The Placebo, official film

            
             

The Placebo, official poster

The Placebo, official trailer

Q1- Conventions of real media products

Q1. I what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

               

Q2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilairy texts?

         Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?         
     
       

Q3- What have you learned from audience feedback?

                                   Q3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

               

Q4- How have you used digital technology in your research, planning and evaluation stages

Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

       

          

Film bloopers

                

What I learned about filming making

There are many skills, which I believe I have gained through producing my final product and ancillary texts. I was able to use filming equipment such as camera, lighting and a tripod effectively and get competent with the settings on the cameras- specially the Cannon 600D camera. Through research and practice I was able to familiarise myself with concepts such as ISO, shutter speed, white balance and aperture.

One of the things about filming I learned is that although there is a script and a overall plan of how things should pan out- it does not mean you have to follow it religiously, during both production and post production there may be brilliant ideas that you come up with and work better than the original idea during planning stages, also as your creativity develops there's always new things to add and sometimes take away from the script because it's not as effective as you though it would be.

Using Audacity and Logic Pro to create my radio trailer taught me the importance of sound and how much of an impact sound makes on the overall product, it gives the extra scariness and horror element to it, as you can create dread and eeriness without the visual film. When creating my poster I learned how to use editing software Photoshop, manipulating pictures and adding special effects on to it to make them fit the horror genre.

One of the most important lessons I've taken away from filming my product and producing my ancillary tasks is to always keep noting down ideas no matter how trivial they may seem and keep building from them. Also that there is always room for improvement, even though a product may look finished and finalised depending on audience opinion there can be several changes which can actually enhance the product overall.

One thing I would do differently however, is keep a short and simple plot rather than trying to express many different ideas and thoughts into a short 5 minute clip, it's better to keep the story simple.

Analysis of sample audience watching final product

                            


After producing my final product I recorded a small sample of my audience watching the product and then discussed the film and gained feedback from them. I asked the group to think aloud whilst watching my film so I can make critical observations of their reactions and interpretations of their opinions. 
They seemed to be amerced throughout the whole experience and a number of times they all expressed their fascination with the film through words such as 'oh wow' 'I like that'. 

As scene 3 progresses it is clear that one member of the audience is easily taken back by the establishing shot which shows the protagonist walking like a zombie. As the flash back scene appears, I can tell that the use of editing and adding filters was highly effective as the audience members say: 'that's good editing' and 'oh that's her before', as well as commenting on the visual effects and making their own interpretations of 'it's distorted' and 'it makes you feel so..' and as they agree with each other.

It can be argued that my audience form part of the 'preferred readers' group, the theory put forward by Hall, (however it became clear to me that they’re negotiated readers after obtaining their opinions when I asked whether they idenitifed well with the protagonist one meber said that they feel as though a boy would also do the same thing- be curious and look for his friend). One member says 'that must be symbolic or something, why would she take that' in reference to the teddy bear, the reason they form put of the preferred readers group is because my intention with the teddy bear is to show that the teddy is a representation of the protagonists past life- which is symbolic in understanding the past and present in the film. 

As the zombie scenes appear there is a gradual raise of eyebrows and withdrawal from the audience connoting that they are somewhat frightful by the location and mes en scen of the shot. All the audience members jumped a little a the scene where the protagonist is alone and a sudden whack on the face appears, the sound which becomes low and hollow followed by an abrupt and sharp movement was effective in making audiences engaged with the film. The comment of 'it's so dingy' and 'the darkness is really good' reassures me that the use of locaion and mes en scen worked effectively in portraying a horror style setting. 

The member who says 'oh' when she realises various aspects of the film she didn’t know before this signifies how she had a few unanswered questions that made sense as the scene with the scientists appears. This tells me that there was enigma built throughout the film and the questions are now answered as the film comes together during these scenes. One member says 'it' like she can't hear' when the protagonist is trying to wake up out of the conditioning this implies that the use of editing sounds creates a major effect on the way characters are portrayed in my film. 

Overall, through this ethnographic observation I found that there was positive feedback in both verbal and facial expressions in regards to my short film as the audience members said they enjoyed watching it and thought it was a well produced film. 

Comparing my preliminary film to my final product

After analysing both my preliminary and final film, there are a few observations that I have made in regards to my progress and skills which i believe have developed greatly.


Production:  

When filming my preliminary task I had very minimal practise with the camera and framing techniques, for example there were many scenes where I was thinking of the different shots I can film from as I was filming at that moment also, there were other times where I was sat thinking for a moment which kind of took up a lot of time, nonetheless we completed it. In addition, when filming my preliminary task I wasn't able to adjust the settings on the camera, as I was not familiar with the concepts of ISO, Shutter speed ect. These two skills has progressed when filming my final product as I was competent with camera equipment and when filming no time was wasted as I knew how exactly I should film each scene and which angle worked best with each shot. This organised my time as well as gave me confidence when filming. I was able to change the settings on my camera making it look professional.



Post-production: 
 
I believe my skills have developed in the editing stages from my preliminary task to my final product. When editing my preliminary task I was unsure of how to crop and trim footage that's on the screen, so I was not able to use footage where the acting was very good because there was an unwanted item/actress in the shot. Whereas, when editing my final task I was able to create extreme close up shots on an over the shoulder angle due to having an unwanted item in the shot. Moreover, I added effects into my preliminary film, however, I was unsure that this type of effect of the 'underwater effect' would be appealing to my audiences, when editing my final production the faded ‘sun effect’ and ‘prism’ effect I believe was far more effective in expressing to the audiences that this is a flash back scene.


Overall, conducting a preliminary film not only equipped me with a set of camera skills but also helped me developed my organisation skills as well as gave me the confidence of using Final Cut Pro.

Feedback on all products

After compelting all my products I asked my audience whether they think all 3 products works well toegther and make sense together.

From this feedback I have gathered that my audience do think that my poster, trailer and film all create the same atmosphere and relate back to the horror genre well.

Audience feedback- final film

           
                    


The feedback for my final film was very positive, my audience feel as though they engaged with the film. When I asked for their first thoughts on the film one member said 'the effects made you feel uneasy' this is a convention of horror as the horror genre plays with real emotions of audiences.

The intended outcome was expressed clearly, I know this because one member said 'it creates a lot of emotions you can feel something weird is happening' which was my intention. When I queried about the narrative, they said that there were confusions in the beginning but recognised that, enigma is conventional of horror films and said it worked well.

When I asked if they identified with the film as a female audience there was differing opinions suggesting that there are different types of audiences in a film, which will go against my preferred reading and others, who create their own interpretations of my film.

Audience feedback- second edit

Audience feedback- 2nd edit from as14rk on Vimeo.

Feedback from my audience after the first edit was useful in knowing whether the changes made to the film enhanced viewer experience. The audience members said they liked that various shots and how there was different angles which mad it engaging.

They feel as though they identified with the protagonist as an 'explorer' and someone who questions what she sees on the news.

Overall, positive feedback was given. 
  

Editing

I have edited my film on Final Cut Pro which has grown on me, it's proabably now my most favourite editing software. Getting used to the features and tools took a little getting used to, nonetheless it was worth it. From my audience feedback I have made changes which can be seen below:


               

Response to audience feedback

New poster design

After careful consideration I have dicided to change my poster in reposne to adience feedback, this is my new layout creating intertextual like to Face Off. I agree with the audiecnes members who think that my previous poster layout was not as eerie and did not really give a horror style atmosphere to it.

In order to fix this I will take my photographs using the poster codes for example, I will make sure I use the rule of thrids and high headspace, moreover, I will adjust the settings on my camera, also when editing my poster I will be sure to realte back to Face Off as well as other conventional horror posters such as Saw as recommened by an audince member who said that the poster is eerie and it creates suspense giving the narrative a sharp and edgy feel to it.   

Audience feedback: First edit

Audience feedback: First edit from as14rk on Vimeo.

Feedback from radio trailer (draft)

 
Audience feedback: radio trailer (draft) (854 x 480) from as14rk on Vimeo.

After gaining useful feedback from my draft radio trailer, there are considerable changes that I will need to make to ensure that my audience are appealed and are full engaged with the trailer.

Strengths: 

One of the things that my audiences liked was the layering of sound, it worked well in portraying the horror theme, they specifically enjoyed listening to the "we shall not kill.." repetition.
The background sound seemed to please the audience they said that it give the trailer a suspenseful feel to it.

Improvements: 
There were many technical corrections that needed to be made such as the audio distortion, the fuzziness and the pitch of various sounds.

One of the key aspects of my trailer that I need to work on is fully expressing to the audience the theme of zombie horror- I asked my audiences whether they felt my trailer correlated well with the zombie sub-genre, almost all said that they felt as though  it was only specific to horror and they felt like they were listening to a horror trailer generally and not a trailer that's from the zombie genre, some members suggested that I use zombie gore and sound effects to connote the theme of zombies.

My audience a little idea as to what the monotone repetition is about but without me telling them the storyline so it is suspenseful.

The use of silence and sound effects was suggested to be used as it would give a more tense and edgy atmosphere to the trailer, also by using silence, according my audiences from past experiences of listing to trailers they think it will induce the scariness as silence and eerie sounds scare them as they don't know what's coming next,

They also expect to hear unexpected sounds, something to 'grip the accidence by' and 'to make them jump out of their seats' such as a long pause of silence and then a loud bang/sound.

Lastly, thinking back to the BFI trip when Hannah mentioned that in trailers the beginning and ending are the most important parts as they help grip the audiences attention and then maintain that focus and attention through out, my audience think that the beginning and end of my trailer should stand out so that the audience can sustain their engagement throughout the trailer and also go on to remember the trailer.

Changes in poster design

After analysing my current poster, I have decided to change the design of my poster. With an inter-textual reference to Face Off I believe I can create a more effective poster relating to the horror theme more clearly. Also, I would be able to create an enigma in my poster and fully express the theme of zombie and identity. with the changes in design.