Taken 2

• big main streM 20TH C FOX
• Soundtrack - dramatic soundtrack - establishes thriller genre
• short cuts of violence/action/killing
• straight away idea of death - graveyard -flash cuts focus on violence
• montage editing
• range of locations
• changes from shooting to family hugging - shows theres an emotional side
• narrative graphics signalling drama and suspense
• pretty daughter - vulnerable - appeals to male audience mainstream - classic thriller setup
• eurpopean city
• high speed editing- pulling on action thriller
• refernces to old films so brings old audience back
• mans life at risk - establ,ished within first 20 seconds
• bake able actor - liam neeson -appealing to female and male audience - enigma of whether he survives
• favoured by audience

About time review

I really enjoyed About time as it veered away from the classic sci fi theme whenever time travel is involved.  This film involved time travel but in a highly romantic and comedic film, which is very different from other films that contain time travel.  In the film it starts as an interesting concept where he can just redo the little mess-ups in his life.  But the genius introduction of the consequence of his time travel, choosing between his wife and his father is what makes the film so intriguing and complex.  Also the constant spins of his time travel changing the gender of his baby and other problems, leads to an uplifting idea that you almost have to let everything happen naturally.  It also has a very happy ending which is more appealing, with the sentimental moments where he can visit his dad.  Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this film, as similarly to looper it introduces the idea of time travel that we can never experience, and shows us an idea of ‘doing-over’ situations, which is comedic and intriguing.

Looper review

Looper is an intriguing film as it presents an idea that we will never experience of time travel, and also contains the interesting idea of the future which I like when in films, as it is interpreted in different ways.  I especially like in films containing the future as it creates ideas of what it could be like as we have no idea at the moment what its going to be like.  Critics describe it as ‘a pleasurable trip into an interesting vision of the future’.  The plot and the idea of the loopers and time travel is complex and this is good and bad as sometimes it leaves you enticed and hanging on to every word, but sometimes the plot seems to veer off to a situation and idea that doesn’t make sense and isn’t complete, which leaves it boring and not understandable.  I like how the film doesn’t solely focus on the style of sci-fi and thriller, as it also introduces a romance between Joe and the women, as well as the emotional attachment to the child.  I enjoyed the ending where you think the mother dies, as this misleads you and creates a sad pinnacle that is quickly changed.  However, it is also quite different and controversial that the ending is not completely happy, and I would have preferred for Joe to survive however as shown in Joes sight of the future, this would have led to the mothers death.

STOLEN: Final version

This is our final version of our film.  We were really happy with the finished product, and although it took awhile to complete it was a really informative experience.  We are now going to evaluate the film, through questions and focus groups with members of the public

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I started the preliminary task not even knowing where the record button was on the camera, and since then i think the main thing i have learnt is how to use the equipment and i have gained a lot of confidence in using the equipment, and don't hesitate to use it.  Through the preliminary task i learnt several things, like setting the camera up on the tripod, considering how to record the sound, and the lighting required.  It was a good starting task, as there was little pressure, and we didn't have to think of a compilex plot.  We focussed just on useful shots like shot reverse shot, and it was a really helpful introduction into filming.  Without it, i wouldn't have considered even the thought of needing to record the sound, or thinking the camera needed a tripod to make the shot straight so i personally found this very beneficial.

PLANNING: For our final film, a lot of planning went into it andI didn't even realise how many aspects needed to be considered to film a 2 minute opening.   But for our prleimary task we didn't need to plan a plot or script or shots, except for making sure we tried out a range of shots.  So since then, i planned much more for the final film.  Firstly the plot took a while to come up with, and to finalise so that it fit within 2 minutes.  Then we needed to get an actress and actor, which was much trickier than we thought.  The location was easy to find as it was just at Evies house, so we were confident in that as there no chance it wouldn't be available, unlike if we used a rented venue.  We had a clear idea of what the film wanted to look like, but even though we planned thoroughly i found it interesting hiow many shots changed during filming, as its easy to plan on a piece of paper but when your actually filming in they location with the actress, aspect like the light affects how the shots are filmed.  SO sine the preliminary task, planning has been much more prominent in the process of making the film, but even when we started filming we hadn't planned every aspect of it.  Firstly, when drawing up the storyboard we didn't know what Evies room look like or the floor plan of the house, so drawing where the man would be waking and which cupboards the girl would be hitting was hard to put into the story bard. Also a mojor fault when we started filming was that on our first day of filming i forgot to bring the storyboard, so although we had a good idea of what each shot was like, this meant some shots were completely different meaning we had to redo the storyabord.  Also we definitely did not plan for our first actress Lily to drop out last minute, so this meant we had to go slightly against our research and planning into what our character was meant to look like.

CAMERAWORK: As i said before, i didn't know how to even press record on the camera, so the prelimary task helped me learn how to use it and to make sure I'm on all the settings and that I'm filming on the SD card.  I also learnt about different shots, and i hadnt thought about how a variety of shots is needed to make a film less monotonous and more interesting.  I think we incorporated a good amount of different shots in our film, and even experimented with hand held shots in the forest,which i was slightly worried would look messy, but i actually really liked the shot and think we did pretty well making it not too shaky.  We also used shots such as high angle, low angle , mid/close up and shot reverse shot. Since the preliminary task we also researched similar media products, and this also helped when planning the shots, as I learnt what different shots portray and for example how a high angle makes the person in the shot look vulnerable.

SOUND: In the preliminary task we tried using the digital audio recorder and the boom, but didn't use this in final cut and just used the inbuilt recorder as I thought this was what you normally do, but it wasn't until I tried doing this with our film Stolen, where I realised the sound on the recorder was a much better quality.  When filming our final film, luckily most of our shots were inside, so we didn't have to worry about wind or atmospheric sound.  But sometimes in the house there were mirrors so we had to make sure we weren't in the shot.  One problem that arised, was sometimes the microphone wasn't close enough to the actors so the sound wasn't good enough, for examp0le when the male actor picks up the remote and puts it down again, there wasn't sound of the remote being put down so it seemed disjointed and wrong, so we had to use sound of an object dropping that we had already recorded and I think we dealt with this problem quite well.  The biggest problem was that when we were filming the forest scene it was so windy that even after all our attempts, the sound was not useable.  So we had to refilm the atmospheric sound another day but that also meant we had to refilm the females heavy breathing and put it on top.  We had to properly edit and fit the breaths as at first they didn't fit with the clip, and preferably I would've liked to refilm this.  The music to put on top of the film was a problem from the start as at first we didn't know anyone who could make the music, and when we finally did they didn't have enough time to.  So the music was left quite to the last minute but we found some copyright free music that by the end I was actually quite pleased with.  Another thing I was actually really pleased with was the decision to add the sound of a pencil in the ident, as I think this makes it look much more realistic as I've seen similar things before in other media products. 

MISE EN SCENE:  In the preliminary task I didn't even consider the mise en scene for the film as it was more of a practice, but when planning for Stolen, and after watching other media products I realises the effect mise en scene can portray and how it can add to a film.  From the start of planning Stolen, I had a good picture of what I wanted the characters to look like and what they would be wearing.  I think we went quite stereotypical with the costumes and the props, to make the girl look childish and vulnerable, but as we were filming just the opening I wanted there to be a clear sign to the audience that she is vulnerable, and think it worked quite well.  Even though our film is very realistic, we still wanted an aspect of creepiness so we put lots of kids toys and stuffed toys on bed, which was a subtle detail that I think added to the overall look of the house the girl was trapped in.  I didn't experiment much with the colour and light aspect of mise en scene, as there weren't any shots where the colour didn't seem to fit with the mood, and due to using natural light from one window, this creates a blue shadowy look which I was pleased with.  Although we used artificial lights in the preliminary task, we didn't end up using any lights in our final product.  When we started filming we were planning on using lights, but we forgot to bring the light so had to work with what we had.  However, we actually preferred the natural light as we filmed it during the day.  However when we had to refilm with our new actress the light was slightly dimmer, which didn't give the shots a clean crisp effect like they did with the first actress so I found this very frustrating as I loved the look of the shots with the first woman actress. 

EDITING: As we had to include continuity editing in the preliminary task I felt like I got a good feel for editing on FinalCut Pro from the start, and knew most of what I needed to know for the final product.  But through practice, I learnt things like how to do a sound bridge and how to put in titles and similarly to mise en scene, the effect it can have on the film.  We used it for effect when shes running in the forest by using high speed editing.  I also used a lot of one shots of the girl, to make her look alone and vulnerable.  I think we did the continuity well in our film, and I enjoyed timing shots where the foot prints had to be in sync and think I did well in noticing when they weren't. 

Overall I feel like I have learnt a HUGE amount since the preliminary task, as now if I needed to refilm something I would think twice before putting a camera on a tripod with confidence.  The prelimary task was a very beneficial introduction into equipment and through practice, I think I progressed in skill and confident when it came to my final product.

Evaluation Question 6

http://prezi.com/gio3tywwx8mn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share


IW

Evaluation Question 5

EB

Evaluation Question 4

STOLEN 

Gender: 

F 11

M 10

We attracted both male and females to come and watch the film and received good feedback from both genders. These show positive results as it means that both males and females can relate to the characters. Having both genders watch our film stops bias results as well as helping us expand our target audience.

Age:

0-15 0

15-25  17

25-40  2

40-60  2

Having some people who were over the age of our target audience allowed us to know wether more people would be interested in viewing our film. The results show that we achieved reaching to our target audience of elder teens and early adults as they are the most likely to go to the cinema with their friends.

What is your favourite film genre?

Thriller  7

Comedy  7

Romantic  0

Sci-Fi  2

None  1

Crime Drama  1

Spy  1 

Surreal  1

Epic  1

These results suggest the film is hitting the target audience as thriller was one of the most popular genres put down. This allows us to get an idea of how many people would watch the film which is helped by the crossover of crime as well.

What would be your preferred thriller plot?

Murder  8 

Fiction  4

Kidnapping  0

Revenge  2

Psychotic  6

These results suggest that our plot in the film is not as popular as other thriller films as ours central around the girl getting kidnapped. Although, there have previously been popular thrillers showing people being kidnapped and is a regular theme which crops up through out thrillers.

Do you go to the cinema regularly? 

Not at all  1

Sometimes  17

All the time  3

These results are what to be expected due to web 2.0 and on demand access.

Do you prefer watching movies at home or in the cinema? 

Home  10

Cinema  11

This 50/50 split is to be expected.

Would you prefer to see the protagonist as male or female? 

Male  5

Female  7

Don’t mind  9

It's good that the don't mind is so high.

Was the ident realistic?

Yes  18

No  0

Did you understand the opening?

Yes  20

No  1

Did the opening leave you asking questions?

Yes  21

No  0

Would you want to watch the rest of this film? 

Yes  20

No  1

Improvements? 

Louder music 

Shot of man through forest

EB

Evaluation Question 3

Response to Evaluation Question 3 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

AC

Evaluation Question 2

AC

Evaluation Question 1

( full screen to see full tags)

1. IDENT - We used the convention of having an ident at the start of our film, as this is what is expected to introduce and start the film.  We did a quite graphic, arty ident which is also conventional of an ident, swell as involving an animation aspect
2. SHOT REVERSE SHOT - We also used the shot reverse shot which is sued a lot in real media products, as we thought this would be a good shot to use as it establishes Maddie, and then shows that she's running, and where she is. It also encapsulates the audience as the point of view shot included in the shot reverse, gives you her perspective and increases the anticipation.
3. ENIGMA - We started our film with a clip of Maddie running through the forest that suddenly stops to go to the titles, which creates an enigma, also by how it suddenly cuts to her in a bedroom.  We chose to do this as we've seen this in many other thrillers, and it gives a snapshot o whats happened to the person without having to go in to much detail, so mystery is created.  So we used this form of a real media product as we really liked the effect it creates in films.  
4. TITLES - Like the ident, we definitely wanted titles in our film including the title 'Stolen' as it was a good way to break up the forest scene and the bedroom scene, and again we have seen this in real media products and the title also gives a hint into what happens to the girl as she is 'stolen'.   It also made our film look more professional and realistic, as you would expect to see titles.
5. ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC - Music is commonly expected in films and although this uses the convention, we decided to challenge the convention some films have of the music building from jolly music to serious as this sometimes makes the antagonist more creepy as the music is so happy.  We decided to go for high drama music from the start of the film to indicate the genre and set the scene.
6. LOW ANGLE SHOT OF MYSTERIOUS NEW CHARACTER - The low angle makes the antagonist look more powerful and this still has an effect even when its just a shot of his car pulling up into the driveway.  The cross cut to the car establishes a new character which slowly explains why the girl is in the bedroom, and if we hadn't done this and used the convention of slowing unveiling new characters, then our film would be very one sided and there would be no progression in the film.
7. REACTION SHOT OF GIRL+ POINT OF VIEW SHOT - Similarly to the establishing shot of the new character, the protagonist, we used a reaction shot of the girl looking shocked at the car.  We saw this composition of shots in our film research and wanted to use it as it slowly unveils the plot without the characters having to say it.  Then we also used a point of view shot as this , similarly to in the forest, creates tension.
8. CONTINUITY - We used continuity when Conor, the protagonist, unlocks the door and enters it as otherwise the shot would stand out and be very noticeable as he could open the door and then unlock that as that doesn't make sense.  This is sort of a convention, but we don't feel like we intentionally used this because we saw it in films, but more because otherwise the film would be messy
9. DARK LIGHTING, FACE OBSCURE - This is a classic convention used in thrillers, as the darkness creates fright and the obscurity of his face, makes him seem more daunting and mysterious.  However we challenged this convention in a sense that we did it subtly, as it was caused by there being dark lighting in the hallway, instead of us using a bright light and a blackout.
10. CREEPILY NORMAL ACTIONS - Although i have seen this in a few thrillers, where the 'murderer' leads a normal life and goes home and makes breakfast for example, it is common in thrillers for the antagonist to be very stereotypically angry and sharpen their knives for example.  But we wanted to challenge this and confuse the audience, so we made the antagonist drive home in an expensive car to a nice spacious house and sit down to watch the cricket, as this means it makes the audience question why he would feel the need to kidnap a girl, and this makes them think of what happens next and keeps them wanting more.
11. DISTRESSED ACTION BY PROTAGONIST - We wanted to create the idea that Maddie had been at this house for quite some time instead of it being a recent kidnapping, but we felt like the protagonist needed to show some signs of distress as it is common in thrillers, for the protagonist to be screaming or cry in, so we mad Maddie get angry and shout, but not in a very intense way which again makes the audience question how many times she has got mad, and how long she's been there.
12. NO VIOLENCE OR WEAPONS USED - A large way we challenged conventions of a thriller, was how we didn't use any weapons or violence, especially towards the protagonist.  We wanted our film to be very realistic, and as we wouldn't be able to do proper gore scenes, with fake blood etc. we thought we should leave that out, but also we chose on purpose to leave it out, and use the enigma of the angry man storming upstairs at the end as this leaves the question of is he/her going to be violent towards each other.

IW

Facebook page

The best way to get feedback and keep people updated with what we do is through a Facebook page we created at the beginning of this project, first showing the ideas for the location, asking for peoples input. We shared two different rough cuts of the film onto this site as well meaning that the followers were able to share and discuss different ideas for the soundtrack. The issue we found with having a Facebook page with our friends was that the feedback was limited as people would be too embarrassed or shy to comment. It was still helpful to us to post them as we knew how many people were watching and to promote our title sequence.

These are some screenshots from the Facebook page:



After these photos we have put up the final copy of the film and have changed the name from 'The following' to 'Stolen' as we thought it made for a more dramatic feel.

EB

Making of the Ident

In my last blog post i mentioned how I was intending on using Movavi which is a screenshot recording app, but after trying it out and seeing the many factors i had to take into account( such as the cursor being in the recording, and also it being hard to edit the speed because of its format), I instead thought it would be easier to use Motion.  I had never used it before and it was a different type of software which at first was quite overwhelming to use, as there were many different tools etc.  I started by drawing the final design of the ident on illustrator and after we were happy with how it would look I put it into motion.  Then i used a pen tool and recorded drawing over the doodle in white.  This covered up the design, but then i used the Behaviour 'write-on' which meant that when it played the lines were revealed instead of covered up.  I found this very tricky and time consuming though as i had to perfectly draw over the lines in a thin pen, so if i messed up one small part of the line i would have to start the whole doodle again.  As the doodle is all one line this meant this was a challenge.  I then changed the speed of the doodle, so it was all fluid, as sometimes i would take a break doing the line, and finally when i was happy with the final product, i exported it to put it on FinalCut.  When it was on FinalCut i trimmed it down to get rid of the the extra blank screens at the start and beginning, and thought it would be a nice idea to add a sound of a pencil scribble, which I've  seen before in animations.  I was happy with that as it otherwise i think the ident would have felt abit empty and dull otherwise.  Overall i was happy with the finished product and found it satisfying that what i had pictured in my mind was actually created.

                ( Here is the ident off Motion, without the music or it being slowed down)

IW

Refining the film and final things needing doing

Most of the editing is done, however we were still missing a scene where Conor gets out the car, but Evies filming that and will be ready by the start of the week.  We've got someone to do the sound fro the film but i think that is still a work in progress.  Ive taken the lead on doing  the design, and I'm ready to do the ident and we've refined the design of it, but its just a matter of figuring out how to do it on the computer.  I think i know which software to use but haven't tried it out yet, but that wont take too long.  Once we've got all the aspects missing from the film, onto final cut i dont think it will take much time to finally finish it all