Dead Ringer Evaluation Lewis Moran

Lewis Moran
Media Project Evaluation
DEAD RINGER

Monday, 16 April 2012

Comparison with
real media products


Costumes The costumes used in our sequence, are perfect for
the date, locations and professionalism of the entire
series. I did some research before using any of the
costumes, for example - i watched some 1960’s news
interviews, and looked at a few TV series and the
costumes are ideally, the same. Costumes play a big
role in giving the entire opening sequence a date,
location and the genre. For example the laboratory
over coat gives away that it has some scientiﬁc
involvement. And the large long coats worn by the
photographers in the the picture below indicate the
season, and the job occupations they have.


Characters
We attempted to keep the characters shown in the introduction to a minimum, we
ﬁgured keeping the character count low to start with meant we could add and remove
characters to the series without an issue, for example the opening title for Dexter only
shows the main character, which means they can ﬂexibly vary the series with ease.

As you can see the bottom
key frame shows the evil
master mind in action of the
title sequence. I believe
showing him tells the viewer
there will be some hostile
drama in the series, be it
action, or mystery.


Props Like the costumes, props play a big role in
giving the sequence a genre, and certainly a
sense of authenticity. The props we used are
very suitable for our story, and they gave it a
boost in terms of setting the objectives made in
the introduction. Although our sequence is set in
the 1960’s, its very surreal because its like a
futuristic version of the 60’s, say this series was
made in the 1920’s, this is what they would
think the 60’s would be like. As we today think
of the 2100’s. Our laboratory props are similar to
something you’d see on a old science ﬁction
drama. Some of our props resemble similar
things to an old series of Doctor Who, it was
simple contraptions that looked as though they
could of done anything, for example; all the
buttons and levers in the tardis.


Narration

Me and my partner ﬁgured, if there was more
than one narrator, it would give the drama a
sense of extensiveness, showing the events
portrayed in the series are global, making them
monumental outbreaks of scientiﬁc practise.
There are three different narrators, and they all
different, varying the possible awareness the
cloning has brought to different places.


Location
I based my location on a typical inner
city thriller locations, for example, the
set of the ﬁlm ‘Watchmen’ is New
York City. Its dark, rainy, and eery -
together i believe they form the
perfect setting for mystery.
The footage in my sequence, used
together, clearly state the location is
a build up city, but the statue of
Liberty is a slight giveaway.


Effects Visual filters
The main reason we added visual effects, was to
set the date of the series. Having standard
footage meant the colour was inaccurate and it
would have ruined the entire introduction. Adding
a black and white filter, combined with a anti-alias
filter, gave the footage a genuine 60’s look.

Audio filters
When we needed a narrative voice over for our
sequence, we figured having our regular voices
wouldn’t be very authentic, so we manipulated
Connors voice by adding distortion filters. This made
him sound older and fit into the sequence.


Credits For our TV series title, it seemed most
professional to give the font some relativity
to the scientific genre, as you can see we
added two finger prints either side the title,
this symbolises identity, crime, and
science, which are all associated to our
series. The finger prints could also
represent clones if you knew the series
had some involvement in clones.

The font used for the credits intended The font used looks slightly faded in some
to be mysterious and eery, setting some parts, i thought the faded could represent
uncertainty up before the series had error, which in relation to the story, is
even started. correct, as the clones are all incorrectly
programmed and this leads to their
extermination.


Action Shown
The type of action shown in our series is suspense, the entire title sequence is a
build up to the when the programme begins. There is no give away of clips from
the actual series. For example the laboratory scene wont be shown in the series,
its just in the title sequence to tell create a foundation in which the series will
stand on.
The photographing men in the
title sequence are the closest
thing to action the introduction
has, and they, combined with
the audio overlap show some
suspense, to what they are
actually taking pictures of, the
clones are portrayed with
s e c r e c y, a n d t h i s b u i l d s
suspense as they aren’t in the
opening title.


Framing of characters
For the evil mastermind, he has been
framed so his eyes are hidden, and his
location is unknown. This will certainly
up the mystery side of the series and
the viewer will not be able to identify
him in the series, unless he was
dressed the same.

For the laboratory worker, he will remain
anonymous throughout the opening sequence
unless he stars in the series. I purposely ﬁlmed
the back and side of him, his face was not
captured and therefore he has no genuine
character role.


How did you ﬁnd the
construction process?


Which aspect did you ﬁnd
the most enjoyable?
I found the initial processes of the project most enjoyable, for example
writing up the actual story itself proved fun for myself and my partner.
When i planned the time of my production process, i made sure i didn’t
spend too much or too little time on some tasks. When researching and
planning the title sequence, the story always altered when me and my
partner thought up new ideas, and things we could add, replace and
remove to improve the overall outcome.


Which aspect did you find
the hardest work?
The most challenging process of my Dead ringer project was the
camera work and Final Cut editing. Recording footage meant going
out to fitting locations, and its hard to decide where to film when
you don’t have much time, plus playing around with camera angles
and shot types can prove testing with a small handheld camera. Me
and my partner left some of the Final Cut editing to the last minute,
and this proved stressful, although it is the final process of the
production of a film, I now know i must give myself more time to edit
footage. Because Final Cut has so many possibilities, its hard to find
a decision you can stand by when there are so many other tricks
and features you can use to help your project advance.


What problems did you
face - how did you resolve
them?
One of the main problems we faced, was putting together the footage
on Final Cut and actually finishing the entire title sequence. One of the
ways we resolved this was transferring the final cut project file onto
another laptop, and from there me or my partner would play around
with ideas that might work, and if they did, we simply used them on the
main laptop. With the two of us on separate laptops, editing in our own
way, once we reflected from each others final piece we forged together
the best parts of each others project into one.
Another problem in which me and my partner had to resolve was
filming some of our desired shots, there were a few shots that we had a
real problem being able to film, for example; the clips in centre New
York city, the only way we could realistically resolve this was by using
clips from the internet, that were free for anyone to use. We filled in the
gaps of our project and also added some audio files to it.


How did you find working
in a team? How did it help,
or not?
Working with a partner was very productive, together we were able to get
more done in the time given, not only that when it came to practical things
like filming it would of been more of a challenge if i had no partner. There
were times when working with a partner proved slightly frustrating, when I
had ideas for editing and camera angles, and instead of doing my own
thing, I had to come to agreements with my partner in deciding what we
both wanted.
Me and my partner are similar in terms of ideas, when one of us would
suggest something we almost always agreed that each others ideas were to
a sufficient standard. Also when writing up the story of the TV series, we
contributed equally towards the final piece because we think so similarly.


Legal and ethical
consideration


Using legal ﬁles
Creative Commons plays a big role in assisting authors and creators
who want to freely share their work, by providing free copyright licences
and tools, so that others may take full and legal advantage of the
Internet. There were some ﬁles i used in our title sequence downloaded
straight from the internet, when i checked for creative commons, i made
sure they were non-commercial, which meant i could use them,
provided i did not use them for commercial use.


Content
When planning what footage to put into the title sequence, i decided to give
Dead Ringer a completely neutral clips, that way it would appeal to the
viewer without glorifying the illegal activity within the sequence.
Although there is no bad language in the title sequence, this doesn’t mean
the actual TV series couldn’t.
Violence will deﬁnitely play a big role in giving the TV series a backbone, but
we did not add any to the title sequence because it wasn't necessary at this
stage of the story. The target audience we aimed at are very similar to BBC3,
young adults to middle aged adults, I believe the way we’ve made the title
sequence suits that kind of audience, but varies.


Skills development


Techniques
Producing this project has refreshed my skills in media technologies. When
creating a film, be it short or long, you have to use many tools and
techniques.

The most obvious techniques are ones used when filming with a camera,
there are many different camera shot types, for example; Extreme close up,
close up, establishing shot, overhead shot, over shoulder shot, etc. We used
these techniques when filming, they are vital when giving a films a
professional appearance. Camera movement also gives a film some
authenticity, making it look realistic.

When it comes down to producing a successful film, editing is the most
important production stage, it helps turn raw camera footage into wonderful
cinematic action. Final Cut is the program we used to finish our title
sequences, within it we used a vast variety of features and tools to shape our
film. Continuity of the sequences audio and visual relies on transitions, for
example, fading, action match, crosscutting, any many other visual effects.


Using filters proved to be extremely important. The more filters i played
around with the more of final cut i found out about, and there was more
stuff I could use to enhance my sequence if i downloaded them from the
internet, for example a video filter which made any imagery look old. Before
this project, I didn’t know the potential of final cut, but after this project my
ability to take advantage of final cut is better than ever.

Key framing is a simple tool which allows you to move around an image on
final cut whilst its recorded, so for example you can zoom into an house
then add a transition to make it look like you’ve entered the house. Adding
sounds to my final cut meant the sequence looked naturally genuine.


Quality of ﬁnal product


Final Product
I believe the final product has come close to my initial perception of the idea.
Although it’s very difficult to create professional looking title sequence, me and
my partner gave it our best and its so a standard that I’m with.

I think the target audience i initially imagined would best fit the idea is still the
same. The final product is suitable for my desired target audience, but it could
even apply to an older target audience, depending on how its distributed on
television.

The final product has some strengths and weakness’, for example i believe
more footage should of been added to the sequence, and also more narration in
what the actual story holds. Only because i know the story can i watch the title
sequence and understand every bit of its relation.

I personally think the audio side of the sequence is the strength of it, the
narration and music combine nicely to give it a cinematic aspect, which also
make it look realistic and slightly tense.


The original idea of Dead Ringer, my partner and I developed in our research
stage, was very exciting, the potential of the story was incredible, but being
able to portray your ideas into a short title sequence is extremely challenging. I
believe that our sequence strayed off task and the outcome of the story
altered as we ran out of time. But in general our ﬁnal product has been
successful, in that it has kept as much of its originality as possible.


Dead Ringer Evaluation Lewis Moran

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