Blogger played a major part in our research and evaluation stages as it is great place to get user feedback. Using Blogger meant that I did not have to keep duplicating my work, one for personal documentation and then another one to show others. In the research stage, a questionnaire was placed and we had 13 responses within a week. This fast feedback of data enabled us to keep our ideas fresh and then manipulate them to how the user would see fit. It was also useful to be able to upload photos of the storyboard straight onto Blogger so that we could review it in chronological order. We were able to keep reviewing and tell each other whether we thought anything could be added. The evaluation also was helped by Blogger as even after we thought the movie was finished we had comments about how the start could be improved. This was not the only way we were able to receive feedback as we also used internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube.
YouTube was also extremely useful as it enabled as to research trailers on movie that fitted into our genre such as The Shining and The Crazies. We were able to view comments left on these trailers and it allowed us to see what the other users thought was good about the trailer, what could be improved and what should have been left out. An example of a comment left is "sorry, but for a powerful song like this one that trailer was kinda weak, but one good point in your trailer is that it fits with the music, but that wouldn't make me want to watch it". Having a comment like this enables the user to see what worked well and what didn't.
Our group used two different cameras to film the trailer. The first camera used was a Flip camera and it worked extremely well for all the close ups and quick shots as it was small and lightweight. A second camera, Samsung U20, had to be used as the Flip camera didn't have the right capabilities to zoom. Using a digital camera enabled our group and the actors to review the scene straight away and see what needed to be done differently. This saves a lot of time and effort for us and the acting staff.
To edit the trailer we used Corel Video Studio 13. This enabled us to cut parts about of certain clips and either lengthen or shorten clips. As seen in our practice shots we were also able to slow down the clip. This technique was used in our finished trailer to slow down the pitchfork spinning in the air. Corel Video Studio enabled us to move clips around and change brightness settings. We changed the contrast and brightness settings for the killing scene so that it went to black and white. We were able to use fade to blacks so that we didn't have jump cuts between the scenes.
We also used Audacity the audio manipulation software to create the voice-overs needed in our production. We were able to slow down the speech and lower the pitch which helped to give us the professional sounding voice needed. This is the common voice-over found in high revenue productions.
To create the ancillary tasks we used two different photo editing softwares: Gimp 2 and Adobe Photoshop. A very helpful feature of both of these programs was the layers tool. This allowed us to edit certain parts of the photo without erasing everything else around it. The Magic Hand tool also enabled us to grab whole objects without having to cut around them and get lines around them and have them oddly shaped.
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our audience feedback started during our planning stage through our primary research method of using a questionnaire. Our main prop of the killers weapon was solely decided on what results came back from our questionnaire. Looking at the pie chart from the previous blogs around 75% of people commenting answered either pitchfork or spade. It was clear from these results that the killer weapon was going to be of the garden tool variety.
The questionnaire also helped to give us a rough background into the kind of music the audience would like to hear in the background. We already knew that the music would change depending on the moods of the trailer e.g. there wouldn't be slow paced music in a fast paced fight scene. The results of this questionnaire question titled "What type of music best suits horrors?" showed an outstanding top two of lullaby and fast paced. My partner and I agreed that there should be fast paced music during the action and in the slower pieces there would be lullaby style music.
Audience feedback was key during the production stage as it helped to create a better take on our most important scene, the killing scene. As seen in previous posts the use of Facebook and YouTube gave our audience the ability to tell us what they thought was wrong with the piece. The killing scene was filmed during the day and a couple of comments seen in previous blog told us that they feel this scene would look more intense if it was filmed at night. Taking this into consideration we changed various settings on the clips such as contrast and brightness thus turning the scene to black and white. Both Adam and I agreed after this that it does give a more intense feel to the production.
Verbal feedback and feedback on the posts here at Blogger proved our small hypothesis that our movie should be aimed at young males. The posters proved to put women off as one comment said 'This movie look like endless gore at killing with pitchforks'. Comments such as these made us think that maybe next time we should have a more subtle approach to letting the audience know that it is a horror. This may enable us to attract more of the female audience with less chilling posters. Having a larger audience will undoubtably increase sales and viewing figures as it doubles the target audience we are able to attract.
The questionnaire also helped to give us a rough background into the kind of music the audience would like to hear in the background. We already knew that the music would change depending on the moods of the trailer e.g. there wouldn't be slow paced music in a fast paced fight scene. The results of this questionnaire question titled "What type of music best suits horrors?" showed an outstanding top two of lullaby and fast paced. My partner and I agreed that there should be fast paced music during the action and in the slower pieces there would be lullaby style music.
Audience feedback was key during the production stage as it helped to create a better take on our most important scene, the killing scene. As seen in previous posts the use of Facebook and YouTube gave our audience the ability to tell us what they thought was wrong with the piece. The killing scene was filmed during the day and a couple of comments seen in previous blog told us that they feel this scene would look more intense if it was filmed at night. Taking this into consideration we changed various settings on the clips such as contrast and brightness thus turning the scene to black and white. Both Adam and I agreed after this that it does give a more intense feel to the production.
Verbal feedback and feedback on the posts here at Blogger proved our small hypothesis that our movie should be aimed at young males. The posters proved to put women off as one comment said 'This movie look like endless gore at killing with pitchforks'. Comments such as these made us think that maybe next time we should have a more subtle approach to letting the audience know that it is a horror. This may enable us to attract more of the female audience with less chilling posters. Having a larger audience will undoubtably increase sales and viewing figures as it doubles the target audience we are able to attract.
Monday 28 March 2011
Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My two ancillary tasks and main products have a strong underlying link between all three of them. For example, all three have a main colour scheme of being black and white. We have tried to build the iconic prop of our production the pitchfork into the main link between the productions. The pitchfork is seen on the right hand side and is a screenshot from our main production.The reason a black and white scheme is so important for our film is that the only scene in black and white is the killing scene. In the movie poster we used an actual screenshot of the killing from the movie as the background. It then had our iconic prop from the movie posted on it. The white writing is used to contrast the black background. The movie poster contains two blurred out images used and puts them as an overlay to the main image.
The Shining DVD Cover The Shining Movie Poster
As seen looking at the movie the Shining, the producers have deliberately kept the same iconic image and theme throughout the things that they produce. The iconic prop of the shining, the axe, is seen in the centre of both the dvd cover and the poster. The DVD and poster have even kept the same style of writing for the title 'Shining'.
In our production we have tried to do the same idea as the shining. At first our ancillary tasks were not looking much like they had anything to do with our trailer apart from the fact that they had the same title. After reviewing other produced items such as my example of the Shining we realised that our whole productioin would come together better if it had a common theme. Adam and I decided that we should have the iconic prop centred in the pieces and that other things should fall around it, thus making the pitchfork the main focus of attention.
Evaluation - In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our target audience demographics were mainly males aged between 18-30. The reason it was targeted for this age group is because this genre automatically attracts the group. This audience tends to enjoy the thrill and adrenaline rush of being scared out of their mind. Our favoured audience would be those who are not of higher education. This is just because they may find some things slightly 'tacky' and not just sit back and passively watch. Although this is only a general thing that Adam and I agreed on and we both agree that there are exceptions to this rule.
The mise en scene of our production helped to develop the convention of being a horror. The trailer used conventions from films such as 'Sleepy Hollow' for the background images that create the production. A dark setting was used as in most of the 'Sleepy Hollow' movie with dark trees and bushes just seen in the background as shadows. We have an old groundsman who is killed and this man follows the convention of someone who is vulnerable. The clothing used went with the conventions of each type of character. The groundsman was dressed in an overcoat and had wellington boots on. The group of bad youths were dressed in hooded clothing, tracksuit bottoms and trainers.
The various soundtracks to our trailer also follows the forms and conventions of a traditional trailer. A usual sound to hear in the lead up to a killing is a tension building piece of music. Our trailer 'The Groundsman' used this twice and both times were times that were leading up to killings or possible killings. When no killings were taking place a string or piano piece was played. This was merely background music and there was no intension to draw the viewers attention to the music. Having background music like this let us draw the viewers attention to the storyline.
We also build on the ideas on quick shots as seen in the 'Halloween' trailer. As we viewed other trailers and only the old or poorly made trailers had different transitions between shots. To follow new conventions we either had jump cuts or fade to blacks. Transitions such as the swirl effect are increasingly used but this is to go against conventions e.g. Scrubs. New films that do extremely well such as Avatar and Casino Royale only ever use fade to blacks and quick shots.
The mise en scene of our production helped to develop the convention of being a horror. The trailer used conventions from films such as 'Sleepy Hollow' for the background images that create the production. A dark setting was used as in most of the 'Sleepy Hollow' movie with dark trees and bushes just seen in the background as shadows. We have an old groundsman who is killed and this man follows the convention of someone who is vulnerable. The clothing used went with the conventions of each type of character. The groundsman was dressed in an overcoat and had wellington boots on. The group of bad youths were dressed in hooded clothing, tracksuit bottoms and trainers.
The various soundtracks to our trailer also follows the forms and conventions of a traditional trailer. A usual sound to hear in the lead up to a killing is a tension building piece of music. Our trailer 'The Groundsman' used this twice and both times were times that were leading up to killings or possible killings. When no killings were taking place a string or piano piece was played. This was merely background music and there was no intension to draw the viewers attention to the music. Having background music like this let us draw the viewers attention to the storyline.
We also build on the ideas on quick shots as seen in the 'Halloween' trailer. As we viewed other trailers and only the old or poorly made trailers had different transitions between shots. To follow new conventions we either had jump cuts or fade to blacks. Transitions such as the swirl effect are increasingly used but this is to go against conventions e.g. Scrubs. New films that do extremely well such as Avatar and Casino Royale only ever use fade to blacks and quick shots.
Friday 28 January 2011
Sunday 12 December 2010
Killing Scene Changes
We have recently been getting quite a few comments on Blogger and on Facebook about our opening scene in the trailer seen below. The general comments suggest that our opening scene is reasonably intense but feels like it should flow slightly quicker. It has also been pointed out to us that it would look scarier if it was filmed at night.
Points that we are taking forward:
- Shorten killing scene
- Laugh may be removed
- Film at night
- Turn film black and white
Friday 10 December 2010
Monday 29 November 2010
Product Preparation - Cue Card
As seen in the previous blog Mr Aherne got the words wrong in which we told him to say. Even though we told him what the words were he found it hard to remember.
As an idea this print out was given to Mr Aherne in preparation for his scene.
We did this so it was easier for him to get his words right. He was also able to concentrate on the acting more. Mr Aherne told us that the cue card helped a great deal as the words were a slight tongue twister.
As an idea this print out was given to Mr Aherne in preparation for his scene.
We did this so it was easier for him to get his words right. He was also able to concentrate on the acting more. Mr Aherne told us that the cue card helped a great deal as the words were a slight tongue twister.
Filming - Blooper
As you can see in the video below Mr Aherne struggled with the words:
"2 of our pupils have been killed in just as many weeks".
This scene had to be refilmed.
"2 of our pupils have been killed in just as many weeks".
This scene had to be refilmed.
Monday 15 November 2010
Video Shooting Scheduele
LOCATION | SCENE NO. | ACTORS | COSTUMES/PROPS, ETC. |
Polo Ground | 2 | Adam, Simsey, Cockerz, Shawn, Danny, Amy | Pitchfork, lumberjack jacket, wellington boots, dark trousers, tracksuit clothes, football, camera |
3 | N/A | N/A | |
4 | Mr Aherne | School teacher attire | |
Dan’s House | 5 | N/A | Newspaper Cut-outs, D.I.Y. work environment |
7 | Brian | Car, suit, pitchfork | |
8 | Danny, Amy | Cuts on arms, casual clothes | |
9 | Cockerz, Shawn, Simsey, Adam | Pitchfork, lumberjack jacket, casual clothes | |
14 | Adam, Amy | Pitchfork, bright light, cupboards | |
Police Station | 6 | N/A | N/A |
Street/Anywhere | 10 | Simsey | Casual Clothes |
11 | Shawn, Danny | Casual Clothes | |
13 | Amy | Casual Clothes | |
16 | Adam | Pitchfork | |
12 | Danny | Fake Blood |
Detailed Video Planner
SCENE NO. | LOCATION | ACTION | SOUND | SECONDS |
1 | - | Title sequence. Introduction of who made the production | Background music with build up | 1 |
2 | Polo Ground | Playing football, go over to see the groundskeeper, push him over and hurt him | Sound effects: Eerie wind, squirting stab sound Once scene ends. Sound stops. | 30 |
3 | Long shot of | Change of background music: piano style | 3 | |
4 | Classroom | Teacher speaking | “ | 3 |
5 | Dan’s house | Newspaper pinned against wall. Cuts and flashes this scene several times | “ | 2 |
6 | Police Station | Long shot of police station showing crest. Police car driving in. | “ | 4 |
7 | Dan’s road | Inside car looking at Antonio Fernandez. Pulls up. Gets out car. Locks car. Turns round | “ | 4 |
8 | Dan’s House (Conservatory) | Girl and boy talking on the chairs | “ | 6 |
9 | Dan’s House (Front room) | Boy sees groundskeeper outside. Boy walks upstairs thinking he’s paranoid. | Change of background music: music with pulse effect | 20 |
10 | Street | Boy running towards the camera | “ | 1 |
11 | Any scene | Flashes of shocked faces | “ | 2 |
12 | Dirty hands rubbing down a white wall | “ | 2 | |
13 | Street | Boy running towards the camera | “ | 1 |
14 | Dan’s House (Bedroom) | Hand opening door. Pitchfork shadow. Girl runs towards camera into cupboard. Killer hits cupboard | Sound effects: heavy breathing, bang. Voiceover: Amy scream | 8 |
15 | - | Title of the production | N/A | 1 |
16 | Street | Blurred pan of pitchfork being scraped | N/A | 1 |
17 | - | Out date, you tube link, website, sponsors) | N/A | 2 |
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