Thursday 28 April 2011
will evalutation
it is not showing up on this screen but if you look in the march collum on the right in the blog archive then you will be able to find it.
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Final Evaluation - Jess
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel our media product develops and compliments the conventions of a real media thriller. I know our thriller has the conventions of a real thriller as it is full of suspense and has a battle between justice and injustice. Our media product was influenced by convention thrillers like 44 inch chest. We interpreted the scene where the main male character is laid on the floor looking as if he has been beaten up. It is clear to see we interpreted it in the scene when our main male character is laid on the car park floor as he has just been chucked out of the casino.
This is the scene we all decided to base our thriller around:
We chose to base our media opening around this scene as we had researched about it in class; from the viewing in class and our discussion about it, we learned that it made a good thriller as it engaged the audience and made us want to find out what happened and whether he is the protagonist or an antagonist. It also disrupts the structural narrative which allows the audience to see the end before the beginning to make them ask questions and really get engaged into the plot.
- Our aim was to make the audience feel empathy for the protagonist, we did this by the extreme close ups and just close ups on the main male characters face; we were trying to make the audience see the tension in his face and also allow the audience to get the feel of his facial expressions.
- It obviously worked as when I showed our media product to my parents they said and I quote "It was very atmospheric and the non diegetic music really helped build up the tension and that they wished they could watch more"
- 1. The first still shot is when the audience can here the voices of what might be protagonist and antagonist having a conversation. It was obvious they are playing cards as you can here them flicker in the background, we did this to confuse the audience but also to intrigue them to keep them focused on the story forthcoming.
- 2. In this second shot we chose, as a group, to go straight into the disequilibrium where the antagonist throws the protagonist to the concrete floor. This was done as it makes the audience perplexed as it goes straight into the story, at this point they are unaware who the two characters are and whether they have any main part in the story. We chose to manipulate the structural narrative here to get the audiences attention and draw them in so they want to watch more.
- 3. Thirdly we introduced the first title of our story, we emphasised it with a non diegetic sound that was a sort of heart felt thud which eminated an eerie feel and was done to engage the audience; to build up tension.
- 4. In addition the next screen grab was a close up on the possible protsgonists face to enable the audience to see the facial expressions on the main male characters face. We did it to show the concern. We portrayed concern by having the characters eyes point down towards the ground and his face was stern yet a hint of worry was conveyed. We did the shot at a point of view angle so that the audience could see straight into the male characters eyes and each member watching could interpret it in their own way; for example whether he is scared or confident. 5. This next shot was another title as it is just a screen shot it is unclear that it has an animation. The text slides on from each side and meets in the middel; possibly portraying the fight between justice and injustice.
- 6. This next shot is our title, we placed it on the screen in a shot so it attracted the audiences eye to the appropriate place. It was merely an establishing shot but attracted attention to the main setting of our urban area.
- 7. I addition this next shot introduces the poker game scene. It engages the audience as they are unaware of what the male character looks like as we made the lighting in the room very dark; therefore the male characters facial expression could not be seen. This engages the audience as they want to see why there is so much secrecy and what he is up too.
- 8. In this shot you can see the characters face although it is still unclear as to what his facial expression portrays, which draws the audiences attention to the poker game and whether it's dodgy or not. This shot is a mid close up to allow the audience to see the body language of the possible protagonist or antagonist. When looked at his posture seems very relaxed as he is slouched in his chair and looking quite smug; this will make the audience want to watch more as it is a very different picture as to what was portrayed in the last shot.
- 9.This final shot portrays mystery as the male character suddenly opens his eyes to shock the audience as he has been lying there looking dead and then unexpectedly opens his eyes. The audience then realises he is alive and engages them to watch more and find out what happens. The side lighting really helps as it keeps half his face dark to, which may portray that he has a darker side to him; making the audience unsure if he is protagonist or antagonist.
- Here is a couple of screen shot examples of the extreme close ups and just close ups on the main male character's face:
- I feel our use of cross cut editing also helped the audience to follow the plot, yet also engaged them into the plot so that they wanted to find out more. I think we did this by giving the audience a little insight to the story forthcoming. We showed glimpses of the story like parts of the poker game and when our main male character got beaten up; this allows the audience to get an insight to the story, yet intrigues them as they want to know why he has been beaten up.
- More over I feel our titling contributed quite a lot to our thriller opening as it helped carry on the suspense. We got the idea from the new thriller out 'Black Swan' which can be watched below. When we watched it we thought it was good as it gave a bit of an insight to the storyline but not enough for us to know what would happens. We liked the sliding effect of the titles and researched into it, by asking our technology man what effects can be used on imovie and once we knew we experimented with all different types of effects. However we didn't position the titles in the same format style as 'Black Swan' as we wanted them on a black screen in the center of the screen to attract the audiences attention to the title; but we also didn't want to attract the audiences eyes to any of the plot of the story as we didn't want to give the whole plot away we only wanted to allow them to get a insight. We emphasised the titling by adding a non diegetic sound which was deep and low key to build up tension and it also made it more atmospheric.We decided to use a white bold 'Arial' font on a black background to show the contrast between the two characters in our film maybe the difference between justice and injustice. The fact that the titles slide on may implicate the friction between the two contradicting characters and maybe helps give an insight to the relationship between the two characters.
- Our film genre was obvious it was a thriller as we included the main conventions of one by using mystery, gambling and dodgy dealings.
- The beginning part of our media opening was just non diegetic sound followed by some dialogue adding to the intensity as the audience has no idea who is talking and what situation their in if any at all. We thought it would confuse the audience yet get them engaged as it gives them the sense of the unknown. This was a last minute scenario as we needed to make up time, but i think it was a brilliant decision as it works really well. It engages the audience as they may wonder what is going on and it grasps their attention. All of our non diegetic sound was produced on 'Garage band' we used garage band as we had learned how to use it in class and we knew how to find what we wanted. However the sound of the dialogue was done on a voice recorder and then we processed it onto our movie. We did have a bit of difficulty however trying to find a good sound for the end shot, but as you can see we overcame this by being more precise on our wording.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The two characters in our film are representing young males; in our film we have based the two characters around a gambling themed narrative. The main character gambles all his money and loses which leaves him in a huge debt. The two main characters are seen as upper class as they are dressed formally in suits the fact they are wearing ties and smart clothing suggests this but this may just be the persona they want to portray throughout the story. They may actually be working class people trying to get on in life. It is for the audience to decide each member watching will each have their own opinion. We also wanted to convey realism to the audience and by dressing the two characters in smart, formal clothing this is what is perceived as the dress code for a casino.
- As you can see the first male character is the male character challenging the main male character. He is distorted in this shot so he is unknown, which builds up the suspense as we have no idea who he is or whether he is the protagonist or the antagonist. The first screen grab was an establishing allowing the audience to see the secrecy of the place, it is informal and very dark to portray that their obviously doing something illegal as they don't want to be seen.
- The social groups being portrayed in our media product are young males, which are maybe desperate for cash and who are just trying to get by in life, or they may be playing for more cash as their professionals and know what they dealing with. The people who are being represented are young males form the age of about 20- 35. This can be seen as a traditional way of representing males as not all young males are out gambling and some women join in in this modern era. We show the representation of young males by the use of our camera work and by using the elements of elements mise en scene. It is clear to see this when we shoot a long shot on the main male character being chucked from the casino and onto the concrete. This may portray young males are always getting into scraps and are always gambling as they have no money and no job.
- I think we have targeted are audience well as this is likely to appeal to the younger male audience, as it includes the conventions of a thriller as it includes some violence, it's got illegal dealings and some aspects of mystery. We decided to represent a male character this way as it is recognisable to our young male audience, this is how young males are perceived in the traditional way.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
With much discussion we decided as a group that we would release our media product on a Wednesday as it is a low key day with not much rivalry. We would like our film distributors to be 'soda pictures' as this institution are based in the United Kingdom. This is highly beneficial as it would make distribution of our product easier as the financial costs won't be as much. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience for our media product was aimed at young males age group is around 12+. We chose to target our audience young as it therefore broadens our audience. We feel young males would really enjoy our media product as it is about crime and mystery, which is specific to young males in this modern era. We decided to use a 12 certification as it is has no bad language, it has nothing unsuitable included in it throughout the whole plot and the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. We want to show our media product at 'The Duke of York's' cinema in Brighton. We decided this as it is low key yet a lot of young kids like to go to the cinema so it is a good place to show it.
5. How did you attract/ address your audience?
I think we addressed our audience really well with the camera work, mise en scene and sound.I think they would enjoy the close- ups on the main male character's face as they can then see for themselves the intensity in his facial expression and in some of his body language. Here is a screen grab of the main male character's body posture whilst dealing in the poker game:
From this image we can see his body posture is quite floppy and his head is looking down on the floor. This shows his apprehension about what he is doing and maybe suggests a bit of worry that he may lose his bet. Lighting:
We chose to have not so much lighting so the storyline was a bit unclear as to where they were and to show the secrecy of the situation. I think we portrayed this quite well. However i think we could have made it a bit lighter as once looked back on it does look a bit too dark. I think to overcome this if we were to do it again we should of have had a bit of frontal lighting reflecting off his face to get a bit more of an insight to his facial expression.
Mise en scene:
Costume:
We chose to dress him in a shirt and tie to give the audience the sense of realism as if you were going to a poker game this is the normal dress code.
Props:
We also showed the chips in this shot to make it look real as well as that is one of the main props in a poker game.
Colour:
The colours used are very masculine for example we used colours like; white and black These are considered to be very male orientated colours but they also suggest the difference between good and bad, antagonist vs protagonist. This may actually be giving an insight to the storyline ahead.
Body language:
The body posture of the two male characters throughout were straight back to look professional, yet this may just be the persona they want to give off. The main male character did however look quite worried at some points during the story as he may feel apprehensive about the decisions forthcoming.
Location:
The location most definitely appeals to the younger male audience as it was an urban area in darkness portraying it was late in the night which suggests secrecy.
Sound:
I think the sound contributes a lot as it a non diegetic sound track, it's a really low, tension building sound; which addresses young males as they like music with a beat to it. The beat occurs every time a credit comes up which really emphasises the build up to the storyline ahead.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Personally I think we have learned so much as a group in the progression from the preliminary task to the full media product. The knowledge we gained helped us overcome our mistakes and improve highly in our media product.
Following our preliminary task we overcame our mistakes by the following:
When we produced our preliminary media product we did not have so many clever editing techniques as we were unaware of how to introduce and interpret them into our film. These techniques included:
Titling
Lighting:
We also learned that the lighting is key when making a thriller as it is a part of the key aspects to making any film. We decided this time to use lighting to light up our thriller a bit more as in our preliminary task, once the class had given their feedback we found out that some shots were too dark. We overcame this by taking a torch with us this time lighting up key features of the male character's faces.
Costume:
Therefore we researched into key clothing for poker games and had a look at previous thrillers which included gambling and poker games we looked at the action film 'Casino Royal' This is the poker scene we looked at:
Once we had researched into it a bit more it was clear to that the dress code for a poker game was a smart black suit, it's very formal and it looks quite upper class. This is why we chose to dress our main characters in a white shirt and a smart tie to keep the sense of realism for the audience.
Camera work:
It was clear to see that following our preliminary task we have improved our techniques and learned from them. In our preliminary task we only used medium long shots and long shots which did not convey the emotion in the characters but were good as they did show the characters body language. We learned from this how important it was to convey the characters emotions and facial expressions. Therefore we chose to use more (extreme) close ups to relate to the audience and so they can see the anticipation and the tensity in the male characters facial expressions. However I think we did better camera movements in our preliminary as we included a tilt to show authority and dolly, we did not include any of these aspects in our new media product. This was a fault we had in our media product but i think we made up for it with the story narrative and the realism in the film we created for the audience. Editing:
Following our preliminary task I think we improved our editing techniques. We did the editing on Imovie HD we did this as it was simple yet highly effective. We used a white fade during all the shots that were flash backs to emphasise the fact they are flashbacks of the main male characters build up to where he had got to. We also included Fade in and Fade out techniques to allow the film to flow. 
Location:The location was a lot better than in our preliminary task as we were allowed to go out of the college grounds to film our media product. It really appealed to our target audience as it was an urban area at the back of a shop allowing us to portray the secrecy of the poker game. It looked abandoned and derelict so for us it was perfect location.
On the left is where we chose to film our final media product.
Narrative Structure:
Whilst making our preliminary exercise I was not sure about the concepts of the narrative structure. I feel I have more knowledge on the whole concept of it now and therefore it shows in our media product. We decided to manipulate the narrative structure to confuse the audience and also to engage them as it makes them ask questions like why is he on the floor? What happened to him? This fits the conventions of a thriller as the real thriller film '44inch chest' illustrated. It makes the audience see the end before knowing the beginning so they get engaged in the story and want to watch more, to find out what happened and whether they're a protagonist or an antagonist.
Monday 28 March 2011
Draft Evaluation- Jess Jarvis
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel our media product develops and compliments the conventions of a real media thriller. I know our thriller has the conventions of a real thriller as it is full of suspense and has a battle between justice and injustice. Our media product was influenced by convention thrillers like 44 inch chest. We interpreted the scene where the main male character is laid on the floor looking as if he has been beaten up. It is clear to see we interpreted it in the scene when our main male character is laid on the car park floor as he has just been chucked out of the casino.
This is the scene we all decided to base our thriller around:
We chose to base our media opening around this scene as we had researched about it in class; from the viewing in class and our discussion about it, we learned that it made a good thriller as it engaged the audience and made us want to find out what happened and whether he is the protagonist or an antagonist. It also disrupts the structural narrative which allows the audience to see the end before the beginning to make them ask questions and really get engaged into the plot.
This is the scene we all decided to base our thriller around:
We chose to base our media opening around this scene as we had researched about it in class; from the viewing in class and our discussion about it, we learned that it made a good thriller as it engaged the audience and made us want to find out what happened and whether he is the protagonist or an antagonist. It also disrupts the structural narrative which allows the audience to see the end before the beginning to make them ask questions and really get engaged into the plot.
- Our aim was to make the audience feel empathy for the protagonist, we did this by the extreme close ups and just close ups on the main male characters face; we were trying to make the audience see the tension in his face and also allow the audience to get the feel of his facial expressions. It obviously worked as when I showed our media product to my parents they said and I quote "It was very atmospheric and the non diegetic music really helped build up the tension and that they wished they could watch more"
- Here is a couple of screen shot examples of the extreme close ups and just close ups on the main male character's face:
- I feel our use of cross cut editing also helped the audience to follow the plot, yet also engaged them into the plot so that they wanted to find out more. I think we did this by giving the audience a little insight to the story forthcoming. We showed glimpses of the story like parts of the poker game and when our main male character got beaten up; this allows the audience to get an insight to the story, yet intrigues them as they want to know why he has been beaten up.
- More over I feel our titling contributed quite a lot to our thriller opening as it helped carry on the suspense. We got the idea from the new thriller out 'Black Swan' which can be watched below. When we watched it we thought it was good as it gave a bit of an insight to the storyline but not enough for us to know what would happens. We liked the sliding effect of the titles and researched into it, by asking our technology man what effects can be used on imovie and once we knew we experimented with all different types of effects. However we didn't position the titles in the same format style as 'Black Swan' as we wanted them on a black screen in the center of the screen to attract the audiences attention to the title; but we also didn't want to attract the audiences eyes to any of the plot of the story as we didn't want to give the whole plot away we only wanted to allow them to get a insight. We emphasised the titling by adding a non diegetic sound which was deep and low key to build up tension and it also made it more atmospheric.We decided to use a white bold 'Arial' font on a black background to show the contrast between the two characters in our film maybe the difference between justice and injustice. The fact that the titles slide on may implicate the friction between the two contradicting characters and maybe helps give an insight to the relationship between the two characters.
- Our film genre was obvious it was a thriller as we included the main conventions of one by using mystery, gambling and dodgy dealings.
- The beginning part of our media opening was just non diegetic sound followed by some dialogue adding to the intensity as the audience has no idea who is talking and what situation their in if any at all. We thought it would confuse the audience yet get them engaged as it gives them the sense of the unknown. This was a last minute scenario as we needed to make up time, but i think it was a brilliant decision as it works really well. It engages the audience as they may wonder what is going on and it grasps their attention. All of our non diegetic sound was produced on 'Garage band' we used garage band as we had learned how to use it in class and we knew how to find what we wanted. However the sound of the dialogue was done on a voice recorder and then we processed it onto our movie. We did have a bit of difficulty however trying to find a good sound for the end shot, but as you can see we overcame this by being more precise on our wording.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The two characters in our film are representing young males; in our film we have based the two characters around a gambling themed narrative. The main character gambles all his money and loses which leaves him in a huge debt. The two main characters are seen as upper class as they are dressed formally in suits the fact they are wearing ties and smart clothing suggests this but this may just be the persona they want to portray throughout the story. They may actually be working class people trying to get on in life. It is for the audience to decide each member watching will each have their own opinion. We also wanted to convey realism to the audience and by dressing the two characters in smart, formal clothing this is what is perceived as the dress code for a casino.
Here is some screen grabs which show the two male characters dress:
Here is some screen grabs which show the two male characters dress:
- As you can see the first male character is the male character challenging the main male character. He is distorted in this shot so he is unknown, which builds up the suspense as we have no idea who he is or whether he is the protagonist or the antagonist. The first screen grab was an establishing allowing the audience to see the secrecy of the place, it is informal and very dark to portray that their obviously doing something illegal as they don't want to be seen.
- The social groups being portrayed in our media product are young males, which are maybe desperate for cash and who are just trying to get by in life, or they may be playing for more cash as their professionals and know what they dealing with. The people who are being represented are young males form the age of about 20- 35. This can be seen as a traditional way of representing males as not all young males are out gambling and some women join in in this modern era. We show the representation of young males by the use of our camera work and by using the elements of elements mise en scene. It is clear to see this when we shoot a long shot on the main male character being chucked from the casino and onto the concrete. This may portray young males are always getting into scraps and are always gambling as they have no money and no job.
- I think we have targeted are audience well as this is likely to appeal to the younger male audience, as it includes the conventions of a thriller as it includes some violence, it's got illegal dealings and some aspects of mystery. We decided to represent a male character this way as it is recognisable to our young male audience, this is how young males are perceived in the traditional way.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
With much discussion we decided as a group that we would release our media product on a Wednesday as it is a low key day with not much rivalry. We would like our film distributors to be 'soda pictures' as this institution are based in the United Kingdom. This is highly beneficial as it would make distribution of our product easier as the financial costs won't be as much. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience for our media product was aimed at young males age group is around 12+. We chose to target our audience young as it therefore broadens our audience. We feel young males would really enjoy our media product as it is about crime and mystery, which is specific to young males in this modern era. We decided to use a 12 certification as it is has no bad language, it has nothing unsuitable included in it throughout the whole plot and the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. We want to show our media product at 'The Duke of York's' cinema in Brighton. We decided this as it is low key yet a lot of young kids like to go to the cinema so it is a good place to show it.
5. How did you attract/ address your audience?
I think we addressed our audience really well with the camera work, mise en scene and sound.I think they would enjoy the close- ups on the main male character's face as they can then see for themselves the intensity in his facial expression and in some of his body language. Here is a screen grab of the main male character's body posture whilst dealing in the poker game:
From this image we can see his body posture is quite floppy and his head is looking down on the floor. This shows his apprehension about what he is doing and maybe suggests a bit of worry that he may lose his bet.
Lighting:
We chose to have not so much lighting so the storyline was a bit unclear as to where they were and to show the secrecy of the situation. I think we portrayed this quite well. However i think we could have made it a bit lighter as once looked back on it does look a bit too dark. I think to overcome this if we were to do it again we should of have had a bit of frontal lighting reflecting off his face to get a bit more of an insight to his facial expression.
Mise en scene:
Costume:
We chose to dress him in a shirt and tie to give the audience the sense of realism as if you were going to a poker game this is the normal dress code.
Props:
We also showed the chips in this shot to make it look real as well as that is one of the main props in a poker game.
Sound:
I think the sound contributes a lot as it a non diegetic sound track, it's a really low, tension building sound; which addresses young males as they like music with a beat to it. The beat occurs every time a credit comes up which really emphasises the build up to the storyline ahead.
Colour:
The colours used are very masculine for example we used colours like; white and black These are considered to be very male orientated colours but they also suggest the difference between good and bad, antagonist vs protagonist. This may actually be giving an insight to the storyline ahead.
Body language:
The body posture of the two male characters throughout were straight back to look professional, yet this may just be the persona they want to give off. The main male character did however look quite worried at some points during the story as he may feel apprehensive about the decisions forthcoming.
Location:
The location most definitely appeals to the younger male audience as it was an urban area in darkness portraying it was late in the night which suggests secrecy.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Personally I think we have learned so much as a group in the progression from the preliminary task to the full media product. The knowledge we gained helped us overcome our mistakes and improve highly in our media product.
Following our preliminary task we overcame our mistakes by the following:
When we produced our preliminary media product we did not have so many clever editing techniques as we were unaware of how to introduce and interpret them into our film. These techniques included:
Titling
Lighting:
We also learned that the lighting is key when making a thriller as it is a part of the key aspects to making any film. We decided this time to use lighting to light up our thriller a bit more as in our preliminary task, once the class had given their feedback we found out that some shots were too dark. We overcame this by taking a torch with us this time lighting up key features of the male character's faces.
Costume:
Therefore we researched into key clothing for poker games and had a look at previous thrillers which included gambling and poker games we looked at the action film 'Casino Royal' This is the poker scene we looked at:
Once we had researched into it a bit more it was clear to that the dress code for a poker game was a smart black suit, it's very formal and it looks quite upper class. This is why we chose to dress our main characters in a white shirt and a smart tie to keep the sense of realism for the audience.
Camera work:
It was clear to see that following our preliminary task we have improved our techniques and learned from them. In our preliminary task we only used medium long shots and long shots which did not convey the emotion in the characters but were good as they did show the characters body language. We learned from this how important it was to convey the characters emotions and facial expressions. Therefore we chose to use more (extreme) close ups to relate to the audience and so they can see the anticipation and the tensity in the male characters facial expressions. However I think we did better camera movements in our preliminary as we included a tilt to show authority and dolly, we did not include any of these aspects in our new media product. This was a fault we had in our media product but i think we made up for it with the story narrative and the realism in the film we created for the audience. Editing:
Following our preliminary task I think we improved our editing techniques. We did the editing on Imovie HD we did this as it was simple yet highly effective. We used a white fade during all the shots that were flash backs to emphasise the fact they are flashbacks of the main male characters build up to where he had got to. We also included Fade in and Fade out techniques to allow the film to flow. Location:The location was a lot better than in our preliminary task as we were allowed to go out of the college grounds to film our media product. It really appealed to our target audience as it was an urban area at the back of the shop allowing us to portray the secrecy of the poker game. It looked abandoned and derelict so for us it was perfect location.
Narrative Structure:
Whilst making our preliminary exercise I was not sure about the concepts of the narrative structure. I feel I have more knowledge on the whole concept of it now and therefore it shows in our media product. We decided to manipulate the narrative structure to confuse the audience and also to engage them as it makes them ask questions like why is he on the floor? What happened to him? This fits the conventions of a thriller as the real thriller film '44inch chest' illustrated. It makes the audience see the end before knowing the beginning so they get engaged in the story and want to watch more.
Sound: The sound to be honest took me a while to understand, i was constantly getting non diegetic and diegetic sounds mixed up but after much revision i have got over that problem.We did not use nearly as much techniques in our preliminary task as we did not know much about it, however we are now aware of the different effects for our real media product. We included non diegetic background noises such as the fire engine noises when the characters are outside, which creates realism for the audience. We also added some drum beats every time a title appeared on screen to build the tension and emphasise the title to draw in the audience.
Evaluation - David
1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
1.) Voice Recording
. For the introduction of our film we included a voice recording of the antagonist and the possible protagonist having a brief conversation over the poker game and we recorded this just before and slightly during the title sequence with a black background being screened.
. We thought that this would be a good introduction for our thriller because there is no imagery of the characters that are in conversation so already curiosity is raised over whom these characters are and what important part do they play in the film.
. Therefore, this matches the conventions of a thriller because of the element of mystery being portrayed from the anonymous voices that are being overheard and the use of the black screen almost suggests that they are hidden from sight which creates a feeling towards the audience that they are not welcome and that this is a private and secretive event between the antagonist and the possible protagonist.
2.) How does your media product represent particluar social groups?
. The two characters in our film are representing young male white adults and the characters are being based around the topic of gambling, implying that these two men are common gamblers.
. Our group decided that we would like the media institution, Soda Pictures, to distribute our media product.
. We have decided this because the institution is based in the United Kingdom which would make distribution of our product a lot easier in terms of financial costs and also the institution has provided distribution for many award winning films including 'Frostbite', 'Into Great Silence', and 'Old Joy'.
. This proves that this institution has a decent reputation and has good expeirience with distribution of films which therefore makes this institution reliable for the distribution of our chosen product.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
. I think that in relation to the production of our film and the aspects we focused on including sound, editing, narrative structure etc, our audience will enjoy the film because as we are targeting a male audience, we produced our film in a way that would make it most appealing to them by building and increasing tension and focusing on producing conventions of a thriller within the context of our film.
Sound
. We believe that the use of non diegetic sound in our film made the film more effective in developing tension than any other aspect of our film.
. We developed tension through combining a low yet brief drum beat with the titles that came into view on screen which proved to create an atmosphere that makes the audience feel uneasy thus diverting their full attention to the film.
Editing
. Throughout our film we demonstrated many editing techniques especially the use of the fade in and fade out effect on most (almost all) our shots.
. We used the fade in and outs to develop a dreary atmosphere which proved to be effective and created a mysterious element through the fade effect which arouses the audience's anxiety and questions get raised over what's going on in the story, therefore adressing the audience that this story contains aspects of secrecy and darkness.
Narrative Structure
. In our media product we manipulated the narrative structure of our story by establishing one location in the beggining of our film to then transferring to a different location at a different time and then transferring back to the orginal setting of our film.
. We did this to attract the audience becuase by manipulating the narrative structure in this way results in the audience raising questions over who the characters are and what's going on and what's going to happen next.
. The raising of these questions would prove that the audience are curious about the story and are therefore interested and want to discover more information in relation to the story and the two character's lives which therefore builds up a great deal of tension that grasps the audience's attention to the film.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
. Overall, I believe that as a group we definitely learnt new and important information from the production of our thriller film and the knowledge we gained was put into good use for our film and allowed us to correct mistakes that we made in our previous preliminary exercise.
The following aspects that we identified and put into the production of our film to improve on our thriller opening were:
1.) Titles
. For our previous preliminary exercise we used a title sequence that lacked any interesting effect for it was only a simple red fonted title that was placed at the end of the film.
. We realised that this did not demonstrate a good example for a title sequence for a thriller for it had no real interesting quality and did not create any real suspense that we were looking for.
. Therefore, we learnt that it would be more interesting if we included more titles and dotted them around our film to create a more movie-like effect that drew in the audience's attention and interest more.
2.) Location
. Unlike our previous preliminary exercise, we had a wide range of locations to choose from inside or outside of the college and we managed to choose locations suitable to the context of our film.
. In our preliminary we used various locations within the college premesis that did not combine well for the story because there was a combination of characters associated with violence and crime located inside a college which was not suitable.
. We progressed from our preliminary by choosing locations that were suitable for our theme of crime which included the location of an alley way which proved to be effective in making the environment of our film more realistic in relation to the story an the characters, showing that we have learnt that the choice of location is essential towards making an effective film.
3.) Editing
. I believe that I have learnt new and more effective methods of using various effects for our shots in the editing process from the progression of our film.
For example, I have learnt how to use fade ins and outs for the shots of our film which created a much more intriguing effect than the simple use of cutting that my group used constantly throughout our preliminary exercise.. It took me a while to understand how to apply the fade ins and outs to our film but after some help with my teachers I eventually was able to apply the fade ins and outs without much difficulty and the use of the fade ins/outs proved to be very effective in creating an interesting effect in ur thriller film.
4.) Camerawork
. Comparing our thriller film to our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt more about how certain shots can create good effects that allow the audience to connect with the characters' feelings more.
For example, in our preliminary we used no shots that clearly portrayed the character's emotion because throughout the film we mainly used medium shots or medium long shots but through the progression of our thriller film, I believe I have identified shots that would clearly portray the character's emotion and as a group we used (extreme) close up shots to allow the character's emotion to be portrayed more clearly which proved to be more effective than the preliminary in terms of the audience connecting with the character and identifying their emotional state.
5.) Costume
. I felt that we had improved from our preliminary by understanding that appropriate costume was required for our characters in our thriller.
6.) Lighting
. Looking back at our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt that including lighting in a film can produce a real positive quality to a film in terms of portraying various moods of the character(s) and their circumstances.
. This is something we did not include in our preliminary but in our thriller we used lighting a number of times including the scene where the two characters are playing cards.
. By using the lighting we managed to create certain dismal atmospheres in our thriller which really set the mood of the film well which proves that lighting can heavily effect the mood of a film.
7.) Sound
. I have learnt that sound, whether its diegetic or non diegetic, can have a huge effect on the quality of the film and communicates the mood of the film to the audience extremely effectively if used appropriatley.
. For our preliminary film, we did not use sound that efficiently or effectively for we only used a slightly tense soundtrack and an amplified noise of a gunshot whereas for our thriller, we used many sound effects including the noise of a fire engine and the wind blowing when the characters are outside which therefore creates a sense of realism and later on we used a brief beats of a drum which created tension and communicated the anxiety of the character well towards the audience.
8.) + 9.) Narrative Structure
. I believe that by looking back at our production of the preliminary exercise, I have learnt and understood more about the methods of manipulating the narrative structure and the results it can produce.
This is because in our preliminary, the narrative structure was not manipulated in any way to make the film interesting and attention grasping but from learning how to manipulate the narrative structure through restricted narration, my group applied manipulative and restrictave narration to our thriller product which resulted the film in being attention drawing, interesting and allowed questions to be raised over various circumstances of the film.
1.) Voice Recording. For the introduction of our film we included a voice recording of the antagonist and the possible protagonist having a brief conversation over the poker game and we recorded this just before and slightly during the title sequence with a black background being screened.
. We thought that this would be a good introduction for our thriller because there is no imagery of the characters that are in conversation so already curiosity is raised over whom these characters are and what important part do they play in the film.
. Therefore, this matches the conventions of a thriller because of the element of mystery being portrayed from the anonymous voices that are being overheard and the use of the black screen almost suggests that they are hidden from sight which creates a feeling towards the audience that they are not welcome and that this is a private and secretive event between the antagonist and the possible protagonist.
2.) Disquilibrium
. We then went straight into the disequilibrium of the film by having the antagonist throwing the possible protagonist to the ground.
. This allows the audience to go straight into the action; almost clueless of the reason for why the victim (possible protagonist) is under threat because the film had went from hearing the two characters in conversation over a card game to the protagonist being victimised, enforcing that this part of the film contains an aspect of restricted narration.
. However, the conversation at the beginning of the film does give hints that the two characters were playing cards and then the next shot involved the antagonist wanting his money back, therefore giving the impression that something must have gone wrong during their game but as it is not clear yet what went wrong, the audience are only guessing what occurred.
.This proves that the element of mystery still exists in the film and the fact that questions are being raised to what has happened therefore implies that the aspects of this film matches the conventions of a thriller up to this point of the film.
. We then went straight into the disequilibrium of the film by having the antagonist throwing the possible protagonist to the ground.
. This allows the audience to go straight into the action; almost clueless of the reason for why the victim (possible protagonist) is under threat because the film had went from hearing the two characters in conversation over a card game to the protagonist being victimised, enforcing that this part of the film contains an aspect of restricted narration.
. However, the conversation at the beginning of the film does give hints that the two characters were playing cards and then the next shot involved the antagonist wanting his money back, therefore giving the impression that something must have gone wrong during their game but as it is not clear yet what went wrong, the audience are only guessing what occurred.
.This proves that the element of mystery still exists in the film and the fact that questions are being raised to what has happened therefore implies that the aspects of this film matches the conventions of a thriller up to this point of the film.
3.) Titles
. Throughout the film we used titles with white font and a black background. We used this simple yet effective technique because the contrast between the two colours, black and white, seems to reflect the attitudes of the film because the black screening seems to imply the secrecy and obscurity of the film and the white wording combines well to stand itself out for interpreting clearly in front of the black screen.
. Another effect of the titles is that the top line and bottom line gradually slide across each other and meet together. This effect alone produces an eye catching effect and the fact that the two lines of the titles slide across each other and meet for a split second could subtly suggest that there will be confrontation in this film and because the titles look like their creating friction by sliding across each other, it could also implicate that the comfort zone for both the characters and the audience will be pricked which develops an atmosphere of tension which therefore matches well to the context of a thriller.
. We also used a brief drum beat when the titles came into view which manages to develop an atmosphere of tension and creates a chilling feeling that successfully sets the unsettling mood of the film which matches the conventions of a thriller well because tension is being implanted into the audience’s feelings.
. Throughout the film we used titles with white font and a black background. We used this simple yet effective technique because the contrast between the two colours, black and white, seems to reflect the attitudes of the film because the black screening seems to imply the secrecy and obscurity of the film and the white wording combines well to stand itself out for interpreting clearly in front of the black screen.
. Another effect of the titles is that the top line and bottom line gradually slide across each other and meet together. This effect alone produces an eye catching effect and the fact that the two lines of the titles slide across each other and meet for a split second could subtly suggest that there will be confrontation in this film and because the titles look like their creating friction by sliding across each other, it could also implicate that the comfort zone for both the characters and the audience will be pricked which develops an atmosphere of tension which therefore matches well to the context of a thriller.
. We also used a brief drum beat when the titles came into view which manages to develop an atmosphere of tension and creates a chilling feeling that successfully sets the unsettling mood of the film which matches the conventions of a thriller well because tension is being implanted into the audience’s feelings.
4.) Fade Effect
. As there is a shot that focuses on the body of the character, the shot gradually fades out into a white screen.
This is to emphasise that a change of time and location is taking place and because we used fade outs and fade ins with a black screening, we deemed it necessary that using a white screen was more appropriate for indicating that the time and location of the film was changing.
. As there is a shot that focuses on the body of the character, the shot gradually fades out into a white screen.
This is to emphasise that a change of time and location is taking place and because we used fade outs and fade ins with a black screening, we deemed it necessary that using a white screen was more appropriate for indicating that the time and location of the film was changing.
5.) Narrative Strucure
. The white screen then fades out and you see a clear medium long shot of the possible protagonist and it is now easy to see that he does not look beaten up but looks more presentable with his tie being done up properly which reinforces that a change of time and location has taken place.
. This proves that this matches the aspects of a thriller because the narrative structure has been manipulated due to the change of time and location which leaves the audience a little confused but the use of the white fade in/out and the clear image of the character being fully dressed and not beaten up is enough to suggest to the audience the a change of time has occurred.
. The audience know also that the scene they are viewing now occurred rather recently because the character is still wearing the same clothes before he was beaten up and another giveaway is the zooming out close up of the cards which allows the audience to figure out that this could be the scene when they were playing cards from the beginning of the film when the voices were being spoken.
. This evidentially shows that the film matches the conventions of a thriller because the restricted and manipulative narrative of this film is now starting to unfold and the audience starts to gain more of a knowledge of what’s going on which arouses curiosity on the audience’s behalf and urges them to continue watching to find out more of what’s going on so that they may gain an understanding of the film.
. The white screen then fades out and you see a clear medium long shot of the possible protagonist and it is now easy to see that he does not look beaten up but looks more presentable with his tie being done up properly which reinforces that a change of time and location has taken place.
. This proves that this matches the aspects of a thriller because the narrative structure has been manipulated due to the change of time and location which leaves the audience a little confused but the use of the white fade in/out and the clear image of the character being fully dressed and not beaten up is enough to suggest to the audience the a change of time has occurred.
. The audience know also that the scene they are viewing now occurred rather recently because the character is still wearing the same clothes before he was beaten up and another giveaway is the zooming out close up of the cards which allows the audience to figure out that this could be the scene when they were playing cards from the beginning of the film when the voices were being spoken.
. This evidentially shows that the film matches the conventions of a thriller because the restricted and manipulative narrative of this film is now starting to unfold and the audience starts to gain more of a knowledge of what’s going on which arouses curiosity on the audience’s behalf and urges them to continue watching to find out more of what’s going on so that they may gain an understanding of the film.
6.) Lighting/Sound
. This scene uses a low key, top lighting which creates a very dim and gloomy effect to suggest the seriousness of the characters and to emphasise the darkness of the situation that there is no joy or fun being portrayed from this event which allows the audience to develop a great deal of anxiety towards the circumstances.
. When the shot comes into view where the possible protagonist places his chips in the middle, the sound of a heart beat replaces the non diegetic soundtrack.
The emphasis on the sound of the heartbeat is to represent his and indicates that he is now intensely anxious and uneasy over his action of moving the chips in which implies that he obviously is in trouble and his way of life may be at risk if this game does not go his way.
This greatly stirs up tension within audience because the audience now understands that the possible protagonist is under some form of treat which could potentially destroy his life.
. This therefore matches the aspects of a thriller because the combination of a murky lighting effect and the sound of an emphasised heartbeat develops a great deal of tension and anxiety within the audience and another disequilibrium seems to have redeveloped itself so that the apprehension of the audience consistently exists throughout the film.
. This scene uses a low key, top lighting which creates a very dim and gloomy effect to suggest the seriousness of the characters and to emphasise the darkness of the situation that there is no joy or fun being portrayed from this event which allows the audience to develop a great deal of anxiety towards the circumstances.
. When the shot comes into view where the possible protagonist places his chips in the middle, the sound of a heart beat replaces the non diegetic soundtrack.
The emphasis on the sound of the heartbeat is to represent his and indicates that he is now intensely anxious and uneasy over his action of moving the chips in which implies that he obviously is in trouble and his way of life may be at risk if this game does not go his way.
This greatly stirs up tension within audience because the audience now understands that the possible protagonist is under some form of treat which could potentially destroy his life.
. This therefore matches the aspects of a thriller because the combination of a murky lighting effect and the sound of an emphasised heartbeat develops a great deal of tension and anxiety within the audience and another disequilibrium seems to have redeveloped itself so that the apprehension of the audience consistently exists throughout the film.
7.) Camera Movement
. The following shot is a medium long shot that steadily tilts up allowing the audience to see the antagonist of the film.
The tilt is very effective in the shot for it ever so slowly reveals the antagonist of the film which the audience previously saw earlier in the film.
. This confirms that the antagonist he is playing against is the same person who beat him up which gives the audience a sense of what might the card game had resulted in which lead to the possible protagonist being beaten up consequently which enforces the view that the antagonist is threatening and potentially dangerous.
. Once again, this demonstrates the conventions of a thriller because the shot of the antagonist makes the audience feel uneasy because they have previously seen that this character is threatening and can potentially inflict harm which proves that the audience are developing a clearer understanding of the personality of the characters which they didn’t originally understand from the anonymous voices which is evidence that they are figuring out aspects of the film which is an element of what a thriller usually contains.
. The following shot is a medium long shot that steadily tilts up allowing the audience to see the antagonist of the film.
The tilt is very effective in the shot for it ever so slowly reveals the antagonist of the film which the audience previously saw earlier in the film.
. This confirms that the antagonist he is playing against is the same person who beat him up which gives the audience a sense of what might the card game had resulted in which lead to the possible protagonist being beaten up consequently which enforces the view that the antagonist is threatening and potentially dangerous.
. Once again, this demonstrates the conventions of a thriller because the shot of the antagonist makes the audience feel uneasy because they have previously seen that this character is threatening and can potentially inflict harm which proves that the audience are developing a clearer understanding of the personality of the characters which they didn’t originally understand from the anonymous voices which is evidence that they are figuring out aspects of the film which is an element of what a thriller usually contains.
8.) Main Title
. Another white screen fade in and out occurs to indicate the change of time and location again and a shot appears with an extreme long shot of the body (reinforcing that the film has gone back to the original setting of when the possible protagonist is on the floor) and the main title is centrally positioned in the screen with the same white font colour.
. We did this because we understood that most thrillers presented their main title differently to their other titles to indicate that the title was the name of the film.
Therefore we decided to use a slightly different font type and positioned it in front of the extreme long shot of the image because this allows the audience to take in what they are seeing and allows the audience to identify the significance of the title whilst viewing the body of the possible protagonist.
. We did this because the other titles we used were positioned in front of a black screen and used an effect that we didn’t want to repeat again in order for the audience to clearly interpret the title as being the main title that stood out from the others.
. Another white screen fade in and out occurs to indicate the change of time and location again and a shot appears with an extreme long shot of the body (reinforcing that the film has gone back to the original setting of when the possible protagonist is on the floor) and the main title is centrally positioned in the screen with the same white font colour.
. We did this because we understood that most thrillers presented their main title differently to their other titles to indicate that the title was the name of the film.
Therefore we decided to use a slightly different font type and positioned it in front of the extreme long shot of the image because this allows the audience to take in what they are seeing and allows the audience to identify the significance of the title whilst viewing the body of the possible protagonist.
. We did this because the other titles we used were positioned in front of a black screen and used an effect that we didn’t want to repeat again in order for the audience to clearly interpret the title as being the main title that stood out from the others.
9.) Final Shot
. For our final shot, we had a high angled medium long shot that zoomed into an extreme close up of the possible protagonist’s face who then suddenly opens his eyes.
. For our final shot, we had a high angled medium long shot that zoomed into an extreme close up of the possible protagonist’s face who then suddenly opens his eyes.
. We used this idea from the film, ’44 inch chest’ because in that film, you see the character’s eyes wide open and then suddenly shut after believing that he was dead which had a surprisingly jumpy effect on us.
We therefore used that idea except we did the opposite where the character’s eyes remained closed but at the last second he suddenly opens his eyes.
. It seems to create a similar effect to ’44 inch chest’ because the opening of the eyes is really sudden and we also placed non diegetic sound as soon as the character opens his eyes to create more depth of the abrupt action and makes it more surprising for the audience after thinking that the possible protagonist was possibly dead thus creating an effective feeling of sudden shock.
This is the opening scene of '44 inch chest' that we gained ideas for our film from:
Feedback:
. I managed to gain feedback from my parents after showing them the film and they both agree on that the music combined with the timing of the titles created a very spooky atmosphere that created an interesting effect.
They also both believed that the voices at the beggining of our film followed by the titles portraying the time and location was very intriguing and clever which set the curious mood of our thriller well.
. However, they both admitted the film was a bit confusing because of the manipulation of the narrative structure of our story which potentially is a positive aspect because that's what we aimed to do to our audience in order to grab their attention. But then again my parents did say it could be more interesting if we worked on improving it a little more, say by adding more dialogue or increasing the dramatic atmosphere by building up more conflict between the two characters so that then it would emotionally connect the audience more with the victim and his dire situation thus making the film more intense and interesting to watch.
. The two characters in our film are representing young male white adults and the characters are being based around the topic of gambling, implying that these two men are common gamblers.
. These images are screengrabs from our film and as you can see, both characters wear formal clothing in which the shirt and tie strongly suggests.
This gives off the impression that both of these characters are from an upper class background but that doesnt neccassarily mean its true becuase these characters may actually be from a more lower or working class who are trying to succeed in life.
. This is hinted through the quality of the clothing which appears to be more shabby and less presentable than the clothing of an upper class character and plus the furniture's appearance seems less professional than the furniture from a real upper class gambling facility.
The two characters represent their masculinity through their formal costume and almost appear to slip into the category of the stereotypical view of men.
This is because their formal costume with a shirt and tie is a very formal and common choice of costume for men to wear at special events, implying that these characters a representing the stereotypes of men's costume.
. Also, it is noticable by watching the film that there are no female characters throughout the film because the film is based around the theme of gambling and brief violence, it could suggest that women have no significant association with the theme at all because traditionally the theme seems to be built around the association of men more because they men are seen as being more tough, outgoing and violent than women which therefore emphasises that the stereotypical views towards men and women exist in our film.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This gives off the impression that both of these characters are from an upper class background but that doesnt neccassarily mean its true becuase these characters may actually be from a more lower or working class who are trying to succeed in life.
. This is hinted through the quality of the clothing which appears to be more shabby and less presentable than the clothing of an upper class character and plus the furniture's appearance seems less professional than the furniture from a real upper class gambling facility.
The two characters represent their masculinity through their formal costume and almost appear to slip into the category of the stereotypical view of men.
This is because their formal costume with a shirt and tie is a very formal and common choice of costume for men to wear at special events, implying that these characters a representing the stereotypes of men's costume.
. Also, it is noticable by watching the film that there are no female characters throughout the film because the film is based around the theme of gambling and brief violence, it could suggest that women have no significant association with the theme at all because traditionally the theme seems to be built around the association of men more because they men are seen as being more tough, outgoing and violent than women which therefore emphasises that the stereotypical views towards men and women exist in our film.
3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
. Our group decided that we would like the media institution, Soda Pictures, to distribute our media product.
. We have decided this because the institution is based in the United Kingdom which would make distribution of our product a lot easier in terms of financial costs and also the institution has provided distribution for many award winning films including 'Frostbite', 'Into Great Silence', and 'Old Joy'.
. This proves that this institution has a decent reputation and has good expeirience with distribution of films which therefore makes this institution reliable for the distribution of our chosen product.
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
. We have deemed it appropriate that are film should be certificated as a 12+ because our film may contain content that is unsuitable for children under the age of 12 including scenes of moderate violence and other upsetting scenes.
. Therefore we will be targeting an audience over the age of 12 which will broaden our audience to view our film and we will also target males more specifically because the content in our film includes crime and violence which young adult males would be more interested in and enjoy more in the modern age of film.
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
. I think that in relation to the production of our film and the aspects we focused on including sound, editing, narrative structure etc, our audience will enjoy the film because as we are targeting a male audience, we produced our film in a way that would make it most appealing to them by building and increasing tension and focusing on producing conventions of a thriller within the context of our film.
Sound
. We believe that the use of non diegetic sound in our film made the film more effective in developing tension than any other aspect of our film.
. We developed tension through combining a low yet brief drum beat with the titles that came into view on screen which proved to create an atmosphere that makes the audience feel uneasy thus diverting their full attention to the film.
. Throughout our film we demonstrated many editing techniques especially the use of the fade in and fade out effect on most (almost all) our shots.
. We used the fade in and outs to develop a dreary atmosphere which proved to be effective and created a mysterious element through the fade effect which arouses the audience's anxiety and questions get raised over what's going on in the story, therefore adressing the audience that this story contains aspects of secrecy and darkness.
Narrative Structure
. In our media product we manipulated the narrative structure of our story by establishing one location in the beggining of our film to then transferring to a different location at a different time and then transferring back to the orginal setting of our film.
. We did this to attract the audience becuase by manipulating the narrative structure in this way results in the audience raising questions over who the characters are and what's going on and what's going to happen next.
. The raising of these questions would prove that the audience are curious about the story and are therefore interested and want to discover more information in relation to the story and the two character's lives which therefore builds up a great deal of tension that grasps the audience's attention to the film.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
''Throughout the production of our chosen product we have had to use technologies including camerawork and editing software to construct our film apprpriatley. For example, our group had to use a video camera in which we eventually became more and more familiar with the techniqus, methods and procedures at the beggining and also throughout the progression of our thriller.
Personally, I have and understood the procedures of setting up the camera such as checkingthe batteries, white balance and making sure a tripod was always in use whilst filming and although only one member of our group was filming, we all as a group made sure the procedures were being taken.
In addition, I believe I have identified more efficiently how certain angles and movements of a camera can portray certain moods since producing our preliminary and our group put certain shots in our film that seemed to be effective in portraying the atmosphere we were looking for.
Once we finished the actual filming of our thriller, we then moved on to the editing where we worked with sound, titling and order of imagery for our product. Admitadlly, I did find the inclusion of titles difficult and complicated as I needed quite constant help to assist me in creating effects for the titles as I was never quite sure how to apply them appropriatley,
I also had trouble with the positioning of the titles as we wanted them positoned more in the corner of the screen rather than the centre and unfortunatley we never managed to apply that to our final product.
But on a higher note, I do believe that I and my group did well in eventually understanding how to reposition our clips to manipulate the narrative structure and also developed our understanding of editing in sound to our product to create the right mood we were looking for to assist in matching the conventions of a thriller.''
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
. Overall, I believe that as a group we definitely learnt new and important information from the production of our thriller film and the knowledge we gained was put into good use for our film and allowed us to correct mistakes that we made in our previous preliminary exercise.
The following aspects that we identified and put into the production of our film to improve on our thriller opening were:
. For our previous preliminary exercise we used a title sequence that lacked any interesting effect for it was only a simple red fonted title that was placed at the end of the film.
. We realised that this did not demonstrate a good example for a title sequence for a thriller for it had no real interesting quality and did not create any real suspense that we were looking for.
. Therefore, we learnt that it would be more interesting if we included more titles and dotted them around our film to create a more movie-like effect that drew in the audience's attention and interest more.
2.) Location
. Unlike our previous preliminary exercise, we had a wide range of locations to choose from inside or outside of the college and we managed to choose locations suitable to the context of our film.
. In our preliminary we used various locations within the college premesis that did not combine well for the story because there was a combination of characters associated with violence and crime located inside a college which was not suitable.
. We progressed from our preliminary by choosing locations that were suitable for our theme of crime which included the location of an alley way which proved to be effective in making the environment of our film more realistic in relation to the story an the characters, showing that we have learnt that the choice of location is essential towards making an effective film.
3.) Editing
. I believe that I have learnt new and more effective methods of using various effects for our shots in the editing process from the progression of our film.
For example, I have learnt how to use fade ins and outs for the shots of our film which created a much more intriguing effect than the simple use of cutting that my group used constantly throughout our preliminary exercise.. Comparing our thriller film to our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt more about how certain shots can create good effects that allow the audience to connect with the characters' feelings more.
For example, in our preliminary we used no shots that clearly portrayed the character's emotion because throughout the film we mainly used medium shots or medium long shots but through the progression of our thriller film, I believe I have identified shots that would clearly portray the character's emotion and as a group we used (extreme) close up shots to allow the character's emotion to be portrayed more clearly which proved to be more effective than the preliminary in terms of the audience connecting with the character and identifying their emotional state.
5.) Costume
. I felt that we had improved from our preliminary by understanding that appropriate costume was required for our characters in our thriller.. The costume we used for our thriller consisted of a shirt, tie and black trousers which greatly made the difference towards making our thriller more realistic because in our preliminary, we used casual clothing that did not match the requirements for the film and therefore no sense of realism was created which lowered the standard of the film.
6.) Lighting
. Looking back at our preliminary, I believe that I have learnt that including lighting in a film can produce a real positive quality to a film in terms of portraying various moods of the character(s) and their circumstances.
. This is something we did not include in our preliminary but in our thriller we used lighting a number of times including the scene where the two characters are playing cards.
. By using the lighting we managed to create certain dismal atmospheres in our thriller which really set the mood of the film well which proves that lighting can heavily effect the mood of a film.
7.) Sound
. I have learnt that sound, whether its diegetic or non diegetic, can have a huge effect on the quality of the film and communicates the mood of the film to the audience extremely effectively if used appropriatley.
. For our preliminary film, we did not use sound that efficiently or effectively for we only used a slightly tense soundtrack and an amplified noise of a gunshot whereas for our thriller, we used many sound effects including the noise of a fire engine and the wind blowing when the characters are outside which therefore creates a sense of realism and later on we used a brief beats of a drum which created tension and communicated the anxiety of the character well towards the audience.
8.) + 9.) Narrative Structure
. I believe that by looking back at our production of the preliminary exercise, I have learnt and understood more about the methods of manipulating the narrative structure and the results it can produce.
This is because in our preliminary, the narrative structure was not manipulated in any way to make the film interesting and attention grasping but from learning how to manipulate the narrative structure through restricted narration, my group applied manipulative and restrictave narration to our thriller product which resulted the film in being attention drawing, interesting and allowed questions to be raised over various circumstances of the film.
. This proved to be a positive success and the knowledge of manipulating the narrative structure that was applied to our thriller proved to set the film to a higher standard than our preliminary.
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