Blur first draft

Below is the first draft of our film- Blur



Miranda and I both felt as though we needed to inject some more colour into our final piece.

Having recently found this video on YouTube-



The colours used in First Bokeh Film use vibrant saturated colours. Unlike our film, the light have not been blurred into shapes, however the colours alone make it captivating and engaging for the audience. when editing our film I am going to experiment with the saturation and brightness to create something just as bright.
The music in this piece is simple and calming, which fits the flow of the lights perfectly. The music used in our first draft is very competitive. From our feedback the audience didn't like the repetitive music.  This is another one of the elements we need to work on.

Feedback from first draft

It was important for us to gain feedback as it helped us progress and complete our project. 

I posted links on both of my twitter accounts and on Tumblr. As Miranda has a Facebook account she also posted the link there. 

Twitter

Tumblr

Facebook

Rating and Distribution

Due to the change in film genre it was important for us to re-look at the film rating- so that this could be inserted into our poster and film review. We re-looked at the information on http://www.bbfc.co.uk/.
Our film does not contain any sexual violence, swear words, drug related images or other qualitiesthat may make our film either an 18, 15 or a 12. For that reason we have decided to give our film the rating 'U'. Suitable for all.

After deciding this we had to decide on a distributor. To do this, i researched into other specialised films to see who distributed them.

Distribution

BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, Stage Beauty, A Cock and Bull Story, Nativity! and Match Point.

BBC Films co-produces around eight films a year, working in partnership with major international and UK distributors. Christine Langan is Head of BBC Films, responsible for the development and production slate, strategy and business operations.

Recent titles include Nigel Cole's Made in Dagenham, Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe, Debs Gardner-Paterson’s Africa United, Max and Dania’s StreetDance, which was Britain’s first-ever 3-D movie. 

Neither of these films however, quite compare to the quirkiness as ours. A lot of the films we have used in the research and inspiration stages have been published on sites such as vimeo, and neither have been distributed by a film distributor. Vimeo is a perfect website for our film as it allows a lot of experimental directors to post their films onto the site. Youtube is known for vloggers and music channels where as Vimeo is broad film interest. Short films are constantly being uploaded and viewed by other film critics and film enthusiasts. 

BBC Films is perhaps too large a company for a film like ours and so we have gone for a film  label called 'dazzle'. 

"We are dazzle, the UK's hottest independent short film label, handles the exclusive distribution, exhibition and sales rights for a selective catalogue of award-winning, critically acclaimed UK and international titles. From 90-second, digital micro-movies to super-35mm masterpieces, dazzle's bijou short film collection is often provocative, always original and sure to inspire."

The films from this label are original, unique and inspirational. Our film will inspire others to try the bokeh technique and create their own original effect. Our film challenges and experiments the conventions of mainstream cinema. 

Funding

As our film is a British experimental film, it qualifies for funding from the British Film Institution (BFI). Funding from the BFI will enable us to create a product which is smooth and professional looking. Filmmakers must take 'the cultural test' in order to gain funding. They must receive at least 16 out of the 31 points to even be considered. These include British locations, cast and crew, British subject matter and English dialogue. 

Sight And Sound

Sight and Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute. Sight and Sound was first published in 1932 and first published in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the BFI which still publishes the magazine today.
Every decade, Sight and Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time.

Having already decided Sight and Sound will be the prefect magazine for our film, we decided to break up the conventions of a review page and see what it was we needed to include.

1)   Image – usually introduces new talent or the main character of a film.  In our film, because we do not have linear characters, we need to suggest the bokeh technique and the genre of our film.

2)  Title - Isn't usually the title of the film in Sight and Sound.  Writer creates a slogan that sums up the genre of the film

3)  Image description - lets the audience know whose in the image.  Usually has either a positive/negative thing to say about the actor/actress playing the role

4)  Main text - I was quite surprised to see that the text was not justified.  I thought that magazine articles were usually justified so that they looked more professional.  When creating our review page I will justify the text because it is easier for readers to read and it will look professional and slick.  I will use the same font as I used in the poster and film title, so that all our products are visually linked. 

5)  Film information - here the article has placed film information such as certificate, director name and all the different features.  

6)  Article sub-heading - introduces the tone of the article, whether it be positive, negative or mocking.  Audiences know what tone of writing the author will have from this heading.  

7)  Banner at the top of page - audiences know which section of the magazine the film comes under from this section.  Our film will come under "Short Film".

8)  Article type - audience know whether this review is a feature from this title - the title given to this review is "close-up"  this implies that more information will be given to the audience about the film.  

When creating our poster, Miranda followed these conventions as closely as she could.

Effects and Editing Techniques

For the opening shot/ title i wanted to use one of our stronger more simplistic shots with a font that was not too overpowering. Our film requires you to think but it is not complicated, therefore a busy font would not have suited it. This simplistic font is perfect, paired with a cross dissolve in and a cross dissolve out, it serves it purpose well.

To hide the dissappearance of the title i used the 'cross dissolve' so that it would fade out in the middle of the layered footage. By creating layers of different bokeh footage i was able to create a smooth and interesting effect.

We chose the phrase 'those that wander are not lost' as it acts as a bit of a summary to what we are creating our film about. The screen grab above shows the effect for the word 'those'. The diy lense cap is visible adding depth, which then slowly zooms into the sea. To create something more appealing we chose to keep the original sound of children playing on the beach.

To widen our use of techniques we took a series of still shots that appeared to move when placed close together. I chose the photo's of the arrow as they show a sense of direction. One of my favourite shots that Miranda created shows a bright blue bicycle bokeh with a textured almost green background. To link the two i added a 'dip to white' which created a flash and overlapped the two pieces of footage.

(this image shows the amount of layers i have overlapped) 

The above shots show the layering of footage, a theme i have chosen to keep throughout so that there is a sense of movement. The pink lights are three layers of bokeh lights which cut in together at different intervals to create a flicker and a hazy kind of effect. I like this effect so much that i have asked Miranda to get some new footage of the round bokeh effect, this time with perhaps different shades of blue or green.

Lastly, the 'world' image shows the lense cap on top of a landscape view of a harbour. The bright yellow lights that are visible at the back make the writing look almost graffiti like, with the reflection in the sea acting as the paint drips.

Poster Ideas

I have taken screen grabs of my favourite shots and a few of my favourite techniques to play around with when creating the poster and magazine article. I think we would need to combine a few of the shots in the magazine article to show the audience the experimental side of the film.

Finding a suitable font

Colleged

Airplanes in the night sky

One starry night

Maybe maybe not

Decibel

Random house

1942 Report

Passion

Scriptina

Skinny