AS Media

What I have learnt since producing the prelim task?

Since creating my prelim task I have learnt several editing skills and filming techniques that I have used when producing my film opening. I feel my confidence in using Adobe Premiere has grown quite a bit since using it to edit my prelim. As you can see from my prelim task the editing and effects that I have used have a lot of room for improvement. Here is a screen shot of the opening scene of my prelim task, the shot itself is quite blurred and even thought you can't see, the filming is reasonably shaky, however this is be down to the filming of it. Also the characters aren't visible in the establishing shot which wasn't intended when we filmed it initially.

Furthermore the font that I used when editing my prelim task didn't fit the genre at all. I realised this after researching font titles and how they are used when planning for my film opening. Here is a screenshot to prove it. The genre was supposed to be a super hero based genre. However as you can see it isn't an appropriate font for the genre.

In contrast with my prelim, my film opening used more appropriate font to fit the genre we went for, which was mystery thriller. As you can see from the screenshot below the font from my film opening fits in with my genre a substantial amount more as apposed to my prelim task.

However, I didn't break the 180 degree rule in my prelim task during the face off at the beginning, as you can see from the screenshots below.

The camera work in my prelim task seems to be of a pretty poor standard, saying that some of the shots used aren't too bad for example this low angle shot where the camera follows behind Marcus walking.

I think that the final draft of Evangeline compared to my prelim task appears too be a success, considering the vast improvement between the two. I think that there was improvements in all areas for example the editing, the sound and how it was used effectively in different situations, the filming, including things like more creative camera angles, and even things like steadier filming help make it better as a whole. I think my learning journey is evident throughout my blog, this is due to the fact that I have picked up things along the way which help me to improve my Media skills and transfer them into the future tasks I will come across.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

The genre is teen fantasy. this is similar to the film beautiful creatures, it also shares similarities with the film twilight and the series The Secret Circle these are both also fantasies but they also contain huge aspects of romance where as in our film it is included, but plays a less major role.

we looked at the codes and connections of typical teen fantasy films and compared how we included, or attempted them.

The codes and conventions we looked at were

Many cuts to build tension and suspense.

Confirmed: we included a selection of quick short 'flashback' scenes in which gave the audience a direct idea of what was happening and gave them a feel for the film, building tension and suspense.

Periods of silence.

Confirmed: in the beginning of our film we included periods of silence, this built the tension and made the voice over more dramatic.

High angle shots.

Confirmed: these were at the very start of our opening and gave the audience an idea of the layout and whereabouts of the scene, along with the shaky camera and the quick movements it managed to make the audience feel like they were seeing the film from the eyes of a character.

Vast open spaces/woodland areas in key parts of the film

Challenged: as we were not creating a full film we couldn't include the 'key scenes' otherwise it would become more of a trailer or a short story. but we did manage to work our way around including a woodland scene. yes this is a key scene in the film but as it is initially the opening scene it doesn't quite have the same feel. although it does make the character look alone and helpless along with making the film seem more mysterious and makes the audience feel tension and question what is going on.

Classical eerie music

Challenged: we included eerie music that fitted our genre and the narrative but it was not grand, classical or full of bass like the music of typical films of this genre

Slightly Gothic, darker clothing and make-up

Challenged: we challenged this including selected dark clothes and make up but we wanted it to look less over dressed and more casual so we didn't attempt to fully do this look.

TORODOVS NARRATIVE

Torodov devised a way to break up a narrative into five parts the Equilibrium (this is where the setting is established), Distribution (this is when the story takes a particular direction), Recognition Of The Distribution (this is when the characters and events are interwoven), Attempt To Repair Distribution (attempt to solve the issue), Reinstatement Of Equilibrium(matters and problems are sorted out)

Using Torodovs narrative theory bellow I compared the film Beautiful Creatures with our own.

The equilibrium of the Beautiful creatures film is that one of the main characters wakes up from a recurring dream he has about a girl he has never met but cant stop thinking about, it is set in South Carolina.

The equilibrium of ours is that Eva is narrating the scene talking about how she wishes she could go back to a time when she didn't know about the curse. the scene takes place in the woods of a small town in England. Eva is then shown on laying on the floor in a ball gown this makes the reader question what is happening it gives the idea that it is a magical film with lots of hidden secrets and twists.

The Distribution of beautiful creatures is when Lena starts to realise that the time is approaching where she is going to have to choose if she goes dark or light (good or bad) the way she presents her self makes the audience question what the result is going yo be.

The Distribution of our film is when Eva and her friends stumble across a website with a photo that looks like her this is when she then figures out she is a witch.

The Recognition of Distribution in beautiful creatures is when Lena and Ethan realise that the time is running out and that she may turn dark Lena father tries to stop Ethan seeing Lena in fear that it will turn her dark and she will end up hurting him and the ones around her.

In our film Eva and her friend Peter both after looking more at the website discover that she is cursed and will die at the age of 18 which is coming up soon.

The attempt to repair the Distribution is when Lena father sacrifices himself to save his Ethan therefore allowing them to be together but its not over there as she still has to choose what way she is going to go. in an attempt to protect Ethan she wipes his memory clean of her resulting in him not knowing who she is.

in our Evangeline Eva travels to see the witch who put the curse on her in an attempt to cleanse herself of this she then gets rejected and is thought by an older witch how to control her magic in an attempt to remove the curse one final time.

the reinstatement of equilibrium in beautiful creatures is when Lena manages to not go neither light or dark but both then she runs into Ethan once more and they attempt to get to know each other once more.

in Evangeline, the curse is stopped and she is saved but it resulted in her loosing something close to her she then manages to restore this and the film ends on a romantic scene between her and peter realising their love for each other.

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS: BINARY OPPOSITION

he thought about the narratives in more detail deciding that they depend more on the themes and the character rivalries and conflicts.

he focuses on the good and the bad (he believes that you cant have a story with out them)

In our film the good character is Eva and the bad would be the Witch who cursed her/ theoretically the curse itself.

These would allow the reader to ask questions and be able to follow the film without trouble and confusion which is what we wanted due to the young age of our target audience.

VLADIMIR PROPP

using Propp's character theory that in every film there are six types of people, a hero, heroine, father/protecting role, villain, mentor, accompany.

Applying this to our film would mean that the Hero was Eva as she is the main character and the one the film and problems revolve around. The heroine would be Peter as he is the love interest of Eva. the protecting role would be peters father as when he finds out about what Eva can do he is strongly against them being together. The villain would be the Witch the mentor the lovely witch who helps train Eva. finally the accompanies would be James and Ava as they are Evas other close friends.

These are nine screen shots from out opening that our group chose as we believed that they challenged the audience.

the first screen shot shows Eva in on of the very first shots, this is a very mysterious shot and along with the voice over allowing the reader to question what is going on and who she is.

the second image shows Eva on the floor this is the first shot shown of her in the whole film it causes the reader to ask why she is there and try and match up the narration with the clip.

The third image is of the title, this was chosen as it shows the first initial introduction of the film to the audience.

the fourth image shows one of the characters facing away from the screen in this shot he turns around in pain like he has been shot. As this is shown really quickly in the flash back/re wind scenes it causes the reader to question what happened to him and want to continue watching the film. the third shot is a close up of Eva who is in a witch like room this links to scenes later in the film.

the sixth shot is also of Eva in this shot she looks happy and it distinctive shows that the footage is being re wound.

the seventh shot is also of Eva this is a long shot and it is of Eva in a grave yard it becomes clear to the audience that someone close to her has died.

the ninth shot is a close up of a wing mirrored it shows that they are going backwards clearly in time, the rain on the window also help the audience get an idea for the setting.

the final shot is of Eva walking backwards this is also then played forward and shows that the film is now playing in real time and it is at the 'official start' of the movie.

Questionnaire

We created a questionnaire after touching up out film to ask the general public what they thought of it after watching it. This was then sent around to a random selection of people who's ages ranged from 6 to 60 years old. This was created in order to achieve more accurate results and find out whether our target audience and other research was in fact correct and to get a better understanding of the direct audience and their interests.

The questionnaire itself was created using survey monkey :

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BQ3JJ8R

We also selected a few students from our school at random who we believed fitted our target audience. We showed them our film and asked them the following questions:

Was the genre obvious?
Did the film engage and sustain your interest thought?
Is there anything in particular you liked about the film?
Is there anything you didn't like about the film?
What about the music, do you think it worked?
Is there anything about the film that you would change/improve/how?
In general out of 10 how high would you rate the film?

Changes to font title

Originally our font title was coloured a pale yellow however we all decided that this colour looked unprofessional and therefore we ended up using a dark maroon colour. We have used Adobe Carlson Pro as the typeface. We think this looks professional and not too modern, this worked perfectly as we wanted to go for a more traditional look.

Evangeline Final

This is our final draft that we came up with after altering after receiving various bits of feedback. Compared to our first draft we changed quite a lot of scenes and shots in order to make the story more understandable. We also cut out several shots including the library shots, in fact we got rid of all library shots as we thought that they didn't fit in with the new edited version.

I think our final version was a lot better than our first draft, I think it looks a lot more professional than it did before because of the effects and editing we did after.

Voiceover script

This is our updated script that will be used for a voiceover, it is played during the first scene in the woods. We didn't want to flood the first scene with dialogue so we kept it as short as possible, this then made it easier for the visuals to tell the story accompanied by the voiceover.

Poster Ideas

Here is a selection of poster ideas that we came up with. The posters themselves are pictures of Evangeline laying down in the woods where we filmed our scenes in the woods.

Mise en Scene

- Settings and Props- Costume, Hair and Make Up
- Facial Expressions and Body Language
- Lighting and Colour
- Positioning of Characters

Due to the fact that most of or filming is outside. We plan to film in Galleywood in a woody area near the cemetery as it is an ideal setting. We also plan to film in Great Baddow High School library as it has the resources we needed for the specific shots.

Furthermore our costumes aren't going to be complicated as towards the beginning there is only one character, even thought there is more than one character in the opening they aren't in the shots for as long as Eva so we don't have to focus as much on their attire. We decided that the main character Eva should be wearing a beautiful long navy chiffon dress. However in other scenes Eva will be wearing more casual clothing.

Facial expressions will play an important role in our opening as Eva is shown to be quite a mysterious character, when in the rewind she is shown to be quite confused and scared then her mood seems to lighten up as the clip progresses showing her as a happy individual.

Music updated for Evangeline

One of the reoccurring comments that seemed to appear after our peer marking was that the music was too much like Daytime TV programme and not like a film opening. Initially we were going to use the song moonlight stanza by Beethoven but this was to heavy for our first draft we then changed it to the instrumental version of Mazzy Stars Fade into you, but this belonged more on TV.

For the first scene where it is set in the woods we will use this music, we used 'Soda' by the Cinematic Orchestra. It works well with the voice over we are going to use and has a mysterious feel to it which works well with the theme we are going to use.

For the second scene after the main title (of rewound scenes back to the beginning of the film) we used 'Breathe Me (instrumentral version)' By Sia.

Evangeline First Draft

Here is our first draft for Evangeline. I think it turned out to be ok, however I think that there is a lot of room for improvement. This is because I think the editing could be more professional and more flowing, also I think we need to adjust the music with some of the scenes we have used as it doesn't feel witchy enough to make the genre clear.

First Draft Feedback

Today we recieved feedback from our first draft after students had peer assesed them and wrote down what they thought about it. Overall, there was a wide range of different opinions.
We have established in our group that we need to improve the:

music
titles
camera movement
length
acting
sound

One of the regularly occurring comments that we received for our film opening was that the audience 'didn't get it' or 'it didn't make a lot of sense'. This therefore made us have a rethink of how we can make the opening more clear and easier to understand. We would need to shoot a few more scenes and re write parts of the script and go over parts of the storyboard. The plot had to be changed to make things a little more understandable.

Blog Reflection

Technology - have you learned new online programmes for sbowing off work? Have you tried new premiere effects?

After adding more and more blogs I have tried to vary the programmes I have used in order to become more familiar with a variety of programmes, so in future tasks I have more options to use when deciding what programme would be best for the specific task. I have used programmes like SlideShare when researching for my film opening when blogging about things like. I also used as a programme called Prezi in order to create a powerpoints for my research towards Evangeline. I liked Prezi as it was different compared to Microsoft Powerpoint in the way you can present your powerpoint. Throughout our filming tasks I would say I have spent most of the time on Adobe Premiere editing our footage and using different effects to make it feel how we wanted it to. I have become more and more confident in using premiere after using it for several tasks now.

Mark out of 20 so far?

I think I would rate my blog at around 13 or 14 out of 20. In order to improve my blog I should add a variety of photos to make my blogs more visual and maybe more understandable.

Where could you be a little more thorough or little less complacent?

If I'm being being critical I do think there is room for improvement throughout my blogs. I think I could add more information on my representations blog because after looking at it I realised that it is lacking information. I don't think I've been complacent during the time that I have been blogging as I have tried to fit as much as I can into each post without cramming it.

Is it fun to look through?

I think that my blog includes lots of useful information however I think to improve the look of my blog and make it more visual and fun I could add things like photos. I could also alter the texts by either changing the colour of the font I have used to make it a bit more interesting and aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, I could change the design or background to make it stand out that bit more.

Is the learning journey evident?

From the start of my blogs to then end I think that there is a distinct improvement in the fact that I have started to include pictures, headings, labels etc. The more recent posts include more detail and show more of an understanding about media.

Three targets to improve blog - research or planning (have you thoroughly covered all key media concepts - forms and conventions, audience, institution, representation.

Synopsis Planning

Scene 1- A range of shots as Eva is walking. She is located outside Galleywood Cemetry, walking along the path, and headed towards the graves.

Scene 2- Establishing characters in the library and what they are doing.

Scene 3- Eva walks up to her Mothers grave and then the main title is shown.

Scene 4- The film cuts back to the library and Faye starts off by reading a passage about witchcraft. The library group become inquisitive about Eva's whereabouts so they call her.

Scene 5- Eva is seen walking up to the library and over to join her friends. They all gather their bags and exit the shot, the camera then zooms in on a computer screen with the page up of 'Local Legends of Witchcraft' (it zooms into Evangeline's photo)

Script

Alexis: Soo you guys? (pauses) [picks books up from desk in front and moves them to main desk leaving what she had on the screen up] what actually is witchcraft?

Marco: [places head in hands pushing hair back out of face] (mumbles under breath) This is going to take forever.

Peter: [gesturing in Alexis' direction whilst moving basket ball of the chair next to him onto the floor] Alexis come here. I found a definition. [pushes back laptop screen, points and begins to read it out]. {shot cuts to Eva walking into graveyard and crouching down by grave and speech becomes a voice over.} Witchcraft the practice of the mythical arts for example magic, this can either be black or white depending on the intended use. Which craft can also be linked back to the 1500's a time of spells, potions and the invocation of spirits. (fades out)

Title Evangeline is shown on screen. Shot then cuts back to the library.

Faye; [scrolling down website, pushes up glasses and moves hair behind ear] This website is actually pretty interesting. [looking up at website and writing down notes]

Jack; [looks over Faye's shoulder at her computer screen] Hmm yeah I think I looked at that one [continues with what he was writing] *coughs* [scrunches up piece of paper and throws it at peter in a basketball playing fashion]I wonder where Eva is. I know She said she had to go somewhere first but ugh I swear shes been hours, [Tilts head back] I just want to go get food.

Peter; No idea, I'll call her. [reaches down into sports bag and pulls out phone, calls Eva]

This scene shows Eva walking after she has visited her mothers grave. she receives a phone call from Peter and picks it up.

Eva; Hello (pause whilst peter answers) yeah ill be there in a minutes (pauses) okay bye. [put phone down and speeds up her walking]

still on scene of Eva voice over is being played.

Faye; Listen to this quote from the bible. "Leviticus 20:27 man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” Its talking about witchcraft.

Eva is shown walking into the library up the stairs and towards the group.

Eva; hiya [walks over to Alexis] sorry im late took longer than I thought.

Alexis: Ah hi Eva, come on lets go. [stands up and starts to pack away her belongings.]

Eva: [looking at James] you guys ready. [everyone gets up apart from Marco and begins to put their things away, and then leaves. Marco then puts his things away and walks out following the group. Camera pans across to Fayes computer that she had left on and zooms into the screen leaving an image of Evangeline up and the audience to realise that she looks like Eva.]

Evangeline Timeline

This is timeline to show where the different titles appear in the opening scene.

Risk assessment

This is my risk assessment including all the cautions I should take into account when filming our opening sequence.

Symbols of witchcraft

These are the typical symbols for witchcraft, we will be using this exact sheet when recording the scene in the library, where it will be layed out on the table as part of our research.

These are more symbols that are related to witchcraft

Storyboard for Evangeline

Character development

Eva Jones

This is the main character because the film is based around her finding out about the curse she has on her. She is a seventeen year old girl with dark features as this is what is stereotyped in witchcraft/thriller based films. Her mother died a few years ago, it was a tragic and mysterious death. She was hiding a deep secret (she knew about the curse upon her daughter and was killed because she wanted to warn Eva that she was soon going to be captured into the supernatural grasp of witchcraft). Eva finds this out later on in the film.

Evangeline Bancroft

This is the character from whom Eva's curse originated from but in the opening scene is only seen as an image and information is displayed on the computer. She was killed in 1914 at the age of 18 for being associated with witchcraft. The curse involves her being reincarnated every eighteen years of life.

Friend 1: Alexis Swift
She is the best friend of Eva. She is described as very loyal and slightly 'dazed' most of the time. She is very loyal and a key character to the film, although she is a very 'dazed' character and she is also very intelligent
Friend 2: Peter James
He is a close friend of Eva and Alexis. He is a very strong character in the film due to his leading nature and ability to tell right from wrong.

Friend 3: Jack Matthews
He is slightly older but in the same year and working on the same project.

Friend 4: Faye Blake
She is very smart and witty and her relationship with the group develops within the film.

Friend 5: Marco Armstrong
The more mysterious boy who tends to keep himself to himself yet always listens and always knows exactly what to say.

Recce Shots

We will film at a variety of locations.

One of the locations we will film art is Galleywood Library.

This will be where Eva walks into the library (establishing shot)

This will be our third shot where Eva walks along this section of the path.

Visual Moodboard

This is our visual moodboard for our film Evangeline.

Representations

Representations

What/who is being presented?

Witchcraft
Teenagers
Group of friends studying
Various icons
Curses
Dark Mystery

These are all typical symbols that are commonly represented in a supernatural thriller film.

Audience research

Audience research

Who is our target Audience?

Our film has a BBFC of 12 and is targeted at the age range of 12-18. It is aimed at teenagers and we consider it as a unique film idea which may entice a larger audience.

Other films similar to ours target audience

The Craft

The BBFC rating of the film is a 15 so the first impression is that it is aimed at people aged 15 upawrds towards the age of around 25.

Beautiful Creatures
This film is initially aimes at 'young adults'.

Codes and Conventions

Conventions of a mystery thriller:

Tension

Suspense

Hidden messages/secrets

Low key lighting

A woodland area to convey lonliness, creepyness etc

Various cuts are used - give the audience a good understanding of the narative.

Periods of silence to exaggerate tension

High angle shots to establish the setting

Supernatural Films:

Deep slow music

Witchcraft symbols

Detatched houses

Setting:

Our film opening will be set in a variety of locations. For instance our first location will be filmed in and around Galleywood cemetary, there will be several shots included which are going to be taking place in the cemetery and the path parallel to the cemetery. Furthermore there are also going to be a few shots filmed at Galleywood library. Finally we are going to use the schools library to film our final shots where we have access to computers and various books. We have chosen these locations because first of all we think that Galleywood cemetary has the right feeling to it as it is isolated and away from everyone, it also has that eerie feeling to it compared to other cemetery that we looked into filming with.

Icons:

One of the main icons of our film opening would be the grave where Evangeline lays just behind the grave where Eva kneels down to visit her mother. Another icon to include would be the witchcraft website that is included in the film.

Characters:

Our characters have a lot of variety within them. We have Eva Jones who is the main character played by Sophie Frain. We also have Alexis Swift. She is the best friend of Eva. She is described as very loyal and slightly 'dazed' most of the time. Peter James is a close friend of Eva and Alexis. He is a very strong character in the film due to his leading nature and ability to tell right from wrong.

Opening Credits for Evangeline

pro company - Haxan Films
distribution - Aurora Studios
filmed by - Olivia Plumpton & Sam Bellman
title -
actors - Sophie Frain, Olivia Plumpton, Sam Bellman, Tom Richardson, Chay Pollinger, Bonnie Fitch, Lucy Harding.
costumes designed by - Olivia Plumpton
Music by - Sophie Frain ft Beethovem
editor - Sophie Frain
production designer - Sam Bellman
directer of photography - Olivia Plumpton
executive producer
screenplay by
produced by
directed by
casting by
music supervisor
co-producer

Props for Evangeline

PROPS

We will need a large table in the library for the group of friends to sit around. On the table there will be:

Notebooks, Pens, Paper (the group will be attempting to research for their history witchcraft project).

There will also be a laptop which will have up a witchcraft blog loaded already.
There will be books based on witchcraft scattered around the table around the library.

Institutions for our film

We are going to use Haxan Films to produce our film. They are famous for producing the well known and successful independant film 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Music for Evangeline

The music we are going to use for our film opening will be Beethoven 'Moonlight Sonata'

This music will set the tone early in that it will make them feel eerie and mysterious which is what we intend to do.

Titles Research

This is what we came up with after thinking about what font we would use for the title and how we could make it look. The letter 'E' at the beginning represents a witchcraft symbol which we could then use in the film and keep bringing it up during the film. The font itself has a witchy, mysterious feel also fitting into the genre of our film.

This is a font that inspired our group without the initial blue logo behind it. It also has a mysterious, witchy feel to it also which makes it more of a inspiration for our font ideas.

This is other research we done to see what font best fit our title for our film. As you can see they are all pretty similar aesthetically however for the one we have chosen we will not be using the letter 'E' and instead use the witchcraft symbol we created.