Completed Film Opening

Evaluation: Question 7

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

For the continuity task, it was difficult to keep everything consistent so there were no continuity errors. We avoided most continuity errors in our final task by filming all the scenes in a particular location all at once so that we wouldn't have to return to that location under different conditions.

Also the 180 degree rule was difficult to keep to since most films it's hardly noticeable. We had to mirror one of the shots in the continuity task to keep it consistent. In the main task, the 180 degree rule came naturally to us and was simple to keep consistent because we didn't think too much about it and kept the camera on one side of the scene.

This is a long shot that works really well in long corridors where the person can be centralized. We learnt that this is most effective in showing character(s) look distant. We used a long shot in our main task when you see Tyler and Ewan arguing and about to be shot. Long shots only work when the location suits it since thrillers don't have many long shots therefore it has to be limited.

The 180 degree rule is shown in this frame therefore we cannot put a camera from the other side of the table otherwise it would break the rule. We learnt that as long as we put the camera on one side of an imaginary line then the 180 degree rule would never be broken.

The shot-reverse-shot editing was used in this scene as it was an effective way of two characters having a conversation. For the shot-reverse-shot in the continuity task, we used two cameras to film the conversation. In the main task, we learn that as long as we kept the actors in the same position then we could move the camera to film the conversation twice to make the shot-reverse-shot work in the café scene.





This POV camera movement is incredibly effective at showing a human perspective on a scene and it puts the audience in the character's shoes. The slight shaking is also a nice touch compared to the smoothness of just filming a scene. We learnt that we could use this POV movement to show the killer's perspective to add a rather creepy feel to the scene in our main task when Ewan gets shot. The effect is that the audience are unsure who they are following since it's a POV shot.

The match-on-action editing used in this scene is a clever and dramatic way of a character performing an action. In the continuity task, the match-on-action seemed appropriate for the intense build up and the sudden movements of the interviewer. However in our main task, we learnt that a match on action was simply not possible with the one camera that we had. A match on action requires at least two camera for it to work so we had to rely on other camera and editing techniques. 

Overall, all of the techniques practiced in the continuity preliminary task allowed us to make the best film possible. Even the small things like match-on-action has influenced our decision making and planning process since we initially wanted to include as much camera techniques as possible but this preliminary task showed that it was not possible. The POV camera movement with continuity editing and the shot-reverse-shot were also incredibly useful for showing us what effect the shots will insinuate. The preliminary task was just a very fun process that allowed us to test our ideas for our final main product. 

Evaluation: Question 6

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

We used a Panasonic camera to capture and record our film. It was easy to use and had multiple options such as adjusting the lighting, contrasts and made sure the shot was steady before recording. Although it did limit how creative we could be because it would shake too much if we handheld it. The editing process solved most of these problems.

We used a standard tripod to stabilize the camera for still shots and was very easy to use. There were no problems with the tripod and did its job perfectly.

We used a steadicam to stabilize the camera during moving shots and was also very easy to use. Although there still were slight shakes, it was nothing severe that we couldn't fix through editing.

iMovie was the initial editing software that we used. It improved ineffective as it lacked any complex editing like colour correction and didn't have a good way to cut shots. This definitely slowed the process of editing down since the better editing software that we used later on proved much more effective in getting what we wanted. Although iMovie is really basic for beginners so we used it for editing our continuity exercise.

As you can see, Lightworks is much more complex than iMovie and is a much better editing software as it allows more variety to editing such as colour correction and able to fix transitions between shots much more cleanly than iMovie. Furthermore, in Lightworks, you could cut the shots in milliseconds rather than in seconds in iMovie therefore Lightworks is far more precise than iMovie. You can also add sound much more easier in Lightworks because in iMovie, the sound will overlap into other shots when you don't want it to. We all managed to pick up fairly easily with guides on Youtube. It was definitely worth using Lightworks over iMovie.

I used Youtube to upload and publish our videos onto. It also worked as a compressor so our video size wasn't massive. I had never used Youtube to upload any videos so I found Youtube very easy to use.

We used Blogger to record our progress for our coursework and proved to be an effective way of archiving progress. Blogger is easy for beginners and rewards experienced computer users with their HTML coding. The fact that the blog can be personalized is a huge plus. My only concern is that beginners may struggle to change certain aspects of their blog like moving other posts around the blog and there's not really a guide to use Blogger. You're just expected to know how to use it. 

Evaluation: Question 5

How does you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience are people who are over the age of 15 and are passionate about film so therefore are able to understand key messages that our film is trying to convey. Through each of these following elements, we have made links to other similar films in order to attract the particular audience we want:

Evaluation: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your film and why?

Based on audience questionnaires, our target audience would be 15+ aiming mostly at teenagers who are passionate about film. Our typical target audience member would be someone like this: 

A person like this would watch our film because it contains violent imagery, intense moments and an interesting story. They would be use to unknown actors because of they prefer indie films over typical mainstream films. If they watch any popular TV shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones etc. then they can endure a lot of the gore, profanity and focus on the story and characters more than younger or older audience members. Also those shows along with the Revenant and Dead Man's Shoes are known for excellent camera work, mise en scene and symbolism which is prevalent throughout our film. 

We also showed our film to a few members of the target audience and here is them reacting to it:

From the audience feedback in the video above, we have significantly improve our film because we got rid of the 'Star Trek' like transitions between the flashbacks and we have placed the title of the film 'Flashback' earlier on in the film opening rather than in the middle. We also added more titles including director, actors, production and distribution companies. We kept everything they found positive the same.

Evaluation: Question 3

What kind of media institution would distribute your film and why?

For our film opening, it is a low budget thriller indie film that has hints of psychological traits. The director we have chosen for directing and inspiration for our film opening is Shane Meadows because he is known for making short low budget British films. For example, Dead Man’s Shoes is a psychological thriller that is incredibly similar to our genre that we have because of our whole flashback concept. The film deals with the struggle of human life with themes of revenge and violence. This is similar to how our film opening has implied murder and extremely disturbing shots of blood. Meadows is known for using unknown small time actors to convey to the audience that these people in the film are just normal day-to-day people and is also as a result of his low budget.

Another benefit of having Shane Meadows as our director is his skills in directing the actors to work around a rough script, but also having them improvise some lines. This helps to create a realistic feel to the characters and makes them more believable instead of the cliché Hollywood US one-liners and dramatic pauses that aren’t realistic. Furthermore he uses a lot of dark low-key lighting as seen in Dead Man’s Shoes to create a nihilistic perspective of life and is usually used to let the audience know that this film will not have a ‘happy’ ending.  His varied use of camera angles and shots is especially effective at conveying emotion and can vary from low angles to long shots which is implemented in  our film because we have a wide range of camera techniques such as shot-reverse-shot and extreme close ups to name a few. Meadows also doesn’t use much high angle or any bird’s eye shots because of his limited budget and is only used at the end of Dead Man’s Shoes as the ending shot. This also corresponds to our film because we didn’t use many high angles because it wouldn’t have fit in with the atmosphere of the film opening since it would reveal too much.

The production company that we have chosen for our film opening is Warp Films who are an independent film company based in the UK. They were also known for making Dead Man’s Shoes and a lot of other Shane Meadow’s films so it makes sense to use the same production company that he uses. They are most known for taking risks such as the film Four Lions which is a comedy based on Islamic bombers and conducting jihad. Therefore they are perfect to be our production company since they are not too sensitive to offensive and violent material. Our film has blood and gore so Warp Films would be professionals at the film production for our opening.

Optimum Releasing (now known as StudioCanal UK) is a British film distributing company that are also known for distributing Dead Man’s Shoes and other Shane Meadow’s films and made them successful. They are willing to distribute violent and dark material since they have done so with Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark which is a horror film. Optimum have released over 200 films a year and were one of the most prominent distributors in the UK independent film and world cinema market. This makes them optimum for our film opening distributors.

The marketing campaign as part of the exhibition will consist of billboards of the film, interviews with the director Shane Meadows and there will be a website set up to advertise the film. The actors' IMDB and Wikipedia page will have their status changed to 'Missing' which is influenced from The Blair Witch Project as the actors were also 'Missing' prior to the film's release. This sparked interest from the public at that time and made people want to watch the film more.

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group presented in our film opening are middle-class white British males.

Below is Tyler's character compared with Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter:

Similarities

• White British males with blonde hair to represent dominance and 'evil'
• Force their friends to suit their own agendas
• See their friends die
• Begin as selfish people but end up realizing what they did wrong
• Have cowardly friends
• Get angry easily
• Both are main characters to the film
• Both have power over their friends  

Differences

• Tyler is a protagonist, Malfoy is an antagonist
• Tyler wears casual clothing to represent his middle-class whereas Malfoy wears a smart school uniform to represent a sense of superiority and educated
• Tyler gets blood on his clothes at the film opening but Malfoy doesn't get stained for a while which shows the difference in genre and age rating on their films
• Tyler is much older than Malfoy which represents maturity
• Malfoy is an obstacle that the protagonist needs to overcome but Tyler is the protagonist
• Malfoy is the typical blonde-haired antagonist in a kid's film but Tyler is a more complex character who maintains a typical thriller convention of a protagonist

We used Tyler's character to represent a thriller typical protagonist who is assertive because it works well with Ewan's character who is the complete opposite of Tyler's character. It creates a sense of tension between those characters and it turns Tyler from an assertive, dominant individual to a more selfless, caring character. His character is also good for the audience's view on him because it changes throughout the film opening.

Below is Ewan's character compared with Anthony from Dead Man's Shoes:

Similarities:

• White British males with brown hair to represent simplicity, friendliness, dependability and health. 
• Wear casual clothing to represent middle-class
• Both get murdered by the antagonists
• Completely innocent
• Depend on the protagonist a lot
• Both get caught in the cross fire between the protagonist and the antagonists
• Their deaths cause the protagonist to go under a change in their personality
• Both considered weak
• Both get flashbacks to what happened to them
• Ewan and Anthony both aren't very conventional of a thriller deuteragonist 

Differences:

• Ewan's bright white shirt is symbolic of his purity whereas Anthony's black jacket is symbolic of his death
• Ewan stands up for himself a bit more than Anthony because of the differences in situations
• Anthony was abused and killed himself but Ewan was shot
• Ewan's death is established at the film opening but Anthony's death is only revealed at the end
• Ewan's death is partially because of the protagonist but Anthony's death is all due to the antagonists

We used Ewan's character to represent innocence, purity and dependability because it compliments Tyler's character and is the catalyst to the story progressing. Ewan's character is like Anthony's in that they both feel like they shouldn't be in a thriller movie so it makes the audience sympathise with them. Therefore when the antagonist kills this kind of character, the audience immediately have a strong hatred towards the antagonist. It's an effective way of setting up the genre and story.

Evaluation: Question 1

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

 1.

This is a typical establishing shot that is typical for thrillers because it tells the audience where the film is taking place. Similarly the Dark Knight has a similar establishing shot as well. Both of our films have high-key lighting in terms of mise en scene which is similar to the Dark Knight. The high key lighting is contrasted to how dark the rest of the film is. The location is different from the Dark Knight but it is still typical of a thriller because the Revenant is an example of a thriller that is also set outdoors in a forest.

2.   

The titles for our film is very similar to those of Drive because the title appears in both of the scenes without any CGI. The font of the title correlates to the theme of the film. Therefore Drive has a very Los Angeles and classy feel to the film whereas our film Flashback has a lot of mystery so the plainness of the font leaves questions for the target audience.

3.

This introduces the thriller genre as it immediately captures the audience's attention with an eerie atmosphere to this shot. Similarly, Under The Skin has the same extreme close up shot but more closer to the eye. We wanted to achieve a similar feel to Under The Skin with this shot. Although this being used as in an opening isn't very typical of thriller genres because it's more of an arthouse/independent convention.

4. 

This shot displays a tilt movement and introduces the protagonist in his entirety. The tilt is effective at showing his blood-stained clothes and the audience is questioning whether he's dead or not. This camera movement is also typical of thrillers because the Dark Knight uses it in a similar fashion. They are both used to give information about the character.

5.

These wide shots are typical of a thriller because it sets up the story whilst also giving a clearer introduction of the characters and the location. The location reflects the mood and atmosphere of the scene so a cafe would be for a light-hearted scene whereas a dark forest is used for a violent scene. The clothing (mise en scene) in both of these shots give information about the characters. Especially the white shirt than Ewan is wearing which is symbolic of his purity and innocence. Whereas Tyler's red hoodie is foreshadowing to his current bloodied state. In the Revenant and our film, this wide shot sets up the story because the actions or words that will follow up with this shot will contribute to the development of the story.

6. 

This track back movement isn't very typical of a thriller because it's very slow and reveals too much of the surroundings which can take away from the immersion. However we used this shot because we thought it was effective at showing Ewan's corpse and why Tyler is so traumatized. It leaves a sense of mystery because the audience are unsure why the camera is tracking back until the corpse is revealed. The mise en scene of blood-stained clothing of Ewan can also be seen which is contrasted to his clean white shirt in the flashback. This type of symbolism isn't typical of a thriller because mainstream audiences don't pay attention to these details but Under The Skin uses a lot of symbolic meanings in its film.

7.

This medium shot further develops the story because it's a turning point in Ewan's life where he makes the decision whether to continue with the adventure or not. A barrier can be seen between Ewan and Tyler. The high-key lighting that Ewan is standing in is contrasted to Tyler's fist in the low-key lighting which is symbolic of Ewan's impending demise. This is also not very typical of a thriller convention because it can be seen as too obvious to the audience that Ewan will die.  

8.

These shots use special effects which is typical of a thriller because Dead Man's Shoes also uses special effects in their flashbacks. This is to let the target audience know that there is a flashback is taking place. Flashbacks are usually used in a thriller to depict a tragedy in the past. In this scenario, Ewan and Anthony are about to meet their demise. The low angle of Tyler shows a position of power

9.

This close up shot is effective at showing the thriller genre due to the gun prop as part of mise en scene which is used. Compared to the Spectre gun barrel scene, it creates a similar effect in that it's suppose to surprise the audience. This is typical of a thriller and it's almost a cliche when the camera does a close up of the barrel of the gun because it's used in so many thrillers.