WELCOME MODERATOR

Welcome, moderator! I am Thomas Richards 1448 and I worked with Matthew Bowes.

I hope you enjoy my blog, which contains my work on my G321 Foundation Portfolio. We chose the video brief, the titles and openings of a fictional Psychological Drama film which we named Home. My preliminary exercise follows immediately underneath. 

 

I took specific responsibility for acting in the piece, directing, Director of Photography, and Assistant Editing.   



Watch the finished film HERE


My evaluation questions are above and both my finished film and Preliminary exercise are below.

PLANNING: OUR PRODUCTION COMPANY

In order to use this in our finished film, I researched the importance of opening credits at the beginning of a film, (as our brief is to make a film opening) and I discovered the order that most opening credits have to follow. The general order of most opening credits is listed below, and listed are the opening credits to our film :

1. Studio that is distributing the film: Studiocanal

2. Production company: A Virtual Walrus Studio Production

3. Main artistic credit: A Bowes-Richards Film

4.Principal actors: Tom Richards

5. Film title: Home

6. Featuring: Tom Richards and Hetty Taylor

7. Casting by: Matthew Bowes

8. Original score by: Matthew Bowes and Tom Richards (and sound databases)

9. Production design

10.Editor...Edited by... Tom Richards and Matthew Bowes

11. Director of Photography: Tom Richards
12. Camera Operator: Matthew Bowes

13. Based on the play (novel, graphic novel) by: NA

14.Screenplay...written by...screenplay by... Matthew Bowes and Tom Richards

15. Director.....Directed by....Tom Richards

We decided on the main titles for our film and decided on the name of our Production Company, which will be called Virtual Walrus Studio. For our Production Company Logo, we decided on an animated walrus inside a circle, that myself and Matt will implement in Post Production.

In order to implement a range of technologies in our work, I decided that during or post production I will create an infographic on opening credits to our film using Piktochart, which will enable us to present information clearly and creatively. Below is the logo for Distribution Company Studiocanal, which will be used to distribute our film

PLANNING: UPDATED TOP LINE AND BIG QUESTION

Frank Ash is a Creative Consultant at the BBC Academy and whilst watching his video about the top line and big question, I discovered that it is important to focus on the audience and that the main factor of identification is through the Top Line and Big Question.


An example of a top line for a film is : A fellowship of citizens finally find their worth in the world when they are tasked to destroy the one ring.


An example of the Big Question is: How will the ring be destroyed when there is such a little chance of success? How will such small heroes conquer such a big hero?



For my Film Opening, I decided that the Top Line would be: "A lone soldier returns from a devastating turn in Afghanistan and has become diagnosed with PTSD, where he is cursed to walk the streets of his old life with the nightmares of his life in the army"
Upon planning what the story of my opening would be, I decided that the Big Question of my film would be "How do you pick up the threads of an old life?"

PLANNING: UPDATED TREATMENT

The story is about a young soldier who has come back from war in Afghanistan. From the start, it is clear that the soldier is suffering from some form of PTSD, so much so that in the scenes they are shot with no other people as if they aren't there, whereas it is revealed at the end that people are there but the soldier's own feelings of anxiety and loneliness makes him think that there is nobody else there, whereas the reality of it as that it's all in his head, and that he is actually surrounded by people (thus depicting the damage that syndromes such as PTSD bring on people) Scenes include one which is shot at the train station when he has just come home, with Close Ups on the Soldiers face to represent his anguish and expression, as well as flashback scenes where he remembers life before he left to join the army

PLANNING: PADLET

RESEARCH: (BIFA) BRITISH INDEPENDANT FILM AWARDS

This week, I researched the BIFA (British Independent Film Awards), which I was first made aware of when I visited the BFI in London. As in the title, these awards celebrate the very best of British Independent Cinema, with a notable example of a nominated film that we studied at the BFI Study day being American Honey. We also researched Ken Loach, who directed the nominated film I, Daniel Blake. He is renowned in the film industry for his often critical approach to mainstream and independent films that shy away from common issues

Open Hyperlink HERE

At the Study Day, we watched the trailer for American Honey and at 2.7 million budget, we discovered that it was relatively inexpensive to make; it featured almost exclusively unknowns with the exception of Shia LaBouef. The film has been promoted as 'defining our generation', as according to the film's official website. It was British Directed along with key organisations involved. The film is an example of the BFI/Film4 funding model.


American Honey's key themes involve adolescents and their lifestyle of hedonism, (living for the moment in a carefree way) love and betrayal, of which mainstream films do not usually feature or touch upon. In addition to this, it was all shot on location without many expensive set pieces, which is the same as out film opening, which will only be shot on locations in local areas. Part of the way in which American Honey portrayed its social realism was through its use of handheld cinema technique in order to depict urban youth rather than clear, refined camera angles.