Evaluation Question 7

This is our Preliminary task:

And here is our Final task:

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout this media process I have used many different tools and equipment. Some I have used before but others I was not familiar with. I feel that I have progressed with my knowledge of editing and using editing software such as iMovie. Before this process I had no knowledge of editing and using this software. I believe now I’m able to edit successfully.


CAMCORDER
In the production of our film we used two camcorders. For the first day of filming we used my own video camera which resulted in really bad quality footage! We were all really worried about this as we had no time to re-film and we had all worked so hard! However, the camera was easy to use and it was only when we got back to school when we realized that the quality was not great!
We used this camera; F50 Flash Memory SD Camcorder click here to go to website luckily you can charge the camera via a USB port which was handy when our camera ran out of battery half way through the day!

On the second day of filming we used the schools Sony Handy cam which was just as simple to use but the quality was a lot better! We thought that the difference in quality would be really easy to tell but in fact no-one has noticed!

TRIPOD
Both days of filming we used the schools tripod which was very useful to hold the camera steady in a shot. Panning the camera from left to right was at times quite jerky but when editing we stabilized these shots. On the second day of filming once all ready to go outside and start we realized that part of the tripod was missing! This was so annoying but luckily Jessie’s Dad had a spare. Next time we will most definitely check.

LIGHTING
In the production we decided that if we used this bright halogen lamp the shot would be a lot brighter and clearer resulting in a better shot. This did bring its complications when moving around the attic as the lights legs kept on getting into the shot also the light did get extremely hot so we had to be careful. Also when Emma (myself) went to flip on the attic light switch we had Jessie down below plugging in the halogen lamp at the same time! This did result us filming the part at least 10times to get the timing right, not forgetting how funny it was to film!

CAMERA
Taking photos of the process such as props, the set, and the crew and on the days of filming we used two cameras. These were the camera on my Iphone and ST90 Samsung Camera click here to go to website both cameras were easy to use and it was easy to upload them onto my laptop and then send them via Facebook to the group.

WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGY
We also used Web2.0 technologies Facebook and Twitter. With all members of the group having both accounts it was easy to reach everyone together instead of sending texts to just once person. Facebook was extremely handy when we needed to send each other photos to upload to our blog and also very useful when we needed to contact each other, it was easy to use and much better than giving each other memory sticks with pictures on!

EDITING
For editing our movie and our preliminary task we used two different types of MAC’s. The preliminary we used the older MAC and our main task and construction samples we used the newer MAC.

EDITING ON THE OLD MAC:
Editing on this mac was quite tricky, it was difficult to navigate and at times quite stressful! It didn’t help that we had never used it before and at times I felt like giving up! Editing our preliminary task was therefore difficult and I think in places we could have worked on our editing skills! We used the editing software iMovie. We had all used the new mac before so we wanted to Edit our preliminary task on that but as the two new MACs were quite overly subscribed we were left with editing on this one. I am happy we did have ago at editing on this MAC as we have broaden our skills and we may need to edit on this in the future!

EDITING ON THE NEW MAC:
All of us had never used iMovie before so it was a learning experience for all of us. We had used this MAC before when we edited examples of the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. It benefited us a lot by using this software previously when we edited our construction samples which helped as we all had had some previous experience. Through trial and error we got through the editing process and now I feel that we have all progressed with our skills and I just want to keep on editing! I have learnt a lot about editing and I now successfully know how to convey simple editing techniques such as splitting a clip, adding sound, adding titles, adding transitions, stabilizing a clip, adding a voice over and slowing down clips. The only thing that really annoyed me when working on this MAC was the simplest thing of the mouse! Countless amounts of times I held the mouse the wrong way round, happy to say I think I have mastered this slight difficulty now!

CREATING THE COURSEWORK
BLOGGER
To create our coursework we used Blogger it was quite easy to use but it did have its difficulties. Adding pictures took a long time and the position of the pictures was quite frustrating as they never went where I wanted to put them! Even in this blog post I have noticed how annoying this is! Also I had to make new posts in the order that they appeared in, which was annoying as all the time I had posted a lot of posts and then I forgot to add in a post. This left me having to copy and paste everything back to Microsoft word and then back onto Blogger. It was very inconvenient. Spell check was rather weird so I wrote everything onto Word and copied it over to my post which again was time consuming and annoying!

POWERPOINTS AND SLIDESHARE
To create PowerPoints like my genre research, and target audience feedback I used PowerPoint 2010 I had used this before so I was familiar with it. I then had to use SlideShare which I had never used before to embed the HTML code onto my blog. At times this was very frustrating as sometimes my PowerPoints decided not to work and the writing had become small and unable to read!  click here to go to slideshare

SUREVEY MONKEY
When creating our Target Audience research we used survey monkey which was extremely easy to use and very good at what we wanted to do! Collecting and analysing the results was also easy to do.

WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER AND AUDACITY

To create evaluation questions 1,2,4,5 and 7 I used Windows Movie maker to edit and Audacity to record my voice. I had previously used Windows movie maker before a long time ago so I wasn’t too sure on how to work it! Finding software to record my voice took ages and in the end I had to ask my computer whizz brother on what to do! Saving the voice recording and putting it onto windows movie maker was tricky but in the end I managed to sort it out. Also saving the evaluation onto YouTube took ages as I had no idea what I was doing. By about the last evaluation question I am now a Professional at Windows Movie maker and publishing onto YouTube!

YOUTUBE
I created a YouTube account for the whole group and we shared out the password to the account so that we could upload and share our videos. Youtube was easy to navigate as we had all used it before. Before this process I had never uploaded a video to YouTube but now I’m a Pro! After uploading a video I embed the code and put it onto my blog. We had to make sure that the videos weren’t on private otherwise they cannot be viewed!

PAINT
Adding in snapshots of our film, and annotating pictures such as the production splash was easy to do as I just print screened and then cropped the picture into Paint saved as a JPEG and put it either onto my blog or onto the evaluation video!

Overall I feel that after this process I have become a lot more confident in my IT and editing skills. I have really pushed and stretched my abilities in this task as a whole and I feel I have learnt long life lessons about technologies and teamwork.

I used this when typing up this evaluation question so I was sure to include all technologies used throughout this process.

Evaluation Question 5

Click here to go to the online survey

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Plot Summary and Denotation of 'Emma's Dilemma'

PLOT SUMMARY OF THE OPENING
Emma’s Dilemma is about a regular teenage girl who goes up into her attic to search for something, the audience is not aware of what she is looking for. Whilst looking she comes across an old chest which has various items in such as old picture albums and a modern day gas mask. Also within is an old letter addressed to her, she opens the letter and she discovers that it was from her great grandma Violet also along with the letter is a Ring. Emma puts the ring on and she then starts to feel ill. Next thing she knows she is in the middle of no-where in a field. This is then when she realizes that the ring had transported her through time to a different place.

Our final idea had developed slightly from our first initial idea which was instead of using a ring it was an old pair of glasses. This change I think has added more meaning as a ring is more personal and valuable which leaves the audience wondering where this magical ring came from; maybe passed down through the family from centuries ago or maybe even from a magical parallel world?

Denotation of Emma's Dilemma:

Target Audience Feedback

 I created a questionnaire to find out about what our target audience thought about our film. Here is an example of one of the responses to questionnaire.

Here is our friend watching Emma’s Dilemma and filling out the questionnaire. 

Here are our results, presented in a powerpoint:

Target audience feedback ppt

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We thought that it would be a good idea to film our target audience’s reactions whilst watching Emma’s Dilemma. We only filmed our friend Joey but I think that we could have filmed more to get a better result. Here is her reaction. 

We then asked her a few questions about her opinions of the film. Here are her answers.

Final Film

RESEARCH: BBFC Certifications

A main part of film distribution is film classification. The British Board of Film Classification produces a set of guidelines which are easily obtained for reference from the organisations website www.bbfc.co.uk  

Bbfc certifications

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As a group we came to conclusion of classifying Emma’s Dilemma as a PG. In the opening there is no Discriminatory language or behaviour, reference to illegal drugs, fighting scenes, natural nudity or moderate violence without detail. With all this in mind we then went back and looked at who we actually targeted our film at. We wanted to target our film at a wide range of audiences so it was suitable for families. Also we thought that in the long run our film could maybe become part of a series just like the Harry Potter fantasy franchise. This then lead to us classifying the first film (Emma’s Dilemma) as a PG and then progressing up to a 12a just like the Harry Potter series did.

Editing

Editing the main section after our Day one of filming had its difficulties because when we filmed in the small attic the shots we got were close meaning not much could be seen! The vast amount of dust in the attic made the shots blurry which decreased our choice of shots even more! We overcame these dilemmas by eliminating the unwanted shots and editing the ones we liked best, this worked out well because when filming we did extra shoots just in case.


As a group we took turns in editing and the decision making, this was good as we all had a go at the actual editing part and we had each other’s opinions to take into account. We wanted Emma’s grandma Violet to read out the letter as Emma read it which added to the fantasy theme of the movie added to the storyline being intense and mystical. Jessie spoke the letter in an excellent voice as it captured the ‘old women’ stereotype that we wanted to achieve! As she does A-level drame we felt that Jessie suited this role perfectly.
The titles we chose were firstly the production splash which was ‘JA TIME PRODUCTIONS’ and then as the main character was shown in the establishing shot ‘Starring Alice Roberts’ appeared. As the story develops ‘Filmed by Amy Bradley’ then appears. As Emma entered the attic we then placed ‘Directed by Jessie Niven.’ At the end of the 2minuntes we edited in the film’s title.
I feel that at the time of editing we placed the titles at the correct moment but watching it back many times I feel personally that the titles could have been a bit more spread out to add more meaning and a genuine feel of a film.

Choosing the sound for our opening took a long time as we couldn’t find anything suitable to fit the mood and atmosphere which was evolving on screen! We wanted something that was slow to begin with which then sped up as the story progressed. Once finding eventually three different possible soundtracks we added them to the final edit and decided which one we thought suited best. We settled for Silence. It was described as follows: A sad mellow acoustic guitar is the centre of this track surrounded by beautiful Rhodes harmonics and a relaxed bass. It was composed by Scott P. Schreer, and Pierre Langer. The feeling was described as being Thoughtful/Introspective; Sad, Reflective/Contemplative and Chilled/Laid-Back instruments included Piano, Bass and Acoustic Guitar. Here is a screen shot of the website.

Choosing A Film Title

We wrote down lots of previous fantasy film titles and then started to come up with our own ideas. We wanted to incorporate ideas which involved the theme of our movie that’s why we included the theme of ‘time’ in one of the film titles. After picking our favourite 3 titles we asked our target audience which one they liked the best. The winner was Emma’s Dilemma. 

Here is Amy asking which film title our target audience liked best.

After deciding our title we then went onto Microsoft word to create the title, here is the finished film title. 

Day 2 Filming

For the final scene we have decided to film the evening of Monday 17th March. The weather is looking quite sunny which may meen we will have to decrease the brightness to give a scarier atmosphere of the scene. Due to our groups work schedule Amy was unable to attend this day of filming. We felt that it was alot harder without Amy and with her would of been better! Although her absence was not ideal I enjoyed working with Jessie on the filming of this scene.

For the final part of the filming we were all set to start filming at the bottom of Jessie's Garden, we did a few takes but then decided to try else where and film the scene in a field. We felt that this added to the tension and remote location to where our character Emma transported to. This choice of locations, shot types and angles made it better for us when we came to edit as we had more choice and we also had Amy's opinion. 

Day 1 Filming

To remind us all Amy set a reminder on her phone for our day one of filming. Her is the snapshots of the reminder on her Ipod.

The first scene at my house went well and didn’t take us as long as we expected. When I got into my costume Jessie and Amy thought it would be a good idea to take pictures of the actor (me) so that if we were to film on separate days we can refer back to the pictures to make sure that my hair, make-up and costume would be the same. The location was easy to film in and it was a bonus that no-one was in the house to disturb us! We filmed the scene from various angles and at some points we even filmed the same section multiple times so that when we came to edit we could pick the best takes. Amy and Jessie took turns in the filming and directing and I took care of the location of the props and lighting.

 Picture to show my costume and hair.







Close-up to show make-up.







Back of hair.

Side shot.

Side shot.










Here are pictures to show us filming the first scene at my house.

Jessie and Amy took  turns in filming and directing the first shoot.

We decided that if we used this bright halogen lamp the camera shot  would be a lot brighter and clearer resulting in a better shot.


Following our shooting schedule we were then set to go over and film scene 3 at Jessie’s house. This did not happen as the weather was not good and we felt that if we filmed the whole thing in the 1 scheduled day we would be too rushed. This concluded that we were just going to have to schedule a different day to film the final scene! This meant that we could refer back to the pictures above to make sure that my hair,make-up and costume were the same.

This then left us with carrying on the schedule and getting a lift to Amy’s house to film scene 2.  It was very hot and dusty in the attic which restricted the angles and shot lengths. The dust also meant that the shot appeared blurry and not to the high standard that we wanted! The halogen lamp we used at my house came in very handy when filming this scene as the light already in Amy's attic wasn't bright enough. It was easy to move around but we had to be careful because at 2000 watts the lamp got very hot. 


Due to the difficulties of the first day of filming we made sure that when we schedule 
the next day for filming we were all aware of the date and time. To do this we got together as a team and decided which days we could all do. Once we decided we used WEB 2.0 technology to confirm, in this case it was Facebook.  Here is a print screen of our confirmation.

PLANNING: Script

SCENE 1: HALLWAY.
[EMMA]
[Low non-diegetic music]
Emma is going up to the attic to search for old photos.
Emma opens the attic door and pulls the ladder down, she then climbs up the ladder and turns on the light.
She opens one box; there is nothing useful in it, so she goes to a different box.
She finds a letter and ring from her great grandmother. [Low non-diegetic music fades out]

EMMA:
[EMMA]
Puts the ring on and reads out the letter:

EMMA:[VOICE OF GRANDMA] Dearest Emma,
Hope this gives you a helping hand when you need it most,
Potayoe-Crawtom
Love Great Grandma Violet

Potayoe-Crawtom? I feel sick

Puts hand to face

SCENE 2: FOREST.
[EMMA]
[CONFUSED EXPRESSION]
[Dramatic non-diegetic music]Emma is unaware of where she is.
She looks around the forest.
Emma starts to run and stumbles over a stick. She falls over.
[Dramatic non-diegetic music increases]

 

PLANNING: Production Splash

Production splash deconstruction

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Here are our initial ideas, we came up with various ideas which evolved around the idea of J and A, which are the first letters of our names (Jessie, Amy & Alice)

                     

We wanted to make our production splash animanted so we thought that by using some of the ideas that we already had (above) and then physically film it. We wanted to carry on with the theme of time, due to our film being about time travel. As a group we are going to use a camera and a tripod (to keep the camera steady) and film a plain white clock for a whole hour. Here is a picture of the camera filming the clock. 

After filming the clock for one hour we are going to go to the macs and spead up the filming from an hour to 2-3seconds. We will then edit in 'JA TIME PRODUCTIONS'

Here is our finished production splash that we will use in the opening titles of our film:

Here is a deconstruction of the meaning from a snapshot of the prodcution splash:

PLANNING: Shooting Schedule, Location and Props

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Date	Actors	Crew	Props Required	Location	Scenes To Film
Sunday  4th Morning	Alice	Amy Jessie	No props required (need to ensure clear space)	Alice’s house(landing)	1-5
Morning	Alice	Amy Jessie	Ring Letter Alice’s costume: Jeans  T-shirt  Jumper converse	Jessie’s Garden, pond (outside)	16-17
Afternoon	Alice	Amy Jessie	Ring Letter Chest (Alice owns) General attic things (all ready at Amy’s house) Alice’s costume: Jeans T-shirt Jumper converse	Amy’s house Attic	6-15

Equipment: (Borrow from Shool)

Camera

Tripod

Location:

Attic: Choosing our attic location:

We ruled out Jessie’s attic due to health and safety so it was a choice of mine or Amy’s.

Here is my attic:

We decided not to use mine as there is a lot of stuff that would get in the way and make the filming angles limited. It will also not be a suitable location due to space being restricted. Although we did decide that we quite liked the ladder as it is easy to use. 

LOCATION: AMY'S ATTIC

Our last resort was to use Amy’s, this will be more suitable to use. Although Amy lives in the next village to our other location we can get our parents to drive us.

Entrance to Amy's attic. We have decided not to use Amy's ladder to enter the attic because it is flimsy and difficult to use, therefore we are going to use my attic's ladder but Amy's attic.

Same with my attic, there is a lot of stuff in it. To expand the area therefore more space, we will remove some of the things. We will leave a few things to make the scene more realistic.

The boxes in shown in this photo will be removed. The attic is smaller then my attic.

Here is the view looking down the ladder.

Here is a video to show the size of the attic.

Controlling this location:

-Energy saving light bulb change to ordinary to ensure light is bright to film in. (Artificial light)

-Ask everyone to get out of the house so no distractions or added noise

-move boxes out of the attic for extra room to film

LOCATION - THE LADDER (MY HOUSE)

From visiting my attic and finally Amy's attic we came to a decision to use my attic's ladder as the accessibility of our character (Emma) to the location. This might be quite difficult to construct due to the fact of continuity errors disrupting the flow of our opening sequence but overall we think it will have a better effect. 

 Here is the attic door to my attic; this will be our establishing shot of the film.

 This angle will be used in shot 2.

This angle will be used in shot's 2/3. Again it is critical that we don't have any props in this view. When we come to film the scenes at Amy's house there will be a continuity error if we do not remove these things from this location, therefore this is very important. 

This is the ladder, it is sturdy and easy to lift down which will create a smooth shot.  We will close the doors and make sure the area is tidy.

Here is the angle as if i was in the attic and looking down upon the ladder, this will be used on shot 4. Therefore we will have to ensure that no-one will walk into the shot and that the area is tidy.  

LOCATION - JESSIES GARDEN 

This location will only be needed for a few seconds, but we need to ensure:

-Not raining (check weather of date)

-Make sure that family members will not use the driveway to get in the way of the shot

Here is the weather forecast for Sunday the 4th (the day we will film)

Here is a picture of our chosen location at the bottom of Jessie's garden.

Props

Letter:

To make the letter look old and authentic we will get a white A4 piece of paper and soak it in tea. This will make it look old and realistic; we also want the letter to look convincing to the audience so it actually looks like Emma’s great grandma has left her a note from years ago. This mise-en-scene prop is important to get right so we may have to do it numerous times.

We decided to call our character Emma because we felt that it is an ordinary name which connotes her to be a typical ordinary teenage girl. We didn’t want a peculiar named character so settled for Emma.

The grandma’s name however we struggled on finding a name, therefore we searched some possibilities into Google.

We wanted an old fashioned name to represent her being from the past. Here are some of the names we found:

-Ethel

-Grace

-Beatrice

-Violet

-Clara

-Hazel

-Florence

-Eleanor

-Betty

In the end we decided on Violet due to its uniqueness.

Here is the letter:

Dearest Emma,

Hope this gives you a helping hand when you need it most,

Potayoe-Crawtom

Love Great Grandma Violet

As I am currently doing A-level art and did GCSE art I feel like this will help when we make the letter. Amy and Jessie are also creative which will add to the creation of this prop.

Here is an annotation of the letters wording:

Final Prop

Ring:

We wanted a ring that appears old and has that ‘Wow Factor’ which will make the audience feel intrigued to what the ring has to do with the film. We didn’t want to spend much money so we ended up finding a cheap one from Primark for £2.

Here is the ring: