Primary and secondary research on short film

Primary

Some of the primary research that I have done is evidence we can see in the world today, each year the world reaches a new hotter temp, the ice caps have began to melt and the rest of the world is experiencing drought. CO2 levels are also increasing in the atmosphere, causing erosive processes such as acid rain which i can see the effects of around Bath on buildings. When it comes to the creation of my film i will be taking influence from productions such as the film Hunted as well as filming style of Pretty Little Liars to incorporate the dark themes of my film.  

Secondary 

Many news outlets constantly report about the changes to climate and environment that the world is experiencing such as the Huff post or bbc. Secondary research i will use for the production of my film comes in the form of viewing measures, for example using statistics made by the production company to see what it popular with the thriller genre i am looking to appeal to, in this case it is i will be using Pretty Little liars as my influence. Using this information of the most popular episodes within the series, i can use it to understand why it ticked with the audience, what made the episode most watchable? 

compare and contrast at least three directional styles.

Wes Anderson Is one example of an different directional style as he is best known for narrative tendencies that remain prominent in most of his work. Creating films such as The Grand Budapest Hotel his directional style contains a distinct visual flair as well as keeping his camera shots mostly stationary taking away the three dimensional feel most films have as Anderson believes that it makes the finished product look like a painting rather than a moving image. However, director Tim Burton over time has developed a very distinctive style, visually of his own. In contrast to Wes Anderson Burton uses dark gothic themes to convey his work as well as loner characters and unique product design/costumes.

Finally one of the most distinctive directors of our time Quentin Tarantino, in contrast to my previous directors Tarantino is well known for violence used in his films. His directional style is influenced by Japanese films which is becoming more blatant as he produces more films, however each film produced by Tarantino pays tribute to every genre possible which is possibly why his films are so popular. His directorial style is said to be liked to that of Scorsese by using long tracking shots and crane shots to track characters for the best shots.

character doing nothing

Character animation of doing nothing

As this is one of my finale animations for this project, I found it quite simple to create. All my animation needed was layers and symbols. 

I began by drawing my character (a snowman) with a plain back ground, which on reflection I could have added.  The snowman was kept plain as the editing i planned to do to him would have made it difficult to maintain substance.

Next I began to animate him to show human features such as him blinking, showing movement related to waiting (looking around and blinking) Adding other layers in, i was then able to show the melting process as the sun began to appear by adding key layers to animate the process.  

News podcast

After performing my research I created my podcast in the way i set out to do, originally I wanted to create a news based podcast similar to a radio broadcast that you would hear on radio stations such as radio one. I believe i achieved this through a mix of formal language as well as some slight slang, I also believe this was achieved thanks to my backing song which was modern, hip and up beat.  i created my podcast using a microphone and headset to ensure, that independently the work was created was of a good quality. i decided to name my podcast 'The News Podcast' however within the audio itself I had created an fake news show to be presenting from, 'The News Podcast' consisted of me reporting on two current news events happening in the UK which were the potential crisis of public transport over the christmas period due to delays as well as Rumored couple Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole expecting their first child together.

After creating the audio for my podcast i exported the audio onto Adobe premiere where it was edited (ensuring that the audio levels were level) and then finding music to add off of the YouTube library giving my podcast its Jingle was well as adding the pop music to aim to the audience I wanted. After adding in the music i played with the audio gain so that at the beginning the music was loud and then lowered volume when i was speaking. Referring back to the audio research I did, included a jingle, one person talking, factual information and adding quotes from the story i was talking about. i also included relevant music and is just over a minute and a half long.

The link to my podcast;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B57vFSChGIrBRG93RmxUNjZ5bmM/view?usp=sharing

Shape Tweens

To create a shape tween i began by creating a layer and drawing my name in. I then selected the 10th frame and created a keyframe, on the 10th frame i drew in my bubble around the writing as well as the sparks coming out of it, then selecting a random point between the 1st and 10th frame and right clicked selecting the 'create shape tween' tool which then created this gif.

Moving car gif

In todays lesson we created an animated sequence of two moving cars using motion tweens. I found this a simple tool to use as the motion tween does all of the animating for you, all you as the creator needs to do is create the image you want to animate and then use the tween motion tool, drag the selected images in the direction you want to move them in and the process is done.

animated charcters

The brief for this project was to come up with an character to then later on animate, the character is Gizmo. He is a creation half way between bear and fish, i like to call the breed 'Merbear'. From the images below we can see him from the front, back and sides. As we can see he has a slightly deformed ear due to an unexpected attack when we has younger and the colour of his tail reflects this as the deeper the shade of purple means the higher up in his pack. Since Gizmo's attack he has since earned respect in the Merbear community.

Production target two-(news search)

Research for my radio report

The videos imbedded as below show type of podcast mine will be like, my aim is to have a formal news report style of podcast that reports on a specific, prominent issue happening in the world today. Reports like the one seen here, show the type of style I want it to be. The use of formal language must be used as i want my report to appeal to an older audience of adult age however i will not be doing interviews because as America has become more apparent in the news, i am assuming that i will be doing  a news piece based around the country, therefore i cannot interview someone with first hand experience of what is happening in the country, another example of this is a radio show on BBC four, i decided to use this for research as it is an audio based production and similar to what i will be producing; http://bbc.in/2f2GT3X                                         

Copyright

Copyright is the legal right to the work that you create, it states the rightful owner as well as the responsibilities of other people who want to sell the work such as payment and credit. I will be using copyright free music known as 'creative commons', this is for an opening jingle and slightly muted music playing in the background as I read out my news report so that there isn't empty noise during the podcast. Creative Commons is a non profit website which allows music to be shared from artist to creator for free other sharing sites. 

Elements to consider when choosing locations

During the lesson we scouted locations in Bath that we thought would be appropriate for a period drama. The first location we decided on was 'the Royal Crescent', this is a curved row of homes with aseptically pleasing grounds and parks surround the area. Some of the most noticeable issues with filming in a place like the crescent was its large population of public, many live in the rows of houses which makes the area popular with those living there as well as visiting public, this means that the entire area would need to be shut off to not disturb filming or disturb the historic feel of the film. With the population of the area also brings traffic, parked cars fill the streets of the crescent as well as a main road being placed along side the park therefore if filming was to be done there, the roads will need to be shut. In a place like 'The Royal Crescent' there must also be consideration for the sun rising from the east and setting in the west, this will effect where filming can take place as well as how much time there is to film in the location.

The next location we went to was the The Circus, this-as the named would suggest is a circular row of historic homes centred around a piece of land in the centre. The biggest issue is that a particularly busy roundabout is now centred around the buildings which would disrupt filming often, another problem is that the buildings are closed in on one another meaning that light barely reaches into the area meaning that the area would need to be artificially lit is the area was perfect for the scene of the film. Another issue in this possible filming location was the litter that was on the road on pavements that would need to be cleared before filming.

Peer assessment of board game and evauation of own game, test audience research

The outline of the brief was to create a new board game that had traditional elements such as playing pieces, have a clear product identity and must have a clear target audience. I believe the creators of 'Question M' did stick to the brief however  in some places, the game is slightly vague. Take for example the colour scheme; the creators used red and orange as their main colour scheme which would be fine if it wasnt for the fact that the tone of colours used clashed massively, muted tones were used (wether this was a printing fault or done on purpose i am unsure) however this made the board very difficult to read and, being brutally honest, ascetically unpleasant to look at, if i was to improve the game i would make the choice to use a different colour theme that could be clearly read. The board uses traditional elements, as the brief asks for, in the way that visually it looks similar to a board with set squares like snakes and ladders or Monopoly, playing pieces to play and question cards to get around the board but thats it. In my opinion the game seems repetitive but i thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel in that the creators had added random white squares across their board which i believed would add an some individuality to their game, however i was incorrect. There was no reason for the white boxes which was very misleading to both me as a reviewer and i assume an audience playing the game.

Question M uses playing cards based on questions created surrounding our media course as well as knowledge on famous films such as directors and release dates, this creates its target audience for the game (us) however if the team were to consider this product a game to sell their market would be very limited.  Adding these cards also gave the game an identity which makes the game more understandable in terms of the ascetic with its playing pieces such as magnifying glasses. After seeing the prototype of the game i can see where the creators were aiming to get however more effort could have been applied to the prototype such as sticking cut out pieces of paper onto cardboard to not look so amateurish, i believe that a dice should have also been added to the game to add entertainment value.

In conclusion, i believe that 'Question M' meets the critria of the brief however needs some adjustments doing to it to ensure the game is usable, such as colour adjustments. I believe the team also need to re think how they can make the game more entertaining as currently its very repetitive and predictable.

Evaluation

For the task of creating our own board game each individual member was given a separate task to do, for example; Chanel was in control of creating the board in which the game was played on, Emanuela was in charge of creating the logo as well as overall board game design and Amy and I were in charge of the detailing of the game such as the playing cards, playing pieces, rules and creation of the prototype. As a group i believe we worked well and productively to create the prototype of a game to be proud. The prototype was created out of cardboard, printing off the appropriate size for the board game which fitted with the brief measurements of A3, on reflection the size of the playing board was too small for the size of our created box however when creating the board we thought best to arr on the size of caution to avoid later issues. We also found this with the playing pieces, discovering that they were too small for the board itself and did not sit in proportion with the rest of playing cards, to fix this next time I would enlarge the board itself and then the rest of the pieces to fit with the size of the A3 board game to be more accurate. When looking at other prototypes created, most of them were much larger than our board game, big enough to properly play the game, however our box was a decent size and fitted in with the brief we were given.

Test audience research

After completing our board game we set out to create a questionnaire on google forms asking questions related to our game and others opinions on it. This allowed a more detailed point for improvement to be given. For example;

Here are some responses we received;

Rationale for Pretty Little Liars Monopoly game

Rationale for PLL board game

My group and I set out to create an effective board game based around the murder mystery program Pretty Little Liars to provide a fresh twist existing editions of Monopoly such as Game of Thrones Monopoly, Spongebob and Family Guy. We did this to appeal to a wider audience as there is a large market for this game due to its popularity, we also thought that due it being a murder mystery program it would also appeal to audiences that play games such as Cluedo.

Changing the entire Monopoly theme to fit the gothic and murderous feel of the program, we wanted to changed almost every aspect of the games aesthetic to really fit in with the gory side of the program. We set out with the goal of putting a twist on a traditional game incorporating locations from set on the board and following story lines on the playing cards, we wanted to do this to really appeal to fans of the program allowing them to feel like they are in the program themselves. However we want to accentuate that this can be played by anyone who enjoys murders mystery games and programs appealing to a lot of audiences. 

To create this game we spent a lot of time studying and researching versions of Monopoly already on the market to see how much of the theme was incorporated into the Monopoly game, when we discovered the games were very theme heavy, we decided to go all out. We used ripped money, the game pieces were murder weapons and iphone stencils were used in place of playing cards as that was a way "A" communicated with the girls. I believe that our game successfully fulfil's the requirements and boundaries of the perimeters of the brief, I believe this because our game contains traditional elements (such as a board for it to be played on and playing pieces) however our own individual twist on the game, switching out traditional pieces for murder weapons and adding the iphone template as the playing cards adhering to the brief. We also created our own logo, incorporating the monopoly logo and the Pretty Little Liars logo together adding blood drips and the traditional Pretty Little Liars background. We created two images of the Logo, one for the back of the board and one for the front, both slightly different however incorporating the same ideals for the Logo. As well as this we also created a slogan which is 'Bring your A game' which also allows for our game to adhere to the conventions of the brief.  

Symbols and Instances

'Symbol' is a selective tool in Adobe Illustrator that if you choose to use, will allow you to create a graphic that will be copied into your file. Symbol allows you to create an image (in my case a Penguin) which can then be modified and duplicated and then added into your sequence. I created my penguin through selecting the Symbol tool and then added it onto my time line, before adding key frames to move the penguin across the screen. I was able to alter the penguins position on screen to look like it was moving across the background.





In the screen shot below we can see that I manipulated the image to make one penguin larger than the other as well as one beginning slimmer than the other a you are able to do that with symbols.

This is my finished GIF.

Drawing expressions

During expressions

During the lesson we were encouraged to take pictures of ourselves making expressions, then using the images we animated the drawings to show the expressions.

Happy

Angry

Pain

Embarrassed

Sleeping

Story line

Story

• Suspence
• Characters/relationships
• Plot/plot twists
• Narrative
• Layers/depth 

Mr Robot

Why is it good?

Mr Robot has a constant switch between dream, reality and illusion meaning the audience never know whats real and not, this creates confusion and intrigue to keep watching, just for confirmation of whats real or not. The plot of the program is believable in this day, also appealing to large audiences as it bases around hacking, corporate business running the world and rebellion against the revolution into this evil corporate system, like you see today with groups such as Anonymous. The main character is also difficult/relate to understand however how the series develops you find yourself sympathising, his acting draws you in and makes you as the audience really root for the man. Mr Robots Constant twists with a flow that is fast pace with thickening plot and new characters at the right time with multiple stories incorporating and intertwine into one large storylines incapsulating the audience and drawing you in more and more, doing this encourages viewers to create their own theories which will then encourage them to continue watching to either prove or disprove that they believe.

Linear narrative-'cause and effect'
Non linear narrative-no order in terms of scenes like Pulp Fiction but added to a large plot.

Finding Nemo is a Linear film, it begins with first scene opening on Nemo and his father looking at his potential brothers and sisters which are eggs laid by his father, the first section of film is used for scene setting as well as laying some basis for what will happen in the main plot. The main section of the film with the most story line is the transition into the second section of the film, it begins when Nemo gets lost and his father begins his search to find him for with his father meeting Dory along the way. The finale section of film begins when Nemo begins his escape from the dentist into the sea to find his way back home, his friends helping him along the way until he is reunited with his dad as well as Dory.

Todorov

Equilibrium-Dis Equilibrium-Equilbruim  Peaceful-Disrupted Peace-Peaceful Again 

board game production

A reflection on the brief

After being given the brief i am feeling positive about the task of re designing a board game, I believe that the requirements for the brief are fair and give a clear guide line on what is expected for the finale product and I do not have any objections. The parameters are restrictions on what you must not do but for this brief the parameters seem simple to follow however I believe it will be difficult to give my board game an individual 'product identity' (this is an object requirement) looking at those already available on the market and taking into the account that everyone is creating a board game. Object requirements for the game include that the board game must 'traditional elements', object requirements is what the product has to achieve. I am intending to work in a team, as that is how i work best. I believe that there will be others in my team that will be more creative and therefore helpful when creating the board game however others like myself will be more productive when it comes to visualising what the product will look like and better at researching.

Research

The research I will be carrying out will be field research, going into shops and studying what the board games include and what will my board game include (the pieces, colour schemes, what the audience for the game is) and answer those questions before creating our board games. I will also use the internet for help as it will contain a larger library of games from around the world and with the help of books to look at text for the game. To prove I have done this i will use photographs of me doing the research as well as charts and graphs to ensure that my audience like the board game. These are subject requirements, requirements I myself must do. I am going to carry out this research because it will help me to know what types of colours i should use for my game to look like a game you'd see within a shop. I will also use this research to understand what types of games are on the market and this will influence what my decision on what to make because i currently do not have any ideas and neither does my team.

Evidence of research 

After researching board games in shops, we have decided to create a version of monopoly based on the popular television show 'Pretty Little Liars', we decided to go with this after seeing an version of monopoly using a 'Game of Thrones' theme (see pictures surrounding text). Making the choice to use 'Pretty Little Liars', when it came to designing prototypes for the board game, we went with using the dark gothic themes of the program to fit with our board game, much like the design for the Game Of Thrones board game which uses the font, colour themes and images of the television series in contrast to other board games we had seen targeting an younger audiences, for example the use of bright simple colours and simplistic text shows that the game is for simplistic audience. We also studied the original monopoly, we noticed that the simple block font allowed for the game to stand out and be recognised, its use of slightly faded colours allows for the board to have a vintage appeal to it, with the use of the monopoly man to make the board known. Pretty Little Liars' is for an older audience therefore a darker theme can be used to appeal to them.

After carrying out the primary research needed to get an idea of which board game we would like to create, as a team we carried out more secondary research on the internet. We found more existing versions of the game such as these, i found this website particularly informative because it has useful information such as price points. We also did this because we needed to ensure the game did not already exist. We also found this website which contained all Monopoly games in an alphabetical order which helped a lot to incorporate original game ideas to our monopoly game.

Exploring design ideas

Working on our board, during the first session we were assigned some time to begin our boards, whilst others were creating the board itself, the logo and the cards in which you would use to play. I collected the images which we would use as money in the monopoly game, I decided to use dollars, as the game is set in the US in a suburban town. Seen here; finding the equivalent of monopoly money into US dollars, i added them into a photoshop document in one place, for them to then be printed as examples for game. After printed them out, I decided to develop the idea of money out slightly. As this version of Monopoly is based around a murder program, I decided to cut of parts out of the money to make it look crumpled and cut up to make the money look damaged.

Another idea we explored was using an iphone template to relate to the show for the playing cards. We changed the playing card names to 'community chest and community coffin' to relate more to the show. After potential designs, we decided to stick with the idea and were happy we did.

Production list

bouncing ball

Pyramid scheme animation

The Pyramid scheme animation was simple, yet effective at explaining what it is and how to avoid being scammed by a pyramid scheme business. The animation showed hierarchies that clearly emphasised the large business profiting off of smaller distributors who are bullied into buying the products to then sell on allowing the business to make money however the distributors lose out on it after they realise the difficultly of selling the products that nobody really wants to sell. The animation itself was simple however the narrator was saying a lot of information so i can understand why they film was left like this, with simple images that do not distract from the information.

Pyramid scheme businesses are now more popular than ever with the use of social media to boost sales with the likes of stay at home mums buying into the schemes believing the promise that they can make a lot of money without leaving the house. Examples of popular Pyramid schemes in the UK include; Juice plus, Younique make up and also Avon beauty.

Recce's

Recce's

The job of a recce or location scout is to research locations which fit in with a films location and theme, they must consider a multitude of things such as weather conditions of a location (how many daylight hours, if the environments conditions are suitable for filming in such as temperatures and if the conditions could cause damage to kit). Another thing that recce's must consider is if the locations are accessible, can crew and kit make it to the location without masses of time wasted whilst travelling and once at the location, are there ways of accessing electrical outlets to ensure that the equipment needed is usable. Recce's should also account for space, is there enough space in the location for crew, cast and equipment as well as enough room to film. Lastly recce's should consider health and safety, will the location be safe enough to house an entire filming crew.

the 180 degree rule.

The 180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule is an invisible line that when filming suggests two characters must maintain the same left and right positioning to each other, when the camera passes this 180 line the character position switches reversing the angle and not using the 180 rule can cause confusion for the audience if it isn't followed.

here is an example video as created by me;  

Adobe animate

Experimenting

During the lesson we were taught the basics of how to use Adobe Animate for the first time, after some practise we were set the task of creating a short animation with our basic knowledge. This was a struggle for me as it was new software that is difficult to wrap to wrap my head around, I began testing with a cat. My plan was to create this cat using the brush tool and changing the colours and adding details such as whiskers, the whiskers would then move slightly as if the cat was sniffing or similar. In this image we see the original design, however i found the animating part difficult. Im sure after more practise i would be able to create this. 

During the lesson we were shown how to add layers to edit the image to look like it was moving (like in photoshop) as well as how to insert key frames which are added into every changing frame to show the image transformation. In this image we can see me beginning with an new idea, I started by adding my layers and creating an image of a bench.

Next I added another layer to begin adding to the image, adding the weather to show the transformation into an animation. Beginning with clouds, then snow until a process appeared of built up snow. 

This is my finished product; 

Animation review-steve

How will you die

The animation used visual images to show how death can be caused in rich and poor counties. The animation often repeats itself in the sense that the same images are used such as the use of the human and examples of death, this kept the animation simple and effective with also saving time when it came to the production of the film. The end message is that we fundamentally, will all die, rich or poor. However with the preventive measures shown during the film, life can be prolonged.

Zero

The animation was created based around a man who was born  'A zero' a bottom of the society who's how life was shaped around the fact he was a nothing, those who were born as a higher number such as a 9 were of a higher class system. This reflects much on our society today, for example; those of the middle class may stereotype those of the working class. The director of this animation was able to create a really moving piece allowing for the audience to reflect on who they are and really ask 'do i treat those who are different to me the way i would want to be treated?' during the film the narrator tells the audience the Zero 'did not want to be a negative number', he made the best of a life that was neither fair or equal to those around him but this did not stop him from being happy.

Roles in film

pre production, production and post production

Pre production, production and post production

Today, we were asked to write a list of the aspects that are needed to create a film, these are elements such as; 

• Story
• script writers
• Casting
• Locations
• Crew/kit
• Music
• Sound effects
• Cinematography
• Makeup and wardrobe
• Funding
• Marketing
• Scheduling
• Editing
• Sanitation
• Accommodation
• Transport
• Props
• Special effects
• Animal handlers
• Risk assessments
• SFS/Pyro

Then we put this list into a table of pre production, production and post production, Pre production are the elements we believe are done before the film is produced, for example; creating a script. Production are the elements I believed are done during the filming process for example; scheduling and post production are the elements done after the filming process has finished like for example; editing.

Pre production	Production	Post Production
Story Script Writing Casting Locations Film crew and kit Makeup and Wardrobe Funding Marketing Scheduling Risk assessments Cinematography Props Animal handlers	Cinematography Scheduling Sanitation Accommodation Transport Props Special effects Animal handlers SFS/Pyro Script Marketing	Music Sound effects Marketing Editing Special effects SFS/Pyro Script

Behind the scenes

photography and audio techniques explored

For this term in audio we explored techniques in order to create a mix between a film and photography, in the first two lessons we researched different video/media platforms and the differences between them, we also began to plan out our own photomotions (link to blog post). Over the next few weeks we experimented with audio, standing by busy roads, in places where crowds of the public were and attempting to record a conversation over the top of the background noise. This was so that we could learn about microphone position and where it should be held to find the perfect balance between clear conversation and background noise. After some struggle we discovered that holding the microphone just under the chin helped use achieve that so I knew if I wanted to add speech into my photomotion this what I would have to do.

When it came to creating my photomotion I created a storyboard which would allow me to create an idea of what i wanted to film to create my project, unfortunately I could not do a practise shoot as I was creating my photomotion based on a gig, so instead I did practise shoots of things like me moving on transport and walking around like the images show around the paragraph as I wanted to incorporate both of these into my film. I stuck with my plan of shooting the entire photomotion on my phone, however on the day I found it exceptionally difficult due to running out of storage. I came up with the solution of using a friends, and had no issues however videos of the gig were unable to be sent to me so I ended up without any audio, which was really unfortunate due to the fact I wanted to add the video in as sound and fade a track in and out of the band to go with it as backing for my photomotion but this is something to learn for next time. The 'burst' tool on my phone really helped my along with this photomotion because as we were moving along or the band was playing the phone took multiple photos one after the other so that the photos were consistent. As the filming process continued throughout the night i found it difficult to change camera positions as i was crammed into one small space therefore it does not change that much, also due to this my photomotion ends abruptly which i am also disappointed with.

Once I had completed and collected all the footage I wanted, I imported them to google drive ensuring that the photos were in order so that when it came to exporting them to Adobe Premier there was no issues however there were due to the fact that I had deleted some images my photos were no longer in a sequence meaning I had to use Automator which can change the files for you therefore making them into an order. Editing on Adobe Premier was quite difficult as i have never edited something like a photo motion before, however once understanding the process and editing the speed and duration to look like a photomotion I had no issues and I was somewhat happy with my photomotion. As I said previously, I had no audio available so I added audio from youtube of one of the bands songs, which fitted really well.

Overall I enjoyed creating this photomotion (not just because I went to the gig) but also because it challenged me in a way that helped me to learn for the future like the image sequencing. If I was to create another photomotion I would definitely do something a lot more simple so that I could focus on the important fundamentals like adding my own audio and properly ending the film. I would also want to use different angles and camera shots to add variety,  I would also try shortening down my film to be under 60 seconds however this taken I wanted to ensure I got enough footage of the performance.

Finale project;