Final Post

We have officially finished all production of our film. We have learned many new filming and editing techniques which we can apply to future productions we may make, and have also learned from all the mistakes we made.

Video Evaluation

We filmed most of the evaluation in an interview-style format, but Riley and I have gone more in-depth to talk about the technology used in a separate video. We also did a podcast-style evaluation of our progression from the preliminary task to the final version of our media product. Unfortunately Ryan could not join us for the podcast-style evaluation due to connectivity issues.

Interview-style evaluation:

Technology/editing breakdown:

Progression from preliminary task to final product:

Written Evaluation

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

• Thrillers often start with a murder or some way of establishing the bad guy. Our product begins with a girl being murdered. This plays with the stereotype that women are more vulnerable than men.
• The killer is mysterious, his identity is revealed later. In our product the murderer's identity is revealed during a stand-off on a bridge. This is also where the title of the movie is shown, leaving people wondering what will happen next. 
• The main character is usually searching for the killer throughout the movie, usually because the killer makes the investigation more personal. In Taken for example, the main character's daughter is kidnapped leading him to dedicate all of his time to finding this criminal. In our product, the main characters friend is killed, making the search for the criminal more personal.
• Thrillers are usually set in busy public places such as a city and usually take place at night. Our product, however, is set during the day in a less public place. We have done this as filming at night would bring lighting issues as we don't have an outdoor lighting rig, and we didn't want to run around with prop guns in a very public place (the helicopter incident).
• Most thrillers contain blood. We haven't used any blood effects or make up as you don't really see anyone get shot. It cuts away before you see it happen.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• The murderer in our media product is a young working class man. This is shown by the clothes he is wearing (a faded hoodie and jeans) This fits the stereotype that young working class males can be antisocial or violent. 
• The two police officers are wearing suits showing that they are likely upper middle class.

What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

• Our media product is extremely low budget so it would probably be distributed by an independent media institution like Marv. However, if it was distributed by a mainstream institution like one of the big six, it would most likely be distributed by Universal. We have decided this because it is aimed at a more mature audience and Universal tend to distribute more films for a similar audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The intended audience for our media product is young males in the age range 13 - 20. It can be aimed at younger audiences as the violence is not very bloody, but still appeals to older audiences as there is mystery involved (who is the killer and why is he doing what he is doing)

How did you attract/address your audience?

• Our media product begins with two people fighting which quickly escalates to one of them being shot. This initiates a fast paced chase scene which grabs the attention of the audience who want to find out how the chase ends and if the criminal escapes. However, the chase ends on a bridge with the criminal and the main character face to face in a stand off, before cutting to black and showing the title of the film. This cliffhanger hooks the audience and leaves them wanting to find out how the standoff ends and who dies. As well as this the music fits the chase very well and is extremely fast paced and exciting.

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

• We tried to use dialogue in the preliminary task, but realised afterwards that we needed better quality microphones than the built in mic on the camera. Because of this, the audio in our preliminary task did not sound good. In the final version we decided not to use dialogue at all. Instead, we have used visuals, music, and sound effects to tell the story.
• We used more advanced camera angles in our final version than we did in our preliminary task. This is because we had gotten used to the equipment we were using, like the camera and the tripod.
• In the preliminary task we added some transitions during the film. They looked quite cheesy and didn't really add to the film, so we didn't use any in the final product apart from the fade-in at the start. This made the chase scene seem fast paced. Transitions would have slowed it down a lot.

Audience Feedback

We watched the films made by the rest of the class, as well as recieving feedback for our film from each group. Here are the results:

I agree with most of what this team had to say. The camera movements could have been steadier if we had spent longer trying to perfect the movement, but I think the music works very well with each clip.

Again, we could have spent longer trying to perfect the camera movements. As we did not include dialogue it was quite difficult to tell the story, but I think we have done a good job at giving a rough narrative using the two minute time span.

The sound effects used for the gun shots were built-in sounds on Final Cut Pro. It is quite difficult to perfect how certain sound effects sound, but I managed to time them perfectly.

The reason there are no visual effects for the gun is because the top of the tennis net was blocking it, making it extremely difficult to position the muzzle flash. I played around with effects for the gun in another version which can be seen in the technologies evaluation video.

The biggest negative for our product is the shaky camera. It was difficult to fix in post production as the camera was so shaky in certain scenes that the stabilisation feature on Final Cut Pro did not produce a clear shot (this can be seen in the technologies evaluation). We did not have a dolly to help us stabilise the camera while filming, although due to the muddy, uneven ground that we were filming on, a dolly would have been ineffective anyway.

Final Version

We decided not to change anything from the almost finished post because we think the shakiness emphasises speed making the chase seem more intense.

Alternate Version

We thought it would be cool to see how minor details like different music or a different font would change the tone completely. Most of the footage remains the same as the main project, but it now has more of an '80s TV vibe' as I have made the colours a lot brighter, changed the music and changed the font.

Updated Bloopers

We added a few more bloopers to the original blooper video:

Almost Done

Filming is complete and I've added the credits and the title, but there are some things that we are considering changing. For example, I am going to play around in Final Cut Pro to see if i can make certain shots more stable. Some of the shaky shots work as it gives a sense of speed and tension, but we think that others may be too shaky. This is how the film looks with the opening credits and title:

Bloopers

We had a lot of issues while filming. Here is most of them:

Filming Update

We went to West Kirby on Sunday 7th February. We were able to finish filming and have started editing, but there are a few things we would like to change. For example, we need to shorten it slightly as it exceeds the two minute limit. We are probably going to end it where Ryan is pointing the gun at me as it will seem more mysterious. We also need to add the credits and the title. Here is what we have so far:

Behind Schedule

We are slightly behind our schedule as we were unable to film last Sunday (31st January) due to timing complications within the group. However, we plan to continue filming this Sunday (7th February).

Camera and Editing Software

We are using a Fujifilm Finepix S4700 Bridge DSLR. This is a good camera that allows us to film in good quality.

We are using a Jessop Atlantic 325 tripod for steady shots on the ground.

We are editing with Final Cut Pro X. This software is very easy to use and has a wide range of features that we can incorporate in our film.

SWAT Team!?

Filming was interrupted when a black helicopter began hovering over us...

We decided it wasn't a great idea to use prop guns near a children's playground.

Filming Begins

15th January 2016:
We originally wanted to begin filming on this day, but some of us were unavailable so filming had to be pushed back.

16th January 2016:
We were unable to film on this day due to Ryan's Saturday job. Filming had to be pushed back once again.

24th January 2016:
We finally found a suitable day to begin filming where all four of us were available. Unfortunately, Ryan's friend Leah was unavailable, so couldn't play the role of the victim at the beginning of the film. Luckily, his friend Charlotte was willing to take up the role. We had a very productive day of filming from 10:00 - 5:00 and the film is about half-way complete. However, just after we started filming, we realised Riley was better with the camera than Oliver, while Oliver was better at running, so they switched roles. We have agreed to meet again next Sunday to continue filming.

Here is the film so far...