Coursework feedback

Research and Planning – 16

Excellent organisation of actors, locations etc with a detailed schedule, risk assessment etc. All recce’s complete and detailed as well. I would have liked to see a more detailed script. The script is simple but effective, but lacks the sound detail. Research into similar products is extensive and proficient, sometimes moving into excellent. The work on target audience is a little lacking in depth, but does cover some interesting areas of demographics, and is applied to her own work. There is a good level of care in presentation and time management was excellent.

Main Task – 53

This is a challenging film that tackles delicate issues and questions of representation. They have chosen to go along conventional stereotypical male aggressor/female victim lines. There is good continuity throughout, and the cross cutting is interesting and effective. Close attention has been paid to the location, make-up etc and the casting is impressive. The sound has been built up into an interesting sound scape through the use of found and created sound. There is no dialogue, however the voice over guides us and this follows conventions of many film openings of this genre. There is a good variety of shots and the titles follow conventions closely.   

February feedback

Your web-log is looking impressive.  Ensure that creative technologies have been used to present your evaluation.

Complete the evaluation thoroughly expanding on all questions.

Put the preliminary task and your production as last posts then the questions

Add any extra elements to the research and planning.

Set targets for what you need to do over half-term to fully complete the coursework

Evaluation Questions- Question 7

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

Evaluation Questions- Question 6

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

Software

We used a Mac to construct our product. This is because of the aesthetics a Mac has, which are better than other computers or laptops. For example Macs have bigger screens and are more stylish in the fact that they look very modern which helps their marketing.

Premier Pro was the main software we used to produce our film. Before starting this task I had never heard of Premier Pro and didn't know how to use it but from using this software throughout the process I have learnt many things such as how to import footage and audio, edit footage and audio and different editing tools for example:
Track Select Tool which moves all the clips at the same time so you don't have to move them individually
Rate Stretch Tool which changes the duration of a clip, stretches it out and speeds it up. I have also learnt how to move clips around on the timeline to put them in the right place.

Rendering is another technique I learnt, which makes your footage run smoothly and make it a better quality. If there is a red bar above your edit it needs to be rendered.en it is rendered the bar goes green.This was one of the most important things I learnt because without this, the footage and sound would look and sound quite jumpy and wouldn't have smooth transitions from clip to clip. Because we wanted to create a very definite contrast between the scenes with the antagonist and the victim, we used effects on premier pro. We used a dark effect for the antagonist and bright effect for the victim because it shows the difference in their personalities (the antagonist has a dark, sinister personality and the victim has a pure and innocent personality.)

The last type of software we used is After Effects. We used After Effects to create our logo. We watched various videos on Youtube that showed you different examples of logos and chose the one we wanted to do ourself. We chose quite a simple one where the title comes in from the left side and just does a full 360 degree turn. This is because our title for the film is very simple (black background and white text) so we wanted to follow this theme. I followed the Youtube video step by step and just changed it where I needed to to make it the way we wanted it.

Due to some issues we faced with our sound, for example we talked over a lot of the clips, we had to mute the sound, meaning our footage was silent. Therefore we had to record some of the sound ourself using the voice recorder but we also used a website called www.freesound.org. Here we found sound clips of finger tapping, the sound of a chair moving out, smashing glass, police sirens (we obviously couldn't record the noise of sirens and glass ourself.) On this website there is a variety of clips to choose from which people have recorded themselves. Prior to the task of constructing our product I had never heard of this website, but I found it very useful and I can imagine me using it sometime in the future.

Filming

During our filming process we developed our knowledge on the use of camera's and voice recorders.
Due to the lady playing the police woman leaving before we recorded her speaking, we used the voice recorder and recorded our teacher instead. We also used it to record a voiceover of the girl talking about what happened to her and some non diegetic sound such as leaves rustling and running. I had never used a proper voice recorder before and would usually just use my phone so I learnt how they worked and what buttons to press. I also learnt that they are very sensitive and pick up noise very easily. We learnt this the hard way as we couldn't use the recordings of the running, and leaves rustling as the recorder picked up the wind more prominently and we couldn't hear what we actually wanted to record. We therefore used freesound.com for the non digetic sound. From the recording going wrong, it made us realise that when we filmed our voiceover of the teacher that we would have to go in a very quiet place to make sure the recorder didn't pick up any background noise. In the end we decided to film it in the music recording studio which was the most appropriate place to film as all sound from outside is blocked out.

I also learnt how to use the camera properly to its full potential. I learnt about different shot types and how to make that shot look effective. For one of our shots we needed to film an extreme close up of the actor's feet walking down the corridor. We didn't know how to do this without the camera looking shaky so one of us sat on a wheeling, office chair filming and the other pushed them along behind the actor. This proved to be quite difficult as the wheelings weren't rolling in a straight line and it made a lot of noise so you couldn't hear the footsteps, which was one the main features we were trying to show. After explaining this to our teacher she told us that we could of had a dolly which you can put the camera on and it moves smoothly. I had never heard of a dolly before but I now know for in the future if this situation comes up again.

Research and Planning

Before filming our product we had to research other products and analyse them. Furthermore we researched target audience and, conventions and representation of the thriller genre.

We planned our film itself using a variety of methods:

• Storyboards
• Script
• Production Schedule
• Filming Schedule
• Location Recce- here we went to our location prior to filming. We chose an area of the school that we thought looked most like a prison and then took photograph's of the different parts of the area, e.g the corridor and the 'interview room', using an iPhone 5S camera.
• Pitch- we created our pitch on Powerpoint and then uploaded it to a website called slideshare. 

We used blogger throughout the research and planning process and also the evaluation process. From using blogger I have learnt how to set up my own foundation portfolio and create blogposts within this portfolio. Also I learnt how to imbed videos or slideshare powerpoints into a blog post. Throughout the process I have created blogs about the planning of our film, research of the genre I am focusing in on (thriller) and the evaluation of our product.

Evaluation Questions- Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract our audience we used a young teenager girl as the victim. This attracts a teenage audience as teenagers girl will feel like they can relate to the film. We have addressed them because it will raise their awareness of what actually does occur in the real and to teach them to be safe.

It would also attract younger people in general as it involves a murderer. They would like it as younger people tend to like the adrenaline rush you get from watching a frightening, action-packed film. Also they like to feel on the edge of their seats. Also its based on typical teenage activities like drinking, smoking ect so younger adults/teenagers might be interested in watching it as they can relate to the activities as well as raise awareness to the consequences of taking part or even just being around or associated with these activities.

Our opening scene attracts people who like thriller films as we show typical thriller conventions. For example, like many other thrillers such as The Call and The Lovely Bones, we have used a teenage girl as the victim and a middle aged, quite scary looking male as the antagonist. Other thriller conventions we have used are extreme close ups. These are typical of thriller genres because it emphasises on the characters facial expressions and emotions, helping to tell the story. Furthermore we have used ambient sounds such as heavy breathing and heartbeats because it makes the audience feel on edge and tense. An audience watching our opening scene would realise its a thriller from these conventions and would hopefully want to watch the whole film.

In our opening scene we do not reveal too much information to the audience due to using a cyclic structure where the end is at the start. The scene is in the prison of the girl briefly describing what happened to her. They will figure out that the girl has been attacked and raped and that the male is the one that has done it from him being in handcuffs and from his scary look but they won't know how it happened, where it happened or any other parts of the story that lead up to the rape. I think this will attract the audience as it will keep them interested and wanting to know what happened.

All audiences consume media texts to gratify certain needs as outlined in the uses of gratification theory Blumler and Katz. People may watch our film to gratify needs such as surveillance. Surveillance is when people use the media to find out information about what is going on around us. People may watch our film to become aware of the activities teenagers engage in and the consequences of these actions. Also they may watch it to learn about horrific acts that do actually occur in real life, for example rape, and how to prevent these acts from happening and stay safe. Another need the audience may want to gratify is integration and social interaction. This includes gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy. The audience may watch our film to gain an insight of the circumstance of the victim who had terrible acts inflicted on her and empathise her. Also they may want to gain an insight of the circumstance of the victim's friends who are looking for their lost friend and feeling very guilty about causing her to leave them and have this happen to her.

Evaluation Questions- Question 4

Who would be the audience for our media product?

I have made a film in a thriller genre as it contains a lot of action and typical thriller features. I think that teenagers and young adults, both girl and boys,  in the age group 16-24 would like our film because it contains lots of suspense and tension which would create an adrenaline rush for them. Teenagers and adults like this thrill they experience from thriller films and like to watch them with their friends. Also watching thriller films may make teenagers feel like they are growing up. However it depends on the personality of the person. A person who loves action, suspense and real life problems being represented in films would like our film but a timid, quiet person who gets scared easily would probably not enjoy it. 

As the film is aged 16-24 we have included mature themes with strong language and contents. Our film includes aspect of violence, crime and action, however also contains sensitive topics such as abduction, rape, abuse, alcohol use and drug taking as what happened to the girl occured from her leaving her friends while intoxicated. Some people may not like or agree with films of these nature and feel uncomfortable viewing but others may like it because it brings in a sense of reality and makes you aware to what actually occurs in the real world. The audience would have to be mature and be able to deal with the sensitive subject. The film probably wouldn't be enjoyed in the sense of it being so hard-hitting and including these sort of topics but a mature audience would find it emotional and makes them aware of the society they live in, which they may relate to or have related to in the past.

Girls are more likely to enjoy thrillers that include a couple or an element of romance which usually turns for the worse. An example is the film Fear which features a new couple but his dark past causes the thriller to turn violent. Also I think girls would like thrillers that has the victim as a female because they could maybe relate to her and it would raise their awareness. Boys are more likely to enjoy thrillers where the male is the protagonist, meaning they are a strong dominant character who has higher than the women who needs to be saved by the male for example Taken. 

Social class is also likely to have an effect on what sort of people watch our film. People from the working class are more likely to watch than people of a higher class. This is because the underage use of drugs and alcohol are more assosiated with people of the working class. Also people in the higher class have probably been protected from hearing about problems, such as rape, by their parents. Also they are probably less likely to ever experience these problems as they are so protected and controlled by their parents where as working class teenagers are probably less protected and have more freedom so hear about these problems happening close to home more often.

The favourite dishes included: king prawn butterfly, thai chicken stir fry, chicken pathia and singapore styled fried rice. 

I disagree with the fact that 40-59 year old females are most likely to watch a film similar to ours. This is because our film would include strong language and contents, people of this age may find it inappropriate and they probably don't enjoy having an adrenaline rush like teenagers and young adults do. 
However I do agree that people who watch our film would have a sensible personality because our film is very sensitive and it may be too much for other people to handle but sensible people would handle it in a mature manner. I also agree that their monthly spare amount of money would be less than £125 as people of this age are going to university or just starting a job so they wouldnt have much money spare. 

I think that 16-24 year old females would be more likely to watch our film. I think their hobbies would be more likely to be activites that people of this age group would do, for example socializing with friends, going to the gym, partying etc rather than quizzes and scrabble. I think their pets would be more interesting and lively animals like dogs as people that age would probably find fish boring. I think their interests would be beauty and grooming and fashion design and cosmetics like on that profile because young people, women especially, do take great interest and looking their best.  

Evaluation Questions - Question 3