Audience Feedback;

After i have finished my final piece i thought it would be worthwhile asking a few of my friends to come and view my film and then give me some feedback on what they thought was good and back about it. The reason for me asking a group of my friends was that they are of the correct age group that we are targeting, rather than choosing a group of people who wouldn't be interested at all.

One of the most common things that came up as being a positive about the production was how good the use of different camera shots were along with the acting. They said that the wide range of camera angles made the film more interesting and made them want to watch the whole film rather than just using a few shots which would have made it extremely boring to watch. Also, everyone said they really liked the choice of music as it really fitted with the film.

Someone said that the camera should of been steadier thoughout the production. However, we did this this to make it look as if someone was following 'Rose' rather than just having someone standing around filming her, but this may be something we consider changing next time. One thing we would definatley do if we were to shot the film again would be to put the music on a loop so that it cuts out the lyrics as someone said that it didn't fit the film and this is an issue that can be easily solved!

All of the above audience feedback is very useful as i will then be able to look through the film again and pick out the things that i would change if i was to shot it again. Also, it will be very helpful towards the next production that i shot as i will have these things in mind making it better and better each time. This was a very worthwhile thing to do as it helped me get the views of our 'target audience'.

Evaluation

To start with, I took the time to have a look at different types of horror/thriller film openings. This helped me to get a basic idea of what needed to be included to make it successful. Also allowing me to see what looked good/bad so I was then able to see what I may be able to use in my own production. While watching these openings there were a number of different things that we looked out for that we may have been able to incorporate into our production. The main 5 things that we looked out for were the shots that were used to create a certain mood/atmosphere, lighting, dialogue, music and the mise-on-scene. Looking at all of these features helped us to gather an idea of what we needed to add to our production to create the horror sense that we wanted to portray to our target audience.

We chose to do a horror/thriller based film as a group was for a number of different reasons. We thought that we could produce a good quality film using the budget and equipment which we had. There were also reasons for us not choosing the other genres such as comedy. Our main reason for not choosing this is due to the fact that we watched a range of different film openings we realised that it would be extremely hard to produce a good quality comedy with a low budget and to also produce a comedy that appeals to everyone due to humour being subjective. Another genre that we considered for our film was a chick flick/romance. However, this idea was pretty much disregarded straight away due to no males wanting to act in our film. Our main reason for consider this genre was because there are a large range of films that we could of studied to create a good production.

Once we had decided to produce a film with the horror/thriller genre we then took the time to watch more film openings related to this genre. Examples of the films that we watched as a group were Trainspotting, Lost and Slumdog Millionaire. After doing so we found a range of different shots that worked well and then thought that we could try and use ourselves within our production. I think that we created some of the shots as well as we would have been able to, for example the flashback shots that were meant to be set in a club, we filmed in the drama studio so that we got the same effect with the dark background and bright lighting.

This was the best idea that we came up with for making the scene look as realistic as possible without actually going to a club. Some of the shots took a lot of practice to get how we wanted but this paid of in the end as we were left with a lot of good footage that we were then able to cut and edit as much as we needed to make it as good as we possibly could. Also, watching all of the film openings helped us to choose the woods for the main setting of our film. Lost was the film opening that gave us the most inspiration and encouraged us to use the woods as our setting as they had managed to use it very well and created a good sense of confused and wonder which was along the same lines as what we wanted to do. This worked out to be a good setting for the type of film we had chosen to shot as it helped to create an eerie atmosphere. However, wasn't such a good set when it came to shooting as we had to delay a lot of our filming due to the weather being against us.

The social groups that are represented within our film our young adults ranging from around 18-20. Our film is based around a young girl who comes from a wealthy family who think that drinking/socialising isn’t a good idea and school work is much more important.

The way in which we have tried to represent this is by the clothes that we put our actress in we decided that she should be in party clothes as the flash back scenes within the film show the party from the night before. This helps to create a sense of curiosity as to why she has woken up in the woods in these clothes but then as the film carries on the story unrolls. Roland Barthes’ narrative theory and the concept of the Hermeneutic Code are what make the viewers start to think about how this young girl could have ended up in the woods alone. The fact that the young girl is in the clothes from the night before makes the viewers immediately start thinking about how she could of ended up there, what she was doing to end up there/what happened the night before etc. The way in which we could of improved her look would have been to smudge all of her make up to make it look more realistic due to the fact that her tights are ripped but her hair and makeup is all still perfectly neat. We represented the age by using an actress who is around the same age as the people we are targeting. She is wearing clothes that would be worn on a night out in town or to a party rather than jeans, hair is straightened and looks tidy to follow the whole look through and her makeup looks as if it had taken a while to do and as if she had been out some where nice. She takes advantage of being at a party as her parents don’t allow her to do so. These are the ways in which we represented the fact that she was from a high class family.

She has been represented negatively because she has gone against her parents and has ended up in a bad situation after her drink ends up getting drugged at the party and then she ends up in the woods but no-one knows how she got there. Also, this represents the whole age group quite negatively because they should have looked after their friend and at least made sure that they got home safe when they got in such a state after drinking to much/getting her drink drugged. The typical stereo-types are that people who are represented negatively by taking drugs being a yob etc are normally shown to be wearing clothes such as hoodie’s.

To find out the information about which media institution might distribute the media product that we are producing we had to look at which film companies that distribute films similar to ours. The main distributor that I have found was Alfa films, the main reason for this was that they distribute films such as Halloween and the Grudge 2 which are both films that have a similar genre to ours.

I also took the time to research a number of other films so that I then had a wider range of distribution companies that dealt with films of the same genre. The first film was ‘The Hole’ this was directed by Nick Hamm in 2001. This film is distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. Another film that I researched was ‘The Descent’ that was produced in 2005 it was written and produced by a man called Neil Marshall. The film is distributed by Pathé movie company. The last film that I looked at was ‘Tormented’. This was produced in 2009 starring many well known actors and actresses. Tormented is produced by BBC Films, Pathé, Slingshot Studios, Forward Films and Screen West Midlands.

After doing this research I was then able to look further into some of these distribution companies. All of the companies that I have researched would be able to distribute my production due to the fact that they distribute films with a similar genre and target audience to our production.

The film that we have created will appeal to both male and females of our target age group as they may be able to relate to the story line of a young girl going out in town, getting her drink drugged and then ending up the woods with no idea of how she got there. However, due to the fact that the film that we have produced has a moral tone, this may widen our target audience and mean that people we didn’t think would want to watch it actually do want to.

The most likely certificate that our film is going to be given is a 15, so this means that we are going to have viewers from the ages of 15 upwards going to watch our film. The age range that our film will appeal to is from around 15-20 who have an interest in horror/thriller films. The main reason for this is because it is the ages that are most common for people going out, getting drunk and ending up doing stupid things.

The people who will want to watch our film will most likely of watched films such as Lost, This is England and Fish Tank. All of these films are of the similar genre to the production that we have created. This is England has a certificate of 18 meaning that their target audience ranges from 18 upwards, due to the story line their target audience is different to ours because it is includes fighting, prison etc, whereas our production is about a young girl in town.

The main way that we tried to attract this target audience is by using actors/actresses of the same age so that they are able to relate to the issues within our production. Also, we chose to set part of our film in a night club which is where a lot of young adults tend to hang around when socialising. Another thing we did to try and make our film appeal to the correct target audience is add songs into our film that people of this age would listen too rather than adding something that they wouldn't have even heard of. To some of the shots within the film, we added a blurred affect to show that Sophie’s drink has been drugged and taken affect. Some people may be able to relate to this if this has ever happened to them while they were on a night out.

The first thing that I learnt how to do was to produce a detailed enough story board which enabled me to have a good idea of what shots would look good together and then go out and produce a digital story board of the shots in which we planned to use within our production. This then meant that we had a better idea as a group of what we were going to film at what point. This saved us a lot of time on the day of filming because we already knew what shots we had to film. Also, once we had made a digital story board we tried out some practice shots such as the over the shoulder shot. We practiced this shot so that we could see how the shot should be framed e.g. whether it should have the shoulder of the person following her in the shot of whether it should just be her running. This helped us on our day of filming as we had already made a lot of decisions that we would have had to think about when we were out filming. If I was to do this task again I would chose a different set to shoot our production. We chose to set our film in the woods as we thought that this would help us to create a good mood/atmosphere, which it did! However, it also caused us a lot of problems due to the fact that the weather was against us on most days that we planned to go out and film. This meant that it put our shooting schedule back each time and gave us less time to edit our production. So if I was to do this task again rather than choosing to shot outside I would chose somewhere in doors that would mean I would be able to shoot whenever I plan too and wouldn’t have to worry about weather conditions etc. The lighting caused a bit of an issue while filming because we chose to shot at different times of day to fit into everyone’s schedule which meant that the lighting was different and didn’t fit in with our production as we wanted it to look like early morning. This was another problem with shooting in an outdoor location. When we got to the location that we had chosen to film in on our first day of filming, we realised that the ground was not flat enough to be able to use a tripod. This meant that we had to improvise, which meant that all of our skills were developing at all times.

I have learnt how to use iMovie to a better standard due to the fact that all of the editing for our film had to be done on this programme. Within this programme I have learnt how to import films, watch the clips and then put the film together including adding credits, sound and transitions. In our film we used ‘wash in’ and ‘wash out’ transitions to help show the viewers that there is a change of scene. It took a few times to work out that the effect needed to be added before the clip that you wanted it to come before, rather than dropping it on the clip. After this was in the correct place, I had then had to work out how long the transitions should be, we had to edit this a few times until we were happy with the length, so that they showed definition between the scenes in the woods and the flash back scenes from the night before. Another thing that I learnt how to do was to add music to our production, to add one piece of music was easy but then we decided that we needed to add another piece of music for the scenes within the club. This is what then caused problems as it meant that all the music we had originally inputted was then all pushed back meaning it all had to be put back into place as well as putting the new music into the correct places so that it played in the correct scenes in the film.

I have also learnt how to use video cameras properly which has lead to a higher quality of filming being produced. This also meant that I was able to access the different features within the camera and was able to look back at footage that we had already filmed to see what it looked like and if it needed to be re-shot etc. Once we had shot for the first time we loaded our work onto the computer to watch back the work. After watching back out work we realised that we needed to reshoot a large amount of the shots that we had shot on our first day of filming. This meant that on our next day of filming we had to be ready to film the shots we needed to re shoot. To make sure that this was successful we wrote a list of the shots we needed to reshoot before we went out filming. Some examples of the shots that we needed to reshoot/add into our production were close ups of Sophie (Rose Kensington) and the finishing shot of Sophie falling over. We had to reshoot this shot to make it look more realistic.

The main thing that I have learnt from my preliminary exercise was to get good actors in your film. This is a very important factor because if the actors/actresses don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera they aren’t going to perform as well as someone who enjoys it. This is why we used a drama student from our school in our foundation production rather than just people in our group who didn’t mind being in the film. Also, we used a different setting rather than just filming around school. This allowed us to be able to set the scene better and meant that we didn’t have to keep stopping and starting filming when people needed to get past etc. We chose to film in the woods to help create the sense of curiosity that we wanted to portray to our viewers. There were a number of advantages for us choosing to shot in the woods. One of them was that we didn’t have to check if it was free, like we did when shooting at school. Also, it is already quite with not many people around so we didn’t have to keep asking people to be quite and wait until people walked past before we carried on filming. The bad things about us choosing to shot in the woods were that the weather was against us a lot of the time meaning that we were unable to shot on some of the days that we planned to shot. When shooting the flash back scenes for our film we decided to shot in the drama studio at school. We chose to shot here as it was the most realistic place we could find that would look like a club without visiting an actual club. This was a good place to film because when the doors where shut no body would come in so we were able to get all of our shots done in one go rather than having to keep stopping and starting.

We have had to change a range of different things to do with our film for many reasons. The first thing that we had to change was some of the shots that we planned to shoot as once we practiced a few of the shots we realised that they didn’t look very good and so then had to rethink how we were going to perform these shots. An example of this was the over the shoulder shot that we planned to do while Sophie (Rose Kensington) was running around from the person who was following her. The reason we had to change our ideas were that it was far to difficult to try and keep the person who was following her shoulder in the shot in the same position at all times, so we decided it would look better if we took it out and just had Sophie running away with her looking back to see who/what was behind her. Also, we had to change the music that we had planned to use within our product because after creating a first cut of our film and adding in the music we realised that it didn’t really suit the product that we had created. We looked at a range of different songs that we thought would work with out production, but after playing them with our film we realised that they didn’t fit. One song that we were going to use was Change by Daniel Merriweather, we thought that this would work well as it was quite upbeat. However, when we played it at the same time as our production we found that it was too upbeat and that he starts singing to early in the song. This meant that we had to continue looking for songs that would work well. Eventually, we can to the decision that we were going to use Kings of Leon’s track – Closer for the main part of our production when Sophie (Rose) was in the woods and then for the flash back scenes we decided to use Warrior’s Dance by Prodigy.

I think that the skill I have developed the most is being able to personally develop ideas quickly due to things not going to plan e.g. shots we had planned to film not working as a result of a lack of money, standard equipment and bad weather conditions. Although we took the time to do some practice shots before we went out to film our production we weren’t able to do enough to see if all of the shots would work, meaning that once we reached our chosen set a lot of the shots didn’t work that well and some of the shots we planned to do, such as; filming Sophie running past the camera from all different angles, one of these being from up a tree, we realised that this wasn’t going to work and that the trees weren’t in the correct position for this shot to look realistic and work as well as we planned.

Getting feedback on our productions from our peers helped whether it was positive or negative. This meant we were able to change anything to do with our film that needed changing. This included things such as the transition between flashbacks sound be made longer and because we were told this before we handed in the final cut of our production we were able to edit this to make it better.

Examples of positive feedback that we received were;

* The P.O.V shots that were used were very effective and worked well.
* Music helped to make the film flow.
* Good effects, sound and acting within the film.
* Good music, continuity, edits and story.
* Really good camera shots and acting.
* Good choice of music, contrast with flash backs and good combination with filming.

Once we had this feedback, we looked through it to see what people liked about our production. Feedback such as good effects made us think that we should try and use some more effects throughout our production, which is what we did especially in the flash back scenes to make them look as real as possible. Also, people said that there was good acting in our film, we were happy with this feedback as the actress that we used in our production was an A Level drama student.

However, we also received negative feedback;

* Transitions need to be longer between flash backs.
* Need to add in another close up before the second last shot to last flash back of her face.
* Music should stop when Sophie is running away.
* Close ups need to be re-done.
* More distressed central character! - Smeared makeup etc.
* Needs steadier camera.
* Should have more people in the party scene.
* Slipping the drug into the drink could be more realistic.
* More diagetic sound and suspense needed.
* Not sure if the music with lyrics helps to tell the story or a distraction. Reminds me of a music video more than a film opening.

Although we received more negative than positive feedback, we turned this into a positive for ourselves. We looked at the feedback closing and discussed as a group what we could do to improve this feedback. For example, someone said that the music should stop when Sophie is running away, so we listened to what they said and stopped the music to see if it would look better. However, we didn’t think it did so we decided to just make the music fade out rather than stopping completely. Also, when someone said that the close ups need to be re-done, we decided as a group when the best time to do this would be, and all set a day in which we could go out and film these shots to make the film look the best it could.

Final Cut of Blackout

Feedback

After creating a first draft of our film, we all took the time to give each other feedback on the productions that we all took the time to produce. This allowed us to see what people thought was good and bad about our productions and still gave us time to improve anything that our peers thought needed to be improved.
The positive feedback that we received as a group included;
* The P.O.V shots that were used were very effective and worked well.
* Music helped to make the film flow.
* Good effects, sound and acting within the film.
* Good music, continuity, edits and story.
* Really good camera shots and acting.
* Good choice of music, contrast with flash backs and good combination with filming.

We also received negative feedback, which was a good thing for us as a good as we were able to work on these things and improve them;
* Transitions need to be longer between flash backs.
* Need to add in another close up before the second last shot to last flash back of her face.
* Music should stop when Sophie is running away.
* Close ups need to be re-done.
* More distressed central character! - Smeared makeup etc.
* Needs steadier camera.
* Should have more people in the party scene.
* Slipping the drug into the drink could be more realistic.
* More diagetic sound and suspense needed.
* Not sure if the music with lyrics helps to tell the story or a distraction. Reminds me of a music video more than a film opening.

Above you can see the feedback that we received as a group for the first draft of out film from out peers. Although more of the feedback was negative this was good in a way as it gave us more things to focus on, and allowed us to work on things that needed to be changed.
Alot of the things that our peers criticised us on we were able to fix e.g. adding more close ups into the product and making the transitions into the flashbacks longer. This took us no time at all and was easy for us to do.
However, some of the feedback wasn't as easy for us to correct. The point that i am referring to here is 'there should of been more people in the rave scene'. This was hard for us to rectify due to the lack of people who wanted to act in our film.
The only issue with the feedback that we were given was that it is subjective meaning that everybody has their own personal opinions/views. This meant that some people thought parts of the film were good, but on the other hand some people thought something needed to be taken away/added to it.

Re-Shooting

After looking through the shots that we had filmed and getting some feedback from our peers, we then had to set a date to go out and film the rest of the shots that we need to. We tried to use time within half term to the best of our ability. However, the weather was against us.
Wednesday 17th; On Wednesday 17th, we planned to go out and re-shoot the shots within our production that didn't work. When this day came around, the weather was against us meaning that we unable to re-shoot. Meaning that this is a major drawback for choosing to use an outdoor setting. However, this was the best setting we could of used to create the best atmosphere.
After looking at the weather forecast we decided to delay the filming for a few days until the weather clears up allowing us to film the shots we needed to complete our production.
Thursday 18th;
This was the next day that we were planning to re-shoot. However, the weather was bad again meaning that we were unable to get out and film the shots that we needed.
This set us back another day, which has further delayed the completion of our film.
Tuesday 23rd;
Finally the weather was good enough for us to be able to go out and film the last few shots we needed to complete our production.
As well as being able to complete the shots we needed, we also took the time to take a few extra shots that we thought would be useful when putting together our film.
When we got into school on Wednesday this meant we were able to upload the new shots that we had taken the day before and then start editing them into the final cut of our production. Once we had shot the final shots that we needed, we were able to get on with the final cut of our film and make it to a standard that we are proud of.

E-Mail to XL Records

This is a copy of the e-mail that i have sent to XL Records to ask them about permission to use their song in my media production;

E-Mail to Sony Music

This is a copy of the e-mail that i sent to Sony Music Records to ask them for permission to use Kings of Leon's song, Closer in our production.

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to ask if i would be able to use Kings Of Leon's track Closer in a media project that i am doing at school. This track would be used for educational purposes only and will be completely non-profitable.
Yours sincerly,
Becky Morrish