Evaluation - Question 1

Above is the order of titles for my teen film opening 'The Unknown'. 

 

As you can see in this video, I have used the technology of camtasia to compare the order of titles of 'The Unknown' to Juno. 

   

Here I have created a video comparing our teen film opening to Scream which I think is quite similar. I have also mentioned similar technical elements both films have used and further whether or not our teen film has followed the conventions or challenged it.

Evaluation - Question 2

Representation in Teen films

The photos shown in the above animoto video illustrate the sterotypes in our teen film opening compared to others such as Scream!

You have:
1) The good character
2) The black characters that are conventionally killed off
3) The murderer who is normally a white male
4) And finally the cool kids

Above is a vlog explaining the representation in our teen film. 

Evaluation - Question 3

This is the Distribution Company for 'The Unknown'.

This is the Production Company for 'The Unknown'. 

Amina q3 powerpoint from Aminajama

Evaluation - Question 4

 Our wider target audience for our teen film would be anyone between the ages of 14-24 as we feel teenagers/young people would appeal to our film more, as we kept the setting to something familiar e.g. the college.

More specifically, it would be teenagers that have a keen interest in horror films (which is our sub genre). I have created a facebook account for a member of our specific target audience: Leticia Jones.

 As you can see, Leticia is a teenage girl and has recently liked a Horror Films page on facebook, as she has a passion for horror movies and likes the element of scare.

 Leticia has a keen interest in horror films and as she is a teenage girl, I feel she would relate to the characters in our teen film as they are also teenagers in a college.

 Also, Leticia is part of the specific audience for our film based on the USP, as she is a black female and would relate to one of the main characters: the murderer. Our unique selling point for 'The Unknown', is that fact that we challeneged the conventions, as in most horror films, the murderer is a white male, however in our one, it is a black female. I feel Leticia would relate to the character, as she is also a black teenage girl.

Evaluation - Question 5

I interviewed a member of my target audience and it was interesting to see what she enjoyed from our teen film opening and further whether or not she would want to watch the rest of the film. The interview speaks volumes itself, so in order to see whether our teen film has made an impact, watch it and find out.

Evaluation - Question 6

Evaluation - Question 7

Deadline Completed!

We have finally completed our Teen Film opening after all our hard work. Now, it's show time.

More updates from feedback

We are now making the title sequence in Motion to make our film opening more professional. The photo above is the film title - 'The Unknown'. We chose the template splash as we feel it was the one that fit with our opening the most as it was quite abstract. We have now made the sequence of title names, which are in the right order, and will all be exactly 2 seconds long.

Changes made from rough cut feedback

I'd started to make some light changes from the feedback we received for our Rough Cut. These are only small changes regarding the match cuts and titles mainly. 

The above photo is regarding the distribution ident which needed to stay on the screen a little longer before it moves to the film title. 

The match cut in this shot was not as smooth or slick as it should be. This was due to the angles we filmed from. Therefore I went back and perfected the match cut making it seamless and professional. 

At this point, the mise-en-scene was compromised as you could see the camera reflection in the window. Therefore I edited it so our actor stopped earlier and blocked the reflection out. 

What next? 

From this point onwards we have small changes to make regarding the titles as they do not flow, are not in order, they are all not 3 seconds and overall too simple. Therefore as there is a lot of time left, I've decided to produce the titles on Motion, hopefully making our film opening more professional. 

Audience Feedback of Rough Cut

Audience Feedback

After we had shown our rough cut for feedback, we were told we had a few errors and had to change them in order to make our film opening better. 

1. According to the audience, our distributing title had to be longer as the audience could not see how was distributing our film long enough. In turn, we will make it longer in order for the audiences to see our indents. 

2. As soon as the title sequence had started, the first title is Director. From our audience feedback, they had said that the Director title must come at the end, if you are a very well known director, the beginning and end, however, in this case, only at the end. 

3. In the title sequence it said 'Actors' rather than 'Starring' which the audience had suggested. They also thought that the order of titles was too quick and should have a rhythmic pace to it,in order for the audience to take in who was responsible for what in the film opening. 

4. Lastly, in one of the shots, the camera equipment could be seen in the reflection of a glass window. The audience believe that ruined the continuity and should be cut slightly if possible. This will make the filming opening closer to the plot. 

Rough Cut- 'The Unknown'

Editing session 3

I am glad to say that the editing is going smoothly! The film is now finished, and the only things which are yet to come are the idents, music and titles, which are all prepared and only need to be placed in the film.

Editing session 2

As the rough cut deadline is approaching, the editing is still a working progress. This is a screenshot of the first part of the film with the ending, idents, music and titles yet to come.

choosing our music(unfinished

For our movie we had to choose a certain type of music. As it is a horror movie we have to use scary music to set the scene as being sinister.
We went onto creative commons and used sound cloud.

Here are a few that we looked at but didn't see as right for our movie:

Editing

Amina is putting our footage on the hard-drive and then will start editing the first part of our teen film. This is the time to start sifting through our footage to see which ones a good and which ones need to be re-filmed. 

Filming session 3

Today was our last full day of filming before we hand our camera back into college tomorrow. I felt that the filming today went very well, as we explored a range of shot types (including the all important close up), which I think displays our filming skills. The main focus of today was to re-film our main character arriving on a bus to come to college, and she is wearing the important scarf, as on the first day of filming it did not go as well as we wanted. We also filmed other characters arriving at college via the underground

This photo was taken when we were shooting the surrounding area and the station from different distances and angles.

As you can see there is the important scarf and this is when we were filming our student getting off of the bus from different angles (remembering to keep in mind the 180 degree rule).

Finally this is the bus stop that we were filming at and our character got off from. 

I am currently happy with the way our filming has been progressing but its not completely finished. When watching some of our previous footage back, I found that it was not completely up to scratch and it could be better - so this is something we can work on before editing. 

Filming session 2

The second day of filming was the most eventful for me, as it was an experience to drench myself in fake blood. Though it was a messy procedure (blood dripped all around the college floor) and a smelly one, it was also very very fun to do!

These are some of the photos taken from the filming session: 

This was a fellow group member filming the titling shot of myself covered in blood.

As at the end of the film opening, you see the person covered in blood, holding a bloody knife (which you can see in the shot) and the young girls scarf (which is just out of shot in my left hand).

This was the moment where I had to smear blood all over my arms, which left a horrible smell and was very cold. However in true sportsmanship, this added to the intensity of the filming and looked very realistic.

What to do next? 

From this point onward, I feel very confident with the rest of the filming because there is not much left to do. However, to link this to a previous post of 'hints on framing', I feel with regards to filming we need to include a bigger variety of shots, not forgetting the much important close-up.

Filming session 1

The first day of filming was interesting to say the least! It was exciting to get out there in public and make our teen film opening come to life!! We focused mainly on the beginning shots out in the surrounding area on this day.

These were just a selection of the first day filming photos.

This is when we were setting up the camera and tripod, ready for our main character to get off of the bus and arrive into college. 

The public seemed quite interested in what we were filming, and on occasions I had to reassure them that we were not filming them and it was all for educational purposes... All in a media students days work! 

Finally we felt to help with editing, it was best to film our character getting off the bus from a different angles. This will make our film opening more interesting. 

Handy hints on FRAMING before filming

During a class activity, I watched a video on handy tips for framing. This was very helpful in preparing for the filming to come, as it gave me an idea of how the different shots will be framed in the locations. As there were over 10 tips, I felt it was best to whittle it down to the most important ones that I want to share with you all. Most of the tips I heard are ones that I already knew from previous filming preparation, however it was nice to get a refresh.

So let the countdown commence:

5) Have actors walk in and out of the frame - this will help when it comes to editing!

4) Generally shoot at eye level but you can experiment with high and low angles to illustrate the status of a character.

3) Avoid zooming!!! This will disorientate your audience and give anyone watching your film a headache.

2) From previous coursework feedback, it is generally found that students never use enough close-up and extreme close-up shots. Remember you can never use enough of them!!

1) And finally, there should never ever be any head space!!!!

I hope these tips help you, as well as it helped me before being the filming!