Evaluation Question 7

Looking back 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 there were a number of mistakes we made during pre- and production that we have identified and improved upon for our main task. For example, as my group and I were new to this, we didn’t plan everything correctly and often cut corners. On shooting day we forgot to bring a copy of the script to set so I had to download it from my blog 5 minutes before call time. To ensure this didn't happen anything we planned everything a lot better and more in advance for our main task. We had a treatment, screenplay, risk assessment, storyboards, shot list, casting, costume, makeup, and location research, an equipment list, planned title, music and sfx before editing, and created a filming and editing log during production.

In terms of camera, our preliminary task used mostly straight shots at eye level, our most advanced shots were a track through the hallway, a pan to show the character looking around, and a tilt from the floor to eye level. In our main task we decided to be more confident with our abilities and used shots such as a pan from the radio to Emily, and extreme close ups on her face, hands and the rope. The choice of using a pan to open the film instead of an establishing shot was a risk because this is uncommon, but we decided to be more outgoing in our creative choices and this clearly paid off.

For editing, both films were edited on Adobe Premiere Pro. I was previously competent with this software and therefore I was able to edit fluently on both tasks. However, we used a lot more editing skills on the main task and this made our work a lot better. For example, we also used another piece of software called Final Cut Pro to create our titles and the text on screen because it had the right font. We created these on a chroma key background and then used the Ultra Key tool to place this text over the footage onscreen.

Colour grading was used on both, our preliminary task was graded to be darker and more contrasted to reflect the uneasiness of the plot. In our main task, as we filmed in three different locations and used natural lighting, we had to adjust the exposures to balance the light across the whole film. I also added contrast which enhanced the shadows and made it seem creepier.

Sound was also something we improved on from our preliminary to our main task. In our preliminary task we didn't use music and the diagetic sound was unnatural, for example it is completely silent as the protagonist walks into the room, with no footsteps, but then there is a sudden loud noise as a door closes, which seems out of place. 

We made sure natural sound was a priority when editing our main task, so we recorded our own ambience, and used footsteps, doors opening and sounds of the stone cutting the rope to make it sound as realistic as possible. 

Finally, we wanted to show we had improved from our preliminary task so we decided to make the plot a lot more mature. Our preliminary was cartoonish and exaggerated, so we wanted to tackle a more controversial subject, made immediately obvious by the opening shot displaying a girl in distress.

Being aware of the mistakes we made in the preliminary task helped us to improve for our main task and to create a film that we’re happy with. It mostly helped with our overall planning and organisation, which made pre- and post-production a lot easier.

On the whole, I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task and I have been able to apply that to my main task, allowing me to create my best possible work.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 4 & 5

Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/address your audience?

Target Audience Demographics

This table shows the percentage of 15-24 year olds in the audiences of the top 20 2015 films. The top film is a comedy, and therefore not applicable to our film. However, 2-9 are all action films. The majority of action film audiences in 2015 were made up of this age group, showing that is the idea target audience.

This shows the most popular films amongst male audiences. All 6 are action films.

These show which social groups the films were most popular with. Action films came up most often with C1-DE audiences. C1 people make up the majority of the country, showing the popularity of action films.

This shows the social groups percentage in terms of disability and ability. In cinema, around 20% of audiences were disabled, showing that cinema is accessible to everyone. Our film would ideally be distributed in cinemas, so we would want a diverse audience, and this shows that is easily achieved.

Audience Profile

How did we attract and address this audience?

To attract this audience in our film opening we:

• Used a female protagonist who fit within the age bracket (16-24) of our target audience.
• Ensured our film opening fit within the action genre.
• Researched codes and conventions of action films to include in our opening.
• Included specific action film features such as violence to appeal directly our target audience.

Evaluation Question 3

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

When researching distribution companies we decided that Paramount Pictures was the most suited to our film opening, as they have distributed lots of successful action films, such as Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible and Iron Man. 

However our film would most likely be a smaller budget film and use an independent release, so a distribution company more suited to this would be better. Some research on this found Bulldog Films, an independent UK film distributor that releases films across all platforms. It releases films in all genres, including many action films such as Transgression and Dark Planet.

We can also release our film on streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. These are good because they don’t cost as much to distribute and with a small budget we’d want most of our budget to go to the actual production of the film. It also makes it cheaper for audiences, as they don’t have to go to the cinema, meaning that more people watch it. Sites such as Netflix are very popular with our target audience age bracket (16-24), allowing us to direct the film to them.

As DVDs and the cinema are more expensive, there is a higher risk of piracy of our film, so having it available online, for lower prices and wider availability, would lower this risk and please the audience.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 1

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

To answer this question we wrote notes on the codes and conventions of our genre and then Rhiannon recorded them over our final media product to make a director's commentary.

Conventions:

• From our research from the BFI, we have learnt that stereotypically Action films are categorised as certificate 15, maximising youth audiences, which is a convention we have followed within our own work; tropes of dystopia are also alluded to within the radio transmission at the beginning, which develops the convention that action films are often hybridised with sci-fi films. 

• The majority of the highest grossing action films within the British Film Industry were made and distributed by Major Studios, due to the popularity and profitability of this genre. However, our film challenges this genre based convention as our film opening was produced on a significantly different budget, which can be displayed through our handheld tracking shots, that in the industry would have been filmed using a dolly. 

• Another convention of the action genre is the overrepresentation of males within the genre, this is a convention we have gone against, by using not only a female protagonist but also a female antagonist. 

• The chase and the great escape are conventions featured in most action films, therefore we utilised this element to increase dramatic tension, just like they do in many real media products. 

• Exciting and action-filled opening, that has a fast pace and keeps the audience member hooked.

• Usage of low-key lighting and dark colours, as conventionally action films use low-key lighting to emphasise mystery surrounding particular characters, and the danger that protagonists may be facing. 

Codes:

• A code that we have adhered to is the usage of Dramatic Non-Diegetic sounds within our opening. From my analysis of Mission Impossible, I found the opening was heavily reliant on non-diegetic sound effects to build tension. Therefore we incorporated a loud dramatic hum to score the background, which effectively built tension and was a point that our focus group provided us with excellent feedback for. 

• The code of fast paced editing is something we adhered to, with many close-up shots to allude Hayden’s rising panic. 

Focus Group Feedback of our usage of Forms and Conventions:

Focus Group:	Convention/Form:	Was the use of this effective?	Comments:
Chloe	Exciting and action-filled opening, that has a fast pace and keeps the audience member hooked.	Yes	“Shots weren't too long which kept me more interested. The background music was tense. Rebecca’s character was very mysterious which created a sense of suspense and action, and kept me wanting to know what happened next.”
Abbie	Exciting and action-filled opening, that has a fast pace and keeps the audience member hooked.	Yes	“The radio transmission established a dramatic feel to the piece and the ending was very action packed with the fade to black, followed by the gunshot very faced paced.”
Rebecca	Exciting and action-filled opening, that has a fast pace and keeps the audience member hooked.	Yes	“To improve it I would have reduced the length of some of the shots in the opening, as they slow the pace down”
Sarah	Overrepresentation of males within the genre, this is a convention we have gone against, by using not only a female protagonist but also a female antagonist.	Yes	“Yes I liked the fact that you used an empowering female to subvert the typical gender roles. It was clever and more appealing for me personally to watch."

DEPLETION Edit 5 - FINAL

DEPLETION Edit 4

DEPLETION Edit 3

DEPLETION Edit 2

DEPLETION Edit 1

G321 AS: Main Task - FILMING AND EDITING LOG

Friday 20th January 

• Filmed flashback scenes.

Director: Amy Green

Cinematographer: Rhiannon Millard

Actors: Emily Bullock & Chloe Hughes

Took roughly 1 hour to film abut 20 minutes of footage. This will be edited down to about 10 seconds in between shots from another location. 

Sunday 22nd January 

• Filmed first half of the opening sequence.

Director: Rhiannon Millard

Cinematographer: Amy Green

Actors: Emily Bullock & Rebecca Bradley

Due to the location used there was a lot of background noise so this audio is unable to be used. There is no speech but some foley sounds that we will record at a later date. 

EDIT 1 

3 hours work for the first 1:39 of the opening sequence.

Potential music added - “Suspense Music - Seeking the Truth”

Monday 23rd January 

• Played EDIT 1 to our focus group

Feedback:

‘Music is too dramatic for an opening scene. You can see the crew’s shadows in one shot.’ - Mrs Mallet

‘I can tell it is a flashback because of the colour and close ups used but I don’t completely understand what is happening. Thought it was the protagonist’s arm - not clear enough’ - Rebecca 

Responses:

We have removed this music and will find another more suitable track. We are unable to re-shoot the scene with the shadows so we will attempt to hide them with colour correction but it is unlikely to be completely hidden.

We have decided to remove the flashbacks from the opening sequence as they are confusing and aren’t crucial to the storyline. This will also help fitting our film opening within the time restraints.

• Filmed second half of the opening sequence. 

Director: Rhiannon Millard

Cinematographer: Amy Green

Lighting: Zoe Whyte

Actors: Emily Bullock & Rebecca Bradley

Filmed in school so there is background talking and other noises - again no speech but we will still need to record foley.

EDIT 2 

2 hours work for the last 1:06 of the opening sequence.

EDIT 3

2 hours work for the last 0:16 of the opening sequence.

Wednesday 25th January

• Played EDIT 2 to focus group

Feedback: 

‘I want to know what happens next. So many unanswered questions, need a full length film’ - Chloe

‘I like the colour palette and the camera angles’ - Abbie

‘Liked the editing style’ - Mr Kerrigan

‘Light switch is at the wrong timing. Close ups show tension and make it more clear that she is in danger.’ - Rebecca

• Played EDIT 3 to our focus group.

Feedback:

‘Voice announcements should come in quicker to keep up fast pace of scene. - Rebecca

‘Builds tension better than the last edit.’ - Sarah

Responses:

We will change the timing of the light switch so the click happens in time with the light coming on, despite the delay being on the actual light rather than an editing mistake. We will change the timings of the voice announcements so they happen more often and with less of a gap in between. 

EDIT 4

The flashbacks has been removed from EDIT 1 as per our focus group’s opinions.

We are then going to use the first 33 seconds of EDIT 2 and the remaining 16 seconds from  EDIT 3.

Wednesday 1st Feb

• Played EDIT 4 to focus group. 

Feedback: 

‘Story is clearer now with end section. Love the ending and I am intrigued to find out what happens in the rest of the film. - Chloe

‘Sounds needs tidying up. Opening credits?’ - Mrs Mallet

Responses:

There are a lot of gaps in the sound as we still need to record voiceovers and foley. The opening credits and title animation will be made in Final Cut Pro and then chromakeyed into the Adobe Premiere file.

EDIT 5

Recorded voiceovers and other foley.

Added credit overlays and title animation.

Friday 3rd February

• Played EDIT 5 to focus group.

Feedback:

‘It’s really good. I like the tension and the cliffhanger at the end.’ - Chloe

‘Like the style of editing and the titles at the end - they fit in well with the genre.’ - Abby

‘Amazing. I like the end but where it cuts to black and then the title appears.’ - Rebecca

Monday 6th February

• Final edit (EDIT 5) due.

Friday 10th February

• EDIT 5 uploaded onto the school youtube channel.

G321 AS: Main Task - MUSIC AND SFX

Music:

When choosing music, we wanted a track that provided a highly tense atmosphere. However through researching royalty free music with the keywords 'tension' and 'action' we deciphered that a large majority of the music we found, had an incredibly heightened dramatic atmosphere reminiscent of the horror genre, rather than the action genre. Therefore we ended up deciding not to use music, as it didn't fit effectively to the visuals of the opening scene, and instead replaced it with a loud hum or buzzing noise which underscored the entirety of the piece, in coherence with the sound effects. 

Sound:

Post-production we used a microphone to record the layer of sound and edit it separately. This ensured we would avoid hearing muffled or static sounds through background noise; (particularly when we were filming outside in the sounding arch, with a high wind velocity) which makes our piece sound more professional and this post production technique is heavily utilised in the industry. We recorded sounds such as Emily struggling to escape from the ropes, the guard's footsteps as he walks away, a phone conversation between the guard and finally the radio transmission narration at the beginning.

We had to use some sound effects found online as we were unable to record them ourselves, such as a rock scraping on the ground. We then edited this effect to make it fit with the stone onscreen.

Certain sounds, such as the radio transmission, we then edited to sound 'muffled' and 'static', the narration mirroring the sound of dialogue from an old radio. This was particularly effective, as it formulated a tense atmosphere to the opening of the film and provided narrative background to the story, allowing the audience to easily interpret the action that occurs throughout the opening. 

G321 AS: Main Task - TITLE AND TYPEFACE

Initial Ideas

Our initial idea for a typeface, for our Action film opening, is a typeface that is capitalised and striking but is evidently representative of the action genre from its appearance. The reoccurring motif of 'coding' that will feature in multiple shots, emphasises the secretive nature of the hidden governmental plans; metaphorically speaking Hayden (the protagonist) is the fault in the government's hidden code. This, therefore in-sighted the idea that the typeface should mirror this 'fault' which would have an appearance that is 'jagged' and with a significant 'glitch' effect. Upon research on typeface's using the keyword 'glitch', we decided on the typeface "Hacked Title". This is particularly effective as it's capitalised and relatively large kerning distance between the letters creates a dramatic appearance as it elongates the time taken to read the title. It also takes up more space on the screen when superimposed. The jagged serifed edges with horizontal lines aligned to one side of the letter sticking out, or areas within the letter itself missing segments of the side. 

How we will achieve this:

We hope to achieve this text style by using a 'prism' preset and adapting the extent of the movement of the text using a 'ripple' preset, by modifying the key frames; we will add new keyframes in quick succession in order to create a coherent piece of animation. This will appear after the blackout (with fade to black transition) and gunshot sound, in order to build tension and entice the audience to want to continue watching.

Throughout the opening scene, credits will appear superimposed on top of the visuals, however the text will appear using a fade transition, aligned at varying places within the frame. We will use the same typeface as used before ('Hacked" Title).

G321 AS: Main Task - LOCATION RESEARCH, PROPS & EQUIPMENT LIST

Our opening scene features three different locations:

1. The first is the room in which the protagonist Hayden, is held captive by the government for attempting to share their secret euthanasia plans. This location must be dark and dismal looking to infer to the audience that the protagonist is being unjustly locked up in a secret location that is out of sight from the public. Being the joint director of this film opening I would like to use low-key lighting, as I want to portray to the audience that the darkness and shadows cast connote the secrets that are being concealed from the population. According to our storyboard this location will be featured for 55 seconds of the opening scene. 
2. The second location is the long corridor where Hayden (after her escape) is seen peering around a wall watching the guard exit before running down it in order to reach the 'control room'. This will be featured for 20 seconds.
3. The third location is the Control Room. This will be again a dimly lit room, with computer monitors on every available surface. This is where Hayden will collect the hard drive containing vital information, before being shot by the guard. 

Potential Locations:

• Maidenhead ‘The Sounding Arch’ 

This is a potential location for our opening scene, as underneath the bridge there is a wall which if shot from a close up angle, could mirror an abandoned area. 

• Newlands Girl's School Art Room Corridor

This is a potential location for the corridor scene. The hallway features static lighting and white walls which could portray the senile 

• Newlands Girl’s School ‘Dark Room’

This is a potential location for the computer room scene, with the dark low-key lighting nature of the room perfectly creating a tense atmosphere. The red lighting (as evident from the photo below) is perfect for the final scene of the opening, as the protagonist is shot before she exits the room. The red light cast on the room from this light connotes blood and danger fitting with the mis-en-scene of the shot. This will create an abrupt ending and a cliff-hanger in order to entice the audience to continue watching. 

Props List:

• Rope - Which is used to tie up Hayden

• Tape (Silver Duct Tape) - Which is placed over Hayden's mouth. This is stereotypical symbolism of a hostage within action film.

• Sharp Rock - Used by Hayden to cut the rope in order for her to escape.

• Contract Paper - Handed to Hayden by a man in a black suit, she then signs the contract.

• Pen - Used to sign the contract.

• Radio - Old vintage looking radio which is shown in the first shot, after we have heard the radio transmission.

• Computer Monitors - Placed at the end of the dark room with coding onscreen.

Equipment List:

• Camera Rig

• Camera - Canon 700d

• Tripod

• Rode Microphone

• Umbrella Lights