Introduction

My name is Ysabel Hudson Searle (candidate number 0331) and this is my Media Studies coursework blog, featuring my ongoing work. I am in Group 2, along with Harry Kettenis (0390), Matthew Romo (1660) and Joshua Stevens (0796). This is the link to our live facebook page: Group 2's Facebook Page.
You can use the labels down the side to navigate your way through my blog.
Thank you!

Music Video

Our Music Video:

Group 2 Website

Our Website - Click to enter.



Our Album Digipak

Our Album Digipak
Our Album Digipak

Friday 29 November 2013

Online Marketing: Kill Your Darlings


Source: The Metro online article.
Audience: Young adults and commuters.
Strategy: Using the 'shock factor' that is the gay sex scene within the movie to attract attention and intrigue.


Source: British film blog article.
Audience: Film lovers
Strategy: Using Daniel Radcliffe's star power to gain interest and attention.


Source: The Daily Telegraph online.
Audience:British, middle-class, educated adults.
Strategy: Using Venice film festival and a review to inform the readers.

Online Marketing: The Hobbit


Source: The Metro online.
Audience: Young adults and commuters.
Strategy: Using Ed Sheeran to promote the film and the soundtrack.


Source: The Mirror online.
Audience: Working class adults, mainly male.
Strategy: Promoting the trailer.


Source: Feature article from The Empire magazine.
Audience: British film fans.
Strategy: Feature article to promote and inform on the movie.

Saturday 16 November 2013

Kill Your Darlings

UK release date:
6th December 2013

Institutions behind the film's production and distribution: 

-Production:
Killer Films
Benaroya Pictures
Outpost Studios

-Distribution:
Future Films (2013) (Finland) (theatrical)
Lumiere (2013) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
Sony Pictures Classics (2013) (USA) (theatrical)
Sony Pictures Releasing (2013) (Australia) (theatrical) 
The Works UK  Distribution (2013) (UK) (theatrical)
Paris Filmes (2014) (Brazil) (all media)

Film production budget:
N/A

Nationality of the film:
American.

Kind of production:
Low budget Indie film.

Connections with other films:
None.

Director:
John Krokidas.

Star cast:
Daniel Radcliffe - as Allen Gineberg
Jack Huston - as Jack Kerouac
Ben Foster - as William Burroughs
Dane Dehaan - as Lucien Carr
Michael C. Hall - as David Kammerer

Plot:
Set in 1944, a murder draws together the great poets of the Beat Generation; Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

Target audience:
Fans of Daniel Radcliff and fans of drama, biographies, romance and thrillers.

Friday 15 November 2013

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

UK release date:
13th December 2013

Institutions behind the film's production and distribution: 

-Production:
New Line Cinema,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),
Wingnut.

-Distribution:
Warner Bros. - Worldwide:
-Warner Bros. Entertainment (2013) (Canada) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Germany) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2014) (Japan) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (Singapore) (theatrical)
-Warner Bros. (2013) (USA) (theatrical)

Cocinsa (2013) (Nicaragua) (theatrical)
Forum Hungary (2013) (Hungary) (theatrical)


Film production budget:
$250,000,000 by MGM and New Line Cinema.

Nationality of the film:
American.

Kind of production:
Big budget Hollywood blockbuster.

Connections with other films:
'The Hobbit: An unexpected journey' was the first of the franchise.

Director:
Peter Jackson.

Star cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch - as Smaug/The Necromancer
Martin Freeman - as Bilbo Baggins
Ian McKellen - as Gandalf

Christopher Lee - as Saruman
Andy Serkis - as Gollum
Orlando Bloom - as Legolas
Cate Blanchett - as Galadriel
Stephen Fry - as the Master of Laketown

Richard Armitage - as Thorin Oakenshield


Plot:
It is the continuation of the adventure of 'The Hobbit: An unexpected journey' as they begin on a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, with the many fantastical creautres that they come across and also the ring which comes into Biolbo's possession. They must defeat the dragon Smaug. 

Target audience:
Followers of the first film, later trilogy (The Lord of the Rings) and the books will enjoy this film, but also those, of all ages, who love fantasy and adventure.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Interesting things I learnt from Marcus Markou


  • Acting: That he has always had a passion for acting, and studied acting at LAMDA in his late 20s.
 -  This knowledge and deep understanding of acting allowed for a brilliant quality of acting, he knew how to make the comfortable and the acting was almost theatre style. Also, he allowed the actors to adopt the script with what they feel was right and realistic for their character.


  • Trust: He talked of the deep trust he had to have and did have within his whole film crew - especially during adaptations of the script, he trusted them ll to 'juggle this process'

  • Funding: He wanted a straight loan, from himself, no investors, which is very rare fr a film to be paid solely with their own money.

  • Line Producer: This is someone who goes through the whole script, line by line, and works out the exact budget.

  • Variables: Marcus said that the two most variable things in the budget are talent and location.
  • Tax schemes: Tax schemes to offset tax in profits - this system does not work for independent films, as independent films must make a profit.

  • Universal appeal: Marcus said that he used the idea of a Fairy-tale of sorts, as it gathers universal appeal.

  • Sales Agents: You only get 40% of profit, after costs, which, for an independent film, would mean no profit. Also, he didn't want to sell the rights for his film for 25 years - he wanted it to stay his own. So, he did this task himself, contacting Distributors and screening it, but had no luck in the UK.

  • Film festivals: Film markets and festivals are a great way to get Distributors, as with many films, and for example the award-winning and box-office hit Slumdog Millionaire, as many are not wanted until they receive recognition from these film festivals.

  • Marcus's own marketing campaign: Marcus said that he wanted to, naturally, target the Greeks in London, and so set out personally calling up Greek Orthodox Churches, at Universities, to societies, with flyers   and social media and raising awareness in any way possible.

  • Cinema booker: Marcus struggles with his booker for Cineworld to try and be booked into their prime locations, acquiring one through a friend who lived with the manager, which they eventually had to put to the largest screen, as it was so over-booked.

Papadopoulos & Sons Research

Marketing:
  • Posters,
  • A trailer on YouTube,
  • A website set up by Marcus himself,
  • Social media helped; Twitter, Facebook and other things.
  • The film was also taken to various film festivals around the world, which raised awareness and its popularity.
  • After the film won an award at a festival it began to flourish.
Distribution:
  • Double M Films, Marcus's own company, independently released the film.

Papadopoulos & Sons - Research


Papadopoulos & Sons: initial research:

  • A British film of 2012.
  • Written and produced by Marcus Markou. 
  • The cast include Stephen Dillane, George Corraface, Georgia Groome and Frank Dillane.
  •  It takes place in London,  and tells the story of a self-made millionaire who looses most of his money during the latest banking crisis. this forces him to reunite with his older brother, and to embark on the adventure, as a whole family, of opening the old fish and chips shop him and his brother opened in their youth. It shows the journey of a materialistic man, who comes to realize what really matters in life. 

Friday 25 October 2013

Harry Potter Sweded Project

Our group consisted of myself, Abi, Chrystal and Shani. We decided to do our swede on Harry Potter - and The Goblet of Fire.We worked together well in our group and all contributed equally to our swede.
We have:
A Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/harrypottersweded?ref=stream

Twitter page:

https://twitter.com/HpSwede

Poster:




And a bloopers/teaser video on YouTube:





Finally, the link to our sweded film is here:




Sunday 13 October 2013

Dexter Evaluation

1. Summarise the conventions of title sequences that were most important to this task.
Title sequences are both an introduction to the film's actors and directors, but it is also a legal obligation;contracts include terms which set out and specify sometimes when and for how long their name is on the title sequence, and so it must be done within strict confinements. They can often 'set the scene' for the movie, establishing the genre of the movie and giving the audience a feel of the movie's contents. It can draw attention to certain aspects of the film or a character. The actual titles can also, with modern technology, interact with the characters and environment in the background.
2. How did your group plan to edit the title sequence?
We watched through the sequence once more, and then began to see points where we saw opportunities for titles, for instance where there is plenty of empty/clear space. We then went alone putting the names in where appropriate, and trying to find a font and colour to suit the series.  
3. Explain the creative decisions made by your group.
We also looked for clever ways for the names to appear and disappear, for example, we had a name placed and disappearing when his hand slapped a mosquito. Another example is when a hand is slowly drifted away, and we were able to place it and put effects on it so it faded and driften away in a similar manner. We wanted the colour to be white, not read, as even though red would be suiting to the genre, but white looked better on every shot. 
4. How does your re-edit compare to the original?
Our re-edit was obviously not finished and so they had many more titles than us, however even with where we got up to, we hadn't packed in our tightly as tightly as them. The original also wasn't as creative/imaginative as we were in our appearance and disappearance, and were fairly standard, which was to our disappointment. 

Sweded Homework

Sweded is the term used when a popular and often renound film is recreated, often as a spoof, with a low budget and a camcorder. It originated from the Michel Gondry film 'BE KIND REWIND' where the characters accidentally earase the movies at Mos Def movie rental store. They then remake the movie themselves, with a low budget and a camcorder, which then became more popular with their customers. The pair tell the customers that themovies took longer and costed more because they came from Sweden, which is where the term 'Sweded' first appeared. My idea for our sweded film is Haryy Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Here are a couple of my favourite sweded films.

Sunday 6 October 2013

Preliminary Exercise


1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
 Our brief was a continuity task, where we had to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character, then exchanges some dialog. The task should demonstrate continuity, and so should show match on action, shot/reverse/shot and the 180-degree rule. We were only given 1 hour for each section: planning, shooting and editing. I worked with Crystal and Josh. In our group, there were only three of us in total, and this created issues as two of us needed to be acting, leaving only one of us to manage the filming, and keeping track of the shots and taking up many other roles in some cases of (for example checking the sound,) which can be challenging. In addition, because of this, we did not have anyone with the clapperboard, and this created some difficulties later on in the editing process.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What process did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
Our main form of planning within our one hour was through group discussion, where we molded our ideas to reflect genre and mainly, continuity, therefore we discussed opportunities for shot/reverse/shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule.We discussed all of the features of our film, including dialog, and wrote these things down. We did start on our storyboard, floor plan and script, however we ran out of time and so Josh finished at home these things and our shot list and shoot-board. We ran out of time mainly because our original ideas were much too, and unnecessarily so, extravagant, and we had to tone them down without loosing our original idea too much, which took some time. We did not block or do a walk-through, which made key issues for us when it came to the shooting.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
For the shooting of our prelim, we used hardware such as a Sony Mini DV Camera with a tripod, headphones and a microphone. When it came to editing our sequence, we used software such as Abode Premiere Pro, which was non-linear.

4.+ 5. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing? How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what you would improve/do differently?
I think in terms of our brief, our film was quite successful, however in our own eyes, it is a lot less successful, and this is mainly due to the unexpected issues we came across. Firstly, due to our ideas in our planning session being too adventurous, we wasted a lot of time and this caused many problems. First of all, we weren't completely ready for our shoot, with Josh having to finish off our planning at home, and this lead to wasting lots of time on our shooting day. In addition, we did not do a walk-through or block anything out, and this led to a lot of interruptions, changing of shots, and it also wasted a lot of valuable time and made our editing even harder. For example, if we had blocked it out, we would have realised that there is black paper covering the window of the door we were using, and after filming all our previous shots with this black paper, when we came to the shot where we see through the window, we realised that it wouldn’t work, and had to decide as a group whether to retake all the previous shots, or to adapt our film and storyboard to overcome this issue. Also, we would have seen that it is impossible to film the specific mid-shot of Josh opening the door and having it close as he goes in, without having the camera person in it at some point, and because of this, in our editing we had to cut the shot very quickly, before the camera person, Crystal, was seen. Another key example would be that we hadn’t realised just how small one of the rooms we were working in was, and when it came to some shots, we weren’t able to get them how we wanted them, and had to adapt them to our surroundings, and this all wasted time. Communication is also a key factor for us as a class to work on, as there was very little, if nothing, and this caused difficulties, as there were in a sense ‘double-bookings’ of spaces which led to us not being able to perfect our shots, which made things more difficult when it came to editing. We also interrupted groups, as well as being interrupted by them; in fact in one shot you can see someone from another group coming inside, as well as another person, me, but they were in fact coming in to tell us they urgently needed the space now, we had no time to take another shot, and so had to use that one. In terms of editing, I’ve already stated many factors that came into account and hindered us, but there are also a few more. For instance, the fact we did not use a clapperboard consumed a lot of our time editing, as we had to go through and watch each clip, which led to us not being able to finish on time. We also realised when watching the clips that there is a clock in some of our shots, and this is bad since the audience are able to see the time difference, and that takes away from continuity. I do think however that we had some very good examples of continuity, as we included match on action, shot/reverse/shot and the 80 degree rule. I think, and this is less relevant to our brief, but I think our genre was clearly established, as we did put quite a bit of focus on the genre and making sure it is successful in that, and for our comedy, that would be being funny. I do think in this instance, time and communication were our main hindrances, which lead to a ripple effect, and in future we should really focus on not wasting time and getting everything done on time, so that there are no knock-on effects to our projects. I also think if we had more communication within our class, then a lot of errors and issues wouldn’t have occurred, and we all could’ve got our shots perfected.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
For me personally, this is my first time doing media, and so this is a huge learning point for me, as I had never done anything like this before. Now I have, I realise just how important every minute of time is, and how, as I’ve explained above, every aspect seems to have a knock-on effect, so it is really important to make sure every detail is finished, to make sure that other factors don’t get effected by this, which again leads to more effected factors etc. It also has taught me, especially through the clock being in the shot example, how prominent every single detail is that’s in shot, and so next time I will be very focused on looking out for things in the shot, and making sure everything is in place. I realised how important it was to block everything out, and have a prelim in the sense that there are certain angles, for example the glass window on the door, where things are in shot, like the camera person, which are difficult to avoid.  I also realise just how important the clapperboard is, to which frankly I was not so aware, and when reflecting, if this had been a bigger (longer) project, then the absence of the clapperboard would have caused terrible problems. It was also my first time editing any film, let alone using Abode Premiere Pro, and this was all very new to me and I got the hang of it eventually, which is good because now I know how to use it for our future projects. Finally, I learnt the importance of communication within the class, to avoid disturbances while shooting, and in future we should definitely organise things better amongst ourselves.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Art of the Title Grid

1. Three best friends compete for the attention of the schools new heartthrob. The friends catch sight of the new guy as he comes in, leading to their inevitable fights and schemes.
2. The setting, characters and their relationships are established through a master shot. The title and actors are also shown through the text, and the genre is established through the high school setting and characters, with the comical features and bright colours. The 'college campus' style of font also adds to this.
3. Firstly, the actual title 'The Competition' depicts to the audience that there is going to be a competition going on, between the girls, subsequently for the guy. Secondly, the font is a 'college style' which goes well with the fact it is a high school/teen movie genre, and the fact it is stamped on is fitting to the genre too.
4. Intrigue in the audience as he is slowly revealed, making the audience curious and also showing this characters significance. As it is a Rom-Com, the audience should laugh at the exaggerated reactions of girls to the 'new guy'. As the audience know, from the pictures of them all seeming to like him, them fighting, and the name of the film,that there is some sort of 'competition' going on, they should be wondering who will win, (perhaps even routing for someone in particular,) and will their friendship survive? And of course they will know from the comical exaggerations from the images that this 'competition' will be a hilarious ride.
5.The Master shot establishes the setting, an American High School, the characters and their relationships, three best friends. The close-up, slow reveal of our male character, causes tension and curiosity, also highlighting the importance of this character. The close-ups of each individual character shows detail and personality of their individual characters, in addition adding a comical effect suiting the genre, as their faces are comically exaggerated. The costumes and props clearly establish the characters and their personalities and the bright colouring establishes the genre.
6. I think it is effective as it has continuity; everything is clearly established to the audience, i.e setting, genre, characters, story-line. I think the audience will easily recognize everything and so will get into the film. I think the colour scheme is very fit to the genre. The camera movement is not too extreme, and flows so that the audience can easily follow.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Opening Scene Analysis of Continuity

127 HOURS 


127 hours starts off with a very interesting, artist concept of splitting the screen into three separate screens. It seems to have the use of shot order in the separate screens, i.e the screens will all show a vast crowd walking, then in another screen it will have a mid-shot and in the other a close-up. This very interesting to watch as an audience member, and in my opinion, adds to the continuity by giving you so many different angles to look at. This does however make you feel less immersed in the story, and more like a spectator.
To contrast, there are a wide range of camera movements used, for instance tracking, whip panning and tilting, and these are all always following the action, which I think really makes the audience involved. Even though you are not seeing it from the main characters (which is established in the following of his routine) point of view, and you are watching this in an abstract way, it almost is better for getting you into the pace, energy and action of the movie.
The main character is established after clips of many other crowds of people, which is done in a very contrasting way, perhaps showing him as a person who 'stands out from thee crowd' and highlighting his importance.
The different and perhaps abstract angles at which the director, or tor has chosen, for example, inside the fridge and cupboard is quite interesting and unusual. There is a point where the camera is places inside a shelf, where his phone is, and all we see is his hand, clearly it is very high up, searching for, we presume, his phone, and he gets very close but doesn't find it and gives up, and for an audience member that is quite aggravating that we can see the phone within his reach, simply he can't. In addition, with this story being very well-known, we are also annoyed because we know that one of the reasons he suffers the way he does, is because he doesn't have his phone, so seeing him so close is quite provocative.
It does tend to jump to different scenes/scenery/sets. At this pace however, I do not think it affects the continuity too prominently in my opinion. An establishment of location is not immediate, and leaves the audience curious, until finally a sign is filmed by the main character, and the main character tells us where he is.
The shots themselves didn't flow together too smoothly at first, again taking away from continuity with a sense of spectator-ship as an audience member. Although, as we see the scenes go on, the shots flow smoothly together.

Accident Video




We used a close shot of the football, with Mahalias feet stepping beside the football to open in an intriguing way. We then went on to use a master shot which pans across, establishing the whole scene and the relationships between the characters. This shot is extremely important, especially with our space being so broad in this video. Therefore there was clear continuity and this shot helps all the other shots with continuity, as that shot clarified everything about this video, i.e, Mahalia (left) is about to try and shoot a goal gaurded by a very scared Josh.
We then used a 'old west' style of juxtaposition of a close-up of each characters face, with their eyes being the main focus. The cross-cutting also emphasized the contrast in characters, and again it was continuous to the previous shot; Mahalia looking determined and Josh looking frightened.
We then used cross-cutting once more, to go from Mahalia kicking the ball, to it hitting Josh on the head. We used this not only because we weren't sure of the reality of getting a shot of the ball actually hitting Josh, but also because we wanted a clear mid-shot of his reaction, to add to the comical effect. We in fact had to take extra care with the shot, so that it was in Josh's general direction, making it believable that it could have hit him in the head.

In hindsight, we could have perhaps had our master shot in the beginning of our video, to establish everything from the start. We also should have been more careful with noises; throughout the video you can hear noises form a distant football match that was going on, which was useful and added a positive, authentic effect, although perhaps we should be careful to make sure all of the noises have continuity, and don't make the video look discontinuous, by suddenly skipping to a different noise, although I don't think that was a major problem. The noise at the end of someone speaking is in the future I would be more careful bout, luckily, it could seem fitting in this case, however next time, if there is noise, I would make sure it's relevant to the video and doesn't take away form it's continuity.

Seven Pounds Opening Analysis with Video



SEVEN POUNDS OPENING SCENE ANALYSIS

I thought that Seven Pounds' opening scene was brilliantly emotionally stimulating, and in my opinion, one of the best movie openings ever to be made.

Firstly, you see a distraugh Will Smith, looking rather distressed, calling the police to report a suicide, which he then reveals to be his own. From this moment on the audience are immediately hooked. The fact the director chose to put this at the beginning leads to a very complex emotional experience of the movie all throughout, as we are aware of him being ready to commit suicide at some point. This scene sets the genre to be a definite drama, but we are still very unsure of things. The character is established, whilst his setting is also established through speech, and so we are aware he is in some sort of motel, and not his actual home. This leads to intrigue, with the audience questioning why he is not in his home, has he been kicked out? Has he been planning something? There is also a scene later on where he checks into this motel, and instantly, as an audience we feel tense,, as we know he plans to commit suicide there. There is also a lot of times where he is in conversation with the landlord of the motel, and he jokingly hints at his planned death there, which only we as an audience understand.

Another effect in placing this at the beginning is that all throughout the move, especially when his budding relationship with co-star Rosario Dawson, makes movie so hard to watch as you see their lives join together wonderfully, when you know what the end result will be. The audience I'm sure, like me, still wanted to keep hold of that hope that maybe he'll be stopped before that, and so the audience are constantly on the edge, throughout the whole film because of this opening.

Now some may disagree with this being brilliant, feeling that it is just a spoiler and looses all the suspense about 'what's going to happen'. However I do think that it in fact makes you feel even more tense, whilst you watch his life pan out, with this terrible knowledge in your head simultaneously, and creates an even more emotional experience for the audience, especially when things are going so well for him.

The next scene in this introduction is a dynamic view from underwater of Will Smith swimming in a vast, beautiful sea, whilst he talks in a very slow and emotional voice on top of this saying that "In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine." The use of such a beautiful scenery on top of the sad message was very contrasting, and leaves the audience intrigued, because his life seems so beautiful, yet when he speaks it tells a very different story. In addition, we as an audience wonder how he 'shattered' his life in 'seven seconds, and want to keep viewing in the hope that we will find out. Again, another setting is established, through a close up of his legs and feet, which pans out into a very wide shot of what seems to be his house/beach house.

We then see Will Smith dressing smartly in a suit, looking at himself in the mirror, with a painfully emotional look and we get a mid shot from behind of him sitting on a sofa very tensely, and as an audience we are very concerned, as we want to know what he has done to his life that is causing him this much pain.

We then see him look at a list of names, with most having been scribbled on with a pen, and the focus is on one circuled name of 'Ezre Turner'. We then see him calling up this person at his work. As the scene briefly goes on we learn the characters name, Ben Thomas, and we also see Will Smith verbally abuse this man, abusing him for his relgion and blindness, and saying cruel and horrifying things to this poor man. Will Smith constantly pushes Ezre, trying to get him to fight back, but Ezre remains calm throughout, though awfully hurt. Now, as an audience we feel disgusted at what we have just seen, and now on top of this fundamental pity and concern for Will Smith, we now feel hate, and wonder why on earth he is acting in such a foul way. Once Ezre has hung up, we see 'Ben Thomas' almost react in the same way that we do, but with himself, and this leaves us completely compelled to know this man's story, situation and why he is doing what he doing.

It is a very emotionally compelling and intriguing opening, which also leaves the audience very confused and unsure of how to feel about what they have seen, whilst still compelled to watch more.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Genre Establishing Photo


We took this in the dark room, with the red lights on, and that red colouring really establishes the genre in my eyes, and with red being immediately associated with blood, the audience will hopefully get the feeling that this film would be a bloody and grusome. It also can dipict that this character is the main murderer, along with the fact the shot is just on him, with him being in a black hoody and scary mask. He also is swinging a baseball bat towards the camera, again giving away his character. The fact the baeball bat is in movement gives it the effect that he was swinging it very fast, towards you, and is very scary. The mask also being in focus whilst you have the swinging of the bat, makes this even more terrifying, as you can see this scary mask clearly, and just the swinging bat coming in movement towards you.

I think this colouring, especially with us not being able to edit our photos, gave a great effect to establish our character and genre. I also think the costume does the same and is really successful too. An additional effect that is quite successful, that we in fact did not plan, is the pictures hanging in the background, which again set the genre and give it a creepy effect. The setting is also quite effective too, paired with the pictures in the background, it looks as if it could be some sort of dark room the killer resides in, stalking people and planning his murderous doings etc, which is often in a lot of horror and murder films.

However, this could also be a disadvantage, as I do think that there is too much of the background setting in the shot, and it does take away from the character and baseball bat, which should be our main focus and dominating our photo, so maybe it so maybe all our focus should have been on our character, and not the background. I also think perhaps we could have gotten better positioning of the bat (higher up), and we should've discovered the dark room quicker, so we could take more shots and perfect our shot (as we were rushed for time).