Zixie Films name-how we came up with our film production name

We made a podcast about how we decided on our name.
Enjoy:
Zixie Films name podcast AS

Open world-how we came up with the name for our film

We decided to make a podcast to clearly establish how we invented our film name:
open world name podcast

AS Evaluation Clare and Emily open world 2013

Hello again,
we have completed our evaluation which is a podcast on Podomatic. We have discussed seven questions which cover our opening. We talked about them in this order:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process od constructing this product?
7. Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

AS Evaluation Clare and Emily open world 2013

WE HAVE FINALLY FINISHED...

after all this time...6 months and now everyone can see it in all its saturated glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJkBdgORYo

Filming and editing equipment

For filming, we really did not use a lot of material, we only used a camera, which has a lot of special effects and that helped with the editing.

For editing, we mostly used iMovie and Garageband to improve our opening.

 On iMovie, we used audio settings to change the volume and pitch to create tension. 
We also used the voiceover tool, where one can select the location of where you want to start your voiceover and you can input the volume for each speaker as shown here:


Furthermore, we used video settings to alter the brightness, the contrast and also the saturation.
We did this to make the first scene eye-catching and to give the idea of distortion. Of course we used  highlighting for cutting unwanted clips.


On Garageband, we used Male and female radio for the narration, which can be found in real instruments. We used these to give a clear narration.

 Also, we could alter the volume to fade in and out, which can be found when one selects the type of voice one has used. One can alter the points up and down to vary the fade in or fade out.

Feedback from audience

Ok, we have shown our film to a number of teenagers.
We did get a number of targets to focus on. For example:

• Our narration we used was hard to understand because we used five different people and put them on top of each other so we did change that to having only three people and one after another.
• Also, they did find that the narration was not convincing enough- they did not sound scared of even fearful so we acknowledged that and we improved it.
• They thought that the handheld shot was very effective and it did create tension which was our aim.
•  They also liked the use of saturation and that it was quite unusual.
• However, they wanted more sound used in general.

Overall, this really helped us to improve in general.

Notes on casting

Nathan played by Felix Hawlin- an experienced drama student.

Joseph played by Dante Davidson-who took drama for GCSE and has experience also.

Ruby played by Annie from year 13.

Narrative...again

I would say that our film opening establishes a sense of dis-equilibrium instead of an equilibrium at the start.

Colour 
With the use of saturation, it makes the setting seem more alienated and raw-that the world could end in a matter of days or even hours. We were inspired by Channel 4's Utopia, which uses this technique throughout. 

Sound
With the report at the start of our opening, our idea was that this narrator guides the audience but also makes them curious to know the truth, especially how the narrator is fearing the worse. With the use of certain images like the bridge which is mentioned in the narration itself, it brings the story together and it implies that these images have some significance.
The sound that we use in the flashes also guides the audience along and reveals more about the plot but again builds anticipation with the use of the phrase, 'Who is to blame?' at the end of this section. 
Also, the voiceover at the end so tells a story of a girl being lost and scared for her own life. This introduces a possible character even though her face is not shown. It also depicts a corrupt society and that this evacuation has not gone to plan. 

Furthermore, the non-diegetic sound used with images is a sound effect from iMovie. The music is relatively calm which creates a dramatic contrast with the plot. For example, when Ruby (played by Annie) is running.

Camerawork
We use a camera pan which moves in the opposite direction to the runners. This creates a sense of disorder and chaos. Also, with the handheld shot with Ruby creates a more realistic feel to the story and of course introduces her character.

Also, we used close up shots for the two main characters-Nathan and Joseph. This helps to establish their significance to the plot and having very short durations for each of their shots creates curiosity amongst the audience.

Mise-en-scène

The mise en scene we used is also significant because the runners wear teenage, scruffy clothes (like trainers and ripped clothes) which signifies their panic and terror to escape from being 'analysed'

Characterisation

In our film opening, our characterisation might seem a little ambiguous because we do not introduce names straight away but we do have the characters involved in our opening:

We firstly used close up shots for the two main characters-Nathan and Joseph. This helps to establish their significance to the plot and having very short durations for each of their shots creates curiosity amongst the audience.

Our handheld shot also plays a huge part in our characterisation. The girl who is in the shot plays Ruby, who is also another character comes into the story later. It characterises her as wanting to survive and how she is also scared for her life.

The mise en scene we used is also significant because the runners wear teenage, scruffy clothes which signifies their panic and terror to escape from being 'analysed'

Aspects of narrative and our film opening

Hello again.

In terms of aspects of narrative, I think that we have used a number of different methods in our short opening, for example:

• With the use of saturation, it makes the setting seem more alienated and raw-that the world could end in a matter of days or even hours.
• With the report at the start of our opening, our idea was that this narrator guides the audience but also makes them curious to know the truth, especially how the narrator is fearing the worse. With the use of certain images like the bridge which is mentioned in the narration itself, it brings the story together and it implies that these images have some significance.
• The sound that we use in the flashes also guides the audience along and reveals more about the plot but again builds anticipation with the use of the phrase, 'Who is to blame?' at the end of this section. 
• And finally, the voiceover at the end so tells a story of a girl being lost and scared for her own life. This introduces a possible character even though her face is not shown. It also depicts a corrupt society and that this evacuation has not gone to plan. 

Target Audience

The pictures of Danny Boyle (28 days later, slumdog millionaire, trainspotting, shallow grave and this year – Trance) and Steven Soderburgh (Contagion and this year – Side Effects) show how fans of their movies may appeal to ours, as we wanted to use similar techniques to them in terms of camerawork, sound and editing. This goes hand in hand with the film The Tracey Fragments – starring Ellen Page, which is an indie/arthouse film based on a book that goes by the same title. This film uses innovative “cuts” where different clips of footage are used in the same frame to create an overwhelming and disorientated effect on the viewer, much in line with Tracey’s adventures when she runs away from home, hoping to meet her boyfriend. The “we aim to misbehave” shows the rebelling side of society and how sometimes a “revolution” can be a society’s saviour. The rebelling side of society has a strong stereotypical link with the typical adolescent, as with secondary socialisation – teenagers can feel as if they are in the middle of two generations and feel the need to break out the cycle, this can be labelled as “going against the system”. Because of this, exaggeration is a common culprit in the level of the typical adolescent’s rebellion. In addition to this, there are many more factors to what can be called an “uprising”. In today’s society, teenagers perceived to be a massive threat but could be considered as the answer to change. This can also be shown in District 9, the creatures given the demeaning nickname of “prawns”, when they create a weapon to help the humans sympathise, or more aggressively torture, by making the conservative search leader into a hybrid of human and “prawn”. This film uses a mockumentary style of filming in the first half of the film, before venturing into a realistic-looking CGI spectacle. This style is similar to some techniques seen in 28 days later, contagion and slumdog millionaire (we are also using a song from this film’s soundtrack) – using a lot of handwork to make the footage feel a lot more intimate than that of massive establishing shots. Speaking of editing, Danny Boyle’s films tend to use quicker cuts in scenes that are tense, fun or just downright terrifying. Our target audience is teens to mid forties, this is shown in the overhead pictures of audiences of different ages and interests. Meh.

Analysing Open World by the four main features

Hello people.
The four sections that you have to use when producing or even analysing a film are: camera work, editing, sound and mise en scene. Today, I'm going to share with you our own analysis on our film, Open World. We analysed our film on how it represents status.

Ok, let's start with mise en scene:

• In terms of lighting, we decided to film it when the sun was setting as it would give the opening some atmosphere. It also makes the victims seem more vulnerable because it is nearly dark, which makes it harder for them to escape. Furthermore, the sun could signify danger. Even though whilst shooting the sun was still yellow, it did turn into orange which symbolises danger and threat. 

• The costumes are quite casual, which makes the characters seem more ordinary and they are from 21st century. This creates contrast between what the analysers are likely to wear. This would help to represent authority.

• With the location, we decided to film in a rural area to create an eerie atmosphere, as it is quite isolated. Because there are not many inhabitants, it makes the analysers seem more destructive yet powerful because it is because of them that the location is so deserted. 

Next, camerawork:

• In our Point Of View shot, when the character falls over, it signifies weakness and the struggle to escape from being analysed.

• In the Extreme Close Up shots, the two main characters, Nathan and Joseph look around with their eyes, which creates tension and fear. It is to do with the chance that the analysers might capture them.

Next, Editing:

• The use of clips of designer shops to reference the idea that capitalism was one of the main factors of the apocalypse. This relates to the rich and poor classes.

• The use of TV clips involving global warming can relate to status by nature being more powerful than human kind. That even if we tried, nature is always going to have authority over us.

And finally, Sound:

• One of the tracks we are going to use is from the film Slum dog Millionaire, and it's called Riots. Because it's Indian, it gives a sense of someone being an outsider and as it has quite a fast tempo, it creates panic and tension.

• The other tracks we will use is Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack. It is quite effective as the tempo changes quite frequently which could represent the thought-span of the characters trying to escape. Like Riots, it characterises the victims as outsiders.

So that's it for my analysis.

Have a good evening,

Emily