Now that we have finished the coursework process and this last part of the AS Media course, I am able to look back on the preliminary exercise and compare it to our main exercise to see how far we have improved from our first ever briefing. This includes all the pre-production, filming and editing process which our group went through well.
To answer an evaulative question from the required blog, our film is based around two 'social groups' as such, which are the zombies and the humans. Although there is little dialogue or chance to get a deep understanding of our characters it is clear to see how they are in different groups. We did this by trying to make sure the humans ran together, mkaing sure they were all safe wheras the zombies ran seperately for themselves but had a shared ideology. Its audience could also be how we split social groups, as we wanted to aim for one paticular age group rather than a broader demographic.
We decided very early in the planning of our main exercise that our audience would be teenagers/youth over the age of 15 as that was our chosen age certificate to put on the film. We stuck very closely to this by making sure we had a copy of the specifications and requirements for a paticular rating, which we found on the the british film website.
In the planning we aimed to go for teenagers who already had an interest in horror and zombie genres of film, because this way it would be easier to attract to something which we know they already like. Due to the filming process, and the props on hand on the day of filming and the actors we were using, it turned out that they were all similarly dressed with an 'emo'/ 'goth' theme which helped keep the continuity in that they were all the same social group. Due to this I think it would be best for us to push this film towards a niche audience of that particular idealogy as then there are characters they can relate to and so want to spend their money on seeing it.
Before starting the whole coursework process I had no experience of using a camera for anything professional only for recreational use and so had never needed to know all the techniques and extra equipment such as tripods and hardware devices which I now know about. I had only used windows movie maker a few times, and even though the editing wasn't my role I was still able to understand how the shots were being cut so as to have the perfect continuity and also the addition of music over our images.
The technology itself was not as difficult as I first thought it would be and I remember finding it daunting at the time. However with our groups co-operation and teamwork we were able to play on each others strengths and assign the right job to each person. Such as Holli, Phil and Ash all do photography and so have used cameras before, and also Phil is good at using computers to edit. As english language students, Me and Holli were able to make sure all paperwork was in order and were mainly in charge of research. Newer technologies such as Google Earth and Google Maps has made it easier for us to display our filming location in a quick and digital way and so in this way the proliferation of these modern software has helped our project.
Looking back to my preliminary task I feel that I have an overall better understanding of the knowledge, techniques and skills needed to create the opening sequence to a film, and how to use your research and pre-production findings to help guide you as to how to stick to the specific codes and conventions. Although I wasnt camera operator, I still felt involved in the filming process and am confident that if it had been my role I would have been able to use the equipment fine just from observing Holli.
One of the main things I think Ive learnt is how much work and effort goes into such a short production. The preliminary required significantly less paperwork and planning than the main exercise which even then only last a maximum of 2 minutes.
Overall I am pleased with how our main exercise turned out as we managed to actually capture the specific shots we were looking for. The weather conditions have affected our filming processes twice and both in very different ways, one that helped and one that hindered, however its something we have no control over and I feel that our film also reflects the way that we chose to carry on and hand in a piece of media ie our film that we are proud of because of the effort put into the whole exercise.
To answer an evaulative question from the required blog, our film is based around two 'social groups' as such, which are the zombies and the humans. Although there is little dialogue or chance to get a deep understanding of our characters it is clear to see how they are in different groups. We did this by trying to make sure the humans ran together, mkaing sure they were all safe wheras the zombies ran seperately for themselves but had a shared ideology. Its audience could also be how we split social groups, as we wanted to aim for one paticular age group rather than a broader demographic.
We decided very early in the planning of our main exercise that our audience would be teenagers/youth over the age of 15 as that was our chosen age certificate to put on the film. We stuck very closely to this by making sure we had a copy of the specifications and requirements for a paticular rating, which we found on the the british film website.
In the planning we aimed to go for teenagers who already had an interest in horror and zombie genres of film, because this way it would be easier to attract to something which we know they already like. Due to the filming process, and the props on hand on the day of filming and the actors we were using, it turned out that they were all similarly dressed with an 'emo'/ 'goth' theme which helped keep the continuity in that they were all the same social group. Due to this I think it would be best for us to push this film towards a niche audience of that particular idealogy as then there are characters they can relate to and so want to spend their money on seeing it.
Before starting the whole coursework process I had no experience of using a camera for anything professional only for recreational use and so had never needed to know all the techniques and extra equipment such as tripods and hardware devices which I now know about. I had only used windows movie maker a few times, and even though the editing wasn't my role I was still able to understand how the shots were being cut so as to have the perfect continuity and also the addition of music over our images.
The technology itself was not as difficult as I first thought it would be and I remember finding it daunting at the time. However with our groups co-operation and teamwork we were able to play on each others strengths and assign the right job to each person. Such as Holli, Phil and Ash all do photography and so have used cameras before, and also Phil is good at using computers to edit. As english language students, Me and Holli were able to make sure all paperwork was in order and were mainly in charge of research. Newer technologies such as Google Earth and Google Maps has made it easier for us to display our filming location in a quick and digital way and so in this way the proliferation of these modern software has helped our project.
Looking back to my preliminary task I feel that I have an overall better understanding of the knowledge, techniques and skills needed to create the opening sequence to a film, and how to use your research and pre-production findings to help guide you as to how to stick to the specific codes and conventions. Although I wasnt camera operator, I still felt involved in the filming process and am confident that if it had been my role I would have been able to use the equipment fine just from observing Holli.
One of the main things I think Ive learnt is how much work and effort goes into such a short production. The preliminary required significantly less paperwork and planning than the main exercise which even then only last a maximum of 2 minutes.
Overall I am pleased with how our main exercise turned out as we managed to actually capture the specific shots we were looking for. The weather conditions have affected our filming processes twice and both in very different ways, one that helped and one that hindered, however its something we have no control over and I feel that our film also reflects the way that we chose to carry on and hand in a piece of media ie our film that we are proud of because of the effort put into the whole exercise.
I think we worked really well as a team, and this helped us to carry on and attempt a second shot at filming when our first had not recorded, which ultimately left us with no film and very dissapointed. This is where we also had to say a thankyou to our actors who were willing to film twice on seperate weeks both times in unfortuante weather conditions. Out of our whole media class we had the largest group of actors with one time having a group of 16 which we had to guide to the location, dress into the appropriate clothing and makeup to accompany the dress code for the mis-en-scene and then talk them through the shots one-by-one. I think this is a real positive accomplishment from our team in that we were able to control that many people and come out with a good edit from the film.
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