Evaluation Question 4

For this evaluation question we have to show the programs that we used throughout the year and talk about whether we used different programs from last year and is they were better or worse.

Programs that we used for the R &P stage:

iMac

We used the iMac in the R& P stage but we also used it in every other stage as well but used it for the same things for each.

We used the iMac primarily to put our footage on and edit it, but we also used it so that we could gain access to the internet so that we could blog everything that we did on Blogger. We also used various other programs such as Photoshop and QuarkXPress.

Using a mac was a lot easier than using a windows computer because it is more specialised for media and musical products. 

Blogger

We used Blogger to write down what we had learnt and achieved so far in the researching of films and the making of our own media product. I used Blogger to record my journey of recording all of the things I had learnt right from the start of the year, it has a unique way of posting things in an order which is easy to follow and is really easy to use.

I started the year by researching into what short films are and also added some examples to my blog posts and now I have been able to post in detail the process that me and my group had to go through to make our finished ancillary tasks and final film short.

A big drawback to using this was that if the internet went down then we could do no work what so ever, so if we had a bit of work to do but then we couldn't get on to do it then we had another bit but the internet was still down then we would have twice as much work to do.

Scribd

We used Scribd to put documents that we had made as a group together so that all we had to do was embed them to the necessary blogs.

We also used Scribd to get word documents that we needed on our blogs easier, it was easier to export the file as a PDF than to try and copy and paste it straight onto our blogs and also it looked more professional all as one document.

The only drawback that we found with this product was that sometimes it would take a few times of embedding the necessary document for it to show up on our blogs when you go into view mode.

YouTube

We used YouTube in our A2 coursework as a tool to learn and to move forward and publish our finished film product.

Like I said we used this as a learning tool, we looked at tutorials for things like how to focus the camera and what ISO and frame rate to set the camera to for optimum shot focus and lighting.

I also said that we used it to put our film on as well and we did but also we posted things like the rough cut as well so that differences between that and the final product could be seen easily.

One of the problems that we faced when searching for videos on YouTube we found that a lot of videos came up that had nothing to do with what we wanted, but this is not really a problem that can be fixed because anyone can put anything on there so nothing can be done if there are things that we don't want on there.

Wikipedia

We used what is probably the most used information website on the internet, Wikipedia. We used this because it is the most used website for information so that means that it should be reliable so we used it.

We used this to research programs that we would be using for the editing process after the footage of our film short had been filmed. We researched programs like Final Cut X and QuarkXPress.

The only drawback that we found with this website was that it is a website were anyone can put stuff on there so things that it says may not always be true so may have to be checked on another information source.

CeltX

Me and my group used CeltX, this is a program that allows you to easily make professional scripts so we used it to make ours one for our film short. If any changes need to be made after it has been finished then it can be easily changed.

Email

We also had the schools email to help us keep in contact with each other. You can also attach documents to the emails so that we could share files easily. It was very useful for if we didn't have other means of communicating.

There was however a drawback to this method of communicating and that was that if one the people in the group didn't use their email much then they may not get messages and therefore may not arrive on filming days.

Equipment that we used for the filming process:

DSLR Cannon 600D:

This year we changed from the Sony HD camera that we used last year and moved on to the Digital DSLR 600D. We struggled at first to get to grips with how all of the features worked but we just research on the internet a bit and asked our teacher for specific settings on the camera. Now that we know how to use them they are a lot better than the camera's from last year, the focusing is easier and faster and focus pulls are better. You can change the ISO settings and frame rate which makes shooting a lot easier, because we don't have to light a scene we can just change some of the settings slightly and achieve the same thing quicker and easier
.

Like I said before the only real drawback that we had was that it took longer to get to grips with than the other camera but when we had it was a lot better and the picture quality was a lot more crisp.

Location Recording Kit:

We used the same recording kit that we used last year and again it has not failed us in delivering amazing sounds and dialogue. It picked up all of the sound that we wanted and because we had already used it before we just picked it up and started using it straight away.

The only draw back was that it was slightly too sensitive and could pick up someone cough or speak even in the other room, but this was only a minor thing.

Tracking dolly and Tripod

We used the Same tripod as last year because it did the job it was supposed to so all we had to do was move the 'foot' off of the other camera and put it on the new camera and it was ready to use.

We again used the same track and dolly as last year so this made setting it up a lot easier. We also already new what shots would work well with this track and dolly so we could pretty much just go straight into using it.

Programs that we used in the post production stage:

Final Cut X

Last year we used Final Cut and this time we used the most up to date program, it putts both Final Cut and Soundtrack Pro together, so you can edit sound as well as the images so this takes out the process of having to export from one to the other cause you can just do it all together in one program.

The same as with the new camera, we had some difficulty at the start with understanding how to use the program but after consulting the teacher and looking at some tutorials on the internet we found out how to use the program.

Free SFX

This was another website that we used last year, it is an amazing website with a vast range of sounds that can easily be downloaded and put onto near enough anything as a background sound to either replace or fill in where another sound should be.

The fact that we used it last year help us out because we already knew how to navigate the website so this speeded up the post production stage.

Programs we used to make the Magazine review

QuarkXPress

We used this program to make firstly a rough magazine review so that when we came to do our main one then we would know how to use the program. Although some of the things that we used in the main review wasnt present in the first magazine review we still learnt to do using the internet.

The only draw back was that this program was difficult to use so even when we knew how to use it, it still was a bit confusing on how we do certain things. But we made a final product and i think that we worked well as a group.

Programs we used to make the Film Poster

Photoshop

This was the main program that we used because it can manipulate and join pictures together and create the actual poster itself. I personally have already had some experience using this program so anything that the others got stuck on I could help most of the time but we also used the internet sometimes for more advanced things.

The only drawback to us using this was that I was the only one who had used it before so if there was anything that i didn't know then we had to spend time researching it. But we also had the teacher as well so we had a few sources of information for if we needed extra help.

White Backdrop

We used a white back-drop on the background of our pictures so as to make the editing precess easier. It allowed us to easily get rid of the background so that we could merge the seperate images together.

The olny draw back was that we needed to make sure that it was perfectly flat every time we used it so that there would be no shadows, so then we had to point enough key lights at it to get rid of as many shadows as possible. 

Key Lights

We used these to light up the backdrop for the photos. They are amazingly bright and we only needed one each side of the backdrop to fill it with enough light so that we got the desired effect on the characters. 

The only drawback was that they got hot very quickly so after nearly each shot we had to turn them off so that they didn't over heat and break the bulbs. Also if we put any filters in front of them then we had to be careful that we didn't melt them cause someone could then get injured.

Evaluation

Prezi

We used this last year and it is a really easy way to make good presentation that moves and has effects that can make it visually more appealing than a standard Power point presentation.

The only drawback is that you can't fit as much work onto it as a blog post but it is more appealing visually.

Evaluation Question 3

For this question me and my group have decided to work together and create and short video of us talking about the film and the ancillary tasks.

In the film we talk through how we had to create film pitches and then pitch them to the class and what feedback we had on them and whether it was reliable and whether we addressed it.

We then talked through the rough cuts of the film and what feedback we had and what we did to address it. We then went through both ancillary tasks doing the same again and also saying whether it was reliable feedback or not.

Evaluation Question 2

In this question I am going to talk about how effective our ancillary and film tasks work together.

'Behind Closed Doors' Final Cut

Our film 'Behind Closed Doors' was created with the idea of that anything can happen behind closed doors. What appears to be a normal happy person could actually be an unhappy and depressed person who doesn't ask but needs help (Richards a killer and no one would guess because he is just a normal person). 

Our film is also a thriller and so the twist that he is actually a killer addressed to the behind the closed doors theme and the fact that it is a thriller as well because thrillers normally have a twist or two. The fact that our film is very gritty and dark also gives off a thriller/horror theme which we liked and wanted to keep in our film.

Ancillary Task 1: Magazine Review

The magazine review is needed as a marketing part of the making of the film. We have linked it to our film by using a shot from the film of Alice after she has fallen down the stairs. This will then spark questions in the target audience as to why she is dead and whether she was pushed or not and who by if she was. This then will make the reader want to know more about the film so they will then read the four rows of text about the film and who is in it and whether it is a film to watch or not. If they do not wish to read all of the text then there is a plot summary and a verdict to say whats good and bad about the film.

This magazine review compliments the film in a positive way through showing  a part of the film to get the target audience hooked and the it promotes the film with a four star rating out of five. It also talks about the director in a positive way and also only talks through parts of the plot as to not spoil anything which will leave the target audience wanting more but it won't tell you so you have to see the film to find out what happens. So the film and magazine review work together well into making a good film that attracts the necessary target audience into watching the film.

Ancillary Task 2: Poster

The purpose of the film poster is also to attract the target audience but it does this in a different way to the Magazine Review. It uses the audience sense of wanting to know everything about what you are going to see but it only hints at things and does this in a very clever way.

The neckless around Richards hands has got a small bit of blood on it which is only visible to someone who really looks closely. It then gives of the idea of why is there blood on the neckless but the magazine review gives away that Alice dies so then the target audience will think oh its just Alice's blood and so when Richard then kills Stacey at the end it comes as a complete shock to the target audience and so these two pieces of advertising complement the film really well.

The way that we positioned Richards arms in a way that suggests he is tightening his tie also gives away that maybe he had finished his job, he did kill Alice but then again this then tells the audience that Alice is the only one that is going to die so again when Stacey dies this is even more of a shock to the target audience.

The pull quote then also emphasises on the fact that someone is going to die and so promotes the same feel as the magazine review.

So all in all the poster promotes the final product in a positive way and only gives away the same things as the magazine review so that when the shock of the other character dieting as well is all the more of a shock.

Overall the combination of all of the documents worked well together and all promote the film being good and of the genre of thriller which was what we were aiming for.

Evaluation Question 1

For this evaluation question I have to talk about how me and my group used, developed or challenged general conventions of film shorts, when making our own film short.

When researching into how to make our film short we also looked up other film shorts and looked for repeated patterns so that we could possible put some of their filming techniques into our own film short.

We also looked at a bigger film which shared more of our film ideas that we wanted in our film, so we could see what shots they used to give the desired effect and then we could try and manipulate their ideas to making our own story idea come to life. We looked at 'Enough' we did this because it had some of the same scenes that we wanted in our film so we looked at these and how they had achieved the effect that they had and then manipulated this for our film. We also looked at how the staged the domestic argument so as to get some ideas of how to show anger and build up the tension between the two characters.

We looked at different examples of film shorts, heres one example that we looked at:

Real media thriller examples

Gender representation: Male characters

Males in films are normally seen as the 'man of the house' figures and the protector of the family if they are playing a protagonist character. But they normally are also the antagonist as well and if they are then they are generally seen as a 'dark form' that tries to take over and destroy the protagonists life.

In our film we went for a stressed business man that is late home and so is grumpy because he knows that he is going to be in trouble with his wife. He plays the protagonist role for the start of the film when the flash backs are, but then when he is about to go to her funeral he is dressed in black which we made him do so that he looked more menacing.

Richard dressed normally and is still the protagonist

Also when it revealed that he was also the antagonist it was a shock to the audience but the way that he was dark and mysterious should have of gave it away to them but if they didn't then watching a second time the should notice the change.

Richard when he becomes the antagonist

As you can see from the images above he changes from being dressed in a normal blue and bright shirt which suggests that he is a good and bright character, the hero. But then in the second image there is a shadow cast across his face making him look menacing and also he is dressed in full black which is a very dark and mysterious colour that suggests that he is the antagonist.

In the film taken the protagonist is a heroic male that, when his family is taken, has to try and save them heroically in a massive quest to get them back. This is a type of character that we didn't want in our film, we wanted a weedy office worker so that when he became the antagonist it was even more of a shock to the audience. However we researched into this so that we could see how to make a character look heroic and then just try and do some opposite will still doing the necessary things that needed to be done to keep the character as a protagonist.

Gender representation: Female characters

In thriller films women characters are usually the characters that get picked on the most and are either captured and saved by the main character or captured and killed to motivate the main male character into killing the villain. 

In our film however it is not clear as to whether the female character Alice falls down the stairs or is pushed by Richard, this is left open to the audience to choose. But she is still the character that motivates the male character into becoming the villain.

Alice before she is about to be pushed down the stairs

This is the character Stacey that has the unfortunate job of finding Richard when he is not all together and she ends up being killed by him. But she's a very promiscuous character and so when she flirts with Richard he almost blames her for his wife dying because if it wasn't for her flirting and trying to be with him then his wife may not have of fallen down the stairs.

Stacey just before Richard kills her

Women are not only characters that are picked on in thriller films, they are also the onse that care the most, a loving parent either with a child or is just the character that shows the most emotion towards the other characters.