Directors Commentary

Storyboard

Story Board

We created a story board to help us with planning our shots, we first drew out the shots we thought we would shot and then took still images pictures of the images using a still image camera and uploaded it onto final cut express. This gave us experience with final cut before we started our film. We added the pictures into the right order and worked out how long the shot would stay on screen for. We added our titles onto the storyboard, which helped me pick out where I wanted them to be shown, I experimented with this before finalizing my decision. I thought this was good to do as it helped me understand how long the screen should be on screen for and it helped me experiment with my shots to make it look the best I could.

Editing

After finishing the filming, we uploaded the clips onto Final Cut Pro on the Mac's we have at our school. I went through all the shots and picked out the best ones of each scene as I took double shots to make sure I had the best shots. After picking the right shots I then had to put them onto the timeline of the film. I then put the music on by going on a website called audionetwork which was a non copyright website. Then edited the shots by adding effects.

Question 7

Question 6

Question 5

Question 4

What would be the audience for your media product?

When planning my film a big process is who our main target audience, I thought about this for a while. My film could have a wide range of audience as it relates to most people. I wanted a specific target audience so I aimed it at young adults from 17-30 both men and women but is more focused at women. I feel like my film addresses these target demographics: 

Women - The film follows a young girl as the main character. Having a woman as a main character is quite rare in films so this will encourage people to watch and be interested in the film.

Men - The film involves a young male which would attract them to watch this film and are an audience who are keen to watch thrillers.

Young Adults - The film follows the story of two teenagers/young people which would be a main reason as to why they would be interested in watching this film as they can relate to them.

Below is a mood board of my specific target audience, I wanted to interview my friend, Chloe, she goes to University and is 19 years old. This helped me to get an idea of what interests she has as it would help with the advertising. I wanted to gather information to decide whether she would be the specific target audience.

Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For my film opening I picked Columbia pictures as my distributor. Columbia pictures is an American film production and distribution studio. it is one of the leading film studios in the world. The studio was founded in 1918 by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt, they released its first feature film in August 1922. Since 1989 Sony Pictures has taken it over as the owners. 

I picked Columbia pictures as it has been a well established company and that it is trusted. Most viewers know off Columbia pictures which makes it a well known company. I have seen Columbia Pictures on many films so as the film maker myself it was one of the first company's that came into my head to use, I also am a fan of many Columbia Pictures so it gave me even more reason as to why I wanted to pick it, after i researched it more I thought this would be good to use even more with the reasons below.

Columbia pictures has a wide range of genre types. The main types of genre would be comedy and thriller. Thriller is my genre which matches my film exactly. A film that attracted me to Columbia Pictures was 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' which is a main film i focused on for my research. This shows that they might be interested in doing a similar film which would be a great way to market my film. They also have done a range of horror films which could potentially boost up reasons as too why they would fund my film. 

 

Question 2

Question 1

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

I done my directors commentary on this topic so I didn't show any evidence as I was talking over my film which had all the evidence being shown. 

Focus Group

Focus Group

I created a focus group for a group of people who I showed my film opening too, a focus group is a group of people who take part it a discussion about a product to give feedback. 

The advantages of a focus group are:

- You are able to easily measure customer reaction
- The group are able to express there ideas and have a free discussion as there is no time limit.
- You can get views of a range of audiences and get feedback

The disadvantages of a focus group are:

- The group might not want to give great detail
- It is a small sample 

These are the questions I asked my focus group, I asked 6 people the 1-6 on each question will be the different answers, the group varied from ages of 17-30 and was a range of men and female:


What target audience do you believe my film is aimed at?

1. Older teenagers 15+
2. Young Adults
3. Teenagers
4. Young Adults 
5. 18-35
6. 15-25

Does the opening scene create suspense for the whole film?

1. Yes you wonder whats going to happen as you are not sure whats going to be happening next
2. Yes you want to find out what happened next as you are left with a cliffhanger
3. Yes I feel like I wanted to keep watching as it left me feeling tense
4. it creates high suspense as you know something is going to happen but we are only shown one clue
5. Yes, after i watched it I felt suspense and interested 
6. Yes, the mans foot created a layer of suspense as it gives us an incite of what is going to happen next

How old are you? do you think this film suits your age group?

1. 18 - I think i am the perfect target range for this film as I feel I am 
2. 24 - Yes, I enjoy watching thriller films 
3. 29 - Having teenagers as the main characters doesn't appeal to my age
4. 45 - I feel like this film is in a younger era than I am
5. 15 - I think I am a good target audience for the film as long as its not too scary
6. 20 - Yes, i feel this film would suit my categorize

How do you feel about a girl being the lead in the film? Does she suit the role?

1. Yes, its really great that a woman is a lead in the film this doesn't happen much, she suits the role very well.
2. I think the girl in the film is good it is different 
3. Yes, she took on the role very well and is believable, she fitted the role
4. Yes a girl as a lead is good, although i hope the boy is in the film too
5. I would like the boy to be the lead as they could act a different way to women
6. Yes, i like the girl being the lead as women are very limited in film, this could change films and show how good it could be.

Do you feel that something more dramatic should have happened?

1. No, as it was only the opening scene 
2. No, this was suppose to build up suspense so it can carry on
3. It was cleverly left on a cliff hanger 
4. Maybe there could of been a bit more indication that something scary is going to happen
5. I think this scene was already dramatic so i don't think so
6. Yes, they could of added something in the middle of the opening to show that it is a thriller


Have you got any thoughts of what will happen next in a short sentence?

1. She might get murdered
2. She might find him and escape
3. He might chase her and then kill her 
4. He might torture her
5. She might run away
6. He might stab her 

Se7en Film Titles

Se7en

0.01 - 0.07 -New Line Production

0.07 - 0.10 - Production
0.10 - 0.13 - Film by
0.14 - 1.10 - Actors
0.11 - 1.15 - Casting
1.16 - 1.20 - Music
1.21 - 1.22 - Costume Design
1.23 - 1.25 - Editing
1.26 - 1.28 - Production Design
1.35 - 1.38 - Director of Photography
1.39 - 1.42 - Co-Producer
1.43 - 1.46 - Co-Executive Producer
1.49 - 1.52 - Executive Producer
1.53 - 1.56 - Written by
1.59 - 2.01 - Produced by
2.02 - 2.08 - Directed by


Se7en tite sequence helped me understand how to arrange my titles, this gave me evidence to show the way I have ordered my titles. 

Film Research - Side Effects

The opening of side effects starts with panning shots of blood trails with no sound - this creates a high amount of suspense as the audience are waiting for the camera to pan to whats happened. This is great opening shots as it already creates a cliffhanger. It then fades to black and writing comes up with 'three months earlier' this is a brilliant way to build tention as we are now wondering what has happened, this draws the audience in as they are eeger to find out. The shot then switches to a normal woman putting lipstick on in her car and walking too a prison. This shows the main character of the film and indicates that she could be part of what happened in the opening shot. The quiet peaceful scene then turns into shouting people which grabs our attention. We then see a casual conversation which we understand is her husband.

This opening scene is very effective as the first shot you see is something very dramatic which leaves you wondering but then suddenly switches to a peaceful different time frame which leaves us with an unlinear structure. Although we carry on watching the film we are trying to wonder alternatives of what happened.

Shots sheet/Organisation

Before shooting my film there was things i needed to think about and plan, these included: 

1. Location which I already picked out

2. The people who was going to be in my film

3. Collecting the camera from school

4. The day I was going to pick depending on the weather
5. To know all the shots in my film, this is why I completed a shot sheet

This is my shot sheet:

Type of shot	Location	What happens?
Establishing shot	Street	Shows location
Mid shot	Street	Walking down street
Panning shot	Street	Walking
POV	Alley way	Shot of alley way
POV	Alley way	Shoes walking
Mid shot	Alley way	Man standing
Mid shot	Alley way	Walking
Long shot	Street	Walking into house
Extreme close up	Street	Keys falling
Mid shot	House	Slamming the door
Mid/close up	House	Walking away
Low angle/pan up	House	Walking in kitchen
Mid shot	House	In bedroom
Close up	House	Of face
Mid shot	House	On computer
POV	House	Opening door
Mid shot	House	Locking door
High angle	House	Walking away
Zoom in	House	Man’s foot hiding

Actors for Film

Film Opening