Branded - Final Draft

Feedback for Branded

Above is a screenshot of the link to our Media film on my Facebook wall. As seen from the comments and the amount of likes, people seemed to have a positive view on our footage.

I showed the film to some individuals and asked them for their opinions, and these were their responses:

Hannah Emery
I enjoyed watching your film opening, as it created alot of questions and made me want to see the rest of the film. I found that the lighting in your film was very effective, as it created the tone of the rest of the film instantly. I liked the location you chose for filming, as it seemed quite remote. However, I think it would have been good for the audience to see more of your character.

Edward Stow
Your film definately made me want to find out what happened next in your story. I like the newspaper cuttings and pictures, and how quick the pacing of the editing was. But I think that perhaps you could have made the news report a bit shorter, as it could make people get bored of long dialogue.

Miranda Amess
I thought that your film was very interesting! The mise-en-scene and set design was very well done; I particularly liked the panning shot of the tools on the desk, it really gives an insight into how violent the main character in your film is. I like how the character was mysterious, as the audience did not really see much of him. The effort that you put into your filming is evident, as the film looks professional and well-put together. I can't really think of anything you can improve on!

Conclusion
Overall, I am very pleased with how our media film turned out. I am pleased that we had to refilm it numerous times, as it means that each time we improved the quality of our footage until we were happy with the final product. The music, cinematography, editing, lighting, set design and colour all work together to create one opening with great effects both visually and audibly. I am very pleased with the consumer reaction to our media project, as it proved to be very popular. We put alot of effort into this product, researching the type of people which would want to go and see it; what kind of production company would distribute it and what to include to appeal to our target audience. Taking all of these different views on board, we created our film, which I feel targeted it's audience effectively. We ensured to stick true to our chosen genre, and include various mise-en-scene and prop elements to show this to the audience, as it needs to be clear what kind of film we are making. We also ensured that we had to create a whole story to the film, despite only creating the opening, to add a sense of realism, which I feel we did so effectively. We also all worked well as a group together, all helping each other at various stages throughout the production of Branded.

Looking back at your preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learnt in the progress from it to full product?

Above is our continuity editing task. The first task we had to do was match on action. We done this by having the girl walk through the door, and then showing a different shot of them walking into the room and closing the door. These two clips had to be edited in perfect time together to create the desired effect.

The second thing we had to do was a shot revere shot. The camera had to show the two characters having a conversation, but by using two different shots. The shots had to stay the same on both characters as otherwise the character positioning would not make sense.

Overally, doing these tasks did help us when creating our final project. It got us used to using the cameras, and helped us to ensure that all of the footage made chronological sense. It also got us used to the editing software, Adobe Premiere, as the clips had to be put into a timeline and edited together. This got us used to using the software when it came to editing our film. The match on action preliminary task was extremely helpful and productive to our film. This is because there are numerous shots which required this in our film; the character opening and shutting a door from two different perspectives, and the character throwing the cross on the floor from two different perspectives. The tasks greatly helped us when it came to shooting and editing these particular scenes.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Above is the final draft of our media project, Branded. On this video I have annotated various key shots and spoke about how they are used to create meaning. I also focused on numerous other mise-en-scene elements. This addresses the audience as it allows them to see the themes which are in our film.

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

We used multiple different products to produce our film. To film it we used a small digital camera, which did not produce the highest of quality images, although it was small and compact, which was an advantage as it was quite a commute to get to our filming location. When we first filmed it, we did not take a tripod, and noticed that the footage was quite shakey and unstable. The correct this problem, we re-shot the footage and ensured that we brought a tripod to make sure that the footage was of a higher quality standard.

Once we had shot the footage, we uploaded it onto an Apple Mac in the school Recording Studio, as shown in the picture above. It was easy to upload as all we had to do was connect it, upload it and ensure that we made a copy incase anything happened to the footage.

Then, we uploaded the footage onto Adobe Premiere to edit it. We placed all of the footage onto a timeline, and then rendered it, which was quite a long process. We cut and edited various parts of the footage until we were happy with the final product. Adobe Premiere was extremely easy to use, as it was quick to cut, edit and change any piece of footage.

Then, we converted the footage uploaded our final piece onto YouTube. Uploading it onto YouTube was quite difficult, as it kept encountering errors during the upload. However, with some help from our peers we managed to overcome the problem and upload our footage so that we could get feedback. We also found our music on YouTube, checked that is was not copyrighted, and used an online video converter to get the footage onto Premiere.

I learnt alot of informaton throughout the whole filming and editing process, including:

1) The importance of tripods when filming, as although certain camera's are good without them, to get the best footage tripods are important

2) How to upload the footage onto Adobe Premiere.

3) How to add effects onto footage in Premiere, including fades, dissolves and more.

4) How to add titles onto the footage.

5) How to add titles next to the footage.

6) How to import music.

7) How to important video footage.

We also used iTunes to import our music, Google to find out various information about our chosen genre and target audience, Blogger: to record our progress, YouTube: to watch various other openings to other thriller/horror films, and also to upload out final product. We also used Facebook to share our film with a diverse range of people, and to get their opinions on it. I also uploaded our footage onto the website Tumblr, to see people's opinions on our footage.

Who would be your audience for your film?

This is Jim Cowan, a twenty-five year old man. He lives in the capital of London, and is a lover of film and television. Ever since he was a child, Jim has known that he has wanted to go into the area of film as a career, and is currently studying Film Studies as a degree at University. He enjoys watching films for both leisure and also to analyse.

He enjoys a range of activites: being with friends, visiting the cinema, football, playing the guitar, surfing and playing video games. He finds a balance between having a good social life with his friends and also ensuring that he has time to catch up on the latest films. He tends to buy films, as opposed to renting them, as he likes to have them added into his collection.

His favourite genre of film is thriller. This is because enjoys watching a film which grasps his attention for the whole duration. Thriller films offer this experience, as you are constantly in a state of worry as to what is going to happen to the characters. Some of his favourite films in this genre include Saw, Paranormal Activity, Final Destination and The Crazies. However, he also enjoys films outside of this genre, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Back To The Future. He has recently been to the cinema to see the new Scream 4 film, as he has followed the franchise for many years. Some of the music which he enjoys listening to are bands like Fall Out Boy and Lostprophets, both of which are rock bands.
Our film is targeted at people like Jim, as he is the most likely kind of person to see the film. However, it is important to remember when marketing not to focus too closely on one kind of person, as this can alienate other potential viewers and prevent them from seeing Branded.

What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

We created our production company, Unearthly Productions to produce our film. This involves all of the creating and funding of the film. The types of films that they produce are horror/thriller, and use a mix of cinematography and mise-en-scene to create a reaction in the audience.

Distributors of horror films:

Lionsgate films have distributed the Saw franchise in the USA. They were very effective at doing this, as represented in the success of the films and their sequels. They are also a well known distributor of the horror genre, this will mean that our film will become more well known if it has a good distributing company.


Paramount Pictures distributed Paranormal Activity. They done this very successfully, and marketed the film in such a way to grasp audience's attention. They showed audience's reaction to the film in the trailer, which immediately made potential consumers interested.


The distributor Dimension Films distributed the film 'Scream', which is an iconic horror film.

The distributing company which I think would distribute our film would be Lionsgate films. They have produced numerous iconic films over the years that the company has produced, and they all seem to be of the highest quality. The films which they distribute share similar themes with ours: death, pain, suffering, and ultimately result in scaring the audience. Lionsgate can also distribute a range of films, from mainstream blockbusters, to independent films which are targeted at a more niche audience.