Final Cut

Here it is, the Final version of Treachery! I know you have been waiting so long for this, so grab that popcorn and your drink and enjoy!

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?

So question 7 is based around our prelim task which is one  the first filming tasks that we showed you. 

So here is it, I know you want to see it again but this time i'm going to pick bits out of it and talk about it.

00:08 - At the start of the Prelim film we had one of our male actors walking down from the top f the corridor this is clearly to long and boring and could have been done much better.

00:37 - When making the match on action we had to change the position of the camera as we only had one, this meant when we edited we had to make the clips match. Unfortunately this didn't work and it made it look like our actor walked through the door twice.

00:46 - The first clip of the shot reverse shot is poorly done as you can hear me saying action before the actors started talking, if we had waited another second this could have been prevented.

01:01 - Right at the end of the film the actor looks at the camera this isn't professional as the actors need to make out that the cameras aren't actually there.

Okay so I have picked out some parts of our Prelim task that were really poor, so now i'm going to see if we improved in our final cut.

00:19 - In our prelim task like I said before we had our actors walking for way to long but this time we made it short so it didn't get boring for the audience.

00:34 - For the final cut we I made sure that we said action then waited until the actors tarted talking, this made sure that it would be more professional and would help us a lot in the editing stage.

01:20 - Unlike our Prelim match on action in the final cut we made sure that it was smooth and looked like we hadn't done two different shots.

Differences in the planning stages -

Shooting and Editing - For the prelim task we had 2 hours, 1 hour for filming and 1 hour for editing, this meant that we was very rushed and didn't have time to plan everything out properly. For the Final cut we had 2 weeks for both editing and filming, this meant that we had time for planning and also had time to make sure everything was at the high standard that we wanted. 

For the final cut we had to make a script, treatment, animatic and a storyboard. We didn't get to do any of this for the Prelim.

Making a script made sure that our actors knew what to say and where to be when filming, it also meant that we could make our film more professional and not make it up on the spot.

The treatment made us plan the film out very rough, we could then use the treatment to add more ideas to the actually script and storyboard.

The storyboard was there to help us draw out the shots that we wanted to have in our film and also was sort of pans, tilts etc were gonna be happening in that shot.

The animatic was helpful for us to show our drawings from the storyboard but also add the dialogue that we wanted as well. 

Due to us not having a chance to make these for the prelim task it meant that the final cut was a lot more successful and worked much better than the original task.

What I have learned about myself - 

I have learned that I can give ideas that are useful and help other members in the team.

I have learned that you have to be calm and sometimes not say what you think when working in a group.

But last of all I have realised that filming can be great and is always fun but sometimes working in a group can also mean that some people end up doing more than others.  

Evaluation Question 6

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

Overtime the internet has advanced, it hasn't always been what you expect. There were 2 stages Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Evaluation Question 5

How do you attract/address your audience?

One of the hardest things to do as a film creator is to attract an audience to watch your film. The only way for a film to be successful is for the public to watch it. You need to find out what people want to see, if you create what they want then they will be more likely to watch the film.

Our film "Treachery" has the obvious things such as cliffhangers, tension and suspense. We tried to include the things that the public would like to see in a thriller.  

Gender:

The audience always expect the a male character to be the one known as the villain in our case this is Adam meaning that we did not go against the stereotype. As well as that we had the villain going after the male this would leave the female alone and vulnerable for him and this is what Adam wanted.  

Soundtrack:

The soundtrack is a major factor when it comes to a thriller. You can create lots of tension from a soundtrack and can also keep the audience of the edge of their seats. We used a very joyful underscore at the start of the film due to both character being very happy, throughout the film the underscore changes showing that something is going to happen but the audience don't know when.

Camerawork

Camerawork can make a big difference for how the audience see the film. Poor shots can change the meaning or make it not clear to the audience this can confuse them and make the film not as good. 

Pace of Editing

The pace of editing can have an impact on the film as well. If the pace of editing is fast then this can portray drama but on the other hand slow paced editing can make the audience thinks that everything is okay but then out of nowhere something could happen. In our film the pace of editing increases when our main actor goes down the celler. 

Production Values

These are very important for a thriller film. For example the lighting in a thriller film is normally very dark, you can see this in the cellar scenes in Treachery. As well as that there is the setting, the setting for our film was in a house tat was old and slightly creepy, you wouldn't expect to see a thriller film based in a fairy castle because that wouldn't be appropriate for the genre.

Problems when it comes to attracting viewers

Due to our production companies being so small we cant attract big celebrity actors to play the parts in our film, as we cant afford the like of Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Big stars attract people to watch the film, because people want to see that certain actor.

Evaluation Question 4

Who will be the audience for your media product?

This is all based around the rating of our film and what is involved, and if you forgot about my Target audience profile then I recap it in this slide show. Hope you enjoy.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Instead of you having to read blocks of text I decided to help you out an use youtube to answer this questions. Question 3 is all about how your film is distributed but first you need to know the process and what distribution is so below will be a video which will explain this to you! So grab some popcorn and a drink and enjoy.

 

Our Distributor

I hope you enjoyed the video but now I get to tell you who is distributing our film. Bolt Studios is our distribution company and will be showing Treachery world wide.

Treachery will be in cinemas in February of 2018 as we feel that is a good time to release our film due to lack of film being made at that time. Also it gives us enough time to promote the film using Facebook and other social media platforms as well as adverts on tv. Youtube will be a very good way of getting it across with millions of users everyday.

Other companies that work in this market are the likes of Walt Disney Studios, Sony and Time Warner. These all distribute films to the public and there is many more.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 1

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

In this question we decided to do something much more entertaining than reading a page of words. It's a screencast! Hope you enjoy.

Rough Cut (Peer Feedback)

So we finally got to show our films to the class. After we had done this we all watched it again and gave some feedback. The video below will be our film and also comments from the class, we had to shout out stop and then the teacher would pause the film. We then had a chance to comment on what we thought needed improving. This feedback would help us to re-do parts of the film.



Firstly the class mentioned that our foot steps were out of time, to change this we will slow down the footsteps in final cut or use different ones to make sure they fit and work better. As well as that we got feedback saying that they pan was taken of the subject which we was trying to show, to cage this we will either re-film it or cut it and change the shot completely.

Secondly they picked out that the shot of Dom at the door was uneven and caused didn't show the full shot, also there is a reflection on the wall from pour clapper board that shouldn't be there this also got picked out by the class. They also picked out the fact that our actor was standing at the door for way to long and it went on for to long.

Thirdly when the girlfriend opened the door she didn't greet him in a very good manner they should have maybe hugged or at least den something that shows their relationship. Also we needed to add a sound effect on the door as it is closing. As well as that the music stops very quickly in the scene this is not professional and makes the film look worse.

The actors look at their phone this is very obvious and is showed to the audience. We need voice overs to make this better and to show that it is clearly a relationship not a friendship. The acting doesn't show that they are in a relationship.

You cannot tell that they are boyfriend and girlfriend this is a serious issue in our film, the acting should have been more structured by us to show this better. It is very staged.

The shot was very low this was because we didn't want to cut the head off the actors but it also gives off the wrong opinion to the audience. The dialogue needs to be much more convincing as they don't come across as they care about what is happening. This is a error by us because we didn't give them clear instructions.

We needed more sound effects for when they are walking around the house. The editing cut of grace going up the star is was a b it off they was way to obvious to the audeince. We need to make the story line much more obvious to the audience. The shots were rushed and made the film looked rushed.

Rough cut

Well I know you all want to see our rough cut for Treachery, so here it is. Hope you enjoy.

Title and Ident Construction

As a group we all contributed to the production company name as well as the film ident name, these were Perception Films and Bolt Studios.

How we created our idents

We used a piece of software called After Effects by Adobe. This program allows you to make moving images for film idents. We created them in this software then put them into our film.

Our idents

Our original idea for this was to have a blinking eye as that fits with perception very well. But unfortunately we couldn't get this. We then liked the look of the film reel, and this also fits as they were used to see the film back in the days of reels of film.

For Bolt studios is was very simple we wanted a lighting bolt and thats what we got this clearly fits in with the name of the company.

Editing

After we had filmed the opening to Treachery it was then time for us to start editing. Below is some screenshots our editing using Final Cut Pro.

I contributed to both session of editing that we had, due to lessons and commitments we all worked around each other. Me, Sam G and Rhea did all of the editing on a day when we had all free lessons. The following day we all worked again but I had to leave and came back after school to complete the editing. I added and cut the shots down. Rhea did the voiceovers and the underscore and Sam did the voiceovers and sound effects. Just before we finished me and Sam G did the titles.

This is near to the start of the editing process, we had added the shots and voiceovers and then the underscore.

This is near the end of the editing process. By this point we had completed everything and also added the titles as well.









This is our group starting the editing process. We all contributed and all attended when we needed to.

Shooting on location (diary)

25th January 2017 - This was the first day that we started filming for Treachery. We first did the shots down in the cellar as only one of our actors could be there on this day.
  

This is me and Rhea standing at the bottom of the cellar, getting a shot of Dom walking down to hear what the big bang noise was. As well as that Sam stood at the top to tell Dom when to start.

26th January 2017 - This was the scone day of filming for Treachery. We did the tracking and establishing shots on this day because we chose to only have our male actor for these shots.

This is Me, Sam and Rhea preparing the tracking shots outside the front of the house. Me and Sam set up the shot while Rhea was explaining to Dom what he needed to do during it.







30th January 2017 - This was the third shooting day for Treachery. We started the shots with both our actors in them.

This is the living room which we will be filming the majority of the film. I was filming the shots, Rhea was directing and Sam was on continuity and lighting. Both our actors were involved in this and they had to learn lines for the scene as well.






6th February 2017 - This was the fourth day of shooting for Treachery. We had to change our actor, due to difficulty of getting to location.

We had to re-film some of the parts in the living room scene. it was easy because we had already done it and had it planned out. Grace was our new actor a learnt the script straight away.







8th February 2017 - This was the last time we filmed before we edited the rough cut. We had to get the last shots with Grace and Dom. We filmed the parts in the main hall part of the house and also had to re-film one of the shots outside.

Shooting Schedule

For our film to be successful we need to create a Shooting Schedule. This is for the directors and crew to use when they are on set. It contains the shots, where the shots are being taken, who needs to be in the shot, what props will be used and the time and date. it is very useful when you are filming as it keeps you on task and keep you to a specific time frame. The cast can also use this to know when they are needed and at what time.

Here is our Shooting Schedule:

Actor Release form

In order for us to legally use to images and voices of our actors then we have to get them to sign a Talent release form. This shows that we have permission.

Risk Assesment

To keep all the crew and equipment safe we have to complete a formal risk assessment. This will mean that everyone is aware of the dangers that are on set and can be make sure other people know of these risks.

The risk assessment has to include the risk detail, severity of risk, likelihood of the risk, prevention of risk, who is at risk and who is responsible.

Animatic

So after reading the Animatic research post I guess your here to see our version for Treachery.

Well here it is.

 

Animatic Research

An animatic is the animated version of the films storyboard. It is created after the storyboard has been made and shows the storyline of the film, Using the storyboard with background music and sounds. This is a method used by film makers to ensure their film idea is working and flows well.

There are a list of important conventions and they are the following:

• Shot drawing
• Camera angle
• Camera movement
• Shot size
• Sound effects
• Soundtrack
• Film Ident's
• Film titles

Technology as changed so much over the years and so has animatics. They first started with the storyboard laid out all in order using special effect but know with all the editing system that are available it is easier and more technical.

Animatic are now still images made into a film format with music over the top and also with dialogue and sound effects involved as well.

The advantages of making an animatic is that the director will know how long the shot needs to be and what camera angles and movements need to be in the shot. He or She will watch the Animatic and use it to make the film.

I will know add some examples of animatics that I have looked at:

The video above shows both the animatic and the film.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard for Treachery. It is 8 pages long and has all the shots that we will use in it.

Storyboard Research

The storyboard is an important part to a film. It is a series of drawings that show the entire film. These pieces of art can be pages long, and are always very detailed. As well as the images there are other things that the artist needs to consider including camera movements, shot types and other things that show what the audience will see when the film comes out.

I have researched other storyboards and these will help me and my group complete our storyboard for Treachery.

Below I have added some screenshots of a professional storyboard for the film Star Wars.

Props research and Props list

In any film that you watch there will be props used. Every film has some sort of prop whether its as simple as a phone or a broomstick in a witches film its still a prop. Below I will explain the research we did about props.

Why we research props?

We need to find out what props are available and if we can get them for when we need them to film. Also if we don't research then we don't know whether the prop will be the right one to use. As well as that if we use the correct props it shows the audience and gives them a better understanding of what we are trying to get across. If we research then we don't get the audience confused which is our overall aim.

The props we have chosen

IPhone - As a group we decided that a IPhone would be a good choice for a prop as both characters in our film are between 16 and 18 and a common stereotype that is associated with that sort of age is that they are always on their phone and don't stop using them. If someone see's you with a IPhone you would be classed as "well off" which is common wen people see Apple branded items because they are well known for being a expensive brand. As well as that we have chosen this because it is easy to access for when we need it.

TV Remote - As well as the IPhone we have also chosen the use a TV Remote as a prop. Another stereotype that people give when talking about teenagers is that they are moody and watch TV all day and we wanted to show this in our film. The TV Remote is a LG and this is a common remote that people would recognise easily when they see it. 

And last of all our Official props list which will be embedded below ...

Costume Research

We chose youthful, casual clothes for our actors as the audience will be able to detect their age straight away when they see them as well as that it is accessible to our actors, we need to take that in to consideration because we are not the biggest of companies and wont be able to afford to buy clothes for our actors. They will have to wear the same clothes when filming because if they change then their will be continuity errors in our film.

The male actor (Dom Ewen) will be wearing a plain t-shirt, plain jeans and any socks. We try to avoid any patterns on clothing due to continuity errors. What these costumes represent? Due to the clothes that we have Dom in we expect the audience to think he is just a normal teenager, but when people think of teenagers stereotypes kick in e.g. violent, aggressive and dangerous.

Our female actor (Emily McCarthy) will be wearing specific clothing as she has let us know in advanced what she can wear. It will be a Adidas grey top, Black jeans and pug socks. This is also like Dom's but because it's a girl they don't get the same stereotypes. Girls are seen as more innocent then boys. If an older person spoke about a girl they wouldn't say they are aggressive like they would if they were on about a lad.

These costumes show that our characters are defiantly part of the youth social category as they are wearing clothes that show this. As well as that is shows that they are materialistic and this is a stereotype with many teenagers nowadays because they want the best outfits and clothes.

Location Research

Location is an important part when making a film and you have to pick where you go very wisely. This is because it can make or break your film. For example using a forest, everyone and I mean everyone has done the forest thriller where some scary guy jumps out and follows someone. So for us we didn't want that to be part of our film. We chose to have a normal house setting. This is because its easy access for us as well as it being a good place for our actors to get to. The house also has a seller which we can use to our advantage and has plenty of room for us to film. Below I will add Pictures of where we will be filming.

We looked at some other places that we could of used as a back up if we need to.

This is the front room which most of the film will take place in. The room show the audience that older people own the house as many of the interior is old fashioned. This also tells the audience that the school kids don't own the house. So they cant be over 18 at all.






This is the seller that we will be using. We wanted to incorporate the seller but not make it a horror.

Like I said before everyone uses the scary forest idea when doing a thriller. We knew as a group that we definitely wouldn't use this but we still had to look at places and this was one that commonly come up. 

Back to Treachery. Our film is based around a couple of school kids and this is the main reason for the house idea. Having it based in a house makes it more realistic for the audience. We didn't want to go to far out the box because that might not make our film as good as we wanted it to be.

Other genres such as comedy and action films would have very different settings and I will add some pictures of what you would expect from them genres.

We looked at the film the Bye Bye man as there is a house in it that looks a little bit like the one we are using. The house is big and has many rooms in it including the seller which we are using in our own film.

This is the house above. 

Below I will embed a real media example of something that we will try to incorporate into our film. 

Script

After the treatment has been complete its them time for the Script to be complete. The script is not only useful for the film crew and director but also for the actors who have to follow it.

I will embed below a script created by Matt Carless and this explains all the conventions for what a script needs. This will help us to create our script. The Matt Carless script, is in a script format but also explains what you need to have in a script.
So after looking at that I can now show you the Treachery Script. Hope you enjoy. Scroll down to the second page for the start.

Treatment

The treatment is basically the first version you will see of the film. The treatment is normally very detailed because it has to give the reader a insight in to what happens when it is eventually made. I will now give you some example of what I have found. We looked at some examples of Treatments to help us complete our own. They help us to see what we need and how much detail you actually have to go into when creating our own. We had never made a Treatment before so it was new to us. This is why we look at other ones.

Toy Story - http://www.platypuscomix.net/otherpeople/originaltoystory.html

Spiderman - http://www.teako170.com/cameron.html

Now I will embed our Treatment for Treachery.

Role of film composer

Film score composers are similar to sound editors but deal with a different aspect of sound. Their job is to decide what kind of soundtracks should be used throughout each film depending on what fits best for example using tense soundtracks for a thriller film or jolly comedic soundtracks for some kind of comedy film.  The kind of soundtracks that they could compose could just be simple pop tracks or classical tracks.

Now for some famous composers:

Danny Elfman

He is very well known for The Batman Theme and frequently scoring other films.

He has also scored for some other films:

• Batman
• Mission Impossible
• Men In Black
• Spiderman
• Edward Scissorhands

James Newton Howard 

He is one of the most popular composers for cinema and has scored over 100 films. He is most known for the film The Sixth Sense (1999). He also worked on some Disney films.

Other films he scored:

• I am Legend
• Batman Begins
• The Hunger Games
• King Kong.

Role of the sound editor

The role of the sound editor is to assemble sound recordings to prepare for the final sound mixing. they are used on TV programs, motion pictures , video games and anything involving recorded or synthetic sound.

They have many jobs and these include:

• Editing and cleaning up dialogue 
• Removing unwanted sound, such as Aeroplanes and dog barks
• ADR
• Sound effects
• Soundtracks

The Wilhelm Scream 

The Wilhelm scream is one of the most famous sound effects ever used and its been in almost 500 films. The sound was voiced by Sheb Wooley and is named after private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River. The scream is now used as a joke and is most notably used in the Star Wars films, Indiana Jones films and many cartoons.

Role of the Foley artist

A foley artist is a person who recreates sound effects for films or tv shows on a Foley stage in a post production studio. They do this by using various items such as shoes, plated, chair etc. The purpose of this is to create a richer sound than already present.

The reason a Foley artist is so important is due to the fact that props and settings aren't always available when they are needed and they may not have the right materials for what you need. This is where the foley artist steps in a makes the sound that you want. An example of what he or she does would be if the film or tv show had swords they may be plastic so its the Foley artist job to make it sound like they are real.

Below is an example of a Foley Artist and he examples what he does and how it is done.

 

As a class we had a go at creating some foley sound and I will embed these below.

Recording sound on location & ADR

When recording on set you have to make sure that there is not a lot of sound in the background otherwise the shot could be completely useless and you would have to film it again. But there are ways around this and that is where ADR comes in to play. ADR stands for automated dialogue replacement and this is used if there is background noise or the actors don't speak loud enough or bad whether conditions and even if the camera is too far away. You basically get the actors to record their lines again and then add it in when editing this means the audience get to hear everything they need to and background noises cant effect the overall project.

If the director feels that there needs to be bits done again due to background noise then ADR is the most popular way to fix them.

If we have problems with noise when filming then we will have to use ADR because it is the easiest way to make the film better.

Below I will add a guide on how to use ADR:

Media Language (Sound)

Sound is one of the most important things in film and TV. It is everything that you hear when watching. Sound is one of the hardest things to get right especially when editing, but it can also get in the way when you are recording as well. Sound isn't just effects its the dialogue and its also the music that plays when the action is taking place as well. You have to pick the right sort of sound to use otherwise it will not make sense to the audience who are watching. If you want to show an aggressive fight then you wouldn't have really happy music playing at the same time etc.

Synchronous/asynchronous 

Synchronous - this is where the sound matches the action that is on screen. An example of this would be a group of people clapping and you see their hand movements matching the sound.

Asynchronous - This is where the sound docent match the action that is on screen. An example of this would be hearing a bus coming down the street before you actually see it.

Diegetic/Non-Diegetic

Diegetic sound is where a type of sound that you both hear and see when its on the screen. For example if a coin is dropped you will see and hear it when it makes contact with the floor.

Non-Diegetic - This is where you don't see the action on screen but you hear it. An example of this would be hearing a coin drop on the floor but not seeing it on the screen.




Sound Bridge

When sound carries on in the next scene or shot.



Parallel & Contrapuntal soundtrack 

Parallel soundtrack 
This is where the soundtrack matches what is happening on the screen. For example if someone died on the screen then sad music would be played.
Contrapuntal soundtrack
This is where the soundtrack is the opposite of what is happening on the screen. An example of this would be a happy wedding scene having sad music over the top.

Ignore the title of the video below, it shows parallel and contrapuntal soundtrack not asynchronous and synchronous.

The Pitch

In our most recent lesson we showed the class our ideas for our thriller film. We had to get up and pitch it to them telling them everything that was going to be involved and also how it was going to be classed as a thriller.

 

We decided that our film was going to be based around a girlfriend and boyfriend that get scared by the girlfriends new man.

The feedback which we received was that it was a good pitch but we needed to rethink things that wasn't so good.

We needed to change the title of the film because it wasn't specific to the genre that we were doing it sounded more like someone deserted on a dessert island.

Also they found we shouldn't use Sam Hadwen in the actual film as it may not fit correctly.

A good point of feedback that we got was that we had thought about how the film was going to extend and thanks to input from the class we decided to not go to far but just keep the audience on a cliffhanger.

Summary of Film title design ideas for own film opening

Titles are a very important part of a film they tell the audience who is in the film and who created it. The titles are normally at the start of the film. In every film they are in a different order and there is not a set way to do it.

Here are some example I have found.


Titles can be created in all different ways. You can have some thing move then it pops up or it can be incorporated in to buildings or walls. There are many creative ways in which this can be done and we have decided to have our incorporated while James is walking to Ella's house. As he walks across the pavement we will see the title appear. I will add a drawing below of what we hope it looks like and yes I know it looks like a music note but its feet ,I promise.

Target Audience

When you are planning your film you have to take certain things into account. But one of the most important things is the target audience. The target audience is the people who are watching the film. This is normally done by looking at the classification of the film and also many other things that can be part of the film. An example of this would be targeting your film to 5-10 year old kids but your film classification is 18. That would just not work at all.

Existing products:

To help us figure out our target audience I have researched some films that have the same genre that we have been given(Thriller).
I have used the Pearl and Dean website to look at some other films that have the same genre. This will help us when looking who we want to target as our audience.

The comparable film with The Shallows is House at the End on the Street.

The picture above shows that the most common age who watched this film was 15-24 year olds with 51% and females watched it the most with 57%. This would tell us that we need to target 15-24 year olds as they watch these sort of films the most. As well as that you can see that a lot of males also have watched this film, you can see this by looking at the percentages. We will have to target both genders because of this information.

The comparable film to House at the End of the Street is The Grudge 2. The information we get from this one is that once again 15-24 year olds watched it the most. But the difference with this one is that it was a 50-50% for genders meaning that when we create our film we really need to target both genders.

Target audience profile:

This is Jim. Jim is a 19 year old lad from Newcastle. He is currently a student at Newcastle University. He lives at home with his parents and his younger brother. Jim comes from a upper class family and his family pays for pretty much everything he does. They support what he wants to do and his education is their main priority. Jim doesn't have a job at the moment this is because he is at Uni all the time and wouldn't be able to get time off from his studies. He studies Sport at Uni and wants to eventually go o to teaching it at High school level.  Jim enjoys football and is a big Newcastle fan and if he has no work to do he gets to the games on the weekend. If he's not watching football he is going to the movies with his mates and watching all sort of films. His favourite film is Insidious.  He is also into books and tv shows. His favourite book is Harry Potter and the deathly hallows and his favourite TV show is match of the day. 

Summary of initial own film narrative discussions

The first time our group got together we looked at what we was going to call ourselves. We eventually chose to go with Perception films, this was because our idea was to using an eye in our ident and perception is to see something. As well as that we then talked about what our film was going to be about and what sort of thing we wanted to have in it. Our initial ideas were to have a few  jump scares and have a lot of tension in the opening but we had to change as that would have been to much like a horror and we are doing a thriller. We then looked at what sort of actors we wanted in the film and what roles they would play in our film. The whole school kids theme really stuck out to us as we knew people who could play the parts and it would be a good target audience for us. As a team I think we worked really well and listened to everybody's ideas. Some things we disagreed with but we figured them out and eventually agreed an overall plan to move forward.

What did people in the group contribute?

Well to answer this question I would say that we all contributed certain factors and added to other people ideas to make them even better.

Ben - I thought of the texting element to the film. The idea was that some one is texting one of the characters and then when they leave the room the audience see a text saying "Im coming for you" or something along them lines. This creates tension for the audience.

Rhea - Rhea originally wanted to have the whole school kids idea in the film. As you could have a young couple involved. We liked this idea and wanted to expand on it. Rhea also gave us the idea of using her nan and grandads house for filming as it has a seller that we could use to build more tension in our film.

Sam G - Sam's idea was to have the bang involved to add a lot of tension to the film opening. He thought that the bang wouldn't make it to much like a horror and keep it as a thriller. He also contributed when we spoke about the plans to move on.

Production Company name and Ident

As a group our first task was to chose a production company name. In this post we will be telling you our name and why we picked it. Drum Roll please.

We picked Perception Films

There were a few reasons for our decision and this is why...

We wanted to create our film through the perception of the audience who are watching it, and by this I mean we wanted to let the audience watch something that we know they would like.

Also perception is what you see, and our films will be seen all over the world.

In our opinion Perception films is the best name that we could have picked. As it represent what we want to do really well.

Show, Don't Tell Me Feedback and Evaluation

I hope you enjoyed my Show, Don't Tell Me. Since completing that task I have had some verbal feedback from my teacher (Mr Hood). I hope he enjoyed it.




The first thing he mentioned about my short film was that my establishing shot wasn't the best, he thought I could have used a better one like the school or a sign that says Great Wyrley High School. I agree with this, we should have taken our time and produced a better one.

The next thing he mentioned was that I had a very good two shot as well as a good shot reverse shot followed by a decent extreme close up. I was happy with this as I thought the timing on the editing was good and that the shots we're filmed at a high standard.

After that he mentioned that I could have used a match on action when placing down the pieces in the game. I completely agree because when I was editing I messed up part of it meaning that that clip was supposed to be somewhere else but it didn't work. Also he said that I needed sound effects when the pieces are placed down.

When the character feels ill I have used a unrealistic sound effect which is not good. I will need to change that also the timing of the sound effect was a bit out.

When the character is running outside the footsteps need to be more in time. Also when he turns the corner the match on action is out by a bit so that needs work as well.

The sound effect was late on the first door and also the same sound effect was used for the other doors meaning that it didn't sound as good as it could off.

When the other character is messing with the game it goes on for way to long and the framing on that shot is not good at all. This bit of it may need to be done again.

The last thing that was mentioned was that Mrs Nardone was in the corner which shouldn't happen. This is bad because we really needed to check the surroundings before we shot.

Overall I am happy with my attempt at this. I could have done a lot better but some of the things that needed improving wasn't down to the editing it was because of bad framing and not looking before we started shooting.

Show, Don't Tell Me

To be able to get some practice in before we film our thriller we were given a task to make a short film called Show me, Don't tell me. The rules with this are there is not to be any dialogue throughout and also eventually when we started editing we had to use sound effects to replace the fact there was not sound. The reason we were asked to use no dialogue was to practise certain skills. These skills were editing and using sound effects when editing. If there is no dialogue then there needs to be sounds effect otherwise the audience would get bored and wouldn't understand what is going on. As well as that without dialogue you need to rely on the fact that visual images will have to move your film on because normally dialogue does it for you. Show, don't tell me basically is where you show the audience what you want to portray without actually using words this then gives them a better insight into what you actually want to show. Below I will embed my versions of the final thing.

 

In my opinion I was not happy with my final product. The filming and footage was good but my editing needs some work as I have put two of the same clips in as well as not put some of the sound effects in the right place. Overall I need to do some work to this and then I will hopefully be happy with it.

The next post will be ... Show, Don't Tell me Feedback and Evaluation.

Thriller Deconstruction

Due to us getting Thriller as a genre for our final product, we have been given the task to deconstruct a Thriller of our choice. I have deconstructed Sixth Sense.

Below I will embed the deconstruction.

Below I will embed the opening to Sixth sense which our class deconstructed.

Now I will embed one which I have done my self, I chose to deconstruct The conjuring.

I will once again embed The opening to the conjuring.

AS Film Brief

The genre that we have chose is Thriller as we thought it would be the most suitable for many reasons. The overall aim for this is to create a the opening of a thriller in 2 mins and have a full list of titles involved as well. We are allowed to do anything as long as it matches the genre and criteria that we are given.

Advantages 

When creating a thriller the locations can almost be in the most basic of locations which is good for creating.

The cost of a thriller is pretty much nothing as you can use simple locations like explained above and costumes can be made and props can be everyday items.

You don't have to worry about making certain parts of the final product fit the genre such as romance you have to have a couple falling in love but with thriller you can make it fit everyone's taste.

Disadvantages

If you cant make enough suspense in the short time frame you have you can say that you have created a unintended effect on the viewer.

The reason why we didn't pick a different genre?
We could have chose comedy but when it comes down to it a comedy has to be done very well for it to be successful. Not everyone has the same sense of humour and if people don't find it funny then you have not created a comedy.
We could have chose Sc-Fi but due to us being such a small company it would be impossible to have the CGI that you need. All Sc-Fi films have CGI involved in then, if they don't use it then it is not as successful as it could have been.


The next post will be ... Show, Don't Tell me

Early Consideration of Evaluation Questions

For us to understand what we need to do in the final product so that the moderator is happy we have looked at the evaluation questions.

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

The moderator is basically looking at whether our final product will be unique and not copy what has already been created. We can does this in different ways for example age, normally you have the teenagers as thugs and always committing crime but you could change that so that older people commit crime and the teenagers complain about them.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Stereotypes can be used here to show how we can flip what is expected to something that is not expected. Social groups are normally recognised as that woman and the elderly are weak and vulnerable but on the other hand the teenagers are thought of as thugs that commit crimes and cause damage. This sort of thing can easily be flipped meaning that ours will be different to the what other people have done in the past.

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

This question does not need to be talked about at this stage.This is because distribution is usually dealt with after the final product has been complete.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Because we have not looked at the full storyline of our piece we cannot answer this but we have looked at the classification for the age ratings so we can base it off that.

How did you attract/address your audience?

This is something that needs to be taken in to account when we are planning as we need to keep the audiences attention as well as attract a certain audience to watch. As well as that we need to keep it similar to other thrillers but put our own spin on it to give us that unique quality that we want.

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

The answer to this question can only really be answered at the end because we have not started editing and finished the filming. But we still need to look at what the equipment can do and what effect it can have.

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

Once we have completed our final task we will have more of a idea of how much we have learned as we will be able to look back and see any difference with how we used to camera and whether we used more advance camera shots when we become more advanced or whether we didn't and haven't made much progress at all.