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.