A2 Final Short Film January 2010- I.C.U

Final A2 Film Production
This is the final A2 short five minute film. Having finishing the A2 stage of creating a short film I had a great experience in working with the new editing software, different type of cast and crew. Learning new skills and developing from old skills at both AS and A2 stages has now left me at the point where I feel that I have the ability to go and create my own short film. I now feel truly comfortable with all new media technology and am firmiliar with all the different aspects in making a film.

AS Final Opening Sequence 2009

Final AS Opening Sequence..
From both AS and A2 stages of production a lot of changes were made and mistakes made at AS were made sure that they were not carried out at A2 looking at the AS production and A2 there are a lot of elements of the film that you could compare and see a improvement.

Question 3- New Draft

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback
In order to create a successful media product I have learnt through all 3 stages of production that audience feedback is very vital; it’s like gold dust. It’s very crucial to hear what your audience need to say about any media product produced as they are our only king. Us as film makers or any type of media product producers in order to make a successful film we need to fulfil our target auidences pleasures of predictability and know what they want and expect from the film or media product. At the early stages of pre production during creating our pitch, we were asked to read it out to the class allowing us to seek some feedback. The class feedback gave us so much interpretation on how to make changes to the first pitch and was able to ask our audience any questions about the pitch that was not conceived correctly such as, "how are you going to give audience insight into characters personality and background", "during the flashback are you going to show the two characters Johnny and Marie together" and "how does your story link in with the colour red". All questions were answered up to best standards by group members and myself so that there was no confusion with the audience and the pitch, "the key to showing Alfie’s character will be through flashbacks as his jealousy will show his motivation for his actions. We get an insight of Marie's character in the opening scene when there is a conversation between her and the other character Johnny regarding Alfie’s possessiveness. From this we learn of her need of independence and some freedom, as her cheating shows her rebellious side towards Alfie. Johnny's character is seen as womanising and moral-less through his behaviour towards Marie showing his selfishness, showing he is use to getting his own way. The question asked about Marie and Johnny occurring in the flashback was also answered in perfection, "In the flashback we also see Johnny and Marie together so the audience gets a taste of their relationship that progresses. We will show them by walking into classes together or perhaps a little flirtatious bond, so the fling is a prompted idea for the audience yet not a definite. Lastly our story links in with the colour as "the colour red firstly links through the theme of lust and sexuality. This is shown in the relationship between Marie and Johnny’s characters. The fire that takes place is also key to our “red” theme. Also, the aggression and anger of Alfie’s character and his motivation to seek revenge also expresses our “red” theme. From this audience feedback I was then able to adapt what the audience said to create the second pitch and made sure it was created to what the audience expected.The second stage of pre production was to construct the ideal script in order to move on to the storyboard and the next stages of pre production such as mood board of the world of our film, photo storyboard, location recce, cast list, prop list and so on. After receiving audience feedback on the script, "firstly the first scene in the lab contains a lot of dialogue and not a lot of visual. So think about how to cut this down and include more action to tell the story. Remember that is what good cinematography is about as well. avoid too much dialogue and think of more interesting ways to show the characters and narrative development" other comments were made too such as "same comments for scene 4 - too much dialogue", we were then suggested to watch more films relating with the same genre so that we can overcome this problem and gain more experience to write an ultimate script and permit me to take in consideration my target audience and from this feedback I also learnt that in order to create a successful film the script has to be perfect. Following on from the script we then moved on to the storyboard, the feedback gained from this, "there are not enough cut away/safety shots and in order to show more character development and motivation we need another quick, fast, snappy scene in the flashback. From this feedback I learnt that it is very crucial to have safety/cut away shots so that during production and post production there would be enough back up shots in case of an emergency so it prevents us from re-shooting.
Later then we moved on to the second stage, production which was producing our 5 minute film. This then leaded us into the third stage, post production. During post production while editing our film there was a lot of crucial feedback made specifically towards scene 1 our audience made us realise that when one of the character Marie, screamed it was too sudden and the was nothing shown to trigger her off to react like that and this caused the diegetic sound, dialogue not to match the image creating are very contrapuntal effect which we did not tend to achieve. Another aspect of scene 1 which was also looking out of place, was at the start of the film we as a group intended to create a pan to establish the setting and add a shook when noticing character Alfie on the camera to add a effective look and imply that the character should not be there, however after reviewing this part of scene 1 the target audience added that there’s no point of the shook "as it just seems to look like a camera movement error". This allowed us to fulfil target audience expectations and from this I learnt that we as film makers need to take into account that if we need to apply an effective touch to the film it needs to show significance and it should be clear and understanding towards the audience.
The last and final type of feedback was received when I created the posters to help promote our film. Overall three posters were made and there was a lot essential feedback given, when in progress of creating the first poster a lot of target audience pin pointed that the taglines on the poster "needs to be re-arranged and the red in the protagonist eye is not relevant", however the poster also had positive feedback such as, "the characters Marie and Johnny in the background look very effective with the blurred touch to show that they are not the main focus but still have a crucial part to play in the film". After developing the poster further and adding on the final touches the poster was created and received great feedback, After hearing awesome positive feedback from the audience I as the poster designer felt that the second poster would have to look more unexpected leaving the audience gasped and astonished, in development of the second poster many effects, layers and artistic brushes were used on Adobe Photoshop to help me gain exactly what was in my mind. I then received all positive feedback like, "the poster looks very professional and appealing, the cracks in the wall add the thriller atmosphere and the target audience adding how you could clearly see a house style between the 2 posters and how it is very mysterious and doesn't give away too much". The final poster was then created, as seen this poster had a lot of work to do and needed more work and was "naturally unfinished", using this feedback it automatically forced me to work on the poster and not let me audience down on what they expected so later on that same day the final third poster was created which were I just wanted the protagonist of the film to appear on it and this also had gained an remarkable feedback, "the poster shows that it is finished, looks very formal and proficient.
Overall like mentioned before any type of feedback is very important even if its from the most basic thing mentioned to any positive points made, this allows us as film makers to accomplish our target audiences expectations and needs.

Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

All 3 media products have a relationship between each other and work together to promote the film. The stage in which the film is promoted is, first it sells itself using the posters created to target the audience about the featuring film, the posters font, colours, tagline, title and the location of where the poster is placed helps the audience to acknowledge that the film is ready to be seen and sells itself to the target audience who are interested in the genre of thriller/suspense. The posters use colours such as reds, blacks, greys and oranges to add the fiery, mysterious, suspense and tension building atmosphere towards the target audience who are interested in the thriller genre it also works with the film as the film uses dark and dull colours in its cinematography to add in the psycho, corrupted touch towards the characters motivation in the story. The font style and title "I.C.U", also has a great influence to help make all 3 media products work together. The style of font was used from website http://www.urbanfonts.com/ named psycho, the creepy, loony looking font style works very well with the characters motivation and development in the storyline of the film helping it create the mad, demented atmosphere to the film and poster. The title I.C.U is very convincing as it has a double meaning, the effect of this leads the audience eager to know what the film is about as I.C.U stands for abbreviation of "I See You" and at the same time means "intensive care unit" which are located in the hospitals and as seen in the film there’s a serious accident that takes place and relates to it. Linking in with the title the tagline also has a very energetic effect towards the poster, "who do you see because... I.C.U" as the film is based upon a creepy character that had a very disturbed background causing him to stalk his own girlfriend leading him to kill. This shows the thriller aspect of the storyline and interests that type of audience. The location of where the poster would be placed in order to promote itself definitely had to be taken in consideration as the poster wouldn’t be placed in a high saturated fitness suite as it wouldn't appeal to that type of target audience as their interests and hobbies would vary to someone who is interested in the thriller genre. Therefore our poster would be promoted in places such as back ally ways, billboards in rough neighbourhoods etc... Places such as the common room as the age group we are targeting our film at lie here. The film uses dull dark colours such as greys and blacks like mentioned before which are seen in scenes 2 and 5 this therefore triggers again the target audience who are interested in the thriller genre as you wouldn't expect to see high bright saturated colours. In scene 3 and 4 the flashbacks, this shows a real connection between the film and the poster as flashbacks use the black and white effect which is shown throughout the posters, here you can clearly see how both the film and poster work together to create that house style and I feel the audience would immediately when watching the film relate back to the movie poster and identify that they come from the same film.The film review also works as one of the family members towards the film and the posters, the final stage of when releasing a film is to then review it and express how you felt about the film and as the target audience if it met your expectations. We decided to review our film in "independent critics” magazine" as it focuses on giving brief reviews from different view points. It shows a multiple of reviews on one page films from all different kinds of genres this shows that all kinds of ages are targeted by this specific magazine and this would help still promote our film onto other media products such as DVD'S, blue ray, internet, video on demand, sky/ntl and then eventually on T.V, even though some people may feel that after reviewing a film on to a magazine/newspaper that’s the end but the effect of this still leads into continuous promotion and making the public aware more about your film and to those who are interested into thriller films.Statistics also show that the UK population visit the cinemas at an 8th ranking out of 78 countries.

Question 1

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

My final media product I.C.U falls under the genre of thriller, aimed at the age group of 15 up wards. I.C.U's relationship plot line is based upon 3 characters which use forms and conventions from various TV series and films "Gossip Girl", the love triangle between characters Blair, Chuck and Nate are very similar to the Characters in my film Alfie, Johnny and Marie. This is also shown in the film "Obsessed" starring Beyonce Knowles, the relationship between a husband and wife gets interrupted by a work colleuge who has a huge obsession on one of the main characters and conflict is caused.However at the same time I.C.U challenges the typical forms and conventions of the thriller type genre films as, Marie having the lead actress role she does not tend to be the typical damsel in distress type of character where she has to be rescued by a male as in our storyline Marie's character seems to be quite concerned about her relationship with her boyfriend and is in dilemma between two boys, this is shown from her facial expression, tone of voice and body language in scene 1 in the science rooms and also shown in the relationship between all three characters during the flashbacks. Most typical thriller films tend to be set in the night/dark such as the film "Prom Night" the outside lighting has been stuck to night time through out most of the film, However I.C.U uses this idea of keeping the lighting quite dark to create the intense atmosphere during scene 1 of the film but then it develops further by changing the type of light into morning and creating a very hollow and a intense type atmosphere in scenes 2 and 5 allowing to show that time has moved on and emphasize with the character.The main character, Alfie's motivation in the story was to kill the girlfriend and the other boy due to a deep corrupted past were he lived in a world were there use only relationship he had was with his father and that too consisted of the missuse of alcohol and long term abuse leading Alfie to become a psycho type character, here the film I.C.U again uses the idea of a typical serial killer seen in many thriller films such as "scream 1,2,3". The setting used in films such as "The Dark Knight" and "The Matrix" challenge the typical forms and conventions of the thriller based genre as I.C.U is based in a locked classroom/school and compared to "The Dark Knight and The Matrix" these two films are set either in the streets of America or some kind of underground new dimension hideouts.The characters costume from the film "Waz" automatically relates with Alfie’s costume from my film I.C.U and it uses the typical hoody type of outfit involved with teenagers to create that kind outsider image and a sense of "i don't belong". The quick flashbacks shown in I.C.U uses typical codes and conventions of thriller films as seen in the film "Bourne Ultimatum", there’s a series of quick, fast, flashy and snappy flashbacks in Matt Damon's "Bourne Ultimatum" this also relates to scenes 3 and 4 in I.C.U as the effects added onto these flashback give out the same impression allowing us to relate to other films from the same genre.

Title Sequence Research

Saul Bass In order to get some fresh ideas for our own title sequence we looked at some intresting work and designs of Saul Bass. From analysing many of the opening title sequences he created we were able to take away many possible title ideas for our own film...

Casino, Martin Scorsese 1995

In the title sequence of Casino, the first shots are kept very simple to contrast with the car bomb exploding, creating maximum "shock facotr" for the audience. Fire takes over the screen with the character Sam Rothstein falling across the transitions into the crimson lights of Las Vegas strip. Flames shoot up from the bottom of the frame, showing a screen covered with abstract shots of iconic Las Vegas signage and ilumination. This version of hell created by Bass summarises the narrative ahead, without ruining any of the suprises Scorsese has in store. The combination of image and sound urges the viewer to consider theme: Las Vegas as the most tempting hell on Earth, just as it was for Scorsese's protagonist.
As fire plays an important concept in our film, the Casino title sequence had a specific relevance. An idea which one of the members in the group incorporated the fire explosion transition, after the lighter is sparked in our film. I thought at this dramatic point of the title sequence it would be the perfect time to display the film's title.
However as we were limited to the editing software we used, we learned that the effect we wanted to create was not possible.

Title Sequence Ideas...

In order to create spooky, suspense looking title sequence to drag the target auidences attention right into the film, they need to have some kind of relationship with the film genre. The typography of the title sequence, music, colours and basically the cinematography of the whole title sequence needs to always relate to the genre of the film in order to keep your audiences intrest towards the film. The mood were trying to create with the title sequence is were the audience are literally dragged into the film and can't get their eyes off the screen.

Title sequences- Westside Story, Robert Wise 1961

Looking at other title sequences such as, "Westside Stroy", the urban wall setting and the stlye of the font used, graffiti automatically links in with genre of the film and the the setting and time era the film is based around. Similarly this wall type brick theme is linked in with I.C.U's title sequence and its last film poster, this creates a housestlye and allows us as the auidence to realise that they belong to the same media product.

Final Title Sequences

After taking in consideration all the ideas put foward for the title sequence here are some screen shots below of the final title sequence which are used in our film:

What happened on the filming day!

Wedensday 14th October 2009:

We started to film scene 2 and 5 first at the start of our day in order to allow us more time with the other scenes.
When on the way to the set to film scene 1, in the science rooms we were told that the same rooms had been overbooked meaning we couldn't film in our desired location as there were other students already using that room. To overcome this issue we decided to skip scene 1 and move on to scene 4 and used the rest of the afternoon to film scene 1 in another science lab which looked similar to the one we were ment to film in and it was free. As filming did not go according to plan we then had to continue filming scene 1 into the second day.

Thursday 15th October 2009:

On the second day due to the classroom we had filmed our first scene on not being free we moved onto scene 3, the flashbacks and deicded to get that out of the way first. We started with the areas of school which got busier during the day as this was shot before school time (08:30), the locations were checked before moving there incase the same issue as day 1 had appeared. We filmed as many shots as we could manage until second lesson (09:30) as thats the only other time we would be able to finish scene 1, once this had been completed we finished all our scenes and realised that scene 2 needed to be filmed again as one of the props, the newspaper was missing therefore we filmed the last bit during the afternoon and all the filming was done in both days even though a lot of time was wasted due to the problems that had been raised.

Shooting Schedule

Above is our ideal shooting schedule planned carefully for both days Wedensday and Thursday, we are hoping to go according to the plan as theres a time limit and there will be may interference with the filming production, due to the fact that it is set in our school and theres other students and teachers who are still around the building and the bell would also be going off.
We hope to film scenes 1,2,4 and 5 within day Wedensday as thats when the science blocks would be free and so would locations 2 and 5 which are located directly outside the science rooms, this means less moving around and being more time efficent. Scence 4 is also a quick short snappy scene used just to add more character motivation and development to the narrative.
If all goes well on Wedensday, Thursday will be used to film 3 scene as it seems to be the longest scene with a mixture of locations in order to show the flashback. However if any problems occur when viewing our rushes as we hope to finsh before pack up time, there would be enough time to go back out on set and make any adjustments that need to be done.

Auditions

Due to none of the sixth formers and drama apartment students replying to our request to help casting in our film, this then led us to use school students perhaps from years like 11 and 10 were students look about the age of 15+. In order to create a successful film we need to pick out studenst that have the mentalality to jump into our characters shoes and play their role and personality to the best of their ability.
After some thoughts and disscussions made with the group members the best students that had done well in the rehearsals were called back on the Thursday 8th October were we finally had our cast and went through a brief audition where we talked to each actor through what would be required and how we expected their character to be played.
On Friday 9th, we sent out all call sheets to our characters and also their costume requirements aswell as the expectations of our actual filming days.

Rehearsals

On Monday 12th of October, the main rehearsal for chosen cast was held. However it was then when Emine Hassan, who was going to play Marie's role decided she couldn't take part due to a lot of coursework deadlines that needed to be met. This wasn't the only problem that had arised as later on main character Alfie's role, being played by Danny Martin had suddenly fell ill but lucky enough he is Demi Martin, the crew members brother so she was able to hold rehearsals and auditions at home with him. Therefore the rehearsals held were just run with Kieran Roberts, who was playing Johnny's role. After contacting other sixth form students we were then able to use Georgia Jones, a year 13 student who was willing to help.
The following day we had final rehearsals with both characters Marie and Johnny as Alfies's charcater was still unwell, as this situation of the unreliable cast had been prolonged we did 2 quick run throughs at the start of every new scene with all characters on set in order to allow the filming to run smooth and efficient.

Workshop On How Effective Sound Is...

During the sound masterclass there were a variety of video's and tasks set up in order to realise that a film without sound wouldn't create the same effect as a film with sound and sound effects.

From the website below theres a lot of essential points which came useful in pre production:
http://filmsound.org/marshall/index.htm

We also watched a clip on youtube on sound and they express how sound is very good in adding realism, it gives emotional residence to the clip, they also pointed out that "The auidence will generally tolerate unclear video, but they will never tolerate unclear audio"> they used this theory on us as the audience who watched their clip and we realised that what they said was true, as all of the class had got irritated with the bad audio. They also added in that "you should control sound like you control light", this enables you to control sound as a stylistic device and you could do more to it.

We also watched the trailor of The Ring, during all three viewings we first, muted the sound to see the effect without sound, then we just listened to the sound and watched a blank screen and the third viewing we played it using both sound and image. Here we realised that most of the viewers listen to the sound and watch a blank screen rather then watch the clip without the sound. This automatically showed the effect sound has on its auidence and that it does add emotional residence.

The last task held was listening to a soundtrack and coming up with our on visual story to match the action, the soundtrack that had been played was the "Memoirs Of Geisha" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Jvl1eNjqQ and my narrative of the story was:

a story about a young girl getting ready and goes out of her house into her villiage greeting everyone she meets daily and is off for a long walk to a place that no one knows about apart from her, but when she gets there theres something not right and the camera focuses on her in the middle of this desserted place spinning and slowly zoooming out creating a birds eye view and then leads into the next scene.
This shows the effect of any type of sound with any clip, it can be parallel or contrapental, diegetic or non and even sound effects.

Using the new Editing Software

Due to the changes in the editing software moving from Avid to Adobe Premier we had a lesson on how to adjust to the new software, however most of the settings and features were similar to Avid.
These were the main instuctions given in order to open a project:
- Open Adobe Premier Pro
- Then click on to new project
- Computer
- Ensure everything is saved on Lacie
- DV PAL- widescreen 48 hl

Once these instructions were followed the main editing page was opened were then were presented:
-in the top left was the bin
-right top box,-watching rushes
-bottom left box, effects
-bottom right box, timeline

General features:
-file> capture too/F5
-Mark in and out (last two icons)
-remove marks- bottom last two icons
-shuttle- rewinds/fast foward
-red button-record button/G
-when you want to crop shot- use red line to cut out
-razor tool- cuts shots
-you can copy and paste shots
-drag on effects to source window and it allows you to control how long you want the effect to last

1st Draft of Storyboard

After finalising the script we then moved onto storyboarding our first type of ideas using a varitey of camera shots, movements and angles. A lot knowledge for storyboarding was gained from AS Level experience but to refresh my memory I used this website which stimulated me further, http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/storyboarding-your-film.html .

After recieving feedback on the first draft of the storyboard we then realised that we had to add in more cut away shots of what Alfie is doing in the first scene, theres allocated boxes on the storyboard and arrows to show the changes that need to be made in order to have the ideal storyboard.

These are the only two storyboard sheets that needed to be added in and then our storyboard was finalised. However I feel that in order to show a flashback (scenes 3 and 4) we would need to add more, variety of shots with a different mise en scene to appear that the flashback represents a long period of time so that Alfie has more of a character development towards his motive.

Question 3

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?
In order to create a successful media product I have learnt through all 3 stages of production that audience feedback is very vital; it’s just like golden dust. It’s very crucial to hear what your audience need to say about any media product produced as they are our only king. Us as film makers or any type of media product producers need to have that faith and trust in our target audience in order to fulfil their pleasures of predictability and know what they want and expect from the film or media product.At the early stages of pre production during creating our pitch, we were asked to read it out to the class allowing us to seek some feedback. The class feedback gave us so much interpretation on how to make changes to the first pitch and was able to ask our audience any questions about the pitch that was not conceived correctly such as, "how are you going to give audience insight into characters personality and background", "during the flashback are you going to show the two characters Johnny and Marie together" and "how does your story link in with the colour red". All questions were answered up to best standards by group members and myself so that there was no confusion with the audience and the pitch, "the key to showing Alfie’s character will be through flashbacks as his jealousy will show his motivation for his actions. We get an insight of Marie's character in the opening scene when there is a conversation between her and the other character Johnny regarding Alfie’s possessiveness. From this we learn of her need of independence and some freedom, as her cheating shows her rebellious side towards Alfie. Johnny's character is seen as womanising and moral-less through his behaviour towards Marie showing his selfishness, showing he is use to getting his own way. The question asked about Marie and Johnny occurring in the flashback was also answered in perfection, "In the flashback we also see Johnny and Marie together so the audience gets a taste of their relationship that progresses. We will show them by walking into classes together or perhaps a little flirtatious bond, so the fling is a prompted idea for the audience yet not a definite. Lastly our story links in with the colour as "the colour red firstly links through the theme of lust and sexuality. This is shown in the relationship between Marie and Johnny’s characters. The fire that takes place is also key to our “red” theme. Also, the aggression and anger of Alfie’s character and his motivation to seek revenge also expresses our “red” theme. From this audience feedback I was then able to adapt what the audience said to create the second pitch.The second stage of pre production was to construct the ideal script in order to move on to the storyboard and the next stages of pre production such as mood board of the world of our film, photo storyboard, location recce, cast list, prop list and so on. After receiving audience feedback on the script, "firstly the first scene in the lab contains a lot of dialogue and not a lot of visual. So think about how to cut this down and include more action to tell the story. Remember that is what good cinematography is about as well. avoid too much dialogue and think of more interesting ways to show the characters and narrative development" other comments were made too such as "same comments for scene 4 - too much dialogue", we were then suggested to watch more films relating with the same genre so that we can overcome this problem and gain more experience to write an ultimate script and permit me to take in consideration my target audience and from this feedback I also learnt that in order to create a successful film the script has to be overwhelming.Following on from the script we then moved on to the storyboard, the feedback gained from this, "there are not enough cut away/safety shots and in order to show more character development and motivation we need another quick, fast, snappy scene in the flashback. From this feedback I learnt that it is very crucial to have safety/cut away shots so that during production and post production there would be enough back up shots in case of an emergency so it prevents us from re-shooting.
Later then we moved on to the second stage, production which was producing our 5 minute film. This then leaded us into the third stage, post production. During post production while editing our film there was a lot of crucial feedback made specifically towards scene 1 our audience made us realise that when one of the character Marie, screamed it was too sudden and the was nothing shown to trigger her off to react like that and this caused the diegetic sound, dialogue not to match the image creating are very contrapuntal effect which we did not tend to achieve. Another aspect of scene 1 which was also looking out of place, was at the start of the film we as a group intended to create a pan to establish the setting and add a shook when noticing character Alfie on the camera to add a effective look and imply that the character should not be there, however after reviewing this part of scene 1 the target audience added that there’s no point of the shook "as it just seems to look like a camera movement error". This allowed us to fulfil target audience expectations and from this I learnt that we as film makers need to take into account that if we need to apply an effective touch to the film it needs to show significance and it should be clear and understanding towards the audience.
The last and final type of feedback was received when I created the posters to help promote our film. Overall three posters were made and there was a lot essential feedback given, when in progress of creating the first poster a lot of target audience pin pointed that the taglines on the poster "needs to be re-arranged and the red in the protagonist eye is not relevant", however the poster also had positive feedback such as, "the characters Marie and Johnny in the background look very effective with the blurred touch to show that they are not the main focus but still have a crucial part to play in the film". After developing the poster further and adding on the final touches the poster was created and received great feedback, After hearing awesome positive feedback from the audience I as the poster designer felt that the second poster would have to look more unexpected leaving the audience gasped and astonished, in development of the second poster many effects, layers and artistic brushes were used on Adobe Photoshop to help me gain exactly what was in my mind. I then received all positive feedback like, "the poster looks very professional and appealing, the cracks in the wall add the thriller atmosphere and the target audience adding how you could clearly see a house style between the 2 posters and how it is very mysterious and doesn't give away too much". The final poster was then created, as seen this poster had a lot of work to do and needed more work and was "naturally unfinished", using this feedback it automatically forced me to work on the poster and not let me audience down on what they expected so later on that same day the final third poster was created which were I just wanted the protagonist of the film to appear on it and this also had gained an remarkable feedback, "the poster shows that it is finished, looks very formal and proficient.
Overall like mentioned before any type of feedback is very important even if its from the most basic thing mentioned to any positive points made, this allows us as film makers to accomplish our target audiences expectations and needs.

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

My final media product I.C.U falls under the genre of thriller, aimed at the age group of children aged 15 up wards. I.C.U's relationship plot line is based upon 3 characters which uses forms and conventions from the t.v series "gossip girl", the love triangle between characters Blair, Chuck and Nate are very similar to the Characters in my film Alfie, Johnny and Marie. This is also shown in the film "obbsessed" starring Beyonce Knowles, the relationship between a husband and wife gets interupted by a work coleuge who has an huge obbsession on one of the mainn characters and conflict is caused.
However at the same time I.C.U challenges the typical forms and conventions of the thriller type genre films as, Marie having the lead actress role she does not tend to be the typical dymsal in disstress type of character where she has to be rescued by a male as in our storyline Marie's character seems to be quite concerned about her relationship with her boyfriend and is in dilemma between two boys. Most typical thriller films tend to be set in the night/dark such as the film "prom night" the outside lighting has been stuck to night time through out most of the film, However I.C.U uses this idea of keeping the lighting quite dark to create the intense atmosphere during scene 1 of the film but then it develops further by changing the type of light into morning and creating a very hollow and misery type atmosphere in scenes 2 and 5 allowing to show that time has moved on and emphasise with the character.
The main character, Alfie's motivation in the story was to kill the girlfriend and the other boy due to a deep corrupted past leading Alfie to become a psycho type character, here the film I.C.U again uses the idea of a typical serial killer seen in many thriller films such as "scream 1,2,3". The setting used in films such as "the dark knight" and "the matrix" challenge the typical forms and conventions of the thriller based genre as I.C.U is based in a locked classroom/school and compared to "the dark knight and the matrix" these two films are set either in the streets of America or some kind of underground new diemension hideouts.
The characters costume from the film "waz" automatically relates with Alfies costume from my film I.C.U and it uses the typical hoody type of outfit involved with teenagers to create that kind outsider image and a sense of "i don't belong".
The quick flashbacks shown in I.C.U uses typical codes and conventions of thriller films as seen in the film "Bourne Ultimatium", theres a seris of quick,fast,flashy and snappy flashnacks in Matt Daemon's "Bourne Ultimatium"this also relates to scenes 3 and 4 in I.C.U as the effects added onto these flashback give out the same imperession allowing us to relate to other films from the same genre.

How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning construction and evaluation stages?

Through out all the stages of production technology was used regarding everything. In the early stages of pre production while doing research and planning towards the storyline and the type of genre our film fits in with, the main primary source we used was the internet. The internet now has made a great influence on each and every individual as so much information is retained by using these webistes. Another type of factor used through the internet were search engies such as "google"and "ask jeeves", websites such as http://www.youtube.com/ and http://www.shildeshare.net/ plus http://www.photobucket.com/ were also used in order to upload power points, clips, songs get URL's for images and http codes for our blogs to show research, planning and construction towards the final media product.
At the start of the media production we were also introduced to our new log books the blog, (http://www.blogger.com/) we were asked to sign up and register an account with the blogging website so we could use it and submit any type of work done towards the media products.
The blog functions in a way in which it allows us to add on labels for example, "cast list, prop list, storyboard,script, ancillary tasks etc..." were then we add on all reserach and work done to that specific label and upload work on to it. The blog also was the biggest useful site to help us communicate with each group member and also gain feedback on any work done. The departmant blog (http://www.barkingabbeyschool.blogspot.com/) which had been set up to stay on top of all our work and allowed us to keep up with deadlines and check for any work which needs to be due in.
While producing a film i got a chance to develop my ICT skills further as some of the tasks invovled me to actually connect different types of media camera's "the sony still cameras and the Cannon HD filming cameras" to the computer and upload on images and footage to either blog or work on using the editing software "Adobe Premier". We also used different windows programmes such as Microsoft Word, which was used for any typing up, Microsoft Publisher, which was used to create the first draft of the film review and a newspaper article which was used as a prop in our film and finally the crucial programme that was used was adobe photoshop, this software allowed us to create the perfect posters as the effects,layers,adjustments and filters on adobe photoshop help create the professional, organised layout. Adobe Photoshop was also used to make the final touches to the film review by adding on the drop shawdow to the images like seen on the real independant critics magazine and it helps to create the perfect layout.
Master classes were also set up before our filiming dates depending on what your role was you would have to attend that class to get final tips on how to for example, my role was the camera operater so there was a chance to experince new skills with the camera such as how to control a hand held camera, use the auto focus and the zoom controls and find out about the other functions on the camera which would help us if anything occured during production.
Last of all the last type of major technology that was used in the whole production was during post production, when we moved on to editing our films we used the new software Adobe Premier due to all of us being new to this software we again had a master class on how to use the editing tools, even though most of it was similar to the old editing software Avid, Adobe Premier allowed us to do more to our films, there was a varitey of more effects avaliable on Adobe Premier and it was possible to make one type of sound louder than the other.
However summing up all that was learnt through the technolgy aspect of the media production new tips were picked up and now they have allowed me to adapt them to other subjects and I feel that I have a whole new sense of the technologies avaliable to me.

The Final Film Review

After recieving feedback on the 2nd film review my group member, Demi wasn't sure how to use Adobe Photoshop, in order to create the ideal film review. As being a Graphic design student and the designer of the posters I helped her and gave her useful tips and instructions to follow about this software. After that she created the final draft of the film review and gained a lot of positive feedback such as, "it looks very professional like it actually comes out of the independant critics magazine".

The 2nd Version Of Film Review

The images with this film review need to be much smaller and the Microsoft publisher format needs to change into something much more professional, the language of the film review needs to be related to the magazine genre aswell as your own film genre added the target auidence.

The 1st Version Of Film Review

When this film review was first shown to the class members and the teacher they felt that many changes need to be made, such as:

- add main focus to other films too and make the format look like a film magazine one
- give the review a specific house style to suit a chosen magazine
- the page will suit a magazine such as Empire
-the images work well and it does look like a film review just need final touches

From the feedback we decided that the film review page should go into the independant critics magazine.

Final 3 posters

Poster 3 New Design

After hearing the audience feedback I listened to what they had to say and made a poster just to do with the main charcater of the story, Alfie "the effect of the brick wall works well with his personality, it shows that he has a deep background and he comes from some kind of rough neigherbourhood". Overall this is a better development from the poster before about the split personality and this poster is very formal and straight foward.

Third poster

This was one of the orignal designs for the third poster, the idea of split personality was trying to be portrayed here but a lot of the target auidence did not seem to understand this, they felt that its a slight repitition of poster number one and needs a lot of work, it loks very disorganised and they feel there should maybe just be a poster of Alfie the protaganist of the story.

Second poster

The second poster recieved great feedback this meant that there was no need in making anymore changes to it and the target auidence added, "the poster looks very professional", "the cracks in the wall look very effective" "Alfie's character hooded up and his back to us leaves a suspense looking thriller type film" which allows it to work well with the genre of the film. The font of the title, tagline and colours also create a housestyle.