Question 7-

Question 7 by Hannabee on GoAnimate

Thoughts about question 7-

I am now nearing the end of my evaluation.

Question 7 seems fairly simple as it relates back to question 6. I feel that this final question is very personal of what I have learnt over both the preliminary and main task and what my improvements for next time be.

Question 6-

Question 5-

Question 4-

Question 4 Research-

What does the 12A symbol mean?

12A means that anyone aged 12 or over can go and see the film unaccompanied. The A stands for 'accompanied'. Children younger than 12 may see the film if they are accompanied by an adult who must watch the film with them.

Uses of strong language in a 12 or 12A...

The BBFC's Guidelines state that there may be strong language (eg 'f***') at 12 or 12A, but it must be infrequent. The context of the strong language is important. Aggressive uses of strong language may result in a film or DVD being placed at the 15 category. There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category.
There may be moderate language (eg uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at 12 or 12A).

What sort of violence can I expect in a 12 or 12A ?

• At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama).
• Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12 or 12A, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works.
• Sexual violence, such as scenes of rape or assault, may only be briefly and discreetly indicated at 12A.

Can Horror and Thriller films be passed 12 or 12A?

Yes, some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.

Is 15 really stronger than 12A?

15 works are stronger than 12 or 12A rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

 

Question 3-

Question 2-

What Are The Social Groups in Your Product?

Step 1	What are the social groups in your product?	·         Criminal ·         Vulnerability ·         Gender
Step 2	What is the stereotype of those groups? (expectations)	Criminal- wear dark clothes Vulnerability- light clothes, fast pace music to show that character is panicking. Gender- Males should play criminals and females should play the victims.
	Criminals…	In Orphan, the girl is wearing light clothes in innocent scenes (going to school) and dark clothes when she is about to kill someone. She is a female ‘child’ both you would think are innocent. She also has strength of a male in mind and body. In my product the criminal  is female and also has strength.
	Vulnerability…	When you’re scared, you hide. If it’s in a house- under a bed, like in Taken. My product is set outside for the chase so my character would hide behind a tree or bush. To create tension fast music is played as the victim runs to a hiding place then the music becoming slower and quieter until the climax. This shows the character is alone, scared and vulnerable to harm.
	Gender…	Females are normally the ‘damsel in distress’ and normally call someone while they hide. In my media there is a female hiding but not calling anyone- I thought that it would have no difference to a real thriller if a phone call was involved. Males are normally the criminals and the hero’s, so I thought about changing it to female being the criminal making the character an anti-stereotype.
Step 3	The stereotypical criminal…	·         Male ·         Strength (mind and body) ·         Dark clothing
	The stereotypical victim…	·         Physically weaker ·         Light clothing- suggests being pure and innocent ·         Females and/or children.

 

Question 1-

Here is a PowerPoint of question 1...

Updated format choices-

I have now changed my formats for each question...

1. PowerPoint
2. Table (Microsoft Word)
3. Prezi (Mind-map)
4. Video
5. Poster
6. Audio
7. Go Animate

Problems With The Formats-

Looking into each format, I discovered a few problems with my original formats that I chose.
I found that Slideshare and PowerPoint is the same format
I also found it hard to plan with some questions on certain formats so I'm now changing them so that I will be able to plan and answer the questions given.

Formats-

                                                                       Question 1... (powerpoint)

                                                       Question 2... (mind-map)- Prezi

Question 3... (slideshare)

Question 4... (video)

Question 5... (directors commentary)

Question 6... (audio)

Question 7... (go animate)

My feeling towards the questions-

I feel like some questions are harder than others especially when each format of the answer to the questions must be different. Although I have had difficultly choosing what format for what question I think I'm now happy with my final choice.
I think that once I've started the evaluation questions I'll settle in more and be more comfortable with each question.

7 Question Evaluation-

The next few posts will be my evaluation or about it and research on the first 2 minutes of my film.
Each answer needs to be shown in a different way (meaning that none can be the same) they can be shown through a PowerPoint, mind-map (prezi), audio etc...

The 7 questions for the evaluation that need to be answered are...

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract / address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Final Product-

 

Here is my final product of Three's A Crowd...

 

 

Feedback from youtube-

On YouTube I have had over 80 views and 5 likes.
I have uploaded this on YouTube so that I can get a wider audience feedback from a range of people that I don't even know.

 

Uploading-

I have now uploaded the film to YouTube and burned it to a DVD. I have asked for feedback from YouTubers, of what they liked/ disliked about the thriller opening scene.

Editing & adding Music-

I found 'Dark atmospheric' on youtube, I uploaded this to the scene to build the sondtracks and in doing so this creates more tension without turning film into a horror. I personally like this as makes you feel more connected to the victim with the music it makes it feel like she is alone

Editing tweaks-

Today i have been editing and brushing up the final touches of the opening scene. I have edited the title so that it now zooms into the screen.
I have also sorted out the ident so that it doesnt look like it starts in the middle of the footage, the extreme close up of the eye.

Feedback on tweaks (titles)-

I showed the my lastest edits to a small independent audience, the latest edit was making the ident zoom out. They liked the changes I made.
"The ident looks better now as there is more to it and it doesn't look like it has started half way through the footage"

Final Editing-

Today I have been sorting out the final tweaking of the opening scene.

I sorted out the Main title, making it look even more bold and i have used some transituions for teh opening credits (at the end) i used a zoom for all makes look draemlike thriller effective white colour.

Adding & Editing Music/Sound effects-

Throughout all our editing process we have been altering and downloading sound effects and music. We made sure that all our sounds are royalty free by asking the person who uploaded it or searching for royalty free music.

• We started by increasing some of our ambient sounds on our footage.
• We then searched on YouTube for copyright free Thriller background music- we found a  'psychotic thriller sound effect' which was perfect for our Psychotic Thriller. This is the most used piece of music which starts when the victim first enters on the screen.

• Later on we found 'Creeping in the Woods' which sounded good for our titles at the end (before we changed all the titles) it gave the clip suspense but when we looked more deeply into it the music made the clip look to horror-like so we decided to cut it. (Listen to the track above)

•  A few sessions later we found 'Only one- piano cover'.(Listen to it above) This song reminds me of being alone and upset which is why I first thought of this song to put in. I knew this was a slow song but it was a trial and error situation. I thought it could go well if we choose to make any sort of flashback or when the victim was making tea, but in the end it wasn't suitable.

• In the next editing session I found 'Dramatic music for ending' this makes our opening scene finish very dramatically. This music is perfect for when the victim turns around and gasps at the camera and as the victim goes to open the door the music builds up tension, great for a climactic ending getting the audience asking questions. (Music above)

After looking for the music we started looking for sound effects to create more tension throughout the clip.

• We started by looking for a gun shot for when the victim gets dragged of by the kidnapper and gets pulled of the screen. Poppy found a 'Realistic gun shot sound' so we used that after double-checking that it wasn't copyrighted.
• Then I started looking for running sound effects but we there were none that fitted my speed of running so we just increased the volume in some places for ambient sounds.
• I then looked for a heartbeat for when the victim is crouched behind a tree. This creates tension and makes the clip look more like a Thriller.

Changes made after 2nd audience feedback-

After our 2nd lot of feedback we choose to keep some things as its our own personal view on it and we changed a few things:

We took out one of the whispering sound effects and turned down the volume of the others.

Me taking out the sound effect.

We also edited our main title so that you could see the writing clearer...

Before

After

2nd Audience feeback session-

After showing our same audience as last time our Thriller clip with the improvement they suggested they were quite happy with the outcome.
My partner and I asked them to look at the transition as we had become unsure of it, the results are as follows:

• The majority of the group didn't like it as the transition was placed randomly without any others. They said that the pace of it was good and it fitted with the music perfectly but if we weren't going to have any others of the same or similar transitions it would be best to remove it.

The other idea's they said were:

• Make the main title more clear/visible
• Have the whispering voice quieter

Today's Editing-

During today's sessions we have added a 'Zoom & Pan' transition to our clip whilst the victim is running by the canal.
We also finished our ident, Eyemazing Media by adding a 'Ripple' effect to it at the beginning. This makes the Ident look more professional with the equipment we used.

This is our transition:

 

Changes made after 1st feedback session-

Since our 1st audience feedback session my partner and I have changed:
(not all of the following was discussed as feedback, my partner and I changed them on our own accord)

• The Ident- taking off the frame as it looked tacky.
• Moved a shot to another place so that the footage ran more smoothly.
• Added a whispering sound to make the chase scene more dreamlike and so it would fit in with the music later on after the main character wakes up.
• Added more opening credits in at the end of the clip.
• Changed the size and font of the title to set the mood of the full film (even though you only see two mintues of it).
• Taken out some of the footage (making tea after waking up) as it was too long winded and made the opening sequence lose some effect. After taking this out we had 2 minutes altogether proving the tea shots were too long.
• finally putting the actors names' on the footage instead of a separate shot making it look more professional and to cut some time off.

Ident (draft)-

Here is a video of our Ident, Eyemazing Media so far...

We still need to work on it to make it look more effective but because of the low-key lighting around the eye the Ident looks quite effective and professional already.

Decisions on our Ident-

After putting the music to half the Ident, Eyemazing Media we thought about our first plan of having the ident start as a mosaic picture of an eye then fade it into a real eye whilst zooming in.
We decided not to have the mosaic eye picture because the real eye looks effective enough without it.

We also talked about having two Idents. Our final decision is not to have two, as it isn't needed but in the footage we will put two productions to make it look more professional.

editing our ident-

We started off with a frame around my eye whilst zooming in but with some further editing the frame made the whole Ident look tacky and it lost some of it's effect so I took it out.
We now have the a faint flashing light in the pupil of my eye and it slowly zooms in. We think this looks a lot better and the music added makes the Ident suitable for the Thriller genre as it builds tension.

Making our Ident-

Here is a photo and video of Poppy and I creating our Ident (Eyemazing Media)-

 

Audenice Feedback-

We have shown what we have of our thriller clip so far and we have been given some feedback from the class...

Good Points-

• Good suspense music
• Good camera angles

Where in need of Improvement-

• Cut tea making scene
• Speed up footage (chase scenes)
• Put titles at end

Opening Scene so far-

This is what our opening scene looks like so far.
We still need to add more shots in and finish the editing.

Re-filming

We have now re-filmed our opening scene and this time it has run more smoothly as we knew exactly what shots we wanted and we were able to film all 49 shots in roughly 2 hours making sure there were no mistakes.

updated costume-

 I am wearing light coloured clothes to show that I'm the victim, and I am innocent.
My clothes are muddy and bloody to show I am being chased and I am panicking.

Poppy is wearing dark coloured clothes to represent the stereotypical "bad guy"- hoodie and baggy trousers, to show the they don't care about the law (or anything).
Poppy's clothes are a little cleaner to show that she is chasing me and that she is calmer.

More film editing-

My partner and I now know clearly which shots we will be retaking, cutting, and adjusting to make our Thriller as professional as possible.
Today on Final Cut Pro, we have been sorting out our title sequence. We have a black background and have the actors names, camera crew, etc. being written on the screen as a typewriter. We then added a sound effect of an electric typewriter for each time there were words appearing on the screen.

final draft (Idents)-

Our Ident now starts with a black screen and ripples out into the eye with the words Eyemazing media.

1st Draft (idents)

This is our 1st draft of our Idents, we are thinking about doing two different idents to make our opening sequence look more professional and effective.

ident research other genre-

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and division of The Walt Disney Studios, owned by The Walt Disney Company.
This is defiantly not for thriller films as it is too light-hearted and more for family films.

The colours used are darkish but very dream-like making it more light-hearted so you wouldn't expect a horror picture afterwards.
the lettering is silver which gives the sense of royalty and how long it has been going for. (founded- 1950 but the ident has been upgraded over the years)
You feel happy and relaxed before the film starts thanks to the music used and gentle use of the camera shots.
the overall colours are unisex to make both males and females interested in the film.

ident research thriller genre-

Syncopy Inc.  is a British film production company based in London.
This Ident is most commonly partnered with Legendary Pictures to produce (examples) Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises.

These are all thriller films which is why Syncopy is used.

The use of "Syn" relates to being cynical.
The use of white and black colours to show danger and how the letters come out of a maze shows a sense of mystery which it perfect for thriller films. (gets you asking questions before the film has begun)

editing-

We have come across some problems during our editing process. Some camera shots don't link in with the next shot which makes it look very unprofessional so my partner and I will be retaking some of the shots. Also we were in a race against time so some shots you couldn't even see as it was so dark which is another reason to retake them.

props and costume-

For props, my partner and I used a log/stick when I slipped down the hill to help me get up quickly and again when I fought back when I was being attacked. Then we used a glass for when my character needed a drink.
For costume, we edited our old clothes by making them muddy and put fake blood on my top and skin for more effect.

Filming process-

We are used a tripod and video camera to record our opening scene.
During the filming we changed a few shots so that our clip would flow better, (example: we took out the hiding behind a tree)(example: We took out the train track as there would be too many 'jump cuts' and will make it look confusing)
The outcome looked fine but we will be able to see more clearly weather or not we need to re-film when we start editing it on final cut pro at college.

Detailed planning-

Here is a video of us drawing a mind map of us planning the clip-

Photo storyboard-

Here is a slideshow of the photographic storyboard..
This has been made using Windows Movie Maker.

storyboard

Final Draft of Shooting Script-

I have now finished my shooting  script by adding the notes my teacher gave me to improve.

1st Draft of shooting script-

 

 

 

 

This is our 1st draft of our shooting script, with improvement notes.

 

Audience feedback on our Pitch-

 

Here is a video on our audience feedback from our pitch.

 

 

The pitch-