Evaluation: Q8

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

EVALUATION; Question 7: What have we learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This was our group member talking about the basic hardware and software that we used in the production of our video. We also used website such as google.co.uk, youtube.com, internet movie database.com, video copilot.net. They all helped us with our research whether it was researching movies and opening sequences or tutorials on how to best film and edit our movie. All of this websites contributed to the final outcome because without the research we wouldn't know about the 180 rule or what exactly is a match cut. I found it easier to learn Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effect because of those websites, showing me how and why would I use a certain tool in the software.

Final Cut Pro(FCP), Adobe After Effects(AAF) and Soundtrack Pro(SP) worked very well together. After importing everything to FCP and editing it all together we could export the footage to SP. This means that we could edit the sound and look where the sound would be in the movie without closing SP. This really helps while making a movie because it saves you time later on by eliminating the process of matching the sound in FCP. Soundtrack Pro is a great software that lets us use and edit and create new sounds. The Production Company logo (Candi Studios animation) would not be that successful if not the sound from SP. One of our group members is still fascinated and amazed by how well the sound and animation goes together.

We also used archive.org, soundcloudcom and photobucket.com to show content on our blog such as sound and images. Blogger.com was a major part of our project. We wrote about our ideas for the movie, sound and any other part of the movie as well as our research and more. We used archive.com and soundcloud.com to import sound on the website, youtube for videos and photobucket for slideshows (our pitch).

We used (two) Memory Cards because they are much cheaper as well as much simpler to import to Final Cut Pro. Also memory cards can be easily re used without the loss of video quality.

EVALUATION:Q7 What have we learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

All the different technologies work together to create our product, for example, we would film the movie, using the camera and tripod, we saved the footage on the Memory Cards, then import the footage to Final Cut, where we can edit the movie, (adding the titles created on Adobe After Effects) then using Soundtrack Pro, we added a soundtrack! Then to finalise our film and change the format, we used Quicktime Player, then Handbrake.

EVALUATION:Q8 Looking back at our preliminary task, what do we feel we have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

EVALUATION; Question 8:

EVALUATION:Q7

 What have we learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

Throughout this project we used all sorts of technologies. We used plenty of websites for research like google.com, imdb.com, youtube.com, artofthetitle.com and many more. These all helped us get a feel for opening sequences and the variety that were already out there. As for programmes on the Mac, we used all of them. We edited our movie on final cut pro, created the sound on soundtrack pro, adobe after effects for the first title and after editing our movie completely we used quicktime pro and handbrake to convert it. When doing the actual filming we used cameras (obviously) still cameras and memory cards to store all our footage on. The most obvious technology is blogger, which we used throughout the entire process.

Evaluation: Q6

Audience feedback and comment.

We shhowed our opening to our class on Monday, and they were able to give us some brilliant feedback. Everyone watched everyones openings and I was kind of excited to see what the rest of our class had been upto. This word cloud made on http://www.wordle.net/ shows the words that people used when giving us feedback. The bigger the word, the more times it was used. It was pretty cool hearing what they had to say, and it was all quite positive apart from the few little things that we already tried to do something about. Like the titles. They really liked the way the soundtrack and editing fit together. And all in all, everything was pretty good. As it says on the wordle below.

So as well as showing everyone in our class our opening, the rest of the AS media students are also going to see it! On Wednesday, we will be going to the Screen On The Green on Upper Street in Islington where everyones opening will be shown on the big screen. By showing it here, we will be able to get tons more feedback from people who don't know us and are seeing our movie for the first time. We will be able to see peoples reactions to our opening and then get their first impressions of it.

Evaluation: Q4&5

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Our movie isn't one of those big blockbuster hollywood type movies (clearly) so when talking about distributing our media product there are actually alot of places we could do it without having tons of money. So when you tell everyone to watch your movie, there obviously going to ask 'Where can we watch it?'. And here are the many ways they could see them. We are going to have 200 copies of our movie which will be given out to the rest of the AS media students, which is some kind of exposure. By doing this, everyone has the ability to show anyone their own movie as well as other peoples. We're also going to watch all our movies in the cinema (the Screen On The Green) so it would kind of make us feel like our movie got somewhere, and all the other AS media studies students will be watcing it. 

We also have the ability to upload our movies on several websites. The internet has grown so much and there are so many free websites for us to use. Let me give you some examples. YouTube. The largest video uploading site out there. There are so many videos on there that adding one more won't hurt. We could go viral (like the most recent: Rebecca Black - Friday) but there is also a possibility that our video could get lost among the other thousands. But uploading it won't do us any harm, because it's free to make an account and to upload it and you might get some exposure, and some is better than none.

As well  as Youtube, there are plenty of other video uploading sites such as Vimeo which although has less exposure than Youtube, is still quite popular. But the advantages and disadvantages would be the same as Youtube or any other video uploading site.

Speaking of places to upload, don't rule out social networking sites. They are probably some of the most visited websites on the internet and almost everyone has one nowadays, which obviously = BIG TIME EXPOSURE. Sharing it on places like Facebook and Twitter (the most popular social networking sites out there right now) gives you the option to share it with anyone on there. These websites are also free which is always a good thing and you can create your own groups or fanpages to put them onto which lets anyone see them and comment on them. The only problem with this would be that there is alot of competition out there, as there is with almost anything so you would be competing with alot of people all over the world. But there are also other sites, like Myspace, although they aren't as popular. But like I said, some exposure is better than none.

To also gain some exposure you can go on websites like http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/ and http://www.indiefilmspro.com/test/ which are places that allow you to upload your video if your an up and coming director that wants some sort of exposure. They won't be places where you can go viral, and aren't known by the whole world but if watched by these people you can get some good credit. They also focus more on the quality of your video. On Indie Films other people can watch your movie for free (something everyone loves, let's face it) and on the other hand at First Light, there are many competitions like the recent Sunday Times one, and they also have an awards ceremony which happened last month in Leicester Square. So massive exposure opportunities right on your doorstep.

Evaluation: Q3

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When we first began planning for our movie, we figured our audience would be around our age up till about 25. Now, the audience would actually begin at the age of 25 and upwards. Maybe some younger people would watch, but, very few. So here are a couple of people you might find in the audience of our movie.

Evaluation: Q2

How does your media product represent particular soical groups?

Our movie only contains one actual main character in the opening (but a second one if you close attention) that the audience is introduced to. Our character, played the great Konrad is a businessman and you can tell that he is one by several things.

• One: He's wearing a suit. All businessmen wear suits right? Obviously. A nice tailored suit from some fancy shop somewhere. Suits exude confident, smart and quite serious people. They can also hide alot of things about the person (in our case, the fact that Konrad has a deep, dark secret that no-one will ever know).
• Two: He's waking out of a hotel. A fancy schmancy one at that. This shows that he has money of some sort and the fact that is looks quite posh and expensive looking also shows that. It could also say that he is staying there temporarily for some reason. 

Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau is a good representation of our character. The fact that this movie is also a thriller helps because this picture looks nothing like a thriller. Although our main character doesn't talk to anyone during the opening, there is another character in our opening and we also don't see her face.

This is Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. Although he wasn't really a businessman, I think he represents our character in the sense that he was hiding a secret from everyone (that he was a superhero).

This is Morgan Freeman in The Dark Knight where he is the chief executive officer of Wayne Enterprises and keeps the secret of who Batman is. Even though it's not really his own deep, dark secret he is keeping it for someone else. In our movie we have a character who knows what our main actor has done and is threatening to spill the secret.

This is Dev Patel in the award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire where he plays a contestant of Who wants to be a millionaire? and wins. Although he is not your typical rich businessman, he does become economically powerful through the gameshow.

Evaluation: Q1

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

Despite the fact that our movie was on the lowest of lowest budgets, I think our movie came out pretty good for a couple of students. If your a movie nerd or you just watch more movies than is considered healthy, you'd probably notice that some of the shots in our movie are similar to others. We didn't really have one specific film that inspired us, rather a ton of them.

This shot is from Black Swan and although the angles are different they are pretty similar. I like this shot because it's kind of establishing the scene in front of the character and it's not called an establishing shot. It's kind of following the character (maybe you can call it a back shot? maybe not.) and isn't really used as much as you think. It looks as though we are following the character and I think it creates a mysterious atmosphere if this is the first shot used. In both cases it wasn't, we saw the characters face first before this shot but its still effective. Director Darren Aronofsky is someone who uses this alot. He directed Black Swan among other movies like The Wrestler. Although our movie isn't as amazing as any of his (although I think we have potential. :P) I was quite surprised that this was one of the movies that we had similarities from. I like the angle that Black Swan is shot from, from down tilting up. It makes the actress (Natalie Portman) seem as though she is about to step into something huge because she looks small compared to the buildings at the top of the stairs.

The next shot is taken from Juno, a long shot of one of the main characters crossing the road just like our main character. Snap! This is actaully one of my favourite shots from our opening. The opening to our movie is really similar to the one of Juno because they both are of someone walking form one place to another, although they both end up in different places. The other difference is quite obvious, the fact that Juno is cartoon like here and ours isn't. If we had used cartoons, I don't think it would have worked well with our movie because we ended up in a graveyard and it might have killed our thiller idea.





EVALUATION; Question 2: How does our media product represent particular social groups?

Our main character (me) is a smart looking, successful, young businessman. We can clearly see that by looking at the suit that he wears and the hotel from which he leaves. Both the suit and the hotel look posh and expensive which clearly shows that he's a man of business. 

Because it would be almost impossible to find a main character which is simply a businessman we know from the beginning that that person has some secrets or something noteworthy about him.

Many thrillers and action movies have businessmen in them and it's starting to be a rule to make the main character look like a businessman at some point in the movie. Our character is a young, slim, attractive, smart looking male which seems to become a stereotype about businessmen. 

EVALUATION; Question 4 and5 : What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will we attract/address our audience?

"Spotlight"

To distribute a movie a lot of money is needed, thats why independent movies have such a hard time to get through to the public. There are service that could help with that for free. Sites such as Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion are a good start to distribute a short movie or even to promote a movie. Those websites allow to upload and view videos from all over the world which can make it difficult for a particular video to become famous (go viral).
I will concentrate on YouTube because it's the biggest of video streaming websites and if something becomes famous on YouTube, it becomes famous everywhere. For a video to go viral it has to impress the viewers so that people "like" the video (clicking a "Like" button causes friends of that person to see the video). This means that another group of friends see it and their friends see it causing an increase in number of views. The more views you get the more probable it is that you will be displayed on the homepage causing another avalanche of views. 

Youtube is full of people with talents, they can include entertainment/comedy, blogs, fashion knowledge,  editing and SFX as well as music and technology. Different videos become famous for different things. A music video by a talent(less), 13 year old singer Rebecca Black which became a youtube sensation with 76,458,961 views and counting is an example of a viral video that became famous because of it being really terrible. It was spread among friends through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter as well as through the word of mouth. Now the "artist" is interviewed on TV and known among young people.

"Most Popular"

YouTube helps new film produces to become successful by creating contests, showing videos with little views on homepage and showing videos on "Spotlight"(right). 

Contests don't only allow new individual and low budget films to be seen by an audience but also if a movie wins it can get a funding for new equipment etc. 

Click for details

Showing videos on the homepage and "Spotlight" instantly cause an increase in views in videos that are noteworthy but not necessarily popular because they are viewed by every person who uses youtube. 

I personally think that YouTube is one of the best ways to distribute a movie because it's both, beneficial for the filmmakers as well as YouTube. It allows the public to find new talents and earns money for YouTube so it's a win-win situation :)


Here are few other ways of distributing media:

It's quite easy to target specific audience on the internet because we can see the activity of specific genders or age groups on different websites. Also the content that is viewed suggest what is the audience of that particular article, video etc. For example a video of a young(teenage), attractive, female singer would mainly attract female audience between the ages of 11 and 15 (depending on the artists age) and so the adverts often reflect that by advertising online stores with toys or video games. This means that the adverts can be quite precisely shown only to the target audience.

EVALUATION:Q4/5 What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why? How will we attract/address our audience?

Being a particularly low budget film doesn't make the act of distribution particularly easy, however, being in the 21st century has many advantages when it comes to the media. For example, the internet has created the ability to access the whole world by a touch of a button, surely we can use this incredible tool to help market our small scale opening.
For example, just by putting this short film (below) on Youtube and submitting it to various competitions and festivals such as the ' No Limits Film Festival 2010' and the 'Yobi.tv Film Making contest 2010'
The short film has won awards such as the 'Best Young Filmmaker Award at Fastnet Short Film Festival' and 'Best Fiction Award at The Altered Images Student Post Production Festival in London 2010'

As seen in the description of the film above, there is a gigantic number of websites, competitions and festivals that are created and designed to help people showcase their talents and projects. For example the website http://yobi.tv/ is specially made as an online talent competition website. Makers of any film, including myself can upload their projects and enter them into various competitions, mmeanwhile having the opportunity to reach a hugely diverse audience.
Many student films have been showcased and funded by companies such as 'First Light' (http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/) which encourage students to make films and can even provide equipment and tools to help develop their skills. For example
Hey Jumper by Elishama Udorok at First Light has won an award thanks to 'First light' and this has helped increase the number of people that are interested in the film. If our film is good enough, I believe that we can upload our opening too, and if it is recognised as an outstanding piece, we would also have the opportunity of our film being shown to various groups of people constantly.
If we are extremely lucky, we could just upload or film opening to youtube and suddenly be a worldwide sensation just like this young lady...

In the 6 weeks that this video has been in the media, it has raked a record breaking 70 million views. Although many people say they dislike the film, word about it has spread like wildfire and people all over the globe have been talking about it. But publicity is what many film makers strive for and dream about, and this young girl has proven that it really is possible to be known by millions in a matter of days.

We've uploaded our film to Youtube too! Lets see if we have had the same impact to the global community...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ4BUQE2tk8

Screenshot of the Video being Uploaded

Our media product will be made into a DVD along with all the openings from our year at our college, this DVD will be made into 200 copies and be given out to all the AS media students, this is a great opportunity as it would mean that at least 200 people would have our film at their fingertips. Our movie will also be shown at the 'screen on the green' in Islington, which will be a great opportunity to showcase our opening to a large group of people who can then give us great feedback, as well as being able to spread their thoughts and opinions of the film by word of mouth. We would also be able to upload our video to sites like http://vimeo.com/ and http://www.metacafe.com/ as well as social networking sites such as http://www.facebook.com/.

Screenshot of our opening on Facebook

This would allow us to show thousands of online users our films, and this would hopefully encourage them to share the film themselves, creating some kind of ripple effect. As a result, maybe our film will become as successful as that music video above...