Final Film

AUGURY

Question 7 Evaluation

Here are our two videos of our first Preliminary Task and our final cut of 'Augury', as our film opening. 

Firstly, the sound from our Preliminary Task was a very basic sound that we got from the Mac's audio selection. We didn't edit the sound for the task, and kept it simple with only one layer of sound running throughout and only cut it for the dialogue. Whereas the sound for the film opening, was downloaded form a website and we had multilayers playing in various places. Some of the sound was cut out of the audio and some was added on top. we played around with the volumes more to give certain scenes more of a significance. The preliminary task gave us basic experience to give us confidence to play around more with the sound with our final film opening. We also had more time to edit the audio and to adjust it to the way we wanted. The main difference is that we kept the sound very simple for the preliminary task as we had no experience of editing it before, whereas we wanted to experiment with our opening as we knew it would improve it.

The planning stage in the pre-production of our film opening was vital to the execution of our production and post production. This was because the research into genre's helped us to decide which genre we would like to pursue as our own films genre. Through this research we chose the genre of horror. Once we had decided this we then went on to research into the hour genre and decided what were the main generic conventions which we could include in our film. Within this research we conducted a public survey to get an idea of what the public would like to see within a horror film. from this we discovered that blood and scary music was common theme. From this we then decide a narrative for our film and created a storyboard and shot list from that, which we then used during our filming to determine the scenes which we would be shooting, what camera angle/movement we would need and where they would be shot.

The research which we gained was also helpful during the post-production stage of editing as at allowed us to see which order the titles would need to the placed on our film and how long for. This also allowed us to see what order each of our scenes were in relation to the film opening. All of the research and planning we carried our allowed us to run a smooth production and post production as we understood what needed to be done. This was an improvement from our preliminary task as there was hardly any research and planning involved so it was difficult to allow the production and post production to run smoothly as we did not know exactly where and what we needed to film because we has not research into it deep enough.

It cannot be commented on which specific shot we have improved on since our preliminary task was shot differently to our final film opening sequence as, we decided through re-creating the opening of 'Se7en' that we wanted to create something similar to that. This was because this film was of the same genre as what we wanted ours to be and since we decided that, we thought this would hold the audience is suspense in the best way possible. So from our preliminary task which contained tracking shots, high angles, match on actions and point of view shots we transitioned from those into mainly still camera shots at mid shot, long shot and close up.

We have grown far more confident in using the equiptment which we created our film opening sequence with from when we filmed our preliminary task. The camera used for our preliminary task was provided to us by our school media department, however in our final opening sequence we used a group members Cannon DSLR 1200 D camera as this had a clearer picture quality. I do not feel when filming our preliminary task that we would've been confident enough to use such an advanced camera but from completing the preliminary task and our 'Se7en' opening remake, the experience allowed us to be more confident in using more advanced equipment.

Also the skills we have gained through doing our preliminary task and 'Se7en' opening remake through editing not he iMovie software has allowed us to be more confident when using this software for our film film opening. This has proved to be a quick and easy to use editing software. where as before we encountered some issues, which now we no longer encounter, through our previous uses of the software.

I feel in regards to our previous final films that our final film  opening was very successful. This was because we took ideas and skills which we learned from our previous films (mainly from Se7en) and introduced them into the production of our final film opening sequence. Our film fulfils the task of creating the opening 2 minutes of a film as our film runs for exactly 1:56 which is 4 seconds off the goal length. our film opening does not give away the entire narrative and only teases the audience to general ideas. This creates a successful film opening as it allows us to draw the audience in by not giving the story away, allowing them to want to watch more.

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

Made on windows movie maker - Georgia Neale (1251)

Evaluation Question 5: How Did You Attract/Address your Audience?

Question 5 Evaluation: Part 1 - Powerpoint

Audience Survey:

We asked a handful of people within the target audience group to complete a survey about our film and these were the results:

Audience member 1:

"I thought the film that you have created included many generic conventions of the horror genre. This was shown through the uses of a ghostly female character as well as blood and abandoned buildings. Also the use of a scary sounding movie score, created a frightening atmosphere which drew me into the narrative of the film."

This shows that our film has made good use of the generic conventions of the horror genre, helping the audience to decided what genre the film is. This is good as film openings should represent the genre of the film and briefly explain the narrative.

Audience member 2:

"I believe that the general idea of the film, such as the narrative and genre were executed well, however, in regards to the filming, some shots were slightly out of focus while others were slightly shaky. This made the filming seem as though it had less continuity."

This shows that our film succeed its purpose of conveying the genre and narrative. However the differences in camera shots made our film seem like it didn't have much continuity in regards to picture quality.

Audience member 3:

"I believe that the cinematography looked professional in the film opening, and allowed the correct atmosphere to be set for a horror movie. However, the transitions between scenes could have been executed better."

This shows that our film, due to the cinematography has a professional presentation and allows the audience to feel the atmosphere of the film. However the transitions which we used between shots could have been made smoother to be easier upon the audiences eye.

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation: Question 4 - Powerpoint

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might ditribute your product and why?

Made on adobe premier - Georgia Neale 1251

Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

SCRIPT:

Our film opening represents particular social groups in a mostly, non- stereotypical view.

In regard to the social group of gender. Our film opening focuses of the female gender, representing them as dominant within the piece. Holding all of the prevalence on screen. This is done through the use of the narrative of our film opening, presenting women as being dominant, ghostly characters with a large back-story behind them, to support their actions within the narrative of the film. This is shown through the largely female dominant scenes that are spread out throughout our opening.

Females within this piece are presented as being the dominant gender through the use of a high angle in a quick shot of our female protagonist jumping out from behind a wooden board. This shows dominance as the audience are looking up to her rather than on her level which would present them as being equal or down on them, presenting females as submissive.

The large female influence within our film opening presents females as being possessed or frightening. This is supposed to make the audience feel fear for the female character as she is presented to be possessed by an evil sprit through her sporadic body language, using her arms and hands.

Females in our film opening are not presented to be accepted by other characters or shown as sexual objects through the use of the male gaze theory as the large female prevalence with in our opening shows their dominance throughout the piece, showing them to be so far, more powerful than males in our film.

In regard to the social group of age, our film opening focuses of the age range of teenager – young adult. This is because only a teenage/young adult female is presented.

Our film opening presents teenagers and young adults to be frightening or possessed characters. This is because the only character shown within our piece is a female teenager. This is not a stereotypical view of a general teenager as our character is supposedly possessed. However, from the clues to the narrative within our opening, the young girls past reflects in her actions, showing that she could have possibly been a depressive. Which is a stereotypical view of certain teenagers through the idea of teenage hormones. However this is also non-stereotypical as other teenagers are stereotypically seen to be outgoing and confident which is the opposite of our characters personality. 

The clothing for our young adult/ teenage character is non-stereotypical as she supposedly lived in the early 1900s, but however is a spirit in the present day. Presenting her costume as non-stereotypical for her age and the time she is currently in.

In regard to the social group of ethnicity, our film opening remains neutral in concerning the social group of race as there are no clear shots or scenes where an ethnicity can be established.

In regard to the social group of Disability, our film represents it as only being in a mental state. Our film opening gives clues to a backstory of the mental illness of depression while the female protagonist in our opening could be shown to have a form of possible schizophrenia. This can be seen through the peculiar body language and the movement of her arms and hands, showing a type of ‘madness’.

In regard to the social group of Sexuality, our film opening remains neutral in concerning the social group of sexuality as there is no clue or suggestion within our opening which could provide that idea to the narrative of our film.

Evaluation- Question 1

Question 1 Evaluation: Powerpoint

Rough cut 3

This is the third rough cut of our opening for our horror film opening, in this rough cut we added new titles that I (Georgia Neale 1251) hand drew using Photoshop and my cintiq tablet. I save the titles as .PNG files so the background is clear. it creates a much better atmosphere than the fonts that were already in IMovie. We also added our institutional logos, although the 'lonely shack' one is only temporary and will be replaced on our final cut as we hadn't came up with a great design. I think the titles still need a bit of altering with their positions but apart from that I'm happy with them.

Even Better If:

* Add in the institutional logos -  one needs to be replaced

*Consider font for the titles

*You don't need the film title in it twice!

* Consider title positioning

*Add something in at the end to show where the film would go from there - then I will believe it is a film opening! 

Georgia Neale (1251)

Rough Cut 2

ROUGH CUT 2

This is the second rough cut for our Horror film opening sequence for Augury. We have made a few changes to this cut including adjusting the speeds of some of the clips, speeding them up or down dependent on what was needed. We also adjusted the sound within the sequence by adding fades at the beginning and end of the sequence as well as when the sound transitions into a different sound. We also extended some of the clips within our sequence this was to lengthen the length of time that each of the titles were visible dependent on their status to the film. 

We discovered after uploading our first rough cut that we had an extra clip which we had forgotten to add into our film opening so also added that into our opening sequence. We also began to split the longer clips up by adding short snippets of others shots into our film to allow the film to not be consistent as it would otherwise draw away from the effect that the inconsistency gives.

Feedback

What worked well:

* Excellent non-diegetic sound

*Lovely montage of images - you can really see that you ahve taken inspiration from Se7en

*Very clear genre

* Good variety of camera angles

*Mise and locations are excellent

Even Better If:

* Add in the institutional logos

*Consier font for the titles

*You don't need the film title in it twice!

* Consider title positioning

*Add something in at the end to show where the film would go from there - then I will believe it is a film opening! 

Melissa Tyler 1330

Rough Cut 1 Evaluation

This is our rough cut 1 for our film opening:



For this rough cut we first uploaded all the separate videos and shots that we'd filmed. The majority of our shots were filmed on the canon 1200D, and the 'fire' shots were filmed on an iPad Mini. Once they'd uploaded we roughly placed them in the order we'd planned in our storyboard with the intention of moving them about later to suit the narrative better.

We then placed titles on, which are not going to be our actual titles, but we just put them there to represent where our actual titles will go later for our rough cut 3. The names we had to make up to fill in the gaps, but we kept our names in the appropriate places.
We uploaded the soundtrack from a website that produced free tracks, and selected the eerie type that we wanted. We adjusted it to fit out timeslot for the opening and do get a rough idea as to where to put some shots to match the few dynamics of the track.

We edited all the clips roughly to what we wanted, by splitting clips, speeding or slowing down the clips and trimming them to what suited the track and narrative. We also changed the colours to the cold atmosphere we wanted which contrasted nicely with the fire. Our first rough cut is the full time for our actual opening and there's still more to do for our rough cut 2, 3 and final.

Cerys Moston 1243

Filming Diary

We began filming on our agreed date at around 10:30 in the morning. This was to use the advantages of the day light around that time with lighting effects. We also chose this time of day as we believed that filming would take up most of the day so we needed enough time to complete the whole film in one shoot.

In this photo, Me and Georgia are filming the inside of a book for a short clip within our opening.

In these photos Georgia is filming the bleeding books and I am putting the blood into the book and pressing the books down so that the blood pours out.

In these photos I am completing a basic makeup on our actor which consists of pail skin, cuts and bruises.

In these photos, Cerys is filming our actors hand movements for a short clip in our opening sequence.

In this photo Georgia is filming the collapsed ceiling for a short clip within out opening sequence.

This photo is of my makeup supply which I used for the filming of this opening sequence.

This photo shows me filming the scene where the ghost girl drops the bleeding book.

This photo shows me filming a landscape shot for our opening which will include titles.

In this photo me and Georgia are filming the bleeding book scene again as we reviewed the previous footage and found that it wasn't as bright as we would of liked it to be.

In this photo Georgia is filming the video tape on the ground for a short clip in our opening sequence.

Melissa Tyler 1330

Rough Filming Schedule

Our day started on the 12th March 2016. We all arrived at the Barn location at 10:00am. We focused firstly on the shots with our actor in so we could work on those the most and re film any that needed changing. This took about us roughly 3 hours to film. We had a 45min lunch break then filmed our internal shots of the barn, where we got the spider webs, dusty, old building shots to set the scenes, and the book scenes. These shot took about another 3 hours as we had to make sure the lighting was good everything was in place, we could only film the blood in book scenes a limited amount of times as we wanted it to be affective first time.
The other external shots took us about an hour as we knew where and what shot we wanted and it was jus the case of filming numerous settings and shots that we can just pick out for our film later. Overall, it took us roughly 7 hours to film what we thought would be useful to us when it came to editing.

The fire and pages burning shots were filmed separately at my home in  the chiminea. This was a safer environment to do so, and it made our day slightly shorter as we didn't have to wait around for darker hours at nigh to film it. This was filmed at around 8:00pm when in was pitch black, it was winter time so it was darker earlier.  These shots were filmed on an iPad as it created a good camera quality as well. The fire shots only took about 15mins to film as I just collected various amounts of different shot of pages and logs burning to add to our film opening.

Cerys Moston 1243

Scripts

From our rough cut 2, it's clear that we have use no diegetic dialogue. We decided to go along with the idea 'Se7en' gave us of just using various shots put in different orders and to use no dialogue. We like the effect Se7en had as it made you concentrate on the plot and what was going on, on screen. We didn't want to show any faces or anything that could give anything away. We wanted the audience to question what was going on so they'd want to watch the film for answers. Having no script made it easier to manage and so it can run smoothly and quickly. We preferred just having the non-diegetic music in the background to create that eerie feel and to not distract the audience from the plot. Adding dialogue would have been confusing and can easily give away anything, so we wanted to keep hidden as much as possible.

Cerys Moston 1243

Final Costume Decisions

We decided that our costumes were going to be very similar to that of the ones we had already decided upon. However, we decided that out opening sequence would have no male characters within it. This means that the only costume that we would need was the one for our Ghost Girl character. This was very similar to the one which he had already chosen. The only differences was a slight difference in design on her dress and she would now be wearing a black veil to hide her face.

 Melissa Tyler 1330

Final Location Decisions

For our final location we have chosen to use a pair of disused barns. This allows us to have good cinematography which fitted the genre of a horror as this locations provides good opportunities for Mise-En-Scene for a set location and also for dim lighting effects.

Melissa Tyler 1330

Organisation of Props and Costumes

The organisation of props and costumes will be vital to a successful production as it allows a steady, constant flow of costume and prop change as the production progresses. The props and costumes will be organised into the order in which they will be needed as each scene is being filmed. Preferably within a budget, the costumes would be organised on a clothing rail. This allows a clear view of each costume and easy access for when each costume is needed.

This method of costume organisation, allows for the costumes to be set out in the order in which they are needed from left to right across the clothing rail. This ensures that the production moves swiftly, saving time with actors changing into costumes.

Props will be set out in a much similar way, however will be laid out on a workspace in order of which they will be needed. Going from left to right to keep the flow of props consistent and time efficient.

This will help us when creating our film opening as it will allow us to keep the production time to as short as possible with the easy access to props and costumes, for quick changes between scenes.

Melissa Tyler 1330

Animatic Story Board

Georgia Neale (1251)

Photographic Storyboard

Melissa Tyler 1330