Evaluation Prezi

A2 Media Evaluation on Prezi

Finished production

Untitled from JamieReeves on Vimeo.

Here is the finished film all edited and completed. We are happy with it even with the problems we faced throughout the production of it.

Ancilery Products

Magazine Review

The magazine review has now been completed by myself, Jamie reeves and conor murray. Conor completed the layout and some of the information that is in the magazine review and I also contributed to the information in the review about our film. The magazine review is 2 A4 pages which is set in into a double page spread. The review consists of information about the film and some of the techniques that are used in it and also some ratings of the film from other sources and some screen shots of the film.

Below is a link to our magazine review.

Magazine review

Film Poster

The film poster has now been completed by Jamie reeves, Conor murray and myself. Jamie completed the layout of the pictures text and headings that are included on our poster. Conor Murray was the person that provided the photos that are included on our poster. I completed a draft layout of how our poster was going to look who I then gave to jamie to completed our final poster because he is more experienced with using photoshop.

Below is a link to our film poster

Film Poster

Exhibition.

To find out the best way of exhibiting our film I decided to look at our market research in more detail to see if I could find out the best place for our film to be exhibited. The main types of exhibition are: Television, Cinema release and on the internet.

I decided that our film should not be shown through television. The main problems are that it would be to expensive and it would not be shown to our target market as well because of the variety of age ranges that watch the telly.

A cinema exhibition would also not be appropriate because it would be to expensive for our budget and also our film would not be at a high enough standard for a cinema exhibition.

We have decided to exhibit our film on the internet for a number of reasons. The first one is that there are a majority of sites for us to show our film and also not be charged any money. Another reason is that our target audience is the highest consumer on the internet and more likely to view are film on the internet than older age groups.

Character models.

Our main production consists of three main characters. They are known as the Significant extra, The protagonist and the main antagonist. We also have to characters that follow the main antagonist. Below is a link to conor's blog for the image and description of each character.

Here is a link to Conor's blog and the post he has completed about our characters and the way they we are going to portray them. Conor's Blog.

Our script

We have completed our script as a draft but I have found a list of specifications that a script has to consist of to be completed at a professional standard. Here is the list of the specifications that are required to produce a professional script.

• 12pt Dark Courier
• Left margin: 1.6in (4.06cm)
• Right margin: 3/4in (1.9cm)
• Dialogue: 2.6in(6.5cm)
• Character Name: 3.9in (10.0cm)
• Parentheticals: 3.3in (8.0cm)
• Character Names: Upper case on first introduction, lower case from then on
• CAPITALISE: Significant props and sound (eg. a KNIFE, a BANG)
• CAPITALISE: Key points of direction (eg. ZOOM, JUMP-CUT)

I am going to rewrite our script using all of the bullet points above, and then I will link it to my blog via this post.

What our audience would be according to the regulation bodies

After looking at the audience bodies research that I have researched and posted on to my blog I have now applied all of this to the audience that we are hoping to attract the most. Here is a link to the audience research post on my blog. Audience Research

Using the NRS social grade which determines a household into each category by using the occupation of the head of the household to organise them. By looking at each of the grades we are aiming for the C2-D grade. This is because we are aiming at a younger audience and we assume that younger people would be in these categories because young people tend not to have a highly paid profession when they are younger. We have Identified a young audience because they are the biggest film consumers out of all the age groups.

The acorn system categrises all of the united kingdom postcodes into various types based on census data and other information such as lifestyle surveys. By using this data we asume that a younger audience would be classified in moderate means and possibly hard pressed groups. We are aiming at these because we believe that a younger audience would mainly be asociated with these groups.

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Conventions of a short film.

• Short films all generally follow the same style of how they are filmed. I have watched a few short films now and I have noticed that they usually contain no more than three characters with one of them being mainly focused on.

• Also the storyline that they have tend to have a twist in them. This is because they are so short that if they didn't include a twist in them they just simply wouldn't be enticing to an audience. Short films also tend to have a lot of point of view shots. This is because short films are mainly about a characters life and the best way to portray this story is to see it how the character sees it.

• Voice overs are a very popular method of sound in short films, and it is often found in short films that a voice over would be used instead of dialogue, there could be many reasons for this, for one it is cheaper to record a voice over than use a high tech boom, but also if the story is about someone's life, the voice over would normally be that of the central protagonist.

• Another convention that a short film has is that it tends to be between 1-5 minutes long.

First time using photoshop.

To create our magazine review and the poster for our film we decided that we would use photoshop. Photoshop has all of the tools and effects that are needed for us to create a magazine review and film poster at a very high standard. I have never used photoshop before so I decided to have a first time mess around to help me learn and get used to the software. Below is a quick poster that I have created using basic techniques and the basic tools that photoshop has to offer.

After I had completed my photoshop poster for the first time I decided that the photoshop part of the magazine article and the poster that we were creating was not going to be done by me. The film poster will be created by jamie and I will recreate the poster in a way that I would have done it.

Market Research Review

Here is our market research review that my group members filmed because I was ill on that day.

Review of Market Research from JamieReeves on Vimeo.

Link to Jamie's Blog

Market Research

Here is our market research.

Market Feedback from JamieReeves on Vimeo.

A link to the full post. Jamie reeves

Progress Specification

Here is my progress specification which I have colour coded so it is easy to see what I have done and what needs to be done.

Key

Red-Not started
Yellow- Started but not yet finished
Green-Completed.

Print:

Level 3 36-47 Marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:


framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;


using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;


shooting material appropriate to the task set;


selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;


manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing;


accurately using language and register;


appropriately integrating illustration and text;


showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;


showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;


using ICT appropriately for the task set.


Level 4 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;


using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;


shooting material appropriate to the task set;


selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;


manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing;


accurately using language and register;


appropriately integrating illustration and text;


showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;


showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;


Using ICT appropriately for the task set.

Video:

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:


holding a shot steady, where appropriate;


framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;


using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;


shooting material appropriate to the task set;


selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;


editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;


using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;


using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;




using titles appropriately.



Level 4 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:


holding a shot steady, where appropriate;


framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;


using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;


shooting material appropriate to the task set;


selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;


editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;


using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;


using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;


using titles appropriately.


Audio
Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:


recording voice(s) clearly in studio/confined setting;


recording voice(s) clearly in location/outdoor interviews/presentations;


accurately using language and register;


integrating recorded material, as appropriate;


editing and mixing sounds appropriately;


editing to create continuity and meaning;


integrating jingles, music, location sounds and sound effects, where appropriate.

Poster Analysis

Film posters for all genres all basically use the same layout but change background colours, the main picture and the captions that are used. Film posters can tell alot about a film from just the colours used and the layout of the poster. Below is a list of different films from different genres and how the designs change.

A romance film's poster usually use very soft colours that are not bright and harsh to the eyes. The colours associated with romance films posters show the consumer that the film doesnt contain any gore or violence but is more of a "chick flick" than a thriller or an action movie.

Here is some examples of romantic film posters.

Letters to Juliet uses very calm and neutral colours which tell the reader that the film has a very non complex storyline and it can be easily consumed.

The love & Other Drugs film poster is a little different to the normal conventions of a romance film poster. It uses dark red for a main background instead of a soft colour such as a peach or cream. The poster still shows the reader it is a romantic film but in a different way to other romance films. It does this by having the actors lying on a bed naked being covered by pillows. This instanly tells the consumer that there will be no action or gore involved.

A Horror Genre film poster is alot different to that of a romance film poster. It uses more dark colours such as blacks, Dark blues and blood reds. This can instanly tell the consumer that the film will be action packed and will contain gore just by the colours and the layouts it uses. Below are some examples of horror film posters.

Paranormal Activity uses an actual screenshot from the film as its main image on the poster. The text used is very significant because the screenshot used only gives the consumer so much, whereas when the text is added in Red and not a natural font it makes the poster stand out and gives the consumer an idea of what the film is about.

The strangers film poster uses natural colours of house lighting but they blacken out the surroundings so that the person in the middle of the poster looks more vunerable then she noramlly would. For an added affect they have one of the taunters in the background watching her every move so that the consumer gets the feel of the hairs standing up on the back of there neck. The text also states that it is "inspired by true events." Because of this use of text the consumer automatcially knows that this has happened to someone in reality making the consumer feel vunerable too.

A thriller's film poster sometimes has a horror's charateristics but they are made so that the consumer can look at a poster and can tell if its a thriller or horror genre of film.

Below are some examples of thrillers film posters.

The film poster of "The Crazies" uses a clouded sky which gives a the consumer the idea that some kind of storm is coming but they dont know if its the weather or if its a metaphoric storm such as a war or something. The colours used a natural colours so this makes you think that everything is fine. The last aspect of this film poster is that there is a young girl standing in a desrted town with a gas mask on. Because this is used the consumer gets a senstaion that everything is not as it seems.

Shutter Island is a thriller which is based on a detective trying to find a missing patient at a mental hospital which is based on an island. Throughtout the film we follow Leonardo Dicaprio who uncovers the truth about the missing patient which is infact him. The reason why he is a detective is because he plays a detective and the people who are in charge of the hospital allow him to play through his story to try and cure him. The poster uses a picture of the island during a storm with the sea very rough abnd heavy rainfull. The reason they use this is because a storm usually means thats something bad is going to happen or that all is not as it seems. By using the image at the top of the poster you get a sense that this film is a mystery because of the use of the match.

What is a magazine review?

The magazine review is one of the secondary products that we have decided to produce along with our main production of a thriller and the other secondary production which is the poster. I have been doing some research into magazine articles and the layouts that they choose. The magazine article must be on a double page spread and consist of a some screen shots from the film and then an article on the film.

Below are some links to magazine layout Ideas:

http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=4076

http://www.exodusdesign.com/magazine_layout.htm

We have looked at some templates for a magazine double page spread and have considered what would look the best for a thriller film. They all basically consist of a large screenshot from the film which covers most of the double page spread. Smaller screen shots are also used so that the reader can have more than one perspective on the film that he is about to read about. Underneath each of the film screenshots there is usually a caption about 1 or 2 lines long explaining what is happeneing in the picture. At either the sides or the bottem of the double page spread there is a write up which gives a review on the film and quotes from people that have viewed the film. It will also have a star rating and the using of exciting words such as, Exhilarating, Amazing, Breath taking etc. With the use of these words the reader creates a picture for themself from just reading a few words.

Change of plan

We have decided not to use the idea of live footage as we believe that it would be to hard to create. The problems that we encountered were that we couldnt think of a way to edit scenes. What I mean is that with the use of live footage everything has to be one continious piece of filming with no cuts in it. We had come up with the idea of having previous events already filmed on the camera like for example a wedding which we could then cut to to have a break in the film so editing could take place. Because we believe that we are not capable of creating a live footage film we have decided to still create a thriller film but not using live footage.

What we rate our film as

Our Production

We have decided that our film would have a 12 certificate. This is because we are using some violence and we are also debating whether to have any blood and gore visible. Another reason why we think we should give our film a 12 age rating is that we are not planning on using any drugs in our short film. We have also decided that we wont be using any nudity in our production or any sexual activity. After we decided all of this we looked at the BBFC and compared our results to that of the BBFC. It became clear that the 12 certificate would be the correct age for our production.

Audience classification and Regulatory bodies

Audience Classification

The NRS Social Grade

Here is a link to How we are applying it to our audience.
The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey in order to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research.

The classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household.
Grade Social class Chief income earner's occupation

• A Upper middle class Higher managerial, administrative or professional.
• B Middle class Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional.
• C1 Lower middle class Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional.
• C2 Skilled working class Skilled manual workers.
• D Working class Semi and unskilled manual workers.
• E Those at the lowest levels of subsistence Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income.

The ACORN system

ACORN (Acronym for A Classification of Residential Neighborhoods) is a geodemographic information system categorizing all United Kingdom postcodes into various types based upon census data and other information such as lifestyle surveys.

Here are the catorgies that the ACORN system use in desending order.

• Wealthy Achievers
• Urban Prosperity
• Comfortably Off
• Moderate Means
• Hard Pressed

Everyone in the united kingdom is under one of this Catorgies. This is then used by the media to target specific people that they which to use for there product.




BBFC (British Board of Film Classification)


The BBFC is a non governmental orgainisation funded by the film industry and is responsible for the classification of films in the united kingdom. It was founded in 1912 and gives people a perspective on what the film is like and what it includes. A classification is basically a guideline for parents so they can see what the film or game entails. Cinema's use these certificates so that children who are under the age of the certificate wont be viewing things that they should not see.



For a film to have the correct certificate applied to it they have to pass through a few processes. The film is first view by a group of examiners who analyse sections of the film and then give them the age rating that suits that section best. The producers of the film then have a chance to change certain parts of the film to achieve the ceftificate that they wont. If they do not decide to change certain sections of the film then consequently the age certificate will be higher.


A film with a 12 certificate is classed as a 12 if it contains infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence. An example could be The Dark Knight this is because it contains some violence.

A film with an 18 certificate is classified as an 18 if it contains very strong violence, A major extent of drug abuse, Very strong language and sex scenes. An example of a film with an 18 certificate would be any of the Saw films. This is because they contain very strong violence and a strong use of blood and gore.

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The Effects Model

Effects models

The hypodermic needle model

The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. Just think of it as a big needle full of the product and it directly injected into your head.

Two-step flow

The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.
Uses and gratifications

People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications. Some people are worried that the media is gaining to much power over people.

Reception theory

The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences.


Obstinate audience theory

This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message.

What is a short film?

The term short film orginated in the 1910's which was also the early period of cinema. The is used differently in he continents of the world.

North America classes a short film being between 20-40 minutes long, but in europe the definition is used if the film is longer than 1 minute but shorter than 15 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_film


The North American definition also tends to focus much more on character whereas the European forms tend to depend much more on visual drama and plot twists. In this way, the North American form can be understood to be a derivation of the feature film form, usually acting as a platform for aspirant Hollywood directors. Elsewhere, short films tend to work as showcases for cinematographers and commercial directors. When the majority of feature films began to be made in much longer-running editions. A typical film program came to be expected to include a feature preceded by one or more short subjects. Short subjects could be live action or animated.

Comedy was particularly utilized, and well-known comedians such as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others are known for their short films as well as their features.

Very short films are sometimes considered as a category of their own. They are the film equivalent of microfiction, like the 60 Word Story. People usually think of short films as being animation rather than reality.

The International Festival of Very Shorts is a festival based in Paris which shows only films less than three minutes long.

Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has presented and promoted a collection of one-minute films across multiple media since September 2006.

Pitch Finally uploaded.

Pitch by Ben, Conor, Jamie from Ben Goulder on Vimeo.

Here is our first pitch that shows what we plan to do for this part of the task. We are planning to create a film using found footage and the subsidiary tasks we are doing is the poster and the magazine review.

Pitch filmed

We have now filmed our pitch and it is now ready to be uploaded to our blogs. It should be on very soon. We have learned from this that we need to plan ahead alot more and not just make up a pitch on the spot.

Today's plan.

Today thursday the 18th November me and my group are going to redo our pitch because the first time we failed to complete it with any success. We are also going to decide on our final storyline and produce a storyboard of our short film with found footage. The final task we are going to try and complete the research into good and bad points of found fottage.

Our pitch

We had to pitch our ideas to the group and infront of a camera. We werent prepared for it and as we started to make our pitch it fell apart. Because of this we have not got our pitch on video so here is the powerpoint that I was going to use for my part of our groups pitch.

Animatic

This is the animatic I created for the music video that I chose as my favorite. The animatic is for the music video The pretender by The Foo Fighters. Even though we are creating a short film and not a music video we are showing this kind of technique because we will use this technique to create our storyboard.

Foo fighters the pretender Animatic from Ben Goulder on Vimeo.

Initial Ideas

Our idea is to create a film. This is because this is the area that we felt most confident in. We then decided that instead of making a normal film we will create a film using live footage. Our idea was that we would have all the footage filmed from a hand held camera and then have a person playing it back on that camera that they have found. The basic storyline we have decided on so far is that we would have a group of teenagers in a car driving down a secluded road in pitch darkness. The road would be lit by the cars head lights and rear lights. Some object would appear in the road and the car would screech to a halt. The rear view mirror would show a figure being faintly lit by the brake lights and then disappear when the driver releases the brake. Some other events would happen and the camera would be knocked to the ground filming the last piece of footage of the terrible event that is unfolding.

We are yet to decide on the all of the events but our storyboard will show the complete story.

The target I set myself

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• using titles appropriately.

Im aiming for a level three for my practical work. I think this because the targets are as high as I believe my capibilities will allow me to get.

Targets

Level 2 24–35 marks

- There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:

- Holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

- Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

- Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

- Shooting material appropriate to the task set;

- Selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

- Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;

- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

- Using titles appropriately.
60

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

- Holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

- Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

- Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

- Shooting material appropriate to the task set;

- Selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

- Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;

- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

- Using titles appropriately.

I am going to aim to tick most of these points in my Task to achieve what I feel I can.

Our task

10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
 a poster for the film;
 a radio trailer for the film;
 a film magazine review page featuring the film.

The reason we have chosen this task is because we feel that film is our strongest field of work, and making a live action film is something that we have all wanted to do. The two subsidiary tasks that we have decided to do is the poster for out film and a film magazine review page featuring the film. We did not chose to do the radio trailer for the film because we didn't feel confident enough to take on this task as we didn't have any experience of how to create a radio broadcast.

My music video

Here is my favourite music video of all time:

Foo Fighters - The Pretender from bas tian on Vimeo.

My favorite music video of all time

My favorite music video of all time is "The pretender" by a the American alternative rock band the "Foo Fighters" The music video shows the band performing the song in an airplane hangar with many strip lights on the ceiling. Behind the band is a large red screen, which is thick and solid. The band is then faced by what appears to be a riot police officer, who stands behind a black line on the floor. He has the number 21 on his bullet-proof vest. As the song progresses, he is joined by more riot police officers, and a panning shot shows us that to his left, the numbers on the officers' vests descend all the way to "05". Assuming that there are the same number of officers on the man's right side, it can be gathered that there are 41 officers overall. As the quieter bridge begins, the video slows down as the officers charge at the band. Just as the band repeats the song's louder chorus, the screen suddenly explodes and a red liquid pours from the red screen overwhelming the police officers. The band is effected much less and they are seen holding there ground. At the end of the song Dave Grohl is seen smashing his guitar on the ground as the song then ends.

The reason why this is my favorite music video has three main points that I like. The first is that I enjoy listening to the song and it is one of my favorite songs. The second and third reasons are that it is very unique and it surprised me because it has no storyline and the events that happen are very random EG: There are 41+ riot patrol officers that line up and attempt to take out a band of 4 members. Another example is the Solid red wall behind the band the first time I viewed this music video I did not expect it to explode like that.