Equipment

This is the setup I used to film all of my film. The camera is a canon 700d, the microphone is an external mic, it is a rode shock mic and i also used a velbon tripod.

The canon 700d is a very complicated camera but is perfect for beginners. It has a 55m lens on it, the lens allows me to auto focus or manual focus which gives me full control on how I would like the shot to look. It also have a manual zoom which zooms almost instantly. The camera shots in 1080p at 30 fps but can be changed to a lower resolution at the same fps. The screen is touch screen with a flip out screen. By having this it allows you to be able to see what you are filming at awkward angles. 

The microphone allows me to get better audio and block out the majority of background noise as the mic is facing forward. By blocking out the background noise it makes it more professional. 
the tripod was one i found at home. It is very old and was breaking but worked a treat for what i wanted it to do.  

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 4

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

In my first year of media studies I wasn't very knowledgeable with different forms of technology. I started to use blogger to keep all of my work there so it was easily accessible. I also used in year 13 because it is a good system to use, its easy to use and it also make everything look professional. Blogger has many different features, you can embed any kind of video from Youtube and Vimeo, you can also put pictures on it, design the way it looks, change the colour of the font, change the font etc. In my opinion Blogger is a very professional programme which allows you to be as creative as you want with each individual element. 

By being able to add videos creates a more professional feel to the blog. With videos you can be more creative with the way you answer certain things. 

Hardware
When making videos i started off using a Sony handy cam. This didn't let me have control over the focus which makes the video quality rubbish. You could only record in 1080p at 30 fps which is good but not brilliant that you cant change the quality. It also had a built in mic which wasn't brilliant the quality wasn't great and when it was windy you couldn't really hear anything so it would make the audio unusable. In year 13 I used a DSLR, this DSLR was a Canon 700D. The canon 700D is a basic professional camera which is perfect for new film makers. The key aspects for me for the camera was that it had a adjustable touch screen allowing me to be able to get them harder shots, it also had an auto focus and a manual focus allowing me to have control of the focus - making it look more professional, the zoom was instant which was amazing, you could change what resolution you filmed at to have a higher or lower resolution, this also included the FPS, you can change the aperture, which allows you to get a deeper or shallower focus making my shots look more professional. It also had a built in mic and also a microphone jack. By having the jack it allowed me to have an external microphone making the quality of the audio a lot better and also you don't get back ground noise. The microphone is pointing forward so anything behind the mic you can't hear, this allows you not to get background noises. With the mic facing forward it picks up what ever is in front of it making the actors or diagetic sounds clearer and better.

The editing software
When i started making films i had some basic knowledge from friends with Sony Vegas 13. This used to be classed as a professional programme but now it isn't. So i had a basic knowledge when coming to using a new editing software. 
In year 12 i used coral. Coral is good for beginners because it is a very simple software. It doesn't have many options for being creative with, it has very few fonts and very few transition. As i had very little knowledge of any editing software and that this was going to be my first ever short film i decided not to put a lot of pressure on my self. Coral has a basic system that is very effective for beginner, you can cut, trim and move the clips. Very simple. It does a lot of the work for you. 
Whereas in year 13 i decided i going to challenge myself with a more professional programme. This programme was called Adobe Premier pro. Adobe have a hole load of different softwares that allow you to edit or create new or old photos, videos and audio tracks. 
Premier pro is the editing software. Premier pro from the start is more complicated then coral but after getting some help with the basic stuff like cutting, how to add affects and how to add different transitions it was a lot easier than i thought. Even now i'm finding different parts of the software and making things look even better. I can now add colour correction to my film making the colours stand out more, i can make it black and white, making it speed up and slow down and i can also add a title and writing with transitions. I also watched a few YouTube videos to allow me to be able to get a better understanding about how it works, whats best for me and different techniques with editing and what effects i should use. 

YouTube

As we know YouTube is massive, you can literally find anything on it. When making my film i decided to put everything i filmed on YouTube even though Vimeo is more for creative people and creative films. YouTube is more commercialised and makes a lot more money compared to Vimeo. I talk about it in more detail in this video.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Q1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convection of real media productions?


When coming up with my idea for my film I decided to watch some older thriller/american slasher so that I can see where it all originated from.

At the time I wasn't to sure what kind of camera angles I should be using, what kind of music, how the mise en scene should look like, what the context of the actual story line I should have. By watching The shining and the machinist I noticed a lot of things were very similar. The use of sound, close ups and effects on the screen (black and white). After noticing this was important for a thriller/american slasher I knew that i need to make the most of camera angles, sound and effects. 

I knew when I came to do the story board and script I should include as many close ups when real emotion was going on within the scene by doing this is gives the viewer a better understanding how the main actor is feeling by his facial expression. I noticed this was a common convection with both films I watched.  

When coming up with the idea for film I had the idea to have 4 main characters. Three male actors and one female actor. I thought by having this mix of gender it will expanded my target audience. But when I came to film I couldn't find a female actor and another male actor will to help out. So this left me no option to have a female and another male actor. By having to white males both in there teenage years suits the genre and convection.     

When editing my film I couldn't decided how I wanted to edit it. I chose to have fast paced editing with quick cuts and fast music. This are convection for the genre I was doing. During the post-production I decided to have black bits with no sound or anything on the screen, by doing this it created a feeling where for the main character time just passes. When watching the shining when it was fast passed the editing was fast passed and the sound got quick and quick the more into the action it got. This was a recurring thing in the machinist as well.  

After the first edit I didn't have any effects on screen apart from cross dissolve. So i decided to make it all black and white to make it feel like a memory or a dream and it made it look more professional, I feel like I was sort of bending the boundaries with the convection of the genre but when I was watching the machinist I noticed throughout the start of the film it was in black and white. This is where i got the idea from.  

With clothing I decided just to let the actors come in what they were wearing on the day just because I felt like it would be more natural then deciding for then to come in certain clothing. But towards the end of the film I decided to make one of my actors dress a bit edgy to give people the feeling that hes not a good person and influenced people in the wrong way. The clothing within both films were very casual and nothing special but they both suited the film. This was a common convection.

When creating each of my ancillary tasks I looked at different kind of thriller posters and movies reviews. By doing this i started to understand how they looked, what information was on them and how they targeted them to the target audience, they both linked with the convection of the genre. 

When creating the poster  I had many different ideas but two main ideas i wanted to do. My first idea was to have a knife hanging with with a light shining from below it. My second idea was to have my many different shots of my main character pulling different faces and they layering them on top of each other. I decided to go with my second idea. Why did i decided to go with this idea? I decided to go with this idea because i felt like it suited the film better and that it meet the convection's a lot more than the other one. This was the same for the movie review.  

Ancillary - Movie poster

When creating my movie poster I did a drawing of a few ideas just to get them on paper so I knew what i wanted. They were really rough but they helped me a lot. This is because I could get an idea down for my poster and have it there so I could use it as a guideline. Even though they were rough sketches they still helped me when creating my movie poster.

This was my original idea, I had the idea for a fan affect with different facial expressions to create the affect of Dom going crazy. I made each layer have a different opacity so you can see all the layers. I also put the filter on called linear burn to give each layer a warm feeling. By using a black back ground i makes the heads stand out more. This was my least favourite idea because it didn't look right and it also wasn't the thing i was going for. 









This was my second idea. One again it has many layers all with different facial expressions on them. With this design i cut out the top layers eyes, nose, mouth and ears and left the chin and forehead in. The opacity of this top level was keep the same whereas the rest of the layers were all different so you can see some key feature a lot more than others. Like the other design i gave every layer the linear burn filter but i also used hard light filter. 

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After deciding i didn't like removing some of the facial features i decided to remove the forehead and chin on the first layer. Giving it a darker boarder perfect for headings. You can see what i used for the font and the drop shadow and inner shadow for each bit of text. Like each one i had changed the opacity of each layer but also not only using linear burn. I used linear light, soft light and multiply. 

After getting a friend to look at my design i asked for some feed back. On it. They said that there needs to be a different text for 'DOM NEWTOM' and the quote saying 'DON'T UNDERESTIMATE WHAT YOU THINK IS SAFE'. They also suggested i should move it all around and add reviews. This is what i came up with.













This was my final piece. There are only small adjustments but they make a lot of difference. By moving the reviews closer to the edge of the poster it gives it more of a professional feel. This is because with actual movie posters everything is close to the edge and the writing is also bigger leaving less room for the picture. To see how i did things, look below.

After creating my movie poster 

Ancillary - Movie Review

My movie review

With the movie review poster I used adobe Photoshop to create it, I had already had the idea to have different shots within my review. i knew that i wanted an iconic shot from the film. As you can see I decided to have the last shot in the film because it has the most meaning in it, also I just really liked it and thought it fitted well. When it came to designing it I had a look at another design so I knew what i needed to have on it. This was my first design.

As you can see there is a massive difference in each design. In my opinion my second design is more appealing to the target audience and fits the convection better than the other one. I used the same font as i did in the film, i also kept it very plan colours apart from the red to stand out. By keeping it black and white i was keeping to the theme of black and white in the film. I added more shots from the film to get people talking about it and what they could expect to see. By having all the writing going down it looks like something you'd find in a magazine.

Short film

Audeince feedback

With my audience feed back i decided to come up with this sort of table with things they should comment on so that they knew what to look for. By doing this it allow me to ask people that didn't really understand what i was looking for.

Location Recce

Location from Callum Lynch on Vimeo.


After running through where i will be filming for my first shoot i thought it would be a good idea to run through whilst filming where i will be filming each shot of my film. By doing this i can indicate what hazards there are, where they are located and some safety options. 

 




















I also filmed on the moors for some of my film. The moors can be very dangerous from bog to wild animals.  I didn't write any of this when I did my but i'm going to talk about it. The moors is full of farm animals like pony's, cows and sheep. They can be harmless but its probably best to stay out of there way just to keep them calm and undistributed. You can also get dog walkers on the moors as well, dogs can be curious when other people are around, so when filming we had to be sure that they weren't violent dogs before we engaged them. 
I felt like filming on the moors was the best option because it gave the film that isolated feeling where no one else was. 


























I also filmed at a different location where i finished the film off. It was on a random road with a very chimerical bridge and hedges at throughout the road. I didn't do a recce sheet for this part in the film, I don't know why but i just didn't, it didn't cross my mind to do one at the time and now thinking about it i should have. But i can talk about it. Cars go up and down the road all the time so we had to be very careful when starting and stopping recording for car noise as well. But that wasn't a problem because when i was filming i made sure not to record when a car was driving. 

 

Actor Profiles

Dom Newton:

Age: 17

Bio: Young athletic teen age, has just entered into sixth form and made friends with a year 13. 

Occupation:Part time work

Likes: mountain biking, gaming,chilling with friends 

Dislikes: Vegetables, Education scheme and people

Acting experience: GCSE A grade student 

Strengths: Confident, attitude 

Weaknesses: Concentration

Why did I chose Dom: I decided to go with Dom because I've seen him act before and he was pretty good. As me and him are good friends i knew setting a time wouldn't be a problem either so that was good. He also suited the style of film i wanted to do, he can do a lot of things that other actors couldn't.  

Callum Lynch:

Age: 19

Bio: Young and promising film maker, very talented, enjoys creating films, just in his finishing years at sixth form to go to uni to study television. 

Occupation: Waiter 

Likes: Gaming, chilling with friends, making films, watching films

Dislikes: Certain food, Education scheme and people

Acting experience: None what so ever

Strengths: Natural leader, confidence 

Weaknesses:rubbish acting

Why did i chose Callum: I choose Callum not because he was a good actor because hes reliable and knowledgeable. 

Script

This is the script for my short film UNMASKED. I used word to create it. It took me about 2 hours after doing the storyboard to complete it. By doing the story board first it helped me as i knew what kind of shots i wanted, where the lighting would be, what the edit would be, I found doing the storyboard first helped me tremendously because whilst i was doing the storyboard i was already thinking about what they would be saying during the film. 

This is the script to Unmasked. I did the script with no knowledge on how to write one. I looked for an example on the internet and it was a rubbish example. So when it came to filming i decided to just do it without the script but use the script and storyboard as a sort of guideline to make sure i didn't go off course with silly stuff that didn't need to be in the movie.  

If i could go back and redo my script i would use a website called celtx to help me write it. By using a website to help me write my script, it will be more professional than mine. It will have all of the stage directions, emotions and commands that must be done. This would improve the production by a lot.  

Post Production

While during filming and editing i knew my film wasn't going to be perfect. During filming i should have asked a make up artist to come and help me out with some fake blood and a bit of makeup, but this didn't happen so i went looking for some tutorials on YouTube to help me out. I could find tutorials with gun shots but none with cutting a throat. So then i looked for some blood splatter effects on YouTube and found this one. 





https://motionarray.com/stock-video/blood-drops-4146

After looking at it for a while and deciding whether it will look weird or normal. I decided not to use this because it just looks to fake. As i have used quite a bit of POV in my film i have decided for when Dom my main character cuts Callum throat, ill cut it as soon as its touches the neck to make it look like Dom is blinking or has a loss of memory.  Even though i said it will be a 15. I will be making the viewers feel like they are in the film. 

Test footage

https://motionarray.com/stock-video/blood-drops-4146
MVI 3878 from Callum Lynch on Vimeo.

close up from Callum Lynch on Vimeo.

Here are a couple of different shots I shot one my first shot just to do a few test shots to make sure everything was okay for my camera. 

The close up I tried getting a shallow depth of field to make the back ground out of focus. By practicing this I can get better with different focusing like a deep depth of field where the back ground is out of focus. 

In my film I use a lot of shallow/deep depth of field shots to create a sort of blurred vision for the viewers to think that something bad is happening!