Evaluation Question 7

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

I feel that I have made alot of progress from the preliminary task till now. Not only have I learnt alot about the film making process and how to make a professional looking film but I feel I have also learnt alot about what it takes to work in a team and organising team projects.

Above I have embedded my preliminary task and my completed film for easier reference.

One of the things that I found did not go so well in my preliminary task is the continuity when Lewis chases Dean through the door at 0:55. I believe that this continuity issue was then corrected at 1:01 in 'Sins of the Father' when the car door opens (match-on-action). Also, our sound was an issue in our preliminary task so we tried our hardest to make sure that it was better in our final film.

We learnt throughout the year that it is very difficult to cut footage so that you do not create a jumpcut and the film flows smoothly. Because of this we always made sure that we were very careful and checked for any mistakes.

The character of the caretaker in our preliminary task was not very convincing as we did not choose his costume, whereas, in Sins of the Father we have dressed the actors to fit their characters profiles. For example, we have dressed the stepfather in a shirt and trousers to show that he has a high social status.

I have learnt alot about the process of making a film from the research to the final product. Another thing I have learnt is that working as a group can be quite difficult if work is not completed by every group member and so it is important to do your fair share during any group work.

I feel that the most important thing I have learnt is that time management skills are just as important as media skills when making a film. Overall, I have found this year very interesting and have enjoyed my time in media studies.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Below is a screen-cast of me presenting a Prezi we have made to answer this question.

 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Above is an interview we conducted with Daniel to see in which ways we attracted our target audience.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be your audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film was older teenagers up to middle-aged people who like to watch films with a hint of mystery. We also decided to aim it at males rather than females because the reviews of Psycho on IMDB are mostly written by males. 

   

 Daniel Jones is a 19 year old university student studying Criminology. In his spare time Daniel enjoys going to the cinema and watching thrillers. His favourite film of all time is Psycho, as he likes the eerie feeling the film gives off. He also enjoys the film Jaws. He is single and lives with a group of 5 male friends at the University he attends in Wolverhampton. He went to a state comprehensive school in Walsall and achieved 11 GCSE’s and 4 A Levels, his best subject being Psychology.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Our film was made to be a British Independent film meaning the distributor would most likely be somebody who specialises in these films. There are many ways that you can distribute a film, for example Cinema, DVD and Download. I am now going to research some companies who distribute short films as I believe this is necessary for us, I will then give a short description of the company.

http://www.elypsefilm.com/

Elypse are a distribution company based in spain, however, they also distribute films world wide. They have many films in their catalogue and they do not seem to have a specification for what they are looking for. They also seem easy to contact, and I believe that they would distribute our film for us.


http://www.dazzlefilms.co.uk/

Dazzle is a short films distributor. They are based in London and they distribute "From 90-second, digital micro-movies to super-35mm masterpieces" which means they would probably distribute our film. Also, they have an e-mail address and telephone number on the website which we can easily access.

http://www.omnifilmdistribution.com/

Omni is a film distributor who also sell them on DVD. They distribute films of all lengths and genres, which would mean they would definitely be a good choice of distributor for us. On the website you can also view and purchase the DVD's they are currently distributing.

I believe that our best chance of getting our film distributed would be by Dazzle because of the length of our film. Another way we could get our film seen would be at a film festival, however we would have to research into which film festivals will show a 2 minute beginning to a film.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Teenagers

In our film we represented the social group of working class teenagers. We did this by getting our actors and actresses to walk out of a school whilst wearing their school uniforms in a very specific way. The boy in the white shirt wore his shirt untucked without a tie or blazer, this could suggest that he may not have a lot of money and also doesn't really care about his appearance, i.e. a rebel. The other boy in the shot has his hands in his pockets which shows he is quite arrogant, another stereotype of working class teenagers. The dialogue used was a discussion of an after-school detention showing that they are quite rebellious and break the rules, which is a general stereotype of working class teenagers.

The freezeframe above is of our teenager having an argument with her stepdad. We did this because a stereotype of teenagers is that they are very hormonal and argue with their parents. This stereotype is further enhanced by the fact she is arguing with her stepfather; playing on the stereotype of childrens' relationships with their stepparents, often portrayed as negative and tense.

The bag that the girl in this shot is holding is a inexpensive, high street, copy of a more desirable branded fashionable bag. This represents working class teenagers as having a limited budget to spend on fashion. Also, the way she has her bag 'slung' over her shoulder suggests a lack of etiquette or 'breeding'. 

Also in this picture there is a 'hoodie' which suggests an environment where troublesome teenagers are the  'norm'. The girls lack of attention to the 'hoodie' shows she is not phased by them being there; this is her natural environment.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Key Frame 1
Location
For our location we used a local UK police station to give the effect that the father has a criminal past and to give our viewers an insight into the mans background. Police stations, prisons and the legal system are often a focus for thrillers, for example The Shawshank Redemption which is set in a prison.

This is an image from Shawshank Redemption which includes a prison settings.

Key Frame 2
Props
For our film we used a number of props, for example we used a students school bag for our girl because this is what a typical student would have when leaving school at the end of the day. This makes our girl look more like a typical school girl and as if she has just come from a long day at school and is leaving for home. We also used a letter in our film, this is to show that the girl and the step dad are arguing about a letter from the school about her bad behaviour and the step dad is not happy with this.

Key Frame 3 and 4
Camera shots
During our film we used a range of different camera shots. In Key Frame 3 we have zoomed in on the school sign, this is to show the viewers where the scene is set and the name of the school shows that this establishment is a state comprehensive school. This then leads into Key Frame 4, which is the same camera shot a few seconds later. We chose to zoom out of the sign to create an establishing shot of the whole school.

Key Frame 5
Titles and Ident
The title "SINS OF THE FATHER" is in a bold white font on a black background which makes it stand out, we have chosen a black background because the end of the film fades out to black and this creates a good effect and then the title is typed onto the screen .We have chosen a typewriter effect to drag out the suspense which we created during the film and to leave the viewer wanting to watch the rest of the film. We have also created an ident and put this at the start of the film, this is also white writing on a black background with an effect to make it look more professional and interesting for the viewer. Our company name is DOMINO PRODUCTIONS and the effect of the ident links to this name as it could relate to dominos. We feel that our ident is unique and would be very easy to recognise when compared to other idents.

This is a well know ident for the company 20th Century Fox Television.

This ident is simple yet effective as it is extremley well known for its image and background music.

This is the titles from the thriller "The Shawshank Redemption."

These titles are similar to our film titles as they have the same colour scheme.

Key Frame 6
Effects
We used many effects in our film, for example in our flashback scene we added a sepia effect to create an old fashioned feel so our viewers know that the scene is from the past so is probably a flashback. We also used a fade in effect into the flashback so that people realise that it is in the past and its a flashback. We put a textual overlay on to the beginning of the flashback to show that this piece of footage is from 10 years ago, to inform the viewers that the girl in the flashback is the girl at the beginning of the film but a younger version.

This is a shot from an old film called "Wild Harvest' set in 1947. In the 1940's sepia was a popular effect for films but is not very common in recent thrillers today. As sepia is related with the past we have used it for our flashback so people can relate to this and they will feel more like our film has gone into the past and is a flashback

Key Frame 7 and 8
Introducing Characters
In Key Frame 7 we have a long shot of the father coming out of a police station, this makes the viewer imagine his background from the insent, making them think he has a criminal past or has been in prison. This single shot means we don't need to devote more time of our film explaining the characters background. In Key Frame 8 we have shown a group of working class teenagers leaving school, this is to instantly show the viewer that the girl character is a schoolgirl and to make the rest of the plot (the argument with step-father) make more sense.

Key Frame 9
Mise-En-Scene
In this frame we chose for the stalkers face to not be shown. This is a convention used in thrillers frequently and it is used to create mystery and tension, as the audience is unaware of who the stalker is. Also, by hiding their face it makes the character more scary and 'thrilling'.

This is a shot from "The Strangers" in which the stalkers are wearing masks. By hiding their faces this keeps the characters anonymous, meaning it keeps a barrier between the audience and the characters.

We have also used a creepy background soundtrack as this is used in a lot of thrillers to add tension.

Final Cut

This is our final cut.

Enjoy!

Re-shoots and Re-edits

After hearing our feedback from our peers we made the following changes:
-We changed the name of the title to Sins of the Father, and made the typewriter effect quicker.
-We added an indent to the start to make it look more professional.
-We did a textual overlay on the flashback so that the audience know its 10 years earlier.
-We recording a shot of the dad looking at a picture of the young girl and edited it in after the flashback.

Unfortunately, we were unable to overdub the sound of the dialogue due to not being able to get the same actors, however, we feel that this minor problem does not effect our film that much and we are now happy with the finished product.

Target Audience Feedback

We showed our peers our rough cut on 20th March so that we could get feedback. Above I have embedded the recording from that day. They suggested that our title needs to be quicker and the name should be changed to something more sinister, therefore we are going to change the speed and have decided to change the name to Sins of the Father...

They also pointed out that we did not have an ident so we are adding one to the start with our production name 'DOMINO.M.G', this will be in the typewriter effect to match the titles. Another thing they pointed out was that the dialogue was a bit quiet, we plan to improve this by overdubbing the sound.

As we thought may have happened, our peeps did not understand why the flashback was there. This has led us to decide that for the flashback it would be useful to have a textual overlay so that the viewer fully understands that it is in the past.Also, we are going to add a point of view shot of the dad looking at a picture of the young girl to show the audience that the picture is what triggered the flashback.

Rough Cut

This is our rough cut. We believe that it is quite successful and that there are not many changes that we need to make. We are happy with the eerie feeling that the film gives off as this was our aim when making the film. One thing we think the viewers may not understand is the flashback, so we are going to show it to our peers on Tuesday 13th March to see whether this is how they feel. We will then make changes to our film to make it the best it can possibly be.

Editing the Footage

We edited our film in Final Cut Express. We did this by capturing the footage and then cutting and editing together the shots onto the timeline. Once we decided that all the shots were edited together correctly, we then started to add effects. One of the effects we used was sepia, we added this to every clip to make it look a little bit darker, we then changed the amount of sepia so that it was just a slight colour change. 

We made the amount of sepia quite high on the flashback to show that it was the past.

For the flashback we also used a transition to make it fade back into real time. We also made the last shot dissolve into the titles to create a dramatic effect. 

For the indent and title we used a black background with white typewriter effect, we decided to use this as we believe the simplicity adds to the eerie feeling of the film. 

Shooting on Location

On Tuesday 28th February we shot outside Bloxwich Police Station and outside GWPAHS, this was our first time of filming together and it went really well, we got the shots that we needed for our film, including a establishing shot of the police station which went very well and we will use in our film at the beginning.

The next bit we filmed was on Wednesday 29th February at Rebecca's house, during this time we attempted to film the flashback scene with a young child, this was very unsuccessful as she found it difficult to act with strangers she did not know, because of this we had to shoot this scene again but with a different little girl. This time we decided to use an older girl so that we could focus on our filming techniques rather than a younger child. We did this on Monday 5th March and it went very well, as we got all the footage we needed and we believe that this turned out to be one of our best shots.

On Tuesday 6th March we filmed again outside GWPAHS for a number of hours, most the shots in our film were recored in this time. The only problem that we found during our filming was that it was quite windy so the voices in these shots are a bit quieter.

Preparing for the Shoot

To be able to shoot our film we will need the following equipment:
-Canon Video Camera
-Tape
-Tripod and Adapter

This is an image of a tripod that we will be using. We use this so that we get steady shots.

This is an image of the type of camera that we will be using to shoot our film.

We have assigned roles to each person, these are as follows:

Camerawork-Rebecca

Director-Jess

Sound recording-Rebecca and Jess

Managing actors and distributing scripts- Dean

Monitoring continuity- Dean

Costumes- Laura

We now feel like we are ready to begin shooting our film and feel confident that it will go well.

Shooting Schedule

We have created a shooting schedule so that myself, Dean, Jess, Laura and the actors know where they have to be and when. Also, what props need to be took the location.Shooting Schedule

Anamatic

We have completed an anamatic so that we can tell what our completed film will look like and whether it will fit into two minutes.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard, a storyboard is used to show the camera operators and directors what generally happens in each shot and what type of shot it is. In our film we are using quite a lot of point of view shots, from the fathers point of view. Also, we are using a few shot reverse shots to show the argument between the stepdad and the girl.

Storyboards are very effective as they can give you an idea of what your film will flow like.

Prop List

A props list is important so that when shooting the characters always have the props they need during the correct scenes.

Prop	Character that uses it	Scene needed in
School Bag	Girl	Shot 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
School Folders	Girl	Shot 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
Letter from the school	Stepdad	Shot 6, 7 and 9
Painting done by child	Child	Shot 8
Picture of child	Dad	Shot 7
Red Car	Stepdad	Shot 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9
Suitcases	Dad Mom	Shot 1 and 2 Shot 8

Costume Research

Real Dad

This is a picture of Mike Delfino out of Desperate Housewives, he is an ex-convict and he has stubble and a mysterious look about him, this is the type of person we want to play the real father. However, we want him to wear all black as black represents bad people.

Stepfather

We have decided that we want the stepfather to be wearing a suit like the man in this picture, this is so that he looks like he is higher up on the social hierarchy than the real dad implying he is a better person.

Teenage Girl and her Friends

I have chosen this image from the Inbetweeners because it shows the teenagers all in the same school uniform but worn differently, the main teenage girl would be the girl on the right with her tie undone as this would show she is quite a naughty character.

Younger Version of Teenage Girl

I have chosen this image of a young girl because she is looking cute as she is looking up, this is the type of shot that we want in the flashback as she looks very innocent.

Young Mom

This image of quite a young mother is the type of person we want to play our young mom as she is very fresh faced and looks asif she could do no harm and is motherly.

Location Research

Location Reasearch on Prezi

Another location we would need to use is a prison. We have decided to use Bloxwich Police Station as it is the easiest for us all to get to to film and even though it is not a prison, we will imply to the audience that it is one.

Script

Dean Becky Laura Jess

This is a copy of our script, it is written so the actors know what they have to say and when.

Addressing The Evaluation Questions

After our film is completed we will have to answer a set of evaluation questions, therefore we need to make sure that whilst we are making the film we have an answer to all of these questions.

What thriller conventions will be used?
We have decided that the thriller conventions we are going to use are;
-The fear of the unknown
-Colour conventions to show good and bad characters
-The villain is a male
-Chilling music to create tension
-Stalkers.

What thriller conventions will be developed?
The thriller convention we have decided to develop is the fear of unknown, we have decided to exemplify this convention because we believe that by doing this we will be able to get across an eerie feeling. Recently the convention of the male characters being the villains has been challenged alot, so we have decided to stick to the traditional convention.

What thriller conventions will be challenged?
We have decided to challenge the convention of using props such as knifes or guns, we have done this because we believe that it will add to the mystery of the film if such props arent used. We are also not using a chase scene as we want the film to have more of a slow spooky feel, rather than a fast paced horror feel.

Treatment - Final Draft

Treatment Final Draft

Presentation of Treatment

We presented our treatment to Mr Hood and had a very lengthy discussion about it. It was said that there were no actual issues with our treatment, however, after discussion we have decided to add a back story to the father. We want to imply to the audience that he is a dangerous man without using dialogue, therefore we are going to add a scene at the start with him walking out of a prison, however, we will have to pick costumes carefully to show that he is in fact an ex-prisoner rather than a prison officer.

Ideas were discussed to actually see him be arrested but to not complicate filming we decided against this and instead we are just changing the flashback scene, we are going to add sirens into the background to give the illusion the police are on their way to arrest him as the mother is leaving. This way the audience will understand that the girl is his daughter who he hasnt saw because he has been in jail.  We also decided that instead of the father becoming enraged about hearing the girl call the stepdad 'Dad', that the stepdad would slap the girl.

Treatment - First Draft

Treatment

Treatment Research

A treatment is a document that you send to a film maker which explains to them your story in depth. They consist of full descriptions of characters and settings in the scenes, it is very detailed and it reads like a story so that the directors and producers can picture the film in their head.

The conventions of a treatment are:

• Font- Courier. If any other font is used the treatment will not be read.
• Font Size- 12.
• Average about 40 pages long for a full film.
• Present tense.