7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There are many things I have learnt from looking back on my preliminary task. During the filming of the preliminary task, there was not tripod used meaning a lot of the shots were shaky and this resulted in our preliminary task to look unprofessional. Furthermore, in the final film that I made I used a tripod meaning shots were a lot more still. This immediately makes the film look more professional.

I also learnt about the various camera shots and techniques that I could apply to my final film. These included low angle shots to represent power and status as well as tracking shots to track character movement. It was also clear from my preliminary task that keeping the subject in shot and in the centre was a lot more challenging that I thought. As I began to film the final opening, I concentrated very hard on making sure the character was in the centre of the shot all the time. Whilst the character was walking, it was quite hard to keep her in shot all the time so as a result I decided to place the two cameras at various points along her path and then capture her walking past and into the distance from various angles. This proved effective and I got this idea of placing the camera down like this from our preliminary task as I felt that we did not use enough camera shots during the task meaning I had lots of ideas floating around for the final film.

From the preliminary task to the final film, it was clear that I had edited much more and used the software more effectively than I did in the preliminary task. In the preliminary task I only used simple cutting tools just to get rid of the clips we didn’t need. This changed dramatically when I was editing for the final film. This is because as well as cutting clips, I would also have to piece them together more successfully and make sure every shot matched up well and didn’t look jumpy. Of course then I had to use the editing software for lighting and slow motion effects, which is a lot more in depth than anything I did for the preliminary task.

Overall I feel that I have made a sufficient amount of progression throughout the course and in particular, the editing process. I am very pleased with the progress I have made from the preliminary task right up to the final edit of my final film opening.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The main form of technology that I have used throughout the course is Final Cut Express on the Apple Mac. As neither my partner nor I had ever had any experience with using an Apple Mac, we both needed more time to get used to it and teach ourselves how to use some of the features.

I also used a Sony HD digital camera as well as the JVC one that the school provided me with whenever necessary. I already had some experience with using video cameras as I did a lot of filming in my GCSE ICT Film enrichment course. This meant that I already knew how to use the school cameras, which helped a lot and saved time. Using two cameras also meant that we could film the same shot from two different angles, which had a very effective impact on our film. Having the Sony camera at home also meant that I could go out and film even if the school had all their cameras fully booked. The HD on the Sony also gave a much better picture than the school one which meant I used this in the scenes where the light wasn’t great or I felt the definition would be important to capture in the particular scene such as the first scene near the river.

As I mentioned earlier, using Final Cut Express was a new experience for me. I had only ever really used Windows Movie Maker, which is a lot more basic than Final Cut. It took me a while to get to grips with the wide variety of features on Final Cut Express but I had a few friends who have used it before meaning they helped me with the basics and then I worked the rest out myself. It was vital for me to get my head around using Final Cut Express effectively as it was the editing that would make our film a success.

 

I was relying on my limited amount of experience with the programme in order to edit the lighting to make it match as we did not film on the same day meaning light differed. Initially I thought this might be a large problem because the lighting was quite dramatically different from the start to finish of the filming. It started off very sunny and the sky was clear and then suddenly at about 2pm when we were filming our last few scenes, it started to overcast and get dark. I used the colour corrector on Final Cut to match all the lighting well and effectively. This made a huge difference and other than the sky being blue in the last scene, no one would notice the lighting issue. Luckily the brightest scenes were the crowd scenes but fortunately we were planning on making them black and white anyway to symbolise foreshadowing.

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Due to the little experience I had in the production of films, I knew that attracting and addressing the audience would be a difficult task. I thought that if I created the film so that the typical thriller conventions are challenged to create something different for the audience. I wanted to create something unusual and use ideas and scenarios that would make the audience question what is going on.

I made sure that the film was going to draw in the audience and then make then question what was going on. What they would see would be untypical of the other films similar to mine that they had seen. I accomplished this mainly through shooting the film in daylight. The majority of thriller films will be shot at night when it is dark or at dusk when it is getting dark to make the scene more scary and mysterious. A typical thriller film will have some sort of crime or murder than happens during the night and I wanted to challenge this typical convention and attract my audience in a different way.

I did not include any real clues as to what the girl was aiming to do and where she was walking. I made sure she was clutching a bag under her arm and then through the editing I included a ticking clock in the that pops up every now and again which will obviously trigger some curiosity in the audiences’ mind. The audience will be questioning what they are seeing in the scenes leading up to the last scene. All we see is the girl walking and she shows no emotion and this builds tension. Building tension throughout the film opening was the biggest task I had as it was very difficult to do so as the filming was done in the day and there was nothing that made the girl seem that threatening other than the bag. As a result I had to work very cleverly with the editing and make sure that each scene built more and more tension as it went on. I feel that this worked well and from listening to my friend’s feedback after watching the film, they all said that there was a lot of tension throughout. This is obviously great feedback as it means that I have been successful in attracting and addressing the audience.

4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

I thought about the age certificate I would label my film opening with in the very early stages of brainstorming my ideas. I knew that if I labelled it roughly in the early stages then I could create it to suit this age group and therefore the audience I targeted. I decided to rate my film opening a 15 as I feel that there is no violence or gore meaning it is not an 18 certificate but the concept and ideas behind the storyline are quite hard-hitting which is why I gave the opening a rating of 15 as I do not feel that anyone younger should be subject to this terrorist situation and stream of ideas. This certificate would only really apply if the film was produced and made into a full-length film by a production company. I feel that my film will appeal to both male and females from the ages of 15-30 as it includes lots of mature ideas as well as some ideas that the younger end of my target audience would relate to such as the main actress. http://big-tymer.blogspot.com/2010/11/target-audience.html

In my blog during the early period of the course, I didn’t decide on a particular age group for my target audience but I did decide on the type of target audience. I decided that this film would appeal to anyone who enjoys watching thriller films as my film idea covered a wide range of realistic scenarios so I felt it would appeal to any age. After finishing the film, I feel it is easier to put an age certificate on the film as I have had more time to think about how the film will develop into a full length film.

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

There are many ways in which I could get my film distributed. The main method would be through a film production company such as Met or Hammer production companies. This may result in the company creating the rest of the film based on the opening and my ideas. It would also mean that they could pay for the production and then distribution of the film to my targeted audience. This is one option and I think it would benefit my film greatly as it would be a great form of advertising and getting my film viewed by my audience.

I feel that another successful distribution method for my film would be through YouTube or Vimeo. These two sites are video-sharing-sites meaning anyone with an account can upload videos onto the site and receive views and ratings etc. This would be a great opportunity for my film opening to be viewed. Both sites are very popular and there are many ways in which I could make sure people saw my film opening. A simple method would be to include lots of tags to the video so it is more likely to be found on the sites. There are such a wide variety of people who use these sites to watch online videos meaning I have a high chance of getting lots of views on my film opening.

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

There are not very many ways in which my film represents any particular social groups and I feel that it challenges them rather than represents them.

The first way in which I feel that my film challenges and represents particular social groups is through the main actress. She is a young girl aged 16 and not stereotypical of a terrorist or someone who would wish to cause havoc by planting a bomb in a busy market square. She comes across as a possible student and an average teenage girl but obviously there is more to her than the audience expects. I knew this would be the case and while coming up with film ideas in the early stages of the course, I wanted to use an actress who had a scary appearance but did not look too typical of someone who would be planting a bomb or more specifically, involved in crime. Nowadays, teenagers are frowned upon and stereotypically portrayed as trouble and statistically youth crime rates are increasing. Based on this, I wanted to challenge the stereotype in one way but also follow it in another. I knew that using a teenager would confuse the audience, as they would be questioning the actions of this teenager and leave them wondering why she is involved in such an awful crime. However, I knew that following the stereotype of teenagers being involved in crime would engage the audience more as they are put at ease as it is something they are familiar with which means they are more likely to follow the storyline.   

I think using a teenage girl as the bomb carrier and criminal is more effective as it is less expected and the audience will be held under tension throughout the film, as they would not be expecting the girl to have a bomb and to have the guts to drop the bomb. It is completely untypical to see a girl carrying a bomb; therefore this storyline creates tension and draws the audience in well.

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

My 2 minute film opening develops and also challenges the typical conventions of the genre I chose to create my film around.

I decided to base my film around the genre of Thriller. However there are some elements of the film that may tie into an action film genre. The typical conventions of a thriller film is to have some sort of fast paced chase scene and a murder or death along with a victim of some sort and in most cases, a villain or criminal/murderer. My film follows these conventions fairly closely as the whole opening is a chase scene because the girl is running away from the police and taking scenic routes to get to where she wishes to drop the bomb, therefore avoiding crowded areas where police will be. The audience can assume the girl is being followed due to the police helicopter scene at the beginning of the opening whereby the police pilot describes the girl and tries to track her from the sky. This sort of chase is typical of a thriller film as it builds tension from the audiences’ point of view and makes them question the actions of the girl. On the other hand, my film does not follow the typical conventions of a thriller film, as it does not include a murder or death or a specific victim. This resulted in me questioning the genre of the film and this is when I began to link it with other genres. I felt that it might fit with an action genre as it involves a chase and a typical action film will involve a chase of some sort with vehicles or people and police. From this it is clear that my film could tie in with the action genre as police are involved in the first scene and they are chasing the girl who is on the ground from the helicopter. This is something we would expect to see in an action film rather than a thriller but the rest of the film follows a thriller more than an action film as it is more gripping and builds tension through the girls expressionless face and body language along with the clutching of the bag she has.

A typical thriller would use darker lighting and less bright colours than an action film and as my film focuses on both light and dark colours throughout, it doesn’t closely fit with neither an action nor a thriller film. The first scene of my film is in black and white which is typical of a thriller film but then towards the end of the opening, the lighting is lighter and the sun is up and shining which is not typical of a thriller as such and more suited to an action film. Action films are more typically seen to have more bright lighting and flashes, which tie in with explosions etc.  My film uses bright colours towards the end when the girl is about to drop the bomb and when I am filming the market square along with the crowds. The use of brighter footage towards the end is to represent the happy atmosphere that the market maintains and then I used slow motion when the girl is seen in shot to reinforce that she is going to cause disruption and havoc causing this happy atmosphere to change.

As you can see, I have used typical conventions from both a thriller film and an action film which illustrates how my film does challenge both genres of film in order to make my film more gripping and successful in drawing in my audience.

Final Editing

Today after school Molly and I carried on making our soundtrack on GarageBand. It proved harder than we expected to make the music fit with our film opening and it was difficult to make the music quiet and mysterious at the beginning and then tension building towards the end.

Eventually we managed to perfect it and we ended up using 2 layers on GarageBand, one being the orchestra type sound which is what the film starts with after the helicopter aerial scene. The 2nd layer is then a slightly more upbeat intense strumming beat which really works well with the 1st layer.

Making The Music

As a result of not being able to find any music to fit our film opening well I have started to create an instrumental track on GarageBand on my Apple Mac. I have put in all of the sounds and various instruments that I feel will fit well with our film and today Molly and I are going to finish the music and put it into our film.

Creating our music ourselves means that we can make it fit perfectly with our film opening and therefore build tension in all the right places.

Yesterdays Editing

Yesterday, I stayed after school in order to edit the newly shot footage. Based on the feedback from our teacher, I had to think carefully as to how I was going to create tension through the various clips. As a result, I cut up clips in order to make them more jumpy. For example, the clip when our actress was walking down an alley, I cut it up so she would jump from close to a bit further up the alley and so on. This builds tension more effectively and engages the audience more.

I also changed some of the new footage of crowds into black and white with slow motion added in order to create tension and foreshadow the effect of what was going to happen from the bomb drop.

Half-Term Issue

Unfortunately, Molly and I are both skiing over half term meaning we can not edit over half-term. This is not a huge problem as we are planning on finishing this Friday as we are spending all day doing it.

If worst comes to worse, then I will come after school on the day of the deadline and finish the editing; however, it is highly unlikely that we do not finish the film opening before half-term begins.

Editing The New Footage

Today, Molly and I got our re-shot footage onto the Macs in our media room. After getting all of the newly shot footage onto the mac, we then converted the files to .mov format rather than the original format it was in. A few of the clips would not convert as the disk space was full so as a result we deleted some of our previous files and old footage files to free up some space.

Unfortunately, we accidentally deleted the wrong file and then cleared it from the trash can on the Mac. This meant that we had no way of getting the files back, so we thought.

Fortunately, our teacher managed to find the original files on the Mac, however they were not edited. This meant that we could import the footage again but it would all be un-edited. Obviously this will take up even more time.

As a result, I am personally staying after school tomorrow, Thursday and then coming in all day Friday to finish the editing. We feel this should be enough time to get the editing finished.

Police Officer Footage

I had been thinking of lots of different ideas on how to build tension in the re-shoot before I went out and filmed. I had an idea of filming a police officer briefly in slow motion which will engage the audience and relate the the girls objective of dropping a bomb. This is a method of foreshadowing as it is linking in with the story and the fact that the girl is being chased or was being chased before she went to plant the bomb.

As I did not see any police officers around the town, I went to the police station and asked the receptionist if any officers would be willing to do this for us. She came back with a new officer who was more than happy to be involved in the film.

We asked him to walk out of the police station and along the road and I will cut down this footage and put it in slow motion so it builds tension as much as possible.

Re-Shoot

On Saturday, I went out with our actress and re-shot the last few scenes of our film due to the negative feedback our teacher gave us. Unfortunately, the weather was not the same as the first day of shooting meaning if we did not edit the footage, we would have half the opening with overcast skies and half with the sun out.

As a result, I had to make sure the re-shoot was shot carefully so I avoided any major glare from the sun. This proved to be easier than I thought as the market square is fairly shaded from the sun meaning there was never a massive amount of glare on the lens.

I filmed lots of crowds of people in which I will edit to make it slow-motion so it helps build tension. I did not have a problem with people looking at the camera as I managed to position myself well so people couldn't immediately see me. This proved effective as I got a substantial amount of footage to include in the film.

I checked the footage as soon as I got home and all of the footage was perfect. I will need to make sure the clips are edited effectively so they are the same brightness as the previous clips.

Music Situation

I am currently researching into other soundtracks for our film as our teacher said that the music did not build enough tension throughout the film and did not really fit with the footage.


As a result I have been on YouTube a lot trying to find a suitable soundtrack.
I have had no luck with finding a soundtrack that starts off slowly and then builds up.

Teachers Feedback

After receiving some feedback from our teacher after handing in the first edit it is clear that we need to re-shoot the last 20-30 seconds in order to build more tension up the the bag drop. Our teacher has said that it is not entirely clear as to what is in the bag and there is no sign of the bomb doing any damage as there is no footage of people around when Flora drops the bomb. We will then edit the new footage and use jump cuts when Flora is walking so tension is building.


As we do not have a lot of time to re-shoot I am going with Flora to film this Saturday but Molly will be unable to attend this time. This is not a problem as I know what I am doing and we do not need two cameras set up as we only need to do a first person shot of Flora walking into a crowd. 


I can only hope that the weather is similar to the last shoots weather. If not then we will have to spend more time editing to make the weather link in with the other footage earlier on in the film. 

Time Issue

We have just found out that our film is 2 minutes and 6 seconds long. We have just found out that our film cannot be over 2 minutes long. As this is our first edit, we have more time to finalise our opening and make sure we abide by the rules of the course and get the timing right. We obviously do not want to lose marks because our opening goes over the set time of 2 minutes.

As a result we will recieve our teacher's feedback on the timing as well as the song choice and if changes need to be made then this will be done before the 2nd edit deadline.

Music Idea

Last night I watched the first edit again and decided that the music did not do what I wanted it to do. My aim was to create tension through the music and I do not feel the current music was creating enough tension for my liking. The bomb dropping was meant to be quite a hard hitting ending to our opening and I feel that the music we have now does not create enough tension.

As a result I am currently researching into other instrumentals for our film and I am going to find a similar soundtrack to the Jaws soundtrack as I want to use an instrumental that slowly builds up towards our ending and this will create tension.

First Edit Complete

Molly and I have just finished our first edit for our film opening. We uploaded the police voice over to it and cut it down by a few seconds to ensure it fitted perfectly. We decided that making the voice come in seconds before the first shot came in would be more effective as I have seen it done in films such as the Bourne films and Shooter. This engages the audience and briefly sets the scene. We then made sure the voice over went over the first countdown timer footage to create tension and linkthe two parts together better. The voice over is still playing over the first scene where our actress is sitting by the tree and as the voice over is seconds from finsihing, the music starts to play and then takes the dominant position in the shot.


Next we will look at the opening again tomorrow and make sure everything is perfect for the first edit deadline on Friday.

Police Voice Over

Today I wrote a script for the voice over I intended to do for the opening scene of the film. I needed to make sure it sounded as realistic as possible to a police helicopter radio. I looked up many effects on Google and downloaded a few and none really worked with the recording. I went onto YouTube and researched different police helicopter chase videos and copied some of the linguistic terms they used to tructure my own script. Luckily, I was obessesed with the police a few years ago so I had picked up some basic language that they use so this benefitted me as I already an an idea of what langauage to use.


As a result I thought that I could use my recording equipment to record with a fan next to me while I speak and this would give the helicopter cockpit effect. This worked very well and it sounded very realistic. I then started to record myself as the helicopter pilot and I then used my brother as the officer on the ground. We recorded myself speaking as the pilot and then my brother as ground units and then back to me before we lost the target. This then ties in well with the second scene where our actress is sitting by a river after losing the police.


As I recorded the voice over using my music software called Pro Sound on my desktop, it saved as a PTF format and I could not convert it to any other format. This meant that it was not being recognised on the Apple laptop I have at home so I was pretty sure it would also be unreadable at school on the Apple's. 


As a result I decided that the best thing to do would be to put my desktop speakers next to me Apple microphone and then record the sound from the computer to the laptop. This worked very well and the sound sounded even more realistic. 


I used garage band to record this straight through the speakers and then I saved the file as an MP3 and put it on ITunes and then transferred it onto a memory stick so it is ready to be taken into school. 


At first I did plan on using a walkie talkie and placing one walkie talkie next to the microphone and then talking through the other one from another room. I felt this would be a good effect and would give that slight fuzz after speaking. This proved to be a problem as the walkie talkies needed batteries which I didn't have.


I then tried to use sweet wrappers to create that fuzzy sound but this did not prove effective.


Finally I decided to use my own voice to make this fuzz sound and it proved to be the most effective out of the 3 ideas I had.

Film Title

The film title "Case Closed" comes up at the end of the film just before the last tick. I felt this would make the film name stand out and the audience would not mistake the film name with the titles at the beginning of the film. 


Here is a screenshot of the title at the end of the film.

The Bag Shot

This shot took us a few attempts before we were happy with the footage. We placed the camera inside the bag nestled in with a scarf and started recording. We then had Flora opening the bag and this gave us a close up of her face smiling. This builds tension as the audience wants to know what is in the bag and what is making her smile. 


Here is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of the close up shot from the bag opening.

Our Bomb Countdown Timer

I filmed my IPhone countdown timer on my HD camera for 5 minutes so that we could cut it down to put into our opening between scenes to build tension amongst the audience. 


Here is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of the last second of the timer.

Our Titled Aerial Scene

This is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of our titled aerial scene at the beginning of our opening. 

Police Helicopter Voice Over

I have started to draft the recording I need to do for the aerial scene at the beginning of our film. I have some recording equipment at home whereby I record my own music and this is perfect for what we are trying to do in our film. We want to re-create a police helicopter pilot reporting to officers on the ground from a YouTube clip we have found. I will then use the script from this and then re-write it so that it sounds more appropriate to the specific location of our film. For example, the YouTube clip is reported over somewhere up North so obviously we could not use this exact scripting as it would not relate to Saffron Walden, our film location, in any way.


Yesterday I began to re-write the script and did a few practise attempts on my equipment. I felt that I needed to find some sort of effect for my voice so it sounds more like I am speaking from a helicopter and not a vocal booth. I am currently trying to find this effect on Google but have had no luck yet.


In the worst case scenario, I may not find the appropriate effect so I will have to use what I have and change the sound on the editing software I have in order to edit my music.

Film Name

We are now at the stage of deciding on a name for our film. We do not want to give too much away in the film name; however, it obviously needs to relate to the film in some way and the plot. 


As a result we went onto an online thesaurus and typed in, "bomb" and we got some alternative words for this word. I then decided on "Case Closed" for our film name as I felt it tied in well with the police investigation from the police helicopter at the start of the film opening. 


We used, http://thesaurus.com/browse/bomb 

Current Situation

Currently, we have almost finished editing and all we have left to complete is the police voiceover for the plane scene at the beginning. I will be doing this at home with my music recording equipment and I will write a script similar to what the police use when in a chase in a helicopter.


I will have this completed this weekend and will add it to the film on Wednesday. I feel this will be very effective in the film and will set the film well. The film titles will appear during this scene and the font will be similar to the timer font and the letters will hopefully tick over.

Downloads

Other than flying and taking footage from the sky today, I have also managed to download 2  helicopter sounds in an mp3 file. One is a sound from outside the helicopter as it flies over and the other is from inside the cockpit of the helicopter so we will use both in the film. This will be in the background while either myself or my dad do a voice over from a police mans point of view in the helicopter. We will find out what kind of vocab and langauage the police helicopter pilots use and we will then create a small script in which we will do the voice over to.


I also downloaded a ticking noise for our bomb countdown which will be playing throughout the film but getting louder towards the last few scenes and eventually the ticking will be the only sound in the last scene.


I then went on to film my mobile phone countdown and this will be flashed up in some scenes to remind the audience that the timer is ticking and to make them wonder what this timer is linked to.

Aerial Scene

Today I went to film from my dads plane. We flew over Audley End House, Saffron Walden and smaller areas around here and I managed to get some really good footage. This footage will be used at the beginning of our film and will be made to look like a police helicopter is searching for the girl with the bomb. I made sure I zoomed in quickly on certain places such as; Audley End as this is a place where the girl was seen so it looks like the police are specifically searching this area.

More Images of New Locations

Saffron Walden Alleyway...

Fowlmere Airfield...
  



Pictures of New Locations

Molly and I decided that we were not going to use the school scene as we couldn't make it tie in with the rest of the film. As a result we decided to film in different places and here are the images of the new locations.

Great Chesterford River...

Music for the film

This is the music we are going to use throughout the film and i may create my own slightly more upbeat song on garage band for the ending.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJ5cdDBoaE&feature=related 

Filming Agenda

Due to us not being able to film in Cambridge, we are now going to film in Saffron Walden on market day.   Unfortunately we have had to fire Chloe as our actress as she was not reliable and we have hired a new one who can attend all of the filming days.


This is our plan of action for this week;


Wednesday 5th- Film children coming out of school and actress walking towards town 
Thursday 6th- Film children coming out of school at the C corridor exit 
Friday 7th- Uploading blog with progress
Saturday 8th- Film actress walking to town from a cars point of view and from a followers point of view
Sunday 9th- Film from the plane over Saffron Walden market