Evaluation - Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel like I have progressed massively, as now I feel that I can use all the equipment correctly and to a high "professional" standard, and can now edit my footage together much more smoothly without any gaps. I have also learnt how to record sound to a much higher standard and how to edit out background noise, as this was an issue in our preliminary task as you could hear the ticking/buzzing noise of the camera over the top of the dialogue.

The filming quality in our preliminary task was also low quality as it was shaky (as we didn't know how to move the tripod correctly) and the footage was often completely out of focus or slightly blurry, as you can see from the image below. In contrast my final product is of a very high quality and all the footage is clear and flows smoothly, which we ensured through re-filming any clips that didn't meet the standards we expected, as you can also see in the image below.

 I have also learnt to focus on the acting and make sure it appears as professional as possible, as in our preliminary task the actresses laughed when they were first introduced to each other, which created an unprofessional finish as it was supposed to be a serious and sinister scene which was then contradicted by the laughter (as you can see underneath).

I also think that I have progressed with the non-diegetic sound, as the music we used in the preliminary task didn't completely suit the footage we used, and when we edited it to fade out when the dialogue began it was a very abrupt change, which created a jittery and sharp finish, whereas in my final product we researched the music over a longer period of time to ensure we chose the best music we could find that was copyright free and best suited our footage.

Preliminary Task:

Final Piece:

Evaluation - Question 6

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

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be teenagers and young adults (approximately aged between 15 and 25) as I discovered from my questionnaire which I created in my planning before the construction of my product. The majority of the people I surveyed answered that they did enjoy thriller films and also fit into this age category, whereas adults aged between 40 and 50 usually had a common dislike for thriller films. The majority of thriller films are also rated age 15 and over due to disturbing storylines and images that could be inappropriate for younger age groups, and often films in the psychological thriller genre feature intellectual and thought provoking narratives that require a more mature audience, so these films are targeted towards young adults rather than teenagers.

Personally, I think that teenagers between the age of 15 and 20 would watch my media product as they are a relatable age to the characters featured in the product, and would be intrigued by the narrative enigma of the reasons behind the anonymous caller and the mysterious male character are seeking revenge on the female character, who is seemingly innocent and vulnerable and doesn't appear to be capable of committing a crime or act of cruelty. As the film clip is modern and features the use of modern technology and ideas, teenagers and young adults would typically be more interested in watching the film than those belonging to an older target group, as the props and storylines will be more relevant to a younger viewer's lifestyle than a much older viewer.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2 Evaluation (final version) from chloe mar-gerrison

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Final Edit - Mark My Words

Mark My Words

Editing 19/01/2016

19/01/2016

In this media lesson Izzy and I continued the editing of our final piece and managed to add in the clips we re-filmed on Sunday. The editing process took slightly longer than we anticipated as we discovered the sound effects and music had moved out of sequence when we imported the new footage, so we had to make sure all the clips were correctly sequenced together and then re-import all the sound clips to make sure they matched up with the correct clips at the right time. We then changed our original font for our credits and titles (as advised by our teacher) to a more interesting and sinister font to reinforce the thriller genre.

Re-Filming 17/01/2016

Re-Filming 17/01/2016

Izzy and I decided to re-film some of our footage on Sunday 17th January for our deadline on the 21st, as certain clips from our draft edit were out of focus and would lower our overall grade if they were used in our final piece. We worked efficiently in our extremely short time period and managed to re-film all 3 clips to a high quality without any continuity errors that could've occurred from filming the original clips and the new clips so far apart.

The clips we refilmed:

Plans for Re-Filming

Re-Filming

Izzy and I have planned to refilm a few clips for our final piece on the 17th of January at Charlotte's house in her bedroom. We need to refilm the clip that shows the female character painting her nails, and the footage of the extreme close up on the female character's eye as these clips are both slightly out of focus which creates an unprofessional finish. We also need to create a soundscape of a few ambient noises to create a more polished and enhanced audio. This will include the sound effects of the door creaking open and the phone vibrating as the female character receives an anonymous call.

Audience Feedback for Draft

Audience Feedback


Izzy and I uploaded our draft video on to Youtube for our final piece on the 10th December 2015, and have since received a variety of different views and opinions from our target audience and our media teacher. Our teacher has created a page on google classroom for each group where she can send us feedback and constructive criticism, which has been helpful throughout this process as we can take her advice and ideas into consideration and feature some of them in our work.
Our teacher mentioned that she feels the male character's entrance is slightly cliché and that he isn't essential to the narrative, however this conflicts with feedback we have received from other students and our target audience who believe that his part in the narrative creates lots of tension and suspense and is a strong feature in our footage. Izzy and I reiterate this and believe that Matt's character is necessary to the narrative as his lack of dialogue and sudden entrance adds to the thriller theme of the footage and also adds a narrative enigma as his character is anonymous and mysterious.
Our teacher also disliked the music we have included in our footage as it's "too sinister" for the beginning of our thriller, however Izzy and I have tried a variety of other music clips and the other clips don't work as well with our final piece. We also believe that the music we have chosen creates lots of atmosphere and suspense, which our target audience and multiple students in our class have agreed with.
Our media teacher also suggested we refilm the nail varnish scene and the extreme close up on my eye as they're slightly out of focus, which Izzy and I agree with and are planning to film some time next week to amend this as soon as possible.

7th January 2016 - Editing

07/01/2016


Today Izzy and I continued our editing of our final piece in our first media lesson back in college after the Christmas break. We worked efficiently and effectively today, and managed to include all the titles and credits we were previously missing, and fixed the slight issues with the audio that we had encountered. We also included the whipsery voice overs we'd previously been missing, which really helps to create a more tense and anxious atmosphere for the audience.
We now just need to refilm the out of focus footage, and include the flashing images of the doll, plus we would like to include some extra sound effects such as the door creaking as it opens and the phone vibrating as it rings to enhance the audio.

Construction - Editing

Construction - Editing

Izzy and I began to edit our thriller opening on Thursday 10th December in our media class at college, on the Abobe Premiere Pro editing software. We worked effectively as a team and managed to complete all our editing for the first draft in 3 hours as we stayed behind after college for an extra hour to make sure all the clips were smoothly edited together and transitioned well before exporting the video and uploading it to YouTube.
We decided that we wanted our footage to be in black and white as this created a more tense atmosphere and appearance as the connotations of black and white are often associated with negativity and anonymity. We managed to also include some non-diegetic music in the background of our footage to create a tense atmosphere full of suspense which gradually builds as the narrative unfolds.
In our next editing session we need to include our production titles and credits to create a more polished and professional look, and we also need to incorporate the whipsery voice overs into the clips which will reinforce the tense mood. However before we do this Izzy and I need to refilm certain parts of the footage as some of the clips were slightly out of focus, and we also will need to add in the flashing images of the Barbie Doll's face.