question 2 video

Evaluation question 2 (written version)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our superhero and villain are presented to our audience as smart sophisticated and wealthy. This is shown by the costume used. The hero and villain both wear sharp clothing such as smart shirts and trousers. This gives the characters an essence of sensibility and upper class immediately. This also represents your stereotypical working class male as this is the stereotypical uniform for a higher/high rank middle class male with a reasonable job. We have shown our hero in his own house and in a fairly serious settled relationship this hints to his age. We wanted to present our character as an older male because this would make his life seem more successfully built and more organised. This also makes the possibilities of him being capable of being a super hero more possible. There is no general religion or culture shown in the characters life. This is so the hero character is easily related to by many audiences and this will allow our film to become more popular with all different people.

The main gender that takes the most important role is male. We chose to have a male as our main character as biologically males are stronger and are always seen to be the more dominant reliable gender. Males are also very popular with being hero’s and villains as they are already naturally stronger than females and then with added ‘super powers’ they become more of a threat or advantage to have around.  Examples of male super heroes doesn’t come short but just to give you a hint there’s: SuperMAN, BatMAN,IronMAN,SpiderMAN. This will also attract a female audience as stereotypically the male superhero will rescue a ‘damsel in distress’ and women like this element of seeing a saviour for females in need and this attracts them emotionally to the character. When Super man is out of his hero character and becomes Clark Kent his appearance completely changes as he becomes this man who is very vulnerable looking and still an outcast to society only for all the wrong reasons as he becomes a man who does not  approve of social standards and expectations. However we didn’t want to make our character seem vulnerable as this could imply he is aware of his situation so we kept him looking quite intellectual and intelligent more like the super hero Tony stark Who is Iron man when in his super hero persona and has a slight arrogance and confidence within himself.

Mise en scene, camera angles and movement, editing and sound:

The mise en scene is an important element in film making and producing a media product and therefore we had to carefully consider how we represented mise en scene in our film opening. In the first scene we see our character pause for a little while, smile and then puts the costume away this connotes to him being closely linked positively to this costume and has had shared good experiences with the costume and this further points out and highlights his super hero role. We see immediately that he is wearing a white shirt. The colour white is associated with purity and goodness and although we wasn’t as bold and brave as the superman costume we still intended to give our hero some significance and a costume that would help the audience identify him as a character. His hair is dark and yet neat this shows he cares about how other people view him as a person and maybe as an idol as he is a super hero and people will be looking up to him. The lighting in the first scene is coming from the back. We chose to use natural lighting to create more of a realistic morning effect and atmosphere for our scene. The lighting lights up his costume and lights half his face however part of his face is heavily6 shaded from being blocked from the light this is where we first show indications of a ‘darker side’ to our character.  This also disables the audience to be able to see his full face and be properly introduced to him and therefore this shows he could be hiding a part of him that is not viewable to the public just yet.

              We see the colour of the furniture is a light brown and this is a reoccurring colour for furniture throughout the whole of the film opening this suggests some sort of order with his life and has a modern taste. We then see his alarm clock which is a digital alarm clock suggesting he is up to date with his surroundings. We included a time change during the filming of the clock this adds a sense of drama and slight tension and signals the start of the film almost like a trigger as the time starts to tick. We then see a pocket watch and a flash of static. The fact that the villain has a pocket watch indicates he doesn’t have such a modern mind and approves more of past living and instruments such as the pocket watch. Having a villain who prefers older ways from past generations indicates a very intelligent intellectual man as he would have to have done his research. An example of this would be John Doe from the film ‘ Seven’. In this film John believes that the 7 deadly sins are represented in modern society and takes it in himself to fix the problem by making people suffer and try and force them to see the wrongs they are doing. This gives our character a sinister atmosphere as he seems old fashioned yet experienced and intelligent. The white static almost acts as a symbol for the audience to signal the appearance of the villain and to signal his presence. We used the static image because it creates a surreal image and a disturbing image and this helps create the feel for the villain and his presence in general. We then see the hands of the villain and we see that we are at a low angle. This makes us feel at the mercy of the villain kneeling to his powerful suffocating atmosphere as the shadows swallow his face and body disguising his appearance almost completely. This keeps the viewers interested waiting to see who the real identity of the villain is.

           After this little snippet of drama we then see the hero sitting down to have breakfast. This indicates that he is completely oblivious to what is happening and also still suggests he lives a normal average life and is what society would class as an average guy. However he seems to be completely naive about the whole situation of a villain being present somewhere. The big mirror behind him creates another perspective in the frame allowing the audience to establish the surroundings more as it reflects part of the room and this helps create the homely feel as the audience see his setting. The room is also very well lit with natural lighting this helps create a positive atmosphere for the hero as he is down to earth.  We then see the very low lit room of the villain’s secret room with his scrap book wall. This shows that unlike the hero the villain is very disorganised and intense with his work. Immediately we are seeing contrasts between the two. We gave the villain a secret room as stereotypically villains have a place of work they call a ‘lair’ where they do all there evil doings. This is a stereotypical a code and convention of a villain. We see the villain pacing this suggests he is a tense stressed character and this adds power intense thinking to his character and gives him the element of strength in fear as he is presented as a scary character and yet his violent nature makes him look aggressive and powerful. We see images of clocks on the wall this suggests some sort of obsession and fascination he has with the objects or their purpose as people often put posters on their wall of something they really like and are interested in and this is another way of us allowing the audience to see more elements of his personality and character. We then see a news clipping that reads ‘ hero does it again’ This is suggesting that part of the obsession he has is with the villain. By now the audience have been exposed to the identity of the villain and now they can follow the plot more intensely as we have twisted the expected appearance and infact made the hero the villain this will make our character more interested as a whole and also makes him unpredictable and this will excite the audience. An example of this would be the ‘Green Goblin’ in Spider-man as he has a freak accident which enables him to develop a mental illness and an alter ego who is intent on creating chaos and the real identity of the green goblin hides behind the friendly well known character of Norman Osborn.

         We are then presented with a page of the hero’s normal life as a lady walks down the stairs. Within the frame she follows the rule of thirds this makes her more aesthetically pleasing to look at as the rule of thirds makes her the main focus point in the frame. The lighting around her is natural and bright this is a link to the hero and makes a slight link and connection between the characters. We again see the white static image signalling the villain and then we see a shot of a pocket watch opening. This is a swift action and I believe that this is being presented to the viewers as the villains weapon and he is taunting us with it and making quick simple gestures using the pocket watch and this shows that this is easy to use as threatening material this adds to his surreal character. The pocket watch opening is almost like the trigger of a gun going off as it symbols something is about to happen with devastating consequences from a small movement such as the pulling of a trigger on a gun or a flick of a Swiss army knife. During the conversation between the hero and the girlfriend the lighting is still well lit indicating a positive atmosphere and natural conversation. The setting is still in the house identifying that the two live together and during the conversation she states she has different parents. This is a clear statement to the audience that she is involved with him as a girlfriend.

       We then see quick shown images of all the villains icons and logos in sped up frames. This reflects everything drawing nearer and becoming more of a threat as the problems are catching up. This is like a scene of a disaster in an action movie. Everything feels it is happening at once and nothing seems to slow down this keeps viewers interested and occupied with everything that is going on in the frame this also gets pulses racing as we are leading up to a main event. This is a popular code and convention used in action films. We then see the real aggressive nature of the villain being introduced as he starts show aggressive traits. He rips off the papers on his wall as he begins to get angry and frustrated at the fact that he cannot access the powers of the hero and him ripping down the papers is him expressing his hatred and deep emotional discontent with himself as he questioning his abilities as a villain as when he is in his hero state of mind he able to do what seems like the impossible to him. The villain in a moment of outrage flips a table causing some sort of destruction to his surroundings showing that he is a dangerous strong and powerful character who is unpredictable and has a temper. This temper could be his weakness and his strength as he able to produce a violent outburst causing some form of destruction. A character who also has a temperamental temper is the ‘Hulk’ this unexpectable yet dangerous temper makes him a liability and a danger to people around him and this enable him to be stereotypically labelled as a villain however in the film Hulk he has good intentions and in fact a sweet gentle nature. However our character does not have these kind hearted interests which don’t allow his anger issues to balance out.

The editing used was to highlight and represent moods and atmospheres throughout the film opening and help make our film look more professional and fluent throughout. The titles we have used fade in and fade out therefore they are slowly introduced to the audience for them to read and then they fade out giving them reasonable amounts of time to read the titles. The first scene fades in for this same effect it allows the audience to be slowly introduced to the character and this allows them time to get interested and draws them into the film and its unlikely yet strikingly different plot. An action match is used when the hero places his costume into the wardrobe this makes the action more fluent and also allows the audience to gain two perspectives on the same scene. A cut away is then used to the alarm clock and to a pocket watch so we see the immediate differences and these two clocks act as representatives for the characters as we see the two different characters shown in the different clocks. The transitions we have used between scenes are cuts as this makes them abrupt and gives an element of shock and surprise. Slow motion is also used to make the pacing more intense and dramatic. Slow motion is often used in action genres to highlight a significant scene and create tension. This scene is also a cut away so the audience know that this is a previous event that is relevant to the present scenes being shown and help reflect past flash backs and memories perhaps. Match on action is used as the female character walks down the hallway again this is to offer two perspectives of the motion to the audience. Quick cuts are used frequently using clips of the clocks, villain, static and the news paper clipping. This highlights the fact that they are all relevant and key to the villain’s frustration and to the plot.

Sound helps us present specific moods and helps us represent and present the character to the audience throughout the film opening. The sound is key in this film opening as we have given the characters sound motifs to indicate a difference in character even though they are played by the same person. This enables our audience to immediately indentify the change in character from hero to villain. Both heroes and villains have been known to have sound motifs to alarm and alert the audience to a significant scene approaching that will involve this main individual character. The most famous sound motifs for a villain character would be either Darth Vader or Jaws. Both these characters are given low key heavy sound motifs which immediately indicate the dark nature of these characters and this allows the audience to embrace and feel the expectation and fear that other characters are feeling. However heroes can also have sound motifs for the same reason such as superman, A-team and Indiana Jones.

             For our super hero we used a sound track for his sound motif called fixing my brain by Brad Sucks. The music fades in and mainly consists of acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitar is known for its gentle qualities and for the down to earth material it creates. The instrument is a very urban soft instrument which produces music of sorrow and love both in which we feel for the hero. The villain has a more advanced score of music for his appearance this is to show him as more complexed, thought through and different through different ways and this again helps us highlight his unpredictability and his hidden away full character as we only see snippets of his personality so the music allows the audience to build a better picture of who the villain is and how he feels towards the hero. The main sound motif for out villain is a soundtrack which consists of a dark low key drone and this creates an ominous tone and because the music is in low key this helps present our character as evil. Another element of sound used to highlight the villain is the clock ticking. This reflects the nagging feeling of not being able to control time and acts as a mocking laughter of a high school bully who is getting the better of you. The time is the bully and the ticking is its mocking laugh. The ticking also acts as a constant reminder of the focus point of the plot and the important role of the clocks. The metal scratching in some of the scenes helps create an uncomfortable sound and adds that eerie creepy feel to the villain. Because the metal scratches and creates this unnatural sound this will cause slight discomfort to the audience keeping them alerted. The camera zoom noise also has a grainy, slow, irritating noise. This will again cause some slight discomfort in the audience and make them interested as our audience we are aiming at will expect some sort of displeasure expressed through some scene whether that be through mild violent or scenes exposing violent and complex characteristics.

     Dialogue then takes place between the hero and female character this is to add some sense of reality to our film opening and keep the plot feeling realistic and will enable the audience to bond to the hero as the villain does not make any dialogue throughout the whole film opening.  The fact that the hero has to ask if he has plans on that night shows that he is not as organised as presented and this almost act as a countertype as he seems fragile and scrambled for an explanation on not being able to recognise or remember situations. During the conversation the soundtrack/sound motif for the hero is playing quietly in the background to still represent his present and still create that relaxed atmosphere.  When the villain begins to become frustrated we started to allow the recorded sounds to be heard such as the paper ripping off the walls. This adds intensity to this motion as we can hear it happening. The table being flips is also raw sound and this loud crash can resembles this man’s world falling down crashing to the floor as he is starting a war with himself which he perhaps doubts he will win. The closest thing the villain has to dialogue in the whole of the film opening is a hearty, desperation scream which he lets out during his frustration and in his moment of anger flipping the table. This adds more aggression to the scene this scene them becomes raw material as violent nature is exposed to the audience.

To present our character camera angles and movement were highly considered and we took great care in what techniques to use. The first scene is a side angle shot. This is to show the character and part of the setting immediately so the audience can start to get settled and comfortable as they start the get into the film. A wide angle shot is used in the same scene from behind the character to introduce more of the character and mainly settings to the audience this again will help the audience adapt to the scene they are being shown. A close up is used on the alarm clock to highlight its significance in the whole of the plot. When the villain is spinning the pocket watch we took this at a low angle. This makes the villain look powerful and superior compared to the audience and this will intimidate the audience as we are making them seem the weaker individuals and they will feel instinctively threatened by this character. A wide angle shot is used as the hero eats his breakfast this is again so we can see most of the setting and allow the audience to settle in with the character. This also enables us to capture the mirror in the frame which offers a new perspective with the reflection. This could symbolise the double personality and perspective that will be shown throughout the film itself. A side angle shot is used as the villain paces this is to make his strides seem more time consuming and achieving as we see where he is walking to and from and considering this is only a little distance this adds to his insanity and craziness. A slight panning shot is also used so the audience is allowed to follow him where he walks and this will highlight and define the pointlessness of his pacing and make him seem even more crazy. A zoom in is used on the news paper clipping. This adds significance and importance to the news paper snippet and the fact that the camera was handheld for this scene means we have the camera shaking slightly making the scene feel more human and makes the audience feel more involved and related to this characters obsession and this creates better understanding for the audience. A close up of the watch is used as close ups are used to emphasise a point and object. A high angle is also used as the watch opens up. This allows the watch to become the main focus point and although this makes the watch look small and quite fragile the fact that it is shown so often makes it seem very powerful and controlling.

          When dialogue is taking place between the hero and the female character over the shoulder shots are used this is to make the audience feel physically involved with the scene and allows the audience to see all facial expression and slight body langue through the lens of the camera which is represented the girlfriend’s point of view. A zoom in is used on the pocket watch. The camera was also hand held through this and this creates that same human imperfect effect. As the girlfriend leaves the camera begins to go out of focus. This creates a surreal effect and can reflect the vagueness off his own mind. We see a sped up zoom in on the clock this creates a sketchy and twitchy feel to the scene making it seem very distraught and jumpy. A wide angle is used as the villain rips of the picture so the audience sees him approaching the wall and this helps build the tension of the scene. A high angle is used as the villain flips the table this is to reflect his weak state as he loses his temper and his control giving him powerless forceful retreat to his unpredictable emotions.

Evaluation question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at our preliminary task I now see that we were very basic with our video as we had used very basic simple techniques. There was very basic camera movement in the short film as we put the camera on a skate board to create a panning shot of feet walking. This is similar to our final film opening however we made a panning shot by keeping the camera hand held. Although there was little camera movement we did consider camera angles well as we included close ups,shot reverse shot structure, wide angle shots and side angle shots. These were also included in our film opening but we had put more thought into them and why we were using them at the time unlike the preliminary task. Instead of using shot reverse structure in our film opening we used over the shoulder shots. This meant that the conversation included the audience more as it didn’t look like it was from a characters point of view allowing the audience to create their own opinion and thoughts on whats going on which encourages creativity and the imagination of the audience which is what we wanted.

We put great thought and effort into present our characters through mise en scene in our film opening however in our preliminary task costume was only slightly thought through and the setting for our short task could have been better thought out. Also use of lighting was highly considered throughout our preliminary task however a lot of concentration was put towards lighting in our film opening as it was a main point in our film opening especially in the villains scenes in the film opening. Body language and facial expression was also presented well in our film opening as we had to concentrate on making our hero and villain completely opposite in every way. However in our preliminary task body language is only mildly demonstrated as we see slight facial expressions and some sort of pacing.

The editing was only very basic in our preliminary task and I think we have advanced greatly from this and have learned so much and developed important skills such as adding real soundtracks to our film opening learning how to allow the music to fade and fade out and also do the same with scenes. Our action matching is more fluent and seems more realistic as we took more care and generated more experience in the film opening. We learned how to play with effects such as adding titles and creating scenes that were slow motion or sped up but all these effects add to the plot and help create an atmosphere and helps build up and represent tension and make our plot clear where as in the preliminary video we relied mostly on script for this.

In the preliminary task the sound was mainly dialogue with only small sounds added in. We relied mainly on dialogue to help with the understanding of our plot and make it clear however in the film opening we chose not to rely on this and this made things more difficult for us but created a better quality film opening. We also managed to edit in full sound tracks and scores of music this gave our film opening a real professional effect and was also an important aspect in our film opening as it helped us represent moods and character throughout the film opening.

From the preliminary task we see immediately from the plot that we were interested un the comic book genre as we made the short task about an evil villain and a sidekick. This shows that we already and some idea if what we wanted to do and what genre we would like to do our film opening in. This made it easier for us all to come together work as a team and choose a plot for our film opening.

Overall I think we have developed immensely and have learned and gained skills from making the film opening by playing with more advanced techniques to create a better quality video for an audience in our film opening. We really thought through each sector of presenting a film and I think this shows in our film as we played with steretypes,connotations and codes and conventions. I hope you enjoyed our film opening.

evaluation question 6

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

The camera we used was a Canon digital camera. This camera was easy to use with simple instructions and this enabled us to film without any fiddly setting up. The camera also provided good Zoom tools allowing us to create some of our iconic main scenes such as the zoom on the newspaper clipping of ‘Hero does it again’ or the pocket watch. This zoom also assisted us with our sound as we used the sound of the zoom as part of our sound editing. After filming a scene we could immediately play it back on the camera and decide quickly whether the scene needed to be re-filmed and allowed us to correct any mistakes and create progress during filming. The camera was also hand held making it portable and easy for us to position to create different shots with in our film opening and because the camera was hand held we could create easy camera movements in our film. The memory was stored on an SD card therefore making it really easy for us to import and export out material as SD cards fit into most computers and if not can be used with a card reader. This also meant that all our material was also portable and easily transportable.

Blogger is what we used to post all our progress and information on. This allowed us to manage all our research and information easily and created a sense of order and organisation to our planning. This also made certain elements of our research easily accessible and easy to find within blogger. This website also allowed us to embed videos from YouTube onto the website using embed codes this allowed our influences and inspirations to be viewed on our blogs as we featured the videos we looked at. Blogger is also easily accessible as I was able to access the website on my phone so I could upload images from my smart phone and also edit a blog on my phone wherever I was which made more use of my time.

Youtube was easy to use as again it was easily accessible and I could get onto it on my smart phone allowing me to instantly look up an idea for research or inspiration on the go to add to my blog later on. Youtube also had the embed codes so the videos I did watch and use could be included on my blogger account so viewers can see and relate to my ideas and inspirations. I could also easily look up important research information such as opening credits to films, trailers for me to analyse and sounds so I could offer examples to viewers on what we would like to use in our film opening.

For editing we used Adobe Premier. This software was easy to use and was also easy to export and import video footage, images and sound. When editing using this software they offer and editing board which shows colour coded layers representing different sections such as added film, images and sounds. The software also allowed us to analyse our footage frame by frame making it easier to create match on action scenes and also include timed images.

For some ideas and planning we used Prezi. This website was easy to use and easy to register and use. This website allowed us to present and distribute our ideas in an interesting ways as Prezi offers different templates for us to use and make our work more pleasing to look at and the prezi’s themselves allow the viewer to interact with our ideas and this involves our audience more and helps create understanding.

To get some feedback from potential audiences and create awareness of our film opening to the public we used facebook. This allowed our idea to be presented publically and attracted audiences that would be interested in our film as people who were interested gave positive feedback and also constructed of similar age group and gender. Also allowing our focused audience to feel involved in the film making helps create interest and this will make our film opening more attractive and popular to viewers.

Glipho is another blogging website I used to create awareness of our film opening and help encourage feedback from our viewers. On this website I could upload videos and images and this content could be viewed by anyone else using the website. Using this website viewers can leave comments and feedback. The comments we did get were positive and interested in what will become of our film opening. With glipho viewers can also ‘share’ my blog using twitter facebook and their own glipho account. This gives our film opening a chance to be viewed by a more wider range of audience.  I used the two websites to get feedback so I didn’t seem biased and searched for a wide range of responses from different people so we can narrow down more popular ages groups that were interested and help give us a feel for our target audience.

evaluation question 5

Evaluation question 3

A company that would also distribute our film possibley would be Trinity films. They distribute independant films and can even produce DVD's this will make our film more accessable and easier to watch for the public and also gives the movie a sense of independence as we try to sell our idea. Another site described the site as 'As an independant film distributor with a growing reputation for choosing off-centre and groundbreaking films, Trinity required something special from their web presence.'. Our film is certainly different and will stand out as we have created our surreal twisted plot.

A cinema which may show our film would be independant film office. This company shows independent films in certain cinemas in the country. They distribute films that would otherwise not find a UK audience as they do not have the well known popular companies helping them through the production and distribution of the film. As our film is an idependent film this company may consider showing our film.

Evaluaton question 4

 

When we decided our chosen genre was action I looked into examples of this genre that could inspire us in representing and attracting our audience in the film opening. I looked at examples such as batman and spiderman. Y looking at the film openings we could establish when the titles should come in and in what order should people’s roles be introduced to the audience. This is important as it helps us point out the important roles in the making of the film. This also allowed us to see what information was introduced or exposed to the public in the first few minutes of the film. Film openings where hard to track down and watch so I used trailers for some guidance and art of the titles this allowed me to interpret and establish a feel for what material the audience should be allowed to see during the short clip. An example of a trailer I watched that inspired me during the film making was batman dark knight as the villain is shown more than the hero stating that he has more control and authority in the film Dark knight and this intrigues viewers as the plot toys with the opposites of stereotypical codes and conventions.

        We then presented our idea to the public and asked for feedback on the plot we had created. Many people were intrigued by the elaborate creative context. They thought that this idea was unique and that it seems very interesting.


From the video we can see that it is under 18 teenage boys that are interested in our film. I could predict this as the average audience for films such as Batman,spiderman ,Donnie darko and black swan which are all either comic book films or psychlogical films are under 18 year old boys. This is because the comic book genre is more attractive to boys with all the action and having that super hero role model that they see as an icon and can look up to and try and relate to as children nearly every little boy wanted to be a super hero at one point.

Evaluation-question 1

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

The first title in our film opening is for the ‘lexisFilms’. For this we kept a basic font yet the font is thin and looks very ‘TIMES NEW ROMAN’. The serif font we used was birch std ‘LexisFilms’ .This adds a sense of formality to the production company and also implies the complex and difficult plot that will follow. This will also indicate that it is independent minds that will find more understanding within this production.  Tim Burtons Edward scissorhands also uses thin fonts for his titles. I think this is because it creates a fragile yet clear presentation to the audience. This fragile font could also reflect the fragile and yet intense plot of our following film opening and could suggest that this film will include personal weaknesses such as a characters personal problems such as illness and conditions or problems faced by society such as equality, pressure and judgment. Another example of thin fonts used by companies in film openings is ‘PIXAR’ however they use a thin font to make it understandable and readable for their viewers as their audience is less mature and educated than the audience we are aiming for.

                         Our first titles also fade in and fade out. This was done on Adobe editing software. We decided to do this because it is a popular technique used by films we have studied and looked at and production companies such as 20^th Century Fox. This tends to fade in and out this is to just quickly introduce the company to the audience and with this company being well known this is all that is needed to secure quality and quantity within the following film as audiences have learned to put their trust in this company and its films. This is a popular technique as it allows the audience to absorb the title well and consider the films quality. This is also a demonstration of slight editing qualities and this will present some form of modern input. As we show some technological examples of average editing. This technique is also fairly simple looking but is still yet effective as the audience will recognise this technique and will be able to identify the titles.  Examples of film openings that used simples editing and thin fonts would be psycho however this works as this simplicity has almost an opposite affect than what is expected as it attracts viewers as looking original and realistic.

       The next titles are ‘Expectation Productions’. The name of this production company itself is raising the bar for the audience and creating interest as the word expectations means a strong belief that something will happen and this production is expected to be so far formal and complicated and yet interested and encouraging independent solutions and explanations for the situations presented to the viewers. The production name is introduced to the audience with a fade in fade out technique. This is now how our audience will recognise our titles as they all will be introduced to the audience through this technique and it enables the audience to recognise and identify the purpose of the titles. The titles for our ‘Expectation productions’ also bridges across two scenes this is two start the film opening and yet still include our titles in a fluent manor.

The opening scene is where our hero character puts his costume away into a cupboard. This is an iconic and symbolic gesture. Batman the Dark Knight includes a scene where Bruce Wayne puts away his suit. This symbolises a change in personalities within the same character.  This also helps the audience focus on the character instead of his superhero identity and this is a way of us creating two different characters within one actor and enables the audience to bond with the normal everyday character. This is a popular technique used such as Bruce Wayne and batman as DC presented Bruce Wayne in a different way to batman and this enabled the audience to make a connection with both identities. Another example would be Tony Stark who is Iron man.  These characters have been represented differently to the super heroes by having their everyday and personal background shown to the audience for instance both Bruce and Tony are shown to be millionaires. Their love life also plays a role with the character building of the person and bonding with the viewers.  By using this technique we allow our viewers to predict the plot and plan what is going to happen throughout the film however we then present them with a different outcome which recklessly throws off the stability of the plot of the film as now our film becomes quite unpredictable and this is where imagination will have to get involved with helping the viewer understand the concept and the diversity of the plot as we present them with the villain who happens to also be the hero. We then begin to present the viewers with the idea of a contained ongoing battle within the hero between him and the villain. This is a similar event to what happened in spider-man 1 with the green goblin. As Norman Osborn he wants to be a respected figure and a father figure to Peter Parker however after a freak event he develops a disorder which leads him to believe he has a split personality which has evil intentions and a violent nature.

     Immediately because we have presented ‘hero’ and villain’ symbolic characters this starts to imply more to the genre of the film and stereotypically action films will have a good character highlighted by his gentle and general caring nature and the use of costume and is personal views on the people around him . An example of this would be Superman as when he is in the character of Clark Kent we are presented with a ‘geeky, nerdy’ character and seems to be very timid and gentle placid character almost a complete opposite to the strong, bold confident crime fighting ,world saving hero. A villain character will be presented as somehow crippled and odd looking with a very narrow view and strict opinions on important situations and will be shown as a more powerful and dark natured character. An example of this would be the Joker from batman as he has scars on his face self-inflicted so he is ‘always smiling’. This shows mental instability and instantly people are scared of different and can’t adapt to people who are ‘weird’ so instantly this will trigger a fear or a sense of discomfort with the audience and help create his negative evil atmosphere.

Our hero wears a white shirt as this is a stereotypical colour of goodness and is a powerful colour to highlight his role in the film. We relied on this stereotype as with the limited time we were given this was the quickest and clearest way to represent a definite role and the characters personality. The villain however is still the same actor however this time he is wearing the black shirt. The black shows immediate contrast with the first hero character that was presented and this means that there will be opposites in personality and yet because they are the same actor this starts to enhance the plot and the hero’s ‘normal’ identity and adds relevance to the two characters.

Final product

 

Final product with edited contrasts and brightness.

Editing the contrast levels.

 

Here is a screen shot of how Aaron edited the contrasts levels in the clips. What he did was select the video clips seperately and used the sliders in the effect controls to change things such as the brightness and colours in the clips. We did this so the colours and clips would look better quality and more clear and the colours become more vibrant and noiceable . For example Aarons white shirt. This had to be made as noticeable as possible as this is a main symbolic costume prop for the whole of the film and plays an important role in recognising the character and his role.

Our film opening- without the contrast and resolution editing.

 

 

Editing sound

When we first added the sound we had difficulties. The main problem being that when we first uploaded the music in the Adobe software the file was playing but the music wasnt so we couldnt hear anything. We then found out that to fix this the files had to be converted from WAV moveplus x5 to see if it could be played in Adobe software.

Aaron didnt really know how to edit the sound to the way we wanted it at first so he looked up tutorials and demonstration videos on youtube for guidance. After he did this he found out that to make the sound fade in and out it was the same technique as editing the titles by adding key frames.

During some hero scenes the sound was a background noise dimmed down a little so the dialogue could still be heard clearly. To do this the sounds had to be overlapped and two key frames added. Instead of lowering the sound on a diagonal level the whole sound had to be lowered at the same level to create the quiter music.

In the begining scenes the music had to fade in quite slowly. This was reflect the early steady morning and create the feel of the character gradually awakening and the film begining to start. However for the villains scenes the sound comes in quickly and loudly to reflect the power and distress the villain is feeling.

The static noise was downloaded by Aaron from a website called 'SoundJay'. However this static noise only lasted a few seconds and at the end of our film opening there is a static scene we planned where we needed the noise to last a long period of time of around 10-15 seconds. So Aaron downloaded a second sound which lasted 20 seconds. This was more useful and meant that we could cut it down to the length of time we needed.

Some of the sounds we had recorded ourselves using Imogen's camera. For example the ticking noise we recorded from the pocket watch and also the camera zoom itself as it created a nice eery creepy sound and this adds to the feel of our film. At one point when Imogen was zooming in the camera the lense scraped against the pocket watch. At first this noise was supposed to be edited out but was accidently put into a scene and we realised we actually liked the sound as again it adds creepy effect as it is quite an odd sounding noise. We added the sound over the video clips and muted the sound on the original clips so only our recorded sound could be heard.

The Titles Editing and screen shots.

 

This is the title for our film opening. This appears at the end of the film because from looking at previous action films and such the title always comes last after the names of the production companies and the people involved such as directors,actors and such. Aaron had edited this so the title faded in and faded out. This reflects our characters transparant personality as he keeps changing from being a hero and a villain.  This also adds a creepy and dreary effect. Aaron took great care in timing this correctly as we didnt want the title to be up for too long as this may end with the audience loosing interest however if the title faded too quick the audience would not have the proper time to read and absorb the title.

 

We all got together in our group to decide upon the production names. These are 'Lexisfilms' and 'Expectations productions'. In previous film openings we have studied we see that these production companies are intropduced to the audience using a fad in and fade out technique with simple fonts. We chose to use the colours black and white as they show immediate contrast and links to our plot even more and also these colours are bold and easily readable for our audience.

 

 

To add titles Aaron had to select the title as a new item and give it the name of 'Lexis films' so if we had go back and edit the title it could be easily found. He made the writing black and the added a white highlight around the edges. This means made only the edges of the writing stand out. This however was too unclear to keep and was differcult to understand. However it does create a nice effect so Aaron then decided the add the colour as a grey and have it fade in.

 

 

So we changed the titles to white so that the white highlights would change to the big blocked title of the production company. This makes it clear and also introduces the company to the audience through a fade in which is a populkar way to do this. To do this he layered two titles on top of each other and then made the top one wich was the black one with the white highlights fully fade out just showing the white text underneath. This gives the illusion that the titles is simpley changing colour. This was made possible because both titles were in the exact same place.  To fade from one frame to the other he had to add key frame tabs on the timeline and rag one down this made the title fade out.

 

 

The same key fram tab technique was used for the Expectation productions so that the title would fade out. Except that the title didnt change colour it just faded and stayed within 1 and a half clips. Through a short black clip and the begining of the first scene. However it does fade out so we are just left with the scene.

 

 

For the rest of the titles Aaron had thought carefully about the colours and placing of the titles. He used white for dark scenes and black for light scenes this made the titles stand pout because of the contrast. Aaron had also made some titles last over two scenes a light scene and a dark scene. He did this by using the same technique he used in the first set of titles.

 

 

This is an example of the dark font against the light background in the scene of the hero.

 

 

This screen shot is from when Aaron first added the video's. This crteated a sort of timeline on the software and showed us how long each clip lasted.

 

 

This screen shot is from when Imogen had made an animation in photoshop that resembled static and this was used as a cut away scene and whenevere this scene was showed the static noise was also played however the music wasnt added yet.

 

 

In this screen shot we see Aaron putting in the cut away shots of the villains pocket watch throughout the whole film opening.

 

 

This is when Aaron added the music. This created a new timeline and showed us how long the music lasted and allowed us to cut the music down to our fancy.

This is a screen shot of Aaron editing the titles. He made sure that the whole frame was in line and that everything looked straight and proffesional with the posistioning of the titles in the frame as we didnt want to block off the actual scene with the titles however we wanted the titles to be noticed.

 

 

This is a screen shot of the final timeline. This shows the titles have its own timeline so we can move and edit them aswell as the clips and the music. The titles are purple, the clips are blue and the music is green. This also allowed Aaron to be able to see which scenes match up to watch music and what title goes to what scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Importing and Editing our original clips.

Before we uploaded all our clips we all sat together and went through each clip that was shot to decide together which ones would be best to use. We chose our chosen shots becuse of the angles,lighting,Aarons and Imogens acting and also if the general layout in the frame looked appealing. Some of our shots also had gone out of focus whilst being filmed and therfore could not be used in our final video as this would make the shot look unclear and unproffesional.

The software used to edit our clips was Adobe premier. This allowed us to do the basic edits and provided us with the right tools we needed to create our film opening. Aaron became our offical editor as out of all the three of us he was the one with the most knowledge about computers and software. However this didnt mean me and imogen had no input to the editing as we sat beside him all through it and gave advice ,oppinions and suggestions for the film opening that Aaron could work on.

 As Aaron imported the clips into Adobe we then started to look at our Editing plan we had made earlier on to follow and use as a guide when editing. The first editing scene we had planned was the match on action of Aaron putting away the suit. As we uploaded the clip we quickly discovered a problem as the transistion didnt appear smooth. However Imogen pointed out that it was the positioning of the arm that was the problem and Aaron had managed to cut the two clips down and this made it so the transistion became smooth and seem quick and easy to follow for an audience.

Aaron had then come up with an idea which wasnt previously planned. This was to add a quick cuts of the alarm clock and heros house and quick cuts of the villains secret room and his pocket watch throughout the whole of the film opening at different times. These shots acts as constant reminder of the battle of the heros inner self (being the villain). I like this very much as it also helps create the spooky flashback effect we wanted to create. It also helps create the sense of panic and fear as the shots come quick. Because the villains shots happen whilst the hero is at his home this helps create the villains presence in the heros everyday life.

chosen sountracks.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing


We chose this first sountrack for when our hero is on screen. This sountrack will act as a sound motif for our character. We liked this track because it seems very light and happy and helps create a possitive atmopspher and helps further suggest who is the hero. The title of the song in itself is also relevent as it is called 'fixing my brain' . This is clearly relevent to our plot as our hero has a mental issue yet this isnt being suggested through the music. The music consists mainly of light acoustic guitar which is often linked to very light sounding music and also is a good way of expressing feelings. This again is relevent as he has issues expressing himself as he is confused at some times.


 

Royalty-free music for professional licensing


We liked the begining of this soundtrack as we thought that it created a dreary creepy atmospher stertypicial for a villain. Also the music consists of low key instruments such as wind instruments this is steretypical for a villains sound motif as it help create a powerful strong and sinister feel reflecting the villains power and strength. This also highlights his evil qualities and helps make his role more recogniseable more an audience.
 

 

 

We also wanted to include short sound effects such as this static nose to help create our sinister creepy atmospher. This noise is highly linked to horror films as it creates a gratey unpleasant noise and because of this direct link this helps make our villain appear more scary and also adds some sort of fear and thrill to our film.

Classification of our film.

 From looking at the audience that have veiwed the dark knight and spider man we see that these action films are generally rated as a 12. This will be because there will be mild language however some scenes of violence .

When looking at films such as donnie darko and black swan we see that they are rated Along the ages of 15. This is because stronger language will probably be used and also they will be exposing to the public a diffucult and advanced storyline of a mental condition. This is something that an older auduience will only understand.

Because our film will have the mild violence and steretypical hero and villain figures this will make our film attractive to a younger audience. However because of our chosen plot about the personality disorder this is something that 12 year olds should not be particulary exposed to. So from what i have researched i think an apropriate age rating for our film would be age 15.

script

 ( Girlfiend appears in the doorway )

Girlfriend:   "I'm going now, I'll see you later."
(  Matt gets up to quickly catch her before she goes.)

Matt; " Ooh, wait !"

( Conversation in hall )

Matt; "We got plans tonight ?"--- This will show his slight confusion as what he is supposed to be doing at the present time and can also reflect his disorder as he seems not right and not organised as a hero should be.

Girlfriend; " Yeah we're going to that meal tonight with my parents remember?"--- This implies she has alread told him of there plans and that he has fogotten, again suggesting that something isnt right with his time keeping and that he isnt very organised.

Matt; " Oh right, yeah, have a nice day"---- Cuts off the conversation. This shows hjow socially withdrawn he is as he minimizes the conversation. This presents our hero as very unsocialable and makes him less likable to the public audience and is also a slight hint that something isnt right about him.

Girlfriend; " Alright, I'll see you later" ---- See's nothing of it and carries on with her day.

Throughout this conversation we wanted to make Matt seem very closed off and disorganised. This is not what a hero should be and indicates that he is not your everyday hero for a very sinister reason.

planning the time of the shots.

• Opening shot of Matt putting costume away - 4 sec
• Wide angle shot of Matt, action match from previous - 4 sec
• Close up of clock - 10 sec
• Villain with pocket watch - 5 sec
• First shot of Matt with breakfast - 4 sec
• Peter looking at news clippings - 10 sec
• Over the shoulder shot - 8 sec
• Back to Matt eating - 3 sec
• Girlfriend enters - 4 sec
• Matt gets up and goes after her - 3 sec
• Conversation, shot revers shot - 25 sec
• Girlfriend walks out the door - 4 sec
• Matt walks out of the shot - 4 sec

All together this all adds to : 88 seconds or 01:28

We are aware that our film opening has to be be either 02:00 or 02:30 minutes however we did want to leave time for some edited parts as some scenes are guna be repeated and shoprtly added throughout the film opening.

Hero and Villain names.

The Egyptians created a device that dates to c.1500 BC. This measured the passage of time from the shadow cast by its crossbar on to a platform which had different times on.This was the first ever sun dial. The T was posistioned eastward in the mornings and at noon it was turned around so that it could cast its shadow in the evening direction.The most precise timekeeping device of the ancient world was the water clock, or clepsydra, this was found in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC). They could be used to measure the hours even at night, but required manual upkeep to keep the flow of water going and the device working. The Eygptians were basically the first to create an efficiant way of keeping and measuring time.

Because the egyptions had such an input of the development on time measurment and creating devices which keep track of time we thought we would use this as a platform to kick start us off on names for our hero and villain. We looked into god names that the Egyptians used.

Ma'at is the godess of justice and order. This stood out to us as stereotypically the hero brings justice to the people of the city and keeps things in order so there is no chaos. We wanted to simplify the name however to reflect his normaly average life and personality. So we decided to call our hero Matt.

Apophis is the god of war and choas. We did have difficulty simplifying his name into a normal average everday name. So we decided that the closest we could get was peter.

Mind over matter

Psychokinesis

The possible first use referring somewhat more directly to psychokinesis could be the 1903 book titled 'Mind over matter: the influence of will power on disease' by J. W. Martin. In 1972 the parapsychologist Louisa Rhine published a book titled Mind over Matter: Psychokinesis. Another researcher D. Scott Rogo published Mind Over Matter: Case for Psychokinesis (1986). Jeffrey Mishlove wrote The PK Man: A True Story of Mind Over Matter (2000) which discusses the controversial claims of Ted Owens regarding his alleged ability to influence the weather by psychokinetic activity.

A definition of the term mind over matter:

''the mind is very powerful. it creates 'reality' in a sense, because what we think determines what we can and can't see or do.
if we 'put our minds to it' we can overcome many obstacles, including physical ones.
take drinking urine as an example. many people cannot do it because they think it's disgusting or harmful. it's their mind which determines what can and cannot be done, however when we decide to do it (e.g. for survival) we find it easier than we thought.''

This goes with our plot because we are making a film about a man with a personality disorder. Therefore his state of mind and his mental health and his mental strength are all import5ant and relevant. Also the feedback we got from the public about having the title 'night and day' was because there was a definite contrast between the two and this links to our characters. However we didnt think this linked to the characters conditionh enough so we chose 'Mind over Matter' to be our title.

Filming Day 4 - video diary,outakes,original shots

This is the last day of filming. For this Imogen had to come to the hero's setting in her costume and with her same props (i.e. the handbag.). Aaron also had to wear the same costume and remember the tripod. Imogen also had to bring her own camera again and me? i just had to show up to do the filming.

00:00-01:00
Me talking about what we are about to do. As you can see from this video diary we are completely relaxed about our filming and we are all comfortable in our filming enviroment. We are also however completely organised about the schedule of our filming and what we all need to do and remember. This also shows how we all took some responsibility in organising the filming shoots.

01:00-01:06
Aaron was asking about his acting and his upcoming scene.

01:06-01:11
Aaron wasnt happy with his acting. In these next few shots Aaron become very nervous with the camera shooting him from quite close up and this time he had an organised script to follow. This added pressure on Aaron and gave us some unusable shots.

01:011-01:19
This is a good shot.

01:19-01:27
Aaron wasnt happy with his acting in these shots.

01:27-01:32
good shot.

01:32-02:09
Throughout these shots Aaron either wasnt happy with her acting or we had camera difficulty with the camera going out of focus.

02:09-02:12
good shot

02:12-02:25
Imogen also felt the pressure of having to get the script right and the acting and did feel uncomfortable in some of the shots.

02:25-02:30
good shot.

02:30-02:47
out of focus but we thought as it was near the end of the shot we could use this as it had a nice effect.

02:47-02:51
good shot

02:51-finish!
 All filming done! this is our video diary of us putting things away. 2 weeks worth of filming done.

 

 

 

Filming Day 3- video diary,out takes and orginal shots

 

Video Diary

00:00-04:11

 

This video diary was so we can show you the new setting we are filming in which is the school hall and also give a slight indication to the time it is. We aranged to meet at 8:00 to film however my alarm hadnt gone of and i was running a few minutes late thats why im not there till 03:42.

In this video we also see Aaron in his filming costume which is his black shirt and black trousers. He also is wearing glasses which add intelligence to the character. For this day of filming Aaron had to bring in the small hand held light in again so i could hold and posistion the lighting for the frame and i also had to bring in a pocket watch for some scenes we wanted to include. Also because of the difficulty filming the previous day imogen had to bring in the pictures of the clocks again so Aaron could rip them down. Aaron also talks through what we needed to film on this day and imogen clearly shows the 'villains' corner.

 

04:11-04:20

good shot.

 

04:21-04:25

the watch didnt spin correctly.

 

04:25-04:36

the lighting didnt look right.

 

04:36-04:40

the clock didnt spin for long enough.

 

04:40-04:45

the clock opened as it was spining.

 

04:45-04:49

good shot.

 

04:50-04:55

good shot.

 

04:55-04:58

Aaron was just making sure he knew what he was doing.

 

04:58-05:05

the camera went out of focus.

 

05:05-05:12

good shot however could of used better lighting.

 

05:12-05:13

Aaron again wants to make sure that what he is about to do is right before he goes through with it.

 

05:13-05:17

He was just making sure again to be completely possitive.

 

05:17-05:25

good shot.

 

 

 

Filming Day 2 - out takes and original shots.

1. 
   

 

 

00:00-00:16

good shot.

 

00:16-00:31

the camera was tilted the wrong way.

 

00:32-00:48

good shot but the lighting was too dark to see anything clearly in the shot.

 

00:48-00:58

good shot

 

00:58-01:01

Aaron smiled.

 

01:02-01:10

would have been a good shot but a blackcurtain was in the way of the lighting and camera.

 

01:10-01:44

good shot could have used better lighting.

 

01:45-01:46

Aaron wasnt clear on what he was doing.

 

01:46-01:52

good shot.

 

01:53-01:56

Aaron couldnt grip the paper.

 

01:57-01:59

Aaron was unclear on what he was doing.

 

01:59-02:08

too fiddley for Aaron to grip the paper.

Before hand we had asked to rent this room for our filming however we only has a limited amount of time as the room had to be used at a certain time. So we took the liberty of arriving early to get the filming done. We all met at the room at 08:00. Because of the little amount of time we had we did not have time to create a video diary for this day. However for This day I had to bring in some scriptures such as 'Hero doe sit again' So we could stick them to the wall and use them as props. Imogen had to bring her camera and some images of clocks to use as props. Aaron had to dress in his villain costume WITH GLASSES! and also remember to bring the small light. Because we were wanting to use rolling shots for these scenes we did not need the tripod.

 

 

Filming Day 1- video diary,out takes,original shots.

 

The video diary 00:00 - 04:59

 

In this video diary we basically wanted to show us as we were in the filming enviroment. At first Aaron was on the laptop to find the manual for the camera we was using to see if there was anything we needed to know about the filming setting that we already didnt know. We then see Aaron making some of the props which is his breakfast for the first scene we filmed. For this day of filming i had to bring a tripod for the camera as we used it for the breakfast scene and the wardrobe scene. Imogen had to bring her camera so we could film. We chose to use imogen's camera as it provided better quality filming than the ones school had to offer and imogen who was the main filmer felt more comfortable using her own camera. Aaron had to dress up in his super hero costume which was a white shirt and black trousers.Imogen also had to wear her costume for her shots as she was involved with being filmed near the end of the video.

 

Scene 1- Out takes and original shots

 

04:59-5:12

 Aaron sits down to eat his breakfast. This is a good shot to use.

 

5:12-5:20

Aaron is eati8ng his breakfast the camera goes out of focus.

 

5:20-5:36

Aaron eating this is a good shot.

 

5:37-5:42

 Aaron looked too face on and too posistioned he didnt look comforatble in the shot.

 

5:43-5:49

Aaronh had complecations swallowing.

 

5:50-5:57

Aaron swallowing again.

 

5:59-6:04

Aarons gets up and there is dialogue of him saying ''oo wait''

 

6:05-6:11

he got up to slow to catch his girlfriend before she leaves.

 

6:11-6:19

Aaron caught his foot on the chair and he looked awkward getting from the chair.

 

6:20-6:23

Aaron drank his drink at the wrong time.

 

6:23-6:27

good shot. He gets up nice and quickly.

 

6:28-7:24

We filmed the clock changing for a small scene we wanted to include.

 

Video diary

7:25-8:51

video diary. This shows Aaron getting thew suit ready on a hanger ready for the next scene. This is also a chsnce for us to introduce you to the next setting and scene. It also allowed image to get into posistion for filming.

 

8:52-8:59

the shot looked too slow and fiddley.

 

8:59-10:10

melfunction with the suit.

 

10:10-10:12

the camera went out of focus.

 

10:12-10:22

we couldnt see the suit well in this shot.

10:22-10:29
Aaron got distracted.

10:29-10:34
He didnt hold the suit up long enough.

10:35-10:46
Aaron let go of the door as he was opening it,

10:46-10:55
door melmunction.

10:56-11:00
Aaron dancing.

11:00-11:11
good shot.

11:12-11:19
This seemed too relaxed and no real body language was shown.

11:19-11:31
door melfunction.

11:32-11:45
good shot.

11:45-11:54
starting at a new angle. cant see the suit well.

11:55-12:07
good shot.

12:07-12:18
stopped filming too soon.

12:18-12:32
the lighting was too dull.

12:32-12:33
i had pressed a wrong button when filming.

12:33-12:47
good shot.

12:48-12:49
Imogen said 'no' which wasnt in the script as i started to film.

12:49-12:52
too quick.

12:52-12:58
Aaron was messing as i started to film.

12:59-13:08
good shot.