Tuesday 23 February 2016
Wednesday 17 February 2016
Evaluation: Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? - Mrs. Quinlan
What was the preliminary task and what were its main aims?
The preliminary task was a task set to assess and evaluate our skills as a form of practical, hands on planning. It would later help with what improvements we had to make in preparing, filming and editing. We were given a limited amount of time to film a 30 second scene and it had to follow a certain criteria. We were also given a camera and the final cut pro x software we would eventually use for the final product. We discussed amongst our group and decided on group roles according to our skills. I was made as director/cameraman and editor. Trang and Pervin were actors, with Trang also being producer and location manager while Pervin had the role of costume, hair and makeup, although a lot of these roles were not needed during the preliminary task. As a group we would later take on different roles in the final production as their skills suited different roles. As editor I faced some problems when editing as I had never used Final Cut Pro X before, I could only develop very simple cuts and there was a problem as there was a filter we could not remove that was preset.
Product of the Preliminary Task
Identify 4 things you are now better at and more confident with doing in terms of filming and editing:
Filming
This is a panning shot I attempted to film for the preliminary task, the shot was very long and the camera was shaking a lot. This made it ineffective and had to be drastically improved to be able to apply it to our thriller.
This panning shot was the one used in the final cut of the opening. I had improved in terms of camera work to keep the camera as still as possible, as well as making sure not to keep the camera focused on a subject for too long which would bore the audience quickly. I made sure the camera was zoomed in and at an angle where you cannot see the antagonists face, only his movement and location in the house. There is also low key lighting which we made sure to have while the antagonist was maneuvering around the house which was very effective to create suspense for the audience. I was a lot more confident in this shot due to the effect it had on the audience.
In this clip from my preliminary task while filming a medium shot there is obvious camera movement at the end which was not professional and did not make the preliminary task look good. It involved a lot of camera shake and was ineffective, therefore my skill when filming had to be improved for the final production.
This clip was a drastic improvement from my preliminary task as I had made sure the camera didn't move and the positioning of the camera was a lot better. This made it a lot more effective for the thriller as the distancing was appropriate. The camera was also very stable as I was a lot more familiar with it and therefore the was no lurching while filming this scene.
Editing
The preliminary task was a task set to assess and evaluate our skills as a form of practical, hands on planning. It would later help with what improvements we had to make in preparing, filming and editing. We were given a limited amount of time to film a 30 second scene and it had to follow a certain criteria. We were also given a camera and the final cut pro x software we would eventually use for the final product. We discussed amongst our group and decided on group roles according to our skills. I was made as director/cameraman and editor. Trang and Pervin were actors, with Trang also being producer and location manager while Pervin had the role of costume, hair and makeup, although a lot of these roles were not needed during the preliminary task. As a group we would later take on different roles in the final production as their skills suited different roles. As editor I faced some problems when editing as I had never used Final Cut Pro X before, I could only develop very simple cuts and there was a problem as there was a filter we could not remove that was preset.
Product of the Preliminary Task
Identify 4 things you are now better at and more confident with doing in terms of filming and editing:
Filming
This is a panning shot I attempted to film for the preliminary task, the shot was very long and the camera was shaking a lot. This made it ineffective and had to be drastically improved to be able to apply it to our thriller.
This panning shot was the one used in the final cut of the opening. I had improved in terms of camera work to keep the camera as still as possible, as well as making sure not to keep the camera focused on a subject for too long which would bore the audience quickly. I made sure the camera was zoomed in and at an angle where you cannot see the antagonists face, only his movement and location in the house. There is also low key lighting which we made sure to have while the antagonist was maneuvering around the house which was very effective to create suspense for the audience. I was a lot more confident in this shot due to the effect it had on the audience.
In this clip from my preliminary task while filming a medium shot there is obvious camera movement at the end which was not professional and did not make the preliminary task look good. It involved a lot of camera shake and was ineffective, therefore my skill when filming had to be improved for the final production.
Editing
My editing skills have improved as I quickly learned to use the software Final Cut Pro X efficiently, a darkened theme was emphasised as I used a grayscale filter appropriately to convey a more gruesome, intimidating tone due to the antagonists presence. This effectively made the opening more frightening and increased suspense amongst the audience.
In this clip, while editing I had used slow motion editing as well as a jump cut. The slow motion editing was used to create emphasis on the antagonist and his surroundings, I believe this was used very effectively to show that he is in public in front of people despite being a possible psychopath.
Comparing my preliminary task to my thriller opening
1)
In my preliminary task my positioning of the camera was not very good and it wasted a lot of space and there were a lot of distractions on screen which would not have allowed the audience to focus on the characters. However in the thriller opening I filmed the scene with one of the victims so that he was not visible until the mirror was moved, this would have frightened the audience as it was
unsuspected and very effective due to the positioning of the camera.
Personal reflection
I felt as if my thriller production was very successful as my group and I had all improved in our various areas despite having limited or no experience in them at all. The thriller has a variety of shots, angles and lighting and I feel as if this was a great improvement on the preliminary task which was the main aim. Overall we made the opening very subtle and had stuck to conventions and conventional themes of thrillers, this made it a very effective thriller opening.
Personally I most enjoyed the filming and the post-production stages of the production as I could observe my filming skills as they improved and I found it a challenge to get the various angles and shots to make the opening effective. The editing stage was also a challenge which I enjoyed as correcting my thriller through Final Cut Pro X allowed a lot of discussion amongst my group and we made decisions based on each others opinion on which scene looked better or which edit or sound effect fitted in well.
The sound editing could have been improved as I felt there was too much going on at times, and the whole soundtrack is not as subtle as I wished it to be. Also another improvement could have been to use better makeup on the victims to make it seem more evident that they had been victims to a murder.
The main things I have learned over the whole process is to take more control and to ensure everyone on set knew what they were doing, to ensure less stumbling during the filming process. I have also learned that finalising a storyboard is very important as we did not stick to the storyboard completely due to lack of resources or lack of knowledge about the locations, but the storyboard did aid a lot when filming.
Comparing my preliminary task to my thriller opening
1)
In my preliminary task my positioning of the camera was not very good and it wasted a lot of space and there were a lot of distractions on screen which would not have allowed the audience to focus on the characters. However in the thriller opening I filmed the scene with one of the victims so that he was not visible until the mirror was moved, this would have frightened the audience as it was
2)
The high angle shot was not very effective as the audio went very quiet due to the distance from the actor and the camera, as well as the positioning being ineffective as it still showed other characters and things that were not meant to be a part of the scene, therefore creating distractions. In my thriller opening the high angle shot is a lot more effective when the antagonist is going downstairs, this character is the focal point in this sequence and this aids the high angle shot
3)
This 'over the shoulder' shot from the preliminary task is positioned incorrectly as it shows too much of the character who is not talking, as well as there being a lot of background noise, this wasn't corrected during editing either as I lacked experience. Although in my thriller opening I split the audio from the raw footage and added the soundtrack and sound effects, making it a lot more effective.
Personal reflection
I felt as if my thriller production was very successful as my group and I had all improved in our various areas despite having limited or no experience in them at all. The thriller has a variety of shots, angles and lighting and I feel as if this was a great improvement on the preliminary task which was the main aim. Overall we made the opening very subtle and had stuck to conventions and conventional themes of thrillers, this made it a very effective thriller opening.
Personally I most enjoyed the filming and the post-production stages of the production as I could observe my filming skills as they improved and I found it a challenge to get the various angles and shots to make the opening effective. The editing stage was also a challenge which I enjoyed as correcting my thriller through Final Cut Pro X allowed a lot of discussion amongst my group and we made decisions based on each others opinion on which scene looked better or which edit or sound effect fitted in well.
The sound editing could have been improved as I felt there was too much going on at times, and the whole soundtrack is not as subtle as I wished it to be. Also another improvement could have been to use better makeup on the victims to make it seem more evident that they had been victims to a murder.
The main things I have learned over the whole process is to take more control and to ensure everyone on set knew what they were doing, to ensure less stumbling during the filming process. I have also learned that finalising a storyboard is very important as we did not stick to the storyboard completely due to lack of resources or lack of knowledge about the locations, but the storyboard did aid a lot when filming.
Wednesday 10 February 2016
Evaluation: Question 5 - How did you attract/address your target audience? - Miss Begum
Importance of doing the secondary research into existing films:
Secondary research into existing films is very important when it came to the idea of target audiences and choosing one. Doing this research allowed me to understand the demographics of people who watch thriller films and what appealed to which audiences. This is vital as many key decisions had to be made in terms of mise en scene, conventions, characters and themes. Analysing audience responses properly and understanding what different people want in thrillers helped us make these decisions and to make the appropriate decisions.
The target audience of thriller films:
With my secondary research into thrillers, I believe that the target audience that they appeal to are generally of the following:
Age: 15-40
Gender: Unisex
Ethnicity: No specific ethnicity. Universal appeal.
Occupation: Students, usually in higher education and people in employment.
Hobbies and interests: Sports, reading, playing video games and going to the cinema to watch films regularly.
I believe that from thriller films the target audience enjoy the thrill and excitement when watching thriller films. I had learned that violence and murder seemed to appeal to the younger generation more as they were more interested in themes such as death. The target audience seemed to also enjoy watching horror thriller films as they enjoyed the feeling of being scared and the emotions it makes them feel.
Furthermore, the emotions I believe the audience are likely to experience are both psychological and physiological. When are there scenes in thriller films that involve the protagonists or antagonists, they can evoke emotions such as fear or happiness, depending on the character and what they are doing. For example if the protagonist is in trouble and something bad is about to happen to them, the audience may experience the psychological emotions of fear, sadness or anxiety. But they will also experience the physiological effects of sweating and an elevated heartbeat. This can also happen when seeing dead bodies or an antagonist attempting or going through with murder. Another feature I found in thriller films which was very effective in evoking emotions was jump scares. If there is a scene where a figure would appear suddenly and unexpectedly, the audience would enjoy this as they find the appeal in being frightened and the rapid elevating of their heartbeat due to excitement.
This was useful research as it meant that for my thriller I had to consider what conventions and themes to follow to appeal to my target audience. Also I had to follow the BBFC guidelines to make sure there was not too much violence, or blood to make it more than a 15 rated film, my secondary research into the BBFC aided this greatly. I had to consider the genre and whether it attracted the audience I wanted of young adults aged 15 and above, who enjoy going to the cinema regularly and watching thriller films.
I carried out a questionnaire because I needed direct information, feedback and opinions from my potential target audience. The importance of my questionnaire is that it only gave me direct responses from my target audience, this was extremely useful as I could assess the answers to them and implement the necessary things to my thriller opening. Those answering the questions were given specific choices which also helped a lot, and different questions were given for initial ideas. As a group we then identified ideas and scrutinised each others questions, making sure our questionnaire was as useful to its full extent.
Key questions asked to help make key decisions
Some examples of the key questions we asked our audience
Multiple questions
What kind of character would you want a thriller film to be centered around?
Results of key graphs
Overall the primary research was important because the questionnaire was the only part of our research that we were directly involved in and could get direct feedback and opinions from a potential target audience. It helped me address my target audience as I could apply their feedback to my thriller to make it appealing to my target audience, as the questionnaire was given to the age range of the people we considered to be the target audience for our thriller.
Audience feedback
After creating a rough cut of my thriller opening,a focus group was held to get the direct opinions and feedback from an audience which mostly consisted of AS and A2 Media, drama and Film studies students. This would be a lot more useful as their feedback would be a lot more technical and accurate to minor flaws in my thriller opening. below is some of the constructive criticism I received.
Focus group images
Positive feedback from Sophie, aged 18
After receiving this feedback I felt as if I had attracted my audience properly through the use of mise en scene to build character representation.
Positive feedback from Laura, aged 16
This feedback made me feel glad that I used the sound effectively during the editing process.
I also received negative feedback from Sally, aged 15
This feedback made me understand that I had to alter the typography slightly by making it bolder and therefore clearer to read.
Finally I also received a form of negative feedback from Amanda, aged 17
This criticism made me realise that we should have taken into consideration the antagonist's clothing before filming so he could have had a more intimidating affect on the audience.
Secondary research into existing films is very important when it came to the idea of target audiences and choosing one. Doing this research allowed me to understand the demographics of people who watch thriller films and what appealed to which audiences. This is vital as many key decisions had to be made in terms of mise en scene, conventions, characters and themes. Analysing audience responses properly and understanding what different people want in thrillers helped us make these decisions and to make the appropriate decisions.
The target audience of thriller films:
With my secondary research into thrillers, I believe that the target audience that they appeal to are generally of the following:
Age: 15-40
Gender: Unisex
Ethnicity: No specific ethnicity. Universal appeal.
Occupation: Students, usually in higher education and people in employment.
Hobbies and interests: Sports, reading, playing video games and going to the cinema to watch films regularly.
I believe that from thriller films the target audience enjoy the thrill and excitement when watching thriller films. I had learned that violence and murder seemed to appeal to the younger generation more as they were more interested in themes such as death. The target audience seemed to also enjoy watching horror thriller films as they enjoyed the feeling of being scared and the emotions it makes them feel.
Furthermore, the emotions I believe the audience are likely to experience are both psychological and physiological. When are there scenes in thriller films that involve the protagonists or antagonists, they can evoke emotions such as fear or happiness, depending on the character and what they are doing. For example if the protagonist is in trouble and something bad is about to happen to them, the audience may experience the psychological emotions of fear, sadness or anxiety. But they will also experience the physiological effects of sweating and an elevated heartbeat. This can also happen when seeing dead bodies or an antagonist attempting or going through with murder. Another feature I found in thriller films which was very effective in evoking emotions was jump scares. If there is a scene where a figure would appear suddenly and unexpectedly, the audience would enjoy this as they find the appeal in being frightened and the rapid elevating of their heartbeat due to excitement.
This was useful research as it meant that for my thriller I had to consider what conventions and themes to follow to appeal to my target audience. Also I had to follow the BBFC guidelines to make sure there was not too much violence, or blood to make it more than a 15 rated film, my secondary research into the BBFC aided this greatly. I had to consider the genre and whether it attracted the audience I wanted of young adults aged 15 and above, who enjoy going to the cinema regularly and watching thriller films.
I carried out a questionnaire because I needed direct information, feedback and opinions from my potential target audience. The importance of my questionnaire is that it only gave me direct responses from my target audience, this was extremely useful as I could assess the answers to them and implement the necessary things to my thriller opening. Those answering the questions were given specific choices which also helped a lot, and different questions were given for initial ideas. As a group we then identified ideas and scrutinised each others questions, making sure our questionnaire was as useful to its full extent.
Key questions asked to help make key decisions
Some examples of the key questions we asked our audience
Multiple questions
What kind of character would you want a thriller film to be centered around?
Victim Murderer Anti-Hero Detective Hero
What technique do you
think is most effective in thrillers?
Suspenseful
music Dim lighting Sudden jump cuts Bloodshed
Open ended
How do you feel about main
characters getting killed in a thriller film?
What excites you most
about a thriller film and why?
These questions were very specific to my thriller idea and helped make the final decisions as the audience feedback and influence was vital for audience appeal.
Quotes of answers from our open ended questions and how it helped make key decisions
How do you feel about main characters getting killed in a thriller film?
"This would be very effective in a thriller film as it is a very unexpected thing to happen. It would scare the audience as well as confuse them as it is not conventional for the main character to die in a film." - Shane, aged 17
What excites you most about a thriller film and why?
"The suspense and usually violence is what excites me most in a thriller film. Probably because of the physiological effect a thriller film has on me and that violence isn't very common for me so it's exciting" - Alice, aged 21
These questions helped me make key decisions such has presenting the apparent death of a main character as the girl that follows the antagonist. This was because I was sure I could appeal to the audience due to the results from my questionnaire and therefore had to make the key decision in the narrative of my opening. As well as this the other open ended question helped us make the decisions to add elements of suspense and violence to excite the audience.
Results of key graphs
Overall the primary research was important because the questionnaire was the only part of our research that we were directly involved in and could get direct feedback and opinions from a potential target audience. It helped me address my target audience as I could apply their feedback to my thriller to make it appealing to my target audience, as the questionnaire was given to the age range of the people we considered to be the target audience for our thriller.
Audience feedback
After creating a rough cut of my thriller opening,a focus group was held to get the direct opinions and feedback from an audience which mostly consisted of AS and A2 Media, drama and Film studies students. This would be a lot more useful as their feedback would be a lot more technical and accurate to minor flaws in my thriller opening. below is some of the constructive criticism I received.
Focus group images
Positive feedback from Sophie, aged 18
After receiving this feedback I felt as if I had attracted my audience properly through the use of mise en scene to build character representation.
Positive feedback from Laura, aged 16
This feedback made me feel glad that I used the sound effectively during the editing process.
I also received negative feedback from Sally, aged 15
This feedback made me understand that I had to alter the typography slightly by making it bolder and therefore clearer to read.
Finally I also received a form of negative feedback from Amanda, aged 17
This criticism made me realise that we should have taken into consideration the antagonist's clothing before filming so he could have had a more intimidating affect on the audience.
Wednesday 3 February 2016
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