7.Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Media evaluation, 7 – 97

This is my evaluation assessing the improvements from preliminary to final task.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Linked is the word document containing our understanding of the technologies in the process of making a film.

evaluation q.6

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We annotated our film on YouTube using the notes tool to show how me addressed and attracted our audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

We feel that our film would interest a more mature person, probably in the age range of 18-65. We feel that our film would reach or attract such a wide audience as the film could relate to number of people due to interests or personal experience. It could be a 60-year-old man, who lived in the time of the nazi reign and remembers these particular events. However, the image above shows a university student, who is studying modern world history as a degree, and therefore has a common interest in the subject, and may watch it for educational purposes aswell as entertainment.

As our audience is a university student, we feel that he would be up to date with all the fashion styles and trends. Therefore we could picture our target audience going to shops such as ‘river island’, ‘next’ or ‘topman’, we can guess that he cares about his appearance and enjoys wearing the top brands and looking good, thus why he is shown going for the smart/casual look.

In terms of music taste, we can picture our target audience enjoying a variety of different genres of music, as he is open-minded and feels that music is an important aspect in his life. We feel that he may enjoy classic bands, such as ‘oasis’, but we also believe that he is a fan of modern music talents, like ‘timberland’. We think that our target audience would enjoy these types of music as they are based around soft and moving beats, which create different emotions when listening to them, and the type of music played in our film is also trying to create the same psychological effect.

In terms of television, we feel that our target audience would enjoy factual documentaries, such as ’life’, which is commented by Sir David Attenborough, they may watch this as they enjoy learning new things. However we also feel that he would be interested in television dramas, as he likes watching events which may occur in real life, however we feel that these programmes would be light-hearted and sinister, so they may enjoy programmes such as ‘hollyoaks’.

Above our some images of the type of audience that we feel would be attracted to our film.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

To answer this question we recorded a director’s commentary, commenting on what kind of media institute may distribute our film.

Here is the script we followed;

Sam

Our production name is ‘Badabing Productions’ we felt this was a catchy yet professional sounding name. It doesn’t tie us to a particular genre and we can create a broad spectrum of films. We created a logo for our company going through various different examples. We decided on this logo because the red dice shows it is an old film with a mysterious element and the font makes it appear sophisticated. We animated the logo with sound effects at the beginning to show are professional.

Dan

A production company is responsible for supervising the filming from concept to completion, and they hold the sole legal and financial responsibility of the movie as a whole.

Ian

A film distributor is a company, which attempts to secure placement of the producer’s film on the screen. The term “distribution” refers to the marketing and circulation of movies in cinemas, and for home viewing.

Sam

There are film finance entities like banks that the Hollywood studios regularly borrow from as well as finance entities who offer a piece of the action to investors in the form of mutual funds. For our film we would borrow from banks and also offer investors a share in the profit.

Dan

We had to name the director, editor, actors, sound manager and designer. We followed the normal convention of having the actors first in the credits and the director last. Many jobs such as location manager and props have been omitted because we handled these as part of the team.

Ian

‘Schindler’s List’ ,a film we feel is similar to ours, used Universal Pictures as their US distributor and as this film has a similar demographic and message we would distribute to US as they have a clear interest in holocaust films as well as the UK for which we could use Universal Pictures UK.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We compared Lukas from our film and Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie the obvious similarity being that they both portray Nazi officers with doubts over the regime. Von Stauffenberg led a plot to kill Hitler at The Wolf’s Lair however in our film Lukas defects to Britain after doubts over the final solution. 

They both wear Nazi attire with the militaristic uniform and swastika armbands. With short hair and smart clothing they appear similar however the main difference in our films is that Lukas is a fictional character based on a real event however Stauffenberg was a real man allowing comparisons between them. Whereas Lukas doesn’t have to mimic the appearance of a real person.

In the film’s the both show defiance against the Nazi regime however they have different motives; Lukas feels guilty for his part at the Wannsee conference however Stauffenberg although similarly had misgivings about the Nazi regime took real action in an assassination attempt.

Both characters die as a result of their actions, Stauffenberg directly as he is killed after the failed assassination and Lukas riddled with guilt commits suicide. Both films also use English in a German setting for consumption of the English-speaking markets interested in Nazi films.

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

The first image shown on the top left is of our film title, which is Snapshot. We thought that it would be much more fitting to have a fairly simple font, as the film is meant to be quite serious and has a very sombre tone. We decided it would be effective to have the title appear at the end of the 2 minute opening instead of at the start because then the context would already be established. Also, the fact that the title appears with the scene in the background made it much more effective since we thought that the final shot of the hat falling onto the briefcase was quite powerful and was a fitting way to end the opening. One key aspect of the title is that we have the noise of a camera shutter, and the title comes up sharply with the noise to further emphasise the importance of the camera in the film, as the photo kicks off the entire plot of the story. Also, we decided that the name of the film incorporated the central theme of the film without specifically mentioning any details of the plot, which we believe adds to the mystery that is present in the plot.

The middle shot on  the top is of our shooting location. We decided that this shot encapsulated the setting of the film by showing the rural setting but also the bleak landscape, also establishing the area in which the events are taking place. This shot also matches with that of the earlier shot of the actual place in Berlin where the events are happening in the film, as it too is in a heavily wooded area.

The next frame shows some of the many props that were needed for our film. Most importantly, we needed the way that the actors were dressed to be completely authentic so that it did not break the verisimilitude of our 1942 Berlin setting and is present in all period films. To do this we used suits and fedora hats which were popular at the time, and also created a pair of Swastika armbands to show that these men are high-ranking Nazi officials. This also added to the dark atmosphere of the film, with the Nazi symbols standing out on the dark landscape. Also, the briefcase that can be seen was vital, as inside it we had a printed copy of the Wannsee Transcript, around which our film is based. Luckily we were able to find a suitable one. This all lends to the believability of the film.

In relation to the filming and camerawork we chose this screenshot because not only does it show the sinister look of the Nazi officer but also captures the bleak and rural surroundings. We chose this shot as a mid-shot of the Nazi official as he walks away from his meeting. This shot shows the importance of this character (Herman played by Ed Wills-Wood) and establishes the character as one of power. This shot also displays the Nazi armband in the centre of the shot, further establishing character and setting.

We chose this title font and style to ve very simplistic, which matches with the film title at the end. For example, if we used an intricate or flamboyant font then it would not be in keeping with the tone of the film. Similarly, we chose the colour of the font to be white to match the black and white style. We also used fade effect for the titles to gradually come on, and like the font and colour this is fairly simple, but we felt that it was quite effective.

We chose this picture to represent the story of our film, because it is the moment at which the flashback begins. This is similar to other films of our genre, as it shows a single event that starts off the rest of the events of the film. With our character of Daniel handing over the photograph of his grandfather it shows two of the main characters and a pivotal moment in the opening. This shot also doesn’t give too much away for the audience, as at this point we are not meant to know exactly what is happening and adds to the suspense. Also, this scene is the first of our parallel narratives, as we have one set in the present and one looking back on the events of the past, and this scene is what links the two together.

This shot shows our representation of genre within our film. We thought that this was a fitting picture as it shows the two main character of our flashback timeline posing for the photo that starts the events set in the present. This shot also shows the setting and puts the scene into context with the smart clothing and Swastika armbands. This shows the same tone and typical setting of many World War 2 films of this genre, such as the film Downfall. The lighting in this shot similarly shows the stereotypical darkness of a film of this genre, as a World War 2 film will be a serious subject, which we think is accurately portrayed in this shot.

We chose this shot as it is the first up close shot of the two Nazi officials, and shows the character in the foreground as being the more dominant of the two whilst showing some of the compassion of Daniel’s grandfather (Lukas). This then creates the sombre tone that runs throughout the opening and highlights the high-ranking positions that these two men are in whilst also differentiating them from each other.

This last shot shows the use of technology in our film. We wanted our film to stand out from others of our genre by using an effect that would make the whole scene black and white, but still show the colour red which would really highlight the Swastika armbands. Unfortunately this proved difficult and we had to settle for having it only at two points in the film. The shot displayed is an example if that, and shows the red of the Swastika highlighted against the bleack background. We also decided to have the rest of the film in black and white which is shown here. This made the setting look a lot mare dreary, and is used in several films of our genre, a key example of which is Schindler’s List.

Target Audience

Our target audience is anyone with historical interest in the war, adventure and mystery. We don’t expect younger audiences to be interested in this film and the mature subject matter makes this film likely to be a 15 certificate. The older generation with interest in this film may be interested aswell as those who enjoyed other war films, which we know are popular. ‘Schindler’s List’ is one of the most influential films of all time, and a film we researched that won 7 Oscars suggesting these films can be very successful. The film could also attract students who are maybe studying history and interested in the subject that our film covers. Having a teenager as the main character however could attract teenager’s who may relate to the character.

Editing

In the past few weeks our group has been editing our film which was a great learning experience despite various problems along the way. We had a good variety of shots from our filming however the dialogue was very indistinct because of the winds, the extent of which we didn’t realise until we put it onto the computer. This meant we had to record our actors speaking their lines and then carefully dub the audio over the original footage. We used this form of A.D.R to good effect as the dialogue had a good quality and synchronised with the actors almost perfectly. We had to layer the new audio with our previously recorded ambient sound of the Bickerley Bridge to increase the verisimilitude.

To achieve the black and white effect was easy however the red, black and white effect was difficult which meant we had to settle for only having it at points in the film opposed to throughout. We switch from colour to black and white between the modern-day scenes gradually and then back to colour at the end. The effect shows the journey back in time and special effects make the journey believable.

We use blurs, cross dissolve’s and slow motion as visual effects in the film to increase viewer interest and make the film more dramatic. All these effects were easy to apply however they look professional and effective. To achieve a typewriter tagline we had to take a time-consuming and clumsy approach of doing it. We created over 20 different titles each with a new letter to have the letters come onto the screen synchronised with the typewriter noise we got off ‘freesounds.com’. Despite the cumbersome approach the finished article is what we hoped and clinical.

Aswell as the typewriter noise we also downloaded string noises and pitch rises off the site ‘freesounds.com’ which doesn’t break any copyright laws. As for the other music we created using presets on Garage Band to make dramatic and intense piano music aswell as contemporary swing music.

When editing we made decisions to jump cut a long establishing shot and used our initiative in various other circumstances, the beauty of editing is that you can go with your heart but things can always be changed. We wanted to animate our titles to add to the professionalism of the film.

Story Board – Animatic

To create our storyboard we wrote descriptions of the shot then drew the description to help us understand the imagery of the shots. This was a vital step in the planning stage and helped us understand what each shot was going to look like and the practicalities of it. We developed the story board in conjunction with the shooting script for a more well structured plan, and then we animated the story board using Adobe premier pro. This was a quick edit to show each shot in our story board but helped us a lot in the planning of filming, it was a matter of putting the clips in order and then putting it on youtube thus it becomes animated.