Evaluation - Kei

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Thriller opening and movies are films that use 'Suspense and tension' Thrillers also create phsycological tension by including mystery and drama in the opening  sequence to get the audience enaged and wanting to know what will happen next. The main conventions of a thriller are camera work, Mise en scene and editing and sound.
Our Thriller opening includes these conventions of a thriller as there is little dialogue which makes tension build up as the sequence goes on

Shot 1. this is our first shot of out Thriller showing one of our main characters. instantly we can see her face is obstructed so the viewer cannot see who she is. therefore here is where our first question is raised. 'Who is she?'

 Shot 2/3. Here we can see her getting ready for something. however we don not know what. as we can see she is wearing pearls, Therefore this gives us some infomation on the character showing us she is quite high class. These shots are 'Extreme close ups' these are used to again hide the face from the audience and raise questions.

Shot 4. Here we can see only the bottom half of our main. Just like the previous shots it still keeps the characters face hidden so still we have no idea how she is feeling. this shot is follwed by a tracking shot from behind the character.

Shot 5/6. Here we find out more information on the character. we can see she lives in a quite high class, modern house. here we get the sence she is a perfectionist because we see shots of her arranging anything out of place.

 Shot 7. Here is where we get the first glimpse of the chracters face. as we can see she is quite young. we see her pulling out a photo album and a music box. 

 Shot 10. this is a medium long shot of her looking through the photo album. here we can see her facial expression. however it is not that clear on what she is thinking or what exactly she is looking at therefore it raises questions.

shot 12. here we can finialy see what she is looking at. it is a picture of her holding a small child. This then raises the questions on who this small child is and why haven't we seen it yet.

Shot 14. Here is the 'Disruption' We can tell that there is something wrong due to her Body language (she jolts her head back in surprise'

Shot 16. Here we can tell that this woman is frantic as she is looking through the photo album. This raises the questions 'what was the photo of' and 'why is it so important to her' we use quick paced editing here to show how frantic the woman is feeling and it places us in her shoes.

Shot 18. this shot starts with a focus pull. Which could represent the state of mind the woman is in. This shot shows the woman looking through the cupboard looking for what we think is the photo. this shot then leads onto our title.

We chose this title because our whole story revolves around a photograph. 

Shot 20. This is the first shot outside of the womans house. This is an establishing shot of a male sitting on the edge of a cliff. This instantly raises questions such as 'who is he' and 'where is he' this shot then tilts upwards showing us this surrounding location. here we can hear 'Dietetic' sound which creates suspense and tension.

Shot 21. Here our male character pulls out a photo of a child. much like the ones we saw earlier. this then creates an 'Enigma Code'  
because it takes us back to the earlier scene where the woman was looking for the missing photo. So the question is asked 'is this the missing photo?' 

Shot 22. although we cannot see the characters face we can see he is angered due to the fact that he is ripping up the photo and throwing it off the cliff. The music here is getting louder and therefore more tense and we hoped to have people on edge here.

Shot 23. This is our final shot where we see the male character standing up and getting closer to the edge of the cliff. this raises the question 'Why is he doing that' 
this could be hinting that he is going to jump. however the reasons to us are unclear. the music here is getting more tense and louder untill we have a sudden cut to black with just a sudden boom leaving it on a cliffhanger.





























































































2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
age is represented through elements of mise en scene. For example when the woman is flicking through her photo album we can see she is holding a child. 

This is meant to show that she is a young mother possibly around the age of 20. Also we can see alot about her class in the first few shots of our opening through her actions and clothing. We have portrayed her character like this so that she fits in with the stereotype of women. we based this charcter on Bree in Desperate Housewives who is described as a 'Perfectionist' we tried to incoparate this to our character when we see her adjusting her pillows and coffee holders. Her class is also shown by the Dietetic sound used. We chose Chopin's Raindrop Prelude to represent her high class and maturity  

 However our other male character's age is remained hidden from the audience so we do not know anything about this characters age or identity However we can tell that his class is quite the opposite from the prevous character from his clothing. His clothing is a stereotypical young male (14 - 20) type of clothes ( A hooded jumper and jeans) 
3. What kinds of media instution might distrubute your media product and why?

Example of an YouTube ad

As our film is a low budget film, targeted at young adults I thought the best way to distribute our film would be through download, for example Netflix. Or on Itunes for people to buy and play on their IPod. it would be best to advertise our film through a trailer on YouTube.


 I think this might be a better way to distribute the film as it is easy and cheap. And many people wont want to play full price to see this film at the cinema as it is very low budget.

Example of movies available to download on Itunes

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

For this I believe the audience would be young adults of both genders as we represent both genders in out opening.
However if I was to give this a rating I would have to say it would be a PG because according to the BBFC it states 'General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.

Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.' as there is no violence, drug references or foul language but there is a brief scene that may hint as suicide which may disturb younger viewers. Although I chose this classification I still think that we will attract an audience of 20+ year olds who would be intrested in the 'Symbolic Code' used within the film.

5. how did you attract/ adress your audience?



6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Since I'm also a Video Production student I would necessary say I learnt any new technologies however I have expanded my use of the technologies I have used. For example I have learnt how to edit in a manner that can manipulate time and space and how to use Garageband more effectively to add suspense. Although I have learned to use blogger for the first time since I have never used it before However it was rather easy to use and get used too. I now feel more confident in my editing skills and how to use an HD camera.

7. Looking back at your premliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression to the full product?


as i look back on our preliminary I feel we have come a long way because as we filmed our Preliminary we came across many disagreements as we were recording however when we came to our final film we all had a clear understanding on what we wanted.

In our Preliminary we mainly focused on natural sound that was picked up by the camera itself. But on the final film we decided against this and focused more on dietetic sound as we thought this would make it more interesting for the viewer.

One main problem that we faced in out Prelim was we forgot to white balance many of our shots which then lead to us re shooting many of our shots.

In our prelim most of our shots were quite static and there was no real change in them. we avoided this whilst we did out thriller to make it more exciting.

The one main problem we faced when we recorded out Thriller which we didn't face with the prelim was location and making sure everyone got there when needed. This was trouble because other people had other commitments such as work and college work to do. so we had to arrange days when everyone was free and had the money to travel. We did not face this problem in our prelim as we were recording during lesson time give to us by our teacher.  

Final movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cK8DvNJ7P4&feature=youtu.be

Our Final Film

Editing the title sequence- Charley and Meg

before

Today we were editing, the main thing we concentrated on was the title sequence. We got our idea for our title sequence from the movie 'One Hour Photo' which uses a camera flash behind the title. We wanted to incorporate this into our title sequence to make it interesting, and this influenced it because before we just wanted a plain title that comes up letter by letter. We used the same idea as before, but we used a programme called 'motion' that is on the iMac to create a flash behind it. This gave the opening more of a meaning to the title sequence and make it more interesting. It only flickers on for less than a second so it looks real, and then we put on a sound of a camera shot which we had to edit down to just one shutter noise to put on the same time to make it look like somebody is actually flashing a camera in the dark.

after

Evalutation- Charley

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

When producing a thriller movie it is essential to conform to the conventions of a thriller. The main aim of applying conventions is to make the audience ask questions and to add mystery and suspense.
In our movie we tried to use the main conventions of a thriller so that our movie fits the genre.

I am going to list and explain the main conventions of thrillers to which apply to our film whilst also discussing how they develop or challenge the conventions of real thrillers.

1. CAMERA MOVEMENTS AND ANGLES- http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html

Camera movements and angles are a very big part of conventions of thrillers. Using different camera angles and movements create varied senses of body language and emotions. In our thriller we used a range of shots and angles such as a close up of the main characters face (Laura). This puts the viewer close to the the character on the screen resulting in them feeling similar emotions to the character. We used a close up here because many people find being that phyiscally close to someone threating and uncomfortable, this resluts in the viewer feeling like they are part of the film, they are also able to recognise the characters emotions very clearly. An example of this technique is used in the film 44 inch chest, the viewer is made to feel uncomfotable being that close to the character.

2. TRACKING

Tracking is a brilliant technique that is a convention of thrillers. Tracking makes the audience feel like they are following the character. By tracking it results in the audience feeling similar emotions to what the character would be feeling as they feel like they too are part of the movie. Tracking is commonly used in real films to create suspense for the audience as they do not know what is going to happen next. An example of this is in the movie, 'The shining' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSpbZiTx724 The audience are left in suspense as the tracking happens for a very long time, therefore they do not know what is going to happen to the child creating questions.

3.QUICK CUTS

Quick cuts are commonly used in thrillers and have become a convention. Quick cuts are also seen in films such a psycho, where the woman in the shower is getting stabbed, there are a lot of fast cuts, to show different angles of her being stabbed, this makes the film fast paced, more tense and adds suspense. In our film we used quick cuts of the main character opening the cuboard, getting the objects out and placing them on the floor. These quick cuts add suspense as if something is about to happen next.

4.TITLE SEQUENCE

Title sequences may seem like they just tell you who is in the movie but when you really concentrate on them you can see that they take alot of time and thought to make. Title sequences are a very big part of conventions of thriller movies as in thrillers they usually give an insight to what the movie is about and usually will show something that is significant within the thriller. We based our title sequence on the movie 'One hour photo'. The title seqence goes through a black screen, but when each sentaence is revealed on the screen there is a flash and sound of a camera. We took this idea and used it as inpiration for our thriller. As the cuboard is closed in  the first scene the screen goes to black and as similar to 'One hour photo' as the text comes up a flash behind the text is made and a camera noise is made. We felt like our title sequence gives a real insight to what our thriller is based apon, a photo.

5.PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST

Thriller films commonly use protagonists and antagonists. The protagonist is usually portrayed as the 'good' character. The oppisition of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist who creates problems that the protagonist must overcome. There may be more than one antagonist or protagonist in a story. Protagonists and antagonists are a convention of a thriller as usually the protagonist is a woman, this is because she can show vunerability and reason for an antagonist to create trouble, we used this theory in our thriller as we wanted the woman to seem helpless and a target for a the antagonist






ANTAGONIST                                                                                                     PROTAGONIST

6.LOW KEY LIGHTING
Low key lighting is a very popular convention of thrillers. It adds mystery and creates an ambience of 'spookiness'. We used low key lighting in the cupboard scene (shown in the picture below) which was also helped by the fact that the cupboard was naturally dark. However I do think that we should have used more low key lighting throughtout the opening as lighting was something I feel we lacked in, we could have concentrated on the lighting more to create a sense of mystery.

7.SIGNIFICANT PROPS- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_device




Significant props are key in thrillers as they are often used as the main focus of the plot, they can either hold clues (like inception where the spinner holds clues), let the audience in on a secret or make the audience ask questions. The significant object we used in our thriller is the missing photo this makes the audience ask questions as they do not know who the photo is of.

8.SETTING

Settings is a very big convention in thrillers, the setting has to be well thought about, you cant just have a thriller set in a random swimming pool with lots of people, as this is not something that will make the audiense feel intreged. Alot of films use settings that the audience would connotate with fears, such as jaws is set in the water, a fear that many people hold. In our thriller we used a lounge, a normal setting that the audience can relate to but our biggest setting was the cliff, alot of people fears are? hieghts. This puts the audience on edge and makes them think about the danger that the character is in, and makes the audience do the one thing directors want them to do, ask questions.

9.NOT SHOWING IDENTITY.

many films do not show a certain characters identity, this results in the audience thinking for themseves and coming up with thier own conclusions and makes the audience ask questions. It also creates suspense for the audience as they do not know the characters intentions in the film. Usually thrillers use not showing a characters identity by tracking a charcter, this also adds more suspense (tracking explpained in point number 2).

 

 

 

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation of 'social groups' can be shown in a number of ways such as, mis en scene, sound and camerawork. Mise en scene is seen as the most important way of representing a character as it shows thier true self within thier environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju00z20MKgQ - link to bree van de kamp desperate housewives.

First of all I am going to look at the woman, in our opening she is represented as high class and middle aged. I chose to base costume and ways of living on the character from desperate housewives, Bree Van De Kamp. She is represtened as someone who likes everything to be neat and perfect, and always has to be imaculate. We based our female character on Bree and used similar traits to show this:


1. Immacualte hair.

2. matching clothing.

3.pearl earing and necklace.

4. perfect environment.


The way we dressed our character is very similar to Bree. Both are wearing pearl earlings and a pearl necklace, this can be accosiated with sopifistication and maturity. Additionly, matching clothes are worn to show smartness and perfection. Nothing is out of place within both of thier appearences, this shows that they look after themselves and care about what other people think. We really concentarted on the costume for our female character as it represents her, this is key within out film as her neatness is also shown in when she is looking through herohto albumn, all the photos are lined up and not one out of place, this is why when the photo is missing from the albumn the audience can imidiatly see that it is significant.

We used the living room as the main setting as it is usually the heart of a families home, and the room that is most 'lived' in. Again, the living room is very neat, tidy and all furniture is matching. Furthermore her need for everything to be immactulate is empaised when our female character walks into the room and immidatly starts to make sure the cushions are in the right place. Both her appearance and her living space represtents her and shows connotations of sophisticantion and high class.

Camera work is used also to show her representation, when she first walks into the room we used a long shot to establish the setting and also put empasis on the closeness of the match on action of the coasters. These factors again show her neatness within the way she is represented. We also used non diagetic sounds, classical music to show her high class status.

We chose to use a woman for the first scene as the way we represented her being so neat puts an empasis on the missing photo as the audience would start asking questions such as 'why has someone so tidy lost a photo?'. Our character also shows vunerbility and a motherly appearence, so that the audience assume that the person in the photos was someone young and close to her.

Secondly, we have the male character. The male character is wearing dark jeans and a green hoodie, this refers to a steareotypical view that the audience will have, resulting in the audience thinking he may be from a poor background and asking questions to themselves about how the two characters are connection when the seem and look so different. His hood is up so that the audience cannot work out his age. This leaves more of a mystery. Again, he is sat on a cliff, and not in a house or somewhere comfortable, this makes the audience ask questions to themseleves, is he homeless? where does he come from? A cliff also has connotations of sucide, so the audience are not sure what he is doing there. Overall we didn't reveal much about the male character so the audience come to conclusions themselves.

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

When releasing a film it has to go through 3 stages, prodction, distribution and exibition. Now that technology is developing, distributers have many more ways of releasing the movie, some of these are:

• CINEMA: cinema is a very popular way of showing films, however they are more focused on big block buster films rather than UK low budget films as it is very expensive to print at £1800.
• DVD: some films go staright to DVD, this means that the audience can buy a copy from places such as amazon and watch the film in th comfort of thier own home which for some people is more apealing than going to the cinema.
• DOWNLOADS: Downloads again are very similar to DVD, again they can be downloaded to game consoles, ipods or phones and watched in the comort of thier own home or on the go.

They look very closely at the audience, the right choice in how to exibit the film aimed at thier auduence results in money.

After doing my own research i have decided that due to my range of age in audience it would be appropiate to go straight to DVD, allowing it to be purchaced from sites such as amazon.co.uk and play.com. I made this decision because after doing reseach i found that many low budget films went straight to DVD and used online sites (Amazon ect)   so that the DVD could be purchased at a reasonable cost and sent straght to the audience so they can watch it in the comfort of thier own home. I chose not to do exibit by ipods and downloads as i feel that it would not apeal to the older market due to the fact that generally younger people use technology more and i feel that downloads would not reach my older audience. I also chose not to exibit by cinema as after doing my research more and more people are finding cinema expensive and prefer to purchase a DVD so they can watch it from the comfort of there own home. After reseaching on the internet i found a few comments that suggested my desion to exibit through DVD was the right choice.

Here i have found a link to a website that shows DVDs that went straight to release- http://www.straight2dvdmovies.com/

 

 

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order to answer this question i did my own research in finding out the age range and gender than prefer thrillers. I asked 25 people of different age ranges and gender if they liked thrillers, here are my results:

 From my results I can see that the age range most popular for thrillers is 12-18 and the least popular 26 plus. In addition to this females prefer thrillers to males however the results where very close. Using my results and looking at the BBFC guidelines, i have decided that the classification for my film will be a 12A as it does not have use of drugs, sex or violence and generally the film cnforms tothe classification. I believe that from looking at the BBFC website and from feedback from my audience that 12A is a suitable classification as it conforms and is acceptable to age range of 12 and up.

 

 

 

 

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

As you can see from the feedback I collected in question four, i have established that my audience is for ages 12- 25. My audience would enjoy my film through narrative, camera work, editing and sound.

1.Narrative: Children under the age of 12 would not enjoy the film as it may scare them and they would be too young to understand the story. The narractive is aimed at a slightly older audience as it is difficult to completely understand, the narrative needs to be thought about and  unstood in order for the movie to be enjoyed. As the woman was clearly a mother this helps possibly the older audience relate to her as a parental figure, and her having lost a child, this appeals to the older audience as they can relate to her being a mother. The younger audience would relate more to our second character, as he is persumed as younger.
2.Camera work: we used alot of close ups and medium shots to show the characters emotions and their actions in detail, this is because as i mentioned in the narrative section the story is hard to follow, and therefore by putting empasis on these certain aspects, the audience can take thier time in concentrating on the narrative. As the woman walks into the living room the camera is kept behind the wall, this gives the audience the suggestion that we are following her and again this adds more suspense.
3.Sound:
The sound at the begging of the opening is classical music which will apeal to the older part of the audience. The balerina music is diagetic, the female part of the audience can relate to the balerina music as as a child they may have had a balerina jewelerry box themselves. As we move onto the second part of the opening we go to the non diagetic House of leaves music which is very intense, as the music carries on and the boy stands up to what the audience assumes is to jump the music gets more and more intense, giving the audience the 'thrill'. 
4. Editing:
Fast editing such as fast cuts adds suspense and keeps the audience on the edge of thier seats. As the woman is looking for the photo the cuts get faster adding to her franticness in looking for the photo.

Overall we attracted all of our audience, the older can relate to the woman with her motherly features and the younger can accoiate with the boy. However both ages have the knowledge to understand both characters. The editing, sound, camera work and narrative all make the audience have the 'sitting on the edge of your seat' thrill.

 

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

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrs9jyJHIWQ&feature=youtu.be

I tried to upload the video straight to the blog however it wouldnt play and also resulted in the work i had written to not be saved and kept saying 'error saving'.

 

 

 

 

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

From doing the preliminary it was a very good learning curve for us as a group and myself individually. Overall I was very pleased with our preliminary, we used match on action which we used when the detective was opening the door into the room and when the detective slammed his fist on the table in anger during the interview, this entertains the auidance as it makes them jump and add suspense. Additionally we used shot reverse shot when the two characters are having a conversation across the table. Further more we put the audience in the perspective of the criminal, this adds suspense as the audience would be imagining they are the criminal, and therefore will carry the same emotions and reactions.

In our preliminary we made a few mistakes (which we then learnt from and made sure we did not make the same mistakes in our thriller.) Our first mistake was that we broke the 180 degree rule when we filmed the detective was on the right side however when we shot over the detectives shoulder we filmed it on the left side, this resulted in the 180 degree rule beig broken and the dougnuts were on the wrong side. We then fixed this by using final cut pro, where we flipped the shot over so the detective was on the right side. Our second mistake was that we forgot to reset the white balance in a few shots resulting in the quality and colour of the picture being poor, to fix this we then reshot the footage making sure the white balance was set in every single change.



As we were proud of a number of techniques we used from our preliminary we decided to use similar ones in our thriller. We used match on action when the woman is adjusting the coaster on the table, this empaises the importance of her wanting everything to be tidy and perfect. From the mistakes we made in our preliminary we took more care when constructing our shots and personally I think we progressed alot from our preliminary and our quality in filming improved by leaps. As we had a HD camera when filming our thriller we didn't need to reset the white balance.

Personally one of my favourite shots from our thriller was the shot where the woman opens the cuboard. As she opens the cupboard a focus pull is performed, this distorts the shot until the cupboard is fully open, then everything is crisp and clear. I love this shot because i think it demonstrates how much we thought about our shots when doing the planning for our thriller.

Even though our thriller was very good, there were a few mistakes along the way, when we first shot the living room scene we did it in lauras house, i think we were quite nieve about how much filming we would have to do and by the end of the shooting i think we were tired and our filming reflected that. So we decided to reshoot in my lounge, with a clear view of the exact shots we wanted and those shots were the ones we used for our final product. Myslef and Meg worked on doing a title sequense for our film, we got our inspiration from the film 'one hour photo' , we had the text appear on the screen and then a photo flash and sound appeared behind, i think this will engage the audience and give them an insight into the film.

Overall i think we have progressed alot from the preliminary, we made some mistakes in the preliminary and did some good shots, we took inspiration from the good shots and learnt from the mistakes to make sure we didn't repeat them again. I think the quality of our film was alot better than our preliminary because, we learnt from our mistakes, we had an HD camera and we carefully planned and constucted the shots we wanted.

Laura's Evaluation

Audience Feedback Facebook Group

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

• Todorov Theory - this theorist came up with a basic structure for all genres of movie: Equilibrium, Disruption and a Resolution. One Thriller that uses this is Johnny English Reborn. This starts with English at an abbey where monks live, learning how to fight like them. This represents the life that he is living now.
  However, some Thriller's manipulate this chronology in order to create variety, as this moves away from a stereoptypical setting of a Thriller, thus providing more entertainment for the audience. An example of this is Salt. This uses two disruptions as we start by seeing that the protagonist has been taken hostage; clearly a disruption. This intrigues the audience, and then we see an equilibrium back in her life and her job. However, then there is another disruption when she is accused of being a spy; raising lots of questions as to why there are so many disruptions in her life and what they mean. Another example of a film that manipualtes the chronolgy is Inception. This clearly starts with the disruption as we see the protagonist is in an unknown location, surrounded by men with guns. However, after this scene we do not see an equilibrium; it does not have a clear order. This intrigues the audience and gives an idea as to what the plot is about: as the lack of order shows the way he jumps between dreams. In our film I have conformed to this, above there is a short video explaining why...
• Vladimir Propp's Character Theory - this theory stereotpyes the main characters used in Action and Thriller type genres. This theory states that the protagonist is usually a man, who is the hero. We see this is many films, such as Indiana Jones in the Action genre, and Sherlock Holmes in Thriller. However, many more films are starting to challenge this idea of the male being the hero, as times are moving on with the ideas of equality. For example, we see that films such as Salt and Lara Croft feature female portagonists. Our film too challenges this idea, as we have a female protagonist. We have chosen to do this as the film is all about a missing girl, and females are traditionally seen as more motherly, therefore we feel that the audience would be more likely to empathise with her. 
• Roland Barthes 5 Codes -
• Hermeneutic Code - This refers to Enigma, which means that the audience are constantly asking questions. This is extremely important within the opening, as this is what intrigues the audience into watching the rest of the film. For example, we can see this within the film 44 Inch Chest. Lots of questions are raised, as we see a modern looking apartment that has been burgled: Who burgled it? Why? We then see a man lying on the floor: Is he dead? However, then we see a close-up and he is breathing, but looks injured: Is he alright? Who did this to him? He is quite sweaty, was there a fight? Then we see that the door is open: did the burglars just escape? Then a new scene introduces a new setting, where there is quite old fashioned furniture, contrasting to the modern apartment: what relation do these characters have to the man in the previous shot? All films must be able to raise quesions within the opening. In my opening scene, we raise lots of questions to do with the indiviual characters, as well as asking the question of how they are connected to each other. For the female we wonder: what is she looking for? what is the significance of the photo album and jewellery box? (shot 1 and 2) And for the male we wonder: why is he tearing up the photo? why is he standing on the edge of a cliff? why has he got his hood up so we cannot see who he is? (shot 3 and 4)
• Symbolic Code - this includes binary oppositions. I have used this by contrasting the representations of the female and male characters (see question 2)  so that it emphasises the sense of enigma when they are asking how the characters are connected. Binary oppositions have been used in Pirates of the Carribbean, as Bellla Swan is a high class woman, daughter of a judge with very high social standing, whereas Will makes swords within the town. This binary opposition has been used to heighten their love; they are not meant to be together but they are.

• Suspense -  this must be used in Thrillers in order to achieve their aim: 'keeping the audience on the edge of their seats'. The famous Thriller director, Alfred Hitchcock creates susepense in many of his films, here is a link about how he does it in Birds. Suspense can be created in many ways, such as fast pace editing and sound. I have used sound within my opening to create this. This is especially seen in the second scene, as the music I used was the House of Leaves, which is very intense and mysterious. We also used the sound effect of a banging drum to heighten the sense of tension at the end, above is a short video telling you how I got this...
• Low Key Lighting - this is used for the cupboard scene (shot 3). Throughout the first scene, I used high key lighting as it relates to the representation of the character (see question 2), however, the cupboard scene is where she is frantically searching, so must therefore have more suspense. This could be achieved better with Low key lighting as the darker lighting holds the connotations of mystery. The cupoboard gave us the oppurtunity to do this, as it had dark wood so there was no light in there, meaning that we only had to have light coming from the left outside of the cupobard and behind the character to make it low key. We had the light coming from the left - which is the Back Light in Three Point Lighting - so that you could still clearly see her expression, and the worry that it portrayed.
• Significant Objects - objects are used to drive the plot. They are often used in Action films, where the hero must go on a journey to retrieve an object, however, they are used in Thriller's too. We see a significant object in the opening of Inception, the spinner, which clearly holds clues that we will find out about later in the film. A focus pull is used in order to emphasise the significance of the spinner. I use significant objects in my film to help drive the narrative and hold connotations (which conforms to Roland Barthes Connotive Code also often used in films). Examples of this are: the missing photo (shot 5 and 6), as this is what gets our main character worried (shot 7 and 8), therefore frantically searching for it, allowing the audience to ask why she is so worried about this photo. There is also the ballerina jewellery box (shot 1), as this is pink and has a ballerina in it, therefore perhaps signifying that it belonged to a young girl (in shot 4 the missing photo is put in the frame alongside the ballerina bo, further suggesting the connection between them). It is in the cupboard along with the photo album, and the character is very reminiscent of it, therefore the audience questions what significance it has in her life. Furthermore, the music stops as she finds out that there is a photo missing; conveying that there is a correlation between them, thus allowing the audience to contemplate this correlation (shot 9).    

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representations of character can be shown through mis en scene, editing, sound and camerawork. More commonly, mis en scene is used to portray these representations as it allows the characters to conform to stereotypes, even furniture can create. 

The female character is my protagonist. She represents a high class, middle-aged woman.

• Mis en scene (costume) - We got our inspiration for her costume from Bree in Desperate Housewives, who is represented as a "perfectionist". as she also represents a high class woman. These similar costume traits are: pearl earrings and a pearl necklace, as they hold connotations of sophistication. The character also has straight hair, which holds the connotations of immaculacy, and that she also cares for her appearance. The audience can infer that she does this so that she can keep a good, high class reputation. Bree has a matching cardigan and high-cut top, as does the female character in my opening. This further conveys her smart appearance, and her well-mannered nature, which is seen as an aspect of being high class. We see Bree's full costume in another photo. She is wearing a woman's skirt suit, which has the connotations of being well-fitted, therefore signifying that it was expensive, and it's sophistication. We have used the same style, with the use of a skirt and cardigan, however, we have used a pencil skirt instead of the one Bree is wearing. This is commonly known as a 'power suit', therefore it gives the female power. This furhters her sense of being high class and it also links to her role as protagonist; she is the one with power.
• Mis en scene (setting) - the setting that we use is a living room. The base colour is cream, which, like pearls, has the connotations of sophistication.Furthermore, it is seen as a very tidy colour as it must not get muddy or dirty, therefore it reinforces this sense of immaculacy that the character conveys. Furthermore, the pictures, fire and sofa have a very old fashioned style. This contrasts with the modern cream colour, and also highlights the contrast we have in the characters. Her pearls and old fashioned furniture represent her sophistication, yet her 'power suit' and cream carpet creates a more modern aspect. The sophisticated side may represent her high class status, yet the modern aspect reinforces the way that she is a caring mother, therefore the audience are more likely to empathise with her.
• Camerawork - we used a long shot when the character enters the room. This allows them to see the way that her costume matches her immaculate living room, therefore furthering her representaion. Match on Action (a part of Continuity Editing) is also used when she is putting the coasters into place. This reinforces the representation that she wants everything to be immaculate.
• Non-diegetic Sound - I have also represented her high class status through the music used. I have used Frederic Chopin's Prelude - as it is very famous we did check that it was royalty free - whilst she is getting ready, such as putting on her pearls, and tidying the living room. Chopin is a Polish composer, and it is seen as very high class. His prelude has almost dainty, and relaxing connotations therefore we thought it would work well to represent her high class status, where putting pearls on is her morning routine.
• Editing - we created a slow pace when cutting in order to reflect the slow pace of Chopin's prelude. 
• Why did I choose to represent her in this way? There are two reasons as to why I chose this representation for the woman. Her high class status shows to the audience that she has money, so therefore it allows the audience to question (see question 1 for the Enigma convention) why it is her daughter that, they assume, has been taken. This idea is influenced by the character in the film, Ransom. IMDB describes the character to be a "rich man", therefore giving the people who took his son a motive, as they may ask for a ransom, therefore the audience could connect this idea to my character. However, rather than making our character a man, we have mader her an older woman, so that she looks more motherly, so the audience are mor likely to empathise with her when they see that her daughter is missing. Alternatively, her furniture and her appearance all signify the way she likes things to be immaculate, therefore nothing is out of place. This then intensifies the significance of the missing photo, if someone who is so tidy, loses it. This allows the audience to start coming to the conclusions that she therefore did not lose it, but that someone has taken it.  

The male character represents a teenager, who is of a much lower class to the female.

• Mis en scene (Costume) - the male character is wearing dark, skinny jeans and a dark hoodie, with his hood up. The dark skinny jeans represent his age: he is a teenager as his fashion conforms to modern teenage style. His hood is up so that his identity is concealed; this means that the audience will be more intrigued as to who he is, and how he relates to the narrative and other character. Whilst asking for my audience feedback, two people agreed that concealing his identity was a really good aspect, as it meant that we did not know what "mood he was in", and so therefore could only rely on the action to tell whether he will "jump off the cliff". Below are the comments.
•  He is wearing dark green and black, which are oppressive colours, signfiying his clear anger and misery. This furthers the audiences question: why is he angry? Finally, his costume is a clear contrast to the females. She looks very immaculate, whereas the teenager looks more 'scruffy'. As well as questioning their ages, the contrast between high class and, possibly, lower class, again allows the audience to contemplate and be intrigued by their realtion to each other.

• Mis en scene (Setting) - he is placed on the edge of a cliff. This intensifies his anger and misery that is shown, though he does not jump off, it allows the audience to foreshaow what happens. This further links with his concealment of identity; if he jumps the audience will never find out who he is, therefore increasing their want to know the relation he has with the other character. An establishing shot is used to reinforce the height of the cliff, intensifying it's dangerous element. Finally, this setting further contrasts his character with the female, as she is in a safe, immaculate home, whereas he is on the edge of a cliff. 

• Mis en scene (props) - He tears up a photo (print screen above), and the audience have previously seen the female looking for one. This finally indicates to the audience that there is a connection between them, yet they do not know what. Furthermore, we can also look at mis en scene in terms of expression. He is angry, and tears up the photo, whereas the female is distraught at the fact that she has lost it. This carries on representing them as contrasting characters; further intriguing the audience as to what their connection is.

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

Now that technology is becoming more broad, it allows many different ways for film distributors to exhibit films. These are the last two stages in the three stages of making a film: Production, Distribution then Exhibition. These last two are closely linked, as the distributors have to find a place to exhibit the movie, whether it is at a cinema, or for home viewing. They must look closely at the audience whilst deciding this, they know what attracts their audience, and so must exhibit it in the right place; therefore grosing as much profit as they can.

One of the ways that films can be distributed is through downloads on the ipods. This could be a popular form of exhibition as they are portable, and so are very convenient for the viewer. However, having done my research on my audience I am not going to use this idea. My audience is very broad; ranging from teenagers to adults (see question 4), but I do not feel this will be a popular form with the adults, and I want all aspects of my audience to see this. This is becuase this sort of technology is stereotpyically viewed to be a teenage form of tenchology, as they are the age range that are seen as the 'technology generation'. I know this becuase 82% of the ipod market is teenagers (2006 survey).

The cinema is a very popular form of exhibition and has allowed many Blockbusters to grose a large profit in the opening weekend. However, the cinema is very expensive in many aspects. It is expensive to exhibit it, as there are 2860 cinemas in the UK, however a print is £1800. It also needs lots of advertising, meaning that the distribution budget would need to be very high. However, cinemas are very popular for High Concept films, however, this is a low budget UK Thriller meaning it may not be that popular, therefore I do not want to risk this money. Furthermore, not even all Blockbusters do well at the cinema. A recent film John Carter, has shown this as it is "Disney's biggest flop of all time", with an operating loss of £200 million. I can also argue that the cinemas ticket prices are getting more expensive, resulting in less viewers.

Another way that many UK films are distributed is through touring around the UK. When I was doing my research using the British Film Institute I found a UK film called 'Laura', which is only touring in small cinemas, places like the Duke of York in Brighton . As it is touring on certian dates, it means that people are more likely to make time to go to it, as there won't be another chance. However, I am not going to use this way as I feel that it will need extensive advertising and not grose as high a profit to cover it.   

I have decided to distribute my film using Netflix. It suits my audience as it is a "common past time for teenagers and adults". It is also an increasingly popular account to get, with "15 million subscribers". I can distribute it by inviting the account users to a preview for it. This is similar to what Sally Potter did for her film Rage, except she did this through Itunes, which is a very popular networking site, as it has over 150 million users. However, I chose to use Netflix as it is specified for films, and it is winning in the contention between Apple, Blockbuster and Amazon. This is because these use "per rental fees" and "downloads" whereas Netflix uses subscriptions. Based on this chart, I can see that their sales have stayed consistent, therefore I can infer that they are a reliable source to use. In addition, I can also use Youtube for distribution, because as well as Netflix is is also very popular for films, as it is the "worlds most popular online video community", though it is mostly seen to be for music, it can also be a good way to "upload and share videos", therefore between Netflix and Youtube my film can be distributed to my target audience.        

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main way that I have answered this question is by creating a Facebook Group, asking a range of people from different ages what they thought.

In order to decide which audience certification I should give my film, I posted a qestion asking the age range for me film. The 11/ 12 people thought it would be an 11-17 age range, allowing me to come to the conclusion that it should be a 12 certificate. I used the BBFC to see if this was the right decision. I believe it is, as there is no bad language, no sexual content, no drug use, it conforms to many other of the aspects of the 12 certificate. There is one aspect that says no "dangerous behaviour", which does include our suricide scene. However, through the use of effects, for example the cut at the end, does not show the actual act taking place, allowign us not to "dwell on detail". Furthermore, I found from the audience feedback that it is not actually clear if he is going to jump, other suggestions were that "he could be hiding", therefore it is not glamourising this thouhgt of suicide, or actually showing it.

Though the majority of the voters decided it was for 11-17 viewing, I agree with the other voter 'Nick Geall' that it is for 18-35 and 11-17. I think this can be to do with the representation of character (see question 2) as there is a middle aged woman, alongside a teenager. This features all age ranges of my audience, therefore making them more likely to watch it. I feel there will also be parents in this audience. We can see how much the, suspected, parents in the film care for the child. The woman with the way that she still keeps this baby's things, and still finds sentiment within them. Alternatively, we also see this in their mirrored action of circling their finger on the photo, to show they are specifically looking at the baby. The way they both echo this same action also furthers their connection as characters.  

One of the audience members that gave feedback agrees with this, but suggests that it is "teenage mothers" as you can see from the print screen below.

Finally, another audience member agrees that it could also be aimed at adults, with the wider and "sad" concepts that are featured. The idea of a baby missing, is not somthing stereotpyically seen in a "teen flick".

5) How did you attract / address your audience?

Below is a print screen of a Facebook Feedback Comment. 

Though this is a simple declaration as to who the audience is: it's true. Thrillers are meant to be intense and mysterious in order to 'thrill' you, and have you on the edge of your seat, therefore people under this age will not enjoy this in a film. I have used sound in my film whihc is very intense, such as the baby laughing in her head and the House of Leaves soundtrack. The House of Leaves soundtrack is very tension building, as it slowly gets faster as we see the character getting angrier; overwhelming the audience with the idea that he will soon jump. This is what they want, as adrenaline in the audience is what fuels the thriller and makes them want to carry on watching.

This is also shown in the editing, when there is fast editing we feel the suspense building. This is illustrated with the fast cuts when she is feverishly looking for the missing photo, frantically looking through the album, with the fast cuts in between the different angles of the her and the photo album. The action gets the audience's heart racing, but also the eerie, and tensional ballerina box sound on reverse also adds to this sense of being 'thrilled'.

I have also portrayed this with the use of camerawork, when there is the shot of the female walking into the living room, but the wall blocks our view of her. This gives the effect that we are watching her, but with the way that we are hidden makes it seem as if we are not meant to. This holds sectretive connotations, allowing the audience to haev an eeire sense about them. Furthermore, with the way we are watching her, it gives the effec that we are perhaps put into a Point of View shot. There is no Eyeline Match used, to signify that there isn't actually a person there, however it intensifies the mysterious and secretive nature that we now percieve her actions to be.   

Often you see fantasy thrillers, such as the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean that are rated PG, however these specificaly target a family audience and so I have found, that on average, most Thrillers are a 12 certificate and over. 

Looking at my audience in a more detailed aspect, I have found that the main way that my opening appeals to my audience is beacuse it looks at concepts that relate to them. For example, we see that her baby is clearly missing, or has been taken. This allows the older members of my audience, or possibly the young mothers, to empathise with her and this narrative, allowing them to feel more connected to it. We have made the representaion of the female character similar to the representation of 'Bree' in Desperate Housewives, this, like my thriller also targets an older age range, as they can identify with the character, with her big house and kids, it creates a struggle, therefore they can empathise with Bree, as well as my female character. We do not know how the characters are related, and so this may allow us to contemplate grief among the family. Their representations contrast, however this does not mean that they are not related, it could just show the effects that grief has upon families and the way differnet individuals deal with it, with the suicide perhaps signifying that this has happened recently. The widely seen concepts such as suicide attracts my audience as it creates a sense of realism to the film. This allows the audience to feel more connected, as all of the issues raised in the opening are extrmely relatable themes, thus appealing to my particular audience. This allows the audience to be interested in the opening, they want to carry on watching the film in order to find out what happens to the characters that they now feel so connected to. The common conventions of the Thriller then further this interest, as the sinister undertones to the piece suggest that there may be something bad happening. The suspense from the House of Leaves and the non-diegetic drum sound effect implies that the character is about to jump. Also, the creepy diegetic ballerina music signifies a child's box, however, when it is put on reverse, it also holds creepy and sinister undertones, again indicating possibly that something bad has happened, especially appealing to the adults or young mothers watching, as they can too feel these feelings and emphathise with her.  Alternatively, the way she brings these items out of the cupboard, could show her neglection towards them; perhaps they are trying to move on with their life but finding it difficult. With the way that the openign does not answer any questions we can interpret their relationship in terms of their class representation. Perhaps they were together but they weren't supposed to be, and this baby is provided as a symbol for their illegitimate love? These interpretations can be addressed by my audience, as they may be issues that are in their life, or perhaps the media around them. I can look at other films that conform to the similar interpretations of this opening, such as Taken and Ransom. These are much higher certificates, being 15 (Taken) and 18 (Ransom), meaning that they address their audience's in a different way. They may have much darker themes within the film, perhaps violence when fighting to get their children back. I can see the darker nature to the films just from the film posters, as the low key lighting represents the dark themes to the films, the way that the lighing makes them seem like silhouettes signifies mystery and the red titles hold connotations of danger.  However, my film, though it interprets these same views, the missing photo is the symbol of the baby, and there are no dark and violent actions towards this, the audience are only made to contemplate her feelings. 

    

 

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

List of films using Final Cut Pro...http://marylandfilms.com/2007/07/final-cut-pro-is-used-for-professional-editing-but/


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

During the Preliminary, we made two big mistakes, where we actually had to reshoot the footage. There is an example of these below in the form of print screens. Our first mistake was to do with Continuity Editing, as we broke the 180 degree rule. This was because we had the detective on the right side. However when we were doing the shot/reverse shot, we shot over his left shouldher , meaning he was on the wrong side. We did not need to reshoot this though, as we could fix this using the effects on the editing. We did this by selecting the shot, and then using 'Flop', which meant that the shot would flip over. These are the two shots, the first one is the right shot which we used in the final task. We also forgot to keep resetting the white balance, this meant that we actually had to refilm the footage. Whilst we were doing our Thriller, we had a HD camera, therefore this set the whitebalance for us so we did not have to worry about it. However, it was still a big lesson that we learnt for the future.  

We did also do some really good examples of Continuity Editing in our Preliminary, such as Match on Action, which we used twice. We used it when the detective was walking into the room, opening the door. We used this with a series of other shots of the detective, in order to create a fast pace, and therefore this Match on Action kept this pace going to carry on creating suspense for the audience.

We also used Match on Action during the dialogue. This was used when the detective was getting angry at the criminal, as we had an extreme close up of his hand being slammed onto the table. The extreme close up evoked shock in the audience, and it further intensified the detective's anger. 

 

 I also used Match on Action during our Thriller. The Macth on Action of her tidying the coasters intensifies the way she must have everything immaculate, reinforcing the urgency of the photo that is not in it's place (you can see these print screens in shots 8 and 9 in the frame). 

 

 

We have progressed lots from the Preliminary, though we did use some really effective shots in the Preliminary, like our Canted Shot (print screen below), and the good effect we used to portray a security camera (print screen below).

 

We also used other conventions of Continuity Editing. An example of this is when we used Eyeline Match. We used this to put the audience in the perspective of the criminal. This then therefore heightened the tension they were feeling, as it gives the effect that they are there with him. Additionally, it also signifies the superiority of the detetive, as we have to look up at him in this perspective, and he has a very angry expression, thereofore giving him dominance and intenisfying the suspense for us as the audience.

Four our Thriller we used Sound a much more variety of shots, therefore this shows much more progress from our Preliminary. 

Some of these were...

• Relfection: showing reflections through mirrors and windows etc is very effective in films. Hitchcock uses it in Topaz. We also see a very effective use in The Silence, which is a TV drama about a deaf girl. The reflective shot of her in the rear view mirror helps to intensify this isolation that she has been forced into through this impairment. In my opening, I have used it twice. One shot that I have used it for is the ballerina shot. Depth of Field is also used in this shot. This is often used in films as it puts emphasis on the object or subject that has been put into focus. Shallow depth of field puts the object or subject that it closest to the camera in focus. However, I have used Great Depth of Field for this shot, as it puts what is furthest away from the camera into focus. In this shot, it is the ballerinas face in teh reflection that we see, however she is blurred out. This allows for her to look even more intense, conforming to Thriller conventions. Another example of reflection that we used was the shot where she is brushing her hair in the mirror. This shot is practical as it allowed us to conceal her identity, which is what we wanted to do at the beginning so that way the audience would orignially focus on her representation as a high class woman. The props of the flowers also allowed us to conceal her identity, as well as conform to the high class status as it links back to the way that she cares about the appearance of her own home. The use of the mirror whilst she is getting ready also reinforces the way that she cares greatly about her appearance; linking to her representation (see question 2).  

      

• Focus Pull: we used this effect whilst the protagonist was going to look in the cupboard. This distorts the screen, therefore emphasising the fact that she is frantcially searching. I have highlighted the comment about this in red in the print screen below.  
• Editing: you can manipulate the chronology through Editing. We did this for the living room scene so that the audience stayed more entertained. We also did this when we had three fast cuts, to therefor inject pace into the opening, keeping the audience from getting bored, and the sudden action allows the audience to foreshadow that something willl happen soon, yet we don't know what. This is highlighted in green below.
• 
• Sound: for the Preliminary, we did not get enough time to do sound. However, we did for our Opening, and I leanrt alot from it (see question 6). The sound is one of my favourite parts of the Opening as I feel it illustrates the action very well, and also the intense music at the end really gets the audience on teh edge of their seat. One comment in the Feedback described it to be "typical Thriller music". Sound is also what predominantely came up in the 'what you liked' section of the Feedback (this is underlined in black, in the print screen above).
• Title: we also had time to do a title sequence in this opening. This allowed us to use a sound effect, and a blur effect. This worked well as it emphasised the title 'snapshot', which then reinforces the theme of the significant photo.
• There are four ways you can end a shot: cut, dissolve, fade or wipe. In our film, we have used a natural wipe, where we used a wall to go across the screen. This shot was influenced by one of the shots in the opening of 44 Inch Chest. This shot is quite mysterious, conforming to the genre of Thriller (see question 1) as we start to see her disappear.