Feedback

I showed my final media product to some of my friends and family and gained some feedback which was mainly positive, this included:

"I like the back and forth dialogue shots at the start"

"I liked the part where the sound of the bag being dropped cuts to the next scene"

"The framing where they were at the bottom of the path wasn't very good because the top of his (Chris') head was cut off"

"I think that most of the film is framed very well with maybe one or two exceptions"

"It's good when Chris is calling Dan and it cuts to black at the end"

"The filming could have been better where the camera jumps near the end of the film"

Most of this feedback was postive but there were a couple of negative areas which were unfortunately to do with the filming itself which couldn't be re-done due to the cast becoming unavailable and my own time restrictions.

Final Product

This is my final copy of my product.

Below is what was going to be my final copy but I made a few edits to the film in the end.

Semiotic Analysis

The film opens with a long shot of 2 people walking down a path next to a road, the sun is shining and birds can be heard singing in the background signifying that it is a nice day possibly either in spring or summer. It then cuts to a close up of a males face (Dan), as he walks the camera follows him shakily as if from the perspective of the person who he is talking to. It then cuts to another male (Chris) walking next to Dan on the path, the shot type is effectively mirrored from the first person. It then cuts back to the Dan, this is an example of a shot-reaction shot. It then cuts back to Chris and then to a shot similar to the first opening shot of the path, the two males stop walking here and exchange dialogue again before Chris walks off screen with Dan following behind, signifying that Dan is a bit uneasy about going upo the next path. It then cuts to a long shot of Chris and Dan walking up the path, Chris starts to look into the woods to the side, they walk towards the camera and exchange dialogue, they walk past the camera (one on each side) and it cuts to the next shot, a long shot showing the path and part of the woods, both characters stop walking here and start talking, it then cuts to a shot from behind a tree that peers round towards the path and then cuts back to the shot before with more dialogue being exchanged before Chris starts to walk off into the woods, Dan is left with the bags and as he drops his bag it cuts to the next shot (an example of a sound bridge), it now cuts to a long shot of Chris in the woods and the camera pans across tracking him as he walks through the woods. It then cuts back to a long shot of the path showing Dan sat down with the bags looking around before cutting back to Chris in the woods. Chris then walks off the shot and it cuts back to the path with the camera following Chris as he walks to the path calling for Dan, as he calls for the last time it fades to black and the titles start rolling and music playing.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses various forms and conventions, these include the names of the characters - Dan Loomis and Chris Voorhees, Loomis is a name that has occured various times in horror film history in classic films such as Halloween and Psycho, Voorhees is the surname of the central antagonist in teh Friday the 13th film series.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product depicts two C2 social group characters from the North of England. This will appeal mostly to the C1C1DE range but not excluding A and B although it is unlikely that they will watch the film. The two characters are C2-class public school pupils who are not wearing uniform (signifying that they are in the 6th form/post 16 group (16-18 years))

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Although most films that depict the North of England are limited with their box office success there have been some success stories such as This is England and Billy Elliot but it is most likely that my product would be distibuted by a smaller company ot perhaps even an indie as these do not strictly apply to a mainstream audience, such companies unclude Warp Films, Working Title and Film4 but I would like my product to tap into the mainstream, UK-wide (perhaps even global) audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience (as described earlier in the blog) would be the 15-34 age range, this is due to the face that it is a horror film and so is unsuitable for younger audiences and not of interest to much of the older audience and also due to the face that the two characters shown in the intro are teenagers which would heighten tge appeal to this age range.

How did you attract your audience?
I attracted my primary audience by using two teenage, caucasian male characters, this would appeal to a wide range of audiences and not just teenage males.
Later scenes in the film could include non-caucasian characters and also females to broaden the appeal even further.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Since the start of the process I have learnt a lot about how to edit films (my previous experience was limited because I was away on a geography field trip for the editing process of the preliminary task but I think I learnt enough to make a good standard of product. I have also learned various camera techniques such as how to adjust the white balance on the camcorders and that using a tripod is a very good method of filming. Although I didn't use my own sound in the final product I did try out Garageband (another piece of software for the Mac) and learned things from it that I didn't know before.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progession from it to the full product?
Firstly, I have learned that, although a large group was harder to work in because of the conflicting opinions on what to do, working individually increases the workload by a lot and because of this I feel that I was unable to produce the product to the standard that I could have made it in a pair.

During my task I encountered a number of problems which I beleive affected the quality of my final product, these included not being able to film as early as I wanted to due to the unavailabilty of cast members, this led to me reducing the number of characters from 3 to 2 and even then one of my cast members couldn't make it and as I was low on time I decided to take the role myself, this limited the quality of the actual filming as I was relying heavily on a tripod which led to some scenes being of lower quality than they could have been although I am still impressed with what I managed to do for my final product.
I also missed out on some school work time when I was selected to take part in a visit to RAF Valley in Wales (I am a member of the Air Cadets).

Props

I made little use of props except for the bags that are used.

Sound

For sound I used the actual audio from filming for most of the intro but there is one section (just before Chris goes into the woods) where the audio was too quiet, I had a number of options here such as overdubbing the audio but instead I decided to shoot another shot from behind a tree which used the faint dialogue to it's advantage and also builds to the overall horror effect.

During filming I encountered some audio interference which I decided to leave in as I think it again added to the overall effect of tension in the film.

I, at one point, was going to record an original sound track for the film but was unable to do so in the time that I had so I decided to use a default music track at the end of the intro whilst the titles are showing that I got from the defalt iMovie sound effects. I did record the synth chord when Chris was going into the woods though using the program GarageBand.

Target Audience and BBFC

Age: The target age range for my media product is the 15-34 age range. The minimum age reflecting the BBFC classification that I intended my film to be rated, this is due to:
- Infrequent uses of strong language (although none appears in the into sequence it is intended that there will be some later in the film that is appropriate to the theme).
- Violence (fairly strong but it wouldn't dwell on the injury or infliction of pain) - Again, although none is shown in the intro sequence, (although one reading could be that it is implied) it is intended that it would feature later on in the film.
- Horror - The film is in the horror/thriller genre and strong threats/menaces would, again be used later on in the film.
- Imitable techniques - Although some violence will be used later in the film it will not dwell on the imitable detail or prominently feature easily accessible weapons.
The film would contain no nudity, sexual activity or drug use.
Also, as the two characters are around 16/17 it would have a greater appeal to the younger end of the target age spectrum.

Ethnicity: The two male lead characters in the opening sequence are caucasian, this is due to the fact that it reflects the setting (middle class British town) although it isn't made specifically for a caucasian audience and will have appeal to a multi-ethnic audience. There could also be scope to add some non-caucasian characters.

Gender: Horror is seen as a male-dominated genre but this doesn't rule out females in lead roles as seen in films such as the Halloween series or female audiences. My film opening has no female characters in it but they would feature later on in the film.

Socio-Economic Groupings: My film features two C2 (lower-middle class) characters and so should automatically have appeal to that group. Overall it is designed to appeal, as most horror movies are, to a C1C2DE group range, this of course doesn't rule out the fact that the AB range could watch it but it is not specifically designed for them.

Nationality/Region: Both characters in the film are from the North of England, although their accents aren't "broad" like the sterotype of the North and so could appeal to more of an audience as films focusing on the North tend not to get very far (although there have been exceptions such as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot)

Microdrama and narrative theory

Early on in the year, we got into groups to film a microdrama following the narrative theory and characters of Toerov and Propp.
My microdrama couldn't be uploaded due to technical problems but it may be available on the blogs of my co-workers for the production, Georgina Cooke and Ben Garvey.

Sound research

In preparation for my project I have been looking at various sources of copyright-free sound.

http://www.kutube.org/templates/mus_link.htm - Has links to various sites that have copyright free music and sound effects available to download. From this site I found the following sites:

http://podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/ - Unsigned artists, various genres, must give credit.

http://www.copyleft-music.com/ - Copyright free MP3 music and unsigned artists

http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html - Free sound effects

http://www.soundjay.com/ - Various free sound effects

Other sites I found include:

http://ww.freeplaymusic.com

http://www.akmmusic.co.uk

http://www.soundzabound.com

http://www.audio.lgfl.org.uk

http://www.audiojungle.net

http://www.musicmediatracks.com

http://www.trackline.com

http://www.tonspion.de

http://phlow-magazine.com

If I wanted to, I could record my own music to use in my production as I have the equipment to record guitar/bass guitar.

Editing

To edit my film, I used iMovie.
In my film I sed examples of fade in/out and the film titles.
I also used the software to cut my raw footage files up into sections that could be useful, this included cutting out the footage of me walking to/from the camera at the beginning and end of shots.
The film does have various flaws that I am aware of but was unable to rectify due to cast and time constraints, these include the bright sun in the background in the first shot, the fact that Chris' head is cut of at the end of that first shot and other things such as the quiet audio in the scene prior to Chris entering the woods.

Cinematography

Since there were only two of us when filming, I had to make use of a tripod and during editing, cut out the clips of me walking to and from the camera.
For the opening dialogue between Chris and Dan, we filmed one persons dialogue all in one take and then swapped the camera over and did it again, this was good for continuity.
There is a jump in the camera movement at the end of the intro but due to time and casting constraints I was unable to remove this.

Software

To edit my production, I used iMovie 06.
The software was on a Mac computer which I had previously only had limited experience of as I am used to using Windows systems (XP/Vista) so I had to learn how many of the functions worked.
I had also hardly ever used movie editing software before but using it in the preliminary task as well as the microdrama gave me valuble experience.
Some of the advantages of using iMovie include all the preset transitions and effects (such as fade in/out, dissolve etc.) and the stock sounds that came with it.

Equipment

To film my film intro I used a Canon MV920 Mini DV camcorder, this camera was one owned by the media department which I loaned out to film.

I also rented a tripod from the media department which proved valuble later on in the filming process.

Locations

The location that I chose for my project was a path in Ilkley that connects Parish Ghyll Road and Princess Road.
It is a straight path with a wall on one side of the path and a wooded area on the other.
It wasn't quite the location that I had planned in my initial draft ideas but it was the closest that I could find.
Link to a Google Maps map of the location.

This is the top of the path, the path itself is visible between the wall on theleft and the white building.















This is the view from behind the hedges, this viewpoint will be used to give the effect that the main characters will be being watched.




























This is the view down the path from about halfway.














This is the view up the path from about halfway.














This is the bottom of the path.














This is the bottom of the path looking up.

Casting

My film opening requires 2 characters:

Chris Voorhees- A medium sized caucasian brown-haired male who is slightly cocky in attitude.
For Chris I decided to cast Ben Gibson, a caucaisan male who fit my criteria.

Dan Loomis - A medim sized, brown haired male who is more reserved than Chris.
I had to, due to my original cast becoming unavailable, take on this role myself.

Both characters' surnames feature inter-textual references and pay homage to characters from well known horror films, Dan Loomis - Loomis from Halloween and Psycho and Chris Voorhees - Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th/Jason series.

Screenplay

Screenplay Draft

Draft Screenplay

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Screenplays & Plays 2008 draft

Storyboard

Initial Storyboard

Prelim task

The prelim task was made by my group of 5 which we found hard as not everybody as taking part, it also made it harder to agree on a storyline as there were conflicting opinions of what should happen.
In my group were myself, Conor Potts, George Needham, Alex Snowdon and Ben Garvey.

The prelim task was:
Continuity task, involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

My initial ideas

Three friends walking down a path (wooded?) chatting.One of them thinks they see something in the woods and mentions it to the others but they shrug it off, they continue walking and he mentions it again, the other two again shrug it off but are more wary now. A third time he thinks he sees something and this time goes off to investigate it, one of the others goes with him but the other one stays on the path. They enter the woods and look around for a bit and see nothing, they return to the path and their other friend has disappeared and is nowhere to be seen, the others call his name out.
Characters – Three boys, 16-18 age range.
Character 1 – Main character, confident, tall,
Character 2 – Friend who sees something in the woods, cocky, small, funny
Character 3 – The one who disappears – nervous, the smart one
Audience – 16-30
Genre – Thriller/Horror/Action
Location – Long, straight path through a wooded area.
BBFC – 12/15

This is the idea that I decided to use as my final idea.

Codes and convections of film openings

Film openings often contain specific codes and convections that apply to the genre that it is portraying.
For example, we (the class) looked at various film openings from different genres.

For example, Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) set many standards that can still be seen today in many horror films.
Some of these techniques include the use of first person cameras, long unedited cuts, female heroins and the principle that only the "good" people survive, for example the people in the film (usually the studs/jocks and the blonde, busty females) that had sex were killed whereas the brown haired, female heroin survived.

Initial analysis of a film opening

For my analysis of a film opening I chose the 2006 film Casino Royale.
Microsoft Word notes

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work online free

Powerpoint presentation

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business Presentations & Slid online free

Coursework Task

The brief set out for our AS coursework production is as follows:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task, involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio from a copyright-free source.

THE DEADLINE FOR A COMPLETED PRODUCTION IS THURSDAY APRIL 2ND