Sunday, 1 May 2011
Audience Feedback
"I thought it was sick!"
John Baker
"Wow, one word describes The Missing , Epic !, for being a A level media project I was gripped from the beginning , even though there was a few mistakes as the major one was when we saw the tall girl play two different parts and ther scenes were next to one another , but apart from that it was great, the news report added realism and the music created suspense and it carried the film to a cliff hanger ending wow I want to watch more"
Aron Smith
"Excellent, some parts were unbelievably interesting"
Joshua Nwator
"It was amazing! 5/5"
Anees Anwar
"It's pretty good, tension, got my bit for cardio excercise done after watching that. Newsreaders great and the Semi-Parkour too"
Jaymee Ingham
"It is very inspiring piece of work. I truly enjoyed it"
Mags Tanev
"I thought the storyline was original and enticing. The acting was believable, the camera work was good too"
John Wakefield
"It was great, very structured and the camera angles were placed very well"
Lucy Fieldsend
"It's so good!!"
Nazmun Nahar
"I would definately go and watch it. The music works really well. I like the way it shows two different things at the same time"
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Shot List Of 'The Missing'
2) Panning Shot - of William as he walks into the elevator room.
3) Close up / Low Angle Shot - of Williams back as he stands within the elevator.
4) High Angle / Over The Shoulder Shot - of Willaims looking down at the villain from a balcony.
5) Wide Shot - of William as he sees the villain and flees.
6) Long Shot - as William runs through tunnel.
7) Panning Shot / Wide Shot - as news reporter broadcasts.
8) Tilt Shot - as William runs down staircases.
9) Extreme Close Up / Cutaway Shot - of Blackberry revealing Lucy's name.
10) Establishing Shot - as William runs over bridge.
11) Two Shot - as news reporter interviews Lucy.
12) Backwards Tracking Shot - used as William runs into tunnel.
13) Forwards Tracking Shot - used as William runs through tunnel.
14) Panning / Slanted Shot - used as William runs towards door.
15) Close Up - as William goes through the door.
16) Shaky Cam / Point Of View Shot - used to show protagonists movements.
17) P.O.V Shot - used again as villain attacks William.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Michaels Personal Account Of The Group And Tasks
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challange forms or conventions of real media products?
In our group we have develepoed an urban British film. The film we have produced came from ideas from watching Shaun Of The Dead, Mirrors and The Messenger. These are a mixture of thrillers and horrors we wanted to base our main task on. However we chose to mainly focus on the films Mirrors and Shaun Of The Dead.
We also used the idea of relationships to do this we looked at the film Shaun Of The Dead. In this film the protagonist Shaun has an issue in his relationship with his girlfriend Lizzie. We used the consept of broken relationships but put a twist on it so that the girlfriend was not seeing her boyfriend and being distraught due to him being missing. This takes the idea of broken relationships but in a different direction.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our product we enabled the working class to seem inferior and vunerable in a way that it was typical for a working class male to go missing, we also used a female news reporter on purpose to show a middle class fem
What Kind Of Media Institution Would Distribute Your Media Product And Why?
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Final Product?
We learnt how to work together and how to time our production. We needed to move to our locations and to do so needed to be organized in who took what and where we went. There were no fallouts and the entire movie went smoothly. This is in contrast to our 'Prelim Task' where we didn't know what was going on and who was doing what. Everything came with slight spontaneity compared to our 'Final Task' where everything was organized and thought about before hand.
However, one of the most important things we learnt in the ‘Final Task’ in comparison to the ‘Preliminary Task’ is that we should not cut heads off the shot. This is vital as it makes a good film great and ruins most of the shots. As you can see from the ‘Prelim’ (left side) Michaels head has been cut off as the protagonist (this is one example from many other shots). To correct this we added extra room for a professional touch and to ensure we did not cut off his or any other characters head (right side).
As well as this we also ensured that the image looked sharp and professional. The movie we wanted to make had to look better and the overall feel of it had to be too. Its key for making a good film and making everything look better. As you can see in the ‘Prelim’ the shots were blurry and at times untidy due to the fact we didn’t check the lighting and misused the tripod for multiple shots. You can see the sharper image quality in the ‘Final Task’ making it more authentic.
We were fairly happy with our shots during the production of our ‘Preliminary Task’ however, we became ambitious with our ‘Final Task’. We didn't want an outside shot near a chapel, we wanted one near a river in the middle of the city. Also we didn't want our protagonist to see the villain suddenly and the build up to not be as dramatic. So we took a car park and placed the villain in various shots around the area to make everything bigger and more ambitious. The following shots show the diff erences in what we wanted to accomplish and what we went for. This was helped by our choice of locations which were a lot better in comparison to our ‘Preliminary Task’.
What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?
To complete the film we first had to film the footage. In many aspects this was one of the most important sections of the entire project. To pick the right shots would set the film and its course and if it were to go wrong the editing process would become a failure. We needed to ensure our camera crew were organized and ready to tackle any situation. Our main camera team consisted of Lucy and Kelsea, more dominantly. To quote Kelsea had stated that “We had to make sure that the camera shots would match for the final edit and that we didn’t cut off any heads or important details this time round” Lucy also stated that “I learnt that the lighting effected the camera so we had to change and adapt to different environments to make sure the film looked good in association to the lighting keeping it dark as it’s a thriller”.
To convert the footage to fit into ‘Final Cut Pro’ we had to put it through the main
converter and make sure that the format and footage was the right size to do so. As you can see from the picture it
looks fairly complicated but we managed to find an easy way round it and transport all footage to the right codec so you can use it in ‘Final Cut Pro’. We also had to convert sound effects and music into the film to give it more soul and life. This was a difficult task and needed to be done by someone who had advanced IT skills to navigate. Michael was in charge of converting, computing and importing music states that “I found it efficient yet challenging at times in the means of setting the correct measurement and the format to put the filming in”.
When we eventually got onto ‘Final Cut Pro’ where we very unsure about what to actually do. However we caught on fairly quickly and got used to the program, this is mostly thanks to the ‘Preliminary Task’. Despite this we must ensure that all parts fitted together, synced perfectly and had no lags. We needed someone creative to do so. Koceila, who was the main editor, states “The software was tricky at first I have to say, but when the shots were in and the story was set the editing process was fun, enjoyable and easier then expected”.
We also used various helpful tools such as green screen. This was a huge advancement as we never used it before. To get the hang of it we needed help and when we got used to it we film it perfectly and fine. We had to get used to cropping with the videos and effects to make the shots fade in and out of each other and sync. Also the titles had to be done separately and had to be placed in correct areas. We did this by using the screen crop of the predicted cut off parts if imported out. This means our titles were still in frame and still looked good.
How Did You Attract / Address Your Audiance
We did this by editing the film with speed and addressing issues such as peoateple going missing that is mostly relatable to people aged 15 – 30. We also picked the genre of thriller. This genre attracts our target audience and with the modernization of the film i.e. music, mise-en-scene and setting we achieved this brilliantly. One of our pieces of technology was a Blackberry Smartphone. The average teenager and young adults have this gadget meaning its appeal will be huge to our designd target audience.
The character that goes missin
g, William Fisher, is a male aged 24. The aim of this is to leave ambiguity between the viewers to interpret why he is actually running. The fact William is 24 means people can relate to the character and the added touch of him having a girlfriend also does so. This will attract a female audience to what appears to be a very male dominated film with the actors Koceila and Michael taking more dominant roles within the movie. Therefore giving Keslea the role as news anchor means it counter acts the dominated gender type. Making Lucy the vulnerable girlfriend means that Koceila had to take the role of victim to balance out the gender stereotype ratio making the film appeal to both sexes.
We also added a ‘Parkour’ sequence to make it more urban and more youthful as its energetic and means the movie contains more action. As you can see by the picture the protagonist William is leaping over a banister in the middle of Manchester City Centre. This urban environment is why it attracts our target audience.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Who would be the auidence for your production?
It also promotes that the target audience is above the age of 15, being this the target range could not be more than 15-30 because it gives film the fifteen year age gap who would like a horror film. The film would target both a male and female orientated audience as the main protagonist is a male and the fictional elment of the following character suits a males imagination and it can appeal to females as in the film it reflects a dominating role in society (e.g the news reporter) also the girlfriend of the main protagonist reflect the sense of emotion which can reflect on some females as woman are usually the sterotypical naturing type and are known to show more emotion than men.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Diary of the filming process
After we did the green screening we thought that we might as well film more features which linked towards the news report, we got mike to be an interviewer interviewing Lucy who was the protagonist's boyfriend in the production, we took many takes to get a perfect shot and we thought that we suceeded in this, we also filmed a segment about the last time anyone sat the protagonist in the film and where he worked. Then we decided to also add a voice message from his girlfriend who is begining to become worried about the where abouts of Koceila.
WEDNESDAY 30TH MARCH 2011
After friday, we though that we had finished all the filming that we needed to do, but whilst we were editing we came to the conclusion that we needed more film, the downfall to our production was that there was not enough actions occuring in the film, at the moment we only had Koceila running and it could easily make the audience bored with the production, so we diecided on adding a news report to the film as it will link together with the disapearence of the protagonist, so we gained permisson off the technition and we filmed in the media production room on the green screen, there we created a news room where the news reporter would inform the audience that the protagonist has gone missing, this was redeemed a huge sucess as it added the suspence of what happened to the protagonist and what happened to him in the events leading up to his dissapearence. In the media room, we had many special features such as a word promp which would give Kelsea the words to say in the filming. on ther whole the green screen was a brilliant inclusion to the film.
FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2011
Today was the last day of filming, we needed to film the most important section of the film the scence where the portagonist comes face to face with the follower with match consideration we decided to film in colleges boiler room as we felt the lighting and look of the room fit in with our film perfectly. One advantage of the boiler room was that it was dark which gave a scary effect to our film, although this also worked as a disadvantage as the camera had no lighting and was in complete darkness. To achieve a good camera lighting yet keep the scary darkness effect we went to a photography room and asked to borrow a spot light to give a certain amount of lighting. Through the whole process of filming we had to make sure both Koceila and Mike (the follower) wore the same outfits each filming day to achieve continuety correctly and officiatly.
WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH 2011
Great! The weather was miserable keeping up the continuety correctly. We filmed the chase on Oxford Road and on the water front and at the G-mex. We came across a chacter problem as we attempted to try and include a member of the public in one of the shots to allow to film to look more realistic but when doing so and filming the public were looking at the camera resulting in the shot looking unrealistic. To resolve this we waiting until there was very few people around before we filmed the next shot.
FRIDAY 11TH MARCH 2011
Our second day of filming was riddled with good and bad luck, first of all it was a grim day, cold and cloudy, brilliant. The grimness matched the horror genre we attempted to achieve & it helped achieve continuity as it was the same weather as wednesday. We also suffered a case of bad luck as after we made the bus journey to town we then realised thast the group forgot to pick up the memory card, this was vital as it would of saved all our filming progress, with no card there was no filming, so Koceila went back to college to pick up the card and this wasted fourty minutes of filming time. Eventually, we finally began to film and we were able to film the entire section under the bridge and the scene in the undergroung car park,so on the whole, the day was redeemed a success.
WEDNESDAY 9TH MARCH 2011
Today we stated filming, we today filmed in deansgate trainstation and there we filmed Koceila walking off the train and runiing down the slope and the stairs. It was a cold, cloudy day se we attempted to film an as efficiently as possible so we all pulled together and rotated the job of filming and setting out the scenery to match the storyboard we created.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Locations
For our filming we have decided to film in two different locations to capture the best Mise en scene for the horror genre and to fit our storyboard, the first Loaction we have decided to film on is on the trainstation platform, which is used in the first scene, this is used as it shows the sense of isolation between the protagonist and urban life. and realsm in the shot.
Then the protagonist walks up a tunnel, this is used as it is much more darker and concludes a horror stereotype.
Then we will film
down the walkway and the path following the manchester ship canal, we decided upon this location as it indicates the sense of danger in the filming as the protagonists has no were to run if in a case of danger.
Then We filmed on oxford road itself, this was included to create a sense of realism in the clip, the protagonist is being chased yet there are prodestrians who do not know what was occuring to the protagonist.
The last area we filmed in was in a boiler room in the college, this adds to the troumatic effect of the chase, it is dark and damp which adds to a horror ending of pain and suffering which is a good effect to include in the profect
We also used the green screen which was a special feature in the college, we used it to report the news that the protagonist has gone missing, this was very useful as it added more realism to the production as there is the scene of the whole news set. This was a great advantage and effect to add to the film.
Th
e last area we filmed was in the reception of our college building, some may say that this was too roiginal and that we did not try hard ehough on getting the best ares to film the production but the reality is that the college was ideal, it is set out with plantation and has staircases which matches the appartment scene we attempted to achieve, sometimes the best things in life are right under our noses.
Alternate Movie Shot List
2.Long, low angle shot of the protagonist walking down the stairs.
3.High angle tracking medium shot and a medium eye line match when the protagonist is walking down the cannal.
4.Close up of the protagonist as he hears the footsteps.
5.High angle medium shot of the shadow of the mysterious protagonist.
6.medium long shot to long shot of the protagonist running.
7.Establishing shot of the protagonist walking into the train station.
8.Medium shot with a P.O.V shot with the use of the 180 degree rule as the protagonist looks around the platform.
9.Medium shot with a close up of the foot as the protagonist is walking up the stairs.
10.P.O.V shot and a slow zoom as the protagonist looks towards the oppostie end of the bridge in the train station.
11.Medium long shot of the protagonist walking down the stairs.
12.Long shot as the protagonist charges into the staff room.
13.P.O.V shot with a panned down close up and a slow zoom as the protagonist looks at the mysterious shadow.
14.Shot reverse shot of the medium shot of the protagonists face and the shaddow.
15.Zooming out with medium to long shot of the staff room.
( Alternative Ending)
13.P.O.V shot with a panned down close up and a slow zoom as the protagonist looks at the mysterious shadow.
14.Shot reverse shot of the medium shot of the protagonists face and the shaddow.
15.Close up of the mysterious character.
16.Close up over the shoulder shot of the protagonists hugging.
17.Close up of the confused protagonist.
