Evaluation

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

From our prelimanary task which we did at the start of our project, we have taken the skills we have used and applied them to our main task of a film opening "Runaway" we have also learnt new skills during the process of production using the cameras and editing suite "Final Cut Pro 7".

Some of the skills we took from our preliminary task were basic knowledge such as simple use of the camera i.e. turning it on, stop start filming and using the camera with tripod. We also learnt some camera techniques such as obeying the 180 degree rule, we used this in our piece by making sure we obeyed the rule constantly, in our piece there is one instance where we don't obey this rule, however we rectified this in post production when we were editing by using a effect on Final Cut Pro 7 called "Flop", this flipped the shot, so it appeared our character was on
the correct side.

This is a example of where we used the technique "Flop" in our piece, notice the watch has switched hands.

From our preliminary task we also learnt basic editing skills such as adding footage to the footage pool and using simple editing techniques to put together a small sequence, we used these simple techiques for our main task but we also used new techniques which we did not in the preliminary task.

One of the skills we have gained from our main task was our managment of sound. In our preliminary task there was no ambient noise as we were inside but in our main task we had to deal with the wind and adding a soundtrack to our piece. We dealt with the added challenge of the wind on the beach by reducing the sound on the footage so we could hardly hear it as it changed between shots we thought this was the best option we had. We also had to add the soundtrack which we had created using "Garageband". This was effective in our piece as it helped mask the wind noise and adding the sad atmosphere to the piece, our voiceover which we recorded and added also helped with this. We didn't have a voiceover in our preliminary task so we learnt how to record this and save it onto the computer using "Soundtrack Pro" for our main task.

For the filming of our project we used some more difficult camera angles and shots. We felt this was neccesary to ensure our piece looked authentic and wasn't boring. We used different shot angles when we were on the beach such as a low angle shot when the character is climbing up one of the sad dunes, as it makes the sand dune seem steeper than it actually was. In our preliminary task we noticed the filming was quite fast paced this was mainly due to our camera being still when filming and having to use lots of cuts to show what we wanted. In our main task we solved this by using "Pan Shots" which track the characters movements rather than cutting to another shot. We also used slow blurs on our titles both of which were not in our preliminary task.

From doing our main task as a group we are not as naive about filming times and know it some times takes quite a while to get the desired shot and sometimes it is not enough to do one take of each shot. Also we have learnt to be more adventourous with our filming rather than doing simple still shots.

Directors Commentary

Evaluation

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

product?

Throughout our project we have many different technologies in all stages of our work from research through to production.

One of the technologies we learn to use was our camcorder, “Canon Legria FS46”. With the camera we learnt simple operational functions such as inserting the memory card, turning on the camera and how to stop and start recording. We also learnt how to use the zoom on the camera and how to view files we have just recorded on the camera, this was a useful skill as we could look back on our shots and decide whether they are ok or if we need to re-shoot.

Canon Legria FS46, this is the camcorder we used on our project

A different technology we used was “Final Cut Pro 7” which we used on the “Macs”. We used the Macs to research different film openings and then post these on our blog about what we like about them and what we would try and replicate. We used Final Cut Pro for the editing part of our task. Here we imported the footage from the memory cards on the camera which we had converted to “Quicktime” into the footage pool. We learnt how to go through footage and use the “mark in, mark out” technique to select the footage we wanted and then drag the desired footage on the timeline. We then trimmed any footage that needed to be trimmed using the “blade tool”. We also added "effects" such as "bad film" to get the desired effects.

Another thing we added to create a authentic piece using Final Cut Pro was our production company titles and titles such as "Cinematographer" and "Costume Design". We also looked at exhisting films so we could create a realistic piece. We added some slow blurs using the effects on Final Cut Pro this added to the feel of our piece.

Here is a example of a Final Cut Pro 7 although this is not our timeline the layout is similar to our own.

Runaway

This is the final cut version of our opening of a film, Runaway.

Evaluation

How did you attract/ address your audience?

One way in which we attracted our audience was through the use of the characters emotion. Our character was a regular 17/18 year old male, so hopefully some of our audience could have related to the characters emotions and understand him. We did this purposely for that reason.

We also heightened the characters mood and emotions throughout our piece through our use of mise-en-scene, soundtrack and camerawork. Through the mise-en-scene we had quite dull and drab locations rather than bright locations with a warming feel places. (see below screen grab) This allowed us to portray the characters emotion onto the screen, therefore we feel our audience will be able to feel the protagonists emotions better. Also with the dark grey setting and the characters lack of coat we hoped to put across this feeling of vulnerability to the character.

Dark, grey setting of beach area

Another way we portrayed our protagonists emotion was through our use of the soundtrack. We had two different scores being played for each half of our piece. The first score was intense for the flashback sequence and almost acted as a warning of something to come, we chose this as it would capture the audiences imagination and hopefully make them want to watch on. In the second half of the sequence we have a very different score. Compared to the other score it is softer and incorporates the use of the piano. We feel this score more reflected the characters depressed state of mind. This was vital in attracting the audience as it helped them feel the emotion of the character, which is what people going to watch emotional dramas want.

Through our use of camera work we helped portrayed our characters emotions further. This is illustrated in the picture below where we have a close-up on the protagonists face, this shows his sadness and emotion and it is clear for the audience to see and feel also.

Close-up on protagonists face to show emotions

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We see two main points of attraction for our film in terms of target audience. One of them is the story line itself of the orphan finding his way in life, so the emotional drama story. The other point of attraction for our film is for people who are interested in low budget independent British cinema as our films sits into this catergory, so people would come to see it because of this.

One other audience this could attract is people with a adopted background, as they could possibly relate to parts of the story. The main audience for these types of film is the older teenager young adult, we specify this as being the 15-28 age range. The protagonist in the film is 17/18 so therefore the audience will be able to relate to our character. The pieces itself would not so much be aimed at a particular sex such as male or female as we hope it would be universal in that respect as it does not specifically target male or female issues.

Due to the content of the film in general we would suggest it has 15 rating and this is what we would aim it at, this would not really affect our audience for the film as people under the age of 15 are unlikely to be interested in such subjects.

Evaluation

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

We would describe our film in the catergory as a British, low budget emotional drama. Therefore the companies that would work on production and distribution would be based upon this.

One production company we would look to which produces films similar to ours is Shane Meadows : Big Arty Productions. This has produced British films such as “This is England” and “Dead Mans Shoes” both of which are directed by Shane Meadows. The films above are similar to our piece as it is a low budget british movie but also as the two films above are both emotional dramas.

WarpFilms works on Low budget British Films

Another production company which was involved with “This is England” and “Dead Mans Shoes” is Warp Productions. It specialises in British Independent films so our piece fits the bill in that respect.

Optimum Releasing is a British Film distributor which has distributed films such as "This is England" and other low budget British films.

A company which may be interested in terms of distributing our films would be Optimum Releasing. Optimum Releasing is a independent film distributor and has worked in distribution with many low budget British films. Optimum Releasing is UK distributor company so therefore it would be able to get our film across the UK. It also has connections with Studio Canal who have worked on small budgeted films in the past.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening would mainly represent male teenagers. The story itself is of orphan teenager who is beaten by his adopted parents and it is his story of coming to the age being independent and being able to leave home, hence the name Runaway. Predominately the film is about teenagers and growing up, however certain groups could be specified within the age range of teenagers.

One clear representation is orphaned children. We hope our piece would show them as being just normal people, that is why in our piece we had our protagonist who is a orphan wearing regular clothes just like any other teenager. We wanted our character to be viewed as a regular teenager and not some stereotype of a orphan, so the audience can relate to the character and understand his emotion, rather than having him as a stereotypical orphan which would be a false representation. We showed the characters emotion through the use of close ups on his face and the dark, grey, dull setting of the piece. This helps the audience in identifying his emotions.

Our piece itself does not look into male or female representations, we decided we should not draw into particular issues of male and female and rather focus on issues in general as being a teenager or being a orphan.

Evaluation

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

The genre of our piece which we chose to create was a Emotional Drama. From the title of the film “Runaway” we can see what the film will be about and a idea of what the film will be like. For our opening we researched other openings of films in similar genres and a lot of our ideas and inspiration come from these. One way in which we added emotion to our piece was through the use of our voiceover, where our character is using several different emotive lyrics from bands such as Joy Division. Voiceovers are used in other emotional dramas and openings we looked at such as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” where the audience can see the protagonists depressed state through his monotonous voice. In our piece we tried to do something similar, where our audience will hear our character saying things such as “I can feel my life getting harder, I don't think it will get any better” and then they will have a insight into the characters emotion.

Protagonist in open spaced beach area

Another way in which our opening sequence is similar to other emotional dramas is the setting. We have our character walking through the seaside area and near the beach then walking off down the beach, this sets up questions in the film such as where is he going to and why. Also the wide open spaces of the seaside mean you can focus on the character and his emotion and it also signifies his aloneness. We see something similar to this in the opening of Dead Mans Shoes where we see the characters walking through the countryside dragging something behind them. The open space there signifies there loneliness also, also we hear the soft music which sets the tone for the piece, giving it a solemn feeling. We have a soundtrack on ours which we feel reflects the protagonists mood and sets the feel for our piece. The soundtrack to match the characters mood is quite a common feature in Emotional Dramas.

Use of flashback in our sequence

One thing we thought we were original with was our use of a flashback. The use of flashback is quite common in Emotional Drama as we see in Dead Mans Shoes where we see the two characters as toddlers. We used similar techniques as in making the shots “grainy” and using a “sepia effect” all of which we did in post production on Final Cut Pro 7, both of the techniques help distinguish between the present and the past. However we did something original in the size of the screen. For the past aswell as the techniques said above we changed our screen down to a smaller size as to further help in distinguishing between past and present. We did this with the idea that there would be more flashbacks in the film and throughout and that the same technique of making the screen size smaller would have been used.

Screen captures of our procution companies highlighting the use of slow fades

In terms of the piece as a whole it is similar to other emotional dramas due to the slow cut rate, which helps the audience come to terms with the characters emotions. We see the slow cut rate when we cut from the shots and the titles seen above with the use of a slow blur.