Evaluation activity 8

What targets will you set yourself for G324 next year – when you make a trailer?

Although we have made vast improvements since the start of the year, gaining knowledge in the film industry as well as improving our skills in camerawork and editing techniques, and also creating a very successful opening two minutes, there is still room for improvement. Growing in confidence made us realise how much more we could put into the course to give ourselves an even better insight into the media industry. Admittedly at the start of the course i had no clue as to what half the content was that i know now, everything was new to me and despite being aware of very basic knowledge and technology, i had never thought to research them into further depth or put them into my own practice. While learning throughout the whole filming and editing process i have enjoyed every bit of it and now feel proud and motivated to work even harder next year at A2.
When looking at my downfalls and how to improve them, it was obvious that over complicating situations left me to become overwhelmed with tasks to complete. Even though this may have been stressful, i have no regrets as my stress motivated me to push on and i am proud that i did not take the easy route, especially when editing as i faced the problem of my opening two minutes not rendering. However this was a huge learning curve, realising that over complicating the situation would only make things less enjoyable for myself and when sticking to a plan over a routine, the tasks will be completed.
During A2, we will be given the task to complete a trailer, so even though it will be different to completing an opening two minutes, our main task will be to make sure we plan in advance, giving ourselves less chance of becoming stressed out. Even if we are not sure on some thing, planning them in advance will make sure we won't end up leaving it to the last minute, which is another thing i struggled with over the course. For example, even though we were held back by weather conditions, we left filming to the last minute as we procrastinated with finding a male antagonist actor. This wasted time that we could have spent going over and completing more research and planning tasks which could have easily been avoided. This caused unnecessary stress due to the high approaching deadlines. A target for next year would be to film in the shortest amount of time possible as change in weather or lighting can causes issues for our trailer, as it did for our opening two minutes.
I think it would be interesting to research into different genres next year, as it will give us an even bigger insight into the media industry when taking our skills into the business world. Even though looking into the horror genre for our opening two minutes was very suitable, i think other genres would be more exiting to use for a trailer.

To make progress when moving into next year, focusing on elements such as sound would be beneficial for our group as even though it was easy to incorporate different soundtracks into our work, they weren't edited and used to the best of our ability. I would like to learn how to record the sound in a way in which it would be suitable to use without having to spend a lot of time correcting it as i found when editing, some shots towards the end became slightly muffled and difficult to hear due to a mixture of all of the background noises which could be heard when filming. We found that elements such as mise-en-scene and camera composition were relatively easy to pick up on and was easy to conform into the stereotypes and conventions for a horror film.
Next year, i would like to focus on targets specifically aimed at the four most important technical areas of filming, mise-en-scene, camera composition, editing and sound. By setting this as a main target, i feel it would be most beneficial for helping improve my knowledge and understanding of the the subject, producing better quality work. In camera composition, looking into more technical areas such as match on action and the continuity rules would be most beneficial as in the film they were quite messy and could definitely be improved. I definitely feel that editing is my main battle to win as i haven't yet felt like i have grasped the technology that would push me further. By the end of our editing process we all felt a sense of achievement having grasped the equipment, and were certainly more confident using it however I feel like I need to experiment more in order to get full use out of all it has to offer.
Despite all the targets i have made for myself i am extremely proud and happy with the opening scene we have produced, it shows me how much knowledge i have learned and how far i have come since September, knowing how much more success i have yet to come. The most important thing I have learnt from this process is to have more confidence in myself, knowing that as long as i keep working hard and am dedicated to the subject as well as giving myself time to relax, everything will work out fine.

Evaluation activity 7

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

After completing our opening scene, it is quite impressive how far we have come when looking back at our preliminary task we made at the start of the year. It is obvious that we have built upon our film making skills and it is quite interesting to look back and compare the two, allowing us to realise what progress we have made and how we have learnt from our mistakes.
The differences between our preliminary task and opening scene are things such as the location, types of shots and different scenes; however this was mainly due to the very limited preparation we were given. The main difference between the two is the filming location. As we were given the instructions for our preliminary task under short notice, we chose our location more for practicality rather than anything else. This meant that the use of different shots we could use were also reduced, which shows significantly as the preliminary task is much more static and unrealistic. As you can see, this meant our preliminary was filmed in school whereas we purposely chose to use a quiet, secluded forest for the opening scene. Similarly, we had to create our own plot and our own script under short notice, apart from the need to include “What are you doing here?” into the scene. Although the line that we needed to incorporate helped the structure of the task, it made it slightly more difficult to come up with an idea for the scene as it limited our choices and ideas. Even though we were under pressure for time, it wasn't important to have a strong plot as the task was more focused on the use of camera work and so this is what we chose to focus on.

The acting and plot line of the preliminary task fell in comparison with our opening two minutes. As the preliminary task was created in less than an hour, we lacked structure and dialogue. Although our main focus was the camera work, if given more time to prepare, we could've come up with a stronger preliminary task and would have had the chance to incorporate different camera angles in order to introduce more themes and emotions. From our preliminary task, we learnt that we had to be more convincing to create a polished screenplay. With the opening two minutes, the quality of our camera work was at a much higher standard due to the more advanced technology we used, as well as the knowledge we gained throughout the course, which produced a more realistic film. 

When trying to use the continuity and editing techniques we had been taught, we ended up using trial and error which showed us really how inexperienced we were. despite this the preliminary task turned out better than expected considering this was one of our first times filming, however when we came to editing it we were certainly aware of the mistakes we had made. One of the main things we had learnt was when editing, doing a shot reverse shot, rather than film directly in front of the face, we should take it slightly behind the characters shoulders to make the film look more realistic rather than very sharp shots. We also took the fact that filming before you were ready would help the editing process, even though we took this on we may have taken it on too much as when editing we realised there was a slight pause between the characters speech which made the task look staged rather than smooth. 

We used the conventional camera techniques in our preliminary task, such as match-on-action and shot reverse shot as the main purpose of the task was to practice and get used to using the techniques as they are so vital in successful films. We did try to employ the use of these techniques in our opening two minutes, i think match on action was our most successful camera shot as when editing we cut down each shot to make them look clean and smooth. We found that our preliminary task incorporated more of the typical camera techniques due to the heavy focus on camera work, whereas we found it more difficult to use of all the technical areas in our film as we had so much to concentrate on. Due to the genres and the pace of the film we found we paid more attention to the 180 degree rule in our preliminary rather than in our opening two minutes. This may have been because we were slightly more experienced and so were not forcing ourselves to use it as it came more naturally. Despite this, we did not use this technique that much and although we could have adapted the plot to fit it in like the other techniques, we did not feel that it was necessary. 

Overall, we felt our preliminary task had boosted our confidence and motivation to make an even better opening two minutes. This is because the mistakes we made spurred us on to improve our knowledge and therefore produce a higher quality piece of work. A lot of the camera work we used in our preliminary scene was used and even improved in our opening scene. Despite this a lot of the camerawork and techniques is dependent on the genre and pace of the film. Without filming such a thing beforehand, we would not have acquired the skills and understanding that would allow our opening to succeed on various levels, and I think we are all pleased with the outcome, despite further improvements which could be made.

Evaluation Activity 6

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

When learning about the technology we had to use when editing our opening scene, i honestly did not know how to use Adobe Premiere Elements. At the start of the course this was seen as a downfall as we had to learn how to use it as we went through the course. We depended a lot on our own initiative as well as teachers comments and guidance through using effects and transitions. However, despite our lack of advanced ability, we were able to produce a film or high quality standard. Towards the end of the course, Adobe Premier Elements became quite straight forward and easy to use, providing us with all the basic components required to successfully edit our opening scene to our film. The most useful tool was being able to cut and match the footage, making our shots clean and reducing the potential jump cuts.  It also allowed us to edit and mix the audio, adding different soundtracks in to match the mood and emotion we were trying to create at different points in the scene. We also admired the option of creating titles for our production credits as well as our opening title, Follow Your Tracks. Transitions were also a major part in creating a successful opening scene as we mainly used the fade in and fade out options for our opening credits to make it look as professional as possible. Admittedly at first it was quite frustrating and difficult to get the hang of it, leading to myself having to use trial and error to get the outcome i wanted, but after a while the editing tools were especially efficient which helped greatly as it allowed the titles to look professional and sophisticated. I think that this was one of the key factors in raising the standard of our film, and I think our production credits were my favourite aspect to our opening. Unfortunately due to our camera having HD definition quality, our computer was not efficient enough to render our software, which made it really difficult to edit our flaws and notice our strengths, as when playing back our film, it was constantly slow and jumpy, this led to a very stressful process as scenes often had the tendency to disappear, we eventually managed to construct our final piece.

The camera we decided to use for our opening scene was a Canon 1200D with 1080p HD movie recording. This was a very strong point as it made the quality of film very professional and clear. As the camera was my own, i had a lot of experience and knowledge with the features it had, making it very easy to film our scene. Using manual focus, we were able to change the depth of field, so we could blur the background and have a very sharp focus on the characters or the other way round due to preference of what was happening in the scene at the time. This also played a big part in making our film successful as our film looked very sophisticated rather than an average standard project. In some shots it would have been more sensible to use a tri-pod as it would've allowed us to create steady shots which were better quality than without a tri-pod. Despite this, we liked the fact that unsteady shots could resemble the antagonists view, watching and following the victim
Hopefully, through our on going knowledge, we have opened up wider opportunities for any future products, which will come in handy if we carry on media next year. If this is the case, we will need to explore more techniques and features to further increase our knowledge and ability.

Evaluation Activity 5

How did you address your audience?

Annotated opening scene.

Presentation and Audience Feedback

Presentation

Audience Feedback

Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From our research and planning, we realised that our most important age group for our opening two minutes should be aimed at was 15-24. This age group tends to have the largest variety of tastes and interests, meaning that our film had an opportunity to have a wide appeal, we also researched that this target audience enjoyed films that increase the suspense slowly, as did our opening scene. We thought it would be the most successful idea to sue a target audience from 15-24 year olds as it would give us a realistic chance in appeal to as many people as possible. Usually, it is the actors which capture their attention before the plot line, so when planning our film, we decided to follow the stereotypes as best we could and use two main actors, rather than lots of equally important actors, as it would take away the enigmas we planned to use as with lost of actors, it may be difficult to keep track of what is going on. Due to our limited sources, we could not use well known actors for our film, so we decided that it would be realistic to follow the conventions of a horror as close as possible. By doing this, we decided that using two main actors, a victim and an antagonist would suggest that the plot of the film would be successful.
Similarly, I think our film would work well with this target audience because it helps to take them away from the stressful work of everyday life at school and at home. the sense of escapism from the world going on will appeal to our audience, as our thriller and suspense will act as a selling point in our film. To ensure the success of our film against other competitive genres such as thrillers or action, we would need to take advantage of the social networking sites which are popular amongst our target audience to advertise our film, however our opening scene has provided elements that this demographic would want in a film, and with our limited knowledge I am quite proud with what we have produced.

Evaluation activity 3

Director's Commentary