Evaluation: Sam Fenton

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Media Evaluation (Sam Fenton)

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Sam Fenton

Evaluation: Audience Feedback

Questionnaire Questions

01) What genre does the sequence belong to? How can you tell?
02) Who were the main characters in the sequence? What details made this clear?
03) What is happening in the sequence?
04) Is it clear what is happening in the sequence?
05) What enigmas would make you keep watching?
06) Did the pace of the sequence feel right to you?
07) Do the visuals work well with the music?
08) Are the shots interesting, as opposed to simple and OK?
09) Was continuity successful within the opening sequence?
10) Do you feel that the opening sequence has been created successfully?

Questionnaire Feedback (10 People)

01) What genre does the sequence belong to? How can you tell?

The test audience unanimously gave "suspense" as their reasoning for selecting what genre it was

02) Who were the main characters in the sequence? What details made this clear?

The majority of the test audience saw all three actors as main characters. Some, however, thought that Charlotte and Ryan were more present, and dominant, within the sequence. One person thought that Charlotte was the main character, as she was linked to all the main events

03) What is happening in the sequence?

Everyone mentioned that there was a film within a film. Those that gave extra detail were all correct, and so the plot was obviously clear

04) Is it clear what is happening in the sequence?

05) What enigmas would make you keep watching?

All of the responses to this question were along similar lines, as can be seen below:

• What took Charlotte?
• Will Charlotte be found?
• Where has Charlotte been taken?

06) Did the pace of the sequence feel right to you?

07) Do the visuals work well with the music?

08) Are the shots interesting, as opposed to simple and OK?

Everyone thought that the shots were interesting, but those who gave extra detail in their answer, all mentioned the close up shot of the camcorder screen showing Charlotte's hand being dragged away

09) Was continuity successful within the opening sequence?

10) Do you feel that the opening sequence has been created successfully?

Conclusion

From this audience feedback, it is possible for us to conclude that we have successfully created an opening sequence that is interesting, and offers some elements that are different to those found in the 'generic thriller'

Signed: Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Opening Sequence: Final

Here is the final version of our opening sequence:

The following changes have been made since the previous version:

1. Removal of Warner Bros. to avoid copyright issues
2. Changed incidental music for the shot when Charlotte is passed the camera, to avoid copyright issues
3. Added red colouring to the title, leaving only the second "I" white, to connote the isolation of one of them
4. Filmic crop / grading to establish a distinction between the film, and the film within the film
5. Changed the Killer Production card to fit the theme / fonts of the opening sequence

Signed: Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Opening Sequence: 2nd Draft

See below the 2nd draft of our opening sequence:

On reflection of this second draft, we have decided that the following changes are necessary:

• Remove music from when Luke shouts "cut" to when he hands Charlotte the camera (so as not to reveal that something is about to happen)
• Rectify a continuity flaw when Charlotte sits down (as her face moves up slightly), by placing a title credit slide between the shots
• Rectify a continuity flaw when Ryan and Luke set off to find Charlotte (they are already walking and in the previous shot, they were not), by placing a title credit slide between the shots
• Cut to 'Isolation' title, rather than fading - for more dramatic impact
• Minor adjustments to the music to make it align better
• Reset the audio adjustments on Charlotte's scream to get the original, without the "muffled" effect

Signed: Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Planning: Music (Revised)

Following the creation of the first draft of the opening sequence, it became apparent that the chosen music needed some alterations. The end of the sequence merely required changing the order of the tracks 'MountainOfGods' and 'AracnaDiner'. However, we had originally used a section of the 'MountainOfGods' track to overlay on the dialogue, but it was too inaudible and unsuitable. We searched through many different music tracks, from different sources, and finally found one called 'Eye Spy' that was suitable. Unfortunately, it was copyrighted under the BBC as it was part of the soundtrack for Torchwood, so we emailed them to see if permission could be granted based on our requirements of the piece. Luckily, we were granted permission, as can be seen in the response below:

Question:

Is the music composed by Ben Foster under the copyright of Torchwood material, as we are currently completing a project for AS Media Studies, and wondered if it would be possible to use one of the tracks in a film we are making?

Response:

Copyright Information Found on the Official BBC Torchwood Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood
If the material is only going to be used within your work and available only to you or the examiners, then yes, you may.

We therefore selected the track, and used it in the re-edit of the opening sequence.

Opening Sequence: 1st Draft

When out shooting the first draft of our film, we made a few slight alterations to that planned in the storyboard. We have listed these below:

• Removed the scene when a figure is seen on the screen (this creates an enigma, as it leaves the audience anticipating what she saw in the camera recording.
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See below the 1st draft of our opening sequence:

On reflection of this first draft, we have decided that the following changes are necessary:

• Change the fonts to make them more easily readable, and less "over-the-top"
• Desaturate the opening chase sequence to distinguish between the film, and the film within the film
• Lower the volume of the scream and make it sound more distant
• Sort out the long poses between dialogue by overlapping the audio onto the previous shot
• Re-shoot the shot where Charlotte's hand is dragged away to enhance the realism
• Crop off the "DIVX" logo from the Warner Bros logo
• Change the 'Ken Burns Zoom Effect' on the 'Killer Productions' logo to make it central
• Add suitable music over the silence, after it is revealed that the chase scene was merely a film
• Re-arrange the music at the end of the sequence, as it sounds quite clustered and all over the place

Signed: Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Planning: Fonts

When searching for fonts, we came across a suitable one called 'Cold Night For Alligators' on DaFont.com (http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=110)

Signed: Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Planning: Animatic Storyboard

As well as merely creating a generic static timeline storyboard, we created an animatic storyboard using iMovie. The advantages of this type of storyboard are that it allows you to see if any of the shots are too long in duration, and if the music suitably links to the visuals. Sam put it together by importing each of the slides into iMovie before arranging them and adding the music. See the animatic storyboard below:

On reflection of the animatic storyboard, we were able to conclude with the following points:

• We need to add a couple more close-up shots into the film to vary our shot types more
• We need to properly establish the 180 degree rule during the initial chase scene
• We need to use separate shots of the actors' faces during the conversation about fire wood
• We need to add more shots as the opening sequence is 19 seconds short of the required 2 minutes

Overall, producing an animatic storyboard has proved useful, in that it allowed us to rectify some flaws in the opening sequence, prior to filming it, which saved time in the long run (such as in not having to re-shoot or re-plan on location).

Signed Sam

Planning: Storyboard

In order to get a clear idea of how the film would take shape, in terms of shots and angles, we created a storyboard. We each drew several slides of the storyboard upon post-it notes. Sam then took pictures of each of them and uploaded them onto the Mac. Sam placed them into InDesign and arranged them into grids. Finally, we annotated each slide together, with crucial information including a description of the shot, along with information for the cinematographer (shot type / shot angle), the editor (shot duration / transition type) and we also justified our ideas and decisions, detailing what each shot offers to the sequence in terms of meaning and purpose. See the storyboard below:

Signed Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan

Planning: Music

When researching music from various royalty free sources, we came across some very effective and suitable scores from a package called Pro Scores by VideoCopilot.net and so we chose to use the pack. We found two scores that worked particularly well, one titled 'AracnaDiner' (suitable because it consists of loud crashes that really build up tension and would work perfectly in the chase scene) and the other named 'MountainOfGods' (suitable because it contains a calm part which is perfect for the part when the three friends are sat chatting, but also an upbeat fast, tense part for when Ryan and Luke discover Charlotte has disappeared).

Signed Sam, Luke, Charlotte, Ryan