Monday, 9 May 2011
Evaluation Of "Queen Khan" Opening
THE BRIEF
The brief I was working towards was as follows "You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year old."
We chose the title "Queen Khan" because it would instantly attract our target audience because of it's relation to the boxer Amir Khan who's nickname is "King Khan" which also lets the audience connote aspects of boxing. We also felt this title worked well because it consisted of the main characters name while also being traditional to British Social Films because it was short like titles such as "Trainspotting" and "Harry Brown".
In addition to the meaning of the title we also chose the title after getting feedback from our target audience who preferred that title over our other working title "The Girl Boxer" which we considered using because of it has connections to the true story of Ambreen Sadiq which was inspiration for our film.
Our opening sequence opened the character of Noor Khan preparing herself to face off against a rival boxer for a chance at an ABA fight. We decided to not use the stylised approach of the opening occurring in reverse order because although interesting and engaging it didn't give the audience enough time to see Hashaem and hear him speak to Noor. That opening gave little time for the two characters to engage and show how much of an importance Hashaem is where as the opening we did use gave him a larger presence in the opening.
Our opening has a non-linear narrative with scenes occuring after the majority of the film because we wanted to get our audience asking questions about how the characters have ended up where they are,what's the importance of this fight, what is the relationship between to the characters. The non-linear was useful because with the addition of the editing style it gave the feeling of how Noor and Hashaem were in their mind sets, with more erratic jump cuts used with Noor while Hashaem had close ups and long shots to show his focus and intensity.
My opening explored themes of British Social Realist films by immediately making the theme of aspiration present with the Muhammed Ali quote being played over the character Noor Khan training, the thheme of dysfunctional families was also put into play with the dialogue exchange between Noor and Hashaem before she gets into the ring; during this exchange it should also be noted that to conform to British Social Realist films the characters use Urdu phrases to add realism.
The brief I was working towards was as follows "You have been approached by Film 4 to make a new British Social Realist film aimed at British 16-24 year old."
We chose the title "Queen Khan" because it would instantly attract our target audience because of it's relation to the boxer Amir Khan who's nickname is "King Khan" which also lets the audience connote aspects of boxing. We also felt this title worked well because it consisted of the main characters name while also being traditional to British Social Films because it was short like titles such as "Trainspotting" and "Harry Brown".
In addition to the meaning of the title we also chose the title after getting feedback from our target audience who preferred that title over our other working title "The Girl Boxer" which we considered using because of it has connections to the true story of Ambreen Sadiq which was inspiration for our film.
Our opening sequence opened the character of Noor Khan preparing herself to face off against a rival boxer for a chance at an ABA fight. We decided to not use the stylised approach of the opening occurring in reverse order because although interesting and engaging it didn't give the audience enough time to see Hashaem and hear him speak to Noor. That opening gave little time for the two characters to engage and show how much of an importance Hashaem is where as the opening we did use gave him a larger presence in the opening.
Our opening has a non-linear narrative with scenes occuring after the majority of the film because we wanted to get our audience asking questions about how the characters have ended up where they are,what's the importance of this fight, what is the relationship between to the characters. The non-linear was useful because with the addition of the editing style it gave the feeling of how Noor and Hashaem were in their mind sets, with more erratic jump cuts used with Noor while Hashaem had close ups and long shots to show his focus and intensity.
My opening explored themes of British Social Realist films by immediately making the theme of aspiration present with the Muhammed Ali quote being played over the character Noor Khan training, the thheme of dysfunctional families was also put into play with the dialogue exchange between Noor and Hashaem before she gets into the ring; during this exchange it should also be noted that to conform to British Social Realist films the characters use Urdu phrases to add realism.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Queen Khan Feedback
Positive aspects of the opening: Timing of the Muhammed Ali quote was timed well enough that the audience had time to read it all and it's transition on and off seemed to be received well by the audience.
The audience liked the match on action cuts of Noor skipping because they felt the "rhythm" of the skipping and also like the sound bridge between the Ali quote and the opening shot.
The handheld camera work not being constantly still was well received.
Use of existing locations and using real extras.
Real sound of radio instead of a soundtrack.
Negative Aspects: Muhammed Ali quote was too small and the audience struggled to read it clearly on an average Apple Mac screen.
The amount of match on action cuts of Noor skipping seemed a bit repetitive and that it could be trimmed down.
Wasn't obvious that Hashaem was interested in the boxing and the boxers boxing style and was instead interpreted as him being bored by the boxing.
Music from radio station jumped from the cuts in the editing.
Not enough shots in the jump cut scenes around the one minute mark.
Props and costumes in the mise en scene like the glasses and shoes removed the emphasism on Noor.
Diegetic sound didn't match in shots.
Improvements to be made: The Muhammed Ali quote proved to be difficult for audience members to read so I'm going to redo the quote in "Fireworks" because I had the max font size available in iMovieHD and they were unable to read it so instead i'm going to do it in "Fireworks" so it'll be easier for the audience to read.
Trim down the length of Noors skipping but keeping in the "rhythm" of her skipping to keep the audiences attention.
Attempt having the character Shani look at his watch so he there is more motive for him walking away, also a cut away adds more camera techniques. Try it out, if it dosn't work then take it out and find another and more effective way of implementing a cutaway shot.
Make it more obvious that Hashaem is interested in the boxing by using camera techniques that highlight the boxers abilities and/or style.
Create a wildtrack of a radiostation or music from speakers because it was well received that the radio was playing while filming but while editing the sound was cut up, a wildtrack will give the same effect but will be easier to manipulate in the editing.
More shots in the jump cut sequence, there should be a shot every 2 seconds or so.
Removing the glasses and shoes from the mise en scene. I'll keep the boxing equipment and Noor's jacket in the shot to show and highlight that this is her changing room but the shoes and glasses that didn't belong to her will be removed. The camera will focus more on Noor in shots and try to eliminate props and costumes in the mise en scene that take away emphasis on her.
Record a wildtrack so the diegtic sound matches better.
The audience liked the match on action cuts of Noor skipping because they felt the "rhythm" of the skipping and also like the sound bridge between the Ali quote and the opening shot.
The handheld camera work not being constantly still was well received.
Use of existing locations and using real extras.
Real sound of radio instead of a soundtrack.
Negative Aspects: Muhammed Ali quote was too small and the audience struggled to read it clearly on an average Apple Mac screen.
The amount of match on action cuts of Noor skipping seemed a bit repetitive and that it could be trimmed down.
Wasn't obvious that Hashaem was interested in the boxing and the boxers boxing style and was instead interpreted as him being bored by the boxing.
Music from radio station jumped from the cuts in the editing.
Not enough shots in the jump cut scenes around the one minute mark.
Props and costumes in the mise en scene like the glasses and shoes removed the emphasism on Noor.
Diegetic sound didn't match in shots.
Improvements to be made: The Muhammed Ali quote proved to be difficult for audience members to read so I'm going to redo the quote in "Fireworks" because I had the max font size available in iMovieHD and they were unable to read it so instead i'm going to do it in "Fireworks" so it'll be easier for the audience to read.
Trim down the length of Noors skipping but keeping in the "rhythm" of her skipping to keep the audiences attention.
Attempt having the character Shani look at his watch so he there is more motive for him walking away, also a cut away adds more camera techniques. Try it out, if it dosn't work then take it out and find another and more effective way of implementing a cutaway shot.
Make it more obvious that Hashaem is interested in the boxing by using camera techniques that highlight the boxers abilities and/or style.
Create a wildtrack of a radiostation or music from speakers because it was well received that the radio was playing while filming but while editing the sound was cut up, a wildtrack will give the same effect but will be easier to manipulate in the editing.
More shots in the jump cut sequence, there should be a shot every 2 seconds or so.
Removing the glasses and shoes from the mise en scene. I'll keep the boxing equipment and Noor's jacket in the shot to show and highlight that this is her changing room but the shoes and glasses that didn't belong to her will be removed. The camera will focus more on Noor in shots and try to eliminate props and costumes in the mise en scene that take away emphasis on her.
Record a wildtrack so the diegtic sound matches better.
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