Copyright Information

Any use of music in this film complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii);
Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright. Briefly these are as follows:

Section 6

i. Research and private study

Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions:

· The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study.
· The copy is made for non-commercial purposes.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.

ii Instruction or examination


Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, film or broadcast for the purpose of instruction or examination is allowed under the following conditions:

· The copying is done by the student or the person giving instruction.
· The copying is not done via a reprographic process.
· The source of the material is acknowledged.
· The instruction is for a non-commercial purpose

Evaluation of the Main Exercise

Compared to the Preliminary Exercise the Main Exercise was far harder and there was a lot more pressure on us to make everything as good as possible. Once again I was with Charley and Alex, which was good as we all got on and by this point felt comfortable in each other’s company.Our brief was to create an opening sequence to a film and myself and my group decided to follow the Social Realism genre, as this is the most ‘typically’ British film genre there is.As we had already had practice in planning, filming and editing, we already knew what was expected of us so, although daunting, we at least had some experience in that area and being recent we didn’t forget anything. We also got to grips with what we were better at and more comfortable doing so this made it easier when it came to deciding on roles within the group.

(The Wind that Shakes the Barley Is

a famous film directed by Ken Loach)

We decided to portray homosexuality as it is a contemporary topic and is becoming a huge issue for the younger generation which meant we had a target age group (teenagers and young adults) that would make it easier for us as if we had focused on an older generation it would have been tougher to get actors and harder to portray as we are more familiarized with our age group. To do this, we tried to use stereotypes where possible. In most places, an urban environment is used as it is a common representation that teenagers hang out in such areas.

The actor we used to portray our homosexual character managed to come across as quite lonely and withdrawn, especially when he realizes that his crush has a girlfriend, which portrays the ideology that homosexuality is ‘different’ and it is embarrassing to like the same sex. This is particularly significant nowadays seeing as it is becoming a fairly major topic and definitely something which teenagers have trouble coming to terms with when they are in that position. At the beginning of our film we start with blackness and the diegetic sound of a bus pulling up to the bus stop, then there

are opening credits that tell us it is produced by EM Media and that the UK Film Council are involved. We decided to use EM Media, as it is a British Production Company and produced the famous social realism film ‘This Is England’ which managed to make 93% of its reviews good. It also tries to focus its production around the Midlands area, which is thought on as a fairly dirty urban environment and we try to use an unclean urban environment and this would contend well with this production company. We decided to include the UK Film Council as Social Realism is the most British

of all genres and therefore we believed it is something that the UK Film Council would invest in straight away. I think that by focusing on such a contemporary topic, it attracted audiences as it focuses on up to date ideologies and is something that the target age group could easily relate to even if they are heterosexual. Because of its genre, it would be likely to attract a large British audience seeing as social realism is the biggest genre in British Film Production.

Overall the main thing I have learnt in the process of the Main Exercise is the use of editing programs to put together the film we made and edit them to an appropriate length and to make sure it went in time to the music. Although I have already had a small amount of experience with Windows Movie Maker in the past, we used a more complicated Editing program, Premiere Pro, which was difficult to get to grips with. As well as this, we use only non-diegetic music all the way through so

(An example of the area we chose to film in)

it means that the way the music fits in with the shots is very important in continuity and therefore it was difficult to make it fit together well. I eventually got to grips with it but there were lots of discrepancies about the way to do certain things, which made the editing the hardest bit of the entire process, but at the same time it taught us all a lot. I have also further developed my understanding of camera work such as framing and the rule of thirds by participating in it more and becoming more familiar with it. Since doing the Preliminary Exercise, myself and my gro
up have improved on everything as we have had the opportunity to become more accustomed to working with all the equipment and we’ve been able to work out what we are more comfortable with doing, for example, I know that I prefer to be involved in the planning as much as possible such as drawing the storyboards and writing the scripts but I also enjoy doing the

editing as you can mess around with things and change them how you want and play around with effects such as fade. I am thankful for the Preliminary Exercise as it gave us all a chance to gain some understanding of the process and allowed us to build on our mistakes and learn from them, for example in the preliminary exercise we didn’t contend with the 180 degree rule during a conversation which ruined the continuity slightly. Because of this, we knew not to do anything like that in the main exercise.
The thing that I disliked most over the process of the coursework is trying to organise everything perfectly as it is vital to have good organisation so that we know what is happening, where its happening and when as well as getting all the equipment together and getting the planning done by a certain time as well as the filming and the editing. As I am not an overly organised person, this was the biggest challenge for me but it also helped me to deal with it and has contributed to a life skill by helping me with my organisation. I was also not fond on the researching as it was difficult to find things that contended with what we wanted to do especially for the preliminary exercise but I decided to focus more on researching into the genre ‘social-realism’ whilst Charley and Alex researched the opening titles of films as they were both familiar with those two films ‘Love + Hate’ and ‘A Way of Life’.




My favourite part of the entire process was the planning and creating the scripts and storyboards (Script/Storyboard) but on the whole I mainly enjoyed the creativity of it all and it gave us a chance to do something fun that didn’t just involve writing.

Although there were some problems faced in the main exercise, such as people and traffic constantly blocking the frame and the fact that I was ill during the filming, everything went smoothly, the weather was good and the camera work went well. I am proud of the final outcome and I’m also happy I was put in the group I am in as they have made the process fun and smooth.

Recce Photographs

This photograph was used to experiment with the establishing shot that will open the scene. We wanted to get the most accurate distance and framing possible. The only difference is that in

the actual film there will be someone stood in the bus stop.

Once again this was myself and my group testing out another shot. We used Alex as a model to pose where our actor would be standing in the film. The main problem we were faced with was the reflection as it was

hard in a lot of cases to try and not catch a reflection of us filming in the glass.

This shows an over the shoulder shot we were practicing. Once again Alex is our model for it and the point is that we can see the person he is following walking down the road at which point the actor Alex is in place of starts walking following him.

This shows a shot we were once again using the camera to test out. This shot shows Alex hiding behind a wall watching the person he is following walking down the alley. Eventually we decided to use the other wall.

This is an example of a shot we wanted to use showing the person doing the following in the foreground of the shot on the bench nearest the camera whilst his crush and his crush's girlfriend is sat on the bench furthest from the camera partly covered by the people in the background. There would be intradiegetic gaze as we see the actor nearest looking in the direction of the two other actors sat on the furthest bench.

This shows an example of the type of shot we

will use to show the actor who is watching his crush from the front so that, by seeing his face we can see his

emotions and work out that he is upset that his crush in fact has a girlfriend.

This photograph shows the bench we planned to use for the follower's crush and his girlfriend to sit on.

This photograph was used to test the location and see if it was good enough for what we wanted to do.

This photograph shows an area we wanted to use that once again shows one character being followed by the other. This area is more urban which we wanted to use as it portrays the target age group we were aiming at because stereotypically teenagers hang out in such areas.

This photograph shows another area we planned to use that follows on from the road in the previous photograph. The camera will stay in a similar position to this one and will show both our actors walking down the path.

Filming and Editing the Main Exercise

Filming the Main Exercise was far harder than the Preliminary Exercise as there were more locations to visit, everything had to be more precise, there was less room for mistakes and I felt slightly ill on the day.

Overall though, everything went smoothly and the actors and actresses got on very well with each other which made the filming process much easier as there was no discomfort which cou

ld have been appeared obvious when it came to editing and uploading it.

Because we had already had experience in filming the Preliminary Exercise also, this gave us better understanding of what was needed and expected as well as how to do certain things. It gave us a chance to learn from our mistakes as well as previously when we filmed the first film we made errors in forgetting to use the rule of thirds appropriately which affected the 180 degree rule. We also missed out a lot of the shots so that meant we only had half a film to use although we were lucky that it still fitted together well enough for it not to be a major issue. From all of this, we made sure we followed the storyboards properly and double checked it at the end to make sure we had included every shot. As well as this we made a point to make sure the 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds were in effect too.The main problem we were faced with was the amount of people walking around as well as lots of cars on the road and general interferences with the shots.

This meant we had to retake lots of the shots constantly to ensure that there was nothing disrupting the frame and this took up a lot of our time. It also became fairly frustrating at times as there were occasions where it was incredibly hard

to do a shot without a pedestrian walking past the camera especially as we wanted to ta

ke each shot at least a couple of times to make sure we could get the best shot possible.

One worry that we all had also was the weather as it wasn’t a particularly nice day when we filmed it and

we were unsu

re if there was going to be any thick fog or heavy rainfall that might affect the camera work of disrupt the continuity of the film. Luckily it stayed constant and remained only moderately cloudy which provided appropriate pathetic fallacy for us as it

helped portray the emotions of the main character. Despite the

cloud cover, the lighting was also quite good and provided us with efficient brightness within the fra

me so it wasn’t too dark or too light.When it came to the editing there was what we believed to be quite a big problem as the opening sequence we had chosen to film depended solely on music and sound effects with no dialogue and once we had filmed we were then told we weren’

t allowed to use copyright free music. This would have been a major problem as not only would it mean re filming as we had given

directions over the top of the shots, it would also mean re scripting it with dialogue which would have been really hard as the main characters don’t meet to speak to each other so we would also have had to develop something new. Either that or we would have to use a different song from a copyright free website but it would have meant paying £30 for it. Luckily we fo

und out that we can use the royalty free music although it means paying £5 which is nothing compared to the hassle we would have had to deal with if we couldn’t use it full stop.
Overall the filming went well and I am proud of the groups input and the outcome.

Pre-Production Paperwork

Initial Ideas
SWOT Analysis
Research into Social Realism (Typical Codes and Conventions)
Way of Life Analysis (Film Analysis)
Love + Hate Analysis (Film Analysis)
StoryBoards
Dual Column Script
Risk Assessment
Call Sheet

The First Reflective Blog Entry on the Main Exercise

From filming the Preliminary Exercise, I have learnt quite a lot in the way of filming, mostly that there is far more to it than you initially expect.

Doing the Main Exercise first seemed daunting compared to the first film which was a way of getting to grips with the topic and filming as when you first do it mistakes are very likely to happen but you they are there to

help you build on. When we were first told that we were creating the opening sequence of a British film I felt very nervous as that has never

been the part of a film that I have concentrated on and it appeared much harder than the first film so I had no idea what to do. After Lee had taken us through it some more it became clearer and, although it still felt slightly daunting, I felt more comfortable in understanding it.

The planning of this exercise is far more thorough and I feel like I have to be far more precise with it so that myself and my group know everything about what we are doing when it comes to filming as we can't afford for something to go wrong. Because of this we have worked together on all of the planning although we have been allocated certain roles within it and this means that this person is in charge of that area of planning such as the paperwork and making sure it’s safe, doing a final draft version and so on. Overall though, we have all made valid contributions and the input of planning has been equal. The advantage of my group is that Charley does Film Studies and therefore understands what we are doing quite well, and Alex has had experience in the topic having done Media Studies previously before this year. On the other hand though, our weaknesses based on the Preliminary Exercise are that we need to be far more accurate with our framing and following the 180 degree rule as last time there were some problems in complete accuracy and we ended up breaking the 180 degree rule by placing both actors heads in the same part of the frame during a conversation.

As well as this we need to be far more aware of what is going on during the filming as we ended up not filming half of what had been planned on the storyboards, possibly because we weren't filming in order.

In the Main Exercise, we will be filming in different locations and we need to be fully on top of everything which will be easy seeing as we have learnt from our previous mistakes. Next time I think I will put more input into the research as this was a downfall last time. I was unsure of what to do properly and didn't know to what extent the research had to match the film we were creating so I found it difficult to find anything related. As well as this I have chosen roles more suited to me because, although in the planning

of the Preliminary Exercise, I chose to do the script work which went well as I enjoy writing, I also was put in charge of the camera and this was a downfall as I had no idea what I was doing.

This time I will be in charge of the editing and having had experience with windows media player previously I have a better understanding of what to do. I believe overall that the Main Exercise will go well. We have still got to find actors as we only have one so far but as all our roles are sorted out, as well as the storyboards and locations, we know what we are doing well so everything should go as planned. We have planned to start filming next week and carry on for as long as it takes which, due to experience from the Preliminary Exercise, shouldn't be too long seeing as we have better understanding now.

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

From the moment I started preparing for the Preliminary Exercise I have found myself and my group, rushed off our feet trying to prepare everything in order to make the process go smoothly, and from the very start I have learnt new things and became familiar with methods and practices of filming. At first I felt flustered with all the paperwork that was put in front of us but once we got into it we found that there was not as much there as we first thought and we got it all out of the way quickly.

By doing the Preliminary Exercise I have realised that a lot of my skills have improved, especially my organisation with work which is important as you can’t lose any paperwork and have to keep to an appropriate time schedule or else you could get behind easily.

Luckily, we used Google Documents as a way of keeping all our paperwork together so that it could be accessed by all the group. The writing involved in the planning was fairly easy as I have always been better at writing than practical work and therefore I decided to take main charge of the scripts, although we all worked together and contributed ideas. The hardest part was the storyboards as it was difficult to decide on continuity patterns and the length of each shot as well as trying to fit the script in with the action but over the course of the planning we all got better at it.

I also found the research fairly difficult as it was hard to find anything similar to what we were doing although eventually I settled for something that showed someone walking into a room and the 180 degree rule taking place as well as shot reverse shots which I found on YouTube.
I learnt a lot from filming having never done anything like it in my life but luckily had help from my group who had so I didn’t struggle too much. It was mainly difficult to try and get a decent frame that contended with the rule of thirds but luckily most of our film contained only two main frames anyway so I didn’t have to move the camera very often. After this the editing was easy as, although I had never properly edited anything so serious before, I had used Windows Movie Maker and knew what I was doing so could contribute to it yet in doing so I was able to familiarise myself further with the program. Because of my lack of experience using cameras and tripods etc, I have learnt a lot from using the technologies offered. Although I had learnt how to use the equipment, I wasn’t overly sure about using it but when it came to using it I found it all came easily.
Because our film was being taken in a police interrogation room, we wanted to make sure the setting fit that description so we used the recording room. Unintentionally there was a semi-circular table which made it easier to portray the 180 degree rule and shot reverse-shot.
We wanted to use a man to be the policeman and a woman as the person waiting as firstly it brought to light the dominant ideology that men are the hegemony and if he was the powerful figure in the scene then it would highlight the fact that men are the hegemony in society but as well as this it is expected that men have the power in the media and it wouldn’t have worked so well if it had been the man waiting and the woman with the higher social position. Because of this, the verisimilitude of the diegisis within the scene was believable.
Because of the genre of our film, I think it could probably be shown on a television channel such as ITV as it is known for its crime drama and shows programmes such as Silent Witness, Crime Scene Investigation and Cold Case.
When we came to filming there were slight problems in the fact that we somehow missed half of our shots but overall everything went fine. The lighting was good and pur actors were doing A2 film studies which meant we had help. We also broke the rule of thirds which meant the 180 degree rule wasn't followed correctly all the way through as both our actors heads remained on the same side of the frame during conversation.
In conclusion, I think our film went well and despite a few mistakes we kept everything well organised and the the output reflected the input very well as due to hardwork and careful time management as well as organisation, our film was good and thanks to the lighting, everything worked well.

Filming and Editing the Preliminary Exercise

Our filming took place on tuesday February 4th in the morning and we were all fairly nervous as we didn't know what to expect or have a clue about how it was going to be but we surprised ourselves and, due to brilliant organisation on all of our parts, everything went very smoothly.

The first problem we encountered was expected anyway as one of our actors had already informed us that there was a chance she might still be ill on the day and we weren't too surprised when she was unable to perform in our production. This meant we had to search for a female to play the part which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as she was an A2 student studying Film Studies alongside the male actor who happened to be good friends with her. This meant that both were familiar to these exercises and did not require much direction.

I was in charge of the camera work which at first I found incredibly daunting and I was scared to let the group down but once I got into it, it became easy to frame the actors well especially as there were only two main frames taking place and so, considering we didn't film in a consecutive order, I didnt have to move the camera much at all.

Although we followed the 180 degree rule fluently, the continuity

was disrupted slightly as we didn't follow the rule of thirds and both Steph and Petch's heads were placed in the same part of the frame so that it

didn't look so professional, however this was a small mistake that we have made which has allowed us to build on it and now we know we won't make the same mistake in the main exercise.

The best thing about the production was the lighting which turned out to look very professional and really enhanced our film. It was neither too dark or too light which I thought would be an issue having seen previous productions from last year. We used a recording studio as it appeared like an interview room with a

window that could be passed off as a one way mirror which was important for the mise-en-scene and a semi-circular table to help further the 180 degree rule. We decided to use a male to be the police officer and a woman to be the visitor as this increases the versimilitude of the scene due to the idea of male dominance and you would rarely expect too see a male playing the more subjective role within a scene.

Our filming was over far quicker and smoother than expected which we were pleased with, but when we came to edit it, we realised we had actually missed out a few lines of dialogue probably because, not having filmed in a consecutive order, we must have got confused and missed out parts although luckily we still had the required amount of production to meet the brief. Although it was quite annoying at first we came round to it and began to understand that it was still a good film, especially as it was the first time any of us had actually produced a film production.

Overall I am proud of the way things went and it was due to our ability to work well as a team that everything ran so smoothly. We had already decided who was in charge of what beforehand and who was in charge of getting hold of the correct equipment.

Even though we made a few mistakes they were only small and I would rather have made them now than in the main exercise

First skills audit for the G321 Foundation Production

Initially, I was quite excited about the prospect of being able to produce a small film, but then realised just how much work was actually involved and it became fairly overwhelming. I am quite lucky to have someone in my group who has already studied First Diploma Media, and another person doing film studies which has been a big advantage as they have had slight experience in similar areas to this one. On top of this I am studying photography as another A level and thereforeexperience in framing and lighting.

At first we had difficulty deciding exactly what to film and we brainstormed a range of ideas. We had already decided to focus on drama as this seemed the most logical thing to do with lack of equipment quality to do a comedy for example. As well as this, it gave us a broader range of sub-genres too choose from. Eventually we focused on crime drama and my chosen roles consisted of creating the script and being in charge of the camera work.I was advantaged to be put in a group that gets on well and feels comfortable around eachother, especially as I had worked previously with Alex and share other lessons with Charley. This has made it easy to come to decisions and has meant that if we do feel unsure about doing something, we're not afraid to voice it.

Once we had got through the majority of paperwork, we began looking for a room, as well as actors to use and costumes.
Most of this required deliberation so that we could make the setting as fitting as possible. After looking at one possible room and then deciding it was far to unattractive, and there were were components of the room that we could not avoid being shown, we decided not too use it and instead focused on the radio suite in the media block which was the best we were going to find, with a semi circular table, perfect for portraying the rule of thirds, and a window that could possibly be disguised as a one way mirror as well as good lighting. After that we decided on a date and filled out the rest of the paperwork needed such as the risk assessment and camera booking forms.We also decided on actors although a back up plan was required as one of them has told us she may be ill come the day of filming which caused more careful deliberation.

Although I initially found the idea of being in charge of a production quite daunting, I found that once I got into it I began to understand that it's not as bad as it first seems and once we had got organised it became easy to move from one part of the planning to the next depending on what ideas were under developed and what was fine.
I am feeling fairly nervous about filming on tuesday having never manned a camera in such a professional manner before and being in charge of the camera work seems quite discouraging as there will be a lot on my shoulders, however I believe it will go quite well and if I follow what is planned it should be fine. As well as this there are opportunities to retake if something does go wrong and I will have my group there to support me