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