Entry #12

March 11

Today is screening day.

We didn't do much editing, just included the credits. 

Andy adjusted the saturation but left a tinge of color to create the film noir effect but without abusing it. Adding some color is, we find, more effective, especially with the audience we are dealing with. But that was how he achieved the effect shown in our film.

He also managed to imitate Sin City's style, which uses red as the sole color. It involves isolating the color from the rest, and therefore desaturating other colors while leaving the red there.

He managed to finish all of the editing.

For music we used Kevin Mcleod pieces. Our beginning theme is called 'Turn for the Worse". In the middle we used another song by him; a delicate piano. It worked for our film uncannily well. 

For the ending went ahead and used Christie's vocals. Medora also included a guitar introduction so that Andy's death is more dramatic. 

Our film was screen first and these were my thoughts on it:

-it wasn't like how it was on Quicktime with our computer. I thought that the one that was screened was missing some bits, and made the ending too rushed, and missed out on the final line which has Andy saying "Daisies". I was a bit disappointed with that. 

-it was 7 minutes, but felt like 2 minutes. That's a good sign.

-Music helped us greatly

-captivating visuals coincided with the dialogue greatly

-fast paced but without skipping any background information. Simple, allowed the audience to understand it.

Our film had a good reception, Ms Wong saying that ours set the bar high. I was greatly relieved that people enjoyed our film, and was well received. 

Here are my thoughts on the other films in terms of the screenplay (since it relates to my roll):

Elliot's group:

-Clever, succinct dialogue. The first person voice over was effective. The sexuality element was, I felt, abused, especially when Elliot ran his hand across Ashley's bare leg. Also, I didn't buy that the gestures Ashley did was sensual. I also thought that the story of the death of Elliot's dad was very underdeveloped. And we never know how Ashley knows about it so well. It's a scene of something much larger instead of a short film. Story line should have been tighter.

Adrian's group:

Liked the introduction, using the First Person narration effectively. Liked the simplicity of the story: Femme fatale vs Protagonist and Girlfriend. The dialogue was great; clever, witty, and effective. The phone bit was the best, where the sounds of the ringing was intimidating (his girlfriend calling). But what happened in the end? No conclusion, or at least one the audience can understand. I asked Andy what happened, but he also does not know. 

I also felt that the screenplay used so many ideas but did not consider the difficulty in putting so many ideas on screen. It should have been tighter, more focused and would have been elegantly portrayed. It could have been a much better film.

Joyce's group:

Dialogue is cumbersome, i.e. "I was under the impression you wanted me to be here at 7:30. It's 7:20." Is that supposed to be witty? It sure was memorable. 

The story line is overly simple; guy and femme fatale teaming up against girlfriend. Nothing really happens in the plot. The guy and femme fatale meets up and kills the girlfriend, though before, the girlfriend was supposed to team up with the femme fatale and kill the guy. One or two events occurred.

No character uniqueness at all. Each character was the same; same expression, same intent, same dialogue, same everything. 

The waiting scene was unnecessary and definitely not film noir, more of a comedy.

Using a plastic bag to kill someone? A plastic bag from a supermarket? Really?

The plot and dialogue should have been more sophisticated. The intent was there but was not successful.

Jeff's Group:

Very vivid in expressing the theme of moral ambiguity. Story line is simple and well executed. It was much more dialogue driven than plot. No femme fatale, but wasn't the point. There was the 'home' girlfriend, but is overshadowed by the frustration of the protagonist. Even though it sets up as something apocalyptic (I think it was something unnecessary, because it does seem like part of something much larger instead of a short film), it seems more like a love story even though it doesn't include the girl at all. 

The immense and philosophical dialogue was great and did capture attention though at some points it did drag on. When Julien shot Chris (their characters), that was the best part, and was evident that it was the climax. I thought maybe it was too Quentin Tarintino with the dialogue. It seemed repetitive at points, but was still interesting nevertheless. 

It would have worked without the post-apocalyptic setting, though it did set the mood very well. 

I was an IB leaner:

Reflective: Gave thoughtful consideration to my own learning and experience. Reflected on each group's film as well as my own. 

Communicator: Expressed my opinions and queries to peers.