Final Post

This blog is now finished and ready for assessment. 
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Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There is a vast difference between our preliminary task and our main task, I feel that the main task is a big improvement on the preliminary. Here are both of the videos for comparison.





Even though the preliminary task was all about continuity, we made a few continuity errors. The first of the continuity errors was to do with an actors bag. At the 0:06 mark the actors bag is on his bag, yet when the next shot comes in at 0:09 his bag is gone. The second continuity error is further in. This occurred because we had to film at two different times, but the second time the location was not available to us so we had to find a similar looking place to film the reverse shots. ( seen between 00:15 to 00:18 and 00:20 to 00:28 etc... )

 I feel that out time organisation went a lot better than on the preliminary task. At first we made a calender on Google calendar, this helped us to make sure all the work was done on time and that we didn't end up getting behind. We also used a storyboard to make sure that we had an idea of what the film would look like before we made our final decisions on exactly what would go in the movie. After making that we chose to create an animatic using photographs from a DSLR camera. This gave us an even better of an idea of how the video would look. When it came to the time to do the actual filming we had brought along a shot list to help us organise the shots, to save time we made sure that all of the costumes had already been selected and were ready to use. Whilst filming we made sure that we had stuck to our previously made risk assessment.

We felt much more confident with the editing program (Premier Pro) the second time around, and I feel that it showed in the end result. The experience from making the preliminary task really helped us whilst editing. Some things, ( such as titles and adding music ) we had to learn along the way. The cuts between shots are a lot cleaner in the main task, compared to the preliminary, this is also due to the experience from editing the preliminary task. The cuts are much more precise and everything seems to generally run smoothly. Unlike in the preliminary task, we used music. This involved finding a copyright free piece of music from the internet and saving it as an mp3 file, from there we could use it in premiere pro. We also sped up and slowed down some clips, which we didn't do in the preliminary task. This changed the pace of the video to hopefully make the audience feel different emotions.

When filming the preliminary task, we had not placed the camera in particularly great places. In one of the shots the actor almost hits the camera. This time around we made sure that the camera placement wasn't just random, we tried to change the readers perception of certain characters, such as the killer, by the angles and depth of field of the shots. We also found that in certain situations, its fine not to use a tripod. Sometimes it's actually better, as I feel it can give a shot a slightly more rugged feel if the camera is moving slightly.

The biggest think that I think I have taken away from this product is the importance of camera placement. A characters entire persona can be totally shifted just by changing the camera angle slightly, or changing the focus of the camera.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about technologies during the filming and planning of the media product, utilising computer programs properly has also been very important throughout the project.

Whilst researching and planning the product two websites had become very important, Facebook and Google. Facebook was used for the majority of our audience feedback, and this proved very effective and useful. We chose Facebook for the feedback as it is very easy to find a wide, or carefully selected group of people to voice their opinions. The reason we used Google was because of its images and calendar functions. The images function was very useful whilst creating our moodboard for finding relevant images quickly and easily. The calendar function proved very useful for time keeping as it allowed us to easily input dates and times to help us with deadlines.

When creating our animatic we used a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera to capture the still images needed. The camera was great, the picture quality was good and I found it simple and easy to use. When we had captured all of the images we imported them into Premiere pro, which we had previously used in the preliminary task. we then put the SD card into the computer and imported the images to create our animatic.

The use of this blog also helped throughout the project, it gave me a place to keep on top of all my work. I could  easily access or edit anything that I had done. It also allowed me to easily present my work to anybody that wanted, or needed to see the work. Another website that helped me greatly throughout the project was Youtube, this site allowed me to view other movie openings from the same genre. It also allowed me to compare our opening to other so I could see similarities and differences.

Onlocation. 

Another piece of technology that we used was a video camera, this was relatively easy to use. Once all the clips were captured we used Adobe Onlocation to "capture" the clips. We connected the camera to the up  using a fire-wire to allow us to get the clips onto the computer, We then exported them to Premier Pro where we edited the clips to make our movie.

Premier Pro was the program that we used to actually piece the movie together, at first it was overwhelming but we quickly got used to most of the functions. Premier pro allows you to cut clips, add music, and pretty much anything else you want. I found this program very useful, without this program I think that the clip would be of a much lower quality. Once the video was finished it was very easy to save it into a .FLV  format and upload it onto youtube.

I feel that the group and I have learned a lot about the technical side of film making, including the equipment and the programs used to achieve a decent video. I also believe that the whole group has achieved a decent level of understanding about editing movies.

Questions 4 and 5: The audience and how we attracted them

Who would be the audience for your media project?

We, as a group, have decided to target 16-19 year old males, from a C1-C2 background who are individualists and some mainstreamers. This audience is quite large and gives the group some lee-way in terms of the content of our film and we aimed at this audience because those were the people which were able to comment on our ideas. Therefore, we believed we could achieve the most effective outcome if we used this target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted the audience by using certain features such as low level lighting and darkness, this creates an eerie feel almost always seen in the horror genre. We also used tense, creepy music to create emotion in the audience. We tried to make the victim seem relatively normal, whilst still challenging the residual ideologies of a male. This meant that the audience could relate more strongly to the victim. We also increased the pace of the editing to create a more panicked feel to certain parts of the film.

Once we had finished the actual video we posted it on a Facebook page. In general we got good comments such as:

Callum Andrew William Moore Great work- love music, lighting and how you have done the theme- If i need to think of something to improve, once or twice the picture was a bit fuzzy. In short- very good film :)

Kieren Barr Love the clip, music works well and characters are well presented.

We achieved these good comments by interacting with our audience, we found out what they would like to see in a film using things such as a mood-board. We created a mood-board and showed this to our audience via facebook. The audience liked the ideas for our genre and in general the response was good.



Isaac Jeeves you have a good layout of pictures of various different types all making there own sense of horrific ideals. the eye in the corner makes you read the writing and works well with the black writing and as the main background they all overall create a excellent horror ideas and put them across well with the shady figures and the looks they bring to horror style. they are all horrific and well used images. the only thing i could say to improve is that the red writing distracts from the images and would be better if it was black.

Callum Andrew William Moore The Lighting and dark colours are good for the theme, pictures are relevant and set the scene for a slasher. Perhaps, to improve, the house may need darker colours to as not to clash with the other colour

This gave the audience a general idea of what to expect from the video, this would also have made them more likely to see the final video as they have helped to shape it by giving suggestions for improvements. We took these suggestions on-board when creating the film to make sure that it was suited for our intended audience

I think that the movie was take in it's preferred reading, the audience seemed to react in the ways that we thought they would. I get the feeling that the audience would want to carry on watching if this was a full length film, this is from the general response to those who watch it.I also feel that the audience definitely recognized the film as its intended genre, this is because we closely followed most of the key conventions used in horror films.

I feel that I was successful in attracting my target audience, I got generally positive responses. I feel that they could relate this to other films of a similar genre such as "a nightmare on elm street" or "Halloween"

question 3: Distribution.

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

A cross over between two companies is what we are aiming for. The two companies that we are thinking of using are " Lionsgate" and "Twisted Pictures". The reason that we we are using Twisted pictures is because they are a well known distributor. They are associated with big, popular movies such as saw and leatherface. By choosing a company such as "Twisted Pictures" we will keep true to the films indie roots. This should push the movie to be of interest to a large distributor such as Lionsgate. Hopefully, using synergy would prove useful. 

We would like to use a secondary distributor to elevate the films status. Lionsgate will provide us with this opportunity as they are very well known conglomerate and this will help advertising. They have been involved with many big films such as "Crank" and "Saw". 

   These companies will appeal to our target audience, semi-mainstream. Twisted pictures will be particularly enticing as they are associated with many popular films of the same genre such as "Repo!" 

   

      We are hoping to get our film into large cities such as London and Birmingham, Lionsgate will help us with this as they can use the power of synergy to effectively advertise the film. 


I think that word of mouth would be very important in the films advertising, even though we are with a conglomerate film company. An example of a way that we could use word of mouth would be to allow small, free screenings. Hopefully, after seeing the movie for free people would reccomend to friends. Word of mouth is very important as most people will be more likely to listen to their friends than they are to a review. 


Another great way to advertise the movie would be using the internet. This is one of the most effective forms of advertising. The reason that it is so effective is because almost everybody will see it, it is also very easy to direct it to your target audience by advertising on sites that they would regularly use. Internet advertising is also very cost effective. 

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Costumes:

We used binary opposition and largely different clothing to create different persona's for the killer and the victim.
We dressed the victim in a certain way to make him seem more "nerdy" and vulnerable looking. we achieved this by getting him to wear his hair in a ponytail, this made him seem more feminine and therefore more vulnerable. He was also wearing glasses, this fits him into the stereotype of a nerdy teenager and making him seem more defenceless.



This contrasts greatly with the clothing that was worn by the killer. The killer was wearing full black clothing and boots, he also covered his face with a hood. This connotes masculinity and mysteriousness, especially in contract to the clothing worn by the victim. This creates binary opposition between the killer and the victim, this in turn makes the killer seem more gruesome and the victim more helpless.  The killer is also taller than the victim, further connoting a sense of masculine dominance.

Cinematography:

We used specific camera angles to show the reader each character in a different way. The victim, in general, is shot from level angles. This allows you to see eye to eye with him. The angles in which the killer was shot are more interesting. In the first and second shot of the killer he is seen from a high angle, and only showing specific parts of his body. This makes him seem mysterious and the audience will want to know more about him. Another good shot is when the killer walks straight into the camera until  the whole screen goes black, the main title is then shown and the killer walks of to the left. When he walks off the audience finds out that he is in the victims house. We tried to film the two characters in different ways to change the audiences perception of them. The killer was shot in generally powerful angles such as low shots, he also filled the frame in most of the shots, giving him a further sense of power. The victim was shot in normal, bland shots to give the sense that he is a relatively normal guy. I feel that we employ mostly residual but a small amount of emergent ideology at the same time, the killer seems masculine and dominating showing residual ideology. But we also show emergent ideologies through having a relatively feminine male as the victim, though this could also be seen as residual as the more feminine one is the victim. 

Editing:

At one point in the video we changed the pace of the editing drastically, we did this to create a sense of panic when the victim actually sees the killer, there are 5 different shots in around 3-4 seconds. The editing around the victim is generally slower, this makes him seem less edgy and dangerous. This also creates a stark contrast between the two separate characters.

The titles also play a large part in creating a patriarchal feel, keeping with residual ideology. The bold red titles in contrast with the black background give a feeling of power. The names of the companies also give a feeling of general "manliness" such as
 "An Ironclad film." The music playing over the whole film also feels very male, and I think it fits well with the genre.

Evaluation: 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Our film does not really challenge horror/slasher genre, it sticks to the tried and tested conventions of horror movies. One of these conventions include darkness, this creates enigma by only allowing the audience to see exactly what we want. The characters that we used mostly stick to the normal conventions of the slasher/horror genre. We have a killer dressed in black clothing and a hood, this is used extensively throughout the genre, we use this to create Barthe's enigma code. He contrasts with the victim who seems relatively feminine in contrast to the usual male victims in the horror genre. The only way that our film challenges the normal conventions of a horror/slasher movie is in the way that our victim is male. Seeing a male victim in a slasher movie is unusual so here we are showing emergent ideology.

Our opening can be easily identified as it uses many of the conventions of a horror movie. The red bold text fading in and out of a black background is typical of a horror movie and is used extensively in the genre. The sinister sounding music over the credits is almost always used in horror movies, when not used it can create a sense of tension. A slow pace of editing is also used in out opening to create tension, this is typical of the horror genre. It then speeds up when the victim sees the murderer, this creates a sense of panic, fast paced editing is featured in almost every horror movie.

FINISHED. :)

This is our finished production. 

Some comments from our AS Media Focus Group:

Callum Moore: "I really like it. I think it's sufficiently spooky and really captures all the normal parts of a horror movie. I particularly liked the music."

Isaac Jeeves: " Agree with Callum, it's spooky, eerie, everything you want from a horror."




I believe we took into account our Focus Group's comments on the animatic. They felt that a longer time was needed and some unnecessary shots needed to be cut. We cut an intended two or three shots of POV shots around the house in order to be more direct in approach and we made the ending in more detail so the audience is left in little doubt as to what happens to the victim.

Filming updates

The emergency filming went well, everything was done on time and to a decent standard.

Filming updates

After editing what footage we had, we decided emergency filming was needed. That's another trip to Malvern then! We've decided to reshoot shots 4,5,6,10,12 and 17. All of these need re-filming because of lighting issues- we decided the lighting was too dark.

Filming updates

There was a piece of audio that we didn't want in the clip, so we then used Key point markers to extract the audio that wasn't needed.

This Screen shot shows us using Premier to extract certain shots of the clip and edit them to fit the films Story line.

Planning: Filming

We have filmed all the scenes that were on our storyboard, and we have edited them together. We may have to film a few more, or redo some that were previously filmed.

Location shots

Update: video camera and SLR camera

We have a video camera and an SLR camera booked for this weekend, this means that we should have all the images and video that we need to start editing on monday.