Signing off!

I wanted to sign off my blog by adding a image from the program Wordle which I have used to create a word cloud with words about Lucid and about how the experience of creating Lucid was.

I have also taken a vlog of myself summing up what I have done in this AS project and about what I enjoyed and learnt whilst doing this. 

Evaluation - Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

Above is  a short clip I have taken of myself editing our footage in Final Cut Pro, to do this I used a program called 'ishowu' which enables you to record anything on the screen that you are doing so that you can easily show someone how you can do things on screen. I have never used this program before but I thought that I should give it a try to see what the outcome was like and I think that it was very effective because you are able to see how I went about editing, it is easier to watch something than try to explain it. 

During the process of creating my film opening I have used a number of different technologies to help me every step of the way through pre-production, production, and post-production. Firstly, in order to help to research film openings and to gather immediate information about genre and audiences ect, I used search engines such as Google and Yahoo which are connected to the world wide web so I can access loads of information world wide in seconds. 

In terms of production, the main technology that we used  were the  JVC cameras that the college lent out to us. We had to be extremely careful with these camera as they cost a lot of money, roughly around one and a half thousand to two thousand pounds each. If we were to break the camera then we must pay for it so it is very important not to be careless, we must be very vigilant when using them. Other safety aspects that we had to consider when out filming with these cameras is that it might rain. England is renowned for its unpredictable rainy weather, therefore we had to be prepared in case there was a shower so we carried an umbrella with us at all times; plus our location was at Jayne's house so we could have just gone inside if it starts to rain. We also had to use batteries in order to power the camera so these were important as well so we always had to remember to carry a spare one with us in case the current battery ran out. Another piece of equipment used when filming were the tripods, these were important as they can be used if the camera becomes too heavy to hold and when doing moving shots, using the tripod could be a good idea. It is risky doing moving camera work hand held as you might trip over something and this could result in someone getting seriously hurt, therefore where possible it is good to use a tripod. At the beginning of the year the only type of camera I had ever used was a basic hand held one, so this project enabled me to learn how to use the professional JVC ones. Below are some images of the main camera man Gustavo using the camera.

Next we had to use more technologies in order to edit the footage together. The main program that we used was Final Cut Pro which is an advanced editing program used by professionals. The clip above from 'ishowu' demonstrates how to use Final Cut Pro. I have learnt skills on this program like how to cut certain parts off of the footage that I don't want to be there. I have also learnt the importance of rendering the footage so that it can be saved in the correct format ready to be uploaded as a video. Another technology I have learnt how to use is Soundtrack Pro which is a program used to edit and compose music on. I first tried out using this in the prelim and I discovered that they're many sounds that you can choose from in the sound bank which are excellent and you can create almost any sounds and music that you want. We also created some Foley sounds of our own in 'Lucid' by recording them using a normal flip camera and then uploading onto to Final Cut Pro and editing them into the footage which worked very well. 

In terms of post-production, we had to distribute our film. We used many online websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Vimeo to do this as these are commonly used websites by our target audience which are teenagers so this will target them perfectly. We also had our film opening realised in a cinema screening in 2D so this technology was important to get our film out there for the audience to consume. As we can see all of the different technologies flow together in order to help make the final product. Here is a list of the most important technologies in 'Lucid':

- Google

- JVC camera

- Final Cut Pro

- Soundtrack Pro

- Vimeo

All of these technologies in turn have played their part in the creation of 'Lucid' and they are all as important as each other as they all do different jobs but they combine together to make an excellent product.

Overall I have learnt many things about technology like how to use them efficiently in order to get good results. But by far I see that this is the most important part of any production as without the developed technologies that we have in this day and age we wouldn't be able to make such great films that are out there. The USP of 'Lucid' is also based around technology as the main character is being controlled by technology as he receives coded messages to his phone that tell him what to do. Therefore I feel that technologies are very important in general for film production but also directly for 'Lucid' as it is a very key part of the plot. 

Evaluation - Question 5 (Part 2)

I have reached my target audience in a number of different ways. Firstly, on Tuesday 20th March 2012, at 12:30pm, our film opening 'Lucid' was shown at its first cinema screening. In the audience were about a hundred and sixty teenagers about the ages of 16-18 which fits into our target audience age range perfectly as 'Lucid' is rated a 15. The audience reactions were very important to observe as this well give a direct view of the audience's instant reactions to it before they have time to stop and think over what they thought about it in their heads. Throughout the cinema there was silence as the music began to play and you could feel the tension building up in the atmosphere for the big killing scene. At the end we hear the killers final words 'I'm sorry' and the audience seemed rather confused about why he would be saying this after he had just killed someone. I think that this was actually a good thing because it will make the audience to want to watch on to find out why he saying those words. 

I have also reached my audience through a number of online websites such as Facebook, Youtube and Vimeo. Our film opening was uploaded onto all three of these sites because these are common places that our target audience of teenagers and young adults would visit when they are surfing the internet. We have had some peoples comments on Facebook about what they thought about our opening when we posted it on the social networking site. Below is a screen shot taken from Facebook. 

As we can see several people have commented on and 'liked' our film opening. We posted this on Facebook a few days after the cinema screening to see what other teenagers that weren't at the cinema screening thought about it. These people have given some useful feedback about what they thought. Again, someone mentions the final line of 'I'm sorry' in 'Lucid'. They also mention that this 'leaves the mind wondering'. This reiterates to me that this line is a very vital thing included in 'Lucid' because it makes the audience confused and they want their questions to be answered. I have learnt that this dialogue attracted the audience and now they are hooked and if we were to make the actual film I have no doubt that they would want to watch it. 

ROUGH CUT:

From creating the rough cut, I realised that there were a few things that I needed to change about it in order to make it more appealing and gratifying for the audience. Firstly, in the rough cut there was no music added yet as we were in the process of choosing and creating it. Therefore I feel that the rough cut didn't have the necessary suspense needed to make our opening extra special because most of this is created via the music. As I have learnt from doing a recent interview with a member of the target audience who had just watched the final version of 'Lucid', the sound was a very important aspect of this. She claims that the music gave her 'goosebumps and chills' and this is what I was hoping to do by using a 'simple but effective' creepy piano tune so it wasn't big and dramatic, it would still build the suspense but draw the audience in to it. We edited our chosen music by creating fade in and outs where necessary in order to create tension and to make the music peak when the footage climaxes. 

The feedback that was given to us also included us not having clear difference between the killing scene and the flash backs. We use crosscutting here as the two scenes flow side by side as we see Mark going to kill Jayne and also flashbacks of him writing on the post-it note. We added more effects like Cross dissolves to show the difference and quick sharp cuts which help build the pace and show the sharp devision between the scenes. I think that doing this will make our opening  clear and understandable for the audience and that is our main aim as lucid is defined as clear and understandable so we have tried to make every aspect of our opening reflect this too. 

The feedback was given to us by our teachers so that they  can guide us in the right direction but also from my AS class and this was good because they are all in the age range of 16-18 which hits the target audience perfectly; so I listened very carefully to their thoughts and feelings about Lucid and I then employed their feedback into finalising Lucid to make it ideal for the target audience. Gathering this feedback was vital as I wouldn't have known if I was on the right tracks to making something that will gratify my audience if I hadn't of got it. It helped me to understand where I want wring as because it was only the rough cut I still had time to edit it further and finalise it. 

Evaluation - Question 5 (Part 1)

Q5

Interviewer name: Amber Ryder

Interviewee name: Orrie Jimack

Interviewee age: Sixteen

Interviewee gender: Female

As one can see I have interviewed my best friend Orrie after she watched our film opening 'Lucid'.

I asked her a variety of questions ranging from generally what she thought of it to more in-depth questions such as 'what was the music like' and 'what did you think of the location'. I wanted to ask these types of questions so that I could understand clearly what my target audience thought of our opening, I didn't want a short answer just saying briefly what she thought, therefore I pushed her for in-depth answers which she gave concisely. I am now able to understand properly what aspects of my opening appealed to my target audience thanks to this in-depth interview I have had. Orrie was aged sixteen, this fits into my target audience age range as our opening was rated a 15. I expected people between 15-21 to be interested in our film because it is not appropriate for anyone under that age of 15 because it contains extreme violence and killing scenes which can scare younger children. Orrie is a female and she enjoyed the opening, she said 'personally I am a teenager so I like action films' this shows that in general she is attracted to action films and therefore the genre of our opening appeals to teenagers. I want our opening to be suspenseful and creepy which Orrie thinks was created well as she says 'The music gave me goosebumps and chills' therefore this reiterates to me that we have done a good job with our music in general to create tension and suspense like I aimed to do. I enjoyed interviewing Orrie and her feedback was very helpful for me to understand what we have done well and what attracts the audience to our opening. 

Evaluation - Question 4

Evaluation - Question 3 (Part 2)

In the titles of my film opening one will observe that the production company that I have used to create the film was Candi Studios which is an independent company. Independent companies are small and usually have a low budget for the film which means that Lucid does not have excessive amounts of money pumped into it. In terms of the production the low budget didn't effect much because our film is simple and clear therefore it doesn't need to use many special effects which a lot of money would be spent on in other films. From looking into the film Paranormal Activity I have learnt that when the first film was made they had an extremely low budget of $15,000 however this did not stop them from making a extremely successful film as they made $193,355,800 in the box office. I have faith in Lucid and I feel that even though we had a low budget it can be very successful like Paranormal Activity is.

A slight negative of using Candi Studios would again be the budget because we would have to focus on local distribution. Local distribution is very limited as it is only within your town or city because there is not much money to make it go further outside of here. The types of distribution are global, national and local. It would be nice to be able to go global as with this we would be able to get a bigger audience and therefore sell more. We hope to start off with locational distribution and then for our film to be spotted, perhaps by people from conglomerate distributions companies so they can help us out with distribution globally. We would go to film festivals where there will be loads of people there that can have links to conglomerates. There are five main conglomerates within the media are these are; Universal Studios, Time Warner, Walt Disney, News Corporation and Viacom. These companies are so huge and powerful that they own 95% of the media in the world. The other 5% is made up of small independent companies such as Candi Studios. 

The positive side of choosing Candi Studios is that because it is not owned by a conglomerate, they can do what they like with out being controlled and told what to do. They do not have to follow any standardised format or layout for production or post-production, they can go about it however they like. This means that Candi Studios has much more creative flexibility than a conglomerate would have. I am very happy with my choice of Candi Studios as having more creative flexibility means that you can make your feel with a personal touch. For me, the positives weighted out the negatives for Candi Studios this is why I was very happy choosing it. The outcome meant that I could have a different unique film that is like no other produced by a conglomerate because I had more say in the creation of it and this made it a more personal film. 

We used viral marketing for Lucid through social networking site such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. With the limited budget this was the main way that we marketed. These social networking sites are very popular with teenagers and young adults today so I thought that this was a good way to market as this will directly reach our target audience. I put adverts on Facebook which appear in the side bar when you are using the site so that people will see it instantly when they sign in and it will catch their eye so they will remember our film. And then when they see it appear for the cinema they would be more likely to know about it and watch it. Therefore I felt that this was a very good way to distribute so we solely focused our marking on this. However, as seen in the previous post, I also decided to distribute Lucid through magazines. This was very successful too as the magazine was targeted at teenagers so they are likely to read it and therefore see our film promoted on it. If they like the magazine then they will trust its judgment and be more likely to go and watch the film. These ways of marketing didn't cost a lot of money, they were simple but effective. 

Evaluation - Question 3 (Part 1)

I have decided to create a magazine cover that promotes my film 'Lucid'. I used Photoshop to do this however this was my first time using Photoshop so my skills are not excellent. The title of the magazine is 'Teen Dream Magazine' which will be a magazine directly aimed at teenagers so this will reach my target audience perfectly. This magazine will be distributed in local corner shops so that teenagers can pick them up easily and in big major super markets for loads of people to see. The magazine is about current films and music in the charts which many teenagers are interested in so they are likely to read this magazine. 'Lucid' takes up the front cover so that it will be the first thing that you will see. I have added a picture of Mark so the audience can instantly see the main character and next to him i wrote "Hollywood's new hottest actor" which will attract people to watch it if this man is going to become a big hit in Hollywood. I used bring eye catching colours like the yellows and blues in the title so that people will easily notice it because it stands out. Another thing that will attract the audience is because I added a positive review from The Sun Newspaper and this is a company that many people trust so they will trust the judgement for 'Lucid' and watch it. Distribution is a very important thing to think about because the distribution attracts the audience, and without any audience, you don't have a film. 

Evaluation - Question 2

Representation on Prezi

evaluation - Question 1 (Part 3)

Evaluation - Question 1 (Part 2)

Evaluation - Question 1 (Part 1)

Comments from the crew of 'Lucid'

Mood board

Here is a mood board that I have created by printing pictures off of the computer and sticking them down to a piece of A4 paper. I then scanned this on to the computer and was then able to upload it to the blog. The images that I have collected are all images that are things related to our film opening LUCID. Here we can see pictures of knives, mobile phones, computers, blood and maps. 

Knives are the main props used in LUCID as this is the murder weapon. We can also see devices and mobile phones which are relevant as the man is supposed to be controlled by a device. There are some images here featuring houses and exterior places like a garden which I added here because these are the kind of locations we will use in our film opening. There will be footage taken inside the killers house which looks like a normal home from the outside, and the garden is important too as this is the place where the killing takes place. 

I feel that the general mood of the mood board is violence and pain due to the knives and blood. Violence is a big part of our film opening as the man is very violent because he has to go around killing people and also pain is relevant as his victims will be in a lot of pain, therefore I feel that the mood board gives off the correct vibes that I wanted it to give off that are the same as the mood of our film opening LUCID. 

Film openings that have inspired me 2

This embedded video above is of the 1988 film "Enemy of the State". I like this film opening because it uses a Traditional film opening structure but has been stylised as well. I like the idea of using a standardised structure but stylising it to make it original and our own so its personal to us, and this is something I'd like to do in my real film opening. I believe that a Traditional film opening would be good because the audience are used to that kind of opening and they would feel comfortable watching it because they know what they expect from the opening and we are able to introduce all the necessary things that we need to in an organised way. However making this a bit stylised will be a good thing so it can be a contemporary opening.
I liked how in this film opening the titles are in a clear modern font. I think using a modern font will be a good thing so that the audience know that is not an old fashioned boring movie, it is modern and it will be interesting and this is something I would like to use in my film opening. Also, the font it written in the colour white which is clear and makes it easy for everyone to read which would be a good thing to do in our film opening.

Film openings that have inspired me

Above is an embedded video of the opening of a film called "Deja vu". I have focused on the first 3 minutes of this title sequence as the whole video is 10 minutes long and it is not necessary to analyse the full 10 minutes as the titles are only shown with in the first 3 minutes. I think that this length of time is  good for a title sequence as it is not to long and not to short and it enables the audience to get ready and be in the mind set for the film to start. I would like our film opening to perhaps be around the length of 3 minutes as well.
I like this film opening because the titles appear on the screen over the footage as it plays and they are written in a clear legible font. This is how I would like our film opening to be like because I feel that he footage should play along so the audience don't get board and the titles should come on top of it. In this title sequence the names of the cast are shown on screen as the characters appear and i think this is a very good thing to do so we know who the characters are. This is something we could consider putting in our film opening as it is a great way to introduce a character.

Intertextuality in LUCID

In our film opening LUCID we decided to use some intertexuality. For example, in the movie 'The Stepfather' there is a shot where there are many knives lined up neatly on a kitchen counter. We decided to use something like this in our opening as you can see in the screen shot below. We used some knives and lined them up on the kitchen counter, however we covered them in fake blood so it looks like those knives have already been used to kill someone. One the right hand side at the end there is one clear knife which foreshadows that the knife will soon be used like the other ones have been. I think it is very important to be inspired by other films as many of them hold excellent ideas which we can borrow and use in our film opening to make it extra good.

First day of filming - on set pictures

Above are some on set pictures that we took on our first day of filming before we actually started to shoot. As you can see the first 4 shots are of the interior rooms that we are going to use such as the kitchen, work surfaces and the corridor and also the exterior of the back garden which we are going to film the killing scene in. Taking these pictures helps us to plan out where we are going to place the characters and the props ect. We will be able to dictate where we want to put things by looking at these pictures. We are happy with our chosen set as it has all the things that we wanted to have such as the dining table, work surfaces and then garden area.

Representation

In our film opening of LUCID it is important to think of the representation of the characters we are going to be featuring. Firstly, the man who is going to be played by Mark needs to act forceful and strong and in control as he dominates the woman. This will be a stereotype as in a parochial society men dominate women and he will be big and strong and able to control the woman. However, there is also a counter type used here as the man is being controlled by a device. The man is at the devices will and he cannot do anything to get out of its control. This is a counter type as men are not usually supposed to be controlled by anything, however here the man is under full control of this device. The representation of the woman is a stereotype as she is innocent and helpless in the situation. The man dominates the woman and she can't control what is happening to her and she is weak and defenceless. This is a stereotype of women as they are not known to be violent therefore she doesn't fight back, there is nothing she can do here. The audience may aspire to be like the man as he is brave and in full control of situations which a boy might aspire to be like. Some women may be able to relate to the situation that the woman is in of feeling scared and helpless. This may attract the audience as if they can relate to a feeling that one of the characters have felt before then they might like to watch it more.

The 2010 film "Salt" directed by Phillip Noyce is a perfect example of representation. The main character is played by Angelina Jolie, a famous Hollywood female actress. This film was originally written for a male protagonist with Tom Cruise chosen for the main character. However Cruise could not persist with filming therefore the script had to be rewritten to fit the role of having a female main character which was portrayed by Angelina Jolie. This is a counter type used as now the woman has become the lead and she is in control and the strong heroic one through out the film. This may lead to girls aspiring to be like Jolie's character as she is a strong independent woman who is in control of things that go on. 

Location for filming

Here is a screen shot of the map of where we will be filming for our opening of LUCID. We are filming at Jayne's house as it is accessible for all of the group members to get to and we can use her kitchen for the interior scene and her garden for the exterior ones. She lives at number 2 Ferrestone Road which is in Hornsey, Haringey. As you can see on the map, there is a railway station close by which is called Hornsey station and this is good because then the group can easily travel there.