Over All Final View And Simple Summary

Overall the hard work and effort we have all put into this project I think that the overall product was well worth all of this. Although it is not ht best video the world has ever seen we tried our best and I think we produced a well thought out and put together clip. Although at times we found time management hard to keep track of I think that we pulled all of our work back in time to keep up with deadlines and meet targets set by our teacher.

Through the project we decided that we would put extra time and effort into it and that we would spend as much time as physically possible on our project. We would all stay back at dinnertimes or afterschool to produce and edit in small chunks our video. This overall has made our video of a higher quality and standard.

We used allot of different tools in our editing process for example we used a tool which added dates into the corners of each shot which we did and this in turn would show the viewer the change in time difference. We also used a black and white effect on this part of the footage and this made it allot easier for the viewer to see the time difference. We decided to put it in black and white so that it looked like a memory, this gave the effect that the memory was in the past was a distant memory. We also added an effect to the edges of it like a sort of frame and this made the shot look almost like an old picture that had been taken.

I think our video could have been edited a little more to tweak small things like the gravestone situation which occurred, however I think that we did the best with the time we had and the effort that we all put in as a team and overall I think the video was a great success ! 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the previous tasks’ that we have done this one has by far been the hardest we have had to face. However I think that as a group and an individual we have all learnt allot. For example none of us were experts at premier pro but by the end of this project and us all contributing to the editing process we have all realised that editing something to get it to a high quality or the standard that is needed is a very hard task to do.

For example we had to do the first task which was for a film called the prisoner. I think this video was good, but would have been allot better if we had the knowledge we have got now to have edited it and took the correct shots and things. During this production that we did continuity was also a massive issue, however the lighting and ideas behind the small clip were very good.

After the flop of editing and continuity in everyone in the class’ videos we had to do a continuity task. This was so that we could learn how hard the whole concept of continuity was, we had a list and wide range of shots which we would have to produce and capture to get the correct amount of marks we needed and this was in preparation for the piece we would have to do for our final piece. I found this task extremely useful and I think that it prepared me well for the final task which we had to produce. In the second continuity task we had to try and spot and plan a lot in advance so that their would not be anything in the shots that could be moved out of place or put in a different area so that it would be evident on the video. We went as far as moving furniture and things from the shots so that their was not overcrowding images in the shots. And different things in the fore and background. However we still faced a lot of different issues during the filming process. For example we filmed the footage at my house and this was an issue as in the hall way although it is quite a big area their was not enough room for all 3 of us, so when filming Callum knocking on the door we had to take a range of different shots from him being outside knocking on the door. The problems which we faced consisted of him holding the flowers in the wrong hand as he was walking up to the drive way in different shots. So we would have to re take certain shots to get the continuity task right however this would take time and we were filming in the winter months and weren’t left with much light to work with on the late hours, this then meant more and more things were left for us to do, like editing the video footage itself to get the colour and contrast right. Their was also a shot we took and at one point their was an issue because there is a mirror in my hallway, the shot and continuity was perfect, however you could see Emma in the mirror filming us and this meant we would have to improvise and use different angles and camera shots to get the clips we needed. This took time but our editing was still weak at this point in the project.

So looking back over time and the previous projects I think that all of our knowledge and awareness of how time consuming this project and a simple 3 minute clip is a very hard thing to produce. Not only do you have to worry about things such as costumes, lighting, tone of voice, makeup, appearance, location and setting but you also have to manage your time and keep time extremely well. We had problems at the start of filming the continuity task because their was an issue with the cameras. We had booked out a camera but because there are only a limited amount of cameras available to us at any one time all of the cameras had been taken up and their were none left. This was an issue but also an advantage to us, it meant that we could then use the time in lessons to plan more into our video and do a lot more research into the sort of clip we were producing and this would have made us achieve higher marks. This then limited our time to film and edit and would have given us a disadvantage in this part of the task. Continuity is also a massive issue when filming as even the slightest small change can make a massive difference and have a huge impact on the overall continuity and professionalism of the piece produced.

In this task we intended on doing something completely different to the task we had decided to do for our final piece to start with. When starting off deciding what we wanted to film we decided that we wanted to shoot the scenes of the girl in question in our story being drugged at a party and waking up in hospital, however to go ahead with this we would have had to film a party with alcohol and drug use for the filming to look effective. This would also involve allot of props and actors, after sorting out call sheets and individual call sheets for everyone we then had issues with timing and filming for everyone and decided it would be better to go for a simpler option. Through all the complex ideas we had come up with and the research we had done we all put our heads together to come up with a different idea. And with the thought that ‘less is more’ we went with the idea of using people we could rely on, people who were in our group. With only filming Callum and myself it meant that we could arrange dates between the three of us and Emma would do the camera work when me and Callum would star in the filming aspect of things. This made filming and the overall production allot easier that depending on other people and trying to arrange areas to shoot certain different scenes.

I think overall we have learnt the skills of time management and team work. We have also learnt that the editing process is long hard and extremely tedious! However with hard work and preservation I think we have powered through the hard times during our project and faced the problems in our way with full force. I think overall that the video is a success however there is always room for improvement, but overall our team has put forward excellent effort team work and dedication to the overall final product and I think I speak for all of us when I say I am extremely proud of the outcome of all of our time and effort over the past few months.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Consturcting This Product?

From producing this product I have learnt allot about the different technologies used to produce a film. I have especially learned that the editing process is very time consuming and hard to grasp. However after hard work and preservation you can achieve a good video.  

Although we are not producing a huge Hollywood hit, it was still extremely hard to pick up on the certain areas of the film producing that we did. For example we had to use allot of different software to produce our clip to the highest of standards. We had to use such programmes as adobe fireworks and photo shop , we used premier pro and PowerPoint as well. Not to mention all of the different effects and problems which we faced during the editing process.

During our editing process we used all of the above software. Although the concept in our heads and the image of how and what we wanted our video to look like were clear in our heads, however producing and editing all of our footage and narrowing down footage to use was extremely hard. After taking all of our shots and filming for over 3 hours, we got into the classroom the next day and realised that we had not got some of the shots we needed for the exam marking purposes. This then meant that we would have to schedule another date and do more filming. But all of this was taking up more and more of our editing time and getting us behind on the editing front, so when in lessons we decided that it would be best to edit all of the necessary footage which we had collected and deleting all of the footage which we didn’t need.  

We kept all of our work on the media server at school, this was so that if one student was not in or available we could all access the work rather than having it on one persons school account. This made things allot simpler as it would mean that we could access the work at lunch times and dinnertimes.

I have learnt that technology is a hard thing when the media is involved and there is allot more work put into even small things such as adverts, never mind film making. When it has taken 3 people in my group over approximately 20 hours to edit a 3 minute clip, it just puts into perspective how hard it must be for film producers or even people producing soaps on telly to edit all of there footage and still take note to things such as continuity errors.

Continuity errors also occurred when we were filming for example people holding things in one hand then them changing hands in a shot, this would cause allot of problems as we would need to re film the whole footage again just to make sure we got it right, also in a preliminary task we were filming in the hallway of my house, this was a issue as we took a really good over the shoulder shot of me having a conversation with Callum, however… you could see Emma in the mirror next to us filming. Problems such as this are due to occur during filming but looking back on past tasks I believe that we have learnt allot about what is needed to produce a good film or movie piece and the time it takes individuals and teams to sift through work and piece after piece to get small details the way they want them to be seen by others.

How Did You Attract / Adress Your Audience?

We used younger people in our video as this would attract the kind of people that we would want to be viewing the video itself. For example if we used older people the video may not have had the same effect or shock factor as it currently has.

I don’t believe that we necessarily attacked our audience however we did decide to use a shock appeal when filming our video. With the death of our female character at the very start of our film this would then get the audiences attention as to what the film was about.

We used allot of different camera angles in our filming to show that we could produce a high quality video with the footage that would be necessary to the project that we were trying to produce.

 We used allot of close up shots to show the emotion in the characters faces and the emotions that they were feeling when the sensitive subject of doing drugs was brought up. We also used a panning shot to show the graveyard and a long shot to show the male character walking towards the gravestone. This was an effective shot because it had gravestones in both the foreground and background of the shot, not only creating an eerie scene for the viewer but all so giving the impression and thought that death is all around and that drugs are not something to be taken lightly.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

The typical audience that we would be aiming to entice would be a wide age range. From the ages of around 12 to late 20’s. we decided to make the age range quite large as drugs can effect anyone of any age, however we are expecting that it may not appeal so much to the older generation of people viewing the film.

The film relates back to the ‘Hoodie’ culture and the younger generations, for example people who are younger can relate to the people who are being shown and represented in the video. Whereas older people may not know what is going on or just think that there is one stereotype and one stereotype only for people of younger generations as being alcohol, Drug fuelled individuals.

We were aware that we would have to show a different side to the younger generations in our video, so we decided to show in depth the two different extreme sides of the youths. For example the female character was work driven and committed to her work and had a life plan set out. She was studying primary care teaching and the world was her oyster. Her boyfriend on the other hand, the male character in our story line was a waster, who would simply worry about when his next dole instalment was coming through and how much ‘gear’ he would be able to get out of it. The story line starts off with showing the two characters sitting having a meal and talking about their day and their plans for the night time, the girl was on about spending the evening with her friend, and the boy was planning on spending his evening getting more heroin. This showed the contrast between the two different stereotypes of people in our generation.

The story then goes on to show how you don’t have to be an addict like the male for drugs to effect your life, they can do it immediately. This is shown by the death of the female character in our story and then goes on to show how this then changed the life of the male character for the better as he realised what effect drugs could actually have on someone’s life and the massive impact on the people involved.

The age of the people we used in our clip was 21, however the film could apply to people of younger ages because drugs are becoming a lot more common and easy to get a hold of.

When discussing in our interview with Mr Earl we thought about the idea that our film could be used in schools in PSHCE lessons so that children were aware of the effects that drugs could cause, as people of a young age may know someone older or their own age that were doing drugs and the video could be educational towards them and they could then pass on the knowledge they have learned to another.

class presentation

this is the vided that we produced being shown to the other members in our class and their questions and queeries towards these.
Hannah, Callum and Emma - Regret presentation from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Group evaluation

Callum, Hannah and Emma - Evaluation of "Regret." from Chris Earl on Vimeo.


this was the oral evaluation which we have compleated with mr earl about our own personal views on our production video.

What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why ?

I believe that the kind of media institution which would distribute our film would possibly be film 4 movies or a BBC movie production.

I think that these would be our main distributors because of the nature of our film, for example it is not a Hollywood blockbuster or a typical British film. We have gone with a different genre and this has made our film more original and will make the film stand out more in the film market.

I believe our movie and its presentation could be made allot better by several different ways, I don’t think that the actual quality of the movie and the images on the screen is as high as it could be but I think this would be allot sharper and more in focus if we were filming with different cameras and using different materials, for example lighting and professional equipment.

I think that 4 movies would distribute our film to cinemas or DVD or television because of the awareness that it is creating about the use of drugs and the dangers which they cause. The film’s story line is slightly like the storyline of train spotting and this makes it appeal to people of the British market. As film spotting was made in 1996 this makes it a relatively modern film, as the film was made showing the Edinburgh drug scene this may have caused some confusion to people abroad as it wouldn’t have been suitable for say people in America.

However despite this fact the film was distributed in America but was not a box office hit! The film budget was an estimated £350 000 and this is pretty average for the British film that is being made. However the film was quite successful and in its opening weekend in America it make $262 000 but was only shown at 8 cinema screens.  

Overall with our film being produced and it being a low budget film i believe that it would do quite well in the film industry but probably not well enough to get funding from big well known producers or sponsers.