Friday, 23 April 2010
Audience
We set out to target fans of the short film media, as a canvas for film experiementation as our film is experimental.
Through the content within our film, we wanted to target an entire range of society. The reason why our target audience is so broad, is because we wanted to see how different sections of society responed to the issues raised in the film.
We hope through our distribution methods to reach as many people as possible and get as many people as possible to think about fatherhood.
I think our blend of documentary and drama helps to make the film appeal to as many people as possible, as some people may have immeadiately rejected the film if they did not like documentary.
Through the content within our film, we wanted to target an entire range of society. The reason why our target audience is so broad, is because we wanted to see how different sections of society responed to the issues raised in the film.
We hope through our distribution methods to reach as many people as possible and get as many people as possible to think about fatherhood.
I think our blend of documentary and drama helps to make the film appeal to as many people as possible, as some people may have immeadiately rejected the film if they did not like documentary.
Audience Response
So far we have shown our piece to two student audience between the ages of 16 and 18. Obviously this is only one group of a much wider audience. Naturally, short films are aimed at fans of short film, but I feel that our film can also be targetted at people interested in real life issues such as fatherhood.
From our feedback I found that the majority of respondants felt that the film was understandable and that we had successfully merged documentary with drama. For example, 12 out of 15 respondants felt, after watching the film, that Drama and Documentary are a 'good combinantion in shot film'. The majority of respondants also felt that scripted drama and documentary work well within our film.
The respondants also felt that the films success was mainly down to the scipting, which, I feel, was one of the strongest aspects of our film. They felt that the script was 'to-the-point' and believable, not unrealistic, which is what we intially set out to achieve.
From our feedback I found that the majority of respondants felt that the film was understandable and that we had successfully merged documentary with drama. For example, 12 out of 15 respondants felt, after watching the film, that Drama and Documentary are a 'good combinantion in shot film'. The majority of respondants also felt that scripted drama and documentary work well within our film.
The respondants also felt that the films success was mainly down to the scipting, which, I feel, was one of the strongest aspects of our film. They felt that the script was 'to-the-point' and believable, not unrealistic, which is what we intially set out to achieve.
Influences
Before generating our initial ideas for our short film, I had watched many other short films which gave me inspiration for our film. We took inspiration for the tracking shots in the film mainly from the Short film ‘About a Girl’ by Brian Percival, which featured long tracking shots of the girl walking and talking as if directly to the audience. This is something I think we replicated well within our short film for the characters monologues. I think the main reason I wanted to replicate this technique, was because I was so impressed by the impact that ‘About a Girl’ creates. It really makes the audience feel as if the character is talking straight to them and also not holding back. Telling the audience what they are really feeling.
To see how tracking shots were used in a similar environment tot he one we were going to be filming in I looked at the music video ‘Bitterweet Symphony’ by the The Verve which was shot in a similar street to the streets we were filming in. Althoutgh for this music video the area was completely controlled, we felt we could achieve something similar on a smaller scale.
I also took took inspiration from documentaries I have watched personally, such as various Louis Theroux documentaries where the interviewer can be heard durning the interview, which is something we replicated. I was also influenced by the short film 10 Minutes by Ahmed Imanovic, which, in my opinion, presented the effectiveness of tracking shots more than any other film I have seen, and the use of the camera as a presence, as a person.
10 Minutes also shows the death of a boys parents, which may have sparked thinking about the role of parents and ultimately fathers, in a childs life.
Both 'About a Girl' and '10 Minutes' are posted below.
Bittersweet Video on Youtube cannot be embeded but the video can be seen here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3m4e45bTo
To see how tracking shots were used in a similar environment tot he one we were going to be filming in I looked at the music video ‘Bitterweet Symphony’ by the The Verve which was shot in a similar street to the streets we were filming in. Althoutgh for this music video the area was completely controlled, we felt we could achieve something similar on a smaller scale.
I also took took inspiration from documentaries I have watched personally, such as various Louis Theroux documentaries where the interviewer can be heard durning the interview, which is something we replicated. I was also influenced by the short film 10 Minutes by Ahmed Imanovic, which, in my opinion, presented the effectiveness of tracking shots more than any other film I have seen, and the use of the camera as a presence, as a person.
10 Minutes also shows the death of a boys parents, which may have sparked thinking about the role of parents and ultimately fathers, in a childs life.
Both 'About a Girl' and '10 Minutes' are posted below.
Bittersweet Video on Youtube cannot be embeded but the video can be seen here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3m4e45bTo
Characters/ Representation
I believe that our characters do reflect a diverse cross-section of society in terms of their backgrounds. We had one character who had a very strong relationship with their father and is devastated after his death, another character who is being denied access to his children by his ex-wife and truly believes not enough is being done to help him get some custody, and one final character who is pregnant and does not want to raise her children without a father. I believe that this reasonable range of experiences of fatherhood.
Some issues were raised by a minority of our respondents who felt that there was a negative representation of what they determined as ‘Black’ fathers within the film. Despite the fact that a large portion of the audience disagreed with this comment, I feel we still need to address it, as there is the potential of offending some audience members. Despite the fact that we never took the ‘colour’ of our actor’s skin into consideration, in the same way that we never considered their eye colour, when asking them to act in the film. I now see our film as an opportunity for challenging societies stereotypes and question how people determine ‘Black and White’.
Some issues were raised by a minority of our respondents who felt that there was a negative representation of what they determined as ‘Black’ fathers within the film. Despite the fact that a large portion of the audience disagreed with this comment, I feel we still need to address it, as there is the potential of offending some audience members. Despite the fact that we never took the ‘colour’ of our actor’s skin into consideration, in the same way that we never considered their eye colour, when asking them to act in the film. I now see our film as an opportunity for challenging societies stereotypes and question how people determine ‘Black and White’.
Location
The location we chose for our short film was Brick Lane in East London (E1). We wanted to film in a busy shopping area that had character and would be visually interesting as a backdrop for our monologues. After I went on a location scout trip of the area I identified that the main street, brick lane, was far too busy to be able to film successfully without the public getting in the way. However I noticed that there were a dozen side streets that were much quieter but still had shops and cafes. I also noted that we needed to film on a weekday morning as this was the quietist time for the area as most consumers are at work. Weekends were far too busy and it needed to be morning as most workers take their lunch between 12.00 and15.00. As a result we decided to film between 10.00 and 12.00 which worked perfectly for us and we were only interrupted twice by vehicles passing.
One response we had to Brick Lane as a location was that it appeared ‘Urban’, with graffiti on the walls and litter in the streets, which, for some people, created a gritty and ‘street’ appearance which was then reflected upon the characters, and that this meant that all of our characters were from the same area. This was unintentional and I do not completely agree, I feel that the area simply represents a popular shopping location within London that is visited by a whole range of people from different backgrounds on a shopping trip, and actually is one place where people of different backgrounds integrate to do their shopping.
I feel that our locations for our interviews were good. They were visually interesting and are neutral that is the environment that the interviewees are surrounded by; do not necessarily reflect aspects of their personality.
One response we had to Brick Lane as a location was that it appeared ‘Urban’, with graffiti on the walls and litter in the streets, which, for some people, created a gritty and ‘street’ appearance which was then reflected upon the characters, and that this meant that all of our characters were from the same area. This was unintentional and I do not completely agree, I feel that the area simply represents a popular shopping location within London that is visited by a whole range of people from different backgrounds on a shopping trip, and actually is one place where people of different backgrounds integrate to do their shopping.
I feel that our locations for our interviews were good. They were visually interesting and are neutral that is the environment that the interviewees are surrounded by; do not necessarily reflect aspects of their personality.
Editing
Because of the way we filmed our short film, with long tracking shots, we did not have much to do during the editing stage of the project. I choose the best tracking shot for each of the characters we filmed and cut them down for the film. After we had then discussed which parts of the interviews we wanted to use, based on what we felt was most relevant, I cut the questions and added them to the film. However when we initially watched the interviews through, after adding the cutaways to create a clean transition between questions. We thought that the interviews seemed bland the way they were and seemed very slow when put alongside the monologues. We then decided to use jump cuts, rather than cutaways to make the interviews more interesting as well as increase their pace so that they fitted in with the fast pace of the monologues.
We also changed the title, after the first titles we chose alongside the films name 'Baba Yangu', created an 'African' style that confused the audience, who thought the film may have something to do with Africa and Swahili language. We subsequently changed the text to a simple white text which lessened the confusion. We did not change the title however as we had positive responses from our original pitch regarding the title, as it creates interest. Also having ‘My Father’ instead as the title would create pre conceptions within the audience as to what the film would be about for everyone how cannot read Swahili.
We also changed the title, after the first titles we chose alongside the films name 'Baba Yangu', created an 'African' style that confused the audience, who thought the film may have something to do with Africa and Swahili language. We subsequently changed the text to a simple white text which lessened the confusion. We did not change the title however as we had positive responses from our original pitch regarding the title, as it creates interest. Also having ‘My Father’ instead as the title would create pre conceptions within the audience as to what the film would be about for everyone how cannot read Swahili.
Camera
As the cameraman for the shoot I faced great difficulty as I was required to film whilst walking backwards. This was difficult as I had to make sure that the character was in frame and the camera was steady enough to not be distracting to the audience. At the same time we did not want the camera to be perfectively steady as we wanted to create the feeling that, 'you', the audience were the camera and were walking alongside the character being talked too. This took a few takes to get perfect for every character but I feel I achieved this well enough. I believe the tracking shots make the film much more visually interesting than filming a static character, sitting down for example. I also feel that the movement in the dramatic monologues, in contrast to the static nature of the camera during the interview, helped reinforce the divide between reality and drama within the film, for the audience.
Despite being static I feel that the interviews are still visually interesting and the locations are generally vibrant in both. We used interesting angles for the interviews, generally using low angles for both to create our own visual style and make the interviews more interesting to look at, and when the angle is more interesting it is easier to engage with the interviewee.
Despite being static I feel that the interviews are still visually interesting and the locations are generally vibrant in both. We used interesting angles for the interviews, generally using low angles for both to create our own visual style and make the interviews more interesting to look at, and when the angle is more interesting it is easier to engage with the interviewee.
Sound/ Music
We had some problems with sound within our short film. The main problem occurred during the shoot with the wind, which was being picked up heavily in the boom mic that we needed to use because of the nature of our filming. In hindsight, I cannot really see how we would have avoided this problem as we had a very tight schedule, and, since we only had permission to film on certain days, were at the mercy of the weather. If, in the future, I was making a film with more time on my hands I would allow extra time for filming just in case the wind was a problem, or have equipment that can reduce the sound of the wind. Apart from this though I think we handled the sound during the shoot well. I had headphones in during the shoot to make sure that the Actors could be heard clearly. I also feel that we filmed successfully in a busy urban environment by shooting in the less busy streets, but still picking up the ambience of the main hustle and bustle of Brick Lane, which I planned in advance from when doing the location scouting.
I also feel we chose good music for the introduction titles of the film as the music was engaging. I also edited the music so that it was in time with the text which made the titles more visually interesting. The music used at the end of the film is also effective in my opinion as it provokes emotion and brings in the seriousness of the film.
I also feel we chose good music for the introduction titles of the film as the music was engaging. I also edited the music so that it was in time with the text which made the titles more visually interesting. The music used at the end of the film is also effective in my opinion as it provokes emotion and brings in the seriousness of the film.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Distribution
The best way to get a short film distributed at the moment is on the internet. Baba Yangu is already available on popular video websites Vimeo and Youtube, which makes the film easily available to anyone with an internet connection. We have also posted our film on Facebook, which is a uber popular social networking site, which allows for video sharing within a vast online community. Our short film has also been distributed on DVD within the Brit School Media department, which whilst being a much more expensive way of getting our film out to an audience, is still a form of distribution.
We can also enter our film into online competitions. For example we are currently thinking about entering Baba Yangu into the 'Future Shorts' competitions which is currently taking entries.
We have entered our film into the BBC Film network which is a portal for films where filmakers such as myself can get feedback and possibly recognition for the films we have made.
We can also enter our film into online competitions. For example we are currently thinking about entering Baba Yangu into the 'Future Shorts' competitions which is currently taking entries.
We have entered our film into the BBC Film network which is a portal for films where filmakers such as myself can get feedback and possibly recognition for the films we have made.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
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