Evaluation question 7

(question 7 was filmed and will be published shortly)

Looking back at my preliminary task till the final product now, i must say i have shown a great improvement when it comes to filming and understanding camerawork. At the end of to two products i believe the preliminary did help in making our media product successful at the end.

Planning for our media product did our media product a lot of favours as it worked as a clear guideline when we did go out to do filming.  During our prelim we didnt really spend a lot of time on planning and just went along with what we had to do whereas with our media product planning was very useful as to say if i or one of my team members where lost on what to do, we were able to refer back to the plan and it would put us back on track. Through planning i as a person has learn't that it is a vital to have a plan done as it kept our production very well organised especially due to the fact we had many things to plan such as scenes, call sheets and the location of where we were going to film, this also taught me that it takes a lot of patiences.

with camera work compared to our prelim and media product i have definately learnt a lot. when doing our preliminary we were only given 3 aspects to focus on which were match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule these 3 aspect which we had to use only in our prelim task. with our media product we then had the freedom of the choice to use whatever type of camerawork we wanted. One which we did experiment on was by breaking the 180 rule which enables us to get a different type of shot and which also came our very nicely.

There was a big contrast between our prelim and media product when it came to titles, as that was something we left at the last minute, but eventually with both tasks did eventually managed to do. i learnt that with titles you really have to use your creativity, first finding a catchy and interesting name for your product and then how you want it represented e.g. font, doing titles i learn't how to use programs such as photoshop more professionally by creating our media products title free hand.

Overall from start to finish, premlim being the start i have learnt that working together in a group can be hard as you have to be able to forward your ideas and engage your partners to be interested in your idea also. doing th premlim it helped me experience the different roles when it comes to filiming and that resulted in finding me an area of filiming which i was comfortable in and could perfom my best at. Working in a team enabled me also to improve my communication skills and confidence when it came to either acting, directing and also asking for help when editing. through all things that i have learnt it has truly helped me to get fimiliar with the media industry and tasks such as our media product i have realised it takes alot of time and patiences to make sure everything is right and for everything to run smoothly and by getting practise with doing our prelim task, the procees to our media product was a great success. ##]

Evaluation question 3

One media institution which I believe would distribute our media product would be such media companies like, Warner Bros Pictures, Film4 Productions, Sony or Universal. These companies have an eye for exciting films which will capture a huge audience and help sell the media product and the company itself. Through doing research me and my partner have been able to compare the different media institution to each other to see what institution  our media product could be part of.

  

The media institution we ended up going for was Warner Brothers as we felt this was the company that best suited our film. Warner Brothers are internationally renowned for producing top drawer crime and thriller movies such as 'A Clockwork Orange' and '16 Blocks'.

Evaluation question 1

After watching many openings to many films I have learnt that the openings to movies vary entirely but often contain around 3 to 4 characters. Our film has stuck to this convention by having 3/4 characters, the fourth character being someone that the audience never see but are always aware of his presence.

Our opening starts and ends very differently, it starts off with two characters taking a purposeful walk through and urban environment after checking their mobile phones. There is a noticeble urgency to their movement and this is reflected in terms of sound through the dynamic soundtrack which caused mystery and added to the overall feeling of the opening. The film challenges the conventional idea of most crime thrillers by not following the typical good guys vs bad guys idea and instead adding a dark psychological twist on it. The audience don't know who are the good guys or bad guys, this adds an element of confusion and entices the viewer to watch on.








Ellipsis was loosely based on the BBC one crime drama 'Luther', an impressive modern drama in which a detective pits his wits against a seemingly non-stop flow of deadly criminals. Like 'Luther' our media product makes comparisons between the two through mise-en-scene and plot. Both have twins as the main characters and are both represented through costume and props. In 'Luther' the evils twins are dressed in trainers, jeans, and a green jacket with a baseball cap always evident; this adds to the mystery of the characters and through the use of props such as dice and mobile phones it only adds intensity to this idea. The characters in 'Ellipsis' are dressed in a similar way to reflect this.

Both media products were both filmed in a naturalistic grey setting typical of London. The film both followed and challenged forms and conventions of camera work. Throughout the opening we had a lot of different shots that ended up focusing on a church, this was done to hint at the fact that someone was going to die. This was further emphasized when an iris shot was used to show the victim looking up at the church moments before her death. High angle long shots were used quite often for the twins sequences. This was done to show that although they got very close to the victim they were always at a safe enough distance to get away comfortably.

Normally in the thriller genre there is a clear cut protagonist and antagonist and this was the case in our media product. We used a cross-cut between different characters to show the view of murderer and victim. Our setting is unconventional compared to normal thrillers, those like hollywood blockbusters in glorious sunshine and beautiful beaches. Our film was set under the grey sky's of London, this was deliberately done to create a real original and gritty effect and we wanted our target audience to be able to relate to the film as much as possible.

Evaluation question 2

Our media product represents teenagers as a social group. This was done using Camerawork, Editing and Mise-en-scene.

Character: Murderer
This evil triplet was portrayed as a dark character right from the begining. This was done through the use of close-up camera shots never showing more than from the waist down. This meant that the audience never saw his face. This represents a small minority of teenagers that unfortunately are murderers.We emphasized this further by cutting him in and out of shots when he was about to kill his victim, along with this there was a quickening heartbeat when he was following his victim. All of these techniques added hair-raising tension to the film.

Characters: Twins
With the twins we wanted to portray them as a pair of sly, cunning villains who could go from a to b without being noticed. They wore typical teenage clothes like puffa jackets, jeans and trainers. We used a variety of different camera angles and shots to show the complexity of the two. One high angle crane shot of one of the twins illustrated the idea of the bigger picture, this was a deliberate contradiction to actual teenagers who always think their right. This was done to show that not all teenagers are the same.

Character: Victim
Our victim was portrayed as the typical popular girl that every group of teenagers has. She was dressed in smart but casual clothes and the camera shots always created a feeling of desperation. Both for the protaginist trying to get away and the antagonist trying to kill.

Evaluation question 5

Our target audience was the mid-to-late teenage group. All the characters in our film are in this age group, this was done to create an original and realistic representation of British teenagers. We had quite a few shots  around a school and in an alleyway during our production, these are places you would typically associate with our target audience. We tried to keep our camera shots and editing techniques as intersesting as possible to keep the views hooked on the film. An example of this is the editing effect we used in one scene to make it look like a CCTV camera was following a charcter. We chose to do this to emphasize the feeling among teenagers that feel that they are always being watched and scrutinised.

To make sure we really catered for our audience we had a question and answer session with them. This was done for two reasons. Firstly to make sure our viewers felt involved and not alienated. And secondly to allow myself and the production team to make any ammendments that may have been needed.

Mise-en-scene was crucial to us attracting our target audience in terms of costume. We had the hypothesis that if we got the fashion right, we would get our audience in. This is because fashion is something that is really important to teenagers and plays a big part in their lives. Our characters wore garments that are quite popular at the moment. We have even had feedback from our fans stating that a lot of the clothing items in our film our now becoming quite popular among teenagers in Britain.

Evaluation question 6

During the making of this coursework the production team have used many different programs to create the finished product.

This is the logo for our company. We used photoshop to carefully construct the four buildings and added red to the outside buildings and black to one of the inside buildings this was done using the set foreground and background tool which can colour in selected areas. The pencil tool was used to create the windows. Before the production of this coursework I hadnt really used photoshop, since using it I have learnt a lot about it and realised its importance to the production process.

To create the main film we used the video editing software Final Cut Pro.

 FCP was crucial in putting our various different clips in order and allowing us to edit down to the smallest detail. We used many different effects, none more so than the strobe effect on one of our clips to make it look like a cctv camera was following our actress.

 As well as this we edited another clip to make it look like slow motion. FCP is also crucial for adding sound, with a range of different options available for creating the desired effect. Our opening starts with an inserted sound track then moves into a thumping, quickening heart beat before finishing with a blood curdling scream. FCP was also very good in terms of allowing me to create our titles and adding effects to them. Before the production process I had not come across FCP but have since learned to use it very effectively.

To film all of our clips needed for the opening we used a cannon 550d camera. This piece of hardware was completely new to me and it took me a while to learn to use it effectively. Being one of the main characters in our production I was both in front of and behind the camera. This was particuly helpful as I learned how to set up framing and angles for my shots. This was done while following the key media conventions such as the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule. Most of our shots were taken on a tripod, this helped with our framing.

To record all of my progress I used the online blogging software called blogger. I had not used blogger before and initially struggled with it. However since then I have gradually got more and more comfortable blogging my work.

Evaluation question 4