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.
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.
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. 
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. 
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'.
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.
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. 
