connor final evaluation

Connor CrawfordMedia EvaluationDEAD RINGER

Monday, 16 April 2012

Dead Ringer ProjectThe Dead Ringer Project is an idea originally

thought of and created by me, and my partner.

This was thought of for a task given to us for

our Easter holiday Media homework.

The task itself was strictly Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre; we

had to think of our own idea relating to this

genre with a fitting story that would achieve

popularity as a television series for teenagers

(Our age preference).

I had to adapt the idea we had into a realistic

and achievable enough story, for example the

year set which would affect which locations

are accessible and/or the locations which are

not within our reach.

We eventually decided to set our film in the past

which allowed us to simply use effects on our

modern videos to manipulate them and the

audience in order to make the video look old.


Comparison with real media

products


Below displays a series of different key

frames selected by me, each one of these

key frames will have an explanation of

things such as the narrative or

construction of characters, costumes.

This is the very first clip displayed in my

title sequence, this clip is the key part

of our sequence for the narration; it

clearly states the point of the story

“Recently achieved the ability to

clone another human being” - this sets

the viewer’s mind on cloning so they

understand the rest of the sequence

as some of it could be unclear.


One of our key objectives was to display an evil

character with his face covered by the shade

and fur of his hood, this character was named

the ‘Evil Mastermind’. Another character

displayed was the scientist in the laboratory, the

only other character shown in the sequence. we

decided to use only two characters as the

personalities and motives of both these people

clash as the scientist is working to create and

examine these clones, the mastermind is out to

capture and corrupt, this makes them enemies.

However we both decided to display only two

characters, this would allow us to alter the

possibilities of the characters actions and

personality later in the series.


This frame clearly displays a simple scientist

robe/costume with various props displayed

around the characters, the idea of this frame

was to present a scientific approach to the

supposed ‘cloning’- perhaps studying or even

working on the creation of a clone. The

costume itself was already manufactured; we

borrowed it from the Long-Road Sixth Form

science lab with permission and accessed a

quiet laboratory, the costume clearly

represents a working scientist.


The props were mainly designed by me, the

confidential document and scientific cells

displayed on paper were simply created on

Photoshop, the confidential letter was put

together with various different copies and

pasted items from Google creative

commons and so on, easily produced. I

didn’t want the letter to be random words

so I used clone terminology to display a

knowledgeable document within the

sequence, giving it a more realistic look to

it.

This prop was designed by

me to give the scientist

a label/uniform which would

certify the professionalism of the clip itself


The location isn’t specifically narrowed

down to a certain area however the

title sequence shows the viewer that

this series is based around New York

seeing as sky scrapers and the statue of

liberty is displayed which is an iconic

representation of New York. The stories

year is set in the past, around 1970’s so

the buildings are not out-dated or too

modern as these types of buildings

became more popular within these years.

I ensured the technology displayed in

the sequence was correct to the year

the story is set, not too modern - basic

equipment.


The effects were specifically used to create an old, rustic,

black and white effect to try and manipulate the modern

footage as much as possible, giving us a ‘footage from the

past’ effect. The fuzzy television effect when it fazes out is

simply done by increasing the ‘noise’ effect, this can also be

called a Fade-Out effect but with a different approach.

The effects used were ‘Add noise’ and ‘Tint’ to give it a fuzzy

sort of tone with a rustic overlay on top of the black and

white colours.

I also used simple effects and tools such

as key framing imaging to zoom in, or key

framing the video itself to give a zoom

effect, making the sequence more

interesting, more variety.


The font was designed for a rough

effect to match the old, rustic hint

to the video to blend in and give it

that same style and effect as the

video itself. The glitches and

unstable manner of the credits is

deliberate as I am trying to represent

the world’s stability at the time of

the filming. The order of credits is

shown partly by priority. here is the

order shown below:

Starring

Devised By

Written By

Directed By

We left the credits for the last two

scenes as we wanted the audience to

focus on the characters dialogue in

the last scene; this is a key point for

the sequence as it shows the evil

masterminds determination against

the clones.


The scientist shown in sequence is working in

a laboratory that researches and

discovers ways to clone Human beings, in the

sequence the scientist is carrying out

experiments and using scientific technology/

equipment in various different ways, the

audience themselves don’t have to

understand this as the scene is not clear as

to what the character is doing. He wears a

long science cloak for protection with

goggles for protection, wearing goggles

implicates that the work he is doing isn’t

exactly safe. The angles we used were

mainly canted angles however we did do a

Mid-Shot following an over the shoulder

shot to give a good perspective of the area

and a clear view of the work he is

supposedly doing.The character shown in the last scene is the evil

mastermind, we tried to cloak his face with the

shade of the hood and add the effect used

throughout the sequence, I chose a close-up and

personal shot of his face only as he states his

determination, this gives the audience a direct

insight to his personality and character.


The last scene was designed to try and make the audience

uncomfortable and/or excited about a storyline which

typically includes an evil and good perspective. The

heartbeat was added for an aura of suspense, excitement. Not

just for the audience but the heartbeat seemed fitting as the

shots were close-up and faded in and out between each shot.

The other shots were supposed to indulge the viewer into the

calm sequence with no violence or action shown, just facts

and discretion to keep it mysterious for the audience,

allowing us to have an open end for the future of the

storyline.

The sequence itself relates to title sequences

such as Dexter as it maintains that mysterious

feeling, showing only hints of the storyline

and the characters by the footage shown, the

audio slightly telling the beginning of the

story, not leading on into the story yet to

come, giving the audience the feeling to watch

more and discover the genre and story for

themselves.


Construction

Process


What did I find most enjoyable

For me, the most enjoyable part of this project

was the editing as I enjoy learning how to use

new tools and feel that I am always learning fast

when using an edit program. I find final cut quite

hard to use as it renders quite a lot which wastes

a lot of time, but I am quite patient when it comes

to editing video’s so this isn’t too much of a

problem, usually to work around this I do

another task while I wait, such as prop creation.

For me the hardest part of the project was

organising me and my partner so that we have

everything ready for filming, we both share

similar attributes, forgetting items/props. We

managed to remember everything except

shooting the film with a clapper board; we

designed the template but didn’t take the clapper

board with us. After this we ensured we

remembered everything else by writing little

scrap check lists to tick off on the day, anything

forgotten could then be replaced in time.


Problems faced

The biggest problem we faced was trying to find the fitting footage for our idea,

the area we had wasn’t suitable for the date of the film and the idea, however we

worked around this with the old noise and tint effect, also recording the more

realistic buildings for that year. Another problem was the credits wouldn’t

export onto the video quick enough, leaving us a very short amount of time to

add them to the sequence, we managed to do this but the credits and font were

not as expected, they still work with the video but we had to erase the white

from around the text even though it was saved as a PNG file.

The red circle singles out the

problems

involving credits.


Working as a

teamFor me I think I was generally worse off working with a partner as I found relying

on someone to do vital parts of the project is risky and sometimes doesn’t work

according to plan, I would’ve preferred to have the amount of work for myself

and go through the stages as an individual without a team’s view or their advice. I

would’ve found this more efficient and easier for me as I could do things my own

way and not worry if my partner/team has completed their task, leaving pressure

on us both – of course from my partners perspective it’s similar, I just prefer not

relying on a team. My favourite part of working as a team would have to be the

final piece where both of you can feel a sense of achievement and hopefully be

proud of your work. For example organisation was at its minimal towards the end

of the project as me and my partner had to upload the credits to the video in a

short amount of time, my partner had to be somewhere without fail an my only way

home was by his transport, therefore this created pressure for the two of us as I

felt rushed into editing this part of the video and he was uncomfortable at the time

it took, these sort of things need to be pre-organised, a failure on our part. Next

time I will plan ahead and make sure we don’t have to do vital work in the last

few hours of our project.


Legal and

Ethical consideration

In terms of legal and ethical consideration me and my partner didn’t need to

worry about this, the only thing that we had to arrange was supervision for

ourselves in the laboratory, for safety measures and legal as we are under 18

and unsupervised in a dangerous laboratory. The actors within the sequence

are all over 18 years of age therefore no formal agreement to cooperate

needed to be signed.

The music itself was found on Google, a website giving creative commons

permission, it was an adapted version with raised speed allowing the person to

use this version for music.

I understand that Creative commons is a version or adaption of someone else’s

work varied from music to art, the owner of this original piece of work has

allowed and/or given permission to the public or a certain person to use this

particular piece.


Skills DevelopmentThe main source of technology used within

filming and editing included a Flip Camera and

Final Cut Express, other programs such as

Photoshop were not so vital, and however this

did help the designing process.

From this project I have learnt various new

effects and tools that are simple and useful,

for example the ‘Add noise’ tool and ‘Tint’ for

effect was simple and effective, I learnt how to

adjust the noise and change the type of effect

you can do with that particular tool, such as a

fuzzy effect or a more streaked, old hint.


Skills Development

Key framing was of little knowledge to me however I had some experience

from previous little projects, my technique and skill involving this tool

improved during the sequence as I used it for zoom in effects and to position

my footage correctly.

I experimented with filters during the editing process and discovered many

new ones I had no knowledge of in the past such as the lens flare for a

blinding effect or the colour correction to single out a certain area of

colours or maximise the contrast, even giving the whole scene one tint of

colour. Transitions were not overused in this sequence as I found they didn’t

fit our genre or recording techniques, they are quite obvious and modern

which wasn’t required. Placing the footage was the easiest with Final Cut

Express as I just used the razor tool to cut up parts and place them

together, as well as the audio narration/voiceover which I collaborated

with different pieces of radio transitions to create a radio worldwide

announcement about this huge story and creation.


Skills Development

To create the text in Photoshop I created a typography sheet with

many different fonts from DaFont.com - these fonts were singled out

until me and my partner were satisfied with the effect the font had, I

chose Defused for our title font as it gave a very unsettled, glitch

effect which is what I was aiming for, it suits all purposes especially for

our storyline. To import the fonts to Final Cut I had to export it as a

PNG without a background and then import media via Final Cut tool.


Quality of Final Product

Overall I think the project has been created as planned

regarding the target audience, The product itself is very suitable

for ages 13 onward, the title sequence itself contains no explicit

language, violence or sexual scenes - suitable for all ages.

The final product itself gives off a strong first impression, while

watching it friends and family have all quoted that this sequence

tells the reader what the basic story is about however it keeps

that sense of mysteriousness which draws the audience further in

to discover more about this series. The idea of the sequence was

not to give the whole storyline away and doesn’t show many

characters so that the audience want to watch further and feel

they need to watch the episodes to find out. However this

approach gives us a wider range of ideas for the storyline, for

example relating to the well-known series ‘Dexter’ which shows

the same sequence every episode but keeps it non-story based and

just hints at the personalities and the genre of the series, meaning

this sequence can be used throughout every episode.


The weaknesses in this product would have to be the locations for the sequence,

the footage is quite varied as it displays some large, more modern buildings than

footage such as the old camera’s, however this couldn’t be avoided so we tried

to make the buildings as dated as possible using various effects, the found

footage and taken footage were very different but manipulated to be very

similar.

The final production finished quite close to our original idea, some idea’s had to

be changed such as the futuristic idea, set in 2087. We thought about this and how

we could possibly make this sequence look futuristic with the items we had,

instead we decided to change the date to the past and tell the story as if this is

what would’ve happened if clones were coming to fashion in the 90’s. Everything

else was close to our original idea in terms of the storyline and the characters;

costumes were simple and did not affect any of the year preferences.

Quality of Final Product


CONCLUSION

Overall I am proud of my final project and I feel it kept

on the original guidelines of producing a sustainable

television series with a Sci-Fi/Fantasy drama. The

organisation went well in terms of recording however

our time management needed to be improved, the final

sequence was rushed as we didn’t plan our time

accordingly, leaving a vital part of our project

rushed and sloppy.

However i feel this is one of my most successful

projects yet and met the criteria set by our tutor,

regarding pre-production and the final product


connor final evaluation

Business

sequence w

prop w

font w

key objectives w

character w namedas

noise effect

zoom effect

white effect