Group Post: Evaluation Question 7

Below is a link to Evaluation question 7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4KmIl21v4&feature=plcp

Group Post: Evaluation Questions 4 & 5

Below is a link to our group questions 4 & 5:

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/538493/Evaluation-Questions-4-and-5

AS: Evaluation Questions

Below is a link to my SlideRocket presentation containing my individual responses to the Evaluation Questions as well as the group questions:

Question 1 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQEXK/Group-2-Evaluation-Questions

Question 2 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQEXK/Group-2-Evaluation-Questions

Question 3 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQEXK/Group-2-Evaluation-Questions

Question 4 & 5 - http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/538493/Evaluation-Questions-4-and-5

Question 6 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQEXK/Group-2-Evaluation-Questions

Question 7 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4KmIl21v4&feature=plcp

DS: Evaluation questions

Question 1 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQGZS/My-Presentation-2

Question 2 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQGZS/evaluation-question-2

Question 3 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQGZS/QUESTION-3

Question 4&5 - http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/538493/Evaluation-Questions-4-and-5

Question 6 - http://portal.sliderocket.com/BQGZS/My-Presentation-2_1

Question 7 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4KmIl21v4

JR 6245: Evaluation Question 6

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

From the outset of this task of making a film opening we as a group shared and posted ideas and progress on our groups blog. This enabled us to share work and post things interactively over the internet and online on the blog. This was something that we had to learn to do and learn how to use as we had no experience of blogging before, but it was quick to get the hang of and easy to use and upload neccessery features to our film opening.





Posting and discussing ideas interactively on the blog



In the actualy making and filming of our product we used a standard digital camera that can be obtained from standard elctrical appliance store which is why it is an off-the-shelf product. As a group we were able to use the cameras quite easily as we were used to similar technology in everyday life however a new aspect of filming was the use of tripods and tracking which once we got used to using them they worked well for creating good shots.

Tripod

The most complex piece of technology that we had to use was the editing software used to cut the footage we had filmed, add effects, add music and make a sequence that looked realistic with continuity. The programme we used on the computers was premiere elements 9 which, being quite a complex piece of software, took us longer to grasp the concept of than other aspects such as using the camera or using the tripod. However when we got used to editing and using the editing software it became very useful to us as there were many effects we used to make our footage fit together better and look generically more fitting. Also the software helped us in obtaining footage, putting the footage together and cutting it in places to cut it down and create continuity.

Editing in Premiere Elements 9

Editing Timeline

In the editing software that we used we learned and understood the timeline in which all media sources such as titles, video clips and sound were put together and on top of eachother. I personally found this easy to use after first learning how and the tools were very useful to putting together our film opening product. One particular effect I take credit for is the fast cut from one shot to our title screen with the overlay of sound making it very dramatic and significant.

To go to my individual question 1 please click: http://twgsbmedia12asgroup2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/jr-evaluation-question-1.html

JR 6245: Evaluation Question 3

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

Our media product, film opening, is low-budget, uses off-the-shelf products and a skeleton crew which makes it cheap to make but of a worse quality than a higher budget film. With these aspects in mind it would be most fitting to be produced and distributed by Independent Film Companies. It would also be fitting to be distributed by a company that has specialised or previously dirtibuted films of the same genre that have been successful, in our case the Horror genre.

A fairly approriate production company would be Working Title Films as they are an Independent Film Company and though it has not made many horror films it has had experience in producing several in the past such as My Little Eye (2002) and Long Time Dead (2002).

Long Time Dead (2002)

My Little Eye (2002)



However, a successful distribution company that has had experience in distributing Horror films and low-budget films, also British films would be The Weinstein Company who have had succes in distributing Halloween 2 (2009) and Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009). Halloween 2 is of the same genre of our film opening and conveys similar generic techniques, although Lesbian Vampire Killers is a Horror Comedy it also involves similar Horror techniques through camera work and editing to create tension much like ours. 

Halloween 2 (2009)

Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009)

These two films, distributed from The Weinstein Company, represent our film opening in many ways and reinforce relevent generic features that are relevent to the Horror genre aimed at a target audience of 16-25 year olds. Features from these films such as how successful the films were regarding their generic purposes in creating tension and danger, by using a fast cutting rate and using a fitting soundtrack the audience is thrilled with the build up of suspense in enigma. Also, the nationality of our product is represented in 'Vampire Killers' which is important to us as even though it is British made it can still be distributed by a successful American company.

To go to my individual question 6 please click: http://twgsbmedia12asgroup2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/jr-evaluation-question-6.html

JR 6245: Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening shows the main protagonist as a young adult, not a child and not an old person. This corresponds with the generic audience of the film as the Horror genre captivates a 16-25 year old audience. Typically an audience will watch a film if they can relate to the main characters, in this case a young adult of 16-25.

The age of the protagonist character is reinforced in the use of props as he is texting on a mobile phone which is a modern aspect and relates to the audience with the use of technology which is common amongst young people.

Use of technology

The antagonist character represents the social group of young males which is beneficial to corresponding with the target audience that are predominantly young people and male. Also typically in films of this genre the main antagonists and main protagonists are male due to the stereotype in society that women are harmless. Often female characters in Horror films are killed or do not survive attacks from the antagonists because of the idea that they are vulnerable and can be overpowered. This is why it suits our film opening to have a male antagonist and protagonist.



Antagonist Mike Myers in the film Halloween (2007)



Antagonist in our film opening, similar generics to Halloween (2007)

The characters that we show as victims of the antagonist in our film opening are introduced through flashback scenes, these flashbacks have a hazed effect to clarify the difference in time periods from the main storyline. These characters are similar to our protagonist and show a positive ideology of male characters as typically females would be shown to be scared and running away but in this case young males are used to show fear and danger.



To go to my individual question 3 please click: http://twgsbmedia12asgroup2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/jr-evaluation-question-3.html



JR 6245: Evaluation Question 1

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

Our film opening resembles real media products in a number of different ways because of different techniques we adopted in the filming and editing of our clip.

We used several different editing affects on our footage for the generic purposes of the clip, for example the short shots of weapons on the wall in the antagonist's secret location is shown very quickly with a jaged and raged affect.

We liked, and chose this affect after seeing a similar technique used in the film Seven (Fincher, 1995). In the opening sequence of that film similar things are happen in ours where the antagonist is observing pictures of people, or in our case names of people, and crossing them out to imply getting rid of them. 

The picture shown is a fast paced clip with fast cutting rate which is done for the generic affect of creating panic and unease similar again to what Seven uses around the crossing our of faces, like our crossing out of names. 

Jump cuts, jagedly, to the picture fully crossed out



Shot of pen putting a single line through the eyes







 We also took the use of a faded affect over shots which represented flashbacks as to make it clearer of what they were and so the audience could understand the difference in shots. This affect is similar to that used in other films like Green Street (Alexander, 2005) where there is a flashabck with a hazed affect over the top and in slow motion to clarify that it is not the same time period as the rest of the film.



Without affect



With affect to connote flashback



The characters that we show as victims in our film opening are similar to the protagonist shown, being young, white and male. This may be important in captivating the audience that will prodominantly represent these characteristics and can relate to these characters. This can also reinforce the tension that our protagonist is in danger as previous characters, the victims, have had similar characteristics to him.

The mise-en-scene and locations of our film opening are also very fitting to the genre as the location of the woods is very dark and mysterious, the location and set design of the antagonists lair are also generically appropriate. Lack of light and shaded darkness are a common feature in most Horror products, we also took this approach when filming and editing ours to reinforce these generic features. We also used a red tint over some clips through the eyes of the antagonist to connote danger and increase the viewing intensity.  

Red Tint

Aspects of the costume we chose to use for our antagonist killer were similar to other classic characters in successful horror films such as Halloween (Rob Zombie, 2007) with the killer Mike Myers and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marcus Nispel 2003) with the killer Leatherface. In both of these Horror films, similar to the style that we adopted in filming our product, both antagonistic characters wear some kind of mask that is a face which creates enigma. We also involved the idea of the mask used by the killer Jason in Friday the 13th (Marcus Nispel 2009) which is a hockey mask that also hides the identity of the killer creating tension. The antagonist in our film opening product shares aspects from these famous characters such as wearing the hockey mask like 'Jason' and wearing a bloodied apron like 'Leatherface' and taking the posture and stiffness of 'Mike Myers' to add to the effect of enigma.

Jason in Friday the 13th

Mike Myers in Halloween

Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Our antagonist killer shares similar generic features in costume to the classic characters from successful horror films.

To go to my individual question 2 please click: http://twgsbmedia12asgroup2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/jr-evaluation-question-2.html

Group: Final Opening

Above is our finished film opening.

JR 6245: Production Dificulties

After shooting and editing most of our footage we are still struggling with some particular shots, such as the phone text message shot as a major problem occurs when filiming. The fact that the camera is seen in the reflection of the phone screen is a huge problem that is very noticeable. We are trying different ways of capturing these shots but can't seem to get the lighting and agle right.

AS: Lesson reviews for week 12th March - 16th March

Tuesday 13th March
In Tuesdays lesson we took the tracking and the camera and went to Hargate Woods to film some of our opening shots. We found the tracking ideal for the shot we wanted to capture and feel the shot itself is a strong opening to our sequence. We also took several other shots using the camera and tripod to give ourselves multiple options to choose from when putting them all together.

Wednesday 14th March
In Wednesdays lesson we went to the garage at my house to film shots for our antagonist. We found several different garden tools and work tops that enhance our concept. We dressed the antagonist in an apron and a mask and filmed him crossing off his victims on his list. We also captured a couple of shots in the garden using the shed to imply that this was the location he was preparing his list.

Friday 16th March
Fridays lesson was where we completed our shooting and now we can begin to start editing next week (19th March). We feel we have all the shots we need to create an enigmatic and thought provoking opening and are confident in the concept as a whole.

JR 6245: 12 March, Final Planning

We as a group have a media lesson after lunch on Wednesday the 14th which idealy we have to use to shoot a lot of the footage. We also have a double lesson on friday after lunch in which we need to be present to show Miss Johnson what we have filmed so far, but we can still use this day to film if we need to.

Also, www.freesound.org is a good website for sounds and has a horror portfolio with some useful sounds that we could use.

AS: 8th March Lesson Review

In today's lesson we completed our storyboard and recorded the shots on the camera for our animatic. We already have some shots we have completed at our location, we plan to combine these with shots from our storyboard to create our animatic.

In tomorrow's lesson we plan to put together both of these sets of shots in Adobe Premiere Elements and will upload the completed video.

JR 6245: Location Reccie

Friday the 2nd of March was when we as a group visited a new location at the woods in Broad Water Down in Tunbridge Wells. It was a successfull visit and a good location for what we desired to feature in our film opening. The location included a good background, ideal for our genre and also included bunkers made from brick which can conote someone living there which is needed for the idea of our antagonistic villain.

AS: Audience Research

We posted a questionnaire on survey monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9MCDGKY .

• •We had 56% male participants and 44% female, of these, 88% were 16-20 year old and the remaining 12% specified ‘other’.

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• With regards to having a male antagonist in our opening, 43.8% said they were unsure on the importance.  The second most popular response was ‘not important’ with 25%. However we are still going to continue with our plans to include a male antagonist.

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• 68.8% said that they didn’t believe viewing a murder in a horror was essential to it’s success. This has reassured us that our film opening will still work effectively, as we originally decided on not featuring any direct violence.
•  We also asked our audience on what location they felt would be the most suitable for our opening. 37.% put preference on the abandoned slaughter house. However unfortunately due to restrictions we are unable to use this location – we found this when we undertook our reccie visit. 
• The second most popular location was woodlands, and the third most popular was the church. These are the two locations we have already planned to use, so this data is useful to us.
  

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  We requested our participants to describe what type of music they would expect to hear in a horror film. About 25% (the majority) suggested orchestral and fast paced music. We are still undecided on what music to include but this has assisted us in our choice.

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  Lastly we queried our participants which they found most scary; either a masked or unmasked killer. 62.5% said they found a masked killer more frightening therefore we will continue with our original plan to have a masked antagonist.

  
  

Research & Planning - interim grade

Well done, the blog is an interesting record of concept development so far and demonstrates high proficiency in using key concepts to research similar texts. There are some gaps and areas of analysis that are underdeveloped; representation and ideology, however the technical observations are very good, and the practice tasks show that you are clearly using this research to inform your technical skills development. Use of ICT to present work is proficient - some images, embedded clips, however pitch slides could have been improved on and you need to use the blog to embed / comment, post scanned images etc.

Other gaps on the blog are:

1. Detailed analysis of audience research - just a survey monkey link posted?

2. Pitch embedded in post

3. new recce from last week - still no photos

4. No posts since last Wed? I would expect you to be recording and continuing concept development, storyboarding, sound etc.

5. Josh is posting comments regularly - but Alex/Dylan there needs to be more from you

At the moment you are all at a high L3 for planning.

Todays Lesson - 29th February

In today's lesson we made progress when drawing up our storyboard. It is still yet to be completed but we plan that this will be done by the deadline of Friday 2nd March. The Wilderness Woods video was also uploaded to the blog, and now we can begin planning when to shoot.

We are not going to use any dialogue in our opening, we plan to use sound effects and screams of victims of our antagonist. We feel these sounds will be effective in reflecting our genre. The sounds we are going to use will be from the school CD.

Wilderness Woods Task

Above is our compilation of shots that we took on our recent trip to Wilderness Woods where we were given a shot list. We learnt alot about using the camera and became comfortable choosing suitable locations for shots.

The pans we captured in our trip were particularly good because we felt that these have improved since our preliminary task.

Moreover, the ECU was one of our strongest shots because we feel that this had the potential to create strong enigma.

We felt that we could improve on the editing of our reaction shot because it could be made better for continuity. Ideally, this is something that we can improve in our final production.

DS: Further location reccie

Due to the audience feedback we receieved from both our peer students and our teachers, we have decided it would be beneficial to change the location of our film opening.

As previously mentioned on our blog, we highlighted the problem that one of our locations was innaccessible to us. We feel it is key to have 2 juxtaposing locations in order to make our opening a success.

Leading on from this, we concluded we would use the war bunker in Hargate Woods in Frant as our second location, as well as using Josh's shed acting as the interior to the bunker.

However, Josh has fallen quite ill this week and we had planned to do this reccie this week and we require Josh's car in order to get to our location. We have previously visited the location but did not have enough time to take photos. Therefore, we are confident that this location is practical but unfortunately cannot carry out our location reccie in full.

Once Josh is no longer ill, we plan to carry out the reccie upon our first shoot, which is planned for Friday 2nd March, but it is unknown whether Josh will be able to make it into school and transport us there.

AS: Audience Feedback

From our pitch we had several ideas that the audience felt were good, whilst we also had ideas that we felt could be improved from the responses we got.

Strengths:

• The ideas for props and costume that we put forward to the audience went down well. They said that this was the strongest aspect of our concept. These included the mask, murder checklist and the bloddy apron.
• One choice of location was the woods in Southborough, the audience felt that this fits well with the genre of horror.
• The ideas also had strong potential to create enigma which is vital for concept

Idea Changes/ Areas for improvement:

• The audience felt that a second location may be useful because the concept could be further enhanced if we are able to find an alternative
• We could focus more on technical aspects. For example the loactions would then allow us to include various cuts between the locations.

Pitch

Here is our group pitch for our opening sequence: http://www.slideshare.net/AlexStedman/group-pitch-11716750

DS: Audience research - Quesitonnaire

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9MCDGKY

AS: Further Concept Development Ideas

Have found some good ideas of music and sound we could put into our opening:

Also have some initial ideas for names of the film:

• The Slaughter House
• The Bloodbath
• Execution

AS: Tasks for the pitch - 22nd February

For preparation for our pitch on 22nd February we have to complete several planning tasks that will help to draw together our ideas. Dividing these tasks up will be more efficient and successful. Therefore I believe we should divide the tasks up as follows:

Dylan:

1. Draw together ideas on costume, characters and props
2. Summarise findings from audience research - questionnaires to be set in tomorrows lesson (Friday 2nd February)

Alex:

1. Draw together ideas on fonts for titles and compile shots and technical ideas
2. Summarise findings from film analysis and research

Josh:

1. Expand on the initial ideas in the treatment and build on the idea itself
2. Consider the potentional institutional context eg.  budget and company

As a group it is best that we all attend the location ideas in the reccie so that we can all feedback. It is best that we try to visit the locations either next Thursday 9th February or Friday 10th February.

Over half term it is also essential that we meet to draw together all the above ideas and findings from the tasks and then compile them into a presentation for the pitch.

Tonight homework tasks are:

Begin to research and find examples of:

• Sounds
• Props
• Fonts
• Location (images)
• Potential Film Names

Post them to the blog in posts under the title 'Initial Pitch Ideas'.

AS: Pitch Ideas - Fonts for Titles

Initial Ideas on Fonts for Titles

DS: Technical Analysis

SAW II

Camera Technique	Duration	Mise-en-scene
POV	27 seconds	Shows the audience the situation (i.e. Set design and props) from the victim’s perspective
Reaction shot	1 second	Displays the victim’s anxious reaction to the danger (Use of low key lighting and Non-verbal language)
Birds Eye View	4 seconds	Allows the audience to get a full view of the situation (Costume and set design)
Tracking shot	2 seconds	Tracking shot follows the victim allowing the audience to trace his movement and identify the props he is using and the set design

 

POV

 

Reaction Shot



 

 (Click pictures for video link)

Group: Further Concept Development - Location and Characters

We are thinking of using lcations like the woods in Soutborough, as well as the nearby church grounds. Moreover, there is an abandoned slaughter house in Frant, we feel this would also be a good location because it reflects the genre of our opening.



With regards to further ideas with characters, we are still building ideas around a derranged killer pursuing a nervous and vulnerable victim who is trying to escape.

JR 6245: New Idea

I really like the opening to I Am Legend, it uses several different screen shots at the beggining to show important establishing shots of a particular place. I think it could be a good option to use this technique to introduce a location to our clip. What do you guys think?

JR 6245: Technical Analysis

I Am Legend

Camera	Duration	Mise-en-scene
The scene opens with a still shot, an establishing shot of the city from the perspective of facing down one street.	6 seconds	The street has been intruded by wildlife like plants and greenery sprouting, to connote that there is no longer maintenance. Also there are some birds flying around, tweeting.
Birds-eye view shot over the city streets, gliding through the air as if the movement of a bird, directly above one straight street in which the protagonist enters the shot by driving up the street, up the screen exactly vertical.	13 seconds	It is again very quiet, there is no movement other that the camera itself and the single car driving. Everything else is deadly still however there are still many objects in place, set design, cars and buildings all around.
Camera cuts to close-up of gun then the protagonist picks the weapon up and as he does so the camera pans up to follow his movement but as he lays the gun in his lap the camera continues to pan, as to view his face.	6 seconds	He is wearing normal clothes, a thin jacket as the weather looks quite mild. The inside of the car, similar to the outside, is very clean.
Camera positioned behind the car as it accelerates, camera retains the same distance from the car as it moves.	2 seconds	The car appears to intrude on a flock of birds, crows. As the car speeds up the birds are alarmed and squawk as they simultaneously flee the path of the car. This reinforces the quietness of the scene, the amount of birds feel safe enough to land on a road.

AS: Technical Analysis

The Haunting in Connecticut

Click Picture for Link to Opening Sequence

Camera	Duration	Mise en scene
Close Up of Woman	6 seconds	Clothes connote that she is being held for questioning and that she has committed a crime
Medium Shot of Woman	3 seconds	She looks refined to a chair and is being forced to speak into a camera, this also reinforces the idea that she has committed a crime
Panning	3 seconds	The newspapers shown on the table suggest that there has been a story or event that has made the headlines. This has an enigmatic effect on the audience
Two Shot of mother and son in car	20 seconds	This shot shows the boy waking up, connoting he is tired or he could be ill and this creates suspense and tension because the reason for his supposed tiredness or illness is unknown