Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it to the full product?
The most obvious thing i have learnt throughout the process was a basic understanding of how film is made and how long it takes to make a measly few seconds of clip! It takes a significant amount of time to obtain the correct shots and angles that are neccesary to create a good opening sequence. We spent 4 days filming our peice, for a grand total of 2 minutes 1 second of filming, showing how long film makers work on there pieces.
The best thing i would say i have learnt is the ability to obtain create camera shots and angles. In the preliminary these shots were pritty basic with no high skill needed, shots that are included in our opening sequence would have seemed impossible to use back then. I began with a small understanding ranging from basic shots such as mid shot and close up, but through the opening sequence i was able to extend this knowledge with shots such as establishing shot and high angles shot.
The most useful thing i would say i have learnt through this process is the editing aspect. I had no understanding of the editing side to making films beforehand, it all looked way too complicated and boring. But i have found that it can be an exciting apsect to making a film. The editors decide what goes into a film and what doesnt, they basically create the film which is something that excites me. I learnt how to add frames to a piece of film, how to add sound and how to change the colour balance to give shots the edge that you would expect within a genre.
Overall i have learnt a tremendous amount in my time since the prelimary, i was able to adapt and develop on skills i had learned already. This is why the opening sequence task was an incredibly useful thing to do.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technology from the process of producing this product?
There are several new skills and abilities i am able to take away from developing the opening sequence, most of them are to do with technological apects. Obviously the main and most obvious new skill i have develped is the ability to work a camera. I did have a prior knowledge what with filming the preliminary task but the opening sequence demanded much higher quality shots with more difficult angles. This was a great learning experience which i think will aid me in the future if i end up doing something filming related. The best way to learn a skill and develop upon a skill is by going out there and doing it, this is what me and my group did for the opening sequence.
Another key skill which i was able to adapt and learn more skills on since the preliminary task was the editing process. Using the preliminary software 'sony vegas pro' i learnt several new skills such as being able to merge clips together, cropping out pieces of film and most importantly the ability to add a frame. You can see the frame on our piece of film which in my view adds a very eery creepy feel to the piece lending to the thriller genre. Mixed with the editing process was the ability to add a soundtrack to the opening sequence. I learnt how to mix soundtracks together and how to fade in and out of music according to whats happening on screen. Certainly important in our piece when the killer is looking at the knife and only a heartbeat is heard. I was also able to learn how to mute out peices of sound that i did not wish to have heard, but also be able to empathise on sounds i did wish to be heard over the music ( such as kourtney's footsteps'.
Without having learnt these new skills i would not have been able to complete this task, or make it as good as it turned out to be. Its obvious to me that i need to learn and adapt to new technologies that are becoming increasingly available otherwise my skills will become obsolite.
There are several new skills and abilities i am able to take away from developing the opening sequence, most of them are to do with technological apects. Obviously the main and most obvious new skill i have develped is the ability to work a camera. I did have a prior knowledge what with filming the preliminary task but the opening sequence demanded much higher quality shots with more difficult angles. This was a great learning experience which i think will aid me in the future if i end up doing something filming related. The best way to learn a skill and develop upon a skill is by going out there and doing it, this is what me and my group did for the opening sequence.
Another key skill which i was able to adapt and learn more skills on since the preliminary task was the editing process. Using the preliminary software 'sony vegas pro' i learnt several new skills such as being able to merge clips together, cropping out pieces of film and most importantly the ability to add a frame. You can see the frame on our piece of film which in my view adds a very eery creepy feel to the piece lending to the thriller genre. Mixed with the editing process was the ability to add a soundtrack to the opening sequence. I learnt how to mix soundtracks together and how to fade in and out of music according to whats happening on screen. Certainly important in our piece when the killer is looking at the knife and only a heartbeat is heard. I was also able to learn how to mute out peices of sound that i did not wish to have heard, but also be able to empathise on sounds i did wish to be heard over the music ( such as kourtney's footsteps'.
Without having learnt these new skills i would not have been able to complete this task, or make it as good as it turned out to be. Its obvious to me that i need to learn and adapt to new technologies that are becoming increasingly available otherwise my skills will become obsolite.
Monday 3 May 2010
Evaluation Question 5
How did you attract or address your audience?
The best way to attract and address an audience is by getting word of your film out into society and letting it spread like wildfire. You need to make the public aware of your film, which you can do this several ways.
The best way to attract and address an audience is by getting word of your film out into society and letting it spread like wildfire. You need to make the public aware of your film, which you can do this several ways.
A way to alert the public of the upcoming film is by posting news on a social website. Sites like facebook and twitter are becoming increasingly popular within society so can appeal to a wider audience. This is especially true for our media with the main age group of social network site users mostly being teenagers our target audience. To see how our video was recieved and to see whether we attracted our target audience we posted our video on the network site Facebook with the hope to gain a large amount of feedback. We recieved numerous 'likes' of the film and several promosing comments from not only our target age group but from people younger and older! This shows how our product can be universally liked, meaning its popular and will sell well.
During the research stage of our media we found that existing products use Posters and Flyers etc to get word of the film out onto the streets. A poster is very easy, quick and cheap to make so can be made on a mass scale. They can be placed in very key spots so that they will be seen by a large amount of people. The poster needs to obviously make the film look appealing to there target group and to other groups, when one person knows of an upcoming film and it is appealing to them they will tell other people allowing word to spread on its own. Other than attract people to look at it what a good poster should have is reviews of the film by various reputable critics. This allows the audience to trust in the film and lust to see it more boosting sales. Another good thing to include on a poster is if there are any reputable actors involved in the film its best to hae there names boldly on the poster so that it looks attracting to possible viewers.
Another way to advertise a film is through trailers. This is possibly the best way to advertise something what with the huge viewing figures some channels have allowing more people to see it. What a good film trailer does is grab the audience straight away, regularly using catchy music that sticks with the person, and short fast clips making the film look exciting.
Obviously what with us being restricted to only making the opening sequence to a film we were unable to make any of these marketing campaigns but i believe that the thriller genre allows for a wide audience and an appealing campaign.
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your Media?
During the process of planning our media product we needed to take into account who we were targetting as the audience of our piece and what age bracket would fit into regulations whilst still allowing it to be a popular product. Due to the genre we were using (Thriller) it was obviously never going to fit into the U to 12 age bracket due to the content involving murder. We needed to weigh up whether it was a 15 or an 18 aged film. The involvement of weapons is obviously something which lends it to being involved in the higher age bracket, the murder at the end furthers this. But due to the lack of any blood and not visually seeing the killing we feel it end up being a 15 certificate film.
Before any film is able to be released the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rate your film based on its contents and give it an age bracket so that it cannot be supplied to anyone below this due to its unsuitablility. These ages range from a U-(universal suitable to anyone) to 18-(only suitable to people over 18yrs and over). This prevents children or any other people that arent suitable seeing films they shouldnt.
I feel that a 15 cetificate for our film would not only be suitable but most beneficial profit wise. Although it does prevent a huge amount of people being able to see the film it is still aimed at teenagers who we were aiming at from the start. It doesnt prevent most teenagers from buying and seeing our product so generates a lot more profit for us than if it was an 18 for example. The main age group for the thriller genre is of the older teenagers, 15 and above so this only makes our product look even more appealing.
During the process of planning our media product we needed to take into account who we were targetting as the audience of our piece and what age bracket would fit into regulations whilst still allowing it to be a popular product. Due to the genre we were using (Thriller) it was obviously never going to fit into the U to 12 age bracket due to the content involving murder. We needed to weigh up whether it was a 15 or an 18 aged film. The involvement of weapons is obviously something which lends it to being involved in the higher age bracket, the murder at the end furthers this. But due to the lack of any blood and not visually seeing the killing we feel it end up being a 15 certificate film.
Before any film is able to be released the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rate your film based on its contents and give it an age bracket so that it cannot be supplied to anyone below this due to its unsuitablility. These ages range from a U-(universal suitable to anyone) to 18-(only suitable to people over 18yrs and over). This prevents children or any other people that arent suitable seeing films they shouldnt.
I feel that a 15 cetificate for our film would not only be suitable but most beneficial profit wise. Although it does prevent a huge amount of people being able to see the film it is still aimed at teenagers who we were aiming at from the start. It doesnt prevent most teenagers from buying and seeing our product so generates a lot more profit for us than if it was an 18 for example. The main age group for the thriller genre is of the older teenagers, 15 and above so this only makes our product look even more appealing.
Evaluation Question 3
What kind of Media Institution might distribute your product and why?
For a media product to stand out in the market it needs to have a reputable institution to distribute the product. There are several major institutions in differant markets around the world, for example the gaming industry is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The film industry's biggest institution is 20th century fox but there are still huge players that are reputable, such as Film4 and Warner Bros. Undoubtedly then we needed to pick an institution that would do a good job in distibuting our product and make it look appealing, these reputable companies can make or break any film.
We chose Film4 as our institution because it seemed to have so many advantages to it, especially with it being involved with the latest hit film 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It also has its own television channel which would give us the oppurtunity for a lot more air time without having to pay an extreme amount of money. With it being a television channel and our film being amongst the thriller genre it would obviously have to be shown later on at night, this means we can target a specific audience who are more intrerested in our genre of films.
Overall we feel Film4 would be perfect as an institution to distribute our product due to the reputation of the company and the fact that it will give us a larger amount of airtime than any other intitution. Film4 is also involved with several types of films whether they have small or large budgets, and will often have nights that are specificlly aimed at a certain genre so will bring in more viewers. Our film could possibly be involved in a thriller/horror night making our film more popular and gaining us reputation and money.
For a media product to stand out in the market it needs to have a reputable institution to distribute the product. There are several major institutions in differant markets around the world, for example the gaming industry is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The film industry's biggest institution is 20th century fox but there are still huge players that are reputable, such as Film4 and Warner Bros. Undoubtedly then we needed to pick an institution that would do a good job in distibuting our product and make it look appealing, these reputable companies can make or break any film.
We chose Film4 as our institution because it seemed to have so many advantages to it, especially with it being involved with the latest hit film 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It also has its own television channel which would give us the oppurtunity for a lot more air time without having to pay an extreme amount of money. With it being a television channel and our film being amongst the thriller genre it would obviously have to be shown later on at night, this means we can target a specific audience who are more intrerested in our genre of films.
Overall we feel Film4 would be perfect as an institution to distribute our product due to the reputation of the company and the fact that it will give us a larger amount of airtime than any other intitution. Film4 is also involved with several types of films whether they have small or large budgets, and will often have nights that are specificlly aimed at a certain genre so will bring in more viewers. Our film could possibly be involved in a thriller/horror night making our film more popular and gaining us reputation and money.
Saturday 1 May 2010
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are a variety of differant social groups which media products are aimed at, teenagers, middle aged, old etc etc. Our product is aimed at mostly teenagers and there are several reasons for this. Firstly the age of the actors is key in determining who your target group is. Our piece is acted out by two 17 year olds so obviously teenagers is the most obvious group to aim for. This means the audience is then able to relate more closely to the characters in the piece of film and this is an idea we held throughout our piece. When we first see kourtney appear on screen it is very obvious she is drunk and has been to a party the night before because of the ripped up clothing. This is something most teenagers do, they go out to party much more than middle aged to older age groups so this allows the audience to question themselves 'could that happen to me' lending to the Thriller genre.
The clothes that Kourtney's wearing are despite being ripped and torn from the night before are in actual fact reasonably middle to upper class. As said before what we wanted to do was make the audience think 'could that happen to me?'. By deviating from the norm in Thriller films and having our characters usual normal teenagers this does just that. We felt that Thrillers nowadays use characters that are too unrealistic thus making it harder for the audience to bond with the piece of film in front of them.
Through research into Thrillers we noticed that there are few times when teenagers are used as the murderers. We wanted to challenge this so thus used myself as the killer. This allowed us to bond better with the audience due to them being able to relate to whats happening in front of them. The killer is a boy with the usual teenage angst, love and the ability to kill. This firmly seals our bond with our target group.
Overall i feel that is was a good group decision to target teenagers and to use teenagers as the characters. It makes the film stand out from others like it.
There are a variety of differant social groups which media products are aimed at, teenagers, middle aged, old etc etc. Our product is aimed at mostly teenagers and there are several reasons for this. Firstly the age of the actors is key in determining who your target group is. Our piece is acted out by two 17 year olds so obviously teenagers is the most obvious group to aim for. This means the audience is then able to relate more closely to the characters in the piece of film and this is an idea we held throughout our piece. When we first see kourtney appear on screen it is very obvious she is drunk and has been to a party the night before because of the ripped up clothing. This is something most teenagers do, they go out to party much more than middle aged to older age groups so this allows the audience to question themselves 'could that happen to me' lending to the Thriller genre.
The clothes that Kourtney's wearing are despite being ripped and torn from the night before are in actual fact reasonably middle to upper class. As said before what we wanted to do was make the audience think 'could that happen to me?'. By deviating from the norm in Thriller films and having our characters usual normal teenagers this does just that. We felt that Thrillers nowadays use characters that are too unrealistic thus making it harder for the audience to bond with the piece of film in front of them.
Through research into Thrillers we noticed that there are few times when teenagers are used as the murderers. We wanted to challenge this so thus used myself as the killer. This allowed us to bond better with the audience due to them being able to relate to whats happening in front of them. The killer is a boy with the usual teenage angst, love and the ability to kill. This firmly seals our bond with our target group.
Overall i feel that is was a good group decision to target teenagers and to use teenagers as the characters. It makes the film stand out from others like it.
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
Our group followed many conventions used by real film makers by doing a number of the same processes used in real media products. Our preliminary task helped us to decide on a number of shots that we liked and wanted to include in our own piece. Similar to how film makers test out a variety of shots and angles to see which they like best and which fit in with their chosen genre. We did a large amount of background research into our chosen Genre which helped us gain an insight into what type of music and locations to use. Real media products will do similar research so that they do not stray from their chosen genre while shooting. Finally we created a storyboard to finalise good ideas, to see how well shots fit together and to prevent future squabbles within the group. Again something which any media producer will have to do when creating a media product.
In a real media product the opening scene should do a number of things, establish genre, establish setting and introduce main characters. To establish our main charater we used her in our establishing shot so that straight away she is the focal point throughout. The fact that the setting around her was so desolate and abandoned helped create this focus upon her as there is nothing of any interest to look at in the shot. We foreshadowed her impending doom in the sense that she is wearing very tatty ripped up clothes so the audience place a certain amount of pitty on her, mixed with the music and setting of the film the audience know full well something bad will happen around this character. The character of the killer is quite easily recognised what with the dark clothes and weapon in hand. This seemingly follows the usual conventions of a thriller however we challenged some conventions in the way the character moved. Most killers are supposed to be of the same physical ability just not mentally sane, in ours however we gave him almost superhuman ability. When kourtney runs away upon seeing him she never seems to gain any ground away from him despite the fact that he is walking, this shows the killer being almost superhuman. I feel this worked incredibly well and left the audience stunned, making our product stand out from others.
To establish the Setting and Genre of the piece we felt it necessary to include these in our Establishing shot so that the audience can straight away be part of the film. Our establishing shot is a 'long shot' in which we wanted an isolated desolate feel to be seen straight away. To do this we placed the main character Kourtney on her own within the shot with no other human contact and nothing of any other interest. This places the focus upon Kourtney and also establishes the setting. The random building materials and the assortment of bricks and broken wood helped establish this chosen setting. We alsoused music to establish the genre, our music was slow and involved a rather creepy voice lending well to the thriller genre. When the killer is first brought into the film we changed the music from a slow pace to more speeded to amplify the intenseness of the introduction typical of a thriller genre. The genre is firmly put in place by the introduction of the killer due to him being shrouded in mystery wearing dark clothes and holding a knife making it clear to the audience what genre we are trying to achieve.
Overall i feel that we did follow some conventions used in real media products but where necessary challenged others for the better which allowed our piece to stand out amongst others.
Our group followed many conventions used by real film makers by doing a number of the same processes used in real media products. Our preliminary task helped us to decide on a number of shots that we liked and wanted to include in our own piece. Similar to how film makers test out a variety of shots and angles to see which they like best and which fit in with their chosen genre. We did a large amount of background research into our chosen Genre which helped us gain an insight into what type of music and locations to use. Real media products will do similar research so that they do not stray from their chosen genre while shooting. Finally we created a storyboard to finalise good ideas, to see how well shots fit together and to prevent future squabbles within the group. Again something which any media producer will have to do when creating a media product.
In a real media product the opening scene should do a number of things, establish genre, establish setting and introduce main characters. To establish our main charater we used her in our establishing shot so that straight away she is the focal point throughout. The fact that the setting around her was so desolate and abandoned helped create this focus upon her as there is nothing of any interest to look at in the shot. We foreshadowed her impending doom in the sense that she is wearing very tatty ripped up clothes so the audience place a certain amount of pitty on her, mixed with the music and setting of the film the audience know full well something bad will happen around this character. The character of the killer is quite easily recognised what with the dark clothes and weapon in hand. This seemingly follows the usual conventions of a thriller however we challenged some conventions in the way the character moved. Most killers are supposed to be of the same physical ability just not mentally sane, in ours however we gave him almost superhuman ability. When kourtney runs away upon seeing him she never seems to gain any ground away from him despite the fact that he is walking, this shows the killer being almost superhuman. I feel this worked incredibly well and left the audience stunned, making our product stand out from others.
To establish the Setting and Genre of the piece we felt it necessary to include these in our Establishing shot so that the audience can straight away be part of the film. Our establishing shot is a 'long shot' in which we wanted an isolated desolate feel to be seen straight away. To do this we placed the main character Kourtney on her own within the shot with no other human contact and nothing of any other interest. This places the focus upon Kourtney and also establishes the setting. The random building materials and the assortment of bricks and broken wood helped establish this chosen setting. We alsoused music to establish the genre, our music was slow and involved a rather creepy voice lending well to the thriller genre. When the killer is first brought into the film we changed the music from a slow pace to more speeded to amplify the intenseness of the introduction typical of a thriller genre. The genre is firmly put in place by the introduction of the killer due to him being shrouded in mystery wearing dark clothes and holding a knife making it clear to the audience what genre we are trying to achieve.
Overall i feel that we did follow some conventions used in real media products but where necessary challenged others for the better which allowed our piece to stand out amongst others.
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