To the Examiner

Dear Examiner
Thank you for taken your time to exam and look at my blog.
Toby Bubb
Candidate No. 8034
Centre No. 16121

Final

Market Research

Questionaire

We handed out a question to get an idea on what people like to see. we are going to use this it make our film opening. For example because of the popularity of suspense in films we are going to try and create suspense in our opening. We had an idea of making our opening with no speech because then people will be focusing more on the look of the character and his surroundings so they get a feel of what the character is like without hearing him speaking. We gave out a question that was to do with watching a part of the film with no speech. The results came back and we found that people can watch a film with no speech for a length of time.We have decided to make our opening using no speech.

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Film Opening final evaluation Questions

Question 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

3: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

                European: For a European distribution possibility we have decided that Momentum Pictures as they have distributed many horror films such as “Sinister” and “The Woman in Black” which have been very successful within their genre. They have distributed low-budget films such as “V/H/S” which was good at creating suspense which is what our film entails.

                American: For an American distribution company we have decided that Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. as they have successfully distributed many large horror films such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “The Conjuring” which demonstrates that they are comfortable with distributing horror films at high budgets.

                If we were to choose a distributor between the two we would choose Warner Bros. as they distribute in America but also have a UK company that could distribute.

                Our created distributor: We created the distribution company Smokehouse which would specialise in horror films of a lower budget. The logo we created was designed to resemble the genre of film that it distributed so we used dark red colours.

4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product

                Our target audience would be adults because of the genre we have chosen and the way the film flows, children and teenagers enjoy following fast paced films whereas we have chosen a slow and subtle film type. The slow pace of this film can be similar to that of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” which was targeted at older audiences.

Our film is not targeted at a specific gender as all adults between 20 and 50 can relate to the everyday life our main character lives in. the fact adults can relate to our film also helped contribute to our decision on the target audience.

Our film was inspired by the film “Silent Hill” which also demonstrates alternative realities, this helped us decide who our target audience would be more suited to. Silent Hill was a popular film for teenagers due to disturbing images not being suitable for children, we then took this aspect and made a slower film so we decided on an older target audience.

Our film is a low-budget indie film so our target audience also is people who like to view alternative films instead of popular high-budget films, this would mean that our film may be displayed at film festivals and on more alternative television channels.

5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

                When doing research to use with our film we decided to use the horror genre, this initially gave us the impression that our audience would be teenage and adult males. We then researched into what they find appealing in a film so we could then attract that audience.

                The normal components of a horror film consist of suspense, tension and inducing fear, this attracted our audience because it gives them a thrill of being in that situation. We filmed our opening in a more public area so the target audience can relate to it, this would appeal to them as it is similar to their living areas so they therefore may feel more interest in watching it. The actors were also decided to be of a similar age group as the target audience to create yet a stronger relation between the audience and the character.

                We created advertisements and posted them on social networks so that they would be sent around and create anticipation in the target audience. We also put advertisements in local newspapers so that locals can easily see it and find out about the film.

6. What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product

From our film opening we have learned how to use various software such as after effects and adobe premiere. Before creating our film opening we had a little experience in some of these software’s because we had to use them to make our preliminary tasks. However we had only scratch the surface of what we could create using these software’s at that time.

We used after effects for the main use of motion tracking because we wanted the titles to be a part of the film opening so the audience could be immersed with the story and not be distracted by the titles as much as if they were just put on and floating around. We didn’t use motion tracking just for the use of titles we used it to create a motionless shadow that would keep appearing closer and closer to our main character to give the impression that the shadow is following him we had it appear on a climb frame and a few fences. To show he notices the shadow we chose the main character to increase speed every time he saw it so it makes the shadow seem real. One problem we had with the use of motion tracking is that we couldn’t get the titles to stick to a wall or flat surface if the main character walked passed it because then the track would follow him. To try and cover this up we had to edit the titles so that it would fade away and become invisible when the main character walked passed it. Even though this wasn’t our plan at the start we found that it gave a good suspenseful effect. We used adjustment layer’s to create an overlay of black and white with a grainy effect to the POV shots to give the idea that he is in his own world and he see things differently. After we made our motion tracked videos we exported them so we could put them together in adobe premiere

 The second and main programme we used was adobe premiere which was the one we were most familiar with because we had to use it to put together our preliminary task. We imported the videos we made in after effects and put them in order from start to finish. After putting it together we found that we had film to much because the whole opening was six and a half minutes. We used the programme to cut the shot down or by taking them out completely. By the end of the cutting down we had a 2 and a half minutes video. Another purpose the programme had been to add in the music and sound effects. The main music and sound effects we used was royalty free so we didn’t have to worry about copyright. We used the sound effect of a dog barking, a booking/paper dropping, heavy breathing, whispers and a dog whistle to give the feeling of immersion and suspense with the opening. After putting all of the videos and additional sound together we exported it and put It on youtube.  

7:Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task - What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product 

We feel that we have learned a lot since our preliminary task in many different areas, we have developed as a group to improve our skills in all areas of film making and have gained confidence by doing so.

We have learned how to correctly storyboard and script a film which has a very high importance within film making as it helps you establish the structure and plot for the film. We have also improved our skills in camera work and deciding the correct angles and distances to use as you film, this has helped us spontaneously make modifications to our opening as we were filming it and therefore helped us improve our opening even more.

We have learned how to use Adobe After-Effects and a plug-in program called Mocha in which we managed to add a lot to the opening we wouldn't have been able to if we had not learned. We have learned how to use an editing technique called magic tracking which really helped us increase immersion as the titles were integrated into the film and placed on objects as opposed to being layered over the opening itself.

We have learned about the targeted audience for our genre and how to gain information as to how we can improve our opening or what appeals to certain people in which we can please a much wider target audience and still maintain the effect we wanted our opening to create.

living in the dark rough copy Harry Guest and Toby Bubb

Risk Assessment

Risk Assesment

storyboard