Audience Feedback / Mid Project Review

As our film starts to take shape, it is important for us to obtain audience feedback. We did this by finding people similar to our Audience profile and showing them what footage we have so far and asking for their feedback. We asked for some things they liked as well as improvements they thought we should make. All feedback I am sharing is confidential.

Positives:
- The sound effects when the pigs are shown, this was said to create an enigma as well as dramatic effect. This scene caused our audience to cuss profanities in shock, this shows how powerful our film is in provoking a response.
- Leading lines were used to good effect, drawing the viewers eyes onto the focus of each shot.
- The high angle shots used create effect, making the female actress seem vulnerable, as if she's being watched.

Negatives:
- A lot of the feedback was in relation to our titles and lack of them. The effects in which the title come on screen also needs work.
- While we haven't completed our film, two of the audience commented on the camera sound being heard in the film. This reduces believability and needs taking out of our final piece.
- Because of the timing of our filming, many of the clips seem grainy and out of focus. This gives the film an unprofessional look. However the only solution to the problem is refilming what have done so far at a more suitable time of day when there is a lot more natural light.
- Our actors and their characters lack any introduction or shots establishing who they are/what they're like. To change this, shots and props will be used highlighting key areas of their personalities.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene refers to the arrangement of props, costume, lighting, actors and decoration in the scene. It derives from the french term meaning placement on stage and can refer to plays as well as film. In short, mise-en-scene is the way the frame is set up in terms of how items and lighting are arranged. Mise-en-scene can have dramatic effects on the genre, style and general looks of the scene.

In the image above, the mise en scene is all used to focus in on the female on the sofa. She is in the centre of the screen surrounded by people. The props are all golden covered and the lighting is high key which again signifies wealth.

In our film, there will be low key lighting to highlight the dark intentions of the protagonist. He will also be wearing a long black greatcoat as the color black denotes mystery and the possibility of evil. The majority of camera shots will only show parts or none of the protagonists face to portray mystery and to some extent, put across a level of suspense and an enigma as the audience will have to wonder who the man is.

Match On Action

Match on action is the term referred to the editing technique of cutting one shot and matching the same action in the second shot. An example of this would be opening a door and using shots from both sides of the door to show the action. Another example of match on action would be a shot of a car bonnet being opened then a following shot of the cars engine. Although the two shots would have been filmed hours apart from one another, the technique gives the film the impression of continuation in real time. To the left is my own depiction of match on action. It is important I learn this film technique as it is in the criteria for my main and preliminary tasks. It is also an important skill to learn as in film it is used everywhere, in almost every action.

Preliminary Task - Final

Above is mine and Amy Chapman's finished preliminary task. I think it wasn't the best film we could've produced, we could've done with a lot more research and planning to be able to film it all smoothly instead of taking shots that now appear rushed. The shots are blurry as a result of my own poor camera work where i had accidentally used manual focus instead of automatic without realising. I also think the audio levels are poor, in some shots you can barely hear what the characters are saying. We did take out a microphone to help record audio however we didn't record any as we forgot to put batteries in it. We did write up a storyboard with details of shots to be used and we did stick to it, however some shots on the storyboard were not possible to capture. For example we originally wanted a birds eye view of the table the characters were sat on however it was physically impossible to film this shot without a drone of sorts. Another point i think let us down was the acting, using friends to act proved difficult as their attention was elsewhere. It was difficult to get them to portray emotion also, Alex Flinders was very wooden and stiff, we had to film the torture sequence 3 or 4 times as he wouldn't scream in pain.

The point of this exercise was to identify any weaknesses and doubt we had about filming. I will take all of these factors into account for my next task in order to make it much better. The key point for my next task i believe is careful planning so we know exactly what to do when we come to film it. After doing some further editing, our finished task is below.

Sion Roe Visit

Our usual media studies lesson was interrupted by Sion Roe (pictured above) who had taken the subject at The King's School a number of years prior to me. Sion spoke about how he was working on creating tour videos for popular musicians such as Diplo, which interested me as he had done this after succeeding in the same course i am currently taking. The lesson Sion conducted with our class was all about editing. He showed us a clip from a film he had made in which the title flashed over the screen with the background creating the words in a black background. Sion showed us how to edit clips together to form a film, he also put a lot of emphasis on teaching us how to create visual titles that were innovative. The lesson proved a success as I can now edit clips and add titles easily and will be doing so for other short films I create. Below are a few screenshots of the work i was doing in Sion's workshop.