Servut Beg-12:2Media Studies Evaluation
1.In what ways does your media product -use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
Our film developed the ideas of thriller conventions. Our film uses non-diegetic music creating suspense and tension; this engages our audience from the very beginning. Creating suspense using music is used in many psychological thrillers to show the uneasiness of what is going to happen next. We used non-diegetic music as we thought this is common in thriller movies and also creates a good atmosphere and works very well. The main focus is not on the actual killing, but focuses on how it all happened showing the intricate detail of each stage rather than rushing into the storyline in chronological order. We start off with the climax intriguing the audience with the main action and then show detailed clips of what happened before. In other psychological thrillers this is also used, as bluntly showing the main action does not leave the same effect as implying what happens, which also creates a thriller effect. In our piece the main character is a “dumb blonde” as in thrillers women are often used as the innocent victims. We took this one step further by using close ups and different camera shots and angles of her to give the audience an insight into her life already creating an understanding and relationship with the character. This immediately gives the audience an impression that she is innocent and they already side with her. We purposely gave the audience an insight into the action at the very start to show what previously happened. We used an effect and we also used black and white to show that this was in the past and the effect used creates tension and uneasiness in the situation. The scene of the girl and the male sitting opposite each at different heights shows who has the power and who the audience are lead to believe is the killer and who the victim.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our main characters were an innocent young female and an older male, which engages our audience as both sexes can relate to the thriller. Another audience that were targeted were teenagers and this was done by showing that the innocent young female is normal and enjoys doing “girly” things which the audience can then relate to. Males were mainly targeted as they are more intrigued by the thriller genre and we also used the attractive female to do this.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
20th century fox would distribute this film as they would be financially stable to distribute it worldwide. They are also well-known and have distributed many thriller films.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience are people aged 16-25 mainly males as through my research I found out they enjoy the psychological thriller genre more than females. We used a young female as the main character to attract our male audience and also so that the female audience could relate to and understand this character.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We used thriller conventions to attract our audience a few examples of this were first the effect used at the beginning engaged our audience as the black and white creates a sense of it being unusual and we also used non-diegetic sound which highlights the action going on. The non-diegetic sound also created suspense which again captured our audience’s attention as these thriller conventions targeted our audience well.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I first used an apple Mac to load all clips we shot onto the software and then as a group we decided which clips to use in our film. My experience with using an apple Mac at first was a bit different as I am usually use windows XP although I have used an apple Mac before and this experience has enhanced my knowledge. I also used Imovie to edit and create the film and I learnt a lot of new things as I was able to play around with different effects, sounds etc. I was able to use these skills and share ideas to use in our film. For example I learnt how to mix different sounds and understand the different sound layers and lines. I also was able to upload our movie onto You Tube which I haven’t done before and it was very simple to get to grips with. Overall I learnt a lot throughout this project and my main difficulty was learning how to use Imovie although after practise it was easier to understand and it was a little time consuming.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I learnt that planning is very important as if it is not done the task can become very time consuming as we didn’t have a strict plan therefore we were making it up as we were going along and if we had a plan we would have saved a lot of time. It was a fantastic experience as we were able to play around with camera angles and shots. I also enhanced my skills with working in a team, which showed me that everyone has different opinions which can be a good thing as long as it is used positively towards our work.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Questions sophie
1.) .) In what ways does your media product -use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
In our film we followed very distinct thriller conventions.
Our storyline challenges your normal convention as it is reverse linear where the end starts at the beginning and in the story is about how it happened, who the characters are and why, rather than just about the killing itself.
In our opening sequence we used an effect called ghost trail which gives a feel that something not quite right to set a mood to the film from the very beginning. We also used Black and white effect to show the present and the past which is also apparent in thrillers like Memento.
Throughout our film you never see the killers face but see body parts to show suspense as Hitchcock says “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
It’s to worry the audience as nothing is as scary as the unknown this tends to be evident in other psychological thrillers like Psycho.
In our Reverse linear we made this more visible to the audience by rewinding back clips. We also chose two different sound tracks one for the past and one for the present.
We also used typical convention of stereo type as the Girl(Sophie Pullum) is shown as the damsel in distress with blond hair and blue eyes which we feel more implied to feel sorry for and want to protect which is typical of horror and thriller which is shown in Birds and also psycho by Hitchcock.
2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our thriller we used a very stereotypical group. We used a teenage girl with blond hair, blue eyes, pale feature as the victim. We did this to make the audience feel sympathetic toward her, to make the murderer seem more immoral and unjust.
We wanted to show the teenager as stereotypical enjoying putting make-up on and doing girly things, to demonstrate normality to show popularity within her peers.
The murderer is shown as a slightly older person maybe early 20’s by making him older than the teenager. He’s is meant to be shown as a loner with psychological issue but on the outside he appears seemingly normal. Which is also stereotypical of a murderer in the thriller convention.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I decided to 20th Century Fox which is a main and general distributor of all genres. I have chosen this as I think they can have the money to show my film worldwide so it can have a lot of coverage. It has also distributed non conventional films like fight club which is a classic example of a psychological thriller.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience we were trying to aim was 16 to 30 year olds. We used a younger person 17-18 year old and an older guy to represent the demographic audience so they can relate. I also asked people of different ages and gender if they would watch and enjoy this film. Most of the people aged 16-30 and male said they would and enjoy this genre which confirmed our indication.
Would you enjoy watching our film?
The high Majority of our audience would be 16-30 years old rather than an older group of people. We didn’t ask a younger audience as we didn’t find it inappropriate to do so as it contains violence and possibly inappropriate language.
We used an attractive female to draw male attention as this was our main audience
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
We used a backward linear in order to make it a more interesting film to attract a thriller audience which tend to enjoy suspense and wanting to know how not just what happened.
Throughout our film we used non-digetic sound rather than dialogue to want to know more about the character to entice the audience. We tried setting the scene and the mood in order to narrate the film. Rather than giving all the answer away. We wanted the audience to come up with a conclusion of their own to be miss lead to attract the audience to get the answer to find the real truth.
We tried to make the narrative to be realistic so that the audience could relate.
We used fades between the two characters overlaps to show a link between them to show closeness and make the audience ask questions which intrigue them to keep watching.
We used a steady piano beat in the 2nd half of our film making like a build up of something that going to happen you feel the tension between the two characters.
6. )What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before making this film, I have never used any film equipment before. So I have learnt a great deal. I learnt how to set up the equipment in order to film like placing the camera on the tripod and being able to film correctly without jogging the camera when using it. I also learnt how difficult some camera angles are to produce and are not as simple as they may seem like our mirror scene in our film in which we found considerably difficult to capture the actress and not get the camera in the mirror which we overcame with considerable difficulty.
Also another first for me was using a Mac computer and the software which after using for a few days became very use to it but had constant support from both my group and teachers. I enjoyed using the software imovie and using all the setting available and found how time consuming it can be more so than filming. Also how editing is so important to your film and how it can change a whole mood to your movie. Even though i enjoyed using the Mac I found some of the setting considerably infuriating like the fact it didn’t have a right click button so I found doing certain things to took slightly longer working out where they may be i.e. for copy and paste.
I learnt how to use a Blog and furthermore learnt to use the setting available to me and really enjoyed using it to help with our media portfolio and help communicate with other group members helping organise and establish our film. I also liked the idea how we could use it at anytime and can upload pictures, articles and Video. I have found it a crucial aspect for our filming and communication.
Overall all I’ve learnt a great deal and been useful in practise which enabled us as a group to make the most of what we have and enabled us to understand the effort and input that films have.
7. )Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel personally that I’ve learnt how time consuming it is to do each shot and how many time we had to re take shots. We learnt how communicate as a team and talked about things we didn’t agree on and I believe we worked well as a group. Our
storyboard was similar to what we wanted to achieve but changed slightly as we also saw a male getting ready to go out not just the female.
Our group tended to be a bit inconsistent with not all member turning up which made it hard for all of us but worked round this and manage to get all our filming done with little time to spare. It was good experimenting when filming and working out the best camera angles. I learnt how important it is to be organised and set a schedule in which to do things which we tried to keep to in order to be on time for the deadline.
We didn’t have an argument throughout, we learnt to communicate our views and learn skill from each other.
I learnt how creative and fun it can to make a feel but how continuous the work is and time consuming.
Even though we had a fair idea on camera work we had focused very little on editing when thinking of the storyboard but the more we learnt about editing the more crucial it became .We learnt how colour and black and white can be used to set a narrative change a mood or an setting which we found more useful after filming.
Overall I had fantastic time filming and enjoyed learning and advancing skills in the of film industry.
(i have picture,graph,video and music i want to add to this but will be able to do this tomorrow using the macs :) )
In our film we followed very distinct thriller conventions.
Our storyline challenges your normal convention as it is reverse linear where the end starts at the beginning and in the story is about how it happened, who the characters are and why, rather than just about the killing itself.
In our opening sequence we used an effect called ghost trail which gives a feel that something not quite right to set a mood to the film from the very beginning. We also used Black and white effect to show the present and the past which is also apparent in thrillers like Memento.
Throughout our film you never see the killers face but see body parts to show suspense as Hitchcock says “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
It’s to worry the audience as nothing is as scary as the unknown this tends to be evident in other psychological thrillers like Psycho.
In our Reverse linear we made this more visible to the audience by rewinding back clips. We also chose two different sound tracks one for the past and one for the present.
We also used typical convention of stereo type as the Girl(Sophie Pullum) is shown as the damsel in distress with blond hair and blue eyes which we feel more implied to feel sorry for and want to protect which is typical of horror and thriller which is shown in Birds and also psycho by Hitchcock.
2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our thriller we used a very stereotypical group. We used a teenage girl with blond hair, blue eyes, pale feature as the victim. We did this to make the audience feel sympathetic toward her, to make the murderer seem more immoral and unjust.
We wanted to show the teenager as stereotypical enjoying putting make-up on and doing girly things, to demonstrate normality to show popularity within her peers.
The murderer is shown as a slightly older person maybe early 20’s by making him older than the teenager. He’s is meant to be shown as a loner with psychological issue but on the outside he appears seemingly normal. Which is also stereotypical of a murderer in the thriller convention.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I decided to 20th Century Fox which is a main and general distributor of all genres. I have chosen this as I think they can have the money to show my film worldwide so it can have a lot of coverage. It has also distributed non conventional films like fight club which is a classic example of a psychological thriller.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience we were trying to aim was 16 to 30 year olds. We used a younger person 17-18 year old and an older guy to represent the demographic audience so they can relate. I also asked people of different ages and gender if they would watch and enjoy this film. Most of the people aged 16-30 and male said they would and enjoy this genre which confirmed our indication.
Would you enjoy watching our film?
The high Majority of our audience would be 16-30 years old rather than an older group of people. We didn’t ask a younger audience as we didn’t find it inappropriate to do so as it contains violence and possibly inappropriate language.
We used an attractive female to draw male attention as this was our main audience
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
We used a backward linear in order to make it a more interesting film to attract a thriller audience which tend to enjoy suspense and wanting to know how not just what happened.
Throughout our film we used non-digetic sound rather than dialogue to want to know more about the character to entice the audience. We tried setting the scene and the mood in order to narrate the film. Rather than giving all the answer away. We wanted the audience to come up with a conclusion of their own to be miss lead to attract the audience to get the answer to find the real truth.
We tried to make the narrative to be realistic so that the audience could relate.
We used fades between the two characters overlaps to show a link between them to show closeness and make the audience ask questions which intrigue them to keep watching.
We used a steady piano beat in the 2nd half of our film making like a build up of something that going to happen you feel the tension between the two characters.
6. )What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before making this film, I have never used any film equipment before. So I have learnt a great deal. I learnt how to set up the equipment in order to film like placing the camera on the tripod and being able to film correctly without jogging the camera when using it. I also learnt how difficult some camera angles are to produce and are not as simple as they may seem like our mirror scene in our film in which we found considerably difficult to capture the actress and not get the camera in the mirror which we overcame with considerable difficulty.
Also another first for me was using a Mac computer and the software which after using for a few days became very use to it but had constant support from both my group and teachers. I enjoyed using the software imovie and using all the setting available and found how time consuming it can be more so than filming. Also how editing is so important to your film and how it can change a whole mood to your movie. Even though i enjoyed using the Mac I found some of the setting considerably infuriating like the fact it didn’t have a right click button so I found doing certain things to took slightly longer working out where they may be i.e. for copy and paste.
I learnt how to use a Blog and furthermore learnt to use the setting available to me and really enjoyed using it to help with our media portfolio and help communicate with other group members helping organise and establish our film. I also liked the idea how we could use it at anytime and can upload pictures, articles and Video. I have found it a crucial aspect for our filming and communication.
Overall all I’ve learnt a great deal and been useful in practise which enabled us as a group to make the most of what we have and enabled us to understand the effort and input that films have.
7. )Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel personally that I’ve learnt how time consuming it is to do each shot and how many time we had to re take shots. We learnt how communicate as a team and talked about things we didn’t agree on and I believe we worked well as a group. Our
storyboard was similar to what we wanted to achieve but changed slightly as we also saw a male getting ready to go out not just the female.
Our group tended to be a bit inconsistent with not all member turning up which made it hard for all of us but worked round this and manage to get all our filming done with little time to spare. It was good experimenting when filming and working out the best camera angles. I learnt how important it is to be organised and set a schedule in which to do things which we tried to keep to in order to be on time for the deadline.
We didn’t have an argument throughout, we learnt to communicate our views and learn skill from each other.
I learnt how creative and fun it can to make a feel but how continuous the work is and time consuming.
Even though we had a fair idea on camera work we had focused very little on editing when thinking of the storyboard but the more we learnt about editing the more crucial it became .We learnt how colour and black and white can be used to set a narrative change a mood or an setting which we found more useful after filming.
Overall I had fantastic time filming and enjoyed learning and advancing skills in the of film industry.
(i have picture,graph,video and music i want to add to this but will be able to do this tomorrow using the macs :) )
Friday, 24 April 2009
Evaluation,Jarry Choudry
1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
We tried to built up the relationship between the characters as we used cross cutting shots most of the time to link the significant the actions together as it illustrates the narrative action which happens at the same time but in different places. like she gets ready put make up on,put on the shoes etc he gets ready washes his face and put on his shoes etc.
2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We used two types of different gender,age groups.
Our main character was a innocent teenage girl blond hairs blue eyes like the ordinary type of blond woman's, she stars in her role as a victim. The girl was a normal girl like everybody else in her age group but until the day he came it changed her whole life.
Some audience can identify themselves with those kind of situation which appeared in their own life, like when they met a guy, which there whole life changed and he didn't turned out as he intended to be.
As well the girl was of high standards not every guy could afford it, as she was fashion orientated and took care of here physical appearance like putting make up on and stuff like that and still sympathetic always having a smile.
It might represent those types of audience which are very pleased with themselves and maybe think of being better then the average.
The male character is a tuff guy and older then the girl which makes him even more powerful. He is a person which has mental issues like disorientated and willing to do everything to get what he wants at any cost. He is kind of disturbed but can appear as well normal and change characteristics like a two face. Also he is a smart guy as well as he is older then the childish blond girl, which make him even more dangerous.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
From the 6 major film distributor in the world I would go for 20 Century Fox as they have the money to afford it they have many investors which again tells about their reputation in making film and profit from the films. It is a subsidiary of the News Corporation which is the largest media conglomerate in the world. They could as well advertise the movies in their news papers or invest in the advertising ads etc.
Our movie could be slightly go in the categories of independent movies as it is very different from the majority of thrillers.
The second most appropriate company would be Fox Searchlight Pictures which is a film division of 20 century fox which is very specialised in independent movies and British movies as well in horror type of movies those factors as well could lead to get those potential audience as they know the ways how to target that kind of audience the best way and where.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience ranges from 16-25 both gender male and female covered, but from our research and discussion we where intended to target a more male dominated audience,but my researched showed that man as well as woman are pleasured with watching a thriller. Our film will include a stereotypical blond type of girl which straight gets the attention from the male side. It will contain scenes which might not be suitable for younger viewers so it might come in the categories of 16 to18 years restriction age.
5.) How did you attract/adress your audience?
Most people which likes thriller they want to get shocked not by the straight action ahead they want to think behind the action and enjoy the suspense which are brought to them, people like to being put in a dark room with lots of question to ask.
We made our opening in that way interesting as we used a non linear narrative structure to play with the audiences mind and attract them more are it is kind of unique.
Like in our opening we have dissolve in, cross cuttings and overlaps to built up the relationship with the two characters it keeps as well the attention of the audience throughout and plays with their minds.
We used sound which really built up tension towards the opening especially the stable one which where played throughout as they both where getting ready, the audience knew that something is going to happened as it has a kind of mysteries touch, which then creates those kind of atmosphere.
The piano is played slowly and makes as well breaks which it decreases it volume and stays like that for while and starts again the previous flow.
In our opening we haven't used any sort of diagetic sound except of the girl screaming we used non diagetic sound throughout the opening as we used just our shots and some music which could wonderful indicate the story. We played with their minds to make them think about what is going to happened how and so on.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The first production stage was when we used the technology the first time, shooting our shots which we wanted to use in our movie.
The next stage was using the Imac computer and import it on the computer.
The last stage was using the software Imovie to edit our chosen variety of shots.
I was familiar with using cameras, importing stuff, imovie and a bit experience with imac computers so our group didn't had that much difficulties to get use to those equipment and feature's.
In some cases the camera handling was difficult as you really need to make sure everything is in the right order like the height if the ground is uneven we needed to make it stable or some shots as we needed to zoom out from shots they where some shots which where kind of a problem but we could tackle them with great success.
The scene where we have the girl putting on her shoes was kind of difficult as we needed to make sure she is acting in the centre of the frame and at the same time putting them on so it was hard. the shoot where we have the mirror as she puts her make-up on was also difficult as she needed to be in the mirror and couldn't see herself so I had to hold the mirror while I was filming an always make sure her face parts she is treating are in the frame.
But overall we could manage that all the shot we filmed are in good quality as all of the members got used with the camera and it was no big deal for anybody to shoot further shots any more.
The Imovie software helped us a lot with the editing of our shots, sounds and special effects it had many features to offer like using flashbacks, dissolve, black&white,slow motions etc, to make the most of our film.
But it had as well some limitations as you couldn't play many sound over another like overlapping them and you couldn't overlap the shots as we needed to use dissolve effects to solve that problem,so you couldn't creating the atmosphere of the blue screen type of shots. But on the other hand it is a packaging which comes with the computer where you don't expect so much as it would be a specialised software to buy from shops, but it is still better then movie-maker as in movie- maker you have a very poor collection of effects and themes which look as well cheaper.
The Imac computer has a great design and a nice layout but I couldn't make myself comfortable with this computer as it is very different to Microsoft computers like xp, Microsoft computer are much easier to use and more user friendly then I mac as they are new in the market and people don't knew them before etc, it take time to make you familiar with those computers.
It may look cool and stylish but I cant be bothered using those types of computers with different settings etc any more, I rather stick to the old type of machines.
I also learnt how to use blog and post electronically work on-line,as it was important as we obviously needed to hand in the work electronically over the internet by using the blog.
It is a good way of communicating and exchanging files with people and share ideas and get feedback by getting comments etc.
Its really good as you could hand in your work any time and wherever you are, its easy to upload new things.
Rather having it on paper based etc you can just put images,clips and word documents electronically on-line.
We also made us familiar with posting videos on you tube which helped us to get comments from people and see what they think about the opening.
I think we always worked well as a team and helped each other by any task and got things done when we wanted them to, sometimes we needed to rush but then again came straight to the point back. I think the success of that group was that we always could built up on each other.
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you fealt you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
I learnt it is very important to organise your time effectively and take time while shooting a shot as it takes several shot to get it right and of good quality.
If you rush up with things as you didn't manage your time efficient they can ruin your work and afterwards you realised it when it is to late,but I think we got everything done by the time, we might had sometimes problems with getting the group members together, but after all we worked really good as a team and could always count on each other.
The good think was we decide to use actors from our group to avoid organising appointments for shooting and make sure they are reliable etc.
We saved so much time by doing that as we where always together and everybody knew exactly what is our opening about so we could act twices good as an external person.
We had to communicate as well lots of things and organise our ideas but I think I had a good group where everybody's ideas where listen up and brought into the process of our production work.
It takes as well time to get things right like the shooting and editing of shots like you need to re shoot shoots so many time to get the right shot, as well in editing it was also time consuming but I think we spend more time on shooting as on editing as we used some difficult shoots,which wasn't the easiest to film. I think but we made a good collection of different types of angels and camera shots to attract the audience straight away not only with the narrative structure as well with the good use of shots.
We learnt as well how important it is to have a consistence of lighting otherwise it looks very poor,so we always needed to make sure we have the same light as in our previous shots, which then can built a story.
We learnt which were the most appropriate special effects to use in our opening, like dissolve when it cross cuts from the guy to the girl as they doing the same thing,like getting ready the shots where overlapping each other make them related.
As well communication plays a big role in groups especially in those groups of three person,but we could manage all the things and we never had any kind of argues or distinguish between points with each other,which made the work much easier and every member of my group, from my opinion put a good effort to archive that what we have today.
real media products?
We tried to built up the relationship between the characters as we used cross cutting shots most of the time to link the significant the actions together as it illustrates the narrative action which happens at the same time but in different places. like she gets ready put make up on,put on the shoes etc he gets ready washes his face and put on his shoes etc.
As well by using that the suspense is built by using those shots,like it creates the expectation of the audience like they know something is going to happened and with the time they will know what happened.
We used as well dissolve effects which one images is overlapping to the next one which are related to each other in a way like she puts her makeup on and it dissolves in where he washes his face.
We used a character in our film which tend to look really innocent in a way like blond girl with blue eyes which is not intend to do something bad and very stereotypical kind of characters which we can refer back to Alfred Hitchcock type of woman's which are as well blond, which the audience feel more sorry for as they look like angels which don't want to harm anybody like “The Birds” from A.H. The male character is totally the opposite which the audience wouldn't feel sorry for and they don't get the chance to identity with him a lot.
In our movie we didn't used the usual linear structure as typical thriller movies, we used a reverse narrative structure like in memento where the end of the film starts at the beginning and it confuses the audience and plays with their minds they have to figure out what happened and how it happened which are the suspicious characters in the clips what are they intend to do.
We used also black&white effects to indicate the present and the past again which came up in movies like memento
Our movie created the suspense in some ways as we tried to hide the killers identity we never showed up his face, as we only showed body parts of him,which again build up the tension in a way and built up questions to the audience,who is the killer,what does he look like, is he somebody which are close to her etc...
Those factors really teases the audience and held up their attention like similar to psycho the audience are unknown of the killer as you never see his face, which makes the terror even more intensive rather having a guy the audience are familiar with which kills people, which wouldn't created that much suspense.
We used three different types of music in our opening one which was kind of spooky at the beginning of the first shot the second one was kind of mystery but still had a happy flow and created the unawareness feeling that something is going to happen, which went throughout the opening until the guy was walking towards the corridor that type of music was kind of very deep sound and slowly played which created the atmosphere of the end of the action.
2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We used two types of different gender,age groups.
Our main character was a innocent teenage girl blond hairs blue eyes like the ordinary type of blond woman's, she stars in her role as a victim. The girl was a normal girl like everybody else in her age group but until the day he came it changed her whole life.
Some audience can identify themselves with those kind of situation which appeared in their own life, like when they met a guy, which there whole life changed and he didn't turned out as he intended to be.
As well the girl was of high standards not every guy could afford it, as she was fashion orientated and took care of here physical appearance like putting make up on and stuff like that and still sympathetic always having a smile.
It might represent those types of audience which are very pleased with themselves and maybe think of being better then the average.
The male character is a tuff guy and older then the girl which makes him even more powerful. He is a person which has mental issues like disorientated and willing to do everything to get what he wants at any cost. He is kind of disturbed but can appear as well normal and change characteristics like a two face. Also he is a smart guy as well as he is older then the childish blond girl, which make him even more dangerous.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
From the 6 major film distributor in the world I would go for 20 Century Fox as they have the money to afford it they have many investors which again tells about their reputation in making film and profit from the films. It is a subsidiary of the News Corporation which is the largest media conglomerate in the world. They could as well advertise the movies in their news papers or invest in the advertising ads etc.
Our movie could be slightly go in the categories of independent movies as it is very different from the majority of thrillers.
The second most appropriate company would be Fox Searchlight Pictures which is a film division of 20 century fox which is very specialised in independent movies and British movies as well in horror type of movies those factors as well could lead to get those potential audience as they know the ways how to target that kind of audience the best way and where.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience ranges from 16-25 both gender male and female covered, but from our research and discussion we where intended to target a more male dominated audience,but my researched showed that man as well as woman are pleasured with watching a thriller. Our film will include a stereotypical blond type of girl which straight gets the attention from the male side. It will contain scenes which might not be suitable for younger viewers so it might come in the categories of 16 to18 years restriction age.
5.) How did you attract/adress your audience?
Most people which likes thriller they want to get shocked not by the straight action ahead they want to think behind the action and enjoy the suspense which are brought to them, people like to being put in a dark room with lots of question to ask.
We made our opening in that way interesting as we used a non linear narrative structure to play with the audiences mind and attract them more are it is kind of unique.
Like in our opening we have dissolve in, cross cuttings and overlaps to built up the relationship with the two characters it keeps as well the attention of the audience throughout and plays with their minds.
We used sound which really built up tension towards the opening especially the stable one which where played throughout as they both where getting ready, the audience knew that something is going to happened as it has a kind of mysteries touch, which then creates those kind of atmosphere.
The piano is played slowly and makes as well breaks which it decreases it volume and stays like that for while and starts again the previous flow.
In our opening we haven't used any sort of diagetic sound except of the girl screaming we used non diagetic sound throughout the opening as we used just our shots and some music which could wonderful indicate the story. We played with their minds to make them think about what is going to happened how and so on.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The first production stage was when we used the technology the first time, shooting our shots which we wanted to use in our movie.
The next stage was using the Imac computer and import it on the computer.
The last stage was using the software Imovie to edit our chosen variety of shots.
I was familiar with using cameras, importing stuff, imovie and a bit experience with imac computers so our group didn't had that much difficulties to get use to those equipment and feature's.
In some cases the camera handling was difficult as you really need to make sure everything is in the right order like the height if the ground is uneven we needed to make it stable or some shots as we needed to zoom out from shots they where some shots which where kind of a problem but we could tackle them with great success.
The scene where we have the girl putting on her shoes was kind of difficult as we needed to make sure she is acting in the centre of the frame and at the same time putting them on so it was hard. the shoot where we have the mirror as she puts her make-up on was also difficult as she needed to be in the mirror and couldn't see herself so I had to hold the mirror while I was filming an always make sure her face parts she is treating are in the frame.
But overall we could manage that all the shot we filmed are in good quality as all of the members got used with the camera and it was no big deal for anybody to shoot further shots any more.
The Imovie software helped us a lot with the editing of our shots, sounds and special effects it had many features to offer like using flashbacks, dissolve, black&white,slow motions etc, to make the most of our film.
But it had as well some limitations as you couldn't play many sound over another like overlapping them and you couldn't overlap the shots as we needed to use dissolve effects to solve that problem,so you couldn't creating the atmosphere of the blue screen type of shots. But on the other hand it is a packaging which comes with the computer where you don't expect so much as it would be a specialised software to buy from shops, but it is still better then movie-maker as in movie- maker you have a very poor collection of effects and themes which look as well cheaper.
The Imac computer has a great design and a nice layout but I couldn't make myself comfortable with this computer as it is very different to Microsoft computers like xp, Microsoft computer are much easier to use and more user friendly then I mac as they are new in the market and people don't knew them before etc, it take time to make you familiar with those computers.
It may look cool and stylish but I cant be bothered using those types of computers with different settings etc any more, I rather stick to the old type of machines.
I also learnt how to use blog and post electronically work on-line,as it was important as we obviously needed to hand in the work electronically over the internet by using the blog.
It is a good way of communicating and exchanging files with people and share ideas and get feedback by getting comments etc.
Its really good as you could hand in your work any time and wherever you are, its easy to upload new things.
Rather having it on paper based etc you can just put images,clips and word documents electronically on-line.
We also made us familiar with posting videos on you tube which helped us to get comments from people and see what they think about the opening.
I think we always worked well as a team and helped each other by any task and got things done when we wanted them to, sometimes we needed to rush but then again came straight to the point back. I think the success of that group was that we always could built up on each other.
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you fealt you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
I learnt it is very important to organise your time effectively and take time while shooting a shot as it takes several shot to get it right and of good quality.
If you rush up with things as you didn't manage your time efficient they can ruin your work and afterwards you realised it when it is to late,but I think we got everything done by the time, we might had sometimes problems with getting the group members together, but after all we worked really good as a team and could always count on each other.
The good think was we decide to use actors from our group to avoid organising appointments for shooting and make sure they are reliable etc.
We saved so much time by doing that as we where always together and everybody knew exactly what is our opening about so we could act twices good as an external person.
We had to communicate as well lots of things and organise our ideas but I think I had a good group where everybody's ideas where listen up and brought into the process of our production work.
It takes as well time to get things right like the shooting and editing of shots like you need to re shoot shoots so many time to get the right shot, as well in editing it was also time consuming but I think we spend more time on shooting as on editing as we used some difficult shoots,which wasn't the easiest to film. I think but we made a good collection of different types of angels and camera shots to attract the audience straight away not only with the narrative structure as well with the good use of shots.
We learnt as well how important it is to have a consistence of lighting otherwise it looks very poor,so we always needed to make sure we have the same light as in our previous shots, which then can built a story.
We learnt which were the most appropriate special effects to use in our opening, like dissolve when it cross cuts from the guy to the girl as they doing the same thing,like getting ready the shots where overlapping each other make them related.
As well communication plays a big role in groups especially in those groups of three person,but we could manage all the things and we never had any kind of argues or distinguish between points with each other,which made the work much easier and every member of my group, from my opinion put a good effort to archive that what we have today.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Monday, 30 March 2009
30th March
I'm sorry to member i was unable to come in today as i had fainted this morning and split the inside of my lip so had to go to hospital,i sud be in tomorrow.So we can then be back on schedule sorry for group memeber that i couldn't attend today but hopefully make time 2moz to finsh of :)
We haven't got long now and need to get as much done
We haven't got long now and need to get as much done
Monday 30th march 2009
today we were falling behind a little as we were not able to film therefore servut and me imported our previous filming clips and then edited these. we will then film when all members are available.
- tracking shot of guy walking
- guy grabbing the girl
Friday, 27 March 2009
Filming
Well...
Today has been a successful day all members of the group turned up
Ann managed to get a considerable amount of filming done: D
We have done the ending of the film so now we need to edit it, the only filming we need to-do is on Monday morning which we have booked the medical room at 9am.This should take about 30mins after this we should have all our filming done unless we come across other problems we didn’t plan for. Then editing will be taking place and hopefully our whole group can make more effort so we can come in together at lunch to get the editing done and agree on it all but very happy with the progress that has been taking place. Editing is looking good as well and should be finished before Friday but Friday can be for minor details to make sure there nothing more we can do to improve our media production.
Today has been a successful day all members of the group turned up
Ann managed to get a considerable amount of filming done: D
We have done the ending of the film so now we need to edit it, the only filming we need to-do is on Monday morning which we have booked the medical room at 9am.This should take about 30mins after this we should have all our filming done unless we come across other problems we didn’t plan for. Then editing will be taking place and hopefully our whole group can make more effort so we can come in together at lunch to get the editing done and agree on it all but very happy with the progress that has been taking place. Editing is looking good as well and should be finished before Friday but Friday can be for minor details to make sure there nothing more we can do to improve our media production.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
What as a group we need to achieve to get top marks
Level 4 48–60 marks
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;
• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• using titles appropriately.
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;
• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• using titles appropriately.
25th March
Today we where unable to film due to group members being later we didn’t have sufficient time to do filming. Editing is coming together and we are all happy of the outcome so far with little disagreement, as group we are working well and enjoying most time spent with them but would like them to be here more often so we could finish filming by then end of the week. We have booked a camera in 4th; lunch and 5th period which should be an adequate enough time to finish filming, so by the end of next week we won’t be in a rush and can focus primarily on editing and making our film better. YAY:D
Also we have started doing the credits which also is going well and have descided on what it should look like.I'm so excirting now as each day we're getting closer to the finshed product :D i have also placed the spec onto the blog so that we can see how we can improve to make our film better so that our group can focus on the little details aswell which could gain us valueable points.Also all of our group need to product analysis on an opening to the film which i will talk to them about on friday which should have been done along time ago.We also need to discuss times that we can film together and so that i can show them how to edit which needs to be done soon in order for them to do some.other than that it's all looking good but would appriciate it if more of the memeber could be here on time so we can film and get this done in considerable time :) thanks
Also we have started doing the credits which also is going well and have descided on what it should look like.I'm so excirting now as each day we're getting closer to the finshed product :D i have also placed the spec onto the blog so that we can see how we can improve to make our film better so that our group can focus on the little details aswell which could gain us valueable points.Also all of our group need to product analysis on an opening to the film which i will talk to them about on friday which should have been done along time ago.We also need to discuss times that we can film together and so that i can show them how to edit which needs to be done soon in order for them to do some.other than that it's all looking good but would appriciate it if more of the memeber could be here on time so we can film and get this done in considerable time :) thanks
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Editing
YAY!! Finally we're getting somewhere: D
although have done all the editing so far on my own including music and titles, would have been nice to have more input in that way.
we're on target now and have only got 2pieces of filming to-do, which if everyone is in tomorrow we should be able to do, if not ...... well more editing will be taking place on the others behalf. But yay :D things are coming together and looking more better as time goes on :D
although have done all the editing so far on my own including music and titles, would have been nice to have more input in that way.
we're on target now and have only got 2pieces of filming to-do, which if everyone is in tomorrow we should be able to do, if not ...... well more editing will be taking place on the others behalf. But yay :D things are coming together and looking more better as time goes on :D
specification
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Data/publications/key_documents/AS_ALevel_GCE_Media_Studies_Specification.pdf
Friday, 20 March 2009
20th March friday
Today we did some more filming and our progress is slow more so than planned and hopefully by Wednesday next week we should have finished all filming.
We need to film the 1st minute again which should take about 10 mins and then the end of our clip which is placed at the bus stop jut out side school and may take longer about 20-25 mins.
We have our music that we want to use and know how we are going to edit it; it’s now all about getting the filming done, so we can concentrate intirely on editing.
We need to film the 1st minute again which should take about 10 mins and then the end of our clip which is placed at the bus stop jut out side school and may take longer about 20-25 mins.
We have our music that we want to use and know how we are going to edit it; it’s now all about getting the filming done, so we can concentrate intirely on editing.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Media so far today on the 18th
So far we have done most of the 2nd half of our film which has taken longer than planned and haven't so far been able to do our film in the medical room which seems we're not on schedule to what we had planed.As we are unable to use a tripod we're going to be editing now so we can see what else we need to re film for our production.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Filming and what we're doing this week
Today we did filming in the medical room which went well and have booked another section in there for tomorrow the 18th for period 5-6, as the likelihood of this room being used become lower as the day progresses. We did the first 30 second today and hopefully also be editing this tomorrow.
What we hope to achieve by the end of the week is all the filming, have the music done and on our way to editing.
Tomorrow:
Period 1: 2nd half of our filming which is taken place in the bungalow
Period 2: Filming still
Period 3: Going through what we have done
Period 4: editing and see how we can improve on what we have filmed
Period 5: Filming in the medial room
Period 6: medical and finishing
What we hope to achieve by the end of the week is all the filming, have the music done and on our way to editing.
Tomorrow:
Period 1: 2nd half of our filming which is taken place in the bungalow
Period 2: Filming still
Period 3: Going through what we have done
Period 4: editing and see how we can improve on what we have filmed
Period 5: Filming in the medial room
Period 6: medical and finishing
Monday, 16 March 2009
Music and sound effects
I found a few good sound effects which come may come in use when editing. http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml and http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Horror
one of the sound that seems good s a piece of music called 'one of them' and 'long not 4' which seems to fit our filminf but need to discuss as a group at a later date.
one of the sound that seems good s a piece of music called 'one of them' and 'long not 4' which seems to fit our filminf but need to discuss as a group at a later date.
storyboard
Today we discussed our story and the shot that need to take place, which has changed slightly.
I will be putting up the new storyboard and shots in detail tomorrow.
Today we focused on what shot we will be doing tomorrow which is depended on who turns up.
The first part of our scene takes place in the medical room and we have asked to hire it for tomorrow for 5th period as this is excellent set up for the first 2-3 mins of our film.
We also talked about the last 2 mins of our film and how we will be shooting it and what we expect it to look like which has changed from the first storyboard we did. I will put up details of this later.
If not all of the group is here tomorrow we will be shooting the last 2 mins of our film which consist of myself and will take place in the bungalow.
I will be putting up the new storyboard and shots in detail tomorrow.
Today we focused on what shot we will be doing tomorrow which is depended on who turns up.
The first part of our scene takes place in the medical room and we have asked to hire it for tomorrow for 5th period as this is excellent set up for the first 2-3 mins of our film.
We also talked about the last 2 mins of our film and how we will be shooting it and what we expect it to look like which has changed from the first storyboard we did. I will put up details of this later.
If not all of the group is here tomorrow we will be shooting the last 2 mins of our film which consist of myself and will take place in the bungalow.
Friday, 13 March 2009
I have been looking at codes and techniques that are used in psychological thrillers in order to improve our clip. I have noticed the use of quick cuts between shots are used, extreme close ups are also used and lots of different camera angles are used. We are going to include some of these in our clip. Editing is also a key factor that creates the suspence and implies the thriller genre, jus as sound is also used. We are going to have a thriller sound effect throughout our piece.
13th March
We are starting to film on Tuesday as it tend to be the only time servut,Jarry and myself are free todo filming outside of lesson time. We are going to book the medical room for our filming as it tend to be a good enviroment to set out scene.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Monday, 2 March 2009
Product Research
I chose to study Stanley Kubrick's film 'The Shining', for my product research. I thought it was a great example to use, made in the 1980's the film's opening was gripping for the audience of even the 21st century, therefore I thought that this was a great example to use. From watching the opening scene of The Shining I realised that for our thriller we need a gripping scene that can be enigmatic, so that not only the audience right now but even the audience who watch it after ten years would understand it hence it needs to capture a relative topic that is universal. The title sequence was shown throughout the opening scene which gave it a ore of a thriller look, as the audience would want to see the whole image rather than writing covering some of the image, therefore this was enigmatic for us. Another good technique was portrayed through the opening shot which was taken from an aerial view this made the audience feel more powerful, as they were in control of the situation. Similarly the next shot was a trailer shot where the camera was following the car, this was enigmatic for the audience as we wanted to know what was in the car? who was driving it? and more importantly why are we following it? Another technique that was interesting was the camera was tilted at an angle which made the audience again curious of the situation. The opening scene ends when they finally reach a destination point, this is typical of thriller genre as the film began on a normal day, and now we can see the narrative will develop. Kubrick used the sound as the main technique to help us interact with the film, it began with a non diegtic dis chord and lead on to it getting louder as the scene progresses. I feel this technique had a big impact on me as it suited the mise en scene and as a result it was enigmatic. Therefore I feel that the sound at the beginning of our thriller should be well chose, as sometimes the dialogue can ruin the beginning because it isn't as enigmatic as having or having a cacophony. However I can see that if filming outside then lighting may be a problem because we will either have to fill everything in one day or have very similar lighting various days we film. However I feel that the bird eye view shot was a well developed shot as it allowed the shot to be established, I think this will be a helpful technique in the opening o the thriller to use.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Rough Storyline
Story Synopsis:
Catherine goes out with friends
The audience sees her getting stalked
On the way home in the evening she gets kidnapped.
Audience notices trails of blood
Broken pieces of glass
Tied up girl
Picture of the missing girl
Title Sequence roles (through out the play)
Name of the film comes.
The decisions we took after the target research
We took a decision to use quota sampling instead of random sampling because we knew who our target audience was therefore it was just a question of only getting the questions down and giving it to people. We found this a lot easier as we wanted our age certificate to be of 15 so we knew what to base our questions around.
We decided to take advertise our adverts mainly on TV between programmes such as Skins, Hollyoaks etc… The ones teenagers mainly watch as they are our target audience. The target researched allowed us to cut down our ideas and come into a more specific result. It also allowed us to think precisely as some stuff our audience wouldn’t approve of.
What we thought of from the Questionnaire
From this questionnaire we noticed that:
The most preffered way of Title Sequence amongst the audience was throughout the opening scene.Therefore we are going to show our title sequence throughout the beginning and as the opening ends we will show the name of the film.
Consequently we are going to have an enigmatic character as the audience prefers to wonder about their character rather than having an understanding of them. This is already one of the conventions of a psychological thriller , so it should make the opening seem more real.
Target Research
Questionnaire
Where do you tend to watch movies?
How often do you go cinema?
What do you think is the most effective form of advertising?
What types of thriller do you prefer?
What types of narrative do you prefer?
What attracts you to the opening of a thriller?
What do you think is the most effective form of title sequence?
Do you prefer?
Treatment
Catherine Burton was at her first year of University. Having had a perfect life she couldn’t ask for anything else. Although rich, intelligent and beautiful there was some happiness missing in her life. Little did Catherine know her life was going to be changed due to one small incident?
Being the only child, and away from home Catherine was hardly attached to her family with a workaholic mother and a busy father Catherine had been neglected generally through her childhood. Catherine felt this was the reason of her obsessive behaviour towards her friends on whom she was now dependant on. Being away from home for the first time Catherine is having a time of her life however her life changes when she becomes the victim of a dreadful event.
One evening whist walking through the abandoned park Catherine observes Tom; a man of around sixty who eventually becomes the centre of Catherine’s life, the more she finds out about him the more she wants to know and soon he becomes the cause for the transformation in Catherine’s life. All of a sudden Catherine is cheerful, satisfied and relaxed but could this change drive Catherine to her own death?
Days, weeks, months went by and one dark gloomy night Catherine disappears. As we begin to unravel the story all are suspicious towards Tom, but Tom has his own past which needs to be dealt with.
Main Task
Next we got given a possible six stories from which we had to carry out a treatment and as a result we as a group ended up picking:
Into the Night:
Preliminary Task
From our preliminary task we learnt how to control camera work. We discovered many things that would have helped us in our main task such as, if filming outside we should do it in one day as it has a large impact on the type of shot it is and also the lighting may differ if the day is different. Not only that but we also learnt how to keep the 180 degrees rule which did prove to be quite difficult due to which we had to change our ending. This took a while to grasp and therefore we had to shoot on a different day and change the way we filmed. We later developed our skills on editing which was helpful as it gave us an insight of what to do in our main task. Overall the preliminary task proved to be useful as it not only showed us how hard decision making can be but also it helped us focus more as a group and give each other a particular duty.
How we prepared for our thriller
At the start of this course we began by analysing thrillers to broaden our understanding of the genre. The first film we studied was Memento; it introduced technical codes which helped us to focus more on the subtext of the film. Our understanding was expanded through watching other thrillers through out the term.
We have also during the process watched films such as The Birds and Pacific Heights all of which helped us gain a clearer understanding of the conventions of a thriller.
Currently we have been told to make a triller. At this stage we are story boarding our preliminary task which allows us to make the most effective use of our filming time. In our preliminary task we are told to:
-opens a door
-walks across the room
-sits down in a chair opposite another character
-exchanges two sentences of a conversation.
At this stage we are story boarding our ideas.
We have also during the process watched films such as The Birds and Pacific Heights all of which helped us gain a clearer understanding of the conventions of a thriller.
Currently we have been told to make a triller. At this stage we are story boarding our preliminary task which allows us to make the most effective use of our filming time. In our preliminary task we are told to:
-opens a door
-walks across the room
-sits down in a chair opposite another character
-exchanges two sentences of a conversation.
At this stage we are story boarding our ideas.
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