Evaluation Question 7

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

Well start with the 'Preliminary Task' then:

And now for our 'Final Cut':

From our very first evaluation on our preliminary task I had found out that we had the 180 degree rule. It's as the first lad sits down he's on the right and then when it turns onto the other he's then on the left, and when you have two characters speaking in a film and the camera flips between them then they should always be on the same side no matter where the camera is pointing. With the final cut however we didn't have two characters speaking so we didn't have to show that.

However there we're a lot of other techniques we used in the final cut that we never even thought off in the preliminary, but with this there we're a lot of similarities between them, for obvious reason using the equipment was exactly the same so we already had a heads up on using that.

So progression wise I feel as if we had used a load more filming techniques and really pushed what we could do, but unfortunately because the real task was to create a Thriller opening and challenge the generic conventions of Thriller, I think the idea got a little to carried away and by the end of it just seemed a bit to daft for how long we had to film it, so if we had an easier story line then it would of been a lot easier to film to but it's to late now to make any changes.

Evaluation Question 6

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

I have always known that it takes ages and I mean ages for a whole film to be finished but going through the process myself myself makes it even longer.

We used all sorts of equipment and software on the journey to creating this film.

Before anything started we had to do a bit of research and planning at first, and within this we used:

Apple MacBook

This is one piece of Hardware which aloud us to write up this current blog and when it comes to it edit our film, it was also used for various other software that only this has.

So for this software then, we used a wide range of things:

Word

This was used to create the TAP client profile, and the actual script for the Thriller opening. Word was such an easy piece of software to use, and if we had used anything else then god knows what would of happened.

Celtx

This piece of software was to create the final script and make it look professional, all of our previous script making was either done on 'Word' or was simply scribbled down on a piece of paper so we either wouldn't forget it or we didn't have access to a 'MacBook' at the time, but when we did our ideas and thoughts we're written down on 'Word'.

YouTube

YouTube was used for the sole purpose of gaining videos either for this blog, or for the soundtrack of our film. It was used especially of gaining the trailers for a lot of the films I use as a examples:

Blogger

Now this is what all the coursework is based on and without it you wouldn't of been able to of read this. It basically let's us document our work but with everything that's new to some it can be a bit struggling to get your head round as you have all these finicky buttons to mess around with.

Google

Google has to be the most important part of this process because without it, we wouldn't of been able to do half the stuff we have done. We used it to do research on all sorts of websites and gain access to a lot of help and work.

IMDB

And one last final thing 'IMDB', this was used to get research and indulge much more deeper into films of the similar genre to ours, this way it was to get the best successful thriller we could.

Filming

During the filming process we used only two pieces of equipment that we're of a real importance. This was a 'Sony HD Video Camera' and a 'Voice Recorder'.

For the most obvious reasons we used this was to capture our film, it was very good, and captured everything we wanted it's just a shame we couldn't capture the great acting we wanted.

The next piece was:

The 'Voice Recorder'

This was for the use of recording sound or dialogue that the camera (Above) could not capture, it also gave a much clear and crisp sound than what the camera wouldn't sometimes produce, this worked especially good when working afar from the camera.

Editing

Once everything had been filmed, it was then up this software 'Final Cut Pro X' to do all the cut, cropping, and magic it does to create a film or in the example above either a montage or advert for what appears to be some new model of car, and to be honest it's not the easiest of things to work with so we all did what we could to create the film.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract the audience?

There we're a lot of things that we're used in the opening. Things such as a 'Jump Scare', the 'Soundtrack', and just overall the generic conventions of a thriller.

Jump Scare.

A jump scare is a technique often used in horror films and video games, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, this usually occurs with a loud, frightening sound.

Within our Jump scare right at the end where you see Stacey in the corner of the dark room, it is timed perfectly with the soundtrack, as the light goes off she moves forward ever so creepy until she is basically standing over the camera looking down and as the light comes back on and with the tension and fear in the soundtrack building up, it just gives it that much more eerier effect, but the only down side is with things like that is sometimes it can be a little to predictable and the audience can already guess what's about to happen, so in some films either they will have the tension build up to a point where the audience knows what's about to happen but then it doesn't and for a split second the audience is like 'Oh OK then perhaps not' and then BAM!! whatever it is that was meant to scare the audience does so and catches them off guard and makes the whole scene much more terrifying.

A great scene which completely catches the audience off guard with  jump scare is in the original Friday The 13th, and I tell you something it still catches me out:

The Soundtrack

For obvious reasons the soundtrack has to fit the type of genre but really depending on how the film is put together and in our case with this short opening we had to have something gripping yet curious for the audience to be wanting to watch more. So as the film starts rolling we are greeted with soft playing piano music, the theme is still rather slow paced until straight after the flashback with the two of them walking down the street and the rather curios Alex just standing there opposite the house, the music builds up as the audience starts to get suspicious of why he seems to be following her, this again then changes with the 'Two hours later" and his body being dragged to the scene in complete darkness and by now the soundtrack is all spooky and creepy and fits well with what is happening with the scene going on onscreen. 

With the video below it suggests the top 10 scariest supernatural movie moments, now I know it's not based around the soundtrack but when you listen carefully especially with the 6th sense scene just listen carefully and you can hear the soundtrack and just how powerful it is:

Evaluation Question 4

What is the BBFC film classification for your product?

Why is this the most appropriate classification?

Within a '15' rated film there may be distressing scenes that may not seem suitable for younger audiences. Things such  as:

• Strong Violence
• Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
• Portrayals of sexual activity
• Strong verbal references to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• Discriminatory language or behavior
• Drug taking

Now for our film we have some scenes that viewers may find distressing although not from the list above, that is just simply a guideline, the scene with domestic abuse may cause some upset within the audience as it may have effected someone they know or themselves.

Now for real media examples close to our age range certificate:

Black Mass (15)



Public Enemies (15)



Down below you will find what type of typical person would seem interested in this type of film:

TAP

Evaluation Question 3

How will your film be exhibited?

There are many ways a film can be exhibited, this being either:

• Stream or Download (Netflix and chill, all that kind of stuff)

The way this works is that movies or even TV series can only be obtained if you have a subscription with a TV/Film distributor like Netflix, or even Now TV. So the way it works is that when you subscribe monthly you have a wide range of Films and TV series but with an added bonus of having exclusive Films or TV series added as well. 

As you can see just from this poster alone from the new Daredevil TV series it says in the bottom right hand corner 'only on Netflix', so that's a good perk of having a subscription with something like this because on Netflix customers can see either the Film or TV series.   

• DVD or Blu Ray release

This is type of compact disc which is able to storage quite a large amount of data, especially for high-resolution audiovisual material. 

Secret Window was released on June 22nd 2004, and it was for available for all to see across the world and with DVD's it has to be the second most accessible for all after TV.

• Cinema/Theatrical release

This was released in UK cinemas on September 18th 2015, now for some the cinemas are a place to go all the time but for some it can course a bit of  dent in there wallet because it's not the cheapest of places no more so unless it's one of their favorite actors film that has just come out or  film they have been wanting to see for a long time then they will probably go but other than that then people wont just go for the fun of it  to the cinemas to watch a film there not interested in.

• TV

This was released on TV on 6th July 1973 and it was available to everyone and anyone who had a TV. 

Evaluation Question 2

In our short film the social groups that we had tried to represent with what we did was:

• Victims of Domestic Abuse
• Teenagers
• Students
• Bullying

There are also pre existing films that have these 'Social Groups' in........

Cry Baby - Teenagers

Rocky V - Bullying

California Man - Students

Sleeping With The Money - Domestic Abuse

Now from this we are asked how we use costumes to represent social groups within our short film?

Well the actress who plays Stacey, is seen to be wearing blue skinny jeans, and a formal coat, what I mean by this is that there a no bright colors and nothing dramatic that stands out, just a simple coat that still gets the job done of keeping you warm and dry. 

From this then we can gather that she maybe a student of some sort, either goes to college or study's elsewhere, due to her casual yet smart choice of clothing.

Whilst her antagonist Alex he is wearing all black, and usually we associate black within the 'Youth' group s as being a thug or someone who doesn't particularly care also added with the fact that he has his hood up the majority of the time gives of the message as some people 'He ain't boverd', referring to the fact that he is not bothered with the consequences of his actions.

The following question is 'How do you use props to represent these social groups?' 

Two deliberate props was used and not to do with the fact that it;'s in the story line but it fits in with the social group of students and teenagers as well. The first one was with the flashback to Stacey, just below where she was sitting was some paper, now people may get confused or think 'Yeah but that could be bills or something', that may be the case but it isn't because I don't know someone who would sort there bills out on the floor, if it was an adult they would neatly have them in piles or in folders and sit at either a desk or kitchen table. So in this case Stacey is sitting on the floor with the papers in front of her, suggesting that she is still a student because usually the case is it's always seen to be the minors to sit on the floor and the adults on the chairs or sofas.

The other prop is the glass bottle used to knock out Alex, It's uncountable how many house party this are with students of that age, so of course there would be a glass bottle lying around from a previous house party and in the wrong hands it can be a deadly weapon as seen in our film.   

How did you use editing to represent these social groups?

It's quite early at the start, around 00:33 we see the screen fade out and come pack in gray, this represents a flashback, and as it plays we see and hear what look like an abusive father and daughter relationship. We hear the fear in Stacey's voice as she tells her dad she didn't mean it and we see the father raise his hand, this is what a stereotypical case of  domestic abuse looks like, but in some cases it looks a lot worse.

How did you use dialogue to represent these social groups?

Again being fairly early at the start we hear Alex saying to Stacey he knows all about the abusive father and that he'll tell someone if nothing's done. This shows a very level headed young man but although still a 'Student' and a 'Young Person' he still knows whats right from wrong, and will do something about it if nothing is done. 

Again with the flashback Stacey pleads that she wont do it again, and from this and the fear in her voice that she is a victim to abuse. 

How did you use camerawork to represent these social groups?

Another example from the flashback is of a high angle shot from what would possibly be the fathers view of Stacey. This just shows vulnerability and fear from Stacey and power and dominance from the father.

Having a very close up shot of the school bell represents really only one thing. that it is time for school or time for lesson but ultimately a school environment and with school come 'Students'.

How did you use sound to represent these social groups?

The sound of the school bell can be seen in various ways, for those who enjoy school it is a mere blessing but for those who don't particularly enjoy school it is drain to their entire existence, and it can also be an escape from reality and home life and for someone being bullied or abused at home school is their only escape from the norm and a place where they can be a real kid for a change and not be in fear.  

How did you use Mise-En-Scene to represent these social groups?

An establishing shot of a school represents the school in general but alongside school comes students and that is one of our social groups we touch upon. So by having this people can easily recognize the story being set around a school environment or the students themselves.

How successful we're your representations?

I think it was good, and we portrayed the social groups in a high standard, and had a very good range of representation through the various camerawork techniques, sound techniques and so on. 

Evaluation Question 1

1) In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

How does your film opening follow the conventions of real film openings?

Whilst watching a professionally made film you will most likely recognize those very distinct idents at the start of the film, these are usually the production company and studio idents, and 9 out of ten times the title will be somewhere at the start unlike the new Deadpool film where the title is at the end of the film but the studio ident and production company is at the start where it should be. Anyway, rather than getting to distracted with such an awesome film I've got evaluate my own film, so where was I?......... Oh yeah idents, in our short 2 minute thriller opening we had our Studio and Production company idents, this follows the conventions of real film openings.

Real Examples........

This is from Jeepers Creepers 2

Within our film we tried to follow the generic conventions as close as we could, for obvious reasons we couldn't afford special effects and make up so we had to go with a more traditional route of having the use of suspense making the audience question. Just who was that? We also had stingers or as some people know them by as jump scares. Now if you have ever watched The Woman In Black with Harry Potter then you'll of definitely been the victim of quite a few jump scares but if you didn't then there is something definitely wrong with you, but anyway as I was saying again with the generic conventions of thrillers you also tend to see places being set in dark dangerous, spooky places and what do you know it just happens to be The Woman In Black was set in a dark dangerous, spooky place. Weird that is right? Well actually it's not, i's just following the generic conventions of a Thriller. This also happen to be the same for what people wear and how they are seen, If there was a scene with a man reading spooky threatening letters sent to a house where he is in charge of the selling Eel Marsh house, and he was wearing a bright orange high vise jacket, it would just not look right one bit and yes that was another example from The Woman In Black, so what Harry Potter was wearing was obviously significant to the film being set in 1889 but it was the choice of dark colors which made it more generic to thrillers because you never really see bright colors in a Thriller. So this fits with our film being that there was no real bright colors used more black and dark grey.

Final Cut

Thank you for following me through my journey it may not be the best thing you've ever read but still I hope you enjoy it.

Never Look Back - Final Cut from Gavin Hood on Vimeo.

Feedback, Evaluation of Feedback & Making Improvements

So once the Rough Cut was finished it was presented to the rest of the class just like every other groups was. Here is our film and the evaluation:

There we're a few errors that needed to be sorted like the actual soundtrack, someone mentioned it sounding like of an old video game but to be honest we was restricted on trying to find something decent.

Another one was when Alex walks out one door with his jacket off and the next with it on. That was a huge continuity error.

There are much more errors but rather than me just listing them all, you'd probably rather just want to watch the video instead.

Title and Ident Construction

So for our film we already had the production company name and logo down we just had to create a studio ident just like you see in real films with real actors:

The Ident itself alongside the name makes a perfect match and goes hand in hand because for the obvious dynamite explodes and our film will explode your mind, sounds a bit cheesy I know but it works and we like it.

Rough Cut

After the development of our film, and through the editing and filming here you go.......

Our Rough Rough cut.......

Editing

Once we had finished the filming or was still in production but could not film we proceed in editing our film, below are a few screenshots of how that went:

The screenshot above and is just putting the names of the production company in, actors, directs etc. We made them so they would be seen over the film this way the film can carry on and not lose the audiences attention.

Above we wanted quick fact movements, so rather than having a clip for each time a character speaks which we didn't want in our thriller, we created a sound bridge where we had the dialogue placed over a scene whilst another was present.

The titles being created and placed in. Which we decided to put last due to a lot of films having a short sequence beforehand and then developing the story afterwards once the titles cam o, this gave us the opportunity to develop any later ideas we came up with.

Shooting On Location

The photos below show what it was like behind the scenes of shooting our 2 minute opening sequence of a Thriller:

We all contributed to the progression of our short footage, we hared who would do what job and when but still we contributed with different ideas with different outlooks on each scene and the outcome I hope will be sufficient.

Unfortunately though some things they we're difficult for us to film especially with the last photo and a few others throughout. This being the sun, we was in school hour at the time and considering our Media lesson is the 1st and 2nd periods of the day the sun was only just coming up, so this gave us unwanted shadows especially when we was in front of the sun. 

Other problems occurred when we wanted certain areas and rooms to film in, this was when we needed the Drama Studio to film our 'Kidnapped Alex', we had to book the room out in certain parts of the day which would cater for all our free times so none of us would miss out on other lesson time.

It was also a couple times where the Actor and Actress had forgotten or did not bring the right clothes to wear so the whole day of filming was cancelled which put us behind a few hours as well.