Evaluation question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

 

I can see that I have learnt a lot from the preliminary task to now. I have developed a lot more skills in both filming and editing. When I first used premier to edit footage I struggled and found it difficult where as now I feel a lot more confident when using it as I have used it a lot. When editing 'Saving Santa' as a group we all contributed so even though I didn't edit it all, I still learnt a lot from how we edited by watching the others in our group as we also helped and taught each other.

 

I believe that when filming I had also improved, in the prelim task I was in the scene therefore I couldn't practise filming and using the camera so this task taught me most about filming. I got to use the camera a lot in our opening scene as I filmed the end few shots which used a tripod. I also learnt by this task about using other new programmes such as Photoshop, slide share and prezi, I had never used any of these before which shows I have developed new skills which may help later on when I need to use the programmes.

 

I think I have also improved in confidence when working with a group as in other tasks by luck I had been put with people I talk to a lot so it was easier, where as this task had put me with different people but it still worked well. With contributing ideas and skills, I believe we worked well as a group as we enjoyed filming and got on well.

 

I have also learnt more about how the film industry produce films and how much hard work is involved, in the preliminary task we learnt just about how to work a camera and premier where as for this we had to plan in a lot of detail and film everything so perfectly so it came out good so we didn't have to repeat the filming again.

 

Overall I have developed many more skills involving camera work which will help me in the exam, and has helped me work as a team to produce an opening scene to a film.

Evaluation question 6

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

 

Camera- We used a camera to record the actual filming. It was difficult at times to use as it didn't always focus so we had to move the camera slower for it to be able to stay in focus. We also used a camera to take pictures of our progress which we then put on our blog.

 

Tripod- We used this to keep the camera steady. It was sometimes better not to have the tripod when moving as it gave us less movable capability when walking round the room.

 

Computer- We used this for lots of different programmes such as; YouTube, Adobe Premier, blogger, Photoshop and others like slide share and prezi to create presentations. We used YouTube to look at similar film openings and to find music. Sometimes it didn't always give us music we could actually use so we had to search through a lot of results to find a good one. We used premier to edit our film. Some features were difficult to use so we had to learn by trial and error and from what we used in the prelim task. Blogger was used to show the process of all our tasks for filming, planning and editing and used Photoshop to create the film poster, again features were hard to use but we learnt as we went along. Prezi and slide share (Power Point Microsoft) were used in all stages to present ideas and results.

 

Evaulation question 5

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

 

The main audience for this film would be teenagers, although we would put an age of 12 or 12A. This is because some younger ages may not like the change in the genre as it has action and some crime involved. Younger ages may prefer happy, cheerful films to enjoy with family but our film is more for teenagers who are a little bit older.

Our 'Saving Santa' film has a certificate of PG because it is aimed at families so has to be suitable for children. Everyone can watch our film, apart from very young children because of the comic fight scenes. We thought that our main target audience would be teenage boys and older children because the comic fight scenes would appeal to them and they would be the ones to enjoy the storyline the most.

 We have learnt a lot about audiences whilst making this film and have discovered what genres might appeal to what people. Our film has a comedy genre as well as the obvious Christmas film genre which, unlike Romances which is likely to appeal to women, appeals to everyone and is a good genre for a family Christmas film.

Evaulation question 3

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

dia institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaulation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

 

How does your media product represent particular social from fitchb09

Evaluation question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Genre

The genre of our film is first seen as festive. We made this clear when filming as the very first image seen is a bauble on a Christmas tree with tinsel and sparkles which are objects associated with the time of year. However, an aim we tried to stick to was the fact that there was a twist. We wanted the audience to believe that the film was like any other festive happy film which went with a predictive narrative. We decided to make it have a different beginning, one where Santa gets taken away by someone dressed in black. 

Looking at the film opening we produced, we took this plot twist and created what looks like Santa being kidnapped which changed the genre from a happy cheerful story to a quick and dark one. We did this when filming by having two parts, the first was the upbeat, decorative view then we added in a 'fight' scene where Santa (who normally is a large loved man) who is then dragged away by a more powerful person. 

Looking at the two screenshots below show images that suggest the happy narrative at the very start, then the image later on in the opening when Santa is being punched and taken. 

These two images are both showing the same genre, yet the left shows a more pleasant side of the genre where as the image on the right shows a less predictive image, Santa being less powerful than someone else. The lighting in the image on the left is bright, where as the image on the right is darker and has less lighting by Christmas decorations. 


What we did to show the genre

As explained with the images above, we used props and costume to show the audience it was a film for the Christmas festive period. Traditional colours are shown for Christmas, green and red which are seen clearly in both photographs. We have used a cosy family home to set the scene for the film, which is typical for a film with this genre. When we planned Saving Santa we were not sure about what location to use, i believe this location worked really well. The one room we used throughout was the perfect size to work with as it had room for the titles at the start and the characters to move about, any bigger or smaller and it wouldn't have worked as well. 

Location

Choosing a location when planning was a struggle, we couldn't decide between a few of our houses some didn't have room for all the scenes, and we couldn't find a house with a fireplace big enough for Santa. In the end, we asked to use a lounge area of a friend which she agreed to.  As seen in our final opening, the room was perfect. We had everything we needed in the room plus extra props and of course, our costumes. 

We could have used many other houses but this one was just right. Also, there were a lot of rooms to choose from but we decided to use just one room to make it a realistic setting.

Costumes and props

The costumes and props we used created a great real media product as we used very detailed costumes which even included the eyebrows and glasses of Santa. We used actual Christmas decorations instead of little cheap ones which made it so much better (we know this from our poor practice when we used a tiny tree that looked silly in the room and random decorations that we had all bought separately. The second time filming improved our film opening incredibly and props improvement was the main cause.  

Titles and fonts

When we planned our titles, we didn't think too much about the font, we thought we would just create simple and basic fonts for labels to make them more realistic. When it came to feedback for our first draft, we had negative comments which said 'titles were boring' and 'could have a lot better fonts'. We decided we needed to change this straight away. We changed the person who wrote them, they wrote them with extra time and care to produce what looked like Christmas font with different names.
Looking back at the draft and then looking at the final opening, font has improved dramatically which has played another big part on improving the film opening to make it more like a real media product. 


(Shown below is a variety of labels and titles we created.)

Camera work and editing

When we planned, we really didn't think about camera work. We knew ways we could use the camera to make certain shots but we didn't plan enough which became an issue when creating the first draft. When shooting the draft, we took the first long shot which was too quick, the lighting was poor and there were shadows seen in the shot. 

When we got feedback, people picked up on the lighting and shadows so we knew we had to re-do the scenes. When we re-filmed, we improved the lighting by shining a torch on the objects in the shot so they stood out and were lighter. Although this was improved hugely, it was difficult to cut out shadows so there are still a couple in the opening which we didn't have time to fix. 


How characters were introduced

In the final opening, we introduced Santa a lot better compared to the draft. Shown below is the first image of Santa (not the filming image, a photograph taken whilst filming.) He is in the centre and takes up a lot of room, his arms are spread out which makes him look important. 

Our final film opening!!!

Final film opening scene!

 

After several weeks of planning, discussing, creating and editing we have produced our final film opening scene. We have changed things many times to improve such as music which we have changed quite a few times. We changed props as well to improve the setting and took along time editing to make sure we had a good final scene.

 

This is our final scene which we will then evaluate.

 

Saving Santa Film Poster

Saving Santa Film Poster!

 

Shown below is the film poster for our film 'Saving Santa'. We created the poster for the marketing of our film. We can use it too advertise in different locations such as sides of buses, bus stops and banners around shopping centres.

 

It uses big bold text in the colour of green which is associated with Christmas (red being the other colour) we used the person in the centre as Jack Frost who is the main character of the film and used a starry background to show mystery and a setting of darkness, when Santa is normally seen.

 

Our film poster is different as it doesn't have Santa on the front of it, this shows that it is a unique film idea.