5. How did you attract/address your audience?

At the development stage, we created a unique and exciting idea which involves numerous audience pleasures (and pains):

- The Props are really exceptional. They create a realistic picture and a more dramatic effect/professional look. They got a huge 8.4% average rating in our questionnaire (the highest of all key areas)

- The element of mystery is also important, this invites the audience to predict the future/what is attacking all of these locals. It also allows the reader to look forward to discovering the cause of all of this mystery

- The violence is another appealing factor, particularly due to the fact that our target audience is males, therefore blood (cuts) and explosions are always exciting. The gun shot to the half-dead body leading to a bloody head explosion is mentioned by almost all viewers and is one of our Unique Selling Points

- The soundtrack/sound effects used are also significant as the audience empathises with the poor situation everyone is in and it adds to the tension and drama which are intelligently illustrated

- The washed-out effect used by our lighting is fantastic. It gives a dull, mysterious and interesting look, much like Misfits and it also helps draw emotion from the audience

- The use of younger actors could also appeal to the core audience as they are able to empathise with the characters

Marketing

To gain the attention of the audience, we used two advertising techniques:

- We used a Facebook event to invite all of our friends (who make up the core audience) to preview our screening

- We also placed posters around the school. These were placed below another group's poster as we decided to have a symbiotic relationship to draw a larger audience and also advertise together

- We have posted the sequence on Youtube in order to recieve more feedback and get a larger/broader audience appeal/reach

The Screening

The Screening went very successfully. We managed to attract over sixty attendees and they were all very enthusiastic towards our project and interested in offering honest feedback.

A video of the screening process

An excel spreadsheet of our questionnaire results (click for full-size)

Our target audience are 15-25 year old males and this became clear due to our questionnaire results. The average rating (shown in blue) from our male audience was a huge 8.6/10, whereas the average rating (shown in red) from our female audience was 7.4/10. This shows a clear difference in appeal as although both genders enjoyed the sequence, males (our core audience) illustrate a greater interest in comparison to females (our tertiary audience).

Example filled in

questionnaire:

The pie chart illustrates that most of the audience labelled our sequence as a Horror Genre. We were pleased to see that all of our ideas were reflected in our feedback as the actual genre is Horror/Action and 5 out of 21 members (we split the questionnaires between our group and I got 21) chose that our genre was Horror/Action and this is great as all of our ideas/inputs are realised by our audience

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

Hardware (Production Process)

-     Canon HDV 30 (Camcorder)

-     Shotgun Microphone

-     Tripod

-     Clapperboard

-      Headphones

(the camera + shotgun mic on shoot)

I can now fully operate a Sony Camcorder, including manual focus and also adjust the settings according to shot types, e.g. I had to rotate the camera sideways while holding the tripod smoothly to do the forward track. Manual Focus was a very effective technique which we used in the production process. A key moment is when the focus shifts at the montage when the soldier creeps to the screams.

I have also learnt to use a shotgun microphone effectively; most of our shots were filmed in the ‘shotgun’ setting so it only picks up the closest sounds and ignores any background sound. As we were filming outdoors, the headphones helped us to know exactly what sounds are heard by the camera, e.g. often there were police sirens or footsteps from locals.

The tripod was possibly the most important piece of equipment we used (other than the camera) because it kept all the shots still and smooth, although occasionally we used handheld shots, for example the ‘beast’ POV shot at the end of the film sequence. It is also very good in terms of flexibility as it includes plenty of firm adjusters which can be lowered or raised depending on shots.

The clapperboard was also essential as it helped us keep track of shots and stay on task as it is essentially an ‘organizer’. It also helped the actors know roughly when to get ready to perform.

Software (Editing)

-    Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

-    Adobe After Effects

-   Macbook Pro (Livetype)

Adobe Premiere Pro was absolutely vital in creating a smooth, error-free production. It includes for example a variety of settings, effect settings in particular and also a well organized capture list.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro’s procamp setting to adjust the lighting/contrast to be quite dull, washed out and similar to the colours they use in ‘Misfits’. This came out exceptionally well and adds to the tension and drama.

We also used various sound effects to adjust the radio conversation between the sergeant and the soldier. Bandpass/Highpass effects were used to make the sound more distorted and give a realistic (the sergeant on the Radio was Matt Smith, we just edited his voice) radio effect. 

Adobe After Effects was used to produce the gun shot at the start of the sequence. Freddie Wong (see previous post) has very easy tutorials and these helped to create a realistic and professional shot/head explosion.

At Latymer, we are lucky to have a Macbook Pro available and its Livetype programme is very useful to create visual/effective titles.

Livetype Interface

Other

-     Blogger

-     Facebook

-     Youtube

-     Freeplaymusic.com

All three websites are vital to communicate, illustrate and publish our project.

I have learnt various technical aspects in blogger, and in particular have learnt about HTML codes and how to order posts/edit individual design aspects.

We used Facebook to communicate via a group chat. It’s simple to use and we are all very active with Facebook, so within an hour everyone in my group would know exactly what is happening with our production. Facebook was also used to gather an audience for our screening.

Youtube is used to upload our videos and make them available to the public. It is a huge business, and has various settings, such as annotations to make everything as vivid as possible.

Summary

Although I already knew how to use all of these technologies, my knowledge has dramatically increased in the duration of this project. I am now able to do these much more efficiently and better than before.

If I was to do this project again I would possibly film in the dark and use pag lights to build up tension. This could’ve been very effective; however filming at night is unsafe, awkward and difficult as the lighting would have to look realistic.

My advice to future Media Students is to be ambitious and creative with the technologies, they are so adaptable and useful that a huge variety of things can be carried out by them. It’s always worth attempting the difficult things, as if they come out wrong then they do not have to be used in the final production, for example we filmed a hanging shot at the end of the shooting process which involved the ‘beast’ attacking the soldier and pinning him to the wall however it looked odd and was unclear.

 

(go for a crane shot)

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

The progression from the Preliminary Task to our Final Product was huge.

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree

We were given just one hour to plan for the prelim task, so it just involved a script, a storyboard and a shot schedule. Our final sequence planning on the other hand, was incredibly detailed, we had daily meetings discussing each objective and planning item. We had just two weeks to create an idea, a storyboard, a shot list, a script, do a walkthrough etc… I, for example had to also post letters to my neighbours informing them of the fact that we were shooting over a few weekends and using imitation guns.

letter[1]

The process of running the shoot in the prelim task was fairly simple, we shot indoors which was easy and we had a very simple idea, involving just three actors. The final film sequence however involves six actors, including three main actors which had to be planned appropriately. We also had to arrange actors which ended up being almost my whole family. We also had a time constraint because there are much more shots in ‘Cataclysm’ compared to the prelim task and this proved difficult. Applying blood on the dead bodies was difficult, but we had prepared beforehand.

Working around people outdoors was also a problem, as people would often intrude on our shoots (as it is a public space) and cars would often drive past the shots, and there were even horses at one point.

The editing process was also vigorous, but much easier than the process of running the shoot. The prelim task involved very simple cutting in the editing process, with just a basic title at the start. The final product however involves lots of special effects and involves a soundtrack which we needed to cut and paste to follow the action (pathetic fallacy). We were very organized with our capturing and we used separate folders for each shoot so that we could easily choose the right shots, and the best shots were also in a separate folder.

We worked as a team very efficiently with almost zero arguments. We organized particular jobs for each person and we ended up needing two out of three group members to act as arranging actors is a very tedious process. We met on a daily basis to discuss what needed to be done and we always supported each other and chose appropriate/enjoyable roles for each other. For example, I chose the soundtrack as I enjoy music and selecting suitable music, while James Reader did a lot of paperwork as he is particularly good at English and he's a methodical character.

Freddie Wong: How to create a realistic Muzzle Flare

Freddie Wong is a graphics wizard. We found it difficult to create a decent muzzle flare,  problems included:

- Making the flash look realistic (and in perspective)
- Obtaining an optimal size for the muzzle flash
- Achieving realistic lighting (given off by the flash)
- Timing the flash with the action/sound

Freddie Wong's tutorial was perfect. It goes through steb-bystep how to create a believable muzzle flash and using his expertise we ended up with an incredible shot effect and possibly the best individual piece in our film sequence.