My Final Film

Destination Death from Mark Packer on Vimeo.

Preliminary Task

This is the preliminary task that we did before we started filming our film. You can see how we have improved our filming as we started as amateurs and then we were taught the best shots and techniques to make a good film. In this you can see the improvement we did on our shots and the position of the actor on camera.


preliminarly film 1 from Mark Packer on Vimeo.

Audience Feedback

We got feedback from a professional film maker because he would be able to tell us how to improve it and tell us what he thinks is good about it. He watched our film through and then he filled out a sheet.

This is the feedback we got from a professional film maker. He gave us some things to work on and also said what was good about our film. We took his advice and tried to use it in our film so that it would be as good as it possibly could. He sad we needed to cut down on our bedroom scene as it was over 1 minute long so we cut that down so that our film wasnt too boring. He said that the font style of the writing didnt suit the genre of film so we changed it to a more suitable font for our genre. Our sound wasnt very good in our film so we tried to edit it so it sounded better and we made it so it wasnt crackling anymore but you could still hear the rugby match in the background.

This is some feedback that Claire Packer gave us on our film after watching it.

Film feedback 1 from Mark Packer on Vimeo.

Evaluation - 6 and 7. What have you learnt about the technologies from making this product? Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in progression from it to your final product?

Cameras:
 I have learnt about the way you have to film, for example, if you are doing a pan, you have to start filming further out and then record a few seconds before so that you can cut it and it looks more steady.
 I have learnt about camera shot. I have learnt that the camera angle can effect the way the audience interpret  the character. For example, a high angle would make the character seem weak and vulnerable.
 I have also learnt that lighting is very important when filming a shot. We found quite a few times that one shot was darker than the other and that you have to adjust it slightly a few times until it looks right.
 I also learnt that its good to film the same shot several times from different angles so then when you edit it together you can see what shot would look best.

Editing:
 I found when editing that it is very hard and time consuming to do match on actions but when you have cut it in together, it looks amazing.
 I have also learnt to cut shots and then put them together with other shots.
 I have learned that when you are putting shots together, you have to cut every 3/4 seconds or it will become boring for the audience.

Other skills:
 The sound I learnt to use were how to do a voice over for a film and how to put music onto the film a swell.
 Special effects I used were how to darken and brighten the screen if I hadn't got the right lighting when I filmed it.
 When i was adding titles, I found out that you cant choose any title, certain titles go with certain genres and suit your film specifically.

In my final piece, you can see how we have improved with match on actions. In both Sam reaches for the door handle and it looks a lot smoother in the final film.

 

 Also we use the camera height and where the character is meant to be on the screen. For example in my preliminary task Sam's eyes aren't a 3rd of the way down the screen but in out final film we picked up on it and made sure it was good in every shot.

 

We also learnt our lesson about reflections, in our preliminary task you can see us filming in the reflection of the door, but we learnt from it and in the final film we filmed Sam looking in the mirror and we made it so you couldn't see our reflections.

 

I don't think our time management has improved at all. We rushed the preliminary task because we didn't have much time and our filming was late and we couldn't get some shots because we were pushed for time. Our organisation skills were maybe better because in the preliminary task we were just telling each other what to do but in our final piece we wrote out a whole story board and scripts so that everybody knew what they were doing. I don't think that we had great team ability as we each had different pieces of the film but we would never have all the things we needed and we lacked communication. I think independently both my partner and I both did a lot better as we worked a lot harder by ourselves and could concentrate instead of putting each other off. I think our final piece is effective because it has a clear story line and it fits all the regulations in the genre. However its not as effective because we missed out some shots that we couldn't film and also the sound wasnt great as we used a HD camera and then a normal camera so the quality was different and the sounding didn't match and was very crackly. We tried to fix it with a voice over but I believe it would have been a lot more effective if we had put in more effort into the sound instead of just getting the perfect shot.

Evaluation - 4 and 5. Who would be the audience of your product? What elements of your text would attract your target audience?

The target for my audience for my film would be teenagers and young adults. I think around 15-19.

 I think this because i rated it 15 because i think the blood and mild horror will appeal to a young audience this age, so 15 year olds will watch it. And i've made it up to 19 because I think that teenagers/young adults will enjoy this kind of films. Also the characters are 16/17/18 so the target audience can form a connection with them and imagine as if they are in the film themselves like a form of escapism. I think the gender would mainly be male because stereotypically males like horror and blood and gore more than females. The social class I think it will be the working class because our target audience will most likely still be in education meaning that they can get out to the cinema because they aren't always working.

I think that my film would attract my target audience because it has the fast paced opening sequence which keeps the audience guessing what's happening. The characters are also the same age as the target audience so the audience may form some sort of attachment to them and they can picture them being in the film which is a form of escapism. I think the style of the characters may also attract the target audience as the dress typically to the mainstream fashion so we would get a large audience that would be attracted to it because there is such a large amount of people who dress and act like this. The music that is played in it is of a very famous band and that might attract some of the target audience as that type of music is commonly played in the type of age group, which happened with Transformers when Linkin Park played a song for them. I think the blood and gore would attract male audiences because they are stereotypically enetertained by death and lots of blood. I think it will also appeal to a male audience because in my film the female character is very attractive and this would appeal to them. I think it would also appeal to a female audience because they could look up to her as a role model as she is in a film and very beautiful.

Evaluation - 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

In the 'real world' I think that Dimension films would produce and distribute my film. They are a big film making institution which would mean that it would get recognized better by people. Also because they usually make slasher horror films which are very successful.

Some of them are the Scream films (1-4), they are very well known slasher horrors and are the main films associated with the genre.

My film is very similar to these films and some of our ideas were influenced by it so I think that the institution producing this film, Dimension Films, would produce ours.


I think my film has kept within the regulations and this is why:

Evaluation - 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film shows only teenage characters. It represents them all in different way.

Alex:
It shows Alex in both positive and negative ways. It shows him in a positive light as he is well dressed, he isn't wearing dirty clothes, he has a nice hair cut and is quite handsome. However he is portrayed negatively as he gets involved in an illegal activity, he smokes illegal drugs. We tried to make it so there was a high angle camera shot on him in one shot, so it was looking down on him, but it was difficult due to the location so you cant really tell. He is then killed, quite easily, which doesn't show him as being strong or fighting back which could be seen as a negative representation but it wasn't intended that way. But he is also in charge which then could also be positive representation.

Sam:
Sam is also shown in positive and negative views. For example, he is seen positively as he confidently dressed and seems quite confident and he has friends. However, he also got easily peer pressured into smoking illegal drugs which is a negative representation. Its negative because he seems weak and also it shows that teenagers are rebellious and break the laws. Another negative representation is that he leaves his friend, Alex, to die and runs away when the killer shows up, this is negative because it may be interpreted that teenagers are cowards and run away from situations. Also he has a vision of what happens, which could be seen as him being insane or crazy but it could also be seen as him having a gift in some cultures.

Eleanor:
Eleanor is a female teenager and she is represented in a positive way because she is a very beautiful girl and she has rather expensive clothing on. However, she could also be represented as a sex object as she has a low cut top. Another negative representation is that she doesn't go off with the boys she goes off by herself meaning she may not be a major friend and the males dominate. But this could also be seen as positive because it means that she doesn't go and do illegal drugs.

Mark:
I was the killer and I was shown negatively, he is presented as a murderer with some sort of mental illness that makes him want to murder people. He is shown in a skull mask and wears only black, this is negative because he is seen as scary. Also he is male which shows male dominance.