Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Part 1:

Part 2:

Slideshare

Media Q1 - Part 2 from always_gracia

Posters

Main Poster

Teaser Poster

Character Teaser Posters

Review Page

 

 

Editing Main Film - Lighting and Sound

Upon completion of filming the footage, all the footage was uploaded onto the computer and exported into iMovie where we then watched all the footage. Clips were were ordered into its first rough cut. After several hours of fine trimming clips and editing, a first cut of our film was produced.

The next task in hand was to work on lighting and sound editing to compliment the project. This was tricky because of balancing sound waves throughout the film without compromising the monologue for the film in any way. Through most of the film the music we added was overpowering and rendered the monologue inferior, so to overcome this the sound level was increased for the monologue and reduced for the music to allow it to be gently heard in the background whilst the monologue took place. This was effective as it allowed the monologue to be heard clearly whilst the music could be heard in the background gently.

Lighting was the other main feature of the film that we had to address. As the film was shot over a lengthy period and the conditions had changed throughout, the lighting was inconsistent at certain points. As the plan was to create our film in black and white, it reduced the effect of this lighting issue and by adjusting the temperature of the clip and also the saturation. This was effective because it added a sense of continuity to the mise en scène of the clip and also made it aesthetically pleasing

A Question Of Guilt

Below is the final cut of our media project.

For personal preference, subtitles have been included.

Ideas for posters

Part of the task was to create a poster to accompany our film. However, we as we had several ideas for posters we felt we should come up with a couple. As a group we decided on creating a number of posters. This is because in the film industry we find that films are accompanied by a range of posters such as teasers and region based posters. These were created in an attempt to bring in a greater audience and appeal to different audiences.

So for our film, we decided to create several posters, each with a different function:

• The first was the main poster. This would be the main form of advertisement for our film.
• Second was the teaser poster. This was used as an early release poster to promote our film before the main forms of promotion were released.
• Character teasers were also created to portray the key characters in the film to promote each individual differences within the film and to intrigue the audience into guessing which character is guilty. 4 character teasers are planned.

In total, 6 posters were planned to be created. 

Film Magazine Review Page - Research

One of the ancillary pieces required for our media project was a film magazine review page, supporting the film. Research was required as no one in our group were readers of any film magazines. To start with, we knew of Empire Magazine, a well known magazine that publishes film reviews, so that was a good place to start in our research as to how a magazine spread should look. It also gave us a rough idea as to what the layout of the poster should consist of.

Above are two examples of magazine reviews of two films - The Kite Runer and Due Date.

After looking over these two reviews amongst others, we realised that they followed similar trends in terms of format and layout. Both posters included:

• large images from the film that can be seen at first glance.
• bold text for the title.
• a section in which the details of the film are told, such a runtime, director, plot etc.
• a main body of text where the film is reviewed.
• and finally, a section at the end to which the verdict and the rating is revealed.

After obtaining this information, we now had the basis of what our film magazine article should include and also the general structure. This was useful to us because it meant we knew the conventions of a film review article, giving us headway.

Conventions of a Film Noir poster

• The costumes used in film posters typically denote an earlier time period , and usually consists of a trench coat and hat for the main character
• Characters of film noirs are typically shown adopting serious stances and facial expressions, which builds tension and enigma among the audience. This is more commonly shown with male characters rather than females, who usually adopt fearful stances, meeting the stereotypes of female sensitivity and emotion. 
• The layout for film noir posters typically meets the conventions for film posters in general, with a large central image and elaborate font style. Film noir posters place a great deal of emphasis on the main characters and actors
• The font for film Noir posters usually has an elaborate, bright font in order to stand out against the background, which is often black and white. This makes the most essential part of the poster highly visible from a distance, attracting passers by. The tagline for the poster creates an enigma and a certain amount of tension among the audience persuading them to watch the film. 

Filming Schedule

As you can see in the image above, we have planned to film, edit and complete our ancillary products from January to April. Within the gaps we as a group did either blog work or had other work to do from other subjects. Prior to the schedule, in November and December times, we done our planning and research. Our aim was to try stick to this schedule the best we could.

Rating of our Film

http://www.slideshare.net/always_gracia/bbfc-for-a2-film

Here is a link to the rating of our film.

BBFC for A2 Film from always_gracia

Conventions of a Neo Noir Poster

• A modern noir film poster tends to showcase generic conventions which you associate with a classic noir poster, the pictures are often is arty and often resembles the films narrative or film name - We followed this feature of neo noir posters as our poster creates foreshadowing collage affects.   
• Modern day characters are often shown with bleak expressions with its protagonist with a centeral enlarged role in the poster - We applied this method to our poster as the protagonist is larger than the other characters in order to explicitly exhibit that he is the main character
• Title style is often bold and stands out-It also represents the films themes and narrative and it attracts audiences eye - We tried to emulate a similar style when creating our poster title, we played around with different variations of fonts. 

Noir Monologue research

Film noir monologues are known for their own unique cynical style, as such attempting to write a monologue without further research into the style would be foolish.

A clear example of a noir monologue can be found in video games, such as L.A Noire.



Analysing this particular scene we can see that the monologue, uses various metaphors in order to describe the scene. It contains a stylish, and immediate cool effect from the combination of the voiceover and light jazz/blues music in the background. The monologue aims to avoid using long or complicated words, instead preferring short ones, remaining simple yet effective and maintains that the speaker is of relatively good education.

Overall, from my research, I have discovered there are several key writing techniques a noir monologue must contain.

1. It is a monologue, therefore it is spoken, not written or read out from a book
2. Short choppy or snappy sentences
3. Minimal conjunctions (however, therefore etc..)
4. Avoid big long words as much as possible as it breaks the flow and is "uncool"
5. Use creative metaphors (WITHOUT repeating said metaphors)

Also, while not essential, including issues of religion or current politics would be a positive addition.

Editing the CCTV Effect

As our film ends with Mohamed being interviewed by a police detective, we researched how a typical police procedural takes place. Firstly, the location tended to be a small box room so we used a corner of our media suite to do this. Below is the section of the media suite we used.


Secondly, dress code was key. Through research we found that remanded prisoners are able to wear their own clothing, so we dressed Mohamed up in a sand yellow coloured tshirt to mimic the bare essentials he has in prison.


The shots for the last scene are as follows:

1. Over the shoulder medium close up of Mohamed
2. High-angled medium over-the-shoulder shot of Mohamed being interviewed by Aram
3. Close up of Mohamed

The idea behind the second shot was that this would mimic CCTV as in interview rooms we found that the detainee that is being questioned by the detective is being recorded, so a high angled shot would be ideal because it would allow us to create a convincing CCTV shot as well as putting Mohamed in a position of vulnerability. So to accomplish this we needed to add a CCTV effect but iMovie did not offer the option so after undertaking research on how to use green screen, this is the steps taken to create a CCTV look for this particular shot. 

Step 1 was to obtain a CCTV green screen add on that was found on the Internet and was free for public use.

Step 2 was to import the file into iMovie. This was done simply by dragging it in.

Step 3 was to drag the selection of the greenscreen required over the shot. It then gave several options to select but the chosen one was green/blue screen. This then replaced any green sections with the shot we wanted, hence creating the desired effect.

This was then cropped to remove any excess effects such as frame count and exposure levels, giving it a clean CCTV feel to it without overcomplicating what the audience will be seeing on screen.

This is the end product of our CCTV shot.

Sound

Reflecting on our AS project where we lacked sound skills, for our A2 project our plan was to try deal with sound in a way in which there was no inconsistencies in audio. To overcome this, we came up with a plan:

• First we would record the shots we wanted with a microphone present and edit the shots for continuity into an order we wanted.
• Then we would go over and mute all of the film other than the bits where dialogue was required. This was to eliminate the static sound that a change in wind direction against the microphone would create. The bits that required dialogue, we would provide a voiceover to match the dialogue on screen. This allowed for clarity in speech.
• Next we would find music to overlay the film with. This music had to be effective in getting the audience to feel certain ways at particular points in the film because of how a lack of dialogue meant we were unable to convey emotion and meaning that way.
• Lastly, we were going to write a monologue voiceover script to overlay the whole movie with. This would be a way for the main character to tell his story, as the story of our film consists of a police officer being interviewed for a murder he committed. 

All of this would have to be edited well to keep it as smooth as possible. We feel this would lead to significant improvements in our ability to capture and convey meaning through sound in a way that wasn't basic, using equipment such as a boomstick microphone and discrete clip on microphones.

Flashback lighting and significance

Because of the prevalence of the usage of flashbacks, we needed a way to allow the audience to distinguish distinguish between the scenes and the flashbacks. So, using iMovie, I added a variety of effects to the video. I started off with the flashback with the shots arranged in the order desired.

The first thing I did was add the Sepia effect to the flashback to give it an aged look.

The next step was to reduce the saturation of the clip and the temperature, giving it a colder blue look.

Lastly, a vignette filter was added to the clip to give it a flashback look that is noticeable.

Overall, this experimenting led to a look that we were satisfied with as it gave the flashback's a colder feel that could notify the bitter feelings the protagonist will be feeling, when he recalls these events

Thank You!

As a group, we would like to thank St James's Court, A Taj Hotel and Cask & Glass for allowing us to use your premises in order to film!

Turning the staffroom into a living room

For one of our scenes where Mohamed returns home and starts relaxing and having a drink, the plan was to use one of our houses for that in an attempt to make the room feel more homely. However using someone's home was a tricky situation due to availability and interference so we came up with a back up plan. We used the staffroom. The school staffroom has a kitchen unit and it also has a set of chairs that when pieced together correctly it could create a mock sofa effectively. This is the area we worked with:

 

With the help of artifical lighting and camera positioning we got our location to look like this:

 

As you can see we have created an illusion with our protagonist Mohamed that he is a homely environment without actually having to be in a home. We made the decision to use the staffroom because it meant that we did not have to transport our equipment, such as cameras, tripods and lighting equipment, and actors to one of our homes, making the staffroom an effective shooting location.

Gaining hotel access

For our film there was one location we needed for one scene in particular. Within our story, the dead victim is found in a secluded alleyway which had a dark and dingy look to it. We felt that this would suit the concept of our short film really well as it gave the film a darker undertone as a murder takes place there, due to the contrast of the expensive looking hotel shown at the beginning in comparison to the alleyway the two detectives walk down.

 

 

 For that reason we contacted the hotel, the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences, asking them if we could gain permission to use that area and they were more than happy to accept our request. We had plans to visit that location on two seperate occasions and both dates were arranged. This was helpful to us because it enabled us to stick to a schedule which dictated what would be filmed where and when.

Flashback Locations

Our film in total is planned to include 5 flashbacks. These are:

1. Mohamed and Kausar coming out of a pub together

2. Mohamed and Gracia strolling through the park together

3. Mohamed, Kausar and Gracia in a park together

4. Kausar and Gracia in a secluded place talking to one another when Mohamed catches them

5. Mohamed assaulting Kausar and running from the scene

 

For these we needed 5 different locations.

 

For flashback 1 we used a local pub for convenience and we gained permission to film the property.

 

 

For flashback 2 we used a local park, again for convenience.

 

 

For flashback 3 we decided on using a park again however we used a different park with a more casual scene in attempt to make it seem like the three of them had met up for a quick catchup.

 

 

For flashback 4 we used another outdoor location and for this we wanted a secluded location so we opted to use a public space opposite our school as we could count on the place to be empty early in the morning. This is the location for a scene in our film also.

 

 

For flashback 5 we used the same location of where the murder took place at the beginning of the movie to make sure that location consistency was kept.

 

Making Logos

For our film and posters, we felt we should create logos to represent our studio - KAGS - and our production company - Twisted Pages. Both of these pictures were made through the use of Ipiccy, a free online editing service that we were able to use the web browser to use. Ipiccy was used rather than Photoshop due to its ease of access outside school and in-between our group members.

 

The website. Requires no downloading, just click and start editing.

 

Our studio logo. The black squiggly font is used to bring out our studios aims to be dark and gritty, further connoted by the grey background. The name KAGS was brought out from our members first letters of their name (Kausar Aram Gracia Sharmarke)



The Production company logo was made in mind to bring out the theme of being 'twisted' literature. The splattered paint font brings this theme out, while the book cover behind the 'T' brings out the theme presented by 'pages.

Film Title

Deciding a title for our film was arguably one of the most challenging parts of the project. The reason for this was because we had to come up with a title that would both do justice with the genre and also give our film a title that would appeal to the target audience. So the first steps taken to point us in the right direction was to search for as many noir film titles that we could find to give us an idea of what the title should be similar to. Below are noteworthy examples of noir movies with titles that guided us in the right path:

From films like these we deduced a few things from the titles - the titles tended to be a statement of some sort which gave an indication of what the film was about. Also, more prevalent amongst other tittles such as Touch Of Evil (1958) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955), they gave a sense of a deeper and more cynical meaning to it.

All of this was key because we needed to come up with a title that was short and snappy, indicative and also set the mood of the film.

With ideas ranging from 'Betrayal' to 'A Man In Question', we eventually chose to use 'A Man In Question' and work on that. We did this because our main character is in fact in police custody being questioned for the crimes he is guilty of, so the title seemed appropriate, also it was coincidentally similar to The Woman In Question (1950) which is also another noir film from the era.

Although the story revolves around one main character, through analysis we realised that the supporting cast had a subsurface story which all affects our protagonists' story. All of them to some extent face situations in which they are guilty of committing something, whether it be cheating or unlawful practices. So the title of the film was adapted to A Question Of Guilt which is now our final film title choice. We felt that this would work exceptionally well as it gives the audience things to think about, and along with the posters that we have planned to create, we felt that the title of our film really suits our film itself.

Outfit reminders

For continuity reasons it is very important that the protagonist and other characters in our film to wear the exact same clothing, if we have not finished filming a specific scene yet or if the film is just over a short period of time.

Location to suit our Film

Area Fire exit behind hotel

 1. Great location for murder scene as it dark dingy and a claustrophobic environment

2. Alleyways are perfect conventions of any Film Noir

3. Lighting not an issue as it is supposed to be dark - protection from sunlight - does not interfere with the resolution of the image on the camera.