Wednesday 7 March 2012

Evaluation 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the prgoression from it to the full product?

During my media coursework and lessons of media, I have learnt many new skills that I had lacked prior to taking up AS media. Below is a prezi that presents all that I have learnt from my preliminary task to the full product:


Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Cannons camcorder: We used this camera to records all of our shots in our opening. The use of this camcorder was simple and the quality was high definition.

Light reflector: Used to reflect light on to our characters during filming. It was hassle free; all you had to do was adjust the position of the reflector.

Tripod: This was essential for stability and consistency whilst filming. The lengths of the tripod can also be adjusted to our desire, which was also key when filming certain shots e.g. the policeman walking up the stairs.

Dolly: This helped when filming tracking shots to keep the camera stable whilst moving it simultaneously.

Apple Mac: The apple mac was a key area of the whole production of our thriller opening. We used the apple mac for the final cut programme for the editing mainly. We also did most of our research on the internet on the mac too.



Blogger: Blogger was used to publish posts of the work I did, upload videos and pictures and to view my teachers blog for advise and links to help me with my research.
Final cut express: The whole editing of the tasks that we had to do, such as filming our opening or preliminary task, was put on to this programme and took place here. Final cut was difficult and complicated when I first started using it but as time went on I became more familiar with it and it made it so easy for me to edit my thriller opening.

Youtube: One of the best sites to view clips of various media products. I used this website for research (soundtracks), viewing current thriller openings (silence of the lambs) and to upload our final cut of our thriller opening.


Photoshop: Editing the logo and cropping out images was the main use of adobe photoshop. I really enjoy using photoshop because of the effects and options that are available when editing.


Livetype: A programme on the apple mac that I used to create titles for our thriller opening. The programme was very easy to use; you just had to type what a credit in and add an effect to it. This was particularly helpful for our juno recreation and thriller opening.

Evaluation 5 - How did you attract and address your audience?

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution is a key process when considering making a film. A distributer is a company that promotes the film to the audience and trys to increase the popularity of the film by advertising, for example. Distrubtors may be part of the same parent company as the production company. They also may even have a long term arrangement with a production company and provide financial assistance for many of their productions. A Prodcution company are the people who produce a film, including the pre-production, production and post-production. A production company might also even help with funds for the film. In our media product, 'crossfire production' produced our film, which was promoted in the opening of our crime thriller. The people that worked with the prodcution company are also included in our titles. They were Alex O'neil, the production designer, Philip Bloom, the cinematographor and the executive producer, Andrew Hall.

Due to our film being an independent company, as well as low budget, we would not be aiming to distributors of high standards such as Warner Brothers or Walt Disney. The media institutions that may distribute our film would possibly be independent companies such as Hammer. The reason for this is because they produce and distribute films of a range of genres and our thrille may appeal to them. Another distrubting company may be momentum pictures. They are another independent british company which tend not to use big name actors due to the lower budget they have compared to larger companies such as Walt Disney. Also, in 'mind games', we do not have any famous or well known actors and casts, meaning that it would be better suited for momentum pictures. I came to this conclusion due to the research I had previously done during the pre-production stage.

The money needed for our film would be partly provided by crossfire productions and partly from a government grant to help with pay for the costumes and mise-en-scene. The location wouldnt be a problem as it is one of our group members flat. Also, equipments such as the camera, tripod, light, light reflector etc. are all borrowed from the school.

The titles in my film begin to appear on screen about 20 seconds into the film and continues until the end of the opening. It is shown just before the main character, the natagonist, is shown and immediately the audience may link the two together because of this. The titles are shown mainly during a scene taking place as it would continue the flow of the film rather than having gaps between scenes. It would be on screen long enough for the audience to read them so this was not a problem. Some titles were shown in black screens to make the audience aware of the variety of people who were part of the production of the film. Me and my group had watched several film openings to observe the titles and see how they are presented, what the different type of effects were used and the timing of them being shown. We realised that the main characters are present near the start and the director would be the final title shown due to there importance in the making of the film. Therefore, we took time in making the titles and edited them well to fit in with our thriller opening.

Evaluation 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?