For my A2 Media blog, follow this link

www.chammonda2media.blogspot.co.uk

Feedback from Audiences

After showing our two minute opening on YouTube, here is some feedback we received: [to view a clearer picture, click on it for full screen access]

Evaluation

Whilst processing my evaluation on Final Cut Pro, I decided to use the 7 base evaluation questions and converge my answers together. The 7 questions are covered in the 'Evaluation Prep' blog post.

Evaluation Prep

These are the notes I initially wrote prior to processing my evaluation. I studied each question and wrote notes, evidence, links, reminders and ideas which I would use in the evaluation. Obviously I don't plan on evaluating every aspect of the questions but I will discuss what I feel are the key areas.

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q5) How would you attract/address your audience?

Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Final Film

This is our final 2 minute opening of "Anomalous". Enjoy!

Animatic Storyboard

We wrote notes on each shot regarding the Scene, Sound, Music and any extra notes. Splitting the task up between us, we each did voiceovers using different programmes. I used GarageBand to record my voiceovers. Using the notes we had, I scripted them onto a piece of paper and recorded myself using my microphone on my laptop. It was the first time I had used this type of software and using new technology has broadened my knowledge on various ways of interpreting media. 

Script

Short notes on each shot

GarageBand - Software used for voiceovers 

Changes In Post Production

The following video shows the changes we made during post editing. We used colour correction and added a blue filter????? to add a mysterious, ghostly feel to our video which really stresses the horror genre. You can also see the letterbox effect we have mounted on to our video too, this gives our film a professional, cinematic screen view. This is not finished by any means, we still have the audio track and various other tweaks and changes yet to make.

Editing

During the editing process, the four of us all sat around one computer and contributed ideas and actions to construct the shots, sound, transitions and general effects together to form our final film. We used Final Cut Pro for the vast majority of editing but also used programmes such as After Effects. Below is a sped-up screen recording of the many hours of post-editing we went through.

Final Film Shooting - Day Four

This was our final day of shooting at our key location of Fairfield Park in Stotfold, known as "Scarlet Hill" in "Anomalous". These shots were in my opinion, our best at instilling the role of the dice in the film and revealing sinister acts such as the stabbing of the other male actor. The sighting of Parker's younger sister also gives hints towards the narrative but without giving it away too much. 

Final Film Shooting - Day Three

Day three of shooting was to get the tunnel shots that represent the 'present' tense of our final film that signifies the flashback 'base' in the sequence of shots. Using a local tunnel pathway we knew about, we took a variety of shots of our protagonist Parker in different positions or doing different actions. We chose to represent Parker as stressed, confined in the tunnel, panicked and on edge to show his psychotic state of mind. These shots incline the audience to feel sympathetic towards him despite his deadly crimes, as he clearly feels confused as to why his mind is leading him to sinister acts. His unsettled presence also brings tension and uneases the viewers.

History Of Horror

Using both Microsoft Powerpoint and Final Cut Pro, I produced this video to show the history of horror from the 1900s to the 2000s

DVD Load Screen

As an extra, to add professionalism to our film opening and understand further the thought processes film production companies go through, Rhys designed a DVD load screen for us using After Effects and Encore. This is the screen that appears when the viewer puts the DVD into a player, and then has to press Play using the remote to begin the film. He used a pun of putting "PLAY THE GAME" as the Play button, to relate to our narrative of Parker playing a game with the red dice. 

Sound Research

The four of us sat on a computer together and researched on paper and form websites, various sounds we found or wanted to include. Although we definitely want to include some of our own recorded sounds, we also wish to incorporate trickier sounds such as a base track which includes instruments. We produced a rough mind map together and then I used iMovie to construct the following video. The words in quotations ".." represent sounds we found from the website Freesound and the numbers in circles represent the storyboard shot that this sound clip could go with. 

"Anomalous" Filming - On-set Pictures - Voiceover Photo Essay

On Sunday 23rd December, Unprecedented Pictures got together to film the last few scenes we had left to do.  Below is a video photo essay and a print screen shot of me on a software programme to make the video. I used iMovie to construct the photos, music, text and voiceover together.

Amendments

We had to film quite late due to various commitments ourselves and the actors had. On the day of filming, we were nearing Christmas and the young girl we were originally going to film had family arrangements and unfortunately couldn't make the filming. However we didn't let this throw us off and we adapted and decided to use Olivia (part of the Unprecedented Pictures team) as our female actress. This wasn't a problem though, as we soon realised the young girl isn't extremely dominant in the shots nor the narrative itself so all in all, it worked out perfectly.

Shooting Schedule

Why We Picked These Instutions - Institution Analysis

The following two videos show the Unprecedented Pictures team putting together two analysis' on why we chose Lionsgate and Paramount to be our institutions to appear at the beginning of our film opening. We researched and backed up our points together, filmed them and then edited the video using Windows Movie Maker to fast forward the video playback speed.

Lionsgate

Paramount

Important Paperwork

As we are going to be filming in a area of public eye, we decided for two different reasons to produce a sign which was officially headed from our school. This sign will be pinned up around our location area when filming so that firstly, passers by are careful not to walk into our shot and secondly, to inform them that our knife scenes are purely for acting purposes only.

Also, to understand and represent what film producers partake whilst filming, we designed a consent form for each of our actors whom we will ask to sign for their permission for us to film them.

 

Target Audience Profile

Questionnaire Results

YOUR AGE

We tried to get an equal distribution of gender and ages to get fair results which wouldn't create any biased answers. However, our age groups range from young teenagers to middle aged adults only as we aren't aiming to appeal to young children or the elderly as horror films aren't suitable for those audience types.

HOW OFTEN

This enabled us to understand how often and how interested our interviewee's actually are in horror films.

SUB-GENRE

From this we decided upon creating a psychological horror film and this proved most popular and we were also keen on the sub-genre itself.

OPENING CREDITS

Sound

 Setting

We took all of these results into consideration when making our decisions for our final film audience profile planning. These charts really helped us however we did make some changes and combine various personal preferences.

Final Film Shooting - Day Two

Monday 3rd December - Derelict Barn

These are the shots we managed to achieve. They cover the storyboard shots 4-? however we made some changes along the way to improve it.

We decided we wanted to make our own fake blood to understand what film producers have to plan, prepare and manufacture in order to get their desired aim. We researched how to make it, brought the ingredients and then filmed the four of us at our location (for day 2), making the blood. Here is our How To video:

These are our photos from when we were filming which shows clearly what our roles were for this day. Rhys McEvoy and Olivia Gascoine shared the filming duty, Jake Hayes played the actor and I was in charge of lighting and set design. Although we all had our own set roles, we always made decisions as a group and gave each other advice and tips on different areas of the shoot. We also differentiate our roles each time we shoot so that we all get a chance to experience different aspects of the filming.

Below is a video recorded on Rhys' iPod just to show myself directing the scene to the actors and all of us discussing the most suitable way to do the razor cutting of the victim's (Jake's) neck. It shows us cooperating well as a group and contributing different ideas to get the best possible and most effective shot.

DVD Cover Idea for Anomalous

We wanted an interesting and relevant way to present our film narrative so we came up with the idea of creating a blurb to go on the back of a DVD cover which could ideally be used for Anomalous. As the previous post shows, I wrote the narrative out in full. Olivia then converted this into a dramatic, audience-grabbing blurb to go on the back of our DVD and then Rhys used Photoshop to design it. We used the common conventions of DVD cover; images, gripping blurb, actors, institutions, film length, BBFC rating and barcode and also stuck to our house colours of red, white and black.

This is Rhys' first draft:

We then analysed it as a group and made the following changes:

The blurb reads: 

Anomalous is a game, a game that deviates from anyone or anything you have ever known. The game revolves around a set of red dice; Parker, a psychopath killer is the first and only game player. What number will the dice induce, only the set of rules in his back pocket will determine. The number on the dice will force him to complete formidable and monstrous tasks. Are you ready to play the game? 

-Written by Olivia Gascoine

Final Film Shooting - Day One

Monday 26th November - Jake's House

This is a voiceover of us before we began filming at our first location.

These are the shots we managed to achieve which have not yet been edited. Below the video clip are a few picture's of us on set.

These are the storyboard shots we covered today:

Final Film Narrative - "Anomalous"

***Due to changes in characterisation, change 'brother' for 'sister'.***

Final Storyboard

Draft Storyboard

This is our draft storyboard of the opening to our film. We plan to base our animatic storyboard and opening of Anomalous on this however we will obviously make changes and adapt it along the way. 

Costumes

Olivia Gascoine

Olivia from our group was nominated to be the costume designer. With an interest in fashion and acting, we felt she was perfect for this role. After printing out four base silhouette shapes, we all began to brainstorm ideas together as to what our main characters would wear and why. The costume designs below show the reasons behind our choices, including connotations and conventions from existing horror films and even subverted conventions too. Olivia then took our ideas into account, designed and annotated the images below.

This is our protagonist Josh Volpe dressed as the character "Parker".

Props

Horror Questionnaire Interview - Further Research

As a group we decided to continue to build on our audience profile by interviewing some volunteers on horror films. We asked the same questions that were included in our questionnaire but developed conversation similar to interviews like at a focus group. As you can see we asked three different age groups; a young child, a teenager and an older woman. Asking questions to people of different ages and genders not just in the interview, but on the questionnaires themselves, allows us to receive a wide range of answers that we can use to adapt to our target audience. 

Our Institution and Film Name

In class towards the beginning of our project we had a brainstorm of various names for our institution. We wanted the name to express excellence and the design of the logo to represent connotations of horror. We wanted to be memorable as a company who produce films of the horror genre. After lots of thought we came up with the name "Unprecedented Pictures." The definition of unprecedented is:- "Never done or known before". We particularly liked the fact that this initiated that our films are unique and stand out from other horror films previously broadcast. The 'pictures' part of the institution name exemplifies the fact we are a film production company and also alliterates both "p's" in the two words for an even more memorable effect.

For our film name we wanted a short, unusual word which was bold and also memorable. As you can see from the highlighted word in the diagram below, we came to the conclusion of the name "Anomalous". We got really gripped with this name and it began our journey of the narrative for our film. Liking the idea of the main character being anonymous or anomalous, we constructed our narrative ideas around this base idea. This is the exact definition of the word anomalous which we plan to use as a guide and also a slogan for our film: "Deviating from what is standard, normal, or expected."

Below is a computerised version of our brainstorm with our most concentrated ideas for both our institution name and final film name. 

Here is my analysis of our final logo designed by Jake Hayes using Adobe Photoshop. We're all really pleased with the final result and feel our logo will be memorable to the audience. [Click on the image below to view a clearer, enlarged version.]

As you may have noticed, we have also added our own favicon  (example below: a small icon which represents the website logo you are on in the address bar next to the URL) which has our logo on it. Myself, Olivia, Jake and Rhys have all added this to our blog which we feel adds technicality and professionalism to our group as a whole.

Location

The location we are thinking of using is a local estate in Stotfold which is newly built but with few residents; a ghostly feel with empty houses would be created and modern new houses will give a twist and subvert the usual 'ancient haunted house' convention. A unique location which is different from other films will gratify the audience along with scaring them as the modern houses they witness will be similar to houses they live in and/or are surrounded by nowadays! I can visualize a street lit by streetlights, empty roads with few cars, and bare curtain-less houses which look deserted. Or perhaps dark alleyways, or infinite pathways with streetlights. We plan to shoot in the afternoon at around 4pm so that the lighting is fairly dark but light enough to be visible and clear on the camera.

This is a video screening of us researching our location on google maps before visiting the area. A friend had told us about this area and I had previously visited a house nearby and so we thought the area was very suitable for our shoot. 

We arranged to meet together one lunch time to take photographs of our potential location. At the beginning of our media project we set up a group on Facebook so that the four of us could easily discuss ideas, share photos and documents and plan for upcoming lessons. Travelling by car gave us the ability to look around different streets, stop and photograph buildings and streets we thought would look good for our film. We had a street in mind but upon visiting the estate we found an even better location; a long narrow pathway/alleyway, lined with streetlights which can be seen in the pictures below (scroll down).

Example of the Unprecedented Pictures team communicating efficiently and effectively.

Myself, Jake Hayes, Rhys McEvoy and Olivia Gascoine taking pictures on the estate. 

The following are our location shots of potential places. The actual location we plan to shoot at are the last two photographs (same alleyway) but still perhaps integrate the other locations into the filming as an establishing shot perhaps.

We really like the infinite pathway in the last photo which is lined with streetlights and houses either side. I think it looks really ghostly, chilling and suggests a pathway leading to nowhere. It fits in well with the horror genre and is a perfect area for our first shot. Below is a montage of all of the shots we all took.

Editing Terminology and Analysis

What does editing do?

Editing is essential in creating a continuous, flowing sequence. It puts together many video clips to form a video. Shots can be trimmed and transitions can be added to give a smooth finish to the clip. Music, sound effects, voiceovers, lighting, titles and many other effects can be sourced from editing programmes such as Final Cut to make a video effective in keeping the audience's attention.

How does it work?

Editing software programmes put together video footages into one long clip. Each shot is then trimmed to the required duration, constructed in a specific order and then transitions, sound and titles are added to complete the sequence.

Describe and explain the function of each of the following editing terms:

Cut: A shot continues on from another shot. It is used when the aim is for the movie to continue the scene, dialogue and actions.

Dissolve: This is a gradual transition from one shot to another. They overlap and at one point, both shots are visible/merged on screen. It adds smoother continuity than a cut.

Fade: This is a very frequently used shot in filming. The shot can fade (disappear slowly) either into darkness (black screen) or into a white screen. Fade is often used to signify beginning/opening or the ending of a scene or to imply the passing of time. It is a common convention of films.

Jump cut: A constant switch between shots. They are extremely fast and are used to increase the pace of the sequence. Jump cuts are often used in action films where two people are fighting or a car chase is taking place. The abrupt cuts between shots add a tense, chaotic atmosphere and grip the audience's attention.

How does the shot reverse shot help the narrative or generate meaning?

The shot reverse shot can easily be merged with a point of view shot, as they are often used between conversations between two people and so the audience feel like they are both characters in the conversation as they see the other speak back. It helps to create a free flowing conversation and guide the narrative as the audience don't get confused.

Why is the 180 degree rule important?

It is important as if broken, it can confuse the audience easily. It stops the flowing continuity of a sequence and the orientation and setting of a scene can become confusing.

How and why is the point of view shot used?

The POV shot is used by insinuating that the camera lens is the person viewing point. It is used to convey what the character can see and also hear. It makes the audience feel involved in the film and can be very effective in guiding the narrative.

How else can the pov be generated?

The POV shot can be generated in conjunction with other shot types such as over the shoulder, high and low angle. Hand held camera's can also be used to give the point of view effect; this adds shakiness which can be effective in adding tension to the atmosphere of the footage.

What is parallel or cross cut editing?

A filming method where a point of view shot of two different people at different views/angles/places are continuously switching. It is often used in car chases for example, to show the tension and struggle between two oppositions.

What editing techniques are used to generate suspense?

Straight cuts and jump cuts are two types of editing techniques that can be used to generate suspense. They add an abrupt, 'rough' sequence in a scene or chapter of a film which grab the audience's attention.

Explain in your own words how the mouse sequence creates tension

??????

Why is timing important in editing?

Timing is important in editing as it instructs the flow of a scene. Pauses make the sequence look unprofessional and timing that has been increased can confused the audience. 

Explain in your own words what the continuity system is?

This is an effect that many editors try to achieve by directing the audience through the shots subconsciously through transitions or cuts. It aims to generate a natural flow through the film by using shots that the audience are used to. Many rules and conventions are often used too such as the 180 degree rule and the appearance of an establishing shot at the beginning of a new location or scene. They are shots that the audience expect and are used to which make them enjoy and understand the sequence more.

Why does editing strive to be invisible?

To create a natural flow between shots where the audience are kept attentive, involved and intrigued. The directors are trying to mask the fact it is film and convert it into something that is really happening; the audience are really there.