In producing our film as a group i feel that we made a very good effort in keeping our continuity as a very high standard. When we were filming myself and others that were in the film made sure we wore the exact same outfit. We could have done better with the lining up of shots, as this was not always as smooth as we would have liked in the final edit.
However we did hit obstacles that deterred us from achieving the level of continuity we had originally wished for. We had a spell of really good hot sunny weather for a week or so, and we got a lot of our filming done in that time, but our luck changed when it came to shooting the final bits of footage for our film and we got a downpour of torrential rain.
This has affected the continuity of our film because the lighting changes from bright to quite dark,
The weather goes from sunny to pouring rain, the costumes and characters are all wet and the sound in the film is slightly disturbed by the rain.
We were disappointed that we had to film in such horrible conditions, but we knew as a group that we cannot always have everything go just the way we want it as it isn't how the world works so we got on with our work. On the subject of the editing of our film, although as i have previously stated that our shots weren't always in line with one and other, they weren't, that bad. The editing process of our film went great, all in all it worked quite well, regardless of the sudden change in weather, it was not really that big a deal in the end.
Our film fits the genre category of thriller. I do believe that our film suits the genre quite well through the plot of the film and the footage used. The introductory two minutes of our film reflect the category quite well i think. We start of the film with a scene with Harry and his girlfriend Olivia in bed together asleep. Harry is quite visibly uncomfortable and uptight in his sleep, we then flash to his nightmare that he is having.
From watching other films and analysing them we knew that lighting was a key element to creating the thriller type atmosphere. We decided that if we had a lack of lighting in the nightmare scene that it would help bring the effect of the horror in the nightmare and the help towards our film fitting the thriller genre.
(do sound at home)
The mise-en-scene section of our film was all looked at carefully.
When we created our characters we created them in detail, not just name and gender, we did the social group or the stereotypical group they belonged to and planned their costumes out accordingly. We looked at the group they belonged to and built up things that belonged to in the semantic field we were looking at.
The locations we chose were either through ease of access to the location or to the character of the location, for example, the graveyard; the graveyard had a strange look to it and was somewhat haunting but had a certain charm to it.
It fitted very well with the atmosphere we were trying to create and helped towards getting closer to the film genre we were looking for of a thriller.
The typography in our film worked well, it wasn’t too big but visible in the shots and was noticeable and readable. The font had a kind of rigidity to it, which I believe goes well with the genre of a thriller.
Our film had a lot of social representation in it. We tended to base the social group in the ‘indie’
category. We based the costumes on this and the characteristics of the characters
in the film on this also. In the opening two minutes we don’t see very much from the
role of women apart from the vulnerability of them in Harry's nightmare. The female characters do not have a big role
in most of it and not many spoken parts either.
We leave the woman role to a minimum in the 2 minute introduction. However, the exclusion of the female role in the beginning
and most the way through the film is highly significant. At a later point in
the film Olivia, Harry's girlfriend becomes a crucial character, there is a
fight scene towards the end of the film between Harry and the suspected killer.
Harry is fighting a losing battle and as the suspected steps up to finish him off when Olivia jumps in and kills him. This contrasts with the lack of the female role throughout the film to show a woman killing a criminal and saving her boyfriend’s life.
The stereotypical view of women is that they tend not to be as strong and things as such.
But by having Olivia kill the criminal in the film we challenged that stereotypical view and pushed a new view for our audience on the women in the film and perhaps in reality.
We looked as a group to decide which film company would be best suited to distributing our film.
We came to the decision that Warp Films would be suitable to our film.
we decided that because they are a local film company and will be close to home, that it suits us perfectly. Also, they are a low budget film company and that is what our film would be as we are just students and the budgets we would have would be minimal.
Our film is a Thriller, however from studying the films that warp films make they tend to deal with everyday peoples families or people with a low income.
our film involves people who are just a normal family that are suffering due to the loss of a family member to the hands of a criminal.
our film also deals with the lack of faith in the legal and justice system. A common topic that seems to be at large in our area and others around. This is most likely a stereotype but if it will attract an audience i believe that warp films would find it an interesting aspect for a film and would consider distributing a film like it with such a spoke about theme in our county.
Warp Films have distributed many films and they deal with real life situations.
One film that i think is similar to ours due to the genre is ' Exhibit A'
this is a thriller type of a film with a scary element to it, this is very like our film in a way that there is a horrific side to it.
The audience we chose to sell our film to was people from the age of 15 and upwards. we did surveys and we collated feedback that suggested our chosen genre was a good choice as most people we asked liked psychological thrillers. The fact that it was a thriller was a selling point alone as they are many peoples favourite type of film.
We thought that with us being either 16 or 17 that our film would appeal more to people within ten years of our age. As the actors in it are still young. We studied other thriller films to give us inspiration for the story line and how we would go about choosing locations and what shots we would use etc.
We created questionnaires to gain information on what people like in films and what they would think of our film from what we could tell them.
We chose our audience, and then started to shape our characters relating to the audience we aimed our film at.
We knew that from college most people we knew acted and dressed a certain way and fitted to a certain stereotype. From this we made the characters fit the stereotype and become more relatable to the audience.
I believe that as a group we did reach our target audience, we did all we could to make our characters and genre and plot relateable to the audience and did as best as we could to make it appealing too.
When we were at the pre-production stages of our project we took into consideration what would appeal to our audience. We decided that if the characters were around the same age that they would be able to relate to them and also if the characters fit into popular social trends and stereotypes that they (the audience) were a part of or they knew of that they would instantly become attracted to it as that is how the younger population in society act and respond to social trends and things as such.
We tried to make it realistic also to make it relatable for the audience and we hoped that this would be a good selling point for our film.
One of the questions we asked in our questionnaire was ' what would be the unique selling point of our film? '
One of the answers we received was ' the unique selling point i think would be the realism of the film. It's not unbelievable like Hollywood films.'
From that answer alone i know that we achieved making it realistic and relatable to the audience.
According to our audience feedback our music and camera angles worked well. and some said the acting.
Some of the audience said the editing could have been better and the acting and also the story line could have been more detailed.
We took all the feedback and understood and agreed with it all.
There were aspects of our film which needed work and we knew that but we just did what we could in the time we had with the conditions we had also.
Thanks to the feedback we now know how we can improve our work. We know that we need to do a better job of lining up the shots so our editing will run a lot smoother. We also know that we need to improve our acting to make the films more convincing and realistic.
We realised that the story line we wanted to portray was not shown in enough detail in the 2 minute film. We did not show enough of the plot in the 2 minutes we had and we know that in future that is what we need to work on.
In the pre-production stages of the project, we used the Internet for research on genre and researching other films for inspiration. For this we used the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) this gave us ideas about the genre we wanted to do our film in accordance with and also gave us some sort of guidelines of what a thriller type film is like. We decided to use IMDb because it was well known and very reliable and had all the information we could ask for.
we then created an on line blog on Blogger. Throughout the process of making our film we updated it with all diary entries and other work and all the paper work side of the project.
This kept us up to date as to where we were and kept a constant record of what we had or had not done.
We then needed to make some scripts for the film. For this we used a product called Celtex this was used as it gave us the format for a script straight away and made it easy for us to create the script.
During the Production stage of the project we got to use a digital camera to do the filming o the scenes we needed to create our film. we had previous experience with the camera from our preliminary task at the beginning of the academic year in media so it was easy for us to get straight on with filming again.
Once we had filmed all the footage we needed to create our film we imported it using a USB lead onto the Macs at college. We then imported the footage onto our editing software, final cut express.
final cut is a professional editing software and is very good. By using this software we had a good finished product and it was high quality due to the quality of the software.
With final cut we added all the footage and cut it together to create the film. We then added things like a fade transition and use typography for the credits and things as such.
In the post production stage we finished our project and uploaded the final video on to YouTube. a well known on line website for on line video blogs and just general video. we then uploaded it to Blogger onto our blog to show the final product.
I feel myself that all of the new software we used was successful. excluding the odd technical hitch with blogger.
I have learned about all sorts of new technologies.
I have learned how to make a blog on Blogger and i have discovered Blogger.
I have learned how to use Final Cut Express much better, and feel more comfortable using the software.
I have also learned new ways of using social networking and seen other things they can be used for.
For the Preliminary task, the group all learned from scratch new camera shots, angles, rules in filming and more.
We learned how directors use representation and things such as Mise-en-Scene to suggest something and build up an idea for the audience.
I feel ive learned a lot about continuity, how hard getting lighting and other things perfect is and how that not everything we want can happen in media there are many things such as weather and things that will get in our way to reaching goals etc.
I feel i have grown more comfortable with the new technologies and with the softwares i have been introduced to in the past year and have got a lot better at using them.
I have got better at arranging the lighting for a film, i have got better at filming and feel more confident in my acting also.
I feel i am a lot more able with the software i have been introduced to and feel i can produce work a lot better than what i would have been able to do months ago.
I have got better at working as a team and i have got a lot better at overcoming obstacles when trying to reach a goal.
It is not just my production skills that have improved though.
When i came to doing my research this time i took a lot more in depth approach to it giving me a wider knowledge about what it was i was researching and gave me more to bring to the table when it came to brainstorming ideas.
At the beginning of the year i took a way more laid back and eased off approach to everything.
Where as at the end of the year i am a lot more hands on with the work and with my research etc.
Throughout the project i have gained so much knowledge and skills and its been a great educational expreience.
Harry is fighting a losing battle and as the suspected steps up to finish him off when Olivia jumps in and kills him. This contrasts with the lack of the female role throughout the film to show a woman killing a criminal and saving her boyfriend’s life.
The stereotypical view of women is that they tend not to be as strong and things as such.
But by having Olivia kill the criminal in the film we challenged that stereotypical view and pushed a new view for our audience on the women in the film and perhaps in reality.
We looked as a group to decide which film company would be best suited to distributing our film.
We came to the decision that Warp Films would be suitable to our film.
we decided that because they are a local film company and will be close to home, that it suits us perfectly. Also, they are a low budget film company and that is what our film would be as we are just students and the budgets we would have would be minimal.
Our film is a Thriller, however from studying the films that warp films make they tend to deal with everyday peoples families or people with a low income.
our film involves people who are just a normal family that are suffering due to the loss of a family member to the hands of a criminal.
our film also deals with the lack of faith in the legal and justice system. A common topic that seems to be at large in our area and others around. This is most likely a stereotype but if it will attract an audience i believe that warp films would find it an interesting aspect for a film and would consider distributing a film like it with such a spoke about theme in our county.
Warp Films have distributed many films and they deal with real life situations.
One film that i think is similar to ours due to the genre is ' Exhibit A'
this is a thriller type of a film with a scary element to it, this is very like our film in a way that there is a horrific side to it.
The audience we chose to sell our film to was people from the age of 15 and upwards. we did surveys and we collated feedback that suggested our chosen genre was a good choice as most people we asked liked psychological thrillers. The fact that it was a thriller was a selling point alone as they are many peoples favourite type of film.
We thought that with us being either 16 or 17 that our film would appeal more to people within ten years of our age. As the actors in it are still young. We studied other thriller films to give us inspiration for the story line and how we would go about choosing locations and what shots we would use etc.
We created questionnaires to gain information on what people like in films and what they would think of our film from what we could tell them.
We chose our audience, and then started to shape our characters relating to the audience we aimed our film at.
We knew that from college most people we knew acted and dressed a certain way and fitted to a certain stereotype. From this we made the characters fit the stereotype and become more relatable to the audience.
I believe that as a group we did reach our target audience, we did all we could to make our characters and genre and plot relateable to the audience and did as best as we could to make it appealing too.
When we were at the pre-production stages of our project we took into consideration what would appeal to our audience. We decided that if the characters were around the same age that they would be able to relate to them and also if the characters fit into popular social trends and stereotypes that they (the audience) were a part of or they knew of that they would instantly become attracted to it as that is how the younger population in society act and respond to social trends and things as such.
We tried to make it realistic also to make it relatable for the audience and we hoped that this would be a good selling point for our film.
One of the questions we asked in our questionnaire was ' what would be the unique selling point of our film? '
One of the answers we received was ' the unique selling point i think would be the realism of the film. It's not unbelievable like Hollywood films.'
From that answer alone i know that we achieved making it realistic and relatable to the audience.
According to our audience feedback our music and camera angles worked well. and some said the acting.
Some of the audience said the editing could have been better and the acting and also the story line could have been more detailed.
We took all the feedback and understood and agreed with it all.
There were aspects of our film which needed work and we knew that but we just did what we could in the time we had with the conditions we had also.
Thanks to the feedback we now know how we can improve our work. We know that we need to do a better job of lining up the shots so our editing will run a lot smoother. We also know that we need to improve our acting to make the films more convincing and realistic.
We realised that the story line we wanted to portray was not shown in enough detail in the 2 minute film. We did not show enough of the plot in the 2 minutes we had and we know that in future that is what we need to work on.
In the pre-production stages of the project, we used the Internet for research on genre and researching other films for inspiration. For this we used the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) this gave us ideas about the genre we wanted to do our film in accordance with and also gave us some sort of guidelines of what a thriller type film is like. We decided to use IMDb because it was well known and very reliable and had all the information we could ask for.
we then created an on line blog on Blogger. Throughout the process of making our film we updated it with all diary entries and other work and all the paper work side of the project.
This kept us up to date as to where we were and kept a constant record of what we had or had not done.
We then needed to make some scripts for the film. For this we used a product called Celtex this was used as it gave us the format for a script straight away and made it easy for us to create the script.
During the Production stage of the project we got to use a digital camera to do the filming o the scenes we needed to create our film. we had previous experience with the camera from our preliminary task at the beginning of the academic year in media so it was easy for us to get straight on with filming again.
Once we had filmed all the footage we needed to create our film we imported it using a USB lead onto the Macs at college. We then imported the footage onto our editing software, final cut express.
final cut is a professional editing software and is very good. By using this software we had a good finished product and it was high quality due to the quality of the software.
With final cut we added all the footage and cut it together to create the film. We then added things like a fade transition and use typography for the credits and things as such.
In the post production stage we finished our project and uploaded the final video on to YouTube. a well known on line website for on line video blogs and just general video. we then uploaded it to Blogger onto our blog to show the final product.
I feel myself that all of the new software we used was successful. excluding the odd technical hitch with blogger.
I have learned about all sorts of new technologies.
I have learned how to make a blog on Blogger and i have discovered Blogger.
I have learned how to use Final Cut Express much better, and feel more comfortable using the software.
I have also learned new ways of using social networking and seen other things they can be used for.
For the Preliminary task, the group all learned from scratch new camera shots, angles, rules in filming and more.
We learned how directors use representation and things such as Mise-en-Scene to suggest something and build up an idea for the audience.
I feel ive learned a lot about continuity, how hard getting lighting and other things perfect is and how that not everything we want can happen in media there are many things such as weather and things that will get in our way to reaching goals etc.
I feel i have grown more comfortable with the new technologies and with the softwares i have been introduced to in the past year and have got a lot better at using them.
I have got better at arranging the lighting for a film, i have got better at filming and feel more confident in my acting also.
I feel i am a lot more able with the software i have been introduced to and feel i can produce work a lot better than what i would have been able to do months ago.
I have got better at working as a team and i have got a lot better at overcoming obstacles when trying to reach a goal.
It is not just my production skills that have improved though.
When i came to doing my research this time i took a lot more in depth approach to it giving me a wider knowledge about what it was i was researching and gave me more to bring to the table when it came to brainstorming ideas.
At the beginning of the year i took a way more laid back and eased off approach to everything.
Where as at the end of the year i am a lot more hands on with the work and with my research etc.
Throughout the project i have gained so much knowledge and skills and its been a great educational expreience.
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