Note to Moderator

Dear Moderator,

My brief for this project was to create a opening scene to a feature film that did not exceed a maximum time of 2 minutes. My film is titled 'Retribution'. I worked in a group with Lyle Dagleish.

 Please feel free to navigate through my blog using my labels.

Many Thanks.

James Merry - Candidate Number: 9136
Edgbarrow School - Centre Number: 51111

Final Product

Evaluation Question 1

Here is what I first thought were the codes and conventions of a film opening. 

Codes and Conventions of a film opening

· In a film opening, you need to capture the audience’s attention while managing to leave them waiting for more so they want to watch the film.

· The opening also has to lay down a basic storyline for the film and introduce a Protagonist/Antagonist that will feature throughout.

· It needs to establish location.

· It must include key credits such as the production company, director and usually a key event will take place, and also include a title sequence.

· It is mostly made up of non-diegetic sound.

· There is sometimes narration over the top of it.

· There are not many things happening and focuses on one thing. Otherwise this can make it seem like a short film or trailer.

· It reveals the genre.

· The opening to the film will also vary to the films genre. For example, if it is a comedy there is likely to be something that will try and make you laugh in the opening.

· There may be a flashback which is a common way in which some films start.

· The opening will also mostly be made up of long takes instead of short takes as this would increase the pace and lacks an idea of something that the audience can focus on. It also makes it easier for the audience to follow so that they don’t get confused or bored early on otherwise they may not want to watch the rest of the film.

I have created a 9 shot and analysed each frame explaining how I have challenged and/or followed codes and conventions of a film opening at each part.

I have also created a 9 shot of a RMA (Silence of The Lambs) and analysed techniques used in these shots and then compared them to my 9 shot.

Evaluation Question 2



Evaluation Question 3

For question 3 I created a mini website and posted my evaluation on this link below:
http://lylemd.wix.com/retribution

Evaluation Question 4&5

http://prezi.com/embed/7fpyahe3wy3m/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

Evaluation Question 6

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

During the process of making this film opening we have learnt to use many different technologies to help us get the best possible end product.

We have used a Sony HVR-HD1000 camera to film our film opening. We had to learn how to record our film and had to learn how to focus, zoom and how to turn the camera into night mode so we could film certain parts of the film opening in night vision to make it look like we were filming in the middle of the night. This benefitted our product as we were able to film in HD which means you can see much sharper detail and finer image quality when the product is being viewed on the screen, which also makes it seem up to industry standard.

We also had to learn how to use final cut pro as that was the software we used to place and edit our film opening on. We had to learn how to put the footage on the software. In addition we had to learn how to put all the footage together so the film opening made sense. We also had to learn how to cut certain parts out of the clip as we only had certain time limit to the film opening, so we filmed to much film to make sure we had the exact amount and that all the clips that we kept were the best parts that we had filmed. Furthermore we experimented with video filters and adjusted the sound levels of different audio tracks. This benefited the product as this is a professional software that is used in the real media industry and it helped us produce a product of a high standard to fit alongside our coursework criteria. 

Another technology that was new and we had to learn was motion. Motion is the software that we used to make our credits for the film opening. We had to learn how to make the credit and how to add certain behaviors to the text to make the text do certain things like fade in or smoke in. We used the behavior smoke in for the credits as both of us liked that effect and it matched our genre very well. This benefitted the product very well as we were able to add credits and titles to the scene which made the clip look more like an actual opening to a film. In addition, I think we used the right amount of credits to make it seem realistic when compared to other RMAs. 

Wix.com is a webpage creator which we used for our  draft Evaluation Q2-3 and final evaluation question 3. We had to learn how to create the actual homepage for the webpage and had to learn how to add all the different parts of the webpage that we were going to use on the site. We managed to add a selection of images, text and add our own video. We also adjusted the appearance of each page by choosing the layout and background image. This benefitted the product as were able to make it look like that we're a real company and experiment with a variety of technologies to help  us make our final product look how we want it be at the final stage.



Furthermore I have also used a programme called Garage band. It is a sound editing software which you can record either real instruments or electronically generated sounds onto it. It also has a large music library of special effects and music that are copyright free which I looked through and even used on of the sounds in my final product. This benefitted the product as were able to make our own sounds to add to the product like doorbells and openings of doors to make seem very realistic and add to verisimilitude.



Continuing on I have also used YouTube to upload versions of storyboards, drafts and final products so that I can embed them on my blog page. I put them up so they were unlisted which meant that they weren't public and could only be viewed if the link had been shared with them. This benefitted the product as we are able to post the product on YouTube so people could take a look at our film opening and by doing this we could gain feedback from viewers and possibly help us to improve our product. Furthermore, this helped us as it made our product look more professional as majority of feature films that work with YouTube post snippets/clips onto the internet wetting the appetite of audiences.

In addition I briefly used Microsoft excel and word to produce a pie chart and word documents that I have then posted onto Blogger. Blogger is the website I have been using to create a blog in which my moderator can use for marking and easily access different sections through the labeling function. This benefitted the product in the pre-production stages as we were able to produce there high quality bar charts and pie charts when gathering audience research on what type of music best suits the genre of the product. This also helped us iron out issues with our product in the pre-production stage rather than making changes later on.

                                                                              

Evaluation Question 7

Draft Evaluation Question 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZPU2ZmXz4

Draft Evaluation Question 6

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

During the process of making this film opening we have learnt to use many different technologies to help us get the best possible end product.

We have used a Sony HVR-HD1000 camera to film our film opening. We had to learn how to record our film and had to learn how to focus, zoom and how to turn the camera into night mode so we could film certain parts of the film opening in night vision to make it look like we were filming in the middle of the night. This benefitted our product as we were able to film in HD which means you can see much sharper detail and finer image quality when the product is being viewed on the screen, which also makes it seem up to industry standard.

We also had to learn how to use final cut pro as that was the software we used to place and edit our film opening on. We had to learn how to put the footage on the software. In addition we had to learn how to put all the footage together so the film opening made sense. We also had to learn how to cut certain parts out of the clip as we only had certain time limit to the film opening, so we filmed to much film to make sure we had the exact amount and that all the clips that we kept were the best parts that we had filmed. Furthermore we experimented with video filters and adjusted the sound levels of different audio tracks. This benefited the product as this is a professional software that is used in the real media industry and it helped us produce a product of a high standard to fit alongside our coursework criteria. 

Another technology that was new and we had to learn was motion. Motion is the software that we used to make our credits for the film opening. We had to learn how to make the credit and how to add certain behaviors to the text to make the text do certain things like fade in or smoke in. We used the behavior smoke in for the credits as both of us liked that effect and it matched our genre very well. This benefitted the product very well as we were able to add credits and titles to the scene which made the clip look more like an actual opening to a film. In addition, I think we used the right amount of credits to make it seem realistic when compared to other RMAs. 

Wix.com is a webpage creator which we used for our  draft Evaluation Q2-3 and final evaluation question 3. We had to learn how to create the actual homepage for the webpage and had to learn how to add all the different parts of the webpage that we were going to use on the site. We managed to add a selection of images, text and add our own video. We also adjusted the appearance of each page by choosing the layout and background image. This benefitted the product as were able to make it look like that we're a real company and experiment with a variety of technologies to help  us make our final product look how we want it be at the final stage.



Furthermore I have also used a programme called Garage band. It is a sound editing software which you can record either real instruments or electronically generated sounds onto it. It also has a large music library of special effects and music that are copyright free which I looked through and even used on of the sounds in my final product. This benefitted the product as were able to make our own sounds to add to the product like doorbells and openings of doors to make seem very realistic and add to verisimilitude.



Continuing on I have also used YouTube to upload versions of storyboards, drafts and final products so that I can embed them on my blog page. I put them up so they were unlisted which meant that they weren't public and could only be viewed if the link had been shared with them. This benefitted the product as we are able to post the product on YouTube so people could take a look at our film opening and by doing this we could gain feedback from viewers and possibly help us to improve our product. Furthermore, this helped us as it made our product look more professional as majority of feature films that work with YouTube post snippets/clips onto the internet wetting the appetite of audiences.
 

In addition I briefly used Microsoft excel and word to produce a pie chart and word documents that I have then posted onto Blogger. Blogger is the website I have been using to create a blog in which my moderator can use for marking and easily access different sections through the labeling function. This benefitted the product in the pre-production stages as we were able to produce there high quality bar charts and pie charts when gathering audience research on what type of music best suits the genre of the product. This also helped us iron out issues with our product in the pre-production stage rather than making changes later on.

                                                                              

Draft Evaluation 4&5

http://prezi.com/embed/7fpyahe3wy3m/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

Draft Evaluation Question 2 & 3

Lyle and I have created a website through a free website called wix.com.
Here is the link to these evaluation questions - http://lylemd.wix.com/retribution

Draft Evaluation Question 1

Here is what I first thought were the codes and conventions of a film opening. 

Codes and Conventions of a film opening

·         In a film opening, you need to capture the audience’s attention while managing to leave them waiting for more so they want to watch the film.

·         The opening also has to lay down a basic storyline for the film and introduce a Protagonist/Antagonist that will feature throughout.

·         It needs to establish location.

·         It must include key credits such as the production company, director and usually a key event will take place, and also include a title sequence.

·         It is mostly made up of non-diegetic sound.

·         There is sometimes narration over the top of it.

·         There are not many things happening and focuses on one thing. Otherwise this can make it seem like a short film or trailer.

·         It reveals the genre.

·         The opening to the film will also vary to the films genre. For example, if it is a comedy there is likely to be something that will try and make you laugh in the opening.

·         There may be a flashback which is a common way in which some films start.

·         The opening will also mostly be made up of long takes instead of short takes as this would increase the pace and lacks an idea of something that the audience can focus on. It also makes it easier for the audience to follow so that they don’t get confused or bored early on otherwise they may not want to watch the rest of the film.

Final product 5

Final product 4

Draft 4&5

http://prezi.com/embed/7fpyahe3wy3m/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

Blogger update

Today lyle and I stayed after school and updated our evaluation we still have to do more but we have made the small changes

Mrs dobbs feedback post

1- check 'cogs the gun'. Good sense of purpose of a film opening with some good analysis. It would benefit from a direct comparison to an RMA - 9 frames could be used for this too. Purpose and c and cs could be linked further and more ref to genre. Good draft.

2 and 3 - text is difficult to read. I'm confused why you have joined these in a website - it seems strange. Question 2 isn't really rep of social groups. It's related slightly when you mention class but very underdeveloped with lots of unrelated points.

3 - check capital i. Text heavy. Good use of stats. What about 'other' methods of distribution after cinema?

4 and 5 - basic and brief. Look at ocr weebly and other question 4 and 5s to help add detail.

6 - bit vague. Descriptive. Identify what you have learnt and how this benefitted the product.

7 - good attempt at a 'different' ict method. However you don't really answer the question. You only mention 2 things that you have learnt, 'use a tripod' and include a 'variety of shots'. Mostly analysis that would fit question 1. You must answer the question. Again use other egs to help you.

This feeback helped us out very much as we know what we have to do to make sure we get the best possible grade but overall we are very happy with this feeback.

Blogger update

Due to my illness before and over the half term our teacher has given my group a slight extension on when our evalution has to be done by, but i can say that lyle and I have been working very hard to meet that deadline as we have been doing many drafts and hopefully today we should have the evaluation done

Draft Evaluation 2

Lyle and 1  have created a website through a free website called wix.com.
Here is the link to these evaluation questions - http://lylemd.wix.com/retribution

Draft Evaluation Question 3

Distribution is extremely important within British film. New technologies means that films can now be digitally distributed into cinemas either using fibre optic cables, satellite or portable hard drive. It has got much easier for film distributers over the years but there is still quite a lot of pressure on them. When looking for our film distributer, we had to look for a company/subsidiary in which we can trust, we looked for good reviews and recommendations from other independent companies who have been through the same processes. Its much harder for independent film companies to find distributers as the process takes a very long time. Compared to Hollywood production companies who already have a distributer in place before production even begins, independent film companies have to find their distributers once finished the film. There are many problems with distribution like piracy, which is extremely dangerous for independent film companies as they make most of their money from ancillary sales. Luckily new technology is being made like Blu-ray which has encryption codes to stop piracy. 

The distribution process is very important, depending on whether you distribute your film correctly can determine the amount of people come and watch your film. The aim of distribution is to send it to as many people as possible, the more contacts you have the better, because the more cinemas that screen your film the more money you make. Its good to contact a well known independent film distributer because they may have contacts worldwide, this is better because this means your film won't only be played in the UK but hopefully it could be played all around the world; instantly increasing a companies revenue.

Having taken all these points into consideration we discussed the different ways of distributing our product and what suited our moving image piece best. As a group we felt that we should be aiming more towards the Independent production companies as we are aware these companies produce very low budget films just like our own. Apart from the Sony camera we borrowed from school everything from the props/costumes to the filming locations were all of a very low budget. The reason for this being we didn't have a lot of money to spend on props etc, because we were aiming our film more towards the independent institutions and we know full well that they only produce low budget films. The institutions that we had in mind were Film 4 and momentum pictures, we felt that these companies would suit our product best and they would be more than happy to sell and distribute our product. If we went to a high budget institution and granted them to take our product then I feel that would have been a waste of time as our product doesn't resemble the institution at all; we have a low budget film, therefore, we aim towards the low budget institutions. 

I chose Film 4 because it is a very well known distribution company. Having researched in great depth about them, I feel that they are the perfect distributers for our product. Film 4 are very much with it, in terms of the latest technology. Film 4 has an app out on the App store, this means that you can download 4oD and watch movies and tv programmes whenever you want via your iPad, iPhone or Mac! This would be a great way for us to increase our revenue because every time someone watches our film on the app we get more money. Film 4 is also shown Sky, Virgin and Freeview. Companies like these get millions and millions of viewers each day, this would be a great way for us to gain publicity and to hopefully produce a greater audience!

Film 4 also hold an annual summer film festival, this is where the latest British independent films are shown in front of huge numbers of film fanatics.  This is also an excellent way to market our film, as friends would then tell friends and we would create a huge fan base just through this one festival. We would also have the opportunity to win an award at the festival which then means if we won, our film would be promoted everywhere, which would persuade more people to come and watch our film.  Film critics are also based at festivals, they are there to review all the different types of films; they then publish their reviews on their website and Film 4's.  

Overall, I think their are many benefits in trying to make Film 4 our distributers and I believe they can do a brilliant job in broadening our fan base and increasing a larger audience.

Draft Evaluation Question 1

Here is what I first thought were the codes and conventions of a film opening.

Codes and Conventions of a film opening

· In a film opening, you need to capture the audience’s attention while managing to leave them waiting for more so they want to watch the film.

· The opening also has to lay down a basic storyline for the film and introduce a Protagonist/Antagonist that will feature throughout.

· It needs to establish location.

· It must include key credits such as the production company, director and usually a key event will take place, and also include a title sequence.

· It is mostly made up of non-diegetic sound.

· There is sometimes narration over the top of it.

· There are not many things happening and focuses on one thing. Otherwise this can make it seem like a short film or trailer.

· It reveals the genre.

· The opening to the film will also vary to the films genre. For example, if it is a comedy there is likely to be something that will try and make you laugh in the opening.

· There may be a flashback which is a common way in which some films start.

· The opening will also mostly be made up of long takes instead of short takes as this would increase the pace and lacks an idea of something that the audience can focus on. It also makes it easier for the audience to follow so that they don’t get confused or bored early on otherwise they may not want to watch the rest of the film.

Lyle and I have created a 9 shot and analysed each frame explaining how I have challenged and/or followed codes and conventions of a film opening at each part.

Mrs D

James - is your evaluation the same as Lyle's? If yes - please look at the feedback on his blog. If no - I am very concerned that your evaluation draft is incomplete.

Evaluation Question 6

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


During the process of making this film opening we have learnt to use many different technologies to help us get the best possible end product.


We have used a Sony HVR-HD1000 camera to film our film opening. We had to learn how to record our film and had to learn how to focus, zoom and how to turn the camera into night mode so we could film certain parts of the film opening in night vision to make it look like we were filming in the middle of the night.

We also had to learn how to use final cut pro as that was the software we used to place and edit our film opening on. We had to learn how to put the footage on the software. In addition we had to learn how to put all the footage together so the film opening made sense. We also had to learn how to cut certain parts out of the clip as we only had certain time limit to the film opening, so we filmed to much film to make sure we had the exact amount and that all the clips that we kept were the best parts that we had filmed. Furthermore we experimented with video filters and adjusted the sound levels of different audio tracks.

Another technology that was new and we had to learn was motion. Motion is the software that we used to make our credits for the film opening. We had to learn how to make the credit and how to add certain behaviors to the text to make the text do certain things like fade in or smoke in. We used the behavior smoke in for the credits as both of us liked that effect and it matched our genre very well.

Wix.com is a webpage creator which we used for our Evaluation Q2-3. We had to learn how to create the actual homepage for the webpage and had to learn how to add all the different parts of the webpage that we were going to use on the site. We managed to add a selection of images, text and add our own video. We also adjusted the appearance of each page by choosing the layout and background image.



Furthermore I have also used a programme called Garageband. It is a sound editing software which you can record either real instruments or electronically generated sounds onto it. It also has a large music library of special effects and music that are copyright free which i looked through and even used on of the sounds in my final product.



Continuing on I have also used YouTube to upload versions of storyboards, drafts and final products so that i can embedd them on my blog page. I put them up so they were unlisted which meant that they weren't public and could only be viewed if the link had been shared with them.

In addition i briefly used Microsoft excel and word to produce a pie chart and word documents that i have then posted onto Blogger. Blogger is the website i have been using to create a blog in which my moderator can use for marking and easily access different sections throuhg the labelling function.

Further feedback on final product

Further Feedback on my final product

Lyles friend called Adam Larson who has previously given me some feedback on my animatronics storyboard has also given me some feedback on my final product. He is a media student at university and has worked on many minor film projects where his role has involved editing and sound recording. As he works within the media industry I thought his feedback would be critical as he has a very good understanding of the route that my work has taken. He is also a consumer to my product as he fits into my target audience which I feel is vital to this feedback. I plan to take everything on board and apply his comments to future products.