Saliah's Evaluation QN.1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our opening sequence was a thriller film, called "The Night Before".

The genre of our film is tension and thriller. We chose this type of genre as people aged around 15+ tend to enjoy thriller films, rather than other genre films, as they are more eye-catching and attractive. To make it into a thriller film, we made the story based around successful movies that have been produced. This is because, due to them being produced, we have more of a percentage of having a successful and professional film. To make it have tension, we used very pressurizing music in order to create a sense of anxiety and stress, which follows our story line.

In order to create conventions in our film, we used various camera angles and shots, such as long distance shots, close-ups, medium shots p.o.v shots. By using various shots, we created a sense of for example, the p.o.v shot, creates a sense of you being in the film as you saw what the main character, Saliah, saw. Which is effective as it attracts the audience and draws them in to watch more.

Our opening sequence fulfills the requirements of a thriller film as it opens with a feeling of tension and a sense of something being wrong. It also includes an abandoned location, where the main character, has unexpectedly woken up.

Our opening sequence creates a mood in which there is an obvious sign that this main character has been dumped and is unaware of where she is, how she got there and who did it.

Overall, I believe our opening sequence includes all the requirements of a successful and professional thriller genre film.

Saliah's Evaluation QN.2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film is targeted at teenagers who are aged from 15+, this is because due to it being a thriller film, people around this age group are allowed to watch it, and therefore that is why we have chosen them.

We have used a character of a girl, who is found in an abandoned field from the night before party.

The costume we have used for this is leggings, dress, makeup and hair. We have used this clothing to show that the girl has been to a party and she is therefore quite typical. Her makeup shows she is young and also shown to be a type of girl who is most likely to be a target at boys. We also made her wear heels to give her a stereotypical girly character, which has been to a party.

By the filed stage, she has got bruises, blood, cuts and grazes to her face and her hair is messed up a bit. This is to show the audience that something is wrong and that she may have been in trouble. This makes her look like a victim and often in dramas, women are victims of crime, which will help give the audience a clearer view of what we are portraying.

The only thing we have made our main character do is to walk and act as if she was lost, as the audience needs to know that something unusual has happened, and that she is confused and panicking.

There is no dialogue in our opening sequence as the main character is speechless as he is panicking and confused to the location where she has woken up. This is also to show that she is lost and terrified of not knowing her whereabouts. She is quite a common victim as she is worried about where she is, she’s lost, confused, scared and panicking as she does not know where she is.

Our audience, who gave us feedback, knew that the girl from the party was tarted up because of her clothes and makeup, therefore she was attacked ad abandoned on the bride in the lonely field and became a victim.

This is what we needed in order to convince our audience into believing that she was the victim, therefore the outcome was a success.

Saliah's Evaluation QN.3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think British Lion Film Corporation would distribute our film it has made a few British thriller films itself, such as:

* The Internecine Project

* Don’t Look Now

* The Wicker Man

* Fright and many more.

These films resemble to our film as it has got thrill and tension in one. Also they have done very well with many of the films they have made, therefore, I believe they could distribute our film and hopefully made it as successful as the others.

Films such as “The Wicker Man” have got a lot of similarity with our film has got a lot of similarity to our film as the main character is confused, tense and worried as is the main character in our film.

Therefore, I believe British Lion Corporation could distribute our film as they have a lot of similar genre films and it focuses on British films and British markets.

Saliah's Evaluation QN.4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is 16-25 as it is a thriller film with a teenage main character and theme. We have targeted it at this age group, as we believe that that they will be particularly happy with the genre, as they are old enough to watch it.

We also believe that people from over the age of 25 may also enjoy this genre so they are a secondary audience. They will enjoy it, as they wont be as scared as our younger audience, however, they will be left with a cliff-hanger and thoughts to what will happen. They will also be left with many enigmas, including what will happen after the cliff-hanger.

We believe that our main audience will be males aged 15+, as they tend to enjoy horror/thriller films more than females. Also people who have an interest in watching thriller films will enjoy our film, as it is a thriller genre. We think that people of all races will enjoy this film as it has been made for teenagers and above who will hopefully enjoy the genre of thriller.

Saliah's Evaluation QN.5 - How did you attract / address your audience?

Our opening sequence is very similar to the film “Saw” as the disruption has already happened. It creates a mood of aloneness and feeling misplaced as the disruption has already taken place and therefore, it helps let the audience know this. Our equilibrium is the party, which was from the night before, we can tell this as it is shown in flashbacks.

There are many enigmas in our opening sequence, for example where there are flashbacks, such as, “Who hit her?”, “Why?”, “What has she done wrong?”, etc. There are also some enigmas in the field scene, for example, “Who dumped her there?”, “Why?”, “Where will she go”, “where is she?”, “will she ever get home?”, etc. These are your typical enigmas in a thriller film, which will help us attract our audience, as they will want to keep watching.

We have introduced ideologies in our opening sequence, such as villains, victims and the way genders are shown. For example, our main character is a victim of abuse and she is also a female, which is very popular to have in films as the female is shown as the weaker sex. Also when we show the flashbacks, we get a slight look at the villain, from the clip we can see that the villain is male which is also popular in films, as males are shown as being the stronger sex and having power over women.

We have created a sense of time by showing the party is late at night by having a character walk from outside of the house to the inside of the house, showing that there is complete darkness outside. This will show the audience that the party is at a very late time. We also shows the party being flashbacks as we have added a lot of transitions and effects such as Wipe in/Wipe out, Ghost trail, Fade in/fade out, Black and White, Brightness increase to make it sound and look slightly faded, show its part of someone’s memory and p.o.v. We have also shown that the field seen where she wakes up is very early in the morning, as there is a lot of light coming onto the character as she lies on the bridge. There is also a lot of natural sound in this scene, such as the river, the main characters breathing and a faint sound of the wind blowing, which is also effective as it shows the audience what time of the day it may be.

We have used media language, the music, editing, sounds, having enigmas and ideologies to help create our opening sequence. We hope to attract our audience to keep watching, therefore by using media language we hopefully have succeeded.

We used effects such as transitions to create a different style to the film (flashbacks), we have also used editing in order to create our film, such as,

· Cutting clips

· Adjusting the volume

· Applying music

· Duplicating the sound from one clip and applying to another

· Having particular shots, such as,

· Canted angle shots – to show the characters p.o.v.

· Point of View shots – to show what the character can see.

· Long shots – to show the location

· Close Ups – to show the state of the character and the expressions.

By using media language, we have attracted an audience and we have kept them watching, made them ask questions (enigmas), understand the ideologies, shots and the way we edited it, which is what we where hoping for. Therefore we can say that it was successful.

Saliah's Evaluation QN 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I hI have learnt how to use iMovie on an Apple Mac, which is very useful, as I didn’t know how to use it at home. Most importantly I have learnt how to edit, find information on the Internet, such as using Google.co.uk to search for sites such as, IMDb.com, YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Wikipedia.com, etc.

I have also learnt how to set up a blog and how to keep updating it, lets the reader get more information. I have uploaded a lot of work onto our blog, such as what we will make as our opening sequence, what we did make, how we made it, etc.

Technology

We used our blog (blogger.com) and a camera to plan our opening sequence. We used e-mail to contact our audience and get the feedback of them. We also used facebook to do this as well. We used a video camera to film our opening sequence, which was very easy to use as we learnt how to use it in previous lessons when planning.

The Internet also helped me find out about thriller movies that have been produced and what popularity rates/ratings they got. It helps me find information about films that have been successful, what genre works best, what companies are popular, the age groups that will enjoy particular genres, etc. It has also helped me find images and helped me upload them onto my blog in order to make it look appealing, along with my film.

Saliah's Evaluation QN.7 - Looking at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our preliminary task was to film and edit a character including:

· Opening a door

· Crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with which she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

· Demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule.

We did everything of the following, however it wasn’t done to the best of our abilities. We didn’t have the knack of using iMovie at that time and so due to this; our prelim task was very incompetent and amateur as we didn’t edit or film it properly. However, by learning from these errors, w created a successful final product for our coursework.

In our final product (opening sequence) we have improved our technique significantly as we have used various shots, angles, editing and transitions. We did this very effectively as our audience enjoyed and realised the concept of what we tried to portray.

We did this by having two different scenes blend into one as we had flashbacks in our film. We used transitions and many other effects which we discovered on iMovie when we were editing it further, in order to make it successful and professional. It proved to be very effective, as our audience knew what was going on and what we were trying to present.

The lighting and sound was extremely effective in our film as it needed to show exactly what time of day it was in order for the story to be told correctly. We did this efficiently and therefore our audience understood what we made and the story. We added an extra clip later on in the week in order to give more effect of the character, and due to the lighting being professional and accurate, it ran smoothly and therefore our final product proved to be very successful.

Our character was a very effective part of the film, as she was the main character, therefore enabling her to be accurate and on point. Our main character had to act parallel in our film as in one scene she was happy and I the other scene lost and terrified. In order for our audience to comprehend the main character and her situation, we had to give her a party costume, which was proved to be clear in the film. We also had to apply her makeup write, not only to show that she had been to a party but that she had been beaten and abused. Again, our audience had told us that they knew this as they wrote it in the feedback, which told us that they knew exactly what our film was about and that they enjoyed it.

Conclusion

Overall I believe that our film was a complete success as our audience feedback showed us that they understood the story line, the main character's situation, location, use of effects and editing, ideologies, enigmas, etc which is what we wanted to portray.

We didn't have many major weaknesses, however, I think if we had more time, we would be able to get more footage of the character at the party, to give more effect to what she was going through and what had happened and how she got and who took her to the field.


I believe our final product is very successful as it has been edited professionally and our audience so far, have told us exactly what we wanted them to believe.

Sams Evaluation Q1

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Film Evaluation Q1

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Sams Evaluation Q2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the opening sequence to our film our two main characters, although one is not completely revealed, represent two groups, the villain or bad character and the victim or the good character.

In the opening to The Night Before a young teenage girl has been attacked at a party, this type of storyline is quite common in films as it is popular and the audience understands, and can relate to it through things that are shown on the news. Staying with the same theme, a less common storyline is where a man has fallen victim to an assault at a party, and left abandoned in an unfamiliar place, this is because this does not happen as often in the real world, therefore it is less believable in the film world. This is why we stuck with the more stereotypical storyline of a female victim. The setting and narratives help set up the scene for these stereotypical characters.


Victim

It is clear to the audience who the social groups are in our film due to the way we have portrayed them, as to represent a victim they have to be either lost, scared, being chased, watched or attacked. The victim in our film clearly does or is the majority of these things, through her bruising, clothing which does not match her location, jumpy and sudden movements and the isolated location she is in. Also the fact that our victim is a female victim, highlights that females are more vunerable than males, this is the stereotype in most films.


Victim and Villain (upper torso)

Villain

The other main character in my opening sequence is the villain who has attacked the teenage girl and dumped her on a bridge. The audience sees very little of this character, as he is only shown in a very short flashback, this is the impression we wanted to create with this character. This is because the victim also does not know who her attacker is, and therefore has to find this out throughout the rest of the film. This creates more suspense and enigmas which is important, to keep the audience interested. At this point in the film the attacker is suppose to be very secretive although causes injury to his victims. It is clear that this character is the villain as you only see a snap shot of them, and an effect called the ghost trail has been used here to show this flashback is unclear, as she gets attacked. Our villain is a amle character although this is maybe not 100% clear in the quick flashbacks, male characters are usually shown as villains as they are stereotypically seen to be more aggressive.


Teenagers

There is also a more common stereotype which we see in the media very often, which is teenage drinking. This is seen at the party and is seen to be the key factor for the attack. We included this in our opening sequence as it is something our target audience can relate to, therefore we felt this would keep our audiences captivated to watch the rest of the film. Teenagers are seen to drink, go to many parties to socialise and also put themselves in dangerous situations. This stereotype is quite commonly used in films and T.V aimed at the teenage audience, we felt we liked this in films, therefore we included this stereotype.



I feel that all of the stereotypes of characters we have included have been successfully represented the way we wanted to them to be, and they make our product easy to relate to which is important at the start of a film. It is vital for our representations to be clear at the start of a film, through locations and characters, as we do not want to confuse our viewers.

Sam's Evaluation Q3

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Film Evaluatiion Q3

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Sams Evaluation Q4

Name: Peter Baker
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Ethnicity: British
Media Consumption:
TV- The Bill
Films- Films should deliver a good storyline where something has to be found out or solved before the film has ended, such has ‘why something happened?’, ‘who did it?’ or ‘how did they do it?’.

I feel this type of audience is mainstream, as this is what many people want from a film. I feel that this character has a common viewpoint about films, and I think that our opening sequence has these points about it, it creates enigmas instantly.

Sams Evaluation Q5

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Film Evaluation Q5

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Sams Evaluation Q6

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In my research for my opening sequence I used several websites to gather information about certain films such as:
· Google Search engine
· Wikipedia.com
· IMDb.com
· Youtube.com

These technologies helped me to find out information about several films I felt would be useful to us, such as the type of film, its storyline, genre, box office figures and which companies produced and distributed it. I could also get images and clips to add to my blog from using technologies such as these. Using the Internet in this way helped me a lot in my research, as it is quick and easy to find the information you want.
When planning my product I used:
· Camera

The creation of our product was when we used many technologies:
· Video Camera
· IMovie: Effects:
o Wipe in/wipe out
o Ghost trail
o Black and White
o Fade in/fade out
o Brightness increase
· Itunes
· Blogger
· Mac

These are the technologies we used when producing our final opening sequence. I feel that with the use if all of these programmes and websites we were able to successfully make our film the way we wanted it to be. When producing our opening sequence I feel we were able to do all of the things we wanted to do, especially in the programme we used to edit our filming, Imovie.
When gathering the feedback for our film, as well as completing the evaluation, I used many websites and technologies which helped me achieve this such as:
· Facebook
· Blogger
· Slideshare
· Video camera

All of these websites helped me complete my feedback and evaluation. After producing our film I sent some of my friends a questionnaire via Facebook, this was an easy and quick way to gather information and feedback about our film. We also used a video camera to film peoples responses to our opening sequence. In my evaluation I used the website Slideshare which helped me imbed several answers as a Powerpoint into my Blog.

Sams Evaluation Q7

Q7. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your full product?

I have learnt many things from when I first made the preliminary task, to our final product. Firstly, in our preliminary task we used limited amount of camera work and camera angles. For example when there was a hand shake in the prelim we did not zoom into it, or highlight that it was happening, we just continued with the same mid-shot. By looking back at this prelim task I have realised that I did not fully understand which shots to emphasise, and which type of shot to use at certain times. However in our final opening sequence we have used certain shots to show how lost and alone the protagonist character is, such as a high angled long shot as well as a panning shot of the location. When filming we also emphasised certain elements like, zooming in on her phone to show she had no signal, focusing on her high heels to imply she had been to a party, and having a close up of her face to highlight her bruising. We did not really use any of these elements in our preliminary task. However we did use shots such as shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule which we did not use in The Night Before, however this was not appropriate as there was only one character for the majority of the sequence.

We vastly improved our editing of our final sequence compared to our first attempt. This is clearly shown in both of our sequences, as in our prelim all of our transitions from one clip to another were straight cuts. However when we edited our final opening sequence we used the appropriate transition we felt was needed for each clip, such as between our flashbacks and at the start/end of the film. We used wipe ins/outs, fade ins/outs and straight cuts in our opening sequence to The Night Before. I also felt we chose the appropriate music to go with our final product, unlike the soundtrack we chose for the prelim task, as the newer soundtrack adds more to the tension and atmosphere we wanted to create. The way in which the whole film flows; through the timing of when one clip ends and the next begins, I feel is much better in our final sequence as in the preliminary task there are jumps and overlaps in the editing.

Therefore overall I felt that I have learnt when to use the correct camera angle and movement, the right transitions to use, and what speed of the clips and music I need to use when producing a film.

Lucy's Evaluation

Q.1 – In What Ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?

For my media piece, I chose the practical option and made an opening sequence to a film called ‘The Night Before’.

The genre of the opening sequence is phychological. We decided to choose this theme as we thought it would be more tensing and attract more people more by creating mixed emotions. we used a scary style of music which let the audience know that it was a spooky film and left them in that sort of mood. the music creates tense and sorts the film for being mysterious.

We used media conventions in our film to help set up the story. We used different camera angles in the film to tell the story we used all angles such as close up shots, long distance shots and medium shots. This was effective as it gets into detail and shows the differences in the angles and shots. For example, in our film, it showed Saliah when she was just awaking and beaten up and showed her eyes in detail. This is then where the audience saw how her eye makeup had smudged and blackened. Without this close up shot, some of the audience may not have understood what had happened, so this gave them more of an idea and helps establish the narrator.
The music has a spooky feel to it and creates tension for the audience for the film being spooky. It changed speeds in parts and lowered then higher again where she was starting to remember the night before and what had happened to her. It creates a difference and the flashbacks to avoid confusion and makes flashbacks. Without these elements, the tension wouldn’t be the same and wouldn’t occur in the audience’s reaction.
A narrative as needs a beginning, middle and a end. However, because our practical was only a opening sequence, there wasn’t really an ending. The only ending was where you see the beaten up looking girl starting to walk off in the distance trying to get home. We don’t see what happens to her as this is where the film would then take off.
To find out if our video was effective, we asked 4 people to feedback to us there ideas and thoughts towards our film. We asked them questions such as ‘what genre does the sequence belong to and how could you tell this?’ We received the answers we wanted by them replying by saying it was a horror/ thriller. When we asked different questions towards our film they responded on the lines we wanted them to which then made it clear that our choices for putting various music, lighting and camera angles worked as it was effective on our viewers. However, we asked the group what we could of done to make our film better and they replied with ‘maybe a clip of how she got there’ also the feedback we got of some other people via face book, they said ‘the flashbacks could have been shorter and more frequent, and Saliah’s make-up could have been more smudged to show she slept on a bridge. The party scenes could have included Saliah to make it clearer that she was there and what happened to her.’ This was our downside to the film but overall people enjoyed it and understood what was happening.


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

Our opening sequence was a thriller/horror. The main people we represented were a young social group, as a few young teenagers were at a party and woke up the morning after lying on a bridge, is also a teenager.

From the party we cannot tell what sort of people are they are as the only scenes we see from the party are flashbacks and are the glimpses we see stereotypical of teenagers- where they are lazy and look sometimes morbid or very slouchy. This sort of thriller is similar to skins however it is not as scary with the music and so on. Saliah looks different to the skins characters, also her as skin color and nationality might have something to do with her attack and we could get a wonder of whether it could We can obviously see that there are some villains or maybe just one at the party as she got kidnapped. The group we have mainly focused on is young people and then victims. This is where saliah, is the victim for our film.

The victim in our film is a teenage girl at a party. She is a girl that is who has been drinking too much as we see her with a glass and might not have the full control she normally has. This is might make her more venerable to being more under attack. Also Saliah is dressed for a party in some skin tight pants and a sparkly top with silver high heels on. She is dressed to attract attention; this also might make Saliah more likely to get something happen to her. Her appearance is smart and she looks pretty as she is attending a party. She has fancy make up on and is looking at her best again, typical of a victim. As we see her in the opening, she is looking rough as if she has slept on a bridge all night just above a river. Her eye makeup on her face is all smudged and she has blackness around her eyes where she looks bruised. There isn’t much speech in the film apart from the flashbacks where the party noise is playing and where Saliah wakes up and starts to fret and worry where you can hear deep breathing noises. This brings tension as the audience can see she is starting to worry again. Her facial expressions also give off the sense that she is bewildered and afraid. Her shoes are off and she walks bare footed when she finally gets up and walks off in the distance. She is shivering and shaking as she was freezing again showing she is weak and in danger. This is a good effect, as it makes the audience feel like they are with the character, walking. Her body language is small and unconfident. She walks off with a hunched back to keep herself warm. When she is panicking, she manages to grab her bag and get her phone. This is a good prop as when she looks at it there isn’t any signal as this isn’t very clear in the film, it still shows that she is a modern up to date teenager with the latest gadgets, although in this case her phone couldn’t help her.

Question 3

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Question 4: Who would be the audience for yout media product

As my opening sequence had a horror/ thriller style theme, the audience viewing can vary, I think mainly the target audience for my sequence would be the young adult age group ranging from 16 to 25. It would probably attract more males than females. However some females enjoy Thrillers. For example: a 19yr old male teen would be a perfect candidate. He would buy the thriller films or horror films from HMV where they sell a range of CD’s and DVD’s with many different genres. He may listen to metal or rock music or something that revolves violence as they all have a linking relationship between them both. The sorts of programs they would watch would be ‘Star Trek’ and then the usual everyday viewings from teens such as ‘Skins’ or ‘Hollyoaks’.

In films, they would expect films to obviously catch their eyes and expect parts of the film to have violence and sex scenes. They would expect the trailer to the film to be left on a cliff hanger so they will want to find out what happens by watching the rest of the film. When watching the film they want it to have a good plot where they can enjoy the film, leaving them with a clear mood of whether the film was scary or weird so they can then talk to people about the film.

The second target audience would be the older adult age group around the ages of 34-50, as they know that not all films are real and mostly made-up, so when watching a film, they wont be completely scare themselves, but however leaving them with a feeling of whereabouts or ‘on edge’. However they might want mystery elements to puzzle about.

People these ages are good for the media companies in sales, as they’re more likely to go to the cinemas on nights out with their loved ones or friends or just to simply buy the film on DVD, as they should have an income coming in. most young people have relatively small incomes but generally can spend it as they like. They will hopefully be a profitable audience

Question 5:

In our film, we have found out through our feedback that many people liked out title ‘The Night Before’ as it is catchy and mysterious. From the opening sequence, we can see a girl that has been kidnapped or something has happened to her the night before, when we see her lying on a bridge in the freezing cold in the morning. This is then what starts off the mystery and the beginning of the film.

In the film, it starts off with showing the girl on the bridge, bruised and battered and wondering how she got there, but then it shows that she has flashbacks of the night before. This really catches the audience’s attention as it quite different and has a different feel about the film. We have used different transitions to create these flashback scenes really effective. We used blur, where this makes the audience have an illusion as if they feel like they are this character, also another transition where we see her drinking from the glass from her mouths point of view where this makes the audience look from the girls prospective.

In my opening sequence, there isn’t really a basic equilibrium because the audience can tell this girl has been abused and battered on this bridge and can tell she has been to a party from the night before but they don’t really know what is happening. I found out it wasn’t very easy to follow when we got the feedback from the audience as only one person responded and the others didn’t really follow. The disruption is where this girl is lost and she doesn’t know where she is.

In my film, I have built up mystery and suspense, worry and fear. I have done this the most by using the flashback effects. In my sequence fear and worry is very important and plays a big part in my sequence as my genre is thriller/physiological which it needs to create a sense of wonder as to what’s happening to this poor girl. I think I did a good job of making the audience wonder as to what’s happening as from the feedback they did seem puzzled and wanted to know more about what’s happening to her.

In my sequence, there are many enigmas being carried out, for example: what is she doing? How has she ended up there? Where is she? Will she be alright and get home? How has she got beaten up eyes? All these enigmas make the audience want to carry on watching the film or maybe as a sectioned drama. It keeps the audience interested and lets them enjoy the film also.

The chronological side to my sequence has been set over a few days as the girl was at the party one night, then the morning after she’s on a bridge therefore I couldn’t film all on the same day. Even though the party was inside we can see on various shots the nighttime darkness peeping through the windows from the house. Whereas when we was filming Saliah on the bridge, it was early morning time so we filmed from different shots as we didn’t actually shoot in the morning, we shot during the day but had to get into different positions so the brightness was too much. Also at the end, when she is looking back at the bridge this was the time in the evening where the sun was setting so it looked like it was in the morning, because it had the sun in the background and gave off an illusion of it only being the sunset.

In my sequence, we use a lot of different angle shots, were the point of view shot in the flashbacks, and was quite effective as the audience enjoyed feeling like what she was doing. It makes the audience feel like there a part of the film and puts them in the characters position. .

The editing side to the sequence was very important to our sequence, as it had the biggest part to put it all together. Adding music was another editing effect we included to give the extra feel about to the audience making them feel on edge and in suspense with some mystery scary music. The tempo was high and a slow beat were this creates suspension and tension. Also another effect was the flashbacks where this draws the attention to the film from the audience, as it is not used in every day filming and is very effective when wanting to create mystery and tense for the film.

Question 6:

The most helpful tool that helped dramatically was the internet in our final product. As it has so many helpful and useful websites such as blogger, Wikipedia, imdb, YouTube and so on, it helped me find out what other genre of films was included and similar to mine. A main website was blogger which has helped me record down everything I have done within the task and helped me to upload clips. When I received my feedback, I then put this information on the blogger to note down what was done in order for me to then create my evaluation. On my blogger, I uploaded clips from you tube and then analyzed them. During the planning stage, I used imdb a lot which is a film and movie database sharing lots of information about different facts about the films.

When actually making my film and editing, during this process, I learned at the very beginning how to use the camera, but it wasn’t until actually going out and shooting was I getting more familiar on the different shots and angles. I found out with the camera, that it is important that when filming for long periods it is vital that the battery life is spent only when needed. As it will lose its battery life quickly, therefore taking spares is crucial. I’ve also learnt about how much sound is actually picked up when filming or shooting a scene or clip. Only the slightest bit of wind can be picked up on the camera and without knowing this when filming can ruin the scene, so knowing where and when to shoot is a good point I have learnt. When editing the scenes to create the film, I wouldn’t really say there was any disadvantages, but if there was I could say I found it a little confusing and there wasn’t really as many transitions or sound effects to choose from as I’d expected.

When collecting our feedback from our film, we filmed 4 people whilst asking them questions about our film. They was filmed and put under the spot a little, we started them off whilst they were watching the film then carried on with questions. This helped a great deal as not only did it save time but it was a good way to see the outcome. A disadvantage to this way of shooting was that the audience may have felt under pressure and might not want to give their truthful and honest opinion.

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

When I looked back from my prelim task to my final task that I had created, I can definitely tell there is a difference with improvement between the two as on the prelim, we were trying to still figure out how to start using and working with the camera and how it worked with different shots and angles. We still used the tripod on the prelim; however we didn’t use it properly by keeping it still.

There also weren’t as many different camera angles or shots were as on our final piece, here we used medium, long distance and close up shots with the camera varying the shots to create different effects with the camera to make our piece unusual and interesting. We have improved our technique by keeping the camera tripod as still as possible when shooting when needed. It was important to do this effect; otherwise, the film would have looked rushed and not filmed in detail.

We used more different effects when editing the piece as we had flashbacks in a scene to create the dizziness of the girl that was lost and her remembering her night before. We used the different transitions to show a variety of different affects, This looked effective when we had finished editing as when we looked over the slides ran smoothly into each other without any flickering and overall made our film look professional.

When were in the middle of editing, we wanted to make sure that when the audience watch our film, they would understand what was going on, so we checked it all made sense.

In our final piece, our characters were much more distinctive and effective than in our prelim as the main character had a bigger role to play and when watched back looked more exciting and fun. As she didn’t know where she was, the flashbacks created a tension feeling wondering whether she will get home. More ideologies eg. what’s going to happen to her? Were created when watching our final piece more than our prelim which obviously made it more exciting yet mysterious. Also the use of costume and make-up helped define character more. Saliah has her make-up smudged whereas on our prelim, she didn’t have any on and no extra make-up was added. We used more props in our prelim which created a better sequence as it looked like we had put more effort into our final piece.

We used a better choice of lighting and sound in our final piece as we changed our lighting when we used a close up on Saliah’s shoes. We filmed this outside as we filmed most of her outside also. As we filmed her on the bridge and her shoes separately, we had to make sure the lighting looked near enough the same, otherwise it wouldn’t of had the same effect. When Saliah was led on the bridge, she was surrounded by trees which made the atmosphere look dark and bewildering. She looked like she had just woken up and it was in the morning. As you see her walking off into the distance, she looks around so the camera angle changes to be her were the sun in the sky is setting showing a pinkish colorful sunset. However it doesn’t look bad as we have given the impression that is in the morning so it looks as if the sun is rising. The use of a better location and lighting than the prelim also made it feel more genuine.

Conclusion

Overall, I think that our sequence was a success as our audience feedback showed that they enjoyed our sequence and thought it was catchy and more or less understood the story line. They thought the location was excellent and the characters situation was realistic as these are the sorts of stories that people tend to hear about.
We didn’t really have many downfalls; however, I think if we had more time and money to travel to different areas to get more of a feel for the tension, we could have chosen a different area to shoot. On the other hand, we were all pleased with where we shot our footage and it looked the right destination for what we was looking for. We could have also filmed a bit of Saliah at the party, not from the point of view shot actually watching her around the party as if we were the villain’s point of view.

Taken as a whole, I believe we did really well in our final product, we completed it in time and the feedback was really good and I think if we were to create another one in future we would happily be able to do it.

Feedback

You need to summarise your audiecne feedback! Just at the end, you need to sum up teh key strengths and weaknesses this has highlighted.



Mrs Doggart

Sams Audience Feedback Summary

After finishing our opening sequence, we gathered feedback from 11 people who watched our film. We chose eleven people who we felt were our target audience for our film, which were people of our age we thought would like films from the thriller genre. We posed the same 9 questions to the participants, who responded through different means. We firstly filmed a video response to our questions, where 4 of our participants (Dylan McGough, Nick Whalley, Amy Cunningham and George Quigley) watched our opening sequence and then answered questions about it. Another of our participants wrote down the answers to the questions about the sequence, which we scanned in and is imported onto this blog. I sent the remaining 6 participants the questions and a link to our blog through Facebook messaging, which they filled in and sent back to me. The questions and answers we gathered are below. The written response is embedded onto the blog ‘Written feedback for our final product’.

1. What genre does the sequence belong to and how could you tell this?
· Videoed (4): “Thriller/horror, you can tell because of the type of music used”
· Leah: Thriller as scary music, and showing close up of eyes at the beginning.
· Alicia: Thriller as the flashbacks and the music used.
· Hayley: Flashbacks so thriller
· Chloe: Thriller due to the flashbacks
· Alex: Thriller because of all the flashbacks that happen
· Charlotte: Horror

2. Who were the main characters in the sequence?
· Videoed (4): “Saliah”
· Leah: Saliah
· Alicia: Saliah
· Hayley: Saliah
· Chloe: Saliah
· Alex: Saliah
· Charlotte: The girl on the bridge

3. What details made this clear?
· Videoed (4): “She is the main focus point and her name appeared first”
· Leah: There is more camera time spent on the bridge and the field.
· Alicia: She was focused on more in the field
· Hayley: She was in it for the majority, and after a flashback it would focus back on her
· Chloe: The whole film was based on her
· Alex: The film was made at her point of view, so it made it clear it was her
· Charlotte: Because she is having flashbacks

4. What is happening in the sequence? Is this clear?
· Videoed (4): “She has woken up in a field and keeps getting flashbacks of the night before”
· Leah: She has woken up on a bridge, not knowing where she is and has flashbacks of previous night.
· Alicia: Saliah has woken up in a place she is not familiar to after a night of heavy drinking at party. It seems she may also have been punched as she has a black eye and one of the flashbacks shows her falling to the ground. As she tries to recognise where she is she experiences flash backs.
· Hayley: Saliah has been out at a house party, and drunk too much. She wakes up somewhere she isn't familiar with. She has flashbacks of sections of the party e.g Alicia's moonwalk and LOADS of wine bottles.
· Chloe: She’s like passed out on a bridge, wakes up and has loads of flashbacks, with Alicia’s amazing moonwalk, and quite a lot of alcohol, she has no signal on her phone and walks off somewhere
· Alex: She was partying got drunk then wakes up on a bridge and has flashbacks from the night before
· Charlotte: She is having flashbacks of the party

5. What would make this clearer?
· Videoed (4): “I think it’s quite clear, maybe a clip of how she got there”
· Leah: The flashbacks could have been shorter and more frequent, and Saliah’s make-up could have been more smudged to show she slept on a bridge.
· Alicia: The party scenes could have included Saliah to make it more clear that she was there and what happened to her.
· Hayley: The party scenes could have included Saliah more. When Saliah awoke she could have looked more scruffy like smudged make-up and crazy hair.
· Chloe: If Saliah was in the flashbacks
· Alex: If the main character turned up at the party scene
· Charlotte: Nothing else, it was clear

6. What, out of the sequence, would make you keep watching?
· Videoed (4): “To find out what happened the night before, and the fact she is walking off”
· Leah: Saliah walking off
· Alicia: The flashbacks, as they make you want to see everything at the party which caused her to end up on a bridge!!
· Hayley: The flashbacks were effective. I like how they were frequently shown and also disjointed so you didn't get the full story of the party but enough so you know what's been going on.
· Chloe: The flashbacks- they were fitted in well
· Alex: The flashbacks were good, and put in good places
· Charlotte: To find out how she got to where she is

7. Did the pace of the sequence feel right to you?
· Videoed (4): “Yes”
· Leah: Yes
· Alicia: Yes
· Hayley: Yes it did
· Chloe: Yes
· Alex: Yes
· Charlotte: Yes

8. Do the images work well with the music?
· Videoed (4): “Yes”
· Leah: Yes
· Alicia: Yes
· Hayley: Yes
· Chloe: Yes
· Alex: Yes
· Charlotte: Yes

9. Is it visually interesting? Are the shots interesting?
· Videoed (4): “They are quite interesting shots, shows a lot of different angles; close ups, medium shots and long range shots”
· Leah: Yes, totally
· Alicia: Yes, very well done!
· Hayley: Yes loved it
· Chloe: Yes I enjoyed the final piece it was really good
· Alex: Yes
· Charlotte: Yes

Through carrying out this survey I have found out the points in our film we have succeeded on, and the points which could have been made more precise or clearer. Due the the feedback we got, I feel we successfully established the genre we intended to, as all of our participants answered thriller or horror.
The feedback shows that we also made it clear who the main character in the sequence was, as all answered Saliah who was on the bridge, as the majority of the camera time was spent on her, her name appeared first, and she was having flashbacks.
From carrying out this survey I have found that the audience felt that it was clear what was happening in our opening sequence, however by maybe putting Saliah in the flashbacks, or shortening the flashbacks, may have been clearer.
All of our participants also felt that the overall piece worked well, such as the pace and choice of the music, the different images and locations, as well as saying it was visually interesting.

first pictures

Video feedback for our Final Product

Written Feedback for our Final Product

Final Product

With help from our actors and camera men:

Lucy Gillett*

Saliah Idris*

Sam McMahon*

Alicia Walker

Ralph Lambert

Becky Tolmie

Chloe Roberts

Alex Williams

Charlotte McMahon

* our group

Final Filming and Editing

Last week Saliah and Sam went and re-filmed the 'opening eyes' and 'dangling shoes' clips, as the light was not correct in the previous ones.
After uploading these clips, we edited the rest of the film...

Editing (rough cut)

Over the past week we have been editing our film, and have reached the stage of a rough draft. Therefore we have chosen the best cuts from our field location, and placed them in the correct order. We have also chosen a numerous amount of clips from the party scene, roughly cut them down and placed them in around the area we want the flashbacks to take place.

We also decided on the music we want to play over the top the film, which will be more clear in the rural, field location. This was ...............................................

Feedback

Can you add a proper update for the last post to tell me what you have achieved? Also, you could post your rough cut and some brief observations on how it is working?

Mrs Doggart

Filming 1st location... Continued

I went back down to the first location today do film some more filming near the river. As Saliah and Lucy could not get down to the field location today, I acted as the protagonist character which Saliah usually plays. However as I filmed from her point of view, I was not in the shot. I filmed short clips which we felt was needed after we put together our rough cut. Such as a waking up POV shot, a looking around in distress POV shot, and a stummbling up the hill POV shot.

Filming 2nd Location ...Continued

Due to the weather conditions over the Christmas break, and also the following week, my group and I have not been able to edit any of our footage over the past week as college has been closed.

While I have not been at college over the past week, I have looked back at our footage of the second location (the party scene at my house). As these sections of the film are flashbacks, they are filmed from the protagonist characters point of view, this was unclear when I looked back at the footage. Therefore I filmed some more clips today, which will hopefully make it clear that this is from the protagonist characters view point.