How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
Throughout my project, I integrated different technologies such as Premiere Pro as software, canon as hardware and different online pages as my source for information, which helped me combine and produce an acceptable product.
For all of my editing, I used Premiere Pro CC 2018 as my main software. It was hard to grasp at first but I eventually got the hold of it by practicing on various prototypes. I stayed on basic editing like creating a sequence, trimming and joining the clips together. I also focused on colour grading to match the aesthetic and set the mood. From the audio tool, I also lowered and increased the volume as per required by the product.
For my shooting process, I used the camera Pentax KS2 with the 18-50 mm lens. It was essential to use a camera which already had a better result which would help me in editing process. For extra support to stable my camera, I used an ICON tripod but I mostly shot the film opening manually. For lights I used ring light and natural lightening as my main source of lightening. I did all of my process, from the beginning to the end, on Dell Inspiron 15 3542 4th Gen Intel Core I5 Laptop and took the pictures for the ‘behind the scenes’ posts from Apple’s iPhone X.
I presented my blog on the website WordPress as a platform to share my posts at various points in my journey. It complemented my way of work and seemed easier than the rest of the websites I looked and worked at. I used Google for most of researches and articles. For my feature pictures too, I used Google. For most of my theories, I used YouTube and used various tutorials to learn Premiere Pro. Wikipedia was used for my researches as a credible source for my researches. For my Moodboard I used Pinterest and then making a collage of those pictures on the app Collage Maker – photo editor & photo collage. For my Film Opening Analyses, I took the clips from YouTube, took a screenshot in my laptop, cropped them in the paint app and posted them as they were. For my scripts I used the website Celtx since it was the easiest to use and was user friendly and documented my pictures by using Snapchat. For my target audience questionnaire, the website I used was SurveyMonkey and distributed it via Gmail and WhatsApp.
Overall the combination of all three technologies helped to bring the film opening out of the production stages to form a professional piece that brought all of my research and pre-production documentation together.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Initially when I took Media Studies as a subject I only had faint idea on how to operate a camera. Throughout my journey of AS, the first thing I learned was to understand a camera. How to operate a camera’s ISO, shutter speed, aperture and various lenses. Since I did not team up with anyone and I was working on my project alone, I had to learn editing, filming and the entire film making by myself. After the initial step, I learned about different camera techniques, types of camera shots, how to use framing to convey a message, and various different techniques which I never really tried to understand. Similarly I learned about the use of sound and the use of props in a film what meaning it constructs. The major part, which I lacked the most was editing and filming. The first experience I had with filming a film opening was while doing my preliminary task. I tried rather a practical approach to the making, so rather than studying the theory, I made the film on set while just knowing the story. This really showed me how I could’ve done the angle and framing better. The real difficulty I had while completing my preliminary task was editing my product. Since I was new to the use of Premier Pro CC, and all of the options were overwhelming, I used the help of various YouTube videos and somehow created an end product. After this experience, I researched through various products which were already made and saw how the there was such a diversity in camera framing and angles. I also learned about colour grading and how it really changes the whole mood and the vibe of a media. The use of Premier Pro CC was one of the most hardest and time-consuming, not because it was difficult to use, after the initial confusion the uses came naturally, but because it had so many attributions and features, most of the time was used in re-touching and re-arranging the final product. I learned through a series of trial and error how to convey my idea through a camera lens and editing. The most major element I learned was how I can deliver a message without any words. The elements which were included in the film opening which I was also concerned about was the titles, from my preliminary task to my final product, the one element that really bugged me was how I was not able to edit and add the titles like I wanted to. Throughout my research, my main goal remained to learn more about the editing of the titles and the one thing I am really proud of is the development of my titles from my first ever video to my last video. When it came to planning and production, I had the general idea about storyboards, mood boards and scripts but my skill in making them was polished thoroughly, by looking at references and practicing often, I was able to come with an outcome that I was satisfied with. For storyboard, I tried channeling my artistic self, and thought about how my film would look on paper, what it did was it gave me ability to think past the present and think about the final outcome, this was really eye-opening to realize that film makers have to go through this process frame by frame. This gave me patience and my respect increased even more for the film makers. For mood board, I searched through Pinterest for pictures which really channel my film opening in a picture, and to end the planning and production, I looked at different scripts of famous films and used the website Celtx to write the script and was able to conquer this task too by an ample amount of research. Music also plays a significant part in a film, and I used my research to fill in the gap by the lyrics which was made by the lack of dialogue, hence polishing my skill to convey a message without the help of narration or dialogue. Another element worth mentioning is the audience questionnaires, by researching about my audience and what kind of audiences usually consumes media, I was able to create a media which suited my audience. Different theories about audiences helped me learn more about how every individual consumes media, which in the end helped me understand the individuals around me also, while also helping me make a suitable media. A lot of my skills were polished and enhanced because of the advice I took from my teacher and my peers, which yet again helped me look at my product through a different aspect. The whole journey of my AS Media Studies thought and polished me, from constructing a meaning from a camera angle to using sound and music as a way of communicating, to understanding my audience to editing my film in way to convey a message without any dialogue, this journey somehow found a new sense in me, to look at everything from a different angle and constructing a meaning of everything. My skills developed from an amateur to a novice, yet the improvement gave me a sense of contentment which I know comes from the patience level which also increased in this whole process.
To answer this question, I presented my answer as a form of presentation.
The audience is engaged in a way where they are inconspicuously forced to think. Throughout my journey of various researches about audiences, the one which I strongly agreed to was the Uses and Gratification Model. The theory suggests that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs. The users and gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs. Keeping that in mind, my film opening engaged my audiences by making them think what actually happened in the film, and by showing them a side of the story which a character wouldn’t be able to know. This makes my audience feel part of the story, solving theories and guessing alongside the characters. Showing compassion and empathy without any dialogue is task which I had to tackle in a way where the meaning was there, out in the open to reach but not exposed fully, my audience having the hunch but not having the whole idea just given to them. The feeling of belonging, the feeling of knowing something not disclosed yet makes my audience feel engaged and close rather than just viewing a film and being distant. Based on the results of the questionnaire I conducted for my targeted audience, the most liked genre was thriller and mystery and the time people watch a movie was once or twice a month, which meant that once they watch my movie, they will either think about it for a while or will forget about it soon, so I added an element of disbelief and surprise for my audience (the sudden death of one of the two characters, which also is not clear in the film opening) to think about it for a while, engaging them without asking much from them, or without making them use much of their brainpower. After the initial shock factor, the audience gets intrigued on their own, and constructs a meaning most meaningful to them by themselves, engaging them yet again unknowingly.
Since my audience will have so many questions about the mysteries and the Easter eggs in my film, they’ll either rely on the director and writer to answer their questions or will make groups and communities on social media platforms to discuss their own views, feeling yet again a part of a bigger picture. The first step to distributing my media would be having a premiere for the film, with my whole cast and crew and different media distributors. This will be my first step to launch my media for the world to see, and I will invite social media influencers to view my movie and tell their audience about the film if it matched their taste. After my initial distribution of my media in cinemas and online platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Now and Hulu, I will make various social media platforms and pages, such as an Instagram page and a Facebook page, for my audience to interact with me. By posting various behind the scene footage, the audience will have even a deeper understanding of the making of the film and will have more exclusive footage of the film, this will also be a place where the fans would be able send their reviews and fan art, and I will show my gratitude by showcasing their talents. After the initial release, I’ll do promotions via different platforms. First by giving exclusive interviews with well-known and respectable hosts so the audience of those hosts also give a look into my work and then holding a Q and A session for the consumers of my audience which will help the audience understand my media better. With the interviews, I will simultaneously create an ad in the form of a trailer of course, which will still have the element of surprise and suspense, thus it will attract the viewer to view my media just out sheer curiosity. These ads will be distributed at various platforms, like different media partners and distributors, one example being placing an ad before YouTube videos. I would release a limited stock of my film in DVD as Blu-Ray, which makes the buyer have exclusive never-seen-footage and bloopers, hence converting it into Blu-Ray. The reason why the stock of my DVD’s would be limited is because there are still audiences who likes to collect hardcopies of media, but since I know more viewers feel comfortable to consume a media in the comfort of their own home, I’ll keep the stocks limited only to 100, making it a collector’s edition. Lastly, I will use the help of textual media, such as magazines and newspapers, to promote my film. These tactics would hopefully make the audience feel more engaged and would help me distribute my media more widely- locally and globally.
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
When it comes to my film opening, it did not follow the general conventions filmmakers use while making a film with Mystery and Thriller as the genre. The first convention that I did use was not showing or introducing any character in the film opening in order to create the feeling of being on edge. This convention is usually used in the similar genre to mine. The second convention was lowering the music in the background to emphasis on the conflict and on the visual which is also a common convention used to increase suspense, making the audience use only one of their senses. The way I see it, my product challenges conventions in almost every sense of the word. The first convention my film opening did not follow is the general aspect ratio used in films, which are most commonly 16:9, but my film opening followed the less used 4:3 ratio. I first saw this convention being used in the film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel – 2014’ and in the trailer of the upcoming film ‘The French Dispatch – 2021’. I originally did not have them in my mind while making the film, but while editing, this idea somehow was so different to the films I watched that it somehow stuck with me in my unconscious mind. The second convention my film challenged was the unstable camera and tight framing, this is the convention which has symbolism behind the difference, as I wanted to convey the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainness yet again. Combining all of the conventions stated before, it only heightened the state of anxiousness. It could be said that I went out of my comfort zone to create this film opening and for anything that involves a regular film convention, even for a thriller and mystery genre. For instance, the font for the titles used in a Thriller genre and the colour used makes the titles generally dark and dim, a little nervous and tense, but the type of font used in my film opening does not convey the tense feeling, using bright yellow completely throws off the idea of the film being dark and gloomy. The way I see it, the films similar to my genre usually follow the same formula of being set in a dark environment with suspenseful music and the same general blueprint, but the way I challenged the conventions were by changing all of the aspects respectively. By using ‘Killing Me Softly With Her Song by Perry Como’ I heavily relied on symbolism for this factor. Since the film opening does not give much idea as to what is happening in the story, I conveyed this message through the lyrics of the song rather than narration or even suspenseful music, a convention highly overused. The curiousness still being present without the audience being in the dark is what I had in my mind for the film opening, and all the unusual conventions give what I wanted.
As for the representation, my main goal was to shine some light on something which has being so normalized in this society that we do not remember similar incidents for very long. Murder, for whatever reason, assaults and violence have been so frequent that living carelessly or without any fear feels so out of the question. How anyone can break into someone’s home, and just completely destroy the bonds, the dreams, the feelings, the soul existing in the body used as a vessel to hold so much complexity, so many ideas, and so many views. It has been so normalized, how the society’s morals are being demolished right in front of our own eyes that we do not talk about this anymore. What I wanted the audience to get from this is that the murderer is also someone with ideologies, and how a human brain is so messed up yet it is so tremendously contrasting, to the one ending their suffering by giving themselves eternal peace in their own mind to the one who gave suffering to the one’s around them, fulfilling their own messed up ideologies. Insecurity, instability, and weaknesses are the most diffused and painful characteristics of the modern world, and if one does not know how to deal with these aspects, it can lead to a havoc on any undeserving soul. I hope my film opening was at least able to shine some light on the issue that this side of the society exists in masses, and it is time we talk about it and since media helps convey a message to an audience, it was necessary to not use it in an unmoral way. How the audience chooses to consume the media is what the film maker cannot choose for the audience, since it mostly depends on various factors, ranging from the audiences upbringing to their environment and whether the audience chooses to emphasize with the character or not. For this reason, it is important to have a representation of the audience, so the one consuming the media feel and understand the media rather than just watch it and forget it once done. The issue I talked about does not target a specific gender, age group, ethnicity or culture; it is an experience which could’ve been happened to anyone, since no one knows what is going to happen to them next. If my film opening had an end, it would clearly end with justice being served, which gives a sense of hope in this hopeless world. That is why representation matters in media and that is what I tried to do in my film opening.
Eesha Saeed's AS Media Blog 