Evaluation - Question 8

Looking Back At Your Prelim Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learned In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Since our prelim film, I think I gained a lot of different skills. One skill I definitely gained was organisation. When it came to film our prelim film, we were not organised at all.. it was  ore like a last minute thing! We filmed some scenes, then changed our minds.. And started filming all over again! It was hard, long and stressful!  Filming our thriller opening, we had to be organised, or we wouldn’t have been able to film and finish it. We made sure we knew what we were doing, which days we were filming.. The props and costumes we needed.. Plus we made sure we stuck to our plan, so that we would finish on time! I learned that organisation skills are a key skill in filming, alongside teamwork, communication and commitment! Without all of these are films would have not been completed on time.

During filming our prelim film, we hadn’t yet got use to the media equipment as it was only our second time using it! Trying to film it, I found it pretty confusing, as I wasn’t use to it, plus I forgot a few things that we were told during our introduction to the cameras! So basically I was going by what I thought was right! Plus one big problem for me was adjusting the tripod! It kept getting stuck and I didn’t no how to adjust it properly.. it was really frustrating and wasted a lot of our time.

When it came to film our thriller opening, we had a lot of practice with the cameras, so we got use to it.. and were comfortable filming with it. Because we knew what we were doing, and we knew how to adjust the tripod and use the cameras properly, we saved a lot of time. After the prelim film, we gained strong camera skills, which were really useful for our final film.

When we filmed our prelim film, we had dialogue.. We were told we have to have a bit of dialogue. I thought it was not a very good idea, as the sound was terrible in our prelim film, you hardly can a hear a thing they say to each other. It was unclear and made the film look so fake!  After experiencing our prelim film with dialogue, we decided the best option was no to use dialogue in our actual film. We decided to use a suspenseful theme tune instead, as we believed it would create suspense and build up tension. The theme tune was way more effective then a bit of simple dialogue.

During our prelim filming, we only knew the basics; we were still in the process of learning. We only knew few shots and we didn’t really know how to make it look realistic and interesting! But over time, after a lot of practice and teamwork.. We learnt how to make scenes look interesting, how to film different shots to give a different prospective to the film.

Evaluation - Question 7

What Have You Learned About  Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Video drive:

The video drive was very useful because it kept everything together, our clips, pictures and presentations.

Camera:

We were taught on how to use the cameras. First we learned how to insert the memory card so that our work was saved safely. Also how to insert the battery by just hearing a click so we knew it was secure. Most important, we learned how to turn the camera on, by just pressing a button. The best way to get stable shots is by using a tripod. We were taught on how to set it up so it didn’t collapse.

Final cut pro:

Final cut is the best programme to use to edit a movie. You can shorten the clips, make it faster, or slower. You can cut out the bad scenes to make the movie perfect. You can also create titles for your movie and also sound. Above all, you can add special effects.

Live type:

This programme allows you to add titles to your movie. You can choose the type of font you want. Change the colours, size and style to adjust to your film

Soundtrack pro:

On soundtrack pro we learnt how to mix sounds together to suit our film. It was easy to add it to our film, but pretty hard to find what exactly we were looking for. It had a huge range of sound effects to choose from.

This programme allows you to convert a video into an mp4 file so you can upload it onto your blog. At first it was pretty complicated but once you get the hand of it, its really easy and useful.

 

 

Evaluation - Question 6

Audience Feedback And Comments
In phils lesson we all watched everyone’s film, this was actually very useful, as we get to see how everyone’s films turned out. Plus it was great opportunity to get feed back on our film, this helped to see what we done well in, and what we could have improved on,

Here are a few things that some of our class mates said:

·         The close ups are really good, and the blood doesn’t look fake, looks very realistic. Titles were clear and visible.

·         Mise en scene- is good.

·         The sound wasn’t that subtle

·         A little too fast paced at the beginning.

·         Close ups unclear = sense of mystery

·         A really good and clear plot or storyline

·         Great props and blood associated with the Mise en scene.

·         Fast paced editing.

·         Lab= Too dark

·         Shaky camera

·         The music fits really well with the genre

·         It sounded like CSI or something

·         The titles in white really stood out.

·         The scenes were a bit dark and I think lighting would have helped.

·         Variety of shots

·         Good music

·         Realistic props- blood on the clothes

·         Out of focus in some scenes

·         Too dark in the lab

·         Sound of camera was a bit off

·         The dead body looked really good- good Mise en scene

·         The location for the lab was really good- made it look realistic

·         Some parts looked unfocused when doing close ups

·         Too dark in some scenes

·         The sound looped too much

·         Good uses of close up and pan of the dead body

·         Music builds up susoense and tension

·         Hand held camera

·         Good use of props- fake blood looked really realisitic

·         Good Mise en scene

·         Some of the filming is a bit dark compared to the rest of the film

·         I think the sound worked well with film and editing, I also like the Mise en scene ( blood and lab scene looked realistic)

·         I thought the locations worked well

·         I think the use of close ups and camera movement worked well.

·         I think that the lab scene was too dark and I think that some shots were out of focus.

·         Variety of shots of the body

·         Montage feel in the lab scene

·         Realistic Mise en scene- white clothes & blood

·         Lightning could have been better

·         The camera work was really well done at the beginning

·         The make up was really good

·         The contrast between the red blood and white clothes was really good.

·         It’s a bit too dark in the lab

·         The Mise en scene of nails.

·         Soundtrack worked well with the clip

·         Editing worked well, almost like a proper Hollywood crime thriller.

·         Lighting was a bit dark for the lab scene.

·         Sound was very good matched the editing

·         Mise en scene was good

·         Very realistic

·         Lab scenes are really dark

·         Good music

·         Good use of Mise en scene – blood with white clothes

·         Writing out of focus

·         Lab scenes really dark

·         Too fast

·         Man in the background

·         Good use shots at the beginning

·         Sound track is slightly gimmicky

·         Lighting could have been improved

·         I think the titles of the film don’t go with the film

·         The sound was good and thrilling.

·         The different closes up shots were good.

·         Good use of Mise en scene- blood

·         The location was appropriate and looked realistic

·         There could have been more close ups and at a quicker pace. It would have been more effective if they didn’t show the girl taking pictures of the dead body to add mystery.

·         Realistic

Evaluation - Question 4&5

What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why? How Will You Attract/Address Your Audience?

As a class we discussed how we can market and distribute our media product, we spoke about all the ways we can get our film out there. We knew it wouldnt be backed or released by big film companies such a Paramount or Warner Brothers. So we had to be realistic and think about ways which would be suitable and doable  to get our films watched and noticed. Our film was low budget, plus it was a student film, so this meant if we wanted our films to get watched we would have to market and distribute on online and social networking sites, which are free and worldwide! These are some of the ideas we came up with, some of these are done online and does not cost anything!

• Facebook  - uploading it on Facebook, would get our film watched by a lot of students our age, plus they can like and comment, this would help us see what they think of our film.
• YouTube - uploading it on youtube, we can see how many hits we get, this would show us whether our film is popular and liked or not.
• DVDs - Our film will also be released on DVD with 200 copies being distributed
• Film Screening  - our films going to be shown on screen of the green in Angel, where we all are going to go and watch it, this would get a wider range of audience watching it.
• Vimeo - Another site were we can upload our film, and get it watched by a wider range audience.

Bernard showed us two websites which are used to distribute films, they were both very successful.

http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/

uploading our film onto this site, would be a great advantage, as this is a worldwide website and is used all over the world and our fil would get viewed by many different viewers, which would expose our films. also people can watch as many videos as they want as its absolutely free and does not cost them a penny! however the disadvantage of it is that its not targeted at helping young film makers, its only used so that people can only watch films.

http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/


The reason bernard showed us this website was because a film that was published by students actually came first in a competition. this website helps young people from all different backgrounds to develop and maintain their skills, talent, creativity, confidence and other capabilities.
the good thing is that this company is funded by the lottery organisation.

We watched this clip in class > Hey Jumper by Elishama Udorok at First Light
The reason we watched this film, was because it was a winning film made by students! this inspired us all because it proved that young people, such as ourselves can get our film shown to a wide range of audience.

Evaluation - Question 3

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Our film is mainly aimed at an older audience, perhaps around the age of 18 and above. Reasons being they would understand what the film is about, and it would create suspense for them. As well as it’s a crime thriller, so it would really interest the younger audience as an investigation is carried out.  Plus I think this would be suited for a male audience instead of a female audience.

My particular audience could be a man, at the age of 18 at university studying science. He has great interest in crime and investigation.  When he finishes university, his future plan is to work in a lab!

In his bag he would have the following:

·         Science Books

·         Uni  Student Card

·         Wallet

·         Reading book – investigation story

·         Reading Glasses

·         Pens

Evaluation - Question 2 (Analysis)

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Before we started filming, our inspiration was the TV programme CSI and The Bill, the reason being was that we were thinking to do a crime thriller, because we believed that would create suspense the most. When Sophie was dead, the reason we got her to wear a white top, was so that the blood would look real and it would look as if she actually did get murdered. We could have just filmed her in the clothes she came in, but that would look so unreal and fake.

These two images are quite similar in many ways, such as there both investigating a murder scene, there both kneeling down close to the body to investigate what has happened. However they have their differences, as in CSI the dead body is a male and so is the investigator. In our film the dead body and the investigator are both female. Another major difference is, the body in CSI is discovered in an apartment, and our body is discovered in a park. Both of these images link together as both are investigating a crime.

These two are images look so alike yet they have a lot of differences. The similar thing about these two images are the way the camera is positioned in both images, it’s more or less the same. The difference, well you can tell really, as you can see out camera is just an ordinary one, the camera in CSI is a professional one. Plus CSI Made it look more like an investigation as they had white gloves on, unfortunately we forgot about that, and we didn’t manage to get white gloves for this part of the scene.

Evaluation - Question 1 (Analysis)

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

These two shots are very similar, as they both start of the film by setting the scene. both of them have a wide shot of the place, letting you get a feel of the film. I believe our shot looks more realistic and believable, because of the trees and the bench inn the shot. The shining shot, looks 'Wow' its a bit too much, but yet it works well with the actual film. Both of these locations work well with a thriller, because it gives you a feeling of isolation and loneliness, which gives an idea that, anything can happen!  

Most of our shots are linked with the T.V Programme CSI - Crime Scene Investigation, this is because our thriller is a crime thriller.

When we filmed the lab scenes, we wanted it to look as realistic as CSI, as that was our inspiration from the beginning. We got appropriate equipment from the lab, so that Jessica could carry out a investigation and make it look like a real murder scene. Both these scenes look really similar, as both of them are carrying out some sort of investigation. Plus both of them are dressed similar, they both are wearing a white coat and gloves, this is the appropriate clothing for a lab.

Particular scenes in our thriller opening were influenced by the popular British crime drama ‘Wire in the Blood’. We decided to only show parts of the body, as we thought that would be much easier than the whole body. As you can see both these images are only showing their faces.. This makes it look convincing. The image from wire in the blodd, has the body on a metal slab, but we decided to film ours, where the body was found, we thought it would look more realistic.

Evaluation-Question 3: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The kind of audience we were trying to attract when it came to our thriller opening was people in the age range of 16 - 25 year olds. An example of the kind of person we would be trying to attract is something like this;

 Bella is a 18 year old student currently at The University of Manchester studying Criminology for 3 years. Whilst also being at university Bella also has a part time job working at River Island. In her spare time Bella likes to go shopping with her friends, she also like reading books about past crime as one day Bella would like to be a crime scene investigator. Bella also enjoys going swimming and playing tennis. Also in her spare time Bella likes to watch programmes such as Agatha Christies Poirot and sometimes CSI: New york.  The kind of books Bella reads include 'The forensic casebook: the science of crime scene investigation'

Evaluation 5- How will you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation- Question 4 & 5 : What kind of media institutions might distibute your media product and why? How will you attract or address your audience?

When deciding what media institution might distribute our media product we had to be realistic, we knew it wouldnt be backed or released by big film companies such a Paramount or Warner Brothers. This was because our film was a low budget student film. So the only way our film would be released would be by us uploading it to local social networking sites. To help us understand what was meant by distributing our media product our teacher Bernard decided to show us this website which he thought would help with giving us idea's when it came to distributing our fil,. The website was www.firstlightonline.co.uk, he showed us this website as the film which was published on this website actually came first in a local competition.This website was set up to help young people from all different backgrounds to develop their skills, talent, creativity,  confidence and entrepreneurial capabilities.  This company is funded by the lottery organisation.
Hey Jumper by Elishama Udorok at First Light  click this link to go to the winning film. This film is so inspirational to us because it shows that young people can get their films released to a wide audience. 
When it comes to us releasing our film to a wider audience we will have a screen premiere of our film, where we will all go down to Screen on the Green in Angel to watch all the films. Our film will also be released on DVD with 200 copies being distributed. Also to get more coverage for our film we could also publish our film on local websites such as Face-book, vimeo and YouTube.


Face book















By using social networking sites to promote our film this will also increase our viewing audience. By using social networking sites this will increase our viewing audience because to watch our film on a social networking site would be free. So this would mean that you wouldn't have to pay to watch the film meaning it it is cheap and reliable as there a thousands of people on social networking sites meaning that your film is bound to be watched by many people. Also by posting our film on a social networking site it is showing that are film is going global as many people would get the chance to see it.
Another way that we could attract our intended audience is by word of mouth, by using word of mouth to attract could be successful at times but could also be a negative way of getting people to watch your film.  It could be successful in the sense that many people would get to watch your film but also they would be able to hear about it, meaning you would get a lot of exposure. But by using word of mouth could also be negative because someone who watches your film might give it a bad review to someone who hasn't seen it, this could then mean that they wont go and see because they think it is going to be terrible.

Another website you can upload your film to is a local film website called:
http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/ 
By uploading your film to this website it means that you film can be viewed by many viewers, this is great exposure for your film as this website is used all over the world. But a downside to this website is that it is not targeted at helping young aspiring film makers, this website is only used so that people are able to watch films. This website is very popular with many people as it is free meaning that people could watch as many films as they like and it wouldn't cost them a penny.

The cinema where our film is going to be shown



Our film will be released with 200 copies, give out to AS students