Evaluation - New Media Technology

Type of Technology	Pre-productions	Production	Post-production	How effective was it?
Blogger	The main use we allocated this website with was to act as a folder to hold all of our planning work. It meant we could aggregate it all into one place and extract the information we needed to continue producing our sequence efficiently by saving us time and helping us to extract particular pieces of work – e.g. looking at our Vox Pops when deciding on a plot for the film. Blogger provided us with advantages that a paper folder could not. For example using images and videos to express our ideas more clearly instead of writing it all down on a sheet of paper. We could also use hyperlinks to refer to other websites providing extra detail. We could constantly refer back to our work and make adjustments to create a more specific profile of research.	The production did not really make use of blogger. However we did still do our production logs throughout every stage which helped me keep track of what was done and what still needed to be done.	Similar to Pre-production, it acted as a folder for each part of the evaluation.	It enabled us to view each piece of information that we had previously made when needed to extract the necessary information. However it was less successful in aiding our production as it played no major role in the process. Blogs are useful for uploading information and getting into contact with the relevant people. They allow you to create an enhanced profile of research by using applications such as images & videos and hyperlinks to websites.
The internet - Google	Search Engines - The internet allowed me to carry out secondary research by finding web articles and statistics. I could analyse this information to find further information for the planning and research section. For example I found an article about police raiding an illegal rave which provided an insight into the public eyes views on the scene. The search engine allowed me to find specific example instead of going through hours’ worth of newspaper articles to find something relevant which was time-efficient and cost-efficient.			In terms of gathering information to specify our target audience and give our sequence a specific representation of the characters, very effective. Other than that, in production and post-production it was not much use. From using this we have learnt that there is lots of potential information on the internet – it can be considered as a useful resource. It is also cost efficient which links well with our low budget as an independent film production.
IPhone 4		The IPhone was a great form of communication, for example using I-message to contact Rob and other actors to let them know what time we were meeting to film. Also, it was our main recording device in the raves as it is small; good quality and still gave the phone footage effect we were looking for.		Very effective. It saved us from having to bring an expensive, large HD camera to raves which would potentially get lost, damaged or stolen. It also enabled us to have a realistic hand held effect when recording providing us with a creative and innovative edge that we would have lacked using a proper HD camera.
Final Cut Express			This was used to edit and put together the final piece to a high quality. We were able to use various effects and editing techniques that are not available on programmes also available to use such as IMovie which gave us an advantage over other candidates. This included technique’s such as colour fading the scene at 0:08 The learning process was helpful for future productions using this tool.	Very effective in terms of the Post production as it allowed us to use advanced editing and effect techniques that others were not able to use. However due to its complexity it was not always as straight forward as we would of hoped, meaning it was sometimes time consuming and frustrating – e.g. sitting trying to figure out how to add a particular effect.
HD Camera	We used the camera to record our Vox Pops. We done this so that we could record how the candidates were answering questions as well as what they were saying.	This HD camera was used to record the footage outside of the rave scenes in the opening sequence.  For example recording the group of mates walking down the high road to meet up with Jamie. It was useful as the quality of footage captured was very high which gives us a creative edge comparing to if we had used a basic quality camera. The camera is also fairly basic in terms of how to use it which made the task or recording footage a lot simpler. It was also used to record the credits which worked well as it was able to capture Jamie’s hands with the sheets and avoid all background footage, enabling us to leave the footage with the desired effect. An example of this is at 01:29 in our sequence.		This camera aided our success by doing the required job and allowing us to record in various locations with different styles and still coming out in a good high quality. I would say I learnt how to use the camera but it is fairly basic meaning there’s not a lot of learning required. However we did learn that uploading the footage can sometimes be an issue and you should check the camera is viable to connect to the computer you’re using before recording any footage.

Evaluation - Adressing Our Audience

Evaluation - Representation of Social Groups

We manipulated the entire sequence in order to connote a specific type of social group in our opening sequence.

Gender: 80% Male & 20% Female

Age: 16-21

Ethnicity: Mostly White, British

Interests: Electronic Music, Graffiti Art, Drugs, Raving,
Academic: None at all OR A-Levels/Uni

In this shot we get a clear view of the Mise-en-Scene specifically chosen to reinforce the representations of our characters. The graffiti on the walls shows the law-breaking element of the social group we were representing in the sequence, as well as drug use through the form on the 'joint' in Jamie’s hands and the drug bags being passed around. Here we are conforming to the stereotype of the modern youth - those who break one law, e.g. graffiti artists, are the ones that commit all other crimes that the youth as a group are targeted for. We decided to give this issue a celebratory theme through the loosely framed long shot, connoting the distance between this type of people and those that are part of the '9to5' social group. We showed the characters to have a sense of freedom in what they choose to do with a sense of rebellion against stereotypical society. However the bland lighting interlinks with their shady body language to connote a secretive group of youths who are paranoid because of their drug intoxication.

  
The editing is fast paced and makes use of jump cuts to represent the effect of drugs on our characters. The fact that it jumps from Jamie taking a pill to being straight in the middle of a rave connotes the extremity of their nights out and how every moment is a blur once it is over. Because we have not put a lot of camera time on Jamie actually taking the pill, it also connotes that taking drugs is no big deal to teenage drug users, the real fun is when the effect kicks in and being in a rave. We decided to represent this issue is an easy going and fun respect to highlight the lack of effort given by authorities to fix the problem. This explains the fast paced and jumpy editing style. This is why we focused more time on the rave footage which subverts to the stereotypical drug user who would eventually become addicted, connoting that drugs are part of everyday life and are no big deal to them. However the effect is that they love drugs, representing the social group as previous part time users that have now become full time addicts.

Here is the one of the only parts of our sequence that bares any aspect of a female being included in the entire 2 minutes in the form of a close up, other than the conversation with the teacher at the beginning. The women is a stage dancer, dressed promiscuously, representing the female social group as sexual object.

The close up emphasizes her sexual appeal - females are conformed in the sense that they are only present in our trailer when dancing to entertain the men. There are no females in the main scenes of the sequence connoting their lack of importance in the entire story. This supports John Burgers ideology that men are spectators of women who are only present for a man’s personal entertainment.

Here is the stereotypical rivalry between the academic social group of teachers, against school students in the form of a two shot, connoting the opposing opinions between the two people. Jamie's presence slightly towers the teacher to connote his lack of respect for the authorities. We gave this representation to connote the idea that the institution's general typical advice to people in Jamie's situation is not good enough to actually make a difference- almost as if the teacher does not understand Jamie's position. Another connotation is that Jamie prioritises his life over others like a stereotypical teenager and therefor does not listen to the teachers. Jamie takes the typical rebellious school boy role in this part of the trailer, connoted through his tie and shirt with a nice hair do. His presence changes to a more confident person who takes the leading role when meeting up with his mates. It connotes how his actions in school do not signify his personality in outside everyday life. Also, the colour of this scene expresses the dark and dreary feel of the school. The subtle hint of blue connotes the feeling of a lack of hope for the relationship between Jamie and his teacher.

This shot is used between the fast paced editing of the rave scenes as a close up. The angle is not straight and the lighting is poor in the background. The bunny rabbit face is almost menacing to the viewer, representing the raving social group as somewhat of an evil group of people who we should have fear in. We decided to give this representation as it creates a realistic view on what most stereo typical '9to5' people would think at an actual rave. However there is also a humorous side connoted to the bunny rabbit mask - a sense of freedom in the appearance of people in the raves. We gave this representation also to provide a polysemic insight into what we believe their thoughts are on stereotypical mainstream worries such as how we look and what people think of us. The rave culture is connoted as care-free and having fun with people similar to themselves.

Production Log - Week 12

This week we spent the first lesson noting down our opinions of all our classmates final productions. In return they done the same for us meaning we got hold of some feedback to note down when doing the evaluation of our production.

Then we started the first 2 parts of our evaluation - the brief which informed the examiner of why we chose the title we did and also the directors commentary, analysing our choice of conventional elements in our final production.

Although the unit was almost over at this point I felt a distinct pressure to get the evaluation done due to the tight deadlines set, which forced me to rush through the first two tasks. This did me no favours ass it meant the work was done to a low standard. I then had to spend the following night recompleting the work to make sure it met the criteria in order to achieve a good grade.

Evaluation - Director's Commentary

Evaluation - Institutional impacts

So, what impact did Film 4 (F4) have on our production?

Pre-Production

One of the first things we did as research is discover what F4 actually is and what makes them different to a major studio:
They are a British film studio contributing to the production of independent films, many being the genre of British Social Realism which is the genre of our opening sequence. You can find parts our research such as the BSR timeline and representations of BSR here. Their budgets are never sky high and their audience is niche as opposed to targeting the mass market which major studios would do.
We studied the sound in films such as Trainspotting, not directly made by F4, but also an 'indie' film of the BSR genre. We noticed how the voiceover in the opening sequence tied down the basis of the films narrative with its themes and ideas. The tone was serious but confusingly humorous creating a sense of humour in the fact that these people are completely wasting their lives. The content of the voiceover mocked normal everyday life and supports the way drug addicts live. We studied this content and transferred this idea to our own plans with our own unique twist by changing the context around the drug abusing in our story. This would appeal to our audience as the age is relevant and the context around our characters such as school environment’s, are familiar to them.
The primary research Vox Pop's were influenced by F4. By finding students within the school who represented the independent side of film rather than the mainstream this meant we purposely targeted those who we thought would have more of an insight into the BSR genre, allowing our research to having a more specific influence over our work.

We also examined the representations in Snatch and concluded that our characters must be able to relate to our audience to create that realistic effect that BSR consists of. We tried to make our audience relate to the core of the character's personality's and see the typical controversies the Urban British audience of young men.

Production

In the Production of our work, by working towards the basis of a film created by F4 there were significant impacts on equipment, locations and cast. F4 would use low budgets real locations and young unfound talent for actors. We related this to our production by ultimately having a budget of zero.

The equipment was to be provided by our school whether we were going by an independent studio or not. However it meant we were limited to using the basics such as a HD camera, tripod and microphone, even if the more expensive stuff that major labels use were available. Other indie films work similarly such as 'Fish Tank' which had a low budget of around 2 million pounds meaning the equipment would not have been state-of-the-art.

The locations we used were scouted previously by ourselves which is shown through our 'Recci shots' which is similar to how F4 would find their locations. We know this through gathering that our budget was low - also from analysis 'Fish Tank' which is also an 'indie' BSR film, we recognised that some locations are local to where we live. We used our local neighbourhood and rave scenes that we had attended. This impacted our work giving it a realistic approach with real gritty locations, similar to how F4 would do so.

Our cast consisted of our friends who took part for free, showing our lack of a budget. The main character, Rob, is a young actor - including him shows our use of new and young British talent which is effectively finding new talent for an extremely cheap price. Other BSR films that show an example of this include the hit 'This Is England'. Thomas Turgoose, the main character was found in a youth club where he lives and asked to perform in the film - he then responded saying "I’ll do it for a fiver," highlighting the fact that the process was done as cost-efficiently as possible.

Post-Production

F4 films are most commonly shown through their online website. Also their TV channels such as Channel 4 and Film4, as well as film festivals across the world. They most commonly use other independent distributors from Britain, for example 'Four Lions' which was distributed by Optimum Releasing's.

We decided the film would be distributed via the F4 website after its first showing of the F4 TV channel across Britain. This means it would be cheap to view and largely accessible to our niche market with in Britain. This would be cost effective as there is no charge for materials to make DVD's and other various distribution costs which are highlighted in my study of the film industry.
As a film in under the F4 institution we would also use Optimum as distributors. F4's contributions with them are usually successful as they are one of the most recognised studios in the UK 'indie' film business. They distribute similar films to ours as they are mostly 'indie' films of the BSR genre such as 'Four Lions'. Using 'Optimum' has its advantages as it means we have a loyal audience of the studio who would be willing to watch the film because of the studio the film is linked with. Critics would also watch our film as Optimum is a well-recognised company throughout the industry.

Evaluation - Target Audience & Research

Evaluation - Overview of the Breif

For this project we worked towards creating the opening sequence of a British Social Realism film. The title of our film is 'Wasters.' Our main character is someone that does not work hard, wastes school time, takes drugs and spends a lot of time partying illegally connoting someone that consumes the police’s time and money. You can find this information in further detail in the treatment. The title connotes the stereotype we based our film on is classed as somewhat of a waste of space under the public eye.

In the opening we see Jamie discussing his future with his teacher, the frame then freezes and skips to some of Jamie’s mates going to meet him to prepare their drugs for the party connoting how he 'waste's' his teachers time who is putting in effort to help him go back to his old lifestyle. Clips of the party are then crosscutted in. The party then crosscuts with the credits until the title appears which ties in with our original idea of a young boy getting involved with the rave scene as it connotes the sudden change in lifestyle.

It explores themes such as underage drug abuse and dealing which happens on the premise of the illegal party on a huge scale. This is shown through Jamie and his mates dealing drugs to each other at 1:00 in the sequence. It represents the issue of drugs very freely, connoting a lack of power from the authorities - at no point is there a police officer intervening in their dealings. This idea is backed up from the secondary research I carried out and also supported in our treatment.

The theme of teenage life is also critical to our genre and target audience. We found this from 'the most commonly viewed BSR film' question in our Vox Poxs. This type of lifestyle is connoted through the walking scene at 0:54 in the sequence where the boys walk freely through the streets in a group - an action which you would not see many other age groups do often. They show a lack of care for the people around them connoting the stereotypical teenager. The scene connotes an intimidating perspective on the boys as a social group.

Another theme explored in our sequence is social class. Jamie is initially represented as your general middle class, white student in school expeirencing a bit of a rbeleious phase. After the monologue comes in and the other scenes our opinions of him become lower as if he is below us connoting that drug use can almost automatically represent you as what the general public would call a 'waste' of space - refering back to the reasons for our title.

Production Log - Week 11

This week we completed the final opening sequence. After designing the production logo during the previous lunch time and thinking up an idea of how to put a title in the trailer, we finally completed all of the relevant tasks to make the sequence complete!

The title is quite basic and we would of both liked some extra time to do something a bit more exciting, adding a bit more of a professional hint to the sequence - however due to deadlines this was not possible. This meant we had to settle for a simple and basic title, although we still decided it went well with the sequence.

Here is a screen shot of when we were designing the insertion of the title into the sequence.

Here we were altering the colour of the title and the background to create a contrast connoting the difference between the audience and the ravers in the party.

FINAL PRODUCTION - 'Wasters' - Opening Sequence

Production Log - Week 10

This week on the first lesson we finally came up with an idea for the titles. We were going to print of the names of the actors and directed etc. and stick them to the various parts of a fag box - e.g. where it says smoking kills and on the sheets used to roll a roll-up. This way we can show Robert making a roll-up which will fit into the themes of our sequence and still show the titles.

Our creativity was influenced by our teachers urge to not use basic titles as they are worth a lot in terms of giving our sequence an edge in terms of standing out and making sure our titles actually connote the themes and ideas that we want to connote in our film.

Here is an example of how the titles would of looked:



We planned on recording this near the pizza shop where we shot some of the footage of Jamie and his mates going to the rave to make it seem realistic and make sure everything makes sense in terms of where the characters are and where they are going.


However we decided to use the sheets of a rizzla pack and write the titles on them so that we kept things simple and quick as we only had a couple days before our deadline.

The previous idea was very time consuming with the images above taking around an hour and a half to complete.

Also, we recroded it so the lighting only showed Jamies hands and the rizzla pack with a black background which I thinks looks better than what we originally planned.

Here is an example of one of our final titles:

Production Log - Week 9

This week we edited the first 30 seconds of the sequence together where Jamie has a confrontation with his teacher.

This also went really well and we decided to change it half way through the lesson from really conventional editing to slightly more exciting and unconventional to go with the unconventional theme of our sequence. This response came from the feedback that our teacher gave us informing us that we should not be editing unconventionally half-heartedly.

However once we had spent the lesson completing this first 30 seconds we had realised that we wasted a lesson previously ensuring that the first part was in time with the soundtrack and everything had slightly moved out of place and is still yet to move more once the titles come in.

Production Log - Week 8

This week we focused on the editing as we had most of our footage captured. The first section we worked on was the scenes from around 0:30 to 1:00 where 'Jamie' meets up with his mates and makes his way to a rave.

I felt that this editing process ran smoothly and we ended the week with a good result. Our teacher gave us positive feedback and also reminded us to get proof of permission for the soundtrack we will be using which is good as we need to ensure that the examiner recognises that there are no copyright infringements.

However to this day we still have not got an answer as to how the titles are going to fit in our sequence which means we will have to seriously consider it over the weekend.

Production Log - Week 7

 This week we planned to complete the first 30 seconds of footage in school on the Monday but only got round to it on Thursday due to our actors being busy and having to reschedule at least twice each. Eventually we found a time in the school day where the appropriate people were free to film and record, including me for filming, my partner, a drama student and Miss Aucott, a drama teach - selected for a higher quality of acting.


We used the HD camera provided by the media department and also planned to use the Rhode microphone to get the best sound quality possible. However we ended up using the cameras microphone as the Rhode microphone was new to us and we therefore could not figure out how to both operate it and record everything we needed in such a short amount of time (1 hour). We also used the tripod to make use of a variation of angles and heights. 



Another part of our recording - on the roads and in the flats stairway was done during the evening with friends using the same equipment.

The raving footage was recorded previously in a hand held style on IPhones. We decided this would suit well to add to the realistic hands-on recording style to make the audience feel closer to the action.

Production Log - Week 6

This week we intended to confirm and complete our titles by getting a friend who does high quality graffiti to write them out for us. We then planned to scan the titles in and insert them into various parts of our sequence.

To sum the titles situation up, it has gone pretty bad. As per usual the friend we selected to help us out with the titles is either very busy or just plain lazy and as a consequence we have not completed them.

However through attempting to complete them we have managed to come up with the different titles we will be using and also targeted a selected amount of time to display titles in the clip in order to allow enough screen time for our footage. This information can be found on the 'Titles' post.

As a result of not getting the titles completed, we are not going to panic and rush to get them sorted but leave them for another week - during which we will be finding ways of getting round this problem whilst fosucing on other aspects of the opening sequence.