Tracks of Damnation- Final.

Evaluation Question 7

At the beginning of the year I  made a preliminary film. The preliminary film was very basic and we made this short film in order to showcase some shots and angles that we had learnt previously in lessons. To film this we used a very basic film camera which was of quite low quality and didn't have a very good focus. the preliminary film did not have many shots in and had a basic narrative. When it came to editing, it was our first time so the editing was very basic and quite rough. We added a sound track which we downloaded from a royalty free website. The storyboard that we created alongside the filming was also quite basic as it was our first time making a storyboard and we included a few shots and angles. As it was our first time filming the tripod that we used we found it hard to manoeuvre and therefore it was accidently broken whilst filming. The part of the film that was the worst was continuity. Due to the fact that we filmed over two days meant that the actors in it had two different costumes on and made the film look unprofessional.

However when we were filming we did manage to keep the majority of the shots steady therefore that slightly boosted up the quality of the preliminary film. Our teamwork was quite good throughout the filming of the preliminary task- we all worked very hard and listened and respected everyone's ideas.

Over the course of the year I can say that my skills as a media student have increased and developed in extreme amounts. When we created our film opening for Tracks of Damnation my group and myself did a lot of planning so we could create a good narrative and pick a good genre and sub genre that would appeal to our target audience. We also thought a lot about the types of shots and angles we wanted to include in our film. we wanted to have a variety so the audience would always be interested and it would show off our skills as camera men to the examiner.

The quality of camera that we used has developed since we used the flip camera many months ago. The camera that we used for our opening increased the quality of our film dramatically- all of the shots were clear and sharp and appeared well on screen. I have owned the camera for several months which meant that I had a good knowledge of how to operate it- which meant that filming was slightly easier. This was also the same for the tripod- I had used it a few times previously which meant that I understood well how to use it so we had no equipment issues when we were filming.

When we first started to edit we were all a bit unsure about how to piece the clips together so they fitted in well together. However as we started to edit rough cuts and other videos we all became much more confident when it came to editing so we were able to piece together all the clips fluently so the film looked quite professional.

When we made our preliminary film we used a soundtrack downloaded from a royalty free website- we did this because it was the easiest thing to do and was also the simplest. However for Tracks of Damnation we wanted to take a different approach so we decided that we would create our own incidental music. The music that we created was very atmospheric and was created to build tension. The music was created on garage band and was created to match with the clips so the climax matched what would be shown on screen. We did this to showcase more skills which would make our film have a higher quality finish.

In our first film months ago we did not include an ident however in this film to make it look as professional as we could we decided to put in an ident. This would make our production company look legitimate and realistic.

My skills for creating titles have improved vastly since the preliminary film. In the preliminary film we only included one title which was the name of the film. However for this film we included many titles including editing, actors and music. We added animations to the text. We also downloaded a font that could be associated with our genre and sub genre. The title we used in our film made it look more professional and gave it a higher quality.

I think that as a team we worked very well together and we all tried to listen to each others ideas and if we disagreed on something we meet halfway so everyone was happy. We all had a equal part in filming, editing, music and creating the titles. I think that we were all reliable and worked very hard. However we did have some filming issues with our actors and we all began to get very stressed and worried that we would not finished but we had several team meetings and worked soothing out and planned a new narrative which also improved the quality of the film opening.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation question 6 from charlottefensomchenderit

Evaluation Question 5.

Evaluation question 5- Improved from charlottefensomchenderit

Evaluation Question 4.

When creating a film there are different kinds of audiences that the film will be distributed to. Tent pole audience is the largest, usually Hollywood conglomerates distribute to audiences of this size therefore increasing the profit that the film will take. Often smaller production companies or independent film companies will distribute at a lower level. The audiences that they will distribute to are niche, local or a national audience. This means that the film may be popular in their own reign but may struggle to become popular over seas.

We are a independent film company and we also do not have a large budget which means that we may struggle to distribute at a larger scale. Therefore we would distribute to a local, niche or national audience. I don't think that our film would reach a tent pole audience as the film does not include any well known actors, therefore I don't think a larger distributor would take a risk on an independent film with an unknown cast. If a film included a well known cast and a production company this will mean that fans of them will recognise them and their work. This means that it will encourage the audience to see the film. The stars of the film may have a good reputation and have won awards therefore this film will appeal to a larger tent pole audience.
In our film the actors are British. This may mean that our film will only appeal to a British audience as there may include terminology and humour that the British audience would only understand. The British audience may also find the actors more relatable as they are from the same country as them.
Slasher films tend to have a smaller target audience therefore it may be hard to distribute this film at a larger scale to a tent pole audience therefore this opening would be more suited to a niche audience.


When we were creating this opening we needed to find out how to classify our film. We did this by researching the BBFC. The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since setting up in 1912 and DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
An example of how the BBFC classify their films is a PG. For a PG film the BBFC state what PG means and who it is suitable for and they may also give an example of a film which would be ok for viewing. The BBFC inform you what themes may be included and if there would be a any bad language, sex or violence included in the films. The website also gives you a website which contains additional information about classification.

For our opening we decided that the classification will be rated 15. We have decided to use this rating because it is the correct age for our target audience and the content that we will include in our film. Our target audience begins at the age of 15 which means that our target audience will be able to go and watch our film without being too young. Another reason why we chose to have the age rating at 15 is because some elements of our film may be quite gory and violent and the British Board of Film Classification states that in a rated 15 film it is allowed to include some gory elements. After doing my research on the BBFC website I now know what elements and features not to include in my film. In our film we will not include any crude sexual references or any sexual content that is detailed. Although our film may be gory and have slight violence we will not include any sadistic or sexual threat in the movie. One of the themes in our film opening is danger however we will not cross the line of including any suicidal or self harm in our film as these elements would be sending the wrong message to our target audience and would not be appropriate to watch.

I think that this film would appeal to both males and females because I know that people in the target audience range do enjoy horror films. However I think that our film may generally appeal more to males because males stereotypically like horror films more because females get scared easily. Males may like the film more because the secondary character is a male so they may find Ton relatable.

Evaluation question 3

Distribution is the process of launching a film in the market place and sustaining public interest in the film. Worldwide distribution is dominated by US companies such as Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner. Distributors are involved in investing the films production, distributing the rights of the film or marketing the film to the target audience. Big conglomerates like the ones in Hollywood can invest in smaller companies which allow them to vertically integrate into other areas in the media industry which allows them to keep the profit that is made in their company.

There are different sizes of audiences and distribution will depend on what size these audiences are. Larger and higher budgeted films mean that the film will be distributed to a larger audience called Tent Pole. Usually larger film conglomerates like Warner Brothers will distribute at this level. Smaller distribution companies usually distribute to a niche audience or a local/national audience. This kind of distribution usually happens with independent films.

Distribution occurs at different levels due to budget. Film conglomerates usually distribute at a larger scale due to high profit. This means that the film can be distributed to a tent pole audience and can afford to do so therefore gaining more popularity and profit for the film. However smaller films or independent films do not have the same profit as Hollywood conglomerates therefore the level of distribution is decreased. This means that the film will be distributed to a niche, local or national audience. This is done at a smaller scale which means the film may have less profit to a conglomerate film distributed at a tent pole audience.






Possible film distributors.



1.Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Fox searchlight pictures was established in 1994 and is an American film distribution company. It is also a subsidiaries to the conglomerate 20th Century Fox. This company specialises in the distribution of independent and British films. They are sometimes responsible for the funding of films. Fox Searchlight Pictures also specialise in Horrors. Using this distributor would be a good match for our film because our genre of film is horror therefore this company may be interested in us. This company mainly focuses on independent films therefore this would be suitable for Tracks of Damnation and would hopefully guarantee success for our film.






2. Film4 Productions.
Films4 Productions is a film production company owned by British Channel Four Television Corporation. The company is responsible or backing a number of films which have been made in the United Kingdom. The company's first film was released in 1982 and was called Walter- it was directed by Stephen Frears. Films distributed by this company were later aired on television- this helped the company increase their sales and advertising. This company is driven to support independent films and is very supportive of the British film industry. I think that this company would be a suitable company because they support indie films and showcase them on television. Therefore the film will have increased views and will reach a national, niche and a local audience.






3. BBC Films
BBC Films is the feature film making section of the BBC. It has produced and co produced most o the successful British Films including Salmon Fishing in Yemen. They produce around 8 films a year, they work with major international and UK distributors. I think that this company would be good for our film because it is a British company therefore we would have a niche, national and local audience for our film. This company also has a good track record when distributing companies and have been very successful with other films.




However in order to get funding we could go to the BFI. The National Lottery award grans to film makers- this is given  out through the BFI. The BFI make in the region of 25 major productions each year and provide development support or around 100 feature productions.




A company like Disney would not distribute our film as it is very low scale. The genre of our film would not be suitable for Disney's aimed market as their target audience is young children and families therefore a Slasher film would not be suitable for the conglomerate. Our film and the cast are also very unknown therefore I am not sure Disney would take a risk on a film with an unknown cast.

Evaluation Question 2.

Evaluation question 3: How does your media product represent particular social groups? from charlottefensomchenderit

Evalution Question 1.

Evaluation question 1- improved from charlottefensomchenderit

Joes garage scene.

This is the sequence of the garage scene. In the garage scene we are including some shots which show our antagonist sharpening his axe and preparing for his next murder. We hope that these shots will build up tension and an atmosphere for our target audience.

Inspiration for dual narrative

To create our dual narrative we have used the opening of Nightmare on Elm Street as inspiration for the kind of shots that we would like to recreate.

Audience Test

We filmed our focus group watching our film opening. We asked them questions that relate to camera shots and angles etc. We chose to ask these people as they are the right age for our target audience.

Filming Update

Since me and Katie have been in Venice Alfie has audience tested our rough cut. Therefore we have received feedback concerning our film opening. We have also received feedback from our teacher. To improve our film we are going to rewrite the first part of our film. In this rewrite we are going to include a dual narrative. In this rewrite we are going to have some shots of the antagonist sharpening his weapon and putting on his mask. We are going to do this in a different location. We will edit this together with the second part to create a jump cut.

We are also going to to only use 2 actors as it will be more convenient for filming and it will make the narrative clearer as we realised before there wasn't a good reason for Sophie being there. Instead we are going to have a narrative where Ton and Edward are out walking a dog and then they go their separate ways to go home- this is where it will link in with the second part of our rough cut.

In terms of titles, sound and our ident we have completed our incidental music and have found the necessary sound effects that we need for the opening.

We are having some troubles with the titles as when we add the animation for the title there is a blue tinge which we are having trouble getting rid of.
Our ident has been created but we are having trouble embedding it onto the opening of our clip as it has been shrunk down.
Hopefully tomorrow we are going to film the dual narrative part of the opening including our antagonist.

Filming update.

This week 2 members of the group will be away in Venice. During this time period that we are away for the other team member will be in charge of doing reshoots and adding in a few shots for our film. Whilst we are away the 2 parts of the rough cut will be audience tested and put on our blogs.

ROUGH CUT PART 2

This is part two of our rough cut. In the part of the rough cut it includes the climax scenes where the protagonists murder is built up and is committed.

Tracks of Damnation-rough cut part 1

This is the first part of our rough cut. It includes the shots building up to the shots where the protagonists walks of by himself and is targeted by the antagonist.

Hustler productions- our ident

This is our finished ident that we will be using. We chose to use this music in the ident as it makes the production company sound established and of a good quality.

Ident foley art compliation.

We have decided that we are going to call our production company "Hustler Productions". We decided for our ident that we would have a voice over of someone whispering Hustler Productions. We think that this will sound effective and hopefully overall look quite professional. This is a compilation of several clips that we are considering using in our ident for our film.

Filming Update

We have filmed the majority of our film opening. We have one or two shots left to complete which we could do complete in half term because our actors had other commitments. The shots we have left to do are:

The murder shot- the antagonist swings the weapon down onto the camera to signify the protagonists death.

Finding the body- the protagonist is found with wounds and bruising covering his face.

We hope to do these shots at some point over this week or the weekend. We want to get this done this week so we can dedicate our time more to editing and adding sound and titles to our opening.

Names on the titles.

When we add titles to our film opening i watched 2film openings to see how the cast and production were ordered. I watched the Legally Blonde and Perks of Being a Wallflower film openings.

Halloween order:
Production Company
Film Producer
Actor
Titles
Film Producer
Main Character
Screenplay
Director of Photography
Film editors
Music
Associate producers
Production Manager
Production Designer
Executive Producer
Produced by
Directed

Perks of Being a Wallflower order:

Production Company

Main actors 

Film title

Casting

Music

Music Supervisor

Editor 

Production Designer

Director of Photography

Executive Producers

Producer 

Screenplay 

Director

From looking at these orders it will give us a good idea of what we should include in our titles and which order they should go in.

Deciding on typography.

From our typography mood board we narrowed four fonts that we thought would be conventionally used in a horror or a slasher film. We thought these fonts would fit in well with the genre and sub genre of our film. We put these chosen fonts on word document and created a focus group who would give opinions on which font we should choose for our opening. The people in our focus group were the same age as our target audience in order to give an accurate answer on what the TA would like to see font wise. We recorded the responses so we would have an answer with a reason to which font that they preferred. We used voice recordings to do this.

These were the four font choices selected for our focus group.

To get feedback about our typography we asked a few people in our target audience and recorded it on a voice memo- this is their response;

Q: What font do you prefer and why?
A: Font 4 because it looks like it has been scratched into wood and looks the most effective and goes with the genre.

Q: What font do you prefer and why?
A: I think font 1 or font 4, but mainly font font 4 because I think that it fits the genre more and stands out.
A: I think font 4 fits the supernatural and horror film. I think that font 2 looks nice but I like that font 4 isn't as cliche and is quite unique.