Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film is called 'Aglet'. It is a British Indie film that follows the life of a homosexual teen on a journey to find himself, whilst also stumbling across love on the way. Our film opening adheres to many film conventions in order fulfil the audience's expectations, however, we also challenged some of these elements in order to create a more unique and interesting opening sequence. 

Form

An example of a film that has also used these elements of form is 'Fish Tank'.

In the opening sequence we are immediately introduced to the main character and wonder what she has done to make her breathe so heavily. This heavy breathing also helps to create suspense as it is the only sound and creates a very uneasy atmosphere. Although we do not see her, we are also introduced to the character of 'Ki' over the phone who we assume is a close friend of the protagonists very casual talk towards her. From this phone call we also learn that the protagonist is a seemingly violent person due to her use of harsh words such as 'bitch'. We are introduced to the setting which appears to be a council estate. This automatically has negative connotations for both the area and the character as she is assumed to be a 'chav' stereotype which is later confirmed in the film. Suspense is built at the end of the sequence as we wonder why she has gathered rocks and what she will use them for. 

Genre
For our film we chose to incorporate the genres of British indie, Coming of Age, Comedy and LGBT.

British Indie:

To connote this genre we used a British setting and British actors so that we may enhance the British audiences' gratification as they would be able to relate to the film more. This is also apparent in the film 'Submarine'. By including British culture we are able to submerge the British audience in the film even more, heightening the pleasure they may get from the film. On the right I have included two screenshots. The first shows our use of the British setting in our opening sequence and the second shows how it has been used in the film 'Submarine'.


       
Coming of Age:
This genre often follows a young protagonist on a journey as they begin to mature and unveil different details about themselves. These films often deal with the hardships of teenage life. In our film we explore the issues of sexuality, discrimination and confidence. We were inspired to explore these difficult themes after watching films such as 'Juno' which deals with the issue of teen pregnancy.






Comedy:

The punch

We attempted to stick to the conventions of comedy through our use of a very awkward protagonist. This left a lot of room for comedic potential as we would be able to see the unconventional manner in which he interacted with other characters. For example, when Craig confronts bullies at the end of the opening sequence comedy is created through their extremely contrasting characteristics. The fact that such an introverted character would use the words 'shut up' in an attempt to intimidate two powerful bullies is comedic as the audience is obviously aware that this won't solve the situation.We also used a punch as slapstick comedy as a way to cut the suspense of the situation.

LGBT:
We demonstrated the conventions of this genre through our use of gay characters. Our protagonist is homosexual and we follow him on a journey as he struggles to accept himself. We deal with issues that member of the LGBT community may be able to identify with such as bullying which occurs in the opening sequence. This makes the film more realistic and relatable for members of the LGBT community, whilst also making our film highly educational for those that are not part of this community. Other films such as 'Milk have also showcased a homosexual protagonist who strugglesto find acceptance due to is sexuality.



Narrative Structure
In our film we chose to stick to the 'classic' narrative pattern which adheres to Todorov's theory...

An example of another film which follows Todorov's theory is 'Juno'. Juno is an average teenage girl,  however, this equilibrium is disrupted once she finds out that she is pregnant. She attempts to restore order by giving the baby up for adoption but obviously this is very difficult for everyone involved. Eventually a new equilibrium is found when she finds a loving home for her baby and is able to return to school.

We also included some of Roland Bathe's theories...
Enigma code:
This code poses questions to the audience which are answered later in the film. For example, the audience constantly questions what Craig is writing in his notebook and why he is doing this. However, we also somewhat challenged this code through our use of a voice over which answers some of the questions raised.
Cultural code:
Associations on narratives may be made be people's previous experiences. For example, due to the bullies' stereotypical 'chav' costume, the audience may assume that they are loud or aggresive.
Action code:
An action which moves the narrative in a particular direction. For example, when the bullies walk past Craig as he sits quietly on the bench. The bullies then become the main focus of the narrative.
Symbolic code:
Suggests that images in narrative can have different purposes or meanings. In our opening sequence we use Craig's notebook to suggest his shy and antisocial nature.

We also integrated some of Levi Strauss' Binary Opposites theory. We achieved this through our choice of character. Craig is a very quiet, social awkward teen who contrasts greatly to the very loud and aggressive bullies which he confronts. Craig is portrayed as the victim, whilst the bullies are portrayed as the villain. However, Craig may also be seen as the hero as he confronts the 'bad guys' in order to help out a fellow victim. It is not conventional to mix these portrayals within singular characters, however, we chose to do so as we felt that it would add an element of realism to our sequence.

Style
We have attempted to connote our chosen genres through our specific choices in style.
Sound:

We used an acoustic guitar cover of the song 'Let it go' by James Bay as our soundtrack to suggest the indie nature of the film, whilst also increasing the pace of the sequence due to it being upbeat. We were inspired by the music used in the film 'Submarine' as they chose to use a very mellow guitar track with gentle vocals which we believed set the mood of the film very effectively.
We also chose to include a voice over within our sequence. This meant that our main character, Craig, could speak directly to the audience, thus heightening the audience's ability too submerge themselves in the film. It also means that the audience may understand Craig more as they are given a unique perspective in his mind. Other films such as 'Me, Earl and the dying girl' have also used a voice over for this effect.
Grading:

Grading in Juno

When grading, we decided to emphasise the natural blues and oranges within our shots. This helped us to give our footage a distinct look which many other Indie films such as 'Juno' have also experimented with. This gives our film a USP (unique selling point).





Titles:
After looking at other British Indie films such as 'Fish Tank' and 'Submarine', we noticed that they both used a rectangular frame as a guide for the writing on their titles. We felt that this was very effective as it gave them a neat and organised look which we also wanted.

Submarine title

Fish Tank title

Aglet title

We used the font 'Songs for Jennifer' as it has a scrapbook feel to it which we felt was suitable for our film, given Craig's attachment to his notebook. This 'hand drawn' type of look has also been used in films such as Juno and give the titles a very unique look. We also felt that it helped to suggest our TA (target audience) as it looked more youthful and fun. This idea was also reinforced by our use of the colour bright blue. We also used lower cased letters within our titles as a way to break the conventions of titles, whilst also making them look more interesting.

Juno's use of Cartoon font

Our use of scrapbook-like font

Camera work:

We experimented with different types of cameras within our opening sequence in order to create variation. For example, by using a GoPro as the one visible, we are able to heighten the uses and gratification of our audience as they are able to be more involved in the story. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, these unique shots make our opening sequence stand out immediately. By challenging camera conventions we create another USP for our film.  

In conclusion, we adhered to many film conventions so that our film could be easily understandable, however, by challenging some of the conventions we have made our sequence unique and therefore more entertaining.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film opening we concentrated on representing a variety of teenagers, especially those in the LGBT community. Below I have included a Prezi, expanding on our decisions.



In conclusion, we felt that by representing social groups in more than one way we would be able to increase the realism within our sequence whilst also being able to represent out TA more accurately.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We decided to create our own independent production company to produce our film and also chose an already existing company to distribute it. Our reasons for these decisions are explained below:

Below I will suggest how our film would be released and marketed based on the plans I have seen from other British Independent films...
I have summarised our marketing strategy in a short slide show. Please use the arrows to navigate the slideshow.

How our film will be distributed:
Premiere
We will first showcase our film at the BFI London Film Festival as it is a pioneering platform for independent films and has been the location for the premiere of critically acclaimed Independent films such as 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

Cinema 

Our film will be showcased at many different Independent cinemas such as Art House cinema in Crouch End. However, we will also distribute our film in chain cinemas such as Odeon cinema in order to be available to a wider audience.

TV

After its theatrical release, our film would be available on TV channels such as Film 4. This helpful as they also distribute our film, meaning that they will put great emphasis on this film in order to increase profit. By releasing our film on TV we may also attract people that do not necessarily have the time or money to go to the cinema, thus reaching a wider audience.

Online

Our film will also be available on online subscriptions such as Netflix. This will help to extend the life of our film and would be result in exposure to the 75 million subscribes which it has.

DVD

We would also release our film on DVD and Blu-ray some months after its theatrical release.These DVDs would then be sold in supermarkets such as Morrisons and sold online through websites such as Amazon.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Below, I have included a Prezi detailing different aspects of our target audience. 

To conclude, we decided on a target audience of 15-30 year old members of the LGBT community. Even though our film is slightly skewed towards the younger end of our TA, we still hope to appeal to a large majority of the older end as they are more likely to go to the cinema and pay to watch our film. That said, our secondary audience was heavily concentrated on fans of the British indie genre as they enjoy our genre and are more willing to experiment with different representations. It would be very difficult to make our film appeal to a mass market as there are very niche representations which may only be relatable to a few. Themes such as homosexuality and discrimination also mean that not everyone would be willing to watch our film. This means that I film will most probably not make it onto the global market, however, we would most likely earn enough to cover our production budget and address added expenses such as employee's wages.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

I have created a mind map which explains how our audience will be attracted/addressed. Please hover over the image to see the + and - navigation buttons which will allow you to zoom in and out of my annotations.

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During our production process we showcased our film opening to different people in order to get a good amount of constructive criticism. Some of the notes we received included...

• Reducing the length of the voice over as it distracted from the visuals at times. As a result, I cut down the voice over so that it was more concise and did not drag.
• Staging the conflict scene better. As a result we changed the angles which we shot this scene at in order to improve continuity. This included us recording a master shot as a main basis of our editing which we then edited subsequent shots into. This meant that there was a great reduction in the amount of jump cuts in our sequence.
• Having to adapt the dialogue in the conflict scene. At first, the actors were free to improvise for this short section of the sequence, however, after seeing how this disrupted the flow of our editing I eventually scripted this section. This was extremely helpful as it meant that we could cut between shots easier without the fear of having sound that did not match.

We then showcased our improved final sequence to audience members and received some more reactions:

Overall, I am extremely happy with this feedback as it is very positive. Even though our sequence is not perfect, everyone that gave feedback was able to pick out several enjoyable aspects of our sequence, suggesting that is one with many good qualities.

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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?

Preliminary Task Brief:

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. 

Production Task Brief: 

To produce a 2 minute opening sequence for a fiction film. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music and audio effects from a copyright-free source. It should be clear from your sequence who the target audience is.

The brief for our production task was a lot less specific than the one we were given for our preliminary task. When approaching the film brief we waned to include some of the requirements of the preliminary task such as a match on action shot as we believed that this would showcase our editing skills. The lessons we learned whilst completing the preliminary task affected the decisions we made for our main production task. Below I have created a table explaining how our previous experiences influenced our choices...

Overall, I think that doing the preliminary task was very useful as allowed us to practice many of the skills that we later used in our production task. For example...

A match on action shot in my prelim

A match on action shot in my opening sequence 

To conclude, I believe that the preliminary task was a vital part of my project as it gave me invaluable experience from pre-production to post-production. Through this project I have greatly developed my knowledge of film and technology. In the future I would like to further develop this knowledge as I have enjoyed producing this sequence and working with my fellow peers as a team to create something that we are very proud of. 

Construction Post 10: Looking back - reflections on our final outcome

Overall, I am very happy with the final outcome of my groups opening film sequence as it sticks to the requirements of the brief. Although it is not perfect, I think that we effectively told the story which we set out to tell in an entertaining manner. Through this sequence we wanted to raise awareness around issues concerning age and sexuality which I think we have done effectively. I also think that we have kept within our chosen genre of British indie as our film has a very 'quirky' feel and sticks to film conventions, whilst also challenging them at some points. For example, through our use of a GoPro. Unique elements such as this make our sequence more enjoyable and gives it the ability to stand out from other films. Watching all of our work finally come together in our sequence is very exciting and presents to me both the good and bad within our project. I am happy with the characterisation within the sequence as I believe my use of script was able to quickly and easily suggests the personality of each character, however, if we had more time I would have liked to have incorporated more quirks into Craig's character so that he could be seen as more three dimensional. I am also happy with the continuity of our film but would definitely re-approach the bullying segment of our sequence if we had more times as it can sometimes jump or break continuity rules. This results in action that does not flow as well and a decrease in realism within the sequence as the audience become aware of the incorrect editing. Looking back, I think that members of our focus group have been essential in the success of our film sequence as we were able to tailor our decisions to appeal to them more. For example, when we first showcased our clip, people had queries about the length of our voice over as they felt that it was too long and wordy. In response to this we edited the script, making it more concise and only adding the relevant information needed to understand Craig's character. 

Construction Post 9: My technical learning curves

During this process I have improved my technical ability greatly. Through practice, I further developed my shooting and editing ability. For example, I had not revised my editing techniques since I had used them at a GCSE level. This meant that I had to re-teach myself a lot of the skills again. Once I had revised them I found it much easier to put them into practice again. If there was a time when I found myself unable to figure something out, I would enlist the help of my fellow group members or our technician.
I enjoyed learning about new tools such as the razor tool which gave me the ability to cut and separate shots. This was especially helpful to me as it meant that the cutting of my shots was more precise, heightening the continuity present within my sequence. It also meant that I did not have to duplicate shots which saved time and space. On the right is a snippet of the toolbar available on Adobe Premiere Pro with the razor tool highlighted.
Previously I had not been very confident with editing, however, now that I have had the opportunity to edit for large amounts of time I have familiarised myself with the software. I now have the ability the import and edit together separate videos, whilst also manipulating their sound for the greatest outcome. For example, I learned that by adjusting the audio gain of our footage we could affect the sound and tone of Craig's voice.
I also improved my grading abilities due to large periods of practice. I learnt that by slightly adjusting the position on the colour wheels you could completely transform the look of your footage by changing its colour and saturation levels. Even though this was a very tedious process, it definitely was worth it as the little risks we took with grading helped to make our footage look more unique and effective.

A screenshot of the three wheel colour corrector

 Overall, I have learnt a lot more about the technical side of media which I found very enjoyable as it broadened my knowledge and allowed me to put this new found knowledge into practice. 

Construction Post 8: My personal contribution to the editing sessions

A picture of me editing

During the editing process, my group all took turns controlling different elements within the sequence so that we could have a greater understanding the different editing techniques overall. After re-learning all the basic editing skills I found it much easier to use the software and editing became one of my strong points.

Firstly I was given the task of re-naming shots and picking out the best takes. This was an essential part of the whole editing process as it was important to get the highest quality videos. After doing this I, along with the rest of my team continued to layer these videos together on our sequence columns. This was an ongoing and time consuming process as we constantly went back to make improvements to all of our shots. These improvements included cutting down shots, adjusting the sound within a shot and much more. Once we had our near finished sequence it was then my job to record the final voice over with our actor, Reuben, sing the Audacity recording system. I then copied these on to a USB and copied them over to our edit suite so that they could be incorporated into our sequence. After we added the voice over we went on to add titles to the sequence. Part of my job was to figure out which placement of each name suited the shot best. This involved a lot of trial and error as we attempted to find the most conventional and aesthetically pleasing placement. A crucial element of my contribution was the grading that I did. This was a very intricate part of the editing process as I spent time manipulating the colouring and saturation of our shots to find the most attractive combination. I personally enjoyed this part of the process as it showed me the transformative qualities that grading can have. By grading, you can create a more idealistic version of what reality may be seen as, heightening the uses and gratification of being entertained, whilst also ensuring that the audience are still able to relate and identify with the film. 

Construction Post 7: My personal contribution to the shoot sessions

During the shoot sessions I participated in all elements as we often switched jobs. In some shots I had the less important, yet essential job of using the clapper board, however, most times I was either the director or camera operator of each shot. These two jobs of director and camera operator seemed to merge into one as I would often find myself directing whilst I operated the camera. This was due to my unique perspective of standing directly behind the camera as it meant that I was able to spot things on the viewfinder of the camera that the director could not necessarily see. On the right is a behind the scenes video of me directing.

Construction Post 6: Reflections on edit week 2

Our editing schedule for week 2

During edit week 2 we began to incorporate our new footage into our final sequence. We had to repeat many elements of week 1 such as renaming the shots and picking the best takes. Once we had these we began to make more precise cuts to our shots.  We then added the music which had Alex had created to the sequence. After this, we edited the final voice over which I had recorded with Reuben. This caused us some issues, as mentioned in a previous post, as our recording equipment created a slight echo, which was pointed out to us by a member of our TA. In order to overcome this issue we decided to edit the voice over using the equalizer function on our software. This was very time consuming, but helped us improved the sound quality and therefore overall quality of our sequence. After creating our basic sequence we began to add effects such as fades to our shots to improve the fluidity of our shot transitions. We then concentrated on adding important elements such as titles. This was an ongoing process as we often decided to change the font and colour of the titles in order to appeal to members of our focus group as they would tell us whether our choices were appropriate or not. Finally, we used a lot of our time grading our shots. This was to give our footage the finished look as it would often be a dull greyish colour. By grading we were able to manipulate the footage to make it brighter and more appealing. Originally, we had decided on using a slightly sepia effect as we were inspired by the film 'Submarine'. We also chose to grade slightly towards blue and orange as we thought this would give our film a unique look, typical to Indie films. I began to grade our footage like this, however, some members of our group decided they no longer wanted this look and began to change the grading I had done. This is an example of when we lacked communication skills. To prevent issues like this from occurring again, we introduced the post-it system. This system consisted of us writing down any queries or comments we had on a post-it and sticking it on the computer screen. This meant that when the next group member who began to edit would be able to address these quires or recommendations.  I think that this edit week went very well as we went into great depth because we wanted our final product to reflect all of our hard work.

Our edit suite and post-it system

Construction Post 5: The back up shoot

A picture of me filming 

For the back-up shoot we chose to re-shoot the shots that we did not deem to be good enough during the main shoot. This mainly consisted of shots from the bullying sequence, however, we had to shoot all the outdoor shots again to prevent any apparent changes in lighting or background. The back-up shoot was a very worth while one as it meant that we could revise all the issues in filming and scripting which we had come across in the test and main shoot. We mainly concentrated on filming the bullying sequence s this was our most problematic section of our sequence. To create a greater sense of continuity we filmed the entirety of the conflict section from alternative angles. This was so that we could edit the sequence much more smoothly. During the back-up shoot we also put the new dialogue from the script into practice. After watching the main shoot footage I realised that by allowing the actors to add-lib particular sections, the dialogue appeared confused and stilted. By scripting all of the dialogue I was able to make the dialogue sound more realistic, increasing the audience's ability to relate and submerge themselves in the sequence. Overall, I think that the back-up shoot was a vital part of our whole shooting process as it gave us the opportunity to amend issues that we had previously found, whilst also having fun doing it.

Construction Post 4: Reflections on edit week 1

Our editing schedule

Firstly, we created an editing schedule which shows our decisions of when we chose to edit during our free time. During week 1 we concentrated on renaming all of the shots we had taken and beginning to choose which take of each shot we felt looked best. We also began to roughly cut down our shots into sequence form. Finally we concentrated on sound, adding the music which Alex had recorder and the voice over. During this process we discovered that having more than 2 people at an editing suite at one time may be problematic as it restricted space and meant that not everybody had access to the computer and were therefore, unable to do any work. To prevent this we chose to edit mostly in groups of 2 people, however, we edited as a whole group during our group meetings so that we could preview the work we had done and also have more eyes on the look out for issues such as jump cuts.

Construction Post 3: Reflections on our main shoot

Notes we made for our next shoot

I feel that our main shoot went considerably more efficiently than our main shoot as we had identified the issues we had faced in our main shoot and were able to overcome most of these. For example, with the help of some fellow media students (also members of our TA), we were able to identify unnecessary shots and eliminate them from our shoot board, meaning we could shoot more efficiently. However, technical issues such as a loud buzzing noise coming from the headphones put our sound quality in jeopardy. Once this issue was overcome we continued to shoot with ease, although this did affect the sound qualities of some of our shots as we were not always able to pick up and eliminate background noise quickly.
The greatest issue that was uncovered during our main shoot was the lack of continuity in the final conflict scene of our sequence, which was pointed out to us by members of our TA. This was due to issues with the script and placement of the camera. Rather than placing the camera on different angles and instructing the actors to perform the whole sequence multiple times, we attempted to film small snippets of the dialogue whilst moving the camera between shots. This proved to be problematic as we were unable to create footage that appeared to flow seamlessly. It looked very jumpy and stilted, meaning that we could not use it in our final sequence. However, this turned out to be a positive for my group as we were able to fix these problems to create a sequence that seemed more organic. This was also aided by changing the script. Originally, there were sections of the script when the actors were able to add-lib, however this made editing more difficult. By changing our shooting choices an tweaking our script we were able to create a more continuous sequence that our focus group liked more. Overall, I think that our main shoot went well, if not for creating quality footage, but for showing us what we had to do in order to achieve what we had set out to do.

Construction Post 2: Our post production kit

Once we had gathered all of our footage we began to edit them together onto a sequence with the Adobe Premiere Pro editing software using our edit suite. This edit suite consisted of duel monitors which allowed us to edit on the left side computer and preview our progress on the right computer. This was very helpful as it meant that we could constantly review our progress and see elements of our sequence that we wished to alter.
We used a Blue Yeti microphone and a the recording programme Audacity to record our voice over. However, if we were to record our voice over again I would use a Mac book to create it instead as it would create a better sound quality and prevent the slight echo that we got when we recorded on a standard PC.
We used Adobe Photoshop to create our titles as we felt this would enable us to have more freedom when deciding on the fonts and colours which we wanted. For the name titles within our sequence we used the software LiveType which was available on our Mac books as it was more catered to this use.

Our edit suite and Adobe Premiere Pro

Construction Post 1: Our production kit

Our Production Kit

Our production kit included:

• Canon Legria HF G30 
• Sennheiser HD 201 headphones
• Tripod
• Shotgun microphone
• Clapper board
• Shoot board

We used this camera to record our footage to a high quality. We then plugged headphones into it to ensure that the sound quality was good and to prevent any background noise ruining our shots. This was also helped by our use of the shotgun microphone as it was extremely effective at picking up the dialogue in our shots and its fluffy texture prevented a lot of extra noise being created by the wind. The tripod was used to keep our shots steady and level, however, we were unable to use it for hand held shots as it could not be shortened to the height which was required. This meant that it was difficult to shoot hand held shots as the camera would often shake. We used the clapper board so that we could easily distinguish our shots from each other during the editing process. This was extremely helpful as it meant that we were able to name our shots much quicker. However, in some shots the clapper board was held too far away from the camera so the writing became illegible. This resulted in us having to play the individual shots to figure out which ones they were which was very time consuming. Finally, we used the shoot board to keep a track of all the shots we had taken and kept a note of all of the takes that we had made. The shoot board was arranged according to location, meaning we could shoot our shots more efficiently.