Interview - Feedback.

Here I did some interview with a variety of people who all fall under different age groups. I asked them about the opening sequence what they liked, what could be improved. Also would they go and watch the film if it was brought out at the cinema. Overall they all seemed to enjoy the opening sequence. One thing that my group and I noticed when we finished our opening was the credits and how a few of them needed to be more clear. This was one of the problems that we had with finalising our film. We had problems and lots of difficulties with Live type and once we had selected where we wanted the credits it made the transition of the credits really fast. At this stage there wasn't any thing that we could really go and do. But overall I'm happy that it has had a successful response.

As you can see from our proposed target audience our film falls under the correct category. The younger age group like it but they felt that they were to young. It was successful with the the suited target audience with 15-25 year olds. Also it was enjoyed by the older age group but the majority felt that they were too old and it was targeted more for a younger age group. So overall we were very successful with our target audience. 

Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task ( the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Picture 1- I really like this unique shot from my preliminary task
Picture 2 - Long shot from the preliminary task.

                                                                                   

The following pictures show some of the transitions and shots that we used for our opening sequence we had a lot more techniques and transitions and more precise cuts from my preliminary. Which mage the whole effect and execution run more smoothly and look more professional.

 

Here is the "Wash In" transition we used in our Opening Sequence.

Here is a close up of Beth Marwolaeth.

Here is the establishing shot of Beth Marwolaeth.





Overall I have learnt so much from the preliminary task and have learnt how to execute certain shots and how to resolve problems when filming.

The camera work for our Opening Sequence was considerably better. After re-watching my preliminary task it made me realised how much I have improved. For example the zoom was really messy and some of the shots were really unsteady. The editing of my preliminary was more messy than the opening sequence. There are parts where the music clashes and some of the shots are not very smooth. The improvement of my transitions and timing have improved. Although the preliminary was a practise it was really helpful for me to practise the 180 degree and the match on action. I found the match on action shot the hardest to execute as it was really hard to get the timings right. The 180 degree was easier than the match on action shot. But it was really helpful to understand what a real film company would do and why.

Here is a short film that we have made about our own independant views on our opening sequence compared to our preliminary and what we have gained from our preliminary.

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

Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? on Prezi

Here I have created a Prezi about what I have learnt about technologies from the process of making Beth Marwolaeth.

Evaluation - How did you attract your audience?

Here is our responce to this question. Tolga and myself have used You Tube's annotation tools to create notes on top of our opening sequence. These annotations highlight the ways in which our film links to other films and attracts our "target" audience.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

We have looked at the film Brick for inspiration so it was only natural to take a look at its rating for viewers. It is noticeable that both males and females enjoyed this film and that they were aged between 15-25 this is a good comparison for our film that falls under the same genre that the same people would take an interest in our film.

It has also recieved good reviews on "Rotten Tomatoes" which is an online website where you can review the film and read other peoples reviews.

Here is our beginning stats and feedback for our film on you tube. Although being up only a few days it already has a comment has feedback (2 likes , 1 dislike) and is most popular with males from 13 upwards.

Here is an example of a member of my target audience.
The characteristics of my member would be:

Interested in Horror/Thriller/Drama films.
Typical Tv dramas such as; 24

Aged between 15-25.

Listen to a variety of genres of Music.

Interested in TV dramas and programmes such as "Crime Watch"

Dress casual but still be interested in fashion.

No specific race or ethinicity.

                                                       Jade: 16                         Ryan: 17

This target audience is very suitable as it includes 15-25 males that have the highest income.



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

A production company is a company that is responsible for supervising the filming from concept to completion. They hold the legal and financial responsibility of the movie. They would also be responsible for financing/funding and raising funds for the production. The production company can either be a small company or a large one.

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically at the cinema or for home viewing. This could be a variety of formats such as: DVD, VHS, and Television. They can do this directly if the distributor owns the theaters or their own distribution networks. If they don’t they will need to this through an external theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors.

The money for the film would normally come from big studios such as “universal” or “Paramount” that would fund the film. But if the film is independently made and is low budget the money would normally come from the producers themselves that make an investment. Some film makers would go to a smaller company that would fund them the money usually this would be government funded so there would be certain rules set in place for example a working title film owned by universal that has recently made it to the cinema screen is “Paul” this had a budget of 40-60 dollars compared to a film like “Donkey Punch” by Warp X only had a budget of £1.2 million. Our film in this case would be a low budget film that is independently funded.

An example of a government funded company would be UK film concil. However this company is closing.

The reason behind having titles at the beginning of a film is so that they all have recognition of their part they played in the film. No matter how small a part they played with the production of the film they still need to be credited and acknowledged. Title will normally run in a sequence not all films follow the exact guidelines but they will follow a similar suit. They will usually follow this format:

STARRING FILM'S TITLE FEATURING CASTING/CASTING BY MUSIC BY PRODUCTION DESIGN/ PRODUCTION DESIGNER EDITOR / EDITED BY DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY PRODUCER / PRODUCED BY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER BASED ON THE BOOK/NOVEL/STORY BY BASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY / BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY STORY / STORY BY WRITER(S) /WRITTEN BY DIRECTOR / DIRECTED BY

We have reflected this with our opening sequence as we have credited the people that were a vital part of our development and production. For an example we have “Directed by” “Produced by” “Written by” “Music by” and “Director of Photography”.

Our film is similar to other films that have already been released in the film market. Some films that would be distributed in a similar way could be low budget films that are not distributed by large companies and are not Hollywood blockbusters. For some examples:

All Tomorrows Parties – Low budget. She, a Chinese – Low budget. Submarine – Low budget. The Blair Witch Project – Low budget.

Like our film these were all low budget films. But just because they are low budget doesn't mean they cannot be successful. For example The blair Witch Project was a very successful low budget film.

Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter would also be used to create awareness for our film. We could create groups for fans, therefore more publicity for the film.

Evaluation- How does your media product reresent particular social groups?

Here are some screen grabs of Beth from our production Beth Marwolaeth alongside Emilie De Ravin who plays Emily in "Brick".

Our overall influence came from the film Brick (2005), and we wanted to use some of the dramatic shots they had used but in our own style. Both characters are very similar. But yet very different. Emily has long blonde hair and has her eyes shut in the shots of her, whereas we wanted our character Beth to have her eyes open as we felt this was more dramatic and creepy. Beth has long brown hair, but I think this is a good difference because we didn't want our whole production to be exactly like Brick.

Beth (Played by Myself) and Emily are very similar, around the same age, 17, long hair, and are portrayed to the audience as being very vulnerable and supposedly dead.

The top two images are of the Brick establishing shot and our productions establishing shot.

We really like this idea of the tunnel effect creating in the brick film so we chose our desired location. This worked really well with the mood of the film and really represents a young teenager social group. For example this location could be where they regularly hang out, or it could be a quick route home for the young teenagers after a hard day at work. Both opening link in with the questions the audience ask themselves how/why/who?

We also loved the individual close ups from the opening from Brick. How she looked so pale and ghostly. We liked this idea of how this character - a girl of 17, who normally would take pride in her appearance, is left in a dirty unsafe environment. We played on this idea with our character Beth. Although having nice earring in and a pretty blue dress. Her character and charisma is drained from her. Through the pale skin, dirty environment, scruffy hair and smudged make-up. Now being left in this state she is no longer able to take responsibility for herself and she is just left alone in the cold waiting for someone to find her body.This links in with the representation of this age group again. Young teenagers getting drunk, taking drugs etc. The fact that Beth in laying in a river with the rain falling around her and her pale bare skin exposed gives an even more eerie feeling of cold and mystery.

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

Our own media product uses techniques and conventions from real film openings.

Our first design for a typical opening sequence is the Production Company opening.

Every Film will open with a Production Company appearance before the start of the film. To make our opening appear more like a real film as possible we decided to create our own Production Company. We chose ours to be called "Unique Productions" Normally the logo of theme would move in some way or make a sound. So with this in mind I created this 8 second appearance of the Production Company. This immediately made the beginning of the opening sequence feel more like a film. I used a sound and an effect over the top of the logo to make it more interesting than just starting with a basic still frame of the logo.

The next design technique we chose was the very beginning credit over our film that introduces the film presented by the Production Company. So in our case this was “Unique Productions Presents...".

Whilst researching film opening I noticed that this was a recurring technique. So we thought it necessary for use to do this as well. The above two pictures show our one next to an example from the Film Forest Gump.

The next convention that we had to consider was how film opening start with an establishing shot. We took inspiration from Bricks establishing Shot of Emily. This gave us the confidence and purpose to create our own. We needed to create an establishing shot as this is what many films do. We needed to set the scene like a real film that would draw our audience in.

All films will introduce their film title at the start of the film. So this was a vital aspect to consider when creating our production. We first needed to come up with a name and execute it in the opening sequence. Like Brick our film opens with a dramatic scene. So with this in mind we wanted a simple title that didn't distract too much from the film. We decided that a title on a black background would be suitable and the font to be very simple. Although our font was very simple it was really effective as the shots from behind the background were visible through the outline of the letters. I really liked this technique and felt that it worked really well.

Like any film we decided that having opening credit would make our film a lot more professional and feel like a real film. We developed our credits and thought a lot about their style and appearance. We really liked the credits we chose on Live type as they had this wispy appearance that faded away with the smoke in the beginning shot. Credits for a film are a very important aspect so it was important for us to consider this.

Another aspect that we had to consider and develop was our variation in shots. This is also another very important aspect when making a film. Film producers and directors will spend hours making a scene flawless so its important to have the right shot, make it effective and execute the take with out any flaws. It was important to us that we thought of a variety. It would be very plain and boring to have just one shot throughout a whole film.

We also challenged our film by finding creative and exciting ways to edit and cut from shot to shot. Like any film they would have transitions and special effects to make the film more interesting. We challenged this technique with the resources that we had to create a more interesting film for our target audience.