Final Film: Networked

Evaluation Question Four

For this question I wanted to use as many presentation methods as possible. So in this blog post there are audio files, videos, presentations and images.If images are too small to see, please remember to click on them to enlarge.
 

Editorial Programs

In this section, I will talk about how Photoshop has helped me create media not only for the ancillary tasks, but for blog work, the film itself and the evaluation of our product.

Photoshop was used to create both ancillary  tasks. The image below to the left shows the first attempt at the poster next to the final poster. It shows the development in ability in Photoshop as time has passed, as the 1st attempt was completed within 2 weeks of the projects start. It gave me time to build up skills in layering and masking, resulting in the final poster looking more industry standard.
The time lapse video below shows production of the film review, as I create my own take on an online film review. I thought it would be important to make the whole review from scratch, as this would ensure that no copyrights were breached in the project. We went through so much trouble in our film to ensure copyright sound was removed, it would have been silly to stop now.

In reality, another product from Adobe called InDesign would be used to create the PDF versions of film reviews, for the content in magazines and newspapers, but because mine was web based, the website hosters can add links to the page directly from Photoshop using the slicing tool to create HTML links.

This is what the programme's Heads Up Display looks like. It has a very simplistic look to it, but each tool has many different options and settings to allow the user to create whatever they desire.

After Effects (AE) is a post production compositing programme that is mainly used for visual effects and colour correcting. Compositing of frames is also conventionally done in AE, and we followed this convention in the production of our film, not only for the raw footage, but for the trailer, credits and introduction too.
The image underneath to the left shows a screenshot from the making of the introduction on AE. It shows how many features the programme has, and at first glance can look quite complicated, but it really isn't.

The vast majority of the programme is dependant on key framing abilities, which is also true with Premier Pro. Opacity, movement, audio levels and colour can all be controlled using key frames, and can be set to change at specific times. The video below shows the introduction video with a voice overlay explaining what is happening.

Unfortunately, the credits were not used due to time constrictions. This was animated in After Effects through a plug in called Plexus. This plug in allows the user to create particles and connect them in a 3D environment with lines and/or shapes. This can be seen below.





Please click here for more information about our use of AE for colour correction purposes.

Premier Pro is a industry standard professional programme that we decided to use for our final film. It allows multi camera editing and  enables multiple channel audio to be easily customised. We took full advantage of this when making our film 100% artificially dubbed.

Here are a handful of films that were cut in Premier Pro:

Monsters (2010)
The Social Network (2010)
Captain Abu Raed (2007)

We integrated products well, we used Premier Pro with Photoshop to create the camera shutter effect when Joe has his photo taken in the film. These snapshots had a HUD added as an overlay, so the opacity in Premier Pro was brought down so the background image could be seen through.

The video below show a time lapse edit of networked on Premier Pro, demonstrating our groups abilities in multiple programmes.

Sony Vegas Pro is a video editing programme that I have used throughout this unit in order to produce videos for research, evaluations and voice recordings. It has a very simple and easy to use layout and is one of the gateway software programmes for editors.

The image below to the left shows are screen capture of footage that has just finished rendering in Vegas Pro. That is the voice recording just below. So Vegas can be used not only for video production but also to produce mp3 audio tracks aswell.

Web Applications

Facebook was used in 3 ways for our film:

• Group Communication

This was useful as we could to to each other instantly about issues between shoots and even to communicate about blog work. We used Facebook to share files and give each other pictures for blogs. I think that the completion of this unit would have been made much harder without Facebook as we would not have had as much opportunity to discuss group work.

• Film Promotion

Within 4 hours of our Facebook page being active, we had received 53 page likes. This meant that instantly we had 53 people that wanted to watch our film. Before releasing our film on the page, we released behind the scenes footage and sneak previews for people to look at, to keep them exited for the films release. This helped gain an audience.

• Audience Feedback

Audience feedback was very useful from Facebook users, as they were active fans of our film. They had seen the previews and would have understood the setting of the film better. The comment on the image placed to the right shows a constructive comment from a university student who studies film.

Youtube played a large role in the evaluation, planning and the construction of our final product. We uploaded multiple verisons of rough cuts, some with; some without sound. The screenshot below shows the videos that we uploaded to an unlisted state, so only our group could see them. 

Fortunately, YouTube noticed that we had used third party copyrighted content. After we had uploaded the draft, a message popped up which informed us that it is advised that we change our soundtrack. Because of this, we altered our whole soundtrack to non-copyright material. If this didn't happen, we could have been in trouble with large music companies.

Youtube allows the users to embed files, which is what we have done on our website, blogs and Facebook page. It is a customisable iFrame, which allows the user to change dimensions of the embedded document, so that it fits the size of the page - allowing a wider range of audience to view it.

This mentions any other media that I may have missed out above. 

Evaluation Question Three

Sorry for the random clicking noises throughout.

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question One

Dealing with the Wind

During shooting we experienced a lot of high winds and without an external microphone or boom with a sound muff, we struggled to find the sound audible, so we recorded dubbing speech after the voice overs. Here is a video which shows the process. Please notice how the wind ruins the shots.

Questionnaire Results

Below are the results of our online survey and paper survey combined. It gives us an overall summary of what people want to see in neo noirs and short films. Graphs of this data can be seen below. We wondered if the audience would find a narration helpful to explain the storyline, as the short is only around 5 minutes. This is the result that we found:

To conclude this data, it shows that we should use a narration. So when we make our film that is what we will include.

Next is data concerning the question of colour schemes and filters. In the vocal questionnaire, we found that people thought that colour would allow us to do more with the story line by using more saturation for flashbacks and yellow flashes. These were the results from the online and paper survey, all collected into one spreadsheet:

The results are consistent with the results of the vocal survey - suggesting we should use colour but use a correction for effect.

The next image shows the spreadsheet that we made the graphs from. It was a long winded process of making new tables and variable counts, but the graphs were worth it as they clearly show what our audience want.

Audience Feedback

Here is a video that was recorded after the premier screening of our film. The group interview can be seen below.

YouTube Comments

Here are some YouTube comments from the YouTube community, before the final video was re-uploaded. It shows that the community are helpful and can provide constructive criticism where needed. This helped with our final upload.

Facebook Comments

Review Analysis: Ancillary Research

This blog shows research for film reviews. Individual sections will be analysed so that I can make my review as conventionally accurate as possible. I will analyse a web based review and a magazine review for a wider range of techniques.

Below is a web based film review, which is very clearly laid out. I have highlighted some sections in colour to explain them further, others have been labelled in green. The plot is shown in blue and outlines the film, summarising it whilst mentioning key actors in the process.

The star rating shows not only the star rating, but the highest possible rating, as the maximum is shows in grey. This shows the audience a rough guide as to how good the film is. In addition, there is a key in the top left corner of the page which explains this. The image is a frame still which has been taken from the film itself. There are further images and a link to the image gallery is clearly visible below the picture. This is good as active film watchers will want to see behind the scenes footage and more frames.

The review takes up the majority of the page, highlighted in green it is clear that most of the page's text concentrates on this. There is a large paragraph space to indicate a change of topic. The first paragraph of a review usually is used to draw the reader in, the second is more of a detailed analysis.

In the bottom corner the site advertises more pages on it's site - suggesting more reviews for the user to read.

Below is an analysed magazine review, please click on it to enlarge it.

Deleted Scenes :(

Our group was so disappointed when we were told to cut our film down, that we decided to keep our unusable footage for a deleted scenes feature to go on our blogs. If we were allowed to keep the scene, we would have re-shot it, as weather was inconsistent through the evening. The excluded footage can be seen below.

Brick: Detailed Visual Analysis

This video explains Bricks conventions and used theories.

 

These Spider Diagrams show more of Brick's theory.

The A2 Media Experience

This post shows a video of how our group have gone about making our production, Networked. It shows behind the scenes, unseen images and footage and a quick insight into how the motion image was created. It has been an eventful experience, but I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that I have learnt so much from it.

Poster Analysis: Ancillary Research

In this blog post, I will demonstrate research for noir posters through different media, including image, motion image and audio. Below is an example of an annotated noir poster called Brick (neo-noir released in 2005). Please click on the image to enlarge it if it is difficult to read.

Below is another more basic, but useful guide to some more posters. The red text highlights what I will be incorporating in my final poster. Please click on the image to enlarge.

Group Communication

This blog post will explain how our group have communicated over various media platforms in order to have constant communication. for example, if one of our group members was uncontactable by phone, we know where each other live, in addition we have the email addresses of every member to ensure.

iMessage Group Chat

Website and Promotion

We have purchased a domain name in the name of networkedmovie.com where the film and its features can be seen. A lot of short films have done this, so we thought that we should in order to follow short film conventions.  Although it is not yet complete (as of 01/04/2014), it will be soon. The simplistic website was designed in Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 and consists of a colour scheme of black and white (typical film noir colours). THE SITE WILL BE DOWN UNTIL THE VIDEO IS RELEASED ON FRIDAY 4 APRIL.

Social Networking

Posters and Banners

Bus Stop

This is the film poster that was created for the ancillary task. It can be seen here in the bus stop advertisement stand.