Closing Blog

This is my closing blog. I have had a great time  during the AS Media coursework and feel that it has prepared e well for the exam. I have great teachers who I get along with, great students who are friendly and supportive and I was very lucky to have a great group who shard my seriousness and who helped each other to become better.

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1 (Evaluation)

Genre conventions are elements that the audience expects as they have been used many times in previous films from their genre/sub genre. The conventions of a film in the horror genre are: Either a dark isolated setting for example,  forest/abandoned building.
The purpose is to indicate to the audience what genre the film is. it gives a hint to the genre and what the film may consist of. 
They follow this strict order so they audience is not confused and they definitely know a genre when they see its conventions. 

In our Film Lost Love...

• One genre convention is having realistic characters. This being human actors/actresses playing a role in the film.
• Another convention is to have relative concepts in the film. This being activities that the audience can relate to. In our film an example is our main character coming home from a day at work and placing his keys on the table after entering the home. This could be considered a relative activity the audience can relate to. 

relative concept

• Another convention would be having a realistic setting included. We shown this by using a good looking house setting to convey our genre and make the film sequence more realistic

House setting 

• The use of emotion and showing emotion from characters and receiving emotions from the audience is also a drama convention. We successfully done this by having a close up of the main characters face to show his emotions he was feeling in his time of distress.

title credit

• In sequences of a drama film camera shots tend to be quite far away and draw closer as we get more into the sequence. It may start as a birds-eye view or a long shot then ends up getting closer to the location or characters. Movement tend to follow the action or character(s) in whatever is happening. Our shots tended to draw closer and closer to the action and character and ended in a extreme close up. 
• Lastly, most sound used is dramas are foley which is what we included. We had a lot of foley sounds involved. 

Created with Padlet

Evaluation: Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2 (Evaluation)

Representation of social groups by rochelle cassell

example of characters in one day, pictures cannot be out onto mindmeister.

picture of our main character in costume

Evaluation: Question 2

Created with Padlet

Question 3 (Evaluation)

Question 4 (Evaluation)

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5 (Evaluation)

http://lostlovefilm.weebly.com

For this i made a Weebly site for the evaluation

Click link below to navigate to the site

Weebly Site

Evaluation: Question 5

Evaluation Question 6

Question 6 (Evaluation)

Me showing how to use Premier Pro (quick evidence with annotations)

Evaluation: Question 6

Evaluation question 7

Question 7 (Evaluation)

   

Hidden Skill (Prelim)
- The prelim was produced over a very short period of time. We only collaborated as a group to come up with the idea and when editing. Not alot of group work and discussing was needed and decisions were much more easier to come to. We didnt have to go off and research into anything and none of it was independent work until the evaluation. None of the prelim contributed to the producing and branding of the blog however it was  good starting point and shows a clear contrast to the final product.

(Full Product)
- Team work became crutial in the full product. We had to bang our heads togetehr alot to come up with a sophisticated idea and plan always come to a consensus. We disagreed at times but come to an agreement in the end. We made alot more decisions as a group so everyone was satisfied. We made a group chat on social media so we can keep up and discuss anything as a group which was useful. Ideas also came from this chat. There was also times when we had to do independent learning for example we had had our own 4 points to take care of for the pitch so we was responsible for producing the information. Our own blogging was an independent task but were times when we posted as a group when neccesary. I branded our blog to make it look like our genre for instance, added the broken marriage images all over and making the colours dull and suitable for our type of sequence.

Overall what have i learnt and how successfull have i been?
- To summerise, i have learnt a lot in terms of producing a film. Ive gathered that planning is essential for producing a successful film. Planning should be thorough and carefully thought through as problems could arise during like i learnt in the prelim when i didnt have enough shots. I also learnt that researching into your own genre is very beneficial as you gain all the suitable conventions that you had no knowledge on before. Plus, props ans the mise-en-scene helps set the scene and tone and is alot more effective when used instead of using basic settings which is less creative. My creative skills have come out more. Im much more of an expert on premiere pro now to when i was completely new to it. I know how to import clips, put them in order, cut slice and delete clips, add tittles, add sounds and render it all at the end. My editing looks more realistic in the full product compared to the prelim.  My camerawork has also developed as ive learnt how to tighten the camera onto the tripod and be still when recording and i was able to get accurate shots the fit eachother angle wise.
Overall the contrast between the prelim and the full product speaks for itself, its a big improvement and on its way to looking like a real and professional film title sequence. The full product is much better and developed

Evaluation: Question 7

Lost Love, Cinema Screening

We screened our Lost Love title sequence to our fellow AS Media Students. We are very proud of  how the title sequence turned out on the big screen, all of our credits fitted nicely into the screen and our foley sounds, background music and voice-over all came out clearly and soundly.

What I (Leo) found interesting was that when our films title 'Lost Love' appeared on screen it garnered emotional responses from some members of the audience, it is barely audible on the actual video. This pleased me because it proved that the audience can relate to an emotional situation because it is somewhat commonplace which is what the drama genre is all about - realism.

Once the note was read aloud, a remark was made by an audience member voicing his sorrow for my character, this shows that we hit our goal of wanting to pull on the audience's emotions.


Here is the screening provided in the best possible quality, we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making and screening it.

Response to Feedback

For our final edit of 'Lost Love' we we took a lot of the classes feedback on board and applied it. We included a voice over which we agree gets the message of the note across better. We also added background music which we feel adds tension and gravitas to our scene.

The note of the runaway wife. 

Additional Work: Music for Lost Love

The music that we used for 'Lost Love' was from freeplaymusic.com and is called 'An Alternate Universe Part 3'. We felt that it fit really well with our film, it gave it a very serious feel which is what we wanted.

The song is played with a guitar 

www.freeplalymusic.com 

Non-Diegetic sound in sequence

For our title sequence we have decided to use non-diegetic sound, we chose to use this piece of music from a site called Freeplaymusic.com, this site provides loyalty free music which we are able to use in our title sequence without being effected by copyright infringement, which would cause our title sequence to be muted when we uploaded it to sites such as youtube.

we found that this is Dramatic and the emphasises the emotions in our piece. we also find that this gives out film opening a dramatic tempo for the audience to feel and link to the emotions being showed by the actor.

Choice Of Font

Rough Cut 2 Feedback

We received feedback from our teacher and class which let us know which parts of our title sequence need improving, we were also told our strong points and given new ideas which we intend to implement.

Starting with the positives:

Positives:

• Lighting
• Acting/Mise-En-Scene
• Shot Variety
• Use of Foley Sounds
• Use of Space 

Improve on:

• Message of the note
• Louder Foley Sounds 

Suggestions:

• Use voice over to convey message of the note
• Have a shot where Leo opens the door with a key
• Add music 
• Titles
• Follow the Production order 

We are grateful to our teacher and classmates for lending us some really clever suggestions to help improve our film. We wholly intend to use the a voice over to convey the message of the note, We feel that this will add an extra edge to our film and make it unique. 

The sounds that we wanted to add were not ready in time for the rough cut but we will definitely add sounds. We still are still deliberating as a group as to whether we will use background music and if so which song we would use. We will have no trouble making the Foley sounds louder in time for our next rough cut. 

Overall we are pleased with the feedback from this rough cut, we feel that it is an improvement on the last though we are aware that there are still improvements to be made. We will take the feedback on board and hopefully have an even better rough cut the next time around. 

Rough Cut 2

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This is our second edited rough cut that we presented to our teacher and class. We feel that a significant improvement has been made. This cut features foley sounds and the re-shoot footage which we feel is superior to the last. Although it ended up being in a misplaced order we were able to put titles onto the film. We received some feedback on what to improve in time for the final cut which we will delve into further in our next blog post. We will also make sure that all fonts are the same and keep consistent with them.

Editing Rough Cut 2

 We used InstantShot Pro once again to show how we went about editing our Rough Cut 2 which will be presented to our teacher and class on the 13th January 2016. This is the editing of our re-shoot which we feel is superior to our previous rough cut.

We put up this particular screenshot because it required a great deal of editing and cutting. There was an issue with the shot of me walking throughout the door. It didn't cut as fluently as we would've liked but we hope that we have done enough for it to flow well in the rough cut that we will present to the class.

The shot with the key is pictured because we took many shots of the key drop originally. We had a hard time choosing which one to use in the film because we were pretty satisfied with all of the shots we took. We intend to add a foley sound we recorded on sound cloud so that we can apply as much media as we can to this short film.  

Re-filming

We re-filmed on 6th January 2016 in the same location. Initially we planned to re-film certain shots that we were not pleased with and shots we had missed out from last time but instead ended up re-shooting the entire film.

Leo brought in the exact same costume as before which helped continuity wise. Rochelle and Marie shared duties behind the camera to help film the shots. We were able to get multiple shots of each scene, fix the scenes that had mistakes and shoot the scenes that e missed out on last time. we now have two cuts of our film with multiple takes that puts us in a really good position.

We did not encounter any real problems, we actually finished really quickly which surprised u

A picture of Leo & Marie planning a shot 

s all, the only potential problem may be that if we decide to mesh scenes from rough cut 1 and the new cut together is that Leo has slightly different hair. We hope that this is not too major of a continuity issue.

Rochelle talking us through our next shot

Re-filming Plan

On Wednesday 6th January 2016 we will be re-shooting our entire film in the same location. We will add scenes that we missed out on last time and try to perfect every other scene. The costume may be different. When we have shot everything we need we will edit the new film and add sound effects and background music.

We will be shooting in the same location as our rough cut

Rough Cut Feedback

We showed our rough cut to our teacher and class and received feedback. We were informed on the strongpoint of our film and things that could still use some work. We will make sure to take all feedback on board when re-shooting to make the best possible film that we can.

Positives

• Lighting
• Location
• Performance/ Mise-En-Scene
• Match Cuts/ Cutting/ Editing
• Variety of Shit types
• Logo ident
• Costume

We could Develop:

• Scenes to help the audience understand the story
• Certain cuts didn't flow well
• Could be a bit longer

SMART Targets

These are the SMART Targets I set for myself based on the feedback given to me in Blogging Healthcheck 3.

refilming plan

For Wednesday 6th January we will be reshooting for our title sequence
we plan to include the scenes we missed last time we shot and we will also fix the continually errors and costume errors we made the first.

Using the feedback we received we will make changes to the title sequence as said, to appeal more to the audience, these include the changes we plan to make above and other things they mentioned in the blog post of rough cut feedback. this is includes things such as making the acting more dramatic and fixing discontinuity

Full plan

• reshoot with better framed shots (ensure we can see his face)
• include closeups of ring and note
• add scene of leo putting down keys (with wife's keys still there)
• make sure leo picks up frame with the same hand
• include scene of leo putting down the frame and picking up note and putting it down again
• more dramatic ending

blogging health check 3

feedback

in responce to the feed back i have received i have noticed the flaws in my blog that can be easily improved, i need to improve the frequency of my blog posts and focus on including research into simular products of the same genre and include feedback and audience reviews.

i can do this by:

• comparing our rough cut to other openings, in the same genre
• showing our rough cut to an audience and noting feedback
• blogging between lessons at least 2-3 times a week
• using more apps to present my blogs in a creative way
• responding to audience feedback 
• blog filming and editing evidence

Blogging Healthcheck 3

I am pleased that I was able to achieve an A grade as it is what I was always working towards. I have taken my teachers feedback on board and will correct my blogs that need work. I intend to continue to work intensively on my blogs and continue to apply feedback so that I can solidify my A grade

SMART Targets

Targets i set myself on my progress based on my blog health check feedback.

Blogging Healthcheck 3

Ive done a lot better than my previous blog checks. I am now at  A grade and need to keep at this level. I am happy with my feedback and will work on these targets. I have now completed target 2 and 1 and in the next 3 weeks i will post more evidence of my contribution to filming and editing.

Xmas Homework (Audit and SWOT)

Reflecting on blog quality - Christmas HW

 I WILL INSERT SCANNED PAGES AS THEY ARE HARD TO READ IN THESE IMAGES -