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.