For our film we chose to follow the independent model of film ownership. We chose to do this purely as we wouldn't be able to realistically create the film opening of a large budget, Hollywood film due to our budget and time restrictions.
To this end we chose to have one distribution company, but a group of different production houses working together to create our film.
Our Distributor: To present information about our distributor I created a Prezi:
We chose focus features as they are successful in marketing and distributing British Independent films. Their marketing techniques have also worked really well on other films similar to ours. For example American Honey:
How Focus Features marketed American Honey and how this connects with our film.
Our Production Companies: To illustrate our production companies and information about the I created this Prezi:
Our Audience:
The primary audience for our film is fans of the genre with secondary audience groups of fans of indie films in the 15-25 age group with a worldwide spread. To further illustrate this information I have created a Prezi:
By going for a more niche audience group of younger fans of indie films who enjoy this style of humour we have to be very specific with how we attract them.
What our audience want in a film like ours:
A side-by-side comparison of our film with another film our audience demographic like, and what they enjoy about it:
Attracting our Audience:
We used specific techniques to attract our Target demographic:
To attract fans of the genre we used many conventions of Mockumentary films, for instance the intertitles, or the hand held camera. This helps to make the film seem recognisable to them.
Examples of intertitles from our sequence.
We also used lots of awkward comedy very common to mockumentaries. This also helps to attract 15-25 year old in general.
By using comedy in our film in place of large spectacle we are gratifying the audience's need for entertainment.
By focusing the films story on an invisible boy, but also setting it in a contemporary setting with many recognizable themes and Toby acting how you would expect an invisible boy to realistically act we are allowing the audience to suspend their disbelief. This allows them to better get caught up in the filmic diagesis that we have created gratifying their need for escapism.
Another upside to setting our film in a contemporary society, and focusing on realistic (if slightly exaggerated characters) is that the audience can better connect with the characters and their themes. This allows for the gratification of them to get a better sense of their personal identity by watching and identifying with the characters in our film.
To make the film appeal to a worldwide audience we made our film focus on universal themes, of coming of age/leaving home for the first time.
As well as helping to attract a global audience using this also will connect specifically with the age group[ of 15-25 year olds, as they are either on their way to leaving home for the first time soon, or have already left home for the first time quite recently.
Throughout our project we made sure to get feedback from our target audience on how they thought the film went. We also got qualitative feedback from our target demographic about the final product of our film:
Analyzing our Feedback:
Our final feedback was very good, as it shows that we had succeeded in creating the type of humour enjoyed by this audience group. Our feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
It demonstrated that we accomplished the main function of an opening sequence, as the audience were able to absorb the information we presented them with in the opening, for example the title, and the main characters' names as all but one were able to recall their names and the title of the film.
The fact that Lilly couldn't recall Toby's name without prompting shows that there may still be a balancing issue in the sequence with the amount of time and effort put in to make Toby's character memorable, as he is the main character of the film, and the least time is spent on him. This problem also pops up later as no one picked him as their favourite character, with Kenny being the overall favourite.
Our feedback also showed that we accomplished our goal of creating the humour that our TA would enjoy, and would gratify their need for entertainment, as they all seemed to be entertained, and there was a lot of laughter throughout, especially in Joyce and Kenny's scenes. These scenes were also memorable, as the group were able to easily pick their favourite scenes, for example"Joyce drinking on the Wii board" as picked out by Sian.
One critique we received was about the "I'm excited but nervous, still excited, but still nervous." line. This is a line in the trailer both me and Noa felt skeptical about as we did consider changing this line during Production, however we couldn't think of a better line for this scene.
It also demonstrated that we were extremely successful at creating an opening sequence that was recognizable as a mockumentary, and was even very much recognizable as in the style of one of our greatest influences What we do in the Shadows (2014) as Sian and Meera even said it was very reminiscent of "that mockumentary about the vampires" which is reffering to What we do in the Shadows.
Our Kit: I was very happy with the kit we used. It was provided by the school and each group got the same kit, but could ask for additional items if needed. To demonstrate the Kit we used in our project and their pros and cons I created this table:
The Kit we used and the Pros and Cons of it
What I have learnt Throughout this project:
Whilst constructing this project I have learnt and honed lots of new skills, and improved upon skills I already had from the Prelim and GCSE media studies.
Pre-Production:
Blogger:
Blogger was a completely new tool for me when we started planning this project. It was a useful tool when setting out my planning and research and allowed me to easily present my ideas, whilst still being able to go back and look at my previous posts for inspiration and information I may have forgotten.
My Blog
Production:
Framing:
Framing is somewhere I have really improved throughout this project.
At the beginning of this project I could frame a camera, however I would leave way too much empty space around the character than there needed to be. For instance in the shot below.
My Framing at the time of the Test Shoot.
My Framing by the end of the Project
By the end of this project I have greatly improved in my framing skills as can be seen in this shot. The camera is much more level, Joyce is right in the middle of the frame, and the surrounding area is minimal for thetype of shot we wanted.
Lighting:
At the beginning of this project I had never really thought about the lighting of the shots, as we didn't use the lighting rigs in the Prelim or before that.
For the test shoot we used the lighting rigs, but only as props in the background. However whilst editing we could see the problems that not lighting the shots caused, for instance characters' faces being in too much shadow to make out their expressions.
My Lighting at the time if the Test Shoot.
My Lighting at the end of the Project
As you can see in the main shoot Joyce's face is still in some shadow, but you can much better make out her smile, whereas in the test shoot you couldn't make out any facial expressions at all.
Post-Production:
Grading:
At the beginning of this project I had never graded before, and doing it for our sequence was a real learning curve for me.
Grading one of our shots on Adobe Premier Pro
I found it very enjoyable to grade, however it is not one of my strong points, so Noa graded quite a lot of our sequence with my input as she worked.
Sound Mixing:
Something I found myself excelling at in post-production was sound mixing. I found this part of the editing process really enjoyable, and am very happy with the way the song fitted together in our final sequence.
Me Sound Editing
One part of our opening I was particularly proud of is the end sequence, and how all the cuts in the video match with the chords of the music.
Improvements I would make:
Overall I am very happy with the way our sequence turned out, but if I could do it again there are a few changes I would make:
Try and fix the sound issue in Toby's interview. This was something I really struggled with when sound editing. Because of the way our sequence fitted together there is a slight jump in the music. It is almost inaudible, and only noticeable if you really listen out for it. However if doing this project again I would try and fix it, if not just for my peace of mind
Toby's skin. In the interview shots you can see some of Ray's chest. It blends in quite well with the bandages, however he is meant to be invisible and, even though small, it makes it harder for the audiences to suspend their disbelief.
Ray's visible skin
Toby's Dialogue. I was very happy with the dialogue overall, however during our feedback we were criticised for the line "I'm excited but nervous, still excited, but still nervous." We did consider changing this line during Production, however we couldn't think of a better line for this scene.
Kenny's Grading was another thing I would definitely spend more time on if we could repeat the project as it just doesn't work with the rest of the sequence as it is too blue and unsaturated, and feels quite jarring when watching the opening.
How I have Progressed Across the Project:
Throughout the whole project I feel that I have really improved in my use of techniques for planning, filming and editing. The standard of my work has much improved, and it is nice to look back at the Preliminary Task and see how much I have improved since then.
A Timeline of Our Project: Here is a timeline of our project from start to finish with all the videos that we created for it:
The Planning Process: I created a mind-map to demonstrate the timelines of the planning process for the Prelim and the Main Project:
As you can see the planning process for the Main film project was a much more intricate and diverse process than what took place for the Preliminary Exercise.
It is also worth noting that we only had a short amount of time for the construction of the Prelim compared to that of our main project.
The Filming Process:
The Filming process for the Prelim and the Main Project was very different, as they both had to focus on different things.
The Prelim focused on continuity style editing and filming, whilst although this was also important for the main shoot, we had to focus also on translating the target audience of our film across using Media Language.
My Filming Improvements:
Most of the information on how I improved is covered in my previous post about my technical improvements, but I will summarise here on how I improved from the Prelim to the Main Project:
Framing:
An area I really felt I have improved in throughout the course of this project, as back near the beginning of the project at the test shoot this was very bad, and has improved to what it is now.
However looking back on the Prelim, the framing was better there than in the test shoot, probably due to the large gap in time between the two, leading me to forget some of the skills I had learnt
Lighting:
We didn't use any lighting rigs for the Prelim.
However with the lighting we were able to produce a much better looking final product, especially compared to the test shoot. I feel that I have really gained good experience with the Ari Lighting Rigs.
Lighting in the Main Shoot
Lighting in the Test Shoot
The Editing Process:
The editing process for the Prelim was very different than that for the Main Project. As we had a much diminished timescale for the Prelim our editing process was a lot less involved. For the Prelim we didn't do any grading or sound mixing, and these are things that I have definitely improved on throughout the project, and have helped to improve our final product.
Like for filming most of the information on how I have improved is in the previous post, but I will summarise it here:
Grading:
At the beginning of the project I had had no experience at all with grading, and I feel that i really know how to do it now. It is definitely not one of my editing strong point, but I am competent enough at it to grade a shot well.
Grading a shot on Adobe Premier Pro
Sound Mixing:
I didn't really have any experience at this before the Main project and really enjoyed it, especially trying to get the cuts on the beat.
I was very pleased with the end sequence as the music fits really well with the cuts in the shots.
Reflections on our final outcome:
Looking back at the project as a whole I feel that it has gone really well. Me and Noa work really well as a team, and manage to get the work done, whilst still having lots of fun whilst doing it.
I am extremely happy with the final outcome of the project, and could not think how it could be better. Everyone who has watched it so far has really liked it, even though I have seen it so many times now my view may be quite skewed.
I feel that as a team me and Noa have managed to work really well together, as the only group of 2 in our year its quite impressive we haven't driven each other crazy yet, but that just shows how similar our comedy is, and how well we can bounce ideas off of each other. I hope that our comedy and attitude towards this project have translated well into making a great final product.
My favourite parts of this project have been the shoot days, as they really allow you to see the ideas you have had in your head really come to life in front of you. I also enjoyed the initial planning of this project, as it was really interesting researching such a niche genre, and felt good to just let your creativity flow. I also found myself enjoying the sound mixing whilst editing, something I hadn't really done before, but I was extremely pleased with the outcome.
Noa and I have come a really long way with this project, and it has been a great experience. I feel like the sequence we have created is the best that we could achieve with the time and resources we had available, and whilst it may not be perfect, it is something we have created as a team and that we have put a lot of work into.
This project has been great and I feel like I have learnt new skills along the way which I will be able to transfer into my future endeavours outside of media.
A picture I feel encaptures the spirit of our project.
My Technical Learning Curve:
At the beginning of this project I was already competent in the use of the camera and continuity filming from our Preliminary exercise, however i was able to really consolidate and improve on certain aspects of my media skills:
Framing:
Throughout this project my use of framing in shots is something that has greatly improved. For instance in the shot below you can see how much my framing for the interview shots has improved.
Framing in the test shoot
Framing from the main shoot
Lighting:
You can also see in the above shots how my use of lighting has improved. The Ari Lighting rigs are something we haven't really used before in Media, and I really enjoyed getting to grips with them throughout this project and learning how to properly light a shot.
Sound Mixing:
Me Sound Editing
Throughout this whole project I have really enjoyed editing the music for our sequence. This is something I haven't really done before, but I really enjoyed the opportunity for me to experiment and create a really good sounding final product. I am particularly proud of the ending of our sequence, and how the music ties into it.
