Friday, 27 April 2012
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Evaluation - What Have I Learnt
What have
you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My knowledge
of the technologies involved in the process of constructing our film has
greatly improved during the period in which we filmed and edited our short
film.
Before we
filmed this film, I had very little knowledge of how to even use the cameras
that we were given to film. Now however, I have a much greater understanding of
how to effectively use the camera to produce the ideal shot for the film, how
to use equipment for the camera such as tripods and even how to upload the
finished footage to a computer for editing.
To edit our
footage we used the programmes included in the ‘Adobe CS4’ package. Prior to
editing this film I had very little knowledge of how to effectively use any of
these programmes. During the creation of this film I have had to use ‘After
Effects’, ‘Photoshop’ and ‘Premier Pro’. This experience with these programmes
has dramatically improved my knowledge of them and my ability to use them.
Using these
programmes made me realise how different effects, shot types and shot durations
could affect the feeling a film produces. When we created my preliminary video,
we used a very small range of shot types and they were all very long in
duration. This gave it a very boring and dragged out feeling. Also, we didn’t
use any effects, we just put the clips into a chronological order and finished.
This made the film feel very boring and awkward to watch.
Now that I
have had more experience with the creation of my film opening I fully realise
how even the smallest aspect of a film can change the way in which it is perceived
by the audience. In our finished product, to give it a ‘horrific’ feel to it,
we have tinted it to appear much darker, shortened each clip dramatically to
add a ‘jumpy’ feel to the film and even the static transition between the clips
and the way in which we have filmed it in first person adds a much more
realistic effect.
As well as
the effects that mise en scene, camera shot choices and editing techniques have
on a film, I have also learnt how important sound can be to achieving the
desired affect. In my preliminary piece, we didn’t change the sound at all
which made the film even less interesting to watch. In our finished piece
however, through experimentation with different music and sound effects, we
have managed to find the perfect sounds to go in the background of the dialogue
to add a more tense feeling to the film whilst still keeping the film realistic
sounding.
In
conclusion, since my preliminary clip film was created, I have a much greater
knowledge of what technologies are available to me and how to use them to
achieve the designated effect for my film. I have also learnt what techniques,
in terms of shot types, sound, mise en scene and editing methods are best to
use in different situations to create different feels and meanings to a film. I
now know how to make an audience perceive my film in a way which leaves them
more involved and entertained.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Evaluation - Conventions
In what ways does your media product use, challenge or
develop forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses many of the typical conventions which
films of the same genre, horror, tend to use. For example, many horror films
use light to change the mood of a scene and to emphasise the fact that it is a
horror film. This use of dim lighting, or in some cases very bright lighting,
can change the feel of a scene dramatically and completely change the effect of
the scene.
Our film, similarly to other films in the horror genre, has
been edited to dim the light on a scene to make it appear darker and gloomier.
Without this effect, due to the fact that we have only shot 2 minutes of the
film, our clip doesn’t look like a horror; it looks more like a documentary
because of the ‘hand held’ style of shooting the film.
This hand held filming style challenges the conventions of
real media products in the same genre as mine. Although now many more
low-budget horror films are choosing to film in this way, this technique of
filming still isn’t used very often. Most of the films that are shot in this
hand held style only use shots that are filmed from this hand held perspective.
Our media product however has also used shots filmed from a third person perspective.
We have decided to use this to challenge and differentiate our film from others
in our genre and to give more of an effect that the characters in our media
piece are being watched (this fits with the story line of our film).
Our choice of setting for our film is also very similar to
other films in this genre. We chose to film in a dark, isolated forest away
from people. Almost all horror films which we have studied have also chosen to
set their films in an isolated/secluded location. This, in most cases, adds an
effect of loneliness and helplessness to the characters in the film; this is
why we have chosen this location for our film. It adds a scarier feel to the
film and makes it seem that the characters in the film have no one to help them
if something were to happen to one or both of them.
The shot types which we have used challenge the conventions
of a typical horror film. Horror films use large amounts of close ups and
extreme close ups to emphasise emotion (mostly fear or fright) and to show gory
wounds more closely to give a scarier effect. We however have used very few
close ups or extreme close ups. We haven’t included them because no events
which evoke emotions or wounds worth showing a close up of have occurred due to
the fact that it is only the opening 2 minutes of the film.
Also, as in most films of any genre, especially horror, the
main protagonists in our film have been introduced from the beginning of the
film/ very early on in the film. This is another example of us using typical
conventions of other films.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Sunday, 22 April 2012
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