Feedback from our pitch to Mike

On Friday 27^th, we pitched our chosen idea to mike. I felt everyone in my group spoke with confidence and were able to suggest immediate possibilities if Mike had any concerns during our pitch. We all balanced our pitch equally between each person and were felt fully prepared for any constructive criticism. We pitched our idea, remembering not to quote any technical aspects or large details, as this was not necessary at this point in time. We all notably kept in mind, the idea of ‘one element’ and were able to consistently be aware of that throughout our pitch.

Overall, Mike gave us beneficial feedback and I made notes throughout his comments, as this allowed us to immediately respond to all the comments made; we responded by successfully carrying out research towards improving our idea. I am very appreciative of his comments as they made us realize some potential problems and helped us to try and over seize them.

Feedback

Mike started out by stating there’s a couple of things in terms of filming, firstly it is very difficult to film at night, reasons for this is if the only shots we film are at night and suddenly we want to make it day light to re-film parts, we can’t; but its also the case of practicality, for example, we have to get all equipment, actors, consider travelling and this could be a problem at night. Similarly, it is very difficult to film at night because of the lighting, even film sets and locations when they shoot at night have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds of lighting, so therefore our sequence will look very dark if filmed at night. However, if filmed in the day, when editing can make our footage seem smoky, gloomy and foggy by adding effects; Mike said it’s a shame because the thought process of transitions and editing have been thoroughly thought through and also fond of the idea of the girl dropping the lantern and it suddenly cutting to black, but still other ways to achieve that effect in daylight. Mike was confused as to why a lantern, but we’re simply using a lantern because she is having a dream and individuals constantly dream of weird, random things in their sleep, so therefore we felt a lantern suited the sequence. However, seeing as we are not filming it at night, the lantern doesn’t make sense, so the girl will have a teddy as her prop instead of a lantern.

Mike loves the idea being centred around a maze, he feels it’s fantastic, as he’s never previously seen a thriller set in a maze before by Hurtwood students, so he likes he original aspect. Need to carry out productive research into mazes for preparation for matt next week and contact them, considering locations to be within half an hour/ forty-five minutes, so he said go for anything within an hour radius, prioritise the ones that our closer, because would work out really well and would be a fantastic location, so put in the effort to get one. So when pitching to Matt, not only say we want to locate it in a maze, but we’ve already called and got permission to film in a maze, soon as we say that, they will be happy because that’s a big problem. Even though Katie suggested making our own maze, mike said we would not have enough time or the resources or space to construct a maze and anything that looked like it would just look like a girl running round the school ground, but not same effect. However, alternatives for locations are research into buildings, for example could film in Bea Webb or Cornhill, etc. Mike was very fond of our plot of a girl in pajamas in a maze, bare foot and the idea of having the man to be dressed in a suit to juxtapose the diversity, and so viewers don’t suspect anything suspicious. He said, the girl being bare foot might be a health and safety risk, therefore can compromise to girl wearing slippers, but likes the idea that we never see the guy’s face as its lit in such a way that we don’t, Mike found this really nice.

Lastly, he said to get a full-length mirror that’s going to work could be a problem as they are heavy, hard to set up and expensive but also difficult to transport in and out of the maze as we are sourcing it our self. He was fond of the mirror idea, stating it works, lovely, fantastic idea, only issue is he doesn’t see how practically it can be done, unless you could build and make own but are you adding too much of your own thing. So preparing us from the feedback from Matt as he will say how are you going to get it in and out of the maze, so therefore we could compromise by going smaller or shoulder length upwards or using a road mirror as easier to handle or we could even use a light, cheap mirror and simply paint it or have cobwebs draping over it if its an issue.

So overall, my group and I will forget about it being shot at night because wont work. So the main two parts to consider are where can we film it, find a maze and don’t give up with it as he likes that were already thinking of other compromises, bringing back to the one element idea that if you took away the maze would it still work, yes it will still effectively work as its following the same concept of a girl in her pyjamas, and a man following her, it works anywhere just would be really complimentary to be located in a maze. He said he would personally, still shoot it and set it up outside, as there’s something really nice about the girl in her pyjamas outside. Therefore, overall I feel our pitch to Mike was successfully achieved and we know how to respond to his productive feedback in preparation for our next pitch to Matt.

“Idea is fantastic, no holes in it, nothing wrong with it, a wonderful opening sequence to a thriller, so well done for that as there's not many people that nail it first time, and it is also a fantastic opening sequence, now just try to consider the limitations of what we can do.”