A Lightning Before Death: The Final Cut

Dear examiner,

Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog, where you will be able to follow my progress from the start of the Advanced Portfolio right through to my final production. Below is said production; I hope you enjoy it. 

Ancillary Text: Radio Advert

Ancillary Text: Film Review

This ancillary text was great fun to make. I tried to emulate the style and layout of real magazines such as Empire, with the main article complimented by side features and adverts to upcoming articles and reviews. I wanted to make the article seem like it had been written by a review so although I did praise it very highly I did also write criticism of the film. The phrase 'Lightning does strike twice', is both a pun on the name of the film (a common convention used in headline writing) and a reference to the fact that this is my second Media Studies production. I enjoyed creating the back story for me and my group, and the graphic design element of this task was something I thoroughly enjoyed. This task also allowed me to express how pleased I am with the performances of the actors we used. Unfortunately the quality of the pictures has lowered when the file was uploaded to Scribd, however this is unavoidable.

A Lightning Before Death Review by Xav

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

This evaluation question has been answered in the form of a radio interview, as one of our ancillary texts was a radio trailer we thought this would be appropriate.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

A2 Media Studies Evaluation Question 4

Ancillary Text Planning

I have been planning the ancillary text for my Advanced Portfolio. It will be short, as are most radio adverts, and will get to the point. I have written a script which will be spoken by our main character:

Have you ever heard the story of Jack and the Beanstalk? Well, have you? It's a pretty simple question! Good. Now I know I have, but I don’t like it very much, I have my own version that I think I like better. 

A Lightning Before Death: The new film by Joel Pickard, Xav Sinden and Joe Sandford. 

In cinemas 1st June.

Background: Atmospheric music as in car scene. 

We will use the most memorable line from the film for this as it will intrigue the listeners to find out more about the film. It is also good to start with a question as this will grab people's attention and make them listen on. 

Post-Release Audience Feedback

Now that we have finished our film and ancillary texts, we created a questionnaire that we have asked people to fill in. This exercise has given us invaluable information that we will be able to discuss in our evaluation, and has given us evidence to support that our main product has been effective in developing and subverting aspects of the genre conventions of a western film.

We asked 10 people to fill in this questionnaire, and the overwhelming response was that the ancillary texts were effective in supporting our main production, and that the soundtrack complemented the on-screen action. 

A full in-depth analysis of our audience feedback will be included in Evaluation Question 3.

Research into Genre Theory

I have been doing research into genre theory to support our evaluation of our Advanced Portfolio, and to include in section B of the exam where we have to discuss our productions.
In particular, I have looked at theorist Steve Neale.

"Genres are instances of repetition and difference"

"Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre"

Steve Neale's theory is that a film and its genre are defined by to what extent it conforms to a genre’s conventions and stereotypes, and to what extent it subverts the genre's stereotypes and conventions.

The first point means that a film needs to conform to conventions to some degree for it to fit in the bracket as a film of this genre. The second point is that the film must also subvert these conventions enough that it is not a copy of an existing film and that it is unique and original.

At first i thought that this was a contradiction, however I realised that this relates to our Advanced Portfolio production as we conformed to the genre conventions of a western style film through our use of colour grading, the scene with the stand-off at the end and the antagonist. However, we also were forced to subvert the conventions as we were filming in England and we did not use cowboy-type characters in the film. We subverted the conventions through having a female as the most dominant and fearless protagonist, and through our use of British dialogue rather than traditional Western American dialect. 

Filming Diary: Last Day

Today can only be described as a disaster. We travelled an hour to reach Verney Junction, however on arrival we discovered that all the pictures and maps we could find of it before hand were in fact out of date: the track had been lifted and high fences erected around the track bed. This is very unfortunate as this scene was going to be the main scene for the whole film, and we had planned it around being on a railway line.
We had no choice but to drive back, and film the scene in the same location that Joe filmed his AS project 'Dilation'. This location has a good abandoned feel to it that is suitable for our project, however it is disappointing not to be able to film on the railway line after the high amount of research done.

Filming Day 3

We have completed our third day of filming. Today we filmed the monologue scene within the car. Filming is coming along on schedule nicely and we are expecting to be finished at the end of the next couple of filming days. Below is a short video outlining what we will do next and what we have filmed today.

Behind the Scenes

Here is the first 'Behind the Scenes' video of our filming progress. The result of this days filming can be seen below this video.

These videos contain some swearing, as part of the dialogue.

Now watch The First Edit

In this production, we are trying to stay well clear of the typical 'school project' film. Therefore, we decided very early on during the planning stage that we would not use a tripod at any stage of the production and that, where appropriate, we would have the shots last a long time, especially when there is dialogue. We did not want to use a tripod in our production as we feel stationary shots, whilst ideal for photography, lower the overall quality of a film and does not show off much technical ability. This can be seen in my AS production, where there were many shots filmed on a tripod. This film definitely has a 'school project' feel to it, and although the shots were not the only factor that contributed to this, we have learnt from this and want to create a production that can be considered a film in it's own right.

We wanted to use long takes in the dialogue, but again to avoid the school project trap we had to look at how professional films use these effectively and we found that although the shot lasted a long time, there was also a lot of movement. One notable example of this is in the Quentin Tarantino film 'Pulp Fiction', where the camera follows the character Butch Coolidge, played by Bruce Willis,  through an estate. So, using the steady cam and our purpose-built slider, we set about doing this. This is especially evident in the chase scene, filmed using a rig and a steady cam, and the scene in the car where the antagonist tells his story. This was done using the slider, which we made especially for this shot.

Testing Our Slider

Below is a video of us testing the slider prior to it being used.

As you can see, it works very well and slides smoothly. I am very pleased with how it has turned out and hopefully it will help us to create more professional and interesting shots.

First Rough Edit

After our first day of filming, we now have a rough edit of the footage we have shot so far. This can be seen below:

First Edit

Bearing in mind that this is a raw edit, I am very pleased with the way that the project is progressing. We will be adding foley and atmospheric sound in due course.
We need to add reaction shots of the other characters whilst the antagonist is talking, and it is very annoying that you cannot see the top of his head due to the 16:9 aspect ratio.
These issues can both be fixed, however.

We want to add shots such as the antagonist moving the character next to him our of his way when he enters the car, and some extra dialogue between the protagonists.
We can also make the colour grading a bit warmer, as at the moment the shots are very cold and there is a lot of noise.

A behind the scenes video will be coming soon.

Making a Slider

We wanted a slider for a shot in a car. The slider will enable us to have a moving pan whilst the characters are talking.
Originally we looked at the possibility of buying a slider, however these are expensive and in order to fit the car we needed ours to be 1.5m long, so that it can rest in the open windows.

For the slider we used:

*All measurements are in millimeters unless otherwise stated.

Two blocks of 120x50x30 scrap wood.

One block of 100x50x50 nylon.

Two 1.5m lengths of tubular steel, with a diameter of 22mm.

To start with, we cut the steel to the correct length and cleaned it with emery paper.

We then used a 22mm forstner drill bit to drill two holes in each of the wooden blocks, making sure that they were 60mm apart from each other so that the tubes stayed equal distance apart throughout. The holes went through about 2/3 of the block, so that the tubes would stay in place. 

Next, we measured and cut the nylon block, where the camera would sit.

We then drilled two 25mm holes through the nylon, allowing it to slide along the steel tubes. 

We then sprayed a silicone spray on the steel to make the nylon travel smoother, and fitted the end pieces of wood at each end of the tubes. 

Here is the finished result: