Evaluation- Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production? From the amount of time between my first ever Preliminary task and my final product; the opening of a thriller I have learnt a huge amount about editing, lighting, sound, planning and camera equipment and filming. With my group we produced ‘Exchange’ a European physiological thriller, which visually and technically was a huge leap compared to my initial prelim task. I leant first of all how to properly set up a camera tripod, on the first couple of goes I found it difficult to get it properly level and balanced, using the spirit level inside helped with this and after a while I became accustomed with the tripod.

Looking after the tripod was key to the quality of level, if the parts were too loose you couldn’t get a clean pan. I had to get to grips with a hand held HD camera this wasn’t new to me but I wasn’t at all confident at using it. I practised whip pans, zooms, techniques to not loose footage and many more different shots that I later used to my final product. I did a few test scenes that were non-related to my media product, so that I was not unfamiliar in a filming environment when it came round to filming.

The editing software that I had to use was Final Cut Pro on a Mac Book, my first big hurdle of the media AS course was adapting from a Mac to PC, with help and a short amount of time I was soon up to scratch. I was taught how to import Jpeg files into the programme and other similar files. My understanding of how editing worked got better and better and I could then easily cut clips, add clips, add sound and fade in and out. For my Prelim I did not add any sound or edit any, for my final media product I used two different editing musical soundtracks, this was a clear difference between them both. Also my prelim had no sort of editing, for my final product I learnt in depth how to edit to a level where it looked professional. In final cut editing sound was also something that I became familiar with, I learnt how to sound bridge and heighten sounds- which became very useful for a doorbell sound in ‘Exchange’.

Planning was vital for my opening two minutes of a thriller genre film, via blogger I uploaded photos and text to help me plan for my film, for example characters and costume. I leant the technique of constructing and drawing a storyboard, this way very enjoyable but later helped my group out to understand what order our shots should go in and what sort of shot we should use. The shot list also did the same job, but isn’t as visually effective. Planning things such as props, costume, filming dates and that the fact that they were well organised on blogger made it very easy to prepare for our filming. We went out for a Recce filming day, this we did not do for the prelim, this allowed us to film in the locations and environment that we had planned to use, from our Recce we analysed the good and bad points and then made improvements from the mistakes. We had to use large boom microphones not the stereo microphones, this was fairly simple to use, but we learnt techniques on how to pick up on the sound best, this reflected in our final product as we did not have to bring much sound in or edit it. The lighting was one thing my group found slightly more difficult to use, first of all we had to learn how to safely use them as they became very hot if used for more than 3 minutes at a time. We changed choice on many types of light as we were filming half indoors half outdoors, with our knowledge from the camera tripod we could easily use the light tripods. In our preliminary task we used no lighting as it was incredibly basic and we had not gained our understanding of all the technical equipment then.

From my Preliminary task to my final thriller opening, there is visual evidence of how they contrasted and how my understanding of media equipment, editing, filming and planning grew and this reflected in ‘Exchange’. My prelim was incredibly basic compared to my polished and well constructed opening.

BJH

Evaluation- Question 6

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

We have learnt that a large variety of technologies are used to create film products such as our own, even though it is not big budgeted. New technologies such as editing programs alike Final Cut enable a person to more easily create and edit their own film without being an expert on film editing and also the increasing quality of portable camcorders such as HD quality camcorder products can allow a person to also create better footage for cheaper.

Without these technologies it would nearly be impossible to construct a product alike what we have produced with them, user friendly software has enabled many people to create their own small budgeted films and distribute them for free through the website ‘You tube’ which allows the viewing of videos across the globe. This website has meant that more and more people have began to create their own home videos or short films and show them publicly on the internet for social reasons or to advertise their abilities such as an unknown film director wanting to further their career.

Technologies used in constructing final film product

HD Camcorder

Allows footage to be clearer due to the increase of pixels on the screen and also includes other technologies such as a portable light. The camera is extremely small compared to large film cameras and therefore makes filming easier and quicker due to less time setting up the camera equipment

Final Cut Express 4

This new editing software enables an amateur film maker to easily cut his footage and edit it such as by adding sound, titles or filters to their sequence. This was one of the most important technologies in the process of constructing the product as it allowed us to add atmospheric sound to the scene and also take out unwanted diegetic background sound such as in the room where we wanted the background music to be clear. Different editing techniques are included in the package such as cross dissolving, split editing and also a cross fade. To do these effects you needed to click on the the split between two certain pieces of footage and then insert a particular effect such as a cross fade and also decide the duration of this effect.

You-Tube

The You Tube website also allowed us to view other examples of film making and certain scenes that influenced us whilst creating the product, You Tube is also the website which we uploaded our final footage onto. You-tube allows anyone to upload any of there own videos and footage to the website and allows this footage to be publicly shared, our group also uploaded our final product to this website.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a website where we were able to discover the music used as out background track, the website includes an array of copyright free music shared and created by people who use the website and can be downloaded publicly. The website allows anyone who wants to share there own music, they can upload their tracks for free.

Da Font

DaFont is another website which allows a person to download fonts to be used on computer software such as Final Cut Express, we were able to discover a font we wanted to use and later . inserted our credits whilst using this font into our final product.

Blogger

Another website which we used in creating our product was Blogger, a blogging website which is free for people to use and create blogs on a subject of choices. For each person in our group we had to create an individual blog which we used to show our planning and research for our final product such as uploading storyboards and ideas for the narrative.

Google

We used this search engine in a various amount of ways through the construction of our final product such as to collect images for our research and planning and other uses such as searching for other examples of film openings

Tripod

The tripod allowed our group to gain level shots on uneven surfaces, this has allowed to get much better and more aesthetically pleasing footage, for example for the shots inside of the train station, the shots we gathered would be uneven if we had not used a tripod.

Apple iMac

The iMac was the system we used to perform the editing of our footage and also the large majority of creating our planning and blogging. The iMac was useful as it is very user friendly and also has a large interface allowing a person to be organised with their work.

iMovie

iMovie is a new software explicitly for use on the Apple iMac's, during the construction of our product we uploaded our footage onto the computer through this programme due it having simple uploading options, the sequence was not split up into sections but was uploaded as one whole sequence which we were then able to export into Final Cut Express 4. The software does not have the same editing perks as Final Cut Express 4 therefore the iMovie program was not used during the main editing process, however the software is useful in other ways such as viewing particular clips or sequences as it is simple to use.

Portable Microphone

For our film we used the Rhode condenser stereo mic and also the Rhode condenser directional mic also to be put on a boom pole. These stereo mic's were exteremely useful as without these we would of had poor quality sound for our footage, the mics were very easy to handle as they were small in size and were also extremely easily to operate also as they did not need to be plugged into a mains or power source. The microphone allowed us to capture the diegetic sound we needed such as footsteps and also the bell sound when Tomos is outside the house.

BJH CMV CF

Evaluation Question 4 and 5

Example of questionnaire

Example of a completed questionnaire

Pictures from our audience screening

CMV (voice-over/video) BJH (voice-over/video) CF (voice-over/video + questionnaire)

Evaluation- Question 3

cmv

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

(d)

(c)

(b)

(a) Our target audience was between 15-24- the biggest market in the film industry. Our main central character portrays a teenager/young adult on a foreign exchange, a typical situation presented but with a twist, this idea alone of an exchange allows audience to relate to similar experience or ones they have heard about. Immediately from this at first this simplistic and seemingly bland concept member of the audience and understand this concept of ‘Exchange’. The idea of being alone in an unfamiliar surrounding and destination provokes the viewer’s emotions towards Tomos (the central character). Although incredibly contrasting ‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone’ presents this idea of unfamiliarity and a new open world. (a)

Our german/ Eastern European teenager Tomos represents a typical stereo type with his attire and accent, he speaks English fairly well as that’s why he is on exchange; studying English Language in his home country. Students ranging from our age bracket (15-24) can easily relate to this almost student ‘stereo type’, and the average studying student age is 19, this allows this social group to sympathise and truly understand the lengths Tomos goes to, to better his education and language. The idea of a students extended life in a foreign country is a topic that is very close to students and young adults and allows the viewer to be more involved. Tomos’ underlying innocence shows the struggle that many young adults go through and feel as they mature, this will furthermore boost sympathy for our character. Coping with emotion and showing this emotion via physical reactions is a flaw that Tomos tackles I believe this to be similar in the case of the film ‘Hard Candy’: a teenager imposed on the real world and what darkness really lies within. (b)

Our father represents the middle class of England; nice car, good income, a holiday a year, large family but with all the usual struggles a family goes through- basically a simple but cushioned life style. This is clearly shown in his costume and should present him in this way to at first show a stereo typical middle income family (c). The father’s accent is well spoke London-English but nothing too over the top, this allows a global audience to understand his class, status and more importantly what he expressive in his tone of voice. In our narrative the British family are guilty of killing through pesistant child abuse, the father represents the shocking truth that such events happen in such seemingly normal families. The father also represents the age group and social group of ‘the middle aged parent’, he is represented in this way to present a false identity of normality, his age, role and title is shown by the interior of the house, and the way he acts towards and communicates with Tomos. The family are supposed to exhibit families living in London, obvious mise-en-scene is used the ensure this. ‘About a boy’ is typical example of families living within London (d).

Overall our media products represents key social groups that are current to our world, and underlying this a serious issues that are constantly remarked upon in the media.

BJH

Evaluation- Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In my film exchange the main concept is character development throughout the film, the characters (Tomos ) emotional state will change and adapt to the eerie and perverse world of ‘Exchange’ in which a British family groom him into their dead son. Donnie Darko is strong influence for the cinematography and pace of plot of my film, Jake Gyllenhall portrays a similar malleability to our German teenager. (a)

Sound in a thriller opening is key to enhance the logistics of this genre, you can intensify a situation just by adding the correct sound effects or track. The aim for our thriller was to ease the viewer in with a slow European sounding track and then later create a tense off-putting ambience to make to viewer feel awkward and unsure what could occur. Our two soundtracks suggest this European feel we are aiming for, and also suggest a possibility of isolation, misery and something wrong surrounding the characters and location. Hallam Foe an independent film four film starring Jamie Bell had very complimentary soundtrack, that became so demanded a cd release was made. It featured many alternative tracks that wouldn’t be obvious choices, I believe our film would have this certain quality to enhance emotion and setting. For example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZ4rj5-fpY this trailer depicts the sort of sound we would aim for in this case upbeat ‘orange juice’ is used although the film is partially dark.

The titles of a thriller genre are there to inform but also be incredibly suggestive about the tone and style of the film. Our choice is a fairly modern (almost pop art style), abstract, bold white font that shows the film is not in your face about it genre but subtle and indices you into a mystery that presents our contemporary and art house side of the audience. Our choice of positioning is simple, understated and present what needs to inform about our cast. Gus van Sant’s ‘Paranoid park’ uses incredibly simple yet effective font and style, a rounded white font. They appear fairly slowly a merge from one into another, this is the effect we I want to achieve as ‘Exchange’ is art house/Thriller and is not loud and in your face. The effect of subtle titles, shows that there is something unnerving in the future about to happen, it leaves the viewer guessing and asking questions. (b)

Our narrative structure for our opening is very simple and open for interpretation, we hope the audience picks up on the fact Tomos is in an unfamiliar environment and that he is alone and bewildered. We create this by medium scale opening shot including both main character and locations; Tomos and London. We use close ups to present the characters emotion. Skewed shots also have been used to make the viewer uncertain and slightly offput. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUyjej2PKg ‘Mysterious skin’ has a nice smooth style of editing, slow and painfully allows the viewer into the controversial subject it is based around (bi-sexuality and prostitution), I believe my film tackles the issue of crazed domestic violence and it has to be tastefully done, otherwise it will look inappropriate or just crude.

Camerawork is entirely important to a thriller, especially a psychological thriller, ‘Blow Up’ Michelangelo Antonioni’s mod thriller is very clean yet abstract, this camerawork technique is very effective for the art house/ psychological thriller vibe we are aiming for. Including the character at awkward angles and having long close ups will add to the tension a thriller so very needs. The camerawork around locations also inspires ‘Exchange’ as it takes in both location and situation of character which is vitally important for a thriller revolved around a singular person- although my film differs a great deal in sound, editing and plot the style is appropriate and adds an element realism to the film. (c) (d) (d) (c) (b) (a)

BJH