Our main target audience would be teenagers/young adults. Because the audience is gender neutral, we did not have to use any storyline/costume/props that would appeal to solely males or females (such as sci-fi, which is more likely to be watched by a male, or a chick-flick, which is more likely to be watched by a female).
To address our audience, we kept the opening simple and did not bombard them with too much information. You don't learn the main character's name, what his personality is like or how old he is. The only information you learn is that he is most likely depressed, and has been dumped most probably recently by a girl he cared a lot about. This lack of information makes the audience want to know more, and therefore want to watch the rest of the film. They are not left confused as the story is pretty simple, but they may want to know the story behind the relationship and why the girl left the character. This appeals to the audience as teenagers/young adults can relate to relationship problems (as could probably most of the population). However, teenagers/young adults tend to be more dramatic as they are not as mature as older adults, and when dumped may take a more drastic approach. The character may be somebody they could sympathise with.
We attracted the audience through the fact that again, the opening is very simple and it leaves a lot open to question. Curious minds would want to know what happens next, and therefore watch the rest of the film. The character is a teenager, therefore people could connect and would be interested in him as he is around the same age as them. Males could connect with the character through his anger and humiliation at being dumped, and females could connect with the character through sympathising with him as he has not taken being dumped well, and cannot understand why.
Here's some feedback from student's from our class about the film. We showed them the film on finishing it, and used their feedback to make some final touches that would enhance the film even further and attract the audience more.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Using the camera in the main task was very easy to do, as we had all our knowledge of using it from the preliminary task. However, we had to film outdoors in the main task, which we had not done in the preliminary, and this made us aware of natural lighting, and making sure the camera was not facing the sun and did not have glare from the sun coming into the shots.
The main mistake we made in the preliminary task was crossing the 180 degree line. This made the character switch places on the screen, and made the shot look confusing. Therefore, throughout the whole of filming, we were very careful to keep the camera on the right side of the character, and made sure that it never crossed over to the left. This kept the character on the same side of the screen at all times and avoided confusion.
We used final cut pro when editing our preliminary task, so we had a basic knowledge of how to use it. However for the main task this knowledge became much more extended as we learnt to play around with visual and audio effects, and also transitions between shots. Learning how to do this helped us to change the flashback scenes into black and white, to show that they were at a different time to when the character was on the roof; we also added a shadowy effect to reflect the photographic nature of memory and the fact that some things aren't always clear to remember.
Adding fade in and fade out transitions helped us to create jump cuts, and also helped to portray when real time was 'ending' and when a flashback was beginning. This made the film easier to understand, rather than if the shots just cut from the rooftop to when the character was recieving the bracelet.
Something we hadn't used for our preliminary task on final cut pro was titles. However, they were relatively easy to set up, and after browsing through the different types we could use, we found one that fitted in with the atmosphere of the film. We chose one where the letters faded in and out in a sinister way as it gave a mysterious atmosphere, rather than one that flashed across the screen that would be better suited to an action film.
A program we hadn't used on the preliminary task was garageband. On here, we found two audio pieces that we felt contributed to the film, and gave it it's eerie atmosphere. The first piece was called "Beautiful tension", and was a minor piano playing with a percussion beat in the background. The minor piano gave a sinister feel to the film, and the percussion helped to build tension and suspense. We had "Beautiful tension" over the parts where the character was on the rooftop, to help build suspense about what the character was going to do. The second audio piece we had was a low strings number called "Not so friendly". This was very spooky and cold, and over the flashbacks gave an impression of menace and worry, and showed that this was not a nice memory for the character.
Getting music from garageband onto Final Cut Pro was relatively easy, and quick to learn how to do. I believe if we'd have had more time on the preliminary task, adding music would have been a good technique to do.
Generally, I feel we are a lot better skilled in using Garageband and Final Cut Pro than we were when we did the preliminary task. This is due to the continuous use of it throughout our project. Both the preliminary task and the main task were extremely fun to film and edit, and we have had a great time making them.
The main mistake we made in the preliminary task was crossing the 180 degree line. This made the character switch places on the screen, and made the shot look confusing. Therefore, throughout the whole of filming, we were very careful to keep the camera on the right side of the character, and made sure that it never crossed over to the left. This kept the character on the same side of the screen at all times and avoided confusion.
We used final cut pro when editing our preliminary task, so we had a basic knowledge of how to use it. However for the main task this knowledge became much more extended as we learnt to play around with visual and audio effects, and also transitions between shots. Learning how to do this helped us to change the flashback scenes into black and white, to show that they were at a different time to when the character was on the roof; we also added a shadowy effect to reflect the photographic nature of memory and the fact that some things aren't always clear to remember.
Adding fade in and fade out transitions helped us to create jump cuts, and also helped to portray when real time was 'ending' and when a flashback was beginning. This made the film easier to understand, rather than if the shots just cut from the rooftop to when the character was recieving the bracelet.
Something we hadn't used for our preliminary task on final cut pro was titles. However, they were relatively easy to set up, and after browsing through the different types we could use, we found one that fitted in with the atmosphere of the film. We chose one where the letters faded in and out in a sinister way as it gave a mysterious atmosphere, rather than one that flashed across the screen that would be better suited to an action film.
A program we hadn't used on the preliminary task was garageband. On here, we found two audio pieces that we felt contributed to the film, and gave it it's eerie atmosphere. The first piece was called "Beautiful tension", and was a minor piano playing with a percussion beat in the background. The minor piano gave a sinister feel to the film, and the percussion helped to build tension and suspense. We had "Beautiful tension" over the parts where the character was on the rooftop, to help build suspense about what the character was going to do. The second audio piece we had was a low strings number called "Not so friendly". This was very spooky and cold, and over the flashbacks gave an impression of menace and worry, and showed that this was not a nice memory for the character.
Getting music from garageband onto Final Cut Pro was relatively easy, and quick to learn how to do. I believe if we'd have had more time on the preliminary task, adding music would have been a good technique to do.
Generally, I feel we are a lot better skilled in using Garageband and Final Cut Pro than we were when we did the preliminary task. This is due to the continuous use of it throughout our project. Both the preliminary task and the main task were extremely fun to film and edit, and we have had a great time making them.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Donnie Darko Soundtrack - Gretchen Ross
This influenced the music we used in our project. The piano adds a soft sentiment to the feel of the film, however the minor tones introduce a sinister, eerie atmosphere. Our music encorporated both of these, to show that the character is not a bad person, but he has had a lot of trouble in his life. Our piano tunes also encorporate percussion in the background, increasing in volume to build suspense and tension. It works well with the shots we have put it with as it gets the viewers heart racing and leads them to believe the film will not end well.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?
During the making of this project we learnt many new skills from various media technologies. One in particular was the use of the new Mac computers. Before beginning this project most of the people in our group had not used a Mac before and so it was a little difficult to start with as the layout is different from a ‘pc’. However after a while of searching through the computers and getting to grips to where everything was, we found it easier to work with. We used a editing program called ‘Final Cut Pro’ which was fairly straightforward to navigate around as there was a help bar at the top of the page if we needed to find a certain effect or transition we could just type it in there and it would automatically find it for us. We used this final cut pro to log and capture all out clips and then rearrange them on the timeline and then used a tool called ‘mark in/out’ to crop the parts of the clips we did not need. We used garage band to create the music soundtrack for our film, we combined a variety of different sound together such as ‘beautiful tension’ and ‘not so friendly’ and then exported it from garage band and imported it to final cut pro.
We used the website ‘Blogger’ as a way of showing others our planning and preparation for the prelimary task and the main task. It exhibits everything we did from the very beginning (planning our main task) to the very end (evaluating our main task and the final film opening video) and everything in between such as photographs of the locations we shot in, and screenshots of our project in final cut pro and garage band.
We also used the college canon digital camcorders and tripods, which were not very complicated to use as they had the basic record, pause, rewind, fast forward and play functions. The tripods were easy to assemble as they just required us to open them up using the clips that were provided. When out filming the tripods were essential as we learnt that without the tripod the camera footage is shaky and this is not the effect we were going for. We leant how to mount the camera on the tripod and make it secure. Whilst out filming we had to make sure that we recorded a gap before and after the clip we recorded so it would be easier to edit together and cut sections off without erasing the part of the clip we needed.
We also used a selection of other media technologies which helped contribute to the completing of out project. We used a number of websites to help with the research in pre-production.
We used YouTube to research other openings of films within the same genre of our project. Our genre is psychological/romantic/drama. Therefore the films we researched into were, ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Kidult hood’, as these films were of the same Genre. This helped us to gain a better understanding in the process and development of these films. We also used ‘IMDB’ to research more into these films, it told us who the production companies were who were involved in the making of the films, the running time, any bloopers and trivia, the actors and characters names, the rating of the film, the release date, genre, and who the writer and director were.
We used YouTube to research other openings of films within the same genre of our project. Our genre is psychological/romantic/drama. Therefore the films we researched into were, ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Kidult hood’, as these films were of the same Genre. This helped us to gain a better understanding in the process and development of these films. We also used ‘IMDB’ to research more into these films, it told us who the production companies were who were involved in the making of the films, the running time, any bloopers and trivia, the actors and characters names, the rating of the film, the release date, genre, and who the writer and director were.
We used the website ‘Blogger’ as a way of showing others our planning and preparation for the prelimary task and the main task. It exhibits everything we did from the very beginning (planning our main task) to the very end (evaluating our main task and the final film opening video) and everything in between such as photographs of the locations we shot in, and screenshots of our project in final cut pro and garage band.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
We’ve used specific techniques in our opening sequence to define the genre and address / attract the audience. The non diagetic sound that we’ve applied to our opening sequence is dramatic and conveys the setting and atmosphere, the opening shows the main character dropping a bracelet, a sound effect was added when the bracelet hits the floor which makes it sound large and heavy, this was to illustrate that the bracelet means a lot to the main character and letting it go is a huge deal to him. The audience will pay attention if they hear a distinct and interesting soundtrack and this, in turn, can create atmosphere, emotion and give an overall, general opinion towards the film. Furthermore we have used visual effects in our project such as black and white and earthquake. These demonstrate negative and even delusional behaviour, this was used to add a higher level of complexity to the film to attract and address the audience, even in clips with colour we have lowered the saturation to a cold blue-ish tone to evoke feelings of negativity in those who watch.
There are many different camera angles throughout the opening scene, we have used close up shots on objects so that the audience focuses and absorbs the events occurring. For example, we did a close up of a letter that’s seen more than once in the opening, we did this so that the audience would realise that it’s the same letter throughout and this in turn would help them understand the story line, this was also done with a bracelet. Furthermore to create even more interest we added an affect called stop motion blur, this distorts the image so you cannot make out the image, this creates suspicion and makes the viewer ask questions. We also did close ups on the main characters face to address to the audience about the emotions involved. Long shots were used to create feelings of isolation and loneliness and the cut rate of shots vary throughout the opening giving a disorientated feel, this attracts the audience and distinguishes the genre as a psychological drama.
There are many different camera angles throughout the opening scene, we have used close up shots on objects so that the audience focuses and absorbs the events occurring. For example, we did a close up of a letter that’s seen more than once in the opening, we did this so that the audience would realise that it’s the same letter throughout and this in turn would help them understand the story line, this was also done with a bracelet. Furthermore to create even more interest we added an affect called stop motion blur, this distorts the image so you cannot make out the image, this creates suspicion and makes the viewer ask questions. We also did close ups on the main characters face to address to the audience about the emotions involved. Long shots were used to create feelings of isolation and loneliness and the cut rate of shots vary throughout the opening giving a disorientated feel, this attracts the audience and distinguishes the genre as a psychological drama.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would mainly be teenager to young adult in terms of age as it is inappropriate for younger audiences due to suicide that occurs. The audience itself is gender neutral as the product contains factors that would appeal to both men and women, for example the use of romance would appeal to women whilst suicide would appeal to men. Interests of the audience may include romance and the problems in relationships as this is found in the film, furthermore, the audience may have an interest in media and filming and would maybe like to study the camera angles and sound. For our project we are aiming on hitting mass audience as the majority of people can watch it and we want as many people as possible to watch it. Donnie Darko has a similar target audience as it is aimed at a 15+ audience, this may be due to the fact that Donnie Darko is a psychological drama and it is very complicated to understand, so people under the age of 15 may not fully understand what is going on in the film and it would be pointless for them to watch it if they do not know what is going on.
Our film has a variety of genres including, psychological drama, romantic drama, love, loss and relationships. These genres appeal to a variety of people from all different age groups however as our film is rated 12, we have decided to focus on only a few, psychological drama, romance and loss. Films like ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Love actually’ are based on romance and the target audience for these films are usually 12+ (same as our film). Our film is partly influenced by this aspect of the ‘relationships’ genre and partly influenced by other films such as ‘Donnie Darko’ (15+) as it is a psychological drama (so is our film). So the combinations of both these influences have created our final product. It contains material for both men and women which means it’s not targeted towards one particular gender and as a result it has a bigger target audience.
A typical person who our film would appeal to would be someone (male or female) of an age group of approximately 17-24. It would be someone from a working class society who may be attending university and in a part-time job. This person may have a busy social life and attend the cinemas regularly and go out every weekend. It would appeal to people who have already watched and enjoyed films like ‘The Butterfly Effect’, ‘American Beauty’ and obviously ‘Donnie Darko’.
Our film has a variety of genres including, psychological drama, romantic drama, love, loss and relationships. These genres appeal to a variety of people from all different age groups however as our film is rated 12, we have decided to focus on only a few, psychological drama, romance and loss. Films like ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Love actually’ are based on romance and the target audience for these films are usually 12+ (same as our film). Our film is partly influenced by this aspect of the ‘relationships’ genre and partly influenced by other films such as ‘Donnie Darko’ (15+) as it is a psychological drama (so is our film). So the combinations of both these influences have created our final product. It contains material for both men and women which means it’s not targeted towards one particular gender and as a result it has a bigger target audience.
A typical person who our film would appeal to would be someone (male or female) of an age group of approximately 17-24. It would be someone from a working class society who may be attending university and in a part-time job. This person may have a busy social life and attend the cinemas regularly and go out every weekend. It would appeal to people who have already watched and enjoyed films like ‘The Butterfly Effect’, ‘American Beauty’ and obviously ‘Donnie Darko’.
What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
As our media product was influenced by the film Donnie Darko we decided to do some research on the production and distribution companies related to the success of that film. The production companies involved with Donnie Darko include:
Pandora Cinema
Flower Films (II)
Adam Fields Productions
Gaylord Films
These production companies are not hugely popular; the one to produce the most films is Pandora Cinema which has produced a total of 28 films. We would probably trust this production company in making our film as the company has good experience in making various genres of film and as our film includes various qualities from different genres (for example, romance, drama etc) it would be the most suitable. Furthermore they may be interested in our project as it is similar to Donnie Darko. The budget for Donnie Darko was $4,500,000 and this is a reasonably low budget compared to mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. Our film will have a similar if not lower budget; British production companies that work with low budget films include Working Title and we would contact a company with similar qualities to help us produce our media product. To distribute our film we would use a variety of advertising methods such as free advertisement, which includes posters, radio interviews and TV appearances. This would increase word of mouth and cause a larger audience to view our film. Distribution companies in the UK include:
BFI Distribution
British Film Institute
21 Stephen Street
London
W1P 2LN
T 020 7957 8925/8938
F 020 7580 5830
Goldcrest Films International
65-66 Dean Street
London
W1D 4PL
T 020 7437 8696
F 020 7437 4448
Lionsgate
FilmsAriel House
74a Charlotte Street
London
W1T 4QJ
T 020 7636 3935
F 020 7323 0961
We would most likely trust Goldcrest Films International as our distribution company as it distributes low to medium budget films such as the British film ‘A room with a view’. This film had quite a low budget of $3,000,000 but it did extremely well in the Box office and made millions, because of this, we would most likely contact them and see whether they would distribute our project to the best of their ability.
Pandora Cinema
Flower Films (II)
Adam Fields Productions
Gaylord Films
These production companies are not hugely popular; the one to produce the most films is Pandora Cinema which has produced a total of 28 films. We would probably trust this production company in making our film as the company has good experience in making various genres of film and as our film includes various qualities from different genres (for example, romance, drama etc) it would be the most suitable. Furthermore they may be interested in our project as it is similar to Donnie Darko. The budget for Donnie Darko was $4,500,000 and this is a reasonably low budget compared to mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. Our film will have a similar if not lower budget; British production companies that work with low budget films include Working Title and we would contact a company with similar qualities to help us produce our media product. To distribute our film we would use a variety of advertising methods such as free advertisement, which includes posters, radio interviews and TV appearances. This would increase word of mouth and cause a larger audience to view our film. Distribution companies in the UK include:
BFI Distribution
British Film Institute
21 Stephen Street
London
W1P 2LN
T 020 7957 8925/8938
F 020 7580 5830
Goldcrest Films International
65-66 Dean Street
London
W1D 4PL
T 020 7437 8696
F 020 7437 4448
Lionsgate
FilmsAriel House
74a Charlotte Street
London
W1T 4QJ
T 020 7636 3935
F 020 7323 0961
We would most likely trust Goldcrest Films International as our distribution company as it distributes low to medium budget films such as the British film ‘A room with a view’. This film had quite a low budget of $3,000,000 but it did extremely well in the Box office and made millions, because of this, we would most likely contact them and see whether they would distribute our project to the best of their ability.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents particular social groups in a variety of different ways. Firstly, the main character is represented by having depression and even possibly having a mental illness, we came up with the idea of basing the main character on Donnie from the film ‘Donnie Darko’ who himself has a mental disorder. To represent this delusional state, we used certain video distort effects such as earthquake to show anxiety and nervousness. We also sped up parts of the film to add abruptness and to express the feelings of the situation. We changed the colour settings to black and white on the flashbacks to create a gloomy atmosphere and we used an eerie track called ‘not so friendly’. To add tension we also used a second track called ‘beautiful tension’, the sounds we used in our project are also similar to the ones in ‘Donnie Darko’ and symbolise mystery. To suit stereotypical qualities, the main character also wore dark clothes.
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When making a film project, you want it to look professional and have a similar quality as a real media product; you can do this by producing the media project similarly to how people would publish a real media product e.g. using the same equipment etc. Our media product uses various forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly, when filming our product we used a tripod to keep the camera steady, this helps to keep filming smooth and consistent but also gives it a level of professionalism. Without it, our product would lack quality. Even though the equipment we were using was of a lower standard compared to the equipment used in real media products, we incorporated camera angles and different levels of lighting to improve the quality.
To add consistency to our piece we made sure that each shot went into the next and it didn’t jump. Furthermore, if a new scene was to be introduced we added a slow fade into blackness, these transitions and continuity shots are commonly seen in real media products. When filming we tried to make it as continuous and accurate as possible, to do this we filmed in the same type of weather and made sure that anything that shouldn’t be included in the scene was moved out the way, we kept the costume, hair and other things similar unless it was a scene in a different time period.
When it came to editing we used software called ‘final cut pro’, this software is of very good standard, you can distort video clips, add extra colour, speed up clips and add transitions amongst various other things. Even though the software isn’t as complex as software used by professionals you can make any film project near to the quality of real media products. In our project we used various effects to convey feelings and emotion such as the effect ‘earthquake’, this turns the clip shaky and we used it to portray anxiety, to make this feeling even more expressive we made the clip faster so everything sped up. Also, when a flashback occurs we increased the light intensity and also used a video filter called, stop motion blur, this gives the clip a very impressive visual quality and creates suspense.
The genre of our piece is drama. Drama is probably the largest genre and they’re very serious and portray realistic story lines. The characters, settings and life situations involved are all fairly complex and realistic and they don’t usually focus on special effects or humour. Our project is similar and applies this. The pre recorded track created on garage band has been added to muted video clips, it involves a piano piece that adds tension and an eerie track that builds suspense and mystery and informs the viewer that the clip is a flashback. Mise en scene shows abstract scenery which is usually urban; this is also commonly seen in drama genres. However to make ours slightly different to a drama, we decided to put the dramatic scene at the beginning (man committing suicide) rather than at the end.
We have been inspired by other films such as Donnie Darko, as in Donnie Darko they have used effects such as scenes that were sped up to create a unusual atmosphere, we also used a speed effect during the scene when the main character is walking towards the edge of the railings. This created the effect that he was not in his right mind and was disorientated and confused. Furthermore Donnie Darko is a psychological drama and our film is also a psychological drama we chose this genre as we thought it best represented what was going on in our opening scene as when the audience watch it they are at first puzzled by the whereabouts of the main character, its only until there is a establishing (pov) shot looking down on the moving traffic below that the audience are aware that he is on top of a building.
To add consistency to our piece we made sure that each shot went into the next and it didn’t jump. Furthermore, if a new scene was to be introduced we added a slow fade into blackness, these transitions and continuity shots are commonly seen in real media products. When filming we tried to make it as continuous and accurate as possible, to do this we filmed in the same type of weather and made sure that anything that shouldn’t be included in the scene was moved out the way, we kept the costume, hair and other things similar unless it was a scene in a different time period.
When it came to editing we used software called ‘final cut pro’, this software is of very good standard, you can distort video clips, add extra colour, speed up clips and add transitions amongst various other things. Even though the software isn’t as complex as software used by professionals you can make any film project near to the quality of real media products. In our project we used various effects to convey feelings and emotion such as the effect ‘earthquake’, this turns the clip shaky and we used it to portray anxiety, to make this feeling even more expressive we made the clip faster so everything sped up. Also, when a flashback occurs we increased the light intensity and also used a video filter called, stop motion blur, this gives the clip a very impressive visual quality and creates suspense.
The genre of our piece is drama. Drama is probably the largest genre and they’re very serious and portray realistic story lines. The characters, settings and life situations involved are all fairly complex and realistic and they don’t usually focus on special effects or humour. Our project is similar and applies this. The pre recorded track created on garage band has been added to muted video clips, it involves a piano piece that adds tension and an eerie track that builds suspense and mystery and informs the viewer that the clip is a flashback. Mise en scene shows abstract scenery which is usually urban; this is also commonly seen in drama genres. However to make ours slightly different to a drama, we decided to put the dramatic scene at the beginning (man committing suicide) rather than at the end.
We have been inspired by other films such as Donnie Darko, as in Donnie Darko they have used effects such as scenes that were sped up to create a unusual atmosphere, we also used a speed effect during the scene when the main character is walking towards the edge of the railings. This created the effect that he was not in his right mind and was disorientated and confused. Furthermore Donnie Darko is a psychological drama and our film is also a psychological drama we chose this genre as we thought it best represented what was going on in our opening scene as when the audience watch it they are at first puzzled by the whereabouts of the main character, its only until there is a establishing (pov) shot looking down on the moving traffic below that the audience are aware that he is on top of a building.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
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