Evaluation Question 7...

Looking back at preliminary task (continuity task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product? 

I have learnt how to know what makes successful/good footage or not. I leant that although if it is wrong the first time, keep going and make it right, not to stop and give up because it didn't go the way i had planned. I learnt how to successfully use final cut pro to construct a final product, I also leant how to use the effects and functions correctly to add effects to fit in with the genre of film.

These are two screen shots from my preliminary task and my final product. Here I have shown that in both I have used a tripod to get a steady shot. In my final product, however, I moved the camera around whilst still on the tripod, this is different than my previous task because I did not use that function. My first task looked more plain as you had to watch her walk a long way from the same angle whereas with my final film, it was less boring as you followed him walking instead.

These two are of my preliminary task, I chose to show these as what I have learnt because there is an error in the continuity. As the first shot shows, there are no people in the room, you can't see anyone through the door windows and the next show shows there to be 3 people in the place where you should be able to see them. This was because when we filmed this, we didn't know what could be seen or what should be seen. Had my final product have more people in it, we would've made sure they could be seen if they needed to be, this makes it easier to follow and get the flow of the clip.

This shows the first task with very poor lighting, we didn't use and lights and the blinds were down letting in very little natural light. The second image shows we made good use of the natural light available in our location of the woods. Again, had we needed to film in the dark or inside, we would make sure we had suitable lighting and use as much natural light as we could,

These images show 'cross cutting'. The first task cross cuts from person to person during a conversation, whereas in my film we used cross cutting only once as the rest of the footage was faded in between titles. I think the preliminary task cross cutting worked well as there were no jumps in between the conversation and the angles matched up well at eye level.

In my final film, we used a lot of fade effects to interchange between each shot and the titles so it didn't all appear out of no where. My preliminary task used no fades and were all cross cutting scenes, however, I know that the fade tool would not be suitable for the continuity task because they were all very similar shots and fading would not have made it flow as well.

And lastly, these screenshots show two different ways of filming. The first being an over-the-shoulder shot, showing the shoulder of the person in the foreground and people in the background. This is mostly used in conversation scenes as it clearly shows who someone is talking to. The second image is a point-of-view shot, this shows what it is like looking trough someone's eyes, in this case the killers eyes looking at the boy in the back ground.

In conclusion to this question, my skills on how to determine what makes a good shot has improved, a long with how something should be filmed and where or where not to use special effects, i.e, fade. I have also learnt to check the lighting of the footage and make sure to put what needs to be seen in the background so it doesn't affect the continuity flow.

Evaluation Question 6...

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

This is a short video I made using a screen recording and edited in final cut of the main features I used on Final Cut Pro and on Blogger. This is how I used each tool and why I needed to learn how to use these:

During the process of making this film, I learnt how to use the sound tools for the camera, along with adding sound to my product on Final Cut Pro. I learnt how to use the cameras correctly and how to get a good piece of footage. I also learnt how to film pieces in the right way so that when edited together there's a good continuity flow.

Evaluation Question 4 & 5...

This is a 'Prezi' i made to explain questions 4 and 5 of my evaluation.
Below is question 5 in more detail, this is my opening sequence on youtube with annotations added ontop to state whats going on etc...
'Watching' annotated video




.

Evaluation Question 3...

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

I think that Lionsgate would be the most likely and best company to distribute my film. Lionsgate are a global distribution company who distribute a variety of genres of films. They have done a few horror films, most of which are well known, e.g, Saw II - VII, The Cabin in the Woods, The Haunting in Connecticut II, Texas Chainsaw 3D and Silent Hill revelation. I think that my film could be distributed globally because it's not a film directly aimed at just the British audience. It can be understood in the same way to any audience worldwide. Lionsgate have a good and well known name for itself, therefore they know how to attract a specific audience well. They would know which advertisements etc would be best for my genre of film and of the target audience. They have been around for many years so are experienced in the film industry.

As an alternative, NewLineCinema are another likely company to distribute my film too. I think that New Line Cinema would be a good company to distribute my film because they are a major distribution company in the film industry and therefore have a good enough name for itself to lure in target audiences for my particular film. They have been the distributors for many horror movies, some of which are; Friday 13th, A nightmare on elm street (all), The final destination and Texas Chainsaw; The beginning.
These are all very well know films in the horror industry and therefore this is a good company to distribute my media product.

Evaluation Question 2...

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Because my media product only has two actors in it, it's difficult to stereotype them into a social group, and difficult to represent them in a social group. You could say the male actor stereotypes a specific teenager; skinny jeans, big jacket and coloured straightened hair, this is part of Mise-en-scene. On the other hand, we also have the female killer character. She is wearing a plain hoodie and black trousers, this is plain and simple but it's subtle so that we never know who it is. In most horror films, we don't see the face of the killer so this is stereotypically how they should be seen. This automatically makes you think that something is up with this person that they are not nice and most likely the 'bad guy', so you could put this person into a 'social group' although they aren't.
The film opening also takes away the myth and stereotype of women being the vulnerable victim and a male killer/bad guy. This is complete opposite with vulnerable male and female killer.

Evaluation Question 1...

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My opening sequence VS The Cabin in the Woods:

This is a screen shot of both my Ident and for the film 'The Cabin in the Woods' I chose to look at this film opening because its quite similar to my film. This being, both set in the woods and being a horror film. My ident doesn't 'challenge' an existing film, but I can say its similar, and referring to the question, I have 'used' an ident in the correct place as mine is the same time as this one.

Although I have put my film title at the end of my sequence and this film had it within 3 minutes of the opening, I put mine next to it to show that each one is a title.Mine is very simple, plain background and small writing. The cabin in the woods title comes as a surprise  more in the middle of a sentence with loud sharp music too. They both have a sudden effect.

This a screen shot of my location and the beginning of the films location. Although I know The Cabin in the Woods is set in the woods, the opening doesn't show that so this is the only location you can see in the first sequence. I have used a good use of camera angles to clearly show where it is located.

.

 These are screen shots of my cast titles, and the cast titles for The Cabin in the Woods. They are similar; small red writing, but mine is placed, like my main title, in the centre of a black background whereas The Cabin in the Woods has theirs in-front of a scene setting clip of where the main character lives.

Final Cut...

Below is our final cut of our opening sequence for our horror film 'Watching'...