BABY AS Production from Alexia Docker on Vimeo.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Sunday, 27 April 2014
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7- Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity
editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to
full product?
From doing our preliminary task, I felt I learnt many techniques and acquired many skills required to create an opening of a thriller; I believe our greatest achievements within the task was the way in which we edited our production, I felt the filter looked professional, the film as a whole was rather flowing and the soundtrack was perfect for in-keeping with the theme of a thriller. However, if I were to compare our thriller to an industry standard thriller we would require a much more advanced set of skills, to achieve their standard of filming. Looking back to my preliminary task, I can now see a massive improvement in my filming and editing skills, and knowledge regarding the use of technologies.I believe I am much more confident in editing and filming, I am able to use a wider variety of shots as evident in the opening of our thriller. Getting to grips with pinnacle studios has enabled me to improve our thriller, as at first when editing the preliminary task I felt less confident, and also less knowledgeable in terms of the software needed to enhance the production.
An important aspect of filming we learned from mistakes we made in our preliminary task was continuity.Continuity is an imperative component in any film, and the fact that we had continuity errors in the preliminary task made it look unprofessional, something in which we were keen to avoid in the thriller opening. In our preliminary task we made the mistake of filming the same character wearing different clothes when she wasn’t supposed to be. The images below show the unintentional change of outfit.
Rosie wearing an outfit
Rosie wearing a different outfit
Mistakes such as this don’t frequently occur in professional films. To ensure that this didn’t happen in our AS production we completed all of our filming in one day, and we also made notes of the clothes each character was wearing, this was to eliminate any risks of doing this. This came into organisation, something we lacked in the preliminary task, but in which we were very attentive to in the thriller, planning the production made it easier to be more efficient. Planning for me was something I learnt is imperative; it is an essential part of any successful production.
Secondly, the match on action shots we had in our preliminary task looked satisfactory, however we wanted to perfect this in our AS production. It is important when editing a match on action that both clips are cut to the correct length. This meant editing the clips fame by frame, to ensure the final match on action looked flowing and professional, this was another thing I learnt the importance of; attention to detail, as detail is what makes the production look effective, for example the blue filter used; a minute change to the thriller that I personally believe succeeded the most in giving our thriller an overall mysterious and threatening feel. In our final production our match on action is of the mother entering the house with the pram. This match on action changes from external to internal, we thought this would be the perfect transition of locations from outside, to inside.
Match on Action - Preliminary
Match on Action - Preliminary
Match on Action - AS Production
Match on Action - AS Production
The most noticeable difference between our preliminary and our AS production is the music. In our preliminary we used none, however in our AS production we used a piece which helped create the mood and give our production more meaning, and also it created a more eerie and threatening effect. It made the equilibrium of the mother pushing the pram seem happier and heart felt, whereas it also made the disruption of the baby being kidnapped seem more piercing, shocking and scary. Music is always used in professionally constructed films to create mood, one example of this is in face off. A soft, light and orchestral soundtrack is heard at the beginning where John is riding a carousel with his son the music aids the reflection of his unconditional, deep love for his son, and the happiness he brings him. After the attempted assassination of John consequently kills his son the music quickly changes into a different piece which creates a more depressing mood, in hope the audience understand his grief and loss for his son. We tried to almost mirror this sequence of events by having a family of two and then the disruption of the 'lost' child.
The 180 degree rule was something we were told was necessity in our preliminary task, and therefore had to learn how to use it properly. This rule is vital in terms of creating meaning and avoiding confusion whether it's a professional film, or a student/amateur enthusiast production.
As shown by the picture above, the 180 degree rule is used when ‘shot reverse shot’ is being filmed. The rule’s purpose is to ensure the characters involved in the ‘shot reverse shot’ appear in the correct position, and don’t disorientate the audience. This is a rule that mustn't be broken. We used shot reverse shot in our preliminary task when Hannah and Rosie had a conversation, wherein one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other, thus ensuring our film looks professional and flowing. I personally found filming a shot reverse shot sequence was rather easy and something I enjoyed doing in both tasks, however I felt a considerable amount more confident when repeating the sequence in my thriller.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Monday, 14 April 2014
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5- How did you attract/address your audience?
How did you attract your audience?
In order to attract an audience to our thriller, we took inspiration from a range of different thrillers. We did this in order to gain an understanding of what types of themes and techniques are used throughout good thrillers. We found that many use the idea of beginning with equilibrium before a disruption such as a crime occurs. For example, in the film ‘Face Off’ equilibrium is created when the father is shown with his young son on a carousel, and disruption happen when the boy is shot. This is similar to our production in a way as both involve a young child. We decide to use this idea in our own film as by creating a sense of happiness at the beginning, this makes the baby’s disappearance seem more significant and prominent.
In ‘Flightplan’, a claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller, a bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane. Our film will attract a similar audience to this as they will both involve a woman and a child. Due to this, the main audience for our production is females as the sudden disappearance of a young child is an upsetting event and so will pull on their heartstrings as they can emotionally connect with it.
The build up to these events involve slow and calm music which gradually increases in tempo and volume. Our production also involves the concept of binary oppositions through the titles where the colours act as representations of good and evil. We felt this to be effective as it is common thriller convention.
We would create synergy to promote our film by cross promoting it with other products such as music and other things that allow the audience to become more interactive with the production and feel involved. A website would include the trailer for our production in order to promote the film. We may also include some sort of game or activity where viewers can become more interactive and feel more involved with the production. This would also help to sell the film as it would encourage the younger viewers to go and watch it. We would also include links to download music from the film. While the film helps to sell the music, the music helps to sell the film for example by promoting it through music videos. Many thrillers and other genres of film use synergy in these ways like ‘Taken 2’ for example. When you enter the webpage the trailer immediately begins to play in order to advertise and promote.
As part of this evaluation we asked some people to view our production and provide us with some feedback. We asked just females, a family member and people from our college, to watch and review out production as this is our main target audience.
'It is evident from the outset that this is going to be a tense thriller. The soundtrack adds a sense of foreboding and adds to the feeling of uneasiness created by the quick succession of poignant shots i.e. a lone young mother and her innocent baby walking happily through an affluent residential setting as if to indicate a safe environment which we soon begin to question the scene where a threatening looking youth bumps into her. The locking of the door and lingering looks following a sudden unknown noise bring about a feeling of fear of the unknown but indicates, along with the continuing haunting soundtrack, that something terrible is about to happen. The lighting effects as the mother carefully carries her child upstairs adds an eerie atmospheric quality and builds tension as you find yourself wishing she hadn't left her baby alone. Overall I thoroughly understood the story line and found it to be an excellent thriller from beginning to end.' - Linda Morgan
'While watching the production, I felt intrigued. I liked that there were lots of different camera shots as this made me feel unsure and as if something bad was approaching. I could tell straight away that it was going to be a thriller. I thought the use of titles at the beginning made the film look very professional and the music that played in the background too. I found the part when the hooded character walked toward the window after the woman left with her baby particularly chilling as it made me question what was going to happen next.’ - Dayna Rafferty
‘In my spare time I watch a lot of thrillers and I thoroughly enjoying watching this film. It was obvious straight away to me that it was a thriller due to the music and the dark colours. I though the best part was at the ending when the woman discovered the vandalised teddy in place of her baby. The loud sharp music that happened at this point was very good as it made me want to continue watching.’ - Emily Smith
In order to attract an audience to our thriller, we took inspiration from a range of different thrillers. We did this in order to gain an understanding of what types of themes and techniques are used throughout good thrillers. We found that many use the idea of beginning with equilibrium before a disruption such as a crime occurs. For example, in the film ‘Face Off’ equilibrium is created when the father is shown with his young son on a carousel, and disruption happen when the boy is shot. This is similar to our production in a way as both involve a young child. We decide to use this idea in our own film as by creating a sense of happiness at the beginning, this makes the baby’s disappearance seem more significant and prominent.
In ‘Flightplan’, a claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller, a bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane. Our film will attract a similar audience to this as they will both involve a woman and a child. Due to this, the main audience for our production is females as the sudden disappearance of a young child is an upsetting event and so will pull on their heartstrings as they can emotionally connect with it.
The build up to these events involve slow and calm music which gradually increases in tempo and volume. Our production also involves the concept of binary oppositions through the titles where the colours act as representations of good and evil. We felt this to be effective as it is common thriller convention.
We would create synergy to promote our film by cross promoting it with other products such as music and other things that allow the audience to become more interactive with the production and feel involved. A website would include the trailer for our production in order to promote the film. We may also include some sort of game or activity where viewers can become more interactive and feel more involved with the production. This would also help to sell the film as it would encourage the younger viewers to go and watch it. We would also include links to download music from the film. While the film helps to sell the music, the music helps to sell the film for example by promoting it through music videos. Many thrillers and other genres of film use synergy in these ways like ‘Taken 2’ for example. When you enter the webpage the trailer immediately begins to play in order to advertise and promote.
As part of this evaluation we asked some people to view our production and provide us with some feedback. We asked just females, a family member and people from our college, to watch and review out production as this is our main target audience.
'It is evident from the outset that this is going to be a tense thriller. The soundtrack adds a sense of foreboding and adds to the feeling of uneasiness created by the quick succession of poignant shots i.e. a lone young mother and her innocent baby walking happily through an affluent residential setting as if to indicate a safe environment which we soon begin to question the scene where a threatening looking youth bumps into her. The locking of the door and lingering looks following a sudden unknown noise bring about a feeling of fear of the unknown but indicates, along with the continuing haunting soundtrack, that something terrible is about to happen. The lighting effects as the mother carefully carries her child upstairs adds an eerie atmospheric quality and builds tension as you find yourself wishing she hadn't left her baby alone. Overall I thoroughly understood the story line and found it to be an excellent thriller from beginning to end.' - Linda Morgan
'While watching the production, I felt intrigued. I liked that there were lots of different camera shots as this made me feel unsure and as if something bad was approaching. I could tell straight away that it was going to be a thriller. I thought the use of titles at the beginning made the film look very professional and the music that played in the background too. I found the part when the hooded character walked toward the window after the woman left with her baby particularly chilling as it made me question what was going to happen next.’ - Dayna Rafferty
‘In my spare time I watch a lot of thrillers and I thoroughly enjoying watching this film. It was obvious straight away to me that it was a thriller due to the music and the dark colours. I though the best part was at the ending when the woman discovered the vandalised teddy in place of her baby. The loud sharp music that happened at this point was very good as it made me want to continue watching.’ - Emily Smith
Sunday, 13 April 2014
Saturday, 12 April 2014
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Production companies
Production companies help to facilitate the making of, and distributing films and/or television programs. Most often, the production company for films and television provides the money, and thus sets the budget, and may also make decisions on what director, and actors can be hired. Budget often makes other decisions possible or impossible. A low budget film may not be able to be filmed in a remote location, for example.
The company may also come attached with certain actors, directors, or film editors and photographers. Often this is especially the case when it belongs to a major studio, like Touchstone Pictures, which belongs to Disney. Directors who have contracts with Touchstone are more likely to be offered jobs produced by Touchstone.
Role of the distributor
A distributor is generally an organisation who handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often feature films have different distributors representing them in different territories and different distributors handling the home-viewing circulation.
For a low budget film like ours the funding would most likely come from a government grant from the British Film institute. The BFI invest £26m of Lottery funds per year to support film development, production and distribution activity in the UK and the budget is set to rise to £30m by 2017. Aiming to champion a breadth of bold and distinctive film making across the UK, to nurture new talent and to back the development, production and distribution of films that will enrich UK film culture.
To fund out film the BFI would provide us with the funding for the following:
The BFI would most likely involve Film4, I believe this is the perfect choice as Film4 are often eager to work with British led talent or with British content additionally they have a target audience similar to ours (16-30, which would enable them to give us a clear insight on what we need to do in order to attract our said audience. Looking at low budget films by Film4 e.g. trainspotting, this is England both of which turned out to be very successful films and TIE resulting in a TV series
Production companies help to facilitate the making of, and distributing films and/or television programs. Most often, the production company for films and television provides the money, and thus sets the budget, and may also make decisions on what director, and actors can be hired. Budget often makes other decisions possible or impossible. A low budget film may not be able to be filmed in a remote location, for example.
The company may also come attached with certain actors, directors, or film editors and photographers. Often this is especially the case when it belongs to a major studio, like Touchstone Pictures, which belongs to Disney. Directors who have contracts with Touchstone are more likely to be offered jobs produced by Touchstone.
Role of the distributor
A distributor is generally an organisation who handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often feature films have different distributors representing them in different territories and different distributors handling the home-viewing circulation.
For a low budget film like ours the funding would most likely come from a government grant from the British Film institute. The BFI invest £26m of Lottery funds per year to support film development, production and distribution activity in the UK and the budget is set to rise to £30m by 2017. Aiming to champion a breadth of bold and distinctive film making across the UK, to nurture new talent and to back the development, production and distribution of films that will enrich UK film culture.
To fund out film the BFI would provide us with the funding for the following:
- Feature film production, including international co-production and completion funding
- Feature film development, principally script development
- Talent development (including funding for short films) via the BFI NET.WORK
- Feature documentaries
- Production company slate development, via the Vision Awards
- Digital and cross-media activity
- Distribution of feature films in the UK
- International sales of UK feature films and other film export activities
The BFI would most likely involve Film4, I believe this is the perfect choice as Film4 are often eager to work with British led talent or with British content additionally they have a target audience similar to ours (16-30, which would enable them to give us a clear insight on what we need to do in order to attract our said audience. Looking at low budget films by Film4 e.g. trainspotting, this is England both of which turned out to be very successful films and TIE resulting in a TV series
New line cinema logo
For our professional production company we decided to use
new line cinema firstly for aesthetic reasons, we found the dark colours helped
to reinforce the thriller genre, the almost shadow affect again alludes to the
theme of mystery and helps connote the unknown. Secondly New Line Cinema are an
established, professional company renown for their successful thrillers such as
the cell, seven, fracture, snakes on a plane and many more.
White productions
We came up with the name 'White Productions' as for us it
was simplistic and had a professional look about it in order to not distract
from the actual theme, also it looks a lot less amateur than if we were to
attempt, perhaps make a logo with our own drawings. The logo was done in black and white, this is suitable for our production as the binary opposites connotes good and evil which is of course suited to a thriller, the fact the eye is a woman's represents a femme fatale character although typically villainous, if not morally ambiguous, and
always associated with a sense of mystification and unease; themes we deemed particularly important in our thriller. The visual medium here bared significance to the plot and connoting the good and evil important to our film and the black and white also reinforced the binary opposites.
The titles
The titles we decided to use are mostly overlay titles in a
white serif font. They appear one by one over the production in the
bottom corners of the screen. We chose to use overlay titles as they are
simple and don't take too much time out of the film. We felt that when
researching into different thrillers, the titles used in 'The Sixth Sense' were
quite tedious to watch as they were slow, long and just simple full screen
motion titles with nothing particularly interesting or intriguing taking
place. We didn't want this to be the case without production.The titles are overlay until the very last one which reads
'BABY' as a full screen motion title. The word is white on a black
background as the colours act as a binary opposition for good and evil.
This representation would become clearer if we were to continue to make the
whole film.
The opening credits in our thriller mention each person involved
in our production, each person in our group had several roles so our names were
mentioned more than once. The opening credits are shown at the very beginning
and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually
shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes
on top of action in the show. There may or may not be accompanying music. Using
overlay titles we introduced cinematography first, followed by music then the
editors, the producers lastly, the Director and actors were shown this is because
they are the most important/significant to the film therefore by putting them
last as you would in a professional thriller they stay in the audiences mind as
they were shown last therefore stay fresh in the mind.
Friday, 11 April 2014
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our production focuses particularly on 2 main social groups, in broad terms, there is, as in any thriller a victim and a villain, however if we focus more selectively on how social groups are represented it is clear to see Rosie represents parents/adults and more importantly mothers as a social group. When thinking of the role of a mother, typically the first things that come to mind are maternal instincts, a warm hearted nature, a longing to protect and care for their children. So we wanted this to be evident in our representation of mothers. There are many ways we attempted to outline Rosie as a mother, through dialogue, nonverbal codes, dress code and props. Firstly Rosie’s costume must reflect that of a mother’s so we decided keeping her in a sensible sophisticated coat would not only highlight her as a mother, but by not using anything too bright or colourful we didn’t distract from the plot. Having Rosie as the almost victim (as well as the baby) fits the stereotype of a female, vulnerable and young victim, also fits with the gender stereotype of females. Her dialogue also came into significance, although given few lines Rosie ensured she spoke them clearly and in a mature fashion. Furthermore the nonverbal codes became a key part of conveying a mother’s typical warm hearted nature, in some scenes this is conveyed through Rosie’s holding of the baby, she almost clutches on to her which implies a maternal love and caring for her on screen daughter. Props also helped us to convey mothers as a social group as typically mothers would use a pram to transport their child from different locations, the pram connotes images of child and mother. Looking at the thriller 'Panic Room' for inspiration, the mothers non verbal codes suggester she was incredibly protective of her child, we used this almost clutching onto style with our production to also connote the idea that Rosie would shield her child from any harm.
Our production focuses particularly on 2 main social groups, in broad terms, there is, as in any thriller a victim and a villain, however if we focus more selectively on how social groups are represented it is clear to see Rosie represents parents/adults and more importantly mothers as a social group. When thinking of the role of a mother, typically the first things that come to mind are maternal instincts, a warm hearted nature, a longing to protect and care for their children. So we wanted this to be evident in our representation of mothers. There are many ways we attempted to outline Rosie as a mother, through dialogue, nonverbal codes, dress code and props. Firstly Rosie’s costume must reflect that of a mother’s so we decided keeping her in a sensible sophisticated coat would not only highlight her as a mother, but by not using anything too bright or colourful we didn’t distract from the plot. Having Rosie as the almost victim (as well as the baby) fits the stereotype of a female, vulnerable and young victim, also fits with the gender stereotype of females. Her dialogue also came into significance, although given few lines Rosie ensured she spoke them clearly and in a mature fashion. Furthermore the nonverbal codes became a key part of conveying a mother’s typical warm hearted nature, in some scenes this is conveyed through Rosie’s holding of the baby, she almost clutches on to her which implies a maternal love and caring for her on screen daughter. Props also helped us to convey mothers as a social group as typically mothers would use a pram to transport their child from different locations, the pram connotes images of child and mother. Looking at the thriller 'Panic Room' for inspiration, the mothers non verbal codes suggester she was incredibly protective of her child, we used this almost clutching onto style with our production to also connote the idea that Rosie would shield her child from any harm.
Alexia who we casted as the villain, took on a rather
stereotypical role of a thuggish character, this being evident in her dress
code, we used the film 'ils' as a stimulus here as we believed the villains at the end acted as fitting characters to draw inspiration from for our production. To convey a stereotype we had to observe again the non verbal codes and dress codes of the thugs in 'ils'. When thinking of thugs as a social group you typically think of scary, dangerous, threatening and shadowy figures. So bearing this in mind we had to make Alexia appear all of these things, we made her seem as threatening as possible through a lack of dialogue as this creates an air of mystery and darkness about her. Finally to reinforce the stereotype we used 'thuggish' clothing, the use of a hoodie to mask her face made her seem dangerous and threatening and the fact we couldn't see her eyes like is the thriller 'dead again' being unable to see a persons eyes makes them seem as if they are hiding something and
creates a sense of mystery and danger, making them appear very sinister and dominant. The black clothing also connotes evil and danger all alludes to the idea of a cray and threatening character.
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