Evaluation

Overall I believe i have produced a good project. There is good and bad things about the project that was down o me and wasn't down to me. I believe that i created a good edit that fitted the brief and target audience. It contained arrive footage and had a good story line that fitted the target audience of 14-16. The idea that i came up with is the idea that we filmed, i decided to go with mother and son as i thought it would be more touching than a mother and husband. By using a son it will make the audience feel like that it may be them and connect more as the actor is their age. Being a husband or someone of an older age they may have struggled to connect to it a bit more.  My video fitted the length that it needed to be and contained suitable archive footage that fitted the video perfectly. I could have maybe helped out a lot more with the pre production work and maybe with the production itself. We had a little issue with communication within my group and trouble with one of the group members having bad attendance throughout the project which also brought the group down slightly as he was DoP. Despite these couple of issues we managed to get the project done with no major issues.
On day one of filming everything went very well when filming indoors. Everything went very smoothly and we managed to get a few shots of every angle to ensure that we had enough footage at different angles. The cast and crew worked very well together and helped each other out throughout the filming to ensure that everything ran smoothly. All the costumes and props worked very well and set the scene, mood and era. When it came to filming outside we wasn't able to get much done due to the weather. We managed to film the mother saying goodbye to her son at a couple of different angles a few times. When it came to filming in the forest of the son writing his letter to his mother we had a bit of trouble due to the weather so was unable to film that and had to reschedule for another day. We got slightly lucky the second day of filming and managed to film during a dry hour of what was a very wet and rainy day. Unfortunately we was unable to get the costume for a second day so had to improvise with a some dark jeans a shirt. Luckily this fitted in and looked ok. Overall i believe that filming went very well apart from the weather which can't be helped. Luckily we was able to work around this and get everything that we needed to be able to create our short video.
Although these things went well i believe that i could have improved on many many things. First of all i could have helped out a lot more with pretty much everything. I think with the paper work i could have maybe stepped in for the DoP and done the paper work that they needed to complete so that we where ready to film a little sooner. I could have also helped out with story boards, risk assessments and location recees. All of this would of helped move the process a little quicker and we would have been able to film sooner or even film a little extra footage. With the filming i could have maybe helped out by doing some camera work due to the DoP being absent when filming. Or maybe have helped a little more with the props and costume. By helping out with all of these things the process would have been sped up and would have given us more time to film and edit. But overall everything went very well and i am pleased with the outcome considering there was a slight communication error with everyone in the group that i was working with which is a shame considering everything turned out very well.  I believe that i created a good edit but could have maybe spent a little bit more time to make it look more of a professional standard. I could ahem maybe have gotten a few different types of archive footage. I did struggle to find British archive footage that was of good enough quality to be able to use in my video.
Over all even though there was strong points to my work i believe that there was more weaknesses and i could have done a lot better than i had. To have done better i could have put more effort into more work and blog rather than leaving things till the very last minute that i did. I think this would have improved my work a lot more. Also putting more effort into the preproduction.
If i had to do the whole thing again i would make sure that everything was completed by certain dates to ensure that every thing could get done on time and that it was to a very good standard so that we could get a little extra time for filming and editing. I would make sure that there was no issues within the group so that things could run smoothly with no hiccups. Other than the many issues that we had i think that we managed to pull through it all and create a strong piece of work that fitted the brief exactly with very strong footage and shots.

Filming Day

I believe the filming day was good and bad. The weather was on and off heavy showers for the day. 

The first half went very well. We filmed indoors of the mother writing a letter to her son giving him updates on things going on. We managed to get everything done in a couple of hours. There was no hiccups and everything went smoothly. We then went outside to film the mother saying goodbye to her son. This went well and the wether was ok. 

When it came to filming in the forest of the son writing a letter it decided to rain after about 5 minutes. Although covered by trees and umbrellas the weather was just too bad to continue filming so we had to stop. 

We filmed him a week later and luckily the weather was ok. This went ok and eventually we managed to get things done.

The voice over recording went very well. Both actors managed to say what was needed very well in the tone that we wanted. We got a couple of recordings of each just to be safe. 

Overall everything went very well minus the weather on the first day of filming. 

Filming Location

Date -  Wednesday 8th October 2014

Time - 11am - 4pm

Location - My back garden/forest

We chose this location as we believed it would be suitable for the idea we have and the setting we want. We are going to be filming him sat leaning against a tree or sat on the logs writing a letter back home to his mother. We believed this location would be suitable as he isn't fighting but he's at war so this kind of scenery would be appropriate for the 'outdoors' look. 

This is the forest area that is in my back garden that we are going to be using. 

We will be filming on these logs as we think the background sets the scene. The son will be sat on the logs writing his letter to his mum o keep her up to date on what he's up to. He will also be writing his letter that he will seal in an envolope to give to another soldier so that if and when he gets killed they can pass it on to his mum. We see her later on receiving the news and the letter.

Interactive Media

Interactive media can come in many different types. There is the red button on televisions, apps on mobiles, tablets and smart televisions, and also websites such as youtube. They all come with their advantages and disadvantages. The red button on televisions allow people to access things such as the weather, news, lottery and sports. The lottery is probably the most common thing that people use it for. Apps on phones, tablets and smart televisions are becoming increasingly popular. Its allowing people to access catch up television such as BBC Iplayer or other services such as Netflix and now TV. Catch up tv is a very popular service as it allows people to be able to catch up with any programmes that they may have missed on television. It also gives them the chance to have unto a month to be able to watch the programme. Netflix allows people to watch newly released movies as well as some of the very old and popular movies. It also allows you to watch television series. Many people are opting to go for the option of catch up television or Netflix as it is the cheapest option available and they still get the same services. Online websites such as Youtube allow people to do a variety of things. They can search television programmes, movies, behind the scenes on filming sets, music and also just videos in general of pretty much anything they want. Youtube for me is very useful for things such as being able to search for archive footage to be able to put into my college movies they i create and edit. As well as many other people i would need to take into consideration the legal and ethical considerations of downloading videos or songs from youtube. Is it suitable for what I'm using, what are the copyright issues for the song or video? is it royalty free? if i am downloading a song or video will i be able to put my work on to the internet due to copyright issues? These are all things that me as well as many others need to take into consideration when using these kind of websites. These kinds of websites and apps are very useful and easy to access for many people with smart phones and tablets and can be accessed pretty much anywhere.  Interavtive media is used for any different reasons to many different people. It can be used in education, advertisement, entertainment and also social networking. For education it can come under two things. Being used in schools and higher education to show educational videos or for others to watch educational videos, films and television programmes. They may watch them on catch up tv or on youtube to access older videos such as things from World War 1 where it can't be accessed on catch up tv such as bbd or ITV Iplayer.  It can be used in advertisment. With many people having smart phones and playing games which is a type of interactive media, many app company will attach different types of adverts in games to try and grab peoples attention. With gaming on phones and tablets being a very popular source of entertainment this is a good way to get peoples attention with adverts, especially with less and less people watching services such as Sky and using the cheaper options such as BBC Iplayer.  Lossy and lossless are two types of compression.  Lossy is high compression that makes file types smaller. They are very commonly used with bitmap images. They eliminate any unesasary information in the file permenantly. Lossless is a low compression, high quality but compresses file types into a large size. It doesn't loose any data when compressed and also when the file is uncompressed.

Costume and props

We didn't realise until the day of filming that he didn't have the correct footwear so we had to work around this and make sure that the feet couldn't be seen.

We have been able to get hold of an 'authentic soldiers' costume from WW1. This will help create the look and mood we want for when we film the son at war. We will be using this when he is saying goodbye to his mum to go off to war. She will be doing the buttons up on the jacket as she says her goodbyes.

For the mothers costume she will have a shawl, white shirt and long skirt on. This is typically the kind of thing a low class working mother would have worn.

For props we will be using 'old looking' paper and a fountain pen. The reason we chose the fountain pen as they wouldn't of had biro pens like we have today. 

Ideas and Final Idea

Within our group we came up with a few ideas as to what we could do, where we could film and who our actors could be. We came up with a couple of ideas and developed them into one to come up with a stronger idea.

One idea we had would be to film a wife and husband writing letters to each other and at the end she would receive a deceased notice. 
The wife would be at home sat at her kitchen table writing a letter and seeing flashbacks of her and her husband together before he went off to war.  The flashbacks will be them saying goodbye to each other at the railway station as he gets onto the train.
We would then film the husband writing letters to his wife whilst he is on the train. It's going to be about how much he misses her already and how scared he is. 
We will then film him in a forest area writing another letter to his wife saying how he is really afraid and is scared of everything and he's off to fight again on the front line. It will then cut to the wife receiving a deceased note.

https://www.museumwales.ac.uk/2239/

http://www.breconmountainrailway.co.uk/

The image above is of Brecon Railway. We where thinking of filming there with the family to show them saying goodbye to the husband who is off to war. This will give the emotional feeling and draw peoples attention in as it is a young boy who is leaving his family and fight on the front line. Also this is a steam train railway so this would work as they didn't have the modern trains that we have today and they would of been a steam train similar to what is at Brecon.

This is an image of St Fagans. We thought about thinking here to show the family life at home. The working mother who cleans the house while her family are at war fighting. We would also film the mother writing her letter to her son who would be at war.

St Fagans have this row of houses show in the image below. each house goes up era by era showing what they where like back then. Another reason for us wanting to film here was because it would give us the chance to set the scene. Be able to film in an 'original' house of what they would look lie back then rather than filming in a house of today. It wouldn't give the same effect and feel as it would if we filmed in todays house.

Another location we would film at would be my house. We would use the forest area that I have in my garden. This is where we would film the husband writing his letter about how nervous and lonely he feels without his wife being there and saying how worried he is going to die and wont see his ver much loved wife again.

Final Idea

After thinking about the idea I didn't think it was appropriate for the target audience as I felt they wouldn't feel emotionally connected to it so I though about it. I came up with the idea to change it from wife and husband to mother and son. This way the so would be of a similar age to the target audience. 

By changing the idea to mother and son I believe the target audience will be able to connect to it more as the son would be roughly the same age. They will be thinking about if that was them and how he must of felt being so young. 

The idea is going to be that you see the mother and son writing letters to each other keeping them up to date on whats going on at home or at war. At the end you will see the mum receive the note to say that unfotunetly hes been killed in action. You also get to see her memories of him from when she said goodbye to him as he headed off to war.

Job Roles

Heulwen (Me) - Assistant Producer (PA)
David Griffiths - DoP/Cameraman
Scarlett Clarke - Producer
Alycia Pritchard - Director and DoP




Assistant Producer - This job role is also known as a 'PA'.  They are a member of the production team/crew and are responsible fro various aspects of the production.
DoP - This job role has the responsibilities of making sure the lighting and visual effect on set is correct as well as working with the camera.
 Producer - The producer oversees everything within the project from start to finish. They work closely with the director(s) and other production crew on shoot.
Director - The director has control over everything. They have the job of choosing cast and crew members, production design, the script and the creative aspects.