Task 7:

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

Looking back at our preliminary task, I think that we learnt a lot and made big progress.
First of all, the planning of the sequence was totally different, for the preliminary task we had nearly no planning, apart from deciding, where to put the one light we have and what person we could grab of the schoolyard to be a part in our sequence.

The planning for the main sequence task was totally different, we planned and changed our idea for many weeks, we decided especially, what people we would need and what we were going to shoot.
Also we had to come up with an idea of our own that would have to be material for a whole film, although we would only be doing the first two minutes.
In the preliminary task we had a fixed script and a fixed storyboard with the different shots, we needed to do.

Another thing that was different was planning where to shoot: for the preliminary task we just shot in a classroom, for the main task we had many ideas, like going to Ewhurst and Hurtwood and maybe shoot the roads surrounded by the forest as well.In the end we only shot at Hurtwood, on top of the theatre, next to the theatre and at the bottom of the theatre.

Another thing we did not worry about in our prelimary task, but that was now relevant and necessary for the main task was costumes.
We had to organize a costume for our main actor and for the dummy that we threw off the roof.

This brings me to another point: props.
For the preliminary task, we only had one prop: a gun that was lying on a table, for our main task, we had to print of all these banknotes on the paper for the beginning, when James had to throw the paper of the roof, we had to build a dummy, organize a similar costume for it (as James), get a wig for it with similar hair and make it look real.

Also the shots and the whole camera work was totally different. In the preliminary task we just used one camera and did the specific shots on the sheet.
The main task was much more difficult, we had to think of our own shots, we worked with tracks to do tracking shots. When we were filming the paper, we followed the paper with the camera at times, to get a shot of that.

Looking at lighting the two tasks were not that different, as we used one lamp for the preliminary task in the classroom and no lighting, just natural lighting as we filmed outside for the main sequence task.

Also the editing progress was very different to the one in the preliminary task, where we only spent two lessons editing roughly, putting the different shots next to each other.
In our main task, we spent weeks editing, looking at smooth and sudden cuts, looking at a specific style for our sequence and looking at how to keep the scene exiting and mysterious.
In general we learned how to really work with Final Cut Pro and how to use effects, like fading in a shot.During the editing progress, we also focused on sound, that we did not focus on at all in the preliminary task, where we just checked, whether you could still understand the dialogue.

We also used the exact sound from the shooting day, whereas in the main task we rerecorded everything, which we were force to do in the first place, as there was a rehearsal in the theatre for a concert anyway.
We worked with the Soundtrack Pro Program and used stylistic music and effects that suited the sequence. We combined different sounds together and made the transition from one sound to another smooth.

Another thing that was different to the prelimary task was that we used titles for our main title sequence.
We did this with the Final Cut Pro Text Tool and let the titles fade in, looked at different writings and how professional films did their titles and compared them to ours.
We looked at good moments where the titles could be seen well, but would not distract from the actions.

The very last thing we did in our editing progress was working with 'After Effects', where you can add or lose bits of a shot, to finish the end of the sequence in a way that James could after the jump, fall on for a longer time.
We placed him in New York and we let him fall down the skyline, because we thought that that would probably more exciting than to let him fall down the school theatre.
Another thing that we thought was important, was that the theatre was not that high anyway and that James probably would have survived his jump with major injuries and this would not have suited the story.
Another reason why we choose New York was to underline the represented audience (Businessman/banker in New York) and also because it made the scene seem more universal.

In general I would say that the main task was much more difficult, complex and professional than the preiminary task, especially in terms of planning and editing and I think that we have learnt a lot in terms of filmmaking.

Task 6:

Task 5:

pictures of the film:

before the jump, hero shot of James

Task 5: attract and adress the audience

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Task 4:

Ideal Target audience:

I think our ideal target audience would be young adults, universtity students -->educated.

I don't think it matters whether its a boy or a girl watching, because this affects both.

Aslo the social/financial ability should not be a problem, though a lot of people can't afford to go to a university, but there are scholarships, that people could get.

Still I think that the ideal audience will tend to be quite rich (which would be good for us as well, because they could support our product financially).

If we would choose such an audience, we would have to make the actual film more based on facts then on fiction, so that would still be entertaining, but also intellectual and a 'learning experience'.

Task 3:

Media Institution

We thought that lionsgate would be a good company for our film product.

We considered that they might be interested in our film idea, because they often do more individual films, like 'precious' that is now coming up and they also do presentations and festivals where we would have a chance to show our product.

Though they are an individual company, they still produce a lot of very well known films, which would be good, because we would want our film to be seen by many people.

Task 2:

Representation of Social Groups

The group we wanted to represent were bankers (in New York), especially because they are so rich at the moment, everybody complains about them, puts them under pressure and blames them for every financial crisis there is.

They often can't cope with that anymore and don't see a way out of this situation.

Especially when there are problems in the bank/company they are working in, they easily get depressed.

Evaluation Question Tasks:

Task 1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


We used conventional film titles for our sequence to ensure the audience is fully aware that this is a title sequence. We tried to avoid subverting convention so the audience were more focused on the event rather than the titles themselves.






We used the titles because the framework of expectations is built up by them.



By letting him die in the first two minutes, we challenged the usual audience expectation that the first person we see in the sequence is the main character of the film.










The opening sequence represents a restricted narrative, which means a narrative in which the audience learn what is happening at the same time as the characters.
The paper being thrown off the roof signifies an Enigma code, which is a plot device used to keep mystery in the narrative and draw the audience into the story.

Although we used conventional film titles, the product itself challenges the audience expectations by giving very little information away and killing off what appears to be the main character in the opening sequence.

Audience Feedback

Here some feedback from people who watched our sequence on youtube:

"OMG this is so professional!!! I really like it. Good job guys!"

"I don't really like it because you can see that it is a dummy and the skyline looks unrealistic."

"Wow this is pretty good, how did you throw the person off the building????"

"This is very well done for a schoolproduction and very professional. I like that the film,
different to other horror/thriller films, has a storyline and a message to it. Good work!"

"haha...I really like it."

"this is a very good opening! Very good and clever shots, I love the paper!"

"I really like your titles, the sound is also very well done. I don't really like that he is falling through the skyline, but apart from that: amazing"

"great, that would be a cool movie."

"I like the mysterious style of the opening, good job."

Post Production main Task

I learned how to chose specific shots and what works well as a shot (for example the shot were James was jumping over the camera) and what doesn't work so well (for example the shots from behind filming James 'jump').
The edeting progress was very interesting and I learnt how to properly use final cut server, how to do fade ins, how to find the right moment to cut from one shot to another (for example when we were cutting the paper shots, how to cut from a wider shot of the paper to a closer shot of it and there we had to find the right moment, when the paper looked similar in the wide shot to the paper in the close up). I also learnt how to put titles in it and how to let them fade in, and in which order they need to be. We developed our own style with this sequence, by having everything chilled, calm and peaceful at the beginning by showing the blue sky and the paper slowly sailing in the wind and then suddently as a big contrast, totally unexpected the jump.
We tried to enforce this by having long shots at the beginning of the paper and by not showing, where it was coming from and how high the place was where James was throwing it.
The mood we were trying to create was first relaxed and a bit confused, because the audience does not know where the paper was coming from and what is going on an then a complete shock, when James jumps.
We were using first very peaceful calm sound with birds singing in the background, then a choir singing and building up tension and then silence, directly before the jump, to enjoy that moment of shock. Most of the sounds we used was non diegtic sound (like the choir) but the birds, though they were added after the shoot were supposed to be diegetic sound and were supposed to create a calm, safe mood for the sequence.
We used the choir music to still have it peaceful, but to give the audience the feeling that nothing good was about to come, the classic choir music worked well, because the whole scene was very simple but strong (without dialogue, but with a meaning behind it) and the music reflected that very well.
When we choose our titles, we decided to put the distributor and our production company at the beginning up first, because we wanted to end the sequence with a dramatic black scene with the title of our film on it and we wanted that to be the final image.
We made the sequence appealing to the audience by making the sequence a bit mysterious and end it with a shock so that you don't really know what is going to come next.

The shooting day:

The day began with a brief discussion about what we actually wanted to do and we changed our idea (shown in the storyboard) again to a more simple but stronger image of a sucide of a person in a mental hospital. Instead of runnig along corridors, trying to escape, we decided to have it more 'peaceful' and less hectic. We wanted to film a guy (James Burke) throwing paper that represented banknotes, behind him the blue sky, we wanted the audience to not know until the end, what was going to happen and how high the building actually was he was standing on. We were well prepared for the shooting day, Lara and me made a dummy the week before it and she made a 'mental home'-sign and organised some costumes for the shoot. We had blue-cards for our actors and we were even lucky with the weather.

We started shooting at the bottom outside the theatre, with James on a table, so that we could film him jumping somehow, that it looked realistically. We did some tracking round shots, close ups, mid shots of him, throwing the paper and one shot were he was jumping over the camera.
That perticular shot worked very well, because it made the jump look very realistic.
The shooting location worked really well, because it looked like James was standing very up high. We were very lucky with the waether because it was very sunny and we had nice wind which was good for the falling of the paper. Later on we did shoot the paper falling down, James throwing the paper, tracking shots of the paper and shots following the paper. We also did two siluhette shots from behind filming the back of James and his jump. The most fun part was the thing we filmed after that: the fall of the Dummy named 'Billy' by our team. We did throw him about 6 times and tried out different things, like a bellyflop.

The costumes worked really well, as they were very simple, but effective. James had a similar jeans to the Dummy and the same jacket for both of them. The boots of the dummy worked also very well, because they gave him more weight and made his fall look more realistic.
James Burke made the right acting choices and he was a good choice. We only used natural lighting of the sun and no extra lighting, as we filmed outside.

We completely had seperate sound, because our film is silent (nobody speaks in it) you can only haer the wind. We also had to record the sound later, because there were rehearsals for the concert in the theatre. We worked well as a team, my job in the group was mainly changing ideas, creating new ideas and Lara and me organised nd designed the props (for example created the dummy).

All in all we changed our idea from the beginning completely, but I am very happy with the endresult and it was a very good shooting day.

Effectiveness of the pre-production process

The planning of the sequence has tought me a lot about film-making,
for example that you have to be flexible
(our group changed our idea all the time even on the shooting day) and can't stick to one idea all the time.
I also learned that planning is very necessary and that this is a lot of work.
We struggled at first with deciding on a final idea, but in general we worked well as a group.

Shooting schedule

We first wanted to shoot all the scenes in Hurtwood and we wanted to go later to Ewhurst to shoot there in the corridors, which we did not do in the end, because we changed our idea and because we were not allowed to go on the roof there. We planned to speak priefly about what we were going to film and we wanted to speak to the actors about what they needed to do. We wanted to complete the dummy quickly and put the wig on it and we wanted the actors to try on their costumes. After that we wanted to start shooting the first shots...We wanted to do 'Billy's fall as the last thing and do some shots of James on the floor after the fall.

Target Audience

As a target audience for our filmsequence we thought of an audience of both genders and that the film would be for a big age range (16-50), as it is not a classical horror film, but more a psychological thriller, as it deals with psychological illness and challenges the institution of a "home for mental ill people". We also wanted to build upon the fact that you first just see a man throwing paper and then you see, that he is standing very high upon a roof and suddently jumps. So we wanted to shock the audience with that.



Distributor of our film

We tought of the dristibutor "Lionsgate", because it also supports smaller budget films (like ours is).

Location requirements:

We filmed at Hurtwood on top of the theatre, because there is a nice wall and a good view, and it looked really high. As main and only light source we used the sunlight and we were very lucky, because it was a nice day. We first thought of shooting at Ewhurst, because they have really nice corridors, but as we changed the idea and we did not need the corridors and stairs anymore, also you were not allowed to 'jump' of the roof or to get even up there. So our location was on top of the theatre and at the bottom of the theatre.


Cast

As cast we only needed one main person, a young man, who wants to end his life (that was the role he was meant to play)and jumps of a roof. We casted James Burke as the main guy and also we needed some statists that walk past the dead body and are looking shocked. For that we did cast: Charlotte Clark, Laura...
We did not encounter any problems nor have any difficulties with the cast and had a very good time.
Here are some pictures of the cast:


















Props and costumes

As props we had primarily our main prop, a dummy called "Billy" who we had to throw of the roof later. We made the dummy with an overall that we stuffed with newspaper, a pair of boots stapeled on it and a had out of styropor that we painted a face on and stapeled red hair (similar to James) on.
Apart from that, Lara made a sign with "Home for the mental ill" on it that we sicked next to the door of the theatre where we did throw Billy of the roof. Then we had a pack of papers with banknotes printed on them.
As costumes we had a blue jacket for James and Billy and jeans for them. We also needed fake blood for the "corpse".

Production process

We changed our idea again, here is the storyboard of our new sequence:

Stanford prison experiment

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. Twenty-four undergraduates were selected out of 70 to play the roles of both guards and prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Roles were assigned at random. They adapted to their roles well beyond that expected, leading the guards to display to authoritarian and even draconian measures. Two of the prisoners were upset enough by the process to quit the experiment early, and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. The experimental process and the results remain controversial. The entire experiment was filmed, with excerpts soon made publicly available, leaving some disturbed by the resulting film. Over 30 years later, Zimbardo found renewed interest in the experiment when the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal occurred.

this was the beginning of an article we looked at (full article on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment)

other articles we looked at were:

• http://listverse.com/2008/09/07/top-10-unethical-psychological-experiments/
• http://www.highestfive.com/mind/5-unethical-psych-experiments/

But we did not finalised our idea yet and looked in the internet at psychological experiments (like the 'Stanford'-Experiment and other unethnical experiences) to get some inspiration.
From there we thought more about the whole 'mental' home idea and how we could still keep our ideas of running down corridors and trying to escape from a house.

The first group meeting

When we had our first group meeting, we discussed about the 'Run if you can' idea and how we could make it more simple. We changed it to having only two people in the building. We worked out a storyboard for the story and thought ofof where lighting would be useful, where we would shoot and who we were going to have as actor.

Working out my main idea for the sequence

This is my worked out plan for my sequence (which we did not do in the end, because there was too much storyline in it)

Planning My Sequence

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But I thought that an red eyes would look even more scary (like in this poster "The eye").

This poster "The ghost castle" gave me the idea of having the ball in a scary castle. I also liked about the poster the scary moonlight and that the two big holes\windows in the caste look like eyes. This and also the next picture ganv me the idea of putting two big eyes in the background.

The poster "Dance of the Dead" inspired me to use the theme of a ball. The knife in that picture also helped me with my poster, because I wanted to have a good symbol for the murder at the ball.

These are Horrorposters I got some ideas of. From this poster "Behind the mask" I got to my idea of the maskball.

This my horror poster I did with Photoshop. The poster is an advertise for the "film" "The Maskball".
The scary castle in the background is there to create a mysterious and frightening atmosphere and is also the place, where the ball is. The couple dancing on the right side is a couple at the ball, not knowing yet, that something horrific might happen to them. This horrific thing is shown with the bloody knife above their heads.
I coosed a hand with red fingernails holding the knife to create a challenging atmosphere, because it is not only scary men who are dangerous murderers, but it can also be the innocent girl next door, that you would never expect to kill someone.
The mask on the left hand side is there to underline that it is a maskball and you don't know who is behind the mask. I chosed a white mask, because it looks (especially in front of the black background) even more scary and weird. The mask is also pale to show that anyone could be the murderer.
The red eyes, that stare out of the darkness are looking directly at the person looking at it and look a bit cat\animal- like.
Then the last two elements of my poster is the text. The title : "The maskball" and the "coming soon". I placed the title next to the white mask so that it is clear, why it is a maskball and the "comming soon" next to the knife, because it could also mean "the murderer is coming soon".

prelim post production evaluation

PRELIM POST PRODUCTION EVALUATION

We first opened our edit proxy in final cut pro.
Then for the logging we created a log bin, in which we could store our shots, we selected and rejected the different shots, by clicking 'i' for in and 'o' for out to define the shot, then the bit with the shot was highlighted. Then we clicked on 'modify' to name the shot (for example: 'over the shoulder shot') and save it in our log bin. We did this so they were easier to find when it came to editing.

We chose the following shots: 'wide shot', 'mid shot', 'over the shoulder of person A', 'close up on person B (low angle)', 'close up on the gun', 'final shot:mid shot of person A', because we wanted greater variety of shots, to make the scene interesting.


We had to find the 'best fit' and also watch the sound, so that the movement was fluent and that parts of the dialogue were not repeated.
The purpose of continuity editing is to ensure, that only the relevant story points are shown, to manipulate time and space (temporal editing, to shorten scenes ('Where are you?'(on the phone)-opening the door--> the person just arrived at the other persons home, no answer is nessacery (teachers episode 12) or to demonstrate that something takes longer now (for example: the schoolway for the now disabled Kurt(also teachers Episode 12)) in the narrative.

Editing is also important to force the audience to identify with the right characters (strange characters: weird light, angular angle -> something is wrong with that person) and editing is also used to make sure the story makes sense to the audience (give the audience clues, help them understand the story).

It is also very important while editing to use the specific film language, because a log bin (for example) is not a bin for bad shots, but a file for the good shots.

We also worked on organising our shot, by using STORYBOARDS. We took a look at different storyboards, for example the storyboard from Gladiator, to get an impression, how important stoyboards are and how you have to draw them.

Storyboards are very important because, when you work for example with actors with different nationalities and they don't really understand, what they need to do, they can take a look at the picture of the scene (that everybody understands),work faster and create the scene.

Storyboards are not only important for the actors, but also for the lightening, because storyboards also include lights and shaddows.
The producers can forsee problems and the art departement knows which parts of the location are going to be in the shot.
Storyboarding is especially useful for complexvisual sequences e.g. elaborate shots or sequences with special effects.

We also had to draw a storyboard ourselves (from a car scene) and we had to think of the different shots we wanted to have in that scene.
The storyboards help to think about, how the filmsequence is going to look.

The shot order is really important for a scene like the one we did, because the dialogue in the scene had to make sense and all the movements and words couldn't be overlapped, so we had to be really exact in what order to put our shots.

One shot ,when person B walks out of the room, was quite difficult, because we first had a close up on his face and then a wide shot.
In both shots he was walking out of the room, so we had to find the exact moment, when he is turning around, so that the two shots were connected right to oneother and so that there was a continuity, so that the story made sense.

We had to cut all the shots and we had to find the "right" way of editing them.
We had as final shot a close up on the gun on the table because we wanted to explain the real issue of the dialogue to the viewer just at the end, so that they had to guess for themselves during the scene what exactly person A had to do.
We also did this to create tension for the viewer.
We cut from the closing door to the gun to link the story.

This is a picture of the final cut pro programme.

Final Cut Pro is a non-linear software package and timeline based (picture).
We learnt all about Final Cut Server, a system that allows your project to be checked 'in' and 'out' to a seperate server, which is a good and reliable way that helps to not lose work.
We then logged our shots, by selecting the best ones and taking them into a 'log bin'. We selected these by making 'in' points and 'out' points. Then we placed the shots chronologically on a timeline and timed and cut them to create the illusion of a simultaneous event.

Finally we looked at sound, which was not possible with my group, as we did not record any, but like the other groups we had to check that the movement of the mouth was right and that through the cutting and moving of shots, the story still made sense.

Prelim task Evaluation:

I filmed my scene in the Guy's classroom and this worked well as a location for my task, because my task could have been filmed nearly everywhere because you can interprete it in many different ways. However it is important to have a door for the scene because person B enters the room through a door. I took an active role by filming I was alwas shouting "standing by, roling, Action!" and I also did some of the filming (over the shoulder shot, close up) and set up the lighting in the right way. We had light, hard edge light. The lighting was important for the scene because it light directly the actors and it made a nice shadow of person B what made him seem more "dangerous". The scene is a very clear scene and so it was effective for us to have it in a very clear light. The only problem with the lighting was that we could not really change the angle because if we did the shadows would have changed and that would look unlogical and weird for the viewer.
We did set up the camera correctly and checked that the tripod was level in each shot. We checked that the shots were filmed correctly and did most of the shots twice, one was a bit difficult (over prson A's shoulder) because she (A) was first sitting on a chair and then stood up, so we needed to find the exact angle, so that we could still see both of the actors.
We started our filming with a wide shot, because we thought during our planning with the story board we were given that this would be a good idea. We did all our shots acording to the storyboard but in the end we also did some extra shots (like a close up on the gun) and when we were editing we did this more freely.

Basic Stills Camera work

Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. It has its own vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. We must arrange visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.
One lesson we worked with digital cameras and made lots of different shots. We looked at Extreme Wide shots, very wide shots, wide shots, mid shots, medium close ups, close ups, extreme close ups, cutaways, cut-ins, two shots, over-the-shoulder shots, point-of-view shots and weather shots.

We also tried to focus on the rule of thirds (see picture).
The Rule of Thirds splits the picture into 9 parts. As shown in the picture the focus is on the part in the middle (left picture: the boy’s eyes, nose and mouth) and especially on the upper left corner of the part (left picture: the boy’s right eye), because as English people read from left to right, they also look at pictures the same way.