Truth - Finished Cut

Feedback:

Person 1: Harry, 16

• Like use of music - appropriate times and volume
• Intro goes from colour to black and white to fit film.
• Smoke

Person 2: Ellie, 16

• Good logo
• Black and white looks effective
• Nice angles
• Good close up on characters
• Good music choice

Film Evaluation (Truth): De-constructing My Product

This is the first shot of our film and it takes place at a stonewall. This is done because a stonewall can mean avoiding responsibility for something or being evasive, which is what the main character and her grandmother are doing at the beginning of this film - they are avoiding what has happened to Roseanne's parents. Also, the titles as the beginning go away as the actor walks passed them which is done to look like it is interacting with him. The two capital letter's on the words 'Productions' and 'Presents' are both in red as we were going for the theme of love (Roseanne's love for her family) and death (both her parents' death and the people she is going to kill). It also fits in with the Sin City vibe of having certain things in colour when the rest of it is in black and white. 

Here, we have a shot looking down the steps (a high angle shot) as there is a close up on the feet. The leaves in the background give it an old feel and as the leaves are dead from the trees, it links in with the theme of Roseanne's dead parents and what is in the lett the man is about to post through the door. The shoes an trousers he's wearing are all black which makes it look dark and he looks like he has something to do with death or about to bring bad news to someone. But it can also look scary as well.

Here we have a shot of the main character sitting at her desk. This shot was made to show everything that was on the desk. We wanted to emphasise what kind of person she is. There's a laptop on there which shows she does a lot of work, there's also a picture of her parents on the side which becomes more noticeable as it goes on, we thought it would be a good idea to subtly put it there. We placed an incense candle in the shot as well in order to make her look a bit mysterious and like it's quite dark. The actress' name appears in the corner as she is the main character and she is also on the screen, therefore we decided that would be the appropriate place to put the title. The capital letters are also in red again for the same reason they were last time. 

This shot is an over the shoulder shot put it's also made to look a bit like a point of view shot. We did this to do two things: 1) show what was on the letter 2) to establish what the main character's name is. After this she then walks off and we can see a bit of her face.

Here we have a high angle shot which was done to really show how big the stairs was so we could make it look like the grandparent was wealthy and had a lot of money. The colour of the banister is also very white which makes it look pure and stands out from all the other darker colours around the setting - particularly the floor. When we first made this shot, the camera looked a bit jumpy at the end however we managed to change it by having it swap camera angles a couple of times, this made it look a lot smoother. The shaky camera was actually a big criticism on our first cut that we made. 

This is another over the shoulder shot but this time two people are interacting. We also did the same shot but from Roseanne's shoulder. When we did this, we had to make sure we kept to the 180 degrees ruler so it looked professional and not out of place. The window in the background also looks very white so it looks a bit mysterious as we don't actually know what's outside, it really makes it feel like these two characters are the only people that matter at this moment in time.

This shot is a low angle shot. We made this for two reasons: 1) So the grandparent looks like she's the one who's in charge of the family; she looks dominant. 2) So we were able to catch the emotion that goes on on her face. We also wanted to make it clear that she was looking at the picture on Roseanne's desk and she felt someone sad about it. There is also a voice over that goes on at this point which explain why the photo is making her sad.

As the narration about her dead parents finishes, we have a close up shot of her photo which is now blatantly obvious what is is: her parents. This is done to make the audience feel sad about what happened. We had to take this picture on the day of filming so we had to make the main character look much younger than she actually is. We wanted to put them in front of a painting as stereo typically in films, wealthy family photos are usually taken next to some sort of painting. 

For these two shots, we used extreme close ups both times. For the scene, we wanted it to look like there was nothing but herself and the letter in the room. We did this by having an extreme close up of Roseanne's eyes and her hair blocked out the rest of the room, so it looked like she was in a black room. And when it cut to the letter, there were extreme close ups on each letter that were important to her parents death. We tried to make sure none of the room was shown in the background so it really didn't look like they were in the office room. Also, the writing on the letters were printed with old styled writing, and we thought it would look effective for the old noir style we have.

This is one of the last shots we used in the room. It starts off as a long shot and slowly turns into a medium shot. We did this by moving the tripod on the dolly closer and close to Roseanne as she stood up, however as the tripod moved, the camera moved in a different direction in order for it to look effective and quite a bit more professional or cinematic along with the music.

Filming Day

The day we filmed (Wednesday 22nd October 2014) went very well and smoothly. Before we started filming we had to tell everyone involved what we were going to do which took us about an hour. We started off with doing all the shots that had to be indoors. The scene we started with the scene was the one where the grandmother picks up the letter that was posted for Roseanne. This was at first quite awkward to film because the tripod was in the way of her arm when picking up the letter. This is why on the actual footage, her arm slowly goes to pick it up, but we decided it worked well with the shot anyway.

For the scene when both the grandmother and Roseanne look at the photo of her with her family, we had to take that photo on the filming day. Luckily, we had a photo printer so we got the two owners of the building we were using to take it. With this picture, we were able to present a story about Roseanne's dead parents along with the narration.

The overall filming took about 4 hours to do. We were worried the dolly wouldn't move on the carpet just in case it was bumpy. Sometimes it was but luckily we managed to make it work, especially in the part where Roseanne walks out of the room.
Throughout the filming, we knew that we were going to edit it into black and white with some colours shown (primarily red), so for this reason we used red candles and tried to show as much of the red carpet as possible when appropriate.

We had to record a scene several times as the grandmother forgot the lines and what to do. Luckily after a while we managed to get the scene filmed and the scene looked perfect, although there were loads of outtakes that we had to eventually delete from the camera.

We made sure that we stuck to the storyboard well and we kept to the exact camera shots and movements. Also, we had to bare in mind that we had the narration that was going to go over the footage so the clips had to be long enough to fit onto it.

Film Progress Update

On our film, we've focused a lot on sound and music which we have to rely on a lot because there's not much dialogue. As the music is supposed to be diegetic, we've managed to make it look like the main character is turning it up and down on a stereo. This looks effective and we were worried that we were going to have to keep it at the same volume throughout the whole video but luckily we managed to figure it out.

We also managed to edit the clips so it flows naturally. For example, when the main character's grandmother walks up the stairs, the camera originally looked very stiff, but we managed to edit it with a clip from a different angle, so not only does the camera not look stiff anymore, but it actually looks like it flows a lot more easily. The editing made it look like she was walking up the same step at the same time.



The title at the end of the video say 'Truth' and it was made in After Effects. We made it look very simplistic by having a very plain type writer font and each letter appearing after each other. The sound in the back ground was also a typewriter noise to give it that very old and intense feel. This is also helped with the black and white filter over the footage for the Noir-like theme we're going for.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

First Cut feedback

There is a clear narrative to this opening, good use of a variety of camera shots and angles, as well as a great use of a dolly shot. This is clearly a film opening, but needs some more work to polish and finish it. Here are my suggestions. I would also like you to ask some contemporaries/parents for feedback and embed the first cut into this post.

Suggested changes/improvements:

Add Institutional Logo

Add titles

I would like to see a c/u of the main protagonist at the beginning so that the audience can start identifying/ understanding her a little.

Tighten the shot on the letter - it is a little too slow.

Possibly shorten the walk up the stairs.
Tighten the letter exchange - make it a more natural pace.

Add SFX to create an atmosphere (ensure you create your own or use royalty free sound effects)

Tighten the end of the dolly shot

Are you going to add any music?

Do a colour correction to add the neo noir feel.

Truth - First Cut

Feedback:

Person 1: Oliver, 16

• After some cuts, it was a bit shaky.
• Upstairs camera movement was a bit shaky
• Use of props (incense) was good.
• Dolly shot was good,
• Close ups were good.

Person 2: Becky, 17

• Variety of shots
• Continuity - good story
• Shaky camera at times.
• Don't know where the story will lead

Person 3: Mitch, 16

• Shaky shots
• Good close ups
• Variety of good angle shots

Person 4: Ash, 17

• Variety of shots
• Different ages of actors
• Good dolly movement, thought it was slow motion.

Script

The Script

EXT.A WALL/STREET- DAY 

A MYSTERIOUS MAN dressed in a black coat and with a gloved hand, holds a white letter as he walks past the wall. 


INT.OFFICE-DAY

ROSEANNE(18)sits at her desk, looking at her laptop and typing. She sits upright with her hair swept to one side to show her face.


EXT.STEPS-DAY

The MYSTERIOUS MAN walks around the corner and GRADUALLY walks up the steps. 


EXT/INT.FRONT DOOR/LETTER BOX-DAY

The MYSTERIOUS MAN QUICKLY walks up to the door and posts the letter through the letterbox. The letter falls to the ground below the letterbox. 

                          ROSEANNE (V.O)  
                  It was 6 years ago today that my parents died... 
                                  (Sadly) 
                   I was only 12 at the time. 
                   

INT.HALL-DAY

FOOTSTEPS are heard as ROSEANNE'S GRANDMOTHER (75), a KIND, FORMAL woman who looks after her granddaughter in her Manor, picks up the letter. 

She looks at the letter then turns SLOWLY to head upstairs to give the letter to ROSEANNE. 


HARD CUT TO

INT.OFFICE DESK/CLOCK-2:10 PM 


JAZZ MUSIC is heard and the sound of typing from Roseanne's laptop 


INT.STAIRS-DAY

ROSEANNE'S GRANDMOTHER SLOWLY walks up the STEEP stairs with the letter in her hand, she holds the handrail for balance. 


INT.OFFICE-DAY

ROSEANNE sits at her desk as INCENSE SMOKE swirls around her face. A LOUD KNOCK is heard against her office door. 

                         

                          ROSEANNE 

                          (loudly) 

                              Come in!

The GRANDMOTHER walks towards ROSEANNE and stops at the edge of her desk. ROSEANNE turns down the stereo she had playing to focus on what her GRANDMOTHER has to say. 

                        GRANDMOTHER 

                      (handing the letter to Roseanne)

                This was just posted through the door. 

                        

                         ROSEANNE 

                      (to Grandmother) 

                              Thank you

                  

ROSEANNE takes the letter from her GRANDMOTHER, looks QUICKLY at it then places it besides her on the desk. 

                        GRANDMOTHER

                        (formally)

                I'll be downstairs if you need me

As the GRANDMOTHER turns to leave, she picks up the PHOTO FRAME on the desk and steps to the side. A SAD look is on her face as she looks at the photograph. Then she TURNS and places the PHOTO FRAME QUICKLY as ROSEANNE watches. The GRANDMOTHER then TURNS QUICKLY without even looking at ROSEANNE before she HURRIEDLY walks off.

INT.OFFICE/DESK-DAY 

The PHOTO FRAME contains a photograph of a YOUNGER ROSEANNE with her PARENTS. 

                          ROSEANNE (V.O)

                                (solemnly) 

 Today is a very difficult day for my grandmother. Due to there being no conclusive  cause of death, no real evidence ; the investigation of my parents death was as fleeting as a footstep in a snow storm.

ROSEANNE looks at the letter she had originally ignored when her GRANDMOTHER had first given it to her. Her hair falls over half of her face and HIDES her right eye. The look on her face suggests she is wondering who could have sent her a letter. 

                            ROSEANNE (V.O) 

                            (desperately) 

                We need to know what happened to them. 

The PHOTO FRAME is shown again but this time much CLOSER so details such as how everyone is SMILING shows the HAPPY atmosphere in the photograph.  

ROSEANNE faces the stereo and reaches with her hand to turn it back up again. The ORIGINAL JAZZ music has now changed to a more TENSE track. She OPENS the letter CALMLY but STRUGGLES a little as the letter is not easily taken out of the envelope, which suggests that the letter was pushed deep into the envelope by the sender. She SMILES quickly at the thought of not being able to take out the letter but hastily goes back to having a STRAIGHT FACE. She folds open the letter and begins to read. An INCREASING HEARTBEAT sound is heard throughout as she reads.  

                             ROSEANNE (V.O) 

                                    (eagerly) 

                    And I'm determined to find closure. 

Her EYES are shown as she reads the letter.

The letter starts with her name (ROSEANNE) in LARGE.  

Her EYES are again shown but with more SPEED as she continues reading the letter. 

The letter then contains the word: PARENTS,in LARGE.

Her EYES do NOT BLINK as she continues to read. 

The letter then contains the word: MURDERED,in LARGE.

Her EYES are again shown as she shown as they move across with a FAST PACE. 

The FINAL words in the letter that is focused on is the words: CORRUPT BUSINESS MAN. 

INT.OFFICE-DAY 

ROSEANNE stares at the letter for less then a second then places it back down onto the desk,she  RISES from her chair and turns to grab her coat, which was on the back of her chair, she STEPS away from the desk and she GRACEFULLY puts on her coat and walks away. 

                       ROSEANNE (V.O) 

                             (forcefully) 

                  By any means necessary.

She STRIDES towards the DOOR,PUSHES it open and walks out and begins to go down the STAIRS. 

                      ROSEANNE (V.O) 

                      (conclusively)

              Who ever you are... I will find you.

INT.OFFICE/DESK-DAY 

The PHOTO FRAME is again shown but the photograph is shown much CLOSER so that it is clear that the YOUNGER ROSEANNE and her PARENTS are much happier and that obviously the death of them CHANGED ROSEANNE to what she is now.