Evaluation (:

The basic storyline to our product is a man off to war, leaving his fiancé at home to survive without him for a while. She misses him and writes him a letter, sending him rose petals also, to let him know. We see flashbacks of the happier times they spent together, and the final memory she has of him leaving for war. The voice over describes what is happening, just as the footage itself does.
We decided to set the scene of our film to start with. This involved a tilt from sky to grass to show the sort of area which the film will take place. We got the idea to start our film this way from films such as ‘Cold Mountain’ which starts by setting the scene first, rather than jumping straight into the action. The voice over is an idea from ‘Cold Mountain’ aswell. We took ideas from this film because it is of the same hybrid genre as ours, war/romance.
The audience immediately sees that Jenny is alone. She’s sat in the middle of nowhere writing a letter which shows that she doesn’t have someone to depend on anymore. The reason for this is given away, 30 seconds in, by the voiceover. This stops the audience having to guess and lets them focus on the heart strings the story is about to pull.
We felt that we needed a dull, drained misé en scene to portray her loss to the viewer. If the whole opening was in full colour, it would seem just like another day at the office, really normal without much going wrong. The audience don’t see much that indicates a war film, except for the fact that the planes go overhead at the beginning. The costumes are old fashioned, eg; the dresses and William’s outfits, and the curls in her hair are loose and could suggest that she hasn’t spent much time properly curling her hair and making it stay in.
The representations put across are mainly about gender roles. Our film falls into a typical war film, because the man is sent to war while the fiancé is left at home to do housework, etc. This is a predictable set up, although it could have been put across a different way. For example, we could have filmed the woman nursing people to health after war accidents, although this is another job which women are usually expected to do. The film suggests that when a woman is left without a man she is always going to be sad. This also suggests that most women get depressed without men, and can’t live without them. That isn’t true. Women would survive fine without men, and it should be left to the men to miss the women more often. Even though the film presents this, it is not everybody in the groups opinion. Fidelity/Infidelity is portrayed through the movie, as he leaves she is left and trusted to be faithful to him. She stays faithful until she hears he’s dead, which is not infidelity.
The movie we made would be shown in theatres, firstly, in the UK. It may get distributed abroad to the USA & Australia, etc. The reason for the UK having the first showing is because it is a UK made film. We always get the American films after they do, because they are made over there. The sort of distributor which may distribute this film may be 'New Line Cinema' because they distributed 'The Notebook' which is a war/romance/drama, a similar genre to ours. Another possible distributor would be 'Marimax' because they produced 'Cold Mountain', another war/romance like ours.
Our target audience was mainly women, of any age, because its a touching romance that is likely to make them cry. It may attract older women because they may have been in the same situation and could possibly relate to the storyline. We attracted this audience by making the opening emotional, drawing them in and making them want to continue watching.
At the beginning the sky to grass shot was meant to be steady but instead of re-recording it, we decided that the movement would suggest that the planes are flying overhead and moving the camera. The shot is steady in many other parts, for example; when the girl is sat writing the letter. The camera is held still giving a clear shot of what is going on. We use a variety of shots such as a mid-shot's which are throughout the footage, over the shoulder while she's writing the letter and a long-shot in the churchyard.
Our setting was chosen because we needed an old looking village which represented the way a town would look during the second world war. We decided to use a tree as their 'special place' because it was easier than hunting out a hill or something. We used the grounds of Teversal Manor to film just because it fit the place we needed, had a view which could be filmed when looking from the sky to the grass, and looked good on camera.
We decided to put all our footage in faded colour because it fit the letter we had as a voice over. The part about the sun draining all the colour from the world made it seem silly not to put the footage in faded colour rather than black & white. The parts of the letter which i wrote had the input of some love songs, and how i was feeling at the time. We edited it as a group though and cut it shorter to fit the footage rather than the feelings. We asked Eve to read the voiceover because she has a soft voice which contrasted well with the Beethoven music we used.
We used Adobe Premiere to edit our footage, which is a recent technology. In the past it would have been extremely hard to edit a movie without computers. Emily & I did our preliminary task together and due to Rob's partner leaving the class, he then had to work with us on this. From then, I learnt how to use the editing programme better. From this task, I learnt how to use the black and white feature, how to overlay music and how to add a voice over. I learnt how to use different transitions such as the 'fade in' and 'fade out', and also dissolving clips together. At the end of our opening we have a clip of Jenny and William which changes from colour into black and white, showing that the colour drains when he leaves. Her world falls apart because he isn't there to hold it together, he's like the nails holding together the wooden sticks in her life, and without him the model she's made of life falls to pieces. I learnt how to record a voice over with the gadgets in school. We plug in a microphone to the sound recorder, then use a USB cable to get the files onto the computer. This is shown in our film throughout, and it's a vital part which expresses her emotions to the viewing audience.

Short analysis of our film.
The plane noise is a good opening for the film, as it grabs the attention of those watching. For instance, if a boy didnt really want to watch, he'd be drawn in by the plane because boys, stereotypically, like that sort of stuff. The camera tilts down to the ground, where the credits appear. We immediately see that not much colour is used, which could suggest a variety of things. Firstly, it could be that the film is set in older times where nothing seems bright because of the disasters happening around. Secondly, it could just be that its a cloudy day, where everything is duller than it seems, or finally, the actual reason, it could show that the feelings are represented through the misé en scene. The main character could be suffering from a loss, or a depressive time which is reflected in the colours.
The girl, shown without much colour, has her head down writing. Her head may be down to show her feelings. This could represent the fact that she is infact dealing with some problems and wishes to keep herself closed off to the world. The music contrasts with this as it is sad and sounds like a love song which would suggest to the audience that, if they didnt already know, they are going to watch a romance.
The cover, which is on the ground for Jenny to sit on, is messed up and curled, etc. This could represent her life at this moment. It could show that shes no longer on a flat surface with a smooth life, It could show that she is in for a bumpy ride throughout this film and the audience should empatise with her. As her head tilts up, we see her, in a mid-shot, looking out over the grass, possibly looking for something to keep her holding on.
The flashback is then in colour which immediately represents better times to the audience. They notice that the colour is full and lively, just like the two lovers. Even though he's gone now, she cherrishes the memories he has given her and will never let go of them. The colour drains again as we come back to reality, with the saddened expression creaping over her face. She needs someone, him being that someone. As the voice over kicks in, the audience see why she's so upset and can put themselves in her situation, feeling the emotions her character feels. The memories come back in full colour again, showing the better times, with a voice over explaining what is happening. The pan & tilt motion in which the camera moves sets the scene, while grabbing the action at the same time. The contrast between the churchyard and the proposal is strange, yet neccisary. They are stood in a churchyard, where there is also a graveyard, and they are sharing one of the best days of their lives. This may get the audience thinking that he has died, or may die later in the film, sort of a hint at the coming action. It also suggests that life is too short. That you should live in the moment, because theres no telling when that moment will pass you by and never return again, hence the graveyard showing that life is unpredictable and death may hit you from around any corner.
An over the shoulder shot shows what is being written to her lover at war, which the voice-over is reading out. This lets the audience see, first hand, what she feels aswell as hearing about it. The fade out shows a passing of time, when Jenny is then walking to the post box. The shot reverse shot match on action shows her previous and next destinations.
At the end, she sighs which isnt heard, yet shows that maybe she didnt get to speak up in this. The voices aren't heard throughout and this may also suggest that William didnt have a chance to refuse either. It was often the case then, that nobody had a choice, it was just expected of them.
As it fades to black, the voice-over announces the film title and then the actual movie is ready to begin, as the music fades off into the darkness.


you clear my mind, you're my escape from this messed up place cause you let me forget, you numb my pain.