Steph's AS Media: Presentation

presentation

Audience feedback

Thankfully we had no negative feedback so far and people seemed to really enjoy our product, we displayed out product on facebook and the media blog to friends and class members. we posted our media product on the blog about a month ago and around 3 weeks on facebook, certain people who commented were infact media students and commented on the range of effects we used. 

Daniel Robson Carr :source - face book

 Daniel Robson-carr This is great.... the intro is quite mysterious... the strange camera angles are really effective, the out of focus look when the person is talking adds to that whole mystery thing, the sepia look on some shots are really good. giving snap shots of the clips are god leaves the audience wanting to watch more. the music really works. Gives it a whole personality and charcter to it.

Nathan Johnson : source - face book 

Nathan Johnston music and sound affects comploments the gray scale amazingly, like the clash of gray scale to coloure near the end, amazing peice of senari footage. 

Manny Varraich ( media student in year 12) - source - facebook

Its awesome. I think the colour works really well with the music and effects. Love to seee th rest of the film :-DD

Stephanie AS Media: Presentation

Written commentary

Written commentary

Our media product is around 3 minutes including titles and the logo. Our titles were planned to be all white but some showed up very poorly against certain clips, so we had a range of black and white, so the audience could see them clearly. Especially when we were watching them in front of the class on a big screen. A lot of the titles were supposed to be over the clip, but visibility was very poor so we used a fade from the clip to black and then used our titles, which really helped it to enhance it better.

Our logo, we had to include some sound affects over the top of the logo. Lucky, the people who produced our soundtrack already had a known logo and we had permission to be able to use that in our project thanks to Imogen’s brother. As the logo, was Fyreon, it seemed appropriate to include a fire image to make the logo seem more attractive.

Alex Lang, the second female actor, helped us with the voiceover, which was recorded on a basic audio recorded as some of the cameras were not available, but we think it fits in well.  We put this into our project because there was a lot of background noise and it gave the story a clearly plot. Alex Lang is the classical teenager in horror films for being in the age limited of 16-20 and having bright blonde hair. This also gives in to another stereotype of blonde people; it is also a physical trait often associated with "bimbos," attractive but unintelligent or uneducated women.

The Detective scene wasn’t added until the very end and was purely because of film didn’t make a lot of sense. Just using a small 30-40 second long interview with the detective really help use to build up the basic storyline for the audience to understand it better.  Also, adding this clip in, using a male lead, made the younger female characters looks even more vulnerable.

First clips from field to horse saddle, these clips were played with some of the detectives voiceover played to keep the audience having to listen and concentrate on the storyline. The Horse riding down the sand was a very long clip, so we used fade ins and fade outs to make the clip seem faster and have a better flow so the audience didn’t become bored.  We did however, want to reshoot some of this clip, but it was so hard to keep the continuity the same and the horse was becoming very agitated and wary of the camera.  Also, most horses are kept in countryside, which is also in the middle of nowhere, where people are more likely to go missing.

When Sam (the first actor) looks in the bushes, this is where our soundtrack beginnings to play into the movie, the killer seems to be able to get her very easily, suggesting teenagers are very vulnerable and to young really to be trusted by themselves. The social group it is generally based around youth, it is generally a negative connotations.

The clip were the murdered attacks Alex, it didn’t look very realistic so, we played this certain clip in slow motion. When Alex was in the bushes, a few of our shots we hand held, because the tripod could not balance in the woods, so we had to be careful to keep it steady and not shaky. I really like the ending of our film, with the music quietly playing the background and the victim’s phone ringing creates a really good vibe for the film. We then used a variation of zooms. 

Media commentary

Bloopers of our movie

1 - more detailed

1. How does your media project:

Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think our media project looks much more professional since we have added the studio logo and soundtrack. It creates a much more expert feel about the overall movie. We added in our own design of music and title credits, we also studied real movies to see how they set out there titles and the font, colour they used for there examples.  The titles really gave our movie a much more expertise experience. If the movie did not have titles, it would be hard to notice if it was a movie rather than just a clip.

The majority of media products are created in established and repeated ways. Film products are governed by certain predictable narrative features, what was very important is the dress and props in a film.

In ours, one of the actors is clearly riding a horse and we were considering not making the actor wear a hat because teenagers never really seem that concerned about safety. But for health and safety reasons it was necessary. The other actor “Alex”, however is wearing a much more casual dress sense which hopefully the audience will see as fitting in with their age range. 

Represent particular social groups?

It represents teenagers are being very vulnerable and weak, which is generally the stereotype from most films.

The interview at the beginning our film is a strong male lead, which shows males as being either stronger or more dominant. As he is more dominant and older, it makes the teenagers look more like children and they still need taking care off.

The social group it is generally based around youth, however, it is generally a negative connotation of teenagers being unintelligent and not really thinking about the consequences of danger – for example, going looking for a missing friends by themselves. 

However, the main characters being so young and vulnerable may restrict parents from wanting to watch in cause there child could end up in that situation.

Also, as it is to be rated at least a 15, the elderly may be put of it will include foul language and maybe gory scenes.

(SORRY about not being in order) - Question 3 more detailed

3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

It would mainly be aimed at a younger generation, as our film is likely to be a 15 or 18; it is likely to include foul language that older generation may not be fond off. This film generally gives of the impression that it is type of film you would go and see with a large group of friends, as it is a thriller/horror, that is one of the most popular choices of film worldwide and many teenagers have the same interests.

An advantage is that not a lot of horror films as targeted at specific genders so that would help us to keep a wider audience.Having a male starting of the movie, gave it more of an impression that is wasn’t just a movie for teenagers and had more of a adult theme.

we would of personalty rather or film was rated a 15, but to get the full experience of a horror movie, eg, gore and blood, the rating would have to be lifted and scary enough to be distributed by Ghosthouse Pictures. 

More detailed questions

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

From the experience of using just one camera to shoot, I have realised how hard it really is to produce a “real looking” film and also how important continuity really is. The camera’s we had also had quite poor audio filming, so we have to think more carefully than we first imagined and many of our cameras had to be closer to the audience to make the audio dialogue louder and clearer. The cameras however, did have good clear vision which helped us to shot from different distances. We were originally planning to shot a lot of ours in the dark, but when we got round to testing the camera, we realised there vision in the dark was quite poor.

I think if we were to shoot another movie, we would try and get another camera to stop basic mistakes such as continuity.

Another think to keep in mind is that you needed a tripod for almost any shot. We were planning to shot some of them handheld, to make it look more realistic, but the quality was incredibly poor.

Not only have we learn about camera technology, but also about editing software for example we used photo-shop premier. we might of known some of the basics e.g. how to important clips, but we then learnt much more about editing tools e.g. cutting, ripple delete. these are all helpful tools that will help us next year in A2 media. 

the only problems we had with the software were we were abit confused at the beginning how to use it and also it crashed regularly as there was around 20 in the same room using the same media server and  software. we over come this by leaving the software alone for example rendering our project threw lunch as it took much longer than expected.

group presenation

We have now completed our interview and our 10 minute group presenation. now all that is left is to complete an audio track over the top of our project and i have already posted the exam questions onto my blog. i will however, being making the answered much more detailed and relavant to the question. our final deadline in next friday and i am positive we will be fully prepared.

Basic Draft Answers

As media Studies – evaluation programme (22^nd March – 15^th April 2011)

1. How does your media project:

Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think our media project looks much more professional since we have added the studio logo and soundtrack. It creates a much more expert feel about the overall movie. We added in our own design of music and title credits, we also studied real movies to see how they set out there titles and the font, colour they used for there examples.  The titles really gave our movie a much more expertise experience. If the movie did not have titles, it would be hard to notice if it was a movie rather than just a clip.

Represent particular social groups?

It represents teenagers are being very vulnerable and weak, which is generally the stereotype from most films.

The interview at the beginning our film is a strong male lead, which shows males as being either stronger or more dominant. As he is more dominant and older, it makes the teenagers look more like children and they still need taking care off.

The social group it is generally based around youth, however, it is generally a negative connotation of teenagers being unintelligent and not really thinking about the consequences of danger – for example, going looking for a missing friends by themselves. 

However, the main characters being so young and vulnerable may restrict parents from wanting to watch in cause there child could end up in that situation.

Also, as it is to be rated at least a 15, the elderly may be put of it will include foul language and maybe gory scenes.

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

At first we thought a film institution such as Twisted pictures than specialises in horror films and there distribution would be suitable, but when we actually started filming, we realised our film didn’t contain that much gore and blood and was more of a thriller and shocker.

So we decided that a distributor such as “ghost house pictures” would be more suitable, with past films such as 30 days of night and the bogeyman. As these film distributors more scary thriller films rather than gory films such as “Twisted pictures”. The films that they have produced are more in common with ours compared to other distributers.

3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

It would mainly be aimed at a younger generation, as our film is likely to be a 15 or 18; it is likely to include foul language that older generation may not be fond off.  This film generally gives of the impression that it is type of film you would go and see with a large group of friends, as it is a thriller/horror, that is one of the most popular choices of film worldwide and many teenagers have the same interests.

An advantage is that not a lot of horror films as targeted at specific genders so that would help us to keep a wider audience.

Having a male starting of the movie, gave it more of an impression that is wasn’t just a movie for teenagers and had more of a adult theme.

4 how did you attract/address your audience?

We used very fast paced music to give the film more of a fast pace, as it was quite dull before we added the audio. The audio is also quite modern and as the general audience will be young it attracts the right audience. The soundtrack plays a large part in attracting the audience; our music would be played with sounds very structured to our certain film.

Our actors were of similar age to the target audience, so there should be a stronger connection between the to groups.

Our title and credits used very basic white font, this made it really stand out against the dark footage and with a very clear title, it is more likely that the audience would remember it.

5. What have you learnt about technology from the process of making your product?

From the experience of using just one camera to shoot, I have realised how hard it really is to produce a “real looking” film and also how important continuity really is. The camera’s we had also had quite poor audio filming, so we have to think more carefully than we first imagined and many of our cameras had to be closer to the audience to make the audio dialogue louder and clearer. The cameras however, did have good clear vision which helped us to shot from different distances. We were originally planning to shot a lot of ours in the dark, but when we got round to testing the camera, we realised there vision in the dark was quite poor.

I think if we were to shoot another movie, we would try and get another camera to stop basic mistakes such as continuity.

Another think to keep in mind is that you needed a tripod for almost any shot. We were planning to shot some of them handheld, to make it look more realistic, but the quality was incredibly poor.

6. Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the process of making this product?

It takes a lot more time and effect than I first thought and struggled to get all of the shots needed in that time I imagined. Also, quite far into the process, I didn’t think planning was really that important until we got to filming and I realised how much preparation was really needed to make a realistic film that contained actors, dialogue, large range of shots etc. Now, when watching professional films I realise how much time it must take to complete all of the editing to perfection.

From this experience, at the beginning I was worried about using editing fade outs for example, as I thought it would look unprofessional, but after we tried a range of effects, certain ones fit in really well. In our movie, we have used a range of editing techniques before certain events to add to the drama and make the movie look more specialized.