Evaluation presentation

Hannah and Chloe - Funhouse presentation from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Evaluation of our film

Hannah and Chloes's Evaluation from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Commentary of my opening sequence

This is my commentary of my opening sequence, I have talked about reasons why we chose certain effects and sound effects and why they were used also I talked about why we used certain shots. Any comments are welcome.

Fun House the original version

The screenshot on the left is the one from our first film before we re-shot, the camera shot is supposed to be a mid-shot, however it is very bad as a little bit of her head is cut off; this looks totally unprofessional compared to the screenshot from our final film after we re-shot.

                                                                                                            

The image on the left is a two shot of the girls talking, it is from the old film. The 2 other shots are from our film after we re-shot, they are much better as we used shot-reverse-shot with has a better effect as it allow the audience to see the reactions of both characters and gives a more professional look to the film.

The image on the left is the shot of the street before we re-shot, to begin we wanted to shoot in the dark as we thought that it would as a more scary effect, we knew the camera had a light and therefore thought that we would still be able to see what was needed to be seen; we realised when we watched it through that this was not the case and infact we couldnt see alot. We re-shot and didnt do it as late; we feel that it has a better effect as the audience are still able to see everything that needs to be seen but it is still slightly dark which gives a scary effect and allows the location to seem deserted. Also before we re-shot we just filmed the route to the house with the camera hand held, we thought it would have a good effect as it would be in the point of view of the clown and would add tension, however when we re-shot we did a few still shots and a few pans around the area which allowed the audience to see more of the area which added a better effect and a more professional look. 

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

We learnt a lot whilst doing our preliminary task which caused our final product to be better. I feel that if we were to just do our final task straight away with no practice then it wouldn’t have been at the standard that it is now as we wouldn’t have learnt the full importance of different shots and different effects that Adobe Premiere Pro has. In our first task called ‘The Prisoner’ we had many continuity errors as it was the first time we had used a camera before properly; we didn’t understand the importance of the 180 degree rule or action matches. Although we used a range of shots in that task, we found that they didn’t really fit and we now realise that we could have used better types of shot in order to make our short film more effective. Our continuity task was about putting what we had learned about continuity and different shots into practice after editing and watching ‘The Prisoner’. In our continuity task we were allowed to choose our setting and our storyline; we chose a school drama as the genre. The criteria for this task were to use shot reverse shot, action match and to ensure that we followed the 10 degree rule. After editing and watching our continuity task we realised that we had progressed as there weren’t any continuity errors however we feel like it wasn’t very good as we didn’t use any sound effects, in this task we also put some titles on; due to the fact that we weren’t very familiar with the software at this point it meant that the titles were very simple and didn’t have any effects on, in our final task we realised we were able to put fades onto the titles and use certain effects such as blurs; we found this out by trial and error; we put different effects onto our work and played it through to find out which looked better. Also due to the fact that we had to edit both preliminary tasks using Adobe Premiere Pro was good as it allowed us to become familiar with the software and see everything that it had to offer, for example, the sound effects, titles, and different types of edits to put into our film for different effects.

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

We used Adobe premiere pro for our editing out shots, putting them together and putting our sound effects on. We found it interesting using the camera and learning how to use it. We feel that the 2 tasks in preparation for our final project were very useful as they allowed us to get used to using the camera for different effects and how to do different types of shot. Also the continuity task was useful as it allowed us to learn about continuity and how it can look; it helped us to spot continuity errors before they happened as we were always thinking about the 180 degree rule and action matches. The preparation tasks also allowed us to learn how to do shot reverse shot which we used in our final piece, it adds a good effect as we see both characters expressions and reactions to things; it also gives a more professional look to the project. The cameras were interesting to use. We enjoyed using Adobe premiere pro for our editing as we just looked at the effects and decided which ones were best for our films; the preparation tasks allowed us to become familiar with the software and find different effects and how to change the sound around. We have enjoyed using Adobe premiere pro as we found it to be quite easy to use and we found some of the effects were very useful in creating a professional look to our movie. We learnt that a lot of details when filming are important like the frame rate the camera is set to as we filmed in 60 frames per minute whereas Adobe premiere pro is only compatible with movies that are shot in 30 frames per minute, this meant that we had to convert our files into a dv format which was very useful as when they were converted we didn’t need to render them which meant only our sounds and edits had to be rendered this made the editing process quicker which allowed us to get a lot of edits done to make our film more effective at provoking the fears of the audience. The experience of making this film has been useful as it has taught us a lot about the different software that are available when editing and the different things that can be done to achieve a professional film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We used a range of techniques to attract and address our audience, we made sure that the audience was interested in the film by trying to make it gripping; we did this by using a range of shots to show the location and choosing a song that suits the mood of curiosity we were trying to create. We also included a small conversation with the girls to allow the audience to understand them slightly; this will provoke sympathy for the girls when they are being attacked by the clown as the audience knows them and put themselves in their shoes. This will interest the audience and make them want to watch the film and see what actually happens to the girls. Another thing that we did to address our audience was make the characters average and people that the audience would be able to relate to as we thought this would give a better effect as the audience will not want anything bad to happen to them. The range of shots we used to start with were used to establish the location and show the audience that it is a typical village. The first minute includes these shots which create a very moody and spooky atmosphere along with the music which also adds to the tension; however we didn’t want the audience to be bored when watching the film so we ensured that there was a instant bang after about 1 minute, this was the clown which we showed straight away to tell the audience that this was a typical horror movie even though we found that some horror movies choose not to show their criminal until later on in the movie. We chose not to challenge those codes of conventions of horror as we are not claiming to have made the next ‘different’ horror movie. We feel that if you like nightmare on Elm Street scream and similar films then you will like this as we have followed their codes and conventions.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The general target audience for our film is quite general as a lot of people will be able to relate to it. First of all the setting of our film is in an average small village, this will cause a lot of people to be interested in our film as they will live in a similar place. Also people that enjoy horror films would also enjoy our film as it is quite a typical horror film that follows many of the codes and conventions of horror films. However the sub-genre that our film entertains is teen horror; this means that the main target audience will be teenagers around the age of 15-19. Teenagers would be interested in our film as it is more thrilling and interesting when the people are a similar age to the audience as they can relate to the characters which allows them to feel part of the film, In our research we found that a lot of films do this as it creates a better effect, they do this by using point of view shots and effective sounds. We have done this in our film as we have a point of view shot of Chloe and Kayleigh when they are looking out to the clown and a point of view shot of Becca when she is being held by the Clown.

The typical person that would enjoy our film is a person that is outgoing, looks for mystery in a film and likes to be kept on their feet when watching a film, our film does this as the audience are not sure what is going to happen and it is very surprising when the clown makes his way into the house unexpectedly. In our film we don’t intend to include too much gory detail as we don’t want to turn away our audience and make them feels disgusted as that is not the aim of the film; the aim of our film is to scare the audience and get them to feel part of the story.

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

The institution that would be most likely to distribute our media product would be the Canadian distribution company Lionsgate; in my research into horror films and their distribution I found that this company is very well known for its horror films. Lionsgate have produced many horror films such as all of the SAW films and American psycho. Also Warner Bros have distributed horror films in the past, they distributed the teen horror film ‘House of wax’ which was very successful, it was very successful and was shown in around 3,111 cinemas. In the first 3 days it made around $12million. It was a very famous film and made $42million in VHS and DVD rentals alone. If we were to have our film distributed by one of these institutions then it would be distributed well meaning that a lot of people would watch the film, both in the cinema and at home on DVD.

Whilst some films are distributed by just one institution some films are distributed by a few for example in my research I found out that ‘Prom night’ was distributed by many companies such as Alliance Films, Sony Pictures and screen gems. Due to the fact that Lions Gate is well known for distributing horror films we would like them to distribute our film, this would allow our film to benefit as people would see that the distributer was Lions Gate and go to see the film as they trust Lions Gate as they have distributed good horror films in the past

How does you product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products and represent particular social groups?

Our film is a typical horror film, we took influences from films such as scream and halloween, when we were analysing them before we looked at the codes and conventions of them and similar horror films. We tried to include them in our opening sequence in order to get a similar scary effect. We also found that these films are quite successful in cinemas and in general, scream was very successful as it has had 3 sequels. Due to this we thought it would be good to make a film that we knew would attract a range of audiences and be successful. Also in horror films there is usually a scary person or thing that is associated with the bad things that happen within the film; like Ghostface in scream, in our film it is the clown.

In scream we do not see Ghostface straight away, we hear him on the phone, this is also a main convention of horror films as it leaves the audience hooked as they want to keep watching in order to find out who the person who keeps phoning Casey is. However in 'Fun House' we see the clown straight away; we chose to do this as we thought it would allow the audience to see how scary he is and what damage he can do; we thought that is we were to show him straight away it would create more of a relationship with the audience as they would feel scared of what is going to happen to Chloe and Kayleigh who are portrayed to be vulnerable by the slight high angle shot which tells the audience that they dont have a lot of power in this situation.
There is only one social group represented in our opening sequence; it is young women, we have chosen to represent them as vulnerable which is not only stereotypical in society but is one of the main conventions of horror films, they are shown to be vulnerable by the fact that the clown corners them and they have no where to go suggesting that they are trapped in their own home.

Final Opening Sequence

This is our final cut, with the continuity error edited out, any comments are welcome.

Final Cut

We have been doing our final edits and changing our sequence around.We have also been checking the sound to ensure that there are no glitches however, the buzzing of the camera in the background is still there as we cannot get rid of it. We are doing our last edits now and are about to export our clip and upload it to our blogs, we will then do our evaluation where we will mention what went well with our film making and what went bad. Our final cut will be uploaded soon.

Editing

We have watched our opening sequence through once more and realised some of the shots of the streets are different lengths to others, we are currently sorting out this problem as we feel that if they are all a similar length then it will add a rhythm to the sequence. We are also changing some of the fades in the shots of the streets to give a better effect. We will have our final cut on our blogs soon.

Sound

Whilst watching our opening sequence through we have been noticing errors wiitht he sound, at all times there is a slight buzz in the background of the camera; at the start where there shots of the area are being shown we have been able to turn the sound down as we have the music that we spent a while choosing as we wanted one that suited the storyline of the film and we decided that the one that is on suited the film best, we are pleased with this choice. However when the camera switches to the conversation the buzz of the camera is still there, unfortunately we cannot turn down the sound as if we did this the conversation would be inaudible. We have considered recording the audio again and putting it on top of the film but we thought that if we did this then the mouth movements would be different and would cause our opening sequence to lack verisimilitude.

Rendering

We are currently rendering our film as we have edited out our continuity error with the opening of the curtains and changed the sound around, this has increased the amount of verisimilitude of our opening sequence. When our opening sequence has finished rendering we will watch it through again and look for other glitches with the sound.

Final Edit

We currently have 6 days, 14 hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds to finish our final cut, we have been editing in todays lesson and are very close to having a final piece, we have spotted a huge continuity error when watching our piece through where the girls open the curtains to fins their friend outside and the camera cuts to their friends point of view and the camnera shows us opening the curtains again when they have been already opened, we have cut this out so the continuity error is no longer there. In tomorrows lesson we will be watching our piece through over and over again to look for any more errors and things that could be improved, we will upload our final piece onto our blogs on Tuesday 22nd March.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of our opening scene for Fun House, we have edited our shots and changed the sound. Any comments and suggestions will be welcomed.

Final Editing

Our frame rate was too high for Adobe Premier Pro, we have changed the files into a Dv format which means that our files will work better; however the editing that we did before has to be done again so we are doing that now and should have a rough cut on our blog soon.

New distribution logo

We have been watching our opening sequence through and we decided to create a new distribution one as our old one didnt look very professional, we are pleased with our new one and with our animation that we have put into our opening sequence. We should be uploading our rough cut soon.

This is our logo, it looks quite simplistic, however with the animations it looks very professional.

Technical Problems

We have had alot of problems with the rendering of our film as we left the computer to render and somebody turned it off meaning that our editing hadnt saved and we still had to render our piece, it has now rendering and we have began to edit again, we should soon have our rough cut uploaded onto our blog.

Rendering

We have done most of our editing and chosen the sound effects, we are in the process of rendering to have our rough cut. When the rendering is finished we will watch our rough cut through a few times and have a look for slight errors and things that we will be able to improve.

Editing

We have now shot our final piece again and have filmed more shots so we have alot to choose from and in our new shots we have used a bigger range of camera techniques which willl help our work to look more proffesional. We will post our old final piece on our blogs which will mean that our classmates can see both versions and how it has improved.

Shooting

After rendering ouor final piece we have decided that we are going to film our opening sequence again as we realised that we havent used all of the different types of shots, we will shoot our opening sequence again on thursday.

Editing Continued

At the minute we are still editing out clip, we have had abit of trouble with the sound and the sound effects but we think that we have got them right and that the sound effects we have chosen are suitable for the theme of our clip, our video is now rendering as it is quite jumpy and hard to edit, so when it is rendered it will be easier to edit.

Editing our final piece

We are at the stage of editing our final piece, we filmed the final bit for our piece last night and are now importing into Adobe Premiere Pro, we are now putting sorting the slips into the right order, cutting out any unwanted parts after this we will be sorting out the ;ighting on the clips and ensuring that it is suitable.

Movie name

We have been thinking of a name for our production, we have came up with a few but havent decided on a definate one yet, these are the ideas that we have so far;
- Fun House
- The Fun House
- Clown House
- House of Clowns
- Night of the Clowns
- Clown Ressurection
- Revenge of the Clowns
- The Clowns Terror
- Clowns Massacre
- Killer Clowns
- Cannibal Clowns
- Return of The Clowns
- Bloody Clowns
- Curse of the Clowns
- Attack of the Clowns
- Clown Street
- Night of the Fake Smiles
We will try and decide soon, and post the final name of our movie on our blogs.

Sounds

We are currently looking to find a soundtrack or sound clip to cause an eerie mood, we are looking at the sounds clips opn the media server and on some websites. We are looking for a fast paced beat or classical soundtrack that will fit with the mood we are trying to create with our opening sequence, when we have found this sound clip we will upload it on our blogs.

Editing

We have began editing of final piece, we have imported all of our clips into Adobe Premiere Pro, when we did this we watched our rough cut through and noticed that we dont have an establishing shot of our location, we will go back to where we shot this and film an establishing shot, it will be in the eyes of the clown and start from the crossroads and walk up to the house and then stop outside the house, then walk up the driveway, this will show the audience where our film is set as if we dont film this establishing shot then our film will just start in the sitting room. It will give them an awareness of the setting which will help them to be able to relate to the storyline as they see that it is a normal place which is similar to where they will live. Also another reason for doing this is the fact that our opening sequence would only be approximately 1 minute without this establishing shot.

Poster

We have decided that we are going to make a poster for our film as in our research we found that posters and advertisements help films to become more well known and popular, this is because people will see the posters and trailers and want to see the films, however in order for this to be effective the poster will have to look interesting and good. We will begin thinking of a name for our film and start to think of the layout for our poster.

What clips are we going to use?

We have now watched all of the clips that we filmed on monday night and decided which ones we can use, we have wrote down which ones we can use and the ones that we cant and why, these are our notes;

FILE0040- for this clip it could be used for editing but it was just to test our lighting and sounds.
FILE0041- actors where laughing and got distracted.
FILE0042- testing sound again and going through the script as the talking was not loud enough.
FILE0043- the actors where laughing.
FILE0044- the actors where laughing again.
FILE0045- parts of this clip could be used for editing.
FILE0046- there was talking in the background.
FILE0047- there was problems with the camera as the picture went fussy.
FILE0048- this file was good and we are using it for our final production
FILE0049- you could hear the other people in the house.
FILE0050- the talking in this was really loud.
FILE0051-the actors where laughing.
FILE0052- certain parts of this clip could be used for the editing.
FILE0053-the actors where laughing.
FILE0054-chloe looks like a dinosaur but good we will use.
FILE0055- there is talking in the background.
FILE0056- there was a continuity problem.
FILE0057- the actors where laughing.
FILE0058-  there was talking in the background.
FILE0059- this clip was good and we will be using it in our final production.
FILE0060- there was swearing in and was talking.
FILE0061-not using as there was problems in the clip it just didnt look right.
FILE0062- actor trips over and falls.
FILE0063- could be a possibility to use on our final production.
FILE0064- could be a possibility to use on our final production.
FILE0065-the clown ends up cutting himself at the end of the clip.
FILE0066- we will be using this for a still shot to use in our final production.
FILE0067- continuity problems.
FILE0068- actors were laughing.
FILE0069- the actors were talking.
FILE0070- we are using this clip in our final production.
FILE0071-we are using this clip in our final production.
FILE0072- the clown was talking in the background.
FILE0073- we are using this clip in our final production.
FILE0074- outtakes just incase we needing them for editing.
FILE0075-outtakes just incase we needing them for editing.
FILE0076 the actors were laughing.

These are the clips that we can use for our final production;
FILE0045
FILE0048
FILE0052
FILE0054
FILE0059
FILE0063
FILE0064
FILE0066
FILE0070
FILE0071
FILE0073.

Shooting

We have finished shooting our final piece, we did it last night, we feel that it went okay and we are going to begin looking at the clips and seeing which ones can be used. Some actors were unable to come and because of this we were unable to shoot the start of the piece in Durham so we decided to change the plot slightly so it fit around the actors that we had. Chloe and Kayleigh are babysitting whilst waiting for their friend to come but they realise that she is late and decide to ring her, when they ring they hear the ringtone and seem confused, then they look out of the window and see her strapped to a chair the struggle to find the key and turn around to see a huge clown that goes towards them with a knife, at this point our piece will end as it is just an opening scene. We experienced a few techinical difficulties which meant that the shooting took longer than expected; the camera wasnt charged which meant that we had to wait while it charged. We are now going to look at the clips and decide which ones we can use.

Production Information

We are still unsure of a name for our final piece, we are trying to think of one that fits the genre, we plan to have one soon. The name of our distribution company is 'Blade distribution' the logo is on one of my previous blog entries. In our credits we will have the names of the actors followed by the names of the directors and producers as we feel it would be more proffessional to do this. Our title sequence is going to start of with four young popular girls walking round town shopping, the titles will be in a white font. As the four girls are shopping they walk past a darkened alley, the camera spins round and looks up the alley, there is a man standing there with his faced covered and dressed in all black and his hood up.  The camera then fuzzes, the camera is the following the four young girls, making the audience feel like they are being followed. Then one of the girls turn round feeling that they have been followed and the man has disappeared. The four young girls then decide to go home for there 'Sleepover' the camera cuts and fades out just leaving the title of the film. The opening scene then fades in showing all four girls sitting in the main characters bedroom, chatting, laughing all sitting round a big bowl of popcorn about to watch a film. Lauren the main character then phones for a pizza, once phoning for the pizzas 2 minutes later there is a big knock at the door, with the girls being represented as ditsy and dumb then don't realise that it couldn't possibly be the pizza delivery man, Lauren then runs down the stairs to pay the pizza man only to open the door and find the man in all black standing there with a knife, he pulls his hood down to reveal a gruesome clowns mask. Lauren screams and runs as she trys to run in the house to warn every one she goes to shut the door, the mans foot is in the door but Lauren has already ran away. The man takes big steps and Lauren slips and falls in the hallway screaming and crying the camera is at the point of view of the man and shows his feet and the knife standing over Lauren the scene then fades out into black.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard onto the computers, it isnt very detailed as we wont be sure on the music and timings until we have filmed our piece and watched it to see what it looks like, we have decided to do this because we want the music we choose to go with the shots, so until we see the finished edit we arent quite sure what type of music will be appropriate for our film. We are going to begin shooting our final piece on Monday 17/1/11, we will take the storyboard with us to make sure that we dont miss any of the frames out as this may cause of film to look unproffessional and may cause the storyline to be unclear to the audience.

Location of our final piece

This is the house where we will be filming our final piece, we have chose to do it here as it is a regular house which is a perfect setting for a teen horror, also the audience that will be watching the film will be regular people who will be able to relate with it as they may have similar houses; this means that they will be able to relate with the horror in the film. This is where most of the opening scene will be filmed as well as Durham City Centre.

Distirbution Logo

This is the distribution logo we have created, our genre is a teen horror and a knife will be in our piece so we have decided to use a silhouette of a knife; the silhouette  that we have used is relevant as it is not a clear picture which represents how we never see the killers face. The knife in general is used to connote fear and horror which is what the girls will be feeling in our final piece.

UPDATE!

UNFORTUNATLEY HOLLY HAS DECIDED TO QUIT AS LEVEL MEDIA, THIS MEANS THAT WE ONLY HAVE 2 MEMBERS IN OUR GROUP, MYSELF AND HANNAH. WE WILL TRY OUR HARDEST TO GET OUR FINAL PIECE FINISHED TO THE BEST OF OUR ABILITY, HOWEVER WE THINK THAT WE WILL FIND IT HARD AS THERE ISNT VERY MUCH TIME TO SHOOT AND EDIT OUR FINAL PIECE; HOLLY LEAVING US HAS CAUSED A HUGE IMPACT ON THE GROUP, AS SHE WAS GOING TO BE A DIRECTOR AND CHECK FOR ALL OF THE CONTINUITY ERRORS, THIS MEANS THAT ME AND HANNAH WILL HAVE TO CONCENTRATE MORE WHEN FILMING TO ENSURE THAT OUR PIECE IS GOOD. WE WILL MISS YOU HOLLY!

Progress Update

In tomorrows lesson we will be discussing what we have left to do for the planning and we will decide what day we need to start filming, we will be collecting the camera on friday which will mean that we can start shooting quite soon. This will allow us plenty of times to shoot the film a few times so we can choose the best shots, and this will also allow us alot of time to edit, we are yet to upload the storyboard onto the blog but we dont have a scanner yet, so we may have to take a picture of it and then upload it to the blog.

Location for our piece

Holly has took a picture of the place which will be our 'dark alley'. We will film in the night so it actually will be dark, as it isnt in the picture. We have chose to make it dark as it will be scarier and ascare our audience when we finish our piece.