Evaluation 7: Preliminary and Progression

We took many various elements away from our preliminary exercise and used them to better help us make DNA-Pocalypse.

For example, although the continuity in the characters clothing may have been broken, the continuity in shots was not as we, once again, utilized match on actions (when Boris opens the gate from two different angles), we also used elliptical editing with the characters running to the room and sitting down, as well as skipping a period of time to get to the key parts of the dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, rather than me writing this one, John did the whole of the script and created all of the characters which is different from our preliminary exercise. This will not be done again.

We also made sure to keep the 180 degree rule in check to keep the continuity of the shots the same which is something we made sure to do in our preliminary exercise too.

The editing was very heavily inspired by that of the preliminary exercise and all of the previous editing I have done in the past. This can most clearly be seen in my version of the preliminary edit with the intro music and backing track, two things that I, once again, made sure to use in this project. I also found it easier to sync up action with sound on this project and make sure to properly mix the audio so everything could be heard. I once again mainly did this by using Audacity as I find it easy to use.

The titles were another thing that I had in my version of the preliminary edit and used again in this project. This gave me a better idea of the fonts I could use and the way that titles appear on Premier Pro and made it easier to use them when editing this project.

Evaluation 6: Technology

During pre production, we had to research various films and plan how and where we were going to shoot our film. In this time we utilized the internet by researching films that were like ours to better help us in our creative endeavors. We also had to make sure the lighting in the locations we filmed would look good on our cameras, or at least good enough to fix in post production at a later state.

As for the actual production/shooting of our film, we used cameras which were provided to us by the college. We also used tripods to rest the cameras on in order to make the shots look stationary when needed and maintain a professional image. A lot of these shots were kept in the final product of the film and did have a professional looking quality to them. The cameras are not, however, the best cameras in the world which is why sometimes the quality of them can look a little bit rough when compared to high end professional cameras. This did work in our advantage though as the film is centered around a post apocalyptic Britain which is why a rough and grainy look is good for our film.

Pre production called for a lot of editing by me, mainly because I really like doing it, but the "a lot" part came from bad continuity messing up a lot of the takes we had. This called for a trip to Adobe Premier Pro, in which I can edit all the clips together top form a coherent narrative and add effects such as colour grading, change the sound, add music, titles and various other items. The overlay for the news report was created by hand by me in Adobe After Effects as I thought it would look nicer than a generic overlay, which it does. This would not have been possible in most other programs that I have at hand. Without these programs being available to anyone on most devices, this kind of quality would not be achievable.

Evaluation 5: Audiences Continued

Creating intrigue for our audience: There were many things that we added to our film in order to spike interest in the audience. For example, the intense music at the beginning, pictured with all the main characters running from an unknown source, this creates intrigue and intensity which is exactly how good thriller/horror movies should start. This could also intrigue audiences as they may recognize the music in the film and that could increase how much they enjoy it. That is unlikely however as a lot of the music used is quite niche. Audiences did really the opening scene though and most of the people asked said that it was their favorite part of the film. 

Another thing we did for the audience is the news scene as it better makes sense of what is going on in the ever confusing plot. Without this scene, it would be very hard for the audiences to figure out what is happening and who is and isn’t a clone. It is a little bit on the nose but that is the only way that the average viewer would be able to understand what’s happening rather than leaving subtle clues like changes in clothes etc. which could be, and were actually, breaks on continuity. 

Of course we also wanted to create an atmosphere that would be memorable and stand out. That's why we made sure to do everything we could to stick with a particular atmosphere of just bleakness and hopelessness with the song On My Planet by Jerry Paper to end the clip with it's bleak sound and the colour grading of the blues and greens to look decaying and dim, as well as killing off Boris early on as it creates a very distinct look and feel that audiences will hopefully not forget. They seem to not have forgotten that either as 70% of people asked said that they liked the look and feel of the film and thought that it fit well with the story. 

Amendment to the first three minutes of our film

Original
The 3 main characters are sat around a lantern in a caged area, can be set at early morning or mid afternoon. They are talking about how the world went to pot. Then you can hear sirens and devastation in the background. The characters are discussing the law the government passed. The screen will then transition to another scene, flickering transition, to a new room where a scientist is talking to the camera about the new law that everyone must give a sample of their DNA to the officials who will use it to help prevent crime (this will be filmed in a dark room with only 1 light on the scientist). The camera then fades back to the main characters sat around a lantern. They then talk about rioting and, looting as the people were not happy with the new law that was passed. The scene then cuts to shaky footage of people rioting and a mad upheaval with dust fliying around then the screen fades to black. When it cuts back the camera then cuts to footage (looking through a man’s eyes) as he’s stumbling towards the group in the cage. We then see a hand grabbing one of the cage and they turn around and scream. The camera then does a shot reverse shot of the person whom the hand belongs too and it’s a clone of the same person. With the camera placed on the floor looking up at his clone, the camera is drifting in and out of focus. The camera then re focuses on the rest of the characters (shot reverse shot) looking at how frightened they are. Then all of a sudden the screen fades to black.

The new first three minutes
To introduce the film, the camera will focus on the characters' feet and the floor. Non-diegetic music will be plaing behind this to create suspense. The characters are then shown to enter a caged area and then they are shown to lock themswlves in, creating tension, whilst the non-diegetic music continues. The last character to enter the room , Boris, walkes past the camera and whilst he does so the screen goes black, like a wipe. The text will appear telling the audience what the film is called and who stars in the film. The characters will be sat down on the floor looking hopeless and then  Boris declares that "it's been a week now" and then Boris and Jim have a dissagrement and the arguement gets more physical. Nicola has to seperate them and then Nicola agree with Boris and says that it was the government to ruin the human race in England. A transition appears of a news report which Nicola talks about which shows that the governemnt declared mandetory DNA samples. Then the scene changes back to Nicola, Boris and John and snipets of someone outside of the cage appears and Boris goes out to check. Boris gets attacked and Nicola and Jim go and look to see what was outside of the cage, attacking Boris. The clip ends with Boris saying 'shit'.

Evaluation 4: Audiences

For the pre production research, we asked audiences what they liked about our chosen genres, Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller, in order to get a taste of what we should put in our film in order to please audiences.

We did this by asking people in a survey if they understood the basics of our plot, which most did not, which is why we changed it to make it a little bit more understandable, got rid of the scientist scenes etc... But still kept it open and vague enough for audiences to want to continue to keep watching.

Of course though, not everyone would like to keep watching which is always expected in films like this as lots of audience members aren't used to this type of storytelling and thus don't want to give it a try which is something that our film would suffer with.

That is a risk we are willing to take though in order to make something that we know that the audiences who do stick around will like and enjoy.

Evaluation 3: Distribution

As our film is quite unusual, from the way it is edited, to the dialogue, to the subject matter of out of control clones, It would be less likely to be picked up by a larger, more well known distribution company like Warner Bros or other members of the big 6.

This is due to the fact that the companies rarely take big risks in the films that they release as they are all about gaining money and would not be sure if a film about out of control clones, with an unknown and very small cast would do well at the box office.

This is why it is more likely that, if our film was picked up by a company, it would be a much smaller, more independent film company such as Icon who are actually the UK’s leading independent film distributor. Icon are responsible for The Nice Guys, a buddy cop movie in 2016, they don’t make them like that anymore, and other films with strange/risky plots such as What Women Want in which Mel Gibson (of all people) obtains the ability to read the minds of women for a brief period of time. It is clear that Icon likes to take risks which is why they could be good for us.

Also, Film 4 is also a candidate for the distribution of our film as they have distributed films such as Submarine, and most notably, Room (2014) which, much like our film, for the majority of the film, features just 2 characters talking and interacting in a Room that they are trapped in. This similarity of strange events also makes us likely to be picked up by Film 4.

Finally, Warp Films is the one that we will go with for many reasons, such as the fact that on their about page on their website it even say “If you like predictable and formulaic storytelling, sorry, you’ve come to the wrong place.” Showing how they’re more willing to make films that break conventions and take chances, thus increasing our chances of being distributed by them as the storytelling in the first 3 minutes of our film is not linear and is very open to interpretation which is why it would be perfect for Warp Films.

Evaluation 2: Social Groups

Evaluation 2 from connorc123

Evaluation 1: Our Film VS Reality

Evaluation 1 from connorc123

Risk Assessment

DNA-pocalypse=b-movie

 DNA-pocalypse
We have decided to make our film a b-movie due to the low budget and the minimum choice of locations which we have. We believe the target audience of our movie likes comedy more than intensity, therefore we will add a slight hint of comedy in our film, possibly some sarcasm by the characters. Films such as Deadpool and Scary movie are very popular due to the comedic tone of the films. Our film is rated a 12 and therefore this suits the new idea of a 'b-movie' as young people like to have a laugh, especially with their friends and if we can make a funny b-movie then the film will be successful as we may just get more recognition than what we anticipated and so all the effort of making the film will be woth it. If the film is successful and makes the audience laugh then an individual will hopefull spread the film through word of mouth or the media. The young are constantly on the media and there are over 1.86 billion monthly active users on facebook. This would let our film be spread to others quickly and efficiently. 
We will outline that our film is a bee movie by having terrible acting, overdramatic music and very extreme sound effects. 
One example of a successful b-movie is:
Return of the Living Dead
 Year: 1985
Director: Dan O’Bannon
A b-movie is a movie which has a low budget and usually presents a perticular genre. Low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s and we aspire to creat an acceptable science-fiction b-movie film. Many of the films arer 70 minutes or less, which is less than an average film of 90 minutes or two hours.
Our film was origninally going to be 90 minutes, however we have shortened it to 70-80 minutes to make it more like a b-movie.

Storyboard