Evaluation

Question 6 What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before I started college, the only media I was involved with was my mobile phone, my pc, ipod, television and stereo.



However, once I had started my AS Media lessons I was introduced to many different kinds of technology. I was firstly introduced to the Apple Mac computers which I found harder to use than the original pc's. I was also introduced to many different programmes such as Livetype, Sound track pro and Final cut pro which I used to make our thriller. I also found myslef using Youtube and Google to research films to get inspiration.

Evaluation

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



Since our preliminary task, I feel our group have progressed dramatically. For exmaple:

• The mise en scene in our preliminary task didn't match up to what was happening in the scene, for example it was an intense card game but was filmed in a classroom. However, for our final product, we filmed in places that were relevant to our film.
• In our preliminary task, our camera skills were not accurate as we wasn't making sure that there wasn't any access, un needed space in the shot, making sure if filming a person their eye level was three quearters up the shot, keeping the shot in perfect focus and wasn't using the tripod to keep the shot still. However, learning from these mistakes, we made sure our camera skills were accurate.
  
• In our preliminary task, we didn't think about camera angles to create an effect. For example, in our thriller, the camera was tilted down towards the 'victim' as she ran to show her lack of control of the situation. However, in our preliminary task, most shots of people, no matter what status they were at, were just full on.
  

Evaluation

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





In the above video, we have compared 9 shots from the film 'Panic Room' to 9 shots from our thriller film 'Chasing Fate'. The similar codes and conventions in both pieces were:

• The Production team were shown first.
• Both main characters were established at the beggining.
• The Mise en scene created a thriller effect. For example, the red static effect in our thriller, and the dark, gloomy room in 'Panic room'.
• The pace of the editing were both quick changes.
• They both have extreme close ups.
  

Question 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Evaluation

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

These are still images of the preliminary task and our final product. Our preliminary task lacked acting skill, good angling and good camera quality. Our preliminary video had a childish plot and at one point we even blew away one of the characters with a fan :(.

When it came to us thinknig of a storyline for the final task we took into consideration much more aspects of media including camera angles, editing, sound etc.

It is clear from watching both clips that our skills in media have inproved dramatically.

Evaluation

Question 1 - In what does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

Our media product has challenged the typical codes and conventions by not appearing as thrilling as many commerical thriller openings that are in media. Although our thriller opening contains aspects of suspense and thrilling effects, it doesnt appear to be 100% thrilling.
From the reaction of the audience it is clear that some parts of the opening were 'thrilling' while other parts were more commical.
In terms of camera work and editing, I think that our media product has the potential to reach larger more critical audiences. Our match cuts are of a high standard and this would be seen as a good starting point for the product to gain more viewings from global audiences.
I think that our opening lacks a proper story beginning, meaning that audiences do not understand what our opening is about. This is of course another way that our product has challenged the codes and conventions of a real media product.

Evaluation

Question 1 - In what does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

Evaluation

Question 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Evaluation

Question 3&4- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Above is a student thriller film that I have found on YOUTUBE. It has 6,297 views. Although the movie has not been publicised formally by a company, thousands of people have still managed to view it. Youtube is a good resource for getting your material out to the public.

From watching it, i've noticed that it is of a low budget and this reflects our thriller opening.

As it is on youtube for people to access, it can easily be spread onto different websites and blogs. To launch this opening sequence, youtube has been used, with our opening the 'screen on the Green' cinema was been used to launch it to the public.

Evaluation

Question 8- Audience feedback and comments

This is a wordle of some of the comments we got back from the audience after watching our thriller opening. Most of the comments were positive but sadly some were not. I've chose the red tones in the type but I believe that it complements the thriller opening that we created

Evaluation

Question 3 & 4 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

If I wanted to publisize our thriller film globably, I would take the following steps:

• Post the film onto my blog.
• Upload it onto a site such as 'YouTube'.
• Advertise on different social networking sites such as 'Facebook', 'Myspace'.
• Try to get a viewing shown at local cinemas.

The majority of the above steps are mainly distributed through the internet. Before the internet was created, you needed to spend money to publisize your films, such as paying production companies, and even then it was difficult to reach a wider audience. It has been proven that the internet reaches wider audiences, is easy and free. For example, the video below is a student video which is low budget, but because of the internet, has managed to reach 2,308 views.

Evaluation

Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have decided to use Clarice Sterling(From the film Hannibal) as the character to compare with the main character in our thriller opening -Faye Daveny. The appearence of these two characters was one of the first things that I thought connected them, long light brown hair, white origin, slim frame etc. Also the fact that they are both victims in the films, and that they wear similar clothing(suits). Both of the characters take life two seriously but at the same time are well respected and looked up to from others.

Evaluation

Question 3 & 4 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Here is an example of a student video which has been distributed over the net via 'Youtube'. The clip is low budget ('Low production value')as you can see by the quality of the video but still has managed to hit over 140,000+ views over the internet.

The video attracts its viewers by using a young good looking male as the main character of the clip and also the story line will attract more viewers because more people can relate to it.

This clip initially will be screened amongst family and friends but as it has been distributed over the net more people are viewing it which will then potentially reach a global audience.

The internet has also made this clip famous as well as the character not only hitting 140,000+ hits, the main character has also landed a job in the hit series 'Lost' 'Matthew Fox' goes to show how much exposure the internet can do for you.

Evaluation

Question 5 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Samantha, is an 18 year old 'Rock Chick' who still lives with her parents and wears heavy make up and also she has a boyfriend for 3 years now.

She enjoys listening to music particularly her rock music were she loves playing her guitar and composing songs in her spare time.

She currently goes to college and is studying psychology, music technology and fashion arts.

Also in her spare time she enjoys going shopping and watching a lot films especially those which are psychological and very intriguing.

Evaluation

Question 2 How does your media represent particular social groups?
The character I have chosen which has many similarities to the victim in our thriller film is 'Clarice Sterling' from 'Hannibal'. I felt the similarities were:

• The same type of clothes. For example a suit.



• The fact they were both victims.



• They are both respectable.



• They both take their jobs very seriously.



• They are both involved with a serial killer.

Evaluation

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social group?

The character i have chosen to compare to Faye Daveney is a character from a film called 'Hannibal'

In the film 'Hannibal' Clarice Starling is a victim and also Faye Daveney is also a victim in our short thriller clip.

The similarities were :

• Dress Sense ( Suit, Formal Wear )
• Both involved and in the known and unknown presence of a killer
• Both Victims
• Working class
• Female

The differences were:

• Age difference

In the film 'Hannibal' Clarice Starling is portrayed as very independent and hard working we tried to portray this with the character in our short thriller by the costume and independency by Faye living in a house by herself. Although our thriller film will attract the more younger age group than 'Hannibal' the same main character has been portrayed in ours from 'Hannibal'

Evaluation- Question 5

Question 5- who would be the audience for your media product?


















Alisha is a 19 year olod girl from hackney. she is 5"5, with long brown hair and is of an aisan decent. she is currently studyingt to become a makeup artist at the london college of beauty. alisha enjoys hanging around with friends, this could include shopping, raving etc...
she is also working at the weekends aty a funky house rave in algate, as a barmaid.
alisha has a boyfriend that is also studying at the same college. she is from a working class family. Her favourite type of music is dance and funky house but also enjoys japanese music.

Evaluation

Question 8 Audience Feed back and comment

Doing this exercise with the class, we found out that the vast amount of people were impressed with the match cuts we used in the thriller.

They said that the match cut was precise and interesting, our film was also rated 15+. The class also said that our short thriller clip was very suspenseful as they were intrigued and chilling as they were waiting for what was going to happen because the starting of our thriller film didn't show the thriller side instantly.

Our class and teachers were very impressed with the close ups and the different camera shots we managed to take.

Also the added that the contrast to our normal scene with (Character Faye) doing daily routine and the scene with the flash forward due to the music side as well, this proved to have worked well and very effectively.

Here is a student from a class, his views after watching our short thriller clip.

Rough Cut

Evaluation

Question 5 Who would be the audience for your media product?

A 17 year old girl Sarah, at college, typical 'girly girl' who likes make up ect. Loves to have fun with her girl friends, including sleep overs and going shopping. She also loves to be thrilled, for example rollercoasters or scary films.

Evaluation

Question 8 Audience feedback and comment





Through doing this exercise, we found that our class were mostly impressed by the match cuts we used in our thriller. They were described as precise and interesting. The film itself was described as spine chilling and excellent. Our film was rated a 15+ by the majority of the class. We were also proud with the feedback regarding our camera skills. Our class seemed to be impressed with our close ups and camera angles as all shots were relevant to our story. For example, the extreme close up of the victims face whilst running so we could capture her full emotion. Also, the music used through out our piece altered when the flash forward was taking place which also proved to be effective through out the audience.

Animated Story Board

Further filming and idea's.

We filmed many shots but most of the shots were not used due to the fact we were not really set on our idea and what the story was to be like.

After a long sit down with the group i managed to sort out a plan a clear story line for our short thriller clip and it was approved by the group a well as Mary and Dan.

After knowing exactly what our storyboard was we cracked onto the work, really fast as excitement of finishing it and seeing our end product was overwellming.

Pitching our thriller.

Prior to creating our film we were made to pitch our ideas to our peers and our teachers. I was incharge of explaining what type of thriller we had opted for, chosing our target audience, planned location shots and drafting a rough production schedule as well as explianing the story line to the class .

Additional feedback from Dan was that are film appeared to be too 'over the top' and that it would be too prolonged and delayed at getting directly to the source of action if we were to incorporate all the locations we intended to use. We planned to have shot on a moving train but from the advice of Dan and Mickey we realised that it will be too much of a task.

Working with both positive and negative feedback from our teachers, we were able to improve our story.

Unfortunatly we couldn't produce the storyboard to the class as the person in charge forgot it but we soon got that sorted.

Creation of soundtrack.

After this was done, our film clip along with the newly added sound was imported into Livetype where we then added titles. We tried to go for a very airy and spooky soundtrack as i was in charge of producing the soundtrack i had to create one that will suit our clip.

I had to keep these in mind

• What a thriller film sounds like
• Spooky
• Airy
• Ambience
• Pace
• What sorts of instruments

i then came across this video which basically guided me.

Creation of Titles

We used livetype to create the title sequence for our short thriller clip.
For our titles we decided to be different and put some on a black screen and some over the film.
To keep it simple we used the colour white and font Arial Black to give a bold and thrilling feel. We added effects such unstable to give a more scary effect.

Here we decided that the red will be to much of a horror so we then changed it to a white font.

Inspiration (Canal Murder)

After we had taken final shots for our short clip on TV (CRIMEWATCH) They showed an unsolved murder about women who had been killed at a canal which so happend to be the same place we shot our short clip aswell as it being the same story line as our clip we thought it was such a coinsidence. So we used that story to our advantage.

Here is the website the crime was on :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/crimewatch/appeals/2010/03/canal_murders.shtml

Animated Story Board

This is the animated story board that shows the individual shots in our trailor. The pictures were drawn and then turned into a slideshow video using microsoft power point. There are roughly 16 shots in this short clip and due to adjustments made while filming, some shots have not been drawn and added to this video.

We added and changed most shots as we found as we were working we had more idea's and that would work well so we decided to change shots as we went along. Which Worked out for the better.

Location Shots

Here is a slideshow of pictures taken on location of filming.

We filmed in Benthnal Green - Regents Canal

Mikayla's house ( Bedroom and Kitchen )

Camera Equiptment Tutorial

Before we could film we had to make sure that we could properly use the equipment safely.

During this tutorial, we was introduced to the camera's and equiptment we will be working with in order to produce our thriller clips. We were firstly shown and told what each part of the camera was called. We were then showed how to insert our memory cards, how to zoom the camera, get the lense into focus ect.

We were then told the safety regulations for the equpitment, which were:

• Making sure all the bolts were tightened properly on the tripod before inserting the camera onto it.
• Making sure the camera was secure on top of the tripod before letting go.
• Carry the equiptment responsibly.
• Make sure the tripod/camera were not on any unstable objects such as tables etc

Just a basic Video which helped me film.