Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the time I had to produce my product, I feel that I have experimented and learnt a lot through the uses of different technologies. 

 To record the footage for my film I chose to use a flip camera HD camera made to record footage/ easy uploads. I feel that this was a good idea to use as it was suitable to screw onto the tripod and also has a clear enough/ high quality recording. This was key for me as I needed the tripod to capture steady footage.

Another technology that I had also learnt about during the process of creating my film was the use of a apple mac and the programme imovie. I could see improvements of my editing skills every time I came back to edit further into my film. I experimented with cutting, enhancing, changing, fast forwarding and many other techniques to improve the smoothness of my film. Imovie was set out slightly complicated at first, but from research and practising into the format I found that it was something I ended up feeling a lot more confident in.
 Theres many stylist effects that I could of chosen to use, but I tried to keep it as realistic as possible and I feel that this worked well through my final outcome. In terms of the audio timeline, I had to play around with the backing track that I had chosen to use. I found a good backing track that was copy right free from my research it had also fitted in well with tension building, which not only from my survey is what the audience wanted/ expected but that is also what is used in existing films with the same genre as my own film.

 So, as I was editing I felt that the music was pitched to high and that it was too over whelming to start my film off. So, as a result of this, I edited the soundtrack to slowly fade in and out, as well as there being slight silence at the beginning. Because of the high pitch problem I looked at the editing skills and the imovie programme allowed me to make the track deeper fitting in with the footage and type of film a lot better. It also made the music less noticeable and not the first thing you concentrate on which is what I was aiming to achieve.

I believed it was a good idea to use a tripod to capture steady and high quality footage. I believe this was successful because with out the tripod you can see the difference and over all it does not look professional. Using a tripod also allowed me to capture different shot types as well as panning the camera smoothly at the same time again still giving it that professional finish. If I chose not to use the tripod I do not think that I would of achieved the outcome that I did.




I also used a number of different technologies which were online that I either didn't know existed until research or had little practise on. At first when using blogger to present my work I did not feel comfortable with at all. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing at all and almost as if I was never going to get my work done. However, now towards the end of my project I feel a lot more comfortable and feel as if I have changed my attitude completely from again, a lot of research and practising.
I learnt a lot from embedding things onto my blog, to looking at presentation skills, making sure that my blog looks clear, professional and has all the information I need on it with easy access. Blogger has become very useful in terms of storing my information and allowing my teacher to view it as well as others who may show an interest in my posts.

I used a lot of Powerpoint because I chose to mix the technologies together, for example, not only by putting my work into a presentations but also made it easier for me to paste pictures onto the format and save them as JPEGS which allowed me to post on my blog. I also made a number of presentations on powerpoint to show on my blog, in order to do this I had to use other technologies such as Slideshare, once I had made the presentation it allowed me to convert my work onto this technology then forward a link and it would appear onto my blog.

I also used a technology called Prezi, I had done this because I felt that it had allowed me to plan my production stages clearly including various information as well as pictures and different links. I felt that this programme helped me to keep order of my planning because at time, with a lot of different ideas it may of become very messy.

To conduct some of my research I chose to create an online survey. For this I chose to use SurveyMonkey which is a technology which allowed me to create a survey online and distribute it to people to fill out via a link. Not only this but it also notified me when someone had filled out my survey allowing me to keep updated on the new answers and evaluate/ compare them after.
Finally, I had chosen to use Youtube to publish my videos that I made myself on there and share via my blog, videos that I had created includes my final copy of my film opening, interviews with target audience members, voice overs of my film and others.
I feel that using Youtube allows easy access to people who view my blog, also it looks professional and neat when placed onto my blog, I'm also allowed to caption the video and write about it informing the viewer on what they're watching, also Youtube allows me to keep note of how many views my videos recieve and comments can be made by the public which is always constructive feedback for me to work from.

 

Evaluation Question 5: How did you address/ attract your audience?

For this evaluation task I chose to label my final outcome with You Tube annotations.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

For this question I interviewed a typical audience member that my film may receive describing what she is like, what she enjoys and why she may see my film.

From research I found that marketing for existing horror/ action films ranges, action films tend to appeal to a slightly older target audience but because my film is a mixture due to my storyline I also think it aims at a range of late teenagers and late 20's/ early 30's. I also believe due to the storyline that the gender also equally distributed, I believe this because of the young female who is the main character in my film. I think that it is important for the audience to be able to relate to feelings/ actions projected from the actress, making it a more personal film for them to watch. However, stereotypically appealing to the male gender, the action and gore is slightly more appealing to them, men being more stereotypically evil and interested in violence, this is something that may draw them into watching the film.

Also looking at existing films such as Taken and Shutter Island on IMDB the rating of those films are rated 15. I also think its important to rate out film 15 because a strong part of my target audience may be younger, the younger generation also tend to have a bigger disposable income, this is why most big movies are targeted as demographic.

Being a kidnapping storyline of a young girl the film has relevance to the demographic group who are able to relate to the fear and horror of the similarly aged girl. So, as a result of this it is not that from research which has solely influenced me to chose that certain age group, but also personal reflections and as being part of the younger generation myself, I chose to focus on the interests and relations of my age groups.

Despite the usual way of identifying a audience is to spilt the audience up into groups of different genders, age, class, race or status this is not my aim in attracting my target audience. My aim is to attract as wider audience as I can, which having a slightly mixed genre of film is slightly easier in terms of not narrowing it down as much.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 : Please listen to my evaluation recording here.
Audio recording and upload >>

Script:

A production company provides funding through earnings, studio investors, or private investors and has done or been involved with big budget productions in the past, they are considered to be major production companies who often work with well - known and expensive talent. 
TriStar Pictures is an American film production studio of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The reason I chose to have Tri Star Pictures as my production company, firstly I looked at previous successes of films with a similar genre such as Premonition and 88 Minuets.
The company would disperse my film onto cinemas and then DVD also looking at websites online such as Netflix. TriStar are linked with Columbia, a distribution company which is great to have as a distributor for my film, distributing worldwide.
As I am looking to target a mass market it was important to look into the previous films that the company had also distributed and their success. From research I had found that not only distributing films worldwide they also had successes with films that was very similar to mine such as A Mystery Thriller and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
TriStar have produced many thrillers / action films in the past, focusing well on that genre. My best example of film is called The Call as it follows nearly a very similar storyline of being kidnapped. So, as for previous films, they have experience in the genre of film I have created.
For a production company, it is key to get their help with budgeting and overall experiencing with the cast and making sure plans run smoothly for the films outcomes. Resulting in a lot of importance in the progress of the film. So, research was key in order to find the right production company.
I have chosen to use  vertically integrated company, and by doing this it insures that we will gain money by getting involved with other production companies too. So, by having TriStar fund my film it will result in targeting big budget production companies to gain the best results, for example high quality equipment, with TriStar seeking funding from Columbia.
As for the film titles, I had a look at previous films from TriStar and noted down the order and looked at why the production company had chosen to do this. As a result of this being an important part of my film I thought this was the best idea in deciding the order and crew for my opening sequence.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I researched and looked at the titles during existing film openings, by doing this I found that there tend to be a few opening credits before the title of the film including producers, actors, etc. I also found that the title was placed on either a blank screen which was intended just for the caption or either on a main character who was included in the opening sequence (for example Juno). I believe its a good technique used to introduce the importance of a character to the audience as soon as the film begins. From this research I chose to do this, but I also found it was during a slightly calmer part of the film opening, maybe when a actor is simply walking, but it is either a mid shot or close up, allowing the audience to easily recognise them. So, as a result of this I chose to place my title of the film when my main character (who the title is about) is walking first, followed by when the title fades off the screen when the second main character is walking off. I needed to make sure that the words stood out enough, at the same time keeping my running brand image which was (just for the beginning of the film) a dark blood shot red and a serif font, so I tend to put it on a dark place on the screen. The colour of the blood shot red suggests fear, danger and genially something that is going to end up going wrong, which is what happens in my film.

I think my film opening mainly upholds stereotype of excising Thriller/ Action films. I carried out a lot of research into excising ones and watched carefully at how and why they planned to record and edit what they did. Looking at the conventions, I found that many began with some sort of flash back, setting the story with a slight bit of tension to begin with hooking the audience into watching the film further to see what happens at the end. From this, I came up with the idea of a young girl being followed, the film starts in mid action, by doing this is grabs the audiences attention straight away making them curious to what is happening and how it will end. Once I began to make the film I found that my footage was really boring and repetitive. So, as a result of this I then added in a flash forward of the girl to show what had happened to her/ how she was found.

By doing this, I found that my opening sequence tend to make more sense, it was easier to tell what was going to happen but not to obvious, while working along side my music choice, it was building up tension and enigma fast to find out how she ended up dead. This is key in terms of following conventions of action/ horror film openings, its important to grab the audiences attention, keeping them hooked as well as continuously asking questions as to what is going to happen next. I also found that by adding in this new footage, it mixed up the film a little bit making it slightly more exciting and a different brightness as it was very dull throughout.

For the location I chose to uphold stereotype of horror/ action films openings. They tend to open their films mid action, again hooking the audience as soon as the film begins making them want to watch more. So, for this I chose to use a dark street followed by a car park which was also dark. Also this links in with what I pointed out about the flash forward during the opening of the girl already found and what seems to be dead, she was placed in a park, which is empty, suggesting that it is early in the morning, again upholding stereotype of maybe a jogger or dog walker finding her body in the morning and reporting it to the police (looking further into the film).

 

 In terms of costumes, I wanted to keep my film realistic, so for the young girl I wanted to keep her in her everyday clothes, something she would wear to the shop of collage for example. So, before recording I had watched what my actor had worn all week and arranged her outfit based on what she had worn as well as clothes that can be easily re-worn in case we need to re-record if we had missed out a certain camera shot, clip or change of idea.

So, coming up with her outfit was chosen nicely, as well as it being cold at the time it was suitable to dress for the weather too. By doing this makes in more conventional as films try to connect with the audience, for example, if a young girl was to watch this film, similar age to the actor, just by where she is walking maybe walking home and an everyday outfit makes it easier for the audience to relate and connect to the situation making the film more personal and sometimes more interesting for them as well as realistic. Some films also try to relate to personal past experiences some of the audience may of faced or know of somebody who may of faced these issues or something similar which is also another reason films try to keep it realistic. 
As for the man who attacks/ kidnaps the young girl, his costume is also following conventions of existing films. He is wearing all black with his hood up, this enables the audience to be able to see the males face clearly, or even at all though out the opening of the film. I believe this is key, as the film starts off with a flash back, it is key that the audience knows that she is unable to recognise him (when she turns around during the opening flash back). Because of this, it also is following conventions of a mystery, making the audience want to know what he wants from her, why is he choosing to take her? Has he planned this or is it in the moment? Do they have any relation? These are all elements that uphold stereotypes of existing horror/ action films, there is usually a young female in danger and a evil male who acts on it.
In terms of props, when the male gets into his car to follow the young girl, when he turns his key to start the engine of his car you can see a character on his key rings. This is not stereotypically a conventional element to include in a film opening of this genre, but it does make the audience question the fact to as why it has been included. Further on during my film it will become clear, also hints such as that will be included more as the film goes on, which explains what type of person the kidnapper is. Sometimes, mental illnesses make people act on things they shouldn't, also they could make people have child-like features which they are unaware that they are doing, this is an element seen during the rest of my film.

In terms of editing shot types and editing, when I recorded new footage to be included in the film opening I had used a different camera which could of been an issue as it may have made the quality look different as well as be a different size on the screen. So, as a result of this I uploaded the footage and found that it didn't look too different. The only problem I had was that I had recorded it portrait instead of landscape which made them stand out a lot more to the others. As a result of this I had to rotate them round (which you can see in the two photos) and it had been successful. If I hadn't of changed this, it wouldn't of look like a realistic film opening as the editing would of been to a poor standards as well as not following a conventional sequence.

To introduce a film I researched and found that it is important to have a range of different shot types, which all are important for different things. One of the main shot types I had used to introduce the setting was a wide shot, as you can see in this screen shot, not only does it have the main character in the shot, but it also gives the audience a feel for what the setting is, the dark street lit up by street lights, it was important that the audience were clear on the girls location to help understand the storyline. The locations and the shot type follows conventions of horrors/ actions movies because it is tension building, walking into the darkness anything could happen to her, as well as being mixed with the music it builds the suspense and enigma that most existing films this genre have.

Another shot type(s) that was important to include was close up / mid shots. These are important to introduce characters, but on the other hand I found that I didn't include as many as I thought I would. I feel this is because, I did want to introduce the young main female and help the audience familiarise themselves with her, but on the other hand I found that due to my storyline I couldn't do this with the second character of the male kidnapper. This is a conventional technique used being the male is genially the bad guy and the young female is innocent and seeking help/ in danger. Also, the costume/ placement of the male is stereotypical, in the dark/ dark clothing suggesting something is wrong/ threatening.

For my editing skills I feel that I followed closely at conventional techniques of existing horror/ action films. I feel this because the pace of editing is very important for these types of genres to run smoothly with the footage as well as fit in time with the music.
So, my pace of editing was always going to be face moving, but, for different reasons used at different times. The first use of my quick editing was mainly at the begging, recording the girl walking from different camera angles/ camera shots. A skill that I had to make sure I kept up was that the editing was so smooth that it was hard to notice the cuts to the next camera angles. I believe that this was successful because while watching the film opening you don't tend to notice, but at the same time makes it slightly more interesting then just one shot following the girl walk around the corner. This is a technique that film editors tend to use to as well keep the film on going and different.
The other time I used a series of fast shot cuts is when I am trying to build tension when the male is getting in his car to capture her. I changed it slightly to the general edits of the scenes of the actors walking, I done this by swapping recordings between the girl walking down the ally and the male getting in his car and driving up towards her. By doing this again, its another element of following conventions of the genre of film that I am trying to recreate, its fast, mixes with the upbeat change in the music and extends the tension building all together.

The colour red symbolises danger and fear, something which I am trying to hint across to my audience without giving too much away. The colour red is stereotypically linked with similar genre films for this reason which I am trying to portray across too.

Introducing the characters to the opening of my film was hard when the characters are constantly moving, but I wanted the characters to be moving to keep up with the fast pace and tension building. But despite this, I feel that cutting between the two different scenes of the young girl did introduce well considering.

 This follows conventions of horror/ action films because of their fast moving starters to films, its only after the flash back that the audience may tend to understand what type of person the actor is.

Final edit of my film opening 2 minutes of Lost Girl:

(Please make sure that you turn off the animations for this clip as they are evaluations of another blog post). Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of my final film opening. I believe that I have put together what I had origanlly planned but also through out the recording and editing process I have been able to make some changes that work much better than my orginal plans and improved my overall outcome as a whole. I belive that the length of my footage was also successful taking into consideration that the opening film companies logo/ clip was 14 seconds long which allowed me to slightly go over the 2 minute mark that I was aiming for. Also I feel that looking back on research that I had done into exsisting film openings such as Hush and Taken I have been able to include stereotypical conventions of Horror/ Action genre films to able my audience to understand what type of film it is as soon as they start watching it. Also linking back to making my film clear and relateable I feel that it also went straight in to tension building and leaving it on a cliff hanger, which is hoooking the audience in to make them want to watch the rest of my film which is also something I wanted to achieve in order to make my film a success overall if it was going to be made in the furture.

Dairy Post: 20/02/2015

As I have been editing my film together I have found that footage wise, I have a lot of footage spear which is great, I am happy with the amount I have because I would rather have too much than too little, also in the future if I decide to change my ideas around and add extra footage or swap some things around during the film than its a good idea to have more footage.

As I began to edit the majority of the storyline together I realised that my film opening seemed slightly repetitive and also expected- you could tell what was going to happen. Because of this I began to brainstorm some ideas together and I came up with an idea to record some new footage of the girl already lying down dead, maybe with some propped fake blood over her and in a park somewhere in the pure bright daylight. With this new footage I'm thinking of cutting some clips into my existing footage and repeating it throughout. So, in terms of my existing footage, the new footage once edited in will make it look as if it is a flash back. This makes the opening two minutes of my film slightly more interesting and different to add enigma and mystery to my film opening, hopefully drawing the audience in more, making them want to watch on furtherer.

Diary Post: 05/02/2015

Yesterday we went to film for my film, luckily I had changed the girl that I was going to record with as she was more available than the other girl. We set off around 6pm, because it was relatively dark outside. Because it was dark I drove around looking for a lit up street which was suitable for recording. From planning I had originally planned a specific road to record on, however, the big beamed lights that I had chosen to use on the road was off that night, therefore because of this I had to rethink the whereabouts. Luckily, I had found a substitute road and it worked just as well, also near the road was a car park so the storyline ran slightly smoother.

The recording went well, although I was a bit worried about how dark it was and if it was too dark to use the footage in my over all opening of the film. So, too look at the footage closer than what was on the small play back screen I uploaded the footage onto the computer and I was happier with it once it was on the screen it had become more clearer.

Diary post: 02/02/2015

Failed filming weekend.

This weekend I planned to record the film opening to my film, I hired out the equipment and arranged to meet with friends. Once I met with friends it was too late and the person who drives who was going to be a part of the film to help improve lighting and to play the boy in kid napping the girl, maybe playing around with maybe putting her in the boot of the car when she gets stopped, but unfortunately the plan didn't work, it got a little too late and he didn't come out.
As a result of this I'v planned to keep the equipment and try again this weekend.