evaluation (philip)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media products?
When we first started looking at making a 2 minute opening of a thriller, we started by looking at other real established media products and looking at the different elements, conventions that they put into them and establishing how they work to produce fear in to the audience to make a successful thriller. From here we established the conventions and came up with our own that we can use. After we established the conventions we decided to use these as they have been proven effective in the vast amount of thrillers. Also we chose to stick to the “norms” of a thriller as the examiner could easily mark and grade us of the composition of the film its self.




















From our research in to thriller, we established that the location has to be realistic in order for the audience to think that the situation is real. As well as this believable characters that act naturally, in conjunction with the use of enigmas, so that it would be recognised as a thriller.
The opening was set in a garage in which we use close-ups shots and point of view shots, and quick transaction between scenes to comply to the generic conventions of thrillers. By doing this we get different shots of the character and we can see close up of his emotions and how we his feeling. From the shots that we used we created the visual that the audience is looking at the antagonist from the protagonist view. As well as point of view shots we used high angle to create the allusion that one character is inferior to the other. We also used low angles to give one character a sense of power.


















Also we used the enigma of what did the character do to get in this position that he is in the moment. By doing this we create a whole background to the characters and keeps the audience are we going to find out about the history of them and how the story of these characters is going to progress. During the film we had some dialog that revealed how the character go to the position, so in order to keep the enigma we removed this from the finial product.
Our opening can be compared to such films as the interrogation scene from reservoir dogs. In which they use the same conventions that we tried to use in our production also the point of view shots, which we used, is also used.

2. How does you media product represent particular social groups?
In our thriller our opening scene the social groups are shown extremely clearly. At the start of the piece we see a middle class man walking in to a garage. This man is wearing a suite which show he has a high status job, as well as having the middle class status the suite also creates a dominative and very much in the stereotype of an alpha male in the scene. The other man in the opening from what he is wearing shows a working class individual in which has a low pay role. From the clothes he is wearing the audience can depict a picture of the sort of lifestyle that the character in question lives. The man in the chair is shown as submissive, as he begs to the man in control. Their ages are represented through their clothing and the way they act, the setting as well also suggest that they’re adults as the character has a house with a large garage. The stereotypes are typical as the middle class man are shown as dominative and the working class as passive which helps people to relate to it as the stereotypical view people have of social groups.











The character that is integrating also conflict with the normal stereotype of middle class is usually calm and collected. As well see the character beat on the other suggest that it goes against the stereotype.

beat on the other suggest that it goes against the stereotype.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institutions that might distribute our product are likely to be the same as those that have distributed films similar to ours in terms of genre and conventions, such films are What Lies Beneath, The Sixth Sense, and reservoir dogs. I researched some of them to find the institutions that are likely to show interest in such genre. I think our media production would work as an 20th century fox film, the reasons for this are that the style that we use which stuck to the original generic conventions of the thriller genre and as such would have a unique look and feel that may find mass appeal. 20th century fox would like be the best suitor to distribute this media product because they have done similar product such as taken (in which I done a textual analysis on) I think the film its self has the potential to become a franchise as it has a storyline in which can be expanded in a number of areas and could use vertical integration to expand in to different areas of the market like SAW has done(the ride at Thorpe park)














The visual style of the opening can also be addressed better if this was to be released as an 20thcentry fox production as it could go for a high budget production go for quirks in how its executed that would also help in building it up as its own and also bring large audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
From our target audience research we established that audience that is over the age of 15 as there are scenes of violence that would not be appropriate for the younger audience fits our media product for viewing. Also we established that in terms of gender it would appeal to males more than females, as females are known to be more romantic half and our two-minute sequence doesn’t have any romantic element of any nature. But as this was assumed out of stereotypical views and does not necessarily apply for every female.
Even more general, our product is suitable for audiences that have a high level of suspense, uncertainty and a fast past chase scenes. I looked at previous films for example kill bill, which is classed as 18, and saw, which is a 15. A lot of thrillers make their films 15+ as to increase ticket sales, as they want to target a younger audience.












I had referred to the BBFC age classification to make a decision on what rating this film should be. This helped me compare to their films that are similar to mine and base it upon that.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract the audience I gathered up all my ideas from personal knowledge of films, one of the biggest influences was saw as they have made a massive franchise on there products and have even gone as far to having ride at Thorpe park because of the defining characters. I thought about all the action thrillers that I knew and how well they were produced to make that film become as successful as it has. The use of music helped attract my audience as it set the pace of the film to which can attract an audience very quickly. The non-digetic music that we used was taken from sound track pro. To make the prop’s see authentic we used a gunshot and a bone breaking sound to enhance the hitting on the leg. Because of this it helps enhance the realism of the opening and its authenticity. Also I think my use of shots attracted people as well because its up to the appearance of the film to gain opinion on the film. We used a lot of close-ups, middle ranged shots and point of view shots, to show what is going on with the characters and there emotions, and how the character is reaction and get the full effect of how the character is feeling.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
When we first started the course work we learnt how to sign up to blogger and we explored with that, in changing the templates, backgrounds to suite the theme of our thriller. When we started to brain storm our ideas we used a webbed base program called bubble.us, in which we created a brainstorm.










Then once we first started using the equipment to create our preliminary we didn’t have any filming experience previously but we had access to good quality equipment so filming our prelimany was not to difficult. We had to stick to two rules which were, the 180 degree rule, match on action; we established these rules from the use of you tube.











When we established the rules we then got out the equipment, which included tripod, camera, and a shotgun microphone. When we started to film we was told to count to 5 then say action to the actor to have the space for editing, and we done this with the shots that we had to work out to get the best angles for out opening. We didn’t use no extra/ special equipment for the film of the film as it was necessary. The editing software that we used was called finial cut pro, at first we found it very difficult to use but after a couple of times, we got the hang of it. The first step was to import the video from the dock, and break it down in to individual scene. From there we arranged the different scenes on to the time. This proved more difficult in the 2 minute thriller than the preliminary as I had to overlay score music, multiple soundtracks, put in titles slow down and speed up scenes and adjusted he coloring of the scene so that it had a darker and more “thriller like” feel. the music came from sound cut pro in which we used in out final piece.











To upload the finial piece of work we used you tube, as they have the function to embed a video in to blogger in which we recorded al our stuff on.








7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When I look back at the preliminary task I can see that the amount of planning that we done was a lot of difference compare to our two minute thriller. We didn’t have no storyboard or shot list so we didn’t know were to begin, or how to go about filming it. By doing this we learnt the importance of doing these’s thing for our two minute thriller. We also learnt the vitals of the 180-degree rule as in our filming of the preliminary we found It hard to stick to this rule. Learning to use finial cut pro was one of the most important parts, as I had no experience in using this program before learning the basic’s of it helped greatly when it came to the break down of the scenes and putting them on to the time line and putting the scenes in to sequence, making them blend smoothly and shifting around the sound. Putting in background soundtrack and putting credits and text over the video. Taking these skills to the two minute sequence, I can see the progression and complexity of the tasks and I had to do this all again only on a bigger scale also I had to do a lot more leveling out for the film so that it would all work together than having voices that were unheard.

finial product : INJUSTICE

call out sheet (philip)

this is the call sheet which we have to fill if you intend to take camera equipment off campus. The person filling it out must include contact details such as phone number and address. Also emergency contacts and nearest hospital or police station in case if an incident.we done this on the friday whe we took out the camera.

Facebook Group (Michael Ariyo)

We Needed To Advertise Our Product And The Best Way Now To Do That Is Online, On Social Networking Sites. And We found That The Most Popular Social Networking Site To Do That Is Facebook. So I Went And Created A Facebook Group For Our Product.

Editors Journal (Michael Ariyo)

Today I was Given The Opportunity To Have A Different Roll In The Group Seeing As Circumstances Did Not Enable Me To Carry On With My Roll As The Director. So I Opted To Be The Editor.
And In The Night Class I Was Shown How To Use Final Cut Pro Which Is An Editing Software used For Editing.



At First It Was Kind Of Unfamiliar But I Soon Got The Hang of It And Started Editing The Footage. The Task Was To Make A Two Minute Clip And I Had Already Cut It Down From Ten Minutes Down To Three Minutes And there Was Still A Huge chunk To Edit. After I Edited It Down To Two Minutes All That Was left To Do Was Find Suitable Music From Sound Track Pro Which Is Software That Contains Music Clips And Sound Effects.


At First There We found Good Sound Effects But We Couldn't Find Good Score Music Then We Found A Suitable Score Music For Our Film And The Editing Was Finished All That Was Left Was To Upload It Onto Youtube.

Audience Analysis Research (Michael Ariyo)

Questionnaire

Textual Analysis (Will)

For my textual analysis I decided to watch American Psycho starring Christian Bale as a psychopathic killer.
The audience are captivated by the director from the very beginning as we see the protagonist Patrick Bateman speaking to a lady in a rude manner, we then see his daily routine of getting ready which perceives him as being a psycho.
His first killing is performed in a disgusting way as is all his murders. The way he treats women throughout the film is derrogative, he believes that he is the best.
Patrick Bateman is also a very competitive man, he competes with his work colleagues over silly things like business cards.
Another main part of the film is the sex scene between Patrick and two other prostitutes, he films himself with them and we see him flexing his muscles in the mirror which makes him look vain and flash. One of the women find some of the tools that Patrick uses on his victims, she tries to escape from the flat but he hunts her down and manages to throw a chainsaw down which kills her.
Patrick then begins to go mental, he tries to put a cat into a ATM machine to which a woman passer by sees, he shoots her in the chest and runs away from the police and manages to escape, he signs into a flat and enters it crying, still crying he makes a phone call that goes straight to answer phone, we hear that its his lawyer, Patrick leaves a message confessing to all the murders and sick things that he has done.
In the morning after his confession he puts on a surgical mask and then goes into the wardrobes to clean all the dead bodies out, but the place is clean and its been repainted white.
We then see Patrick talking to his lawyer the next day, he questions the lawyer about the answer phone message but the lawyer says it isnt possible that he has committed all these crimes.
The next scene shows Patricks secretary going through his note book and finding some sick drawings page after page.
The film ends with a narration of Patrick talking about whats happened and when the camera zooms in to his eyes at the very end we see a sign behind his head which reads, This Is Not An Exit.

Software used to create film (philip)

Apart from the camera, tri pod and pag light used to film the footage, we needed a dock to copy all the footage onto the Apple Mac. After all the footage was transferred onto the computer we used Final Cut Pro to cut down all the footage we had so that it is continuous, with out all any jumps. We then used Soundtrack Pro to get the appropriate music and sound effects together to add tension to the film and to make it look more professional.



this is final cut pro in which we edited the footage and added the score music all in scyc we shared these duties as the task was quite long a tedious.

Editing Diary by Will

We began editing the day after filming, all three of our group contributed to the editing as this was able to allow us to all contribute towards the final product. We had ten minutes worth of filming which we cut down to 3 and half minutes then we left it for the night. We continued editing the next monday to try and cut it down further to two minutes, we managed to do that and then added music, sound effects, the logo and credits. Editing is now completed.

Filming Diary (philip)

We picked up the camera, tri-pod and pag light on Monday and went to the set to begin filming, we then set up the tri-pod and camera. After a little trouble ajusting the pag light to the right angle we started filming, all three of us shared responsibilities filming as we all had different ideas how to film the shots. After a little while our power pack was running out of battery, this was a continuing problem. So after a very cold half an hour we returned to filming and following our storyboard, we decided to remove some shots as we weren't capable in the space that we had. After four hours we finished filming and returned home.

Photos taken during filming( philip loates)

during filming.




ajusting the camera to a extremly high angle.







filming from a point of view shot to put the audience in the seat of the victim.






filming from a high angle to create the feeling of vulnerability.







will preparing the cast getting ready for filming.

Score notes (Michael Ariyo)

The score music is a very important part of a movie as it connotes its genre to the audience. For Example If It Was A Horror Movie Like Saw It Would Have Slow Erie Music Rather Than A Fast Paced Music Like James Bond. The Score Music Sets The Scene, So For Our Score Music We Will Be Having Fast Pace Music, Or Something That Thrills The Audience Like A Heartbeat.
We Will Be Using The Software Such As Soundtrack Pro For Our Score Music as It Comes With Preloaded Music Instead Of Creating Our Own Therefore Saving Us Time.



After Finding Suitable Score Music We Will Upload It To Sound Cloud Which Will Allow Us To Publish The Music Onto The Blog.



This Is Our Score Music
Surveillance by willphil12
I Believe It Represents The Genre Well Because Its Fast Paced, And Gives The Audience A Sense Of Being Thrilled

Case Study : Scream (philip)

Scream, from the very begining of the movie, sound is present. The movie starts out right away with creepy music in the background, as we see the film start.It is followed by a rumble, as if several doors are bein closed shut. While the errie music is still going the title of the movie is streached out and comes back together with a loaud crash. the feeling of the movie suddenly changesby the phone ringing the ring of the phone cuts out all other sounds for example the heart beat and the erry music by doing this the director is playing on the audiences other sences other than just sight. Another example of sound being used is when Casy begins to flirt with the anonymous man; she lies and tells th caller that she doesn'y have a boyfriend. By doing this the film fits the classic codes and conventions of
popular horror movies by using "naive teenagers". Theres at the feeling that something bad is going to happen. When the viewer realises that this call is not a silly prank call, as the movie continues the tension is getting built up and he slowly building the character to get scared. When casy is being chased by the killer, she goes outside and the viewer can hear is her breathing is fast , full of gasps and sobs. This again creates more tension. The director has also used canted camera alot to give the effect that somethingis going to go wrong in the scences.

Location Notes

We will be filming our 2 minute film inside this garage. we chose to film here as it creates a dark and suspense atmopsphere which is what we wanted to create because of the genre of the film. we will add our own props to make it look more violent by adding knives and saws to make it look like a torture scene. it will be filmed at night time so it will look even darker inside the garage. there will be one bright light shining on the face of the client being tortured and the face and identity of the lawyer will remain anonymous.

Location Notes Continued