Final Cut

Evaluation question 7

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

So here it is after so many stressful hours we have come to the last evaluation question, YAY......

For this question, I will be taken you on a journey back to the very beginning of this course when we knew very little about camera work, editing, mence-en-scene and sound. I will be taking you back to our preliminary task and comparing how we have improved from our preliminary task to our final cut.

This was our preliminary task, watch and enjoy,

When it came to the preliminary task  we were so excited. It was the first time we had been able to see and use a camera and see first hand how cameras were used when filming. so we had a little understanding of camera work as we did lots of planning and researching before hand this gave us a few techniques to use such as a shot reverse shot and match on an action that we could use and also how they were achieved.

Due to lack of experience on filming and camera-work, our preliminary task we did encounter some issues, some major and some minor.

The first issue we encountered was the fact the area we decided to set our preliminary task wasn't the best place as we decided to film next to the canteen meaning we had sound in our scene that wasn't meant to be there this interfered with the dialogue as it was hard to hear the actresses over the noise of the canteen. As the canteen staff had to get on with their work this also caused problems as we had dinner ladies working in and out of the canteen this cursed a continuity error you can see this continuity error through the match on action of the actress walking through the door if you look closely you can see a black coat and a foot on the other side of the door. this is seen at 00.06 seconds into our preliminary task.

By doing our preliminary task we learned that the use of an establishing shot is very important as it sets the scene for the audience giving them an idea where the action is taking place. we didn't know much about establishing shots during the filming of our task and therefore led us to not including one in the preliminary task this was an issue as the audience didn't know where they film was set and there for new nothing about the characters or where they were.

During the filming of our preliminary task, we had an issue in understanding a shot reverse shot. A shot reverse shot is an over the shoulder shot of an actor. then the shot is reversed to show the other character through an over shoulder shot. shot reverse shots are used mainly to show characters facial expressions. However, we decided that in the middle of our shot reverse shot we would add a two-shot this meant it was an incorrect shot reverse shot this is seen at 00.12 to 00.17 Looking back know we should have used the two shot straight after the shot reverse shot.

Linking back to the shot reverse shot another issue we encountered was the fact that frame is very messy and looks squished as the over the shoulder shot was incorrect. This was also a problem caused by where we chose to film as we couldn't get the camera into the right place to get the right angle as the chairs were too close to the lockers making the shot difficult to film.

During our preliminary task it is easy to see that our camera movement and frame positioning was very poor as you can see at 00.18 in our preliminary task there is a lot of waste space to prevent this we could have moved the camera closer to the character, this would have allowed us to see more of the facial expressions and the important part of the scene.

Our preliminary task didn't go very well we made quite a few mistakes and errors. our knowledge of camera movement and positioning were poor and we didn't spend enough time on our planning this is clearly showed by the fact we chose to film in a canteen.

Fatal Envy,

Here is our Final film Fatal Envy,

From our preliminary task, we have majorly improved on our shot reverse shots as you can see  in our film opening at 2; 03 you can clearly see that time was taken when filming the shot reverse shot as there is no wasted space in the frame and the facial expressions of the character can clearly be seen. to help we decided to do a lot a lot of practising on doing a shot reverse shot till we got it exactly how we wanted it also to help us we watched youtube tutorials on what a shot reverse shot is and how it can be filmed.

Compared to out preliminary task we have very much improved on where to place the camera so that less space is wasted and more attention can be focused on the main character. At 00;13 and  1;30 of our film you can see how less space has been wasted we did this by making sure Rachel was in the centre of the frame  this meant the audience were focused on what Rachel was doing rather than the setting.

At 1;30 of our film fatal envy we see a close up of Rachel. This is because we wanted the audience to be focused on her and not what is going on around her also we wanted the audience to  wonder what she is going to do. this is portrayed by the low-key lighting.

From our preliminary task, we have also improved on making our pan more smooth and precise. In our preliminary task, we moved the camera too quick for our actress this meant the actress was never in the centre of the frame this gave the audience an uneasy feeling. however during fatal envy the pan was smooth and followed Tyler at a good consistent pace so he was also in the centre of the frame.

Overall the main task was successfully amazing we also learnt how probably to use camera angles, editing, mence-en-scene sound and planning . there were fewer mistakes made and everything achieved to a high standard.

The planning for both our films,

very little planning was done during our preliminary task as we just did and created our ideas as we went along. However to make fatal envy the best it can be we did stacks of planning and researching. of films. some planning we did was.

The script,
A script helped us to keep track on what was going on in the story and also to know when the voice over came in. when creating our preliminary task we didn't make a script and so the dialogue was very plain, short and boring.

Treatment,
This allowed us to create an overview of what is going to happen in the film and also where everything is placed and used. again we didn't make a treatment for our preliminary task this lead to us becoming confused where we were in the scene.

The advantages of being in a group are you don't have to do it all by yourself you have people to help you out and do some of the work for you then the other group member can check it to see if it is okay. More ideas can be created as there is a use of more than one brain meaning you can be more creative. And lastly, people have different skills so someone may be better at something you are not and vice versa.

The disadvantages of working in a group are that due to people having a different view and idea arguments can be started meaning less time is spent shooting the film.


What have I learned about myself during this course

When we first started the course I was a quiet shy young lady who never had much to say in case the group didn't like what I had to say. However as time went on my confidence grew and I became engaged with the media group and my little group I started saying what I wanted to say and brought my ideas forward. This course has made me more confident about myself.

Also, when I started I knew nothing about media not even camera movement and equipment know however  my knowledge of media has improved and also skills such as how to use a camera and lighting I have learnt.

So that is it the finale hope you had a great experience following my journey bye for know,

Evaluation question 6

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

So in this post, I will talk you through all the technologies we used in the making of our film opening to make this question interesting I have created a video ( you may have to pause the videos as some points in the video) Enjoy,

Video on the software element.

Sound recording and camera video,

Technology used during the post-production stage,

Technology used to present my work,

Some Technolgy I missed in the video above was the following,

Facebook

I used facebook to communicate with the other members of my group Regium. make the communication easier we decided to use a group chat on messenger this meant that we were all on hand to put across ideas whatever time of the time and didn't have to wait till we next saw them. we also uses facebook so that we could plan when were going to next meet up to film and edit our film. we chose to use messenger as it an instant messaging service. meaning messages are sent instantly meaning they could get an answer straight away and also entitled us to bounce ideas off each other. 

Blogger

From beginning all the way through to the end of this course I have been using a website called blogger. blogger allowed me to easily post all my research, plans, rough cuts, final cut and evaluation onto one web page. Blogger also allowed me to embed youtube videos, emaze and prezi presentations, home made videos and also images that  helped to support what I was saying in the post. it has been my life saver throughout the course as all the work can be found in one place and nothing is lost it's also easy to access and for people such as my teacher to view my work easily.

                                                     


In my next post I will be answering the final question, evaluation question 7 

Evaluation question 5

How did Attract/address your audience?

I answered this question as a prezi,

Problems Faced when attracting an audience 

Regium is a small production company and because of this we can;t afford to use big well-known actors such as Daniel Craig or Nicolas Cage. This is a problem as well-known actors normally attract an audience to watch a film. Because of our budget we had to use less-known actors who the audience are not familiar with this is why we decided to realise our film in January as there are fewer films released in this month due to it being after Christmas and fewer blockbusters are released giving our film chance to be viewed by the public getting us known,

The auteur theory states that a film reflects on the director views and vision. For the same reason, we were unable to use big name actors we won't be able to use a well- known director, Fatal Envy was the first ever film for our director this means their not yet known by the public meaning they are unlikely to view the film.

Don't worry auteur isn't as difficult as it sounds the word simply means author in a film the author is known as the director below is a youtube video explaining the auteur theory.

In my next post I will be answering evaluation question 6

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product 

Before we start lets just take a minuet to recap on film classification,

I used PowerPoint to create a recap of film classification

                                            

Target Audience profile 

Remember to press the play button on the second slide of the  PowerPoint. 

I decided to research some films that were similar to fatal Envy to see weather the target audience was the same as ours and I found the following.

Insidious 

This is a horror/thriller film. Once again with a target audience of 15 to 24 ( popular for a thriller films)  with The cliff hangers used with in the film similarities are seen between Insidious and our film Fatal Envy. We chose to research the film Insidious as we found it a good film to gain some inspiration for what soundtracks and effects we could use for our film to help build tension. A range of sound effects and sound tracks will be used. The film also helped us gain some ideas for our cliff hangers.

I also found this,

The boy next door

The boy next door very much like our film as like fatal envy the boy next door contains a kidnap theme. The target audience for the film were aged between 15  to 24 and mainly caught the attention of the females gender. This shows that our research was successful as both films fits our taps age and gender. This proves that most thrillers are watched by 15 to 24 year old.

The gratification Theory

Gratification theory is a popular approach to understand mass communication and why people go to a certain type of media product

their is five reason why the audience goes to see the film those being

• Cognitive needs
• Affective needs
• Personal integrative needs
• Social integrative need 
• Tension free needs

Here are two videos to help you understand the theories better,

The reception Theory 

The cultural theorist Stuart hall Developed the idea of the reception theory. He suggested that media text are encoded and then decoded. In other words the media text is encoded by the producers and then decoded by the audiance. The reception theory sugests that the audiance decode the messege in three different ways 

• Dominant
• Negotiated 
• Oppositional

here is a video to help you understand the theory better,

In my next post I will answer question 5 

Evaluation Question 3

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

Identifying the role of the distributor.

The role of the distributor is to make the film available to the public. It is normally the responsibility of the film distributor such as Warner Brothers or 20th Century Fox. A film distributor may also set the release date and the method in which the film exhibited for example directly to the public example theatrically or home viewing example DVD, Video On Demand, Download or Broadcasting. The film has to be put through a film distributor before it is put on the market to be viewed by the public. A film distributor is also responsible for the marketing of the film and plays a massive part in financing the film.

               

Identifying media platforms.

A media platform is a complicated network that contents is released on to. When we talk about platform we are talking about categories or types of media content that can be consumed to the audience.

Know you know what a Media Platform is Lets talk about some of the platforms that are used.


VOD(Video On Demand),

VOD Such as Netflix or Amazon. VOD is an interactive TV technology that allows subscribers to view films in real time or download films to watch later. A VOD can be watched over the internet or on modern TVs or TV packages  such as Now TV. or sky plus This may also be known as Time shifting facilities. The majority of TV providers offer video on demand streaming and this does include pay per view( A type of pay television service by which a subscriber of a TV provider can purchase events to view.). services such as Netflixs and amazon are subscription based meaning the viewer has to pay a certain amount per month or year  to be able to use the site.

Example of films released on VOD services are,

• Top of the Lake 
• Antiviral
• Head Hunters 
• Following
• Drive
• Kidnapped 
• Pulp fiction
• Zodiac
• The hunter 

Now some of you may be thinking at this point  well these film are all thrillers. and you would be right they are. I chose to use thriller films as examples as it links very nicely to our film fatal envy which was also a thriller. This identifies that a VOD service may be an appropriate platform for our film as it already has a decent range of thrillers that can be watched by millions of people around the world from old thrillers such as the following to the new thrillers such as London has fallen.

Advantages of VOD, 

• VOD can be helpful in providing internet,telephone and broadcasting of television through broad band triple play.
• VOD enables viewers to watch internet based media that has been pre- recorded and posted  at an earlier time People from around the world can watch pre-recorded videos at their own time any where they like as long as they have an internet connection. This play back technique is the key benefit  of video on demand. Many organisations find VOD as a essential benefit.Video on demand is becoming extremely popular know a days mostly to the younger generation.

Disadvantages of VOD,

• Players on PC, Macs and Smart phones have different capabilities and therefore have different viewers appearances such as bandwidth can effect the ability of receiving and playing video on demand resulting in the inconstant viewing experience. 

DVD release, 

DVD release such as blue-ray and 3D DVDs this allows viewers to buy the DVD meaning they can watch it a any time in the comfort of their own home. DVD releases normally come out around four to five months after the film is released in cinemas to be viewed by the public. For example Harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 was released in cinemas on the 15th of July 2011 but wasn't released on DVD till the 11th of November that year four months after the cinema  release. A film may also be released on a DVD because the  production company may decide not to release a film either because it has a lack of support from a TV network, a low budget or a lack in public interest for example RIOT is a film released on DVD.

Theatrical release.

This is the date a new movie is entered  in to the theatrical distribution system so that it can be viewed by the public such as into cinemas . it gives the public change to be able to watch the latest up coming films and for them to make a decision if they like the movie before they consider buying it on DVD. The distributor has to be decided before a theatrical release once they have a distributor the film can then be marketed by the distributor in many different ways such as creating trailers and making merchandise which are then sold. once the film has been shown in cinemas extra. 

TV release 

This is when a movie has been made solely for TV release. These movies are less likely to include expensive features such as special effects. And usually have a small film crew. The movies are normally made using a low budget and undeveloped scripts. 

 

Our Film Platform,

We will be releasing our film Fatal Envy in January as this is after Christmas and hardly any blockbusters are released during this time as they are often released in the summer months,this gives the smaller films such as Fatal Envy  a chance of gaining some spotlight and being viewed by the audience. Our film will be released via theatrical release. By releasing our film this way we have more change of marketing our film  and getting  it seen by the wider audience including overseas. helping us gain money and reviews from around the world. Helping us to gain money to make other films. In advertising alone distributors such as Twentieth Century Fox spend around $ 4 billion  year and this money is mostly spent on broadcasting and TV promotion. Distributors mainly use TV for advertising as it gets the film out to the public quickly.

Distributor
 Twentieth century fox 

This is an american film studio distributor and one of six mayor american film studios including Warner brothers. Twentieth Century Fox has distributed famous films such as the Star Wars trilogies, Ice Age, Night At The Museum, Titanic and Avatar. Twentieth Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association in America and in 2015 celebrated its 80th birthday.

A film distributed by Twentieth Century Fox was the Fantastic Four which was released on the 6th August 2015.in the UK It was viewed by people aged 12 and over the film is about Four younger outsiders tele-port to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their abilities and work together to save earth from a former friend turned enemy.

Here is the trailer to the film Fantastic Four.

Another film distributed by Twentieth Century Fox is Alvin and the chipmunks. This film was released on the 12th February 2016 in the UK it was directed by Walt Becker. The film had a universal film classification meaning it could be viewed by any one but was mainly viewed by the younger audience such as people aged 5 to 12 years of age. The film is about  chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore who come to believe that Dave is going to propose to his girlfriend in Miami and dump them. They have three days to get to him and stop the proposal, saving themselves not only losing Dave but possibly from gaining a terrible stepbrother.  

Here is the trailer to Alvin and the chipmunks 

Even though we looked at Twentieth Century Fox and thought lot about having this as our distribution company we did come across a few problems one being that Twentieth Century Fox has never released a film that is on the same lines as our film and so we were worried that they might not be able to put across the genre of our film. Because of this reason we decided to step away from Twentieth Century Fox and so we turned to Lions gate 

Lions-gate

Lions gate was decided as when we looked back at our research on our previous post we saw that we all picked up that the film The Gift was distributed by Lions gate and was for people aged between 15-24 the same as our film and also the main genre to the film was a thriller just like Fatal Envy. After doing hours of research we felt that lion-gate would be the best distributor for our film as the majority of the films they release are thrillers. 

Some films released by lions-gate are 

• The Queen City Murder
• Leap
• The Hit man's body guard 
• The Hunger Games ( all films)
• Left for dead 
• The lost City
• The Gift
• Insidious 

Lions-gate Indent

Lions-gate History

The indent of lions-gate was last changed in 2013 but so the viewer can feel connected to the film as soon as the picture begins distributors tend to change their indent to fit in with the film.

Lions-gates first mayor box office success was the american film psycho in 2000.Lions-gate entertainment is an canadian entertainment company which came together on the 3rd of July 1997. It was created after the the name cinipix. Lions-gate tend to focus a lot on the foreign and independent films and has distributed successful box office films such as the hunger games and the twilight sega. lions-gate is worth up to 2.4 billion pounds 

Films released by Lions-gate

The gift

This was released on the 7th August 2015 with the main genre being a thriller and was distributed by Lions-gate the film was viewed by people ages between 15-24 and was mainly viewed by men The gift is about a young married couple who lives are thrown into a harrowing tailspin when an acquaintance from the husbands past brings a mysterious gift and a horrifying secret to light after 20 years.

The Hunger Games
The Hunger games was released on the 12th March 2012 in the UK and was viewed by people aged 12 and above and it one of the most popular films that lions-gate has released. its genre is adventure with a touch of thriller mixed in. The Hunger Games is about a girl called Katniss Everdeen who voluntarily  takes her younger sisters place in the hunger games. and a boy called Peter Malark that are chosen to take part in a fight to death in an arena in the capitol. 

Film promotion,
Film promotion is the practice of promotion specially in the film industry, and usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. and normally include press releases, advertising, merchandise,interviews and media.

YouTube,
So many films find their way to the public eye via the internet with sites such as YouTube where official trailers can be uploaded to help promote the film as it gives the public an in sight of what the film is going to be about.also YouTube is used by the majority of the public and so the film has more chance of being viewed world wide helping to get the  film known. Things such as behind the scenes can also be viewed via YouTube giving an insight on how the film was made.

Adverts,
Film may also be promoted via adverts this could be either a short trailer in-between TV programs or they may pop up as banners on webpages. Films may be promoted this way as nearly everyone watches telly and so are more likely to see the trailer or short clips of the film. also the internet is getting more are more popular and is viewed by millions meaning audience are more likely to see adverts getting the film seen by a wider audience.

Websites and Social Media,
Websites are a great way to get the audience connected with the film and allows them to understand the film in more detail helping to promote the film. films can also be seen via social media as profiles can be made on the film that gives people a place to talk and share comments of their own opinions to other people.

Film posters,
you may have seen a lot of film posters in your life time especially if you visit the cinema on a regular basis they are used a lot to advertise a film and promote the film to the public they are easily identifiable as they are normally made up of a picture, the title of the film and the main stars that appear in the film. film posters also come in many different sizes.

Standees 

For those of you who don't know what a standees is these are figures of a character from a film and are normally made life size. They can be used to promote a film as they can be seen in places such as cinemas and normally stand near the doors to make sure the figure is seen by the public and intrigues them to want to watch the movie.  

Trailers

These are probably the most common way of promoting a film and can be seen in many places such as YouTube but are most commonly seen in cinemas before the main film begins. Trailers are a great way of portraying to the audience what the film is about  and also who stars in it. Trailers basically give a brief summery of the film and the best parts of the film are usually used to try to get the public interested and want to watch the film. Trailers normally last 2 to 3 minuets.

Co-branding

Co-branding also called brand partnership is when two companies form an alliance to work together creating marketing synergy.

Promotional Gateways

This is when markets supply merchandise such as toys, drink cups, food chains and many more in a way to promote the films to a bigger audience.

What happens after the cinemas,

After cinemas our film Fatal Envy will be released to the public via Pay TV meaning more advertisement to customers by releasing the film on pay TV meaning we will make more money as people will have to pay a certain amount before they are aloud to watch the film. As well as releasing our film on pay TV the film will also be released on DVD, Blue-ray and VOD (video on demand) this is son we can receive secondary sales and also allows people to enjoy the movie from the comfort of their own home meaning people who don't like going to cinemas are still able to watch the film getting the film seen by a wider audience our film will be released after 4 months to DVD, Blue-ray and VOD on pay TV slightly earlier after about 2 months. 

In my next post I will be evaluating question 4. 

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups

I will be talking you through this question via a video Enjoy,

We challenged the typical conventions of a thriller as were normally a stereotypical thriller uses a male character to play the antagonist as they are seen as the stronger most dominant gender and use a female character as the  protagonist as they are seen as vulnerable and hyper-feminine. This is seen in films such as super man where lorice is seen as the damsl in destress who is in danger of falling of a building and superman comes to her rescue. we decided to use a female antaganagonist and a male protagnaist. As Rachel is looking to get revenge on tyler meaning she comes across as more masculin.

Rachel subverts the typical stereotypical antagonist because she is a female. This challenges the conventions of a normal thriller as women are usually seen as weak and vunerable and is unlikly to be seen as a killer or strong charecter.

Tylers charecter can be misleading to the audiance but in a way that was creaive changing our film from an everyday thriller. Due to the fact that Tyler has the lastest technology and fastionable clothing the audiance may see him as strong dominant charecter who can stick up for him self. However this changes when it is rachel who kidnaps Tyler portaying Tyler as a more vunerable charecter this is shown through his body language.


Over all I feel that our social groups were succesfully representented as all the people in our production team and media group understood  what social group we were doing without any explanation. So that we understood each of our social groups we researched films such as

• Insidious 2
• Mean girls 
• Stir of echoes 

                                        

In my next post I will be answering question 3