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

My preliminary task involved the same actors as my final film.
When maing the Prelimnary task, I worked on just thinking about camera angles and video and sound effects.

After creating my preliminay task there were areas which actually worked very well and I planned on using in my final piece. This involved a scifi camera effect which darkened the scene and changed the mood.
I used this effect in many of my scenes in the actual film which changed what was an ordinary lighting area into a dark mestirious effect.

Because the actors worked very well in the Preliminary task I really wanted to use them again in my fianl piece. Harry already had experience in acting as he was one of the top students in drama and took the roll of some really big plays for marlwood school.
Harriet also has had previous experience because she had been doing drama since the lower years of school.
So I knew I had made the right decision to use these actors to get the best out of my film.

{Evaluation} How does your media product represent social age groups?

My media product represents social age groups in many ways.

The actors used were targeted to be young which creates feel towards young teenagers as they are both in the same situiation and it can become more life like.

Also the language and tone used which stereo types teenagers sound like.

The setting as well, this is because the person (Harry) has come home from school.

The scene is very messy in Harrys room which shows relaxed, casual teenagers who doesn't care about stuff.

As my social age group is set for teenagers, I had to research on films which were in my genre and targeted the same age groups. Parnormal Activity was a film which I was inspired by to create mine. It involved few characters and set in one house which I did the same. When I did market research on Paranormal Activity I found out that the target social group was 'Teenagers'. Aged 15-19.

Final Production 'Dream Catcher'

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

The type of Media Institutions which might distribute my film would be:


Lionsgate- Lionsgate Entertainment is one of the biggest distribution companies in the world.

Its total assets are 1.5 billion dollars (end of 2011).

There target market are are aged 15+ and didn't do animated films.

Saw Franchise was there first major uprise to there target audiences with gross total of £849 million.
They then worked with such films as Blair Witch Project, The Expendebles and American Physco which all targeted late teens and people who 'liked a bit of gore'.  




Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate both helped to produce the 'Saw Franchise'.

The films Twisted Pictures made and distributed were all Horror films.

Saw I, II, III, IV, V, VI, 3D, Catacombs, Vlog, Repo, The Tortured, Mothers Day, Chain Letter.

This is why I think these would be the right institutions to distribute my film because of the right target audiences and the films they work with which would fit with my genre of 'Terror'.

{Evaluation} What new new skills have you learnt? What have you learnt from technology in this project?

In this project with out film i found that i developed many new skills and learnt quite a few things from it, from using new products from as little as the iMac to using new things to put in to our film such as the voice over. 

From the technical side then i learnt how to use 'iMovie' which was used on an 'iMac' which i also learnt to use. We were lucky enough to have a man in from Apple a few days before we started our projects as he showed us how to use the iMac's and how to use 'iMovie' on them, this was very useful as many of us had never used 'iMovie' before including me. 

We learnt how to cut and trim clips and edit things throughout the film and how to add in over the film, we also learnt how to use many transitions in the film that i particularly liked because they would smooth en out two clips which would have been put together which changes the focus of the audience as they wont pay as much attention to the jump in the shot. I also liked to use the blackout transition as when it went from one scene to another then it would show there is time in between as the scene would blackout. 

From this we learnt the simpest of things such as transfering pictures across to the film to cutting and editing the film and putting music in.

I also had lots of internet help on how to do different effects whilst using 'iMovie', and my teacher organised a 'Apple Training Day' with a professional technical advisor who knew what to show us and what to help us with whilst making our films.   

Also I learnt lots more Camera Shots & effects such as:

Cut Away

Dissolve

Deep Focus

Ellipsis

Eye-line Match

Fade In

Flashback

Dollying

And there were many more which helped me to produce this film. 

            

{Evaluation} Who would be the audience for your media production?

The Audiences for my media production age from 12+ but when making the film and thinking about target audiences, I worked into the teenage era by using younger actors. 

An on-line survey showed that 6 in 10 teenagers aged 13-19 would rather watch a film which expressed the similar ages in Horror films. Where as other genres were higher.

Reasons why my film could not be U Certificate or PG Certificate is for the following reasons: 

Suspense Sounds,

Aggression towards Catcher

Use of Facial Editing (Harriet) to make more scare,

Sudden Jump (Tire Squeak Sound)

These reasons have actually been stated in actual film reviews on high budget films and ruled by the exam board.

Some swearing and scenes were cut out due to me wanting a 12 Certificate Film. 

{Evaluation} What did the audience think?

After finishing my film, feedback was the most important to find out good and bad aspects of my film.




Ellen Wilson : I enjoyed the short film and liked how the main charactor was under so much suspence and always on edge in the atmosphere of the film. Also the camera work reflected him from the shakey movements and positioning. The areas which could use more feedback would be some of the cuts were not cut enough but overall very good :)


Chloe Bennett : Didn't grasp the fact it was a horror film until the end. But after seeing the ending and going back over it it made it a lot easier to understand and more scary because I knew the basic plot.


Cobi King : Good use of camera work and 'mise en scene'. And the girl looked really freaky from the effect you put on her. Also the ending actually made me jump from the really loud sound and the sudden jump!


James Mathews : The film was pretty good. I liked the fact Harry was always on edge and when he hits his head on the corner of the table the sound effect worked really well.
The ending also made me jump like hell!


Mira Lee (Professional) : Leave the ending as it is because it made me jump out of my skin! And I like how Harry is walking with the camera shot showing a slow motion of his feet whilst walking up the stairs.


Ed Biggin : The sound effects to create suspense worked really well along with the camera shots showing lots of what is inside the shot. And I would probably rate it 12 Certificate because it was pretty scary.


From the feed back I made changes to the film and actually stuck to the 12 Certificate as it covered a wide teenage audience.

Colours In Culture

This shows the colours of different feelings in different countries.

Lots of big media companies fail to get the same effect across as they couldn't put the right colours together for the expression they were trying to for fill. 

Professional Feed Back For My Foundation Production 'Dream Catcher'

Professional Feed Back.

Myra Lee who worked for ITV gave me feedback on my video production.

Positive Feed Back-

                             -Natural Sounds of the stones when Harry is walking towards the house before he opens the door.

                            -Slow Motion foot shot of Harry walking up the stair after he has walked around trying to find out if someone was in the house.

                          -Tracking shots through out the film were effective and showed the intensity of what the environment was like for Harry.

What I need to work on- 

                         -There is too much narrative, need to cut out the opening scene of Harry putting his bag down on the floor and what he is saying. 

-Need to add a close up of Harry opening the door at the start of the scene. 

-Add in a camera shot following Harry up the stairs to make it look like Harriet is following.

-Bring Harriet into the film nearer the start as it will give the audience an idea of what could happen and not making them wait as the film could tire and they would find it boring.

Over all- 

'Very good but you need to cut into the shots to tighten everything up, then re shoot the areas which need to be worked on and change the ending by removing the shot of the stairs after the bath room scene because the tension is already shown. Then slow down the title scene to show off the characters and title'

My Foundation Production 'Dream Catcher' First Draft

This is my Foundation Production. Dream Catcher
At first i was going to use this as my final piece but i decided to cut in to it more, change titles and work into sound a transitions to make it better.

The Script Part 3

Harry has now searched around the whole house and cant find anything. 

Now being re-assured he turns up his music which goes from non diagetic to diagetic. And then sits around going what ever. 

Mean while out side the random girl is still staring at the window with no emotion or expression. 

Why is she there? we don't know? 

after a few minutes of harry enjoying him self there is a knock on the door! 

As he goes to the door he see's a random girl 'Harriet' staring through the door window at him. 

Harry gets scared and slams the inner door and runs to the lounge! 

'what the hell was that, surly its just mums friend or something?'

He goes to the door and lets the person in, she just stands in the door and stares forward. 

Harry : 'what are you doing here? I recognise you, iv seen you before? you must be one of my mums friends or something???????............Well are you? 

there is no response! 

Harry goes up to the bath room to reassure him self that nothing happened! As he brings a hand full of water up to his face he looks into the mirror! 

BANG! The strange girl is stood there slightly blured! 

then you are left on a cliff hanger.

Sound Effects

Using  a HD Voice recorder I was able to make some sounds which will fit into my film.
The main sounds i recorded was doors slamming and whispering.
This meant the full effect of the sound could be used with out getting muffled or not sounding correctly.
Both clips last for 2 seconds which are very realistic and fit very well to the activity happening in the house.

The Script - Part 2

After Harry goes down stairs to look around he wonders back up stairs to find the dream catcher back up on the Velux window ledge..............

'I dont feel too good' 

He then faints and hits his head on the edge of a table.

When he wakes up later on he doesn't know whats happened and walks around up stairs trying to bring back his memory, he remains puzzled and doesn't know whats happening. 

The Script - Part 1

Harry has come home from a hard day at school, he has had a boring day and just wanted to get in to his house. The parents are away for a couple of days meaning Harry could do everything he wanted apart from the thing he wanted most which was a house party.

Walking to the front door and opening-

'Thank god schools over, but im home alone.... wait? Why am I talking to my self?'

Puts his bag down and walks up stairs to his room- knocking over a mug when he opens the door!

'OMG! That stupid dream catcher, always catching my eye when i walk through this bloody door! It dont do anything anyway, i'm 16......I dont get scared of anything!

Harry grabs the dream catcher of the wall, he starts to cut the feathers off.

'Stupid piece of waste....who believes in that paranormal stuff anyway?'

As Harry cuts into one of the feathers he hears a massive scream coming from down stairs.

'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!!!!!!!

He starts whispering to his self as he walks down the stairs.

'ohh crap,oh god,oh no no no no no'

As he searches around the house there is nothing to be seen?
He walks back up stairs still shaking from whats happened- then the bedroom door slams!
Sprinting to the room and opening the door he finds the dream catcher on fire!

30 Degree Rule

30 Degree rule in media movie making!


The 30° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states the camera should move at least 30° between shots of the same subject occurring in succession. This change of perspective makes the shots different enough to avoid a jump cut. Too much movement around the subject may violate the 180° rule.

Analysis of Blair Witch Project

Blair Witch Project Trailer

This is an analysis which uses similar camera work as what i want to put in my film! lots of shakey and rushed shots give it a good life like effect which i think will work very well in my film

How to Plan your Movie!

This is a mind map which i found and used to get my movie on track. it is very simple but also very detailed.

Media Talk- Lack Of Women in The Media Today

From the Guardian.co.uk we have established that the media industry seems to be male dominated.

Fact and Figures-

78% of News Articles are wrote by Men.
72% of Question Time are Men.
84% of Reporters are Men.

Less than 10% of All Sports Journalists are Women, and only 5% of Women are presenting Live Coverage of Sport.

Bookers decide who goes on the chat shows. Less than 30% of people who go on these chat shows are women. Men will jump straight into the opportunity where as women tend to hold back a lot more.

From Pod casts you can visit on-line you will be able to find facts like these which are extended and and more publicized.

Link to follow.

Basic Plot

Story Line-
Harry comes back from school on a friday knowing that he has a free house. His parents have gone out for a party and plan to come back saturday morning.

As Harry is very bored and doesn't have anything to do as he was not allowed to have a house party.
Now Harry is very bored so he decided to cut the feathers of his dream catcher( wind chime). As he does this there is a scream coming from down stairs which alerts him. He runs down stairs t find nothing is there and the door slams in his room.
Now he's freaked out! as he walks back up stairs the door slam to the bedroom causing him to panic.
When he opens the door the dream catcher is on fire but the feathers are not????????
This causes harry to faint.
Out side the house there is a strange girl (Harriet) who is always looking into the window of his bedroom!
She had long dark hair which was very scruffy and tatty clothes. And always looked odd in the face.

As Harry woke up he had completely forgot about everything that happened and there seemed to be a power cut? Walking around the house he finds lots of weird noises and stuff being moved around the house! Now he was getting scared again so he walked around with his cam corder to feel safe and taking  it everywhere with him.

The door bell rings!!!! Harry walks to the door to find Harriet (he doesn't open the door, just stares through it). Then he lets her in and wonders who is she and what is she doing here! He recognises her!
She doesn't say a word and stands staring forward into no where. Harry then goes to the toilet as he feels scared which leaves harriet alone to do what she wants. When harry is finished in the toilet he looks around to hear nothing and the house is still! he and his cam corder travel around the house to see whats happening then the wonder to his bedroom! as they walk in he jumps! Harriet is sat on the floor pulling feathers out of the dream catcher!

The door slams on harry then that was it! Gone, nothing heard, nothing seen, the only witness being the camera!

First Draft.