Final Evaluation - (Jack)

Final 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 - this is a lot like the girl's bedroom in 'The Excorcist', or perhaps the boy's bedroom in 'The Sixth Sense', being both dark and unwelcoming, creates a great sense of enigma because we are unable to position her character
• Surveillance shot, already begins to connote that maybe somebody is watching her
• Non-diagetic sound is eerie and discordant, creates a sense of fear and uneasiness

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 (close-up) allows us to get very close to the character and really witness her emotion. Eye-level makes us feel emphathy and sympathy for her, as if she is 'equal'
• 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
• Music through out this sequence is non-diagetic. It helps create security because we often asscociate nursery rhymes with safety and innocence, however this security will soon appear unfounded and should serve to rattle the audience

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, much like the movements of the characters in the 'Blair Witch Project'
• 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 tranquility
• 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 by the proximities of the wall, 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
• Varying use of low-angle and high angle shots to show how familiar and confident she is in a particular setting - in this shot for instance the camera is facing down - she is inferior in this surrounding

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, very end of the sequence

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.

WHY DIDN'T WE USE A MODERN CHARACTER?

• As mentioned in the spider diagram, the antiquity of nightie may she she is clinging on to something from what appears to be the past. We would have lost this effect if we used a modern dress
• Most importantly, the antiquity creates a sense of enigma. Why is she wearing this old nightie instead of a new one? What does it show about her state of mind? We can't exactly pin-point when abouts in time the sequence is set, we can only tell that her dress is old-fashioned, which creates a sense of mystery - it could very easily be set in the present day

WHY DIDN'T WE USE A MALE CHARACTER?

• Females are stereotypically less emotionally stable and more irrational in her movements, therefore we used a female character as opposed to a male character to really illistrate these characteristics. Perhaps if we would have used a male character, he would have appeared less emotional, which was not the desired effect.
• I also think that females are generally regarded as more innocent. There is a certain aggressiveness about men which we didn't want to portray, say, if the character had been attacked in the forest, a male character may have been able to defend himself - we used a female character because in the woods she appears weak and vulnerable and completely helpess if such a thing was to occur.
• Although we did adhere to stereotypes, it was because we wanted to really illistrate the fragile and innocent state of the character as much as possible, in the little time that we had.

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

PROMOTING AND MARKETING THE FILM

So once we have finished producing our film and distributors, we need to promote it as much as possible to achieve maximum profits. This is a job for the distributors.

• There are various different methods of promoting and marketing a film. Including:

Posters

TV Talk Shows

Bus adverts or billboards

Merchandise

Magazine and Newspaper Reviews

Film Festivals and Award Ceremonies

Red Carpet Premieres

Billboards

• All forms of promotion are intended to spread the word of the film
• The various different means of advertising and promotion should capitalise on the currency of the film (they should be prioritised around its release date)
• The distribution budget of films can exceed the production by twice, or even three times as much
• The Blair Witch Project used a unique marketing method by pitching adverts online instead of with the use of trailers. This made it very unclear whether the Film was real or fictitious, creating a great sense of mystery and interest in the film leading up to its release date. The film eventually grossed $250 million, almost 500 times its initial budget. 
• I think the internet has become a very powerful source for attracting audiences, especially due to the rise of social networking and 'dynamic ads' (adverts which assess a person's interests and respond with adverts they might be attracted to), and therefore we should definitely use internet advertising and Youtube trailers as a means of cheap, yet effective marketing

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"

I am happy with all of these comments. I'm glad that they found the music unnerving and unsettling, because we picked it specifically for this point. We really wanted to build up a sense of mystery and a false sense of security, so this is quite encouraging. I also agree that the sound effect for the bed isn't ideal - we sound recorded one of our group members ruffling a coat, which, while it does sound a bit like a bed being ruffled, was a bit repetitive and doesn't fit particularly well when it cuts from the music - it is too sudden.

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.

--- Problems as of 29/04, will find link and fix YouTube bug as soon as possible! ---

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.

The first shot was done very quickly. The name is very simple and does not really connote suspense or mystery. The titles get in the way of the film, and I feel the wipe doesn't fit in with the overall look of the prelim. The background makes it difficult to read the title.

In the second shot the background is darker to make the text stand out. The text is at the bottom of the frame to make it stand out further and emphasise the 'dream'. The fade really fits well with the whole idea of this being an amazing, enchanted forest.

I also feel the name connotes exactly what the film is about - 'Silent' has connotations of isolation and being on your own, and 'Wood' depicts the location of this loneliness

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.

The cable detracts from the main two characters. It takes the shine off of their emotions because we are drawn to the wrong object - we are unable to concentrate. I also feel that the frame is imbalanced, there is unnecessary scenary in the background that again detracts from the persons in question.

In the second shot the frame is balanced well, with the glass on one side and the mirror on the other. The shot really shows of the lack of decor - their are no unnecessary objects in the frame. Sometimes what you can't see is more important than what you can when it comes to creating mystery and enigma.

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.

The lighting in the prelim is so dark that you can hardly see Amy or her emotions. We did not set up white balance properly so the entire shot lacks warm and looks cold. This detracts from the quality of the piece. Although we tried to use lighting to create a 'split personality', it did not have the required effect because you simply can't see her face.

There is also graining in the dark spots of the shot. This decreases the quality further.

In the second shot the lighting is really intense. The white balance has been set up correctly this time, bringing warm to the character. Because the lighting is bright enough for the audience to see her face, we are able to feel empathy and sympathy for her, connect with the character, much easier and quicker than in the prelim. The lighting really outlines the two sides of her personality. 

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.

In the prelim the sound was incredibly basic. The door slammed, the light flickered, but it was very difficult to hear and did not add to the overall piece. This diagetic sound did not thrill, it did not create mystery, it did not make the piece seem more realistic. No soundtrack was used, which was a great shame because it could have added to the atmosphere and sustained interest.

In the actual thriller we use some sound effects, used effectively and in the correct places, whilst we used two pieces of recordings that really added to the drama and suspense of the piece. The entire film was muted before adding sound in Garageband to avoid any unnecessary sound being played.

I felt the diagetic sound added to the realism. It was loud and clear and, unlike in the prelim, played at exactly the right time for it to be believable. The non-diagetic soundtrack of the dream sequence was decidedly creepy and eerie, and lasted just the right length of time for it to be effective.

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 black surrounding the exit sign is dull and interesting. It connotes very little and the shot is of very poor quality in terms of resolution. I feel the second cut is much more lively and interesting, bringing to life the shot and commanding audience interest.

Widescreen is the format of choice for movies, because it is said to enhance the visual experience. It mirrors the natural human eye coverage more than 4:3 resolution, and thus makes it much more believable and interesting.

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.

I feel the location of the prelim to be incredibly dull and boring, with little to stem imagination. The setting did little to convey the meaning of 'the deal'. No filters were used, where they might have been effective, because we did not have the knowledge of how to use them, or set ourselves time to learn how to find them.

In the final cut we made sure to set aside time to learn how to use filters appropriately and effectively. The filters add very well to the overall look of the sequence - they empahasise a dream like state, whilst contrasting well with the bedroom scene, lacking in filters.

We made sure not to overdo filters, because this may have distracted the viewer. Aside from the filters, the setting is incredibly detailed and interesting, the sprawling trees, the foliage, the white dress contrasting with the backdrop - it all creates a sense of enigma.

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.

Even when really looking at the prelim shot, you can't really see a shadow at all. A shadow could have connoted something about the character walking out of the door - maybe she is worried, or has an alter-ego, but no, this was not used. The bin and the poster, and even small things like the fire warning sticker on the door, really distract from her dramatic exit

We learnt that using shadow effectively can emphasize a split or damaged personality. We positioned the light in the right place, unlike in the prelim shot, to show very clearly the shadow on the wall. The shadow is positioned on a lightly coloured wall, as opposed to a black wall in the prelim, to further strengthen this clarity.  No decor is used to connote isolation, no unnecessary objects are in shot that could have taken away the impact of the shadow or drawn attention away from it.

THINGS WE COULD HAVE IMPROVED ON:

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.
• Removed dartboard
• Kept lighting consistent

Foley effects

In retrospect, we used little SFX that could have been used in bedroom scenes. We had limited time towards the end of filming, but those sounds might have added to the realism of the shot. Then again, they may have taken the shine off of the non-diagetic soundtrack.

Visual effects

Some of the filter usage is inconsistent - in some shots it is very harsh and blurred, yet in others it is less so. Perhaps we could have experimented with other filters, or even used multiple filters, to really enhance the effect and clearly show it is a dream sequence

Continuity Editing

Some of the joins from one shot to the next perhaps don't look the best. Especially when she is walking to the log section. The foliage is completely different because it was filmed two weeks nearer into Spring. This detracts from the sequence and makes it look unrealistic. More time could have been spent editing to avoid this.

Titles

There are only one set of titles in the sequence. Maybe we could have added more titles to make it look more professional as a piece of thriller work. The titles themselves could have looked a bit more thriller-esque.

Dartboard

If this had been a professional cut, the dartboard would have probably been removed, because it detracts from the lack of decor in the room - however, maybe the dartboard is symbolic? Maybe it represents a pierced heart/mind? We could have improved this by experimenting with or without the dartboard.

Lighting

There is one shot as Amy walks into the bedroom which was filmed in day time and looks so. This was unfortunate and doesn't help the realism. We could have improved this by, once discovering it was our only available shot, filming it in the evening.