Evaluation Activity 8

Evaluation Activity 8

What targets will you set yourself for G321 next year?

 Our main problem while filming was weather, this was a determining factor in whether we filmed or not. When we first started filming, we didn't take into account that it was winter therefore the sunset quicker. This meant on our journeys after school we were left with around 40 minutes to film parts different parts which was not ideal. This was a big problem so we decided to change our film dates to a weekend morning. This meant the lighting was much better and allowed us to spend a few hours on set while the weather was dull and grey which could pass off set in the evening. However although some of the footage we had collected was too dark, some of it was salvageable and we were able to use it in our final film. 

Editing was a very crucial part to whether our film would look professional, the only downside with how we structured our editing was, that we didn't have enough time to do important and close detailed research of production titles. This led to us using a title which connotes a 'rom-com' genre rather than the sinister, frightening horror genre we were aiming for.

 The camera that we used was very basic only allowing us to film in light conditions, this meant the dark scenes which we had first planned had to be re-thought. We chose to film in dark as we thought it would best conform to genre conventions of horror, creating suspense and tension to engage the audience. However the camera we used was not able to film in any dark conditions meaning the suspenseful nature of this had to be swapped with dull gloomy morning shots.

 The Non diegetic sound is something we as a group is proud of as we feel it complements the rest of the scene well and successfully creates suspense and tension. however one thing we did feel was not up to as much of a high standard as this was the diegetic sound. By this i mean the dialogue, the other diegetic sounds like leaves rustling and trees cracking worked well, but the dialogue didn't work as well as it could off. The dialogue from the three girls at the beginning was hard to hear making the scene look unprofessional, however this could of been avoided if we were to have recorded the voice beforehand and placed it in our film in the editing process. Although this was an issue i still think the rest of our film looks fantastic.

Our main targets as a group would be:

• Invest in a higher quality camera, in order to film in the darkness, especially if we were to film another media product of the horror genre.
• Spend more time planning so on filming days we are more organised and know what shots to film, and whats going to happen in the scene we are filming. 
• Create a more detailed storyboard which we stick to as i think this would of helped us to plan better.
• Make sure we research all the different features like titles as this was a major issue we received in our audience feedback.
• Spend more time editing, to ensure a professional and high quality finish.

Evaluation Activity 7

Evaluation Activity 7

What have you learnt from the experience?

Throughout the preliminary task our main focus was continuity; for a film to be successful it has to seem realistic. With the use of poor continuity our audience will become confused and will become uninterested as the film no longer grabs their attention in a realistic fashion. therefore making them distant as they cant engage in the story, this is why we feel continuity is a very important aspect of any good film. As continuity is so important in film making, this was also a major aspect that we focused throughout our opening of our horror film. From the experience of filming the preliminary task, as a group we have grown stronger and more knowledgeable about the filming process. From this task we were able to identify the features that the preliminary lacked which allowed us to improve and make our final opening two minutes better. For example in the preliminary task we didn't use much of a range of shots so therefore before we started filming our opening scene we listed the shots we wanted to include and made them fit with our story for dramatic effect. Areas we had to improve were our camera shots, for example in the preliminary task the editing lacked a continuous flow and didn't run very smoothly, so therefore in our opening two minutes we were able to correct that and improve our knowledge of the editing process of a film. Another area we improved was the match on action shot which we used in the preliminary, this was of a phone ringing which is the same in our film as we thought this created tension which impacted on the audience. In our film we used non diegetic ringing sound to make the scene more dramatic, it also acts as a jump scare as this is the only sound the audience can hear at one point and all other non diegetic music is cut. This also made it obvious to our audience that the phone was in fact ringing which worked effectively, compared to our preliminary task in which the ringing sound was not so evident.

Production titles have vastly improved over the duration of the year, for example in the preliminary task they are very basic and simple, however in our film, we have included much more thought into the titles and how we could create effect from the them. For the preliminary task, the software we used was Sony Vegas, this was very basic and had limited features which made the final project less professional. However with our film we used Adobe Premier elements which allowed us to experiment with the different features from which we were able to create production titles such as 'Aspire Productions' and 'KSNH Films'. These titles were not evident in our preliminary task as our knowledge was very basic and not as advanced as it is now . In the preliminary task we didn't include roles with the film making, for example in our film we used titles such as 'Director' which gave us a direction point and focus. Each person in the group was allocated certain roles in which they were responsible for. This made the filming and editing process simple as everyone had a focus which allowed us to think in detail and maximise the depth and thought which went into certain features such as 'camera shots' or 'mise en scene'. As the time passed, the knowledge we had achieved from our preliminary was greatly improved, allowing us to implement changes into our final opening scene.

Throughout our preliminary task our choice of camera shots was very basic which stemmed from our lack of understanding of the creation of a film, however after analysing film openings we became more aware of the process and our knowledge improved meaning we were able to pick out features which had great a impact on the audience and include them in our film. This includes long shots of our protagonist showing her to be vulnerable and helpless and extreme close up shots to emphasise and express her fear which allowed the audience to connect with the character. After we had completed our preliminary task we were able to use this knowledge with the creation of our opening scene.

Evaluation Activity 6

Evaluation Activity 6

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

YouTube is the worlds largest video sharing platform. As a group we used this website to upload our film, and at a later date use it for commentaries. We used this for the majority of our blog videos as it was an easy site to use, for example, video diaries and preliminary tasks were both uploaded to YouTube to be transferred to our blogs at a later date

Adobe premier elements was the editing software we used in the editing process. We found this software simple and easy to use, also we found it very useful that we could manipulate our shots with all the different features such as: cuts, crop, effects and transitions, which helped us complete our film at a high quality we were happy with. This software allowed us to add titles which looked professional and piece our shots together to successfully make our opening scene. Although once we got experience it was simple at first it was challenging however once we started to play around with the software we started to get an idea of what features were available and what should go in our opening scene.

This is the camera we used for all the filming, it was light, portable and very convienent however a higher quality camera would be better for the future. For example we planned to film the opening scene at a later time to have the darkeness a key factor of our scene. this would conform to generic expectations and conventions as usually horror films are filmed at night. However because of the low megapixel and lack of features we were unable to film if it was dark, therefore we chose cloudy and foggy days to film on to supplement this feature. The darkness would of created more suspense as it would cause add to the mysterious nature of the Malevolent Phantom.

Finally the main technology used was blogger, which we used to create our blogs and blog pages. This website was easy to use through the different features such as, fonts, colours, blog format and structure. This allowed me to create a high quality finish to my blog, which i am very proud of.