The Pursuant: Final Production

Question 4

Question 5

Question 7

Question 2

Question 2 from Emma Eustace

Question 3

Question 1

Question 6

Question 6 –

From the making and editing of my production, I have gained so much experience in which will benefit me further along in my media career. I used various different technologies throughout the pre-production and production process of my project. The most predominant hardware in which I have used is the Apple Macs. Within the Apple Mac, I used the editing software ‘iMovie’. I used this as a basis for the majority of my production as I found that it was easy to navigate and there was an appropriate range of filters, transitions and other editing techniques in which I could have used on my film. Overall learning that this is a reliable and sufficient software to use when editing if on a low budget. The only downfall experienced was the fact that there are a lack of titles available conforming to the expectations of the horror genre.

Above is the template of the software iMovie which we used to edit our film.

Another technology used in order to make the mise en scene was Photoshop. However this was something that I have experience in using, therefore this was a swift process. We used this to make the Polaroid’s in which feature as part of the mise en scene in our opening.  The procedure of filming, using the camera and hardware in which comes with the camera e.g. tripod, did not add strenuous time to the filming of our production as we already had experienced similar processes in our preliminary task, therefore we already had learnt the basics then.

Deciding which hardware/software to use was a decision that took some delegation. When making the Polaroid images we came to an agreement that Photoshop was the software in which would make give us the most realistic outcome. However with the editing software, we were torn between using Adobes Premier Elements in which we used for our preliminary task, therefore we already had some prior knowledge on how to navigate and use the tools and in contrast using the Macs to use iMovie which we lacked experience in.  Further to discussion, my group and I agreed that using the Macs would be more beneficial as we would be able to finalize our project on a software named ‘iMovie Final Cut Pro’.

One hardship in which I faced when in the editing process was the fact that I didn’t have the hardware and software at home. This made it difficult when deadlines became fast approaching, as I was limited to the hours in which were allocated at school. If I had the software accessible at home, the practice of editing would have been completed in a more active manor. Something in which also made it difficult for my team and I to carry out the task of editing was the demand for the editing suite. As we are one of many groups in which needed to access the suite, we had to divide the time equally between year 12 and 13, meaning that accessibility to the suite was limited.

The creating and setting up of the blogs was a long process as I think all of my media class would agree! Coming to grips with the navigation of the page took some time but now I depend on my blog to hold all of my media knowledge! In order to make my blog look as neat as possible and easiest for the examiner to navigate and manoeuvre around my page, I added an archive to categorize my work. This is beneficial as now I know how to apply this feature to my future blogs. 

Something else that I had to become a first time user of was YouTube. Despite using YouTube for entertainment purposes, I never had a channel, therefore setting up a channel to post videos throughout the production process was a new experience, yet one I will continue to use both in and exterior to my media career. I found that YouTube was also a great way to connect with the audience and acquire audience feedback quickly and effectively. 

Although there was versatility in the variety of shots, such as point of view shots, over the shoulder shots, close up shots, continuity editing, panning etc. There still were some shots in which we couldn’t achieve due to the limitations of our equipment. We planned and hoped to achieve a 360 degree shot of jars full of grim substances, yet this was unachievable due having no funding, knowledge of software and ultimately we couldn’t come to grips in the way in which to film it with the limited time we had! However if we had planned our creativity better I’m sure we could have found a way to create such a shot.

Audience feedback and Self evaluation (draft 1)

Self evaluation of draft 1

The version of 'The Pursuant' in which can be found on my blog, is very much the first draft. From this first production of the film, I am now able to see where are strengths lay as a group and where there is room for improvement.

A major flaw of the film in which is due for improvement, is the transition designs. I feel that the non-diegetic music and mise en scene complements and establishes the tone of our opening, however the transitions in which are used to progress the film from shot to shot, negate this unsettling atmosphere and create almost comedic and 'slideshow' infliction on our film. As well as this, another area in which was in need of development was our lack of shot variation. Our initial plan for our film insisted in having extremely tight shots and fast paced editing in order to create a sense of disjointedness for the audience. However this was not achieved in our first draft, our production contained little diversity in shot variation, something which is going to loose us a substantial amount of marks in our final production. Therefore, we are keen to include a lot more footage to further our ability. 

Once we add titles and our borrowed footage of the institution, the cinematography of our film will immediately look more professional.

In contrast to the negatives, I think that my group and I's hard work in preparing the props and the mise en scene has paid off and this is palpable in our first draft. 

Audience feedback

I found the feedback session with my target audience beneficial as I was able to get a clear understanding of what they liked and didn't like. In order to find out these views, i asked a variety of questions. As this is our first draft of our edited footage, the titles are yet to be included, therefore the first question I asked was 'where do you think the titles would be most appropriate?'. After discussion and a variety of different opinions, the majority of the audience thought that if the titles were over the top, this would take the importance away from the mise en scene and consequently the titles should appear separately on a background in order to give the titles and what is going on on screen equal appreciation. 

The second question asked was 'what are your opinions on the transitions?' Immediately the constructive criticism rose to surface and all of the group shared their dislike for the transitions!! (Which is understandable as after reviewing the film myself, i am aware that they do not meet the conventions of a horror film). Therefore this is something i will immediately change as soon as I get back in the editing suite. 

Evaluation of preliminary task

After reviewing my preliminary task, the strengths and weaknesses have become clear. One of the weaknesses of the task was that I feel that my group and I would have benefited from changing the story line, as due to the vague plot, we experienced struggles in what to include in the filming process. Looking back now, we should have included more detail in our story board to enable us to follow the structure. Due to the fact that my group and I had different available free periods in which we could film, we struggled to find a time apart from in lesson when we could all film together. Furthermore, next time I will produce a more detailed production schedule before hand, then we will incur no troubles in finding time we can all film. However, as a AS media studies student, these weaknesses are expected as I have never took part in a task involving filming before.

Although I am aware of the flaws in our preliminary task. I am also very much aware of the strengths in which we achieved as a group. I think that the success of the film was the variety of shots we used including shot reverse shot and continuity in our filming. However we need to add a match on action shot in order to achieve the best of our ability. When editing our film using Adobe Premier Elements, we decided to put a filter over the our footage in order to add to the atmosphere being portrayed the short clip. I feel that this worked well with the footage (the girl standing in the road) and created a successful effect.

I am going to take on board all of the weakness and be careful not to incur these flaws into my main task as I don't think my full potential was achieved in the preliminary task. Similarly, I will make sure that I will illustrate my strengths when filming and editing my opening scene.

Production Log: No longer a producer :(

Hi!
Today we finished filming :( apart from the few mishaps in which we incurred on our production journey it was a really fun experience being a producer! I enjoyed working within a team to produce something that we are all immensely proud of. I am going to miss working closely with my team however I am looking forward to telling you all about my skills in my evaluation.


Emma x

Treatment: The Pursuant

The scene opens with newspaper clippings of unsolved crimes as well as slow and industrial sounding soundtrack in the background. The room is dimly lit by candle light and the protagonist is obscured. Over the shoulder shots will be used to obscure the protagonist as he traces through various clippings and images of past and potential victims. The scene will be broken up with insert scenes of flashbacks, which display the stalkers murderous capabilities through various match on actions and potential jump cuts. Whilst showing contrasting lighting, we will portray the stalkers upcoming plans. As the music begins to decrease in sound we see an almost close up of the protagonist as he blows out the candle, which simultaneously stops all other sound.

Forgot to post this!! Audience questionnaire and analysis

In order to gain a greater understanding of our demographic, I decided to create a online survey on the software 'Survey Monkey', including a mix of open and closed questions relating to our specific genre of horror. This survey was predominantly shared on different platforms social media in order to accumulate results. I chose to distribute my survey on social media as it is widely and commonly used by my predicted target audience.

 

Location Recce

Audience Profile

Production Schedule (Including contact numbers)

Storyboard

First Draft

This is our first draft of our film 'The Pursuant'. However this draft is purely footage, it does not include any titles and we still are in the process of editing in new footage for our second draft.

Mood Board

This is my mood board in which conveys the overall tone and atmosphere of my film opening. The mood board contains figures in which our film relates to (Ted Bundy) and also includes images in which are going to be used to inspire us when making the finished project.

Production log - Starting production!!

Hello again!


Today Olivia, Michael and I started the filming process for our horror film. We filmed a handful of different shots in which we are confident to use in our production, yet after watching some of the shots back we came to an agreement that they were not worthy enough of being in our final film. As first time producers we are extremely excited by the filming process and are eager for our next available filming day! We are still currently debating on a name, but as we film more of our opening sequence, I'm sure the name will fall into place!


Speak soon.
Emma x

Institutional Research