Media: AS Coursework Conclusion

I have learned a lot from this course about film making and much more. I have developed by knowledge and skills of both a range of hardware and software such as editing programs like 'adobe'. Through it  I have learned much about the horror genre and the roles of different people in making a short film.I have also learned about the stereotypical characteristics of a good conventional horror film opening, including a title sequence and a quick introduction to the story. Overall I have enjoyed and learned much from the course with a better understanding on all I have covered previously on this AS media blog.

Evaluation 7 - "Looking back at the preliminary task what have you learnt in progression from it to the full product ?"

The preliminary task we accomplished awhile ago i believe taught me more about camera work such as the '180 degree rule' and editing, preparing me for the horror opening we have recently completed. I believe that i have progressed a lot from then in both my camerawork and editing skills. After learning from the preliminary task and a couple other films, which helped with practice further, along with a variety of research into shot types etc i think have made me improve with both factors for the final product of our horror opening 'The River'.

There was a substainal change in work load to begin with from a 30 second clip to a 2 minute clip which we planned ourselves. I feel I have greatly improved since the preliminanry task  as it was already planned out for us  which meant editing wasn't needed as much as it is in 'The River'. In the River sections of film had to be moved around and a range of effects had to be added such as a 'black and white effect' colour change in Michael's hanging scene. We also used other effects such as the 'ghosting effect' however as i've said previouslythis didn't go to plan when it was exported. We also used a variety of titles like the opening credits and the final title, we also used transitions and various editing techniques such as cuts and fades. We put a conventional soundtrack together too by using the site 'Free SFX'. Putting designs on titles was also another thing I didn't do in the preliminary task by putting a 'rippling effect' on the title 'The River' for example. Much editing wasn't needed in the Preliminary task in comparison, only a few sharper cuts and the dd title and fade added, greatly dwarfed through 'The River's editing.

The Preliminary task came with a plan of a variety of shot types of which we had to use and from this i feel ai have taken this on board and used a large variety of shots in our horror production including the 180 degree rule which was established in the preliminary task.

I think my improvement from the preliminary task then our first individual group video to 'The River' has meant quite a jump for me, I have, i feel improved quite far on directing as well as editing from these previous tasks and I have learned a lot in the process.

media evaluation 6 - "What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through the process of coming up with the idea of 'the river' to filming and editing I have learned a substantial amount of media through the use of physical equipment such as the camera to software such as
Adobe Photo-Shop. Below i will explain what programs and equipment we used to make 'The River'

This shot ->

is of myself filming the beginning scene with the camera on the tripod, holding the storyboard to keep track of the shots. The storyboard didn't take too long to create after i made a story, so this storyboard with a variety of shot types was very efficient in filming the horror movie because it planned every step of the way for filming the opening itself. The tripod was also very helpful when filming, it kept the camera somewhat straight however it wasn't the easiest thing to adjust due to the uneven ground and a stiff leg that the tripod has, it did pay off however as it kept the camera stable and overall made the piece more professional due to its varying heights etc, making it easier to take clearer shots/footage. We were able to do better looking pans and also make the camera actually static. Originally we wanted to use boom mics for the movie to give better sound quality however when these weren't available we just made do.

The camera was a very effective tool which is quite clear as it allowed us to film, both on and off a tripod, as sometimes it was used for hand-held shots, primarily POV shots giving the perspective of various characters such as the masked ones as well as the main characters such as Rowen Elliot's. Although I already knew how to use a camera like this, more practice is always helpful by giving more experience for future filming etc.The camera worked well however it didn't always pick up sound perfectly but we managed to get past this through louder speaking as well as holding the camera closer to the action itself.

Photoshop and other picture editing programmes like 'Paint' were effective in making the logo for our film production as well as putting pictures together for evaluations such as this,both worked well for these purposes, allowing me to be more organized with evaluations by editing pictures together and also to design a better logo, such as the one above by editing a picture, and creating writing in our chosen style to cover it.

Other programmes such as Microsoft publisher helped in arranging and displaying our critics' findings effectively also as shown in the graph below.

Adobe premiere was probably the most effective software of which we used for our movie, it allowed us to drastically improve the finished product by removing bad takes and sharp cuts which we replaced with smoother transitions, effects and edits like fades etc. Premiere allowed us to create a much better film overall with the additions to the movie such as putting in music appropriate to the genre of horror as well as putting in title sequences and special effects, generally making it flow better, too appear more professional and conventional to the genre. The programme has also added to my knowledge of editing which will become necessary for future media tasks.

The site 'Blogger' itself has been extremely helpful, allowing me to display my research into the genre of horror and the steps of planning to completing our horror opening and my general knowledge taken from the AS Level course. It's been helpful by allowing me to upload a variety of pictures and videos and display them in an appropriate, organized way allowing me to edit posts if i make a mistake for example, overall the site has allowed me to display my findings and my basic development in the course effectively.


The variety of mediums of which i have used to create the horror opening 'The River' have all been extremely helpful for both making it as well as displaying it on this site, they have all had there parts in making our opening what it is and we couldn't have accomplished it without one of these technologies both hardware or software, all allowing us to complete and display a conventional horror opening. We also used the site 'Free SFX which allowed us to find a free un-copyrighted but still a conventional soundtrack for our final production.

Initial issues with Evaluation 5

Evaluation 5 took me a while to begin, i had issues with my email and setting up an account on youtube however i eventually fixed it and managed to complete evaluation 5 to an acceptable standard I believe. Evaluation 5 follows on from other evaluations such as 3 and 4, through it i discuss why we used certain aspects of our film through youtube annotations for example i discuss why certain things like 'POV' shots relate to other horror films and also discussion things such as why we choose the logo and what made it conventional for example. The hyperlink also didn't work when put on my blog either however it can still be easily accessed through highlighting then copy and pasting to the top search bar.

Evaluation 5 "How did you attract our audience?"

I completed this evaluation on youtube with its annotations tools. In this evaluation I addressed how our opening relates to other horror films and also how it attracts to my target audience. Through it I have expressed the films USP (unique selling point)  as well as its conventions and use of music.

Here is the link to my evaluation 5 of my short horror media opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJINfBkPgyQ
For some reason the hyper link hasn't worked properly so please highlight and copy and paste it into the top search bar and it will work thank you, sorry for the inconvenience.

AS media coursework Evaluation 4 -"Who would the auidience be for your media product ?" part 2 (Female target auidience profile for 'The River')

 

This is only a small addition  to my previous evaluation post as generally the same applies to the female audience as much as the males however there are a few differences of which i will cover. Generally the female audience have similar musical tastes such as rock and indie and fit into the similar brackets of E-C1 focusing on the 'E' brackets as the main audience is casual workers and students. Our female audience will generally have similar tastes to the male audience of films and also wear casual clothing. The audience can be a variety of races however the age will tend to be 16-24.

AS media coursework Evaluation 4 - "Who would be the auidience for your media product?" part 1 (Male target auidience profile for 'The River')

 

This is a photo of the male target audience for our film, these are three examples we found to be appropriate after conducting a survey.

Demographics

The age of the target audience for 'The River' we felt would be between the ages of 16-24 as the film is aimed at a younger audience with violence and special effects as well as a simple conventional storyline, the film is also aimed at both genders however we feel that it will attract a larger male audience due to the semantic fields of violence and gore the film posses however we still believe we will receive a female audience also. The film will generally be aimed at working to middle class audiences as the characters as well as the setting are more relatible to those classes. Our movie will be aimed at all races however geographical wise a British audience will probably find it most appealing by relating to the country etc.

Psycho-graphics

We found that our target audience enjoy socializing and generally having a good time, texting, music video games etc so I think that our film will attract the right audience as the cast (primarily teenagers) will par take in activities similar to them making it more relatible to our audience as they'll understand what the characters are going through further. I believe that our story is very engaging for our audience and the camera shots such as POV shots accompanied by the tense music will engross viewers and add further to the appeal value of our film.

Further research

We found that our male audience will be between the E-C1 brackets as it fits in with the classes of working and middle also however we primarily will focus on the 'E' bracket.We think young students for example will partake in viewing our film as well as those doing apprenticeships or just casual workers. Our male audience will obviously need to enjoy going to the cinema and watching horror films. We discovered further information from surveys that our audience will generally come from towns and cities rather then villages and have musical tastes of rock, metal and alternative, they also wear casual clothing which is sometimes dark.