Film
Reflective Evaluation Tom Slade
I took the role
as Director in my film and learnt a lot from being it. My friend max, which has
had a lot experience with drama theatrical work, played the character Mors. He
could be a bit of a challenge at time because he was very demanding wanting to
know where, when and how we are going to shot it before I even casted him as
Mors. The other actor I considered to be Mors was my friend Tyler. I had them
both separately read out a part of my story to me to see who fit the character
more. It was a hard decision because they both delivered it in their own
dramatized way. I decided upon Max because he seemed to create more mystery and
enigma than Tyler did. It was an easy decision for Fratris, My acting friend
Dan who was quiet and moody. I had acted with Dan lots of times so I knew his
strengths and weaknesses. I soon gave Max his script straight after
casting him and gave Dan one as well.
The shooting
was shot over two days. The first day was max's scene with him collecting the
letter sent from Fratris through the teleportation box. The second day of
shooting was Dan's scene which was him sending the letter to Mors through the
teleportation box. The actors didn't actually have to meet over the two days
which made it easier for me with matters of transporting the actors and the
equipment in my car. The post production was done over three days. My friend
Sebastian Black helped me edit the film into a coherent stream of footage. I
gave him a lift back home and a hard drive case in return for his help.
Sebastian and I used Premier Pro to edit the film. We intertwined the scenes
together to construct a deeper and more complex narrative and we reduced the colour
in Dan's scene and made the colour red pop out. The teleportation box was red
so I wanted it to stand out in the scene. This box played a significant part in
the narrative of the film because this was the only way that the two characters
could communicate. Therefore I needed it to be clear to the audience that this
box was integral to the development of the narrative.
I learnt from
last year that dialogue is not needed as much as I thought. In my previous film
last year there included a scene entailing a long winded conversation between
the protagonist and his friend. Not only did this conversation take a long time
for the actors to learn but it also took a long time trying to shot it because
of the multiple mistakes from the actors and myself. Therefore I decided that
only one of the characters should speak and have little dialogue. The two lines
spoken are from Fratris: (played by Dan) "You can come home now
brother" and "Done". The rest of the actor's performances are
through their body language and their facial expressions. Not much dialogue is
needed for the plot to advance because I made sure that it's not what the
characters say but what they do, their actions that matter.
Now I am aware
that the audience may not perceive this to be a fantasy. This is because of the
common conventions that encompass the fantasy genre. I have already mentioned
some of them previously. But just like I mentioned earlier as well I have
included different worlds and two mysterious characters with equally mysterious
names and a box that can teleport objects. These factors, in my opinion, have
constructed it be fantasy.
In the scene
where Mors receives the letter from Fratris I decided to shoot it in a thick
dense forest. The first shot was an angled up wide shot of the canopy. It
involved the silhouette of interweaving tree branches, which contrasted with
the white of the sky. I wanted the shot to look like a prison encapsulating
Mors with all of the branches and trees surrounding him. This differs from what
the usual theme of forests would be being peace.
In conclusion I
have learnt a lot from this film project. Such as the issue with actors and
them learning the script, carting around equipment with transport, the dilemma
of scraping a film idea and still keep to the film schedule and audience's
mixed responses to my film. I dealt with these problems successfully and have deepened
my knowledge on film production. The micro feature of mes en scene
cinematography differs from a common fantasy but still provide the conventions
of a fantasy but in a more modest way.
Film
Reflective Evaluation Tom Slade
This film
project has been the more difficult one out of the two. It involved me
scrapping my initial idea and using a story, I had personally written when I
was in year 12. The film's world involved a huge amount of detail and I
definitely didn't have enough time, in my five minute film, to show the entire
story. It's called Mors and has elements of a fantasy. It didn't have obvious
mes en scene factors like warrior clothing, swords and castles in a fantasy but
it did involve a different world where the character of Mors was trapped and
his Brother, Fratris, was trying to save him. Now you might think that these
names are strange but there is meaning behind why I chose these names. Mors in
Latin means death and Fratris in Latin means Brother. I was inspired by the
usage of Latin words in the Harry Potter series to have secret meanings and
signs. The reasoning behind why Mors is called Mors is because I wanted it to
hint to people that there might be an air of mystery surrounding Mors.
I took the role
as Director in my film and learnt a lot from being it. My friend max, which has
had a lot experience with drama theatrical work, played the character Mors. He
could be a bit of a challenge at time because he was very demanding wanting to
know where, when and how we are going to shot it before I even casted him as
Mors. The other actor I considered to be Mors was my friend Tyler. I had them
both separately read out a part of my story to me to see who fit the character
more. It was a hard decision because they both delivered it in their own
dramatized way. I decided upon Max because he seemed to create more mystery and
enigma than Tyler did. It was an easy decision for Fratris, My acting friend
Dan who was quiet and moody. I had acted with Dan lots of times so I knew his
strengths and weaknesses. I soon gave Max his script straight after
casting him and gave Dan one as well.
The shooting
was shot over two days. The first day was max's scene with him collecting the
letter sent from Fratris through the teleportation box. The second day of
shooting was Dan's scene which was him sending the letter to Mors through the
teleportation box. The actors didn't actually have to meet over the two days
which made it easier for me with matters of transporting the actors and the
equipment in my car. The post production was done over three days. My friend
Sebastian Black helped me edit the film into a coherent stream of footage. I
gave him a lift back home and a hard drive case in return for his help.
Sebastian and I used Premier Pro to edit the film. We intertwined the scenes
together to construct a deeper and more complex narrative and we reduced the colour
in Dan's scene and made the colour red pop out. The teleportation box was red
so I wanted it to stand out in the scene. This box played a significant part in
the narrative of the film because this was the only way that the two characters
could communicate. Therefore I needed it to be clear to the audience that this
box was integral to the development of the narrative.
I learnt from
last year that dialogue is not needed as much as I thought. In my previous film
last year there included a scene entailing a long winded conversation between
the protagonist and his friend. Not only did this conversation take a long time
for the actors to learn but it also took a long time trying to shot it because
of the multiple mistakes from the actors and myself. Therefore I decided that
only one of the characters should speak and have little dialogue. The two lines
spoken are from Fratris: (played by Dan) "You can come home now
brother" and "Done". The rest of the actor's performances are
through their body language and their facial expressions. Not much dialogue is
needed for the plot to advance because I made sure that it's not what the
characters say but what they do, their actions that matter.
Now I am aware
that the audience may not perceive this to be a fantasy. This is because of the
common conventions that encompass the fantasy genre. I have already mentioned
some of them previously. But just like I mentioned earlier as well I have
included different worlds and two mysterious characters with equally mysterious
names and a box that can teleport objects. These factors, in my opinion, have
constructed it be fantasy.
In the scene
where Mors receives the letter from Fratris I decided to shoot it in a thick
dense forest. The first shot was an angled up wide shot of the canopy. It
involved the silhouette of interweaving tree branches, which contrasted with
the white of the sky. I wanted the shot to look like a prison encapsulating
Mors with all of the branches and trees surrounding him. This differs from what
the usual theme of forests would be being peace.
In conclusion I
have learnt a lot from this film project. Such as the issue with actors and
them learning the script, carting around equipment with transport, the dilemma
of scraping a film idea and still keep to the film schedule and audience's
mixed responses to my film. I dealt with these problems successfully and have deepened
my knowledge on film production. The micro feature of mes en scene
cinematography differs from a common fantasy but still provide the conventions
of a fantasy but in a more modest way.
