Feedback

The feedback on our opening 2 minutes were mainly positive

one person said: As I have told you before the soundtrack is amazing it fits with your film really well and I cannot believe you found such a good non-copyright background track

another said: Hmmm, well this was pretty good but I really think, something to keep in mind for your next project is to work on editing. Like having a mix of quick cuts and fades to make it more dramatic. Also the narrative wasn't quite clear enough for the opening of a film. It almost felt more like a trailer. But on a positive note you did keep your shots nice and steady with good camera angles

Another said: I really like the swings it gave us a real sense of the atmosphere and mood the movie would be like

another said: I want to watch the whole film!!

another said: wow this is really good, it looks like you put your all into this

another said: nice choice of actors, a real sense of discomfort

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

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

 Through out the project i feel i have grasped a better understanding of the editing programme and how to use the cameras and i feel alot more confident and knowledgable about the whole process. As a team we have learnt to experiment with different shot types such as high angle shots (although they didnt appear in our final 2 minute opening). In our film we had to make a line 180 degree rule to create shot reverse shot in the interview scene between kate and the interviewer, to do this we should have used floor markings so we knew where to place the camera but unfortunatley this didnt occur to us at the time, whereas in our pre-liminary task we didnt experiment with shots like this and didnt think about how it would look when it came to editing it and so stuck to using the standard shot types and lengths. We also used match on action where shelby and rebeccas characters arehaving an argument, to do this we had to improve our editing skills to make sure that it competely matched and flowed as the camera shot changed. Not only did we vary our shot types and angles we also used a microphone in our final film which we didnt use before in our preliminary task. We also watched out for any mistakes and continuity errors like we had in our preliminary task e.g the two flushes in the toilets. We did experience this at one point though whn we originally uploaded our 2 minute opening onto youtube and we had mixed up some shots where we had made shots so it didnt match up. Overall i think we have improved alot since our preliminary task and the research and planning we did also helped as this included creating a script, a shot list of what type of shots we were going to use and a storyboard so everything was alot me organised and it elt like we were more incontroll of what we were doing and that we knew what we wanted to create.

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

windscreen microphone - This microphone enabled us to capture the conversation in the interview scene without any frequency or distortions. The windscreen enables the microphone to hear things really clear and picks up the slightest of sound really easily so when we were filming you had to be very quiet so that it didnt pick up any unwanted sound.

The tripod enabled us to move the camera smoothly and more professionally without the wobbling of free hand. I think we benefited from using the tripod because it made us feel more confident behind the camera and also made our shots alot clearer.



The cameras we used for our project enabled us to capture high definitive shots. The camera was really easy to use with simple, easy to use buttons, although we had trouble knowing whether we had stopped filming or not and accidentally caught footage of us discussing the film and directing the project but we figured it out towards the end of the project and had to reshoot the scenes and edit the unwanted footage out.

The camera enabled us to take photos such as our set and actors. It also helped us to decide what location we would be using as we took pictures of it then looked through them and decided which location looked the best on our camera and what we thought worked best.

Programmes we used :

• Adobe Premiere Elements 7 - our editing software was very hard to use at first but you learnt as you went along.

•  Photoshop - we already knew how to work photoshop so it was relatively easy although it wasnt used  much

• Paint - we used this for our mood board and putting together the 9 screen shots in our evaluation

• Youtube  - we used youtube alot throughout our project including uploading our videos and when annalysing other films

• Blogger - Blogger was fun to play around with and very easy to use, none of us knew what to do but it is now quite addictive. it was also nice to use a new programme and the method of displaying our work was interesting

• Facebook - Facebook and other social networks helped us to advertise our final product to recieve feedback and helped us to survey for our target audiences and questionnaire

How did you attract/address your audience?

We have annotated our youtube video with speech bubbles highlighting ways in which our film opening links to other similar films in order to attract our audience. Our annotations refer to genre conventions, our music and similarities with other films.

Here is our annotated youtube clip:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We aimed our opening manly at people of a similar age group to us. This is Gemma wo is another media student in our class. We spoke to Gemma and decided to use her as •template for our target audience.

Our target audience:

•  is manly teenagers/young adults age 14-30
• Unisex
• •Someone into mystery
• •Someone who like to try and work things out for themselves
• •Loves the element of surprise
• Thrillers are generally particularly popular with theunder 25's and have a slight female tilt.

Gemma is really into rock/punk music and so loves shopping in HMV but is also style conscious and likes to shop at Primark as its stylish without the price tag. She's also into TV dramas with a murder mystery/thriller genre like Wire In The Blood. She also likes to watch Merlin and is a big fan of the thriller genre.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

similarities -

The two characters are vulnerable looking troubled teenagers.

Both costumes are casual and relatable to the teenage audience

differences -

The genre of film

Different ages

Our media product does not particuarly represent a social group all in all but our film could definitely fit in with the teenage society.

similarities -

both work in office environment

similar costume linking in with them both working within an office

differences -

different genres

different age

characters differ and have different personalities and habbits

In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e of film openings)

These are my nine screen grabs of our final piece that I have chosen to evaluate and write about how they are typical or not of opening sequences of the same genre.

Frame 1- Title of Film: This screen grab of our Title of the film is quite similar to other thrillers I have looked at and analysed. It is quite simple but very bold as the white font on the black background compliments each other and makes the title very vibrant. Most thrillers have a title that creates an impact on the audience. The title of our film "Homicide" uses the convention of a real media products because 'homicide' is a synonym of assasination where The Assassination is a real film.

Frame 2- Setting/Location: I chose this screenshot as there is a lot of background in the image, which shows the setting and the location. I think the setting and location we have used is quite typical for an thriller. The location we used for our film is a local council estate which we thought was perfect for what we imagined and expressing the mood we were trying to convey. Just behind Kate there is a park which we also used in our film so the location we chose was quite fortunate as everything we needed was around the same area. Our media product challenges the forms and conventions of a thriller film because our location is unique.

Frame 3- Costumes and Props: I have used this image as it has our only prop in the image. Our costume and props are appropriate for the thriller genre and are able to help set the scene. We did not want to use many props as we thought they would be a distraction so to add realism in the interview scene we used a piece of paper because not only did Harry not learn his lines but it is an extra effect that works as a prop and fits with the context of the scene. Harry is dresed smartly which is idealy suited to hs character as he is interviewing shelby's character.

Frame 4- Camera Work and Editing: I have chosen this shot from our opening sequence which is a medium shot of Shelby. The camera work and editing helped us develop the forms and conventions of a real media project. We found the interview scene challenging to match up with the 180 degree rule and reverse cutting. The one thing we did not include which could of got us extra marks is some over the shoulder shots.

Frame 5- Title Font and Style: I have used this screen shot because it shows the title font and the style we have used. Like the title of the film it is very bold and uses contrasting colours to make it stand out. The sophisticated and realistic font style we used portrays the conventions of a real media product.
  

Frame 6- Story and how the opening sets it up: The plot of our film is a flashback of a murder. Kate the murderer is in denial in the next scene and believes she has done nothing wrong. This is use of a real media product because it is a stereotypical interpretation of the thriller/murder mystery genre.
This shot shows the murder happening and could be interpreted as a match on action shot. Also because it shows characters, costume, setting and the characters in a compromising position, it conveys an idea of what the film may be about and the type of genre that it belongs to.

Frame 7- Genre and how the opening suggests it: The opening of the film suggests the genre because of the distributor Universal pictures. Universal recently released a crime thriller film called ' 4.3.2.1 ' By Noel Clarke. This might give the audience a hint into the genre. I think we achieved the genre but we could have made the narrative clearer.

Frame 8- Special Effects: The only special effect we used in our film was the title animation which was an effect already on Adobe Premiere Elements.   1 - starts off as normal text 2 - spins from side to side 3- transitions to number 4 where the effect introduces the next scene this challenges the traditional conventions of a real media product because it is rarely used.

Frame 9- How characters are introduced: Our main character Kate is introduced by a mid-shot of her bottom half. This creates mystery as the audience are eager to find out who she is. This develops the form of a our media product.

out takes

we manaaged to find some extra time and edit togetehr our outakes from the interview scene. we uploaded it onto youtube. here it is:

Final 2 minute piece

we have finally finished our final 2 minute opening and uploaded it onto youtube.