Final Cut

Evaluation question 7

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

Prelim task
Our prelim task was set at our school where we had a routine of stage directions and dialogue, this meant that we had a basic script to learn from so that we could get our shots right and position ourselves correctly. The prelim task was hard to do because of the short notice to learn about how to use the equipment and where to position ourselves so that we got the correct shot and the best possible one that we could get. We had a series of shots to get and then we would have to edit them together so that the prelim task was ready to be evaluated by our teacher.
This became difficult because we didnt really know how to use the software in order to edit the film together and we used a piece of software called Premier Pro. We found it really hard to grasp how to use this and how we would set up the shots and in which order we should put them in.

Hunted First Cut

Hunted First Cut 

February feedback

Your web-log looks good and now needs completing.  Ensure that creative technologies have been used to present your evaluation.

Complete the evaluation fully

Put the preliminary task and your production as last posts then the questions

Add any extra elements to the research and planning.

Set targets for what you need to do over half-term to fully complete the coursework

Evaluation Question 6

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

Hardware 

To start with we used a Mac Book pro to develop our productions and store all the data from our recordings on here. This is because people see Mac Books as being better as your standard PC so I wanted to know why.
The main reasons that we used these expensive pieces of hardware is because they aesthetically look nice so people naturally know the quality that the apple products possess so people want to learn how to use them for any future function.
They are so much more quicker at loading files that you have already saved to certain pieces of software on the piece of technology. The different software that we needed in order to edit different clips together etc. needed this type of hardware because they would load the content more efficiently nearly instantly sometimes. As well as this the software on the Macs offer a lot more options on how you can chop and change certain things, so even though some things are in different places to the PC's its because they have probably moved in order to add something new into the software.
With a Mac it is so much easier to do certain tasks at the same time because of the screen being so big and broad you can fit loads of different screens on one, this means you can check different actions that happen on different pieces of software that you can check.  With these different functions and option that it offers you it means that you can try a load of different things with the software and have a mess around with a lot more different actions that you can command it to do.

Software 

After Effects 

We used this piece of software for the opening of our film in order to create the tile sequence with our production name and title of the film.  This meant that we needed to learn how to use the software as it requires you to open up your own template and size of how big you want the title at the start. As you can see the screen is blank when you open it and requires you to set your own timeline of what will happen on the screen and when. We learnt the different ways of being able to add affects onto the title by watching certain youtube videos that really did come in handy at stages where we needed it to, this meant we do our title in half the time than what it would of took us to figure out how to use it ourselves. After watching the videos and using a good two hour period of time during lesson we decided what our title would look like and how we wanted it to be set up.
We decided that our title should break out into little pieces and then come back as one with a little flash to enhance the text from the dark background. This to the left is where the title breaks off but like I said before we needed a little flash on the screen so that it would be visible.

We then had to import our title into our main task which was the opening sequence to our film ans that is exactly what we did.This was also the name of the productions fro the film and this was meant to be at the start of the film.

Premiere 

This was the other piece of software that we used in order to put all the shots together and edit bits out whilst adding ones in. Firstly we would take all the shots on the camera that we used to record the shots and then we needed to plug in the memory card into the back of the Macs and then save all the recordings onto the Mac so that we could import them onto this piece of software. After we had done this we could now start changing the different shots and add affects onto them all. We would set all the shots apart from one another on our own timeline that we made on premiere pro, then we would edit them so that we had the same shot but from various angles and shot types so that it looked like a cinematic film production and looked very professional.
The timeline also helped when we needed to overlay audio sounds such as when the character is in a dream and he hears voices, as well as this we also added in background noise so the sound of movement was apparent to give off that dream/imaginary feeling

Coursework feedback

Research and Planning - 11

The research and planning is partially incomplete, but much of the work that is complete is detailed and focussed. There is excellent work into similar products, showing a real understanding of the task. However there is no attempt to look into potential target audiences. The organisation of actors, locations etc is also lacking, but there is a proficient storyboard. Overall there is a good level of care and presentation of the work that is there, but this blog is let down by the lack of audience research and organisation of the shoot.  

Main Task – 38

There is evidence of a reasonably proficient ability to produce material appropriate for the target audience and task. The titles follow conventions, but the editing shows limited only skill in the ability to build up meaningful sequences that convey meaning to the audience. There is a reasonably wide variety if shots and framing. Some shots don’t work, including the shot of a phone that has a reflection across it. At times it looks too much like a trailer as the narrative is not entirely clear. There is limited content and it’s questionable whether the ‘dream’ works. However the camera work is controlled and the sound is well devised, building up tension across the piece.

Evaluation question 3

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

Different companies make different genre films, the reason that they do this is because they attract different people and audiences. An example of this would be that a horror genre will attract teenagers and young adults, where as a sy-fy film such as Spiderman ad the rest of the super hero genre will attract younger kids around the age of 10. However some genres like the superhero genre actually attract a very wide range of audiences as older more so males are still very much attracted to these types of films. In some cases older males who are really interactive with this type of genre of film even collect that characters and figures from stores and keep them.

Our film is related to the well know film of Taken, this would mean that our film would not be produced by the a massive company such as the Warner bros. because they are more situated with Noir film genres and older aged films. I think that our film should be related to more of the 20th century fox this is because it is a relatively modernised film and because we are comparing to the likes of Taken who are associated with this parent company I think that it would be best for us to choose a similar if not the same company because we then show a comparison with the same genre of film.

Distribution

Individual distributors may release one or two films but it has been recorded that some companies have released up to 25 sometimes 30 a week ! this would then average out to over 500 films a year. In the UK on average there are 10 films released every week some by major companies like the 20th century fox or Warner bros. However some of them are released by very small companies which is why it never seems like there are a lot of films being released and this is because they are really small companies don't have an opportunity to be signed up by the parent companies so we do not hear of them being advertised or being shown in the cinema. All media is owned by a company such as television programmes or films etc.The company that owns this has the right to publish, distribute and manipulate their work in order to make profit for the next piece of work. When a major company like Warner bros. are interested in investing into a book to make a film or a comic they have to have permission of the author as it is their intellectual property therefore they have the right to say yes or no o the deal that is offered to them. An example of this would be that the Warner bros. brought the first 4 Harry Potter books for over £1 mil. However the offer can be revoked because the contract that is signed which completes the deal also has a time limit meaning that if the film is not made within the next 2-3 years then the author also has the right to revoke the decision and sell it to someone else in order to receive their money.

Exhibition 

Exhibition is where the film is actually shown or consumed by the audience and this can be done in many differnt ways as listed below:
-Downloading of the internet
-PC
-Smart Phone (Mobile phone)
-Hard drive on gaming console
-Streaming on PC
-Sometimes people do Piracy but this is illegal
These are the many different ways of getting the production to the audience quickly, after the film is released it then usually takes the process of being released on DVD or Blu-Ray but then after a this is done it can then be viewed on the television.

Evaluation question 4&5

Who would be the audience for your media product ?

Our target audience for the media product would be teenagers through to young adults. This is because we are using little features of violence throughout the media product which is not suitable for younger people. However because the girl who is being taken away from her beloved home is a teenager we think that the target audience is more suitable for the teenagers of this generation . However we also think that the product is aimed for younger adults as they will still want to watch films that bring adrenalin to the viewers and get them pulsating thinking about what will happen next.
We also came to the conclusion within our group that we should pick a thriller genre as we thought that it would reach out to a wider audience and this would attract more viewers to the opening of our film. By picking a thriller we have targeted an audience that can range from teenagers to adults as they will all want a film that builds up the tension and gives them that feeling that makes them sit on the edge of their seat.
To find information on what target audience we should look at we done some research within the group to see what typical age categories are for a thriller. This was a good choice because now we knew why this was the age category that it was, we knew that it was because it involved violence within the film and sometimes the violence can be of extreme measures in the film. Within the film opening we showed areas of violence through texting and verbal violence to one another and then physical violence when the kidnapper comes and takes the girl.
We used the time that we had in order to carry out this research 

How did you attract/address your audience ? 

We attracted our audience by using certain conventions from the thriller genre. We used a black and white scheme to open up with in our film opening. This gave off the effect that it does have the horror thriller vibe as this follows the conventions slightly. We used a young cast f two characters within the film, this suggests that we are reaching out to the younger people to watch this film. This is also targeting the audience that like  bit of horror throughout the film, by doing this we used a young girl to get taken away from her home and young girls follow the conventions of the horror genre as they are usually he horror itself.

We have compare our film to demographics shown on a website called YouGov, this website gives you a profiler which allows you to see statistics about a certain film that is similar to your own. In this instance we used Taken as our example and this brought up different statistics saying that people between he age of 25-39 as the main target audience however i have to disagree with what this says as i think that people who are much younger around the age 15/16 would watch this as it is more popular in the younger generations.

As you can see this site also shows the region that people are from around the country and the demographics show that Taken is mostly watched in the midlands of the country.
We used conventions from the Taken film such as the fact that a young girl is taken away room her family and home where she is staying, and then it is a person who is male who is very close with the girl either in a relationship as a friend or lover or is even part of her family.
This is also a 

Evaluation question 1&2

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media conventions?

Within the thriller genre there are many different conventions that are involved.These are as follows :

- Creating suspense within the film

I think that our film has followed these conventions very well as we have included them within our film. We have created suspense where the girl is kidnapped from her house at the end of the introductory to the film. The girl is taken out of her home and we have a backing track to go with this that builds towards this moment. As you can see from here we have shot this from the side of the girl, this is too hide the villains face because this also follows other conventions such as mystery. As well as this all you can see is the build of the villain who is bigger than the girl which represents power in the villain leading to the girl not having a chance of fighting back.

- The thriller genre includes an enigma or some sort of problem

Like before the problem being in our film is hat the girl is taken from her home however there is also the 'hero' who will be the problem solver within the film, this also follows he conventions of the genre because thrillers also have a hero within the films who is usually distant or very self centered until the problem is escalated.

- Thrillers involve violence as this is the main problem that it is revolved around

Within the opening of our film we can see different forms of violence in two different places, this is from the text that is sent fro the male to the females phone where he says that he doesn't want her to speak to him again, this can be seen as verbal violence as it can be taken quite offensively however the physical violence where the girl is taken is the key factor in the opening of our film.

-A male who is the hero and only he can solve the problem

This is shown in our film where we have used a male character who has been in a relationship with the girl who has been taken and he is he one who is destined to save the girl from what has happened, he is the one who is going to solve the problem. 

How did we revise or alter the productions throughout the process ?

We chopped and changed some of our productions, this involved the format in which the order we decided to film the production. We decided that we would take all of the production from the start to the end but we stopped at some of the points so that we could take another shot from possibly a different angle or a complete new shot, by doing this it allowed us to put all the shots together and edit them into one another.
We would go through the shots to make sure that they were useful enough to go into the production however if we found that they weren't then we wouldn't use them and delete them once we put them on the computer. This is because if we deleted them whilst on the camera even though they didn't look good on the camera by themselves when edited with some other shots they might come in handy to us and become useful.