Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sounds

Diegetic and non diegetic sounds from mlevesley

Creating Visual Text Message Effects

After watching a tutorial on YouTube, there is a plug-in for Final Cut Pro called mMessage, it costs $69 but there is a free demo version on motionVFX. To use this plug-in I need authorisation from the administrator; if this is not possible, another student who has a Macbook could download this plug-in to use and allow me to use it.

I have previously done a blog post talking about the visual effects.

Filming Outside

I am planning to film at night and I want it to appear to be late at night.
According to the BBC, the problems with filming at night includes:

• Someone can injure themselves or someone else due to fatigue
• Reduced visibility can affect time and risk
• Night working on location can increase the security risk
• It may cause a disturbance to the general public

The BBC outlines the General Controls:

• Give the team as much notice as possible about working at night.
• Consider the journey times and travel arrangements of the cast and crew.
• Ensure safety critical activities are scheduled appropriately (e.g. don’t have higher risk work such as stunts at end of night).
• Consider accommodation, taxis and arrangements for transport; these may need to be offered.
• Consider a health assessment via a questionnaire if the night working is to be regular.
• Keep access clear of equipment and cables.
• Ensure that access and egress routes are adequately lit and that cables are properly managed.
• Identify any potential risks to personal safety at the location.
• Make the police and / or other relevant authorities aware of your recording intentions if necessary.
• Contact the Corporate Security Team and liaise with the police if you require further security advice.
• Consider the length of time and the location of the sequence if the recording may be contentious to the local people or area and the need for security (see pre-vetted list).
• Ensure arrangements for vehicle parking will be secure.
• Think about the need for working lights at location and unit base ensuring they do not dazzle drivers.
• Inform the cast and crew of any particular hazards.
• Keep noise levels to a minimum in public areas. If significant noise is likely liaise with the locals/the local environmental health officer to make them aware and help manage it.

A way to overcome the problems and hassle with filming at night time is to film at dusk, either during sunrise or at sunset. At this current date-12th January 2017- sunrise is at approximately 8:00AM and sunset is at 4:06PM. In the editing stage for the production, I will have to edit the brightness and saturation to make it appear at night time. I will complete some test footage before, comparing dusk and night filming.

Reflective Comment

The research has allowed me to gain a better understanding of filming when dark. The term 'golden hour' is a term for the sunrise/sunset, it is apparently the perfect period for filming as the sun does not cause any inconvenience. I will use this research for my test footage to compare the quality and credibility of filming at sunset rather than night.

Research and Planning Assessment Criteria

Throughout my research and planning stage, I need to refer to the assessment criteria:

Level 4:

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props
• There is excellent work on shot-lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or story-boarding
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning
• Time management is excellent

It is crucial, to succeed, to meet all of the criteria with some degree of success.

Text Message Visual Effects

To modernise my production, I am going to try to replicate exterior phone notifications as seen on other productions such as Hollyoaks and Sherlock.

Here is a video tutorial produced by the animator at Hollyoaks on how it is done:



Although it will be a struggle to replicate something like this, it will benefit my production by making it appear to a higher quality and modernised. A teacher has stated that it will only be possible to complete this on the 'After Effects' by Adobe; however, it may be possible to do on iMovie or Final Cut Pro through superimposition. I will definitely need to allow myself time to experiment this.

Teaser Trailers Textual analysis

Fences
In this trailer, which is just under 2 minutes, it begins with all the studio idents lasting for approximately 10 seconds. There is then a 10 second clip from the film then information about the film, the previous clip then continues until 45 seconds in when the top actor (Denzel Washington) is stated. Multiple short clips are played for 10 seconds and then another actor is named. Short, but dramatic segments of the film are played and it ends with the title of the film, the director and then finally the release date.



Voicemail
This is another trailer, produced by an A2 Media Studies student. This is produced to a high quality, clearly with a good quality camera; it is impressive and I probably will not be able to produce something to this level due to the fact that my camera will be borrowed from the school and it is merely a basic handheld one.

It would appear that teaser trailers are shorter in length than these trailers, typically a minute and no longer than 2 minutes.



Unknown
This is a teaser trailer by a former student, it is only 39 seconds in length and really plays on the idea of 'teasing' the film to audiences. In this trailer there are many short takes with the first two scenes lasting 3 seconds together. The trailer reveals a short, brief synopsis for the film but does not go into depth with the characters; this is a mystery thriller film which is presented firstly ten seconds in when the camera pans to a female character in the background who then exits, text on the screen 'secrets can ruin lives' also plays on the idea of enigmas.




Dunkirk
This official teaser trailer, lasting 1 minute and 6 second, has music representing the tone of the film, many shots from multiple scenes. Between each shot, there is text (approximately every 5 seconds) where it uses the director and his other work he has done. There is then a long take, to draw tension and suspense due to a bomb about to be dropped onto them. With 15 seconds left, the title is then displayed and followed by the release date.

In this teaser trailer, only the genre (and sub-genre) are introduced to the audience. There is no character introduction, nor is there a synopsis given. This film contains big names such as Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Cillian Murphy but it is not given to the audience.

It is therefore clear to discover that 'teaser trailers' conventionally give away little about the film. The trainspotting teaser trailer demonstrates this, as seen below:



The Trainspotting teaser trailer, which I would like to replicate with some aspects, contains one scene from the film and, with the title and release date displayed for the last 15 seconds. The camera shots include a POV shot for approximately 7 seconds, followed by a few seconds of an over the shoulder shot, then a close up. The trailer repeats these shots as the character talks to the audience, breaking the fourth wall.

In my trailer, I want to represent teen life, but to an extreme. Skins is a TV show which I would like to take aspects from in my film, with a small amount of simulacra; alongside this, I enjoy the idea of soap operas and the involvement the characters have in ordinary life and I would like to use aspects from that for a film.

Music Ideas

To help me decide upon the music genre and styles, I need to collect an understanding on what my target audiences enjoy. If they enjoy the soundtrack to the trailer (and film) they are more likely to enjoy the trailer and have an interest in it.

The music which I, and many of my year group, enjoy at the minute includes indie music such as Blossoms, The Last Shadow Puppets, and Catfish & The Bottlemen.

Only Catfish & The Bottlemen are on YouGov, people who enjoy this enjoy the film 'The Inbetweeners Movie', although my film is not a comedy, it relates to my product as it is a low budget British film.

I decided to explore the royalty free music industry and found a website with great songs:

It is hard to clearly see in this image, but the problem with this site is that each song costs $80 to download, which is just too much to pay for a track.

After struggling to find a good site for music, I discovered a forum on Vimeo where other film makers had the same issue I had. It is full of great Royalty Free websites.

Pete Buckingham

This is Pete Buckingham's division of cinema audiences. As displayed above, there are seven different groupings:

• Hero Seeker - Don't go out much, plan well in advance
• Impulsive Materialist - Fashion victim, word of mouth is key
• Film Fanatics - Male, pre-plan their trips, 25-44, go in 2s, review-led
• Impressionable Socialites - Under 25. Like blockbusters, led by ads
• Modern Parents - Kids pressuring the parents
• Fun Lovers - Not film literate. Big film and video consumers
• Youth of Today - See films as soon as they come out.

The Impulsive Materialists would possibly be interested in my film as it is an independent film, they will most likely hear about it from other people over a dinner.

As my film will be featured on a magazine and a poster, Impressionable Socialites may have an interest in my film due to the fact that they are led by ads, however, they like blockbusters and my film will be far from that.

Alongside this, the Youth of Today will have an interest in my film and I will target my product to be relatable to the teens; this is a good idea as they watch films as soon as they come, therefore relating my film to the Youth of Today means that I will have an immediate audience and fan base.

Audience Research

Thanks to David Lewis, I have been able to improve my knowledge on audience demographics and psychographics. This is secondary audience research.

Demographics and psychographics from BigDproductions

My audience, which I am focused on appealing, would have the demographic letter code of 'E'. Their job status would be Students/casual workers as described on slide 3.

Psychographics, which divides people by their lifestyle and characteristics, includes:
Aspirers (seek status and materialistic values), Explorers (seek discovery, individualism, values adventure, traditionally a student), Strugglers (seek escape, few resources beyond physical skill. Buys alcohol, junk food, lottery tickets. Lower demographics), Reformers (seek enlightenment, social awareness and independent judgement. Aware of good taster but anti-materialistic).
I will be focusing my product at explorers (as they will want to explore new and indie films), strugglers (as they have low demographics and do things teenagers do - such as eat junk food and buy alcohol) and aspirers (as they are often students or young people at the start of their career).

Audience Primary Research

Create your own user feedback survey

I created a survey for primary research as seen above.
Here are the results that I collected

Target audience survey results from mlevesley

From this, my search points to the ideas that male teens:

• Enjoy Drama, Comedy and Documentaries
• Do not like multi narrative films
• Would watch a teen multi narrative teen film if nothing else was on

Young adult men:

• Enjoy horrors
• Would watch a teen multiple narrative film

Young adult females:

• Enjoy all genres
• Would watch the film

The older generations:

• Enjoy dramas and documentaries
• Would not be interested in my film

Narrative Theories

I have been studying the narrative theories by Todorov, Propp, Barthes, Strauss, Cameron, Freytag. The information has been collected from Slideshare, by MissConnell:

Narrative theory from MissConnell

In relation to my idea, I considered three narrative theories which I could use as seen below:


Reflective Comment
Before my research, I was very unaware of the different narrative theories and the theorists who have created them. This post provides evidence where I gained an understanding and my own work that I produced; the presentation is interactive for audiences and, in my opinion, is clear to understand; I have also finished on a concluding slide which states the narrative style I may wish to include: theorist Cameron's anachronic style where there is a prevalence of flashbacks and/or flash forwards.

Initial Pitch and Presentation

My Initial Ideas Pitch Presentation from Matthew Levesley on Vimeo.



Reflective Comment
After changing my brief, the presentation is fairly redundant. My research on film posters was fairly useful on an introductory stage, similar to my target audience research.

Exploring a Media Product - This is England

Above is the presentation shown in class and below I have attached the video of me discussing This is England as a media product.

First Presentation from Matthew Levesley on Vimeo.

Reflective Comment:
I am happy with the detailed understanding that I gained about a specific media product, and also researching the products from this. Although I personally gained a great understanding, my presenting of the product could be improved, by giving a clear description and interactive examples-such as the website.