Tuesday 8 May 2012

Storyboarding.


shot #1 - mid shot of Amelia on the bridge.

 
shot #2- Amelia on the bridge, mid-shot from the left side


shot #3 - close up on Amelia's feet walking




















Editing

When we got all our footage together we started to build a timeline up, using Adobe Premier Pro and with the help of our storyboards we put together what we wanted to put across to an audience, yet when putting it down on the timeline, some errors occured and we could see that our film wouldn't be exact to the storyboards because it didn't work out.

more opening sequences

As we decided to work within the genre of, British Realism Drama. we began to look at the opening sequences related to this genre.

Trainspotting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf_WiEb9Qs

This opening that we looked at goes witht the generic conventions of a British Drama, using every day places, and everyday people... From the beginning it is made clear that this is going to be a personal stuggle with drugs, and being around people that have a bad effect. Although the storyline appears to identify serious issues, the opening is quite up beat, with the song and fast paced running through the streets and the harshness of the drugs contrast with some humour portrayed through the characters.



This Is England:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpJ4ZuFP8E


This opening differs from Trainspotting, although, again it shows a normality about people and places, it contrast, like a montage of British culture in the 80's, it works effectivley with the title of the film 'This Is England' showing in the opening what England actually is. Again with an up beat light song, the issues that the films crosses isn't addressed too much in the opening, and although it doesn't do this, an audience still want to watch more.

Evaluation 7

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


When beginning the AS Media coursework, we were set to do a preliminary task to get used to the equipment and the onto continuinty editing, using the camera we tried the different angles, such as long-shot, mig-shot, close-up, over the shoulder, two-shot, these angles all very important in identifying conventions in films, and also I could show and audience what I wanted them to see.





Throughtout the process I have learnt many things like using the specialised computer and keyboard, and to use Adobe Premier and Photoshop which will then help me with further work in the future as I now have the skills I need to edit, as well as the more technical things like importing and exporting files, JPEG and AVI files










Although it now sounds simple, we learnt how to use the tripod, so our footage wouldn't be shakey, which we used throughout our prelim, however when filming dead end we followed the character Amelia whilst walking, using hand held, this was to get the effect that people in the audience were walking with her, so it could have been effective to use in the prelim when Fliss was walking.







As we edited our Preliminary Task, it was a bit sketchy as we weren't that confident in using the effects as were when editing our film, such as the transistions of cross fades and dips to black with show the change in time which was cruicial to our story line, and with help of the storyboards, we knew that we had to use the variety of angles to portray what we wanted and to also make the film more interesting.
Also, by the reserch into different genres and film openings, I have more creativity into creating a storyline to a film, and learning techniques that will keep an audience interested and entertained.

Evaluation 3

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

As our film 'Dead End' is a British Social Realism Drama, aimed at a British audience, I think that the media institution that might produce and fund our film would be, Channel 4 or Film4, as these institutions produce films like ours, such as. This Is England, Trainspotting, Fish Tank, Four Lions. Although to get these films into the cinemas, the companies have to use distributors like Warp Films, whom do infact distribute
  • This Is England
  • Four Lions
  • Subamrine
  • Paradise Lost

I think it would fit into Warp Films because our film 'Dead 'End' obviously isn't a high budget film, as Warp Films distribute the lower budget films. I would recommend our film production to be in the Warp company because 'Dead End' is a little rough and gritty, like This Is England.. It's not going to be in the same league as the big budget films like Avatar, this is because companies like 20th Century Fox or Univeral produce and distribute to a much wider audience, they are far more successful and they make their films out more world wide to the public and therefore they have bigger success, as they can afford to do this, therefore they can spend more money on their films and publish it to a wider range, and then this would lead to more profit, our film production might not be as successful in this company, as there isn't glitz and glamour and the Hollywood effect like the films that produce have, with big effects and technologies.

Evaluation 6

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

Throughout the process of contructing our AS media project, from the beginning we learnt about the different film institutions in the industry as we would have to aim our film to one, like for our film Warp Films.


We also looked into how to direct the piece in different camera angles, such as, a range of close ups, mid-shots, long- shots, low-angle, high-angle over the shoulder shots and two shots, from a range of different angles, I could portray into how a character is feeling or, I could change the way in which I wanted the audience to feel about the characters, such as using a low angle shot on Amelia would portray a vunerability to her, as an audiece feel as though you are looking down on her.




Obviously we had to learn how to use the cameras and tripod, using a canon MD325 digital video camcorder and a Velbon DV 7000 Tripod, we intially learnt how to use the camera and tripod when filming our prelim video, where we practiced using different camera angles to form continuity editing.




 After filming our footage for both our prelim and our film, we then had to edit it, using Adobe Premier Pro, we could put our footage onto a timeline and edit in the way we wanted, we could also use a variety of effects such as, cross fade, dip to black, for video transitions, a cross fade for audio transitions and slowing some of the footage down. All these effects helped with continunity editing and made the film flow and look/sound alot better. We could also use titles, where we could put the Title of the film, actors names and
editors and directors. 


Computer used for editing


Picture of editing on Adobe Premier Pro


I also learnt how to do things like import JPEG files and importing things onto my timeline and to export also to AVI, as well as using Adobe Premier Pro, when designing our logo we uses Photoshop to edit and make it look how we wanted. We had to learn how to use this as I had never used it before, but after doing so we found it had all the effects we needed.


Photoshop:


Whilst doing all this I also learnt how to blog, as we had to post throughout making our project about how we were doing, what were were doing, planning, or any problems. We did this on blogspot.


Overall with all these new technologies, I was able to make the production everything I wanted it to be and make the film look better with varied effects.

Evalutation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

As we made a British Realism Drama, which is a popular genre amongst the middle and working class Britain, the film would automatically address this audience. As it alsom fulfills the many conventions of this genre such as:
  • Ordinary People
  • Ordinary Settings
  • Social Issues
  • High Emotions
  • Personal Stuggle
  • Drugs/Alcohol.
As we showed students from Thomas Whitham Sixth Form at the age of 18 and over, and the older people in our families, we asked what attracted them in the film.
After doing this, the feedback that we got in the interest of our film, is how the way we have scripted the film, we also found out that the way we started the film with the ending, gripped them from the start as then they wanted to know what happened, as we found also on our feedback on Facebook.


I think the attraction an audience would have to our film would be in the way, everything is real and can be believed in, and some people may even relate to the issues provoked. Using everyday characters also helps, even though there isn't a big star to attract a glitzy audience, this also makes for a more meaningful audience.

Evaluation 4

Who would be your audience for your film, and why?

The audience for our film 'Dead End' would be a 18+ aged middle/working class British audience, this is because at this age people will understand the topics the film portrays and the people of this class may be able to identify and relate to the issues presented. These types of lower budget films are mainly shown in the art houses in Britain and therefore have a smaller audience yet these films are successfully enjoyed by these people.

We showed a few of our friends the film and then asked them if they think it would be something they'd watch:



Sophie Kenyon, aged 18.

Although Sophie admits to liking films that are in the comedy and thriller genre, such as Step Brothers and Inception, after watching our opening she did say that she would like to watch this film, as after watching the film We Need To Talk About Kevin, also a lower budget British film, she now is liking this genre more and enjoying the films.






















Daniel Hobbs, aged 18.




Daniel is the type of person that would go and watch British Drama's as he enjoys the Brit Indie scene, in music and films. One of his favourite British Dramas would be 'Submarine', and so after watching our film he told us that it would definitley be something he'd enjoy.




















We didn't get chance to ask some older people to get a full overview of what type of audience would like out film so, I asked my Mum, Sharon Jenkins aged 42. Although she did like the opening to the film and thought it was an interestign concept, she enjoys the genres such as physcological thrillers, action and comedy films, and so it wouldn't be something that she would automatically pick out amongst the rest. This types of idea on an audience also helped us in aiming our film to a wider audience knowing who and what type of people will enjoy our film.

Evaluation 1

In what way does your film use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Our film 'Dead End' uses the generic conventions of the Drama genre, in using everyday places, with an everyday normal person we saw these typical conventions in Fish Tank, where like our film it uses and everyday girl, in an everyday poorer area, that faces some social issues.
Fish Tank

Dead End


Like other dramas our film also has a monologue to begin with, to make an audience know and feel how our character Amelia feels, as there aren't any other characters apparant. It is also quite an emotional monologue, like many dramas that provoke feelings.

In a typical British Drama, the storylines do tend to be similar to ours, relating to the harshness of everyday life for the less unfortunate people, and the troubles some people go through, and in this way we devolped on the idea of using topics of drugs, drink and young pregnancy and how our character Amelia reacts to these.

In our film, we didn't want everything to be a conventional drama, so when planning with our storyboards, we decided to use a post-modern idea of not having a linear storyline. So that the beginning of the film is also the ending, but then it goes back in time to the beginning to tell the story of how our character Amelia got there. This worked quite effectivley in the way that an audience would want to know what has happened/is going to happen.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Getting feedback

After uploading the video, after 18 views we got three very positive comments, showing that our video has been seen and people like how we have put it together.

Organising screening for feedback.



After we have finished our final cut of 'Dead End' we plan to upload the video to YouTube, and then share a link to Facebook and Twitter, so then we can get feedback on anything that may need to be changed and edited... We can also see then what people like about of opening.

Final Cut

Dead End - Final Cut

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

Atmospheric music

During all of the opening sequences to films there is atmospheric music, to give the film an extra effect and feel, depending on what you want to convey would depend what type of music needed, like for a thriller, music that creates tension would be needed. Or for action, something fast and up beat, and for horror maybe something that could represent someones fastened heart beat.


As at the beginning of our opening we use a voice over, but also have the song 'Do You Mind' by The XX which fades up with the voice over and also acts as a sound bridge with the sound effect of cars crashing through the transition of time.

Rights to the song:

I emailed The XX' management, to see if they had any problems in using the song, there was no reply, which would appear that they do not have any problems.