Group - Evaluation question 7

Group - Navigation Page

Production Process

Preliminary

Storyboard

Animatic

Final Piece

Evaluation Posts

Christian Rennie

Evaluation questions 1,2,3,6

Samuel Truscott

Evaluation questions 1,2,3,6

Group Posts

Evaluation questions 4/5,7

CR-Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Whilst planning our film opening we researched the common techniques used in thriller films, these involved low lighting, eerie music and bold typography which shares similarities to those in Shooter (Fuqua 2007). In our audience research we found that the target audience held these conventions highly amongst the thriller genre. In our production we aimed to fulfil the majority of these expectations.

Our film opening is conventional because our titles used a bold typography and a classic transmission in the thriller genre, our plot as well involved a number of people being abducted by an unknown force. Some of our editing included very close, quick cuts quite common in thriller movies. Our location didn't particularly relate to those normally associated with thrillers because they are very public and not very extraordinary. We tried to keep the lighting within the expectations of the target audience, with shoots occurring during mid mornings and late afternoons. Quite often in thriller films there is a large variance in camera angles, and we tried to mimic this in our production. Some examples are featured below.

Whilst planning our film opening we both decided to keep the protagonist in a basic costume as well as all of our actors/ characters to show that the abductees are all regular people being taken to connotate the inability to predict what the abductor's character and plans are adding to the mystery of the film. When shooting we had to keep our actors in the same costume in order for well presented continuative editing. This involved in a lot of communication to be made between ourselves and the actors otherwise we would have had to reshoot or postpone the shoot.

The characters included in our film opening have not been fully developed because this is important in maintaining the level of mystery in the film opening, and to develop all of the characters featured in the opening sequence would have taken us over the two minute limit for very little storyline. The use of props in the film were used to emphasise the random set of occurrences such as the skateboard without a skater and the cuddly toy without its owner, this also contributes to the mystery behind the disappearances.

 The soundtrack was fairly easy to produce replicating those associated with other thriller films, we used a selection of music/ tunes that were available on the computer system, we also produced our own novelty radio broadcast that worked really well and contributes to the story of the film. We used a fairly eerie theme throughout our film with interruptions of a horrible screech in sync with the white flash on the visual which associated itself with the disappearance of various people which helps the audience determine what has happened. The soundtrack was a mixture of melody and sound effects which was underlying the diagetic sound, and for the sound effects they were given priority of the sound because it is a major factor in the film opening.

Overall our media product uses and in some places develops conventions found in the film industry.

CR-Evaluation Question 2

Media evaluation presentation on Prezi

CR-Evaluation Question 3

Our media production would be aimed towards the independent cinema because of its low budget. Our film belongs to the independent film industry because of its ultra low budget and that we are not owned by any one person i.e (a conglomerate such as Time Warner) However before it reaches this stage our film would have to go through a number of pitches to enlist investors or production/distribution companies. These pitches would include the explanation of our target audiences, our narrative and our financial expectations. If such negotiations were to succeed our film would be green lighted, meaning we could begin production.

However because our film is a sci-fi/thriller genre its target audience is the core audience of 15-24 years, and because of this it is unlikely that it would be exhibited by any independent cinema (Curzon cinema's). This would result in a straight to DVD release (Bloody Wednesday, Gilhuis, 1987-an example of a film that shares our genre that went straight to VHS) distributed by a small distribution company such as Prism Entertainment. However our film has a fairly unique genre through which we could exploit a niche in the market, our costs would also be very low because we wouldn't have to pay exhibitors.


The internet has helped distribute our type of film because the majority of the world's population has access to this phenomenom, if we were to distribute or screen our film by the internet we would be advertising/screening to the majority of the world, this would greatly improve the number of viewings and thus a greater revenue.

Group Post-Evaluation task 4/5

Media Studies Evaluation Question 4+5 on Prezi

CR-Evaluation Question 6

Planning

Whilst planning our film opening we worked collaboratively by posting ideas on our blog sometimes this would include embedding videos from Web 2.0 softwares such as Youtube.com. We would then comment on each others posts ultimately deciding whether to put it in our film opening. To begin with were asked to do some presentations on which we had to broadcast our ideas and audience research results, for this we used Microsoft Powerpoint and Prezi.
      
Shooting

When filming our media piece we used an HD digital camera with an inbuilt microphone, to make a shots steady we used a tripod which allowed us to shoot from various angles and distances with ease however we had to keep to 180 degree rule so that the audeince didn't get lost when watching our piece. We used natural lighting because we were filming outside, and it gave an authentic feel to our opening. To record our radio broadcast we used an MP3 player which allowed us to link this with our film. Whilst filming a characters we had to keep in mind the rule of thirds which is that the audiences attention is drawn to the outer thirds of the screen. We also had to film it so that each character was easily recognisable without going over the top with close-ups.

      










        
Criticisms

Some problems we faced was that the sun would cause a flare ruining the picture, or that in very shady areas the shot would be too dark, we overcame this by shooting from other angles and distances using the tripod. We also tried filming quite late in the afternoon with the skate boarder sequence and we found that we were unable to get a variety of shots because it became dark very quickly.
      
Post Production

During post production we used a software called Adobe Premiere Elements 8, with this program we were able to cut our piece, add titles and various other actions. With our titles we used zoom, movement and fade resulting in a professional looking title. Throughout the sequence we were able to use visual effects such as flashes of white and metal finish which complemented our narrative very well. With this software we were able to integrate a soundtrack, however because we filmed outside there was a lot of unwanted wind blowing which compromised our conversation between our characters.

We exported our piece onto our PC and an external hard drive from which we uploaded the video to Youtube, from which we embedded the clip onto our blog. This allowed us to present our film opening on our blog whilst allowing members of the general public to view our piece and rate their comments accordingly.

Similarities with the Industrial Industry

 Overall I think that our production process mimics that of real film productions, however there are some major differences; such as our lack of time with the planning stage real film producers have several months to plan their films whereas we had a few, as well as this our ultra low budget which then prohibited the extent to which we could use technology to produce our film opening such as the camera with an in built microphone professional would use sound booms to record sound separatly, using this they are able to overcome problems that we faced such as the wind blowing producing interference with our conversations very easily. They would also use a far more advanced computer programme that allowed them to develop a larger variety of special and sound effects making their films ultimately better quality than ours.     

S.T- Evaluation

Evalution Part 1

Media Studies Evaluation part 1 on Prezi

Evaluation part 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The one female character that appears in the opening is shown to be vulnerable when she is taken by the antagonist without even showing a sign of what is going on. This could also perceive her as quite slow-minded, however she is only 10 years old so she would not be expected to fight back very much anyway. She is wearing a large, warm coat and primary school clothes, which is a typical thing for a young girl like her to wear on a cold weekday morning.

Another social group represented in our opening is amateur skateboarders. It is evident that they are amateurs because of the small, portable ramps and grind bar that they are using, instead of being in a large skate park. The older one can be seen as being arrogant and stupid for notwearing a protective helmet or elbow pads, and is punished by being taken by the light, whereas the younger one can be seen as rule-abiding by wearing the protective gear, and as a result is allowed to stay and skate on.

The other social group represented in our opening is the three male older teens. They are wearing thin casual shirts, jeans, and two of them are wearing coats that are seen by most of the teenage community as usual wear. The one who walks on his own could either be seen as brave or foolhardy at first, however when the antagonist appears in front of him he is seen as fearful when he runs away instead of staying and fighting. On the other hand, the victim could be seen as brave because someone of his stature usually would not be depicted as running for that long or that fast away from the danger.

All of the characters in our film are of white ethnicity, and all English too. This shows that our sequence wasn't filmed near a big, urban setting such as London, which means that there was less of an ethnic diversity of people to use as actors.

The genders of the characters are very traditional for thriller/horror films due to there being a male antagonist, a female victim, and the male characters are the expected age for these kind of films. This means that there is a dominant ideological discourse in terms of the representations of gender.

Evaluation part 3:

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

Thriller films are distributed to both mainstream and specialised cinemas, however because our film is also in the Sci-Fi genre, it would probably not be suitable for specialised cinemas because specialised cinemas have an audience that is usually aged from 30-60 years old, whereas our film is aimed at 15-34 year olds. This means our film will have to be distributed to mainstream cinemas or put straight to DVD and TV. A sci-fi film that had a similar predicament was ‘Monsters’ (2010), a low-budget film where all the CGI was done in the director’s front room. The film was released into mainstream cinemas despite having a budget of under £15,000 because specialised cinemas didn’t have the right audience.

Audience research: http://twgsbmedia11asgroup1.blogspot.com/2011/03/methodology-and-results-evaluation.html

A TV channel that shows a lot of films like ours is Syfy channel. The films they show never appeared in mainstream or specialised cinemas, so this channel shows some of those films that only went to DVD. The film ‘Fireball’ (Tabori, 2009) was actually shown on this channel before it went to DVD, so letting this channel show our film could help to advertise DVD sales if it were to go that distribution path.

Evaluation part 6:

Media Studies Evaluation part 6 on Prezi

CR-Risk Assessment

TWGSB Media Studies Film Production

Risk Assessment

You need to consider all the potential risks at each location shoot and outline how you will work to prevent any accident or injury to you, your cast or the equipment.

Location	What is the hazard? Think about road safety, filming at night, potential damage to equipment	Who/what might be harmed and why? Think about who needs to be aware of the risk	How will you reduce the risk? What steps will you take to ensure that the risk is lowered?	Signed Approved by JF, CF, KJ
Keyes Gardens	Multiple Trip hazards	Cast and Cameraman	Watch our step, walk carefully, running is minimum
	Lamppost’s	Cast	Careful running, Watch where we’re going

CR- Call Sheet

TWGSB Media Studies Film Production

Call Sheet & Shot list

Date:2/4/2010              

Location:Keyes Gardens

Meeting Time:      Group:1      

Crew & Cast Contact details:

Christian

_____________________         Phone:

Samuel

_____________________         Phone:

Brad

_____________________         Phone:

Alex

_____________________         Phone:

_____________________         Phone:

_____________________         Phone:

Props & Equipment                               crew responsible: Samuel and   

Camera                                                            Christian

Tripod

Location	Shot number (on storyboard)	Cast	Technical notes
Keyes Gardens		Samuel, Brad, Alex and Christian

Group- Final film opening sequence

CR- Project Update

Today we are continuing to edit our storyline as well as adding a soundtrack to our film opening, we are also intergrating visual effects which play an enormous part in the plan for our treatment

CR- Shoot feedback

Over the 31st of March till the 2nd of April we have been doing our final shoot, which overall went really well with the variance of shots, after our group feedback we ensured that the focus of the discussions were met. Over the weekend we shot the final scenes of our film opening with a large variances of camera shots and angles.

Fortunately our desired location had been changed and was available for us to shoot, with an earlier start we were able to film a lot more than we would have been able to if we had started at a later time, this didn't interfere with our lighting requirements because where we located there was a large hedge which helped us shoot in darker lighting.

All our actors were available for the shoot which was really helpful considering it was our final chance to shoot our film opening so all shots were repeated until they were perfect and many from different angles and positions. The majority of the shoot was based upon the in class group discussions and the meeting that the group had the night before, this enabled us to get on with the shoot without problem and discussion, thus helping us shoot everything from extra angles so that we have a variety of shots to choose from.

CR- Audience Feedback

Postive audience feedback included our use of a good actor, and our use of the point of view running shot, as well as the panning shots that we used.

However some negative feedback from which we have based future shots upon include: the lack of editing, lack of sound, a very short and plain storyline, a very slow cutting rate that did not create enough tension. The audience also suggested that we should use black and white effects, and use silence. Some shots were suggested such as high and low angled shots.

S.T- Random ideas

We have been thinking of some extra shots that we could put into our production. One such is a few extra people being taken before the main character does. This would help extend the time and make it more interesting.

• One would be a skateboarder, because we could do an interesting shot with the skateboard.


• We also thought of a minor car incident with a lamppost or fence could be cool.


• Another one we thought about was a young child being taken too, because the audience would feel sympathetic towards a really innocent person being taken for not a clear reason.


• Maybe we could have a dissappearing cat too? y'never know....

S.T- Weekend shoot feedback

On 26th march 2011, we tried to film as much of our final piece as possible, however we could not film in our desired location because a van was parked in the way. We tried shooting at the other end of the road instead, but cars kept coming past and we had to reshoot alot. This location was also not as good as the one we wanted, and so we couldn't get as good shots as we had practised. When we put together the footage we did get, we decided it wasn't very good and so we are going to reshoot everything this weekend.

Progress Update

Chris,Sam. Well done you two, you are working very hard to keep up with the tasks, considering that there is only two of you, this is an excellent blog. Chris, you are doing a great job as blog director and are nearly up to date with the tasks. I am impressed with the way you two get on with things in a business like way.

CR- Update post

1. We need to upload pictures onto our costume and props post. 
2. We need to finish shooting this weekend as the deadline draws near and effects need doing 
3. We need to comment more on posts 
4. We need to try and test different editing techniques