Final Film

( 1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. The title is placed in the middle of a black screen, this is because its a typical horror and the black background connotes fear to the audience which then links back to our genre. We decided to this so it would appeal more to our audience. The title of our film 'Ancestry' links back to the main purpose of our film 'The Family Tree'. We chose the word Ancestry because its basic and doesnt give away many clue.

2. We chose our opening scene to be based in a deserted tight space room. This is because it gives off the sense that our female character is homeless and doesnt have any relatives around her to help her. This room is an abandoned place where she feels that she is safe, but the gets accompanied by two female character who are after her. Also the other location we have use is inside one of her relatives home where another female character is taking part in all the actions i.e carrot chopping.

3. The props we used were basic and which you could see being used in other horror films. The homeless character had what any other homeless person could have, a sleeping bag, books, flask etc. Where as in the opening sequence Knifes, carrots, family tree's. Because we was a low budget production it was hard for us to find top quality props because we could afford them. Basic costumes where also worn because of this issue.

4. We use a variety of different shots, some where successfull and others weren't. We felt that if we didn't experiment the shots it wouldn't be as good as learning curve as it couldn't of been. For example the other the shoulder shot worked quite well throughout the opening sequence, this is because it gave off the effect that you was watching everything from a characters point of view. Most of our shots where planned before going out and filming, this helped us get through the process a lot quicker.

5. We used simple black backgrounds throughout the sequence, this is due to what we have scene from other horror movies. We used this as well because it seemed more appropriate to use. This is because the black background build up more tension for the viewers. Because we wasn't as skilled as some people we used a basic effect on the MacBook to help it look as good as possible.

6. The opening of our film was probably the most important part. This is because we had to use a range of shots to link into our title. We used the family tree to play a main in this because it then links into our opening scene. There is a variety of different shots involving a knife, this gives of the sense that it could be a horror movie due to these props. Like most films we didn't want to give away to many clues because it gives away the purpose of the film.

7. The use of the knife gave away our genre because they can be used for killing someone. As in the genre is horror you usually come across some kind of attempting to kill someone throughout the movie, a knife usually connotes fear and danger. Also other shots like scribbling out on a piece of paper gave off the effect of characters being angry which then links to the genre as well. This then will put you out of your comfort zone and will make you eager to see what happens next.

8. Our main characters name is introduced in the opening scene. This is shown on the family tree when it focuses on the name 'Ella Moore' (Played by Shara Hobbs). It then moves onto the opening scene when it shows Ella in a deserted room on her own. We are then introduced by two other male characters who are looking for this female character (The two characters are played by Jamie Magan and Adrian Moore). The two males character produce a few lines of Dialogue in a powerful and dominant voice. This then gives off the effect to the audience of what has she done wrong and why are they after her.

9.  Special effects played a very important role within our film. We were looking to create a fast pace opening so therefore the transitions were very important. We used a variety of effect within our title sequence such as a red filter which are shown in other movies. This also connotes fear and danger. Also we used an effect called Vignette, we used this to change the lighting of the room which then build up tension by just looking at location it was in. This built up suspense and mystery to an audience.

( 2 ) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Similarities

There are many similarities between these characters. I have chose this other character to compare to because i feel they are both are a sterotypical vulnerable kind of character. Throughout our opening scene we notice this due to her being in an isolated room with men shouting at her, this is similar to the other character because she recieves a threatening phone call from a certain which makes her give off the same reaction to what our character has.

Also both characters are represented as typical young teenagers/adults due to the clothes they are wearing. This is typical fashion for a sterotypical women as they like to wear these kinds of clothes, we didn't want to single our character out by making her look poor asing she is homeless.

Differences

There are many difference between are characters, for example our main character within our film is slightly younger than the other character shown, because of this the emotions set off from the character will be slightly different due to the age.

Also because of our low budget production it was harder for us to find the appropiate character, this is because higher ranked films would have had loads of applicants to chose from who have more experience in acting compared to ours.

Another way they are different is becuase they are in different settings, due to this the acting styles would be different as one is inside a house, where as ours character is in a deserted room outside.

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

In the following link there is a voice over, telling you about production and distribution of our film.

( 4 ) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Demographics:


Are horror film movie is tageted at Males and Females from the ages of 16 to 24. This is partly because we have rated our film as a 15. Most viewers would be from Middle or Upper class range. When the making of our film was happening we didnt really decide what our target audience would be, but throughout the process we thought it would be best to aim it at 16 to 24 year olds. Because our film is rated as a 15 in was best to target it at young adults and teenagers. We tried using a young female character to gather more male watchers due to males will always want to judge what a women looks like, and because this is a new staring character this could helps us bring in more viewers.


Psychographics:
The background music was also played a main part into bring in more of an aundience because most teenagers like the tension building music. This will usually make viewers jump which could make it more realistic and want them to carry on watching it. This would also bring more of a fright to female viewers because its more known for them to be more anxious than males.


Our Responses

1) Is the font we used for our titles appropriate?

2) Is the editing sufficient?

3) Does the music fit the images?

4) Does the narrative make sense?

5) Do the characters fit the genre of horror?

6) Is the footage long enough?

7) Did we use a range of shot types?

8) What worked well?

9) What could we improve?

10) Would you watch the rest of the film?

( 5 ) How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dzcq8Y6_kU

Due to not being able to post the video on to my blog, i have added in the URL for our video via YouTube.

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

Camera's and iMac

We used a Panasonic HDC SD-80 for most of our filming, this enabled us to upload it onto the Apple Macs a lot easier. Because of the camera being in HD it made the picture a lot more clearer than what a normal standard camera would. Also using the iMacs gave us better software for editing processes.

Final Cut Pro -



Final Cut Pro was used for our editing process, this was knew to all of us as we now have use to iMacs, because we usually use Adobe Premier Pro it was a lot harder for us to get use to using this programme. After using it for a certain amount of time we was able to find new and much better effects to use in our horror clip.

Google -

We used the google search engine to find out many different copyright music which we could use for the opening sequence of our horror movie, through this search engine we found a website call FreePlayMusic.com which we was able to download a soundtrack off.

YouTube -

Using YouTube was fairly straight forward, it enabled us to annotate our clip, through speech bubbles which then appeared throughout the opening scene which told us about the film i.e. how the genre matches.

ESI Rekord M -




We used this to record our voice over, this is because it was simple to use and then transfer onto our movie, from using this before i felt it was quick and easy to do.
Blogger -

Blogger was used to produce all of our coursework, from knowing how to use this it was easier for me to publish my posts in the order which i wanted.

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

Looking back on the preliminary task i feel that when producing our horror film we had much better software and hardware to use that what we did in the first place, also from being taught different ways to use the camera and the programs provided to edit.

Moving from Adobe Premier Pro to Final Cut Pro was a big jump, they are both similar in certain ways but Final Cut Pro was my high quality and more better ways to edit. There are different editing styles you can use i.e. red filters, black and white features where as on Premier Pro the only good editing techniques are fading to white or black. So from my point of view I feel that making a successful film through you Final Cut Pro was a big achievement for only using it once.

Also we had use of new hardware to use such as the iMac and The HD Camera we was able to shot footage in much higher quality. Because the camera was HD we had to use the iMac to keep the picture quality at the same resolution. If we was to put the footage on a normal computer the picture would change a lot because the system cant hand the quality of the image. The only downfall from using the iMac was we didn't have any internet service on the computers, so when converting it to the normal computer the picture on the film wasn't as clear as it could've been.

Looking between the two, i would recommend using the iMac and the HD Camera if you want to make a successful film.

Original Draft of our Storyboard

Draft on Horror Opening

Before asking a group on how we can improve our clip, this is our final draft on our horror opening.

After getting feedback from a group of ten people there wasn't any need for us to go back and make editing changes, this is because as a group they felt there was no need for us to improve our video.

Horror Film Actors

In our opening scene of our horror movie we have chose to use three different characters, two males and one female. The female we have chose to play the part Ella is a typical female to take part in a Horror Movie, this is because she is vulnerable and looks an easy target.

The two males we have chose have come across with a dominance character, this is so we can send off the affect to warn and scare the other characters what they are like.

Horror Film Setting

For our setting of our opening scene, we have chosen this room to be our main place of action, this is because its a small tiny room, which can be used for someone to stay in who is homeless or someone wants to hang out. For our horror clip we have chosen this to be the place Ella is at before she comes to get chased down. Also we have chosen this to be our main area of the opening scene as the room is deserted and its most suitable for our character to stay.

 

Every picture is seen as a different view to the room, the door is where Ella will run out of once being hunted down by the two male character, also where the white carboard is thats where she will sleep and use the cardboard as her bed. The picture of the two hands is where the camera will be filming her rushing the pack away her bags and escape before she is captured.

Group Roles

Director - Steven Kelly
Filmed By - Charlie Hoxley
Edited By- Euan Davies
Sound By- Kieran Hayden
Male 1 - Jamie Magan
Male 2 - Adrian Moore
Female - Shara Hobbs

Final Production Company Logo

After designing this logo we felt from using the MAC Computers we could then produce a better logo, we chose this because it could be animated where as we could only usually have a still image which didn't look as professional as we would of liked it.

Horror Shot Lists

Within our opening to the Horror Film clip, here is a list of the shots we have used.

Title Sequence:
-Shot of Chopping Carrot.
-Another shot of chopping carrot but faster.
-Shots of the camera panning our family tree.
-Shot of the notepad and pen.
-Light turning on.
-A close up on an eye.
-Close up of various different headlines from newspaper articles.
-Close up on the name 'Ella Moore'.
-Mid shot of the Kettle Boiling.

Opening Sequence-
-Close up on Shara's face.
-Tracking shot of Mr Magan walking into changing rooms.
-2 shots of banging on the door, inside and outside.
-Tracking shot of Shara running away.
-POV shot of Mr Magan and Mr Moore looking at the empty door.
-Shot of Mr Magan entering the changing rooms.
-Mid Shot of Mr Moore trying to open the door.

Horror Film Production Schedule

Test Film - Thursday 1st December-Equipment- Camera, Tripod

In this session we basically need to study the angles at which we could use in our proper film. Also we need to look at lighting where we are going to film.

Day 1 of Filming- Tuesday 6th December 2011-

Equipment - Camera, Tripod
Props- Knife, Carrot, Notepad, Family Tree, Pen
Actors- Ann Hayden.
Location - Household

We need to film the majority of our title sequence clips. Also if possible discover some new ideas to use in the opening scene.

Day 2 of Filming- Wednesday 14th December-

Equipment- Camera,Tripod
Props- Rucksack, Sleeping bag, Book, Container
Actors- Jamie Magan, Adrian Moore, Shara Hobbs
Location- Boys Changing Rooms

We need to film our main scene. Also we could look into filming more clips to allow us to edit more film. Therefore it will give us more flexibility to experiment when editing.

Day 1 of Editing - Thursday 15th December-

 We need to edit the entire footage and sequence it to fit the music.

Day 2 of Editing - Friday 16th December-

After ordering the footage we need to add titles and adjust the volume and tweek anything that isnt convincing. Also we could look into adding effects and transitions.

Horror Film Music

This is the music us as a group have chosen for our final piece, we have chose this because its a typical and similar sound you could expect to see from a horror movie opening scene.