REACTION #1

Reaction from a member of the secondary target audience to my final piece.

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

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

I have become much more competent in using a Macbook Pro and Software such as LiveType, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and Logic. Evidence of some of the techniques I used are shown in the screenshots below.

This shot shows me using final cut to edit my film opening.  

These two screenshots show how I was able to convert video into a .mov file from final cut. 

This shot shows me using SoundTrack Pro, I decided soon after that using Logic would be a better option for my film opening as I knew there were synths in the software that I wanted to use in my piece.  

This is a shot of me using Logic to compose the soundtrack to my piece. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

Please open this video in a new tab and watch on YouTube in order to view the annotations. 

Who would be the target audience for your media product ?

PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE
Name: Tom
Age: 18
Lives: Leamington Spa
Dress/Style: Has tattoos, piercings, and usually wears skinny jeans and band shirts. 
Hobbies: Going to gigs, parties, drawing, Gaming, seeing his girlfriend and watching films.
Shops at: Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters, Vans, Converse.
Favourite Films: The Thing, The Shining, IT, Childs Play, Saw.
Favourite Bands: Lamb of God, Anthrax, The Descendants, Carnifex. Mainly Metal or Rock music, and usually not mainstream or chart music.
I think the film would appeal to Tom because of his interest in psychological thrillers and horror films, as well as the fact he fits into the stereotype that would most likely be associated with the kind of film I have made.

SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE

Name: Kate

Age: 17 

Lives: Banbury 

Dress/Style: Has long hair, piercings, and dresses mainly grunge style clothing that is alternative. 

Hobbies: Going to gigs, shopping with friends, seeing her boyfriend, watching films. 

Shops at: TopShop, Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic. 

Favourite Films: A clockwork orange, Requiem for a dream, Tank Girl, StepBrothers 

Favourite Bands: The Dead Weather, Band of Skulls, Blood Red Shoes. Mainly rock/bluesy music that involves women. 

I think the film would appeal to Kate as a secondary target audience because she will want to go and see it with Tom (her boyfriend). The secondary target audience is represented through the barbie doll who I have purposely dressed in an exaggerated grunge style. The character who dies at the end of the opening is also a girl of a similar age and this is also representative of the secondary target audience and therefore would make Kate want to see the film. 

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Instead of using human characters to depict social groups in my piece, I decided it would be more challenging and effective to use a doll instead. I coloured in her hair and make it look straw-like, and gave her 'tattoos'. I also ripped her clothes and made her make up heavier in order to represent her 'edgy'. This look is used successfully in the film 'run lola run', where lola also has the same bright, yet edgy looking hair. It is also a very similar look used for most of girls shot in the film opening to Blade.

I also decided that the hand I used for the 'murder' victim would be that of a young person. This contradicts my research and planning, however I decided it would be more relevant to my target audience (teenage boys with a secondary target audience of teenage girls), if the murder victim was of a similar age. The only way I would depict the age was through the hand and therefore it was of upmost importance that the hand looked like it was a 'young' hand. 

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

Evaluation question 1

View more PowerPoint from Eb Hill

FINAL PRODUCT

Disturbance

Rough Cut

Rough Cut

I've had a problem with the quality of this clip, mainly due to the reasons I mentioned in the progress post before. However I was determined to meet this deadline for the rough cut- and I actually think the bad quality supports the overall atmosphere of the clip. I hope you enjoy.

PLAN

I drew up a plan today of how I intend to edit my final piece. I want to be really specific about what happens during my film opening and therefore a plan in this format will be particularly useful to me, as apposed to a conventional storyboard.

Progress

I had everything planned shoot all the footage of my film today (8th Jan). I was planning to get the ingredients for fake blood after work and then go home to shoot, however about an hour and a half into my shift the shopping centre set on fire and we were evacuated from the building. Luckily, no one was hurt and the centre re-opened by the end of the day, however most shops stayed closed until the next day (Mon 9th Jan).

Although I got to go home an hour early from work, it does mean that my filming has to be postponed. This should not effect the time in which I have to edit it, as I have done ample research and am confident as to what editing techniques I wish to apply when I finally have footage to edit. I am planning to proceed with the filming this coming weekend (14-15th), leaving me plenty of time to finish my rough-cut before the 30th. Below is a link to the article that outlines what happened. 

Article on fire in Banbury

Hand Casting

In order for my final piece to show the right connotations of a thriller genre, I need to ensure that the hand that falls at the end of the scene is the right kind of hand. I have done some casting in order to make sure that most types of hand are accounted for, with an evaluation of each as to how successful I think they would be in my film opening. I'm looking for a preferably older female hand which is quite dark in complexion and not conventionally "dainty" or "pretty". When it comes to the actual filming, I wish to make the hand up to look like it's callused and dirty and cut, therefore I want the hand I use to be able to carry off this with the least amount of makeup possible.

 I think that this hand is a quite successful hand for the criteria I have for my opening. The complexion is similar to that of which I would want, and the fingernails are quite rounded and not too long- connoting masculinity. Although this hand would be very successful in my piece, the skin is still quite taut. This connotes that the person is quite young, which is a feature I do not want to get across in my film.

 These hands are quite long and elegant, and would therefore be easy to position when filming. However, there are many features to these hands that imply quite clearly that they belong to younger females- and are certainly too elegant and dainty for the character I wish to portray in my film opening. The complexion of both hands are too pale and the fingernails have been filed (and painted), again connoting too much femininity. These hands would not be successful in my opening because they do not portray the type of character I wish to portray in my film opening.

Although this hand fits some of the criteria for the hand I wish to use, I do not feel it would be entirely successful for the task I wish to fulfill. The hand is of a similar complexion to the one I wish to use, however I think it is slightly too pale in comparison to hand 1, for example. The skin on this hand is flawless and connotes innocence to an extent I would not wish to show in my final piece. Although this is a male hand, the fingers are long and elegant, thus connoting an innocent and kind character further. If I was to use this hand, I would have use lots of makeup in order to create the look that I want in my piece, and this would be inefficient in terms of both time and money. 

Consideration Presentation

It's important I think about a range of different aspects when executing my final piece. This presentation takes those aspects into more detail.

My final piece on Prezi

Final Idea

As discussed previously, I think that my final piece would be most effective if it was in the genre of thriller. My market research states that people who enjoy thrillers enjoy them more for the suspense than action, and therefore I will aim to achieve this in my final piece. I decided that I didn't want to include any dialogue, or even a particular main character in my film opening. I also decided that my opening will only include a shot of a room, rather than many location or too many shots of a location. I understand that this is a very unusual way to compose a film opening, even in the world outside of media AS, however I believe that making a film opening this way will be the most effective in creating suspense- which was a point that was bought up again and again throughout my market research.
My final idea, therefore, consists of a worms eye view shot of the floor of a dimly lit room. My piece will be 2 minutes long, and throughout that time the camera will flicker every now and again, there will be some movement noises and some incidental music (both of which will be described in more depth in later posts). Near the end of the 2 minutes, "blood" will start to run across the floor- this suspense will be built up by a slight change of incidental music and literally seconds before the end a hand (and maybe the top of someone's head) will fall to the floor. The image will then cut to black and the title will fade onto the screen (Typography and other editing details, as well as lighting, locations and shots will also be described in further detail). Throughout the 2 minutes, opening credits will also appear that will establish the main actors, the director, and production teams.
I wish for the room to appear empty and give the illusion of a spacious and neglected area, as this gives connotations of a thriller and therefore relate to my target audience. I want the floor of the room to be specifically non-carpeted (and preferably a light colour), so that the "blood" that runs across the floor really stands out as a main focal point of my final piece.
I would like the hand that falls at the end of the piece to specifically be the hand of a male, preferably a large hand which looks callused and dirty. A hand of the such will connote that the person who died was strong and therefore the murder was not easy to commit, hence hinting towards a possible plot for my film.
My main influences are works of Stanley Kubrick and Shane Medows. In the case of Kubrick, I'm influenced by his ability to create dark and mysterious situations through beautifully artistic shots. As for Medows I love the fact that most of his work feels rustic and almost home-made, however this is only achieved through careful consideration and planning when it comes to cinematography. I wish to incorporate features from both styles into my work in order to create a successful, and hopefully very different take on a thriller film opening.

Typography in live type

As I now have a possible title for my film, I have been able to set myself a preliminary task that involves learning how to use the livetype software, and to experiment with different fonts that may or may not compliment my final piece. As I am aware little will be done in the way of editing my footage (excluding filters, ligthing effects, and the soundtrack however), the typography will be a specifically vital asset to my final piece. I wish to use a font that is unique to this film, and put into a real life setting could be used as part of a house style to support the marketing and promotion of the film.

This font, "A charming font", may work quite successfully in my film opening. However, I think that people would associate this kind of font more with the icons of horror (Vampires etc). I think that the purple works much better than the blue, however neither colour is suitable for my final piece as I think neither look professional enough to be suitable for my final piece. I think that making the 'T' a different colour may be an effective way to hint at a possible plot, however. Overall, I don't like this font or the colours used and I will not consider developing it for my final piece. I have also decided from evaluating these two fonts that I should limit or prohibit using colour in my fonts. My final font will be either black or white.

I prefer this font to the first font, however I think that if I were to use this font I would have to put a lot of editing into it to give it the look I want for my final piece. Using this font has confirmed my wish to use either black or white as the colour, I think that this will make my final piece look much more professional. I don't like the rounded corners in this particular font, I think that to give the proper connotations of fear and distress, my font will have to have edges- and preferably serifs.

I think that this is the most successful font so far. I like the fact that it looks as if it's been brushed onto the screen, and this connotation would fit with my genre of thriller. I also like the fact that this font has sharper edges, it looks much more professional.
On the other hand, I don't think that this font is unique enough to use as it looks now. I want a font that is easily distinguishable and can be transferred into marketing and the promotion of the film.

Experiment with lighting, soundtrack and typography.

This video has been annotated to explain my intentions, specifically when it came to the lighting aspect.
I also took some photographs of how I set up the shots in order to explain how I made the video further.

Lighting and Sound influence.

My final idea has been heavily influenced by the work of Stanley Kubrick, particularly when considering the lighting and sound. I watched the film "Full Metal Jacket" over the christmas holidays and was drawn to a scene that was created specifically to create the kind of tension I wish to achieve in my final piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysRLZIlcQsU

I love how the torch acts as the eyeline in the first few shots, meaning that the low key lighting can be exceptionally dark in order to create the greatest amount of tension possible, enhancing the effect on the audience. This method is again effective when the torch shifts the focus from Pyle's face to him loading the rifle, even though the lighting in the background isn't quite so low key. "Natural" light from the window reflected on the white wall is used to light up Joker's face, which is also a good method of creating focus in a situation of low key lighting.

I also like how the soundtrack to scene has no rhythm and sounds like a tap dripping (connoting horror/thriller genre)- this makes the audience feel uneasy and has a massive effect on the whole scene. 

In my own piece, I wish to create an opening scene which is uncomfortable to watch by using lighting and sound techniques similar to ones featured in this scene. 

Experiment with montage editing

Montage editing is something that is used conventionally in film openings, particularly thrillers.
I created this film in order to experiment and get some further practice with filming and editing techniques.
The video is annotated

FIRE - A montage edit

Soundtrack experiment- Execution

In order to create the soundtrack for my piece, I will use the software Soundtrack Pro. This is because this particular software is simple to use and is especially created for editing with Final Cut Pro, which is the software I will use to edit my piece once I have the final footage. So that I know how to use the software properly, I've set myself a task of changing the mood of a piece of footage that I took using only the soundtrack. The piece of film I used for this task is a piece of outtake footage from the preliminary task back in September. I decided to use this piece of film because it's blurry and there is nothing really going on, therefore it wouldn't distract from the soundtrack- however it is still easy to detect atmosphere changes  in the clip.

 In order to create my soundtracks, I would find an instrument bed or envelope that I liked the sound of, and then simply drag it into the track, as shown in the screenshot above. I then cut the lengths of the beds in order to fit with the kind of atmosphere I was creating.

Once I was happy with the soundtrack I had created, I then exported it onto my desktop, as shown above, in order to be able to use it in final cut.

 This is a screen shot of the thriller inspired soundtrack I made. In order to make the film itself a little more reflective of the genre and therefore ensure the soundtrack sounded successful, I mixed parts of the film up to jump cut as the music jumps.