Thursday, 5 May 2016

Final Version of Stolen



The clip above is the final version of Stolen, although it was much more of a challenge than I thought due to the issues we had with casting and music I am really pleased with the outcome. By completing the evaluative questions at the end of the project, it enabled us to refine certain aspects of the production but also to develop our knowledge and understanding of what target audiences of our age want to see. If I were to repeat the same process there would be slight alterations with the way we prepared the scenes although that would be due to the experience we now have.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task 
From 20 to 40 seconds
This task is to show my knowledge of different filming techniques and action shots. Through this short bit of filming we each had to include:
- match on action
- shot reverse shot
- showing you understand the 180 degree rule
My shot was the second one shown in this clip. I starred Fred Morris to be the main role in this short film, I also wanted to include a very short bit of dialogue to show a shot reverse shot but also being aware of not breaking the 180 degree rule. It is a rough bit of filming and editing but was only to show simple editing and each of the points we had been told to include. 

Friday, 18 March 2016

Evaluation Question 7

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

Sound 
- The preliminary task did not require me to create foley sound or a soundtrack meaning I had no  prior experience in dubbing sounds over scenes and alter the volume of certain dialogue or music. 
- During the process in creating the final product I was able to develop my skills in recording and merging sound into moving image
- Making mistakes due to not positioning the boom correctly and not recording at the right time enabled me to watch out for these mistakes when we were shooting the final product 
- Needless to say, we still had some issues in recording sound for some of the shots which we later realised while editing, we were able to manipulate certain aspects and fill in the gaps 
- By shooting the preliminary task it allowed me to build on the basic skills I obtained 
- Finding copyright free music was harder than I thought as we had to look for certain music which would build up suspense through out the scene at the right pace
- In the end I think that the soundtrack we manipulated came to be very effective and blinded the film together making it look more professional, this was the last thing we did to the film

Editing 
- Whilst editing the preliminary task was fairly minimalistic it still got me developing skills and knowledge 
- It gave me a look into how to create continuity editing and the best angles to make it work
- Although I did not like being in front of the camera, I found it interesting developing my own short clip through Final Cut Pro
- These skills meant that when it was time to edit our own opening I was familiar with the program creating a base of understanding I could work on and gain confidence 

- Editing was much easier and quicker the second time as there was a more structured storyline making it clear what had to be inserted 



Camera-work 
- The filming meant that I was able to understand more of the terminology which I had learned 
- An example of this would be the 180-degree rule which became instinctive whilst filming the opening due to the prior experience creating the preliminary task
- Due to me focusing mainly on rules and trying to get to grips with the camera I was less able to experiment with the lens and different angles to create a certain representation of a character
- Through out our final product we films a lot of the same scenes from different angles, playing around with the natural light and how we could incorporate this to become more effective
- Due to our experimentation and variation of shots it also made editing the film a lot easier as we did not have to re-film anything which was shot and we were able to create rough cuts using different footage to see what worked best 

Mise-en-scene 
- As the preliminary task was completed at school it meant that we were not able to play with make-up and costume as we did not have to think about the representation of each character 
- This meant that in the final product we were allowed to experiment with different clothing and make-up on the girl showing her crying 
- The costumes were carefully thought out before we started filming as we had to have a character which resembled the man in the forest without the actor being there
- This factor meant that we chose for him to wear a black puffer jacket which was made significant as he walked into the house
- Without previous experience with how the editing and storytelling worked it was a challenge for us to resemble his character without him being there although watching the scene without that knowledge, it seemed to look realistic 
- While filming the final product, we had to make sure that the lighting and location was scenic and stayed the same through out the scene 
- Filming on different days made this difficult, although, it created a challenge which we had to overcome 
- We collected toys for the bedroom creating an innocent look of the teenage girl suggesting a lonely, underdeveloped mind
- Small aspects which made up the scene took a lot more planning and thought than what I expected although due to the character of the girl being the same age as us, it made it much easier to create this scene 



The main thing I have gotten out of the preliminary task through to the final product would be confidence. The more I got used to Final Cut Pro, the more I was discovering different types of titles and ways to cut the film. This made the whole process of developing the opening more interesting and different as we experimented with the title sequence and final touches. By doing the preliminary task it meant that filming and editing became a lot easier giving us time to look at different ways to show the title sequence and fit in different music for the soundtrack. 
EB

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Evaluation Question 4

STOLEN 

Gender: 

F 11
M 10



We attracted both male and females to come and watch the film and received good feedback from both genders. These show positive results as it means that both males and females can relate to the characters. Having both genders watch our film stops bias results as well as helping us expand our target audience.

Age:

0-15 0
15-25  17
25-40  2
40-60  2


Having some people who were over the age of our target audience allowed us to know wether more people would be interested in viewing our film. The results show that we achieved reaching to our target audience of elder teens and early adults as they are the most likely to go to the cinema with their friends.

We decided to make our final product a 15 classification meaning that no-one under 15 years old is allowed to see it at the cinema or to rent the film. This means that the majority of the target audience is able to watch this film. Strong violence and discriminatory language or behaviour is often seen in these. The classification means that you have the ability to include 'strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat'. 

What is your favourite film genre?

Thriller  7
Comedy  7
Romantic  0
Sci-Fi  2
None  1
Crime Drama  1
Spy 
Surreal  1
Epic  1


These results suggest the film is hitting the target audience as thriller was one of the most popular genres put down. This allows us to get an idea of how many people would watch the film which is helped by the crossover of crime as well.

What would be your preferred thriller plot?

Murder  8 
Fiction  4
Kidnapping  0
Revenge  2
Psychotic  6


These results suggest that our plot in the film is not as popular as other thriller films as ours central around the girl getting kidnapped. Although, there have previously been popular thrillers showing people being kidnapped and is a regular theme which crops up through out thrillers.

Do you go to the cinema regularly? 

Not at all  1
Sometimes  17
All the time  3



These results are what to be expected due to web 2.0 and on demand access.

Do you prefer watching movies at home or in the cinema? 

Home  10
Cinema  11

This 50/50 split is to be expected.

Would you prefer to see the protagonist as male or female? 

Male  5
Female  7
Don’t mind  9

It's good that the don't mind is so high.

Was the ident realistic?

Yes  18
No  0

Did you understand the opening?

Yes  20
No  1



Did the opening leave you asking questions?

Yes  21
No  0



Would you want to watch the rest of this film? 

Yes  20
No  1

Improvements? 

Louder music 
Shot of man through forest



EB