Media evaluation

Media Evaluation
Of ‘Conscience’ Film Opening
By George Turner

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The film industry divides film into genres and these genres can then further separate into
Sub-genres or Hybrids. The reason this was of importance is we had to research these genres
in order to find the conventions that we can include in our film opening because otherwise
the audience would not recognise the genre and would be left confused. In addition to this we
researched ‘Hybrid’ genres because our audience survey told us that our predicted audience
would want more psychological conventions.
Our media product uses the conventions of a war (thriller) film to explore the nature of
warfare in World War Two and how it effects the subject today. Most conventional war films
focus on the survival and sacrifice of a group of soldiers within a battle usually within where
the odds are stacked against them. This is present in the film saving private Ryan especially
the beach scene. We used this convention so that the audience would recognise the
repetition of a soldier without any help. However we subverted these conventions by only
having the film focus on one soldier. This is because we felt that while doing our research
families felt that their loved ones who went to war are just presented as a death rate. This is
present in Saving Private Ryan because of the vast amount of death while following one
character. To explore our protagonists loneliness and isolation we singled him out from any
other character in the opening. The use of PTSD provided a development in the use of this
convention and allowed a more psychological war thriller compared to the usual war film we
had seen in our research. This change allowed for our audience to have a unique viewing
experience because they were provided the repetition of the soldier having the odds put
against him from a war thriller however still subverts the mainstream conventions by making
this a hybrid genre with a psychological thriller.
Furthermore I wanted to understand how the director and production team used the mise en
scene to set a time period and tell the characters story. I looked at a variety of war films
including short films because I wanted to see how they achieved the correct mise en scene
with a lower budget, which is more realistic to what we as a group had. The conventions of
mise en scene often used light brown standard uniform (as seen in both Saving Private Ryan
and the short film). This provides familiarity within our opening because our predicted
audience could make the connection between the uniform and the time period. We used this
convention because we had to set the time zone and this uniform was essential for the time
zone. By following this and reviving an older genre with a twist it allowed our psychological
aspect to provide a much more of a kick.
We used a similar shot as Saving Private Ryan. However we
wanted to present the character as isolated therefore we had
the character by himself.
The costume was again based off Saving Private Ryan as well as
the other short film I analyzed.

Another aspect we wanted to focus on from our research is the idea of it being a bit surreal and
psychological. This is because we wanted the events to take place in the characters mind and this
meant we had to look at psychological thrillers and how they used conventions to tell a story. The
aspects we eventually found were the use of video editing to make the frame shake and jitter
which we used when our opening became surreal. To find ways in which thrillers used this
technique I looked at film openings like Seven and some television series such as Whitechapel and
American Horror Story. This is because these media products uses this jittery look to connote the
psychological impact. Furthermore the Television show Whitechapel uses intense flashbacks to
create scenes in which ninety percent of the action takes place. I wanted to use this to show PTSD
because it worked to show a panic attack in the television program. The flashbacks must share
similar editing techniques because this is a connotation of psychological mental damage of the
characters within it. I wanted to use the familiarity of this technique to create a mentally damaged
character and used the conventions of fast paced editing to create an intense flashback scene.
Moreover these flashbacks were often accompanied by ambient sound. These ambient sounds are
harsh and and also are used to build up to a flash back. For example in the opening of Se7en the
soundtrack contains vast amounts of these ambient sounds when ever sharp object or fast flashes
occur. This means that ambient sound can be linked to danger in this sequence. If I use this
convention it creates repetition within the opening , this means that the audience can link the
conventions together. The reason this is is useful is because the repetition creates tension because
the an ambient makes the audience expect danger within our sequence. However we did subvert
the conventions of the soundtrack from psychological thrillers because we had mixed these
ambient sounds with an uplifting sound track because I wanted some music to relate to the era of
the flashbacks and to contrast the action on screen. This created contrapuntal sound because the
non diegetic soundtrack goes against the diegetic world presented on screen. This is used in films
such as Reservoir Dogs to create tension.
This is an example of a snapshot from seven. This
fast editing style was incorporated into our
flashbacks.
These snapshots are from White chapel. This included
high color corrections, flashing and fast editing. These
conventions are common when its to do with the
mind and that is why we used them.
Lastly a convention that most of the thrillers we watched had in the openings consisted of mystery in
order to build suspense. This was shown across all thrillers I looked at. To achieve this we had our
younger character’s identity almost hidden for the entire opening and even when he was in shot it was
jittery and hard to see. This convention is usually used for the for the antagonist- to hide his/hers
identity however we subverted these conventions by having the antagonist the victim of the
protagonists actions, this causes a haunting within his head. Usually the protagonist would be the victim
of someone else's actions however this time its because of his own. We used the inter texuality of
television genre and film genre to create something unique because we took the editing from ITV’s
Whitechapel and placed in film. This can then lead to a new hybrid genre being created through the
combination of television genre and film genre by taking conventions from both.

However for the house explosion I wanted the camera to be still and I would make it look
handheld and react to the explosion in post because then I would have more control over the
effect instead of trying to fit it in with the handheld shake, which is very limited. The explosion
was the climax of our opening because we wanted to upset the equilibrium without upsetting
the storyline by say, killing someone. This upsets the usual conventions for thriller in general
because usually the openings are slower and don’t contain much action so there is a build up
of tension slowly. However our film ‘zig zags’ up and down because this is how we felt the
protagonists life would be because of the sudden flash backs.
We also used high contrast levels similar to what I saw in the World War Two short film I
watched for inspiration and techniques. This is because for the the older character scenes we
wanted a dark and gloomy feel providing suspense because of the mystery in the shadows.
These also would show a distinct difference to the flash backs which have a high lit glow and
blur to create a surreal effect. This technique is usually used in psychological thrillers however
because we wanted a psychological feel I am challenging the conventions a of a war film and
blending the two genres techniques together.
The camera was then used again to create emotion through fear by getting an extreme close
up, which contrasted to the other shots making this part in the sequence really stand out
making the emotion clear. This convention is often used in thrillers because when the
character has to make a difficult decision and he/she shows some emotion the camera will
often be close up to show that to the audience.
The camera work was based off a film I have watched, All Quiet on the Western Front.
The war film used very old filming techniques. I further wanted to incorporate this by
having more static shots where the camera did not shake. We see this in films set in this
time period because it is how they were shot back then. This convention is in war films
because it distinguishes the build up to action from action. In our film it was very
important because the shots we wanted needed to move and follow the character. For
example the ‘dolly’ shot had to stay smooth otherwise the idea that the audience is
following him calmly would be ruined if the camera started to shake therefore
destroying the build up. This is because we found that the convention of a handheld
camera is only used when action takes place. This is because the shaky camera contrasts
to the rest of the scene making the action stand out therefore adding to the surrealism
of the scene taking place. We found this in action sequences from ‘Saving Private Ryan’,
which used the camera to further intensifies the action on screen.

The mise en scene was very important to this film because we were not only traveling
back in time but were exploring someone in the present day at the same time. This
meant that we had to find locations that looked the part depending on which
character was on screen. I went into great detail finding props and locations that were
accessible but still played the part. In fact we bought eighty ponds worth of props
including a Thompson replica BB gun which I then had to masking tape and paint so
that it wasn’t bright orange. Although this gun is only on screen for roughly six
seconds I felt that it had to be right because it is the opening shot of the film and this is
where the audience like it or hate it.
The lighting of the scenes inside the house is all low key because a convention I found
in is thrillers in general was that the contrasting shadows provide visual mystery
within the opening. This creates a hook to capture the audience. However we did
subvert the convention of low saturation in our opening shot which had vivid colors
compared to Saving Private Ryan which had high contrast and low saturation. This
meant that the scene stood out compared to our other scenes and packed more of a
punch. We managed to pull off the idea that the older man was in the present day by
having an age difference that was believable. This worked because within the mise en
scene we had wheelchair and modern equipment to support our character in the
present day this overall allowed for the ideas to be pushed further.
As for the rest of the film most of the props were already provided because I used my
grandparents house even though scouting location was not my job. This saved us time
in getting the mise en scene together because the location was a typical ready made
elderly persons home. This including pictures of grandchildren, photo frames and old
books. These all added depth within our scene. These props gave the actor space to
interact with instead of randomly moving where I said, this made the scene feel more
natural because he had motives within his movements. The scene also tells its own
story by having objects surrounding him, furthermore because they are in focus it
shows he's surrounded by his past and cant move on to the future.

Our opening sequence didn’t have a specific soundtrack to
fit the film because we didn’t want our opening to be based
of the track like a Tarantino scene. This is because our music
had to be edited in order to establish pacing. This is because
my ambiguous soundtrack didn’t help the already terrible
pacing that the first draft suffered. This is because in thrillers
I have watched the music marks the moment in a film and
further establishes pacing. The reason I wanted to use this
conventions because pacing allows the audience to follow
the opening more easily.
In order to find a soundtrack that contrasted our film but still
was relatable to the time period Katy and I set to work
looking across the web for 1940’s songs. The reason we
looked at songs from the 1940’s is because some of them
were very upbeat and I wanted the music to contrast the
eerie feel. This is a technique subverts the conventions of
music in war films because it’s used in more modern thrillers
and isn't often seen within war films because they were
made before this technique was used. To further intensify
the action in a scene when the danger approaches I have my
character walk away from the music causing it to be
drowned out by the siren. This creates moment when the
music is suddenly cuts off causing a marked moment of
silence in the sound track.
The reason the music worked so well is because of the
juxtaposition between what is seen and heard. Furthermore
the use of the explosion to cut of the sound intensifies the
climax in the film because the music and ambient sounds
build up tension. In addition to this the repetition of ‘music
cutting off’ equaling danger means that the audience are on
edge waiting for the next thrill after experiencing the first
flashbacks. These techniques are used as typical conventions
in thrillers because of the success they prove when creating
tension.
You can see where the music and
sound effects climax and where it
goes quiet. I have zoomed in
below to show how we used this
convention to create tension at
certain points. I used a lot of
crossfades to mix the music to
where it fitted best. This is the
ambient sounds and this is the
music.

How does you media product represent particular social groups?
The costume was very simple because we wanted him just to have darker clothing to
reflect a sense of depression caused by the constant stress of PTSD. Often in thrillers the
antagonist is dressed in dark clothing because we his the source of evil. However the
source of our protagonists pain is caused by himself. This results in him also being
presented as the antagonist through the dark clothing. We did this because we wanted to
subvert the conventions of a war thriller by having the friend and foe on the within the
same person linking in to the psychological twist. The collar would reflect that he tries to
stay civilized but the rest of the jumper connotes he depression taking over him as a
character/person in the film. Our character interacts with various props including a book
representing his effort to carry on his traditions and way of life the best he can but the
lighting of our scene shows that the danger of his past is catching up. The camera is mostly
shot in high angles to represent the social group as weak because of the danger they face.
Furthermore the older generation are usually seen as wiser and in control however our
character challenges those conventions in film because he doesn't understand he can only
be to the mercy of his condition. However our protagonist still has an able body so doesn’t
link to the stereotype that he needs help moving around his home with careers etc but still
is in need of help mentally. We chose a white male because although some may perceive it
as racist I believe that people in England will recognize him as a soldier more easily if he
was white compared to the Indian soldiers who fought alongside the British in World War
Two because of the British Empire.
Our particular social group would be veterans from World war two. This older generation is presented
as traumatized by the experience of the second world war. This meant that we wanted the makeup to
make him look exhausted and old because we wanted these flash backs to of drained the character.
The bland plain clothes present the our character as dark and enclosed. This presents the generation
as broken however keeps a strong face to cope with their struggle. This defied the conventions
because usually the male lead it presented as the strong character within the film however our
character is much more helpless because of his mental battle with his conscience over what he did in
the war. To show this helplessness as a character I blocked out my actors movements and told him to
move as if he was always in pain. In addition to this the camera moved around him from high angles
because from what I learnt in my research: high angles show helplessness and lack of control. I used
high angles to shoot every shot of my older character because I wanted to present this older man as
helpless.

What media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The main distributing companies in the UK are:
- BBC, ITV, UK Film Council, Film Four and Vertigo Films.
These companies are the people who get our film seen by
people in cinemas and eventually discs or streaming. So, if our
opening was to continue into an actual short film or a feature
film we would need backing from one of these companies to
distribute our film to the public and critics. To choose a company
we must first research the companies preferred genre to
distribute. This is because each company has the genre they are
associated with. Although the lines between genre are becoming
blurred because of films like this with ‘Hybrid’ genres the
company still has to market it as a genre because its what people
want before deciding whether or not to watch the film. In terms
of features, a distributor is generally an organisation who
handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as
well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing
(DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often
feature films have different distributors representing them in
different territories and different distributors handling the
home-viewing circulation. Independent film distribution in the
UK is generally managed by indie distributors such as
Metrodome, Optimum Releasing and Momentum.
However our film could not just become film for the pubic
because we could go independent and enter film festivals
around the world. This could help us as new film makers
because we could gain awards and credit for the making of
this film. This could be a possible destination for our film
because we would be put with other young film makers and it
allows us to gather connections to people who want to make
films in the future, which is always useful for making short
films. The company I would chose for this option would be the
UK Film Council because they offer close connections to film
festivals across England and the world.
Another option for our film is that it could be made into a television series. I would
strongly consider this after the close links to television this film has and due to the recent
success of shows like Downton Abby I believe that this time zone is a strong possibility
that our film holds the aspects for a short three part thriller series much like the show
White chapel this was based off.
The other alternative for our film is using the internet to broadcast our short film on the
web. This would involve using social media to promote our product and uploading it onto
websites like YouTube and Vimeo. The advantages of this is that the audience and
viewing possibilities are almost endless because of the extent the web has expanded.
Furthermore the we could hit our target audience (15-25) because they are most likely to
be viewing these video through the internet. However the web can be a lot harder to get
views on now because of mainstream up loaders.

Furthermore the UK Film council wants to export internationally meaning that our film could
be seen all over the world. This company supports upcoming filmmakers, which is perfect for
us because it won’t be tough to get in. Furthermore because our film is targeted at the
British market due to popular media like Downton Abby being viewed by mainly British
people we feel that because of the time period it would be better for national viewers
compared to international. This is perfect for UK Film Council because they have a wide
range of local connections. I believe that if the public did like it we could also adapt the the
story to fit a television series because I think this story has so much room for rapid storyline
development. For example marvel has many television productions to link in with their whole
universe that people interact with on a daily bases.
This film has the potential to be a feature film because of the two entangled storylines
provide a unique narrative to be explored. The flash backs provide a gritty psychological feel
to a war thriller, which if given a bigger budget could be prolonged into a storyline that can
explain why the older gentleman is in so much distress. This mystery within the storyline
creates the tension especially if the flashbacks are unexpected. However I think it would be
better to build up to a feature with inter series, television shows and short films to build an
audience around our product because it allows the interaction that the modern viewer
wants.
The company I would choose is the UK Film Council. This is because the
company has a near thousand films under its belt and they work closely
with the BFI (British Film institution). This would be good for us because
I have worked with this company before and know them, which means
we could easily contact and show our opening to them compared to
the BBC which is much larger and harder to contact. This company also
holds connections to film festivals and I think that our film will be
better shown to other film makers because they would understand the
conventions we were challenging and may enjoy it more than the
public. Furthermore these companies allow the flexibility to distribute
the media as a television show for the BBC and or a short film for the
BFI/UK Film council. This flexibility allows us to create more than just a
film on the big screen and would help market the film with shorter
episodes for a web series or a television series.
I want this flexibility because our target audience is not just fixed to a
television they are always looking for ways to interact with the media
and find new easy ways to access it. Therefore if we could only export
the media as a film and not have the power to create many different
forms of media to access we would start to lose our audience because
our audience wants interactive media. This would mean that instead of
just releasing a trailer and a poster I would want a Facebook and
twitter page along side a Snapchat account because from what I have
learnt about expansion I can tell that Snapchat can access millions of
viewers by simply putting a snap on the ‘story’ of the account.
Furthermore this allows our film would become more interactive and
would become more sharable compared to the standard poster and
trailer, which are still important to the marketing of the film.
This image is a snapchat story in use by a video game company. The idea is that they share 10-15
seconds of footage teasing their audience of millions over the app. Although it has not been done by a
film company I reckon it would be a great idea to use this to an advantage and try to modernize the
advertising techniques.

This is a film poster from one of my favorite films. I love
this film poster because it not only captures the film but
also sells it. This is very important to getting audiences
wanting to watch our film. There is always a clear line
between promotion and artistic value because otherwise
the audience may become confused.
Explosion represents the action surrounding the action
packed super hero. This sells the story because the
audience expect action from these films. In addition to the
flames its also the shape. I want to use these signifiers in
our film poster.
The building within the background shows a layer of
mystery because nothing is reveled furthermore the smoke
sets the tone of the film. I want to use the idea of mystery
in our film poster to set the tone of the film.
Bold text creates a large striking title that an audience
would remember because of the links between ‘Dark’ and
the colour of the poster.
List of actors who star in the film in the slightly large text
because it may be a selling point.
Credit block is essential for providing relevant information
on who made the film without obscuring the title or image.
I will have to include this in my poster in order for it to look
the part even though we don’t have a lot of people
compared to this film.
Release date provided in bold because it is important to the
viewer.

Film posters will be important to selling our film to the public and critics
because it links to the tone and style of the film. Furthermore it gives our
audience a taste of what they can expect from the film, the poster also reflects
the genre and story in the film and this is one way we can attract our audience.
Initially I gave the task to Mariella because I was pressed for time and she could
use Photoshop. While on shoot we decided to take some cameo shots of the
younger character because we felt that he had the potential to be the main
character. We wanted to capture the desperation of the characters. We
wanted to capture the tone of the film with the uniform and the props, we also
wanted to keep the familiarity of the text used in our opening.
As an initial improvement I think we should have got more cameo shots of
Fraser but just had no time. Mariella managed to take this brilliant picture of
our character looking fearful and mysterious. This was important to match the
tone of our film through choice of colors and positioning. Mariella made the
character central to the poster which links to the ideas behind the film. This is
important so whoever looks at the poster can immediately identify the tone
and ideas behind it.
In addition the poster provides a lot of mystery because the location is
ambiguous and doesn't reveal a story. This did take the sense of mystery I
wanted however I wanted to make some improvements so I made my own film
poster because I now had the time.
This was our first poster. I loved the photo and the use of a vignette to focus in
on the character. The poster also includes most of the promotional material
making it possible to sell our film as a feature. However the people I have
shown it to don’t believe that this film poster provides the correct elements of
a real film poster. This was because of several reasons, to begin with the
colours of the image have not been altered in any way this in a dull and boring
poster. This causes a problem because we have to capture the audience with
bold colours not just the “ok” colours seen in the image for example the green
uniform.

This is my version of the poster used the same image. I used the same
information and promotional material from the previous poster and
set to work creating a more metaphorical meaning behind the poster.
This was because I didn’t like the way that the other film poster failed
to push the mystery forward. To further add a sense of mystery I
added higher levels of contrast because we used the same technique
within the film so I thought it would make sense to transfer that across
to the film poster.
I wanted to show the dread surrounding the younger character while
still having the psychological aspect present . I used a different
background to give a selection of colours which blended with the red. I
created a textured layer to show the audience the time period because
of the worn look. This is to present the character as worn down much
like the older character. I further used the red to associate death or
danger, which is present throughout out thriller. The red and black
mixed nicely with the yellow and the green because of the strong
contrast it created.
I made the text smaller in this version because in our improvements
for the actual opening we had to have smaller text because we
believed that it was to in our face. I thought I would apply this to our
poster because it is a similar principle. I again adapted the text to add a
the psychological aspect which I didn't’t do to the other titles because I
wanted the main film title to stand out. These posters will be both
digital and physical to inform people about our film.
The reason I zoomed in with the image is because I wanted the “Home
guard” symbol to be visible to set the time period. This would allow a
viewer to already link the poster to a genre and a time period. I further
used the zoom to cut out unnecessary space so that it doesn’t take
away from the emotion.

Who would be the audience for your media product
Age: Our audience would have been expected to be an older
generation because of the relatable time setting. However because
of the added psychological aspect to the film it attracts a much
larger younger audience ranging from teenagers up to young adults.
This may be because of the people who we informed of our film due
to it being rare that I have a friend above fifty. This may of caused
our target audience to change slightly and we should of spent more
time initially thinking about who watches these films. This is
because questionnaires on the web may not of suited the
generation we wanted to access. This means that the film managed
to keep an audience who I thought wouldn’t be as interested as the
older generation. However we have setup another questionnaire for
after the film because we wondered if our audience has changed
from an older audience to a younger one because of the originality
surrounding our film. Due to the audience being this young I believe
that the rating of the film would be fifteen because of the violence
that could be put into it. For example the drowning scene includes a
graphic representation of the water boarding used by the Japanese
in World War Two.
Race: The influence of the film on the audience when helping them
understand PTSD and the effects of war would mean that the race
of the audience would be most likely from UK. This is because they
may feel patriotic about the country and may go to see the film
because the character is apart of the British army. For example
people in England could relate to the character the most because of
the countries involvement in the war. However one could argue that
any of the allied countries maybe even the enemy could relate
because they would of all suffered similar mental issues.
Gender: Our films audience could be dominated by males
because of the action and interest in war. It is also because
World War Two saw a lot of young men thrown into battle.
These males could relate to the struggle in their own lives
and connect with the character. However women could
show the same interest.
This photo shows the
ages of the people who
to the survey (16-21
and 22-30) . This means
that the people who
took the survey were
younger than expected.
Furthermore I think we
should of paid more
attention to the gender
of our audience
because we didn’t have
a question relating to
that.
These images show the age rating picked because it would
be displayed to the audience so that this can help them
decide whether or not to watch the film. This links to the
waterboarding scene which is the reason why the the film
could be violent if continued.
Strong violence, swearing frequently, discriminatory behavior and
sexual references are all elements that are expected from a fifteen. I
think these could be present in our film because of the time zone the
flashbacks are set in and the desperate men that are shown within
these flashbacks would be doing all these things.

How did you attract and address your audience?
To draw our audience in we used a build up of guns and
explosions to signify danger before the opening shot even
commences. This anticipation creates mystery and suspense and
uses sound bridges to connect the sound to the first image. We
used the sound to create a battlefield without having to have an
actual battle taking place. This use of action to open a thriller is
used a lot in psychological thrillers and sometimes war films
because it shows the character is struggling to even sleep. This
then presents the character as weak right from the start of the
film and immediately isn’t what the audience expect. Starting
the opening with this first flashback creates action, which is
expected from a war thriller. In addition to this the use of a
flashback means that the psychological aspect is clear from the
start which was the mix of genres our audience wanted from our
serve so we delivered.
The first scene in the house is where the older character is first
introduced to our audience his opening shots raise a lot of
questions, which could be answered later on in the film
therefore keeping them gripped throughout the opening. The
use of the wide shot on the bed represents his loneliness and
isolation of the character. This mixed with the close ups allow
the audience to feel sympathy for the character. This means the
audience will care more for him as the opening goes on. This
means the audience will stay to see what happens to him
therefore creating a hook that keeps the audience gripped.
Our narrative was gripping because of the interesting idea that
this character has a continued battle that nobody knows about.
This idea is supported by the fact that no other character is
shown in the opening except his haunting. Furthermore the
narrative is original compared to other generic spy thrillers in the
market. The flashbacks provide two unique stories in one
narrative which creates an interesting film. Overall I think the use of sound, camera and edit was all used
successfully in unison to create a gripping and interesting
opening.

How did you attract and address your audience?
We used constant criticism from the internet to help with the making of this film.This is because we wanted honest and constant
feedback to further improve our film therefore allowing us to address our audiences concerns and needs. We used social media to locate
a target audience (15-25) and sent them links to both the current version of the film and the survey. This then further allowed for use to
understand what our audience wanted from the film helping us improve it. Instead of just having tick boxes we found the free type text
box useful to gain valuable information in terms of improvements because the user could then provide a full explanation instead of just
having loads of the same answer. I further promoted the survey to anyone who watched the final film to see if we had achieved our
improvements from previous drafts. We did have mixed responses, which meant that it was tricky when it came down to what to take
out or include because with such a range of feedback we were unsure how to use improvements in our opening and just had to leave it
out for example “Longer opening” wasn’t a possible goal because our film opening couldn't be more than two minutes.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
The equipment side of things were not something that I was new to as I use the
equipment in my films I make outside of school. This did give our group an advantage
because I knew how to get the shots I wanted instead if going back to class room
then being told we had to re-shoot. Furthermore the equipment we used was all
mine including the camera, reflectors and tripod. However a the problem I did still
have is that my group were used to normal tripod shots where the camera is dead
still. I noticed this in the continuity task when I wasn’t behind the camera. This was a
problem because they would often just place it on the tripod and then when it came
to moving the camera to follow a character the camera would jerk. The problem with
this is our camera movements In our older characters scenes had to be smooth so
that they contrasted the flashbacks. So, to improve from our continuity task I
decided that I would be the main camera man along with the director role. This is
because I knew my equipment the best therefore can get the best result and to
further improve our camera work we did more test shots along with using another
piece of equipment in my arsenal: the X grip. This allowed our camera to be
smoother in the shots we wanted to be free hand because we weren't holding the
camera body directly.
Another challenge I faced was that our camera movement was very dramatic
because in an actual production we would of used a crane and a dolly track to create
these dramatic shots. However we didn’t have access to these sources of equipment
therefore we had to fake it. In order to do this I had to really get creative with
camera techniques. For example for the dolly shot I had to put Mariella in a wheel
chair holding the camera while I pushed her to track Fraser. To get the shots that we
were happy with we did each shot a minimum of three times making it longer to edit
for me however did avoid a re-shoot. This was an improvement from the preliminary
task because we hardly did more than one or two takes per shot making them sloppy
and filled with bad camera work.
These are the two shots used in the film that required our
dolly shot improvisation with the wheelchair. I the film the
worked well and built up tension.

this product?
The editing was a lot longer than the preliminary task because it involved more
footage than before. I learnt that organisation was important from this because I
had to edit quickly and didn't’t have time to be going trough seventy takes to find
the one I wanted.
The editing was important to our film because it involved getting the tone across
and further was important to get the visual effects in place. To achieve this I had to
research visual effects and how the editors create the pacing of the film and the
‘war look’. I had to take these editing techniques and apply them to my editing
because it is these techniques that can make our film have the feature film feel. The
pacing was a challenge in the editing because I didn’t have the music to match the
clips to at first because we wanted the same ambiguous soundtrack as the ‘test
shots’. However we learnt that the music was important to establish a pace to the
film and I had to learn how mix the music to create this pace with the song ‘my little
sunshine’ and the ambiguous sound. This was a challenge at first because I had
never done this before but after some time it worked well and then I matched the
footage to the music.
The visual effects of the film were important in selling the damaged mind of the
soldier because this is also the climax of the film opening and was very important to
gripping the audience. However I had never used After Effects before because it
usually crashes and deletes my work but I decided to give it a shot for this film with
the muzzle flash and the explosion. I learnt that After Effects used the same basic
principles of Photoshop. This was great for me because I can use Photoshop
because I have already learnt that in my free time. This meant that I understood
how to use layers and just applied my knowledge of Photoshop to After Effects. I
used about seven layers to build up this effect because I had to create a mask for
the light to glow in, this would mean that the explosion would come from inside the
building. I further learnt about using pre keyed elements such as the fragments the
fly out of the house to give the more 3D look. I had to use my knowledge of colour
correction to change the colour of these elements and place them correctly. The
only problem I had is that for me to learn the software and create the explosion it
took seven hours- this doesn’t include the time taken to grab another shot of the
house because it was filmed from the wrong angle.
This image shows a snapshot of After Effects CS4 which
I used to create the visual effects in the film opening.
I had to also use my knowledge of key frames to make the screen shake at certain
points to make the shots stand out compared to the rest of the opening. This
image above shows one of the scenes I used them to shake the screen.

this product?
The editing was a big part of our film because we kept having to re-edit our film
because another shot would work better that we had there initially. Furthermore
it revealed holes in our narrative because the opening originally took place over a
number of days but after watching other film openings we didn’t think that this
was suitable. This is why we cut out the shots from our storyboard where the
character walks across a field because in editing it ruined the pace and didn't
make sense that he was magically outside then inside. It was this constant
critical analyses that allowed our film opening to grow and progress further
towards a feature opening.
This image of the timeline shows the constant use of sound bridges in our film
because I learnt that these are often used to link a narrative together. This was
useful because it meant that we didn't’t have to include shots of our character
walking to each destination. Instead I just overlapped the sound. The timeline
further shows the distance between titles were spread out across the opening
because I learnt that film openings often start with more titles and then they
become less frequent. I tried my best to re-create this acing because it’s the
repetition that the audience expect.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
The improvements from our preliminary task to our final product is
outstanding and shows the full progression in ambition and knowledge in the
group. Our first ever project together as a group lacked organisation and co-
operation this is because we had never worked together before and we didn’t
know each others strengths and weaknesses. However after some reflection
and group discussions we quickly established roles and went out to film the
actual continuity task. We learnt a lot form this task because we quickly
realised that our location is key because the location for our continuity task
was very limited. This was because of the narrow hallway which caused a lot
of problems when the actors had to move because the corridor restricted
them and it looked very unnatural. However by the actual film opening we
had a much larger location that our actor could move around in more freely
allowing more detailed blocking and natural movement.
The continuity in movement also improved because in the continuity task our
actor has the gun move from hand to hand making the audience become
distracted from the tension build up. The reason that this is important is
because in real life doesn't’t change it stays consistent which is why it has to on
film even with different takes. This proved challenging at first for our actor but
after I after blocking it was fine. This improved my directing capabilities because
I had to explain my ideas clearly through a detailed storyboard and animatic
because everyone on set was not an experienced film maker.
My organisation skills had to improve form the first task because I had to get
four to five people in the dame place at once, arrange transport for actors and
crew, arrange the location, get the equipment to the set and make sure that the
film was constantly being edited for the next week. This meant a lot of list
making and time keeping but eventually it all came together as seen in my
vlogs. This organisation was essential to the production of our film because of
the tight filming schedule we had over the month of shooting.
This image is from our preliminary task, which shows the problem of the
space within the corridor. This shows the improvement of character
proxemics within the space in the second picture.

In our preliminary task we tried to use close ups to show the anger
in our characters. Although we understood what a close up could
do we didn’t yet understand how to execute this professionally.
This meant that it lacked style and cut off the actors head at the top
create an uneven space between the top and the bottom. This
means that the neck of the character is more visible than the
characters face. The reason this is a problem because it stops the
characters face becoming the center of the frame and distracts the
audience from the story. This had to be improved by the final
product because although in the close ups in the actual film
opening we still cut off his head it was to create drama so that the
audience focus on his face. In addition to this we cut off both the
top and the bottom creating an even frame within the composition.
We improved our framing by the final product because we kept our
focus on the shot before we hit record and while recording because
in our preliminary task I didn’t feel that our focus was on the
camera work as much as it should have been.
This combined with the improved editing of the colour correction
and blur made a much needed improvement to the film. This is
because our colour correction in the preliminary task didn't’t
provide the depth required to engage the audience . I learnt that
the colour correction is just the beginning when trying to get the
look of a feature film. The difference between the two images in
terms of colours is incredible because I did a lot of experimenting
with elements such as ‘blur’ and ‘masks’ that allowed our colours to
progress and provide depth.
Furthermore the location in the background provided much more
depth compared to the blank walls in the first ever project, which
really look dull and scream “STUDENT FILM!” which is not what you
want when you are making the opening to a feature. The reason I
learnt this is because I noticed in features that they have interesting
shapes and props in the mise en scene to create a background and
further pushes the narrative.
The images show the difference in the framing and editing between the
preliminary task and the final media product.

The improvement to the actual titles was great because when we
first started looking at typography we didn’t want he text to just
looked slapped on. Instead we wanted the film to have text which
had more thought into it. Firstly the text in both out preliminary
tasks didn’t for the bill because they were just slapped onto the
scene, however by the final product we wanted a typewriter text to
be typed on. This proved to be too much of a challenge because it
distracted our audience from the film it self because it took so long
to actually get typed on screen.
To avoid the text being “slapped on” I used the same effect that I
did on the final title on all the other titles. This meant that they still
moved however I could fade them in and out quickly without it
taking control of the scene. They first time I did it I had the text to
big and it still took away from the film and it lacked constancy. In
order to improve this I decreased the text size and placed them
consistently in the bottom left corner. This meant that the audience
knew where the text is if they wanted to read it but it won’t distract
them from the sequence. I leant loads about typography from this.
Furthermore we went through various colours of the text from
yellow in the original edit to green then white. The reason for these
improvements is because we learnt about our titles presence on
the screen. This was because in our research we focused too much
on the effects used to make the text be apart of the film and not
enough on text size and colours. This meant that we had to do extra
research while editing the film because otherwise the text would
have been too bold in colour and size. Furthermore the positioning
was not consistent because in the films we watched (like seven) the
text varied however we decided that it would be better to stick to
the bottom left. This meant that the consistency and repetition of
the typography made it easier to watch because the audience could
follow the typography easily without it being thrown in their face.
The first image shows the text in its boldest form because the green was used in this
image. In addition the image shows the way that the text originally was in the top right.
This is what I meant when I say “thrown in their face’. However by the end product the
text had moved to the bottom left with less green.

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