Thank You's & References!

Firstly, I'd like to thank my actors, Sarah-jane, Jayson and Luke, for allowing me to film them after a lot of protesting to "find someone else"; they did an excellent job and really helped me create the film I wanted.


My teachers, Mr Mayers and Miss Cullum, have been so supportive over the past few months, and I definitely would not have the media understanding and knowledge I have now if they had not helped me to understand, and helped me through my (what felt like) hundreds of technical (and not so technical) difficulties.


My classmates, Jon and Conor, have been a huge help, helping me figure out how to use Final Cut and Live Type and I cannot thank them enough for all the support they've given me!


Thank you again to Mr Mayers, Jon and Jayson for the continuous support through my struggle to re-edit all of my work after it being deleted. It definitely would not have been finished in time for the deadline without their ongoing help and encouragement. Thank you!


The websites I used during my process include:
www.imdb.com
www.lionsgate.com
www.bbfc.co.uk
www.wikipedia.org
www.warnerbros.com
www.warnerbros.co.uk

Question Seven: Looking Back At Your Prelim Task, What Have You Learnt In The Progression From That To The Final Product?

Click here to be linked to my final answer!

Question Six: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing The Product?

I used many different technologies in this unit that I had never worked with before, and some that I had. Using the iMacs to make a film was definitely a new experience, for previously I had only used it to create music. I did use it for this as well, by editing the song I used in Garage Band, but I also used Final Cut Express and Live Type to create my film.

                I had never used Final Cut before and definitely struggled with it when I first started. Luckily, I had a lot of help and support from my teacher and classmates when I was really stuck with how to use it but, mostly, I tried to figure it out myself, and didn’t do too badly. I spent a lot of time fiddling with the different editing tools I could use to make my film look more professional and of a higher quality than it really was. After only a short while, it all seemed a lot easier than it had been before.

                Unfortunately, I did encounter a lot of technical difficulties. Firstly, my files from my video camera would not import on Final Cut. This was easily solved though, and it appeared that they were the wrong file type. I converted them easily and imported them straight onto Final Cut without a problem. About two weeks after this, however, the first forty seconds, and last thirty seconds, of my film was deleted from my file. Still, to this day, I don’t know how it disappeared, but I opened my file to find that only the middle thirty seconds remained of my film. Some of my shots had also been deleted, and my camera was not with me to back them up. This was the day before the last day of term and due to all day lessons, I couldn’t re-edit the work until after our two-week break, giving me four free periods to re-edit my film and add titles and audio. This was my biggest and most stressful technical difficulty, and it definitely put me behind in all of my work, especially my evaluation.

                Using Live Type definitely was not my favourite thing, purely because there were too many decisions for me! It was very difficult to pick titles that I liked, and with my lack of time, I rushed them and then was not pleased with them at all. However, the original titles I created made the film look very happy and cheery, and so my final titles are a lot better, as they are less “extravagant” and a lot more simple and slow.

                I had a slight problem with Garage Band because my file would not import onto Final Cut, but in the end, I just created the same edits on Final Cut and I actually preferred that audio track to the one I had originally created on Garage Band!
                  When I first finished my film, I exported it to a disk to take home to upload on YouTube. I then got home to discover that only one minute and thirty-six seconds had been burnt to the disk. I found this out after I uploaded it, and then also discovered that YouTube had blocked my video due to copyright issues with the song I used, even though it was not the original track. I then had to wait another day to upload it onto Vimeo after exporting onto another disk. This worked well and finally I could receive some feedback on my film!

                I definitely did not realise how much work went into creating films! It was such a stressful and thought-provoking time, although I had a lot of fun. My perfectionist side really took over on this project, and I wasn’t happy with anything I did. I spent hours creating under ten seconds of screen time, adjusting the lighting and camera angles to make it more aesthetically pleasing. It took me such a long time to create two minutes worth of film, that I don’t know how anybody could create two hours worth! I have definitely gained a lot more respect for professional film editors since beginning this unit.

                My shots of my victim walking to and into her house are definitely my favourite. Whether it was to do with my location or camera, they seemed to come out very well, and the shots look of a much higher quality than any of the other shots I created. I particularly like the shot of her walking up her garden path to her door and have had a number of compliments on it. I feel that it creates the feeling that she is being watched a lot more than any other shot in my opening, as it is at such a distance that it is entirely possible that she would not see someone watching her, whereas the other shots are a lot closer and so seem a lot less realistic when thinking about somebody following her without her realising.

                To improve my film, I would definitely change the timing of the audio. Watching back my finished product, it did not start when I wanted it to and I would adjust the volume levels as the build-up to the vocals was a lot quieter than I had anticipated and so the start of the vocals is quite off-putting for the audience. I would also change my titles to make them seem more fitting for the genre, and would time them a lot better as sometimes, they interrupt a shot where it shouldn’t be interrupted.

                The only limitations to my creativity were my timing issues. There were some flashback scenes I wanted to film in school, but my actor was never free when I was and when she was and we had planned for her to come into school, she did not arrive in time because of over-sleeping. This meant that I had to change everything that I wanted to film. The deletion of one scene from my computer was a real shame and also changed my whole opening as it would have made the film a lot clearer to the audience. It was a series of brief shots of my victim tied up, after being taken hostage, and they were very scary and thought-provoking scenes that would make the audience question why she is tied up and what has happened to her. Also, the deletion of seventy seconds worth of work limited my creativity because it limited my time in which to make something aesthetically pleasing, original and creative.

Question Five: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Click here to see my fifth answer...

Question Four: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

To answer this question, I created a website on www.webs.com, my preferred website creation site.


Click here to be transported....

Question Three: What Kind of Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product & Why?

Click here to see Question Three!

Question Two: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Question Two: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups? from Abi Davis-Fletcher on Vimeo.

'The Following' Film Opening

AS Media Studies Film Opening - 'The Following' from Abi Davis-Fletcher on Vimeo.

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

Question One Presentation on Google Documents

Update.

Apparently, the film has been blocked again. I'm uploading it to Vimeo right now.

'The Following' Film Opening

I've had to upload this again, as the original file I uploaded yesterday was blocked by YouTube, due to an apparent copyright infringement. Hopefully this file will work, and will not be blocked, but I will back-it up by uploading it to Vimeo as well.


Here is the opening to 'The Following'.

Sarah-jane Eyles

Sarah-jane is playing Emma Greene, the victim in 'The Following', or the "followed" if you like?

She fits the character of Emma perfectly with her slim build, blonde hair and attractiveness. She reminds me of the characters of The Plastics in the hit Disney film, Mean Girls, with her blonde hair and small body, and so I knew that she would be perfect for playing Emma. Emma is also a very kind person, and Sarah-jane is a very smily and likable person; this makes her perfect to play my main character.

Jayson McGlen

Jayson is playing the stalker in 'The Following'.
His appearance breaks the stereotype of the typical 'geeky stalker type' because he is tall and slim, and from my research, I have noticed that a lot of stalkers from various films and TV programmes and the general stereotype given to 'high school geeks' is short and dumpy.

SO FAR!

I now have one actor here (Jayson McGlen, who is playing my stalker) and ready to film, and so am going to take a few shots of him being "stalker-like" whilst I wait for Sarah-jane, who is playing Emma Greene, to arrive.

Titles and Credits

I have decided that the title of my film will be cut out from a newspaper and I will place the letters on the door to Emma's shed. This will be the penultimate shot of my opening and will be shown before the shed door will swing open and reveal Emma sat, as a "hostage", inside the shed.

SUCCESS!!

Sarah-jane is on her way and all filming will be completed today thankfully! At last, I feel as if I am getting somewhere!
If we finish quickly, I will look through all that we have filmed to see if anything could be reshot or changed, and if I have enough time by the end of the day, may even begin editing today!

The Day After Tomorrow...

I am going to download all of my footage to my school account tomorrow during break, lunch or after school. This will mean that everything will be ready and available for me whenever I need it to be, and I will be able to edit whenever I am free, instead of having to wait even longer because of having to download my footage. I am more interested now in getting everything done so that I can begin my evaluation process as soon as possible, so would like to save as much time as possible. My editing will begin on Wednesday and will be finished this week, without a doubt. The program I will use is Final Cut Express.
                       

Stalker Shots

I'm looking forward to today's filming a lot because this is the first time I will be shooting with both of my actors. This means that I will get my last present day shot filmed and will also be able to shoot my stalker scenes for the montage. These are the only scenes I have left to film so I'm very much looking forward to beginning the editing process which will hopefully be a lot easier as I only have myself to rely on!
The lucky thing about my opening, due to my delay in filming, is that each shot is literally only a few seconds long at most, because of it being a montage of different events in the past and present.
The main props I will be using today are the rope and a single red rose that will keep reappearing throughout past and present as a symbol that the stalker has been in a specific place. This is typical stalker-like behaviour; some stalkers will go to extremes to be noticed by their victims without actually coming face-to-face with them. They have been known to do such things as planting a plant in their victims garden one night, taking it out the next, and replanting it again the night after that, to confuse their victim and make them question, not only themselves, but also whether somebody is doing it to them purposefully.

So Far...

So far, I have shot all but one of my present day shots, which will be the last thing I shoot today. I must admit, I haven't had the best start to filming. Due to my week-long illness and the cancellation of my actress last week, I am admittedly a lot further behind than I would have hoped. However, I am positive that all of my filming will be finished today, and I will be editing the footage in all of my free periods and after school, as well as in lesson time. 

The Plan For Today...

Today, I will be filming some shots inside school. My actress is arriving at 10a.m. and will be meeting me to film some very short clips showing my main character's popularity when she was at school. These shots will be edited into the flashback montage that will take up the majority, if not all (depending on timing), of my opening.