evaluation

Year 12 assessment Narnia 2017/18 

   Firstly our group made a decision to use a variety of different camera shots and angles, such a wide shots to introduce the setting and therefor set the scene for the audience, close ups when there is important things being stated, like the prophecy, this adds to the drama and atmosphere that we would hope to create and lastly we will use medium shots allowing them to interact with each other which will build to their characters and relationships. 

    

      In the finale product we can see we used all of the shots and angles that we planned for, an example of a close up shot is when Mrs beaver is talking about the prophecy we zoom in on her face to create drama then zoom in on the children's face to see their reaction of what she is saying, their faces are confused, this builds on the whole mystical side of Narnia that we wanted to create. We used the wide shots when introducing the setting, such as the beavers den and the forest. Lastly we used the medium shots when the characters interacts, we can see this when the family see Mr beaver there is a medium shot so we can see their reactions with each other. As well as this we see medium shots when they are walking towards the beavers den allowing us to see their journey. All of these shots came out as we envisioned and planned. 

We firstly made a decision to dress the beaver in animalistic features with a human body, We would be Able to do this by dressing them in fur coat symbolising their fur, With whiskers and teeth that are the main features of a beaver. Secondly all of the children will be wearing normal everyday clothes, as they are normal people, an example of this would be jeans top and coat. All of them will be wearing neutral colours so the clothes don’t stand out instead the people and the characters do therefor not taking away the viewers for the action.

Although we did not stick to all of the first costume ideas, the beavers in the finale product were only wearing a fur coat with no other features that represent a beaver. We believed that the fur coat was enough to symbolise them as animals but we did not go the full way with this idea due to the fact the group made a decisions that the mix between animal and humane is more entertaining and gripping also it is more usual therefor building on the idea of a mystical world of Narnia. We chose to stick with the main idea of all the pensive’s wearing everyday neutral clothes. As well as this we made the characters wear scarves hats and other winter clothes, this makes the audience feel that it is actual winter in Narnia and cold therefor setting the weather and seasons and winter.

Beavers outfit planned;                   

    

                             beavers final outfit 

This is Lucy’s planned outfit;                        

lucys finale outfit 

Peter’s planned outfit;                                       peter’s finale outfit;  

Edmunds planned outfit;                          
                                                                         Edmunds finale outfit;  

Susan's planned outfit                                    
                                                                            susan finale outfit 

All of the children will be wearing no make up as we want them to be natural, this makes them seem more youthful and childlike therefor building on the childlike fantasy of Narnia. The beavers may have whiskers and make up to make them look more animalistic, we would do this by using different shades and textures to create an usual looking face, we would draw on a beaver like nose and whiskers coming out of them and lastly teeth that are stuck out and animalistic. 

In the finale product we chose not to do any make up on the beavers instead having a human natural face, we made this decision as we felt that the fur coat created a animalistic feel to the beaver without even needing make up to make them seem from another world, as well as this we felt that we did not have the skills to create a faultless beaver face without it looking tacky so this decisions was more tasteful and professional. 

When making decisions about what setting to use we considered many places. To create the beavers house we thought about using a miniature house with a woodland background we would use wide shots in order to make it look as if they are inside the beavers house intact this is a fake house. We considered his idea as it would be an easy way to create a perfect beavers house. As well as this we were going to contact bewilder wood ignorer to use their treehouse this would of been a perfect location for Narnia as it builds on the fantasy of Narnia. Adding to this there was many other locations we considered such as the plantation garden in Norwich, different forrest, such as the loggi, and ketts park nature reserve. 

This is bewilder wood; 

We did not stick to the setting first ideas, firstly we chose to use a  garden shed for the beavers house which we decorated to look like a wood cabin, as well as this we did not use the different locations as we first planned, we used a garden and the back of our schools field with trees. in order to create the scenes where they are travelling throughout Narnia. We chose these locations as the are easy to access and we perfect places to create the woodland, earthy feel of Narnia. 

Throughout we made decisions to use natural lighting, such as the sunlight, we thought that this would be more authentic and create a more seasonal feel of Narnia. Although we did use natural lighting outside, we also used lamps inside the beavers house in the finale product. These lamps had an orange tone to them creating the idea that there may be a fire going on in the background, it also made it look warm which contrasts with the cold winter outside. 

    Firstly we made a decisions to make the beaver have animalistic movements and quirky mannerisms that a beaver may have, such as being moody, loving wood, and standing with their hand in a animal positions and posture, this would add to the idea that they are beavers and not just humans. Lucy would be acting as a sweet innocent child, as she is the younger, she is more inquisitive and intrigued by the beavers and the land of narnia therefor she is more forgiven and understanding by the presence of the beavers. Susan and Peter would have similar mannerism as they are the oldest and want to protect their younger siblings, this makes them more angry and snappy towards the whole situation on Narnia as all Susan wants to do is leave. Lastly Edmund would have less of a presence in this scene as all he wants to do is go see the ice queen, him blending in on the background allows him to sneak out. His relationships with his siblings are not as strong and him and Peter are not close and argue to most, this creates tensions between the characters. The main motive for Peter is to benefit himself making him more selfish. All of these expressions and movements are apparent throughout the scene, although the beaver is more humane like, this allows the children understand them more as they are half humane too this allows their relationship to build quicker.

Lastly we planned to have auditions for the characters, we placed out posters letting people know, when people showed up we filmed and made them say a few lines from the play, we chose the people based on if they fit the image we have create of their characters, we found the of Lucy by doing this. Although this did not work for all the characters, we had to go into to classes ask friends in order to find people who wanted to be in the short film. as well as this we went to class and scouted out people willing to be in our productions.

In order to make this project easier we firstly started to giving people  individual roles in which they concentrate on such as, kris concentrated on setting, Lauren concentrated on make up and costume and Joe main focus was on sound. We read through the script in order to do create an idea of what the scene would look like, Emily new create a story board which set the idea of what the whole scene would look like making to so that everyone had the same vision in what it will look like. 

At the beginning our group communication as not that strong, this may of been as we felt overwhelmed by the world and therefor didn’t know where to start, this made it so that at the begging our work ethic was slower and not as quick as I would of hoped although in the middle of the process when we gave people their roles to concentrate on we started to communicated much better as we all knew what we were doing, this made us work quicker as we all communicated well. All the different roles communicated well, such as the producer and director, the director would check with the producer in what they were doing to get their opinions. As well as this the filmers worked well in order to get good shots to create the whole fantasy of Narnia. 

After choosing the roles, I felt that it was much more organised as people concentrated on their individual projects, making the work load seem minimal and less than we originally thought. Before doing this the organisation was not as strong so to fix this we wrote everything we needed to do out on a list and crossed it out when it was done this made it so we would picture what we had to do and what was left making us much more organised. 

Lastly we chose the roles by people saying what they want to be and what role they want to have, then as a group we gave out the roles based on what person would do this role better, the roles we gave out were; Joe as director, Lauren as co-director, keri and Lucy as producers, Ellie and Emily and film crew, Emily as lightning and everyone concentrated on props. We decided for everyone to concentrate on props so people could bring and get 1 prop each therefor making it easier for everyone, these props were , Fake Snow - Emily New, Embroidered Handkerchief - Lauren Webb, Wood chips - Aston Jones, Plates and Cutlery - Emily New and Portrait - Emily New. 

Some props we used;