Wrench - Final Cut

Main Screening Feedback

On Wednesday 12th December, lunchtime, we had the first screening of our media project. It was shown to a few invited friends in the main hall. Before the start of the screening we gave each person a questionnaire for them to complete.

Our first question was 'How can you identify the genre?'. 57% of the results said that the upbeat music and clothing helped them identify the genre. We have achieved what we intended. We chose an upbeat song which was aimed to be associated with British Gangster movies.

Brick (Justin Bishop) was found to be the most favourable character. This was our intentions as we gave him more lines to speak and he was the one who killed Tony. Because he spoke more lines the audience will begin to associate themselves with Brick more than Jimmy as the audience still don't know much about Jimmy.

We asked out audience what they thought was the most effective sequence and many people have found that the slow motion scene when the garage was closing was was most effective; another favourite was the opening of the brief case from the inside with the blue lights reflecting off Jimmy

Scripting - Narration

In our opening sequence we are following conventions of a British Gangster which involves a monologue. The monologue contains some colloquial language which follows the conventions of a british gangsters lingo. This was quite difficult for us because we do not usually use these types of words in normal speech. We had to do some research in cockney slang to find out specific meanings for words. For e.g. Prison in slang is 'The big house'.

Being a gangster also has a specific accent and voice but no members of our group has this accent / voice. This voice is vital in a monologue as we do not see the person saying it so it has to be easy to identify. We have to enhance the image of a British Gangster.

Finding a correct place and equipment is important. We have already discovered that the camera's mic is not very good, so we went to the music department recording studio to record our monologue so we get a cleaner and smoother sound; but it was no difference. We found out that the problem was not within the camera but where we were recording. Where ever we recorded their was a slight echo which made a lot of background noise, as a result we had to speak into a hat which absorbed the sound and made the quality much better.

This is how we recorded our narration successfully.

Continuity Editing

There are a lot of techniques to use when editing. It will make the movie run much more smoothly and can set a mood to our audience. We had nearly an hour of footage which we will have to condense to 2minutes. This will all be done through the editing process. We have decided to use the following techniques: -

- Matched cut. This is when the shot is filmed from several angles to show continuity.
- Jump cut. Abrupt switch from one scene to another which makes a dramatic point.
- Motivated cut. Cut made just at the point where what has occurred makes the viewer immediately want to see something which is not currently visible. This causes us to accept compression of time
- Stock shot. Footage already available and used for another purpose than the one for which it was originally filmed
- Long Takes. A single shot which lasts for a relatively lengthy period of time. The long take has an ‘authentic’ feel since it is not inherently dramatic
- Slow Motion. Action which takes place at a slower rate than at the rate it is in real life
- Freeze Frame. The gives the image the appearance of a still photograph.

Second Shoot Evaluation

On Saturday 22nd November at 8am our group met at Alex Days house to shoot the main scene of our opening sequence. We had to film in his garage.

The scene starts of with Brick (Justin Bishop) and Jimmy (Alex Day) entering the garage with Big Tony(Alex Fermor) kidnapped in the garage. We had to film Brick and Jimmy opening the garage from the outside and closing the garage on the inside. We already had a problem. Alexs car was infront of the garage which was not on the story board so we had to wait for his Dad to move the car. Instead of wasting time we decided to shoot the second scene. We were shooting for the edit. We took plenty of shots from all sorts of angles so we will have plenty to edit and it may mean we won't need any reshoot anything else.

We were going to put make up on Tony to make himlook as though he has been beaten up. We were also planning on making blood so it lookslike he was bleeding but before the shot, Alex Fermor got a nose bleed so we decided to keep that and film it. It was cheap and looked good.

At the end of the scene we needed to kill Tony. This involved swinging a golf club around his head but this could seriously injure him so we had to find a way of bypassing this and edit it to show that this was done in real time. The only way we knew of making this seem real was to film it slowly and then speed it up while editing. We did think about using a dummy but we figured that this would be expensive and we didn't have one on the day so we passedon that idea.

Institutional - Pre-production

Pre production

With the financing secured the full cast and crew are hired and detailed preparation for the shoot begins.

Once all the head of departments are hired the shooting script is circulated and pre production begins. The Heads of departments such as the casting director, editor, head of sound, director of photography, the production designer, the 1st ad and the line producer. The casting director with the director and producer begin the long process of identifying and casting the actors. An average film will have over 30 cast members so planning availabilities and getting the right actor for the right role is complex and challenging job. The story board is then created by the director, story board artist and director of photography. Story boards are the blue prints of the film where every shot is planned in advance.

The production designer designs every aspect of how the film will look, and hires people to design and build each part. Not all sets are purpose built, the location manger and his assistants will scout for locations that fit the design of the production and work with the director and production designer to decide which places to use.

Effects shots take much more planning than regular shots and can take months to design and build. Are large umber of shots in a film are achieved with special effects, both physical and digital. Each effects shot is modelled to ensure that it will look realistic, and it is decided which elements of the shot will be achieved digitally and witch with live action. The 1st AD, the lien producer and the production manager make up the key logistic triangle of the production

Preliminary Task (Conversation) - Pre-production

Before filming our conversation we were about to use equipment that we have never used before so we spent the first half of the lesson learning to use the equipment safetly and efficiently. We then proceeded to film our conversation within the school. First of all, we need to find a room. On the day of our filming, it was an open day for parents so there was a lot of people walking around the school so we needed to find a room where people would not be walking about and not making too much noise. We walked round several rooms but was unsuccessful until we eventually found the conference room by the science labs. This was a perfect location, there would be little noise due to the location and the room is a small enough room so the camera doesn't receive an echo when we speak.

Before we started filming we have already produced the a story board. During the making of the story board we thought we will be filming in the media rooms so our surrounding were different. We had to change several scenes to matched the surrounding of our room but this was a smooth change and did not effect any camera angles.

Overall I think that our conversation shooting went really well and smoothly.