Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back to my preliminary task and to what I have now achieved I have learnt a great deal! During the preliminary task we came up with several ideas and each time we felt that we could most certainly achieve them. However it was a completely different matter as it was so much harder than that. We realised that a lot of time and effort was going to go into creating something worth watching and that we would enjoy making. Our preliminary task was not what we wanted it to look like and was an eye opener to what we needed to change when making our final piece. We realised there we a number of things that majorly needed to get sorted out such as editing in the right places, cut in the right places, adding sound in that matched the movement of the characters, being able to perfect our camera shots and also to learn how to handle our time effectively. Blogging was another problem I had, I was not used to using a blog regularly and therefore this showed a great deal in the first few weeks of the course. Altogether in the time of my preliminary task up until now I have learnt how to be able to work on my blog and to space out times to add to my blog whilst having enough time to film and have moved on to show progress in what I have learnt and changed my work ethics so that problems that occurred with the prilimerary task would not happen again. Using the mac and imovie I think my group and I created a reasonably good final piece and as a group we managed to achieve editing very well and I feel that our editing matched what we were aiming for our film. I found using the mac particually easy as i own one myself however when it came to being able to use imovie it was not as har as before as we had practised on the preliminary task however we noticed that there were a great deal more challanges we needed to learn when changing the film to black and white adding music and aslo adding in the credits. As part of the course, group work was also something that we needed to over come. There are many benefits from woking in a group as there are disadvantages and i feel this comes down to group size, commitment from members of the group and the contact shared between you. The benefits we found working in a group of four is that we could each take a role in making the film and put our ideas and thoughts to the group when we all came together. Also being friends helped as it was easier to contact each other if we were not sure on somethig in particular. Also working in a group allows you to get a better understanding of team work and can almost help you for the future needs to be able to work with people even if you do not always get along. However even though there are benfits i personally found a great deal of disadvantages. For example being friends means that there is a great deal of time when you are just talking or messing around this did show at the begining of film making as we were so unsure as to how we were going to go about the whole project. Another issue was commitment some people in the group came to a point when the could not be bothered to work or had other things going on so there was a point where a lack of energy between people were shown. Also coming up with ideas meant that if people do not agree you have to come up with a compramise and sometimes thats not always the easiest thing to do as there are so many different personalities and oppinions so change can effect the task altogether as it may not always work. Their were occassionally points where i felt that i could have created the film by myself as i would have been able to concentrate a great deal more however i think without the constant flow of ideas i would be in a situation where i am not sure how to go about things. Using a blog also brought the group together as none of us were sure about how to use them so we could help each other out in that respect and also listen to what others are planning on doing. I also feel that since the preliminary task i have gained a better knowledge of media termonlogy since making the film and also being able to research and use various ideas from outsiders to help contribute to the knowledge and also the confidence in knowing what you are doing whilst filming.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 6.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before starting this project I was unaware of how much technical detail goes into produce a smooth flowing film. Using a number of different technical equipment from macs to tripods we managed to over come the difficulty of getting to use them perfectly. Using a tripod for example i thought would be fairly easy. However I noticed that to get a perfect shot there is a lot of practising you need to do with the tripod, to get the right height in the right place and to be able to form the right angle shot. Using the video camera was again quite difficult as there were a number of things to take into consideration such as the diagetic sound, hand shaking, a straight image, zoom and smooth movement. This took me a while to get used to making sure I did correctly and also to make sure it worked well with each scene. Also learning about how all the buttons worked and what they did was difficult to at first remember however after practising with our preliminary task we began to get used to it. Again using the macs was another tricky procedure as it was essential because we had to use imovie to edit our film. Once again after practising on the mac using imovie we worked out how it all worked, it was difficult for me and the group yet we managed to practise and understood more about editing. Even though using imovie was very helpful there were a number of issues we had which effected the group and slowed down the editing process. We as a group could not find the correct gunshot that we wanted using the sound effects on imovie so therefore ended up downloading one from the internet. Overall from this task I have learnt that there are a number of different ways of using technology and it takes a very long time to get it completely right.
Before starting this project I was unaware of how much technical detail goes into produce a smooth flowing film. Using a number of different technical equipment from macs to tripods we managed to over come the difficulty of getting to use them perfectly. Using a tripod for example i thought would be fairly easy. However I noticed that to get a perfect shot there is a lot of practising you need to do with the tripod, to get the right height in the right place and to be able to form the right angle shot. Using the video camera was again quite difficult as there were a number of things to take into consideration such as the diagetic sound, hand shaking, a straight image, zoom and smooth movement. This took me a while to get used to making sure I did correctly and also to make sure it worked well with each scene. Also learning about how all the buttons worked and what they did was difficult to at first remember however after practising with our preliminary task we began to get used to it. Again using the macs was another tricky procedure as it was essential because we had to use imovie to edit our film. Once again after practising on the mac using imovie we worked out how it all worked, it was difficult for me and the group yet we managed to practise and understood more about editing. Even though using imovie was very helpful there were a number of issues we had which effected the group and slowed down the editing process. We as a group could not find the correct gunshot that we wanted using the sound effects on imovie so therefore ended up downloading one from the internet. Overall from this task I have learnt that there are a number of different ways of using technology and it takes a very long time to get it completely right.
Evaluation - Question 5.
How did you attracted/address your audience?
To attract our ideal target audience my group and I needed to come up with an opening scene that immediately draws you in within seconds of watching. To do this we had to make sure our opening scene contained a variety or camera shots matching intensity from the music and suspicion from each character. As we only had two minutes we needed to make sure that we filled NOIR up with as much of these aspects as possible to ensure our audiences would want to watch on, yet we did not want to give to much of the story away so that the audience as a good understanding of what to expect. On top of all this making the film black and white again creates another atmosphere towards what the audience may be thinking, it will make the film look more mysterious and spine-chilling. Having slow moving, creepy music will keep our audience on the edge of their seat in suspense. As our audience is a person between the ages of 20-35 we are almost sure that this is what they would want in a film as we researched into it through getting a variety of people to complete a questionnaire. Also one of the characters in the opening scene is based on someone we would expect to want to watch our film so hopefully this will also help address them.
To attract our ideal target audience my group and I needed to come up with an opening scene that immediately draws you in within seconds of watching. To do this we had to make sure our opening scene contained a variety or camera shots matching intensity from the music and suspicion from each character. As we only had two minutes we needed to make sure that we filled NOIR up with as much of these aspects as possible to ensure our audiences would want to watch on, yet we did not want to give to much of the story away so that the audience as a good understanding of what to expect. On top of all this making the film black and white again creates another atmosphere towards what the audience may be thinking, it will make the film look more mysterious and spine-chilling. Having slow moving, creepy music will keep our audience on the edge of their seat in suspense. As our audience is a person between the ages of 20-35 we are almost sure that this is what they would want in a film as we researched into it through getting a variety of people to complete a questionnaire. Also one of the characters in the opening scene is based on someone we would expect to want to watch our film so hopefully this will also help address them.
Evaluation - Question 4.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Originally our target audiences were young adults to older teenagers between the ages of 17-25. We felt this audience would be ideal for our film and they would like the not knowing of what is going to happen next as well as the eery music matching the suspicious characters. However since changing or opening scene we came upon noticing that not many people between those ages will be fond of black and white film as much as an older generation. As well as this we thought that as the opening scene is quite slow and not full of action that perhaps it would not be exciting enough for the teenagers. So we imagined our target audience as a character between the ages of 20-35 who enjoys independent films and that is intrigued in a film that is slow moving that you have to think carefully about throughout to try and work out the story. Also a person that likes classics and traditional looking films with character that you would expect to be in a specific genre of film. I feel that our media product does match up to all those aspects as well as its taget audience would.
Originally our target audiences were young adults to older teenagers between the ages of 17-25. We felt this audience would be ideal for our film and they would like the not knowing of what is going to happen next as well as the eery music matching the suspicious characters. However since changing or opening scene we came upon noticing that not many people between those ages will be fond of black and white film as much as an older generation. As well as this we thought that as the opening scene is quite slow and not full of action that perhaps it would not be exciting enough for the teenagers. So we imagined our target audience as a character between the ages of 20-35 who enjoys independent films and that is intrigued in a film that is slow moving that you have to think carefully about throughout to try and work out the story. Also a person that likes classics and traditional looking films with character that you would expect to be in a specific genre of film. I feel that our media product does match up to all those aspects as well as its taget audience would.
Evaluation - Question 3.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
As our film is quiet contemporary and not as dramatic as a popular cinema film might be I feel that an independent film festival where it can still be distributed. Unlike major distributors such as 'Warner Brothers', '20th Century Fox' and 'Dream works' film festivals have a variety of independent films for everyone to watch and to take time to fit in with hopefully a variety of audiences. Cannes Film Festival and The Sun Dance Film Festival are two of the most popular film festivals for independent films both show each year such a wide variety of film that intrest all ages and types of people. This i feel would suit our film perfectly as the opening scene does not give much idea as to what type of target audience it is aiming at (as ideas have changed several times).
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the oldest prestigious film festivals around the private festival is held annually in Cannes and allows a variety of films long and short to be watched by many and awarded.
The Sundance film Festival takes place annually in the state of Utah in the United States. It is the largest independent film festival in the U.S which showcases a variety of films from all sorts of genres suitable for all audiences.
As our film is quiet contemporary and not as dramatic as a popular cinema film might be I feel that an independent film festival where it can still be distributed. Unlike major distributors such as 'Warner Brothers', '20th Century Fox' and 'Dream works' film festivals have a variety of independent films for everyone to watch and to take time to fit in with hopefully a variety of audiences. Cannes Film Festival and The Sun Dance Film Festival are two of the most popular film festivals for independent films both show each year such a wide variety of film that intrest all ages and types of people. This i feel would suit our film perfectly as the opening scene does not give much idea as to what type of target audience it is aiming at (as ideas have changed several times).
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the oldest prestigious film festivals around the private festival is held annually in Cannes and allows a variety of films long and short to be watched by many and awarded.
The Sundance film Festival takes place annually in the state of Utah in the United States. It is the largest independent film festival in the U.S which showcases a variety of films from all sorts of genres suitable for all audiences.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 2.
How does the media product represent particular social groups?
It is hard to immediately spot a specific social group represented in our opening scene as all the acting is done by people that are teenagers that would not look like this if it was a professionally made opening scene as the actors would be older and properly acted out. The victim is representing a typical girl planning night in between the ages of 18-21. She will come across fairly vulnerable, care free and naive yet outgoing as you see her on the phone chatting to her friend, she is completely unaware of what is going on around her which represents how a vast majority of young girls are today, with the back door unlocked as she is going upstairs to have a bath it shows her carelessness similar to mot teenage girls. The way she acts calm and excited about the evening ahead is exactly how most girls that age would be acting at the weekend however the difference is the situation the victim is about to find herself in is not something that happens often, portraying the lack of awareness and safety teenage girls can put themselves in.
On the other hand you have the murderer, a completely different character. The straight away response to the murderers entrance is that she is a dark and mysterious. The costume worn by the murderer, a long black coat and a trilby creates a ambience or atmosphere where we might subconsciously feel scared or threatened by them. As the person playing the murderer is a girl who is 17 we've chosen to not show as much of her face as possible so that the character is taken more seriously and made to be more mysterious suiting what we are trying to portray her to be.
However i genrally feel that the main social group portrayed is young girls and the nativity and carelessness the show to a variety of people in situation where it can possibly effect them immensely.
It is hard to immediately spot a specific social group represented in our opening scene as all the acting is done by people that are teenagers that would not look like this if it was a professionally made opening scene as the actors would be older and properly acted out. The victim is representing a typical girl planning night in between the ages of 18-21. She will come across fairly vulnerable, care free and naive yet outgoing as you see her on the phone chatting to her friend, she is completely unaware of what is going on around her which represents how a vast majority of young girls are today, with the back door unlocked as she is going upstairs to have a bath it shows her carelessness similar to mot teenage girls. The way she acts calm and excited about the evening ahead is exactly how most girls that age would be acting at the weekend however the difference is the situation the victim is about to find herself in is not something that happens often, portraying the lack of awareness and safety teenage girls can put themselves in.
On the other hand you have the murderer, a completely different character. The straight away response to the murderers entrance is that she is a dark and mysterious. The costume worn by the murderer, a long black coat and a trilby creates a ambience or atmosphere where we might subconsciously feel scared or threatened by them. As the person playing the murderer is a girl who is 17 we've chosen to not show as much of her face as possible so that the character is taken more seriously and made to be more mysterious suiting what we are trying to portray her to be.
However i genrally feel that the main social group portrayed is young girls and the nativity and carelessness the show to a variety of people in situation where it can possibly effect them immensely.
Evaluation - Question 1.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media product?
I feel that even though our fim has a set genre for being a murder mystery it has similar aspects to horror and an audience may see it as a mixed genre based film which could show that we have challeneged forms of other media products similar to this. Our film is also set in basic locations such as a garden or a kitchen. Even though in films you may see occasional shots of these locations they are not commonly used in an opening scene. Murder Mystery films researched such as 'Se7en' and 'The sixth sense' are popular films however the locations used in their opening scenes are very different to what we as a group have produced. Also use of characters opening scene are two members of the group means that we look fairly young, this may not be the case in other films under the same genre. Similarly to that of a murder mystery film we have opened the film with suspense as to what may happen next, is she dead? This allows us to build on after the title and for our audience to already put a genre straight to the film. We developed our film in a different concept to other films as the light we used was in normal daylight or in natural light in the room which does not suggest anything spooky or scary instead we use the camera angles and sound to create the wanted effect which could be different to the light in other films.
I feel that even though our fim has a set genre for being a murder mystery it has similar aspects to horror and an audience may see it as a mixed genre based film which could show that we have challeneged forms of other media products similar to this. Our film is also set in basic locations such as a garden or a kitchen. Even though in films you may see occasional shots of these locations they are not commonly used in an opening scene. Murder Mystery films researched such as 'Se7en' and 'The sixth sense' are popular films however the locations used in their opening scenes are very different to what we as a group have produced. Also use of characters opening scene are two members of the group means that we look fairly young, this may not be the case in other films under the same genre. Similarly to that of a murder mystery film we have opened the film with suspense as to what may happen next, is she dead? This allows us to build on after the title and for our audience to already put a genre straight to the film. We developed our film in a different concept to other films as the light we used was in normal daylight or in natural light in the room which does not suggest anything spooky or scary instead we use the camera angles and sound to create the wanted effect which could be different to the light in other films.
Final change
The last change we made was on deciding on our layout of the credits. Rather than having a designed logo for 'Brigade Entertainment' and 'Engaging Films' we as a group have decided to have written across a blank screen in a chosen font. We decided to do this as it looks more sophisticated and the font goes really well with our genre.
Changes made from draft to final cut
* opening scene - panning of murderer walking down the street, stops at a gate and opens it. The murder looks behind to check no one is watching, then eneters through the gate.
* Location changes to the kitchen of the victim. Room is empty, and a phone rings. The victim enters room at the sound of phone ringing, then sits down to awnser. A conversation is taken place.
* Victim gets up and walks out of the kitchen, and upstairs to run her bath.
* The murderer has been waiting outside, and once the victim has gone upstairs trys to enter the house through the backdoor. Discovering the door has been unlocked, the murderer enters.
* Victim is running a bath, when the murderer enters the bathroom behind her. Turning round to see what the noise is, the victim is then grabbed.
* Title screen 'Noir' appears, ending the opening sequence finishing with a gun shot and the sound of the tap dripping.
* Location changes to the kitchen of the victim. Room is empty, and a phone rings. The victim enters room at the sound of phone ringing, then sits down to awnser. A conversation is taken place.
* Victim gets up and walks out of the kitchen, and upstairs to run her bath.
* The murderer has been waiting outside, and once the victim has gone upstairs trys to enter the house through the backdoor. Discovering the door has been unlocked, the murderer enters.
* Victim is running a bath, when the murderer enters the bathroom behind her. Turning round to see what the noise is, the victim is then grabbed.
* Title screen 'Noir' appears, ending the opening sequence finishing with a gun shot and the sound of the tap dripping.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
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