FINAL PRODUCTION: HIGHER

My First Project from Aaron Reynolds on Vimeo.

EVALUATION: QUESTION 4

Who are your audience & what have you learned from your audience feedback? 

We intended for the audience to able to distinguish the genre of the production and become interested in the story-line by noticing techniques used in films of a similar genre. I believe that we portrayed this well as we used props such as black leather jackets and gloves appropriate to characters in Gangster/crime/thriller films, which was our genre. Audience feedback also reassured us that we had clearly established the genre and themes we were trying to portray when we asked for feedback. They replied with answers relating to crime thrillers and films such as ‘Snatch’ were referenced and compared to ours. We believe that if people notice that the film is of this nature and will fits the genre it will appeal to the audience and fans of action/crime films.

Our production used techniques such as fast paced editing and intense music with crescendos to help create this effect and atmosphere for the viewer, which is how we will make them interested in watching the whole film. If they are interested in the basics seen in the trailer, without even knowing the whole storyline we leave them intrigued at the possibilities and enigmas so they are likely to want to watch the whole film once it has been released. In creating connotations and using techniques associated with the genre of crime thriller such as fast paced editing and an almost predictable storyline, we believe we attracted an audience, which was our intended outcome. We then had other techniques to build on this such as the way we portrayed the storyline to make our film different and appealing in comparison to other crime thriller films.

We wanted to emphasise that our production was British and we wanted it to be as realistic for the audience as possible, so to do this we used a range of stylistic techniques. In terms of props, we used very typical gangster clothing such as leather jackets, but this was just to provide reassurance for the audience and make sure that something as simple as character clothing didn’t confuse them and allowed for a clear distinction between characters, but at the same time was a stylistic feature. We also used a very common car seen on British roads as a getaway car, which added to the feel of British-ness. English roads where also seen in the trailer which were a massive representation of Britain as you can see very British pavements and traffic lights in the background. We also used fast paced editing in post-production stages to add to the feel and tone, and complying to the characteristics of the crime thriller genre. We did this by using clips which where roughly a third of a second long and playing them after one another. It partially reveals the storyline and teases the audience in true trailer style. We also used actors who where of a relatively young age which added to the realism of the production, as most of our target audience were in this age range (Though this was a neceesity as much as a choice we made the best of it through our planning). This also made our production seem interesting as it provided an insight into a teenagers life and something that we can actually imagine happening to someone. The characters where also very British in the clothes they were wearing and their accents and dialogue.

We can apply the uses and gratification theory to our production as it gives the audience an insight to life of criminals and at the same time the possible insight into an average teenagers' life. It educates them without them having to be in that situation and the fact that our characters are representations of everyday people it makes the sense of learning from the viewing more realistic. It also applies to the uses and gratification theory as we know that the audience are not going to watch the film and then carry out similar actions as they are already going to be educated on social situations, this will primarily be seen as entertainment but may also broaden their understandingof what can happen in everyday life to anyone, in particular teenagers as it is representation of youth culture.. It also goes against the hypodermic syringe model as that would suggest we would watch the trailer and learn from it, i.e, learn how to kidnap a teenager and become a gangster which we know is very unlikely to happen.



This is a screenshot of our soundtrack online on the SoundCloud website. 


We used SoundCloud as a website to host and stream the audio file for our soundtrack. As the track was made public, it allowed for  members of the public to comment on the track telling us which bits where the best and how they suited the trailer, as well as giving us as a group constructive criticism. These are comments we received, mostly from people who have knowledge in producing music.

-“I'd say this track's pretty urban sounding to me!

-"Sparse drum hits give it the tension that you're trying to create and the release-heavy synths work really nicely in conjunction with that.”

-“It'd be better if it was slower, especially for a film, more hip hoppy”

-“I'd say that the kick drum could perhaps do with being tightened up a little. As in, reduce the amount of reverb that's on there and perhaps increase the amount of low end frequencies coming through, maybe if there's any sustain on the wave, it could do with being reduced a little”

As you can see we had mostly positive feedback and we had achieved what we aimed to do which was create the sense of a threatening urban environment with gritty sounds. We can also take the criticism on our side and use it to rework the soundtrack, after all the people who left these comments are our target audience, which was also helpful for us as we can tailor it more specifically for our demographic.



This is the Facebook fan page for "Higher" as it was being constructed. 



We also used 'FaceBook' which is one of the biggest social networking website online. We made a fan page for our production in which our video was accessible by people who liked the page and some people did. This page was then a platform for feedback and a platform for a fan-base. This was beneficial to us as we could get audience opinions and we can see what in particular our audience was interested in through what they liked whether it be a certain picture or screenshot of the production. The group also had a wall where fans could discuss the production and it was a community for people interested on our production. This also allowed us to connect with our audience and we could learn directly from them.

EVALUATION: QUESTION 3

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

Film Poster
A film poster is a very effective way to market your film as it can be filled with specific connotations relating to your chosen genre. In our case this was crime thriller, so we knew we wanted the first impression to be dark and grungy.

 We did this by using a shot from the film of Callum tied up in the hostage scene, this also gives it a visual identity. This shows that violence is a key feature which is the main characteristic of a crime thriller, it suggests that in order to get in that situation some kind of conflict must have taken place which the audience will be interested in.

The poster also contains appealing features such as reviews, and even the age rating can be seen as a selling point as lots of people see a film targeted at ages 18+ to be more exciting as it can contain things only supposed to be seen by adult eyes.

The fonts used are clear to see and by avoiding the use of sans serif we adhere to the mature nature of the film itself. Serif fonts tend to be curly and more arty which is something that would look out of place and suggest a more comedic production was behind the poster.

We also received the following comments after asking for some audience feedback:

"The overall grey and darkness looks sinister and is definitely something I would be interested to watch"

"I like the shot of Callum taken out of the film it makes me wonder what the actual scene was like in the film"

Creating the Film Website

We made sure to use the same if not similar colours from the trailer to reinstate the fact we were advertising the same thing and to adhere to the visual identity of the product. chiaroscuro lighting plays a big part in the image along with the red lighting supporting the idea of danger, so we made this a recurring feature.

This was important because people will make the link across all social networking platforms and the internet is a very important place for our film to be advertised. This is because the internet is used widely by our target audience and is a place that most 18+ are likely to see the poster, we want to have this synergy. A facebook group will help us sell our film better than a poster on a bus stop because this is a social platform where most of our audience is active.

Our website includes tabs typically featured on film websites such as links to interviews, blogs and little extras such as the soundtrack download. This allows for the audience to then market our film themselves as they might ask a friend to listen to the soundtrack or read the interview if they like it. If we just had an website with an image of the main character it would be exactly the same as the poster and would create a loss of interest to the audience.

Accessibility 

The website, poster and facebook page are also available to view on various multi media platforms such as laptops, smartphones, smart tv's and gaming consoles which is also a very beneficial factor as the audience can find out about the film on the spot or as soon as they are reminded of it.

Here is a picture of someone on our website from home

They can have a quick look whilst on the way to the bus for example and it gives them something to do. If someone had to wait to get home and sit at a computer they might forget or loose interest in the film.

EVALUATION: QUESTION 2

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? What particular camerawork techniques & editing tools were used and to what effect? You need to discuss specific tools and techniques that your knowledge of the cameras & Pinnacle Studio HD V.15 enabled you to use.

In my production of ‘Higher’ – we used several different forms of software. Our main form of editing software was ‘Pinnacle Studio HD15, we used this software to edit the production and add in post production techniques such as transitions, motion titles and sound effects. We also used it to edit the speed of shots, as this added to the realism of the trailer production and allowed us to match it to the time frame we were working to. Some shots were also slowed down for effect and so that the audience had time to realise what was actually going on on-screen, this was also important as we didn't want to cause any confusion for the viewer. The speed of the editing made our production follow the conventions of the thriller genre, as it gives a sense of fast-paced action and build up of suspense. Another form of editing we used in the software was the ‘Night’ setting under contrast. This helped us alter the colour levels to recreate a chiaroscuro effect and make the lighting more realistic. 
Another function of ‘Pinnacle’ was the ability to cut sounds shorter and adjust the speed of these sounds, however most of our soundtrack was edited and altered in Logic Pro which is more advanced and has a wider range of effects such a reverb which helps add to the texture and fill the soundscape of the production, making it more cinematic. We also used ‘Pinnacle’ to record our director’s commentary over our production. When using Pinnacle Studio we were faced with a few problem to do with the software itself. For example, the software would randomly freeze and shut down, this was mostly apparent when we tried to edit titles which suggests that the programme had a bug to do with this function. By repeating the method and hoping it would not freeze, we got around this which was the only way. Another problem was that when we exported some clips there would be a blank green screen in the final outcome. This suggested a problem with the exporter and we realised that this problem was down to the title editor yet again. To get around this problem we remade the opening titles in Photoshop by adding text over an empty black screen and simply exported them as a JPEG picture. We then imported this picture into Pinnacle in replacement of the titles and simply added it into the timeline and altered the timing levels to make it seem realistic and avoid the fact that it had been made in an external programme.

We also used ‘Audacity’ for a short while to edit sound as it had a wide range of effects, it was also on the school computer so we had the chance to use it whenrever we wanted to. However, we didn't use any sound we edited in Audacity as we decided it was easier to bring a laptop with Logic Pro installed into school as we only needed a memory pen to transfer them, we could also work on them at home which is important because if you are working to a time limit with sound it sometimes interrupts your creativity and the final outcome won't be as good as it could be.

The software we used for editing still frames and images was ‘Adobe Photoshop’ – this was used for the titles; including the film production logos and our title. The ability to add and move images and text in layers, apply colour filters and alter fonts gave us the appearance of a ‘real’ film production, as we could look at examples of films in our genre, and follow the colour and style conventions. One useful function of the software was the magnetic lasso tool – which allowed the selection and movement of a picture  of Callum we had captured as a still from our  to our film to place it into our poster. We used this with the font we chose from ‘dafont.com’ – this creates more flexibility in our titles and poster and makes them look more professional. ‘Adobe Photoshop 7.0’ did challenge our group, as none of us were experienced in the software, and it was difficult to create the looks we were planning though we succeeded through practice and also used the motion title editor in Pinnacle to add animation to the titles we made.
   
The equipment we used was our DCR-HC35 Sony Handycam camera, cassette tape and tripod. These allowed us to capture our footage and also keep the camera still and straight for better quality footage. Unfortunately, the DCR-HC35 camera wasn’t able to capture high quality footage, as it made many shots appear grainy and often the colours weren’t shown clearly. If a better quality camera was used, we would have been able to record with more clarity and efficiency. In our AS production we used a canon 550D camera which was very high quality so we downgraded in terms of quality. However, the ease of using a camera from school was that it was there on demand. We could also plug it into a school computer and work on our production in any free time we had. Last year in our AS production I used my laptop to edit the production which was just extra hassle and it meant that editing time was limited or shortened slightly. 

We also used a FlyCam which is a form of handheld camera mount that uses weights to balance the camera which is attached to a plate on a moveable axis. The FlyCam has a handle which is attached to a bearing allowing you to move the camera very smoothly by simply holding it, as if it was attached to a steadicam or another smooth moving object. This was also a new piece of technology to us all. It was very effective when it was set up correctly but this took a lot of time and effort which created problems for us. There is one particular shot in the garage scene where we were working to the natural light and we had to be quick. We wanted to use the FlyCam but after 20 minutes of trying to make it balance we weren't very successful and only had time to use it for a couple of minutes. We also though it was more effective to use the camera handheld as it looked more realistic and added to the 'paranormal activity' style we wanted to go for in that few seconds. The camera also used a cassette as a form of memory to record to. We did encounter problems as it's very easy to over-write footage already recorded by trying to be efficient, luckily we realised when we were very little into it and it wasn't so much a problem when we were aware that this kind of thing could happen - this wouldn't be possible with more advanced technology such as discs or SD cards which we used in our AS year. It also meant that when we wanted to import raw footage onto a computer we had to use a camera stand and firewire cable to import it as opposed to simply removing an SD card out of the camera and plugging it into the computers SD card slot. Another problem we encountered was that we found it hard to show the whole of the bedroom in the first few scenes with Callum as the lens struggled to show a whole picture, but we had the opportunity to overcome this asI had a Fish Eye lens. The lens simply screwed onto the end of the camera and it allowed us to capture a wide angle, convex view of the room.

This is the fisheye  and the difference it can make.

In terms of other post production software being difficult to use and having cons, there was a slight problem in when making our soundtrack. As Logic is  specific to Apple computers, we could not use the software at school. This mean we had to use memory pens to transfer work between computers which took about 10-15 minutes a time as the file had to be mixed and bounced down out of logic before it could be transferred across. This was the only problem which came with the soundtrack though and it was quite good to have the 10-15 minute time period before testing it again as it wasn't too repetitive and you didn't get bored of hearing it.

In terms of research and planning, web 2.0 was also very beneficial to us as it allowed us to reach a large audience and receive honest feedback through the click of a 'share' button. For example, here is a screenshot of our soundtrack on SoundCloud which is an audio hosting website. 

As you can see from this picture, it shows the waveform of the track along with a timeline below for comments. We utilised this feature by asking other people who produced music to comment on the piece and provide us with feedback. As it is online we could solicit opinions from the thousands of users on the website. If we didn't have the web in for this, we would be limited in terms of the people we could ask and it would most likely be people we know who might not give us honest feedback. Feedback from the soundtrack is included in Evaluation Question 4.

EVALUATION: QUESTION 1

This is our Directors Commentary which we made by splitting the original video up into freeze frames to explain how we made certain shots. We also used pictures and freeze frames from other films of a similar genre such as Reservoir Dogs and SWAT which we were inspired by when making our production.

Directors Commentary from Aaron Reynolds on Vimeo.

ANCILLARY TASK 2: MAKING A WEBSITE FOR OUR PRODUCTION

Click this link to visit our website.

Wix was used to create the website for the groups trailer. We added our own page transitions, videos, auto sounds and tabs to the page to make it look and feel as professional as possible. When designing the website we also took into consideration the colour scheme typical of a crime thriller which is usually dark and gritty colours but we added the red light effect and kept that present throughout as red symbolises danger above the black. We used HTML coding to embed sounds and videos from SoundCloud and Vimeo across the site.

ANCILLARY TASK 1: MAKING A FILM POSTER FOR OUR PRODUCTION

This is the poster our group created for the first ancillery task. The film poster has all the typical connotations of a film poster. It has the main title, an image which represents part of the film, reviews, a star rating and distrobution information such as companies and logos of companies involved. It also shows the certificate of the film in the bottom left hand corner which is important as people who look at it will want to know if they are old enough to watch it or not. It also includes star reviews from resputable companiews and reviewers such as 'Empire Magazine' amd 'Total Film' which are common features of a film poster. The fact that Callums name is also in a large font at the top of the screen is a selling point of the film or it would be if Callum was a well known actor. Most films will use the name o the main character to help sell a film as this attracts an audience from thier fanbase and if they are well known and resputable they will already give the film some credit.

The Title font used is sans-sarif which makes the poster appear more mature and as the fonts are edgy they add to the gritty connotations. If we used curly letters and serif fonts the film would appear more comedic and wouldnt be taken as seriously. The name of callum however, is serif but it is very subtle and it is only a few lines of some letters which allows it to fit into the genre and comply with the connotations of gangster films. It also makes his name stand out more amongst the other text. The red glow behind the text "HIGHER" was also a key feature of the poster as red is famous connotation of blood and danger which are key elements of the production. The red was made by duplicating a layer of the title font and putting it behind the text. This then had a red glow applied to it which made it glow behind the original text. The fact that is also subtle makes it effective, as it is noticeable but it doesn't stand out massively. The picture we chose to use is also powerful as callum is wearing his everyday casual clothes, in this scene it is a beige harirngton jacket. This makes it seem more relaistic and the audience might be able to feel more empathetic, especially teens who wear similar clothing. It is also a type of jacket everyone can relate to as it is common and the audience are likely to have seen someone wearing one in the past. The colour is also in direct contrast with the black background which also highlights Callum. The fact that it is beige is also important as it allows for the smoke to be seen infront of Callum, if the jacket was white the smoke may be hidden so this was important.

It is suitable and representable of our production and the genre we chose which was gangster/crime/thriller. It portrays these conventions with the dark lighting and Smokey mysterious element which you can get from the image of Callum tied up in the hostage scene. It compares with other posters of similar genre films such as pulp fiction where they have a centred image of a main character. They also use smoke in their poster off a cigarette to express danger and a risky nature to the characters, whereas we use smoke in a different manner, to portray danger and to make the texture of the room Callum is seen in seem dim and this makes Callum look vulnerable. On the pulp fiction cover, it is clear the character on the poster is not in danger, it is clear that Callum on ours is.

To create the poster we used Adobe Photoshop as this is an advanced piece of photo editing software which gave us lots of scope when wanting to add different forms of images such as texts and photos and merge them together in different layers. We could also use effects such as text shadows and blending to make the images fit smoothly and blend together as the shadows from the lettering fades out into the darkness of the background. We also used colour filters on the layers of images to make them seem more dark and dingy which is a connotation of the hostage scene and the gangster genre.

This is one poster for the film Law Abiding Citizen which we took some inspiration from. The film is of a similar genre to ours as it is a crime thriller so we used this along with other more British productions such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels and we combined the kinds of themes which these types of posters used. This poster focuses on Gerard Butler who is the main character of Law Abiding Citizen by using his face as the main image and filling the screen. Similarly to ours, a picture of Callum in the chair fills up most of the screen and the focus is clearly on him as a main character. The lighting seen on this poster is also very low key and dingy which is again, similar to ours with the lighting in our picture coming from the lamp on the floor lighting up callums chin. This poster also includes some form of smoke which seems to be a common feature of any action films and is usually always present in some form, such as pulp fiction where it hasn't come from an explosion or anything of that type, but a cigarette.

POST PRODUCTION: DIALOGUE EXPLAINED

Dialogue explained.

The video opens with the distribution company logos with the dialogue "what happens when a life of crime, pays better than a life of hard work". This was a necessary addition to the video because it sets the basic storyline and already provides the audience with expectations of what is to come. it then becomes up to them to get involved and think whilst putting the characters in their roles. Unlike many thriller films we chose to use a typical adolescent voice, again relating to the more modern teenage take on what would usually be an adult styled crime thriller. It also allowed for us to use minimal amounts of dialogue without the audience being too sidetracked, as the titles kept them on the right story path. Along with the film clips this was powerful.

The first piece of dialogue is of Callum on the phone to a man offering them a job in return for collecting a package for him. This lets the audience know that Callum is the main character in the lime light of the yet to unfold story.

After the title screen "One job opportunity" we here the first piece of dialogue from the opposing group which is " theres only one space for this job and its ours." IT shows they have control of the situation, along with the video footage of Callum tied up as their new hostage, this shows they have no one in their way and that young Callum has been getting involved with violent adult territory which adds excitement for the audience and the presence of a thrill. The gang then re instate the fact they own Callum by saying "Your ours now". This line also acts as a cliff hanger as there is obviously a plot to come involving the kidnap and there is still the unanswered question of who gets the job.

POST PRODUCTION: MAKING THE SOUNDTRACK

I am making the soundtrack for our Media production as this is something which already interests me and is a hobby of mine which I enjoy doing. This also has a benefit to the group as we can make the soundtrack specific to the trailer by making it fit to certain shots. For example, we can use loud bass heavy booms when we need to build tension and we can use crescendos and other uplifters to build suspense in certain shots.

Here is a time lapse of me creating the piece from start to finish. The video is long (as I had to cut a good few hours worth of footage down into an viewable but short clip) but might be of interest to some viewers.

How I made the soundtrack from Aaron Reynolds on Vimeo.


Here is the final soundtrack to accompany the video.

A lot of the gangster/thriller trailers we researched used quite guitar heavy music. This allows for quite an aggressive tone as heavy distorted guitars can be described as thrash which is a fitting sound when it comes to chase scenes and general criminal activity. When creating the soundtrack I wanted to take inspiration from this but I also wanted to incorporate some more modern elements of sound and more electric effects such as reverb and delay. I replicated a similar guitar sound in one of the synths and that was a strong bond for keeping the song linked to the conventions of a thriller soundtrack.

As I was creating my own soundtrack for the film I was able to load the video into Logic Pro and work the score out as the film went on which made it very specialised for the trailer. I could make specific sound bridges appropriate, for example, I tried to accompany the beginning of a chase with the introduction of a heavy kick for maximum sound and visual effect. I began making the soundtrack at around 140-150bpm, which is representative of the dubstep and girme genre, but half way through replaced the samples with live drum samples making it sound more like it was a live band. I slowed it down and changed the groove to give it more of an energetic atmosphere instead of keeping a straight half time beat.

I thought that making a time lapse would be interesting as well to people who might wonder how sound and music production is made, it might also encourage people to try it out.  It also shows my unique techniques and my style of work which other music producers could find interesting.

The software which will be used is Apple's Logic Pro 9 which is a highly advanced piece of music production software. It has lots of effects plug-ins and lots of VST instruments which we can use in the piece to create different sounds and it also has lots of audio effects such as reverb and distortion to make the texture of the sound thicker and make it more cinematic. 

Before the piece was started I browsed through some of my sample packs for sounds which I think would have been appropriate to the piece I had in mind. I already knew that I wanted to work at the tempo of 130bpm as this is quite andante and fits the walking pace of the gangsters. I also used influences from genres such as 'grime' and 'dubstep' as I used drum beats at half time which make the piece seem tense, because you know it is building up to something, but it teases you in the way that it appears slower than it is. 

I filtered through the sample packs (to the right) and found my favourite percussion samples and placed these onto seperate tracks within Logic. I then used effects such as reverb and echo to fill up a more sonic space and help hold the track together. 

Here is an overview of the soundtrack in Logic once it had been completed.

This picture just shows all the layers together and how the sounds have been ordered. It also shows how things layer on top of each other and work together to build the piece up. 

This picture (above) shows a few of the plug-ins and effects I have used to manipulate the sound in the piece. The plug-ins show how you can alter little parts and it shows how there is so many little things that can work together to change the scope of the sound. You can use these effects on their own with one sound or you can use several built up on top of each other, for example you can add echo to a sound you have just distorted or added reverb to so it has more to it.

This picture shows the instrument track (in green) which is where I have used a MIDI keyboard to record in some notes. They are a simple few notes, but the point was to add tension and a pace to the piece. It is also nicer to hear an actual note than just a sampled sound so it adds a more musical element to the piece. I used the plugin ES1 built into logic.

Automation is also a vital part of the production process as it allows you to bring certain sounds in and out of the piece which allows it to be specific to certain parts and it makes a sound seem as if it is weaving through the piece which is just an interesting thing to listen to.

Another key element of the production is the opening. Once the piece had finished we realised it would need some kind of introduction to bring in and accompany the opening credits, it had to be short but cinematic and fast. To do this, I used an 808 'boom' sample with a kick drum on top to giveit a punch, I then reversed another 808 drum sample so it faded out but came back in and when it finished its reverse I added a snare hit to lead the credits into the production. 

This video shows the differences in sounds after I import them in raw and then when I add effects and build around them.

how samples were done from Aaron Reynolds on Vimeo.

FILMING: A QUICK QUESTIONNAIRE WITH CALLUM

This is a questionnaire we gave to Callum after he finished filming with us. As he is a student outside of the media room we thought it would be helpful to get his feedback and see what he thought of the production and his involvement. We plan to use his feedback if we do future work as he might tell us better ways to carry out scenes or let us know if we could have done certain things more effectively or differently.

Did you enjoy being a part of our production?

Yes I really enjoyed being part of the production and the whole filming process I think it might even be something I would look into doing outside of college in the future. It helped knowing the people I was working with though as it was easy to express ideas throughout the group.

Did you find it easy to work in the filming environment?

Yes, but again I might have found it more comfortable because I knew most of the people but yes, this was something that I didn’t really have a problem with.

How do you feel the production was directed?

At times it could have been a little bit unorganised but this was never really a problem because I know we came up with a few new ideas with the lack of planning and these turned out to work really well in the end, for example when Aaron puts on the leather glove, that was thought of on the spot but looks quite 

effective.

 

Is there anything you would have changed about your role?

I would have maybe liked to speak a bit more but as it was only a trailer there wasn’t much time for speaking and I still managed to get a few lines in.

Would you consider taking part in a video production again?

Definitely, this is the second media production I have been in and people have complimented my acting skills and I was chosen specifically for this role which makes me feel quite good and it also boosted my enthusiasm for taking part. I would definitely do something like this again and I really hope to it has sparked a new interest for me.

Is there any extra points you would like to add and/or anything you would like to tell us about your involvement?

I would just like to say that I think the group worked very well as a team and it was clear that they all knew what they wanted to get from the final production which I am very excited to see!