Meeting with origional colleague

Me and my origional partner, who i was working with before we decided to work separately, decided to meet up and discuss how we had got on, and to compare our final designs, for our finished film opening ideas, from our origional storyboards we had created.

My colleague mentioned that the good points to my film opening were;
- Massive varity in shots
- Good build up in tension with a wide variety of effects and editing techniques

The bad points, which he thought were able to be easy improvements were;
- Make it black & white
- Record the voice-over again with a higher quality device so it sounds better

My opinions for what i thought of his final idea for the film opening are on his blog;
www.stcmpfpp.blogspot.com

We both agreed that eachother's final ideas were very good in terms of quality, filming & editing techniques, and creativity, from what we first had decided to do. We are happy with our final products we had both made, and enjoyed watching eachother's film openings. Our conclusion was that we agreed it was a good decision for us to split halfway through the course, as it stopped us from falling too far behind, and giving more opprtunity to get the footage filmed, and to complete the task, as we were too far away to be able to meet up as often as we had needed to.

Evaluation

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

My media product was intended to be a film noir, which would involve a voice-over to be used on top of a monotone footage, with effective lighting to show how certain characters and settings are meant to be portrayed. However, my product did not end up being completely accurate to the real film noir conventions. My footage could not be turned to black and white, as the hardware I was working with seemed to just make the whole selected footage into just black screens rather than the effect it was intended to create. This was not too much of a problem, as the lighting was still easily shown, and the characters were dressed how they should to their roles, along with the setting and music. The suspicious character was dressed to the image of a ‘hitman’ role, wearing smart attire, black tie and a white shirt, while the lighting working with it the intended role of the character, by helping to hide his face with the use of shadows.

Because I had not used all of the correct conventions of a film noir, it did then challenge the limits of the conventions. The film opening uses a slower pace, with long shots to support the conversations, and to be able to build up the tension and pace, but also a sense of mystery. The mise en scene was used to create a sense that a crime had been committed, with the use of lights focused around the candle, so that shadows and dark interiors are visible. I chose a varied choice of shots, to help build the pace as the action occurred, such as bird’s eye view, point of view, and close ups, to build tension and begin to make the viewer think about what is happening, or about to.

The sound and music used were music loops to try and relate to the scenes occurring. Simple guitar string loops were played when following the character sitting down, but then other instruments were included as the other character approaches, such as drums, electric guitar and piano. As the voice over was played, the music was quiet so that it could be heard, which was effective to tell the viewer a character’s thoughts, and part of the storyline. The dialogue was basic, but linked with the voice over to explain about what is happening, why they are meeting up, and a guess for what will happen next.

High angle shot, showing what the character is secretly doing whilst the other is reading what is on the paper. Signifies a sense of spying, and shows the viewer what the other characters can't see.

Close up shot showing character picking up gun, signifying that something is about ot happen.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The clothing of the two characters has helped to easily distinguish the good and bad character, but also possibly their role within the film. For example, the ‘hitman’ is wearing smart clothi ng, included with a white long sleeved shirt and black tie, typical representation, to link of the film “The Hitman” which involves this same style of clothing for an assassin/hitman. However, the other character is in plain, casual clothing to emphasis his neutral status in the film, as his family has died, it tells us that he is not the villain here. Although him picking up the gun and shooting someone creates a sense of confusion, it will be easily understood that he has all reason to do so due to him losing his family, although he is made out to be the hero character, going to save his wife. As I was unable to gather a group of older actors, I had to use people who were around my age, as they were easier to gain communication with, and easier to arrange a time to film with around my schedule as well as theirs. To then show them as older characters, I had to concentrate on their clothing, and the lighting to show them to be represented as being older. The character that approaches the room is dressed smartly with a shirt and tie, which is a common businessman’s attire. The other is wearing jeans and trainers, casual clothing for an average man.

As you can see, these two characters are very different. The character on the left is representing a 'hitman', where his attire is smart, with a black tie and white shirt, but his face is not shown, to represent mystery and something suspicious about him. The character on the right is representing your typical everyday male, wearing a jacket, jeans and drinking a pint of alcohol. They are two evry different characters, but easily distinctive and unique, easily identifiable for who is the villain, and the hero here.

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

When thinking what would be included into the full version of the film, it would not be a large budget film with explosions and many special effects, so major companies such as Universal and Fox would therefore not be interested in helping produce this film. Mainstream would not be a road this would follow, but possibly a more niche audience due to the low-budget, and genre of film, which includes enigma, suspense and thriller. I would expect to see this film in a less popular cinema, due to the small budget to create it, and the setting which will be used is not somewhere, where it would end up costing to film there.

When considering what companies might distribute my production, which would be a small independent one, there are several companies I would consider. They include; Channel4, Film4, ITV, Dave. My reason for this, is that they tend to show small, independent films, and programmes in the evenings, when the teenagers and young adults will tend to be watching these channels. They are quite well known however, so it may be hard to find a way to place my film on there, when I have no experience of creating films in the past. My best option would be to promote my film in small areas, and unknown cinemas to gain some hype for it, and then when some people begin to enjoy the film, I can then try putting it onto the TV channels.

Who would be the audience for your media product/how did you attract, and address your audience?

The audience which I was aiming to attract was teenagers – young adults, preferably male, but it would also attract women due to the romance aspect of the film which appears later in the film. I think it would attract this age range, due to their interest in thriller films, with violence and some form of action. It could also relate to their lifestyles due to the clothing and setting which has been used.

I posted my film opening onto YouTube, and then asked a selected group of friends, to watch it, and then fill in a questionnaire.
The average response, was that they enjoyed watching it and would want to watch more, but felt that the improvements could have been on the use of the voice-over, to be more clear, and also so that a bit more of the story could be explained than it was. The choice of cinema to place it to be shown was varied, some thought unknown cinemas, others thought mainstream, while some thought it would be shown anywhere. They could easily interpret that someone was going to be killed in the story as the opening went by, but some felt slightly sad due to how the main character had lost his family, and was aiming to try and save his wife. The age range was as I had predicted, young adults and teenagers seemed to enjoy the film opening, especially the male audience.

They enjoyed the type of camera shots which were used, even the few which didn't enjoy the genre of the film opening, but all of the criticism from both those who enjoyed it and didn't, helped me to realize what I could do next time, and what I had done well.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Some shots in the film opening, alongside the music and voice-over, has worked well in being able to attract my audience. The shots where I have taken advantage of the shadows, such as the loading of the gun, and also the following of the character through the corridor in Point of View, enabling the viewer to think about what is going on. The music and voice-over work well in creating tension and pace, as the music appears as an event happens, and the voice-over allows the viewer to understand what is going on, and explaining reasons for what has happened.

For example, the side close up shot of the character drinking relates to the teenager and young adult social lifestyle, reminding them of experiences they have had. By using the shot reverse shots, keeping the candle in the middle, showing the setting around the characters throughout, also relates to the same audience, but possibly extended onto adults, as they can relate to the same kind of house interior for their kitchen.

The camera shot I consider to be the most effective in attracting the audience of teenage culture, is the Bird’s eye view shot of the ‘hitman’ dead, with his arms laid out on the table, with the beer glass beside him, which stereotypically relates to the curr

ent teenager socialism, as they do go out drinking, and often too much which they pass out. Although this character is dead it can also relate to the teenagers due to the symbolism it contains through the beer glass and the character not moving.

You can see what i mean from my explanation above, in this image, taken from the film opening footage.

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

At the beginning of the course, I had never used any Apple Mac-based software (GarageBand, iMovie), and had only been used to programmes I had used on my home computer, which had no link to these programmes on the Apple computers. I quickly learnt to use iMovie within the first few days from taking footage. Learning the quick shortcuts such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Split, Save, were not too much of a problem. It then came to the stage where I had to include some form of sound, to be played over the footage, in time with it and to sound so that they intertwine together to create a polished piece. This then involved getting to grips with GarageBand, where I would create the score, and edit the voice-over for my media product. I quickly got to grips with this as I did with iMovie, understanding how to add extra sound clips, editing them, adding loops, ensuring correct timing to the iMovie file, and then placing it into iMovie from GarageBand. From there it needed to include some form of transitions for some of the clips, and including subtitles, ensuring the viewers to understand that this IS an opening sequence, rather than a trailer or ending sequence.

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

In comparison to my first involvement of using footage, with my preliminary task, I had evolved a lot in terms of what I had learnt over the following few weeks to produce a higher quality of work in a larger time limit. I was able to receive further help from teachers and classmates, but also learn independently on effects and features, alongside with ideas I adapted as the product went by. Personally I feel that the preliminary task is a lot worse in quality, compared to my media product, as it lacked variety, a cleaner polish, and effective use of effects. Working on my own for this did allow me to get more work done, and feel that I had benefited more, and achieved more, as I did it all on my own, without another working beside me for the ideas and filming. I have learnt a lot from the preliminary task, including the preparation to it, such as storyboards, soundboards, lighting, editing, mise en scene, and the music/voice to include.

When I had first arranged to film with my actors, and begun to record, I realized how difficult it was, and time consuming to arrange the objects and mise en scene in the shot, but also to align it to how I wanted it to look, especially with my second set of filming with the point of view shots, and my most difficult one, the high angle shot as the character hides the gun. Some I had to record handheld, as the tripod was not able to reach the areas I needed to film from. I often realized that I had forgotten to move a certain object in the frame, and had to re-film because it would mean a loss in continuity.

The preliminary task took less time, therefore I didn’t think about re-filming, or that any extra shots were necessary, as I focused mainly on the task at hand. Due to how the main task involved much more than just one conversation, a larger variety of camera shots was needed, to then build up pace, create atmosphere, and enable the viewer to be excited to find out what will be in the rest of the film, from just watching the first two minutes.

As I took more footage, considered more about the sound and transitions, the film opening became closer to being complete, and I then begun to include some titles, to introduce the characters, and the name of the film. These were timed to certain events of the opening. For example, the character name was introduced as it cut to a close up as he begun to drink. This I felt was effective, as it was the first few seconds of the film opening, and appeared as the voiceover was playing. The next character name appeared as the gun was shown, relating him to violence, before he has even appeared on the camera.

Finally, here is the finished film opening;

Class meeting

Today all the groups presented to eachother, our footage, to enable us to see how far we had all got over the past few weeks since the task was given. I saw some effects and ideas which i had not considered, and was given some constructive criticism which will enable me to finish my product for next wednesday, the deadline.
I was told to;
- Change contrast down on the PoV in the corridor, so it is less bright in comparison to the rest of the scene
- Ensure the music is placed back in
- Possibly record certain parts of the voice-over again so that it sounds better in quality
- Add in more subtitles to overlay in the beginning, and take out the credits, so that it doesn't look like the end of a movie

Hopefully i will have enough time to adapt from this and makre sure that the footage is polished for the deadline, thanks to this criticism from classmates.

Footage Editing - 4

I have now managed to include a voice-over, recorded from my phone, converted to high quality mp3 format, and then placed in the right areas of the footage.

I have also gone and re-filmed certain areas of the sequence where I noticed a blatent error of continuity, as the 'hitman' was still not holding the piece of paper in the next shot. Upon re-filming, I decided to add some real dialogue within the conversation, to allow the audience to begin to gain an understanding of what is going on.

The music has been taken out, as I will now need to re-align the music to the timing of the footage so that it is in time with them.

Here is the progress so far;

Footage editing - 3

My first draft with some music and edited sound in. I decided to add a score to play through the background, which would change in a way that tension would be able to be created by the music. Unfortunately it was difficult to time the music to the footage as it didn't work as i had timed it in Garageband to iMovie. My next step is to ammend this, so that it is timed perfectly, and to then consider the voice-over to include.

Footage editing - 2

I decided to remove several clips, and cut around two minutes in total from the whole set of footage. When I had cut the clips to ensure continuity, and a smooth transition from one clip to the next, i then decided to include some editing such as 'fade out' with the introduction, and some flashes when the gun is held up to the camera, to make it symbolise gunfire.
This editing to produce a new clip, was cut down to just under 2:30, and seemed to be a big improvement from the origional trailer clip i had made for this.
Here is the video so far;




Now i just need to concentrate on the sound/music to relate to this set of footage, which will include a voice-over, and a possible soundtrack overlayed in the background.

Footage editing - 1

Upon re-filming, i processed the clips together, which allowed me to decide what step to take next, in terms of editing, re-filming and sound. The clips, together added up to over four minutes long, which was two times over what i had to make it as. Here is the video of the footage taken;



Upon looking back at this after i had placed them in order of how i expected to play them, i realised what clips i wouldn't be able to use, and where i needed to cut the clips to ensure it is smaller in duration to the footage in total.

The Hunt - New storyline

There was a man who had everything you could want, a wife who loved him deerly, would do anything for him, had three beautiful children, who were very lively and looked after eachother, and a well paid job, which could pay the bills with money over. You could say he had the desired lifestyle, but a happy life does not end happily ever after.

It was Saturday, his day off from work. He decided to have a lie in, whilst his wife took the children off to the local youth centre, where they played sports for an hour each weekend. Little did he know that he wouldn’t be seeing them return.

It was 2:30PM, four hours after his wife left to take the kids to the youth centre, he knew something was wrong, there was no messages on his phone, and no sign of them having returned. He walked down into the kitchen to pour a drink of alcohol, as it seemed to help him to concentrate in certain situations. He received a phone call, the voice was suspicious, very deep, well-spoken. He was told that his children were dead, in what was described as a ‘car accident’, but that his wife had been held hostage. Hearing that his children were dead was a blow to him, his heart dropped, for a few seconds his heart stopped, his body begun to shake, he felt unable to move. This was going to cost him more than his job to save his wife.

The man on the phone arranged to meet him, where he would give him the information of his wife’s location in order for the information which he wanted, that only he knew. It was valuable to the man he heard on the phone, and had been held a secret for many years. The man then prepared to come face to face with the man who murdered his children, and held his wife tied up in a hidden location. This was the time for him to avenge his children, and put an end to the people who had been spying on his family, and to escape from all of the chaos around him, with the woman who loves him, running away together, a new world, without their children.

The Hunt - New footage

This is just showing the camerashot's which have been used (i suggest to be played without sound), as this is just simply for the camera shots, not for sound at this stage. This enabled me to see possible problems which have occurred, and also to see how the hard shots actually turned out in the end.

Draft 1 - Film trailer

This is the initial draft of the trailer for my film "The Hunt". It was a test to see what my origional camera shots and editing would look like, this is NOT the final product. It did however make me realise the many shots, use of editing and addition of mise en scene which i would need to consider including, as this looks very basic, the use of long, static camera shots.

There are many errors i noticed straight away with this;

• Continuity problem with hand to chair
• Clothing lacks connection to character type
• Sound and voice-over needed
• More variety of shots
• Mise en scene needed to be changed slightly

This is just in brief terms, in the next video to be posted will be shots of the improvements which have been made to the shots after the discussions.

Recent progress - Filming & changes

After a long discussion with my colleague, we agreed that it would be best for us to proceed from the stage we are at, if we separated and participated with the filming separately. The reason for this was that we found it prove to be difficult for us both to be able to arrange times where we can meet so the filming can proceed. We live a good distance away from each other, so the only times we could film successfully with enough time would be on the weekend, which isn’t ideal for us to enable to complete the filming. This separation also allows us to compare each other’s final product from the storyboard we had initially planned out, and how our own ideas had changed the original plan we had created.

I was allowed to take out some important hardware from the media department to enable me to catch up from the work I had left myself to fall behind on. I took out a camera, tripod and an Apple mini, along with a keyboard and mouse, which could then be plugged into my monitor at home, and I would have the software which is used back in my lessons. Being able to book these out to use at home has helped boost the speed and progress of my work greatly, and proved to be much easier to get the work done in the time off from school, such as the filming, and editing in the evenings.

During the half term I had begun to find it a challenge to contact someone who was able to assist me with the filming, as they were busy, with work or other things important to them. After many phone calls, I managed to get hold of someone who was able to help me. I met up with this person during the end of the week, and we discussed the footage which would be taken, and what’s involved. We concluded to a decision that many changes would be taken, such as setting, camera shots, script, mise en scene and we also arranged who else we could film, as I needed more than one person.

We then filmed the next week, with the setting prepared, and the mise en scene arranged, which took a while to prepare. We took some footage of basic shots, to give the basis for the footage to be included. There were a few mistakes which were noticed, such as a slight continuity problem upon one shot to the next of holding the chair and sitting down, but nothing too major to amend. Watching it back over after the editing of what it would possibly look like, and a discussion with my media teachers, we decided that several improvements could be made;

• More variety of shots, CU’s, PoV’s, HAS’s, Track/Pan, Over the shoulder and 180

  ⁰ rule for the conversation

• Light the candle for symbolism
• Take advantage of the lighting and setting to create more mystery to fit the story and the film noir theme
• Use some zoom in/out shots
• Take more shots, faster cuts, increase of pace and action

I arranged an evening to film this, but instead we ended up discussing the scenes and story again, to enable a detailed discussion, so that changes could be made, but also so that we had a better idea of what to do, and what would be going to be involved in the shots, to help the people who would be acting, and for myself to prepare the shots, concentrate on the continuity, props and ensure that it goes as planned, with any changes made along the way.

We then arranged another date to then refilm, including the new shots, mise en scene features, editing and ensuring that it became a big improvement from the original footage which was taken. It took us alot longer to finish this filming, just over two days, but we all felt that it had been more successful. Along the process of taking the footage, we changed our initial ideas slightly, and made amendments we felt would improve it. I then took it home, uploaded all of the shots, took out the ‘bloopers’ and placed the shots which would be used in order, so that the next day I could meet up with those who were assisting me, and they could see the progress, and we could discuss any improvements which would be needed to take place.

Upon looking back over the footage we had taken, we noticed a slight continuity problem upon a few shots, concerning the clothing due to how we had filmed across more than one day. It was an easy mistake, but meant that we would have to arrange some more time to film so that we could make sure that there is no continuity problems like there was in the original footage we took at first.

We met up the next day and took the final part of footage, to cut out the continuity errors. This is the stage we are now at, the next progress is to;

• re-edit the new set of footage
• see for problems
• refilm if it’s needed
• add in sound, voice-over and possibly a soundtrack

Once this is done, I will then look for some feedback from both my media teachers, and those who assisted me in my filming, and look for any improvements to add in if there is time before the deadline.