Mr Judge One to One Tutorials

After our one to one tutorial on the 2/02/15, it was evident that you are making reasonable progress for your research and planning, unfortunately there are still some outstanding tasks that need to rectify as soon as possible. Please refer to the SMART targets that we set up previously and have them completed for my next session. 

Task 2-video game-fallout 4 trailer

Fallout 4 is the next installment in Bethesdas popular Fallout franchise, which was recently announced at this years E3 to have a November 2015 release date. The game currently has an ESRB rating of M for mature, and PEGI rating of 18 in the united Kingdom, meaning that the game has content aimed towards an older and more mature audience.

The game's unique, retro-futuristic setting, has enthralled audiences for many years, and fallout has became a staple franchise in the games industry. The game is set  in 2274 in the American city of Boston, roughly 200 years after a thermo-nuclear war has plunged the world into post-apocalyptia.

The mature nature of the trailer, and its 3 minute length points towards it being not shown between television shows as advertising, as it is simply too long and more than likely wont hit its primary audience through this medium. It is more than likely however, that the place of advertising from this trailer will take place on the world wide web, most notably YouTube, as it will cater to the long cinematic feel of the trailer, and will directly present itself to the games target audience, that I personally feel would be white males between the ages of 18 to 25.

The content of the trailers, looks to both cater to old fans and new fans alike. To begin with, we see a retro looking television with the words please stand by written across the screen. If we look closely, we see that the TV is titled Radiation Kings. Both the please stand by and Radiation kings are both nods to the nuclear fallout setting of the game, and also previous fallout games.

More than likely, these features were put into the trailer in order to embed nostalgia into fans of the franchise, as things like this show up multiple times throughout the trailer. For example, we see a Nuka-Cola truck placed on a table, a mister handy box, and a robco-rocket, cot-mobile, all of which are nods to previous fallout games.

The music also reflects previous fallout games, with the inkspots, a classic acopella group, performing their song its all over. The Inkspots have featured their music in every installment in the fallout franchise, and so old fans will be happy to hear them once again. Cross cutting occurs regularly in the trailer between the ruins of the worlds current state, and the time before the nuclear war. The cross cutting matches with itself perfectly, which paints a very interesting visual display for the viewer. Once again, this was more thank likely included for old fans of the franchise, as the sequence will make more sense to them due to them being more in tune with the games history.

When the inkspots song comes to a close, the trailer takes a sudden turn, and then begins to show itself more towards newer fans of the franchise. The music turns to an epic but foreboading tone, and the trailer starts to show large scale shots of different locations throughout the game. This would have been done to show off the graphics and complexity of the game. This would have been done to ensnare people unfamiliar with the franchise, by showing off the vastness and beauty of the world.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided as a group that in order add a few twists to our film, it would  be necessary to go against certain stereotypes associated with the horror genre. You'll notice that in the opening of countless horror and slasher films such as jaws, a female character finds herself the victim to which ever twisted being exists as the stories antagonist. We felt that it was about time that someone challenged that trope, as in this day and age we recognize that both genders are equal to one another, and so to simply place damsel in distress at the beginning of every film, is highly unrealistic, and if not anything else, just plain old generic. By not conforming to this stereotype, we boost immersion for the viewer, whilst simultaneously changing the recipe that haunts most horrors in a positive and productive way.

Perhaps the biggest contrast is our sort of role-reversal with the murderer. Where in the vast majority of horror films, the killer acts as the antagonist, we decided to go for the absolute binary opposite and have him play the role of the protagonist. By doing this we destroy this Hollywood trope of good over evil, expressing the fact that not everything is black and white, and that in truth there two sides to every story. We wanted to question the importance and necessity of human morality, and there seemed no better way of doing it that having the story arc around a character that most would automatically assume was "evil" without taking the time to consider certain bold realities that have shaped the individual into the man that he is.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

(disclaimer: This question was answered in one document through the added participation of each member of my group)

The first shot is a tilt downwards. The camera goes from the top of the trees to the floor. We did this to emphasize the height of the trees, as this could make the audience feel slightly intimidated. In terms of the text, we decided to have a black shadow behind it. This is to make sure the text is clearly visible in front of the white of the sky. We decided to go for a simple font that was easy to read, as we didn't want it to serve as too much distraction from the sequence. This shot is a very long shot. We decided early in pre-production that we wanted to have slow cutting at the beginning and slowly build up to fast cutting at the end. This will create a build up of tension.

 

 The second shot is an establishing shot of the location with the killer sat in the centre of the shot. It is an extreme long shot as this shows how isolated he is. We used titles again in this scene with the same font to show consistency and in the bottom right as to not distract from the focus of the shot, which is the killer, and also because that area of the shot was not active. It is worth noting that all our scenes, apart from the flashback, have a blue tint to them. This is a convention of horror films and gives a more unnatural and eerie look to the shots.

The next shot is a tracking shot that tracks the killer from him sitting on the log, to walking towards the body. We decided that this would be the best shot to have as it is still early in the sequence and we highlighted earlier that we wanted infrequent cuts at the beginning, and also we felt it helped the scene flow. We decided to stop tracking once we established the direction he was going in as it then emphasizes the scale of the forest and really emphasizes that he is isolated, as he gets smaller in the scene.

The next shot is also a tracking shot. This follows the killer and is a  medium close up. We decided it would be better to be closer to the killer now because it removes that sense earlier on that he is alone, as this shot does not show isolation. There is a vignette in all our shots excluding the flashback as we felt this added a spooky effect and implies that there is darkness everywhere. This is also conventional in horror films.

The next shot is a low angle shot that shows the bloody hand of the victim, with the killer walking towards it in the background. The focus changes from the killer in the background at first, to the hand in the foreground and this was to show a change in the focus of the sequence from the killer to the body. We decided to use a low angle shot as this shows that all control is with the killer and there is no hope for the victim. The fact that the killer is out of focus the nearer he is to the hand connotes that the events that caused this are unclear to him.

In contrast, the next shot is a high angle shot, which again shows that all control is with the killer, as this is a point of view shot. This is also the shot that reveals the body to the audience. We made this a long shot because we wanted to include the whole body in the shot to emphasize that this was key to the scene.

This next shot is an over the shoulder shot. This helps bring some perspective to the audience as to where the killer is in relation to the body. It also hides the emotion of the killer and, as a result, emphasises his isolation. Also, because of the nature of the over the shoulder shot and perspective, the killer is larger in the shot, and this could symbolise the power he has in the scene.



There is then a zoom shot of the blood-stained hand, which builds up nicely to the flashback, as the zoom acts like a distancing from reality. We decided to put the camera at an angle as so that the body is visible out of focus. This helps the audience anticipate that the killer is thinking about him. This shot is short in length as we wanted to use fast paced editing to represent a hint of panic. Also, the fact that the body is behind the hand out of focus makes it clear to the audience that he is guilty of the crime.

For the flashback shots, we decided to completely change the tint we used. This was because we wanted to make it clear that this was a flashback sequence and not part of the scene. We decided to go for a yellow tint as this gives the scene a warm feeling and shows that the killer actually enjoys killing. We decided to only leave part of the shot in focus and the rest we added a directional blur, as we thought this would best represent that it was a memory, as naturally memories will be distorted.

We wanted the whole of the flashback sequence to be built up of close up shots, as it puts the audience right in the thick of the action and could increase their empathy towards the victim. In terms of sound, we decided to include an eerie soundtrack along with voiceovers that overlap each other, as we wanted the sound to be very busy to add fear to the audience. The sound builds up until the scream of the victim, which is loud as a convention of horror is to scare people, and unexpected loud noises scare people.





The next shot is an extreme close up of the killers eyes and solidifies that it was indeed a flashback and was formed from the memories of the killer. The close up also emphasizes his emotions and his eyes tell a lot in this scene.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We found that the 1980's classic, "the shining" bared a similar resemblance to our film, with both films focusing heavily on the human mind and psychopathology. The Shining was financed and distributed by Warner Bros and made by Hawk Films. The film had a large budget of $19,000,000 and made an even larger  $44,017,374 domestic total gross in the USA box office. The film had a profit margin of over double its budget, and $622,337 was made on the first weekend of release.

Based on the shining s success and the likeness of it and our film, my team mates and I decided that Warner Bro's TM would be the most suitable company to distribute and finance our movie. Warner Bro's TM also have a great track record, being as though they are a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, that finance all sorts of films, including rather a lot of horror films, recent examples including the conjuring. The big corporations hunger to engulf smaller businesses and thirst for wealth also make them ideal financiers, and with a budget of about £10,000,000 (lower than there average production and including our young, arguably green cast) I'm almost certain that they would be happy to take up such a given opportunity.

I project that our film will make around $30,000,000 in the box office, as there is a real demand from teenagers for horror films, but due to it being a new IP it is unlikely to generate substantial profits similar to franchises with an already large fan-base such as the Friday the 13th films. 

All in all, horror films are cheap, seemingly limitless cash loop, with industries generating ludicrous sums of money from extremely high consumer demand.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

  Whilst my colleagues would argue that the characters we presented attracted an audience, I would personally argue that the attraction comes from the mystery tat we presented withing our piece, with an attraction less so coming from the characters themselves, and instead primarily coming from the lack-there of, of characterization. By not automatically characterizing, the characters in question, we paint a hazy terrain for our audience to be intrigued as to how a characters personality will unravel as the story progresses, as opposed to painting a black and white picture to begin with. That is the attraction. The desire etching at our audiences mind to learn more, to unveil the gray shroud and find who these people really are, and the truth of the situation they are in.

  A way in which we surely addressed our audience is through the young age of our characters. This is simply because the largest consumers of the horror genre are thrill seeking youths. However, the thriller elements that are clearly prevalent in our murder theme, need to address a more  refined, matured audience,and as such we decided it made sense to choose sensible looking actors in plain clothing, as opposed to more peppy teenager types, or dare I say it, "chavs".

Going on what I said earlier about the films attraction coming from audiences wanting to unravel the mystery, a good way to stimulate this drive to learn more was from the use of the flashback sequence we displayed in our opening. The flashback was an excellent way to distribute out pieces of the puzzle, without outright giving out answers, so that the audience build up the information over time and truly consider the possibilities, continuing with the theme of stimulating audiences by letting them think for themselves.

Here is a slideshare that we prepared for this question:

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Filming

In filming we used a combination of the Sony handy cam (3CCD) and the larger, heavier but better quality JVC pro HDC, also supporting 3CCD.



An example of a JVC pro HDC,
similar to the one used in our film

An example of a Sony handy-cam

  Though we filmed with both camera types, we primarily used the JVC pro (as seen to the left), in our filming. This was mainly due to its superiority in terms of function over the handy-cam. The JCV was more effective at long shots due to its better image quality and was also viable for shots that required us to change the point of focus, due to it having the ability to have its manual focus altered. This is something that it didn't share with its smaller handy-cam counterpart. You can see this in action in several of our shots, one such being the revelation of the corpse laying on the floor. At first we see the killer focused in the background of the shot, but when he goes out of focus the foreground becomes focused, revealing the bloody hand of the victim. Depth of field (the difference between the nearest and furthest objects in a shot) could also be altered via the JVC's manual focus. For example, in a later shot we see the killer staring at his own blood soaked hand, to which we zoomed in further to his hand. This changed the depth of field, as the area behind the hand was narrowed and brought into weaker focus, whilst the hand became clearer and as such more focused. The JVC was considerably more stable than the handy-cam and so this contributed to our preference of it. The primary bulk of our film (especially at the beginning) consisted of tracking shots of the killer, and so the added stability of the JVC's handle allowed for us to more easily follow our actors through the woods, without causing a disruptive shaky camera vibe, that could have very easily ruined our film.  



 


The handy cam was primarily brought into action due to a shortness of time on our hands to finish recording our footage. Although not as good as the JVC in terms of stability and quality, the handy cam was considerably more mobile, and as such allowed to film a multitude of footage with ease. The handy cam shun the most during the recording of our flashback sequence that we filmed on a separate day closer to the deadline than the rest of our footage. The flashback sequence was only a small number of shots that did not require the manual focus function of the JVC. The flashback was supposed to be surreal and because of this the handy-cams lack of stability was far less of an issue. Another feature that was not an issue was the handy-cams lower image quality than the JVC, due to us adding a directional blur to our flashback later in premier pro. All in all, whilst not as reliable as the JVC, the handy cam aloud for us to quickly film any remaining shots that we needed to get out of the way for sake of having enough time to thoroughly edit and finish our film

Though it played less of a role, we also used a voice recorder to record the dialogue that we used within our film. The recorder was a simple set up, that simply consisted of one button to begin recording and the same to stop. We found that the recorder was particularly sensitive to sound, which was both a blessing and a curse, as whilst it did clearly record our lines, it would also pick up lots of background noise, and as such we had to very often move around in order to find a quiet area. We chose with the sound that we recorded to make a confusing and cluttering effect with the lines, by overlaying portions of them on top of each other. We did consider adding a further echo to give a greater surreal feeling to our flashback sequence, but due to time constraints however, we were never able to do this. 

Software

The most common software that we found ourselves using was adobe premier pro, in order to edit our recorded footage of our film. The program aloud for us to import our recorded media cuts and then from there condense and alter them in order to produce our 3 minute film opening. Premier pros simple but efficient design allowed for us to do a multitude of different things to our footage, such as simple things like cutting clips to remove unnecessary segments for the sake of pacing or more complex things such as adding a darkened vignette around the boarder of our screen without being forced to use other more complex programs such as aftereffects or Photoshop.

On top of making cuts to condense our film, we also used premier pro's colour correction function in order to change our films tint. At first we were unsure of how to do this, but after some time and research via videos online we successfully learnt how to do it and added the dark blue tint (and yellow-brown tint for the flashback sequence) that you can see in our film to today. Through our research we learnt that simply clicking 2 buttons was responsible for this which further supports premier pro's ease of use for its users.





                        

We also decided that we wanted to add a darkened boarder to the edges of our film, known as a vignette, in order to give our film a darker, more edgy feel. We were familiar with how vignette's looked and felt within suspenseful movies, as we had seen many films including them, yet in truth we knew absolutely nothing about them. We had no idea how they were made, what their purpose was within a movie, and most importantly, how they could be successfully implemented within our film. It wasn't until our teacher explained to us how effective a darkened vignette would be within our movie, that we started to become drawn to idea of using one. After watching a few fairly brief YouTube videos, we worked out how we could add a vignette to our film, deciding that we would have the corners of the vignette the darkest, with sides of the screen a much more subtle fade.




Software Part II- After affects

Our run in with after affects was far more brief, as in truth we only used it to construct our company logo. After affects was relatively easy to understand and follow, and as such we were able to produce our logo in a very short allotted time. It also helps that our logo was a very simple design, consisting only of some writing over a jpg image that would fade in and out, and so it only took us a few attempts to perfect its intended design. I would talk about other things due to this being so brief, however this is honestly all that we did on after effects.

"Stock image of sun bear whilst
 I try to find my company logo"



"Stock image of sun bear whilst
 I try to find the picture of my logo"





 Research and planning

 As a tool to record our research and planning, we used Google's own blogging tool, blogger. Blogger allowed for us to continuously add more content on top of progressively improving the content of our research and planning from any location with an internet connection, due to its cloud data storage system. This was important as the process was over a long period and therefore the project was separated into different parts. Another feature of blogger is the ability to import photos and embed videos. This was useful as images helped assist us with our analysis of other media products and also helped to show our recce. With embedding videos, we were able to embed our preliminary task and also our main task. This is useful as it means that you do not have to leave the blog in order to access our media product.

For our location recce, we used the camera on our phones, due to us not needing high end equipment. This was to just give us an idea of what the location was like and any potential risks to put into the risk assessment, not in anyway something we intended to distribute.

Evaluation

For our evaluation, we made a video with the green screen for answering the question comparing what we had learned from the preliminary task to the main task.We then removed the green screen via the use of the ultra key in premier pro, which allowed us to play clips from our films to help with explaining our analysis. 

We shared the evaluation on the social media site Facebook, however we got little to no feedback, arguably making it a poor marketing decision, as we were unable to receive feedback. However the thought was still there at least.