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?

The aim of this task was for us to learn and use different types of shots and camera angles. It was our first time to film something fully, edit it on Final CutPro and present it. Through doing this, we learnt about match-on-action which is a technique where the perspective of the camera changes during a scene and the scene continues to flow. An example of this in our Preliminary task would be when Hannah opens the door and the camera changes to the inside of the room to see her walk in.
However we were very new to the world of filming, and especially our sound, which was recorded and taken straight from the recording camera. Thankfully now we have been introduced to the world of zoom recorders and the

 This establishing shot in our Preliminary Task was used to capture Hannah as she walked towards the door, but also enabled the audience to see where the action was taking place. 

The same shot was used when Bex and I filmed our title sequence as I placed the camera on the floor for the audience to establish the location, before seeing the feet to our protagonist walk in front of the screen. This is a similar idea to our Preliminary Task, yet due the the mystery we wanted to enhance, we stuck out with not revealing the face of our Protagonist until much later on.

This shot was just to capture our female character, from a side perspective as we see her take hold of the door handle and go to walk into the room.

This similar shot is to add to the mystery with the lack of identity being shown, right up until she walks toward the camera and the audience are shown a short snippet of her face and her reaction. 

Another technique we used was the 180' rule and shot reverse shot in editing during the conversation between both characters. Through our Preliminary Task we also elarned how to edit effectively, which enabled us to create better work throughout the course. The Prelim task is quite etchy and lacks continuity and variation of shots, but all this is expected with it being our first filming piece of work. However, what it does show is the great deal of progress I/we have made when you watch the final cut of The Remaining.

The variation of shots in the Preliminary Task were very limited, howecver we were able to sneak in an over-the-shoulder shot so the audience can see what I am looking at. This allows the audience to know what they are talking about, so they are nto completely in the dark with the conversation.

In the Final Cut of our Title Sequence I filmed over Bex's shoulder so the audience were able to see the old photograph she holds in her hand. Later I showed a reaction shot so we could see her face and shock at the photo with scratched out faces.

Overall, our Preliminary Task really helped us to learn how to use the cameras, tripods, and most of all, Final Cut Pro, accurately and effectively. It allowed us to practice and then improve on the skills which turned out to be more useful than ever when working on our Title Sequence. I finish with the piece of work I am proud of that looks both as I intended, and quite professional too as the final cut. 

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the 

process of constructing this product?

      Throughout the production of my media product, I used various pieces of technology, many, if not the majority of which I had not used before. Firstly I used the Apple Mac in order to put together, edit and upload all pieces of work for this task, which was beyond a new world to me! I have to say, the reverse psychology of scrolling up and the screen going down really blew my mind, and the lack of a right click is just beyond silly! At first I found them to be somewhat confusing, but now they are a little friendlier. However I did come across the generic problems of a dodgy mouse and slow connection/freezing, especially when having to export or upload work. We used the Macs in our media production a great deal due to the fantastic variety of programmes they have. 

      For the editing side of our work we used the fantastic Final Cut Pro. This programme stores all original footage, allowing you to edit, work, re-word, add things in, take things out an change practically everything right up until the moment you are happy with the outcome. It also offers a wide selection of titles, effects, transitions and modifications, generators and sound effects. 

When we first started this course, I'd just about heard of this programme, but had no idea of how to use it. Thankfully after a few short tasks we were set in class I was able to have a play around, learning what does what and how. I was able to really enhance or final cut of the title sequence after learning all new techniques which gave my media product a great 'real' look. Again with the comment of always being able to go back to make any last minute changes, this was really helpful after receiving feedback from a group critique we did which allowed us to make the changes that were mentioned in making sure the final cut was perfect. 

When shooting all scenes for our  title sequence we used a flip-camera (Panasonic HDC-SD60 FULL HD) which again I was fairly new to. However I am also a Photography student at this College, so I have a certain way with cameras. I understand how they work easily which came in handy. I also have a good eye for a shot, experimenting with angles and perspective, understanding how the viewers will see this and respond to it. I was complimented by a few people by our opening scene of the low angle and our Protagonist walking away which I am quite pleased with. 

When recording the sound for the voice over and the high-pitch scratch (which we decided not to use) we used a zoom recorder. The quality we got from this was very good, as long as we weren't in too much of a noisy area so that it could not pick up background noise. 

"There's a million digital recorders out there on the market, but the H2 Handy Recorder by Zoom is trying to capture the disposable income of those that need to record sounds coming from a variety of directions. Unlike other recorders, the H2 has three microphones, one in the center and two on either side, allowing for stereo imaging of the sound. You can also record from the front, or the rear of the H2 at 90' or 120' or in full 360', depending on what format you like your file to be. (WAV, MP3 or Surround 5.1) 

(http://www.slipperybrick.com/category/voice-recorders/)   

However, some of the technology that we had used came in handy, and with the mixed views and ideas that working in a pair benefitted us with, we were able to understand at least some of these programmes. Bex was on hand for the music and so found a track on YoutTube called 'Kiddie Land' by Prelude to a Nightmare (Creepy Lullaby) and mixed this with a short piece she created on her samsung tablet that we added to our final cut. For this, we had to use the 'Youtube to mp3 converter' and the tablet to convert and combine the two pieces to make the soundtrack that would be played in our Final Cut of 'The Remaining'.

We also used Youtube to upload our rough cuts and other videos such as indents which we later added to our blog :) Also, another primary form of technology was the site Blogger in itself. I don't know about Bex, but I had never used blogger before, yet thanks to the simple layout of the site it was really easy to understand and use, and before I knew it I was just casually 'blogging away'. Other sites such as Prezi were also new to me, but enabled us to create interesting and different blogs to present our work each time. 

"Prezi is a cloud-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi)  

The animated movement, variation of fonts and ease to follow it makes an interesting watch, yet again which wasn't hard to use or grasp.

Overall it isn't about how much you know about technology, it's about how much you're willing to learn. Bex and I for sure wanted to make this title sequence a success and where we could, we were learning new techniques all the time, always aiming to enhance our media product. Nothing in particular makes you any more or any less creative, as long as you have a good snoop around the internet for tips and a play on final cut to see what's what, you're fine! :) 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Video with annotations etc :) 

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media production?

Please bare with, I am extremely new to the world that is 'Prezi'!

      This short 'Prezi' that I....present to you gives a little information on the audience our title sequence is aimed for. Overall the marketability of this film is around the age of 15-24 for the cinema-goers, although would also appeal to people watching thriller/horror genres. The teenagers would be the typical social net workers on facebook, twitter and youtube. 

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of Media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

      Throughout the making of our Title Sequence, Bex and I actually considered which media institutions might distribute our product. We included this in a post for our research. 

      This video is the ident we used for out title sequence, that I created a fair while back. This plays a big part in representing the type of institution that may distribute our film.

      I believe there is a wide variety of media institutions that would would be suitable to distribute my media product. Due to the particular nature of my film and how different it is from the average conventional thriller, I am torn between Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Lionsgate for their distribution of all Saw films, Hostel, The Eye , The Last Exorcism and The Possession. New Line Cinema for their distribution of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Se7en. However after listing this, I think Lionsgate would be a fantastic institution to distribute my product due to the diversity of films it has distributed, many of which relate closely to our own genre: thriller/horror/psychological.

      The most obvious media institutions that would distribute my film would be Youtube and other on-line video websites. These are an easy and quick way of distributing media products for free. The world as a whole has access to Youtube without an account any anyone can view the videos which could gain Captured recognition.

      Another way of distribution would either be local film festivals or national film festivals. Other methods might include short film competitions such as the virgin shorts competition which is made for young directors who need a boost. This competition only allows film up to 2 minutes. 

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent

 particular social groups?

      Overall, Bex and I tried to make our protagonist similar to certain social groups, yet fairly different at the same time. Because of the voice over, she appears as a shy girl, one who cannot talk directly to people. She also moves quite slowly throughout, as if she is in deep thought or worried. This works well with the thriller genre and a stereotypical female character, something we wanted to keep. 

Mise-en-scene; Costume
                               Make-up
                               Old photograph
                               Handwriting

     

      


      Bex has very elegant, stereotypically neat feminine handwriting which worked really well with the sense of old memories and how people used to write, as well as working with the quiet female stereotype that we tried to remove. 






      The costume we used was plain -  a casual jeans and a jacket - were to portray her as a simple, everyday person, someone you would not expect this to happen to. The events of the sequence play on the audiences mind because of how vulnerable our protagonist looks. She is the only person to feature and therefore all eyes are on her (no pressure!) so we had to make sure she was someone everyone would be able to watch and get along with. The handwriting is very swirly, quite elegant, which is something related to girls in general. Her appearance is tidy and overall quite neat. 

      For as long as possible I wanted to hide her face, which also allowed us to vary our camera angles. This was mainly because of the build with mystery and the audience not being allowed to see her face yet, or be able to connect properly with her. So right up until 1:12, no shot exists of her face on. At the beginning I focused on her walking away from the camera, and with the photo later at her feet. This creates a real mysterious effect, and represented the social group because it shows her to be quite secretive and her not wanting people to see her face, who she is, or what she is doing. Overall, the particular social groups our media product presents is the typical teenaged girl. However we did not present her as 'too girly', but dressed her in every day comfortable clothes, with limited make-up and her hair down. We did this through use of camera angles and shots to display her facial expressions and distant mood, and also through use of mise-en -scene. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

      The reason Bex and I decided on our film being a combination of two genres; Horror and Thriller were because of the great variety of ideas it gave for us to challenge the forms and conventions of real title sequences. Together, Bex and I used different ways to make it fit within the conventions of both genres in order for our target audience to understand what type of film they are about to watch without the need for heavy dialogue. 

      Conventions of our certain genres were done to make it fit where we were able to add our own personalised techniques. For example we aimed to have a wide variety of camera shots, quite typical in a thriller to enhance the fear and mystery that is the unknown. Our main use of mise-en-scene was the photograph that suddenly appear scratched out after the panning shot is shown from our protagonist's perspective. Costume was that of a casual teenaged girl in today's society. Lighting was heavily used in our shots of the diary writing, where I wanted to capture the foreground in perfect clarity as the viewer's eye was led into the darkness. 

      In terms of location, we went against the stereotypical dark alley, late at night, deserted house attempt and replaced it with an old Pier, on a hazy day in a local area. Our main reasoning behind this, is because it is hardly somewhere you would expect a thriller to take place. It messes with the audiences mind, as they start watching the film thinking everything is cool and calm, when suddenly shock strikes that every other scene are flashbacks of a mysterious event. 

      

      When editing, I strongly used colour correction on all scenes. The diary writing shots have a 50's black and white hue over them to enhance the loneliness and mystery behind what she is writing. In comparison, the flashback scenes have been cropped for a more cinematic feel and have been colour corrected to 'spring summer' which has a perfect effect on emphasizing the past, a memory, something distant and faded away. This also helped with giving a feel for the genre for our film. 

      We used influences for shots such as The Woman In Black and Se7en. I was highly inspired to take the flicking through of the book from Se7en and the appearance of a figure through glass by changing the opacity and over laying. This overall worked quite well.

      To conclude, Bex and I kept a lot of the conventions of a thriller/horror such as the the mystery, the pace of shots, close-ups, reaction shots, tension and eerie music to help the audience identify our film's genre. We also used the ghostly convention of a hand that suddenly appears on the window behind our Protagonist and disappears before much can be made of it....mysterious....

CONSTRUCTION FINAL

Preliminary Task

Feedback for Final Cut

"Your opening sequence was very intriguing, the music in the background was very well used and fitted in well with the theme. The words were quite philosophical and interesting and I definitely would like to watch the rest of the movie as it seems to get me thinking about what's going to happen next, who she's writing the letter to and many more questions rise from the opening sequence! Overall good work and well done!"

Farhath Siddiqui
Age 17 years
College Student

"Especially loved the book at the end, I think it's an awesome effect! Great variance in camera angle and the continuity of each scene is maintained despite numerous cut-outs. Excellent credit/title positioning as it doesn't block any action and suitably chosen font."

Jamie Cash
Age 17 years
Sixth Form Student

"I think the story line is great. I especially love the idea of the flashbacks, whoever came up with that is a genius!"

Kristian Coomber
Age 17 years
College Student

"You had a good use of editing to ensure continuity and also your titles were very effective, the ending especially."

Josh Walker
Age 17 years
College Student

"The voice-over needs to be a bit louder, struggling to hear it. I like how you have used the colouring, it looks really realistic and professional. I also like the shot angles e.g. the one of her walking away from the camera at the start."

Liam Penn
Age 18 years
College Student

Final Cut!

Music

     Music and sound is one of the main ways tension is built in any film, a thriller especially. What we hear on screen really does contribute to 50% of a film and so it was really important that Bex and found the right piece of music for our opening title sequence.

      We first began searching for songs that linked withing our genre. Youtube played a very useful part in this. We then grew to liking piano pieces, with the eerie chords and notes etc, it certainly was fitting with the film. Bex knew of a few pieces she liked and was thinking of doing something with 2 of them. One that caught our....ears....in particular was 'Kiddie Land' by Prelude, the link is as follows;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cePrt0bKp18

      Bex used this and a short piece she created on her samdung touch i-pad table thing to create the piece we not have on our title sequence. 

      However , I just listened to this piece (the link) for the first time and found it so perfectly creepy that I sent Bex a message asking if we should change it, and also our teacher if it is too late to do that!

      Oh we just both think it fits so much better, now having the final cut we are so happy with, this music is perfect! I just need to cut it, making it a little shorter, as currently is it 1 minute too long.

Shooting: The Remaining

      Just a short, semi 'behind-the-scenes' of thought, event, problems, weather and giggles of the day we filmed our opening title sequence: 

    
      Deciding on the location to shoot our short film was something that Bex and I immediately agreed on. (Off to a great start eh!?) We strongly wanted it to not be a heavily stereotypical location, despite the genre, because we wanted to build on the idea of mystery. Sadly what we did not consider was checking whether we would be able to take all of our equipment onto Clevedon Pier and use it to film there. We got there on a very windy Wednesday afternoon, paid to go in (having just eaten lunch on the de-tour we took to get there!) and went to walk through when suddenly we were told tripod's were not allowed on the Pier. Oh dear...! However, you were allowed to film, and take pictures etc, but the tripod was a no go. So, leaving it there, we then had to think how on earth we could film without it! As I was in charge of the camera and all the filming, I was desperately looking for tables, ledges, flat surfaces etc that I could use! But it sure allowed us to play with angles and perspectives! Luckily our opening shot was low down, on the floor in fact, so not too bad a start. 

Our opening shot of Amelia walking down the Pier.

      In particular for this shot, I placed the camera on a table that was ironically perfectly placed in the corner of the upper level of the Pier. Despite it being a distant shot of our protagonist and there being a fair bit in the frame, it has hidden her face, linking with her identity and the fact that the audience still does know what she looks like, or in fact what she is looking at. This perfectly build with the mystery factor. 

      This shot is of Amelia having now seen the photo, and not bending down to pick it up and have a look. The audience having already seen the picture on the previous shot of when it blows up against her feet. When she bends down to pic something up, the straight facing shot of Amelia portrays this perfectly where the audience is able to relate to the previous shot.

      Here, we inserted a panning shot from Amelia's perspective just after she has picked up the photo and is a little confused as to where it has come from. Casually she looks up and across the sea. Ideally here I wanted to show a blurred figure in the distance and for that to be our ghost at the end, but sadly it would have been too small in insignificant due to the scaling of the shot.

      This over the shoulder shot was used so that the audience can see at the same time as Amelia the photo she now holds in her hand. This shot is a carry on from the eye line match between the picture and our Protagonist. 

      This image shows a mid-shot of Amelia and the audience being able to see her reaction to the now scratched out photo as she stands back a little, one hand on the railing and her body slowly turning to the side. I guess you could class this as a reaction shot, when she suddenly turns around having sensed/heard something behind her. You can also see her surroundings as she is not placed in the center of the frame. 

Media Evaluation Questions

Our evaluation questions are as listed :) Up to 20 marks can be awarded for these... :)

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media production?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Production Diary Entry 8

      Today Bex and I worked on the titles and their ordering just before I added them. I have uploaded a video of our work up to date, yet still a few things need doing and touching up. I also need to add in the ident at the beginning of the title sequence :)

• What went well

Organising of titles.

Placing and opacity changing of hand on window.

• What might need improving

Ghostly hand on glass, maybe add other hand, re-do shaping to fit window panes. 

Titles so that all are equal in size.

• Any progression on ideas

Candle flickering in forground, to work alongside with cold, dark feelings at the thought of Amelia writing about her memories, her past.

• Techniques used when editing 

Fades in and out, for effect of flashbacks. 

Overlaying of two videos and opacity changing of one.

Colour presets on flashbacks.

Black and white setting on diary scene to emphasize her reminiscing. 

• How the editing went. 

Overall quite well. Pretty happy with it, the effects used etc and the fonts are good. Just need to add the voice-over! 

Last...few...steps...

     
      Here, I present to you our very nearly finished title sequence. All that needs adding now is the voice-over and a few checks and touch ups with the soundtrack. With the titles I tried hard to fins the correct font so everything tied in. Today we were given our 7 evaluation questions and told to work on the first.

Rough Cut Feedback

Today Bex and I showed our rough cut to the class and here are a few things we noted down;

1. Detach audio from scenes added today!
2. Keep the eye-line match with Bex and the Pier - (don't interrupt with the letter writing.)
3. In the shots of Bex writing a letter, she hasn't written much - continuity?
4. Increase the opacity - ghost is too ghostly. (Someone in our class didn't see it! O.o)
5. Re-consider clothes of the ghost.
6. Hand or shadow rather than whole people/evil/sound music to make it scary.
7. Clever continuity/illusion.

Of course we are a way off completing our final title sequence, but after this we have decided to of course work on the areas that came up.

1. Detaching the audio was just something we forgot to do given the time of having to upload the shots before showing it to the class!
2. The point on eye-line match is a very good point and I totally agree with this, so of course this will be changed.
3. Where Bex hasn't written a lot is a fair point, so we will have a long think about re-filming as such a late date. 
4. Same with the ghost, it will take a while to find the perfect opacity, we just didn't have the time in one lesson today! 
5. Not sure why we would need to, but we will think about it. :)
6. I don't quite fully understand this point yet, the soundtrack we had playing was just a protocol, whilst Bex was working on mixing a few together and creating something perfect!
7. Well, this was our aim! ^_^

Production Diary Entry 7 - ROUGH CUT

      Today we completed our rough cut as much as we could with the time we had. So far we are short of titles, the ident and many other small things such as the soundtrack, voiceover and scratching to put over the photo shot. Bex has been working on the soundtrack and combining pieces she has found and one small piece she created herself on a samsung tablet. I have been completely focused on all the editing and piecing together of all the shots to create the rough cut I present to you here;

Production Diary Entry 6

      Today Bex and I filmed the last of our shots needed to complete our Title Sequence. Over the week I re-watched the title sequence from Se7en and was extremely inspired by the 'book flicking' technique used at the very beginning. So today Bex and I tried this, it looks pretty good and we are hopeful it looks even better! I then mentioned to Bex that we should consider having our titles in it if we were to slow it down ever so slightly. Here's the one I mean;

      I realize our won't quite be so brilliant, but it was worth a go eh!? We weren't going for the '7 deadly sins' feel anyway!

• What went well

General filming and ideas for improvising.

• What might need improving

Sey up of scenes and where we place what. We want the best result for the flashbacks.

• Any progression on ideas

Etchy scenes for flashbacks.

Writing a longer script for the voice-over.

Using the sound of the fountain pen when writing.

• Any changes to schedule

Sadly the buses to no run over the weekend to Clevedon, so we will have to use the scenes we have as we only go to film Bex writing today.

• How the overall shooting has gone

Pretty good I believe, we used a great variety of shots today so we can pick and choose!

New Shooting Schedule

      Due to a few corrections and areas Bex and I need to improve on we have drawn up a new shooting schedule for this weekend that will enable us to stick to our new plans and finish all shooting that we need!

Production Diary Entry 5

Editing for Rough Cut

Rough Cut due date: 19th March 2013


What went well

Selection of scene, cutting and piecing together as well as colour enhancing the scenes to emphasize the effect of a flashback.

What might need improving

Selection of shots.

Continuity.

Soundtrack.

Any progression on ideas

The scenes we have to date are to be used as flashbacks that Amelia has when she is writing in the diary.

More shots are needed (to be filmed on Sunday).

1 minute shoot of Bex writing in a diary that will relate to voiceover.

Any changes to schedule

This Sunday we will re-shoot a few scenes to continue with our idea of the flashbacks. We will also do a 1 minute shoot of Bex sat at a desk writing in her diary as we plan to vary the shots of a mid close up of her face and then possibly one over the shoulder so we can see what she is writing. 

How the overall shooting has gone

Overall things are going ok, we just have a few areas to touch up on, especially our continuity but everything is scheduled.

Techniques used when editing 

Transforming the recording to have more of a cinematic 16:9 feel rather than a standard 4:3 video aspect ratio.

Colour correction on the video so that it has a more professional visualisation, although it may not be a natural colour tone it is one that will enhance the shot to collaborate with the mood of the scene and emphasize the idea of a flashback. 

How the editing went. 

So far so good, mainly been exploring Final Cut Pro and all the many things you can do on it.

Production Diary Entry 4

      Today Bex and I met in town to film the rest of what we need for our title sequence. This involved taking a panning shot of the view from the Pier that will be featured when Amelia takes her eyes off the picture to look out to sea as we include the sound of the photo being scratched and then a reaction shot of Amelia's face when she notices that one face in the picture has been scratched out.

Production Diary Entry 3

      Today Bex and I filmed the over the shoulder shots of the photograph and also the shot of myself all floaty in the distance to crop and use as the long lost sister where we will lower the opacity to make her seem freakily transparent.

      We also did a short voice over that we intend to use for our title sequence that relates to Amelia's emotions as she walks down the Pier and begins to reminisce.

Title

      After searching many font sites via google etc, we have decided to use this old, handwritten font for the title of our sequence. However, we are still deliberating the idea of each letter being written individually on the sequence, yet are just figuring our how to do this!

Production Diary Entry 2

Yesterday was our first day of filming and overall it went pretty well! Today in class we will begin to look into soundtracks and the script needed for Amelia's voice-over.

• What went well

      Low angle shots and reaction shots of Amelia on the Pier went well. 

• What might need improving

      Certain shots where we need to pan, or look over the shoulder for example, any shots where the tripod is needed. So far we have done the reaction shot and a low angle shot of the Pier and our Protagonist walking down, away from the camera.

• Any progression on ideas

      To work on using the idea for opacity changes in showing the girl from the picture to suddenly be stood right in front of Amelia, 

• Any changes to schedule

      Over the weekend we will need to re-shoot a few things, and also do the panning shots from the Pier (now in Weston) of the sea, the view that Amelia takes in when having found the picture.

• How the overall shooting has gone

      Overall the filming in general went quite well, despite the major problem that was the Pier not allowing us to take the Tripod on with us -_-.

Production Diary Entry 1

      Today we were enabled to take the cameras home to begin filming, yet sadly Bex was not in College today. Tomorrow from 12:15 onwards we will get the bus into town, to hop onto another bus to take us into Clevedon and from there we will begin to film our opening sequence. I believe we are all set, everything is planned and we are ready to film. The sound tracks and everything will come afterward and then we are on the roll!