Post 31

NARNIA EVALUATION

DECISIONS AND THEIR OUTCOMES

We decided to have two people filming at one time to varied perspectives of the shot being filmed. Having done this, it helped us to change up the shots regularly to keep the audience interested. We used a wide range of camera shots to make the perspectives seem realistic. Some of the shots we used were ;

• the OTS shot

• the noddy shot

• the POV shot

• the weather shot

Briefly, the over-the-shoulder shot is looking from behind a person at the subject. the noddy shot usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject. We used the weather sot which is where the subject is the weather. it can be used for other purposes, e.g background for graphics. Finally, we used the POV shot which shows a view from the subjects perspective.
We also used a wide range of camera angles to demonstrate different aspects of the films setting. Some of the camera angles we used were ;

• eye - level

• birds eye view

• low angle

We used the eye - level shot because it shows the subject as we would expect to see them in real life. It is a neutral shot. We also used the low angle shot because it shows the subject from below, which gives the audience the impression that they are powerful. One shot that we found particularly effective was the birds eye angle because its a view which can be used for dramatic effect. We used this angle to show the positions and motions of different subjects.
Overall, I think that the camera shots and angles we used were perfect for demonstrating different aspects of the short film. We really tried to get the right angle of every clip we filmed, even if we knew we weren't going to use it in our final piece. To improve our camera shots and angles further, we could film with more than two cameras to speed up the filming process, and gives us more options of clips to choose from in the final piece. However, we were unable to do thid because of  lack of camera people and time.
The decisions made regarding the Mise En Scene were in my opinion, the most important decisions to make. I think the props, costume and makeup, setting, lighting, casting and movement and expression were key to making this film the best it could be, which is why it was so important to make the right decisions. Some of the major decisions we had to make with the costume and makeup, was being happy and content with the outfits and makeup that had been trailed. We had Beth, our own makeup artist, try out Mr Tumnus' makeup prior to the filming to ensure our whole group were happy with the look of it. We all agreed that the makeup and costume for Mr Tumnus was very realistic and looked extremely similar to the original movie, which is what we were going for. The costume for Lucy Pevensie was a very easy decision for our group. What made the decisions so easy was that our cast member, Isabelle who played Lucy, had an outfit that looked almost identical to the one in the film. This was a quick decision and one we knew would be good almost immediately. At first, we thought we would be capable of having snow I our short film, like the original, however,  we were restricted financially and time wise and therefore couldn't do this. This was one of the major decisions we had to make concerning the props. Some of the props used were a flute, the parcels and a photo frame of Tumnus' dad.  Overall, we didn't have many decisions to make regarding the props, however, our main objectives was to make them as similar to the original film as possible and think that this is what we've done.After researching nature parks and forests near our school location. Our group came to the decision to film in a field which was close to one of our homes. We narrowed the locations down from 5 - 2 : it was out of Plantation Gardens in Norwich or a field nearby. What made us agree to filming in a field, was due to how busy we knew the Plantation Gardens would be in Norwich city centre. It would've been very inconvenient for us with people coming in and out of shot, which was why we chose to film a field. Overall, I thin we made the right decision with our setting location and couldn't have chosen a better place to be film. The lighting also had little decisions to make, yet they were still very important. We had to film at the right time to get the natural lighting from the sun. We decided to started filming at 3 O 'clock which was when the sun began to set. I think this was a good decision to film at this time because the lighting from the sun setting added our own touch on the film - instead of having the snow, we decided to use the sun instead as a key aspect of the setting. Casting was the most important decision of this whole project. Choosing the right people for the parts was very difficult. Even still, we auditioned multiple people for the parts which gave us a choice of who we felt were best suited to the role. We came to the decision to have, Isabelle, a year 7 student, play Lucy and Ragan, a year 12 student, play Mr Tumnus. At first we were unsure if we made the right decision with the cast. However, after 10 minutes of filming on set, we were positive that we did make the right decision and chose the right people. As we were re-creating an original Narnia scene, we did not have any input on the speech. Nevertheless, we could interpret the speech in our own ways. I think on set, our directors gave good directions in which the cast members did listen to. I think that the directions given on set really helped to produce and good short film. To improve our film  relating to the Mise En Scene, we could add a lamppost to the props to make it look more like the original. Furthermore, with more money and time, we could've attempted to add snow to make the set look more like the real Narnia. 
Although I did not carry out a lot of editing, there were still frequent decisions I know we had to make. Throughout the whole editing process, we had to decide whether to keep the shot, delete it, cut/edit it or to re-film it again. One way we could improve the editing, could be to edit clips as a group so that we can communicate to others our own interpretations of how the shots should look. I think that this would've helped to produce a better, more put together film.

GROUP WORK ETHIC

PLANNINGOverall, our planning for this project had been successful, as everybody within our group had been allocated to their desired role. This then allowed us to collectively plan as a group. As I had been the director for this project planning had been an important necessity to then direct the final outcomes when actually filming. The main tool of planning had been story boarding which allowed me to plan out each scene, including the timings of each scene, ultimately this had to be agreed by the whole group, including the editors so that once all the clips had been filmed that the editing would be as simple as possible. Looking back at the final outcome of our scene from Narnia I am pleased with our planning as it is clear that we have used a storyboard to create new shots. This had been difficult, when shooting our interior pieces of dialogue, the storyboard had been a task to complete. We knew before making our storyboard where the location would take place, and understood the scale of the shed that we would be using. As it had been a long piece of dialogue we had to think of constantly changing the angles between the two main and only characters- Lucy Pevensie and Mr Tumnus. There had also been a long piece of music within the interior scene, therefore our planning had been important with the length of each scene, and whether or not to change it with the music, ultimately we chose to simplify the shots. However, with our new knowledge of filming, we tried to use as many of these new techniques as possible. This highlights how important it had been to prepare and plan ourselves before we filmed in our location. The pictures shows how I have created the storyboards, one of the most important aspects of planning, they also show in red pen how I have tried to time each scene. The simplicity of the storyboard also allowed us to change some angles when filming the final shots. Overall, I am pleased with how our group had planned ahead, however, perhaps when creating the storyboards it would have been a fairer portrayal of how the group wanted to see the final shots if we had a joint group meeting whilst making the storyboards.

COMMUNICATION
This had been a very important aspect of our filming, as communication within our group had to remain updated with every action we wanted to make. As the director, it had been important for myself to constantly be aware of what everybody else wanted to include when filming. Within our classes it had been easy to communicate with everybody and have all our ideas to be clearly shown and dictated, however, we also chose to have a group chat out of school that we constantly had the capability of directing each other with our own ideas. To make it more certain that everybody's ideas had come across more, we should have had more class discussions in which we all deliberate where the filming would take us next. Overall, I think communication within our group had been successful as we all had access to bringing new ideas forward which allowed the portrayal of the final shots to be a combination of how we wanted to see the characters and the setting to become Narnia. However, it would have more helpful to communicate with everybody, for example on the day 1 of filming only a small number of us could film, therefore instead of actually being there, instead communicate via messaging of how we could film our shots. Although this hadn't been too much of an issue as our planning had been more successful and we relied heavily on the storyboards and our discussions in class. 

ORGANISATION
Firstly, we had to organise our cast before thinking of any thing else. We chose cast members by auditioning multiple people for each role, this allowed us to see who would play the cast the best, by interviewing more people for the roles, it became easier to witness who portrayed the characters well. As a group, within our group, we also had to arrange the time and place of when and where we were going to film, which mainly came down to when both the characters had been free to film. We sorted this out around two weeks before the filming day, as our Lucy Pevensie character. Overall, I think our organisation skills had been successful as we comfortably knew when and where to film and what to bring to where we had filmed. By arranging everything before band it had made the filming day less stress-free without the aspect of planning and organisation it would have been very difficult to ensure 

DISTRIBUTION OF ROLES
This had been our first job within this project, this meant that we each discussed what we wanted to do. As a group, I think we distributed the roles very well. Collectively, we assigned each person in the group specific roles and tasks they had to complete later on with the project, this had been important so that everybody had understood what they would do later on and not give a role where somebody has too much work, and another with not enough. We shared out the roles equally and everybody eventually had been happy and content with their responsibilities. I chose to be the director of this project as I wanted to be able to learn to communicate, organise and plan better within a large group- this being our whole class, instead of independently creating something. Overall, I am pleased with how we