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

TASK BRIEFS:

The pre-lim task was very helpful in pointing out the things that could possibly go wrong and important things we needed to do, before starting work on the main task, in each of the planning stages: pre-production (research + planning), production and post production.

PRE PRODUCTION: PLANNING

PRODUCTION:

 

For both shoots it was also important to make sure that everyone got an opportunity to film some of the shots, not just one person.

POST PRODUCTION:

FEEDBACK:

Feedback for our prelim was by teachers and other media students so the technical aspects were focused on (as the aim of seamless continuity was more technical).

For our main task, feedback was by our target audience and was focused more on the creative aspects and more opinionated. We haven't spotted any continuity errors yet so the pre-lim definitely helped on that level!

WORKING AS A TEAM:

Being in my group, I have learnt a lot about communicating ideas and being organised with meetings and agreements. It has been very easy to share thoughts and ideas during the course of producing our opening sequence and I think that has been a big part of its success. We have all worked very hard on this project and I have really enjoyed working in my group. :)

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

During the production of our opening sequence I learnt to use various different pieces of hardware equipment:

Canon HD Mini DV Camcorder

We used this camera for our pre-lim exercise but this time we experimented with the auto and manual focus, which was new for me.

Tripod

Most of the time we used the tripod to get smooth, steady shots but whilst improvising some shots we were able to be creative with the tripod:  e.g. putting it on the table to get a HA of Dawn (above).

I would advise anyone using a tripod to make sure all the legs are on the same level using the bubble on the side, as our camera was wonky at times so we often had to reshoot shots.

Paglights

Aside from making the shots well lit, we found that on our test shoot different shots were lit differently depending on the angle we were shooting from, so we used these lights and other lamps as well to keep continuity. 

The advantage of using artificial light is that you can create different effects easily, for our shot of the curtain however, we had to wait for the natural light outside to be bright enough.

Shotgun microphone
Our final shot is the only shot with dialogue, so we needed to remember to put the microphone on when shooting this shot.

I didnt expect the microphone to pick up even the smallest sounds as it is quite sensitive, so when shooting this shot we had to make sure there was no noise that could be picked up by it.

During post production I was able to develop knowledge and skills of the non linear editing software we used, 'Adobe Premier Pro':

I learnt how to alter the speed and duration of a shot. Like this wide master shot:

Incorporate a dissolve into 2 shot:

And how to add titles

I also learnt how to upload to Youtube!

Although our production process went smoothly and we didn't have any major issues, with hindsight I would have spent more time planning other possibilites for shots we could use as we had a lot of spare time on shoots which we used to improvise shots instead.

5) How did you attract/ address your audience?

We addressed our different audiences in different ways, as different groups will be attracted by different aspects of our opening sequence.

Enigma appeal: The narrative is held back and the story is told through the images. The audience try to work out what the shots are of and what has happened, so they ask questions and are kept interested - everything isn’t given away.

MARKETING

As our audience includes young people, if we were to market this to our audience, an online viral marketing campaign would be suitable, with trailers and clips of the film available on Facebook, Youtube which can also be accessible on phones, making it a cross platform approach as well.

This marketing approach is very similar to that which made Paranormal Activity a recent success:

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

We held a screening for our opening sequence and gave people a questionnaire to fill out:

Group 6 Audience

+ Things they liked: Shots, imagery, lighting, music, pace, colour scheme and curtains

-  What they thought could be improved: Sound, phone dialogue, the dissolve shot

* The most popular answer for the second question on genre was 'Thriller', the next most popular were crime/murder mystery and horror.

* Most people answered that it is a British independant film (the ones that didn't said it could be either independant OR mainstream)

* All but 3 people gave us a rating of  7 or above (out of 10).

The positive feedback and ratings showed that although some improvements can be made, we did reach our target audience effectively.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our primary audience was the audience we were trying to appeal to. As our product developed, it became clear that certain other groups would also enjoy watching our film opening, this was our secondary audience:

A profile for a typical member of our target audience

One of the questions on the questionnaire we handed out at our screening was: Who is the film's target audience?

:) Most of the responses stated an age range of around 18 - 30.

:/ 2 said the film targeted people over 40.

The feedback implies that the audience is broader than we intended, in terms of age.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

‘Dawn’ is a low budget, British independent film produced by a small production company, Papercut productions, which produces independent films for niche audiences who want to see something different from mainstream Hollywood blockbusters: 

…. so will suitable for small scale distribution by a small, UK based company that supports independent films called Reverse Pictures.

Reverse Pictures is similar to the UK based distributor, Dogwoof, which also supports and distributes independent films.

As it not a Hollywood blockbuster, 'Dawn' wouldn’t be distributed to large chain cinemas.

It would be distributed to independent cinemas such as the Phoenix in East Finchley to reach our audience of young adults/students who are looking for films that are different and unique.

Dawn could also be shown at film festivals such as The London Independent film festival or Raindance film festival which both support British independent films.

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

● With the use of Strauss’ theory of binary opposites, ‘Dawn’ represents gender by going against the stereotype, particularly in the thriller genre, as Dawn is the female murderer and 'John' is the male victim in the opening sequence.

Dawn's character, however does conform to some female stereotypes concerning actions and dress code:

The male character, John, also conforms to some male stereotypes concerning his character in the context of the whole film and dress code. 

● Also, young people are represented as being sociable people that like to go out, drink and meet new people whilst also being naive and careless by putting themselves in dangerous situations.