Evaluation - With Visuals

Evaluation

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Target Audience Feedback

Having posted the final product on Facebook to gain feedback we received these comments:

"I think the content of it is great how you lot have added effects such as black and white instead of colour gives it that classy look, but the transitions of when tom is getting beaten up could do with a minor tweak when heather hits him round with a bat make it more believable to make it more believable but other than that, I like how with every blinking eye that video blacks out"

"The opening killed it for me. Rest of it doesn't compare, the opening was brill :)"

"The beginning shots are varied which show the thought that went into shooting and storyboarding, it also makes it look more professional. In some places around 0.36 the audio from the actors are slightly quiet and drowned out by the music but the idea of it is there and the shots are good. The transitions could be smoother but the sharp effect makes it more interesting. The varied shots after 1.08 are good as they add an effect to the film and makes it more appealing to watch. I also think after 1.28, how the shots go black as he is blinking is a very effective way of showing it, makes it different and more powerful and engaging to watch. The only thing i'd say that needs improving is the sound control at 0.36, but apart from that the film is well made and shot."

'The camera angles are good, the bad bit is when the guys are sitting at the table, goes on for a bit and is unclear to the viewer.'

'Good editing, angles are good, music fits perfectly, didn't quite understand it though.'

'Music is very good, the title is misleading, baseball bat hitting is OK, I got confused, acting could be better, its good though for a first time thing, i liked it, 7/10'

'I like how all the shots are your basic angles, that at the end you have the shot from his eyes, footsteps all the way through is very clear, and background noise outside of the wind which may not of been intentional but worked well, although the voices are quite muffled.'

'I think the beginning is very good and the sound, but I find the 2nd half or 3/4's is very sloppy considering how good the first 1/4 is, but as this is your first wack at is its pretty good, i think you need to focus on lighting and clarity of the shot next time.'

'You could hear heather's heels well, the split screen thing was pretty good as well, i wasn't too crazy about her randomly walking back in though. As I had no idea why she was outside in the first place.'

Finished Product

Evaluation

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

I think that our media product doesn't challenge the forms and conventions of a Film Noir, however it does develop them. Whilst we followed the conventions of the genre, we decided to make the opening much more modern; we used the conventions of a 1940's Film Noir, and applied it to our modern opening. One aspect of a common convention we changed was the use of a voice-over, as we felt it made the film appear much less modern to what we were hoping, so instead used dialogue and music. To develop our understanding of modern Film Noir films, we watched the opening of 'Sin City' and also studied films such as 'LA Confidential' and 'Batman Begins' which although belong to the genre, they are not in black and white. They follow the common conventions - gangsters, protagonists, antagonists, dark, eerie, expressionistic lighting etc. The use of having openings all black and white began to die out, as many audiences preferred colour films, meaning that by us making our product black and white, we challenged the conventions. The use of upbeat non-diegetic sound in our product contrasted to the action, again challenging the conventions, as in a thriller film music is often used to connote a dark and eerie atmosphere. Whilst contemplating that our opening may be too cliché if we followed too many common conventions, our research taught us that the need for repetitive and similar conventions is essential.
- Similar to the opening shot of 'Sin City' - establishes dominance of main character and genre, allowing audience identification.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Having followed the conventions for a Film Noir we represented the female gender as more dominant than males, unlike many other thriller films which often represent males as the more authoritative and powerful gender. To represent the females dominance we focus largely on the use of camera angles, distances and editing; the use of low angles, close ups and the females on-screen time is essential to connote her power and authoritative status. We also use POV shots, to allow the female to be the only character present in the shot, further connoting her significance. Whereas, we use high angles to connote the males weakness, and use close ups to allow the audience to focus on the facial expressions of the character, which indexically implies fear and weakness. However, by having the three gamblers as males as well, it connotes that they still hold some power; however the female's dominance is much more significant. The use of gamblers represent the genre of the film, as they're a stereotypical character to have in a Film Noir and crime-related film. The characters are ideological to the genre, as they are used to reinforce the narrative concerning crime and gambling. Tom's character is presented as weak when faced with the female character, further connoting her dominance, this is connoted through scenes such as when the female approaches from behind and and grabs his head, the use of the high angle causes the female to look more superior and dominant.

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

I think that it's quite unlikely that our product would be distributed by a major Hollywood studio for various reasons. Whilst our opening follows the conventions of a Film Noir, I think that it's too predictable, ultimately seeming pointless to release in a cinema. However, I think that the film could be released as an arthouse film, delivered to a niche audience. As Film Noir's were most common in 1940's and very little exist in the 21st century our product could possibly add a new modern 'freshness' to the genre. German expressionism is suggested to be a reason for Film Noir films, as following World War 1, it was extremely difficult for film makers to produce extremely high quality films; this meant that they used symbolism and mise-en-scene to advocate the mood they were trying to display. Similarly, Film Noir film makers focused on the use of lighting, facial expression, positioning and symbolism to convey an atmosphere; this further provides reason as to why arthouse film enthusiasts may be more interested in our product. Having researched the target audience, many film enthusiasts aged 40 and older are most likely to watch a Film Noir, which suggests that if our film were to be released as an arthouse film, it allows the target audience to critic a more modern style film. As well as this, releasing the product as internet-only could allow a new target audience to appear, as few people are familiar with the genre a modernised form may attract and please the audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After having gained knowledge and understanding from the research on the BBFC website, we decided to have our opening as a 15 and above, as the content is not gory or too scary. However, a much older audience is more likely to watch the product because of the popularity of Film Noirs in the past. Our product fits into the crime-thriller genre, further widening the audience and suggesting that those who are younger may enjoy the overall film. The modernised genre film we created could attract a wider audience as whilst using the common codes and conventions in a repetitive way, we have challenged these to make the opening more interesting and similar to films nowadays. What's more, I think that women are more likely to watch our product, as it specifically represents females to be the more dominant gender, which contrasts to many other films; by watching a film where their gender is being presented as very significant, it will allow them to engage with the film, as there are fewer films which represent females to be stronger and more powerful.

How did you attract/address your audience?

During the research process, we created questionnaires to gain knowledge of our audience's interests; from this we learned that the majority of people enjoyed crime thrillers and action films. At the end of our project we also posted our finished piece on Facebook to gain feedback on what went well and what didn't. However, I think that our attempts to attract our audience could be improved, as whilst we did a lot of research on the genre, we didn't focus as much on the audience as we should have. I think that if I had the change again I would have a wider range of people fill out the questionnaires, and have people watch our product as we went, meaning that we could gain feedback quickly, allowing us improve our overall piece based on the audience's opinion. From audience feedback, we learned the importance of research and planning; the majority of the feedback stated that the opening 30 seconds was much better than the rest of the film. The opening 30 seconds was thoroughly planned, whereas the rest wasn't planned as much; this showed in our final product, as many people thought the significance of the opening was lost. I think that gaining more feedback before we had finished would be very beneficial, as we would have been able to increase the quality and disallow a disrupt in continuity.

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

The continuity task allowed me to gain some experience in using the camera and editing software, making the process of creating the opening much easier. I was first unsure of how the clips were to be cut/cropped to the suitable length for the product, however after exploring the tools in Adobe Premiere it was quite simple. However, whilst cropping and cutting the shots was simple, being able to cut it to the exact length that was necessary was much harder. I realised that even cutting the photo wrong by less than a second could create a disrupt in continuity. A particular problem we faced during the continuity task was that our camera wasn't level as result of the tripod, meaning that some of our shots appeared wonky and out of frame; this problem was beneficial to us when beginning our opening as it meant that we would often double check before filming to ensure the camera was level. The camera was fairly easy to learn how to use, however I personally struggled with using the editing equipment. I learned that to add music and sounds into the product, they were imported similarly to importing clips; this proved quite easy as it meant that I could easily understand and work on my own. However, whilst importing the clips was fairly simple, a problem that we faced was that some of the clips didn't import correctly, and the quality of them was hindered. To overcome this, we had to reimport the files, checking that the program didn't freeze. Overall, I have learned the correct and effective ways to use the software and camera, allowing me and the other members of my group to create a fairly high quality opening without the need of much assistance.

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

Since the preliminary task, I have learnt the important of research and planning; whilst we planned quite a lot for the task, it was evident that it wasn't enough. As we were told what shots we needed to include in the task, it allowed us to understand that we needed to know exactly what type of shot we wanted. We struggled in having a set shooting schedule, meaning that we would shoot last minute, causing our time to be rushed and lacking in organisation. As our product needed to be 2 minutes, our lack of planning hindered our product, as whilst we thought that the combination of shots we first had would make up the 2 minutes, it became evident that it merely made a minute and a half. However, as our product was progressing we began to have much sturdier shooting plans, and we knew which specific shots we were shooting at that time. As our product changed largely from our animatic, we found it extremely difficult to use our previous planning, as it was no longer relevant to our opening. I have learned that a weak plan creates a much weaker product, as it means that a lot of time is spent discussing what we should do next when the time should be used for filming and editing, which ultimately results in a product which may still have quality, however could be improved largely.

Rough Cut

This is the first draft of our production, having shown the teachers and gained some feedback it was evident that we needed to make many changes to improve the production. Firstly, it's only a mere 1:20 minutes, when it needed to be at least 2; to gain 40 more seconds we were told to lengthen our editing, add more dialogue and add more shots in, specifically close ups to further connote the females dominance. Within the feedback we were told that our camera work was generally steady and well filmed, however to improve this we were told to reshoot certain shots such as the ones of me drinking the wine, and the long shot of the male characters playing pool, as the lighting was extremely dark. The credits to our film were positioned fairly well, however the font style was a bit to eccentric, and a more simpler font sans serif would be much better to use, as it doesn't overpower the action and look too large. Having gained feedback, it was evident that the first 30 seconds of our production was much better than the rest, due to the variation of shot angles and distances; using this feedback, to enhance the quality of our production we are going to incorporate more angles and distances. Another aspect of our production we needed to improve was the use of non-diegetic and diegetic sound, our production consisted wholly of diegetic sound, and it was suggested to add non-diegetic sound to create more tensity, and allow each shot to link much better. Another aspect we could improve is our shot transitions, as we used cuts throughout the production, to add more variety would could incorporate dissolves and other transitions into our work.

Filming 15/03

As the deadline was approaching, it was essential for us to have all filming completed by the Tuesday evening, allowing us to edit and finish our product completely over the week. Using the feedback which we received from the teacher, we discussed new shots we could add in, and changes we could make to our previous shots. As it's essential for the female character to appear much more dominant and authoritative than other characters in a Film Noir, we paid close attention to the angles and distances we shot from. We used many low angles throughout to connote her authority, and a variety of close ups to allow the audience to further recognise the females power. However, whilst focusing on the female character, it was also necessary to focus on the male character as well, as the shots of the male connote his weakness. To allow the female to appear more supreme than the male throughout, we made sure that the male was never shot using a high angle, and if he was he would still be much lower than the female, causing her to look down on his weakness and lack of power. After filming, we began to edit the next day and luckily once edited, our footage came to 2.10 minutes, meaning that we had an appropriate amount of footage. Whilst experimenting with our shots, we decided to add in dissolves before the black screen, and during a POV of the female; we felt that using this transition it connoted the females dominance even more, and made the ending to our production look much better, as it didn't simply end on a cut to a black screen.

Filming 14/03

Having filmed all the footage and beginning to edit the following day we realised that our footage only covered roughly 1.20 minutes, meaning that we still needed to gain 40 seconds of filming somehow. With this in mind, we decided to shoot that evening in the hope to make up the other 40 seconds, this meant that we had to think of a list new shots and a basic storyline or series of images which followed our other footage. We decided to focus our opening around gambling, and having one of our male characters cheating, allowing the female to connote dominance through low angles and close ups. However, although we had more shots we were still unable to create a 2 minute opening with what we had, meaning that more shots were needed. As well as this, having gained some feedback from the teacher it was suggested to show the females dominance in a clearer way by having her appearing much more violent and aggressive in the shots.

Teacher's Feedback

After receiving some feedback from the teacher, we have decided to change a few aspects of our production to enhance the quality and also quantity. Our film was only a mere 1.20 seconds, meaning we had 40 seconds less than was expected. Having proposed a few of our new ideas to our teacher, it was suggested to create more intensity by introducing more torture and aggressiveness into our production. Whilst also receiving feedback on how to add more to our production, we were also told to rearrange some shots to allow the footage to flow better and make more sense. I think that gaining some feedback was essential, as we were evidently struggling with ideas, and creating a decent flow to our production. As well as this, I think it's much better to hear ideas from someone much more educated, and also not from your group, as their ideas are a lot more sophisticated and bold, allowing the production to stand out, as the shots are more daring, meaning that the production is not as simplistic and ordinary.

Editing

As we had quite a few problems with the mac equipment we were unable to upload and edit anything for a while, having overcome these problems we uploaded all of our material and began to edit. The editing allowed us to clearly realise what needed reshooting, and any shots that we needed to add in. We had roughly 4 shots to reshoot, as the quality of the shots was not as good as it could be. We have decided to add in a few more shots to make the opening flow better, as we feel that at the moment whilst the collaboration of shots works well, adding in a few more shots will allow it to make more sense. As we wanted the female to appear as the most dominant character we didn't focus on the males shot as much, this meant that when we were editing we realised that some of their shots didn't make much sense as they weren't introduced clearly; this meant that we're going to add in a long shot of the men playing pool. As well as this, whilst there are many shots of the female outside and inside, we don't see her enter the house, meaning that we needed to add in a shot of her entering the house. However, to create a variety of shots we're going to vary the angles and shot distances to allow the shots to interchange. After gaining feedback from the teacher, we were told that the beginning of our project worked very well, and he was pleased with our shots. However, the part of the sequence where the male gets dragged in seemed a confusing; to overcome this problem we are going to rearrange the shots, and not have this section of the project so near the end.

Filming 28/02

During this filming session before our male actors arrived we decided to shoot a tilt up to the female as we didn't need the males in that particular shot; we did a tilt to connote the females power and authority, as the male is forced to look up at her as he's on the floor. When the males arrived we followed our plan accordingly, first with a shot as they enter the room from outdoors at a high angle, connoting their lack of authority compared to the female. We had a shot of Sam being dropped from a POV of the female, further connoting how power. However, we realised that without seeing them enter the room the shots didn't go well together, meaning that we have decided to have another filming session where we will gain more shots of the male characters.

Filming 23/02

As we decided in our previous filming session to have more shots of the female figure, we spent some time before filming to think about what shots we could add in. After deciding to have some shots outside over Brogan's balcony, we considered whether it would be too cliché for a film Noir. However, many films have repetitive conventions and we felt that if it connoted the females dominance and made sense when put next to our other shots it would be fine, although we plan to ask the teacher when we're back at school for guidance as to whether it's a good idea or not. After looking back at our research on Film Noir films it became apparent that they use quite weird and different shots and we felt that we would try and experiment using this knowledge. We had a shot of a wine glass being put on top of the camera, allowing it to seem as though it was being placed on a surface, again as we are unsure as to whether the shots are good, we are going to ask for feedback from the teacher. We had a two shot of the female speaking to a male bodyguard, however as the male was much taller than the female we were unsure of how to make the female look dominant. We decided to shoot the two shot with the camera facing more to the female, and have the male walk away whilst the female doesn't move.

Filming 20/02

In this filming session we tried to get a few shots of the victim being dragged in, we first chose Tom to be dragged in by Brogan and Sam, but as Tom is taller than Sam we switched around their roles to connote the bodyguards dominance over the victim. We also began shooting in one location, but realised that it was quite difficult to view shadows in the shot which is a very important aspect of Film Noir. Due to this mishap we decided to rethink our location and set it in the conservatory where the female is filmed, as it's much easier to create shadows etc. As we were limited on time we decided to postpone the filming as we would have to reshoot all of the shots we filmed that evening. We wanted a range of shots as the males entered the room, but we didn't want the characters to appear more dominant than the female, meaning that we considered having more and longer shots of the female, as this means that she will have more onscreen time connoting importance and superiority.

Film Noir Typography

When researching Film Noir typography, I came across this video which has many examples of typography that's seen in Film Noir genre films, it allowed me to gain knowledge as to what font styles are seen in the films. The majority of Film Noir's use a Serif style font, meaning that there are strokes on the edges creating a mysterious and classy effect, reinforcing the overall connotations of the film; by using this style of font in the opening it informs the audience of what type of Film Noir they're going to be watching, foreshadowing the atmosphere that will be created.

Comparisons to 'Sin City'

For our opening we used Frank Miller's Film Noir 'Sin City' as a guideline to help us. As I analysed this opening at the beginning of my research, it allowed me to understand the conventions necessary for a Film Noir; this allowed me to apply this knowledge to our opening, by using similar techniques and shots to connote the females dominance. Our opening shot was a low angle shot of the female looking over a balcony, meaning that the female is the first person in the opening they see, connoting her authoritative status. We were unsure whether this would be too cliché, however a repetitive use of conventions is often what makes films successful. With this in mind we chose to keep the shot, however vary the other shots so it wasn't too similar to 'Sin City'. As well as this, whilst 'Sin City' uses cigarettes as a prop to iconically suggest toughness, we used a glass of wine to iconically connote the females dominant yet elegant character.

Individual Progression

Since the starting of the AS media coursework, I feel that I have improved vastly. I began with little knowledge and understanding about films, however I am now able to distinguish genres and sub-genres easily allowing me to apply this knowledge to my coursework. As well as this, when we first began filming I had difficulty in keeping a steady hand when using the camera, I was much better after the continuity task but I feel that I've progressed even more since filming the actual opening; as no one in my group is especially skilled at using the camera, I think that having some experience with the camera makes it much easier for the group to progress, as I can have some input as to how the camera should be positioned to make the shot effective.

Feedback & Changes

Feedback
After receiving feedback from the teacher, it allowed the group to realise that we were focusing more on less important aspects of the opening instead of the essential parts; we were spending too much time focusing on a plot than the actual shots themselves, hindering our progress. Our planning was less specific and detailed as we thought, especially our shooting schedule meaning that it was more difficult for us to get along with the filming than first expected. Our opening has changed vastly since we created our animatic, and whilst this could be seen as a bad move as it meant we didn't have a series of images which we could use as a guideline, it allowed us to understand the positives and negatives with our animatic and develop from this. It was evident that whilst our animatic was clear in the shots we were going to use, it had too much of a plot which isn't what the opening to a film should consist of. With this in mind, we focused more on getting a good series of images than a plot.

Changes
New Character Profile:
Heather Casey
Age: 16
Unfortunately, as our previous actress was ill, we felt that it was best to change the actress as we needed to be able to film fairly quickly, and also have time to do reshoots as well. It made sense to change the actress to someone who is part of the group, as it would be much easier to plan and organise any extra reshoots that were necessary.

Female Protagonist

Elegant clothing - black dress, heels

Main character in opening, dominance connoted through low angles, close ups, and POV shots.

Filming 16/02

Due to our first actress being ill we had to change the actresses, and whilst making this change we decided to change some of our shots as well. We thought it was a risky decision, but felt that with a much more sturdy shot list and plan we'd be able to work much quicker and more effectively. We varied our location and had less shots in the same place as we didn't want the audience to lose interest. We paid close attention to angles, as they are very significant in Film Noir genres, as they connote the importance and status of the characters. As our male actors were unable to attend we had to change our shooting plan slightly as we intended to shoot most of their shots. We decided to shoot the majority of the female characters shots, as this meant that we didn't waste our session, and that we could postpone the male actors filming for another time. Another aspect of the opening we decided to change was our props; we were first using cigarettes throughout the opening to iconically represent the females boisterous attitude, however we felt that a glass of wine created a more elegant atmosphere whilst still allowing the female to appear dominant and powerful.

Filming 02/02

As we gained feedback from our first filming session, it made our second filming session much more productive than our first. We knew what shots we needed allowing us to spend less time discussing what we were doing, and more time filming. We specifically tried to focus on filming using different angles, especially low angles to connote the females significance in the opening. However, as the female character mainly stays in the same place throughout the opening, we found it quite difficult to think of ways we could show her as a dominant character. We used many close ups and long shots of her to increase her on-screen time, which ultimately connotes importance and dominance. However, we realised that as our other actors were not available to film, there was not the diegetic sound of the men playing pool and talking. We attempted to create the sounds, however we felt that it would sound much better with the actual male actors. On the other hand, we considered using non-diegetic sound accessed from copyright free websites, however we are undecided on what option we are going to take as of yet, meaning we will experiment with both ways and evaluate them to see what is best.

Filming 31/1

In our first filming session we tried to shoot the first few shots that were seen in our animatic, after realising that we could use new shots such as long shots and mid shots to create more variety, we began to consider our audience more and what they want to see. We also realised that we were not as prepared and organised as we thought, we knew we were going to be shooting Falcon but as we did not have the animatic with us we found it difficult to remember what shots we were supposed to shoot. When we next film we will make sure that we have access to our animatic, and discuss what we plan to do before the filming session, as it means we won't waste as much time, and hopefully filming the shots will be less time consuming, leaving us more time to focus on the smaller aspects of the opening such as continuity errors.

Points to consider:

- Think about time, how long we have to film etc.

- Organise and know what shots we will be shooting in that particular session

- Assign jobs to the group to make the production less time consuming and allow more time for editing

Shooting Schedule

Animatic

Throughout the production of the animatic we came across many issues, causing the process to be much harder than we expected. We particularly struggled with drawing the images so that the audience could understand them and have questions at the end, ultimately engaging them and have them wanting to see more. To overcome this problem we had others watch the opening and we'd then ask them what they gathered from the range of images, if they were still unsure we would edit the images or add more images until they understood. Another problem we faced was applying music and sounds to the opening, it was fairly difficult to find sounds which were copyright free, and fit correspondingly to the action.

Typography

When deciding what type of text to use in our opening, as it's a Film Noir it was essential to use either a black or white font. At first we thought a white font with a black outline would be best as we were planning on using it over the top of the action; after deciding to put the text on a black screen it was apparent that black font with a white outline looked better. When choosing the font of our typography we had to consider the narrative of our opening; certain fonts appear childlike, and would diminish the meaning of the opening. For this reason, we chose to use a fairly plain font, which connoted seriousness and suspense.


- Black text with a white outline
- Black screen
- Wipe effect
- Style:
Sans Serif
Plain
Strong


Examples of text we're using:

Evaluation

When thinking about the title sequence for our opening, it was important to consider the colours of the typography as we're doing a Film Noir, meaning we had to carefully think about what colours would look best on black and white. We were undecided on whether to use a black font with a white outline, or a white font with a black outline; we needed to use a font that would be visible over the action, but we didn't want the text to be too obvious that it dominated the screen/shot. We decided that the shot should be roughly 15 seconds long, but over the top of the images; we felt that having the text on a plain black screen for 15 seconds would cause our target audience of young 15 year olds to become agitated and lose concentration.
For our storyboard we made sure we focused on the camera angles and distances when drawing the images, we felt it was extremely important to have the images drawn fairly similar to how we pictured the opening to look. However, at some points we struggled to show that the images were drawn at an angle making it more difficult for us to recognise the angles we wanted to use. As well as this, we made sure we had alternative options of certain shots; this meant that we would have a larger choice of shots to use, hopefully meaning there would be less reshoots needed. On the other hand, alternative shots made the process of creating the animatic a little harder as we were unsure which of our alternative shots to use, without having to make more than one animatic.