Media Evaluation - Question Five

Question Five – How did you attract/address your audience?

We needed to have shots that would attract our audience to make them want to carry on watching our opening.  This is one of the first shots we see of Becky, the other girl that finds her friend’s body. This would build dramatic tension as irony takes place making the audience want to stop her before she finds the body and puts her in danger. The long shot suggests how big the room is compared to her showing that Scott, the antagonist could be anywhere, with the low key lighting hides what has actually happened. This would appeal to the audience as its showing that someone now knows about the death. Mise-en-scene is used here from the props, such as the table and the chairs to show how she was killed which is the first shot that the audience sees of the whole room, so the audience and Becky experience it together, even though the audience already know about the murder.

This image would interest our audience because of the hidden message. The dark lighting only shows a rope around her neck making the audience want to know who it is and why it is there. It creates mystery within the title as it is introducing the body from the top and towards the injuries which the only one we can see here is the bruises neck from the rope, made me Mise-en-scene of the make-up, making it look extremely violent and sinister just by focusing on the victim’s neck. To get to this shot a fade to zoom was used to introduce Becky’s name as well as let the audience see the victim, so the tension was not interrupted by introducing someone, it just carried on and was merged into the body. You can see the victims white top, giving the first sign of being pure and innocent, suggesting she was killed for no reason, again giving the audience questions to ask increasing suspicion within the opening scene.

We see here the first shot of the antagonist in the corner just by a long shot which is panning across the room. Just by the outline of the person the audience would know that this is the antagonist by the way that he is dressed with his hood above his head and his identity covered. The long shot makes him look like he is cornered, trying to give the opposite stereotype of this person, by looking innocent and scared within the way he is sat, however the way he is sat and that it is low-lighting, it suggests that after we have seen the body he did it. The darkness makes most of the room hard to see suggesting it all being secretive as well as not revealing much about the room. The long shot also shows the scale of the room, therefore showing how it would be hard to find them; therefore mystery is included as the audience do not know what location they are in. The panning shot shows that this figure is hard to miss and that he is trying to hide away from everything. Sound in this is high pitched like violins suggesting this is the peak moment of the opening revealing who the killer is even though we cannot see who it is.

 

The rope is the most shown prop through the opening as it is the first main thing we see which we follow into the room leading Becky into the room as well. The rope is attached to the protagonist’s neck, being the main prop that the audience has only seen which could have killed her. At this point in the opening there is low music playing slowly building up tension whilst slow-paced camera tracking shot is following the rope. Again, darkness is all we see other than the rope, giving clues to how she may have died. With the only lighting off the small torch makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they do not know what may jump out or something that is unexpected.

Here, close to the end is a high-angled shot of the body showing dominance over the protagonist. You see no movement with fast-paced music that shows where she is lying, how she is lying and the injuries she has, from this angle you can see one to her face and the top of her head. Lighting is really effective here as the body is the only thing that we can see with light reflected onto her making her white shirt stand out more emphasising the purity. There is newspaper under her head linking back to the beginning where the word ‘death’ was shown, giving the audience a clue about what could have happened to her and how she may have been linked to some news or other questions that the audience may want to ask.
These type of shots appealed to the audience as it gave them half a clue to solving what actually happened to her, as they can see the victim they will fell they will get the full explanation of what has happened, however they don’t therefore making them want to watch more to see if there are any shots which show more of what has happened to her.

From the questionnaires that we asked of what people like to see in a thriller which was:

·         Action

·         Tension

·         Action and adventure

·         Fast paced shots and music

I feel that after seeing our thriller we have managed to achieve these conventions that people wanted as certain parts in the opening had peak parts where a lot of tension was created. Our narrative included action when the protagonists friend got taken but we didn’t see where to and why so it gave the audience more problems that they wanted to know the answers to. Tension was created from the beginning with the help of the music by making a build up to seeing the body, following the rope, showing the injuries and hiding identities to keep the secretive theme continuous throughout the opening. We also used fast-paced music in the climax of the scene to reveal the body as well as show the injuries, with short snappy straight cuts to emphasise how many injuries she had. The opening ended on a fast-paced part with all the photos being shown therefore ending on a cliff-hanger with lots of question that the audience want to ask.

Our audience responded to our opening well, they did like the shots that were included and how the tension built up in some places more than others. The audience liked the name of our thriller as they chose it and it got mostly voted for, therefore it had a name that interested them. The audience said they liked the storyline as it was interesting however certain shots they wanted to see more, for example, the killer and more of how the death happened. They did say shots were blurry so if we were to do it again we would use a higher quality camera to get the full detail to make it more interesting for the audience.  

Our thriller opening was similar to ‘Psycho’ as the killers identities were hidden and the victims were women. Stereotypically the victims are usually female as they seem weaker, where our thriller did support that. Like ‘Psycho’ our thriller had a long opening before they saw the body building up the climax scenes both with dramatic irony to build up a lot more tension.

The use of music helped to attract our target audience as it made the scene fit together. We edited in a soundtrack of many different things such as violins and screeching’s added together to have that eerie sound of an uncomforting environment, building up a crescendo. With fast movements, when the girl got grabbed the music increased to build up that climax.
Between separate shots, there were a range of jump cuts and straight cuts which we edited together. The effects that we used were fade to black at the end to make it a smooth ending where our title ‘Innocence’ came up, however when the fast paced images came up at the end flashes of white and a fade to white came up to make sure the audience are aware of what had happened to the girl, it also helped link images and shots together to make sure continuity was in place for our thriller opening as well as making it look well-edited and lifelike.  
Props used helped us tell the story of what happened without any dialogue needed, especially the rope when it was dark lighting. Linked to lighting it helped us focus of specific shots which were more important than others, for example, the injuries, the antagonist and when Becky walked into the room making them stand out and for the audience to realise that it was a clue, for example the rope or an important part of the opening.
Costume helped attract our audience as we wanted to make it look lifelike and that it was genuine people, especially when Becky walked in, she looked like a normal girl in an extraordinary place, like Scott looking like a normal smart man with a hidden identity that killed an innocent girl, which the audience could tell because of her white top however her red shoes signifying blood and death.
The location was an isolated place adding mystery and suspicion enhancing what is going to happen inside and to the characters. 
Finally, the plot we created was something that we wanted to do something new, to ensure that our young target audience would enjoy watching something new that they would begin to enjoy. We wanted to audience to be confused at times to make them want to carry on watching it therefore would be interested throughout the film just by seeing the opening, therefore the conventions that we used we wanted to ensure it would be right to make sure our audience would be able to understand and relate to what the characters looked like, for example, modern, and that they are of the same age therefore it would be something that they are attentive in as they haven’t seen other thrillers that would be the same as ours.

Firstly, to find the correct audience for this thriller we needed to do some research of who would enjoy it. Before we decided on any ideas we made a Vox pop to ask people what their favourite thriller was and why they enjoyed it, also including if they were to make their own thriller what they would include in it and why. We asked the last question to see if it helped us with ideas so based on their answers we could come up with ideas that would make those types of people watch our thriller.

To also help with deciding what audience we would aim our thriller at, we looked at other thriller films like ours and what they would include, such as the types of weapons, and the shot types to give the sense of reality, so we could see if we were going to include any of what they had and see the age ratings as well as a specific audience that this would be aimed at so it would be niche audience however still could interest a lot of people if they watched something that they would not usually watch. For our vox pops we aimed it at people aged 16 and above to see if they liked the idea that we were going to go along with, which was successful, however most of them were male so we should have interviewed more females to see their opinion on our idea. Yet, when the opening thriller was created we did show females and they said they liked how our thriller was created and would be interested in  watching the rest of it, however mostly aimed at males. Interviewing our age helped us to see if the ideas that we had were the same ones that they had, making sure that our thriller was going to be successful.

From our audience, we asked question such as 'if you were to make your own thriller what would it include?’ The responses that were given:
Create suspense and tension
Explosions and car chases
Chase scenes, guns and fighting

From the responses that was given it shows that people who watch thriller genres know the typical conventions of what happens in thrillers therefore know what excites people to want to carry on watching the film.                               

2) The next question was 'what’s your favourite thriller, why?’
Fast and Furious - includes chase scenes
Psycho – the tension
Silent Hill - A lot of good characterisation.

3) The third and final question was 'What does you like to see in a thriller?'
Things that create suspense and tension
Action
Action and adventure 
Action - fast paced music

Just from asking them three questions we found out a lot of ideas that we can use to put them into our thriller. For example, it being fast paced with a lot of tension. We got a lot of successful responses to help us which gave us a lot of ideas of how we can meet the choices of what people look for in a thriller. As we found out from our audience, our thriller needs to be fast paced with a lot of music to help set the pace as well as terror of the film. People that we asked wanted something that was unexpected which would give thrill making it more enjoyable as it wasn’t a common expected convention, such as a crash or a loud bang, which is popular in thrillers.

Media Evaluation - Question Two

Question Two – How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents particular social groups of older teenagers. As our thriller is aimed at aged 15 and above we wanted to make sure it was relevant to people our age so they could relate to it.

 From the opening the main character was the protagonist. We chose to have a female protagonist as, in most thrillers, stereotypically females are not as strong as men and have more chance of being hurt or affected as they are shown as the weaker gender. From the image you cannot see the woman’s face which is not shown throughout the whole of the opening, creating tension and mystery, as then it would give away who it is and answer too many of the audience questions. The image on the right is the only mid shot image we see of the woman as the rest of the shots are close ups of the injuries on her body. You can see here she is quite young which makes her more vulnerable again implying she doesn’t have a lot of strength to fight back which again shows lack of power against an antagonist.

Other than her white top and black trousers which are both ripped the white top suggests purity and how she was a young and innocent girl with the black trousers suggesting death. The protagonists costume is important as it creating representation messages for the audience to understand that she was weak compared to her killer. She wore red shoes both of which were shown, one on her foot the other by the door. A dark red implies blood and danger, linking to the blood that is on her top. Red can also be an emotionally intense colour which suggests that this thriller could be about something personal leading to a crime scene including a young girl.

For the woman protagonist we used make up for the injuries, the bruises and blood. We decided to have specific injuries, the bruising around her neck was the first injury shown through the force of the rope implying that the death was painful and she was murdered violently. We saw some small other bruises around her body, some on her arm where she had been grabbed as well on her stomach where she had been punched. We never saw the injuries on her face as her identity would have been shown however the audience did get to see the side of her face a couple of times which gave hints but still could see injury.  We saw an injury on her head with blood running down her face however only again saw the side of her head covered with hair. Other than the make-up we used for the injuries, no other make-up was used as it would not have been realistic.

The camera went around her body to show the injuries close up showing where the injuries were with flashbacks of how she got them at the end. The camera did not show every injury as the crime sub-genre is all about mystery and for the audience to want to carry on watching of how she got those injuries.

The props used on the female protagonist were rope. This prop was important to use as it showed she was out of control of what happened therefore she was powerless compared to the antagonist.

Her shoe was used as a prop when walking into the dark room where she was, it was a significant prop signifying that she was in there so when her friend walked in she knew that she was in there, it was a resemblance of her being in there.

We filmed the protagonist in a dark room on a table; however the rope was tied around her neck connected to tables which lead to the door and up the stairs showing that someone was dominant over her. The dark room emphasised how isolated the place that they were in was. The room was only shown as having one door to go in and out so as the rope went down the stairs it was shown that the location was in a basement or a room that was not used a lot therefore she would be harder to find and it would be unknown. As the room was dark, the  light was difficult to get right so it was clear enough to see what was happening but that it was also dark enough so it looked like it was happening through someone else’s eyes. The light that was used to go around her body was the light on the camera therefore only a small light, but was effective enough as then it did not give too much away about what was happen so every new shot would have been a new injury that the audience would have seen, showing how severe the murder was.

The protagonist here is compared to the victim in ‘Psycho’. She was vulnerable and was dominated by the killer with a hidden identity. Shots were used similarly, close ups on the affected areas, for example at the end of ‘Psycho’ when she is laying on the floor, just like the young girl lying on the table, the camera shots show the importance of the injuries that they have.
Both of the victims are young showing they are weak and would not be able to fight off anyone that attacked them. As well as both being female, they were both shown on their own at the start until we saw the other protagonist come inside the room on the thriller opening, showing they were both on their own when they got attacked. Both protagonists were murdered by a hidden identity, therefore comparing them to each other it had the same set up by them not knowing what was going to happen, as well as the audience knowing what happened to them before they did, for example, the audience saw the killer in ‘Psycho’ come into the shower plus knew the antagonist was in there in the thriller opening, building up tension as they cannot do anything to stop the murder from happening.
 

 The next main character shown in the opening was the antagonist. Like the protagonist the audience didn’t see the antagonist’s whole face, we just saw up to his nose. The reason for doing this was again because of mystery. For the antagonist we chose a tall, broad male to have this role as he looks threatening compared to the protagonist who is the complete opposite, showing how much dominance he has against her. The age was difficult to tell for the protagonist as we did not see him, but you can tell that he is a younger male but no specific age. This is a typical convention in a thriller as a young male would be fit enough to escape from the protagonists as well as blend in as a normal person other than a killer. As it was the opening two minutes we did not want to give a lot away about the characters so by just showing what they did and how they were dressed gave an initial idea about who they were. The status of this man was seen as a high class. He had trousers, shirt and tie as well as a coat on and looked like he was dressed like a business man. A typical killer would be this man, as they wouldn’t look like the typical person to commit a murder as they looked like they were wealthy and had an office job etc, however would look smart and of a higher status as it was related to them being wealthy because of the crimes they have committed. The reason for him dressing like this was because we wanted to challenge the stereotype and make him look like a normal man which would be harder to convince anyone that he was the person that committed this murder.

The camera shots for this character were mostly mid shots. Mid-shots were good to use for this character as the audience kept getting to see what he was wearing which was professional in some ways showing his wealth but confusing the audience of what his reason is for doing this to the young girl. There was a shot of the protagonist standing over the girl showing his dominance to show the audience he was fully aware of what he has done. We got the angles for these types of shots by standing over the body as well as getting as close as we could to the body by making sure it is clear to the audience what part of the body it was. For high angled shots the camera was placed above the body so all of the body could be seen but shown smaller as if someone was dominating it, such as from the antagonist’s point of view. We got low angled shots by the camera being significantly below the body, not many of these shots were used as we didn’t want the body to look like it had a control.

On the antagonist, no make-up was used as there were no features to be shown. It was clear that he had his face out but did not show any other part of his body other than his hand, implying that he was capable enough to not need any weapons or props to hurt the protagonist other than himself implying the strength that he had.
The location that the antagonist was in was the same as the protagonist. Whilst filming, they were never apart therefore him showing protection over what he had done, therefore suggesting to the audience he could regret what he had done or he could be clear therefore making sure no one else finds her to create the sense of the mystery trap.
As identification in this opening was very important the lighting was kept low to show segregation from everyone else. The lighting was used well for the antagonist as he had his face out but the way the camera moved around him was planned so the hood of his coat was covering his eyes from a shadow, showing that he was a secretive person that could hide what he had done.
The antagonist is compared here can be compared to Le Chiffre in James Bond, he has his identity out, which our antagonist challenges that however is still dressed well and looks of a high class but is still dangerous. Both characters are all in black as well as being dangerous to other but secretive about how they carry out their plans without a lot of people knowing how they do it and carries that on throughout the thriller.

Finally the third and last character that was shown was the protagonist’s friend that came in to the room at the end of the scene. She saw what had happened but did not know that the antagonist was still in there as he was guarded about where he went as he was playing a smart game. The role here for the other young girl was the protagonist’s friend. She was a normal looking young teenage girl who made this role seem more vulnerable as she did not know what had happened and she is going to find her friend. Her costume was normal, jeans and a coat to show she is going to find something that was really unexpected. The main shot of this girl was the one on the right where she came through the door following the rope that she has spotted, cleverly placed by the antagonist to make sure someone finds her.  No specific make up was used on her as she is just the friend that tries to help the girl, again blameless like the protagonist. None of her identity was covered as she was an unexpected character to be seen to walk in as the antagonist was not expected to get caught. The camera shots for this character were long shots. The long shots were effective as we could see her reaction and then to see what would happen to her, creating another victim.  We can compare this character to Mary-Jane out of Spiderman as she is a natural character who in which just wants to help people and be there as a friend to someone but always comes off worse just like the protagonist who got injured.

Media Evaluation - Question Seven

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

I feel that from the beginning when creating the preliminary task to making the final thriller opening, that I have become more confident when creating new things. I feel the ideas that I have now I am prepared to try them out to see if they work or not and if they do not work then finding a way to make them work. By being more open about the ideas that I have I feel that it has made me more creative with what I want to produce therefore wanting to try more and not just do the expected.
From the beginning of the preliminary task I did not know how to film effectively or using the camera to get the best possible shot, however now I know what techniques to use to make sure the shot I get is the best I can get it. However, some shots that were used on the opening weren’t to the best of my ability, such as close ups were blurry as well as a pan shot wasn’t smooth enough therefore didn’t fit into the shot well, but I know why they ended up like they did therefore if I did them again they wouldn’t be that particular way. I like how I have got used to the cameras and all of the things I can do on the camera to make something that is simple into something that is interesting, for example, different angles of the camera, e.g. canted angles are effective in the way the shots are easy to get but have an accurate outcome.
As well as the camera, I have enjoyed using the iMacs to edit our opening as well as the practice videos we did before the final piece. It has made me more assured to do it again if I needed to as I know how to use them whereas before I didn’t therefore I wasn’t looking forward to using them.

I am glad I did a prelim task as it showed me how I can improve as a filmmaker to make the final piece a lot better than the prelim task. However, the strengths of the prelim that I created were some camera shots that I didn’t think would work however they did, for example continuity editing and making sure the camera was in the right place to make it look like there were two camera placed. All of the skills needed for that were shown through doing the prelim and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be which made me content to be behind the camera and get certain shots.
Although, some shots did not match up which made it not look as good as it could have, for example when the actors went into the room the shot through the window was not stable which didn’t make the shot look as good as I wanted it, however for the thriller task I made sure the shots I got were clear.
With the prelim I found that we needed a lot more footage than what we already originally had which ensured me to get enough or more than enough shots for the thriller opening so we would not be stuck for the clips that we needed to get.
Whilst creating the prelim I learnt that lighting was important to get the correct shot and make sure continuity was important so it didn’t change. Learning this skill helped me a lot and changed the way I looked at films that I watched as I noticed how important it is to make sure that it is right, therefore helping me to get the right shots and not break the 180 degree rule.

When filming there are specific skills that are needed to make sure it is effective to for the audience to watch. Firstly, there is the continuity editing 180 degree rule which we used throughout our opening. You can only cross the 180 degree line if you show the audience going past it, for example, going around the back of someone’s head o they know that the ways that they have changed will be the opposite way round. Shot-reverse-shot was not used in our prelim task as we thought we had put it in however the communication between the two characters did not make it a shot reverse shot to show the relationship between two characters when there was dialogue it was used between the two people so the audience knew who had given the sweet showing that close relationship that they have was shown but it was not as clear as it would have been if we used a shot-reverse-shot, which if we were to film it again we would have added it in. Match-on-action was also used to make sure the previous cut matched the next cut so it flowed well, for example, when going through the doors and opening and closing doors as well as coming up the stairs.
This helped when I was filming the thriller as it gave us more experience of what we needed to do to get an effective shot type so the film would look realistic and make it look successful. As we were used to the camera that we had to use for our prelim task we knew what we could do to the camera, for example, a smooth tracking shot using an elastic band on the end of the camera to move the camera slowly across without having a jumpy tracking shot. Part of our opening was meant to be filmed jumpy and shaky therefore it was a handheld camera shot which helped the home-filming technique that we wanted to create.

When we planned to do our ideas for what shots that we wanted to use we wanted to make sure we showed a variety of shots to keep it interesting for the audience. However, we wanted most of our shots to be close up or a long shot to show the environment that they are in or showing the injuries that the protagonist has. The pace of our thriller when we were editing it on Becky’s iPad, needed to be fast paced with lots of straight cuts to make the tension build by showing a lot of action in a short period of time, or photos, like at the end of the opening where it showed how it happened and how she got injured.  However, we also wanted to do the opposite of that and make some shots really slow and in slow motion, for example, going along the body of the girl to show the position she was in and what had happened, therefore building uncertainty whilst watching the opening and feeling tense about what is going to happen next.
Before we edited we watched some openings of thrillers to see what the common conventions were and how we can make ours use the conventions that ‘real’ thrillers use to make ours as close to a ‘real’ one as possible.

I feel that the thriller that we created was successful. We all as a group took part and played roles which made it successful therefore enjoyed making it as we worked together well. I feel that if we were to do it again we would use a camera of better quality. For the cuts of ‘death’ we used my camera which gave a clearer image that looked a lot better than the original camera that we used for the rest of the filming as it came across a bit blurry and different shades of darkness before we edited which meant when we did edited we got a lot of shots that weren’t continuously the same colour. However, with the camera quality that we had we got some good shots to use even if some were darker than others, so if I were to film this again I would use my camera to get the best possible quality for the film. I feel that when we used the handheld camera technique it worked well to follow the rope down the stairs however we used too much of the handheld camera shot therefore didn’t show as much skill as we could have if we used a tripod with different angles. I feel that a canted angle would have worked well to exaggerate the confusion of the place that the protagonist is in, as well as the antagonist could have had more close ups shown to emphasis the danger that he carries to make the audience feel more threatened by him.
I feel that the location worked really well with the thriller sub-genre as it was confusing to where the place may be, however created an atmosphere where doubt could build to what had happened as it was so dark and isolated from everywhere else as another location was not shown, so the main focus was on the location that they were in.
I would have also improved the costume of the antagonist, even though he did look threatening, the clothing that he could have been wearing would still have been smart, however ripped clothing or a stain of blood would have worked effectively as the audience would have known that there was a chance of being caught as he had the evidence of the death especially when the other girl walked in. Although, the protagonist did represent the colours of death and danger well by wearing black and not showing his identity therefore creating more tension it was distinctive which is a common convention in the thriller genre. I feel if it was to be filmed again more of how the killing happened would make the thriller more interesting to watch to build up to the climax of the death of the girl therefore having peak points for the audience to get nervous about watching, instead of just seeing the death. However, the use of different shots were effective as they showed what injuries she had was good as it gave the audience questions to ask and made it more confusing as to why it happened.

 Here, we used a black and white effect mid-shot of the two actors to show the location where they are and what they are wearing. Not using any particular costume or make-up you cannot tell who is the protagonist and antagonist as they are do not have any conventions to stereotype that person. Compared to the thriller we used close ups to show how the person was injured with a costume to show who they are and what type of age, for example a young weak girl and she doesn’t look threatening. The second image shows how our camera skills have improved because of the lighting. For the prelim we used what light we had which didn’t give a good enough effect of the danger that they may face giving no clues to what they are going to do with no specific topic, compared to the thriller showing it is an isolated environment with no image of any escape like the prelim task of not being intimidating at all.

 

Continuity editing has improved a lot compared to the prelim task as the prelim task had lagging on it so it didn’t show continuity compared to the thriller where opening doors was shown quicker in a more haunted way to build up the tension, as it was a lot slower than the prelim task. The shots changed with an effect as well to let the audience see the next shot before it fully came up giving them chance to feel that they are seeing what happens before the other person did, giving them a sense of fear and control as they know before she does. As seen below as well the difference of quality and camera angle it makes it a lot clearer creating a scarier environment.

 

When we started our prelim task we did not know how to use the macs therefore we found it hard to choose on a title that would fit in, the one that we chose clearly didn’t and did not give any ‘scare’ or ‘thrill’ out of it and looks like it was just put in. However compared to the thriller we used a range of titles from being on the body to give a more personal touch of it being as if the body is the main source of the film as well as other titles that were edited in to make it look more professional with a sans-serif text to ensure it followed the same text of being bold and the same font to show continuity and look professional like a normal thriller opening would. Below it is shown how much of a difference titles can make and how much better it looks when it is done to fit in with the film which make it build tension with the effects that go with it, a slow moving effect to make it drowsy like the start of the film is to get the audience engaged with the opening.

 

Certain camera types that we used were mid-shots as well as extreme-close ups on the injuries to ensure that the audience saw what had happened, firstly on a larger scale, for example half of the body then a close up on the injury, the neck. The audience would have then got an idea about how extreme the injury was therefore would see how dangerous the death of the girl.

A handheld camera shot was used the most throughout this opening; therefore it looked like it was a home-made video which gave it more of a personal feel to it, we did this as it was compared to the thriller/horror, ‘Paranormal Activity’ which looked really effective in the way we knew that they were the only ones who saw it so it made the thriller look scarier as no one else would know so the audience would feel as if they were there. Also, camera shots such as close ups of certain things, for example he body gave confusion as they wouldn’t have known how it happened or what part of the body it was until a mid or the rare long shots were used to show what had happened.

Finally, at the end were images shown from straight cuts to one another showing the death of the protagonist as well as images of how the killer murdered her. We used fast-paced editing so the audience would only see the images for a second but would still pick up on what had happened giving sense of misperception as well as making them feel muddled about what happened as the images changed so quick., we would have liked the images to go faster however we did not want to over-power it to make it seem too much and to lose the interest of the audience therefore was satisfied with what the final outcome was.

Media Evaluation - Question Six

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

From using digital video I have learnt specific shot types that create an effective shot. I have learnt that from the different shot types such as close-ups and long shots make a difference to how something is portrayed, for example; an injury in a long shot range will not show detail therefore not showing a significant importance, as it shows the image from different points of view, making it clearer to the audience as well as it not getting boring to watch as it isn’t the same thing. Compared to a close-up where the injury/bruise can be shown showing the danger of having that injury giving the audience an insight of how dangerous the opening is.
However, a long shot is useful when showing the scale of something, such as the room length and the building itself, giving the audience more knowledge about where they are and what is going on within the room, such as showing the comparison between the body size being tiny compared to the room ensuring the audience know who is the protagonist and the antagonist are to make the narrative clearer as well as build up more tension whilst going through the opening scene.

Before I tried to get an effective shot I didn’t clearly know what to do and how to get it until I started practicing at specific shot types, like a movement shot e.g. tracking shot. We needed a tracking shot to follow the rope to make it look longer and that it was the main prop to lead to the body.

The normal tracking shot would be smooth to show how fast the movement is and clear however we wanted a handheld camera as it built up tension for the dramatic irony when the other girl walked into the room from being unsteady and a little but unclear.
Another effective shot that we wanted to get was close-ups of the injuries that were on the body, especially of the neck. We got one effective shot at the beginning when the neck had introduced the name ‘Becky Boyfield’ however not a clearer shot that just showed the injury and the rope, which if we were to do it again we would have added as the injury would have created tension therefore the audience wanting to see the other injuries. Close ups built up tension by showing in greater detail about what the injury looked as well as where it was on the body, such as the stomach, arm, leg and head, but still hiding identities from the audience so it would keep the mystery to build up the tension.
A pan shot was used to follow the light from one end of the room to another however in the middle was the antagonist. To get a clear, smooth shot, we put an elastic band on the end of the camera to be able to slowly move the camera along without any jolts which would make it look unrealistic. I found the small fast-paces shots worked better instead of bigger long one with too much action as they then would show too much detail and no tension would be built as there wouldn’t be any jumps to change action or make the audience ask questions which wouldn’t give them the excitement of wanting to carry on watching the thriller. In doing this, I learnt more what would get the audience’s attention so it would change from the point that they are seeing so they could feel that they were in the room therefore they would find it more exciting as well as being doubtful as they didn’t know what to expect next.

To create tension we needed to edit some effects into the opening to make the shots fit together better than what they would if they were just straight cuts all of the time. To add the cuts together we used some flashes to show the audience two things at once, the girl walking into the room as we as the protagonist lying on the table with the antagonist walking around the room. This cross-cutting was effective as it did not just show one person point of view; we showed them multiple places where tension was built to make the audience feel uncomfortable when watching it as dramatic irony had taken place from the beginning of the audience already know what has happened before the girl did. We used fade to white for the photos at the end to show how the girl got killed, as from picture to picture wouldn’t make it stand out enough so the mixture of flashes and fade to whites were useful showing the purity of the girl and how she is being a victim. At the end of the opening, when the title was shown, a fade to black was used to release all of the fast paced action without answering any questions as then it would move onto another scene. The fade to black created mystery to what would happen to the other girl as the scene just ended without showing what the result was leaving it up to the audience to decide.
The use of the fast-paced shots worked really well as a lot of different shots were shown making it hard for the audience to work out what is going on even though they are watching it, giving then questions to ask as well as having to keep up with the action that is happening. However, other than the fast-paced cuts there were so slow-motion shots used mostly on the rope and the injuries to highlight that they were the most important shots and props used. Both speeds of shots gave the audience tension as it was all happening so fast then changed completely. Music helped to this as the faster pace of music, the tenser it got, and however the slow eerie sounds showed the importance of the shot and have a meaning to it. The music completed the visuals as it made everything seem creepier as the peak times were fast leading to fast shots and having quick eye movement.

To have good camerawork, it will ensure that the film we have shown a lot of skill and understand of what has to be done to make a good opening thriller.
The tripod was used to get stable shots and shots which were clear enough for the audience to see what was happening. We didn’t use a tripod as much as we wanted to, but it was effective when we got a long shot of the room which showed the antagonist sat there, giving a clear view of this figure.
For lighting in our thriller we wanted lighting to be a minimal as possible to create hidden identity as well as mystery. With low lighting it makes it better to edit as you can cut out certain things that you don’t want people to see so you focus on the main part, such as the bruising instead of a whole light room so it doesn’t stand out as much. Angles were also effective as the audience could see who was more dominant from a high or low angled shot as well as being secretive if a slow movement was happening, it would build up suspense quicker.
The use of editing makes sure continuity flows and all the shots fit together by following the narrative in the way it should to make it interestingly exciting for the audience which they will want to pay attention and carry on watching more.
Our location worked well with our narrative as it was secretive and a more mysterious place just how the characters inside are being enigmatic to build up the storyline. The weather on the day was sunny but cold, which we would have liked it to be darker however the light helped us when filming outside as it was bright and open compared to inside where it was gloomy and dark, the lighting had a difference when the girl walked through the door as the audience could see that this had happened in the day time but yet no one knows about it making more tension as the place is so isolated in daylight.
For the use of our camera shot types we knew when to use certain ones as the shots that we wanted to exaggerate and make sure the audience notice them as they are important were close ups and a detailed shot that could have been a clue or a prop that the audience needed to see, to help them figure out their own story of what had happened. The times when we used names was important as it was on an important images, such as the neck shot where it showed a name as well so the narrative carried on whilst introducing people. A lot of pan shots were used to show the scale of the room, therefore pointing out to the audience what is specific and important pieces of props/injuries that they needed to see in a wider scale, for example, the body. The body was also shown on a high angle shot to show dominance and that the antagonist had the power, as well as a high angle tracking shot on the rope, showing the rope was stronger than what the girl was, therefore that’s why it lead to her so the camera tracking shot helped demonstrate this by being attached to her as well as leading from one end of the isolated house to the other.

Before filming the preliminary task I had never used iMovie before, so with a little bit of experience from the prelim it helped me use iMovie to editing clips for the thriller opening.

To import the footage to the macs we put the cameras memory card into the Macs to import all of the footage that we had, then to use on iMovie to edit all of the clips together. To export the opening we had to export the file onto a memory stick then uploaded it to YouTube to share with others as well as putting it on our blogs.

The audience wanted fast-paced cuts to ensure that the film would keep the interested from the beginning to the end with shocks that they didn’t expect. The editing used a range of visual effects such as a fade to black as well as fade to white, creating flashes to help change the shot from one to another instead it just being a straight cut.
Straight cuts were useful when showing cross-cutting between the body and when the other protagonist walked in as it was showing action from two different people’s point of view. We used this as it would make the scene more motivating as the excitement would build up because of dramatic irony building tension and doubt about the narrative.
Other than the dark lighting for the majority of the opening, we used a clear filter to show ‘death’ emphasising that this would be the outcome of this narrative. This was also used as a flashback, it was repeated three times to signify to the audience that there was an antagonist who had committed a crime to fit in with our sub-genre.
The diegetic sound was the opening of the door. We didn’t want to include any dialogue in our opening as it would distract the point of a mysterious crime that we needed to create. Although, we did use non-diegetic sound for most of our opening which included violins and screeching to highlight the danger in peak points, such as following the rope and going along the body looking for injuries as well as seeing the antagonist in the corner when using a pan shot around the room.
The ident that we created was simple as we didn’t want to over-complicate it as it needs to be memorable as well as easy to link in with other genres, making it look more professional and realistic.

For my work other technologies that I have used to have an impact on the results I got, I used the internet to research other thriller genres to see how ours could compare to the ‘real’ ones and see how we could make ours look more professional and realistic. We used Prezi again to do more research on specific things such as the conventions of a thriller and other sub-genres of thrillers so we knew what we could do to make our thriller more interesting and link it to other ones. I found Prezi useful to use as a source of getting information as it is set out clearly and is easy to use to present my work.
YouTube was useful so we could watch videos of other thrillers that people had made so we got an idea about what we could use in our thriller and also saw the improvements and mistakes in their thriller so we wouldn’t make it in ours. As well as the previous ones I used Moovly and screenshots to use as evidence in my work therefore making it more interesting for the audience as well as showing different ways of presenting my work.

 

 

 

 

Media Evaluation - Question Four

Question Four – Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience for our thriller would be for young adults aged from 15-25 of both genders however mostly male, and of any nationality. The reason males would be significantly better would be that they are most likely to have more of an interest in this type of genre, therefore it would attract them by the mystery of the thriller as well as the storyline is based around our age group so it would seem more realistic to them. We chose this young age as they are the age group that like exploring new things and watching programmes or films that are different to the regular thriller or what they are used to, they are willing to explore new interests. The demographics for our audience would be for them to either be still in education or in their first job with a low income around £15,000 a year as it would most likely be their first proper job.

These people are the type of people that we would aim our thriller at. They are young adults but to the older end of the teenage scale. We aimed our thriller at this age group as they would enjoy the thrill more and they would be more interested in watching something that they haven’t seen before so would come under the psychographic of explorers.
The people in this picture look around 18/19, even though our thriller is aged for 15 years olds to 25 years old, they would fit into this target age group, both male and female which is our audience, however more of the male audience. Therefore, females may have different views of our thriller compared to males which would get more feedback and if they did enjoy it our audience would go from niche to mass. Females would seem less dominant in a antagonists position therefore people wouldn’t see the woman as a threat as stereotypically men are stronger than women, so if the typical convention of a male thriller would be shown it would create more tension as well as more of a threat to the victim. We did aim it at both genders as we didn’t want to stereotype who our film would be aimed at so it would be advertised at all creating an environment that both genders would be encouraged to see the thriller. We do not have a specific race or nationality as we want as many people to see our film as possible as it is aimed at all.
We have a few social economic classes for our thriller is C1, C2 and E mostly as they are students or people that have low income. The people above look like they attend a school, college or university so they fit well into our target audience fitting the explorers psychographic and are people who would want to watch new things that they haven’t seen before to see if they are interested in the new film.
Students would have many different hobbies or sports, or just seeing the world if they are closer to the end of our target audience before they got a well-earning job therefore they would be more dangerous and wanting to experience new things that they haven’t before, such as, going to a new place in the world and seeing new countries. As well as visiting new places they would be very interested in the media, such as up to date technology, the new phones and want to know the news  as soon as they come out. For example, they watch the news and read the magazines, which may be less informal, such as ‘OK’, ‘Chat’ or ‘Reveal’, instead of reading the newspapers such as the ‘Daily Mail’, they would read ‘The Sun’ or other newspapers which come across easier to read and show more of the ‘gossip’ type news other than world news that is going on.
Other types of media that they will be interested in will be the television, more into the soaps and other reality television compared to other higher socio-economics would be into television programmes on BBC2 like wildlife programmes and news shows/game shows, unlike our audience who watch BBC1, BBC Three, ITV2 and more informal unreal television programmes. Like television programmes they would also be interested in other types of media such as films n the thriller genre or other comedies as they are of a younger age and wouldn’t want to watch something so serious. Some specific example of thrillers that this age group would be into are: The Purge, Housebound and The Conjuring, this would be because they do have a storyline behind them that is interesting therefore their age group would be interested in as well as we are in the same group therefore thinking of what thrillers we liked, would help us relate our thriller to ‘real’ films.

The BBFC age rating for a fifteen would allow strong violence with frequent strong language. It could also include portrayals of sexual activity with strong verbal references to sex, including sexual activity with only brief scenes to sexual violence and references to sexual violence. In a fifteen you are allow to have drug taking as well as discriminatory language or behaviour which may be racist, homophobic etc. The violence in a fifteen can be strong but not inhabit on the injury however not strong gory images are acceptable. Also, in a fifteen there can be references to horror but not focus on aggressive or sexual threats. Parents can stop their child from watching a fifteen, however the BBFC does rate the film at what they think is suitable for that particular age with knowing that the teenager’s will not copy the behaviour shown.

From seeing that this explains a fifteen aged rated film it shows the boundary’s for what can be shown such as a lot of violence which we saw at the end as well as from the girls injuries, as well as types of aggression, shown through how she was injured through the violence as well as the props like the rope. This represents our film so people know what to expect such as seeing things that could show specific things that could be sensitive to certain people as well as be too much for someone to watch because of the portrayed violence.

Media Evaluation - Question Three

Question Three - What kind of media intuition might distribute your media product and why?

Our production company name is ‘SceneScreen Productions’. This name was chosen as we wanted something original that we have created and not gone off someone else’s name. It shows that the scenes that are created within a movie, we as a production company will show them.  Alliteration was also used to make it more memorable. Using media terminology, taken from ‘Mise-en-scene’ using it as part of our name making it clear that we are a production company when people see the name.

The use of the dandelion was an idea for our logo that we used as it was something different that we had not seen before as well as the animation that it has to go with it worked well to bring our name onto the screen, firstly showing the skills that we have to create it. The white and green worked well together, showing that we are a new company, white being fresh and the parts of the dandelion moving away creating our company name.

Typography for this we wanted to stand out but not be too bold that did not look professional. The use of sans-serif text was to make it clear to read as well as capital letters to enhance the size and make it more memorable.

I compared the logo that was introduced in our thriller opening.
The typography in this ident is the same sort of style to ours by being all in capital letter as well as having some amount of space between letters. This particular ident has a background, making it stand out more as the colours contrast, as well as our does between the green and white. I compared our two logos as they are similar in certain types of ways however different as this logo from ‘Columbia’ has lighting over the ‘U’ therefore not the whole name is show n but the idents so popular people know what it is just by looking at it. Both idents have a specific colour theme that they follow to make it more memorable, therefore introducing the film with a popular ident will make the film more recognisable.  

When creating this inspiration was something that we needed to make sure that out logo was something different from other logos and so ours was something that hadn’t been created before. Researching all over the internet, we found that most production companies logos were writing and most of which we not brightly coloured. Therefore we wanted to do the opposite and make ours so it stood out with a background. Ours worked well as we tried it without a background and it looked too plain but with the blur on the back it made the flower and the name stand out enough for people to see. Our logo had strong contrasting colours but even though ours stands out with the green the white works well, compared to some logos that you cannot see the white, I think ours works to be able to be clear and looks professional.

A production company helps create the film in assisting with the cost of production, the scheduling, the casting as well as scripting. The companies look over the film when it is from an idea to a completion. To make sure the film is successful they have to find a director as well as the casting that is required. As well as creating parts of the film, they are responsible if something goes wrong, an actor is injured or property that may get damaged, they will have the responsibility of that.

For a film there needs to be a distributor. They send films out to the world for the audiences to watch. The film distributor decides where and when the film will be shown and also has to decide how they are going to promote the film. They need to determine how many of the copies of the films that are made, and how many they are going to need to make, then sent to cinema owners to decide if they want to view the film and buy it which then types of payments are made.

For the film that has been created the distributor that will be used will be ‘20^th Century Fox’. They are a huge company has been going since 1915 with hundreds of successful films of all genres.  They have many divisions for all of the films that they produce, these are:

20th Century Fox Animation
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Digital Studio
Fox 2000 Pictures

Fox Animation Studios
Fox Atomic
Fox Interactive

20th Century Fox was founded in 1935 on May the 31st by the merger of the ‘Fox Film Corporation’ in 1915 and the ‘20th Century pictures, Inc.’ which was founded in 1932 by Joseph M. Schenck, Darryl F. Zanuck and William Fox. 20th Century Fox’s headquarters is in Fox Plaza, Century City, Los Angeles in the United States with Jim Giannopoulos being the chairman and CEO of the company. From having a few owners, Independent in 1935 to 1985, news Corporation from 1985 to 2013 and now the 21st Century Fox to present.

This film distributor is one of the world largest film companies and I feel that if our film was put into 20^th Century Fox it would be successful as there is always a space within the company that the genre or the sub-genre of a film would fit into. The company support all genres therefore a well-known company like them will have a mass audience therefore knowing they produce entertaining films. As they have produced so many films they will know what does and doesn’t make a successful film therefore would interest more people as their audiences know what successful films that they make, so if ours is a part of that it has a high chance of being successful.
 

The money that goes to invest into funding our film would have come from the BFI Film Fund. The BFI invest £26m a year from the lottery funds to be able to support film development, the production of films and the distribution of the activity in the UK. However, they do want it to rise to £30m a year by 2017 to be able to support more films companies.
They do many things to raise money for films such as funding and organisations to invest in research, skills and businesses in the UK. As well as in the UK they also have an international strategy with a plan of five years with other film companies. As they are a lottery distributor and a public funder, they reflect to the public in seeing what films we watch and which ones we support, what type of people watch them, the filmmakers, actors and the crews who make the successful films.

Throughout our opening we have various names that appear in a specific order, some of which are on the body of the protagonist and some which are edited into the opening. We wanted to have all of the name on the body however editing made the names stand out more, even though we couldn’t remove the other names off the body as we would lose clips we decided to keep them in the opening, however if we were to do it again it would be continuous of either being edited in or just all the names on the body.
Firstly, was the production company that was shown so the audience know who it was produced and made by. The first name was ‘Laura Hatfield’ which was shown on the body. She was the main protagonist and the person that we saw most of the opening therefore the main part so the first name we wanted people to know who it was, was her so they could follow who was who. Next was ‘Bailey Danahar’, then was ‘Becky Boyfield’, ‘Scott James’ came next. After, came who designed and did what, firstly it was costume and props ‘Laura Hatfield’, lighting and effects was ‘Scott James’, Editor and producer was ‘Becky Boyfield’, director of cinematography was ‘Bailey Danahar’, then came music, ‘Russell Brower, Derek Duke, Matt Uelmen, Tracy Bush. All of the names were shown, however they should have been put into the order of who appeared when and the main actors first to people that didn’t appear, so if it was going to be edited again, the names would be in a different order to help the audience follow who is who.

We compared our thriller to real films that has been created therefore it would look realistic. Our film is similar to certain films that Lionsgate has produced, such as ‘Psycho’. I have used this comparison as there is a female victim with an unknown killer which creates a lot more suspense as it gives the audience a lot more questions to ask about the thriller with a unique narrative. As well as ‘Psycho’ there is another film that we compared ours to which is ‘Sinister’ as that is where we got the idea of doing a home-filmed video so it made the film look more personal and that the film was created by normal people however it included a sinister type injury.