I feel that the media product I have presented has both strengths and weaknesses, however I feel that between the two films I previously looked and analysed (See blog post 3.2 and onwards) were V for Vendetta and Flight Plan, but I do not necessarily feel that the similarities are as strong as, our production work.
However when considering representation of social groups, the overall product represented a young women in her 20's - working class. From the results of my questionnaire the majority were aged between 16-17. From the questionnaires, I had some positive and some negative feedback, about our product. 8 people answered yes to the question - Do you think the film is interesting and thrilling and 2 people have said no - but it was interested but it wasn't thrilling. Overall I do not feel the group has achieved what our original plans were, when it comes to the representation and the actual product as a whole, so this is something I will need to take into account and improve on, in future projects.
I feel that personally, it is likely that an independent cinema would distribute my media product in comparison to a multiplex cinema, which is more incorporated with Hollywood and films with higher budgets, and also an art house cinema, as I don't think it is a particular art filled film. Although I feel that my final production is good, and due to the circumstances where we had lost our work, and had to re-capture everything and edit from the beginning even though we could of done more to to improve it, I still think it was a good attempt. Personally I still feel it represented a low budget film -
as the target audience for this media, agree, 10 out of 10 people saying the film would be a low budget film.That is not likely to make a big impact due to the lack of famous actors and big production companies, and money overall, meaning advertisement would also be limited, meaning people are less likely to know about the existence of the product.
There was no specific age group that we targeted for this film. Our audience for this production was aimed for anyone who enjoys/likes watching thriller films. The target audiences responded positively as some responded negatively. For this question - What impression does my opening sequence give you as a audience? e.g. Would you like to continue watching the film? 6 people have answered yes - and have said the following:
1. The words on the screen have been chosen carefully to capture the audiences attention
2. Gives me the impression that something bad is going to happen
3. Gives me the impression that its going to make us audience do a sudden jump, whilst watching the film
4.Something had happened - but can't figure out what has happened until we see the flashbacks
5. A sign that something is about to happen
6. I'd like to continue watching the film because the shots, and way it was filmed has been planned carefully , although there could of been a number of different shots been used.
And 4 people had answered no and said
1. The film was good but could of been better in terms of the uses of shots and camera work
2. I am not a fan of thriller. I like to watch comedy films, but the sequence was alright- but could of been better - like the camera work and the locations
3. It wasn't good
4. Camera work was not good, I didn't like it because the location where the opening sequence was filmed could of been a better location.
Our group filming had a balance between positive and negatives, simply because of the difficulties we faced throughout our filming.
The opening sequence of our film and the opening sequence for "V for Vendetta" had a lot of contrast. One of them was the way in which sound was used, there were a lot of non-digetic sounds used in the opening sequence for "V for Vendetta" for example when the fire accompanied the flame title of the letter "V" In our opening sequence apart from the digetic music accompanying the sequence, the rest of the sound was digetic, for example when the two characters - Maddy and the police man are having conversation in the police officers room- (in the interview room) One particular thing our group wanted to do was to put in non-digetic sounds for the flashbacks, however this didn't happen simply because there was complications during the editing process. In the opening sequence "Flight Plan" there were some similarities with our opening sequence, for example the audience is given information about the film, by the text that is shown on the screen, followed by the mysterious creepy background music. From the feedback I have received from the target audience, 3 people said that the audio and the screening quality could have improved.
Our group could have achieved more by improving, the way in which the scenes were shot and also the sound effects, and the use of titles within the sequence, so this is something that I would have to work on next time I come to work in groups. We addressed the target audience by trying to make the production realistic, so that the specific audience could relate. Some of the target audience thought that more visual effects could have been done to improve the quality, while others as a whole thought that the words have been chosen carefully to capture the audiences attention, and others said they would of liked to hear voice-over reading the texts on the screen.
Through the technologies I have learnt a range of things,both on Final Cut Pro and E-blogger. During this project I have learnt how to edit a film by capturing by using a camera, cutting clips and adding effects. Blogging was also a new learning experience for me, as I had never blogged before. I learnt how to add a variety of images/ videos if i needed to illustrate a point I was making, and to show my technological skills. Overall I feel I have become more confident in dealing with most aspects of media technologies I used.
Looking back at the preliminary task I have learnt a lot of techniques such as different shots and camera angles, there is still no limit to the number of angles you can use in order to portray a number of point of views. The preliminary task had helped me to develop my confidence in front of a camera, as I was a camera - shy person before.
Overall during the production of this product, it has helped me a lot and given me a better understanding that some times everything will not run smoothly, and that you have to be patient, at all times whilst working with Final Cut Pro, and the Apple Mac's as sometimes things can go wrong. However relying on other members of the group was difficult - As in the future projects team work is something I will need to improve my skills on.
Shots of our opening sequence:
This is the titles for the opening sequence, which tells the audience what has happened to to Maddy - the main character- by using words on the screen. We used the fading technique so that it would seem more realistic, but could of been better with a voice-over reading the texts on the screen.
A shot of Maddy and the police man - questioning Maddy. The props used in this scene was a table, lamp and a tape recorder - As you can see highlighted with red and a red arrow pointing at it. This made the audience realise where Maddy - the main character was. An over- the -shoulder shot was taken, because we wanted to hide the identity of Maddy- until the flashbacks. This is because so the audience can start to wonder why Maddys identity has been hidden at the start, and makes the audience stay in suspense. A cutaway is used to show flashbacks of the night of the incident.(See screen print below of some of the flashbacks in our opening sequence)
Below is a extreme close up shot on the chasers eyes, this shot is done so that the audience could see the aggressiveness and the anger of the psycho chaser.
Here, below is a shot, of an close-up followed by a extreme close up of Maddy's face expression- stating the fear of her face whilst being chased by the psycho chaser.
