Here is a link to our production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2h4QgeVPq8

Evaluation

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

We learned various skills in the preliminary task, which help us, construct a short thriller film. We learnt the basic rule of the 180-degree rule and that going across the 180-degree rule would be unadvised as it confuses the audience. In the main task we avoided this by keeping the camera to one side therefore making it easier to avoid the 180-degree rule. We learnt how to frame shot a scene which came useful as balanced the content in every scenery giving the scenes better value and making it easier for the audience to get the intentions of the antagonist person In the opening. Team work and listening skills were also discovered and develop as neither of the group had actually done this sort of assignment so understanding the mean to keep a valued consensus or a common agreement had to be reached so the production could go on without any problems or situations. Unlike the preliminary task we had to gain extra skills in the angling of the camera and what sort of angles would have been necessary for each scene, which had to be perfectly orchestrated to get the thriller theme we intended to give to the audience. We needed to gained communication skills to a high level and this was the key element to the success of the group as we had some disagreements which was not healthy for the group and compromises had to be met .for example the location was the major issue as we disagreed on the location and the angle of the shot taken at the bridge however was sorted when we agreed to keep to short and close up and very few long shots. From the skills we gained and used in the main task we had gain the knowledge of the types of angles that could be used e.g. we were able to grab good shots of the canal with was good and was timed to perfection as a bird had just flown over the canal giving a better and more gracious view of the river bringing the sense of innocence to the setting.

The skills gained as we progressed were being able to use different angles to create different affect. For example we had a close up of the antagonistic eyes giving the main affect of mystery and deviance giving the affect and feeling that the protagonist is in danger and that the antagonistic is going to inflect pain to the protagonist. Another shot used with a very good angled camera shot is the shot of the bag which is basically there to give a link to the protagonist to the antagonist giving the feeling that the bag represents a key factor that the antagonist want something that the bag therefore giving relevance to the two actors that they have a common link which is brought to by the bag

The angle we got from the long range view of the building was another example of how our skills of using the camera had increased as we were able to used the skills to show different angles of the building as we used a long-short going into a close up of the building giving a fading effect to the film and give the film more mystery and helped us give more of an insight to what our intentions of the film was to the audience which was basically a slow paced thriller theme which would leave the audience in thought . As in the preliminary task we gain the knowledge of communication and understanding of the contexts needed to create a film like this , example when doing the filming we had to remember that unlike the preliminary task the different types of shots that we should have used were different and had to change basically the view that the filming had to be done as we had to use a range of other shots like mid-shot and long short as well.

Evaluation

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

Whilst doing this media production, we have used a lot of equipment and learnt how to use a lot of new equipment. The software and equipment we used was; Final cut pro, A video camera and tripod, back lamp in the sound proof room. Final Cut Pro is the software we used to make our movie. Every shot we filmed was put into Final Cut Pro, and then it was put together as our film adding fades and music. We had to do our film 3 different times as we were not getting much done and the film was not making much sense. So by coming together we used shots we had with the Final Cut Pro and made our film “Beware of Shadows”.

When using the camera when we were out filming we used all the shots we possibly could and each time we filmed a scene, we shot it from every angle we could possibly think of. For example, if we were filming Simon walking down a street, we would not film it from the just the front, we would film it from all angles but making sure when it was cut together in the film we did not cross the 180-degree rule. Another thing we had to do when we were filming, was not keep the camera on the tripod all the time, we had to do a large variety of shots including free-hand and steady-cam shots. By using these different types of shots we create different effects and bring across different things to the film.

Evaluation

How did you attract/address your audience?

The techniques I have used to define our genre of our media project and grab the attention of our audience was that we used fast cross rates. We have also used fade in’s and fade out’s for every scene which creates an atmosphere, of something that you’re unsure about fits the sequence well. There is no dialect in our movie clip, this can make the clip more interesting because the audience has to rely more on the facial expressions of the characters, this requires more concentration and for the audience to be more involved in the clip. This is a good way of getting the attention of the audience. People may see this as unusual however it is a good way for the audience to get to know a character through their facial expressions and other gestures. A scene with minimal or no dialect can build tension and as this is the beginning of a thriller this can set the tone for the rest of the film.

When we filmed KB’s eyes we had everything completely black and only his eyes and face in focus. But we had just a lamp at one side behind the camera to create an early effect and make it look more menacing. Simon is the “victim”, he is coming across to the audience as a simple teenager going for a walk, maybe heading somewhere. There isn’t much depth to this character so he is a simple character but he is the main one. The second character is KB who is the “Stalker”, he is the sinister being who we don’t see much of apart from his eyes. He is the evil person in this opening and the bits people see of him we want to make him come across as the person who is out to do bad.

In the third shot along The Stalker is introduced, it is an extreme close up of his eyes and everywhere is dark except for a shine of light on the side of his face. The music we have used is a track that plays through to the end of our scene. In the shot further into the sequence The Victim is walking up some steps and puts his hand on a rail, at that moment it fades to The Stalkers eyes once again and it looks as if they are looking at the previous scene and it creates a sense of unpredictability of what The Stalker is thinking or what he is going to do.

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

In our media production was originally aimed at male teenagers aged of 15-19 years old, but it we would say that it would appeal to females as well. It is strongly for older teenagers though as it requires concentration to watch it. There is really no preference in ethnicity or religion. But based on interests, the person would have to be a fan or thrillers or horrors as that is the genre of our film, maybe would also like the idea of a stalker film. In this media production we are aiming at a niche audience, this is where you would aim something at a specific audience, this works in the same way for our opening film, as we are aiming it at 15–19 year old male and female teen agers as well as young adults.

Evaluation

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

When doing our film reviews we looked at the film “Orphan” and the company that produced this film was Warner Brothers, Pictures. The orphan is a Horror/ Thriller, which is a similar genre to our media production so they would make suitable production company. Because of the quality of our product we have made and due to the fact we had limited resources to make the product we believe that British production companies such as film four and BBC would be the most suitable production company. Film four is a British film production company which is owned by channel 4 which has been known for helping a large number of films made in the UK such as ‘Dead Mans Shoes’ and ‘Hidden City’ The reason for this is because the location we had used in our particular clip has been in Britain. Production companies such as film four and BBC would be interested in distributing our film because the film we have created is of low budget and includes areas which are known to the British audience. They also may be interested in marketing our product because the clip we have produced is of low budget and does not include elements and props of such higher standards then your average Hollywood blockbuster or even nowhere near that standard. Norfilms is also another independent British film production and television production based company and this would be an ideal option when coming to distribute our film because the company is based near Manchester. Many film four production films have been marketed through the use of trailers and billboards around the England so in the same way we could market our film in nearby local cinemas and billboards around the central parts of Manchester.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The media clip we have produced we decided to represents the male sex those which are in their late teenage years. The media product we have produced stereotypically involves a dominant male who is of black origin and a white male who is supposedly the victim in this clip. We stereotypically decided to go with such representation of the ethnic groups in this way because the film clips which we had earlier reviewed involved the white males being the antagonist however in our case he is the victim. The film clip we have created involves an antagonist who is in his late teens, this again is a stereotype that male teens are not always someone they are, they are a group which are represented as misbehaviours. Our clip we created holds up these stereotypes because we wanted a clip that would be something the audience would expect however because of the representation I have mentioned above still keep them thinking about the significance of having just used male teenagers.

Evaluation

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

The genre of the film we have created is a thriller, we got the idea of a thriller after viewing trailers of a few successful movies such as Halloween Resurrection in addition to watching a few opening scenes of movies also which included IT and Orphan. In terms of the camera work we have used, compared to the opening films and trailers of the movies we have seen, we tried to duplicate the shots used in these in our very own film, our clip included many quick shots and close ups to create the sense of the past and present being shown to us. We used extreme long shots to show to the audience the isolated and loneliness of the locations we filmed at. Many of the film clips we reviewed included close ups of the antagonists face/faces which were mainly close ups of supernatural or unearthly faces however the film clip we produced included these close ups but to keep our film aimed at the target audience we intended to aim at and keep it within the thriller genre we used no make up artist to give our antagonist the edge or to make his facial features seem unreal. For this clip we decided to use no type of sound effects or diegetic music but instead just a eerie soundtrack to blend in with the clip we had created and to make the clip flow and to create an atmosphere of suspense n thriller. In the editing side we intended to keep this clip simple and have not much going on so we included many fade ins and fades out, in fact we used these for each time the protagonist was shown to us. The location and areas we filmed in were really quiet and secluded to create that sense of isolation and to give the loneliness feel to our main character. The one really interesting thing about our product and the thing which really gave us the originality over the other films of the same genre was that every time we faded in or out we still had the same background soundtrack playing rather then a sound which needed to be created every time we done this, in addition to this we also use to cleverly inserted fades and transitions to switch between the 2 characters in our clip which gives the film the fast paced look and it makes it feel as if it is the present as well as the past.

Locations

Locations used in the production of the short film 'beware of the shadow' had three main locations being in wythenshaw were we see the protagonist being Simon comes out of his house going to the bus stop with intentions of coming to town .

Another location found would be the bridge in town mostly used in the film as the key location as the protagonist being simon is going up the bridge were we see key eatures of him from the hand and feature of Simon fromthe whole body to specific things like hands ansd shoes .This location was picked mainly cause it was an isolated area with very few people paassing through during the times we were filming giving us more filming time and the location of the bridge and canal fitted with the thriller theme we try to bring through for the audience.

Production Treatment For Main Task:

Simon Robinson, Kabambe Chapusha, and Sohail Wadee

Name Of The Film Clip:

Beware Of Shadows

The Opening Of The Short Film:

Silence Thriller

Duration:

Originally we decided on 1 minute and 50 seconds to be the length of the film however we made the clip run past this and got it to 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

Audience:

Initially the intended audience after much thought we decided to aim this opening of a short film to both sex’s, males as well as females. Mainly aimed at those in there late 20’s however the film clip has a minor appeal to the older teens aged 15-19.

We stumbled upon aiming ‘Beware of Shadows” at the target audience mentioned above after doing intensive research on the Internet. After doing this research we came to know of that the film clip we have created appeals to a wider audience however does not appeal to the younger audience such as young teens due to the fact that this film clip needs to be watched with some sort of concentration.

Resume:

The opening of the film clip begins with the production company being shown along with the first title credit, following immediately after, a building is being shown at a constant zoom and at this very point we are introduced to the start of the psychotic eerie music which is played throughout the film clip we have produced.

The clip hence after flashes and introduces us to this male (KB) who shows no sense of expression or any emotion someone who just stares at the camera in the most evilest way possible, a close up is shown to us of this particular person in a very low lighted room. The camera then introduces us to another character, another male, (Simon) the protagonist who is walking out of his house towards a bus stop however this particular male is someone who is just a normal everyday person as appose to the one introduced to the one before, whilst this person is walking out of his house the clip flashes once again to and from KB showing only KB’s Eyes to conceal his identity in some way to show this person is unknown to Simon and the outside world.

Again we bring in another title that then leads on to an establishing shot of the other location we have used which is of a canal. We again see Simon walking towards this bridge that runs through the canal, whilst Simon is walking up over and back down this bridge we again in-between this scene switch over to KB but this time just showing his hands still leaving his identity concealed. Following this clip we are introduced to KB having some sort of bag, which appears to be the bag of Simon.

Recording Days

The amount of days we took to film this particular clip of ‘Beware Of Shadows’ was 3 weeks which included the 4 hours of college time in lesson each week however because we wanted to film many various shots and angles that were not needed to give our film clip the edge over others, we decided to meet up each weekend Saturday and Sunday spending approximately another 5 extra hours every week on average, one week we filmed for nearly 7 hours.

Key Elements & Props

The key prop we initially decided to use was a mobile phone but we later were set and keen on using some sort of a messenger bag because this would add more significance as the bag would be showed time and time again in the possession of the Antagonist. Another Key thing we included was the canal, this was included to give the audience something to think about whether the canal was shown in addition to why the bag was in the possession of KB and what had happened to Simon.

One major element was the idea of having numerous close up shots at many different angles of KB, the reason we done this was to create the sense that this character is someone that wants to remain unknown.

When filming the protagonist we decided to use many long shots and medium long shots cleverly so the messenger bag is visible clearly to the audience, we wanted to do this so that when the bag is in the hands of the antagonist which in this case is KB the audience can see exactly where this bag has been and where it has came from.

The majority of the footage we have used of Simon has been from the eyes of KB to show to the audience and to make them feel that Simon is being watched which is why we have used filmed bits in our clip which are very static with just a little movement from which many film clips do not include and the idea behind this was to implement KB’s view point.

Story Board

Halloween Resurrection Movie Trailer

Film Analysis 3

Mise en Scene

The film Halloween Resurrection is set in a deserted remote house which has not been occupied for many years and a house which is said to be the house of a masked murderer. The 6 characters in the film are situated in this particular house during midnight. Many of the props we encounter in this trailer are mainly knives and chains which suggest the house was not used by an ordinary person. Very low lighting has been used in this particular house

Camera

Many close up shots have been used of the 6 characters when they are being chased or confronted by Michael Myers. A very slow zoom in shot has been used when the house is first shown which then very cleverly leads on to the pan out shot. Close up of the Main male character Michael has been used. Close up the incredibly large knife has been showed many times

Editing

A cut has been used from when the woman screams “Michaels here” to Michael being shown. Fast cuts have been used in the trailer when most of the 6 characters have been shown screaming. Most of the time in the trailer the camera has been on the blonde female wearing black when she in the house so we know who the protagonist is.

Sound

Many of the sounds used in this film are of screams however the drumming sound we hear towards the end of the trailer go in sync or together at the point where the women is being chased by Michael Myers. The Non Digetic voice over has been used in this trailer which again goes together with the drumming and when the drumming has come to a halt. During the trailer the screen blanks out and for a few seconds and at this point there is total silence. A sound bridge has been used between 2 shots in this trailer.

The Strangers Movie Trailer

Film Analysis 2

Mise en Scene-This is set in an isolited house in the middle of nowhere, and then one the "strangers" come into it they are wearing suits but wearing some kind of clown masks which create psychological fear.

Camera-There are many long shots in this sequence, it shows alot of the scenery and makes you think that something is going to hapen. There are also many two shots because there is not alot of time a person is on there own. Like someone else is always there.

Sound-There is a lot diagetic sounds, it makes the natural sounds seem scary and tense. When there is background music it slow low sounds. But when there is a knock on the door there is silensce and then sudden noise which is startling.

Editing-There is a fast cut rate between scenes, there is dim lighting through-out the film and there is total darkness in certain parts.

Orphan Movie Trailer

Film Analysis 1

Mise en Scene-The locations of this film were set in populated areas to make the horror seem more realistic. But it is also set in isolated places as to create suspense. You would see in a thriller/horror movie typical people in masks but in this film it is a little girl from an orphanage dong the killing which creates suspense and keeps you guessing.

Camera-In this the are medium shots which are from chest up, there are a lot of close ups on the face to see the facial expressions of the evil smiles and of the eyes. Also they had aerial shots to show the place is completely isolated which makes your mind think.

Sound-The music is non-diagetic, it is slow paced and rarely played. But it was flicking between diagetic and non-diagetic because it is totally silent and your hear the squeak of the swing. There is also deadly silence.

Editing-In this trailer it shows a person in a bed and darkness behind her, but she comes out of the darkness as if she has appeared. There is also a fast cut rate between scenes to create more suspense.

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation / Evaluation of preliminary task

What did you learn about the camera and editing softwear during the preliminary task?
We have larnt the angless and different shots the were needed to be taken as well as the 180 degree rule. Also how not to break the 180 degree line.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?
We did the 180 degree rule very well, but once we finshed our pre-lim task we found out that we had missed the 10th shot so it was put into our evaluation.


Give a detailed, specific examples of how you have used a shot/reverse shot combination in your film
During the conversation the ccamera was focused on person two, then once he had finished speaking it came round to person one for him to speak, themn it came back round to person one to finish it.


Give detailed and specific examples of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process
We first filmed preson 1 walking down the stairs, the it cut to a close up of the feet, then back to person one but them at the door so it saved some time.

How did you make sure you did not break the 180 degree rule? Or if you broke it, what have you learnt from this?
When we were filming we made sure that we kept the camera on the left side of the table. By using the table as a marker we did not break the 180 degree rule.

Prelim Review

We have now finished our Prelim task. We have first realised that when person A sat down in front of person B. We did a cut which was not needed, we missed out the eyeline match. Then we missed out our final 10th shot which would have been Person A leaving.

Shot List-Preliminary task

We must shoot a scene of two students walking into a room, sitting down at a table to have a short conversation then get up and leave. The shots we must include:

• Match on action (match cut)
• Shot/Reverse
• 180 degree rule
• It must last 30second, be a minimum of 10 frame

1. Extreme Long shot of Person A walking down stairs
2. (Match cut) close up of persons feet
3. Extreme Long Shot of Person A walking out of doors
4. Medium Shot of Person A walking towards person B
5. Medium shot of Person A sitting down and beginning to talk
6. Students sits down and exchange a short conversation
7. (Shot/Reverse Shot) Student A: It’s Cold out here
8. (Shot/Reverse Shot) Student B: You kept me waiting!
9. (Shot/Reverse Shot) Student 1: I couldn't get out of class!
10. Medium Shot of Person A leaving