Edward's Film Blog

The only major difference we would have wanted to make between our quarter 3 submission and our final film would have been a scene establishing that Dan was an undercover police detective being in bedded into the criminal organization. This would have helped to clear up any confusion that the audience may have had over our film. We were unable to make these changes due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, as by filming we would be breaking quarantine and safety guidelines

The main use of technology in our film was the use of cameras, drones, and editing software. Cameras: Throughout our filming process my team and I ended up using a multitude of different cameras to film our project, including a Canon EOS Rebel T7I, as well as an iPhone 7+. The canon camera that we used gave us the clearest picture, however the footage that we got from it was unusable as the movement of the lens was extremely loud on the capture, forcing us to later retake the shots. Drone: My team and I use a drone to help create an establishing shot for our film. We used the drone to take an aerial shot of the surrounding woods, where we established that our film was occurring deep in a wooded area. We also used the drone as a steady cam, as when it was held by one of our team members it functioned as a gimble. We eventually replaced the footage we gained through the drone gimble with the footage from an iPhone 7+ after we got a proper gimble, as the iPhone had much better video...

My production skills fell into two main different areas in this film. First, I was the group member responsible for coming up with both the general idea of the film as well as costume design, and I also worked as the director on our film. Idea: I was responsible for the creation of the brain child of an idea that ended up becoming our film. I came up with the idea of using a silent protagonist and trying to create a suspenseful film, as I believed that it would be the most engaging type of film that we could make with the limited time frame we had. Furthermore, I also came up with the costume design for our film, which I am rather happy with. Director: Furthermore, I was the main director for our film, as it was the best way to get the idea of our idea to translate into film. I was responsible for describing where the camera should be for the shoots and where the actors should be, as well as what they should do.

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? Our product will engage audiences through the suspenseful atmosphere of the film. By keeping the antagonists hidden, and by showing the distress of the protagonist through both their body movement and facial expressions, we will create a sense of danger and intrigue within the audience. These emotions will keep the audience invested in both our film and our characters, which will engage them as there emotion and knowledge changes throughout the film. Our film will be distributed both through local film festivals and forms of digital distribution, such as streaming and downloading. This is because our team has a rather small budget with which to work with for our film, and distributing at a larger scale is both difficult and expensive. If we were to get lucky, it is possible our team would be able to find a publisher through which we could distribute our film, however, that is rather un...

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?  Our film uses conventions to our favor in multiple times throughout our product in order to create a better product. Our film uses a very conventional pacing style in order to build up the tension throughout the product so that the ending of our film has a large payout for the audience. We begin our film using long takes in order to lull the audience into a false sense of safety and then gradually increase from short to long takes in order to drive up the tension and anxiety. Furthermore, our film uses conventional camera shots and angles in order to easily convey our films plot to the audience in a non convoluted manor.  Our film doesn't deliberately try to represent social groups, especially not in the opening two minutes. However, our film does represent the social groups of police and criminals, as the nature of the film depicts these two groups. The main pr...

Bellow is the revised film that my team and I have created. The changes that we made, while not many, we believe that they have increased the quality of our film quite significantly.

My team and I conducted a multitude of small changes throughout the editing process of our film. These small tweaks were made because we believed that they would overall increase the quality of our film quite largely for a small amount of effort. Audio: My team and I decided to change the opening music of our film from  "Mysterious Psychological Horror Music" by Dukkha  to a different song by the name of  "Run and Hide" by Jens Kilstofete . The reason why we chose to do this was because the tempo and tone of the first song was slightly to fast, and the change of the music helped the overall tone of our film. Camera angles: In the gimble shot where we follow the main protagonist, Dan, we changed how visible one of the antagonists in the background is. We chose to do this because we believed that it would make the film a little more mysterious, as well as increase the value of re-watching our film.

The next revision that my team and I did was in the editing of our film. We decided that it would be a good idea for us to revise the opening credits of our film, as well as just edit the text in the film in general. For this reason we gathered together in order to change where the text appeared on the screen in order to make it fit the thirds of the shot better, so as to immediately catch the viewers eyes. Bellow is the revisions done by my team and I

My team and I went back out to our filming location to try and fix some of the audio issues that we had in our film as well as get some photos we could use for promotional material. We went to the filming location later in the day than we had intended, and this limited the amount of re-shooting we could do, as the lighting was affected in a few of the areas we wanted to film. However, we were able to fix one of the over the shoulder shots that occurs early in our film. We were also able to acquire a gimbal for our re filming, and we used it to give a more steady look for the over the should scene instead of a shaky cam. This was so that the audience would feel as if they were observing Dan being chased, rather than being there with him as he was being chased. In our next re-shoot we plan to fix some of the audio problems we could not fix in this re-shoot due to lighting. Bellow is a video of the revisions done to fix the sound

For our film, we will try and find a partnership with both a marketing and production studio. We will try to do this in order to distribute our film in theaters, which would require a large amount of financial capital that our team does not currently have access to. We will try to negotiate a profit split with the production and distribution company that will be advantageous for both us and the distribution company. Our film will likely be kept in theaters for the conventional 90 days, where as afterwards it will become available for physical ownership as well as for digital distribution. Digitally, we will try and get our film onto at least one and preferably a multitude of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Additionally, we will try to make our film available for purchase and download on a multitude of sights as well, including YouTube.

Alien: Covenant is a science fiction horror film in the alien universe. It was directed by Ridley Scott, the creator of the original alien. W believe that our film will have a similar target audience to Alien: Covenant due to the genera of the film and the use of mystery and suspense. Alien: Covenant made a total of 240 million USD on a budget of 111 million USD. It was released at Odeon Leicester Square in London on May fourth 2017. Alien: Covenant made forty million USD on its opening weekend. Alien: Covenant is currently avaliable for streaming and digital download from a multitude of services including YouTube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, and Itunes. Alien: Covenant is owned and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Pet Sematary is horror film based off of the book by Stephen King of the same name. We believe that our film will share a similar target audience to Pet Semetary since we share a similar genera and both our film and Pet Semetary use a decent amount of mystery and suspense. Pet Semetary has made 113 million USD and had a budget of 21 million USD. The film was released at south by southweston March 16th, 2019. On its opening weekend Pet Semetary made twenty five million USD. Pet Semetary is currently available for digital download and streaming from a multitude of services, including YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Prime, Vudu, iTunes, and hulu. Pet Semetary is owned and distributed by

A quiet place had a similar tone and atmosphere to the tone and atmosphere my team tried to create in our film Masks. For this reason we believe that we have a similar target audience to this film. A quiet place was released at south by southwest on March 9th, 2018. A quiet place has grossed over 340 million USD worldwide on a budget of only 21 million USD. Paramount pictures released the film to theaters on the Sixth of April 2018, and made 50.2 million USD in its opening weekend. A quiet place is currently available for digital downloading and streaming on YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Prime and Hulu. A quiet Place is own and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

The traditional process of distribution for a film involves a few main steps. Traditionally, a film will have to obtain funds, create and sign a licensing agreement, and then receiving revenue. These steps are important for the film as they serve to establish legal ownership over the film and the way in which these films will make money. The first thing that a film should do is to acquire funding. This step is important as it is going to be the amount of money that the film has to spend on actors and costume design, alongside special effects studios and anything else that must be paid for to improve the film. This is done usually through a producer for the film, such as Universal, Disney,  and Warner Bros. It is in this step where the signing of a licensing agreement takes place. When acquiring funds, both the production company involved in financing the film and the director or producers of the film will come together on a legally binding agreement over the ownership of the film. ...

After research and debate amoungst our films team, we have decided upon a strategy as to how we will market our film. We have chosen to follow a rather standard form of promotion, with one additional rare and creative firm of marketing. Our team will create the standard movie posters and banner adds, which will be used to advertise online and at the theaters. Additionally our team will create an online ARG, hosted over one main website with hidden passwords and puzzles used to help uncover the history of murders committed by the films antagonist group. This will serve to inform people of our film as well as draw them in with mystery and intrigue.

The Blair Witch Project is an american horror film released in 1999 and pioneered the found footage horror genera. The story focuses on three film students as they try to document a local legend about paranormal activities in the woods, know as the Blair Witch. The students take cameras and camping equipment into the woods in order to uncover and record the mysteries of the Blair Witch. The students begin to experience progressively more and more paranormal experiences as they spend days in the woods, until they are confronted by the Witch. We Chose to review this film for our audience engagement research due to the fact that we share a similar genera to this film. Additionally, the film has a very low budget look, lacking very high end video quality and with points of the film that are deliberately confusing to the audience. They due this in order to show the plight of the characters fear in the movie, characterizing the protagonists through cinematography. The budget style of film ...

The Cabin In The Woods is an American Horror film released in the year 2012, distributed through the producer Lionsgate. The plot follow five college students as they are beset upon by monsters created in a lab, all at the same time making jokes about tropes of the horror genera. In this sences the film has a few humorous moments, however at large it is a tense horror film. We Chose to review this film for our audience engagement research due to the fact that we share a similar genera to this film. What this film does that we find similar to our film is how they do not fully explain the situation the protagonists are in early in the film. They keep information hidden from the audience in order to create a greater sense of suspense and intrigue, something that we plan to imitate in our film. The way in which The Cabin In The Woods marketed itself seems to be a rather standard form of marketing. The film was marketed using the standard practice of movie trailers, which is a useful to...

Today in class we analyzed a few title sequences from the art of the title website. One opening that stood out to me specifically was the opening sequences for Austin Powers International Man Of Mystery. While the genera of film is significantly different from the genera that our team is following, something that I noticed about Austin Powers was how it established tone immediately. By having an upbeat, over the top opening the film quickly establishes the tone of the film that will be present throughout the rest of the film. If we do the opposite in our film, with having our opening be more distressing and quick paced, we should be able to establish a better tone in our opening scene. While our teams film is quite different from Austin Powers, the lesson of tone learned is still very valuable for our film.

Life is a extraterrestrial horror film that was released in 2017. The plot follows the story of six astronauts on the international space station. It uses suspense and mystery to create an atmosphere of horror and unease throughout the majority of the movie. We Chose to review this film for our audience engagement research due to the fact that we share a similar genera to this film. With our film also being a horror film where we try and keep the "monsters" hidden from the audience for most of the film, not revealing what exactly is chasing or hunting the main actor of the film, we figured that our film would share a similar target audience to the film Life. The way in which life marketed itself seemed to be a rather standard way, with a few unique things about it. Life marketed through the use of television add, movie trailers, posters at theaters, and most other standard forms of film marketing. What life did that was interesting was that in the trailer of Life there wa...