Question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our plot has a non-linear timeline due to the fact it starts with a flashback/dream and then goes into the films main story. We showed the films main event before we displayed credits, this was because wanted to put the viewer straight into action and grab their attention quickly and also make them feel confused and shocked about the situation they are being shown.

Our film looks like our genre in the sense that our storyline tries to make the audience solve a problem that the main character has, we also tried to make a victim out of our protagonist and make the audience feel empathy for them. In terms of cinematography we added dark filters onto shots to make them more sinister and also tried to keep our set design grey and towards the darker end of the scale.

The camera angles we used attempted to look down on our characters and show them as weak and powerless.

We used few tracking shots in our film due to the fact we wanted to give the effect of somebody stalking our main character.

The editing of our film was done to keep continuity but we have one location cut around 1:20 without using any fades or transitions, this was done in an attempt to surprise our audience, we also increase the volume at this point. We kept the pace of our shots to a high rate and tried to use many different angles in the flash back part of the film to cause confusion. The verisimilitude is questionable due to the large amounts of white out transitions we use at the beginning of the film but this wasn’t a problem, as we wanted to give off a surreal look to the dream so I believe we met our target.

The music at the start of our film was used to demonstrate the age of our characters and make it clear they where of a young age. After this point most of our films sound is natural and the only editing we do on it is cross fades as well as sound bridges at some points.

Costumes in our film mainly consisted of normal clothes young people would wear for a party and then pyjama type clothes once our actor wakes up. Our main props where fake blood and also icing sugar that we used as mock cocaine.

The film was shot in two locations, the first was a house where we filmed in the bathroom and bedroom, and the second was at Barnsley College.

For the films titles we had to add a shadow to the white font so it would stand out more, this made our titles easy to see whilst keeping them bold and modern.

Some visual conventions of our genre that featured in our film are; drugs, death and also paranoia.

Question 7

Question 7 - Cameron Farrell from fazza0123

Prelim Exercise

Question 6

Question 4

Quesion 4 - Audience from fazza0123

Question 2

Possible distributers

 

A possible distributor for my film could be film 4, this is due to the fact that they have previously worked with independent film producers such as warp and had large amount of success with films like ‘four lions’ and also ‘This is England’.

I believe that by picking a company that has had previous experience with small production companies my film will be successful.

Film four has also distributed within my film genre of psychological horror with films such as ‘Donkey Punch’ and also ‘Dead Mans Shoes’ this will also make them better at distributing my film.

Despite this Film Four is only a small distributor in the grand scheme of things when compared to Time Warner and other larger and more international companies. Film four may also not have as much money to use for advertising purposes so the film may not be international and may be limited to a UK audience. Some may see this factor as a flaw but it could be seen as an advantage as advertising is more effective and targeted towards your audience.

 

 

Question 3

Question 3 - Distribution from fazza0123

Question 5

Overall I believe we have reached our target audience, this is because after we asked our audience if they would go to the cinema to see our film they said yes 100%

 

This chart above is enough information in my opinion to conclude we have reached our target audience and they enjoyed our film to a level where they were willing to pay to see it.

In pre production we decided that we would have characters that are a similar age to our target audience, this is due to the fact we wanted our film to be more relatable so they would be attracted to it. As well as the age of our actors we also attempted to have scenarios such as parties that they could relate to easily.

In our postproduction work we know that this worked due to the feedback in which one person said, “It's targeted at my age group and seems interesting” and also “I think it is the kind of film that I would watch”.

In our questionnaire our audience also said they thought that the film “looks professional and I thought the Camera angles where good”.

I believe the overall the successful points when taking audience feedback into consideration where; camera angles, editing and also the storyline. The improvements suggest where; “add more characters and possibly more action”. We took this feedback into consideration and to improve the storyline will have to be improved later down the line, as we had not planned to add many other main characters. Despite having to change this we had already planned in our later story to have much more action than in the films first two minuets.

Overall I am happy with the feedback we have received from our questionnaire and I think that if we take the opinions we have received into consideration we can improve our overall production.

 

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 7 on Google Docs!

Preliminary Task

Main Task

Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Subsequent to publishing our finished piece on YouTube, our group shared a feedback questionnaire on social media which was created on Google Docs. This allowed us to easily get feedback from a potential audience of  our film.

I do believe that Vodka and Coke captured our target audience due to the fact that 100% of people surveyed stated that they "would see our film if it was released at a cinema near them" with a further 100% who "enjoyed our 2 minute clip". 

We wanted our film to appeal to as many people as possible of ages above 15 and all genders. Our film was targeted towards ordinary British people. However, we especially wanted people of 15-30 to be interested in our feature with an audience similar to those who watch TV show, Skins. We wanted the audience to be able to relate to our film so we decided to make our characters young adults. Also the age of the characters could promote feelings of nostalgia for youth in potential audiences above the adolescent age range.  

In our post-production work, we sent another form in a similar format asking potential audiences their feeling towards the first draft of the film. Most people surveyed were "15-18" with one person even stating that it "sounds like Skins". Also a vast majority of the audience answered "yes" to the question "would you personally watch the film?" So this lead us to conclude that our technique for appealing to our audience would work.

Although feedback was frequently positive, we added questions to the survey that would promote constructive criticism from the audience. The question that received the most constructive answers was "What improvements would you make to our film?". This could have included any aspect of the film from camera angles to characters. A common answer was to add "more thrilling/psychological" factors to make the genre clearer to the audience. Furthermore, it was suggested that we could "add more characters". I agree with both points as there were no particularly jumpy or shocking moments and there were only two character used within the film which could have been seen as a little tedious for an audience. However if the film was longer that a two minute introduction, I feel that an introduction of more characters and shocks would have been easier to incorporate. Also one person out of the people surveyed, expressed that the storyline was not easy to follow which I will take into consideration. I somewhat agree with this point because the clip is in a non-linear narrative which could be confusing to the audience. Although, I feel that it is important for psychological horrors to mildly confuse an audience in order to mess with the psyche of an audience. 

In conclusion, I feel that the feedback received was helpful and positive. The advice received from peers will be very useful for when I produce a 5 minute film when I progress onto the A2 section of the Media Studies course. 

Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media?

Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 7 script

In the preliminary exercise we had to perform a short piece of film, which was continuous task. It had to include shot-reverse-shot, a match on action shot and demonstrate the 180-degree line. This involved two people walking down a corridor, entering a room, sitting down, exchanging a few lines of dialogue, getting up and leaving as a group we included everything in the brief.

For our main task, we had to create our own original two-minute film that also demonstrated shot-reverse-shot, match on action and the 180-degree line. It included the titles to the opening film.  We could use whatever location we liked and whatever storyline. We used the camera, Sony HD 100 when filming both the preliminary exercise and the two-minute film. This gave us knowledge how to use it in our film as we knew what we had to do and didn’t have to mess about finding out.

In our preliminary exercise, we had to use Celtx to create a professional looking script as the two characters had to exchange multiple lines of dialogue.  When I first started the preliminary exercise, I didn’t know how to work Celtx or know what it was but due to learning how to use it, I could then develop my skills by using in the two-minute film by creating a script that was easy to follow and included the stage directions.

After we filmed for our preliminary exercise, we had to edit it using Final Cut Express. I had no experience with it beforehand but afterwards I had learnt how to include cross-fades, sound bridges an how to cut certain parts of the film out so it was continuous. This helped me in my two-minute film, as I then knew what had to be done and how to make my film better, I could be more creative and add more effects.

However in my two-minute film I included sound and music which I had not done in my preliminary exercise making it more professional and it made our film have a tone depending on the music or if it was silent. I got the music of free sound effects off the Internet and added them on in Final Cut Express, which I had to learn as I had never done it before.

Preliminary Exercise

Evaluation: Question 1

Media question 1 evaluation from njpowersx

Evaluation: Question 2

Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.

Evaluation: Question 3

Evaluation: Question 4

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L9F7UB1X6WuDfVwoNfBusVN_SRyM0OaXDxxMwzpJjTc/edit?usp=sharing

Evaulation: Question 5

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZKnqn6Rr1zRi3mfJo6pQOJCPi9t5hbrz5Ckq2MmY_o/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation: Question 6

Question 6 Media Evaluation from njpowersx

Evaluaton: Question 7

Final film

Story Boards

Character Profiles

Name: Alex
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Character attributes: Long, dark brown hair with middle parting and green eyes. Dresses relatively casually. Has a friendly and fun personality but quite shy. She is easily peer pressured. An average stereotypical teenager.
Role in the film: Best friend of Jess. At the party, she reluctantly takes cocaine under Jess' influence and subsequently dies. She begins to haunt Jess following her death and appears in her dreams and flashbacks.


Name: Jess
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Character attributes: Long, dark hair with a full fringe and brown eyes. Also dresses relatively casually. Has a rebellious personality and wilfully gets involved in dangerous behaviour such as drugs and drinking.
Role in the film: Best friend of Alex. She convinces Alex to take cocaine which leads to her death. She feels incredibly guilty about her involvement and has night terrors about the night. She begins to see Alex's ghost in her day-to-day life.

Shot List

Questionnaire Results

Prop List

Prop list


Fake drugs (white powder) in a bag

Rum bottle

Phone

Headphones

Credit card

Rolled notes

Mirror

Clothes in a wardrobe

Fake Blood

Risk Assessment

Final Piece Script

The Butterfly Effect Opening Sequence

The film begins with a quote by someone that involves butterflies. It follows to a long shot of a dark office where Evan is breaking in hiding from the police. Moreover the first movie scene starts with hiding and rushing. It dives straight into the plot however we don't know whats happening as the first scene is actually the end of the film and it's telling us what happened to get to that point. They use many mid shots in the beginning when he is alone and a match on action shot when he writing on the piece of paper so the audience know what he's doing. It keeps flipping from Evan to the police back to Evan as he's hiding. An extreme close up is used on the notepad, this tells the viewer that it is an important part of the film.They then use the final words "save her" and graphic match it into butterflies that become to title sequence. The colours used so far are dark, blue, black to create a gloomy atmosphere. The non-diegetic music used first off causes great amounts of tension as it creates a build up and then it changes to a hurried/tense music and matches his actions as he is in a rush. We can hear police man shouting whilst Evan is reading aloud what he is writing in his notepad.

After the title, there is a long shot of a street in broad daylight which is an unusual parallel to what we have just seen. There are people on their bikes and walking this relaxes the audience as it's everyday life. They have used quite a suburban area where there are a lot of houses and families, there is greenery and a well-looked-after area. They used a crane shot to create a steady shot so it isn't handheld and shaky. In this scene, a soft piano music has been used to create a relaxed and calm atmopshere so the audience can feel at ease. We then see it's gone back in time 13 years by the subtitles.