Evaluation

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

Our horror film trailer conforms to the majority of conventions that you would typically see in an existing horror film trailer. These conventions include lighting, editing, back tracks, voice overs and characters. The lighting within horror trailers is always dark as to play on the audience with the common fear of darkness and what's beyond. We made sure that our lighting was dark enough to get this effect but not too dark that the camera couldn't pick up the filming. Conventionally, the only light source in a horror film trailer is dim and perhaps flickering, so in our trailer we had a dim spotlight hovering over the victim, an effect created by taping a torch to the ceiling. We used the light from mobile phones to help get the perfect lighting whilst filming. Another convention of horror film trailers is that the editing is usually slow with long, lingering shots that help build tension and suspense for the audience. We conformed to this by not using quick editing or snappy shots. These kinds of trailers are conventionally quiet, perhaps with eerie music and sound effects such as a heartbeat or footsteps. We also conformed to this convention by having no dialogue and a quiet, creepy back track of a piano for an eerie atmosphere. We also had a voice over on our trailer, but this slightly subverted the conventions; horror trailers do have voice overs but they tend to be deep voice American men telling the audience when the film will be released in the cinema. Our voice over is a monologue being read by the actor playing the villain, and is all part of the storyline in the trailer. Within horror films there is typically a male villain and a female victim, a convention brought about by ancient stereotypes of men being powerful and women being weak.
We also had to make a film magazine cover and a film poster. For the magazine cover we had to consider colour, mast head, fonts, continuenty, main image and much more. Looking at existing film magazines such as "Empire", we noticed that the colour scheme is dependent on both the genre of the featured film and the colour of the main image. This meant that we had to focus on the main image before considering the background. The image we had chosen was of our villain in his black and white suit and top hat. Mode of address is dependent on the character, but as he is the villain, we decided that direct mode of address would be the most chilling for the readers. His black and white chilling look led us to create a black background with a grey-white smokey effect. Conventionally, the mast head of the magazine is at the top, left corner of the cover, so we conformed to this and named our magazine "Aperture". We made sure that all our text was a reasonable, legible size and kept to the same fonts for continuenty. The headline on most if not all film magazines tends to be close to the bottom and central, cutting across the main image, so we conformed to this with the headline "Black Magic Preview". More conventions we found whilst studying film magazines was that there would be a banner at the very bottom displaying extra features of the magazine, a bar code, the date, issue number and price. We made sure to add all of these typical conventions, displaying the price as £2.99.
We looked at existing film posters and studied their conventions before creating our film poster. These conventions were that the tag line appears at the very top of the poster and the main image fills the page. Towards the bottom is the title of the film with the actors names in small above it. Below this would be the small print, production company's logo, a website for the film and the certification of the film. We conformed to all of this, our tag line being "One hell of a show" and our main image being the villain's head made up of words. We made the background dark to suit the tone of the film so our text was either white or red. We used the "DM Studios" logo, and certified the film as 15 with the added information that it "contains scenes of graphic violence". Finally, we added www.blackmagic.co.uk to the very bottom and our conventional film poster was complete.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For the coursework piece Daniel and I chose to do, we had to create a film trailer as well as two ancillary texts which were a film magazine cover and a film poster to compliment the trailer. These additional texts help to make our main product seem more effective and realistic. Creating not only the trailer but also a poster and magazine cover meant that we could show how we can use a range of software and it expanded our knowledge of media production. Combining both the main product and ancillary texts also shows that we were aware of their separate conventions, such as the editing of a horror film trailer being different to the editing of a film magazine that features a horror film. Expanding our knowledge and range of skills increases our chances of creating a brilliant piece of coursework. We made sure that our product and texts had continuenty, sticking to our 'minimilistic' and 'subtlety' throughout their creation - for instance, the simple black, white and red colours of the poster reflect onto the magazine. Using the ancillary texts shows how we understand the steps taken within the film industry, how the marketing process works, and that a trailer would not be the only advertisement for a new film.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our focus group enlightened us as to what was good and bad about our initial storyboard and trailer ideas. Most of the feedback we were given was good, although we were told that if we could add more props into the trailer such as a magicians box, it would have more of a magic feel. After considering this, we realised that we didn't have these kinds of props to use and so this idea had to be scrapped. We were also told that the title screens didn't look right with the light bulbs making up the words, because it looked to glamorous and not scary enough. When it came to making the title screens we ensured that we listened to this advice by using a blood effect on the words. Now the words melt away on the screen in a more sinister fashion. We were told by three out of four of the members of the focus group that they would want to watch the film if they saw the trailer. The one who said that she wouldn't watch the trailer said that it was only because she doesn't like horror films, but otherwise it was good.
Before the special showing of our film trailer, Black Magic, Daniel and I handed out questionnaires to a range of genders and ages so that we could gather audience feedback from not only our target audience, but others too. We discovered that the majority of the people who filled in a questionnaire enjoyed the trailer and would watch it if it were a full length feature film. Only one person did not want to watch it if it were an actual film. Although our target audience were teenage boys, over half of our feedback came from 18+ females, which shows that even people beyond our target audience enjoyed our trailer. Just under half of people said that they don't normally watch horror films, yet as I previously mentioned, 90% would like to watch a full length film of the trailer. We asked our audience about what they liked from our film trailer and the responses were that there was good acting, a dark feel, it was mysterious, it didn't give much away, it was engaging, there was good camera work and that it was professional looking. We were given some constructive criticism which included bland voice over, not 'magic' enough, needs more tension and to give more away. This last comment conflicts with previous praise that the trailer was good for not giving too much away, therefore we have to dismiss both comments. We also received a comment that the lighting wasn't good as the trailer was too dark, and although we appreciate that it may have been dark, any lighter would not have created the horror atmosphere we were looking for. 90% of the people who filled in the questionnaires said that the poster complimented the trailer and people commented that it was spooky, eye-catching and professional looking which made us feel that we had created an appropriate poster for our trailer. We were given the criticism that it didn't directly relate to the trailer, and that it could have been misinterpreted as a sci-fi film poster. We think that this may be down to the style of our main image, with the floating head of our villain made up of words - the script from the monologue. From our audience feedback I have found out that on the whole, the trailer was well received with only a handful of criticisms. If we could go back and improve, we would make our monologue more intriguing. Our target audience enjoyed the film trailer, as well as others we hadn't targeted.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used the Internet to research other horror film trailers in order to gain a full understanding of their forms and conventions. I did this through You Tube. I then took the URLs of each trailer I chose and put them on the Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation that I had made that discussed the forms and conventions of horror film trailers. I would discuss a trailer within a slide and then click the URL so that my classmates could watch the trailer and understand what I mean. For the research of film magazines and film posters, I used the Google Images search engine. Our teacher had previously printed off some examples for us anyway, but I needed to research horror film posters and magazines in particular. We recorded our focus group onto Garage Band on the Apple iMacs; unfortunately our focus group recording was lost and cannot be retrieved, as I explained in an earlier blog. We filmed our trailer using a Sony Handy Cam HDR-SR10E Camera. We used this camera because it had full HD capabilities and large space to store a large amount of movie files from our excessive filming sessions. We used a tri-pod during some filmed sessions to prevent our shots from being too shaky. To record the monologue we used Daniel's iPhone 4s as it has incredible recording capabilities and a Garage Band app. We transferred this recording from the app to iTunes so that we could easily add it to our trailer. The script of the monologue was on Daniel's iPad 2, and not on paper, because it would reduce chances of background noise such as rustling of the paper. To create our film trailer we used Adobe Premier Elements because we felt that it would be more efficient than using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie - though later, we switched to Adobe Premier Pro as it could offer us more in terms of effects and controls. To create our film magazine cover and film poster we used Photoshop because of the various controls and effects it offers. We felt that it would be more efficient than using Microsoft Publisher. Before the special viewing of our film trailer we created a questionnaire on Microsoft Word to gain audience feedback. Obviously, I have kept track of my entire project using Blogger, and have also uploaded my evaluation here. Finally, we used Windows Media Player and VLC to play our trailer on. We went to the auditorium in school to show our film trailer on a large cinema-style screen using a computer and a projector. We did this because the trailer, in reality, would be shown during the advertisements in a cinema, so we wanted to right atmosphere for our target audience. Without the use of all of the technologies I have mentioned, our project would have failed and we would not have been able to create our final film trailer, film magazine cover or film poster.

Finished Product - 26/04/12

Today we finally finished our trailer, poster and magazine cover. Below are the images of the poster and magazine cover and a link to a video of the trailer that we posted onto YouTube after asking for permission from Scott: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WENFS6h4gao

Monologue - 24/04/12

On the 20th of April, last Friday, we attempted to record the monologue and the footsteps for our film trailer - the last thing we need to do for it to be finished. At first we wanted to record it in one of the exam rooms of sixth form so that we would have complete and utter silence, however the room turned out to have too much echo. We were using a microphone that Daniel owned, but it wasn't very good and picked up lot's of static. We moved to the social area of sixth form (which is currently empty due to the exam period, as students are spending their social time in the study area). The microphone still picked up a lot of static and it was difficult to record without people walking in and ruining it. We got the best take we could, but later discovered that it was't good enough to go onto the trailer as the sound was distorted by background noise.

Today we decided to try to record the monologue once more, this time in the drama hall where we had previously filmed the villain's walking scene, and instead of using Daniel's microphone we recorded the monologue on his Apple iPhone 4S, which turned out to be a lot better at picking up sound and the static levels weren't as bad. It took us many attempts but we finally recorded it. We then recorded the sound of Scott walking across the stage to use as our footsteps sound effect at the end of the trailer.

Final Editing - 14/04/12

With all of the filming done we decided to edit everything together. We went through all of the footage of the villain and picked the 'walking scenes' that we thought looked the best and began to cut them into segments, putting each segment in between a clip of the victim, to achieve the beginning of our storyboard where it cuts from the villain walking to the girl squirming. We added a fade effect to the end and beginning of each clip, a well-worn editing technique used in horror trailers as it creates a slow, drawn-out feel which adds to the suspense and tension. This sequence will continue until the pivotal moment of the trailer - the villains first reveal, where we see his face for the first time. This was filmed using a panning shot, swooping the camera from behind the villain, to eventually look round at his face where he was smile maliciously and tip his hat.

After completing this, the editing was finally over. All we had to do then was add sound onto the trailer but first we must record the monologue and the villain's footsteps. We found an eerie tune of a piano to play in the background constantly, instead of Placebo's "Running up that Hill" which was our initial idea. We added a 'boom' sound effect to the title screen that displays the title of the film melting away in blood, in the hope that it will impact on the audience with a sudden silence.

We will add the other sound later though the use of foley.

Magazine Cover - 29/03/12

Today is the last day before the easter holidays which will last two weeks. It is daunting to know that after the holidays we will have only two weeks to finish our coursework completely, so today Daniel and I really wanted to crack on with things. We have finished our poster, the film has been completed all except for the sound effects and monologue which means that all is left is to do the magazine cover. We will be finishing the sound editing of the film at a later date when we have the equipment we need, i.e. a microphone.

We encountered a problem with creating the background that we wanted, however, as we had no internet to help us. We definitely want the background to have a mysterious, smokey effect, but this cannot be achieved without having use of the internet for help, advice, and effects that can be downloaded. We tried many times to use the tools provided by photoshop, but nothing worked for us. We can't do anything else to the magazine cover until the background has been done as that is the first layer, so we had run into a deadend with this issue. We decided that we would instead find the image of Scott that we wanted to use and cut it out ready for when we could do the magazine cover. After cutting it out with the magnetic tool, we used the smugde brush tool to airbrush Scott's face of any blemishs, as would happen to an image being used for a real magazine. After we had done this, we didn't have much else to do.

We passed the time productively by experimenting with different music whilst watching our film, to see if there was anything better than what we already had. After much deliberation, we decided to stick with our original ideas.

Preparing for Evalution - 22/03/12

In today's lesson our teacher gave us all a sheet of paper with four questions on it. These questions, when answered, will be our evalution for our coursework. We were told to begin writing up drafts of answers for these questions so that we can later blog our full evaluation. These questions are:

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

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The questions will require a lot of thought and detail in order for my evalution to be addressed fully. We were also given a sheet with a checklist to help us to organise what we have and have not done. The checklist was split into different categories: planning, main product, ancillary texts and evaluation. Each of these categories has a checklist below it. For planning, the checklist consists of: initial ideas, initial research into similiar products, focus group findings, storyboards, drafts and powerpoint slideshow. I can tick all of these except for focus group findings. Main product has only one item on the list, obviously, and that is the fully edited video. I cannot yet tick this. Under ancillary texts is: poster, website, magazine cover and radio advertisement. Only two of these apply to us and that's poster and magazine cover. We can tick of poster, but have not yet completed the magazine cover. We cannot tick off anything from under the evaluation category, as this is audience feedback which we can only get after the video is completed and premiered, and the answers to the four questions I mentioned above. I haven't started these questions yet.

The majority of the checklist has been ticked off, so I am well on my way to completeing my A2 Media coursework.

Feedback - 15/03/12

In today's lesson we decided to get some feedback on our product so far, as we had practically finished editing the trailer, aside from the monologue and sound effects, and our poster was complete. We set up the trailer, turned the volume up and let our fellow classmates and teacher watch it, asking for honest opinions and constructive critisism so that we may be able to apply any advise they had to offer.

After the screening, we recieved very positive feedback as a response, with comments such as "palpable tension", "very good lighting" and "brillantly shot". There was no critisism for our trailer, which we were very pleased about. A few were particular amazed by our title screen, where the words "Black Magic" melt away like blood. Now all we have to do is record a voice over for the monologue and add in the sound effects of footsteps and a muffled cry; after this, our film trailer should be completed and we can then concentrate on the magazine cover.

We have been working on the film poster throughout the lessons where we were unable to edit. Fortunetly during today's lesson we were able to finish the development of said poster. It has a black background, with half of our villains face made up in words and the other half fading to black to give a 'floating head' effect. "Black Magic" is in large text below this image in dark red, and the actors names are above this in white. Below the title is the smallprint, in white, the font of which took us ten minutes to find and perfect - we wanted to look as professional as possible, and all the smallprint on film posters is the same font, no matter what the genre. We then added "DM Productions" logo and the age certificate of "15 (some scenes of graphic violence)" at the very bottom, with "coming soon" in red also at the bottom. We asked for feedback, as well as suggestions for what the tagline should be. We already had "a hell of a show" in mind, but we wanted to know what our peers thought.

We were given two suggestions; for our tagline to be "it's going to be one hell of a show" or simply just "one hell of a show". In the end, we went for the former, and put it in red at the very top of the film poster, above the image of the villains face. It was also suggested by one person that we have a different image of the villain, where he has his top hat on and is pulling it down at an angle, but as no one else thought that our original image looked bad, we decided to ignore this advice. We want to keep our poster simple, just like our trailer and magazine will be, and so there may be such a thing as too much if we change the image to the one suggested.

Reshoot - 10/03/12

Due to the problems with lighting that I mentioned in my last blog, we had to refilm the 'walking' scene with the villain. We decided that rather than filming in the same location and attempting to block out the light, we should think up a new location and luckily we found one - the drama hall within school. With the curtains pulled across, the main lights off and a spotlight focussed on our villain, it looked very atmospheric and the curtains added to the 'magician' feel. This new performance stage feel that the drama hall gave us meant that we were able to experiement with new ideas such as filming our villain flipping a coin in a menacing manner or walking through the closed cutains like a ghost. Of course, these ideas would be tested later on in editing.

Again, the lighting wasn't perfect. The spotlight was too bright and we weren't able to darken the area any further without the camera being unable to pick up any footage. Daniel and I will fix this in editing using lighting effects. Now, with all our filming completed, we have a very small checklist to consider:

• Record the monologue
• Add sound effects
• Edit everything together

After all of this is finished, our media production should be finished.

Major Editing - 04/03/12

Over the weekend we decided to start on some of the major parts of editing on the footage we had filmed so far. We had to do this out of school hours as Daniel wanted to change the editing program that we were using - previously we had been using Adobe Premier Elements on his laptop but now we are using Adobe Premier Pro, which isn't on his laptop, and so the editing of the film cannot be done within school. His reasons for this change were that Premier Pro gives a wider range of options and effects for video and that this software as well as the laptop itself was struggling to render the footage; our main problem with this was the lag.

We created title screens for our trailer first, which are "Black Magic" and "Coming Soon". We used Adobe After Effects for this to get a professional look - Daniel had previous experience with this program and so he found it easy to use, whereas I needed some coaching. Using the help of a tutorial we had found on the internet, we were able to complete our title screens quickly. For the title screen "Black Magic", the effect is that the words are made of blood that drips down the screen - this was done using stock videos of 'blood' dripping which we then masked over our words. We repeated the blood effect for the "Coming Soon" title screen, only this image was static and so no blood dripped. We made sure to use the traditional horror colours, red, white and black for these title screens as they create the correct ambience and follows the codes and conventions of real horror trailers.

Next, we created a title screen for the production company, something which features at the beginning of all trailers no matter the genre. We made up our production company, calling it DM Productions and used the internet once again to help create the title screen. We wanted the logo to appear misty and ghostly which was easy to create with the internets help, and then we added our title screens to Premier Pro ready for editing together with the filming.

Now we put all of our footage and title screens in the correct places in chronological order to get a sense of where we were going with the trailer; unfortunately, we still didn't have the 'walking' scene, so we were unable to actually editing everything together. Daniel had prevously created a 'luma key' preset which he added to the clips to give them a better look, making them darker and more focussed This effect is what we had wanted all along from the beginning of production, as it is conventional of horror trailers to look that way.

Lighting Issue - 01/03/12

During today's lesson whilst sorting through our clips we realised that the filming that we had done last week (the villain walking down a corridor) was not good enough for our film and that we needed to reshoot. This, of course, meant that we hadn't finished filming yet. The issue with these clips were that it was too light when we had filmed, and when we went into the 'editing' options, then to 'lighting', we couldn't quite get the look we needed to create the tension we had hoped for in the trailer. It was either too light, or so dark that we couldn't see our villain. After many attempts to recover these scenes, we had to come to the conclusion that reshooting had to happen.

Because of the lighting issue with the corridor we will be using, we decided that we could use black card/paper or bin liners to block out any natural light from the skylights that had ruined our shooting last week.

Yet again we were unable to edit much together so we decided to start using photoshop to put our magazine cover together. We have images that we took last week of our villain. So whilst Danny went on the internet to try to find information on lighting effects, I cut the image out using the Cut tool and put it onto a blank background. Danny came back in, with an idea for the poster, where the villain is the only image rather than having the victim in the background and we would try to use the effect of words making up the image of the villain. Our teacher said that the only way that would work would be if there was some sort of monologue over the top of our trailer. We thought about this, and set to work creating this monologue. In order for the monologue to work we would have to change the background music from "Running up that Hill" by Placebo to something else. We chose a sound clip of eerie music to replace this song. It would be a lot easier but we still have to email the record company who created it for the copyright permission.

Filming Plan/Last of the Filming - 23/02/12

In today's lesson, the rest of the class continued with their editing but because we still needed to finish filming, we decided to use our time differently but still effectively. We created a timeline of everything we wanted to happen in our trailer. The list looked like this:

• Placebo's "Running up that Hill" begins
• Shot of the back of Scott as he walks down the corridor, low angle
• Cuts to a stationary high angle shot of Melissa tied up, struggling
• Cuts to another shot of Scott walking at a low angle
• Cuts to a similar stationary high angle shot of Melissa, getting very scared now
• Cuts to the penultimate shot of Scott walking
• Cuts to the panning shot of Melissa, can see the fear in her face
• Cuts to the final shot of Scott walking
• Cuts to an extreme close-up of Melissa, can see the fear in her eyes
• Cuts to Scott abruptly halting, the camera pans round to his face, he smirks
• Cuts to Melissa, light hits her face as the door has opened, see her panic
• Fades to black with a booming non-digetic sound
• Cuts to Scott noticing the camera as he sharpens his tools, slams the door angrily
• Cuts abruptly to "Black Magic" title screen with booming non-digetic sound, then it fades into -
• A hammer being held by Scott, dripping with blood, we can hear Melissa's muffled crying
• The crying continues as the next title screen, "coming soon", appears on screen with no fad
• Cuts straight to the glove being thrown on the floor, covered in blood, we hear footsteps getting quieter
• Fade to end

We were able to find a decent top hat in the performing arts cupboard, so we were able to add into the scene where the camera pans round to Scott and he smirks that he also takes off the hat he has been wearing up until then, so that we wouldn't have to film everything where he hadn't had the hat all over again. 

After school we completed our filming. Before this, we took a picture of Scott wearing the newly found magicians hat for the magazine and couple more for the poster, and then we went to the D.T. corridor to film the "walking" scenes. Like we had planned, we filmed low angle shots of Scott walking whilst following him with the camera. We managed to get it all in one shot - following him with the camera, panning up to his face and he smirks, takes off the hat. Once we knew we were able to do this all in one shot, we filmed it twice more. Later we will be able to edit this properly and create the trailer we bullet pointed earlier in class. Next, we went into our favourite set, the D.T. room, and began to film our new idea that was born from the jump cut idea. Instead of a traditional jump cut, we decided that occasionally during the trailer, an image of Scott screaming should appear for a split second, so that his characters insanity can be conveyed in this way instead. To do this, we put the room in complete darkness, with a torch place just below Scott's face in the classic "ghost story" position, and filmed him screaming with his head in different directions. We can later edit this into our trailer and it should hopefully look good. The filming is finished now, the only thing left to do is take a photo of me dressed in my character for the poster. 

Clipping Footage - 16/02/12

Once again, our class was editing in todays lessons but we still didn't have all of our filming completed so instead Daniel and I decided to get the footage we already had in chronological order and then cut them down to desired length. Once we had done this, we discussed how to film the next set of clips, such as the 'walking' scene as well as our new location. We discussed this at length, going to every last detail so that we could be prepared in case anything went against our plans.

We decided that the filming had to be done within the next four days. During this filming we also had to take photos of our villain and victim for the magazine cover and film poster. These images would be of the villain looking at the camera and tilting his head - for the magazine cover - and half of his face, looking evil - for the film poster.

Editing Begins - 09/02/12

In today's lesson, our teacher decided that editing could be started for the majority of the class and so she brought in two laptops for two groups to use, but Daniel and I, and another group, wanted to use our own laptops. Everyone was using iMovie to edit together their clips, but Daniel and I decided to use Premier Elements, an Adobe package for editing.

As we hadn't finished filming yet, we couldn't edit everything so we decided to attempt the jump cut idea that we had previously scrapped because we still had the clips. To do this, we snipped the clip using the Split Clip tool until we got the correct starting and ending points of each clip, deleting anything we didn't need. We then placed the clips in random order so that we would get different emotions at different times, creating an insane/disorientated feel, which mirrors the mind of the magician - very unstable. Once we had randomly placed them perfectly, we played it to see what had become of them. Unfortunately, it didn't work, as the clips were too sudden and harsh with not enough fluid movement for it to look good or professional. Once again, we scrapped the jump cut idea, but it will always be in the back of our minds.

Editing Process - 19/01/12

In today's lesson, our teacher began to introduce us into the world of editing. We discussed the mail elements that needed to be within our trailers, which were transitions, sound, cutting and image. All four of these elements need to work in harmony together for the trailers to work perfectly. In consideration to sound, Daniel has emailed the record label that handles Placebo so that we may gain permission to use their song "Running up that Hill" for our trailer. We chose this song because it is slow, progressive, creepy and the lyrics even fit the theme of our film trailer: "so much hate for the ones we love..." Our teacher also told us how important image is to our trailer, for instance, getting the right verisimilitude to suit our genre. Obviously, having lots of bright colours and lights is not the image that we would want for our horror trailer!

We discussed the different transitions that can be used in all trailers, as well as short films as one group in our class is creating a short comedy film. There is the most popular transition, the fade in/out, which would be a useful for a horror trailer like ours, as it gives a supernatural/ghost-like effect and creates a build up of tension. Dissolve is another good transition, however it would not be suitable for our trailer as it doesn't have a scary feel to it. For a comedy trailer, the wipe transition is perfect and preferably used. It would definitely not be suitable for our trailer as it would make it too childish or parodied.

We discussed the different types of cutting techniques that we could used in our trailers/short films. A shot/reverse/shot is a cut used for filming conversations, as it films something, then cuts to another thing, that cuts back to the original 'something' for example, a frame of person A would then cut to person B and then back to person A, to show the audience that they have some form of relationship as they are in conversation with one another. An eyeline match edit is where there is a shot of someone's face in close-up, then it cuts to the thing that the person is looking at, so that the audience can see that they looking at it, and it highlights the objects importance in the scene. For example, a close-up of a persons face, that then cuts to a telephone. Therefore we can assume that the person is about to use the telephone. An action match is similar to this, with the difference that it simply matches the action that happened in the previous scene. A good example of this is when a person is filmed about to open a door, and the scene cuts to the other side of the door, being opened by the very same. Sometimes it can also be that the first scene is of person A about the open the door, and the next scene is action matched by person B walking through the door.

Daniel and I also decided to create a bullet pointed list of what we still need to do. The list looked like this:

• Take photo's for the magazine and poster
• Get footage of mise-en-scene/filler scenes i.e. weapons, the clock etc
• Get some more shots of the magician and finish his filming
• Attempt a different jump cut

Filming the Villain - 18/01/12

Finally, we were able to film our villain today, Scott Isle. We stayed after school so that we could use the natural darkness that winter brings and went back to our victim's set, the room in D.T. Our friend Luke Stubbs joined us on this occasion so that we could use his point of view as an audience member to help us film what we need and what the audience wants. He was the perfect person for this job as he perfectly fits our target audience profile - a teen/young person, male, student. Whilst filming, he did help us to review a scene where the magician closes the big industrial door, explaining how he would expect to see the trailer; for this, we had to change our original storyboard idea. We filmed the way that he directed and it turned out to be better than our original idea. Our original idea was that we would film a close-up/mid shot of Scott simply shutting the door with an angry expression. Luke told us that he would expect that the magician would be busy sharpening his tools, would notice the camera and then slam the door as if the audience are intruding on his work. We shot this three times - an initial film, one where Scott turns his head slowly to look at the camera and one where he quickly turns his head towards the camera. This was so that later, during editing, we could choose the best clip and keep it, deleting the others.

The main scenes we filmed today were, as already explained, the villain closing the door, but also the weapon he uses dripping with blood and the glove dropping on the floor, also covered with blood. For this, I previously purchased a 50ml bottle of "special fx theatre fake blood" and a pair of white magicians gloves. I found some tools in the D.T. area usually used in class and asked the teacher of this department if I was able to pour fake blood onto a hammer so that we could film it dripping. After getting this permission, I did exactly that - I opened the fake blood and poured some onto the hammer, so that when Scott held it at an angle, it would drip to the floor. Daniel filmed this happening from a low angle and poured more blood on it when needed. We shot this twice so that we could take the best one later during editing. We then poured the fake blood onto one of the white gloves, and dripped some on the floor. We then filmed the glove being thrown onto the bloody floor, to give the effect that he has just used his bloody weapon, and is carelessly discarding of his gloves. Later, we will add footsteps into this scene, to give the audience a sense that he is simply walking away from his crime.

After we had finished what we had planned, we still had a little time and so we decided to attempt filming for a 'jump cut' scene. This is a difficult shot to film, which we soon found out. At first, we thought of filming 2 second shots of Scott pulling different emotions that we would put together later. However, we realised that this would take too much time and be difficult to perfect, so we instead filmed constantly on Scott's face whilst he pulled different emotions. We later realised on looking back at the footage that it wasn't good enough, and so had to scrap the idea of a jump cut. Daniel still wanted a jump cut, however, so we decided to think of something else for another day.