Group: Key Tasks

FINAL CUT OF FILM

PRELIMINARY TASK

ANIMATIC

WILDERNESS WOODS FOOTAGE

LOCATION RECCIE

http://twgsbmedia12asgroup1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/jc-location-ideas.html

 

THE PITCH

AUDIENCE RESEARCH & FEEDBACK

1) THE PITCH AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
http://twgsbmedia12asgroup1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/group-audience-feedback-on-pitch.html

2) ROUGH CUT

After we had filmed, we created a rough-cut version of the opening and previewed it to our class. We gained good feedback from this such as trimming down the duration of some of the shots. This helped us to make final improvements to our opening before the final cut screening.

Here is our rough cut:

3) FINAL CUT

When showing the final product, we distributed questionnaires to a small audience which asked them about many things including what they thought of the special effects we used, the soundtrack and also the choice of location.

Our audience feedback was predominantly very good. Many people were impressed by the use of CGI and the soundtracks. Also, a lot of people thought that the opening built up a lot of tension, which was sustained and created a cliff-hanger effect at the end. The main piece of constructive criticism we received was that the infected person who appears in the opening did not have realistic make-up, which we also agree with, and feel that we could have spent more time researching how to create simple prosthetics and other forms of make-up to give our opening more verisimilitude.

After screening our opening sequence, we interviewed a few people to attain their initial reactions and thoughts.

MC: Evaluation

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

Fullscreen Above

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Please Fullscreen Above

6.  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making your film opening?

Please Fullscreen Above

GROUP QUESTIONS:
QUESTIONS 4 & 5

Our target audience for this film is 16-24 year old males, this has also proved to be realistic target, as the demographic for our film opening on YouTube shows that roughly 75% of the views were from the predicted age group and gender.

Our protagonist appeals to the audience because he challenges the ideologies of other main characters seen in films of the same genre for example:

- He is an introverted teenager who the audience could relate to more than an exaggerated, trigger-happy, older character, as seen in 'Zombieland' (Fleisher, 2009).
- He is resourceful and vigilant as he uses his knowledge to escape from the infected rather than facing them with a gun or another weapon, as seen in '28 Days Later' (Boyle, 2002).

During the research we created an online survey and distributed it to people in the target audience. The results we gained from this helped us develop our ideas according to what people found most interesting about horror-thriller films.

After we had filmed, we created a rough-cut version of the opening and previewed it to our class. We gained good feedback from this such as trimming down the duration of some of the shots. This helped us to make final improvements to our opening before the final cut screening.

When showing the final product, we distributed questionnaires to a small audience which asked them about many things including what they thought of the special effects we used, the soundtrack and also the choice of location.

Our audience feedback was predominantly very good. Many people were impressed by the use of CGI and the soundtracks. Also, a lot of people thought that the opening built up a lot of tension, which was sustained and created a cliff-hanger effect at the end. The main piece of constructive criticism we received was that the infected person who appears in the opening did not have realistic make-up, which we also agree with, and feel that we could have spent more time researching how to create simple prosthetics and other forms of make-up to give our opening more verisimilitude.

After screening our opening sequence, we interviewed a few people to attain their initial reactions and thoughts.

QUESTION 7



JC: Evaluation

QUESTIONS 1 & 2 

http://prezi.com/hfdh2qhnlk3t/jake-card-group-1-media-evaluation/

QUESTION 3

Jake Card Evaluation question 3

View more presentations or Upload your own.

QUESTION 6

Jake Card Evaluation Question 6

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GROUP QUESTIONS:

QUESTIONS 4 & 5

Our target audience for this film is 16-24 year old males, this has also proved to be realistic target, as the demographic for our film opening on YouTube shows that roughly 75% of the views were from the predicted age group and gender.

Our protagonist appeals to the audience because he challenges the ideologies of other main characters seen in films of the same genre for example:

- He is an introverted teenager who the audience could relate to more than an exaggerated, trigger-happy, older character, as seen in 'Zombieland' (Fleisher, 2009).
- He is resourceful and vigilant as he uses his knowledge to escape from the infected rather than facing them with a gun or another weapon, as seen in '28 Days Later' (Boyle, 2002).

During the research we created an online survey and distributed it to people in the target audience. The results we gained from this helped us develop our ideas according to what people found most interesting about horror-thriller films.

After we had filmed, we created a rough-cut version of the opening and previewed it to our class. We gained good feedback from this such as trimming down the duration of some of the shots. This helped us to make final improvements to our opening before the final cut screening.

When showing the final product, we distributed questionnaires to a small audience which asked them about many things including what they thought of the special effects we used, the soundtrack and also the choice of location.

Our audience feedback was predominantly very good. Many people were impressed by the use of CGI and the soundtracks. Also, a lot of people thought that the opening built up a lot of tension, which was sustained and created a cliff-hanger effect at the end. The main piece of constructive criticism we received was that the infected person who appears in the opening did not have realistic make-up, which we also agree with, and feel that we could have spent more time researching how to create simple prosthetics and other forms of make-up to give our opening more verisimilitude.

After screening our opening sequence, we interviewed a few people to attain their initial reactions and thoughts.

QUESTION 7

JP: Evaluation

After completing the planning, filming, production & post-production of Nine Mile Point, I have evaluated the opening with four individual questions. Then as a group we have answered three questions referring to target audience and a final reflection on the progression from the preliminary task to our final film.

Click the image below to be linked to Questions 1, 2, 3 & 6 on a SlideRocket online presentation. (Please view in fullscreen as some of the writing is quite small).

GROUP QUESTIONS:

QUESTIONS 4 & 5

Our target audience for this film is 16-24 year old males, this has also proved to be realistic target, as the demographic for our film opening on YouTube shows that roughly 75% of the views were from the predicted age group and gender.

Our protagonist appeals to the audience because he challenges the ideologies of other main characters seen in films of the same genre for example:

- He is an introverted teenager who the audience could relate to more than an exaggerated, trigger-happy, older character, as seen in 'Zombieland' (Fleisher, 2009).
- He is resourceful and vigilant as he uses his knowledge to escape from the infected rather than facing them with a gun or another weapon, as seen in '28 Days Later' (Boyle, 2002).

During the research we created an online survey and distributed it to people in the target audience. The results we gained from this helped us develop our ideas according to what people found most interesting about horror-thriller films.

After we had filmed, we created a rough-cut version of the opening and previewed it to our class. We gained good feedback from this such as trimming down the duration of some of the shots. This helped us to make final improvements to our opening before the final cut screening.

When showing the final product, we distributed questionnaires to a small audience which asked them about many things including what they thought of the special effects we used, the soundtrack and also the choice of location.

Our audience feedback was predominantly very good. Many people were impressed by the use of CGI and the soundtracks. Also, a lot of people thought that the opening built up a lot of tension, which was sustained and created a cliff-hanger effect at the end. The main piece of constructive criticism we received was that the infected person who appears in the opening did not have realistic make-up, which we also agree with, and feel that we could have spent more time researching how to create simple prosthetics and other forms of make-up to give our opening more verisimilitude.

After screening our opening sequence, we interviewed a few people to attain their initial reactions and thoughts.

QUESTION 7

INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTION LOG

Click the image below to be linked to a 'Final Reflections' SlideRocket online presentation featuring a production log about what I have learnt from the use of technologies when producing our final opening.

Group: Nine Mile Point - Final Opening

MC: Chase Scene Finalised Soundtrack (Video)

Group: 2nd Film Shoot Reflection

On Sunday 11th March, we went to our carpark location in Tunbridge Wells, for the second shoot. 

We experienced a continuity error of  the weather, but found that due to the full lit circumstances we could colour correct the footage to give the impression of the previous overcast shots.

On arrival to the car park, we met a number of friends with longboards. Therefore, we took plenty of effective handycam tracking shots to enable a final chase scene. We now have multitple shots to choose from, so we will be able to select the ones which we think are the best. We will also be able to have a fast cutting rate and a range of angles in our opening.

Again, we maintained the continuity techniques in our second shooting, and we all feel that every shot has a substancial amount of action at the start and the end, so when we edit all of the footage, there will hopefully be flowing movement between the shots.

Group: Nine Mile Point Teaser Trailer

Just for fun, we edited together a very quick teaser trailer for the opening of 'Nine Mile Point'!

Group: First Film Shoot Reflection

On Friday 2nd of March, we signed out the equipment and travelled to our location in Tunbridge Wells. When we got there we carefully set up the equipment such as the tripod, dolly and track.


We shot about half of the opening - up to the shot where the protagonist (Jack Lyle) looks over at the city, noticing the power plant (Nine Mile Point) that has caused the epidemic to spread throughout the United Kingdom.


We found the dolly shots incredibly effective and the camera track made the footage look very cinematic.


We conquered the problems we had previously encountered with continuity from our preliminary task, and ended up doing about 5 takes for each shot to ensure we had the perfect one.


To conclude, we all learnt a lot from the shoot, and were very happy with the footage we came away with that day.

Group: Animatic Storyboard

Below is our final Animatic.

Research & Planning - interim grade

Well done, this blog consistently demonstrates excellence in understanding of forms and conventions, media language, significance of audience and you engage with key concepts throughout your research. You are clearly collaborating as a group, using comment function and your practice tasks show that you are using research to develop technical skills. The pitch was convincing and thorough. The blog is well presented and a clear record of your concept development. I'm particularly impressed with the work that you did on sound.

This is currently a high L4 standard for all of you. Keep up the good work, ensure that you reflect on the production process to the end of the edit.

Great work.

Group: Improved Soundtrack

This is a new version of the soundtrack which we created using music production software. We feel that this is more fitting to the genre of our opening, and will greatly increase the sense of enigma we are trying to create.
We also feel that the sounds we used in this new soundtrack will give the actions on screen a greater impact, as music can have a strong effect on events which take place in a film.

Group: Pitch Reflection

We presented our pitch in the hope of gaining the green light; and we did !

Strengths

- We demonstrated a good use of IT skills by using the presentation site Prezi to make the pitch delivery more interesting and exciting
- We presented the pitch well, reading clearly and informatively; expanding on points to ensure full understanding. Points were compressed into many informative sections.
- We embeded multiple relevant clips reinforcing ideas that we expressed (slow-motion video expressing Twixtor aims)
- Graphics were clearly presented during the Prezi to outline font choices 

Weaknesses

- It was not clear in the pitch what the actual opening sequence would look like; finalised
- Occassionally, we did not speak with clear annunciation and did not adress the audience directly

Group: First Film Shoot

Date:
Our first film shoot will take place on Friday 2nd March from 13:00 - 18:00.

Equipment:
We are using our own camera (Canon EOS 550D) to shoot our opening and we will therefore not need to sign out the school camera.
We will need to sign out a tripod because we don't have our own one and we need establishing shots on our first shoot.
We need to sign out the dolly to achieve steady tracking shots in the first part of our opening.
We will also need to make sure we take our group's SD card from the school to record the footage onto.

Props & Costume:
The necessary props for our first shoot are the sleeping bag to show the protagonist is sleeping rough, and a rucksack for his belongings.
As for the costume for our first film shoot, we will need dark coloured, casual clothes and either boots or casual shoes for the protagonist to wear.

Actors:
As we are just shooting the scene when the protagonist awakes, we will not need to have actors to play infected people. We will only need the actor playing Jack Lyle.

Group: Audience Feedback on the Pitch

Approved Ideas

- Detail on storyboard

It was easy to visualise the exact shots we wanted to achieve due to the picture sketched on the storyboard & the details written beneath each shot.

- Urban location

Again, the location was easy to visualise because most of the group had seen Misfits (Crowe, 2010) and understood the industrial look we are trying to achieve. The group also agreed that this was a very unique location which didn't follow the generic locations for horror openings (woods or fields at night).

- Informative pitch

The Prezi was informative, understandable and professional and really aided to visualising our opening and presenting our ideas and evaluations in an interesting way.

- Twixtor & Special FX

The group really enjoyed the example of the Twixtor video to present what it can do and how professional it can look. They also thought that the use of special effects would make the opening much more cinematic - more like a film and less like a media project.

Points to Consider

- Infected people

The group were unsure how we could differentiate the uninfected from the infected (the zombies from the protagonist). However we explained that we were going to make the eyes of the infected fully black as if they have incredibly large pupils and reiterated that we were going to use prosthetic make-up.

- Content

Is the content enough to set the scene and create a tense atmosphere? We are thinking about developing the plot further from just the protagonist waking up and moving on, and adding in a chase scene would definitely add to the tension.

- News Reports

How can we record the news reports to make them sound believable & professional? We are going to use the school studio to record many layers of reports and we will use different people to get varied reporter voices.

Group: The Pitch

Click the image above to view our prezi for the pitch.

Group: Soundtrack

This is our soundtrack that we created using editing software. We may or may not use this for our opening, but if we do we will cut it down to two minutes.

After thinking about whether to use the soundtrack or not, we have decided that despite this sounding professional, it would fit much more in the middle or end of a film, but not the opening. For these reasons we will either use no soundtrack or create a less dramatic soundtrack but using the same results from our audience research survey (orchestral).

Group: Wilderness Woods Reccie & Evaluation

Above are two clips containing the footage that we shot and experimented with at Wilderness Woods on our reccie.

Below are some photos that we took on the reccie.

Evaluation

• We went to Wilderness Woods in Uckfield, East Sussex on the 7th February.

• The purpose was to explore a range of shots and understand how effective each could be. We also discovered the use of the tripod, the track and the importance of a steady hand.

•  We took examples of: ECU, slow pan + pull focus, slow zoom out, slow pan left, 360 degree pan, two-shot conversation, canted angle and jump cuts. We also experimented with the use of multiple lenses (wide angle and fish-eye).

• We found using pull focus fairly easy to utilise, while finding it very effective. Moreover, we experimented with changing focus on each character’s face during a conversation; which we considered very successful. The slow pans deemed effective when the speed was maintained, and we will apply these skills while shooting our opening sequence.

• We experienced difficulty during shooting of the 360 degree pan. This long shot required a consistent speed throughout the entire pan and this was challenging to maintain. During the pull focus techniques, we experienced difficultly in demonstrating it. This was due to the small depth of field on the camera, bringing about a shallow focus. However, we will be using a Canon 550D with a manual focus that is easy to configure while filming. Furthermore, we might use a multitude of lenses with varying depth of field.

Group: Recorded Sound Effects

Here are some examples of sound effects that we created in the school recording studio which we will use in our film opening.

JC: Technical Analysis - 28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002

Group: Market Research Survey

Click the image below to go to our survey.

Group: Captioned Storyboard

Below are 6 iconic stills from our film opening sequence which we drew out onto a storyboard.

Group: Location Ideas & Location Reccie

Following our research of the Misfits episode (Crowe, 2010), we became inspired by the ways in which the layout of the location in the series varies significantly. Rather than a conventional, square sub-urban layout, the location in Misfits is made up of uneven flats and car parks. These varying levels of buildings make the series seem very cinematic and create more opportunities for characters' physical actions.

We all knew of similar places in Tunbridge Wells, which we then realised would be ideal for us to shoot in for a similar effect. We, as a group, visited three different car parks in the town and took pictures of suitable locations to capture scenes from our opening in.

One of our main criteria for our protagonist is to show that he is sleeping rough in a sub-urban setting. Therefore beginning the opening scene with him sleeping in a stairwell would denote this successfully, and also promote his trait as a good thinker, as he has chosen a high-up, safe place to rest.

Another idea we have has as a group is to have brief, establishing shots to show the audience the conditions of his location. Slow panning shots of stairwells and high viewpoints of the town around the car park will help us achieve this and also reinforce the bleak, lonely aura of the opening.

MC: Technical Analysis: What Lies Beneath (Zemicks, 2000)

The incredibly slow cutting rate induces extreme tension and upholds it. The audience are positioned with the character, and hold the same amount of dread and more ignorance to what is ‘around the corner’ as such. The first shot of the opening sequence is a steadycam LS and the female character (Clair) approaches the camera as she exits the bedroom. It backs away from this MS of her and goes around the corner. This sweeping camera move gives the connotations of swift, ghost-like movements, drawing connections with the supernatural force acting as an eerie spirit.

In this same shot, the steadycam stops near the entrance of the bathroom door. Clair approaches the camera cautiously and the camera (and audience) only follow until she has entered this steamy room. This upholds the tension of the extract. As a 90 degree pan around her and stops, the slight movement in the mirror is emphasised due to the static nature of the camera.
 The camera proceeds to peer into the bathtub, as she would. Seeing as this is the same take, the positioning is ahead of a POV shot. The unnatural nature of the multiple reflections of the woman in the bath give connotations this character is not alone, and possibly surrounded by others. The camera pans out and displays a CU reaction shot of the woman aimlessly peering around with a terrified expression. As she walks out, a shot displaying the character looking into the mirror at text that has formed due to condensation, it pans in to a CU to bring a climax to the extract.

 

I believe the extremely long first shot; dominating the majority of the extract displays fantastic tension building features. The way the opposite of dramatic irony is employed, and the audience remain ignorant as to the outcome of the protagonist is effective. Despite the slow moving camera and character, the cutting rate increases incredibly simultaneously to the mood of the protagonist. Fast, swooping tracking shots connote the panic and terror possessed by this character and give the impression of the supernatural force; allowing the audience to imagine what is next. The traits of this psychological thriller are evident and used successfully.

The energy of the etract is heightened in the next shot, as there is finally a cut. Furious scrabbling of her feet down the stairs connotes hysteria, and as the camera follows her round and left, the tracking shot displays her running manically. The combination of her hair flying around with her hands up connotes panic. The next shot is a up in to her face as she realised the computer is being controlled by a higher force and seemingly typing by itself.

Group: Concept Development

Treatment:
It was December 2014, and the nuclear power plant Nine Mile Point had a mass meltdown which subsequently caused a nuclear plague throughout the United Kingdom. The deadly virus spread and infected the majority of England’s population, causing people to flee the cities from the hoards of infected. Now, just over a year on in March 2016, the plague has spread further, and a survivor named Jack Lyle must leave his sub-urban hometown in hope of safety elsewhere.


Characters:
Jack Lyle (protagonist)
2 infected people (antagonists)

Props/costume:
For our protagonist (Lyle), ordinary, slightly old clothes will be suitable for this role. Dark themes such as grey and black will be present, to connote secrecy and concealment. However, being an independent, vigilante-like survivor he will be equipped with boots and possibly a knife. An alternate costume layout may be entirely ordinary clothes, (of a general dark colour) but with the addition of trainers in a slightly brighter colour. This contrasting costume may connote ordinarity of this character, giving the audience the impression he has survived this horrific ordeal with extreme whit alone. They would get the impression he is a 'normal guy', but with a seemingly superior mind.

Sound:
All diagetic dialogue of our sequence will be dubbed as we have access and knowledge to recording any vocals in the school recording studio. We will also be able to create skin-crawling sound FX of the primal ‘infected people’ by modifying voices with special effects. We feel that this will sound very professional as the level of white noise will be able to be controlled and edited with ease. We desire to have a neo-noir influence in our extract also, so experimenting with or with an absence of white noise could contribute effectively to this aspiration.
For the soundtrack, we have access to incredibly realistic orchestral sequencing software’s, and so a powerful non-diagetic soundtrack to our extract could be produced collaboratively; entirely by the group. Other sound effects to create tension can be added too; as well as purposeful attention to selective sound. Once again, with dubbing; breathing and other sounds could be recorded and later emphasised.

Location:
The main location of our opening sequence is in a Tunbridge Wells multi-story car park. This will give the whole opening an urban, industrial look as evident in Misfits Series 2, Episode 1 (Crowe, 2010). The majority of our opening scene will be shot in the car park located next to The Assembly Hall Theatre, however at certain points in the opening we will cut on action (for example Lyle - the protagonist - running round a corner) to a different car park. The main reason why we would shoot in 3 different car parks is because there are aspects of each car park we have visited that makes them unique. One carkpark is great for establishing shots, open spaces and views, the second looks old, desolate and deserted due to calcium stalegtites and moss on the walls giving a wide horizon of possible shots for example pull focus shots, and the third is very concealed with low cealings connoting claustrophobia.

Title/Font:
The title of the film is 'Nine Mile Point' - a real life nuclear power station in the United Kingdom. We aim to have the titles of the film (for example Director, Producer and Cast) fade in and out against a black background whilst layers of news report audio build up and up. The main title will be in capitals, with a fair amount of character spacing between the letters as in Brick (Johnson, 2010). We aim to have a simplistic font - similar to Brick's - in white lettering on a black background. There will be little animation on the title, if any it will be a minimal track in or out towards or away from the text.

N I N E   M I L E   P  O I N T