22nd April - Final Film

Final Film

This is our final film edit with the improvements we have made since the first editing, we decided to add a flashback scene into the clip to give the audience a greater understanding about the stalker character.

7th April 2010 - Review

Media Evaluation

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

My media product uses many media conventions, in thrillers, one convention is for the bad guy to be some type of criminal, psychotic, stalker or mental. We went with the stalker and there for follow the conventions of a thriller by choosing this certain character type.

Another convention of thrillers is to use woodlands and outside settings to create a sense of aloneness. We have therefore followed this convention using wooded areas and pathways; this creates a scarier thriller opening and a good area to shoot as the characters look alone and In the middle of nowhere.



We also use lots of quick cuts towards the end of the sequence, quick cuts are a conventions of thrillers as they up the pace of the film and make the audience watching it feel jumpier and more on the edge of there seat. Therefore we have followed this convention as this is what we want out audience to feel.

The music we have chosen in a product is also linked to thriller conventions, this is because it is early and dark sounding, and this creates a scary atmosphere, without being to revealing when something is going to happen. We chose this music as we thought it would be perfect at bringging the suspense needed to attract the audience while watching the film, the slow pace as makes it harder for the audience to see what’s coming up.

We challenge normal conventions by not using darkness and shadow much. We felt that we didn’t need to as this would affect the way we could film at the location. However because we cover up the stalker characters face with a hood, we still believe it gives the same affect as using shadows to block faces and identities.

We have also challenged the normal media conventions my using a Birdseye view/tilt shot at the begining as we feel this adds effect to the scene and makes it more thriller like as you can only see his feet. Normally these are not seen in thrillers and is a very unique shot to see in any genre of the film industry. However we thought it right to involve it as it adds a mysterious affect and a overall uniqueness to the film.

When looking at other thrillers like "Signs" we liked the opening scenes with the credits and music seen below:

However we decided that our film wouldn't fit the audience and the story line of the film. And if we where to follow the signs theme and not have any footage within the tittle section it would be to boring for the audience. Therefore we decided not to follow the way that M. Night Shyamalan (Director) oppend the film. We decided to have some shots of the characters waling and the title and credits fading in and out of the bottom and top of the screen, allowing the views to see the characters to keep them interested and watching the film straight from the start of the film.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents young adults as always being included in violence and always being part of the “hoody” culture as that is how one of our characters is dressed to cover his head with a how, but we still see his face. He then ends up in violence due to the stalker character and this is not his fault.

In the film "Harry Brown" the hoodies are seen as violent street thugs who attack other people on sight and cause a lot of problems with the older generation and other members of society. This is a stereotypical view of hoodies. Therefore we decided to alter this stereotype in our film where the hoodie becomes the victim and does nothing wrong.

(Hoodie in Harry Brown) ------------- (Ash in our thriller)

We also see stereotypically that young people have headphones in and are wearing flat peaks, this is because in today’s world most young people walk around with one of these items on or both. Therefore we used these props to show that the person is of that age group and is a young adult/teenager.

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

I would say a local or/and small time distribution company like Optimum or WarpX would help distribute my film. This is because they are small time distributors who specify on helping low budget films, typically in the region of £400,000 - £800,000; however I think that Oliver and I’s film would be shot on a lot less budget. This however is not the only reason.

Donkey punch, the film poster shown below is a thriller based on a sex act gone wrong on a boat. The movie had a budget of £500,000 and was filmed in three weeks. I would say that if we carried on with out thriller, we would be around the same level as this movie and as this film is distributed by WarpX I would therefore say that they are a very likely distribution company for our film.

The distribution company's would also benefit from using our film as, because we are small time and did not use a lot of resources to create the film. they have a bigger gain of profit to show the films. Also because we are small time Filmer's, our film is more likely to be distributed to exhibitionists digitally as this is cheaper and more cost effective making bigger profit for the distributors compared to using a film wheel.

Another reason is that they are focused on showing new talent being in the director, actors and production areas and seeing as I am not a big name director this would be perfect for out film. They also have a local office within EM media which is based in Nottingham and a wide area of the east midlands.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for the film was teenagers and young adults. We thought it best for it to be this audience as this is the age range of the majority of people who go to the cinemas;however we know that adults may also like to view the film, but we focused our film on being an age rating over 15. As this was such a low age rating for a thriller type film, we decided it would be better to use the suspense techniques and sound to get the audience in fluctuated in the film rather than gore and blood as in real life this would have made our film go to an 18+ and therefore missing a wide area of our target audience.

We also decided on this age group as we go to college with people of this age and there for we could easily get views from this age group by asking them questions on how they would like the film to look and what would attract them to see the film.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

To attract our audience we asked 20 members of our targets age group what they would like to see in a thriller and what they want the thriller to be about. We then took the majority of the votes and then decided that we would incorporate what that was into out film. The decisions made where, how many characters, what types of characters, clothing, lighting, setting and sound... Therefore we could use the results to create a film that our target audience would like.

The audience feed back gathered also shows that we attracted our audience of teenagers and young adults. To get feed back we asked people after they had seen out sequence what they thought and if they like it or what could be improved.



This feedback suggests we did attract our target audience and they thought it was good; however they did suggest ways in which we could improve the clip and make it better and attract them to see the film more. The people who watched the thriller thought the cuts when Ash was introducded were very good and proffesional and the music chosen at the begining was very good as it kept them on the edge of there seats and didnt reaveal to much about whats was going to happen next.

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

I have learnt quite a lot while constructing the opening scene of my thriller. I have learnt that there is a lot more that just picking up the camera and filming, we had many options on the camera to change white balance, focus, zoom and many other options on the camera. In this task I also had to learn a lot more about how to use the camera for professional filming purposes and had to learn about the way white balance should be used to create the effect I want, therefore I learnt a lot about the way to film using the DV camera since i had done the preliminary task. I now feel confident in using them. I know how to record, zoom, and also adjust colour, brightness, and other things.

Since the preliminary task I have also learnt how to film using camera add on’s like the tripod properly I can now use it to take shots that are steady and at a correct angle easily as well as having a steady base to create good panning shots for the film. I have also learnt however that not everything filmed is right first time, this is because our films became pix elated on many occasions when filming for an unknown reason this cost us a lot of time as we had to re-film things again. Therefore we learnt that the technology is good however it can act up some times so we decided to fill the same shot many times to have at least one decent take of each shot.

I have also used a lot of new computer software while doing the Final piece; I can now upload the film from the camera onto the computer hard drive using the equipment in lesson. And once on the computer I am now more experienced in using Adobe Premier Pro, I can upload, cut and copy sections of film I want input music into the project and add effects and transitions onto the video to make it look more professional and like a full length feature film. I am a lot more confident using the software to create films than I was at the begining of the year and while doing the preliminary task.

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

Looking back I think that I have learnt that a lot more planning is needed to create a film that what I did compared to my preliminary. I also think there are many important smaller stages than I first thought there where in the Preliminary task like taking shots of the location and planning what the actors will wear before hand. I also think that I have learnt a lot more about the thriller genre and what goes into mailing the films to attract audiences but researching more into the genre. I have also learnt that I must work in a group more and be more group based rather than independent as doing so gets better ideas onto the table and there or better ways of gathering the audience to see the film than if one person was doing so. Also I have learnt that a large amount of time must be put into the editing phase at is a key important area as so much affect can be used to turn the out come of the film entirely. Therefore we used a majority of our time editing trying to get the correct we cuts we wanted to make the film as professional as possible.

15th March 2010 - Editing

Over the course of the last few weeks Oliver and I have been editing the clips that have been uploaded onto out personnel storage drive. we used the software Adobe Premier Pro to compile and edit the clips together. when butting the clips together we realised that shots we had were actually good onscreen and cut sections out that were not needed and could be missed.

When sorting the videos in Adobe premier pro, we put them into the film order using the best videos for each shot. We then cut down the shots to the suitable lengths we needed and any miss fit sections we through out and replaced with the same shot that fitted in. we did this for every shot so when the transition had happened they lined up and matched.

For the transitions, we knew what fades and effects we where going to use due to the planning we had made earlier, however some transitions and effects we changed because we felt that they added a better effect to the thriller and made it have an overall better feel, we also added the title and any text that will be shows on screen at this point.

After we had edited the clips together and added the transitions that we wanted, liker the cross fading and dips to back, we then added the music we had chosen to the video, we had found this music at an earlier stage once we had seen the video clips we had uploaded. The music is copyright free music that we have obtained from the website : http://freeplaymusic.com/

After the music had been added and we were happy with the volume and sound being produced, we then cropped it to the correct lengths and saved the file. We have now exported the video to My YouTube account and this is the finished video:

1st March 2010 - Upload and Editing

Today, we have started uploading the shots we have taken on film and converting them onto the computer. We edited the clips into different sections so it made it easier to understand where things were in the opening sequence and that we could slot the shots all together. Once we've seeing some of the shots on screen we decided that we may have to film some of the shots again as we are unhappy with a couple. however we are going to see what they look like once we have started putting them together to see what exactly needs changing in the shots.

28th February 2010 - Filming

Today Oliver and I along with the actors that we had chosen (Sam Willis and Ashley Grantham) went out onto location and began filming our thriller opening sequence. As out filming schedule stated, we went to toton sidings to film, we went at 2:00 pm, which is around the time we had decided on.

For the first section of out clip, we must do a over the shoulder/Birds-eye view of the stalker cameras feet. We had some problems filming this shot as our actor kept messing about and the camera had to be held at a angle and shook quite a lot when the actor moved.

The second shot is of the stalker character walking away into the distance, we took multiple takes of this shot to make sure we got it perfect, in some shots however people can be seen in the background as it is a busy public pathway. However we managed to get some shots that looked good and where pleased with.

The next shot we took was of Ashely listening to music, this was a close up on the side of his face with him walking and the camera panning onwards so the side of the face was in shot when he moved. this shot was take multiple times as we wanted to get the speed right. we filmed using a tripod to keep the camera level and for a swift and steady pan.

The third shot used is that of an over shoulder of ash walking towards the stalker character. we took this shot using the tripod to keep the camera still, however the camera is still at a slight angle and looks funny. we may have to re-tape this shot to get a steady camera depending how it looks on-screen.

Next we have a reverse shot of the situation, an over the shoulder shot of the stalking character with the indie kid just coming into the frame. this shot was done rather well, we used a tripod to keep the camera steady and the shot looks aright.

The camera then changes to a side way view of what is happening, with it slightly raised at a high angle above eye level to make it look like we are looking down on the characters. This shot was done very well and looks good on the camera, when looking on screen we also think it looks good and will most likely use this shot in the opening.

The next shot was a wide two shot with both characters walking into frame along the path, the shot is taken behind a bush. we did this shot as it allows us to have a variety of angles within the opening sequence.

The final shot is a soft pan upwards from looking on the hat of Ashley's hat which is on the floor to Sam's Character " the stalker" pulling his bag on the floor. this shot looks a bit out of place as Sam is to close to the camera when we panned so we may have to shoot this section again.

22nd Februaury 2010 - Actors, Costumes and Props.

The actors we have chose are Sam Willis as the "Stalker" character and Ashley Grantham as the "Indie Kid" character. We have chosen these two people to act in our thriller as they both match the physical qualities of character, Sam being tall and having quite long hair. where as Ashley has a smaller build and the hair that we are looking for. They also both take media so know that they cant mess about and must act professional at all times.

This is Sam Willis:



This Is Ashley Grantham:



Sam's character "Stalker" will be wearing a Long Wool trench coat , Jeans, Boots. The items blow are clothing that shows what we mean, however they may not be identical to the final items used in film.

Ashely's Character will be wearing: Jeans, Hoodie, Trainers and a Flat peak hat.The items blow are clothing that shows what we mean, however they may not be identical to the final items used in film.

Ashley will have to use props, however so far we have decided he only needs headphones.

12th February 2010 - Character and Characteristics of Thriller Research

This blog is a bit late, but i thought it should be uploaded as it shows some extra research i did into the Thriller genre. Not only did i watch and write about the openings of Monster and Bourne Ultimatum, but i also researched the characters and characteristics that can be found in a thriller:

Characters

Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitous individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more.

The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.

Women are often the victims and are seen to be weak while the killers or villain are often men. The Villain is either doing what he does for : Revenge, Love, Loss, Mental Issues or self identity.

Characteristics

Thrillers are often hybrids - there are suspense-thrillers, action- or adventure- thrillers, sci-fi thrillers (such as Alien (1979)), crime-caper thrillers (such as The French Connection (1971)), western-thrillers (such as High Noon (1952)), film-noir thrillers (such as Double Indemnity (1944)), even romantic comedy-thrillers (such as Safety Last (1923)).

The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

16th February 2010 - Location & Area

Today, Oliver and I went to find a suitable location to film our thriller project. we had some ideas about where taking it, but came to the conclusion that toton Sidings woodland paths would be the best option. We came to this decision as there is lots of trees and bushes down this area with a clear path leading through them. there are many sections of paths down this area so can incorporate more than one into the clip. These are some images below detailing the type of landscape that we are going to be shooting on.

This image shows the path with a slight curve, this is the most suitable location for filming the stalker character at the beginning of the clip ( see Storyboard).

We have chosen the rest of the piece to be shot at this location on the path as it is long an straight which will allow us to get both characters on shot and have the effect we want shown on the storyboard.

This is the area where we will incorporate the two shot of the characters meeting each other as there is a bank on the left had side that will allow us to get some height over the characters like it is in our story board, if we don't like the look of this shot however, we will use the area in image 2, but raise the camera high enough for the effect we want.

12th February 2010 - Story Board and Research

Today, Oliver and I have created are Story board based on the feed back we got from out questionnaire. We asked a total of 20 students at our college so that we could reach our target audience of teenagers, we then looked at the answers and analysed the results.

To analyse the results, Oliver created them all pie charts visually displaying out results. Oliver did these results while I started drawing out the story board, we collaborated our ideas when Oliver was making the graphs to save us valuable time , We chose pie charts as they can be easily read and shows clearly what the most popular answer was.

These where our results:

This shows that the majority of people would prefer the location to based in a woodlands area.



Most people asked want the thriller to be set in the afternoon.

Most people believe that there should be 2 characters in the opening of our thriller.



The majority of people would like a stalker storyline in a thriller.



Most people would suspense music and ambient sounds to be used in our thriller.



The vast majority of students asked would prefer the thriller to be shot in naturalistic lighting.



The vast majority would like the actors in the film to be male.



Props and costumes that people wanted to be include were dark clothing, mysterious objects and contrasting costumes.



The majority of people would prefer there not to be speech in the opening of a thriller.

85% of people would prefer the colour used to be dark and mysterious than bright.

These results gave us a clear view of what people wanted to see in out thriller opening, this included, a stalker like character, naturalistic lighting and ambient and and suspense music. therefore we based these in our story board.

After we did this, i started creating the story board.

This is our story board as a Movie to show what is happening more clearly and make it more realistic:

While I was finishing making the storyboard, Oliver started creating the risk assessment, one I had finished the story board, i then helped him with this. These where the different risks we cam up with that might affect us when we where filming.

Risk Assessment

Falling over (Injuring self or breaking equipment) - To prevent this be careful with the equipment and try to film in safe flatter areas.

Other People - Try and film in an area that is not too busy.

Weather - If raining avoid filming due to electrical products and danger to students.

Multi-Level Location - Danger of people falling, so try and work in flat areas.

Poor Lighting - use lights if dark so people can see and don't runt he risk of falling over or getting lost.

Equipment being stolen - Never leave equipment unattended.

12th February 2010 - Thriller Research - The Bourne Ultamatium

The Bourne Ultimatum

Sound:
The clip starts with soft music gradually getting louder and faster to build up suspense, this keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and then, sharply the music becomes loud and stops with a clean cut to the music not dying out at all.

We hear Bourne panting allot at the beginning of the film, this makes the views think he is either out of breath or wounded, we then hear the diegetic sounds of the sirens and the skidding tyres’ of the police cars adding a dynamic and action effect to the thriller.

Once inside the building, we here broken glass that adds a scary effect as it is loud and worrying.

Camera:
The camera uses a mid shot at the beginning to capture Bournes whole body; this allows us to see the surroundings behind him and allows us to see the types of clothing he is wearing. We then change to a close up allowing us to see the blood and sweat on his face; this gets the audience on their seat as they want to know what’s happening. The camera then stops as a pan takes place seeing the police cars and Bourne disappearing into the train station.
When the flash back occurs, the camera becomes jittery and handheld showing a montage of the shots when he was younger. These shots are mainly close ups to show the distress and emotions on his face. However there are midshot to allow us to see the clothing he was wearing showing us he was in the army.

Editing:
The sequence mainly consist of cuts and quick editing as it is very fast paced and keeps in touch with he flow of the camera angles and sounds used. When the flash back occurs the editing is extremely fast and jittery, there is a blue tint to the screen to show he is looking back on his past.

While the two men are talking a shot reverse shot is used to show the reactions on each of the man’s faces, this shows the nervousness the policeman has when he is up against Bourne and the sweat running down on his face.

Mise-en-scene:
The setting used is a busy street; this shows that there is hustle and bustle on the street and how he is trying to get away. There is snow in the back ground making it earlier as we do not know where he is. We see he is wearing a trench coat that suggests he is trying to hide or console something.

We also see that there is a police uniform this shows that something is going on as they are trying to run after and catch him. Once inside the building high key lighting is used this makes it look bright and unnatural as to where he is. We see he is carrying a gun and is taking drugs to stop him bleeding. When in the flash back we see him in an army uniform this shows that he is a trained killer and has experience of war.

12th February 2010 - Thriller Research - Monster

Monster

Sound:
At the beginning of the film, the main character narrators the montage of images dictating her life with soft music sound bridging over the images, in the background of when she was younger, this tells us the main storey in reverse and speaks about how she was trying to for fill the American dream.

However when this is half way though, the soft music stops and it swaps to loud heavy rain that is falling on the ground around here. Here we also hear the diegetic sound of cars passing and honking of horns, she is still narrating, but the other sounds are extremely loud.
Once she has gone into the club, we here pop music in the background, however this is soft and barley hear able when dialogue is being spoken. The main characters voice is rustic and rough, and when she speaks to another woman who has a soft voice, she swears.

Camera:
At the beginning, there are mid shot and close ups showing what she used to look like when she was younger, these depict what her life was like, the last shot in the montage changes however to a long shot of here being picked up by a car when she is walking on a highway. This shows us that she is alone and basically a prostitute.
When she is sitting under the bridge and we here the rain, we have a close up shot on her face, showing that she is unhappy and how the rain is falling down here face as she has no coat or hood. it then swaps to a close up shot of a gun in her hand showing she is suicidal and that she has a weapon.

When she comes in the club, we see a mid shot of the people in the club and then here, this compares the people to here and how put of place she looks being in a place like it is where she obviously doesn't belong.

Editing:
The only editing used in the sequence is quick cuts that are both in the montage at the beginning and though out the real time section, these are used to show she is fast paces and always does things she wants first.

Mise-en-scene:
Old tatty cloths are used in the film, this shows that the women comes from a poor background which she wanted to try and get away from so she tried to follow the American dream. We also see a gun near the beginning of the film, it is old and rusty showing it is very old and she only has it to take her own life. She smokes and drinks in the sequence suggesting she is unhealthy and trying to forget about the things she has done or she is addicted to things and tried to make herself feel better.

Naturalistic lighting is used in the sequence and shadows are very visible, showing she may be trying to hide something.

8th February 2010 - Thriller Planning

In today's lesson, the class began to split into groups. In my group the is Oliver Burrows and I, we decided to work in this group as we both have the same target grades and find it easier to work in a smaller group as there is less contrast in opinions and views.

The first stage of the planning process was brainstorming out ideas, we did this together as we shared our different views on what we could do and what we each thought would make a good thriller opening. We split the brainstorm into two pieces the first had connotations about : Sound, Time, Location, Costume, props and characters on. The other had, Actors, Story, Colour and title.

These are our story boards:

Once we had finished brainstorming, we moved as a group to creating and thing of questions that could be asked on our questionnaire, we decided out target audience would be late teenagers and young adults. This questionnaire consists of 10 questions seen below with multiple choice answers:

1. What would be the best location for a thriller opening?:
• Woodlands
• City
• Indoors

2. What time of day should it be set?:
• Early Morning
• Afternoon
• Night

3. How many characters would be suitable?:
• 1
• 2
• 3+

4. What type of storyline?:
• Stalker
• Romance
• Revenge
• Unprovoked

5. What type of sounds?:
• Suspense
• Diegetic
• Non-diegetic
• Ambient

6. Lighting?:
• High key
• Naturalistic

7. Actors?:
• Male
• Female

8. Possible props and costumes that could be used?:

9. Should speech be used?:
• Yes
• No

10. What colours could be used?:

We chose these questions as we thought these questions would give us the best idea of what the audience would want to see in a thriller opening. It will allow us to know if they prefer to have speaking in the opening of if they want a silence with diegetic sounds in the shot.

The next step we did this lesson was created a filming schedule which shows when we are going to film the shots, where we are going to film the shots, what costumes we are going to need on the day and what filming equipment and other props we would need. We did this so we could see what we were meant to be doing each day while filming so we where not to loose or waste any time we could use filming.

This was out filming schedule:

Filming time - Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February

Location - Toton Sidings

Time - Mid-afternoon

Equipment - DV Camera, DVF tape, Tripod

Actors - Sam Willis and Ashley Grantham

Costume - Stalker Character: Long black Coat, Jeans, Boots
Indie Kid: Hoodie, Flat peak, Jeans, Trainers

Props - Headphones and Bag

Both characters will be present on the day of filming as we need them both in some of the sots. We should be able to get all necessary shots take over this weekend, however we have allowed ourselves to use the following week to film any more shots we need.