Friday, 15 April 2016

Construction post 3 - Titles




After receiving feedback from our film, we decided to change our font for the titles from the first font to the second. This was due to the criticism stating that our font was suited for a monster horror rather than a slasher/ house invader horror, which is what sub genre is. Therefore, we decided on a more simple bold text which has the same qualities as many other fonts used in house invader films.

Construction post 2 - Location

At first we decided on filming at Mica's house, however we decided otherwise and we chose to film at Sam's house. The reason for doing so was because Sam's house allowed us to shot different kinds of interesting shots, such as the tracking shot following the male up the stairs. Showing the killers presence in the bedroom. In the shot where the killer is present we used low key lighting to just about show the outline of the killer, adding to the mystery and tension of the killer being inside the house of the two teenagers.

Sam's house is situated close to our school so it also adds to the practicality of filming in his house, as we will be able to get there in a short period of time thus increasing the time we get to film. Allowing us to fully focus on the film and getting the best shots we can.




Construction Post 1 - Filming

After filming our first draft and going through the process of editing it. We soon found out that our shots were out of focus a lot or the lighting was a bit off, by either being too light or too dark. Due to this we decided to go and re-film the sequence and we changed the story a bit as we think the new story better suited our horror film genre.

In total the filming took us about 4 hours the first time, however only about 3 hours the second time round, this could be due to us developing our skills thus becoming more time efficient. During our filming we used various technologies that some of us had never used before. Thus at the start we were not all that confident, however we soon gained confidence and became better at filming and became more experimenting in our filming. This was shown by adding in shots such as tracking shots and tilts. 

Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?



Below is a profile of someone who wold be in our target audience.

http://mgale18.wix.com/alex

Question 7

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

 

In our preliminary task we created an opening sequence to a film. This opening sequence shows some technical aspects such as; Match of action, shot reverse shot and sticking to the 180 degree rule. We demonstrated these aspects by the following; match on action through the motion of walking through the door. Followed by shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule when 'Coach' and 'Jack' sat down talking. 



The difference between our preliminary and our final is not as clear as I hoped, although I have used a few different technical aspects such as a tilt and a tracking shot. The tilt shown in the final scene of out sequence when the girl drops the DVDs and bends down the pick them up, demonstrating that she is venerable. Also the tracking shot followed the boy up the stairs and revealing the killer inside the house. Which is used effectively to reveal the killer and make the audience feel uneasy. 

However, saying that i do believe that we have developed some skills such as filming, in terms of keeping the shot in focus and trying to show certain things but not making them obvious. An example of this would be the killer throughout out final opening sequence.

Question 6

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

I have used different types of technologies through this project, I had used  some before so I was use to using them and others I never used before so my skills were being developed while using them.

During the research and planning stages I used a handful of technologies. For example;

-Prezzi - Helps layout your information in a different interesting way.
-PowerPoint - Similar to pezzi, as PowerPoint is also another way of presenting data in a interesting way
-Survey Monkey - Used to plan out questions you would like to ask a audience, then feeds the results back to you using tables and charts.
-Images from various sources - Used to demonstrate different aspects of a film or to make the page seem more interesting.

Also during the filming and production of the film I used;
 
-DSLR Camera
A high quality camera that allowed us to capture shots with a high quality in terms of focus. You can also manually focus the camera, to add interesting shots that could be purposefully out of focus to resemble something.
  
-Tripod
A tripod is a stand that has 3 legs. We used a tripod to make sure our shots had no shaking when we did not want there to be.
 
-Fig Rig
A Fig Rig is a wheel that hold the camera in place in the centre of the wheel. We used the fig rig to create the tracking shot and carry on the high quality of our shots.
-Go Pro
A go pro is a small camera that is not easily damaged. We used it in our draft by putting it in the fridge to get a different perspective. However, we didn't use the go pro in the final sequence.
-Adobe Premiere Pro
Allowed us to successfully edit our footage. For example one way we edited our footage was adapting the lighting to better suit our genre, also allowing certain object to become clearer. We also used premier pro to add sound to build to the tension of the sequence, for example sharp stings when the killer is in the shot. As well as eerie background music to make the audience feel uneasy.
 
-Adobe After Effects
Allowed us to remove the green screen behind the production company ident.










Question 5

 How did you attract/address the audience?

Screencast Video:




Audience Feedback Video:



Directors Commentary :



Audience Feedback :

Question 3

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

Our production company is called "sandman studios" the role of the production company is simple, they are there to help in picking the cast, selecting the schedule, deciding the budgeting and writing deciding on the script. We decided on calling our company "sandman studios" as a man made of sand is clearly a unnatural sighting, causing you to feel uneasy.



A distributor is a company that handles the publicity of the film and distributes the film in various countries. As a group we decided on Lionsgate to distribute our film, as in the past they have distributed many over horror films, and have been successful at doing so. Due to this, Lionsgate will have the right audience for our film thus making our film more profitable.



For a small company like ours with little money to publicise our film the money could be funded from BFI, BFI use funds from the national lottery to help out small indie UK film makers like us for example. BFI would allow us to use the money for the producing and development of the film. We would be accepted by BFI as we fit their criteria for the money, thus we could use that money to fully develop our film to make it the best we could.

Our film will be shown at smaller screenings, at small indie cinemas showing the less popular low budget UK films. It could also been shown online, and gain popularity from the online audience on websites such as Netflix and Amazon prime. Our film will be rated 15 as it is a horror film however there are no extremely violent scenes.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?