My Response :
We discussed that although we had an English film (criteria from BFI) it did have a more Hollywood theme running throughout. Therefore we decided that bigger conglomerate film institution would be more likely to distribute our film as the story line is very Hollywood and therefore has mass appeal to global/ wider audiences
Group Response:
Friday, 2 May 2014
Evaluation: Who would be the Audience for your media product?
The genre for our film opening was horror with the element of gore and a sub genre of psychological thriller. Therefore, i think our film as a whole has a very American/ Hollywood story line, even though it will be considered British film due to BFI'S criteria. This may make it appealing to a global audience due to the American feel that it has.In view of this, we decided that our audience would be British with hopes that it would spread globally to America.
We decided that we would like our film to appeal to both gender as we thought that both males and females would enjoy this type of film. However, we did discuss what type of females would like this film, in particular females who like horror films. We appealed to both male and females by using a female protagonist. This attracts females as they are more likely put themselves in the shoes of the main character creating sympathy for them, we also attracted the males by using a younger girl. We conformed to a few stereotypes to ensure that males would like this film, an example of this would be that we put the main character in a black short lace dress thus showing her 'provocative' side and giving her the 'sex appeal'.
Although the age range for our film will be 18+ due to the mount of gore we have in the opening sequence , it is unlikely that anyone over the age of 40/50 will be in the demographic to watch this film, as this age range is not usually interested in this genre of film. I feel as though our intended audience might not be our actually audience as some generations who our outside of our demographic may be very interested in this particular genre of horror and therefore might watch it. Also, we might have intended for our audience to be British, but considering the story line itself has an american feel to, then Americans may want to watch it. Overall i think our film has the potential to have global audiences
We decided that we would like our film to appeal to both gender as we thought that both males and females would enjoy this type of film. However, we did discuss what type of females would like this film, in particular females who like horror films. We appealed to both male and females by using a female protagonist. This attracts females as they are more likely put themselves in the shoes of the main character creating sympathy for them, we also attracted the males by using a younger girl. We conformed to a few stereotypes to ensure that males would like this film, an example of this would be that we put the main character in a black short lace dress thus showing her 'provocative' side and giving her the 'sex appeal'.
Although the age range for our film will be 18+ due to the mount of gore we have in the opening sequence , it is unlikely that anyone over the age of 40/50 will be in the demographic to watch this film, as this age range is not usually interested in this genre of film. I feel as though our intended audience might not be our actually audience as some generations who our outside of our demographic may be very interested in this particular genre of horror and therefore might watch it. Also, we might have intended for our audience to be British, but considering the story line itself has an american feel to, then Americans may want to watch it. Overall i think our film has the potential to have global audiences
Evaluation: How did you attract/ Address your audience ?
My Written Response :
We Wanted our film to be as realistic as possible for our audience to really engage with the film. Although our story line is quite dramatic we used other ways to attract our target audience. We made our victim of our our film a young teenage girl, this really related to our intended audience as they were between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. By using a young girl it created sympathy from the audience as they were able to put them selves into the characters shoes. To appeal to both genders our film,as well as having a young girl, we also had the element of gore which would attract both the male and female genders. We included this modern day crime with gore and thriller as we thought it would most appeal to our target audience.
Group Response :
We Wanted our film to be as realistic as possible for our audience to really engage with the film. Although our story line is quite dramatic we used other ways to attract our target audience. We made our victim of our our film a young teenage girl, this really related to our intended audience as they were between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. By using a young girl it created sympathy from the audience as they were able to put them selves into the characters shoes. To appeal to both genders our film,as well as having a young girl, we also had the element of gore which would attract both the male and female genders. We included this modern day crime with gore and thriller as we thought it would most appeal to our target audience.
Group Response :
Evaluation : What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.
I have learnt many things when constructing our final product. I have learnt that without some of these technologies we would be unable to distribute it the way we did. An example of this is Digitisation , this process allowed us to become a small independent British company that was able to screen our product globally attracting a larger and wider demographic. Digitisation has allowed us to not only upload our final piece, but also our 1st and 2nd shots to YouTube so that the whole world has now got access to our film opening. By putting our 1st and 2nd cuts onto YouTube we were to not only see our improvements each time, but also who would be more interested in watching our final cut, especially due to our very American story line and now that it is on YouTube everyone, no matter where in the world, can view it for free. This was important for us to do because our story line is so stereotypically American we needed them to view it as it would most likely relate to them.
Another thing that we have learnt through this process is that technology has enabled us to film using the DSLR camera.Not only did this camera enable us to watch back shots that we had just shot but also enabled us to re film some scenes we were not happy with, something that wouldn't have been possible to do with film reels as this would have cost so much to do. The DSLR camera improved the quality of our film as a whole and we were able to change focus on the different size lenses depending in what we wanted each shot to look like, e.g. when the camera is in the P.O.V of the girl,the doctors face was blurred, thus creating tension and enigma for our audience.Furthermore the use of the DSLR camera has enabled us to export it quickly and sufficiently into cutting software such as Final Cut Pro. This software has allowed us to make our film opening more cinematic and much more professional, we were able to cut shots and then undo them if we were not happy with it, something film could never have done. We were able to play around with what worked best and finding tools within the software that could do different effects which really added to the feeling of the piece as a whole.Without the development of technologies in the last 20 years, this process wouldn't of let us make some of the mistakes we did and change them as easily as we did.
By using both the DSLR camera and Final Cut Pro we managed to create a high stranded film opening and by incorporating the internet such as YouTube this has allowed us to distribute it globally to a wider audience
I have learnt throughout this process of constructing this product that the things we did with very little trouble wouldn't have been possible without these technologies we have in modern day society. Technology is always changing and perhaps in years to come they will see the way we did our film making as 'old fashioned' and no longer a desired process to take, like how film these days is in very little use. Without these technologies we wouldn't of had the DSLR cameras which made filming so much easier, the editing software we used also helped a lot with this process as we were able to go back on any mistakes that we had made and change them instantly. overall I think Digitisation has helped us the most, we haven't had to make any hard copies of the film yet the whole world has access to it as it is on YouTube. Technology has helped us to develop our film further into the standard in which we wanted.
Saturday, 26 April 2014
Horror film analysis
The Shinning
The Shinning is a British/American psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and Scatman Crothers. The Film is based on Stephen Kings novel with the same name.
The film follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a writer and recovering alcoholic, who takes the job of a caretaker in an isolated Hotel called the Overlook during the winter months while it is closed. His young son possesses psychic abilities and is able to see things from the past and future, such as ghosts who inhabit the hotel, he has 'The Shinning' hence the tittle of the film.Soon after settling in, the family becomes trapped by a snow storm, and jack gradually influenced by a supernatural presence; he descends into madness and tries to murder his wife and son using a axe.
The Shinning is listed among the greatest horror films and some even say its the greatest horror films of all time
The Shinning is a British/American psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and Scatman Crothers. The Film is based on Stephen Kings novel with the same name.
The film follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a writer and recovering alcoholic, who takes the job of a caretaker in an isolated Hotel called the Overlook during the winter months while it is closed. His young son possesses psychic abilities and is able to see things from the past and future, such as ghosts who inhabit the hotel, he has 'The Shinning' hence the tittle of the film.Soon after settling in, the family becomes trapped by a snow storm, and jack gradually influenced by a supernatural presence; he descends into madness and tries to murder his wife and son using a axe.
The Shinning is listed among the greatest horror films and some even say its the greatest horror films of all time
Director analysis 2
John Carpenter
John Carpenter (born January 16th, 1948) is an American director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer. Although he was worked in many different genre throughout his career, he is best associated with horror and science fiction films from the 1970's and 1980's.
Carpenter is well known for his lighting,photography, statistic camera, use of Steadicam and his distinctive self composed work.
When filming he prefers to use the 35mm panavision anamorphic format as he feels that this gives the best feel to his films. Carpenter is also known for his love of widescreen filming, using the aspect ratio of 2:35:1 or greater in many of his films
His best known work is Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982) as well as many other films
Below is the original trailer for Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter (born January 16th, 1948) is an American director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer. Although he was worked in many different genre throughout his career, he is best associated with horror and science fiction films from the 1970's and 1980's.
Carpenter is well known for his lighting,photography, statistic camera, use of Steadicam and his distinctive self composed work.
When filming he prefers to use the 35mm panavision anamorphic format as he feels that this gives the best feel to his films. Carpenter is also known for his love of widescreen filming, using the aspect ratio of 2:35:1 or greater in many of his films
His best known work is Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982) as well as many other films
Below is the original trailer for Halloween (1978)
What have I learnt through the whole proccess
Pre Production Stage
As a team, we learnt just how important this stage is, not only for organizing everything, but also when filming. Without the amount of planning and hard work we put into this stage, we wouldn't have got the standards we wanted and achieved on the day of filming. I have also learnt that it is vital to work as a team in this stage, making sure if you have completed anything on your own that you check back with other members of the team t make sure they are happy with it as well, like we did with our script, this may take more time than expected but I have learnt that it makes a big difference in the long run. Our pre production packs also made a huge difference to production and editing stage of the task, they made it possible to run as smoothly as possible and this wouldn't have happened if we hadn't put as much effort in carefully planning everything.
Production Stage
We used everything from our pre production stage to carry this out, making sure we followed it exactly so that we didn't miss anything out. We made sure when doing pre production that we included everything for the production stage even down to what kind of focus we wanted the tools to be in our production stage, so when it came to it we only had to look at it and who knew exactly what we were doing at each step. I learnt a lot from this stage, making sure i listened to everyone in the team with their ideas. Also with the actors, just in case they were unsure of what was happening, I could give them some direction as I had wrote the script and knew what we were looking for with each scene. This gave us the confidence to know that we had achieved a very good standard of film footage, and we were ready to go straight into the next stage of the task.
Post Production Stage
This Stage helped me develop my skills further from what i had learnt from our Preliminary Task. Many of the skills i had learnt from the Preliminary task were basic, and so this stage help me understand the software more as i was doing more cuts, adding in music and making sure it fitted, we also added in tittles which increased both my knowledge and my skills in this area. I was able to make daring changes and was able to make more decisions about which shot fitted best, I was also able to go back if i didn't like a cut as i was getting more confident with the software.
One piece of software that i hadn't used in the preliminary task was colour grading. This allows you to transfer you piece from Final Cut Pro onto the colour grading software on the Apple Mac's and change the main colours in your film giving it a different feel and effect. Due to our film being in the horror genre, we wanted more colder colours, therefore we added more blue and dull tones to give it this feel. This also made other colours stand out a lot more, such as the red from the blood. It gave it a much deeper red colour which made it look more realistic unlike the pink red colour the fake blood had. We decided that we would colour grade our film once it was finished as this gave us time to sort out each scene instead of having to keep going back each time to colour grade a scene at a time. Once we were happy with the colours we had for one scene, the software allows you to save that and add it to every scene so that you don't get different colours each time and so that we had continuity throughout. This was an important skill we learnt in the stage as it gave the overall feel a more cinematic look instead of a piece filmed at home. I learnt a lot from this stage, i learnt new skills which will help with future task, i have also become more confident in the software and how to use it more effectively.
After completing all three stages of our main task, i am pleased with what we have achieved. I now feel the majority of the questions we asked at the end of our Preliminary task i can answer (Shown Below). Such as 'How do you colour grade', from completing this task i feel as though i can now answer this question, as we did decided to colour grade our final cut of our film to give it the cold look we were going for. Also i can now answer 'How do i add music onto Final Cut Pro' as we also did this several times throughout our cuts to make sure it sounded better each time.
Questions form after Preliminary task
How do i colour grade?
how do I add music onto Final Cut Pro?
How to create a voice over on Final Cut Pro?
What is the main Production of a film?
how do you get special effects on final cut pro?
how to get a split screen effect on Final Cut Pro?
how to make a realistic script?
As a team, we learnt just how important this stage is, not only for organizing everything, but also when filming. Without the amount of planning and hard work we put into this stage, we wouldn't have got the standards we wanted and achieved on the day of filming. I have also learnt that it is vital to work as a team in this stage, making sure if you have completed anything on your own that you check back with other members of the team t make sure they are happy with it as well, like we did with our script, this may take more time than expected but I have learnt that it makes a big difference in the long run. Our pre production packs also made a huge difference to production and editing stage of the task, they made it possible to run as smoothly as possible and this wouldn't have happened if we hadn't put as much effort in carefully planning everything.
Production Stage
We used everything from our pre production stage to carry this out, making sure we followed it exactly so that we didn't miss anything out. We made sure when doing pre production that we included everything for the production stage even down to what kind of focus we wanted the tools to be in our production stage, so when it came to it we only had to look at it and who knew exactly what we were doing at each step. I learnt a lot from this stage, making sure i listened to everyone in the team with their ideas. Also with the actors, just in case they were unsure of what was happening, I could give them some direction as I had wrote the script and knew what we were looking for with each scene. This gave us the confidence to know that we had achieved a very good standard of film footage, and we were ready to go straight into the next stage of the task.
Post Production Stage
This Stage helped me develop my skills further from what i had learnt from our Preliminary Task. Many of the skills i had learnt from the Preliminary task were basic, and so this stage help me understand the software more as i was doing more cuts, adding in music and making sure it fitted, we also added in tittles which increased both my knowledge and my skills in this area. I was able to make daring changes and was able to make more decisions about which shot fitted best, I was also able to go back if i didn't like a cut as i was getting more confident with the software.
One piece of software that i hadn't used in the preliminary task was colour grading. This allows you to transfer you piece from Final Cut Pro onto the colour grading software on the Apple Mac's and change the main colours in your film giving it a different feel and effect. Due to our film being in the horror genre, we wanted more colder colours, therefore we added more blue and dull tones to give it this feel. This also made other colours stand out a lot more, such as the red from the blood. It gave it a much deeper red colour which made it look more realistic unlike the pink red colour the fake blood had. We decided that we would colour grade our film once it was finished as this gave us time to sort out each scene instead of having to keep going back each time to colour grade a scene at a time. Once we were happy with the colours we had for one scene, the software allows you to save that and add it to every scene so that you don't get different colours each time and so that we had continuity throughout. This was an important skill we learnt in the stage as it gave the overall feel a more cinematic look instead of a piece filmed at home. I learnt a lot from this stage, i learnt new skills which will help with future task, i have also become more confident in the software and how to use it more effectively.
After completing all three stages of our main task, i am pleased with what we have achieved. I now feel the majority of the questions we asked at the end of our Preliminary task i can answer (Shown Below). Such as 'How do you colour grade', from completing this task i feel as though i can now answer this question, as we did decided to colour grade our final cut of our film to give it the cold look we were going for. Also i can now answer 'How do i add music onto Final Cut Pro' as we also did this several times throughout our cuts to make sure it sounded better each time.
Questions form after Preliminary task
How do i colour grade?
how do I add music onto Final Cut Pro?
How to create a voice over on Final Cut Pro?
What is the main Production of a film?
how do you get special effects on final cut pro?
how to get a split screen effect on Final Cut Pro?
how to make a realistic script?
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