Media Evaluation - Question Eight

For my evaluation from the cinema, I have uploaded some short video clips that show the audience response from our films. Also I have created a word cloud of audience response.

Overall I am very happy with the way that all of our work has come out and finished. I think that it looks very professional and i am truly happy with my groups work.

Media Evaluation - Lauren's Response

Lauren's response to our Media Thriller Opening..

Media Evaluation - Farhana's Response

Farhana's response to our media thriller opening...

Evaluation.

Question 7

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

When i think of our Preliminary match-cut task it almost makes me burst out laughing when I recall all the mishaps of the task. In fact, we were so inexperienced with the cameras we somehow managed to mute all sound and had to use subtitles, quite embarrassing when it was played to the entire class, all of whom had sound as a feature in their footage. However, creating the subtitles gave us a head start on the whole title sequence side of our coursework module as we had used Livetype already and even knew how to create titles within Final Cut.

Well, in our final piece we were very careful to check the sound thoroughly ensuring we didn't make the same mistake twice! We were also more adventurous with camera shots in our final piece then we had been previously, but perhaps the reason being for that is the issue with time as our final piece is two minutes and our prelim more along the lines of thirty seconds.

The main difference between our before and after tasks, is the planning behind them, the planning was stronger for our final and it was also better thought out, and was a whole group effort as opposed to one contribution and some nodding and agreement (whether the opinion was trusted or not). Also, being our final piece, the editing is more evident, and the film has a more professional touch than the match-cut preliminary clip, but also, the Livetype experience paid off for us in the end because the improvement on the titles is dramatic.

Also, the composition of camera angles and utilising the available space has improved with practice and time, as i am sure that we covered a much vaster filming sight than beforehand with one table, three people and a tripod on swivel. We gave up on the close-ups and thousands of mid-shots we had previously adopted and used more wide angled shots and long shots allowing the audience to get the full impact of the space, this was deliberate to highlight her isolation and being alone.

Evaluation.

Questions Three and Four

'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? And how will this attract/address your audience?'

We feel that our film would receive a very mainstream release, and as in the case of Star Trek, a very global release too. The style of our release includes the fact that it will be a very wide scale release, it will have a Red Carpet Premiere at Leicester Square including paparazzi and A-list Celebrities.

The Format for the movie itself will be Digital as this format is the most advanced incombatting movie piracy as the release dates across the globe are almost simultaneous and if not they are only a day or two apart, this makes it harder for those who want to illegally want to watch our movie. However i personally feel that our movie wouldn't benefit from a Imax 3D release as it would have to be Exceptional to live up to Avatar and Alice and Wonderland, both of which were a hit in the cinema, however Clash of the Titans is apparently not living up to the exceptionally high bar which Avatar and Alice and Wonderland have set.

Because we feel our movie would be a Blockbuster, we understand that Marketing is extremely important for filling the seats in the cinemas up and down the country and across the globe.

Of course, the Internet is an ever growing and ever changing recourse, especially amongst younger people in society, an online marketing campaign would be extremely beneficial in launching our movie. Star Trek had a phenomenal online marketing scheme including adverts on the Sky News website, Youtube, social networking website Facebook and the ITV web page. They also launched their own website, which was very cool which included Movie Trailers and Spoilers.

We would also put our Trailer on our website and on Television in between channels, we feel that our movie, seeing as it is a Psychological thriller, would probably be advertised on prime time television, perhaps after Nine PM as our movie is creepy.

With regards to advertising In Print, we thought that perhaps newspaper The Sun as it is the most popular newspaper in Britain. But also the Metro, Daily Star ect. TV magazines would also be good to advertise in however we don't think our movie is appropriate for women centered magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Grazia ect.

With regards to our out of house (OOH) advertisements, billboards and bus shelter advertisements are probably our safest bet, however, if this was a real media product, a majority of our budget would have been saved for marketing so we would have posters on the underground also and also we would offer educational poster packs (such like the mese en scene poster offered by Star Trek for colleges) with the hope of attracting college students to watch our movie.

Evaluation.

Question One

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

When we planned our product, we decided as a group that we would use and develop the conventions of media products within the same genre as opposed to challenging these conventions.

We set about creating our title sequence with our main aim to create suspense and tension, we felt the best way to do this was using our soundtrack to establish a serious tone as apposed to a lighthearted one, one you might typically find in a romantic comedy.

We understand that conventionally, the title sequence for any film establishes a tone, feeling and pace, of which is applied throughout the rest of the movie. (i.e. What Lies Beneath uses the calamity of the water to lull the viewer in to a false sense of security before allowing the female in the bath to pop up and shock the audience. This sets a tone and formula in which the rest of the movie follows). We feel our title sequence sets a pace and tone with our soundtrack and slow, dreamlike pace.

Usually, the title sequence introduces a character to the audience, though admittedly, many of the more effective thrillers do not use a character but establish a setting or use strange objects i.e. dolls to set a tone. We introduced our female lead and also a strange male character and gives the viewer a rough idea of what the movie is going to be about.

Another classic convention of a thriller is Leaving the audience inquisitive and eager to watch on. This element was key to include as we thought of our product as the hook which needed a bite from our viewers so we could reel them in. Our product had the audience thinking: 'Who is this Girl?', 'Who is she telling her dreams to?', 'What awaits her at home?'.

Media Evaluation - Question Six

Question Six of our Media Evaluation - A video explaining what we have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing our final piece of coursework.

Evaluation Part Two.

Question Five

'Who would be the target audience for your media product?'

This is Kyle.

Kyle is 23 years old, he attends a inner city London University studying Psychology and works in Topman part time to make ends meet. Kyle enjoys socializing in bars and clubs with friends from University and Work, he also enjoys trips to the west end and to the cinema. His favourite cinema is the Odeon in Shaftsbury Avenue as it is close to his home and workplace. He likes watching movies that are less obvious and get him thinking, he loves movies and regularly attends cinema to watch new movies. His favourite genres include Action, Psychological Thrillers and Horrors but he also takes his girlfriend Heidi to the cinema to see Rom-Com's. Kyle enjoys indie music and his most played song on his i-pod is The Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum. His favourite item of clothing is a cardigan from Topman which his mate bought him for his birthday.

Media Pitch Problems!

Due to technical issues, we have had problems trying to put our media pitch onto Blogger. Both the Head of Media at our college and our Media Technicians were unable to solve these problems, so we will submit our pitch on a DVD instead.

Evaluation.

Question Two

'How does Your media represent a particular social group?'

In a reflective perspective to this question, our actors are both white and stereotypically classless in apparel however we do represent the 'vulnerable female' character, traveling alone, looking worried. The female is shown as being vulnerable due to the fact she is alone, in a seemingly isolated place, seemingly looking for something. However when she runs into the strange man from the bush, she runs away; a very stereotypical portrayal of the frightened female character. The audience may interpret her actions as foolish, and her attempt at running away as childlike reflecting her youthful innocence.

(left to right) Character: Anna Rydell - 'The Uninvited' 2009, Character: Alison Johns - 'Inbetween' 2010.

Group 33 Have now a Plan B!

Sadly Totteridge and Whetstone Station, along with our whole original idea has officially been flushed down the loo. But now, Drum Roll if you please, GROUP 33 HAVE NOW A PLAN B (YAAAYY, APPLAUSE)

Ok, you may be wondering what plan b actually entails which is much different to our original, well allow us to explain. We are changing the location from near enough High Barnett to Islington, Angel, around the corner from college. This immediately throughs up advantages such as quickness in getting to filming location. Also, with it being so close to college if anything goes sunny-side-up with equiptment, we wont loose masses and masses of filming time when getting the equpitment sorted out, which is brilliant for us.

Plan B Storyboards (Alison Natasha Johns' Animatic one is already available to view) will be available for viewing within the next couple of days, we have been experiencing technical difficulties in uploading our new location shots and storyboards. Thankyou for your patience though! :)

From the four of us, Group 33.

Anamatic Storyboard for Plan B.

If our A-Level assessed my computer drawing, then it is highly probable I would fail AS Media, but however this is not the case! i hope the really super-bad drawings are easy enough for you to understand, however if not, i will give you a very brief summary of what happens.

we decided to start with the smashing of a Jar/Glass (Risk assessment OBVIOUSLY BE CAREFUL..) And we will make this glass put itself back together rather than smash (reverse glass-smash footage), but though its clear im a paint professional im afraid that was a drawing a little out of my capability range! From this point, we will then show you an establishing shot of the park. Then it will flash to a stop sign, to signify something is going to happen. After this we will fade in (also could not fade, sorry folks!) to the image of a girl (acted by yours truely) walking into the park, using CU of the feet we will show you the girl walking to a point. then an over the shoulder shot will reveal a strange man (played by colleague Harry Thomas Kinsley) emerge from a bush. After some speach on my part, and not returned on Harry's, My character will run out of the park and reach a Creepy Door (WooOooo!) and it will end with the character reaching the door.

Planned Location Shots

Movie Pitch

A week ago we gave a Movie Pitch to Micky and Annabel regarding our title sequence movies which we filmed, however we have been trying to upload our video of our pitch and our presentation for a week now but have been experiencing re-occurring technical difficulties. As we have already had one filming session i felt that we should write up our pitch now and then upload the video and presentation at a later date.

TITLE: The title of the movie will be IN-BETWEEN as the movie (though we are only making the two minute title sequence) would be about a spirit, though being dead, hasn't passed over.

THE TREATMENT: The narrative of the opening title sequence is a couple separate at Totteridge and Whetstone station, the female is going on a trip. We see the couple say their goodbyes then we follow the female to the platform. We watch and wait for a train that doesn't appear to be coming, things become more interesting when a phone call comes through; the smile on her face is enough for us to think its her partner calling to keep her company but when we see the smile melt into something more distressing, we chase the female as she runs out of the station and down the road.

SUBGENRE: The subgenre we chose for our film is a supernatural/psychological thriller as we all have a genuine interest in this type of movie.

PLANNED LOCATIONS: Our planned location is Totteridge and Whetstone station (Northern line, one stop before High Barnet).

PROPS COSTUME & MES: We realised that the two main props we would be using in our piece would be a suitcase and a mobile phone. With regards to our costume we are trying to portray young adults in their very early twenties so we thought smart-wear and perhaps even office style clothing. However this is disputable and we realise that a twenty year olds wardrobe will not consist of only suits and pencil skirts. As for our MES, Totteridge and Whetstone station is known to be quite isolated this gives us, as a group, 2 main advantages: 1. Not to film individuals whom perhaps do not wish to be filmed and allows us not to break copyright laws. 2. The fact it’s an isolated location is fantastic for us, it means we can portray our 'vulnerable female' character better with the emptiness of location suggesting it for us.

PRELIMINARY SOUND IDEAS: We thought our soundtrack should be eerie and creepy. We also thought of sharp high-pitched instruments to mess with your head like in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. We thought that the instrumental ought to start low and slow and built up along with the tension of the piece. We were adamant that it shouldn’t be too bass-y as that is an action-style and not the genre we are trying to achieve. However I personally like the idea of it beginning with a very high pitched piano beat.

PROD SHED: Below is the Production Schedule we have implemented.
Sat 6th March - First Filming Session (Didn't go very well)
Wed 10th March - Re-group and discuss what went wrong, possibly re-plan as I am very unhappy with the direction we are taking and feel that this will not work.
Fri 12th March - Full Filming Session
Wed 17th March - Begin soundtrack. Upload and watch footage and note what is missing or what isnt usable.
Fri 19th March - Film missing/bad footage and begin our full edit.

RISK ASSESSMENT: The most obvious risk when filming on a train station is 'Mind the Gap'.... Quite literally, be aware of our surroundings and DO NOT JUMP IN THE TRACK NO MATTER WHAT. The next big one is no running ESPECIALLY if it is wet or we are on the stairs. (with of course the exception of the running the character does, but it will be careful running!) and be careful of the tripod, it can trip you up... and hurts (Owww), which i learned from having it in my bedroom Saturday night. And I have a bruise to prove it!

SKILLS AUDIT: I have taken part in the Livetype and Sound tutorial and the 'Bait' or Final Cut Pro tutorial. I also was present for the Intro to cameras. (For all of these, evidence and detail is available in the form of previous blogs).

INSTITUTIONAL DETAIL: We first discussed WT as they are a subsidiary of Universal (Big Six) which would be brilliant for our PDE however decided that actually this was only to be a low budget film as similar supernatural movie Paranormal Activity recently was watched and liked by cinema audiences and therefore the production company wouldn't want to run the risk that the movie would not do so well after spending a huge budget on it. So we felt our most realistic option would be to go for WT2 and keep our low budget British film independent. However we are also aware that this would have consequences on our PDE.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Our Target audience age group is young people within the age boundary of 16 - 25 but we further discussed that we ourselves would be portraying young adults in their very early 20's thus allowing our target audience to relate to the onscreen characters. We also thought this movie would appeal to both genders but mainly a male audience as boys tend to enjoy ghost-stories more... though in my opinion not much.

PROBLEM: There is, as mentioned in the pitch to Micky and Annabel, a small glitch in our piece, which is we may not receive filming permission from TFL, as they are notoriously known for taking their time. Our main response to this was not to make our storyline too location specific. However, I personally feel we should make a plan B storyboard and treatment in case the original one becomes unworkable.

TFL + Filming Permission = Not Happening.

Yes, the news nobody wanted to hear, TFL have officially fobbed us off (Grrr!) after three permission seeking attempts. We phoned, emailed but they haven't responded, but hey, if we are lucky they may accept our filming request......... next year! So we now have three options:


OPTION ONE: Chance it! (not such a good idea, but an idea all the same)

OPTION TWO: Use very clever editing skill (film the outsidey bits and then film the inside elsewhere)

OPTION THREE: Back to the drawing board for Plan B mock-up.

We will be keeping you up to date with which option we choose, why and what will be happening thereafter. In the Link below, please find the official website for seeking such permission.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/1513.aspx#Permission

Intro Into Cameras: Health and Saftey Tutorial.

The truth is that the camera is the most important piece of equpitment which we will be using this year. Yes it is true we could have made a title sequence without filming, but how boring would that be? Marisa came into our media class and introduced us to the cameras we would soon be using to film our 2 minute opening sequences. She then proceeded to give us a presentation on basic use of camera's, tripods and basic health and saftey. After participating in this session each individual member of the class had to sign documentation to state that they had undergone the session and understood how to use the equiptment properly and basic health and saftey issues.

Our Intro into Cameras & Health and Safety Checklist included the following requirments:

-The Ability to take the cameras out of the bags properly

-How to insert and eject the battery and memory cards

-How to use the cameras efficently i.e. watch back clips, turn off/on, open lense, focus the cameras

-How to set the tripod up i.e. stretch the legs

-The ability to attatch the camera to the tripod and lock it in safely

-Give the exact location of filming

-Leave contact details

-Always film in an apropriate and safe manner

-No mains electrisity always batteries

-To film within the Law i.e. no tresspassing or breach of copyright

-Seek permission to film individuals and on Locations

After we proved we could sucessfully use the equiptment and that we understood the health and safety precautions Marisa outlined, we signed documents stating this, the document was then in turn, signed by Andrew Bailes and we can now film and use media equpitment, YAY!

The Shining Opening Title Sequence: Youtube Video

The Shining. Analysis

The Shining Opening Sequence

[Click Here to View]

Remembering that this thriller is an old classic (which you can tell from the tacky title sequence) this opening is very simple. It follows the journey of a car from an ariel view as it travels on a winding road which seemingly leads nowhere. The car is made to look small and meek in it's iscolated and big empty surrounding forrest and empty road. Despite it being sunny and calm, the audience automatically know this is creepy and are alerted to the being of something not quite right, i believe this is mostly prompted by the soundtrack. We follow the driver as they travel up a mountain to the creepiest hotel i have seen since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Thriller Sub-genre Inspration

I am a Film Fanatic. When asked to think about sub-genre inspire me was an excuse to sit and re-watch lots of old favourite thriller movies. I felt the best way to do it would be to write a list of sub-genres, and here it is:

Supernatural Thriller

Such as Paranormal Activity: Ghosts, Demons, Vampires - all the range of mysterious and mythical beings.

Political Thriller

Such as Eastern Promises: The point making, political expressive style - usually showing certain governments better than others (USA)

Action Thriller

Such as Deja-vu: Explosive, Speedy, Gun-shot, Loud - Usually a man as the hero (in this case Denziel Washington)

Psychological Thriller

Such as Sixth Sense: Head Messing, confusing, unexpected - usually accompanied by some pretty headache prompting soundtrack.

Match Cut Prelim Analysis.

On Wednesday we were supposed to film, as part of the coursework module, a piece where a character walks through a door, sits at a table and has a conversation with another character. In this film we were briefed to film this piece within specified boundaries, these were: Include a match-cut, show an understanding of the 180 degree rule, use an over the shoulder shot and example of shot reverse shot. However, due to the complete lack of all my other group members, we filmed and edited it all today.We decided that our match cut would best be placed when Glenn opened the door to the room in order to enter, closing it behind him. A match-cut is a transition in which something in the scene that follows, in some way matches a character or object in the previous scene.We incorperated into this matchcut a total of three different camera shots/angles. We used an over the shoulder shot, high angle shot and two close-ups. We decided to film it this way in order to keep the scene visually interesting for our audience, as opening a door, is a very boring action.

The 180 Degree rule is a very simple and effective rule in order to make what is happening onscreen keep some element of realism. We were told to envision a brick wall inbetween the table in our piece, and the camera could travel in an arc around one side (as in the diagram above) however never in the arc on the other side, otherwise the characters on screen would switch sides and this would look unprofessional, tacky and fake.We felt that the table scene was the only way to represent the 180 degree rule, and I feel we demonstrated it however i feel if we had incorperated more shots during the table scene, we could have shown understanding of the rule better.

The Classic over the shoulder shot, is still a popular shot today in many movies and telivision programmes, the first programme I think of when I think about the over the shoulder shot would be BBC 1 soap opera Eastenders. A definition of an over the shoulder shot would be a view of the primary subject with the back of another person's shoulder and head in the foreground and is often used in interview situations. Harry and I worked quite hard to grab an over the shoulder shot of Glenn as he is about 6 ft tall and we are both short! If it wasnt for the tripod, we would have had to stand on chairs! But after about 3 failed shots and one which was ruined by an 'extra' (or rather a member of staff) we managed to get a really good shot.

The Shot-reverse-shot is a series of shots edited together that alternate characters usually during a conversation scene. We, used shot reverse shot conventionally in a conversation whilst the characters onscreen (Glenn and I) were discussing 'the plan'. As a group, we felt the best way to incorperate the shot-reverse-shot was to cut between Glenn and I during our short conversation.

In evaluation, i felt we executed our match-cut brilliantly.It was simple but visually entertaining and kept our audience watching the most boring of clips. However, if we were very picky and extremely critical of our own work, it could be argued that in the match-cut, the door wasn't equally open when we cut from a high angle mid shot to a close up of the handle, and we could then argue this would not have been a continuous move. Also, by filming Glenn open and close that door at least 5 or 6 times, we were not only fed up with doors, but we had plenty of door opening footage, this made selecting our in and out points for our edit very easy. However when filming our over the shoulder shot of Glenn to incorperate into our match-cut, we found shooting it effectively was difficult due to the huge height difference between us! We also found we had a problem with our camera, incase you were wondering as you watched our clip why there were subtitles and no sound, we accidently switched off the camera microphone and as a result, had no sound on our footage. However i felt we resolved our sound problem quickly and efficently and also learned a valuable lesson for our thriller CHECK THE SOUND IS ON! I felt we could have done so much more with our 180 degree rule understanding, and incorperated an array of different shots and camera angles to show what we could do, but seeing as we filmed in 45 minutes and edited it in about an hour I think our short clip is brilliant! We would have had more time on both had the rest of the group been in on our wednesday lesson, but instead i drew up the plan for friday. I enjoyed filming and editing this clip and I am eager to start my thriller soon.