Self Analysis- Political Film

Pre-Production

Before starting my pre-production work, I planned out everything that would need to be done in order for my film to go to plan, the mind map shows everything I had to think about planning.
I didn't want to make an extremely specific plan about the storyline for my film but after looking at the brief I decided I wanted the story to be based on a sibling rivalry. Also I decided that I didn't want the PI element to be extremely unrealistic and spy like, so my final idea was for two sisters who are no longer in contact to both be participating in the same election without each others knowledge. What one of the sisters is also unaware of is that their father is secretly rigging the election so that her distant sister who doesn't speak to the family will be the winner of the election. Therefore the father is the PI character in the film. 
For my pre-production I created a treatment, wrote a script that I annotated and finally locked, did recces along with a scouting report, drew detailed storyboards, made a shot list and planned and justified the sounds I would be using in the film which included finding royalty free sounds for my film that would definitely be clear.
I feel as though I completed this pre-production work to a good standard that clearly created a pathway to my film production.
The bits that were more of a struggle and took the longest to finalise were my script writing and storyboarding. The script took me a long time to lock as I had to finalise my plot line in such a way that I would be able to film with ease, if I was to be overly imaginative there would have been no way I would've been able to access the locations or tools to film. However I finally locked my script and was happy with the final draft. As I had to alter my script quite a lot, this also meant I had to alter my storyboards, as well as having to alter the story on the storyboards I was also learning as I went along the style in which I wanted to draw my storyboards making sure they were clear but not overly time consuming. When my storyboards were complete they were easy to follow and also very helpful for me to visualise what I wanted the camera to capture.

Production

In terms of recording my film, I didn't want to go straight out with extremely minimal knowledge as to how to use the camera and  set it up to get the best lighting and shot angles possible, so with Ed's help I developed my camera knowledge and skills so that the outcome of how my film looked visually would be up to a good standard.
After practicing some basic shots around the college and putting them together, I created my filming schedule and made sure everyone in my group was available when I needed to be and everywhere I wanted to film would be accessible for us all. I got all of my footage filmed over two days and everything went to plan as I followed my script, shot list and storyboards. With help from the other members of my group we set up the shots in a way that I was happy with and also I altered some shots from how I originally planned them to look in a way that actually looked more effective when captured.
The only problem that occurred was that when I was filming my car park scene there was some loud, building noise in the background. I was able to overcome this though by deciding to use a Rode mic directed straight at the characters who would be speaking, as well as making sure the mic was as close to them as possible without getting it in shot. When I watched the footage back the building noise wasn't a problem which I am happy about as it would've slightly ruined the final outcome of my film. 

Post-Production

After sorting through all of the footage I filmed, I imported the footage I was happy with to Abobe Premier Pro to edit and complete the final film. My editing process consisted of a lot of learning as I went along to see what looked best and what didn't work so well. I am confident with cutting and putting the footage together in chronological order so that it flows without dodgy cuts and obvious mistakes. One of the more time consuming parts of the editing process was syncing, cutting and muting the audio in the correct places. By putting an effective soundtrack over the top of my film I was able to mask any slight mistakes in the audio without being at all obvious. I am very happy with the royalty free soundtrack I managed to find online and now I know where I can access royalty free audio when I need it again. 
My final film will be posted publicly on Youtube so anyone will be able to access and watch it. I will share the link to my film with my peers in order to get some feedback on how they feel my final product turned out, I will get this feedback through Youtube comments that I can look at so I know which areas I need to look at improving in the future.

Shot Practice

Setting up a shot is something you that you should always take care with whilst doing. The main things you should focus on are the ISO level, aperture and the shutter speed. All of these factors change the lighting of what you're shooting depending on your location, for example if you're outside you aperture and ISO levels won't have to be as high as the natural light will help you out.

Above are three shots that I set up, adjusting the focus, zoom and changing the aperture and ISO levels. I kept the shutter speed at a standard 50, but altered the ISO and aperture due to where the natural light was. The only shot that I feel has good lighting is the final shot filmed from the right side of Tom, I made the aperture higher for this shot was the natural lighting wasn't behind the camera. I think I also should've made the ISO and aperture levels higher on the shot filmed from behind Tom and Becky as the natural light was to the side of the camera. 

When filming inside there is a lack of natural light, especially as it's getting darker so the lighting levels will have to be adjusted carefully so that the shot doesn't look to dark or too full of noise.

Recce Scouting Report

So far I have checked out three possible locations for my film, all around the college sight. I took my script with me to see what shots would be happening in each location and I have photographed each location and also made a checklist and made notes about each location to help me compare them with others, here is a link to the blogpost showing my physical findings.

I am happy with the staff kitchen in the media department. It will be used for the first scene of Sister 1 (Emily) alone in her kitchen therefore I don't need lots of space or an attractive backdrop, just the basic aspects of a kitchen, and luckily this location fits that brief.

The college car park is also an ideal location for the scene where Sister 2 (Jess) and her parents get out of their car and head towards to election hall. It's good because all of the crew will be able to access it and we won't have to worry about interfering with members of the public as the only people that should be around the area will be people linked to the college.

I don't think that Hive C is going to be the ideal location for my election hall. But I would like to use and area in the college for this as it is the best location for the whole cast and crew to arrive at. I will look at the studio in the media department as it is designed for filming purposes. I don't currently see any problems with it.

To continue my recce's I would like to look at an undercover car park, another kitchen and possibly to more locations that can be used as an election hall. I will be able to plan the second kitchen recce when I have discussed with my group who is happy for me to film in their kitchen and also who's kitchen is the easiest for the whole crew to access.

Prop List

Each scene in my film will require a certain amount of props that I should be able to access fairly easily.

Scene 1

• Mobile phone
• Cereal bowl- bring from home/find in kitchen
• Milk jug- bring from home/find in kitchen
• News paper- find in college/bring from home
• A fluffy thing to resemble a cat- cheap furry scarf (have seen in primark)
• Paper saying ‘election notes’- can print at home or college
  
  

Scene 2

• Mobile phone
• Toothbrush- bring from home
• Toast- cheap bread from shop nearby
• Orange juice- cheap juice from shop near by
• Glasses- find in kitchen
• Stack of paper- available from college or home
• Frame with family photo- frame from home, create picture with cast and print at home or college
  
  

Scene 3

• Mobile phone
• Desk- will find in college
• Paper with dotted line- can print at home or college
• Seats- will find in college
• Handbag- can bring from home
• Newspaper- will find in college or nearby shop

Scene 4

• Mobile phone
• Car- this may be a difficult one but I will ask media teachers if their car is parked in the car park and whether they'd be happy for me to use it, just to shut the door

Scene 5

• Mobile phone
• Desk and seats for leader and PA- can find in college
• Paper on desk- can find in college
• Podium area- can create with chairs/create a sign at home or college
• High heels- bring from home

Storyboarding My Film

To create my storyboards I read through my script and broke it into screens, After I'd broken it into scenes I looked at each line and decided how I wanted each part to look.. After doing this I drew all of the key shots and described them briefly.

These are the storyboard sheets that I created before altering my script. After adjusting my script to include the PI, I chose a different storyboard template and changed my drawing style from stick people to more realistic, scale drawings and I included some extra detail for each shot.

• Shot number
• Duration eg. how long it will last in secs.
• Shot size eg. ECU, CU, MS, LS, OTS.
• Angle eg. high, low, eye view, birds eye view.
• Transition eg. cut, fade.

Using this clear storyboard I will be able to make a detailed shot list from it to add in any extra notes and things that need to be included in the shot, as well as audio.

Political Film Recce's

Location 1- Hive D.

Location 2- Media Kitchen.

Location 3- College car park.

Researching Political Film

Films with political messages

Many of the films we watch and enjoy have hidden political messages, even childrens films. The 2014 Lego Movie is an example of this. The villain of the film named ‘President Business’ is thought to look similar to Mitt Romney although some others say that the film promotes the importance of hard work, creativity and ownership. 

Aside from the Lego Movie, many children's films have a storyline where a problem occurs that needs to be solved and there is often one leader or two leaders in rivalry with each other, both convincing everyone else that they are the best leader  fix the problem. A storyline like this has connotations of a political kind as politicians often battle against each other in times of crisis to prove to the people that they’re the one who can save things.

Here is a list of childrens films that you may not have looked at deeply, that have deeper political messages then you may have expected.

Women in politics

I would like my film to be based on female politicians as most politicians in this generation are male. I want the power of females to be recognised to show equality.

 Michelle Obama- US First Lady

Queen Elizabeth- Queen of England

Margaret Thatcher- Prime minister of England 1979-1990

Rivalries between political parties

There is a known rivalry between politicians Ed Milliband and David Milliband who happen to be brothers. Ed beat David to the position of Labour leader leaving David as the less important brother.

Applying the sibling rivalry in politics theme to my film

I like the idea of using a sibling rivalry in my political film. I think it has the potential to be sincere or comical. Siblings often feel as though they’re able to get away with more when in rivalry with each other as deep down they will always have one anothers back. I could use a sibling bond as an advantage to make my film more exciting as it would be realistic for siblings to get into a manipulative and competitive disagreement.

Possible storylines

• Sisters who lost contact when they reached adulthood. They both arrive at a political debate as they are both MP’s for different parties. They automatically recognise each other and attack each other physically and verbally. Both get suspended from their positions as MP’s.
• A group of three sisters, twins and a younger sister. The family is heavily political and their father is an MP. The younger sister always feels left out so behind her families back she begins to become involved with an opposing party. Her family are very shocked and also amazed when they realise the power they’re younger daughter has and they feel threatened.
• Obama cheats on his wife with a politician from another party. His wife finds out but keeps it a secret. She stays with Obama and used his power and resources to gain power herself. In an election she gives a strong view and battles to replace Obama as president, becoming the female president and getting Obama and his affair suspended for being unprofessional.

Thoughts On Pre-Production

Pre production seems to have even more points to it than the actual production of the film. Everything needs to be planned exactly so that everyone knows what they’re doing on the day of the shoot so that there is as little misunderstanding as possible. If everything wasn’t planned prior to filming, you would lose valuable filming hours that could be crucial to the film for example, if you need to shoot on a sunny day in England you will need to film as quickly as possible as you may not get another chance soon, delaying the filmmaking process.

These are all the key things that need to be done in pre production. Before learning all of these points I was unaware that so many small details had to be taken into consideration, like the amount of portable toilets that will have to be hired on set. In preproduction you have to constantly assess the risks so that no members or the cast, crew or kit will be harmed as that could cause a pause or delay in the making of the film that has to meet a deadline.

Before choosing a location you need to make sure that everything you want to do will be practical: Will there be enough suitable accommodation for everyone involved in the film? Is it safe? Will the budget cover cooking the location? Will there be a power source? The film can only go ahead if all of these pre production points have been considered and confirmed possible.

As well as all of the pre production that takes place during the recees’s, there is also a lot of admin that has to be done so that everyone know what needs to happen and when. Every member of the cast, crew and kit needs to be insured  and contracts need to be arranged. There could be hundreds of cast and crew members on a set and each and every one of them is important and needs to be accounted for.