2)How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
When creating our main production ,our original ideas revolved around implications of cloning ,and the idea of a scientist/business man 'playing god'.
On a technical level however the film primarily centered around the confrontation between the clone and his creator and if/how, we could create this. Retrospectively the ideas that we wanted to convey to the audience ,were easily picked up after watching the film , and the technical difficulties that we thought we might have before hand were not significant.
The combination of the main product and ancillary texts is extremely important in the overall promotion of our film ,and getting its theme Cloning across to the audience.
With duplicate being a science fiction film, I started research into science fiction posters, and Radio trailers even before we had completed the first draft of the film, believing that it was necessary to start research into the two advertising products as early as possible, to find similarities between our idea and other science fiction ideas .
During the Research stage I found out that different posters, corresponded to the genre that they were advertising . Poster for genres such as action films and romance films ,had a number of similar convection's that distinguished them apart from each other. This can also be said about the posters for science fiction films. I analysed a number of different posters which included “The Expendables” (action genre) and “Taken” (Thriller). I then also analysed a number of different posters crucially from a selection of science fiction films, that helped develop a poster based around our own idea of Cloning.
One of the posters that i analysed seen below:
A link to my poster research and analysis can be found here.
http://bca2media2012group9.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/poster-research_30.html
My findings from the poster research ,allowed for me to have better basis and understanding of what would be needed for my individual poster ,and for the final group poster. The poster that I created had many different convection's that had their basis in the style of the film ,but also gained ideas from the posters that I had analysed.
My individual poster:
For example, I thought it was necessary to place the title for the film at the foot of the poster as most of the poster that I had seen had placed the title here, the same was true of the other text that went with the poster ,eg. the name of actors/cast and other information such as production company etc.
At the top of the poster I placed the names of key actors and a title saying ‘Presents’ this was also in line with the posters that I had researched
I also placed images of the main characters in the poster ,but tried not to give away too much of the plot. Placing characters in the poster was difficult ,as Joseph played both the clone and his creator , and thus images had to be used that identified the individual characters. Placing both the clone and the creator in the poster was important as it symbolises a link to our original ideas, and to the film.Here is the final poster:
The radio trailer was tackled in much the same fashion as the poster. Early research was made into different examples of radio trailers for films, two examples that I found for the science fiction genre where the radio trailers for Alien and Star Wars.
Both of these gave a basis to our ideas on how the radio trailer should be set out. Both examples of radio trailers included a voice over, music and key details about the film (such as the release date). The radio trailer for Star Wars also included extracts from the fi, which was an idea that we recreated in out own production.Here is a link to my radio trailer research.
http://bca2media2012group9.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/radio-trailer-research_29.html
When creating our radio trailer we included many of the convection's stated above. We wanted to make sure however that we did not give too much away to the audience about the plot of the film ,especially important when considering that we took a number of sound bites directly from the film. The moments between the sound bites where filled in with narration from myself to give important information to the audience ,but also to give a general idea what the film is about. I feel that this was a success and that we enticed the audience without giving them the whole plot. The radio trailer, much like the poster, had to included some part of the message of the film. This was seen in the narrated parts of the trailer, where we talked about the power to create human beings, a further reference to the idea of 'playing god' and the limits of that power.
This is the Final Radio Trailer:
3)What have you learned from your audience feedback?
This is a link the a presentation on the Audience feedback:
http://prezi.com/mflxdvbie8hp/what-have-you-learned-from-your-audience-feedback/
4)How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
From the very early stages in its construction, new technologies were used in the creative media portfolio.
During the initial planning and research stages of the production, new technologies helped research into similar products mainly similar films. New media technologies also helped with the research into genre that had been chosen for the film "Science Fiction".
Link to sci-fi research
Research into similar films: Blade Runner
This genre was unusual for an A2 production, and so it was necessary to research fully into what we were creating to make sure that we followed the convection of the science fiction genre correctly.
One aspect that we found while searching on the internet (specifically using Google) was the number of similar films to our own, many examples of which different members of the group had viewed and consequentially gained inspiration from. The ability to access a wide range of information through the Internet, gave the group inspiration, and many ideas on different aspects that the film could potentially contain.
Many parts of films found on YouTube, provided guidance into the different shot types that could be used, filters and effects, music and shot sequences, as well as many more examples.
An example of this is the film that i analysed from youtube Portal no Escape. It is from the science fiction genre and thus shares many convections with our own film.
Analysis of short film
Another example of this is the scene from the film "Commando" (1985) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the sequence that was found on you tube, gave the general idea for the scene shown early in the production when alpha 7 hears the order of his termination from Charles Preston.
The overall feel of the film was also influenced by a number of different productions specifically" The Island" (2004) and "Blade Runner" (1984).
Films that inspired parts of scenes in our film
Blogger allowed us to link all our work together from the research stages, the planning stages, the production, and evaluation. This medium allowed the group to share ideas, and to track each other’s progress. Viewing work that other members of the group had found, allowed us to collectively change aspects of the film. Link to Our Blog
The internet not only helped by finding examples of films, but also with research into similar posters, similar radio trailers, and BBFC guidelines. Although YouTube was the main research vehicle, the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) also provided valuable sources of information on film making.
Many of these resources would not have been accessible 10 years ago, and thus it would have been impossible to quickly access adequate research for the film.
Google maps was also a useful tool for finding suitable location sets for each day of filming. Many members of the group did not know where we would be filming, and as such needed directions to the site.Directions to the site were print screened and posted on the blog,extras were given directions to sites by E Mail.
I also personally had a hand in creating a questionnaire, this allowed us to ask a number of questions of subjects fitting the target audience group. On different aspects of what we wanted to film ,and to elicit their views and responses.
The results were then put into a spread sheet, and shown on bar charts and pie charts. These results were then print screened and posted onto the blog.
A link to the analysis of the results is found here
We also set up an interview with college students asking them a number of questions on what they thought of the film idea. This was then edited by Final Cut Express on the Apple Macintosh Computers. Their response can be seen below.
Planning
In this production the overall planning was much better than the planning of my AS production ,which was much more last minute. For the AS production our team came up with an idea and then went out to film. Consequently our first attempt at filming did not turn out as expected, and thus we needed to go back to the drawing board, and start planning how we were going to film the scene we had set out. We engaged a larger cast and rewrote but were seriously running out of time because of time wasted on initial mistakes.
However the work of this group and the Production of the A2 creative media portfolio, has been markedly different.
As soon as we began the creation of this production, planning was underway.
One of the first things done during the planning stages, was the creation of the film treatment. This gave a basic outline of how we would progress to create each part of the project, with a general Synopsis of the idea for the film, the audience and duration. Each group member created a film treatment, this was then put on blogger.
My Film treatment
Construction and Production stages
In the construction stages many new media technologies were used the most crucial of which was Final Cut Express.
This New Technology had a dramatic effect on the direction of the production and many of the challenging scenes would have been impossible to create without the use of final cut express.
One of the most important scenes that proved to be the basis that the film was created around, was the confrontation scene at the end of the production, between Preston and Alpha 7.
What we did in final cut express can be seen below.
The colour correction tool was also used to change the difference in colour between both shots as the image above shows.
The results of this are seen below.
However it was not just final cut express that was critical in the production of these sequences but also the technology we used on set when filming them.
The most obvious one of these is the Sony HDV 1000 camera and the tripod, without which we would have been unable to film many of the shots ,and sequences that made our film so unique.
Narration was also needed in sections of the film, most notably the opening sequence and cafe sequence. To do this Joseph's voice was recorded on the zoom recorder and then imported into final cut express, where they were added to film clips.Ancillary to the main film ,we also created 7 confidential films. These documented our progress by filming us filming, and creating Duplicate. This helped the group by allowing us to keep a record of what we had done at each stage of the production ,and also cut out the need for a written diary documenting the progress we made at each stage. We filmed the confidential on a small Panasonic HDC-HS80 ,and then edited it using final cut express in the same vein as the main production. Cutting out the sections that we didn't need.
Editing executed using final cut express allowed us to add many effects to the production edit scenes, and cut out the areas that we didn't require. It also allowed us the use of key framing, motion, crops, effects, mattes.
We put a blue tint over most of the film using colour correction, to change the overall atmosphere of the production. We believe that this gives an overall greater science fiction feel. The Tint made the film appear more metallic and futuristic giving a cold and detached feel.
Final Cut express was also helpful in editing the audio on the film. On many of the scenes there was too much general background and traffic noise final cut helped to eradicated this.
Final cut express and the zoom recorder was also used for the construction of the radio trailer this was to bring out the best quality sound possible. We also used snippets of sound from the films audio and edited this in final cut this allowed us to create a radio trailer similar to the ones that we had researched.
I also created an individual poster ,from which ideas were then added to the final poster. Adobe Photoshop Elements was used to create this. This provided tools such as lasso and crop,also effects to change the the contrast of the pictures.
The Gradient tool that was used for the back ground to the poster I created, can be seen below.
Individual and Final poster seen below:
During the feedback and evaluation stages of the production we used a number of different technologies.Some that had been used in the Initial research and planning stages of the production, and some that we had not used before. When we uploaded the film to youtube, we sought the opinions of people that viewed the film. They provided feedback ,we then also uploaded the film to Facebook and asked the same questions.
There responses are seen here:
