Toast Film

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

To establish the similarities and differences in the forms and conventions between my short film and others, I am going to compare the forms and conventions of my film with About a Girl.

About a Girl, by Brian Percival, is about a young girl walking and talking to the camera about her friends and dysfunctional family. The story appears to be relatively straight forward, her parents are divorced, she lives with her mum and they aren't secure financially so she dreams of being a successful pop artist like Britney Spears. However the tone of the film gets darker and darker when you find out that her dad won't let her live with him, he once punched her mother in the face and that when they tried to keep a puppy her mother drowned it in the cannel. Then at the climatic scene you see the girl throw a plastic bag containing a new born baby in the cannel.

The opening shot of About a Girl is the girl standing in a feel singing a Britney Spears song. This leaves a lot to the imagination as you do not even the the girl, just her silhouette, revealing nothing about her. The opening shot has the main focal point to the right of the frame, leaving the left clear. There is use of diegetic sound with the wind and the girl singing. The lack of noise and the way she is positioned with nothing around her give the impression of solitude.

The opening shot of our film Toast is Amelia lying in her bed asleep with make-up smeared done her face, then opening her eyes and staring at the camera. Like About a Girl this leaves a lot to the imagination as it is unclear why Amelia's make-up is smeared down her face. It is unclear to the audience whether she has been crying or went to a wild party the night before. Unlike About a girl however we used non-diegetic music to give the film a more cinematic effect. I think our opening shot uses an element of forms and conventions, because it doesn't reveal much about the story, however the miss en scene does reveal a lot about the character. The posters behind her and her pyjamas show her to be a teenager clearly has the same interests as many other teenagers, teen movies (Twilight), fashion and celebrities.

About a Girl shows the relationships of its characters in between the girl talking to the camera , for instance when the girl is sitting with her dad in the cafe. The girl is shown at the far right of the shot whilst her dad is at the far left showing the audience the distance in their relationship. Their relationship is also shown through the awkward silence of the scene which is in between two scenes of the girl talking non stop.

In Toast in one of our key relationships you never see half of the couple. In the first shot portraying Amelia's relationship with her boyfriend you don't see him. Unlike About a Girl we don't show anything about their relationship through the image, instead we tell the audience with a voice over. The image of two boys playing football on a field portrays Amelia's longing for freedom, away from the stress of school. Because the image has no real relevance to the voice over I feel this scene develops conventions of short films because there are two parts of Amelia's life being shown. Her boyfriends dialogue comments on her over worked stress filled life and how it is effecting their relationship, whilst the image shows her wanting to be free from responsibilities, to a care free life where she can play rather than work.

Film Review

We researched ways in which films are examined and reviewed by professional film critics. We researched what they look for and how they praise or condemn a film. I studied Empire magazine film reviews, made note of the techniques and writing style then produced my own version of a Empire review about our own short film Toast.

Who wants Toast?

“Toast” is a short film about the life of Amelia (Charlotte Baker), a middle class, intelligent, school girl, struggling with the pressure of academic life. Her ultimate goal of getting straight A’s and going to a prestigious university is always faced with new obstacles that she must deal with, whether its an overdose of school work, an attentive boy friend, or going out with friends. This overload of responsibilities concludes the film in a perhaps surprising but satisfying way.

Toast is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise suffocating fog of teen pregnancies, drug abuse and suicides that surrounds the dramatic teen genre. Toast is not some loud obnoxious teenager trying to prove that its some depressed, intellectual, emo that adult kind wont be able to understand or control. Toast instead is more like reading a teenagers diary, there is no front, no attitude, no armour, but instead the naked truth about a intelligent student and dealing with the stress that comes with it.

This is newcomer director Grace Davis' first project, and whilst at times this does show through (probably not helped by the fact that "Toast" has a little to no budget, it is more than made up for through its creative camera work, revealing lighting, and detailed miss en scene. This is also the first project for actress Charlotte Backer. Baker is definitely one to keep your eye on, after seeing her in online interviews it is clear she has the look and style to be the next big hollywood starlet, but unlike most who can fall into this category Backer has talent that could make her last in the business. Ultimately Toast is a must see for anyone who appreciates an intelligent, insightful, underfunded film.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After some editing we exported our film so we could screen our rough cut to a small audience, this audience would consists of people our own age as they would be our target audience so we could get their feedback. Their main positive feedback was that the message of our film was strongly conveyed. They commented on how they felt the story progressed steadily, leading to a unexpectedly dramatic yet provoking ending. They also commented on how they felt that this issue hadn't particularly been addressed in film, short or otherwise. before, and how they found it a refreshing change from the typical teenage story lines of teenage pregnancies and drug abuse.

Another aspect of the rough cut the audience like was the mise-en-scene. The audience commented on how her clothing portrayed her character effectively. Because she was always in dark ill fitting clothes it made her seem weak and depressed, not caring about her appearance. The audience commented on how this was also shown through her make-up, as she had little on she appeared "washed out", drained and exhausted, further portraying her over worked and stressed state of mind.

However the audience did have some negative responses as well. The audience did state that there was some problems with the sound levels in the canteen scene, the background noise was too loud, drowning out Amelia's dialogue. We tried to fix the sound levels by lowering them , however when we did this Amelia's dialogue was lowered as well. So overall our feedback was largely positive with the exception of the canteen scene.

Once we had finished editing we created a questionnaire to give to our audience at our second screening of our film;

. Did you understand the films meaning and purpose?

. How effectively do you feel the overall message of the film is conveyed?

. Did you find the film entertaining? Please explain why.

. Do you have any feedback on costume and set design?

. Do you have any feedback on lighting and sound?

Through this questionnaire I found that much like the audience's opinion from the rough cut they felt that the message was conveyed well, every person who watched the film completely understood the films story line and message. The entire audience found the film entertaining , as the found the film relatable yet mysterious, not quite knowing how it was going to end. They also stated that they found the ending to be surprisingly "true to life" and "quite moving". Again like the previous audience they felt that the costume portrayed the character well, they also added that they liked the contrast between Amelia's clothing and Hilary's clothing, showing the differences between the characters. Lighting also gained a positive review, the audience especially thought the lighting in the final scene was very effective and "dramatic". The sound received good feedback, the audience said that they felt the song at the begging was good for the film as it wasn't "too upbeat, yet not too sad" fitting with the characters state of mind at the begging of the film. However the audience commented again on the sound in the canteen scene saying it was "too loud."

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For the design of my postcard, I wanted to show the characters desperation and isolation, yet keep some mystery to the poster and the film. Rather than just use a still from the film i wanted to be artistic and create my own image to represent the film. The two images I felt best represented the film was Amelia (main character) at the end of the film on the floor, overcome with stress, and the image of toast, as Amelia's mother making her toast is used to show the progression of time.

Whilst I liked the idea of using toast as an image for the poster it felt to obvious. The title toast is in itself mysterious, but only because the film is about a teenage girl dealing with school, so if there was toast on the poster it might make the potential audience think that the film is actually about toast, making them loose interest.

I couldn't use the actual image of Amelia on the floor as this would reveal the

ending of the film, so instead i looked at images showing Amelia's desperation or depression earlier in the film for inspiration.

For my final design i decided that the best way to go was to focus on Amelia, but to make the situation she was in unclear, as this would further add to the mystery of the title "Toast". I first experimented with stills from the film, editing them changing the colour saturation, exposure and contrast to try and capture the films mood. However stills i used from the beginning of the film didn't have enough emotion, and stills from the end, had to much, completely revealing the story. I decided to take a photo of the actress so i could decide how much would be revealed through her expression. I decided to have the actress curled up on the bed on top of covers and other objects. The use of covers and objects was to make the image look busy, reflecting Amelia's life. Amelia being curled up on the bed again showed her fragile state of mind, crumbling under the pressure of school work. I edited the picture, decreasing the pictures definition, shadows and sharpness, creating a hopeless and lifeless atmosphere. I then used an effect called vignette, this portrayed how Amelia's life was overwhelming her.

We researched ways in which films are examined and reviewed by professional film critics. We researched what they look for and how they praise or condemn a film. I studied Empire magazine film reviews, made note of the techniques and writing style then produced my own version of a Empire review about our own short film Toast.

Who wants Toast?

“Toast” is a short film about the life of Amelia (Charlotte Baker), a middle class, intelligent, school girl, struggling with the pressure of academic life. Her ultimate goal of getting straight A’s and going to a prestigious university is always faced with new obstacles that she must deal with, whether its an overdose of school work, an attentive boy friend, or going out with friends. This overload of responsibilities concludes the film in a perhaps surprising but satisfying way.

Toast is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise suffocating fog of teen pregnancies, drug abuse and suicides that surrounds the dramatic teen genre. Toast is not some loud obnoxious teenager trying to prove that its some depressed, intellectual, emo that adult kind wont be able to understand or control. Toast instead is more like reading a teenagers diary, there is no front, no attitude, no armour, but instead the naked truth about a intelligent student and dealing with the stress that comes with it.

This is newcomer director Grace Davis' first project, and whilst at times this does show through (probably not helped by the fact that "Toast" has a little to no budget, it is more than made up for through its creative camera work, revealing lighting, and detailed miss en scene. This is also the first project for actress Charlotte Backer. Baker is definitely one to keep your eye on, after seeing her in online interviews it is clear she has the look and style to be the next big hollywood starlet, but unlike most who can fall into this category Backer has talent that could make her last in the business. Ultimately Toast is a must see for anyone who appreciates an intelligent, insightful, underfunded film.

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, planning, research and evaluation stages?

Blogger: Blogger is the website which allows us to upload our work on to a blog. This gave us the opportunity to edit and update our work (incase changes were made), this way we wouldn't have to keep uploading work.

Scanner: We used the scanner to display our work on blogger. Without the scanner we wou

have to take pictures of our work and then upload them, which would take more time, also the pictures may make the work unclear, making it mow difficult to mark.

Sony Pd150: This camcorder allowed us to record footage in a much better quality compared to the Sony Handycam which was used in AS. Although this camera was quite similar to the Handycam there were some new additions that our camera man had to learn in order to make our short film look more professional such as white balance.

Windshield Microphone: The microphone was used throughout production to record audio. The microphone is connected to the PD150 because the camcorder does not have its own internal microphone

Sennheiser headphones: The headphones were used throughout the production process in order to get a more reliable source of audio, so we would have a better understanding of what the audio quality would be like.

Mic Boom: The boom is a pole that extends, it is attached to the Windshield Microphone, it is used so the microphone can get closer to the needed audio without getting in the shot. When we needed to get audio from outside we protected the microphone with a wind muff to make sure we didn't catch unwanted audio.

Pro Light: The pro light was used in every bedroom scene, the pro light has barn doors which helped us to control how much light we needed, helping us obtain the right amount of daylight for the bedroom. We used a variety of gels with the pro light to show the time of day or to convey a mood. If we were unable to use the artificial lighting then we would of had to rely on natural lighting which could have been a huge problem for continuity.

Sony Handycam: The Handycam is normally used in order to capture visual footage, however we used handycam to capture required audio for our production e.g door slam, phone vibrating and the boyfriends half of the phone conversation.

Computer Edit Suite: The computer edit suite was incredibly important because without it we would have never been able to carry out post-production. The suite is made of two minitors,a keyboard, mouse, speakers and a computer tower.

Adobe premiere pro: This programme was used in post-production to edit our footage in order to create our film. This programe allowed us to edit our video footage, audio and allowed us to put in special effects.

Flip Mino Video Camera: This was used to record our audience feedback after they had seen a rough cut of our production. The flip mono video camera had a USB with in it, which made it easier to upload and edit the audience feedback.

Production

The following is a report on how each scene was constructed. As my role was Directing I will focus on the directorial aspects in each scene .

Scene 1:

In this scene Amelia wakes up in bed with make up smeared down her face. It is not clear if she looks that way because she has been out all night (perhaps at a party) or if she has been crying. It was Mise En Scene job to make the make-up look natural and effective. This was done by doing the stresses make-up normally then applying water in order to smear the make up.

Amelia's room had to look as though it was a teenage girls room. We did this by having posters on the wall (of teen oriented films, bands etc) and having books strewn across the floor.

It was lighting and sound's job to make Amelia's room look as though it was early morning (as Amelia was getting up for school) . The effect was created by placing a blue gel in front of a Lowell Pro Light, and having the light face the wall (so it was not unnaturally bright)

Camera started with a close up on Amelia waking up. When Amelia sits up it becomes a medium long shot. Camera then tracks Amelia's feet as she gets out of bed, it then jibs up her body to an over-the-shoulder shot of her looking in the mirror and wiping her make up.

As Director I had to make sure the actress playing Amelia knew exactly what she had to do, how quickly, and that she knew where her marks were. I told the actress that she had to rise from the bed slowly, as if awakening from a much needed sleep. Then to place her feet directly on to the 6th form guide book "looking into the future" so the audience concentration of reading the title of the guide would be broken suddenly. When the actress is looking into the mirror I explained that her look couldn't be to specific, the audience couldn't know why her make-up was smeared , the look needed to be vague.

Scene 2:

In this scene Amelia' mum Hilary is making breakfast. Mise en scene tried to make Hilary look like a together and capable mother, by having her hair clipped up, bright make-up (like the kind american sitcom mums would wear) and a blue fitted dress. The kitchen did not need any changes as we needed a typical "lived in" kitchen, the only requirement was that it was clean to suit Hilary's tidy organised attitude.

Sound used the boom overhead of Amelia and Hilary so that she would be able to follow them and pick up their conversation.

Camera starts by focussing on Hilary buttering the toast and then follows her to the table as she places the toast on the table, when Amelia comes through the door the camera pans to her. The camera then follows her as she picks up her work from underneath the toast on the table. Camera goes into an extreme close up of her removing the toast from underneath the toast. Then re-focuses to Amelia walking out of the kitchen.

As Director I had to tell the actress playing Hilary to be extremely happy, I used the example of a typical overly cheerful mum in a breakfast advert . I then directed the actress who plays Amelia to be the opposite , sad and sunken.

Scene 3:

In this scene Amelia walks done a busy school corridor. Mise En Scene had Amelia's fellow students wear typical student clothing, either smart clothing (suits and ties) or typical teenage clothes (hoods and beanies) while Amelia wore a long black coat with black trousers. The corridor didn't need dressing as it looked like a typical school corridor.

Camera starts with a close up on the school bell, then pulls out at the sound of the bell ringing. The camera then changes to a shot of Amelia walking down the corridor, staying static as she walks out of shot.

Sound used the microphone on the boom to capture all the extras dialogue. There was no need for lighting equipment as the corridor was well lit by the light already in place.

As Director I asked all the extras to improvise their dialogue, talk to each other as if the camera wasn't rolling, i did this in order to make the dialogue as naturalistic as possible. I directed the actress playing Amelia to look tired and over worked.