My Evaluation

For my evaluation I decided to create a prezi. This is the link to watch it:

http://prezi.com/rw7tv9zxhaov/evaluation/

The final project

This is the two minutes film opening. I hope you enjoy watching it and I would be very pleased about some comments as well.

Audiences Feedback

I have put our film on Facebook and got my friends to comment on it. These are a few answers that I got:

Translation of Frank Nerz:

"Awesome! Very nice! A story which was started to be told and the imagination started running! Congratulations!"

Franz Alwin:

"A-Grade! That's very very good. A great idea, creative as well as professional. Maybe just the voice could be turned a bit louder or the music faded down a bit more while speaking - makes it easier to focus on the speech."

Nine people liked it on Facebook

Shaminder Gill:

"This is amazing"

Zhane Nashara Simpson:

"This is really good. I need part two!"

Clive Isherwood:

"Excellent work."

Most of the Feedback is positive which I very appreciate. The only thing which a few of the audience noted was that we should try to fade down a bit of the music or tune the voice-over a bit louder. Unfortunately, I got those comments after we finished the film, but I am very happy about those tips and ideas and I definitely will bare it in mind for next time.

Assignment of tasks

Our crew members: Faraz, Nora (me), Julia

Pre-production
In the pre-production we all worked together. We didn't use the internet a lot, we rather discussed in our group to find out the typical aspects of different film genres, especially of the teen romance. As a reason that I am a foreign students I could bring many ideas into the discussion and we got different views about films. Interesting was to see, that even if we are from different countries, the main criteria of a stereotypical romance or teenage drama are the same which I was talking about earlier on in that blog. We viewed a few different teen drama romance films, for example "10 things I hate about you" to get more detailed ideas.
I wrote the final draft of the script after working on earlier drafts with Julia and Faraz. I also drew our final story board.

Filming
When it came to the actual filming we worked on different parts. All in all it took us just five days to finish our filming, but we spread out over weeks because it was hard to find a day where everyone could come.
On filming day one we first went to town to film in the library. Our friend Andre was the actor and Julia, Faraz and me were filming by turns. After that we went to my house to film the scene where I put my make up on. That means I was the actor and Faraz was filming. But even if I was acting, I kind of gave my ideas of how to film it still into the discussion.
After that day I checked what we had filmed over the day and unfortunately it was very shaky because we didn't take a tripod with us. That is why Julia and I decided to film the scene again where I put my make up on- the second day of filming.
The third day of filming was when we went to the library at the Northwood campus to film again, but this time with a tripod to see if it works better. This time we were all filming by turns again. I had the idea of putting the book shelfs together to make the library look more stuffed.
We were filming at school the fourth day. Faraz was filming most of these scenes because Julia, me and Andre were the actors.
The fifth day of filming isn't really a day. The idea was to record a whole day a clock to speed it up later and put it over the film. Me and Julia put the camera up twice, but it didn't work the way we wanted it to so we decided not to use it.

Editing
Julia and I did the most of the editing. Faraz helped us at the end to refine everything. The voice over was done by me and Faraz. We wrote the text together and then recorded it. During the editing I did not use a lot of transition between the shots. Mainly I tried to use the scenes themselves to create the transitions. It was sometimes not very easy but it makes it look more realistic.

Final
At the end I think everyone was involved in everything, but sometimes less then someone else. I was there for every filming, filmed a lot myself and gave ideas to it. The editing was one of my favourite parts and I did a lot on it.

Construction

For our filming we used a camera, a tripod and for the voice over a microphone all from the school provided.
During the filming we experimented with different camera movements. We tried the steady camera on a tripod as well as the hand held camera. In our finished product we only used the steady shots because it worked better for our film and the film genre.
We used only natural light so it seems more common and the viewers can imagine the story better.
While filming we thought carefully about what we want to have in our shot, for example in the library scene. We moved one of the shelves and made sure not to have the window in our frame so it would look more stuffed and full of books.

We tried to bring in a great variety of different shots and shot distances to make it more interesting for the viewer. We used an arc shot for the scene where the boy- Leon leaves the school to make him look lonely as i said before.

The mainly used shot is the mid-shot. Close ups were used by focussing on the diary as it fell on the ground and the little sequences of me putting my make up on. In these sequences at the end we used an extreme close up as well- focussing on the lipstick print on the mirror. That brings the viewer closer to what is happening.
As a reason that our two minutes film opening is a teenage romance, we paid attention to make the transitions between the shots smooth. We used the match on action for example to finish a action, to make it round end not just to let it end like for example the book drop or when Leon throws the paper on the ground. The sequences with me putting the make up on, the voice over and the music give the whole film continuity and make it better flowing.
The use of different titles helps us to make our film look more realistic, more authentic. First we put in the cast names, by doing that we made sure that there is the right distance between each of them- again to make sure it is smooth. After that we wrote "produced by", "edited by" and " written by". The names we used for that aren't actually the Persons who did it; we just pasted it in to make it more realistic. We did the same with the production company at the very beginning, it is a fictional company but it makes it more professional. We decided to call it "Babel Productions" because it works very good with our topic- babel fish for example which helps with language barrier and it helps with translating all the languages.
When we put in the music we made sure that certain parts of the music are in the right position and go along well with the film. There is a scene for example where Leon leaves the school, lonely, and in this shot the music slows down as well. The voice over is not just there either. It interacts with the film and what is happening.
All this brings it down to a round figure.

Song

The English translation of the song we put over our film. It seems a bit melancholic but we thought that might fit into our genre of teenage romance. Julia and me picked that song. We wrote earlier on a letter for permission of copyright for the song but we did not get an answer. Therefore we are just going to ask our friends on Facebook for feedback on our film.

I will change the world

I know thsoe days

For years it's been enough

And its almost as if

I like to fight myself

I cant be well alone

And among people I start going crazy

I can ask myself way too many questions

But I cant see the solutions clearly

But someday it will all come to an end

And I will start celebrating my life

I will change the world

Will make everything better at last

Will start coping again

And laugh about myself

And I know that someday

Good can come out of evil

And when nothing at all is going

I simply start over from scratch

Maybe I should just count the days

I have to suffer through annoying hours of pain

No matter how long that goes on

Cause I know who will stand at the end

I will stop losing

Will throw away everyone

I'm just going to copy myself

I will change the world

Will simply change the rules

And gladly go back home

And above all decompress

Storyboard

This is our final storyboard. We had a few discussions and changed our actual script again. I am sure we will improvise while filming as well because it is hard to say what works best before the actual filming, especially when you are not that experienced. We changed our film genre, too. It isn't a teenage romance comedy any more, it is rather just a teenage romance. So that is our final idea.

During the whole film we are planning to put small sequences in between the actual story line. These sequences are going to show myself putting my make- up on, so it seems this is what is happening right now and the rest of the story has already happened and is just retold. The shot is going to be an over the shoulder shot, we are planning to film into the mirror so you only can see a small part of the face.

After the first sequence showing me putting the make-up on (1) we have the scene where we introduce our two main actors and our main prop, the diary (2). It is kind of a stereotypical situation: Two people bumping into each other. The girl drops her diary and the boy picks it up. She is in a hurry so she runs off and he is trying to follow her to give the diary back to her but she is already gone. The main shot we are planning to use is a mid-shot.

After another scene of the make up (3), we see the boy in the library, trying to translate the diary (4). He is surrounded by books to make it look like he is really determined to do this. Here as well we will use a mid-shot and we will try to construct a match on action.

This is followed by another make up scene (5) and than the boy is shown again, he is  leaving the school (6). We are planning to use a aerial shot to show that he is lost and lonely.

We will end up the story with me kissing the mirror (7). We hope to create with that a hang on, to make people want to watch more.

We are going to put music over the whole film. It is going to be a German song because it is the story of the German girl. Near by the end we will put a voice over in the film as well. The girl is going to talk, going to explain what is going on. 

Characters, Cast and Title

In our two minutes film opening we only have two main actors.

The German Girl

She is a foreign exchange student from Germany and stays in England for a year. She regularly writes in her diary and takes it everywhere with her. Unfortunately she is going to loose it. The girl is called Frida.

I am going to play her role.

The Boy

He lives in England and he is the one finding the girls' diary. When both meet the first time he doesn't see a lot of Frida but he likes what he has seen so far. He is determined to find out who that girl is and the best whey seems to translate the diary to find out more about her. The only problem is the whole book is written in German and he has no clue what it says. The boy is called Leon.

We asked a friend to play that role.

To find a title for our film was quite a hard decision. At the end we came up with "Lost and Found". It reveres to the story. The girl is loosing her diary and she finds something new.

Our script- The Diary

The scipt is different from our first ideas that we had. This is because we had a few more discussions about the whole thing. Now this is how we plan to create our film.

Scene 1

Beginning: girl getting ready. Separated shots of eyes, mouth, taking the jacket, the bag, leaving the house, going to the bus, taking the bus; the face is never shown, only small parts

Scene 2

He is getting off, she is getting on, she drops the diary he picks it up and the doors close, he sees just the back of the girl before the bus leaves and she is gone

He flicks through the diary, puts the diary in his bag, meets a friend

Friend:

How are you doing?Boy:

Fine, let’s go.

Scene 3

Girl sitting in the common room, before the lesson starts, talking to a friend on the phone in German- English subtitles. A boy is sitting on the other side of the room, looking at her.

Girl:

Hey sweetie! You can’t believe what I go through at the moment! I’m in the common room at the moment, waiting for the school bell to ring to start the lesson. I really hate boys, but they all seem to think that they fancy me! It’s unbelievable! You know, there is especially this one guy, on the opposite side of the room. He stares at me all the time!

(German: Hey suesse! Du glaubst nicht was ich gerade durchmache! Ich bin im Moment im Gemeinschaftsraum und warte auf die schulklingel das der Unterricht anfaengt. Ich hasse Jungs aber die scheinen alle zu glauben ich wuerde auf die stehen! Das ist unglaublich! Da ist vor allem dieser eine typ weist du, auf der anderen Seite vom Raum. Der starrt mich die ganze Zeit an!)

Girl looks at this boy, he gives her a wink

Girl:

Eww! He just winked at me! Why are boys always like that? I’m so glad girls are different! ...All right princess, I have to go now. I miss you already! …Love you, too! Bye..byebye (air-kisses)

(German: Ihh! Er hat mir gerade zugezwinkert! Warum sind Jung simmer so? Ich bin so froh wir Maedels sind da nicht so. Ok Prinzesschen, ich muss jetzt gehen. Ich vermisse dich jetzt schon! .. Ich liebe dich auch! Tschau, tschau tschau!)

Boy sees it and reacts but she ignores him.

Scene 3

You see the boy in lessons (the clock keeps ticking really fast)

School bell is ringing, kids leave school, everything recorded in fast motion with a fixed camera angle of a corridor.

Scene 4

Next scene we see the boy sitting in the empty library, surrounded by books, a German-English dictionary, the diary. During that scene play with words to have the comedy effect.

First the girls voice in the background reading out the diary extract.

Diary:

“In zwei Tagen geht mein grosses Abenteuer los. Ich habe ziemliche Angst davor, ich glaube mein Englisch ist unter aller Sau.”

The boy tries to translate it. We see him sitting there, writing down, looking in the dictionaries. He reads out and writes his translation.

Translation:

“In two days starts my big adventure. I am really scared, I think my English is under all pig.”

Camera on his face..  enquiring, confused face.

Boy:

That doesn’t make sense at all!!!

He crosses out his written sentence. He tears his hair. Looks straight in the camera, despaired view.

Boy:

I just can’t do it! But I need to! I want to know who she is! I need to!

Voice from the background:

“I am really sorry, but I have to close now. You can come back tomorrow if you want to.”

Scene 5

He is leaving the school (same camera angle as the fast motion), holding the diary in his hands.

Gets a phone call, we just see him taking the call.

Maybe split screen.

Friend:

“Hey mate, how are you doing? We are having a welcome party for our new foreign students this year. Would you like to come?”

Boy:

“What country do they come from?”

Friend:

“Germany, why? Are you coming or not?”

Boy:

“Alright mate, see you later.”

Boy is really happy- struggles, falls and drops the diary. Camera on the diary- opening credits coming up

Research and first ideas for our film opening

During our research and preparation for our two minutes film opening, we started with thinking about which genre we could use. We were quiet sure it should be something funny from the beginning. We thought about spoofs, but the problem there is that it needs to be very clear what it should represent, that would cause a lot of equipment which we can’t afford. After some discussions we came to the conclusion to use the teen comedy genre. It might content a bit of a romance as well. Teen films are about growing up and the problems going with that, like first sexual contacts and breaking away from the parents. Teen comedy covers more or less the same topics, but in a different way. Often there are embarrassing situations used to make it funny. The typical setting is at a school probably a high school during the school time. There are always groups in the pupils (groths, chavs, geeks... etc.) and there are always outsiders of some sort in it.

"Legally Blondes" DVD trailer

As a reason that Julia and I are exchange students, we thought it might be a good idea to bring in some of our experiences we made in this foreign country. We think to use things like language barriers and the differences we have in our habits to create some funny and maybe embarrassing moments.

We came out with this list of differences we noticed:

• Teaching styles- more out-front (in England the teachers are always friendly and very polite, in Germany the teacher would say if it wasn’t good, without searching for some good points he could appreciate.)
• Standing in a queue while waiting for the bus (in Germany  no one would do that, anyone just tries to be the first)
• Tiny, tidy little front gardens (maybe a stereotype from Germans to think that all English front gardens look like that, but in Codsall they really do)
• Tea (the tea is stronger than the one you can buy in Germany and you even can buy tea in McDonalds which is in Germany unthinkable)
• School uniform (in Germany very rare)
• Driving (in Germany we drive on the right side)
• Cards for everything (English people love to write cards, even if it is just to say thank you for a nice dinner, in Germany you would just write a card for birthdays or maybe on Christmas, to a funeral)
• Christmas ( in England you get the presents on the 25^th, in Germany you get them on the 24^th eve and we even have another holiday on the 6^th of December: St. Nicholaus)
•  Meat (more lean when cooking in Germany)

Our main idea for the two minutes film opening is to put a diary in the centre. It should start with a scene in a bus. Over the whole film there is a boys voice over like someone is reading a journal. A girl and a boy are sitting in this bus. When the girl gets off the bus, she forgets to take her diary with her and the boy picks it up. He just sees the girls back, but not her face. The bit he sees fencies him al lot and now he tries to find out who that girl is, but not too obviouly. The problem is, the whole book is written in German. Unfortunately he can’t speak German, he needs to learn it.  In the next shot we see how he is on a notice board to sign up for a German class. He is about to write his name down when a friend comes along and he feels embarrassed about what he is trying to do and so he doesn’t write his name.
But he doesn’t give up. He walks into a German class without actually taking the subject. He thinks it’s a beginner’s class but the class has been moved, so he ends up in an AS class. Two German girls who notice that he is not meant to be there try to expose him, make him read stuff out loud etc. As a result he gets thrown out of the class, into a friend who is with a girl (the diary girl’s best friend) they exchange pleasantries. The girl takes a liking to the boy but he doesn’t really care.
In the next scene we see the boy in the Library surrounded with German books and dictionaries,trying to translate the diary, he gets annoyed and says “I can’t do this” etc. Than he gets a phone call from a friend asking to go to a party, he says that that girl is coming, and her friend who is German is coming, too. First disagreeing… he agrees.