tech board

In terms of good response from our audience, there was praise for the ambition of the film, the time spent visiting various locations has been worth it, as the variety of locations that added breadth to the story was a plus connoted by audience suggestions of ‘ambition’. We recognise that this ambition may have been, to an extent, somewhat over the top when thinking about the specification for a five minute film, but once we had set our minds on the idea of a parallel storyline narrative set in several different places, we wanted to tell it without heavily compramising in terms of the variety of locations and screentime. Indeed, there was some comendation of the parallel storyline structure, which we feel helps to draw in and intrigue the viewer into wanting to see what happens to both characters, and how their lives are related. There was also praise for the acting talents of our cast, especially Stevie as Amy; as the producers of the film, we relied heavily on the actors to carry off a film with genuine emotional content, and as such we thought carefully about casting, to the extent of screentesting Matt Torr before casting him. However, the audience feedback seemed to indicate that all our actors had done well, which suggests that the story held integrity despite the limited production values.

In conclusion, our audience feedback has been, on the whole, positive. Problems were pointed out and acknowledged, with some attempt to correct them in the case of audio issues, but positive comments were made about several elements, and as such we are happy that we have successfully catered for our target demographic.

Directors Commentary

Here is a transcript of our directors commentary, detailing the inter-relation between our film and its assisting media, the radio advert and poster.

1. This first shot is from ‘Shaun of the Dead’ where Shaun’s girlfriend Liz is fed up of always meeting at the same pub and wants more time with just the two of them. The character Shaun has a dead end job where no one takes him seriously and is now willing to change his life around which fits in with our character David from ‘Chances’.

2. This is a shot of the character Russel from ‘Sliding Doors’. On early drafts of the script the character Neil from ‘Chances’ was based on Russel because of the conversations in the pub relationship issues. Even now with Gwen you can still see some similarities however Gwen is a more sympathetic and understanding character.

3. This is a still from the end of the movie ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. The part of the film was building up when Charles was looking for Carrie and then it finished with them kissing so it was building up for more aniticipation which is what we wanted for ‘Chances’. We wanted the whole film to build up to this moment at the end to build up the aniticipation from when David found Amy.

4. This is from the film ‘Gangs of New York’. It’s the character Jenny who tries to implore Amsterdam to escape to San Francisco together and after deciding not to go looks for Amsterdam just like when David looks for Amy.

5. This is from ‘Gavin and Stacey’ the song ‘Run’ by Stephen Fretwell is played during the title sequence and is the sort of sad slow guitar playing we would like in ‘Chances’

6. This shot is also from Gavin and Stacey and is the character Nessa. She looks at things the way they are and so called off the wedding because she did love or got on better with someone else. The character Gwen is roughly based upon Nessa to look at the reality of the situation.

7. This is a publicity still from the sitcom ‘Peep Show’. This show uses only POV shots which had shown how effective and useful it can be which influenced us to use a few POV shots in scene 11 when David is being fired.

8. This is a shot from the film ‘Love Actually’ where again there was a romantic climax which was built up which we wanted to use for ‘Chances’.

9. This is a screenshot from ‘Sliding Doors’ where the idea of two parallel storylines crossing eachother influenced us from the beginning which then later gave us the idea of ‘Chances’. Where we used the idea of parallel lives but with two different people who love eachother, that way we can still compare the two lives.

Below is the corresponding shot board with stills from our film, numbered to mirror the descriptions above.

Shot 1: David apologises for his wrongdoings after years away.

Shot 2: David and Gwen discuss his mistakes and what to do now.

Shot 3: David bites the bullet and calls Amy on the way to find her.

Shot 4: David sets out to find her again, boarding a train that will take him back to his past.

Shot 5: The opening shot of the film, as David’s alarm clock gives him an unwelcome awakening.

Shot 6: Gwen demonstrates some common sense.

Shot 7: David gets an unwelcome surprise in the shape of involuntary redundancy.

Shot 8: Amy makes her decision.

Shot 9: …and David lets her go.

So here is our poster.

We have decided to combine both of our radio adverts together so it starts and finishes with the Romeo and Juliet radio advert and the middle is the normal standard one. We would have the radio advert broadcast on many of the radio stations aimed for young adults such as Galaxy or Heart radio as they are our target demographic.

Here is our radio advert script.

radio add combined

A selection of scenes that didn’t make the final cut…

Above: Tidby talking about what motivated him to write ‘Chances’, problems and choice of location and actor availability.

Above: Jake talks about War Hero which was the other idea for our media project. problems and about the characters in ‘Chances’.

Above: It’s me talking about the last day of filming, technical difficulties and the experiences.

Above: Matt Torr talks about the filming experience and what it was like being an actor.

We did encounter quite a big problem though with the mic as even when the mic was far away from the camera it still came up with the horrible feedback noise which dominates the sound so we couldn’t use the mic. Which was unfortunate as the last scene which we filmed on the same day was the most scripted scene. We did try it with the mic for a few times but it just didn’t work out we had to use the in-camera mic from the camera.

Once we did the flashback scenes we took a few pictures of the flashback and one which could be used for a poster. Fran and David then left and we waited for Stevie to finish her work around lunch time so that we could film the last film. While we were waiting Matt Torr took his little brother back and Jake took his little sister back and then had lunch at his. Meanwhile, me and Tidby stayed on location with the media equipment. Then Matt Torr and Jake came back and we filmed interviews of us talking about the experience, problems, influences and how it’s all been.

Later,  Stevie came and we were ready to film the last scene. The filming did go well except from the mic which I have mentioned before. I feel the acting was very good we wanted it to be very emotional at the end and the actors made it very convincing. Matt Torr actually said while he was acting a tear went down along his face so I think they did a very good job for the last scene and was impressed. Overall, it’s good to know that we have finished our filming and I can’t wait to see what it looks like all put together.

After we finished we took a few more pictures  of the grown up David and Amy standing either side of the tree which we will use for the poster and a few other pictures of the location.

Above: Matt Torr and his little brother David who play David and younger David standing side by side at Linford Bottom.

 Above: Fran (who plays young Amy) and David (who plays David) standing both sides of the tree facing away from each other split by the tree which is an idea for one of our posters.

Above: The very last scene being filmed.

Above: Stevie (who plays Amy) and Matt Torr (who plays David) standing both sides of the tree grown up which is another idea for one of our posters.