Evaluation- Distribution

We have decided to distribute our short film on the Internet as its the quickest and easiest way to contact as many company's as we can. Our film has already been uploaded to Vimeo and Youtube, we can promote the film being on these to sites through 'word of mouth' or by promoting them on networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

We can also submit our short film to some online distribution outlets and contact a sponsor which in our case would be the TFL company who run the Cabwise campaign.

http://www.withoutabox.com/ is an easy way of entering a number of film festivals at once so when our film is completed we will sign up to this website and apply.

Here I have started to fill out our short film 'PREY's details, Withoutabox ask for the films title in English, Spanish, French and German. They also ask for what category the film comes under and who its targeted at.

Evaluation- Audience

I believe our short film targets every type of audience but reaches out to young adults more as they will feel they can relate to the main character and are more likely to have been through a similar type of situation as her.

Techniques we have used help to reinforce this onto the audience for example, content of our film suits a certain audience as we show young girls dressed up in dresses and /heels, there is also alcohol and a pub. The main content of the short film is aimed at the audience to educate them on how to be more safe when on a night out as we illustrate the horrors of what could happen if they do not take control of how they are going to get home and the danger that they could be putting themselves into.

Our pace of editing changes at different points in the short film to show the feeling our main character is expressing for example when she is getting ready we have sped up a few shots to show the excitement she's feeling and then when her and Hollie are in the pub drinking we made the shots slow down to show the slowness of her reactions and that she isn’t in control of everything’s she’s doing anymore.

Our script illustrates our shocking story by surprising the audience; I started off writing the script in colloquial language to make the film more realistic and for our audience to relate more to her, Felicity starts off simply talking about the events of her night out. I made sure that the language suggests that these events happened last night so the audience get an understanding of the time scale.


Felicity tells her story directly to the camera as if she is talking to her friend which engages the audience as the script builds up the tension to make us wonder what the point of her story is. This tension builds throughout as she goes from talking about getting dressed, her journey to the pub, talking to old men in the pub, getting too drunk and then having her friend book a cab home for her. This is when the pace of the script slows down more and we get a feeling that something’s wrong. Felicity’s body language changes as she speaks slower, starts to fiddle more and doesn’t look directly at the camera as much as before.

This adds more tension to when we find out the horror to her story, as she describes her clothes being ripped and we assume the cab driver rapes her.

After presenting our short film to the year 12 class, we got them to fill out the questionnaire we designed. From looking back at their answers I can see where we could have improved and what went down well with the audience for example, the majority of the class liked the fact that for the opening of our short film we had the start of Felicity’s dialogue with no visual and then faded into the shot of her on the sofa.

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There was a mixture of answers of what the audience thought could had been more effective which were that there could have been more alternative shots, I agree with this completely. The rest of the audience felt it was a really good piece.

The storyline was made perfectly clear but some of the audience felt that music would have added to the atmosphere in the short film.

Also more of the audience agreed with our decision of not filming the actual attack as one of the students wrote 'It makes you think, which is good'. As for the last question there was a mixture of preference to what everyone felt was most effective in our film which is good as it shows most elements of our film were filmed and edited effectively.

Overall I like the feedback we received from the year 12 audience and agree with their comments, there comments will help with future projects I work on like this for example I will look into using the right type of music to create an atmosphere and mood for certain scenes.

To help promote and get a mixture of feedback for my film I can use new media methods for example, Facebook, Vimeo and Youtube where the film can be watched and people can leave comments about what they thought.

After posting the short film to Facebook I got these comments,

Youtube:bettay91 Loved it!I like that you didn't have a

soundtrack playing in the background -

made it seem more 'real', as if you were going on the night

out with her...Loved the close up shot of the cabby

- creaaapy! You really don't expect the ending,

really built it up well because she starts up all happy and chirpy...

only constructive thing i can think of is...

to have music playing in the shot where you are dancing,

but all in all wicked ladies!Love Bethan :) x

The comments reflect all of the feedback we have received from our short film and I am very pleased with the feedback as a whole

Evaluation- Influences

The short films we were shown in class and researched ourselves have influenced my ideas and ways of filming our short film. However one short film in particular has really inspired our films structure which is 'About A Girl'.





In terms of narrative 'About a girl' has influenced the monologue for our short film and also some of the way the film has been edited, I wrote the monologue using colloquial language like the main character in 'About A Girl' her language is shocking at first but then it suits her and we get an insight into her background and life, we aimed to do this in our monologue for example when Felicity says "She is such a spoily brat sometimes" she is breaking the 4th wall as if the audience are friends of hers.

Our use of camera was also inspired by the short film, we took the fact that the main character in 'About a girl' talks to the camera as we felt it made the audience connect with the character more which is the feeling we were trying to portray in our short film.












The structure of our short film is also similar to 'About a girl' as we have 1 main character and a main setting or action for example, Felicity sitting on the sofa telling her story and then like in 'About a girl' there are flashbacks and shots from different situations that relate to what she is talking about. To make ours different, for most of our flashbacks there are no diagetic sounds and we just hear Felicity's monologue carrying on throughout.

During the inspiration week me Lavinia and Ali liked the game where we looked at different pictures and then had to make a short film synopsis from them and this is exactly what Ali did when we saw this poster.





We all agreed on the concept and thought that our short film will also be giving out a positive message and warning people about the issue of unbooked and unlicensed mini cabs.

Evaluation- Completed Short Film

Prey-Vimeo Settings HD from BDC on Vimeo

From looking back at my final piece I think that the framing of our shots worked nicely as we always made sure that our actresses were the main focus but had a appropriate setting in the background for example the pub scene where Felicity and Hollie are talking to the man we have a clear and intimate shot with the bar behind and a few people in the background so it appears even more realistic.

We only used diagetic sound in our film as we wanted to keep it really realistic. Sound wasn't a main feature of our film as we did not use background music. This works well in most of the film but I feel that if we did show more shots in the cab and of the attack we could have used some chilling music to more fear to the film.

I think our actress and script worked really well together as she was very engaging and makes the audience at first just think shes a bubbly girl talking about her night out and we just think we are going to hear some gossip but then as the film goes on she uses great acting skills to change the audiences mode and create tension in the audience as we can tell something bad happens to her.

We wanted use of colour in our short film to reflect our main characters feelings at that time, for example during the monolouge scene we have filmed her purposley in a room with white walls, white sofa and a white top. The use of white in the scene represents the pureness and innocence of Felicity as its the day after the attack we see her vunerabilty and at first feel she is an innocent girl but the contrast is that she has actually been taken advantage of.

The colouring of the flashbacks of when Felicity is on Midholm road and walks home is a nice contrast to the rest of the shots and expresses a different feeling

From learning about short films and analysing all types I have realised that there are no set codes and conventions to short films. However there are certain things you can include to make your short film more engaging and effective for example a mixture of shots make the film more visually exciting to watchn and a good actor/actress is essential to keep an audience engaged.

I feel that we should have filmed more footage of the night as it would of made the film more visually exciting. We could have also had a better ending for example I would have like to have titles and credits at the end of our film which would have informed people of who acted in the film, who made the film, and what locations contributed to the film.

My contribution throughout the short film process was mainly equal to Ali and Lavinia's. In the preparation stages I along with Ali helped to find our actresses and I also wrote the monologue and then gave to Lavinia to look over and improve. I also did the mood board and storyboard for the short film along with the inspiration behind the film and the locations information.

We made a few changes to our original plan we wanted to shoot the pub scene in a club in Croydon originally but this was proven difficult as we couldnt always get hold of the clubs managers and space for our camera and equipment in the club was limited and dangerous. Also originally we wanted to have 2 more female characters to make it feel more of a night out along with filming Felicity waiting and getting into the mini cab.

PREY Questionairre for year 12's

1.To open our short film we started with a black screen with the main character starting her dialouge and then faded to the shot of her on the sofa talking, do you like this opening of our short film, if not do you have an idea of what could have been more effective?

Yes No

What could have been more effective:

2.‘Our goal was to show young people the dangers of getting into unlicensed cabs and to advise people to organise safer travel arrangements prior to a night out’

Did our storyline illustrate our aim suitably?

Yes No Could have been made clearer

3.For the flashback scene of Felicity walking home after the attack did the experimentation with colour give the scene a good effect?

Yes No

4.Do you think the use of music would have added more to our short film?

Yes No

Reason Why:

5.We purposley didn’t include footage of the attack do you think withholding this scene makes the film more powerful? Or do you think it would have been more powerful with it?

With Without

6.In terms of entertainment, What did you find most effective in our short film and why?

Use of camera shots Locations Sound Actors Visual Effects

Reason Why:

PREY- Visual Style

We want to raise awareness about this issue, and have taken some ideas from 'About a girl' as the audience think everything is happy but then at the end we realise that something horific has happened to her.

We were also inspired by the billboard advert seen outside,



We have looked at different cab short films and adverts to influence our shots and style of filming,

PREY- Exhibition

For exhibition of our short film I have looked at different charitys, competitions and campaigns.

Cabwise-





Has been created by TFL (Travel for London) as a safe way for people to travel home, with the rise of unlicensed cabs. The government has set up cabwise, all you have to do is text 'CAB' to '60835' and you will be sent back 1 taxi and 2 local licensed minicab services. You can do this before you go out which will save you waiting for the numbers when you want to go home.

We thought that if we approached the company we could send them our short film and see what they think and they could even use it for their campaign.

For distribution, exhibition, sales and consultancy we will email the company 'Dazzle Films' who may be able to give us some help with our Short Film.

Withoutabox
Also is an easy way of entering a number of film festivals at once so when our film is completed we will sign up to this website and apply.

Film network
We will also submit our film to the BBC Film Network website by joining creating a membership. This will be good exposure as we can send the link around to peers and proffesionals which will look good to add to our portfolio.

PREY- Target Audience

PREY

Me, Ali and Lavinia have come up with our idea for a short film about the dangers of unlicensed cabs. We came up with a main character who is a typical 18-19 year old female teenager who is always out clubbing, In our film she is sitting telling the audience about her night out, She is happy and we as the audience just think we are hearing about a good night shes had.

We see some flashbacks from her at the club and stumbling out of the club into a cab. We then see her talking again but the camera pans to the side of her face and shockingly we see bruises and scratches on her face, we then realise that she has been abused by the cab man.

Bibliography

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/7576.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/submit/

http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/community_people_and_living/police

https://www.withoutabox.com/login/3895

http://www.dazzlefilms.co.uk/

http://golondon.about.com/od/londontransport/qt/cabwise.htm

The 4 Narrative Theories

Tzvetan Todorov- Equilibrium/disequilibrium

An equilibrium is where any opposing forces are 'in balance' in Todorvs theory an equilibrium is defined at the beginning of a story.


Claude Levi-Strauss- Binary opposites



Vladimir Propp- Morphology of the Fairytale 1928



Roland Barthes- The five codes



BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.primary-film-focus.co.uk/narrative.html

INSPIRATION WEEK- Lesson 3

In todays lesson there were 4 tables set up with pieces of paper on them, we had to get into groups of 3's or 4's and go round to each table coming up with a short film that is inspired by the different things on each table.

The Goldfish.

Me and Ali came up with this idea from looking at a number of images on a piece of paper miss had given to us in the lesson. Out of the pictures we chose the goldfish, old man and little girl. We came up with,

Synopsis:
A loving grandfather goes to the pet shop on the way to visit his granddaughter. He picks up a goldfish as a surprise but then a phone call changes his life and the only thing he has left to look after is Lucy’s goldfish.

Characters:
Jim (Grandfather)
Lucy (Grandaughter)
Loose (Goldfish)
Ideas:
The sound will be non diagetic thoughts going on in Jims head and we will hear a conversation that happened earlier on between Jim and Lucy. We also don’t hear that Lucy died the audience can just tell by the way he reacts to the call after that she is dead.

Binary Opposites:
Old vs Young
Death vs Alive
Animal vs Human


The next table was art work, we chose a picture of a dinning table empty with 4 chairs and a shining light bulb on top. We imagined a disfunctional family who do not get along and all live individual lives and dont work together as a family, but we used the lightbulb as symbolism for a new arrival which then ends up bringing the family together.

The other tables had song lyrics, newspaper stories and poems. Me and Lavinia looked a poem by Wendy Cope called 'Advice to young women' it was about her being in her 40's and not married.

We came up with an idea that was culturally contrasting the poem,

Synopsis:
40 year old Sunita is an outsider from her traditional Indian family, the arranged marriage her sister is having means she has to be around them but has the pain of watching something at her age she is meant to have.

Ideas:
The short film will be based around an Indian arranged marriage, the camera is seen through Sunita's eyes as the family ignores her at the wedding and preporation stages. The poem is then said as a monolouge when Sunita is sitting watching her sister walk down the aisle and everyone looking so proud and happy for her.

Characters:
Main character- Sunita
Younger sister- Zainab
Mother- Sabrina
Abrar- Zainabs husband

Binary Opposites:
Single vs Married
Togetherness vs Neglection
Old vs Young
Love vs Dislike

INSPIRATION WEEK- Lesson 2

Postcards.

In todays lesson miss had another way of thinking of short film ideas, this was a book she had where people wrote postcards to theauthor telling their secrets. Everyone was given a sheet of 3 and had to pick one secret and make a short film out of that secret, I chose " I am afraid of capri pants"

I chose ................


Then after this activity we had to then write on a postcard our secret and then draw a picture to match it on the back of the postcard. Everyone then swapped them around and we then had to write a synopsis for whatever secret we ended up with and wrote on the postcard who we thought it was for. On my postcard my secret was "I like to write down my dreams" and the one I recieved was "I kissed a girl and I liked it".

This activity was fun but also inspirational as it is a very simple way of creating a short film story from just one simple secret.

INSPIRATION WEEK- Lesson 1

Our first lesson this week was based on games and different techniques and ways of creating a small narative. One of the techniques was a game using a piece of paper, Miss told us first to write down a mans name and what his occupation is, I wrote down,
" His name is Stan and he is a cleaner" everyone then had to fold there piece of paper over to hide this but still have more room for other people to write on it.

Next you have to swap your papers around and then write the name of a woman and her occupation, this routine continues writting,

-How the man and woman meet
-A piece of dialouge
-A situation/piece of action that happens
-An ending to the story

When my original sheet was given back my story looked like this,

His name is Stan he is a cleaner

Her name is Jacky and she is in the pub industry

The both of them met at the zoo one summer, They get chatting when they were wearing the same outfit.

"How could you do that, Say sorry now" She declared.

He tries to help her but pulls to hard and breaks her ankel.

She gives birth to a baby girl, calls her Daisy and they live happily ever after.

We then had to write a synopsis for the short film we ended up with mine was,

"The story of two simple lives coliding together to create the perfect love story. Stan the cleaner and Jacky the pub waitress both need a break from their hectic lives so escape to the zoo where they both find true love,but what does it cost them to get there?"