Evaluation - Question 7

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

I believe that I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task and have came a long way to succeed in my final task. Although my final task wasn't the best, it was a huge improvement to my preliminary task. First off, in my preliminary task we didn't even finish the whole task as we ran out of time, however in our main task we were able to finish the whole task, meaning we had improved on our time management skills, which was very important. Secondly, the other thing that we improved on was editing, in the preliminary task, we didn't do a very good job at editing the film, as we had no experience in it. For example at the end of the preliminary task, we had an explosion pop up. However this explosion was very bad as it didn't look realistic, which made our editing look bad. However in the main task, our editing had improved a lot. We didn't just improve our editing in general, such as adding a text in the shot and making both the scene and the text fade away after a certain time. We also wanted to have our film at night, we filmed it in the day yet added a lighting change so that it looked like it was at night. We also added a spotlight into the top left hand corner to make it look like there was a moon, making the scene look even more scary.










We had also improved massively on the camera work, we improved on the camera movements, the camera angles and how smooth the camera was so that there was no wobbly camera moments. For example;



This is a shot from our preliminary task, where we had a still shot of the school building. However, even though it was a still shot, the shot was very wobbly. Which made the video look bad, however this was okay as it was our first media task and we were inexperienced.




We then improved this later on, in our main task. As we made sure that there were no sudden camera movements that weren't supposed to be there and we made sure that the camera movement, such as pans, were very smooth. This made the video overall look better and of a higher quality.




Also, in our preliminary task, we only filmed still shots as we were afraid to move the camera in case we would mess up the shot and make the film look back. Also we didn't have the correct equipment,

if we wanted to film a pan, the best idea would have been to film it with a dolly. However, in the main task we didn't just use still shots, but used a variety of different shot as well, such as a pan and a POV shot, which built up tension in the film.

We also improved our match on match action in our main task compared to our preliminary task. In our preliminary task, we had a not so good quality match on match action shot where it was a shot of me and then a closer one of the phone and then a shot back to me. However, in our main task when we used a match on match action shot, it was of a better quality to the one in our preliminary task. This was because we had learnt from our mistakes and had improved from the first time we tried this. In our main task, when using the match on match action shot, we synchronised the voice of Harry into the next shot, this meant that he said the exact same line, which made the quality of the video better.

Evaluation - Question 6

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

During our product, I have learned a lot of digital skills including different software filming techniques. One of the different software that I have learned about is After Affect. Before stating my media course, I had never done anything like this before therefore when i had to make my own film I had to learn how to edit and how to use after affects. As i didn't know how to use after affects, I had to watch a YouTube tutorial on how to make an intro for our product. 

                                                                             
I also had to learn how to edit through Premiere Pro as i didn't know how to edit. I found out how to cut the clips and put them in the places that we needed them to go in, I learned where to cut the clips to make sure that the clips weren't too long and boring and I learned how to add music and sound effects into our film by adding the music on the line below the video clip and this was used as non-diegetic sound in the film. I also found out how to render our footage and why we needed to do so. The reason why we needed to render our footage is because it's basically mixing all of our edits into a final, single continuous clip that can be shared, burned, uploaded or archived. The other thing I learned about Premiere Pro is the audio affects, to get our audio clips we had to use specific websites such as freesound.org and incompetech.com this is where we could get music and sound affects duty free.

The equipment that we used to film our media product was a camera, the camera that we used was a Sony Handycam. One of the things that I learned about the camera was that when the person that is being focused on is far away, instead of zooming the camera into that person it looks much better if you use tracking with the camera, so when you move forward with the camera. This was just one of the techniques that I learned when using the camera to film our project. When we filmed the POV part for our project, I found out that it looked much better if I made the camera move like what the person would be moving like. This was because it makes the audience feel like they are in the position of that character.

What I have learned from blogging on Blogger is that you have to use it at the start of the production as almost a diary. You have to use it daily or weekly and constantly update your posts. For example when creating our script and planning where and when to film our project for the film, we weren't too sure on the specific details, this meant that we had to keep going onto our blog and changing details and adding new details. At the start of this media assignment, I had never used Blogger before or had even wrote a blog before, this meant that I had a lot to learn about it. I had to learn how to use it in general, like how to make a new post and how to save and update my posts. I also learned how to move certain blog posts around, for example if I had a blog post from the start of the project and had to then update it later on and it would save as a recent post, I could go onto the blog and change the date of the blog so that it would go back to an old blog, this meant that my blog was more updated and looked more professional.

February Feedback

Your web-log looks like it needs some gaps filling in.  Ensure that creative technologies have been used to present your evaluation. Please do this over half-term.

Complete the evaluation

Put the preliminary task and your production as last posts then the questions

Add any extra elements to the research and planning.

Set targets for what you need to do over half-term to fully complete the coursework

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In our film we have kept our storyline pretty simple and have made sure that it is not complex. We did this because it means that the audience will find it easier to follow the story, therefore it won't be confusing to them. By doing this hopefully means that more of the audience will like the film. An example of a confusing film would be the film 'Seven', this is a film where it's hard to follow and doesn't really make much sense until the end. Although are film isn't confusing, we do have an enigma in our opening scene. This is a really good way to attract an audience to a film as it leaves the audience on sort of a cliff hanger, it builds up tension and it will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film to see what happens.

We were also hoping that the fact that we had two genres in one film would also attract more of our audience, as it will attract the audiences that like horror films such as 'Paranormal Activity' and it will also attract audiences that like thriller films such as 'Taken'. By doing a hybrid genre I believe that it will fill the needs of both types of audiences, therefore increase the amount of people that will watch our film. We also had our storyline similar to other horror/thriller films, such as 'Kill Bill Volume 1' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street', the similarities were that they are both about revenge, just like our film. By doing this will hopefully mean that our film will attract audiences that like the films Kill Bill and A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We made a film in the horror/thriller genre and targeted the film towards teenagers and young adults. This is because the typical audience for horror/thriller is proven to be between the age of 15-25. As our film is a hybrid genre, we have a primary audience and a secondary audience, our primary audience is males aged 15-25, this is because we believe that males are more likely to go and see our film as it is a gory film with multiple conventions of horror such as blood and knifes. The secondary audience for our film is young couples, this is because young couples are more likely to go and see a horror/thriller film than an older couple. People that want to see our film will like horror films, this means that they don't want to see a film with childish humour for example Step Brothers or the Inbetweeners Movie. They will want to see a film including conventions of horror such as jump scares, killing and blood and guts.

I did some research into similar films of ours, examples of one is 'Child's Play' which is about a serial killer doll. The types of people that watched that film are people aged between 25 and 39, this is different to our as our film is more of a thriller/horror than just a horror. The people that did the research into the audience of Child's Play found out that the audiences favourite dishes are hot dogs, french fries and banana milkshakes. They also found out that in their spare time, they like to listen to live music, play video games and write. Some of the most favorite movies that the audience of Child's Play like are 'Hellraiser', 'It', 'Insidious', 'Saw' and 'Halloween'. As these are all horror films, it shows us that the type of people that watch Child's Play also like other horror films. Which means that we have to advertise our film to people that like other thriller/horror such as 'World War Z'.

This table above shows us the types of films that children at the age of 7 to 14 watched in 2013. The types of films that they watched were childish films like 'Monsters University' this is because they won't want to see scary films and would rather watch an uplifting film with no suspense. These genres are the complete opposite genre of film to ours, a horror/thriller this shows us that our audience for our film is not of the age of 7 to 14.

However, with the audience being of an age of 15 to 24 there are less childish films being seen and more horror films and thriller films in the top list. Also there are not as many horror/thriller films in the older category as well, this means that the age limit of 15 to 24 is the perfect audience for our film.


With our main character being a boy, we would hope that this means that it will attract an audience of males. This might be because they might be able to relate to what is happening to the young boy in the film. By this happening, it could mean that the majority of our audience could be male. We do know that the majority of people that watch thriller films are male, for example in the 'BFI Statistical Yearbook' it tells us that 69% of people that went to see 'Captain Phillips' were male and the other 31% were female. This was also the same result for 'Star Trek Into Darkness'. This proves that most males would prefer to see thriller films than childish, 'girly' films such as 'One Direction: This Is Us'. Only 15% of people that went to see that film we male and the other 85% were female. Although the majority of our audience for our film will probably be male, we would also like to see a high percentage of females watching our film, this is because it then widens the range of audiences for our film.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

As our production company (Soulplex Productions) are doing a horror/thriller film, I believe that the best media institution that would be suitable for us would be Warner Brothers. I believe that this would be the best film production company for our film as they have produced multiple good quality horror/thriller films such as 'The Shining', 'The Exorcist' and 'I Am Legend' which is more of a thriller film than a horror. The reason why we would like to work with Warner Brothers is because they have produced very good films in the past that have made a lot of money, therefore our film is more likely to be a successful film if we work with Warner Brothers. Also, as Warner Brothers are a huge institution in America and that they are one of the most popular film institutions in the world, it means that by working with them our film will be a very popular film that audiences will want to watch just because it is produced by Warner Brothers. Unlike if we were to work with a smaller film company such as Working Title Films who are a small British film company, this is because they have a smaller audience than companies such as Warner Brothers, therefore our film wouldn't be as successful if we chose to work with them.

The film 'I Am Legend' is a very successful film produced by Warner Brothers. It is a very original and unique film and I believe that that is why it was a very successful film. Although we used multiple conventions of horror, we also made sure that our film was original and wasn't like a typical horror film. 

I Am Legend - 

Budget: $150 million

USA: $256,393,010   43.8%

Foreign Countries: $328,956,000   56.2%

Worldwide Income: $585,349,010

These are just some of the awards that 'I Am Legend' has been nominated for and won.

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards 2008

Won ASCAP Award

Top Box Office Films James Newton Howard

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA 2008

Won Saturn Award	Best Actor Will Smith
Nominated Saturn Award	Best Science Fiction Film

Fright Meter Awards 2007

Nominated Fright Meter Award

Best Actor Will Smith

Golden Trailer Awards 2008

Won Golden Trailer	Best Horror
	Best Sound Editing
Nominated Golden Trailer	Best Thriller TV Spot For "One".
	Most Original TV Spot For "Quarentine".
	Best Wildposts For "Outdoor Series".

Image Awards 2008

Nominated Image Award	Outstanding Motion Picture
	Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Will Smith

MTV Movie Awards 2008

Won MTV Movie Award	Best Male Performance Will Smith
Nominated MTV Movie Award	Best Movie

MTV Movie Awards, Russia 2009

Won MTV Movie Award

Best International Movie

Other than these awards, I Am Legend has also won multiple other awards and have been nominated for even more. These awards show that the film has been very successful, which gives Warner Brothers a big reward, as they will be getting a lot of money and a lot more fans and will become a lot more popular. Meaning that if we chose to work with Warner Brothers, our film will also be very successful and popular and would have a better chance of winning awards, just like I Am Legend.

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we see a lot of young characters, this is because the main 'villain' in the film is a young school boy and most of the victims are also young school boys. With the characters being high school students that are going through their GCSE's, some of the audience could relate to this as everybody doing their GCSE's feels stressed and they would be able to relate to some of the main characters. They might also be able to relate to the fact that 'Billy's' parents have got a divorce and that some of the audience members will also probably be experiencing the same problems. Also, the majority of the characters and the main characters are male, this means that it will attract a large group of male teenagers to young adults. Although the film has a lot of powerful male characters in it, we will also have a strong female in the film to attract a female audience, even though in a typical horror, women aren't supposed to be powerful characters.

Also, the class and status of the character we can see in the opening sequence is of a middle/working class family. He isn't dressed in wealthy clothes like in the film 'The Riot Club' which is a film about a group of 'posh' friends. However, he ins't dressed in poor looking clothes like in the film 'Oliver' where the characters weir very dirty, tatty clothes. He is dressed like the average middle class high school student. By doing this, it will attract middle/working class families and individuals to watch the film, as they will be able to relate to how the characters lives their life. 

Evaluaion - Question 1

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

Feedback on Coursework

Research and Planning - 10

Research and planning is complete, but sometimes not very detailed. There is some research into potential target audiences, but this could be more extensive. Research into similar products is wide ranging and proficient, and there is some good evidence of research into the horror genre. However, this blog is let down by no evidence of organisation of actors locations etc, no storyboard or script.

Main Task – 34

Overall there were successful sequences created, a controlled use of the camera is apparent and there is a reasonable variety of shots. Also the sound was built up for effect, and the sound clearly shows a proficient use of layers of found and created sound. The titles follow conventions and there is a good use of suitable fonts. The editing is proficient, although some of the cuts are a little too quick, reflecting the problems had when filming of turning the camera off too quickly. However there is limited action (long opening shots of trains and location) with nothing specifically relating to the narrative. There is not enough substance to the opening which would have benefited from much more being filmed at each location to really convey meaning to the viewer.

Opening Titles and Logos

Analysing Opening Titles and Logos

Seven

I have chosen to analyse the opening titles of the film seven, I have chosen to do this film because the titles are very good. The font of the text had a feel like someone had written them with a pencil, this was a good effect as in the opening scene we see someone drawing and writing on what looks like old paper.


With this picture, it shows the face of a man or boy with the eyes crossed out. This gives us a feeling that this person could be the victim.

By the boy's face being drawn over, shows that its enigma and is a mystery  to the rest of the film.

With the picture of the boy's face drawn out, it shows that he could now be either a dead person or a soon to be dead person. Although it's a mystery, it does start to give the audience a clue about whats happening.






At the start of seven, we don't actually know whats going on so it's all a mystery to the audience. However, we do know that the film involves violence from the scene with the hand pouring with blood. This person could have either been a hero and trying to save someone or a villain who was killing someone. This way of starting the film is a very good way to do so, as it puts the audience in confusion yet also builds up tension as they know that something is going on, involving a murder.






Dexter

The Dexter logo is a great logo, especially for the type of program that it is. First of all, the word 'DEXTER' is written in different shades of red and has splats of red all around the page. The creator of this has done that so that it looks like blood, as the whole program is about someone going and killing other people, therefore there is a lot of blood involved. You can also see that the text isn't perfectly straight, this is because it's made to look like blood is dripping from someone onto the background, this just gives more of blood effect. Also the background is meant to look like old paper, which also gives the effect that the dripping blood isn't meant to be a design and is meant to be natural. 

The blood splatter at the end of the word 'DEXTER' sort of looks like a full-stop. This is there because it's all there is to say, the name of the main character and the blood effect is all that is needed for the audience to get the point of what the program is going to be about.

The intro of Dexter is a very good intro. It uses multiple conventions of a crime in the morning routine of the main character. For example When he starts to shave, he cuts himself and there is blood shown. This makes the audience feel like it could symbolise death and blood at a later stage. It's foreboding that danger will occur in the future.



In this one, it makes it look like 'Dexter' is using a knife in a bad way, like killing someone. However all he is doing is cutting an orange. The director has done this because it fools the audience to feel like he is a violent person who uses violence all of the time.

This happens throughout the opening scene, the director wants the audience feel like the murdering and death is happening but it's really symbolising whats happening in the future. By doing this, it makes the audience stay tuned to watch the whole program.

First Cut Feedback

We have had some feedback from our teacher on our first cut of our opening scene. I am happy with our first cut, however we need to add a lot more. For example, when Harry is on the phone to his mother, instead of me filming just him, we are going to add the conversation of his mother and cut between scenes. We will also switch scenes from on the field and at Harry's moms house, we will film a clock and her facial expressions of her being worried to add suspense.

Film Progress

Film Progress

So far we have worked on making the logo for our film, these are different ideas that we had:
































First off, i had the idea to have the skull role in from the left side of the screen with a white background, however that didn't work as the skull is white and it didn't look good at all. This meant that we had to come up with more ideas, i had the idea to use a red background instead. I chose this because it had a bloody feel to it and made it feel more like a horror film logo, which was our target. After i did the first idea, with the red background, I decided to make a different logo. I had the idea for the skull to drop down from the top of the screen to land in between the writing, which i would have to come in shot and zoom past the camera.

We had some problems with the text, as we couldn't find any texts that fitted our liking, we wanted a text that looked scary and that it was for a horror film. We have downloaded a good horror text from the website www.defont.com, as it fitted the category much better.

I did find this quite difficult as I don't use After Affects a lot and have never done anything like this before, to help me do this, i found a tutorial that helped me through the process. This was the tutorial.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

First Cut Feedback - Miss Spencer


Reasonably good variety of shots, angles and movement.
A clear sequence is built up through the use of dialogue, match on action and movement of the main character.

Overall this is a little weak, I feel there could be more elements to this, the actual action is limited, with a heavy reliance on opening cinematics. However does look like a film opening and not a trailer!

There are some conventions of horror/thriller, especially the location, the subject etc. But some more tension would help improve this.
In order to improve:

• Think about adding another element to the film (e.g. a person at the other end of the phone, another location etc)
• Add Titles and institutional logo
• Fix sound problems
• Possibly remove some of the 'Max' calls
• Add SFX to increase tension, but do not add music throughout as this is a convention of trailers not film openings.
• Get some more feedback from peers and parents etc and add that to your own post.
• embed the first cut onto your blog.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule – (A Boy Named Billy)

Date	Task	Complete Y/N
3/11/14	Creating/sourcing sound and music	Yes
10/11/14	Blogging and start editing	Yes
17/11/14	Editing and creating graphics and titles	Yes
24/11/14	Finish editing	Yes
01/12/14	Uploading all elements from foundation portfolio onto your blog	Yes
08/12/14	Blogging all stages of the filming/editing process	Yes
15/12/14	Film to be handed in to be marked over the Christmas Break.	Yes

Tasks that must be completed:

·         - Filming

·         - Creating/sourcing sound/music

·         - Editing

·         - Creating graphics/titles

·         - Uploading all elements from Foundation Portfolio onto your blog

·        Blogging all stages of the filming/editing process

Filming Schedule

Filming Schedule

When 

Date - 28th October 2014

Time- 10:00 am

Who

Oliver Watson (me)

Harry Whitehead - 07*********

What

We will film all of the scenes in that one day.

How

We will use angles and shots such as: 

POVs

Backwards tracking shots

Mid shots

Long shots

Pan

Which

The equipment that we will need to use is:

A HD Sony Handycam

A tripod

School uniform

(As we are only filming the intro, we aren't going to need any props)

Recce

RECCE

For our opening sequence, we are going to be filming it in a field, somewhere where you would take a dog for a walk. The good thing about this location was that it was in a very green location and we wanted it to look believable that we where actually walking a dog. However we did think that this place was a bit of a small place to film, there wasn't a large range of different scenery and we can't just have to exact same location for each scene in our film.

However, later on we found a better location as this location was more private. We thought this would be a good idea as we wouldn't get any distractions and could focus on filming. This second place also had a lot more room to film, there were numerous locations that we could film. We thought this location was perfect as it was a very believable place where someone would walk their dog.

Role Allocation and Casting

Role Allocation and Casting


Cast: 
Harry Whitehead - playing Harry
Barbara Whitehead - playing Harry's Mother


Director: Oliver Watson
The directors job is to be the person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while having control over the technical crew and actors in the making of the film. Like I said in my pitch, the director that I look up to is David Cameron because he is a great director and has directed films such as 'Titanic' and 'Avatar'.


Producer: Harry Whitehead
The producers job is to be responsible for raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. They are meant to prepare and then supervise the making of a film before presenting the product, without a producer there would be no film. An example of a film producer would be George Lucas who produced the Star Wars franchise and the Indiana Jones franchise.


Cameraman: Oliver Watson
The cameraman is the person behind the camera who films everything that the director tells him to, he has to have a good use of different camera angles and movement.

The Storyboard

Storyboard

                  

                           

0 - Production company logo - 7 seconds

1 - Harry walking alone in a field
Shot - tracking shot
Movement - backwards
Sound - non
Dialogue - non
Duration - 10 sec


2 - Harry talking on the phone to his mother
Shot - mid/long shot
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "hello"
Duration - 2 sec


3 - Barbara on the phone to Harry
Shot - mid shot
Movement - slight pan to the right
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Harry where are you? Are you okay?"
Duration - 4 sec


4 - Harry on the phone again
Shot - close up
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Yeah, I'm on the field, I'm just taking the dog for a walk"
Duration - 3 sec


5 - Barbara on phone again
Shot - mid shot
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Okay then hurry up because your dinner is ready"
Duration - 4 sec


6 - Harry on phone
Shot - mid/long shot
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Alright I'll be home in 20 minutes"
Duration - 4 sec


7 - Harry realises his dog has gone and runs after it
Shot - long shot
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Max! Max come on"
Duration - 6 sec


8 - POV from killer in the bushes
Shot - POV
Movement - camera held movements
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Max, Max!"
Duration - 7 sec


9 - Sound of a branch snapping behind Harry and he turns around
Shot - mid/long shot
Movement - non
Sound - non
Dialogue - "Max! Max?"
Duration - 8 sec


10 - Harry running through trees and bushes
Shot - long shot
Movement - non
Sound - slow build up of scary music
Dialogue - "Max!"
Duration - 8 sec


11 - Harry running through field
Shot - mid/long shot
Movement - non
Sound - music is getting louder and faster
Dialogue - "Max where are you?"
Duration - 3 sec


12 - POV shot from killer sneaking up behind Harry
Shot - POV
Movement - hand held camera movement
Sound - Loud scary music, then turns into screeching T.V sound and then the sound of a lightning strike
Dialogue - "Max is that you?"
Duration - 8 sec

The Scrpt

The Script

A young boy, dressed in school uniform, strolling through the field.

(Phone rings)

Harry: Hello?

Harry's mother in her house

(Nervously)

Barbara: Harry, where are you are you okay?

Harry: Yeah, I'm on the field I'm just taking the dog for a walk.

(Whilst cleaning surface)

Barbara: Alright then, hurry up because your dinner is ready.

Harry: Alright, I'll be home in twenty minutes. Alright bye.

Carries on walking in the field. 

Dog runs off.

(In tired emotion)

Harry: Max, Max come on.

(Worried)

Harry: Max... Max... Max!

(Nervously and quickly turns around)

Harry: Max?

Starts to run through the bushes

(Angry)

Harry: Max!

Starting to run quicker

(Angry)

Harry: Max... Max! 

Harry hears noise and is worried

(Worried and confused)

Harry: Max... Max is that you?

Hand from behind is quickly placed on Harry's shoulder.

Scene End.