General Review

In the end, my production turned out to be almost nothing like how I had originally planned it or wanted to be. I didn't use a voice over, narration or particularly low-angled shots, and I completely changed the perspective of it too.
The story line also changed and I decided to make it a lot simpler because people wouldn't understand it otherwise.
I know the whole thing is set in only one location and it seems like almost nothing is going on, so people might have got bored; however, this is a similar aspect to the opening titles of Dead Man's Shoes, (directed by Shane Meadows) whereby the only thing the characters are shown doing is walking. 

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi950075673/
^I couldn't actually find the particular (opening) scene on Youtube that I was looking for, but here is the imdb link and it also shows the trailer of it.

Final Changes

Due to the feedback, I have decided to re-name my production title; I have chosen to call it "The Contract" because I think it is more appropriate and still able to give a double meaning.
In the end even though I would have wanted to, I decided not to use a voice over because this would apparently make the story far to complex. Also, instead of multiple sections from different songs, I chose to use only one song but still created from the same musician.

I had to completely scrape my original ideas such as not putting in a news report or a flashback; purely because I wouldn't have been able to fit all of the scenes into only 2 minutes. I knew right from the start of the project that I would have far too many shots and that obviously most of them would not be used in the final cut. Again, this was due to the time limit of the film opening. However, I could have used the audio concept of a news report, like in my original idea of having it from a radio; I tried multiple time to download a track but they didn't work. Therefore I had to do without.

Feedback

This is the first cut from my production,

obviously there is still a lot of work to do.

Marked against the A-Level Criteria by our teacher, I received information about final changes which need to occur very soon:

CONSTRUCTION CRITERIA	LEVEL	COMMENT
Holding shot steady	2	Phone goes out of focus(other shots too) Try to avoid cutting on moving shots
Framing a shot	2	This is generally OK.
Appropriate material for task	2	No indication of who the character is – doesn’t really set up a narrative
Selecting mise en scene (colour, lighting, props, setting)	2	Only 1 location- this limits grade. You need to show that you have used costume, lighting etc for effect
Editing for meaning		Builds up strong suggesting crime planning.
Varied shot transitions and post production effects	2	Lots of variety of cuts/ mixes but no other post-production techniques.
Use of sound	2	Ambient sound OK but needs another layer.
Using titles	1	Still don’t like the title- and it needs to come at the end. Other titles needed.

Question 7:

Looking back at your Preliminary Task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

-Scripting
-Planning
-Photographic ability
-Editing skills

http://shirleykirbymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/preliminary-task-final-cut.html
^The preliminary task is located here.

Working on my own, as I had already expected, meant that I would have to put in more time and effort for the project, but I am glad I made this decision because it also meant that I could do whatever I wanted with it and not have to consolidate with anybody else. Furthermore during the Preliminary task, I found that I tended to become a bit of a control freak and perfectionist when it came to doing the editing, even though I had never used the Premiere Software before.

 But now I have taken my time with learning how to use it and not rushing things; and because it is not as though I'm working for anybody else, I feel a lot less pressured than when I was doing it in the group.

At the start of the Preliminary task, we were told to created a storyboard for the film opening ides, which then developed into and animatic giving us a rough guide to what the film would turn out like. However, knowing that I would just want to change the scenes and swap things around, I knew in advance that personally doing an animatic would be a waste of time for me because I would have to keep re-drafting and it would just be pointless. Therefore I used this time to make a drafted timeline/script type thing from which I would work on instead. I used this as a basic outline of what scenes I definitely wanted but they were in no particular order so I could move things around to whichever way I decided seemed best.

By another classmate, I learnt how to sound bridge using the premiere editing software, so that I could layer sounds and cross them over from different video clips. However I had not had enough time during the Preliminary task to have done this, therefore certain sound effects were missing from it.

Over the course of this project, I think I have faced the most technological problems of the rest of my class because for a while my files became corrupted or wouldn't load properly but during this time period, I spent a lot of time outside of class hours to find out how to fix problems with the technology.

Question 6:

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

Planning and Research:	I used search engines such as Google and YouTube to refresh my memory on films that I already knew were in the style that I wanted. An example of this would be http://www.youtube.com/user/WongFuProductions I am a regular viewer of this particular channel, so it was more like I was doing revision rather than new research. Also, I analysed the opening sequence of the film Little Miss Sunshine
Production:	I used a digital camera to record the clips, and used a tri-pod to keep the shots still. I used mainly office lighting and at times, I used natural lighting but decided that natural lighting didn't not give a desired effect as it was extremely sunny of the day of filming. To create ambient sounds, printers and coffee machines needed to be used to make a more realistic office scene. I used several websites during production which are seen in it, these are examples that were shown: http://www.amaskiphire.co.uk/ http://www.sixt.co.uk/
Post-Production:	Premiere Editing software was what I used during post production to change and re-arrange the order of some scenes. I also used Blogger to post updates of anything new
Evaluation:	I use this website to post all of my evaluations, therefore I'm using the internet. I also used a program to write documents called Microsoft Word.

Question 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?

There are times when the audience have to focus on what the character is writing down, in order to guess what he is planning on doing. The narration is also done in first person, talking and explaining to the audience, so there is the connection there. The viewers may think the words spoken are associated with visuals of the audiences' perspective, but it's actually almost as if there is two different storylines that have nothing to do with eachother.

Question 4:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

-They would also be the audiences of these websites:

http://wongfuproductions.com/ 
http://isatv.com/ 
http://jubileeproject.org/
There isn't a particular type of person who is a fan of them; however it just happens that the majority are Asian America but I don't think that's relevant at all...


-People who are current audiences of web series that I also watch. This is because I think I already understand what the audience will know to expect.
-Also people who connect with others online through videos.
-People who understand the English language.

-A niche group of people who only need to have basic knowledge/education.
-Any age above 10, both male and female.
(Age doesn't really matter, however 16-25year olds watch films the most)
-Even though the main character is a white man, I don't think ethnicity will make any difference.

- They should also have a good imagination and an open mind!
- Fans of mystery horror

Question 3:

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

I think purely on the basis that it was filmed at the University of Hertfordshire, they would be in agreement to distributed it. The BBC may also do so because this is in the UK, it may also be funded by the National Lottery.




Paramount have distributed many horror films before so they would be likely to do the same for my film if this were a real media product.

Other than that, it would probably just be shared online using websites such as Youtube, Vimeo and Daily Motion because their audiences are large groups and worldwide.

 

 

Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I don't think there is a particular social group that is clearly represented, although it may seem that the 'dark' looking character has a morally wrong occupation.

He appears to be an average mid-old age white man who is well educated, but I wanted to show him in a way that may make the audience feel uncomfortable.The audience will assume that he is not a nice man, purely from what they can see, rather who he actually is. The representations are based mainly on peoples' immediate assumptions.




The narractor is young which gives the impression that the person is vulnerable, weak and perhaps naïve. I wanted to use a female voice, purely so that the audience do not get the narrator and the visable character mixed up.

Question 1:

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

I know that all conventional film openings have titles of the production companies including those those who were also highly involved such as the star actors and the director. The start of The Last Exorcism presents the man character in First-Person, I chose to do my production from a Third-Person perspective

In my production I have followed conventions in the ways of which the opening credits are presented. I have super-imposed the names of my actors over the top of the beginning opening shots, which is typical of opening.

 

Titles	Originally I put this at the beginning and chose to have a cryptic message. There was a full stop and it was underlined. This is a very unconventional way of presenting the title as most film openings do not have any punctuation. I decided to change it: Now I have chosen a title with a double meaning. Conventionally titles begin with the word "The" and then a noun. I have copied this.
Credits	The beginning is very typical to film openings as it shows the audience who is in it and the major production teams. I have put in the names of the people who helped me with this, including the producer of the music and the actors. I followed typical conventions of opening credits, small enough so that the footage is shown but big enough to be read.
Production Logos	They are inserted with the titles at the start to show the audience the who the contributors are . Production logos are always seen at the start of the film opening, before any footage is shown, so the logos need to be shown first.
Angles	Usually my shots are low angle or about level with a desk, but I probably did too many over-the shoulder and point of view shots. I would have done more close ups and extreme close ups.
Sounds Effects	Ambient background sounds of typical office-like noises such as a coffee machine, printer, and people typing. In horror films, sharp and loud sound effects are used to create a feeling of hypersensitivity of the audience.
Music	Almost continuously used throughout. There usually would only be one track or none at all in a normal horror opening, therefore I have gone with the conventional method by only choosing one track.
Lighting	I shot with natural lighting because I wanted to give the audience an impression that is a normal setting or environment. In a way I am giving the audience a false sense of security. However, in most horror films, lighting is very dark and unclear, produced by low lighting and filters.
My film opening scenes sometimes  subvert conventional processes, however there are some parts which do follow .