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Trailer For Playback

Final Film 2016 Playback

Final Group Poster

Radio Trailer for PLAYBACK

Playback Bloopers

Audience reactions to our final film

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Click here to read my Question 3 Evaluation 

Evaluation Question 2

Click here to read my Question 2!

Evalutation Question 1

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

 My group were incredibly conscious of the effect that continuity can have on the audience, and we knew it was very important that we achieved great continuity throughout our film. Many student films I have seen have been let down due to their lack of continuity, which only emphasised how important it is to ensure the success of our film.

The use of a handheld camera within our film meant that it was exceptionally challenging to maintain the 180 degree rule, due to us always changing direction of the camera. Despite this challenge, we always made sure this rule wasn’t broken when we used a static camera. We had suffered from a few issues while filming, for example we found ourselves breaking the 180 degree rule when filming in the underpass, however, once we watched this back, we quickly realised this was an issue and we chose to reshoot this scene to rectify our mistake. We also had to reshoot a scene in Vera’s house due to her leaving without her briefcase, which was to be seen in the following scene. However we corrected this minor fault with a reshoot of this scene to ensure continuity was kept throughout our film. We also used a shot reverse shot in the office scene to show the  two characters in this scene having a conversation, we did this while adhering to the 180 degree rule. In this scene you can also see an eye-line match, which shows the audience what the character was looking at. Before filming we conducted a preliminary task based on elliptical editing, however this also helped us recap on different aspects of continuity so that we were ready for when we actually created our short film. 

 For our film we chose to create a sci-fi thriller. A Sci-Fi typically depicts of phenomenon that aren't usually accepted by the mainstream society, for example the idea of the playback tape in the case of our film. This and the fact that it is set in the future are the conventions of this genre that we chose to stick to in our film. However Sci-Fi thrillers rarely cast a strong female character as their lead. Therefore in that sense we have inverted the convention and we have challenged it. We got the idea to feature a strong female lead from the film Alien, which also has a very strong female lead. We chose to do this in an attempt to challenge the conventions of a sci-fi thriller genre, and to reach a wider audience, as Sci-Fi films are generally more accessible to male audiences. Therefore by following Alien's lead and using a female lead, we instantly make our film appealing to a female audience as well. The upbeat music and rhythmic editing helped us with the thriller aspect as the music made some scenes feel urgent and the faced paced cuts on the beat only reinforced this. Also our character suffers from multiple personality disorder, which can be seen through the use of the alter ego at the end. This is not typical of most sic-fi films or thrillers, however it can be seen in films such as Mr Brooks and Black swan. This plot device helped us explain why Vera was receiving the tapes, and why she didn't remember doing these things on the tapes. Despite us going against the convention of thriller films in terms of using a female protagonist, it is typical that it is a female to be shown with a mental health issue, as can be seen within films such as Black Swan, Three Faces Of Eve and The Ward. Such films helped us construct the character of Vera to accurately depict her disorder.

The use of Levi Strauss's theory of Binary Opposites was used in our film in terms of the multiple personality disorder as Vera was portrayed as the 'Hero', while her alter ego was portrayed as the 'Villain', and the film is about her struggle to defeat her alter ego, however in the end the Villain wins, which is untypical of a thriller film.

 In our film we took inspiration for our title sequence from the title sequence for enter the void. The fast paced editing used in the enter the void title sequence helps create a manic impression which we wanted to imitate in our film, so the atmosphere was set from the title sequences. The Enter the Void  title sequence is very simplistic, with very little use of images, just writing to get the main points across.  The fast paced editing used within this title sequence  also portrays some form of unease, which is what we would like to create. It shows the audience from the beginning that the film is going to be disorientating, and it portrays that without giving away much about the film. This was a deliberate move on our part to create a title sequence which portrayed exactly what we wanted it to.


In the flashback scene, and the virtual reality scenes,  we over exposed the footage in an attempt to make it easier for the audience to differentiate between the scenes which were real and which weren't and to create a hyper reality. This is similar to the scenes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, where the colours in the flashback are brighter than the ones in what is presented as the reality, therefore the audience can tell when the characters are in the middle of a flashback, which is what we aimed to achieve. We also added the timer effect on the bottom of the screen to emphasis the fact that these were recordings.

In our film we also created a storyline similar to that seen in  the film strange days. The idea that someones memories can be seen using some sort of connection to the brain was an idea we got directly from this film, and twisted to create our own unique version. We used our own creative ideas to create a completely unique and original short film, and the use of a female lead suffering with a mental illness allowed us to achieve this.  Also in the film we kept our own accents, allowing us to create a British independent film, with local, relatable characters.  We kept the idea that the 'virtual reality' scenes would be shot using a handheld camera to create a point of view shot. We believed that the uses of a handheld camera would allow the audience to be fully immersed in these scenes, allowing them to feel how we wanted to portray our main character as feeling.  We practiced these shots in a hope of attempting to not make our film look like a student film, and I believe we created the best quality scenes possible using the point of view shots. 

We didn't want the audience to really understand that it was Vera's alter ego sending herself these tapes and that it was her committing these acts. Therefore through out the film, we dropped subtle hints through out the film, for example the flashback scene in the underpass helped us portray the fact that Vera was some how linked to these tapes. However the reveal was left until the end. Our audience feedback confirms that this was clear at the end, however the rest of the film it was unclear as to who was sending her these tapes and why. Therefore I would say that this has been successful.

Richard dyers theory of entertainment argues that one factor of entertainment is utopianism. He claims that entertainment offers the image of something better to set against the day to day reality. So someones reality may be:

• Exhaustion
• Scarcity
• Dreariness
• Manipulation
• Fragmentation

and these would be the Utopian Solution's:

• Energy
• Abundance
• Intensity
• Transparency 
• Community

This theory can be applied to our film. For example the use of a chase scene shows the use of the Energy solution which is the solution to the audiences Exhaustion by providing them with the adrenaline through the use of fast paced editing and the music used to heighten the feeling of energy in this scene. 

Intensity can also be applied to our film, for example there are extremely graphic scenes such the murders and the rape scene. The audience may find these scenes entertaining and thrilling because of the graphic violence we have used.  Also the audience is allowed to feel a large range of intense emotions throughout our film as there are scenes where Vera is intensely scared, or confused.



Transparency is also used in our film, as we easily portray what Vera is feeling through a range of close ups of her face showing her emotions throughout the film. These close ups allow the audience to connect with Vera, and allow them to feel the same emotions she is portraying. The use of a cantered angle as vera runs from the underpass also portrays transparency as it demonstrates that she is confused and scared by what she has just experienced in the last flashback.
 

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

Audience feedback is significantly important within media as it allows directors, producers and others to find successes of a film idea and the criticisms too; overall giving opportunity for improvement to create the best possible film desired. Despite finding basic information from feedback clips e.g strengths of a plot and weaknesses, it also provides opportunity for a film to be more broadcast to its audience. By this, audience feedback clips allow viewers that enjoy the film  to "pass on" messages regarding the film, overall widening an audience and creating bigger opportunities for possible distribution.

We decided to aim our film at an audience of 15+ due to some graphic content which wouldn’t be suitable for any lower age group according to the BBFC. We also chose to have our target audience at 15+ as this is an age group that commonly take pleasure in films by visiting the cinema etc therefore allowed our audience to be widened dramatically than if our film was an 18.  From this choice of age category, we filmed responses from college students as we knew these would be suitable candidates for viewing and responding to our film.

(The clip shown above are comments regarding our first storyline)


Comparisons of Each Audience Feedback
From each audience feedback clip, various answers are given that present the level of success our film achieved. Within both clips, similar questions were asked to increase accurate ratings of our film and how each different storyline had different reactions from viewers.  Evidenced from our first clip, our film was heavily reliant on science fiction conventions which were recognised by each person we asked, as when asked "what genre would you say our film is?", the majority simply replied with "Sci-fi". These elements were addressed in our first storyline through a dystopian world and more evidence of advanced technology e.g more events being shown through the ECG tabs and tapes. Clearly shown in the images below, it shows how commonly the prop of the tape was presented throughout our first storyline, in comparison to our second idea where the tape was shown only three times throughout the entire production.




































As a result of this, when asked the genre of film, from each clip, a clear distinction of genre has being presented as our reduction of the showing of tapes contributes to more people from our recent film believing our genre was thriller. In addition to this, an improvement that had to be made numerous amounts of time was the lighting our murder scene. From our first film where we attempted to create a horrific scene, the lighting was dull and grainy therefore changed the overall effect of the image; making it not thrilling and not as realistic as we wanted it. From this feedback, we changed location where on our second product we located ourselves in a well lit car park; creating our desired scene of gore and horror. Again, improvements such as this contributed  to the different perceptions of  genre as dull lighting wouldn't have shown the gruesome side to our film and our horror conventions would not have being shown as well as we wanted.


















Despite everyone's comments from our first piece of audience feedback commenting on the uniqueness of our film, with one person stating " definitely haven't heard anything like it before".  we all felt as a group it was in our best interest to change storyline as criticisms were still given regarding little understanding of events. As a result of this came our new adapted storyline, where perceptions of genre changed, evidenced in our feedback clip two where it shows individuals viewing our film more as a thriller or horror; simply by changing some conventions and use of props. From changing storyline, we also felt less negative comments were given; and if criticisms were given, they were a lot easier to fix. For example, before we were receiving comments regarding confusing story lines, in comparison to our recent film where someone simply commented on the sound in Vera's office stating " the phone was ringing really loud". This allowed us to then to fix problems such as sound within the same day, therefore was convenient in terms of time and effort when making changes to our film based from our research. Besides this, it also showed us as a group the huge amounts of improvement that had developed through our film.


Finally, another change that was made was the opinion of age rating that should be given to our film. Within our first part of research many stated an appropriate rating of 15; which was also suggested through our second audience feedback clip; however one significant difference was, due to some content, an individual had previously suggested our film could be a 12; a dramatic difference from someone of our recent feedback clip where we were provided with an answer of 18.

 
Besides our two audience feedback clips as a from of research, we also reviewed comments from classmates. This was important for us as a group as comments from classmates were regarding our final exported film that we had uploaded to YouTube as our final copy. This meant comments aimed towards this final piece of work were not be adapted into our film and we would have had to leave our product the way it was, whereas before from comments of our video responses we could go back to editing and improving the criticisms that were given. These comments given to us by classmates proved to us how our comments taken from other individuals helped with the success of our film, as if we had ignored criticisms our film would be significantly different to what our final production came out as. A few comments taken from our classmates' reviews included:

• " nice titles and intro"
• "good interesting cinematography"
• "good editing and sound"
• "understood storyline, good plot twist"

(clip above shows comments regarding second storyline)

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the construction of our media product, the media technologies each contributed to the success of our film. 

Google Blogger and Celtx

In terms of planning and research, we used software’s such as Celtx (to produce our script) and Blogger (to plan ideas regarding story lines, scripting and best camera shots/angles that could make our film unique and interesting.) These software’s particularly helped with the development of our film, as when we first began planning and research on Blogger, our film had a numerous amount of ideas significantly different to our final product. This, for us as a group allowed a ‘record’ of development and how we excelled throughout to overall create a piece of work we were all pleased with. Blogger also reflects our research as a team or as individuals as many posts have the power to reinforce research that can be commonly shown in our media product, for example, research into genre or generic conventions helped us take these ideas and place them in our film as a way to match stereotypical views, E.g research of Sci-Fi helped us with the concept of a virtual reality, which is shown through the common use of ECG tabs and tapes throughout our film. Research into genre and generic conventions even allowed us to give a suitable age rating as certain scenes in the film were only appropriate for 15+ viewers. Overall, Google Blogger was one of the media technologies we used the most, alongside Premiere Pro and the Canon Legria HFG25.

(shown above: examples of our Celtx)



Cameras and Recorders (Canon Legria HFG25)
As another part of planning, we decided to use cameras for practice shots as a way to see how certain shots would look within the product which was then uploaded to Blogger as a part of our ‘record’. An example of this would be at the beginning of our A2 year, where we filmed a "short journey" in order to practice different shots and editing techniques such as elliptical editing.This also aided us with developing skills using the new cameras so our media film could be filmed in the most efficient way, as the earlier we were aware of working the cameras, the easier filming days would be. The cameras we used for our A2 production also allowed us to reflect on our progress from AS, as these cameras were much easier to use and allowed us to shoot more shots than in comparison to the cameras we used last year (Sony HD 1000). Our scenes this year were shot in a more professional manner that complemented our film and the different events that were taking place throughout our production. This was a result of the Canon Legria HFG25 having the ability to self focus and produce more clear, detailed shots which contributed significantly to the professional look of our film, e.g no blurry shots unless they were intentionally placed in a scene.

(below: our short journey) 

In addition to our improvements of camera skills, the more modern zoom recorders we used to produce a radio trailer also helped with our media product. The H4 recorder we used in our AS production was not as efficient in terms of its abilities and how efficient it was to carry around with us. For example, the H1 recorder we used for our A2 production allowed our voices to be more clearly recognised and picked in comparison to last year. Furthermore it was more compact therefore was easier to hold when producing our trailer.








Adobe Photoshop
Alongside our radio trailer, we had to create a suitable film poster as apart of synergy for our film. This was a task set to us as individuals, however we  overall would chose our best design and have that as the main poster for our production. In terms of Photoshop, as a personal opinion I found this software to obstruct my creativity as when I first began my individual film poster idea, it was the first time I had ever used the programme; therefore I had no skills or knowledge that would allow me to create an effective poster for our audience. This part of planning for me was overall not as successful as other blog posts.



Premiere Pro
Premiere pro was extremely useful to us as without this software, editing of our film could not be done. This included piecing our film together shot by shot and editing them by cutting to create our overall production. This software was different to what we used in our AS year (Final Cut), therefore we were all unfamiliar with how it worked to begin with however soon became familiar with the icons and what each allowed us to do with our film. Using this software was a lengthy progress however over 5 months it allowed us to create our A2 production which clearly shows our skills development from AS to A2. From the use of this software, we also created our bloopers for our film as a way to use Premiere Pro in a different way than just piecing together our overall product. Despite our bloopers not needing as much attention to detail such as continuity etc, it still allowed simple skills to be developed for example getting familiar with tools and icons that could piece each clip together e.g option of fade into another scene etc. We didn't particularly use any effects on our bloopers however we still tested different elements the software provided as a way to get familiar with it that could contribute to our overall product. We did this as a way to create the best film we could possibly make that is successful in terms of all purposes (entertaining, showing camera skills etc) alongside showing our development over our 2 year course.

Youtube

When using and uploading our film onto YouTube, we remained with our same account from last year to show how we have developed as a group and so it would be easy to compare both productions.  This helped with our evaluation stages as it allowed us to watch it through as a final piece, rather than little bits we had seen during the editing stages, therefore it made it easier for us to praise and critique different parts of the film. From these evaluations of our film we uploaded rough copies of our film before exporting our final production so it presented what changes we made in order to make it as successful as we possibly could. Our YouTube channel worked in a similar way to

Blogger as it kept a record of work, however this showed work consisting of previous film ideas, audience feedback, bloopers and other active work that allowed viewers to be shown our ideas visually rather than looking at our work from blog posts.

The above picture shows images from YouTube of our first film idea where we had a plot consisting of henchmen and a dystopian world, however the picture on the right shows our development from one storyline to another. YouTube was helpful when showing our development as it acted as a video portfolio and showed how we developed from the beginning of the year and how skills of creativity have excelled within months of working with cameras. These camera skills can also be reflected to our final film of "Playback" where cinematography has improved dramatically from not only our AS year, but also from our first film idea at the beginning of A2. During our first storyline, we primarily were focused on creating something unique and entertaining that we forgot some key aspects of camera work that helped with continuity, for example we had little match on action and no shot reverse shot, therefore by using YouTube, we could look back on the films we had uploaded before and discuss what could be cut completely and what we could take from our old idea and adapt it into our new film (e.g we kept the intense chase scene from our first storyline)

evaluation question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Google and the internet.


In order to carry our research and access the majority of platforms that would help us gain knowledge and understanding we needed to use the internet/google. This is proven to be vital in our success as without this we would not have been as successful. We used google as a platform to access websites such as the BBFC to find our more information about film regulation as well as for Celtx that was also vital in the construction.

Google blogger

Before even beginning to film, we had a lot of planning and organization that needed doing in order to make sure that our film was to the best possible standard and that our film would be produced and handled in the best way possible and to the best of our ability. In order to keep track of where we was and the research we carried out we made a group blog, where all of us had individual profiles where we could input all our information and gatherings that would help us build up an idea of what we wished our film to look like. We personalized our blog so that it would show our genre, we used dark colours for our audience to distinguish what the film could be about, and our production logo in the background. Furthermore we added a group photo for not just our interest but for the viewers to be able to identify us and see whose blog it was.

BBFC and IMBD

When thinking and planning what we would want our film to be like we carried out a lot of research on IMBD and BBFC in order to gain more research and better information to familiarize ourselves with the kind of genre and character stereotypes that would able us to have an idea of what people expected from our particular genre and how we would do this, furthermore by looking at different films and their reviews. This allowed me to find in-depth information not just from professionals but from viewers and our potential audience, as the BBFC allowed us to make a classification of what our film would be.
From reading we decide our film would be classified as certificate 15 as from reading all the guide lines it came immediately to our attention that this would be the most suited age rating.

 

 Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop was a huge element that helped us along the way with our film progression, to create our poster. It was very new to me, as it was the first time i had ever used Photoshop meaning it took me a while to figure out all the different tools and what they did and how to use them in order to make the and poster to my ability, after figuring out all the different elements I found it brilliant for doing what was needed. I found the cropping tool particularly helpful as it allowed me to have a great amount of detail in the foreground and allowed me to make certain elements of the poster larger, if needed. Also when making our final poster this tool was very helpful as it helped again with the detail and moving different parts of the image in order to create the ‘edgy’ effect to make the audience aware of what film we intended to make and why.

Celtx

Celtx was used by us in order to make sure our film was done exactly how we wanted and so that our scenes were how we wanted it. We used Celtx as a pre-production method as it allowed us to organized our film, it is also used by many for screen play and television as it is very simple for anyone to use as it is also very detailed meaning it is very helpful when producing many different things that need scripting. We used all the elements provided, such as the characters, stage direction, what scene we was on and also the location of each and every scene, again for organization purposes.

Premier pro

Premier pro was another new soft wear we used in A2 when making our film in terms of editing, as in AS we used final cut express that is very different as Final cut was much more simple and when we have used it we was very familiar with all the tools and how to use it, so it was shown when first using premier pro that we needed to familiarize ourselves with everything as we didn't want to jump into editing our film with our actually knowing what everything does. After spending some time familiarizing ourselves with the software we got to grips and it was actually proven to be better than Final cut as it had many effects that we was able to use such as transitions meaning that our film looked a lot more professional and this helped a lot, also it was very easy when importing footage from the Cannon Legria HFG25 onto Premiere Pro.  We used premier pro when editing our long journey that we did at the beginning of the year in order to familiarize ourselves with different shots, different camera and also help enhance our skills of premier pro.

We also used premier pro when editing our radio trailer as we wanted to make sure that we include snipets of sound from our film and join them well with voice overs and different sounds to create a very good product and viral add.

Camera, tripod and zoom recorder.

The new Cannon Legria HFG25 allowed us to get better shots as there was more advantages of this camera in comparison to the one we used in AS (Sony HD 1000) the new and more agile camera had focus assist meaning it was much easier for us to get a good shot and not having to re-focus our camera every time we turned it on. Also the size of the camera was much more practical as it allowed us to easily transport the camera as it was very light meaning that when filming difficult scenes it was easy to put together, also for hand held shots it was much better as it allowed us to carry it with ease, as the previous camera was very heavy. Another pro to the new camera was that last year we had to also carry around tapes, whereas this year we didn't and this made it much easier for us when importing the footage and when transporting the camera form location to location. Furthermore the new tripod allowed us to get more shots and angles for our film such as canted angles that the previous camera and tripod failed to provide us with in AS.

Our brief was as well as producing a film, to produce a radio trailer to go along side as a form of synergy. In order to make our radio trailer sound professional and of a good quality we used the zoom H1 that was much easier to use as it was much more simple to use in comparison to the one we used in as, zoom H4.

YouTube.

In order to be able to show people our progression of the film we had to set up a YouTube account, we did this in AS and we used the same profile as it abled not only us as a group but other people to see our progress over the last 12 months meaning that we was always comparing in order to better ourselves and make sure that we did the best that we possibly could. When exporting not just our film but our audience questionnaires we had to allow extra time as the upload time was very unpredictable and on some occasions took around one hour to complete, and we didn't want this to set us behind our schedule as we was very pushed for time in order to meet all deadlines. YouTube is a very reliable source that we have uploaded many versions of our film; by doing this we was able to make comparison and show our peers in ordered to gain feedback to carry on progressing our film to the last minute.