Film Complete from KayleighGill on Vimeo.

Question 7

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

My practice film

  kayleigh, harriet, dani and kate from KayleighGill on Vimeo.

I sense my technical skills of working with a camcorder have improved massively during this project as I have learnt so much. When I was first given a camcorder in class and asked to create a short film of any genre I was immediately alarmed as I had never done anything of the sort, it was all a little advanced for me. However looking back on the complete project I think I managed to pick up and learn a lot of the skills. Below is my first time of filming when given a camera.

Throughout our film we tried to include as many different camera angles as possible, I had no idea half of these shots existed! The panning shot was easily my preferred shot, panning refers to the rotation in a horizontal scan of a still camcorder. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head from side to side or someone walking up a stairway. I feel using this shot helped create the feeling of motion, nevertheless capturing this angle was exceptionally ambitious as it requires a steady hand and a lot of patience. We also struggled with capturing the angles as we had no idea what it would look like in the completed project, thankfully it has come together pleasantly.

Setting up our surroundings was time consuming, we had it all in our minds yet when creating it we struggled. Doing a test run accompanied this as it gave us an idea of what our set up surroundings looked like on our film and how they tied in with our representation.
Time management and organisation:
I've never really had any skills in management and organisation. Yet I must say whilst doing this project my organisation and management have improved massively, keeping up with my blog and filming at the same time has been a push however I have managed it.

After a couple lessons at school on this project we decided to create a filming and blogging schedule, this encouraged us to keep up with our work once I had complete tasks on my schedule I was satisfied. I had hoped this would help with the stress levels, unfortunately it did not. Out of the two I feel my organisation skills were achieved a lot better than my time keeping management skills yet I also feel I benefited from this and learned a lot.

Team skills:

Functioning successfully as a small team required clear communication on an intellectual level and an emotion level. Open communication where we shared our thoughts, ideas and feelings was crucial as unspoken assumptions and issues could have been destructive towards our project and interrupted our team functioning.

Kayleigh, Beth and I were able to communicate very well allowing: listening,

questioning, persuading, respecting, helping, sharing and participating all to take place well. I think that

we all did really well and we created a strong team bond where we all felt comfortable speaking up, being heard and with the final ideas.

From doing our preliminary task to actually creating our film i feel like we have developed and learnt a lot. For example, we learnt a lot about lighting. When creating our film we had to think carefully about when we were going to film, because at the beginning of our film we filming outside. e.g the gang walking along the path and when the gang meet Jacob. All of these parts of the film were filmed outside, which mean that lighting was incredibly important because we didnt want it to be too dark. We didn't have this problem while making our preliminary task because it was filmed inside so the lights helped create a decent lighting. 

Question 6

During the making of my film i have leant about new technologies and what good creations they can manufacture. I have divided these into different categories; filming effectively using a camcorder, editing of film sequences and additional post production skills such as; sound, special effects and adding titles.

Filming effectively using a camcorder:

Light is one of the essential part of filming and is largely responsible for the way a film looks. It sets the tone of a scene. It can also be used artistically representing emotion and holding a meaning.

 

When doing research before doing any filming I found out that i shout shoot the same part a few times, so that i have more to work with, up to five times. I took this and used it whilst filming and I'm very glad that I did as it certainly help me out. This was because if a shot didn't fit in or was terrible quality I would have had spare shots to use as a back up. i found this was true during my filming because my shots didnt match and because i hadnt film something five times i had to go and refilm, which did waste quite a bit of time that i could of used for editing.

Editing of film sequences:

 

 

 In preparation of my film I made a storyboard.

I used a timeline of camera shots, dialect and sound. This was so I had a idea to go by, putting the interruptions from my mind on to paper creating a step by step guid. As filming started I started to see things from a different point of view, it was as if I felt I had produced some good ideas already but they were just 'good' not excellent like the ideas I came up with whilst looking through the camera. I soon changed a few shots, angles and sounds and realised I didn't have to stick side by side with my storyboard, it was only a bit of gentle guidance in the end i changed most things on my storyboard.

Post production skills- sound:

I spent time listening to songs by a few different artist. However, as soon as I heard Chase amd statuses "end credits" I thought it was good for our film, it fit well into the representation. I learnt including sound is one of the most important elements in film making and that I shouldn't let my attention run from this by classing it as a 'small detail'. I also picked up that adding sound to a sequence adds emotion and rhythm, it also foreshadows the atmosphere. I was happy with how my film turned out with the song we used.


 

Adding titles was alot harder than I first expected, I have never before experinaced any sort of film editing. Getting the titles in the right position was hard I had to get the positioning and timing right, this was to match the non-dialect sound and sequence of clips.

I have never paid much attention to the rolling credits usually at the end of a movie but whist I have been creating I have acknowledged them and realised what an important role they play, Learning this really helped my project. Adding the credits was wasnt very time consuming.

Question 5

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Who is your typical audience member?

Typical audience member

Male, 15-17, British.

Why male? 
I think that my film would be more suited to a male audience member, because my film involved gangsters, threats and mild violence. These are all things that a boy is more likely to be interested or involved in.

Why ages 15-17?
I think the ages from 15 to 17 would be the best suited to my film because, my film is a certificate 15, so everything it appropriate for 15 and above, but when you're 18 there a films of a 18 certificate so 18 year olds would probably be more likely to watch them.
Also, because my film is based on teenagers aged 16-17 they can relate more to what is going on.

Why British? My film is a British film, it features people who like in the UK, therefore, they are likely to be more interested if it is based somewhere near to where they live.

Their interests..
Mild violence,
Watching films,
Film involving teenagers,
Guns.

why?
The audience watching my film should possible be interested in these things because these things are what my film involves.



these are some things that the males in my target audience might spend their money on..

 Typical audience member..

Female, 15-17, British.

Why female?
-because the only violence in my film is mild, girls probably wouldn't mind watching it. Also, because the ring leader in the gang is female it portrays girls as quite strong so girls would enjoy watching this film because they aren't shown at weak, like they normally are in other thriller films.

Why 15-17?
-I think the ages from 15 to 17 would be the best suited to my film because, my film is a certificate 15, so everything it appropriate for 15 and above, but when you're 18 there a films of a 18 certificate so 18 year olds would probably be more likely to watch them.
Also, because my film is based on teenagers aged 16-17 they can relate more to what is going on.

Why British? 
-My film is a British film, it features people who like in the UK, therefore, they are likely to be more interested if it is based somewhere near to where they live.

Their interests...
watching films,
mild violence,
threats,
guns.

These are some of the things that the females in my target audience would spend their money on..

What type of consumer are they? 

I think my target audience members are likely to have 
bought versus thriller films before.
 I could see them watching films such as, Jack Reacher. Because they are interested in action, thriller and horror. They like seeing things; such as, knifes, guns and violence.

my target audience would spend to majority of there time on websites. Such as, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

What type advertiser would this attract?
This would mainly appeal to advertisers would produce products suited for both male and female.

Question three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 



Having to decide on a institution the distribute your film is one of the main and most important things the think about when producing a film.


I think the best institution to distribute my film would be Paramount pictures. I think this because they have distibuted lots of film in the same gerne as mine. i also thought that the warner brothers would be another good institution to distribute our film because they have also distributed a lot of thrillers. However, i think that paramount pictures would be my first choice because it has distrubited films simliar to my own. i think that they would be very interested in dristributing my film. Paramount has been really successful in dributing films especally for the target audience of my film in the past and most of them have been very popular, so i think that they would be very reliable and make my film pretty popular.

below you can see a few films that paramount have distributed in the past..

these three films that you can see here were all distributed by paramount pictures and all three of the have been very successful. The first one 'The marked ones' is a very popular and well known film. Millions of people went to watch it when it first came out in the cinemas. All of these first are targeted at the same kind of audience and the same age group that my film has been targeting so the thought that this institution would already be very familiar with films like mine. 
By doing this i have realized just how hard it would be the try to get a film distributed because the there are lots of film makers competing to get there films distributed.  

Regulation rules

 We chose to aim our film at a audience of 15+ because it give us more flexiblity when we make our film. We thought that by aiming our film at 15 year olds it would be good because it easier to relate our film to mordern day teenagers.

Did you stick to the regulation rules?

Yes.

We havent used any affencive language to age, race etc.
We havent used dwelled on the infliction of pain when Adam gets shot.
No nudity is shown in our film.
Our film does not incourage any drug or alcohol use.

Im my opinion our group has kept to the regulation rule really well and our film is still a 15 certificate but it could also probably get away with being a 12 certifcate.

Question two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
voice record from KayleighGill on Vimeo.

question one

Evaluation question 1. 

 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the convections of real media products?

 Before you plan a film you must understand the convection rules, so that you know what is and what isn't suitable for the audience and so that you know what the audience is expecting to see i a thriller film.





Characters.

My film.




The characters i used in my film were very convectional because we started with a victim, who was aged 16 with is a good age for our target audience the relate with. The outfit that he is wearing is very modern and casual. He's wearing a dark hoody, jeans, trainers and a pair of big earphones on his head, the ear phones show that he keeps himself to himself, like a lot of teenagers do.

We have three villains (the gang) they are also a similar age to our victim. They are wearing baggy jeans and hoodies which stereotype them at 'Thugs' and portray them in a negative way, this is so that the audience can immediately tell who is the victim and who are the villains. Also because there is three of them and not just one make them seem for intimidating.    
They way they confront Jacob (victim) shows that they are the bad guys, by the way they crowd from him, getting up close to him. 


Real media products.

Most thriller films start by showing the victim first so that the audience can get to know them first so that they know that they are in fact the innocent victim. Then introduce the villains afterwards.

The victim is usually dressed casually depending on the story line of the film and the villains are usually dressed either, smart, in black or casual. Again depending on the story line of the film. Either way you can normally know straight away whose the good guy and whose the bad guy.


Sound.

My film.

In our media product there are a range of different sounds. For example, at the beginning of the film the is music playing, this starts when Jacob put on his earphones. so that it looks like he is listening the the music through his earphones. This music goes on until gang turn up, which is when the dialogue starts.

We also have a 'bang' sound when the gun gets fired at Adam. This shows that jacob has shot Adam and not just threatened to do it. This creates tension and shock to the audience. A gun shot is a very conventional sound in a thriller film.

At the end of the film they is the sound on water running because Jacob is cleaning his gun in the toilets. He is cleaning his gun to get rid of any evidence of the shooting. This is also convectional because in most thriller films you find that people clean there weapons to get rid of any evidence so that they dont get caught.

Real media products.

This contains importany element which make up a good thriller. For example, themes and stings are shown, as the different music theme produce a different mood and feel for thrillers. Examples would be scary and jumpy music which play in each scene in the background, can me named as theme/stings and they produce different moods and setting for thillers. Another sound element which is important is high pitched sounds, sounds such as, screeches, this creates suspense and horror to the film to give the films their thrilling genres.


Mis-en-scene.

My media product.

Whilst making our film, we did think about lighting. We made sure that we film at the same time every time we filmed, this is to make sure that the lighting different drastically change throught out the film, if the lighting did change it would make the film look strange because it would be light then dark. We also made sound that the time that we chose to film at, which was 3:10. Gave us enough time to get quite a bit of film done before it got dark.

We made some tense moment with the gang walking toward Jacob.

We included props in our film, such as..
A gun,
Phone,
Headphone.
These items have been used to portray the characters in different ways, and the make you wonder what is going to happen in the film. Having the gun as one of the props show that someone is going to die or maybe could die.

Our setting was specificatly chosen, it made sense to have it there in the school because it was outside so there was more room to film and Jacob was more liking to shot someone outside instead of inside because there arent any people or cameras around.

Real media product.

Mis-en-scene contains important element which help at thrill to films and also creates suspence. Lighting such as colour design sound be quite dark to give the film gloominess this also sets the scene more by making it seem more frightening and helps make the audience feel more suspence toward the film. What also helps a thriller film stick the the gerne is the props that are used. In thriller films there are normally alot of sharp objects, such as knifes etc.
In films such as, Train spotting, they use props such as, drugs, needle and cigerrettes, to show that the characters are bad druggies and to show the auidence what each character is like.

Audience feedback

From getting audience feedback, i have realised what i need to improve in my film and what i have done well. It is good that the feedback was given by other students in my class because they are about the same age as people in my film and also they are doing the same work as me so they know what they are doing.

Audience targeting

Audience targeting 

My film is aimed for teenagers aged 15 and above, as my film is a certificate 15.
My target audience need to be able to watch thriller films, dont mind a bit of mild violence, don't mind threats and guns.

Props and costumes


Props.

These are the headphones worn by Jacob in the start of the film. I think its important that the wearing of these headphones is emphasised because it shows how he keeps himself to himself and likes to switch off and just listen to his music.

This is Jacob’s phone this is used a few times in the film. We see him receive texts off the bullies on this phone and we see him go on his phone when he is awaiting the bullies because he is nervous.

This is the gun that Jacob uses to scare off the bullies and the gun that is eventually used to shoot Adam. The gun is a very important object in the film as it is so unexpected for Jacob to posses such a deadly weapon.

Costume

This is Jacob’s costume … He still wears fashionable clothes despite being unpopular. He has a good fashion sense wearing a branded hoodie, nice jeans and stylish shoes. He dresses like a typical teenager so this represents his character well.

This is Beth’s costume… she wears fairly baggy clothing and doesn’t really take much pride in her appearance as she knows that no body will criticize her because she is so intimidating. You could say she dresses quite ‘gangster’ so therefore her outfit represents her character nicely.

This is Adams costume… despite being part of this gang Adam does not represent this in the way he dresses. He has quite a smart dress code and takes pride in his appearance.

This is Dom’s costume… Being Beth’s brother you’d expect him to dress quite scruffy but actually he takes a lot of pride in his appearance. He always tries his best to look good which kind of shows that he doesn’t follow the gang stereotype.

Setting board

Settings board 

 

 

 

 

These are a few picture of the settings in our film. The top two picture are where the shooting takes place. The other pictures are the places that jacob walks through on his way to meet the gang.