Media Studies

Production Unit

By David Kirwan, Rachel Finn, Michael Smith and Ruby Urwin!

Ghost!Ghost!To officially start our production unit wehad a group meeting, during which we presented our screen plays/short stories.We took time to look at everybody’s in our groups, we agreed that mine had the best story line, consisting of a girl with a secret in a Box. Whereas David’s had the best range of shots, for example, high angle360 shot. We all agreed Ruby’s was too hard to shoot, as it was based in past, present and future times. Michael unfortunately forgot to his bring his story, so we decided on David’s piece, called GHOST.

There are many good reasons why our production

worked well. With the film being about a ghost and his

opinions and views on humans, we agreed it would be a

good idea to present it at a fast pace and use various shots

to draw in the audience.

These shots of interest consist of; - A range of continuous mid-shots, creating the feeling that time has

been cut. - Using a high angle shot of both humans talking and of the stool

being pushed over, creating a sense of loss and hierarchy.- And by looking at the establishing shot, we tried to make it a matter

of great interest by doing three different shots; the first being a extreme low angle mid shots of the building, the second an extreme high angle of the building, and lastly a panning shot of the building. Putting these all in sequence made the building seem big and mysterious.

David

My tasks in this production were to write the screenplay, direct the film and edit the film.

Scriptwriter: For the script I chose a basic storyline of a ghost following round a couple of kids. I thought this would give a wide range of shots as well as being an interesting effect.

Director:As the director I lead the production of the film which at times was challenging. I was in charge of what shots we were going to film on different days and how we would shoot those shots. I found it easy to tell the camera operators how I wanted each shot filmed

Acting: I didn’t want to act at first, however I found it an easy task as I did not have to have any dialogue or have to make anyactions during the film.

Editor:I found this a hard task using the programme that I had to use (Windows Movie Maker). I found it a long time consuming process where a lot of touching was needed to scenes. I used fades to move from one scene to another to help the flow of the film. I was only able to use one line of audio so music could not be applied as I had to use the narrator’s audio file, so this took the only available space. I found it easy to add titles to the film and stretch the timing of each scene where necessary.

RachelCamera operatorI was the main camera operator and had a lot of fun experimenting with different shots and thinking about how I wanted different scenes and shots portrayed to the audience.

Some of the main shots included:• The establishing shot – I decided to film it as a wide/long shot, filming first the ground and

slowly tilting up to see the large building. We all agreed that this was a good idea as it created the impression that the building was quite menacing and scary. – Like a stereotypical haunted building.

• 4 continuous shots ranging from an extreme long shot to a close up. This was because I wanted the ghost to seem to be ‘jumping’ from one place to another

• A 360° shot when filming the 2 people talking, making it seem as if ghost was circling them• A close up shot was used when filming the flickering light scene and I slowly focused the

camera, in the hope of creating audience interest• High angled shots, for example when filming the stool scene. I did this because I

thought it made the stool look small and almost ‘defenceless’.

ActorI acted in just one of the scenes as I was the only one that hadn’t been filmed and was voted the best at screaming.  It was filmed just outside the media room in R115 as it is quiet and empty there. It was shot by Michael and he decided to shoot it as a mid shot at eyelevel creating a neutral feeling, but showing the audience my feelings to.Unfortunately though due to the software, the audio couldn’t be included so David used his initiative and used a scream found from the internet. I think this works just as well.

MichaelActor:For the acting I was filmed standing in four different places, then using editing we made it seem as though I came closer to the screen without moving. I think this was agood effect and added to the effect of the ghost. For the filming one of the shots I just had to record the narrative, I did this so when it came to editing we could put it over the recording.

Camera Operator:I did different bits of filming here and there; for example Ifilmed a close up shot of paper being blown of a table bythe ghost, and also the scene involving the scream.

Ruby

ActorDuring this production unit I put myself forward in helping in various ways. The first being as an actor, where I was oneof the humans sitting on the grass talking. I found this fairly easy to do as I didn’t need to remember any lines, as it would be over voiced. A problem with this was that it washard to make conversation under pressure, to act like we were talking; although it was enjoyable and overall worth the slight stress.

Voice OverI found this difficult, as I got my words muddled up, and I ended up rushing it, sounding breathless on the film. I am disappointed with this as I got frustrated, when all Ishould have done was take a breather and try again, but with the time restrictions this wasn’t possible.

Prop HelpLastly I was prop help (which is a lot more interesting and harder than it sounds). I had the fun of blowing paper of the counter with a hairdryer and pushing over a stool, which is good for getting rid of that anger.

Overall this was a worth while and fun experience, which would have been better if we had more time, but was done to the best of my, and our, ability.

EvaluationOur set backs were; the short amount of time, the fact that not every memberwas always present, and finally the editing software which crashed, meaning alot of time was wasted.

Our strong points were that; we all worked well together which made us not feelas stressed, we produced a lot of rushes meaning we had a lot to chose fromwhen editing, the equipment was easy to use, and we believe that we used ourtime wisely.

If we had had more time, or if we did this again we would improve it by:speeding up some of the scenes for example the scene where paper flies of thetable to make it seem more violent. We would also have included the 2 extrascenes that we didn’t have time to film, and added sound/music to outproduction piece.

Convention wise we think our production was different due to the fact that it was from the ghost’s point of view, unlike other ghost stories where the main character is the person being haunted.

Our target audience were; teenagers and adults. We believe we reached our target audience as it had a challenging story line to keep an enigmatic feeling to the production. Furthermore it contained interesting camera angles and shots. For example in one of the scenes the camera cut from different time periods in the production which kept the audience intrigued to the relevance of this with the protagonist.

Overall we all agree that we performed to the best of our ability in

the time allocated, and are pleased with what we have produced.

We hope you enjoy our film!