Evaluation Question 4; How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Reasearch and Planning, Contruction and Evaluation Stages?

Below, I have embedded the final evaluation question. For question four, we decided to create two screen casts and then further embed video examples. 

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is also another technology in which we used in all stages of creating our products. Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications which allow the user to interact with the web via Information sharing, collaboration and user-centered design. An few examples of web 2.0 applications are blogs, video-sharing (YouTube, Vimeo), social-networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) and wiki's (Wikipedia). The main factor of web 2.0 is that the site allows its users to interact with other users or change the website content e.g. embedding HTML code into Blogger, as in previous years before web 2.0 the user was limited to passive viewing of information. This meant that we were able to embed research materials; videos, documents and audio, create a blog and create entries, post our products to the web and communicate via social-networking. 

HD v SD
Here is a comparison video highlighting the difference between high definition and standard definition.

Photoshop in use
Below, as mentioned in the above videos, is a Photoshop tutorial video, which aided me in the creation process.

Evaluation Question 3; What Have You Learnt From Audience Feedback?

Above is the answer to the question in the title of the post. Below I have embedded our Rough Cut and our Final Cut as a reference.

Evaluation Question 2; How Effective Is The Combination of Your Main Product and Your Ancillary Tasks?

Below, I have embedded the answer to the question in the post title, for which we have used a screen capture with audio commentary explaining the use of shots, editing and camera work in our film, as well as techniques that we have used in our poster and magazine. At the end of screen capture, we have also explained the effectiveness of all the products and how they create an overall brand identity.


Breakdown:
0:10 - Film Deconstruction.
8:26 - Poster Deconstruction
9:28 - Magazine Deconstruction
9:57 - Across brand combination and Identity.

Overall, I believe that we have successfully accomplished the creation of a film, magazine review and movie poster to a very high standard as well as all three products coming together to successfully create an overall brand identity for Reborn from Sin.

Evaluation Question 1: In What Way Does Your Film Use, Challenge and Develop Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Below, I have embedded the first of four evaluation questions, in this video Adele and Sam are discussing and highlighting the conventions; use, developed or challenged, in our final product (film). We have edited into the video, some examples of our own product and some existing media products, this is to further show the range of conventions used, where they were used and how they compared to existing media products. 

Addressing Our Target Audience

Since posting our final cut of Reborn From Sin, we have had to make some decisions regarding our target audience. Due to age rating guidelines set by BBFC, we agree that our film would be rated 18 due to the nature of some of the scenes in our flashback. However, we need to think about the age, gender and background of our audience.

We feel that our film would probably appeal to both genders between ages 18-21 due to the thrilling genre and chilling plotline of our film. We then think that our film would appeal to over 21 year olds, probably more females than males, because they will be able to empathise with our main character, Samantha.

Finally, we feel that anyone could watch this film, this film would not appeal to religious people more than atheists jut because it has religious themes. This is because Angels and Demons has a religious theme, but that does not mean that non-religious people did not go to watch it or did not enjoy it.

Reborn From Sin; Final Cut

Above is the final cut of our film, newly named Reborn From Sin. We are aware that our film does not follow our treatment, script, storyboard or animatic exactly. We will possibley re-make these and embed them in a later post as it wouldn't take too much work, however, we feel that on a creative level our film has just grown further from its original idea, and so it is not a disaster that we do not follow our planning strictly.

Creating New Film Titles

As I have mentioned in a previous post, we needed to create new and better titles for our film. The ones on our rough cut, due to their nature, took far too long to turn into something readable and took up too much time. They also didn't really introduce the audience to what our film was actually about, and so as a group we have decided to change them.

As opposed to creating something over the top and fancy, we have decided to keep them simple and even create them in Final Cut. Below is a picture of one of the frames of our titles.

This was created in Final Cut. Firstly, I used Google Images in order to find some images which I felt would be suitable for our titles and would be appropriate for representing our film and what it's about. I tried to find images which just had a black outline so that I could use PhotoShop to fill the inside in using the fill bucket, and make them white. I then created a slug in Final Cut, added text to it, chose the font I felt most appropriate and then using the superimpose option, I dragged the images I had found and edited onto the slugs and positioned them where I thought was right using the wireframe.

Although our titles are only black and white, and are very basic and simple, I feel that they are affective for these reasons, as they do not complicate anything. I also think, that with the right music underneath them (ie. chanting/choir singing), they will give the audience an idea about our film's themes before any of our footage has even begun.

Addressing Our Film's Title

Personally, I felt that our film's title was no longer appropriate, as our main character Samantha had kept her baby, so really she had no longer sinned. For this reason, I brought it up with my group members and we decided to re-think the name. After much consideration, we decided that we wanted to go with 'Reborn From Sin'. We think that although it only has one less word, it is slightly more snappy. We also feel that it now makes more sense than the previous title, considering the changes made to our film.

It originated from the idea of  being a 'born again Christian' and we went from 'Born Again', because Samantha had found her faith again after the horrific events which happened to her. However, we could not all agree on this name so after some discussion we came up with 'Reborn From Sin' based on the idea that Samantha has re-found her faith dispite the fact that she has been sinned against, because she has overcome and forgiven the person who sinned against her, and God for handing her this challenge in life.

Friday 16th March; The Final Shoot

As a group, we managed to get Friday 16th March off timetable in order to film for the whole day, luckily our actors were also able to do this to be able to help us with filming. Present at the shoot were Sam, Adele and me, Rob did not come to this shoot. We also had Erica, Tom and Adam accompanying us to act in our scenes.

We met at school early and went to Sam's house first. Here we filmed in his dining room and made  absolutely sure we were happy with all shots before we moved onto shooting the next lot. We filmed from a number of different angles, including a long shot of Samantha and Anthony sat at the table, close ups of both characters talking and shots over each of their shoulders. This gave us alot to work with when editing, which is something we previously did not do. We also made sure we had more than one of each shot so that we had plenty to work with incase there was something wrong with one of the other ones.

This time when filming, we used the halogen lighting system, as planned, and made sure that every shot was lit appropriately, and effectively. We also had the small monitor (also as planned) which allowed us as a group to each have alot more say in what was happening with the framing and lighting of shots because we could all see it, as opposed to one of us looking at a tiny flip screen. We took it in turns to press record just so that we had all had an equal turn at this stage of the film-making.

Next in Sam's house, we filmed in his living room. Here we made sure that we had plenty of shots again, including one which zoomed in from being a long shot to an extreme close up. This allowed us to have an opportunity later on in the film which we may use as a match-on-action. We also made sure that the match-on-action with the living room/dining room door was going to be perfect. On this shoot, we all had our eye on continuity in order to maintain a high standard and not include any silly mistakes in or film.

We then went to the woods by Sam's house where we filmed some shots to be added to the flashback. We recorded another match-on-action to be included using the gate at the beginning of the path we were filming on. We then filmed some more pans and some more shots from different parts of the woods ie. behind different trees and from different distances from where the action was taking place. We also made sure to film a shot of the roasry beads being dropped out of Samantha's hands, as this is a very symbolic part of our film.

At this point Sam had to go as he had family arrangements which he had to attend, so him, Tom and Adam left as they were no longer needed for any filming. We finished the day, and the shoot off by filming Samantha getting up and out of bed in my house. I was sure to film everything twice when capturing these scenes as I wanted to give my group members some choice when editing, I couldn't decide whether natural light or artificial lighting worked better, so I shot using both, giving my group and I the choice to make later. Just like throughout the rest of the day, I ensured we had plenty of shots to work with by filming ECU's, CU's, MS's and LS's as well as including a couple of pans. I also decided to film something which had not previously been discussed with my group but I thought it might be a good idea to include and would help to link from the bedroom scene to the dining room scene, and so I filmed Samantha coming out of the bedroom and walking down the stairs. I hope we can fit this into our final film somehow as I think it would be a nice addition.

Overall, 16th March was a good shoot and alot was achieved in a day. I hope we have a range of usable footage which will make editing alot easier and our final film alot easier to follow and of a higher standard and quality.

Planning For Re-Shoot; Props

As part of our re-shoot, we are also making a list of the props we need to make sure we have ready for the day we film. By having this list, and the props ready, we will save ourselves time and prevent any last minute running around. A prop is defined as anything which is used in filming and is touched or used in some way. Below I have included the list of props and some images of them, I have also included information about when they will be used in our film and in some cases, their purpose.

An alarm clock will be switched off by Samantha in the first part of our film.

Samantha will then pick up a small blue gift bag and envelope and make her way towards her bedroom door. She will hand this to Anthony in the next section of our film.

Anthony will have a bowl of cereal in front of him at the dining room table and he will be playing with the contents of the bowl with his spoon. There will also be two coffee mugs on the table, one for him and one Samantha will have in front of her. We added these props as it gave our actors something to do with their hands, made the scene look more natural, and actually gave them a real purpose for being in this location; all of which previously were missing.

After Samantha has handed Anthony the blue gift bag an birthday card, he will reveal the contents, which will be a silver crucifix on a chain in a jewellry box.

Rosary beads will feature in the flashback of the rape scene, during this scene the beads will be dropped to the floor in order to show the that Samantha has lost her faith in Catholocism due to the violent and unmoral act committed against her seventeen year old self.

A shoe box will feature in the final part of our film, and Samantha will be looking through its contents and reminiscing about her baby boy which has been triggered by her flashback. The box will include: a dummy, booties, baby's cardigan, congratulations card (any other baby memorabilia we would like to include), brown envelope with an address window, diary, prayer books and...

Finally a silver crucifix. This will be hesitantly put back on by Samantha in order to show that she has forgiven what happened to her when she was a teenager because she can see that something good came out of something bad.

This will complete our property list and will hopefully mean that we will be able to successfully and easily complete our filming with no waiting around deciding what we need and when.

Planning For Re-Shoot; Equipment

One of our first and biggest downfalls when filming previously was not being organised, therefore, we are going to thoroughly plan out everything we need to take with us, and what we are going to do when we are on location. This is so that we do not run out of time by either discussing what we are going to film and worrying about something we may or may not have forgotten to take with us. Below I have listed and included some images of the equipment we will be taking with us when re-filming.

Obviously, the first piece of equipment we will be taking with us is the Sony HD video camera.We will also be taking the charger with us so that we never have a problem with the battery running out of charge. When filming in a house/building, we will leave the camera on charge so that when we are filming outside we will never have the issue of the battery being flat.

The next thing we will be remembering to take is tapes for the camera. Lots of them too! By ensuring we have plenty of tapes this means that we can always be sure we have a spare in case the one we are using gets full (which is unlikely) or so that we can each have a tape so that no footage is accidentally recorded over meaning no blame can be placed and there will be no falling out.

Next on our list is a tripod. We will obviously be taking this to keep the camera steady and to successfully accomplish panning when necessary.

Of course, our tripod will be no use without a tripod adapter so we will also be taking one of these to ensure the camera is sat comfortably on the tripod.

Unlike on our last shooting sessions, we are going to remember to take the three-point lighting systme with us. This will ensure that all of our scenes are properly lit which is also what will take our film from looking like an amateur has filmed it to looking like our footage has been captured by a professional. We will also use natural lighting where necessary ie. in the woods. We will also use natural lighting as well as the lights we take with us. We will probably only take two out of the three lights as we just want them to highlight facial expressions made by the actors.

The final item we will take in terms of equipment will be a monitor which we will plug into the video camera. We are going to take this so that we can see the footage we are capturing on a larger screen, meaning that we get a more realistic view of it. This is opposed to us seeing our real captured footage for the first time when we get to the editing stage and it will be too late to rectify the issues. The bigger screen also means that every group member can take a more active role in helping to decide things about framing and lighting.

Hopefully, the list which I have made above will already go a long way towards us capturing better quality footage when we next go out to film.

Planning For Re-Shoot; Costume

After lengthy discussions, we have come to some final conclusions about or film settings and therefore, costumes. We have decided that Anthony is sixteen years old in present day 2012, meaning that he was born in 1996. This would mean that Samantha was raped in late 1995/early 1996. We have also decided that Samantha was eighteen when she was raped by her step father, Ray. This would work out that she were born in late 1978/early 1979, meaning that in present day 2012, Samantha is about 34 years old.

We have also decided that, unlike in our rough cut, we would like our film to start with Samantha getting up and out of bed, ready to face the day that lies ahead of her, this means that there have had to be some changes to costumes. Below I have made a list of the costumes worn by the characters in our film and have also included some images as a guide.

In order to make Samantha look older we are going to put a pair of glasses on her. As we are using the same actress, this will hopefully help to differentiate between the two ages in the present day scene and the flashback scene set in 1996. Samantha will also be wearing a dressing gown and pyjama's underneath as she has just gotten out of bed in the morning.

Anthony will be wearing a '16' badge as part of his costume, this will help to establish his age and will also allow the audience to recognise that this is a special occasion. He will also be wearing his original costume of a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

Ray will also be wearing his original costume of a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a denim jacket. We kept this the same as when we researched the 1990's to gather information on our new flashback time period, we found that the '90's screamed denim!

Again, when researching the '90's we checked Samantha's costume against what may have been found in the 1990's. We found that her original costume of a pair of jeans and a girly top could stay the same, which workes well for us as we do not have to re-film any of the flashback scene, only film extra parts for it. We decided that the original hair style which we used worked for the '90's aswell as it looked not too dissimilar to that of Jennifer Aniston in 'Friends' which was referred to throughout the '90's by her characters name and was known as 'The Rachel'.

The list of costumes needed will help us when filming as the person in charge of checking costume will not find it so difficult if they know what costume should be worn by who and when. Also, by keeping costume to a minimum and using fairly easily accessible items of clothing, we have tried to make it as easy as possible for the actors/actresses involved in helping us to make our film.

Important Decisions Made By SCAR Productions

As a group, after reading our rough cut feedback, we have decided that due to the poor quality and missing scenes in our film, we are going to re-film our entire film. We feel that this is the best option in order to gain better marks and achieve our full potential.

We will need to re-think our idea a little as it doesn't really make sense as a whole. To overcome this issue we have decided to remove the second male, who was supposed to be aborted and conceived via the rape. We have removed this character because he looked like he wasn't meant to be there, we wanted our film to make sense, and also felt that this character didn't add much to the plot.

We have also removed the scene on the park and the nursery rhyme. We have decided to take this out as it also didn't make sense and confused the audience who we asked to watch our film and give further feedback. Although we felt that on a symbolic level this scene alluded to the sense on innocence and it being taken away, we felt the risk of confusing our viewers by including it was far greater than the symbolic benefits of including it.

We will also be improving our titles as we feel that they do not tell the viewer enough about our film before it begins. We also think that the effect on them means they take alot of time to develop and this means that we would have to hold the text for longer, whereas the titles we have looked at are short, snappy and to the point.

These are all of the changes we have come up with so far regarding our final film. Any others we decide on will be in the posts that are to follow.

To Sin No More; Rough Cut Feedback

Below, I have embedded a copy of our feedback from our rough cut, which can also be found on our school's A2 Media blog. We know that we have alot of work to do on our film, and this document contains some useful and constructive criticisms and comments for us to work on. This will make our process of re-thinking and planning alot easier.

To Sin No More Rough Cut Feedback

To Sin No More; First Draft

Creating Our Ident

I personally was not the member of our group who created the ident for our production company, Sam did this for the group. We did however, all discuss what kind of thing we would like. As we are called SCAR, we wanted something which slashed across the screen, we think that Sam has done a great job with creating the ident and he made the tutorial I have embedded below, accessible to all of us so that we can at least be aware of how the ident was put together. Although it is a different idea to what we have as our ident, I believe it was still put together in the same way, via the same or as similar process.

Editing Process - Part #1

When I came to edit our footage on 9th Feb, a week after our second day of filming, I found that the scenes in the bedroom we had filmed weren't on the tape, so due to technical error we didn't have those to work with. When I looked at the rest of the scenes we shot, I was equally disappointed, as I knew that we would have to re-shoot everything that we had filmed. There were masses of continuity errors which just aren't acceptable for the high quality of work I know we can produce.

However, the footage that Sam and I filmed had been edited the week after we shot it and all of this was edited nicely and we feel it looks good.

I have edited the footage shot on the 2nd of Feb the best that I can, it is just waiting to be uploaded as a rough cut for out film. When I upload it to my blog I will make a list of all of the things that I am unhappy with and make sure that these issues are addressed in the next shoot.

Filming Day #2 - 2nd February 2012

Present at this shoot were, Sam, Rob, Adele and myself. We all managed to arrange some time where we could film together. Also present were Erica and Adam who were acting for us on this day. We shot these scenes at Sam's house and had gathered some of the props we needed. One of the things I would have done differently for this shoot would have been to have organised the group better as we didn't have all of the props we needed and this meant that we had to work around that. This was probably because we tried so hard to find a day where we could all film that we forgot to organise the things that would make it run smoothly.

On this day we shot all of the scenes before the flashback, however when we left location we realised we forgot to film the scenes where Anthony brings his mother out of the flashback. This once again was down to a lack of organisation and because we didn't have a storyboard with us. We managed to film the scenes where Sam is looking through her pregnancy/baby memorabilia and although we did this quickly as we were running out of time, these scenes did look good and we managed to get it from a few different angles in order to be able to include some nice edits and add interest to what was happening onscreen.

Overall, this shoot didn't go as well as I'd hoped it would and although I have not yet seen the footage, I suggest some more shooting will be necessary.

Change of Time Period.

After watching back the footage that Sam and I recorded last week, my group and I were very pleased and were excited about editing it. We have put a colour filter over the top of it which looks better and also helps the audience to recognise that it is a diferent time. We have also managed to successfully edit the sequence so that the contents which we are showing is done tastefully.

We have also had to brainstorm an idea for a solution to our dilemma of who would be able to play an older version of Erica's character who looked like her. We have come to the decision that if we shift the time of the flashback to the early 1980's then if we drastically changed the way Erica looks in the modern day scenes, she would get away with looking like an older version of herself.

In terms of the footage we have already captured, this change would still work as the costume we chose for Erica to wear would still be okay as we kind of went for the cross-over into the 1980's and looks more fitting for this time period.

Filming Day #1 - 17th January 2012

At this shoot, was Sam and me. Due to a clash of timetables, Adele and Rob could not be present. Also present were our two actors for the rape scene, Tom and Erica.

Sam and I wanted to make sure that we had all of these scenes filmed perfectly, as these are the ones which really make our film make sense. We did our best to take tasteful shots in order create an authentic rape sequence, but also approach the issue sensitively.

We took shots from a variety of different angles and locations in the woods we were in and took multiple shots of each different scene. We did this because even at this stage we knew that we wanted to edit this part of our film so that it was choppy in order to create a fast paced and chilling sequence.

Sam and I were very pleased with the high quality acting from both Erica and Tom and were very grateful to them both for their time, patience and agreeing to take part in filming what we asked of them.

Overall, I feel that this shoot was successful and I look forward to editing the footage that we have captured.

To Sin No More; Shooting Schedule

To Sin No More Shooting Schedule

To Sin No More; Animatic

To Sin No More; Story Board

Storyboard - Rob, Adele, Holly & Sam

To Sin No More: Script

PDF to Sin No More Script

To Sin No More: Special Effects/Make-Up

In one of the scenes of our short, our actress needs to look like she has marks/bruises/scratches, on her wrist. My group have decided that I am going to be the best person to create this illusion, as I did this in my film last year, so have had experience of it.

In order to do this professionally, it seems as though I would need to have access to a 'bruise wheel', these are very handy and enable the user to create realistic looking bruises and abrasions with great ease. If I can find one cheap enough and practice with it, then I may be able to create our effects this way. However, as I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get one or not, I may have to use normal make-up like I did last year.

Doing it this way, I did manage to create the desired effect. When I practiced the make-up effect on my own face, it looked fairly real and we decided to go ahead with putting it in our film, however, when shooting on location we did hit some difficulties. I found that a heavy layer of make-up was needed in order for it to show up properly on camera. I had also not accounted for the fact that our actress might rub at the make-up, causing it to begin to come off, this time I would take this into consideration and maybe apply something over the top in order to fix it in place. As the make-up will only be on the wrist, I may be able to apply a light layer of hairspray to act as a fixer.

The final option I have is to substitute face paints for a bruise wheel. I have looked at the two products and personally, I think that the texture and consistency of the two seem very similar. I will also buy some cheap face paints and experiment with these before I look into bruise wheels in more depth.

To Sin No More; Costume Plot

To Sin No More Costume Plot

To Sin No More; Final Treatment

To Sin No More FINAL

Above, I have embedded the final draft of our treatment. We have not really changed anything apart from a few spelling/grammar errors. 

We have also changed the name of Daniel because we felt that if he was conceived from a rape which caused Sam to lose her faith then he would not have a Catholic name, therefore we have changed his name to Blake, which simply means 'pale' and did not appear on the list of Catholic names we looked at. 

Feedback: Target Audience and Conventions

 

During our lesson on 18th October we also asked Mr Leach to help us answer some questions, the conversation is shown in the audio recording which I have included in this post. 

When asked about our target audience he said that we should aim at adults, which I agree with, as although we do not show anything during the rape scene, it is not going to be suitable for younger audiences. When discussing this, Mr Hood raised an interesting point that we are also going to have to be careful when picking our actors/actresses because we do not know their background, and the issues in our film may cause them some upset. This is something important for us to consider.

Reading of Treatment and Feedback

During our lesson on Tuesday 18th October, we presented our treatment to our teacher, Mr Hood and our headteacher, Mr Leach. We chose to present our idea to these because Mr Hood is our media teacher so has the knowledge to determine whether or not our idea will work, he can also offer us any advise needed when it comes to the technicalities of producing our film. We chose to present to Mr Leach because he is a Catholic and is also a step father. We wanted to present to him because we wanted to make sure that as a Catholic, he would not feel that we were being too stereotypical and make sure that were not going to cause offence to anyone.

When giving us feedback, Mr Leach said that he felt that although we perhaps were conforming to stereotypes, he himself did not feel offended by anything that we included. We were pleased with this because it means that we have included the sensetivity needed in order to tackle the issues in our film.

Nursery Rhyme

The nursery rhyme which we are going to include in our film is something important which we have all been thinking about. We have been looking into the meanings behind them. When looking, we stumbled across a couple of nursery rhymes which we think may be suitable for our film. The first being Hush, Little Baby, which I have included the words to below:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring turn brass, Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass.
And if that looking glass gets broke, Papa's gonna buy you a billy goat.
And if that billy goat don't pull, Papa's gonna buy you a cart and bull.
And if that cart and bull turn over, Papa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover.
And if that dog named Rover won't bark. Papa's gonna to buy you a horse and cart.
And if that horse and cart fall down, Well you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

This would be a good choice as according to Wikipedia 'the lyrics promise all kinds of rewards to the child if he or she is quiet', which links with the plot at the time when the nursery rhyme would be playing.

The second choice would need to be changed as it was originally written for the film Nightmare On Elm Street so if we used this one there would be copyright issues. However, I don't think there would be any problem with us writing our own version, taking inspiration from the version I have included below:

One, two, Freddy's coming for you.
Three, four, better lock your door.
Five, six, grab your crucifix.
Seven, eight, gotta stay up late.
Nine, ten, never sleep again.

I have also included a video of this version, because this is the kind of route we would like to go down when including it in our own film. We have discussed transposing the nursery rhyme into a minor key to make it more eery, and having it sung by either a young girl or a number of young people. 

To Sin No More; Treatment First Draft

To Sin No More

Research Into Specific Areas

Whilst writing our treatment I have been carrying out a lot of research along the way in order to make sure that what is being written is accurate and to make sure that any symbols which are being included, are being used for the right reasons.

The first thing I researched was names. This is because we wanted our character's names to be a symbol and represent something about the character. I found a baby name site via Google and used this to look at some names, I then found a secone website which had names commonly used by Catholics and then matched up some names. Finally I found a site which gave me the meaning of the name. It was this which helped us to decide whether or not we used the name. The meanings and the names of our characters are:

• Samantha - Listener of God
• Daniel - God Is My Judge
• Anthony - Worthy of Praise
• Ray - Wise Protector

The next thing which I wanted to research was the symbols which can be carried by Catholics in order for them to show their faith. To do this I asked my form tutor because she is an RE teacher; she advised me to make sure that my characters are first of all dressed in a way which would be seen as acceptable as Catholics believe that they should keep theirselves covered to a certain extent. She then told me that rosary beads and a crucifix can be worn as a physical symbol to show their faith. I wanted to know why a crucifix is so important and a cross is not really enough, so I once again went to Google to find this out. I found that a crucifix is worn because it has Jesus on the cross, which reminds Catholics of the suffering that he went through in order to save others.

I also researched what happens when a Catholic goes to confession, to do this I typed my question into Google and found an answer on Yahoo, I found that the answer helped me to better understand what would happen, the bit which I found most useful was the inclusion of the prayer which is said. I have copied and pasted it below:

My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
And failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Amen.

The prayer helped to come up with a title for our film. 'To Sin No More' felt like a good choice because it has meaning and our film is about a woman who regains her faith.

As pregnancy and abortion feature in our film, I felt that this should be researched, particularly because this part was going to be included in the flashback. I researched 'the history of the pregnancy test' on Google to find out what they were like, or even if they existed during the 1970's because if they didn't, we would need to show this in our film via a different symbol. I found a very useful website, which can be found here: http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/thinblueline/timeline.html.

I also decided to look at when abortion was legalised in the UK, I found on Google that this was 1967, so we were ok to include this in our film if we decided that Daniel, the child conceived as a result of rape, was actually aborted. Next, I looked at whether a Catholic would be forgiven for aborting their child: this is a bit of a grey area as it depends on how religious the person and their family is. However, I feel that in our film, if the young girl, Samantha, who is pregnant is the only one who knows about it then the only person who needs to forgive her, is herself, and of course God, but this could be another reason for her losing her faith.

Finally, the 1970's flashback is something which I have also looked into briefly, for descriptive purposes I have looked at the styles and trends of the 70's. This caused me to come across certain hairstyles such as that of Farrah Fawcett, I think that stereotypical things like this hairstyle and fashion trends will guide the viewer straight into the idea that the film is set in the 1970's.

Treatment Development

As a group we have discussed our film idea and decided that we would like our film to be about two brothers, one which is treated a lot better than the other one. As a last minute thing we decided that perhaps the brother which is not treated as well, doesn't actually exist because he is a ghost; this is where the sixth sense element comes into it. However, if this idea doesn't work, then we will also record and alternative ending, whereby the second brother does exist, however he is just treated differently.

We have decided that the eldest brother is going to be treated differently, and he is going to be the result of a rape which happened to his mother when she was 17 years old. She will have been raped by her 'Uncle' (mom's boyfriend/husband), and will have been a sexual abuse case which had been happening for a number of years. The rape will have happened when she and her Uncle were on their way to the church service on a Sunday morning.

The abuse which she has suffered for many years will result in her becoming pregnant, but as she is a Catholic, she struggles with her religion and her conscience and ends up losing her faith when she decides she is going to abort the child, which is looked down upon in highly religious Catholic families/communities.

When watching the news, the mother of the two boys will be forced into a flashback by seeing a report on sexual abuse. She will also be forced into a flashback when looking at a box of baby items which she is looking back at as it is her son's 17th birthday and she is feeling sentimental.

There are a lot of things in our film, such as Catholicism, which I feel I do no know enough about, for this reason I am going to make sure I carry out enough research when writing our treatment, to make sure that we create a film which is correct.

Existing Product Research

After further discussion with my group, we have decided that we would like to include certain things our film. To do this successfully, I am going to watch some existing products in order to make sure that anything we do looks authentic and convinces our audience of what is happening.

We are going to be including a flashback which takes the audience back to the 1970's, in order to do this we are going to have to be very careful when choosing costume and locations, so when the time comes to do this I will carry out a significant amount of research to make sure we are going along the right lines. I will watch a film set in the 1970's to look at the kind of clothing worn by people. Off the top of my head the film I could think of that was set in the 70's, is Please, Sir (1971), so I am going to rewatch this as part of my research.

We are also going to be including elements of religion in our film, and as our film is going to be a thriller, Rob came up with a good suggestion of a film called Carrie (1976), which I think I am also going to watch. I think that I am also going to watch this film in order to get an idea of what we could add to increase the tension in our film and how we could really make religion a focus point in our own thriller. As this film was also made in the 70's this may help me with costume/location as well.

Finally, we would like to add an element of the 'sixth sense' into our film, if we feel that it will work and our audience will get it. As I have never seen The Sixth Sense (1999), I have decided that I am going to watch this film, so that when we get to the stage of editing I can have a better input when coming up with ideas. I also want to make sure that anything we do doesn't look cheesy and too far-fetched, so watching an existing film that uses this idea will help me to make sure of this.

Hopefully, watching these existing products will help me to make ours a much better end product, making it more professional and better received by our target audience.

Roles To Be Allocated.

Following our group meeting on 27th September 2011, I have made a list of the roles that will need to be allocated to group members at our next session. The list is below and after our two hours next week, I will hopefully be able to include a synopsis of our final film idea. So far we have only come up with the basic outline which still needs a significant amount of work.

• Director
• Producer
• Editor
• Sound Editor
• Special Effects Editor
• Lighting Engineer
• Sound Editor
• Story Boarder
• Script Writer
• Treatment Writer
• Location Scout
• Talent Scout
• Costume/Make Up
• Props Manager
• Continuity Manager
• Camera Operator
• Photographer

After our meeting next week I will be able to post who is going to be in charge of what in our production team. I will also be able to include a treatment which will give a finished idea of our film. Until I have this finished idea, I think that it will be difficult for me to list the difficulties that my group and I may face during the production process of our film, so I will include this in my next blog post. 

Deciding A Genre

During our last meeting, my group and I decided on a genre for our film. Just as we had limitations as to what we could do last year, we also had the same problems this year.

For our AS projects, all groups decided that a thriller would be the best genre to go with, this is because none of us have the skills to write something successful like a comedy film and we do not have the budget/equipment/facilities to film something like a sci-fi or an action film. For the same reasons, my group and I have once again decided to go with a thriller as being our chosen genre.

However, this year, we will be adding different elements to it. From reading each other's treatments we have decided that we would like to add religious elements to or film, because it is something which is quite uncertain, so we feel we could use that to our advantage and possibly use it to build tension. Over the next few weeks we will be using our time to come up with our film idea and write and present our treatment.

Treatment Ideas

During the second half of the two hour session we had on Tuesday 20th September, my group and I met for the first time to discuss the ideas we had for our film. As this is the first time any of us have ever worked together in a media environment, we took the opportunity to remind one other of the short film ideas we came up with as part of the task set for us by Mr Hood over the summer holiday. Below I have embedded a copy of all of our presentations, each presentation includes the reading of our individual treatments which we will hopefully combine in order to come up with one great idea!

Holly A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

The first video is of my presentation. I try my best to cover answers in all potential production problems during the first stages of my idea, so as to avoid anything problematic later on during the process which could slow down the film planning/making/editing process. I believe that this skill could be valuable to our group because it will hopefully keep us organised and on track. I also feel that I could prove to be a valuable group member when it comes to the film production part of our process.

Sam C A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Sam is a very creative member of the team and I think he will contribute greatly to both the pre production and post production side of our media project during A2. He has some very interesting ideas when it comes to the technical elements which we could include in our final film and the skills he holds in the editing stages of our film will prove to be very useful to us as he is a perfectionist in the best way possible.

Rob A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Rob is going to prove to be a very useful member of our group due to the imagination he has. The ideas which he presented to us in his project at the beginning of the term included a very involved, yet gripping storyline which touched on the theme of religion, something which we haven't come across that much when developing our own film ideas in the past. I believe that it is Rob's way of thinking outside the box that will help us during the pre production stages to create the best possible script, treatment and storyboard we possibly can.

Adele A2 Treatment Pitch from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Adele is also a very creative member of our group, and although not the most vocal member, I believe that she will make sure her ideas are heard by us all in order to create the end product we can all be happy with. She has some very good ideas when it comes to creating suspense/tension in our short film and I think she will be a vital member when it comes to perfecting the planning, production and end product.


During the discussion held in our group session, we went over each other's treaments and picked out the ideas that we liked from each. We will decide on a final idea next time we meet, for now I have included a list below, of the things we liked the idea of including in our final film.

• Including a quirky twist
• Not using a weapon as this can create more tension
• Brothers that are competing for attention
• An act of violence/abuse commited by a family insider
• An object which holds significance
• Religion as a major theme

After our next session I will create a more detailed post about the direction in which we have decided to go with our short film and will fully discuss the ideas which we have and where each idea came from.