Evaluation Activity Eight:

What targets will you set yourself for A2, when you make a trailer?

Having finally finished our product to a successful level, looking at it we feel there is still room for improvements. There are many parts of our film which we really like and feel have worked very well. There are many areas in which you can tell we have improved from our preliminary task which we created at the beginning of the year. There are many targets that not only myself but my whole group feel we could progress on next year when we make a trailer.

There are many positive outcomes from our film, including our camera work and and storyline. I feel our storyline was effective as we had thought about it for a long time and wanted it to be as good as possible. We also wanted to ensure that it was a fairly different type of thriller film. Our film successfully appeals to both gender audiences as females like the idea of it being based around women as they can relate to it. Males would also enjoy due to the 'male gaze'. We like the storyline due to it being unique, you never really see the protagonist being attacked/killed by suffocation. The location is also quite eerie suggesting it has a freaky horror connection. Our camera shots and angles work effectively as we wanted to use different angles to create a tense atmosphere. Using high angles and canted angles we were able to achieve our aims. We made sure by using cross cuts it was showing the audience the different locations and keeping them engaged throughout. Overall, with the camera shots we wanted to include as many as possible to help get a good enough grade but also making sure the shots were accurate and presentable.

 Even though we have a wide range of positivity from our product, there is still room for tweaking and making improvements. We need to focus more on the mise en scene. We should have thought about our costumes in more depth and how they related to our characters. Katy who played Bella was wearing an outfit which subverted her stereotype, it wasn't scary or thriller like. Myself who played Ellie, is an innocent character but was portrayed wearing dull dark colours. I should have worn brighter colours to show my kindness and vulnerability. The protagonist and antagonist were dressed effectively to conform their stereotype. The makeup also wasn’t really thought about. Nadiye who played Tara had chipped nail varnish which looked unprofessional. It looked as if we hadn’t taken much time to get our characters ready or thought about it. In editing we used the ‘smear’ transformation to enter in our titles. We liked this as it conforms the the thriller genre although, the timings aren’t great and they enter and disappear from the shot a little to quickly. Acting skills… definitely room for improvements there! As our actors aren’t professional they obviously weren’t going to be perfect, but they could have tried a little harder. During the conversation between Bella and Rosemary, the shot reverse shot looks a little uneasy and wonky due to the change of camera position. Lastly, I feel our soundtrack may have come across a little to scary and not thriller like. By trying to find a non-copyrighted soundtrack it was hard to find one perfect for our film. We ended up using one which sounded like children and dolls which is more horror orientated than thriller.

Overall, I feel that by creating an opening two minutes for a film we have many ideas and skills for next year when we make our trailer. We now know editing skills, techniques, rules of continuity and basic media areas which will all be included in our A2 production. We will be able to really focus on where we lacked perfection from this year and hopefully create a much more successful project. Myself and the group are very much looking forward to the new skills and techniques we will learn next year.

Evaluation Activity Seven:

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?

Having now completed our final film, looking back at our preliminary task it helps us understand how much we have learned throughout our AS journey and ways in which we improved each individual skill. Its fairly amusing looking at our preliminary task as its very unprofessional and our interpretations of match on action and shot reverse shot aren't very accurate or precise. We are now aware of continuity within filming and how to achieve a successful  product at the end.

There is a huge number of differences between our preliminary task and our final product. The reason why our final product is so much better/more professional is due to us being able to find locations to film, interesting props and planned ideas. For our preliminary task we were limited to resources and had to complete it in school during a short one hour lesson. Being in school, it was harder to access the services we needed and take on the exciting and more successful camera angles. 

MATCH ON ACTION

Here is our use of match on action in our preliminary task. As you can see we cut the camera recording and moved the position of the camera to capture the shot at a different angle. Due to the camera in which we used being a GE1080p hand held, the quality of our work is fairly poor. As its a small camera it was also to zoomed in making it hard for us to get a decent shot. This scene I also feel doesn't really reflect match on action as successfully as I hoped as it doesn't really show our actors at different angles appropriately. We knew from this that we had a lot to learn about how to do these different techniques effectively ensuring continuity was not broken leaving our audience confused. Overall, the match on action in our preliminary task wasn't filmed properly due to it being rushed. In our final film we used match on action more effectively as we knew from our preliminary task we had to improve it!

In our final film we used match on action at the beginning when our protagonist is entering the location.  Straight away you are able to see the difference in quality due to us using a Nikon D3200 DSLR camera. We wanted to use this so we had a high definition professional looking product. When using match on action we wanted it to be timed accurately and fit the scene well. As nowadays we are aware of how to use Adobe Premiere Elements we were able to edit our film creating suitable and in time entrances. We wanted to ensure we used match on action to get the highest possible mark, by improving from our preliminary task we are able to make it look more professional and suitable. Instead of using unoriginal camera angles like in our preliminary task, we decided to use a range of different camera angles and shots. We used a long shot to show our characters body language, medium shot and a canted angle to create a uneasy atmosphere. It shows our character at the same point but including different angles and shots.

We want our film to come across as unique and different compared to our boring, laughable preliminary task.  We needed to include match on action as its a very important part of filming and also helped us receive more marks. It worked well with our film genre but also the soundtrack we used helps create a tense suspicious atmosphere created by both the soundtrack and camera angles. 

When comparing what we did and didn't do differently there is a vast range of things. When doing our preliminary task in the time we had, it was hard to think about our characters use of dialogue and the topic of conversation. As our final product was planned carefully and thoroughly thought about, it enabled us to involve the characters dialogue with the topic of conversation being relevant to our film. We didn't want our characters to look silly and unprofessional like in our preliminary task. The acting had improved massively, as you can see in our preliminary task myself and Nadiye really struggle not to laugh, however in our final product we all took on our roles seriously to achieve the best grade we could. We wanted to try and include more dialogue than in our preliminary task as we thought it would be more successful. On the other hand, we're not actors, we're not professional so we didn't include large amounts of scripts as we thought it would make our film look messy and not victorious.

As you can see here, I've compared our acting in the preliminary task and in our final product. On the left you can see Nadiye slightly laughing. As we had just started using the editing software and begun  are Media AS level we didn't really know how to crop out parts successfully. Alternatively on the right you see our other actors in our final product acting professional and not laughing. We all took it seriously and were able to effectively edit out any faults we recorded. Overall, our acting had hugely improved since our preliminary task and we are all very proud that we managed to stay in character!

Once we had filmed our preliminary task we learned that it would be best to film outside, this was due to being able to capture the natural lighting rather than the yellow looking artificial lighting you get inside. We re-watched our preliminary task many times and realised that the lighting can ruin the quality if not accurate or realistic. Filming outside helped retrieve nice lighting and it didn't make the scenes come out looking yellow or fake. Our teacher mentioned colour corrections and different ways to change the lighting nether less, we thought that the outside would be better for our chosen genre and our overall plot ideas.

Our preliminary task was filmed in a school, we wanted to include a school bell to help show the audience where we were and give more information. We added a soundtrack on Adobe Premier Elements, this was the first time we had done this and were pleased with the outcome. As we had learned how to do this from our preliminary task we decided to use different non-copyrighted sound effects and soundtracks in our final product. Our sounds were far more impressive in our final film due to our progression of understanding from our preliminary task.

The main reason we did the preliminary task was to understand the rules of filming, 180 degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot and continuity. Having already spoken about match on action we also included shot reverse shot at a very important part in our final product.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT
This is our shot reverse shot which we used in the preliminary task. The timings weren't correct and our actors weren't very convincing. As a result our preliminary task wasn't very successful but it enabled us to learn the rules of filming and we were able to look at this for guidance for how to improve. We had a basic idea of how to perform shot reverse shot however, our editing skills weren't as experienced as they are now so we weren't able to edit it well enough to be appropriate.

This is our shot reverse shot in ur final product. As you can see by the quality, acting skills, steadiness  and Mise En Scene its a much better and more advanced scene of filming. We knew how to do shot reverse shot as we were able to practice it as much as possible due to not being in a tight time frame. We also had a tripod to help get a steady shot which wasn't wobbly or out of focus. The frame was still unlike in our preliminary task where its shaky due to natural hand movements. I'm very happy with my groups improvements due to us taking on board things from our preliminary task and learning how to produce a successful final product.

Overall, I feel our preliminary task was a helpful guide in which lead us to create a impressive final product with the basic rules of filming with interesting, exciting and captivating camera angles and shots. As our preliminary task was fairly weak we knew what we had to do to improve.  Our preliminary task was the first video in which we edited on Adobe Premier Elements, it helped us learn how to cut scenes and put them together. It was our first insight in using the software which was helpful as we were able to see all the different transitions etc. My group as a whole are very pleased with our final outcome, and this is partly because of the skills we learned from our preliminary task. If we hadn't done the preliminary task we may have been unaware of how to perform techniques like shot reverse shot, match on action and other different angles/movements. 

Evaluation Feedback

In your responses to your final production make sure you are clearly referring to choices and outcomes in an evaluative way - make sure you are addressing the areas outlined by me below:

What did you do? Explain a transition or effect you opted for in the editing process.  What effect did you achieve?  Explain how the choice you made was intended to make the target audience think or feel.  How does this show progression in your use of skills? Explain how this is better than your AS production's outcomes by linking to what you did in your portfolio last year.

These choices are really important for you to reflect on to show you fully understand how you have developed your skills - and make sure you evaluate the comments made by the test audience (the class) using specialist terminology.  Make sure you really address representation, mise-en scene, sound, camera and editing.

We do not have long until the deadline for this final stage of your portfolio - so make sure you are pushing yourself and achieving the marks your efforts this year deserve!

Evaluation Activity Six:

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

The camera in which we decided to use when filming was the Nikon D3200, we used this one as it had impressive HD filming enabling our product quality to look very professional with the use of high technology. We chose this camera out of  the Nikon D3000, D3100 and D3200. We all agreed that this camera had the best quality. As the majority of my group take Photography A-Level we all knew how to use it effectively using the appropriate aperture etc. By doing this we could make it lighter or darker and change the focal length/depth of field. This meant we could blur out the background, we did this when you see our protagonist drop the dog's lead. By using this camera we have been able to get a successfully created film due to the quality and sound produced when filming. Hopefully when we make our trailer next year we will be aware of more features and possibilities this camera has to offer. To ensure our shots were steady we used my tripod, this was extremely useful as we were able to change the hight of it and move the head around smoothly which is how we got our first shot showing the location using a panning movement. 

The main software and process in which we have all learnt huge things from and hope to take these understandings further next year is Adobe, Premiere Elements.  Myself, and others not only in my group but the whole class can all say it was a hard thing to get your head around! It took time and effect but we can now say that its not as hard as you think! We have learnt how to use different/successful transitions, adding soundtrack, sound effects, merging shots and overall creating a product using the software. We were able to receive help and feedback from our teachers however it was mainly down to us as a group to use our initiative when editing our opening two minutes. We were able to add in transitions when moving from shot to shot and different transitions when titles entered. We learnt that we should use a fade to black when cross cutting and a fade in and out for the titles as it conforms to our thriller genre. The fade in and out precess for the titles looks professional and something which big film industries use. By the end of our editing process, we had all fairly much understood how to use Adobe Premiere Elements effectively. We knew we had used it well as we were able to include a non-copyrighted soundtrack conforming to our genre and sound effects which exaggerated our important shots.  Overall, Adobe Premiere Elements has allowed me to understand the ways in which to edit and create a successful project. Whether its the transitions, timings, soundtracks or clips used.

We also used other technological products, including an iPhone 6 to record behind the scenes and video diaries. We were able to access Time-Lapse to create a mini video showing you what we get up to in lessons. The high resolution of the iPhone meant the quality was detailed and successful. This was an effective way to keep our audience engaged rather than just a written blog. Youtube was also used as we had to upload our videos onto the website to be able to put them on our blog page. Youtube worked well as we were able to receive comments about how to improve our products. This meant we could learn more about the platforms we were using and how to improve. 

Next year, I hope we use different but also exciting technology such as a GoPro which means we can do different things including a fish eye lens and underwater filming. As we will be making a trailer next year we may be able to use a different software like IMovie on a Apple Mac as it has unique and different ways to create a successful project. 

Evaluation Activity Five:

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Activity Four:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From the very beginning of researching and planning we decided that the appropriate age for our thriller film would be between 15 and 25. We chose this as we thought that most people between these ages tend to go to the cinema more than people beyond 25/30. We decided that our film should be rated a 15 due to the assault scene we chose to use. The assault scene may come across as aggressive and frightening which is why we thought 15 would be more appropriate that 12. During our research and planning activities we found out that our targeted audience have a interest in films which produce a tense atmosphere and create suspense. Our target audience tend to like most of the film genres but also have a variety of preferences and impressions.

Female audiences at the age of 15 tend to shop in popular stores such as Topshop,  River Island, Accessorize and Urban Outfitters as well as less expensive shops like NewLook, Primark and h&m. At this age Pop music is widely popular due to the hit station Capital FM including artists such as  Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Beyoncè which attract the younger teens. Tv programmes including Made In Chelsea, The Only Way Is Essex and Home And Away are very much influential on this particular age of audience preferences. With this in mind teens from the age of 15 are more into romance and comedy genres. In comparison teens aged 17-20 have different interests in shops such as Mac, Boux Avenue and House Of Fraser. Tv preferences like Geordie Shore and Ex On The Beach as they include more adult themes and references. At this age they have more ideas and choices of what films to choose from including thrillers.

The male audience at the age of 15 have very different tastes and interests. They would shop in JD Sports, Topman, River Island and SuperDry. They may also be interested in Pop/R&B music but with the likes of Drake and Eminem. Hobbies including football and rugby are very popular between the ages of 15 and 20. Tv programmes for a boy at this age would consist of Match Of The Day, Rugby Live and many more. The male audience stereotypically are much more into crime and violence suggesting they play games like Call Of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. This all enables us to suggest that the male audience at these ages would tend to watch a thriller film due to the use of crime, weapons, technology and violence. 

We wanted our film to really appeal to our targeted audience so we decided to aim our film at between 15-25 year olds. We did this as the feedback we got from other students in class and questionnaire answers had a range of different interests. However, many liked the idea of a thriller genre. In our questionnaire we asked different age groups and genders helping us get different opinions and viewpoints. We wanted our film to appeal to as many people as possible, including both male and females. As the main characters are women we felt that female teenagers and young ladies would enjoy our film as they are able to relate to the characters and feel as if they were 'in their shoes'. On the other hand the male audience may feel the characters are attractive making them want to see the film just as much as females.  

We wanted our opening to be based around the protagonist and the antagonist. We thought by doing this it would make the film appear more engaging and exciting keeping the audience interested. As we include the assault scene in the first two minutes we feel that it keeps both genders happy as they want to see what will happen later in the film. Furthermore, by doing this it keeps teenagers around the age of 15 occupied as they can get bored easily!

The interests from our targeted audience is usually shopping, cinema, meals out and hanging out with friends. We thought that going to the cinema with your friends at these ages was a very normal/predicable activity suggesting they would go and see our film. I feel they would watch our film due to the relatable characters and the overall storyline. Consequently, I believe our targeted audience would enjoy our film as its exciting and thrilling. 

This leads me to conclude that overall I feel we chose an appropriate target audience as teenagers enjoy many different film genres including thriller and our exciting tense storyline can help young adults take a break from everyday life and engage in the fictional world we created. Nether less the audience are able to relate with our characters due to the storyline and setting which we intended to do so.