The Tester Evaluation

The Tester Finished from Kieran Brooks on Vimeo.

This is our evaluation edit of The Tester. This edit includes all the music, sound effects and visual effects we got asked to include in our footage and what was recommended to us. Therefore, this is the final cut of our opening.

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Evaluation Task Seven

I have learnt much from filming my preliminary task which I have then applied to my film opening for my AS Coursework.

In my preliminary I learnt how to apply techniques such as shot reverse shot and how it improves conversation between two people in the scene making it look more natural.

Shot reverse shot - Shot 1

Shot reverse shot - Shot 2

Preliminary match on action - Shot 1

Preliminary match on action - Shot 2

Secondly, we used more match on action shots than in my preliminary production, and not on just one with an opening door, we also used it when the gun is retrieved from the bathroom cabinet. 

The Tester: Cabinet match on action - Shot 1

The Tester: Cabinet match on action - Shot 2

The Tester: Door match on action - Shot 1

The Tester: Door match on action - Shot 2

Thirdly, and finally, we observed the 180 degree rule, where we stayed on one side of the 360 degrees, before switching over to the other so the characters are in reverse, hence creating variety in the opening, and not revisiting shots too often. This is shown in these screen shots, Preliminary at the top, AS Coursework underneath.

Diagram showing the 180 degree rule. In the two examples above, you can see in each we filmed in the right half, observing the 180 degree rule.

One of the many things I did in my AS coursework which was lacking in my preliminary production was more shots and more variety. Close ups and extreme close ups, an establishing long shot, and a point of view shot are just some of the shots we used in our opening that improved the variety and made it more interesting to watch overall.

In addition, we paid attention to much finer details, the lighting and sound particularly, evident mostly in the ‘interrogation scene’ where we used chiaroscuro lighting to get across the dark mood in the scene. Appropriate music was also used to build tension, and to punctuate the feeling of the scene. Editing was also done much more in depth, with J and L cuts, and fade ins and outs on the soundtrack and scenes themselves.

Preliminary Productions - https://vimeo.com/33726108

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Filming Equipment

 Adam's Camera was good in that it has high definition capability up to 1080p, sadly however, we could not utilize this due to limited space on the SD card and, more importantly, severely limited battery life (using 4 AA batteries) of less than 10 minutes; possibly due to a fault with the camera.

Other drawbacks in regards to recording were a slight static noise when recording, evident in the actual film. Luckily for us, it doesn’t affect the scene which we used the camera for.

The camera used an SD card for storage and this was a good substitute for the tape which the School camera used. The SD card allowed us to simply insert it into the computer’s SD card slot and drag and drop files into Pinnacle. The only disadvantage would be finding relevant files, as all of the names were very similar and hard to differentiate.

School Camera

From this we have learnt to test equipment beforehand so we do not commit to filming if the technology won’t work or doesn’t meet our requirements.

Our Schools Camera on the other hand was much more reliable and proficient. An incredibly generous battery life of more than 200 minutes (on rechargeable batteries) meant plenty of time for filming, and much less fumbling around with an almost unusable camera.

Tape

Consequently, we were able to film the bulk of the film in one day. The camera ended up producing much better quality images than the other camera, visually and audibly. The fact that we could recharge batteries even while filming (as we had spares), and also import our filming straight into Pinnacle Studio for editing made this camera the far superior choice in every way. We have learnt that many options for filming and editing etc have to be explored in order to make the film as good as it can be.

Unlike Adam's camera, the School camera used tapes which capture the footage, which is better in some ways and worse in others. Using a tape meant the computer could record the footage off the camera onto its hard drive and hence all of the files we needed were right there for us in Pinnacle, allowing us to edit easily.

School Tripod

Adam's Tripod

Adam's Tripod allowed for easy access to the relevant controls when changing height and angles, it’s strurdy metal legs gave it increased durablity and rubber grips on the feet ensured no damage to the locations or equipment.

The School Tripod also met our requirements when it came to filming, like the other tripod it allowed us to film without any inherent problems. The only inherent problems with it would be that it is more fragile due to its plastic legs, and it was impossible to pan due to its stiffness.

We were able to take advantage of multiple Battery packs at one time, allowing us to have backup charge for the School camera if we needed it. This showed us that rechargeable cameras are much more reliable than those which use disposable batteries.

Battery Pack

Web Technologies

Vimeo allowed us to upload and share our edits of our opening so we could critique and analyse it, as well as embed it into our blog. We found it was quick and easy to upload a video and queue multiple videos to upload at one time. The only problem we found was that the quality was slightly degraded when the video had been uploaded.

We used Art of the Title to look for inspiration in our title and credit ideas, we looked at films such as Se7en and analysed the way they used titles in font choice, size, placement and animation effects. http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Dropbox has, in a way, been a cornerstone of our media production; it allows easy transfer of files between our home computers, school and mobile devices. With 2 Gigabytes of storage we have had plenty of room to upload any word documents as well as our soundtrack, actual film and any other files we may have needed. https://www.dropbox.com/

Blogger has been used to document our progress and keep track of where we were up to in the entirety of the project. We have found it to be generally easy to use in regards to editing text and adding links, with the odd hiccup when it came to adding pictures next to specific parts of text. Furthermore, drafts can be saved to avoid publishing unfinished work, and we could all read each other’s blogs to check for new posts and research carried out.

Finally, Slideshare allowed us to share and embed any PowerPoints produced and gave us a more unique and interesting way to share our ideas.

Media Programs

Adobe Photoshop CS2 was used to edit our logo for our production company “Enigma Productions” we made use of the fonts in the program and the tools such as burn and clone to remove anything that we did not want to be in the final image. Burn on the other hand was used to darken our storyboard, therefore making them more visible in our animatic.

Pinnacle Studio 15HD was used to edit our film opening and we found it to be a good editing program for beginner to intermediate editors such as ourselves. This is due to the easy to use layout and ease of navigation as well as tutorials that come with the program. There were however some problems with the program. When editing at school, we found it to be very unreliable as it tended to crash around every five minutes when any clip was edited frame by frame. Another problem early on was that the program would not save our project when prompted, which caused some frustration. These faults were caused by access problems due to the schools safety settings being incompatible with the software installation.

Fortunately, we already had a copy installed on Kieran’s computer, so we managed to edit from home, and this was a much better experience, with no crashes experienced whatsoever throughout editing the entire film. We found such editing processes as J cuts and L cuts a breeze with being able to isolate the audio and video on separate editing tracks, which also made it simple to add music and sound effects, and then fade them in and out of the soundtrack when appropriate. We also changed the speed of some clips to make them more believable, and reversed them as we filmed the fight scenes such as when Adam gets punched and hit with the car in reverse. Overlay titles were also added and fade in and fade out effects used on them.

When exporting the actual file we found some problems with syncing, this was due to lower quality exporting options and so this was fixed easily and quickly. The multitude of editing options is good if you have experience and know the advantages and disadvantages of each, but for beginners this could be daunting and time consuming due to the many different devices they may want to play it on, and subsequent technical issues.

The clock icons show where we changed the speed of the clip for fight scenes etc.

The above clip shows an audio dub where we locked the video timeline and spliced dialogue from another scene onto it.

We probably learnt the most from the editing process overall, it is imperative that a backup of either software or a different editing program entirely is needed to edit a film to a deadline, and also feedback throughout the course of editing to identify any mistakes and then enough time is allowed for rectification of them.

Evaluation 4 & 5

(Evaluation 4) Who would be the audience for your media product?(Evaluation 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I originally included embedded videos in my slideshare powerpoint, but it wouldn't allow you to view them or see the hyperlink. So they got replaced with general hyperlinks.

Evaluation 4 & 5

View more PowerPoint from KieranBrooks

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The production company funds the production and this can be done directly by them, through another subsidiary company or its parent company, a partner, a private investor, or through and organisation such as the British Film Institute. The British Film Institute offer the ‘Film Fund’, ’Innovation Fund’, ‘Prints and Advertising Fund’ and ‘Film Export Funds’. They would be one of the best options for acquiring funding f or our production, as they focus on independent film makers and because the UK Film council no longer exists.

The latter two relate to the distribution of films, involving the export of them to international film festivals, widening the potential audience and therefore making the production more likely to be a success financially.

‘Institutionally’, our film similar to Red Road, which was low budget and released in very few cinemas. However, it would be expected for a film produced by Miramax to be a success, but this is mainly only the case with big-budget titles. It differs to expectations of the success of a film produced by Miramax, as the production company it was produced by, Tartan, have never grossed over £1 million.

We chose to use Miramax’s production logo in our film. Our reason for this choice is the fact that they are known for their distribution, of independent and foreign films. As we didn’t choose to use the logo for a much larger company, we fall into the latter category and it too was also once independent. However, it has had a change of ownership twice since its creation and is now a subsidiary of Colony Capital who bought it from Disney in 2010. The success with recent films such as Harry Brown that it has had could potentially attract an audience, especially seeing as it starred the well-known actor Michael Caine.

It has also recently been announced that they are to manage the productions of Samuel Goldwyn Films, another independently owned company, showing that although they themselves are no longer independent, they have an awareness of what independent companies and films require. The fact that Miramax has also had success with the label Dimension Films and created successful and well-known film franchises such as Scary Movie, would give our production a level of credibility, as this shows that they have had success in the past. However, such franchises obviously aren’t relevant to our film.

The distribution of our film would benefit greatly from the partnerships Miramax has with the likes of Netflix, Facebook and Studio Canal. It would also be practical, as they have a sales office in London that could be used for contact with their headquarters in California.

As well as links with major companies, it also has links with poplar directors. The most significant of which is probably Quentin Tarantino, as his film Pulp Fiction is regarded as one of the best thrillers of all time by many. They also released volumes I and II of Kill Bill.

A common convention for films is for the main actors and individuals to appear in the relatively short opening titles and for everybody else to appear alongside them in the closing titles. However, in many of Hitchcock’s films and others of the same time, they could be very lengthily, three minutes in the case of Vertigo, which isn't an overlay, so therefor appears longer than contemporary titles. The main roles mentioned with the main actors are usually that of the director, director of photography, producers, editor, screen writer and composer of the score and the person responsible for casting choices, with the name of the production company often repeated. If the film is based in any way on a book or existing franchise, this is acknowledged as well. These roles often appear with the most major first and more minor roles later, although all of those mentioned in the opening titles are often almost equally important.

We have reflected this by including what could be viewed as the ‘essential’ credits such as the main actors (which were all three of us, as we were the only ones) and the director. The inclusion of some titles was unnecessary, for example we didn’t directly base our production on an existing piece of work so there was no need for such credit to be given. If all of the roles were included it may have looked quite amateurish, as there are only a potential three names to choose from: mine, Max's, or Kieran's. To solve this problem, we used the names of already established professionals in our titles, an example of which was Guy Ritchie as the director.

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Kieran-Drug dealer 1

Kieran shares many of the characteristics of the stereotypical film ‘thug’, an example of which is Paul Sorvino’s character in Goodfellas. Whilst the storyline in our production differs greatly to that of Goodfellas, their characters physically look the similar in terms of their large build and both also have deep, slightly intimidating voices.

Max-Drug dealer 2

Max looks quite similar to Stephen Baldwin’s character in The Usual Suspects, with them both being of a fairly tall height and having facial hair. Their overall manner is also similar, with them sharing an empty look in their eyes, suggesting a lack of compassion. This could be expected of a career criminal. We were aiming to portray Max as an outwardly respectable 'family man' with hid normal home and framed pictures. However, his actions don't reflect his profession, with him appearing to be similar to characters such as Tony Soprano in his lack of empathy and compassion.

 

Adam-victim/tester

I defie the stereotype of the conventional victim in that I aren't female as is the case in films such as Psycho, possibly going against audience expectations if they aren't familiar with the gangster/thriller genre. However, this doesn’t have as much impact as if say one of the drug dealers was female, as it is often men who are involved more in the dealing of drugs, not women. As it wouldn’t be expected of a woman to be the tester, the casting choice makes sense, and obviously men are very often victims in the real world as well, adding to the sense of realism in the storyline. Within the crime genre there are frequently male victims, especially the 'gangster' sub-genre where they are seen to claim to have a 'code' but are then portrayed as brutal psychopaths who will betray each other when necessary.

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Directors Commentary

Fight Scene Analysis

Pictures of finished fight scene:

Here we see Adam swing the knife at Kieran, and, through analysing other films' fight scenes; we knew it of great importance to use a variety of shots in a small space of time to create drama and pace. These are critical to a good action scene. Especially since we have time constraints.

The two cuts together form a match on action which allows us to show where Kieran gets cut (his wrist), and also we added a slicing sound to add a bit of 'shock value'; thus adding to the gritty brutality we have been going for.

Here, we utilized blocking to prevent the audience from seeing that Kieran does not actually punch Kieran - this is done by Kieran punching near Adam, and then Adam reacts accordingly to the impact that the punch would make if it was real. 

 

Kieran also stamped his foot when he threw his fake punch, which we then added to with a punch sound effect. Coupling these together beefed up the overall sound in the mix. Also, if we had not managed to find a good punch sound then the original sound would have done the job just fine.

The punch and then Adam's fall combine to make a 'cause and effect' edit, which adds pace and allows us to cut to the next shot where Max holds Adam down onto the table.

 With the punch obviously disarming Adam, Kieran gets his knife and then threatens Adam until he tells the two gangsters where the drugs are hidden; resulting in a successful interrogation, and a successful fight scene.

Resit Special Effects

In order to add an element of action and threat which wasn’t really present in our original production, we decided to add a car chase scene. Whilst obviously not to the scale of Hollywood blockbusters, there were still issues of safety and realism, as we obviously couldn’t run anyone over. To solve this problem, I led on the bonnet with my feet on the floor, and Max’s dad then reversed his car. During editing this will be reversed and the shot will be sped up, in order for it to appear as though I have actually been run over. We filmed this same shot from both the car dashboard and the pavement.

One of our first ideas for implementing special effects was during the fight scene between myself and Kieran, in which he'll get one of his wrist slashed. For this, we needed to formulate a way of delivering a fake arterial spurt of blood. By planned to do this with the use of a short length of tubing and a syringe underneath his shirt.

Fake Blood

We needed the fake blood to be of a runny consistency, in order for it to flow easily through the tubing.

For this we used blackcurrant cordial.

 






Delivery Device

We inserted a length a length of tubing into the end of the syringe.

We then made it airtight with a piece of masking tape.

Finally, a pin was used to block the end of the tubing.

Once finished, it was filled with fake blood and taped to Kieran's arm underneath his shirt.

Despite our best attempts, it didn’t really work, as the camera didn’t pick it up in the low light of Max’s garage. We decided that we’d much rather have chiaroscuro lighting than this particular special effect.