Evaluation Activity Seven ☮ ☮ ☮

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Compared to our final film, our preliminary task appears very unprofessional and heavily flawed. Our group wanted to add in as many different shot types within the limited amount of time we had. We used match on action, shot reverse shot and followed the rule of 180 degrees. The task was short and sloppy in editing with distorted colour within the majority of shots, showing a high amount of yellow within all shots. This could have been due to the fact that we used the GE1080p hand held camera which wasn’t as a high a quality camera as the Nikon D3000, which we used in our final film. There is a major difference within the quality’s of the lenses within the two camera’s and this gave our film a more professional look by using the Nikon, whereas our preliminary task appeared very amateur and low budget.

Within our final film we were able to add in more shot types that we didn’t get to involve in our preliminary task, such as a long shot, extreme close up, close up , low angle and high angle shots. This was due to the amount of time we had increasing to around 3 minutes, allowing us to extend the gaps between more adventurous shot types, without having the film appear crowded and too much to keep up with. We felt this was extremely effective within our film as we could maintain a professional look with still being able to use the amount of shots we required without having too much of a tacky look.

The mise en scene that we used within the preliminary task wasn’t thought through at all, our group wanting to show an average conversation between two teens wasn’t particularly portrayed correctly as we filmed th scene within college, and so are actress’s were wearing business wear, making the clothing seem out of place for what we were trying to convey. With our final film we were able to plan outfits, with our main antagonist wearing all black and a balaclava, which really conveyed the correct appearance for the characters personality, due to the dark tones creating an evil look. Also with our other characters less thought had to be put in due to the characters ages being teen, we wanted to show a casual look.

Our editing also vastly improved, with soundtrack and sound effects also being used within the final film, this again showed a professional look and also cast a serious tone on the scene due to the thought our group put into the song choice that would be used over the entire film, we wanted perfect drops when something drastic happened and we felt that the song we went with, created this perfectly. At the beginning of our preliminary task we only see footsteps for ten seconds with there only being silence, which was both boring and difficult to set a tone over the scene. Between scenes when we wanted to show a difference in time we were also able to dim in transitions which we didn’t do within the preliminary tasking ,showing a very sharp and drastic cut, which again appeared very sloppy and unprofessional.

Overall our group has heavily improved over the AS year with our filming and editing techniques, which really has given our final film a great professional look. Our group has achieved a new set of skills that we really come in useful when we continue next year into filming a trailer, which we will also pursue into things that we didn’t use in the final film that we used this year.

Evaluation Activity Six ☮ ☮ ☮

What Have You Learnt From The Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product ?

Though the technological side of our film had a minimal amount, there was still a vast impact on our final film through the chosen areas that we concentrated on. The main potential issue we wanted to address was the camera of which we would use for the filming, luckily a member of our group owns a high quality camera, Nikon D3000, which we used to cover the full amount of filming, not using a second camera. The camera is of a very prestige make and looked upon highly by the filming industry and found that the HD quality of the sense made a large impact on our film as a whole, as it made the final outcome seem very presentable and professional, giving the film an overall hollywood blockbuster look as we wanted. Especially in some of the conditions we wanted to film in the simpleness and features of the camera came in useful. Such as when we decided to film at darker times to give off the right setting for certain scenes the 10.2 megapixel feature gave the shot the right amount of exposure on our characters without adding to much of a focus on lighting, which could have resulted in a less focused image.

When the most important step of editing came into concern we decided to use the software Adobe elements premier, this software came into major use with all of the media we had filmed, recorded and photographed, meaning it had to be able to have a high quality in all of the areas in concern. Being one of the groups main editors i felt this software in particular had a very simplistic and easy layout of being able to edit our films audio and video material, giving us the option to look at our film on “Timeline” and “Sceneline”, meaning we could see all of our scenes and images on timeline, but i felt scene line was the most helpful due to its ability to show all elements of the film, being the sound effects, soundtrack, video content and titles, making it easier for the group to access all the content in one place making the time measurements a lot easier to handle.

We also used apple products within filming, the iPhone 6 was used when recording our behind the scenes footage showing our cast when filming and interviewing to hear both opinions and see the cast in action, we felt this was an effective way to get these certain topics recorded, as the iPhone 6 contains a 4K camera, meaning it has a very high quality focus on subjects and objects and is a lot easier for us to be able to get these sort of topics filmed without hassle, as having a phone on you and ready to film at any point of the day was relatively easy for the group. To release these videos we used two different websites, Youtube and Blogger. We needed to use youtube for two reasons one was to be able to post the video correctly and with the highest quality, but also to receive comments from the public due to the comment section below the video, therefore receiving opinions and questions from our hopeful audience, making it easier for our group to receive feedback. We then used blogger in order to reach another audience online also as we have been documenting the process we have been going through in full detail on blogger, our group thought it would be a good idea to also post some more footage to connect with viewers as a sense of internet marketing and getting to know the cast and crew.

Our last pice of software came from our main title at the end of the film, “the alley”, we decided against the typical boring thriller type style of font due to the eeriness that had occurred in our opening film and wanted to go with a skinny and rigid type font, and so used a “spookyfontgenerater”, selecting the font we wanted with simplicity, as we were able to view the sizes and colours of the fonts all online within a few pages, and was able to cut the choices down easily and pick the best suited font style for our film, only taking us a matter of a few days to all come to a majority decision on the chosen title.

Evaluation Targets

Chloe - have a look at charlotteclarkg321.blogspot.com and evepattersong321.blogspot.com to see examples of a grade evaluations.  What questions have they asked of themselves and their work that you can?  Note the level of analysis in their very strong approaches.

 

In your responses to your final production make sure you are clearly referring to choices and outcomes in an evaluative way - make sure you are addressing the areas outlined by me below:

What did you do? Explain a transition or effect you opted for in the editing process.  What effect did you achieve?  Explain how the choice you made was intended to make the target audience think or feel.  How does this show progression in your use of skills? Explain how this is better than your AS production's outcomes by linking to what you did in your portfolio last year.

These choices are really important for you to reflect on to show you fully understand how you have developed your skills - and make sure you evaluate the comments made by the test audience (the class) using specialist terminology.

We do not have long until the deadline, Easter Monday, for this final stage of your portfolio - so make sure you are pushing yourself and achieving the marks your efforts this year deserve!

Evaluation Activity Five ☮ ☮ ☮

Evaluation Activity Four ☮ ☮ ☮

 The target audience for our film are older generation teenagers and people in their early twenties, a vital part of writing was wanting our audience to be able to relate and put themselves within the characters shoes, due to our characters being older teenagers and having certain parts of their lives conform to a normal teenagers life, such as the technology they use and some activities such as getting coffee, walking your dog, etc... we wanted these things to hook the audience onto the story as this is the type of things they either own or do these things, thats when we decided to subvert in areas such as murder, and uncovering a case. Teens favour films that will thrill and make them jump, with our film having some horror conventions, especially with our suffocation scene and how it quickly springs onto the screen, this would bring in some of the quality’s that would attract this type of audience.

Our group always wanted to use a 15 certificate rating, as we wanted to be able to use more violent scenes if we wanted, so we wanted to use this to our advantage by having characters of around their ages as they will be the most interested in the film. Male audiences of between 15-25 are interested in action, thriller and horror films, this is most likely due to the fact that young males enjoy playing video games, which usually contain violent and aggressive features such as assassins creed and the Grand Theft Auto franchise, this makes the male population seek the thrill that they get from these types of games without having to do anything but sit, watch and enjoy.

Female audiences between the ages 15-25 favour films of the comedy, romance and thriller genre, this is due to the stereotype that women tend to like love films more than horror due to them being to scared to watch that type of film, having said this some females do enjoy thriller films and we thought that to attract a wider female audience we would cast a number of female actors to make the fame audience feel empowered by the plot, making it cross boundaries and do things in films that women don’t tend to do as much as men.making the film as attractive to both genders as we can.

With our plot having the death occur early on, to shock our audience and try and figure out the reasons behind it, due to their age being similar to the casts it makes it seem as though they would be able to have a better chance of figuring out the plot, making older audiences seem less relatable to the film and possibly deter them from attending the film due to this reason.

Overall the target audience we chose i feel was a success as it enabled us to use certain scenes such as the murder scene which is more frightening to a younger audience, without preventing a smaller audience by going for a higher certificate rating such as an 18 certificate.

Evaluation Activity Three ☮ ☮ ☮

Evaluation Activity Two ☮ ☮ ☮

How Does Your Media Product Particular Social Groups ?

With our second protagonist, Ellie, I recognise the likeness between her and the character Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) in the Taken franchise, With my chosen shots that I have used to compare the two characters, the similarities between the two portray the same expressions of hurt and anger, both of which were due to the fact that someone who was close to them, wasn't safe, though this differs with our film as in this particular shot, Ellie doesn't realise yet that Tara is in danger, whereas Liam Neeson's character, Bryan, did know. Their costume although not entirely seen within the shot, the darker green and Neeson's black attire both portray the seriousness of the scene and overall the whole film, as it gives off the impression of their characters being in an important situation, being the saviours of the victim. As at the end of our opening a text is seen to have been received by Ellie which states help, causing her to be the sense of hope in reaching Tara and seeking her medical help. This links of Bryan Mills, as he too has to save his daughter from peril, due to her being kidnapped.
Obviously the main reason I chose this shot was due to both characters seen using mobile phone in these shots, showing that within thriller films, technology usually plays a large role within them, as spies are usually used within this film type heavily, also Bryan Mills being a spy.

Another character I cast similarities to our character Tara was “The Bride” in the Kill Bill franchise due to both the storyline of how both characters escape death by an attacker, which is also backed by the anonymity of the murderer but also with the reason why the attack occurred. Although the shot of which is use is in a black and white filter, we can clearly see that the Bride is wearing brightly coloured clothing that stands off of the black and bleak background, this causing the audience to gather that she is the protagonist, but also see her as weak at this point even though sh regains her strength and pursues her attackers one by one, Which our protagonist Tara shows glimpse of when the text message that is seen to have been received by Ellie, shows that our once weak portrayed protagonist who had apparently been suffocated to death, has now regained consciousness and perhaps not seeking help not medically, but revenge wise, however the audience perceives this message. Our protagonist also wears brightly coloured clothing which stands off the dead leaves on the floor that surround her, we wanted to show our protagonist on the floor to show that all hope was lost and that demean her character to an extreme extent.