Final Ancillary Products

Directors Commentary Of Finished Film + Finished Film

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

This is how I created my production pieces:

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

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The project has helped me broaden my use of new media technologies. Through the development of media technology and web 2.0, amateur producers like myself now have a much greater opportunity to produce  high quality media texts. Amateur producers can now gain much more varied and useful information on audience through the use of web 2.0. Whereas in the past I would be limited to a very small audience, I can now receive instant feedback on my media products from anyone in the world through sites such as Youtube. Therefore new media technologies has transformed the consumer into the producer.

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 Audience feedback has been of primary importance in every stage of the project. Initially it was important to establish a target audience before getting audience feedback. From research online it was clear that psychological thrillers and horrors generally attracted a fairly young audience. The target audience I decided on was ages ranging from 16-24. Once I had a target audience it was vital that I targeted them through a number of mediums. Blogger is tool I used to create a poll. This wasn’t a very successful form of audience feedback as not many people replied. It was also difficult to get feedback from a specific audience. I therefore did it manually by asking people in my media class and people in the sixth form what they thought would be the best title. Yahoo answers were a useful way in which to get quick feedback. We used it when we were creating the narrative of our film. During the research stages my partner and I asked our friends what they’d like to see in a psychological thriller. After gaining insight into what would attract our target audience we began producing our film. The preliminary filming was very useful in gaining insight into what worked and what didn’t. Youtube was another way we gained feedback. The comment section helped us gain further understanding of our target audience and statistics from Youtube showed us who was watching our video. This helped understand what age demographics we should target.

The figures below indicate that our target audience could be older than first anticipated.

Facebook was the most useful way in which to improve my production pieces. I adjusted my double page spread after I gained feedback from Natasha Harmer and Henry Scott. Henry (aged 18)also thought it looked excellent which indicates that it would attract my target audience. I also changed my poster after getting feedback from Facebook. It was suggested that the age certificate wasn't necessary so I took it off and its its place created my own "LJ pictures" logo. This is because existing media texts often contain logo's of the production company e.g. Warner Bros.

My ancillaries were improved from constant feedback from my peers and target audience. Here is the latest development from my target audience. Here is also another post in which I showed my development through audience feedback.

Here is the transformation after receiving feedback from my audience. From the audience feedback shown above I:
-        Removed the age certificate
-        Reduced the font size on the credits
-        Created a ‘LJ productions’ logo
-         Rearranged the page

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

All my texts are linked together using consistent imagery, colours, fonts and location to name a few. It is important to have a strong house style so that people attracted to the poster or double page spread so the film meets their expectations. A clear link between all three pieces is the actress. I organised a photo shoot so that the images would be high quality (rather than using screen shots from the film). This is what the majority of films do. The images were taken in a similar location to where the film was shot to make sure there was continuity between the pieces. I made sure the costumes were the same for both the protagonist and antagonist to make sure they looked the same in all production pieces. The picture I chose for the poster included both the protagonist and antagonist. I chose to place the protagonist in the foreground to connote that she is the main character. The close-up of her face and jacket shows her fear of the situation and that he is not. The dark lighting, in contrast to the subject in the foreground helps to establish the man as the antagonist. He is situated behind a tree; a feature of the film. I wanted to create a narrative (reflective of the film) in the image to make people want to watch the film. The recurring motif of the red jacket is also highlighted in the poster. It is poignant as it signifies that she is in danger.

The strong house style continues from the poster to the double page spread in which the same fonts are used (e.g. Myriad Pro Condensed). The title also uses a consistent font from the poster to the double page spread which helps link the two ancillaries together. Once again the protagonist, red jacket, location and colours used in both the film and poster are included in the double page spread.

Evaluation Q2

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Audience feedback on the combination between the main product and ancillaries:

• "I think the film goes really well with the ancillary tasks...I'm not sure how you would improve anything"- Sam H.
• "They link very well together", "The poster would inspire me to watch the film as I really enjoy psychological thrillers" William S.
• "I think the colours help link the ancillaries with the film really well" Saffie W.
• "Red really connotes the horror and thriller genre", "I think the poster looks like a mixture of horror and psychological thriller but the blurring of genre conventions suits the film well" Natasha H.
• "I think it all works great together, honestly I wouldn't change anything!", "Some people might not like the gaussion blurred effect on the DPS but it suits a teenage market well" George G. 

The feedback indicates that I have produced media products that successfully promote each other and link to each other. Each text contains very similar elements as previously stated (e.g. the protagonist) and so combine very effectively. 

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

Evaluation Q1: In relation to the film

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Evaluation Q1: In relation to film part 2

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Evaluation Q1: In relation to ancillary tasks

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I found an interesting article about The Final Girl. The article explains that teenage audiences of my film may enjoy the idea of watching women get tortured, killed and raped in films. This is disturbing but the article also believes that many audience members want to empathise with the woman. This tells me that sticking to genre stereotypes and using conventions such as phallic symbols will help attract my target audience.

I have also studied a number of genre and narrative theorists which can be viewed in these presentations:

Genre Theory

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Narrative Theory

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Ancillary Development

The video below shows the development of my poster. It also shows the techniques I used during the process of editing on Photoshop to create my ancillary product. Tools used to create my poster include the clone brush, colour filters and gradient filters. To record myself editing my poster I used free video capture software called "aTube". It allowed me to record my editing in high definition to produce a high quality video. I used the song "Don't Stop" by "Foster the People" as I felt the upbeat tune went well with the video.

Here is the first poster I created. I sought feedback from my peers. The first thing that Dan Bates said (one of my friends, aged 17) was that there was too much empty space. I then went around the media class with a likes/dislikes page in which they wrote down what they thought was good and what could be improved. They all commented that the image was great but that there wasn't enough content. They also thought that the image was too bright. Henry Scott (another friend, aged 17) said that the title should be at the top as it would improve the composition. I agreed with him and added a gradient filter to reduce the lighting. A key feature from my research was that psychological thriller posters were often used dark, low-key lighting to create enigma and mystery.

This shows the progression I made from audience
feedback.

This was my first attempt at a double page spread. A convention used in double page spreads is an image running between both pages. I used a screenshot from my film and the quality wasn't very good. I tried to improve the quality of it using filters on Photoshop but unfortunately it just wasn't a good enough image. The feedback I got was also negative with negative comments on both the image and the font (as it was too big and bold for the genre).

When producing my actual double page spread I will use Empires layout as I thought it was professional and appealing to a younger audience. I will use an image from my photo-shoot and hope to create a professional looking DPS.

Directors Commentary- Filming Mock Up

Ancillary Task

For my ancillary task I have to create a movie poster. Before creating a movie poster it is important to look at existing media products. The first thing I noticed when looking at existing media products that are within the psychological genre is that their is predominantly a close-up shot of the protagonist. Below are a few examples:

Shutter Island shows how the use of a close-up shot of the main character can successfully promote the films psychological nature. It is clear from the film poster that the character is distressed. It could be argued that the poster could be advertising a horror film, but similar conventions of both the horror and thriller genre are apparent in the creation of film posters.

Psychological thriller posters often contain facial expressions of distress or unrest to connote the genre. Low-key lighting on the subjects and dark colours are used throughout posters of this genre to project the eerie nature of the texts.

Black Swan subverts these conventions but also unsettles viewers through powerful imagery of the main character.

Here is another example of a close-up shot being used effectively.

The manipulation of the red eye creates disequilbrium within the poster. The two-shot also connotes the genre through the close-up shot. Close-ups are used to connect the character with the viewer and help attract the viewers attention.  I want my movie poster to have the protagonist as the dominant aspect of the poster. I also want to connote her vulnerability by photographing behind her with her face turned towards the lens. This could appear to be a POV shot from the stalkers perspective.

Conventions of psychological thriller posters

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Initial mock-ups:

Title and Fonts Poll

Hidden
Obscured
Hunted
Watched
Followed
Isolation

Filming Rough Cut

This is an edit of the best shots taken during our latest shoot. Unfortunately the lighting was brighter than I expected. Also, We only got 1.30 of footage so when re-filming we may have continuity issues. This is because it was a very sunny day and we have to film over the christmas period, where it is unlikely that there will be many sunny days. Therefore we may have to pospone filming to a later date.

Film: Mise En Scene

Mise en scene means "placing on stage". The mise en scene is basically everything within a particular shot and the arrangement of it. Before creating a film, you have to know what is going to be in each shot and the purpose of it. In my film, the key aspects of the mise en scene I will be focusing on in this post are costume, lighting and acting.

Costume:

Our leading protagonist is going to stand out against her surroundings. From our preliminary filming shots, the red jacket was very successful in making our protagonist stand out. Not only does it help to establish her as the prominent character, but the colour red also signifies a number of things. Red can be seen to represent love, romance and femininity. Woman are often portrayed this way in films as it follows the .."not sure".. code. We want the protagonist to project a feminine gentile facade as it will to highlight her insecurity. Other props we could use to highlight her femininity would be a handbag and lipstick. Another reason for using a red coat is that the red signifies death or blood. This helps to create an element of suspicion within the audience to whether she is in danger. Bright coats can often be linked to childhood. Many children in playschool wear brightly coloured raincoats. This could further connote her innocence and vulnerability. Other readings of the red could be an increased heartrate which would fit with the running scene.  

 This is a image from Schindler's list. Schindler's list is based around the time of the Holocaust. A colour filter was used in this section of the film to highlight her prominence to Schindler. It could have been done to highlight the child's innocence. The colour filter shows the contrast between him and the child and the red could represent the blood of war.

Here is a link to the extract in the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1VL-y9JHuI&feature=related

Lighting:

I got inspiration from the film Jane Eyre (2011). The film was shot rurally and much of the locations reflect where we are shooting. The dark, menacing atmosphere created in many of the shots on the more land, and in the wooded areas were filmed in overcast weather. Therefore both me and my filming partner will be organising film shoots when the weather forecast says that it will be overcast. We are using natural lighting to create a realistic ambiance, helping the audience to get drawn into the film. We will be filming in daylight, but in the afternoon when lighting is slightly dimmed.

Acting:

To reflect the femine clothing, we will be directing our actress to project femininty through her body language. Stepping gently, twidderling her hair and raising her hands slightly are all visually signify femininity. We also want her to look vulnerable when shooting close up shots.

Storyboard and Animatic

 This is potentially our opening scene, if we choose against a circular narrative. The opening shots will be tracking shots of her cycling into the woods. We will then use a variety of shots including close-ups and high and low angles as she gets off the bike and removes her helmet. The helmet is significant for a number of reasons. It firstly shows that she is cautious and likes to stay safe. The removal of the helmet could signify her safety diminishing. Sound in the opening shots are going to be quiet to slowly build up the tension. Feedback from the practise film indicated that a circular narrative would be more effective as it would instantly attract the attention of an audience, using Hitchcock's bomb theory. A match cut would be used to create a smooth transition from the ending to the start.

She is then depicted walking into the woods. This would be the section of the film in which we begin to build the tension. Using close-ups and tracking shots we will show her increasing vulnerability and anxiety. The storyboard shows the part where she takes out her photography assignment shoot.

A close-up shot of her looking a map be used to cement her in the location. We may also use an over the shoulder shot and POV shot. It will help the audience to connect with the protagonist and establish the narrative. We want to get diegetic sounds of the paper being unfolded.

Here are some more ideas of shots we could include in this section. We want good lighting in this section so that the writing on the sheet stands out. We could also do a close-up of her eyes looking at the sheet. This is the section in which she takes out her map to signify her vulnerability as she is not used to the location.

she will then take out her photography assignment to cement her in the location. We may also use an over the shoulder shot and POV shot. It will help the audience to connect with the protagonist and establish the narrative. We want to get diegetic sounds of the paper being unfolded.




The next sequence involves a number of tracking shots, filmed on a tri-pod. Another shot depicted in the storyboard is an overhead shot in which we film her from a height. This makes her look small and signifies her vulnerability

Our protagonist is then going to take our the camera from her handbag and her purse is going to fall onto the floor. Shots used in the section are POV shots, mid-shots of her taking photos and close-ups of the purse falling to the floor. Sound in this section could either be fairly quiet, to slowly build up the tension of we could use dissonant diegetic sounds as the purse falls to the floor to indicate that it is a poignant section in the film. Dissonance will also indicate danger, something we want the audience to predict.

Tracking shots will then be used as she walks into the denser, darker areas of the wood. A number of close-ups will be used to show the protagonists increased fear and anxiety. When directing our actor we will try and make sure that her facial expressions become more fearful as the film progresses. We will direct her to look around to show the protagonists increasing distress and paranoia.

High angles will reinforce the vulnerability of the subject. We will also include cutaways and close-ups of her feet as she walks into the woods. The sound, increasing in pitch and tempo, will also be used to build up tension.

We will then do handheld tracking shots to be used as a POV from the antagonists perspective. Handheld shots will signify the shot as being a POV and will create suspense. Close-ups of the protagonists face and extreme close-ups of her eye will help to show her increasing fear and apprehension. It also connotes that something bad is about to happen.

Whether she actually hears, See's or just imagines the antagonist, she runs away in fear. One prominent shot in this section is when the protagonist tilts her head around sharply. A loud dissonant sound whether it be diegetic or non-diegetic is used as the non-diegetic sound reaches it's climax. The non-diegetic music then stops and a new track fades in with increased tempo to represent her panic.

As she trips over a POV shot may be used as she falls to the ground. We could use a slow fade to transition from the POV shot to connote her being dazed by the impact. The non-diegetic sound could reach its peak as she falls over then stop as she hits the ground to signify a change in atmosphere.

We could blur the focus when doing a POV shot from her perspective as she is still dazed. As she tilts upwards the antagonist will be filmed without showing his face to hide to his identity. It will focus around his legs and hands. We may direct the actor to clench his hands to signify aggression. A close up shot will then be used to signify the protagonists fear. Focusing on the psychological aspect through close-ups will conform to existing psychological thrillers.

An extreme close-up will be used as he reaches into his pocket. This is typically associated with western films in which someone pulls out a weapon and should hopefully make the audience think that he is going to pull out a gun or knife. If we used a circular narrative then this could be the opening shot so that the audience are instantly gripped. We are still undecided on whether the ending is going to reveal that he has picked up her wallet or leave enigma so that the audience can decide the ending.









Animatic:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=306796636017764&id=564257234&ref=notif&notif_t=video_wall_create

Film Title Ideas

It is important to create a good title when producing a film. The title is vital in attracting a target audience. If you're film was called "fluffy kittens" and was a horror film then it would probably fail to attract its target audience. However, a title like "killer rampage" would signify the horror genre making it easier for the target audience to associate the title with a film based around themes of brutality and death.

The film title is an audience’s first encounter with a film. Using the enigma code I want a title that leaves the audience intrigued. Therefore the film titles that I have thought of in my thought shower above are all short, concise titles that give an insight into the film but leave the audience with little information. This should help to attract a larger audience, making them interested in finding out more about the film. An example of a film title that I don’t like is “rise of the planet of the apes”. I didn’t think that it was a very well constructed title and it was too long winded. An example of a film title that I think is good is “black swan”. It’s concise, connotes the narrative and grabs your attention.

           

One of the favourite titles I came up with was “paranoia”. However, using this title would give away the fact that the subject is paranoid removing the enigma of the film. Both my filming partner and I both liked the title “blackout”. This is because it refers to the stage in the film where she becomes unconscious. This should help to interest the audience from the start of the film as it connotes that something bad is going to happen. It also reflects the horror/thriller genre, as its literal meaning is “dark”. “The obscured” and “followed” are other title’s I quite like. It automatically suggests to the audience that she’s being watched or that she’s not alone. “The hunted” is another title I quite like that isn’t on this thought shower. This would connote to the audience that she is being followed and that she is vulnerable.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4399991/Film_Titles

Using wordle I have made a visual display of the film titles I like the most. It includes some film titles not shown in the thought shower above. I have used both colours and fonts that I feel reflect the genre and would work well in the film.

Short Film Practice

Weather Forecast:

We wanted an overcast day to film. It is important that we don't film when it is raining as it could damage equipment, effect sound as the rain may get picked up too strongly, and would make conditions more dangerous. Therefore we used BBC weather forecasts to predict times in which we could film. The practice shoot was filmed during school time as lighting is poor shortly after school finishes. We managed to organise when all of our filming crew were available.

We decided upon Tuesday as weather was clear from rain. Although we wanted to film on an overcast day when the weather would reflect a more eerie atmosphere, as it was only a film mock up we decided it was an appropriate day to film.






Link to my film on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPQ-ZrL2u8

Here is the short film mock up. This has been edited using Vegas 10 and iMovie. Although I liked using both pieces of software, it is likely that I will be using iMovie for the editing of the actual film shoot. The film shown below is lower quality to the one on youtube.

Online Feedback:

Class Feedback:

Mrs Elliott:

 Our teacher said that it was a good first attempt. She liked the colour filter and the way in which the red coat stands out against the backdrop. She also liked some of the shots used. However she thought that the editing used too many slow fades. She also thought there were not enough close-up shots. These are vital in the psychological genre to establish how the protagonist is feeling to an audience. Close-ups are also used to create a connection between the audience and protagonist. If an audience don't connect with the character then they wont care when something bad happens to them.

Other Constructive Criticism:

Tash Harmer:

"I think there needs to be a back story". As we only shot a section of the film people didn't see the back story. This emphasises the importance of one.

"The breathing sounds are too quiet". During the preliminary editing, I used a sound effect to create the breathing. During the shoot we will use an actor to do the breathing effect, so will make sure that it is picked up on the microphone.

James Osment:

"The tracking shots from behind the tree are too close to the subject". Both me and my filming partner are going to film some tracking shots from the stalkers perspective from further away in future to make it look more realistic.

Alice Saunders:

"The lead up to the action was a bit too slow". Therefore we will use editing techniques to create a more flowing buildup such as cutaways to keep the audience intrigued and jump shots to increase the pace of the film. However. I feel that it is important to have a slow pace at the start to create an effective contrast between equilibrium and disequilibrium. Another way in which we could grab the audiences attention immediately would be to use a circular narrative. We could use the ending at the start and use a match cut to create a smooth edit from the ending of the film to the beginning. This could be as simple as a close up of the protagonists eyes.

Personal Analysis:

• The location wasn't quite right. We want a more densely wooded area to create a darker more isolating atmosphere.
• The music doesn't fit the genre very well. I will look for different music that could reflect the genre and create a more intense ambiance.
• There wasn't enough diagetic sound as I had to find a lot of sound effects in the preliminary film.

Here is a few shots taken during our first day's filming. It also shows some of the equipment used. We first needed transport provided by someone in sixth form. We also brought a map in case we got lost. Camera equipment used includes the Nikon D5000, a 18-55mm lens and a tripod.

Improvements for the actual shoot

We were happy with our preliminary filming but have come up with a few quick ideas to improve the film:

• tracking shots behind her using tripod
• tracking shots behind 
• when shooting the protagonist needs to be walking before we shoot to make sure their is continuity
• bike scene

Practising with Equipment, Filming and Editing

Equipment Testing

Before producing our film we wanted to practice using equipment.

We shot this with some of the camera equipment, and shows us getting to grips with our tripod. We also practised with the video camera. Here is some practice footage using the camcorders:

This is me and my partner practising the scene is which the protagonist is running away from the antagonist. We took one tracking shot of the protagonist being followed and another using a POV perspective. This would be done when filming so that we could do a multiple of fast cuts to intensify the fast paced section of the film.