JB - Evaluation (6)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the production of our coursework project we have picked up several skills using various pieces of technology.

Blogging

We have used this blog, on blogspot.com, to collaborate with all of the tasks from research all the way through to the evaluation. We used it as a tool to organise our concept development, our filming (including our preliminary task and our final production), to keep track of our editing, and as a centre-point for all of our feedback and improvements.

We had to construct and organise our blog in such a way that it would be an asset to our production, rather than a burden. We learnt that, in fact, it was a very useful tool, and without it, our production may have not been organised so easily.

Presentation
In order to present our initial pitch, as well as audience research and research of conventional features of film openings, and more, we used an online presentation tool called Prezi which was more technologically advanced than traditional presentation software such as Microsoft Powerpoint.
We learnt that it would help us to present in a more interesting and structured way, which would help the viewers of the presentation to understand it and give us very helpful feedback, and in turn this ultimately would help us improve the final appearance of our production.


Filming
We also learnt the industrial conventions of filming. This includes everything from camera angles, to the settings inside the camera, to the framing of the shots, and more. We learnt that this is often a very time consuming process initially, but in the long-run it saves time and disappointment when we find that the footage we got is actually how we wanted it. The camera angles and techniques helped to convey the narrative of the film opening so they were important to consider. We learnt that the settings inside the camera were very important because they massively affected the appearance of the final footage – for example, we filmed some footage in the graveyard on different exposure and saturation levels to that of the footage in the woods, and we discovered that this gave the footage a very different feel to what we had intended. Fortunately, the camera we used (Nikon D90) gave us the freedom to change such settings, whereas on some, more basic cameras, these settings are unchangeable. Every other element of the footage in the graveyard was as we had planned, and luckily we were able to change the brightness and saturation in the editing software (Adobe Premiere) to similar levels to what we had intended, so not all was lost.
We learnt that the framing of the shots was very important to consider, including the 180 degree rule, the rule of thirds, deep and shallow focus and more, as these help to contribute to the continuity of the footage and help define what the audience actually pays attention to when watching the opening.

We used focus pulling to make the viewer pay more attention

to the antagonist who was at the rear of the shot in the distance.

Editing
The editing software we used proved to be a very useful tool for us. We used it to produce and organise the sequence of shots we see in our preliminary task, as well as producing the animatic of our final opening, the rough cut, and finally the film opening.



Personally, I had used the software previously - but even so, I did not have as much experience in it as I had thought, so using the software to produce our media products was a learning curve for me. I learnt how to cut the clips to the desired length, how to rearrange the order of the footage, how to add a soundtrack and - perhaps most importantly – how to make the footage look like a continuous sequence. I also learnt how to fade footage in and out, how to add titles, and how to adjust the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation levels, to name a few.



Soundtrack
For the soundtrack, we discovered that there were many restrictions. We had to find a suitable, copyright-free soundtrack, which was considerably difficult, but we learnt from the preliminary task that it was more appropriate than composing our own.

In light of this, we found some compromises necessary, but luckily we discovered a website called freesound.org which was a source of a very wide variety of copyright-free sounds, and this provided us with some very effective and suitable pieces.

Youtube
We needed somewhere that we could upload our footage to, in order to allow us to post our preliminary task on our blog, as well as our animatic, our rough cut, and our final production.

By allowing us to put our media products on our blog, we gained useful feedback from our teachers as well as our target audience, and we learnt how we could improve our media products to make them more appealing to the final viewer.

MP - Evaluation (6)

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

Throughout the media course I have learnt a lot of new technological skills, with the three main ones being blogging, filming and editing.

Firstly we were taught how to blog in a professional and work-styled way. This was to be where all of our research, planning and audience feedback would be posted. Using Blogger meant that we could work collaboratively, and comment on each others posts to improve the blog. One of the most important points made was that of presentation. Stills from our influences had to be constantly included, along with keeping the blog simple to read in short paragraphs rather than essay styled prose. The group definitely learnt that getting the posts uploaded on time was very important if we were to keep the blog in order. The presentation tool 'Prezi' was also introduced to us as an advancement from Microsoft's 'Powerpoint'.

Filming was the next skill I was learning, for which we used a Nikon D90 DSLR. The problem that kept cropping up with this was framing the shots, to make sure that the character in the shot didn't lift their hand out of the frame or something similar. Also, remembering to lock the camera exposure was a big thing, as the brightness would constantly change if this wasn't done, ruining the look of the footage. The 180 degree rule, rule of thirds, and deep or shallow focus were also very useful tools in making our footage seem much more professional.

The final skill that I learnt was editing our raw footage into consistent, continuous video. Adobe Premier was the software tool we were given to use, and I had personally never used it before. I was taught how to add text, fade footage in and out, layer video, and just how ruthless one must be to create continuity. The audio is a big part of the continuity, with the main problem being audio levels, with the volume in one shot suddenly being much louder than the previous shot. After effects for altering our footage also included hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.

DF - Evaluation (6)

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


Over the course of the project I have gained experience in many different kinds of technology. Namely: blogging, camera operation and editing, primarily.


The first thing we were introduced to was blogging as we had to put up our initial research on it. This was an interesting way of presenting information - definitely a very different style to that of writing essays which I was used to. This also presented some new challenges - such as how to lay out the blog and posts in a way that was neat, attractive, informative and also consistent in style to the other members of the group. In overcoming these problems we had to take a collaborative approach in order to ensure we all kept our posts consistent and also to ensure they presented the necessary information. In creating the presentations for the pitches, I also learned to use Prezi to keep our presentations different, fresh and interesting.

Camera work was the second major thing to learn as I had never used a camera for a project similar to this before. There were many things to consider such as the 'rule of thirds' which suggests that the focus of a shot should be a third away from the edge of the frame; the white balance, hue, contrast, saturation, brightness and other image changing tools as we had to make sure our shots looked good and also consistent with the rest of the film to help continuity; how to use zoom effectively; what depth of field to use for the best effect and the 180 degree rule for which you have to ensure, for the purpose of continuity, to keep the camera within an arc of 180 degrees during a conversation.


Editing was chronologically the last main technological learning point for me as, again, I had not edited for a project similar to this previously. To edit our footage we used Adobe Premier and in editing our footage I had to learn many things such as how to add text and use text effects such as dissolve, how to edit for good continuity, special effects, editing the zoom and brightness, contrast, hue and saturation of a shot and then also how to use soundtrack effectively and how to sync it successfully. Furthermore, we used Adobe Premier to edit an animatic for which we used as a template for our footage and as a form of storyboarding to plan our project. (Click here to see our animatic).

For our soundtrack we used a copyright-free soundtrack website called Freesound.org. This has a variety of audio loops from songs to sound effects, and we used pieces such as the sound of the birds from the website.

Group - Evaluation (4 & 5)

Who would be the audience for your film? How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target demographic was the core audience - males aged 16 to 25. This is because of our generally conventional narrative and representation. On the business side, this core audience is also the most likely to visit the cinema and purchase synergistic promotional material.

In keeping with this we positioned the audience with the protagonist by showing him on screen first and for the longest screen time as well as using point-of-view shots to put the audience in the protagonist's perspective.

Throughout the project we have presented our ideas at various stages to our target audience. Our first experience of this was the genre pitch in which we pitched to our audience our chosen genre and our justifications for choosing that genre and received feedback on ideas to do with that genre and challenges that we will face in portraying that genre. Our second instance of audience feedback was when we pitched our film idea to the target demographic in order to get feedback on the narrative, soundtrack, etc. We later presented a rough cut of our film to our target audience to get an idea of what we can improve for the final cut.


To test our opening sequence to an audience the media department had a preview screening in which each group invited members of their target audience to come and watch their film and gave their invitees questionnaires to complete to give them an insight into how successful their film will be. The questionnaire we distributed can be found here.

What genre do you think this film belongs to?
Our first question asked what genre they thought it was and why they believed it to be that genre. Out of 11 respondants 4 believed it was a thriller, 3 a horror and 4 were undecided between thriller and horror. The majority of the reasons stated for choosing thriller was the soundtrack ("Music typical of the genre, surprise at the end."). Most of the respondants who picked horror noted the location and the soundtrack of the starting scene - "Opening scene graveyard and music typical of genre."

Do you understand the storyline? (Brief Summary)
Our second question asked the respondants to summarise the storyline to make sure they understood it. Almost everyone said that they either understood it mostly or "sort of" understood. This is possibly a good sign of success in horror as it is conventional of the genre to raise questions and incite mystery in the opening sequence.

What are the best features of this opening?
Our third question asked respondants for what they thought was the "best feature" of the opening was. This was to give us an idea of what the most memorable aspect of the opening was as well as what they as the audience enjoyed most. The vast majority cited the scene in which the antagonist says "How well do you know the woods?" as the best feature because of the mood it gave and how memorable it was. The chase scene was also a popular answer: "Scary chase scene.", "How well do you know the wood?" and tense running scene with Spike appearing."

What mood does the soundtrack set in relation to the opening?
Our fourth question asked what mood the soundtrack gave and almost every respondant wrote "suspense" or similar, such as "something bad about to happen". This is a good indicator that our soundtrack achieved the effect that was intended.

Do you think the characters are believeable and why?
We then asked in our fifth question whether or not the characters were believable and every respondant wrote yes for a variety of reasons including costume, non-verbal language, etc. One answer was "Yes, the limited dialogue also doesn't allow too much speech to detract from the mood."

How suitable do you think the costumes are for this kind of film opening?
Our final question queried the suitability of the costume for the style. Every respondant said that they believed the costume was very suitable for the style - "Suitable, can't think of anything else it would be."

MP - Audience Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that we will use after the audience screening, to gain an insight into how good our production is in terms of fitting with genre, making sense to the audience etc.

Group - Plan for Final Audience Research

 Who to Invite:

• Jerome
• Kate
• Sam
• Luther
• Curtis

Questions:

1. What genre do you think the film belongs to and why?
2. Do you understand the storyline? Give a brief summary.
3. What are the best feature(s) of this opening in your opinion?
4. What mood does the soundtrack set in relation to the opening?
5. Do you think the characters are believable? Why?
6. How suitable do you think the costume is?

Format:

We will carry this out in a questionnaire format to be handed out to our sample audience after our screenings.

JB - Evaluation (3)

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

Our film opening was produced on an extremely low budget. This would mean that, due to budget constraints, we would be unable to fund any distribution - or hire any distribution companies to do the job for us. For this reason I would expect our production to only be exhibited in small art house cinemas.If our film opening was shot on a higher budget, however, it would be more likely to be seen in multiplex cinemas such as Odeon or Cineworld due to the high distribution budget, as well as the more professional look to the film itself due to the hiring of specialists such as costume designers, and buying props. The core horror audience would be the expected audience for a high-budget production of this theme, but our target audience would be a small and niche one instead because of the limited budget.

MP - Evaluation (3)

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

For small productions (such as ours), the production studio would always be looking for the cheapest way of advertising and distributing their film. The most ideal way to do this is to use Web 2.0, as the entire process is digital.

One site that is often used for getting wide audience reception is Facebook, due to the huge number of users. These kind of social networking sites have lots of advertising space which is relatively cheap opposed to traditional advertising space such as billboards.

Another independant film that used the internet to distribute and exhibit was 'Age of Stupid' (2009, Armstrong) http://www.spannerfilms.net/ . The film used only Web 2.0 in the advertising, and streaming of the film. 'Monsters' (2010, Edwards) http://www.monstersfilm.com/ also used digital technology to keep its budget low.

DF - Evaluation (3)

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

In our production, I would expect that, simply because of the extremely low budget, the film would be shown only in small, art house cinemas. However, assuming the entire film could be made with a much larger budget, the storyline is quite conventional and therefore may be shown in a more mainstream cinema or even a multiplex. Similarly, the target audience for our production would be small and niche due to the low budget, but excluding that I would think that the core horror audience would be suitable.

JB - Evaluation (2)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our production contains 2 main characters and as well as one we briefly see during a hallucination. The main factor affecting the social groups of the characters was the practicality of it – since we were a small scale, one-off production team we couldn’t be very selective about who we chose to feature in our film opening. This was also because we all had to live close to the filming locations to ensure we had as much filming time available to us as possible. For this reason, all of the characters are young, white males. This means that it may not necessarily conform to the generic representations of the social group because the characters all belong to the same group, but play roles which contrast with each other. For example, the fact that our antagonist is a white male - who is in control for the whole of the sequence - reinforces the stereotypical representations of white men having power.

The protagonist, however, is represented in a contrasting way, because we see him as a more vulnerable individual who is less in control. We carefully used non-verbal language to present the mood of the character throughout the scene, and used water to emulate sweat to make the character look exhausted and panicked.

Our media product generally conforms to the representations of gender roles. Even though there are no females in our footage, the antagonist is typically male anyway due to the residual ideology that men are – generally – physically stronger than women and therefore, in some ways, have more power and control.

However in some ways our media product also contrasts with this ideology, with the victim being in the same social group as the antagonist. This, however, is due to the constraints explained earlier and is something which was out of our control.

MP - Evaluation (2)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our product introduces the audience to three characters: one antagonist and two victims, all of whom are young Caucasian males. This choice was largely due to practicality, as we all lived close to our locations meaning filming time would be less limited. Our antagonist being a white male reinforces stereotypes of the controlling white man having all the power.

In our media product, there is not the usual difference in representation between males and females, as there are no women in our production. This could be read as representing women as unimportant, but this is not the case (we couldn't sensibly find any female actors that we could use). Therefore the emphasis is on the different representations of males in our production. Our antagonist is a very calm, collected and sinister character. He is also portrayed as non-human, with him managing to be everywhere. On the other hand, men are shown to be scared of things that they cant seem to be free of, as is revealed by the protagonist running away from the antagonist.

Overall, it seems that our production reinforces gender roles that men have power, even though our victim is also a male.

DF - Evaluation (2)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


In our production there are 2 main characters, and one who makes a brief appearance in a hallucination. All three are shown in the film as young, white males. The choice to do this was partly out of research and partly out of practicality; our research showed that the vast majority of antagonists and protagonists in horror films were male and, although the victims were often female, our group was comprised of males and so it was far easier to organize dates for filming, etc. within the group rather than having to rely on too much external aid (our antagonist was external to the group, however). This constructs a very patriarchal representation, especially seeing that the antagonist (shown to be in control throughout the opening sequence) is male. 

 The males are represented in different ways; the protagonist is shown to look younger and more vulnerable by use of water to emulate sweat and non-verbal language and this is therefore a negative representation whilst the antagonist is shown to look slightly older and in control by his costume and calm non-verbal language, but also mysterious and potentially evil by his dehumanizing aspects (the way he appears to be everywhere at once, etc.), which may also be a negative representation although could be seen as positive in the sense that he has the power. Similar techniques can also be seen in the 'Saw' series (various directors, 2004 - 2011) in that the antagonist is shown to be calm and in control whilst the victims panic and are shown as vulnerable.

Non-verbal language shows the protagonist is scared.

 Overall, I would say that our media text serves to reinforce gender roles on the whole, despite the lack of female victims, as it is very conventional of horror films to have male antagonists and also to include male victims. It also does not challenge traditional Western views on the whole.

High angle shot shows vulnerability in the white male protagonist.

JB - Evaluation (1)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When we began production of our film, we had to carefully plan out the elements of our film opening such as camera techniques, soundtracks, special effects and more. To give us some sort of idea of the conventions of current psychological horrors, we carried out research. This included analysis of existing film openings from the genre, followed by audience research which we carried out to ensure that our film opening would conform to the expectations of the target audience.

We found several conventions that seemed very relevant to our film opening, and so this changed our storyboard/plan for the film in some ways.
Perhaps one of the most significant conventions we found was the sense of mystery. By creating an antagonist which continually leaves who/what/why/where/how questions in the audience’s mind, a strong sense of suspense is also created which can be important for establishing the mood of the overall film. This was important because we were creating an opening for a psychological horror, so we wanted people to be able to immediately recognise that it was a psychological horror film – not an action film, for example – even if it isn’t staring them in the face, people will subliminally recognise the genre because they are used to seeing conventional features from other films in the same genre.

We created the sense of mystery in a chase scene towards the end of the opening sequence. Here, the antagonist is seen to be in several places at once, or to ‘teleport’, because when the protagonist is sprinting, he sees the antagonist at several points – all in different places. This is a very supernatural characteristic, so immediately the audience is in suspense because the antagonist is very unpredictable, and leaves them wondering what to expect next. We also used pull focusing, as well as point of view shots, to help contribute to the sense of mystery in the scene.

The locations that we chose were also conventional. Graveyards are typical of psychological horrors because they are associated with death, and woods are extremely common because they create a sense of claustrophobia – particularly when they are shot in dull lighting conditions, which was another conventional feature of horrors that we decided would be important to use. It was difficult to arrange the filming at the right time so we decided it would be more sensible to create the desired effect in the post-processing software we used - Adobe Premiere. We adjusted the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and exposure settings on the camera itself, and then further tweaked them on the actual footage once it had been recorded to make sure that it was the effect we wanted.


Continuing on with visual effects, we carefully planned out each individual shot so that the film opening would look like a continuous sequence rather than multiple unrelated shots that would simply confuse the audience. We adhered to the 180 degree rule and made sure that our actors were wearing the same clothing throughout the footage so that it looked like the same person, and made sure they stood in the same place when shooting from a different angle so that it was clear they were in the same location when the angle changed.

The typography was also another aspect to be carefully considered. For example if the font was very graffiti-like, it would seem very out of place in context with the footage and other conventional aspects of the film opening. We used the audience research to help us decide which styles of fonts the audience typically associated with the genre.

Finally, a non-visual technique that we carefully used was the soundtrack, which we used to anchor parts of the footage – for example the part where the antagonist leans over the protagonists shoulder and says “How well do you know the woods?” – the mood has clearly changed from slow-paced mystery to a fast-paced chase and the soundtrack clearly changes accordingly.

MP - Evaluation (1)

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

During the initial stage of our production, research was used to gain an insight into the main conventions of horror film openings. These include typography, sound-track, form, narrative, genre, style and mise-en-scene. Our audience research that all of these things are expected by the target audience and so we developed our opening sequence to fit with these expectations.

One of the most important conventions of horror film opening sequences is the soundtrack. Having different sounds and music at specific points throughout the opening sequence can change the entire mood of the start of the film. Something that arose was that many if not all horror opening sequences use calm, slow and obviously dischordant music, that is sometimes an adaptation of a child's lullaby, which is in high difference to teen films, that often use mainstream music as it relates to the characters in the film. We selected our music to fit our video, and this soundtrack challenges the conventions of horror film music in the fact that our soundtrack, whilst being very dischordant, is much quicker than most horror music, the main example of this being throughout the chase scene.

Using camera techniques and editing, we created continuity by editing our shots so that each one was an exact continuation with both character movement and sound. Another crucial point was ensuring that our actors were in the same position as in the previous shot and always dressed the same from one filming day to the next. We used many of shots and angles, including a large portion point-of-view shots. This gives a very chaotic feel to our film opening as well as placing the audience with the protagonist, a staple of horror films. Pull focus shots were also used, drawing the audiences attention onto a certain part in the frame.

Another main convention of horror is dark lighting and dull colour. We initially planned to film during the evening as darkness fell, and this worked well in our reccie shoots. However, due to availability of actors and crew, this wasn't really possible. To achieve the dull look, we had to use the Adobe Premier software to alter the saturation, contrast, brightness and hue of our footage. Our choice of locations; a graveyard and the local woods were shown to be two of the most popular settings for a horror film as our audience research revealed. The costume used was also planned with the audience research as a strong decider. The protagonist wore a plain, ordinary outfit and the antagonist had much darker clothes giving connotation of dread.

DF - Evaluation (1)

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

At the planning stage of this project we researched a multitude of horror film openings and noted the conventions of style, form, narrative, typography, genre, technique, mise-en-scene, soundtrack, etc. that we found. Later on we found in our audience research that many of these things were to be expected by the target audience and so we constructed our film accordingly.

One of the most standout conventions of horror film opening sequences was the typography. The font of the titles and effect of the font is very important and can indicate everything from the genre to the setting. We noticed that many horror opening sequences use somewhat archaic or decrepit-looking fonts that enter and exit the screen subtly, in contrast to thriller film openings which have very bold, masculine fonts that draw the focus. Keeping this in mind, we designed our title screens to break up the action in order to create enigma, similar to the way in which '30 Days of Night' (Slade, 2007) brings up titles alongside enigmatic images and montages. Similarly, we chose our font based on conventional horror typography, as mentioned previously, as decrepit-looking to enhance the mood.

Also conventional of horror is dark lighting and dull colour. We achieved this by a combination of choosing the time of day we filmed at carefully and adjusting the saturation, contrast, brightness and hue of our shots both on the camera and in post-production in Adobe Premier. The mood this creates was complimented by our choice of locations; a graveyard and the local woods. These locations are both typical of horror films (as can be seen in films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999, Myrick & Sanchez)) and  and our audience research showed them to be the most popular. On that note, our costume was also planned with the genre in mind. Our protagonist wore plain, dark clothes and our antagonist wore dark clothes also and a coat that, alongside these other points, can have sinister connotations. In addition, the non-verbal language of the characters can also add to the character's overall aura - shown in the following picture by the protagonist's vulnerable non-verbal language and the protagonist's controlling stance. The following image shows all these ideas in use:

In terms on camera techniques and editing, we created continuity by adhering to the 180 degree rule and ensuring that our actors wore the same clothes and were in the same position as the previous shot. We tried to use a variety of shots and angles, including some point-of-view shots alongside stable shots and we also implemented pull focuses in order to draw the audience to a specific part of the shot. Point-of-view shots are typically associated with horror sequences because it puts the audience into the character's position while at the same time creating a dramatic, chaotic effect.

Furthermore, the soundtrack was used to anchor certain key points in the film, such as towards the end when the antagonist takes the protagonist.

Group - Final Product

This is our completed opening sequence which we shall do an evaluation of.

DF - Production Log 08/04/11

Our Progress Today

• Finished construction section.
• Exported project.

What We Plan To Do

• Do the evaluation section.

JB - Inspiration

We are nearing the end of our production. During the editing we have attempted to implement effects which are similar to that of professionally-made psychological horrors such as The Shining (Kubrick, 1980). (Embedding disabled for this clip)

During the clip we see many effects of flashbacks and hallucinations. Admittedly the effects on this clip are limited as it was produced roughly 30 years ago, but the effects we wanted were not far from this and so we have used it as a source of inspiration for our production.

DF - Production Log 06/04/11

Our Progress Today

• Continued editing the footage nearly to completion.
• Began adding the soundtrack.

What We Plan To Do

• Finish the planning and construction section of the coursework.

DF - Production Log 05/04/11

Our Progress Today

• Continued editing.
• Found most of the parts for our soundtrack.

What We Plan To Do

• Change font of titles.
• Finish editing.
• Finish soundtrack.

DF - Production Log 04/04/11

Our Progress Today

• Sorted out the rest of our footage and continued editing.
• Looked for suitable sound clips.

What We Plan To Do:

• Add in the soundtrack.
• Finish editing.

JB - Feedback from Rough Cut

Good Points:

• Pull focus was used to good effect.
• Acting was good and convincing.

Constructive Criticism:

• Titles need to be spaced equally apart (as they are, they look a bit randomly placed).
• Cutting rate needs to be quicker at some points.
• The head-turning shots looked like they were at a different location.

DF - Production Log 01/04/11

Our Progress:

• As a class we watched everyone's rough cut and received constructive feedback on ours.

What We Plan To Do:

• Finish editing using constructive feedback.
• Manage audio to create effective soundbridges and continuity.