Unit 9 - Characteristics and contexts in media and communication

1. Understanding the characteristics and context of Christmas films

Researching the Hallmark Channel

When we were given our brief, I needed to accumulate research about Christmas films and how they have been created in the past and how they have changed. I wanted to do further research in the hallmark channel and look at their style of programming, the typical narrative tropes of the genre and investigate their successes and failures.

During my research I watched many hallmark films on the hallmark channel, in hallmark Christmas films, the world is often idealized and only interested in Christmas, which is nothing like reality. At its core it is aspirational and the message that I perceived from the hallmark channel in general is that each movie often tries to echo the joy and innocence we felt as children during the festive season.

The Hallmark channel often follows the same narrative formula throughout their many films. There is usually a woman facing relatable stresses, including problems with job and being single around the holidays. A massive part to their formula is that women are often the centre of every storyline, and this has been great for the Hallmark channel as they have been attracting lots of female attention. This has been proven as in 2017 and 2018, the hallmark channel was the highest rated and most watched network on ad supported television among women between the ages of 25 -54. This proves that the hallmark channel knows their audience, so they make films about things women can relate too.

A further trait in Hallmark channel films is they often use magical realism by bringing fantasy into reality. In many of these movies Santa Clause or a jolly bearded man who looks suspiciously like Santa is often a character, who teaches everyone the true meaning of Christmas this is shown in the 2010 Hallmark film “Cancel Christmas”.

As part of this formula the Hallmark channel is often uses celebrity endorsement to promote their films. Such as Mariah Carey when she stared and directed “A Christmas melody” for the hallmark channel. They often use the same actors during their films having Lacey Chabert appear in 17 films for the Hallmark channel.

The final piece to the formula for hallmark movies is they always have a happy ending. They always deliver as warm fuzzy conclusion, with a feel good message that is family centric. However, using this formula over and over, has led to criticism for plagiarising their own films. This is because some of their films have the same plot. An example is “Christmas Land”, and “Moonlight and Mistletoe” are two different movies on the Hallmark channel, but they have the exact same plot about a holiday theme parks having bad luck with business.

Furthermore, the titles of the films feel lazy and not creative. For instance, “Boyfriend for Christmas” and “Marry me at Christmas”, the titles explain what happens before you even watch the film. Their biggest downfall is Hallmark films started out as a sweet romance story, but now has turned into prefabricated storylines with girl needing man for Christmas and other clichés. Nevertheless, this cliché formula is often the thing that gives these movies the appeal, the fact that they are reliable. Something about simple, cheesy, unsophisticated, and easy to watch films that people enjoy. Some hallmark channel films use works of great literature and bring it into modern day, “Pride, Prejudice and mistletoe”, “A Christmas carol” and even the Cinderella’s story. This further emphasises the fact that the Hallmark channel cannot be original and come up with interesting new plots.

The hallmark channel often gets into political controversy yet trying to avoid it. To give an example they released a commercial featuring two brides kissing and after certain homophobic comment the advert was taken down. This angered many of the LGBTQ community for not defending the LGBTQ and they instead pulled all adverts. They are often criticised on the lack of diversity and same sex couple in their films. However, they are trying to improve this by making.

Analysis of Christmas films

Christmas films can vary massively from being really cliché and cheesy but other can be funny with great comedic value. Doing this research should allow me to look at popular and well received Christmas movies and looks at the pros and cons and compare both with what made both films differ in positive or negative ways.

Before I began writing a screenplay, I analysed and compared two different Christmas films. This allowed me to have an idea on the different style of Christmas films. The first Christmas film I looked at was the 1947 film “Miracle on 34th Street” directed by George Seaton. The story follows an old man going by the name Kris Kringle. He fills in for Macy’s Santa at the Thanksgiving parade. Kringle is so popular that he gets the job at the toy store as Santa Clause. He soon begins to surprise customers and workers, by claiming he really is Santa Clause, which leads to a court case to determine his mental health and his authenticity. The notion of Christmas movies the way we think of them in the modern era, didn’t quite exist yet. This is emphasised with the realise of this film as it was realised the summer of 1947, because the studio didn’t believe audiences would go to the cinema during Christmas time. Furthermore, the trailer for this is no clips from the movie just people talking about the film, nothing is mentioned about Christmas and Santa Clause, the studio tried to promote this in a very mystery way. This is due to it being one of the first feature film Christmas film, some say setting the stone for future Christmas films.

The main element that expresses the element of Christmas joy is the protagonist Kris Kringle. What makes this Santa character different from many other Christmas films involving Santa is that he does not make the impossible happen and he doesn’t have an omnipresent aura, the charter just wants people to be happy. This is portrayed in the scene of the film when he sends customers to another store for the child to have their best Christmas.

You can perceive this Santa as just a normal person that is just wanting to make people happy. This is what sets this movie aside from many other Christmas movies as it feels more like reality and it portrays a Santa that many of the audience can believe in. The film emphasises this by going against convention by not showing the viewer and absurd miracles but instead making the audience question is Kris truly Santa Clause.

In miracle and 34^th street, the character Doris walker is the only character in the film to follow the Christmas movie trend of non-believer to believer. Doris never liked believing in fairy tales because she wants her daughter and herself to live in the real world. But after meeting Kris, her mindset changed, and she believed in Kris because he is a good man with a big heart. The relationship between both characters is believable and steers the movie back to its Christmas roots. This further emphasises what make this interpretation of Santa different from many other interpretations is that he is not perceived as a magical man, just a good man who wants to see happiness in the world.

Overall, what sets this film aside from other Christmas films is that it is a film that is believable. Its not cheesy or unintelligent. It has thought behind the characters and how they are perceived which is not often seen with Christmas films. Furthermore, this film was the first big feature Christmas film allowing it to set the stepping stone for these films and how they have grown popular over time.

The second Christmas film that I decided to analyse was a 1990 film “Home Alone” directed by Chris Columbus. The story follows an eight year old by called Kevin and he is accidently left home alone and he has to fend for himself when two burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, decide to break into his house for Christmas. This is a well directed, it is not just a fun childhood film, it is a film that many can enjoy regardless the age. The main thing that sets this film apart is its comedy, and Chris Columbus does a great job in setting up the jokes. Alternatively, you can argue that the editing is another reason why the humour works so well in this film.

In this scene, Chris Columbus perfectly knows when to put a pause and to speed up the humour. Before the line “that’s a good idea” the actor Daniel Stern leaves a pause adding to the humour and emphasising how unintellectual his charter really is. It is subtle but effect editing and directing that adds to this movie. The film also as a backstory with a character called old man Marley. He is perceived as this villainy character by Kevin because of the rumours his brother told him. But then there is this emotional heartfelt scene in the church, when Kevin (The young boy) runs into him by accident. This is when we learn about his emotional backstory. Having sub plots like this sets this film apart from other Christmas films.

Overall, both music Christmas films have similarities and differences to why they are popular Christmas films. Both Christmas films are unique and don’t stick with the usual cliché Christmas films as both storylines are original. What I have learnt when looking at “Miracle on 34th Street” is how important the characters as they are the main driving force that the audience connects with. When studying “Home Alone” I learnt how important the editing and the timing of certain jokes is what makes the film. I will incorporate this knowledge into my own Christmas short film.

2.   Production Diary

Pre-Production    -   The Planning process

Thursday 5^th November 2020

Once we were given our assignment, I began brainstorming different ideas based on the research that I performed. However, when creating my idea, I had to consider locations this is due to only being allowed to film inside the college due to the COVID-19 pandemic as it would not be safe to go out filming on location. I wanted to have interesting locations as I wanted my film not to look like it was based in a college. So, I had to consider locations that were possible to film in college when creating my idea and writing the screenplay.

Saturday 7^th & Sunday 8^th November 2020

During the weekend I began writing the first draft of the script based on the brainstorming I undertook. Before I began writing the first draft, I began writing about the characters personality and backstory. I often do this when creating all characters as I want to understand their life and that will help me write dialogue because I would understand how they talk and how they react to certain conversations.

The main protagonist in my story is a young mother who is struggling to balance work with her family life. I wanted to her character to be a bit misunderstood and that she feels like she is doing the right thing. The second character was Nicholas a representation of Santa Clause. This character was a lot easier to understand as it has been interpreted many times in hundreds of Christmas films. However, I wanted my Santa Clause to have a bit of mystery behind him as it would allow the audience to question if he is real or not. A Santa Clause that any age can believe in, like “Miracle on 34^th Street”.

Belief - First Draft (Screenplay)

Tuesday 10^th November 2020

Once my first draft was completed, I handed it in to get any feedback, personally I thought the first draft was a bit flat and the audience did not relate to the protagonist Alex as much as I wanted. After feedbacking my teacher suggested to add more conflict into my script to fix this issue that I was struggling with.

Saturday 14^th & Sunday 15^th November 2020

Taking onboard about having more conflict with my script, I decided that the opening scene Alex (protagonist) could be on the phone with her daughter explaining why she is missing Christmas. I believed this would add more emotion to the scene as we would get to hear how upset her daughter was. I also added in a conversation with her Boss to emphasise to the audience how desperate she is and how strict her work is. This allowed me to explain that she has missed her flight and it did not feel like it was forced in like in the first draft.

During the writing process of the second draft, I decided that Alex should have a backstory into why she believes she needs to work so much for her child. I wanted an emotion backstory as I felt it would add to the character and drive the story forward.

Belief - Second Draft (Screenplay)

Tuesday 17^th November 2020

I didn’t change much with the second draft when writing the final draft of my script. However, I took a few lines out, which I thought was a bit forced. An example of this was in the second draft of my script Alex and Nicholas are having a conversation about him doing a lot of travelling and speaking many different languages. This was meant to be a reference to the John Hughes 1994 “Miracle on 34^th Street” with this scene. The reason I cut this out was because I felt like it was not needed and it dragged the dialogue, which could ultimately make the audience lose interest in the film.

One thing that I was worried about when adding in the Alex’s child to the story was finding the actor who could play the role. When talking to my teacher she suggested that her daughter would be interested in the role. This is due to her having acting experience and she fitted the age of the character. The only thing I had to change in the screenplay was changing the name from a male to a female name, calling the character Lily.

Belief - Final Draft (Screenplay)

Wednesday 18^th November 2020

Once I had a full script I began to cast for my short film. I first created a casting notice for all actors, I had to write a brief synopsis of my short film. This is often to excite the actors and have them wanting to get involved in my project. I also had to include what characters are needed for the film, writing a physical and emotional description of each character. This allows the actors to understand the character and give the performance that fits my vision.

When writing my script, I had an actor in mind to play Alex who I have worked with before on previous projects. I contacted her first with the casting notice and asked her if she was interested in the role. Along with this I sent her the final draft of the script so she could look at the whole screenplay and grasp a better understanding of the story. Once she read the script, she said she was excited to be involved. This was great as working with her before allowed me to better understand how she performs. 

Thursday 19^th November 2020

Make up will be a very important factor with the finished product of my short film. I first filled out a makeup request form and mood board. Make up mood boards are very important when working with the makeup team. A mood board allows you to select images, colours and designs about of how you want the character to look and for them to create the character that matches your vision.

The main character I Alex will only need HD make up; this is used to enhance the appearance of the actor on screen. The second character in my short film was an embodiment of Santa Clause (called Nicholas in the screenplay).  The make up the actor playing this role will need a white beard around 3 cm to 5cm long, white hair and ageing make up around the eyes. This make up is very important as the character is well known around the world and his appearance is very recognisable.

When creating my make up request form I wrote about the synopsis of the short film and with all my details, this allows the makeup artist who want to get involved to contact me. Furthermore, I also write a brief description about the characters personality and what make up I want on each character. This will go along with the mood board to allow the makeup team to get a full representation and idea of what the character should look like.

Tuesday 24^th November 2020

I began to look at locations for my short film, when writing the screenplay, I already had an idea of locations. This is due to only being allowed to film inside of the college due to the COVID-19 regulations. I first looked at location for scene 2 as this is the longest and most important scene. In college we have a café called the infinity café. I spoke to the manager and she explained that I can film on any day once it has closed at 2:30pm.

The location for scene 3 was inside of an aeroplane. When writing the script, I knew that the aviation course has an interior design of a plane, this is used for training for the aviation students. I went to the room to see what shots could be interesting to capture and how we would film the conclusion of the shooting star going past the window. I looked at the schedule of the room and saw when it was free to use.

Scene 1 I looked at different corridors throughout the college to see which looks more realistic as an airport. I noticed a Christmas tree near the entrance of the college. This will be able to set the time of the year this is set without saying it directly to the audience. This allows the short film to run smoothly and take the audience on an easy journey.

After looking at locations the makeup artists who were interested in my project contacted me, and I arranged a meeting for the afternoon with everyone who was interested in my project. I discussed my idea about what I wanted each character to look like with the help of the mood board. I then gave them a copy of the screenplay. This allowed them to further understand the story and help create the image that I wanted. I then created group chat on Microsoft teams with all the makeup team. Creating a group chat allowed everyone to get in contact with each other, further allowing me to let them know what days we will be filming.

Wednesday 25^th November 2020

During the casting process I was struggling to find an actor to play Nicholas (Santa Clause). The character has a very specific look so when casting I was looking for the appearance of the character along with the acting ability. I was struggling for a while when finding an actor who fits the description and who has the acting ability. Once asking for suggestion from the acting teachers, they suggested a young actor who has been away from college due to medical conditions, who will return on Monday 30^th November 2020. I got in contact with him and asked him if he is interested, I sent him over the casting notice and the screenplay. He was very excited to get involved and this allowed me to create a shooting schedule now I have cast, crew, and make up ready and excited to be involved. When speaking to him he informed me that he would be in a leg cast meaning he would not be able to stand up. As he is behind the counter, I decided that when we come to filming, he will sit on a highchair, giving the illusion he is standing up. Shooting schedule is a project plan of each day of shooting. A shooting schedule is very important as it allows everyone to know the time and date of the shooting days, so they know when they are needed.

After this me and the production designer, Kai, went through all the props and costumes that were needed for the project and we began to create a props list.

My production designer began to create the boarding ticket that will be used at the end of scene 2. My production designer Kai created a boarding pass on photoshop by using a template of an old boarding pass and changed the name, date, and time of the pass so it was perfect and fitted with the story. 

Thursday 26^th November 2020

A very important pre-production paperwork is a risk assessment. A risk assessment is used to identify all hazards on set and who might be at harm. Furthermore, I evaluated the risks on took precautions on set to allow to reduce the hazard on set. An important thing that I must include is COVID-19 safety and how to keep everyone safe on set. Taking precautions such as wearing masks and keeping a two-metre distance when possible.

Doing contingency planning is necessary for pre-production work. The contingency plans I took into consideration was if one of the actors was not present on shooting days for any reason, I had a contingency date and a backup actor if any actors had to self-isolate for two weeks due to COVID-19.

I the continued to make shot lists for each scene. Having shot lists helps the production process as it helps you plan with the camera team and help them visualize how they will set up the camera and work with me to get the vision to come to life.

Along with this I created a storyboards for each scene, this further helps your team to understand what you want visually. Furthermore, I worked alongside the camera team and the director of photography when creating the storyboards, this allowed us to have different ideas visually and experiment with them on set.

Scene 1 - Storyboard

Scene 2 - Storyboard

Scene 3 - Storyboard

Friday 27^th November 2020 to Sunday 29^th November 2020

Over the weekend me and Kai sorted out all props and costume that will be needed for each day of shooting. With the costume me and Kai contacted the actors, we explained what costume we wanted and sent some example pictures. They both had the clothing for the characters. Kate who is playing Alex need smart casual clothing including dark trousers with white shirt and a blazer. Nicholas juts needed white top and trousers, however Dylan (playing Nicholas) said he had a Santa red hat which was perfect as it added more to the scene and hints to the audience that Nicholas is a representation of Santa Clause.

Production    -   The Shooting process

Monday 30^th November 2020

This was the first day of filming for my short film and this was the only day that we could film in the aviation room. This was a very short scene but important as this was the scene that finishes the film and if I got it wrong it would ruin the satisfactory ending that is important in hallmark Christmas films.

The first shot was a dolly shot going through the seat of the passengers and stopping on the protagonist, Alex. This shot was the first problem we came across this is because the dolly track did not fit down the row with the seats. We attempted different ideas including changing the angle and experimenting with it. However, I didn’t think this worked, so I tried going the same shot I wanted. After talking to my director of photography, Nathan, we overcame this problem by putting the camera on a stewardess trolley that the aviation students use as training. This was creative solution to get the same shot that I originally intended.

The final line of the film is “Merry Christmas Nicholas” and when Kate (actor) was saying the line it felt a bit flat and not natural. I directed her to take a pause before she says the line and another thing that I suggested is imagine that someone has just wished you a merry Christmas and just reply, so the line felt more natural to her. I also acted it out of how I wanted her to say it this gave her a representation of how I wanted the line to come across. This took multiple takes, but the result was perfect for what I wanted to finish of my short film.

Wednesday 2^nd December 2020

Today was the filming of scene 2 the longest and most important scene. We only had the café between the time 2:30pm till 5:00pm, this meant we dint have long to film and we had to get straight on with it. On the morning I sent Dylan to make up at 10:00am, the makeup that we required was a lot meaning it would take a few hours to complete. When the actor’s makeup was finishing up me and my team began setting up all the equipment including lights, camera, and microphone.

The original plan was to have Nicholas work at the café shop. However, when we got to the café, they informed us that we were not allowed to be behind the counter due to COVID-19 regulations as food is served behind there. This was a big problem as the beginning dialogue of the scene is specific to Nicholas being behind the counter serving Alex. I had to improvise, and I wrote a brief conversation that could fill in the beginning dialogue. This ended up being successful as the actor playing Nicholas just had an operation on his leg meaning he had to be seated for all his scenes.

Once I fixed the dialogue and we were all set up the actors showed up and I explained to them what has been changed and how we will do it. I started to go through the scene without any cameras as this allowed the actors to get comfortable with their new lines and their character. I often do this if there is time to get the actors comfortable with each other and comfortable with how I want them to act throughout the scene. The shots that I wanted for this scene was a master shot and two mid shots from each character.

I experimented with the director of photography with different shots by changing the angle. I only did this when there was more to the scene, such as the phone call and receiving the plane ticket. I did this so it was more entertaining for the audience and if it did not look good in the edit, I could cut back to the master or the mid shots.

Directing the emotional moment, when Alex tells Nicholas about the passing of her husband, was difficult. This was due to me wanting it in a certain way, the performance that I wanted was the protagonist Alex to be holding back her emotion because she is a strong character that has been holding back for so long. When directing Kate (actor) I asked her to take pauses on certain lines. These pauses would give the impression that the character is taking her time to contain her emotions. On the line “You see, her dad died last year” I asked Kate to choke up on this line emphasising that she hasn’t spoken about this and she is trying to hold back the tears. This took multiple takes and working with different pauses and trying to get the emotion across. Overall, the end performance was well executed and gave a great performance. Looking back at the film I wished I added more to the scene such as her wiping away a tear and trying to hold her emotions together. However not doing this allowed it to emphasise to the audience how emotionally strong the character is, which was a positive when showing the end product of my film.

Friday 4^th December 2020

Friday 4^th December was our last day of filming and we were filming the final scene, scene 1. I decided to film this on a Friday because the location of this is the front of the college meaning it is often very busy. Filming on a late Friday afternoon meant it was the least busy day and we were interrupted less. However, my original plan was to get this in one continuous shot, but lots of people leaving college interrupted the shot and the background noise was a severe problem. The only way to fix this problem was wait until the college was just about to close and film it quickly without anyone around.

At the front of the college there is a mechanical gate that you must walk through. The original plan was to get a continuous shot, but the tripod on wheels did not fit through the gate which was a problem as the movement of the camera looked jumpy and not professional. After multiple attempts, I made the decision to get two different shots on different angles, which allowed me to cut in edit. This did not allow me to get the continuous shot that I originally hoped for but due to us being on a tight time schedule forced me to make this decision. I was worried about the timing between Alex and Lily was off. My solution to this issue was have Kai speak to her on the phone so it felt more realistic to her and the timing of the conversation was perfect.

Monday 7^th December 2020

I start recording the audio for scene 1 for the lines of Alex’s Boss. Acting without visuals is very hard as you need to portray the characters emotions with just a voice. I directed the actor playing the role by having him say it multiple times to allow the frustration to come across in his voice. The result was very successful, and I was happy with the performance as the emotion was clear with the audience.

The final recording, I needed was of Lily's phone call (Alex daughter) due to COVID-19 I wasn’t able to go to her and record it myself. Instead, my teacher offered to record it on her phone as she is a part of the same household. I sent the screenplay to her along with some directors’ notes, having these notes allowed the actor playing Lily to know what performance I wanted. Whilst recording the actress also spoke to Kate the actor playing Alex to have the conversation with her. This made the performance more natural and allowed both actors to understand each others character.

Post-Production    -   The Editing process

Organising my footage

Before I began editing, I first sorted all the footage out into different folders. I first had a folder for each scene, this allowed it to be clear to me what footage is for each scene. And it made editing a lot easier as all the footage was organised.

Secondly, I had a good and bad folder, doing this allowed me to save time during the edit and know what footage worked and what footage did not work. This further allowed the edit easier for me as I would know what footage was useable and unusable.

Editing Scene 1

I first began to edit the audio on of Lily and Alex’s Boss, during the conversation I was unsure if I wanted to see Lily and Alex’ Boss throughout the conversation. However, I thought it would create a better story if we just hear the voice over the phone, so it is all in Alex perspective. I did this because the whole story being Alex’s story. I edited the audio in adobe audition as this allowed me access to more features. I imported the audio into adobe audition then I went to effects and added an adaptive noise reduction to the audio. This gave the audio a muffled effect and made it sound like a conversation over the phone.

Editing scene 1 was very simple I first began cutting each shot together and matched up the dialogue to fit and cut smoothly.  I then imported the audio files (that I edited in audition) and put them in the correct place, so the dialogue ran smoothly. Once looking back over the footage, I felt there was something missing from the beginning. I believed that to convey to the audience that the film is set in an airpor.t I decided to do research stock footage of an aeroplane landing. I managed to find some stock footage and along with this I downloaded audio of an aeroplane landing. I overlayed the audio and the stock footage to make it more realistic to the viewer. Putting it at the start allowed it to convey to the audience the location of the short film.

The beginning footage of my short film is blurred so I decided to blur the stock footage of the aeroplane and transition it in with a cross dissolve. This made it to look more natural as both videos are blurred, and the focus is adjusted to reveal Alex in an airport.

I added in the title card of the short film whilst it is blurred on the Christmas tree, this gave my film a professional look and made it look more entertaining then just a blurred screen on Christmas tree lights. I transitioned this in with a cross dissolve as it worked smoothly with the other transitions.

Furthermore, I made the decision to add a short 10 second music to reveal the title card, this took a lot of research as I needed non copyright background music to fit the title card appearing. I wanted an acoustic guitar sound for the title, I found the audio on YouTube and added it in and faded out the audio with an exponential fade. 

Editing Scene 2

I imported the footage and began cutting it together to create the scene. When cutting the scene together I used L-Cuts a lot when cutting between the master and the two mid shots. A L-Cut is when the audio overlaps into the next cut. I did this as it often allows the cuts to run smoother and not look jumpy.

After the scene was cut together, I research some café background sound, this made the scene feel more realistic. I reduced the audio gain on the café background sound, so it was subtlety in the background and is not very noticeable but added the realism to the scene.

During the emotional scene, the background music is very important as it adds to the emotional drama of the scene. As being inspired by John Hughes’s “Miracle on 34^th Street” I wanted to play homage to the director. I used the backing track “Power to Believe” used in “Planes, Trains and automobiles” for the emotional scenes. This fitted perfectly for this scene, as it added more emotion to the scene. I reduced the audio gain when adding this in, this is so the dialogue is still the important thing in the scene, but the music adds to the emotion of the dialogue.

Editing Scene 3

I began importing all the good footage into the premiere pro software and pieced it together. For the shooting star to go past the window I originally had a green card over the window and in edit use ultra-key and put the shooting star image behind. However, when cutting it together it looked fake and fleet very abrupt.

I cut this out and decided to take a new approach to my idea. I began researching shooting star green screen videos on YouTube. I managed to find this clip of multiple shooting stars on a green screen. I downloaded it and put this footage over the video of Alex looking out the window. I sized the video down, so it fitted inside the window. Then I began to mask out the greenscreen video around the window. This allowed the illusion that the shooting star is in the sky. 

After this I used the ultra key to remove the green background. Overall, this worked well, and I was very proud with the finished product.

To add more depth to this scene I decided to add in an aeroplane sound effect. Subtle things like this allow the scene to feel more realistic. I also found stock audio of a pilot peaking I put this at the start of the clip and used a J-Cut to merge scene two and three with this audio. I believe this added more to the scene and the J-Cut made the transition between both scenes feel smoother.

3.   Evaluation

Our assignment was to create a short Christmas film in the style of Hallmark channel films. Doing individual research about the Hallmark channel and other Christmas films allowed me to learn about the typical narrative tropes with these films. Doing research further allowed me to gain inspiration for the short film but have my own unique idea. From this project and other projects, it has further emphasised how important research is. This is because when creating a project, you need to research and know your target audience. Knowing your target audience allows you to understand what is popular in Christmas films and what is not.

During the pre-production process the biggest challenge was writing the screenplay as this was the first dialogue short film I have completed. My biggest struggle that I had when writing the first draft was the conflict within the story. Not having conflict made the screenplay feel a bit rushed and the audience did not sympathise with the protagonist. In future projects when writing the screenplay, I need to think about the conflict as it is very important to drive the story and make it interesting for the audience.

Throughout the production process I had a few struggles that I was able to overcome. The main struggle was the amount of time we had on certain shooting days. This was due to the availability of certain locations. Nevertheless, I overcame this issue by being time efficient and directing both cast and crew to get everything done in the short frame of time. Another issue I had on set was we were unable to go behind the counter when filming in the café. This was a massive issue as the opening dialogue in scene two relied on the actor being behind the counter, working at the café. I overcame this issue by looking at the location and began creating a quick opening scene, so we were able to continue the shoot. This taught me a lot about being a good leader as problem solving is a very important role when being the director. When directing scene two I could have tried to get more emotion from Kate (who is playing Alex) this would allow the character to feel more vulnerable and emotionally connect to the audience. However, not doing this allowed the audience to understand how strong the character really is. The final problem I had was when I filmed scene one, the problem that occurred was the continuous shot I wanted in the first scene. The equipment that we used was a tripod on wheels, but it didn’t fit through the gate at the front of the college. Because of this I didn’t do a continuous shot and instead film multiple shots from different angles. For future projects I should look at the locations and think about equipment and if it would work for the shot that intend on getting.

During the editing process I wanted the film to look professional and look like it was made to a very high standard. To make it look professional in edit I added cinematic bars as this is used often in the industry. I further conducted research about different cuts, and I learnt about the J-Cut and L-Cut. This is very important when editing together footage as it allows the story to flow smoothly. When editing future projects, I will use these cuts when cutting between shots and cutting from one scene to another as these editing techniques are very effective and used all the time in the industry. My original plan to have the shooting star fly past the aeroplane window didn’t work. This was due to it not cutting together effectively. I began to investigate how I could do this differently and came up with the idea, using footage from YouTube of a shooting star going past the window with a green screen behind it. Fixing this issue took a lot of research as it still needed to look realistic. Furthermore, an editing technique that I learnt during the process was using ambience background sound as it makes the scene more realistic. It is very subtle but is very effective when adding this in edit. Another important thing when editing the film together is its score, especially with emotional scenes. During the emotional scene in my film the “Power to Believe” score was such an important factor when adding emotion to the scene.

In comparison to Hallmark channel films and Christmas films, my short films has a similar narrative structure to theses films. When I researched the characters of these films there is often a strong woman character as the protagonists which is very popular for the Hallmark films. I showed this in my short film by having a similar style character being a strong mother who is struggling to balance work and family. Furthermore, Hallmark films are often criticized for being a cliché and having unintelligent dialogue. I tried to keep away from this issue by not having a love interest as that is often over done in Hallmark Christmas films. Additionally, I added more depth when writing the screenplay by having an emotional and dark scene when Alex talks about her husband passing away. This gave the story another layer because the story is not just about a mother and daughters relationship, it is about Alex trying to cope with the death of her husband which differs from the Hallmark channel.

Overall, I think my short Christmas film was very successful as it fitted the classic narrative tropes of these Christmas films, but it differs in many ways with the different messages throughout the story. Throughout this project I learnt how important problem solving is when being a director on a project. As director you are the leader of the project, so communication is key. Having communication with the makeup team, cast and crew is very important to make a production run smoothly and effectively. This project has ultimately secured my passion for directing and screenwriting as I love writing my vision and it coming to life in the final film.