Evaluation Question 7 | Final Task

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt multiple techniques that allowed me to progress to the full product. Since the preliminary task, I have learnt how to create much more high quality and 'professional' looking shots by using the same camera (Canon 700D). One technique that I learnt is how to shoot in a flat profile picture style. Shooting in a flat profile is very beneficial as it enables the camera to pick up more detail into the picture. This is because all of the contrast and saturation has been taken out of the picture. This means that when you come to colour correct in post production, you can add your own contrast and saturation accordingly. 

Below I have created a comparison video of the rough cut and the final version of Anonymous to show the difference between a flat profile picture style and a fully graded piece of footage.

Also since my preliminary task I have been able to widen my creativity with the use of camera shots. For example, at the start of the sequence the journey of the bag needed to be fast paced and not time consuming for the audience. This meant that, when the bag travelled from cookham to London we had to show this as quickly as possible. The most traditional way of showing this is the use of adding a transition between clips (which implies passing of time). Due to growth and confidence in the way I can film and edit since the preliminary task, we added physical transitions instead. This is a very effective technique as the transitions are within the footage, which therefore keeps the flow of action.

Moreover, from looking back at the Preliminary Task I have learnt that when creating a text you need to meet all the criteria that is asked. I know this sounds straightforward but it is easier said than done. When shooting a film, it is easy to fall into the trap of making something that its not. For example, if we edited 'Anonymous' differently and made it into a montage sequence, it could have easily looked like a trailer of a film. This is the same with our preliminary task. We had no conversational dialogue between the two people in our continuity sequence, because we wanted the interrogator to seem powerful. However this ended up not working in our favour as we didn't meet the criteria of having a two way conversation, which therefore meant that we didn't execute our piece at a high-standard. 

Another aspect in which I feel I have improved is my progression of time management and planning. I have improved this by making sure I meet deadlines. To make sure I met these, one of my improvements that had to be made was editing more efficiently on Premiere Pro. This was done through the use of editing as much as possible. For example, we edited a few videos before our final task, i.e. the Audience Research segments, which allowed me to widen my skills on the platform. Planning was also improved by organising more meetings with my group outside class. In addition to this we set up two social media group accounts (WhatsApp & Facebook) which also allowed us to constantly communicate with each other. 

Since my preliminary task, I have also understand a range of institutional tasks, e.g. producing storyboards, risk assessments and shooting schedule. These tasks are vital in the industry as it allows them to follow the pre-prouduction stage effectively. For example, risk assessments need to be done to ensure that all safety measures have been put in place. In our preliminary we were relaxed when it came to the risk assessment, e.g. looking after our property at all times. However, developing this into our final task, we made sure that we kept hold of all of our equipment at all times, especially when we were filming in London. These safety measures were put in place to make sure that we didn't lose or get any of our belongings stolen.

Here you can see two shots (One from my preliminary task & one from the final task) where I feel that I made a marked improvement in my use of framing and decision making. I feel that I've shown a improvement in this particular shot as I thought through exactly why the shot was needed. In this case we needed to this Point of view shot type as I wanted to create a clip where you see a courier looking into the red bag and the audience recognising his reaction. This therefore shows that, the specific shot that we used, applied well with the opening as it would naturally draw the audience into wanting to watch more. Whereas in the preliminary task, we purely used this shot type for an effect. The framing of this shot is also unique as you can clearly notice that the he is looking into the bag through the use of having the edges of the bag around the frame. Moreover through the use of the bag getting zipped up, improves on the uniqueness that we created in the preliminary task. The zipping of the bag acts as a physical transition to the end of the opening titles.

Evaluation Question 6 | Final Task

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

This screenshot to the left shows the post production stage of Anonymous. In this instance we can see the fundamental aspects that has been put into the overall 'look' of this shot. For example, in the effects control panel you can see that this particular shot has been colour corrected.  A leave colour effect has been added and a garbage matte has been overlaid onto the clip. It must also be said that I also put a 'change colour' effect to this clip as the colour of the bag differed to all of the other shots in the sequence (this is due to control of light when filming in public!). This process simply consisted of pinpointing the colour of an existing clip and placing the exact RGB colour code onto this clip. This would therefore increase continuity throughout the sequence. 

Alongside the video which I made, I have also written a post on the equipment that we used throughout the process of creating Anonymous. Here you can see why each piece of equipment was needed and how it allowed us to create the results that we did.

Equipment Breakdown for Anonymous

Other Technologies Used

Social Media

Throughout the development of the final product I have used multiple social media websites which have enabled us to showcase, market and organise our project. One main website that we used was Youtube. This platform is great for uploading videos as you can create a channel for youtube members to subscribe to which will inevitably allow you to build your audience. We created a channel page for our media group as we wanted a space to put all of our work onto. This is more effective than uploading our media project onto personal youtube channels, as we wanted to build a audience based around our production company. Moreover, Youtube easily allows you to flip back to your personal channel within the same account. 

We also used Facebook frequently during the process of creating Anonymous. We mainly used it for two reasons; planning & marketing the film. From the beginning we set up a private group page for us to all communicate between lessons. This allowed us to organise anything that had to be done before each lesson or before a shooting day. Screenshots of our group page can be seen here. 


In addition to this, when we released the opening sequence to our film we wanted to promote the video to as many people as possible. Off the back of this, we have set up a Facebook Page for users to like and keep updated with the movie. Currently we have over 152likes, which is very beneficial for the promotion of our film.

Another resource that became vital for our project was Blogger. Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows users to create your own blog and post whenever you like. This was useful for me as I could upload anything onto my blog, from videos to written posts. One aspect I liked about blogger is that I have learnt how to embed posts from other websites, such as Youtube. This therefore integrates all of my resources together and makes the upload process much easier! 

Evaluation Question 5 | Final Task

How did you attract/address your audience?

Planning notes for Evaluation Q5 | Final Task

Evaluation Question 4 | Final Task

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Matt Bartlett. He is from London and is 21years old. Matt is a website designer and based in Soho. He enjoys playing rugby and is a big fan of Chelsea FC. Matt lives in the heart of the city with his girlfriend, who likes to spend time with when he's not working! Both are huge film fans, especially thrillers, and regularly attend the cinema. Matt's favourite movie is 'Taken' because of the sheer terror and tension throughout the film. Matt is a perfect example of our target audience because he fits right into the age range as well as having high interest of the genre itself. Both him and his girlfriend are fans of Ben Howard and recently attended his gig at the O2 Apollo. Anonymous is about suspense and suspicion and these interests of Matt's are the reason why he becomes the ideal audience member.

Institutions follow this concept and method for their marketing process so they can more effectively target audiences. This means that they create opportunities to undergo synergy with companies that match their target audience. For example, Skyfall went into synergy with Heineken, because they both had the same target market.

Evaluation Question 3 | Final Task

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A distributor is a company who is responsible for marketing and distributing films. They will choose which platform to release your film on and give a date for release. For example, one of the world leading distributors, Universal Pictures, are responsible for marketing and selling the release of films. For example, a production company like Original Film will go to Universal Pictures (because of their establishment) and synergise to release the film 'The Fast and Furious'. Depending on the films popularity, Universal Pictures will release the film on multiple platforms. In this case, 'The Fast and Furious' was released on Box Office, DVD and a variety of revenue streams. However it must be said that this film was produced in 2001, and since then platforms for films have developed into on-demand and other means of viewings. Which means that the release of 'Fast & Furious 6' would have been released on home media.

Who is going to distribute Anonymous?

Anonymous has been made to fit into the mainstream film sector. Due to this being the case, we are wanting to go down the traditional route of distributing a mainstream film. Unlike films such as 'A Field in England', where they distributed the film on all platforms simultaneously, we wanted to target a wide audience on a large scale. Don't get me wrong, simultaneous release is effective if you're an independent company and targeting a niche audience but in our case we were in a different scenario. Moreover it must said that the main difference between distribution of independent companies and major companies is that independent companies don't do vertical integration, which will therefore limit how they can market their film on a large scale. 

20th Century Fox would be an ideal distributor for Anonymous. The reason for this is because they have the knowledge and a good reputation for distributing thriller films. For example, Taken (2009) made a domestic gross of $145,000,989. This clearly shows that Fox know exactly how to market these types of films. Moreover they already have an existing audience for Thriller films, and by using Fox, we as a production company can utilise their audience following. 

How we are going to distribute Anonymous?

1) The Box Office

The Box Office is the most traditional but one of the most effective techniques of distributing a film. Cinemas charge up to £15 for a viewing and are open all day. This means that distributors will receive a large proportion of these profits. By looking at this graph, we can see that the average ticket price in the U.S is rising every year. This therefore means that we can target regular cinema audiences so that we and Universal will receive as much revenue as possible.

2) DVD Release

However people who don't go to the cinema regularly because of the increase in price, etc will be able to find Anonymous on DVD. Customers who aren't willing to spend a lot of money at the cinema have the option to buy the film on DVD release instead. Nowadays, DVD are around the same price as one cinema viewing, which could therefore be a popular choice to many viewers. Nevertheless we still want to capitalise profit from cinema release, so we will release home cinema, etc 3 months after paths The Box Office opens.

3) On Demand & Streaming

This method of distribution is the newest and becoming one of the most popular forms of viewing films. This is the cheapest way of watching a film. For example, membership for Netflix is £5.99 for a month, with over 1000 films to watch from. 

However the drawbacks are that films are released onto these on-demand sites at least 5 years after the release date of the film. This is a potential market for Anonymous as we can put our film onto these websites when our sales in DVD's fall. The chart shows below the increase in memberships over the years, which therefore shows the potential scaleability of the market in the near future. 

Research from Pearl & Dean:

Below shows the figures for the film San Andreas. From looking at these stats we can see that the audience population of this film is male dominated. This is generally due to the film being a thriller, action and crime based, which males are more attracted to this. 

So why did we aim at this group specifically?

Firstly, I've always liked the fact that this genre naturally leaves questions and mystery to the audience, and because of this we wanted to create something that would embed the same characteristics. Another reason why be targeted this group specifically (Male & between the age of 17-24) was because this age group are more inclined to go to the cinema - especially on a opening weekend. Below shows this. These stats show that 15% of male aged 15-24 visit the cinema the most. This could be due to younger people preferring to go out instead of watching a film at home, and more willing to purchase the ever increasingly price for a cinema ticket.

Evaluation Question 2 | Final Task

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Unlike ordinary thriller films in 'Anonymous' we had more than just one main character for the audience to keep their eyes on. Throughout the sequence, the audience would be introduced to a new character who would act as a courier to the bag. This would therefore create a connection between them all and be seen as a group. To develop this idea, we wanted to have a wide spread of demographics in this group, so that everyone who carried the bag would be in separate walks of life.

For example, during the ellipsis sequence one shot would show a girl carrying the bag, which then cut to a old man carrying the same bag. This shows that even though they are both different ages and genders, they still have the same purpose for travelling with the bag. This further suggests that everyone regardless of age, gender or ethnicity are capable and do commit atrocities in everyday life, and should not made into a conventional image. 

Moreover, the significance of these characters is that they were all unknown general public and volunteered to be in our film. This meant that it made the film seem more genuine as the opening didn't consists just of our group! 

Below I have a produced a Prezi Presentation to go into further depth into specific characters in Anonymous.

Evaluation Question 1 | Final Task

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In this evaluation task, we discussed how the opening to Anonymous follows and challenges forms and conventions of a typical thriller film. The main point that we made was that the 'look' of the opening didn't instantly appear to be a thriller film. This meant we challenged this as we had most of the opening being in black&white and the bag being in red. We thought this was one of the most significant aspect of our opening as it created a focus point for the audience. A typical thriller film will be low lit to emphasis the suspension and eeriness to the film. Therefore challenged this as we created an innocent and ordinary setting. This is similar to the opening of Dexter, where the scenario is an ordinary situation but at the same time the shots are metaphorically gore like. Moreover we didn't focus on one character. Thriller films will show a clear picture to who the hero and villain is. We thought this was a good convention to challenge as we wanted to create more questions to the audience by introducing a wider spread of demographics throughout. This would therefore entice the audience into the film from the opening shots.

Anonymous Poster | Final Task

We have created a Anonymous Cover Poster. We intend to use when promoting the film. The saturation of the bag has been bought out vastly to create a bold statement about the significance of it in the film. Posters are a very effective traditional marketing tool because you can build and attract your audience, and by having this for Anonymous, we can hope to draw our audience in. 

DVD Covers Research | Final Task

Below shows a sample of the many DVD covers that have been released for thriller films. By comparing all three, you can dictate similarities between them and therefore tell what a typical thriller DVD cover should look like.

One main similarity between these DVD covers are that they all have red font appearing on the front. This is a common colour to be placed onto thriller DVD covers and also in the film as the colour red typically represents blood.

Moreover the colour of the background on all of these DVD covers are against a dark background, which enhances the boldness of the text.

Anonymous Opening Sequence | Final Task

Here is our final piece for our coursework. Many adjustments and updates have been made since the rough cut and the feedback that was given. Some examples include, colour correcting, grading, timing issues, sound adjustments. This part of the process is arguably what makes the sequence. Ensuring that the opening has a flow of action which therefore minimises the chances for the audience noticing the editing is crucial. So here it is. 

Enjoy!

Creating the Ellipsis Sequence | Final Task

I have created a video to show how we created the ellipsis sequence, when producing  the rough cut for 'Anonymous'. This part of the  opening needed to be as accurate as possible, as we had to make sure that the characters walking towards the camera were as central as possible. To  ensure this was the case we used two methods, one in the editing process and one in the production stage. I explain further in the video below.  

Rough Cut Audience Feedback | Final Task

After producing the rough cut for Anonymous, we went around Shiplake College to gain feedback from both Students and Teachers. Receiving feedback about our rough cut was very useful as we could use this to tweak parts of the sequence. For example, one main point that was raised numerously was the clip where the bus goes past the courier and the courier then disappears. Many people pointed out that the speed of this clip didn't suit the rest of the film, which therefore made the video lack in continuity. The clip broke the flow of action as all of the other clips in the sequence  had  the speed of movement. This useful feedback has made us go back to rough cut and change the speed of the clip, so that it looks more realistic and natural to the audience. These audience feedback responses is very useful for us as a group as it highlights mistakes in the sequence that we may not notice and what needs to be improved. This therefore means that if the audience pick up on mistakes in our sequence then we have not produced material that is consistent of continuity throughout. 

Equipment Breakdown | Final Task

Filmmaking is not all about the equipment that is used, its about how you engage the audience with your filming techniques, concept and use of skills. Not having the right equipment for what your filming can take away the essence of the film but too much or wrong gear will create the same effect. For my main task my group and I thought carefully on what gear we needed for each shot, so that each frame would hope to come out in its best entirety. We were luckily in this situation to have good quality of equipment but our main focus was to convey a enticing opening sequence so that the audience would want to watch more. So in this post, I am going to give a breakdown to why I chose each piece of equipment, and what I've learned from using the gear in this specific task. It must be said though, that if the genre of the film and shot types were dramatically different then the kit used would potentially look much different!

The main camera we used was the Canon 700D. This camera was a must as it was the camera that I was most confident in using. This meant that I understood the fundamental basics of it which meant that it could enable me to produce the best shots. Moreover the versatility of this camera was very beneficial as some of the shots that we needed to take were in need of the screen to flip up or down. Another feature that the Canon 700D offers is that it has a external mic port so that sound quality can be improved dramatically. This is useful as you can receive good results without having to record sound separately. The Canon also has an inbuilt grid display setting, which allowed us to line up the people to the centre of the frame in the Ellipsis sequence. This meant that it increased the accuracy and quality of the footage which therefore minimised the tweaking that had to be done in Post Production.

Originally we were thinking of hiring a 16-35 wide angle lens so that we could create stunning shots in both day and night and have with a good depth of field. However, due to its versatility and minimal difference to what we needed it for, we kept to the kit lens (18-55). The kit lens was great for producing wide angle shots, while allowing a good amount of light into the lens. Most of our shots throughout our sequence were either mid or wide shots, which meant that the kit lens was suitable for the job.

Another camera which is outstanding is the GoPro Hero 4. This is a outstanding versatile camera as you can use it under extreme conditions, such as Skydiving and having it attached to your head! However we didn't need this for as extremes shots. In our preliminary, a few of the shots was in the point of the view of the victim being integrated, so we attached the GoPro to Zach's head. In my opinion this shot was the most unique of them all in the Preliminary Task as it made the scene more realistic and unique. We developed this further into our final task, where the last shot of the titles consisted of a man looking into the bag and the GoPro looking out of the bag, which acted as a POV shot. 

In terms of sound, we used the Rode Stereo Videomic Pro. This mic is very good for capturing the atmosphere has an overall better quality than the inbuilt DSLR microphone. In all honestly, we used this microphone very minimally as we only needed to record a few sound effects (as theres no dialogue in our sequence) - so in this instance the inbuilt microphone would have been as good! However we found that after production, some of the recording came out well and some didn't. To rectify this we replaced the faulty recordings to sound effect version, to provide better quality sound. For example, in the butcher sequence, we replaced the recording of the sharpening of the knife to a sound effect version, and then edited the sound to match the movements of the knife being sharpened.

Filming for Anonymous needed a good variety of rigs as we wanted to show multiple shot types, such as a tracking shot. To enable this, we used two main rigs; Flycam Steadicam and a basic but tripod. The Flycam is great for filming any shots that require stabilisation and movement. In Anonymous we filmed a lot of footage that required the Flycam because we wanted to keep everything on the move, so that it complements the story of the bag being on the move. Having these two types of rigs allowed us to be more creative with our shots, which in turn would hopefully create dynamic and captivating images.

Another piece of equipment that we used was a tripod. This is very useful when filming static and stable shots. This meant that is was essential when filming the Ellipsis sequence. This part of the opening needed to be stable and focused on the people walking towards the camera. The tripod also enabled us to find the correct height in efficient time by adjusting the legs and angle. Therefore with this feature, we could create consistent and accurate shot of people holding and walking towards the bag.