Film Pitch... Somnium

Welcome back! Today, I will discuss, feedback and evaluate my film pitch! 

FILM PITCH... SOMNIUM

Our pitch was based around the discussions that we had before the process of making the logo and the team name. We wanted to fully outline the points we wanted to consider early on in the process of the film. In which, we outlined these considerations:

• The meaning of the name of the film.
• The protagonist.
• The antagonist.
• Any other characters that feature.
• Conventions that we are going to use.
• Conventions that we are going to challenge. 
• Location, props and time. 
• Our narrative.
• Target Audience Profile.
• Titles with our logo design.

With many discussions and planning we used prezi to create an animated presentation in which gave the pitch that essence of a journey. With this, I used the colours from our logo in order to portray a colour scheme to the audience at the same time. 

Here is our pitch! 


FEEDBACK

With this pitch came a lot of feedback which was more directed towards our narrative. First of all, we were questioned on our lighting choices. With this, we were criticised on the option to just use a lamp as our light source to achieve low-key lighting. In which, we discussed in our group that we are going to film the product within the day and post edit the footage so that the video takes the look of being set at night.

Next, we were criticised on our opening of the opening... if that makes sense. It was suggested that we outline that the protagonist and the antagonist are university students by using an establishing shot of a university and then showing a conversation between the two characters. Because of this, we will add this due to the fact that there is evidence of an equilibrium at the beginning of the film.

With this feedback we can now discuss and plan key areas before filming the main product including location, costume design and scripts. Overall, we are content to add this to our plans and therefore create an even better main product that what we originally were going to make!

Next time: I will be discussing recording of sound on location!

Target Audience Profile

Welcome back! Today, I will present research into existing products' target audience profile and present our main products target audience profile!

Outlining a target audience profile is very important to the structure of our main product, therefore we have created a detailed 'TAP' so that it reflects our choice of film classification. However, before that I will conduct some research on existing products in which I will observe their target audience data and then present our target audience profile! 

THE CONJURING

The conjuring predominantly adopts the horror genre as well as thriller, in which is what genre we will be revolving our product around. Therefore, I have used this film due to it's classification in which is "15" which is our classification aim too therefore I can then observe the target audience profile and tell that the classification correlates to the majority of the audience being between the age of 15 and 24 (69%). This links to our target audience profile as our 'ideal viewer' is 20 years old, therefore he fits the bracket. 

Now, let's talk about the film itself. I chose this film specifically because of the amount of low-key lighting that is within it, in which I can observe and brainstorm about how I can achieve low-key lighting in my main product in which is one of our main conventions within the film opening. Consequently, low-key lighting increases the tension towards the end of the film in which builds the horror element. Therefore, because the tension certainly scared me I must take this into consideration. However, I don't want to scare the audience, I want to make them feel feared and intrigued about what's going to happen next. Therefore, I need to be able to pick out props within the misé-en-scene in which are the catalyst for low-key lighting and identify them. 

To conclude, the vast majority of props that produced the low-key lighting were lamps of a low brightness. Therefore, we might need to record the opening during the day and post edit the footage so that the lamp on the bedside table is significant and the location looks like it is in a night time setting. The reason why I might do this is because if we was to film it at night with just a lamp as a source of light, then the audience might not be able to see the character at all, in which won't make them feel feared nor intrigued. Furthermore, the film quality will be extremely grainy in which we don't want present in our main product.

HITMAN: AGENT 47

Hitman: Agent 47 adopts the action genre, however it still has a very heavy thriller feel towards the films plot and timeline throughout the film. Again, this film has the classification "15" in which we will be attempting to conduct within our film opening. However, with this movie I want to focus on the target audience profile section. Even though the classification is 15, the percentages are spread out all the way to 45+. Time for a history lesson, Hitman originated from a video game in which was platformed on PC back in 2000. Now, i'm going to be quite stereotypical here but when it comes to video games, the dominant sex is male, and this contrasts to the gender section of the target audience profile. Ultimately, what i'm saying is that since this was originally a video game and males generally play video games more than females and the fact that this game has been developed into more games and ultimately more films, means that the older generation are viewing this movie too, as well as the younger audience from the more recent video games. To conclude, this film contrasted with the video games to pull their audience in. 

Now, for the film itself. I chose this film purely for the tension element. In our main product we want to express tension to fully convey the conventions of a thriller, in this film it is conveyed really well. They do this in a very simple way, close ups and tense music. Close ups of agent 47's face is shown in some situations in which tense music is played to increase the suspense of the assassination, this includes tense music in which intrigues the audience. This allows me to take inspiration from this and possibly add this to our main product in which could improve our initial ideas of building tension. Therefore, to conclude I will simply use this film as inspiration for tension. 

THE PURGE: ANARCHY

 

The Purge: Anarchy is purely thriller. It moulds all the thriller conventions into one to make your typical thriller film. As usual, the classification is "15" which is expected after the first two pieces of research. We can also see that the classification contrasts with the 15-24 bracket age at 66%. Why? well, lets look at the the first image but more specifically, the 'The Story' section. It details 'A young couple', the reason why the highest age bracket is 15-24 is because there are a young couple as the main characters in which the majority of the audience at 15-24 can relate to and therefore form a bond in similarity because they are young and the audience is young in which changes the audiences' perspective of the film, and not in a good way. That puts the audience within the film and forces them to experience the young couples fear and trauma.

I chose this film because it ties the first two films together. The Purge: Anarchy moulds both low-key lighting and tension together. How? Well, it's very simple. Using the low-key lighting, antagonists are prevented from being seen, therefore it builds a lot of tension for the young couple in which are feared, therefore, the combination of low-key lighting and tension pin points the thriller genre perfectly. I can use this as inspiration for my main product as we are planning on using low-key lighting and tension to slowly introduce a character that cannot be seen in which the audience will feel how they felt when they watched The Purge: Anarchy. 

'SOMNIUM': TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE

With this research concluded I can now present to you a detailed target audience profile for our film 'Somnium'.

Target Audience Profile by Josh Birch

Next time: I will present film title designs! See you then!

   

Production Team Name & Logo

Welcome back! Today, I will present my production team name which will include 3 draft logo designs, concluding with our final logo design! 

PRODUCTION TEAM NAME

First of all, I will talk about the painful process of our production team name. As a group, we used a particular rule in which would make it easier for us to find an appropriate name, we took positive words for example, best, brave, bright or strongest and translated them into Latin (Hint! Words always sound cooler in Latin!) Here is the official list we composed: 

• Fortissimum (Strongest)
• Ignis (Fire)
• Elementa (Elements)
• Exemplar (Original)
• Dulce (Sweet)
• Optimum (Best)
• Lux (Bright)

After endless discussions, we all decided on the name 'Elementa'. Why? Well, Elementa is the Latin word for 'elements' in which there are four; fire, water, air and earth. Now, since there are four people in our group we saw it fit to be our name because it ultimately represents us in a specific way in that it shows all four of us have different elements that are stronger when referring to our skills within Media. It symbolises that all four of us are different and that is what makes us the best, the fact that we can produce the best product by combining our strengths in media together. Therefore, our whole ethos as to say of our team is to create a fantastic product, using the 'elements' of the group, in which are our version of those elements which are media related. 

LOGO'S

With that discussed and decided, we could then move onto logo's. We wanted to show what our team was inspired by using the colours of the elements and symbols of the elements in order to portray to the audience a sense of recognition in which they will see the logo and know who we are, our ethos and our purpose. Therefore, I was asked to create 3 draft logo's since I am technically advanced as to say. 

DRAFT 1:

Here is the first draft. Now, you're probably thinking there's too much going on here, and that's what prevented us from picking this logo. Indeed, we have shown the elements and media crossover however we thought this was ultimately too 'tacky'.

DRAFT 2:

Here is the second draft. In this draft, I decided to focus more on the colour scheme and how the logo can be manipulated in different ways. First of all, the colour scheme is important with our name due to the 'elements' aspect to it, therefore I needed to portray that very clearly within the logo. I felt like I achieved this with thanks to the tiled image next to the text in which I used the colour code of the four tiles to cross over the colour scheme well with the text. However, we first felt that the font was too 'off putting' in which I could have happily changed the font, until we decided that there was another design which was more simple and elegant. 

DRAFT 3:

Here is the third draft. Personally, I really liked this design, the font was suitable and the layout was unique with the little shape coming off the 'A' at the end of 'ELEMENTA'. That shape symbolises the 'air' element out of the four, in which I thought I could easily incorporate into the text. However, colour schemes seemed to be too direct towards the audience. As much as I like this design, we set this aside. 

FINAL DESIGN:

And here is our final design! With this, I changed the font to be more readable and simple, as that is what the audience will want from a logo. I also added a colour scheme which displays the elements individually. I then also researched simple shapes to represent the 'air' element in which these intricate, curved lines came to be within our logo. Overall, I am very happy with this logo in terms of its simplicity and its representation. 

Next time: I will be detailing a summary of our initial narrative discussions! See you then!

Show Me, Don't Tell Me! Evaluation

Welcome back! Today, I will present to you my 'Show Me, Don't Tell Me' task! In this post I will comment on success of planning, production and editing. Including the success of sound effects, continuity and camera shots and movements! Right, with all that covered, let's start!

First of all, take a look at my 'Show Me, Don't Tell Me!' task!

PLANNING
Let's start with the planning stage of this task. Originally, we spent around 10 to 15 minutes in which we outlined what camera movements/shots we were going to use including editing structure too. This is what we originally outlined:

• An establishing shot showing the location in which the game is being played. 
• Then, a pan in which reveals the two characters playing the game. 
• After that, a shot/reverse shot of the game being played.
• This is followed by an insert of the clock.
• Then, an extreme close up of the winning players eyes.
• Followed by a close up of the clock. 
• Then a cutaway of the door.
• It then cuts back to the characters in which the winning player proceeds to run towards the toilet. This produces a match on action. 
• As the character is in the toilet, a cutaway proceeds to the other character cheating. 
• The winning character then returns which produces another match on action. 
• Then, a cutaway of the clock counting up from 20 seconds.
• Then, the camera cuts back to the game in which the winning player makes another move in which he loses due to the cheaters move. 
• Then, another cutaway of the clock ticking to 30 seconds which is slow - motion. 
• It ends with a close up of the losing players face in disgust. 
• THE END. 

PRODUCTION

Production was a fiasco when it came down to location, we started filming in one location, but was moved due to other requirements, so we had to re-film in another location. This was a huge problem due to the time scale we were given which was 2 hours. Now, due to this fiasco we only had 1 hour to film the task, in which I personally think we did well considering this flaw in our production phase. However, as soon as every was set up, we used to the success criteria to film the whole task once, which healed our time management a little bit. Overall, when I have to plan for my main product I will take time management into serious consideration.

EDITING

The editing phase was on my behalf, due to my personal skills in the group being within this area. Therefore, I took into account that sound effects has to replace the real audio from the camera, therefore I layered how I edited this task: 

• I started by displaying in and out points in each clip that I wanted to place on the timeline. 
• Then, I imported them all into the timeline in order. 
• Then, I checked continuity with shot/reverse shots and match-on-actions. 
• After that, I gathered all my sound effects from a non copyright source and imported them into the project. 
• I then placed these into the correct positions on the timeline to where I wanted them, sound effect by sound effect. 
• Then, I added the two appropriate sound tracks and equalised them so that each track and sound effect did not peak about 0 db's. 
• Lastly, I added appropriate titles and exported the task!

Overall, My time management compared to production was more efficient because I knew how we wanted the task to look and how I wanted the sound effects to be implemented into the task. I can use this task to improve on my audio skills because, as detailed in the next section of this post, my audio skills weren't correct enough for the viewer to realise that the sound effect was a diegetic sound. However, this was my first time actually implementing sound effects into a film.

WAS IT A SUCCESS?

Overall, I think it was. We followed this success criteria accurately which is proven by our feedback here:

 

From this feedback video, I can outline advantages and disadvantages to our task!
ADVANTAGES
Firstly, we were complemented on our establishing shot (0:06), it wasn't too long nor too short which I was personally happy with. Our pan (0:08) straight after this to reveal the game was appropriate too and was smooth. Next, our match-on-action (0:22) was 'really good' according to our feedback in which I thought was executed perfectly. Our framing (0:30) was also appropriate and didn't contain white space. Next, I was extremely happy with this next complement which was our extreme close up (0:36) in which was at a slight angle in which the viewer enjoyed. After that, there was another complement on our second match-on-action (0:58) in which, in my opinion, was as excellent as the first.

DISADVANTAGES
However, there were some drawbacks to our task, which, when I look back on are absolutely stupid! Fortunately, for your entertainment, it's time to look at the disadvantages. Firstly, our sound effect for the clock ticking (0:14) was slightly out of time for the first tick but then recovered with the next tick. Secondly, our running sound effect (0:40) was 'slightly unrealistic' as it dragged across the floor which didn't complement the location. Next, our closing door sound effect (0:44) was slightly unrealistic due to the door not actually closing. Then, our attempt at a slow-motion tick (1:18) was seen as an imperfection in which the viewer thought 'that time just stopped'. 

Next time: ...

Thriller Deconstructions

Welcome back! Today, I will deconstruct two thriller films in which I will note the time stamp, shot and effect on the audience! 

We had two film extracts to choose from, Sixth Sense and Silence of the Lambs. I chose Silence of the Lambs as it is a personal favourite of mine.

Here is my deconstruction along with the extract:

Deconstruction of Silence of the Lambs by Josh Birch

As a class, we also deconstructed Sixth Sense together in which shown these results:

Sixth Sense Deconstruction

Next time: Show Me, Don't Tell Me!