Evaluation - Next Years Targets

        My group and I have really enjoyed the process of making this film. At some points it was quite hard work, but it was really interesting to learn how to edit and make your own film. If i had an option to go back and change anything it might of been, planning a head a lot more. As some of the problems we faced could of easily sorted of we had done some more planning, like making sure we had good weather as we had reschedule our filming day due to this and a making sure we had enough hours with sunlight. Another problem we faced was lighting. As our film was shot in the woods the over-growth really limited our amount of sunlight. In our film you can see how it went from light to dark by the time we finished filming and this was something which the audience also picked up on. Although its something I would of changed i learnt a lot from these things and will make sure i don't make the same mistake twice when I do it next year. 

      By next year we would of hopefully be able to find and use a better camera to produce our film. The cameras that we were given this year were alright but really limited us in getting better shots and doing more things. One of the ideas we had as a group was to get shots with the camera focusing in and out of things. These ideas couldn't be achieved on the camera we were given. A higher quality camera with more functions will open more doors with what I will be able to achieve with the film i will make next year. These little changes will make a big impact on the overall outcome. 

     One thing i group found relatively easy to work after figuring it out and getting used to it was the editing software. We were able to achieve everything we wanted with Adobe Premier Elements 10. It took a week of playing around with this software until we felt completely comfortable using it. Next year I want to push the boundary's and play round with it a bit more to see what different uses and effects I can get out of it. In my opinion editing is equally as important as the content so I want to make sure the editing in my film is at the highest quality it can be. 

     Last but not least, along side with lighting,  sound was something that was picked out a lot in our audience feedback as something we should improve on. The problem was that in a lot of our shots the actors were far from the camera making them hard to hear. We also struggled in balancing out the non-diagetic music with the diagetic sound so you could hear both with out loosing from either areas. If I am able to improve in all these areas when producing my film next year my groups trail should be successful. 

Evaluation - Preliminary Task Progression

In our preliminary task, although it was the first time I had ever edited, I felt that we weren't able to get the shots we had taken to work smoothly together and create something nice to watch. Our main task was to do some match on action, we did this when the character opens the door. This was achieved but not to the quality I would of hoped, as it didn't seem very smooth. With more experience and time we were able to make characters actions smoother from shot to shot. 

One thing that we did wrong was the 180 degree rule in the shot reverse when there was dialog in our preliminary task. When the characters where talking the camera angle was jumping from one side of them to another going over the 180 degrees which may of confused the audience as it looked off. However in our finial edit we were able to successfully do this. For example when our two characters were having there conversation at the end. We did this so audience could see what they where saying and the expression characters had on there face.   

Evaluation - Location & Setting

    We chose to have our location in a rural environment where no one is around. We set it here to create suspense in the audience. The protagonist is walking through a woodland area going to hand in the secret hard drive. The dark twisted trees and the forest location connotes a scary atmosphere. The audience will be worried for the protagonist as they know that he is in danger and the further away he gets from civilization the more chance of him being in trouble there is.The one problem of shooting in this location was that due to the trees covering a lot of the space above it got dark quicker and we have less time to film before it got dark.

Evaluation - Technology

     We used a lot of different bit's of technology to assist us in the making of our opening two minutes however I would say that camera and the editing software were the two most important things we used. We were given was a GV DV1 waterproof camera to use in the production. Although not the best camera we were able to get some good shots and it filmed in 720pp HD. We also got given a tripod which greatly assisted us in achieving our good set up shots like the one of the moving train and when 'Agent Matthews' was walking in to the woods.

     Another bit of technology which was vital in the making of our film was Adobe Premier Elements 10. This program took a while to get used to but after I got my head around it I really enjoyed editing  my opening two minutes. Another program which was very useful was Paint, we used this  to create our production logo and title. I feel I've made a lot of progression over the last couple month and would be able to use the skills I have learn't when making this opening two minutes and comfortably make a short film of my own.

Evaluation - Character Comparison

  In the Batman film dark night rises, the antagonist called Bane is  portrayed as a really violent aggressive character just like the antagonist in our film. Bane shows his aggressiveness when he is having a fight with Batman and breaks his back. Our character may not break backs but also shows his violent ways by using a cross bow on our protagonist and after shooting him in the leg twisting the arrow around to inflict more pain. These dark and violent actions are common attributes of a antagonist in action films. We took inspiration from bane as he is a well known antagonist and is hated yet loved for the threat he causes batman in his films. We wanted our antagonist to have the same type of dominance and danger about him as Bane does.

Another similarity between  both characters is that  they both wear masks the conceal there identity. This not only makes them look scarier to the audience but adds a bit of substance to the character  which may sticks in the audiences mind. By not knowing what the character fully looks like the audience is left to there own imagination to think what the antagonist looks like. The mask make the audience uncertain about the character creating enigmas, this uncertainty may also reflect on there personality as they cant be trusted to always be careful when they are around.

Evaluation - Target Audience

Teenage boys and young males are our typical target audience for action films like ours however we would like to attract a male audience of all ages. Our film would appeal this type of audience as the conventions of the genre my group and I have chosen is full of violence and weapons, which is typically preferred by a male audience as they can escape from reality pretended to be the protagonist of the film and save the day. As we are trying to attract a younger male audience the main methods of promotion we may use are viral marketing and through social networking sites. Not only are these are the cheapest and easiest ways to promote your film but this is how the large amount of our target audience will find out about our film as teenage boys and young males are always using things like facebook, twitter and youtube. By using these things to share with them they will be able to see our advertisement and share it with their friends so even more people see it. Due to the target audience being quite young its likely they would shop in more fashionable stores as they want to be looking good. Our character is using a slim black suit which is trendy and the same as to what the target audience would have. This makes them feel more connected with the character and more ingredient in the film. Its conventional teenage boys and young adults to like fast pace heavy music for example rock, rap and electronic music just like our action film will be fast paced and exciting. We show this in the opening two minutes in the case scene.

Evlluation - Credits Titles Fonts and Style

In our production we chose to use the same coloured font for both our title and credits.We tried being as creative as possible with our credits not just placing them wherever. As you can see in the screen shot above we placed the writing on the bridge as if it was part of it. We didn't want to place the titles where it was too much in view but we wanted to make sure that it was still seen so everyone who worked in the making would get some credit. We looked at a other films similar to are's and noticed that titles and credits shared a common theme and look really similar so we did the same by making sure the lettering was the same colour as our decoded title font.

Evaluation - Audience Response

I'm glad that people noticed the things in the film that we wanted the audience to pick up on. For example not letting the audience see the protagonist strait away to create enigma but still know that he is the main character in this scene. They also seemed to like the music we used in the scene as it went well with what was seen on screen. We also had good feed back on the shots we used, specifically the opening shot of the train as they thought it looked professional.


Most of the criticisms my group revived was about the lighting towards the end of the film and the soundtrack being to loud making it hard to hear what actors were saying. Lighting was a problem for our group as we were film in the wood the tree and heavy over growth makes darker and hard to film even with the slightest change in sunlight. Next time we make a film i will have to ensure lighting is better we either need to start filming earlier or come back the next day and re-film some shots. The other problem of the soundtrack being to loud was our own mistake, next time we will either re-record the diegetic sound and put them over the non-diogetic music or just lower the sound of the non-diegetic on the editing software.

 

Evaluation - Costume ans Props

In this shot we see the protagonist in a black suit which is conventional of a secret agent to be wearing in an action film. The protagonist is also holding a brief case which we have made sure the audience noticed by having close up shots of as it will play a main part in our film. This creates enigmas within the audience 'Whats inside the brief case?' 'Why is it so special?'.  On the right hand side there is an arrow in the tree which has been shot by the antagonist of the film we decided to have weapons as its conventional of action films. We used this prop to get the audience more interested and worry for the protagonist as they can see that he is be in danger. 

In this shot you can see the antagonist holding a cross bow ready to fire at the protagonist. This is the weapon used to fire the arrow in the previous shot. Although our film has many things that are conventional of a action film we have things that aren't  for example,  we a cross bow and these aren't commonly seen in spy agent action films as they normally have guns and knifes.  

The one thing that I think let the opening two minutes down was that our antagonist didn't have the best costume. We were short of time and couldn't find or make a good costume so we just made the actor dress in dark cloths.  most of his outfit he is wearing branded  like the Carhartt jacket and Nike trainers. Both of which are very noticeable and something a agent working for his government to retrieve important document would probably not wear. If i had a chance to go back and change this I would as the film would feel a lot more  professional. This was also                                                                                               something that was brought up in                                                                                             the audience response that could of                                                                                               been improved. 

Evaluation - How characters are Introduced

This screen grab is the first shot we get any indication of who the character may be. The audience gets to see a man deboarding a train in formal shoes which cannots that the character may be sophisticated and working in a good job. We decied not to show much of the character in the beinging to keep the audience interested and to create enigmas.

This shot half way through the opening two minutes, the audience get to see the characters face for the first time as he quickly turns round to see what caused the branch snapping. He looks worried which may make the audience feel tense as they know that he might be in danger. Although the audience now can see what he looks like they don't really have an idea what he is doing in the woods. Still a character with no name its not until the antagonist calls him Agent Matthew's toward the end that the audience find out who he really is. We did this so the audience would keep thinking the whole way through and keeping them intrigued. 

 The audience doesn't get to see much of the antagonist in the opening two minutes. We get to see him  for the first time after the shoots his cross bow arrow at the protagonist and comes running out of the woods chasing him. The antagonist  gave pace the the film adding thrill and suspense as he tried to recover the 'package' from Agent Matthew's brief case. 



Evaluation - Camera Work and Editing

In this shot we can see the protagonist hurt on the floor. We used a high angle shot from the POV of the antagonist. We did this as the protagonist is hurt and using this shot puts him in a vulnerable position making him look weaker.

We chose to do a long shot from behind trees of the protagonist walking into the woods. Again from the POV of the antagonist as if he was hiding in the trees and watching him. in the shot we made sure the camera was slightly unsteady and that you could hear the antagonist deep breathing so the audience can tell that it is someone watching from a distance. This type of shot is more commonly used in horror films when the antagonist is watch its victim. However we felt that it would look like a good shot and create some suspense in the audience. 

This is a low angle shot of the antagonist walking toward his victim. This low angle makes the antagonist looks more powerful and dangerous. The audience will feel as if they are in they're in the victims position. This might scare them yet get them more interested in the film. When shooting this it was getting late and we were rapidly loosing light, something which was picked up in our audience feed back. If we had more time I would go back and re-film this so the quality would be better. 

Evaluation - Title

When choosing what to have as our title we went through loads of action films and realized that many had a common theme. This was, plain formal writing with a dark background. My group and I wanted to make our film look as professional as possible. After a bit of deliberation over what the name of the film should we called we decided the 'DECODED' would be the best fitting name. We chose this as it will get the audience ask questions after the first two minutes, creating many enigmas for example 'what needs to be decoded?' 'was what was in the brief case the decoded message?'. The styling of the writing we used came from inspiration from other action films. As I've mentioned before we wanted to make our film seem as professional as we could and we thought that this title looked like it could be from a big budget Hollywood action film. It was very simple to make but very effective. My group and i where happy with the out come of our title. If we had more time we would of tried to making moving titles and be ore creative with it. However due to the deadline we just made it appear on screen when the gun shot went of. 

Evaluation - Annotated Opening

 This is our opening scene, we have added annotations to highlight ways in which our film is similar to other action films. We have made sure we identified the genre connventions in our opening two minutes.