Evaluation - Question 7

In this blog post I will be looking back at my Preliminary task and explaining what I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product. 

Pre-production - 

• I feel that my time management improved following on from the preliminary task. I was able to get all of the planning and research done quickly. This meant that I had longer to film and edit. This also meant I was able to organise myself better as I was not in a rush. 

• We also produced a shot list for the main task. This enabled us to use our time effectively when filming meaning that we managed to get all of our shots in one day. This was good because it meant that we didn't have to worry about arranging more days that everyone was available. 

Filming - 

• In terms of filming, one thing I learnt from the progression from the Preliminary task to the Main task was to use a tripod to keep the camera steady. In our preliminary task we didn't have access to a tripod so filmed it freehand, this meant that there were sections where the footage was shaky. To improve, we borrowed a tripod for filming of our main task. This gave our piece a more professional look to it. 

Post-Production - 

• In post production, in the progression from the Preliminary task to the Main task, we as a group learnt to apply different transitions between shots in order to slow down the pace. We decided to do this as we only used straight cuts between shots in our preliminary task, which made it feel fast paced. We tried out different transitions and decided on cross-faded. However, we later decided to change to dip to black to make the pace even slower. 

Evaluation - Question 6

In this blog post I will be explaining what I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.

Here is a Prezi I made to present this - 

Evaluation - Questions 4 and 5

In this blog post I will be considering  the audience for our media product and how we attracted and or addressed them throughout our film opening. 

Ideal Person Profile - 

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Interests:  Horror movies, Shopping, Going out with friends.

Dislikes: Romantic movies, School, Cats.

Hobbies: Swimming

We think that this person would be the ideal person for the audience of our film because they are interested in horror movies which means they are more likely to enjoy it than someone who dislikes horror films. They are also in the middle of the target audience age range which means that the content is appropriate and won't be as scary and disturbing for them. 

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

We decided the certification for our film would be 15+. We thought this because the film consists of:

• strong violence, 
• drug taking, 
• dangerous behaviour, 
• threat.

Also during our research we discovered that the top 15 rated film of 2015 was a horror. This shows that this genre typically has higher age ratings due to the content. We also found out that 15-24 year olds make up the largest proportion of cinema views. This means that our film is more likely to gain more views than an 18 rated film as a larger audience is available. 

Both female and male audiences will watch our film, however as the main character is female we mainly targeted our film towards the female gender. We feel that this will attract a larger audience as many females who would not usually go to the cinema to watch a horror will feel more connected with the film and want to watch it. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation - Question 3

In this blog post I will be researching the kind of media institution that might distribute our media product and why they would be good for this. 

When I was deconstructing other film openings I researched the distributors of each film. I found out that 'The Woman in Black' was distributed by an independent distributor in the U.K. called 'Momentum Pictures'. 

As our film would have a small budget an independent distributor would be the appropriate media institution to distribute our film. An independent film distributor often works in conjunction with other distributors in order for the film to be viewed worldwide. For example, 'Momentum Pictures' distributed 'The Woman in Black' in the U.K. only but 'CBS Films' distributed in the U.S. Independent film distributors are also frequently owned by larger companies that have many divisions. When distributors work together it means that costs can be reduced. This is good because it allows smaller budget films to be distributed and seen across the world.

Our film may also be available on online sites such as Netflix or Amazon instant video. This is because the small budget would mean limited money for distribution and sites like these are cheaper for both us as the Film company and the audience. This means a wider range of people are likely to watch the film as they don't have to spend as much money as they would if they went to the cinema. This kind of distribution would also mean that younger audiences, such as 15-18 year olds are more likely to watch our film, as it is easy to access. This is good because our film is aimed at this age range. 

Evaluation - Question 2

In this blog post I will be studying how our media product represents a particular social group and the ways in which it does this.

Evaluation - Question 1

In this blog post I will be exploring the ways in which my media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. 

When previously analysing professional productions we researched some of the common forms and conventions of the opening of a horror film. This helped us when planning our own opening as we were able to have a clear idea of what our piece needed to contain in order to look professional and have a convincingly scary feel to it. 

Music - 

The most common convention of a horror film opening is to have scary and creepy background music. We followed this as we thought it worked effectively in the films we researched and so felt that it would enhance the overall opening sequence. In our analysis of 'The Woman in Black' we noticed that the background music built up slowly. This lead us to experiment with the use of fade in and fade out of music at the beginning and ending of our opening. 

Introducing Characters - 

Another convention that we noticed in 'The Woman in Black' was showing the character from behind but not revealing them. The intention of this is to make the audience intrigued and make them want to continue watching to find out more about the character. We had lots of shots that contained the main character from the back but we decided not to show her face as it creates more mystery and suspense. However, we did decide to show the face of the victim as it shows they are more vulnerable. This is similar to 'The Woman in Black' where the faces of the three children (the victims) are shown throughout.

Colours - 

A convention that was present in all three of the openings I analysed was the use of dark colours. The fact that this is used in all three of the film openings suggested that it is effective and creates a convincing atmosphere. Initially our footage was quite light and bright, this contradicted the atmosphere we were trying to portray. This meant during our editing process we tried out different methods of making the footage darker. Once we had applied effects to make our footage darker, the overall effect of it was more convincing and had a scarier atmosphere about it.

We also developed the use of dark colours by adding black and white filters to the beginning few shots and end shot of our opening. This was a convention that used to be used in horror films but is not used as widely in present day. We chose to use this to represent that there was a significant amount of time between the two scenes. 

Sound - 

From my analysis of 'Lights Out' I noticed that the dietetic sound of footsteps was used at the beginning to add emphasis to the fact that the warehouse was large and empty. We used this idea at the beginning of our opening sequence to create the same effect. Our main character Evangeline was running under a bridge and the sound of her footsteps on the wet ground made an echoing sound. This created the sense of isolation which is typically associated with fear and abandonment; one of our key themes in the movie. 

Clip from our film opening 'Evangeline'

Clip from 'Lights Out' 

Editing - 

Our editing challenged to typical conventions of a horror film. We used the 'dip to black' effect between each of our clips in order to slow the pace of the opening down. However, in all three of the films I analysed they used straight cuts to transition between shots. This created a faster pace and made the audience feel more worried and tense. 

We also challenged the conventions of the three films I analysed by having our credits and title run over the top of our footage. Although this is not always the case, the three films I analysed did not have credits during the opening of the film. We chose to add our credits at the beginning because many people leave the cinema or turn off the DVD as soon as the film is over meaning the people who worked on the film don't get the recognition for their hard work. 

Setting - 

The setting of our film, the woods, is stereotypically seen as a scary place. Although none of the films I deconstructed were set in a wood, the setting still uses a typical convention of horror films. 

Font Types - 

The font we chose to use as our credits and titles was Adobe Carlson Pro in italic. We chose this because it was smart and professional looking but also had a creepy and horror feel to it. After researching fonts and typefaces we recognised that many horror fonts used serifs. We decided to use this convention because it was simple but effective and created the professional look we wanted. 

Camera Angles - 

Some of the camera shots and angles we used in our opening scene were; pan, tracking, point of view and tilt. We used a pan in conjunction with a POV shot to show the surroundings of the character. This is a typical convention of horror films as it allows the audience to feel like a part of the film and feel the fear of the victim. 

Final Film Opening - Evangeline

This is our final edit of our film opening of Evangeline - 

Editing Journal - Main Task

In this blog post I will be explaining the step undergone to get to our final production.

Lesson 1-

In our first lesson of editing, we imported all of our footage across from the SD card to the school Macs. We created a folder to keep all of our footage and saved drafts. After we had imported all our footage we opened Adobe Premier Pro and created a new file. Next we selected the shots we wanted to use and imported them into Adobe Premier Pro. Next we began to place our shots in the order we wanted them into the timeline. This allowed us to see a rough guideline of what it would look like. We then saved this copy with the title 'evangeline'.

Lesson 2 -

When we arrived in our second lesson of editing we opened up our file that we had been working on in the previous lesson and began to edit the clips together. We started from the beginning of the timeline and cropped each shot to the right length trimming bits from the start and end of each clip. We did this all the way along our timeline, experimenting with different lengths of shots and starting shots from different time frames. We then began to mute the sound on some of the clips as it was either un-needed or there was talking in the background. We then saved our file as 'evangeline2' so that when we came back to our work we knew which was our latest copy of the file.

Lesson 3 -

In our third lesson of editing we opened up our 'evangeline2' file and carried on with where we had left off. The majority of this lesson was spent adding transitions to the shots. We tested out a few different options for transitions. We went for cross fade on most shots and dip to black on POV shots as this made it look like a blink giving it a more realistic effect. Once we had done all the transitions we began to search for background music for our piece. We found lots of different sound tracks that we liked and we played them all alongside our footage to see which fitted best. Finally, we imported the soundtrack to Adobe Premier Pro and from there dragged it onto the timeline, underneath the footage. We then trimmed the soundtracked to fit the length of our piece and added fade in and fade out transitions to allow the music to build up. This created a more eerie feel to the piece and wasn't too loud and abrupt at the beginning. We then saved our file as 'evangeline3'. 

Lesson 4 - 

In our fourth lesson we added titles and credits. We placed them over the top of the footage and tried out different fonts and colours. We decided on Adobe Carlson Pro for the credits and Tratello for the title. We chose to make most of our writing black but we had one credit and the title as white. This was because of the colouring of the footage. We added transitions to our credits and titles to fit the footage. We chose to use cross fade transitions at the beginning and end of each credit. We then saved our file as 'evangeline4'.

Lesson 5 - 

During our fifth lesson we had our first edit check in with our teacher. This involved us showing our  most up to date project file to our teacher and receiving feedback on the positives and how to improve.The first bit of feedback we were given was to have a slower fade in of the credits and titles in order to allow more time for it to be read and to make the piece flow better. The second piece of feedback we were given was to change all our opening shots to dip to black to slow down the pace. Another piece of feedback we were given was to consider putting our credits onto a black screen however, we tried this out and decided we didn't like it as much as the credits rolling over the footage so changed it back. A positive piece of feedback we were given was that our choice of music was good and fitted well with the piece. The final piece of feedback we were given was to move the 'Directed by' titles to later on in the piece to allow the audience time to take in the initial storyline. We then applied all these feedback points to our work and saved our file as 'evangeline5'. 

Lesson 6 - 

In our sixth lesson we decided to add some effects to our piece. We decided to make the first 3 clips of, Evangeline running, black and white. We did this to create a sense of mystery about her character and to show that the footage was shot previous to the time that the man was there which suggests that she has been living in the woods for a while. After receiving feedback from our focus group that the scenes in colour were too bright we decided to add effects to these to make them darker. To do this we tried many different preset effects however, they were all to bold in colour so we decided to experiment with the saturation of the video clip. This allowed us to make the clip darker and create a more convincing eerie setting.  We then saved our file as 'evangeline6'.

Lesson 7 - 

In lesson seven we asked our teacher to watch our improved production and give us some informal feedback to help us move the piece on further. The feedback we were given was that some of the shots in our footage were not well placed. In her opinion the shots we used gave away too much of the film in the opening. To improve we removed these shots to create a more cliff hanger opening which would draw an audience into watching the rest of our film. During this lesson we also played around with the speed of some of our shots. We sped up the black and white shots at the beginning to make it seem like she was running fast as if she was trying to keep out of sight. We slowed down the black and white clip of Evangeline running at the end of the piece. We did this to slow down the pace of the opening as a bridge into the main body of the film allowing the audience some time to remember what they have seen so that they can easily follow the story line. We then saved the file as 'evangeline7'.

Lesson 8 - 

During our eighth lesson we had our second edit check in with our teacher. In this session we received some good feedback that we were able to apply to our project to improve it and make it look more professional. The first piece of feedback we were given was to make all of our fonts the same. We took this into consideration and found a font that we like for both the title and the credits. We also tried out using the font in bold and italic swell. Finally, we settled on having Adobe Carlson Pro in italic for the credits and Adobe Carlson Pro in bold and italic for the title. The second piece of feedback we were given was to make the colour of the text the same on all of the credits. We decided that with our now darker shots that white would stand out more and be easier to read. The final piece of feedback we were given was to make the transitions longer to slow down the pace. Originally the transitions were only 1 second long so to slow the pace we made each transition 3 seconds long. We then saved our file as 'evangeline8'. 

Lesson 9 -

In our final lesson of editing we watched over our work to  ensure we were happy with it. Next we rendered our piece so that it ran smoothly and was of high quality. We did this by going to sequence at the top left of the screen and going down to Render In to Out. We then exported our final piece ready for our teacher to upload to Youtube for examination. We did this by clicking File > Export > Media this brought us to the export setting menu. Next, we went to format and selected H.264. Then, we clicked preset and scroll down to Youtube 720p. Finally, we clicked Export and waited for the file to export.

Filming Journal - Main Task

In this blog post I will be explaning the process we underwent and the problems we encountered and how we solved them during filming.

The Day -

Our chosen day of filming was Saturday Janurary 14th. We met at 3pm at the chosen location, we chose this time as we wanted it to be starting to get dark to add a more realistic effect to the shots.

Our first shots were taken in the car park. We managed to get the perfect angle first time round however, we had to take the shot 3 times. The first shot was too blurry as we hadnt focussed the camera properly so we adjusted the camera lens and tried again. The second two shots were good but we took extra just to be safe.

The next stage of our filming was in the wooded area. The first shot in this section was 'Patrick' walking his dog and 'Evangeline' following him. This only took one take as the lighting was good, the actors were well prepared and followed instructions clearly. The shot in this section which took the longest to film was the shot where 'Buddy' followed 'Evangeline' into the woods. This took 4 attempts to film and required myself to be on set to get him to move into the correct spacing. This meant Maryam had to be camera person and director. This also meant that i was slightly in shot at the end however, we knew we would be able to trim this out during the editing stages.

Finally, for the last section of our filming we had to film up a huge hill. This was a problem as our actor for 'Patrick' was unable to climb up the hill. To overcome this problem myself and the actress of 'Evangeline' went up and got the POV shots. We then found another area to film the section where 'Patrick' was tied to a tree. However, by this time it had got alot darker. This meant that our shots were difficult to see.

Overall, our day was successful as we managed to get all the shots we needed, plus extras incase our edited footage was not long enough. We also managed to shoot it all in one day which allowed meant we had longer time to editing, render and export our final production. If we were to re-shoot our footage, we would improve by starting earlier in order to get all of our footage in good and clear lighting.

Talent Release - Main Task

During the pre-production stages of our film we asked our actors to fill out a talent release form. This is a document that allows us to use the talent of each of the actors and publish it. A talent release form is used to protect the producers.

Risk Assessment - Main Task

When planning for our filming we prepared a risk assessment. A risk assessment is a process which identifies possible hazards and ways to avoid them. It was important for us to carry out a risk assessment as we had to ensure our actors and crew were safe at all times. 

We first did a draft copy of our risk assessment. We took this to our teacher and got some feedback on how to improve and make it clearer to understand the risks and precautions. We then adapted our risk assessment after this feedback. 

We then got our teacher to approve and sign our final risk assessment so that we were able to film our footage safely. 

Cast Research - Main Task

In the opening sequence of our film only two characters are used.

Patrick -

Name: Keith Todd

Age: 71

Height: 5 ft 10

Hair Colour: Grey

Previous Experience: Extra in films and TV advert roles.

Reasoning for choice: We chose this person to be our actor for Patrick as he has previous experience with acting for camera. He also fits the description of the character and the age of the actor helps to create sympathy for him.

Evangeline -

Name: Evangeline Hayward

Age: 10

Height: 4 ft 6

Hair Colour: Red

Previous Experience: Attends a drama school where she has learnt about acting on camera. Has also been in theatre productions and undergone LAMDA examinations.

Reasoning for choice: We chose this person to be our actress for Evangeline as she has previous camera and acting experience. She also fits the description for the character of Evangeline as she has curly red hair. Finally, the age of the actress helps to show the theme of childhood innocence.

Props Research - Main Task

For our main task we will be using props to help create a realistic feel and atmosphere. We will need to research our choice of props in order to have a clear understanding of what we will need.

Car-

 

We will be using a car in the first two shots of the opening scene. In order to use this prop, we will need a licensed driver to film this scene, as this is a legal requirement.

Rope-  

We will be using rope as one of our props towards the end of the opening sequence. We will need to use it to tie one of our actors to a tree, which creates a tense atmosphere at the end of the opening scene.

Dog Lead-

We will be using a dog lead briefly at the beginning of the scene where the man takes the dog out of the car. The lead will be held by the actor throughout the shots 3-7.

Costume Research - Main Task

For our opening sequence of the film  there is only two characters shown; Patrick and Evangeline. Both characters have modern clothes on which confirm to their stereotypes.

Patrick -

  

Patrick wears stereotypical clothes for a man of his age. As we can see from these photos the colours worn are all earthy and plain. When planning a costume for this character we will take this into consideration in order to portray an accurate representation of the elder generation and make the film more realistic. Flat caps are often worn by older men. "In British popular culture, the flat cap is typically associated with older working class men, especially those in Northern England, and the West Country". Therefore it could be classed as a symbol to suggest the age of the character.

Flat Cap. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/11/17. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cap#British_popular_culture

Evangeline - 

Evangeline is an average 11 year old. She is more of a 'tomboy'. These photos show different styles of outfit for young girls. The first outfit has very 'girly' connotations owing to the fact there is a lot of pink and the girl is wearing a skirt. However, the boots show a more 'tomboy' aspect to the outfit. The second photo is a mixture of both styles of outfit. It has a 'tomboy' feel to it but uses the colour pink to make it appeal more to the female gender. Lastly, the final photo shows a very 'tomboy' outfit choice. The colours used are stereotypically associated with the male gender. The checked shirt is often associated with cowboys suggesting a male influence. When considering our costume choices we need to take into account that Evangeline has been living outside for up to 5 months. This means she will have dirty, ripped clothes and messy hair. She would also have very dirty skin and cuts and bruises on her face and body. This will make the clothes appear more dull in colour and she will blend into the surroundings more.