Media 28/04/10

Project Evaluation

How do your productions use standard media codes and conventions?

The standard codes and conventions that my production used was the strong narrative of the trailer. It gave the film some tense moments based around the central character, and also the sense of being watched and threatened mentally. I tried using very short clips in parts of the trailer with the added effect of static sound. This was my way of keeping the viewer watching but not totally making them jump, just enough to make them watch to see what happens next. The use of longer clips also worked to giving the film some suspense, for example the lift scene; where the camera is looking up at the character for a long period of time while the music builds up.

I had the advantage of using the old historic building of the college, of which was a great setting for a horror genre film. My trailer was filmed entirely at night, to give the sense of spookiness within the ground. I had the very lucky chance of rain, which was very convenient seeing as most horrors include rain. The car-park scene was one of my favourites, as it had the advantage of the rain and also the towering trees in which the car-park is located. The corridors within the building helped give the sense of being watched and getting lost, as there of a lot of corridors which I used in the film. Low light was a good but natural effect which was used in my film, it was dark anyway but I wanted to go one step further and give the college a dark side, which relates back to the plot of being a perfectly normal college in the day and horrific at night where people go missing.

How well do the main production and the supporting pieces work together?

The main production and the supporting pieces I think work very well together. I have a film trailer, and I also have what would be a website to advertise that if it was real, but in this case I only produced a web page to actually advertise it. These two pieces are also accompanied by a poster which also advertises the film and the release date. One thing which they all have is some sort of dark dull designs; this was done deliberately to keep the horror theme going throughout the whole project. I also try and keep to the same text is I feel this is just as good as anything else, it just adds to the feel of the genre.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As far as audience feedback goes I have had lots of positive outcomes from in and around college. I posted my video on YouTube hoping to get feedback off of people around the world, but have so far only had one comment, which is good. I was also hoping for some criticism on what I did well and what I could’ve done better. However, I have had a lot of views on YouTube; I currently have 144 views which suggest people have been watching it.


How have you used new media technologies in research, planning and production?

For my research, I began to watch various trailers of different genres initially to find out which genre would be best for my film. I originally wanted to choose action as my genre but I couldn’t find any ways round of creating a trailer that was exciting enough to be an action trailer. For example: I couldn’t have rocket launchers blowing up helicopters or wild police chases down the M5, not that I would anyway but I’m just looking at it realistically and looking at how I can use local resources. Then horror came into mind, so I watched horror trailers and realised that some horror films were based around old buildings and being chased around various corridors depending on the film. ‘Rose Red’ is a good example of a horror film; it’s based in a big old creaky house where university students go on a weekend trip to do a paranormal investigation inside one of the students disused home which was called ‘Rose Red’. It was at this point I realised I could do a trailer using what I have around me, such is the college, which is huge and old, the various corridors and the grounds that lay around it; and so this was when the idea of ‘College Road’ came along.

For the planning stages I went around the college campus to see which locations I could use, which perhaps looked old and maybe even derelict. This was done for a week. I then started seeing who I could use as actors, who turned out to be Paul Green, David Knowles and Jack Blackmore. I had originally started writing a script for the main actor to follow (Dave Knowles) but I scrapped this and relied more on backing tracks and the real sounds that came from certain areas around the college, taking for instance the lift that creaks allot, plus Dave is investigating by himself so it wouldn’t look right if he was talking to himself.

The production of the film was simple. All it required was a camera, tripod, actors and imovie. My first scene required a car driven by Dave into a car-park. However, due to us students being in a blind college this weren’t possible, so I went about trying to make it look like Dave was driving where in actual fact Paul was driving. This was done by using clips which didn’t have Pauls face in it, and then filming Dave in the driving seat once the car was stationary. I thought this was a good way of applying special effects without using any specialist editing software. I also took a great oppinunity to film this in the rain. While the soggy ground and rain drops were real, I added an audio file which played heavy rain, as the real rain wasn’t quite loud enough. I then filmed the moon which is the clip you see on my trailer, it is a real moon and I was also lucky to get that as well. I filmed Dave around various parts of the college, running, walking and creeping around. Climbing up and down stairs and riding old creaky lifts. I filmed these in no particular order as I could put them in order in imovie. I filmed Paul and jack who are the living dead, who eventually find Dave. I used masks for both of them to make them look scarier for the film. I left the film on a cliff-hanger with Dave running down the corridor, which then cuts out. You don’t know if he then makes it out alive of the maze of corridors, or if he ended up like the rest of them.

I uploaded the videos I had taken onto imovie, which is basic video editing software for Apple computers, where you can add sound tracks and rearrange and add films with limited special effects. I began by rearranging all the videos into the order that I wanted them to play in. I then started looking into adding audio files like rumbles of thunder and the actual backing track, whilst also removing audio from certain clips which were no use. Like me filming the moon whilst I was talking, I was able to extract the audio and get rid of it. Once I had the basic outline for my trailer I had began looking into applying text and special effects. These were good for clips which were possibly less interesting than the others, like a clip of Dave in the lift. I added heart beat sounds and placed the backing track so that it was getting tenser while Dave was in the lift. I also put in a faded red circle around Dave, which to me suggests that there is danger around the corner. I added a shaky camera movement right on the last clip of the trailer, which is supposed to resemble what the character is feeling when it’s a matter of life and death.

Media 30/03/2010

My trailer is now finished, it is currently on DVD and also on the video sharing website YOUTUBE. I have currently had 112 views and one comment, which had a positive outcome. I am hoping to get more comments but most importantly alot more critisism. This will allow me to see what was good and what needed to be worked on more.

Reflecting back on the video and watching it from time to time i think over all it went very well. However, i think that i could of spent more time working on a more dramatic cliffhanger.

I have already built a webpage to advertise the trailer using apples website building application IWEB. This allows you to easily build a ssimple website to go online, however mine is for project purposes and won't be going online.

I am currently making a poster using Corel Paintshop Pro by using screenshots from the trailer its self and merging it with one big background image of the college which will be in black and white.

Media 22/02/10

I am now currently in the editing process of my film trailer project, which is going smoothly. I have all required video filmed and loaded onto the computer.

My Trailer is based on a horror film called 'College Road'.

Casts

David Knowles : Investigator
Paul Green : Enemy
Jack Blackmore : Enemy

Plot

David Knowles, the lead story investigator for the Hereford Chronicle is convinced that strange things are happening to members of staff at the local blind college in Hereford, UK. His attempts at interviewing the principle about this had failed, and the outcome was that the members of staff concerned had either left or are on leave. However, David is convinced they have been murdered by pultagists and heads off to the college at night to investigate. Armed with only his torch and a voice recorder, David will need more than that to get out of the college alive.

More Information

I started out by choosing a genre, action being my initial choice but decided horror was better suited as doing an action trailer was very limited in terms of props. I watched a few horror trailers on the video sharing site You Tube which gave me some ideas on what to base my trailer on. It was then i started looking around the college for suited locations around the college campus in which to video each clip. After deciding on locations it was then a matter of choosing some actors, Being David Knowles, Jack Blackmore and Paul Green. Dave playing the part of the investigator while Paul and Jack play the role of ghostly dead things that roam around the campus at night. I shot different clips of Dave roaming around the college which will be put in nearer the begining of the trailer. As the trailer comes closer to the end, it builds up more of a climax to Dave being chased and being left on a cliff hanger.

Each clip that has been filmed has been cut to a matter of seconds, half a minute maximum. This is so that the trailer shows only the gripping and important parts of the film.

My next step is to finish off editing of the film and hopefully find a suitable backing track for the trailer. I hope to have all this done by the end of the last media session this week.

Media 04/11/09

Media Text Assignment

For this assignment I will be analysing a movie called ‘The Transporter 3’.
Firstly, the genre of the film is action/thriller as 70% - 80% of the film is fast moving.
The film uses a lot of camera angles that interpret the person or vehicle that is being filmed. For example, the camera may be placed at a close angle to make a person or vehicle look bigger because they are the main part of that particular scene, where as if a group of people, or more than one vehicle are filmed then the camera will be placed further away but may also be put close up for particular fight or chase scenes that will interest the viewer.

The music within the film is varied, if a scene is fast, such as the car chase, then club music will be played in the background. If a fight scene is taking place, then the music will be slow but very beaty.

The Colour of the film looks like its really high quality, I think they may have tweaked the contrast slightly and so there for, gives off a good effect. The film is good to view when there is this much colour in it.

Editing on the other hand is important, if your doing a fast paced film then in my opinion its important to get the editing perfect. I think they’ve pulled it off as the editing is really good, I like the way it flashes from one side of a room, to the other, keeping all voice and music sounds intact.

Computer graphics isn’t something that is used a lot in this film, its all mainly stunt work, but when graphics are used they are really realistic. For instance, a villain sticks his hand out the window of a car at the precise moment another vehicles window is inline with his, he gets his hand knocked off by the other vehicle. Another good example is when a fight scene is taking place in a garage and the villain falls underneath a raised car, when the transporter pushes the red button to lower the car it quickly crushes the villain.

The films movement is fast, most of the time. This is because the ratio of chasing to talking is 3:1. I think this is good to have as it kept me interested and I’m sure if anyone else watched it then it would keep them interested as well. The movement of the character in general has quite a lot af marshal arts involved, particularly in the fight scenes. This is good as it would suite both tastes, by this I mean it would suite people with interests in car chases and it would suite people who like marshal arts.

The Layout of the film is based on France and the surrounding countries. The transporter is raced and chased through different countries to get to the required destination. This I find is very interesting to watch and I’d watch other films like this which has the same sort of layout.

Media 04/11/09

Media Project Proposal.

The story that I am trying to tell in the film is a recently abandoned college just out of town (RNC), that’s had mysterious paranormal activity. A few kids in their late teens early 20’s are drawn to the area when they find out about the strange disappearances of the night staff who have vanished and never been seen or found again, which is why the college shut down four months ago. In the hope of finding the answer to the disappearances, the group enter the abandoned property and spend a few hours roaming around; but it becomes clear that they may have a one way ticket to hell, quite literally. Will they survive or will they just be victims of another disappearance, only time will tell.

If I was making the actual film, the group would find out about the closure of the college and the strange disappearances in the local paper. 4 months on and the group decide to enter the property, in hope of finding the people that have vanished. They find a way in through an open metal gate and approach the front entrance to the building, they find a way in and explore the vast corridors, twists and turns. Dark is approaching, and the group decide to split up and each take on a different wing and floor of the property, so that they can cover more of the building at once, little do they know it will be the last sunset they see. It gets to about 12am and one member of the group who is sitting in the corridor of the top floor, starts to hear strange noises. He sees shadows at the end of the corridor and hears the lift starting up, that hasn’t worked for the past 4 months.

The special attraction of the idea is that its very local to get to, in terms of place, seeing as I live here. I also think that with the colleges old main building it would make the perfect setting for a horror film. Another place of interest which is possible to include, with good camera angles, is my house (54 Venns Lane). The house, like the main building; also has old characteristics which would be good to add to the film. In my opion, it has its spooky sides when the sun goes down for the night.

I want to do it because I like the idea, its not too over the top with ideas. Where as an action film would be quite hard to do in terms of content. There for the Genre that I will be working in is ‘Horror’.

In terms of technical resources, I would need a camera, a computer and a tripod. I think that by using a tripod you can get a lot more steady footage where as if you were holding it by hand. The technical skills that I would need to develop are, fast camera movements and some more editing skills on the computer.

The production resources that I need are the main building, two or three people as actors and generally the campus of the college as my props are already there. I’m talking mainly about the old stair cases, long corridors and the old fashioned lift near the old gym, the building has lots of twists and turns which is good if the actor is acting lost or trying to escape something. The big glass windows would make a very good short camera clip as it would add to the atmosphere of the building. My house could also act as a prop within its self, with its huge old fireplace, wooden front door and a creaky staircase. The exterior of the property being filmed at night would make a good film clip. My Project may be distributed as a Horror film which is advertised on a website.
In my opinion, the potential audience could range from late teens to late forties, which would be my initial age bracket. I could promote and publicise it by building a website to go with it and doing a radio advert as well.

A2 Media, Film Trailer Project

Media 28/04/09

Media Evaluation
By Luke Mitchell


• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses a jingle which you could say sounds a bit like something the BBC would broadcast. I used a news broadcast backing track from garage band and put in a voice – over. For my presenting, I used studio 6, which is formally the RNC Radio studio. Whilst I was in the studio, I used one CD deck, the desk (with all the faders), the computer (to record) and a microphone (for speech). I was able to put my jingle and news stories onto disk so I could simply go to the next track when I wanted it to play out the news piece I wanted, the idea was to make life simpler whilst recording and it did. However, one thing that is different to real media productions is that my news stories are fake.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In terms of social groups, I would say that my media product doesn’t represent social groups as such; however it does represent the value of the listeners. It’s based on a local radio station in my area, so it tells the listeners the stories and the information that they want to hear, to keep them up to date and informed about what’s happening near by. My main story represents a stressed and worried victim of a train crash giving his details of the crash that happened when he was on the train; he is also worried about the other passengers so this represents a shock to him that it has happened on this remote area of Wiltshire.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The media institution which I feel might distribute my media product might be the BBC (The British Broadcasting cooperation) because I feel that my product in ways is a bit like something that the BBC would do, such as the jingle and the seriousness of the news stories in them. I cant see any other institution distributing my media product because they deal with the charts and their ratio of music to news I find is probably 3:1.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience of my media product would be workers or students that are perhaps on their lunch breaks. ‘News at Noon’ would target those sorts of audiences and any Old Aged Pensioners that stay at home most days who perhaps listen to the radio at lunchtime. Other than that, I can’t think of any other types of audiences who would listen to the radio at that sort of time. My News piece attracts the local audience because the local news comes first.

• How did you attract/address your audience?
I don’t think I attracted the audience as such, I think the stories themselves play that role; the importance of the stories would keep the listeners listening to see what happened and where it happened. Because this was all planned in the first place, I think my sound effects took a small part in attracting the audience as well as the stories. However if the sound effects were a real scene, then they would still play a role of attracting the audience. From listening to the comments about my news piece, a few people thought it would be believable and it kept them interested, so I think that sound effects are good to use all in all. I addressed my audience be giving a calm and clear voice rather than a worried and frantic voice.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst making this product, I have learnt a lot more about garage band. I now know how to fade and raise the volume of the piece that I am editing, I know how to insert sound effects into voice clips (which wasn’t done in the production of this product) it was a tester to see what it was like, and I now know how to send the finished product to itune’s and burn it onto a blank disk. I also learnt that garage band accepts aiff & MP3 files which I learnt myself when I tried to import a WAV file, it imported ok but it had trouble playing sound, in fact there was no sound at all. The positive side about digital media as apposes to tape which I have learnt, is that with music on the computer, if you make a mistake you can erase it and redo it if necessary; where as with tapes you would have to start again from the beginning.

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From the preliminary task to the full product, I feel I have learnt a lot, including the stuff I have mentioned in my previous paragraph. I have learnt how to set up studio 6; from turning on the main electricity supply, turning on the decks, turning on the desk to starting and running ‘Sound Forge’. Believe it or not, I have learnt a lot more about the Apple Computers, I’m starting to get to grips as to where thing are in the menus and files and how to connect to the NDrive.