Goodbye!

Dear Moderator,


I hope you have enjoyed looking through my blog posts and Prezi presentations and finally, enjoyed my final video.


Goodbye!


Manan Vekaria

Final Opening - Captivity

This edit was created by the whole group. We decided to go against using two seperate edits as we felt that certain parts of mine and David's edit fitted in well and the same with Shreyaa's and Devki's. Me and David worked on the soundtrack and created while fading it in and out. While Shreyaa and Devki worked on the titles, logo and distribution companies. Most of the editing of the actual sequence was done by Shreyaa and Devki however me and David tweaked a few aspects to what we thought was more appropriate and overall we are glad with how it turned out.

Evaluation - Part 7 - Looking back at the preliminary task (the contintuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

After the preliminary task, I feel that we have come a long way as we didn't know how to use half of the programmes as we do now. For the preliminary task we were asked to create a 'door opening scene', we had to film and edit the character walking through a door, entering a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she would exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. The shot types included match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree angle. This was a quick task so it did not require as much time and commitment as the final task, our planning consisted of the shot types we were going to include ,what the dialogue was and the storyline. Our storyboard was drawn on post-it notes and we included all the different shots we wanted to use and any props we had. Also, on a separate piece of paper we had our script of what we were going to say.

For our final product it obviously required more effort and research into what we were going to do, for example low lighting, not letting the identity be revealed to create an enigma for the audience, story-line. We also planned the shots we wanted to use, our story-line, the plot, soundtrack and how we were going to edit our final piece. Lucky for our group our opening didn't contain any dialogue as we felt that our soundtrack was effective on its own as it created an eerie atmosphere.

During the time from our preliminary task to our final product I feel I learnt a lot to do with certain types of shots, how to create a soundtrack and how to use a variety of new programmes that the macs offer. Although we only had a limited knowledge of certain shot types, however we were able to develop them further in the final task. Although I was acting and didn't film during the final piece I still feel that I understood the concepts more and understood how to conceive a decent film opening, this is because of our experience that we got from the preliminary task. Some of the shots included long shots, close ups, medium shots, these were the basics for our preliminary task, some other shots that we developed on were point of view shots, tracking shots and many others. 

The shot on the right is a long shot from our final product, the shot on the left is also a long shot from our preliminary task.

These are both close up shots. The image on the left is taken from our thriller opening, showing the victims legs. The image on the right is from our preliminary task, showing one of the characters about to open a door.

Some of the other shot we developed for our final opening scene that we used was a point of view shot. Here is a screengrab of this shot used in our final product

We also learnt about establishing shots, which is the type of shot that sets the scene for the audience. These shots are usually taken looking like a long shot, but in fact establishes the scene.

This is an establishing shot, from our thriller genre. Which is also where the scene is set for most of the opening. 

Another shot that we learnt in order to make our thriller opening a success was a high angle shot. This shows that the person is vulnerable, and possibly the victim.

This is a high angle, this is taken from our opening as well. This is portraying our victim in the torture scene. 

After we had filmed all of our shots for 'Captivity' we had to edit it. To do this we needed to use our editing programme, Final Cut Express we edited our whole sequence on this programme. This allowed us to cut parts of our takes and edit efficiently to create effective continuity. Final Cut enabled us to add titles, and also add transitions into our opening sequence. The first time we used Final Cut I found it to be quite fiddly and hard to use, but as I progressed through the project, I came to terms with the programme and achieved our opening. We also learnt how to use various programmes such as After Effects and Garageband to help create our soundtrack and distribution logo. From our preliminary task I learnt that to have a successful sequence we need to have precise planning as it is a big part of creating it and it also helps us structure what we are going to do when and where. By knowing exactly what shots, the scene, storyline we can efficiently create a hopefully, successful media product.

On the whole I feel that our media product was successful, because we researched carefully into our genre and were able to apply the conventions we wanted to use to go with our storyline. The part of our opening scene that I think is the best are the torture shots, because of the lighting and some of the angles of the shots. One of my favorite shots is when the antagonist (David) grabs me the victim from behind as it comes as quite a shock to the viewer. 

Preliminary Exercise

Continuity Exercise

Evaluation - Part 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We are overall very glad with the technology we were given to use. The Macs were really helpful and we never encountered any problems unlike other groups. We feel that with the software that was available to us we created unique and established logos and titles for our opening. We wouldn't have been able to create such things without AfterEffects, Photoshop and Final Cut Express. Overall we are very glad with the technology we used including our camera as it was easy to use and picked up sound really well and essentially uploaded to the macs really quickly and efficiently.

Evaluation - Part 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

We thought we attracted our audience by including a variety of things that people had voted for on previous questionnaires, such as a dark theme, an eerie soundtrack and sense of mystery. We feel we have included all of these aspects to an extent.


We feel that we were most successful with the torture scene as the lighting worked really well and judging on feedback people generally spotted that there was an excellent use of 'orangey' lighting shone on the tools and the victims face.
We feel that we failed to appeal to our audience in the aspect of making it a fast paced opening, as there is a period at the start where not much is going on just the victim walking. Although this is true, we feel that it creates a sense of fear as we know something is going to happen but just don't know when. There were mixed feedback on this aspect of our opening but we are still happy with the outcome.

Evaluation - Part 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation - Part 4 on Prezi

Evaluation - Part 3 - What Kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation - Part 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation - Part 2 on Prezi

Evaluation - Part 1 - In what ways did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Frame 1:  Our first frame is an establishing shot, which shows our scene from both sides of the road. This shows us setting the scene of our media product and doesn't reveal much to the viewer to create that sense of mystery and confusion.

Frame 2: The second frame shows the serial killer deciding which tool to use on his victim. The lighting in the shot used makes it effective as the light is shone onto the tools and we can only faintly see his hands which also adds a sense of mystery as we don't know what he is doing with the tools and who he is.

Frame 3: The third frame shows our title. Our title is in a plain and simple font as we thought it looked more professional. However, there is an effect of what looks like blood flowing through the title, although in the frame the shot has been taken while it was clear and no blood was flowing through.

Frame 4: Our fourth frame is of the victim walking. This shot has been used as we thought it would be good to have a slow start which was of me just walking, and then the scenes would gradually become more intense throughout. Further on in this shot the victim turns around and it looks all blurry, this was used because it shows that the victim is under some confusion. This bodes well with our sub-genre which was psychological. 

Frame 5: The fifth frame is a still of a title shot. Our titles did have quite a sinister look to them as they were in a bloody red colour and the font was similar to the one of a typewriter. This challenges thriller conventions as the titles are also on a black backdrop which gives the the movie a dark and gloomy feel which many thrillers attempt to create.

Frame 6: The sixth frame in our 9 frame sequence is the victim actually getting kidnapped from behind, this is the bit where we see how the victim got to the scene of the torture. This adds to the thriller conventions as there is some sort of action taking place.

Frame 7: This frame shows the victim in the actual torture scene struggling to understand his surroundings and what is going on, this is also backing up our sub-genre of psychological thriller because we can infer that there is something wrong with the serial killer and is insane due to the way he has tied the victim up and what weapons he has in his arsenal.

Frame 8: The eighth frame shows the victim walking from the front this time. We included this in because we wanted to get more type of shots into our movie.

Frame 9: Our 9th frame is the last shot of the film. The serial killer is about to hit his victim with a hammer, this adds to thriller conventions as there is some sort of violence taking place.