Main post 12.7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I now look back at out preliminary task, I believe that we have improved a great deal and have learnt from our mistakes.  However I believe that we still have made some mistakes which could have been avoided.For example, in the preliminary task we did lack knowledge on how to film some shots, and this consequently made us break the 30 degree rule, which was very difficult to change when editing. The image below shows how we had to try and use a transition effect to cover up the 30 degree rule mistake. Similarly, in our main task we did break the continuity rule, which was very hard to not notice when editing, however when we showed our film to our audience they did not notice. The images below show this:

On the other hand, I believe that the types of shots that we did use were more varied in our main task and added to the genre of the sequence. We used more techniques such as jump cuts to add a fast pace to the film, and also low angle shots to add some mystery as well. In our preliminary task, many of our shots where shaky and out of focus and some points, after gaining experience with the camera, this soon became less of a problem in our main task.

We have improved since the preliminary here because we have established a shot at the same level as the alien toy itself, this makes it more personal to the audience and add mystery as well.

This is in the preliminary task when the shot of the clock was shaky because we didn't have a tripod. The shot could have been made better as well inside of just a low angle shot.

In the above and below shot, we used jump-cuts to produce a fast pace. In our preliminary task we did not  have these because we did not make good use of the little space we had.

In the main task, I feel that we made better use of the locations that were available to us. For example, in the preliminary task we chose a very small room which did not allow for there to be much camera movement, thus making camera shots more shaky and jumpy. In the main task, we used different locations and used more long shots of the characters so the audience can establish who they are and how both of them interact with each other in a large space. This is demonstrated below:

This is an example of when in the preliminary task there was little  room to move the camera so he shot became quite shaky.

In our main task, we have improved and have made use of all the space here, to keep the audience engaged.

Main post 12.6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For this question, I decided to produce a Prezi presentation to answer it.

Main post 12.5- How did you attract/address your audience?

There are many parts of our opening sequence which we feel are unique selling points to our audience. I have  decided to screenshot the parts of the sequence which I feel are the special parts of the film which will engage the audience.

This is a unique selling point because this is the first point in the sequence where the audience see an extreme long shot of both characters interacting together, it is evident from this point that these two social groups do not get along well together.

This is a unique selling point because this is the first shot where the audience have a reasonable close up of both the characters together, and their contrasting looks and personality.

This is a unique selling point because it adds mystery to the opening sequence. It questions the audience whether the two girls are actually 'alone' or is there something behind all the students going missing.

At the end of the opening sequence, when there is  360 degree shot, this is a unique selling point. This is because at the end Charlotte hits Erika around the head in a comedic manner in order to establish the contrasting characters. From our audience feedback, they did find this amusing so this is a good selling point for the film.

In order to gain some feedback from our final product, I decided to post our opening sequence onto the social networking site Facebook and asked my networks if they could comment on it what they liked about it and even some constructive criticism. Social networking has allowed institutions to create 'word of mouth ' to market a film. This is a really effective way of marketing, especially if you are an independent british film company with a low budget, it's free and can spread quickly. However, sometimes marketing it on social networks can create a reverse effect, and creates a bad word of mouth.

 Even though I did not get as much feedback as would have liked, I got a few comments from the target audience, and have provided some screenshots for this:

In this screenshot above there is a comment which claimed 'I liked your music and the funny slap at the end, it was easy to understand and you stayed in character'

This type of comment made it clear that me and my group made sure we got the comedy element right when editing the opening sequence because from the roughcut feedback we found that our audience found it difficult to establish what type of genre it was.

From the screenshot above, an individual from our target audience messaged me telling me what he thought of the opening sequence. He felt that the camera quality itself was of a good quality, there was no lagging or shaking of the camera, which was a good point because in our production we did not have access to a tripod, it was all handheld. They felt that the camera shots where effective also, such as tracking.

I would give my opening sequence a 12 BBFC rating. It could be argued that it could verge onto the PG rating due to it not having alot of violence in it. Our main target audience is 12 and above so putting the rating at a 12 will engage them because they will know that the film will not be unsuitable for them, this is why we are not putting rating it a PG because it might discourage our audience to watch it.

Main post 12.4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

From looking at recent box office statistics on the comedy genre, I have analysed what the top films age rating is. I have found out that the majority of the films here are of a PG or a U rating, meaning that they are mainly targeted and suitable for people either 12 or below, or even over 12 years of age.

From this, I can conclude that the audience for this media product would be for children around the 12 years of age mark, however I believe this could be stretched to older teengaers because when we gave out the questionnaires to our target audience, they were either 16 or above, and they claimed that would go and watch it.



   

An example from our target audience

Name: Laura-Anne Connor

Age: 17

Hobbies: In her space time, Laura-Anne loves to spend time with her friends and participate in social activities. From a young age, she has always been interested in performing arts and singing, she does this as a hobby on side of going to college. She enjoys learning about health and social care at college and is eager to do this in later life.

In regards to watching films, she only rarely goes to the cinema about once a month, and she says this is due to how expensive it has become to watch them. If she does not go to the cinema, she will generally watch films on the Sky T.V or on the internet, she does not prefer this way though because using the internet makes the film look of a poor quality. Her favourite genre of film is either comedy or Action. She enjoys films such as 'Spiderman' and 'Ted' and even films like 'Mean girls' which is a social comedy about school life, which can be linked to our opening sequence.

When asking Laura-Anne who influenced her watching such films like 'Star Trek', she claimed that when she was growing up her Dad was a sort of a 'nerd' and was interested in spaceships and aliens. These type of action or adventure films were present throughout her life, if her Dad watched them, so would she. This is why she enjoys watching these types of films even at the age of 17.

Main post 12.3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

From looking back at the other films I  analysed, such as Starter 10, I believe that one of the most suitable distributors for our film would be Picture House. Picture house are a film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary arm from Time Warner, which is a multinational media corporation. 

I looked at the number of film releases that Picture House have distributed. The image below shows the notable releases, it is evident from looking at this to suggest that they do not focus on producing one type of genre, the genre has differed from horror all way to biographical films. The main point I noticed was that out of most of the films they have released, 8 of all of the below are comedy based films, or are 'action-comedy' for example. This is an example of why this distributor is suitable for our production because it is well-known for producing comedy films, such as ours.

Where will a distributor like this find the funding for making a British film?

Usually small company's such as Picturehouse will use different techniques in order for their film to be successful. They would usually ask or gain donations from perhaps larger company's or even from fans. In order to have a successful marketing campaign, they would use synergy or convergence to make their film more noticeable and engaging through other companies. For example, Time Warner and AOL used synergy to promote the film Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1. They launched competitions and videos to engage their audience from the AOL side and the Time Warner fans, to reach a wider audience. Slumdog millionaire is an example of a low budget independent film which worked with internet companies to reach to Indian film-goers as well.

Main post 12.2:- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have compared the character of Charlotte to the character in the film 'Mean girls' Regina George. Below I have displayed a photograph of Charlotte and the character Regina, whilst also providing a short video clip of a scene in Mean girls which I believe portrays Regina in a similar way to Charlotte in our production.

Comparable character- Regina George from Mean girls

This video clip from Mean girls can be compared to the character of charlotte in many ways. Regina in this film has been portrayed as an intimidating character who wants to be at the centre of attention. She comes across as a drama queen and a somewhat bully, however she hides the fact that she is behind a intimidating and fake smile, in order to gain being liked by her fellow pears. In our production, we have tried to incorporate some of Regina's characteristics into the character which is Charlotte. This can be seen in the last scene of the sequence when Charlotte hits Erika round the head when Erika says 'I guess we are alone'. Throughout the sequence we have tried to make sure that Charlotte is always in front of Erika to give the view to the audience that she believes she is the dominant personality and always knows best, even in a strange situation where they are alone together.

The actual character- Charlotte













I have decided to compare Erika to the character of Josie Geller in.'Never been kissed'. I have displayed a picture of Josie below and also a picture of Erika to show the comparison. It is evident to suggest that even by the way they are dressed they are similar. Not particularly fashionable or preppy, they both are the types of people to 'blend in the background'.

In the film 'Never been kissed', Josie is given the second chance to go back to high school when she is told to enroll as a teenage for a story on the state's youth by her magazine editor. Josie never fitted in at school and was a hopeless nerd at school, she didn't know how to fit in with the cool kids. This is very comparable to Erika's personality, in the opening sequence you can tell how she always seems to trip over her feet a lot or gets left behind by Charlotte, and never seems to be able to be like the preppy student that Charlotte portrays.

The actual character-Erika

Main post 12.1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The video below shows my director's commentary for our opening sequence. I decided to talk about whether some parts of the sequence are either conventional or subversive of a typical comedy film. I talked about why we used certain elements for certain parts, for example why we decided to use many jump cuts and why we chose the font of our credits the way we did.

Main post 12a: Evaluation- audience feedback

Audience feedback on rough cut

Below is a video of us filming our target audience feedback on our rough cut. This means that this was just the 'rough copy' of our film and had not put any music or special effects into it yet. We asked them the following questions:

1. What did you think of our rough cut?
2. What did you like about what you saw?
3. What do you think we could do to improve?

After listening to what the audience had thought of our film, we analysed it and came up with the following summary:

1. They overall enjoyed it, however they believed that some of the longer shots should be cut down, or into jump-cuts as this to them dragged on a little too much.
2.  They thought that some of the lighting was a little dark and it was hard for them to see what was going on.
3. They liked the fact it did well with building suspense, even though this is not what we originally planned to do because it's a comedy film.
4. Overall, they thought that we should improve the structure of the sequence. By this they meant by making it more clear what was happening, so adding jump-cuts to speed it up a little so it keeps the audience engaged.

Finished film audience feedback

To gain an overall feedback on our finished product, we gave a questionnaire to 4 people from our audience and asked them a series of questions. The link here shows what questions we asked: Questionnaire

Featured below is a table of responses for each question, this way we can easily see what the audience thought of our final opening sequence.

Main post 11- Final opening sequence

Below is the opening sequence to our film 'School's out':

Main post 10- Post-production

The image below shows our logging rushes. This includes only the footage which was used when editing and this is because the footage we didn't use had an error to it or did not give the effect we were hoping and looking for in our production.

After producing a roughcut of our opening sequence, we showed a few individuals this and asked them for some feedback after watching it. We asked them what they thought was good about it and also what could be improved upon. The video below shows their feedback:

Main post 9- Production

Below is a short video of feedback after shooting the production, it includes the issues which occured and how we managed to overcome these:

Even though the majority of the production went well, there were a few mistakes which did occur and we did not control, these are as follows:

Continuity errors

Most of the time during the production, we made sure that our costumes and make-up was kept the same throughout so we do not break the rule of continuity. However, because me and my group took a large break inbetween filming (due to weather conditions), some aspects of continuity were broken. For example, Laura in our group forgot to wear a cardgian in the second half of the filming which she was shown wearing in some places of the opening sequence.

Technical issues

We had the issue of missing sound in our production. At some point when shooting, we did not turn on the microphone which did not pick up the outside sound which we wanted. We did try and overcome this by making sure we placed the non-dieagetic sound when editing in the places where we did not have any sound.

Location timings

When we were due to film at a location, an unexpected meeting was using our location so we were unable to film that day. This did hold us back a little and left us with little time to film, consequently perhaps not allowing us to film to our ability.


Below show some images of me and my group setting up a shot which included the alien toy in. 

In this image we were testing to see what shots would be best with the use of this prop.

This is an image of me and Laura setting up for the shot where the alien prop fell out of the bag from the chair, we needed to make sure it looked as realistic as possible.



Me and Sabene looking through our storyboards and shooting schedule.

In our production, there is a shot where the two

characters are running down the stairs, and the camerawoman

has to be as close to them as possible without falling down the

stairs or injuring themselves. The image to the right shows where we

decided the camera woman should be placed for her and the cameras 

safety. 

Main post 8- Pre-production documentation

Synopsis of the whole film

Two different students wake up in school, one considered a 'geek' and the other 'popular', both with clashing personalities. They realise that there is no one in the school, and it's only them too, they did not know what an earthquake alarm went off. Consequently, they look around the school to find some clues to find out where everyone is, along this journey of discovery, they also learn about each other, bringing them closer together from it.

Synopsis of the opening sequence

The opening starts off with both of the students waking up in a classroom, unaware of what has just happened to them. They realised that everyone has disappeared, so they get up, trying to avoid each other in the process. They go looking around the whole school trying to find everyone, and conclude that they are the only ones in the school.

Treatment

Erika and Charlotte, two 17 year old students attending the respectable Terra Institute, lead an average school life. Erika, an ideal good student, being exceptionally hard-working and dedicated to her studies, just as Charlotte works just as hard maintaining a busy social life and french manicure. The two are natural enemies, so when they are sent alone to return a particular heavy collection of text books, a struggle ensues subsequently leading to the duo being knocked unconscious by the stack of reading material.
Erika and Charlotte awake, covered in books littered around the classroom, and proceed to get up, shoving one another out the way as they walk back to their class. They forcefully slam the door open, one trying to get in before the other, and freeze.

An empty classroom meets them; chairs left in random places as though a struggle occurred. Erika walks back out into the corridor and peers cautiously into another room nearby, trying to find her missing class but this one is empty too. After getting over her initial confusion, Charlotte confronts Erika on the situation, asking where their class went, to which Erika has no reply since she is still searching down the corridor, increasing in pace as she begins to worry. Travelling down the hall, Charlotte angrily catches up to her. She overtakes Erika, looking into classrooms as well and becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of people.

They journey through the desolate building, breaking into a faster pace as they cross the eerily silent technology block and find traces of green slime on the door. Erika comments, panic written across her face, that this might be the work of aliens. With nothing more than an eye-roll, Charlotte wipes the slime on her and strides out the building. Now outside, the sense of isolation is heavy on the two, making them run past the buildings almost desperate for a sight of someone else.

After searching through the rest of the school, the girls finally come to rest outside, not wanting to be together yet too afraid to be apart. In a last ditch effort to be rid of Erika, Charlotte tells her she's going to the toilet alone, with the intention to grab her things and leave, but upon arriving at the school gates she sees that they are shut. As she enters the desolate canteen, Erika, knowing of her plans all along, smugly tosses her a drink and they spend the day raiding the food storage.

As the day draws on, they find that they are becoming more amiable towards one another. They wander the school together, drawing on the boards of teachers they dislike and rummaging through the drama costumes all whilst learning more about each other. The light is beginning to fade as the day draws to an end and just before the girls believe they will have to prepare to stay overnight, a group of teachers and staff are heard shouting near the school entrance. They hurry to met with them, relieved for the rescue and are bombarded with questions as to their whereabouts, as they realise they had been forgotten, and an explanation that an earthquake alarm had sent everyone to seek shelter. Erika and Charlotte are rushed out of their school at last, laughing at the misfortune that brought them together.

Location Reece

Firstly, because the storyline requires the characters to find everyone who has disappears, they must look around different places, such as classrooms to see if there any clues to where they have gone, and to see if they can find anyone else.

From looking at our time line, my group and I have decided that because many of our scenes require us to use the outside space, which include long shots in many of them, we will shoot in places such as the 'Quad' for when they are running from the tech block. Also, we will be using outside space for when the characters are looking out of the sixth form window.

In our opening sequence, we have to give the impression that everyone has disappeared, in a suspicious way which will cause confusion for both characters and also the audience watching. To do this, we decided that we needed to show that the other 'dissapearing students' disappeared in a hurry, so to do this we will need to choose a place where we can collect bags from to use, to show that the students must have dropped their bags in a hurry, so we will collect these unused bags from the P.E block. But we will clean this 'mess' up after the shooting. Also, we concluded from this that the canteen is ideal for us to shoot at when they are running from each building, because the bags are already there to use.

We are shooting the opening sequence after school so the rush for quality lighting will be evident, so because of this we had to be careful of what locations we shoot at, because some will have less lighting than others, such as outside the canteen where there is a shelter will have limited lighting.

Below are pictures which show all the inside locations we will be filming in. We will use inside locations because the characters will be looking for the 'missing students'.

Tech block

Canteen

Maths hallway

 Sxith form common room

Science hallway

Shot list

Script

In our script, we decided to come up with a few short phrases to say, as this will add to the comedy element of the opening sequence, as most of the opening will be them trying to find everyone, there is no need for a mass of dialogue. Below is a few sentences the actresses could say to each other:

'You idiot!'
'Where is everyone?'
'Get out the way!'
'What the hell happened?!'
'Oh bugger.'
'Let's go this way?'
'What is this!?' (Goo)
'No-one's here!'
'Wheeeeoh!'
'You're so stupid!'
'What's wrong with you?'

Storyboard

Below a description of the shot sizes, scenes, location and a detailed description of the actors movement which will be useful when filming the production because in some cases the storyboard can be too brief.

Cast and crew list:

Cast: Hannah Findlay-Bada and Laura O'Brien
Crew: Sabene Wilkin and Laura O'Brien

Mise en scene plans

In the opening sequence, the plot is that everyone in the school has in a rush got up and left, leaving all their belongings behind. So because of this, we will need to have random bags of rubbish around and also bags, to add to the mystery of where everyone has gone. These will need to be places outside and inside, as we are shooting in both locations.In the opening also, they wake up under a shelf after being knocked over my something, so in the first shot there will be some sort of heavy item, perhaps a big book, next them to show they have been knocked over.

For both actresses, they will be wearing sixth form clothing, which is smart/casual, as they are sixth form students.

This is the clothing one of the characters will be wearing, specifically the 'popular girl' character. The clothing here will reflect the social norm associated with this type of character. Using contrasting costumes will reflect their personalities and make it easier for the audience to identify who is who.

Risk Assessment

In our plot of the sequence, it involves both characters running around the school looking for the 'missing' students of the school. Consequently, because we will be running for the most part of it, there are many risks involving this action. As part of our setting, there are many bags laying around to look like the students have just got up and left without them, so there is a risk here of the actresses tripping over these bags. To reduce this risk, we have decided to practise the running shots prior to the actual filming.

In this image, there is a risk of perhaps colliding with the hanging lanterns and the table as well.  Me and my group will make sure that we take extra awareness with these and open the entrance doors to make sure there is enough room for the camera woman to move around, this will reduce the risk.

The above pictures show all the outside locations we will be filming in. We chose to have some of our scenes outside because it shows how isolated the characters are within such a large outside space. The risk with filming outside is that some of the filming equipment could get damaged if it rained, but me and my group will make sure all equipment is covered during filming.

It was essential that there were stairs present within our production. This is because if we didn't it would create an unrealistic view for the audience. The stairs create a somewhat 'journey' through the mystery of finding the missing students, in general it shows progression. 

Shooting schedule

The image below shows our shooting schedule. It shows us in which order we are going to film, we decided to do all the outside scenes first because this way we could make the good use of natural lighting.