MS:Evaluation questions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

I believe that our film as a whole would be best aimed at an independent distribution company, this is because our production is low budget.

Despite this the genres our opening are conventional of mainstream films which means that a large production company could potentially distribute our production.

A large number of companies have a separate subsidiaries that specialise in independent film making and distributing of the product.

For example, Warner independent pictures are distributors of films that are budgeted at under $20 million which means that our production would qualify for this category but due to this production being our first we would be classed as a potential risk to them.

Our production is aimed towards the mainstream horror/thriller audiences but due to its very low budget it would be shown in independent cinemas that attract audiences who watch low budget films of a similar genre. Our production could possibly be shown in a multiplex due to it following similar conventions of mainstream horror/thriller hybrid productions but due to its very low budget it would probably be distributed to an independent cinema house.

Our production would target a core audience of 16-24 year old males as our genre is a hybrid of thriller and horror.

In order to get our film noticed we would have to take our production to film festivals to be screened. As this is our first production we would take it to a small film festival such as the Portobello film festival situated in London which would be a very good place to get the production noticed.

On the other hand, if we wanted to get noticed by a production company on an industrial scale that could offer global distribution we would have to take our production to a film festival such as ‘shreikfest’ which specialises in our productions genre. This could however make it harder to get exposure due to its larger size and additional competition.

A production company that would be and normally distributes films of our genre is Entertainment film distributors who a specialised in UK independent cinema which would also suit or productions needs to be successful.

Question 4&5

Question 6

During the planning and development processes of our production we had used many different multimedia applications that were platforms of web 2.0. Examples of this are when we used blogger to post updated about our production. Blogger allowed both Henry and I to work collaboratively and edit and comment on each other’s posts to give feedback.

It was a very efficient way of displaying our work in a simple and easy to use format. It also allowed us to embed YouTube clips and images to make our blogger work more interesting and easy to understand when describing processes.

We also used YouTube embedding to show our preliminary task, wilderness woods footage and our rough cut of our final production.

To film our production we used a Cannon 550D for all aspects of the filming. With this camera it was possible for us to shoot in different modes such as :

1080p at either 25 or 24 frames per second

720p at either 50 or 25 frames per second

For our production we decided to use 720p at 25 frames per second because we found that when filming we would quickly run out of memory space so 720p was a sacrifice that we mad in order to allow us to capture more footage rather than filming and deleting clips that may be useful.

We also chose to use the camera in manual mode as this allowed us to adjust settings such as the exposure ,ISO , apature and the shutter speed dependant on the location and the conditions.This meant that we were able to achieve the best possible shots for our needs without making any compromises.

We also used a large number of lenses in both in our final production and in practice shots to see what we could achieve. We use a 50mm lense to film our darker shot such as the shot in the shed and some of the woodland scenes as it’s wide lense meant that as much light as possible could hit the sensor meaning that some shots did not appear too dark. We also used a Samyang fisheye lense for some of the woodland shots to try and create a different look but decided not to use these shots in our final production due to them not suiting the genre correctly.

We also fabricated a dolly out of very simple materials such as a kitchen work top to provide a smooth platform to coast on, a scooter to provide the moving platform and a camera handle to secure it to the scooter deck. This idea, although extremely simple worked very well and smoothly producing excellent results.

Our preliminary task for which we had two hours to film was a good indication of our knowledge at that stage as when compared to our final production it is very clear that we have progresses greatly in both editing and in terms of our filming techniques. We had the problem of batteries running out very quickly due to us watching the clips back, as well as filming without capturing too much ambient sound from the nearby road and classrooms which made the footage look quick and unplanned. We also experience the problem of unpredictable weather as on one of the days we filmed it was snowing and when we continued filming in the next lesson the weather was sunny.

When editing our final production we used adobe premier elements 9 to edit and order our clips together to produce a convincing final production that showed continuity and displayed the conventions associated with a normal horror/thriller hybrid. We also created the titles using this software by overlapping separate titles and changing their positioning and size to create a quick a scratchy look to them. This software made it easy to edit both video and audio and export the final production with ease with us choosing to export it in a custom pre setting that we had created t suit the camera preferences that we had chosen being 720p-59.9 fps in an MPEG format.

Our production only included 2 characters which meant that organising and planning was not too much of a difficulty although we did have trouble conveying our ideas over to the actor(s).We found the story board helpful in showing our actor what we required of her in order to convey our visionary idea to the audience rather than spending valuable time explain it to her.

If this were a mainstream production it would be considerably harder to plan due to the huge scale that we would be working at.

This would include:

· Locations

· Managing accommodation for actors and travel.

· Catering

· Locations

· And moving equipment just to name a few.

Due to this there would be a team specially assigned this task to ensure that it continues unhindered and is smooth running to relieve pressure from the director so he/she can concentrate on the actual production. The production would also be edited over a large time period to make sure that the footage is perfect with the minimal amount of flaws, this process could take up to 2 years to produce a full feature length production which means that the equipment and soft/hardware would be of the highest quality. The production would also include well-known actors and locations to increase the glitz factor and increase the possible target audience which would then include people from the fan base of the chosen actors.

Question 7