Evaluation

Final Cut

Title Order

Melissa took the initiative to look at the order of titles as we are nearly at the stage to incorporate them into our Thriller opening. She looked various title sequences and noted down the order in which the titles appeared. These were her findings;

• __________ Presents
• A __________ Production
• (Actors name)
• (Actors name)
• Film Title
• Music by _________
• Editing by _________
• Produced by ________
• Written by ________
• Directed by ________

She looked at the film 'Panic Room' and found that the title of the film wasn't at the end, which is what we would have expected by nearer the middle. I think Melissa did a good thing by looking back over the order of titles again as it will help us with our final product. 

Evaluation Questions

At the moment I have started the evaluation progress in order to meet my deadline and I have been looking over the evaluation questions;

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn in the progression from it to the full product?

These are the questions we need to address when completing my evaluation. By the looks of things it is clear there is a lot I need to do in order to get the best possible mark for the evaluation. At this stage I am only taking notes for what I could include in each answer but by the end of this week, hopefully I will be able to bulk them out and get started on my powerpoint.

Questionnaire

We are now at the point where we are looking back over the evaluation questions, therefore we have put together a questionnaire which will help us on audience feedback. As a group we will put it on each of our social network sites, along with the final product.


This is the first draft of the questions we have created;

1) From the opening sequence, does it make you want to watch the rest of the film?
2) Does the opening sequence make sense to you?
3) Do the camera angles work and do they create realism?
4) Are the transition smooth?
5) Is the non-diegetic score work?
6) Does it have thriller elements within the opening?
7) Is the storyline presented well?
8) Are the props in the opening realistic?
9) Did the characters work well within the opening sequence?
10) Do you think the locations are suitable?
11) Are the titles easy to read and do they last for long enough?

This is just the first idea's we had of the questionnaire we will be sure to expand and think of better ways to ask. Already we think that people who aren't into media might not necessarily know what some of it means so we will have to adjust them for everyone to understand. This feed back will help us when completing our evaluation because we will need to know how to improve and if the opening sequence worked as a whole.

Rough Cut

This here is our rough cut, however it is not completed and more improvements need to be made. Melissa and Jacob took Callum up to London to film the second half of our opening. As you can see there is no music and bits missing still, we are still looking into what non diegetic score we could use to create the intense effect that we need. Not only this but when going to put the title 'Mad Teacher' in at the end, we decided we didn't like as much so we are still in progress with that, I'm sure once we have the completed opening it will come to us. Melissa and I spent time doing the editing and there were many shots that have already been cut out/cut down. I'm still not 100% on the transitions but I think once all the clips are put in and edited that will sort itself out.
Although it's finished, I think that already it is so much better than our original idea and it is more creative, but if you don't try different things you wont know whats good and whats bad, therefore I think it was good that our group spent time and reevaluated our idea's to create a new storyboard in order to get the best out of this as possible. Like I said it still needs to be improved and there is more clips that still need to be added but overall I think we are on the right track in achieving the best that we are capable of.

New Storyboard

Our opening so far was shown to the class to be peer assessed, it was clear that we needed to make a lot of changes as some of the lighting was bad, we chopped Callum's head off in one of the shots and we needed to change one of the pans. After that we got together as a group and talked about what we could do in order to improve it.

After Melissa and I started to edit through our shorts we found that it wasn't long enough and that some of the shots weren't as good as we would have liked. From this we got together as a group and decided what we could do to improve this, we decided that on the 5th of February some of us are going to take some shots in London outside the Houses Of Parliment. The teacher (Callum Carroll) is going to be following the Prime Minister's movements around London. Also we will have to introduce a new character (his wife) however we have not decided whether to see her or just hear her talking. For all she knows her husband is going to work as normal.

We will shoot;

• Callum on the train looking impatient/agitated 
• Callum amongst a crowd just walking
• Establishing shot of Callum smirking and gritting his teeth with the The Houses Of Parliment behind him
• Iconic buildings of London 

By including Callum on the train surrounded by ordinary people it highlights the contrast of how 'normal' he looks but how mentally unstable he is being portrayed to the viewers.

Not only do we have to shoot these shots but we will also have to go back to Jacobs house to re film some of the shots we had done previously and film the added shots we have talked about above.

This is our new and improved storyboard.

Update

After Melissa and I started to edit through our shorts we found that it wasn't long enough and that some of the shots weren't as good as we would have liked. From this we got together as a group and decided what we could do to improve this, we decided that on the 5th of February some of us are going to take some shots in London outside the Houses Of Parliment. The teacher (Callum Carroll) is going to be following the Prime Minister's movements around London. Also we will have to introduce a new character (his wife) however we have not decided whether to see her or just hear her talking. For all she knows her husband is going to work as normal.

We will shoot;

• Callum on the train looking impatient/agitated 
• Callum amongst a crowd just walking
• Establishing shot of Callum smirking and gritting his teeth with the The Houses Of Parliment behind him
• Iconic buildings of London 

By including Callum on the train surrounded by ordinary people it highlights the contrast of how 'normal' he looks but how mentally unstable he is being portrayed to the viewers.

Not only do we have to shoot these shots but we will also have to go back to Jacobs house to re film some of the shots we had done previously and film the added shots we have talked about above. 

Re filming

• The panning of the bottles needs to be shot needs to be smoother
• We chopped of Callum's head in one of the shots
• Some shots have to be held for longer to create the avid effect we want.

Hopefully after re shooting and filming the extra scenes our opening will be a lot better and fit in better with the time scale (2mins). Not only this but adding the new scenes, it will make our opening more political. 

Developed Idea

This is our developed idea which have cut down but made more itense making sure the audience will be at the edge of their seats.

• Tv interview between interviewer and Prime Minister saying why he is going to visit the Chalfonts Community College to talk to the students.
• Over the shoulder shot of the assignator turning the television screen off
• Zoom out of the television screen, come to a close up of assignator face (intese, angry) dressed in suit, tie,shirt (sharply dressed)
• Walks down the corridor all you can hear is the shoes walking down.
• Stops 'Welcome Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron (sound round of applause)
• Assinator opens door, then oes to black screen and the title appears

Props
In the room with television the wall behind will be covered in newspaper cuttings of David Cameron and everything that has happened since he has become Prime Minister, there will be red circles around key information.

We will need to school hall full of students to create the idea of a speech

A room with a television and maybe a few key items

An actor who has a stern, rugged faced villian

Whilst creating this opening things will bound to be changed and improved to create the best opening as we possibly can, but this is what we have got so far and we hope to make it an intense 2 minuite opening. Although it is similar to the first idea we posted it has been improved and changed a bit

Filming Progress

Last weekend and on Thursday we manage to get most of our filming done and we had a lot of fun doing it too. It was a bit touch and go because of the unfortunate weather situation but we managed to push on and get a lot of it done. Each of us chipped in with the filming, helping with props and actors and directing. We decided it would be best if we took photo whilst doing it to show you what we did on those days.

Jacob Filming

All of us watching a clip back to see if it was okay.

Melissa Filming

As you can see we spent a great deal of time filming, making sure the lighting is good, angles are correct. We did a numerous amount of shots for each clip so we had some to compared to and get rid of if they weren't quite right. I feel that from doing the filming we each gained a lot of experience and found it very fun to do. Callum Carroll was a fantastic actor a did anything we asked of him and we hope he enjoyed it also. From our animatic we have changed some bits because they didn't look quite right or we were unable to do it but apart from that everything ran smoothly and from doing the bulk of the filming we still have time to re shoot things if needed.

Our Animatic

This is our animatic presentation which our group created. As a group we didn't know much about editing but from this i'm sure your'll agree that we have learnt a great deal and are coming along well, this was done from asking a lot of questions on how to things and trial and error. First we created a new file and uploaded the images onto Adobe Premier Pro and turned them all around so they were the right way up and the right size for what we needed. Then once they were uploaded we then made sure the timings were correct and they were in the right order. We did have a few problems and had to start again but once that was sorted we were back on track and ready to start the transitions. Through our teacher we learnt how to zoom and pan using Adobe and also how to make the titles themselves on a plain black screen and incorporate them into our clip itself. Although it was challenging I really enjoyed working on this and learnt a great amount. From doing the aninmatic we can see now roughly what the final piece will look like and what need to improve in order to make it the best of our ability.  I'm really proud of what we achieved and I hope you can see that we put time and effort into creating this.

Shooting Schedule

So our group is at the point where we are getting ready to film and start to edit our final piece, as a group we have decided on specific dates where we plan on getting most of the filming done. Then if we need to re shoot any scenes we have to time to be able to do this before our final deadline which is 5th of March however we need to be able to show a rough cut of the opening of our Thriller on 15th of February. We don't want to rush what we are doing so we decided to do one of the scenes today (16th January). This scene will be the interview which will take place outside of our school (Chalfonts Community College) where the interviewer will be interviewing the Prime Minister;

Prime Minister; Reece Garside
Interviewer; Millie Warren

We will need to run this shot a couple of times as one of the times the Prime Minister will need to have blood dripping down his face as The teacher (which we will be filming at a later date) is imagining him hurt. Then one with his face normal so we can see that the teacher is definitely imagining it. Unfortunately I was not able to attend this section of filming and neither was Jacob as we had classes to attend, so we left it in the capable hands of  Melissa and Finely to direct.

On Saturday 19th January we will be filming the rest of the scenes which will include the montage sequence. We will need to take Callum Carroll who will be wearing a smart suite and teacher esque clothing. The group will be filming at Jacobs house in Beaconsfield which was very nice of him to let us use it. We will be taking all the props with us and setting up when we get there and all of us will be are attending and we hope to be finished filming by the end of the day.
From there we will put it all together and see what needs to be re done as we have the time to do this we won't need to panic and rush. So hopefully the finished piece of work will be near enough perfect and to best of our ability!.

Political Aspect

When talking to our teacher about our story board it was clear that we had gone down the psychological route instead of Polictical which is not what we wanted, so Melissa decided to go back a step and research further into the codes and conventions of a Political Thriller.

From reading her blog it is clear that we do have to make a few changes in our storyboard for example research what political problems are occuring in the world at the moment and add that into the interview. From here the teacher who wants to assinate the Prime Minister instead of not giving the reason as to why he wants to do this, make it based on what the Prime Minister is giving the interview about. He believes he is trying to help the world by doing this instead is causing more trouble. Not only this but we might add in another character (the teachers wife) and use her as an innocent character so she is drawn in to all the drama.

Thanks to Melissa I now know more about Political codes and conventions and will be sure to add them in when changing around our storyboard and animatics so it is less psychological.

Locations

In the opening there is going to be an interview with the Prime Minister talking to the children about the recession and the government. As a group we decided to go out looking in the school for interesting places to shot this scene.

Reception

We took pictures of three options, this is the first. Right outside of the school with the school logo above where the interview would take place. The place is quite busy, however as it is the main entrance to the school so we could get interupted and is a bit impractical. Therefore based on these reasons we decided against it.

Outside the front entrance

This is our second option you can see the front of the school and the logo from a better angle, but because of the brick wall in front it makes the scenery look very dull and uninteresting. Not only this it is positioned on a main road so would still be quite loud and busy, this could be fixed when editing but because of the uninteresting look about it we also decided against this location.

Art piece

This is our third and final location we looked at, we decided as a group that this was the best one as it look unique yet it is still to do with the school as has the logo right infront of you. With the interviewer and Prime Minister stood in front of it I think it would look much better than the other locations we looked at. Also it is out the way so I don't think we would get interupted as much.


From looking at locations I now know how important scenery and setting is to the the thriller opening and with all the considerations we had to take when choosing it. I believe that the whole group chose this one so it is good that we agreed and are now able to move forward on the project.

Deadlines

We have been given some deadlines in order to complete our final piece;



Storyboards and Animatic Presentations: Tuesday 15th January
All of the filming; Monday 28th January
Post-Production, Rough cut: Friday 15th February 4pm
Final Deadline: Friday 8th March
Individual Evaluations: Friday 29th March 4pm

In order to ensure we meet these deadlines we had to split to roles and responsibilities, by doing this the project will keep moving forward. The roles have been given out;

Melissa and I are doing the animatic
Jacob is going to take pictures of characters, props and setting
Finley is in charge of shot list and shooting schedule.

This is important for the group as it mean we are able to get on with our own stuff instead of relying on each other which we can learn from. This means that we will be able to get the final piece done in a shorter in amount of time.