Audience feedback and Final Screening

• What did you think was particularly successful about our film?
• What would you change?
• Who do you think the target audience is? Do you think we are reaching out target audience? Please comment.
• Where do you think you would find a film like ours? (websites, cinema, TV, etc)
• What do you about the performance of both actresses?
• Do you think that the message of despair is brought across clearly?

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Above is the version of our short film which we showed at our second screening. This version has the addition of the credits, title, music, voiceovers, effects and is also shorter in length than our original rough cut. We decided not to include our old iFlooky logo (from our AS opening) because we felt it didn't suit the sombre mood of our film; alternatively we used a simple spaced out font to show the seriousness of our short film. The title 'Bringing Back Hope' was created using using the 'Light Rays' video effect which began at 0 at the start and then was increased to create the blurring effect and finally a fade video transition was used to flow into the next scene.
The music for both the beginning and ending of our short film was a choice between Gymnopedie No 1 (which we found was copyrighted by Erik Satie), Feather Waltz and Sovereign. All three pieces of music (found on Incompetech) are on piano which we thought suited our film well-the piano can be used as an emotional device to bring across sorrow. Feather Waltz is a very calming song, which we initially thought could be used for the transitions into the flashback scenes but decided it didn't quite suit. This left us with our final choice of Sovereign which we thought suited our film perfectly.
Below is our final version of our short film Brinng Back Hope

Re-Shooting

We found that once all of our filming was finished and we uploaded it into Final Cut Express a lot of the shots were exceptionally dark and it was difficult to see what was going on clearly. We thought we could colour correct these scenes on Adobe After Effects but we in fact we found that this made them very noisy and pixelated . We decided that it would be better to just re-shoot these scenes.

Since the sister reassurance scene was also filmed in the bedroom which didn't have very good lighting we re-shot that scene as well. 

Editing Our Footage and Our First Rough Cut

Now that we have all of the footage we are ready to move onto the editing process. We started editing on Final Cut Express and began selecting sections of each of the scenes to put into our short film.

First of all we edited all of the scenes with Hope sitting in her sister's room together and then slotted in all of the flashback scenes. Each flashback scene starts off with the sister's voiceover from her journal explaining what happened and how she felt at the time.

The flashback scenes include: 

  - The birthday scene - The younger sister is waiting for Hope to meet her on the door step. Hope arrives late and gives her sister a necklace for her birthday. 

  - The teddy bear scene - The sister shouts to Hope that she can't find her teddy bear and Hope replies that she has no idea where it is even though she had hidden it.

  - The fight scene - The two sisters get into a confrontation and Hope slaps the sister causing her to cry.

 - The sister assurance scene - The sister has decided that she needs a break from Hope and so she leaves a diary entry for her and leaves. Unfortunately there is an accident and the sister doesn't make it to come back to her sister and family.



Above is our first rough cut of Bringing Back Hope
This rough cut was shown at our first screening. This version of the film doesn't have credits, title, music  effects the key feature being the voiceovers-all of these elements will be in the final version. 

Choosing our poster design

A brainstorm showing out thoughts and ideas around our short film's poster

by Tosin Oluyadi

by Lorna Dean

We decided on two posters, for the promotion of our film. We picked a design from both Tosin and Lorna. The reason why we picked two poster designs was to have it promoted in different places such as bus stops and adverts for online promotion.

This is our main final poster for Bringing Back Hope. It was all designed on photoshop.

The way we designed the photograph was first, we took a couple of photographs of priscilla holding onto the journal. After that we picked 3 photos that we would definitely would like to use and picked 1 from all of them.

Above is our second final poster. It was compiled together using a small collection of photographs (table, necklace, journal, Hope holding teddy bear and finally the bedroom background) which were imposed together on Photoshop. The use of blue in this poster connotes the sadness and coldness that Hope is feeling. Although the bright purple and yellow is used to show a hint of happy times and underlying hope.

Existing Poster Analysis

'Speak' is an independent film created in 2004 by by Speak Film Inc. directed by Jessica Sharzer and distributed by Showtime Networks (USA). We thought this film related to our short film because it is also a serious teen drama about a young girl who feel she has no one to talk to; much like the younger sister in our short film who passes away. 

The film is about thirteen year old Melinda Sordino who has a traumatic experience during summer break and feels that she can't tell anyone about it. In high school she is shunned for being the 'girl who called the cops' at a senior party where the incident happened; when in fact she was trying to get the senior responsible for abusing her caught.  

Bellow is our chosen poster analysis:

Filming

On our first day of filming it turned out that the daylight had escaped us before we had chance to film the birthday flashback scene. We decided instead that we would film the teddy bear flashback scene where the sister's teddy bear has gone missing and the Sister is blaming Hope.

Second day of filming - Sister assurance scene - We found this scene difficult to film because each section was going to be in a different location. For continuity we decided we were going to film this scene all in one location instead (Lorna's room)

Third day of filming - Re-shot sister assurance scene in 1 location (Lorna's room)
                              - Shot all scenes of Hope in her sister's bedroom all diary scenes (Lorna's room)
                  
Fourth day of filming - Birthday scene outside of house (Stella's house)
                                - Sister leaving the house front door (Stella's house)
                                - Sister and Hope fight scene (Stella's house)

Presentation

 Overall we felt that our presentation went well; in particular we thought that:

• we had a fair amount of detail in our presentation
• our information on Freytag's Pyramid was detailed and informing

What didn't go well:

• Not enough information on narrative
• Missed out some sections for example information on despair and the initial narrative for our film

To Improve we feel we could:

• Include more information on existing products and codes and conventions of our chosen genre of Drama and our theme of Despair
• A shooting schedule for when we are going to film
• A conclusion of our film 
• Add more time, planning and consideration into producing presentations
• Do more research into similar products relating to our chosen theme of despair and genre of drama

Below is our presentation for our pitch. For full view please view on SlideShare

Presentation for Pitch

View more presentations from ToxicCrimson.

Props

The Sister's Teddy Bear

The sister could be seen as an immature person because she still owns a teddy bear and her sister believes she is too old to have one.

We have decided to use this teddy bear in our short film. We feel it has a neutral face and it would suit our film.

This teddy could be seen as the most feminine >

bear out of all of them. It's small, has a soft and fluffy texture to it and has tiny eyes which adds to it's 'cuteness'.

Necklace (jewelery) -

Given to the girl by her sister. We could possibly use a bracelet rather than a necklace.

This bracelet would be suitable for a chirpy young girl who >

enjoys to make herself 'look pretty'. She would be more than

likely to wear makeup and wear clothes which are both bright and eye catching.

< This is our chosen necklace. We have chosen this necklace because we feel that the heart connotes the love between the two siblings. 

This necklace is both simple and small which connotes that the two sisters do not need to give large and expensive gifts to show their sibling love for each other. >

Bereavement

The Five Stages of Bereavement
Denial - Where the person refuses to accept what has happened. They continue to deny that they have lost their loved one forever and pretend that everything is how is was before their loss.


Anger - The person may blame other people for their loss and become increasingly agitated. There may also be strong emotional outbursts of rage where objects are thrown around or smashing of mirrors and photo frames to try and get over the loss.


Bargaining - With either themselves or with God. We try to take away the reality of what has happened and so we try to make a deal to rewind everything back to how it used to be.


Depression - Often the most difficult stage of bereavement to deal with and one that most people will go through. The person may feel dazed and confused along with a feeling of numbness. They may also burst into tears at any given time due to the overwhelming emotions. Other people may feel the need for an attempt so suicide because the are without the person.


Acceptance - When the individual realises that they must carry on without that person no matter what happens and that they aren't coming back. Energy and goals will return to the person and they try and carry on with their lives.

Moodboard - Despair, Loss and Isolation



Moodboard showing images which represent Despair, Loss and Isolation
 By Lorna

Despair, Loss and Isolation
Despair also known as hopelessness, is the feeling of no hope, that something can't be resolved or is inadequate and far beyond the point of optimism. The pattern of thinking is one of being in trapped misery.

Despair can take someone to a whole new place and level of depression. They don't feel any encouragement to go out or do something. Most people in despair will be in a place where they feel comfortable; for example their bedroom. More often than not people wish to be alone and away from the rest of the world.

The thing that can trigger despair is a trauma in someone’s life or an overwhelming loss of something close to a person.

A dark room is one of the most common signifiers for despair. The room has low key lighting and gives the feel of isolation. A small ray of light breaking through the curtains could signify hope. We are hoping to use this visual image in our short film.

About losing a loved one

Death and grief

*People react both emotionally and physically to death and grief. The feelings we usually associate to loss are sadness, worry, fear, shock, unprepared, confusion, anger and emptiness.

*Some people find they have trouble concentrating, sleeping and eating.

*People lose interest in activities they used to enjoy and often turn to alcohol.

*The intensity of grief may be related to how sudden the loss was and how you felt about the person.

Acceptance

*Acceptance is when a person agrees to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition without attempting to change it.

Bereavement

*The five stages of grief are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

*There is often a Numbness along with the mourning until finally the person lets go and accepts.

Treasuring Memories

*Treasuring the moments you shared with the person, for example remembering the places you went together with the person.

*You can remember a person by keeping items that belonged to them.

Personal Possessions which show the relationship between the two sisters could include:

Necklace - A heart shape to represent the love between the two sisters. Could be a necklace inscribed with their name(s).

Journal - Personal diary entries which could tell the story of the two sisters through one of their eyes. A note inside the journal apologising to the sister about a fight that they had.

Rose - Slowly withering and dying. Connotes the death of one of the sisters. No one lives forever.

Teddy bear - Sesisitive side of the lead character. She hasn't quite matured enough to accept her sister's death.

Camera -  This shows still moments of memories that are precious. It can connote the memory and the mind, by the things contained inside of it.

Good times in the past give you hope

*Past memories encourage the person of the good times they spent with their love one that’s passed away and it gives them the hope to carry on.


*Talking about the person can help accept the death of the person by avoiding the death of the person by not reflecting on them at all.

*Also, when a person loses someone they could consider looking up to the sky. This could represent the person looking towards brighter days despite the loss of a loved one.

1.     Alienation- Tend to close themselves off from everyone, since they fear further pain and rejection.

2.     Forsakenness- Individuals feeling alone in their time of greatest need.

3.     Uninspired- Unmotivated to do anything creative or enjoyable

4.     Powerlessness- One feels incapable of navigating one’s way toward desired goals.

5.     Oppression- The individual feels crushed or emotionally overwhelmed.

6.     Limitedness- Individual feels deficient, and lacks the right stuff to make it in the world.

7.     Doom- they feel as if their life is over.

8.     Captivity- can’t leave something because of the feeling of attachment.

9.     Helplessness- feels as if they can no longer live safely in the world.

Research into our Chosen Genre - Drama

Conventions and Narrative Structure of a Drama
Emotion - A very important part of a drama is the emotion which is projected onto the audience. If the audience is affected then the drama has done what it was intended to do.

Within any drama there is always different conflicts such as:
Man vs Self
Man vs society
Man vs Nature
Man vs Technology
Man vs Fate

Freytag's Theory - Freytag's Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them.

Freytag believed that every drama can be divided into five major acts or parts. These were known to be: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and finally Dénouement. They are also known as a Dramatic Arc.

Exposition: At the beginning of a film the exposition provides the background information needed to understand the story. Following the exposition is the focal conflict or problem which the story is based around; although this may not be clear until further into the film.


Rising Action: The initial conflict becomes more complex as other smaller conflicts become noticeable. These conflicts make the road of the protagonist more difficult and deters them away form reaching their goal.


Climax: The key turning point within the film where something could progress the story further or go terribly wrong. 


Falling Action: The point in which the climax is reversed and the conflict starts to diminish slowly.


Denouement: Also known as the resolution of the film where the conflict is finally resolved. The word denouement was derived from the French word 'denoer' which meant "to untie". More often than not this is the ending where the protagonist is better off than they were when the story was first introduced.

Freytag's Pyramid

Our short film will be using Freytag's Theory and it will be based around a young girl who overcomes despair.

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Each of these films are examples of dramas.

Brainstorms

(Above) The Wordpress Photo of the Year 2009. This photograph was our initial starting point. We used it to help us think of a suitable theme for our short film. Below is a brainstorm of themes which we have come up with based upon the image. It generated a lot of dark theme ideas such as sorrow, fear, despair, depression and poverty.

Defiance - Our initial theme was going to be defiance. To stand up against authority such as the government or the police force and to have your own say is a very powerful thing and we thought this theme was a good starting point.

Our chosen theme is Despair. Above is a brainstorm with our ideas about despair. From this brainstorm we decided that our chosen genre will be a Drama. 

We had a collection of things which could have gone wrong to the character including an illness, disability, family breakup,loss of family member/friend/partner, addiction and foster parents

We are thinking of creating a short film involving a young girl who loses her best friend and falls into despair but picks herself up in the end and looks to the future. We are going to use close ups of props which are very important to our main character. These include a teddy bear, a necklace, music box and journal. They will help tell the story of the two best friends.