From the start of the preliminary task to the finished product, I have learnt in my progression that movies are more difficult things to make and exhibit to audiences than most people think they are. Often the problems I encountered were simple: such as the problem I had when filming the preliminary task (which was easier than I thought it would be) made me realise that I needed to check the tape before filming since the tape I used on the first attempt was corrupted which I then did in subsequent lessons.
A big lesson I learnt from this project was developing effective interpersonal communication skills: for example how to get along with the cast and communicating my ideas effectively to them. Pressure from others is another thing I learnt from doing this task (which is what I would have to face in the professional film-making world) such as the criticisms I got on the original version of my media piece, how hard it can be to get access to specific filming locations and having to meet deadlines.
In the preliminary task I learnt a lot of the basics properly - such the usefulness of producing a shotlist which greatly helped me with filming organisation. Another thing I learnt from doing this task was how to properly draw a storyboard such as adding how long the shots run for and what type of shot it was. (I knew how to do this when I was younger but just not the way it was done in real life).
Finally, what I learnt most progressing my skills through both film tasks is how easy filming a media piece can be when you finally get the hang of it through many attempts and weeks of practice (the preliminary task), preparation (storyboards, shotlists etc.) and outside experience (my Moving Image Arts lessons) and how much fun it can be when you get it right.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have developed further my existing skills in using a variety of technologies throughout the course of this production task - a few examples a listed below.
Camera
I have learnt from making this media piece is how to create an effective panning shot using the camera on a tripod (making the tripod looser helps to create an effective panning shot by creating a smooth movement and eliminates the problem of creaking). Through trial and error I also mastered the skills needed to create a variety of shot distances and other movements including tilt shots with and without tripod and reasonably steady hand-held camera techniques as appropriate to the scene being filmed.
Edit
The editing was done through the use of the Apple Mac's editing software iMovie. I had experience of using iMovie due to the fact I take Moving Image Arts besides Media so I knew how the movie needed to be edited (such as cutting up the film into its various scenes). I did learn one new thing about editing my pieces, I have learned about positioning a camera when filming in the light such as when I used monochrome around an open window and I could not make out what the private investigator character was doing with his hands. Thus I found a way around it by bleeding out the colour to give it that black and white look but still see what the person is doing with his hands. My personal favourite bit of editing I carried out was the use of slowing things down for a dramatic effect such as a shot of the book slowly falling to the ground as the door slams shut behind the person. I also learnt the ways of using transitions between shots such as the use of fading in and out.
Planning
Another thing I have learnt from this is how to create a blog and learn how to use it. Blogging was an easy thing to learn since all it involved was typing something into a text box and then pressing the 'publish post' button in order to show what I had learnt over the course of this task. However I did encounter problems with this site since you're unable to put word documents into the text box (I had to copy and paste a piece of work I had done on film openings) and that pasting images into the box is difficult since it does not go in the place you want it to. However this blog has shown my ability to master my understanding of the technological skills needed when creating this blog.
Camera
I have learnt from making this media piece is how to create an effective panning shot using the camera on a tripod (making the tripod looser helps to create an effective panning shot by creating a smooth movement and eliminates the problem of creaking). Through trial and error I also mastered the skills needed to create a variety of shot distances and other movements including tilt shots with and without tripod and reasonably steady hand-held camera techniques as appropriate to the scene being filmed.
Edit
The editing was done through the use of the Apple Mac's editing software iMovie. I had experience of using iMovie due to the fact I take Moving Image Arts besides Media so I knew how the movie needed to be edited (such as cutting up the film into its various scenes). I did learn one new thing about editing my pieces, I have learned about positioning a camera when filming in the light such as when I used monochrome around an open window and I could not make out what the private investigator character was doing with his hands. Thus I found a way around it by bleeding out the colour to give it that black and white look but still see what the person is doing with his hands. My personal favourite bit of editing I carried out was the use of slowing things down for a dramatic effect such as a shot of the book slowly falling to the ground as the door slams shut behind the person. I also learnt the ways of using transitions between shots such as the use of fading in and out.
Planning
Another thing I have learnt from this is how to create a blog and learn how to use it. Blogging was an easy thing to learn since all it involved was typing something into a text box and then pressing the 'publish post' button in order to show what I had learnt over the course of this task. However I did encounter problems with this site since you're unable to put word documents into the text box (I had to copy and paste a piece of work I had done on film openings) and that pasting images into the box is difficult since it does not go in the place you want it to. However this blog has shown my ability to master my understanding of the technological skills needed when creating this blog.
Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/address them?
Target Audience
The audience I am targeting with my media piece are mainly fans of the film-noir genre aged between 15 and 70 who are moviegoers that are serious about what movies they see and understand what goes into them in order to make them good. I was not aiming for any gender in particular. The film is a thriller as well as a film-noir and would be appealing to a mixed gender audience.
Research
In order to find out about movie audiences in general, I carried out audience research with the Explorer Scout group of which I am a member (see other post on Audience research for more information). From what I learned, most of the people who participated in the survey are more into 'mainstream' blockbuster films that are sometimes not very subtle in their narrative structure and are primarily very commercially-oriented. However these sort of people are not my core audience, the sort of people I am appealing to are what would be described as a niche audience. A way I would attempt to get these people to see my media piece would be to use the internet, such as social networking sites, so as to gain attention and a following for my media piece.
Mood
What I put into my opening that would attract the audience into continuing to watch my media piece was the use of suspense inducing music in order to build up an atmosphere of dread and foreboding within the people watching this to suggest the narrative possibility that something bad is going to happen to the main character.
Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene of the opening I had in mind was a dark empty room which would give the audience the feeling as if someone is going to jump out at many moment and attack the person in the room which was later proved true by the door slamming shut off camera and the character being asphyxiated by poisonous gas (use of unseen terror). This was probably the most successful element of the media piece because of the use of the characters' costumes to give the audience an idea of who these characters may be, the props as they drove the plot (like the book read by the private investigator character) and the rooms layout since I intended it to look messy thus that is what I did.
Here's a mise-en-scene example: I deliberatly created a look of disturbance as if there's been a struggle
Plot
The enigmas I put into my opening to attract audiences to keep them watching was to keep the identity of the character secret so that the audience will want to continue watching the media piece to find out the identity of the character and how he ended up in the room with a dead body. The lack of dialogue was deliberate in order to create an enigmatic feel for the media piece and to let the audience decide for themselves what is going on like having the ending being open ended to allow opinions of what may have happened. I also challenged a typical film noir cliche as I had the private investigator character being killed off at the end of the piece which normally does not happen in most film noir pieces.
However there are things I wish to improve about this media piece. Firstly there was a continuity error within the piece since the actor playing the private investigaor character's shoes kept changing colour between shots as we filmed on different days (improvements here could be to advise him to wear the same shoes on each day of filming). There was also one issue pointed out by the test viewer I showed it to was that they did not get the sound of the door shutting thus the improvement for next time could be to insert of shot of the object that just made that sound.
Sound
The sound used in the extract included the use of music throughout the piece by Bela Bartok and John Cage. One of the uses, at the beginning, was praised by my test viewer since he said it reminded him a lot of the opening credits to 'Vertigo' (1958) due to the music fitting in with the various shapes (similar to the images of Vertigo's title creator Saul Bass). Hopefully the audience will be able to notice references to other films like this. However, one improvement I would like to make with the use of sound in the extract is to find a leaking gas sound effect to give a reason into why the private investigator character was choking to death.
In this shot is an example of a reaction shot to a loud noise which I enhanced in post-production
Lighting
An achievement I made with this technique was to bleed out the colour in order for the audience to see what the private investigator character was doing with his hands when one shot was too much in the shadows. Despite not being true monochrome in some cases, it did have that monochrome-like feel, again associated with typical film noir movies, avhieved through the use of a tool in iMovie which allows you to change it from colour to monochrome without affecting the lighting. Unfortunately, and this is something I need to keep in mind for the future, I was unable to create the use of shadows effectively so to achieve this next time, I will use a drape on the window to block out the light in order for the lamp to work effectively.
Example of backlighting (use of natural light) to create a dramatic effect
Camera
One of the praise I got from the test viewer in this category was the actual picture due to its similarities with Vertigo such as the opening sequence since it looked disorientating something which was associated with Vertigo. Another praise I got was the shots, such as the use of close-ups on the other parts of his body, around the private investigator before his reveal in the later scenes. I felt I managed to achieve an effective use of handheld shots since this time round the camera did not shake when I filmed the shots like it sometimes does when you perform handheld shots. However I do need to perform perfect zoom-ins and zoom-outs, even though I did not do any in the piece due to the following reason, since sometimes when I try them they are always too fast, too slow or seem too jittery when I press the zoom switch too tentativly.
Here is an example of a high angle shot used in a montage to create a dramatic effect as the character dies slowly.
Editing
The thing I felt I achieved well on the editing of this extract is, mostly, the continuity editing which allowed the events of the media piece to run smoothly even though I did compress the time between the private investigator character putting away his notebook and pen and him exploring the room.
The audience I am targeting with my media piece are mainly fans of the film-noir genre aged between 15 and 70 who are moviegoers that are serious about what movies they see and understand what goes into them in order to make them good. I was not aiming for any gender in particular. The film is a thriller as well as a film-noir and would be appealing to a mixed gender audience.
Research
In order to find out about movie audiences in general, I carried out audience research with the Explorer Scout group of which I am a member (see other post on Audience research for more information). From what I learned, most of the people who participated in the survey are more into 'mainstream' blockbuster films that are sometimes not very subtle in their narrative structure and are primarily very commercially-oriented. However these sort of people are not my core audience, the sort of people I am appealing to are what would be described as a niche audience. A way I would attempt to get these people to see my media piece would be to use the internet, such as social networking sites, so as to gain attention and a following for my media piece.
Mood
What I put into my opening that would attract the audience into continuing to watch my media piece was the use of suspense inducing music in order to build up an atmosphere of dread and foreboding within the people watching this to suggest the narrative possibility that something bad is going to happen to the main character.
Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene of the opening I had in mind was a dark empty room which would give the audience the feeling as if someone is going to jump out at many moment and attack the person in the room which was later proved true by the door slamming shut off camera and the character being asphyxiated by poisonous gas (use of unseen terror). This was probably the most successful element of the media piece because of the use of the characters' costumes to give the audience an idea of who these characters may be, the props as they drove the plot (like the book read by the private investigator character) and the rooms layout since I intended it to look messy thus that is what I did.
Here's a mise-en-scene example: I deliberatly created a look of disturbance as if there's been a struggle
Plot
The enigmas I put into my opening to attract audiences to keep them watching was to keep the identity of the character secret so that the audience will want to continue watching the media piece to find out the identity of the character and how he ended up in the room with a dead body. The lack of dialogue was deliberate in order to create an enigmatic feel for the media piece and to let the audience decide for themselves what is going on like having the ending being open ended to allow opinions of what may have happened. I also challenged a typical film noir cliche as I had the private investigator character being killed off at the end of the piece which normally does not happen in most film noir pieces.
However there are things I wish to improve about this media piece. Firstly there was a continuity error within the piece since the actor playing the private investigaor character's shoes kept changing colour between shots as we filmed on different days (improvements here could be to advise him to wear the same shoes on each day of filming). There was also one issue pointed out by the test viewer I showed it to was that they did not get the sound of the door shutting thus the improvement for next time could be to insert of shot of the object that just made that sound.
Sound
The sound used in the extract included the use of music throughout the piece by Bela Bartok and John Cage. One of the uses, at the beginning, was praised by my test viewer since he said it reminded him a lot of the opening credits to 'Vertigo' (1958) due to the music fitting in with the various shapes (similar to the images of Vertigo's title creator Saul Bass). Hopefully the audience will be able to notice references to other films like this. However, one improvement I would like to make with the use of sound in the extract is to find a leaking gas sound effect to give a reason into why the private investigator character was choking to death.
In this shot is an example of a reaction shot to a loud noise which I enhanced in post-production
Lighting
An achievement I made with this technique was to bleed out the colour in order for the audience to see what the private investigator character was doing with his hands when one shot was too much in the shadows. Despite not being true monochrome in some cases, it did have that monochrome-like feel, again associated with typical film noir movies, avhieved through the use of a tool in iMovie which allows you to change it from colour to monochrome without affecting the lighting. Unfortunately, and this is something I need to keep in mind for the future, I was unable to create the use of shadows effectively so to achieve this next time, I will use a drape on the window to block out the light in order for the lamp to work effectively.
Example of backlighting (use of natural light) to create a dramatic effect
Camera
One of the praise I got from the test viewer in this category was the actual picture due to its similarities with Vertigo such as the opening sequence since it looked disorientating something which was associated with Vertigo. Another praise I got was the shots, such as the use of close-ups on the other parts of his body, around the private investigator before his reveal in the later scenes. I felt I managed to achieve an effective use of handheld shots since this time round the camera did not shake when I filmed the shots like it sometimes does when you perform handheld shots. However I do need to perform perfect zoom-ins and zoom-outs, even though I did not do any in the piece due to the following reason, since sometimes when I try them they are always too fast, too slow or seem too jittery when I press the zoom switch too tentativly.
Here is an example of a high angle shot used in a montage to create a dramatic effect as the character dies slowly.
Editing
The thing I felt I achieved well on the editing of this extract is, mostly, the continuity editing which allowed the events of the media piece to run smoothly even though I did compress the time between the private investigator character putting away his notebook and pen and him exploring the room.
The praise I got in this category from both my tutors and my test viewer was the effects I put on the titles such as my opening logo and the colouring effect on the logo of the secondary production company.
However one problem I did have was that the scene of someone running outside cutting to the shot of the door did seem odd and abrupt as did the transition from colour to monochrome since it resulted in an odd change in the continuity of picture quality. This could have been achieved better had I added a transition effect in between the two shots such as a fade to let the audiecne know that the scene was changing locations.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The kind of media institution that might distribute my media product would be an independent cinema or multiplex cinemas that specialise in showing non-mainstream films as well ones in the mainstream (such as Cineworld cinema in Didsbury or the more likely choice of the Cornerhouse in Manchester).
For financial backing I would use independent sources (such as jobs, backers or banks) or use film organsiations (such as the British Film Institute due to the axing of the UK Film Council) like 'The King's Speech' and 'Another Year' did in order to get made.
To make my film's presence known, I would show it at various film festivals in particular either the Sundance and Telluride Film Festivals (where most independent films are shown) as well as some of the major film festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice since this is where most films can pick up distributors.
The UK Film distributor I can see my film being distributed by is Momentum Pictures because of the fact that they are the UK's leading independent studio and because of their track record of acclaimed movies released ('Amelie', 'Lost in Translation', 'The King's Speech' etc.). Due to the majority of films they produce, Momentum Pictures (like their US counterpart Focus Features) are to cinema today what Miramax was to cinema was back in the 1990s (though Momentum have had their bad films along the way). Or, as I would be considered new to the industry, I would work with Working Title's independent branch WT2 which specialise in up and coming filmmakers and the talents.
The alternate option to this would be to post clips of the movie or the film's trailer via YouTube in order to gain a mass following from the moviegoing public if it is to their liking.
For financial backing I would use independent sources (such as jobs, backers or banks) or use film organsiations (such as the British Film Institute due to the axing of the UK Film Council) like 'The King's Speech' and 'Another Year' did in order to get made.
To make my film's presence known, I would show it at various film festivals in particular either the Sundance and Telluride Film Festivals (where most independent films are shown) as well as some of the major film festivals like Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and Venice since this is where most films can pick up distributors.
The UK Film distributor I can see my film being distributed by is Momentum Pictures because of the fact that they are the UK's leading independent studio and because of their track record of acclaimed movies released ('Amelie', 'Lost in Translation', 'The King's Speech' etc.). Due to the majority of films they produce, Momentum Pictures (like their US counterpart Focus Features) are to cinema today what Miramax was to cinema was back in the 1990s (though Momentum have had their bad films along the way). Or, as I would be considered new to the industry, I would work with Working Title's independent branch WT2 which specialise in up and coming filmmakers and the talents.
The alternate option to this would be to post clips of the movie or the film's trailer via YouTube in order to gain a mass following from the moviegoing public if it is to their liking.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I do not present social groups in general since film noir could also fall into the same territory as crime drama thus it mainly explored the relationship between the murder victim and the private investigator. The way I represented my character of my media piece was to have him as some sort of private investigator coming in to investigate the murder of a person found lying dead on the floor of an empty room. There is no dialogue in the film so that adds to the mystery surrounding the character as we don't know who he is, what he does and what his likes and dislikes are (an enigma). His appearance is that he is formally dressed and is clean and tidy figure as most private investigator-like characters are, his age could be somewhere in the late twenties to early forties range (even though the actor playing him is about eighteen) which again is the age range you normally associate with private investigators. His role in the narrative of the opening is to give us an idea of what happens in the plot of the film the opening is for (he's a 'bad memory' being lead into the 'erasion room' (the place bad memories are exterminated in)). In other words it's meant to show what happens inside the human head on a daily basis. It's debatable whether he is meant to be viewed sympathetically or unsympathetically since this is just the opening and his story of how he ended up in the 'erasion room' could be told in flashback if this movie was to have been made.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film-noir media piece largely builds on the devices used by other forms and conventions of real media product in that genre such as the frequent use of shadows and low-key lighting as seen in this still image from the movie The Big Combo (1955) below:
Another element of my media piece that is typical in other film-noir movies is the type of character. The character in my media piece could be looked upon by the viewers as a private investigator of some sorts due to his dress sense (a suit and tie) and carries a notebook around with him, all part of the mise-en-scene, although I was unable to attain a hat. However other viewers could argue that he's an average everyday person caught up in a situation after he stumbled upon the body accidently after entering the room where the body is. Pictured below is what a normal film-noir private investigator looks like or is stereotyped to look like compared to my character pictured opposite.
The narrative of the opening to my media piece is conventionally similar to a 'whodunnit' and also quite enigmatic, a crime (normally a murder) that has been committed and that leaves the audience wondering who committed the crime and what was his or her motive. The most popular element of the narrative of the film-noir genre is the 'plot twist'. A famous example of this is the 1995 Oscar winning film 'The Usual Suspects' which tricked the audience cleverly by revealing that the person they and the other characters believe committed the crime did not actually do it after all.
A twist on my film-noir piece is that in the film-noir films I have seen, the private investigator does not die so I twisted this idea and had him dying of asphyxiation giving the impression that the room was some sort of cleverly disguised gas chamber.
The use of sound in my media piece was mainly divided into two categories as diegetic and non-diegetic. The non-diegetic sounds in the piece consisted mostly of music by Bela Bartok and John Cage which was suggested to me by one of my tutors and which fitted to the mood and atmosphere I was trying to achieve in my media piece. The use of diegetic sounds in the extract included the sound of the door slamming shut on its own accord (which I did off camera) and my actor coughing to give the impression that he was being asphyxiated by a poisonous gas entering the room.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Friday 8th April
Today, me and my tutor re-filmed the shots where there were originally errors on. This time, we kept the actor's (Anthony) head in shot whereas originally it was cut off in various places (not literally though). For the death scene, I got Anthony to cough to give the viewers the impression that he was being asphixiated (iMovie does not have a gas sound effect) by some kind of poisonous gas whereas in the original cut he did not show any signs of the death I intended for the character. I was also able to use some shots (from my point of view) I filmed yesterday in the college grounds to give the impression to the viewer that either:
- The person entering the room was running towards the house
- The dead person had been running away from something prior to being killed
The music was also edited since I thought the slow moving music played over the first shots of the original cut did not go with the running shots (I moved that track along and used it in the later scenes). However one of my tutors did not agree about the music because she felt that the music score was repeating itself rather than contrasting like in the original cut.
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