Ecaluation 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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We used a number of different technologies in the research, planning and construction of our short film. Before we settled on a final idea and narrative, we used Empire online and Empire magazines to research into film posters and reviews to see what appealed to an audience. YouTube was another website we used to research into short films; from this we were able to look at interesting editing techniques and different music used in different film genres. Imdb was another website we used to research into short films, from this research we were able to understand the conventions used in short films. We visited the cinema on a number of occasions where we watched films for inspiration; as a group we watched ‘Inception’ this film has inspired us to leave our film on a cliff hanger.

In the planning stages of our production we used a range of technologies such as the BBC website; we used this to look at the weather to help us arrange our filming schedule. This saved time as by looking at the weather we were able to plan to film all the outdoor scenes on the days where the weather was supposed to be good and the indoor scenes when the weather wasn’t so great. We produced our filming schedules in Microsoft Word this program was quick and easy to use.

When it came to constructing our project we kept a blog created on blogger.com which helped us to keep a record of our ideas and progress online which making it easy for people to access and see our idea which meant people were able to give us feedback on each part of our product.  We used adobe Photoshop to edit our poster; this program was really good use as we were able to explore with different tools and techniques to produce a final piece that was interesting to look at and appealed to our target audience. We edited our short film in Premier Pro; as we used this program last year it meant  we were familiar with it. Premier Pro was a good technology to use when it came to editing our short film as it didn’t limit us; we explored the program and discovered a variety of techniques which helped to improve our film by making it more interesting and appealing to our target audience. We used techniques such as changing certain scenes to black and white to create a depressive feel to the scene ,slow motion to emphasis certain scenes and sped scenes up to create our time lapse. We used Apple Garage Band to create the non-diegetic music for our short film it was a difficult program to use at first but once we figured it out we managed to create relevant non-diegetic music for our short film.

The Internet was the main technology we used as we used it in all four stages the Internet has made it much quicker and easier not only for the research of our project but also for constructing and evaluating as it has meant that we were able constantly upload our progress and get feedback from our audience. The main websites we used throughout the construction of our film was YouTube to upload our vlogs, short film and for research. We used script writing websites where we created our script for our short film Intersection. Freesound was a website we found which allowed us to find additional diegetic music such as the alarm clock at the beginning of our film. We used Facebook to receive feedback on our poster and final edit of our film, we uploaded our video from YouTube to Facebook connecting the two technologies together by uploading the link to Facebook we increased the amount of people who were likely to watch it.

The equipment we used throughout this project was a Canon 400D still camera to capture photos for our poster and to capture images of our filming locations to put on our blog a PC/ Mac to edit and create music our film and Sony HD camcorder to capture scenes for our short film.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback? on Prezi

From receiving audience feedback we were able to improve every aspect of project. We showed a wide range of people our film poster; most of the reviews were very positive such as 'Thinks it reflects the plot of our film well with the two narratives'. Even though the majority of the feedback was positive we did get some negative feedback such as 'The hairline of our actor on the left needed editing as is looked poor' as a group we decided that we agreed with this feedback and therefore we decided to edit our poster further. Also when we originally planned our film we decided we were going to cross-cut between the two narratives; cutting between scenes of Lucas in the successful life to Lucas in the family life but once we showed this to our audience we realised that it was difficult to understand so we chose to change the colour of the successful life to black and white conveying a sense of loneliness and depression however our audience still didn't understand it was two completely different lives. Therefore as a group we decided to rethink how we were going to show this, we came up with the idea of showing the flash forward and then all the successful life and then return to Lucas at the train station and then flash forward again to all the family life scenes. We agreed this worked well and therefore decided to keep our edit like this. Overall i think audience feedback is very important even though we didn't listen to all of our feedback we took it all in to consideration and changed the parts of our project that we agreed needed to be changed.

Evaluatiion 2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Evaluation 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Below is the link with the answer in response to this question.
http://www.wix.com/honor_mcadam/intersectionevaluationtask

Ancillary Task 2 - Film Review

We decided to do a film review as our second ancillary task. Our review has been created in Microsoft Publisher and has been written in the style of an 'Empire' film review insluding the following subheadings; Plot Review and Verdict.

Ancillary Task 1 - Poster

This is the final edit of our poster we changed the hairline slightly we agree is does look loads better. We have shown this edit to our audience they also agree that this poster works better. I am really please with the final outcome i think the poster looks professional and conveys our film really well. The pictures and font work well together the use of the black border behind the texts helps to really highlight the title 'Intersection' making it easy to read at a quick glimpse. 

Poster Progress

We showed this poster to a number of  poople and asked for feedback, below is the list of comment we revieved:


Positive:

• Liked the bench feature as it is shows the 2 lives.
• Reflects the plot of our film really well.
• Like the suttle image of the train station in the background as it shows that it is an important scene in our film.
• Like how the background isnt white of plain the train station makes it look much more interesting. 
• Liked how the bench was at the foreground as it makes it stand out and it is the main focus of the poster.
• Good font used for 'Intersection'

Negative:

• The hairline of the image of the actor on the left needs to be edited more as it looks poor.
• Maybe remove the black colouring behind title
• Maybe devide the page down the middle to show the seperate lives.

Its good to see that most of the feedback from our poster is positive and that people think that it reflects the storyline really well and the the train in the background doesnt take the main focus away from the protagonist on the bench. We have taken the negative feedback into consideration. We agree that the image on the left does need to be edited more and therefore this will be our next step.

Working On Our Poster

Last Day Of Filming

We have decided to reshoot part of the train station scene on Sunday. After all of the problems we have faced with this section we have planned each of ourshots we need in great detail and therefore we hope that once we watchedour footage back we would have captured all the footage we need.

The only problem we may face with this scene is the dialogue because the last few times we filmed at the train station we found that the noise of the train was over powering and we were unable to hear our non-diegetic sound. As we have filmed extra scenes that will be arranged before the train station we have decided the train station scene doesnt have to be as long and we do not need as much dialogue as we had origionally planned.

Once this scene has been reshot all our filming wll be completed and we can concentrate on editing our short film, as a group we will also make diegetic music to play alongside our footage' as we dont have much dialogue in our film the music is a big part and will help to reflect the mood of our film.

Extra Scenes

We have decided as a group to capture more scenes of Lucas before he gets to the train station we feel this will set the scene more for our audience. We have decided to capture footage of Lucas in his morning routine before he leaves for the train station, this helps to create a sense of reality because most of our film has a fantasy element to it; flashing forward. We intend to capture the following shots; Lucas getting up, brushing his teeth, washing his face, choosing his outfit, having a cup of tea and then lastly leaving the house. When we edit this scene together we will put together small clips and place it in between parts of the time lapse this will bring together the train station and Lucas's life.

Pictures Edited Together

Here is our two images edited together i think the outcome is really good; i think this image is very affective however as a group we have decided we do not want the back ground images so the next step is to edit the image again in photoshop to get rid of the background..

Poster Pictures

These are the two images we are using for our new poster idea; these images have come out really well luckily it was sunny on the day we decided to take these pictures. We took a number of images of Lucas in both these outfits so we had a lot to choose from. As a group we have decided these two are the ones and therefore these will be the ones we edit together for our poster. In the successful life we have decided to have Lucas looking away and sat tall with good posture convey serious, business man actions and then in the family orientated life he is completely the opposite he is slouched in casual clothes with a smile showing him looking happier and more relaxed. We are using Photoshop series 8 to edit the images.

Changes To Our Poster

After looking at this poster we have decided to change our idea again as it doesn’t look as affected as we had hoped. We recently took more photographs of our protagonist wearing casual and smart clothes sat on a bench; this is because our new poster will feature Lucas sitting on the left side of the bench in his suit and on the right side of the bench in casual clothes. We feel this will have the same affect as our second idea but hopefully will look less amateur.

After looking at this poster we have decided to change our idea again as it doesn’t look as affected as we had hoped. We recently took more photographs of our protagonist wearing casual and smart clothes sat on a bench; this is because our new poster will feature Lucas sitting on the left side of the bench in his suit and on the right side of the bench in casual clothes. We feel this will have the same affect as our second idea but hopefully will look less amateur.



Costume

These are the two seperate images we are going to use for our poster. However we were unable to get access to a tripod when we were taking these images so we tried our best to keep the camera in the same place however looking at the two images you can see the camera has been moved slightly. We will do our best to line the images up when editing them together in Adobe Photoshop.

Idea Changes To Our Film Poster

We had originally decided for our film poster that we were going to have our main protagonist standing on crossroads of a train this was to convey the story of our film and to show that is about making decisions. The reason we have decided to change this idea is because we are unable to find a suitable location to capture the photo. Our new poster idea still features our main protagonist but this time we have one half of him wearing a suit reflecting his business life and the other side of him he will be dressed in casual clothing reflecting the family orientated life.  This poster will still reflect the two different lives and the two decisions. We understand that this poster may be difficult to produce as we will be using 2 separate images; this means that when we take the photo we need to make sure we keep the camera and the actor in exactly the same place. We will edit the image in Adobe Photoshop.

Reseach Into Posters

The poster is plays a very important part when it comes to marketing and distributing a film as it will attract an audience. Therefore it is important that our poster is appealing and interesting but also reflect the storyline of our film. Our initial idea for our poster is to include our main protagonist and have him reflecting the two lives in our film. Our poster will also in the title, tagline, our production name and our actor’s name. We have looked at posters that directly relate to our film such as 'Sliding Doors' and 'Memento' but I'm going to look at a wider range of posters to get more inspiration for our film.

Whatever Works Poster

Eventhough our film is not of the genre we have decided we would like our main protagonist as the main feature on the poster. I like this poster as it is simple and straight to the point; his body language reflects the name of the film. When we look at him we can see him strugging his shoulders showing he does really care what happens hense the film being call 'Whatever Works'. The white background really makes the images stand out.

Definitely Maybe - Poster

This poster relates to our films because it also feature chioces and decission making. Also the main protagonist is the focus point of this poster; we are hopeing to use our main protagonist as the main image on our poster. From this poster we can tell there is romance feature in this film. Our film intersection also involves romance and decissions therefore when it comes to producing our poster we can use this poster as insperation to help convey the same messages.

Atonement - Poster

I like this poster, the layout is similar to sliding doors however instead of using the same protagonists to convey the two storylines 'Atonement' using two protagonists to show the two stories. I also like how the two people in the poster are looking in different dirrections. The tagline on this poster really bring the image together as an audience we understand more about the film then we do from first glance. We could incorperate this by using 2 images og Lucas one of him in his successful life and one of him in his family orientaed life and position them in a similar way one on top of the other.

Ananlysis Of Proposal Footage

We captured the footage for our proposal scene on Friday and the opening card scene for the family orientated life. Once we watched our footage back we realised that it was successful and therefore we have finished filming our family orientated life. We now have all our successful life footage to film and certain parts of the train station scene.

Costumes and Props For Filming



Lucas's Costume ( Family Orientated Life)

This is the T- Shirt warn by Lucas for the proposal scene we wanted this scene to be quite original and therefore we thought of a different way fr Lucas to propose to Grace. We made this T-Shirt and decided the proposal scene would be filmed by Lucas revealing this T-Shirt which has 'Will you marry me?' printed on the front.



 These are the two card we are using to show the two separate paths. The card are very similar except for the writing, in the successful life the card says from mum to show that he is lonely and hasn't got friends where as in the family life we show that Lucas and Grace are expecting a baby and the card is from friends.



Card (Successful Life)






Card (Family Life)

 





 





 









Complications with filming

Throughout filming we have been faced with a number of complications. Our most recent complication is that whilst we were filming at the train station we were asked to leave by the duty manager because he believed we were press and not media students; due to this we have been set back again in our filming schedule.Therefore we have sent a letter asking permission to film at the train station. We hope to hear from them soon so we are able to continue our filming at the train station and complete this section.

Analysis Of Indoor Scene Footage

We managed to capture the footage we needed for our indoor scenes yesterday we captured around 30 minutes of footage however we are only intend to use about 2 minutes of it. We captured much more footage then we actually need because we shot the same scenes a number of times but from a variety of angles so that when it comes to editing the footage together we have a wide range of footge to choose from. Also just before we captured the footage for these scenes we scripted some dialogue so that the conversation flowed however after reviewing the footage back its not as clear and loud as we hoped and therefore we have decided whether we will keep the diegetic sound. If we choose to get rid of the diegetic sound our other option is to have a montage of shots with relevant non-diegetic music dubbed over; this may be more effective.We will make the final decision when we edit the footage together.

Filming Our Indoor Scenes

We are planning to film the rest of our family orientated life tomorrow night. We are planning to capture footage for the romantic meal scene, sofa scene and the argument scene. We decided to include an argument scene as we think by showing the negative side of the successful like with Lucas stressed out at work as well as being lone, we felt it would be fair to connote the negative aspects of a relationship.

As all these scene are at the same location; one of our houses we have planned to film them all on the same evening as it is convenient. We shouldn't be faced with any problems as it is inside and therefore we will not be affected by the weather.

Analysis Of Our Footage From The Weekend

At the weekend we filmed part of our short film, however we didnt manage ro film as much as we intended to because members of our production had other important comitments. We managed to keep on schedule up untill 2pm capturing  the train station scene, beach scene and dog walking scene.The weather on sunday was great for filming and therefore our outdoor scenes were successful. We knew that we may have some difficulties filming at the train station as its a public area and our longest scene.

As we were faced with a few problems we may decide to re shoot certain parts of the train scene. The first problem we were faced with was when a member of the public ruined a clip of Lucas stepping of the train by waving at the camera; this clip was hard to capture anyway as the trains didnt come very often.Another problem we came across was that in our planning stage we had planned for the platform to be busy and therefore capture footage of Lucas weaving through people; however when we got to the platform it was much quieter therefore we were unable to capture certain shots. The last problem we were faced with was that the sound of the trains overpowered our dialogue and therefore we are going to have to record the sound and dub it over. 

Plans For Filming This Weekend

We are planning to film a large section of our short film this weekend below is a table of our planned schedule. We have looked at the weather for Sunday it is expected to be sunny therefore we have planned to get most of out outdoor scenes done first. We have scheduled more time for the train station scene as this is our largest scnene; also by this will make sure we arent rushed and that we are able to get enough footage with a variety of shots in the time scale.

Time	Scene	Characters Needed
8am – 12pm	Train station scene	Lucas and Grace
12pm- 1pm	Beach Scene	Lucas and Grace
1pm – 2pm	Dog walk scene	Lucas and Grace
2pm – 3pm	Romantic meal scene	Lucas and Grace
3pm – 4pm	Sofa scene	Lucas and Grace
4pm – 5pm	Argument scene	Lucas and Grace
5pm – 6pm	Opening the letter	Lucas and Grace
6pm – 7pm	Pub scene	Lucas and Grace

Our New Actor

As our previous actor wasn't very reliable we had to re-cast a new actor to play the part of Lucas. We needed to find someone quickly as we were already behind schedule.Our new actor is Sam Keep a good friend of our actress Aimee Richardson this is good as we know they will have good on screen chemistry; this will help create a good verisimilitude.

Grace and Lucas in casual/family life



Our new actor in the role of Lucas in casual/family life



Our new actor in the role of Lucas in his successful life

Complications In Filming

We had arranged to have completed all our filming by now as we were hoping to capture all our footage over the Christmas holiday however our main actor was unreliable and unable to film on the dates we had agreed. Therefore we have now found a replacement who we think will be suitable for the part and more committed to the filming schedule.

As we have a new actor we have to reshoot all our previous scenes; this has behind schedule however we have planned our filming dates and we hope to capture all our footage by the beginning of February 2011.