My film is called ‘The Tale of Skipping Boundaries’ and is a film about two girls called Valencia and Rachel, who journey through a door into another world. I chose this name because ‘tale’ connotes a fairytale story and would hopefully appeal to and attract the target audience of young children aged 7 – 14 who many fairytales are aimed at. Also, ‘Skipping Boundaries’ connotes crossing over into unreachable places, as the two girls do when they cross over into the fantastical, Victorian world. ‘Skipping Boundaries’ could also connote breaking rules, as the two protagonists do throughout the full film, and also featured in my sequence when they make the choice to follow the aristocratic gentleman, Eugene, despite it leading to potential danger. ‘Skipping’ being a word often associated with young children; the target audience, and ‘The Tale of Skipping Boundaries’ is also reminiscent of the title of a fairytale story, establishing the genre.
When choosing the names for my characters, I decided on choosing names to convey meaning to the audience:
-Rachel: Zoe’s character, Rachel is named so as Rachel means ‘innocent lamb’. Rachel is a very innocent and naïve character, such as leaving with Eugene.
-Valencia: Josie’s character, Valencia is named so because Valencia means ‘brave and courageous’ which she is, and increasingly becomes so throughout the full film.
-Eugene: Eugene means ‘aristocrat’ and was the most suitable Victorian name for him. It connotes a wealthy status and shows the contrast between Eugene, which is an old name, and a modern name like Rachel, which makes Rachel and Valencia even more out of place in Victorian society.
-Nadina: Keeley’s character, Nadina is named so as Nadina means ‘courage’. Her character, despite being scared of being caught, she risks her life and her freedom to help Rachel and Valencia; she is courageous.
My film sequence falls into the disruption stage of the narrative as this is the part where Rachel and Valencia cross over from the contemporary world, into the Victorian world. I thought this would make an interesting sequence - experimenting with time and locations which reflect the transition between worlds. I was keen to use editing here which would portray a visually magical shift in both time and location, and so I used a fade out to white. Although fades to black are often used to convey a passage of time or place, I felt a fade out to white would connote the girls innocence through the symbolism of white. Also, I felt that white would add a more magical feel; it draws more attention to the transition as with fades to black, you often hardly notice them unless they are extensive because as a spectator, we are so adapted to seeing it and so are often immune to noticing it.
When choosing locations, I had to find a house which wasn’t too modern, (as it was supposed to be at least 140 years old to reflect the Victorian setting of 1873), and I also had to find a location that would convincingly portray a Victorian world. For my modern world, I chose my house originally, as then I would only have to worry about the actors being available as I could film at my house anytime. After I had filmed there though and uploaded my footage onto the computers for editing, I realised that there wasn’t enough lighting despite it being a sunny day outside. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t very good, so many of the shots were too dark. So this led to re-filming this footage.
Even though I had my first day of shooting in October, I couldn’t re-film until after Christmas due to redrawing some of the storyboard images, having to change two of my actors, and choosing a location with more effective sources of lighting. I felt this was leaving my filming a bit late but I knew how long it would take me to re-film so I planned my time effectively.
I then used Josie’s house as my main ‘modern world’ location, which is fairly modern, but was well lit. When it came to editing the footage I filmed here, I was fairly happy with how bright, and sometimes dull the shots were as it had an almost slightly desaturated feel which was appropriate in connoting a dull life for the two protagonists, almost lifeless.
I began my sequence with an establishing shot of the house to establish to the audience that this is a modern day world. The house is white connoting the innocence of the girls inside. There is a juxtaposition of this with the first shot in the Victorian world which shows a dark hallway, and the buildings which have black frames on the doors and are darkly coloured which connotes the dark nature of the place and that bad things can happen, and, later in the film, do. However, despite this, on the establishing shot of the ‘white house’ in the modern world, I contrasted the colours in the shot and decreased the brightness so that it darkened the house. I also desaturated this shot to suggest the draining of life here, that there is very little excitement or escape for the two protagonists. This gave the impression that the house was dull and mundane compared to the Victorian world where I greatly increased the saturation on all the shots to create the illusion of bright and vivid colours, which gives the impression of a more exciting place. I used this to disguise the initial meaning of the colours, (the white house connoting innocence in the modern world, and the dark frames in the Victorian world connoting potential danger) which gives my film a sense of ambiguity about what the colours connote. It also suggests that it is in our imaginations that the most exciting stories can emerge if we are only free to explore them.
When it came to the flashback of Nadina, I edited it so that it was in a sepia tone. This not only establishes that it is a flashback, but it also gives it an old-film footage kind of quality that connotes to the spectator that the flashback is set a long time ago. A sepia tone is also used in the shot where Rachel says ‘oh, we’ll read [the note] when we get back’. Behind Rachel is a mirror showing her reflection, and it is here that the sepia tone is used. This connotes to the audience Rachel’s direct connection to Keeley as this is the only two places in the film where a sepia tone is used.
The editing of the flashback is fast-paced and I muted all of the diegetic sound in the shots so that the non-diegetic sound is more prominent and adds an essence of fantasy to the flashback. It also emphasises the flashback in terms of storyline as the spectator is focusing on the visual detail. From the beginning of the flashback, I increased the volume of the non-diegetic sound to build up the atmosphere, and then at the very end there is a fading of the music over this and the next shot in the ‘modern day’ sequence.
In my film, I used very few static shots and focused more on pans as I thought about how children feel when watching films, and as me myself was as a child, I became bored easily if there wasn’t much motion in the camera shots. So in this way, I used movement to keep the audience interested and to draw attention to settings, particularly in the Victorian world where setting plays a huge part in establishing the fantasy genre, as this is an alien world to the two girls.
Similarly, in the flashback of Nadina, cinematography includes wobbly shots, mostly close-ups of a worried-looking maid, Nadina. The cinematography, along with the performance creates an edgy atmosphere with jumpy camera shots. It also gives the illusion that the spectator is with the maid, watching them as the wobbly camera shots reflect the maid looking around, and with close-ups used of her face, the spectator is drawn more into the emotion of the character and this helps build up the uneasy atmosphere.
In the same way, when editing my film, I decided I wanted a fairly fast pace to the editing to not only create a more exciting atmosphere, but particularly when the two girls go into the Victorian times and meet Eugene, I wanted to create a slightly faster pace of editing at this point to build up the anticipation of what would happen next as Valencia worries about going to the house of this stranger.
When it came to the soundtrack of my film, I decided to use the ‘main theme’ and ‘opening theme’ from Bridge to Terabithia, (Gaber Csupo, 2007), as background music. I felt this made all the difference to my sequence as it is required in creating a suitable atmosphere of fantasy in my film. The background score acts as a motif representing new idea of adventure in the story; it begins every time a character accepts the chance to go exploring or when an idea of fantasy begins. Example include: when Josie agrees to go exploring; when the girls bring the box downstairs to look inside; when the girls open the door to the Victorian times. This motif indicates to the audience that something new is about to begin. With the diegetic Final Fantasy music that plays at the beginning of my sequence, I faded the music out as Valencia says ‘no, [exploring]’s for babies’. This draws more attention to the diegetic sound and the idea that Rachel and Valencia are teenagers, yet they still make the decision to go exploring.
I made a historical mistake in the setting of the Victorian times. To help establish the Victorian setting to the spectator, I wrote in the script for Valencia: ‘wow! Look at this! It’s dated 1873!’. But as I realised afterwards, sell-by dates weren’t around in the Victorian times, but I still feel it was the best way to subtly hint to the spectator that the two protagonists had journeyed to a former era.
I feel that I learnt a lot about editing throughout the project, as when it came to editing my footage, brilliant new ideas formed in my mind to further enhance the meaning and aesthetics of my film. This included editing the colour of Zoe’s reflection in the mirror to a sepia tone to hint at her connection to the past, and how she is related to the maid from the Victorian times, (who is presented in a sepia tone in a flashback). Also, I edited shots so that the end of a shot had no diegetic sound, but the diegetic sound from the next shot was playing. This made the editing seamless and less jumpy with continuous cuts of shots and sound.
I learnt a lot throughout the film studies project about the stylistics of a film and how you can experiment with film language to convey different meanings. But looking back, I would have preferred to create a film with a more international influence, particularly German Expressionism, and I would have liked to have experimented with the fantasy conventions a little more. When I first begun this project though, I had a more basic knowledge of conventions and international cinema, so this whole project has been a learning experience providing me with more insight into how the film industry creates films and that it takes a lot of hard work and organisation to plan and create a film of the highest quality achievable. Overall, I feel that my former film knowledge along with knowledge I have gained throughout my project, mixed with the composition of my shots in the film and all my planning for it, have given me an experience close to that which I would have in the film industry and I have learnt a lot about the stylistic language within film studies. I am satisfied with my finished product and feel I have created a film to the best of my ability at this time.
When choosing the names for my characters, I decided on choosing names to convey meaning to the audience:
-Rachel: Zoe’s character, Rachel is named so as Rachel means ‘innocent lamb’. Rachel is a very innocent and naïve character, such as leaving with Eugene.
-Valencia: Josie’s character, Valencia is named so because Valencia means ‘brave and courageous’ which she is, and increasingly becomes so throughout the full film.
-Eugene: Eugene means ‘aristocrat’ and was the most suitable Victorian name for him. It connotes a wealthy status and shows the contrast between Eugene, which is an old name, and a modern name like Rachel, which makes Rachel and Valencia even more out of place in Victorian society.
-Nadina: Keeley’s character, Nadina is named so as Nadina means ‘courage’. Her character, despite being scared of being caught, she risks her life and her freedom to help Rachel and Valencia; she is courageous.
My film sequence falls into the disruption stage of the narrative as this is the part where Rachel and Valencia cross over from the contemporary world, into the Victorian world. I thought this would make an interesting sequence - experimenting with time and locations which reflect the transition between worlds. I was keen to use editing here which would portray a visually magical shift in both time and location, and so I used a fade out to white. Although fades to black are often used to convey a passage of time or place, I felt a fade out to white would connote the girls innocence through the symbolism of white. Also, I felt that white would add a more magical feel; it draws more attention to the transition as with fades to black, you often hardly notice them unless they are extensive because as a spectator, we are so adapted to seeing it and so are often immune to noticing it.
When choosing locations, I had to find a house which wasn’t too modern, (as it was supposed to be at least 140 years old to reflect the Victorian setting of 1873), and I also had to find a location that would convincingly portray a Victorian world. For my modern world, I chose my house originally, as then I would only have to worry about the actors being available as I could film at my house anytime. After I had filmed there though and uploaded my footage onto the computers for editing, I realised that there wasn’t enough lighting despite it being a sunny day outside. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t very good, so many of the shots were too dark. So this led to re-filming this footage.
Even though I had my first day of shooting in October, I couldn’t re-film until after Christmas due to redrawing some of the storyboard images, having to change two of my actors, and choosing a location with more effective sources of lighting. I felt this was leaving my filming a bit late but I knew how long it would take me to re-film so I planned my time effectively.
I then used Josie’s house as my main ‘modern world’ location, which is fairly modern, but was well lit. When it came to editing the footage I filmed here, I was fairly happy with how bright, and sometimes dull the shots were as it had an almost slightly desaturated feel which was appropriate in connoting a dull life for the two protagonists, almost lifeless.
I began my sequence with an establishing shot of the house to establish to the audience that this is a modern day world. The house is white connoting the innocence of the girls inside. There is a juxtaposition of this with the first shot in the Victorian world which shows a dark hallway, and the buildings which have black frames on the doors and are darkly coloured which connotes the dark nature of the place and that bad things can happen, and, later in the film, do. However, despite this, on the establishing shot of the ‘white house’ in the modern world, I contrasted the colours in the shot and decreased the brightness so that it darkened the house. I also desaturated this shot to suggest the draining of life here, that there is very little excitement or escape for the two protagonists. This gave the impression that the house was dull and mundane compared to the Victorian world where I greatly increased the saturation on all the shots to create the illusion of bright and vivid colours, which gives the impression of a more exciting place. I used this to disguise the initial meaning of the colours, (the white house connoting innocence in the modern world, and the dark frames in the Victorian world connoting potential danger) which gives my film a sense of ambiguity about what the colours connote. It also suggests that it is in our imaginations that the most exciting stories can emerge if we are only free to explore them.
When it came to the flashback of Nadina, I edited it so that it was in a sepia tone. This not only establishes that it is a flashback, but it also gives it an old-film footage kind of quality that connotes to the spectator that the flashback is set a long time ago. A sepia tone is also used in the shot where Rachel says ‘oh, we’ll read [the note] when we get back’. Behind Rachel is a mirror showing her reflection, and it is here that the sepia tone is used. This connotes to the audience Rachel’s direct connection to Keeley as this is the only two places in the film where a sepia tone is used.
The editing of the flashback is fast-paced and I muted all of the diegetic sound in the shots so that the non-diegetic sound is more prominent and adds an essence of fantasy to the flashback. It also emphasises the flashback in terms of storyline as the spectator is focusing on the visual detail. From the beginning of the flashback, I increased the volume of the non-diegetic sound to build up the atmosphere, and then at the very end there is a fading of the music over this and the next shot in the ‘modern day’ sequence.
In my film, I used very few static shots and focused more on pans as I thought about how children feel when watching films, and as me myself was as a child, I became bored easily if there wasn’t much motion in the camera shots. So in this way, I used movement to keep the audience interested and to draw attention to settings, particularly in the Victorian world where setting plays a huge part in establishing the fantasy genre, as this is an alien world to the two girls.
Similarly, in the flashback of Nadina, cinematography includes wobbly shots, mostly close-ups of a worried-looking maid, Nadina. The cinematography, along with the performance creates an edgy atmosphere with jumpy camera shots. It also gives the illusion that the spectator is with the maid, watching them as the wobbly camera shots reflect the maid looking around, and with close-ups used of her face, the spectator is drawn more into the emotion of the character and this helps build up the uneasy atmosphere.
In the same way, when editing my film, I decided I wanted a fairly fast pace to the editing to not only create a more exciting atmosphere, but particularly when the two girls go into the Victorian times and meet Eugene, I wanted to create a slightly faster pace of editing at this point to build up the anticipation of what would happen next as Valencia worries about going to the house of this stranger.
When it came to the soundtrack of my film, I decided to use the ‘main theme’ and ‘opening theme’ from Bridge to Terabithia, (Gaber Csupo, 2007), as background music. I felt this made all the difference to my sequence as it is required in creating a suitable atmosphere of fantasy in my film. The background score acts as a motif representing new idea of adventure in the story; it begins every time a character accepts the chance to go exploring or when an idea of fantasy begins. Example include: when Josie agrees to go exploring; when the girls bring the box downstairs to look inside; when the girls open the door to the Victorian times. This motif indicates to the audience that something new is about to begin. With the diegetic Final Fantasy music that plays at the beginning of my sequence, I faded the music out as Valencia says ‘no, [exploring]’s for babies’. This draws more attention to the diegetic sound and the idea that Rachel and Valencia are teenagers, yet they still make the decision to go exploring.
I made a historical mistake in the setting of the Victorian times. To help establish the Victorian setting to the spectator, I wrote in the script for Valencia: ‘wow! Look at this! It’s dated 1873!’. But as I realised afterwards, sell-by dates weren’t around in the Victorian times, but I still feel it was the best way to subtly hint to the spectator that the two protagonists had journeyed to a former era.
I feel that I learnt a lot about editing throughout the project, as when it came to editing my footage, brilliant new ideas formed in my mind to further enhance the meaning and aesthetics of my film. This included editing the colour of Zoe’s reflection in the mirror to a sepia tone to hint at her connection to the past, and how she is related to the maid from the Victorian times, (who is presented in a sepia tone in a flashback). Also, I edited shots so that the end of a shot had no diegetic sound, but the diegetic sound from the next shot was playing. This made the editing seamless and less jumpy with continuous cuts of shots and sound.
I learnt a lot throughout the film studies project about the stylistics of a film and how you can experiment with film language to convey different meanings. But looking back, I would have preferred to create a film with a more international influence, particularly German Expressionism, and I would have liked to have experimented with the fantasy conventions a little more. When I first begun this project though, I had a more basic knowledge of conventions and international cinema, so this whole project has been a learning experience providing me with more insight into how the film industry creates films and that it takes a lot of hard work and organisation to plan and create a film of the highest quality achievable. Overall, I feel that my former film knowledge along with knowledge I have gained throughout my project, mixed with the composition of my shots in the film and all my planning for it, have given me an experience close to that which I would have in the film industry and I have learnt a lot about the stylistic language within film studies. I am satisfied with my finished product and feel I have created a film to the best of my ability at this time.
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