1) During the run up to making our film many different genres were thought about. The ideas such as comedy and romantic films such as forgetting Sarah marshal which is a romantic comedy were thought about but in the end we chose to do a sort of horror/thriller. We looked at lots of different films during our run up. One example is the matrix. This is a very clever and well thought out opening but it was very complex and it would be hard to replicate a lot of their work. Another is Saw as it is very technical idea but at the same time it has simplicity as well.

2)I think that our media product appeals to both males and females. The film appeals to ages from 14 to 20 and any ethnicity could watch it as it is aimed at all sorts of people. I think that our film would attract working class people rather than upper class. This is because the actors in it are working class so they would be able to see themselves in the situation that our actors are in. We tried to represent general teenagers in our film. It was just an everyday teenager. We showed the everyday person as they were in casual clothes (jeans, top, jacket, and wellington boots) and she was listening to music. The actors were represented in different ways. The girl was just walking along happily listening to music whereas the boy in our movie opening was running and hiding behind trees. The girl looked as if she was just walking round in her own world which is a contrast to the guy who was sneaking around and hiding. In our product the boy looked very suspicious and was stalking the girl which is very stereotypical as a lot of people would expect it to be a guy following a girl. The girl was represented positively in this as she seems very innocent and the guy negatively as he is hiding in the shadows of trees and it is seen that he has a knife.

3) There are many companies that would be willing to distribute my film. For example Dreamworks who have distributed films such as 'House of 1000 Corpses'. Another example to distribute my film would be Dimension Films as this company has also done some of Rob Zombies films. I think these companies would be interested in my film as it has similarities to popular films they have already distributed so they will think it’s a good idea.

4)The way our audience is attracted in out opening scene is with a twist at the end. The Saw films have lots of little twists in them. We know our target audience would like it as it is the unexpected. All you see is the person you expect to be the dead drop the knife and start running. It’s a good twist as it’s unexpected so it draws in the audience as they want to know what happens next in the film. Also the change in music makes people wonder what’s going to happen. The music gets quieter and makes our audience wonder what’s going to happen next. We weren’t always certain about having this twist in our opening but thought it would appeal to our audience as that’s not what they thought would happen. During the filming we did have to make changes to our original plan as the group had more ideas as we went along that were better than our original plan. The changes we made were successful and made our product better than we originally had planned. Our film was called On The Run. We thought this name would be effective as people would want to know who and what our character is running from. Another decision made was that we were going to do a horror film and have a twist. The location chosen was by the easiest place for everyone to get to where it would be quiet and we would not have a lot of audience interference. We thought setting it in a woods would attract the audience as it is a scary environment and woods are used in many horror films.

5) As a result of making this product I am now more aware of the different ways in which the camera works. Also how the different places you put the camera for shots can be more effective within your work. I also understand editing a lot more as the people in my group have shown me different techniques such as adding in music to make the effect we want on our audience more tense and dramatic. Another thing I have learnt is how to blog. I have never blogged before doing media studies and it is a new skill I have. Although I found imovie extremely confusing at the start the continual support of my group helped me to learn new aspects of this product for example cutting down scenes.

6)I have come so far since our Prelim Task. At the beginning of this course I was unaware of how to use a camera, what were the best shots to use and why they were effective. Since doing the prelim my acting skills have also improved as before I was nervous to on camera so was very static. Now I am more confident onscreen and behind the camera. My group has come so far since the prelim. Our team has bonded more and work even better together than we did before as we have gone through the stages of making our film. The best part about my group is we all have more knowledge than each other but in different aspects of making the film. The skills I have developed most doing this prelim is listening and camera work. I now find it easier to listen to other peoples ideas as well as get my points across and I am more confident when working on the filming. If I could choose one thing to improve I would like to improve my editing skills further as I find it really interesting to do. I have furthered my skill with blogging so much. When I first signed up for a blog I couldn’t even understand how to write a comment whereas now I find blogging very simple and easy I understand what I am supposed to do on it. Another thing I have learnt it how hard a group must work to make a film and the effort that has to be put in. it takes a lot of time and effort but the end results worth it.

final recording session

our final recording session was alot more sucsessful than previous ones. we managaed to finish all our filming and now its been edited aswell. our last recording session was hard to get everyone together but there was a good team effort from me and sandie so that we could finish off the job right. although it was tough work we managed to finish all the filming including the twist at the end. everyone worked incredibly hard for this and i really appreciate everyones effort for the last session of recording

location

Our location had to be somewhere resonably quiet as in the opening scene a murder takes place and you would not do this in a public place so that you get caught. so we really souldnt have anyone around whilst we were filming.

in the end we decided a wood would be good. this idea was good because during different parts of the day not many people are at the woods so it would be perfect. there are not alot of choices for woods in portishead so in the end we went fot the 'Weston Big Woods' in portishead.

problems with first recording session

Unfortunatley after our first recording session we found alot of problems within our filming. This was very disapointing as we thought that the only other shots we would have to get would be easy and quick. Unknown to is at the time we had people in the background who werent supposed to be there so had a lot of refilming to do. What made this harder for our group is the good old british weather. unlucky for us england loves to rain which made it even harder for our group to complete the filming task and time was not on our side. on the plus side we did manage to complete it in the end.

An example of our problems is that during our 360 degrees shot of the killer and victim staring into eachothers eyes there is a woman walking past. this wasnt good for our film as there was about to be a murder comitted so we couldnt have any old person walking round as if it was a freek show. the murder it was supposed to be scary and secretive not a public performance

Another thing that made our life akward is that the lovely lady who liked to interupt our shots brought over excited loud jumpy dogs who also wanted 5 minutes of fame by trying to get into our shots. although you cant see the dogs very well in this photo they were there harrassing the team trying to get there faces shown on camera. they really were not what the group wanted to see when trying so hard to film whilst battling against time :(

so here are just a couple of problems that made it harder to film.

script

We only have the narrator and the girl of our two characters speaking in our film.

(We open our seen with a pan of the background.)

Narrator: I am here to tell you a story. A story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night. And though I will do my best, there are no words that can be written nor brush strokes laid on canvas that can describe the stark and utter horror of the night that Annabel died. The emptiness will haunt you.

(Charlie looks around as if shes heard something.)

Charlie: who's there, is anybody there?!

(Charlie runs off and meets the killer.)

Charlie: Why are you doing this?!

first recording session

Our first recording session didn't go to plan. We had problems as soon as we got there as the battery on the camera was low. This made our first shoot very challenging as we definitely needed to get all the shots of dec as he could not come to our next shoot. Unfortunately we didn't get as many shots as we needed. Some of the shots were good but in others we made a few mistakes such as when we did the 360 degree rule there was a woman walking her dog in the background so we need to redo that shot as it is an important part of our movie opening. Another mistake we made was that during a shot we could see something on the floor which one of the group placed down. We cant use this shot because this part of the woods is used in other shots so it would be lack of continuity if it was put into our movie opening.
The plus side of having to redo certain scenes is that we are now sure on what we want done. For example we know exactly what part of the woods we want to use such as our path which the girl walks down and we know spots which we want to see the murderer hide behind. By seeing the environment once we can now be certain on which ares we want to use and know where is best for light as well.
We are looking to shoot next on thursday the 4th February 2010 so we can correct all mistakes and finish editing by 12th February 2010 and hand in our work.

Practice

Unfortunatley i was ill for the pracitce session but my group took me through everything that they did.

The reason for the practice was so everyone could get used to the equipment we would be using throughout our filming sessions.

They practiced different shots with the camera so they could get used to what fucntions the buttons have and so that they were more confident with the camera in general so that our opening would be good. All the group used the camera during the prelim but we wanted our movie opening to be better and more professional than our first film together.

Another thing the group needed to test was the microhphone. The group needed to test this as we didnt have one during our prelim so therefore it was a new peice of equipment for the group to use.

Another piece of equipment used was the tripod. This our group used well in our prelim but for our short film we needed to furthur our skills for example by working out the best way to do tilts and the best angles for it to be on.

I am very lucky my group went and did this whilst i was ill as they were both really good when it came to filling me on details and helping me to learn all the techniques they had already picked up :)