Ancillary 1 Feedback (unfinished)

Ancillary 1 Feedback

I gained feedback on my first ancillary product, which is my poster. I gained feedback from a range of people and from different age ranges in order to gain a varied response to my product.

I gained feedback by showing an audience my product and then asked questions in the form of a questionnaire, by gaining written feedback it allows me to see what has been said and it also makes it easier to recognise what to improve. Questionnaires are also a good way of receiving feedback as they are easy to produce and hand out to people, the data collected from them is also qualitative meaning that I am able to see and interpret what has been suggested.

The overall feedback was positive and it was said that my product looked well put-together. The audience feedback has helped me in seeing what needed to be improved, or what I could do to make sure that it catches the audience's attention as a poster is supposed to do. My poster was seen to be effective at catching the audience's attention and also that it makes them want to see the actual film/product. I made my poster make the audience want to see the product by adding an element of enigma, I did this by having the main character face away, which means the audience cannot see his face and adds enigma.

Editing

Editing

Within my product I have conducted a lot of post-production editing in order to make my product finalised, by adding the clips together and also adding effects to my product in order to make it more professional and realistic.

One editing technique that I used was just basic cutting and editing in order to create the basic layout for my product and to place the clips that I wanted into a certain order to get a sense of the layout of my trailer and what clips would go where.By doing this it allowed me to set the main part of my trailer up, so that I could then focus on the more detailed editing of filters, transitions and visual and audio effects.
Another editing technique that I used was by using a filter called 'camo' in order to dull-down the colours of the footage and make it look aged to conform to the conventions of the genre I chose, war. I also desaturated the footage to dull-down the colour and to make the colours of each frame match in order to make my product look professional otherwise it wold not fit together visually and he images would look different.
Within my product I edited in some transitions between shots, such as fade to black and fade from black. For example at the beginning of m trailer, it fades in from black to show a close up of the main character walking, and the camera following them, so that the character is walking, but he also stays in frame so that the audience are able to see facial expressions of the character and determine how he feels and his emotions.
For added effect, I added muzzle flash and the sounds of gunshots in order to add another sense of realism, as without the muzzle flashes it makes my product seem low quality and unprofessional. To add the muzzle flashes I found a short video of a muzzle flash, which i then saved. To add the muzzle flash to my product, I imported the video to After Effects and removed the background, so that only the muzzle flash is visible. I then overlaid the short video over the main video in order to make it look as if the character was actually shooting when pulling the trigger. To make it even more realistic, I synced the muzzle flash with the audio of the gunshots, so that when there was a 'bang' in the audio, a muzzle flash appeared that was in sync with the 'bang.

Trailer Feedback

Feedback

I gained feedback on my trailer by showing it to the class and getting feedback which was recorded. This feedback is vital as it means that I am able to make necessary improvements in order to make my product more realistic and authentic. The feedback I gained also means that I have tested it with an audience and got real feedback that can have an effect on what I am going to change as it was only a draft, so was not fully finalised.
An issue that came up in the feedback was sound and titles, it was said that towards the end of the trailer the sound cuts out quite soon, and to have a greater effect on the audience it would be better for the sound to carry on longer to build up the suspense and tension between the characters. The titles were brought up also to be improved as the font does not really match the genre and also it was not easily visible in some of the shots where it was lighter, due to the text blending in with the background image.  I will use my audience feedback to make improvements and to make sure that  in the end my product will be effective and will grab the audiences attention.

Some good points that were brought up was the continuity of the trailer and the way in which the shots are not varied. The continuity of my product is vital, and with the positive feedback it means that I have been able to do that well enough that the audience can understand the narrative of my film.  It was also apparent that the tank part of my trailer worked well due to the reaction of the audience. Another factor that was complimented was that the lighting was  consistent throughout my trailer which is good as it was all natural lighting.

Filming day #2

Filming day #2

On my second day of filming I went back to the location with my main actor and myself playing the German officer. My mother came with me in order to film the parts that I could not, I directed her as to what shots I wanted and how long to shoot for. The footage I shot was a mix of shits, ranging from close-ups to long shots as I wanted to capture the sense of danger and difference between the two characters. I filmed a variety of shots in different locations in order to see which setting worked best with which shots, so that I can create the best effect on the audience.

An example of a shot I captured was an over-the-shoulder shot of me (playing the German) looking at the other character walking into the distance, this creates a sense of danger and ambiguity as it does not show the face of the German, nor does it explain his intentions with the other character.

Ancillary 2 - Film magazine front cover

Ancillary 2 - Film magazine front cover

For my second ancillary I chose to create a film magazine front cover,  chose to create this as it is a form of advertising and is also another way in which I can show the genre of my trailer other than the trailer itself. 

After I had created the main style of my poster, with the text, image and also other advertising such as the free poster I had to decide on the font of the magazine title. I was not pleased with this font as it gave the magazine a more sci-fi style, instead of a plain film magazine. I also noticed that the text on the main part of the magazine did not stand out as much as i would like, so I later changed the colour slightly and change other parts to make it stand out more against the background of the foliage.

In an attempt to make the title of the magazine stand out further I added a grey block behind the title in order for it to stand out more and so that it is clear and easily visible to the audience of the magazine. I also changed the font of the title so that it is easier to read and does not look as if it is related to a specific genre, unlike the previous font of text. 

To make my front cover more realistic and authentic I added a price in the bottom right-hand corner. I deleted the grey block behind the title as I thought that it took away too much of the image behind the titles, I also thought that it did not look right and looked out of place. I also deleted the grey block because when looking at examples of real texts, they did not have anything behind the title and the title would be on top of the background. To show the title of the trailer, I added the title and made it look as if it behind the protagonists head to give it a 3D style and make it seem more authentic.

To catch the audience's attention I altered the colour of the 'puff' so that it is brighter and more eye-caching and included the actual style of the title into the text on the right-hand side of the magazine to make it look authentic and to show implant the actual title of the film. 

I added a barcode to make the front cover realistic and official. By adding the barcode it means that if my magazine was a real media text it would be able to be sold commercially and nationally. Having a barcode means that it is quicker to find the price and being able to scan it means that it can be scanned on multiple devices. Barcodes are a simple and inexpensive way of putting a price on a product and keeping information on it.

I decided to change the font and style of the title of the magazine. I decided to do this because when looking at real examples I noticed that the text was stretched out which gave the text more impact

Changing idea from short film to trailer

Changing idea from short film to trailer

After the christmas holidays I decided to change my idea from being a short film to being a trailer. I did this because over the christmas holidays I saw some new trailers and I liked the way that they are out together and how they can portray the whole film in a short amount of time. Another factor that lead to me changing my idea was that I had a problem with sourcing 'German' actors so I thought that if  produced a trailer I would not have to show a large amount of Germans. I also liked the idea of the non-linear narrative of trailers and how well the are at capturing the audience's attention and having form of hook in order to get the audience to want to see the full film.

I also changed the narrative of my product, so instead of it being the Paratrooper against a large German squad, it is just the Paratrooper being stalked by a German SS officer. This also lead to a chase and conflict between the two characters. This narrative follows the convention of 'man vs. man' as there is two figures who are fighting with each other in order to survive. 

Location Stills

Location Stills

These stills show the genre and representation within my film. 

The genre of my film, it is clear with the location and costume within the scenes. The setting was in a woods and around bunkers, destroyed buildings and rubble. These factors adhere to the typical conventions of a WW2 war film, the location and costume work well together and make the film look realistic and professional. 

I filmed at Comm's Site 3, which is an airsoft site with a variety of military-themed settings and locations on the site. A bonus of filming at the airsoft site was the amount of destroyed and damaged buildings so that it enables me to gain a variety of effective and realistic shots.

This sot shows the colours of the uniform and the insignia that plays an important role in the trailer as it shows that the character is from an elite group of soldiers.

This shot shows one of the buildings that I used during filming, it also shows the colours and aged look of the building and rubble, making the setting look realistic and effective.

In this shot, the main building of my film is seen, where a majority of the action takes place and where the second 'turning point' happens.

This shot is where we were deciding which way the actor should run towards the building and which route to take.