FINISHED!

FINALLY FINISHED BLOGGING WOOOOOOH !

EVALUATION: 6. Audience Feedback and Comments

POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

VIDEO COMMENTS 

EVALUATION QUESTION 8- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

PASSWORD : student

CAMERA 

When we first began using the camera we understood the basics of filming and we were able to get good shots for our first time. However I think a key strrength in my group is using the camera and using different shots anyway. However we did not take in consideration of the little things. In our preliminary (on the left) as you can see there are people in the background who were not apart of our scene as a matter of fact they were not meant to be there at all. The shot on the right however, looks much more professional, there are people in the background however, it is suitable for the storyline and the focus is on point. We also learnt the importance of eye level being 1/3 of the screen regardless of what shot it is, unless it has a particular significance. 

Editing

In our preliminary film, we tried to do a match cut of Elias closing the door, however if you notice Elias closes the door a few seconds after we begin recording. This could have been avoided through editing the clip so as soon as the audience see the door it is already being closed and not 'paused then closed'. For our final thriller opening we avoided this very well, we were able to embed clips onto each other to create a confusing and frustrating effect. As well as a black and white effect to signify the audience which scene was a flashback. We also used transition effects such as fade ins and fade outs. as well as jump cuts which directly takes us to a particular scene. 

Mise En Scene

As you can see in our preliminary we used a tesco bag to suffocate someone. As a group when we looked back on we realsied it was very unproffesional and we should have used something else like a black bag or a brown paper bag. In our final thriller we portrayed the importance of mise en scene because, it was the props and clothing that creates a 'spark' between the killer and victim. For example we see Demi's character drop her map and the killer instantly knows that this is his chance, likewise he notices my character playing with a flower and he can then ome up to me and speak about the 'amazing flower' which leads to further altercations. As we thought a tesco bag could still be used as a significant part of mise en scene we used it when Kudiwa's character dropped her shopping which also gave the killer reason to approach her. In order for the audience to identify the main character he wore roughly the same outfit throughout, this was usually dark coloured clothing which connotes, he is a very closed, dark, evil person. The females however wore very casual outfits which we learnt was important because, it makes our characters seem realistic. 

Production/distribution

In our preliminary, the beginning of our clip started off with the director. As important as the director is it is very crucial to put the ident for the production company first. This is something we did not do and, had we been apart of a large conglomerate and under a big production company such as 20th Century Fox there could have  been serious problems. Luckily we notice our errors and for our final thriler opening we made sure the ident for the production company was the first thing to appear. Through our research and planning we watched a documentary based on production companies and film openings called 'Watching'. Director Jean Jacques Beineix highlighted the importance of the risks when using 'instant arousal' in filming which is what we decided to do. By plunging your audience in with a huge shock in the beginning means you have to 'plunge' them in throughout the film. We added the sound track over the production company ident  so the audience could instantly feel drawn into the film, although some production companies dislike this, we done it anyway because we are apart of a small independent company. 

Titles 

Titles are also very key in thriller openings. We learnt the importance of the title sequence and the order it should go in and who to credit first, which is usually the production company and associates. Furthermore it is very important to have a particular font type that corresponds with your film genre. The titles of our film was in a thick serif font, which was not to fancy, and very plain which connote the simplicity in the killer as killers tend to be very straightforward and simple. 

Group work! 

A very big lesson I learnt by the end of this project was the importance of group work and participation. It is very crucial that everyone includes their ideas when creating such a big project like this. I got along very well with my group and we usually had the same types of ideas. When there were differences however, we worked around it and looked for other possibilities if someones idea did not fit, this usually resulted in us doing much more thinking and later creating a better idea than the one to begin with. Our communication skills were very good despite the very stressful lessons (last few days of editing especially!). However, we were very tolerant of one another which made us at ease to contribute our ideas and this was a key reason why we got along. As this project was group work we learnt that being organised was very essential, all our filming times were done according to each others schedules and it was important we were all on time to not disrupt peoples other plans. 

The most important thing we learnt was that planning and research is very essential and crucial when carrying out a task like this. Without planing and research we would have made various errors and not known the key conventions of a thriller opening which would mean we would not complete our task. 

OVERALL I REALLY ENJOYED THIS EXPERIENCE, ALL OUR SKILLS LEARNT WERE NOTICED BY OUR AUDIENCE WHICH IS AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO VIEW ON THE POST ABOVE WHICH IS AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ! 

EVALUATION QUESTION 7: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through this process we have  used a range of technology for different purposes this includes:

• BLOGGER: Write posts, embed videos, upload images,. Used to store research and planning for our thriller. Planning - regularly up to date, track changes, keep in touch with the group
• JVC digital cameras with memory cards - instantly upload footage to the computer. Professional standard cameras with good quality. 
• MACS
• Programs  for editing and adding titles and sound such as Final Cut Pro, Livetype, Soundtrack Pro, Quicktime - handbreak,
• Flip cameras
• Windows Movie Make
• Phones to film

Blogger is a blogging site which we used as an 'online open diary' where we stored all our planning, research and other bits and pieces for our thriller opening. Blogger is very convenient because, it is a website and not a program therefore you can access it anywhere, and anytime. As a matter of fact it is possible to blog on your phone after a film or seeing soemthing interesting. In order to 'jazz' up your posts you are able to upload images, sounds, videos etc. furthermore you can track changes and each person has their own tag so you can take a peek of their posts too. 





JVC Digital camera's with memory card slots and a professional camera


We used a professional camera with a very expensive lens in order to produce quality footage. As expensive and complicated (the buttons) this camera looks it was very simple to use and easy to understand. We were able to gain or decrease lighting with the camera, instantly upload footage onto the computer using the memory cards which allowed us to store an excessive amount of clips.

 APPLE MAC LAPTOP 

This was the computer we used mainly for the editing process, adding the soundtrack and 

creating the titles

Final cut pro, Soundtrack Pro and Livetype

These were the three key softwares we used throughout our production. (From the left-right) . FinalCut pro is the software we used for editing and was the key software we used for our editing process. Soundtrack pro is the program we used to create sounds, add non-diegetic sounds such as the heavy breathing in the opening and ending of our title sequence. LiveType was the software we used for our titles and the title fonts were downloaded from www.dafont.com, this software allowed us to create transitions and effects for/on the title. 

 
Other resources


Flip cameras and phones for feedback, windows movie maker for making small movies at home. Handbrake and QuickTime for converting clips and making them compatible for blogger 

EVALUATION QUESTION 4 & 5- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?How will you attract your audience


Our film the cycle is a low budget student video, therefore it is improtant we distribute it somewhere that fits our budget. Our film will be released via the in internet on websites such as youtube, vimeo, blogs, twitter, etc. It will also be posted onto social networking sites which are used by millions of people daily. It is very important that our final product is distributed in a way that attracts our target audience, who are mainly women between the age of elderly youth (20+) and middle aged women and some men, however in order to make our product successful it is important we use a large distribution company that can attract a variety of people.


An example of student work on the internet that has used the internet as a form of distribution. 
- This video is from pupils at Hurtwood House Performing Arts College, who are also on a low budget 
- These students used YouTube as a way of distributing their film watch is useful because, you can access YouTube from a wide range of sources such as PCs, Laptops, Phones, iPod's etc. Furthermore YouTube is free so more people are likely access the website. 
-YouTube is accessed by a variety of people for different purposes this is from young teens to lated 40s therefore you can attract a wider audience on YouTube, and thee students have taken advantage of this.
- As a result they received 269 views in three weeks 

FACEBOOK & Twitter!
Facebook and twitter are social networking site that are used by millions of people daily. Not only can you instant message friends and relatives but, you can also upload pictures and videos. This is a good way of attracting our audience because, viewers have the opportunity to like, comment and share the video. On Facebook if one person shares it then their hundreds of friends can also share it and so on. Furthermore once we see who has liked our video we will get a good understanding of who our target audience in particular are. Similarly it can be 'retweetd on twitter' and the more people mention the film title 'The Cycle' it will be able to be a worldwide trending topic that can last days.

Cinematic screening
As we are apart of an independent company, we cannot use large media companies to distribute our film however, we will have a shared cinematic screening amongst our media peers as well as a DVD release of 200 copies


Other forms of distribution and marketing

Vimeo a very professional website where you can upload your own made videos, and not last night's Eastenders. 















BBC Film Network help promote short
 films from British filmmakers which is what we are. 

EVALUATION: 3. Who would be the audience for your media product ?

AUDIENCE FACT FILE !

NAME: Maggie Smith

GENDER: Female

D.O.B: 08/03/85

AGE: 25

LIKES: Going out with mates, enjoys PSYCHOLOGICAL, PASSIONATE MURDER THRILLER films, reading, her time at university

DISLIKES: Football, action films, mess, beers (love wine), smoke

HOBBIES: Going out for drinks, cinema, social networking sites, reading romantic novels in her spare time, shopping at local high street stores with friends

                                                                              

EVALUATION: 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

                                                  'He loves Me, He loves Me Not'              'The Cycle'

My character within the opening is a victim, who is very weak, vulnerable and fascinated by the littlest things. 

During our first lessons of research we watched a few thriller openings, in order for us to gain understanding of different thriller sub-genres. We watched the opening title sequence of 'He loves me he love me not'. Although the film is a romance thriller which is completely different to ours, the first character who we are introduced to is a female, who is in a flower shop smelling flowers and seems very fascinated and being very fascinated by such an object may impose that a person is very vulnerable.

I did not plan to behave in a way similar to the character in 'He loves me he loves me not' not however, on set we remembered the way she utilised the flower as a form of mise en scene, the way she would smile hard and sniff the flower to show interest. I then realised in order to portray a character who is very vulnerable and quite weak I had to use different types of body language and facial expressions, immediately I remembered the woman in the opening of 'He love me he loves me not' and her use of the flower as a form of mise en scene. 
The flower in my thriller opening is very crucial because in England it is one of the first flowers to grow during spring and, it is very common. The fact that my character was very intrigued by this tells us that she is not exactly normal, and I used my facial expressions to emphasis this. I constantly smiled and looked at the flower similar to the woman in 'He loves me he loves me not'. Because I was on my own it also emphasis the awkwardness. 

EVALUATION: 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

CODES AND CONVENTIONS !

- Establishing shot of the location and setting - London

- Title sequence in a specific order - Production company, title, actors, directors etc

- Ident for production company - Beginning of film

- Genre - Thriller 

- Settle down time - We did not exactly have any, as soon as the movie started the soundtrack was already playing, we done this in order to grab there attention immediately

- Intertextuality - Establishing shot of the city (London) and in Taking of Pelham 123 (New York)

9 SHOTS FROM MY TITLE SEQUENCE AN 9 SHOTS FROM 'THIS IS ENGLAND'

• They are both set in England (hence the name) however, there are establishing shots of common areas in England that allow the audience to establish the location
• The titles fonts are very similar, especially the film title and, they both go on top of the establishing shot
• The actors name in This is England appear over the characters, although in the cycle they appear on a blank screen however, we are introduced to main characters in both films.
• The close ups signify particular characters because they are the most important e.g. Elias and the girl and guy kissing in This is England
• Both films have the editors appear after we are introduced to the characters and after the editors both films have the producer/executive producer appear.  

FINAL EDIT OF OUR THRILLER 'THE CYCLE'

FINISHED NOTICE BOARD

LIVETYPE

SOUNDTRACK PRO

FINAL CUT PRO

Opinion on thriller opening

Looking back on it, if we .stuck to our initial idea I think my group and I would have lost a lot of marks. The e-mailing system was time consuming and it was difficult to get the shots precisely. Furthermore the whole opening would have too much going on and it was not exactly significant, so having a poor opening scene in my opinion would mean a poor thriller opening altogether. 
With the effects and backing track on the opening I think it all fit perfectly, we each tried our hardest to give our best and indeed we did. I am very happy and positive about our final thriller opening compared to our initial idea

Favourite Parts

Throughout this coursework I think the best part for me was filming. 

Although sometimes setting up the camera and carrying it around was 'distressing' the whole experience was fun. We had our times when we wanted to cry because both camera batteries were almost dying or we could not get the shot we wanted however, apart from that I really enjoyed the filming. Taking care of such equipment proved that we were all responsible, no one ever stopped us which is something we feared especially filming in the Central London and we generally had a very good time. 

Photo slideshow

Teamwork

Compared to other groups who were ranting at one another and, in constant disagreement my group and I worked very well together and never had an argument. 
We did not always have the same opinion or want the same things but we somehow managed to put everyones idea in. We were also able to express our talents, Elias for example has a passion for making music and we allowed him to take on this role, Sheri wanted to experiment with the fonts so we allowed her to do the titles. Me and Demi both thought it was important two people do the editing because, we would need advise, and to apply our knowledge of what we had learnt in previous lessons because, one of us was not enough. Although those were our main roles we all had a turn in doing different things. When I was free for example I would mess around with title fonts and, when Sheri or Elias were free they would do different things. We would always feedback to each other on what we had done and appreciated others input even if it was wrong or not needed. 


In terms of blogging we all did at least one blog each where everyone could tag themselves. 
Overall I would say that I enjoyed working with my group because, we were all aware of others opinions, when we were off task we would get back on task, we all sacrificed some of our precious time which resulted in a very good finishing piece. 

OUR Group 14

Looking around during the filming process i saw that many groups were struggling or got easily frustrated with all group members surrounded around the computer screen shouting and telling each other there ideas. As a way to keep our filming pace fast we allocated jobs to each member in most circumstances.

For instance when we met up for filming we decided who would bring the props for that day or who would bring the filming equipment.

• Sheri- Focused on the Titles of our Thriller opening and the way it would be presented
• Elias- Focused on the music that went into any scenes we needed, he often used Soundtrack pro
• Mariama & Myself (Demi)- Focused on Editing ad doing all the Importing and Exporting of devices.

 We took it in turn to return equipment if needed.

As a group i actually think we worked rather well, even tough we had a few disagreements we always done majority vote or just tried to incorporate every ones idea the best we could.

Export and Import

Two words that I will never forget from this whole experience is 'import and export'. As we had to keep re-editing our opening, titles and the soundtrack we had to keep exporting and importing different files onto different programs. 
This was very crucial when we were adding effects to our backing track because, we had to ensure that it was going according to the clip.
Although it did get too a point when those two words reminded me of being instructed to walk forward and then backwards, annoying right ?

Adding and editing the soundtrack

As we had very little time left, we allocated Elias to produce our soundtrack as he has experience in creating music and he was very eager to create a backing track. 

We wanted something very suspenseful but at the same time something that was suitable and appropriate for our opening. We decided that dialogue was not to be added because, it was a dream/flashback and everything was going very fast so it would not make sense. However because it was a nightmare we recorded heavy breathing (which did not turn out great) and decided to change our mind and use one of the effects on Soundtrack Pro. 

Because the backing track was not as long as the opening clip we had to copy and paste the track again, as we played it back for what we thought would be the last time we realised there was an awkward noise in the background of a baby crying. We were VERY confused as to why this was happening because, we muted all recorded sound during video recording.. 

We realised that we had a hidden effect in our sound clip that needed to be removed and after 20minutes of stressing all we had to do was press the delete button.

Changing the production company

Our beginning production company name was D.E.M.S we decided to call it this because it had all our initials and we wanted to seem like our film was made by an independent company, rather than something big such as 20th Century Fox which was not needed as our film is not a big Hollywood film. 

Furthermore by creating our own production company with all our names in it, showed how much of a team we are and, what better than D.E.M.S ? it's also easy to pronounce because it is short for Demi.

However, we were told that it was not very professional for a production company to be someones name and the idea of initials was slightly tacky, so we decided that it was better to use a producer called 'Mike Collins' and another title to be 'In Association with Safari Films and Broadway Ent' There was not anything significant about these names Sheri and Elias picked them randomly however, we really liked it. The idea of two production companies tells the audience that this film budget is not too much and it is made by an independent company rather than a large conglomerate.

Lastminute.com

The deadline for our project is literally less than 24hours away, and today was complete and utter stress. 
We looked over and over our clip to keep checking if we needed to add anymore effects, titles, and also include the sounds. As a matter of fact we needed to:


- Change the production company
- Add and edit the soundtrack 
- Export and Import
- Swap scenes around 


In the next few blogs i'll explain in details why we had to do make these changes, how long it took to be done etc

OVERDUE video blog 2

The second video blog we made after finishing filming..

WOO!

OVERDUE video blog 1

This is the first video blog we made after filming the first day..