Evaluation activity 7

7) Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
   From our continuity editing and 180 degree rule tasks I feel I have learnt more about camera work and I've also learnt a great deal about how to edit shots together to make it appear smooth and look like a continuous action. Continuity shots can be filmed at completely different times as long as the lighting, set and costumes are the same. One scene is filmed many times but from different angles and then cut together during editing so that the changes aren't noticeable to the audience. This is also called a match on action, as the shots are cut so that the whole of one action can be seen. We used this type of editing twice in our film, once when I run down the set of stairs and then again when Sian and I enter the building. We cut the shots together in order to show our whole journey to the audience so that they could understand what was happening and make sense of our narrative. Our continuity task is featured below.

I learnt that the 180 degree rule is considered to be an imaginary line that can't be crossed unless the movement across the line is shown, because otherwise the audience would get disorientated and not be able to figure out where the characters are in relation to each other. We didn't use this rule in our film because we didn't need to. The camera stayed in a fixed position when filming most of our scenes so the audience wouldn't get disorientated and could see us only from one angle at a time in each shot.

Lastly I learnt about shot-reverse shots. This type of shot is used usually for conversation sequences in films. The camera is on one person to see them talking and cuts to the other person or people to see their reaction or to show them replying. It cuts back and forth between the people so that the audience can see the whole dialogue. We didn't use this type of editing in our film, because we didn't have any dialogue scenes. One scene we could've used it was when I was under the stairs and Sian was bullying me. However we wanted our audience to see the whole picture so had a medium long shot of us both.

Evaluation activity 3

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
    Originally we thought that our production company would be Warner Brothers, but then realised that protagonist pictures would be better for our film. Protagonist Pictures are based in the Uk and produce more specialised films. Our film could be considered to be specialise, because we are only emerging talent in the industry. Protagonist Pictures have also worked with a variety of different companies that all work more with specialised films. This companies include: film4, Vertigo films and ingenious media.
    A production company provides the physical basis for films and may also be responsible for fundraising for the production. It deals with budgeting, scheduling, scripting, supplying talent and resources, organizing the staff, the production itself, post-production, distribution, and marketing. Production companies are often either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company, or Motion Picture Company. These are the parent companies. Production companies can also be mainstream or independent.
    A distributor is responsible for the marketing of the film, when then helps to finance a film. For our film, our distributor would be the BFI because they could help to fund our film. Our film would pass the BFI cultural test, since our film is British, meaning we would get 25% tax relief on our film. The BFI also deals with more specialised films, like ours. They have also worked with Film4 just like Protagonist pictures.
    Our film credits and the order they appear are: production company; title; distributor; main stars; editor; cinematographer and sound editor. Our production company was Warner Brothers; the title was 'Fading fast'; our distributor was the BFI; the main stars were Sian and I; I was the editor; Ollie was the cinematographer and Sian was the sound editor.
    Some films that would be similar to ours Insituationally are: 'A girl like her'; 'Mean Girls'; 'Cyberbully'; 'Carrie' and 'Odd girl out'. These films are all about bullying in some form and most of them are set in secondary schools or high schools, much like ours. Even though these films are similar to ours, one difference is that on the whole they seem to be American.