My New Wave Film

What is My Contextual Film Production Idea?

In my film I want to reflect how Covid19 has affected the younger generation of the UK. I will use the Prime Ministers speech audio throughout the video, I will cut the audio and only use the most important influential parts in order to create a tense atmosphere. The use of a non-diegetic soundtrack will be used on the video, this will make the film seem more like a montage showing the events of the lockdown. The soundtrack will be slow paced and quite sad in order to show the respect for the severity of the situation. Mainly my footage will be shot inside to reflect lockdown and the idea of isolation from everyone. Later I will introduce footage shot in my friends house to reflect the mixing of households which was allowed in the summer season. I have shot a lot of footage in rural locations to show that in the lockdown many people were exercising and going outside more as it was one of the only things you was allowed to do at the start. I want to shoot some footage at college as well however, the college must be closed and the scene must be completely empty to reflect the fact that schools were shut in early March which caused upset across the country as young people felt uncertain about their futures as they couldn't complete their exams. I also want to depict the use of maladaptive coping mechanisms, for example many people started drinking and smoking cigarettes more as there was nothing else to do. Younger people are very commonly users of cannabis which is an illegal maladaptive coping mechanism. The use of marijuana shows how people are giving up, they just want something to help them get through each day. I have been inspired by New Hollywood wave of movies such as Bonnie and Clyde in which they suggest an action rather than showing it, for example in the infamous death scene we see the guns firing and we see bullet wounds on the victims however, we do not see them brutally murdered, I want to use the same methodology. I will show shots which relate to smoking of cannabis and cigarettes such as showing footage of cannabis or of a tobacco pouch however, I do not want to show the actual act of smoking cannabis. 

Equipment Needed

I will be using my Canon EOS 750D to shoot the footage, it is an lightweight camera which allows me to move around easily, the Canon DSLR gives me the opportunity to play around with my technical settings (ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Frame Rate, Focus). I will be using a 18-55mm zoom lens, this allows me to adapt in different situations without having to carry lots of lenses. I plan on creating a documentary style, realism themed piece therefore, I am going to rely mainly on natural lighting, in some scenes extra lighting may be used. Many of the shots will be indoors to reflect the coronavirus lockdown keeping us indoors, I want the lighting to be warm toned to reflect the autumn season. In order to create warm lighting using yellow overlays over our lights. I believe small LEDs will be the most useful as they are lightweight, use little battery, and have a very bright white glow. They may look very cold however, with the use of coloured overlays the colour can be changed.  

Location

I mainly want to shoot inside, to link to the lockdown happening in the UK currently due to coronavirus. I will be shooting at my own house, later in the film I will introduce shots at my friends house to reflect the calming of lockdown measures. I will also shoot in rural areas to reflect the fact that at the start of lockdown there were so many people out in fields and parks as exercise was one of the only things you was allowed to do outside, many youths took advantage of this and used it as a time to go meet friends. I will also shoot some footage at college to reflect the closures of schools nationwide.

Risk Assessment

Editing Organisation

Throughout the project I have tried to keep everything organised and labelled to make it easier to find footage when editing. As you can see below here is all my footage which has all been placed into a folder together with a separate folder inside which contains the material which I have sourced online for the project. As well as putting all my footage in a folder I have also created bins for everything in Adobe which have all been labelled based on what the footage contains. I have created bins for the following sections - Online Material Bin, Indoor Footage Bin, Outdoor Footage Bin, Footage of Drug Misuse, College Sequence Bin and Establishing Shot Bin. Having so many bins makes it a lot easier to locate specific footage efficiently so that I can edit everything together quickly.

New Wave Film

Evaluation of Final Product and Planning

Overall, I believe my production process was successful, I was able to create a film which followed my plan accordingly and offers context to the time in which I am filming. I believe the use of audio is very good at presenting the context of the time whilst aligning the correct footage which links to the audio to make the content engaging. I believe I was able to reflect how Covid19 has affected younger generations quite successfully through my use of shots, editing and audio. I have used non diegetic sound of speeches from the Prime Minister and I have used news reports about the virus. I believe the audio of speeches are very contextual and reflect the importance they hold over the British public. The Prime Ministers' speeches are the loudest audio in the film when they were being released almost every British person was watching or listening as what the Prime Minister said in his speech affected everyone nationwide. The use of a soundtrack over the video gave the video a faster rhythm which made it more engaging. It also allowed me to move from different audio clips easily without there being any unnecessary moments of silence. I used audio of both ambulance and police sirens, ambulance sirens were used at the start of the film to reflect how we was showing our support for the NHS and we was worried more about health. Later in the video I introduce police sirens as they reflect how the government was becoming more and more strict with its regulations as people were gathering in groups and not abiding by the rules of the lockdown. Whilst playing audio of police sirens I introduced scenes which show the use of drugs and smoking, this reflects the fact that drugs are illegal however, it also shows how police have turned their back on keeping drugs off the streets because they are so focused on keeping people isolated. The video ends with a phrase that everyone in the UK recognises, "Stay at home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS", this is a phrase that keeps our nation united throughout this virus, it reflects what we are all fighting for. The fact that the Prime Minister is saying it holds more importance as it shows he is on our side fighting for the same thing we are as a nation. I have shot many shots inside in order to reflect the isolation caused by the virus, many of my shots are from a first person perspective in order to put the audience in the position of a young member of society in these times. Many of the shots are shot using 50 frames per second as I believe this makes the footage look more true to real life as I want the footage to resemble a documentary so that people will see that footage I am showing isn't just stories, it is real life. When shooting outside, I have tried to shoot in areas completely isolated from the public, I wanted the audience to feel the same loneliness I felt when walking in locations which when alone seem eerie. I have used sunny shots at the start of the footage to suggest to an audience to I am reflecting on the lockdown put in place in March, later in the footage the weather looks very cloudy and gloomy to link to how the situation has developed in the Autumn season. Overall, I believe that my film has some very strong links to the time we are in and reflects the time we are in creatively; I have used a range of different shot types all with consideration to the effect it will have on an audience. I do believe some things could have been improved, for example, a lot of my shots were very unstable due to the use of 1/50 shutter speed, although this is the correct shutter speed to use in film I believe the shots could have been improve with the use of a tripod or some other form of stabiliser. In order to combat this problem, I have used warp stabilisers in the post-production process on establishing shots or shots with tracking and movement in order to make them seem more stable. I believe that shooting with my Canon EOS 750D was a good choice as it allowed me to alter all my technical settings in order to create the desired effect. I used a range of transitions to help move along the film which took into consideration the emotion and atmosphere in the shot. For example, when transitioning from my establishing shot to and indoor shot, I used a crossfade to suggest that the footage in the first shot was a first point perspective of me longingly looking out the window.