Sound

Dance Studio
We started by sorting out the music for the dance studio sequence. We decided that we wanted to use classical music that quickly builds up at the end for this scene as it would go well with the movement Sophie creates when dancing and also will help create a soft, smooth and emotional scene. Once we all decided on what type of music we wanted to have within our production we set Leanne (who is in charge of sorting sound for our production) the task of creating her own version in GarageBand. Below is the sound which she created, she used the instruments 'emotional piano' and 'orchestra string'.

On reviewing the sound above we all came to the conclusion that it was too mellow and repetitive, also when we added it to the footage we found that the music did not match the visuals as it didn't have the dramatic increase at the end which we originally wanted. We then all decided that because of these reasons we were not going to use the music.

When looking through Youtube for potential music for our production I came across this piece of music Requiem by Mozart which I thought would be very fitting for our production:

I then showed this music to Jack and Leanne and we all decided that it would be suitable for this sequence. We are going to use the music from 0:20 to 1:00. We decided this because the music builds up dramatically at the end, heightening Sophie's struggle and adding tension to the scene. As well as having this music for our dance sequence we are also going to put this music at the end of our film to make sure that the two different sections of our film link together effectively.

Rope Walk Sequence
For the rope walk sequence we decided that we were going to have really faint music playing underneath the ambient sound. The music we decided on is below:

We felt that this music was suitable as it is still a classical piece (we wanted the music to make the audience draw parallels with the earlier dance sequence) but is slightly different as it include elements of the musical genre dubstep. The mixture of two musical genres will let the audience know that Sophie is confused about her identity and whether to continue dancing or lead a life of hedonism. The music is going to be really faintly played underneath the rope walk sequence to make the scene more interesting and to ensure that the audience can still hear the ambient sound within this scene, we wanted the ambient sound to still be heard so that the film still conforms to conventions of the social realism genre.

Flashback Sequence

For the flashback sequence we decided to layer the Youtube video which Jack created (below). We liked the idea of having lots of whispering sounds over the short flashback scene as it will confirm to the audience that Sophie is unsure about what path to take and that outside influences may be to blame for her decision.

Ambient Sound

As well as having non-diegetic music within our production we also are going to have some sequences which just consist of ambient sound as this is a typical convention of the social realist genre. Ambient, or diegetic sound, allows the audience to focus just on the narrative and can help to heighten a situation, this is why we have chosen to use this technique within the beginning and end of our production.

First Draft and Feedback

I uploaded the first draft onto my Youtube account for audiences to watch and comment on.

Twitter

I also showed the first draft to audiences on Twitter (on my Flight Twitter account) to gather opinions of our film so far. Here is the tweet which I posted:

Feedback

The majority of feedback received on Twitter was positive many commenting on how they like the opening sequence and bedroom shots, they thought that the shots were very effective and drew them into the narrative. The only criticism that was mentioned on Twitter was that they thought the end drug scene using the stop motion technique was a bit shaky and could be improved. As well as showing audiences on Twitter we also showed our Media teachers, the feedback we got from them was that they really enjoyed the bedroom shots, particularly the one with the sun flare. They said that the film felt very tranquil and peaceful. However they did note that they didn't really understand the relevance of the drug scene at the end and said it was quite out of the blue, they said that the film needed to have some hints before hand that our main character was considering turning to drugs. Because of these comments we have decided to add some flash back scenes within the bedroom sequence, this will hopefully drop hints to the audience about whats to come and make the film flow a lot better. Another comment made by Mr Cunningham was that he didn't like the opening shots with Sophie walking to the dance studio, he felt our opening shot was really effective and that it was ruined by the cuts of her walking in the corridor, he felt that our film would benefit if we removed the other shots. I do agree with the criticism we received for the first draft and the comments we got were very helpful, they helped us decide on how to develop our film further.

Improvements

The improvements we have decided to make from the criticism received are as follows:

• We have decided to add in a flash back sequence within the bedroom scene. Adding this sequence in will hopefully make the audience aware of Sophie's struggle and develop the narrative, also it will add a sense of surrealism to our production.
• I have decided to add some transitions into the rope walk scene to make it flow a lot better as at the moment it is slightly jumpy and quick, making the production not at sleek and professional as we would like.
• Improve the stop-motion sequence, re-shooting the sequence so it is smoother.
• Remove the beginning shots of Sophie walking in the corridor to make the first shot of the doors more impacting on audiences.

Lee Miller

When looking for inspiration I came across the photographer Lee Miller. I thought that her work was very interesting and really liked the way she incorporated shadows into her shots, as director I felt that we could create some very interesting cinematography using some of Lee Millers techniques.

Lee Miller (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977)  was an American surrealist photographer. Born in New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer.

When looking through Lee Millers work the photos below really stood out to me. I really liked the use of shadows and thought that it was very effective. We decided to take inspiration from Lee Miller's work within our own production as we liked the fact her photos portrayed mystery through the use of shadows, taking inspiration from Lee Miller helped us to produce visually appealing scenes in an interesting and edgy way.

Examples of Lee Miller's photography

Bedroom scene in 'Flight'

TheObserver Article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/14/british-film-lord-smith-review-brand-promotion

I came across this interesting article when researching ways to promote my production Flight. This article  explains plans to try and ''promote British brands to compete with the cachet of French cinema and Hollywood''

British film has always struggled to compete with the big blockbuster films, with many productions falling under the radar. However British film has proved it can provide the film industry with commercially successful products such as An Education, Trainspotting and most recently The King's Speech which took $414 million in 2010. 

The ideas put forward to help British Film include ''setting up an annual British film week or series of special film days that would highlight the UK's strong back catalogue of homegrown hits'' and ''proposing a system that allows the profits from successful films to be fed back into the industry'' Such a scheme would see a percentage of box-office receipts paid back into the lottery fund in cases where producers had received an initial grant.

I personally feel that British film does need to be marketed better. At the moment the British film industry is regarded as a ''cottage industry'' due to its small scale productions. If these ideas were to work then we would see a significant rise in successful British films and audiences watching them. British film may finally be able to compete with Hollywood and gain the recognition it deserves.

During Filming

Wednesday 14th December 2011
Today filming started later than scheduled with us finally starting to record at 1:30pm, this was because we received a reply email from the leisure centre saying that the dance studio was only free Wednesday from 1:15pm until 2:00pm. All filming within the dance studio went smoothly and we ended up with some good footage, the only issue we had was that we realized the music coming from Leanne's iPod (as we edited the footage) would skip parts, this means we shall have to re-record the music and add it as a soundtrack on top. We then moved on to shooting the scene at my house. We had to move fast as the light was beginning to darken and we wanted to get some good footage of Leanne by the window. Jack managed to get some really nice shots and even managed to get some bonus footage when he noticed shadows which appeared on my bedroom wall which we then played around with. My favorite shot which Jack managed to capture is the shot of Leanne's shadow on the wall moving around (pictured below), I feel this shot is really effective and visually appealing. We didn't get as much completed as we hoped within the bedroom scene as the light went pretty quickly meaning we shall have to reschedule another time. We also didn't get to film the outside location scenes as we ran out of time, to keep up with our schedule we are planning on filming this within the next week or so.

Wednesday 21st December 2011
Filming today commenced later than expected at around 5pm. We hadn't really thought about the lighting and presumed that around 4pm would be okay to film in as its still reasonably light, however, as filming started later than planned we found it really hard to film the rope walk scenes as the footage was all really dark. Aside from the lighting problem Jack managed to get some really nice shots of lights from cars, trains and streetlamps in the dark which we can incorporate into our film. My favorite scene from today's shoot was the footage of the glinting car lights in the distance, I found this shot to be very visually appealing. The other problem which occurred during the shoot today is that we found the public toilets to be closed as it was late, due to this we shall have to film again after Christmas. I think that we did get quite a lot of footage today considering we had lots of problems during this shoot.

Wednesday 12th January 2012
After school we headed straight to the dance studio to film our dance sequence. Jack managed to film a variety of shots in the studio but after reviewing the footage I have decided that we shall re-shoot another day as when reviewing the footage I found that most of it was quite shaky, as we want the first part of our film to be smooth and have a polished feel about it we may need to re-shoot with a tripod. We then went to our outside location at around 3:15pm and filmed more of the rope walk scene, this time we chose to film at an earlier time so that it wasn't too dark. We found that the lighting was perfect this time when Jack came to film as all of our footage had a beautiful purple/blue tinge to it. My favorite shot from today's shoot was the shot of Leanne sitting with her back to the camera on a bench, we just see her silhouette and the purple sky suggesting that the character is deep in thought and also portraying the sense of mystery. I am very happy with the amount of footage we managed to capture today even though re-shooting is needed.

Monday 23rd January 2012

Wednesday 8th February 2012
Today we re-filmed the dance studio sequence as we didn't like the footage we filmed previously. We filmed in the schools multipurpose room between the hours of 1:15pm and 2:00pm. We decided to think about why the first sequence didn't work beforehand to save us time. We came up with a few reasons such as: the camera footage was shaky, we didn't like the costume, it felt rushed and we then came up with ideas on how to improve this. I then designed a new costume for Leanne and Jack filmed the whole sequence in one place on a tripod, our reasoning for doing this was that during editing I could cut between different shots to emphasize a long time period. I felt that today's shoot went really well and we managed to capture a lot of footage, only thing I particularly liked was how the shot was very symmetrical which made all the footage look professional. The one thing I would change if i were to do this sequence again is to change the lighting, I originally wanted to have spotlight over Sophie but couldn't get hold of a bright enough one to film with, having a bright light over Sophie would suggest that she is being pressured and put on the spot and I feel our film would have benefited by having this type of lighting.