Below is our final edited thriller opening, we believe we have done well and are extremely happy. We hope you enjoy it!!
Monday, 28 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 7
Looking back at the preliminary task, What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?
When we looked back over our preliminary task compared to our final thriller openning product, we noticed that we had made many mistakes and also that quite alot of the filming we actually used was of a poor standard and quality.
One example of this is the storyboard, due to the fact we did not have enough time in which to complete the storyboard for our preliminary task, we were unable to finish it, shown to the right. This meant whilst filming our preliminary task, we had to resort to making some of the filming up as we went along.This therefore, resulted in poor quality shots and lack of variation within them. Due to the incompletion of the storyboard in our preliminary task, we made sure we did not come across this problem whilst completing our thriller opening project. We made sure that before we started any filmning, the whole storyboard was complete and involved a variety of shots and angles within it. This also meant that while we were filming it was a lot easier as we had a step by step picture and word guide of what we wanted the shot tolook like and how to conduct it. Although we tried to stick by the storyboard as much as possible, a few spontaneous shots were added for last minute adjustments and to make the thriller more exciting and effective. This is shown below;
Thriller storyboard;
An other example of this was our actualy variety of the use of shots. The quality of our shots was something we felt as a group needed to be improved drastically. In our preliminary task, the camera seemed to jolt alot and also, our two pan shot in the preliminary task didn't seem to run smoothly or too a high standard. Furthermore, in our shot with the two characters walking round the corner towards the locker, you can see the person who is filming's reflection on the window infront. However, we had to include this in our preliminary task as we only took one shot of it because we were rushed for time. In order to overcome these problems we made sure that we filmed the same section of each part of the storyboard several times in order to get the shot perfect and to have a variety of shots to choose from to make the scenes flowed well.
We believe since completing our preliminary task on moving on to our thriller opening, our edited skills improved to a high standard. We learnt how to adjust the sound and as mentioned earlier involve fades and dissolves. We were able to explore finalcutexpress and learn more editing techniques and understand the different types of transitions.
When we looked back over our preliminary task compared to our final thriller openning product, we noticed that we had made many mistakes and also that quite alot of the filming we actually used was of a poor standard and quality.
One example of this is the storyboard, due to the fact we did not have enough time in which to complete the storyboard for our preliminary task, we were unable to finish it, shown to the right. This meant whilst filming our preliminary task, we had to resort to making some of the filming up as we went along.This therefore, resulted in poor quality shots and lack of variation within them. Due to the incompletion of the storyboard in our preliminary task, we made sure we did not come across this problem whilst completing our thriller opening project. We made sure that before we started any filmning, the whole storyboard was complete and involved a variety of shots and angles within it. This also meant that while we were filming it was a lot easier as we had a step by step picture and word guide of what we wanted the shot tolook like and how to conduct it. Although we tried to stick by the storyboard as much as possible, a few spontaneous shots were added for last minute adjustments and to make the thriller more exciting and effective. This is shown below;Thriller storyboard;
Sound was also one of the major problems we struggled with whilst carrying out our preliminary task. when we edited our preliminary task, we were unable to hear the sound coming from the filmig asd we didn't know how to turn it on. This was a major stumbling block as we just guessed by sight where to cut the footage. This meant when listening to our finished product on youtube of our preliminary task, we realised that through many parts you could hear the director saying 'GO', there was a lack of continuity and also, some of the actual dialogue was cut off so there was no sound!
In order to make sure this did not ake place in our thriller opening we made sure before starting editing we used a computer with functioning speakers. We also learnt how to use the sound from previous peices of footage and continuing them into the next as sound bridges in order to improve the continuity and the overall sound and effect.We also learnt how to use dissolves and fades with our music and shots in order to make the thriller look more flowing and improve the continuity further and also, to give the thriller an overall more exciting and tense effect.
An other example of this was our actualy variety of the use of shots. The quality of our shots was something we felt as a group needed to be improved drastically. In our preliminary task, the camera seemed to jolt alot and also, our two pan shot in the preliminary task didn't seem to run smoothly or too a high standard. Furthermore, in our shot with the two characters walking round the corner towards the locker, you can see the person who is filming's reflection on the window infront. However, we had to include this in our preliminary task as we only took one shot of it because we were rushed for time. In order to overcome these problems we made sure that we filmed the same section of each part of the storyboard several times in order to get the shot perfect and to have a variety of shots to choose from to make the scenes flowed well. We believe since completing our preliminary task on moving on to our thriller opening, our edited skills improved to a high standard. We learnt how to adjust the sound and as mentioned earlier involve fades and dissolves. We were able to explore finalcutexpress and learn more editing techniques and understand the different types of transitions.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the thriller?
Friday, 25 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 5
How did we attract/address our audience?
There are many ways in which I attracted the audience, one of which was through facebook. I used this in order to promote my survey, this seemed to work well as quite a few people answered it giving me a wider range of how I could make my thriller suitable and effective.
There are also a number of different ways in which we kept the audience engaged throughout by creating suspense and tension in order to keep them wanting more! As I have already mentioned in the previous question I used surveymoney in order to find our target audience and be able to identify with the character throughout our thriller opening. we used a female casted as the victim in order to suit our results of who would be more likely to watch a horror based thriller, the audience would be able to syphasise with the character and show fear for her. Also, we used actors of a similar age to those who answered the survey in order to further help them identify with the characters involved. Furthermore, we ensured all of our actors seemed 'ordinary' in order to make the film look as real as possible , as it would be more likely to be believed.
We believe the location of our thriller was very effective due to the errieness of it. We used Eastbrook End Country Park in order to create this eerie effect. This was because the park is deserted and made an excellent effect creating suspense throughout. We believe our setting was perfect for our desired effect, deserted and isolated, creating not just suspense but tension, which were two of the audiences main important components of thrillers stated. This was effective as it would create the image that the protagonist would have no where or no one to run to if they were in danger, this would therefore keep the audience on the edge of their seating wanting to watch more and find out what happened.
Moreover, the fact that our thriller ends on a ciffhanger would encourager the viewer to carry on watching. This leaves the audience with a number of unanswered questions including; What happened to the protagonist? Will she survive or die? Who is the antagonist? Where are the protagonists friends and what happened to them? And why is the antagonist stalking the protagonist?
There are many ways in which I attracted the audience, one of which was through facebook. I used this in order to promote my survey, this seemed to work well as quite a few people answered it giving me a wider range of how I could make my thriller suitable and effective.
There are also a number of different ways in which we kept the audience engaged throughout by creating suspense and tension in order to keep them wanting more! As I have already mentioned in the previous question I used surveymoney in order to find our target audience and be able to identify with the character throughout our thriller opening. we used a female casted as the victim in order to suit our results of who would be more likely to watch a horror based thriller, the audience would be able to syphasise with the character and show fear for her. Also, we used actors of a similar age to those who answered the survey in order to further help them identify with the characters involved. Furthermore, we ensured all of our actors seemed 'ordinary' in order to make the film look as real as possible , as it would be more likely to be believed.
We believe the location of our thriller was very effective due to the errieness of it. We used Eastbrook End Country Park in order to create this eerie effect. This was because the park is deserted and made an excellent effect creating suspense throughout. We believe our setting was perfect for our desired effect, deserted and isolated, creating not just suspense but tension, which were two of the audiences main important components of thrillers stated. This was effective as it would create the image that the protagonist would have no where or no one to run to if they were in danger, this would therefore keep the audience on the edge of their seating wanting to watch more and find out what happened. Moreover, the fact that our thriller ends on a ciffhanger would encourager the viewer to carry on watching. This leaves the audience with a number of unanswered questions including; What happened to the protagonist? Will she survive or die? Who is the antagonist? Where are the protagonists friends and what happened to them? And why is the antagonist stalking the protagonist?
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 4
Who would be the audience for our media product?
I have preiviously reasearched into the target audience through surveymonkey.com. This enabled us to discover what age group would be more likely to watch our thriller and the age group we should direct it at. I recieved 21 responses to my survey on surveymonkey, this is good as it means the results will be more reliable as there are more. Although, more responses would have made it even more reliable, I would have liked to have reached atleast 30 responses.
People would enjoy watching our thriller if relates to them in some way. For example we discovered that our target audience would more likely be for a female teenager aged between 16-25 years as there was a larger amount of people within this age group which answered the thriller survey. This is because they would be able to relate with the main character, the protagonist. This character was potrayed as weak and vulnerable and the female audience would be able to identify with this.
I have preiviously reasearched into the target audience through surveymonkey.com. This enabled us to discover what age group would be more likely to watch our thriller and the age group we should direct it at. I recieved 21 responses to my survey on surveymonkey, this is good as it means the results will be more reliable as there are more. Although, more responses would have made it even more reliable, I would have liked to have reached atleast 30 responses.
People would enjoy watching our thriller if relates to them in some way. For example we discovered that our target audience would more likely be for a female teenager aged between 16-25 years as there was a larger amount of people within this age group which answered the thriller survey. This is because they would be able to relate with the main character, the protagonist. This character was potrayed as weak and vulnerable and the female audience would be able to identify with this.
Furthermore, in order to ensure we grabbed the audiences atention and kept them engaged and on the edge of their seat I involved a number of techniques that my surveymonkey revealed are key to an effective thriller. Below are some of the answers the people who responded gave us, this is produced on wordle.net;
Evaluation - Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
There is a wide range of film istitutions and companies which might wish to distribute our thriller. In order to find out who these may be, I have researched into companies which have previously produced thrillers, such as Dimension films, Warner Bros, Summit productions and Univeral Studios.
Our film may be shown in a number of many different ways including in cinema, on television, on DVD, on the internet for example a specific site for the film or sites such as youtube.com.
There are also a number of ways in which our thriller could be advertised. This could be on billboards, tv adverts, cinema, newspapers, magazines, internet, bus stops and many more. This would enable us to gain a wider range of audience and more viewers.
This is shown below on OneTrueMedia.com;
There is a wide range of film istitutions and companies which might wish to distribute our thriller. In order to find out who these may be, I have researched into companies which have previously produced thrillers, such as Dimension films, Warner Bros, Summit productions and Univeral Studios.
Our film may be shown in a number of many different ways including in cinema, on television, on DVD, on the internet for example a specific site for the film or sites such as youtube.com.
There are also a number of ways in which our thriller could be advertised. This could be on billboards, tv adverts, cinema, newspapers, magazines, internet, bus stops and many more. This would enable us to gain a wider range of audience and more viewers.
This is shown below on OneTrueMedia.com;
Below is an example of a poster a member of our group created showing an example of how our thriller may be advertised similar to the ides shown above;
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 2
How does our media product represent particular social groups?
Our thriller opening doesn't contain many actors, this was because we were limited. We used three females and one female casted as a male character. We tried to perceive the three females as weak and vulnerable, therefore casting the male with the more dominant role giving him power over the females. A feamle critic may say that the females are represented as weak and this is unfair. However as we were unable to use our original character for the role of the stalker, we replaced him with a female actor. Therefore a female critic may also argue that this character is potrayed as powerful and strong.
The character to the left of the picture is the protagonist in our thriller opening. She represents a 'normal' teenager who is simply going out with her friends. She is represented as quite weak and vulnerable as she is the victim of a stalker She s from a working class background, her sexuality is unknown and irrelivent.
Our thriller opening doesn't contain many actors, this was because we were limited. We used three females and one female casted as a male character. We tried to perceive the three females as weak and vulnerable, therefore casting the male with the more dominant role giving him power over the females. A feamle critic may say that the females are represented as weak and this is unfair. However as we were unable to use our original character for the role of the stalker, we replaced him with a female actor. Therefore a female critic may also argue that this character is potrayed as powerful and strong.
The character to the left of the picture is the protagonist in our thriller opening. She represents a 'normal' teenager who is simply going out with her friends. She is represented as quite weak and vulnerable as she is the victim of a stalker She s from a working class background, her sexuality is unknown and irrelivent. The character in the centre of the image is the antagonist. Little is known about this character if anything in order to create an enigma and the scary effect in which we intended on by leaving the character unknown creating an ominous effect.
Finally,the other two characters shown in the picture, the protagonists' friends, were simply also portrayed as 'normal' teenagers. Their part in the story is to simply carry the story along. Their relation to the protagonist is shown as friends. they are also working class and their sexuality, similer to the protagonists is unknown and irrelevent. Not alot is revealed about these charcters.
There is a lack of input of ethnic minorities in our thriller opening which we did not take into considerations. In order to refrain from ethnic restrictions we did not contain any offensive and racists language or actions. We did not feel as though this was a reltive issue throughout the production of our thriller opening. Although the protagonist is of a mixed race ethnic background, this may therefore be seen as racist as the protagonist is seen as weak and vulnerabe. All of the characters are shown positively, other than the antagonist, however we do not know a lot about their background or personality at this stage of the thriller.
We also did not feel that sexuality was relevent during the production of our thriller opening as this was not revealed at any stage, the thriller is appropriate for a person with any sexuality. Although as the pictures of the proatagonist are placed in a heart shape, it may seem as though the antagonist is in love with the proatganist, we simply meant for this to portray the antagonists obsession for the protagonist as we do not know the sex of the antagonist it is also irrelevent what their sexuality is.
Our thriller will more than likely be seen as inappropriate for younger chldren as it may be seen as disturbing or too frightening for them. The teenagers in our thriller are potrayed as 'normal' teens. We consider to thriller to represent working class people of a 'normal' background. the audience will be able to realate to the characters as they are 'ordinary' making them more involved in the thriller.
We tried to avoid stereotypes in our thriller as much as possible in order to give it a less amatuer look to it and also to make our film more original. However, when we created our antagonist, we diecided to use conventions of a stereotypical 'hoodie'. This was becuase we didn't want to reveal the identity of the antagonist therefore, we decided to dress our character in a hooded sweater. Although, we feel as though our character differs in a way from the stereotype through his obsession. This is because a typically 'hoodies' don't have obsessions, and would definitely not stalk someone to the great extent of which our antagonist stalked our protagonist. Furthermore, a stereotypical 'hoodie' would carry a weapon more negative such as a knife, whereas our character's weapon is a piece of rope.The lack of a more stereotypical weapon makes our antagonist appear less threatening. Although the irony of the audience knowing of the antagonist's obsession, and knowing that he is chasing the females, whilst the girls are unaware reinforces the nasty and more threatening nature of the character, making it sutly effective. This is shown below;
Our 'hoodie'
Stereotypical 'hoodie'
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Evaluation - Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Below is a powerpoint I created about the conventions we used throughout our thrller opening. I then uploaded this powerpoint onto slideshare. This is shown below;
Below is a powerpoint I created about the conventions we used throughout our thrller opening. I then uploaded this powerpoint onto slideshare. This is shown below;
Friday, 18 February 2011
Finishing and uploading
Once we had finished our thriller we asked some class members to watch it and then later on put t on youtube. However, when we uploaded our video we noticed a glitch in it which must have occurred whilst uploading it to youtube. We will double check this in the lesson tomorrow and see if it can be fixed. Now the film is finished, I can now start the final evaluation of the project.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Analysis of finished Thriller Opening
Today we finished our editing, we are extremely happy with this! We believe our editing has gone well and that our film is of a high standard finally. Looking over the aspects needed to be included in the thriller, we believe we have used all of them including;
- Using a variety of shot distances
- Using a variety of shot transitions and captions
- Holding a steady shot
- Framing a shot
- shooting appropriate material
- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task
- Selecting mise en scene, including colour, figures, lighting, objects and
setting
- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
Furthermore, in order to make our thriller look more realistic, rather then using our name repetetively we dicedided to make up some names. We believe this makes it look more proffesional as there are more names of people who do not yet occur in the film, showing they may be coming into the film later on or are an important aspect of the thriller.
- Using a variety of shot distances
- Using a variety of shot transitions and captions
- Holding a steady shot
- Framing a shot
- shooting appropriate material
- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task
- Selecting mise en scene, including colour, figures, lighting, objects and
setting
- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
Furthermore, in order to make our thriller look more realistic, rather then using our name repetetively we dicedided to make up some names. We believe this makes it look more proffesional as there are more names of people who do not yet occur in the film, showing they may be coming into the film later on or are an important aspect of the thriller.
Final tweeks to the film
Today we focused on tweeking the film in order to try and make it look as though it flows more naturally and improve the continuity. We made sure all the shots ran smoothly by ading fade in and fade outs and also dissolves (shown below). This enables the picture and music to gradually change rather than changing too abrubtly. We also cut some bits out in which we had before hand decided to put in, this was in order to make the film shorter and to add credits inbetween where appropriate. We believe this worked effectively and were happy with the final outcome. Moreover, some pieces of music in the film increased in volume far too much. Therefore, in order to decrease the sound but still have it louder than the piece before hand we used a tool on final cut express. This enabled us to place dots on the pink sound bar, as shown below, and drag them either up or down to increase or decrease the sound where appropriate.
Dissolve;
Dissolve;
Credits;
Final cut express;
finished product of our ident
Today in lesson, whilst Connor was fine tuning the lasts bit of the thriller opening, me and Sarah completed the ident! We are quite happy with the final outcome of the ident and believe the music in which we made using garage band goes well with it. Our completed ident is shown below;
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Adding the music
Today in class me and Sarah edited the last section of our film, we completed this whilst Connor made the credits to the thriller. This way we were able to get more completed in a shorter time. Furthermore, after school Connor and Sarah finished the editing and added the music to the film. I have listened to the film, and believe the music goes well with the thriller, I am happy with the outcome they have acheived.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Plans for today
Today me, Connor and Sarah plan to spend the majority of the day editing all of our footage. We have edited quite a bit already, however still need to creat the credits and put the music over the top as well as finish editing. we plan to spend from around 9:00 - 10:35 in the computer rooms editing and between 3:00 - 5:00. We believe that this will be a sufficient ammount of time to complete a lot of the editing needed.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Finishing filming
Today we finished all of our filming, this did not take us long as we only had a little bit left to finish. We decided to take many repetitive shots of footage in order to make sure we got it perfect, moreover we can start finishing off our editing for our overall product of our two minute opening.
Below are some still pictures of the filming we completed;
Below are some still pictures of the filming we completed;
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Filming the first half of our Graphic Match
Today after school, me, Connor and Sarah went back to Sarah's to complete Georgia's contribution to the graphic match. We asked her to be seated at the computer desk and type a status on the computer on facebook. She couldn't type the sentence we originally asked her to type without making mistakes or quick enough, so we just got to her to type anything as the status could not be seen at this stage of the film. We then got her to click on a notification which allocated her to her profile picture and zoomed in on it.
Will complete the second half of the graphic match next time we film, we believ this will be a success. Moreover, we feel as though the graphic match will enhance our thriller and make it look more professional.
Will complete the second half of the graphic match next time we film, we believ this will be a success. Moreover, we feel as though the graphic match will enhance our thriller and make it look more professional.
new participants on OneTrueMedia
Below is the new participants of our thriller put into a slide show format on OneTrueMedia.com;
1. Georgia Wigley - Protagonist
2. Hannah Sharples - friend
3. Ashleigh Hay - friend
4. Connor Murray - Group Member
5. Sarah Warnock - Antagonist
6. Hollie Tuvey - Group member
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
New opening credits
As we changed the actors in our thriller we aslso had to update the credits at the start of our thriller. Below are the modified credits;
1: Panoptic Productions present
2: A film by Connor Murray
3: Starring
Sarah Warnock
Georgia Wigley
5: Also starring
Hannah Sharples
Ashleigh Hay
6: Edited by *false name*
6: Cinematography by Hollie Tuvey
7: Music by SilenceFreedom
The Biocide
8: Produced by *false name*
9: Directed by Connor Murray
10: LOST SIGNAL
1: Panoptic Productions present
2: A film by Connor Murray
3: Starring
Sarah Warnock
Georgia Wigley
5: Also starring
Hannah Sharples
Ashleigh Hay
6: Edited by *false name*
6: Cinematography by Hollie Tuvey
7: Music by SilenceFreedom
The Biocide
8: Produced by *false name*
9: Directed by Connor Murray
10: LOST SIGNAL
Editing
Today in class me, Connor and Sarah edited the footage we have so far. This took some time as we had to arrange how long each walking section would be and where the jump shots would go and the quick 1 second shots would fit in between them. However, we feel as though we have got quite a lot completed and are happy with our progress.
This is shown below;
This is shown below;
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
re-preparing to film
As we have decided to change our main character, we also had to print out more pictures of the new main character and stick them up on the wall into a heart. This took some time however, we were also able to do some filming of the new main character typing at the computer. We are hoping to be finished filming by friday as we have got a lot finished.
Below are some photos of us preparing to film;
Filming;
Below are some photos of us preparing to film;
Filming;
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Filming
As we changed our main actor, we tried to get as much new footage as possible by filming today. We feel as though we got quite a lot of filming completed and only have a little bit left. We are hoping to get all of the filming finished by the end of this week in order to edit and complete the coursework by the deadline next friday.
Below are some photos of the filming we carried out;
Below are some photos of the filming we carried out;
Change of plan
Due to one member of our group, the main actress not being able to always show up we have decided to change the plan. In order to do this, we changed our main character to someone not in our original group and also changed the two friends to myself and another person also not in our group. As we have had to change the main actor we need to re film the footage we already have, however the individual we had picked for our stalker could no longer by the stalker and therefore we changed the stalker to a member of our group.We are hoping to get more done this way and get it completed quicker.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
'Kiss the girls' - 1997
I have just finished watching the thriller; 'Kiss the girls' made in 1997 by Gary Fieder, starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes. The story is of a Washington DC. detective who travels to North Carolina to investigate the apparent kidnapping of his niece. Aided by the escaped kidnapee Kate McTiernana he cross hunts down the tow kidnappers, one operating under the name of 'Casanova', competing against each other to outdo each other as they seize and destroy their trophy captives. As with most mysteries, this one has the usual red herrings, false leads and dead ends. Freeman is excellent as Alex Cross and heroine Judd is a study in grit and survival and is very effective in a finely nuanced role. The opening credits to the film were very effective as the music was very creepy sounding and it contained some extremely disturbing images, creating the atmosphere of tension to the film right from the beginning. The North Carolina location lensing, music score and cinematography are all very good. Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Our finished viual mind map
Today during lesson, me and Sarah edited the footage for our visual mind map, in order to pick the best one we shot. Once the footage was put onto final cut express, we realised our original problem of the writing not being able to seen was not in fact a problem. This was because we realised the writing could infact be seen on the computer, the camera just didn't seem to pick it up clearly. Although the first footage had been ruined as we believed we could not see the writing and so had spoken over the top of it, we couldn't use this. However, we did manage to get a deccent capture of the visual mind map. This is shown below;
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