Critical Evaluation

Drama 2000word Evaluation

Feedback

Overall the feedback was quite positive. Although one obvious criticism was that the sound was out of sync in a lot of places, namely with Lola's footstep (of which the sound levels were also unrealistically loud). This is one of the problems that me Hannah and Hannah had tried to fix during one of our sessions fixing the sound, but kept having problems with the system so decided to leave it as Jacob had done.
Other than that I also appreciated that a few comments were made about our comparisons between Lola perception during the day scenes and the night scenes. As well as the internal visions of the park.
Though there were times of hiccough's I'm happy that we got the film done in time and was  pleased with the feedback from it.

The Post Production Process: 10/12/12 - 14/12/12

My Role as Art Director was pretty much over so I decided to just be around and help where needed during the editing and sound process whether that be just to help provide an opinion or to keep someone company.

Monday - 10/12/12
Today we had our tutorial for our supposed final picture edit. Hannah B had finished the majority of the edit but there was still a few newly filmed scenes that needed to be added and some effects that needed to be put on some pictures before it could be handed over to Jacob so that he could work on it.

Tuesday - 11/12/12
Today I just sat with Hannah B for a few hours to work on the final picture edit. As Jacob was getting a little antsy we gave him a rough copy to start working on the sound with as there was only a few small bits that we were going to change for the final edit. By the time we had finished working on it Jacob had left so we couldn't give it to him. But at least that was one hurdle we had crossed and all we had to think about was the sound.

Wednesday - 12/12/12
I came in and sat with Jacob as he edited the sound. After he had finished I gave what he had done a listen then wrote a list of a few added suggestions and tweaks that could be made this included maybe adding another sound scape section to the piece as the one we had that was based on the Blue Peter theme song felt out of place to me. A few few sections had the character walking but no sound of footsteps and so on and some sounds I felt just didn't much match the picture we were seeing. Of course these were just my suggestions and bits and bobs I had noticed whilst watching through the piece and I left it up to Jacob to creatively decide as the Sound Editor if he wanted to take on board any of them.
A little while later, Hannah M came and had a listen to the sound and made a few of the suggestions that I had done in terms of sound/picture fitting, but Jacob had to leave he exported what he had done and left it for us to tweak the parts that we thought didn't match.

Thursday - 13/12/12
Hannah M Hannah B and I came in to work on fitting the sound to a slightly revised picture edit. One scene had been cut and we needed to add in the title card and end credits. But as we tried to do this in Soundtrack Pro the software just kept crashing and it didn't save any of the work that we had done. We asked Ron for help and he explained it was something to do with the Picture file. The toll of editing sound/picture everyday this week was slowly getting to the three of us and one by one we left. Deciding to tackle and hopefully export the final edit on Friday.

Friday - 14/12/12
After the shambles that was Thursday we turned up with a new perspective on the sound. Hannah M worked a little more on just making a few sounds fit and I offered my opinion when needed. Hannah B and Luke later turned up and gave their opinion on a new sound scape piece that Hannah M had just worked on. After they decided that they didn't like we decided to just leave it there. Hannah M exported and burned the final edit onto a disk ready for Mondays presentation.

Production: 04/12/12

Today things were running late, our actress was original due to meet us for 6:00pm but due to a few problems she couldn't get down to us until around 9:00pm, on top of this we had to make sure we were finished in time for her to catch her last train home at 11:27pm

When she arrived we got straight to filming the Tunnel scenes. As we couldn't find any actors we had to use a few of Leon's friends who were waiting on standby.

The location worked really well as it looked gritty and disorientating.
In terms of dressing the characters, all I could do was advise them in what they already had on, i;e: Hoods up, Hands in/out of pockets, hats. In the end I think that their look was less chav and more cliché douche-bag jock which I still felt worked well. We were grateful for the guys to be in the piece as we had had a hard time finding real actors and we were eating into our editing time by this point.

From then we parted ways and went straight to Hannah's house to do the indoor shoot. This is where we filmed Lola finding a picture of a park and deciding to leave the house to find it. I thought it would look more innocent to have her cross legged on the couch as opposed to the original idea of her lying on it as I felt it looked awkward. I positioned a few books and cuddly toy around her which I felt made her look more comfortable.

Once Fiona's scenes were done we then did the establishing shots of the house/ living room. I thought it would be lovely to use the Christmas lights and decorations that Hannah Already had up in her house as it would reflect the festive feeling around town, allowing comparisons between how much smaller the decorations in her house was compared to the ones in the real world. Small=Safe and Un-intimidating and Large= Alien and Daunting. 

This left the bulk of the filming now done with only a small section to film another day which I believe Leon and Hannah M will do alone as it won't take long.

Children's Books

Based on a suggestion made by Annie in our tutorial, we decided to use a book as a visual for Lola to decided to go to the park as opposed to her seeing a park on TV. I think this works slightly better with the new night time scenes as a "child" watching TV so late at night is less believable than her reading a book before bed.
Luckily I have a library card for the local library so I went down and perused the children's book looking for something good.

Though as there seemed to be no particular system to the books I asked the librarian for help finding a book that had a swing or park in it.

The latter picture I thought would work the best as the main image that makes Lola want to go to the park,  I could just imagine her trailing her finger along the path and stopping excitedly at the picture of the swings. It also just happened the the text on the page fit perfectly with what could be going round in Lola's head

As well as having this books I thought it would be more realistic to have a few more in the background, either spread out on the floor or around her. 

I picked these books as I felt the titles foreshadowed the events to come. I then left the slightly more kiddish section and picked a few books that were at a slightly less picture based and rhyming level. I picked girly/quirky titled books which I thought would help reflect Lola's personality.

Production: 02/11/12

The group filmed on Thursday morning where they got the following shots;
Lola Waking up in the morning
Lola Finding the Park
Lola Wondering around town in the day

Today we worked on completing the car scenes which we did from various angles.
We used a T road so there would be no disturbances and Hannah B did the driving.

As our tutorial isn't until 4:00 pm it gives Hannah Time to come up with an assembly on Monday Morning, cutting it thin but still possible.

Production: 28/11/12

In terms of creative expansion it's nice that our idea keeps changing, but in terms of production it's not very fun. During our Pre Tutorial Group Meeting we decided to get rid of the other extra characters i.e.: The Sister/Carer and the Woman in the Car also it was decided to get rid of having a second stream storyline with the sister/carer realising Lola was missing and following her trail. I felt that without these little elements it would give us less to work with leaving Lola looking unloved and flat as a character especially as there is minimal dialogue.

After our tutorial on Monday we once again gained a few more ideas about how to go about filming the sequence. Due to the constant scheduling conflicts with the Actress as well as the group itself due to either work or timetable clashes we decided to move the shoot to the night.
Considering it got pretty dark by around 5:00pm that gave us a lot of time to do what we needed to without worrying about how much time we had left in terms of the light.

We filmed the following scenes with Lola;
Her wondering around the city, lost and alone.
Being amazed/frightened by various artefacts.
Trying to get help from unhelpful passers by.
Finding a dark alley and going to sleep.

The actress came dressed in the same clothing used for the Park scene we filmed the previous Friday. We did have a few other scenes in mind to film but it was freezing and we decided we could get the other scenes done during one of other shoot days.

It was a little frustrating that there was not a lot I could do in terms of Art Direction as we were filming outside, so everything is where it is. I just made sure the actress was in the right costume and kept her company during scene set ups as well as suggesting different locations to shoot and sounds that could be intensified. Hopefully when we film indoors there will be more for me to do as I had enjoyed art directing the house for our original 2 minute piece.

Art Direction In Film

A film that I just saw that I thought the Art Direction really stood out was Heathers by Michael Lehmann.


The main element that stood out is the colour swatch of the characters.
The Heathers always stick to Red Green or Yellow.

Veronica is always wearing something blue, and because it can be of any shade it is very subtle.

It would be nice to have been able to have some sort of subtle distinction within our character Lola.

Production 23/11/12

Today was our first day of filming and luckily the weather was exactly what we needed it to be.
Leon, Jacob, Hannah M and I went to a deserted park and filmed the end of our sequence.

As per the prop list I asked our actress Fiona to bring:
Scarf (Bright, Red or Multicoloured), Jumper (Same as previously worn), Bright Shoes (Soft) Woolly Gloves and Socks.
I thought it would be easier than me buying a range of outfits and having to return them or add them to my prop box as before. Luckily she came with a range and I was able to pick and choose what I thought would work best.

Pre Production

I came up with a prop list based on the characters and locations we had in mind to use in the piece. Some were still being considered as they were dependant on the actors we could find, whilst others were set in stone.


Prop List

Autism in Movies

I did a little research in to different movies about kids with Autism paying close attention to the characteristics and Costumes.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

The characters are always wearing stripes, though it fluctuates between them. It's no necessarily distintive to just the one.

Mercury Rising

I found that Simon, the nine year old Autistic boy has his own kind of confidence, though he does hide and scream I felt that was when he was looking at the real world, when he was in his own head then he was able to accomplish a vast amount of things without so much as a second thought for safety

A list of the other films I briefly looked into can be found on this list, http://uk.imdb.com/list/0sigYQ1Icp0/
What  I did realise was that the majority of them were about young boys and hardly any were to do with females, so this alters my perception slightly when I think about how I want Lola to look.

10 Minutes Or Less...

Today we went through our idea for the next part of the Drama assignment, we had a script that Hannah wrote that we then as group expanded on in terms of visual and soundscape, expectations. The ideas we were coming up with were good and the idea for the piece is interesting but at the same time it felt hollow to me, as if we were missing something from it all but I couldnt quite put my finger on what thath was.


Later we had a tutorial with Annie where we went through the script again and talked about what the ending for the piece was. In that aspect we were stumped.
I think there are some real questiosn that we need solid answers for by the time we intend to start filming on Friday.

Post Production

I didn't have a big role to play in the post production process in terms of Art Direction. I did go along and see if there was anything I could input in terms of the colour pallet but Hannah had already done the one thing I had in mind... To give the film a warm look.

Creating Lola Part Two: Production

The actress we had to play Lola was Fiona. She was very good to work with, followed directions brilliantly with no fuss and even felt confident enough to chip in an idea or two if we had a create problem to solve. In terms of Art Direction she had many piercings on her face and though we didn't intend to show the characters face I thought it was best if they were removed to be on the safe side and to avoid any kerfuffle during production. 

As I had feared the jumpers I had bought were't large enough to give our character that swallowed feeling I wanted. Luckily Fiona as per previous instruction had turned up with three for me to choose from.

  

The one on the right was a really nice colour but the material just wasn't working for me. The one in the centre was the right material but the colour felt dull. The one on the left gave the right "worn" look and though at first I didn't like the multicolouredness it eventually grew on me as I felt it gave off an array of emotions.

Once we had Fionas Piercings removed I then experimented with giving her that "Child Plays With Mothers Make-up Box" Look. Fiona helpfully supplied her own make-up, I decided that I just wanted their to be one distinctive feature.... Her eyes, we tried going for the really messy look as seen in the above photos but I then had another think, based on the research I did on child ages and abilities and decided that this was a bit over the top. In the end I toned it down by just removing the overspill to her nose and that made a helluva lot of difference. As you can also see better from the picture on the left I added pale pink blusher as I thought it gave her an air of innocence when juxtaposed with the erratic and almost attention seeking blue of the eyes.

During the production process we were in quite tight quarters but when I could, I would stand behind the cinematographer and make sure characteristics of Fiona weren't being shown. The main problem was a tatto she had on her foot that sometimes became noticeable  it was my job to make sure we were aware and did another take as soon as possible.

Producer (Luke), Cinematographer (Leon), Sound (Jacob) and Editor (Hannah B) all went on ahead to set up as me an the Director (Hannah M) met up with the actress and brought her to the location (Hannah Bs House) When we got there they had made a make shift den, but the director and I didn't feel it looked den-ny enough so we re did a few things so that it was easy to get in and out of whilst still giving the actress enough space to maneuver. It was built using the standard den materials: Bed sheets, blankets, an ironing board, a sofa and a broom plus a few wooden sticks. 

Having a main white sheet for the base of the den was necessary to create a silhouetted shot we wanted to create

I then proceeded to decorate the inside of the den with an array of stuffed characters we had all collected...

As the den was already up we decided to film these scenes first, we put the stuffed toys in a specific hight order and then took a picture of it for later when we would show Lola building the den and putting them out.

Putting Art Direction aside the days shoot went really well, it was just a shame that we had problems with our original actress the week before as it meant we weren't able to make our tutorial and get some constructive feedback about our process so far. Everyone stuck to their role and I felt we worked together well as a team. There was a minor blip when the camera for the DSLR went out but we just decided to use its charge time to take a break. Aside from that the production day went incredibly smoothly considering how long it took us to get to that stage. At the end of the day I think everyone was relieved to finally have something shot.

Creating Lola Part One: Pre Production

I went around to various charity shops and bought a range of jumpers/props that we could use for the set as well as asking the rest of the group to contribute anything they had. Finding the right type of jumper was incredibly hard. It felt like one of those times when you see the item everywhere but when you finally decide to buy it, it's out of stock. I had to improvise as nothing was giving off the right warm feeling. I finally bought A pink fleece, I pink jumper and a blue knit jumper, and thought I would just see what fit the actress best when I met her.

This is one of the tones of pinks I ended up going with

This red jumper was the brightest I found but I hated the material and it was a turtle neck which I felt might make Lola seem suffocated.

This is the second jumper I decided on, I liked the knitted material as the small holes made it seem really well warn, as if it was her favourite jumper that her mother had to persuade to change from time to time

This white just made me think of hospital sheets not innocence which is how white is usually perceived  It also felt really tough and restricting and I don't think it seems like something a child would like to play in. More like something they would wear to church on a Sunday.

I deliberated with this jumper for a while because I liked the busyness of it, but it was to thin and fitted and I felt the blue was more of a sadness blue than a calm blue.

What I really liked about this jumper was both the size of it (It was mens) and the feel. It had that sense of sitting inside by a fire as it was pouring with rain feel which is the direction I was going for in Lolas character.

  

This is the final jumper I decided to purchase as I liked the shade of pink. I thought it was very playful, I didn't really like the fleece material and it wasn't big enough but I was working with what I had.

We also had the character Lola having a special teddy, the one above I think would have perfectly fit the bill if I had found the big bright knitted jumpers I originally had in mind but after I decided to go with the pastel coloured pink and blue jumpers I decided that the big pink rabbit was the best direction. The idea for Lola was now changing in my mind, I started to see her as being quite girly, wearing plastic jewellery and stolen miss matched make up from her mothers collection.

The only down side to this process was that we did not yet have an actress so I wasn't sure if the clothes I was buying would even fit in terms of size and tone. As mentioned before, I wanted Lola to feel swallowed by her clothing, but in a warm feeling way. Like massive jumpers you wear around the house in the winter snuggled up with hot chocolate and a movie. That's the kind of happy and safe characteristic I wanted Lola to let off.
Finding jumpers was an interesting experience because all this knowledge you didn't realise you had or thought you had forgotten about the meaning behind colours just rises to the surface guiding you to help make the nest creative decision.

Character Flaws Buffed

Questions we had to consider after we had our tutorial.

1) What's the symbolism behind building a den
-As a form of sanctuary, creating something that was hers to fill with the things she holds dear or secretly wants.

2) Though she has a mental disability what characteristics will she display in order to make this clear to the audience aside from her being an adult.
-Being vary particular with the way things are laid out, having things in it's right and proper place whether this be based on colour or size. As well as this I think that she should be very slow with what she does, as if she is trying very careful not to get it wrong.

3) Lastly though she has the mentality of a child, what age are we looking at as there are vast differences between the mannerisms of children between the ages of 0-1, 2-4, 5-7, 8-10, etcetera.
- I had a little look at this article online to understand the different charcteristics between the age criterias of young children.
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/five/index.html

Based on this I would put our character at being six years old, but there are still a few five year old tendencies that may still apply to her.

Research Into Art Direction

Not knowing a lot about Art Direction I thought the best place to start would be by having a look at what films have won Academy Awards for their Art Design or as it's now classed, Best Production Design.

The consecutive winners for the past five years have been:
(2007) Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Dante Ferretti
(2008) The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: Donald Graham Burt
(2009) Avatar: Rick Carter and Robert Stormberg
(2010) Alice In Wonderland: Robert Stromberg
(2011) Hugo: Dante Ferretti

As you can see a few of the names have cropped up more than once and as I think back to these films they have been Art Director on, I can remember specific elements of clothing or location that stood out to me.

Such as Sweeny Todd's Hair and Jacket, as well as the grey scale that was present throughout
Alice's Dress, hair and pale façade in Alice in wonderland etc.

I think it is therefore important for me to pick an element of clothing perhaps for my character to really try and make stand out and become iconic to the audience.

Moodboard

Original Source....

http://www.glogster.com/sarahjenniesteph/art-direction-mood-board/g-6l7a6pq19n3dkiljamdfla0

Feedback and Food For Thought

We finally settled on an idea for our two minute character piece...

We decided to scrap sticking to a certain disability as we had originally made our character have autism, but by just playing on the rules of her having a mental disability this takes off some of the restrictions we would have had. Our character is building a den, and we watch this process through their eyes and a range of close ups that hide the fact that the character is an adult. Something that will be revealed before the ending of the piece.

During the tutorial today we had a few points that we needed to consider about our character in terms of the depth to what she was doing.
1) What's the symbolism behind building a den
2) Though she has a mental disability what characteristics will she display in order to make this clear to the audience aside from her being an adult.
3) Lastly though she has the mentality of a child, what age are we looking at as there are vast differences between the mannerisms of children between the ages of 0-1, 2-4, 5-7, 8-10, etcetera.

Art Direction

In the session we talked about the responsibilities of each person and their role. Being Art Director it was discussed that the list of my responsibilities would include.....
Storyboards
Sketches; Costume Ideas, Props
Set Design
Moodboard; Colour Texture, Pictures from magazines/movies etc
Work with the editor in terms of grading and lighting
Use the budget to buy or borrow things to dress the set and character
-Jumble Sale
-Charity Shop
-Drama departments prop collection
Mise-en-scene in character detailing

My job as an Art Director will be to start thinking about how I would style the Character as well as the filming location. This all has to fit in with the mood of the piece or at least be aesthetically valid/relevant.

Thoughts that have so far come to mind include bits and bobs taken from various films with my own personal twist on it such as...
Happy Go Lucky

Based on how Poppy's always sees the bright-side of life and her happiness despite other people perceptions namely her driving instructor.

Ramona and Beezus

Ramonas way of thinking and her good intentions, as well as the way she views life.