Finished Product For Coursework

Coursework- Evaluation Stage 4

How did you integrate technologies--Software,Hardware and online--In this project?

During the course of the entire filming/editing project, I've utilized many resources to help me achieve with the completion of the film. I have used a combination of online services, hardware and software. 

For starters, I've used Premier Pro and After Effects to help me with my work. I have decided to use Premier Pro because it is easy to use and learn. It is an effective video editor than un-skilled people can easily work on. I have used premier in all of my editing and post-production stages, with things such as editing, sound effects, video editing etc. I have also utilized after effects, which helped me to create an effect where the screen of the phone would pop onto the screen. AE and PP works really well together because it is made by the same people, so it is easy to export files from PP to edit on AE. I also used premier pro to create fonts and place them in the film such as the "PRESENTS" font.

Other than premier and after effects, I've used different websites to find suitable sound effects and visual effects. I've ended up finding a good royalty free effect website called www.footagecrate.com . Other than this, I have used youtube to find simple sound effects such as traffic ambience or "Whooshes" since it is easy to find videos like this on youtube. Since the videos are on youtube, I also used a website called youtube-mp3converter.com which allows me to convert youtube videos into MP3 files to be used in the film. I would then open the MP3 file on premier then start to edit it. For music, I've used youtube to find the most suitable music. I didn't use music to add onto the film's intro because I think that it would take away the intensity and anxiety of the intro. Movies that use this as an example would be Heat. In the planning stage of the film, I also used google doc to store my information and obviously blogger to post my progress.

To convert files I found on youtube to MP3, I would use this website. This allows me combine things I find online, with the software I used to edit my coursework.

For hardware, I utilized a Canon DSLR 600 D camera, which allowed me to take both photos and video. The camera also has a built-in microphone of decent quality, allowing me to record sound effects and voices. The camera has an auto-focus and auto-stabilizer which helped me to get clean and next shots in the intro. The downside of the camera is that sometimes it doesn't get the lighting correctly and it also makes the video a bit fuzzy. However the SD card allows us to film as much as we want, which gives us freedom to experiment with new techniques such as new camera shots.

For editing, I've a MacBook Pro provided by the school's media department. This MacBook Pro is quite old and sluggish and times but it gets the job done. It has a lot of advantages such as being easy to transport/easy to use but Adobe Premier drains a lot of the battery, so it requires a constant supply of battery. I've use this MacBook to take the footage from the SD Card of the camera, then import the files into Premier to be used. Footage I've edited, especially the CCTV scenes, I've exported it to After Effects to put special effects in. Then I transferred it back to Premier to be placed in the intro to be complete.

Coursework -Evaluation Stage 3

Skills Development:

Here is an example of two top trump cars I made using Paint.net

I feel like my creativity has increased by 2. I must have had some creativity in me considering I came up with the idea of the film from scratch, chose camera angles, sound effects etc. I feel like my creativity improved because throughout the filming process there were challenges such as finding the correct music or sound effect, and I've overcame it by making my own sound effects and spending hours searching for the correct music to use. I've also thought up of using continuity manipulation. I've managed to overcome problems such as sound effects where I couldn't find the correct footstep sounds. I overcame that by recording my peer's footsteps and putting that in the film.

My planning and organization increased by 1. I feel like my organization improved but not that much, this is because I also manage people in real life (Military ROTC) and manage my own time which I feel confident at. For the film, I've managed by team and almost everything. I've completed the filming schedule, re-shooting scenes for 5 times, managed the props etc. Furthermore, I usually play games that requires team work, therefore I have to organize my team mates to make sure they follow instructions. However, I still have trouble meeting deadlines. (Most of the planning stage are available on this doc: "https://docs.google.com/document/d/16nf6poV-JDbNVLYJVweIPwDmktB2IuHtJWVfzoHTMIo/edit?usp=sharing")

I feel like my Cinematography increased by 3 because during the filming, I've thought up of all the camera shots used on the short film. I have utilized shots like POV, close up, medium shot,low angle and have learned more shots such as canted angles or hand held shots which I could use in the future. I have also utilized continuity manipulation to trick the audience, showing different shots of the detectives and the killer doctor.

(Long Shot of the Detectives)

(POV of the victim looking at the killer)

My editing has increased dramatically. Before this movie, I had no idea how to edit, let alone use premier. Throughout the course of this intro, I have learned from my teachers and peer how to operate and use premier efficiently. I have learned how to search, and use pre-keyed effects such as muzzle flashes and CCTV templates. I have learned how to import, export and render my film along with using the pen tool to make words in the film fade in and fade out. I learnt how to utilize the warp stabilizer, to stabilize shots where the camera was shaky. I even learnt how to adjust the volume of sound effects used in the film, to make it louder or quieter. I have learnt how to create fonts in premier and most importantly how to create new sequences to put footage in. With the help of my teacher, I've also learned how to use after effects. As an example, skip to 01:43 where the screen of the phone pops out onto the screen, my teacher taught me how to do that. Finally, I an really proud of myself that I've learnt how to edit instead of relying on others, and that my editing skills improved by a huge amount.

           

(The CCTV template)

(Muzzle Flash)

(Comparison between with and without the muzzle flash)

My sound skills also increase by quite a lot. I didn't know how to record or use sound effects properly. I've found that the original recording on the camera didn't quite capture the perfect footstep sounds, so I've recorded my own sound effect using the camera's microphone. Then I enhanced the sound using premier to make it louder. I've made use of royalty free sound available on the internet to put into premier.

(Example of sound effect used in premier)

Before this project, I have worked on a similar filming projects such as:

I have learned from my friend's editing techniques on where to find sound effects and templates.

Coursework- Evaluation Stage 2

How does your product engage with Audiences?

Using the YouGov profiler, I've been able to find a target audience of my film, specifically the crime thriller genre. Using films based on crime thrillers such as The Silence Of The Lamb or Se7en, I've been able to identify my target audience.

After getting information on these 2 movie's target audiences, I found quite a lot of information regarding the similarities of the audience. Both audiences have very similar demographics, both of the genders are male, who resides in urban areas. Both audiences's top states are Washington and their profession that matches up is politics and government. Both audiences also live in urban areas.

In addition, both of their quotes are similar with one being the exact same, which is: "When it comes to friends, I prefer quality over quantity." Interestingly enough both audiences both like each other's film and their political beliefs are both leaning towards democratic. 

They would want to watch my movie because they like smart, charismatic bad guys like Lecter, John Doe. Therefore they will interested in the idea of a killer Dr. - educated, intelligent and sophisticated.

The Excitation Transfer is effective for them - they like to see the antagonist be really bad/cunning before being taken down. Therefore our opening would be appropriate as not only is the killer seen doing terrible things, but he also gets away with it. This should entice the audience into wanting to see the rest of the film for the killer to get his comeuppance.

Our audience is drawn to action which we have as there's a SWAT team and an explosion the opening.

It's set in a 'realistic' urban environment - somewhere they can relate to, this typical of the action thriller which are set in urban landscapes - see Heat, Se7en, Speed.

It pull no punches - it's straight down to the action and shows the good guys taking a beating. While other thrillers may be abstract and create tone and atmosphere, this gets straight into the narrative.

(Annotated)
Feed back from target audience: "The film would appeal to me as I like police procedural films where the focus is on action rather than investigation. The film falls in line with conventional 90s action thrillers such In the Line of Fire, Speed and Silence of the Lambs where the killer/bad guy is a intelligent and manipulating presence that always seems one step ahead of the police.

The opening is interesting as it creates tension immediately and then fools the audience into expected a clean resolution of the bad guy being caught. Having the bad guy potentially win or get away is an interesting idea to explore. For example the in Se7en/Zodiac, there is no clear 'winner' and perhaps a more realistic reflection of real life." (Person who gave this feedback is on the picture to the left of the "Bio Of My Target Audience")

How would it be distributed as a real media text:

Since the audiences are niche and has a specific taste, it would not be a main-stream block buster movie but instead be a small scale, niche oriented movie. To inform our target audiences, we would put adverts on news websites, billboards (small ones on the side of the road), posters or an online trailer posted on websites such as youtube. Since the target audience mostly resides in urban areas, we would put the movie inside different local cinemas for different areas. In addition, we would allow for people to stream it on websites such as Netflix along with physically buying the DVD box either online or in DVD stores which would come with a pin-up poster. When firstly distributing the movie, we would screen it at various film festivals or film competitions. 

Film Distributors for similar films are companies like Orion or New Line Cinemas. Which distributed Se7en and Silence Of The Lambs. Since it isn't a blockbuster, I would only release it in cinemas across the USA, and have it available online for sale. Orion re-launched in 2013, so it would perfect for us to let them publish it due to being a small scale movie. New Line Cinema merged with Warner Bros, so that would be perfect for us if we wanted to go on a bigger-scale.

The time spent filming/editing the movie would be 1-2 years. During the 1-2 years, the trailer will be released on youtube, news websites, websites like IMDB etc. I'd decided for the release date to be November 2018. It would allow me and my crew plenty of time to fine tune our movies or re-shoot any scenes where it isn't up to standard. Although editing the movie would take up longer time, so that would mean that I can explore different effects and such on the film.

Coursework- Evaluation Stage 1

Conventions and Representation:

1) . How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

 = Taken from Se7en and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, the end shows the victim's pov of the killer, pointing a handgun to his/her face. The killer then shoots, we see half a second of the muzzle's flash, hearing the sirens and the gun shot when the scene blacks out. It builds suspense and fear for the audience watching. Since the sub-genre is a crime thriller, the intro shows both the protagonists and the antagonist. Mise-en-scene in this scene includes, the doctor's mask hiding his identity, the bloody lab coat and the white room. The white room is important because it portrays how doctors are suppose to be. The color white represents a feeling of calm, safe and purity. However this is a contrast to the doctor, who although wears white, his actions/emotions are evil and sinister.

= The shots in the film, leads us to believe that the 2 detectives is closing in on the mad doctor who's about to kill the victim. Like shown below, there is a conventional parallel editing between the scenes that leads the audience to believe that the doctor is in the house the detectives are raiding when in fact they are not. We manipulate the continuity of the shots. The location we filmed was a town house that was converted into medical use by the school. The audience would see it as a regular medical bay, but when they see the killer inside they know something is wrong. The location is typical for a thriller, as evidenced by Silence Of The Lambs, Se7en and Speed.

Continued from last shot, this shot shows the killer.

And this one shows the two detectives.

Below, are more examples from the film's intro, showing the conventions used. It could be argued that since the detectives are angels coming to save the victim, since they are wearing white that symbolizes peace, safeness and security. In addition the doctor can be thought up as a fallen angel, since he is wearing white but is doing evil.

Part Two of Stage 1: Representing Social Groups and Issues:

The film opening focuses on the Killer, who is represented as being intellegence and always a step ahead of the game. He is portrayed as the "Sophisticated" killer type such as Hannibal Lecter and not common serial killers such as Leather Face. It is sophisticated because the position the Killer is in. The killer is could be on-top of the social groups for serial killers because of his profession, which is a doctor. Since he is rich,educated,smart and complex the killer could think that he is better than normal human beings. The profession of the killer also portrays this, as a doctor the main goal is to help people, but for the killer, it's to murder people. When people hear the word "Doctor" they think of a trust worthy person, who is smart and positive. In contrast, the killer doctor is actually evil and sinister, breaking the trust of that person.

This character is based on the fictional character called "Hannibal Lecter" and a real life murderer called Harold Shipman. Hannibal Lecter is a fictional murderer who's profession is a psychiatrist. His victims were mostly his patients who he was trusted to treat. This is similar to the killer in my movie, where he kills his victims. A more similar person would be Harold Shipman. Unlike Lecter, Shipman is an actual doctor (A general practitioner) who murdered more than 250 people. These people are like the killer in my film because they have a profession where lives of people are trusted in their hands along with being smart, and always one step ahead.

The killer in my film is described as "Sophisticated" because he comes up with the plan to blow up the detectives, along with having a set procedures such as putting on gloves and having a doctor's coat on. He is described as smart because he is always one step ahead, evidenced by the intro where he tricks the detectives to raid the wrong house where they will be killed. His use of technology also describes him as a smart person, being able to use CCTV cameras and rig explosives. He is clearly shown to be a doctor because the use of mis-en-scene, such as doctor's coat, gloves and a face mask.

Comparison between Lecter and the killer doctor:

Coursework- Editing (Part 5)

Today, I sat down and edited my coursework at it's final stage. Adding the credits and adding final sound effects.

The first credited actor, the famous David Harrison. Note: Most professional films don't have "starring" on it so I did not put it in. In addition, I used the pen tool to make the credits appear and disappear.

The second credited actor. I couldn't come up with a good name so I went on a name generator and found this. Note: I am using the old version of premier pro to edit this movie.

The third credited actor, an actual person who worked with me for the project. Sunsun portrays the killer doctor in this film opening. 

The forth credited actor, Cole Phelps, another creative name thought up to fill in the credits. Note: Weapons used in the film were not real, they are airsoft rifles and were un-loaded when shooting the film.

The fifth credited actor, who worked alongside me wit this project. Kelly portrays the second detective (The one with the sand colored plate carrier.) (I portray the first detective who has a black tactical vest on.) 

Another creative name thought up to fill in the credits.

More creative names to fill in the credits.

The last credited person, the director aka me. 

Alright, now the credits are over, let's talk about Fonts. Originally I was going to use "Strangers In The Night Font" (Note: I did not put the song in.) The font looks like this:

However, when I tested it out I found that the font didn't really match the overall theme of the movie intro. I searched deeper onto the internet, more pages of fonts appeared on www.dafont.com which has a wide selection for different fronts. I was scrolling through when a font called "The Bad Times" caught me eye. There was something unique about the font, something oddly satisfying. When I tested it out, I found out that the font was perfect for the credits. I decided that the font matched the movie name aka Incision. The edges were different from stranger in the night, and looked sharper, like broken scissors or a scalpel. TBT font looks like this:

Enough about fonts, let's talk about sound effects. There are different sound effects I used in the film, such as police sirens or gun shot sounds. However there was on particular sound effect that was hard to come by, a "WHOOSH" sound for when the CCTV footage from the phone pops onto the screen.  There are so many WHOOSHES out there it was really hard to find a good one, however I settled with a free sound effect I found online. It was a typically WHOOSH, but lowered pitch that would match the film intro. (Note: Most of the sound in the film was captured by the camera during the process of filming)

For the muzzle flash at the end, I used a website called footage.productioncrate.com which provided me with royalty free, pre-keyed effects. The end result was brilliant.

Coursework -Editing (part 4)

Today, I sat down and did some editing during my silent study period. Since one of the scenes would feature a security camera, I took a while to find a perfect template for a CCTV Camera. Since this is a body-dump for the killer, the conditions would be pretty bad, hence why the CCTV camera's footage is a bit grainy and fuzzy. I downloaded a pre-made CCTV template, there was 2 versions available, a pre-key version and a green screen version. I messed around and found out that I could only use the pre-keyed version.

In this scene where the detective investigates a box. Notice the timer, which actually goes on and on according to how long the CCTV template is used on.

The grainy camera makes it hard to see what the detectives find, but it can only be presumed from their reactions, it is something nasty.

The detectives rush out the room that is laced with explosives.

With a lot of help from my media teacher, he showed me how to make this effect. By taking one section of a scene, and putting it in the phone to make it look like the mad doctor is watching detectives. Thanks Mr.H!