Final Cut

This is our film 'The Premonition'

Aucillary poster - Final draft

This is the final draft of our ancillary poster for our film. It differs from our first draft because the breaks in the picture have been erased and the main picture has been blended into the poster. The slogan still remains fragmented to represent a broken world in which the protagonist and the Sophia (the person in the poster) experiences during the course of the film.

Ancillary piece: Magazine film review

We have decided to do an poster as part of our film review and the reason behind this is because we thought that it would tie in well with our ancillary poster. We decided to use the protagonist on the front cover of the magazine as we got his suggestions of his perception of his character on the front of the magazine.

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

Our media product uses already existing conventions that are portrayed in media products. For instance organized crime gangsters, which can be seen as one of the major driving forces within our production, we use this to our advantage as this is an easily identifiable trait in any media production. We did this through the use of costume, where we had our male actors (gangsters) to be dressed in suits and ties, this can be seen in many films especially American gangster films, an example would be 'Goodfellas'. We have our character go through the typical inciting incident of a deal gone bad as our protagonist now owes money or his life and his loved ones lives are at stake.


 Another convention that we use in our media product is also heavily used due to the suspense it can create within an audience,for instance the damsel in distress scenario which has been played throughout the ages in stories and in modern day media products. Although we use this convention we lightly develop on it with our own much more subtle rendition of the 'fem fetale'  where the audience witnesses the so called 'damsel in distress' turn into a double crossing sleuth as she makes her escape after having her mob affiliated boyfriend go through a hard time keeping her alive. This supports the convention of women in gangster films being seductive and greedy and usually the protagonists weakness as he tries to keep her happy. As she is the only female within the whole production this again conforms to the conventions of the crime world being predominantly male dominated. Music used within our media piece challenged conventions expected by our target audience, for instance they would have expected rap music in some scenes or more upbeat music which would set the atmosphere. Instead we went in the opposite direction and did not use rap music, but much more mellow music this created an unsettling atmosphere for viewers which again would keep their attention on the action within our production.

A convention that we also used was that of kidnapping the protagonists loved one, this keeps the action of our production in motion. Combining this with Todorov's narrative theory, it allowed us to place the inciting incidents strategically in order to keep the viewers engaged. In terms of location, the setting picked subverted conventions of British gangster films being set in the East end of London or certain parts of South London. Instead we set our film in Westminster with a relatively low crime rate in terms of gang related crime, this made for a much more interesting media product as it intriuges viewers as this is not your typical setting for a gangster film. Some settings within our media product do in fact follow conventions expected in gangster films, like having a warehouse to interrogate their kidnapee. This could be seen as a postmodern movement as drew inspiration from older works and incorporated them in our own production, we were inspired by Resevoir Dogs where they also have a warehouse in which they rendezvous at and where the story further progresses.

Evaluation: Target audience feedback

In order to asses whether we had satisfied viewers and produced a media piece that our target audience liked we screened our movie to 2 students in our college and asked them 4 questions about the movie.

We also have recorded their responses on You tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVz6A2XELZs

1. Did you understand the storyline?

The people that watched our film (Michael and Daniel) said that the movie was understandable and that the story that we tried to portray fitted well with the title of our film and made sense. Even though me and my partner faced some cutting issues our main importance was making the storyline clear enough for people to follow and due to these responses I feel creating a clear storyline has been fulfilled.


2. Do you think that the characters portrayed in the movie represent their role within the film?
Michael and Daniel both understood the character roles that we presented in the movie clearly. Michael had set from the outset of the movie you know what characters are which and which ones have the control within the movie. This is something me and my partner are glad to get a response from as we wanted to make the characters personalities and types shine through the production to make sure that the story would be easier to tell. Daniel had also said the characters we portrayed where characters you would expect to see in typical gangster movies and again this is something our group worked hard on to portray as we used suits and ties and hair that's slick all the back with our main gangster Omed in order to represent this. This was an advancement from last year as we where inexperienced in how to portray characters with meaning but this year due to experience have assessed this aspect of film in much more detail than before

3. What would you improve within the movie 
This question wasn't asked during the video but when i asked after the video had finished Michael and Daniel had both realized some continuity errors within our movie which we couldn't avoid due to time management issues. This has made us aware the timing is key and that we need to make sure in future productions that characters can make it on time and wearing the exact same thing every time they come to shoot. We found this difficult to plan because their is only 2 of us in the group and therefore contact at times with our actors became difficult to obtain, so when characters had to film we had no choice but to do it when they came because we had to get this production finished at a certain time. Nonetheless this has benefited in fact me and partner as we know next time that this issue must be resolved in order to make a better production next time around and understand that planning and communication must be better to ensure this

4. Does this reach the target audience of the 16-24 category?
Michael and Daniel had both said that the production does reach the 16-24 year old category. Their reasons behind this where that because the characters in the movie are around their age group it made it easier to understand their life cycle as they are in the same age bracket as them, so they understand what they are going through. Our group did try to implement a teenage type of lifestyle in this production because me and my partner know the majority of people watching this film will be the 16-24 year olds and thus we had to make a movie in which this age bracket understood to attract their interests. What we have learnt from this is that there are certain characteristics within characters that always have to be addressed in order to met the conventions that this age bracket expect when watching productions.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our main media product and ancillary texts work well together, our ancillary text is what the consumers would be exposed to initially.We would expect the protagonist of the production to be the main focus, we went against this expectation and had our female character as the focus in the ancillary text. The ancillary text and media product do not initially seem to mesh,this would raise suspicions of viewers initially, but once they have viewed our production they would understand who she was in within the film.

By Obscuring who the protagonist  is within our media production, it creates a cliffhanger throughout the production, and as the short film progresses their understanding of the goings on also increase. The combination of the ancillary text along with our media product make for an engaging product, this is because it prompts the audience to question what they are viewing and enthralls them into the happenings of the production. The ancillary text and our media product work very effectively together as the ancillary texts leaves the audience to predict their own conclusions, while the media product after a number of twists and turns finally bridges the gap between what they thought went on and what actual happens.

Nonetheless however the magazine poster represents the protagonist as his views are present in this front cover of the ancillary piece. This presents an anticipation of what actually happens to the protagonist in the film as you can see him with a rather bloody face so the audience knows that he his in a spot of bother but dont know what kind of bother he is in. This makes our main product effective as consumers are going to want to know what has happen to the protagonist and why the girl is on the front cover of the movie poster as well if its the protagonist who we should thinking about. The ancillary pieces have then gave our storyline more substance and more meaning which makes it more effective. 

Evaluation - How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning And Evaluation Stages?

We used an array of media technologies which contributed towards our final media product, one of the most important elements of media technology that we used was the internet as it played a detrimental role in our research.  The internet us helped to better our media product, as we watched many 'youtube' clips in order to do research on what would appeal to our target audience the most, we done this by watching music videos and any clips that happened to be especially popular at the time. In addition using the internet, we took advantage of the internet's ease of use as it gave us access to an abundance of information on either how to edit or add effects. By doing this we were able to learn more and incorporate this into our media piece.

In terms of construction and the use of media technologies, the camera we used played a huge role as it was much more advanced than what we had used in the previous year. The Canon EOS 7D digital SLR camera enabled us to shoot crisp clear images, this encouraged our dynamism in terms of constructing a series of shots. The camera also played a role in planning as we had to go to various locations to recce and find a suitable place, having the camera along with us while doing this enabled us to see exactly how it would turn out if it were to be shoot in that particular location. Editing software Adobe Premiere enabled the construction of our media production to take on another form as it added new dimensions to our media production through what it allowed us to do. For instance the split screen effect that we had researched and not known how to do was possible on Adobe Premiere. As we were still novices to the editting process we had to use youtube to teach us how to create some of the effects found in our production.



A tutorial video showing us how to create the split screen



Print media also helped inform our decisions on what type of short film to produce, we thought that we would produce a short film that could fall into the gangster genre, as we thought this would spark interest within in our viewers because it was different to a majority of what is being shown currently. We also looked at how similar ganster films were portrayed in posters and in magaizine reviews, this counted as research towards our media production as it informed our decisions to stray from the typical image that gangster films give to the consumers in their posters.




Poster For 1 Day, a British gangster/muscial film



Social media websites also contributed to the planning and research of our media production, social media websites such as twitter and facebook. We observed what our target audience thoughts and beliefs were to current films being promoted or already in cinemas, through the observation we were able to understand what they liked and disliked towards these films and music videos and this enabled us to tailor our planning to include elements that will keep them engaged. Social media allowed us to better our understsanding of our target market and know the best way to appeal to them keeping them entertained. Youtube again aided us in our construction of our media product, this was through watching vidoes and learning how to shoot certain shots that we may have found difficult to pull off. Once we had watched the videos and understood how to carry out these shots we were able to add a dynamism to our production, in addition to learning how to perform these shots it also increased our knowledge on the connotations certain shot types will create.

Aucillary poster: First draft

 

This is the first draft of our ancillary piece. As you can see from the ancillary piece we tried to make it look like the template of the Bourne Legacy poster. We want to create an affect where things are fragmented to represent our storyline which is our inspiration behind why we have followed this templete.Overall there are some improvements to be made such as color blending and increasing the size of the text around the poster but overall we felt this was a decent first attempt. 

Aucillary poster: Picture we used as a cover

This is the still that we are using for the ancillary poster. The reason why we are using this picture is to play wuth the conventions of the character. Here (Sophia) looks sort of innocent but at the same time has the posture of someone powerful and in control, this will play with the mind of audiences as it will be hard to distinguish her personality allowing the twist within our film to become more effective.

Aucillary poster: Blending and blurring

Before blending and blurring

After blending and blurring

We decided to blur the image a lot more than the orginal image for the purpose of making Sophia more in focus in our poster. We did this as she was the main vocal point in our poster and we had to make sure that she stands out in the poster in order for her to create meaning to audiences that she has a strong presence in this film. We also used various blending techniques to help sharp edges feather out and this effect is useful as it makes the image look more of a natural shot.

Aucillary poster - Color grading

A major part of both ancillary pieces where color grading schemes that involved and effect called curves which can alter the lighting of images to make them look better and more realistic within the image itself. we used curves for the aucillary magazine the most however because we wanted to kind of tint the protagonist of in a black a white shade to show the lack of consistency the picture has, just like the inconsistent occurances of what happens to the protagoinist.

Before

After

Time managment

Time management was always a constraint towards when we had to film however we worked around this by communicating with the other group in our media class when each group was filming as they was only one camera to use. Due to this, this enabled our group to stay on schedule during some circumstances whilst shooting which benefited the coverage we had for the shots that we took.

Major setbacks: Location issues

Setbacks concerning location became apparent on many occasions, due to filming restrictions certain places have in place. For instance Victoria Station was our initial location and what we thought to be our ideal location, upon filming we soon found out that we were not permitted to film/photograph in the station.

This was also the case when filming in and around the area called Cardinal Place, also in Victoria. From this Miles and I quickly learnt that to successfully film in these locations advanced preparation must be done in the form of possibly gaining permission from these establishments.

Initial location in Victoria Station

Due to this we quickly reconsidered how and where we would shoot the scene. After location recce's and discussions we soon reached an agreement and overcame the set backs surrounding locations. With a slightly altered shot list in lieu of the location change we still managed to shoot the scene to our satisfaction.

Major setbacks: Costume

This was in the form of come actors in the production wearing a different item of clothing or a completely different outfit, as we did not want to effect continuity to an obvious extent we had to scrap filming for that particular scene.

Whether it was a communication issue or not, we learnt that prior to every shoot we brief each actor on what we need them to wear for the particular scene being shot. After the mishap of both actors not coming in the right costume we took it on board to take a picture of the desired costume, and then send it to our actors in the morning to ensure they know exactly what we expect for them. This made the rest of our shoot easier as there was no longer any complication or confusion with costume.

Prop research

We looked into props for our media production. We realise that we need to add effective props in our production in order to make scenes look more effective when the final production is created. We first looked at this magnum to use for the gangster Lekan in our film. We needed to give him a weapon in order to look like a threat in the dream sequence of the film and we thus looked towards a gun to show this.

Research: Ancillary poster

Whilst looking at potential ideas for our aucillary piece we found inspiration from the Bourne Legacy movie poster. We espcially liked the template of how the poster was structured and we could use this sort of templete within our aucillary piece to represent a broken world which the protagonist is living in.

Script

Dialogue within our media production had to be well thought out, as we wanted the conversation between our characters to give the audience insight into the plans our protagonist has with the stolen money. This dialogue comes in after the flashback showing our protagonist stealing the money. The conversation between the protagonist and his girlfriend should reveal to the audience that they plan to squander this money on leisurely activities.


This conversations introduces the audience to the couple and how they interact with one another, like an actual couple. It shows how the couple have plans for this money our protagonist Miles has 'come into' and plan to go to Spain. The dialogue is effective as it gives a small amount of crucial infomation which allows for the rest of the production to progress and allow the audience to piece together the incidences that amount up to the kidnapping

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This dialogue should give the audience the impression that they are infact an actual couple, the same can be said about the other script too. Our aim was to make the couple seem as believable as possible. Further more making the girlfriend seem un-assuming and unaware of the whole situation.

Editing: Adobe After Effects CS5

Our group identified that in order to make our film look effective we need to use a wider variety of software in order to attain this. We opted to use Adobe After Effects CS5 as our inspiration into creating a production with better visual media than was presented last year. After Effects offers a great range of effects and transitions that you can apply to images, like this smoke effect you see in the image above. By having these effects in our production our group are enabled to present a better representation of the type of movie we are trying to portray, as if we can manipulate the effects we want to portray to create meaning. For instance this smoke effect in a red tint represents danger connotates a violent abruption which unfolds during the outset of the story. 

Editing: Title sequence

Our group had met and discussed the effect that we wanted to portray in the ope
ning title sequence. As you can see above we decided to use a very bold black text to outline the names of the people within our film, alongside short establishing shots of areas around Victoria and Vauxhall. We mainly did this to establish the scene where the majority of the storyline is going to be held. When combining all the shots that we took we found that they complimented each other and alongside music worked very effectively during the transitions and effects we put during the title sequence.

Location: Title sequence

These are some stills that we had taken when thinking about locations for our title sequence. We wanted to show shots all around London in an establishing shot view. Tall building and land structures helped establish the scene and show modern contemporary London in bright daylight but represents that all good things have bad intentions as the story wares on which is why we took these shots . These wide establishing stills we was able to obtain got our group thinking of where to include the names of characters and the music we wanted to include on top of this.

Shot-list for scene 1

In preparation for shooting we have devised a shot-list so that we can be prepared for the actual day of shooting and to avoid missing shots out when filming scenes.

Shot-list
1. A two-shot of Miles and Sophia walking together

2. As Miles walks away a mid shot of Sophia laying on the wall

3. A point of view shot showing Sophia looking around

4. Back to two-shot where Omed takes Sophia

5. Close-up shot transitioning into the camera being handheld following Miles run as he sees his girlfriend being taken away

6. Mid-shot as Lekan knocks out Miles

7. POV shot of Miles falling to the ground.