Evaluation 7

The preliminary task was a simple opportunity to show I could utilize the 180 degrees rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot and a few other foundation techniques.


During the production of our main film I have had the opportunity to develop these techniques further as well as incorporate some additional skills that I had acquired from photography. Some examples of these techniques and other camera-work skills can be seen below:

Here’s an interceptive pedestal shot. Much like a shot-reverse shot, this clip has been split either side of another clip, except the middle clip is not a camera-subject, it’s the beginning of the opening credits. I did not have access to an actual pedestal so slowly lowered the neck of the tripod, relying on the friction of it to slowly bring the camera down.







Here’s an example of me using Smith’s ‘Rule of Thirds’ to help create tension and show a relationship between the subjects in the shot. As you can also see from this shot, most of the film was very low-key. This dark, gloomy atmosphere adds to the verisimilitude of the scene and creates suspense as the viewer has to concentrate to accurately see what’s happening.

 




I considered the relationship between subjects in every shot, with all mise-en-scene (including actors) having some connection with each other; this concept relies on the use of ‘concrete’ and ‘imaginary’ lines. Below is an example of a concrete line, where real objects are shown at a particular perspective hook the viewer into the scene.
Here I considered how, in our society at least, people naturally look at things from left-to-right. We can see that this left-to-right tendency, as well as the given perspective we have of the keyboard and hands, makes the viewer look around the entire scene, making the most of this shot.




Below is an example of imaginary lines being used for effect. The most common imaginary lines used in films are lines of sight and lines of movement: for example, somebody looking towards a screen and somebody walking across a road; the path their eyes or body takes is the imaginary line. Shots where the imaginary lines are interrupted or are framed poorly disrupt the whole scene. For example, if somebody is walking across a road from left-to-right and you are using a static camera shot, you should have the man on the left and empty space on the right for them to move into. Here there are two main imaginary lines: the light from the screen and the line of movement the stalker makes as he stands up. Like in our ‘crossing a road’ example, I purposely planned to leave space for the stalker to walk into and for the screen light to shine toward.



Here’s an example of me using match on action to create a smooth, visual bridge that helps prevent the viewer from noticing the cuts between shots.



Of course, my video-editing skills also developed. Here are some examples of what I have learnt:

Here is a simple fade-to-black and fade-from-black editing transition I have used. For this particular shot I chose a short elapsed time for the effect to help build suspense.



Here is a ‘constant gain’ sound bridge (AKA sound transition) that allows our spooky, incidental music to be looped smoothly without the audience hearing the classical silent gap between the end and start of looped sounds.




You can see here that I have added another layer with low opacity on top of the Facebook screen recording. This additional layer was recorded and put on top of the other video to give the impression this is a point of view shot where the stalker can see his own reflection.

 

Evaluation 6

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


Here is a photo of me with my computer (right) and Chris’ computer (left). We decided to use our own computers for the video editing as opposed to the computers supplied in our college as the college computers would have wasted a large portion of our time when rendering effects or manipulating video clips, as these computers are more powerful and toiled to our needs. Using software such as Evernote, Google Docs and Team Viewer meant we could collaborate with each other on our work and control each others’ computers remotely when necessary.










Here is the video camera we used, a Panasonic TM300. We decided to use this video camera as it is small (so easily movable) and fast to use; this helped as we were limited on time for the garage scene and had to quickly shoot the car scenes whilst no other cars were present. The tripod was light and easily movable, making it a very useful and accessible tool. Never having used this camera before I learnt a lot about its ergonomics and operating system. Whilst it is extremely intuitive and easy to use, the camera’s functionality is somewhat limited and certain features that come with DSLRs or broadcast cameras (such as changing ISO, aperture, etc.) are not available.




This print-screen shows me adding a faded sound-bridge in our video. The software used here in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. This software package is extremely versatile and offers a large array of different effects; this helps me learn new techniques every time I use it and explore new ideas.




Here is Google Docs being used so Chris and I can collaborate on work. Being an online service, it is accessible on our phones, at college or home so I can work on my project wherever I was.










Hardware and Software Used:
-Video Camera
-iPhone Camera (for location photos)
-Ball-joint tripod
-Props (ornaments, furniture, car, clothes, etc.)
-iPhone & software: Evernote and Google Docs for collaborating on work and uploading photos/text to the same place
-Google’s blogger: To upload work and present media film
-Facebook: Creating accounts, editing details to suit victim’s bespoke requirements
-Photo editing: Nikon Capture NX2 and Adobe Paintshop
-Video editing: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (preliminary: iMovie)
-Video effects: Adobe After Effects
-Mind-map: Wordl.net
-Team viewer: Software for work collaboration and accessing home computers remotely
-Skype: VOIP (Talking over the internet)
-Open source music websites: http://echoprint.me and http://www.opensourcemusic.com
-Inspiration: Multiple mediums such as DVD films, YouTube clips and online films (using services such as Netflix on computer, 4oD on computer and LoveFilm on Xbox 360)

Evaluation 5

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

Our film would attract an audience ranging from 15-30 year olds due to the technological aspect by integrating the social network “Facebook”. The reason for the audience ranges is because of the majority of people that use, and recognise “Facebook”.


Our film is also along the same lines as “Take This Lollipop”, a short film about a stalker that preys upon a victim on a social networking site. Because of the certain choice of music in our film, and the low-key lighting, it creates the verisimilitude of the situation. Meaning the audience is kept in a tense, on-edge emotional state. As we would like to incorporate DNA films in the production, we have chosen an all British cast. The reason for this is, horror/action films that have been British made (28 Days Later) have been proved to be a success in the foreign countries.

Evaluation 4

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

Here are some people who fit my target audience that I decided to interview.


Name: Ben Beanland

Age:17

Education: Doing AS exams, Sixth Form

Sport: Rugby, skateboarding

Music: Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Five Finger Death Punch

Favourite Films: Halloween, The Collector, Clash of the Titans, Sean of the Dead

Career: Full time education

Favourite Books: The Hustle, Tom Clancy Series

Name: Megan Floyd

Age: 18

Education: Doing A2 exams, Sixth Form

Sport: Horse riding, running

Music: Radio 1 top hits

Favourite Films: Bridget Jones, Borat, Friends with Benefits, The Blair Witch Project

Career: Full time education

Favourite Books: Holes, Pig Heart Boy


Age: 18

Education: Taking A-levels at college

Sport: Bike riding, rowing

Music: Heart FM, 80's/90's classic rock

Favourite Films: Dirty Dancing, Saw 2&3, Titanic, Borat, 21 Jump Street

Career: Part time education, part time job

Favourite Books: Andy McNab, Blue Heaven, Bird's Song, All Quiet on the Western Front

Here is a photo showing a group of people within my target demographic who enjoyed watching my film.

Evaluation 3

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

A film distributor is accountable for the release of film productions to the public, be it theatrically or via home viewing I.E. DVD’s, online rental, etc. If my film was be released and distributed, I am certain production companies would feel inclined to release it, due to the genre it is in (Thriller, action and psychological.). As this is a popular genre I feel that “Dimension Films” would be perfect for our genre of film. The reason for this is because they have distributed the scream franchise as well as the Halloween series. Those genres include Horror, Mystery, Crime, Slasher, Indie, Teen, Cult and many more.

Scream:


Halloween:

Evaluation 2

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

Top: FaceStalk (our film opening)
Left: I know what you did last summer: Feature length production
Right: Take This Lollipop: Short internet-based film

The main character in all three films are the ‘stalkers’ that are shown in the pictures above.
The character in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (IKWYDLS) had a key accessory, a hook, that added an edgy and scary look. However this hook conforms to conventions of a horror which our film is not. The IKWYDLS character is cloaked and does not expose any part of his body until the very end; this keeps the viewer suspicious and mysterious, and creates a great climax when we see his face towards the end. In contrast, the stalker from ‘Take This Lollipop’ (TTL) had his identity very exposed, but this allows the viewer to his facial expressions clearly - we decided to use a mix of these two inspirational films and have our stalker mostly covered with only his face showing. Our character’s role is somewhat similar to both the IKWYDLS’s stalker and TTL’s stalker in that previous knowledge of others in the film are found out and action is taken - all three of these stalkers confront their victims in some gruesome form.

The victim in our film is named Robyn Jones - a stereotypical teenage girl in England. The only time we see her in the finished film-opening is when the stalker is looking at pictures of her on Facebook. Her presence on Facebook also adds to her conformity to the ‘female youth’ social group.

Evaluation 1

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1

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

1)
  
 

 
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7)


The images shown display 9 different frames or shot of my opening film.

Top: This is second shot of the opening film. This shot is used as an establishing shot, to show the viewer the subsequent scene’s setting. An example of this shot being used can be related to the short film “Take This Lollipop”. Showing the low-key lighting allows the viewer to gain a sense of the tension and shady ambience in the film. Setting it in an old garage was perfect for the low-key lighting that we needed. One of the props, a flickering light, is turned on by the character. Besides the light, the television was able to reflect its light onto the character, giving it a ghostly feel.
Second Level – Left: This shot was made in Adobe After Effects using several effects to digitise and obscure the text. The reason this was done, is to keep continuity in the film by adding a spine-tingling title at the end of the film. As the film is based around “Facebook”, it keeps continuity with technology. An example of this being used can be referred to the video game “Battlefield 3”.
Second Level – Right: This shot was once again made in Adobe After Effects, and is placed within the first few seconds of the opening titles. As the video starts of slow, with eerie music, a slow ghost-like text was needed to add to the verisimilitude.
Third Level – Left: Using a close-up wide-angle shot, we show the character typing on their keyboard. To add to the verisimilitude, we gave the character muddy/grubby hands. Therefore this meant the user would have a certain opinion over the character which connects with stereotypes.
Third Level – Right: This wide-angle shot shows the character driving off manically. As this is how the opening film ends, the viewer is left in suspense as to what is happening. The only information that has been given to them is that the character has a map of where the girl is currently at.
Fourth Level: This image displays a tracking shot from a high-angle. In doing this, we were able to portray a CCTV like shot, whereby the character is being tracked. When the character enters the car, we used editing to seamlessly change shot to behind the vehicle, where they have entered and drive off.
Fifth Level: This was shot from a high angle position using a ladder that we had found. This shot shows the character from above, and watches them collect the map and subsequently leave with the car keys and wrench.
Sixth Level: Much like the Third Level – Right shot, in that it is from the same position but the camera is facing in more of an upright position. Showing the character looking at a girl’s photograph on “Facebook”.
Seventh Level: This image shows one of the shots from the “Facebook” scene, where the character is viewing a girl’s images. By use of special effects, we were able to add the character faintly to the screen, as a way of showing their reflection on the screen. This is also used in the short film “Take This Lollipop”.

Final edit

Second draft

I've made a few minor changes to add to the authenticity of the film

Updated Scene Edit

Here's the full video so far. We made many changes and decided not to include the second scene (another two minutes) as it made the entire video far too long.

Second Logo

Here's our film-specific logo