A lightning before death. 'Finale'

Ancillary text; Film poster

Ancillary text; Radio trailer

Evaluation question 1

Evaluation 2

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation 4 from Joe Sandford

Evaluation questions

Evaluation Questions;

Q1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?  

Editing fundamentals

Media presentation from Joe Sandford

Behind the scenes 2.0

For this day of filming more issues occurred when the original car used was unavailable and had to find a replacement. this made it very difficult with continuity in post production. how ever we came out with some good footage and we put it into Final cut and tried to make the editing as smooth as possible.

Second day of filming

On our second day of filming we were trying to film this sequence where the characters were running down a country drive towards a farm. To be able to keep a steady distance from the cast while maintaining a smooth shot we decided the best course of action would be to use the convertible ‘mini cooper’ to use as a fast pace dolly to get the shot we wanted.

Using the rig allowed for more control but also creating an impressive effect with a slight shake to add to the intensity. Safety measures were made. we did not exceed 15 miles an hour and it was on a private road with no traffic. 

Strong women roles

One of the most obvious developments in recent pop culture has been the emergence of the icons and rhetoric of 'girl power', a phrase slapped into mainstream culture by the Spice Girls and subsequently incorporated into the language of government bodies as well as journalists, educationalists, culture critics, and pop fans themselves. Magazines for young women are emphatic in their determination that women must do their own thing, be themselves, and/or be as outrageously sassy and sexy as possible. Several recent movies have featured self-confident, tough, intelligent female lead characters. Female pop stars sing about financial and emotional independence, inner strength, and how they don't need a man; and the popular mantra of self-help books is that women can become just as powerful as these icons, if they cultivate their confidence and self-belief, and draw up a plan of self-development.

The emergence of the increasing amount of strong women roles has been included in many films that have come out in the past few years such as hunger games with Jennifer Lawrence and star wars the force awakens with Daisy Ridley 

With our production we have also included a strong women role where we see the character of "Libby" taking the lead. Whereas the stereotype would be a "damsel in distress" which we have chosen not include in our production.

First rough edit

Our first rough edit of the sequence which we originally thought would be the opening to our production was more of a learning experience. As this day of shooting was not well planed, we did not stick to the shot list and it was challenging to get everything done. However it gave us the our first hands on experience with our new equipment which consisted of a glide cam, which allowed for high levels of mobility while giving seamless and smooth footage, which we used for the majority of the day, along side a shoulder rig which again gave us more mobility but not as smooth as the glide cam, we used this where it was not possible to use the glide cam. (inside the car)

The experience learnt from that day of shooting consisted of time management, Organisation of crew and cast, organisation of shot list and a briefing of what we planned to do that day. our main way of organisation was through the social network site Facebook. as a group conversation can be made in seconds and there were two groups, one with all members, crew, cast and logistics. And another which just consisted the members of the group. this was a great tool to use for the organisation of the entire production.

Behind the scenes

This behind the scenes clip shows our first shoots where we attempt to film the first scene where the group abruptly breaks down on a country road and obviously isolated from anyone else.some difficulties that we encountered were firstly, lighting. Ensuring that there was a suitable lighting setup was crucial to having a high quality shoot and being successful as a part of the final piece. we tried best to fit our filming times during the lightest parts of the day but as we wanted the best result it took an hour and a half to get the fist dialogue shot the way we wanted. this made for a long day of filming and the light slowly made it more and more difficult to get a shot that was well lit. this made editing in post very difficult as upping the exposure often caused the picture to be full of noise and not usable. we over came this but tweaking the colour grading to make the footage clearer without distorting the image too much. We made specific presets for the darker scenes where we could match the colour and tones as best we could


Before                                                                                                        After

                                                                                                       

Cinematography: Camera movement

Through out the production we discussed multiple aspects of  our production and ways in which to improve the outcome of the production and to progress from my AS project. The main key difference i discovered is camera movement. from studying film language and in my own time observing closely to existing films such as Inception, pulp fiction and Shawshank redemption. And saw that all these texts show huge evidence of camera movement and cinematography which exactly reflects the atmosphere of the scene and is still able to emerge you into the film without it being made obvious that there is an operator and crew behind the camera creating the illusion that you are watching it as it happens.

 

An example of the camera movements used in film are put together in this clip where it collaborates all significant camera movement and explains the motive behind using the specific movement. Close ups make you notice the characters facial expression. Which works along side the slight camera movement to immerse you with what is usually an intense or emotional scene where select moment and shots are needed to make the effect needed for the end product. in our first shoot we experimented and attempted to not use any static shots throughout the scene which meant not using a tripod and instead using a rig to create the slight unsteady shots which add to the urgency of the scene.

Audience preferences

This research has been grouped with data and information from the BFI.  we will look at data conducted through exit polls for a number of films, organise them into categories that relate to our project.

Sources of data 

Part of our project is to create a support product, in our case a poster and a film review . We need to look at how audiences find out about films in order to assess if our choice is appropriate.

The following data is for the film 'Frank':

looking at the graph magazine articles show up as the second highest  ,with 13% of all people surveyed hearing about the film through this medium. Radio is around mid table at 10%, which is still good enough to justify our decision. We don't want to create an article and a poster, as that would be too similar and posters scored much lower than both the radio and magazine options in this survey.

reason for watching the film 

In this set of data, I will look at what makes people go to the film that they have watched. In this case, the data is from the film 'Kidulthood' by Noel Clarke:

the majority of people surveyed said that the story is the reason that they went to see the film, with 36% of the vote. Factors such as the genre of the film were also popular answers, with this one getting 23% of the vote. This is data that will be useful to us, as we will know what to focus on when making our support products.

Overall, the audience is influenced heavily by the support products, and therefore we must utilise this influence fully, in order to create a successful end product.

Slider test

Making a camera slider

Making a camera slider was much more challenging than we first expected. as in group discussion the statement of “drill two holes and stick both of the poles in”. once we started to make the slider we realised it to be much more complex, as the only straight metal piping we could use was rusted and weathered so a cleaning process with emery paper (sandpaper for metal). we used this until the surface was smooth and flush. 

then the task to drill the holes into two blocks of wood to hold both of the rods equally apart this was relatively simple and quick completed.

And to hold the camera we chose a solid block of nylon which we thought to be the best material as it was easy to cut and self lubricating so we saw it fit to use. 

Then to add some silicon spray to help it slide along 

Now we're ready to shoot with a fully functioning camera slider 

Target audience

It is important to select an audience that would be best suited to our film. The age range of the film would be 15 upwards as in our idea there is some bloody violence, explicit  language but if our film would continue into a real film our film would develop into more gory violence and strong language  classing our film as a 15 certificate . Our target audience would consist of both male and female audiences but i feel that male audiences would be more attracted to our film as conforming  with the male stereotype. Of an action film would suit a male audience because of the build of of tension and the pace of the film 

in group planning we discussed the basic fundamentals our film must show to be successfully appealing to audiences.We decided to cast both strong male and female leads in the film to best suit the effect we are trying to put across. 

The age of the characters in the film would vary as having a cast targeting a close age range people of other ages may not be attracted to the film. But considering that younger ages of cast have often appealed to the older generations.The hunger games and attack the block which has attracted a variety of age ranges.

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound

sound within the production is considered just as important as the visual aspect of the film. creating the Atmosphere through the use of non- diegetic sound. which consists of anything from music or dramatic, emotional or intense sounds which add to the effect which best fits the on screen mood.

The way in which sound can change the whole experience of a production is huge. And the ability to choose the best sounds and music which can express the situation, mood or expressions of characters within a film.

Another type of sound design is foley sound. this is done in post production where individuals may look back on the shoot and see what sounds are missing. and gather both everyday and technical objects and equipment and try to best create what these sounds would have sound like. this can be anything from walking around in amor to create the sense of a marching army or a cheese greater swung on some string to create the effect of a dragons tail whipping as done in "The lord of the rings"

This may be needed for specific sounds which cant be created by what we have on set such as stabbing noises. Or if a sound does not sound like what we want or expected.

Car scene; Ideas

For the car scene we were ambitious to try and attempt a shot that was done for the film “children of men” where it shows a full 360 degree view of the entire cast in the car in one shot. Our discussions for ideas to attempt this shot consisted of using the glide cam as a rotation point and spinning the camera round while dialogue is exchanged within the characters. the shot was so effective in the film. showing the intensity of the situation and up close and personal with all that was going on in the hectic scene. 

The complications that may occur when attempting a shot of this complexity is there may not be enough room within the car for it to be possible and how it will be rotated while the cast are acting.

Locations, forms and conventions

To fit the theme of a western we all agree that we will have to use locations that express conventions that are associated with this genre. But also give this traditional genre a twist by bringing in modern aspects into our production. which differs from the usual take on a western film. 

The first thing people think of when they hear “Western”. Is “the good, the bad and the ugly” and “a fist full of dollars”. Both starring Clint Eastwood. Being the face of western film. To be able to bring this genre to our production we will have to take these conventions of a western and the locations to create the effect we want. 
The locations that we have found best fit what we image for our production is a derelict railway tracks. which will contribute to creating our genre mix of a modern western

Verney junction is a 50 minute drive towards milton keynes. And three members of the group and cast are able to drive so logistics is not an issue. 

The stretch of railway is completely out of use and sections of the tracks have been pulled up and parts of the area are overgrown,

This would be an ideal location for our idea for the final stand off scene where we clearly see the location has lots of overgrown grass, hedges trees etc and the railway through the middle which is a perfect location for the effect we plan to achieve