PRESENTATION ‘PENNY’

By Alex DaBrielAnd

Molly Turnerhttp://alexdabbers.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-film-penny.html

Outline of research Our project comprised of two important

elements, the short film and the ancillary tasks. One would not of been successful without the other.

Our short film 'Penny' centres around the idea that a one pence coin can travel between people, intertwining their lives and bringing them together. For our film, we decided to focus our main storyline on a penny bringing luck to everybody who touched it, as says the well known phrase "find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck".

How research impacted on planning

Through our research, while looking into short films in particular, we found that the most interesting and appealing of the short films were the ones that had no dialogue at all- this can be see in one of the films that we analysed called the ‘Beachcombers’, where there it solely relied on the backing music and the acting to portray the narrative of the film.

we found that this particular technique would work well with our film as we wanted to play particular attention to the story and the travelling of the penny and how it would change their luck, rather than on the characters.

Planning progressWhat went well

We planned most of the filming well, so that we got everything done in one day, but whilst editing we discovered we'd forgotten some things so we had to go back and redo those. We also overcame all the software issues; we managed the problem of storing the film by using a 300GB external hard drive and we edited the music with Audacity to make it last the required four minutes.

Planning progressWhat went Badly

We both found the Adobe software confusing at first, and since it was our first time using it, neither of us knew how to do certain things. We also had trouble capturing the rushes from the camera as the software kept saying it was offline when it wasn't. After that, saving the film was a problem as the files on the temp drive kept disappearing and normal memory sticks were too small to hold it. We also had a problem with the music as the song we chose for the film was three minutes too short.

Presentation of workAs with the increasing evolution of technology, we

decided to present all of our work, from presentation through to the film on a blog. We used the free site Blogger.com, as it allowed use to upload all of our work along with being able to embed videos and images. This also allowed us to be able to have access to the film at anytime as all we would have to do is log in rather them having to carry a book around with us.

To shoot the film we used a Sony handy cam , this then allowed us to shoot any where and we were able to take the camera home on long journeys.

Presentation of work

To edit the film , we use both Adobe Premier Pro and also Windows movie maker, this allowed us to use the more professional software to make the necessary changes such as capturing the film and being able to edit easily, we then uploaded the film to windows to make the changes and enable us to take the film anywhere and save onto any computer.

To edit the music we used the software Audacity, this enabled us to lengthen and cut the track which we acquired from freeplaymusic.com to suit our film .

Success of our short film

Our short film was a success in all aspects. This was due to us overcoming the obstacles that we had with the software and also with some of the actors dropping out of the film.

Our film is a portrayal of all of the hard work and research that we did into the making of the film.

Evaluation Our film challenges real media products as we

have experimented with the use of non dialogue films which larger films have not yet over come.

The plot of our film was adapted from a single phrase, told through both the characters and the object its self, this is also unusual for the larger media products and institutions to use.

Both out main product and the ancillary tasks combine together well as both are representative of each other, the basis of our film is shown through the research that we have put together.

Evaluation From the audience feed back we have

received very positive thoughts towards the film, most have said that they have watched the film twice as it has such an interesting plot, and also the use of camera angles and music in the film are so unusual .

Through the project we used a range of media, through researching into films using YouTube and the BBC film net work, uploading our work onto our blogs, using images and PowerPoint to present our work and also combining our research to present it in a range of multi media