Finished Video

Here is the final version of our Media Coursework Practical. Please click on the clip to view via YouTube where it can be viewed in a larger frame.

Jamie's Evaluation

I'm having trouble embedding the powerpoint into this post, so i will post a link to the powerpoint:

CLICK ME

The first slide has been removed for unknown reasons. It should say "Jamie Saggers - Media AS Coursework". Just continue through the slides, the first slide is the only blank one.

Jamie's Audience Feedback

i presented our film sequence to 10 people via a hyperlink over MSN, and then asked them questions about said sequence. 

The questions were:

What Genre Does The Sequence Belong To And How Could You Tell?

Who Was The Main Character In The Sequence?

What Details Made This Clear?

What Is Happening In The Sequence? Is It Clear?

What Could Make This Clearer?

What, Out Of The Sequence, Would Make You Keep Watching?

Did The Pace Of The Sequence Feel Right To You?

Do The Images Work Well With The Music?

Does It Feel Visually Interesting? Are The Shots Interesting, Or Fairly Typical And OK?

Out of the 10 people that i asked, All of them correctly identified the Genre of the film, which is a horror/thriller. Many of them made the connection to the Saw franchise.

They all noticed that I was the main character, although this was not a difficult task, many of them noted that i was the only person in the shot. 

They all said that the events were easy to identify, and the plot line easy to follow. Additionally, they all agreed that the second draft, which was re edited, was a lot better than the first draft.

They said nothing could make it any clearer, unless there was a videotape or a note, but we felt that it would make it too much like saw if we added these changes.

The 10 people i asked said that the music made the genre noticeable, and matched the images, and also that the pace was consistent and felt right as a sequence. 

Finally, on the whole, it was agreed that the shots we had used were good, and there was particular emphasis on the upside down head shot, of me waking up, that 7 out of the ten people commented on positively.

Final Version Of Film Sequence

After asking 17 people what they thought of the original film sequence, we had a few negative responses about the beginning of the sequence, the main thing that bothered 14 of the 17 was that although the character is chained, and this is shown later, at the beginning it is not entirely clear that the character is actually chained. We took note of this and re-shot an extra two shots of the chain, close up, and this made the audience more aware of the situation our character finds himself in.

The next problem was easier to solve.
All 17 of the people we asked said that they couldn't quite make out the titles, due to the size, font and the colour of the text. We changed the text from red to white, changed the text to one more visible, and made the text bigger, with more of a time span across the screen.

We asked 15 of the original 17 to watch it again, and they all approved of the changes and rated the clip positively.

Here is the final version of our Media Coursework Practical.

Risk Assessment FORM

We have completed the final form for the risk assessment, and had it signed and dated.
Here it is:

Problems With Rough Edit

After finishing our rough edit, i realized that there isn't a clear sense of entrapment straight away, because out of the people that i showed the sequence to, many didn't realize that the man was chained until he began to hack at the chains with the rock, but this is near the end.

We are going to attempt to re edit the sequence, adding more shots of the chain in, and possibly some more effects to the text, maybe even deleting the text, because at the moment it is too small, and stays on the screen for too long.

However, there are many good points about the rough edit.

There are lots of perfect matches on action, and this is always good for picking up marks. The beginning establishing shots are useful because they provide a feeling of loneliness.

Rough Edit of film Project

This is our first full edit of our film sequence.
We have done all the titles and added music, as well as a static noise at the end to make the music fade out better.

Risk Assessment

There were many risks of us going up to our location to shoot.
Primarily the biggest concern was walking up the giant hill that the crater is at the top of. To begin with, this wasnt the biggest worry for Tom and I, but inevitably something had to go wrong and Qasim had a brief encounter with a horse, which prolonged our ascent because Qasim couldnt quite pick up the nerve to attempt to outrun said horse.

After finally reaching the peak, we soon realised that the main worry was the cold. Tom and Qasim werent so bad, but as I was wearing paper thin clothes as part of the Mise-en-scene, I soon became rather cold. As the filming went on, we were more and more eager to leave, which is a primary factor in us not having the extreme close ups.

On the plus side, the wind couldnt reach us because of the safety of the crater, and the location was public, so we didnt need to ask permission, but the location was just far enough away to be able to scream at the top of our lungs without being questioned about or safety or sanity.

If we do need to go up again, the best thing to do would be to take some extra coats and gloves, and possibly some horse food.