FINAL PRODUCTION

Fascination AS Media Coursework from Megan Hayhurst on Vimeo.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 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?

Looking back at the preliminary task, I can now see that it looked a little staged and unrealistic in comparison to the Thriller opening we have created now. In comparison, this time we worked really productively as an ensemble, and produced work incredibly efficiently. Our editing this time is much smoother, as we took each shot frame by frame so that we could precisely link up movements. Unlike last time, we also endeavoured to edit the piece to fit the specific changes in the music, which resulted in a more realistic piece of media.

In both pieces we used the 180 degree rule and shot/reverse shot, however in the preliminary it looks more forced, as in the conversation we left large gaps between speech (notably a common flaw in most student productions). In the Thriller, we used the 180 degree rule to ensure continuity between shot/reverse shots of the girls, , and POV shots from the killer. When researching, we noticed that this technique was frequently present in professional pieces of media, and so wanted to reflect this in our piece.

Hand held shots in the preliminary appear shakey and amateurish.  However, through the use of the steady cam, the hand held shots in this final piece are smooth and continuous. We also noticed that on reflection, we have used a limited variety of shots, however for the thiller, partly due to the versatile setting, we were able to create menacing, high angle shots, close ups, extreme close ups, long shots, and panning shots, aiding us to create a tense atmosphere.

The match on action in the preliminary is staccato, and to an extent, unrealistic. This time, we used a match on action to record our frightened reactions to the chase. We took it first from the Killer's view, then to the side, to my reaction, and finally to the resulting action. This provided an exciting variation in the piece without disrupting the continuing flow.

Overall, I believe that my ability and understanding, and the final quality of the piece has improved hugely. The opening holds credibility and creates an exciting and frightening environment for the following potential film, achieving the key features we set out to achieve at the start of this process.

EVALUATION 6

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

The preliminary task was the first time I had used a camera and tripod properly, in order to produce a realistic piece of media. I was unsure of the delicacy of the instrument, and on reflection some of the shots are a little shakey and poorly framed. On our 'Thriller' we were sure to rectify these issues so that we could produce a realistic and professional-looking opening sequence.

Upon filming we thoroughly looked at the tripod, as our setting (an uneven forest floor) made it highly difficult to set up a perfectly straight shot. The tripod allowed us to do this much easier as we could adjust the legs to the correct height and use the spirit level to make sure the shot was horizontal. Further to this, we used the Flycam, a piece of weighted equipment which acts as a steadycam, but without the harness, for the hand held shots, which helped gain a smoothness to the shot. Although proving difficult to set up and use correctly, (the weights were extremely temperamental), I believe that it immediately gave our amateur piece a professionalism and gravitas shown in 'real' films. On the camera, we also noticed the night vision setting, which we used in a small number of shots to create suspense and an interesting juxtaposition between these and the point of view shots from the killer's perspective.


We were fortunate that the forest allowed us to use different trees as they looked so similar, and no matter where we filmed the shots, it did not disrupt the continuity.  However, when we redid the shot/ reverse shot on the second day of filming, we made a conscious decision to film it in the same spot, so that we could intertwine some of the previously successful shots already filmed.

This was also the first time I had used an online blog, Blogger, and I'm actually really enjoying the format. I think that for a school project, it was perfect for setting down and compiling our thoughts. We could import images and videos which added extra dimensions, and aided the reader's understanding of our 'post'. However, as the system at school disregards and blocks websites such as Youtube and Facebook, we had to search harder to find videos and gain feedback using websites such as Vimeo.

 

 

 The biggest piece of technology we used, and the one I personally had to understand the most, was Pinnacle Studio 15 HD, which was the software we used to edit our thriller opening. Although I used it to produce my Preliminary Task, I hadn't actually realised  how little of the effects available I had used. This time we also used Pinnacle to create our studio name. We imported an image of 'Rust' then applied the font over it, and introduced a rounded spotlight passing over the image, and in its entirety, it looks extremely authentic.

During editing, we realised that we had major, fundamental issues with the lighting. It was different from shot to shot. We used the colour and contrast effect lighting function on Pinnacle to alter the lighting, so that it was darker and more consistant, and made it so that it got gradually darker throughout the piece to create tension, and link it to the night vision at the end.

Pinnacle allowed us to create more effective and stylised shots through its wide variety of simple, editing tools.  In particular, we made use of the 'speed tool', which we used in the 360 degree rotating shot, which increased tension and embodied my disorientation and confused mindset. 

Furthermore, we could cut and edit specific shots in minute detail, which helped us especially when dealing with continuity and matching up movements from shot to shot.  Its simple layout allowed us to freely position our filmed shots in the correct order.   Pinnacle was also particularly valuable when we re-watched our production to see if it made sense, as it allowed us to test our ideas achieved by trial and error.

It was extremely easy to create our motion titles through Pinnacle.  The flexibility in the 'movie grow' tool available, enabled us to produce professional, moving titles.  This then created a sense of realism and would persuade the audience to focus on the production. 

EVALUATION 4 + 5

Evaluations: An insight into the target audience and their demographic.

Target Audience on Prezi

EVALUATION 3

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


The production company holds a pivital role in the process of creation of films.  It is mainly responsible for finding the funding for the production.  Depending on the type of film, this may rely on a parenting company (who own shares in another company responsible for managing productions), partnering company, a national charitable fund, or private investors. 
The production company also organises and supplies the staff and actors, and handles the budgeting, distribution and marketing of the product.

The film distibutor can potentially be of huge importance with regards to a film's success.  Distributors hold the main responsibility for marketing and circulation of a film (i.e. which theatres it is show in, home viewing, television rights, DVD)


They decide how frequently and where the film is to be advertised ( e.g. TV adverts, bill boards etc); crucially important, as this is ultimately how audiences are enticed in.  After this, distributors then monitor the exhibiting theatres to ensure the production is being shown the correct number of times.


Distributors are perhaps most important to small, independent films, as these film makers must rely on distributors to find and gain contacts, and secure viewings at film festivals. 


Based on our research into teen-aimed psychological thrillers, we decided that if Fascination became a full feature film, we would expect to use a mid budget of around £13 million.  With reference to our specific production, we believed that the British Film Institute (BFI ) would aid our funding, as we fit their criteria perfectly, i.e. British actors, British culture, British story etc.   The BFI particularly help to fund mid to low budget films.  


We also thought that StudioCanal, the largest European production company, would work in association with our production, as we noticed that increasingly, they are working with British films,  as the English language is the most widely spoken in the world, and they would therefore have a vested interest. 


As research, we looked into productions that were institutionally similar to our piece, and compared their money earned and critical acceptance. 


The 2004, American, psychological thriller "The Butterfly Effect" was produced by New Line Cinema, our chosen production company.
Although the film received a poor critical response, it actually went on to produce huge commercial success; producing $96million from an initial budget of $13million.  The film won the Pegasus Audience Award at the Brussels' International Film Festival and was nominated for the best Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards. 


Starting with a similar budget, we would love it if our film was accepted and nominated in this manner, as it would provide us with the acknowledgement of our film's success in advertising, and that it effectively reached our target audience of 15-30 years .


We also looked at "Final Destination", the teen Horror/Thriller cross over, again produced by New Line Cinema.  The film opened in 2,587 theatres across the US and Canada and made over $10million in its opening weekend .  Six months later, New Line Cinema released the DVD which included commentaries, deleted scenes and documentary footage. 


The film's huge success brought it three sequels and a prequel, an idea that interested us for our own production.  After this, New Line Cinema produced related novels and comic books.


We decided to use New Line Cinema as our main production company as research proved that they widely produce thriller-esque films.  We also thought that the colour scheme of the production logo, black and dark blue, evoked interesting, deathly images and connotations of misery and fear.  We thought that this production company best represented our production.  The choice of production company is extremely important, as it sets the mood for the feature, and the emotion needed to be created for the scenes that follow. 

The serif font used insinuates a serious tone and professionalism we felt important for our piece.   We devised the production company “Rust Studios”. We discussed thriller-related imagery, but purposely decided to avoid conventional, cliched ideas of 'blood' and 'evil', however we wanted to ensure that the image we chose created an impression that evoked the same feelings of fear and suspense.  We liked the idea of 'Rust' as it creates a sensation of decay, and the colours, browns, reds and oranges, connotes danger, blood and fear.  We too used a serif font to reflect a modern and dynamic production company.

The title design at the beginning of a film is and always has been a key part of any motion picture.  Before computer and graphic designs, they were originally motionless pieces of artwork called “title art”. 

Because it is seen as an 'art form', there is no set sequence in which the production companies, crew, actors, editors and directors are named, however most follow a similar pattern.  After the production logo(s) which appear at the beginning of the film, they are generally reinforced by another title, of for example “Miramax and Big Talk Productions Present” to emphasise the vast amount of work and money that these companies have put into making and / or creating the film. Then is then followed by either the opening establishing shot or in the case of some thrillers, for example 'Sixth Sense', the main full screen titles continue.  Such titles consist of the Director's name, Editor's name, the Director of Photography and the main actors' names.


 The way in which these titles are presented vary from film to film, for example, in Face/Off the Director's name is presented as 'A JOHN WOO FILM' whereas in others it may be 'DIRECTED BY..'.  This decision is largely due to the Title's designer.  It is also the designer who decides whether the titles overlay, and the animation of the credits. 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our horror/thriller hybrid film, Fascination, our characters being two female victims and a male villain, are more of a genre stereotype, (Propp's character types) than a social stereotype. The typical genre portrayal of defenceless, young females has a very relevant place in modern society, despite it being a cliched character type. It is feasible for the roles to be reversed, and for males to be the victims in the film, yet it is more conventional for males to be the killers, due to real life society and UK crime statistics.

Female insecurity in modern day society is an ever increasing issue, with more attacks on young girls on Britain's streets. In our film, the two girls at first seem to be defenceless victims, however, projected forward, by the end, they actually aid the authorities when catching the obsessive kidnapper, thus twisting this concept on its head. The resilience of the two girls in the film is hopefully something young girls in society can take from our film. The film, by tackling issues of female safety, fits in with growing women's right pressure groups such as Reclaim The Night etc who would be able to use our film as an example of combating women's safety on Britain's streets.
Although our film appears as though it was centred around these social issues, it was perhaps a coincidence, and more of a genre convention, that we chose the two young, defenceless females. In most thriller films it's rare for it to be produced to make a political statement about these types of issues, or for them to be reflected through character portrayals.

EVALUATION 1 - DIRECTORS' COMMENTARY

Fascination Director's commentary 3 from Georgina Brown on Vimeo.

EDITING SESSION

We are now heavily involved with the editing process. We have realised that some of the shots do not match others, and continuity jars in places. Because of this, the script has been edited down so that the dialogue is minimal ( we believe that it is the action sequences which are the most important elements to the opening). We have also used fades and dissolves in order to link shots much more smoothly.
Another issue we discovered is the altering light between shots (due to the fact we filmed on different days, at marginally different times).  To fix this we used the lighting tool on the Pinnacle editing software.

I'm really excited to see the finished product, already it's looking professional!

SOUND TRACK

Finding suitable music for the production proved much more difficult than we expected. We realised through our research into the typical, archetypal thriller, that music is one of the most important factors when creating suspense and atmosphere.

For this reason, we wanted to incorporate as much of the diegetic sounds as possible, i.e. the river, birds, wind in the trees. To make these sounds appear much stronger in the mix, we inceased the background sound of the clips, without dialogue, when we reached the editing stage.

Music was extremely difficult to find. We started by searching on websites such as SoundCloud, Audio Network and FreePlayMusic.com and found that much of the music available to download (which was a problem all on its own) was usually semi-professional DJ mixes, which did not fit the criteria of our thriller music.

Luckily, after extensive and diligent research, we found two compositions, Lost In The Dark and Hell On Earth, which we were able to edit down so that they were absolutely perfect for our production. They both encompass a metallic sound, along with a heavy base, building in tension. We were able to fade one into the other during the editing process.

We also downloaded the 'Psycho Scream' sound file which we dubbed over our own screams to create more fear.