Representation is a very big part of film and TV. Different groups are represented in different ways with different messages brought across. In our thriller opening there isn't really a strong example of representation, however, you could say that our thriller represents the general population of the UK as it is set in the UK and shows the vulnerability of people regular, un-vaccinated who come into contact with a water-borne disease.
We have represented the general population of the UK in a positive way; the NHS staff were helpful and efficient and there was a voice-over of a man who was very worried about his mother; this shows the caring attitudes of many people of the UK.
We did have an idea that didn;t make it into the final cut; we were going to show a conversation between government officials who were trying to cover up the disease and accept no responsibility for it. This represents the elite of the UK in a negative light and represents the distrust that many regular people of the UK have for them and is reminiscent of what we often see in real media (e.g. on the news, internet and in newspapers).
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Q6 - Evaluation
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Evaluation 7: Looking back at you 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 we have learnt so much more on how to create a visually interesting media product. At the time we did our preliminary task, we had no real previous experience in creating a media product from scratch. We had done a re-make of collateral, but when it came to creating something completely new, we were completely clueless and new to the experience.
However, the preliminary task was what gave us the experience to go on to create our thriller opening. We learnt more about camera angles and techniques (e.g. Dolly-zoom), mise en scene (e.g. how to do make-up). Our location was a lot better and fitting to our storyline (unlike in our prelim where we just used the only space that was available to us). Even small things like lighting made massive improvements from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening. All these things contributed to making our thriller opening much better and more professional-looking than our preliminary work was.
Also, from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening, we got a lot better at editing (e.g. got better at match-cutting and the 180-degree rule which didn't really work out in prelim due to lack of space in our filming location), and learnt a lot more about techniques in Final Cut Pro and how to edit footage effectively and creatively (I feel our prelim was just standard editing to piece footage together without any real creativity involved). In our preliminary work, we did not add any sounds, we just used what was in the footage. However, in our final thriller opening, we learnt how to use Soundtrack Pro to add sound which makes the media product a lot more professional-looking and interesting for the audience.
At the time of our preliminary work, we also had no knowledge of title sequences, which are of course integral to any film opening. However, once we started our thriller opening, we had learnt about title sequences (e.g. the conventional order of the titles) and knew how to creatively and effectively create a title sequence to add into our footage.
I also feel that our thriller opening is a lot more creative than our preliminary work; we learnt how to create more interesting storylines using storyboards, and although I feel we had very little time to come up with an idea for our thriller opening, it was a lot more well thought-out and interesting than our preliminary storyline was.
However, the preliminary task was what gave us the experience to go on to create our thriller opening. We learnt more about camera angles and techniques (e.g. Dolly-zoom), mise en scene (e.g. how to do make-up). Our location was a lot better and fitting to our storyline (unlike in our prelim where we just used the only space that was available to us). Even small things like lighting made massive improvements from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening. All these things contributed to making our thriller opening much better and more professional-looking than our preliminary work was.
Also, from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening, we got a lot better at editing (e.g. got better at match-cutting and the 180-degree rule which didn't really work out in prelim due to lack of space in our filming location), and learnt a lot more about techniques in Final Cut Pro and how to edit footage effectively and creatively (I feel our prelim was just standard editing to piece footage together without any real creativity involved). In our preliminary work, we did not add any sounds, we just used what was in the footage. However, in our final thriller opening, we learnt how to use Soundtrack Pro to add sound which makes the media product a lot more professional-looking and interesting for the audience.
At the time of our preliminary work, we also had no knowledge of title sequences, which are of course integral to any film opening. However, once we started our thriller opening, we had learnt about title sequences (e.g. the conventional order of the titles) and knew how to creatively and effectively create a title sequence to add into our footage.
I also feel that our thriller opening is a lot more creative than our preliminary work; we learnt how to create more interesting storylines using storyboards, and although I feel we had very little time to come up with an idea for our thriller opening, it was a lot more well thought-out and interesting than our preliminary storyline was.
Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the production of our thriller opening we have used many technologies from camera equipment to computer programs.
The main computer programs we used were Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. We used the technologies in combination with each other to construct our film opening. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the footage, and Soundtrack Pro to create the music. We then used Final Cut Pro to layer the music on top of the footage.
I learned may things about both programs, here are some of the things I learnt about Final Cut Pro:
- Has high-quality rendering which makes it possible to compute realistic effects.
- Has iMovie support, the two programs are very compatible.
- You can imported layered Photoshop graphics (good for titles).
- Auto-Analysis uses people detection to determine if there is a single person or multiple people in the shot. This information is used to automatically organize shots into Smart Collections. The program then flags shots as close-up, medium, or wide, then organizes them into Smart Collections by type of shot.
The main computer programs we used were Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. We used the technologies in combination with each other to construct our film opening. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the footage, and Soundtrack Pro to create the music. We then used Final Cut Pro to layer the music on top of the footage.
I learned may things about both programs, here are some of the things I learnt about Final Cut Pro:
- Has high-quality rendering which makes it possible to compute realistic effects.
- Has iMovie support, the two programs are very compatible.
- You can imported layered Photoshop graphics (good for titles).
- Auto-Analysis uses people detection to determine if there is a single person or multiple people in the shot. This information is used to automatically organize shots into Smart Collections. The program then flags shots as close-up, medium, or wide, then organizes them into Smart Collections by type of shot.
- Analyses your media in the background to identify shaky footage. You can then apply the Stabilization effect. For additional control, you can adjust parameters manually.
- Gets rid of image distortion from quick movements. Can automatically make corrections.
- Can analyse the colour of clips on a frame-by-frame basis to produce superior results when you use the single-click Balance Color feature. The color correction is optimized for the specific frames you’ve selected.
- Can analyse and fix audio problems e.g. excessive noise.
- Can analyse and fix audio problems e.g. excessive noise.
My conclusion about the usefulness and creativity of technologies is that the technologies are useful in allowing you to be creative when creating a media product. Without these technologies, we would not have been able to create our media product, and because the technologies were so useful, we were able to show creativity and make our media product how we wanted it to be. However, sometimes the technologies are not always easy to use as they are very complex, professional programs which are quite hard for a media student to figure out how to use by themselves without never being shown and having no prior knowledge of the technologies. I found this the biggest struggle when using the programs. Also, sometimes you are limited a bit on exactly what you want to do and are not always in complete control of what your media product is going to look like, for example, you cannot just create your own imaginative transitions, you have to choose from whatever is available in Final Cut Pro, and in Soundtrack Pro, you are limited on what the music will sound like as you can only choose from the sounds available in the program.
Q7 - Evaluation
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience with the name of the film; Pathogen as it is short, snappy and catchy and we felt that this would make it attractive to a teenage/young-adult audience.
We also used mise en scene to attract our audience. The clothes that the main character wore were just normal, average pyjamas that a regular teenager/young-adult watching the film would likely wear. This makes the film feel 'normal' and makes the audience feel like they can identify with it and feel like it mirrors their own lives, which would make it appealing to them. The same goes for our location; it is a normal London house, not a gigantic Hollywood mansion that many of our viewers would not be able to identify with.
The main character (who was the only character in our opening) was a normal English teenager, much like our audience would be. Again, they would be able to identify with her normal life, making the storyline more shocking when she collapses due to the very abnormal water she drinks.
Our rough-cut feedback helped us to improve our film in order to give it better appeal to our intended audience. As a lot of the people who gave us feedback were representative of our target audience (English teenagers/young-adults), it was particularly helpful because they gave us feedback on what they would like to see and what would appeal to them. Their feedback was extremely valuable information and we took it all on board and added some improvements to our final cut of our thriller opening.
We have reached our audience through word of mouth because I feel that there is nothing more valuable than that; if you are recommended something by a friend, you are much more likely to try it out than if you were told to by a pushy advertisement or Facebook page. Word of mouth makes the advertising personal, and friends know what other friends like and so a recommendation makes all the difference. Also, I feel that this is the best way to specifically target our audience because if there is one thing teens and young-adults all collectively like to do, it's talk. Teens and young-adults talk all the time about everything and so films are often the topic of conversation with this age-group, and talking spreads like wild-fire.
We also used mise en scene to attract our audience. The clothes that the main character wore were just normal, average pyjamas that a regular teenager/young-adult watching the film would likely wear. This makes the film feel 'normal' and makes the audience feel like they can identify with it and feel like it mirrors their own lives, which would make it appealing to them. The same goes for our location; it is a normal London house, not a gigantic Hollywood mansion that many of our viewers would not be able to identify with.
The main character (who was the only character in our opening) was a normal English teenager, much like our audience would be. Again, they would be able to identify with her normal life, making the storyline more shocking when she collapses due to the very abnormal water she drinks.
Our rough-cut feedback helped us to improve our film in order to give it better appeal to our intended audience. As a lot of the people who gave us feedback were representative of our target audience (English teenagers/young-adults), it was particularly helpful because they gave us feedback on what they would like to see and what would appeal to them. Their feedback was extremely valuable information and we took it all on board and added some improvements to our final cut of our thriller opening.
We have reached our audience through word of mouth because I feel that there is nothing more valuable than that; if you are recommended something by a friend, you are much more likely to try it out than if you were told to by a pushy advertisement or Facebook page. Word of mouth makes the advertising personal, and friends know what other friends like and so a recommendation makes all the difference. Also, I feel that this is the best way to specifically target our audience because if there is one thing teens and young-adults all collectively like to do, it's talk. Teens and young-adults talk all the time about everything and so films are often the topic of conversation with this age-group, and talking spreads like wild-fire.
Evaluation - Q7
Over the filming process, we learned how to: use a camera and miscellaneous equipment; use Final Cut Pro to edit our footage; create non-dietetic music using Soundtrack Pro and create idents using Motion.As a massive fan of conspiracy thrillers – my favourite films being Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Trilogy – when looking back to the planning process, it was easy to think of an action-thriller scenario. However, I wanted to step out of the generic norms held by the majority of modern action-thriller films and add a mystery element to our opening. Having seen Contagion recently, I thought the conventions of a medical emergency film made this newly profound concept of mine bold and interesting – the outbreak of a deadly virus from the city’s water system. Also linking to our research - we used a convenient location e.g. Cara's house as oppose to using a shady location commonly used in horrors. It was easily accessible, relatively close to the college and big enough to film.
Though pre-production for this film was simple, there were many flaws to it. Switching on a camera may be easy but achieving continuity was definitely a challenge. We had to ensure we made a five-second-gap before/after capturing dialogue or movement. There was also the tedious process of filming the same scene two or three times over – something we failed to do for our pre-lim. Looking back at our pre-lim, our picture was delayed and we missed out the top-third of Deborah's face, on occasions. There was also missing sound and the short spray of light-exposure at the beginning of each shot which made life difficult. However, considering the fact we had one lesson to film this, it was adequate enough to present to our peers. Furthermore, we learned from our mistakes and amended a great deal of our filming techniques. However, though some would argue that one of our shots was out of focus, this was deliberately done to reinforce her ill-state.
Composing the storyboard, unlike the challenges of the pre-production, was a more successful task – Cara’s house was the ideal location. We had thought of a vast range of angles and shot types, for example, wide shot, match-cut and extreme close-up Our uniques shot, however, was a first-person POV. We added the video-effect 'Earthquake' to make the shot look surreal. On the other hand, when it came to shooting the rough-cut, the lighting was extremely poor due to the adverse weather conditions outside: the top light only made it look cosmetic. We were able to amend this by re-filming large chunks of the opening. Even though this gave us less time to edit, we still had something presentable to import onto Final Cut Pro. I also think the constructive criticism for our rough-cut was far too nice: critiques thought the concept was good, the shots were acceptable, meaning that the film was fine enough to present without sound and titles although when it came round to editing our final-cut, we incorporated titles from a 3D template on Final Cut Pro. Deborah also made respiratory sounds created using Soundtrack Pro. This was good as it gave the audience an insight into how bad Cara's situation was. For our post-production, we have uploaded our film opening to Vimeo and are awaiting reviews from our target audience.
Overall, I'm please with the way our film has gone, considering the lack of commitment from one person in our group whose name shall not be mentioned, I think we've definitely 'raised the bar' from our prelim in terms of technology as well as maturity. Just by adding idents, and our own soundtrack, there is no excuse for lack of innovation. Not being billed as your conventional thriller, I think it's an interaction viewers will enjoy to be a part of.
The video embedded below is a montage of still shots taken from both our prelim and our final cut. There's a real difference in quality.
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