Evaluation - Part 7

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


As you can see in the brief video that I've included on here just to outline what I felt that I'd learnt in the progression and these were the main things that I focused on -

• Sound
• Shots
• Editing
• Titles

Firstly sound - sound was something that we didn't even touch on when we did the preliminary task as it wasn't necessary to do so, the main focus of the task was just getting to know the cameras so when I was adding in sound to my opening sequence I felt like a fish out of water as we weren't introduced to sound on the preliminary task, although saying this the sound that I wanted to have wasn't something that was going to be complicated - this was the sound that I had on going throughout my opening:

Shots

Titles

Editing

Altogether I think I've definitely made a lot of progress in every aspect and I just hope that it's been reflected in my final product.

Evaluation - Part 6

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

The programmes that I used were all on a Mac computer which is something that I'm unfamiliar with so I had to learn the basics of using all of these programmes from scratch. These include

• LiveType
• Photoshop
•  iMovie HD
• Safari

Photoshop was something that I found challenging to use at the beginning as I had very basic experience with it in the past. I used photoshop to create my logo that would appear at the beginning of my opening sequence, collectively it took me around 3 weeks of lessons to finish creating this logo as I had to teach myself how to use the programme as I went along.

 this was the first week where I searched for a picture on google then did my own template and started to fill it in on photoshop, this took me a VERY long time as I kept clicking on the wrong tools to use.

 after 3 weeks this was my finished product which i was pleased with as it was the best that I could do as the logo wasn't my main focus and I only worked on it when I had an hour free or a few minutes free, just tweaking and adding in things that I wanted. I later on animated it on LiveType and put it at the beginning of my opening sequence.

From using this program I've learnt that It's very hard to use but if you keep practicing then it becomes easier because you become more familiar with the tools and learn which ones aren't suitable for the thing you're doing. For e.g. I learnt that the smudge tool was not something that suited my logo as it made it look messy and I couldn't make the smudge look even on my whole logo.

Live Type was a programme that I spent a majority of my time using as my opening sequence was heavily based on titles. Altogether my titles took me over a month to put together as once again, I had to teach myself how to use livetype and spent countless hours figuring out how to make things last longer on the timeline and also how to apply different effects and how to tweak them etc. But once I had mastered the basics I was able to create a short title within the space of 5 minutes once I had a set font and effect for all my titles so it was consistent throughout my whole opening sequence. Here are the first set of titles that I created on LiveType:


These titles took me a total of two double lessons (around 3 and a half hours) to do as I'd never used the program before and was pretty much thrown into the deep end when it came to creating the titles from scratch. As I became more familiar with Live Type I was able to tweak my titles quickly for e.g. these titles (above) I found were too small when I put it together on iMovie with my shots and other titles:




As you can see the titles looked abnormally small in comparison to the other titles that I had made so in the last few lessons I tweaked these titles to make them bigger.

Later on when I became more familiar with Live Type I placed background clips to vary my titles in appearance which at the beginning was very hard as when it came down to exporting the clip it refused to export the background image but after 3 or 4 attempts I worked out how you also export the background clip so once I had done that it was fine.

From using Live Type I have learnt that it is a VERY long process to create titles that you're happy with and titles that fit with the rest of your overall product. Even though I was able to create titles quickly towards the end of the project it still took a long time at the beginning to choose a set font and familiarize myself with a program that I was completely out of my comfort zone with, although saying this, it was very easy to transfer my titles onto iMovie after exporting them and I didn't encounter any problems in that sense.

iMovie HD was the programme that I also spent a majority of my time using as it was the device that i put my opening sequence together on. On iMovie I learnt how to import and export clips to feature on my blog, and also how to import clips from LiveType and my music which is towards the end of my opening sequence.
As you can see iMovie isn't a program that appears to be complicated and it wasn't in the slightest.

I found iMovie the easiest to use out of the other programs as it was very straight forward, you had your timeline at the bottom where you could cut your movie to how you wanted it to be in terms of length, and then you had editing and sound options which were also very easy to use. Exporting was simple as you could then upload it from iMovie straight to Youtube via one export which saved a lot of time and effort. The only problem that I encountered was dragging and dropping clips from the top area into the timeline but for me that wasn't a major issue as it only occurred in the beginning and once I was familiar with iMovie it was easy and I didn't have any problems at all. 

Altogether I have learnt that these technologies were very hard to use for the first 2-3 times that I experienced using them, but once I understood the basics I was able to adapt quickly and work at a faster pace and still produce something that was of high quality, I have also learnt that constructing a product that is 2-3 minutes long will take a long time with these technologies no matter how quickly you can work on them as its all about exporting it to one main editing program (such as iMovie) and then tweaking it to make it a quality piece of work.

Evaulation Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?




in this video i have added annotations throughout my whole opening sequence highlighting in the ways in which my film opening links to other similar films and use of music, and what i identified as my unique selling point of my imaginary film.

I definitely think that i approached my audience in a very unorthodox way as some things may not be clear to the audience such as main character or overall storyline, but i think that my main theme of mystery is addressed well to my audience and I think the whole eerie feel and darkened shots and use of candles will attract my chosen audience as they would be intrigued as to what my imaginary film would be about.

Evaluation - Part 4

"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

The audience for my media product would be aimed at the age of 18 and above due to the plot of the film as it's more of a psychological thrill rather than it is a jumpy, blood and gore type horror. For example this would be the audience that I would aim my media product at:

A young male over the age of 18 would be my first audience. He would be interested in programmes such as CSI 

and silent witness which would make this film perfect for his taste in media. This person would watch my film because he is into psychological thrillers and likes the historical aspect to it, he would warm to the opening sequence as it has an element of mystery, and the letters and photographs is something that he may be familiar with in terms of seeing it on other programmes in the past such as CSI or Silent Witness etc. 

The reason why I aimed this product at males first is because I think that a majority of men are drawn to these types of films due to the psychological aspect of it, this doesn't mean that I am ignoring women as I do know that some women do go for psychological thrillers (like i do) but I think that women go for films that are more rom com than thrillers. On the other hand this could appeal to a woman as much as it could to a man as the opening sequence features womens hands so a woman might see this as a feminist approach. 

I also need to consider who this media product might not be suitable for, for e.g. a young girl or boy under the age of 18: 

The reason why this would not appeal to someone of this age group is because they firstly wouldn't understand the film as their knowledge of the outside world is limited due to their age and immaturity, also the thriller aspect may scare them (for e.g. in the opening sequence the sound effects of the hearbeat and the logo would not appeal to somebody of this age group - see link at bottom) which is why I've put such a high age on my audience as aiming it at this audience would be completely wrong and I would receive very bad feedback. 

Evaluation Q3

"what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"

Key features of my opening sequence


I'd say that the key features of my opening sequence were definitely the letters and photographs and also my titles as the titles were one of my main focuses as it took up a lot of time and there were more titles in comparison to actual footage in my opening sequence.

My logo was also a key feature as that was there to "set the scene" for my opening sequence and I decided to go for a more gothic approach to the logo to stress the fact that my film IS a scary film so it would be wrong to place a picture that wasn't relevant to my genre of film.

Looking at media institutions in the past such as warner bros, warp x and working title I had to think about what kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why.

First, I looked at Warner Bros which mainly specializes in family films - this doesn't mean that they don't distribute scary films, films such as the Harry Potter franchise were distributed by Warner Bros but in comparison to what my film is about, HP was more suitable for families whereas my film wouldn't be as I have already put an age boundary of 18+ , this is because I think that anybody under this age may not understand my film or they may find it too scary etc.

I then looked at warp X and working title which would be more likely candidates to distribute my media product, and this is because they are smaller and sometimes distribute films that may not be suitable for all, for e.g. warp X distributed a film called rubber johnny - this is the trailer :



as you can see, this is very bizarre and not something that would be suitable for all, Warp X tend to focus on distributing films that may be unsuitable for many but there is a place in the market for them as there are people out there who like a more quirky type of film such as this one.

After briefly looking at these companies and then re evaluating my opening sequence I can safely say that my film would not be something that would be distributed by a mainstream company due to the storyline, age range and the fact that it isn't very similar to other films that have been distributed on a high scale in the past.

Seeing as se7en has been my main inspiration for my opening sequence, I did some research into what company produced this film and found this interesting quote ;

"Fincher approached making Seven like a tiny genre movie" I think that this is a key quote as se7en was also seen as a film that would be produced by a smaller company due to the controversy that it may have caused if released on a bigger scale - I have personally not seen the film but I'm aware that it's not a film that would be appreciated by those under a certain age due to the content and storyline.

New Line Cinema was the company that distributed se7en and also distributed a film which is quite well known-Alien. So if i was to look at an institution that would distribute my product it may be a company such as NLC as they have distributed films like this in the past.

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Activity 2 on Prezi

Evaluation - Part 1

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


One of the media products that I focused on the most during the planning and creation of my opening sequence was the movie "Se7en" and its opening sequence.

I focused on the unconventional approach that it had in comparison to other opening sequences that we had studied within class and sequences that I had watched in my free time. This unconventional approach caught my eye as the opening sequence uses a series of documents and actions, but the only thing that is given away is the characters hands (this is what we assume) and it was mainly focused on titles, which is something that wasn't as prominent in other opening sequences. I decided to apply this to my opening sequence as I was working on my own therefore I didn't want to have to rely on other people to make my piece successful - so I decided to challenge myself and try and attempt something similar to that of Se7en's opening sequence. I first went onto www.artofthetitle.com and searched for Se7en and also for Alfred Hitchcocks film "Psycho" as it was an openings sequence that I felt could help me with my titles as the opening sequence is pure titles and cartoon figures - which is also similar to another sequence that I watched from "Catch Me If You Can". After watching these opening sequences (and also others that we had been given on a list by Mr Go) I made a list of things that I liked from each one that I watched and tried to apply this when planning and filming for my opening sequence. I did this not because I wanted mine to be the exact copy of the opening sequence that I favored (Se7en) but I wanted to use a similar style and apply the same attributes to my opening sequence to make it look as professional as possible but also as original and unique as I could make it.

The main convention that I decided to challenge as mentioned earlier, was the use of just photographs and letters (also my titles) instead of using people for the reasons that I mentioned earlier. In addition to this I wanted to mainly use these attributes to give my audience a feel for my film without having to use people as I think that is the usual media convention, and after a while this can become boring despite the amount of useful resources we have at the media department, I didn't feel that I would be able to create enough of an impact if I used people. In addition to this, my story line is something that has historical aspects to it, so I used the old photographs, letters and candles and the dim lighting to set the mood and scene -  but without giving too much of the story line away, and I got my inspiration for this from Catch Me If You Can's opening sequence as you can tell from the opening sequence that there is some sort of chase going on due to the way the cartoon like characters are moving, but you don't see the faces of the characters and the story line isn't given away.

My media product also challenged the conventions of titles in some aspects as some of my titles weren't made on LiveType but were instead written by me and then filmed and put onto iMovie which is something that I didn't see that much on other titles apart from a few that we were showed by Mr Go in class which were done by other schools but nothing of a professional nature