At the beginning of our project we began with a preliminary task to help us get used to using the equipment and shooting different angles, so we were ready when we began our main project. We then went around the college shooting a 30 second clip and captured 10 different angles. All this gave us an idea of what sort of angles would look good in our film.
We then began planning our 2 minute opening. We did this by planning what genre we wanted to use. We chose a horror/thriller because we had looked at a few openings, such as Saw 2, and thought the openings were more interesting than that of a comedy etc. We then decided where the possible locations could be to film.
We needed somewhere quiet and dark as this would fit in with our genre. We then looked around the city centre to see where the best place to shoot would be. We had written down a few locations and uploaded pictures off Google to show where we could film. We changed to location a few times when we changed the plot of the story so it would fit in. For example, we were going to use Manchester Cathedral, but we had to change this when we turned up and the doors were locked so we were unable to film.
The next thing we did was plan out roughly what the storyline was going to be. We wrote notes down for when we went out to film, so we knew what we were doing. All that was left to do was film our shots for our opening. We had no problems using the camera and it was easy enough to film. I think this is because we are in a group of two so it makes it much easier to decide on one idea and get it filmed.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Our film opening, 'Missing', is different to any other film in the real film industry because, it's a British horror/thriller. The typical Brit horrors are usually television programmes or are turned into horror/comedy. For example 'Shaun of the Dead' & 'Hot Fuzz'.The type of Media Company that would distribute our film would be Working Title. This is because our film is low budget and a British production. I also think it would fit in with the type of films Working Title distribute, such as drama, thriller etc.
The target audience for out film would be teens due to the fact that the main character is a teen and therefore appeals to the age group of 16-20. I think this is a good age group to aim a film at because teenagers are more likely to go and watch a film in the cinemas, therefore more profit would be made than if i aimed it at an older audience. This is also why we would also have given our film a certificate of 15 to allow people under 18 to watch it, so our audience is still targeted. The way we attracted our audience is by using a character that was in the same age group as our target audience. We also chose a genre that is popular with teens, so that’s why we chose a horror/thriller.
There is a lot that we have learnt using different technology. We learnt how to use the filming equipment, such as the camera and how we can use a tripod to help us achieve different angles. Also using the different editing equipment on the computers helped us learn about media and what quality is expected. At first we found using the editing programmes on the computers difficult because we has never used it before. However the more we edited the easier it became to edit.Compared to the beginning, our group had learned so much about media. From using the equipment to understanding why different shots are used. At the start we didn't know anything about using cameras and shot and editing equipment, but since our preliminary we have learned all about this and how difficult it can be to use.
We did come across a few problems in our preliminary task, for example, we didn't know what all the buttons meant and we made a few mistakes. However with time we were able to use them and also learn how to make a scene run smoothly.We also learned how time consuming making a media product can be due to technical difficulties and sometimes just due to editing etc. Making our own two minute opening to a film has helped us understand more about the film industry and how films are made.
