Short Film Evaluation

BROTHERHOOD

My Idea:

The genre of my short film is Thriller/Action movie, the reason I chose this genre is because it is very
popular with the audience and in box office of other films. I also did a questionnaire analysis asking
what people like to see in the cinema and majority of the votes came back as thriller and action or a
comedy, so my team went with the one we thought we could adapt to making a short film, because
we had many more ideas for this genre. I also discovered that 87% of people between the ages of
18-29 prefer to watch an action film as this is where are target audience is focused on, so I thought
going with this genre would be the most suitable chose. I learnt this from using research from A4a
and A4b this therefore helped me figure out which was the most popular genre and what is the best
to write about and make a new movie from. Making me learn about all the convections you can use
to make a movie.
The story behind this short film is that it shows how two brothers who grew up together and are
brought up in same environment change to be completely different people. The story will show how
close and similar the brothers are when they are children, this gives the perspective to the audience
that they have such a strong bond and nothing could break them apart, they will be playing outside
in parks playing football together and laughing being happy. The film then starts to show how the
two brothers are starting to become very different in the way they dress, speak and act towards
people and each other, The first main character who is Lucas he plays the normal and well behaved
brother whereas the other main character Sam gets into a criminal businesses with bad people, he
has shown to have taken the wrong path in life. The story begins with Lucas who is the protective
brother and he is the one who went and done good things in his life but it turns out he might have to
change all that by helping his younger brother out with some bad business in which he got into. The
start of this story will show Sam and his daily routine of him getting ready for school, but while he is
doing all that you can see the bad attitude in his face while making breakfast and heading outside
the door. Sam and Lucas make there way to school but as soon as Sam sees his friends he decided to
skip and walk up to the sweet garage with them, he walk into the garage and starts taking items of
the shelf and begins to place the items into his pocket, he then runs out the store and runs as fast as
he can to the park where hopefully where he cant be found. He then starts to walk home and when
he walks through the front door he changes to his older self, walking in with a tracksuit and smoking
a cigarette, Lucas starts to get mad at Sam because they both have a very important interview
together for some new work. They then rush to the office and both have the interview, you will be
able to tell that they both walk in with very different attitudes, Lucas is very polite and charming
whereas Sam is rude and doesn’t show any interest at all you can therefore tell this by there facial
expressions. When they arrive home they start to talk about what is going on, but Sam does not like
talking about this so he decides to storm out the house and jumps into a car, which has been waiting
for him. Sam is handed a bag with drugs inside them and is told he needs to sell them all by the end
of the day, he begins to make deals with people, when Sam turns his back these two men run
towards him with black balaclava on, they then start to beat him and they steel the bag. Sam is
passed out on the ground for a long time he then manages to get up and he sees that everything is
taken from him, he gets frustrated and doesn’t know what to do so he has decided to phone his
brother and tell him the situation he is in, while he is on the phone he begins to walk up the street
and the people that gave him the bag start to pull up and beat him as they know he has lost all the
drugs which means he owes them a lot of money. Sam escapes from them and starts to run into the
forest but when he is running they pull out they pull out the gun and the trigger goes of a few times.
It then switches to the Lucas getting out the car with a gun as well, as you can see this will not end
very well and it shows that Lucas will have to finish his brother mess.
Throughout the film, I used different iconography to show the genre of my film such as props,
costumes and lighting. The use of iconography therefore helped me connect the convections of the
film to the genre of thriller and action film. The use of the props like the gun, drugs and money is
normally revolved around violence and suspense, which is what is expected in both these genres.
The final scene when they are running through the woods and a gun is pulled out gives a thrill to the
audience as they do not know what they are expecting making the film much more exciting as it
therefore gets there attention. Another scene which has made the convection of the genre is when
he is selling the drugs and some people steal and start to beat him this is known to happen in actions
when people are fighting and someone gets hurt as this is a known to happen in an action film so
incorporating this scene made the genre much more clearer to the audience. Also by using different
types of Mis-ene-scene like cinematography and editing helped me to show the genre of the film
which is thriller/action, using all these techniques make it more convectional to the genre which I
chose, as using the similar techniques to which a thriller and action film do will make it represent the
genre much more. By using shots like long shot and close up shots this will then show the
surroundings and the facial expressions on the characters face.

If I were therefore able to finish editing all of my film I would ensure that the movie flowed clearly
and that there was no scenes, which looked out of place. Due to the film being a thriller/action I
would use fast and slow paced editing in the film, this is therefore good at creating suspense and
tension it also conveys the emotions of the characters. The fast pace editing would be used in the
scenes where there is fighting as this is often between the protagonist and antagonist, this is
therefore to convey energy and sometimes anger within a scene. When editing the film I had to
figure out the title and how that would flow with the genre of the film, so making the title bold and
dark will then make it stand out much more, most common types of colours which thriller film use is
red which represents blood and black which represents death. This is to show the bland and dull
emotions that some of the characters might have. The font of the titles also give a representation of
the film, like normally thriller will have a short scene then the title would appear this is what we did
for are film, this is to introduce the characters to the audience. In the film we would of used a lot of
jump cuts, as this is a very abrupt transition as this is to help convey distortion within a character.
This is also good to show weakness within a character after an action scene as when the main
character Sam gets beaten up he calls for his brother showing a sign of stress, as he cannot complete
by himself. Another editing technique which would be used is shot reverse shot, this would be used
when the two main characters would be talking to each other, it will also have an over the shoulder
shot, also having a high or low angles shot this is to show the conversation they are having
suggesting one has more power over the other. This also can be used to show an altercation
between the two brothers. I also would be adding in music to the background of each scene when
there is no dialogue as this creates suspense in certain scenes, I will be doing this by adding the
music from you tube. Also what helped me with my editing would be the paper edit sheet this
helped me see each shot individually and how long it should be. Having this document while editing
made the process go much quicker and I also used the Mac book in my school to edit the film on.

These different techniques used were all used to create many different effects and feelings for the
audience watching the film. These will include cinematography this is a main technique as it has the
role of using many different shots in the film, it there to show the emotions in people face and also
in there body language to which they are showing on camera this is important because you want the
audience to understand. The use of close up shot in the interview scene where to show the
emotions in characters face, we did this because there where two different facial expressions one in
which is happy and the other in which is sad. By doing this audience are able to connect with the
characters of the film and they can therefore relate if they have been in that situation before. We
used editing to make an effect because the use of long scenes show something serious is going on or
something very important is about to happen to one of the characters an example of this would be
when they are having a chat in the house and Sam runs out into a car, this scene is very dramatic as
the audience are wondering who car he got into and what will he do. This scene therefore shows a
lot of emotion.

Furthermore by using long shots in my film, it shows the tension building up in certain scenes and
will make the audience curious for what might happen next, this mostly happens when the cars are
pulling up on the side of the road, this is when the scene is at its most exciting stage. As the shot can
mean something is building and that there will be some action or scenario, which is about to take
place. This therefore makes the audience more intrigued in the film but also frustrated because they
want to know what happens, but this is obvious due to the loud sound effects and music that there
will be some sort of reveal on what might happen.

Pre-Production:

In my pre-production, I used many techniques to help me see what my film will look like before we
started to film, this therefore helps us plan in a much more efficient way. As these are the most
important stages in which you have to plan a film the first is the idea development then storyboard,
location recce, risk assessment, equipment list and production schedule.
I also took inspiration from A.1 and A.3 which I work I did in the past. A.1 is about major, mini major
and small-scale films this helped me figure out what budgets should be and what you might spend
your money on. I used these in my own film by taking advice on the best camera angles they use and
also what cameras is the best quality, it also helped me figure out the timings he film should be
finished and how long the production schedule should be. Also it taught me how to save money
because filming in a location which is based around you is much cheaper and will be better for your
budget, an example of this would be most movies, film in universal studios which is the home for
movies so it would cost less to film on set, so are team decided we should film at school and on free
land. I also learnt from A.3 that a organisation from UKCCS which is a copyright service where you
can check if certain music has been copyrighted and therefore the video wont be taken down or
claimed by someone else, as this could hold back production.

To figure out my idea for the movie I had to think of

around three main ideas that I wanted to do, then I
would develop each of them into more detail, I made
sure that each of the ideas where a different genre
this therefore meant I have more options to chose
from. I found from research that most teens prefer to
watch either an action or a thriller film this is because
there is a lot of suspense and tension in both genres,
this is due to the long build-ups that the film includes.
So from this information we decided to make the film
‘brotherhood’, it’s a thriller and an action film. I
therefore developed this by expanding on the most
important features for making a film the first is
lighting, location, narrative/performance, iconography, fonts and genre. I would make around three
fonts, which I thought would be suitable for this genre, I would then decide the idea of the story
while doing this making the characters names up. I am also thinking about the lighting for the film, as
most Thriller are normally low lighting they are mostly set in the night as well. All this information I
collected has help me develop my idea much more clearly. It has also helped me decide what props
are best suited for a thriller and action film and also how might the lighting affect the audience and
all the different sounds will affect make it more suspenseful. How I came up with the idea of using
this mind map is that I got ideas from A.1 which discuses the location, lighting, equipment and
casting, as these are important to making a film and are the fundamentals to starting it these are the
main factors you want to be thinking of first, before you start to plan anything else.

Another important one for pre-production would be

location recce, this is because I needed to find the write
location for filming, I will also have to plan who I have to
get permission from if I wanted to film there if its in a
private place, whereas if its in a public area I can
therefore film without there being any trouble. Places I
would need to get permission for filming would be in the
school so I therefore would have to book a meeting with
the teachers to confirm I can film in there offices and
around the grounds of the school as they need to protect
the students and also filming in a house from one of the
people in the group, I would need to ask there parents. I
then used the location recce to see if the location fitted
with my genre and what might be the best place to film in
that area. So I needed to think what might I need to do to
make the film seem more like the genre. I also had to
include the travel and how might people get there. Most important would be the crew and whereas
most of us can drive we would all be going in the cars to all the locations we had to film in, some of
them would be in walking distance to are school. This helped me as I could film regularly as all the
people in the cast where people I went to school with, this meant if I needed to reshoot any parts it
would not delay the production. The locations where helpful as they was very close to people and so
we could make a group chat to communicate with people so we can set up a time to start filming
this will keep production on schedule.

I started to create a five page storyboard that

consisted of 25 different shots, this is important
because I can see how my film might look like and
what might happen in each shot, this is important
as I can see how each shot will fit together and
will show how smoothly the film will run. By using
a storyboard it helped me to create an image in
my head on how the production of the film will
look. In my storyboard I drew out each shot and
what might the scene look like I then wrote out a
paragraph explaining the scene briefly, I explained
what happened then said what shots were used
and the different camera angles used. After
making this storyboard I then developed it,
making it an animated storyboard which is using an app where I can visually see what is happening in
each shot, it makes it look more realistic and therefore when filming it will be much more easy to
shoot each scene. I therefore developed it even further by writing each description out into much
more detail this then makes it more easy to read as I type it up on computer instead of writing it on
a piece of paper where it wont be as clear for people to read. This all helped me see the genre of the
film, and also the camera shots I will use and all the types of sound that will be added in. That is
similar to the genre thriller/action. When are group went out to film we decided to bring the
storyboard with us this is to help the director know what each scene should look like, I also printed
out many versions of the storyboard and gave them out to all the cast and crew, this is to make sure
everyone new which scene people are at. I also sent people the animated storyboard on the phones
or computers so they could see it in a digital version and would be much clearer for people to see.
Handing out the storyboard to the cast and crew can be very helpful, as people will therefore know
what scenes they are filming and who will be in them.

There are many risks when trying to film, so making a

risk assessment is necessary. In this I found out that
all the possible hazards of which could happen on set,
such as lose wiring on the floor, which could be a
hazard as they could fall, and trip over them and hurt
themselves which could result in delay of production.
After I explain what could happen I then I marked out
how likely the event is going to take place and then
also how to prevent the hazard from happening. The
reason why we did this is because the cast and crew
could be safe. All the risk assessment which took
place where successful and they then helped people
know what to look out for. If there was an accident
that means production will be behind and the clients
waiting for the film to be done may be impatient and
get frustrated. This benefitted my production as it
went on schedule and everything was filmed on time
and nothing had to be reshot. Some risk which we
identified when we was on set was if It rain then the equipment could get wet to avoid this I would
get a waterproof protective layer which covers all the wires so people don’t get electrocuted. I will
also inform people about the wires and the safety procedures. The waterproof equipment was all
purchased on Amazon as I could get next delivery on many of my orders, which I could of, made.

To film a short film, you will need lots of different

equipment; this will include lighting stands and
cameras, which is the most important to filming a
movie. Making an equipment list will make the
process much more sufficient as you will be much
more organised and prepared for the day so that
there is no step backs. Everything shown on the list
will be in my budget so if there are products that we
can borrow for free then that will be more suitable to
our budget. Making this equipment list for my film
was very successful because the person in charge of
handling the equipment list will no what to give to
each actor when on set and at a pacific time, also it
showed me how much things cost so that if I went
over budget I could try and find an item which was
cheaper. Most of the equipment was bought from
home from all the different group members, there
was only a few items where I had to buy the products they was mostly brought of amazon. This
helped me in my pre-production process as I could see the equipment I needed clearly, and other
equipment that I needed, such as ski mask and fake money. Most of this equipment was purchased
of amazon like the ski mask and the fake money as it was cheap and easy assessable.
Every film needs a production schedule; it will let the
client know when the film is being produced and
when it will be finished. Also will tell them when they
can see an edited copy of the film and how the
process of the film is getting along. It also helps me, as
I will know when I have to get all my due dates in by
and when the film should be finished to send of to my
client. Then once they have seen it then can be sent
back to see if any changes need to be made. Once this
is all done then I can send it of to all the target
audience members to see what they think about the
movie. This therefore means that the film can
become more successful as it has been released longer and more people can see it. This was
successful in my pre-production because I kept to my schedule all the time meaning I didn’t full
behind on production. This means that the production stage was all done on time and that it was all
done on the agreed dates. Due to the pandemic event which is happening right now it therefore
delayed the production schedule which then would cost us more money because the renting of
equipment. We also had to move around more for location as a lot of places where shut of, meaning
we had to drive further away, so then we would use up more petrol costing the people who drive
much more money.

When filming this short film, I had to complete an interview

analysis, which is when I asked around 5 people different
questions about the film and the genre thriller/action. The
reasons for doing this interview is so that we can get an
understanding on what are target audience is most likely to enjoy,
this therefore makes the film more successful as we can take
advice from what the people said and use that in are film to make
it become even better. Also the interview analysis is good as well
due to us filming people responses to the questions therefore we
can look back and get the exact meaning of what they said. We
did this is picking five different peopling who like all genres as this
makes the interview diverse, we did this by one person in the
group asking the questions and then as a group we all thought
them through to make them the best ones we can. This was a very
easy process and went very quick it did not hold up any delay.

In the pre=production we had to complete certain documents this is to

help us develop are film and its ideas, 8 shot sequence is when we go
out and find a location and see if we can find 8 good shots which we
would think suits the film. This therefore will make the film successful as
we can go into depth of what different shots mean and look like,
therefore this will help us make a good choice on what suits are genre
best. For example close up are used in thriller films a lot to show
emotions in the character face another one would be a long shot this is
so that you cant see the persons face just the outline of there body
making it seem more suspicious and tense.

Before I started my pre-production I also did a preliminary task, which is where I made a short film
and edited it. This therefore means that I have practise and more experience filming. This made my
current film much more successful as I new how to use a camera and what the best angles would be
for a thriller film due to that being the genre around my
preliminary film. I also had experience from editing as I used
the document Adobe preimier pro, which is an easy
document to use to edit films for beginners as you had the
basic necessities like adding sound and music and cutting
and adding clips to your film. By doing this will give my new
film the highest success rate possible. This therefore helped
me to create a film using a wide range of shots, which then
creates tension.

In my pre-production I created a paper edit sheet, which

allowed me to keep track of all my edits I would make while
editing the film. This therefore makes the editing more
organised as you have it step by step laid out for you. You could
also make an individual sequence, which allows you to see a
bigger picture of your film. The paper edit sheet allows you to
add in sound, which you think is suitable for that certain scene,
also by adding in a film description of what the scene might look
like and also what type of shot it will be.

All of these pre-production techniques benefitted my production of the film greatly, as it helped me
plan my film out so no mistakes were made, it made me keep to a time scale on when certain
documents had to be completed by and it also made sure that I had all the right equipment with me
for certain scenes. Furthermore having the film drawn out on my storyboard and animated one as
well makes the filming process much more easy to be completed. As the shots are already done for
me I just have to replicate that in real life. This therefore means the pre-production helped my film
process to be as successful as it is.

Production:

The production of the film went very well, certain things which went particular well was the timing
of the film every deadline was on time this was easy to keep track of because the production
schedule in which I made. Even though we had changed the story line of the film we still caught up
with the deadlines. The cast and crew were always on time and they had a lot of input in the film on
making it and also being actors in it. They also helped in making the film run on time as well. This is
the second film I have made, from having practise of making one before it gave me more confidence
to create a bigger production, due to having experience it made this film I just made much more of a
success.

New skills that I have learnt from making this film would mainly be how to pre produce a film and
what you need to do to make sure that everything runs on time. I have also learnt how to film using
a camera and what are the best angles that you can get and also ways to make it run smoothly
without the content being unstable. I have also learnt how to edit a film and how to use all sound
effects and how to add them in, I have been able to make the film run smoothly as well. I have also
learned that filming scenes multiple times will make it much easier to pick a perfect shot, as you will
have many to chose from and wont have to film shots again. All of this therefore helped the
creativity of my film develop, as I was able to change shots and edit them to run smooth and also
being able to film in the best quality as possible.

The most challenging part of making this film would be the pre-production phase this is due to
getting all the documents together for example the storyboard, location recce and production
schedule. These all took a lot of time to prepare as they had to be in a lot of detail and had to be all
up to date with your film idea. Also another challenging part would be the production of the film like
sorting the lighting out at the right time, making sure it wasn’t to dark that we could not see the
actors, as this film is set mostly when its about to get dark so it therefore fits in with the genre. But
as it wasn’t getting dark till very late and are team lived very fair apart it was hard to get everyone
together. Once everyone was together it made it much easier to film and it ran smooth.

Throughout the entire film it showed the genre of thriller/action by using different convections that
link to the genre, this is due to the use of mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography and sound, these
are the main convections which need to be used to meet the genre you are trying to achieve. The
film also uses costumes, props and also editing techniques. All these techniques will help make the
genre of the film, an example of using these would be the gun and fake money which was used these
are associated with crime which is normally an action film. Another one would be the use of
costumes such as tracksuits and sky mask, which represent trouble and danger. Also using the dark
lighting, this is to make the atmosphere tense and makes the audience feel on edge and scared. This
therefore helps the film become more suspenseful throughout and will then meet the genre of the
movie.

If I could change any parts of my film they would be, just making the film an action film and not
making it a horror as well, having two genres sometimes makes it very confusing and hard to fit all
together. It sometimes made the genre not clear, as I would have to include both types of genre so
that it fitted the convection. I also changed the storyline of the film as we thought of a much better
idea that would flow better with the story we had in mind to do. I also wish I changed the camera
angle in certain shots so that they fitted more with the genre as sometimes the lighting was not as
good as it could be. I also wish I could build the suspense of the film much more quickly using better
sound effects.

The production process of the film went very smooth and there were no delays. The pre-production
came in much use due to it helping me plan the film and helped me see how the film would turn out
and what the scenes would look like. Making storyboard help the team and I visualise what the end
production of the film would be. The editing of the film was very easy due to all the team taking part
and editing it this therefore made the editing process become much quicker meaning we could go
back and improve the film. The pre-production helped me keep timings that my client agreed to for
the film to be finished. This worked, as they were able to check up on the film when they wanted to.

The next steps after filming would be to transfer all the footage to a computer and this is where I
would start to edit my film-using premier pro. The editing phase is the most important as this is
where I would take all the shots and put them together to make the whole film. But it was very
difficult due to me not having much practise so I would ask my teacher for help then I would look up
videos about how to edit films. I used multiple techniques like different effects including fading, cuts,
and sound effects adding in, including music in which I would get from you tube. The main effect
that I used would be making the scene look danger and much more like a thriller film as the lighting
sometimes would be to light so I would therefore have to make it darker. I faded the title of the film
at the start by using the fade tool, this is where the title comes in at the start then fades away.

Analysis of production
The production did not have that many challenges this is due to us all being productive and
organised so that we all met on the agreed times. A challenging part of production would be the
editing this is due to me not having much practise so I found it hard at first to know all the tools to
use and what would be the best ones to make the film run smoothly. Another challenging part
would be the filming equipment this is very hard to use as I would have to get the right lighting and
also would have to make sure no ones head is cut of while filming as this makes the quality of the
film bad and marks would get taken away. Also the phone would need to charged everyday so that
nothing would run out of battery as the phone would be needed for a long period of time. Apart
from these minor challenges the film went very well. Also the reason my group decided to change
the storyline of the film is because we thought that this other story idea would be much easier to
film, as it was much less complicated. The film also would take much longer to film and we didn’t
have that much time as we still had to do a lot of online work like editing and finalising the film.

The processes which went well where the storyboard as this made my filming much more easy it
also helped by making an animated storyboard as this made the pictures much more clearer to read
as they was done online. Another process which helped me film quickly is the script this is where it
had all of words for the cast members as this is what they will be saying when they are on set, this
made the production of the film quicker due to the cast knowing all the words before they came to
set so there wouldn’t be any delay in people leaning there lines. Another process which went well is
the filming and the camera work this was all filmed on a high tech camera which captured the best
quality videos, making the quality of the film high standard for my client it will also make the film
much more successful with the audience.

The most successful element of my short film is the shots in which we was able to create from using
close ups, long shots and high angle shots. All these scenes were a great success as they were
smooth and had good camera quality. The scene where this was successful was when there was a
montage of Sam dealing drugs to many different people, the scene was speeded up and also showed
a 360 of the situation, which was going on, there was many different sound effects to add more of
suspense. This therefore brings an effect on the audience are wondering what might happen next
and how might this situation turn out. Another successful element of this short film is the production
schedule we kept to this meant are film was sent of early so we have extra time to change anything
in case there are any errors which could be improved. Also what helped my film be successful is
having some practise with short films and knowing what goes into making one helped me, as I was
able to analyse A.4 and B which are both about watching short films from different genres, this
helped me make my short film.

If I were to do a short film again then I would defiantly keep to one genre this would therefore make
the film much more easier to film, this therefore means I could add many more intense and scary
moments if I kept to a action film, by doing this the audience would feel very much on edge
throughout the whole film. This then would be more affective to the audience as they would care for
the characters much more and start to feel more emotion for them as they could relate to their
situation. This is why this film is directed at the target audience of teenagers. Also I would try and
use better shots if I did a film again making them more intense and unique, as this can make the film
much better. It would also make the film build suspense, making the audience feel much more on
edge due to the events in the film. This therefore means the audience is more likely to tell people
about it as they would have enjoyed it due to it being like other actions films, ones which I take most
advice from would be den of thieves and blue story these are both heavily crime films. By doing this
it will make the film much more affective and then will get a larger audience.
Overall the pre-production and production for this film where very important to making a successful
film that would do well with the target audience that would represent are film the most.