We feel that our film would interest a more mature person, probably in the age range of 18-65. We feel that our film would reach or attract such a wide audience as the film could relate to number of people due to interests or personal experience. It could be a man/women, who was alive in the time of the nazi regime and remembers these particular events. However, the image above shows a university student, who is studying modern world history as a degree, and therefore has a common interest in the subject, and may watch it for educational purposes aswell as entertainment.
As our audience would be a university student or older, we feel that he would be up to date with all the fashion styles and trends. Therefore we could picture our target audience going to shops such as ‘river island’, ‘next’ or ‘topman’, we can guess that he cares about his appearance and enjoys wearing the top brands and looking good, thus why he is shown going for the smart/casual look.
In terms of music taste, we can picture our target audience enjoying a variety of different genres of music, as he is open-minded and feels that music is an important aspect in his life. we feel that he may enjoy classic bands, such as ‘oasis’, but we also believe that he is a fan of modern music talents, like ‘timberland’. We think that our target audience would enjoy these types of music as they are based around soft and moving beats, which create different emotions when listening to them, and the type of music played in our film is also trying to create the same psychological effect. However, we feel that our audience could also appreciate older more classical music that is in keeping with the time period of our film such as Jazz.
In terms of television, we feel that our target audience would enjoy factual documentaries, such as ’life’, which is commented by Sir David Attenborough, they may watch this as they enjoy learning new things. However we also feel that he would be interested in television dramas, as he likes watching events which may occur in real life, however we feel that these programmes would be light-hearted and sinister, so they may enjoy programmes such as ‘hollyoaks’. Above our some images of the type of audience that we feel would be attracted to our film.
When comparing my final task and my preliminary exercise, i believe that there have been huge improvements due to the fact that we are now all much more experienced in the the ways in which a film should be made, and more proficient at using the required technology.
An area that has improved considerably from the preliminary exercise is the camerawork. In several scenes in the preliminary, we had poorly framed shots, the most serious being at 00:23. However, when creating the preliminary, we had to conform to a list of shots, and we were only just beginning to be aware of the techniques of filming, i.e. the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and staying away from any jump cuts. We were given much more freedom when deciding the shots that we could use for our final task, and we were really able to use our imagination to come up with how we would piece together the shots of our film. Another factor that is very much different between the two tasks is the scale. When creating our preliminary, we did not have to take as much into consideration as we did with our final task, For example, in our final task, we had to take into account the availability of our actors, the setting up of props and costume and since our film was set in a rural environment, our ability to film depended upon the weather on the day. This were all complications that were not present during our preliminary exercise.
As can be seen below, the differences in the quality of our shots is far improved. As can be seen in the left side picture, our framing in the preliminary exercise was poor, with lopsided shots making the image slanted, however on the right side shot, the final task shows much improvement, as we learned from our mistakes and made sure that we improved our shots and made sure the were to a good standard.
When creating our final task, we were able to be creative when planning how we would film. Unlike our preliminary exercise, our film was set in a large outside area, meaning we were able to experiment when choosing shots. For example, we were able to use tracking shots of our characters and establishing shots of our surroundings. However, poor shot choices can be seen at 00:12, as the character is shown walking down the hall, yet the next shot shows him just starting to walk. With the time and effort put into the final task, we were able to make sure that there were no mistakes like this and that the shots flowed smoothly. One major difference between the tasks was the concepts of the film itself. Whilst the preliminary exercise was a simple and basic idea, the final task involved a complex setting, and the Mise-En-Scene needed to be convincing, involving a lot more thought when deciding the costumes and props to make our film seem plausable, although unlike the preliminary exercise we were creating a film with our choice of plot and setting so we could create something completely how we wanted it, which made the whole creation process much more enjoyable. Similarly, we were also able to be much more free when editing our film. There is an example at 00:05 of my preliminary, when i decided to edit in the sound footsteps and they ended up being far too out of sinc and sounding wrong. When creating the final task, we had a problem with the original audio, so we had to re-record the dialogue at several points and dub it over the footage. Because i had much more experience at using the technology, i was able to line the audio up to footage so that it was not noticeable that it had been changed. This would not have been possible when creating my preliminary exercise, as we were only able to spend a limited time when editing, whereas with our final we had several weeks to perfect the editing process. Also, when creating the final task, we wanted to have our black, white and red effect to create a much more artistic tone to the film. This was far more complicated than anything we had done before, as with the preliminary, we only used cross fades, which were handled poorly.
When creating our final task, we wanted to include music that would lend itself to our chosen era of the 1940’s. To do this we used freesound.org and garage band. Through these we were able to find suitable jazz music for the beginning and dramatic music for builds in tension whereas we used no music at all in our preliminary. Because of our ambition when creating our film, we did end up having to deal with many complications, such as obtaining props and of course the sensetive nature of the characters we were portraying and perhaps most of all our ambition of creating the black, white and red effect. Still, our experiences when creating our preliminary exercise helped us to learn how we should create our film and the common mistakes we can avoid.
For quite a while, our group has been editing our film. We have had several problems, but it has gone fairly smoothly and we have been able to do the majority of what we aimed for. This has been a really great experience and we have learnt a lot about the editing process.
The main thing that we wanted to accomplish in the editing phase was the colour correction effect. This proved to be quite difficult. We found it very simple to turn the film black and white, but making the red show up was very difficult because of the fact that we were able to make red show up, but other colours such as green were beginning to show aswell which was a huge problem as the scene is filmed in a rural environment. In the end, we have settled for having the red effect only at the beginning and end of the film, although this is still just as effective
We had quite a few problems with the audio, which is partly to do with our faulty battery and partly because of our location (i.e. the wind). Because of this the voices were hard to hear prompting us to re-record the vocals and dub them over. This was quite time consuming as we had to synchronise it perfectly with the visuals, but it was all worth it as it looks and sounds right with the added ambient sound of the countryside.
For the start of our flashback scene, we wanted to have the word ‘Berlin, Wannsee Building, 1942’ come up on screen accompanied by the noise of a typewriter. This was quite simple to do but time consuming as we had to go letter by letter making the letters come up at the same time as the noise of the typerwriter. We were able to find a really convincing typewriter noise on freesound.org and match the noise to the writing.
We use several effects in the edit, one prime example being our jump shots that we wanted of this establishing shot of the two main characters walking down this path. To do this, we cut the one long shot into three seperate pieces, and then used a crossfade to join them together. This created the desired effect and also shortened down a lengthy piece of filming.
For our film, i think that there would be a much more adult audience due to the historical context and quite sinister nature of the setting combined with a few instances of violence. Due to this and the fact that it is a historical drama, i can’t see a younger teenage or below audience going to see something like this at the cinema. Although, i can see it marketed to adults and would no doubt be something that the older audiences would be interested in.
We spent quite a lot of time trying different ways of turning our production name of Bada Bing! into a eye catching and stylish logo. We wanted it to feature at the start of our film, so it needed to look proffesional and to a good quality.
Eventually we decided on the bottom logo, because the italic stylish writing combined with the picture of the dice (which we agreed would be the symbol for Bada Bing! Productions) was exactly what we wanted the logo to look like and fitted in very well with the tone of our film aswell as appearing professional.
For our production name we wanted to have a catchy and snappy name that was simple but sounded proffesional. In the end, we decided on Bada Bing! Productions.
We had many different ideas when thinking of the different names for our film. A few example of these are;
Flash
Flash of Truth
Snapshot
Snapshot in Time
Each of these Titles revolves around the central theme of the camera and photograph that prompts the main character into the events of the film. Also the the theme of history and the past is evident as we really wanted to put across the impact that the past of the Grandfather has in the events of the film.
Finally, we decided on the name Snapshot, as we decided that flash of truth and snapshot in time were a bit too long, and that snapshot was a much more catchy and effective name.
For our film we needed to find some music that would really show the sombre mood that runs throughout the Germany scene. For this we used Garage band and freesounds.com.
Garage Band: Using garage band we managed to find several preset dramtic piano riffs which could be mixed together to create an authentic piece that fits well with the scene. Also, at the start of the Germany scene we wanted to have some period Jazz music and we managed to find a perfect clip that sounded much like the popular music of the time.
This is a brilliant example of what we wanted in our opening scene. This music really sets the scene of the 1940’s and sounds very sofisticated. Luckily, we were able to find a non copyright file on Garage band very similar to this style which matched with what we had in mind whilst fitting with the time period.
This extract from the Schindler’s list soundtrack was also the kind of style we had in mind for the more dramatic scenes of our opening. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a credible track, as the violins on garage band and freesound.org sounded very fake and were really not what we wanted as it would spoil the serious nature of our film. Even so, we were able to find a very sombre and dramatic piano score which could be combined some low notes to create the exact tone we wanted.
Due to the fact that our second scene is set in 1940’s berlin, we needed a wide range of props and costumes to lend to the believability of the scene. Obviously due to it’s setting the Mise-En-Scene has to be carefully considered and thought through to prevent anything appearing in our shots that will detract from the verisimilitude of our film.
Box Brownie Camera:
Because the beginning of the film revolves around the photograph that the main character finds of his grandfather in his attic, we wanted to be able to show the picture being taken in the flashback scene. To do this effectively, we wanted to be able to use a convincing and authentic camera from the period. Luckily, we were able to find one in the history department at our school and it was kindly lended to us by the teacher that owned it.
Swastika Armbands:
Because the two characters in our flashback scene are high ranking Nazi officials, we really wanted them to look authentic. To do this we needed to have the distinctive Swastika sign of the Nazi’s. Because of the sensitive nature of what the armbands stood for we decided it would be best to make them ourselves rather than purchase or find ones, so we were able to create two armbands out of red, black and white felt and elastic that looks much like the real thing when filmed.
Wannsee Transcript:
We wanted the final shot of our film to be that of the Transcript from the Wannsee conference being handed over, so to do that we needed some documents that looked the part. On the internet we were able to find the actual document from the meeting translated into english, and we added the symbol of the Nazi’s to the top of the paper to really emphasise what this document was.
Clothing:
For each of the characters we wanted to have a different look and style depending on the time period, social status and wealth.
Nazi outfit –
For the characters of Lukas and Herman, we used smart suits and fedora hats to show the high position they are in and to display their wealth, giving them the appearance of important and upper class people.
Camera Man outfit –
For our camera man character, we wanted to make him seem a lot more common and appear to be a lower class worker trying to make a living. To do this we used a fairly worn down grey overcoat and a weathered and dirty flat cap. This costume created a decent contrast between the two smartly dressed characters of the Nazi’s and the run down photographer.
Opening scene outfit –
For the opening present day scene, for the character of daniel we just used whatever clothes the actor was wearing on the day to create a more natural feel with jeans and a t-shirt.
Briefcase:
In the flashback scene, the briefcase is used to exchange the Wannsee transcript, and we were able to find an old style briefcase that matched the rest of the props in style and period setting.
For the present day opening scene, the props were a lot simpler than the period setting, as the only real thing that we needed was a photo album for the picture to be found in, and we managed to locate a few days before we began filming.
Ian's Blog 