Evaluation - Question 5 Feedback

This is the feedback I received after interviewing various members of our target audience questions about the opening to get more of an insight for me to see whether or not what we portrayed in the opening was presented onto the audience. This feedback helped me acknowledge that the idea we portrayed in the opening of the storyline and all the added elements to build suspense to the audience was shown. Therefore it was a success as the audience captured the overall idea we were going for but also did give us areas to improve. 

(EQ6) Diary post 4 - Achievements + creativity

Dear diary, 
Overall I am proud of our opening although it did take quite a while to get to this point which has allowed me to acknowledge the mistakes made this time round to know what not to do for next time. Despite this, I did really enjoy the experience of filming our own opening and creating something especially with the thriller genre that I couldn't of done myself. 

I have a few favourite shots from the opening and I picked my top 3:

The first is the establishing shot of London what we panned across over the bridge, this is one of my favourites because I think it sets the mood of the opening realistically with the weather. It also fits in really well with the scene straight afterwards but as the opening scene I think it is simple but effective. The second and third are wide shots of the main female character as she chooses an outfit to wear. I really like these shots as in between the two shots, there is a very quick cut between them that separates but brings it together as in moment the audience are behind the character and within the next they are in front. As well as the editing throughout which is all parallel editing which I think is successful in our opening as it shows the different events happening which I think is fitting with our genre and storyline. 

We also had some limitations to our creativity as when creating and filming this opening as it would require certain shots that we couldn't film e.g. aerial shot due to lack of technology and also I think with more technology we could of created better shots. Another example of an idea we had which we didn't continue through with was to create an illusion through editing through the view of the characters eyes by showing her blinking but through the lenses. We also lacked in our creativity due to time and knowledge that I didn't think thoroughly enough on to allow us to have extra time to follow through with these ideas. So for next time, I need to plan out the storyline more thoroughly as for this opening we had to change it multiple of times due to the plot not making any sense. For the future, I also want to be more organised with the filming and editing, I want to be more efficient so when it comes to improvements that they can easily be done without having to re-shooting everything. I hope to continue with these targets and keep them in mind for next year so I don't repeat the same mistakes.

Yours truly,

Millie

(EQ6) Diary Post 3 - Evaluation + Improvements

Dear diary, 
From going onto the pre-production I did not realise the amount of work that goes into editing and filming, nor did I think it was easy but I did not expect the outcome of it to extremely time consuming. As a result of this, I was able to be aware now that what is created when you take the time and effort, having not have realised at the beginning I wasn’t producing the amount of work I would have wanted. But after acknowledging that the amount of time spent into editing and ensuring your work has been completed as best as possible also indicates the success or unsuccess you will face as an outcome. The preliminary task was very simple and quick so I really didn't realise everything that goes through filming and editing until we came on the pre-production task. For the future, I am going to take on board being organised with filming and editing as they may seem quick to complete but it counts on the time you give to the project. Although another problem faced was the research which made it difficult to carry on with the opening as when we were undergoing research, none of the films we were analysing fitted well with the idea for our opening. This problem wasn't fixed until later when we had already began filming, I did more research into films related to our genre, age and plot to then find 'P2' which we related back to our opening. Although we did have to adjust our opening as we couldn't follow through all the features in their opening into our own. However if I had to do this again, I would pick a different genre therefore allowing me to completely change the locations and storyline. I did enjoy filming and researching relating all to the thriller aspects but it isn’t the typical genre I watch, so I think if I was able to do it again and create an opening for a genre I am more familiar with so I would have more information about the genre and films under it. For example, I think if it hadn't have been thriller I would have gone for the rom-com genre as it is more light hearted and I can relate more to it. I think it also would have made filming easier as it was difficult as throughout the opening until we changed it at the end, we were shooting at night for the car park scenes which was harder to do especially around the Christmas period. So if I was to do anything rom-com related, it would allow me to film during day time therefore making it more convenient especially when it comes to re-filming.
Yours truly,
Millie

(EQ6) Diary Post 2 - The Difficulties

Dear diary,
As expected I faced a few technical difficulties when completing the tasks, one of the main ones at the beginning was to understand how to work the MACS more particularly with the sound. We had issues with the sound not adjusting and when we decided to change the music we used, it took quite a while of fiddling around with iMovie and assistance to get us to be able to change the music completely. Another issue was that certain shots we would have wanted to be in our opening couldn't be done due to lack of technology e.g. aerial shots. I think this could of been a great introduction shot of the location although we instead have an establishing shot which I think looks really good. Linking to the filming aspect, we had a few minor problems with the camera such as getting it in focus and making sure we had full battery. This however could all be sorted out by ourselves and the problem was for us to be more organised and prepared for if the battery did run out, what would then be done. Therefore we didn't have a back up in case that did happen. So for next time, I think we need to ensure what could be the next alternative to use.  Even before the filming itself, there were problems with the production tasks e.g. planning. I was able to do the research beforehand although there was an issue which is why our opening took longer to create as our inspiration of films clashed due to the fact that none of the films we had researched hadn't had any relation to the opening we were trying to create. For the future with the research especially as that is the beginning of where the rest of the filming lies to be specific and know that it should have connections with what we are trying to produce. Then when it came time to shoot, we had problems with our actors and the days therefore we were limited with time and days that were available which is why in the end we had a change in characters. I think overall, the issue we faced is lack of planning with our opening which is what made it difficult as we progressed until we began to plan filming and editing arrangements but this is certainly something that I want to improve to avoid it happening next time around. 
Yours truly,
Millie 

(Evaluation Question 6) Diary Post 1 - Everything I've learnt

Dear diary,

I've learnt a lot since we began filming at the beginning of this year, I started off being completely unaware of the technologies we would be using more specifically the MACS. Starting off, I didn't know a lot about the MACS and how you use them. But over time especially working in groups helped although eventually now I am able to confidentially go on the MACS without needing anyone just in case and navigate my way around them. By using this as our hardware and iMovie for our software, it made me need to know how to use them both. When we were editing, there is constantly so many changes to be made and I still do get nervous fiddling around with the settings to do with the videos, sound, titles etc. but it has also given me the courage to know what to do and how could I fix the problem. The main difficulty with editing was the sound as at the beginning we only used one sound but when coming to the end of our opening we realised in order to build tension we needed more than one sound. So removing the sound that was placed throughout was hard as it then made it difficult to insert the new music on top as they hadn't been correctly inserted. We managed to overcome this problem by attempting to add the new sound multiple times and in different ways and with some assistance, it managed to work and we were able to have both sounds. What did become easier as I progressed with using the MACS and iMovie was editing the actual videos themselves as it easy to identify the parts we did and didn't need. Overall, I used a lot of different software's not just including iMovie.

We were introduced into Blogger for the first time this year, this is where we upload all our preliminary and pre-production tasks and all the documents that were needed to be completed before we even started filming so we were aware of what we were filming. Blogger allowed us to organise all the different things we do in the year especially with our archive that categorises each post with the month it was published in. The challenges I faced with Blogger was that at the beginning, I rarely used it because I didn't know how to change the design and layout of the site. I also wasn't experienced on adding text, images and videos so I didn't use it or attempt to however as we started to produce documents that needed to be posted I started to play around with the site. I fiddled around with the designs and fonts and how to include items into the site to the point now where I feel confident when uploading anything onto my blog. As well as YouTube, which was a big factor when completing my work as this is how we all uploaded our tasks and opening to then make it easier to link into our Bloggers so it can be accessed by anyone.

Moving onwards to the different hardware we used such as: MACS, camera, phone and laptop. The MACS were used for editing as mentioned before by using iMovie. The camera we used which was the Canon EOS 100D to film all of our videos and allowed us to experiment with the zoom and focus to shift from angles, especially from our draft to the final opening we changed around with the angles and shots a lot. Having never really used cameras to the best of my ability when we started filming, I wasn't very good at focusing shots but as we continued to re-shoot certain scenes and even we we re-filmed the whole of our opening I was able to acknowledge the different angles for the shots. I also began to understand for this specific camera how to focus and when instead I was taking pictures of the shot. I also figured out how to focus the camera and zoom in at the same time without it being shaky or fuzzy even if we didn't include these shots into our opening, it still allowed me to adjust the settings of the camera and perhaps find something we did like and experience me with another piece of technology. 

The phones and laptops were used to watch any of my YouTube videos very easily and made it accessible for anyone who wanted to watch them, especially when collecting back feedback it was really quick to show them. This was one of the easiest technologies used as I am very aware and comfortable with using my own phone and laptops so there wasn't any issues concerning them. Overall, I have learnt a lot in the past few months about filming and the Thriller genre, this task has allowed me to be more creative in the opening we created and then portraying that onto the filming side of the task. I have learnt more than I knew when I started about working MACS and camera's which will benefit me and has inspired me to want to film more. 

Yours truly,

Millie 

Question 3 - Institution research

Question 3 - Institution research from milierana

Story Board

We changed the plot of our opening which then resulted in various new shots, music and the way we presented the character and the genre after completing our research especially from learning from our previous drafts of the task. Therefore this is our new and final story board for our opening: