Evaluation Activity 7

Looking back on to the Preliminary task my partner Sarah Gorman and I did, and the film opening we have done I feel we progressed greatly. I think the editing has improved a lot, it is a lot smoother now than in the Preliminary task and we have involved more editing skills in the shots, such as the 180 degree rule and the shot/reverse shot used in our film opening. I think there is far more technical ability with the editing, for example the jumping edit we used twice in the film which I think was quite successful. More improvement with the editing is the colour/lighting that we were able to change on iMovie, for example in our film the opening scene has an effect called ‘hard light’. Also we learnt how to add music to our film therefore it brought a whole new level of new editing skills that the Preliminary task did not hold. For our Preliminary task, there were set things that we had to do (involving a seated conversation between two people and a number of different camera shots), so we were quite limited as to what we could do. Whereas the film opening we produced was all our own ideas, I think with this in mind, it made our film far less staged and therefore had a sense of realism to it. I think the camerawork was more successful as we were able to use a wider range of shots that were not involved in the Preliminary task, such as the hand held camera to create the sense of somebody being chased - therefore adding to the tension. Overall I believe that the Preliminary task was a starting point for both me and my partner and we progressed a lot for the film opening we produced as we were more familiar with the technologies we were using.

Evaluation Activity 6

The technologies that my partner and I used during the process of constructing this product were as follows;

iMovie – This was also used for our Preliminary Task, so I knew the basics to it, however when editing this product I learnt more things along the way, such as how to add music on to the film, and how to add effects to the shot (such as black and white colour or hard light)

Garageband – Garageband was new to me when we made this media product, although we had had a lesson learning how to use it, it takes practise to enable you to work it properly and to make the most out of it. My partner and I managed to do a successful job on the music, we had to time where the certain type of music and where it would fade out to go into another sort of music.

Apple Mac – As I used to have an apple mac at home I knew the basics of how to work them, therefore this was quite a smooth process in the making of our film opening.

Video Camera – This was another thing technology that I am familiar with using. We used a simple HD Video Camera, so to put it onto the Apple Mac we imported it from the camera as there is no tape.

Camera – This was used for taking the casting and location shots, very simple, I did not need to learn anything to use this.

Tripod – Used to keep the camera still, for all of the shots bar the hand held camera shots.

Blog spot – This is what our work is on, it was quite tricky to get the hang of at first but then became easy after I got the hang of it.

Most of the technologies that I used for the process of making this film, I already knew how to use however because I was using them so often my knowledge of how to use them has improved and I feel very confident in using all of the above now. As before this coursework I wasn't very confident in using some of them.

Evaluation Activity 5

A typical Thriller film tends to involve things such as;

-          Close up shots – e.g greatly used in the film SE7EN – to build suspense and mystery at the beginning

-          Long shots - are used to show the audience the mise en scene or where the action is or will be taking place throughout the film

-          Follower shot - (hand held camera)

-          Tracking and Panning shots -commonly used in the beginning of the thriller film – e.g a group of people that we as an audience should be interested in or take note of

-          Jump cuts – are common in thriller films usually used when multiple things are happening at once, the jump cuts allow audiences to make assumptions of what the story will be like. The cutting rate (long or shortness of the cut) builds a miniature climax of the introduction therefore fitting to the genre

-          Dark settings/scenes – lighting is a key aspect of films, thriller in particular as it sets the atmosphere and the tone of the scene

-          Not to be too graphic (Horror genre is far more graphic)

-          Credits - done over a black screen

-          Non diegetic music playing in the background – creating a sound bridge to create a certain atmosphere. Silence and sonic exaggeration are two techniques that can be used to build tension, which is a major convention for thriller films

OBSESSION, the film opening that Sarah and I produced fit to some these conventions, here are some screen grabs from my film which give evidence of this...

Because our film opening has the typical conventions of a thriller film, there is an immediate interest for a target audience that enjoy this genre. However to make our film a little different to other thriller films, Sarah and I challenged some of the typical conventions and invented our own. This involves things such as part of the filming done in school and having a younger age for the actors (generally in thriller films the age ranges from 18+) and our actors are clearly still in school. We hoped this would attract an audience because of its dissimilarity.

Evalution Actvity 4

Target Audience

Interests – thriller/crime/horror films (have to be able to concentrate on the plot, throughout the entire film, not just parts), adventure; such as outdoors/camping (for the excitement, adventure), general teenage-young adult hobbies such as sport, socialising (parties).

Music – Quite varied but mainly Dubstep (fast beat, loud music) and Heavy Metal – all suiting the music we used in the film.

TV Programmes – Things like The Bill – fast, crime genre programmes, not so much sitcoms, such as Friends as it is too light hearted and funny.  More interested in dramas, crime and thriller programmes – fast action. These genres all fit with the genre of my film, (thriller/crime) therefore they would know the basics of what is happening in the film.

Shop – Male – teenage/young adult shops – such as Topshop, which is fashionable yet edgy and individual. Female – Wider range of shops but near enough the same, daring/edgy fashion, not on to fit in with the crowd, not girly (flowers, pink)

These are pictures of our ideal target audience both for female and male

Evaluation Activty 3

Evaluation Activity 2

On the left - Sarah Gorman, from our film Obsession

On the right - Kim from the film Taken

Sarah Gorman is the protagonist of our media product, she is pretty, with natural hair and little makeup with a subtle costume. We chose to have her looking quite natural to make it seem as though she is an innocent school girl, making her the ‘innocent victim’. The fact that Sarah is pretty makes the storyline more realistic as stalkers or men in general tend to go for pretty girls. Sarah has a south west country accent which sounds middle class, which could divert from the stereotype of a British actress having a higher class accent. Sarah is similar to the protagonist from the film Taken, Kim. This is due to the fact that they both have dark hair, that looks natural and clean, they also both have little/no makeup on and each have quite simple, girly clothes on, all of these things lead to the conclusion that they are innocent young girls. Kim has a working class accent, as does Sarah, overall they are very similar. The difference the characters have are the age, Sarah is 16 and Kim is 18.

Evaluation Activity 1

Evaluation activity 1 eva

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Finalised film - OBSESSION

This is our final film.

Filming and editing

Filming - My partner and I planned that we would get our filming done in one day, however it took longer than we had originally thought, we filmed everything but the conversation scene after school on one day and the next day we put it on the mac computer, after sorting through the parts we needed and deleting the filming we didnt need or want we realised that needed to explain the story more, so we thought up of having a conversation about the 'missing girl', we made a script and soon after we filmed it. This scene makes the storyline much clearer so we were happy how it turned out.

Editing - I had filmed a lot of footage, so we had a lot to pick from and there after, edit. After we had watched through all of the footage, we made joint decisions on what to delete and what to include, once we had our final sections we began editing it down properly to make the film make sense! We started with putting 'fade to black' transactions between 3 sections of the girl running (beginning), during each part when we see the girls back, we hear a foot scuff, which causes her to look keep looking round. I decided to experiment with a 'slow motion' edit on the last section of the running which turned out really well so we decided to keep it as it made the clip more interesting. We then had to edit the conversation, this took the most amount of time to edit as I had filmed it as a 'two shot', switching to over the shoulder of each character when the other was talking, and also having a shot with the both of them in. We had to edit the sections so that the conversation flowed which I think we did well. With the section of the hands rushing through photographs of girls, we decided to put a 'fade to white' between each picture then the last picture fades in from black and fades out to black, this one is also in slow motion, these 3 things on this last picture were so that the audience understood that this was the girl the stalker was after this time. The scene of looking throught the Costa window we thought needed it to be a bit more dramatic and for it to build tension, I had watched the film opening of 'SE7EN' and had seen nice editing which was sort of like a jump back and replayed on a section, I did this when  we first see the girl walking past the window, which turned out nicely, so my partner and I decided this part needed another edit the same as this, so I edited one into the end of this section. It was quite tricky to do as the timing has to be exactly the same and it had to look like we did it on purpose, which I think we pulled off. The last section didnt need much editing as it was very short and it was good how it was filmed, the only thing we did was make the volume quieter on it so the drum beat could be heard easier. We decided to put the title of the film at the end of the film opening because the audience will focus more on the actual filming rather than be thinking of the title throughout, also then the filming before the title builds up to it.

Music for 'Obsession'

For the music of the film, I used the application 'Garageband'. I had only used this when we had a lesson about it near the start of the year, which I posted about, so I knew the basics but I think I learnt new skills when my partner, Sarah Gorman and I were doing the music for our film opening. We had discussed when editing the film the type of music that we wanted, it was just finding what we were looking for on the garageband music which took a while. We decided that we wanted to open with quite soft music as part of this running scene is in slow motion and we made that part louder on iMovie as you can hear birds so this made them more obvious, we editing the volume of the music to get quieter at this part so it wouldnt drown out the birds, we then faded it out in the next scene when new music starts, which is very quiet in order to be able to hear the conversation, this music is also quite soft but gets a little bit more tense towards the end of the conversation, we did this so that the audience might sense something is going to happen soon, both of these pieces of music were on a piano. In the next scene (looking at photos) we wanted a heavy beat which sounded like a heart beat, we found this on a bass guitar as we wanted to vary the instruments we used. This then goes into the scene of the girl walking outside Costa, because of our editing of the two jumps that are in this section the music needed to be quite upbeat, we found two pieces on garageband and put them together, which we thought sounded really good, there is a fast drum beat that fades into this half way through creating tension, the other music then stops and we finished the film opening with the drum beat which stops abruptly after the title of the film appears.
At first we had struggled doing the music as it was quite a long time ago that we had the garageband lesson, and there is a lot to learn on it, but once we got the hang of it I think my partner and I did a successful job on the music.

OBSESSION

This is our media product, however it is slightly wrong so I will repost the finished version later on once my partner and I have made some small changes.

Location of filming and Cast Shots

'Obsession' was filmed in a few different places, part of the opening was filmed in a school libary, we decided to film it here as we thought it showed that the characters were still in fact at school, and the fact that they were in their own clothing (non-uniform) hints that they are in sixth form so the age range of 16-18. Another location we filmed at was the road of where I live, this was to do the opening shot of myself walking/running from the camera (the stalker), we filmed here because it it a quiet road therefore less likely for people to have walked/driven past and making it seem more realistic. We also filmed in Marlborough High Street, inside the cafe Costa, this was when the girl walks past the window and the door to the cafe opens and the camera follows her. In order to get this shot we had to ask for the permission of the manager of Costa for him to allow us to film there, we chose to do this scene to again make the whole thing more realistic, for the girl not to see the stalker, also becuase to range the camera shots we used throughout the film opening.

The first shot of girl running

During the conversation between girl and boy

Outside of Costa

End shot of girl screaming

Cast Shots

Eva Averill - small role

Max Hill - small role

Sarah Gorman - Protagonist

Target Audience

The target audience for this film, is teenage - young adult, preferably male and female, however it depends on the individuals particular interests. My partner and I asked 10 males and 10 females the genre of film they like. Most of the males preferred horror, thriller, and action, which around half of the girls had said they like too however the other half of girls said they like romantic comedies the best. Our main actresses and actors are of late teenage years making the film seem more appropriate for a teenage - young adult audience.

New Treatment - Obsession

This is my new treatment for my new film, in replacement for the treatment of 'Birthday Suprise'

Treatment for 'Obsession'

Obsession, is based on a stalker following teenage girls. There is evidence in the film that young girls have gone missing in a matter of weeks, however police haven't yet found any clues as to what happened. In the film we are showing two girls going missing in the same town, in the same school, the first girl is with the opening of the film, she is walking home on her own from school and hears 3 foot scuffs, she turns at each one and realises she should start running. It then cuts to discussion of the girls going missing which brings up thoughts of how something like that never happens to anyone you know. The only time we see part of the stalker is of his hands looking through pictures of girls he has either taken or plans to take, the last picture is of the girl that he had been stalking and is his next victim.

In our film we used the cafe Costa Coffee for a shot of a girl walking past, in order to get this shot we had to ask permission of the manager of Costa in order for him to allow it. We chose to do this scene as it seemed more realistic for the girl not to see the stalker.

Anamatic for my film opening

For part of our media studies coursework, we have to produce a short film opening. Preparing to do this myself and my partner Sarah Gorman, drew out this storyboard with the shots and music we would use in the actual filming. This was our original idea, which is based on a stalker, however after thinking through the storyline we thought it was prehaps too plain and predictable, so we kept the same genre of thriller and crime as we thought that it was a good genre to select because it generally has a more flowing storyline and that was where most of our ideas were heading, and came up with the film opening of 'Obsession'. The storyline is of the same idea but not as simple, we have added in parts to the filming to make the storyline less predictable and plain. We did not want to use the time we had to produce another anamatic as we thought this was a similar storyline, instead we started filming in order that we weren't behind.

Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task, I had to make a short (approximately less than a minute) film to show a series of camera shots and our editing skills that I had used on iMovie, I did this task in with Sarah Gorman and we did an equal amount of work each. I had filmed the task and she starred in it, we then both did the editing. Some of the camera shots we had to include were, a match on action shot, which I filmed with the door being pushed open, shot reverse shot during a conversation between two people. This task was a starter to show what skills we had and how to get started on iMovie ready for the film opening sequence that we have to do later on in the coursework.

Film Logo

I produced a film logo, with the help of my partner, Sarah Gorman. The 'SE' stands for Sarah and Eva, but we thought SE was more catchy and smaller, with the movies on the end as that was what we are producing for our media task. I thought the slight blur with the squares made the logo look quite original and gives it a nice effect. 

Treatment for 'Birthday Suprise'

Treatment
Birthday Surprise

Four girls are out celebrating one of the girls birthday at a restuarant in ASK, Marlborough. Marlborough is a typical country town, the high street, based in the middle of the town has many shops and restuarant, the town is quite old which gives the impression nothing dramatic and dangerous would be likely to happen there. Laughing and opening presents when the cake comes out, they don't realise the dark figure watching them through the window. They all walk to meet their parents once they have finished the meal, the girl who's birthday it is recieves a call from her mum saying she is waiting at the top of an alley way near where the girls are waiting. As her friends parents pull up next to them, they say their goodbyes and she starts walking up the dark alleyway. The dark figure who had been following them throughout the evening, walks up the same alleyway and starts to quicken his pace to catch up with her, building to a run however keeping his steps silent, the girl is oblivious. When he reaches her he grabs her and covers her mouth with his gloved hand, to stop anyone hearing her screams.