Cutting and Continuity - It is the process of cutting to keep the flow of the shot together as fluidly as possible not showing the whole footage. This would include such factors as: wardrobe, lighting, audio, movement, props, and other mise en scene elements such as placement.

End Of Blog

This post concludes my Media Blog

Evaluation Question 7

From our preliminary exercise, we have learnt much more about the different codes and conventions, and much more on different camera angles and techniques to use and have incorporated them into our film.



We have gotten better at using different camera angles to represent how something will happen, due to the lack of dialogue in our opening. Despite the lack of dialogue, we feel that it is still incredibly simple for the audience to understand what’s going on. We have also used more close ups and match on action shots to portray what is actually happening. A good decision we made was to cross-cut the two scenes onto each other, to signify to the audience that the murder takes place as they enter the woods, and it is merely bad timing. We also disclose the identity of the murderer, except the fact he is part of some kind of cult. To do this, we chose to have the tattoo of the cult symbol on his neck, and had a close up of it along with the murderer’s face at the end of the opening scene.




During shots with action, such as when the 7th Keeper is hit around the head with the wrench, we had the editing rather fast-paced, which contrasts from the rest of the clip. We feel that this shows the audience better what is happening. A point of view shot is also used, as the keeper is hit. The blur and fading to black represents his death. The rest of the film appears to be very slow moving and calm, until they meet the murderer. During the scene with the murderer, we didn’t put any titles over it because we wanted the audience to focus on what was happening, due to it being an important part of the film.




The sound editing is significantly better in the final opening than in the preliminary exercise, despite how windy it was on the day we filmed. We were able to blend in the sounds together and fade them over one another to make it seem more realistic. We have also worked hard on keeping the continuity correct. The editing in the preliminary exercise was a bit too jumpy. Also, the camera pans and tilts were too jumpy. We have learnt from this and the pans, tilts and zooms appear to be incredibly smooth compared to our preliminary exercise. This includes the section when we use the 180 degree rule.




\Overall, it was hard work to film and edit our film, with constant changes in filming times, actors and storylines. But I think that we managed to complete it to a good standard.

Evaluation Question 6

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Evaluation Question 5

The film's unique selling points are the genre. People who are into crime/thriller films will be enthralled by the genre and will want to watch it.

We used a variety of methods to attract an audience for our media film. The most notable being the soundtrack. We thought that using a song we think people would like, or at least not mind. We decided in the end to use the song "Hey Superstar" by Madina Lake. The band are also rather big in America so we might some attention from outside the UK. We sought permission for the song to be used directly from the band's manager and was granted this permission.

We also featured some actors that are rather notable for working in the USA/Canada film/ tv scene. Fans of these actors may want to see the film simply for the actors and this could draw a wider audience from overseas. The actors could also help with the advertisements for the film, by mentioning it on twitter and facebook and other social networking sites.

We found out what our audience would like to see by using questionaires and handing them out to people and requesting that they fill them in so we can get an idea of what our audence would want. We then built our film based on them.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Our company name "Terrordrone Productions" is based on an enemy from a video game. We felt it was suitable because the name gives off a thrilling terrifying vibe.

We researched into different film distributors and found a suitable one; Dogwoof Pictures. They distribute films of all different genres from around the world. They are a small distributor based in England. We feel that this company would be perfect to distribute our film because they're a small distributor so they would take a low budget film. This means that we would have more money left over to use for advertising.

The names of the actors who appear in our film are rather big in the UK film/tv show scene other than the actors we used in real life. The names are mentioned only in the titles and do not appear in the opening clip. This could perhaps draw in a wider audience and help promote the distribution of the film.

Evaluation Question 2

We tried to represent our evil character as a character that appears to look incredibly normal, yet is completely devious and evil. This sort of character has hard to create for us. We opted for normal clothes that Ben would wear, yet we had to think of some subtle way to show that he would be a member of the cult. We finally decided on a cult tattoo on the neck, matching the symbol of that on the corpse, only with a different tally (the corpses was 7, this person is 6.) The 6 also suggests that this man isn’t the lead main character; he is portrayed as more of a thug or crony, so we tried to make him appear as if he can’t think for himself and appears to come across as a bit “thick” yet powerful and intimidating.

We feel that this character resembles the characters “Crabbe” and “Goyle”, Malfoy’s cronies in the Harry Potter series. These 2 merely follow the orders given by Malfoy and have an incapability of independent thought. We try to represent our character as someone who puts up a tough front, yet when you delve deeper into his character, you find he is capable of emotions and this portrays despite the front, he is still only human and not just someone who merely follows orders. This is much like the situations Crabbe and Goyle find themselves in when dealing with Malfoy’s plots. They appear as the kind of characters who might bumble around and mess something up, like how our characters lets the 2 girls run away instead of killing them too. Maybe this is due to the human emotions showing through? The clothes they wear try to make them appear normal; our character wears typical everyday clothes, and Crabbe and Goyle wear the school uniform. Though we have an idea this sort of clothing is what they would wear out of school.

Evaluation Question 1

We have based our media film on the typical opening you would find in a crime/thriller film; the discovery of a body, the mystery of who the murderer actually is and also the running from the scene of the crime. We had to look at several running scenes to base our one on, particularly that from the film “Trainspotting.” We portrayed the location as a typical suburban area, which matches the costumes we decided for the actors. You wouldn’t expect something so awful to happen in a public area such as our location. We also chose to get straight into the action as soon as the film starts so that it keeps the audience interested into the story.

The representation of the story is quite clear. It is easy to tell what happens with hardly any dialogue and it also keeps the audience focussing on the screen. The characters are established rather clearly as well, we used a tilt shot showing the thug after the 2 girls discover the body. We felt that this will give off the mysterious vibe we needed the character to display.

The titles in the film are a dark gothic font, to add to the mystery of the storyline. This also helps to show the genre of the film, a film about an evil cult. The somewhat upbeat soundtrack at the start and end of the opening suggest that the 2 girls are completely unaware of what is going to happen. We also chose to have no titles over the important part of the opening, which is the 2 girls confronting the man about the murder. This helps the audience focus on the storyline instead of being distracted by titles.

The title of the film “The 7^th Keeper” is rather mysterious in itself, yet the fact that there are 7 of these ‘keepers’ suggest that there is more to discover within the cult which helps also to draw the audience in. Keeper number 7 is the corpse which is discovered by the 2 girls. This shows that keeper number 6 is the murderer, byt the cult's logo and the roman numeral of 6 on his neck, visible for the camrea to see. We used a variety of different close ups of this to signify that he is a mumber of this, or another cult and brings the question as to why he did it.

The camerawork used in the film helps to portray the story with the lack of dialogue, it establishes the characters through the use of close ups as they are walking through the woods and discover the body. It portrays the 2 girls as curious and also helpful as they attempt to ring the police.

Update and cast assessment

After one of our cast members refused to help again and another dyeing their hair will have delayed the shoot date and we are now looking forward to shooting and editing our project within the next 4 to 6 days.

After having issues with our cast i have decided that another risk assessment should be done to prevent any further mishaps.
-Cast members may change their appearance which effects continuity
-A cast member may not be available to shoot so backup actors maybe needed
-Props and costumes maybe damaged during shoot and therefore not be usable

Annotating draft

After showing our roughcut film and getting some great feed back we have decided to post our video to youtube and annotate changes that are needed so people can get a rough idea of our final product.

update and scripting change

With the deadline closing in and the easter holidays for the next two weeks we are going to be cutting the timing short to reshoot. Im currently waiting for one of our cast members to confirm and then we should be filming with the next few days.
While looking for ways to improve our film i started to rewrite the very start of our film.
Instead of having a bystander acuse our main characters of murder and them running we decided that we should have the main villian threaten the girls. This will add suspence and give a valid understandable reason for the girls to run.

After getting some feedback i decided i wanted to improve our media film. One of the first things we must think about is making sure the shots are interesting and aren't to long, for example we have a running scene with wasn't very unique or particularly held the attention of our audience. I have decided that looking at the shots and filming of chase or running scenes from well known movies would help us to fix this.

The Train Spotting running scene is very impressive, it is shot in a way which holds the audiences attention. There is a variety of different camera shots and the editing was very quick sharp jump cuts which kept the action and speed of the scene. The shots weren't all medium of long shots like our attempt, for instance at the start it swaps from a closeup on the face to a shot of his legs which also allows you to see behind, by swapping backwards and fore wards they kept the scene and speed flowing. There is also a Point Of View (POV) shot with was again very short and was cut into the scene with straight jump cuts.

I hope myself and my partner can use these techniques better now we have seen them done well. I plan to include a lot of the same shots that are in this scene in my media piece.

Titles test and creation

As we couldn't arrange for the whole cast to be able to film last weekend we when out and filmed afew of the shots and angles so we could create and play around with titles over the video. By doing so we can save time in editiong process as we will have a good idea of what titles will look like.

Brief shooting plan and back-ups

As our media piece can be shot on multiple days and needs to be in multiple locations we have decided to split our shoot into to days and only bring the cast needed for that day as it will be easier to organize and be easier to control. As the weather may change we have also decided on an idea that was brought up earlier in the planning process which would be that the story doesn't have to be consecutive and can have a gap (possible time wipe or a quickly cut video sequence).
We also made 2 alternative/ Back-up plans if we couldn't do the second shoot for whatever reason.
1) We edit the starting sequence differently to include title of the film during the scene.
2) We use what footage we have as well and taking a couple of additional still photo's to make the scene we shot more of a prologue to a movie instead of the start of the main story line.

Railway Safety

After disusing the railway scene with my partner we decided that we should outline any issues with health and safety.
-We will have to have at least one member of the shoot days cast or crew watching for trains.
-We will organize someone to be always watching the cameraman's back so to avoid accident.
-We warn everyone before hand to be careful when crossing even if only a few people should need to.
-Myself and my partner will make sure that none of the people present cause a risk to themselves or other by acting immature.
-The cast and crew will also be reminded not to walk on the tracks unless crossing at the crossing point.
-We have made sure there will always be someone who isn't needed to shoot to watch for trains.

Story Boards

Rail way scouting

After further developing our story the new location that we had chosen was either side of a railway crossing. So we went to take pictures and note down good angles for shots when we come to film. While we were there a train passed, so before we film we may have to see what times trains pass by so we can time our shots around that.

Survey

A while ago I made the small questionnaire to the side and asked afew  people on their opinions but after collecting the questionnaires and reading tho there were only a few which we could properly use as alot of the immature people had written inappropriate comments which were un-usable but after handing a few more out and making sure people answered correctly we were able to analyse a few. We were also able to tell from some of the answers that people wanted to see action as well as a little bit of relatable romance.

update

After finishing are Casting list and getting all bar one location photographed we are also able to shoot.
before we do so though we still have some audience and target infomation to upload and anaylse aswell as prop and costumes to sort out.