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.

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.

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.

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.

The Completed Short Film - 'Baba Yangu' (My Father)

Baba Yangu DV-Vimeo Settings HD from BDC on Vimeo.

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.

Evaluation - Completed Short Film