AS Production - Opening of 'BABY'

BABY AS Production from Alexia Docker on Vimeo.

Evaluation 1 - Directors Commentary

Directors Commentary from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Evaluation 2

Our production focuses particularly on 2 main social groups, in broad terms, there is, as in any thriller a victim and a villain, however if we focus more selectively on how social groups are represented it is clear to see Rosie represents parents/adults and more importantly mothers as a social group. When thinking of the role of a mother, typically the first things that come to mind are maternal instincts, a warm-hearted nature, a longing to protect and care for their children. So we wanted this to be evident in our representation of mothers. 

There are many ways we attempted to outline Rosie as a mother, through dialogue, nonverbal codes, dress code and props. Firstly Rosie’s costume must reflect that of a mother’s so we decided keeping her in a sensible sophisticated coat would not only highlight her as a mother, but by not using anything too bright or colorful we didn't distract from the plot. Having Rosie as the almost victim (as well as the baby) fits the stereotype of a female, vulnerable and young victim, also fits with the gender stereotype of females. Her dialogue is also came significant, although only given few lines Rosie ensured she spoke them clearly and in a mature fashion.  

Furthermore the non-verbal codes became a key part of conveying a mother’s typical warm-hearted nature, in some scenes this is conveyed through Rosie’s holding of the baby, she almost clutches her which implies a maternal love and caring for her on screen daughter. Props also helped us to convey mothers as a social group as typically mothers would use a pram to transport their child from different locations, the pram connotes images of child and mother. Looking at the thriller 'Panic Room' for inspiration, the mothers non verbal codes suggester she was incredibly protective of her child, we used this almost clutching onto style with our production to also connote the idea that Rosie would shield her child from any harm.

How does our media product represent particular social groups?

Alexia (me) who we cast as the villain, took on a rather stereotypical role of a thuggish character, this being evident in her dress code, we used the film 'ils' as a stimulus here as we believed the villains at the end acted as fitting characters to draw inspiration from for our production. To convey a stereotype we had to observe again the non verbal codes and dress codes of the thugs in 'ils'. 

When thinking of thugs as a social group you typically think of scary, dangerous, threatening and shadowy figures. So bearing this in mind we had to make Alexia appear all of these things, we made her seem as threatening as possible through a lack of dialogue as this creates an air of mystery and darkness about her.

Finally, to reinforce the stereotype we used 'thuggish' clothing, the use of a hoodie to mask her face made her seem dangerous and threatening and the fact we couldn't see her eyes is similar to the shadows on the face of the killer Strauss in the thriller 'Dead Again'. 

Being unable to see a person's eyes makes them seem as if they are hiding something and creates a sense of mystery and danger, making them appear very sinister and dominant. The black clothing also connotes evil and danger all alludes to the idea of a crazy and threatening character. 

Evaluation 3

Production companies 

Production companies help to facilitate the making of, and distributing films and/or television programs. Most often, the production company for films and television provides the money, and thus sets the budget, and may also make decisions on what director, and actors can be hired. Budget often makes other decisions possible or impossible. A low budget film may not be able to be filmed in a remote location, for example.
The company may also come attached with certain actors, directors, or film editors and photographers. Often this is especially the case when it belongs to a major studio, like Touchstone Pictures, which belongs to Disney. Directors who have contracts with Touchstone are more likely to be offered jobs produced by Touchstone.

Role of the distributor 

A distributor is generally an organisation who handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often feature films have different distributors representing them in different territories and different distributors handling the home-viewing circulation.
For a low budget film like ours the funding would most likely come from a government grant from the British Film institute. The BFI invest £26m of Lottery funds per year to support film development, production and distribution activity in the UK and the budget is set to rise to £30m by 2017. Aiming to champion a breadth of bold and distinctive film making across the UK, to nurture new talent and to back the development, production and distribution of films that will enrich UK film culture.

To fund out film the BFI would provide us with the funding for the following:

Feature film production, including international co-production and completion funding
Feature film development, principally script development
Talent development (including funding for short films) via the BFI NET.WORK
Feature documentaries
Production company slate development, via the Vision Awards
Digital and cross-media activity
Distribution of feature films in the UK
International sales of UK feature films and other film export activities

The BFI would most likely involve Film4, I believe this is the perfect choice as Film4 are often eager to work with British led talent or with British content additionally they have a target audience similar to ours (16-30, which would enable them to give us a clear insight on what we need to do in order to attract our said audience. Looking at low budget films by Film4 e.g. trainspotting, this is England both of which turned out to be very successful films and TIE resulting in a TV series

New line cinema logo

For our professional production company we decided to use new line cinema firstly for aesthetic reasons, we found the dark colours helped to reinforce the thriller genre, the almost shadow affect again alludes to the theme of mystery and helps connote the unknown. Secondly New Line Cinema are an established, professional company renown for their successful thrillers such as the cell, seven, fracture, snakes on a plane and many more.

White productions

We came up with the name 'White Productions' as for us it was simplistic and had a professional look about it in order to not distract from the actual theme, also it looks a lot less amateur than if we were to attempt, perhaps make a logo with our own drawings. The logo was done in black and white, this is suitable for our production as the binary opposites connotes good and evil which is of course suited to a thriller, the fact the eye is a woman's represents a femme fatale character although typically villainous, if not morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification and unease; themes we deemed particularly important in our thriller. The visual medium here bared significance to the plot and connoting the good and evil important to our film and the black and white also reinforced the binary opposites.

The titles

The titles we decided to use are mostly overlay titles in a white serif font. They appear one by one over the production in the bottom corners of the screen. We chose to use overlay titles as they are simple and don't take too much time out of the film. We felt that when researching into different thrillers, the titles used in 'The Sixth Sense' were quite tedious to watch as they were slow, long and just simple full screen motion titles with nothing particularly interesting or intriguing taking place. We didn't want this to be the case without production.The titles are overlay until the very last one which reads 'BABY' as a full screen motion title. The word is white on a black background as the colours act as a binary opposition for good and evil.  This representation would become clearer if we were to continue to make the whole film.

The opening credits in our thriller mention each person involved in our production, each person in our group had several roles so our names were mentioned more than once. The opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There may or may not be accompanying music. Using overlay titles we introduced cinematography first, followed by music then the editors, the producers lastly, the Director and actors were shown this is because they are the most important/significant to the film therefore by putting them last as you would in a professional thriller they stay in the audiences mind as they were shown last therefore stay fresh in the mind.

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 5

In order to attract an audience to our thriller, we took inspiration from a range of different thrillers.  We did this in order to gain an understanding of what types of themes and techniques are used throughout good thrillers. We found that many use the idea of beginning with equilibrium before a disruption such as a crime occurs.  For example, in the film ‘Face Off’ equilibrium is created when the father is shown with his young son on a carousel, and disruption happen when the boy is shot.  This is similar to our production in a way as both involve a young child.  We decide to use this idea in our own film as by creating a sense of happiness at the beginning, this makes the baby’s disappearance seem more significant and prominent.


                                                                                   







In ‘Flightplan’, a claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller, a bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.  Our film will attract a similar audience to this as they will both involve a woman and a child.  Due to this, the main audience for our production is females as the sudden disappearance of a young child is an upsetting event and so will pull on their heartstrings as they can emotionally connect with it.

The build up to these events involve slow and calm music which gradually increases in tempo and volume.  Our production also involves the concept of binary oppositions through the titles where the colours act as representations of good and evil.  We felt this to be effective as it is common thriller convention.

We would create synergy to promote our film by cross promoting it with other products such as music and other things that allow the audience to become more interactive with the production and feel involved.  A website would include the trailer for our production in order to promote the film.  We may also include some sort of game or activity where viewers can become more interactive and feel more involved with the production.  This would also help to sell the film as it would encourage the younger viewers to go and watch it.  We would also include links to download music from the film.  While the film helps to sell the music, the music helps to sell the film for example by promoting it through music videos.  Many thrillers and other genres of film use synergy in these ways like ‘Taken 2’ for example.  When you enter the webpage the trailer immediately begins to play in order to advertise and promote.  

Audience Feedback - (Evaluation 5)

As part of this evaluation we asked some people to view our production and provide us with some feedback.  We asked just females, a family member and people from our college, to watch and review out production as this is our main target audience.

'Its is evident from the outset that this is going to be a tense thriller. The soundtrack adds a sense of foreboding and adds to the feeling of uneasiness created by the quick succession of poignant shots i.e. a lone young mother and her innocent baby walking happily through an affluent residential setting as if to indicate a safe environment which we soon begin to question the scene where a threatening looking youth bumps into her. The locking of the door and lingering looks following a sudden unknown noise bring about a feeling of fear of the unknown but indicates, along with the continuing haunting soundtrack, that something terrible is about to happen. The lighting effects as the mother carefully carries her child upstairs adds an eerie atmospheric quality and builds tension as you find yourself wishing she hadn't left her baby alone. Overall I thoroughly understood the story line and found it to be an excellent thriller from beginning to end.' 

- Linda Morgan 

'While watching the production, I felt intrigued.  I liked that there were lots of different camera shots as this made me feel unsure and as if something bad was approaching.  I could tell straight away that it was going to be a thriller.  I thought the use of titles at the beginning made the film look very professional and the music that played in the background too.  I found the part when the hooded character walked toward the window after the woman left with her baby particularly chilling as it made me question what was going to happen next.’

- Dayna Rafferty

‘In my spare time I watch a lot of thrillers and I thoroughly enjoying watching this film.  It was obvious straight away to me that it was a thriller due to the music and the dark colours.  I though the best part was at the ending when the woman discovered the vandalised teddy in place of her baby.  The loud sharp music that happened at this point was very good as it made me want to continue watching.’

- Emily Smith 

Evaluation 6

Evaluation 6 from AlexiaDocker

Evaluation 7

From doing our preliminary task I learnt the basic skills required to create a short, satisfactory sample of film; however the skills required to create an opening of a thriller at the level we were expected to do so, required a more advanced set of skills. Looking back, I can see a massive enhancement in my filming and editing skills, and knowledge regarding the use of technologies.

An important aspect of filming we learned from mistakes we made in our preliminary task was continuity. In our preliminary task we made the mistake of filming the same character wearing different clothes when she wasn’t supposed to be. The images below show the unintentional change of outfit.

Rosie outfit 1

 

Rosie outfit 2

Mistakes such as this don’t frequently occur in professional films. To ensure that this didn’t happen in our AS production we completed all of our filming in one day, and we also made notes of the clothes each character was wearing, this was to eliminate any risks of doing this.

Secondly, the match on action shots we had in our preliminary task looked satisfactory, however we wanted to perfect this in our AS production. It is important when editing a match on action that both clips are cut to the correct length. In our final production our match on action is of the mother entering the house with the pram. This match on action changes from external to internal, we thought this would be the perfect transition of locations from outside, to inside.

Match on Action - Preliminary

Match on Action - Preliminary

Match on Action - AS Production

Match on Action - AS Production

The most noticeable difference between our preliminary and our AS production is the music. In our preliminary we used none, however in our AS production we used a piece which helped create the mood and give our production more meaning. It made the equilibrium of the mother pushing the pram seem happier and heart felt, whereas it also made the disruption of the baby being kidnapped seem piercing, shocking and scary. Music is always used in professionally constructed films to create mood, one example of this is in face off. A soft piano is heard at the beginning where John is riding a carousel with his son showing his unconditional, deep love for his son, and the happiness he brings him. After the attempted assassination of John consequently kills his son the music quickly changes into a different piece which creates a more depressing mood, in hope the audience understand his grief and loss for his son. 

The 180 degree rule was something we were told was necessity in our preliminary task, and therefore had to learn how to use it properly. This rule is applied whether it's a professional film, or a home made one. 

As shown by the picture above, the 180 degree rule is used when ‘shot reverse shot’ is being filmed. The rule’s purpose is to ensure the characters involved in the ‘shot reverse shot’ appear in the correct position, and don’t disorientate the audience. This is a rule that mustn’t be broken. The images below show our effective use of the 180 degree rule in both our preliminary task, and our AS production.

Production Logos

Choosing which professional production logo to use required a little research. This is because we needed to use a production logo of a company who are known for producing films of the thriller genre. 

Newline Cinema is the logo we finally chose, after our research. Newline Cinema have been involved in the following thrillers; The Evil Dead, Copkiller, Relentless, Hit List, The Hidden. Because of this, we decided that Newline Cinema was the right professional production company use. 

Creating our own production logo was more of a challenging task. There were decisions to make regarding the theme, name, colours, and dynamic entrance. This logo had to convey the thriller genre in a subtle, professional but effective way. The logo we created is below. 

We decided to use binary oppositions, black and white; this is to connote good and evil, innocent and guilty, there and gone. We thought this was fitting because our main story line is about a baby being kidnaped. Another reason for our choice of colour is that black and white are together can be quite sinister colours when used correctly. They're also very definitive, in the same way the story line is; the baby is there and then gone. 

The image of a black and white animated eye makes the viewer feel almost as they're being watched in a creepy way, which coincides again with our opening scene, in the way that the mother of the baby is being watched in the same way. It is also just a plain, simple animation, which looked quite good as a logo for our production.

The sans serif font is in bold, black, uppercase letters. The purpose of this is so it stands out, and looks clear, and aggressive. 

First, there is a plain white screen, after a short time the logo appears in the centre of the screen alone. This is so the viewer can focus on the logo, and have time to make it out. Then, the first word of the two, 'WHITE' quickly fades in to it's position, shortly followed by the second word of the two, 'PRODUCTIONS' which fades in quickly. The purpose of them all appearing separately was to emphasise each individual one, and make them seem factual, bold and aggressive. 

Continuity

Continuity is essential in making a professional piece of film. This includes ensuring all cast are wearing the same clothes in the same day, and there are no things out of place which shouldn't be there.

In our final AS production there was a mistake with continuity editing. This mistake was when Rosie, the mother, was entering the house, the teddy was shown on the bench outside. This was an error as the intention was that the viewer assumed the teddy was with the villain. However seeing it on the bench would have showed them it wasn't with the villain. At the end of our opening scene the teddy is seen in the Moses basket replacing the baby, this isn't effective now that the viewer has seen this. 

 Another continuity issue occurred when we realized the house keys were on the wrong side of the door when Rosie shut it. This is more of a subtle continuity error however it's still an error. 


This is a key aspect of filming I hope to improve on in my A2 work. In A2 I am going to focus on the tiny details of continuity editing to make sure my final product is consistent and more professional.

However, things we did well with our continuity was making sure all of our characters costumes were consistent.  

Filming and Editing

To ensure we had enough hours to film we used our frees in order to make sure we could finish the filming in one day and have a head start with editing which we believed will help enhance our thriller through means of dissolve edits, fades to black, filters and different sound effects and soundtracks. The first scene we filmed was the rivers, and Rosie walking with the baby. The shot list helped keep us organised and stick to the task in hand. We at first had difficulties as I originally messed up some of the camera work also struggling with lever on the tripod, at first the shots were rather rigid when panning as i had not fully unlocked to lever it didn't allow for smooth panning or tilts, which made our film look rather unprofessional and amateur, however quickly got to grasps with it. I feel that shooting the match on actions went particularly well and I believe this showed when we got into editing as they turned out just how we hoped they would. 

I enjoyed the process however I found the editing slightly more challenging.  We started off by organising all of the separate parts of film by arranging them into the order necessary on Pinnacle Studios. We did this fairly quickly and then moved on to adding various edits such as dissolves and fade to black. We also added a sort of blue filter to the film to create a more unsettling and mysterious mood for our production.  This benefited our thriller as all filming was done during the daytime due to this being the only time all of our members were free. We originally wanted it to be shot in the evening when it was getting dark however this was just not possible, due to the fact we all live very far away from each other and transport to one an-others late at night was simply not possible, this acted at as a hindrance as a daytime setting doesn't particularly connote danger as night-time would. However the filter makes the whole production seem darker and gloomier at the same time as creating an eerie effect due to the hints of blue.


When creating the titles, we had difficulty in deciding on an appropriate style of font for the production.  In the end we chose a simple white serif font to be displayed as overlay titles. When we chose our music, we put it into Pinnacle Studios and then had to change the emphasis of the sound in certain areas of the film, for example when Rosie discovers the baby is missing there is a sharp high pitched non diegetic sound, which shocks the viewer and accompanies the serious event that has just taken place .We decided it would be most effective to do this when the teddy was dropped along with other parts, but especially at the very end to accompany the realisation of the mother when she sees her child has been taken.

Time Management and Organisation

As there were three people in our group, each with reasonably busy schedules, finding time where all three of us were free and able to get together was a challenge. Time management was a key skill required in order to complete the load of work we were faced with. 

The main form of communication we used was via text message. A screen shot of the confirmation of our plans to go filming the following day is shown below. This message you see is between me and another member of our group, Frankie. 

In addition to individually sending messages to each other, we also had a group chat, named 'media'. This was very useful in ensuring we were successful regarding time management, organisation, and communication. As all members of our group were involved in this group message it allowed us to share ideas, plan things properly, and keep up to date with each other, and the work. The below image shows a conversation between our group members, where I suggest wearing a black hoody instead of a grey one, as I thought it would be more fitting with the theme of our thriller. Frankie and Rosie both replied saying they agreed, so we used a black hoody instead. This is only one of many examples where the group chat has been useful.

Overall, I feel as though this form of communication was best suited for our group, and was a very useful tool in helping us complete our AS Media coursework. On these messages we shared links, pictures, messages and ideas, each of them contributing towards the improvement and completion of our work. 

However, a problem we did have with our time management was that we filmed a week later than we should have. This set us back a whole week, which taking into consideration all the work we had to do, was a long time. This meant that all three of us had to work harder and be more organised in order to achieve the deadline. We worked together and did this. 

How our shoot went

Overall our shoot was successful to a certain degree, however we did experienced a few problems along the way when the person who was first to record on the camera didn't record when they was supposed to, and therefore set us back. We realized some shots hadn't recorded when we had completed our filming and had to re-shoot certain scenes and also change some ideas during the editing process to salvage what we could, in order to complete the opening with more than satisfactory material. 

weather

Before finalizing our date to film, it seemed important to us to check the weather. As a large part of our opening is filmed outside, we needed to confirm that the weather would allow us to take the equipment outside and enable us to film. 

The weather for the 19th of February 2014 was mainly cloudy, with a slight chance of light rain. After learning this we decided to go ahead and film. This was the correct decision as for the main duration of our outdoor filming the weather was just cloudy. This helped set the dull mysterious mood we were aiming to achieve. However the last five minutes of our time outdoors it did start to rain a little. This wasn't a problem though as we had already almost finished. 

Music

Music 

We have two pieces of music in our production:

The first piece of music is called ‘Evening of chaos’, and we got from here http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?feels[]=Mysterious&feels[]=Suspenseful&feels[]=Unnerving. We chose this music as it starts with high notes played by a piano, which sound eerie, and calm but sinister and suggestive. It also sounds like its outdoors, which is good because our opening few shots is outdoors, therefore it fits well and seems appropriate. 

Then, there’s a few loud banging noises building up, and the music reaches its crescendo. This fits in with the quiet atmosphere of the characters calm walk with her pram; when the music builds up, so does her characters suspicions that somebody may be following her. As the tempo of the music quickens and goes louder, the main character is seen running up the stairs as this is when she realizes her baby has gone. 

 When the title 'baby' appears on screen it is accompanied by a short, loud, final bit of the music. This is effective in emphasizing the shock and realization that the main character feels, and the viewers are supposed to emphasize. 

The second piece of music is called ‘incy wincy spider’, we got it from this website http://www.stockmusic.net/index.cfm/page/main.SearchTracks/startRow/26/trackId/2471.This music is a version of the children’s nursery rhyme ‘incy wincy spider’ played using chimes. When it is put with the sinister scene of a baby being kidnapped it fits well in creating a scary, thriller-type atmosphere. The music seems peaceful, tranquil and calming, opposed to the panicked, adrenaline filled event that is happening. This has a greater effect on the viewer as opposed to a fast tempo piece of music as it implies that time has slowed down and emphasizes the disbelief of the situation.

Costume and casting

There were three characters needed in our thriller opening. These were; a mother, a baby, and a villain.

Casting was a challenge for us really, members of our group wanted to focus more on the camera work, props, preparation, and more of the behind the scene tasks rather than the acting job. We initially looked for someone outside of our group to cast, however this proved to be very difficult as it's not something that the majority of people felt comfortable doing. In addition to this not many people were willing to give up a full day in order to do this. After a long discussion Rosie selflessly came forward and volunteered to star in our production. This solved a major issue, however meant that she couldn't do as much work behind the scenes. This was the compromise she had to make. 

We cast Rosie to play the part of the mother, this was because we felt Rosie would best suit being a maternal, motherly character. Rosie's character is a young to middle aged woman, the main distinctive image we were going for was that of a mother. In order to achieve the motherly image Rosie dressed in clothes which would help emphasize her role. She wore a plain skirt and tights, along with her coat as we were outdoors.

Grace, the baby, was cast because we needed a baby and she is a baby. We had permission off her mother to use her in our production. She wore a baby grow with a white knitted cardigan. Showing her innocence and angelic image. What Grace wore wasn't really a big decision or concern as her role was simply to just be seen and then disappear.

I was cast as the villain character. This wasn't a hard choice as the villain didn't really have a major part on screen, as they were just seen at certain times. It was easy to hide the identity of this person and make them seem mysterious. To do this I dressed in grey joggers, a black hoodie and a black wooly hat. I wore the hood up to help hide my identity further. In retrospect the role would have been best suited to a male, however due to time management issues, and busy schedules we couldn't find a male available to fill this role, and therefore I played it.

Story Boards

We use story boards for a number of reason, firstly  they help in establishing framing, they provide blocking and focus information, they help in planning actor movements and action and also they plan camera movement. 

We found we used the story board a a personal checklist, by putting our movie onto a story board we not only have created a form of sequence, but we had made a checklist of every shot you need. Using storyboards also helped us revise our material Because by knowing your material and what you need to make your story work, we were able to quickly and wisely make the necessary changes when unforeseen circumstances force changes.

Location

Deciding where our production was to be located and filmed wasn't very challenging as we already had a location in mind that was easily accessible, and seemed to fit well with the ideas we had for our production. When deciding our location the key things we looked for in the layout of the location were; 

• That it had a stream near by. This was important as we thought a stream would help contribute to setting the perfect atmosphere and surroundings to create the appropriate mood for our thriller. The stream is only seen and heard briefly, however I believe it is effective. 

The stream

• That it had a wide path or a quiet road near by the house where we could film the mother pushing the pram down. It was important that the road or path was quiet so that it showed the viewer there was nobody around, making the mood feel a little more scary and tension filled. Also, the road had to be near the house so that the viewer could assume the villain knew where the characters lived. As you can see in the picture below, the road is right near the house. 

Other locations we filmed were all internal after those external ones. The internal locations we shot at were in the kitchen, living room, hall, stairs, and landing.