'Behind Closed Doors' Final Cut

Evaluation Question 4 - Media Technologies

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

Research & Planning (Web 2.0 Tools):

Blogger

Google's Blogger is the main internet resource I used in the research and planning stage of the production of my film. I used it to produce all my coursework by putting it all on to different blog posts over the year. It hosted everything I made (film and ancillary tasks put on blog) and so is what I spent a lot of of my time working on. The overall look of the blog needs to work and be easy to read and understand, and then needs to be easily navigated so the marker can find the work they're marking quick and easily. This is an important part of the marking criteria.
Furthermore, the use of Blogger means that we didn't have to keep printing, emailing or writing new work as just with one click of a button can update the work for marking. We used this in conduction with the monitoring blog progress excel sheet on Mr Hood's blog.

Blogger did, however, have drawbacks. If the internet was not working then we would have absolutely no connection and no way of accessing our work, and if this happened then we wouldn't be able to complete posts or start new ones, and if this was a prolonged issue, then it leaves more work for when the internet does start working again. This could happen at any time, and if it happened near a deadline, it would make the time so much more stressful and it would be a huge rush to fix everything when the internet did come back on. Also, Blogger has a tendency to 'malfunction', and by this I mean it can jumble your work and mess the orders of everything around and make it impossible to change anything. This has happened to myself numerous times over the Media course.

YouTube

YouTube was used as a learning resource as much as a communication one. Myself and my group communicated through it by bang able to put up the videos on one of our group member's channels so we knew where everything was, and then we could embed the video into our blogs by using the HTML code given on the video's page.
We used this as a research resource because when my group produced the different tasks we used tutorials and examples in YouTube to find out how to go about our work. We found it very useful and it proved to be an invaluable piece of technology.

YouTube has a small drawback, and it is when we looked for videos and resources, a lot of useless irrelevant videos also come up in the search. This cannot really be fixed, but it is a problem that we faced when we looked for resources because 95% of the search was plagued by useless videos and half of them had nothing to do with the topic we looked for.

Google

Google was used almost every single day. It is a huge database and we used this to find everything we used. It was used to look for pictures and was used to look for free sound websites such as FreeSFX.co.uk, which was our main resource for finding soundtracks. We used Google for written tutorials, too, which we used to create the practise poster designs and for the magazine practise.

As with YouTube, the drawback is just concerning the fact that with every search comes with millions of unnecessary results which get in the way of what we're actually trying to achieve.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia was used to research things that we needed to understand for our work, especially the blogs. We used it to research things like Final Cut Pro X and other computer resources that we needed to reference in our coursework and we looked into them for background knowledge that would help us understand and use the software effectively.

The drawback of Wikipedia is that anybody can go on and change things around, and so the in formation on there may not be trustworthy, so it is definitely important to double-check anything you find when looking at Wikipedia.

Scribd

Scribd was used in many ways to convert our documents (on Microsoft Word, for example) to PDF format and then out them onto the internet in a useful interactive format which could then be embedded into the blog for an improved look and ease of use. These two factors are important to aquiring a good grade in our course, and so we paid attention to how we used Scribd and made sure we used it when it was effective, but not when there are alternatives, else it will become overused and therefore boring to the viewer.

The drawback of using Scribd is that some documents may not be suited and sometimes the documents don't function. We've had this problem in the past, and it comes up blank or something of the sort and needs re-uploading and re-embedding to sort out the issue, which takes time that could be spend doing other constructive things.

Pre-Production:

iMac

The iMac is the computer we used for everything. It had all of the software we used on it, and allowed us to do our work on the internet as well as off, when we made our film and other ancillary products. It is the most influential piece of technology we used as it bridged the gap between us and the rest of the technology like Photoshop and QuarkXpress, which I will discuss further down the post.

There is only one drawback, and that is the tenancy for the '[rainbow] wheel of doom (or death)' to emerge, which brings the computer to a halt and means you cannot do anything, and on some occasions, this can never go away, and so work has been lost in the past.

CeltX

CeltX is the software we used to create our script. It is a simple and easy to use piece of technology and it allows us to quickly but professionally put together the script for us and our cast to follow. They can be easily edited and altered as well, which allows for us to make changes is we want to try different things.

Email

The school emailing system we have at our disposal was very useful for conveying and communicating information in between group members when immediate methods were not available. It is especially useful as you can attach documents to it and therefore send more complex and applicable information across the group, which can help productivity and efficiency.

However, the drawback of suing this system is that it may not be useful if the information need reviewing straight away, as some people go days or even weeks without checking their emails. Usually, we'd meet up or text to convey information, so this was mainly used to send documents between group members.

Production:

Digital DSLR-600D

The Digital DSLR-600D camera we used this year was much better than the Sony HD cameras of last year, for multiple reasons. For starters, it was much smaller, which meant it could be put in more creative places to create more advanced angles that couldn't be achieved with the older, larger cameras we used in year 12. Also, the footage it provides is better quality, and the setting can be altered to make the shots more effective in the way exposure, focus and other setting are controlled. The auto focusing system available on the cameras also helped speed things up and allow sharper footage to be captured. Also, the fact this camera used rechargeable batteries (unlike the Sony HDs, which needed charging after they went flat), which meant it could be used longer, or even continuously, if the old battery was charging whilst the second was in the camera.

However, the cameras also proved much, much harder to control. In-hand, the cameras were, in my opinion, harder to control. This means handheld shots were easier on the larger cameras, but this is only a minor issue. The main one is to do with the fact they were extremely difficult to master, which translated into focusing problems in our earlier trials of the equipment.

Tracking Dolly

The tracking dolly was a great piece of kit to use and, if it worked, it could look awesome on-screen. It is simple and fast to set up, and can provide really steady shots at different speeds. I personally liked this very much, and so it was one of my favourite technologies we used in the making of our film. However, it only appears a few times in the film, and I would have liked to do more, but the theme of our film and the location restricted its use.

The main drawback of this is that it is huge. It took so much fiddling to fit it through the doorway, as the wheels of the dolly at either side were hitting the door frame and so we kept moving it millimetre by millimetre until it fit perfectly. Also, it can be hard to push forward steadily, as you must watch the camera as well as your footing, and it is remarkably easy to do one of these wrong when you're also making sure the dolly doesn't roll of the end of the tracks.

Location Recording Kit

This proved to be invaluable to us. It allowed us to record single-piece tracks such as door slams and glass drops, whilst being able to capture the sound of the scenes perfectly, thus greatly improving the audio quality when we edited this over the top of the camera's sound recordings. Many filmmakers say sound makes or breaks the film, and this was definitely making it.

The drawback was its strength. It is so acute that even a small snigger or cough in the next room can show up clearly, which made us retake shots we liked in the past. However, apart from this, it was a good piece of technology and helped our film a load.

Post-Production:

Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro X is more advanced and refined than the previous Final Cut Express we used last year in conjunction with SoundTrack Pro. The new software allows us to edit the audio as well as the video at the same time, and even allowed us to attach specific audio tracks to different video clips so they can be kept together. One of the good aspects I found about this new upgrade was the change in look. Last year's Final Cut Express was white and sometimes hard to look at, whilst the new black/dark grey theme is friendlier and more calming, allowing better concentration. However, the biggest part about it I like is the fact that you don't need to edit the soundtrack separately to the video, which saves hours of time we used to spend exporting from one to the other.

There are no negatives for me, apart from the fact it was so different from the other Final Cut that it took some getting used to, and a lot of the short keys were different and the buttons on-screen were different, too.

FreeSFX.co.uk and Audio.lgfl.org.uk

FreeSFX.co.uk was a great source for audio. That and Audio.lgfl.org.uk (the secondary choice for our music tracks) provided us with some good examples of music tracks to use and choose from. When we searched the website for soundtracks we found a fair amount of relevant tracks, and the ones we liked were of good quality. The one we chose for when Rebecca's character was waiting in the living room was effective and very good for what we wanted it for.

However, when we searched for soundtracks, many of the results were irrelevant and tracks that appeared on the two websites' search results page were often not what we were looking for and wouldn't fit in with the film.

Ancillary Tasks:

Task 1 - Film Poster:

White Backdrop

This was used when we took the photographs for our poster in the Drama Studio as it created a good, solid background for our images so they could be put over the document and the background could be daily removed, changed and recoloured to what we wanted it to be changed to. It also allowed us to merge and blend the pictures together with more finesse which allowed for a more creative product at the end.

It had some drawbacks, though. When we used it, we needed to spread light evenly over it, which was very difficult to do as the lights were large and bright, but also centred, so the beam hit the sheet in a certain part instead of being spread out, which made the background uneven.

Key Lighting Kit

These lights were used in conduction with the white backdrop sheet. They were large and powerful, which allowed us to achieve what we wanted, and were mobile as well, being light and rather easy to set up.

However, when they are turned on, they become very hot. This proved to be a bad thing, as then they could be awkward to move safely. Also, they were top heavy, which meant they could be easily knocked over if someone wasn't paying attention and maybe tripped on the wire.

Photoshop CS5.1

Photoshop CS5.1 was the software we used to create our poster. We used it to first get all of the images together on the document in layers, and then edit them together by using blends and other picture and image tools. We did about four different types of picture posters and practiced the text on another computer to make sure they were both as best as they could be before putting them together properly. It is a great piece of technology for this, and the layering makes it very easy to lock specific parts and be able to move things separately to create what we want to create.

The negative of the software is that it can become hard and complex to use if you start using too many different layers, which became a slight issue when we put the images and text together on the same document to make the final poster. When it was on, we started moving and altering the text to make sure it fit in with the pictures by changing colours, size, position and font.

Task 2 - Magazine Review:

QuarkXpress

This software was used to create the magazine review. It was a somewhat strange piece of technology to use, as it was much different to the other pieces of technology we used in the past. It was good for what it was used for. although being a little awkward to use at times. But, when we got used to the software it proved to be a very useful tool and we couldn't have managed to achieve as good a piece of work as we had done if we hadn't have used it.

Evaluation:

Prezi and Emaze

We used Prezi to create presentations for our media evaluation questions last year. It makes much better quality work than Microsoft PowerPoint, for example. But, this year, we found another type of software called Emaze, which seems to be an even better and more versatile version of Prezi, which we used to create our evaluation question presentation this year.

Evaluation Question 3 - What We Learned from Audience Feedback

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During our time in the A2 section of our A-Level Media Course, we were presented with many different lots of feedback from various sources, and in this post I am going to discuss these and how they have improved me and what I have learned from them.I will talk briefly about each part here, but most of the information will be shown in the form of a video at the end of this post.

Film Commissioning Interview (Pitch)

Near the start of the year, after our film was planned and some of the resources (treatment etc.) were completed, we pitched our film short idea to our commissioner, who then after asking many questions, ultimately decided whether to give us the go ahead or not. Luckily, after a very long interview (nearly half an hour), we were accepted, and we could proceed with the next phase of planning.

The film pitch was planned beforehand, and as you can see in the video of the pitch I have embedded above, we had documents to refer to. These documents were our film treatments, so we could use them to aid us if we needed to refer to something to strengthen our points. The pitch was tense and fun at the same time, and took place in the commissioner's office, without the other groups around. For the group, it helped the film become more interesting and the commissioner helped by guiding us to make the best decisions.

Film Rough Cut

The Rough Cut

After many, many weeks of shooting and editing, the rough cut of our film 'Behind Closed Doors' was complete. We put this on YouTube, and then exhibited it to the rest of the media class. We spend eight days shooting and six days editing, totalling fourteen construction days and these were spanned over time as we could only use certain days in the week (around 2-3) so the production dragged on a bit. By the time we came to shoot, we had gotten used to the new equipment such as the DSLR cameras, and was able to complete a decent cut.

When we showed it to the class, they watched it twice, and on the second time the class were recorded giving their feedback to us about our film and how we could improve it for the final cut. It was a rather tense day for some, particularly Deanna, but I was calm, consumed with relief after the troubles we'd faced the past few months. We listened intently to their feedback and reviewed it, and we then spoke about it amongst our team Volcanic Productions, and planned improvements we were going to make.

The Rough Cut Feedback

After we made our improvements, which was mostly editing in the Media Suite, we re-uploaded this to YouTube under the designation 'Behind Closed Doors' Final Cut. This version was then shown to the rest of the class, and we were given a rough mark for the film out of 10, in which we received top-end figures, which we were ecstatic about. Below here, I will embed the final cut of our short thriller film, 'Behind Closed Doors'.

The Final Cut

Ancillary Task 1 (Magazine Review)

With the main product completed, we moved on to the Ancillary Tasks. To complete these two tasks, we split the group in half, with one half doing the magazine review (Daniel and Charlotte) and the other (me and Deanna) doing the poster.

Magazine Review Draft

The first task I will talk about is the magazine review. We created a fake magazine company called Red Film Reviews for this, and created a house style (black, white and red) for it, and followed this when creating the review. The first draft took about a week, and it was then that we shown it to the rest of the class.

We received a mix of 7s and 8s for this, which we were pleased with. The feedback we were given was vital to us improving the magazine review, and the most significant one of these was simply to split the text into four columns instead of the 3 we had chosen. This was not so much as wrong, but very unconventional of film magazine reviews, so we changed this and it proved to be a great improvement. Another improvement was to change the text colour or background, as the writing was very difficult to read. A third improvement was to add a king of 'tag line' under the heading, to aid grasping the readers, and a final improvement was to change the picture we had used, as it was too blurry.

Final Magazine Review

We made the adjustments we recorded in note-form (all of us took separate notes, to make sure we didn't miss anything) and this led to us producing an impressive final review, earning us all nine out of ten in the final marking stage.

Ancillary Task 2 (Poster)

Poster Draft

Above is the picture of what our first poster draft looked like. We were very pleased with the feedback we had, as people gave it 8s and 9s but still managed to give us sufficient feedback to improve it further, securing them high marks we all know and love. We recorded the feedback the same way we recorded feedback for the magazine review, and we found this to be an effective method of going about this.

We received improvements for the images as well as the text, and I will highlight these now. Rebecca had a black blotch on her head, which Deanna quickly amended in Photoshop when we came to make improvements. When she did this, she also moved the image of Alex in the background up, as we were advised to do so and agreed with the feedback. We were then also advised to make the cast members' surnames closer to their forenames, as the gap created unwanted space and reduced the effectiveness of the poster. A thing that was bad about the poster draft, was the relationship between the title and the tagline in the top-right, as people got confused between them. To amend this, we made the title bigger and the tagline smaller. Lastly, we were advised to change the fonts used, as it was one throughout the whole poster, which looked rather uninteresting.

Final Poster

Video

Evaluation Question 2 - Our Products' Effectiveness When Combined

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

In this evaluation question I will be discussing my different products that I have produced (Ancillary tasks and main task) and how they are effective together in my portfolio. The first two, the film and the poster, are both created by the production team, whilst the magazine review is made by an outside company. For this reason, the film and poster link together more so than the magazine does with them. I will explain below.

How Effective was my Thriller Film?

My production team's completed film was, in my opinion, a success. We managed to achieve a level 4, which is what we aimed to get, and we also managed to incorporate a tense thriller storyline into the film. The narrative of our film was also thriller-based, as we mixed up the time and produced a non-chronological storyline. I have embedded my competed film below:

I feel that the way the film was edited, along with the attention to mise-en-scene, helps achieve its purpose of being a thriller film. We used split-edits and sound effects to increase the tension, and the clock-like soundtrack at the start of scene 2 is a great tension-builder, which helps prepare the viewers for the upcoming events, when Richard is confronted by Alice, which leads up to the climax of her falling down the stairs. We used a non-chronological order of narrative, which then allows us to place the aftermath of the argument before the actual argument, building and providing unanswered questions from the very beginning, giving the audience something to think about.

How Effective was my Film Poster?

The reason for a film poster is to 'sell' the film to the consumers, to let them know the film's out there and to give them a brief insight on what it contains, to see whether they would be interested in watching it or not, so it works a little like a film trailer. We followed conventions of thriller posters by not showing all of the information, like removing Richard's head, for example. We positioned our female actresses to resemble their characters, for Alice to be upset and inferior to Stacy, who is shown as confident and content. Underneath is a picture of the completed poster:

My completed film poster

How Effectively does the Film and Poster Promote the Film and Attract the Audience?

The film and film poster share thriller qualities which make them tie-in well together. They both disclose information from the consumers, which leaves them constantly asking questions about the plot, which is what we desired. They relate by showing the characters and some key information, such as the bloody necklace and Stacy's lipstick (symbolising her personality).

How Effective was my Magazine Review?

The purpose of a magazine review is not to benefit the film, but to benefit the magazine company. They review the film and tell the readers what they thought of it, which allows people to look deeper into the film and understand what it is about.

My completed magazine review

In my opinion, the magazine review was effective because it gripped the viewers' attention by showing a key moment in the film without spoiling anything (the death of Alice is shown very early on). This combines with the large, red text to produce an eye-catching review. The parts of the review are spaced out over the four text columns evenly, allowing a nice, easy-to-look-at layout for the readers to enjoy. As is conventional by many magazine reviews of films, the quick facts are positioned last, near then star rating, to give readers a quick glance on the film. This can help grab their attention, if, for example, they recognise a name or something, as that will make them more interested and they'll read on.

How Effective was Every Product Combined?

I believe that all three products myself and the rest of my production team created over the A2 Media course in 2014-15 work well to provide a portfolio of work. I think they gel well to promote our thriller film 'Behind Closed Doors'. The poster first shows consumers the film's look, and allows them to make a first-glance judgement on whether they're interested on uninterested. After this, the magazine review allows an outline of someone's thoughts after seeing the film, and this then lets the audience have more information to make a decision with. If the audience are enthralled by both of the ancillary tasks, they are almost certain to go and watch the film, which makes it all an overall success. It has been a long and difficult journey to make, for myself and the rest of my production team, but it has been most rewarding, and has let us apply and develop upon the skills we build in the foundation year.

Evaluation Question 1 - Real Media Conventions

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

When preparing for our film's construction in the research and planning phase, we had to look into some real media products for some inspiration. When doing this, we focused on the film Enough, which seemed to share a few of our desired qualities, like the broken relationship. We looked into stereotypes exercised in this film, and compared these to them in general thriller films to see what stereotypes and guidelines we should pay attention to when creating our film.

Short films require snappy action and events to grab the viewers and let them know quickly if it's what they're looking for. This means in thrillers, action or suspense needs to be immediate, and viewers want to find themselves in a situation they can see is clearly a thriller so they know to carry on watching and don't get bored. There are plenty other firms out there and if they get bored in the first 30 seconds they may click onto the next one. As a class and individually, we researched short films at the start of the A2 course. I have embedded my favourite example below:

Thriller Film Examples

I will discuss examples of films that fall into the thriller genre. I will talk about their similarities to my own film and use images to help compare them and see what conventions of thrillers the films share.

Male Characters
Male characters in thrillers tend to have one of two main types of personality. the first, is a brave hero-like character who often leads the 'goodies' into victory over the 'baddies'. Another type is a high-placed and rich character (usually a businessman or businessman-like character) who is not exactly portrayed as good or bad. In the 2008 thriller film 'Taken', the main male protagonist is a brave hero who goes out to save his daughter by violent and righteous means.

Some would rightfully argue that this was a slight overreaction, but you have to remember that the people he's talking to are the villains who captured his daughter, and him being the heroic main male protagonist has to go and save her.

Our character, however, is not so heroic, and instead falls into the businessman category. Richard is in a well-paying job, and this job places him high in the social hierarchy in modern society. This is enhanced by his costume and what he is seen carrying in scene 2; a suit, formal wear and a briefcase.

Our character has a somewhat lower 'scare factor' than the character in 'Taken', but he is also dressed more formally, and the way he positions himself and his facial expressions say that he is in a 'higher place' than the character in 'Taken', and sees others (maybe women in particular) as inferior to himself.

I have noticed a difference in representation in feature length films and in short films. Or, rather a difference in magnitude than type. By this, I mean in a feature film like 'Enough', the team have a couple of hours to show their characters develop or be thoroughly represented, but in shorts, they have a matter of minutes. For us, we had to show Richard's character and personality as best as we could in maybe ten or twenty seconds in scene 2, so that the viewers know what he is like on a normal day and how he differs from when he is seen in scene 1, just minutes after the death of Alice, his girlfriend.

Gender Representation in Thrillers

Here I will use a presentation to talk about how genders are portrayed in thriller films and how they differ, especially in terms of social status, appearance and how they act to each other and people of the opposite sex.

General Conventions of Thrillers

Key-frame of 'Behind Closed Doors'

Image 1: The antagonist
Image 2: The victim
Image 3: Plot climax
Image 4: Setting

Key-frame of 'Knowing Too Much'

Image 1: The antagonist
Image 2: The victim
Image 3: Plot climax
Image 4: Setting

Image 1
The antagonist, or 'villain', is a major convention of a thriller film. They are often represented as solely evil, but sometimes can be granted a fuller background and personality, making them more interesting. Usually, the antagonists have some king of vendetta they are perusing, and this is often against the protagonist or somebody very close to them, like a family member or something (in Taken, it is the main character's daughter).

Hannibal Lecter, 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

As you can see in image 1 in the key-frame for 'Knowing Too Much', a short thriller film, you can see that he is trying to hide his identity, and he does so by the audience never knowing his name. It is made clear, however, that he means to kill the protagonist because he has stumbled upon some information he shouldn't know, and so the antagonist needs to kill him to secure the knowledge.

This convention is used in my short thriller 'Behind Closed Doors', as Richard (Alex Marks), the male character, is seen at the beginning of scene 2, but his features are kept hidden. This is to hide his possible intentions and to make him appear superior to the version of him we see at the very start of the film. Hiding a character's face can make them appear more threatening and of a higher place on the social hierarchy, making them more important than others. Richard is portrayed this way because he is in a well-paying business job, and therefore dresses formally and acts superior to Alice (Rebecca Chapman).

Image 2
In thrillers, the protagonists are usually young, and they're nearly always male. In 'Knowing Too Much', this is followed, as you can see in the key-frame. They are usually strong and brave, and are trying to restore the equilibrium. In the key-frame example of 'Knowing Too Much', the protagonist is a young male, which half follows the conventions of thrillers.

In my thriller film, our protagonist is a young female character called Alice. She is nice and caring, but also defensive, in the way she stands up for herself when Richard comes home.

Alice from 'Behind Closed Doors'

We have subverted the generalised stereotypical young male protagonist and replaced it with  respectable and caring young female. Instead of battling the antagonist physically, she does it more verbally, and this is another subversion from the original stereotype. We studied a film titled 'Enough' from 2002, and this film has a similar storyline to ours (a broken relationship), and the protagonist is a young female, much like our own. However, she is very physical - especially towards the end - when battling the antagonist, which is kind of following thriller stereotypes more than ourselves. But, we did use this as a basis of help for when we created our female character as we wanted her to be a little like Slim from in the film, just less physically aggressive.

Slim from 'Enough'

Image 3
In every film there is a climax, but in thrillers they seem to always be violent. In the two key-frames, you can see they both include violence. This is a conventional aspect of thriller films, and we used this to make our film more thrilling to our hungry target audience. In our film, the climax examples are of Alice and Stacy's deaths, where the former falls down the stairs and the latter is strangulated but Richard. We felt the first death would portray Richard's character and show why Alice was dead at the beginning of scene 1, and this death also took focus away from what Richard intends to do to Stacy. The second death is a shock, and we put this is just after some nice, friendly atmosphere created by our two actors to draw attention away from the evil Richard and to the possible relationship between him and Stacy. We wanted it to be sudden, and we wanted it to be unexpected to help create a more defined thriller ending.

Stacy seconds before her murder

This death opens an unanswered question about Richard's personality. Did he intentionally kill Alice, too? OR was it her death which made him turn and kill Stacy? Things like this are also conventional of thrillers, and they leave the viewers' imagination to interpret what they think happened to the characters. This makes the death more interesting, and lets the audience think about it, as there's no real given answer.

Image 4

In thrillers, the setting is usually dark and often dismal. In the short film example I used above, you can see the bluish dark tint of night, and the film my group produced was also mainly set at night, creating a darker (literally!) atmosphere. This can also aid the imagination of the viewers, and make them believe they're a part of the film.

Richard in the latter half of scene 2

We chose this setting because it, along with the hazy video effects, made the scene look plainer, darker and more bland than if it were bright with shining colours and areas. Thrillers are conventionally like this, and such is the way of our film, that it compliments the narrative, story and characters in the way they present darkness. It is also to show what's going on in our characters' minds, meaning they are thinking this way as well as acting this way.