Emily Barratt Evaluation

For our 2 minute film extract Hollie Upton, Jess Cross and myself produced a rom-com themed clip about 3 girls preparing to be taken out however you only see one girl answer the door leaving the viewer in suspense. Our idea was inspired by the film ‘John Tucker Must Die’ which is based on the college hunk playing 3 girls until they decide to get their own back on him. In our film clip which follows at the end of the evaluation we created a montage of us 3 girls getting ready to go out on a date.

As we were trying to create a scene which merges 3 girls getting ready in a rom-com themed clip we wanted an upbeat, fast paced slightly confusing piece of film. We didn’t have any speech in our clip as we did not want to give away too much throughout however we did have shots of each girl typing a message and you also see the mobile phones going off which indicates the communication between one another. As director in the group I made sure all of these phone shots were filmed from different angles for each different girl adding to the confusion as we wanted the audience to question whether the girls were messaging each other or all after this male character.

(SCENE OF GIRLS MESSAGING TO BE IMPORTED)

As every girl knows getting ready to go out is almost as important as the following events of a night therefore we wanted to create a sense of excitement from each girl however whilst still showing the concentration needed as they want to look and feel good making the right impressions and I believe this is highlighted as the film clip flashes on each girl choosing their shoes and applying numerous amounts of make up. As a rom-com themed clip and also as director I wanted to use very stereotypical props when filming for example the pots of nail varnish all lined up symbolises the feminism of the film and that it is from a very chic flick genre.

(SCENE OF SHOES TO BE IMPORTED)

(SCENE OF NAIL VARNISH LINED UP TO BE IMPORTED ALSO)

We used different camera angles to encourage the sense of confusion in identifying the girls. Our original plan was to have every scene with all 3 of us in it, one placed to the left, a central girl (the girl whose shoes would be revealed as the door opens) and another to the right of the screen but once discussed further we decided against this as we wanted more mystery behind each girl and I believe this was created successfully in our clip. As we scrapped this idea we made sure we filmed using as many different shots as possible, for example the over the shoulder shot used as 1 girl uses her mobile telephone. I also directed all of us coming down the stairs in a pan shot. We liked the way this is used in film noir films to create suspense and seduction as a character is being slowly revealed, teasing the audience therefore used this in our clip to reveal our legs.

As we did not mange our timing as ideally as we had planned too we did plan to have the male character in our film, we sketched to have shots of him getting dressed and adoring himself in the mirror as I wanted to portray him as this ‘player’ and also planned for him to knock at the ‘chosen’ girls door to lead to her shoes being shown behind the opening door.

(SCENE FROM JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE IN THE RESTURANT TO BE IMPORTED)

As a group we are all very happy with the sequence produced however at this moment in time not having time to film the male character would be the one part I would change if given the change. I believe filming it would have created more of a diverse set of characters. Our music chosen to play throughout is Calvin Harris ‘Girls’ and this emphasises the key role the females play however it is sung by a male and is about how he likes all the girls therefore I think having a male would have added that extra point in our sequence.

When class analysed my role as director got some positive feedback such as ‘well organised and arranged’ and this is key for our rom-com to work in creating the atmosphere we wanted and overall all our comments back were encouraging.

In conclusion, as a group and as director we are all extremely impressed with our produced piece of work, it creates the right message we were looking for and as you watch the up tempo clip it produces this fun and toe tapping atmosphere throughout the audience therefore very successful for us.

(FOLLOWED BY FILM)

Jessica Cross

From watching our short film sequence that my group has created, I am pleased with what we have produced as our final result. We decided to create the opening section of a romantic comedy and where inspired by films such as “John Tucker must die”2006 directed by Betty Thomas. Our sequence introduces the three main girl characters as you see them preparing for a night out. We originally where going to show one boy also getting ready and then showing up at one of the girls doors, but eventually this became harder to film than expected, as time was limited, we subsequently decided that only seeing the three girls in fact worked just as well. The idea of the three girls all getting ready for a night out, more than likely with a boy, is very much like the theme through “John Tucker must die” as John the main character continues to date three girls without each of them knowing, but when they find out they plot to hurt him as they themselves have been by him. If we had continued our short film it could have been very similar.

Within my group I was given the main tasks to work on cinematography and sound. Sound within our short film we decided to make relatively simple and play a song By Calvin Harris throughout; and decided we did not need to use dialogue. This non digetic sound we felt worked well as at the beginning of many films you see the characters but you do not hear their thoughts until you are better introduced to them a little further in. The particular song we picked not only created the lively atmosphere and excitement needed to make a mood of teenage girls getting themselves ready to go out, but also the lyrics where in fact quite fitted to the idea of them, all three girls dressing up maybe to meet one guy. Our genre for our short film also influenced the sound and therefore the music we decided to use.

For the Cinematography I tried to use a large range of shots which I think we managed quite successfully as we had a large range of close ups, extreme close ups and medium close ups but also a varity of angle changes. We found capturing the right angle more challenging than expected when trying to film certain areas of our short film. For our sets, or Mise en scene, we had to use three different places to create the idea that the three girls where in three different house. This also created different lighting which was natural to each place. Trying to film the same shots however in three different places was harder than expected as the rooms where different, along with props such as mirrors, which we used for one particular close up shot, were not the same size or shape and subsequently we had to adapt the best we could. But overall I think we managed well and our shot composition, Framing, camera movement and lighting all worked well alongside each other.

Our group worked well as a team I feel and we stepped up to our allocated roles appropriately. I worked well with other group members to change aspects of our film to suit our genre and made decisions alongside them equally. I was able to understand what my other group members wanted to portrait when introducing each character and adapt my area of cinematography to work with this. My technical skills working with the actual camera when filming our shots helped us to be able to obtain the shots we wanted quickly and efficiently. This therefore did not hinder the creative choices we wanted to make. I obtained three particular shots; which I was very pleased with. Firstly our close up shot of our shoes, when the girls are trying them on to make a choice for their outfit was very effective.

By framing just the shoes and the one girls feet we managed to successfully draw attention to the shoes, which were visually interesting as they enable you to learn more about that particular character. Subsequently this created suspense as to which girl she is out of the three and encourages you to want to know more about her personality. You do however learn a little about this characters personality when you see her shoes that she has chosen to wear. This therefore also encourages you to want to guess and know more about the personality of this particular character and finally which out of the three girls she is.

Secondly our close up shot of nail varnish pots lined up was also very successful. We gradually ran the girls finger along as she chose what colour she wanted to wear. This creates suspense as to what colour she herself shall choose to wear, which again tells you about her particular personality.

The third shot we also felt had a great effect was when we shot the girls coming down the stairs in their heals and dresses ready for the night out. We shot the girls coming through the frame of the camera and decided not to pan the shot with them as we felt it was more secure position for the girl to move around the camera and created a more professional shot. By this stage the audience can guess to a extent which girl this is coming down the stairs as she is about to leave the house ready for her night out, but you still do not see a full shot of the girl to fully connect her face to her body which again continues the suspense ensuring the audience wants to continue watching the rest of the film. This is also a good introduction for the character without using dialogue, which you would if the film continued.

Our feedback made clear how the audience felt that our range of shots were key in our particular short film, as it gave it a great variety which subsequently made it interesting. Without these our very similar shots which we had to repeat in order to give the sense of the three girls could have made our short film very repetitive. It also made clear how overall our audience agreed that the basic background music which we chose to work with our film worked with the genre and theme. Overall I feel our short film, although having some adaption’s from our original plan, was very much as we imagined and created the theme and genre we wanted it to have. I feel I worked as a crucial member of our group, as each of us did, and as a result we were able to use each members own personal skills avoiding any problems we may have had and therefore being able to film and use what we wanted and needed for our short film, which I believe was a great success.

Target Audience

Our target audience is aimed at teenagers, it is a Rom com therefore it will be more likely to attract a larger range of girls than boys. we are using characters of 16/17 years old within it therefore this enables the viewer to feel a connection and place themselves in the same position as the character on screen. This gives a much stronger sense of realism.

Sound

As our film sequence is based around 3 girls all being played off by the same boy we have decided we want music which is quite up beat but also has a meaning:



This will be played when our male character turns up at each of the girls doors, the camera will pan up their bodies.



This music would be ideal for when the girls are getting ready in their bedrooms, it creates a fun and energetic atmosphere.



this is one idea of a song we could use to represent the nicer girl of the three.

Ideas

We have decided to produce a rom-com themed 2minute movie extract. Our following ideas are:
-A desired male character who is setting up 3 girls for a date, you see flashes of all the individual girls getting ready however he will only turn up at 1 girls house. Who will he choose????
-3 female characters representing stereotypical girls falling for the college stud.

Below is a short trailer of a rom com we took some ideas out of: