Final Post

We have now come to the end of a long but very enjoyable process, (I can't believe it's actually over!). Overall, the sequence looks almost exactly how I pictured it when we first began, although the issues with dialogue have let us down, and I've learnt so much during the process. Even though the project has been hard work I've really enjoyed it.
I've loved working in a group with Alice and Aarti - thank you both for being so great to work with. Also thank you to all the media staff and other media students.

This blog is now closed.

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

Preliminary Brief:
‘A continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule’

Responses:
- Had a clear picture of what was expected from us
- Had to ensure that specific criteria were in the sequence
- We knew that it didn’t have to be perfect and weren’t too worried about the result, we were more concerned with including the criteria
- Didn’t have to worry about plot
- Spent a lot less time planning

Final brief:
‘A two minute opening sequence for a fiction film, including titles and a soundtrack’

Responses:
- Had to decide on a plot
- Weren’t told exactly what to include, so had to decide that ourselves
- Aiming for perfection
- Needed to spend a lot of production

Pre-Production:

Preliminary Exercise:
- No chance for research
- Quick location recce – the location had to be within the school grounds so we didn’t have much of a choice.
- We wrote a quick script
- We came up with a quick, rough storyboard
- A quick shooting script
We learnt how useful preproduction is, including the paperwork as it comes in very useful during shooting.

Final Sequence:
- Carried out research
- Spent a lot longer on planning
- Well thought out scripts
- Well thought out shooting scripts
- Well thought out storyboards - we changed these over and over again until we got it right

Production:

Preliminary Task:
- No test shoot – although we had a quick walk through and no reshoot
- Time limit of one hour to film – this meant we had to ensure we focused on a small number of shots
- Both these factors meant we had to ensure that we got every shot right, which inevitably did not happen, and we couldn’t experiment with shots.

From the preliminary task we learnt:
- The test shoot and opportunity for reshoot are very important - in case there are any mistakes with the shots that are hard to notice while filming
- You need to ensure that you take many more angles of shots than you think you need - they will more than likely come in useful
- You need to make sure that the shot goes on for longer than you want it to so you have plenty of overlap
- We also learnt that there is a specific process to follow when shooting (Camera ready?... Sound ready? ...)
- We learnt about the roles that people should play (director/camera operator, P.A, sound)
- We learnt that teamwork is essential when putting together a sequence although occasionally someone needs to take charge so that decisions get made

Final Sequence:
- The chance to test shoot and reshoot
- Had to think about sound, especially if filming dialogue or outside
- Had a lot more choice of location and had to find the perfect location for the sequence
- Had to think about the atmosphere and the lighting of the shots

Post Production:

Preliminary task:
- Had to ensure we edited together a real time, continuous sequence that made sense
- Had to ensure that we included a match on action, a shot reverse shot and made sure we followed the 180 and 30 degree rules
- We only had one hour to edit the sequence together - so had to ensure we kept it simple.
- Acted as a reminder of how to use the timeline and diagonal editing as well as the razor tool
Final sequence:
- Had a lot more time to edit
- Were able to learn how to do more things on Premiere Pro
- Were able to use many more techniques, e.g. capturing, unlinking etc.
- Could add effects onto the sequence e.g. changing the speed/duration
- Could also add non diegetic sound
- Could experiment with the order of our shots etc. as we had more time

Feedback:

Preliminary Task:
- Only from media students – meant we were evaluating it as a learning experience rather than an actual sequence
- Focused on whether it was well made from a media studies perspective
- Looking back at the preliminary task meant that we learnt what we had to bear in mind when completing our real sequence

Final sequence:
- Had more than one opportunity to get feedback from media teachers and students – this ensured that the sequence was as good as it could be
- Had the opportunity to get feedback from our target audience
- Meant that we got feedback from a media studies perspective and from the perspective of a viewer

Overall I've learnt:
- The importance of planning
- A lot more about the shooting process
- A lot about editing and using hardware

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

During the course of the project I have learnt to use a lot of new technology as well as having a chance to get more experience with technologies that I had used in the past.

Shooting:

- I’ve been reminded of how to set up and use a Sony Mini DV camera and tripod. Using the tripod to keep the camera straight and secure, and to help with a track if a dolly can’t be used.
- I’ve also learnt how to connect a tripod to a dolly and how use a dolly although I didn’t have the opportunity to do so as the dolly was to wide to fit in the hallway of the house we were shooting in.
- I’ve learnt how to use a Pag light and how to use a Pag light and other available light sources, including lamps, to create three way lighting.
- I now know about recording sound during filming using an external mic. I’ve learnt how to concentrate on sound using headphones to make sure there is no unwanted background sound, which was a problem with many of our outdoor shots.
- I have improved on camera movement, for example pans.
- I now know the specific process of shooting (Camera ready…Sound ready…etc)

Editing:
- We used PC based editing
- I improved my knowledge of how to use Adobe Premiere Pro to do non-linear editing. This included:
Capturing shots – in small manageable sections
Using the razor tool to cut clips
Using key frames – for both visuals and sound
Unlinking sound and video
Visual effects, such as cross dissolves – which we used at the beginning of the sequence
Adding non-diegetic sound – our background music ‘Abandoned’
Titles
Changing the speed/duration of clips – ‘Slow motion’ on the final shot to emphasise her picking up the knife
I also learnt how to synch the sound to the visuals as we had to rerecord all of the sound due to it being ruined by the rain outside.
- We used Windows Media Player to listen to sound, including sound effects and our soundtrack before importing them into our project.

I have also learnt how to use Blogger to create a blog, link other websites, upload images etc

How did you attract/address your audience?

Sticking to most of the conventions of the genre, but adding some twists:
- All the aspects of the films that they enjoy would be in the film
- They will enjoy the twists

Having a female as the main character rather than a male:
- This attracts both male and female audiences to the film and encourages more females to watch the film

Actors that they can relate to:
- Same age
- May remind the audience of people they know, either with their characteristics or the way they look.

Themes:

- Love
- Revenge
- Passion
- Feeling trapped
- Murder

Location:
- A ‘normal’ house
- Typical location for a thriller/horror

Fears:
- Being trapped
- Being hurt by someone you love
- Being killed
- Danger in a familiar place

Enigma:
- Throughout the opening sequence you don’t know what’s going to happen next
- Don’t see the female characters face until the end.
- Highlighted by the music as it changes pace and volume - this keeps the viewer on edge
- The title - enigmatic as the audience won’t know exactly what it means

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Primary:
- Young adults aged 15-30 both genders
- Thriller/horror is typically watched by male audiences however the female main character would attract more female viewers.
- In fact, from our audience feedback we found that female viewers prefer our film:
This could be because of:
- The romantic theme of the film
or
-The strong female protagonist as she is someone for the audience to admire. This is because we are showing an independent woman who is strong willed and who fights for herself, which would attract female audiences.

This could also target the male audience because:
- They may admire and respect the female character because of her character traits.
- However, it is also possible that they would not want to see a film where the male character is the victim and would like the female character to be the ‘damsel in distress’

Secondary:
Fans of thriller/horror of any age - as our opening follows many of the conventions of the hybrid
We would also target people of different ethnicities, particularly Mediterranean people as the film represents their culture

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

What sort of distributor?
- An independent distributor, for example ‘Dogwoof’. The company ‘want[s] to offer [their] experience and services to new and emerging filmmakers’.
- Another distributor who would possibly be interested in our film would be ‘Verve Pictures’, (they work with international films as well as British).


'Verve' has been involved in films such as ‘When Will I Be Loved’ (James Tobak, 2004), a film similar to ours. The female protagonist takes out her revenge on two men who have taken her for granted and who assume that they are superior to her. Too late, they discover that they are in over their heads. This film is similar to ours, in that the female protagonist is a strong woman who is acting out revenge.Our female character and 'Vera' (Neve Campbell) from ‘When Will I Be Loved’

What would the distributor do?
- Help market our film and help the film gain popularity before it even comes into a cinema
- This could be done on social networking sites, for example ‘Facebook’ and ‘YouTube’. This would mean that if our film gets picked up by a cinema then there will be people who want to go and see it.
- They would also help get our film into a cinema.

Where would the film be shown?
- It would be shown in an independent cinema for example, The Barbican, London.
- This is because the film is low budget and doesn’t look particularly ‘Hollywood’.
- It would not get a longer run than one night as it is unlikely to get a lot of people wanting to go and see it.
- Also, there would be some independent cinemas that it would not be shown in, as some only show niche films or films with cult status.

It could also be shown at a student film festival, for example Exposures, a festival for students under nineteen to show their short films and moving image projects, in Manchester.

As our sequence represents different perspectives on people’s lives in Britain it is possible it would only be shown in Britain. However, if it was made with a bigger budget it could be shown globally, especially in America as in America there is a love of all things British, and as shown at the moment a love of British actors (Kate Winslet winning two Golden Globes)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have represented:

- Females
- Males
- Different cultures/lives in Britain

How?:

Females:
We have used a strong woman to represent women and femininity. We have shown her in her ritual of getting ready, representing her as a ‘princess’ although it turns out she is the ‘false princess’. This is also used in ‘Legally Blonde’ (Robert Luketic, 2001), although used in a very different way. In ‘Legally Blonde’ the sequence is a lot more upbeat and faced paced, whereas in ours the music and slow pace causes the sequence to be a lot more eerie.
Her getting ready is used to show that while a woman can be feminine and elegant she can also be strong willed. The way she dresses connotes that she is feminine as she is wearing a dress and quite heavy eye make up and red lipstick. We have used the female character as the villain to challenge stereotypes and to show that women can be dominant, and are not always the victim. We chose to represent women in this way, and with this character, as she represents the everyday modern woman.

Males:
The male character in our film is the victim. The tone of his voice when he is talking to the female character makes him seem innocent as he speaks softly whereas she speaks harshly to him. In the shot where he is standing at the front door waiting for her to answer he also looks like the victim. This is because he is very close to the audience and it causes the audience to feel that he is trapped with them.


Different cultures:
We have also represented different cultures in the film, to represent the multicultural society in Britain today. We have represented Mediterranean culture in this film with a Mediterranean actress playing the female character. We have gone against the stereotypes of Mediterranean men and women in our sequence as the men are usually strong willed and are seen as brave, and never the victim, while the women are expected to be very feminine and in many cases to stay at home. However, most Mediterranean women are also seen as passionate which we show with our character. We will have more reflections of the culture throughout the film, possibly with her culture having caused her to turn into a villain.


Our production company ‘Perspective’ represents the perspectives of people in different cultures and with different lives in Britain.