Bill 'The Chase' Evaluation

Tyree Webster

Task 3- Cinematography
'The Chase' Evaluation

For 'The Chase', which was a second 1- minute drama we had to make in groups, my role in the production was as a second camera operator.

This short film was styled like a 'Halloween' type silent stalking, until it eventually turns into a 'Carlito's Way' type chase scene in the second half.

Similar to our first short film, this was set and filmed at the college. Firstly, we shot inside the College, with each small, different scenes taking place where somebody is stalking our lead character, once again played by Jazz. For the second part of shooting, we shot outside of the College in the car park, where I think most of the "action" takes place.

We didn't have any costumes because all the characters are supposed to be College students, even though the short film acts like a Bourne- style spy thriller. Everybody wears their own clothes, which keeps it simple.

Throughout the entire short film, we used natural light for the entirety of the shoot. It came out very clear on camera and it looks perfect. When shooting inside the College, we used the lights on the ceiling (since we didn't really have any other choice) and that came out well in the footage we gathered, too.

We had a total of four performers acting in the short film, we had Jazz as the person being chased, and we had Tom, Josue and Barney as the secretive people who are chasing after him. Barney was actually in his car, and he chases Jazz with it for a short portion of the film, ultimately trapping him. One of the very last shots was a close- up of Jazz cowering with a frightened look on his face. It does look very comedic and funny, but I think that it plays out well.

The cinematography was done so that the people chasing Jazz are in frame, and so is Jazz, and the camera direction and where we placed it makes it resemble security camera footage. The entire video was filmed this way to make it more 'secretive'. You see, the security camera approach can look more effective if the protagonist is desperately trying not to be noticed, this way, it looks as if somebody is watching Jazz escape  quietly, whilst the audience knows that the camera is watching him, but he thinks that he will get away free (until he realises the other people coming after him)

The Lift target audience

Tyree

THE LIFT TARGET AUDIENCE

Improved

Similar to Michael Moore's documentary film, 'Bowling for Columbine', the target for Marc Isaac's film, 'The Lift' will also have to be quite specific, according to these categories:

AGE
The target audience' age can be absolutely anything, as long as it is above the age of 12, perhaps? You do get mature 13- 15year- olds who would be able to concentrate and watch such a strange documentary like this, even if it is just 25 minutes long. Although, some could argue can the Director made this film for an adult audience, because they are the intended viewers that would fully "understand" what Marc Isaacs has tried to achieve.

GENDER
This one, like 'Bowling for Columbine' can be watched by both male and female viewers. But, unlike the former film, this was specifically made for both genders, as opposed to 'Columbine' which clearly made its audience aware that it was made for the male part of the audience. This is because 'The Lift' is "speaking" to regular people who lived normal, everyday regular lives, and Moore's film was "speaking" to gun- toting Americans and teens who have homicidal tendencies.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
This one is tricky and yet, very simple at the same time; this film was clearly made in England, and it was also made by a British director, of course. So, you could say very eassily that this film was made entirely for a British audience. However, you could argue that some viewers outside of the United Kingdom could be interested in this film, as they might want to see what life is like for British people and what they are like, and they might be interested in uncovering different personality traits of each individual being, as the film clearly does so well. I don't think that many American's would understand it, though as this film has a very dry sense of humour and the unintentional comedy isn't very obvious, either.

EDUCATION
I think that this film was made for working class British people who have average IQ's, you don't need a genius IQ to fully grasp what this film is about and what it is trying to achieve. To me, average working class people are the most interesting and fascinating people to make a documentary of. A lot of documentaries that are made are about the lives and careers of celebrities, whether it is exploiting their personal issues or are just flaunting around their own wealth and riches. More documentaries need to be made and broadcast like these because these are the sort of things that really matter in today's world.

OCCUPATION
Similar to every other category in this piece of work, anybody with any job can view this film. Unlike 'Columbine', anyone who is employed or unemployed can watch this film and relate to it, as long as they weren't born into a wealthy family, I suppose, but I digress. You don't need a high payed job to enjoy this film, I don't even think that you need to be in employment, students can watch it, too. Just as long as they enjoy it for what it is.

INTERESTS & LIFESTYLE
Once again, working class people are the ones to enjoy watching this the most, they have the most modern lifestyle and have lives that can be considered similar to the ones seen in the film, they can relate to the individuals being "interviewed" by the director. The interests of the viewers is a tad more tricky to distinguish, but I suppose that the audience would just have to be interested in daily lives of people, and they would have to be quite open minded to watch this particular film. 

The target audience for this film could be anybody, any age and gender, it doesn't matter. They're lifestyle, though, can't be that of a thrill seeker, but of something that's a little bit more realistic and down to Earth in order to 'connect' with the film and the people interviewed. The target audience would have to be in a somewhat 'regular' paying job and have a normal lifestyle because the people being interviewed in the documentary are pretty much normal people (except for one person interviewed who is a schizophrenic), but this can appeal to anybody because everybody has a different personality and can possibly relate to those seen in the film. When I say that anybody can watch this film, regardless of your lifestyle choice or whatever, I also mean that you have to be invested enough in the idea in order to watch it, because this is a very unconventional and bland short film (which works to the films' advantage).

Bowling for Columbine target audience

Tyree

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE TARGET AUDIENCE

Improved

The audience for Michael Moore’s documentary film, ‘Bowling for Columbine’ would have to be very specific, because it isn’t the kind of film that everybody would be invested in. In a world filled with a lot of Hollywood action films, we will have to try to distinguish who the audience are and what sort of person they are. The film investigates the causes for the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre and gun laws in America.

AGE

We start with something that is fairly simple; age and gender. Through research that I have gathered from various questionnaires that I sent out, the age range seems to be from 18 and over. This is absolutely perfect because, in some way, the film is trying to reach out to teenagers, and children with violent tendencies. The actual Columbine Massacre itself was created from two teenagers who were obviously very angry at society, and the film actually tries to uncover why they could have got so hostile at such an early age, and how did they gain access to weaponry and explosives? Age demographic is most important when you take into consideration what kind of documentary you are making, for example; younger people may be interested in a film called 'Zombie Girl' which centres around a 12 year old girl trying to make her own zombie horror film, all the way through to the release, or you have the more mature audience who would rather watch a film that Michael Moore brings out which relies solely on educational political views that is mixed with American satire. Age could also bring you to this question; what is the audiences power level? Are you aiming at high schoolers? Michael Moore, for this film clearly intended to make the film for younger viewers and of course older viewers, mainly due to the fact that the Columbine High School Massacre was done by students, but it is a very adult issue.

GENDER

Although through my research both male and female people said that they would have been interested in this film. I think the film is mainly speaking to the male gender. Why? Because throughout the entire film when Michael Moore is interviewing people, a lot of the gun- toting is being done by men, who think that it’s their right and responsibility to own a gun and to protect themselves and family and friends, not the authorities. There was one scene where a man being interviewed reveals that he has firearms everywhere, including one that is fully loaded, underneath his pillow. He proceeds to take it from the pillow and point it to his head. These are the sort of people that the film investigates and asks who really should get to own a gun. Clearly, the two young men who shot up the school were not the appropriate kind of people to own guns, and neither were most of the men seen in the film, especially Charlton Heston, who routinely went over to various sites with the NRA where children were killed and celebrated firearms with pro- gun rallies, it’s actually quite sickening when you think about it. This speaks to the male demographic in so many obvious ways because they are the ones mostly seen and/or using guns, perhaps it dips into the whole idea of the Alpha Male, and why men should be trusted with weapons. But, I personally think that only select males should get hold of a gun. 

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

Michael Moore carries out his investigation through many locations in America; mainly Flint, Michigan, Moore’s own hometown. Moore is exclusively singling out Americans with this gun violence problem, particularly Charlton Heston who I have mentioned before. Through one of many montages seen throughout the film, we are shown statistics of how much gun crime there is per year in various Countries, these are Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and the United States. The statistics were that Japan had the lowest with only 40 per year, the United Kingdom has 68 per year, and the United States had 11, 127 gun crimes per year. So, it’s fairly obvious what geographically appropriate audience this was made for; Americans, although gun crime is a World wide issue.

EDUCATION
I don't think that it is absolutely necessary to have a specific IQ or education to view a documentary like this, you just have to be interested in the subject matter and the presenter. But, if I had to narrow it down, I would say that you would have to be quite educated to understand what is going on and what problems guns can cause. People with a higher IQ are most likely to watch something informative like this, whilst others with a lower or average IQ are more likely to watch a Hollywood action film or a comedy or something that is a lot more mainstream.

OCCUPATION
This one is actually quite tricky, you see, adults who have jobs and recieve wages are more likely to watch these kinds of movies, since they're more adult with adult themes, but the problem is that they wouldn't really have enough time to watch this film, or have any leisure time because they would, as adults, have such a heavy and hectic schedule in their lives. Then you have students or teenagers, who have more time on their hands with part- time jobs and School/College, so they would have more freedom to go to the cinema/download a film, but, another problem is that I don't believe that any student would be interested in a US based documentary like this anyway. But, there are a few teens out there who are interested.

INTERESTS AND LIFESTYLE
The audience's interests and lifestyle would have to be somewhat mature to fully understand the film and what Michael Moore wants to achieve and why. The target audience would also need to have a moral interest in current affairs and investigative documentaries. According to the website Raindance.org, a very good way to find out about your audiences lifestyle is to write several different diaries of a typical day in the life of potential audience members, you could then search Google images to find out and remind you who your target audience is. Another good exercise that links to interests and lifestyle is finding out what your audience likes to do on a night out? What do they enjoy? You could take the different answers and incorporate them into for film, although it would be more difficult to do this when working on a documentary film. Having said all this, this isn't the kind of documentary to "enjoy", as it does revolve around some very serious concerns that not many members of the audience would find the film 'entertaining', but more informative.

The target audience for this kind of film is the sort of person who goes by a very specific lifestyle choice, we will name him Bryan. They get up reasonably early in the morning, be it a work day or not, and have a specific morning schedule, doing everything in a specific order. Once out of the door they take a bus/train to work and take their car if it is a weekend or a day off. They're very tech savvy in their age (late 40's- early 50's) and like to spend time with those who also appreciate modern technology. They say that they have political views and try to act maturer that they already are, and always have an opinion on everything. But, they also watch the documentary out of interest and as a regular viewing.

Having said all of this, I still think that the main target audience would have to be Americans with a specific political view.

The Lift- New Questionnaire

The Lift

New Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

2. What gender are you?

3. Have you heard of the film- maker, Marc Isaacs or any of his films?

4. Would a documentary film where Marc Isaacs stands in a lift and films members of the public who walk in and out of the lift ever sound like an interesting film?

5. Do you think that there is an audience for this sort of film? Why?

6. Would you ever be interested in watching a film like this? Why?

7. Do you think that it is better for the director to be on- screen in the documentary or just act as a narrator? Why?

8. Why would the director ever think of making a film like this?

Bowling for Columbine New Questionnaire

Bowling for Columbine

New Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

2. What gender are you?

3. Do you watch documentaries? If so, what kind of documentaries interest you?

4. Have you heard of film- maker/political activist, Michael Moore, or any of his films?

5. Michael Moore's films deal with his Political views on American health care systems, voting and gun control. Does any of this interest you at all? Why?

6. Why do you think people would be interested in this?

7. When dealing with issues like gun control or the health care system, what areas of the 
topic are most important to cover? Why?

8. Why do you think people enjoy documentaries, and why do you think they're made?

The Lift- Draft Questionnaire

Draft Questionnaire

THE LIFT

1. How old are you?

2. What gender are you?

3. Have you heard of the short film, The Lift or its director, Mark Isaacs?

4. The Lift revolves around the director standing in a lift, talking to members of the British public who come in and out. Does this sound interesting to you? Why?

5. Why do you think people would find this film interesting?

6. What do you think the director was trying to accomplish here?

7. Do you think that a documentary like this would work with an audience? Why?

Bowling for Columbine- Draft Questionnaire

TASK 2- Questionnaire draft

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE

1. How old are you?

2. What gender are you?

3. Do you like/watch documentaries? And why?

4. Do you think that you'll ever be interested in a film about the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, or gun laws in the US?

5. Have you heard of documentary film- maker, Michael Moore?

6. Michael Moore's view on gun control in America is that 'Right- wing Politicians have moulded Americans to be panic ridden and fearful people, and it gives them a false sense of security so that they get guns to defend themselves from threats, which is something that they don't need.' Do you agree with this? Why?

7. What are your personal views on gun control?

Mise- en- Scene Evaluation

Tyree

Task 2
Mise en scene evaluation

For the 'mise en scene' 1- minute drama film, my role in this production was the camera operator and I drew out the storyboards.

The film is about a College student who has just received the open world action- adventure game, Grand Theft Auto V, and he gets attacked and mugged by an assailant. But he gets his revenge.

As this short film was based on true events, we tried to make the look of the film as real as possible, with the use of mise en scene, I think that we achieved in all four areas of mise en scene. These include:

· Setting- our short film was set in a car park throughout the entire thing. The team all decided on this decision because a) we weren't permitted to leave the College grounds and b) it seemed more realistic for the main character to be mugged in a busy car park.

·         Costume- we didn’t have any costumes to choose from to dress the actors, so they dressed in their own clothes, which was fitting seeing as they were playing College students. This also made the short film more believable.

·         Lighting- I would say that the sun light was used to light the short film, it may have also been a bit damp in weather but it looked very good on camera and it gave the short film the exact tragic feel that we were going for, to suit the overall tone of the story.

·         Performance- the actors did very well with their respective performances. The main character (Jazz) acted cheerful and jolly when he needed to, even if it was over the top, but it worked and gave the short a comical feel, especially since the whole film was accompanied by the tune of ‘Adagio for Strings’. Barney as the mugger worked very well, because of the way I positioned the camera, we never see the muggers’ face, only through small glimpses. This is a good effect for imposing characters, and has worked very well for characters like Michael Myers from ‘Halloween’ and Freddy Krueger from ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, who are always kept in the darkness.

In the final product, I think the four areas of mise en scene work very well considering we had to shoot it in a small amount of time. I would have to admit, though, that I would have shot the main characters’ face a lot more. It is vitally important to show your lead actors face, as he is the main focus. Whereas the main antagonist (the mugger) should be kept hidden from the audience and only seen in full when absolutely necessary.

I also think that the narrative was very clear. With the small amount of footage we got, I think that the short films’ story was paced very well.

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE Target Audience Profiling

Tyree

Bowling for Columbine

Target Audience Profiling

(continued)

4. Geographical

It is made extremely clear throughout the documentary that the director, Michael Moore developed and made this film for Americans. Moore clearly shows in the film that he wants to stop the gun problems and define the gun control in the United States. Having said that, his message could spread across many areas outside the United States, such as Great Britain and Germany and Japan, as they all have high gun crime rates.

5. Classification

I'm actually quite unsure on how to give an answer to this, but I believe that both pro- gun people and anti- gun people would have to watch this film, and here are my reasons why; for pro- guns, the film shows how American gun owners are blinded by their own morals on why they should own a gun, they believe that it is your own responsibility to take care of yourself and your family, and not the authorities. They have this belief that they would be able to self contain and control how they use their weapons against those who are potential threats, so Moore is trying to convince the Americans who love guns that sometimes they're not such a great thing by talking to them about the awful crime.. For anti- gun users, he is just showing them what problems are created with guns, as the citizens without guns would already have the same views on gun ownership as Moore anyway.

6. Education
I believe that film viewers with a higher, or better education would be more inclined to watch informative documentaries like this as opposed to entertaining "popcorn films" such as Transformers or The Expendables. You see, it also comes down to age and maturity. You do get mature teens who will sit and watch a documentary, but most of the time teens (and viewers with a smaller attention span) watch much more entertaining films rather than political documentaries. Documentaries could also be seen as acquired taste films.

7. Ideology/Politics
This one is fairly easy. Michael Moore, being a Political activist, is very famous for his Liberal views. His views make appearances in probably all of his movies and his books that he gets published. So, obviously, his target audience would be viewers with the same Liberal views as him. But, I could argue that he makes these films on the sole purpose that he wants to try to convince Conservatives to listen to his words and see if he can change everything that he seems Conservatives seem to be getting completely wrong.

Bowling for Columbine homework

'Bowling for Columbine'

Target Audience Homework

'Bowling for Columbine' is a 2002 documentary film by political activist, Michael Moore. The film mainly explores what Moore thinks caused the Columbine High School massacre, and gun rights in the United States.

Upon release, the film garnered $58, 008, 523 worldwide on a budget of $4 million, becoming an instant commercial and critical hit. The film broke the record for the most successful documentary film in the UK and Australia until the record was broken by Moore's next film, 'Fahrenheit 9/11'. Due to the documentaries subject matter, and Moore's own personal beliefs, the film was more successful outside of the United States; the film took in more money in the UK than it did in the US and got an 100% approval rating from South African audiences.

Like I stated above, because of the film's subject matter revolving around gun laws and gun crime in the US, the gross revenue in America was damaged because of most of America's views on who should own weapons and why. Most documentaries in the US (and those by Michael Moore) are about topics that Conservative Americans would not want to discuss, so in some case, I do believe that the film's touchy subject matter did in fact affect the film's overall success (inside the United States only, though)

Michael Moore's ideology on gun violence, American gun laws and fear in the United States can be summed up with this quote from an interview where he talks about fear and consumption, he says: - And the point is important: by creating a fearful and panicked public, you not only get them to buy things they don't need, you also get them to vote for politicians who have a right wing agenda. Fascism thrives when the people are in a panic, because people are willing to give up their freedoms and liberties, if they believe they're going to live as a result. And so the right wing politician says, "Vote for me and I'll put a 100,000 more cops on the streets. Vote for me and I'll build more bombs. Vote for me and I'll bomb Iraq." That creates this false sense of security.

After having watched the trailer, it seems to me that the film looks to be targeted at people who share the same views as Michael Moore's and want to uncover the truth, and who, perhaps, with their own sensibility of what's right, believe that there is more to certain things that most people seem to think, for example; the gun laws of America that everybody has got so use to over the years may not be as safe and secure that they wanted you to believe.

After watching the trailers for 'Roger and Me', 'Sicko' and 'Capitalism: A Love Story', it is all very clear to me that Moore's films are very pro- Liberal and Anti- Conservative, he means to make these films for all of America, and maybe, the world, but they look like that they end up being made for people who share his political views equally. Even though they all have the same satirical look at the way America is run, they are very serious and controversial to completely different kinds of people (those who want to reveal the truth, and those who want to keep it hidden)

The Lift

'THE LIFT'

The review of The Lift that I read was posted on this website:

http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/2011/08/07/lift/

Marc Isaacs is a BAFTA Award winning short film Director from North London. He has made several different short documentary films and has been included and celebrated in many other documentaries and articles. In 2008, he received a doctorate and has been a guest tutor at the London Film School. His latest film, Outside the Court, is very similar to The Lift, only this time, he stands with a camera, outside of the Highbury and Magistrates' Court in London, talking to people who enter in and out.

LIFT REVIEW

The Lift is a very odd film. It’s not particularly exciting, nor is it particularly interesting, but then again, it may just be the most interesting short film ever made.

The short documentary film is centres around a lift, or an elevator in a block of flats. We see the residents of the flat come and go with their daily routines aware of the fact that there is a man standing in the lift with them, holding a camera and capturing their every move.

The residents are all equally interesting people, although it does not look like it. For the first half of the short film, we just see the residents get in and out of the lift, having just come home from the days events. Nothing captivating or interesting happens, nobody even utters a word. But eventually, the director, Marc Isaacs begins asking simple questions to each and every one such as; ‘How was your day?’ and ‘What was your favourite childhood memory?’, it is then at this point where we begin to connect and sympathise for the people, who then become characters with distinct personalities. Some of them are very humorous, and the others are just quite depressing.

The great thing about Marc Isaacs work and most importantly, this film, is that he doesn’t want to show us things of great importance, for example; Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine questions gun laws in America and ‘who should get the rights to own a firearm?’, a very important issue indeed, but not something can take a moral interest in.

Now, The Lift is something much better, because, not only is it just about regular people with regular lives, it can be watched by regular people with regular lives, and people would feel a connection, whereas in Bowling for Columbine, I highly doubt any viewer would feel a moral connection with Michael Moore, or any of those gun wielding Americans.

Overall, a very good short film, and something that a lot of people could take a great interest in.

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