Evaluation

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

Our 2 minute video production begins with a mid establishing shot of a ghostly character walking into a room; creating tension for the audience as they are aware that something bad is going to happen. This is also linked with the man waring a mask and dark clothes. Then we used the blond  and young girl which is coming back from work and ends up being being alone in the house; she also wears black clothing like the killer and this breaks the conventions of real media products. She is so naive that doesn't even recognise that there is a killer in the house; she ends up screaming and getting killed. In this place we decided to play with the audience's feelings by making the killing seem like it was a dream. However when the blond girl wakes up from the dream; it turns out to be true and we see the same killer again. Using this in our production makes it even more interesting for the audience as they will want to know what will happen next. There is no gore and the audience are being left on the cliff hanger. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The blond is normally the victim in our chosen genre, this links in with our female character, Chloe, as she is a young attractive blond student. Most young London women are confident walking home at night but in this case Chloe is the victim. In the script Chloe uses London/UK slang expressions, 'init'. An American/European audience may not understand this slang but hopefully, because of their knowledge of the  conventions of the genre they should still be able to grasp the concept. Our company however, made a deliberate decision to use London/UK slang because we thought young British voices weren't being heard and we thought we could use this platform to represent their voice.

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

We decided that the best institution that would work with us well, is the Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation because their genre that they focus on is the thriller/ horror which is the same for our 2 minute video clip that we have done. I believe that they will help us to produce the actual film that we would like to do because they have produced several films including Saw. Also they will help us to then distribute our film into the media world which is my biggest dream.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We researched the average thriller viewing age and discovered it was between 14-18 years old. Despite this discovery, we have decided that it would be better to have a range of 15-20 years because it widens our audience. 

As our audience are so young, their habits consist of: Going out to parks and the cinema with friends or family, social networking, studying and completing any work, enjoying parties being part of the student life. 
The interests of our audience includes:shopping at the local stores or at the corner shops, this links in with the income of the audience, watching interesting films/movies related to our genre which is the thriller/ horror, listening to specific music of their taste. Both of these interests will help us to understand our audience and produce the task correctly. 
Music [average]: Our audience focuses on any type of the music depending on their tastes. There are a variety of music genres that they like to listen to e.g. Hip-Hop, RnB, Soul, 90's and many more.
Social Background: Our audience come under C2-E social grade. Their social status is working class or unemployment, as they are students, some of them do not work and some of them work earning lowest wages.
Income: For our audience this comes under students that might study at university and might have a job that its wages do not go over £21,000 a year. However they could also include students that do not go to school but may have a job which gives them little income for their needs.

How did you attract/address your audience? 

We did research into different types of thrillers films and their introduction to see how they begin and to have an idea of what people want to expect in the type of genre we used. Our beginning was really tense for the audience; making them involved in the production straight away and making them want to carry on watching. We kept the tension throughout the whole video buy having several close ups of facial reaction, point of view shots, tracking the killer and a lot more. As we see the killer in the mask walking around the room; we also see him with a weapon which is a knife being dropped on the bed and then picked up. This can be seen as a slight twist because first we see him dropping the knife on the bed which gives audience a feeling that he will not use it. However then he picks the knife up and leaves the room which creates more tension for the audience making them aware that we wants to kill the blond girl. The non- diagetic heart beat music creates a tense atmosphere for the audience. Linking this with the scream towards the end, kept the audience guessing if the blond girl has been killed on not. We attracted the audience by making a twist at the end and left the audience on a cliff hanger. Once the audience see that she wakes up from a nightmare, it suggests that nothing bad happened and there is a relief. However the killer appears again and leaves the audience on a cliff hanger at the end of the production asking them selves how did he get there and was the blond girl killed. This makes them want to see the next bit of the video.

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

Personally I think that I have learnt a lot of new things when making preliminary task as well as the final production. It is not that easy to put together a good piece of work as it takes time and all the hard work to be put into the production. I have used Premier Pro for the editing and I only knew how to use the basics. However when I did some practises, I've learnt more which gave me more skills for the final production. I found out how to layer sound over the clips including the heart beat and the scream which Dawn has put together. I've learnt how to cut clips and overwrite them to the time line and how to cut out the audio from the clip and just leave the sound. Also how to add titles and some good effects that match such as fading in and fading out, dissolving, speeding up or slowing down the clips or sound. I help a bit with the sound but I was the one in charge of the editing. When we did the filming, we learnt what camera shots to use, how to move the camera around to make it look good and how to place the camera in a good and suitable angle. It was really exciting to produce this production and to discover all the new things that are available. I think this would help me a lot when I make my next production.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task, it looks like we have made a huge improvement seeing that our first production was only 30 seconds long and the final production was 2 minutes long. We used a lot more variety of shots and we created a longer script as well as the storyboard. I think that I should be more confident with trying to explore with Logic Pro and create some sound and maybe practise more on the Premier Pro as some clips went missing and i had a little nervous breakdown. However I managed to fix the problem straight away. :)
Focus more on different types of shots, cutting clips, cutting sound, adding sound, putting everything together so that it looks professional. Next time try to have more footage that we can use or cut out rather than having less and have nothing to put together. Maybe we should stick to the script at all the times because some shots are added but might not be in the script or the story board. Overall I have learnt to be really patient which will help me in my next production.

Keep Following :)

Focus Group For Final Production

We have now competed our Final Production Video. We showed the video to a group of people that we aimed at, to see what they say about our video. How can it be improved and whats good and bad about it. We had people saying that our video was quite interesting and was just the right length. 

Other people said that when the girl was talking outside we couldn't hear her properly which made it difficult for them to know whats going on in this scene. They have also mentioned that our sound went really good with the genre and was really scary at some parts.

Our focus group also mentioned that the camera work was steady and you could watch the video without any issues. Some of the shots used were really interesting including the point of view shot used when the killer watches the victim.

Our audience were really happy with the way we used the twist at the end of the video, making them want to find out what will happen next and was the girl killed or not.

Another comment we had from our focus group was about the editing. All the clips that we cut and put together worked well and there was no problems with any of the clips and in between the clips. The titles at the end were really interesting and made the video look professional because of colours and effects used.

Overall the focus group was really helpful with the feedback. For our next production we will try to think about all the things that they said in order to meet their needs and wants.

Keep following :)

Final Production

We have finally finished the video for our final production. Unfortunately I couldn't upload the video straight to blogger so this is the link to see the video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SQH3z48qSo   


You can also see the image below, as it shows that the video works on youtube.

Keep following :)

Editing

Today I began to do some editing. I used Premier Pro. First i had to import all the clips that I wanted to use and look at all of them to see which ones are for use and which ones are not so good. I changed names for all of the ones that I am going to use in order not to get mixed up and to help me to find them easier. The next step was to cut them were i wanted and overwrite it to the timeline. It took some time for me to put all the clips together and form one big video. However the video was still not finished because there was a lot to add.

I decided to then add some effects such as fading in and fading out, dissolving and many more. I think that this is really helpful for the video as it makes it more interesting for the audience to look at. I added some titles and added some effects to them to make it look good and professional. However I lost some of the clips and I become really nervous as the deadline was rally close. This meant that I had to redo the missing clips which included importing, cutting and adding effects to them again. This was really hard for me as it gave me less time to edit and less time to focus on the other activities.

Finally I decided to add some sound to build up the tension for the audience. My company friend Dawn did all the sound in which I help her a bit by adding my ideas if I like it or if it needs changing and does it match the video. I imported the sound and dragged it under the video but it did not work for some reason. At last i figured out that I dragged it to the wrong place and that was the reason why it did not work. so I fixed it straight away and the problem was gone which made me happy as I was nearly finished.

Once I finished all the editing I was really happy because I showed it to the rest of my group and we all liked it. After this I converted the video into a movie that came out to be successful. I have used Premier Pro before which really helped me as I knew how to use it. But I also learnt how to add effects because I did not know how to do it. Also having difficulties with the sound helped me to understand were exactly to drag the sound. Adding to the sound. There was an option that you could drag and make the sound louder  or make it quitter which I only learned while editing the final production.

Keep Following :)

Filming Entry 3

Today we filmed more inside the house. 

We carried on with Chloe going up the stairs and continued with various camera shots of her walking to her room. Once completed, we filmed Chloe in her room. At this point, our company realised that we needed to use the script as more of a guide than specifically follow it. This would aid the editing because we would have more camera shots to choose from; giving us a lengthier introduction.

Here are a list of short, improvised interactions for Chloe and the shots used with them:

• Texting her friend;

close up (CU), point of view (POV), Mid and an Over the shoulder (OTS) shot.

• Reading a magazine;

POV, Mid, CU, long shot (LS)

• Jumping/laying on the bed;

PAN, LS, track, aerial shots.

• Taking off her shoes;

CU, Mid, extreme close up (EXCU) .

• Looking through her wardrobe;

POV, CU, Mid, LS

• Gazing out the window;

POV, CU, Mid, high angle of outside (HA).

We spent more than an hour on this; getting the continuity right and filming the same shot at least 3 times for the editing process, roughly creating 10 minutes of filming.

 

Although it was hard work we enjoyed it because it meant we were thorough for this section.

Keep following :)

Filming Entry 2

Our female actress was not available to film today or any other days, we therefore could not use her as the character. Searching for someone available proved difficult; thus making Dawn our last resort, which will make it easier as she know the script off by heart.
We also discovered, through experimentation, that a small button had previously been pressed - creating the zoomed-in camera effect. Thankfully, pressing the button again restored the camera to it's original state; we were so glad to not have the same problem again!
 

Having, changed location to a friends house and beginning filming again, we promptly started with the inside scene of Chloe entering through the front door. Although the shots were clear and sufficient,  we noticed that we needed to film this section at a later time; in the editing process the shots combined would display errors in continuity. The outside light shinned through the door window as Chloe walked in , this would contrast to the previous future edited shots of Chloe walking along a street at night. Thankfully we spotted this before we moved on!
 

We then did multiple camera shots, such as aerial shots, low/high angle still shots, close ups and different positioned long shots, all of the character Chloe walking up the stairs! It's better to be overly prepared than under prepared!

Whilst discussing which scenes to film next we noticed that it was looking dark outside the window, we wanted to use this opportunity before continuing inside.
Half way through outside filming it began to rain. Considering the editing, the rain would affect the continuity of the clothes; as the inside shots displayed Chloe's jacket and hair dry.

As we were faced with a decision, we weighed each choice thoroughly;

Using the rain:

• Filming the inside again
• Time consuming - darker outside shots
• Camera could get wet
• Crew more tired - lack of focus on filming

  

Postpone filming:

• Crew gets rest - more focus on filming tomorrow
• Another chance outside
• More done inside while waiting for darkness

Considering these options we decided to postpone the filming until the next day.

Keep following :)

Filming Entry 1

We began filming in Dawn's house at 6.30pm today. It was a challenging process throughout, as we were faced with multiple problems. Firstly, our camera was constantly zoomed in during filming; which made filming a tiresome job, both I and Dawn changed the camera and tripod positioning frequently, to gain the intended camera angle/shot. This also affected our actors, it is tedious repeating the shot, let's say twice; having to remember lines and make sure that the set is ready...but six times, virtually spent on each shot, unbelievable!

Secondly, the time spent on filming agitated our company members and actors, as everyone was beginning to become hungry and tired; thus provoking a negative response to the task.

Eventually, as a company we decided to finish filming at 9pm; considering the situation and believing it was best to film again tomorrow.

As a group we believe it would be best to change locations to another, more spacious house, as the camera requires further distances in it's current state...

Auditions

This is our poster for auditions that we displayed in school:

Our production was searching for one female teenager, that would play the role of the victim, and one male teenager that would play the role of the killer.

The auditions took place on the 7th March at 2.15pm.

However, we needed to change our location, seen in the pictures, due to the space being used by other people.

Here are some of the people that wanted to audition:

At the end of the day, we had finally come to an agreement of who we would pick for the roles, as a company. The best male actor, we decided, was the young male in the picture seen above. He has good posture, excellent facial expressions, a good sense of character building and the ability to engage himself in a character for a long period of time. As a company, we needed these qualities to help the pace and flow of filming; we needed adequate actors that would be able to constantly deliver , considering the amount of takes we might need.

Despite the ease undergone with choosing the male actor, we found it hard to choose a female. We wanted a blonde girl so it would merge with our concept, who has the ability to look naive, have a good sense of facial expressions, to be able to put herself and stay in the character for long periods of time.

Unfortunately the female in the image above did not meet our desired criteria, so we declined her application.

Storyboard for the final production

Once we had finished writing our script we then completed our storyboard; a step used to aid us visually with what our final outcome may look like.

In addition, when we have competed the audition process we will need to demonstrate to our chosen actors what we expect from them and what our final two minute clip will look like. The storyboard is a very useful tool for this, and saves valuable time that would be spent explaining the plan; giving us more time to film.

This is our storyboard:

Keep Following :)

Script for Final Production

BEGINNING CREDITS - LOGO 
INT. MOON/DARK NIGHT/OUTSIDE/STREET

EST moon,
LS of CHLOE walking,
MS phone conversation:

CHLOE
Yeah…Yeah…Oh I’m almost home…Nahh no-one’s at home yet…

LS house [behind car lurking?],
CU [light on top window],
non-diegetic faint heart beat

MS/CU CHLOE:

CHLOE
Family problems init…

No non-diegetic heart beat fades
PAN CHLOE,
LA STILL [CHLOE walks past camera],
CU on her bag [key]

CHLOE
Anyway I gotta go babe putting my key in the door, lataa

CU on door lock, SIDE view of her

CHLOE
Ahh, I can’t be bovered wiv this family! No one locks the frickin’ door!

MS door inside open,
non-diegetic music increases,
CU on CHLOE turning on downstairs light switch
CU on CHLOE taking shoes off [aggressively]

CHLOE

And they complain to me bout not puttin my shoes at the bottom of the stairs when they can’t be arsed to lock the frickin door!

Walks upstairs – LAS – bottom of stairs
HAS at top of stairs
OSS looking at room – CHLOE’S reaction

CHLOE
OH MY GOSH! And they even leave a bloody light on, in MY room!

PAN as CHLOE goes into room PAN goes past room and to a door
hand around door – non-diegetic music – sudden shock type[?mid shot – camera sees Chloe go by but does not follow and a hand holding a knife is at the door she passes?] [?rants about her family?]

Angled LS – CHLOE begins to unpack bag – gets out homework
OSS - dark figure behind her lifts knife – blurred figure – non-diegetic music
CHLOE turns,
music increases
CU ‘killers’ mask
CU CHLOE’S face
CU on knife

MS – CHLOE wakes up in sweat,
EXCL on eyes and face – panting

Non-Diegetic door creek open and music tense
POV on door – figure?
CU on her face
TRACK her slow hand towards bedside lamp
CU on switch of lamp
POV door
LS room – figure next to bed
CHLOE turns, screams knocks light down

Beginning Title ‘Not A1one’ to police siren music

END

This is our script that we have produced. We will need to use this throughout the whole production and keep to this as it will be used in our video. We will need to show this to the actors that come to our auditons as this will make them know what to do exactly.

Keep following :)