Evaluation Task 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the research, planning and evaluation stages of our film, my group used a wide range of media technologies to help us in many different ways, this is how we used them:
  
Hardware:

We used the Sony HD Camera in all of our shots, this camera was well suited to our film as it was hand held and easy to manoeuvre, with our film being an action film we needed a steady camera in High Definition to capture the actors and there action. This camera also helped us, as the strap we used clipped into the head cam strap on the head of the actor well.

We used our I phones and mobiles to message to arrange filming with each other to reach our emails. We also used them to take photos of filming and the white I phone 5 is used in the film as well as a prop, for the agents tracking devices. Also I used blogger app on my phone to update my blog on the move and upload storyboards and pictures.

We used a Laptop to search for action music that would suit our film and listen to music through headphones,we also  used the laptops to Photoshop images and logos and to check our emails from the actors.

We used Apple Mac computer and Final cut pro editing package, to edit and upload our draft, final film and footage and to add voice overs easily and to add our photo shopped logos for our production company logos and film logos. We found the mac computer easier to use as a group than we did last year with the MacBook laptops, as the group could easily see the screen and it was easier to edit the footage. 

 

We used Olympus Voice Recorders to record the voice overs we have used throughout the film, these were used for the government agent voices at the beginning of the trailer and the phone call in the middle of the trailer; these easily fit into the mac computer to upload our voice overs easily. 

Software 

Final cut pro is an editing software used to edit and transform footage into films and movies. After using this package every lesson I became acustomed to the tools and shortcuts needed to edit quickly but professionally at the same time. Using final cut pro on a IMac made it easier for us to all see the editing and to ensure the cuts to footage were precise and accurate.

Tools I used in Final Cut Pro:

Brightness/contrast bars: Whilst creating our trailer we found that the footage was too light so by using the brightness and contrast bars and levels I could choose exactly how dark or light we could adjust the frames. This helped a lot as most of the filters only changed the colours not the brightness of the shots. The hardest part of using this tool was ensuring the amount and percentage was the exact amount or match the last shot as this would have lead to continuity errors if it went from light to dark too quickly.

Filters:We found using the filters for our footage incredibly useful as using a blue steel filter gave our footage an action theme to it, and saved us from moving the brightness bars and contrast bars as well, by using the filters already installed in the package it was quicker and easier to adjust the footage.

Cut tool:The cut tool in final cut pro allowed us to cut our footage precisly and quickly. This helped us greatly when making our film trailer quick and fast paced as we could cut the footage to the exact moments we needed to create a great trailer. We also cut back a lot of footage as it was too long and did not fit.

Flashes: The flashes we used in the film expecially at the end of the trailer were pre-programmed into final cut pro and gave a contrast to the fade to blacks used a lot throughout the film. The flashes were easy to drag into place and move to the perfect place to cut to sound also.

Fades to black:The fades to black just like the flashes are pre-programmed but were placed to break up the fast paced footage and quick cuts to give the audience a break in between shots. These were also easy to move and drop into the timeline of footage.

Intertitles:The intertitles were easy to type and move to exactly how we wanted them, theres a range of fonts to suit all styles and different transitions for the titles as well. We chose the titles that most suited our film and also go to the music. This also included our billing block that was easy to use as it was pre-made and you just had to fill in the names and positions and it would set it out for us.

Slow Motion:Final cut pro also allowed us to either speed up or slow down our footage, making it easy to keep the audiences attention through the mouse you could click a percentage of slowness and then adjust this by dragging the footage longer if you wanted it slower and shorter if you wished it to be quicker. This helped a lot with out action film as quiet a bit was slowed down in our footage.

We used Facebook on the computers and our mobile phones to send and receive messages about filming days, and to get photos of our actors for the blog research. We found using Facebook to communicate between us was quicker than using emails.

 

We used Adobe Photoshop to make our film title for our trailer, our production company logo and posters and film magazine covers for the final products of the overall film, we then used a memory stick to transfer these images to add into our footage on the Mac computer.

Tools I used in Photoshop:

Crop Tool: The crop tool allows you to crop and trim images and text, it helped me as it was quick and easy to just drag across to the amount of image that I needed instead of drawing around the image with the eraser tool. 

Eraser Tool: The eraser tool allowed me to erase and get rid of certain parts of the images. For example; in my film poster I needed to erase some of the smoke from the orginal film title so that it fitted ontop of the image like seen below:

Zoom Tool: The zoom tool was particularly useful as it allows you to zoom into the area you need to focus on ensuring my poster and magazine cover looked as precise and professional as possible. The zoom tool also helped me with moving images inline with each other in my film magazine cover as these needed to be accurate, as seen below;

Move Tool: The move tool is the most useful in Photoshop and allowed me to move around my images and the order they go in to ensure they are correct and look professional together, it allowed me to play around with the images and make sure I chose the best ones for my magazine cover and film poster. 

I also used Blogger to update my work frequently and to keep my research and planning like storyboards and music choices all in one place, and easy for me to find on both my laptop, computer and mobile phone.

 

We used e-mails to send storyboards to each of the crew and so that we could have the storyboards at hand during filming, this helped us be organised and efficient. We also used E-mails to co-ordinate with our actors to ensure they knew what to wear, say and to generally organize the filming day and times of filming also. This was a good way of keeping contact with our group as everyone had the information at hand and also they could reply as and when they pleased.

Evaluation task 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

After showing our draft trailer to the class and the teachers we recieved a mixture of both positive and negative feedback, then whilst adding more footage to our film we freuqently played the trailer to friends and teachers and got feedback from other students and teachers as well.
Below is the actual audience feedback we recieved throughout the drafting stages of our film making and editing;

"Too slow paced, it needs more fade to blacks"

"Need some more footage"

"The flashes on the map do not look right"

"The shot of the agents looking to cross the street is too bright and has too much color"

"The music fits really well with the genre"

"The cuts are well timed with the music"

"The sound effects are very effective and are suitable for the genre of the film"

"There is a good use of props at the start"

"The voice overs work well"

"The filters on the shots are effective and work well with the crime-action genre"

"The point of view shot of somebody running through the street is good" 

"The end of the trailer is really good"

"the flashes on the map are looking really good, much better than before"

This pie chart shows the percentage of positive and negative feedback we received throughout the drafting stage of our film trailer:

From the chart we can see that 31% of the feedback we received was negative and 69% of the feedback we recieved was positive. This helped us as we were determined to change the negative feedback to postive and succesfully achieved this, for example;

"The flashes on the map do not look right"

We then worked on the flashes on the tracking map so that they fitted perfectly over each other an d did not go jumpy and change colour like before in our drafts. After making these changes the feedback we received was;

 "The flashes on the map are looking really good, much better than before"

 This shows that we listened to the audience feedback and what our teachers and friends opinions were and changed our film to adjust to their needs.

Our initial idea for the film:
The intial idea for our film was for it to be filmed in Cambridge city centre and to film in local shopping centres like the "Grafton centre" to use the escalators and car parks to look more like a bigger city like London where a lot of british action and crime films are filmed and set. After pitching this idea to the class like seen below;




this was the feedback we recieved from the class but mainly the teachers who were worried our loaction wasnt thought out.

"The location of cambridge could be holding your group back as you are struggling to get permissions from everyone for filming in public areas. Maybe consider more local locations?"

"Make sure the guns you use and props as well, are well known to the local authority as this can cause disturbance if filming outside in a public area."
We then decided that after a filming day was cancelled due to the weather and being able to get the whole film crew and actors to the location that we would film locally and that we would carefully choose the locations that we chose so that the framing and mise-en-scene of every frame was perfect and did not look like a small cambridgeshire town.

Also after pitching our plotline and narrative to the class this feedback was returned to us with a lot of questions regarding the narrative and what was actually happening;

"The narrative is slightly unclear and we are unsure how you can tell that much of a story in a trailer"

"Narrative needs to be simplified and maybe a sub plot added also?"

We then had to group together as a team and think of our whole  narrative and how we can make it clearer and easier for the audience to understand and follow. We also cut down the amount of footage we wanted to show as the feedback suggested that we would give too much away to an audience and would not have enough time to show that amount of footage in one trailer. 


Another piece of feedback we received after handing in our draft trailer below was;

 

"Need some more footage"

After this feedback we received from a few individuals we decided to have a whole new filming day and film completely new footage including all the actors and snippets of footage to keep the audience entertained.

Below is our final trailer showing the amount of footage we added in and how drastically changed our trailer became after following the feedback from the class and our peers:

  

Evaluation Task 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This video explains how effective my main product and ancillary texts are and includes all three of my texts, my trailer, my film magazine and film posters.

A common element of my campaign is the use of synergistic features between all three of my texts. Using font and colour to attract my main audience of young males. I have achieved this through the use of a block style sans serif font and bold contrasting colours of black and white, not only making the title and writing stand out but also appealing to my audience who will recognise this as a convention of action and crime films. Along with the film titles bold font is a gun barrel and bullet accompanied by a smoke effect behind the title; this is also a common convention of action and crime and is seen in a lot of other films in this genre. The use of the gun in the title, trailer and in the main images on both the printed texts appeal to my audience as stereotypically they like guns and crime.

The characters I chose to include in my print texts were; firstly the main agent “Blake” who is the main image on my film poster. He is seen in a leather jacket and holding a gun, showing he is an agent but also showing the audience straight away what genre my film is.  He is looking away from the camera in the poster’s image, this shows my audience that he is searching for someone and reflects the narrative of my film. He is also hiding behind a wall or street corner in the photo, this shows he is in hiding also indicating my narrative through my printed text. The other characters I have featured in my printed texts are the two government agents, they are seen next to each other and close together throughout all three texts including during the trailer they are always side by side. This indicates to the audience that they work together as a team and have a close relationship.

The effects that I used throughout all three texts in editing, especially the trailer and images were to make the images and footage appear darker and there for be using low key lighting as it is a convention of action/crime films to be dark  in the trailer.

The institutional information included in my campaign is seen throughout all three texts this includes; our production company logo, which is animated in the start of our trailer this makes it memorable to the audience. It is then seen in the right hand corners of both my film posters and film magazine. This is because the audience can then make a connection between the three texts and be familiar with the company. Our billing block from the trailer has been edited into the film poster as well, as this familiarises the audience with the director and characters making a link between the trailer and poster. The trailer includes a title “In Cinemas 2014” this is because in my campaign the trailer would be released first therefor the audience would be looking out for a poster or new trailer to official state a release date, this is what is included in my film poster with the title “In Cinemas February 2014” this keeps the audience waiting for the films and creates a link between the two texts.

Overall I feel my campaign would be effective as I have conformed to the conventions of action and crime films which will get the attention of the audience. I have captured my images for my printed texts from the actual trailer making the images and characters recognisable and familiar. I have also carried the same themes and synergistic features through all three of my texts showing the synergy of the campaign is strong and recognisable to an audience. If I was to improve on my campaign I would change the word “hunt” in the film magazine banner to the actual photo shopped title as this would create more of a logo type of film title that people would recognise easily as it would then be the same in all three texts. 

Evaluation Task 1

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


 

Frame 1- Title of the film:

For my first frame I chose our Title of our film trailer.
The title of our film is "Hunt" we chose this as it is short and snappy and memorable for our audience, this also reflectives our narrative as someone is being chased and hunted for a memory stick. We chose to have this title all in capitals as it follows the conventions of action/crime films and we saw the use of capitals a lot in the research we conducted on action films. Films like "TAKEN" and "PARKER" all follow this same rule.
The black and white contrasting theme follows the common coneventions of action/crime also as these are the main colours to attract our target audience of young males. The smoke, gun barrel and bullet are all use of iconography as these are common icons in action films and are seen in many film titles and regognised logos. Our tagline "Classified and Dangerous" is a play on words as firstly the audience believe they are seeing and knowing about governement information. But also the definition of a CAD is "A man whose behavior is unprincipled or dishonorable" this also reflects our narrative as agent blake is a corrupt agent and is therefor dishonorable. 


Frame 2-Setting and Location

 My second frame is showing our location of filming and setting of our film.
The location of our film was our local town centre of "St Neots" we chose to film during the day and during in the weekend as this would mean we get a busier town atmosphere. Big towns and busy cities are a convention of  action/crime films as people can hide in the crowds and are therefor hidden and blend in with the crowds, this is what we were trying to achieve with the agent and the crowds in St Neots. We used various locations around the town centre and made the film look like it was filmed in a big busy city.

Frame 3- Costumes and props

Frame 3 shows one character in costume and using props.
In this frame we see "agent blake" hiding in a coffee shop and we ask the actor mr collins to wear a big jacket and leather if possible. This is because most of the "main protecter" characters we found during research wore a big bulky coat or a leather jacket like in the film "TAKEN" with Liam Neeson.
The props we used were very varied but always followed the conventions of the genre and also the setting of the frame we were filming. For example, in the coffee shop "Agent Blake" was filmed with a newspaper and coffee cup, these create the mise-en-scene of the scene and showed he was in the location and not just sat at a table anywhere. "Agent Blake" then later uses a hand held gun, this is a convention of action and crime films and connotes danger and death making the audience feel nervous and not knowing what to expect. The government agents used an Iphone as a prop to show the tracking device tracking the government information, this use of technology is seen in many action and mainly crime films, making them modern and almost in the future.
The two government agents wore shirts and jeans to "blend in" more with the crowds, we did not copy the classic black suits and sunglasses like in films like "Men In Black" as we felt this would be too cliche and also attract too much attention in town and cause people to act diffrently and stare, by keeping the agents casual it creates realism for the audience.
Also the props at the start of the film in "the MI5 office" help set up the story and also create realism for the film and make it more believable.

Frame 4-  Camera work and Editing

Frame 4 shows a part of the film which we used a lot of camerawork and editing to get a steady and excellent panning shot. We used a headcam for a lot of the footage to make the audience feel as tho they are the eyes of the girl on the run. This is used a lot in action films and creates a sense of realism for the audience and sympathy for the girl on the run. We used editing a lot in our film trailer and used final cut pro to be able to slow down the footage to make "Slow Motion" parts of the trailer this builds suspense and keeps the audience anticipating what will be next. The whole film trailer is like a montage of footage and we used quick cuts and fade to blacks to make it appear quick and fast paced to the audience. This is also a common convention of the genre as mostly all action films are quick paced. We also used editing to alter the brightness of our footage as we filmed during daylight this did not give the right conntation to our film. As low key lighting and the dark connotes danger, and the unknown, Making the audience scared and unsure.


Frame 5- Storylines/ Plots

Frame 5 shows how our storyline and plot is introduced and explained to the audience. By using the props at the start of the film accompanied by the voiceover of a government radio, we set up our storyline and narrative to the audience. We thought of using intertitles to explain "Agent Blake" going missing in action and becoming corrupt, but this broke up the fast paced editing and we then decided on a voiceover over the top of the flashbacks of the files and throwing away his MI5 badge. This tells the storyline and plot to the audience and shows them at the same time, helping them to understand mroe and therfor want to see how the film ends. As although we introduce the storyline and narrative we do not tell the whole story only small sections of the action. This is just enough to make the audience want to see the film and therefor making the trailer a success.


Frame 6- How characters are introduced

In Frame 6 we show how we introduced our governement agents, this was by the use of an intertitle saying "2 agents on call" and includes information like there location and time also. This makes the audience introduce the characters as they can pair together the intertitle and the following footage of the government agents running to find "Agent Blake". Agent blake is introduced through the props and voiceover from frame 5 by showing him also after the voiceover sat in the cafe. The girl on the run is introduced also by voiceover and footage also as she sits down in the cafe picks up the memory stick and the voiceover says "what would you do if you found government information" this shows the audience she is a girl and seperates the charcaters.


Frame7 -  Special Effects

Frame 7 shows the two goverment agents underneath a bridge. This shows the specail effects we used during the trailer as every peice of footage had to be edited and darkened. We chose to turn down the brightness so much that there was only a silohette of the two government agents as this keeps their identity as a mystery to the audience making them want to watch the film to be able to reveal their identitys. We also used this technique in the slow motion footage at the end of the film where the two agents walk towards the camera, this makes the audience feel unsteady as they are closer in the frame to the audience but they can still not see the faces of the agents. This is common for action and crime films and is seen films like "men in black" with the two sillohettes of the men.

Frame 8- Use of logo

In Frame 8 I have used our production company logo, this is because we used this logo throughout the three texts and also animated the logo within the trailer, by making the gun sight move this fits our genre of action and crime perfectly, and makes the audience feel as though someone is being targeted and shot. This then also reflects the narrative of the film as "Agent Blake" gets targeted and shot, which is why the voiceover shouts "agent down, man down" showing along with the gun shot sound effect that the genre of action/crime fits perfectly. The logo of the gun sight is in red, connoting danger and blood, showing that someone is going to be killed and making the audience scared. By making the O of Incognito a gun sight this turns the logo into iconography and fits the genre of crime.

Frame 9- Genre

The ninth frame shows the genre of our film, by showing the agents dragging away the girl but never finding out what happens to her this leaves the audience in suspense and the trailer at a cliffhanger this is very common in the genre of action and crime. Also all of the mise-en-scene, framing, camera work and editing, props and narrative all reflect the genre very well showing all the conventions of the genre. By using low key lighting, gun shots and guns, agents and radio voiceovers to create a sense of realsim for the audience as well as making the film believable. 

Film magazine cover

film poster

Setting and Locations of filming

1st Location- Cafe Nero, St neots town center
We chose this location as it was a busy environment and was a hide-out for our main character as he could be hidden. This location was close to our others and was easy to film in. 

2nd Location- Alleyway, market square St neots
We chose this location as it suited our genre perfectly and looked more like a city alleyway in London than a small town Alleyway in St neots, Also it was getting quite dark and the low key lighting in the alleyway was perfect to film in as we didn't need to edit this footage's brightness and contrast.

3rd Location - Phone box on Market square,  St Neots
The phone box enabled us to add in another key narrative of the girl being stolen from "Agent Blake" we done this by using a voice over of a phone call together with the footage of him walking into the phone box and being on the phone. This location was good as we could film in the side of the phone box and keep the framing and mise en scene professional as you could still see the town in the background.

4th Location - St Neots, Town centre 
We chose to film in the town centre as this enabled us to create a busy town atmosphere and fitted our genre perfectly. Also this location was close to everyone filming and acting and was local and easy for everyone to get to.

5th location - Alleyway by Waitrose in St Neots
This alleyway was a good location as we wanted an alleyway different to the one in town, as this creates more suspense and action as the audience believe the agents have covered more ground. This alleyway was run down and perfect for the mise-en-scene of a back street alley in London.

6th Location - Town Bridge and Riverside, St Neots
We used this location as the bottom of the bridge underneath has graffiti and writing and is generally really run down, this created a good shot for the government agents to appear under as it fitted our genre of action and crime by showing the audience back streets instead of the nicer parts of the town.