Friday 30 March 2018

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Analysis

Over the course of our AS Media Studies year we have received countless amounts of audience feedback varying from verbal, written and online feedback.

Overall they were positive, they liked a few things here and there however, the feedback we have received has been more than appreciative. I mean just look at our first few sample scenes, they are 100% different to our final cut. A recurring problem for us was trying to increase the pacing in the film opening but in the end I think we managed pretty well. From the first rough cut to the last, the whole group thought "oh we can cut a second or two there," but had it not been for feedback saying, "This pace needs to increase dramatically," our film opening would not have been as good as it is now.

We have received feedback from ages ranging from 14-22 and have also received a bit of feedback from older adults. I admit, some of the feedback we received was vague and we couldn't really use it. However this gave us an insight as to how these people of these ages were analyzing our "media" and we could build upon that instead. This also links into Stuart Hall's preferred reading theory as, especially for the title feedback, we received a lot stating which one looked "most horror" or "most cool." when we as creators wanted the most fitting for the genre. This means the audience who analysed the title fonts applied it to the knowledge they had on slashers to choose their preferred ones. This came from our target audience meaning we had to take a lot of it into account when choosing the final fonts for our titles. They would not have been what they are now, if it weren't for this feedback as our group had a slight discussion about this too.

Thursday 29 March 2018

EVAL SCRIPT: Q3 Talk Show

Key:
H: Host
C: Contestant

H: Welcome back to our talk show.  Tonight we have a very special gust. He is the director and editor of Lugnut Productions and has been part of making a film which will be coming out soon next year.

H: *name of C* how are you.

C: Hello, I'm good thanks.

H:As I understand you are a brand new company and this is your first movie. You have had help  from both Clinnick Media and Gingerbread Films to create this new horror movie called Christmas Sleigher.

C: Yes this is true.

H: I have a surprise for you during the course of this talk show by the way and after the ad breaks it will become very clear *takes a long weird look at C*

C: *laughs awkwardly* does this have anything to do with the fact I handed in my phone before the show?

H: *Stares into distance not saying anything*

H: Anyways... first of all tell me, how was it to get to grasps on things. For example, had you ever used a camera before this movie?

C: It was quite difficult at times but I think we overall managed very well. I have used a camera before, I used to have a youtube channel when I was in my pre-teens and I have done both GCSE and AS Level Media Studies. For this film however there were some new things and I could use a lot of information and skills learnt from my school life. Some things that were easy was the use of cameras and tri-pods and setting them up. However I have only recently started using the 180 degree rule. This was something new and it really helped me in trying to create continuous editing in the film.

H: That's pretty neat, if any of the audience has any more of a clue what the 180 degree rule or what continuous editing is... I applaud.

C: Oh! well its basically when....

H: Yeah thats ok, everyone has google nowadays.. So tell me, is this final cut what you originally planned?

C: Oh no it wasn't, we originally planned for it to be be a zombie/slasher hybrid but decided to discard that idea completely. We were relying on too many people to come help us for free as we are such a small company.. This ended up with a very select few ever turning up and the ones we needed the most, never came. Our lead role literally never showed up. Since all of our actors were teens she was also the only person with a car, which was a crucial part of it... So we scrapped it!

H: Oh that doesn't sound nice at all .. pretty rude if you ask me.

C: Yeah well, struggles of having no money.

H: So this new idea, how did it develop.. Now just bare with me here audience but I have seen the opening of this film and I just want your opinion on this very small clip.

*"Youuu lieeee.... come down to the garage" plays* * small silence, audience cheers*

H: How .. Why on earth did you think of a creepy santa like that!

C: Well it basically came from the fact that it was in december when we finally had gotten an idea,that firstly, had very limited actors/ actresses, meaning reliability wasn't an issue, an original idea with links to previous horror movies, creating intertextuality to widen the audience appeal, had a recurring theme, and most importantly scared the s*** out of u.

*quickly covers mouth and looks in embarrassment, audience cheers.*

C: But yeah .. we needed a scary figure and since christmas was in our mind we thought, "Hey why not a killing santa?" It has also been done before in black christmas and christmas evil, so we knew it would work well.

H: Amazing, we'll be right back after this small ad break!

*ad about a gimble*

H: Hello and welcome back, now we will go through some of the struggles throughout the development of this film. Now as said before people might be wandering why I asked for Oliver's phone. Well here is the reason. I will be reading some texts between the team.

*audience cheers*

*text sequence plays out, Oliver is visually embarrassed and reacts accordingly*

H: Well, its time to move on, the channel wants to air some weird drone race now.. Hope it doesn't end up like the one you planned to use!

H: Thanks for stopping by and talking to us today about the new film Christmas Sleigher.

H: Ladies and gentlemen give it up for Oliver!

*audience cheers*

*fade, cameras pan put as oliver leaves the scene*





Wednesday 28 March 2018

EVAL SCRIPT: Q2 INTERVIEW

Interview:
I - Interviewer
PE - Possible Employee

I: Hello, and welcome to this Skype interview, I have reviewed your profile and you are a possible candidate for this positions. So tell me a little about who you are.

PE: I am a current member of the Christmas Sleigher movie coming out next year. I am in charge of finding a distributor and getting audience feedback to improve our movie.

So far we have only created a movie opening, however we have spent hours, researching and engaging with the target, secondary and on some occasions, people we wouldn't even consider as a audience.

I: Wonderful, now tell me, on your CV it says how you are actively using something called "Microsoft Teams" to communicate and release rough cuts of your film to an audience, tell me more about this.

PE: Yes, I have used this program many times for feedback and possible help from another film production group, where we have shared opinions about each others movies. We have also received feedback from an older audience and younger. We have used this program to interact with ages ranging from 14 - 40+ years. This has helped us immensely and has shown us just how important it is to engage with an audience. It's how we will sell our product after all.

*person walks in and starts messing about trying to "steal" the show. Messes about and is overall silly, PE ignores everything going on behind him*

I: I think someone has walked in..

PE: Don't worry about him/her s/he always does this..

I: ok... Anyways, you mention how social media is a great way to market your film, there surely must be other opportunities you can offer us.

PE: Yes, generating hype is one thing however, it is useless if no one knows about the film. For this we would need a professional company who are willing to take the financial risk to market our movie, henceforth the distributor comes into play. As this is an indie company I am applying to, therefore we would have to be realistic and try to find a distributor who not only specialises in our genre, but also one who is willing to take that risk as said before. This could be very hard for this company at times as we would most likely make micro-budget movies with a more social realist genre than your typical americanised, over stereotyped hollywood movie. I mean we don't want the same to happen like our competitors warp and their movie Tyrannosaur haha.

I: That's quite good, i'm impressed, however how would we even get noticed? What happens if wouldn't get any distribution?

*person gets bored and walks out*

PE: This can happen too but that only means we have to work harder to get our movie to the right company.. no biggie. First we would need to try and get screenings everywhere and we would most definitely want to screen in London, TIFF, Sundance and other famous film festivals. A simple screening in London could show our movie to lots of distributors who might be interested in taking us. However, if this fails we would try and distribute onto Amazon, Netflix and even Hulu. Getting onto Amazon and Hulu isn't as difficult as Netflix. On Netflix we need to be nominated onto the "Queue demand" list, meaning we will already have needed to market our film. Amazon and Hulu we can use an aggregator, where we pay a small fee and they will immensely help our chances to getting onto both services.

I: And if all else fails, then what?

*Person returns with cutting board and starts cutting cucumbers in the background, the proceeds to eat them very loudly*

PE: I would try getting financing from financing companies such as FILM4 or even get government grants. This has been used in the past and would benefit us. *under breath* excuse me could you plese be quiet!

I: (Awkardly waits a few seconds) Alright, I'm very impressed with you so far, you seem like a valid candidate. I will get back to you within 4 weeks and we will create a contract. Thank you for your time!

PE: Thank you, look forward to see what happens! Goodbye!

I: Bye!

*0.5 seconds before the call ends PE turns around violently and is in a threatening stance*

Wednesday 21 March 2018

CS MUSIC: How it was produced

MUSIC How it was produced

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Here I have made a podcast explaining how music was created and how we ran into a problem.

I was influenced from Psycho which had this sinister non - diegetic background music during the establishing shots which gave a creey feeling to the music.

Here is the music we are using:
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The above video is me showing the keyboard setup with notes to guide me since I am a beginner.

Saturday 17 March 2018

VODCAST 7: Deconstruction of Tess of D'Urbevilles

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A deconstruction of the opening of Tess of D'Urbevilles, we analyse the cinematography (Camera/ lighting), Mise-en-scene and sound.

Thursday 8 March 2018

EVAL Proposed Deadlines

Comprehensive convention research:
11th March

Industry research (Technology, distribution, budgets, box office, production strategy):
14th March

Q3: Carpooling (Shared) - film 13th March
15th March

Planning for all shoots, (tagging, links lists, flaws like small text, lack of illustration, lack of sub-headings):
17th March

Q2: Job Interview
21st March

Full rough cut with titles + sound/music:
24th March

Q4: Launch event for new product
24th March

Audience research (Feedback and response):
28th March

Q1: Game show
30th March

Final cut:
31st March

Wednesday 7 March 2018

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Titles



Here is some audience feedback from teenagers aged 14-15 on the titles we have used in our rough cut. Most of them have mixed opinions but each are backed up with reasons that we will consider.


We have chosen to use the font HAUNT and for general titles and WHO ASKS SATAN as the main titles. Having taken all audience feedback, both written and oral, into account, these were the two obvious choices and it was also the personal preference for the majority of our group. A rough cut will be uploaded soon with all the titles present.

Tuesday 6 March 2018

EVAL Reflecting on Creative Approaches

CIE AS EVALUATION QUESTIONS



Q1a: how you used or challenged CONVENTIONS
Q1b: REPRESENTATIONS of social groups/issues
Q2a: how you engaged with AUDIENCES
Q2b: how might it achieve DISTRIBUTION
Q3: DEVELOPMENT of production skills throughout the entire process
Q4: how you integrated TECHNOLOGIES (software, hardware, online) in the project

Creative Approaches for the questions:

Q1: CONVENTIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS

    Game show/ Quiz show 

  • Who wants to be a millionaire 
  • Can be for all questions but would need a duration of 5 - 10 mins 
  • Would contain ad breaks which would answer Q4 
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Q2: AUDIENCES AND DISTRIBUTION

    Job Interview 

  • Over Skype for a position at a distribution company. 
  • Can be used for all of question 1 and 2 
  • Can include funny situations from other interviews (e.g. children walking in) 
  • Covers Q1 and Q2

     Chat show 

  • Ellen show type 
  • Will have some different activities e.g. "funny texts" or apps on the phone" 
  • Can be a lot of social media interaction, good for audience and distribution 
...

...

Q3: DEVELOPMENT

    YouTube vlogger 

  • behind the scenes
  • some information on problems and how we've dealt.
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     Carpooling interview 
  • Picked up by a friend who will drive around and ask us questions while there will sometimes be music and singing 
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Q4: TECHNOLOGIES


    Drama skit 

  • Make actors become tools in Final Cut and do a skit on someone editing using the actors to do their tools. 

    Advert 

  • Mockery ads 
  • Simple ad for software we used 
  • detailed ad for how "amazing" the screenshot tool is 
  • etc. 
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    Launch event 

  • Premiere release of a new tech 
  • New final cut or "blogger 2.0" 
  • Parody of the tech used, a bit like the advert
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Saturday 3 March 2018