The Exchange - Final Film Opening

This is our film opening edited fully, taking into account feedback from others therefore, our film will look and sound better than it originally did. The only issue we can't improve on in the opening is where you can see the reflection at around 0:42. However, this issue we can not resolve as it will create more issues with the continuity of the opening and the audience will struggle to understand the narrative. Therefore, I don't think this is a big issue and we are happy with the film opening that we have created. 

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

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

I have learnt about many different technologies since the start of making and planning my product. This use of different technology meant that our film could be the best standard possible (film industry standard). 

One of the technologies we used was Adobe Premiere Pro 2015/17. We used this to edit our film opening and add music, titles and other effects such as changing the colour. The technology gave us a wide variety of options to use, therefore we could get the film to look as good as possible and customise it to our preferences. 

           The software was easy to upload and save our files and was fairly easy to use once we got to grips with it, as before this product neither of us had used Premiere Pro, only iMovie which is however, very similar but more basic. A problem that we did encounter with the program was that it was hard to link the footage from Premiere Pro to Adobe After Effects and it took some time to overcome this issue. 

          Overall, this program helped us to develop a skill of editing a film opening. It was effective to use and made our film opening look professional. I would use this piece of software again if we were to create another production in the future as it's the most useful and the best available. 

Another piece of technology we used was blogger, this helped us to keep track of our work and what we were doing within the production chronologically. We used it to plan our production, what we were doing during our production as well as what we were doing when editing our film. We would also post any changes we had made to our product. I had never used blogger before therefore, it was tough to get used to tracking my work in this way however, I got used to it after the first few posts were made. 

         This program helped us to develop our writing skills and refer back to what we had previously planned/wrote fairly easily. Our group could also gain information off blogger through getting work all members had worked on off another members blog instead of it being sent over, this was a more quick and efficient way of communicating. As a group we could also keep adding and creating new ideas easily and develop those ideas throughout. 

         Blogger allowed us to link to other media such as YouTube videos, pictures and Power Points for example therefore, if we were to create another product of a similar type I would use Blogger again as it was efficient to keep track of what we were doing in the three sub sections of our product which were planning (pre-production), production and post production, as well as remain organised.

Moreover, another media product we used was a website called YouTube. We used this to upload and therefore present our productions and show our production progress throughout, as well as audience testing to our target audience. The website is very easy to use and has many tools available to improve our productions such as cutting the length etc. Furthermore we had used the website before as it is popular globally therefore, knew it was good and would be suitable for us to use. Furthermore, the site gave us many options as to the privacy of the videos we uploaded however, we left all videos on public which meant we could embed the videos into our blog posts.
          YouTube helped to limit the time we spent on our production as it was quick and easy to use and upload. For these reasons I would use YouTube again if i was to repeat the project. Another positive of the site is that we are able to order our videos in a playlist which meant we could also keep as organised as possible especially when it was essential in mid production.

A further piece of technology we used was the Apple Mac desktop computer as it gave us all the tools and things needed to create the best film as higher quality as possible. This technology was useful as we gained access to other technologies such as Premiere Pro, blogger and YouTube through the Mac. These computers are almost the best possible as they offer good quality and therefore meant we could gain accurate editing from it too. Therefore, we would use these computers again in the future use as we have also used them in previous projects and they have been very reliable.

The final two pieces of technology we used for our film production was two cameras as well as two tripods. The two cameras we used were a panasonic HDC-SD700 as well as my personal Nikon D3300 DSLR. Both cameras were fairly easy to use as I had basic knowledge of how to work them before the production. Therefore, we would use both cameras again if we were to re-do or do another production in the future especially as they were of high quality too. Also we used two different types of tripod which were helpful in allowing us to get the shots we wanted as well as the camera movement which would make our production better than it would be without tripods as this way we also had a steady shot all the time. Therefore, we would also use these again as they were very effective and important for us. 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our film opening research began off our general knowledge of what we knew to be successful in action-thriller films and the storyline of them, this made sure that our opening fitted in to the genre we wanted and therefore, would attract the right audiences for our film.

However, once we had our initial idea we made slight adjustments and changes based on other peoples suggestions and what they'd like to see in the opening or what they think would work better. Therefore, with this information I understood that I needed to make the narrative more clear and so it was easier to understand however, still needed to get the right balance between creating tension and suspense as well as the audience knowing the basic narrative.

Furthermore, it's proven that the audience will relate to the film / media more if the characters are of similar age. Therefore, there is two characters in our film similar to the age of the target audience meaning that they are more likely to be able to see themselves in this situation or imagine this happening to them and thinking what they would do in that scenario.

Another way in which we could tell if our film opening was successful or not was if it appealed to us making it, as the target audience was of our age it would especially have to attract us before anyone else and from this we would be able to make any changes necessary because we were able to relate to it better than if we made a film out of our age range. Moreover, the thriller genre of our film means that there is tension in the opening and we felt that tension would attract both genders and this proved successful as when receiving audience feedback we gathered 1 male and 3 females as we knew it would be harder to attract the female gender than male therefore, their view was important to us and the feedback was positive.

The location of our film opening also meant that the audience were addressed as we felt the location was conventional for a thriller genre and with it being filmed at night it added to the tension. Also the location would be familiar for the audience and therefore, the would be able to relate to the location of a car park which appeared to be isolated with no one else around. This location may also be a common place for the target audience meaning that they can relate to the film better. 

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Our film would most likely be distributed by a company such as Warner Bros instead of being distributed and shared as an independent film as we feel this will be less successful than having the backing of a successful company which will gain a wider interest in our film. We would do this as our film follows many similar narratives and storylines to films that Warner Bros already distribute. Also by being distributed by a big company they would be able to give us the funds to make a very successful film as well as a huge part of our target audience will watch films especially made by these companies and of these genres.

However, by wanting a big company to fund and back our film it would be very hard to gain the support however, if possible would be worth it because the film would get in more cinemas and therefore, much more revenue would be generated from this although the film still would've cost more to make. On the other hand, if we were to run our film independently the film would be much more low budget and more locally broadcast than on a national level and appear in much less cinemas due to having to fund our own project through a campaign such as kickstarter which, if successful, will give us enough funds to make a very successful independently made film.

A film company will potentially distribute our film due to it being unique, or they may have not had a film of that genre and our specific representation of class and gender in a while and think it will be distributed successfully and bring a good amount of audiences to cinemas and generate as much revenue and profit from the film as possible.

Furthermore, to try and distribute our film even further we would advertise and promote our film through social media as this is where the majority of our target audience will see advertisements and things such as film trailers, because of the very popular use of it by teenagers, in which they could be interested in seeing the film, Web sites such as Netflix, Youtube and Facebook could help a lot in broadcasting our film and things about our film and therefore, gaining more profit and making the film more successful due to popular and successful websites broadcasting it for us. Although it may not be free to advertise and broadcast in all cases on social media, we feel it would be worth it.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Post Production - Class Feedback

Post Production - Audience Feedback

After finishing our editing on our main film opening, we asked four peers to watch and review it. This meant we knew what we could improve on and what we did well. Therefore, we will be able to make any adjustments to the film to make it as good as possible before the production is completed. 

Post Production Editing - Effects

We didn't add many effects to our opening as we thought it would take away from the atmosphere and feeling that the clips originally gave. In post-production we realised as a group that the colour of the footage was very vibrant and therefore, wouldn't have suited the genre conventions very well. As a result of this we changed the saturation of our clips from 100 to around 70 to make the clips darker and match up together well to suit the mood.

Also at the end of the film opening we fade the shot out, this makes it slower and more effective instead of a sudden cut which we feel would kill the atmosphere we have created. However, we feel that having no transitions in between the clips would be most affective because it will help the clips flow together well and not take away from the atmosphere of the film opening.

Post Production Editing - Sound

For our film opening there is no dialogue used as we felt this had the best effect for building up tension, which is especially effective during the opening. Throughout the duration of our film we used tense non-diegetic music which climaxes towards the end when most of the important and the biggest build up of action occurs.

We searched for non-copyright royalty free music to use within the opening to make it as professional as possible and work with the narrative of the opening well. Many tracks suited the genre and built up tension well but only a few we found suited not only this but the speed of the narrative as well. We wanted a piece that gradually picked up speed and started slowly, gaining tension at the same speed as the narrative of the opening and chose the track 'Electro Zombies'. Also, we chose another piece of music to end the tension and fade out towards the end of our opening as we feel this suited the ending better than the original piece did, making the audience wonder what is going to happen next, this track is called 'Lusus Naturae'. The two pieces of music were merged through a gradual fade therefore, causing no sudden change or anomaly in the opening to occur.

Post Production Editing - Titles

For the titles of our film opening we have considered font type and size to try and best suit the genre of our opening. Many of our titles have been done through the use of the '3D Camera Tracker' when panning shots are used. This is completed in adobe after effects and then converted to our premiere pro project for use in our film. This is an example of our titles with the use of 3D camera tracker:

We considered many title options for our film, experimenting with different fonts before deciding on one to best suit our film opening. Our main film title sharply cuts in at the climax of the music an towards the end of the opening to end the tension that was created and then the title fades out during the next scene for effect. 

We decided on a basic font because we felt this represented the genre and tension in the film opening well. Therefore, with it being sharp text it represents how the tension has a sharp climax. Also as the text is very plain it correlates with the mood of the film, being very dark and not very vibrant. As shown here, the title is slanted to represent how he is walking along the path and the mood that is created as he walks over the symbol on the floor for effect. 

The titles/credits in our opening appear alongside the footage and in white text as this way they stand out, however, the final title (as shown above) is shown on its own, as this is the most important of them all and will have the biggest effect to create the tension of this thriller opening as it appears as the music climax's. 

Post Production Editing - Ident

For our ident we made a custom one through the use of photoshop. We felt this was a simple and basic design however, was still very effective. Furthermore, this represents us as a group as it's the beginning of each of our names which symbolises are film. The ident is introduced at the start of the film through a transition, coming from the back to the front of the screen as well as small to its proper size. 

The Exchange - Rough Cut Edit

This is a rough cut of our film opening, without any music, tight cuts, colour change or any additional effects. However, showing the shots we are using in our opening, the shots we gathered and the sequence of shots. 

Shooting Review

We completed filming in around 2 1/2 hours including set up time as well as meeting the people in charge at the location. We gained about 45 minutes worth of footage over 76 different shots using two different cameras. During shooting we sometimes had to shoot the same shot multiple times to get it exactly how we wanted as the actions performed weren't quite matching Tom and I's expectations.

We arrived at our location at around 19:30, a bit earlier than arranged to not keep the location owners waiting and then we departed our location at around 22:00. Overall, Tom and I were pleased with the shots we gathered, sticking to our shooting schedule for most shots throughout however, adding in extra shots and changing a few as we thought it would be a better shot.

Our script worked well, giving the actors a basic insight into the type of shots we wanted and the actions they were going to have to perform. Also, the actors had more information through the use of our storyboard, this helped them see the layout of the shots and in what order they were being done. The casting sheet for our film opening worked well, this is because the actors were much more organised and knew what time to arrive on set and who was in charge of what aspect of the film.

Filming Shots & Stills

During our film recording we gathered some still shots to show the set up of the camera as well as who was working on it. We gained less shots when the setting moved onto the roof as we had limited time, as well as the freezing temperatures we were trying to deal with.

This shows the set up of the camera for the over the shoulder shot when Dan steps out of the car, preparing to meet the other character that is waiting for him. 

This shows the camera set up and setting for a midshot as the character will walk past with the briefcase to the right hand side of the camera, coming into focus as he walks towards the camera.

This shows a side shot of the two cars facing off against each other preparing to meet, just before the dealer steps out of the car and we move to a over the shoulder shot. 

This shows the background to our setting and a front view of the camera, showing how we were shooting and what location space we made available. 

This shows Tom working on the midshot as the car pulls into the car park, trying to make it as good as possible and get the exact shot we were wanting. 

This shows me and Tom working on an over the shoulder shot of Dan as he gets out of the car, making sure we get everything in shot how we'd like. 

This shows Will just before the recording started, getting into character and ensuring that no mistakes were made. 

This shows the set up of our scene as well as the lighting we used (available lighting)  because we thought this was most effective. 

This shows the multiple angles of shots we were getting at the same time. This gave us more to work with when it came to editing and picking the shots that we thought were most effective. 

This shows Will's character, costume and the main prop we used for our film opening, which was the focus of the opening.  

This shows the crew (Tom & I) briefing the actors of what we want in the next shot and how we're going to record it. 

Media Consent - Actors

  These forms were given to the actors in our film before filming, to ensure we had proof that they were ok for them to be filmed and use their image in our film opening. 

 

Planning - Call Sheet

This is the sheet that will be given to the actors and all crew, preparing them for what they need to do and the timings of when things are happening. This will enhance their performance as well as ensure they are fully prepared for the acting and give themselves enough time.

 

Planning - Shooting Schedule

Below is a plan/schedule of the shots that we will be aiming to shoot when on set and recording our film, this will enable us to increase efficiency when shooting and save us time to let us get the best shots possible.  

Film Setting Contact & Consent

For the filming of our film opening we needed to gather permission from the owners of a local car park, which would enable us to film. Below is a series of emails sent both to and received from Castle Quay, showing the process we had to go through to gain access to this film setting and venue. Also below is the completed form, showing granted permission into the car park:

Emails sent to Castle Quay: 

Emails Received from Castle Quay: 

Planning - Risk Assessment

During our film recording there is multiple risks in which the setting especially poses. These risks are shown below and things to reduce them being as much of a hazard as possible will be done on the day. 

The risks when in the car and in the canal setting are:

The risks when on set and filming in the car park setting are: