Evaluation Task 7

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

 In my opinion, the most useful aspect of the prelim was learning how to use the camera correctly and the different filming techniques. Before the prelim I had no real experience with filming at all, at the beginning of this excercize, one of the media teachers taught me exactly how to use the camera including the zoom, the focus, the use of the tripod and the angling of shots. This was incredibly helpful because considering I had been absent for the lessons in which these skills had been taught and therefore meant I could really get involved in the prelim and develp my new skills.

 There is a massive difference between the camera work in our prelim and the Tents Thriller. This was largely influenced by the fact that we were a lot more experienced and knew what shots looks good and learnt rules such as the 180 degrees rule. This experience means that the final piece looks a lot more professional and realistic, similar to what you would see in a real film. You can see in from my prelim that there is some poor camera work. One example of this is when the camera is moving mid shot to focus on the rubiks cube. The camera is very unsteady and shaking around, it looks as if it was being filmed on a mobile phone and incredibly unprofessional. This is different to our thriller as we were effectively using the tripod and the majority of the shots were still shots. The moving shots were difficut to perfect but we took a few goes shots of each, to make sure we got a good one.

 There is no comparison between the Mise-En-Scene in the prelim and in our thriller. In the prelim we only used a stool and a rubiks cube and 2 actors. For our Thriller we spent months planning the setting and props. This included the tent, the wood boarded windows, sleeping bag, tins and plastic containers, rope, and an axe. This is only to name a few. Also condsidering for our prelim we didnt need to worry about unwanted light and sound coming into the shot as we were in a studio, this was different for our thriller as we were in a normal boarding house so we had to board up the windows to show that it wasn't sunny outside. Considering we had a lot much more to do, I feel we successfully made it look professional.

 Through illness, I never actually got the oppertunity to edit the prelim but the amount I have learnt about editing since working on the thriller has been unbelievable. It has been hours worth of work and have been largely influenced by the likes of Kyle Cooper and the Spiderman 3 opening title sequence. As a group I have found one of the most interesting aspects of editing would be adding in the titles and choosing the font and the design of the text. For example fading the writing in and out rather than suddenly. In our piece we also had the titles ride along the lines, very similarly to the Spiderman 3 extract.

 To be honest, in our prelim we hardly took the sound into consideration, we just filmed it and allowed the camera to pick up and dialogue as this was the only sound used in this piece. This is largely different from the Thriller as we used separate microphone booms to pick up important specific sounds such as the bell ringing and and door handle twisting. This also means we will be able to edit it to make them sound louder than they would have done if we didn't uses it. This added dramatic effect.

 

Evaluation Task 6

Evaluation Task 5

Evaluation task 5 from hurtwoodhousemedia5

Evaluation Task 4

Evaluation Task 3

"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?"

 With our piece this is a very difficult question to answer due to the fact that there is an argument to suggest that it could be pursued by a large Hollywood film company such as Sony or Warner Pictures, but it could also be argued that this film would be more appropriate for an independent British company to make such as Bonafide Films. One of the films in which influenced us the most was '28 days later' which was made by DNA Films and The British Film Council. There are both independent British film companies and therefore have a reputation for producing fairly low budget films. Realistically considering with the facilities of a school the budget would be low so therefore a company which uses low budgets may be better suited.

Having said this, our idea originally some sort of apocalypse meaning whoever was in the tent (Adam) would have been potentially the last surviver. This links into some of the set we used for example boarding up the windows, this would suggest lonliness but also that he is scared of what could potentially be outside the house. The concept of an apocalypse is one that you can imagine Hollywood doing however, and it already has in films such as 'I am Legend' by Warner Bros. The fact that a big company can succesfully produce a film similar to this could potentially suggest that they might be interested in making another as they could almost guarantee success.

I think whether our film was produced by a large or small company, so therefore whether it had a high or low budget, it would be a success either way. The opening title sequence is impressive and our original plan of what the whole film would be based on is good as well. Apocalyptic films have proved to be successful in the past such as 'I am Legend' and 'Independence Day', which shows they work and gives our film more of a chance if it were to be produced.

Evalutaion Task 2

How does your product represent particular social groups?

Together, we made the decision to only show one character in the opening scene as we thought this would visually be better. I think this was the correct decision however it did mean that we could only represent one particular social group, that being a white male. Stereotypically, Hollywood have employed whit males as their main characters such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Another example of one social group being used is in 'I am Legend', but the difference for that film is it is a black male as the lead actor. Showing only one character in the opening title sequence shows that he is the main character and makes the audience sympathise with him from the start.

Evaluation Task 1

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

 

 

 

Top left: This is an image of the bell that rings which is the alarm for the man in to tent to warn him that there is something outside. As our film is a thriller, it was important to add tension and an element of the unknown. A bell is seen as quite a random object and is hardly threatened. This will force the audience into anxiety and animosity.

Top central: This look on our actors face shows that he is concerned and worried about what could be outside the tent. This means that the viewers sympathise with the worried man and feel as if they were in his position. Meaning they were scared for him, this keeps the audience watching as they hope nothing bad will happen to him.

Top right: This is a shot of the tent with the strings attached, but it is wide enough to be able to see that the tent is inside rather than out. This is clearly abnormal. This abnormality intrigues the audience and could also generate the idea that there was something mentally wrong with the actor, as most people would just be sleeping inside.

Middle left: This is where we incorporated the titles into the sequence. We did this by running the writing along the string, meaning the viewers would automatically be drawn to following it. For this part we noticed we used a similar idea to Kyle Cooper in Spiderman 3 which was encouraging considering the work he has achieved.

Centre: This shot is potentially the most exciting because not only does it help to explain the relevance of the bell. Also, the axe is the focus in this shot and weapons are fundamental to have in thrillers as they build tension and worry the audience and make them wonder what's going to happen next.

Middle right: In a thriller, the viewer also becomes anxious if the main character looks concerned and this is the case with this one. It also could come to their attention that he is wearing an odd selection of apparel, this raises questions about the mans mental health.

Bottom left: This shot is used to build tension as our actor is walking slowly towards the door with an axe in hand. This slow movement shows that he is scared about what could be on the other side, this fear is also represented with the axe, as he might be forced to resorting to violence to protect himself.

Bottom central: This is possibly the most relevant part of the opening title sequence and is when the audience first know that something is trying to intimidate and approach the character. The way his hand slowly approaches the door shows that he knows there is potential danger and he knows something is out to get him.

Bottom right: This is a shot of the rubbish outside the tent. Not only does this strike the audience as incredibly odd but also shows he has potentially been living there for a long time, the fact that he hasn't had the courage to leave this horrible way of living when it seems like there is a perfectly nice house outside the tent shows that is genuinely scared for his life.

Prelim

Third Circle

Initial Editing Stages

After finishing the shoot, we went to the editing suite to see how the shots were and what we could potentially do with it to make it work. Initially learning how to use the software was difficult for us as none of us had much experience for in computer software. Having said this, after a couple of lesson of practice, we have got the hang of it. One of the ideas that we came up with was running the credited name along the lines of string. When we presented this idea to Adam he showed us that it was very similar to the opening title sequence of Spiderman 3. This was very encouraging to us as Kyle Cooper was someone that we studied earlier on the course and is renowned for being a very talented designer of motion picture title squences.

Editing has always been something that I would find difficult as I am absolutely useless at using computers, especially with such precision which is necessary in film editing. Despite this I impressed myself with the amount of progress I made and found that I very quickly leant how to use it effectively and actually found the process quite interesting despite the fact that it is fairly time consuming.

Visit to Ewhurst and Cornhill

During yesterdays lesson our group visited 2 of the boarding houses at our school (Ewhurst and Cornhill). This was to decide where a suitable placewould be to shoot our thriller. We first went to Ewhurst and set up the tent in the hallway and did a practice shoot  with me as the actor. For a first shoot we thought it went fairly well but afterwards we came to a conclusion that it would be inpractical as there weren't enough parts of the room that we could attach the string, so we decided this house would be unfeasable and we'd have to look for another option.

We then went to Cornhill to see if there was any potential for filming in there. When we got there we discovered that the TV room was a very good size and the tent would fit easily. The one problem was that there were too many windows, this meant it would be completely impossible to control the light shining into the room. This was very important as we were trying to make it look like a specific time of day and this would be terribly difficult to control. We then deemed this as unfeasable and began planning another potential place to film. We eventually came to the decision that Beatrice Webb was the perfect location.

Groupwork Improvement

 To be completely honest, there wasn't really any teamwork as we were paired up just before we were going to film and therefore had no time to discuss how we were going to do present it or build any team chemistry, which is potentially one of the main reasons why it was of a much lower standard. Our thriller was the complete opposite to this and I think our teamwork was absolutely phenomenal and I can't remember having an argument with any of the group. I thought that possibly the main reason for this was because we successfully delegated roles and responsibilities for us each to persue.

 This delegation meant everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do and there were no arguments to be had. The only way this could have potentially have gone wrong would have been if someone hadn't done what they were set, which didn't happen. We all had the same idea for the basic idea of the plot and so any debates about it would be minor and always resolved quickly. I think personally my ability to work in a team improved dramatically and now with future similar excercises I will have a lot more confidence and will relish the challenge.

The Importance of Organisation

 Leading up to the filming of our thriller, we began to realise how important keeping ourselves organised really was. We knew wo only had one date in which to film so if anyone forgot any crucial props it would have a huge negative effect on our overal piece. This meant that we decided to begin storing all our props in school a few weeks before the actual shoot meaning it was almost impossible to forget something on the day. This was easy for me because we had decided to film our thriller in my boarding house, meaning my contribution to the props could be stored in my room and I could guarantee not letting my team down.

 For the prelim, no preparation was done at all, this was in massive contrast to the thriller. We literally had a template script to use and would ask someone to act for us literally 20 minutes before whereas this was done over a month in advance for the thriller. We also obviously had to think about where we were going to actually film our thriller and after looking at other possibilities we came to conclusion the Beatrice Webb House was the best. This was very time consuming and for the prelim, it was always going to be filmed in the studio so we didn't have to worry.