In the group, I was the one that came up with the original idea. We then went over it and tweaked it to make it run better and then to also make it fit into the 5 minutes. Throughout filming, we tried to maintain continuity in order for the film to flow. I avoided breaking the 180degree rule in the film, to keep it natural. I used a variety of shot types to keep the film interesting. I tried to be creative with shot in order to more than just show the sequence of events, an example is the low medium close shot which shows the letter being opened and the mystery on the protagonists face. Some of the shots were cut quickly, which rhythmically tied in with the music to add to the pace of the film. The music was started and stopped at specific times to tie in with the movement on screen, examples are when it starts when the protagonist starts to run down stairs, and when the music stops dead when the door slams shut.
Throughout the film, I wanted to ensure the audience were wondering what the letter said, along with who the sender was. I feel I achieved this. Whenever something happened to Chris the letter would be in shot in order to relate it to the event.How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
In the media production, I was trying to create mystery from the start, to keep the audience engaged throughout and I feel with the choice of shots, costume and music I achieved this.
The atmosphere was maintained when I created the advertising poster, as the colours were kept dark and I selected one of the most powerful images from the film, which asks more questions than it answers.
Media advertising is important in advertising as it initially gets the title out there. It is also important that the advertising keeps to the vibe of the film with what it says and its colour scheme, as it needs to give people an idea of the type of film. It also introduces people to elements of the film before they see it, for example in the poster I designed there is the image of the Chris looking at the letter, so people are perhaps wondering about the letter before they see the film.When designing the poster, I wanted it to be as dark as possible, so I took a still for the film and altered the colour and shade of it. I then lightened areas of it to subtly bring attention to it( Face and letter). The poster looked dull without a background, so I again took a still from the film, which was the front door, and once again changed the colour. I felt the title should stand out as they are sometimes lost in a monotone colour scheme, so I chose bright red in a sort of typed font to stay with the theme of the letter.
*HERE COMPARE TO OTHER POSTERS*
What have I learned from audience feedback?
When given the brief, It was no specified the genre of the film that we made, only that it was to be 5 minutes. This led us to do some research on the type of film people mostly went to see at the cinema. Out of 30 people questioned from a mixture of 16- 50 year olds in the Dearne area, comedy and thriller were the genre with the highest count, so we decided to do a thriller as a comedy would perhaps been more difficult to write and perform well in.
I ensure that while filming and editing, that the film would be a narrative. The chain of events were in chronological order and each significant event would have it's own shot, in order to show it's significance. Anything that affected the protagonist would then show their reaction. The film is shot in familiar locations to any viewer. I creative decision I made was to not disclose the content of the letter, despite during other points in the film having POV shots, for example the shot of the mobile phone. The mystery of the letter left the content open to interpretation for the audience.
Part of my idea was to make my audience relate to the character, I set the film in ordinary surroundings like at home and at work, and put him in ordinary situations like browsing the Internet and using their phones, so the viewer see themselves in the character, making them feel more empathy.
I copied my film to a USBmemory stick and carried it around with me, showing it to people who had a spare 5 mins. This was not the best way to get feedback as it was difficult to keep a record and it was people I knew, who are less honest face to face anyway. I decided to upload it to YouTube as it keeps a record of the amount of views and all the comments made.
The film received a range of comments, generally with a positive mood. There was a range of comment based on technical aspects of the film, and others just saying whether they enjoyed the film or not.
When trialling the film, different audience members picked up on different aspects of the film, example being at the end of the film when the screen goes dark, there is the sound of a letter being posted, implying that a similar sequence of events is going to happen to another individual, meaning the letter is a continuous chain. Not all audience picked up on this. I think it is important to have things like this in the film, as it gets the audience thinking and gives them a sense of achievement when they figure something out.Use of differing Media Technologies in the stages of production
During the production of our film project I have used digital cameras and editing resources and also digital sound recording equipment. Also, the Internet has been used throughout. These involved the Sony HD 1000, a DV100 which was used to transfer shots from the camera onto the computer, a Nikon D60 I used to take photographs of the location, a Zoom Recorder, an Apple Mac, Final Cut, iMovie, Blogger, Garage Band and Photoshop.
The final cut software came in very handy through the editing process, as it contains many features to help you ammend mistakes made during filming eg. filing from a different angles and directions in the same location can lead to the colour being different in each shot, so the colour corrector in final cut lets you change the tone, so in my shout it was too yellow, move the colour corrector to blue and it makes the shot look like natural light. Another instance is when I wanted to maintain the point of focus between 2 shots, but when I filmed it the green door wasn't at the same area in each shot, so I zoomed in slightly on the second shot and altered the centre of the image so on 2 shots a green door was in the same place on the screen, thus making it flow as the viewers eyes don't have to move around the screen.
*PICTURE OF COLOUR CORRECTOR NEEDED*
*PICTURE OF POINT OF FOCUS CHANGE NEEDED*
