Evaluation: Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?



Issues with our preliminary task:

• Continuity issues - Car moves position (0:33 - 0:45)
• Sound cut-offs - Door closing (0:56 - 0:58)
• Sound transitions - Intro Music (0:28 - 0:30)
• Jump-Cuts - (1:00 - 1:01)
• Poor titles - (0:40 - 0:45)

'Catechize Academy', Examples of improvement:

• Good continuity - Walking (0:30 - 0:35) - Door Opening (1:00 - 1:08) -  CCTV (1:38 - 1.42)
• No sound cut-offs
• Good Sound Transitions - Sound Bridge (1:35 - 1:45)(0:25 - 0:30) - Fade In (0:50 - 0:54) -  Fade Out (2:26 to finish)
• No Jump Cuts
• Effective titles - (0:25 - 0:30)

Skills we have improved on:

• Wider variety of shots - close ups, more shot reverse shots, high/low angle shots, long shots, medium shots.
• Better framing and positioning of equipment.
• Tracking and Panning - close up on feet
• 
  

Evaluation: Question 6

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

 

To create our storyboard we used storyboard quick it was our first time using this programme. we found the programme to be fairly easy to use and very simple to operate  most commands being accomplished by a simple drag and drop method. Once the storyboard was complete we had a very clear image of what the film would look like and what we needed to film.



 

We used Final draft 7 to write and develop our script it was reasonably easy to use once you had got used to using its shortcuts.



   

We used mini DV cameras to capture our film onto tapes, they are very easy to operate you simply turn them onto camera setting point them at what you want to film and press the record button.

                                                                  We used Final cut express to edit and create our film, we found the programme to be a bit challenging because we found it to be a bit awkward at times in terms of getting the desired outcome. It is useful because it allows for non-destructive editing as everything is stored digitally so mistakes can be undone at the push of the button: an advantage to the cutting and sticking of reels of footage which would be the case if destructive editing methods were employed.

We used soundtrack pro to import sound effects and music files into final cut express to be edited. We found the programme very confusing only actually using it once or twice.  

We used Livetype to create our titles and ident, We found this programme fairly easy to use because although it has many effects and functions they are easily accessed and implemented. 

We used the compressor to compress our film before uploading it, it can be a bit confusing as a programme as it has lots of different settings and features however we managed to get what we needed out of it without to much trouble.  

We used youtube as a way of publishing our two minute media product. Before, uploading our film I had never uploaded a video onto youtube before. I found YouTube, very easy to use and is a great way to publish our film.  






I used blogger as an archive for my media journey its advantage over other method I could have used for this purpose is that it can display text, pictures and videos and can be viewed from anywhere. 

This was my third time using an apple iMac, I found this experience to be relatively easy and interesting because some of the feature are difficult to use (mainly the shortcuts) but the rest of the iMac itself is easy to use, to a certain extent.

Evaluation: Question 5

How Does Your Film Attract Your Target Audience ?

 This screenshot is of the establishing shot of our location, the school environment will appeal to those in school and who have recently left as they have memories of their time in school and can relate to the environment.

This screenshot is of our main Actress, Miss Smith, we think her attractive appearance will appeal to the mainly male members of our target audience and attract them to see our film.

This screenshot is of our main actor, Mr Jones, we think his attractive appearance will appeal to the mainly female members of our target audience and attract them to see our film. This character may also appeal to teachers as they can relate to his line of work, we have not targeted this audience directly but this may encourage them to see our film.

This screenshot is of our titles, we feel they are mysterious and therefore would appeal to our target audience, the TV effect would also appeal to our target audience as many of our target audience enjoy watching television.

This screenshot is of the classroom we used during our film, our target audience, people who are in school or have recently left, would be able to relate to the surroundings and would connect to he film better.

This screenshot is of a running/action scene in our film, the action will appeal to our target audience as these films that they have highlighted as being enjoyable and they include a lot of action shots.

• Batman 
• Butterfly Effect
• Hannibal 
• Sin City
• Fast and Furious
• Inception
• Lord Of The Rings

Evaluation: Question 4

 Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our Typical Audience

Here is a picture of what we believe to be our target audience

Age: 15-21

Gender: Predominantly Male 

Social Class: Middle to Lower

When asked 'What films do you enjoy ?' these people answered with:

• Batman 
• Butterfly Effect
• Hannibal 
• Sin City
• Fast and Furious
• Inception
• Lord Of The Rings

Most of these films are 'Thrillers', we chose this target audience as we wanted people who have left school or who are in higher education as they can relate to the surroundings and the characters, when they watched our film they said:

• 'I Found it interesting' 

• 'I would like to see what happens later on in the film' 

•  'I could relate to the surroundings' 

• 'It was very good'

 This is very positive and we feel we chose our target audience well.

Evaluation: Question 3

Name a company likely to distribute your film.
The film company that I would allow to distribute our film would be Entertainment Film Distributors the reason for this is that, this film company have distributed a lot of great films such as 'The Lord of the Rings' Trilogy and many thriller and horror films such as 'Snakes on a Plane'. 


This is the company's logo

Entertainment is the UK’s leading independent distributor. The company was founded in 1978 and has showed continuing growth and success since that time distributing a wide range of product and building a significant film library. Highlights for the company have been the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, one of the most thrilling epic adventures in motion picture history, which at its culmination garnered a fantastic seventeen Academy Awards. In fact, since the year 2000 the company’s releases have totaled a remarkable thirty-eight Oscar wins and twenty-two BAFTAs ,encompassing a diverse range of genres.

The reaon why I have chosen this film distribution company was becuase it is a well established company which was been around for nearly 40 years and in those 40 years it has distributed award winning films, this includes horror and thriller. This means that if the distributed our film I would know that it was in safe hands and becuase it is well known people who love trhillers would watch it becuase, as I mentioned earlier, this comapny has distributed many award winning films.

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your film represent certain groups of people?
                                                                                                               As you can see this teacher (Mr Jones, The Headteacher) is wearing a very smart suit and carrying a laptop briefcase in his hand. This represents that most experienced teachers are dressed in a smart way because most important teachers want respect so they dress smartly. We wanted the headteachers costume to be believable as possible, this is because we want the actor to feel the part but also have a deeper meaning to himself i.e. that he is plotting something sinister.




The school children are wearing a smart uniform and are well-behaved. This is a challenge to the representation that all teenagers are angry and rebellious, but the children, in the audience's eyes, come across as being good but they have another side which is evil, this makes them unsuspected an unsuspected criminal. The reason why they are evil inside is because of the stereotypical view that all teenagers are easily manipulative.

As you can see this is a teacher wearing a casual blouse and smart trousers (Miss Smith, new teacher). The reason why her costume is this, is plian and simple, she is a new teacher and wants to impress the headteacher and the students aswel because she wants to show them htat she is relaxed and easy going i.e. give off a relaxed atmosphere.

We wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, which is why we shot it in school becuase this would be as realistic and get our target audince to imagine a normal day at school, which turns into a nightmare for any teenager aged 15-21.

The costume aspect of the teachers is plain and simple becuase the headteacher is dressed in a smart suit becuase he is higher up in the social status of the school were-as the new teacher is wearing a relaxed smart casual suit which states that she is lower down in the social status of the school becuase she is new and wants to dress to impress. Some students are dressed quite smartly and other are not as well dressed, this is becuase some of the students are secreatly evil and the others are just normal students, but the difference is that the smartly dressed students are the evil ones, this is definatly a challenge to a convention, this is that all scruffy children are 'evil'.

For cast our group wanted the headteacher to have a friendly appearence, but have something deeper about his person, which is why we chosen Ryan Sault to play the character of Mr Jones. The reason for this was becuase Ryan has a professional look about him when he is in his costume, but he can quickly change his movments to make it appear that he is planning something (this is achived by his expresionless face). We wanted our new teacher to be as realistic as possible, which is why we chosen Amy Thompson to play the character know as Miss Smith. The reason for this is becuase she has a friendly atmosphere about her which help her in her portrale of the character becuase Miss Smith is new and wants to impress people by dressing in a smart casual appreance and have a bubbley, kind personality.

The lighting that we have used was naturall sunlight and occassionaly, when needed it we turned on the school classroom and corridor lights for added realisim to the scene.

The music we use is mainly Non-diegetic because we used soundtrack pro to find an eerie sound effect that we could use thoughout the film, which added to the atmosphere and the thriller factor of the film

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Construction: Final Film

Construction: Rough Cut (First minute) feedback analysis

Construction: Rough Cut (first minute) feedback

Construction: Rough Cut (First minute)

Construction: Filming Diary

February/March 2011


I created lists to go into year 7 forms and letters and consent forms directly for year 7 pupils who wished to act in our film and took them to the different forms, the letters were placed into registers for form tutors to hand out to pupils on their list but very few were given out. Tom and Lee were working on getting actors for Miss Smith and Mr Jones, Sam created our company ident, he also spent free periods and other time filming CCTV shots around school to make up shots 17 and 30 and he also did alot of filming of tracking towards the front doors of School to create a good establishing shot.




Monday 7th March 2011


Attended: Sam, Lee, Tom
Absent: Myself (as i couldn't be picked up at a later time)

Shots Filmed: 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,11,12

I wasn't involved in this shoot but a lot of the recorded footage was very good, but there were issues with the positioning of cameras and actors and the framing, this was probably because i wasn't there to be the 'director', some footage may have to be reshot such as shot 2. A lot of test shots were carried out with camera angles from outside of windows etc but these were not on the shooting schedule and shots 11 and 12 should have been carried out at the same time as 13 to 16 and 31 and 32 as the same location, the actor who plays Mr Jones and a brainwashed child were needed, we may have problems with continuity because of this.




Tuesday 8th March 2011


Attended: Sam, Adam, Lee Tom
Absent: No-one

Shots Filmed: None

After trying to recruit actors for shots 17 to 30, 2 out of 24 actors/actresses turned up, we weren't able to do any filming on this day.


Thursday 10th March 2011


Attended: Adam, Lee, Tom

Me, Lee and Tom went into a year 7 assembly, after Tuesdays lack of students turning up, and i asked some students if they would like to act, we handed out more than enough letters.


Monday 14th March 2011


Attended: Sam, Adam, Lee, Tom
Absent: No-one

Shots Filmed:17 to 24 excluding 19 and 20, 52 and 53

Me and Tom collected in the letters from year 7's and got one reply, The Actress who played Miss Smith and the 1 brainwashed students were turning up after school so after Tom and myself recruited more from around school we filmed these shots but without Miss Smith standing at the front of the class, we would have liked to film shots 17 to 30 but no Miss Smith meant we couldn't continue, creating more chances for continuity errors. The footage was very poor, the students, who were on their lunch break, failed to follow our instructions so a reshoot is likely. After School was more productive and we filmed shots similar to 52 and 53 but we added different angles and some close ups of the brainwashed student's faces to create a wider variety of shots.




Tuesday 15th March 2011


Attended: Sam, Adam, Lee, Tom
Absent: No-one


Shots Filmed: 51 to 54

Had two very capable actresses and Miss Smith come in after school to do some close ups and long shots for a variation of shots.




Tuesday 22nd March 2010


Attended: Sam, Tom
Absent: Adam (unable to contact), Lee ( Forbidden planet rehearsals)

Shots Filmed: 21 to 23

We felt we would have to reshoot this footage so Sam and Tom did this but the quality of acting was still poor and shots immediately before and after require Miss Smith who wasn't available.

Sam spent a lot of time editing for our rough cut.


Wednesday 23rd March 2010
Period 1,2 and 3


Attended: Adam
Absent: Sam, Lee, Tom (In Lessons)

Shots Filmed: 21 to 23

Reshoot of the reshoot, managed to get more pupils, approximately 30, behavior and acting was very poor and trying to do everything myself was very difficult.

Sam again spent alot of time editing a rough cut.



Wednesday 6th April 2010
Period 1 and 2


Attended: Adam
Absent: Sam, Lee, Tom ( In lessons)

Shots Filmed: Establishing Sequence

Our feedback advised us to use more varied shots so i did some filming of establishing shots and then edited them into our film as well as editing other parts.

Lunch Time:


Attended: Adam
Absent: Sam, Lee, Tom (Valid Reasons)

Shots Filmed: 19 and 20, 34 to 46

Filming was very difficult as i was on my own but i had assistance off some actors and the final products were very good and the actors/actresses were very professional in this filming session.

After School:


Attended: Adam, Tom
Absent: Sam, Lee (valid Reasons)


Shots Filmed: 39

Me and Tom filmed one short shot and then went and edited our film.




Thursday 7th April 2011
Lunch Time and 4th period:
Attended: Adam, Tom
Absent: Sam, Lee (valid reasons)

Shots Filmed: 34 to 40

I spent lunch time filming the shots and then went to edit them with Tom when he arrived.

After School:
Attended: Adam, Lee,
Absent: Tom, Sam (Valid Reasons)

Me and Lee spent a lot of time after school editing our final film, we created a new ident as Sam's previous one wasn't working.




Friday 8th April 2011


Attended: Sam, Adam
Absent: Lee, Tom ( Not in school yet)

Me and Sam compressed and uploaded our final film to youtube, this job didn't require all of us.


We were unable to film these shots, 13, 14, 15, 16, 31, 32, our final cut was drastically over the time allowance so we had to cut alot of shots and replace the ending, this is not accurate to our storyboard now and doesn't have the same effect we feel.

Construction: Roles and Equiptment

For this project we have decided to delegate roles to different people:

I have the role of Director as i came up with the initial idea.
Lee has the role of Producer, Props and Costume as he is organised.
Tom has the role of Creative Director as he has experience in drama performances.
Sam has the role of Visual Technician as he is most competent with the camera, editing software etc.

The equipment we shall be using in this project is shown below.


Camera

Tripod

Tracking dolly and tracks

Clapperboard and chalk

Research and Planning: Shooting schedule

Shooting schedule

Research and Planning: Location

As our film is based around a plot of a brainwashing headmaster in a school, we have decided to film in Great Wyrley P.A. High School. This decision was made through the ease of accessing the location and the low shooting problems within the school. We have taken images from our location and inserted below.

Here is an image looking down the main corridor of GWPAHS. We are planning to use this corridor to track Miss Smith walking down and meeting Mr Jones. We are able to use several camera angles to produce a good edit.

This is our chosen location outside of Miss Smith's classroom where the two brainwashed block the entrance to Miss Smith's classroom.

Here is an image of Miss Smiths proposed classroom, i have taken a photo from the corner of the classroom where the CCTV effect will be created. We have chose this classroom as it is of a good size and we are able to create the whiteboard opening titles effect along with the door and teachers desk being in a good place. The classroom is also near to the corridor above so it will be easier to film with hopefully less jump cuts.

Here is an image looking up the corridor in which we will use to film the running scene. We have chose this location as we are able to position the cameras in many angles to show a fast paced running when editing. We can film from outside in through the windows and use both the top and bottom of the corridor.

Here i have added an image of the location we will filming the head teacher in his office, and also where Miss Smith gets dragged into the head teachers office.The office will also the camera will go to black out and the door will then slam. We have chosen this office as it is along the corridor in which Miss Smith will be cornered into along with also be very close to other shooting locations so the travelling between shoots will be much smaller and further filming and perfection can be acquired.




We chose this location as the older look of the school would look familiar to our target audience, making the film easier to relate to and make the audience more relaxed when watching so the cliffhangers/ scary moments of our film are more effective.

Research and Planning: Props list

Props List New

Research and Planning: Student's costume

Research and Planning: Mr Jones' costume

For our character Mr Jones, we want him to wear a business like suit or smart shirt and tie, we have found pictures from popular tv series Waterloo Road, these clothes are how Teachers are represented on tv so we shall use similar clothes in our film.

Research and Planning: Miss Smith's costume

For the character 'Miss Smith' we wanted her to wear flattering smart clothes, so we searched for images of current teachers and school staff and picked examples similar to what we would like Miss Smith to look like, we are likely to use smart trousers, a blouse and cardigan for 'Miss Smith'.

Research and Planning: Jack's Costume

We want our character 'Jack' to look as rebellious and naughty as possible but to keep him looking like a secondary school student, trainers instead of smart shoes, scruffy/spiky hair and scruffy/unsmart uniform are what our opinion of this character is, above are some examples of these traits, we will hope to use similar clothing and hair style in our final film.

Idea Presentation and development: Animatic

Idea Presentation and development: Animatic Research

An Animatic is basically a moving storyboard, an animatic is a video  or slideshow of the images in a storyboard but the camera angle can rotate and zoom slightly and all sound effects dialogue and music is included in this video, this is the final development of an idea before filming as it shows all the things a storyboard does with sound and shot length as well creating a very similar representation of the final product, our group has researched these as we plan to create one to summarize our idea before entering the final planning stages, we will be able to have a clear view on our mind of what our finished film will look like, here is an example of an animatic i have found on youtube:



This animatic uses hand drawn images but for our own we will use the computer generated images we have already made for our storyboards, an animatic will probably not be used on set but can be used during editing to make the final product look more like the initial idea, we plan to use our animatic when editing our final product to stay within a reasonable range of the shot length and other aspects of our film.

Idea Presentation and development: Alternative Storyboard

This digital slideshow made with Smilebox

Idea Presentation and development: Storyboard

Our group followed the basic format i described in the previous post to create this storyboard in a printable A4 format.Catechize Academy Storyboard

This storyboard looks very professional and can show us our film very clearly, we can use these pictures we created in our alternative storyboard and animatic later in our project.