OUR FINISHED PRODUCT

Evaluation - Use of Technology

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Here is a flow chart of how technology was used throughout the project:

Skills development

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Thought this project I have learnt so multiple things as well as improved my existing skills. Here is a  i did to summarize and compare my skills now and before the project.

Codes and Conventions

Studying the codes and conventions of thriller films really helped me come up with all of the ideas in order to create an effective opening. The research I have done about other thriller films also allowed me to pick up similar patterns of the genre thriller (e.g: dark lighting, eerie music) and merge ideas together into making my own product. By being aware of the elements in thrillers, it made the planning and filming process easier as we already had ideas of what the audience would expect.

Cinematography

Initially, I was clueless and did not know how to use the camera properly. My friends taught me the how to play around with the basic settings and controls for example adjusting the lighting and exposure by changing the levels of ISO. Over the course, I have learnt to become more fond in using my camera  because I became more curious and interested about the way that camera angles can affect the shot to create different meanings. 

Editing

Before this project I had very little experience and knowledge with softwares related to editing such as After Effects and Adobe Premier pro. I only knew how to order my clips using iMovie which has fewer options comparing with the other softwares that I use now. This project has made me challenge myself to start using more complex softwares like Adobe After Effects with a wider range of of each tools and options which requires more understanding to compose a cinematic video. Other than asking my peers and teacher, Youtube tutorials had also been really useful in allowing me to increase my knowledge on editing my videos with precision. It took me quite a while to get used to all the options however at the end of the course I can proudly say that I am now confident in using these softwares.

Visual Effects

I personally think that this is my weakest attribute is using editing softwares to create visual effects since I have never used any of these softwares before. I had zero knowledge of creating effects however I had always been fascinated by seeing them in movies (for example avatar, Beauty and the beast) therefore I challenged myself to have a go at editing the transition of the production logo by watching online youtube tutorials. I was really pleased with the result and my group also approved it, so we agreed to use my edit for the actual opening.

Creative Confidence

I, Prima and Claire enjoy thinking out of the box and coming up with new solutions therefore the beginning process of brainstorming ideas was fairly easy for us as a group. I was strongly involved in every discussion and suggested ideas that my group helped develop even further in order to produce a strong opening that will follow the codes and conventions of psychological thriller and is unique at the same time. After our filming process we faced some difficulties such as having to add full names of the entire crew (we only put in their real names and initials which was not the correct structure) when we already filmed the entire credit scenes. We managed to overcome this by adding their full names through adding digital texts which surprisingly turned out even better than our initial idea.

Planning and Organization

This project has allowed me to become more organized and more subtle with my plans. This refers to how we had to be specific about all the little details for example the dates and time that we are planning to film. Throughout the project, I was starting to get into the habit of planning before actually starting my tasks which has been really helpful as my plans allowed me to constantly be aware of what I had to do and not drift off to do unnecessary tasks. Working in a group with Prima and Claire has helped me improve this skill even further as well as we all were motivated to make the final product turn out as planned therefore we tried to arrange everything as clear as possible so that we were all on the same page while working. We made each of our responsibilities clear by delegating tasks and continuously communicating with each other so that we all knew what we had to do and follow in order to produce a product that we all had envisioned from the start.

Overall, this project was beneficial to me in so many ways: Working in a group has allowed me to learn how to split the workload and take part in group discussions in order to come up with the best ideas. It made me more confident not only by sharing ideas but also giving my opinion and commenting on other people's ideas as well. I really enjoyed this project and would love to take part in being involved in creating films again soon.

Evaluation - Distribution

How would it be distributed as a real media text?

Since our film is targeted at a niche audience, it may be difficult to reach out to them through marketing and distribution. The age of our target audience range between 30-45 and like to go to the movies so this could imply that they are less engaged in social media and the online world (e.g: Facebook, Youtube).

I believe that the first method of distribution that our film should consider is by entering various of film festivals for instance Horror Film Festives to gain recognition by spread of words. Reviews from critics will draw attention to our target audiences better. Also by any chance if we win an award, this would boost the demand for our film and may even possibly open us to new target audiences. This creates good publicity and simplifies the marketing process so that when the film is officially released in small theatres, people are already aware of our product.

Methods of distribution for our film are very limited due to the fact that our film is not made to satisfy the mass market. Our film is not a blockbuster film as it may not be appropriate due to strong and violent content revolving around controversial issues about body images manifested by the media. It will not be distributed to streaming websites like Netflix, or Hulu as it is a family friendly website with where young adults may easily access to it without consent. This is highly inappropriate for them and may highly affect the reputation of our film production company from allowing teenagers to be unprotected and exposed to adult content.

'Skin' will be widely available in private theatres chosen specifically to make the product seem limited and more special. This will bring more attention towards our film if we successfully encourage more people to be curious about the film.

Lastly, our film will be released around October/December ; The time where people are most into horror films because it is around Halloween plus the atmosphere will be dark, setting the mood for the population as well. Making our film public during summer or Christmas would not be a smart idea as people are less likely to be watching scary films in the time of year where it is most joyful and least gloomy. It will be competitive BUT since our film is aimed at a smaller group of audience, it may attract more ticket sales as people nowadays are excited by the sound of experiencing new,random things that they have not yet come across before.

Evaluation - Target Audience

IDENTIFYING OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Considering the themes of our film, I believe that my film is most suitable for people who are fascinated by the subject psychology as well as art and design since our film is niche but at the same time aesthetically pleasing in a peculiar manner. The film "Skin" focuses on delivering deeper messages relating to the obsession of beauty through the use of gothic ambience and artistic images. People who are deeply curious and intrigued by the minds of psychopaths will surely love this film since it includes a haunting narrative that will leave their minds flooded with questions at the end of the film.

In order to help us identify our main target audience even better, we gathered information about the identity and characteristics of people who are keen on psychological thriller films, using the website YouGov Profiles:




This research was really useful because it allowed us to grasp similar patterns of people who may be interested in our film and track our audiences in order to easily consider different ways to distribute and market our film effectively.

How does your product engage with audiences?

Evaluation - Codes and Conventions

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

The sequence starts off with long shot where there is a silhouette of a lady sitting on a chair in the centre of the frame facing the camera. By having the woman sit in the middle will help the audience be aware that she is important and that the film is going to be based on this character. There is very dark lighting and is set in a small room, similar to other thriller films that we have researched about. Since the aim of our opening is to slowly build tension by revealing information of the main character bit by bit, we know that by having the face of the woman hidden in darkness at the start, a sense of mysteriousness will be created. This allows the audience to briefly capture that this is a thriller film straight away from the codes and conventions.

This shot shows a drawing of a lady with abnormally large eyes; It presents society's perception of beauty (especially in Asia) which generally displays beautiful women as having overly huge eyes. A sharp line cuts through the middle of the drawing's pupil as if it is splitting it apart, which indicates violence. Following the theory of shapes that we have previously studied, circles represents goodness therefore by placing a line there it suggests an idea that darkness is approaching.

In order to emphasize that this is a thriller film, we color corrected the film to make it dark to give a creepy effect. We thought that this panning shot would suit best to put our title as it shows the entire collage on the wall, therefore would be more effective and powerful.

The audience is hinted that the character is obsessed with trying to look like women in magazines from numerous of collage that she assembled together on the wall. Most of her work shows peculiar faces she put together by adding features of different people together. The creation also shows a pattern of pictures of only skinny ladies with flawless skin. This implies that the main character is driven to achieve that "perfection" (that is realistically impossible to achieve) and is hung up on the belief constructed by the media.

Low angle allows the figure of the woman to be slightly distorted and also hides her face (like how she is hiding her secrets), reinforcing the idea of the character being secretive. From a quick glance, the distortion almost presents a ghostly figure. This angle is from under the desk where darkness takes up most of the frame, giving a sense of danger approaching. The seemingly calm and slow movement of her arm as she is drawing gives a false sense of security.

The pace of her movement suddenly shifts in this particular frame in contrast to the previous shots in order to symbolize the character emotional instability. The loud diegetic sound of pencil onto paper and fast straight strokes connotes a sense of frustration. In this case, the character is exasperated because of the difficulty of not being able to look young and beautiful again.

 This ending shot reveals most about the character's intentions. The aim of this shot is to leave the audience shocked and wanting to know more. This dramatic effect is supported by the use of music, ending with a peak of a note and absolute darkness, symbolizing that more would be revealed throughout the rest of the film. 

Editing #1

Today we all edited different small sections using After Effects. I did some detailed editing of a extreme close up shot where the lady is sketching and scribbling a creepy portrait. I tried to edit it so that it fits in with the rough cut and that its in chronological order. I also edited the lighting to highlight the areas where there is light and emphasized the darker areas to create a more cinematic look, and make it more creepy by following this tutorial on youtube:

It took me quite a while to finish this part. It turned out quite well and suits the conventions of thriller (dark, eerie) however it didn't make that much of a difference compared to the original footage.