Evaluation

My overall experience for this piece was both challenging and a thrill. 

Challenges for me was flirstly deciding on what idea I was gonna go for as I didn't want to do story's that have been done a number of times before for example teens with drink or drug problems. It took a few weeks before I finally decided to settle with the child/teen abuse which turned out to be a good decision. 

Another challenge I faced was the problem with replacing both a crew member and my actress as it was such short notice and I was afraid that I would have to reschule giving me less time to edit. But as you can see from my previous post I was able to get replacement without any real problems.

Thrills I got from this actually came after I had filmed as I was pleased with the footage I got and I was excited to get to the editing stage the start piecing it together and adding the edicts to make it the way I imagined it.

If I was to do this again I would make sure I have a more reliable crew so I wouldn't have to find any replacements. I would also start my research for the sound effects I wanted sooner meaning I wouldn't feel rushed for time as I did coming up to the deadline.

But overall I really enjoyed working on this piece and believe the odds played in my favour which I was pleased about. I hope when it comes to the screening people will enjoy it so I know my hard work has paid off and it was all worth it.

Music

Now being in the editing stage I realise that the hard work isn't over that I now have to go and find the correct soundtrack and sound effect to help make this piece come together and to give it that extra bit of emotion. 

So my main source for sound is YouTube as now a days you can listen to soundtracks from movies even get sound effect from clips from tv shows/movies and it's free to download which makes it even better.

My first idea was to actually et the tv commercials for barnardos and use some effect from that for example "break the cycle" I decide to use to small the girl receives from her daddy giving my slap that sense of realism and having a male voice in the background also helps tell my audience that this is a male figure in her life that is doing this to her.

I then found a clip from a tv show called the unloved, and a Clip I used from this was when the daddy is shouting at his daughter asking her where the money is that he gave her to get him cigarettes but the girl has lost the money, not believe her the daddy gets angry and takes his anger out on her. From this clip I use her voice saying sorry and getting upset then I use the daddy's voice whenever he begins to get anger.

For other sound effects I decided to include hospital heart monitor and the sound of sirens to help the audience become aware that this girl is actually in trouble and has been badly abused.

Music was my hardest challenge especially for the scene when the girl is running away because I didn't want it to be scaring for example tones like the shower scene from hitchcocks movie psycho with the high pitch violins wasn't ideal. I also didn't want anything too action as they tend to be upbeat for example the car chase in Wanted wouldn't work. So basically my ideal piece of music would be more from the thriller genre which I eventually found after a long search. Surprisingly I found a perfect soundtrack from one of the movie series Bourne. This clip was perfect as it was a low pitch cello which gradually got faster and as it got faster more I instruments were added e.g drums.

Another movie with an I sprig sound track was narnia, the lion the witch and the wardrobe. This match well for the start of my piece as they are both magically world that Children tend to escape to.

For the part when the danger starts to come in I decided to take a song from a classi Halloween film Hocus Pocus, and this was the song the witch Sarah sang to make to children follow her. I thought this would suit my piece as the girl goes and searches for the source of the song which eventually leds to danger.

Days of shoot

Looking back on both days of shooting I would say they both went pretty well and looking back on the footage I believe I got some pretty good footage to hopefully create the image I see in my head.

Day 1
Before I start on what happened on the actual day I want to just reflect on the issues I encountered two days before. The first issues was with my crew, my camera man wasn't in contact and was away home (out of Belfast) over the Easter break, so I had to get a last minute replacement and thankfully another boy (Matt) out of my class was not only able to come and shoot for me but also bring his own sound equipment which I was finding difficultly getting my hands on. Even though he had another shoot that day and we were on a bit of a time limit he stayed for the whole thing and we were able to complete the main parts on the first day and get better sound quality of the forest atmosphere on his equipment.
The second issue which was the big one that worried me because I went to so much trouble to replace my camera man, my actress had to drop out the day before shooting which meant I had to find a quick replacement also keeping in mind that the replacement would need to be a good psychical actress as that's what the performance was based on, it was how the story was told. However thanks to my past I was able to contact a friend (Laura), who I studied drama with and had worked with before in my A level moving image piece. So knowing how able to act and knowing her well as a person I was lucky to get her at such short notice and on both days she did a fantastic job.

So on terms of the first day shoot everything went smoothing, the weather was great, the location was empty so there was no interruptions and the cast and crew worked for 5 hours or more non stop and we were able to get all the forest scenes done with Matt being present. After we had lunch there was just myself, Laura and my other crew member (Eamon) left and we were able to get the house, abuse scene done in 2 hours meaning I had the whole structure of my film done.


Day 2
The second was mainly pick up shot and stuff I wanted to re-shoot as there were a few scene, mainly the abusive parts that I thought could have been a lot more violent and that's the key to getting the message of my story across. So Laura was happy to perform again but this time I had to control the camera myself as Matt and Eamon were busy on there own stuff which wasn't to big of an issue as I was happy to make to the shots as I seen them not  the way someone else did.
But once again the weather was brilliant similar to the first day so good continuation. We were able to complete the whole shoot in both location (forest and house) within 4-5 hours and I was able to look back at what I recorded then and there and see if it needed to do it again or not meaning I would have to come back to re-shoot for the third time.  

So overall I was very happy with my production shoots, on the days everything went smoothing there were no real complications and I didn't have my cast and crew waiting about for too long, keeping both them ad me happy.

Youtube and Poems

Since you tube has became the number one website to search for videos to music and sound effect I thought I would look up different short films to see if I could get any inspiration. I looked up abuse, fairy tale, magical anything I thought would relate to my piece. I eventually came across this short film which I thought showed my vision of my piece perfectly.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtCBmq9w2_o


This video gave me the idea for having the fantasy surreal part of my film as bright and colorful then when it came to the abusive scenes the darken it down to show the contrast between reality and fictional.
However instead of using the colors in the dress of the main character i decided to use white to represent pure and innocence and use the environment around her bring color to the scenes.

The opening to this film is something I hope to  achieve not only through the editing stage with the use of flares but also by using the natural light through the trees in my location.

Unlike this film I plan to use voice overs rather than on screen dialogue to keep the number of visible characters to one to help keep the attention on the main character as it is her story. I have found a poem to help open up the scene and introduce the fact that the forest isn't a real place. I am still debating whether to use the whole poem or not but I thinking when it comes to the editing stages and I see my footage all pieced together I will have a better idea.

Secret Garden

© Catrin Hitchcock

I have a secret garden,

Where I can laugh and play.
I have a secret garden,
Often it's there I stay.

I have a secret garden,
No one else knows its location,
I have a secret garden,
That's gone through a transformation.

My secret Garden used to be,
An average unkempt garden,
It wasn't the place for me,
With all bonfire wood chard and,
No where I could sit,
Or admire the imaginary view.

I grew that garden,
I planted I have a secret garden, Often it's there I stay.
I have a secret garden, No one else knows its location, I have a secret garden, That's gone through a transformation.

My secret Garden used to be, An average unkempt garden, It wasn't the place for me, With all bonfire wood chard and, No where I could sit, Or admire the imaginary view.
I grew that garden, I planted flowers every where,
I made that garden,
With little gnomes here and there.

But as I grow old,
So does my secret place.
Flowers withered,
Weeds grow
Gone is the jackdaw,
Gone is the crow.

This was my secret garden,
I played here as I child,
But now as I stare,
Over my secret garden,
I only hope one day,
Another child may put my garden,
To repair....
I made that garden, With little gnomes here and there.
But as I grow old, So does my secret place. Flowers withered, Weeds grow Gone is the jackdaw, Gone is the crow.
This was my secret garden, I played here as I child, But now as I stare, Over my secret garden, I only hope one day, Another child may put my garden, To repair....
Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/secret-garden#ixzz2zR6vX2XH 
Family Friend Poems 

Reflection on Pitch

Whenever I made my pitch for my film I wanted to give it through a straight forward, to the point PowerPoint presentation as I believe putting it on a bigger scale rather a a piece of paper will allow me to engage with the people more and give it my own touch rather than having a load of words on a piece of paper.

So to begin with I finally decided to called my piece, "It's Over", as its a significant piece of text within the piece as its the only words we hear the girl say and this is when we see the girls escape from nightmare. So I think whenever I explained the meaning behind the title I got a good reaction from it because it doesn't even too much away and it isn't until the end where you understand the meaning of it which means the audience will be kept in suspense.

I then went on to describe what style I was planning on shooting in as I wanted it to be on the thin line of it being between the real world and a fairy tale, fantasy world. I explained how I wanted the real world to be like the barnardo adverts as it was the thing that gave me my idea :

 So dark, dirty

Girl is a mess








then I showed a photo of what I meant by the fairy tale world:

 So the light coming through the trees

 The sun that hides parts of the girl

The reflection from the river








After giving these examples and explaining the contrast of the two worlds I believe I done well as they began asking me of the locations and seemed happy enough with my ideas.

I then introduce my actress Megan McDowell, age 20. This was a girl I had previous worked with so I know what type of actress she is and believe she will fit into my characters role perfectly as she even looks the part.  Whenever I mentioned her available being good and the fact I trust her to not drop out gave my piece a great bonus as it meant I was able to get the job done and get it done right.  

Moving  on to my crew I had photos and the role each person was to carry out and having this organised and showing I had a team to support me showed I was ready to get started and not waste any more time.

Overall I believe I gave a well presented, professional and well informed pitch. I even had all my back up research to show I had looked into the topic at hand and wasn't just going on a hunch. If I was to do this again I would however add a few more photos and put a bit more text to show I wasn't making it up on the spot however still keeping it short enough to stay within the time limit.

Research

So now that I've changed to the teen abuse I thought a bit of research into the charities that do champagnes around the uk.

Barnardos

 http://www.barnardos.org.uk/?gclid=CNzOzau5zr0CFQcewwodbqkAIA

One champagne I found inspiring from barnardos was the 2008-2009 Break the cycle champagne which did target it towards troubles teens linking well to my area.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/advertising_campaigns/previous_advertising_campaigns/break_the_cycle.htm

NSPCC

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/

This was their 2013 christmas champagne which over a range of ages

I then got a bit of background on what child abuse is actually about just to see what the signs, effects and risks are:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/child_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm

Change of idea

After looking deeper into the idea of having my main character with a mental illness I realized a lot more detail and background would have to go into the film to make it believable.

So starting from scratch seemed to be on the cards until I saw Barnardos latest advert which then gave me the idea of changing from mental illness to child abuse or in this case teen abuse.

I thought this would be a good area to cover as you hear about child or adult abuse but when it comes to teenagers especially in their late teens the areas covered are pregnancy, drugs or alcohol. So changing the usually stereotype of teenagers seems to be a good direction to go.