https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr8XkXgS7RI
Thursday, 13 March 2014
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
AS Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Most thriller films the general conventions are mainly through creating different effects for the audience using things such as iconography, mis-en-scene, costumes, characters and many more. They also need to include the three main things that all thrillers need to include to help build the tension and keep the audience engaged within the film; they are - Suspense, Shock and Surprise.
The most typical generic conventions to a thriller would be that a young blonde girl gets innocently murdered or tortured by the killer. We have seen this happen in many films such as, Saw, Paranormal Activity, Drag me to Hell, Physco and the Human Centipede. These were all very successful thriller films as there genre was very relatable for the audience. It made you think that bad things are always going to happen, when for example in Paranormal Activity when the clip slows down and the low key lighting occurs you know you have to prepare yourself for the worse; it as us at the edge of our seat.
Our thriller we compared it to Scream. This is because we have shown the murder weapon as being a knife with the hidden identity of the murderer like in Scream. The genre of the film is to scare people into thinking somebody is behind them and to warn people that wherever they may go something might happen, and this is what we had to make sure we included in our thriller.
We had many different conventions that we used in our opening scene of a thriller and we included these so that we could make our thriller as typically like one as possible, so that the audience will be enticed and intrigued to watch it. One of the first conventions used was iconography. The iconography used that was conventional to a thriller was a large knife. This is conventional to a thriller film as it would be your typical weapon used to murder innocent victims, and in our case the young boy. We know that this is typical to your thriller film as we see knifes used as murder weapons in films such as Scream and Saw. The knife adds tension and suspense as the audience do not know whether the knife is going to be used or whether it will be for threat.
Another convention we used in our thriller was low key lighting. The low key lighting we used purposely to create chialoscuro, this is used for creating shadows. This is conventional to a thriller genre as the low key lighting creates dark, eary and dark atmosphere which makes the audience feel tension within the film, and this therefore entices them to watch the film as they want to know what is going on. We have used this in our thriller so that we can make the thriller more conventional, as this would therefore be part of the cinematography elements of our thriller. This would also be stereotypical of a thriller as the characters can be more scared (whilst making the audience more scared) due to the low key lighting reducing how much they can see.
In thriller films, there usuqally is an antagonist and a protagonist; this can be two charcters or just one, and this can make the charcter have an unstabke emotional state resolving in the actions of them. In the thriler
In all thriller films, there is usually always a protagonist and an antagonist; whether this is two separate characters or simply one, such as in a psychological thriller where it is a battle between the characters mental and emotional state. In thrillers, the victim is stereotypically always a female who is oblivious to what is going on or is too gullible to do anything about it. It is important for the audience to relate to the victim so they will feel sorry for her, and so will feel the full effect of all the scenes. The victim therefore needs to be believable, and this can be achieved through certain aspects of mise-en-scene.
Conventions of a thriller that we used?
Low key lighting
tEENAGED CHARCTER VICTIM
setting
costume
Most thriller films the general conventions are mainly through creating different effects for the audience using things such as iconography, mis-en-scene, costumes, characters and many more. They also need to include the three main things that all thrillers need to include to help build the tension and keep the audience engaged within the film; they are - Suspense, Shock and Surprise.
The most typical generic conventions to a thriller would be that a young blonde girl gets innocently murdered or tortured by the killer. We have seen this happen in many films such as, Saw, Paranormal Activity, Drag me to Hell, Physco and the Human Centipede. These were all very successful thriller films as there genre was very relatable for the audience. It made you think that bad things are always going to happen, when for example in Paranormal Activity when the clip slows down and the low key lighting occurs you know you have to prepare yourself for the worse; it as us at the edge of our seat.
Our thriller we compared it to Scream. This is because we have shown the murder weapon as being a knife with the hidden identity of the murderer like in Scream. The genre of the film is to scare people into thinking somebody is behind them and to warn people that wherever they may go something might happen, and this is what we had to make sure we included in our thriller.
We had many different conventions that we used in our opening scene of a thriller and we included these so that we could make our thriller as typically like one as possible, so that the audience will be enticed and intrigued to watch it. One of the first conventions used was iconography. The iconography used that was conventional to a thriller was a large knife. This is conventional to a thriller film as it would be your typical weapon used to murder innocent victims, and in our case the young boy. We know that this is typical to your thriller film as we see knifes used as murder weapons in films such as Scream and Saw. The knife adds tension and suspense as the audience do not know whether the knife is going to be used or whether it will be for threat.
Another convention we used in our thriller was low key lighting. The low key lighting we used purposely to create chialoscuro, this is used for creating shadows. This is conventional to a thriller genre as the low key lighting creates dark, eary and dark atmosphere which makes the audience feel tension within the film, and this therefore entices them to watch the film as they want to know what is going on. We have used this in our thriller so that we can make the thriller more conventional, as this would therefore be part of the cinematography elements of our thriller. This would also be stereotypical of a thriller as the characters can be more scared (whilst making the audience more scared) due to the low key lighting reducing how much they can see.
In thriller films, there usuqally is an antagonist and a protagonist; this can be two charcters or just one, and this can make the charcter have an unstabke emotional state resolving in the actions of them. In the thriler
In all thriller films, there is usually always a protagonist and an antagonist; whether this is two separate characters or simply one, such as in a psychological thriller where it is a battle between the characters mental and emotional state. In thrillers, the victim is stereotypically always a female who is oblivious to what is going on or is too gullible to do anything about it. It is important for the audience to relate to the victim so they will feel sorry for her, and so will feel the full effect of all the scenes. The victim therefore needs to be believable, and this can be achieved through certain aspects of mise-en-scene.
Conventions of a thriller that we used?
Low key lighting
tEENAGED CHARCTER VICTIM
setting
costume
Evaluation As Question 2 - How does your media product represent
The main characters in our film included a young teen couple who were together in the young boys home. The young teen had a previous boyfriend whom in which she ended the relationship with to be with the boy. Unfortunately, the ex boyfriend took it the wrong way and wanted his revenge, as he is a very possessive and overpowering boy he ends up convincing the girl by force to help in murdering her current boyfriend. We included the young girl as she was pretty, young and innocent and this is what we have seen throughout the entire analysis of different films.
We twisted the usual story line in which we made sure the young girl wasn't murdered and that in fact she is made to killer her own boyfriend, but in our opening scene we do not actually see this and we are led to believe it is her when it could be the murderer himself. This obviously added a effect to the audience where we left them in suspense. We included the young boyfriend as we believed that there obviously had to be a victim but not necessarily a young female. He was the initial victim so that the story could be a mystery as the young girl goes missing after the murder takes place, and he is how the plot continues after the opening scene. We finally have the ex boyfriend who is the murderer. We made sure his identity is hidden as it is never revealed until the end but we made sure we see some sort of action from him in the opening scene. This added the suspense to the scene as we as the audience we cannot see the identity of the murderer so it remains a mystery which therefore intrigues the audience to continue watching the film and find out who the murderer actually is.
Gender isn't represented in a stereotypical way as we see the boy for once in the vulnerable position instead of the young brunette. This makes her look powerful as she is the one who kills her boyfriend, but vulnerable as well as she is made to by her fierce ex boyfriend.
Our characters would appeal to the audience as they are realistic. Some people could of had bad relationships which have haunted them to this day, and they could see the terrible outcomes of sick and twisted mind corrupt another relationship. They would also appeal to the audience as they rating of our film is a 15 so the audience would be teenagers themselves and it would engage them more to see young teens like themselves on screen to make them more scared as they may think it could happen to them.
The audience would be able to build a relationship with the audience as the characters are realtable to the audiences age. We have purposly done this so that we culd make the audience feel more relatable to the charcters.
how would audience build a relationship with the charcters.
We twisted the usual story line in which we made sure the young girl wasn't murdered and that in fact she is made to killer her own boyfriend, but in our opening scene we do not actually see this and we are led to believe it is her when it could be the murderer himself. This obviously added a effect to the audience where we left them in suspense. We included the young boyfriend as we believed that there obviously had to be a victim but not necessarily a young female. He was the initial victim so that the story could be a mystery as the young girl goes missing after the murder takes place, and he is how the plot continues after the opening scene. We finally have the ex boyfriend who is the murderer. We made sure his identity is hidden as it is never revealed until the end but we made sure we see some sort of action from him in the opening scene. This added the suspense to the scene as we as the audience we cannot see the identity of the murderer so it remains a mystery which therefore intrigues the audience to continue watching the film and find out who the murderer actually is.
Gender isn't represented in a stereotypical way as we see the boy for once in the vulnerable position instead of the young brunette. This makes her look powerful as she is the one who kills her boyfriend, but vulnerable as well as she is made to by her fierce ex boyfriend.
Our characters would appeal to the audience as they are realistic. Some people could of had bad relationships which have haunted them to this day, and they could see the terrible outcomes of sick and twisted mind corrupt another relationship. They would also appeal to the audience as they rating of our film is a 15 so the audience would be teenagers themselves and it would engage them more to see young teens like themselves on screen to make them more scared as they may think it could happen to them.
The audience would be able to build a relationship with the audience as the characters are realtable to the audiences age. We have purposly done this so that we culd make the audience feel more relatable to the charcters.
how would audience build a relationship with the charcters.
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Evaluation AS 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that there are many different film companies that I personally think would be best suited to distribute our media product. Although, despite this there is one particular film company that I believe would be best to ditricbute our thriller. This company is Dimension Films. I have chosen this company as it has distributed many different thriller films, including one of the best, and well known films of all time 'Scream'.
This company has had many successful screenings with Scream and I have chosen this company due to the fact our storyline is very much like Scream. This is because we ave similar characters like the vulnerable girls, the physcotic murders (usually the boyfriend who wants revenge).
Within the four films they produced they only had a total of US $119 million and had a total box office total of $604,281,850 dollars.
A media institution is important to consider when distributing our thriller because without it, there wouldn’t be such a strong opportunity to allow our thriller to be successful because it wouldn’t be known. A big part of a thrillers success is due to the company that distributed it because if it is a known company with good products, people are more willing to sit and watch it, where as if it is a less known, less successful company then not a lot of people would go to see it as there wouldn’t be such strong advertisement and promotion around it. I therefore conclude that I would like Dimension films to produce my film as I believe it is very conventional of a thriller like my own and had a very successful large and popular audience range
Media istitution is someone who distributes a film
Evaluation AS 4
When my group and I were creating our opening sequence we took into consideration that the scenes used needed to be appropriate to our target audience. Having a target audience allowed us to know and concentrate on what levels of features we can include in our opening sequence so that it’s not too extreme for our slightly younger audience. We needed to be careful of the amount of profanities, gore and violence used as too much of it wouldn't be appropriate for our target audience and perhaps ending up to be too much for the audience and resulting into a 'flop' of a film. We made our target audience the certificate of 15 and older because we felt that it would welcome a large variety of age’s to watch our thriller and entertain them at the same time. As our story was very much indicated at the events teenagers go through we believed it was appropriate to cater for them
For example where we have included someone some graphic scenes of the young boy killed and having blood all over him, scenes of torture where the girl is being chased by the murderer and forced to help him kill her own boyfriend; therefore we felt at 15, teenagers would be able to handle a great deal more without being to frightened and disturbed and would be able to cope with the more scenes like this.
Our main focus for the audience in our opening scene was for them to feel engaged and throughout the opening sequence as Charlotte and I included many of the strong elements to hold their attention in order to gain their positive liking towards our work. For example, we have included charters that we relatale to the audience, so we used the young vulnerable innocent girl and she was conventional to a thriller as she looked as if she was the one who was going to be killed. Unlikely she engaged the audience as she was so relatable to the audiences and your typical girls personality and this made everyone feel as like the film itself was real. It made them feel sympathetic towards the character as they were so relatable to people in the audience and again this made them more engaged with the opening sequence.
Another element that has helped us develop a relationship with the audience is the use of this diagetic sound. It really emphasises the characters panic and fear, this makes the audience tense and feel sorry for our character and desperate to help. Due to these elements, I believe that our audience would find a connection and relationship with my characters and therefore our opening.
Explain how your thriller film appeals to an audience (narrative, characters. soundtrack, camera etc)
Evaluation AS 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by introducing many different ideas that they could of possibly wanted to hear and see within our thriller or a typical thriller film. As part of finding out what I could include in my opening sequence, I had to explore ways of which to attract the audience and how I would go about doing so. In order to help me, I looked at the work of successful thrillers of the same target audience as ours and took inspiration. I also made many different questionnaires and this helped with our research and this helped us cater for the specific public and find out what people of certain ages wanted in a thriller, therefore helping us decide on a final opening sequence.
From the questionnaires and the research from the other films I looked out I found that the concept of gore and murder was very high and popular with the audiences and the film industry. The conventional killing weapon was a knife so we decided to include this into our thriller. I also found out we could possibly use profanities and alot of gore. By looking at successful thrillers and taking inspiration from them, I was able to generate unique ideas and as a result of it I came up with ideas that I felt would attract the audience that I wanted. I was able to do so by adding young characters around the age of 15-18, therefore making them a big part of my thriller as the audience that I want to attract were young teenagers. This made the audience get attracted to our thriller, as we took into consideration their opinions ad their age and they felt that they could relate to the characters, this was an advantage a they then were able to get more engaged with the thriller.
I created a questionnaire which helped towards get the audiences opinion so I could adapt it into my opening sequence and therefore it would be more successful, as if the audience have their say in what goes into it, they will be more willing to want to watch it and then tell their friends about it. This means I would gain more views, which leads to more people talking about my final product so that we can achieve what a good reaction from our audience. The more views I had on my blog, the more likely I was appealing to the audiences of my age and that they showed an interest in my final opening sequence. Around 20% of people thought that the thing they wanted to see most in a thriller was suspense, and by adding thing such as low key lighting and realistic characters, then this would of attracted the audience as they felt like the thriller was real and that they were part of the film.
Researching through the age certificates and the BBFC allowed me to get a clear understanding of the do’s and don’ts of which I could include into my opening sequence that my group and I were working on. This therefore determined whether the final product was successful or not. The BBFC gave us examples of the appropriate age certificate for our film, and the successful films of around the 15-18 certificate, and when analysing them we saw what the public though by its profits and this obviously meant a successful thriller film.
I also attracted the audience by the iconography we used and this included a knife as part of the iconography and I got this idea from scream 2. I used a knife as I felt this was a widely used weapon that was conventional to a thriller and would portray fear and tension to most of my audience. By gathering this primary and secondary it helped to assist my group and me with an outline as to what targets I need to meet in order to gather our audience and attract them into watching my final product so it is then successful.
Evaluation AS 6
I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this project and some of which have kept me on my feet and organised for the entire project.
For example, in order to plan and evaluate myself and Charlotte's opening sequence as well as research what makes a successful thriller, I used blogger. Using blogger allowed me to document each of my different types of research and on what I needed to do and give me a clear understanding of where I was in the project and how much information I included; also how to go about certain key elements that are needed within a thriller.
By doing this, I was then able to conduct all my research into a blog and keep track of my progress with regards to the skills that I have learned, and the skills of which I have now applied to my opening sequence. Many of the blogs were to do with the research following then to the thriller. I researched into conventions of a thriller and what made thrillers successful so I would then be able to produce a successful final product. We also conducted questionnaires which we then posted into blogger and we used this for Microsoft Xcel. Blogger also allowed me to keep all of my work organised and clear for myself and others to read, this was important throughout because lack of organisation would delay the process of making the thriller as I wouldn't have known how to carry out the planning of my opening sequence clearly
Another piece of technology I used was the camera and tripod. The camera enabled me to film my thriller and gave me the opportunity to use many different camera shots such as Point of View, Handheld , Close-ups and High Angles. When editing it was easier to film certain angles before others and to piece it together smoothly and successfully due to the successful filming with the camera. Alongside with the camera that I used came a tripod. The tripod helped my Charlotte and I to accomplish the necessary camera shots on an even and stable level so that our filming looks more professional and so that we had a much better focus on the action we were filming. Having POV camera angles in thrillers is very successful, but by having it too much can make our final product look unprofessional and amateur which is something my group and I do not want to achieve, therefore using the tripod allowed us to experiment with how to handle our camera shots too. The POV camera angle came from inspiration of Paranormal Activity and this gave us great help with filming as we used POV whilst also the focus on specific things by using the tripod.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Finally onto the technology that helped my group and me to develop our final product further, is an editing programme called Final Cut Pro X. This programme allowed my group and I to view all of our recordings and let us piece the final product together. It gave us the ability to make our ammeter project look very professional as we had the chance to use the special effects such as blur, swipe etc so that the audience felt more intrigued and interested in the opening scene. With regards to the sound and credits, that was also put together on Final Cut Pro X, and were able to mix sounds together to create one lengthy track to cover us for the entire scene. This gave us the suspense and tension we needed for it to be a conventional thriller scene.
WHAT DID WE USE? - CUT TOOL TO CUT FOOTAGE, FAST FOWARD, PROJECTOR EFFECT,
Lastly, to create my evaluation I first used Microsoft Word this was so it was easier for me to put it onto blogger so I could edit my writing alot easier rather than to continually save and draft my work. I also used prezzi as it allowed me to section my work off in a more productive way and show more o interesting and modern twist to the typical essays.
For example, in order to plan and evaluate myself and Charlotte's opening sequence as well as research what makes a successful thriller, I used blogger. Using blogger allowed me to document each of my different types of research and on what I needed to do and give me a clear understanding of where I was in the project and how much information I included; also how to go about certain key elements that are needed within a thriller.
By doing this, I was then able to conduct all my research into a blog and keep track of my progress with regards to the skills that I have learned, and the skills of which I have now applied to my opening sequence. Many of the blogs were to do with the research following then to the thriller. I researched into conventions of a thriller and what made thrillers successful so I would then be able to produce a successful final product. We also conducted questionnaires which we then posted into blogger and we used this for Microsoft Xcel. Blogger also allowed me to keep all of my work organised and clear for myself and others to read, this was important throughout because lack of organisation would delay the process of making the thriller as I wouldn't have known how to carry out the planning of my opening sequence clearly
Another piece of technology I used was the camera and tripod. The camera enabled me to film my thriller and gave me the opportunity to use many different camera shots such as Point of View, Handheld , Close-ups and High Angles. When editing it was easier to film certain angles before others and to piece it together smoothly and successfully due to the successful filming with the camera. Alongside with the camera that I used came a tripod. The tripod helped my Charlotte and I to accomplish the necessary camera shots on an even and stable level so that our filming looks more professional and so that we had a much better focus on the action we were filming. Having POV camera angles in thrillers is very successful, but by having it too much can make our final product look unprofessional and amateur which is something my group and I do not want to achieve, therefore using the tripod allowed us to experiment with how to handle our camera shots too. The POV camera angle came from inspiration of Paranormal Activity and this gave us great help with filming as we used POV whilst also the focus on specific things by using the tripod.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Finally onto the technology that helped my group and me to develop our final product further, is an editing programme called Final Cut Pro X. This programme allowed my group and I to view all of our recordings and let us piece the final product together. It gave us the ability to make our ammeter project look very professional as we had the chance to use the special effects such as blur, swipe etc so that the audience felt more intrigued and interested in the opening scene. With regards to the sound and credits, that was also put together on Final Cut Pro X, and were able to mix sounds together to create one lengthy track to cover us for the entire scene. This gave us the suspense and tension we needed for it to be a conventional thriller scene.
WHAT DID WE USE? - CUT TOOL TO CUT FOOTAGE, FAST FOWARD, PROJECTOR EFFECT,
Lastly, to create my evaluation I first used Microsoft Word this was so it was easier for me to put it onto blogger so I could edit my writing alot easier rather than to continually save and draft my work. I also used prezzi as it allowed me to section my work off in a more productive way and show more o interesting and modern twist to the typical essays.
Evaluation AS 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task we have learnt so much from software to editing skills and many different things that include filming. As the preliminary task was one of our first times using the equipment (tripod, video camera) we started to experiment with different angles. We used basic editing skills to try and make the task work, but unfortunately the action on screen wasn't flowing how we would like and this made our filming not look as high of a quality. We also didn't take our acting as seriously as we should of, and we didn't edit our some of the parts where we looked like we were laughing. This obviously would of had a problem if we continued like this in our thriller as people do not expect to see laughter in a conventional thriller film.
Another problem we had when filming the preliminary task was how to work the camera. This could of been a problem if we didn't resolve it as the camera didn't have enough memory on the memory card so we had to figure out as a group on what things to delete and take the advice from our teacher in order to film. We also had to figure out how to position the camera for specific angles, for example we tried angles such as; Point of view, High Angle, Low Angle. We experimented with these specific examples of angles, because we planned to use them in our final cut of our thriller. We needed extra practice and work on how to be able to hold and focus the camera when moving and how to start and stop the camera at certain times to save us time on editing. The problems we had with the camera angles was that we could have injured ourselves by standing on a high chair in a public place, as we could have fallen off or been knocked off by accident and hurt ourselves/ or the people around us.
When learning throughout the whole project, we learnt how to use the software properly, which was Final Cut Pro X. We corrected our problems like the tripod as we learnt and asked for help on how to correctly set the tripod up. Once we figured out the focus we we able to film different scenes and this helped with the quality of the action we had. Another way we corrected our problems was the basic editing skills, once we had more time to get used to the software, we worked well as a team and introduced things such as; blurs, colour changing, and ways in which to make the action flow much better. This would be an advantage for us as we are able to focus on making the editing more like a real film instead of your typical children's film. We also corrected our acting. Where we knew we had to focus and get the work done to a high quality standard, we took our acting seriously and made sure we had a plan before we started filming on how long we were going to spend on it and how we were going to act it. With the camera angles, such as POV at first we were walking or running too fast with the camera which made it have a jagged effect and it unfocussed in the action. To correct this we decided to walk alot slower when filming and this surprisingly gave us an advantage as the audience believed this gave alot more tension and suspense and this is what we wanted to convey in our thriller. Lastly, the risks we had when trying to film the high angles, we decided to do a risk assessment, and in this we created a table of all th risks we could have when filming. In this we included the fact that we had to stand onhigh tops and chairs in order to film high angles. We corrected this by making sure we had somebody to support us by either holding the chair or us so that we were stable and were less likely to fall.
Looking back at our preliminary task we have learnt so much from software to editing skills and many different things that include filming. As the preliminary task was one of our first times using the equipment (tripod, video camera) we started to experiment with different angles. We used basic editing skills to try and make the task work, but unfortunately the action on screen wasn't flowing how we would like and this made our filming not look as high of a quality. We also didn't take our acting as seriously as we should of, and we didn't edit our some of the parts where we looked like we were laughing. This obviously would of had a problem if we continued like this in our thriller as people do not expect to see laughter in a conventional thriller film.
Another problem we had when filming the preliminary task was how to work the camera. This could of been a problem if we didn't resolve it as the camera didn't have enough memory on the memory card so we had to figure out as a group on what things to delete and take the advice from our teacher in order to film. We also had to figure out how to position the camera for specific angles, for example we tried angles such as; Point of view, High Angle, Low Angle. We experimented with these specific examples of angles, because we planned to use them in our final cut of our thriller. We needed extra practice and work on how to be able to hold and focus the camera when moving and how to start and stop the camera at certain times to save us time on editing. The problems we had with the camera angles was that we could have injured ourselves by standing on a high chair in a public place, as we could have fallen off or been knocked off by accident and hurt ourselves/ or the people around us.
When learning throughout the whole project, we learnt how to use the software properly, which was Final Cut Pro X. We corrected our problems like the tripod as we learnt and asked for help on how to correctly set the tripod up. Once we figured out the focus we we able to film different scenes and this helped with the quality of the action we had. Another way we corrected our problems was the basic editing skills, once we had more time to get used to the software, we worked well as a team and introduced things such as; blurs, colour changing, and ways in which to make the action flow much better. This would be an advantage for us as we are able to focus on making the editing more like a real film instead of your typical children's film. We also corrected our acting. Where we knew we had to focus and get the work done to a high quality standard, we took our acting seriously and made sure we had a plan before we started filming on how long we were going to spend on it and how we were going to act it. With the camera angles, such as POV at first we were walking or running too fast with the camera which made it have a jagged effect and it unfocussed in the action. To correct this we decided to walk alot slower when filming and this surprisingly gave us an advantage as the audience believed this gave alot more tension and suspense and this is what we wanted to convey in our thriller. Lastly, the risks we had when trying to film the high angles, we decided to do a risk assessment, and in this we created a table of all th risks we could have when filming. In this we included the fact that we had to stand onhigh tops and chairs in order to film high angles. We corrected this by making sure we had somebody to support us by either holding the chair or us so that we were stable and were less likely to fall.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Thriller Comparison- Miss Georgiou
Overall when making our thriller opening sequence, we included many of the typical things you would see within a thriller genre. Charlotte and I made sure that the conventions of a thriller were included and that we created suspense and tension within the thriller whilst keeping it realistic and making the audience feel like they were part of the thriller.
I believe that our thriller was successful as we researched into thrillers many times before putting together the final product and gathering ideas. This helped us to gather ideas for the thriller and by using conventions such as - suspense, tension, young innocent victim, hidden identity of the killer ; it enabled us to put together a realistic approach to a thriller yet keeping the audience engaged throughout. It was also successful as we had great feedback and we worked well and efficiently as a team in order to make this a productive project
My opening sequence contained many different features such as low-key lighting and i used this as i believed that it was one of the most important conventions to a thriller in order to make the thriller have more suspense and tension.
My opening sequence contains features such as low key lighting used through out in order to show a metaphor for how dark the plot of my opening sequence is. Also effective, tense sounds are used in order to make the audience feel up-tight and scared as they aren't aware of what's going to happen in the opening sequence. The cinematopgraphy used within my opening sequence is very conentional to thrillers such as hand held, high angle, and close up. These camera angles allows the audience to view how the characters are feeling and portrays their fear clearly, as well as emphasising the vulnerability of the characters. Therefore, due to these conventions that I have included within my opening sequence, I believe that my opening sequence is successful.
Throughout the whole opening sequence I contributed towards each element within the product but I felt that my best work can be seen in hair and make up. This is because being a female, with required expectations on how to look through pressue from societ, I am able to understand the importance of appearance and am therefore able to apply my understanding towards the characters in my opening sequence. For example, the youthful female used within my opening sequence has blonde, thick hair representing a typical convention towards thrillers. This is because it has been seen in many films, such as Hitchcock's Pyscho, Jaws, Scream 2, Saw and many more. Blonde victims are portrayed to be gullible, weak characters who lack intellegence and ultimately make a perfect victim. The female's outfit showed her character because she's wearing clothes that cover her body, which I felt would be powerful to use as it makes the audience question the females self worth and opinion on herself because she has her body covered up throughout. This relates to the audience because a lot of young girls are shy to show their figures and ultimately have low self esteem, so I was confident that by adding this into my opening sequence would gain, particularly the female audiences of the opening sequence because they would be able to relate. Therefore I felt it would be best to make sure the female character would be blonde in my opening sequence so it showed my understanding of conentions within a thriller. However, I then became creative with my second character who is played by a male. I used a slightly older character who had a sophisticated look to him to show my own unique twist on my opening sequence. Using the materials that I had to create a strong male allowed the audience to feel a sense of security and comfort, the male character is misleading to the audience because he has this strong approach to him, yet as my opening sequence goes on there is a clear show of vulnerability and therefore tricks the audience. Another character of which I was in control of costume and make up is the killer. I was sure to dress the killer in dark clothes and masked his face in order to inheighten the sense of enigma. Having an unknown character to the audience makes a tense atmopshere and a sense of vulnerabilty is thrust upon the audience. Having a masked killer in black clothing follows the typical conventions of a thriller and therefore I wanted to include this into my group and I's opening sequence. Due to the audiences reactions to the characters who were dressed to my accord and had myself take care of their appearance, I saw a lot of positivity with regards to how approachable the characters where and how their appearance had drawn the audience in. Therefore, with regards to my creativity and understanding of my thriller opening sequence in hair, make up and costumes it shows my complex understanding of how to get the audience to enjoy the opening sequence and be drawn to the main feature of the film - the characters.
I believe that our thriller was successful as we researched into thrillers many times before putting together the final product and gathering ideas. This helped us to gather ideas for the thriller and by using conventions such as - suspense, tension, young innocent victim, hidden identity of the killer ; it enabled us to put together a realistic approach to a thriller yet keeping the audience engaged throughout. It was also successful as we had great feedback and we worked well and efficiently as a team in order to make this a productive project
My opening sequence contained many different features such as low-key lighting and i used this as i believed that it was one of the most important conventions to a thriller in order to make the thriller have more suspense and tension.
My opening sequence contains features such as low key lighting used through out in order to show a metaphor for how dark the plot of my opening sequence is. Also effective, tense sounds are used in order to make the audience feel up-tight and scared as they aren't aware of what's going to happen in the opening sequence. The cinematopgraphy used within my opening sequence is very conentional to thrillers such as hand held, high angle, and close up. These camera angles allows the audience to view how the characters are feeling and portrays their fear clearly, as well as emphasising the vulnerability of the characters. Therefore, due to these conventions that I have included within my opening sequence, I believe that my opening sequence is successful.
Throughout the whole opening sequence I contributed towards each element within the product but I felt that my best work can be seen in hair and make up. This is because being a female, with required expectations on how to look through pressue from societ, I am able to understand the importance of appearance and am therefore able to apply my understanding towards the characters in my opening sequence. For example, the youthful female used within my opening sequence has blonde, thick hair representing a typical convention towards thrillers. This is because it has been seen in many films, such as Hitchcock's Pyscho, Jaws, Scream 2, Saw and many more. Blonde victims are portrayed to be gullible, weak characters who lack intellegence and ultimately make a perfect victim. The female's outfit showed her character because she's wearing clothes that cover her body, which I felt would be powerful to use as it makes the audience question the females self worth and opinion on herself because she has her body covered up throughout. This relates to the audience because a lot of young girls are shy to show their figures and ultimately have low self esteem, so I was confident that by adding this into my opening sequence would gain, particularly the female audiences of the opening sequence because they would be able to relate. Therefore I felt it would be best to make sure the female character would be blonde in my opening sequence so it showed my understanding of conentions within a thriller. However, I then became creative with my second character who is played by a male. I used a slightly older character who had a sophisticated look to him to show my own unique twist on my opening sequence. Using the materials that I had to create a strong male allowed the audience to feel a sense of security and comfort, the male character is misleading to the audience because he has this strong approach to him, yet as my opening sequence goes on there is a clear show of vulnerability and therefore tricks the audience. Another character of which I was in control of costume and make up is the killer. I was sure to dress the killer in dark clothes and masked his face in order to inheighten the sense of enigma. Having an unknown character to the audience makes a tense atmopshere and a sense of vulnerabilty is thrust upon the audience. Having a masked killer in black clothing follows the typical conventions of a thriller and therefore I wanted to include this into my group and I's opening sequence. Due to the audiences reactions to the characters who were dressed to my accord and had myself take care of their appearance, I saw a lot of positivity with regards to how approachable the characters where and how their appearance had drawn the audience in. Therefore, with regards to my creativity and understanding of my thriller opening sequence in hair, make up and costumes it shows my complex understanding of how to get the audience to enjoy the opening sequence and be drawn to the main feature of the film - the characters.
·
Which micro element, best shows your creativity
and understanding of thriller conventions the most?
·
Compare your opening sequence to a successful
thriller and explain how your thriller is conventional. Consider the narrative,
representation of characters, sounds, editing, mise-en-scene
Audience feedback- Miss Georgiou
Audience feedback is essential when we created our thriller as we received many different feedbacks in order to help us improve and discuss what we could do to better our opening sequence.
We firstly showed our opening sequence to the audience as our target audience were ages 15-18 as er rated our film as a 15 certificate. We received feedback through many different ways eg:- screening of our production, focus groups and questionnaires. We put all of our feedback onto an A3 sheet of paper and then Charlotte and I discussed the matters and directed the feedback back into our thriller to hopefully improve it. We put the questionnaire results into charts to show what people thought of our ideas about the opening sequence. This enabled us to see their personal opinions.
The feedback would benefit our production and the industry as it helps us with our personal gain within the opening sequence. Feedback lets the industry know what went well and how the film could be improved if they added certain things into it. It would enable us to get constructive criticism from the feedback which would let us know what we could do next time in order to improve our production, this would also benefit the industry as they can also get feedback on what to improve and what the audience want in the next film.
One of the positive comments we had was good use of low key lighting used with the projecter effect. The audeince felt that this was very conventional to a thriller genre and that they believed that from this they themsleves were in our storyline and the low key lighting created suspense and tension, which made them scared for the next and upcoming scene. The projecter effect they said made the thriller more like a home film, and this is what we wanted our thriller opening scene to feel like. This is because we wanted the audience to feel like they are the killer, and by using Point Of View camera angle we achieved this and made the audience feel like they were part of the film and they said that it made it more effective as everything felt more realistic.
Another possitive comment we had was the characters and the storyline in which they were based. They felt that the charcter (killer) was very realistic and the storyline of him being in a jealous rage and wanting revenge was even more relaistic and the audience felt that they could relate to this. The young girlfriend they thought was conventional to a thriller as she looked the innocent character but infact they loved that we changed it up a bit and that they are led to believe that the young girl is infact the one who kills her current boyfriend. As the characters were around the ages of 15-18 the audience said they felt again, more relaistic features about the thriller as they were more engaged with the opening sequence due to the charcters being the same age as them.
Finally, the last positive feedback we had was our editing. The audience felt that the editing of the credits created a sense of tension and that they were intrigued to know what actors were in the film. We used the colour convention of red and white which contrasted with eachother as we wanted the red to represent the blood of the murders, and white to show the innocence and the purity of the people whose lives are taken. This made the audience think more about the actors and what could then happen in the opening sequence.
We had a few constructive comments that we took into consideration. One was the editing of the credits and that they were too small and fast for them to read. We then corrected the problem and made the font of our text much bigger and by making the timing of the text coming in slower, the audience then said it created tension as they got to focus on the actors (in the credits) whislt also focussing on the action on screen.
Secondly, we had another constructive comment on our thriller and this was to do with our mis-en-scene. This was the clothing we used in our thriller. At first we used a mask for the killer and we didnt believe this was realistic to a teenaged genre, and at first the audience didnt think this part was too realstic, yet they thought it was conventional to a thriller. In this sense, we changed the entire clothing of the killer, and made him wear a hooded jacket, big boots and tracksuite bottoms, as this would of been a sterotype of a typical teenaged boy. This then made the audience feel as if they could relate to the murderer and then this added effect to our thriller as they character became more relasitic.
Lastly, our finaly constructive comment was the sound. We had the same sound running throughout the entire sequence and the audience though this didnt create tension or suspense, and made it sound constant withour any dramatic twists. We then took this comment on board and we then were able to put in other sound clips which made the scene sound more dramatic, and then this made the audience feel scared to watch as we made the sound link with the events happening on screen.
We followed the aims of the brief as we made the characters realistic, we kept to the time scheduale and we kept on task throughout. We also kept to the brief as our opening sequence was two minutes long and no longer, and we made the audience feel that this was realistic and conventional to a thriller, and made the audience feel like they were in the film themselves.
We firstly showed our opening sequence to the audience as our target audience were ages 15-18 as er rated our film as a 15 certificate. We received feedback through many different ways eg:- screening of our production, focus groups and questionnaires. We put all of our feedback onto an A3 sheet of paper and then Charlotte and I discussed the matters and directed the feedback back into our thriller to hopefully improve it. We put the questionnaire results into charts to show what people thought of our ideas about the opening sequence. This enabled us to see their personal opinions.
The feedback would benefit our production and the industry as it helps us with our personal gain within the opening sequence. Feedback lets the industry know what went well and how the film could be improved if they added certain things into it. It would enable us to get constructive criticism from the feedback which would let us know what we could do next time in order to improve our production, this would also benefit the industry as they can also get feedback on what to improve and what the audience want in the next film.
Lastly, our finaly constructive comment was the sound. We had the same sound running throughout the entire sequence and the audience though this didnt create tension or suspense, and made it sound constant withour any dramatic twists. We then took this comment on board and we then were able to put in other sound clips which made the scene sound more dramatic, and then this made the audience feel scared to watch as we made the sound link with the events happening on screen.
We followed the aims of the brief as we made the characters realistic, we kept to the time scheduale and we kept on task throughout. We also kept to the brief as our opening sequence was two minutes long and no longer, and we made the audience feel that this was realistic and conventional to a thriller, and made the audience feel like they were in the film themselves.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Evaluation - Miss Georgiou
In our evaluation our group decided that we actually worked really well as team . Although we lost a member of our group, Charlotte and I co-operated well together and worked very well as a team. We found that we took on bored each others ideas and decided the positives and the negatives about those particular ideas and then made them into our thriller. Charlotte is a very intelligent girl and I had a lot of fun working with her , she gave many great ideas for the storyboard and interacted with the camera when we filmed our thriller.
There were many roles me and Charlotte decided to give each other. For example my particular roles were Director and Editor. These were very big roles as I had to consider the best ways in which would help create the suspense and tension when filming and adding edits into our thriller opening scene. Charlotte was costume designer and producer in which we both decided what costumes to wear to make our thriller look more realistic for the audience. By Charlotte being producer she made the final edits and cuts to our opening scene which when then uploaded onto YouTube for our rough cut edit. We had feedback from the class whichever as very good, name there are some things we can improve on. As we lost Freddie during the course, Charlotte and I gave eachother those specific roles as they are what suited us best. Despite the roles, we helped eachother with everything and made sure that the other was comfortable doing one piece if work whilst the other focused on another. I learnt from my role that there was a lot of responsibility to take hold of. Despite the great deal of responsibility on my shoulders, I believe that I coped well and could turn to my team member to help me if I struggled with the amount of work. As a whole, Charlotte and I worked very well as a group despite the changes with Freddie. All the other groups did have the extra member so me a Charlotte sometimes struggled with the work load, but because we cooperated very well together we pulled through and had a great time working as a pair. We were very efficient and understanding of the genre on a thriller and the conventions, and took on board one another's idea, in order to make a productive thriller opening sequence.
I think that we have made a good thriller opening sequence, as we always related to the codes and conventions of a thriller. We included low key lighting which added suspense and tension throughout. We included typical female and boy victim (young teenagers) as when analysing other films we noticed that teenagers were seen to be the most vulnerable to be attacked. We also included a relatable genre for the film, which made the audience relate and more scare as it was very realistic to everyday life. Another convention we used was the weapon used to kill the victims. We used a knife as the murder weapon as we believed it was the most conventional to a thriller and the most realistic. This made the audience relate to it as when we made it scrape along the side of the kitchen it created suspense and tension.
The most typical generic conventions to a thriller would be that a young blonde girl gets innocently murdered or tortured by the killer. We have seen this happen in many films such as, Saw, Paranormal Activity, Drag me to Hell, Physco and the Human Centipede. These were all very successful thriller films as there genre was very relatable for the audience. It made you think that bad things are always going to happen, when for example in Paranormal Activity when the clip slows down and the low key lighting occurs you know you have to prepare yourself for the worse; it as us at the edge of our seat. Our thriller we compared it to Scream. This is because we have shown the murder weapon as being a knife with the hidden identity of the murderer like in Scream. The genre of the film is to scare people into thinking somebody is behind them and to warn people that wherever they may go something might happen, and this is what we had to make sure we included in our thriller.
The main characters in our film included a young teen couple who were together in the young boys home. The young teen had a previous boyfriend whom in which she ended the relationship with to be with the boy. Unfortunately, the ex boyfriend took it the wrong way and wanted his revenge, as he is a very possessive and overpowering boy he ends up convincing the girl by force to help in murdering her current boyfriend. We included the young girl as she was pretty, young and innocent and this is what we have seen throughout the entire analysis of different films. We twisted the usual story line in which we made sure the young girl wasn't murdered and that in fact she is made to killer her own boyfriend, but in our opening scene we do not actually see this and we are led to believe it is her when it could be the murderer himself. This obviously added a effect to the audience where we left them in suspense. We included the young boyfriend as we believed that there obviously had to be a victim but not necessarily a young female. He was the initial victim so that the story could be a mystery as the young girl goes missing after the murder takes place, and he is how the plot continues after the opening scene. We finally have the ex boyfriend who is the murderer. We made sure his identity is hidden as it is never revealed until the end but we made sure we see some sort of action from him in the opening scene. This added the suspense to the scene as we as the audience we cannot see the identity of the murderer so it remains a mystery which therefore intrigues the audience to continue watching the film and find out who the murderer actually is.
Gender isn't represented in a stereotypical way as we see the boy for once in the vulnerable position instead of the young brunette. This makes her look powerful as she is the one who kills her boyfriend, but vulnerable as well as she is made to by her fierce ex boyfriend.
Our characters would appeal to the audience as they are realistic. Some people could of had bad relationships which have haunted them to this day, and they could see the terrible outcomes of sick and twisted mind corrupt another relationship. They would also appeal to the audience as they rating of our film is a 15 so the audience would be teenagers themselves and it would engage them more to see young teens like themselves on screen to make them more scared as they may think it could happen to them.
A target audience is important to consider as we need to know what things we can and cant introduce into our thriller. Without our target audience we are not able to plan and film our thriller as there could be things we are not allowed to show to for a certain age. The target audience gives us an idea of how much blood, sexual scenes, offensive language, gore etc we can put in as we are wanting to engage our audience to want to watch the film. We need to know how scary the film can be for the audience not to get bad vibes from it, they only need something that will scare them short term and not long. Our target audience is for ages 15 and above. This is because our characters are at a similar age and this will make the audience believe it is more relatable and that there is no sense of fiction what with the characters being the same age. They would be more engaged in the scenes and will be able to cope with the blood gore and frightening scenes that would occur. They are more likely to understand the storyline as well as it can be quite complicated.
Primary research was essential to our production as it helped us to analyse different films and to gather up ideas for our own thriller opening too. By doing the research we were able to see the positives and negatives to thrillers and find out what conventions are needed in a thriller create that suspense and tension it needs. We got to gather information of what mis-en scene is used and how we can portray and use that within our thriller, and how different opening titles effect the way the opening scene is conveyed. When researching we did a variety of things :
We used many different technology systems and objects to help create our production. We used to create our research and evaluations of our thriller and other thrillers by using a system called Blogger. This helped us create blogs for all our analysis on different films, research, ideas for our thriller and it helped us keep track on all of our research and ideas when we needed to film. We use blogger for the research so we could jot down what we thought we had learnt when learning different things throughout this particular media course. It has helped us show our understanding of what we have learnt and also shown us how to use different systems. We also used a video camera and a tripod to help us film the thriller opening scene. We were obviously inexperienced a using all this equipment but this was another learning curve and then got to experiment with different camera angles such as high angle low angle handled etc.
We also used editing software on the Mac Computers called Final Cut Pro X, this helped us edit and fix our thriller into making something of an opening scene. We got to experiment with cropping, fading, blurs, sounds etc. For the sound we used a website call freesound.org this enabled us to type in any particular sound we wanted, download it, and import it into our thriller for where we could edit it if chosen.
We found it difficult to film high angle shots due to we could get the camera to stay still up in the air, there was also potential risk of either one of us falling and hurting ourselves if we fell off wherever we were standing to get the high angle shots in. To overcome this we only used one high angle shot in which we decided to get some help from another friend so that wherever we were standing we had some support to keep us balanced.
When editing I found out how to move footage onto each other so that one clip could play whilst the other did too. I also learnt how to move sound and footage around so that sound could be quieter when the scene is at a crucial point which would create suspense. Id say my strength when editing was the credits as I got them to go from different angles and different colours, and the feedback about the credits was very positive. A weakness of mine I think was trying to hard to make the scenes flow, this made some things go wrong and we had to start the editing again due to footage being cut out when I added things like 'blurs and fading' into the equation.
There were many roles me and Charlotte decided to give each other. For example my particular roles were Director and Editor. These were very big roles as I had to consider the best ways in which would help create the suspense and tension when filming and adding edits into our thriller opening scene. Charlotte was costume designer and producer in which we both decided what costumes to wear to make our thriller look more realistic for the audience. By Charlotte being producer she made the final edits and cuts to our opening scene which when then uploaded onto YouTube for our rough cut edit. We had feedback from the class whichever as very good, name there are some things we can improve on. As we lost Freddie during the course, Charlotte and I gave eachother those specific roles as they are what suited us best. Despite the roles, we helped eachother with everything and made sure that the other was comfortable doing one piece if work whilst the other focused on another. I learnt from my role that there was a lot of responsibility to take hold of. Despite the great deal of responsibility on my shoulders, I believe that I coped well and could turn to my team member to help me if I struggled with the amount of work. As a whole, Charlotte and I worked very well as a group despite the changes with Freddie. All the other groups did have the extra member so me a Charlotte sometimes struggled with the work load, but because we cooperated very well together we pulled through and had a great time working as a pair. We were very efficient and understanding of the genre on a thriller and the conventions, and took on board one another's idea, in order to make a productive thriller opening sequence.
I think that we have made a good thriller opening sequence, as we always related to the codes and conventions of a thriller. We included low key lighting which added suspense and tension throughout. We included typical female and boy victim (young teenagers) as when analysing other films we noticed that teenagers were seen to be the most vulnerable to be attacked. We also included a relatable genre for the film, which made the audience relate and more scare as it was very realistic to everyday life. Another convention we used was the weapon used to kill the victims. We used a knife as the murder weapon as we believed it was the most conventional to a thriller and the most realistic. This made the audience relate to it as when we made it scrape along the side of the kitchen it created suspense and tension.
The most typical generic conventions to a thriller would be that a young blonde girl gets innocently murdered or tortured by the killer. We have seen this happen in many films such as, Saw, Paranormal Activity, Drag me to Hell, Physco and the Human Centipede. These were all very successful thriller films as there genre was very relatable for the audience. It made you think that bad things are always going to happen, when for example in Paranormal Activity when the clip slows down and the low key lighting occurs you know you have to prepare yourself for the worse; it as us at the edge of our seat. Our thriller we compared it to Scream. This is because we have shown the murder weapon as being a knife with the hidden identity of the murderer like in Scream. The genre of the film is to scare people into thinking somebody is behind them and to warn people that wherever they may go something might happen, and this is what we had to make sure we included in our thriller.
The main characters in our film included a young teen couple who were together in the young boys home. The young teen had a previous boyfriend whom in which she ended the relationship with to be with the boy. Unfortunately, the ex boyfriend took it the wrong way and wanted his revenge, as he is a very possessive and overpowering boy he ends up convincing the girl by force to help in murdering her current boyfriend. We included the young girl as she was pretty, young and innocent and this is what we have seen throughout the entire analysis of different films. We twisted the usual story line in which we made sure the young girl wasn't murdered and that in fact she is made to killer her own boyfriend, but in our opening scene we do not actually see this and we are led to believe it is her when it could be the murderer himself. This obviously added a effect to the audience where we left them in suspense. We included the young boyfriend as we believed that there obviously had to be a victim but not necessarily a young female. He was the initial victim so that the story could be a mystery as the young girl goes missing after the murder takes place, and he is how the plot continues after the opening scene. We finally have the ex boyfriend who is the murderer. We made sure his identity is hidden as it is never revealed until the end but we made sure we see some sort of action from him in the opening scene. This added the suspense to the scene as we as the audience we cannot see the identity of the murderer so it remains a mystery which therefore intrigues the audience to continue watching the film and find out who the murderer actually is.
Gender isn't represented in a stereotypical way as we see the boy for once in the vulnerable position instead of the young brunette. This makes her look powerful as she is the one who kills her boyfriend, but vulnerable as well as she is made to by her fierce ex boyfriend.
Our characters would appeal to the audience as they are realistic. Some people could of had bad relationships which have haunted them to this day, and they could see the terrible outcomes of sick and twisted mind corrupt another relationship. They would also appeal to the audience as they rating of our film is a 15 so the audience would be teenagers themselves and it would engage them more to see young teens like themselves on screen to make them more scared as they may think it could happen to them.
A target audience is important to consider as we need to know what things we can and cant introduce into our thriller. Without our target audience we are not able to plan and film our thriller as there could be things we are not allowed to show to for a certain age. The target audience gives us an idea of how much blood, sexual scenes, offensive language, gore etc we can put in as we are wanting to engage our audience to want to watch the film. We need to know how scary the film can be for the audience not to get bad vibes from it, they only need something that will scare them short term and not long. Our target audience is for ages 15 and above. This is because our characters are at a similar age and this will make the audience believe it is more relatable and that there is no sense of fiction what with the characters being the same age. They would be more engaged in the scenes and will be able to cope with the blood gore and frightening scenes that would occur. They are more likely to understand the storyline as well as it can be quite complicated.
Primary research was essential to our production as it helped us to analyse different films and to gather up ideas for our own thriller opening too. By doing the research we were able to see the positives and negatives to thrillers and find out what conventions are needed in a thriller create that suspense and tension it needs. We got to gather information of what mis-en scene is used and how we can portray and use that within our thriller, and how different opening titles effect the way the opening scene is conveyed. When researching we did a variety of things :
- Analysed films
- Carried out questionnaires
- Narrative theory's
- Age certificates
We used many different technology systems and objects to help create our production. We used to create our research and evaluations of our thriller and other thrillers by using a system called Blogger. This helped us create blogs for all our analysis on different films, research, ideas for our thriller and it helped us keep track on all of our research and ideas when we needed to film. We use blogger for the research so we could jot down what we thought we had learnt when learning different things throughout this particular media course. It has helped us show our understanding of what we have learnt and also shown us how to use different systems. We also used a video camera and a tripod to help us film the thriller opening scene. We were obviously inexperienced a using all this equipment but this was another learning curve and then got to experiment with different camera angles such as high angle low angle handled etc.
We also used editing software on the Mac Computers called Final Cut Pro X, this helped us edit and fix our thriller into making something of an opening scene. We got to experiment with cropping, fading, blurs, sounds etc. For the sound we used a website call freesound.org this enabled us to type in any particular sound we wanted, download it, and import it into our thriller for where we could edit it if chosen.
We found it difficult to film high angle shots due to we could get the camera to stay still up in the air, there was also potential risk of either one of us falling and hurting ourselves if we fell off wherever we were standing to get the high angle shots in. To overcome this we only used one high angle shot in which we decided to get some help from another friend so that wherever we were standing we had some support to keep us balanced.
When editing I found out how to move footage onto each other so that one clip could play whilst the other did too. I also learnt how to move sound and footage around so that sound could be quieter when the scene is at a crucial point which would create suspense. Id say my strength when editing was the credits as I got them to go from different angles and different colours, and the feedback about the credits was very positive. A weakness of mine I think was trying to hard to make the scenes flow, this made some things go wrong and we had to start the editing again due to footage being cut out when I added things like 'blurs and fading' into the equation.
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Rough Cut - Miss Miler
A rough cut is important to consider when filming a thriller as it gives you a chance to share your work with others to gain constructive criticism from them in order to help give you more chance to improve your opening sequence. The rough cut should be similar to the final cut so that the audience can give their opinions in a fair manner. If I was to make a thriller opening, to submit my work without doing a rough cut, then the clip may not show its full potential, and show the progression we have made as a group when filming and editing our opening sequence.
Audience feedback is very important to consider when presenting our rough cut, as it gives us a chance to get an honest and un-biast opinion on our opening sequence. They can give you productive criticism to help you improve on elements that may not be working, but also tell you what parts are not as effective, so that you can improve on them, or simply make sure you keep them or keep them out of the sequence.
After presenting
our rough cut and receiving feedback, my group and I
created a presentation, which we showed to our class in which it allowed them
to get a better understanding of our clip, so they would be able to give us
some more constructive feedback. The presentation included;
- What
our group narrative was
- How
we came to a conclusion of the narrative
- What
our final narrative was
- Our
individual narratives with the positives and negatives
- What
we wanted to create. + How we think we have created it.
- How
is it conventional to a thriller genre
When receiving feedback, we were told that we had many strengths and weaknesses. Our strengths included;
- Good
use of low key lighting - conventional
- Good
variety of shots used - high angles, low angles, eye levelled shot,
handheld, etc
- Good
variety of shot distances - Close up, Extreme close up, long shot,
aerial shot, etc
- Good
use of sound - builds tension/suspense.
- Good
suspense building – conventional/audience
scared
- Good
use of characters – relating to the
audience
Our weaknesses included;
- Not
enough credits – not enough names used e.g – music co-ordinator/screenplay
- Same
use of colour in credits – needs to be change/mixed up/diferent varieties
- Music
the same throughout – needs to have iconic changes
The weakness of there not being enough credits and then having the same constant colouring of them is a fair comment, simply because we had not finished/finalised all of the credits yet. It was good to show the few credits we had made as there were no comments as to the fading and blurring on/off of these credits, and so I have assumed these were effective, although it is hard to tell without them all being completed.
This
feedback will help me with finalising my final thriller opening sequence, as it has given me and my group ideas as to how to improve our clip. We
now have an understanding of how the audience will react and can hopefully
adjust and change certain elements to help make our thriller opening sequence
the most effective it can be.
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