Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at you preliminary task, what do you think you have you learnt in the proggression of it to the full product?

After filming our preliminary, we learnt how much planning is required for filming, and how much time is wasted when we plan the shots on set rather than preparing before hand. After our preliminary we decided to make sure that every aspect of our final production was planned thoroughly. This would ensure that we did not waste the time that we had with the hire camera, as we only had 2 days. We also learnt about the importance of lighting, and how it can add to the effect of different shots, and also the distractions it can cause. We found especially with the long shot in our preliminary, that the lighting distracted the viewer from the shot of the main character, so we did our best to choose camera angles which helped target this issue. We we also quite lucky as the weather was cloudy which didn't cause many problems with natural lighting and colouring.

Also, we made sure that we deleted the bad takes before uploading clips from the camera to the computer as after uploading files for the preliminary exercise, we found that it took a long time and the process was very slow as we had so many different takes that were useless to us.

Finally, after watching our preliminary exercise back, we have learnt how essential it is to have good continuity throughout, and how distracting errors can be to the viewer. They also play a part in preventing the viewer from becoming absorbed in the film and characters and feel like they are a part of the scene.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We decided to hire out a camera for our production for improved quality. We learnt many features of the camera, and introduced them to our film. These included various lenses (including wide-angle) , camera lighting and manual focussing, which is featured several times in our intro, as you can see in this example. We also furthured our understanding of the editing software, Sony Vegas, and Adobe Aftereffects which was new to us and helped create the titles which feature in our introduction. We learnt how to transfer media between the camera and computer, and found problems which we overcame along the way, we have discovered many restraints and also many opportunities that various technologies can provide us with.

We have also became more confident with using the cameras that the school provided us with to film our media, we used the school cameras to shoot a couple of scenes that did not turn out how we would have liked them to. We also used the school cameras when we had further ideas that we thought would improve our media piece. We also used technolgies such as portable hard drives to transport large video folders and shoots we had completed.

I believe my skills of researching online have increased and i am a more efficient researcher along with being able to obtain and understand different online demonstrations and tutorials.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract and address your audience?

We have attracted several audiences by following common conventions of thriller films and also dramas in our piece. We tried to create enigma for audiences of thriller films in our opening through the last clip of our film introduction, featuring the female character who is believed to be gone - confirming to the audience that she is infact still alive, however she is in serious danger. Our film also appeals to fans of dramas, as there is a strong focus in our film of the emotional distress that the main character is going through, we have tried our best to induce sympathy so that the audience can relate to the character as much as possible.

Along with addressing the common conventions of popular film opening with the same genre we will also advertise for the screening on billboards and through relevant newspapers and magazines targeting the correct age group that we are targeting for our film. The more mature grouop that we are targeting will acknowledge the adverts and be attracted at completely different places and by different advertising stratergies. We would also rely a great deal on word of mouth spreading and attracting people to the screenings.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is quite a mature group that would appreciate the emotional development and depth, rather than the more traditional blockbuster  thrillers which are more action packed. The characters featured in our film are around the age of 17-18, so this will be likely attract an audience roughly around the same age as they can relate to the characters, however as the film focuses on mature emotional themes, it would also be likely to attract older audiences who would be interested in the emotional asepect of the film as they are naturally more mature and would also be more patient for the story to progress.

Our media piece will contain strong language and graphic scenes and therefore we believe it will be rated as a 15, this will eliminate people under this age from seeing the screening which would in our opinion not suit them in the first place as the film is targetted at a more mature and emotional appreciative group.

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We think our film would be best suited for a small independant film company because of the subject matter and the style in which the film is shot and edited. We also made this decision because the film is more emotionally focused rather than aiming for pure entertainment. It is designed to provoke the viewers thoughts and feelings and make them connect with the character and the film.

A mainstream comparison to our film would be the fim Taken, starring Liam Neeson , however this film is more focused on action and 'the chase', rather than the emotional trauma that the character in our film is suffering.

We do not feel that our film requires a lot of funding and we would much prefer for a company who is more interested in the art of film making rather than the business of film making to take us under their wing. A company like Film4 who provided funding for successful films such as Slumdog Millionaire would be our preferred choice.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film focuses around a teenage boy and teenage girl. The two characters are related, however we have left the relationship between them upto the audiences imagination to create enigma. The film highlights the commitments between people, and the strong bonds that join them together. It also highlights the vulnerabilites of teenage girls and the predatory sexual desires of older men. It also shows that youths have positive qualities, and it doesn't focus on one steretype of young people which is conventionally used in films.

Our film shows the strong bonds between families, imperticular the close emotional attachment of brothers and sisters which is highlighted in our product. The main character represents the essentialness of families and the lengths that relatives will go to to find each other. This counteracts the strong stereotype of hard shelled youths which the main character is definatley not when his personality is revealled in the product.

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Our media film challenges and conforms with many conventions of an opening sequence.

Dark Clothing

The main actor in the opening sequence is wearing black this fits in well with general conventions of a film to help the audience understand the genre of the film as a horror almost instantaneously. The Dull colours also represent the actor’s mood and how the film is going to pan out.

 

Poster

The initial poster in the opening scene shows instantly to the reader what the character in the shot is doing. The Missing poster immediately represents the content of the first chapter of the film and should create a level of enigma for the audience. This develops the conventions of an opening sequence as films generally try to let the audience know what the film is about however not as blunt as this.

 

Opening scene

Our opening scene challenges conventional thriller openings which traditionally starts with an extreme long shot (establishing shot) to signify the type of environment that the movie is being influenced by. We have intentionally decided to use a medium close up of our main character placing a poster up on a lamppost, this is because we have thought about the full story of our movie and this scene ties in with the final reunion at the end of the movie. 

 

Establishing shot

To make our opening seem somewhat like a contemporary thriller opening, we have included an establishing shot but this comes after the initial scene. As you can see here, we have used simple techniques such as match on action to sustain the continuity of the film in order not to create confusion for our audience.  This develops the traditional conventions of a film as in most films; the establishing shot appears at the beginning of the film almost inevitably.

 

Extreme close up of eyes

The eyes are the gateway to emotions so we have exploited this by included an extreme close up of our main character. This portrays to the audience that the character is deeply distraught and in thought which is then reinforced by the succeeding flashbacks. The flashbacks tie in with the extreme close up as after the flashback is finished match on action is then also used and our main characters eyes look downwards which shows negative emotions.

 

 Black and white

We have used the traditional technique of portraying flash backs to the past by making them black and white, this should instantly make the audience realise that the shot is in the past. This fits with the conventions of not only an opening sequence but mainly the conventions of any film.

Flashbacks

To convey to the audience the relationship between the main character and the missing girl in both scenes (flashback and modern day) we have used different emotions. In modern day scenes which are shown by natural high key lighting, the main character is continuously looking sad and miserable; this contrasts with the portrayed emotions in the flashbacks which consists of mainly smiles and laughter. This ties in with all flashback conventions when looking back on happy times as flashbacks are normally used to recall positive past memories, good alliteration.

 

Fire scene

The fire scene fits in with many main conventions in film as it shows the main character losing all hope creating a weak enigma for the audience. The main character is holding a picture of the lost girl while staring longingly into the fire. As he throws the picture in the fire and watches it crinkle up, this coincides with his mindset and he is literally giving up hope and watching her slip away.  

 

Streetside

Emotions such as frustration are the main forefront of this scene as he releases all frustration and anger which is shown by the smashing of the bottle.

A wide range of emotions are shown in our opening piece which conforms to all opening sequences to maintain the audiences suspension of disbelief.

Final Piece (Opening Scene Introduction)

Apologies sent from the camera company

After alot of effort from Isaac and his family they finally contacted the camera company about the faulty camera that they sent us for the first shoot we did. They have offered us another 3 days with the camera which would be useful for us along with 50% of any hires after that.

We are planning to use the camera in the Easter holidays when we can maximise the use of the time we have with the camera. The next time the camera is hired to us we are hopeful that we will use it more efficiently.

Second Draft Film

We have now added title to our second draft and it has started to look more like an opening sequence rather than a music video. We agree that some shots are still to long and some of the titles should be made to look more proffesional.

We have used the advice form the questionnaire from the first draft to improve our second draft here are the questionnaires:

We have used 1 new person to tell us there opinion to give us more of a variety of answers. We will be using this information to improve our final piece.

Draft Film

As you can see we have not yet added any titles. Also some of the clips are very long so we need to shorten them down to make the opening sequence more interesting for the viewer. This should help the viewer establish an enigma with the film.

We have showed the film that we made to an audience and gave them a questionnaire the results from this are shown below:

Filming Pictures

Filming

First Day

On the 21st of Febuary 2011 the camera was due to be delivered by the camera company. The scheduled delivery time was from 9 am onwards on that day. I arrived at Isaacs where the camera was addressed to a 9.30am. The camera arrived at Isaacs at approximatley 11am. When the camera arrived we soon determined a problem the camera needed time to warm up before it would turn on. When me an isaac had overlooked the main features of the camera and were comfortable about how to use it. We the set off to meet Joe.


We rang the police enquiries help line to see where we could have a fire for later on in the day and what the rules were for making a fire. the police advised us to get the land owners permission for the fire and make sure it did not cause any damage or hazard to the public i.e. compromize visibility for cars on nearby roads.


When we began to film the neccessary shots shown on our plan we soon began to understand that the shots and storyline we chose weren't as entertaining as we first thought. We never the less carried on filming the pre-planned shots  until late that night. When we reomved the filmed images from the camera onto the computer and watched back we were unhappy with the results. We instantly began to think of fresh new ideas for our film. We had one day left to film the new shots so we arranged to meet early the next morning.

Second Day

I arrived at Isaacs at about 9am on the 22nd to maximise our filming time for the day. We soon found out in the morning that the camera was faulty as it had not charged all night. We tryed different plug sockets and re-setted the camera but it still did not charge. We now realised that we had to minimise the use of the camera by only shooting each shot a limited amount of times therefore increasing the probability of making mistakes.

When we were at Isaacs that morning we thought of an idea that the young girl would be missing. After asking around to relevant people at school we found that it would not be viable to use a girl under the age of 16 without there parents permission so to remove complication i asked my girlfriend Poppie Smith who studies drama at GCSE level at our school. As she is 16 and close relationships with her family made it much easier for her to be the actress in our film.


We came up with the idea of placing posters in different places. We had the idea so that we could film the different shots and cut to the others quickly to give the illusion that the main character had been placing posters everywhere in the hope of finding the 'missing' girl.

We shot the film at a high intensity throughout the day only breaking to have lunch. We had to do this as the camera was due to be picked up the next from 9am-5pm. Throughout the day i was trying to contact Poppie to arrange a time to meet. We went to my house to prepare the shots for when Poppie was available. Earlier in the day we rang my grandad to ask permission for us to use his land to shoot the fire scene. My Grandad agreed we could use his land and made a time of 7.15pm.

We realised we was out of time to meet Poppie so we arranged to meet her after at mine. We set off to Crowland to meet my Grandad and film the fire scenes. When we returned we picked up Poppie and broght her round to film the neccessary scenes.

We finally finished the days shooting and gave the camera back to Isaac to take home and upload.

Shortly after Isaac had taken the camera home we found that we had left the cameras 'shades' on from the shot by the lake when the sun was reflecting to much on the picture. Those shots need to be re-shot by us.

We are hopeful that the company we hired the camera off will hire it to us for free as they hired us a faulty camera, if this is to happen we will re-film the shots that we believe to be poor and try to film some more match on action shots to make the film more interesting.

We used flashbacks in editing so that we could give the illusion of the main character looking back to the past. We used this three times in our film at the present time.

Here is the weather report for the days we were filming.

Song Permission

One of my colleagues in my media group has wrote a letter to the producer of a song we would like to use in our production.

Here is the reply:

We have completed our practise shoot

We are now in the proccess of putting together our practise shoot. We have taken all of the shots but have not yet edited the clips together yet. Shooting the practise film has alerted us to some problems within our shooting script and highliughted any problems we may be faced with.

After shooting the practise film i think we will be more efficient when it comes to producing the finished film.

Here is the practise shoot schedule for our shoot:

What we have been studying

Yesterday we futhered our knowledge of representaion i have now wrote and essay which i have handed in to be marked. We also did a poster on a specific group of people so we could understand how the media portrays different segments of society. Our segment was Women, we talked about stereotypes, archeotypes and countertypes.

Second Shot List (Group)

Shot numbers will be the same as story board which will be added at a furthur date.

Shot Number 1 (Approx time- 20 seconds)
Establishing shot (ELS)
Description;
Father figure sitting on a bench in the distance (Across the lake). Sky at the top of the shot and clear view of the environment to set the scene.
Analysis;
Obviously, every first shot should set the scene and introduce at least one of the main actors to the audience. The choice of environment is very important as it is symbolic in our films direction as the final scene will end up with the father and daughter re-united on that same bench across a calm lake. The fathers facial expression will be out of sight to cause enigma and confusion to what this mans motives and emotions are.

Shot Number 2 (Approx time- 40-50 seconds (To be confirmed)
Long shot (LS)
Description;
Shot behind male figure with full body and bench showing and a lot of sky in view. This shot will be approximately 2 hours long with the natural flow of people and dogs passing by the man. He will be stationary the whole time. The shot will be sped up to show people passing by the man at great speed. The sky will also be changing from vibrant blue to an orangy hazy sunset.
Analysis;
Very influencial scene as it is symbolising that time is passing by the man very quickly, could either portray the idea of his life nearly being up and everything is at an advanced rate, or could possibly have a more subliminal sinister meaning? This is left to the audience to make them think and get mentally involved into the opening of the scene.

Shot Number 3 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Close up
Description;
First insight on the male figures face and also shows his emotions. Balled up red eyes and deep sigh resulting in him looking from the sky down into his lap.
Analysis;
Shows the characters emotions which is obviously sadness. Creates enigma as viewer does not know why he is sad or why he is not moving from this bench. Maybe has a emotional connection with this location? Left to viewers imagination.

Shot Number 4 (Approx time- 5-8 seconds)
Extreme close up (ECU)
Description;
Extreme close up of man's eyes. Red tear filled eyes which consequently leads to a singly tear running down the males face.
Analysis;
Eyes are the key to emotion so we are using this as a very strong shot as it will show his true feelings. The use of the tear also continues onto the next scene which creates continuity.

Shot Number 5 (Approx time- 15-20 seconds)
Close up
Description;
Shot of picture of young girl crinkled at sides and worn. Single tear will run onto the photo which follows on from the previous scene. When tear hits the photo a slight shaking will begin in the males hand.
Analysis;
Worn photo symbolises he has had this photo for a long time and may be treasured as a favourite as it has obviously been handled numerous times. Gives you a small insight into the males personality, maybe OCD? Again, enigma is created. Hand shaking also gives the impression of fear as people shake when they are scared. Scared of loss? Scared of death? Unknown.

Shot Number 6 (Approx time- 40-60 seconds dependant on many variables)
Medium long shot- Close up
Description;
Dark room shrouded by shadows and darkness. Back lighting showing the outline of a figure in the corner. As music intensifies the zoom gets increasingly closer to the figure until, (keeping with the horror/thriller codes and conventions), a bang occurs while a girls face appears with makeup down her face. This contrasts with the previous picture of her smiling with high key lighting showing her innocence. Wide eyes open and crooked forced smile directly into the camera. Key lighting from the left illuminating approximately three quarters of her face.
Analysis;
Very much symbolic and subliminal leaving the equations to the audience. Make up running down her face, why has she been crying? What are her motives in this scenario? Wide eyes opened and false smile, maybe drug abuse? Many questions left unanswered and left to the imagination. This idea of leaving many end loose and unanswered, is relevant to our previous audience research which told us that a successful horror movie should leave many aspects of the film to their imaginations. Also creates a sort of crime feel as the audience are already trying to piece things together like a detective and work out the twisting plot.