Coursework Evaluation : Question 4

Coursework Evaluation : Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Coursework : Evaluation Question 6

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

Over the duration of the starting media to finishing coursework, myself and my group have developed new skills and techniques concerning the use of technologies in our practical and theory work. Throughout the coursework, we depended on computers for almost everything, from transferring data like memory cards and video clips to editing tasks and blog posts. When reflecting on my preliminary task at the beginning of the coursework, I can clearly see our progression in our final outcome.

Coursework Evaluation : Question 7

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

PRODUCTS:
- Link to our preliminary task:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiD15xWzDJ0

- Link to our main product, (a two minute film opening in sequence, with titles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3ufTxFcrHY&t=1s

When reflecting back on our preliminary task we completed at the start of the year, I have learnt numerous things since then, that has helped develop our skills to complete our coursework film opening (the main product). For instance, my editing experience, sound knowledge, and camera shots and angles experimentation.

When reflecting back at my preliminary task I realise how much I have developed and progressed as a media student, building skills on planning, filming technique, and editing but also media and film production as a whole. To start with, I had a fundamental understanding of the film industry, only really watching films without much thought as to how they were made. I think this is somewhat evident in my preliminary task as I had hardly any knowledge of things like the mise-en-scene, dialogue and sound which resulted in a poor quality product. When filming, factors such as having to hand hold the camera instead of using the tripod so the camera stability was faulty or not having much knowledge on sound resulting in poor diagetic and non-diagetic sound. Later on, when editing, elements such as not knowing the software and planning our sequence without an idea of what we wanted also caused the film to be of a lesser quality than we wanted. However, with our coursework project, I had much broader understanding of the filming, and sound, and therefore creating a much better film opening. I think that this marks improvement as it is a clear disparity between my first media product, and the final cut of our two minute opening.

The main thing I've learnt in the progression from our preliminary task and our main product is the editing skills I have developed and the experience that has given us, as a team, to perfect our final film opening. Starting our preliminary task, our team had never even seen the software, Adobe Premiere Pro, before. So, considering this, we started from the bottom, learning the basics and slowly built our skills so we could create the best film we could. In the time between our preliminary task to our final cut, we as a group, and myself, individually, had several mini-projects that also included editing practice to help learn the software. For our final cut, it is also noticeable that we used a lot of after affects in post-production to create the atmosphere we wanted, that we had not previously used, especially in our first preliminary. Without the knowledge of how to do these little things, we couldn't have made the end piece we did, showing the progression between our first go and our last.

Another vital element that I have learnt in the continual progress with media studies, is the importance of sound. Before studying media, I had no idea of how the impact of something that I had previously unnoticed, could be such a big impact on the outcome. I quickly learnt, however, that the sound was as just as important as the visuals in a two minute film opening. For our preliminary task, we weren't very confident about including huge amounts of sound or relying on it to be extremely good but it was more that we overlooked it and covered it with music in post-production. With our final cut, however, we decided early on that we weren't going to use dialogue which was a perfect opportunity to use the sound to our advantage. Just before filming, our team went on a search for the perfect soundtrack to accompany the film, which had to suit the genre and tone for it to work, and thankfully, we did. I think that the difference between the sound quality with the preliminary and the final cut of our media product, is quite significant and it represents the progress of our learning.

Finally, the camera shots and angles are arguably the most important factor in film, and therefore one of the most important in our progression. Apart from editing, I think this is a skill I have learnt most about, due to the experimentation between the preliminary task and the final media product. This experimentaion allowed me to learn and expand my knowledge on different shots and angles, that, in turn, helped create our film opening. I also quickly realised that the editing side of media wouldn't necessarily resolve issues made during filming; it would only assist it a little. As a result I knew that for our final film we needed to capture everything to the last detail, even if it required us to film a particular shot multiple times. For example, in our preliminary task when we shot, we didn't take much care in looking back at footage on location and not bothering to re-shoot to get the perfect angle or the right close-up shot. On the other hand, for our final final opening, some of the macro shots we wanted to capture were hard to get right, and so it was only after half a dozen times of shooting and editing them, we got it right. This is another example of how in the time between the preliminary task and the final media product, I have progressed my knowledge of camera shots and angles even further.

LR

Coursework : Construction - Rough cut

Coursework Construction : Explanation of final cut

Within our 2-minute film opening, you can see a person, cutting, sewing, defacing pictures of people and items. Although in the opening 2 minutes you cannot see the person, she is a young teenage girl, around the age of 16 to 20 who has had a rough upbringing. Considering the age of our main character, she goes to sixth form/college who studies fine art, therefore she has unlimited access to art supplies that include needles and heavy objects which could ultimately be used to hurt someone. She has not been included in friendship groups and spends most of her time alone creating artwork that could be seen as creepy and disturbing. Within her school years she has been bullied by other class mates as she is seen to be ‘eerie’, ‘strange’ and ‘unusual’. These class mates have given her grief every day, which has ultimately made the main character aggravated and annoyed, therefore she targets the bullies and plans to eventually kill them. Within the two minute opening you see the main character target these students and plan on how to kill them. The whole of ‘Merz’ is to show the journey that the main character has been on.

Coursework : Changes made to the rough cut

What changes did you make to the rough cut?

After listening to some of the audience feedback on the rough cut, we added extra clips as we did not feel as though the re was not enough clips, This was because the opening did not reach the full duration og 2 minutes. We also played around with th editing as the editing seemed boring and simple, we wanted something a bit different that stood out from the rest of horror and suspense. We also added titles as we did not meet the assessment criteria, it also confuses the audience without titles because they do not know what is happening it is just a mash up of clips that do not make any sense, the titles mae everything easier to understand and reveal the title of the film.

Coursework Planning : Audience feedback on rough cut

Audience feedback on rough cut

Negative feedback;

No credits where included in the rough cut, to improve i would personally add credits explaining the actors and company that is making the film. - Anonymous
I personally think that the rough cut lacked order, therefore the transition between clips was poor. I would improve this to boost your outcome. - Anonymous
Maybe add some fancy editing to make the film opening look more professional. - Anonymous
Add more clips to make the TWO minute film opening because it is currently one minute and thirty three seconds. - Anonymous

We will now act upon this feedback as we see fit.


Positive feedback;

Interesting idea creates tension and wants the watcher to carry on watching. - Anonymous
Music suits the idea and theme of the two minute opening. - Anonymous
Good camera shots and angles makes the opening look more unique and professional. - Anonymous

DG

Coursework Construction : Filming review

Filming Review

FILMING REVIEW

Monday 16th Jan (6:30 - 7:15)

What went well?
We filmed the majority of our shots today, which I think went very well. We used different features on the canon 60D to create a variety of different shots so that our film opening wasn't all the same and the audience didn't get bored whilst watching the opening 2 minutes.

What didn't go so well?
We had a small time constraint, so we didn't get all the shots we wanted but we'll have to re-shoot soon. Also, once we had learnt how to use the manual focus on the new camera we got some ideas for different shots we could have filmed, but didn't quite get to try all of the things we wanted e.g. burning paper, but we can try this when we re-film next week.

Anything that might/ does need to be re-filmed?
We are concerned about the quantity of the shots, and I feel like there may not be enough footage to fill 2 whole minutes. This means we'll have to re-film in the next couple of days/months so we can start editing, which takes much more time.

Did everything run smoothly?
Filming ran very smoothly, probably because we all knew each other ideas and shared any plans we wanted to happen in the team, beforehand, so filming didn't take too much time in the time we had. We filmed for a couple hours straight, and then went over the footage, last minute to see what we could use, re-film, or discard.

Any changes you are making?
We are very happy with how everything is going, and don't have any current plans of changing our direction.

Did you use your storyboards to good effect?
We tried to stick to our storyboards as much as possible, but we had several instances where we wanted to experiment with props or try a new idea, which didnt always work out, but means that we didn't follow our storyboards, necessarily.

Tuesday 24th Jan (5:00-6:00)

After we realised we did not have enough footage to fill 2 whole minutes, we re-filmed some shots, the following week. This filming was quick as we only had 30 seconds to fill, so we finished filming in under an hour. Filming went fairly smoothly, except for a problem for 10 minutes where we had to stop due to a power cut, meaning we couldn't use the lights we wanted. Other than that, there were no ther problems. For any changes we are making, there was a plan in the air that could have gone ahead. The idea was to change direction and add in shots of derelict or abandoned buildings in areas, nearby, to add into the film opening in anticipation of whats to come next in the film. We decided that we wanted our film opening to work how we wanted originally, so we didn't go further with the idea. This time filming, we used the storyboards even less than our first time filming. This is mainly because we had in mind what we wanted to try and film and didn't want to take too long experimenting when we knew what to film.

ML & LR

Coursework Construction : Images whilst filming

Coursework Construction : Shooting Schedule

Coursework planning - Shooting Schedule
Shooting Schedule

Below is a table to show our shooting schedule for our final outcome;

Coursework : Final Planning - Prop list

Since the entirety of our openeonh 2 minutes is based on hands doing thins with art supplies we have a very long prop list

• Scrap book 
• Scalpel 
• 5 images of black and white mans torso each physically manipulated in some way.. 

1. Burnt the image 
2. Stitched into the image 
3. 2 of the same image Collaged together 
4. Wax melted onto image 
5. Mascara smudged on image 

• A book 
• Pen
• Marker
• Crayon
• Printed photos which I took in Norwich St Andrews Asylum 
• Black acrylic paint 
• Paint brush 
• Lined paper
• Drawing 

• Fairy lights 
• Sticky notes 

Coursework planning : Storyboards

Below is our storyboard in preparation for our final film opening. We have included drawings that we think we will be using frequently during the process of filming and shooting for our film. The drawings included within the storyboard may change throughout the process of the filming procedure, however, these are the main elements.

DG

Coursework planning: Final locations

FINAL LOCATION/S

Images of final locations/setting to be used:

Why are they going to be used?

For our opening, we plan to shoot very closely to the character's hands and the object's that she handles. So considering this, it is more practically orientated when thinking about our final location. All we need is to use a desk of a reasonable size, so we could fit all of the props and everything on it, but other that, the location could be anywhere. We have decided that we should film at daisy's house, (one of our group members), as it is simply closer to school. She has That way we can film right after school and everyone can get there fine. We all have appropriate 'arty' props that we can bring along as well. 

How does the setting you are planning on using, help construct a mise-en-scene?

All we need is to use a desk of a reasonable size, so we could fit all of the props on it and it'll be big enough to film everything. We want to film close up and only the hand/s of our character so our mise-en-scene (everything you see on the screen) doesn't have much in it. Ours will mostly be constructed by: the character, lighting, and the props. The locations, therefore needs to encompass these conditions to create the mise-en-scene setting. The setting we plan on using has various lighting options, from the ceiling light and coloured fairy lights, a lamp light or a iphone light. The actor in the film will be daisy and so, beforehand, we plan to paint parts of her hand so that on screen, it looks messy and the audience may guess that the rest of the room is too. This is the same as the props, because they will be strewn across the desk so this can also help add to the mise-en-scene.

LR 

Coursework : Final Planning - final script

Final Script

( camera focuses on paper) 

  (Hands using scalpel) 

 Title 1 : sombre productions 

  (Burnt photo of mans torso) 

(Scratching collage) 

  (Overlay image of hands using pens to cross out words in a book)

(Hands grabbing paper)

(darker collage image) 

  (photo of two people in St. Andrews asylum)

(Wet paint on lined paper)

(photo of mans torso with melted wax)

(Back of actresses head with glasses)

(Macro shot of a page in the book)

Title 2 : A film by..  Lily Ray  Megan Lansdell  Daisy Gilbert  Lily Mitchell

 (Image of person in St. Andrews asylum)

(Turn page with wet paint)

(Focus on paper)

(Scalpel)

(Drawing)

(Mascara smudged on photo of mans torso)

Title 3 : Louise Campling

  (Scalpel on collage)

(Fire burning piece of paper)

(Zoomed in on page of book)

(Fairy lights in collage)

(Image of boy at st Andrews Asylum)

Title 4 : Samuel Hewitson

  (Image of girl and St. Andrews asylum) 

(Writing)

(Painting on lined paper)

(Over lay writing)

(Stitches on image of mans torso)

(Writing with marker)

(Crossing words out in book)

(Collage of images of mans torso)

(Paint finger print)

Title 5 : Thomas Bishop 

  (Zoomed writing)

(Scrunching hands leave page)

(Painting a face on lined paper)

(Tearing up paper)

(Ripping scrapbook page)

Final Title : MERZ

Audience Research Feedback

Planning : Audience Research Video

Audience Research video

what do you expect to see in the opening 2 mins of a film in horror/suspense genre?

Can you think of any specific film openings from this genre you have remember for good or bad reasons?

How much of a storyline do you expect to be given away in a 2 minute film opening?

How many characters and locations do you think is necessary for the opening 2 minutes of a film opening?

In your opinion the best opening two minutes of films are the ones that......?

What do you think of my idea at the moment?

Coursework : Planning - casting

Coursework Planning - Casting

Images of the people you will be auditioning for your character(s)?

For our piece of coursework we won't be using a character as such in the opening scenes, we won't have the faces of our character featuring, we will only have our characters hands in our opening. This is because our idea is to use the hands of the character in a way that it is capturing what they are doing, pulling apart pictures, cutting things, painting etc. So for this we had a look at peoples hands to see who would fit our character best.

Who are they?

The person that we will be using for this will most likely be from our group as it is easier than finding someone to use purely for that, also it makes everyone in the group feel a lot more comfortable and easier to ask them to perform certain actions as we know them. However we could alternatively use a parent of one of ours where we are filming as this would also be easier.

Why do you believe they would be good for the role?

Any one in the group would be suitable for this role, as it doesn't require any dramatic performance, but instead just being willing to use their hands. They don't need to perform any facial expressions or anything of a dramatic nature, therefore it means that they don't really need any experience of too be particularly good at acting for this.

Why have you given the role(s) to this/these people?

It will be given to someone in our group or a parent of a group member as it is most convenient for the process of filming, it is a simple role and doesn't require any great deal of acting and therefore it is the most logical thing to use one of ourselves for the role.

LR

Coursework Planning 2 : Characters and casting

FINAL CHARCTER PROFILE: 

Gender - Female

Age - Between 15 to 20 years old.

History - Bullied and abused as a child, mostly because she was interested in things that the other children weren't. Moreover, she was abused by her parents, and in turn had the most effect on her and her personality.

Profession - An artist. My group and I chose an art student for the profession of our character as it draws them away from any social environment. Nowadays, it can be construed that artists are expressive, creatively unusual, and wayward (traits that are perfect for our character).

Likes - Considering our character is an artist we thought she should like being in her workshop/studio making art, and also have the idea that that's the only thing she likes doing. Our character, also, likes to be alone and away from the society. This is due to the fact she has no social skills as she was bullied when a child.

Dislikes - A dislike of our main character is people, considering our characters upbringing, we thought it would be fitting if she liked being alone because doesn't like people. Another dislike of our character would be seeing happy families.

Personality Traits - The personality traits for our character are: strange, quiet, wayward and creepy.

CAST:

Name : Daisy Gilbert

Age : 16

Why did we cast this actor?
We cast Daisy because she is the perfect age for our character. She is an art student so she has arty hands, covered in paint and knows what she is doing, we also chose her out of convenience as she lives local and is easy to get to, since she is in our group she knows exactly what we are looking for from our actors.

COSTUMES:

I think this tells us the age of the character as it is what a typical teenager would wear, it also tells us perhaps she is not very comfortable in her body if she is wearing baggy clothes.

Finding a costume:
We will find our clothes either from what Daisy already owns or shop in popular fashion shops such as H&M or Zara. Since our character only has her hands showing we decided that the costume she will wear will have long sleeves so we have some sort of idea of what she is wearing. We decided that art students often don't dress very smartly because it is very expensive to replace clothing if you continuously ruin your clothes with paint and other art supplies. We will dress our actress based on what students wear at our school, we chose black trousers, a white blouse and a green flowy jumper.

Posted 20 hours ago by Lily Ray