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

The piece is not complete, thus it could not be distributed by any film company. However, companies such as Lionsgate who specialize in this genre of film would distribute it should the piece be expanded to a full feature length.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract and satisfy our audience, we tried to include as many reasonable suggestions from our primary research as possible, such as the dark theme and supernatural storyline. Due to limitations, we were not able to include the gore that was desired, however this would not make too much of a difference as we made up for this with tension. The primary research we undertook can be seen at the following link;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUmAVlpPlg8&feature=player_embedded

Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the final product?

From the preliminary task, I believe I have learnt several things. The very first thing I have learnt is that despite angles and editing, a bad actor can in fact draw away from all these things quite significantly, and ruin even the most well placed shots. I also discovered that even the slightest of sounds in the background which should not be there such as muted chatter can sound very unprofessional, and thus require editing out. this in itself can become quite tedious and prove to be a small challenge. Another lesson learned is how to effectively use shots such as low and high angles in order to give the impressions of power and submission. 

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

I have learned much from the process of constructing the product, the main skills being how to edit and how to maintain a blog. Before the final piece, I did not have a great deal of experience dealing with the software involved in editing. However over the course of creating the clip of film, I grew familiar with the program, being able to use far more advanced editing techniques to accomplish the simpler tasks. This is turn allowed us to have more dynamic cuts, and a more accurate soundtrack for our piece. I also learned the process and necessities of maintaining an active blog, which actually proved extremely useful in the sense of documenting any work required, keeping on top of the task at hand. As a secondary advantage from the blog, it made it possible to make organisational tasks far easier, as the group could each access the singular blogs, checking if there were any new schedules or plans to consider.

Final Cut

The film has come together, after quite some editing. The below link is the finalised piece, so please feel free to comment on it, and leave any relevant criticisms. This will soon be accompanied by an evaluation of the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orl6_SGV6zQ

Weather Difficulty

There was need to refilm the street scenes, as at first we had planned to use the snowy weather to our advantage, as it gave more of a professional and eerie feel to the whole scene, due to snow being quite enveloping. Also, it allowed for an easier transition from scene to scene, as snow makes landscapes look the same, therefore we could use different locations for the same scene. The issue was that the snow disappeared before we had a chance to film the final cuts. Below is a link to the unused footage captured with the snow present.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMEr65Y2SsI

Flowchart

Final Scene (House)

The next scene simply required a house, to allow us to film the main character waking up from the 'dream' that was the first part of the clip. We chose Luke's house, as it was the most accessible, and had nice lighting for the scene. Here is the location of filming;

Street Locations (Running Scenes)

The scenes in which the main actor (me) would be required to run to the site of possession were decided to be rural, in order to allow for potential 'free-running', as this was a huge interest of mine, and would make the scene more dynamic. The first choice was a train station, and the second a cemetery, so that the running flowed into the next scene;

Folkestone Railway Station;




Folkestone Cemetery

Oujia Board Scene

One of our group members had made it very clear to us that he had a 'perfect' location for the scene of the teenager becoming possessed. After some deliberation, the rest of the group agreed that this was a good spot to film at, and the following is the location of the said site;

Shooting Rota

We decided that for ease of access, and to avoid any confusion, we made a schedule of shooting. This was to allow people fair warning of who would be required for each scene, and which props would be needed for them. All that is still needed is just to arrange for set dates in order to actually film the shots.

Video Planner

To aid the director and editor, we created a detailed video planner. This was to give the director an idea of how things should be shot, and the editor how things must be arranged in the final clip. This is a copy of it;

The Script

This is a copy of the final script used for the actual piece. We decided that in addition to the lines the actors would require to say in the piece, we should also include directions for the director and editor just to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Scene 1

(Establishing shot of scene)

(Background talking, 90’s music playing)

(Luke and Teen 1 starts playing with Ouija board)
(Ouija Board spells out 'DIE')

Teen 1: (In a Suprised tone) Die?

(Suddenly, the teen goes rigid, eyes wild. His eyes start rolling and he starts thrashing about, screaming inhumanly. Teen 1 backs away from the fire, scared. Teen 1 takes out a phone) (Sam is walking up the street, when he recieves a phone call)

Teen 1:  'S**t!' (On phone) ‘Sam! We need you!’

Scene 2

(Sam is walking up the street, when he recieves a phone call)

Sam: (Sam answers the phone) ‘I’m there’

(Sam starts running to the commotion, via the train station and the graveyard. He takes short cuts through alleys, vaulting over walls, etc....)

Scene 3

(Sam arrives at the scene)

Sam: ‘Luke! This isn't even possible! You shouldn't be here!’

(Sam approaches the still screaming teen and places his hands on him)

(He starts reciting an exorcism in Latin more and more frantically as the teen thrashes around more and more)
(The spirit starts to get the better of Sam and he becomes very weak and is in great distress)

Sam: (Shouting) 'Luke!!!!'

Scene 4

(Sam wakes up suddenly, screaming)

(Recovering, he gets up, dresses and makes his way downstairs)

(He is halfway through his breakfast when his phone rings)

(The phone is dropped, falling slowly and hits the ground with an echoing bang)

(The title credits are shown)

Storyboard Ideas

After completing the brainstorm, we continued straight onto creating the storyboard. We each decided that a possession would be a good idea as an event within the story, and this is the final copy of our ideas.

Sam Bailey Interview 2

A week after the first interview, we recollaborated and carried out another interview, in order to finalise ideas and establish the fact that I would be the main actor. We tried throwing around a few last thoughts, and came out with a good plan of how things would be carried out.

Brainstorm

Upon deciding for the use of the horror genre, we then preceded to create a brainstorm of possible ideas and story lines. The following is a digital version of our original brainstorm.

Flowchart

Audience Research

The audience research was extremely useful in helping us decide which genre to use for the opening clip of the film. The interviewee's were our own age, and allowed us to get an in depth, accurate representation of exactly what was popular for our target audience. They told us of how the horror/supernatural genre was the most enjoyed by their particular age group, which was reinforced by the viewing figures looked up. From here, we decided to delve deeper within and look at sub-genres. We discovered that the supernatural was more attractive to audiences than gory films, so chose to head more in this direction with our script. Our choice of the supernatural horror genre was because both our primary and secondary research defined this as the most popular form of film.

Sam Bailey Interview 1

Here we have the rest of my group interviewing me as the main actor, bouncing ideas off me and seeing how I thought that things could play out as an actor, how they would work in the final piece and whether I believed these ideas were feasible.

Audience Research Interview

This video shows how we interviewed a panel of three sixteen year old boys, in order to get their ideas on which genres are most popular and well received. They gave a general consensus that horror would be good, and even gave us a few opinions on possible techniques, such as 'shadows'.

The three interveiwed were 'Oliver Webb', 'Jack Diprose' and 'James Cowie'. Their feedback was greatly appreciated.

Viewing Figures And Popularity

I decided to use Sky in order to reflect on which genres obtained the best viewing figures, to give us a better idea of which genre to choose when producing our final piece. The following were the figures from the website;

Sky Movies Channels Total Viewing Figures (000's)

Sky Movies Action & Adventure			1,256
Sky Movies Classics			729
Sky Movies Comedy			1,622
Sky Movies Crime & Thriller			931
Sky Movies Drama & Romance			639
Sky Movies Family			1,457
Sky Movies Indie			581
Sky Movies Modern Greats			929
Sky Movies Premiere			1,989
Sky Movies Premiere +1			1,065
Sky Movies SciFi-Horror			925
Sky Movies Showcase			1,312

According to these figures, the three previously researched genres (Horror, Comedy and Action) ranked amongst the highest rated and viewed on television. This made me decide to delve deeper into each catagory, getting a better idea of exactly which films were the most popular in each given genre;

Sky Movies SciFi/Horror Film Viewing Figures (000's)

1	FILM: UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYC (2009) (FRI 2202	36
2	FILM: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (200 (SAT 2102	28
3	FILM: THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) (SUN 2102)	25
4	FILM: DEATH RACE (2008) (FRI 1642)	23
5	FILM: THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) (WED 2103)	23
6	FILM: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009) (THU 2627)	22
7	FILM: THE FACULTY (1998) (TUE 2102)	22
8	FILM: SORORITY ROW (2009) (SAT 2247)	18
9	FILM: DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) (MON 1428)	17
10	FILM: CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRES ASSI (SUN 0802	16

Sky Movies Comedy Film Viewing Figures (000's)

1	FILM: ALI G INDAHOUSE (2002) (TUE 2003)	83
2	FILM: POLICE ACADEMY 5: ASSIGNMENT: MIAM (WED 1643	69
3	FILM: THE HANGOVER (2009) (SAT 2103)	59
4	FILM: STEP BROTHERS (2008) (SUN 2103)	37
5	FILM: NOTTING HILL (1999) (SUN 1543)	36
6	FILM: YES MAN (2008) (WED 2358)	33
7	FILM: ROLE MODELS (2008) (FRI 2003)	28
8	FILM: 17 AGAIN (2009) (WED 1817)	28
9	FILM: STEP BROTHERS (2008) (SUN 1203)	26
10	FILM: ROAD TRIP (2000) (THU 2004)	26

Sky Movies Action & Adventure Film Viewing Figures (000's)

1	FILM: TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLE (FRI 1338	35
2	FILM: KING ARTHUR (2004) (WED 1553)	34
3	FILM: THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1997) (SUN 1448)	33
4	FILM: RIGHTEOUS KILL (2008) (WED 1813)	31
5	FILM: BEVERLY HILLS COP III (1994) (TUE 1518)	30
6	FILM: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) (TUE 2348)	25
7	FILM: TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLE (FRI 2102	25
8	FILM: THE 6TH DAY (SUN 1243)	20
9	FILM: VALKYRIE (2008) (SAT 0833)	19
10	FILM: DAMAGE (2009) (SAT 2102)	18

These figures allowed us to choose the most popular films to analyse, and draw conventions from. From such research, we were able to decide upon which forms we could use in each catagory for our final piece, depending on which genre we stuck with in the end.

Product Research - Action Genre

Finally, I have decided to research into the action genre. I have looked at movies such as 'Die Hard 4.0' and 'Stormbreaker'.

As a general rule, the action conventions include a great deal of special effects, which would make it potentially difficult to create with our limited equipment. The editing is fast paced, and the camerawork is very dynamic. Chase scenes are a huge part of the action genre, making up a vast proportion of many films. In order to incorporate all of the action and chasing, many storylines go along the path of either a 'spy' or a 'specialist', creating the possiblity for dangerous and breathtaking scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZgepEziqwI - Stormbreaker. This is the perfect, textbook example of an action film. It contains a spy as the main character, and plenty of fight/chase scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EUJYh32KVw - Die Hard 4.0. This is an excellent example, as it contains many special effects and outstanding editing from astounding camera angles.

Product Research - Comedy Genre

After completing the research on the horror genre which seemed to gain the most appraisal, I decided the next genre should be comedy, as most people enjoy it. The first thing I wanted to decide on was if this genre would be suitable for this task, and whether we would be able to incorporate enough filming techniques and editing without taking away from the on screen action.

I looked at several films, including 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' and 'Zoolander'. These films helped me to outline the conventions of the comedy genre, and it seems that the most used one is the use of editing and camera work. By this, I mean everything within a comedy film is dynamic in one way or another, which causes the jokes to flow more easily. For example, in Scott Pilgrim, the editing is fast and fluent, meaning that a lot of the comedy is slapstick, being physically portrayed. Most of this slapstick humour comes from comic fights, or silly mistakes made by the characters, and runs through most comedy films. For the most part, the comedy is not overly intelligent, but rather quite obvious, which makes this genre perfect for an audience looking to relax. A conventional comedy will have a hopeless situation which is entirely ridiculous to have gotten into, coupled with at least one character with very little or no common sense to solve such situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwazeNdKBiw- Zoolander. This shows that the camera does not stay still at all, even when the scene is relaxed. This would sub consciously help the comedy to flow more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1qaLmfzW3I&feature=fvst - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This shows that the comedy is achieved by using fast paced editing, and quite interesting non-diagetic sound techniques.

Product Research - Horror Genre

Now that we have the group and the task decided on, we are now looking towards researching the most popular styles of film, and how to create such pieces. I decided to first look into the horror genre, as this particular genre seems to attract a large audience.

I have looked at several opening clips to films, but the most useful of these are 'Constantine' and 'Resident Evil'. They have shown several conventions of the horror genre, for example, using darkness as a method of making an eerie feeling in the opening scenes. This could be effective in our piece, however because of the quality of the camera being used to film it may not be possible to use this in our piece. Another well used convention is the music in the beginning of the piece - generally quite drawn out and uses strings or strange instruments to create a feeling of suspense. Also, non-diagetic sounds are used in places of extreme tension, evidently in order to shock an audience, which is the whole purpose of this genre. All of these techniques are successful at creating the atmosphere of a horror genre, and thus could be of great use should we choose to use it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PyDU6Uwh0M - Resident Evil opening scene. In particular, I am focusing on the music used in this piece, as the music is perfect to build up an atmosphere of suspense.

Choices For The Main Task

For the main task, we were given four separate options for which to complete. The choices consisted of either 'Print, Audio, Website or Video'. Each had it's own highlights and downfalls;

The Print - The print seemed interesting, as it was quite flexible and appealed to several of our group. However, some such as myself had studied Media as a course for GCSE, and thus had already produced a magazine as part of the brief. For this reason, we decided not to choose print, as it was too similar to tasks previously done.

The Audio - The audio seemed as though it would be the most difficult to manage of the four tasks, as it would not be easy to create a radio bulletin since nobody in the group really listens to the radio a great deal. On top of this, the facilities we would need are not readily available, and thus we would have to spend a good deal of time searching for the necessary equipment. Therefore, we decided against this task.

The Website - Although all of the group had access to the internet, and thus research was not an issue here, nobody within the group had a sufficient amount of knowledge in making websites to an even half decent standard. For this reason, the website was instantly dismissed as a choice.

The following are the reasons for choosing the video task;

The Video - We chose the video task, as it had a huge amount of variability, as all the brief said was to include two minutes of the opening credits to a film. Due to this, it seemed extremely attractive because of the level of creativity we could place into it. Everyone in the group had a good amount of previous experience in this field of media, and all of us agreed it seemed like an enjoyable task. For this reason, we decided that the video would be our task. We preceeded to carry out product research, storylines and character analysis.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

There were many things that were done well in the preliminary task, as we followed many of the basic principle rules, mark on action and 180 degree rules to name a few. However, there were some easily avoidable mistakes made on our part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pt6pTRulII

Though it was not the most obvious mistake, the sound at the beginning of the piece was poorly managed. Due to the positioning of the camera, alot of excess sound was picked up through footsteps, which even ended up blocking out Luke's 'afternoon' that he muttered as he crossed paths on the stairs. This could have been quite quickly corrected by reducing the sound during editing, which could have made it seem more professional.

The most evident and disruptive mistake was pointed out by a fellow classmate. Had it not been pointed out, my group would not have noticed the continuity error. At 0'16", Luke enters the office, leaving the door wide open. However when I storm out of the office at 0'40", the door is firmly shut. This is of course, impossible, as there were no other people present within the office, nor did either character stand up to close the door at any point during the scene. Continuity breaks such as this can ruin the whole effect of even films, disrupting their flow and causing the audience to wake up from the illusion. For this reason, we must be extremely careful during the main task to prevent this from happening again.

Aside from this, I am very pleased with the outcome of the piece - the filming is done professionally with techniques such as shot reverse shot and used a high angle to make it seem as though it were footage from a CCTV camera. The acting does not stop the flow at all, and the editing is well done.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

After forming the group, it has now been necessary to look back and evaluate the preliminary task. It can be found at the following address;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pt6pTRulII
It would be great if people could play it back and respond with appropriate comments and criticisms.

Thanks.

Main Task Group

After much discussing with others, three people in the class seemed to be perfect for the group. Each had an individual skill, which would vastly help in the production of the final piece. The three that were chosen were; Edward Barnes, Mark Posnett and Luke Cowie. The reasons for choosing them for the group are as follows:

Edward Barnes - Ed had shown considerable potential as an editor in the preliminary task, and had said he was willing to take the job of editing for this task. We also knew he was a hard worker, and would get everything done on time to a good standard, therefore believed he was a good choice for the group.

Luke Cowie - From the previous task, we knew that Luke could act to a fair level, and picked up on excellent angles from which to film in situations. For these reasons, he would be a very good addition to the group, as he could provide alot of creativity for the actual filming aspects.

Mark Posnett - Mark could take control of actors, and make sure they knew everything that was going on, which was a very important trait to have. On top of this, Mark was an exceptional cameraman, taking lots of decent shots consistently, with enough in order to edit when it came to it. For these reasons, we decided Mark would be good to have.

Sam Bailey (Me) - The other members of the group said that I would be good to have in the group, as I showed good acting skills in the preliminary task, and was unafraid of the camera. Also, they said that my creativity for scenes, locations and scripts was invaluable, and that they would like me for these reasons.

The current group was formed for these reasons, as we all seem to work well together, and keep any disagreements to the minimum, which would be good in order to get the work done on time.

What qualities am I looking for in the new group members?

Upon completion of the Preliminary Task, I have to decide whom to form a group with in order to do the Main Task. The previous task has allowed me to analyse each member of the class, and realise their potential, which skills they posses, and how dedicated they will be to the task. It is vital that I pick the right people to work with, to ensure that a wide variety of ability is available in different areas. This will also allow each person within the group to be allocated a separate task, which they can work on singularly, increasing the efficiency and quality of our work, giving each of us a large quantity of time and control to work with in our specialised area. There will be three main roles required; Director, Editor and Actor.

Director - For the director, I am looking for a member with some experience of filming, knowing good camera techniques and angles, and can utilise tilts and pans. They must also be quite extrovert as they will be required to take control of the actors, making sure that the quality is good enough. This will allow others to focus upon their own roles in the group.

Editor - Without a good editor, even an excellently filmed and acted piece can fall to pieces. The editor needs the skill to be able to make each clip flow into the next, and make transitions seem natural. This is because editing is a huge part of the main task, and many marks could be lost without a good editor.

Actor - It is possible that I may need to use more than one actor, however as a general rule, they should be confident and willing to perform in front of a camera, without allowing any nerves to be portrayed. They must also be willing to work seamlessly with others, as the acting will not be a solo job, and relies quite heavily upon their ability to put aside differences and simply get the job done.