Wednesday 15 September 2010

Analysis of blog

Throughout the year the group an I have learnt and developed various skills combining together to complete our blogs. Here are some of the elements that were included..

Preparation - Preparation, better known as research and planning involved us viewing and analysing a wide variety of film openings, of all budgets. We then followed on to particularly focus our minds towards inspiring with opening sequences with a low budget, to match and be realistic with what we had to work with.

Digital Technology - We began by playing around with the cameras, getting a feel for how to use them, to improve our confidence to be able to record all elements of our opening smoothly on the day! To learn and become familiar with producing a short video using the camera and adobe we pieced together and short video of the approach too and happening of a short conversation. By doing this we got experience with all stages of the the production side of a video from the connection between the camera to the computer, to uploading it onto YouTube. Adobe premiere elements is the programme we used to edit out video clips and add sound tracks etc from which we accumulated from a free music website which is non-copyright. For our final piece of coursework we followed the same concepts as we did for out first clip. However we discovered several other options in which we could make our clip better in some cases such as adjusting the brightness and contrast for example.

Creativity - Our group brought new ideas by focusing on the lyrics from songs as well as films to originate some new ideas for our own film. If we had the same equipment as the professionals and the resources as well as the time, i think our film could have been vastly improved, however I believe our film idea to have an in depth and strong storyline and our opening two minutes reveals enough, but leaves a lot to the immagination of the audience to create suspense encouraging them to watch on..

Post-production - our audience feedback gave us the pros's and con's of our opening two minute clip. This was helpful as it demonstrated to us what immediately stuck out in the audiences minds while watching the video for the first time. The con's were good as they allowed us to see where we can improve on the next piece of coursework in which we do. The pros's were also just as benificaial as it shows what techniques and elements which were effective, therefore develop further for the production of a next.

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Audience Feedback!

Once our class had completed their opening sequences, we showed each other on a big screen and recorded the feed back. We critisized and advised each others work, aswell as positively supporting them this enabled it to us to understand the viewer thinks of it from an outside piont of view. We wanted to see if the stroyline we had wrote was portrayed well enough, whilst leaving a bit f mystery in order for them to watch on to see what happened.

Evaluation - Activity 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Below is our preliminary task (continuity editing task);



Looking back at our preliminary task it is clear that we have progressed alot and improved/ expanded our knowledge, as a group this was our first time we had ever filmed and edited properly. We used very basic skills which we have now built on for our Opening Two Minutes only using the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot and high and low angles, whereas now we have expanded to nearly all types of camera angles and shots.
Editing has improved a huge amount also throughout the two tasks, starting with very basic continuity transitions, then into fade in, fade out, creative, fast and slow paced editing to create a mood in which the audience will enjoy or find beneficial whilst watching.



As you can see above, both Over the Shoulder Shots are quite different, one from a level angle (basic) and the other slightly more creative and thought up to prove effective when representing social class.
The 180 degree rule is also an important rule you must consider when filming, if you film from the other side of this are the audience will be off put and likely to be dis-orientated. We had to be very careful when filming a conversation in both films as it is easy to step over this line without realising, resulting in a messy confusing scene, likely to put the viewer off.



In the screen grabs above you are able to see the difference and progress we have generally made on the creativity and thoughts behind the shots, using the birds eye view shot or in 'Brother 2 Another' a point of view shot, these both work in similar ways, a birds eye view shot helps the audience to get a general over view on what/where the character is doing/going, in this case going up the stairs. Whereas in 'Brother 2 Another' the point of view shot was used to allow the audience almost see the world through the characters eyes, in this case, experiencing, pain, shock and fright from the mugging, also helping the audience to feel involved in the story.




Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots. Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene.
Close-ups are used in many ways, for many reasons. Close-ups are often used as cutaways from a more distant shot to show detail, such as characters' emotions, or some intricate activity with their hands. In this case an in depth sense of shock is made by the shot to highlight the issue of a brutal attack.

Evaluation - Activity 6

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

We used many different tools and technologies and other media products/kit to help construct our final media product.

We used:

School/Home computers - To edit and upload/update new features onto our blogs.

School supplied camera and tape - We used these film and record our opening two minutes aswell as filming audience feedback and directors commentary.

Microphone - Extension microphone used for our opening two minutes allowing us to get a good quality of sound from the character outdoors.

Tripod - We relied on the tripod for many steady shots to enhance a better quality of filming.Car - To travel to each different location safely and comftably. (It was freezing)

Ipod - This was used as a prop in our scene of William being mugged, to help illustrate wealth.Wallet & Keys - This was used as a prop in our shot of expressing the materialistic goods in Williams house as he goes to pick up both items. (match on action)

Phone - This prop was used when William is first introduced showing the audience the contrast on how William has up to date technology at his finger tips.

Fruity Loops 8 Home Studio - This was used at home to construct a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence.

Adobe - We used Adobe Premiere 8 to edit and construct our opening two minutes aswell as using Adobe photoshop to help put together our screen grabs and complete presentation.

Memory Stick - Using memory sticks as a back up was a good idea incase of any computer errors we all had a copy of our progress, fortunately we didn't have any computing saving errors. This was also useful from travelling information from home to school.

Blogger - We used blogspot blogging to present our research, planning, evaluation and final media product.

Youtube - Finally one of the most useful websites, youtube - we found that it was very helpful when constructing our research and if we needed to see how other openings were presented in a paticular fashion. It was also used for research and easy viewable videos to then evaluate for our research and planning, helping us finalise our genre and target audience.Below are some pictures of me and some equipment we used:


Evaluation - Activity 5

This our annoted version of our video explaining how we attemted to illistrate our charchters lifestyles and address our target audience audience!

Evaluatioin - Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe the typical audience member for our media product would be anyone in between the age of 15-24 who likes getting involved with deep story lines which relate to an urban reality of a the diversity between lifestyles of teenagers.



This is Jack and Louis, Louis is 17, Jack a little younger at 16. They both share many of the same interests including graffiti style art, bmxing and gaming consoles. They are most likely to shop at outlets such as 'topman' and' 'JD Sports'. Or occasionally at more unique outlet stores such as 'size' or 'Mash Clothing' whom support the youth of today keeping up with what's new and fresh on the street. They are most likely to be found listening to the new form of drum and bass - dubstep, distinguished by it's two-step rhythm, fast beats and kicks, which are exactly what they live for. Their favourite sort of TV programmes include music channels such as MTV and TMF however also likely to watch relating teenage series such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Skins'. From this i am able to gain a tourough understanding of their likes and dislikes. Therefore then able to using this to my advantage to help our film stand out to them both. As they share a keen interest in music alongside many aother tenagers of the same age we could involve their social groups genre of music within the film, as did 'Adulthood' using cool and up to date urban music, to help relate elements of the films to thier lifestyles themselves. Using Pathe institution when distributing their film they; used music as it has a huge influence on the target urban 16-24 year old audience. Their strategy was then to leverage this passion for music and tap in to the viral nature of social media to build credibility for the film, and generate early hype among a new 16-24 audience.The film had to feel niche, real and about them so the challenge was to talk to them on their level by infiltrating their worlds to give the film credibility.

Evaluation Activity 3

Here is our directors commentary telling you why we believe Pathe to be an ideal institution to distribute our film! Hope you agree :)