Grace Haybyrne: Evaluation - Question 7

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

Our prelim task was very basic in terms of the research, planning and production skills required. We needed to shoot a conversation that included continuity editing and a shot reverse shot sequence.



We edited on iMovie

We struggled a little learning to use the new hardware (iMacs, MiniDv Cameras as well as tripods and tracks) and software (iMovie 11 HD. We also had to get to grips with things like the 360 rule match on action. However the piece was quite simple and easy to manage, in terms of group work etc as well as the practical aspects of the task.

For our main task we needed a lot more detailed work on:

Research and planning 

Product research for our opening.

For our final product we had to carry out different types of product research including:

soundtrack: we felt that this was really important as it sets the mood of the whole piece. 

lighting (in order to create different atmospheres - we did not need to consider this in our prelim) 

titles (appropriate to our opening)

different thriller films (to give us some interesting ideas that we can include in our own opening.) We didn't have to think about genres and sub genres in our prelim.

production: because we needed to include many more techniques we encountered many more problems, for example, our tracking shots in the corridors were very technical and required many reshoots. We also had continuity issues, for example, ensuring that  Mr Gibbs, who played a teacher, dressed the same on different days.

post production: Although it seemed difficult at the time, the prelim was a lot less complicated than the final product. We had many different edits to consider as well as transitions to put in. The combination of the moving images and the sound - both diagetic and non-diagetic was very tricky but very important to get right. We also had to learn all the features from creating events to editing via Clip Adjustments as well as adjusting the volume levels and lighting contrasts in a fine way.

Overall, the journey from the prelim to the final product was very demanding but enjoyable too. 

Grace Haybyrne - Evaluation: Question 6

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

facebook/ social media - communication application.

In the course of my production piece my relationship with social media, for example Facebook, changed dramatically. We found ourselves using it to share creative ideas andto share our ideas with one another. I found this better than emails as they are much more formal and I am less likely to respond to them than being messaged on Facebook. So in a way Facebook increased our ability to be creative and increased our efficiency. Youtube was also very useful for our soundtrack - we found a track -searched under thriller music -  that we felt suited our film and contacted the producer for permission to use it.

social technology - mobile phones, ipad etc.
I also developed new ways of using my mobile phone. In the past I would only used it socially whereas now, since downloading the blogger app - we have to do all our work on a blog - I have used it in different ways- checking on my groups latest ideas, for example.It is also useful for looking at others' work so in terms of researching, it has been an invaluable device.

production and post production - camera etc - iMovie after effects.

We used digital technology for our production: mini dv hd cameras with internal hard drives. We also used Apple Macs running iMovie 11 HD. Our group also used After Effects in relation to the titling. The cameras were very good in that we could shoot as much as we wanted, without the restrictions caused by tape. The cameras were also a manageable size but increased there tendency to shake. iMovie 11 HD is a non - linear editing package which gave us a lot of freedom as it allowed us to complete our pieces of our shots in any order we wished. The availability of tripods and tracks gave us the opportunity to shoot professional looking shots. 

Overall I have learnt that the development of digital technology has democratised film making. The powerful nature of the consumer level equipment means that almost anyone can make a high quality piece of work that looks professional. 

Grace Haybyrne - Evaluation: Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We decided that our film would be suitable for 15+ teenagers because some of the material may be too explicit in terms of language or subject.
By giving it this certificate we had to follow the rules of the BBFC and what they said about this certificate. This included:

• Strong violence
• Frequent strong language
• 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

We thought that locating the film in a familiar environment - a school -  for the target audience would be a good idea. We felt that by setting the thriller in a school and making detention one of the main plot lines, the target audience would be able to identify with some of the characters in the film, attracting them to it or at least providing a vicarious interest.

The soundtrack - a mixture of synthesiser and piano is also aimed at young people as it tries to acknowledge contemporary musical tastes.

Pie chart to show people who prefer mainstream or independent.

We decided on an unconventional protagonist - young female - in order to attract a more independent audience to the film. I feel that this would have intrigued the audience and resulted in good word of mouth publicity and therefore attract a bigger audience to the film.
We also felt that more interesting and unconventional shots - for example, close-ups of the blood washing down the drain and the tracking shots in the empty corridor would emphasise the intensity of the atmosphere.

Grace Haybyrne - Evaluation: Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

As a group we decided that a good way to find what people were interested in so we decided to construct a questionnaire to give our project some direction.We decided to use open questions as we felt that they would produce more interesting responses that would stimulate ideas.  We all had to agree on questions that we would ask a variety of people round our school to answer about their personal taste in films. We thought the easiest way to register answers from different people would to produce questionnaires. 

We also did a video questionnaire where we went round to different age groups asking them about there favorite types of film.
       

Different types of thrillers people like most.

The answers we received suggested that the favourite genre was psychological thrillers.

      

We also thought that using an online survey would be better to get a broader range of results. We used Survey Monkey an online survey tool - we thought this would have proven to be the most helpful, however, we didn't receive much feedback.

 

From our research we found out that are target audience would mainly be females, aged between 16 and 20.

We thought by making our protagonist a female character it would attract and appeal more to teenage girls.

However, the fact that the film is set in a school (everyone has an experience of this) means the potential audience is very broad.

Grace Haybyrne -Evaluation: Question 3

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

I feel that an independent distribution company would be best to distribute our film as many people now like independent films as well as mainstream films. 
 

For example, Focus Features, the arthouse division of Universal, has distributed quality films that are just outside of the mainstream, for example Traffic and Milk. 
Our film is aimed at knowledgeable film goers so we feel that its associations with Focus Features other films would be beneficial for us.

Milk - 2008 - Gus Van Sant

Traffic - 2000 - Stepehn Soderbergh

Grace Haybyrne - Evaluation: Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Ted Bundy prolific serial killer

Stereotypical school girl

We were aiming our product at a teenage/young adult audience so tried to represent the characters in a way that the audience would be able to identify with. In our opening we challenged the stereotypical characters normally used to act as a serial killer etc. Typically rough, gangster looking actors would have been cast but we decided against that and chose a young school girl. (Picture of a typical school girl) 

 

The fact that the antagonist is in ‘detention’ implies that she is just an ordinary teenage girl that we can relate to. This was meant to imply that she was a ‘bad student’. The victim is also represented as a school girl: young, innocent – a typical or conventional victim.

We were also trying to show that young people can be just as dark and mischievous as adults. We implied this to the audience by including shots of the serial killer with the dead body, in her school, at a detention.

The close up shows an intense atmosphere.

 

 

 

The other social group represented in our film are teachers. The teacher in our film is not typical as he is too casual and too informal. We tried to show this through his reaction to our 'killers' request to leave the room. We felt his response was appropriate in the senses that we had subverted the student so wanted to subvert the teacher a little.

 

 

Grace Haybyrne - Evaluation: Question 1

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

We intended our piece to have an independent look as our production values were always going to be low. Building on this we introduced a few elements that suited the resources available to us. both technical and artistically. This meant poor lighting and a not very glamorous series of sets. 

Examples of titles used.

We decided to call our opening 'Red Marks' as we thought that it linked with the idea of the setting being in a school yet was ironic as our film is about a serial killer. We felt that using red and white as the dominant colours, although conventional, was very effective. For example the blood running down the drain and the red marking in a students work book have connotations of the thriller genre. 

We  mainly stuck to a conventional title sequence – using several production company graphics – we also incorporated our names into the logos.

Non-Diagetic SoundWe thought that for our title sequence the music should be slow and eerie, at first so that later on in the opening, the tempo could be speeded up to convey to the audience that the action will take place soon. The music, though electronic is conventional as it attempts to create tension and adds a sense of suspense for the audience and also builds up to an event. 
I found the soundtrack, by Torrey Desmond on YouTube fitted with our groups idea of a slow paced tracked that speeded up and in doing so, built up the tension for the audience.

Titles
We choose red font on a black background, although very conventional, we felt it was effective, especially when we distressed the font. We chose a red font to link back to the idea of our title 'Red Marks'. We thought that it would stand out more if the red was on top of the black instead of white. We decided this because we thought the white would represent innocence whereas the black conveys the idea that our antagonist is a dark, creepy person. 

Narrative

The narrative is reasonably explicit although the antagonist, being a school girl, is unconventional. We decided to make our 'pyshco' a young girl as we thought this would shock the audience more as its not your every day mainstream typical murderer. Although her face looks quite innocent, we dressed her in dark coloured clothes to portray her character as being subversive. 

Editing Our editing choices were made in order to keep the narrative flowing, for example, when we cut from the titles to the first piece of action we made sure to cut into a tracking shot in order to create a feeling of inevitability as well as showing the location: a school. 

Our group decided on a school as our location as we thought that from our audience research we have done previously, mostly people between the ages of 15-19 would watch this film and we thought that if it was in a setting they recognised and were comfortable with they would enjoy the film more. 

Our framing is mostly conventional except towards the end of the sequence where the angles and the extreme close up of the victims blood washing down the drain is meant to shock the audience.