My Evaluation:-

http://prezi.com/b5xkml_7mbzi/brogans-as-media-studies-main-task-evaluation/

Basic Evaluation Plan:-

Everyone in the class was given a basic plan to help start us off on our evaluation, I have expanded on this plan and tried to keep to the points suggested meaning hopefully it will give me a good mark.

Female Name:-

We decided to call the female protagonist in our opening sequence Lily, this is because of  different connotations and meanings of the name and the imagery associated with it. We liked the fact that there were a number of Lilies each with their own meanings and connotations; this reminded us of our character Lily as she has many contrasting characteristics herself.

We already knew that Lily had multiple connotations that were relevant to the protagonist in our storyline. It turned out that the name was perfect! Below are a number of things that we found and annotated during the process of exploring the name.

1)

- We found that Madonna Lillies were a symbol of purity and associated with the Holy Virgin and religion. I liked this because it reflected the youth and purity of our protagonist which also helps to emphasise her innocent characteristics and increases the empathy felt towards her after her loss.

-This Lily also was used as a wedding flower (reflecting the love felt between the young couple in our story) and also a connotation of death (reflecting her losses).

-We also found that historically it was thought that Lilies spontaneously appeared on the graves of those who were executed for crimes which they did not commit. I thought that this reflected the way in which the male's death was undeserved.

-Dreaming of Lilies at different times of year can also signify different things. "Dreaming of lilies in spring signifies marriage, happiness and prosperity"; I thought that this reflected the fact that the spring of their relationship (the beginning) was extremely loving, happy and idealistic. "Dreaming of lilies in winter signifies frustration of hopes and the premature death of a loved one"; this contrasted with the spring and reflected the winter of their relationship (the death of the male), and again emphasised that his death was premature.

-The medieval connotation of feminine sexuality also appeared relevant but I wasn't 100% certain on what was meant by this; so I looked up the meaning of 'feminine sexuality' itself. I found the below. I thought that this was also relevant because of their age and the fact that teenagers are at the stage where they are exploring sexuality.

Monday 5th March

For the past week I have been working on both my blog and my evaluation. I have composed a checklist of what needs to be on my blog, and I think I have everything on track so far. Also, i have created a more developed plan for my evaluation and am now in the process of writing it. I have decided to try and write it as an essay before putting it into a 'prezi' presentation.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Basic Evaluation Plan.

We were also given this basic plan to help us begin our evaluations. I will personally expand on this later but here is what we were given:

Friday, March 2, 2012

Task Checklist

We were all given a checklist to ensure that we had completed all tasks necessary for our planning and final product. Here is my checklist:

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Further research into the name of our female protagonist.

We already knew that Lily had multiple connotations that were relevant to the protagonist in our storyline.


However, this afternoon in our lesson, both Brogan and Tiffany were absent and the computer with all of our work on was not working. Therefore, I decided to do some further research into the name Lily to ensure that it was the correct name for our protagonist.


It turned out that the name was perfect! Below are a number of things that I found and annotated during the process of exploring the name.

1)

- I found that Madonna Lillies were a symbol of purity and associated with the Holy Virgin and religion. I liked this because it reflected the youth and purity of our protagonist which also helps to emphasise her innocent characteristics and increases the empathy felt towards her after her loss.

-This Lily also was used as a wedding flower (reflecting the love felt between the young couple in our story) and also a connotation of death (reflecting her losses).

-I also found that historically it was thought that Lilies spontaneously appeared on the graves of those who were executed for crimes which they did not commit. I thought that this reflected the way in which the male's death was undeserved.

-Dreaming of Lilies at different times of year can also signify different things. "Dreaming of lilies in spring signifies marriage, happiness and prosperity"; I thought that this reflected the fact that the spring of their relationship (the beginning) was extremely loving, happy and idealistic. "Dreaming of lilies in winter signifies frustration of hopes and the premature death of a loved one"; this contrasted with the spring and reflected the winter of their relationship (the death of the male), and again emphasised that his death was premature.

-The medieval connotation of feminine sexuality also appeared relevant but I wasn't 100% certain on what was meant by this; so I looked up the meaning of 'feminine sexuality' itself. I found the below. I thought that this was also relevant because of their age and the fact that teenagers are at the stage where they are exploring sexuality.

2)

In reading my previous annotations and explorations, this is rather self explanatory. It reflects the ideas of premature and undeserved death. 

3)

Again, this is pretty self-explanatory; it reflects three of her main characteristics- innocence, purity and beauty.

Original Song:-

This is the original version of the song used in our opening sequence. Having read the lyrics we decided the song could fit well with our piece and therefore decided to adapt it into our opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dflJL5Zb4ao

Link to YouTube:-

In order to gain more audience feedback, ideas and helpful information to create our next piece of work we uploaded our film to YouTube so that more people (both media literate and non-media literate) could help feedback on what we could improve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy6TincKm-k

High-Visability Jackets:-

We decided that seen as we were filming some parts of our film in the dark, we needed to take some safety precautions when filming. We decided that we needed to wear high-visability jackets and carry torches to ensure we were safe whilst filming. Hacing put this on our Risk Assessment we then needed to carry these ideas out- heres a photo of me Maisie and Tiffany wearing the jackets for a shooting session in the dark.

New Storyboards:-

The Choice Of Song:-

We decided to base our song choice on The End Where I Begin - The Script because it related to the topic and main idea of our film. As the music we used in our opening sequence could not be copyright, we realised we could not use the actual version of the song. So we therefore got another student (Emma Claydon) to play an instrumental version on the piano, changing a few notes here and there so it wasn't the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b7p2Pr_Rhg

The name of the song, also had links to the idea that the story was cyclical. And what happened could easily happen again and again to either the same or different people. It also reflected the negativity of the story.

Flashback:-

Having a flashback in our opening sequence meant we could include a section of montage editing. 

To make it apparent to the audience it was a flashback we decided we needed to add some kind of effect in order to make it clear and understandable. We therefore added an echo effect that made the shots echo creating a blur. This worked well and our audience knew that it was a flashback meaning we had made it clear enough to understand.

Audience Feedback Changes, Voice Over:-

We decided the hospital scene wasn't clear enough for the audience as to who died, be it the female or male. 

After thinking this through, we came up with various ideas.
Such as adding a voice over of a nurse telling the protagonist of the unfortunate loss of her boyfriend, due to the car crash.
Seeing the male in the hospital or at the scene of the crash.
Or perhaps seeing the female afterwards, looking at possessions or belongings of the male and crying over them.

The Name Of The Film:-

We decided that the main idea in the film would be cyclical and keep happening to the same girl, suggesting she is the one perhaps causing or creating the incidents that happen.

As we decided it was a car crash and the male would die, this meant the female would be left alone and would most probably end up mourning over the death of her boyfriend. Referring back to the cyclical idea means that she would be mourning more than once. We therefore decided to call the film, The Mourning After.

Audience Feedback Changes, Crash:-

Our storyline has always been based around a car crash, we felt this was the main event that took place in our opening and perhaps the thing that was most engaging for the audience.

When researching different films and looking at clips and scenes for inspiration and ideas we came across Raise Your Voice, which is where our most prominant thoughts came from for the crash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V87Q9GsoFw

This is the link to the section of Raise Your Voice that gave us the most influential ideas.

Audience Feedback Changes, Circle Theme:-

Our initial film idea, was tied together by a theme. We wanted to run a theme through the opening sequence, we decided this would be circles as it reflected the idea of the continuity of the storyline and the fact that the same thing kept on happening.

When we presented our pitch, the initial feedback from our classmates was that they didn't fully understand the importance or significance of the circles. Once we explained further, they became more interested and thought the idea was perhaps better than first expected.

From hearing this, we decided we either needed to make it more apparent to the audience or remove the idea. We tried to make the idea more apparent but with our new footage it wasn't as easy as we first thought. We did however include the idea into a few of our shots like the carousel ones or the ones where you see a point of view from the female protagonist spinning around.

Audience Feedback Changes, Isolation:-

When we presented our pitch to the class, we discussed the idea of singling out the female protagonist from a  crowd making her appear more isolated and individual. When the class fed back to us, we realised they liked the idea of singling out the protagonist. So we decided to use this idea in our opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZfEEzKFEv8

We watched the opening scene of Collateral and we liked how the two males were singled out in a crowd, we therefore used this scene to develop our idea and make it more apparent.

Audience Feedback Changes, Drugs:-

After seeing the rest of the pitches from the people in our class, we realised every group had decided to incorporate the idea of drugs in their opening sequence. From seeing this, we as a group therefore decided against the idea as we didn't want our film to be too similar to anyone else's or be compared to another groups.

New Storyline:-

Our story begins with a couple walking down a road towards their car, we see them getting into the car, which is white, having colour connotations of innocence. Once inside the car, the couple are happy and are about to begin their journey home from their day out. As the couple are looking at each other, we see a car coming towards them from the opposite direction. The car gets closer until... crash. The next thing we see is the protagonist gaining consciousness, at the same time we see her being pushed down a long corridor on a bed. She then closes her eyes and the female begins to slip in and out of consciousness. During be conscious and not, the female has flashbacks, she sees the times when perhaps when she was more happy, spending quality time with her partner who sadly passed away.

Changes:-

Due to various reasons, some of our roles, responsibilities, locations and filming schedules were required to change. 

Alterations have been made and all current arrangements are as follows:

Roles and Responsibilities:

Camera Work:  All three of us

Director: Maisie Hesketh

Props/Costumes: Brogan Adams

Location: Maisie Hesketh

Equipment: Tiffany Pickford

Organisation:  Brogan Adams

Time Management: Maisie Hesketh

Co-Ordination: All three of us

Actors: Brogan Adams (16 year old female)

            Jeff Leyland (17 year old male)

Locations:

Street Scene:

Birmingham Bull Ring

Carousel Scene:

Birmingham New Street (Christmas Market)

Car Crash Scene:

Deep Haze Country Park/Park Lane, Denford

Return to car Scene:

Derby Street/ Broad Street leading to Aldi Car Park, Leek

Isolation Scene:

Birmingam Bull Ring/ Birmingham New Street

Hospital Scene:

Westwood College

Dates and Times:

Birmingham Bull Ring: (Street and Isolation Scenes)

Wednesday 21^st December 2011 (most of the day)

Birmingham New Street: (Carousel Scene)

Wednesday 21st December 2011

Deep Haze Country Park, Denford: (Car Crash Scene)

Sunday 8th January 2012

Car Park: (Return to car Scene)

Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Bed: (Hospital Scene)

Tuesday 10th January 2012

Why the changes?

A few of the roles, responsibilities and actors were changed due to prior responsibilities and unavailability.

We were required to change the date for our 'Hospital Scene' as we changed the location to school and therefore had to wait until we had an appropriate lesson to get the equipment and be able to film it.

We were required to change the date for the 'Car Crash' scene due to weather conditions; it was icy and therefore would have been unsafe to crash.

We were required to change the location for the 'Car Crash' scene due to timing as the road would be too busy for when we re-scheduled our filming.

Risk Assessment:-

Shooting Scripts:-

Mise En Scene:-

Used at the start when they meet. Wanted to use a busy place. So it isolates the young girl and we would have the crowd blurred and wanted to create a time lapse. Also it fits with the location of where the carousel is.




    


Links with the theme of circles. It is also associated with childhood, happiness. This relates to the feelings of the characters and flashback of the girl in her younger days.




We chose to use a red car in the car crash scene.  Red has colour connotations of danger which reflects on the crash that happens in the opening of our film.




We then decided to use a white car in the crash scene alongside the red one to show the contrast between the two. White has connotations of innocence and purity- we therefore decided the couple would be situated in the white car making them the victims.





Used when the girl wakes up in a hospital bed, she opens her eyes and see’s bright lights. We decided to use a hospital scene so it would fit to the conventions of thriller, because something bad has happened in the car crash.





We are going to use a street in Birmingham and also one in Leek to show the girl and boy walking down different roads, happy and singing to each other. Birmingham is going to be very busy used to show theyre leaving the area, Leek will be used to suggest they have been walking for quite a long time to get back to the car.




We are going to use the car park to contrast against the busy town, also you could see the black figure here. Which links in the genre and creates mystery and tension.