Editing Evaluation

With editing then i edited most of the film as Nicole prefered the filming and i prefered to do the editing, i like to cut the scenes in together and make sure we select the right out take from the filming to fit the film right. I found when editing then putting the right transitions made jumping from one angle from the other less jumpy and looked better, i also thought that putting in titles to show what is happening and when it is happening to show the audience what is happening, i used a black background for this and i also putting a black transition in for a long time between scenes when something is happened to show that they are at different times. Most of the filming wasn't jumping from one angle to the other as i remembered everytime we filmed to keep to the 30 degree rule because this keeps the film from jumping as if it is less than 30 degrees the camera angles switching looks bad.
I also feel as you watch our film you will come across some of these cuts as i will explain to you what each cut is so you can notice it:
Cutaway -showing something outside of the frame that could be of importance.
Cross Cutting - cutting from one action shot to another action shot happening somewhere else, usually covers up an edit e.g. someone getting away.
Reaction Shot- Showing the reaction of how the character is feeling/thinking.
Shot/Reverse Shot - Where the characters are shown facing each other, e.g. in a headmasters office the headmaster would be sat one side and the 3 kids on the other with him questioning them.
Elliptical Cut - The removal of time between shots.
These edits are used all the time but not picked up on, when watching through our 3 minute film opening then nearly all of these are used.

What new new skills have you learnt? What have you learnt from technology in this project?

In this project with out film i found that i developed many new skills and learnt quite a few things from it, from using new products from as little as the iMac to using new things to put in to our film such as the voice over. From the technical side then i learnt how to use 'iMovie' which was used on an 'iMac' which i also learnt to use. We were lucky enough to have a man in from Apple a few days before we started our projects as he showed us how to use the iMac's and how to use 'iMovie' on them, this was very useful as many of us had never used 'iMovie' before including me. We learnt how to cut and trim clips and edit things throughout the film and how to add in music over the film, we also learnt how to use many transitions in the film that i particularly enjoyed as whenever you went from one scene to another in the film or different clips then it wouldn't look right as it would almost jump from one bit to another which ruined the film so i liked to use the dissolve transition that i put into the film quite a lot as one shot would go to another so you wouldn't notice anything happening. I also liked to use the blackout transition as when it went from one scene to another then it would show there is time inbetween as the scene would blackout. From this we learnt the simpest of things such as transfering pictures across to the film to cutting and editing the film and putting music in.
Also i learnt how to use the camera recorder as i hadn't really used one before so i didn't really know what i was doing to start with, i found this very easy once i had picked it up though, but it will be very helpful to know how to use one and then upload videos to iMovie and edit them.
When filming this film i also learnt how to use an 'edirol' which is a piece of equiptment to use when recording a voice over, i think using this piece of equiptment was really good for our film as it brings more feeling and drama to the start of the film, it also explains to the audience what is going on, i also found this very useful to know how to transfer the voice over across to the film and edit it in.

What else do you feel you have learnt from your preliminary task?

From my preliminary task and this task then i learnt how to display the 180 degree rule which i use in my preliminary task as the interviewer and the candinate our talking, i also use it in the film when Lucy and her mum are talking in kitchen as the scene keeps skiping from each of them talking together. I also remembered to keep in mind the 30 degree rule when filming as if you go less than 30 degrees from one shot to another it will just jump and not look right, the camera will simply seem like it has just been jolted.
Also in our film then i like to think we used elliptical cuts as then it removed time between each scene for example when Lucy is at the woods and then she is at home washing her face, this removed the time of her getting there.
We also use reaction shots, such as when Lucy tells her mum she wants to go to the army and Lucy's mum is not happy and starts shouting at her.

Who is the audience of your media production?

The target audience of my media production would be teenager to elderly people as i feel if you are any younger thana teenager you would not understand the plot and what is happening, also i do not think it is suitable for anyone under the age of 15 as it is a bit psychological when Lucy goes a bit crazy. As the film goes on then Lucy is going to go of to war until they discover she is mentally disabled and these scenes could be a bit horrific and jumpy for young kids. I would also say it was targeted to 15 year olds if they are going through something similar to losing someone they loved, the main character is also a teenager to relate to our target audience. It could also relate to older generations as mum's can relate to how Lucy's mum reacts to the news.

How will you attract your audience?

I will attract my audience by advertising the film alot and Nicole and I have already given out a questionnaire to people to see what they think of it, our genre of our film is however now favourited by teenagers as they tend to prefer to watch horror films and comedy. As people watched our film then they tended to really enjoy the film, our film could now just about fit into the horror genre as Lucy goes a bit crazy in the head so people could want to go watch this, aslong as people don't think it is a documentary i think people would watch it more. In the questionnaire we asked people how we could improve and what the enjoyed, as we wanted to interact with out audience and make it exactly what they want, so we took into consideration what they said and our film seems to fit quite well with what our target audience would like

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film represents particular social groups such as young teenagers as this is who our film is targeted at, we use things such as the main character being young to represent young teenagers and we use what teenagers would use to represent them, for example in the woods scene when Lucy is listening to her iPod which most young teenager use, representing them. I feel our film being quite a psychotic film might attract teenagers as most teenagers like to watch these type of things.
Teenagers are usually seen as:
-Trouble
-Doing Drugs
-Drinking Alcohol
-Causing Drama
But in this film Lucy doesn't drink or do drugs, but she is a lot of trouble to her mum as she wants to go to the army and causes a lot of drama to her family and her friends of wanting to leave

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?

I think our film uses real life a lot to be like real media products, as it is on the news a lot about families losing members of their family to war, so this comes back to our film to what happens to them. Also when referring to challenging forms and conventions of real media then our film also has how someone goes insane from losing someone from their family, this also could happen in real media life. Our film could also be brought out from Universal Studios as we have aimed our film at many different ages.
One convention i have used in the film is having the picture montage at the start of the film as it shows what is going on and with the voice over over the top it really gives feeling and emotion to the film from the very start. I also feel that the convention of the voice over at the start makes people want to carry on watching to see what is going on as it drags people in by telling them a lot of the story already

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

When taking into consideration what institutions they are for film there are quite a few companies. Here are some of the main ones:
-Pixar
-Universal Studios
-20th Century Fox
-Warner Bros.
-Dream Works
-Paramount Pictures
There are also small companies such as:
-Film 4
-Walt Disney Feature Animation
-Nickelodeon
-Sony Pictures
-The UK Film Council
Most of these are no good for my film as they are animation companies and our film is not an animation film. One of the best companies to be distributed from would probably be warner bros. but i think realistically Universal Studios would probably take on our film as it is in the right genre of the rest of their films such as, 'Hannibal' as this isn't similar to our film but the main character in this film has gone a bit mental in the head like the main character in our film, this would only be if our film was big, but if we were realistic to start with they wouldn't take our film on. So instead i decided to research into The Uk Film Council, when i did this i found that they would like to make the UK a global centre for films amongst the worlds competitive film industry, after finding this out then i thought they would distribute mine and Nicole's film as they support most up coming film directors from the UK, i would then hope that the UK would watch our film and be attracted to it.
I think our film would start at small cinemas as it wouldn't be very well known, but i hope that it would get transfered to bigger cinemas such as VUE Cinema Cribbs Causeway and then it will eventually get into shops and hopefully get brought quite a lot here.

Audience Feed Back

I showed a few people mine and Nicole's film to see what they thought of it but we both thought creating a facebook group and uploading the film on there would be very useful so that is what we did. We made a group with just over 25 people in it. The facebook group was actually very helpful as most of the people who seen it said they really enjoyed it and all the people in the group were teenagers who are target audience are.
Here is what a few people said about the film;
Jo Barton; 'I really enjoyed the start of this film and i really liked how Matthew kept poping up in places as it did make me jump when he appeared in the mirror!'
Peter Jennings; 'I liked the use of camera angles in the forest i thought these were good but maybe the scene of Lucy and her mum could of been longer.'
Mark Lacey; 'I think the use of camera angles to show how the main characters reactions are good and to improve there could be move dramatic music to build suspense.'
These are only a few of what people said but most of what people say was quite similar.

Also it was found that doing voice recordings of people got to the point of what they thought as well so here is some of our target audiences feedback:
this was from a student from out school who is the right target audience for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXcAUnTKU8&context=C4055ce5ADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9tXs9r4Lb6M6OrqpvMOtbZ0

This was from a boy from the target audience of our film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wUYhy0tGo&context=C4958a7eADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9r9DP1dlsN-T3S4YBex2Ob8

This is from a girl who is also from our target audience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhjTIJIAYGU&context=C432c3c4ADvjVQa1PpcFPUD5sIIjRZ9gpWf579qh-j2GAdTxHtJK8

Script

Script 3
This scene is when Lucy is talking to her mum and confronting her with what she wants to do with her life, the scene's script goes like this:
Mum: 'Alright honey, has was your day at school?'
Lucy: 'Yeah it was alright' *sighing*
Mum: 'aw, what's up?'
Lucy: 'Well i was talking to my friends about something earlier, and they didn't support me at all'
Mum: 'Well what was it what were you talking about?'
The script goes on with Lucy confronting her mum and them getting into a bit of an argument.

Script 2
This scene's script is when Lucy confronts in her friends with what is bothering her, it goes like this:
Friend: 'Alright? Why haven't you been returning my calls?'
Lucy: 'It's just things with my brother, you know its been really hard.'
Friend: 'I know it must be hard, do you want to talk about it?'
Lucy: 'Right, i know this is going to sound really bad, but i am thinking of following in his footsteps and joining the army'
Friend: 'what, why would you do that? Your a woman!'
Lucy: 'What do you mean? How is that bad?'
Friend: 'Your brother just died?'
Lucy: 'If you can't support me then you are clearly not a friend, just leave me alone!' *walks off in a strop*
This scene then ends with Lucy storming off from her friend, upset that her friend didn't understand.

Script 1
This script is a voice over with Lucy explaining what is going on and it goes like this:
Lucy: 'Have you ever had somebody who you trusted and depending on so much, you feel lost without them? I did. My twin brother Matthew, he was a kind, generous person who you could always rely on and he was my best friend. Matthew went off to the army after his GCSE's, within a year he was out in afghanistan. Whilst he was out there he stood on an IE, which is the most common explosive bomb type in Afghanistan and he died.' *slight pause* 'All of my feelings have been crushed, and i lost my best friend that day.'
The script then goes into the sound of church bells which is where Matthew is buried and you see Lucy walking in and seeing a memorial stone, I feel this really sets the scene as how she is feeling, lost and sad.

The Last Scene

As our film plot has changed so many times now then it was getting difficult with what would actually look right in the film anymore. I decided maybe we could have that Lucy our main character goes a bit crazy in the end and she starts seeing her brother who is actually meant to be dead, i felt our film didn't really have anything in to make people really want to see it, this would bring a sick twist to the film, dragging people to want to watch it.
For this scene i decided that Lucy would of just came back from the woods and would go into the bathroom and wash her face because she thought she had seen Matthew. I filmed her from above washing her face and at other angles to make more effect.
Nicole then decided that she should start doing her make up in the mirror and maybe something else could happen, she came up with Matthew flashing in the mirror to really creap people out, i edited the film to make it that one minute Matthew is there and the next he isn't.
The scene then goes on as Lucy running downstairs as she does this she goes into the kitchen and i decided maybe she should see Matthew one more time just to make the audience feel very interested in the film, i decided he should be in the garden so when she is in the kitchen she see's him and gets more scared. As she see's him i added a banging noice into the film to make it more dramatic.
I then decided that Lucy should run upstairs with the camera following unsteadily to show that the situation going on isn't right, she then looks down the stairs and all the lights change which freaks her out.
I think this is a good way to end this three minute film as i think it drags the audience in to show them they want to see what else happens, it also show's to some teenagers it wouldn't just be a sad film with nothing happening in it.

Story Boards

For this storyboard above it does not have anything in the first box as we hadn't decided what out title was going to be that we now have decided it is 'Your On Going Presence', the top is the first couple of scenes from the film as it starts with the picture montage then the Matthew Moltell shot of his name. It then goes on to Lucy at the church in the next few boxes, it then goes on to Lucy in school talking to her friend and then leaving. The box afterwards is Lucy talking to her mum which is then followed by the next box with her walking into the woods, the next box is Lucy thinking there is someone behind here.

The rest of our film goes onto this story board where Lucy see's Matthew in the mirror and then runs down the stairs and puts the kettle on to then look outside and see Matthew again and then in the last two boxes she runs up the stairs to where it ends when the lights change and she runs of scared.