Draft Evaluation - Jack

Draft Evaluation - Jack

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

PSYCHOLOGICAL

• First of all, we wanted to produce a thriller opening that laid heavily on the psychological thriller genre. There are countless thriller films that relate to the processes of the mind and a state of mental being to create great suspense and fear. Examples include:

 

The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, and Vertigo, all share a common convention of using ailments of the mind to create suspense and thrill the audience. Therefore, we decided to conform to this convention and use an ailment of the mind - insomnia, to create suspense and a sense of unsettling bewilderness, both for the character and for the audience.

SETTING

• We wanted to use two very different settings to display contrast and emphasise the bewildered, damaged nature of the character's mind. We wanted a scene set in the bedroom because this helps to establish the scenario of the story to the audience (the fact that she has insomnia). 
• We used a forest to help contrast with the bedroom and emphasise a dreamlike state. Forests are also commonly used in thriller films to express isolation or bewilderment, the idea of being lost in the forest amongst the swaying trees and forest animals.

Forests have been used in countless thriller films, particularly in:

In the Blair Witch Project, nearly the entire film is shot in a forest. The storyline lies heavily on the journey of the characters as they get lost deeper and deeper into the forest.

SOMETHING UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT

• Throughout the forest sequence we applied a filter to each shot to help emphasise a dream like state. The filter was a 'light ray' and made the sequence looks particularly distorted and dreamlike, really helping to emphasise this bewildered, dreamlike state. 
• This effect diverts and challenges typical media conventions, because often it can distract or even annoy the audience or lose a sense of realism. However, the filter was appropriate for our opening because of the context of a dream like state.

Examples of the filter effect

NINE DIFFERENT SHOTS AND HOW THEY APPLY TO THE CONVENTIONS OF A THRILLER

Shot 1

• Being alone in the shot, door closed, creates a feeling of isolation and loneliness
• Bed is unruffled, sleepless night?
• Lack of personal objects, makes the setting quite cold and unwelcoming
• Surveillance shot, already begins to connote that maybe somebody is watching her

Shot 2

• Character is framed by the mirror - connotes isolation, innocence
• Tablets may connote some sort of health problem, possibly psychological - enigma, maybe this character is vulnerable? Needs tablets to survive?
• Shadows of glass and mirror create a dark, unwelcoming, mysterious mood
• Her walk to the bed is very structured, very uniform, it almost seems as if it is some sort of ritual or routine, which ties in well with the mind and the conventions of a psychological thriller (rituals can often be asscociated with OCD or mind-games). This long-lasting shot helps highlight this routine

Shot 3

• Low key lighting, used which seperates her face, one side dark one side light, connotes maybe there is two sides of this character
• Editing by use of time really allows to see her emotion and her tired, insomniac eyes
• Camerawork allows us to get very close to the character and really witness her emotion
• Sound builds up at this point, is discordant and therefore unpredictable - mirrors the personality of the character, sets the scene for the unpredictable climax of the sequence
• Her facial expressions are glum and discontent, shows she is a troubled character

Shot 4

• Editing - filter used to emphasise dream like world compared to unfiltered normal reality. Makes it seem very bewilldering and uncomfortable
• Smilar to shot three, close up so emotions still visible and contrasted, one side of face still lighter than other, shows a similarity, that it is the same character, that there is a link, however overall the lighting is much brighter to connote she is much happier and more content - creates a false sense of security

Shot 5

• White dress shows innocence and purity, may connote emptiness in her character? Shows peace, like an angel - psychological, all of this creates an enigma around the character
• Camerawork shows she is about to explore and be enchanted by forest
• White contrasts well with relative blandness of forest flooring, again creating mood, she stands out, she is special

Shot 6

• The trees are almost her friends, shielding her from danger as she ducks behind them
• Important to mention the sound, it is dream like, happy, content, from popular culture so can be related to and familiarised easily by audience. These all help give across a false sense of security
• She is relatively small in proportion to the overhanging trees. This shows isolation and inferiority
• Movement is adventurous, excited, she is keen and happy about entering forest. This is HER world, where she is happiest, creating a mood of calm and peacefulness
• Walking puts questions into audience's head - where is she going? What is she walking towards? Walking is seemingly random and unstructured

Shot 7

• Blue sky often asscociated with happiness and trainquility
• POV shot puts us in her shoes, often used in cinema to make audience feel empathic
• Lighting makes trees look almost dizzy, blurred, creates a sense of distortion

Shot 8

• Tunnel may create sense of claustraphobia, certainately isolation
• Character is framed and squished in, inferior, dress looks more yellow - tainted? Is something bad about to occur?
• Sense of exploration
• A sense that there must be something at the end of the tunnel - seeing as by this point the music is coming to an end, it might be something climatic

Shot 9

• Gun shots very emotive, very sudden, very surprising, should act to shock audience whom were plunged into a false sense of security
• Completely black screen, what is happening? Mood of mysteriousness, of bewilderment, of the unknown
•  No fade, but simple cut from shocked face to black, adds pace and suddenness of shot

• OVERALL - Variety of shots should keep you guessing, keep you engaged, suspense kept until the very end

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The link below is a YouTube video all about stereotypes of women in the media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emqq-P0FFEo

There is only one character in our opening thriller sequence. Her profile is as follows.

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

WHAT IS A DISTRIBUTOR

•  A film distributors job is to distribute and release the content of  particular film.

• It is also their job to publicize the film as much as possible, through advertising campaigns, film premieres, award ceremonies, or by film merchandise. 

• By doing this, they should strive to earn as much money as possible.

HOW DOES IT WORK

• Traditionally, film distributors would take a cut percentage of the profits of the film. 
• They would produce analogue rolls, copies of the original cut, and distribute them to various cinemas across the country. 
• In the digital age however, the processes have changed. There are different ways to distribute a film:

There are various different means of distributing any generic media product:

• Through cinema (either multiplex or independent)
• Through smartphones
• Through DVD rentals
• Through Television
• Through the Internet

In terms of our own media product, we would distribute it through an independent cinema. The closest and most notable independent cinema to us is the Duke of York cinema in Brighton. 

We are producing for a local, independent film company, and therefore this would be probably be the route we would choose, showing our film to a local, select audience. 

We would then ask a distributor to license the video to various media outlets, such as the BBC on TV, or Micrsoft Xbox Live Marketplace, on all Xbox 360 Games Consoles. This way, we can achieve a broader audience from all around the world, without having to pay excessive amounts for analogue rolls of film.

 

Duke of York cinema, the venue for our world premiere

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?


TARGET AUDIENCE

• We pitched the target audience as being young people, through the use of a young character. This makes the piece much more related to audience, making sure they are more engaged 
• This is an emotional age in someone's life, therefore the emotions explored will relate with the target audience

This is not necessarily meant for a female audience, so we kept the colors neutral, unisex, and therefore helping to engage with a more broader audience

 WHAT IS OUR FILM LIKE?

I would compare our film to the following:

• The Butterfly Effect is like our film because it too uses a young protagonist, in the form of relatively youthful actor Ashton Kutcher, to target a younger, teenage audience
• The Blair Witch Project, like our film, is set in the forest. It follows the adventures of three students, again targeting this audience and dealing with the emotions that young people, and indeed female protagonists may face
• Vanilla Sky features heavily around a 'dream like world'. Tom Cruise would draw a younger audience because he is often seen as an idol, a global superstar. While we didn't have the global superstar, we did use a character who would be able to relate to the audience

MORE TEXT TO PUT UP V. SOON
WHAT RATING WOULD OUR FILM BE?

Every film has to have a certificate, decided by the British Board of Film Certification. Anyone younger than the age stated on the certificate is legally not allowed to see the film. Reasons for this can include:

• Violence
• Sex/Nudity
• Drugs
• Explicit Language
• Discrimination
• Fear

I would rate our film as a 15. I think scenes further on in the film would likely to be based heavily on fear and therefore a 12 certificate would be too low, yet I think the other categories would be widely avoided and that if it was given an 18 certificate would mean that much of our teenage audience wouldn't be able to see the film.

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?


FEEDBACK
I asked a few of my friends to watch the film and comment. They were a suitable test audience because they were all between the ages of 16-25, our target audience.


"It was really good, the music was really emotive and was unnerving. The shot of the girl in the mirror was awesome"
"That was an awesome shot" [girl in the mirror]
"The song is really good! It works really well"
"Really creepy and unnerving, especially at the end when she gets shot, it makes you want to find out what's going to happen next"
"Maybe the sound effect for when she is in bed moving around wasn't brilliant but other than that I thought it was cool"

ATTRACTING AND ADDRESSING OUR AUDIENCE

• The musical choice would appeal to our audience. The song 'Hushabye Mountain' can be related to easily as a song heard by people years.
• The character portrayed was young too, so this helps the audience relate to her (if we had portrayed a much older character, the audience would be much less likely to familiarise with them and relate to them)
• The emotions explored might reflect those of our audience, such as isolation, stress, loneliness or happiness
• The setting, particularly the bedroom, were specifically made to be unisex, thus appealing to a unisex audience. A bright pink bedroom would detract a male audience, so by making the colors and the props fairly neutral it means that we can attract a broader audience

Question 6 - What have your learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is a YouTube video of me commentating on this. Below are the key points described.

PLANNING

• How to record voice using a microphone
• Research into particular filming methods, titles, opening sequences
• Preliminary - finding out about lighting methods, framing, simple editing and titles

FILMING

• The significance of light - when we started our first round of filming the result was decidedly blurry with a great deal of noise in the darker sections of the shot. This was down to our lighting.
• Again, we used the wrong lighting in the first round of filming. This made it look very unrealistic - the room looked like daylight instead of in the night time.
• The quality of cameras. The HD camera used in the first round wasn't particularly good, especially when it came to close up shots.
• White Balance - we used this with a filter. This meant the white balance was wrong. We should have taken the white balance, THEN used the filter, not the other way round. We fixed this in the second round of filming
• Tapes/SD Cards - in the second round of filming we had everything set up, in the forest, Amy dressed in character and the camera on - yet when we went to record, nothing happened. I cycled back to my house to get a new SD card, this didn't work. In the end it turned out we needed a tape. We had to borrow a friend's camera and film the entire thing using this.

EDITING

• We used Final Cut Pro to edit our sequence. It was an incredibly frustrating piece of editing software, being very difficult to learn and handle, and particularly time-consuming when it came to rendering files. Something like Sony Vegas, of which I have lots of previous experience using, would have worked much easier.
• The Apple computer are also difficult to master. We had all been used to using Windows software, so this was a big difference and it took a while to learn and gain a basic understanding of how to load and save our files correctly.

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

First of all, we have improved our knowledge of title sequences. Our preliminary shot was a simple wipe

with a very basic font. Our final credit shot was quite complex, its fade fitted well with the dream sequence and the font was pre-selected for its 'wood-like' structure.

I think we also improved with framing. As you can see, in the preliminary the cable for the light

is in the shot, and the characters are not in the centre. In the final cut, the shot is balanced

really well, and every important object is in shot.

In both of these shots we have tried to use lighting to highlight two sides of Amy's face. As you can see,

the lighting in the second shot is much more dominant and emotive.

Sound is used in both sequences. In the first sequence we relied heavily on ambient

noise. It was both muffled and difficult to listen too. In the final cut we used both a really clear,

really emotive soundtrack, and we backed this up with some foley sounds that could be heard really clearly.

The camera shots used in the final cut are much more varied and much more interesting. The second sequence

was also filmed in 16:9 resolution (widescreen) which enhances the visual experience.

The use of editing through lighting filters and fades makes the final cut much more emotive and more interesting to watch compared to the first sequence. The setting is also much more varied, the sprawling

trees helping to add a sense of bewilderment. This isn't really carried off in the first sequence because it is

a very basic location.

Again, lighting is used in both of these shots to highlight a shadow, yet the final cut's lighting

really emphasises the shadow, while in the prelim you would hardly notice it. Note the use of mise-en-scene

(or lack of it) to connote isolation in the final cut. In the preliminary this isn't dealt with, there is a bin in the way and a poster in the wall. 

I do think there are some things we could have improved on:

• Use of more foley effects to enhance audio
• Tweaking of visual effects to make them look slightly more professional
• Fine-tune some continuity editing
• Add more titles, names etc.

Our finished Thriller Opening

This is our finished Thriller Opening, feel free to watch and please comment when your done. Constuctive critisism only please, don't just say it was good or it was bad, say why you thought that, your likes and dilikes, suggest improvements, say whether or not you would want to carry on watching it or if it lacks appeal. That sort of thing. Comment on here or if you don't have a blog account let us know through facebook, text or tell us in person.

Draft Evaluation- Amy Zimmermann

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of a real media product?

Ideas we got from other thriller we've seen
• When we started learning about thriller opennings one of the first examples we watched 'The Killing' which began with a women in a forest, trying to escape from a group of dogs and people as they chased after her. This developed our idea of setting our thriller openning in a forest.
• The women in 'The Killing' was running away from someone and is scared and doesnt want to be in that situation, we changed this idea as in our openning instead of running away she just ends up there, she is a little cofused at first but is then quite happy to be there and instead someone finds her and only then does she want to run away.
• The idea of starting with forest scene in 'The Killing' was that no'one knew what she had done and who she was which created enigma which is what our openning creates as no'one knows why she's there and what is happening which makes both opennings restricted narrations as no'one knows whats happening.
• but as 'The Killing' continues we might have found out that that was infact that was a flashback so therefore may turn into slight unrestricted narration as we know that during the film she will do something to cause a chase and then end up in a forest. As in ours if we were to continue the film we may find that as the girl has insomnia it may become a repetative routine, so therefore may become unrestricted narration as the audience know whats to come.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The disorder
• Our openning revolves around the issue of insomnia as it's about a girl who suffers for insomnia. There are many writter and directors that base their film on someone suffering from insomnia. This shows it is a comman and important issue that writters feel they need to address. Film such as:
*Wide awake- directed by Alan Berliner
*The cure for insomnia- directed by John Henry Timmis
*Insomnia directed by- Christopher Nolan
*Dreams of an insomniac- directed by Tiffanie DeBartolo

Gender
• We used the gender of a female as females are sterotypically known as being the more vunerable sex. We made the character feminine by using the mise en scene:
*The costume of the white nightdress shows her innocents and purity.

*The prop of the tablet shows she depends on that to get her to sleep which shows her vunerablity, making the audience feel sorry for her.

*In the bedroom scene her facial expression is sad and tierd showing she isn't looking forward to this nights sleep again to make the audiece feel sorry for her.

• But in the majority of the forest scene her facial expression is happy and excited to discover whats in the forest showing her more "masculine" side as she is adventurous and willing to explore.
• by using the prop of the log and her throughing it also shows her "masculine" side as she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty ect.

Status
• The camera is used to show her status as after she gets up in the forest and begins to walk around, the camera is at a very high angle to show her weakness.

• But as she continues walking in the forest the camera is normally at eye level, or at a low angle for example when she walks passed the strind and looks up at it, to show she is now familiar with her surroundings and has become stronger as a person.

• Then when she goes into the tunnel it goes to a high angle again to show she is vunarable which is also shown by her body language as she is curled up in a ball, hugging her leg.

• The high angle continues still when she gets out of the tunnel as the camera is at a very high angle.

• Then again in the antagonist's Point of View shot to show that the antagonist has the higher status. This is also shown by the girls facial expression as she is shocked and scared. It is also a handheld camera to show its a POV shot.

Protagonist and Antagonist
• All these things also show the audience the girl is most likely the protagonist as she is bought across as being vunrable. She is the lower status character and in the majority of the forest scene her facial expression is happy to show the audience she wouldn't harm anyone.
• There is also a antagonist but only comes at the very end of our thriler openning but their face is not shown we just see a point of veiw shot, through their eyes, and see the facial expression of the girl who is shocked, then we here the diagetic sound of two gun shots. The fact you don't see who shot her creates enigma. This has happened in many films were you don't find out who the antagonist is untill the end, such as:
*Hide and Seek, who is Charlie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9uEkTPchIo
*What lies beneath, who killed Mrs Spencer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm4Fw2QElA4
*The Box, who kills the stranger when the button is pressed?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHa-ygkF_M

Age (of character and time period)
• The age of the character is a teenager about 16 years old
• She is clearly a fairly modern teanage as she she has a modern house, her staircase has carpets, she has a dartboard on her wall ect.

• You can tell she is an isolated girl though as her room is very simple as it doesn't have lot in it.

• Also the clothes she is wearing is not the normal style of clothing a modern girl would wear to bed. Showing she's not "fashionable" and may have lead a shelter and lonely life. A modern teenage girl would normally wear something like this:

• But instead she wears a full length nighy:

• She has clearly had insomina from a young age as she has tablets and a glass of water beside her bed when she enters the room so has obviously been perscribed them. Now taking them before she goes to bed as part of a repeated daily routine.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Producers who are us, get money from the distributors in two ways
* upfront- because they want the right to your film
* percentage of sales, showing and tickets
• Because you get paid a percentage of the sales you want to get as many people to see your film as possible.
• The timing of your film and when you bring out your film in the cinema is really important
*It is normally bought out on a friday so it can catch the weekend or in the school holliday so you get more students coming to see it
*There shouldn't be too much competition already out there, for example if you bring it out the same time as the Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 2, there would be less people coming to see your film.
• There are many ways of that a distributors can avertise and promote your film, for example:
* Merchindice of your film

* Reveiws in magazines such as Empire or newspapers such as the guardian

* Viral messages, word speading and distributors planting things on google

* Premieres

* reviews on TV programmes such as film 2011

* Trailers

* Posters

* Bus posters and poster on bus stops

* Billboads

* Film festivals

* Talk shows/ interviews

* Radio advertising

Who would be you audience for your media product?
• For our media product we have worked on the opening to a thriller
• There are loads of different types of thrillers such as psychological thrillers, mystery thrillers, political thrillers, action thriller and paranoid thrillers.
• I think if we were to continue with our thriller it would become a psychological thriller as one of the definitions of a psychological thriller is, the suspence often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.
• Another one is a characters battle against ones own mind.
• This relates to our thriller as the main character suffers from insomnia so therefore is constantly battling against her own mind through her dreams and nightmares.
• Also at the end of our opening she see's the anatagonist who shoots her and if we were to continue with the thriller. It might be a repatition where the antagonist constantly destroys her dreams and turns them into nightmares, which shows that antagonist is trying to demolish the main characters mental state.
• The main audience for a psychological thriller is males and females so your not being sterotypical towards females suggesting they can't handle watching them.
• around the age 18-25 as many thrillers have an 18+ age certificate on them.

• who enjoy watching films that mess with their minds, keep them guessing, and includes a twist. This is essential because if you dont like these you don't like these things then you wont like the film.
• Psychological thriller with an age certificate of 18+ include films such as Seven, Fight club, Sweeney Todd, Hard Candy, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Hannibal Rising and Unthinkable.

How do you attract/ address your target audience?
• We had to ensure the film reaches the target audience which in this case is around 18-25
• I got people who are around the target audience to watch our thriller opening and comment their thoughts on it. Here is some of the feeback:
- I don't like it, it creeped me out! Haha. Well I liked it I thought it was wicked but cos it scared me, I got all goose pimpley! I love the bit at the beginning when your sat on the bed and your in thee mirror on the bedside table - genius! And the bit where you suddenly go to the woods and the camera is all blurry and stuff. Looks all good!! When's the next part coming up?

- very good indeed very eerie. I feel the ending should have been more sudden and louder but it did make me jump, also I thought if the toss and turn was slower it would have been effective, but i enjoyed it a lot.

- I really like this well done i love the music choices that you made it added a really good effect LOOKS REALLY SCARY
- it was a little creepy. Could have played around with the level of sound in the hushabye mountain bit.
- From the moment you walk up the stairs it has an errie feel to it, I liked the lighing when you were coming out of the tunnel as it was different and effective. I also liked the extreme close up as it looked really scary. But I feel there was too big a jump between the bedroom and the forest scenes as it didn't feel like you had gone to sleep

-very nicely done :) great range of camera angles and cuts really kept me guessing, sound, very clever no diegetic sounds but just that one eary version of hushabye as a non digetic, really built the suspense..great effects on the dream to make it obvious its a dream.

- i love it! its really good, and really scary! aha, i also really like the music choice :)
- It shows a good use of film techniques and uses archetypes well I think it creates a clear but also mysterious story with a sense of confusion as to what world is real. A really good piece!
- The shot the glass and tablet where you can see your face in the mirror is a really good shot, but what happened at the end? Who shot you? I want to know more.

What do you feel you have learned in the progression from the preliminary to the full product?

Shot 1 and 2
• How we improved on our framing as in the first shot is poorly framed as we are not fully in the frame at all times, but in the second shot I am fully in the frame.
Shot 3 and 4
• The title sequence in the thrid shot the writing is quite simple and is just the words fading in and out of the screen as the scene continues, but in the forth shot is a new shot almost like an establishing shot of the wood and the title expands to a white bright light that fills the bottom half of the screen.
Shot 5 and 6
• The use of lighting in shot 5 is quite dark and you can hardly see the shadows on the wall but can still slightly see shadow and whats happening in the scene, but in the sixth shot the lighting is alot brighter and the shadows are alot clearer to see on the wall.
Shot 7 and 8
• The use of lighting in the eighth shot is alot clear than the lighting in the seventh shot and even though the effect in both is the same as they both have half the face light and half the face dark, to show that the character has a dark side. But you can see this effect more in the eighth shot.

What have you learnt about the techonologies from the process of constructing this product?
As I explained earlier I tryed to edit it today but something went wrong with the computer so therefore couldnt upload it so I will do it asap so you can hopefully feeback on it before the actual evaluation sorry again.

Sweeney Todd title sequence (Amy Z)

http://videosostav.ru/video/af349b2f48fb93d2f1a6b03d01cf844e/

The idea of the title sequence
• The background is an old london street, fleet steet, the colour is very dark and dingy as its a horrible day which establishes place.
• The weather is raining and thunder and lighting again showing it's a horrible day, the rain also occassional turns into blood, which adds the the idea of it being a thriller.

• We then track into a window so we enter into a house, Sweeney Todd's house to be exact, and we see a chair, which is sugnificant to the film as it is the chair he transforms and then uses to to kill people.

• The camera continuasly tracks, following the drip of blood as it runs down and along, the set.

• As well as following the blood it also follows the story of the making of the meat, as we see the meat coming out of the mincer, then we see the flames from it being put in the oven. Then we finally see the meat pies just before the oven closes. Then we flow the blood again.

The Cast and Crew names
• The names of the Cast and Crew are all in white to make it stand out against the dark, dingy background colours.
• The font size is quite small but can still be seen clearly, all the letters are in capitols and the font style is simple but.

The title
• The title itself is red and is shown after the blood has just started dripping so therefore it give the impression the title is made from blood the font is still small and simple but is slightly bigger than the cast and crews name.
• The title is right in the middle of the screen and the background is completly black both to make it stand out.

Sound
• SOUND STILL TO COME!!!!

Editing - Friday 1st (Jack)

Friday 1st - Final Day of Editing

This has been our very last day of editing. We have done everything we have set out to do today and the 2 minute thriller film is finished!

THINGS WE DID TODAY

• Finished titles
• Added diagetic and non-diagetic sound using GarageBand
• Finished very last finishing touches
• Shown our product to test audiences

Final Cut Pro (Jack)

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a piece of professional editing software that we have used for editing

FINAL CUT PRO VS. iMOVIE

• Final Cut Pro, while more difficult to master, offers far more features
• With FCP we have the ability to add filters, such as 'Light Ray'
• We are also able to add interesting and complex titles, that should fit well with our sequence
• We also have the ability to reverse shots, slow down and speed up shots
• We can operate in 16:9 resolution, good for widescreen, offering a heightened visual experience. This feature is unavailable in iMovie

PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED

• While I appreciate learning software like this would take many months to fully learn, we have encountered many basic problems that have slowed our progress
• First of all, for whatever reason all of our files almost vanished once from saving on FCP
• Whenever a change it made to a shot in FCP, it has to be rendered again, a process that can take anywhere between 2 seconds and 10 minutes
• Getting used to the Apple Keyboards is difficult after being used to Windows. Shortcuts are different and it can take quite some time to work out what you want to do and how to go about doing it
• It is difficult to drag shots, we ran into problems by moving shots onto different levels
• It is very difficult to change sound levels, unlike other editing software sound editing is not included, and is instead on GarageBand
• Learning how to add text has been very difficult, and we still haven't achieved what we want

However, it will be worth it in the end if we can master FCP just enough to produce a decent 2 minute thriller film.