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

From the time at which my group and I made our prelim, we have made a substantial amount of progression. This progression and development of our idea's, ability and understanding, led us to create our final thriller opening production.
However, in order for us, as a group, to make it to the stage we are now at, it was essential for us to encorperate everything we had learnt into our filming and to also absorb all the knowledge and advice given to use by our teachers.

We were taught how to make a detailed and descriptive analysis of all our footage, this included our prelim, bag swap scene and final thriller opening.

In addition we were introduced to some new and interesting programmes that allowed us to display our work or even arrange it into forms of presentations in very imaginative ways, these included; Blogger, Vimeo, Prezi etc.


We Have also gained understanding on how to
create clips/scenes that will attract certain target audiences, for example, for our thriller opening,
we chose to use young actors and gave the film a plot that would appeal to both male and female viewers ranging from 16-25. We were able to do this since our opening had elements that both genders would be able to relate to i.e. 'romance' for the female audience and 'crime' for the male audience,
however, since the overall sub-genre for our film is psychological,
we have 'ticked every box' and created a film that will appeal to an even broader audience.

Over the course of time, from when we first shot our prelim to when we made our final thriller opening, we gained a variety of technological skills including how to carefully and effectively handle and use the media tripods and camera.
We learnt about focusing (using Manual and Auto focus),
how to adjust the hight of the camera and the legs of the tripod, how to render our clips once we had recorded them and also how to transfer them onto FinalCutPro (FCP).

FCP was a programme we used when looking at any of our clips. it allowed us to add effects such as; fade, dissolve etc.
In addition FCP allowed us to assemble our clips onto a timeline in order to arrange them chronologically then alter the length of clips, the effects over them and the overall timing of the clips once on the timeline.

Additionally, we learnt how to use LIveType and Soundtrack Pro which are programmes that allow you to add texts and sound over and clip that we created. We were able to demonstrate our abilities to transfer our clips to LT and SP when we created our final thriller opening, which had opening titles such as; production company, starring actors, director etc. Also, we created and then added on sound to our clips via soundtrack pro; this is where my group and I, picked from a selection of music genres that suited our film and our target audience.


Here is a screen grab from our Preliminary task, as well as one from our final production. We have made some major progression, including; how to alter the lighting, angles and focusing of our shots.
Also, our editing skills have substantially improved. Including our cuts, transitions, effects music etc.

Group31: NEWSPAPER PRACTICE VIDEO

Group31: NEWSPAPER PRACTICE VIDEO

4&5) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract /address your audience?

Our thriller is a low budget student video, therefore it would have a low budget British Independent production company that would also distribute the video in varies ways. In our case, this production company is Candi Media Studios.  There are a variety of ways we can distribute our film in order to get a larger viewing audience. Our thriller will get a cinematic screening amongst the rest of the media students, as well as a DVD release of 200 copies. Of course, a major way to reach out to a larger audience is through the internet. Therefore, we can also release our thriller on Facebook, twitter, Youtube, Blogger, and Vimeo. All these are well known social networking sites that allow millions of people to connect with just a click, therefore it wouldn’t matter if its someone in college, at work or at home, they would always be able to see our thriller and also comment on it, that way helping us see where we might have gone wrong, as well as acknowledge the good bits in it.

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

We have a broad target audience for our thriller opening, appealing to both genders and all races of people, however, since the main actors within our film are quite young, our film appeals more to a younger audience ranging from 16-25.

 Thriller films can also have many sub-genres that appeal to both male and female watchers, such as; romance, suspense, horror, crime, action, Sci-Fi etc.  Specifically, the suspense within thrillers appeals more towards  female audiences, while the crime to the male. When it comes to age, our ideal audience would be around 16 to 25 years old, because our actors are quite young and would therefore appeal to the younger age of the scale, however the plot would appeal to the 25 year olds +. Because our thriller revolves around relationship issues as well as the psychological aspect, it might appeal more to couples as they can relate to the storyline to some extend, however, the psychological aspects of the thriller, allows the boundary to expand to just about anyone who likes to think things through, and work things out for themselves.

Lewis is a typical target member for our thriller opening, he's 16 years old and is a student at City and Islington Six Form College. He is currently doing three A Level's including; Biology, Electronics and psychology. He enjoys, skating, going to the cinema, playing xbox 360 and spending time with his friends.

Here is a few of the items he carries around with him or in his bag:

Question 4&5 part 2

^^^^^
This is a student film that has had well over 100,000 views on the video sharing website called Youtube. Youtube is a great place to advertise and share videos, because unlike my personal Facebook page people would be able to see our movie opening all over the world.

Our thriller movie opening is an independent film that can be released on Youtube and Vimeo and was produced by a low budget production company. Our opening was shown at a small cinema screen, but due to the face that we are low budget and independent we would not have any cinematic world wide release.

Question 4&5 part one

On the internet there are many ways to distribute and advertise film and TV productions, one of the most popular ways to do that now is to shared it on the internet on a social networking site called Facebook. Facebook is a popular for advertising such productions because people from  all over the world, it is also popular because anyone can see it an any news on it.

The movie Transformers (below) has its own Facebook page where people can read new information about the movie, people can also look at news and updates about the movie.

 

Although we did not make a whole Facebook page for our thriller opening I did share it onto my personal Facebook page, After I did this a lot of my friends went on the link and watched my opening, and they commented or just liked the link of the movie. This shows how a lot of people can access the same thing due to the internet.

The Uninvited Trailer

Evaluation - Question 1: Extended

A FILM TITLE THAT INSPIRED US TO MAKE OUR THRILLER OPENING:


The Stepfather:

Evaluation - Question 3: Who would be the audience for your media production?

(My cousin Ali Ismail,25)

Currently works at Royal Mail Post Office in Angel Islington

Like to watch all types of film genres ranging from comedy, action, thriller, pyschological, horror.

Goes to cinema on a regular basis, every sunday, in a group ranging from 6-10 people with family and friends. Depending if a good film is out.

Evaluation Question 6 part 2 - Audience feedback and comment

We had the opportunity to see all media student's final thriller in the local cinema, and at the end I went around talking to different students that hadn’t previously seen our thriller in order to see what they thought of it, and if it was a success or not.  Personally I feel its great that we had this opportunity to collect opinions from our fellow students because they have too gone through this and know what things are required etc so they can mainly focus on the technical bit of the thriller when sharing their opinions of it I even recorded some of the students I spoke to, and over all they seemed to like it and feel that it worked really well.

This is a video of our film when it was played in the cinema. The recording shows the audience's first and last reactions.

(Sorry for the sideways filming)

Some of the Key things they mentioned:

The fact that it seemed normal at first, but it turned out that the girl was actually dead, received a great reaction from the audience as they felt it created great suspense.

The match cut between the girl outside and the male actor inside, made the audience want to know more about their relationship, which consequently will hopefully make them carry on watching the film.

The use of props was great, and the way the title related to the ticket, as it created a storyline.

The camera angles and different shots all worked well together.

The music was appropriate.

Question 8 - Final film + Prelim

In this clip we do not have any Mise En Scene, because we filmed this at college and it was not a prepared location.

The film  is our Thriller opening. This short clip was the one we recorded after our prelim. In this clip your can see that we have used a lot Mise En Scene, we used Mise En Scene to show the relationship between the man and the woman. We also sued the Mise En Scene to represent that something is wrong. (Cans and cups everywhere)

Evaluation - Question 8: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

 

 

 Camerawork:

• I feel that for our prelim the camera was not focused enough and the camera was shaking because it was not on the tripod.
• The actors head was not always in the shot.
• The way the camera was positioned was wrong between shots.

 

Mise en scene:

• We had no props or specific costumes because we recorded our preliminary in one of the college classrooms.  
• Whereas in our final film we had props and costumes because we had time to plan.

 

Location:

• Our location was in the college so it was boring and dull. 
• Whereas in our final film we chose where we were going to film, and which room we would film in to match our audience's ages. 

Editing:

•  Our editing in our prelim was too slow paced and the camera changed angles at each shot after the edit.

 Titles:

• In our prelim, we had boring titles because we made them in Final Cut Pro. 

• Whereas in our final film we made our titles in Livetype Pro. Where we could make it animate.

   

Question 2 - Social groups in our Thriller opening

In our thriller there are a few social groupa tht can be interested in this movie.

A group that can be interested  in the romance story, which is usually women, this can be connoted by the mise en scene of the couple in the photoframe.

Another social group that can be interested in this thriller are people who are interested in suspense. There is suspense in the very last scene of the opening when we see the arm of the woman and the glass cup on the floor as it leaves the audience wondering whether she is dead or alive.

EVALUATION - Feedback of our Thriller opening

Good points:

- Suspense
- Long shots
- Characters
-Mise en scene

Criticism:
-Could have been faster (in pace in editing)
- Softer non diagetic sound
- Could have used dialogue 

Evaluation Question 8 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned inthe progression from it to the full production?





No props were used.




Use of pops to create backround story.

Expectedly, there was an obvious difference between our prelim film (The Confrontation), and our final production (One Way 61363). One of the main reason for this difference I personally feel is to do with the planning. After all the planning is the bases of all filming productions, and with ‘The Confrontation’, we didn’t really get to plan it much, therefore when going in to shoot, we didn’t know what location would fit in best not only with the storyline, but also with relating to its audience, as well as other factors which I will get into later. Because of that, in our final thriller, we did a detailed story board and research before hand on our target audience, therefore we know exactly what location, props, music etc. would appeal best o them as well as relate to the thriller as a whole.



The location was in a classroom.

The location was a bedroom, it related to the
actual plot.

For example, in our prelim, the mise en scene was not planned out very well. The location was just a class room which meant it didn’t reveal a lot about the characters in the film, meaning the audience were not able to build this bond with them, also there were no prop used again revealing nothing about the background story. For one thing, it made it dull and boring, and also did not create suspense which is a key thing for any thriller. We took this away with us, and for our final production we had this in mind, and chose our location to fit perfectly with the plot (the bedroom, which not only related to the relationship the two characters have, but also reached out to the audience because everyone can relate to this location),  as well as focused on the props we used, for instance the frame with the picture of the two actors in it, which from the audience’s response I knew had a great reaction, meaning the film was interesting and achieved its aim.

 

The title of the film appeared in a plain way in
the middle of the screen.

The title appeared in an interesting way

and was left on a plain background for a few

second to really stand out.

Similarly, during the editing process, with ‘The Confrontation’, the actual titles were not planned our before hand, and were also done on Final Cut Pro, which is fine, however doing them on LiveType made a huge difference, as it added that extra detail through the animation we chose and made it more interesting, rather than having a plain, boring title come up in the middle of the screen, which is what happened with our prelim.  With our final thriller, the editing over all was much better because we were more familiar with final cut pro, and knew other effects such as transitions, or over lapping of scenes that we could use, which we didn't in our prelim, mainly because we were not so familiar with the program.  Also we had more time to work on our final thriller, which meant we could focus on another programs such as soundtrack pro, and choose the correct music as we actually had time to work on it, by blending different sounds together  etc. , because the music in our prelim was  really basic. Due to the lack of planning, the timing of the titles wasn’t that great and even their position, however for our final thriller, we carefully planned out the way we would interpret them within the thriller, in order to make them easy to read, not take up too much space on the screen, but still catch the audience’s attention mainly because of the way they appeared and disappeared.

Another key thing which helped us the second time, was the way our team worked with one another. For our prelim we were still new with each other, therefore were not as comfortable at sharing our ideas or even criticizing them if we thought they were not as good as they could be. This was not the case the second time around however, because everyone was comfortable enough with each other and shared opinions as well as helped out another our, for instance if running late on the day of the shooting we would try and get any shots which did not involve the person being late in them, that way leaving only their scene when they come back, which helped save time and calm the person that was late down so they do a great job on set.

Something I feel the prelim has over our final thriller if the fact that we were allowed to include speech in it, by doing this it made the plot more interesting even thought not a lot was happening. In our final thriller, because we were not allowed to include any speech, it felt as though not a lot was actually taking place, therefore we had to rely more on our titles, the editing of the shots and music to make it more interesting as a whole.

As you can see our camera skills were not so great back when we filmed the prelim. A lot of the time the shots went out of focus, or were really shaky.  This was because we didn't use the tripod as much as we should have, and also didn't focus each shot if it was on manual setting. These mistakes however allowed us to see what we needed more work on, and helped us practice for the final thing.

In ‘One Way 61363, those things did not occur, we had smooth tracking shots and pans., all done while the camera was on the tripod. We had to always take our time with filming each scene, because the worst thing would be to have a scene that’s all shaky, out of focus, or when using the zoom while filming . if we wanted to use the zoom we would have to zoom in or out depending, before starting the actual shooting of the scene. If our scenes were our of focus, it may make the film seem unprofessional, as well as it could make the audience feel confused and question weather the out of focus bit actually belongs in the film or not, and if it even relates to the storyline.

Evaluation - Question 4&5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? how will you attract/address your audience

Vimeo:

Youtube:

Blogger:

Facebook:

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

 This is a scene of our movie where the male character is looking into the mirror.

 In the same way in "The Stepfather", the male character is also looking into the mirror.  We used intertextuality by using the same type of shot in our thriller. This shot makes it seem as though the character is doing ordinary every day things such as washing his face or shaving (in the stepfather's case).
Also by adding music over this scene it boosts the tension that the audience has.

This is a scene from our movie where the character is laying dead.

In the same way in "The Stepfather", the character is also dead. But in "The Stepfather", the scenes move from the bathroom into the kitchen where you see the dead boy. But in ours it is all set in one room where there is a couple and the dead person is laying in the bed.

Evaluation - Question 7: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Together we created an animatic movie, including images, screen grabs, videos and voice-over to explain all the different types of technologies we used and came across right from the start up until the making of our thriller.

Evaluation - Question 6: Audience feedback and comment

Recorded audiences feed back of our thriller. Here we chose an audience that is actually targeted by our thriller as they are in their late teens, and our thriller targets audiences that are in their teens (because of the main characters being quite young), and above, because of the whole thriller aspect which is mainly enjoyed by adults.

Evaluation Question 4&5 - Whatkind of media institution might distribute your media production and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Our thriller is a low budget student video, therefore it would have a low budget British Independent production company that would also distribute the video in varies ways. In our case, this production company is Candi Media Studios.  There are a variety of ways we can distribute our film in order to get a larger viewing audience. Our thriller will get a cinematic screening amongst the rest of the media students, as well as a DVD release of 200 copies. Of course, a major way to reach out to a larger audience is through the internet. Therefore, we can also release our thriller on Facebook, twitter, Youtube, Blogger, and Vimeo. All these are well known social networking sites that allow millions of people to connect with just a click, therefore it wouldn’t matter if its someone in college, at work or at home, they would always be able to see our thriller and also comment on it, that way helping us see where we might have gone wrong, as well as acknowledge the good bits in it.

Here are some of the places where we distributed our Thriller opening and the reasons for choosing them: