Evaluation of Token of a Relic

I was fairly happy with my final short film although I feel there were a lot of aspects which could be improved. I had initially planned to create a visually interesting and beautiful piece with meaning to it which would be interpreted differently by each viewer. I feel that I have achieved this to some extent with the overall piece looking summery and pretty. I feel that each shot is well framed and I chose a good location to film in which allowed me to use nature a lot throughout the piece. I also managed to film across two sunny days which helps create the look I wanted in the final film.

Token of a Relic Stillshttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=printscreens1-120517154109-phpapp02&stripped_title=token-of-a-relic-stills&userName=Na0m1b

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However, I do not feel like that was enough variety in shots and I think that I should have been a lot more experimental with both camera and editing. When filming, I should have tried out more movement in the shots as I feel the camera stays quite static throughout much of the film. I also should have experimented more with angles as although I have done this in some sequences such as the Russian dolls, a lot of the shots I have used are quite long and could have cut to different angles. This is particularly noticeable in the egg placing sequence where it is all filmed from the side.

Token of a Relic Stillshttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=printscreens3-120519161340-phpapp01&stripped_title=token-of-a-relic-stills-12995673&userName=Na0m1b

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I had also planned initially to shoot more close-ups and use the focus in much of the shots. Only a few close ups were used in the final piece and all of the shots are in focus all of the time. When it came to the shoot I did try and experiment with focus but was unable to create the effect I wanted. I should have tried this out before going out on the shoot as I was limited in the time I had to practice this on the day.

Token of a Relic Stillshttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=printscreens2-120519070915-phpapp01&stripped_title=token-of-a-relic-stills-12992011&userName=Na0m1b

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When it came to editing, I also could have experimented more with different effects. The only effects I really used in editing was colour correction and in some shots, brightness and contrast. I didn’t want to use too many effects because this can make a film look less professional but I could have tried making the footage look more vintage some to match the theme and also the crackling sounds in the music.

I do however; feel that the soundtrack fit perfectly with the piece. I had planned for my film to have a strong soundtrack which added to the overall atmosphere and theme of the film and I think that the track I used manages to do this. The song sounds quite relaxed and happy but with a sad, melancholy undertone to it. This is exactly the feel I was trying to put across as the idea of leaving behind memories and moving on with life is both positive and sad. The lyrics also fit perfectly as the singer sings about loosing ‘the souvenirs I’ve made’. I had thought of using this artist when I first came up with the idea for my short film but it wasn’t until after filming that I found this specific song.

I still believe that I have managed to take inspiration from the two films I have mentioned on my blog; Apricot and My Favourite Things, with the visual style being similar. However, the main aspects I wanted to take from these films were the use of focus and camera techniques which I have not achieved.

I do believe however, that the short film does conform to the codes and conventions of short film. It lasts only 5 minutes, focuses on one character and is more abstract in its story line. The whole film is a metaphor and wouldn’t work as a feature length, there is also no dialogue and little action or narrative within it. The film will also be distributed in a completely different way to a feature, simply being shown online on Vimeo. This means that the audience will be small and niche due to the film’s style and themes.

Management of My Short Film

Overall, I think I managed the short film project well. At the beginning of the project I struggled with finding an idea for the short film. I knew what look and style I wanted to create as well as having some locations in mind but did not have a storyline. However, once I had come up with my idea, the planning and management ran smoothly and effectively. I decided quite quickly on the type of soundtrack I wanted and the style I wanted to create with specific inspirations in mind. I then decided on the actress and although I could have look further on casting websites for example, I felt that my sister Hannah had the look I wanted for the main character. I also felt that working with her would make the film more successful because as I was working by myself I knew she would be able to contribute her own ideas and would be easy to manage and direct. It also meant that we could be more flexible with filming dates which was important because the piece relied on good weather.

After completing all of the appropriate paperwork, I began to think of specific locations and props.

For the props, I gathered up as many objects from around my house as I could. I then picked out the most interesting or beautiful objects which I felt would have connotations to childhood and memories. I also looked in several charity shops for unique objects but ended up using my own props. This was an important part of the planning for my film because these props were the main focus of the piece. Therefore a lot of though was put into which objects I would use and I believe I managed to gather a good selection which were visually appealing and fit the style of the film.

To find the location, I did a lot of research online on different parks aroundLondonknowing that I wanted somewhere with nice gardens and wildlife. I did find a couple of places which I considered using but found that I would have had to have paid an entry fee which I didn’t have the budget for and I felt this would also mean that they would be quite strict about filming there. I ended up choosing two more local parks as I knew them well and knew they had interesting sections which I could use. Although I was unable to use one of them in the end I felt that the final location, Streatham Common Rookery, was a good place to film in. I therefore visited the park before filming to scout out different locations where each prop could be placed. I thought specifically about the types of objects I was using and where they would look best in the park. For example, I decided to place the Russian Dolls on a white bench as I knew this would make them stand out more. This location also allowed the space I needed to include all of the dolls. I felt that the turtle and rabbit would look good placed under flowers to highlight there size and also because they fit into a natural habitat and the eggs looked best hanging off a tree and I chose the one I did because of the blossom which I felt would stand out on camera and add more beauty to the piece.

When it came to filming the film, I could have been much more organised. Although I was able to film the shots I wanted and referred to my shot list at all times, I was unable to experiment due to time constraints. Therefore, I should have practiced beforehand so that I knew exactly how to create the effects I wanted. I also could have thought of ways to create tracking shots to add more movement to the piece.

During post production, I feel that I managed my time well and was able to finish the piece in the time I had. I referred to my shot list at the beginning of editing but felt that I knew what shots went together in each sequence but wanted to cut the different sequences together depending on how well they cut next to each other rather than what my shot list said. I spent some of my own time in the edit suite to ensure the film was finished to a good standard but could have possibly put more time in the experiment more with effects.

The final part of this project was the pitch. I felt that the pitch would be much more detailed and interesting if I decided to come up with my own scenario. This scenario was that I wanted to create a collection of films around the theme ‘Interpretations of the Human Mind’ in which Token of a Relic would be one of four. I decided to do this as I felt that my short film would work better as a collection. The other films I proposed during this presentation were all ideas I had come up with when brainstorming for my original idea.

For this I created two presentations. The first was done on Vuvox and this was created simply to show visuals and videos to support the information that I was giving rather than to give details. I felt that this software was a good tool in creating a collage of images to give an overall feel for the films. However, it was difficult to use at times and I think I could have made more use of my time if I had used a more straight forward programme or one that I was more familiar with.

The second presentation I created was done on PowerPoint and was used to present my research. I felt that this part of the presentation was probably stronger as it showed why I felt the films were worth making and investing in. I had distributed questionnaires for this section and also uploaded the short film and distributed the link asking people to comment their thoughts on the film. I think this research strengthened the overall presentation. I do feel however, that I could have been more detailed in the whole of the presentation and maybe carried out more secondary research into short film itself.

I also should have learnt and practiced what I was going to say beforehand so that I was more confident when I spoke and so that I would rely on my notes less.

Overall, I feel that I managed the whole short film project to a fairly professional standard, although there were many areas I could improve on. As I was working on my own I was able to create my own unique piece and really experience all sides of making a short film. This project really taught me the importance of planning and management because without them, the film wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.

Presentation Notes

Scenario
I am asking for the money to create a collection of 4 short films based around the title ‘Interpretation of the Human Mind’. I have already shot 1 of these films but wish to get better equipment to re shoot this one as well as film the rest of the films. I would also like help with the distribution on the films including the setting up of an online webpage which I will come back to later.
The films will use all new talents from the actors to the music tracks used. These will be scouted out accordingly with the actors having little acting experience, fit the roles and have a passion for acting and film. The music will be sourced from unsigned artists and make up a big part of the collection. As a new filmmaker I want to support others also trying to break into their industries. This will also cut down on costs so that all the money given will allow me to focus on the creative making element and distribution.
My first short film is called Token of a Relic. Token of a Relic is a short film about a young woman leaving behind the memories of her childhood through age. This is shown simply by following the woman through a park as she places relics from her past around her. The lack of emphasis and emotion in her portrayal signifies the easy loss of memories. Each relic decorates the park to show the beauty and innocence of childhood and the sadness of leaving this behind. The young woman holds only a small handbag yet pulls out a number of objects which it would not be able to hold. This is used as a metaphor, to express that the leaving behind of memories is only psychological, not physical.
Here is a clip of the rough cut for the film. I wanted to create a similar look to these short films… However, this meant relying a lot on weather and technology as well as my own filming skills. Therefore, I would like to re shoot Token of a Relic using a DSLR and CANON 85MM 1.8 USM lens to achieve the depth of focus I want. This will also add to the other films I wish to shoot as the look I will create through the use of this technology will add to the meaning and messages in the film as well as making them appear more visually beautiful and interesting.
My other films are;
– An Awaiting Mind – Takes place in a waiting room in an office block. A Young man is waiting in this room for something which is not made clear. As he sits waiting nervously a strange, small object in the room catches his eye. He goes over to the object and picks it up. As he examines it another small but different object catches his eye and he places the first one on the table in front of him. As he begins collecting this second object, more and more of these strange things appear and he builds up a massive collection of object around him. As the guy becomes more confused and panicked, the door opens and a man calls for him. As the camera cuts back to the man in the room all of the objects are gone, showing the fact that these were all figments of his imagination and are used as metaphors to express his thoughts and feelings at the time.
– My second film focuses around a young child as they walk around the streets. Every time the child walks by a person both people stop, take off their shoes and swap them without saying a word and continue on in their journeys. This happens for some time until the child reaches their final destination. Again these actions are used as metaphors with this idea symbolising the young child’s path to discovering who they are and their want to grow up quickly.
– The final film is called Trail to Discovery. This film again focuses around a young woman who is first introduced sitting on the top a hill in a field. The woman begins to make a trail of sweets from the bottom of the hill to the top with her back facing the trail. As she sits back down a young boy gathers the sweets and makes his way up to the girl. As she turns around she realises this was not what she was looking for. Again the girl makes a trail but this time with buttons. The buttons attracts an old lady who again is not the person the girl is looking for. Several trails are made until the girl finally lays out a trail of old books. This time a young man finds the trail and the film ends with him sitting next to the young woman on top of the hill.
Visual Style
– I want to create my short films with similar cinematography and camera techniques as shown through this collage of short film print screens and photographs. I hope to film in a beautiful location and create vivid imagery through the use of sun light and camera focus. I want to create a strong feel of nature and natural beauty focusing around a single character in all four films. Three of these four films strongly feature natural light, wildlife and water which will be shot with heightened color while still keeping a naturalistic look. I also really like the use of focus in these films, where many shots are filmed using a shallow depth of field or starting out of focus and switching to show a clearer image.
Soundtrack

I also want to create a naturalistic soundtrack making the most of diegetic sounds and the sounds of nature. However, I may also use acoustic, folk tracks which will come in at some point of the film to create the feel and atmosphere I want and add to the entertainment of the pieces.
Target Audience
The target audience for this collection of short films will be young adults due to the subject matter and the way they are distributed. Younger adults and teenagers are much more likely to use the internet and search out new videos such as these. However, the films will be easily assessable to anyone searching out short films and will also gain an audience interested in artistic and metaphorical short film. Although this is a very small audience I believe the uniqueness of the collection will draw in an audience as they are there to entertain and interest rather than for personal gain.
Distribution
The main form of distribution for these short films will be on my own personal website. This website will show case all 4 of the films as a collection. Aside from this, I will also put the films onto their own YouTube channel and Vimeo Channel. I will also submit each film to Future Shorts so that, if successful, they will reach a wider audience.
This is an example of a short film maker’s website which includes several different collections of his work. If my short films are successful I hope to create other collections to display on my own website and begin building it up as an online portfolio.
http://www.benbriand.com/splash/index.htm
Breakdown of budget:
– Running of website – £100
– Future shorts submissions – £50
– Camera – Canon EOS 7D SLR (£740)
– Lens Hire – CANON 85MM 1.8 USM (£800)
– Tripod – (£100)
– Lighting Hire – £452 a month
– Dolly – £170 a month
– Props – £1000
– Actors – 4 main, 15 extras – (£1,150)
– Location Hire – £600
– Travel – = £1014 for weekly travel cards
– Food – £2,000
– Sound – £40 a day
– Camera assistant – £180 a day
– Sound assistant/recorder – £200 a day
– Camera – £80 a day

For 1 month – £21,418

Why you should help me
As you are a company which support the arts and new film makers, I believe that you will be investing in what you believe in as this will hopefully start off my career in the film industry. It also means that new and original film ideas are being distributed which will inspire others to be creative with their storylines and ideas.
As you know short film does not have a massive following. If you look at the following views for some of the films I believe to be similar in style to mine, you can see that there is not a great audience out there. However, Apricot for example, has much greater views then that of My Favourite Things and has gone on to win 4 awards and help progress Ben Briand’s film making career. I believe this is for several reasons;
– director Ben Briand was able to secure funding for the film through people similar to yourselves
– he had a strong team working alongside him as I hope to have with your help
– he had his own website and the help of Future Shorts to distribute the film
– I believe this to be important because as you can see his website includes a link to the video on vimeo which has a large amount of likes and comments in comparison to the Youtube video. This video also has many more Youtube views than say My favourite Things and I believe this to be partly down to it being shown on Future Shorts.
– I also feel that my music tracks will help me to gain a wider audience through people seeking out the songs or looking for new or unheard of artists.

Why I think my films are worth making
– as I’ve mentioned I believe they are different and have meaning which can be interpreted differently to each viewer
– there are few collections of short films out there and I think this will be something that interests people
– there is a market for these types of films
– this can be seen through primary research I have carried out
– I uploaded the near completed version of my film on Youtube and have print screened some of the comments I received. As you can see these are quite positive and the viewers seemed to enjoy watching the film.
– I also distributed a questionnaire where I found that many people interested in short film like artistic, quirky films and felt that storyline, soundtrack and style were important factors in making a successful short, all of which I feel my films will contain.
– I also asked respondents whether they were interested in watching my collection of films and received positive results from this.

Presentation

http://www.vuvox.com/collage_express/collage.swf?collageID=0575712029

Powerpointhttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=powerpoint-120517151105-phpapp02&stripped_title=powerpoint-12974872&userName=Na0m1b

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Filming

On my first day of shooting, I went up toBrockwellParkwith my actor and all of the props and costume. However, after arriving at the locations I wanted to film in such as the gardens and band stand, we discovered that there was refurbishment work going on to these areas. This meant that I was unable to film in these locations. Instead of wasting my time here, I decided to film some location shots and cut aways but was unable to film any of the scenes which included the actor. By the time we had traveled back to Streatham from this location, the weather turned and we felt that there was not enough time or sunlight to make it to the rookery. This set back also meant that all of the filming would need to be done in the Rookery. Therefore, instead of filming, we went down to the Rookery to look at where we could film each bit. I then changed the storyboard accordingly and began planning for our next shoot.

 

The first proper shoot took place on the 14^th March. Again the actor and I went up to the Rookery with all of the props and equipment. As my piece relied heavily on the sunlight, we spent the whole day here from 11am to 6pm when the sun set. However, the sun kept going in and out throughout the day and a lot of the time was spent sitting around waiting for the sunlight. This was a mistake as it meant that little time was actually spent filming and each shot was rushed because I was trying to get everything filmed with the sun. This meant that I wasn’t following the storyboard as I should have been and I missed many shots and didn’t experiment with different techniques and camera movements. I felt that this has let my film down considerably and I should have spent the whole time shooting even if I wasn’t going to use every shot. During planning, I had planned to use focus a lot within the shots and try out different camera techniques and movement. Looking back at the footage, I felt that doing so would have really strengthened the piece as the shots are too long and too boring. I wanted to be much more experimental and artistic with the filming and feel that I have not achieved the look I wanted.

On the other hand, I feel that the majority of the shots were framed fairly well as I wished and the sunlight and location made the shots look pretty and summery. I feel that I worked and communicated well with the actor and I was able to fill the whole tape with footage.

Other problems we found included the general public. The park was fairly busy at this time and I found that I had to wait around for people to move out of the filming locations regularly and move the camera so people didn’t feel uncomfortable. I had to be careful with blocking pathways and also had to be sensitive when children were around. However, I feel that I coped well with these problems and didn’t affect the public’s experience in the park too much. Although again a lot of time was wasted waiting around for people to be out of shot.

 

Because I hadn’t managed to film every shot I needed, I planned a second shoot at the Rookery. I had a lot less time on this shoot due to the actor not having planned to re film and having made previous plans. However, we were able to shoot for several hours and I managed to get most of the remaining shots I needed. Much like the previous shoot, I had planned to be much more creative and experimental and although I tried to use different techniques, I didn’t have the time to perfect these so ended up filming quite static shots.

With more time, I would like to re film much of the shots in the ways I had previously planned. I would also have liked to have filmed the opening sequence which I was unable to do due to the inability to find the right location or props (flowers) after the first location fell through. 

Costume

I chose to dress my actor in a long cream dress and sun hat as I wanted her to look beautiful as well as slightly quirky. This is to add some personality to the woman but also to add visually to the film. Hair and make-up was also important to make the girl stand out as much as possible. I didn’t want too much make-up however as I wanted a slightly natural look. All of these things were important for the overall aesthetics of the film as every aspect such as location, props and costume, had to work well together visually.

Props

For my film, I needed to find a number of props to symbolise memories. I wanted the objects to be visually interesting and fit into the park setting and the overall look of the film. Therefore, I searched my own house for objects from my own childhood which I felt would be suitable. I then visited several charity shops to find some interesting objects which I felt could be used. Although I could not find many interesting objects in these shops, I managed to gather a decent collection choosing the following as my final props;

 

Risk Assessment

Activity / Environment / Venue	Streatham Rookery		SPECIFIC LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENTS
Time and date of activity	Thursday 15thMarch10:00 – 17:00		Health & Safety at Work etc. ActManagement of Health & Safety at Work Regulations Adventure Activities Licensing Regulations Road Traffic Legislation Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations-1997
Group / students involved Age range: Nos:	Naomi, Hannah Billington18 & 20 2
Educational Objectives	To film footage for short film

 

MAIN HAZARDS IDENTIFIED		WHO WILL BE AFFECTED		CONTROL MEASURES TO REDUCE THE RISK
List significant hazards that may result in serious harm or affect several people.		List groups of people who are especially at risk from the significant hazards identified.		List the risks that are not adequately controlled and propose action where it is reasonably practicable to do more.
Assault/Robbery		Students.		Take equipment out in cases and keep in cases when not in use.If threatened, do not resist theft.
Water		Crew – Naomi		Ensure that the camera is far enough away from water when filming near it and that it is stable.
Tripping on equipment		Actor – HannahCrew – Naomi Public		Ensure that all equipment is kept to one side and there is always someone standing by it.
Blocking public foot paths		Actor – HannahCrew – Naomi Public		Ensure that there is always a space for the public to pass throughMove equipment when public wish to pass by.
Completed by	Naomi Billington		Date 28th Feb 2012
Checked By			Date

Location Maps – Streatham Rookery

Soundtrack – Sparklehorse (Sunshine)

I opened my eyes
and watched the sunshine
it had been out all night
to relax and unwind

there will come a time gigantic
waves will crush the junk that I have saved
when the moon explodes or floats away
I’ll lose the souvenirs I made
la la la

I lay down on the grass
and let the insects do their thing
she covered me with wings and
held my head and said ‘poor thing’

there will come a time gigantic
waves will crush the junk that I have saved
when the moon explodes or floats away
I’ll lose the souvenirs I saved
la la la