My contributions to the production process.

• I came up with the original idea for the narrative (phone the stops time). With the help of the rest of the group, we perfected the idea and drew up the storyboard.

• Originally I was the main character and actor (Jimmy Hopkins), this was for the first lesson of filming. We did not get all the shots done and the next lesson I was absent due to medical reasons, meaning Ahren took my place as Jimmy.

• In the editing process I have done most of it with small contributions form Ollie. I have cut the shots and fit them together while adding effects such as slow-motion. I had problems with the diegetic sound when cutting the shots together and overcome these problems by fading out the sound at the end and start of shots or just keeping the sound quiet.

Marking Criteria self-Assesment

Holding a shot where appropriate-

Nearly every one of our shots had movement yet there was one that was placed on a tripod to keep the shot steady, this is when Jimmy is looking at the information on the wall. We held it there as he was not moving around.

Framing a shot including or excluding elements where appropriate-

This was done with the shot where jimmy enters the classroom and finds the phone. We went for a long shot frame as this would show the whole room being empty.

Using a variety of shot distances where appropriate-

Close ups where used at the start of the film to establish the character, we then moved on to use other shots, such as mid – long range shots.

Shooting material appropriate to task-

Our film is appropriate for a U rated film.

Selecting mise en scene-

We done this through our research and the detail of our storyboard, allowing us to make decisions on props and clothing.

Editing so meaning is apparent to viewer-

We have only done basic editing at the moment, meaning has not really been added yet, but will be.

Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately-

Only basic editing has been completed, (cut transitions).

Using sound with images and editing-

Diegetic sound is being kept but we are also going to add music in the background for certain scenes.

Using titles where appropriate-

We have not added titles yet but they have been designed in our storyboard.

Last lesson

On Thursday we completed basic editing, (cut transitions), while Ahren worked on the music that would play in the background at certain scenes. Next lesson we will complete the editing and add effects. This will hopefully create meaning for our film and make it appeal to our target audience.

My contributions to the production process.

Planning. My my contribution to the planning process was mainly the production of a storyboard as the rest of my group did the rest of the planning, however i also played a role in deciding what our film sequence would be about and helped to develop on our original idea once we had decided upon it. 

Acting. In our final sequence i play the role of a person frozen in time and also that of an antagonist to our main character.

My contributions:

•           Helping with planning, character movement, camera movement, and use of props. My help with these things were mainly during filming as the storyboard provided for general actions but allowed flexibility of setting upon necessity. However my help with ‘use of props’ is not included in our final feature as this was before the second lesson in which our main character was absent.

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•       Acting as main character. As mentioned above, our main character was unavailable on our second lesson so we re-filmed with me playing ‘Jimmy Hopkins”. The final result was missing certain scenes but the general theme remained. 

Target audience and market

 The target audience for our short film would probably fall under male children between the ages of 4 to 9. This is partly just- for reasons I can’t fully explain- because I would imagine that boys (especially young boys) would take more delight in the concept of being able to manipulate time. Secondly, there is no female presence in our film this would both be a deterrence for girls and a plus for boys, for at that age group, they typically share the judgement that girls are “gross” (and visa-versa). The film has very childish themes and also allows small children having experienced someone bullying or being mean to them, to identify with the main character thus making the film more appealing to them.

The target market would definitely be the adult parent of a young child, they would be encouraged by their children to take them to see the film and also view the underlying themselves, and (hopefully) come to the conclusion that it would be suitable for their infant to see. The film itself though would only vaguely appeal to adults though, as there are no subtle suggestions of adult humour. The film would only offer itself as a form as entertainment for the sake of being entertaining but would mainly be directed at young children.

Film inspiration

The film Toy story has influenced me in making our own childrens film, i watched the opening for previous homework and found that the bright colours and soundtrack made a big part of the scene and created a very appealing scene for the target audience of 5 - 12 years olds.

BBFC lesson

In this lesson we learned about U and PG film certificates. We learned and understood the guidelines for each and created mind maps about these guidlines. The guidlines are very accurate and strick, for example a U film must have no sustained horror and no violence. This lesson was helpfull for planning our U films as we know what guidelines to stick to and when we are over stepping them as we must keep it as a U certificate.

Back to the future lesson

The lesson started with us watching the opening scene from back to the future, we took notes from it about mise-en-scene, cinematography etc. I wrote about how the clock set the scene, they connote the genre and narrative of the film. We then reimagined the sequence in a storyboard to get a better understanding of shots etc. This storyboard helped in creating our own by giving ideas and shot types that were used in the storyboard for our own.