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

From our preliminary task we were able to transfer some of the skills we learnt to our main final piece. This has enabled us to learn from our mistakes as well as to adapt and apply our current skills to our main task to make it the best it can be.

We learnt the basic skills needed to film footage such as using a camera and tripod. Using the tripod was a skill that was essential to getting footage that was steady, because hand held filming is usually the type of filming used in documentaries. Although, we did use this technique when Fiona was walking through the tunnel and when she finally sees Ife lying dead on the floor. This was to show that as Fiona gets closer the event was more personal between the two characters.

We also made sure that we recorded each shot a number of times so that if a certain take did not go the way we planned there was extra footage for us to fall back on. If we did not do extra takes this would be a problem because we would have to make numerous trips back to the location to re-shoot footage. This would have wasted a lot of time that we need to edit and to write the evaluation.

We also learned that it is important to record a few extra seconds of footage before and after the action in the scene, this is so that when it comes to editing we have the ability to cut down the unneeded footage. This is useful because this way we do not have to go edit in the footage from the beginning of the clip, which allows us to add effects that would need extra footage like the fade in fade out. It also allows us to keep with the continuity as extra footage makes it easier to make it follow on.

The editing skills needed for the final task we much more demanding than that of the preliminary task, this is because we used certain effects and titles that were more advanced than the skills use in the preliminary task. The preliminary task aided us with basic knowledge of Final Cut Pro that we expanded on to edit the final task.

Some of the problems to encountered were very minimal and so we over came these pretty easily. Some of the problems are listed below.

The first problem we had noticed with our preliminary task was that the camera wasn't always straight. We therefore made sure that every shot we did was always straight and checked this with the spirit level on the tripod and with doing this all our shots in our main task are straight and not on a slant. We also had problems with capturing the sound on the preliminary task so therefore had to make do with no sound at all. However, on our main task we were able to add a sound track and sound effects on it as well as using the natural sound, this therefore made it more professional and film like.

Another problem we encountered during the preliminary task was the continuity in editing. We found that when it came to editing the door scene it was difficult to make the clips follow on, this was partially because Fiona’s footing changed each time we filmed the door sequence. We avoided this happening in the main task by making sure there was extra footage before and after each clip so that during the editing stage, we could cut it down as to keep the continuity.

It was difficult to get the over the shoulder shot of Caroline and Fiona because there was very little space between them and the table behind them. Although, the location we chose to film the main task was quite spacious so we did not have this problem with the filming.

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

The sort of technologies we have learnt to used are Final Cut Pro, Garage Band, the camera and tripod. Learning to use the camera was pretty simple, filming the footage and capturing it onto Final Cut Pro. Using the tripod was also very easy, we just had to make sure that the spirit level was balanced, and the body of the tripod was fully erect for us to film a successful shot and finally, Final Cut Pro was used for us to edit the different scenes so that the continuity was running throughout the whole of the film. We also used Garage Band for us to come up with a soundtrack for the whole of the film opening.

We learnt how to use Garage band by creating small sounds to help with the sound effect of our film opening. We also found a pre made sound track on here and this fit perfectly with the sound that we were looking for as it had both elements of a calm surrounding as well as anticipation.

It also allowed us to create small clips of sound to help vary up the sound on our film. This helps by giving our soundtrack the fear element, everytime we see parts of Ife's dead body. It leaves more of a mystery and creates more of an atmosphere against our soundtrack. We have therefore been able to achieve the right music we want as we have added the affect we needed to make it fit perfectly with our film.

As a result to using Garage Band, we were able to achieve a good soundtrack that creates the best mood for our film and without this it wouldn't have brought the film together. The only problems that we came across from using Garage Band was that at first we could'nt find the ideal soundtrack for our film, however, evebtually we found the 'Timeless' track and we thought with a bit of tweaking and addition to sound this soundtrack could be very successful.

We were able to put the track we found alongside the natural sound the camera picked up when we were filming and we added separate sound effects we found on Garage Band to make the overall sound for our film. There were a lot of pre-recorded tracks on Garage Band and although it took us a long time to find the one suitable for our individual piece, it was worth it when we found it because it fitted really well with what we had put together for our film. It was similar with the sound effects but by searching through a list of fairly basic effects and applying them to our film where they fitted both visually and alongside the 'Timeless' track, we put together a soundtrack we were happy with.

One of the main technologies we have used is Final Cut Pro. This of which has helped us to edit the whole film opening and allow us to input transitions between each of the two different shots between Ife and Fiona. This has also allowed us to keep the continuity running through the whole of the opening. First we used the ‘Log and Capture’ option to import what we recorded onto Final Cut pro, so that we could edit it. We used different tools on Final Cut Pro such as the blade tool, which allowed us to cut a clip at a precise point, the pen tool, which we used to gradually fade the music out. We used titles from the video transitions effects to state the names related to each part of the work that was done. We created a black and white effect using the 'desaturate' effect on the image control menu of the effects. Using the selection tool allowed us to move around a number of clips at the same time without having to rearrange the order.


Some other technologies that we used, but knew how to use already are ones such as, Google, to help us find images and extra information for our blog and help illustrate what we are trying to explain.

Another technology that we have learnt is how to use blogger.com as we were able to upload video's and pictures which helps give the visual effect of our vision and how we want it to look. It also allowed us to annotate what we wanted to tell within the film opening and the ideas we used.

We also used Youtube to help upload video's of film openings that we are looking at and are comparing our film opening to. It allowed us to do research on other possible film genres and get an idea of what other film openings were like.

To find information about films we wanted to use as examples of films similar to our wn, we used IMDb.com which was useful for finding out almost anything about the film including information about the publishers and directors. We also found stills from the movie and helpful things we could include in out questions.

Using the camera and tripod was crucial to making the film for obvious reasons. One of our first coursework lessons we found our way around the camera, learning how to put the tape in and take it out properly. We learnt how to record footage and attatch the camera to the tripod. Witht he tripod, we ad to make sure it was set up properly everytime we filmed in a different location or even moved the tripod a little or the hot could be crooked as we found out in our preliminary task when the whole film hadn't been straight because we hadn't adjusted the tripod at all. Using the spirit measure we sucessfully filmed our main task correctly so that all shots were striaght.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We were able to address our audience by the genre of the film. We thought that by making a teen drama film, it would attract teenagers to come and watch this. We therefore used a lot of varied shots to imitate the way people think, in a disconnected and disorderly way.

The target audience, aged between 16-24, can relate to the main character Fiona, because she is around the same age. The close up of Fiona’s face would also make it easier for the target audience to relate to the film because this shows them that she is just a normal teenage girl, like girls they would come across in day to day life, rather than a teenage celebrity, who they would more likely idolise and aspire to be like. They can also relate to her mood in the film opening to similar times in their lives as they would have encountered stressful situations that they wanted to escape from. The audience would also be inclined to watch more of this film to find out what happened to Ife, and the reason as to why Fiona was the person to find him.

We also thought about the mise en scene and the fact that it’s by the side of the canal makes it alone and isolated, therefore we get the feeling that the only reason why a teenager would be here would be because they are sad or upset, or even to look for a quiet place to think about things. The target audience would understand our point in this, where as an adult may wonder why a teenager girl is wandering around by the side of the canal by themselves, this would make them think that the girl would get attacked or something bad will happen to her and this is not the point we want to make. However, to make sure that we didn't put this point across we thought about the weather and ensured that we only filmed when it was nice and sunny to show that Fiona is just walking down the side of the canal minding her own business. We therefore didn’t want to use pathetic fallacy to mirror the way she is feeling otherwise this would make Fiona’s scenes look like it’s all doom and gloom, when in fact, we wanted to add that little glimpse of happiness and normality that not everything can and will be edited to look like the typical build up of tension to find the dead body like most Hollywood films are.
We used a black and white effect which could also attract our audience because it makes the film stand out, and would invoke questions from the audience and create a sense of mystery. The audience would wonder why the entire film opening was in black and white, and whether the whole film was either a past memory or was deliberately put in black and white to help portray some points of the film. It also creates the sense that the film opening is retrospective, and the main character is in fact, looking back on previous events.

Also looking at the cross cutting between the two clips, we found that it would create a sense of separation to the audience as they would not know, until the end, that the two events were happening at the same time. This also helps tie in the mysterious atmosphere that is created with the black and white effect.
The soundtrack we used in our film opening portrays the type of reflective mood the audience could relate to, but at the same time creates the sense of an impending climax, which the audience finds out at the end of the opening is Fiona’s discovery of Ife’s body.

Who would be the audience for your main product?

The main target audience we're looking for are people aged between 16-24. We would be particularly aiming this at teens as the genre of the film is a teen drama/murder mystery. It would mainly contain teenagers and would follow a teenager’s life. It would show how a teenager would see and go about things in life as it shows the attitudes and teenagers point of view as well as how they would deal with the mysteries and problems that may occur. Teenagers would be the ideal audience for our film because it deals with emotional health, which BBC research has shown, is one of the main concerns of teenagers. This in turn catches the audience’s attention and creates interest in the rest of our film. The audience could therefore relate to the film and could empathise with the characters the film follows. The teenagers that would be interested in this film would enjoy teen dramas as a whole and would have seen films such as 'Brick'. They would also watch teen TV dramas like 'Skins' in their spare time and would have the same interest in film choice.

This would therefore mean that a wide selection of people, both male and female, would like to come and see this film. It is a new and fresh take on a teenage drama/murder mystery genre film and allows the audience to be open minded as to what they think is happening. Eventually, as the film goes on, it would make more sense to the target audience as they will be able to relate and understand the happenings throughout the whole of the film.

We also found that because our film is very similar to ‘Brick’ and holds the teenage drama similar to ‘Juno’ it would be a good film for the 16 – 24 age range as it appeals more to this age range, as well as the fact that those that enjoyed both ‘Brick’ and ‘Juno’ would also enjoy our film ‘Timeless’.

As the BBFC websites states that a film that is classed as a 15 or over film would be only shown to those of whom are within this age range. They aso state that any film which contains moderate violence and strong language would class the film as a certificate 15 rating. We have therefore chosen to rate our film a 15 as there features a dead body which would be classed as moderate violence. This would deffinatly mean that anyone under the age of 15 should not watch this film as it is too violent for them to see. Moreover, the rest of the film could contain strong language and self harming.

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

As we have mainly looked at the film 'Brick' to compare our scenes with and is the most similar to this film, we thought that we should look into the production company that produced this film. We came to find that 'Bergman Lustig Productions' had produced this film and have researched how many films they have produced altogether. We found that they are only a small production company and have produced a small group of films, of which date back from 1994 to 2005. Between these years they have produced a total of 17 films and because they are a small company many of the films they have produced are not advertised much, or from what we can see, we do not recognize any of these films. However, seeing as we are only a very young generation of students we have taken into consideration that this production company has basically been around from the start of our lives. The films produced by ‘Bergman Lustig Productions’ may therefore not appeal to a younger audience like us.

Moreover, the types of films Bergman Lustig Productions produce are mainly murder based films. This in turn links in with our film as we have a character that has been murdered. One film that has been produced that is similar to this from Bergman Lustig Productions would be ' Stranger than fiction'. It shows a murder scene that is trying to be covered up by 4 characters within the film. This adds the essence of mystery which mirrors our film.

As you can see, the tagline states 'One murder leads to another' this shows that the main plot to this film would be murder, which is similar to our film.

We therefore realised that the production company wouldn't distribute any films as they are too small of a production company to do so, so have looked into the distribution of 'Brick' and found that 'Optimum Releasing' are one of the main distributors of this film.

We have consequently looked at the types of films they have distributed and have found that they are a very well known distributor of which who have distributed a total of 185 films. Most of these films are very recent films that have and will be distributed this year (2010). They also have plans to distribute films next year (2011) too, this shows that they are very successful distributors. Some films they have distributed are mainly murder type films and drama, as well as investigation films, such as 'The Losers' which includes a murder mystery as they believe that a group of the characters are dead, however, they are not and have to go undercover to hide the fact that they are still alive. This links in a lot with our film that we have made and the fact that they are a UK distribution company will mean that Optimum Releasing would be one of the main and ideal distributors of our film.

Another possible distributor could be ‘Motion Picture Distribution’ as they are a small distribution company; which in turn would be a good distributor for our film, as it would be a first time movie that we would have produced. ‘Motion Picture Distribution’, who have distributed a total of 27 films, would be a lot more suitable as they are not as well known or as big as ‘Optimum Releasing’ and would therefore allow our small budget film to be distributed.

We found that 'Focus Features', another well known distributor, could distribute our film, but they are more well known for their comedy genre type films. We therefore thought that they might not be suitable for the type of film we are making as the audience may think that the type of film we have produced would be a comedy genre film because it is distributed by ‘Focus Features’ who are more well known for distributing comedy genre films.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have looked at the typical stereotypes of men and women and we have taken the point that men usually have power, as we live in a patriarchal society and women are seen as victims of weakness. We have therefore taken this and have turned it on its head as Fiona, being alive, has the power and that Ife is weak. This is because Ife is dead and that compared to Fiona, shows that she has the power. This is a very strong point as it reflects the mystery of Ife's death and questions as to why the female has the power compared the male as well as the point of the cause of Ife's death.

Moreover, we have taken the element of power and have modernised it by turning it on its head and making the woman, Fiona, have all the power, opposed to the man, Ife, who is dead and weak. We therefore thought that reflecting the modernised women of our society today would be a good idea, as we have took the thought of women who now have power, whether it being down to having higher jobs in the employee hierarchy or within the home and having power over the men. Also, within the modern society, there are more house husbands around and now more than ever, the women are working to help support the families rather than the men. This in turn helps reflect and portray the society we live in now and gives a more modern effect to our film rather than the typical stereotypes that most films follow. We have therefore offered a new refreshing film for our target audience to watch, as opposed to a film that they could guess the beginning middle and end to.

We have also looked at the typical stereotype of ethnic backgrounds and the fact that black people are usually victims of crime or are somewhat involved with problems of crime. The audience would therefore think that Ife, because he is a black man, has been killed by a gang member because he has either disobeyed or turned his back on the gang leader. This is because a black man is stereotypically in a gang and follows a gang. Also, the types of clothes he is wearing would also add on to the point that he could be killed by a gang member of such because he is wearing a hoodie jacket and this usually signifies a young deviant looking to cause crimes. However, this is not the case within the film as Ife wasn't in a gang or didn't follow a gang. This leaves a mystery for the audience to wonder why Ife is dead and why he is dead in the area he is lay.


Also, both the white girl and black man are involved with each other and are friends or know of each other. This puts a spin on the typical stereotypes as both the characters are from different ethnic backgrounds and they don't usually intermix with each other. This therefore shows that we as a group have taken these typical stereotypes and have changed them from what people usually judge the characters from and by changing them and turning them on their heads allows the viewers to see that not all social groups follow the typical stereotypes. This in turn makes the film fresh and enjoyable to watch.

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

The film opening we've made is a teen drama combined with a murder mystery. While it involves teenagers, the viewer is introduced to a dead body almost immediately. The mystery is made apparent by the fact the body is there with no explanation and the girl seen walking at the beginning walks with no purpose and seems to be minding her own business with no knowledge of what she'll encounter just a minute or two down the path.

Film Titles
We looked at all types of film titles featured in other films and have taken these ideas to use in our own film. We saw various films using the idea of having the film title on its own in white text with a black background. We thought this was very effective as it gives the effect of ellipsis, this of which benefits our film opening as it has the essence of mystery.

Here, as you can see, is the film titles of our film and 'Brick' look very similar. We liked the simplicity of the way the film title is shown as well as its effectiveness. A simple black background and white font has many different meanings to the film rather than just being the introduction to the film title. The text used also portrays the film title, as the 'Brick' text is block text, and our 'Timeless' text is very loose. We also noticed that a lot of different films used this technique as it is very effective.

We also looked at the different titles that are included within the film. These are usually shown on the same scene as film, to help show that it is the beginning of the film. It states the directors, producers and any media institution that is included with the film as well as costume designers etc that had something to do with the film. It shows their names and mentions that they had an input within the film.
As you can see below, the titles of our film look similar to 'Sliding Doors' and show the titles on the same screen as the audience are watching. We also thought that this would be more effective as having the titles on a different screen wouldn't work as well as it doesn’t make it look part of the film compared to how well it looks with it being on the same screen.

Camera Shots
One film that we have looked at from the same genre of our film is 'Juno', we think this film portrays a very good teen drama and the types of shots it uses. We have looked at the opening and have used similar shots to 'Juno' in our own film.

Our Film (Left) 'Juno' (Right)

As you can see we have similar shots to 'Juno' apart from the fact that the characters are walking in opposite directions. We thought that this was very successful in 'Juno' and thought it would be good to include these types of shots in our own film. Another change we put in our film, so that it wasn't exactly the same as 'Juno', was that we changed the colour to black and white. We thought that this would give it a better effect as it helps portray a number of things in our film as black and white are 2 completely different colours that are opposite from each other. It helps portray things in our film such as the fact that there are only 2 different scenes that we cross cut from. It also portrays the 2 different scenario's within the scene as one scene seems calm and another seems tense and confusing because of Ife's death. This in effect gives the 'black and white' concept of the 2 contrasting things. It also has the same similar camera shot as it is a long shot of the character as they walk by and the background and scenery looks very similar.

Here is another similar shot from brick, as there is a close up of the dead characters hand. It helps give a sense of mystery and makes the audience wonder what’s going on with the characters. Also, the fact that we only see parts of Ife's body before we see his face adds to the mystery and makes the audience wonder who the character is, as the face is the main visual concept of someone, for example, you can see 3 different peoples hands and think that they were all the same, where as 3 different peoples faces, we would clearly be able to see that they were 3 different people as their face features of each person are very different from each other.

Location

We looked at different locations and how the scene is set from the beginnings of each film openings. We focused on how each film opens and where it opens to set the sort of feeling the film wants to portray. Therefore, the day we went out and spent time looking at locations and taking pictures allowed us to get a feel of what location we wanted and what we wanted it to achieve and portray so that it linked in with our film. We therefore opted for a place near the canal as our inspiration came from one picture we took, where Fiona is sat by the side of the canal and she looked very calm and collective.

We also thought that someone going to by the canal would only do this if they were upset or needed to think about things, and because we wanted our character to portray these feelings we thought the canal would be a good option to film by. It also adds a sense of mystery as the audience wouldn't know why the character would be by the canal.

A similar film that uses this is 'Brick' as they also have the film opening in a canal of some sort. We have therefore used this sort of location to help with he mystery of the dead body. It also helps with the sense of mystery as there is very limited lighting near the canal. Therefore meaning that filming by the canal is naturally a mysterious and scary place to be as typically darkness equals scary and unknown places.

Costume

For the costumes we have looked at the typical dress sense of teens. we found that there wasn't any specific dress sense of either characters as we wanted it to be really simple and not too elaborate. We therefore thought that Fiona would be in black; tights, skirt, vest top, shoes, all apart from her coat which would be red to help signify that something bad could be coming her way. Also the fact that she is dressed in all black makes her look morbid and that she is attending a funeral, however, she obviously isn't as she is clueless to Ife's death.

We also looked into Ife's costume and also found that there wasn't any specific dress sense that he needed to be in to establish anything about his character as he is left in mystery and we don't really need to know much about his character as we will find out more as the story unfolds throughout the rest of the film. The only piece of clothing that we thought that could signify anything would be his hooded jacket as typically, people who wear hoodies look like yobs. However, we thought it would be clever to have him dressed like this even though he isn't in a gang or a yob.