EVALUATION; question seven.

My group and I had our first taster of production and planning of a thriller opening when we made our preliminary film. We didn't have a lot of time and only had limited use of sources. During the preliminary film, we had acquired a lot of skills, which we had learnt on the day or had knowledge of from when we were first introduced to the equipment in class.

In the pre production of filming our preliminary film we had to plan what the thriller was actually about and the storyboarding; whilst planning our preliminary, we had to consider who our target audience were so we can make the film suited to our ideal audience. We also had to make a storyline that to the preliminary and had to make sure the prelim opening did not look like a trailer, otherwise we have failed our purpose of an thriller opening. We then had to make a storyboard which would be very useful as we were able to know what we would film, in what order and how we would edit it. The storyboard also allowed us to put all our ideas on paper and see whether they were achievable or not. It also gave us a sense of how we would like each shot and where each shot would be placed in the sequence. During this process, I believe we acquired good drawing, planning and organisation skills, which proved to be very beneficial to our end media product, TWELVE. Due to the fact we had limited time for the prelim the sketches were drawn roughly whereas our actual thriller opening storyboard, we had time and we properly thought and organised what shots/angles and what the character was going to do. We were extremely organised in planning from, what time we were going to get to the location of filming to how/when we were going to edit our film. 


Our camera skills were praised by my media teacher and others; it was my first time using the camera as I was not present during the tutorial of equipment. As a group, we thought of different angles and shots we can use for our prelim. The different angles of each character puts the audiences attention just to that character, which I thought would be very effective for the prelim and our future thriller opening. One of the things my group were praised for in camera skills in our prelim was the panning technique; we showed the panning technique in our thriller opening and it turned out that most people liked it as it was very effective and added more tension.

We used some props in our prelim; we used an envelope, as the title was called 'The Letter'; we also used a chair, to show authority and status. We did not use a lot as we didn't have time to get a lot of props and we hardly needed any props which suited our prelim. However, during the planning of our thriller opening we thoroughly thought of everything; including the mise en scene. We bought some candles and got some from home so it would set the eerie mood of the supernatural being. We planned for the male victim to wear white so it represents innocence and wealth, and for the female supernatural being to wear black clothes and make-up to symbolise death and horror. We needed a charm-like book for the character to read. I searched in libraries and shops to look for a old-looking book. I did not find any so at last minute I got a book from which happened to be a Harry Potter book. It was dark and a fairly suitable size - it proved to work well in the end, as it looked effective and most people noticed it.

As we filmed in daylight for our prelim, we hardly needed any lighting equipment. However, I would say that if we did film in darkness for prelim, it would be effective and add tension to the whole prelim. In contrast, in Twelve, lighting had a lot more input in it; we had the candles obviously which a gave luminous glow on the character, which added suspense and proved to be effective. We also used artificial lighting underneath one of the characters to add suspense and makes the character look even more scary. 

After we had filmed everything, we had to move on to the editing. We all played a part in the prelim editing as well as the thriller opening. During the editing of the prelim, that is when we were learning how to use Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, and in my opinion, I think we were exceptional for beginners. The shots we had to make were; match cuts, jump cuts, long shots, close ups, establishing shots, wide shot, 180 degree rule, etc. We used all these in our prelim and thriller opening, to make sure we had a range of shots that we could use to make the film more effective. I think we applied these really well and showed them best to our ability. The editing was a bit difficult as there were twice as many clips to put together and title sequence. The title sequence was a bit of a bother as we were unsure of what to use and how to use it. In the end, we used the same narrative opening sequence in our thriller opening as the prelim. We used some video transitions to make the clips flow more smoothly and so it does not cut the attention of the audience. We used a slow motion technique to show the emotion of the character when he sees the supernatural being. In my opinion, the sound we used in the prelim was better than the sound in the thriller opening. They were more on point and the music added more tension and suspense. The sound in the thriller opening seemed slightly dead and the music did not gradually go louder when something dramatic happened, like I wanted it to. One thing I was proud of was the foley sounds for both of them; in the prelim, we used foley sound for the doors opening, the chair spinning, the hand banging on the table and foot steps; in the thriller opening, we used foley sounds for the blow of a match and candles, the slamming of the book and the scratching of the match stick against the match case.

Overall I have learnt a lot of skills from pre production, production and post production which I am confident on expressing and using independently. The thing in which I was most confident on is using the camera, as I had a steady hand and the ideas were quite effective when shown in film. The skills in which I acquired during my media course and the prelim helped me in producing a near professional thriller opening. 

EVALUATION; question six.

EVALUATION; question five.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Social Networking sites; Facebook.

Local Cinema.

Text.

EVALUATION; QUESTION FOUR.

GoAnimate.com: Media Evaluation; Question 4 by aa43188

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Who would be the audience for your media product?

Due to the fact that our media product a thriller film opening is a supernatural thriller, my group and I have decided that the younger audience will be ideal for thistype of movie, as most thrillers are directed at the younger audience.


What do you mean by an younger audience? and Why?
The younger audience age ranges from 16 to 35 years old. This is because they are more likely to be thrill seekers, and from our research,when they go watch a movie, it is more likely to be thriller due to the adrenaline they get and the action.


Your thriller is a supernatural; what kind of audience will that attract?
The fact that the movie is supernatural I think it would attract people who are more than thrill seekers. it is for people who believe in supernatural beings and spirits.


Based on its unique selling point, describe the specific audience for your film?
The film is rated 15 and above seeing as the filmsThe Woman in Black is rated a 12A and Orphan is 15. All these films are similar to our one, so we decided that 15 was suitable.We decided that both genders will be appropriate as we had a contrast of stereotypical victims in usual thrillers; we had a male.

EVALUATION; QUESTION 3.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? on Prezi

EVALUATION; question two.

Question 2

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EVALUATION; QUESTION 1.

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

Our media product- a thriller opening- uses the correct forms and conventions of other professional media products. We used inspiration from a variety of films which are genres of supernatural and action, for example; Psycho, The Ring, Paranormal Activity, The Devil Inside, and The Grudge.

The basic elements in a film openings include;

The production company logo is always shown first; the graphics used to introduce the names of the cast and the director, the name of the film and the production/distribution company are usually the same and have the same effects. We showed this in our media product by following the same type of film opening as Psycho;

PRODUCTION COMPANY-

In Psycho, there is a establishing shot in which it shows the setting of the victims house. It also states it by text; we also used an establishing in our film opening to show the quiet suburban area of where it is set. However we did not state the setting by text because we did not want to ruin the atmosphere.




















THE TITLE SEQUENCE; 
our title sequence is completely different to Psycho; instead it could be compared to The Taking of Pelham 123. 












The main character is shown first whilst the movie is playing. They only last three seconds so you dont miss any of the action. 

After a couple more title shots of the cast, some of the production team come up. In The Taking of Pelham 123, they have a bulk of the cast names so they can fit all of their names in time for the first part of the movie. Because we hardly had any people in our production team, we did it one by one.

The title of our movie comes right at the end of out film opening whereas in The Taking of Pelham 123, it comes just after the two main characters. However the way they are shown is quite similar; both movie titles are shown against a black background and have transitions when they go; 

The Taking of Pelham 123

Our film opening; TWELVE.

FINAL EDITING

This is me and Humawin, when we were editing our rough cut final to out thriller opening. At first it was a bit difficult because we had a lot of editing to do, but then we had got the hang of it and was able to successfully complete the editing of our rough cut final. 

In our rough cut final, we used many elements of editing some of which were match cut and the 180 degree rule. When we were editing we decided were to put those element of editing and it turned out to fall in place quite well.  We also managed to use some transitions such as addictive dissolve, which worked well with the clip too. 

We were also able to put the names of the cast, director and producers. The names were in White and Red, we used the colour White because it connotes the innocence of the male and we have used the colour Red because it represents the colour of death or a supernatural force. 

We were not able to start on the sound as the deadline for the rough cut final was here, however, we did plan what kind of music we would want. We wanted to use non- diegetic sound throughout the whole clip and also use some foley sounds and original sound of what we had filmed. 

Although the editing of the rough cut final was time consuming, it was still great and a good experience.   

Summary of the film TWELVE.

In a quiet suburban town in London, a college student is dared by his friends to call on the evil spirits in the infamous haunted house, which has always been abandoned. At 12 o'clock, midnight, he chants the words of a charm book. The evil spirit of Ann Summers, a infamous and provocative girl who was honour killed by her family at her family home, possesses Olufemi Jones and takes over his body. He then silently but deadly terrorises the town by killing young children and teenagers. Ann Summers gets her revenge on the town for not being sympathetic about her death. His friends try to perform an exorcism on him but we are yet to know if it worked...

Filming Summary - TWELVE.

We had travelled to Hornchurch, Essex in the half term and done filming for our opening for a whole day. As we had booked the equipment out for the half term we were able to do a majority of our filming in one day. It wasn't too difficult as we didn't experience problems that we would have if we was to have filmed outdoors. For example, we did not need to be careful about getting in the way of bystanders as we filmed in a bathroom indoors. A problem that had occurred was to avoid getting members of our group in the mirrors reflection, however we had overcame this by the positioning of our camera.

Evaluation of TWELVE; rough cut.

We uploaded our rough cut of our thriller opening, TWELVE, on to our blog. All the skills which we have developed throughout the year in our course are going to be shown in final product. For now, to ensure we were on time with our rough cut, we had to only put the clips and titles together and video transitions, which were all put together on Final Cut Pro. We had no time to put our soundtrack in but we have chosen our sounds/music. 

Watching our thriller opening, I am very pleased with how far we have come. In such little, we produced a near to professional thriller opening and we did not even have specialist equipment, actors or help. We were all very professional in doing our filming and were efficient in doing so. Also, we stuck to our production schedule; we were on time with everything.

The good things about our thriller opening were the most important as they they were the four vital compartments in making a good opening; Camera, mise en scene, sound and editing. We included everything and made sure they were up to a professional standard. Due to the storyboard of TWELVE we also thought of the camera shots, camera angles and editing/effects. So that gave us an advantage of giving us a head start. We also planned the mise en scene to match with the atmosphere and mood of the film. 

The bad things about our thriller opening are the things that if we had put it in, it would have made the film better. If we had more close-ups of the 'ghost' and specific things in the bathroom, it would have made the opening more effective as it would have made the them more significant to the film. 

TWLEVE - Rough Cut

Intertexuality in TWELVE

An intertexuality technique we had used was our choice of location for our thriller opening. We had seen this location be used in 'Psycho (1960)'. As it had received a good reaction from audiences, we had aimed to receive a similar reaction from our audiences by using a bathroom as our location.

Bathroom Scene from TWELVE.

Bathroom Scene from Psycho.

Another technique of intertexuality that we had used was the hair of the 'ghost' in our thriller opening. In 'The Ring, (2002)', the child seen in the video has her hair across her face, we had decided to use this as well for our character to give her a distinguished appearance.

'Ghost' from TWELVE

Child from 'The Ring'

LOCATION; of TWELVE.

LOCATION 1; Hornchurch, Essex.

LOCATION 2; Tania's house, Hackney. 

We used two locations; we were meant to use only one, as we were not going to move our setting. However, after we had come back from Essex we were told to film outside of the house. We could not do this as Essex was very far, so Tania filmed the outside and inside of her house. We used the bathroom because you could see the mirror clearly, which is absolutely vital for our film. It also makes sense in our film to do that. Overall both locations worked well with our film opening and made sense.

CAST; of TWELVE.

Due to the fact that we only had to film the opening of a film, we only needed two actors for it. We needed a victim and the supernatural being. We chose Humawin to be the victim as normally in thriller supernaturals, women are the victims in the movie, so we flipped the gender roles. We also used a male character because it shows that not even the stereotypical view of men will overcome the 'suspense' and horror of this movie. It also makes it even more scary as a man was a victim which means the male audience will get slightly freaked out as well. For the supernatural being, we used Tania; this is because she had long hair. She did her own make up and made sure it looked scary, and made sure her hair was infront of her face at all times. We used intertextuality at this from 'The Ring' as she also had her hair on her face. 

PROPS; for TWELVE.

These are the props we used in out thriller opening. We filmed close-ups of these because they are significant to the film and add suspense to the film. It also hints to the audience what the film might be about. The props we used were candles - which were bought and gotten from home - and a book which was also brought from home. 

FILMING; pictures.

The images shown above were taken whilst filming our thriller opening. We had taken pictures of the props, characters, settings/locations and the camerawork. We had found it difficult whilst filming as our camera did not fit correctly on the tripod we had. Overall, the experience of filming was interesting and a good challenge.

Shoot 2

After receiving feedback from our teachers we had decided to go out and film some more shots that we could use in our opening. We needed to film some establishing shots and close ups of the ‘ghost’ to include in our editing.

As we had originally filmed our opening in Hornchurch, Essex we decided that it would be best for us to do our establishing shots in Hackney as it was a closer location. This was useful to do so because if the establishing shots weren’t good enough, we could easily re-film the shots.

To do the close ups we had used Tania’s bathroom as it was available to film in. This did not affect our opening as the shots only focused on the face of the ‘ghost’.

We had begun filming from 5PM onwards as it had started to get dark around that time. It was essential to film around this time, as the dark lighting for the establishing was needed. Since there was not much filming to be done we had finished by 7PM and returned the equipment the next morning at 9AM as we had it booked for overnight.

Shoot 1

The first day we were shooting, we were filming at the only location we were going to film; Hornchurch, Essex. We planned to do all our filming in one day as we knew our film opening did not need other location shots. We were lucky enough to film all of it in a day as it was a holiday and we all had busy schedules. We planned where we were going to meet up and how we were going to get there by train.

We all met up at college to pick up the equipment needed for filming. We then went to Angel Station, took the northern line to Bank station. From there we took the district line to Hornchurch station. The area in which the house was in was very quiet and it was very unlikely that we were going to be disturbed. One thing which could have went wrong is the time difference; our film opening was set to be filmed at 12 AM at night but we weren’t allowed to film at the location at that time. We were lucky enough that it gets dark quickly so we could pretend that it was actually 12 PM.

There were some problems throughout the course of the filming. One was that we were given the wrong tripod; the camera did fit and secure on to the tripod. This meant that we had to hand hold the camera whilst we were recording and panning. It was quite difficult as we were not sure if we had a steady hand and  we were afraid that it would show in the film. Another problem we had was that the space in the bathroom was very limited and all of us could not fit in there.

We eventually finished all our filming at -- PM and made sure we had double of all recordings so we could see which ones were better than the other. This is important because one shot might lack the power and acting skills than the other. We all agreed that the people who were going to go in to college on Monday 20^th February would take the equipment back to college as it was scheduled to give it back then, at 9 AM. 

Prop Shopping

As a group, we had decided to go prop shopping together to purchase the essential items needed for our thriller opening. A main object that we needed for our thriller was candles. We had chosen to buy white candles as we wanted them to represent innocence for our character whilst he chants as he is also wearing white in opposition to the spirit that later appears who is wearing black.