From the preliminary tasks I had learnt how to create footage that flowed smoothly and matched between shots. We looked at how match on action is made and how to shoot a scene, for example the 180 degree rule. Although I didn't use this rule in my final piece, it was helpful to know when giving feedback to other media students.
Another thing I have learnt and improved on is the composition and lighting in shots. For example, at the start of the preliminary tasks my shooting would be dark and the composition not well thought about which lead to noticeable differences in each shot. For the final task I focused a lot on lighting to try and make the right atmosphere and match in each clip.
In the preliminary task we didn't take many shots, we just took a few to make it easier, however I learnt that it wasn't made easier as it was difficult to edit with a small number of shots. In the final project I found it much easier that we had a variety of different shots and angles to choose from when it came to editing as I was able to decide which shot was best for the scene.
Another thing in which I had improved on from the preliminary task is the use of sound. In the continuity task and other preliminary tasks I didn't use any sound effects. The sounds were quite raw as I had only recorded them with the camera I was using. For the final cut I made a set of music on Garage Band to place over the top of the sounds in the film as they were also quite raw. I also used sound effects such as the door creaking to place over the top of the music to emphasise the action.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 1

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

http://youtu.be/hDadMYIj7QY

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 3 SCRIPT

I: Hello and welcome to BBC Radio 2. Today I am joined by Rhiannon Ingham, producer of the new hit film Caught Red Handed, to talk about the film and the industry. Welcome, Rhiannon.

R: Hello I, thank you for inviting me on the show.

I: So, your film is produced in association with Owl Entertainment, I hear this new production company is set to expand in the upcoming months.

R: Yes that's right. Owl Entertainment started very small with very little funding, but we've been given sponsors to enable us to reach larger films and collaborate with bigger companies such as Universal Studios.

I: How did you manage to fund your film, and how do films like yours get their finance?

R: Some companies can get government grants, where a council may finance the film if all or part of the film was shot in that area. There are also tax incentives and shelters. With a British Tax Shelter, which aims to minimise tax costs of the film. These can be applied if that part of the film is shot in Britain and the majority of cast and crew are British. There are other ways, such as having private investors looking to show more risk-taking opportunities on their record. Pre-sales are another way of financing a film by selling the rights to it before the film is made.

I: Where did the name, Owl Entertainment, come from?

R: It's not a very interesting story, I knew I wanted to create a production company and I was stuck for names. The name came to me when I was at the zoo looking at an owl enclosure. I thought that Entertainment would fit well with it and it has a good ring to it. Owl Entertainment, it just flows.

I: I totally agree, so I'm guessing the logo came about the same way?

R: Yeah, the logo is an owl in flight. When I was making the ident, I was playing around with Photoshop. I erased the background of the pictures of the owl, took away the colour and made it look a bit like it's from a comic book. The logo itself is a still from the ident with Owl Entertainment spelled under it's wing.

I: So, we know the production companies are involved in making films, but what do they actually do?

R: A production company is the company responsible for the actual production of film or television from script writing, casting, filming, post-production, distribution and marketing. We're responsible for funding and selling the products to studios and cinemas.

I: You mention distributing, what is a film distributor and what do they do?

R: Okay, so a film distributor is a person or a company who are responsible for marketing the film. They can set the release dates of films and decide how they are marketed like DVD, in the cinema, etc. They're also in control of posters, TV commercials, newspaper and magazine adverts and many other types of advertisements. 

I: Why are some people mentioned in the titles?

R: In the title sequence I included all the people who had worked on the film. There are a range of people to fit each job.

I: What are the jobs that appear in the titles?

R: We have a number of jobs included in the opening sequence. We have the producer, editor and director, actors, camera operating, costume design, hair and make up and the music producer. They appear in the order of the most popular above the line talent to the least.

I: How has your film been released?

R: We decided to release the film simultaneously on all areas of media such as Cinema, VOD, DVD and television broadcast as it is quite a low budget film and would have made the biggest profit from this route. A film that has been released in a similar way is A Field In England, which was a low budget British film released simultaneously. It was the first film to be released this way.

I: That's all we have time for today I'm afraid. Thank you, Rhiannon, for taking the time to be here to discuss the film industry and how it works. If you want to see Rhiannon star in the new film Caught Red Handed, it's in cinemas near you now.

R: Thank you, it's been a pleasure.

Evaluation Question 2

 The character I play in the film opening sequence is an innocent girl/woman who is very aware of her surroundings and gets a bit hysterical about things which happen out of the ordinary. This is quite stereotypical of a girl in a thriller film as they are usually portrayed as weak and emotional or damsels in distress that need saving. 

My character is very much alike to Renai on Insidious. She is a mum who is usually alone in a large house who happens to hear unusual things and gets spooked by them. Like my character, she tends to investigate what is going on and seems to be the only person who notices and is effected by what happens. Renai is attacked by an antagonist in the film like I am in the opening sequence. 

There are some differences between my character and Renai. One being that she is able to get help from family where as mine is alone throughout. Another difference is that she is being scared of a paranormal being and my character is frightened by an actual being.

Another character which is similar to mine is Mary Sandin on The Purge. She is also a mum (unlike my character) living in a big house. Similar to my character, she is very wary of what is going on in her home as people break in to it. She is very innocent, emotional and undeserving of what happens to her in the film which is very like my character. She is punished, along with the rest of her family, for helping out a man who was about to be murdered. She tries to hide and protect herself and her family.

Unlike my character, she is able to prepare and defend herself with weapons as she knows that she will be in danger before the villains break into the house.

All three characters are similar in many ways. They are also stereotypical of women in thriller/horror films as they are shown as being weak and unable to defend themselves on their own. They are portrayed as being dependent on a man and very scared of what happens.

Evaluation Question 4

Cameron is an 18 year old living in California. He enjoys doing a range of leisure activities in his spare time such as playing football, skateboarding, going to the cinema and playing volleyball. During this time, Cameron tends to talk about things that he finds interesting with his friends, such as new film releases and football results. 

 He uses a variety of social networking sites, however the ones he uses the most are Twitter and Vine where he has somewhat of a fan base. He likes to share his viewpoints and opinions on certain things on these sites, which also helps to promote them to his followers.
He tends to access films in a variety of ways. The main ways in which he does this is by going to the cinema or viewing the films on websites such as Netflix. He likes to have the cinema experience of watching a film and being able to watch it with a lot of friends. He also likes Netflix because it's easily accessible so he can watch films whenever he wants to.
His favourite films include The Purge, Olympus Has Fallen, Taken, Insidious and Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. These films clearly fall into a particular genre which is Action Thriller. He likes to be scared by films and put on the edge of his seat. He takes his friends along to see new films with him so they can be scared too. Sherlock is one of his favourite television shows as he likes to work out and analyse things to do with crime and 'who done it.' He tends to figure out who done it before the detectives do in shows and films like Sherlock and finds that having several plot twists makes it more interesting as it's harder to figure out.

Cameron will probably find out about the film and decide to watch it by seeing advertisements on social networking sites which he uses such as Twitter and also in the trailers at the cinema before a screening. He may also hear about it through word of mouth when he is socializing with his friends. I think he would enjoy our film as it fits well with the genre of films that he likes. He will be able to try and figure out how it'll end and 'who done it' but there may be quite a few plot twists which will keep him engaged. 

Final Cut

Rough Cut Feedback

After showing the rough cut to my friends/peers I have received quite a bit of useful feedback. Some of the examples of the positive feedback I got included:

"I really like the match on action, it seems to flow really well"

"I like the way the music builds the tension as the sequence goes on, it's very effective"

"The light editing works well to show the genre"

Feedback on the improvements I could make included:

"You could make the titles longer so it's easier to read them before they change"

"There's one clip where the lighting's different so it could be better if it's edited the same as the others"

I think this feedback is quite useful and when editing for my final cut I will bare this in mind to create a better film opening sequence.

Rough Cut

Diary Post 18/02/2014

Today me and Laura started editing our film opening sequence. There is still a lot we need to do but I have figured out the effects I will use on my sequence and the general style of it. I still need to add titles and make the match on action better as well as including the scenes we haven't filmed yet. This will now be done tomorrow instead as we need someone to help with the camera due to both of us being in the scene and our camera person has made other plans (again).

Diary Post 17/02/2014

Today we re-filmed some of our footage as it wasn't light enough. We also filmed more scenes and shots so we're almost done with filming. We were limited to the amount of filming we could do as the College's camera battery had run out and we had no one helping with the camera. Tomorrow we plan to put together the shots we've got and try and make them flow as best we can. We'll also finish filming the scenes we haven't gotten round to yet so we will be able to finish the rough cut by thursday. The final cut (we hope) will be done by friday, but some things that are unforeseen may come up and disturb this plan.

Diary Post 12/02/2014

Due to mock exams and art coursework taking priority we have not been able to film. We had plan to film last night (Tuesday) but the person who we had planned to help film our opening had double booked her plans so we were unable to. As today is my last day in college before the half term-due to sociology trip on Thursday and inset day on Friday I will not be able to get any editing done by the half term even if we had filmed tonight. Our plan is to film on Saturday and Sunday so we can edit during the half term, despite dropping marks on time management.

Shot list

Marketing Strategy and Distribution

This is a short sequence of how we can display our film and get publicity for it.

Shooting

The film opening sequence will take place in my house as we decided the layout will work particularly well with the camera angles and we can use it to build tension. It will need to take place in a house as that is the setting in which burglaries tend to take place, as apposed to an outdoor area. The main issue with filming at my house is the number of family members I have, as they will create background noise and difficult to get out of the house to film. To overcome this, we will have to film whilst they're working and at school or we may have to bribe them.

It should be fairly easy to control the lighting as we will be inside the house. On our first attempt of filming we found that the lighting was quite dim and the character looked more of a silhouette. We wouldn't be able see what she is doing or picking up so to improve the quality of light we will place a light from all angles to capture every aspect in the shot. We also decided to shoot at about 3 in the afternoon as it will be around dusk which is the exact atmosphere we need to match the genre and plot.

There will be two characters in the title sequence. Laura will play a highly experienced and well known thief who has their own mark which they leave to show it was them. She will be wearing all black, with a cat mask and black boots. I will be playing the innocent and unknowing victim of the burglary. I will be wearing a white top as it shows purity and innocence, contrasting to the villain which shows the clear difference between the two characters. The thief will be moving quickly and smoothly as she is professional in thieving where as the victim will be walking slow and hastily around as they are scared and could be in danger.

Title Planning

Diary Entry 27/01/2014

Last week we started our filming for the opening sequence, however the lighting was too dark as we had thought the light was just right but it turned out to be darker than expected in the playbacks.

These are stills from some of the clips we have from our filming. As you can see, it is quite dark and hard to see the subject. To overcome this, we have decided to reshoot it earlier on in the day so we have more natural light to make it easier to see. I don't think the use of artificial light will be very effective in the film as it doesn't go with the plot. What I mean by this is that there is a burglary taking place and the victim was asleep, so lights around the house probably wouldn't be turned on and it's easy to tell the difference between natural and artificial lighting.

Props list

Most of the props we will be using in the title sequence will be for the burglar to steal, eg. Earrings, watches, phones, consoles, money and jewellery. These are the common items which thieves would typically go for in a burglary. Some props will be used either by the burglar or the victim for attacking or defence, these include baseball bats and knives. We will be using a poster to show the antagonists story, eg. That she's wanted villain and there'll be a reward for her capture. Another prop will be a cat mask as the antagonist will be some kind of Cat burglar.

Marketability

Setting

This is what my landing looks like, one which will be used as the burglar creeps around the house. I think it's quite good as it's somewhat open so using different lights will be fairly easy. Also, it is a good layout for the action that will be used. For example, you see the end of the landing is a T shape, to the left and the right there are 2 more doors which cannot be seen from this picture. The burglar could sneak from the right and the silhouette of the burglar will go to the left.


TBC

Change of plan

Our group have decided to change the idea of our opening sequence as we felt the kidnapping idea would go no where and we wasn't as interested in it as we'd hoped.

Our new idea will be based in a house, as it is easier to control lighting and background noise. This would make it better to create the atmosphere we'd like in our opening sequence. It's also good to do it in a house as it fits with the storyline.

The plot to the opening is that a masked woman breaks into a house through the downstairs window. She takes picks up valuable items such as jewellery and mobile devices then makes her way to the stairs. She happens to stand on a creaky floorboard which causes another woman to open her eyes after having a nap and notices her phone or something valuable has disappeared. She cautiously moves around to see what's going on, without making too much noise as she knows she could be in danger. The burglar goes into the bedroom and we see the woman also go in to the bedroom which becomes quite tense as she is in danger by being near the burglar. The camera pans round and we see that there is nothing in the bedroom so the tension begins to die down. The woman then moves and we see a bit of the burglar behind her, our aim is to make the audience jump from this. The burglar continues taking money from draws and goes out onto the landing. The other woman is in the next room, we can see she is there but the burglar is unaware. She slips into a closet and holds it tightly shut. The burglar creeps slowly to the closet and we hear the victim breathing heavily and her heart pounding. The burglar slowly opens the door handle and the door flies open. The screen then cuts to black and the title appears.

We had thought about including wanted posters in the opening scene as part of the mise-en-scene to add more backstory to it, as the viewer will be able to tell that the character is a master thief and one not to be reckoned with.

The genre of the film will remain the same despite the change of plan. The characters will have the same sort of roles as Laura will still be the villain and I will still play the victim.

The rest of the film could go on to be a documentary about the burglars life and how she came to be a burglar. A bit like Banksy's Exit through the gift shop film which describes the life of Banksy and Thierry Guetta (Mr Brainwash).

This clip from This Means War is a good example of how we could use camera angles and action to make it flow effectively and create the tension. The only difference being that the music and lighting will be different to make it less comedic.

 

Screenplay

Marketability

Our target audience is for people of both gender aged 16 and over. We decided this because there will be some violent scenes which won't be appropriate for people younger than this age. The higher end of our target audience will be about 30 year olds as people of this age seem to be quite interested in fast paced action thrillers. Anyone over the age of 30 may have less interest in our genre of film so this will be the highest end of the target market. 

Despite our target market is 16-30 year olds, people outside of this range may still watch the movie as our movie may have aspects which interest younger or older people so we cannot generalise it to a particular age range.

Action films were the most popular in 2012, mainly due to the release of the recent Bond film, Skyfall. Thrillers aren't quite as popular, coming 9th on the table produced by BFI.

Research into genre