'Remember Me' - FINAL FILM.

Group Evaluation.

This is our final group evaluation. We made it using final cut pro and we used clips from our own film as well as other films which inspired us as well as including posts from our blogs.

My Personal Evaluation.

Reviewing the films i watched on the plane: Part Two: Wild.

The other film that I watched on the plane was Wild, a film by Jean-Marc Vallée starring Reece Witherspoon. This film was released in 2014 so it is relatively new and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

It got off to a slow start, and I was quite wary as I couldn't see how exiting a film about a woman hiking through the desert could seriously be, however I was pleasantly surprised; the film was utterly compelling and engaging with enough flashbacks and perils to keep it interesting. Reece Witherspoon's performance really made the film for me, it is so important for the acting to be of a good quality for a film that revolves around one character and it truly was, as was the performance of Laura Dern as the mother in the flashback scenes. The story was extremely sad and moving, however not in a way that overpowered the film and the story was just as interesting as it was sad. The movie moved at a good pace and didn't drag on, I was fully engaged after I got over the hump of the first 20 minutes. 

Jean-Marc Vallée perfectly portrays the convention of a woman alone in the wilderness without it becoming cliché, the story is one that is unique and a compelling, uplifting depiction of the transformative potential of nature. 

To conclude this film was the best film that I have seen in a while, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone. It is wonderfully moving and compelling, with a sad yet uplifting storyline about moving on from the past and moving forward in life, whatever it takes.

Reece Witherspoon was nominated for the Oscar for 'Best Actress' and Laura Dern 'Best Supporting Actress'.

Wild had an (estimated) budget of $15,000,000 and grossed $40,037.009 worldwide.

Reviewing the films I watched on the plane: Part One: Four Weddings and a Funeral.

As a media student, I try to fit in watching as many films as I can. The perfect opportunity for this is a long haul daytime flight.

My Kenya Airways flight from London to Nairobi had a large selection of films to choose from. The first film I watched was the Working Title film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' which I thoroughly enjoyed. Most of the action of the film takes place either at, or immediately before or after, one of the four weddings and the funeral mentioned in the title. I really liked the way that it jumped in time between each of the services, it meant that we did not know what happened in between the events meaning that the situation that the characters were in always came as a surprise e.g. The last wedding was of the main character, Charles, this wedding came as a surprise to all of us as he was not marrying the woman that we all knew he was going to end up with.

All of Richard Curtis' films seem to paint England and a lovely, green way. This film was certainly no exception, the mise-en-scene was cosy and made me feel nostalgic of how England used to be, even though it wasn't really like that in 1994 and I wasn't alive, this just shows that Curtis did a good job in his writing...

The nice thing about the genre of romantic comedy is that you always know there is going to be a happy ending, so you can just sit back and enjoy the drama unfolding knowing that the couple will end up together in the end. Overall i really enjoyed this film, the characters were loveable right from the beginning and i got very emotionally invested, i found myself rooting for every single one of them. It ended in a very satisfying way tying up all the loose ends, i dont always like it when films do this as sometimes you want to be left to make your own assumptions, however in this film it worked perfectly.

This film was nominated for two Oscars, four Golden Globes and eleven BAFTAS. It won four of those BAFTAS and one Golden Globe.

It was a huge success for Working Title grossing $52,700,832 in the US and £25,532,239 in the UK.

Batman v Superman takes $424m at global box office.

Despite terrible reviews, Batman vs. Superman has outdone itself and made huge profits in its first five days.

It broke records for a March debut and it was the sixth-highest opening weekend in the US.
On Rotton Tomatoes dot com, the film received 29% rating from critics, with such bad criticism from experts you would think that it would turn people away from watching the film, but clearly not as it received a 69% rating from the audience and the fans seemed to love it.

Perhaps the concept of two superheros joining forces was one just two good to miss, despite the actual film not being that great. Or perhaps the saying 'no publicity is bad publicity' is applicable to this situation, i'm not sure, all i'm sure of is that Ben Affleck will be feeling better now than he did in this video after hearing about the box office takings.



Sources- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35909299

Editing: Day Four.

After playing around with the filter yesterday we knew exactly which one worked, we added more bleaching and light leaks to make our film look more artistic and aesthetically pleasing.

We then came up with the idea to change the opacity overlap and layer to create much more confusion and paranoia, this reflected the mental disorder perfectly. In the opening we wanted to create an effect that may suggest daze and confusion within the character when the 'flashbacks' happen. Also we did this to differentiate between the flashbacks/visions and real life.
Once we had finished adding the effects and filters we made all the finishing touches that our opening needed and checked it over many times to make sure we hadn't missed anything . 

Overall I was happy with the finished product and i thought the editing process went very smoothly, we had made it with plently of time to make any changes if we need to. 

Editing: Day Three.

Today we added the titles to our film using DaFont. We had to decide when would be the perfect time to add the titles to create the most impact.

For example when the door closes or when she puts her keys down on the table.

We also created our own movie title for our film company 'MRM films' at the beginning.

After we had done all of this we started playing around with filters, we added a bleached filter as the beginning to make it feel more eerie and bleak.

Editing: Day Two

Now that we had the shell of our film done, we moved on to adding the sound, Millie wasn't in so me and Rachel started editing the sound. We started by detaching some of the audio from our footage of wildlife (birds tweeting etc.)  and putting over the bits that we filmed in the park. It was much better than just silence because it created a sense of 'calm before the storm' which added to the suspense.


We then added other sound effects which we found in Final Cut Pro such as a dripping tap and a knock on the door. We had to find the ones that fitted perfectly with the footage, so this involved us looking through quite a few different ones.

Once we had added these effects we decided that there was something missing, we decided that there needed to be some music in the house. We started looking for the right music but it was difficult to find music that fit in well, finally we found rights free classical music that started slowly and built up, we believed that this added to the tension of the opening.

After we added the music we realised that it didn't look quite right, we wanted to look like it was coming from a radio but we didn't have the right footage. We decided to film some extra footage at school, luckily I had the same red nail polish on that Lola had had on and we found a surface simular to that in the house. We added the footage and it fit perfectly with the other footage

Editing: Day One.

The first day of editing involved uploading all the footage off the SD card and on to Final Cut Pro. In this first editing session we were learning the ropes of the software so it was a bit slow as to be expected.

We started by looking through all the footage and choosing the best bits to use. We put all the basic scenes in to chronological order and then added any extra bits that we thought looked good and were aesthetically pleasing.

By the end of this session we had the skeleton of our film finished.

Maximazing production values on a low budget.

We intend to make an Independent film, as a newly founded independent British film production company, we would have to work on a low budget typical of independent films. However we wanted to maintain high production values throughout.


Ed Burns (also known as 'independent Ed'), is a filmmaker known for making low budget films with high production values.

He had very modest ambitions for his first film, 'The Brothers McMullen' and had a small budget of $25,000. The film ended up grossing $10,246,600 which was a huge success, it also won the 1995 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance festival.


Ed Burns has made films since then with budget more than half of that of his first Indie film.
One of his most recent films 'The Newlyweds' had a budget of $9000.
Burns advises young filmmakers to make use of the cheapest tools they can find.


“You guys have access to cameras that cost under $3,000. Why not just go make your movie? And it’s up to you to fight the good fight, market the hell out of your film and use Facebook and Twitter and email blasts and do all of the things indie rock bands have been doing for the last 10 years,”




This is how we intend to market our film. Alternatively to expensive advertising campaigns, we would maximise our available social media resources such Facebook and Twitter, to gain exposure through word of mouth. We would also make a website for teaser videos for our film.






Filmmaker Joshua Caldwell made his feature film Layover for just $6000; he cast his friends, borrowed a Canon 5D, and now it's competing for the New American Cinema award at SIFF.
This is similar to our methods of filming, we hired high quality cameras to ensure high production values, we used an up and coming actress who's rates would be lower than a big name. We used tripods and steady cams to ensure that our footage looked professional, while still keeping the feel of an independent film.

Naming our thriller.

Neither Me, Millie and Rachel really had any clue of what to name out film. We wanted to name it something that fitted in with the genre of thriller but would also stand out.

It had to be relevant to our film but I also wanted it to be quite ambiguous.

Some ideas we had were:
The Dark Past
Remember Me
Mother Dearest
Black Roses
Thirteen

We thought that 'The Dark Past' and 'Mother Dearest' sounded to much like cheesey horror films so we decided against them.

'Black Roses' and 'Thirteen' were too confusing and irrelevant to our film.

We really liked the name 'Remember Me' as it is quite ambiguous and the meaning will only become clear to the audience when watching the film. It is relevant to the film because it is about a girl slowly remembering the awful things that happened to her, this makes the name eerie and spooky. It doesn't give away too much and will leave any potential audience members wandering what the film is about, drawing them in. It also fits into the genre of thriller and therefore will attract fans of the genre.

Filming our thriller.

After some deliberation, we all decided the most convenient day to film our thriller was Tuesday the 16th of February, as we were all available on this day.

Filming Time Line

10:20 AM: Meet at the school gates.

10:30 AM: Pick up all the filming equipment from the media room.

We then left school and walked to the bus stop to meet our actress Lola.

10.40 AM: LOLA AVIVA CALL TIME 

Once we had met Lola we walked to first filming location (heath extension)

10:50 AM: Arrive at Heath extension and set up filming equipment. 

This was relatively easy as Nuray had shown us in the lesson how to set up the equipment, the only issue was that the floor was quite muddy which meant that setting up the tripod was slightly difficult. 

11 AM: Begin filming. 

We started with the shots of Lola sitting on the bench smoking, we did the establishing shot using the tripod so we could do a wide shot of her. After we had done all the shots we needed with the tripod, we then began to use the steady cam to do the tracking shots of Lola leaving the park and walking back to the house. After we had done that we packed away the filming equipment ready to move on to the next location.

11:45 AM: Walk to the next filming location.

This is when we came across our first issue; Tom, who's house was our next filming location, was not answering his phone despite agreeing to let us film at his house and despite us checking with him the night before if it was still okay, we later found out that he was still asleep at this point. This meant that we had to think on our feet and come up with a new idea, Millie decided to call our friend Isobel who lived 5 minutes away from where we were and who had a very nice house and bathroom. She thankfully agreed to let us film in her house so we headed there and set up all our equipment.

12 AM: Begin filming at house.

We started with the shots of Lola walking though the front door, up the stairs and into the bathroom, we filmed all these shots with the steadycam. We then set up the tripod in the bathroom to film the rest of the shots that we needed. 

Our next hurdle had arrived: we were filming using the mirror that I had brought from my house, the next thing we needed to do was crack it, so me and Millie took it outside to do so. However, instead of cracking the whole thing smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces. This meant that we re filmed all the scenes of Lola in the bathroom mirror instead, but we could not smash it. In the end this actually looked better and far more subtly scary then it had before, as we made the mum out of focus behind her which was really creepy.

We were done with all the filming by 2:30 PM, we had filmed all the shots on the shot list and quite a few extra ones to add to the mise-en-scene.

Personally I was really happy with how the whole day went, it proved to me how well we worked together as a team especially with all the problems we faced. I think we dealt with everything really well and efficiently, and i'm exited to begin the editing process.

The Oscars.

The oscars happened tonight at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. I watched the live television broadcast on BBC 1 and it was interesting to what films were nominated and which films won the awards.


The big event of the night was the award for 'Best Actor', this was such a big deal because Leonardo Dicaprio was a favourite to win the award. Leo has been nominated to win Best Actor six times with no success, being very close each time but only just missing out. The fact that he hasn't won one before had become an internet joke, with many memes being made about it, this is why there was such controvarcy surrounding the award, and why there was huge celebrations once he had won the award. He was certainly deservant of it, here is a clip of his performance.



Brie Larson won the award for 'Best Actress' for her role in the film 'Room'. I was happy to hear this because I have watched this film recently and I think she was very deservant of this award. Here's a clip of her performance.



The film that won the 'Best Picture' was 'Spotlight' Tom McCarthy's film on how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese. This is the best award you can win in a night and it was a very split year so it could have easily gone to the other contender. “This film gave a voice to survivors and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican,” said “Spotlight” producer Michael Sugar onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The future of media.

Less and less people are tuning in to their televisions, going to the cinema and the use of CDs has almost completely died out. Why?? because there has been a revolution; a digital revolution.

Why wait one week for the next episode of your favourite show when you can watch it right now? This has been made possible by the phenominon of online streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon TV. Now you can even stream these things through a television screen, more people are failing to see the point of paying for a TV license. As for going to the cinema to watch the latest releases, illegal sites for streaming films are becoming more popular and even some legal streaming sites get the films as soon as they are released.

Recently the television channel BBC Three has moved online, despite hundreds of thousands people signing petitions and get very angry about this. Obviously the BBC thought that as it was a channel for young people and it is this group of people who primarily use the internet to watch television, that that would be the best move for the channel. This just shows how things are changing, 5 years ago the BBC would not have even considered this move.

Another thing that has changed to try and keep up with the times is iTunes, which is now called Apple Music. Many people were moving away from paying for separate albums and instead purchasing subscriptions for streaming apps such as Spotify. This meant that iTunes were losing lots of its business so they decided to make the same move to streaming and asking people to pay for a subscription.

Who knows what will happen in the future of media, but whatever happens will probably be something that we can not even imagine at the moment. Whatever does happen, we will all have to find a way to keep up with this constantly changing industry.

Preliminary Task.

We needed to film a preliminary task to practice out filming and editing techniques. We filmed a simple script which involved using a steady cam as well as a tripod.


The script is as follows:

Rachel walks into room, walks across room and sits opposite Maddy.

Maddy: Hey

Rachel: Hi

Maddy: You having school lunch today?

Rachel: yeah I am are you?

Maddy: Yeah, you want to eat together?

Rachel: Yeah sound nice, let’s go now.

Both get up and walk out.

Prop List.

Props:
Cigarette
Bath
Mirror (to then be smashed)
Make-up remover wipes 
Fake blood (for bath)

We needed to ensure that the fake blood we used would not stain the bath. We decided it would be best if we made our own (and make sure we have the correct equipment to clean it up!)
I found a recipe online for non-staining fake blood (http://fakebloodrecipes.com/2012/10/01/recipe-non-staining-fake-blood/). However to be sure we will test it beforehand.

We also need to find a cheap mirror (as we will be breaking it). However it has to look like it actually fits in with the bathroom.

*UPDATE* I found an old mirror in my basement that we will be using for our opening. I have asked consent from my parents and they have agreed that we can brake it.

The main benefit of using this mirror over a cheap one is that this one looks much more high class and would therefore fit in much better in the filming location, rather that looking like one we just put in there that doesn't fit in at all.

Analysis of thriller opening: Se7en.

The opening of 'Se7en' is very ambiguous and doesn't give you much information on the film, however i certainly believe that this works to the films advantage.

It starts with a Flash Cut watching a black and white picture with the title "Se7en" printed in white. Throughout the whole opening sequence there is no establishing shot, which is usually used at the beginning of a scene to indicate the location or setting. Instead the over-the-shoulder shot (point of view) is being used several times. The viewer has a very close look over the shoulder of a mystery character and at the things he does. This leaves open several possibilities of who the character is and therefore pulls the audience into the film, this also adds to the suspense. This extensive use of close ups serves to simultaneously absorb the audience presenting them with only a miniscule amount of detail, without allowing them to view the whole character, and attempt to decipher the message it carries. The editing technique is fast paced, with added dissolve transitions, this helps to create a notion of disconfiguration and disjointedness. The handwritten 'scratch' text used for the credits twitches and flickers in and out of shots to emphasise the disjointed and crude atmosphere of the film.

The mise-en-scene is very gloomy and eerie, this gives you an idea of the nature of the film and induces a feeling of fear in the audience. 

Moodboard: Part Two.

Moodboard: Part One.

Everyone in our group has our own vision for the mise-en-scene of the film. To ensure that the film was a combination of all our ideas, we all made separate moodboards which contained how we thought the film should look and feel. This moodboard is my one, I liked the dark twisted vibe and I included images of Kate Moss and Lana Del Rey, both figures who inspired the casting of our thriller. Luckily, both Millie and Rachel's moodboards have a simular vibe to mine, meaning that we all have the same clear vision which will make the filming and editing a much smoother process as we all have the same ideas in mind.

I have put Millie and Rachel's moodboards in 'Moodboard: Part Two'

Animatic.

Finding the Location: Part Two.

The next location that we needed was the house/bathroom. We all considered our own houses, however none of them were right as we are quite specific on how we want the setting to be. We wanted the bathroom to be the perfect size with quite an old fashioned bathroom.


Rachel came up with the idea to use her friends bathroom as it fits the brief, however the location of it was inconvenient as it was in Harrow, which was very far away from our school and and all of our houses. We then asked Rachel's boyfriend Tom who is also in our year at school; his house was the most convenient location as it is 5 minutes away from school.
His bathroom was not exactly what we wanted however we certainly thought we could make it work and the rest of his house was perfect for our opening.  

Finding the Location: Part One.

We need two locations for our opening. The first location need to be a park where we begin with the protagonist smoking a cigarette. Our group decided to go out during a free period to check out a few possible locations in the area.

Golders Hill Park

Golders hill park is the nearest park to out school. The park is mostly a hill with lots of trees and sculptures, there is also a zoo there. We liked this park, however we thought the vibe wasn't quite right as it is usually quite busy and we wanted it to be more of an open space for a more eerie feel, whereas this park has a lot going on.

Heath Extension
The Heath Extension is a much more quiet part of Hamstead heath. It has big open empty spaces which gives that Eerie feel that we are looking for.

We decided that the heath extension was the perfect location. We found a bench which is perfect for what we were looking for also it is easily accessible as it is near to school and all of our houses. We will aim to shoot it on a cold frosty day which will be the perfect atmosphere for our opening, hopefully there will also be some mist.

Fonts for our opening.

Thriller Fonts

We have been trying to find the right font for out thriller and have been looking at slightly more edgy fonts to fit the genre of thriller, we narrowed it down to 4 options. We all thought that option number 1 and number 4 are too artsy for what we want. We then had to decide between option number 2 and 3, which both fit the genre but aren't too extreme. Eventually we chose number 3, the font immediately tells the viewer what genre of film they are about to watch, without overdoing it.

1)

2)

3)

4)