound effects also are rather fake sounding and not really mixing well with each other and this is also due to sourcing from poor quality websites.
Even for a comedy piece the narrative seems completely unclear and difficult to understand, the worst part is the camera angles, there seems to be no variation other than a shot reverse shot and little is established, it also to a certain degree breaks the 180 degree rule.

Most notably the titles are very poorly animated in a boring and unappealing format that doesent work with the film.

The worst bit especially was the story board (note: I could only salvage little evidence of it)

The detail in this story board is completely insufficient, there is no or little detail referring to the shot or any form of notes that would be helpful to a producer.

The image may be poor but that isn’t majorly important to a story board, this story board is unorganised and poorly arranged half of it is actually scribbled out, even for an Initial story board this is appalling.

 After reviewing my old film it is very clear my skills and knowledge has improved significantly, for example it’s clear my skills at continuity editing have vastly improved, everything in our new film flows smoothly in a chronological order that makes sense, also the clips I have cut into place are better timed this is due to the care and consideration when filming them, I began filming before the dialogue began and after it ended in order to get a better timed cut in the editing, which clearly is something I did not do during the preliminary.
My creativity when it comes to filming has improved, I am now better at including a greater variation of shots from better angles and have become more talented at filming in general I’ve developed a more steady hand and eye for takes, also we used a far better quality camera in comparison to the simple flip cameras used in the preliminary.

 My skills at editing have improved as well as the software I use, using premiere Pro I can apply filters, change speeds and apply transitions making for a far more advanced product, I can now edit sound levels to make incidental sound tracks and sound effects more effective.
Also you can clearly see that my skills in creating titles that work with the film have greatly increased, using live type I can make clear concise titles that suite the film and are not too over the top and actually feature relevant information.

 

Most crucially the amount of time and effort put into the planning stages is significantly more than before, for my preliminary film I did a simple story board with little detail, for the main film I did a detailed story board, a script, time planning schedule, filming sheets and group discussions.

However one aspect that unfortunately let me down was my groups team work skills, all thought the filming there were arguments, disagreements, let downs and low morale despite the vast amount of planning done.
It makes me thing overall that when it comes to team sizes a duo is ideal, there are fewer clashes in ideas and it’s easier to match each other’s requirements and thoughts, also the work load is balanced between the two allowing each to use their skills sufficiently, despite the phrase “Three’s company” I believe that is too many people for an efficient coalition.

Evaluation Q.6

">

Evaluation Q.5

Evaluation Q.4

Tracks of Damnation Evaluation 4

Our film is a low budget and local production therefore we would be attempting to reach out to a domestic or Niche audience as our budget dictates we would be only able to reach out to a local specific audience rather than a Tent Pole/Global audience which would generally only be possible with the help of a large Conglomerate who would have the budget and the reputation to reach out to a worldwide audience.
From my choice of distributors I listed if one of them was to purchase licencing to our film it would be based upon the opinions of the distributors whether or not the film would be released to a domestic or tent pole audience.
The genre of our film would be quite specific to a target audience, as slasher films tend only to appeal to a smaller range of people unless they have popular appeal.
For this reason a Niche audience would be more suitable target for our film and it the more popular option for low budget independent films, especially one like ours with a unheard of cast and low budget.

A good place to seek advice and clarification would be the BBFC (British Board of Film Censors), a non-government organisation that was founded in 1912 and is responsible for the national classification and censorship within the UK.
Films in cinema need local authority to dictate who can see that film, however authorities often respect the judgement of the BBFC for that films certification, and for this reason it is recommended films seek the board’s classification.
After passing our film through the BBFC’s age rating structure it judges our film as certificate rating 15.

This is because the specification for a 15 film match that of our film’s content:

This helps us decide which age group our film would appeal to however there is more to consider when deciding a target audience, for example gender.
Although gruesome “slasher“ films such as ours are stereotypically meant for a male audience however to a modern film audience it would generally be based on the cast list or narrative e.g. if the film contains essence of romance.
Based on this I do not think gender is really a factor when choosing our target audience as it contains elements that would be considered gender neutral.

Evaluation Q.3

Tracks of Damnation Evaluation Q.3

Film distribution is one of the major stages in the film making process and it is essential that a film making company receives funding and help marketing a film from distributors, who pay for licencing to exploit a film, this can either result in International distribution or in the case of our film local distribution.

Our film is a small budget film created by our small local company “Hustler Productions” and I certainly isn’t large enough for distribution on an international scale, so in order to receive funding from a distributor we will need to seek assistance from a distributor who supports independent production companies and can help us branch out to a Niche or domestic audience.

For this we could contact some local companies to propose our film to, one possible distributor we could contact is Film 4.

Film 4 is British digital television channel owned by Channel 4 Television available for viewing in the UK.
It started in 1982 and is responsible for backing a large number of films in the UK such as 12 Years a Slave, A field in England, The Inbetweeeners Movie and The last King of Scotland, only listing a few.
Film 4 are known for making small film companies create successful and profitable films.

Another possible distributor we could appeal to is BBC Films, the feature film-making arm of the BBC, BBC films has helped to produce some of the most popular British films in recent years, and produces on average 8 films a year, some successful films they produced/co-produced are Street Dance 3D, Iris, An Education and Billy Elliot.
Although our genre of film is not the usual sort of thing BBC film produces so may not be a very viable option.

Pathe films are another good option for distribution, Pathe is a French film company which has a great heritage and was founded in 1896 it even outdates universal and paramount.
 They are a major film production and distribution company and own many cinema chains across Europe, they helped produce films such as Dog Soldiers, Selma, Slumdog Millionaire and tormented.
Despite being a French company Pathe has produced/co-produced many British films and has done many a film focused around the Horror genre and for this reason would be a good company to appeal to.

Evaluation Q.2

Evaluation Q.1

ALL resources ready

After a rather frantic and panicked rush to get everything together, this includes extra filming, recording and creating music we finally have everything we need to successfully create a full film opening!
Its just a case of making sure these resources all contrast well with each other and reflect with our target audience and of course our chosen genre.

Successful filming take!

Using a garage setting we filmed numerous narrative setting shots of our protagonist preparing weapons, outfits etc, we added a strobe light effect that made it seem more tense, this will be added along side our narrative scene to create a duel narrative.

New Narrative script

Following up on the decision to change our narrative using Adobe Story as i did with the last script i wrote a new far more sufficient script, i printed copies to hand out to our cast to learn and ran them through it, i personally feel this one is far less tedious and sensible than the last one and is based far more on the real personalties of the actors.

Update

After reviewing the audience testing and numerous criticisms we decided to keep the second half of the draft film for the final piece, people enjoyed the variety of shots and how it meets the target audience's standards, however a new section will have to be created in order to piece together the narrative.

Major film changes + Draft film (half)

Recently we started piecing together all our footage in order to get a sense of what our film would be like, this was divided into two parts (to share the work load) and after reviewing we realised our narrative is too vaguely presented to understand, and our footage was too "shaky" and needed re filming.
So overall we're working a complete film change including a new script, a new story board and new additional camera angles.

Here is the better half of our complete draft, the first part was too inefficient to include and needs desperate attention, although this is without music or filters it gives a good idea of what the end product will be like.

Hustler Productions

Using varies softwares, such as photoshop for the logo, quicktime and garage band for the sound and music, it was all pieced together on Premier Pro and after much time and effort we created the masterpiece you see before you.

Foley art - Ident sounds

Using the same techniques as last time i recorded several voice clips that suited our chosen production name.

foley Art - Whistle Distortion

For our film we require a whistle sound to link to our narrative, I recorded a classic style whistle, uploaded the clip to Premier Pro and added a mixture of filters and edits to distort it and make it sound creepy so it appealed to our target audience.
The fear and tension it inflicts upon the audience suits the slasher genre.

incidental music tester

We previously researched incidental sound tracks for our film, based upon those ideas we created a draft piece that we believed worked well with our genre, the slow tension building music would work well in creating tension and atmosphere, also the high pitched ringing naturally associates our brain with fear, this will keep our audience out their comfort zone and create tension.

Lighting Effects

Using the video above as a guide line i edited the lighting effects using premier pro, i added a red spot light and changed the shadow and exposure in order to create a scary and intense atmosphere that works well with our target audience and our Genre.

Changing Speed

For the editing process we needed to change the speed of certain scenes to create a suspenseful effect, so after a long time scouring Premier Pro i managed to change the speed duration, I edited past clips and pieced together a montage.

Sound Effect Compilation

For our film we needed sound effects to add to our film to add tension and atmosphere to certain scenes.

I scoured the internet for different ghostly sound effects that would work with our film, i did a selected 8 different sounds and made a compilation out of them.  

Tons audition for role of thug.

After a series of issues and dilemmas we decided that Malachi needed to be replaced, in his place we chose Ton Wentink an experienced actor who has starred in a numerous amount of performances and musicals, he even has a high level GCSE in drama, and lives very close to the set, he is the perfect candidate.

Filming starts!

On the 2nd of January we did our first bit of filming! we had to replace Malachi from the cast due to personal issues, we instead enlisted Ton Wentink, similar to the other cast members we made him shoot an audition (be posted soon!), he took up his role with great enthusiasm and energy, we filmed shots 9 - 14, as these were the only scenes that had just his character in it.
Despite the biting cold and muddy terrain we felt filming was a great success and we were very pleased with the footage we took.