Final Answer for Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The feedback I got form my audience really helped me and my group make our film. Getting feedback is very vital when creating a film without feedback the film would not be successful. The audience’s feedbacks are the most reliable feedback, because the audience are who we are trying to target. I have learnt that anything the audience tell you to change most be changed, the audience knows best. We had a story and we pitched it to our teacher and our class mates, they liked the ideas and gave us some ideas what types of films we should watch and get ideas from to help us create our film. We went on to watching films like Son of Rambow, Home Alone and Goonies. This really helped us because we had a clear idea of what kind of genre our film would fall into. The characters in the films also reflected the kind of characters we had created for our film. This really helped us and gave us a sense of direction of which to follow to make our film a success. After we made a storyboard script we got told that our scenes we a bit random and that things didn’t really link, for example when we said that season would be during Halloween in the first scenes we never really mentioned Halloween in our script and then in our last scene Halloween just came up. We had to change that and to make the film have the right feel to the it, because the audience didn’t really know what to except or feel. This also happened in our ‘world of the film’ mood board we had to much of vampires and the little boy, we completed missed out the craziness of the boys life and how his in his own world. We gave in our first poster and received feedback we were told that our poster had too much going on and was a bit random but after, we changed it and made it less busy and focused on the main parts like the characters. From this I learnt that you don’t always have to give too much of the story away on your poster to sale your film.

Final Answer for Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

After making a film you bring out the poster first for the audience to see, this is your first chance to sale your film to the audience. Our posters show the good parts of the film, it has a line from the film that sums up our film, its shows all the main characters. The main character Rodney is in the foreground of the poster this is suggesting that he is the major focus of the film. In the poster we have some of the bullies in the background, by their facial expressions it gives the audience the impression that the boys are not found of Rodney. On the top of most of the posters we have Mr. Vamping. His facial expression gives the audience the impression that he is the vampire of the film. We used the same costumes from the film this gives the audience a taste of film. The costumes of Rodney and the boys are their school uniform. This to the audience suggests the age of the characters and also what age group the film will appeal to. We use dark colours on the posters to hep set the mode of the film. Because our film is about a vampire and Halloween we wanted to give the poster a scary feel to get the audience ready for the film. Our poster helps promote our film because of the way we have used all the themes of the films. I do personally believe that our poster could have a bit more work done on it to show more of what our film was about. It had every aspect of our film on the poster but everything on the poster was just randomly placed and on and there was not enough structure to the poster. The film itself reflects what the poster showed and what would be accepted for the genre of the film. Our review helps the films and the poster by explaining what kind of film/genre the audience are going to see. The review could have help make or break our film, depending on how the review is written and what is said about the film.

Final Answer for Question 1

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

The genre of our film is children/mock horror. The characters of our film follow the typical themes of the children genre. We used a typical little boy that always gets himself into what seems to them as big dilemmas. The character Rodney shares the same themes as characters in films like Home Alone, Son of Rambow, Goonies, Little Rascals which all fall into the same genre. In these films we see that they have used little kids (mainly boys) to show the kind of madness and trouble they get into and how much they are in a world of their own that only children of their age will be able to relate to. In the our film we have a group of boys that bully Rodney, in children’s films its typical for their to be a group that bully the main character, usually in these groups they have a head bully which bosses the group around, in our film we have Danny as the head bully. Danny’s character is like Caruso form everybody hates Chris, he always making fun of Rodney and loves seeing Rodney get himself into trouble. Rodney’s character is not strongest but he grows on to being the bravest, like in most children films the main character always seem to build up some sort of courage and independence to stand up to there dilemmas. In home alone Kevin at the end builds up his courage to fight the burglars and protect his house.

Our film is set in a school which is a typical of this genre. Most of a Childs life is spent in school so many of their events happening in school. The TV series Mona the vampire is has some scenes that are set in a school. This is uses the form and conventions of a real media product because in many children’s films in most or sometimes a school is shown unless the film is set in a time when the kids are on holiday. The scary music used in the film is a typical form and convention of a mock horror. We used eerie music that would normal be heard in horror films like Van Helsing and Queen of the Damned because these films are about vampires; this type of music sets the mood of the film. We developed our film by playing around with the camera. In many films that fall under the children’s genre the camera movement are very simple but we tried to play around with our camera movements, e.g. we had a fast pan of Rodney when his running towards Danny and crew. At the end of the film we see that Mr Vamping is actually a real vampire, this challenges forms and conventions of our genre because in many children’s films there is always a happy ending and for Mr. Vamping to be real we haven’t followed the typical forms and conventions of a children’s film.

Final Answer for Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The main source of the technology used was the internet. The internet helped us from the research to our evaluation stages. For my research I mainly used search engine sites like Google and Ask. I was told to I have the colour black and that colour is what I would use to make a story for my film. I went on to research different meanings, quotes, celebrations, fashion, lifestyle, cultures, etc. that all had a relation with colour black. Without sites like Google and Ask it would have been a lot more difficult to find out many of the information and collect all the images I did for my mood board. Without internet we would have had to go to libraries and researched for information in books and images would have been difficult to get. We looked also on the internet for taglines and headlines that would help us start off a story once again without the internet this would again have been difficult to get without the internet. YouTube help a lot in pre production, we used YouTube to watch little clips that gave us helpful tips on how to make the perfect short film. We got given a clip from YouTube on cinematography this help us with our ‘world of film’ mood board, that we created with our groups, which helped us see the art of our film. Without sites like YouTube, we would have had to buy films we needed to watch to help us create our films. This would have meant a lot of money and would have wasted a lot of time, but because of new technology it’s now possible to watch films on YouTube. We got to watch different films like La Haine and Dogville so that we had different ideas of directing and story writing techniques. We watched them on a DVD using the computer in our classroom; thanks to the new advance computers we were able to watch films at school. We also used the projectors at school so that it would be much easier for all of us to watch the film in class. I used Microsoft Word to do my feedback, research, script, treatment, pitch, props list, cast list, location recce, costume list and evaluation. I also used Microsoft PowerPoint, to do some of my work like photo storyboard and other presentation. I had to do a lot of presentations so that I could use share slide, a website that allows you to share your presentations on the internet. To keep all my work in one place and for other people to see my work for feedback I created a blog on blooger.com. This has become very useful and has made it a lot easier for me to get feedback from both my teacher and the other students in the class. Because I am familiar with blog like sites (Piczo, MySpace and Facebook) Blogging is easier to me. This is where share slide has come into good use because it has allowed me to show my work in a more advance, entertaining way. Unlike last year we got to use new sound equipment. This made production much better. It allowed us to have a clearer sound on our film, because the microphone it so advanced it allowed us to pick up any noise that we can’t hear with the human ear. In our rehearsals, auditions and photo shoots we used a digital camera that helped us show the progress and evidence of our work. It allowed us to actually show the work we did in stead of just writing about all the work. Duniya used Photoshop to create our posters allowing them to look professional. Without paint we have had to paint, paint hasn’t got the capability to do what Photoshop does. I used Microsoft Publisher, to create our film review; this made the review look legit and professional. Because of new media technologies portability is available. We can access and update our bogs anytime, anywhere. We are able to contact each easier because of new media technologies, with chat sites like msn this gives us big advantages to get work done without having to met up. Thanks to Digital technologies it’s much easier for people to make films, anyone can do it. Film cameras have become small and easier to work. We no longer have to use film camera and take reels of film to get developed, no we have portable cameras, digital cameras, mobile phones. Editing software’s can now be uploaded on to our computers now and used from home. It’s no longer just big production companies that can create films. Back again to websites like YouTube you can post on the videos that you create at home and show people and get different feedback from many different people. Companies like adobe have contributed to this development in new media technologies by creating software’s like Photoshop and premier.

Talk With Mr Edwards

Mr Edwards our Deputy Head talked to us before he gave us permission to shoot on school premises we had a few things we have to think about, take carer of and health and safety
Here are what he told us:


- make sure everything goes well
- stay out of the way of ongoing classes
- sympathize with the school
- ensure you leave equipment attended to
- keep an eye on clock
- pack up 10 minutes before the bell rings
- equipment can get damaged if your not focused
- don’t overlap lessons when filming
- be conscious of your surroundings ( people on free lessons, ambient sound)
- don’t block any drive through (hazard)
- make sure when filming after school everywhere is clear
- when filming after school you have to start from 15:05 onwards
- there are lots of after school clubs in the media block
- if there’s any problem ask for help
- be careful around the sandpit
- very dangerous
- sandpit may have animal waste be conscious of dirt

Script 2

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Script 2

After feedback I decided to make one small change in our script. In the beginning of the film the speedy music would not work as well with blackouts as it would with quick shots of Rodney's being clumsy. The quick shots will add to the tension of Rodney being late to lesson as well as the Comedy that he is so late but so hopeless.

Scene 1

Through quick shots – RODNEY tripping over pavements kerb and banging his head as he opens the door. (Speedy music)

RODNEY runs though the corridor and into the classroom but his rucksack handle gets stuck in the door handle and he falls backwards. The class laugh.

Tips When Shooting

1. Identify Each Take-At the start of each take identify each shot with a voice over and the clapper board E.g. Shot 3 Take 1. When you come to select you shot, you'll be able to recognise it as your take.
2. Always shoot at least two takes of each shot-Do this even if your first take seems to be OK
3. Always log each take as you go-Choose someone to take respnsibility for continuity. Notes need to be maed for every shot, so when you finish you have a record of your shots.
4. Always use a tripod-Unless you have a aparticular reason for not doing so E.g. creating a particular effect
5. Leave lead in space around each shot-Once the camera has started rolling film for 5seconds before any significant action happens. At the end of you action of sequence, leave the camera running for a firther 5seconds. This will mae it easier for you to edit.
6. Avoid zooms-Don't over use the zoom. Restrict it to establishing shots where you ned to start off either with a long shot and then zoom into a particular detail of with an extreme close up and then soom our to a long shot. Too much zooming can make for a very unstable picture and makes the viewer feel alienated.
7. Use automatic focus rather then the manual focus-This will ame the camera operator's job easier everythime you change cameras position.
8. Remember always to shoot more than what you need-Remember to record cutaways, eastablishing shots etc. Film action that is important in the scene. You don't have to use them, but its worth having just in case.
9. Smooth and steady shots-Any camera movement should be done smoothly and steadily, to allow the audience to follow the pact of the sequence. Remember to always adjust the spirit level everytime you move the camera.

Examples of our posters

My Posters



Lauras Posters

Time Tables

Call Sheet

These sheets were made so that everyone involved in our film had each others contacts. This is so that everyone can contact anyone at anytime when they are needed. This helped us a lot because when we were missing someone we had all their details so it was easy to contact them.

First feedback

* Good genre used-Comedy
* Look at film 'The Demon Headmster'
* Add bits over the summer but not by random. Remember logical causality
* Need to create a good back story for RODNEY
* Look at moc horror effects
* Look at headline of teacher put in jail for trying to student
* Use different influences. (magazines, songs, tv, newspaper)
* Use self reference
* Class full of children-Cast issues-hard to find a lot of cast
* Good that it is not a preictable ending, good plot twist
* Themes are not typical
* Remember thematic unity

below is different feedback we got

feedback for editing

- a bit too prolonged
- try and make the boys walking towards him shorter
- add a few more cutaways
- have the voice over the shot
- scene 3 starts too soon
- pan in scene 3 is too long
- lose shot 43
- only show his shoe going into basket
- cut the pan in scene 3 down to when Rodney screams - then cut
- cut down on effects

Feedback on film

- titles are good
- had a bad actor
- Rodney made the film look bad
- the film was good
- portrayed comedy
- film didn't finish properly, could have finished better
- strong title sequence
- continuity problems
- if Rodney was shouting outside he would have been heard by the teachers


the first music we used in our film was not liked according to our feedback so we got different music

feedback on music

- music is too dramatic
- you should use more dramatic music
- music just stops dramatically
- music doesn't go with the action on screen

Finding Cast
We needed a Rodney, Mr. Vamping, Danny, poesy and Mr. Drackson. We were told we can only use yr 7, 8, 9, 10, 12s in our film as cast. So we decided to use the youngest age group possible to play the extras. We wanted to use a year 7 or 8 but because year 7 and 8s are in a separate site from us it would be too difficult to keep up with them. So we changed it to a year 9s. We went on to the year 9 profile and searched for little boys that we thought would suit our description of Rodney. We got about 5 boys that that we thought fitted Rodney’s description. We did the same foe Danny and we got about 3 possible Danny’s. For Mr. vamping and Mr. Drackson we thought that since his an adult w wanted to make sure we get adult looking boys. We wanted to use years 13s but because we are not allowed me and Israel went looking for year 12s. We found about 6 boys that were possible Vampings and Dracksons. We spoke to everyone we fund and told them about our film and what we are looking for. We took their details so that we could contact them.




Auditions
We told everyone to meet us at 3:00pm, at the media department but only two year 12s and 3 year 9s turned up. So we auditioned two of the boys we had picked out as a possible Rodney and gave the rest of the arts to the other people that turned up. At this point Mr. Vamping is played by Matt Prattland, Mr. Drackson is played Danny Peace and Danny is played by Charlie Langon. We auditioned Liam and Billy. I, Laura and Dunyia demonstrated how we wanted Rodney to act. We chose Liam to be our Rodney and Billy to be part of the possey.

Cast Problems

After auditioning all possible cast we had chose Liam Hardings to be our Rodney. Our filming days were Wednesday 14th October and Thursday 15th October. Liam had remembered that he had a school trip on the Thursday we were filming. Because Liam was playing the main character he was needed on both days meaning it would have been impossible to have him as Rodney. In the auditions we had two possible Rodney’s, so we had no choice but to use Billy Johnson as Rodney. He wasn’t really excited about being Rodney and we didn’t really know what to except because in the auditions he wasn’t as good as Liam.

Cast List

Mr Vamping - Matt Prattland
Mr Drackson - Danny Peace
Rodney - Billy Johnson
Possey
Danny - Lewis
Boy 1 - Charlie Langon
Boy 2 - Fahad
Boy 3 - Luke

Photo Storybroad

Photo Storyborad

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We were each given a role to do when we shot our film and I was given the role of sound.
Our teacher set up a workshop for us, so that we know how to use a microphone and what part sound plays on set. Here are some of the notes i made while at the workshop:

Three essential ingredients:
• The human voice
• Sound effect
• Music

The human voice
• Dialogue – to tell the story and express
• Feelings – stay why you don’t use a lot of dialogue.
Sound effects
• Synchronous sound
Music
• Background music is used to add emotion and rhythm to a film
Video
• Location sound for video

Check list
• Boom sehnheiser 1
• Headphones
• Extend boom poll (x 3)
• XLR lead to camera
• Microphone
• Test sound before we record
• Menu – auto set up – XLR – on/off

Our posters were created by Duniya. She used Photoshop to create them. She tried to make the poster, using all the materials and ideas we gave her, relate to the film. She did this by using dark colours but still made it look more like a children’s film. She uses colours that relate to the colours in our film like orange, Halloween colours, red vampires, blood. She had every main character on the poster showing. She tried many different versions of the poster and these are the three she came up with.

Props List

Halloween Theme
Pumpkin - decoration and bucket style (for Rodney to step in)
Halloween Banners - for Scene 3
Fake Blood - For Mr Vapming, need to be careful because some fake blood leaves staines
Fangs - 2 sets of fangs, for when Mr Vamping is holding one in his hand and one in his mouth
Garlic and strong string - To make the Garlic Necklace
Carrot - Which needs to be shaven into a stake like shape
Other props:
Rucksack - For Rodney, perferably big
CostumeCape - Must be black, for Mr Vamping
Suit - Black trousers and white shirt, no jacket is needed but a wasitcoat would be preferable

Flim Review

Final Film Review




For our film review we were told to look at other real film reviews and try and get an ides of what film reviews are about. We were then told that we should pick the magazine that is most likely to have your type of film in it. Because our genre is children we thought the best place our film review will be in is in a film magazine, so I looked at a couple of them. When creating my own film review I used the title form Total film to create my own title. I then used the layout of empire magazine film reviews when doing my film review.