Main Task- Similar Products (Task 11)

My thriller character is named Farah. She is in her mid twenties and works as an assassin; this is how she is introduced to the audience. She is a dark yet likable character, poetic in her speech and very strong willed. She was trained as an assassin by her former boyfriend; Nate- little did Farah know that one day she would be forced to kill him due to a mistake and him working as an agent for a large corporation. Farah is a beautiful, intelligent young girl with a lot of potential and a wealthy future in the black market. She tends to remain emotionally unattached to those she loves; she knows it makes her less vulnerable. She is often considered heartless and cold to those who know her least, keeping herself to herself and remaining a closed book. She met Nate when she was 16; she liked the danger and excitement and knew he was different from all the boys in her High School. She ran away from an unhappy home life to live with him and soon started training as a female assassin.

She is shown in the film talking to a man who never gets properly introduced to the audience, she tells him how she got into the situation she is in and in this way we learn a lot about her. I chose to do this because I feel this is how you learn the most about someone, what they have done, how they have gotten there, the chain of decisions they make to get to a certain point, not by what a character is doing then and there. However there are key aspects of the characters presentation that show the audience what she is like, for example, she has been stabbed but doesn’t mention the injury once and doesn’t show pain.

The plot and the character of Farah rely on the success of Barthes enigma code. Farah makes the audience ask questions such as; ‘why has she been stabbed?’ ‘Who has stabbed her?’ ‘Why is she there?’ ‘Who is she speaking to?’ ‘Why is her former boyfriend relevant to the plot?’ Farah could also fit into many of Propp’s character types in his theory of Seven Spheres of Action, for example she shows traits of a hero- she could be restoring a natural equilibrium, and may be aiming to defeat the villain. However she could also be regarded as a false hero or even the villain as she is shown to have been in a fight, this isn’t made clear-, which relates back to the enigma code. The audience may choose to consume this media for entertainment as well as escape- Blumler and Katz; Uses and gratifications theory.

Farah could be compared to a number of female characters:

Jane Smith (Mr. & Mrs. Smith)

They are common in the sense that they are both assassins, keep secrets and are strong, independent women. Jane tends to ignore pain when engaged in a violent fight with John- like Farah even after she has been stabbed. They are both prepared to kill the ones they love, and even if they don’t initially show it are deeply upset by what they have done.

Mia (Pulp Fiction)

Mia is an intellectual, laid back and sophisticated character, much like Farah. Her words sound practiced and engaging, like the dialogue Farah uses. Mia is attracted to powerful and dangerous men, she is married to the leader of a criminal group and lives a very wealthy life because of it, and she celebrates this lifestyle as a heavy user of cocaine. Farah is also attracted to dangerous men, however she is not yet wealthy and she enjoys working in a black market rather than just enjoying the benefits of being married to someone who is in the black market.   

Preliminary Task- The Evaluation

It was very important for me to make this film turn out as good as it looked on paper. In order to achieve this I left as much time as I could to give me the opportunity to improve it and edit to the best of my ability. In hindsight I am glad I make the decision to film early, as I needed to re-film the majority of the shots. When watching the rough edit back something just didn’t look right, it wasn’t as poetic or engaging as I had planned for it to be, this, I discovered; was due to two key things missing from the film. The first was the fact it was shot at night, not much was clear, you couldn’t see the surroundings, you couldn’t make out facial expressions and there wasn’t much emotion you could gather from it being so dark. The second was that many of the shots were facing away from the camera; you couldn’t see her face or eyes, therefore couldn’t connect with her. I decided it would be beneficial to the film as a whole if I were to re film the bridge scenes during the day. This way it would be easier to get more shots of the characters face, more shots of the surroundings and it would look more professional and of higher quality.

I feel if I had not made the decision to re film the emotion of film would have suffered. Luckily I had a really willing and helpful group of people working on the project for me. This included Ruth Cooper who helped the first two shoots run smoothly and also helped with the lighting, and Tom Leatherbarrow who gave editing help and advice and also acted in the film. My actress was also very keen to help and was happy to do several shoots to get it right. The film doesn’t look how I originally expected it to look but it gives the emotion I always wanted it to have. The poster compliments the film well and is very in keeping with the atmosphere and emotion the film presents. It is cinematic without being excessively dramatic and I feel it promotes the film well and attracts the target audience well.

Feedback for the film has been positive. I find that girls relate much more to the film and find it emotional and even tear provoking, which is what I wanted the film to be seen as, and seeing as my target audience is most women I feel this shows the success of my film within my target audience. There are a few things that I would have liked to change and add, possibly more panoramic shots for the opening, maybe a new and better quality voice over and I would have liked to improve the flashback scenes. However this would mostly be out of meticulousness rather than necessity.

I have learnt a lot by doing this task, not only how to edit and go beyond basic skills on Final Cut but also how to use other programmes such as Color and I am also more familiar with sound recording softwares such as GarageBand. This task has also taught me that in order to get the best shots first time you must think about things that could hinder a perfect shot, for example the lighting or not feeling connected to the character. I find that the best shoots are the most laid back ones, this is because the actors are more relaxed and people feel more able to suggest shots, I achieved these shoots you just need to allow plenty of time to do them, which I normally don’t have when going on shoots. This has given me more of an incentive to start productions as soon as possible.

For my main task I know what I need to do in terms of editing and other technical aspects. I am also able to see now what is and what isn’t possible on a no budget film and what I can and can’t expect non- actors to do, this is why I have decided to find professional actors for my main task, because although Bernadette did an amazing job on my preliminary it wouldn’t be possible to achieve this with the amount of lines I have in mind for my main. I have also decided that flashbacks work really well when you only have a small amount of time to explain not only the current situation of a character but how they got there in the first place, so I’m going to use flashbacks in my main task, but in a slightly different way.

Overall I’m really happy with how my film looks, although I would change some things I feel it is enough to convey the feelings I wanted to. It was a really valuable experience and I have taken a lot from the project I wish to incorporate into my main task. The film is the first I have made that I originally wrote as a short story, so translating this to a script and hoping it will turn out just as I had imagined it was not only hard but also really important for me. I feel the task was vital for me to have the opportunity to test and improve my technical skills. I am also more cautious when writing scripts as to whether it is feasible to expect so much from it, to avoid this I make them easier to film, allowing me to add really unique and interesting shots. 

Preliminary Task- The Poster

I chose this style of poster as I feel it sets the atmosphere of the film. The picture shows the character as the central focus yet a lot around them, suggesting the film is mostly about the characters thoughts and feelings, how they have gotten to where they are, the significance of the setting etc. 


When taking the picture I wanted my character to be slightly off centre, this would allow for writing and reduce the risk of the poster looking over crowded. I wanted to show the setting and contrast the blueness of the sky to the thick, dark cloud just above us. I thought it was really important to involve as much scenery as possible, as it is key to the characters story and the atmosphere of the film as a whole


I edited the photo to a higher contrast so the dark cloud above the character is more obvious, I set a slight blue tint and lowered the saturation to give a more early hours of the morning look to the photo. I also increased highlights and definition to give the picture an almost 'painted' effect. 


I think the poster represents not only the character well as she appears thoughtful and alone but also the atmosphere of the film has been well captured in the photo. I feel it will appeal to my target audience as the tag line suggests it is a love story and the character is contemplating. It shows the audience what they can expect from the character and what they can expect from the monologue.

Preliminary Task- The Final Film (Last November) (add video)

Written, Directed, Edited and Produced by Emily Wilson
Starring Bernadette Cooper and Tom Leatherbarrow
Lighting and Co- Produced by Ruth Cooper

© Sawtry Community College 2011


Music- Lullaby by Newton Faulkner
Edited- Using Final Cut Pro 7.0