Final draft

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?

Planning: The difference in planning between the preliminary film and the final product was huge, we spent more time on story boarding and creating meaning in the narrative. We made sure that in the final film we used a range of shots from long shots to close ups to give a preferred reading.

Equipment: For my preliminary film, I used a small flip camera which was not particularly high quality, after seeing the footage from these cameras, our group decided we needed to use a better camera so we used Amelia's camera so we could get much clearer shots and make it more convincing as a real film. 

Camera skills: From the preliminary film I learnt a lot about framing shots; in the preliminary I didn't really think about what was in the frame which meant the protagonist was not always central and therefore was not represented as being important. Whereas we made sure not to frame anything unnecessary in our final product, we framed the protagonist so he was almost always central to the shot so he was represented as important. Also, the filming of the preliminary film was shaky, the camera was moving a lot which made it look unprofessional. We made sure if this happened when filming the final product then we would re-film it. This meant checking footage as soon as we had filmed it, which I did not do when filming the preliminary. 

Editing: When editing the preliminary, I only used basic skills like cutting the footage shorter. Whereas with the final product I learnt how to crop images so they were framed better, change the lighting to give a different preferred reading, edit in different transactions, speed up and slow down shots and use a range of shots go create meaning. 

Sound: I learnt how soundtracks can create meaning and connote different emotions and how some diagetic sounds can be conventional to a specific genre.

Ident and titles: I didn't create an ident for my preliminary film, but during the research stage of the project I learnt that they are not only necessary for films to have them, it also makes a film look professional. The same way titles in film openings are very common and make the film look professional.

Team work: I think as the project has gone on, our group has got better and better at working as a team. With the help of emails and texts we were able to communicate quickly between the three of us and devise work up equally and without arguments. 

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 6 on SlideShare

E q 6 from harrysquire

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

After deciding on who our target audience should be, we had a meeting with a handful of them. They wanted a build up of tension and some dramatic scenes. We built up tension in our opening by having a range of medium shots and close ups of our protagonist which connoted that he was preparing for a big event.
In our opening we followed conventional genre iconography; we had the full race suit, the helmet, the car and the settings were conventional too. This would attract our audience as they recognize it as the genre they are interested in. Our opening sets the film up to have an exciting narrative, the film ends with the protagonist in a hospital bed, bandaged up which implies that there is an incident that so far hasn't been seen, so there is suspense and the audience will be watching the film anticipating something going wrong. This anticipation is something that would appeal to our target audience as they said they liked the build up of tension and knowing that something exciting will happen.
Generally, an audience of a motor sport film is mainly made up of males, so they will relate to the male protagonist. Maybe they view themselves as being similar or want to be like him, this will attract the male audience.
Female members of our audience testing said they liked some emotion in films (emotional pleasures), we have a sad narrative as the protagonist is shown to be in hospital, This will attract especially the female audience.
There are some visceral pleasures as typically, an audience of this genre would like to be tense and left in suspense. I think the opening we have created creates suspense as the audience knows that something bad will happen but they don't know how or when it will happen.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Classification and audiences

Looking at the BBFC classification system, we would expect our film to come under 12A meaning the cinema release is suitable for 12 years and over. We feel as though this would give us the widest audience possible and it is unlikely that strong language or violent scenes would appear in the full movie. If for some reason our film was put in the category of 15 and over, it would probably benefit us to cut out the scene(s) that were stopping it being a 12/12A as we would likely be missing out on a large proportion of our audience. In the first Hunger games movie the original categorization from the BBFC was 15, but because this would mean a massive loss of audience, they cut around 7 seconds which meant it was lowered to be a 12.

Although with the classification, we want to attract the widest audience possible, our target audience is a domestic, national audience. This is due to the budget being low and the narrative very aimed towards the niche, British audience. There is no point spending more than necessary on distribution trying to reach a tentpole audience when this particular genre generally only sells in the UK.

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification, set up in 1912, categorizes cinema films based on regularly updated, current views on film.

Evaluation: Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I feel as though our film should be distributed by film 4; they support UK films reaching out to a domestic, niche audience. Our film is a small budget film that is unlikely to appeal to a worldwide audience

Distributors are not involved in the production of a film. They buy the rights to a film and finance the distribution of it and the marketing. This includes the screening of the film.

Film 4

Film 4 is an institution devised from the television channel 'Channel 4' which develops and finances British films. It was launched November 1 1998. One of the big successes it has had 'The inbetweeners movie'. 

Pathe 

Pathe is one of the oldest distributors, It has had a huge influence of the UK film industry in recent years and although it generally only finances small, independent films it had global success with the release of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and success in the UK with the film 'Pride'.

BBC Film

BBC film was founded in 1990, working with major distributors both nationally and internationally, it produces around 8 films a year. Recent successes are 'x+y' and 'Mr. Holmes'. 

Studio Canal

Studio canal is a French distribution company with the third largest film library in the world. It's recent releases include 'Paddington' and 'Shaun the Sheep movie'.

Funding

To get funding for the film we would apply for the British Film Institute so that we we were illegible for a grant off of the national lottery which is very good at funding the independent UK film industry. Also, our production would come under the tax shelter as over 25% of the filming was done in the UK, and as our film had a total core expenditure of less that £20 million, we can claim payable cash rebate of up to 25% of the total UK expenditure.

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender

We chose to cast a male as our protagonist, we did this as it was a conventional theme throughout this genre. This is because the stereotypes surrounding a male character are that this character will be strong and important. For a large majority of our film opening we tried to follow and represent these stereotypes. We did this by introducing the protagonist with a range of close ups and medium shots to create a preferred reading that this was the most important character.

However, we subverted these archetypal views when the protagonist was in hospital through the high angled shot looking down upon the character to represent him as weak and vulnerable.

Disability

We had a small part of our opening where the protagonist was disabled. We wanted the audience to view the character as weak in contrast to the strong, able bodied representation we originally created. We did this by the high angled shot looking down at the character and though make up and costume to make it convincing that he was injured.

Sound

For a large part of our opening, we had only non-diagetic, ambient music to create a sad tone to our opening. The slow, atmospheric sounds create a preferred reading that there is not much happening, it connotes a slow pace of life which is unconventional of the motor sport genre.

Towards the end of the opening, we had some more conventional diagetic sounds of the car engine. This being the only diagetic sound makes this stand out and connotes that this is an important scene. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

Evaluation Question 1 on Slideshare

Evaluation question 1 pp from harrysquire

Audience testing of final draft

We showed this clip to the same group that we used before so that we would get a pattern in the answers. We showed them the film and they said that they liked that we had added and changed everything that they suggested. They also preferred the new ending we gave it with the black out instead of the last car clip. Also they liked the ident that we added at the beginning and said that it gave a professional feel to the clip overall.

Second draft evaluation

Sound

Our second draft is a massive improvement on our first. First of all we have added sound into it, most sound is non-diagetic, incidental music which we and our target audience feel connotes an emotional tone. We also have some diagetic sounds that Amelia was able to get off of iMovie, of the car setting off and turning a corner. We were lucky that these sounds fitted in with our filming but we feel that they are important because they are conventional features of this type of film and it creates a kind of climax to our opening that engages the viewer.

Editing

Changes that were made in editing include the sound that was mentioned previously but the finer detail have also improved our opening; such as the change in lighting. We played around with the effects on iMovie for a while and found that we can make shots look brighter and clearer which made, in particular, our establishing shots look much more appealing than before they looked dark and gloomy.

Transitions were our main focus for the second draft in terms of editing. We wanted to start off the opening with a slow pace to create an emotional atmosphere so we decided on the establishing shots to fade them slowly out and as the music got quicker the transitions did too. For the first shot in the hospital we could fade out to white which gives the impression to the viewer that the protagonist is remembering back to something. 

At the end of the opening when the car is introduced, the cuts get quicker, this is to create a tension and make the viewer pay closer attention. The tone is suddenly more exciting!

Second draft

Creating titles

Titles creation:

As a group in our lesson today we looked through the different fonts and styles that the editing software had and we looked at which ones fitted the conventional theme that goes along with the Motorsport sub-genre. There was only one that would have fitted so when showing the focus group the sounds we just asked them whether the titles fitted or whether they looked out of place and they decided that they fitted and worked well with the opening.

Sound testing+sourcing

Sound testing+sourcing

This is a photo of us doing our sound testing. We got a group of both male and female 15+ and showed them our re-filmed film 3 times, each time with a different sound track. After each one they were asked what they thought of the sound track. After all 3 had been played they were asked which sound track was best. They chose the third track which was good because as a group we decided that that one was our favorite. 

We used a website called freeplaymusic.com to source copyright free soundtracks. 

Re-filming day

Re-filming day

Today we are re-filming some shots for a film. Amelia has spoken to Mr Hopkins and we have permission to film in both the workshop and one of the grand stands in our third period today. 

In the workshop we are going to film the protagonist putting on the race suit; this will introduce him well as the main character. We were lucky that Jacob was able to re-source the race suit for today otherwise we might of had to re-film all of the shots with the race suit. In the grand stand we are re-filming the scene where the protagonist walks up the stairs, we will be able to make this part longer and more interesting using a range of shots to create a preferred reading that the protagonist is focused on the race. 

For the filming we need to consider camera angles, making sure the camera is steady when we are filming etc. 

Last time we filmed the scene in the grand stand we had a problem with the shadow of the camera being on the protagonist, this time we will learn from our mistakes and check before we film and if this is a problem again we will have to think more creatively about  the camera angles we are using.

Call Sheets for Re-filming

Re-filming legislation

For re-filming, we needed to film off school premises and in the workshop, so we needed permission for both these locations. Amelia was put in charge of getting us permission for this.

Rough cut

Rough cut

This is our rough cut, we know there are various issues with it but we are hoping to rectify those issues in the following week. Issues such as this is only 52 seconds long; we can make some of the establishing shots longer which will not only mean we have a longer film but we feel as it will set the tone of the film better. We are also going to re film the scene where the protagonist walks up the stairs to make the footage more interesting with different angles and also so it is longer. We are also going to add in a scene where the protagonist puts on the race suit, this is to introduce the protagonist with close ups denoting that he is a character of importance because at the moment we only have medium shots and extreme long shots of the protagonist. Unfortunately we are going to have to take out the argument scene, this is because it did not work without diagetic sound and it is not overly important to the narrative.
We also need to work on the editing to make the transitions smoother especially on the establishing shots at the beginning.

Editing

Editing

We are doing the editing of our film on Amelia's laptop. This is because she has a mac and knows how to use iMovie. Unfortunately, not doing the editing on a school computer means that myself and Dan do not have access to the footage unless with Amelia. To resolve this problem we have used google drive so that all three of us can access to footage.

Call sheets

 Call sheets

First draft audience testing

Focus group testing

Yesterday (3rd February), as a team we got a focus group together which consisted of a range of people over the age of 12, male and female, which is our main target audience. The purpose of this was for them to watch the rough cut of our film and give feedback on it. We used a questionnaire which had questions which would get us percentage answers and also open questions which would give us suggestions as to how we could improve our opening. This is what our questionnaire looked like.

  Audience testing questions

·         What sort of feeling did the clip give you?

·         Could you immediately tell this film was in the motorsport sub-genre?

·         How could we improve this footage?

·         What sounds do you recommend adding?

·         Would this sort of film normally interest you?

·         Would you go to the cinema to watch this film?

·         What aspects would you change? 

Filming day

Filming

Our filming day (on the track) was Tuesday 19th January. Amelia, Dan and myself all had a go at filming. I believe the day was a successful one, we still have some filming to do which we hope to get done Wednesday 27th so we can go further with the editing.

These are a few shots to show how it went...

This was us setting up the camera to film our first establishing shot. We did have some problems at the beginning of the day because the tripod we were first given was broken so we had to go back to school and get another one!
This is something we should have thought about before leaving school the first time, we now know, if we were to do this again, to check all equipment to begin with.

Millie filming from top of the stands. We did this so we could look down on the stands to get the iconography in the foreground and have the track in the background. 

Filming the LA shot from behind the car. I filmed this as I hadn't yet done any filming and for the rest of the shots I was going to be acting.

Before filming the close up, Amelia had to put the make-up on my face. This is a photo of her doing so.