Evaluation

For our media coursework, we were asked to produce a two minute opening to a film. Before we could begin the practical side, we had to choose a genre and create a story in which our opening would take place. We chose horror as we decided this would be an easy genre to portray and would be most gripping.

In order for us to get the go-ahead for filming, we had to present our idea in the form of a pitch. Firstly we came up with an initiative for our opening before expanding our thoughts into an idea for a whole film, as this was what we would present in our pitch. During class we drew up a storyboard, firstly to explain in the pitch how we wanted our film to appear, and also to guide us when it came to the actual filming. We ensured we followed all the crucial media rules such as ‘Shot-reverse-shot’ (used commonly in conversations with two people) ‘match on action’ (used to show an action from more than one point of view), we also had to follow the 180° rule for the viewers ease on understanding. We also had to write an actual pitch that portrayed our idea in a gripping and blurb-like way.

Overall our pitch went well and they were very pleased with our progress so far. They were happy for us to continue in the direction we were heading however they gave a few suggestions on how to create a more dramatic ending which we later incorporated into our initial plan. Then together we arranged a date in which to collect the filming equipment.

We used my house as the setting for our ‘teenage accommodation’ and set up the kitchen, in which most of the filming took place, according to mise-en-scene. We placed empty bottles around the surfaces to suggest regular drinking, (if not a party the night before). The radio was arranged with an empty Jack Daniels bottle and an apple (referring back to original sin - Adam and Eve). I also wore a pyjama top to connote morning, along with tights to suggest she’d had a party previously. In general we wanted to portray our main character, Imogen, as an easy-going but reckless adolescent. We included her smoking and having a laid back attitude to life to emphasize her amendment later in the actual story. I believe our representation of this particular social group is accurate but to an extreme length. However a main theme throughout the film is the transformation of Imogen from wild, to acceptable in modern society.

In terms of target audience, I believe our genre would appeal to most class groups from the high C through to the Fs as the elite classes may not find this stimulating or generally entertaining due to there. In terms of target age, I presume mainly a younger generation would be attracted. However we aim our target audience to range from an age of 16, up to 40 years in order for our production to appeal to as many potential viewers as possible. Also, our film would appeal to both sexes, bearing in mind our main character is a female, and, due to an ever-growing feminist society, this would attract the female audience. In terms of males, I feel they would be drawn in, as they are commonly known to be an enthusiast of the horror genre anyway.

As our production is aimed at a the younger audience, I would expect most cinema companies to hold showings so to keep in touch with today’s modern and social society. I also imagine institutions such as Film4, channel 4, BBC 3, ITV3, could also broadcast this type of film as these are fairly modern channels and are often popular with the generation we are appealing to.

In order to attract our audience, we decided to begin our opening with equilibrium. This is a brilliant technique used to create the sense of norm, before hitting the audience with the incident that initiates the key drama theme for the film.

We were rather successful in following the conventions found in the horror genre. One of these conventions includes mis-en-scene. For this we placed empty drink bottles around the setting to connote heavy drinking, cigarettes to show an adolescent attitude, and blood/zombie look to denote a dangerous atmosphere or warning. Another convention is use of camera shots and we tried to vary our shot types as much as possible. These shots consisted of close-ups, to emphasize minor details of a certain shot (close-up of my face as ‘zombie’ runs past window), panning which was used to follow my character around the kitchen, and a shot which I believe was most effective at end where we shook the camera, whilst approaching my character, as if from the ‘zombies’ perspective. When it came to editing we researched films of a similar genre to our product to explore how real media institutions create effect in editing. We also had a visitor, whom had experience in the production of films, come in to help suggest ways of creating a more dramatic effect. He suggested that towards the end, to help build tension, we should decrease the length of shots, more and more, to create pace and emphasize the break in equilibrium.

Looking back on my preliminary task I believe I have learnt a lot more in terms of editing techniques, mis-en-scene, and general effects used to attract the audience’s attention. A key alteration that I believe improved the outcome of my final piece was a change in grouping after the preliminary task. This was due to my new group being more familiar with each other, as well as us all living in the same area in comparison to others in my class. I feel I understand more about semiotics and this is visible when you compare our two films. A key aspect of film making that I have definatly learnt, is that you should always be patient, and be prepared for if things go wrong.

As we spent the majority of our time editing the film itself, I can confidently say that I am comfortable with the application iMovie, as this was what we used to edit, and create effects. We began slowly by familiarizing ourselves with simple editing features such as straightforward cutting, and deleting scenes, before moving on to more advanced aspects such as adding sound effects, credits, and voiceovers. When it came to these more advanced features, recording the voiceover for example, it was often a case of using our initiative. This meant deciding that simply talking into the microphone in the Mac, would be too clear (bearing in mind we wanted to create a radio effect) so we resorted to recording the broadcast onto a phone, before playing it into the microphone on the Mac. I also feel happy due to the fact the application I used in my preliminary, differed from the one I used in my final production. This has helped me in terms of being capable of adjusting my skills.







We are having some difficulty at the current time in sorting putting up our storyboard as scanning it in has proven difficult. As soon as we can sort this problem everything will be up to date.

Preliminary - Editing

This is where our film suffered in terms of meeting the deadline. I think its safe to say that we are clear on what we're doing when it comes to editing. We successfully completed editing our film, however the application quitt itself erasing all the work we had done. Unfortunately this happened many times and it is only until recently that we have been able to upload it onto out blog.

Preliminary - Filming

Our filming was successful, we arranged the room to create an area suitable for our type of film, although it took a while adjusting to the camera, as this was our first opportunity to use them, but once we felt we were happy the rest of the production went smoothly.

Storyboard

Before we began the actualy filming for our preliminary task, we had to create a story board explaining the type of shot, character movement, etc. We experimented with two types of story board, one being hand drawn, the other using photographs, both with annotations. Below are images of our storyboards after being scanned in. This was the adversity in completing our task as we did not have acces to a scanner at the time and it is only until now that we have discovered an available scanner in school.
However now below are both of our completed storyboards.

Preliminary

We have been set a media task to complete a short video to prepare us for our final peice. In this short film we had to include someone walking through a door, into a room and exchanging dialouge with someone. Aswell as myself, my group included Rachel Conway and Lewis Bennet. During our peliminary project, many difficulties occured preventing us from completeing our project to the best standard. However, now it is fully completed and although it has been submitted to my blog a long while after, we pursued our project to our best standards and to a certain extent it was not us as a team's fault.

The Editing

We used the camera to upload our film onto the Macs. Although i was new to the editing programmme iMovie, (as i used a different one for my preliminary) after i had figured out how it worked i found the process much easier. We found that there were alot of clips to be deleted as we did retakes to make sure we got the best quality of shot, however once we had cut out the main chunks we began with the proper editing. Also, as we used match-on-action to link scenes so we had to ensure the end result was seemless and made sense. Overall, we all feel pleased with the outcome of the process, and its quality met our expectations.

The Filming

Me and my group began filming on the 14th of December. We chose to use my house as the set and added to it using props relating to Mise en Scene in order to create the right feel for student housing. We felt that with full commitment we could complete the filming in one day, especially as we had to begin early in the morning in order to make most of the sunlight. We had trouble with the camera as we were missing a part of the tripod, however we still managed to complete shooting after about 3 hours. Overall we feel the production went well despite the faulty camera and misjudgements with the type of shot, for example, overestimating the space available leading us to restrain from a long-shot to a mid-shot in some scenes.