Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking at the preliminary task I can see that our filming techniques have changed. For the preliminary task we were restricted as we were given a list of shots that we needed to have in it, whereas for our production we were free to do as we pleased, which meant that we could come up with crazy shots like total POV for one character.

We were also told to not let the preliminary task go over 1 minute as for the production we would only be able to have a 2 minute opening. We ended up with a 5 minute long opening so had to cut most of the shots, which turned out OK because the film opening then had more jump cuts making it fit into the genre of mystery very well.

I believe the best thing we learned going from preliminary task to final production was that we had to pay attention to our target audience, as they were how we decided what shots to use and the techniques to use. If we hadn't paid attention to the audience we might not have been as successful with our production.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Over the process of planning and making our production we used a range of different software and hardware to plan and create our production. I learned how to use new and different techniques to make my production mysterious and to make it fit into the mystery genre.


While planning I used things like YouTube, Blogger and art of the title. YouTube and Art of the title was used to find similar  film openings to my film and genre so I could see the techniques used.


During the production we used a SJ4000 action camera. This was how we managed to get mostly point of view while filming, we had it on a head band around Harry's (the main actor) head. We also used a Fuji Film camera to film the news reporter scene and to get the aerial shot I used a JJRC H8C quadcopter with a 2MP camera. Once the clips had been filmed we used file convertor to change them to MP4 so we could edit, to do so we used  Adobe Premiere cs4 to edit the clips together. To create the map photo seen during the news report, I got a picture from Google Maps and put it into Adobe Fireworks where I added the red circle, before putting it into Premiere where I layered it onto the clip.

I believe the most important software was Adobe Premiere as this was how we manipulated the clips to fit the mystery genre. I think the most important piece of hardware was the SJ4000 action camera, because that was how we were able to film mostly in pint of view of the main character.

How did you attract/address your target audience?

In our film opening, I addressed the audience by using filming techniques that would confuse the audience, giving them a puzzle to try and guess what happened. Some techniques I used was jump cuts and a non linear narrative. This will hopefully confuse the audience, making them interested enough to want to watch the whole film. We also use things like low key lighting to create an eerie atmosphere and cause the audience to be worried for the character. The costume of our character is what young people are stereotyped as seeing, however with the filming style being nearly completely from the characters point of view the audience don't really see the characters costume.

Who would be the target audience of your product?

Our target audience is a niche, most likely teenagers and young adults. It's based in a forest as its after a plane crash, and somewhere on an uncharted island. Our target audience is very similar to the film that ours is similar to, Shutter island. The primary target audience age group for our film is between the ages of 15 and 35. The Social groups are B, C1, C2, and D. The age rating of the film will be 15 due to some of the themes and lines used.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The company we chose to produce our was Warner Brothers, as they are known for making mystery type of films. Some examples of films that are mystery that are made by Warner Bros are:

Batman: The Dark Knight

Argo

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

All of which are mystery genre films, similar to ours, only difference being the filming style not being the same as ours of the main characters POV.

We would probably also play our film at London Film Festival, which would get people talking about the film spreading it by word of mouth. We would also have a Facebook page and YouTube channel to put trailers and behind the scenes clips on to spread our film and hopefully have people waiting for the release.

How does your media product present paticular social groups?

Our media production is focused on one character but the audience cannot determine the social group as the audience cannot see the character as the shots are nearly all from the characters point of view. However, when we see the news reporter, we can assume that he is a high class as he has on a nice suit and looks smart and well payed. We can assume that the news reporter is a higher class than our other character, as he is not in a forest alone.

A stereotype news reporter is smart and well prepared, where as we don't have a character stereotype similar to our other character.

In what way does your media use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

Camerawork

We used a rare type of filming style, where we had majority of the shots being from the character's perspective. This was to confuse the audience as the genre of the film is mystery and we want to confuse the audience. Also it supports the convention of mystery films by confusing the audience. The unique filming style suggests that the film will also be unique. To give some clarity to the narrative of the film  we had a more normal styled news report with a standard medium shot of the reporter. Some examples of films that had similar filming style to our production is The blaire witch project, and Cloverfield.

Editing
We used basic editing techniques, like jump cuts, to make our mystery film more confusing to the audience and mysterious. The lighting is rather low key due to the location being a forest so the trees blocking out the sun light, however this fitted the genre and made a sense of doom and despair for the character who was alone. Most action films use quick jump cuts when showing action and this type of editing can forebode something bad or evil that could come.

Costume 
the costumes and props in the film opening are important, however we cannot see much of if any of the main characters costume as its from their perspective, but we can see the news reporter's suit which is what is expected from news reporters.

Title 
Our titles follow the convention of a film opening, with a font that fits the mystery genre. We also have a title of the companies that would fund these types of films. We chose Warner Bros as they make this types of films, for example, shutter island.

Props
We have props that would be expected if there was a plane crash so things like bags and suitcases laying around. We also have some survival equipment, a knife and a canteen we also have a backpack to carry things around in.

Final Cut

Here is the Final Cut of our production. It took over an hour to export.

revisit schedule

Our first schedule that we planned was set between October and December, this was when our first cut was due. Having completed our first cut we needed to create a schedule to show what filming/editing we needed to do on the run up to our final cut.

Production Diary #9

9th February, Today I am making a news alert bar at the bottom of the news reporter scene to make it more realistic. I also made the text on the intro to the news scene move.











Here is the areal footage I filmed. I will not use the whole clip, as it is too long, I shall use 1:37-1:43

Production Diary #8

February 4th, the lesson was cancelled so all I did was create the map that we are placing on the clip to hide the unsuccessful audio and video sync. Here is the map I created.









 I also filmed an areal shot that I captured with a Syma X5C quadcopter. Here is the copter I used, and I will later upload the footage I got from it.

Production Diary #7

January 28th, I began to edit the voice over audio and the original clip together. This was because the original clip had too much wind and background noise to make out what was being said by the actor. I also had to find the Warner Brothers company animation to add to the start of the project.

Production Diary #6

January 21st, the sound for the re-filmed clip could not be made louder, so we decided to get a voice over to try and line up with the clip. Here is the clip we will be taking the audio from.

Production diary #5

14th January

We re-filmed the news scene. Here is the clip, the sound is really quiet and must be made louder in editing.

First Cut Feedback

When we showed out production to the rest of the class, the exporting had gone wrong so the sound was wrong, and some shots were missing, there is a part that goes slow motion when it shouldn't so we plan to correct that.

We was told that the news report seemed unprofessional so we are going to re-film the news report part. to improve it we shall have the actor wear a suit, and stand still and talk without smiling.

It was also suggested that we add a news bar to the bottom of the news reading part so that it seems like a more realistic news report.

First Cut

This is the first cut of our production. We will be receiving official feedback and then continue to work on it.

Sound Track

The only music used was on the news intro which I've uploaded here

Production Diary #4

Here is some footage we filmed at the start of this week, still being ahead of schedule.

On the 7th I edited the new clip into our production and on the 9th we will be watching first cuts and receive official feedback on our work.

Production Diary #3

15th December

We planned to film a new scene to add to the production. The scene was of a news reporter and we spent the lesson planning the shots and costume.

17th December 

We spent the lesson writing the script for the news reporter scene which we planned the lesson before. 

19th December

We broke up from school that day and left the filming to be done after Christmas.