Preliminary Project Evaluation

The Project Brief:


Produce a short film sequence based on a classic film (1-2 mins) using toys as actors.
The sequence must involve a character opening a door crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she exchanges dialogue.




The Scenario: 'The Godfather' scene one
Bonasera goes to the Godfather ('Don' Vito Corleone) the head of a New York 'Mafia' family, to ask him for a favour.


The Characters:


'Boobah' as The Godfather

'

'Rabbit' as Bonasera

The Set: 

Problems encountered?

When filming, the initial question was about making the character move, without having hands visible in the shot, in order to make speech seem more realistic. One answer was to use a puppet, which enabled movement to be free, however it meant that only medium shots could be taken of this character, but the positive aspects out weighed the limitations and we decided to use the Rabbit puppet. However, we still had the problem with the 'Boobah' (the blue cuddly toy) as it was rather plump and difficult to manoeuvre without and hands being shot. To overcome this issue, we decided to use string to tie around it's body, to enable it to move a little. The limitations with this were that the movement was very subtle, but this was effective as The Godfather doesn't usually make big movements, and it was enough movement to create the illusion of live speech. We could have made this even more effective if we had used clear string, rather than white string which is visible to the audience.

Other filming problems we encountered were lighting issues, as a few shots were taken in very poor lighting, some in adequate lighting, and some in very bright natural light which was ultimately the best type of light. This meant than when editing, some shots had to be brightened and contrasted in order for it to be clear. This made the quality of the shots decrease, but it meant that shots we had already taken could be used to build our story. It also meant that some of our shots had different ambiances, which created discontinuity in places.

Technical problems, made it difficult for me to place the soundtrack of The Godfather into the movie, which took away the overall atmosphere. 

What have I learnt about the Production Process?

Through this task, I have learnt about different shot types, such as High Angle shots, Low Angle shot, Reverse shot etc. and how to take these shots efficiently. I have learnt to appreciate different technical features and how hey work together to create an effective film such as the importance of consistant lighting, and the effect of background music. I have also learned the basic's of editing on 'Final Cut', and will later aim to develop my skill in the editing field.