The twist in the film

Idea one

We could show that she has changed after reading the diary by making her throw a party for son however leaving him alone once he has blown out the candles to again show that things are back to square one and that she can't quite put on a brave, happy face.

Idea two

We could show that she hasn't changed and instead kills herself, something you wouldn't expect as it's so drastic.

Idea three

We could show that she hasn't changed, and it seems that she is going to cut her wrists and  commit suicide however, she is instead attempting to cut her son's birthday cake.

We collected some audience feedback on each idea. Asking two questions:

1. Which idea would be most interesting and why?

2. Any suggestions of how we could then develop that idea?

Feedback one

" I think idea one is most interesting because its more realistic and becoming yourself is hard after losing someone so important and I think it's gradual. They could maybe talk and try to straighten things out at this point"

Feedback Two

" I love idea three! as we are given clues from the previous scene that it is the son's birthday but don't quite expect her to do anything for him, this makes it really good when we then see the birthday cake and realise she did make an effort. In terms of ways to improve and develop this you could maybe have the son walk away, almost thinking its too late"

Feedback Three

" Idea number three is more practical than idea number 2 as you don't have to show her killing herself or dead. However after reading the diary you can't show that she has changed or the last scene won't be as effective and we won't really believe she is killing herself "

By taking into consideration some feedback we received and group discussion we decided to choose idea three, however we now have to solve certain challenges that may arise, such as:

• Not showing Sarah's immediate change whilst reading the diary.
• Make sure Sarah acts as if she is going to kill herself and assist this with the correct sound.
• Make sure it looks as if she is going to cut her wrist and is not going to cut a cake.

Evaluation of film review

This is a brief evaluation of what I thought about my film reveiw.

I chose Total film magazine due to its energetic and charismatic focused writing style. I particularly love the way in which they were able to draw the reader, while cleverly analysing a film for both its technical appearance as well as the narrative of the film. Out of all the reviews I researched this was the review I felt was similar to my writing style. I liked the way they engaged the reader and the way they made the reader feel comfortable reading their magazine even if they knew nothing about films.

While creating my own version of a film review from Screen I found it particularly difficult to get the right text. I had to go through the entire list of texts on word in order for me to be able to find a font that was similar; I’m still not happy with the font I chose(Times new roman), but I think it was close. I couldn’t quite get the pattern of the grey text used for ‘The verdict’ in the magazine. I decided in the end to use normal grey font to enable me to focus on other aspects of the film review. I decided to pick an image of the two characters holding hands seeming as I felt that it summed up my review very well due to the fact that I talked about the relationship between the characters Sarah and max a lot. I think the layout the magazine had wasn’t too difficult to replicate to an armature level. I also liked the layouts natural simplicity seeming as it made the review seem more friendly.

I believed I followed the codes and conventions of a film magazine to the best of my abilities. Due to my limited supply of word programmes I don’t believe my magazine looked exactly like the real magazine, but it was very close; especially considering my armature abilities and software. In the end I was quite happy with the final version of my film review. I thought of any extra little bits that could possibly be added to a film review e.g. the date of the film review in order to ensure that my review looked as realistic as possible. This was made especially difficult due to the limited amount of time I had to finish the film review. All in all I think the film review was a success.

Research of filmposters

The posters for the films Freaky Friday, Seven Pounds and Uptown girls are the three films I looked at in order for me to get a good idea about what my poster needed to look like. When you click on the names of the films they will lead you to the films trailers.

Uptown girls

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Seven pounds

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Freaky friday

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Question 4

The Camera we used to film our short film was called Canon X5. It was a HD camera, which meant that our short film was filmed in a high resolution. The camera was very easy to operate, which gave us more time to focus on other aspects of the film. While filming we were watching the shot we were taking through the viewfinder. The viewfinder allowed us to make sure that we had positioned our shots accurately e.g. during Max's diary scene we needed him to be in the centre of the frame exactly and the viewfinder allowed us to do that, because it allowed to position him accurately. In general the viewfinder allowed us to see every shot before we took it, which saved us a lot of time. Sometimes we only noticed objects that were in the way of a shot by looking at the viewfinder e.g. one of the members in my group was in a two-shot we took of Sarah and Max in the kitchen. We were also able to switch the camera's modes from automatic to manual ect. This allowed us to take more creative shots e.g. a close-up of Sarah during a scene in the kitchen in which her face was in focus, while the background was out of focus. The spirit level on the Camera also enabled us to make sure that every shot we took was straight. We were also able to attach a tripod to the camera, which allowed us to take more versatile shots e.g. high angle mid-shot of Sarah holding a knife in the final scene. We also attached tracks to the tripod and camera to make panning movements much smoother especially during establishing shots during the first scene (graveyard scene). The camera was also very easy to transport due to the camera bag it came with; making moving from location to location easier.


 
After filming, I and my group used Adobe premier to edit the film. First of all we used a cable lead to capture and record all of our footage onto Adobe Premier. We saved all of our editing work onto a LaCie drive due to it having a lot of memory; a normal 2gb USB wasn't big enough. Our LaCie was always plugged in whilst editing. With Adobe Premier we were able to cut our captured video and sift and sort the shots into the different scenes and rename them, so that we knew which scene or shot they were. We were also able to cut out the clapperboard ect. Due to the shots being renamed and cut we were able to reorder all the sh ots we took into the right order and get rid of the shots we didn't need on the timeline e.g. shots in which the actor/actress didn't say there lines properly. We were also able to add titles onto the timeline. We used this tool in order to make the title for our film (Lost For Words) and the production company's names ect. We were also able to add effects and transitions to the video in order to make some of the transitions from one shot to another smoother or faster e.g. in the first scene when Max puts down the flowers on his father's grave, we used the effect called ghosting to cut down the really long shot. We also used the fade effect in order to allow the titles to fade in and out; we were also able to control what time the title came in and left (mark in and mark out) e.g. at 1.18 or 1.10 ect. Adobe Premier also allowed us to add music on top of the timeline and once again we could decide what time it came in or out. We also used a Dictaphone to record one of the short pieces of music we got someone to create for us (Happy Bir thday on piano in the final scene). We were able to make the music faster or slower ect, so we slowed down the song at the beginning of the film. We were also able to mix sounds by placing them a little bit on top of each other to make the transition from one piece of music to another sound more natural e.g. from the short song Crescendo in the final scene to the short song of Happy Birthday. For the diary scene we used a directional microphone in order to record Max's voice and make sure that it was clear due to the fact that the first time we filmed this scene his voice didn't sound clear. We also used a boom mic to prevent and static or muffling noises in our film. The boom mic was supported by the boom pole that enabled us to hold up the boom mic without touching it.


 
The main online tool I used to begin with, was blogger/blogspot. Blogger/Blogspot was used in order for me to be able to upload all of my work together in one place instead of making it into a book. There are many tools on Blogger that I found very useful when constructing my work. I used tools like 'labels' that enabled me to be able to organize my blog properly under headings, which made it, look more professional e.g. I organised my research into the labels main task research (related research) and other research (unrelated research that was useful) in order to make it easier for bloggers navigate their way around my blog. Blogger allowed me to put posts up in order for me to be able to share my work with other people, who were able to comment on particular posts, so that I could take in their feedback. I also had the opportunity to use Blogger's templates or create my own in order for me to make sure my blog s uited the world of my film. I also had the opportunity to design the actual layout of the blog in order for me to be able to make my blog more accessible for me and the people who viewed my blog. Due to the fact that Blogger was on the internet I was able to access it from many different locations, which made it more convenient for me. Blogger also gave me the opportunity to use other interactive tools that enabled me to post work on my blog in a much more interesting way. E.g. I could upload PowerPoint documents onto my blog with Slideshare.


 
One of the many interactive tools I used was Prezi. A Prezi is basically a zooming online presentation editor. I could create a whole PowerPoint on one page and I could add images and video's ect to it. This tool was particularly good for making presentations and pitch's in lesson due to the fact that you could include everything that you wanted on one page because you could enlarge or minimize writing ect. I used these tools to put a YouTube video into a picture of a mug for example. The programme was also really easy to understand and use due to the fact that there were different tutorials available for the various tools you needed to know about creating a Prezi e.g. there was a tutorial on effective ways to use zooming. Using a Prezi made it easier during pitching because we could spend more time taking down feedback rather than focusing on playing the slide seeming as our audience could see all the information on a Prezi without the use of a motion path if they wanted to. I also had the opportunity to edit a Prezi online with other members of my group who had a Prezi account, which made it easier for my group to work together because we didn't have to meet up as much, which was very hard due to other subject commitments.


 
Slideshare gave people viewing my blog the opportunity to view a normal word document or power point I had to be viewed in a much more interesting way on my blog and on slide share. They also had the opportunity to zoom in to the document if they couldn't quite see it. Slide Rocket was quite similar to both Slideshare and Prezi seeming as you could make a presentation online. It was similar to a power point due to the fact you could add transitions between slides, however Slide Rocket was more advanced. You could add a tweets feed to your presentation, so that viewers could see current tweets of a particular topic e.g. they could see recent tweets about a duck on your presentation. This programme also gave you the opportunity to record your own voice over a presentation in order to explain a slide or image ect. I used this tool to present my storyboard on my blog by recording myself talking about the storyboard. Like Prezi you were able to add a live YouTube video to a particular slide, which came in handy e.g. I added trailers of films that were similar to my film in a presentation I made on Slide Rocket. All of these websites made explaining research and planning that much easier because you could support what you wanted to write with images video's ect. It improved the overall look of the blog seeming as these programmes were quite new and more interesting than just text.



We recorded one of our pitches and feedback using the camera on our phones e.g . we took a video of a pitch we did in class and uploaded it to YouTube and put it on our blogs. We did this in order for us to have a visual form of our pitch to put on our blogs. We also used normal digital still cameras and the camera on our phones to take pictures of ourselves while filming and just in general during the length of the project. This was useful because it allowed people to see the process of making the film in pictures e.g. an image of two of us filming with the camera. I also used Windows movie maker to make a moodboard and then I converted the file and posted it on YouTube. I thought that this moodboard was more effective because it allowed you to talk about more. E.g. I was able to include a song in the moodboard that really did sum up the emotions experienced in the short film and I was able to explain why.


 
I used Google in order to find a lot of the images and websites that I needed / used for the research stage of my coursework in particular .e.g. I found a lot of images of blockbuster posters, like the film Seven Pounds for my film on Google. Due to the fact that Google is a search engine I found it extremely useful seeming as it led me to many sites that were vital to the film making process e.g. I made an add on Gumtree, which is a site that enables you to sell/buy things or advertise things like job vacancies. We used this site in order for us to attempt to find a cast that would act for free. This website was very slow; in the end we only got one reply, but it was way too late for us to even attempt to audition that person. However Google led me to a website called Starnow that specialised in advertising acting jobs. This site also had regular acting opportunities that required people to work for free, so we had a high response rate and we ended up getting over 200 views for both of the adds we put up. In order for me to advertise a job opportunity for Starnow I had to sign up, create a profile and essentially become a member. Many members of my class ended up using this website due to its high success rate/background. This website enabled me to choose who we wanted and shortlist them ect, so basically I was able to sift and sort applicants into different groups e.g. 'got the part' and 'unsuccessful' ect. We were able to see applicants profile, so we could check out their acting in previous roles they may have done and we could contact them through messages on Starnow. Google made it easy for me to find the website that we got our main actress from and Starnow made it easier for me to manage applicants, which helped us a lot during the planning and research stages of the project. Google was also the website that allowed me to find many of the sites that allowed me to have more creative postings on my blog e.g. Slideshare.

Question 1

How is your film different from other films that have dealt with the same themes?

People who are just starting out in the area of film in the media industry generally make short films and then progress to make documentaries and blockbuster films ect. They do in order to get some practice with making films and in order for them to be recognised in order for them to move on. They also generally choose to start off with short films because they have a low budget, so directors wouldn't have to put too much of their own money into the project. Due to the fact that we are students making a short film was the best way for us to go, because our status means that we didn't have enough money to fund a big project. While making the short film I found that you are allowed to be a lot more experimental due to the fact that people who make short film in general don't have a financial gain as a goal. We didn't h ave to follow the typical blockbuster storylines because we didn't have a mass target audience to please e.g. boy meets girl, something bad happens and they break–up then make-up by the end of the film. Short films are also less time consuming because their likely to be 3-5mins long, so they take less time to film e.g. for us it was two days. Blockbuster films take a lot more time because they vary from 90-120mins or more. This factor meant that short films were perfect for us to make because we could fit a short film project into our busy school timetables.

My short film follows the codes and conventions of a short film because it is only a few minutes long; just like every other short film. These types of films are also usually made on a low budget; we were the ones that pooled the money needed for the short film, we also had a low budget for our film. Generally short films have a strong and interesting narrative, which is due to the fact that short films don't generally have famous stars that can be used as a unique selling point, due to a lack of money in most cases e.g. In the film Seven Pounds the main actor's name Will Smith was just as big as the title of the film and it was right next to it as well, because he's famous. This factor was both an advantage and a disadvantage because not having established actors/actresses in our film meant that we would have to work harder to get people to watch our film. This is due to the fact that audiences are more attracted to watching a film if a famous actor/actress they like is in it. Not having established actors/actresses meant that our film was cheaper because famous actors/actresses would have probably have wanted money for taking part in the project.

Our film had an interesting story idea. We spent time in and outside of lesson pitching and constructing our ideas in order for our idea to be more original; we made these changes due to the feedback that we got. Short films also tend to be based on real life situations e.g. the short film ice-cream dreams; they also tend to have a deeper meaning to it. Our film follows these codes and conventions' seeming as our film was about a real life situation or something that could happen in real life. In general after watching so many short films during the research stage we picked up on some of the codes and conventions needed for a short film. Through this research and the feedback we received we were able to transform our film ideas into short film ideas. We did this in order for our film to be as close to a short film as possible.

Our short film only had two main characters in it and this is typical of a short film as short films don't usually have many characters in it. Short films also centre their stories around the limited amount of characters, which is what we did. We made sure that our characters looked like ordinary people in order for the short film to be realistic e.g. when we chose our actors we decided not to take a boy who auditioned because he had bright red hair, which was too eccentric for the humble world of our film. Having actors that looked ordinary is typical for characters in a short film as they are generally based on realistic issues e.g. Job Street. When we watched the short film Ice-Dream dreams we found it hilarious even though it was meant to be serious, however a younger audience (the suspected target audience) would have possibly learned to appreciate it more. This is why like every all films we made sure that we had our target audience in mind whilst constructing the film.

Characters in short films also need to be portrayed by strong or powerful actors/actresses; this is why we went out of our way to find a good actor (Michael Sams), who studies drama at school and actress (Louise Hewison) on the website Starnow (an acting agency website). On this website we could see videos of her previous acting experience and we could locate written information about them too e.g. what her previous employers thought about her level of acting. Their impeccable acting really came through, which made the film more dramatic and realistic. The level of acting in a short film is very important due to the fact that in every short film you only have a limited amount of time to attract a viewer. If the story isn't acted out properly people won't pay attention. Short films generally only have there narrative as a unique selling point. If the actors/actresses don't act out the narrative appropriately then their short film is less likely to be viewed because it would have no unique selling points essentially.


The narrative of our shor t film was quite unique as it had a twist e.g. the mum doesn't kill herself and the son walks away. This follows the codes and conventions of short films because our film ends dramatically like many other short films. We used this to our own advantage and made this objective of making a story short and captivating; our own goal during the planning stage. All of the film ideas we thought of had this objective in it. Although our film is an original idea it's very typical for short films to have an original idea and to have a twist at the end in order to gain the viewers attention and to make it more interesting in general e.g. the short film 'Alma' had a twist at the end as none was expecting the little girl to be sucked into the doll. So our film doesn't challenge the codes and conventions of a short film narrative to an extent, as its original, and it is about a real life situation; however you could argue that all short films are original and have a twist in it. We added something more than a twist to our film, as we made the audience believe that the character of the mum was going to kill herself, when in fact she was going to cut a birthday cake. This challenged the codes and conventions of a short film because usually they just have one twist at the end and that's it and generally everything is as it seems. In our film we had two twists at the end, as Max decided not to forgive his mum in the end and we also made it appear that the character of the mum was going to kill herself. Our film followed the codes and conventions of a short film when we decided to build up a lot of tension up in the film that was aided by the music we selected. However we also made an alternative ending in which Sarah and Max make-up in the end.




Big Hollywood films such as 'Seven Pounds' and the 'Pursuit of Happiness; are similar to our film seeming as they both have very strong emotional narratives (pulling at heart strings). The Pursuit of Happiness in particular focuses on a father and sons struggle in a capitalist society. We kind of developed the idea's in this film by making our own emotional story (the dad died and now the mum and son had to cope with the loss of their father/husband). Unlike 'The Pursuit of Happiness' we made are film more personal by focusing the story around to characters in a house rather than a father and sons struggle in an economic society. Due to us making our story idea more personal audiences were able to relate to it. Unlike 'The Pursuit of Happiness' we focused on the relationship between mother and son. This goes against the codes and conventions of some films in general due to the fact that we didn't focus on the relationship between mother and daughter/ women and girl like most films do e.g. Uptown girls. However in some cases we chose to follow the codes and conventions of a typical film when we made the characters in the film white instead of another ethnicity. This is due to the fact that people generally assume that characters in films like ours are centred around a white family, but ' The Pursuit of Happiness rejected this stereotype.

The sound we used in the film didn't really challenge the codes and convention of films, but it was sometimes different from other films that had the same theme as our film. In the beginning the music was kind of 'everyday music'; the type of music that played when everything in the scenes were ordinary and normal. This contrapuntal music went against the actions going on during the scene due to the fact that there was something wrong with the relationship between the mum and son, which means everything isn't normal e.g. mum sees son approaching and then mum walks away. We also made our film stand out more by making the music go in sync with the actions in the film e.g. Son stopped mum just as she was about to cut the cake and the music stopped dramatically. We used dramatic music in order to help build up the tension near the end of the film when the mum was about to allegedly kill herself. This is typical of films in general due to the fact that films generally use dramatic music to build up tension.

The costume of the actors followed the codes and conventions of other films because their costume was your everyday type of clothes e.g. when Sarah was walking around the house she was in jogging bottoms and when Sarah and Max were at the graveyard they were dressed in smart clothing e.g. black skirt and a suit. Sarah also only wore make-up at the cemetery in the first scene. In every other scene both Max and Sarah didn't wear make-up in or for them to look like ordinary people and also in order for them to look like they were grieving. The main setting used (a house) was typical as well because a house is an ordinary setting; especially for a drama like ours because they are usually set in everyday settings. The second setting we used (even though it was a school) wasn't typical of the codes and conventions because it looked another dimension/spiritual world even though it was actually the inside voice of Max. This went against the codes and conventions of drama's because this diary scene didn't look like an everyday setting. We also used a diary in this scene that Max used as a prop. We made the character pour out all his emotions into the diary. This goes against the codes and conventions of films because in most films Diary's are given to female characters as props because they are stereotyped to be t he more emotional e.g. like Celie in 'The Colour Purple'. Boys are stereotyped to be strong and not share their emotions, which is why it goes against the codes and conventions when Max has one. Sarah is seen holding a hoover as a prop and hoovering, which follows the codes and conventions of female characters in films and stereotypes because women are stereotyped to be housewives/do all the cleaning e.g. like the mother at the beginning of the film Ramona and Beezus. The lighting in the film is also natural lighting, which follows other drama films, as they are set or about real life e.g. like the natural lighting in the film 'Imagine That'.

Question 3

We got important feedback during the pitching stage. This allowed us to able to make sure that our story idea was perfect. The feedback we received allowed us to look at our story from a different perspective. Due to the fact that we were the ones that made the story; it was really difficult for us to see faults with it, so having other people comment on our idea really opened up our eyes to the stories flaws. The original story idea was that we would show Max struggling at school as a reaction to the death of his father; we were also going to show the father. In the original story Sarah lost her Grandmother as well and her and Max argued a lot and she went back to normal in the end when she saw Max crying. During the feedback period, we got told that "this story was too long to be a short story". We also got told that there were too many characters in our story and that "Sarah's reaction to her husband's death was too extreme". They also said that Sarah had to see something more than her son crying in order for her to change that much. We decided to axe the character of the grandma and we didn't show the character of the dad, but we mentioned him. We also got rid of the scene where Max struggles at school and showed him struggling at home, which meant that at the time we didn't have to go to school to shoot, which would have saved more time. We let Sarah discover Max's diary instead which was more emotional and heartfelt; and we didn't let Sarah change too much. All these little changes made the story more realistic. In the end it had the potential to be a really good short film. From this I learnt how small the gap between a short film that is meant to last five minuets, and a longer film or even a feature film could be. Due to a few minor suggestions we were able to change this idea into a short film. E.g. the part of the original story where Max goes to school being cut made the film shorter and saved us time during the production stage, whilst filming and even during editing seeming as there was less to capture. If the treatment wasn't good we wouldn't have been able to move on, as there would have been problems if we carried on planning for our story e.g. we would have had too much footage to make a 5min film and it may have been too late to change that.

We also got feedback for the storyboard we made for our film. In total we made around three or four storyboards before we finally had one that was good enough for us to stick to. While we were pitching our ideas to a voluntary audience we were able to identify problems with our storyboard that would have wasted a lot of time and may have even caused problems while filming e.g. there were occasions in the storyboard in which there weren't enough action reaction shots e.g. during the first scene there was a long-shot of Sarah walking away from Max, but there was no reaction from Max after that action. Our first version of a storyboard only had the names and actions of the characters and how we wanted them to portray their movement e.g. 'Sarah stomped away'. Even at this stage there were difficulties seeming as we realised we missed a lot things out because we jumped to actions that we could have missed out while filming e.g. we jumped from a close up of 'Sarah hovering furiously' to an 'extreme close-up of Sarah's feet walking up the stairs', we forgot to include a shot of her turning off the hoover or a shot or explanation of how she got to the staircase. It was due to our feedback that we were able to spot these mistakes seeming as they were able to identify problems we couldn't see e.g. "Is the hoover on or off while Sarah is walking up the stairs". This first storyboard gave us the opportunity to change things around as we were able to cut it up in little pieces e.g. we could add the shot of Max reacting to Sarah walking away very easily. This allowed us to make sure that there were always reaction shots after an action shot. It also enabled us to make sure that we included every shot in our scene in our storyboard and considered how every action would be carried out e.g we even added things like 'the next day' so we would know that it was a new scene and we could make sure we made that clear to our audience e.g. we could fade to black to show it was a new day/time. This made sure that our film was professional because it reduced the risk of amateur mistakes e.g. forgetting scenes and then spending time putting them in on production day, like my group did during the opening sequence task at AS level. Our final storyboard was a lot better. It included a lot of detail in the images, actions and camera movement, in the sense that all the information we needed was there e.g. we now knew that the noise of a hoover would act as a sound merger and lead us from scene one to two; you would be able to hear the sound of the hoover when scene one faded to black. Our feedback audience gave us suggestions on how to film certain scenes in order to create more empathy, which was what we were trying to achieve e.g. an extreme long shot of Sarah and Max standing apart really showed the distance between the two. They also gave us suggestions on better and more creative camera angles/shots we could use in order for our film to look more professional e.g. a high angle shot of Sarah would show the audience how weak she is after dealing with the loss of her husband. I learnt that there's always an opportunity to be more creative with a camera shot, to make your film look more professional and to make the audience more amazed with the way in which the film is presented. E.g. there was a close-up of Sarah's reflection in the mirror. Creating a film visually is always a challenge.


 
I had to make three posters for my film that looked like a poster that could be used to advertise a poster in real life. The first two posters were said to not suit the codes and conventions of our short film seeming as they looked like thrillers instead of a drama, which is what our short film is e.g. my poster needed to visually show more feelings of grief. They told me that I had to change the picture I used for the poster because it looked too much like a thriller instead of a poster; however the image was very powerful. The image was a close-up of Sarah looking under the bed in low-key lighting with a shocked/scared facial expression. Due to this feedback I changed the images I used for the poster and avoided adding filters to the poster that made it look a bit ghostly or scary e.g. the filter noise that gave the image grains and made it look scary. I felt that after making these changes I was able to make a good poster that followed the codes and conventions of a drama poster. E.g. the picture I chose was a close-up of a sad Sarah that portrayed her grief very well. I found that you have to make sure that you get the codes and conventions of a particular genre right if you don't it changes the whole conception of a film e.g. an image of a couple kissing would suit a romantic film poster than a horror poster.


 
During the editing phase we got a lot of feedback on the look of our film. The part that we wanted feedback on the most was the final scene in which Sarah appears to be attempting to commit suicide, but in the end she was just trying to cut a slice of cake. Most of our feedback audience believed that she was actually going to kill herself, so we were really happy with that outcome. We were also told that Max's diary scene wasn't clear enough e.g. there were points in which his voice sounded like a muffle. We decided to film that part again. During the second attempt of recording Max's voice we used a directional microphone, so that the microphone would concentrate on picking up his voice alone. We also made Michael who played Max project his voice and we used high quality sound equipment such as a boom mic instead of relying on the microphone on the camera. Max's dialogue in this seen was very significant due to the fact that this is the only part in the film where the audience can find out that Max's father died and this is why Max's mum is the way she is. Unfortunately during feedback we also got told that Sarah seemed like Max's girlfriend or sister instead of his mum due to the fact that the actress playing Sarah looked quite young for her age. By the time we found out this information it was too late to change the actress and shoot it again. This is why it was even more imperative that Max's diary was easy to understand because it says "when you left, mum left with you", which implies that Sarah is in fact Max's mum. Due to this issue I learnt that I need to be more careful when choosing actors/actresses, so that the distinctions between characters are made clear. We also got told by our feedback audience that there were too many knife shots in the final scene and some of them were pointless e.g. there was once a mid-shot of Sarah from behind twirling the knife in the final seem that wasn't very good and had no use, as she was repeating the same action from two shots before, so it was too repetitive so we cut it out.


 

 

Commentary of film

Here is a commentary of the film 'Lost For Words'. This was filmed directly after we shot the last scene. This commentary includes the opinions of the actors we used as well as the crew.