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Friday 8 April 2011

Evaluation- Question 8- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

I think that I have learnt a lot more on how to use the software's such as live type and soundtrack pro since the preliminary task. As our prelim didn't not contain any sound at first it made it dull and boring. it has made us realize that without sound, the audience will not be engaged. Honestly, I can say that we rushed through our prelim and it wasn't to a high standard like I believe our final cut is. we didn't co-operate as a group properly as whilst someone was filming somebody could be finding sound. Whereas we just sat around and watched each other film and act. For our final cut, we all contributed with something, when someone was acting and the other was filming, somebody will be finding the sound.

When creating our prelim we didn't really focus on the lighting or the mise en scene and also the shot types. The only shot that we got right was the match cut. one of our 'bad' shots were For example ...
in this shot, this character was meant to look more dominant and superior, this is when we could have used a low angle shot to represent how strong this person is.                                                                                                                                         

















we didn't really focus on the lighting perhaps if we did it would have made a difference to the way the audience react. The lighting could have been slightly warm in order to build up tension and as if something is going to happen. In the prelim we were limited to the places we could film in as we weren't allowed to take the cameras out of college yet. If we were allowed to film in the outside environment it would have been better. Even if we filmed inside we should have used professional lighting and turned down the lights in the room.


This is a clip from our final cut. As its clear to see, the lighting is warmer than the lights in our prelim conveying mystery. we focused a lot on shot stypes and as you can only see the back of the character it builds up a sense of mystery.                                                                                                              



















An Extra Blog: FIRE!!!!!


P.S (I wasn't really mad, just wanted to make the most of the time i had) :P

Evaluation- Question 7- What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

when constructing our thriller I have learnt so much about technology. Firstly before we began with anything practical we was asked to set up our blogger users. Blogger is a really simple website that I thought was really easy to use. With this website you're able to upload: Images, Videos and blog about them, In other words you can talk about them and share information with everyone else on blogger.

The website is www.blogger.com when you have reached the homepage you can sign in by typing in your email and password.











To upload a new post...on the the top right hand corner of the page you should find the 'NEW POST' icon, looks like this :



To change the style of the font, size of font, colour, add a text background, a link, upload images, videos and a lot more.....you'll find them all here:




So after learning how to use blogger, came the production of our preliminary films. This meant that we had to learn to use the JVC digital tapeless cameras. Along with this came the tripod, our memory
cards, memory card adapter and the hard drive that we used throught creating all our films; the preliminary's and the final cut.

The camera was the most important equipment. As without it no filming could take place. Whilst filming your able to see through the small lens or you could open up the flap on the side of the camera which is a screen that enables you to view your progression whilst filming.

The tripod allows you to have a still camera shot instead of holding it and filming which will be too shaky. However, the legs of the tripod must be open equally otherwise it wont be stable. Also when zooming into something instead of carrying the camera and zooming, Its better if you situate the camera on the tripod and use the zoom. As this will allow the image to be clear and not shaky.

Okay, so once you've finished filming you'll need to get all your shots onto the computer. In our case, we were using the Apple Macs to edit. So, we used the usb adapter and inserted our memory card into it  then put it into the usb slot. As we were given a hard drive that we can store everything in, we had to move everything from the memory card to the hard drive.

Once you've done all that, you can now open up final cut pro. Final cut pro is a software that allows you to put your film in order. you can delete shots and keep the ones you want. so to get your film from the hardrive onto final cut pro, you go to ....

final cut pro icon at the bottom of the screen









Then final cut pro will open up, you'll need to open up your project by going on.....

File - Open













select your project and then click on CHOOSE


,which is on the bottom right hand corner of the tab.










Once it has opened up, you can now start moving around your shots and placing them where you'd want them to be. Once your happy with how it looks you might want to add titles. This is when Livetype comes in. So, live type looks like this....
Livetype Icon, at the bottom of the screen







just like final cut pro you'll have to open up your project.











you'll then see a selection of things you can add onto your film on the right hand side of the page.
 
As you can see, there are two kind of fonts that livetype provide and the casual fonts that are used everywhere. You choose!


























Serif and non serif fonts. A selection you can choose from. and many more.


































Once your happy with how it looks you just go on file- save. Then you'll need to use another software, SoundTrack Pro. This software allows you to add sound to your film. Sound is vital as it brings everything together.
So, its this Icon:
Sound track pro. Bottom of screen.








for soundtrack pro, you follow the same steps as livetype and final cut pro to open up your film. there are a selection of sounds you can choose. you just select the sound and drag it onto the time line.  once your happy save and render it so you'll have one whole clip.


From creating my final piece I've learnt a lot about technology. As I have learnt to use many new software's and Ive learnt to use the camera.

By Wala Osman

Evaluation : Question 8

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
(Export some short clips from your preliminary task and compare them with some clips from your final production to demonstrate how you and your skills have progressed)





Me and my fellow groupies. 


"I enjoyed working with you guys, Nick although at times you become such a bully, we did have our laughs. 
And we actually think alike with our ideas, maybe thats why are thriller went pretty well :P
You did a great job in editing and filming, pleasure to work with :) ...(at times)"






"Ahh Wala, I love that you are a girl...hahaha otherwise i'd just be left with Nick on me own :( 
Although it was two against one, Nick would always win...grr! We are such weakling. But you sure are a diva! I loved working with you, I love how we piss Nick off sometimes haha. Great job in sharing your opinions and ideas and helping out with setting up the props. Will miss you!...Executive producer ;)"



Evaluation : Question 7

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
(Explore how technologies worked together in the creation of the product)


Evaluation : Question 6

Audience feedback and comments.

Our feedback mainly came from an audience between the ages 14-20, young teenagers to young adults. Although our thriller was set for an audience of all ages from 14+ so we got quite good comments from our targeted audience, these feedbacks we given mostly through facebook, blackberry messenger and a personal video :)

Comments that complimented our thriller :)


Other comments from other media students:


Feedback from the class:


Here i have made a video of people who I have asked to give their feedback on our thriller :)






Thursday 7 April 2011

Evaluation : Question 4&5

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

(Discuss how the internet has been used to launch this movie to a wider audience, then explain how you have followed a similar model yourself)

Everyday on video sharing websites, tons of videos are posted up, users hoping that the amount of views and hits increase as time passes. Video sharing websites are an advantage for raising awareness. Especially if a video is uploaded onto youtube. Youtube is a popular way to advertise media - music videos and film trailers. For example when Rebecca Black posted up her music video of that song 'Friday' the amount of views shot up dramatically within a day, look at it a week after posting i saw the view rose to 35,000,000 views and news spread to social network sites like Facebook. Internet as evolved into a whole new level of communication and sharing.
As for film trailers, they are well advertised on Youtube to persuade a certain audience to go and watch the film at the cinema. 
As my video is only a short opening to a thriller movie, not supported by real production companies like Summit Entertainment, makes it a low budget video, it will be uploaded onto Vimeo and personal blogs, which could possibly make its way to social network sites like Facebook and tweeted about on twitter and eventually would be uploaded to Youtube. Sharing it on blogs and social networks may raise awareness and checked out on Youtube to increase its hits from there. 






^ This is just another user on Vimeo who posted up their very own opening sequence using our title Facade :)

A Media Student's thriller: Angeldust




This is also an opening sequence created by media students from Hurtwood House. I chose to upload 'Angel Dust' as some aspects of the film is similar to Facade. They both include cyber technology of social network sites. Facade being Facebook and Angel Dust being Facespace. At the moment, Angel
dust has been viewed 1,115 times with two likes and no dislikes on Youtube. This video does not have
many feedback, reviews or anything, as they are not exactly signed to a film production - its just another one of them short films made for the as media course.



This is a short film that entered many short film competitions so to an audience who has not seen it yet will think it is good due to it entering competitions and the amount of views it has. On youtube the video has been viewed 55,265 so far with 164 likes and 41 dislikes.
Comparing this our film Facade, i would say our thriller is supported by an independent low budget production company. It will be shown in a one time exhibition, projected onto the big screen. After that would most probably just stay on video sites like You tube and Vimeo. If it were to be released into marketing, only 100-200 copies will be produced and sold in low budget shops or home rentals - (not blockbuseter as they are too high up the marketing chain and our production company will not be able to afford the expense it takes to be sold to that kind of marketing) 


Cinemas at which my thriller could possibly be shown at:


(INSERT TEXT HERE)



cineworld cinema middlesbrough

Style of Marketing Campaigns







Evaluation

I thought that It'd be really good if we uploaded our thriller onto Facebook and got some feedback from Non media students. Also as our thriller mainly revolves around the social networking website; Facebook. I thought that it'll be really effective as they're on Facebook and they're also watching something about Facebook. So I uploaded it and these were there views ..... (You might have to click on the picture to get it bigger.)

EVALUATION - Question 8

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

I will be comparing our final product to our preliminary film: The Encounter.


In the preliminary film, we created a simple title in Final Cut Pro using a default font. For our final product we used a more custom font online and used LiveType to put it together, as we had more time to get the hang of this program. Editing as a whole was easier because of the previous practise we had but it still took a substantial amount of time to make sure I put everything together as best as I could.  Our shots as a whole were much better as I was more comfortable using the camera from experience and knowing what we wanted the shots to look like (importance of storyboard). In the preliminary film there was even a shot that wasn't filmed straight, so whilst filming Facade we made sure to use the tripod to stabilize the shots whenever possible/appropriate, whilst making sure the hand-held close-ups were as stable as possible.

Non-stabilized shot from The Encounter
This time round we used match cuts, as well as jump cuts, and didn't break the 180 degree rule. The preliminary filming helped us to achieve this. The mise-en-scène was very strong, as we took a lot of time to set up the props and lighting. We didn't have the chance to do this with our practice film. Our character was dressed in a typical school girl uniform and I think we did a good job making the setting appear like a bedroom! Sound improved our thriller opening greatly – especially where we made it match the action on screen (for example the chat sound effects and the music when the close-ups of the mood board appeared). Media technology has also been important; without the great equipment that was available to us (Apple Macs, camera equipment, etc) we wouldn't have been able to create a final product of the same quality.

The mise-en-scène of Facade
In the end our planning skills improved greatly; we had a bit of a hard time getting things together at first (for example, bringing props in and agreement on filming schedule) but eventually we managed to become more organized. Teamwork has played a crucial role in the success of our final product. Naturally, at times it was difficult working in a group, but we actually had some great ideas and I'm glad we were able to make some of them come to life with this thriller opening.

EVALUATION - Question 7

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology has played a key role in the creation of our thriller opening...

Early on we used the website Blogger and YouTube to view different examples of scenes from thrillers, including their openings, which were uploaded to a separate teaching blog. These worked together as Blogger has the ability to embed YouTube clips into the blog; below you can see an example of how this looks. This allowed us to browse through a selection of relevant clips from one source. We also found additional inspiration by browsing sites such as YouTube. We have been using Blogger to document our project from the very beginning, blogging about what we learned in class and eventually, all about what we got up to when creating the thriller opening.

Besides this, Blogger also supports the ability to upload videos straight to the blog. However, these have to be of a certain format and have to be compressed beforehand, or the video may be too big or could take too long to upload. To compress our clips we used the open-source program HandBrake which allows us to convert the video files to a more manageable size, while retaining a decent quality that's optimized for the internet. Below you can see a screen recording I created to show an example of how to do this (I chose the source file to convert, clicked on 'iPod' from the list on the right [as this is an optimized quality suitable for uploading to the blog], and then clicked start! The converted file is then saved to the desktop). The second screen recording below shows how I then uploaded the first clip to this very blog post!


Using the camera to capture the close-ups
One of the key technologies we learned to use was the camera equipment of course! We used a JVC digital tapeless camera (model GY-HM100U), together with a tripod to stabilize some of our shots (hand-held filming was required for those pesky close-ups, see photo on the left), and two SDHC memory cards to store all our footage. This was all then transferred to an external hard drive that we used as a group to store all our rushes, Final Cut project files, etc. This made things easier for us as all our files were accessible from one place. Whilst filming, we also utilized Microsoft PowerPoint... To avoid the college internet filtering system, I created a simulation of the Facebook chat at home via edited screenshots that I put into a Powerpoint presentation (this was quite a tedious process but worth it!) Whilst I filmed, the presentation was set to full screen with Wala controlling the slides. Effective, right?


 This brings us to the various programs we used to edit our thriller opening into a final product... The main piece of software we used was Final Cut Pro, which allowed us to edit together all our clips. We also used LiveType to add titles, and Soundtrack Pro for the music and sound effects. We were able to use these three programs together efficiently as Final Cut Pro allows you to easily export the project for use with either of the two other programs, and then import the titles or sound back into Final Cut Pro.


Final Cut Pro can also be used for more simple tasks such as putting together a sequence of images. This is exactly what we did to create the jelly baby animatic from the preliminary task. And that concludes the technologies we used during this project...