Final Post

Dear Diary,

This project has intoduced me well into the media A-level course and I have experienced and learnt lots of new things. I found things difficult and callenging at times but have been able to overcome these problems and create a resolution.
Before this project I had no idea how much planning, thinking and effort went into creating a film and now I understand that the process is long and there's many elements that you have to think about that I never would have known before.

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression from that to the final product?

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For our main product I have learnt how to use my camera to create the best photos and videos. The camera was a Canon EOS 100D which made our shots better quality than the one we used for the preliminary task. We started off filming our test shots using an iPhone and thought that we might film this for our main task but when put onto computers we found that there was a black border round the side. We then decided to use the canon camera as we thought this would look best when put onto the computers.



We used iMovie to edit our opening together, this worked best for our product as it was relatively easy to use and also had all the features we needed to create a low budget film. If we were to use software such as movie maker we wouldn’t have been able to edit the music in that programme and would have had to use a variety of different software that we didn’t have. We could do everything we needed to in that one software which really helped us as we had never really used editing software before. We did face some difficulties such as we imported the music into the video so we couldn’t edit it and then had to delete that and start again so the music was exactly how we wanted it.

We used YouTube to upload our videos and this sometimes turned out to cause problems also, this may be because the internet was down or YouTube was blocked so we couldn’t access it and just made everything take a little longer than planned.

Another difficulty we had was learning to use the camera, at first we used autofocus throughout our recording process and then realised that half of our footage wasn’t in focus and was unusable. We the decided to use manual focus for all shots as this allowed us to control what we were filming and wasn’t constantly going in and out of focus. This also stopped the noise of the camera when it autofocus which meant that we couldn’t have the ambient sounds we wanted as you could only hear the camera.

We also could not include certain shots we wanted to due to our low budget and lack of contacts, for example we wanted to include an aerial shot at the beginning however this was not something that we were able to do.

We found that for the last couple of shots we filmed the camera died which meant that we had to re schedule another day to film which made the whole process very time consuming and we couldn’t finish editing when we wanted to.

Another limitation we faced was that because our film was low budget we had to improvise with the lighting as when we reached some of our locations we realised that it was too dark and you couldn’t make out what was being filmed. We did have lights we could have used, however due to our location this was not ideal as they were too big and heavy to carry everywhere.

When we first started this project we thought that it would take a short amount of time to complete, we then found that this was not the fact and we had to re-film multiple times which was a very long process. This was only for the opening of a film so now I understand that just the filming process of creating this type of product takes a long time and that they then have to edit which is why it takes so long to create a film.

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you address/attract your audience?

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

easel.ly

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Question 1 from jessbaker90

Institution Research

http://www.slideshare.net/JessBaker6/institution-research-61118171

Halloween (1978) Opening Analysis Research

The film 'Halloween' is a famous 1970's thriller/horror which was very successul and is very well known.There seems to be a slight focus on the pumpkin used on the porch as it is the first thing we see when the titles finish and the film starts to play, so we know that this was intentially placed as part of the mise en scene to highlight the storyline for the film and creating the theme of the film to be set around Halloween, which the audience already knew due to the title.

The first shot used is a pov shot that pans around the house towards a window showing two characters who are in a relationship. The character observing is hiden away in the bushes and is ducking down so they're not seen. This makes the audience aware that there is an unknown character the could potentially cause threat in this film and makes them wonder what realy is going on and what is this character going to do.

This is a continuous shot that happens through the opening to show off the actions of this character and aware the audience this would be a main character in the film and maybe one to look out for. As the scene goes on the audience becomes more uncomfortable with the stalker theme that's being played before them and have predicted that something violent or disturbing is going to happen. The only sound heard is digetic ambient sounds of crickets which adds to the suspence as it makes out that someone unknown at this point is creeping up to the house. 

As the unknown character begins to make their way through the house the lighting is noticably dark and leads the audience to continue to believe that this character is out of place and shouldn't be ther which is why they are lurking in the shadows, The non-diegetic music that corresponds with this confirms to the audience that this character may be bad and something about this character seems odd. This enhances the audeinces discomfort and makes them feel different from this character and almost treat him as an outcast.

Now the light has changed to a brighter tone as we see the character oull out the knife. The camera is still in a point of view shot making the audience feel like they are in this characters body and have no control over the actions he is about to make. When the charcter pulls out the knife the music changes to become tenser adding an atmosphere of suspence.

Because of what we are seeing we are to assume that this person is a creepy violent character

Final Opening Sequence

This is my final product of an opening sequence, I believe that we have successfully followed our ideas throughout the process of making this opening and used feedback from our target audience to improve the product each time. I think that we used a range of camera shots that highlighted the genre we were trying to fit and also used fonts and titles to express the theme well. However, we did come across so difficulties through our filming and editing process but we managed to get past this in order to complete our opening. 

Production Schedule

Date	Time	Location	Props & Equipment	Shots
6th February	Between 12 – 1 PM	Odeon Cinema, Epsom	N/A	Wide shot / canted angle – actors both leaving the cinema and going separate ways Medium shot – female character walking away from the cinema
6th February	Between 12 – 1 PM	Outside of Odeon Cinema, Alleyway Epsom	N/A	Medium shot – female character is walking into the alleyway Wide shot – POV shot from behind the character Wide shot – front shot of the character as she walks
7th February	After 6:30PM	Kiln Lane, Epsom	N/A	Medium / wide shot – female character trapped in car Close up – as the character removes the tape from her mouth

Location Reece 2

Location to be used: Date of when location is needed: Time of when location is needed:	>Kiln Lane, Epsom and Odeon cinema Epsom >6th and 7th February > Afternoon and night Before and after 6:30PM (Not many people around and it’s dark)	>We can use another car park near by >Chose a different date
Do you need permission to record/photograph in this location? Who will you need to contact?	>No we don’t need permission	>Choose a different car park and cinema
Will the levels of noise cause a problem? If so, how will you overcome this?	The level of noise will only be a problem if there are lots of people out in the street next to the car park. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem as the shops shut in the evening so there won’t be many people about. As for the cinema scene, it shouldn’t be a problem as the sound will be taken out to be replaced with music.	>If there is too much noise then we can either edit the sound after which will be done regardless as we are adding on music or choose another day to film.
Is the level of lighting suitable?	>Yes	>If something changes and the lighting doesn’t become suitable we can edit the lighting later on.
If inside, are the Emergency exits clearly visible and available? Is Emergency equipment provided?	>No because it’s outside >There isn’t emergency equipment but if we don’t have the equipment it won’t be hard to carry on without it.	>We can use the light from our phones if the lighting isn’t suitable or edit later on. >We all have cameras on our phones we can film with if the camera we are planning to use isn’t accessible
Is there public transport easily available to you?	>Yes we can easily get a bus or train to the location >We are using a car so we get there in that	>If strikes occur or roads are cut off we can rearrange the day >If the car breaks down we can use public transport

Actor Release Form

We produced a document for the actors to sign to confirm that they are aware that the clip they are being filmed for will be put on the internet and are happy about this. There was a separate document with all the terms and conditions on that they read through before signing.

We then gave the actors the document for them to sign so we had permission for the footage to be uploaded to the internet.