Our Final Product

Candidate Information

Name: Lauren West
Candidate Number: 7654
Centre Number: 61219

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

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Aimie and I worked together in our Preliminary Task; this meant that we wanted to answer this question together as we both agreed on what we have learnt from our Preliminary Task to our final product. We decided to answer this question on PowerPoint, in this PowerPoint we selected a range of different camera angles and shots that we used which can be improved, the mistakes that we picked out on our Preliminary Task we haven’t made those mistakes in our actual final product. If there was an error we would use some editing affects to allow the shots to flow.

Evaulation Question Six;What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To answer question six, Aimie and I decided to use the same approach as question 5 so we ended up doing a video recording, this recording was more like an interview than the last as Aimie wrote a list of questions that she was going to ask me. This video defiantly was my personal view on the different types of technologies that we have used.

Evaulation Question Five; How did you attract/address your audience?

 To answer question 5, I decided to do a video recording like an interview. In this video Aimie is asking me questions that allow me to answer the question and give my opinion to what I thought the progress and how as a group we tried to attract our target audience (15-30 years).

Evaulation Question Four; Who would be the audience for your media product?

To answer question 4, Aimie and I did a voice recording once again. This recording allows the views to see that our opening sequence is targeted at 15-30 year olds both genders. This makes our opening to have a wide range of different audience types.

Evaulation Question Three; What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 

Question 3 was answered by Aimie and I did a voice recording. In this question we decided to talk about where our film may go if it was sold by an  company or if it was sold by an independent company.

Evaluation Question Two; How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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Aimie and I worked together on all our evaluation questions, this meant that we were able to do a verity of different videos, PowerPoint and voice recordings. In this PowerPoint there are images showing us when we were filming and images of other films that are well known Thrillers.

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

 

To answer this question the whole group contributed to making this 10 minute movie. What happened was we were all given different tasks to talk about for example Sam had to write about the music. I had to write about the different camera shots and how that shot can comes across to the audience. Everyone contributed equally and we had a deadline to give our information to Lisa as she was the one who made this movie.

What I thought about creating our opening sequence

When we began correcting our opening sequence I thought it would be very much what it was in GCSE, this was that we would use the same program which meant that we all had experience and could potentially make our opening sequence look extraordinary, with this thought I didn’t see any complication of creating our film. However, I was so wrong in every sense, planning and creating our thriller film was incredible it pulled our whole group together this was shown when each individual idea fell into what is now our final product. The complications started to show when we began editing, this was because even though everyone’s ideas were put in to make the films, everyone had a different opinion on editing, an example of this was when Sam didn’t want a certain date added to the bottom of the screen and Lisa, Aimie and I did. This meant that we would have to agree to disagree on whether the date should be added or kept however we all decided to add ‘One year later...’ as it was something we could agree on.

When we found out that we had to use a new program you could tell there was tension in the group as on the Corel program the editing was nearly completed, well so we thought at the time.  Each person in the group was always able to spend extra time on this project whether it was in a study period or after school, each one of us equally contributed to trying to make this film what it is now. Whilst watching our opening sequence expand, I began to notice problems which I shared for example at the end of the chase scene when Sam is putting Lisa on his shoulder there is a shot where Kieran is in front but all of a sudden Kieran is behind him, I was concerned that this would loss our group marks and that it doesn’t link properly, luckily Lisa found the ‘drip to black’ effect which allowed the scenes to flow and doesn’t look as Kieran jumps from one area to the next.

Though-out the experience of planning, making and editing our product there was only disagreement within the group and that was between Sam and me. This disagreement came to light when our final deadline came about and our film was nearly completed but the music still want done, at the time I didn’t understand why the music had to be done at the last minute and I thought why isn’t it ready yet we got a couple of days left we need that music. After this Sam did create and complete the music but it was only when I watch the sequence with the music added that I understood why Sam had to wait until we completed editing. When I realised this Sam and I agreed that maybe we shouldn’t of had a disagreement over something so small but so important to the completion of our film but though that I got experience of even though there are deadlines and that means everything must be in and completed, some things like music we will just have to wait for as they can’t be rushed and need to create the right mood for the scene they’re in.

All in all I have learnt many different things thought the journey of this final product but next time I will know that it isn’t going to be as easy as I original think and maybe everything isn’t going to be as perfect as I or anyone else wants them to be, we just need to use the resources that we have and make an opening to a film everything we hope it to be just knowing there will be issues and errors on the way just have to take them as they come.

Editing Day Fifteen - 1st May

On the 1^st of May all of our group joined together to watch the final draft of our opening sequence, we saw the effects Lisa and Sam were able to find and noticed that the film had got better since they shortened it.  In this lesson we discussed how we could improve our titles as they were the issue that was concerning everyone, due to everyone thought they were boring as they had no animation to them. We were able to change this issue slightly by adding the dip to black effect.  As we needed our opening sequence to look professional we decided to add the ‘20^th Century Fox’ as another production company for our film, this company was chosen as we know that 20^th Century Fox has released thriller films like ours and they have come successful.

Editing Day Fourteen - 26th April

On the 26^th of April, everything that needed to be edited and changed on our film was done, we finally completed our film! Lisa and Sam went back after school to get the video on a memory card so they could upload it to their blogs, when they were doing this they hit a dilemma as the film was over 5 minutes long and they were told it’s meant to be roughly 2-3 minutes. Sam and Lisa stayed extra hours in ensure the film was shortened by didn’t lose those important shots that were needed. To make the film shorter Sam and Lisa cut down some of our shots, looking back the shots were incredibly long but now they are shortened they look better and it makes the film link a lot more.

Whilst Sam and Lisa were behind, Lisa found an effect that would make the ghost figure look more realistic within the film. In the film Lisa is standing near the Cabin and you watch Aimie run down the steps after her, now Lisa has put the effect in you see Lisa and all of a sudden she disappears, this gives our opening sequence a more lifelike feel.

Editing Day Thirteen - 24th April

On the 24^th of April, we finally were able to complete our editing for our opening sequence. We were able to figure out how to insert the ‘Fade to Black’ effect between our title sequences and to successfully manage to split up the flash back and the present date. By finding this effect it made the opening sequence look so much better which meant it finally linked together. The only thing left to do is add the music which Sam will have completed by Fridays lesson.

Editing Day Twelve - 19th April

On the 19^th of April Lisa was in Media on her own due to Sam, Aimie and I being on a geography trip. In this hour lesson Lisa was able to add more titles to our sequence. Lisa also did some research on other film sequences and got some ideas of her own and added them to our opening sequence.  Lisa was able to find a lighting effect this meant the film could flow more. On the 24^th Aimie, Sam and I will able to look at what Lisa has completed and add our own ideas if need be.

Editing Day Eleven - 17th April

In the double lesson that we had on the 17^th of April we were able to finalise the shots by making sure that the shots link, this meant that we were able to add more titles into our sequence and hopefully add some sort of effect. When we watched the film throw we noticed a major problem one that we noticed before but didn’t do anything about it as we had to change programs, this problem is the lighting. When watching the sequence as we filmed on different days and different times the lighting is different in nearly every shot, we found that the camera automatically set itself on night mode when we were filming in the Cabin. Due to this dilemma we are trying to find an effect on the editing program to see if we are able to make all the lighting the same, this will make our film flow easier and won’t look out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, we are having some difficulties finding an effect to do this on Premier Pro as none of us have used this program before this course. As we haven’t used this program before the titles and effects are static which could come across as boring, however we are trying our best to put more of an effect on our title sequence.

Editing Day Ten - 17th April

On the 17^th of April we had a double lesson however Aimie and I decided to go to Media during our study period this gave us more time to edit as an individual and meant that Aimie had more time to learn how to use the software. Within this study period Aimie and I noticed some major problems with the film that Kieran goes from helping Sam then jumps to standing behind Sam, we hadn’t realised this problem before but we had no time to go and re-film so we have to leave this jump in our opening sequence. Another problem was that Sam lays Lisa at the lack and then all of a sudden she is turned over, this problem was easily sorted out due to Aimie and I looking back at the unedited shots and finding that shot that shows Lisa being turned over, this shot is now in the opening sequence and we have found that it makes the film flow more.

Editing Day Nine - 16 April

On the 16^th of April Lisa, Sam and I went back after school to continue editing our opening sequence. We didn’t stay long as there wasn’t much left we could do and always there were some decisions that had to be made which meant we needed Aimie. We got the final extension date which is the 30^th April.

Editing Day Eight - 8th April

On the 8^th of April we went back to school to get hopefully complete the editing. We were in school for 2 and a half hours. In this time we managed to add more titles and were continuing to put shots in order. This was not straight forward as through this short period of time we faced some problems, one of them being shots were missing so the storyline didn’t make sense so we had to find the shot we were looking for and re-add it. The next problem was that the program kept on shutting down, this meant that all the work we had done would disappear and wouldn’t save, this was a problem as we kept having to do the same shots and editing over and over again due to the program not saving our work. We managed to solve this problem by every little crop, add scenes, title we would have to immediately save it, this way if it did shut down we wouldn’t have to start all over again.

On this date we finally decided the name of our film we went with ‘The Cabin’, this is due to the Cabin being the main feature of our film, however if we think of a better name in the next couple of days we can always change it.  With this extended deadline as a group we were confident that we would be able to complete the opening sequence, this meant Sam had to start his music as soon as the titles were added.

Getting Our Extension

Due to our extension, we decided to go back to school during our Easter holidays. We picked the 8th of April as it worked for all of us, we agreed to meet around 10am to continue the editing and hope we are able to get our final product.

Editing Day Seven - 27th March

The last day of editing before our Easter holidays had taken place was on Wednesday 27^th March. This lesson all of us were present, this meant we were able to show Aimie the editing we had already done on Premiere Pro and how to use it so she could begin editing. In this lesson we took it in turns to edit shots and cut them if need be, Aimie needed assistance now and again but grew confident with the new program as the lesson went on. In this lesson we were able to put the shots in order and all the shots had been edited now we just needed to put them all together and make sure they link together. Due to the time code problem the group decided to come back one day in our Easter holidays, this would allow us to get more editing completed and be ready for when we come back to begin our evaluations.

My Costume

 

In this photo I am wearing more colour than Aimie did but I tried to stick to a darkish colour blue. I decided to do this as I was an extra at the gravestone and was trying to sow respect for Aimie’s loss.

Aimie's Costume

These photos of Aimie represent a sister crying over her twin who has died. The colours that she is wearing are dull; this shows a sign of respect for her loss.

Kieran's Costume

This photo was taken when Kieran wasn’t in our film we didn’t manage to re-take a photo on his own however our second photo with Sam and Lisa in it shows what his top half is wearing. As a group we believe the film wouldn’t be as good as what it is now if Kieran wasn’t in it due to the fact it makes more sense with him there than it would without him.

 

Sam's Costume

These photos show that Sam cannot be recognised due to his hoodie and the scarf around his face. This gives the impression that he was always out to do something dangerous and not get caught.

Lisa's Costume

In this photo Lisa’s costume is of a usual teenage girl going out, this is what she is wearing in the flashback sequence which shows her make-up or clothing not damaged, muddy or smudged.

These two images show Lisa dressed for the ghost appearance in the mirror, as you can see her make-up is smudged this gives the audience more of a jumpy effect as they haven’t seen Lisa’s face until the end of our opening sequence.

Filming Day Four - Photos

This shows the area that Sam was carrying Lisa with Kieran following.

Filming Day Three - Photos

Filming Day Two - Photo

 

Due to the problems that occurred on filming day two at Sam’s cabin there was only one photo taken and in this photo it shows Aimie’s hair down instead of up.

 



Filming Day One - Photos

This image shows Aimie and me setting up the camera equipment ready to begin filming the chase scenes.

These two images show a clear demonstration of a close up of the Kieran’s, Sam’s and Lisa's feet.

This image shows a long shot going into a close up of Kieran and Sam beginning to follow the victim Lisa.

Editing; Day Five and Six

This current week Aimie has been ill and was unable to attend school. As a group we decided to still keep Aimie in all group decisions and inform her on the latest problems we are facing, we were able to do this by getting permission from our teachers to call her when needed her input. An example of us calling Aimie up was when Lisa and I thought of putting ‘A Year Ago…’ instead of two dates ‘12 February, 2012’ and the ‘12 February 2013’ as in our opinion it looked better and made it look more like a flashback, Sam didn’t agree he thought that the dates looked better so we decided to call Aimie to get a final decision and she agreed with Lisa and myself so we needed up changing the dates to just ‘One Year Ago..’

This week we were able to use a new editing programme instead of ‘Corel’ and this is called ‘Adobe Premiere Pro’. This new programme more professional than the last.  Once Lisa, Sam and I knew what we were doing we started re-editing our film. To make sure we were on the right path we continued to look back at our previous work on Corel to see if we want exactly that shot and if there was a better shot we might have missed. In the limited time we have had this week we have nearly completed a rough copy of the editing, we still have to continuing cropping a little and names have to be added but we are starting to see what our final piece will look like.

Due to the problems of the programming we are getting an extension on our editing this will involve Lisa, Sam, Aimie and I coming back to school in our Easter holidays to be able to complete this editing task before we start our evaluation next term.

Editing; Day Four

We still have not found a way of getting rid of the date and time at the bottom on our film so the most likely conclusion will be that we will have to restart the editing process on a new programme. This could become a big problem for my group as it took a long time to just cut the shots and put them into order and we still have music and effects to add in to it too. This means, if we have to restart everything we will have to come back after school to complete it otherwise we will not have enough time to complete our film. However, all members are willing to use our own time to complete this task so hopefully we will be able to have everything sorted out and finished by the deadline.

The video above shows how far we got editing on the Corel software and how the date does affect our film in a professional manner, it also affected the emotion we wanted the audience to get out of the film.  This shows that to get a better result we need to use the new program.

Editing; Day Three

We continued to edit our film on Friday 15th March, this meant we were continuing taking it in turns cutting shots and putting them into order. We had completed all of the flashback clips and so now just needed to add in the shots at the cabin. However, as we are editing our film there is a date and time appearing in the bottom right hand corner, and as this is not allowed on our films we needed to find a way to get rid of it. Although we tried many ways, we may have to result in using another editing programme, however, this may mean that we have to start the editing again which would take up a lot of time which we do not have. For now we are just continuing with what we were doing in case we are able to remove the date and time another way.

Editing; Day Two

We continued editing on Friday 8th Marcht, that day we continued to take turns cutting the shots and putting them in order. As we completed the first lot of shots in the graveyard scene, we then added in the shots from the 'flashback' scene as these appear between the graveyard shots. We have also text which will appear in the bottom left hand corner of the very first shot and the first flashback shot, to show the difference in time to help the audience understand that it is a flashback.

Editing; Day One

We began our editing on Wednesday, 6th March, which was our deadline for the filming to be completed by. As we had completed our film on the previous weekend we were able to upload our shots and begin the editing process. On this day, we began to cut our shots and put them in the correct order. We took turns in doing this, and will continue to take turns throughout the editing of our film so that we all have an equal part to play in this process and we listen to each other’s ideas and decide as a group what we think is best. We have also begun to add the title sequences as we go because we have ours appearing between shots at the beginning of our opening sequence.

Props - Mobile Phone

As a group, we decided that Aimie should use her phone as a light in the cabin because it was pitch black in there and we needed some sort of light source. This also created a good effect when she was looking around the cabin and when she sees the ghosts reflection in the mirror. As Aimie walks around the cabin she points the light towards her feet so that when she reaches the mirror she shines it into the mirror and as she does this she sees her sisters ghosts behind her and then drops the phone which then makes it pitch black again, and leaves a sense of mystery. We believed this was a good way to end our opening sequence.

Filming Day Four - Sunday 3rd March

Sunday 3^rd March was our last day of filming. On this day we agreed to meet at the same place and time for lighting once again. Once we all arrived at 4pm we went back to the wooded area were we filmed. That day we decided to make more changes than any other to our storyboard because there were some shots better than others and we were able to create them. One of the shots that we decided to change was the shot of Sam carrying Lisa to the lake, I decided to sit on the floor and look up this allowed the camera to get a view of Lisa hair swinging and Kieran looking suspicious as Sam was walking off.

An idea that came to my mind that day was that Lisa was originally on her phone when she was walking up this wooded area so why not drop it by accident (once she is dead) and Kieran ‘Leader’ can pick it up and throw it into the lake once the body is left. This idea lead to a brilliant close up of Kieran looking at the phone once he arrived at the lake and smiled at it as she was proud and glad that she died and throw the phone into the lake to make sure there was no evidence of them being there. However you couldn’t throw a phone into a lake so we looked for a rock around the same size as the phone which Kieran would be allowed to throw; this was another prop that was used.

On that day Aimie and I were many only cameras and directed most of the scenes due to the other needing to be in scenes however Lisa and Sam did get to shot some scenes on the last day.  From the 3^rd of March we have all been editing the film so it would be completed by the 27^th March, 2013.

Filming Day Three - Saturday 2nd March

On Saturday the 2^nd March we completed filming at Sam’s house, on this date Sam had located the key and we were able to use the Cabin for our final shots. Before we started filming we decided to look at our clips after watching the opening shots we realised that the quality wasn’t as good as we thought and realised that Aimie’s hair was down on that day where on the 2^nd it was up, with these problems our group came to a conclusion that we shot re-film the opening shots to get a better quality of film and that nothing would of changed for example hair, make-up clothing etc.  On this day each one of us filmed as at some point each individual member had to be doing something other than filming from making a noise in the background to being a main part.

Saturday the 2^nd March went better than the 20^th of February this is because we all knew what we were doing and knew what needed to be added to make the story link; this meant that shots needed to be added to our original idea to make this opening sequence successful.  An example of a shot that needed to be added would be the shot when Aimie is at the gravestone crying for her sister and suddenly a hand appears on her shoulder almost as someone is comforting her (close up of hand) Aimie then reacts to this by turning around and there not being anyone this gives the audience the impression of a ghost which makes the opening sequence more like a mystery.

Once the scenes were made from the gravestone to Aimie following her sister’s ghost we arrived at the scenes of the cabin. At this point it was incredibly dark so we had to use the ‘night mode’ on the camera to be able to see Aimie enter the cabin as she sees her sister’s ghost enter. As the cabin was dark Aimie needed a light to be able to see where she was going, this also gave a sense of mystery to the film. As my phone was the only phone that had a decent light quality Aimie used that this allowed her to walk toward the mirror whilst looking around the cabin to try and see her sister what she doesn’t realise until she looks in the mirror that Lisa is behind her, this makes Aimie jump and drop the phone as sees her dead sister in the reflection. This shot is the final shot of the opening sequence, as a group we thought this would keep the audience on their edge of their seats and wanting to watch more.

Filming Day Two - Wednesday 20th February

On Wednesday the 20^th February we began filming at the log cabin at Sam’s House. This is where the present date filming was made from Aimie at the Gravestone to Aimie seeing Lisa in behind her. There was an imitate problem once we arrived and that was that Sam’s parents were out and he didn’t have or know the key to the cabin, this meant that we were limited to the scenes that we would make and ended up just filming the gravestone scenes.

In opening shot is where Aimie and I was looking at the gravestone  and grieving for the death of Aimie’s Twin Sister, I wasn’t in the shot for long as I was just an extra however there was many different shots that were used for Aimie’s emotional scenes. In these opening shots Lisa and Sam were on camera duty as Aimie and I were in the film.

The gravestone that Aimie made out of cardboard didn’t look realistic in the area that we put it in (the bottom of Sam’s Garden) to make it more realistic I put the gravestone behind a rock and put poison ivy around it this gave it a more realistic appeal.

As there weren’t many scenes that could be filmed due to the lack of a cabin we decided to go back to Sam’s house at a later date to finish the filming of Aimie following and seeing her dead twin Sister in a minor reflection. It was also a good idea to finish filming early that day as Lisa needed to re-do her make-up and hair to make it look like she had been put into a lake.  As we needed to return to Capstone and Sam’s house we decided that the weekend of the 2^nd and 3^rd of March we will complete the filming without rushing and creating a better quality of film.

Filming Day One - Monday 18th March

On the 18th of February we began to film at Capstone Park. We all decided to meet at the bench at 4pm, this time was set so the lighting would be perfect for the flashback clips so it would be not too light but not too dark either. On this day we only had a limited amount of time due to people needing to get home, however in this limited space of time we got the a lot of the flashback filming done. At this point all we needed to complete was Lisa getting dragged and then to be finally killed at the lake. As the shots where not completed on the 18th we arranged another date to go to Capstone Park and complete the recordings this date was Wednesday the 20th.

On Monday 18th February we located an area that would be perfect for Lisa to get kidnapped in a wooded area. As a group we tried to stick to the storyboard plan however one of our friends Kieran came along and we decided to make the filming better in our opinion by adding him as another villain with Sam. Kieran was became the ‘Leader’ the one who made the rules and told Sam what to do. The idea was that Kieran would call Sam (Close up shot) and tell him that Lisa was walking up the wooded area and state ‘don’t mess it up this time’ this statement was used to make the audience realise that it is just a frequent activity that these two villains carry out.

To make the scenes flow we added more props for example our phones. Lisa uses her phone as she is walking up the wooded area whilst Sam and Kieran are using their phones to communicate to each other that Lisa is approaching Sam. Another prop is used which is that Sam was wearing a scarf around this mouth and nose to hide his identity from the victim Lisa.

In the scene where Lisa is being chased up the wooded area we decided to use a variety of shots we ended up filming one side view, long shot and point of view shot (POV) to get a more of a fill of the attack. Out of all these shots the Point of View shot is most affective as in it the audience would be able to put themselves in Lisa’s shoes and hear the quickness of her breath as she is being followed when she realises that two people are chasing her and the sense of panic and danger occur.

Aimie and I were mostly filming on Monday 18th March as Lisa and Sam were the main actors and actresses on that day. Each decision that was made or an idea that was changed we discussed as a group and came to a verdict before we carried out with the idea.

Prop - Gravestone

Aimie created a Gravestone over the holidays; this gravestone is going to be used at Sam’s house due to Aimie crying at her sisters grave after a year of her death. This Gravestone is made of cardboard and doesn’t look realistic however it represents what we want it to.

Filming

On Friday 15 February I signed out the equipment so over the half-term break we can start filming. Yesterday we decided that Sunday we will be filming at Capstone and Monday we will be filming at Sams house, both days we will be meeting at 4 this is due to the lighting that we need.

Filming starting Dates

As a group we decided to film in our half-term due to people at week during the week. This helps us as it means the group can film all off our opening sequence in a couple of days straight instead of an hour here and there, this is an advantage due to there being no change in look. Today we have logged out the equipment to make sure that we have the right material to film properly when the dates arrive.

Questionnaire Analyse

 

Location 2 - Cabin