Group- Successes and Failures

I think our group was quite successful overall, although we had some mess-ups throughout, like the SD card corrupting and some other issues, we have got on well, although I think some people in the group weren't quite pulling their weight, although they were helpful in the filming and planning of our film. We are planning to start from scratch and make a new film after the final draft deadline, and I will continue to update this blog to see how our group progresses.

News Introduction

This is our new and improved news introduction, as the first wasn't good enough or look professional enough. Brad made this introduction in adobe after effects, and it much better suits the news program we are aiming for.

New Producers Logo

 

This is our new logo concept, designed by Brad. We did this as our current logo simply wasn't up to scratch, and this new logo made on Adobe Illustrator by Brad is much better. No copyright material or images from the internet have been used, and it suits our target audience better.

First Draft!

Here is our first draft, which I think came out well. With the feedback we have received we are looking to change this first draft for the better, and hopefully come out with a much improved final draft

Examples of CCTV films

Enemy Of The State (1998)

 

 

This intro is something I didn't look at before finishing the first draft, and I would like to incorporate some elements from it into our second draft. The use of the moving CCTV cameras are good, and I would like to use the effect of taking still shots of a camera from different angles and cutting quickly between them. I think this intro would have been very useful for our first draft, but I will attempt to utilise some features of it for my next draft

Feedback on our first draft

Questionnaire Feedback

Our first draft was shown to members of our target audience, and with the use of the questionnaires we have received some feedback, helping us to develop for the second draft.

1) What genre conventions did we subvert or adhere to in our chosen genre (thriller)?

Adhere- Creating tension, darkness, suspense, good thriller music and handheld filming, modern. mysterious, stuck with most general thriller conventions

Subvert- Didn't subvert anything

Improvements- faster cutting speed,  try to sort the music out so that it doesn't change so quickly and unexpectedly

2) What did you think of our use of text and the choice of fonts used with them throughout the sequence?

Comments- Text fits well, subtly placed with the security camera effect 

Text appeared well, font was good but the font on the security camera's didn't suit the genre.

"News today"- Could have been done better, more like actual news

  

Improvements- Font on security camera shots didn't fit the genre, needs to be sharper and less 'comic sansy'

Make the font stand out more

CCTV shots need to start after 0:00

3) Did you think our film introduced characters and themes well?

Comments- Yes, left enough mystery to draw the watcher in

Not really, the theme is hard to pick up on

Eliot introduced well, Tom is hard to understand 

Yes, very well done

Eliot developed well, but Tom was not and didn't care about his fate.

First character and news reader introduced well, second character could be more developed.

Improvements- Try to include more establishing character shots of my character, and possibly use a greenscreen behind the newsreader to establish the setting better.

4) What did you think of the atmosphere we created in our film?

 Comments-    Atmosphere good, however music change wasn't quite right? Try treesound.org

  Good, tense

Music was good, mysterious but too many changes

Maybe incorporate night vision effect for POV of man with it being so dark

Lost its atmosphere when other music started

Good, very tense

Improvements- Possible incorporation of night vision effect, need to sort out the music to stop it changing so strangely.

5) Could you understand the running narrative in our film?

Comments- People being watched?- At end, just first line of speech

Narrative shown well, easy to understand

Yes, sometimes a bit unclear

Slightly sets up well for film, but slightly confusing

Yes

Couldn't tell the characters were in the same scene

Improvements-  Use just the first line of speech at the end of the film, try to get a shot of the two people meeting

6)- Do you think our film appeals to our target market of teenagers (15-18)?

Comments- Not sure

Yes, with some tweaking it will be really good

Yes, definately

Yes, modern and mysterious

Improvements- try to add some form of conflict in the film                     

 

Filming and Sound Update

Filming and Sound Update

On 7/12/2013, we reshot the majority of our film, allowing us to produce the best possible clips for our first draft. We also recorded some sound effects, as the sound at the start didn't seem very realistic, and needed some sound. Another thing I did was change the ending music, as something more tense was needed.

Overall I think our group worked reasonably well together, I was given quite a lot of help with the sound, and mise-on-scene was provided well. Next time I would prefer it if everyone chipped in a bit more on each area of production

Our deadline is today, so later I will post the finished first draft and some of the response we received from our target market

Questionnaire

Containment Questionnaire

1)   What genre conventions did we subvert or adhere to in our chosen genre (thriller)?

2)   What did you think of our use of text and the choice of fonts used with them throughout the sequence?

3)   Did you think our film introduced characters and themes well?

4)   What did you think of the atmosphere we created in our film?

5)   Could you understand the running narrative in our film?

6)   Do you think our film appeals to our target market of teenagers (15-18)?

This is the questionnaire that we are using to ask our target audience about our film. We think these questions will allow us to gain the widest range of answers, and help us learn what to improve for next time

Filming 07/02/2013

 Filming 07/02/2013

Tonight we are going to reshoot the entire 2 minute opening, including the news report, which was filmed by Elliott and I have edited. This time around we are using a tripod, something we didn't use in a previous shot, and also we are going to use lighting to ensure that the shots aren't as dark as before. We are also going to make sure that one of the characters is not hooded, to make sure that both characters are easily distuinguishable, something that was an issue in our previous film, and was brought up by our target audience research.

Hopefully everything goes okay.

Anatomy Of A Murder Opening

Anatomy Of A Murder

Anatomy of a Murder has a film opening made by Saul Bass, a pioneer in film openings and the first to take film openings to a new level. The sequence uses shots of a body with text over the top. The use of the white text on the black body emphasises the person's name, and is very useful to effectively demonstrating the title sequence and setting the scene, as we are immediately given the impression that this film is about a crime, making it a crime thriller. The use of the tense music again sets up for the film, as it immediately creates a tense atmosphere and again hints at the murder present later on in the film. The quick, jerky cuts of the body going from body piece to body piece are also used to create a detached and strange edge to the opening, making us wonder what is to come and again building tension. I think we could take some useful things from this opening, like the use of the positioning of text, as it is very important for making sure the opening looks professional and creating an atmosphere for later

Target Audience-Addressing Them

Target Audience

I have asked numerous members of our target audience (teenagers) about the concept and script of our film, Containment. Here are some of the responses to our interview.

Was the narrative easy to understand?

Person 1 - Not really, it may be quite difficult to distinguish between the two characters

Person 2 - Yes, I could understand the narrative clearly, however I think the ending is quite cliche

From this question I worked out that maybe we could try to change the ending, the hand on the shoulder does seem slightly cliche, and we are going to try and make the two characters clearly distuinguishable (one hooded, one not).

 What could we change to improve the film?

Person 1- Try to cut down on some of the walking, it seems it lasts quite a long time

Person 2 - Add some shots of CCTV camera's, to show that he is being watched

From this question, I took the CCTV camera shots and made sure we got them, as they do look really good, however I decided not to cut down on the walking much as it is a key part of the title sequence.

Do you like the concept of our film?

Person 1 - It's quite good, I like the idea of being watched constantly

Person 2 - It's okay, I think you could add more establishing parts to clear up about the government.

From this question I worked out that we should probably make sure that our narrative is very clear, if we don't do this well our audience may be left completely confused. 

 

Pre-First Draft Filming Attempt

This actually came out lots better than I expected. I think we need to reshoot some of the CCTV shots and shots of cameras as they are too shaky, we didn't use a tripod, however the overall effect of the piece is good, and you can still work out what is going on without us having even filmed the establishing 20 seconds of the film, something we are going to shoot soon. I had to increase brightness a lot, and again some of the shots need to be slightly lighter , but overall I think we can definately take away a lot from this, and improve our draft a lot before we have to turn it in as a first draft.