Evaluation Question 3

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Deception - Final Cut

Magazine Review - Finished Edition

Ancillary Task - Magazine Review Writig

Quotes

“Truly Captivating”

“Another cinematic master piece from Wolf Pack”

“Typical of the short film genre”

Synopsis

The story of a “player” being played at his own game... with dramatic consequences.

Staring

Joseph Mulhare, Kelsey Freeman, Alice Quinlan

Release date

January ^14th 2011

Positions

Edited by – Joseph Mulhare Kerry Sheehan Helen Daniel

Directed by – Helen Daniel

Produced by – Kerry Sheehan Helen Daniel

Avaliable one

DVD and Blue Ray

Previews avaliable on TotalFilm.com

Coming Soon to download on iTunes

Certification

15

Run time

3 minutes 34 seconds

The short film genre is something of which is often overlooked in the film industry, but all of the best directors start off by creating short films. Take Spielberg and George Lucas they both started off directing short films before moving onto million dollar blockbuster productions such as Jaws and the Star Wars franchise.

By the looks of things Wolf Pack Productions are not far away from becoming one of the best top listed short film creators. Last year they brought us the award winning film “Pandemic” which stayed in the Top 10 Film’s for over 9 weeks. Now with their latest project they seem to have excelled everyone’s expectations with their short film “Deception”, choosing to be different once again with the oddly chosen sub-genre romantic murder mystery. The story follows the life of a successful business man in his early 20’s as he attempts to juggle relationships between two women, but as the story unfolds we realise all is not as it seems. With the director’s high skills they cleverly incorporate fades and well tuned timing to show progression of time throughout. All of this eventually leads to dramatic life-changing events, which are sure to leave the audience wondering and captivate the audience further into the story. This unusual twist chosen by Wolf Pack Productions is sure to leave an impact on all of those audiences life’s choosing to endure in a monogamous relationship, such as the young protagonist.

Magazine Review - Why We Chose Total Film

As part of our ancillary task we need to write a review of our finished short film and then shape it in the style of a leading film magazines article. When it came to researching film magazines we looked at the leading magazines, Total Film and Sight and Sound. We also looked at some online review sites but found none that interested us as a group; such as Empire.

When looking at the Sight & Sound magazines we realised that each article was very detailed and left no stone unturned when it came to a review, because of this the articles in this magazine were very long and explained basically the whole story line. Another point found in the magazine was that there wasn't much visible media within the whole magazine which we found, as a group, was a weak point because it’s a media magazine and it should have more than just the written word and a few visual aids. However there were good points about the magazine. The fact that it was a specialist magazine interested us greatly as only true media fans would know and read Sight & Sound, linking with our target audience. Also because short films are such a specialist genre our production would suit the magazine well.

The other magazine we looked at was Total Film. We found that articles in this magazine had a good combination of text and visual aids. The way the editors had chosen to layout the article also intrigued us, as they often used a image and quote in the centre with the text surrounding these. Another positive feature of Total Film is the key sections within the magazine; this means the magazine is kept more organised and more readable. The key section that our article will be featured in will be ’Screen’. Screen is where the main cinema reviews sections are, and where every new movie for that month is reviewed and rated. Smaller short films receive a concise review and rating which is crucial to the distribution of any short film as it allows the director and the film to be widely noticed.

In the end we decided to go with Total Film as it has a more modern feel, and we aimed for our short film to be contemporary and modern.

Continuity problems due to “adverse weather conditions”

From Tuesday 30th November until Friday 5th December we had large amounts of snow fall. So many people this caused a number of problems but for us as media students it gave us a longer lasting problem, continuity.

Many of our scenes outside had been filmed weeks before the snow fall, but we still needed to film and re-film some parts of our short film. The snow also presented several problems, the most important being that the setting now had snow cover, which they didn’t before. This meant that any scenes that needed footage added to it wouldn’t work as when you played the final piece back one moment the ground would be clear and the next covered in snow. Other problems were mainly health and safety (risk assessment) due to slipper ground surfaces and transport problems due to the roads being in such a condition it was hazardous to drive in.

There wasn’t much we could do in this week and the week that followed when it comes to filming, so in these weeks we sat down as a ground, planned our reshoots, discussed blog posts and suggested ideas and researched our ancillary tasks.

Editing equipment & software

As a group we have decided to use Pinnacle Studio Plus as our editing software. We have chosen this as it is an industry standard and offers everything we need to successfully produce a professional looking short film. This software offers a variety of editing techniques from cutting footage and editing sound to adding effects like shadowing, also we will be able to tweak the footage (add a tint, change brightness etc.).

Editing is regarded as the unseen art of film, our group agree with this and believe that editing plays a vital part in the film making. This is why it has been decided by the group that we must make sure that our production is not seen as a "sixth form production" but a professionally produced film, we will achieve this within the editing stage of our work.

With pinnacle being the industry standard, it's main rival is windows media player, which is another industry standard. They both have many unique advantages and offer a great user interface which is easy to use and comes with many helpful tips (providing you know where to look). So when it came to deciding which software to edit with it was a hard choice to make, but after weighing up the pros and cons it was decided that we were to use Pinnacle Studio Plus to edit our footage.

The equipment of hardware used to help edit was a real easy choice because of the cameras we were using. When uploading footage it needed to be in the DV format, to achieve this we needed a Tape to DV converter. We found this in the form of a base which connected to the computer we were using. Other bits of hardware or equipment used were simpl

e things like memory sticks to transfer copy right free music onto our project and headphones to listen to the work in progress.

Focus Group

We used four 6th form students that took media studies for our focus group. We chose them because we felt that our target audience would be people who have a solid understanding of the media industry and techniques used within film making. The Q&A session is shown below:

Costume

Costume is very important in the film industry. This is because what a character wears needs to coincide with the stereotypes and behaviour of that character otherwise the audience will become confused and will not be able to follow the plot line.

Costume is also part of mise en scene, other parts of mise en scene consist of props, set design and make up. All these point help the audience understand and follow plot lines, so with our film having several plot twists we found it very important to get the costumes right.

The man needs to be seen as a successful and rich young professional who spends a lot of time on his appearance and clothing is no exception.

As a group we decided the best way to show that the man was successful and powerful was to put him in a suit or some form smart attire, backing up the stereotype of a rich successful man. This costume would be used in the bar scene to show the man authority.

We tried this costume out but felt it was to formal so by removing the blazer and tie found that this suited the character better.  

The first time you seen the protagonist he is at the pool, then in the next scene he arrives at his house. In this scene we want to make a suggestion to the audience that he has come from the gym/pool and gone home. To show this to the audience we have chosen a costume like this, jogging bottoms and a hoody. The use of a gym bag also reinforces this point.

The other costume we have chosen for the man will be sued in the scene when he is walking with either one of the girls along the high street and for the last shots of him entering the house. We have chosen a casual style like this one as we feel it is fashionable and would suit the man lifestyle well, also its fitting for the weather seen in the shots and the time of year. 

When we were planning our film there were certain stereotype’s we wanted to avoid and some we wanted to attract with our female characters. We wanted to avoid the cliché of 6^th form “romantic” or “seductive” clothing.  The stereotypes we wanted to attract were that of glamour girls, high heels, make up etc. but we wanted our female character to be tasteful not “slutty”. 

Because of these specifications we wanted for our female character it was rather hard when it came to picking certain costumes for them. We started with the bar scene as this is the scene which we knew most about when it came to cinematography and mise en scene.

Because we wanted a tasteful glamour girl look we knew it had to be a dress and heels but this still left quite a large style of clothing for us to choose from. It was finally decided that we dress the female character in a cocktail dress.

 We found this style of dress was appropriate as it showed enough skin to show the girls were “interested” in the protagonist without moving towards the promiscuous stereotype.

We chose black as the colour for the dresses as it is associated with elegance and mystery which will tie in well with our plot twist at the end of our film.

Like the male we also need a casual costume for the female characters, we have decided to go for jeans and a winter coat. We have chosen this as, like the male costume, it suits the weather and time of year. Another reason for choosing this style of costume is because many people wear this style so when filming the high street scene with people in the background our character will blend in and make the footage seem more real than set up.

The reason for choosing a dark coloured coat is for the same reasons as the colour of the cocktail dress, the bark colours represent mystery, a great tool to be using for making the twist even more effective.

Planning Schedule

Planning Schedule

Scenes to Film –
Restaurant
Garden
Pool
Underwater
Killing
Driving away from house
Pulling up to restaurant
Ending

Filming Sequence –
Smiths
- Alice and Joe sitting at the table
- 36o degree turns into Kelsey
- Kelsey and Joe sitting at the table
- Kelsey and Joe leaving
- Alice and Joe entering
- Alice and Joe pulling up to the restaurant

Garden
- 360 degree shot both girls
- Alice exits after looking at phone
- Joe walks towards pool
- Over the shoulder shot, looking at phone

Killing
- Point of view walk
- Hit/flash to black screen
- Falling in

Pool and Underwater
- Variety of angles showing Joe fall in
- Dead under water, with blood
- Floating shot from high angle, filmed at day time (will be used after the first diving sequence and will be the final shot)

Driving Away From House
- Camera on floor showing empty road, the car will drive over and fade to black

Setting and Location Lighting

For our short film we plan to use different levels of lighting, for example the pool scenes we will be using naturalistic lighting, so the lighting will just be from the general surrounds and the time of day. We used this in this scene and the beginning of the house scene as they were set during day light hours.

When it came to lighting for the bar scene we had a range of lighting possibilities as there was four different lights to choose from and each panel of lighting had its own dimmer switch, which we could use to set the mood. When we had the establishing shot and the tracking cam of the bar we focus the lights on the engravement of “Smith’s Est. 1957” on the wall and made sure the bar was lit up, making the fine cognacs and champagnes visible behind the bar. Most of the long shots used in the bar scene were lit to make the bar seem seductive, which produced a romantic feel which we were looking for. We also used several low angle close ups of the couple on the sofa. In these shots we made the lighting more dominant over the male to show that he was in control and was the strongest character. We feel that the lighting in this scene was very effective and helped us achieve the style and feel we wanted.

Permission Blog

Because we have chosen to change the location of the restaurant scene we have had to ask permission once again. This meant I had to phone and speak with the owners of Smiths Brassiere. After saying i was a media student and needed to film in a high quality and prestigious restaurant we agreed to film on 23rd^th October for a period on one and a half hours, while they set the restaurant up for business.

Change in location

As a previous blog post stated, one of our locations needs to be in a restaurant. The original plan was to film at the Masala zone in High Ongar, however we as a group have decided to change this location to a more upmarket location.

In the past few weeks a local restaurant has been undergoing work to build a new cocktail bar. As a group we decided that this cocktail bar will be a better location than the Indian restaurant. We came to this decision as we felt that the ambience of this new bar would suit the mise en scene of our film better. The new location for our restaurant scene is now Smiths Brassiere.

Props

Pitch

Budgeting

A Hollywood blockbuster or any professionally made film would usually have a budget of hundreds of thousand or maybe even millions of pounds or dollars to produce the film. However I am an A level media student without a huge budget, this doesn’t mean my group wouldn’t have a budget.

The table below shows what the expense was, why we needed it and how much it cost.

Filming underwater

The main controlling idea for our short film is water. Because of this a majority of our film is filmed in and around water. For most of the filming we have had to use a tripod and camera to film alongside the water, but after uploading and starting to edit with this footage the scenes didn’t have the right effect we wanted.

After trying to resolve this problem as a group we had the idea of being able to film underwater, particularly the shots of the protagonist diving or “falling” into the water.

To be able to film underwater the camera needed to be in a water tight box or casing. We had many different ideas of making the camera water tight from putting the camera in a clear sandwich bag to rapping it up in a clear plastic bag. We didn’t really like this idea as the camera would be at great risk and the electrics and water would breach our risk assessment.

After searching around the house for something to use I found a large clear plastic box that could be partly submersed into the water, just enough so the lens was below the water line, this would ensure we could film some shots underwater.

Once these shots were uploaded and edited into our short film, we felt that these shots gave the scene the effect we were looking for.

Pixar "Short Films" (Textual Analysis)

There are many film companies that produce short films, but when it comes to animated “short films” there is only one Production Company worth mentioning, Pixar.
Pixar have become world know for their short films as many of them are shown before their feature length films. An example of this is day and night that was shown before Toy Story 3. What makes Pixar stand out from other short film makers is the use of story line and the ability to produce 3D animation that makes people of all ages enjoy them. For this is the reason Pixar are constantly nominated for many film awards. Since Pixar started to use 3D animation they have dominated the field and now are the biggest producer of 3D animated films.
Pixar have been able to make short films that appeal to a large target audience for a several reasons, one of which is that they break some codes and conventions of a film and replaces them with codes and conventions of short films. For example a feature length film must have fast cuts, complex story line and not be repetitive. Some Pixar short films break all of these, for example day and night starts with an animated character the body of day, the character is upbeat and lively and so is the soundtrack that accompanies it. The day character then meets the night character who is sleeping, night wakes up and yawns, and the soundtrack is downbeat and slow. The two characters then interact with each other; this is then repeated several times. Because these conventions have been used it makes Pixar’s short films enjoyable for everyone.

Pool Permission

Collectively our group decided we wanted to manipulate the opening scene by enforcing our controlling idea of water as early on as possible. This in turn enhances the unconscious minds of our audience to have water and swimming in their thoughts throughout the short film. Yet we wanted to create two sets of images. The first of which is that the male lead is comfortable in the water as he is a strong swimmer and has no fear when dealing with it, yet we did not wish to associate this with the second imagine of him in the pool for the scene of his death. We finally came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to film the opening scene in a separate pool, preferably a public pool. Yet permission is needed before we could film. Since it is not permitted to film in most public pools it was then decided to ask the Shenfield P.E Department if we were able to use the school pool. With the permission of Mrs. White we were able to film on Thursday 30^th September 2010 and Thursday 14^th October 2010.

Since this post was first published we have had to ask permission to film here several more times, for re-shooting and re-framing some scenes. these dates are as follows Wednesday 17th November and Thursday 16th December. On these dates Mrs. White again agreed to letting us film with the exception of a member of the P.E. department sitting in on our filming session due to health and safety. 

Restaurant Permission

For some of the scenes in our short film we need to film in a restaurant, this is where one of our 360 degree shots is filmed and where the audience discover one of the vital twists in our “short”. The restaurant we have chosen to film in is the Masala zone in Ongar. On Tuesday 12th October I went to the restaurant and asked for permission to film there. The owner was fine with this and arrangements have been made to film in the weeks to follow.