Cast

In the film 'Gas Man' I will need four different actors, along with people to help with the lighting, camera and green screening. For all of this I ended up using 5 people, including myself. I got 3 other actors to play parts in my film, and myself doing the fourth character which has very minimal screen time. I also got one other person to then help me with the lighting and sound.

Henry: Henry is a fellow film enthusiast and is making his own films all of the time, because of this I decided he would be very experienced and would add a lot to the cast. Henry was mainly the soundman, however he also helped with directing, and filming. Henry made the task of filming much easier and took a big weight off of my shoulders, so if I were to film again in the future I would definitely try to get another person like this to help me out.

Amanda: Amanda is currently studying drama at sixth form and is a young up and coming actor. I chose for her to play the part of the second burglar. The second burglar in the film is very quiet and unconfident in everything that they are doing, because of this I chose a female to play the role, because I decided it would play on the stereotype that most have of girls. She was a very good choice to make and I think that she played the part well.

Rory: Rory is also a student at sixth form who has acted in a few short films of recent, after seeing his acting skills I decided he would be perfect for the role of the ARB unit. He has played lots of roles similar to this where he is evil and I believe he fulfilled this very well. He was very easy to work with and it was a pleasure to do so.

Ed: Ed is currently working in a theatre production as well as studying Drama at sixth form, this makes him a very experienced actor for his age. Because of his experience I chose to give him the main role in the film, burglar one. This burglar is the one which is very confident and wont give up no matter what, very often in the film he is the one leading the way. Ed played this role superbly in my opinion and you will hopefully see that in the finished production.

Location!

The location for my film is very important, I want to give off the impression we are in the year 2050, and that we are in a nice area. The robbers are supposed to be breaking into a more upper class house, in order to steal the best things they can. So firstly I had to choose where to film, this ended up being very simple as I actually used my own house, its in a quiet neighbour hood so I was hoping it would give off the impression I was hoping for. In the picture below you can see it in the film at night time, I tried to make sure nothing was in the shot which gave away the year, for example by cropping out cars.

 

 

The second location I had to choose was where the ARB unit was going to appear, to follow the script I chose to do this just inside of the door, in the hall way. From the hallway you can see various different ways to rooms which the robbers could go to, hopefully giving off the impression that it is a fairly big house. In the photo below you can see Rory (the ARB unit) in the film, standing in this location.

 

A third location I had to decide on is where I wanted the Portrait of the master to be, and also where I wanted the robbers to stand while they were stealing items. I came to the conclusion that I would use my dining room, it has a fairly big open space with a table in the middle. I placed the portrait in the far corner but so everyone could easily see it.

 

 

The fourth and penultimate location needed was the room which the master was going to be seen dead, and where the mayhem would start. I needed this room to be airy so I could make the gas start coming in via after effects and to also get the ARB unit in there. I decided to make this room near the stairs also so the robbers could run down with ease, which also in turn made it easier to film. In this photo you can see the master laying in his bed, after he suffocated to death.

 

The final location needed was the one in which the robbers would end up dying, I decided on doing this back at the door in which they came in. this would mean the viewers would recognise this area, and also it would show them trying to escape from the gas. In this photo you can see the robbers trying to escape the house after the ARB has malfunctioned yet again.

These were the five different locations I chose in which to do the film, I think the impression they give as a whole is close to the one of upper class I was looking for. If I could have I would have chosen to film some where which looked a but more futuristic as my house is very dated as it is. But for my first short film I think the locations were ok.

Making Rory a hologram

For my film ARB I needed a hologram butler, I've never done anything like this before so everything was new to me. To do this I have used adobe after effects for the editing, along with a green screen and lighting which was used for the filming of him. Below you can see how he has turned out.

 

 

I done this by firstly keying out Rory, leaving the shot with just him. After I then added a background of where I wanted him to be standing. However he still didn't look like a hologram, so I decided to mask over him and give him a blue shading. I then changed the opacity to 85% so the background can be seen through him. Finally I added an effect called 'noise' which adds a slight distortion to the image in order to try and achieve the best hologram look possible. On the film I have also added sound effects when he appears and disappears and also a slight humming noise while he is about, which will all hopefully add to the effect.

 

Overall I would say he hasn't turned out too badly, there are a few things which id like to improve if I had more time to learn how to use After effects, such as the masking and how he appears, but for my first attempt I am happy with it.

 

 



 

 





Analysis of an A2 media short films

Many students have made their own short films and put them on youtube, so I'm going to take advantage of this and check out a few of them, so I can see what I like and don't like. This way I know what ill want to put in my film, and hopefully it will therefore improve it.

Hide and Seek

The first film I watched was called 'Hide and Seek'. This film is based around a little girl playing hide and seek. When she goes to hide she heads over to a basket in a garden, once she hides and proceeds to get out she finds she has gone back in time to the world war era. We also see a little boy by the name of Stanley Smith who plays with her. Eventually she gets back in the basket and she is back to normality. I really like lots of aspects of the film, the idea of different times to just the present and also the way in which the little girl travelled around. However there are some flaws with it as well, the fact the director has chosen to use children as actors has meant the quality of acting isn't all that good. It isn't bad by all means however it does let the film down a little bit, as some times you can see they are struggling for words. Apart from this though I do think its a really good film.

The Desk

A second film which I watched on Youtube was called 'The Desk' this film tells the story of a boy who is being bullied. In the film we see him sitting at his desk in an English class. one day he decides to write on his desk, and to his surprise the next day, there is a reply. This carries on for a few days until he has to move classes, and this no longer happens. the person writing to him is himself, because he's lonely and got no one to talk to. I really like this as an anti bullying campaign and as a film, I think it gives off a really good effect. There isn't too much talking which I think also adds to the impact of the message, making it more meaningful. You can take away from this many different meanings depending on how you interpret it, this is how I saw it personally. There are many people commenting believing its to do with transgender or them talking through desks in different rooms.

Aqua

The third film I decided to watch was a short film called 'Aqua', in this film it shows the death of a young girl. The whole film is based around the power of water, hence the name 'aqua'. In my opinion the film is show casing a suicide however it can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. this film had lots of underwater shots which I really liked and also the editing for this film was extremely good. From watching a film like this it has given me a few more ideas for shots for my film, and some extra editing I could put in, which altogether will hopefully give my film a better finish.