OFFICIAL FILM POSTER

This is the official Film Poster for our film DAZED...

We decided to use this poster as it includes everything we need, and has the right feeling that matches with the emotions of our film.

FINAL FILM

Here is our final film, DAZED.

Film Log for 11/12/2013 Film Day

Audience Feedback Results Summarised

Wed 26/3/14

Music

     Today our main target was to find the appropriate music for our film. This has proven to be quite difficult with music being one of the important aspects of making a film. Our tutor gave us a list of websites that would have a list of different songs/music for any film genre. 

freesound.org 

When we went on freesound.org, it proved to be useful for sounds that are commonly used to express a certain emotion. We found sounds that seemed very peculiar and a lot of them didn't suit our film.

 

Audience Feedback for Final Film

Here is the Questionnaire that we asked our audience about after they watched our film.



After we got a few responses these were the results we got...

Evaluation question 1

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Essay format:


Throughout our short film, continuity was a vital factor we thought should be included in our film, Dazed, so we did this through the format of both our camera angles, shots and techniques along side our editing methods and techniques used when placing the final film together. In regards to the camera work we have carried out we thought that it was important that we used a variety of different camera angles to give an impression of the effect we are trying to portray. An example of an effective use with the camera would be the scene after Carrie is manipulated by Jared and under pressure steals the vodka from the local corner shop, The camera angles show the lack of domination Carrie has over Jared, as the camera angle from her perspective is looking upwards when in discussion with Jared about the crime she has just committed. Where as Jared is looking down upon Carrie showing the empowerment he has over her. 


We used different techniques including match on action, 180 degree rule and also shot reverse shot. We made sure that we included each of these techniques in order to achieve the best possible edited version of our film. In terms of media language we have used a variety of different forms of rhythmic editing. When we began to edit the different parts of the film we thought it was important that we included the scenes that had the most continuity included in them, as it is important that it is known in our film. We have used some special effects on the scene where Carrie has consumed drugs and everything is rushing around in her head showing previous scenes and events occurred in the film before this moment, We believed this would created a rushed effect as the drugs were hitting her, reminding her of the bad things she has done whilst being with Jared. An example of using a form of montage editing would be the end of the film whereby the audience have just discovered that Jared hasn't been there all the way through the editing, it was all just part of her schizophrenia, imagining that he was there, when he wasn't, We put together different frames of the film creating a sort of flashback effect however, different as Jared wasn't in the scenes it was Carrie all along, only this time without Jared. This is the twist to our story when it is found out that Jared was never there to start with.


Shot reverse shot:
We decided to make a variety of the conversations on 'Dazed' effective as we used the shot reverse shot rule, where by we showed the characters facial expressions and reactions up close via using extreme close ups, close ups and medium close ups, showing each of these in a well balanced way. We used the shot reverse shot technique as it is the most useful way to show the characters reactions and feelings throughout the conversations straight after one and other via placing the camera behind each character during.

180 degree rule:
we have used the 180 degree rule a lot throughout our film also, as we use it mixed In with shot reverse shot when the two characters are in conversation. We found this helped us show body language as well as facial expression when the two people are speaking.




Match on Action:
when editing we felt it was vital to ensure every single cut we carried out, matched the next scene completely as we wanted to create a visual bridge. We used this mainly after every cut for example the scene where Carrie opens the door to enter Oliver's house, the door handle had to be opened the exact same way as it                                                   looked before we cut to create another camera angle.

The genre we thought was the most likely to suit our film was the theme of psychological drama, as we believed as our main character, Carrie suffers from a poor psychological mind set the film would create confusion with the audience also adding a touch of mystery to the audience, as Carries life had a hint of confusion and mystery, therefore we wanted to pass this onto the audience so they can get thurally involved in the variety of emotions that Carrie is feeling through the different scenes of the storyline. A theme we tried to carry out in a subtle way was the theme of death, in which isn't as obvious through this storyline, until Carrie and Jared walk in front of the driving car in order to commit suicide, this is the first trace of death, however in the final scene where it is discovered that Jared isn't there and hasn't been there for a while as he died in a car crash months previously before Carries Hallucination's. An obvious theme we chose to develop our film around was the lack of understanding Carrie showed to what is real and what is made up in her mind which again created a sense of confusion for the audience, as they share Carries confusion. As Carrie wakes up at the end of the film and realizes the whole situation was a made up reality in her mind, in which in a way she wanted to be true, As Jared is already dead, Carrie is in some form hallucinating that Jared is really there all along when in reality, he isn't


We got the idea of a psychological drama from a few similar films, I looked at a few films in which share a similar storyline to Dazed. I looked at films such as: Mental, Sybil, Girl-interrupted and compulsion. Girl interrupted was the film I felt was most similar to Dazed as Girl,interrupted was a story based about a girl who has schizophrenia and imagines so many events in her life that haven't occurred and it then placed into a mental hospital.

We looked into the different stereotypes in which we have made our film live up to and the ones we have broken. We looked into the stereotypical film history of African Americans being related to the use of drugs and violence, in films such as Gangsters paradise and juice. We believe that we have over come this stereotype as Jared isn't even real or alive throughout the short film, We felt this was an important stereotype to break in our film as we included a variety of different ethnicities in our film in order to make our film multicultural and appealing to a more varied                                                                                     audience.



Before the making of our film 'Dazed' we felt it was important to look at other short films with similar genres to ours (psychological drama) in order to achieve ideas or look at the different techniques that they used in the films. I looked at a short film in which I found on YouTube named 'Inside'. This story is about a young man who in which has schizophrenia, in which where he hears voices he cant control within his mind. In the video there are several different people of different ages all representing his mind, all saying different things to show the main characters schizophrenia

The Richard Dyer theory in which includes: Abundance, Energy, Intensity, Transparency and Community also relates to Dazed. 
However I believe that the most similar method is energy, intensity and community, this is because our film offers a variety of energetic scenes in which contain a lot of suspense and surprises.Like when the end scene when Carrie discovers that Jared isn't here anymore and she has created the whole situation in her head.


 Intensity is also an obvious addition to Dazed as it includes a lot of sitting on the edge of your seat in suspense desperate to know what happens next, for example the scene of where Carrie and Jared are committing suicide, it creates a tension of the viewer hoping they don't get hurt or die.







 In terms of the relation of our film to the uses and gravitations audience theory in which has 4 main focused sections involved in it, these include: Education, Role Models, Socialization and Entertainment. After evaluating and looking in depth at each section, I came to the conclusion that the most similar section to our film was between socialization, education and a slight touch of entertainment. 

An entertaining factor, in my opinion occur mainly towards the end of the film where it is discovered that Jared never even existed, this could create a shock, and in some cases cause upset for the audience in cinemas. I came to this outcome as I thought our film is a strong method of education about schizophrenia, relationships and the depths an illness can take to people. However, socialization is a strong contender in comparison as I believe this kind of film genre is more likely to attract the attention of a variety of ages and audiences in turn attracting more socialization between social groups and family.

Radio Trailer

This is the final film trailer for our film.

We used snippets of the film itself, using sounds and dialogue, as well as creating new voiceovers to explain a brief storyline of our film to listeners.

Evaluation 4

4  How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (ESSAY/VIDEO/MIND MAP?)

Internet use:Before we could start filming it was vital that we looked into all the things we needed in order to make our film as realistic and well thought out as possible and to do this it was important that we used all the correct resources, I used the different aspects of Google a lot, as the search engine is the most responsive and gives all the best results. I used Google search to look for Audience research, Genre research, Age certification research. I also used the Google Images, this is also a useful use of technology, as I used it to look for images of prop ideas, makeup, costume, and ideas of location. It was also highly useful in terms of finding pictures of the shot types we needed to put into our film to make it realistic. I also used another aspect of Google which was Google Maps, I used this to look for a suitable location for my group to film certain scenes, around the areas that were easily accessible and safe, that also didn't contain much exterior traffic noise and unwanted non diegetic sounds. We used Google Blogger to maintain all of our research as it is like an online diary of what we have done all along
 throughout the process of making the film.


Celtex:
We used Celltex on the Apple IMacs, Celltex is the forum in which we created and based our official and final scripts on, We used the facilities on it to create a well based and thought out.





YouTube:
YouTube has also been a strong contentment when creating our film, as we have used YouTube to look at similar types of films, title sequences, similar short stories, radio trailers and also to base the final film on. After we finished our film we had to base the link onto a you tube account and our video is then accessible online.



                                            

                                           
                                              Cameras and Video camera:
After using the aspects to plan and prepare to make our film we then had to gather our resources in order to film the five minute film. We used a normal camera in order to film a practice film of our group taking a trip from the ground floor In the old mill lane building up to the fourth floor, via the lift and some stair case, we used this to help us prepare for the use of a more advanced video camera and get us ready to practice editing etc. However after this we then developed an understanding on how to use these cameras and began to film for our official film. We began using the cameras by using simple shots such as: Close up, extreme close up, long shot, extreme long shot, medium close up, medium shot etc. We then began to adapt to the uses of the more advanced shots such as: Rabbit in the headlights shot, Over exposed shots and a fade out when Jared disappears in the ending of the film.


Final cut express:
Final cut express was the application in which we edited our final film on, we added different scenes of our film on to it. We placed in the different scenes on to the timeline we created watched them back and cut different parts out that we didn't need or want in our film and got rid of all bloopers and unwanted scenes. We also managed to make sure all our shots had match on action and was perfectly linked. On Final cut, we also managed to add it any extra SPX and effects we wanted to make a reaction, For example final cut made the best possible result of our drugs scene, where Carrie consumes Drugs and is in a daze, by using this application we managed to add blur, a high contrast and flashbacks and at the final scene where Carrie realizes Jared was never there to start with,
                                                          and we have Carrie on the screen, and in the blurred background 
                                                                       the previous events throughout the film.

Screen Shotting:
I used screen Shotting quite often for screen Shotting scenes of films on YouTube, I found this the most successful form of copying as it shows the video on YouTube as well as what was typed it etc.

Prezi:
I used Prezi throughout the process of writing my evaluation, As we had to write our evaluation in using three different methods, Prezi was one of the methods that I chose to use for my conclusion. I found Prezi easy to use and I liked the layouts that's were available. On this I prepared my evaluation question two, and I was a simple and easy outcome. 







Microsoft documents: PowerPoint & Word:
I used Microsoft documents in order to complete two parts of my evaluation. I used PowerPoint and Word documents. I used them as they are easily accessible, simple to use and can show my evaluation in a good, strong and well focused manner. I used powerpoint in order to then place on to slide share so it can go on my blogger account.




Slide share:
I used slide share in order to place my PowerPoint presentation evaluation onto blogger, it is simple to use and I learnt to use it last year in AS media studies.

We looked at the different website provided in order to discover some appropriate music for the genre of our film, in the end we couldn't find any music that jumped out to us in a specific way in which would create the effect we wanted in our film. However,  we received some music from someone in our groups friends who has their own band, We thought this was a good idea therefore we weren't committing copyright and we had permission to use the music given by Jake Wood hams. The music was perfect for our genre and the website was easy to use.  

 

 Another music site we looked at was Jamendo, we looked at this site for sound effects, as in our film we had things like car crashes, so we needed a skidding effect. We looked through several and in the end found the perfect sound. We used it twice in our film, one for the car crash and one prior to the crash to foreshadow what was about to occur.

Evaluation 3

Evaluation Question 2

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire Results

Film poster Idea

As my groups film is a psychological drama, it is important that the colours, pictures and text are related to the poster as much as possible as this is responsible for a small section of the advertisement process of  'Dazed'.

My idea is to use dark colours such as: Grey, Black, Blue etc,. I have chosen to use these kind of colours due to the dark mysterious background of the story, as it is a psychological drama, about a girl with an illness, which causes her to imagine things that aren't real, throughout this process she begins a heavy drug addict and alcohol consumer. As eyes play a crucial part in the acknowledgement of a drug addict, My idea was to have all gloomy colours in the background of the poster and  a pair of eyes, with bags round them, tired looking with large pupils to create the drugged effect. However, the eyes will be Bright blue, and all the other colours in the back ground dark. The skin being grey and worn, and the eyes being the only things that stand out and eye-catching. As our film storyline is fairly confusing the picture of just the eyes will create an addition to the mystery and confusion behind the eyes. In the background could be clouds, fog etc anything that adds slight confusion or partial dimness, as the Carrey the girl in the film, lives her life in pure denial and confusion of her illness, this will put the target audience into the shoes of Carrey through the method of a poster.

This is just an example, but the eyes on the picture will look tired, and have sever bags under them, to create the drugs abuse effect on her eyes, It would be good if the picture we use of Rebeccas eyes, (Plays Carrey) to have over sized pupils as well.

 The types of colours that I believe will look the best are colours that are Grey, Black, White etc, I think although they are quite bland and plain colours behind a strong colour like Blue that i will be using as a colour of some eyes, will contrast well.

I like the clouds in this picture, and I think clouds look quite mysterious and creepy when they use colours like grey and white. This sort of back ground will look good in the background of the eyes.  The Masthead we will use, will be 'DAZED' in big letters, the font I think should be sharp and eye-catching but it cant out-shadow the eye picture.  I think the title should be placed under the eyes, along where the nose would be originally, or where the mouth will be.