Evaluation Part 4

A logical start to discussing the technologies used would be the camera we used. This year we used a professional high resolution Sony HD camera. This allowed us to develop our skills we developed last year much further as the shots were of much higher quality and we were able to film in lower lighting due to the cameras improved light capturing over the previous years’ small digital camera. The sound was also much better this time around with the cameras large microphone providing good sound quality. The sound was further improved in our film with the experimentional use of a zoom mic, this enabled us greater ability to alter the sound in our film and also allowed us to make a radio trailer with clear audio.

The Internet was a massive technological too used in the pre-production and postproduction of our film. I used the internet to do nearly all of my research on genre, audience, shots, conventions, age certificate and distribution of our film. We used the internet extensively to promote our film, using the social networking site Facebook to share our Film and to share our feedback questionnaire. We used YouTube as a place to upload our video with it being the most popular video hosting website on the planet.

For our script writing we used Celtx. This allowed us to create professional scripts with the correct layout, this meant that with everyone having identical scripts there was no confusion between

the group members.

To edit our film we used Final Cut Express, the same software we used last year to edit our AS film, however this year we used a lot more effects on our film. We added visual effects to our trip scene to properly portray the experience of drug use and the purgatory scene we turned the saturation way down making the shot appear in black and white to represent Alex’s death. We also played with the Audio in our film, adjusting Agnar’s voice to a much lower pitch to give the desired effect from the character.

For our film poster, we used Adobe Photoshop. This allowed us to create a very professional looking poster with the correct Steel Tongs Font, Age certificate logo.

Evaluation 4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Q4

Evaluation Part 2

Final Film

Critical Evaluation 1

Evaluation part 1

continuity and editing 

we stuck to the conventional editing types in our film, including match on actions, shot reverse shots and 180 degree rule conversations, however developed and experimented with new editing techniques, in our drug trip out scene for example, experimenting with flashing bright light and canted angle shots.

we followed the traditional codes and conventions of both the representation of drugs and typical shot types in supernatural thriller films when filming our drug deal scenes, using dark gloomy lighting, suggesting shady behavior and a sense of uneasiness, and having the location of a street corner, a typical location for a movie drug deal.  However in our drug taking scene, in terms of the lighting of the shots, we slightly break away from the majority of drug use in other films representation, stating off with brightly lit shots, and even the calm lakeside setting suggested that the consumption of drugs is indeed a relaxed happy somewhat good thing to do, however this feeling gets juxtaposed by the resulting events that unfold and the story line development, which gets the film back on track with the conventions of drug use in other films.

another thing we did is apply aspects of the film noir genre into one of our scenes, the purgatory scene, using the use of black and white shots to give the sense of been in a strange location, not of this earth.

Codes and conventions of the genre

Our genre is the supernatural thriller genre, the codes and conventions of this genre include dark/shadowy shots, non human antagonists, simple human main characters, plot twists.

Our film generally sticks to the codes and conventions seen in our genre type. For example, we have a plot twist involved in the end, we have a non human antagonist in the form of agnar, as well as average Joe humans.

In terms of the sub topics and themes seen in our film, we also stick to the conventions, for example the sub theme of drugs, we have a shady, powerful drug dealer character, and stick to the overriding sense that drugs are bad.


pastiche and parody

the main techniques our film borrowed from other media products are shot types. For example, for our chase scene we looked at the chase scene from "point break" and copied some shots from this scene, for example this tracking running shot, as well as observing multiple chase scenes in various films in order to see what shot types are most common in these scenes to create an effective chase scene, other scenes viewed include the parkour chase scene in "Casino Royale"

another pastiche we used was the manipulation of similar thriller story lines, such as the story line from "the sixth sense" in which the main character is in fact dead throughout most of the film, just like in our film, however we change it up a bit by leaving the ending open to interpretation.

we also use the film "American History X" as a pastiche also, using the technique of black and white shots scene in this film when Derek is recalling memories past, using the black and white shots to show that what is happening isn't happening at that moment in the real world, it's in his head, so we use it in our shots in purgatory to show that Alex is no longer on this Earth.

audience pleasure

the main pleasure we are trying to provide our audience with is entertainment, sticking with the main intentions of a thriller film, but drawing away a little from the supernatural genre, as we don't intend to scare the audience. we follow the theory from Richard dyers, having energy in the chase scene for example, intensity which is seen again in the chase seen, but more so in the purgatory scene, we also have some aspects of community, for example Alex taking the drugs with a friend, and transparency, with close up shots of characters faces in the purgatory scene for example.

Critical Evaluation 2

http://prezi.com/icy0epsvnts0/?utm_campaign=share&

Critical Evaluation 3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3FTfNRv9t7MQWdoWmtTTl95TzA/edit?usp=sharing

Critical Evaluation 4

http://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/fb58236c9f6d40b4845778b08e30410f 

Evaluation 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vt7H--OSThQxyWrLQ-glJ-eNo_GCnBchqpXeon_7RsE/edit?usp=sharing

Changes to the Radio Trailer

Upon coming to edit together the radio trailer, we found that we had to make some changes to the original script.

the biggest change we had to make was cutting lines. The main reason for this is that the trailer we had planned was too long and the only way to solve this was to cut things.

some of the audio was also not good enough quality to use in our trailer, meaning this also had to be cut.

we also coudn't get some of the sound effects we wanted meaning we had to cut those out as well.

however upon making these changes we found the trailer was still effective.

Film evaluation part 1

Our film is a Supernatural Thriller and our editing does stick to the conventions of its genre. We remained conformative to our genre with the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shots techniques being used in our scenes containing conversations between characters. The lighting of our film is also conformative for the most part. We used dark, gloomy lighting for our opening shot where the drug deal takes place to set the dark tone of the film and with most thrillers tending to have some sort of dark or criminal entity being present, I think this sticks to conventions of the genre very well. Our effects on the other hand are different to the common effects present in this genre. Our special effects were bright and vibrant in the scene where Alex and Scotty are high on the drugs, which is a turn away from the dark tones usually seen in this genre. We also made the scenes where Alex is dead and in purgatory appear in black and white (which was a pastiche of the technique used in American History X) which to my knowledge hasn’t been applied to a film of this genre.

In terms of content our film is both conventional and unconventional. Our film centres around drugs and death, which is common ground for any thriller film to work with however we tried to make the characters in our film unconventional, with the use of clever mise en scene. We had Alex and Scotty wear normal clothes instead of having him wear the typical thuggish get-up usually seen worn by characters who take drugs in films. We also made Agnar look smart, and had him wear a mask to emphasise his mysterious yet intelligent demeanour. The location for our purgatory scene was also shot in and old 16^th century monastery instead of just a blank room, which I feel was fitting given that purgatory is a place only documented in religious texts. Our ending is also slightly unconventional because it is ambiguous. The film ends with Alex looking at Agnar’s mask which leaves the audience wondering if he actually did die or if it was just a very heavy drug trip. Ambiguous endings aren’t uncommon but films of this genre usually end up leaving the audience a plotline which is solid and certain, whereas our film makes the audience question if a certain sequence of events ever even took place.

There are three instances of pastiche in our film. The first example would be that we took influence from the character ‘V’ form V for Vendetta when creating Agnar. Like V, Agnar wears a mask and is very well spoken and charismatic. The second example of pastiche in our film is the use of black and white imagery on screen. This was taken from American History X, where Derek’s memories are shown in black and white to represent them being in the past. We used this technique in our film when Alex wakes up dead in purgatory, to signify to our audience that Alex is not in the normal world and in another realm. The third instance of pastiche would be that we took influences from the Chase scene in Point Break. We tried to re-create the tracking shot from this scene in our film.

   

Evaluation 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

Critical evaluation 2

Final film poster

Radio Trailer

Critical evaluation 3

Evaluation 3

Critical evaluation 1

Evaluation 1

Evaluation 1 "In What ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

a)      In our media product, we used all of the commonly used standard professional techniques and conventions. Continuity to make the shots of each scene flow nicely together and create an understandable scene (e.g. to create an understandable chase scene). 180 degree rule, a simple basic rule of staying on one side of the characters/ filming location.  Shot reverse shot, commonly used in conversation scenes in most of the films, used to show another characters response or reaction to whatever was said by the other character (or done).  Match on action shot , a standard shot to ‘present’ the action, or whatever the character is looking at (or just something important we want the audience to focus on).

One of the example of a match on action shot in our film. Alex and his friend staring at the “DANGER Thin ice” just as the trip out starts kicking in.

We used some tricky shots and techniques, some of which we saw on known Hollywood productions. We used the famous jaws zoom in/out shot and hand held tracking shot used in many chase scenes.

The famous Jaws shot was first used in the original first Jaws movie in 1975, in the scene where Brody looks at the shark attack in distance. We wanted to use the shots because originally Ryan’s character Alex was meant to be hearing voices/ whispers during the trip out in the woods. The Jaws shot seemed like a “trippy” realisation kind of shot worth using. We didn’t get the time to put the voices in the scene. The shot stayed simply because we thought it looks good and suits the ‘trippy’ scene.

b)     Our film reflects the conventions of the supernatural thriller genre in almost all ways, however we have put used some of the conventions previously used in other genres (e.g. Dramas and Crime/ Action films). In thriller films there is always a riddle to be solved, something unclear which usually sooner or later becomes the danger to the main character/s. In supernatural thrillers there’s no big difference, just the reason behind the situation a main character is in. The reason behind the character’s position/ situation in supernatural thrillers is usually abnormal,  something above the power of a human.  A good example from the big Hollywood blockbusters could be The Sixth Sense (starring Bruce Willis) or The Devil’s Advocate (Starring Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron). In both of the films the main characters realise there’s something /someone behind the strange and bad events which are happening in their lives. Later in the plot, usually at theend, the main character/s realise the reason for the events and the situation they’re stuck in is beyond natural, often overpowering their abilities. In our production the conventions are followed and reflected. Alex a teenager experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs gets himself in debt with his local drug dealer. He doesn’t pay back in time and gets caught  after the trip out on his way back home. Alex is put into a near death state by the dealer as he attacks him for not paying back the debt on time. In the next scene Alex wakes up in a strange place, which turns out to be the ‘purgatory’.  Agnar, the guardian of the ‘purgatory’ gives Alex a chance to come back to life and save himself in any way he can. The genre convention is challenged in our film in a way because the audience is  left to figure out if the whole film was just a trip out, or whether Alex actually died?

The Devil' Advocate (1997)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

c)      We used some conventions used in Hollywood films, however only one particular one for deliberate pastiche/ parody. In the trip out scene, we used the Jaws shot. Originally it was used to show Brody’s realisation of the shark attack and focus on his stone face reaction. We used the Jaws shot to show the reaction of our character (Alex) to the intensity of the trip out, and we thought it looks pretty “trippy” and is worth of using.

The famous "Jaws" shot (Trombone shot)

d)     The film provides the similar entertainment to that delivered by  both thriller/ supernatural thriller films and teenage dramas. A story of a teenager experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs with a small abnormal twist to it which then creates a small riddle for the audience to solve; did Alex really die or was it just a part of the trip out? The purpose of the film was to show that the boundary between illusion and reality can be easily broken under influence of hallucinogens.

e)      “Trip” is a unique film. There was never a film made similar to ours. We did take some inspirations from other films in particular areas.  We did a little research on hallucinogenic drugs, looked through hallucinogenic art, and a couple of films with the use of hallucinogenic drugs. We took some ideas from known drug related Hollywood films like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998), and “Shrooms” (2007). Like “Shrooms” our production is more serious and has a thriller/ mystery parts. We do have a little humour, pastiche and parody. However the film overall is far from the drug related humour like in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.

The masked character, guardian of the purgatory (Agnar) was inspired by “V” from V for Vendetta. The main character Alex, like any other character of teenage drug related film is just an ordinary teenager , with his own  little problems which grow bigger as he’s dragged into the world of hallucinogenic drugs.

tricky shots used in our film

List of tricky shots

high angle shot
trombone shot
running tracking shot


why do we need these shots

the high angle shots we use are in to establish the scene, for example in our chase scene, it will be one of the only way which we can have both characters in shot at the same time, and having this two shot will mean the scene will have added tension.To show this, i have selected a scene from "casino royale"

the running tracking shot is also used in the same way, and it will again be used to add more tension and intensity to the scene.


the trombone shot (more commonly known as the "Jaws" shot) can be used in relation to Richard dyers theory of audience entertainment, as to develop transparency and the feel of the character Alex. Used in our drug trip scene, the zoom in close up of his face will help us convey the emotion of the character at that time.

Audience feedback results

click here for audience feedback results

Audience feedback questionnaire

Audience feedback Questionnaire link

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11kIKSEmo0EccQmHGWQqZlgT8lJepSh80zibl7R80-eM/viewform

Effectiveness of our tricky shots

trombone shot

this shot was made tricker because we couldn't use a dolly for the zoom, which meant we had to do it handheld. This meant we had to have  a steady hand when working, however this was easy to do. Another thing we had to do was take precautions, as the environment we were filming it in was a woodland area, meaning we had to clear the area of sticks and tip hazards. although the shot doesn't look as professional as it would using a dolly, it is still effective at achieving its aim.

high angle shot

a problem we had with obtaining this shot is that we had no suitable equipment which enabled us to get the high angle shot, which meant we had to rely on the environment around us to obtain these, meaning we had to select our location more strategically. However after making sure the correct health and safety procedures were taken, we did obtain the shots and we managed to be achieve professional good quality shots. We also couldn't use our high angle shot from our chase scene, but this was just due top our film needing to be cut to make it shorter.

running tracking shot

the running tracking shot was possibly the easies of the three to achieve, the only thing we had to be careful of was again trip hazards, the only other possible negative point for this shot was that we didn't have the equipment needed to steady the camera during the run, so again it was handheld, however this added to to the tension of the scene, making the shot more effective.

Script for radio trailer

Problems encountered during editing

upon coming to editing film, we discovered a number of issues and problems we had to overcome.


problems with shots

one problem we had was that our shots were filmed in contrasting light, for example the drug deal scene was filmed duing the evening, and in some shots we had a streetlight on, and in others, we didn't have this streetlight on.

we also started the purgatory scene with dale playing agnar, who then went and got a haircut, meaning our shots we had previously were useless to us as he had a drastic change in appearance.

These problems thankfully were easily rectified with the re filming of the scenes.

problems with sound

one problem we found with the sound is that there was a lot of interference from the wind in a lot of the outdoor shots

we attempted to fix this by playing with the balance of sound in all shots in order to get the same level of sound, however this wasn't possible in all shots, meaning re filming a few and also substituting the digetic sound for non digetic music.

problems with Effects 

our film uses a vast array of effects, for the drug scene, to give the effect of magic mushrooms, and in purgatory to set the scene.

we had to drop a few shots in the drug scene because the effect we decided upon using didn't look effective in them.

although we didn't experience any serious problems here, the main problem was that it was very time consuming and this meant it affected our other work, and we almost didn't meet the deadline.

Research into production logos

Production logos are one of the most important tools in a production companies box. The logos can become iconic, such as the warner brothers logo and the paramount logo, which people link to a certain quality of film. They need to be bold, stimulating and long lasting in the memory.

The design of the logo must be instantaneously eye catching and appealing, The key to this is to use bold easy to read fonts with rich gold or bright white colours, and whatever the colour is, it must be juxtaposed by an opposite colour behind it, as to make it stand out.

The logo itself, when seen in trailers or title sequences, are often seen on backgrounds of black or landscapes (such as the sky) which helps the actual logo stand out more and have more attention drawn to it. They are also usually accompanied by underscore music to heighten the mood and to draw more attention.

Research into radio trailers

Radio trailers are a technique of advertising that is mightily hard to get right. It relies entirely on voice, which makes it hard to sell the film in the short time you have.

although this is a technique that is in decline, it's still highly effective and listened to, due to car radios and forced advertisements through things such as Spotify.

main techniques featured

• reviews from respected newspapers 
• dialogue from the film
• music
• powerful voice over
• information on actors and directors

the reviews from the newspapers are a good technique to use as it reinforces the idea that the film advertised is a good and worthwhile watching film, with professional opinion persuading people to go watch the film.  

dialogue from the film can help grip the audience into the film itself, for example if you use some sort of cliffhanger line it will persuade the audience to go watch the films to see what happens next. Using dramatic dialogue from the film, such as high energy arguments and generally loud voices also draws attention to the trailer.

the use of music is very effective as it entertains the audience and can make the trailer sound much more dramatic. the use of popular music can pull in younger audiences. Another thing they could do is incorporate the movies theme music into the trailer, for example the distinctive Indiana jones theme music, as this can enable audiences to instantaneously link the music to said film, which pulls interest into the trailer (of course this can only be used in certain cases, like film trilogies and sequels and such forth)

name dropping actors and directors into the trailer can also help to persuade people to go see the film, if you hear the names "Leonardo Di Caprio" or "Martin Scorsese" for example, the audience will pick up on these household names leading to more interest in the film, and an assumption the film is worthwhile watching.

a powerful voice over can grip the audience into listening due to the bold loudness of peoples voice, which are very encapsulating and the audience feels compelled to listen, for example brian blessed. This can also make the trailer sound more dramatic.

Progress Report

The film is in the stage of montage. All the scenes came out exactly like intended. We had some problems with matching the ligthing and sound in different shots of the same scene, it took a bit of time to match the lighting and make the sound run smoothly through all of the shots. All the scenes are now put in chronological order and roughly edited. We're in the process of editing the soundtrack/ music in the film. We have two pieces of music to fit in the film. The main soundtrack, and the chase scene tune
We're almost at the end. The final film will be ready any time soon (we might have to film on extra 10/20 seconds footage of the final scene and fit it in), the potential final poster is ready. Next lesson we'll deal with the radio advert and push the editing further.

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4

The Purgatory Scene Location (The Agnar Scene)

The purgatory scene, the main scene of our film. We have been looking for a suitable location that will meet our needs for a very long time. A derelict, out of this world location, easy to access for our film crew, with good lighting, away from the chaos of town centre. After a couple of weeks of searching round Barnsley area using google maps, and asking around I found just the place. Monk Bretton Priory.

Originally a monastery under the Cluniac order, Monk Bretton Priory is located in the village of Lundwood, in the borough of Barnsley, England. It was founded in 1154 as the Priory of St. Mary Magdelene of Lund by Adam Fitswane, sited on the Lund, from Old Norse (Old Scandinavian). In the course of time the priory took the name of the nearby village of Bretton to be commonly known as Monk Bretton Priory. The monastery closed on 30 November 1538 during the dissolution, and the site passed into the ownership of the Blithman family. In 1580 the land was again sold to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury who gave the estate to his fourth son Henry on his marriage to Elizabeth Rayner. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and now in the care of English Heritage.

The priory turned out to be a perfect location. We could access it at at any day of the week from 10:00 am to 3:00pm/ 4:00pm. It is one out of a few tourist destinations Barnsley has, however filming wasn't a huge problem. We got a permission to film, (soon as we didn't climb or damage the ruins) the lighting was great. The location, being ruins of a medieval priory has put some more religuous, symoblical meaning to the film and it's plot. Churches/ Priories, by Christians/ Catholics were and still are often perceived as sacred, holy places where people go to "talk" with god, ask for forgiveness and cleanse theirselves from their sins. The purgatory is a place inbetween heaven or hell. People who didn't deserve to go to hell or heaven. stay there for a certain amount of time to cleanse theirselves from their sins and ask for forgiveness.

(Entrance to the Priory)

Chase scene location.

The chase scene, in which Alex gets a chance to "run for his life" after he's resurrected by Agnar, was the part of the film we wanted to focus on the most. In the scene Alex runs through couple of streets in the town centre, over the rail way bridge and through the industrial estate past the steelworks where the dealer finally gives up chasing him. I picked the steal works as the getaway location, because it seemed like an interesting place to film in, and it seemed like a location that could give Alex more "advantage" in getting away from the dealer.

(The steelworks warehouse)

(Zach and Ryan setting up the equipment)