WELCOME MODERATOR

MORVEN MCINTYRE

CANDIDATE NUMBER 1744

CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL 64680

Welcome to my blog, I hope you enjoy!

My production team included: Leila Saville 1767, Evie Hand 1727, and Jess Power 1716.

Our brief was to create an opening of a film. We decided to go down the route of a modern day film based around the life of a celebrity who is struggling in the spotlight and the everyday struggles that being in the spotlight brings. We wanted to create a suspenseful movie that would attract a wide target audience. 

Our film will be down below along with the planning and construction of the film.

Editing

When editing our opening for the film as a group we decided that Evie and I would take on the main rolls as editors. I decided to take on the roll for editing mostly the paparazzi scene , layering up different sounds, using lots of different clips and making sure the film ran smoothly. For all the editing I used final cut pro. I also used final cut pro when editing the green screen scene. Leila and Evie filmed this part and I edited it on final cut pro.

Directing

For directing I took on the role of directing the scene of the paparazzi scene. This scene took a lot of directing as there was multiple different camera shots that we had to produce. I wanted to take on the role as director as I have such a love for film and wanted to be involved in the direction of where it was to go and where everything was placed. I loved producing the paparazzi scene as it took so long to do but when edited it was fast pace and really came together.

Camera Work

Apart from the green screen scene the majority of the time in the production I was behind the camera. However Evie took on the main role as camera man, I filmed parts of the paparazzi scene and the main scene that I helped film was the bedtime story scene. I created a smooth scene with a smooth hand held camera. I wanted to use a darker lighting with some lights dimmed to create the atmosphere of calmness and tiredness. 

CONSTRUCTION: OUR FILM POSTER

Posters have always been an important part of marketing for films. We looked at other posters to help us have inspiration for our film poster. When creating the poster we thought carefully about what our film was about and how we would represent this through a film poster and make the film poster exciting to draw our audience in. We used photoshop to add in different layers using the paparazzi cameras as a background and adding in our character of Blake in the centre of the poster so our audience know who the main character is and who it will centred on. The use of body language is effective as she has her finger to her mouth meaning for someone to be quiet, this is usually something people will do if they have a secret. This represents that our film is full of secrets and suspense. We added in 5 stars to show that our film is highly rated and is a high budget film as well as the different awards that we have won. I included the title of our film, release date, and our socials. This will help attract our target audience and also help them find us online which is a highly popular place of marketing in the modern world and where most people find out about films.

CONSTRUCTION : FEEDBACK

MUSIC/SOUND: we first decided to have minimal sound in the opening scene of our film where Blake is reading a bedtime story to her daughter Zoey, however after some consideration and feedback we decided to add music to the background of the scene to create a more sentimental calm, child like scene. We felt that adding a lullaby to the scene would create a warmer atmosphere. It is also a juxtaposition to the other scenes in our opening as this is an innocent sweet scene however there is a drastic change as the film goes on where Blake has been caught in a scandal that is not so innocent. We thought carefully about what sound we wanted In the background as we didn't want the film to be seen as a Childs film as that is not the genre we decided to go with. 

THE HOOK: We thought that the opening of our scene was perfect however when watching back we decided that our film didn't seem enough like a film opening, we decided that we had to end it differently. We have decided to add a threatening phone call from the husband. We are going to have a very simple mise-en-scene in this scene as we thought that by the house being simplistic and empty it would add the effect of where is Blake going? what will be her next move? as this threatening voice mail comes in and plays in what was her safe space. The decision to use a voicemail instead of an interactive phone call was because we thought this would be more effective has Blake is unaware of this voice message as she is leaving her home, creating dramatic irony as they know information that the main character Blake does not.

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

We planned very carefully for the day that we decided to film, we had to be extremely prepared to make sure we stuck to the time frame and were able to get it all done. We were organised and ready to film having all our props and costumes and locations ready for filming. We started off by filming our most difficult scene first as we knew it would take the longest as it was a very complex and time consuming scene to film, with all the different shot types and angles. We filmed the actors walking out the door first from behind seeing them prepare for what they are about to walk into. We did not film in chronological order but in the order of what would take the longest so we knew how much time we had left. We used both an iPhone and a Canon camera throughout. We also used flashes from different cameras to add a realistic effect of paparazzi. 

After editing our green screen scene we sent this to our iPhones this allowed us to airplay this clip onto a TV when filming. This was very successful and helped make our scene look realistic and make it look like Blake really was watching TV in the comfort of her own home. We also filmed an up-close and personal scene of Blake and her daughter Zoey in the Childs bedroom reading a bedtime story together as they prepared for bed. We thought carefully of our mise-en-scene for this scene to make sure it looked like a Childs bedroom. 

CONSTRUCTION: BBFC CERTIFICATE

As our film opening is a British film, we created a BBFC certificate to add in at the start of our film. This shows the age rating of our film, we decided the age rating for our film by looking at the BBFC website that has the requirements. Some including:

Age rating 15:

• Dangerous behaviour - Dangerous behaviour (for example, suicide, self-harming and asphyxiation) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting.
• Discrimination - The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language.
• Language - There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification.
• Sexual violence and sexual threat - There may be strong verbal references to sexual violence but any depiction of the stronger forms of sexual violence, including rape, must not be detailed or prolonged. A strong and sustained focus on sexual threat is unacceptable.
• Threat and horror - There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic threat is unlikely to be acceptable.
• Violence - Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. 

From the list above we decided on how we were rating the age of our film, based on what we believed our film to be about and how it may continue.

To create our BBFC we used photoshop, we used a 15 rating template that we found online, we then copied a black box and pasted it onto the original name for the certificate, adding in the title of our film INFAMOUS, making it bold and bigger so it stands out and also trying to replicate to other certificates we have seen. 

Our film opening contains mild threat and violence we decided the best age to classify our film as was 15. Our category of film allows violence to be strong and shown but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. Due to our film opening containing mild threat and alcohol use, our scenes are based around a distraught women who is struggling in life and doesn't know who or what she will turn to next and what her next steps in life are when dealing with a massive scandal. Younger viewers may struggle with watching scenes in our film being a reason of our film being a 15 rather than a 12. 

CONSTRUCTION: SOUND

For our film opening one of the biggest factors was the use of sound. One main part of the opening that consisted of multiple different sound effects was the paparazzi scene. We wanted this scene to connote the feeling of anxiety and fear, we wanted to show how our protagonist Blake was feeling in this moment, being centred around her. 

We used multiple different sound effects to represent a frantic fast pace scene. We used sounds such as white noise, camera flashes, voice overs. The use of white noise created anxiety, as if her being surrounded and bombarded by the paparazzi made her feel claustrophobic impacting her thought process. Originally we were just going to add in the white noise sound effect however when watching back decided that the scene needed something more to make it even more emotive. We asked our peers to help out by recording them shouting certain phrases as if they were the paparazzi, we wanted this scene to be as realistic as possible. To make the scene extremely effective we layered all the different sound effects very careful so that it was clear what was being said but also quite frantic. Some of the voice recordings were not loud enough so were not going to be realistic enough, we decided to find some recordings of real paparazzi shouting to add in to complete the scene, this helped Blake look more vulnerable. 

To our own voice recordings we used sound effects on final cut pro such as muffled, this effect helped  the sense of anxiety and fear as if Blake can hear what is being said but so much is being thrown at her that she us unable to differentiate everything and take it all in.

We decided that towards the end of this scene we needed the sound of a heartbeat as this helps the audience connect with our character Blake as you are hearing her own heartbeat and the fear she feels in this moment. We faded this out into the next scene where the magazines are being thrown around locally, showing the impact she has on the world and pop culture.

CONSTRUCTION: SOCIAL MEDIA

With doing my own research on film marketing I discovered that the main source of marketing now is through the use of social media, this is highly effective as it reaches a large target audience as the younger and older generation use social media and online resources now. Because of my research my group and I decided that the best way to market our film and spread awareness on it would be through social media as it would be easily accessible and seen by a large target audience. 

We created a Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for our film Infamous. Making it look as authentic as possible posting our film posters and teasers of behind the scenes, helping the audience connect with the film before the release so they have an idea of what to expect. Social media is a perfect way to advertise our film as it is a cheap, inexpensive way of marketing our film. 

Instagram:
We are all very familiar with instagram as a social media platform we chose this as our first source of marketing for social media. Most instagram users average on the age of 16-32 which is our target audience. We put a brief summary in the biography of the instagram page, so viewers would instantly have an idea of what our movie was about and see if it would fit their genre of film, in the hope we would draw in an audience. Once we attracted an audience we were able to maintain our followers, keeping them informed with our film and showing them the behind the scenes of the making of the film and pictures of our characters so they can connect with our characters.

click HERE for instagram feed. 

Twitter: 

We created our own Twitter page for Infamous, posting relative material about our film and to reach our target audience interests. Similar to our instagram feed we posted similar content in the hope we would reach a different audience, getting our film out there to all social media platforms, trying to spread awareness everywhere we can. We also involved other film trailers that are relevant to our genre of film and re-tweets from well known films directors and films, helping to draw in film lovers like ourselves. 


Facebook: 
For our facebook we wanted to create simplistic page that consisted of a biography to excite viewers who visit our page and they have an idea of what to expect. This included of information for the audience so they can understand our film. Our film poster has also been posted on our facebook page so we could captivate the audience and they would want to follow the film.