Evaluation 7 - Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at our preliminary task, I feel that I have progressed and learnt a lot since we completed it. I learnt many things during our preliminary task that I took with me and applied during the filming and editing of our final product. For example during our preliminary task I learnt about the importance of having a storyboard, shot list and prop list, without these it can make the filming process longer and more confusing as you don't know what scenes need filming and what order they should be done in. We did not plan out our shots well enough which meant that when we went to edit the film we had some shots missing and it meant that our film didn't flow and the ending was very abrupt. We did not plan our film very well because we were all to excited and just wanted to jump straight into filming it, and because we all had so many ideas in our heads that we wanted to do, so left the storyboard to later when we realised that we needed. We encountered other problems such as, having shaky camera shots and the actors not knowing their lines meaning it did not look very good when we put it together in editing. We also needed to find music, but we didn't understand the importance of choosing music, so we used a piece one of the first pieces of music we found, we didn't look very hard. So looking back at it now I can understand that the music doesn't really fit with the genre of the film and sounds wrong when put together with the film.
From this I have learnt that you need to create your storyboard, shot list and prop list before you start to film along with finding an actor and location to film in.

I learnt a lot from the mistakes I made when making our preliminary film, we were much more prepared when before we started to film our final product. We spent a while forming an idea for our story, then writing our film treatment. We then made our storyboard, shot list, prop list and found our location and actress. I can see the difference it makes by being prepared before going to film as we were far more organised and we knew what to film, what order to film in and we were much calmer when filming because we had everything planned out. This then also meant that our final product improved a lot compared to my preliminary film.
We also did more research into our genre and themes that we wanted to portray, we did this so that we had a better understanding of how to convey certain emotions and themes. We did different types of research, such as watch film openings that were in the genre of psychological thriller then analysing them. This helped us a lot to understand the conventions of a opening to a psychological thriller.
I also now knew the importance of music and how it contributes to the overall film. Because of this as a group we spent many hours trying to find the perfect piece of music and we did a lot of trial and error testing bits of music with the film that we had edited.
Overall I believe that I have learnt a lot since filming our preliminary task and it is shown through the final product for our main task.

Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Canon EOS 550D

I have learnt a lot about the different types of technologies that are involved in creating a film opening.

Camera:
For our film opening we used a Canon EOS 550D, which we borrowed from the school. As a group we hadn't had much experience using the camera apart from filming our preliminary task, but we did not get a lot of time to fully understand all the features of the camera. So when we came to shoot our film, we allocated some time before shooting where we could play around with the camera and test out different shots and experiment with shots we hadn't tried. For example, we were experimenting with the camera and Georgia managed to film my fairy lights going from blurry to focus whilst panning down, which we ended up using when we came to editing. 
From this I have learnt that by experimenting with the camera, trying different shots and getting used to the camera and its features you can have a wider range of shots available for you to use. This then can improve the quality and standard of a film opening.

Features of the Camera
When we came to shoot our film, we allocated some time before shooting where we could play around with the camera and test out different shots and experiment with shots we hadn't tried. For example, we were experimenting with the camera and Georgia managed to film my fairy lights going from blurry to focus whilst panning down, which we ended up using when we came to editing. 
From this I have learnt that by experimenting with the camera, trying different shots and getting used to the camera and its features you can have a wider range of shots available for you to use. This then can improve the quality and standard of a film opening. We also found that the 50mm lens was most suitable for filming mid shots, 75mm for long shots and the 35mm lens for wide shots, this allowed us to use the camera lenses effectively. However looking back at our final product there are shots that I can pick out that we could have improved upon by using a different lens or using a different technique. From this I have learnt new skills that I can use in future projects.

Final Cut Pro:
To edit our film opening we used the software, Final Cut Pro. Again we had used this prior to doing our main task, however that had not been since our preliminary task, meaning we were all out of practise and had forgotten how to use some of the features of the software. This meant that on our first few days of editing we spent finding all the features and getting used to using the software, as there was lots to take in and understand. I have had previous experience with editing software such as iMovie which is a simpler version of final cut pro, so I was able to get used to using final cut pro quite quickly. 
There are many features with in final cut pro, we had a selection of tools that we had found, for example we used a tool which allowed us to change the pace of some shots making them faster or slower. To slow down or speed up a clip, I used the short cut pressing 'Command J' then typing in how much faster or slower we wanted the clip to be.
We used this a lot as we found that some of our shots looked better in slow motion, we slowed down the shot of the fairy lights and the diary, we wanted the pace of our film opening to be slow as that follows the conventions of a traditional film opening to a psychological thriller.
Our shots were filmed with low key lighting but the lighting changes throughout our shots, due to the time of day they were each filmed at so we used the contrast tool too make sure each shot had the same low key lighting. The colour of the shots can help to convey the emotions and themes we were trying to portray, the darker purple/blue hue of each shot connotes, sadness and coldness, which are our characters emotions.
Once we had finished editing, we needed to convert all our footage and put it onto Youtube. To do this you need to click on 'Edit' then 'Export' and chose 'Using quicktime conversion', this then lead you a page to choose where to save the film and settings which can be changed.

Sound
We had to find music from a royalty free source, this took some time to find music that we felt portrayed the emotions of our character but also the genre of the film. Once we has found a piece of music that we felt fit our criteria we needed to edit the music so that it fit with the film opening. For example we made it quite and louder at different points in the opening, such as when Callie runs out the door a wind chime plays as the door is opened. To hear the white noise we quietened the music, we did this by using a tool that looked like a fountain pen for the tool bar and select parts of the soundtrack that we wished to change the volume of. We could then drag the points we had made in the track allowing us to change the decibels of the music. 
In our draft we did not have any white noise, this was picked up by A2 students that we asked to analyse our film. This was because our background noise had been deleted, this meant we had to reinsert all of the white noise back into the draft and under the right shot. This caused us problems as we had to find the correct sound clips, but we worked out a way to systematically go through each clip and find the correct sound clip. Once we had down this we altered the volume of the white noise so that it sounded realistic. This all helps the film opening to flow.

Blogger:
We have had to use blogger throughout our pre- production, production and post-production, which then contributes to our final product. Blogger was quite easy to use, however I did have to research how to insert some videos from my computer, this is because they would not work in the blog port. However by researching and using Youtube I found ways around this problem and was able to upload my videos.

Prezi
I have used Prezi within my blog to present some of my blog posts. I had originally had no previous experience with using Prezi, but after researching about it I found that it was an interactive presentation. Making a Prezi was quite easy to understand as it works like any other presentation software, however I came across a problem when I needed to put it into my blog. I had seen my peers using it, but had taking screenshots of their presentations. I wanted to be able to view my Prezi in my blog post so that it was still interactive, so I researched 'how to embed a Prezi on blogger'. After researching I found the solution seeing that it was very simple to embed the Prezi, there is a button which allows you to copy the html and paste it into my blog post.

Evaluation 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

 

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

We interviewed people from our focus group and asked them to tell us who our audience would be and why they think this.
Most people thought that our film should be targeted at people 16 or older as there are themes of depression discussed and they thought this wouldn't be suitable for younger audience to watch, as a group we agreed with them. They also said that our audience would not be any older than 25 as the film would not be as relatable to older audiences.
We asked id they thought people of our age would relate to the film. Most people said 'yes' as they thought that many people from our age group may sugar from depression whether they suffer badly or mildly, as lots of young people will have had to deal with a death of a family member such as a grandparent.
Another question we presented our focus group with was whether they thought the film opening was appealing. We got mixed answers, but most said 'yes' and gave us different reasons why. The main reason we picked up on were that we had created enigma, making them want to continue watching.

Our target audience was people aged 17 to 24, we decided this because of the themes that are shown are more relatable for people within this age group. Another reason we decided this was because of the characters in our film, they are all young and within the age group that we have set as our target audience.
Before filming our final product we did lots of research using the BFI website to investigate how to choose a target audience. For example the BFI from 2014 shows that 15 to 24 year olds are the age group who visit the cinema the most often. This makes them a very suitable target group however we wanted to have a smaller target audience due to the themes within our film, so we decided upon 17 to 24.

If we were to give our film an age certificate it would be a '15' or '18', due to the themes of depression and other content within the film. However after discussing as a group we thought '15' would be the better certificate.
The bbfc says that a '15' certificated film may include: Sexual nudity/ Taking drugs/ Strong violence or language/ Discriminating language or behaviour.

Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For our evaluation we needed to look at independent film companies and conglomerate companies and decide which we thought might distribute our film. Overall we thought that our film would more likely be distributed by an independent film company.


StudioCanal
For further research I went on to the BFI website and looked at the top independent films of 2014. I saw that StudioCanal distributed three of the top four independent films, Paddington (which was the top independent film) and also The Imitation Game and Non-Stop.

Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film opening we represented teenagers, but we also tried to show mental health, as our character Callie suffers from depression.

From our main task we had chosen to base our film on a news article about a man who had died preventing a suicide attempt. We changed this story so that our character Callie is mourning the death of her friend who died preventing a suicide attempt. This feels have caused Callie to become 'shut off' from everyone so she doesn't talk, this is why in our opening she does not speak at all. She also suffers from depression, we have tried to be sensitive when representing this topic, many teenagers/young adults have had experiences with depression, which can cause them to be anti-social. However many teenagers can already be unsociable, this is another reason why Callie is on her laptop and doesn't speak during the opening.

In one of our shots Callie has her head in her hands, this represents how teenagers can be troubled, caused by different things such as stress. But this also represents mental health as her hands are hiding her pained face, the position she is in can represent how people who are depressed feel.

Through the pace of the film we have tried to represent depression, our film opening is very slow paced, symbolic of how she does not want to interact with anyone or do anything because of her depression. We also wanted to represent mental health through miss-en-scene, Callie is wearing dark clothing, she is in a dark small room and the film is in low key lighting.

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film follows some conventions of real media products, for example our opening introduces character, setting and time period and also creates enigma, we also tried to use the letter as a macguffin in our film opening, to help it all fit together.

The genre of our film opening is a psychological thriller so we wanted to follow the main conventions of a film opening of this type, to do this we had studied various film openings within this genre. For example, our opening is quite slow which is one of the main features of a psychological thriller.


Frame One
Our film opening conforms to some conventions of a film opening such as time period/date are introduced at the beginning of our opening. The date '3rd January 2015' is clearly written showing it has significance to the storyline. To show the importance of the date we made sure it was at the very start so the audience knew straight away when our film was set. We have also shown its significance through our use of the camera, as the shot starts off blurred but goes into focus and the date is clear, making it easier to notice. In editing we have also extended the length of the shot, so it is slow, this can help to convey the importance of the date as it is shown for a long period of time.
Our first shot is very like the opening of the film 'Memento', we studied this film opening and took inspiration from it. The camera technique used in the film helps to create a very slow pace but it's not so slow it looks like a picture. We tried to emulate this when filming this particular shot as we have slow camera movements on an almost still shot. In this way we have conformed to the conventions of a film opening of a psychological thriller film opening.

Frame Two

When putting in our production company logo we wanted it to still flow, so we had it straight after the first shot as we felt a break was needed to show the opening was moving on. The shot we used in the background is a slow moving shot which pans downwards, we felt that this was a perfect shot to help introduce the next part of our opening as the panning down of the camera appears to link the two shots together, in a transition.

Frame Three 

Another convention of a film opening is to create enigma to hook the audience and keep them watching. To create enigma in our opening we decided to use a macguffin feature, which would also help us to link our scenes together. Our macguffin was a letter, which is seen at the beginning of the opening and then throughout the rest of the opening. We did not just want the letter to be a macguffin so we tried to show how the letter had importance, we did this by having multiple shots of the letter in different scenes, like its journey to our main character. The letter creates enigma in our film as the audience don't know what the letter is and what significance it has.

Frame Four

We introduced our characters name using a close-up shot of the letter being turned over and a name written on it. We wanted to introduce the character's name 'Callie' near the beginning, which does not conform with traditional film opening conventions, as most film openings help to create enigma by not revealing the characters name, so the audience want to find out who they are. But because we already had the letter, we felt that we should introduce the characters name, because it didn't flow very well with a random letter being given to a girl.

We have also introduced a new character in this scene but it is clear to see that they are not a main character as only the hands have been shown. In the shot we have blurred his body but focused on his hands and the letter, this creates a focal point for the audience as they will look to the letter and hands as the are in focus, this also shows how the character in the shot does not have great importance in our film.

Frame Five 

Our film opening introduces character which means we have conformed to that convention of film openings, as many films introduce their main character in the first 2 minutes of an opening.

The shot we used to introduce our character is a high angle shot looking down on her, we also introduces setting with this shot as it is clear to see that she is sitting in a bedroom. The shot is also dark and doesn't show her whole face creating some enigma over who she is.

The mies-en-scene of the room also helps to convey who the character is. She is sitting in a dark messy bedroom, and looking down a laptop on social media, these are all stereotypes for a teenagers bedroom, this illustrates to the audience what age the character may be. We have also used costume to show who she is, our character wears all black, which is another stereotype as teenagers are seen to wear dark clothes and be moody, so by using all black clothing we are making it clearer to the audience who she is. The use of the all black is purposeful as our character is in mourning, and black is the typical colour that people wear when mourning.

Frame Six

The main challenge to traditional conventions of a film opening was when we used different locations, most film openings only have one main location, where as we used a bedroom, hallway and a drive. For example in the film opening of 'Forrest Gump' there is only one main location which is the street that Forrest is sitting on. The change in location gives a fast pace to the film opening, but in addition helps to move the opening on. We also wanted to represent the type of house the character was in, so we hung up some coats on a coat rack to show that this is a family home. 

The hallway is dark with light coming through the door, the audience can see the letter being posted. The low key lighting emphasises the shadows in the shot making it seem darker, this creates enigma.
The light on the letter draws the attention of the audience to it, showing its significance again

                                                    
                                                                                    Frame Seven

The diary is also very important in our film, to display this to the audience we have used multiple shots of the diary, first a close-up at the very beginning of the opening and then later on have an over the shoulder shot which focuses on the diary. By having more than one shot of the diary, we have shown its importance in the film, like the letter. In editing we put some shots of the girl and the diary together, to show her looking at it and how she is clearly upset by something. By putting the shots of her looking upset and looking at the diary we have shown how the diary or something written in the diary may be upsetting her.

The over the shoulder camera shot also helps to show that the diary or something in it has caused her to get upset as the, shot allows the audience to look at the diary from her perspective. The range of shots, techniques and camera lenses we have used in the opening make the opening look more professional and looks more like films that you would see.

Further on in our opening we used a close up of a newspaper article, which says 'man dies preventing', it is clear that the article has been ripped and is of some importance to our character as she is looking at it.

We used a close-up shot so that the audience can read the heading of the article and in editing we slowed the clip down so that there is enough time for the audience to read it. The slowed pace also depicts how the article has meaning, especially to our main character.
Enigma is created with this shot as the audience do not know how the man died, or why it is important to our character, or why she has ripped our what the article did say. This suggests to the audience that the article has a big focus in the film.
In the brief for our main task we told that we had to base our story off of a news article that we had been given or that we had found. The article we chose to use was 'Man Dies Preventing Suicide', we wanted to show that this was an important theme during our film, so we used a close up of the news article. However because we did not want to give away our plot we ripped the end of the article out, creating enigma.

Frame Eight

Our character is seen to run out of the house and dropping the letter by the door, this creates enigma as the audience don't know what has caused the character to run our the house and how the letter has effected her. We don't show the character reading the letter, so the audience do not know the contents off the letter, all they know is  that it has upset her, so much that she runs away. This mystery surrounding the letter causes confusion for the audience as they don't yet understand what has happened. This is conforming to traditional conventions of film openings, because we have created enigma and confusion, which is necessary in openings to keep the audience interested in the film.

Frame Nine

Our last shot is a long shot watching our character running away. We have challenged the conventions of a film opening with this shot, because in editing we slowed the end of the clip down and played the titles over the top of the end of the clip. This challenges traditional film openings as many have the titles over black screen and the shots are not slowed down. We wanted to slow it down though because it would lead straight into a flash back so by slowing it down it links the clips the shots.