evaluation 7

evaluation 6

evaluation 5

evaluation 4

evaluation 3

evaluation 2

evaluation 1

Evaluation plan

To evaluate our film openings we have to answer 7 questions, which I have previously posted on this blog. To try and make it more advanced I am planning to record myself answering the questions, I will plan out what I'm going to say but I will do some improvised speaking when I can.

Once filmed I will use the picture-in-picture tool on iMovie to help add depth to my evaluations where necessary.

Storyline

The storyline for our project is as follows, a teenager trying hard to make ends meet has resulted to drug dealing in his local area in North London, we see him walk through his estate on his way to meet his supplier. He gets in the car and greets her. They exchange a large sum of cash for a mysterious bag which viewers cannot clearly see what the contents are. Moments later another character gets in the back seat and puts a bag over the teenagers head, suffocating him. The driver (the supplier) then drives off with the boy suffocated in the passenger seat and the attacker in the back.

I feel we have left it on a cliff hanger as viewers will be engaged as they want to know what happens next, overall i feel it is a very exciting storyline which will capture the audiences attention almost instantly.

Media showcase

Below is some footage from the media showcase were we previewed our film opening, the audience varied from classmates, pupils in the 6th form, younger students and parents. Overall the feedback was positive with plenty of constructive criticism.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NftouH_EBgY

Music

We was told at the start of our project that any soundtrack we used couldn't be copyrighted, this made it difficult for our group as a lot of music we wanted to use was protected by copyright. Luckily Serine's cousin is a good piano player and as able to replicate Ludovico Einaudi's - Un Un'Altra Vita.

Script

From the beginning my group decided to not use any dialogue in our film opening, therefore there is no need for a script. We didn't use dialogue as we felt we could create more suspense and tension by just having a non diegetic background music. It is not uncommon for films to do this at directors choose to have little speaking during the opening as it engages the audience.

Summary of feedback

Summary of feedback

Many people found the music was "annoying" and didn't link with the storyline, despite deliberately using contrapuntal music we could of possibly found music which viewers would find more enjoyable to listen to.

Some eagle-eyed viewers picked up on slight camera wobbles consequently if the camera was used more steadily or if the camera women had more practise with the camera before-hand. Next time we would work on getting the camera movements perfect.

In the car scene there is a 3 second period where the character played by me just sits in the car doing nothing, many viewers were confused by this.

Editing

I have previously mentioned one of my groups aims was to create a professional looking film opening by using a variety of editing methods. The use of match on action creates a sense of continuity and creates a 'visual bridge' between cuts within the film opening. 

Camera shots

One of our groups goals was to create a professional and realistic looking film opening, one way we tried to ensure we achieved this was through a variety of camera shots and angles. We felt only using basic shots would limit the potential of our film opening so we used every means necessary to get some shots that would add more depth to our 2 minute project.

Inspiration (west side story)

West Side Story (1961) was our inspiration for the credits of our film opening, we used their idea of having writing/ text on the wall and incorporated it into our project. Despite 'Made In The Estate' and 'West Side Story' being very different genres we was still able to take inspiration.

Feedback questionnaire 3/3

For the second questionnaire i decided to ask one of my friends as not many boys have given their opinion on our groups film opening. My friend James (age 17) answered as follows...

1. What do you feel we did well in our film opening?

  "The way the camera moved was fluid and looked professional"

2. How could we of improved if we re-shot our film opening?

   "Make the scene in the car more dramatic by creating more tension"

3. Would you be interested in watching the rest of the film?

   "Yeah of course"  

4. Does the film fit the genre of UK crime drama?

  "Yeah its definitely a UK crime drama"

5. Overall rating /10?
  "Probably an 8"

Feedback questionnaire 2/3

The first person i asked to fill out my questionaire was my 11 year old sister as i wanted to get a younger persons point of view on the storyline and overall experience of the opening. Throughout the whole school year i have only received advice from people in my class or my media teacher so therefore i felt it was good to involve someone of a totally different age group. 

1. What do you feel we did well in our film opening? 

    "It was exciting to see what was going to happen to the boy, it shocked me when he was in danger"

2. How could we of improved if we re-shot our film opening?

   "I didn't understand what was happening at the start"

3. Would you be interested in watching the rest of the film?

   "Yes, because it was exciting"

4. Does the film fit the genre of UK crime drama?

   "..."

5. Overall rating /10? 

  "9"

Feedback questionnaire 1/3

I wanted to gain feedback from my friends/ family so I showed them our final film opening then asked them a series of questions.

1. What do you feel we did well in our film opening?

2. How could we of improved if we re-shot our film opening?

3. Would you be interested in watching the rest of the film?

4. Does the film fit the genre of UK crime drama?

5. Overall rating /10?

Storyboard Vs Finished Product

Here is the plan compared to our final film opening, overall i feel we stuck to the storyboard rather well. Despite it not being compulsory to stick to the storyboard exactly we did follow the outline of it and i believe it made the filming process a lot easier. Overall it was worth investing time into planning a outline of our storyline as it made the creation of our film opening a lot less stressful as we had it planned in advance.

BFI

On Friday 11th of November, as an AS Media class we attended a study day at the British Film Institute and was led by Tom Woodcock an A level Film and Media teacher in Cambridge. 

Tom began the morning explaining to us that in order for us to achieve the best grade or even a good grade then a lot more than minimal effort would need to be put in and that expectations are very high and as students we will need to work consistently and be extremely well organised in order for our coursework to be successful. He then went on to inform of us of different ways in which we can develop our film making skills to achieve our full potential. 

In the first morning session Tom spoke about Macro analysis and the importance of it in an opening sequence. The Macro elements of a film include:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Character
• Themes
• Atmosphere

We then watched three film openings (Napoleon Dynamite(2004);Casino Royal(2006);and The Wedding Singer(1998)). After each opening Tom asked us to fill (sheet shown below) in how important we thought the macro element was in each of the openings. 

In the second morning session Tom spoke to us about Micro analysis and the effect it has on the opening and tittle sequence of a film. Micro elements of a film include:

• Colour
• Lighting 
• Font
• Framing
• Costume
• Props
• Setting

We then watched numerous title sequences twice over, however, the first time each sequence played it did so without any sound. Tom then asked us to guess what sound we thought would go with the sequence and then played it a second time with the sound playing to see if it matched up to our predictions. 

In the session after lunch we were introduced to Dexter Fletcher who is am actor who appeared in both film and television and now is a successful director. He shared with us his experiences making films both behind and in front of the camera. Then he went on to speak in more detail of his three films and why he chose the films to open the way they did and with the accompanying tittle sequence. The three film openings we watched were:

• Wild Bill
• Sunshine on Leith
• Eddie the Eagle 

We were then aloud to ask Dexter some of our own questions and I enjoyed finding out why he made the decisions he did with integrating the titles into the film instead of having a separate tittle sequence.

The day ended with Tom Woodcock summarising the days events and leaving us with some very useful worksheets and information that we can use in creating our own two minute film openings. 

I have included some of these sheets below.

Title research

 Here are films with a similar UK crime drama and they use a white font colour therefore it is makes sense to follow the trend of using a white font.

Title Colour

Throughout our film opening there is a recurring 'black' theme, for example the main character's black  outfit (tracksuit and trainers) and the black car (Vauxhall Corsa). In addition to this the other two characters are also wearing dark colours, overall the mise-en-scene isn't very bright or vivid therefore we decided to go for a white title as it contrasts the themes of the movie opening.

Audience feedback

As well as video feedback we have also received mini-questionnaire feedback in response to watching our two minute film opening from our audience. Our audience consisted of Parents, Teachers and Students. The four questions on the questionnaire are:

1. What did you understand about the narrative?
2. Did the chosen genre fit its conventions?
3. How did the "ending" make you feel?
4. Any suggested improvements for if we were to shoot the whole thing again?

A questionnaire was left on the chair of each audience member and Miss Foster asked the audience to fill them out as each film opening went on, now as you can imagine not everyone filled in a questionnaire and not all those who did answered every question. Despite this we a group was still able to summarise the data into 4 segments. 

:

Showcase

On Monday 20th March, we showcased our film to an audience of Enfield County students, parents and teachers. Afterwards the group stayed behind to gather audience feedback by asking volunteers what they liked and disliked about our project. Overall we got a very positive response which which we was happy with.

If we made the rest of the film...

If i was to continue the film it could possibly show the boys attempt in breaking free from his kidnappers and then how he plans his revenge. This would be engaging for our target audience of people aged 15 or over as it would contain lots of action and violence.

 On the other hand, we could show how the boy tries to turn his life around after his kidnap as he knows the life of crime isn't suited for him. If the film did continue this we it would link with the title 'Made In The Estate' as he was brought up there but he tries to move on leaving his childhood and teenage years of mischief on the estate behind.

Showcase script

Our group is previewing the film opening we made to Enfield County Staff and pupils. We created an introduction to the film in order to give the viewers some context about it.

'Hello. Me, Serine, Mya and Ellie have worked hard on creating our 2-minute film, called ‘Made In The Estate’, opening based around a drug deal gone wrong.

We felt a UK crime drama would be engaging for a target audience for people from 15-24. In the opening we see a young boy, played by me, encounter trouble as he becomes involved in the drug business.

We tried to contrast the stereotype by having a female drug dealer, as male characters often play them as they are perceived as tougher and more dangerous.

If we finished making the rest of the film we would show the boys attempt at escaping from the trouble he gets himself into or possibly how he plans to get revenge.'

Target audience

All films have age ratings and target audiences and our film is no different, after analysing other
films within the genre such as: 'Kidulthood' (2006), 'Anuvahood' (2011) and 'Sket' (2011), we have decided to rate our film 15+. Seeing as our films genre is crime, i feel a '15 rating' is fair as it is possible drugs or violence are seen or referred to in the film.

Group reaction

Here is the reaction video to the un-finished version of our film opening.

Font research

For a while, as a group we focussed our attention on the actual footage rather than the editing side to it. We then learnt that we needed to invest a lot of time and effort into creating professional looking editing. One of the struggles we came across was choosing a font, as a group we left it quite late and later couldn't agree. Eventually we chose 'Stencil'. Previously we had fonts that looked too fancy which obviously would not tie in with our film which was why we finally agreed on the stencil font.

Here is what the font will look like:

Class showcase

Once we felt we had come to the closing moments before we had officially finished our film opening we decided to show the class in order to gain last minute advice. I believed receiving audience critique may enable us make changes to our film, as we have been watching our film opening over and over it is would of been possible for us not to notice obvious mistakes however the class were able to pick them out. We will also post an audience reaction once we have completely finished.

Production companies

After scrapping 'DAB Productions' we needed a new production company to introduce our film opening. Mya came up with 'Beachside Entertainment' and 'Sky High Productions' with images that related to the names of these companies. Mya took the images for the background of the production companies herself, on an Apple iPhone 7 Plus, this prevented us from breaking any copyright laws.

DAB productions

We created an initial production company to introduce our film opening, 'DAB Productions'. Despite no one mentioning it when we showed the film opening to the class, we decided to re-create the production company as it looked unprofessional. I feel if we started our 2 minute film opening with an amateur looking production company it will give viewers a sense that we didn't take it too seriously, as a result we felt it necassary to remove it then create a newer, more professional one.

Title

Throughout our film opening there are recurring themes of darkness, for example the lighting, the characters outfits (black tracksuit and shoes) and the car. As a result of this we have decided to use a contrasting colour for our titles as this juxtaposes the film and helps the title to stand.

Lighting analysis

Lighting

As our 2 minute film opening begins there is a strong lighting which makes the scene quite bright, this has been intentional. As the scene progresses the setting generally becomes darker, this ties with the story line as it becomes darker as things start to become more dramatic. the use of lighting to be in sync with the story line is called 'pathetic fallacy'.


Here are the screenshots were you can see the variations of lighting within the film opening:

Evaluation mark scheme

The mark scheme for level 4 (the highest band) is listed below I have only included this band and not any below because this is the level I am working towards achieving. 

Level 4 16–20 marks 

• Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

• Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production. 

• Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.

• Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task. 

• Excellent ability to communicate.

I will be trying to achieve to get within the level 4 category to enable me getting the highest mark possible.

The deadline for Evaluations AND for Blogs to be completed and closed is:

Friday 28 April - 3:30pm

Evaluation questions

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation:

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 learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The deadline for Evaluations AND for Blogs to be completed and closed is:

Friday 28 April - 3:30pm

Titles

As a group we felt it was vital to have our film opening look as professional as possible, one way we felt we could achieve this is by correctly using titles. I went on http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/21-jump-street/ then as a group we decided to list our titles as such:

• Directed by Serine Houadef 
• Starring George Wilson and Ellie Childs 
• Cinematography by Mya Chopra-McFarlane
• Written and Edited by Ellie Childs, Mya Chopra-McFarlane, Serine Houadef, George Wilson
  
  
  (this is similar to how '21 Jump Street' (2012) set out their titles)
  
  
  We are still in the process of deciding whether to include: Music by... , Screenplay by... and Produced by... 
  
  
  
  

Vlog 2

Our second vlog shows our group in the process of re-recording the scene which shows me being attacked. This extra footage was vital for our film opening as we significantly improved the footage we had previously. In this blog you can see Mya put the bag over my head, i then proceed to react more dramatically and for a longer of period of time whereas previously i only struggled for half of the time and my reaction was less lively.

Re-shoot

After around 5 trips to Bush Hill Park to film our film opening we thought we had finished. However when editing and playing through the footage we had, as a group, we noticed numerous continuity errors, for example people in the back in one shot then not in the other. In addition, our story line shows a person suffocating me with a plastic bag however when gaining approval of some of our classmates we realised we should of filmed it differently. As a result of this we re-visited the estate we filmed in and recorded an improved version which looked a lot more authentic.

First Vlog

Our first vlog, as a group, we discuss the names for our film. I thought of the name 'Made In The Estate' as we researched UK crime dramas and found a film with the similar name 'Made In Britain'. When looking into the story line of this film, i felt adapting the name of their film to suit our film opening would be suitable as the crime themes are similar.

Font & Research

As the title sequence is undoubtably a vital part of the film opening, making ours look as professional will be important. Researching fonts was the first part in ensuring a good title sequence so i researched similar film genres and the fonts they used.

Kidulthood, a film based with a similar story line used a very simple font, very similar to 'Avenir Book'.

 'The Intent', a UK crime Drama, used a less basic font, giving it an up to date look which corresponds with the storyline which was set in the present day. The font used was "Din Compressed"

After this we researched other similar fonts.