Monday 19 April 2010
Evaluation Activity 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When comparing the two, there are very significantly major differences. The titles in the preliminary task were very basic and looked as though we had spent no time on them at all. As you can see, they look unrefined and as though they do not have a relevant theme or genre to them. Whereas the film opening titles on the other hand look a lot more professional and relevant to our genre.
During the editing process of the preliminary task, we were unaware of the technical side of premier pro so we simply went to the ‘titles’ section and found a font that looked presentable. I can still say that this was a learning process for me as I would not have known where to find the icon that allows you to add titles onto footage.
Further, I do not look back at the preliminary task with regret because we were just beginning to learn about the technical side behind premier pro.
I can feel positive about the preliminary task because I know that were I to do one again, it would look a lot better and much more professional. From this I can understand that I have made progress and learnt from this project.
For the film opening, we used After Effects which is much more advanced in its titles and effects. We found that we could manipulate the titles to do pretty much whatever we wanted them to do.
To present our production company ‘SLACC Productions’ we used a yellow lightning effect which represented our company in a high class dramatic way and portrayed them as being of high importance. I feel that these titles were so much more effective than the previous ones.
Major improvements were made concerning filming. In the preliminary task, there were some shaky shots and background noise could be heard.
In the final cut of the film opening, we cut out most of the sound apart form when Cameron and Cleo are running and laughing up the stairs and when Chloe is tearing up Cameron’s love letter, so noise pollution would not have affected us in the same sense.
The sound that we did use in the film opening was relevant and clear sounding, whereas some of the sounds in the preliminary task were irrelevant and neither here nor there.
When looking back and comparing the two, I can see that the preliminary task has some accidental mistakes and errors whereas the Film Opening has deliberate aspects such as the shaky camera angles, sound and costumes.
Continually, for the preliminary task, our characters were not given time to select costumes or appropriate outfits as we filmed it all at school and so were in uniform. Whereas for the Film Opening, we filmed at our chosen locations and dressed our actors in appropriate clothing connective to the genre. This made our film have a much more real feel about it and also made it a lot more interesting for us a group to film.
You can see that we built upon our preliminary task in our Film Opening. When looking at character representations and portrayals, we decided to have a sinister job interviewer interviewing a nervous applicant.
We portrayed this via the characters actions, for example, Lakeisha is constantly fidgeting with her hands and feet to show how nervous she is, and Cleo, the interviewer is very strong in her presence and uses her eyes a lot to show her intolerance for Lakeisha’s wet character.
Connectively, we used some of these techniques in our film opening. For example, Cleo’s authority is shows through the way she carries herself and her promiscuity is shown through her dress sense.
Chloe’s insecurities and anxiety are shown through her smoking the cigarette and the tearing up of the letter.
Finally, Cameron’s masculinity and blasé attitude toward his girlfriend is portrayed through his decision to cheat on his girlfriend so casually.
Another thing we learnt as a group form the preliminary task was how to successfully shoot different camera angles and shots. For example, we used a shot reverse shot and match on action shot in our film opening and we also used these in our Preliminary task. I doubt these would have been so successful without the practice in the preliminary task.
I feel that much progress has been made since the making of our Preliminary Task. But i also feel that without the Preliminary Task, the film opening would not have been as successful.
Overall, i am very pleased that i can compare the two and see that as a group we made positive progress.
When comparing the two, there are very significantly major differences. The titles in the preliminary task were very basic and looked as though we had spent no time on them at all. As you can see, they look unrefined and as though they do not have a relevant theme or genre to them. Whereas the film opening titles on the other hand look a lot more professional and relevant to our genre.
During the editing process of the preliminary task, we were unaware of the technical side of premier pro so we simply went to the ‘titles’ section and found a font that looked presentable. I can still say that this was a learning process for me as I would not have known where to find the icon that allows you to add titles onto footage.
Further, I do not look back at the preliminary task with regret because we were just beginning to learn about the technical side behind premier pro.
I can feel positive about the preliminary task because I know that were I to do one again, it would look a lot better and much more professional. From this I can understand that I have made progress and learnt from this project.
For the film opening, we used After Effects which is much more advanced in its titles and effects. We found that we could manipulate the titles to do pretty much whatever we wanted them to do.
To present our production company ‘SLACC Productions’ we used a yellow lightning effect which represented our company in a high class dramatic way and portrayed them as being of high importance. I feel that these titles were so much more effective than the previous ones.
Major improvements were made concerning filming. In the preliminary task, there were some shaky shots and background noise could be heard.
In the final cut of the film opening, we cut out most of the sound apart form when Cameron and Cleo are running and laughing up the stairs and when Chloe is tearing up Cameron’s love letter, so noise pollution would not have affected us in the same sense.
The sound that we did use in the film opening was relevant and clear sounding, whereas some of the sounds in the preliminary task were irrelevant and neither here nor there.
When looking back and comparing the two, I can see that the preliminary task has some accidental mistakes and errors whereas the Film Opening has deliberate aspects such as the shaky camera angles, sound and costumes.
Continually, for the preliminary task, our characters were not given time to select costumes or appropriate outfits as we filmed it all at school and so were in uniform. Whereas for the Film Opening, we filmed at our chosen locations and dressed our actors in appropriate clothing connective to the genre. This made our film have a much more real feel about it and also made it a lot more interesting for us a group to film.
You can see that we built upon our preliminary task in our Film Opening. When looking at character representations and portrayals, we decided to have a sinister job interviewer interviewing a nervous applicant.
We portrayed this via the characters actions, for example, Lakeisha is constantly fidgeting with her hands and feet to show how nervous she is, and Cleo, the interviewer is very strong in her presence and uses her eyes a lot to show her intolerance for Lakeisha’s wet character.
Connectively, we used some of these techniques in our film opening. For example, Cleo’s authority is shows through the way she carries herself and her promiscuity is shown through her dress sense.
Chloe’s insecurities and anxiety are shown through her smoking the cigarette and the tearing up of the letter.
Finally, Cameron’s masculinity and blasé attitude toward his girlfriend is portrayed through his decision to cheat on his girlfriend so casually.
Another thing we learnt as a group form the preliminary task was how to successfully shoot different camera angles and shots. For example, we used a shot reverse shot and match on action shot in our film opening and we also used these in our Preliminary task. I doubt these would have been so successful without the practice in the preliminary task.
I feel that much progress has been made since the making of our Preliminary Task. But i also feel that without the Preliminary Task, the film opening would not have been as successful.
Overall, i am very pleased that i can compare the two and see that as a group we made positive progress.
Friday 16 April 2010
Evaluation Activity 6
Evaluation Task 6;
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
This was the first piece of software that we used. Nobody in our group had come across it before so we went to some extra classes to help us understand the intricacy of the programme.
When we first opened to programme, I was very confused and clueless as to where to begin- there were lots of drop down boxes, applications, toolbars and buttons which caused even more confusion. The general format of Adobe Premier Pro CS4 was something which I had never seen.
To instil the methods and techniques we would need when using this programme, we looked on YouTube at some tutorials on how to use it and become accustomed to it.
Here is an example of a tutorial;
It took a long time to get used to the different features and technical aspect of Premier Pro, but eventually we began to understand how it worked. Adobe Premier Pro would no w act as the foundation for our film; we would use it to make the film fit together to make a sequence and without it, our film opening would not have been able to be finalised.
I think that this programme allowed us limitless freedom with editing techniques and special effects. I am aware that many large budget movies have used this programme thus meaning a lot can be achieved from it.
After effects was another programme we used to make our film opening look professional.
This programme was more for our production company logos. There were many effects we could use and in the end, it just became about choosing one instead of another. We were sure to make our Production Company Logos in context to the genre of the film so as not to cause confusion and to reinforce the themes.
At the very early stages of filming, we used a tape based Sony camcorder.
When filming the preliminary task this is what we used and for the majority of the film opening. Loading the film from the tape onto the computer was very long and time consuming and after some time, we received new cameras which recorded onto a hard disk. This meant that all filming was internalised and we didn’t need to keep the tape safe or carry it with us. I preferred these cameras because their quality was better and they were smaller which made them easy to carry. They also gave us a better quality of picture and sound.
I found controlling and using the cameras difficult at first but began to understand and appreciate their technical side after a little while of filming.
If our film had contained dialogue, the second cameras would have been our priority, but we chose to exclude dialogue and replace it with a soundtrack.
The next piece of technical equipment we used was the audio recorder.
I thought the ones we used were of high quality as they picked up the slightest noise. I also thought that they were very straightforward in terms of use. It was also very simple to upload the sound on top of our film. We merely had to overlay the recording and mute the soundtrack and it was complete.
In order to find pictures and videos etc, we used some social networking sites such as Facebook.
As our target audience would be around the same age as our group, we had lots of photos online of placed we had been out with our friends or to parties. These pictures were very useful in giving examples of the teen lifestyle.
We uploaded our film opening to YouTube so that the public would comment on it. It also meant that our Film was accessible to everybody worldwide.
Overall, this project taught me a lot about the technical side of the media. Prior to this, i did not have much of an understanding for the different types of equipment and programmes used in this industry. I feel that the experience has been very productive as i can now expand upon my knowledge in upcoming projects.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
This was the first piece of software that we used. Nobody in our group had come across it before so we went to some extra classes to help us understand the intricacy of the programme.
When we first opened to programme, I was very confused and clueless as to where to begin- there were lots of drop down boxes, applications, toolbars and buttons which caused even more confusion. The general format of Adobe Premier Pro CS4 was something which I had never seen.
To instil the methods and techniques we would need when using this programme, we looked on YouTube at some tutorials on how to use it and become accustomed to it.
Here is an example of a tutorial;
It took a long time to get used to the different features and technical aspect of Premier Pro, but eventually we began to understand how it worked. Adobe Premier Pro would no w act as the foundation for our film; we would use it to make the film fit together to make a sequence and without it, our film opening would not have been able to be finalised.
I think that this programme allowed us limitless freedom with editing techniques and special effects. I am aware that many large budget movies have used this programme thus meaning a lot can be achieved from it.
After effects was another programme we used to make our film opening look professional.
This programme was more for our production company logos. There were many effects we could use and in the end, it just became about choosing one instead of another. We were sure to make our Production Company Logos in context to the genre of the film so as not to cause confusion and to reinforce the themes.
At the very early stages of filming, we used a tape based Sony camcorder.
When filming the preliminary task this is what we used and for the majority of the film opening. Loading the film from the tape onto the computer was very long and time consuming and after some time, we received new cameras which recorded onto a hard disk. This meant that all filming was internalised and we didn’t need to keep the tape safe or carry it with us. I preferred these cameras because their quality was better and they were smaller which made them easy to carry. They also gave us a better quality of picture and sound.
I found controlling and using the cameras difficult at first but began to understand and appreciate their technical side after a little while of filming.
If our film had contained dialogue, the second cameras would have been our priority, but we chose to exclude dialogue and replace it with a soundtrack.
The next piece of technical equipment we used was the audio recorder.
I thought the ones we used were of high quality as they picked up the slightest noise. I also thought that they were very straightforward in terms of use. It was also very simple to upload the sound on top of our film. We merely had to overlay the recording and mute the soundtrack and it was complete.
In order to find pictures and videos etc, we used some social networking sites such as Facebook.
As our target audience would be around the same age as our group, we had lots of photos online of placed we had been out with our friends or to parties. These pictures were very useful in giving examples of the teen lifestyle.
We uploaded our film opening to YouTube so that the public would comment on it. It also meant that our Film was accessible to everybody worldwide.
Overall, this project taught me a lot about the technical side of the media. Prior to this, i did not have much of an understanding for the different types of equipment and programmes used in this industry. I feel that the experience has been very productive as i can now expand upon my knowledge in upcoming projects.
Evaluation Activity 4
This is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. ''Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. ''
I will be using this to help me understand why our chosen target audience will be interested in our film.
Maslow’s Hierarchy demonstrates the different aspects that people need to have satisfied and accomplished in order to move on to the next step. Eventually, when all the steps have been completed, ‘Self Actualisation’ is made in which you are genuinely happy in yourself.
Excluding nutritional needs and requirements, in my opinion, our film could help its audience achieve Self Actualisation.
I say this because the opening scene is very destructive and demonstrates characters whose lives are going to fall apart due to acts irreversible. Viewers of the film would hopefully not be experiencing exactly the same hardships as the characters and so would feel good about their own lives and begin to appreciate that they do in fact have very fulfilled lives.
A sense of belonging and love is established via the fact that other people have problems and do not live a perfect life that is free from conflict. Viewers can then no longer feel alienated from society.
I would argue that esteem can be established by the viewers of the film feeling as though the choices that the characters in the film are marking are wrong. And were that situation to arise in their lives, they would choose not to cheat on their partner. This can boost esteem by making them feel good that they have the dignity and will to choose the right and positive path.
Aesthetic needs can be met by the way the characters dress and speak. We chose characters in which our audience can relate to and feel as though they are real. For the film to be aesthetically pleasing we chose to use setting which were believable and were places in which our target audience would sometimes even go to.
We wanted our characters to appear to be genuine and we feel that we achieved this. Aestheticism has been met.
Lastly, if our film did create a feeling of ‘Self Actualisation’ for its audience I would feel very proud and as though we had achieved a lot more than we thought capable. It would be very encouraging if our film made people feel positively about their own lives.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
This is a photo of young people in their late teens. We decided as a group this would be our target audience as this is a time when people are beginning to experiment with the controversies that adult life brings. Between these ages in when some people begin getting into serious relationships and experimenting sexually.
We thought that a 12 rating would be too young as childhood and its naivety is still most present at this age. We decided that a 15 rating would be most appropriate as this is the age where most people are beginning to discover their personalities and sense of self.
As you can seem our chosen audience appear to be a social group that enjoy going out to parties and possibly drinking and smoking.
Here are some aspects/interests/habits that their lives may include and would contribute to our film had it been made into a whole production.
Music;
Their taste in music would be alternative and not necessarily what would be considered most popular in the chart.
We would consider this to be music that our target audience would not listen to and what is referred to as ‘Pop’. Jay Z and Alicia Keys ''Empire State of Mind''
On the other hand, possible artists that they may listen to would be Hot Chip. I say this because their music is alternative and containts subliminal messages of what many teenagers would relate to. their music also has an electro/trance feel to it which is suggesstive of the target audience behaviours and attitudes.
Things they may watch on the Television may include; Waterloo Road, Hollyoaks, 90210, Skins, One Tree Hill, The OC etc. All of which encapsulate the teen lifestyle and the hardship teenagers undergo, thus meaning real teenagers can relate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kFulIjSpdg&feature=related - Skins Clip.
Our target audience would most likely enjoy watching horror films and thriller films. Clearly they would also watch other genres but as teenagers they would like to watch films in a group where they can engage with one another and feel the fear together. It is stereotypical of teenagers to group together to watch a scary film and is seen by many as ‘fun’.
Places where they would shop for clothing;
Highstreet trends such as TopShop. They would stray from JD sports and stereotypically ‘chavvy’ clothing. Other shops may include Urban Outfitters and All Saints- these are places renowned for originality which is what all teenagers aspire to be.
Social Life;
In the summer, our teenagers could be found in a group at the park enjoying the sunshine. Possibly smoking and drinking. Their nightlife would include partying and getting drunk and socialising with others and sexual antics including homosexuality. Clubbing would also be high on their agenda.
Here is a photo of a group of girls out clubbing at Tiger Tiger. As you can see their clothing is suggestive and promiscuity would probably be present.
Following these events would come regret. This is established through our film where Cameron cheats on Chloe. He does in fact love Chloe he has just stupidly made a mistake.
Habits and interests;
Their habits and interests may be very harmful; some being eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, possible self harm and intoxication and extreme drinking.
More constructively, some of them would have interests that are positive, such as playing an instrument, dancing, a keen interest in their studies etc.
Our target audience would fall somewhere in between these habits and interests.
Likes/Dislikes;
They would dislike anything that they cannot relate to or find degrading. For example, something which they would not like could be ‘The Simple Life’ with Paris Hilton. I say this because it involves Paris behaving very self obsessed and as though she is very stupid and enjoys spending lots of money just because she can.
They would enjoy things with more depth and significance to them such as ‘The Breakfast Club’ which is a film about teenagers in detention and how they unite and rebel against the detention system.
Why our target audience would like our film;
They would like and enjoy our film because it relates to and communicates to teenagers experiencing pressures and going through difficult relationships. As mentioned before, they would enjoy or film because it contains elements of horror.
Evaluation Activity 3
What kind of institution might describe your media product and why?
Here, you can listen to a 'Directors Commentary' which our group created. We were finding it difficult to decide on a time where we would all be available to record this and at first we decided that we could record it individually and then cut and edit it all together. Eventually we settled on a date in which we were all free and we began recording.
Initially it was very difficult as we had never recorded anything using a Marantz voice recorder and we soon became aware how sensitive it was and that a noise from another room could be picked up by it.
We did alot of takes and we knew we had to do alot of editing so eventually we drafted a rough script which we could follow and we managed to record it in one take which meant that hardly any editing had to be done.
This type of institution might describe our media product because it is becoming ever more common for directors to include the option for their audience to listen to their film with a voiceover of what each frame, camera angle, prop, positioning, setting etc may indicate or signify.
As a group i think we did very well to record the voice over in one take after much deliberation. It was a very satifying and new experience which we all enjoyed and would now be more aware of how to approach it were we to do a voice over in any future projects.
Evaluation Task 2
How does your media product represent different social groups?
To the right is a picture of Cleo. Her role within the film opening is to appear seductive, lustful and shameless. She is also dressed to give off this impression.
Similar to Cleo’s character is Jinx Johnson from Die Another Day (Played by Halle Berry). Her first appearance in the movie is her walking seductively in a bikini out of the sea. Immediately, James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnon) notices her and gazes at her as though she is now an object that he wants to obtain.
Continually, this is what we wanted to achieve through Cleo’s character. Halle Berry’s character conforms to the stereotype that women in films in order to gain attention of a sense of importance must use their sexual assets.
Although this may not be something we liked and feel is true ourselves, we thought that using this technique would be most successful in establishing Cleo’s character.
Our media product does not want to promote dressing promiscuously or behaving in such ways but we did need to get across to the audience that Cleo’s character is a danger to Chloe and Cameron’s relationship. We needed to make her appear a threat and characterisation was the best way to achieve this effect.
Using women in films to destroy/use/take down the men is an ongoing trend and will continue to be used in film making so long as women are seen in such lights. Examples of this are the characters of Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in Mission Impossible 2. Nyah is a beautiful thief whom Ethan must trick into believing what he tells her. He is advised to remain emotionally objective but falls for the beauty that is Thandie Newton.
Overall, as this would be the best way to make the audience aware of Cleo’s intentions, I believe that what we decided was for the best. Though if we had a larger budget and more time, we would have liked to include a female that does not use her assets or sexuality to achieve power over men.
Accordingly, I feel that women being presented in such ways dematerialises them and turns them into objects of desire. It would have been positive to have achieved this had we had more time.
To the right is a picture of Cleo. Her role within the film opening is to appear seductive, lustful and shameless. She is also dressed to give off this impression.
Similar to Cleo’s character is Jinx Johnson from Die Another Day (Played by Halle Berry). Her first appearance in the movie is her walking seductively in a bikini out of the sea. Immediately, James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnon) notices her and gazes at her as though she is now an object that he wants to obtain.
Continually, this is what we wanted to achieve through Cleo’s character. Halle Berry’s character conforms to the stereotype that women in films in order to gain attention of a sense of importance must use their sexual assets.
Although this may not be something we liked and feel is true ourselves, we thought that using this technique would be most successful in establishing Cleo’s character.
Our media product does not want to promote dressing promiscuously or behaving in such ways but we did need to get across to the audience that Cleo’s character is a danger to Chloe and Cameron’s relationship. We needed to make her appear a threat and characterisation was the best way to achieve this effect.
Using women in films to destroy/use/take down the men is an ongoing trend and will continue to be used in film making so long as women are seen in such lights. Examples of this are the characters of Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in Mission Impossible 2. Nyah is a beautiful thief whom Ethan must trick into believing what he tells her. He is advised to remain emotionally objective but falls for the beauty that is Thandie Newton.
Overall, as this would be the best way to make the audience aware of Cleo’s intentions, I believe that what we decided was for the best. Though if we had a larger budget and more time, we would have liked to include a female that does not use her assets or sexuality to achieve power over men.
Accordingly, I feel that women being presented in such ways dematerialises them and turns them into objects of desire. It would have been positive to have achieved this had we had more time.
Thursday 15 April 2010
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