Final Film

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task:

For our preliminary task, we were split up into groups and went off filming. We had to make sure we covered some of the key components of filming such as, the 180 degree rule and include dialogue and someone walking through a door. This was good practice with the cameras and other equipment like tripods and dolly's for when we came to filming our actual opening sequences.

Practice Filming Exercise:



Summary of my evaluations

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

In many ways I find that my product develops and challenges conventions of an actual media product. Firstly, I believe that locations are a big influence in helping to create a successful film, they should compliment the film and help it flow so the audience don't get confused. Personally, I believe that my location fits this well. I used a dingy narrow road away from any major public interference. This was good because it helped me created a lonely atmosphere for my actor who was about to get stabbed.

Secondly, I believe that small things like costumes are vitally important whilst trying to make a film as realistic as possible. In my film, I feel that dressed my actors appropriately for their role. The two wingmen I had in my film were dressed in very civilized clothing, wearing track suit bottoms and hoodies. What made them less civilized were the bandana's covering their faces when they squared up to their target. On the other hand, my other actor, Harry, was dressed normally after a day at work. In my film he was wearing a smart suit with a coat over the top. Personally, I think that having appropriately dressed actors in a film really makes it look more professional as opposed to having actors dressed in completely the wrong clothing.

Lastly, the title of my film is one of the most obvious conventions of my film that does not challenge the action/drama genre of my film. 'PayUp' is the name of my film and the reason why I chose it is because it doesn't really give too much away but it still gives the audience a rough idea of what a basic storyline will be. 'PayUp' seems like a lot more of a calmer title as opposed to a film called 'Death Is Waiting', yet it could still fit my film perfectly.    

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

In my film I believe that the main social group that I have targeted is an uneducated and in some cases underprivilaged social group. It is a film targeted at the people who grow up with knife/gun crime are around the use of drugs from young ages. My two characters who work for the unrevealed drug dealer represent the look of thugs with their tracksuit bottoms and hoodies along with their head gear that covers half of their face.  

In some ways, these two actors are similar to the actors in films like Green Street. Their similarities are, that they look like similar characters, their in gangs and they are heavily involved in drugs and violence. 

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

Because I see my film as being similar to films such as Adulthood I believe that the same kind of media institutions would produce my film. Adulthood is produced by Cipher Films and I think it would be a good production company to use for my film. Another production company that I think could suit my film would be by Odd Lot Entertainment. They are the producers of Green Street Hooligans and I think they introduce the film very well.

With my film I knew it would be very basic and minimalistic because of the expensive costs, therefore I would want to release it to a select amount of audiences such as cinemas to see how well it is received. Using a distributor would be very helpful for the release of a low budget film like mine. Coming from an unknown director, the film would need large advertising to make it a success. Having a film distributor would also help to attract larger audience.

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

Here is an image in which I believe my target audience would be for my media product. I am aiming my film at students between the age of 16 - 21 years. I feel that with the use of male actors and knife crime in my product, my audience is mainly targeted at male students. I aimed my media product at middle to lower class citizens who have grown up in a crime filled culture. This isn't to say that my product can't be enjoyed by middle to upper class citizens as it can also make them aware of what can happen to people when they get into trouble with the wrong people. This is very stereotypical but it is the best way of analysing my target audience.

Before I created my media product I asked a group of students at college between the age of 16 - 20 to name what their favourite films are, here are some of the most popular choices:

• Adulthood

• Green Street

• Scarface

• Blow

All of these films are both drug and gang related which helped me make a very easy decision to what my target audience would be.

After I had completed my media product, I asked the same people what they thought about my film. Here are some of their responses:

• "I really want to see what happens after the stabbing."

• "I like the fact that you have used motorbikes in the scene as it makes it look more threatening towards the person who gets stabbed."

• "I think it is good, but I would like to see more of the stabbing scene."

I think that the feedback I recieved from my peers was very positive and it confirmed that my decision to target a young age group was deffinately the correct choice.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract my audience, I used youtube annotations which focused on the way in which my film opening linked with other films with the same kind of story line. I did this by using similar music and similar genre conventions. I tried to attract my audience with a dramatic story line which included lots of dialogue and a murder. Having left my film on a cliff hanger I am hoping that it will attract my audience to take time and watch the rest of the film. 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Here are some pictures of the equipment that enabled me to film my movie introduction:

Canon 7D camera:

 

Over the shoulder camera holder:                      Tripod:



    









  Apple iMac:

We also used lots of different software on the macs which made it possible for us to construct our final film inroductions. The software I used were, sound track pro, final cut pro, after effects, youtube, imovie and blogger. This was the first time I had used most of these technologies so at first I stuggled to get to grips with some of them, such as the sound track pro and after effects software, but after a few lessons of practice I started to find them much easier to use. My school chose to use Apple iMac's because of the quality software available and because of their capability to produce quality media products as proven in professional productions.

Soundtrack Pro: I used sound track pro on the introduction of the film Panic Room. This was great practice for when I came to use the application for my own opening sequence. I found this effect quite hard to use when I first started but as I got used to it I found it very enjoyable to use.  Soundtrack Pro is a great piece of software with a large amount of features which enabled me to add to my media product. Without the availability of Soundtrack pro, I wouldn't have been able to insert the music that I want to overlap my film.

Final Cut Pro: I used the Final Cut Pro application to put my film together and I also used it for my mundane task and preliminary task. This was the first time I had used this software before and to be honest I had very little knowledge of how it worked and about the power of the software in terms of the editing. Final cut pro was very useful because it enabled me to use lots of different tools in order for me to edit my film the best way possible. Without Final Cut it would have been impossible for us to produce our media product due to the changing in rough cut editing.

After Effects Pro: I used After Effects to produce my production company logo and to add in different titles into my final film such as actors and producers names. Like most of the other applications, I had never experimented with After Effects before I started this course. As well as using this app with my final film I used it on a Mission Impossible film as a practice. Personally I found this one of the harder applications to use because it has so many different features that I didn't know how to use. In the end I managed to get to grips with it and produced work that I am happy with. Without After Effects I would have not been able to create a professional looking production company nor would I have had titles required to create a professional media product.  

YouTube: We used YouTube as a platform in which we published our work. We created our own accounts and uploaded all of our work onto it so we could then post on our blogs. I had never previously had to upload anything onto YouTube before, but after doing it once I found it very simple to use. 

Blogger: We used Blogger as our own electronic diary throughout our media course. I thought it was a very useful website to use mainly because of all of its different features such as, being able to view and edit all of the posts that you have previously uploaded with great ease and also having the availability to embed videos, images and sound. 






With the combination of all the hardware, software and webpages I have written about above, I was able to create my final media product. Without the technology that I have been able to use, I believe the making would have been less enjoyable and the outcome overall would have been less successful. 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Since the start of the course, I have learnt a lot about the research, planning, shooting, editing and distribution/promotion, in which goes into creating a film. The preliminary task was the beginning of the practical side of this course. We were taught about all of the different camera shots and angles such as long shots, establishing shots and the 180 degree rule in order to create a storyline that would be easy to follow. 


Skills that I have learnt and improved upon:

• Usage of media documents; scripts, storyboards and shooting schedule's, these enabled me to be more organised into what I was filming on a specific day. The use of professional script software meant that I could correctly write my script and distribute copies to my actors. When planning for my Preliminary Task, I didn't use any of media documents so I feel that this lead to a poorer lower quality preliminary task film.

• Wider variety of shots - close ups, more shot reverse shots, high/low angle shots, long shots, medium shots.

• Better knowledge and usage of Final Cut Pro and film creating software available on the iMac, as previously in my preliminary task we were not using all of the software, however when completing my editing for my final media product, I used a wider range of effects and more professional title's.

• In my final media product, I found that because of my developed skills from the preliminary task I was able to complete an effective looking final film, with all of the different camera angles which made it look more professional. 

Production Company, After Effects

Here are some screen shots of me creating a production company advert for my own film introduction. This advert will be played just before my film begins. I enjoyed using after effects for this project because it was very simple. I followed a very helpful guide on the videocopilot website to help me create the different effects that I decided to use.

This is the final outcome of my product. It starts like this, then it opens out in a cracked effect which you can see in the above screen shots. I chose the name Dench-Gen Series because my film introduction relates to a crime caused by the usage of drugs. 

Ical January - February - March

Location Shots

Here is the location of where the stabbing takes place at the end of my film.

This is the road the targeted actor walks down before he is spotted.

This is where the target is seen by the drug dealers wingmen and followed from here onwards.

This is a long shot of the whole of the setting for my film. A long narrow road far away from any major public viewing.

Final SoundTrackPro

I used sound track pro on the introduction of the film Panic Room. This was great practice for when I come to use the application for my own opening sequence. I found this effect quite hard to use when I first started but as I got used to it I found it very enjoyable to use. This is an effect that I will definitely want to use when I have put together my film.

Here are three screen shots from my music for Panic Room. I chose to add music and on top of the different tracks of music I chose to use sound effects. I felt that this helps to build the tension and give the audience a little bit of an idea of what the movie might be about without giving away too much.

Equipment video