Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Evaluation: Representation
Our representation was limited for a few reasons. One was the plot. Our opening only had 2 people in it so we wouldn't represent that many people in the opening. A second limitation was the amount of people willing to give up there day to film. this again made it limited to who we could have in our film and reduced the amount of people we are representing.
Both are characters in the opening were white, British males. They were the only representation that we had in the opening scene. As we live in Britain, the most common identity is white, and stereo-typically a murderer will be male so we wanted to enforce the stereotype by having two white males. The idea of a white murderer also adds to the difficulty for both the detective and audience to work out who the murderer was.
Our victim was wearing dark clothes, just what you would expect from a criminal, and of course a murderer. It made the character look suspicious and played to the stereotype. The pool boy was dressed to look innocent and young. The light blue of the top connotes his innocence in the situation
Both are characters in the opening were white, British males. They were the only representation that we had in the opening scene. As we live in Britain, the most common identity is white, and stereo-typically a murderer will be male so we wanted to enforce the stereotype by having two white males. The idea of a white murderer also adds to the difficulty for both the detective and audience to work out who the murderer was.
Our victim was wearing dark clothes, just what you would expect from a criminal, and of course a murderer. It made the character look suspicious and played to the stereotype. The pool boy was dressed to look innocent and young. The light blue of the top connotes his innocence in the situation
Evaluation: Institutions
Our film was produced for a niche audience as the market is saturated with other types of genres, especially the superhero genre. With movies such as ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘Batman vs Superman’ taking over the market and making millions, the audiences and the mass media over look any other genre. This makes our crime drama, a niche audience film. Our film is similar to most crime drama films, in the sense that someone dies and the police/detectives have to work out why and then who killed the victim before the murderer kills again. The opening of our film shows the first murder of potentially many more to come before the rest of the information about the characters will be given later on in the film.
Our opening is similar to 'The Equalizer' in the way we want it to be produced and distributed. It was financed and funded by two smaller production companies and distributed by a larger conglomerate, Columbia pictures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
If our film was to be distributed, we would have done it a similar way for two reasons. Firstly, a big company like WarnerBros mainly care about profit, so they wouldn't want to distribute a film that isn't likely to make 10's of millions. This means that it would be highly unlikely and realistic that they would want to produce our film. Secondly, we would still want control over our film and if we did manage to get a big conglomerate in, they would want control and would get in world class actors and directors etc. This would change our film completely and lose the culture we would want to put in the film. If we could attract two small companies into investing into our production we would be able to control the production and be able to make it better with funding. This would then allow us to keep the culture we want. We would then hope for a bigger institution to distribute our production which would maximise our revenue.
We would want to sell to a small, independent film company such as Warp Films. We would then maintain control over our film and still have the culture implemented. Although an independent distribution of our film will be a lot smaller and will make a lot less money, we will be able to keep control of the film and ensure it goes in the direction we want it to. Warp Films produce films with lots of British culture and that is we want to include in our production. This would be similar to what they already distribute so the fans of Warp Films would hopefully like our production as well.
We would want to sell to a small, independent film company such as Warp Films. We would then maintain control over our film and still have the culture implemented. Although an independent distribution of our film will be a lot smaller and will make a lot less money, we will be able to keep control of the film and ensure it goes in the direction we want it to. Warp Films produce films with lots of British culture and that is we want to include in our production. This would be similar to what they already distribute so the fans of Warp Films would hopefully like our production as well.
Sunday, 10 April 2016
Evaluation: Technologies
During our production we used lots of technology to help us along the way ranging from websites to cameras. We used Prezi, FinalCutPro, YouTube, Blogger, PowerPoint and Gmail and then we used a GoProHero3, a Nikon D3100 camera and all the attachments that go with both the GoPro and the camera.
We used FinalCutPro to edit our footage together to make our final production. It is a very easy to use editing software that edits to a very good quality. It was very quick to learn and allowed us to edit exactly what we wanted. The blade tool was especially effective as it enabled us to cut clips into smaller parts and then move them, creating lots of quick cuts. The blade tool also allowed us to get rid of the start, middle and end of each clip very easily as the clips were filmed from multiple angles, we didn't want to show the same footage twice. The blade tool was extremely helpful as it gave a very precise cut allowing us to cut to the correct place where the footage didn't repeat yet didn't miss any of the clip either. The layered structure was also very simple to understand. It made it very easy to place sound at the correct point so it stops and starts at the same time as the clips. The layers also meant that adding overlays at the right place was very easy. We could make the overlay come at the start of the clip but then go at the end very simply. Overall, FinalCutPro was excellent to use as it was very easy to learn and understand from a beginners point of view.
We used Gmail to email our ideas and work to each other, and also a middle step to put text messages onto out blog and to put our production onto YouTube. Gmail is very simple to use as it was very easy to use and is very user friendly. It made emailing work to each other very simple and could be accessed from both school and home. This allowed us to do some work at home and then email it and use it at school easily.
We used Prezi and PowerPoint to make our slide shows. Prezi was a bit annoying to use at first but once we got a hang of it, it became better and easier. It is a good way to make slide shows not boring as the slides all have their own circles in one big background. This makes it more interesting to watch from an audiences perspective as it is much more visual than a standard PowerPoint. We used PowerPoint to begin with which is so much simpler to use and is so much more user friendly. However it wouldn't ever work on a blog as it's not on the internet. This created a very annoying issue as I had to copy and paste all the work on the PowerPoint onto Prezi which took a lot of time as Prezi did not like the font used and changed all the colours of the font. This was very fiddly changing everything as Prezi had a very different format. On top of that, Prezi has templates for each background, and the majority come with 6 bubbles. This was frustrating as my PowerPoint's had multiple slides more than 6 so I also had to add, size and position the bubbles and ad new text boxes to each one.
To film our production, we used a GoPro Hero3+ to film the underwater shots. I had an app on my phone which made filming with it very simple. The app allowed us to control the GoPro from a distance to which we could stop and start the recording, and also check the angle as the GoPro does not have a screen on it. the GoPro was also very good as it's completely waterproof with the correct case. This allowed us to film very high quality shots from under the water. This allowed us to create some very interesting angles and utilise our creativity. We used a GoPro pole, a float pack and a head mount to aid us with the shots. They allowed us to drop the camera in the water and for it to float on top, just like the body would do when he fell in. the pole was used to ensure we got the right angle of the camera falling in to replicate the motion of the body as it was thrown into the pool. The GoPro was also used to film the security camera shots in which we held the GoPro on the end of the pole and rotated it very slowly. The GoPro allowed us to film very high quality footage using some interesting angles.
We also used a Nikon D3100 to film the main shots with a 18mm-55mm lens. This is a very good quality camera filming at a resolution of 1920p-1080p and 24 frames per second, allowing us to produce very good shots for our production making it look as professional as we possibly could. We used the Nikon on a tripod to create a nice and stable shot. The tripod was very good as the legs could be extended to ay length needed meaning the camera can be very high up or quite low to create lots of different camera angles. The tripod also allowed us to create panning shots very easily as the tripod had a spinning mount meaning we could rotate the camera a full 360 degrees if needed.
We used YouTube to as a media platform in which we uploaded all our videos we filmed. This included our focus group, before and after our production, our preliminary task and our video of the different camera angles, as well as the actual final production itself. YouTube seemed to create many issues because FinalCutPro didn't like to upload to YouTube easily. However we did manage to get around the issue and when we knew how to, it was much easier to upload the videos to YouTube.
Finally we used blogger to post everything in one place. Blogger has been easy to use, although at times it has been very frustrating. It is really bad when copying and pasting images which got very annoying on a few of the posts, in particular the post showing the questionnaire results and the pie charts. This post was also difficult to do as blogger did not like the pie charts I was trying to insert in. This made it very hard and the problem was tough to solve as the pictures just didn't want to show. The only other issue with Blogger is that the spell check is American so regularly words are changed to american spellings. On top of that, the spell check doesn't pick up on lower case 'i' and so you have to pay extra attention to make sure you capitalise it.
Overall, new technology has allowed us to make a better quality production than if we made it 10 years ago. The quality of cameras have improved overtime and have become more affordable as well making it easier to make productions such as ours. The GoPro is able to film underwater at a very high quality which would never have been a thing many years ago and is revolutionary. This improved our production and allowed us to use many more camera angles and make it better for the audience. It has also allowed us to make it accessible to the entire world on youTube (although it won't go global, it has the potential to be).
We used FinalCutPro to edit our footage together to make our final production. It is a very easy to use editing software that edits to a very good quality. It was very quick to learn and allowed us to edit exactly what we wanted. The blade tool was especially effective as it enabled us to cut clips into smaller parts and then move them, creating lots of quick cuts. The blade tool also allowed us to get rid of the start, middle and end of each clip very easily as the clips were filmed from multiple angles, we didn't want to show the same footage twice. The blade tool was extremely helpful as it gave a very precise cut allowing us to cut to the correct place where the footage didn't repeat yet didn't miss any of the clip either. The layered structure was also very simple to understand. It made it very easy to place sound at the correct point so it stops and starts at the same time as the clips. The layers also meant that adding overlays at the right place was very easy. We could make the overlay come at the start of the clip but then go at the end very simply. Overall, FinalCutPro was excellent to use as it was very easy to learn and understand from a beginners point of view.We used Gmail to email our ideas and work to each other, and also a middle step to put text messages onto out blog and to put our production onto YouTube. Gmail is very simple to use as it was very easy to use and is very user friendly. It made emailing work to each other very simple and could be accessed from both school and home. This allowed us to do some work at home and then email it and use it at school easily.
We used Prezi and PowerPoint to make our slide shows. Prezi was a bit annoying to use at first but once we got a hang of it, it became better and easier. It is a good way to make slide shows not boring as the slides all have their own circles in one big background. This makes it more interesting to watch from an audiences perspective as it is much more visual than a standard PowerPoint. We used PowerPoint to begin with which is so much simpler to use and is so much more user friendly. However it wouldn't ever work on a blog as it's not on the internet. This created a very annoying issue as I had to copy and paste all the work on the PowerPoint onto Prezi which took a lot of time as Prezi did not like the font used and changed all the colours of the font. This was very fiddly changing everything as Prezi had a very different format. On top of that, Prezi has templates for each background, and the majority come with 6 bubbles. This was frustrating as my PowerPoint's had multiple slides more than 6 so I also had to add, size and position the bubbles and ad new text boxes to each one.To film our production, we used a GoPro Hero3+ to film the underwater shots. I had an app on my phone which made filming with it very simple. The app allowed us to control the GoPro from a distance to which we could stop and start the recording, and also check the angle as the GoPro does not have a screen on it. the GoPro was also very good as it's completely waterproof with the correct case. This allowed us to film very high quality shots from under the water. This allowed us to create some very interesting angles and utilise our creativity. We used a GoPro pole, a float pack and a head mount to aid us with the shots. They allowed us to drop the camera in the water and for it to float on top, just like the body would do when he fell in. the pole was used to ensure we got the right angle of the camera falling in to replicate the motion of the body as it was thrown into the pool. The GoPro was also used to film the security camera shots in which we held the GoPro on the end of the pole and rotated it very slowly. The GoPro allowed us to film very high quality footage using some interesting angles.
We also used a Nikon D3100 to film the main shots with a 18mm-55mm lens. This is a very good quality camera filming at a resolution of 1920p-1080p and 24 frames per second, allowing us to produce very good shots for our production making it look as professional as we possibly could. We used the Nikon on a tripod to create a nice and stable shot. The tripod was very good as the legs could be extended to ay length needed meaning the camera can be very high up or quite low to create lots of different camera angles. The tripod also allowed us to create panning shots very easily as the tripod had a spinning mount meaning we could rotate the camera a full 360 degrees if needed.
We used YouTube to as a media platform in which we uploaded all our videos we filmed. This included our focus group, before and after our production, our preliminary task and our video of the different camera angles, as well as the actual final production itself. YouTube seemed to create many issues because FinalCutPro didn't like to upload to YouTube easily. However we did manage to get around the issue and when we knew how to, it was much easier to upload the videos to YouTube.
Finally we used blogger to post everything in one place. Blogger has been easy to use, although at times it has been very frustrating. It is really bad when copying and pasting images which got very annoying on a few of the posts, in particular the post showing the questionnaire results and the pie charts. This post was also difficult to do as blogger did not like the pie charts I was trying to insert in. This made it very hard and the problem was tough to solve as the pictures just didn't want to show. The only other issue with Blogger is that the spell check is American so regularly words are changed to american spellings. On top of that, the spell check doesn't pick up on lower case 'i' and so you have to pay extra attention to make sure you capitalise it.
Overall, new technology has allowed us to make a better quality production than if we made it 10 years ago. The quality of cameras have improved overtime and have become more affordable as well making it easier to make productions such as ours. The GoPro is able to film underwater at a very high quality which would never have been a thing many years ago and is revolutionary. This improved our production and allowed us to use many more camera angles and make it better for the audience. It has also allowed us to make it accessible to the entire world on youTube (although it won't go global, it has the potential to be).
Evaluation: Reflection
We started our production plan with a completely different idea to our final result. We originally had a plan of the character being killed in a barn. We realised this idea was impractical due to lighting issues as it was too dark in the barn and the cameras couldn't record. This led to us deciding to think and use a different plan. This was when we came up with the idea of using a swimming pool and being strangled to death and then thrown into the pool. After we decided on our plot, we filmed some different camera angles that we could then use in our opening. This gave us good knowledge about what angles would look good for our opening and what angles would give the effect that we wanted. Its also gave us an idea of how to position the cameras for our opening and tips on where to place the cameras in the room to create these angles. We then filmed our production with the majority being on the first day with a bit more filming completed on a second day. We then edited it all together to create our final production in which we then uploaded it to YouTube.
Whilst creating our production, I really enjoyed being able to experiment with my creative ideas when positioning the cameras trying to create interesting angles. I also enjoyed editing the clips together as I learned a lot whilst doing it and got to try new things ideas. It really did give me a big insight to how films are actually made and produced which I found very interesting to get a first hand experience of it, but just on a much smaller scale.
If we had to re-film our opening, we would try and film a bit earlier in the day so some of the shots would come out better. This is because some of the clips were filmed outside at night and the camera couldn't see anything. We would also try to hide the murderer's face better as in the opening it seems fairly obvious who he is. This removes the mystery, yet would create lots of suspense throughout the film as the audience can see the murderer and yet the other characters wouldn't even know. If we had chance to re-film, we would've used more zooms and close-ups to create more cuts and make the opening be a bit more jumpy with not too many long clips so it doesn't drag on for too long for the audience and bore them. Along with this, if we had more time we could have found some more suspenseful music to go over the film so that way the film was more of a 'on the edge' experience, as the audience wouldn't know what would happen and when it would happen.Whilst creating our production, I really enjoyed being able to experiment with my creative ideas when positioning the cameras trying to create interesting angles. I also enjoyed editing the clips together as I learned a lot whilst doing it and got to try new things ideas. It really did give me a big insight to how films are actually made and produced which I found very interesting to get a first hand experience of it, but just on a much smaller scale.
Creating our own production really showed me the difficulty of creating a production. We spent many hours just filming the opening scene. This made me realise the extent film companies have to go to in order to make a full length production. It also presented the issue of having small budgets with the filming. Big conglomerates can spend vast amounts of money on costumes, lighting, sound and various other pieces of equipment where as small independent companies will not have as much budget to do this so might find it harder to make the best quality films. This showed to me what it was like to have a small budget and put us in a similar position to Warp Films who have very small production budgets in comparison to the "big six". It also made me understand the time needed for a production to be made. We spent multiple hours filming, and even more editing it to a good standard for what we are capable of. Film companies will spend months on creating films, if not even longer in order to perfect their product so it is ready for the audience. This experience made me see the difficulty that small independent film companies face on a regular basis and helped me understand the movie industry better.
Thursday, 24 March 2016
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