Evaluation Question 7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Preliminary Brief:  Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.

Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)

Pre-Production:

In our prelim task we didn't create our own storyline as we did in the main task. We were given the storyline by our teacher, which was someone coming into a room, sitting down, and inviting someone to their birthday party. Which is very simple and some would say dull. This would make our storyboard we created very simple as we were set with a structured storyline and couldn't put our own input on it as we had to create the story we were given. Although it was simple we decided to add a few complex shots so it would appear as interesting as the simple story line could be from this we learnt that in our main task we needed to come up with more ideas for our storyline to make the storyboard successful and thus making the video more interesting for people to watch. In our main task we came up with a more complex storyline compared to the prelim. However, the storyline was one that we all had ideas for, so we all created storyboards for our ideas of the storyline and as a group we combined all of our ideas together on one storyboard for our final idea. From this we learnt how to work well together by considering each other’s ideas rather than sticking with our own so we learned that all our heads together made us have a much better storyline

Also in our prelim task our location just like our story line was also given to us. This means we were limited in how we could use the space and areas in the room as we were just given it rather than finding our own location where we could set the scene more ourselves. This made us realise that in our main task we needed to really focus on our location. We did a lot of research into our location, and we had 3 different locations that we could chose from compared to the one we were just given in the prelim. The research into our location enabled to us to work hard on everything we could put in the location in order to make our film look as professional as we possibly could.

In our prelim task we were only given 2 hours after school one day to film our shots. This was a problem for us because as a group we kept striving our shots to be as best as they can be so our shots took ages to get the best one, and we had to rush our final shots in order to finish our filming in the time slot so our shots wasn't the best they could be. Whereas in our main task we were given the day off time table to complete our filming which was about 10 hours as we went in school later and finished a couple hours later, and due to this we could strive to get the best shots we can as we had a lot of time to do our shots as much as possible so they were as good as they could possibly be.

 

Production:

 

In our prelim task we had a camera, tripod and story board. This was all new to us during the prelim task. We spent a lot of the time working out the buttons on the camera and making a lot of mistakes such as pressing the record button when saying action meaning that it stopped recording which may sound a little silly but when you are brand new to it, it was very difficult for us and we took a while to work everything out but we did in the end.

 

The location we used in our prelim task was a small classroom. This was quite problematic for us as there was so many tables we had to move and find the right camera position so we didn't get the other tables in the shot. So it was difficult to get the most professional looking shots. Whereas in the main task we used a children's room in an house, this was better for us as we could set the room up how we pleased and then shoot our shots how we want without worrying about our restrictions thus resulting in more professional shots than in the prelim.

 

As said before, we only were given 2 hours for our prelim task which we struggled to complete our filming in the time allocated to us, whereas we were given a whole day off time table to film for our main task so we were able to get the best shots possible and take as many takes as we had too thus resulting in the best possible shots for our main task.

 

Post Production:

 

We used the Adobe Premiere software to edit for both our prelim task and main task. When using it on the prelim task, we were brand new to the software, so we were confused a lot and often had to ask for help on how to do certain things, and it took us a very long time to edit the short clip because we were so confused on how to work certain things on the software. Whereas when we used it on the main task, we had more experience on using the software so we could do things a lot quicker and use more complex editing techniques and get the best possible editing done on our main task.

 

Once finished the prelim task we got audience feedback, with the prelim task we were given more negative feedback then positive feedback. In this we took the criticisms and then used them to make our main task better, in which we succeeded as when we did our audience feedback for the main task then the audience feedback was more positive than negative showing a huge improvement in from the prelim task to the main task.

 

To conclude I feel we had a huge improvement from our prelim task to our main task, resulting in much more successful final products.

 

Evaluation Question 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

The camera used was a Canon XHAI which had to be put on a tripod to stop the camera from being dropped, broken and also to get a still shot with no movement. Inside the camera was a charged battery to allow the camera to work, which we had two of as one ran out during the day.  To record the shots a tape was put in the side of the camera. When recording shots you have to press the record button and  wait for the lens to focus. We then hold up the board with the shots and takes numbers, read it out, after it is moved away and the camera is back in focus, you can then say action and roll the shot. This has to be done in every shot so you don’t have to go through each shot whilst editing and you know exactly which shot is which, which saves you bundles of time. Shots are taken from different angles so when the filming is over you have a variety of shots to play around with, such as long shots, close ups, mid shots,  but also a shot  should be filmed of the entire area too just in case the angles filmed are not good enough, this is known as a safety shot. A continuity sheet was used after each shot so in each take we knew what specifically was needed to create the shot looking right for example in each take using the same hand to open the door, as we did in ours.

The editing software that we used was Adobe Premiere. This is where we put our film together by using the tools to cut the clips to the right length, add sound and titles. When using the editing software at first it was really complicated as there were loads of different tools to click on, which we didn't know were and therefore we needed a tutorial so we could use the tools correctly and get the best possible outcome of our editing as we could use the more complex tools. The recording was uploaded to the software and we had to cut the different shots, keep the ones we liked and then place them in the order that we wanted. I have learned that the editing process is a very long process in which you have to be very patient and hard working to get the best result you possibly can.

Evaluation Question 1: How Does Your Film Use, Develop And Challenge The Codes And Conventions Of Similar Media Products?

Our film is a psychological thriller genre and it crime. involves a slight bit of crime. This is because the main character in our film (the mother) has become obsessed due to the loss of her child to cot death, leading her to kidnap a child where the crime genre comes into the film as she is arrested by the police officer in the end. The main themes we have used in our film are death and a storyline that makes the audience really think. In our opening sequence we developed and challenged the codes and conventions of other thrillers, as well as using them. This is because certain scenes such as the threading the needle, walking to the house and feeding the baby are normal things but the way we did it made it seem like it is something out of the norm.

We challenged the codes and conventions of a thriller in the first shot as it is just of a regular house you see in the street, which makes it seem like it is a normal movie as it is just a regular house, so it seems like a normal thing, this is similar to the opening of American Psycho as in the opening of that movie he is carrying out a day to day routine where he wakes up, so it seems normal, just like the first shot does in our opening sequence.

Our second shot however, follows the codes and conventions, as it is the mother rocking, which shows us that she is crazy and in psychological thrillers, there are a lot of crazy people, this is similar to a lot of thrillers as they often have the use of a rocking chair, for example in the Conjuring, but we just had our actress rocking on the floor, showing how unstable she is.

The third and fourth shot were decided by our audience as our most creepy shots, which as a group we developed the codes and conventions of a psychological thriller as dummy's and children's toys are for use of children but we had an adult doing these childish things which creeped out our audience, thus developing the codes and conventions.

The fifth shot of feeding the "baby" is challenging the codes and conventions as a mother feeding a baby is normal, but however a mother feeding a teddy bear is not. So the use of the teddy bear makes it appear completely out the norm. This is a little shocking to the audience as it is not something they would expect to see.

In our sixth shot we were following the codes and conventions is where the first piece of dialogue is used saying "Goochy Goochy Goo" which is really creepy and our audience said was very creepy as she is looking in a mirror saying it to herself, which is a phrase you would say to a baby, making her seem really weird and disturbed which is following the codes and conventions.

In the seventh shot of the mother threading the needle, which makes the audience question what the motives of the mothers are, what she is out to do using that sharp object, though threading a needle is a normal harmless thing, due to the way our actress is doing it by staring deep into the needle it makes it seem like its possibly an evil thing and makes you wonder what she is going to do with a sharp object which is developing the codes and conventions.

In the last two shots, eight and nine, the mother’s strange behaviour reaches its climax with the mother screaming down the camera. The happy jumping on the sofa and skipping contrasts with the angry scream at the end, shocking the audience. This follows the codes and conventions as the tension builds up.

Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Opening Sequence Represent Particular Social Groups?

 

The key characters in our film are the Mother who is the main character, the mothers baby who passed away "Abigail" and the police officer known as "Mark Davis".

 

 The Mother - Will be a female actress. Her role in the film is the mother who has lost her child Abigail. The loss of her child causes the mother to becoming psychotic and having an obsession with everything to do with children. Which leads her to kidnap another child and eventually gets her in trouble at the end and arrested by the police officer "Mark Davis".  The mother looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 Abigail - Abigail will be a female child actress around 9 months old. Her role in the movie is simply to be in a cot, cry and be babied by the mother and made a huge fuss of to show us how much that the baby meant to her and so you can feel the mother daughter connection. Abigail looked like this:

 

 

 

 

 Mark Davis (Police Officer) - A 32 year old male actor who's main role in the movie is the detective on the case on catching the mother who has kidnapped someone's baby. He eventually catches the mother and arrests her and gives the baby back to the original parents. We feel the police officer will look like this : 

 

 Analysis of Each Character and Technical Aspects

 

 The Mother - Appearance : The picture above is how our character looks with hay like hair sticking out everywhere to show the audience that she doesn't look after herself and also it symbolises craziness. So the simple aspect of hair can give off a lot of ideas about the mother as soon as you see her. She also appears pale as the pale skin would show that she doesn't wear make-up so she doesn't take pride in her appearance, also the combination of pale skin and hay like hair gives off a very uneasy feeling about the character as both together symbolise craziness and also gives us off the feeling that she doesn't look after herself which gives the audience an unsettling feeling about the mother. She also wore dark clothing to give off an idea that she is miserable and sad as well as the dark colours symbolise sadness. It would also be typical clothing that most people wear.

 Behaviour : Her behaviour was psychotic, almost like one with schizophrenia as she acts like everyone is against her and that she is a social outcast. As a person on her own, her house is covered in babies objects, which shows her obsession with children and also gives off a creepy feeling to the audience as she is surrounded by stuff you would only expect a little child to have. She also doesn't look after herself or wash and clean which is represented in her house as it is all messy which also represents her personality as she doesn't care about anything but the child which leads to a expressionless uncaring personality.

Camera : Whilst the mother is on camera the style will drastically change, there will be a lot of close ups to make the audience feel uneasy as it feels like you are getting to know her straight away without any introduction.

 Sound : In some scenes the mother will be put on screen with the sound of screams and baby laughter but her main tune was an eerie version of ‘Humpty Dumpty’ the nursery rhyme. We chose this soundtrack in particular is because the breaking of the egg in the song represents the breaking of the mothers heart; and how it cannot ever be put back together again. Also the nursery rhyme tune makes gives off a creepy feeling as music boxes are common things to use in thrillers as they give off creepy feelings so the use of the humpty dumpty tune will really give off a creepy feel.

 Editing and Mise En Scene : We kept the editing with a mother fairly slow to keep the eeriness and strangeness of the mother prolonging so the audience will have that creepy feeling for a longer amount of time and is likely to keep inside the audience's head. The setting was predominately in a children’s room but also on the outside world to show the other families and the housing from the outside but most was set in the child’s room to show the creepiness of the mother. We also had her in very dark dull clothing to show that she is sad and miserable.

 Abigail : Appearance : The appearance of the baby will be very simple, it was a 9 month year old baby girl with blue eyes, behaving as normal babies do so.

 Behaviour : The babies behaviour will be simple to a baby, it will giggle, will cry and play around just like an everyday normal baby girl.

 Camera : The camera on the baby will be very natural with the shots being straight and having long shots of the baby so you can see everything of the baby.

 Sound : We will have the baby giggling and laughing but we will also have the humpty dumpty tune which represents her as a baby as it is a typical nursery rhyme sung to children.

Editing and Mise En Scene : All should appear natural and normal like it’s a normal life of a baby so it shows the baby thinking that everything is normal and everything with the baby happening is normal.

 

 

Mark Davis (Police Man) : Appearance : The policeman will appear in uniform like a normal uniform and have a very serious expression face which represents his personality as he will be very serious. He will be of white British ethnicity and short army like hair style to show leadership and strength.

 

 

 Behaviour : The behaviour of the policeman will be always serious and will always be on the case and on the job without any break of character on his job, you will never see anything but the policeman being serious on the job.

 

Camera : There will be a lot of older the shoulder shots due to police interviewing, but there will also be a lot of pan shots whilst the policeman will be on the run trying to find the mother.

 

Sounds : There will be a lot of dramatic tension building music in the scenes where he is on the run looking for the mother to build up the tension before he gets her.

 

Editing and Mise En Scene : The editing will be slow motion during a chase when he is close to catching her to make it a lot more dramatic and the costume will follow a simple police uniform.

 

 

 

Comparisons Of Characters From Our Film To Other Films

 

The mother is similar to May from the movie May as she has just lost it and is a complete psychopath as you can see from this video clip

 

 



The baby Abigail is similar to a lot of movie babies as they just lay there cry and laugh but don't have much major input in terms of dialogue or behaviour. One it is like is hunter in paranormal activity as he is seen as innocent as Abigail is.

 

 

 

The Policeman Mark Davis is similar to the inspector in inspector calls as he is very serious and on the job to find out what is happening and how to sort it out. As you can see in this video from 8:27 onwards

 

 

 

 We chose our cast by selecting someone we felt looked like she would suit the role as our actress did. We first asked her if she would be willing to act for us and after she said yes we went through her lines with her and made sure she would be 100% committed to the cause so our product could be as good as it possibly could be.

We directed our actress to just really go for it and don't hold back in any of the acting so it could have the best end product, in which we think she did as we think our actress performed very well. We made her do a lot of the shots many times and made sure they were the best they could be.