Evaluation

Dead Man's Love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBempkpo9Ow&feature=player_embedded

Above is the YouTube link to our final film product:

Ancillary Tasks:

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

Using technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages has allowed us to gain ideas, influence us and build upon the product. It is a very large advantage as these can be done quicker and information that is relevant can be found easily.

 When making our moodboard we used Prezi as it we collected images and words to show what our film represents. These images and words were searched and found from looking on Google.

 When we were looking for an actor to play the main role we used e-mail to message optional people as it was a quick way of communicating. On Facebook we also created a page on our film so people could comment on it and so we could gain feedback throughout, also this was a good way for the people involved in the film to communicate and we could keep a schedule of when filming and other events would take place, making planning easier. Youtube helped us search for films to watch so we could build on our own ideas for our product. Other ways the internet helped was to look for film reviews, posters and also films in general that were of the similar genre to ours.

 The equipment: digital video camera, microphone, etc...gave us the advantage of making filming, editing, deleting quick and easy to use, uploading footage onto computers too. We also used another camera which was owned by one of the camermen in the group which is of a high quality, this gave us the best focus and picture.

 Using blogger has allowed us to upload any new work we have completed, feedback and the opportunity to see each others so we know where we are going and what we need to do to improve.

3. What have you learned from the audience feedback?

From the audience feedback that we have already received we have gained different opinions which show a mixed response to our product.

 When we showed the film to our class, the audience didn't fully understand what was happening at times and agreed that the plot wasn't clear, but the camera work, setting and mise en scene was all good which is most important. Also we had the same response when we showed other people from the school when editing the film to it's final piece, the main problem is that the story isn't clear.

 Another area where we received feedback was when we uploaded the video publicly onto Facebook and had people responding with such comments as "hilarious!" and again saying the camera work and picture is great.

 From watching it ourselves we agree with most of the audience that the films work is good, but the script should have been written slightly better.

 The feedback we received for our poster has been mixed as some feel that the face should be split and some feel it should have two separate colours. Also, the colour of the face and how the eyes are positioned for example has been liked by some and disliked by others. We then changed our poster design to looking much more professional which we have gather feedback from posting it on Facebook, being more positive than the previous one, for example: "this is awesome!" 

 The magazine review was all positive feedback though which is why we are most proud of this. The audience have said that it looks very professional and matches the layout as the real one we used to influence us from the magazine. There is nothing we could change for the magazine review as it's had good feedback and we have made it as similar as we can do the real one, we don't need to improve this and feel it's as good quality as we could have done. With the target audience being similar to that of Shaun of the Dead, predominantly white males, teenagers and young adults.

2. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary tasks?

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3824150&height=267&width=200

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3824488&height=267&width=200

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=3824500&height=267&width=200

Above are the links to three voki videos answering the question with the text below.

We used the same clothing in all of them and the facial expressions too although they had to be slightly changed for effect. In the magazine we used images that are in our film, but we didn't do this for the poster because we didn't want them to look similar and also it would be interesting to see something which is more creative that hasn't been taken from the film. When I designed the logo using a graphics programme with the production name written on it, we decided to show this on our poster as they are shown on the real ones and also at the beginning of the film to show everyone who created it, but we didn't use it in the magazine as the real one didn't, so we wanted to keep it professional.
 We used the colour red for the titles in the magazine and in the actual film, but in the poster we didn't for certain effects reasons so it stands out. The film also used fairly dark lighting for effect, the poster is quite dark to show the mood of the film, but the magazine is different using quite bright colours such as yellow, blue and red to make it more appealing. We kept to using similar fonts in the film, magazine and poster so the title is recognisable.

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

The research and planning for our film influenced our work by showing us ways of being more creative with ideas and it helped us develop our product. Now that it is finished we honestly have agreed that we feel our product doesn't work because the plot isn't very clear for the audience and we may have tried to fit too much into the five minute time limit. I personally feel that looking back at it now, it would have been better to have been a serious film rather than involving comedy which is when the negative parts come in.
 We didn't have to research any films for plots as we had an idea about the genre being a horror, which then gave us the idea of Shaun of the Dead which we already knew about and so then decided to make it a horror comedy. Nothing that happens in the film as specific parts were influenced from research but instead our own ideas.
 When looking at an idea for a poster we looked at how real ones were laid out to understand the best way of  making ours not look too amateur. I had the idea of the main characters face as the main focus of the poster and then remembered the front cover of the film: Me, Myself and Irene, which is also a comedy. We used the idea of having the face split into two personalities as our character is half-human and half-zombie, so we decided to build upon this. Other posters we looked at for our research were all horror comedies: Shaun of the Dead, Scary Movie and Zombieland, although none of these were added into our final product. But eventually we changed our poster design and have something which is more serious and looks similar to that of the film, "Dead Man's Shoes."
 The magazine is probably the part of our product that we are most proud about because it looks very real. We used an Empire film magazine as research into how to lay out a film review and how to write the text. The finished piece looks almost identical to a real film review from the magazine which is why we're pleased with it. Text size, font, colour and images were all very important to research in order to give our product the best
chance of looking good.

Final poster

This is the final completed poster which we all had an involvement in designing with creative ideas in the group, but was produced by Justin. 

 We took the idea of the layout from other posters we had looked at from around the classroom and tried to make it similar so it would look professional and of a high quality. 

 The idea of the head close up came from the film we already knew about but also looked at from the internet: Me, Myself and Irene, which is also a comedy. At first we were going to copy the split face showing two personalities which would be human and zombie, but then changed our mind and decided it would look better without the split and adding the details instead. The logo design at the bottom left was quickly and easily made on a graphics program with our production name in the centre of it. Also we added some famous film production companies such as Working Title and Universal. 

 We agreed not to have too many actors/actresses names as it would have filled up too much space and it looked overcrowded, so we just kept to the main characters name at the top of the poster. The title also underneath and a slogan which we all agreed on.



This is the new poster design as we decided to change it, agreeing the last one wasn't good enough for the standard we are aiming for for a couple of reasons which one is that of the eye not looking very promising or professional. This new one is of a much better quality and has gained a lot of positive feedback from audience as we publicly posted it on Facebook to see what people's opinions are.
 The layout is a lot more detailed and specific with great colour and fonts to give it a good effect to the audience viewing the appearance, which is vital. The title is in bold to be appealing with the main actors name above, an image, date and other names/credits at the bottom, it now looks much more professional.
 This idea had originally been developed without us realising it is fairly similar to another poster of a real product, coincidentally having a similar title to ours too: "Dead Man's Shoes" so they look quite the same. We then changed the colour of the text from red to blue so it wouldn't look so similar, also making the red blood stand out more. One part of the image from the poster that stands out and has a good effect is the running line of blood, this shows the theme of the film. The only negative feedback I could give it myself apart from it being fairly similar to another product is that it gives the impression that it is a very serious film, although it does include a lot of comedy.

Final magazine

The magazine is now completed with all the finishing touches added, we feel it looks very professional as we based it on the layout of a film review from Empire magazine. We are very happy with the final outcome, if there was one thing to change it would be the writing on the right hand side which is white because it matches the colour of the background where Sams shirt is white in the photo, it's still readable and changing it black wouldn't match the other writing.
 Justin followed the design of the magazine from Empire by trying to match each detail as closely as he could to make it more realistic and believable. On the left hand side down the column is about new film releases and interviews. On the right hand side is about the actors/actresses starring in Dead Man's Love, the main section of writing in the middle of the page is about the plot and in the bottom right hand corner has the verdict with a rating.

Music and sound

We have recently been looking for music to add to a scene in our film with Justin in the car speeding and then running over Sam. We thought because Justins un-named character is the typical person who doesn't care about anyone else as he is driving very fast and then uses his phone whilst in the car, so we thought adding some loud club music would suit the scene.
 The name of the song that we found on the internet is called Play It Hard from G-T3K, it's fast dance music and this will be played as he is driving up to when he hits Sam crossing the road.
 When editing we added the track switching from the car driving and Sam walking, getting quiter when it's on Sam. When Justin stops the car and gets out the music continues playing as if it's coming from his car stereo, but then goes quieter as he runs away to show he's moving away from the stereo. We feel that this does work although it might look quite cheap and not believable that the music is coming from the car.
 We also found a song which we used for the credits at the end of the film which we have now formed including the director, writer, producer, editor, cast and others. We wanted a piece of music that was comical as it keeps the mood for the final shot of Mickey and Dave ready to help Luke eat his wife. We found the song from

Third and final day of filming

On the 8th March we stayed after school and filmed our third and final scene in a classroom to use as an office where Sam is at work. We changed the script a little by adding him killing a colleague and then his boss which is played by Ryan to make the point that he is a zombie more clear as before he only killed his wife which didn't give much away about the story.
 We used a variety of shots such as a close-up on Ryan's face when he's shouting to make him look more angry and give a better effect. Pete Geldart volunteered to play the colleague who sits near Sam at the desk when he kills him which we filmed out of focus by concentrating on Ryans face when he finds a sheet of paper been printed off by Sam to look confused.
 Also we came up with the good idea of showing him kicking the body under the desk of the person he just killed as his boss walks over and talks to him.

Editing

After finishing our first two days of filming which is most of our project apart from one more scene which we need to do, we have been editing our collected footage. We began by cutting particular clips that we agreed didn't fit the film or were not good enough for different reasons. Then we put the remainding clips together into place by deciding the ones we preferred. These were then cut down so we got rid of any unwanted footage and left spaces for where the last part of filming will be placed, also for where the car accident will go seeing as that still needs to be complete.
 Recently we noticed a continuity error where Sam is getting dressed for work with his coat on and then the next shot is him with his coat off. We had to remove certain parts and try to get away with what we have, it may look slightly odd, but on the positive side it is a comedy so it could look quite funny, also not everyone we have shown has noticed the mistake.
 Another small error we found was on the sound a voice can be heard in the background when the shot is being filmed, so we cut that part out and jumped straight to the next shot, although there is not much of a problem because it's only a few seconds and still looks good, personally I think it looks better because the shot was too long anyway.
 Recently we completed our final scene and when editing found one slight error which was when Sam kicks the hand under the table to hide the dead body of the colleague he just killed at work, Ryan who plays his boss, speaks at the same time which we wanted to show in a different shot, so instead we just cut it down a little so it fits perfectly.

Second day of filming

On 06/02 we did our second day of filming which we all felt went very well, getting all the footage we needed and running smoothly with everyone able to make it. We have most our film now apart from one scene which may be added which will be done soon and won't take too long. We filmed all the scenes that we had planned on the script apart from one which we felt didn't fit with the rest of it, although it wasn't in the script anyway. Also throughout the filming we made some alters such as cutting out one idea from the toilet scene, this is because it might have been a scene that would have gone on for too long and would have needed too many shots, but this wasn't a vital part. We also filmed in a random order so all the scenes are not together, this will take lots of editing.

 We used Lucy's house as she is now in the movie playing the wife of Sam's character, Luke. We began fairly early in the morning with the first scene being outside showing Luke entering the house after coming home from work from being hit by a car which we filmed on day one. The other scenes we filmed were the bed scene showing him getting in and out with his wife, the bathroom scene, the table thrown out the door scene, lounge scene and the kitchen scene where he kills her, showing Mickey and Dave finding Luke eating her when they decide to join in.

Progress questions

- How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?
A film that I researched because of the genre being the same to ours: horror comedy, was Shaun of the Dead, this will relate to our movie being the same audience as it's the same genre. We looked into dvd covers of horror comedy films such as Scary Movie and Zombie Land too, so we could take away ideas from these to develop our production work based upon the genre. On the Scary Movie front cover we found a qoute: I see dead people. This is mocking a real movie so we took the idea of having a slogan at the top of our poster: You're in good hands with a zombie. Two other dvd front covers/posters that we examined were Me, Myself and Irene and Superbad because they are both comedy's and they helped us to develop our poster layout. The Me, Myself and Irene poster shows a head split in half showing two personalities, so it linked to the genre of our film as it's about a normal man who is a zombie, so he is a split person. Also the Superbad poster shows the main characters so we thought this would be a good way to lay out the poster with all the characters spread over the poster, in the background etc.

- How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?
When I looked at Shaun of the Dead, I found that the film achieved an average age of it's audience being 18-34 year olds, mainly students. The reason we chose to do comedy was because it targets the whole market, both male and female, ranging from different ages, because the majority of people all like comedy, it also has elements of horror and romance, so this spreads even wider giving us a big audience. The comedy is also the same of that in Shaun of the Dead, which in a review was described as "cheeky more than sarcastic," and it had a very successful audience so we hope that ours should get some positive feedback too. The main audience of Shaun of the Dead being a cheeky, sarcastic comedy with the characters as white British, the large majority of the audience that were attracted were the same as the characters being white because of it's comedy. So, we know from this that with our film being a cheeky, sarcastic comedy with all the characters being white British, linking to that of Shaun of the Dead, our audience will be the same.

- How did your research into institutions be responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?
I looked at posters of films so we knew how to create ours and make it look as real and convincing as possible. We added productions names such as Universal, Working Title, Studio Canal and I made one for our group. As we know that Working Title and Studio Canal work with comedies such as Shaun of the Dead, we thought it would be a good idea to use it for ours, also Universal as we know is a big production name so it would boost our poster appearance. After looking at these logo's we had an idea of what to do for our own production name, so it did fairly influence us.

First day of filming

We have just completed filming our first part of the film which is the car scene where the actor gets knocked down by a driver. We managed to get lots of different shots and angles by using two seperate camera's which gave us more options. Jack Laurilla also came along and took photo's as he does photography, this gives evidence of our filming and shows briefly how we worked and where.

We began at 10:00am and filmed at the Ringwood Junior School lane as it was a fairly quiet road with good light and had a path where we could show the character walking down before he crosses the road. Gareth came too and helped us with ideas and he let us use his green screen so the car collision will look realistic. We ended at around 1:00pm and had collected a good amount of film.

Order of shots:

1. Luke (Sam White) walking home from work.
2. Comes to the edge of the road, looking left.
3. A car from the right comes speeding and hits him.
4. The driver (Justin) gets out of the car and goes to his attention.
5. He goes back to the car to get his phone, looking behind him as he speaks to 999.
6. He looks back again and realises the body has disappeared.

Weather

The weather on Sunday looks like it's going to be rainy so this will be a problem for us. We may have to re-schedule to film this outdoor scene on another day.

 

Filming dates

- 16th January: car scene
- somewhere between these two dates: office scene
- 6th February: house scene's

Our car scene will be filmed on a road in Ringwood, the office scene will be filmed in the afternoon at school and the house scene's will now be filmed at Ed Watson's house, who is going to play the character Dave, as our original location is no longer available.