Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My thriller incorporates generic conventions of a thriller throughout the scene. One way this is done is by using the free hand POV shot of the antagonist closing in on his victims. This is because suspense as the audience feels they are involved in the shot, commonly used in thrillers. Moreover, the two killing scenes denote a thriller genre because thrillers use the theme of death. E.g. in my product when the antagonist suffocates his victim. One way our film challenges this convention is by showing in detail, the killing. This is because although thrillers show death, they do not always show the attack bit by bit which I did in my product e.g. in the first killing scene. This connotes a scary, cold blooded atmosphere in my opening. The conventions in my product such as the cold blooded killing also indicate a horror sub-genre. This is because sudden suspense is created before the victims are killed which is a popular horror convention.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product represents a gender aimed at males. This is because violence and death is a major theme presented and males are seen as more aggressive than females. Furthermore, my opening represents a young audience such as people in their late teens. This is because murdering occurs, representing a less sophisticated audience. The opening is targeted as middle to lower class due to the protagonist being portrayed as a thug. The characters featured in my opening are all men, meaning men are shown as a progressive gender, stereotypically undermining females in the film. This links with the target audience because if men are featured, the opening is more likely to be watched by the target gender which is men, as it makes them come across as dominant, connoting them to be stronger in society.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe my product could be produced by a major Hollywood studio. This is because there have been many films similar to mine that show violence and killing which were huge successes in the filming industry such as ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. This denotes it would be a television movie because such films similar to mine have been released in the TV, providing entertainment for its audience which I know through their success. However, it could be argued my product would be an internet release only due to the high amount of violence which may not be socially accepted for television use as it may be disturbing for some viewers. This is visual in the films mise-en-scene when the antagonist strangles his victim to death, connoting a large amount of malice.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I feel that my film is best suited to people between the ages of 15 to early 20’s. This is because people between these ages are stereotypically seen as young adults who are not fully matured. This means they are more likely to enjoy my film as they will find the narrative entertaining due to the adrenaline the film creates. Additionally, I believe males are the gender who is most likely to be my target audience. This is because violence and death are the stand out themes. This means males are likely to watch is as they are stereotyped as the more violent gender whereas women are shown in a more loving way, meaning they would prefer a film with themes such as romance.  Other films similar to mine such as ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ would appeal to a young audience. This is due to the cold blooded killing and unsophisticated nature of the narrative teenagers find entertaining. However, mature adults would this fake with no verisimilitude. The gender for this film would be males. This is because of the murdering and also because the male antagonist is shown to kill numerous females, making males appear as dominant, involving them in the film.

How did you attract/adress your audience?

My audience is best suited at teenagers from 15 to adults meaning it would have a rating of 15. Also the nature of the opening would best suit males due to the violence. The scene with the victim being strangled would appeal to 15 year old males as it is typical for this to be interested in gore and violence. However, leading up to the killing with the POV of the antagonist creates a tense atmosphere because it makes the onlooker feel involved which may terrify younger children, making 15 an appropriate rating. This is because if someone is involved in a scary situation, they may not feel comfortable, excluding young children from my target audience. POV shots of the antagonist tracking his target are a common generic convention within thrillers. I know this because this genre uses suspense and tension as its main elements and POV shots do this because it makes the viewer feel involved in the tension. E.g. in Friday 13^th when Jason walks up the stairs towards his victims.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

One strength of the camera equipment was its easy usage. Making is simple meant by filming time was maximised so I could progress without being confused on how to operate the camera. Also, the tripod was adjustable meaning we could place shots at a variety of heights. However, sometimes the tripod was very stiff when using a pan shot, meaning it was not smooth. Lastly, some tripods had been broken by other students and therefore did not lock into a position and the camera angle would tilt. One difficulty I faced when filming was planning where to film. This is because I was conscious about breaking the 180 degree rule after doing the first few shots in a scene, which slowed down the filming considerably. To resolve this, I made a plan was made for filming so that I knew how in advance where I was able to film that would look good without breaking the rule. Through using Premiere to edit my film, I have learnt how to cut a clip down until it appears how I want it to and how to load these clips onto Premiere from the camera. I have also learnt how to use particular effects to help me create generic conventions on my thrillers mise-en-scene. One of these effects is the ‘dip to black’ dissolve tool. This was useful as it helped introduce a new scene smoothly because the end of the last scene would dissolve to black so the next shot wasn’t too sudden and unnatural. This worked well for the mise-en-scene of my opening as the black created suspense and the screen faded. Another effect I used which benefited my product as the audio affect called ‘constant gain’. This made the music blend in smoothly. This meant I could make the music hit its crescendo at an appropriate time in the film, to create maximum tension within the mise-en-scene.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The planning stage of my thriller has helped me to understand the genre that I am creating. This is because I could look at recognised thriller openings and know what type of shots, music, narratives and fonts are included. Many generic  conventions such as POV shots and music with tension was a popular feature, so I knew this would work well my film if I chose to included similar aspects in my own opening. Since the preliminary task, specific shot usage has improved. I now know when to use a POV e.g. following a victim to create suspense. Also, I tried to use as many close up’s as possible in the death scenes to shows more detail for entertainment. This is so the audience interest is not lost. I have learnt that not planning a shooting schedule was detrimental towards my filming. This is because I would rush filming shoots, which shows a lack of organisation. Another negative point towards my planning was my anamatic. I did not think through my idea thoroughly enough meaning my product changed considerably from my original anamatic. Therefore I found it difficult to use previous planning, as it was no longer relevant to my opening.  

Overall, I feel my product shows a competent effort in fulfilling my task to create the opening of a thriller. This is because I used various shots, action and music which overall created suspense and tension amongst the audience, which is the main aim of a thriller genre film.

Rough Cut - Target Audience Feedback

We received numerous responses for our rough cut from our target audience. These are the following statements we were given:


'Really good nice work for your first proper film.’'

'That’s well good it actually scared me a bit with the music and the black and white display.'

'Also the last shot is the best, good quality camera work throughout.'

' Thats pretty good actually'

'Good use of camera angles and shots, nice delivery throughout'

'I like the tension and suspense that is built up by the music and the variety of different shots however it could be seen more a short film than a thriller opening'

'I think the shot of the male cahracter running up the stairs could be shorter, as it is too long, however the use of the low angles are really well thought out'

'The ending could be seen as a bit too concussive, apart from this the rest of the film is technically very good, the music fits the pace of the piece and the acting isn't too bad'

'I like the pan of the dead body, it works really well on the circular seat, I also really like the shot of the male character in the distance, the variety of shots are all really well thought out and tecnically displayed'

Rough Cut

      

This is the rough cut of my groups thriller opening. This will be very similar to our finished product but with a few small changes to improve he grade of our work.
One change will be to add another shot inbetween the last two shots of our rough cut. This shot will show a list of the people the antagonist wishes to kill on a scrunched up piece of paper. This is because the rough cut suggests the antagonist has done all he set out to and is walking away in the last shot, connoting to much of a story for an opening, and also connoting there is nothing else for the film to follow up with. So adding a death list would show the killings are not over, so its more typical of a film opening.
Furthermore, the title's will be changed slightly to add a font which is more typical of a thriller and some may be re-positioned if they look out of place.
Lastly, the first title 'CTE Film'  which shows the organisation who made the film will be changed to make it appear differently to the other titles. This is becuase I have noticed in other openings, the film organisation stands out becuase it is separate to the titles. This could mean changing the font and using a special effect so it appears on screen in a different way.

Group Progression

Since the begin of the prject when we first gathered ideas for our opening, many changes and adaptations have been made which has improved the outcome of our results. One progression we have made is to change to initial plot of our opening. To begin with, are opning was going to be a thriller with a horror sub genre about a baby who committed a numerous amount of killing due to a mental illness it had. As a group we decided to go against this due to the fact we would have to work with a baby doll. This we realised would prove to be too difficult because it wasn't a live person, so it would be hard to create effective shots are gain a sense of verisimilitude in the opening. Therefore we used one of the member in our group, Callum, to act as the antagonist who murders two people. This made it easier for us because it meant we could have callum act specifically how we wanted the main character to appear.
Also, we had initailly decided to film much of our opening in a corridor and stairs. It was hard to get shots looking effective becuas the camera always looked postioned very much the same here as this area was too small. Therefore, when then felt as a group, we would only use this location to place the dead bodies at the end of our opening. However, after taking into consideration feedback from our teacher and also looking at how this would appear, we decided to go against using the corridor/stairs altogether. This is because, placing the bodies here would seem random because there was no reason to change the location of the victims body once they had been killed.

Filming 08/03

In this filming session, me and my group's main focus was to complete the shots we were told to do by our teachers feedback. This ment just touching up different areas of our opening to boost are grade at the end of the project. The first thing we done which our teacher said needed doing was using a pan of the dead body at the end of the first killing scene in the specific location where the killing took place. This was a success because ending the scene with a pan made the introduction of the next scene smoother.

Next, we needed to add a POV shot of the antagonist killing his victim outside on the bench. However, as the antagonist was standing up his victim was sitting down, this made it hard to use the POV shot. This is because when trying to film the scene, I could not get a high enough angle to shot both the killer and victim becuase the victim was too low down. Therefore as a group, we decided to change this shot and have one from a different angle which allowed the viewer to see the antagonist grab the victim so it was a lot clearer. Also, this added more diversity to our thriller opening.

Lastly, we also added a ending shot which was of the antagonist walking away, this was shot from a LA and the camera gradually tracked upwards so the antagonist became in full view. In this shot the title of our film "The revenge of Toby Hackett" will appear. This will be the final shot to end our opening that will dip to black at the end which looks smooth, giving a neat end to our thriller.

Filming 01/03

In this filming session, my group didnt have any major filming to do and was just improvements on bits of our opening we noticed could be better when watching the footage back. One of these improvements was to re-do the shot where the antagonist captures his victim inside the lift for the second killing scene. Initially we had a shot of him grabbing the victim for a prolonged period of time while waiting for the elevator doors to close. This did not look natural because the victim did not put up a fight while we waited for the doors to shut, which decreased teh verisimilitude of the film. Therefore we decided to cut this shot a lot sooner and then get another MS of the elevator doors closing outside the lift where you couldn't see the two characters inside the elevator. Also, this added to the suspense becuase the audience is not able to see what is happening inside the lift so more excitement is generated when they are shown the antagonist walk out with the victims body on the floor.

The next shot we re-done was the point of view shot of the antagonist rushing up the stairs whilst holding the camera free hand for the second killing scene. This shot again adds suspense becuase its as if the audience is placed in the view point of the antagonist to connect the viewer. This shot was hard to perfect as doing it free hand ment it was diffucult to get a good camera level as it was sometimes jerky.

Individual Progression

At the beginning of our prjoect, I was very concerned about achieving a good grade due to my lack of skills using Premiere, which we had to use to make and edit our opening. This is because I had not used it before and therefore felt that my film would suffer as a consquence.
However, throughout the progression of our project, I have become increasingly confident about using this software on the Apple Mac laptops to improve my work. I now know how to load footage I filmed on the video camera onto imovie which you then put onto Premiere. Also, I have learnt how to shorten clips down to make them appear how you want on your film. Lastly, I know how to use affects such as "dip to black" and "black and white" which I have included in my opening which has improved the outcome of our are film so far.
Having the knowledge to use Premiere will help improve the grade of my finished film. This is because its give me freedom to do what I want with the filming I have got so that me and my group can use a variety of features to make the film appear how wish it to to so meet are brief in the best possible way, which is to create a two minute opening of a film in the thriller genre.

Teacher feedback

Our teacher thought that our film opening was coming on well but could see a few areas which needed some improvement to bump are grade up. One of these areas was not to include the scene we had in the stairs/corridor where we initially had an idea to pan over the dead bodies are the end of each killing scene. This is because the teacher didn't think it flowed well to change the location of killing and put the victims body in a random place. Instead, we were told to use pan of the bodies in the same location where they died and dip to black at the end of the pan to begin the next scene.

Furthermore, our teacher also thought that some shots were not edited smoothly enough and therefore did not look natural, decreasing the films verisimilitude. An example of this was when the killer grabs the victim in the second death scene in the elevator. This is because the shot was not cut quickly enough as we tried to wait for the elevator doors to close which took too long. Therefore we re-done this and used a shot from outside the elevator so you were unable to see the killer grabbing the victim for a prolonged period of time so it looked natural.

Lastly, our teacher did not think that the baby music we originally believed we would use would work well. This is because we had changed our idea a few times as we progressed until it got to the point where our opeing wasnothing to do with a baby, so the music didn't seem right. The teacher suggested we should look for more music which still created tension bu was relevant to our thriller opening.

Filming 15/02

In this filming session, me and my group filmed by the elevator for the second killing scene, where we hoped to lay down a total of 30 seconds for our thriller opening. Here we took into consideration past filming sessions where we noticed that we did not include enough diversity previously in terms of shot distances. Therefore, in this section we inluded a range of shots distances such as a  over the shoulder CU of the victim pushing the button for the elevator. Also, a MS of the victim in the lift. Moreover, we included an over the shoulder shot CU of the victim which shows a LS of the killer in the background, which added more variety because it was like two different shot distances in one. This would keep the audience attracted to the film as there is lots of different things going on in a short period of time. Also, in this filming session, I did a free hand shot, waking quickly the camera up the stairs, to create the affect that the killer is tracking his victim. Doing it free hand made the shot shaky creating pace, which entices to audience as a tense atmosphere develops. Also, we believed this was agood idea becuase it is a type of shot commonly seen in thriller movies, which is our target genre.

Although we included various shots, we did not plan these shots before we began filming and came up with the ideas while we worked. This meant that alot of our filming time was interupted while we thought of shots to use, which lost us editing time after filming. Furthermore, we also got confused on more than one occasion when we filmed in different areas. This is because we were concious braking the 180 degree rule as we lost track of the differenct places we had filmed from.

Aspects to consider for next time:

When we next filmed, we need to ensure that we have an effective plan of shots to use so we and ready to go and do all are filming fluenty without changing anything. This is so that are time was used efficiently so that we could get the shots done quickly and go and edit them so are project was pushed further forward. Lastly, we must make sure that we keep a good track of what shots we have done and where these were done. This is so we knew where we could film and where would be breaking the 180 degree rule.

Editing 14/02

In this editing session, my group managed to edit the first 40 seconds of our opening to how we wanted it. This was the first proper piece of editing we had done since filming parts of our opening. I believe it helped us majorly, in pushin on with our project. This is because it ment we has the first bits of our film layed down so we could progress further. Also, having this done ment we could show it to our teacher which he could then evaluate for us to give us advice on how to improve it to aid are marks. The first thing we done in the editing task was to put the appropriate titles over our film at the correct time which we managed, although we still haven't decided wether to change the font or not. One difficulty we faced was changing the colouring which we wanted to be black and white for our flashbacks. This was proving tough trying to set the colouring, as it made it look graphic, decreasing the verisimilitude. However, we over came this when we found a black and white feature in Premiere which changed the colour to black and white automatically. Another aspect which we thought may make the editing stage hard was the amount of shots we had to choose from. In our second filming session, we included many different shots so we couild choose the best one which we believe may be hard to lay down on Premiere as we would need to look at all the different ones and choose what works best once edited. However, this actually worked to our advantage becuase we had plenty of shots to work with. Therefore we learnt from this editing session that the more increasing number of shots you have makes it easier in the post-production stage when editing as you have more choice.

Furthermore, when editing we changed an idea we initially thought we would use for our film. We decided to go against using the pan  and tracking over the dead bodies to begin our film. Instead, our group decided to begin with the flash back scene and then use the 'dip to black' tool to fade into the dead bodies after the flashback. This means that the film will be more engaging from the start, as this scene is high action, so the audience;s attention is captured straight away.

Aspects to consider for next time:

Our group need to decide what font we would like for the titles. This is because the font we have at the moment does not look very good and was only picked quickly, so we could progress with the rest. Having a good, appropriate font that fits the conventions of a thriller will make the finished production look more professional.

Filming 07/02

In this filming session our group was a lot more productive than last time, so we achieved more filming, helping us progress. This is because it was our second try at filming, meaning that our teachers and peers gave us advice on how to improve the quality of our work. As some of our filiming was a good enough standard first time round, we began re-shooting the opening 15 to 30 seconds of our film opening at the stairs/corridor. This time, we used a variety of different shots again which worked well last time round such as mid shots and close ups of the characters and long shots of the location. However, the lighting was not great when we tried for the first time, so this time round we used a lamp effectively, by moving it around where we would be shooting, trying lots of different shots to find the best possible way to do this shot.
Once this scene was done, we were able to move forward and shot another scene, this was of the main antagonist character. We wanted to make sure he had the dominance of the scene as he is the foremost character; therefore we made sure he had the most screen time as this connotes this importance in the rest of the film to the audience. This part of the film is a flashback of the antagonist killing his victims, so my group thought this part of the film would be best suited in black and white. This is because black and white often is used to show something which has occured in the past. Furthermore, in this session we stretched our shot type further, by using close ups, mid shots and long shots, as well as including ones we hadnt tried such as point of view and over the shoulder shots, making our film opening more diverse.

Aspects to consider next time:

Overall, this was a successful filming session as we completed the beginning shots for our film and then managed to get started on the next scene. However, on starting the next scene, as we are filming in a school, we were forced to stop as it got the lunch time when pupils were in the way. This means next time we have to plan what time we are filming better so that we get what we need done without people distracting us.
Also, we should talk through what the actors will be doing e.g. exactly where they should be positioned and how they should be acting. This is because sometimes we were slowed down slightly becuase the actors were unclear on what they were ment to be doing in order to achieve best results.

Filming 31/01

The aim for our first filming session was to get the beginning 15 seconds laid down that we could work with and begin to progress with our project. This part of the film was set in the corridor/stairs, where the camera tracks along the dead bodies in the dark, lit up artificially by lamp shades. As a group we realised that we could use new shots such as close ups and mid shots to create more variety and engage the audience, reducing the repetition. The location is a basement; therefore we wanted the lighting to be high-key artificial lighting, when filming it was noticed that the shots were dark and blurry because we were shooting in a dark room. We therefore had to re-evaluate the shot to solve this problem. We came up with an idea to use a lamp which was enough artificial light to brighten up the corridor so that the bodies of the actors could be seen clearly to the audience in this scene.


Aspects to consider next time:


When we next film, we must make sure that we carry on using a variety of shots. This is so the film is more engaging, whilst improving our marks for the film because we are showing that we can use a numerous amount of shot types and distances.
Also, our next filming session should have suitable lighting to aid the quality of our final piece. This means lighting should be bright enough to see whats happening in the shot but dark enough to stay within the scary, tense atmosphere often created in horror movies. 
Lastly, as we wasted time sortin and correcting the lighting, we wasted time. So next time, our group should plan our filming time efficiently so we get more filming completed and push on futher with our project.

Finished Anamatic

This is the final anamatic my group will use to give us an idea for our finished film opening. It will help us to decide wether the music works well with what is going on in the shot, and wether or not there are any things we could ajust in our finished opening.

Evaluation of Anamatic

On looking over the anamatic, it has both good and bad points to it. The length of the anamatic is roughly two minutes. Our aim was to have an anamatic which lasted two minutes so even though it is not exact, it is acceptable. Furthermore, the drawings show a clear horror genre, so our audience will gain a better understanding for the film. Lastly, the music used links in with the story my group our aiming to put across and also creates a tense atmosphere for watchers as it is fairly scary, commonly done in horror films.

However, I feel that if I was to do the anamatic again, more shots/drawings would need to be included. This is because we have roughly 20 shots whereas it was recomended to have 30. We found it hard to include more witht eh idea we had come up with for our film. This could suggest that more planning was needed so we came up with more ideas to include extra shots without changing our film idea too much.