Final Product: The Only Child

 

I am Shelah Abongi: 6064

 

I worked with,

Joshua Aristorenas:7264

Marlyn Ukah: 7147

 

The Only Child

Q7)looking back at your preliminary task,what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

What was the preliminary task and what was its main aim?

The preliminary task was a 30 second recording in which we had to apply the different filming techniques we have learnt. The preliminary task was to give us an idea of how the whole filming process works. We used equipment such as the tripod and camera which allowed us to capture different shots from different angles, and seeing how it affects the fluency of the video as well as the representation of the characters. We also got a glimpse of how the editing process for our final product will be, as be learnt how to edit scenes of our preliminary task using the final cut pro software. I would say the aim of the preliminary task was firstly for us to identify what each person was good at in our group, and to allow us to develop our skills further. As an editor and camera operator for my group, the preliminary task has helped me to perfectly edit and align relevant scene in timeline as well using appropriate shot sizes and angles in my narrative.

Video of the preliminary

Identify 4 things you are now better with and more confident with doing in terms of filming and editing.

Filming:

One thing that I am now confidant with when filming is deciding what shot size and angles should be used in significant scenes in my narrative. For example, in my preliminary task I use a medium shot from a high angle to show a character as being inferior. Another aspect of filming that I feel I can now perfectly achieve is capturing shots in perfect frame without including any unnecessary space in the shot.  I demonstrated this skill in my final product where I used a perfectly framed medium shot of the victim’s reaction.

Editing

I’m term of editing my preliminary and final product; I now think that I am better at cutting irrelevant scenes from my recording, and placing it correctly in the timeline to have a clear narrative. Only being given 30 second for our preliminary task did not allows us to achieve appropriate transitions, but in our final product I was able to cycle though different transitions that will be suitable, and create and continuous edit.

Compare 3 images of preliminary to final product.

Framing

 
 
 

The framing of this shot from our preliminary task wasn’t done properly as there is a lot of unnecessary space included on the right side of the character. In our final product shown on the image on the right, we made sure that we only focused on capturing the actor in the scene, and not including any unwanted space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

framing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our preliminary task shown in the image on the left, The framing was bad as the character was not fully captured in the shot. Whereas, in our final product we improved, and mad sure that the we correctly captured each shot to make a good frame.

 

 

 

 

Shoulder shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

shoulder shot in this scene of our preliminary task wasn’t successfully achieved as it was supposed to a bit closer to the character. In the image on the right of our final product, we used the shoulder shot accurately as it was not too far from the character’s shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story board

The story board and the pre-production paper work allowed to record our final product without any complications, as we were clear of what each person in my group had as responsibility, and by using the story board there wasn’t any time wasted on figuring out what comes next after a particular scene. The story board served as a guide during our production as we only needed to follow what was sketch for scenes, and what was scripted for character dialogue.

Did you make a successful thriller and why?

I think that our thriller was successful because we have a good and clear narrative that our audience will easily understand.  

 What I enjoyed the most was the filming process as it was a new experience for me, and I have learnt how to successfully operate devices such as the camera, and the tripod. 

 There were quite a few things that we could have improved during our production. Firstly, the production roles, people in my group did not stick to the roles given to them. This this delayed our production, and gave us less time to make it better. Another improvement we could have made is  

 Over the whole process, I have learnt how to use new technologies such as Blogger, YouTube, Windows movie maker and Prezi. Some of the activities was a new experience that has taught me new things that I wasn’t already familiar with. Whereas, the editing process was more of a test where I had to put my computing skills into use.



Q6)what have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?

Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3)What kind of media institution might distrubute your media product and why?

Q5) How did you attract/address your target audience?

Evaluation: Question 5)

The importance of getting audience feedback was really important when I created my thriller opening. I had to find out what my audience liked in thrillers as well as what they were expecting to see from my thriller film.

I carried out two forms of research activity to find out my audiences opinions;

I did a questionnaire before I made my product to ensure that I included their thoughts and opinions into my planning. This would make sure that I attracted and addressed their needs. I made results from this to help me make key decisions.

Once I made my product, I carried out a focus group where people watched my product and I got feedback from them to make sure that my product did attract and address my audiences needs.

Before I did any of my own planning, to find out what the thriller audience liked within thrillers and to find out what was conventional, I did some secondary research into existing products.

• Doing secondary research into existing film allowed us to get a better understanding of what we can and cannot include in our own thriller, we are able to see what made an existing film successful and how it could have been even better with the feedback left by the viewers when we read some reviews.
   
• After doing my secondary research into existing thrillers, I have found that most thrillers tend to be target at individuals aged 15 and 30 due to the graphical and more explicit contents it may have. From this I have also decided to keep my target audience between those age boundaries and will use the information I gathered during my primary research to meet my audience expectation. The audience was also unisex so I would do this too.
   

My questionnaire:

• Once I was also able to identify the suitable target audience, to attract them I created a questionnaire that contained a series of question ssthat will allow me to meet the expectation of the viewers by knowing what they may or may not enjoy while watching a thriller film. This was important because it gave me an idea of what I need to include and what institution would be suitable for the distribution of my product in order to attract more viewers.
  
  

  
  

  
  

   

Image of my questionnaire:

• Below are some key question which helped me out on ensuring that I would attract and address the right audience.
   

What age rating are thrillers you watch?

Most people said they were 15 or 18.

This helped me make the decision that I would make my thriller film have the rating of 15 as this was conventional and people expected this.

What thriller sub-genre do you most enjoy?

The options were: action, crime, psychological, sci-fi and religious.

Most people said psychological in their response.

This helped me make the decision that I should make my thriller a psychological one to make sure that I attracted my target audiences.

 What themes do you like thrillers to have?

The options were: death, guilt and obsession, crime, revenge, vengeance, greed or any others.

Most  people said that they liked obsession, revenge and guilt.

This helped me to make the key decision that I would include all these themes within my product and I did as the young girl in my product was obsessed with her child and wanted to keep her safe from the mental home out of guilt.

 Who was your favourite antagonist in a thriller and why?

Fatma, 17 said "I like it when the antagonist is someone that you don't expect, or someone you feel is bad all along but then you end up liking when you see a twist".

I liked this response so I made a bit of a twist in my narrative. Who people in the film thought were was the antagonist was in fact the protagonist or victim for the audience. Doing this meant that I was attracting my audiences needs.

It was important doing a primary research as it helped our group on deciding who would be the right audience for our production and how we would attract them

 

 

Overall, my questionnaire feedback has been really helpful in helping me make choices on how I wanted to attract and appeal to my audience. This feedback from the questionnaire helped me choose my contentions, content and ideas so make sure that I picked ideas that would address my audience.

 

My focus group
The feedback I got here was beneficial in showing me that I did attract my target audience. I asked 20 people from my sixth from to come and watch my product and leave me with some feedback. I only asked people who liked thrillers so their feedback would be most helpful.


Ken, 18 said: "I really liked your use of editing on the female character. It made me feel really sorry for her and want to know more about her because she looked so mysterious".


Danni 19 said "I think you should have made more of a narrative with the girl with her child beforehand, like a flashback so it is a little clearer what was going on".
Following this comment, Samera said "Yeah but the news report helped us understand that".


Overall, the majority of the audience were in favour of liking my production so I strongly believe that I attracted them.


The feedback overall was really helping in letting me know whether I attracted and addressed my target audience and I believe from using the feedback from my questionnaire and getting my focus group feedback, that I did.