Production Evaluation for singles

I am quite happy about my editing work because I used three different programs so I could make every thing I want. For example, make the garage scenes darker, add flash lighting to Coming soon and speed down the black eyes scenes.

I have finished all my filming and editing, but I still not really happy about my final movie. Because when I editing it, I realized some scenes are not clear enough (garage scenes) but I don’t have time to do it again. Some scenes are too shaky (computer scenes) because I don’t really know how to hold my camera correctly. I am sure I could do it better next time.

Production Evaluation for PAIRS

1.       Pre-Production Meeting

I got the idea of my movie from internet and I write a treatment with my friend’s opinions. I wrote a story first, and then I change it to a trailer.

I choose the two girls because they are sisters and they look the same. Other tow boys are my friends and I know they are interest of act, and I think they are really good.

We went to Jelly Park for test shot before we start the film. And I changed a little treatment after it.

Lena is an actress and she also helped to do other actors make up. I asked everyone to bring their own clothes and of course I provide some clothes and wigs.

2. Production Meeting

We used two cameras, one is mine and another one is from my friend. I used two cameras because one is Samsung which for good at day time, and other one is Sony which good at night time. I have done some senses in the garage, so I have to use Sony because light in garage is not very bright.

I download three different to make the film; I used Virtual Dub, Windows movie maker and Corel Video Studio.

 I found music from internet.

3. Post Production Meeting

I speed up the scene when the detective’s girlfriend was beaten by the gun.

I make the black eye scene slow, and it shows the crying face longer.

I did lots thing to make the movie perfect. In all garage scenes, I used darkroom effects to make it looks scary.

I used out of focus effect for the last scenes which is the green eyes. It‘s because we look at the green eyes from the detective’s view.

I used flash lighting for coming soon because I think it’s really cool.

The music is from internet and I choose this music because it is speeding up and up. It could make the audiences nervous.

The first time I editing the movie, it is five minutes. Then I delete more to make the movie less boring. But in fact, I want to make a movie trailer, not a shot film, so I cut more and finally my movie is about three minutes.

Checklist for Production: 2.6

1.       Pre-Production work

Concept

A suspense movie trailer, which is including love story, abduction and conspiracy.

Research

The inspiration of my movie was come from a famous Japanese cartoon--<Detective Conan>. We watched some short film examples in class and we discussed about music, shot and effects. And I got some ideas from horrors movies that we have watched this year.  I ask my friends to be the actors and I will use music and soundtrack from internet.

Crew/Talent list

Detective                                                                         Yuanzhen Zhang

Detective’s girlfriend                                 Catherine Huang (Black eyes)

Mystery girl                                                       Lena Huang (Green eyes)

Challenger                                                                           Timothy Chen

Cameo roles                                                  Nicole Jiang & Jessica Chen

Locations/Permissions

I made tow web pages that similar like The Press website. It is copyright for education. I did some scenes in cafe shop, of course I asked them can I do some film in there, and they said yes.

2 & 3. Production & Post-production work

Black screen and white hand writing font, which is the title of my movie—Abduction. (The music starts)

[Black and white is simple but depress]

The movie start in a dark room, a poor girl has been tied and sit on the newspaper, and there are other three girls stand beside girl.

One girl used a gun knocked the poor girl’s head.

[Speed up]

A photo frame, a happy couple in the photo.  (Extreme close shot)

[The girl in this photo is the poor girl in the dark room.]

A boy is using a computer.

[He is the same boy in the photo]

The boy is reading news, and the news shows he is a famous teenage detective. (POV shot)

Then he checked the e-mail, he suddenly gets nervous and he tries to call someone but nobody answers. (High angle shot)

He runs out.

Let’s see the computer again; we can see the boy’s girlfriend photo on the computer. (Side way move)

[She has been kidnapped; this is why he is so worried.]

The detective walked in a cafe shop, and he looks around. Then he found a table already has a cup of cafe on it, and there is also a letter for him.

He sited down and read it, and then he looks surprise.

 The boy, who sited behind the detective, gave us an evil smile. (Low angle shot)

The detective’s girlfriend frightens face.

Detective walk on a street, he runs into a girl, who looks as same as his girlfriend. (Over shoulder shot)

Detective’s real girlfriend’s face.

[The girlfriend and the mystery girl are really similar]

The mystery girl that the detective just met, she is doing some computer staff for him.

The computers showed that she and he are looking for someone. (Music start again)

The mystery girl has green eyes. (Extreme close shot)

Detective’s girlfriend had black eyes. (Extreme close shot)

Detective is walking on the street alone, a boy walked past him very fast.

Detective stopped and turned back to see the boy, but the boy disappeared.

A girl is licking knife that has blood on it, but we can’t really see her face so we don't know who she is.

Detective received a called. The challenger told him:” Time’s up!” Detective asked:” Wait! Where are you?!”

Then the detective has a scared look on his face, we could see a girl across up of his shoulder.

The mystery girl waked detective’s girlfriend up.

The mystery girl stands behind the detective and point a gun to him when he received the call.

The mystery girl’s green eyes. (Extreme close shot)

[Out of focus]

Black screen and white hand writing font again—Coming soon… with flashing lightning.

Balck screen and white font for the cast.

Script

Scene opens with extreme-close up of framed photo, showing young couple in love. (Peaceful love music)

[Introduce the male main character and his girlfriend.]

Cut to side-on close up of boy in the photo reading news on computer. (Peaceful love music)

Cut to POV shot of news article on screen, showing him as famous teenage detective. (Peaceful love music turns to lower and fast-paced music)

[Creating tension, and expectation of problem.]

He receives e-mail which causes him to look concerned. He then rings his girlfriend to see if she is okay. (Fast-paced music)

[We anticipate problems with his girlfriend. Audience begins to feel nervous.]

Receiving no reply, he runs out of the house. (Fast-paced music)

[Tension rising, exciting action, audience anxious for him and his girlfriend.]

Cut to e-mail which he had read, which included a frightened photo of his girlfriend, and issued a challenge for him to save her. (Fast-paced music goes faster and louder)

[Tension rising more and more, audience worries about his girlfriend]

He has to go to a Starbucks shop, and await further instructions. (Fast-paced music)

The mystery challenger is watching him through the window and laughing evilly to himself. (Fast-paced music goes faster)

[Mystery challenger is still a mystery because we couldn’t see his face clearly. Audience starts to wonder who he is.]

Cut to girlfriend looking terrified in dark place, her dark black eyes dilated with fear. (Fast-paced music is going faster and faster)

[Bring audience into his girlfriend’s feeling—hopeless and scared.]

Following the clues to the first puzzle, our hero meets a girl just like her, only with green eyes. (Fast-paced music back to peaceful love music)

[Telling audience the only difference between this girl and his girlfriend is the eye colour.]

She is a computer genius, and offers to identify where the e-mail come from. (Peaceful love music)

[Where does she come from and why does she help him? Audience wants to know more.]

As she works on the computer to decipher the origin of the message, we focus on a close up of her concentrating green eyes. (Peaceful love music turns to fast-paced music)

[A hint foreshadowing later developments in this story.]

Suddenly the eye colour changes to black, and we zoom out to see his girlfriend tied up in a miserably dark place. There is blood on her face. (Fast-paced music)

[Make sure the audience gets the eye colour message again.]

Cut to evil challenger licking blood from the knife.（Fast-paced music goes faster）

[Violent scene makes audience feel repelled.]

Boyfriend receives phone call. (All music suddenly disappears, we only can hear the phone ringing on soundtrack)

[Suddenly loud phone call makes audience very alarmed.]

CHALLENGER:” Time’s up!” (No music, conversation only)

DETECTIVE:” Wait! Where are you?” (No music, conversation only)

CHALLENGER:”Behind you. (Cut to high angle POV shot from villain’s point of view, of gun to back of detective’s head.) Game over!” (No music, conversation only)

[This make audience feels like they are the villain standing there, about to shoot the hero.]

Extreme close up of very familiar green eyes which crease into a smile. (No music or soundtrack at all)

[Is this a conspiracy? Audience feels curious about green-eyed girl, is she…]

Black screen and white font--Coming Soon. (Fast-paced music again)

Introduction

The story start of a photo frame, there is a couple in this photo. A teenager boy is sitting in front of his computer and reading news, which is the same boy in the photo. The internet new tells us that this teenager boy is a famous teenage detective.

Then the story begins, one e-mail came through, detective opened it and soon found out that his girlfriend has kidnap by a mystery challenger who wants to beat him. The challenger claimed to play a game with the detective and gave him the first puzzle.

Detective tried to contact his girlfriend and we can see his girlfriend’s photo on his phone, the same girl in the photo frame. Of course no one answer the phone, so he runs out, and we could see the first puzzle from the e-mail which is the coffee shop.

A man is keeping watching on the detective in the coffee shop and we could only see the man’s evil smile. The kidnapper got the patch off the girl’s face, she has beautiful black eyes.

The detective is walking in school and suddenly he saw his girlfriend. He hugged her but then he realizes this girl has green eyes; she just has a similar face like his girlfriend. The green eyes girl is a computer genius and she helps the detective to find who the secret challenger is. At the same time, the detective’s girlfriend is still in a mess room.

Someone is licking a knife that has blood on it. The detective got the final call, and the real boss told him: “TIME’S UP!” A pistol aims to the detective’s hindbrain, and we can see the person who holds the pistol has green eyes.

Brief of My Moive!

I am going to make a suspense movie trailer. It's a story about a teenager detective who wants to solve the mystery and rescues his girlfriend. This story start with a email that sent from a unsearchable challenger, who kidnap the teenager detective's girlfriend. In the story, teenager detective cooperates with his girlfriend's twin sister, and they try to find out who is the real boss!

I haven't decided it's a suspense movie or a horror movie, it could be both. We watched lots horror movies this term, there are always male killers in the films except <Cat People>. I don't really like the female super-nature, but I do want to make a movie about a female killer that not just pretty and also very smart.

Teenager detective, kidnap and twin sisters could always catch people's eyes, specially for teenagers. I want to make audiences feel  nervous and fast-paced. I am sure teenagers will like this kind of film because I will use teenager actors.

In this movie, I need two main male characters and two main female characters. Most of scene I could shot at home and school, but I might go someplace else if I could find somewhere suitable. I will use my own camera, and also because there are actor's lines in this film so I need voice record.

Halloween & Scearm

1. Describe

Laurie and Sidney are both the female leader in this two horror movies. They are the final girls and they tried to protect themselves, even they are quite weekly, and they survive at the end. Laurie is a good girl, she doesn't drink or smoke and she ttake good care of kids. But she is kind of weak and she only survived by luck. Sidney broked the horror movie rules that she had sex with her boyfriend and also survived. She survived by luck and fight with the killer fearlessly.

In this two horror movies, Michael and Billy are the killers who wears mask all the time, but we never see Michael's face except when he was six. They ofthen kill people by knifes or hands. Both of them have been shoot when they tried to kill the final girl, but the different is Michael survive because some super nature, in the end we can he breath everywhere, Billy just dead.

2. Explain

In <Halloween>, the director choosed a cute boy to act young Michael Myers, make the audiences feel the killer is humane. In <Scream>, there are several time audiences could guess Billy is the killer, but he is Sidney's boyfriend. The more that audiences watched, the more that we start to believe in him. Finally we find out Billy actually is the kiiller, it's a big shock! This make us feel the killer and monsters are everywhere, and they could be anybody, even who is so close to you. You feel more fearer if think about it more often.

There is a ineresting scene in <Scream> is when all teenagers were in the living room and watching <Halloween>. They talked about three rules of horror movies: Number one: you can never have sex. Number two: you can never drink or do drugs. Number three: never, ever, ever under any circumstances say, "I'll be right back." It might sounds funny, but in fact, it is the tradition way that the way horror movies are. The director borked lots rules in <Scream> and make audiences reall hard to guess what's next and who is the killer? Of coure when we find out actually two killers -- Billy and Stu! This is the first movie that I know there are two killers and I think it's awsome.

Another funny part in <Scream> is after other teenagers gone and only left Randy in the house watch <Halloween>. When the killer behind Randy, he was watching TV and he keep saying: Lauri, behind you. Behind you, Lauri. Two films linked together perfectly.

3. Analyse

There is a very famous scene in <Psycho> which is the private detective falled down the floor. This scene also be used in <Halloween> and <Scream>, and also, they used the similar shot. We could see Lauri and Billy fall down the floor dowstairs. The director in <Scream> make this scene for match what did Billy say before they had sex:  Life is like a movie. Only you can't pick your genre. He was telling you it's a movie but you still feel scary about it because <Scream> broked lots horror movie rules. After Billy fall down the staris, he said one actor's lines that from <Psycho>: We all go a little mad sometimes.

Director used lot actors' lines from other famous horror movie and they even shot the sence similar, therefore remain the audiences feel this scene happened before. It's could make the movie more scary because we all know what's going to happen next but we could not stop it.

In <Halloween>, the director used the traditional way to make the movie, naked girls deadand the good girl survive. There is one thing totally out of the ordinary, which it when the movie started, we see everything by the killer -- Michael's eyes and we never got a chance to see adult Michael or hear a word he say.

It makes Michael seems mystery and more scary. In the ending when the movie tells us that Michael has super nature and he is everywhere because we could hear his breathe. It means we could never kill him, it really make children feel frighten. So I must say , it's a successed movie.

Delivery

(1)    Shot size/angle + Camera movement

There are a lot high angle shots in this opening film and the point of the view is make Jamal looks small. When he was first in the game show, the high angle shot putted him in a middle of circle, it feels like everyone try to shoot him. Jamal looks so small and I feel sorry for him. Camera moved between two different main scenes, one is the prison and another one is the game show.

The commons in the two scenes give me two entirely different feelings, but it’s linked together very well.  We suddenly know that Jamal didn’t cheat and we want to see how he explained and what polices said about this. Director use this kind of shot to make Jamal looks poor and hopeless, easily puts audients on Jamal’s side and we all believe him.

(2)     Sound

The smack sound as loud as people speaking in the beginning of the film, it shows how badly he been hurt and it shocked me. It shows how badly polices treated Jamal and we all feel sorry for him. And we want to know does he deserve it or there is truth behind this.

The clock sound started when the Jamal readied for the game show.  The black screen came up and everything just likes the game show. One question and four answers, and the clock sound continued. This sound makes people feel stress and nervous, it makes people feel they are in the game show with Jamal when they watch the screen.

(3)    Lighting

The lighting is yellow and weak in the prison, so the prison doesn’t have strong colours under the lighting.  It means polices treated Jamal in a very unpleased way and putted Jamal in a terrible situation.

Suddenly the light changed, it became strong and white. The light looks cold, and we can see how nervous and uncomfortable Jamal was under the light in the game show.  Director use two different lightings make the movie well arranged, and they used a different lighting for the first shot of Latika which is soft and beautiful sunshine.

(4)    Script/Dialogue

I think the dialogue in this opening film is wonderful. In the beginning of the opening film, the police keep ask Jamal the same questions just like the host. They asked the same questions but they treat Jamal in two different ways.

The strong contrast makes people feel nervous about what happened to Jamal and they want watch more. One question after one question, the whole script is about questions. And all the different memories mixed up together, make the script amazing. Every question showed different memory and the true Indian cultures.

Slumdog Millionaire

I have chosen this opening film as it provides a different but true India culture. It tells a story through the main character -- Jamal, his life and the TV show” Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”.

The film tells the story of Jamal Malik, a young orphan from the slums of Mumbai. He wants win the money to save his lover -- Latika.

The frame of the opening film is “why is he being interrogated?” He is a millionaire but the police treated him like a slum dog. The police thought he cheated and the audiences thought he was lucky. And the right answer “It’s been written” forced me to watch more.

The fact in this opening film was shot in two different ways. One is mainly black and dark yellow, and the other one is very colourful and bright. The first way makes me worried, and also I feel sorry for Jamal. The second way make me feel nervous, and this shot puts me on Jamal’s side immediately.

The Point of View shot are an important device in the opening film as the colours. The first shot in the opening film is an extreme close-up shot, and there are mainly black and yellow, doesn’t have any soft colours.  The first shot shows the main character – Jamal straight away, he’s worried and we want to know why he looks so worried. The camera changed angle, and I saw a fat guy smoked on his face, the movie begins the middle of the story and back to the beginning to find everything out.  And we see small white fonts on the screen; it introduces the setting of the story. The police smacked Jamal, and the loud smack sound is shocking.

The movie asked a question just like the game show on the black screen, there are four different answers and only one is the correct answer, and we have to find the right answer in the film. Black screen and white fonts make me feel stress. The clock sound also copied from the game show, and we saw tow hands, hands throw money everywhere and full of the bathtub. Money means the game show” Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and it is fast-forward to Jamal’s brother -- Salim’s death.

Then we back to the game show and we still can hear the clock sound. Strong light hits Jamal’s face; we can see how nervous he is through the bright light. Now everything in this game show is so colorful. The high angle shot make Jamal looks small, and he looks like be targeted and everyone tries to shoot him.

Suddenly the lens back to the smack, the police asked the same question just likes the game show host. The game show back again, the host mocks him, and made the audiences laughed at him. The host tried to make Jamal sounds less important and there are a lots high angle shots in this part, it for make Jamal looks small and we feel sorry for him.

The lens changed fast between the prison and the game show; there are lots different lights, angles and colors in two different environments. The mood changes fast when the camera shots the prison and the game show. The police and the host keeps ask the same question, and the lens changed to Latika, which in nearly end of the story. She wears yellow just like the color in the prison, but the light yellow that she wears means happiness, and the dark yellow in prison means darkness.

We can see the smile on Latika’s face, and it is also a high angle shot. It make me feel like I was Jamal and I just saw my lover stand there and waited for me. Everything makes me want to stand by Jamal’s side and I wonder what happened to him.

The head police came in and they used strong electricity to make Jamal tell the truth. The two polices don’t believe his, in their eyes, Jamal just a slumdog.   But we know it must be a long story behind the game show, and I believed him immediately when I saw Jamal passed out by the electricity.

So there are only three answers left for me, and I was going to find the right one.

My choosen opening film

The opening film that I choosed is  <Slumdog Millionaire>. I have chosen this opening film as it provides a different but true India culture. It tells a story through the main character -- Jamal, his life and the TV show” Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”.

The film tells the story of Jamal Malik, a young orphan from the slums of Mumbai. He wants win the money to save his lover -- Latika.

The frame of the opening film is “why is he being interrogated?” He is a millionaire but the police treated him like a slum dog. The police thought he cheated and the audiences thought he was lucky. And the right answer “It’s been written” forced me to watch more.

The fact in this opening film was shot in two different ways. One is mainly black and dark yellow, and the other one is very colourful and bright. The first way makes me worried, and also I feel sorry for Jamal. The second way make me feel nervous, and this shot puts me on Jamal’s side immediately.

The opening senses are fantastic; the two main shots are Jamal in the prison with polices and Jamal in the game show with host.  The opening film also shows about Jamal’s brother Salim and his lover Latika, because they are the main characters troughed the whole film.