Nabil Ayub - Evaluation

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

In an opening sequence of a psychological thriller we can understand that they either have a linear narrative or a non linear narrative, our thriller took qualities of a narrative style, as we decided as a group to go forward with a group members idea, which was very effective and we believed that if we could convey certain messages within the opening sequence time frame (2 MINUTES) about the storyline this would engage the audience even more, as a non linear narrative would engage certain audiences yet it might discourage certain segments of the audience who seek more in a thriller (like a plot of some sort) .

Also when looking at thrillers we can understand the sole purpose of the opening sequence is to engage the audience into the film. It is also to establish and set the mood and visual characteristics of the film. It introduces the audience into many elements such as characters, the narrative or plot of the film, different locations, themes, symbolisms, genre etc. When analyzing thrillers we can understand that the opening sequence is vital to keep your target audience engaged at all times for example when looking at the camera side, if the pace increases and it is always moving it will stimulate the audience so keeping them engage, this is the case in Memento. Movement is also key aspect to look at whether it is going backwards (Memento), fast paced, slow etc. This can be seen in Hitchcock films especially Vertigo.

As the opening sequence of Vertigo, we can understand that vertigo is a feeling that you are dizzily turning around or that things are dizzily turning about you. Particularly this opening sequence focuses on graphics first which builds up tension within the audience then breaks into live action, the use of graphics was used to show the female characters state of mind. When looking at her lips we can see a sense of nervousness and anxiety within. The close up shot of both her eyes introduces some key thriller conventions of being watched or being seen watching someone else. It then focuses on one eye so starts exploring a theme of identity. This particular sequence introduces themes of suspense and identity, also introduces typical thriller conventions such as a vulnerable blond. Looking at Vertigo and the way in which Alfred Hitchcock uses graphics in the opening to build up tension and suspense then breaks into live action is a very clever way in keeping the audience engaged. I believe our sequence had similar characteristics.

Yet our opening challenges typical conventions of a thriller as most are set at night especially the opening as seen in Vertigo yet our sequence is set in the day.

Also taking in mind we wanted to appeal to the mainstream market yet we still wanted to engage within our independent market who could be seen as teenagers between 15-21 who could relate to do everyday struggle of relationships, betrayal, etc.

2)How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

As our narrative is based within a school due to the fact we were restricted at a point to take certain equipments out of school bound, however we were able to get vital shots outside which fitted within the narrative. As our opening sequence was within the school, this sort of encourages us to go forward with Iqra's idea, which consisted of teenage actors with a "teenage plot". Due to this I believe our product represents teenage social groups as typical teenagers, due to other sorts of media we can see that teens have qualities of betrayal, lies, etc. I believe our short sequence represents these qualities, so unfortunately our sequence portrays teens in a negative manor.

Also our opening sequence represent particular social groups as unsure/unknowing due to the fact that when watching our sequence it is seemed that the young boy (me) who is wearing a hooded top is perceived as a villain however he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and in fact is completely innocent. so our sequence shows that certain members of the audiences are easily confused as due to the news, (which suggests most stabbing are occurring due to gang culture, with the problem being caused by young male youth in hooded tops), looking at this information that most of society is exposed to this allows our product to work as we wanted the young hooded youth to be represented as a villain who is out to cause trouble between teens within relationships. So our product does show a brighter side to youths who do wear hooded tops and are not out to cause significant trouble.

3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

At the moment looking at our final product i believe it would be best suited within an institution which specializes on distributing independent title as i believe our product is not suited for the mainstream market, and would be more successful in an independent field, e.g within Anchor bay Entertainment, many more as shown. Our story could appeal to wider consumer but due to lack of resources which most mainstream audience demand. Also due to our storyline i believe it will reach a specific audience of the age 15-21 however within that segment it might only appeal to certain individuals who can relate to this specific dilemma being shown in our sequence. Throughout the task we have est to target a specific segment of the audience as we have shown this through the beginning of the project were we had to produce questions to ask selected people, we choose to ask teenagers as we were later going to be targeting our thriller towards them.

Questions such as

8.What expectations do you have of the opening sequence of a thriller?

e.g introduction to characters and plot

I think this was a very important question which i believe one of my fellow team mates came up with as it allowed us to realise that our audience wanted some sort of narrative plot epically characters as teen feel at ease if they see similar age groups with any form of media so to keep focus and on track we thought it was vital to have young actors within the opening.

If we had more resources i believe we would be able to reach a more Mass market as we were developing idea which were impossible for us to do, due to lack of software. We thought it would be good to have clever mirror shots such as

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

Looking at our sequence I believe it will definitely fit the bracket of a film which would draw in young teenagers due to the fact in the opening two minutes we can see there are three different teenagers, due to them having different qualities this will allow us to broaden our range and appeal to more teens. Also feedback from our young audience shows us that they are very attentive whilst watching due to the fact they can relate towards the actors on show, as our audience becomes familiar with codes of clothing, location etc, which we believed would be vital as it will definitely keep them engage, along with our unique shots, our flow, music etc. I believe it was a wise choice for us to focus on a 15-21 year old audience as our group fits in within that bracket so we knew which ingredients would be needed to produce a thriller that attracts our audience( yet we believe our thriller will reach audience outside this bracket too e.g 21+), when watching an opening of any film especially a thriller I believe you should try not to give too much away. Within our opening I can see it is a lot for our audience to take in yet we wanted to create a sense of tension and at the same time keep our audience focused, as when appealing to a young demographic we had to understand we didn’t want to bore them. As we asked do u think the opening sequence is vital for the success of a thriller?














These results indicated we had to engage our audience from the start. We could not discard this piece of AUDIENCE research, firstly it was answered by people within a 15-21 year old bracket which is our TA (Target Audience), and secondly the response was significantly high compared to all our other results.

5)How did you attract/address your audience?

In our clip we used number of methods in which to attract our audience through suspense music at the beginning which capture the mood we were trying to set, also introducing familiar characters, familiar meaning young typical teenagers within our shot as we new from our questionnaire that it is vital for the introduction of characters to keep our opening a success as it was vital for our TA to be engaged at all time, so if they can relate with the actors we are achieving our goal of utilising that audience base. the use of cuts between the supposed killer (me) and the actual killer allows the audience to become fully engaged at all times also i believe the rewind shot of the events gives the audience a sense of mystery within the thriller for them to unravel what is going on yet we know our audience will have mixed opinions as in any opening of a thriller opinions/predictions will differ, this was shown when we showed our sequence to people outside the group who thought i was still the killer yet some of our audience could notice that in the last shot it was not me who defaced a picture of the female actress who was stabbed unless i was male wearing ugg boots.
Also through

• continuous editing
  


• thriller conventions
  


• narrative in which our TA (target audience) can relate to
  


• familiar setting (school which our TA is familiar of )
  


• codes of clothing (allows our TA to relate as they have a similar style, or recognize such clothes.



• familiar teenage actors among our actors
  


• good introduction of actors
  


• editing ( rewind back, fades, etc)

6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Personally i have learnt that using certain technologies has been very difficult, time consuming, and annoying at times for example when starting of looking for music, we found that you-tube provides some copyright free music as some distributors were allowing their own personal songs to be used, so we just needed to find the means of converting the you-tube clip to a mp3 sound file as this would allow us to use it within our opening but it took us quite a while to find the exact converter software to do this, eventually i found a website http://www.convertmytube.com/ which will allow us to do, it was not a free website and charge $9.90 a month yet it would allow you to convert videos into a sound file for free however it would take longer and there was gap in-between each converting session of 45Min's as it would make you wait from each download, it took quite a while as we had about 2-5 clips in which we had to convert which was very time consuming.


During this process we had to make sure that we wouldn't get penalised for using such sound clips on YouTube when consulting with a few of teachers it became apparent that the music may not be copyright free as we could not trust a user on YouTube which we had never seen before, so we had to consider other methods of getting our music, from free websites such as http://www.soundsnap.com/.

Using such technologies has proven to be difficult such as the apple macs yet when using the cameras i believed it was easier then it looked i was proven wrong as it was difficult, yet practise makes perfect, so the more that we stuck at it, it then shortly became easier.

using the equipment,

using the cameras, tri pods,blog, apple macs etc was difficult at the start but it became easier during the course of our project we had taken shots which i believe were very unique and different which we hadn't used in our opening, i believe this was very clever due to fact that we were able to achieve the shot without the camera being revealed within the mirror.

we had a situation where we wanted to achieve particular shots yet it just wasn't working so we had to the same shot from different angles as we learned through out the course that it could be very affective, e.g positioning the camera on the floor for the footsteps to achieved better affect, the lift scene etc.

at first we did a dead on shot to show that the lift was going down hence going with the flow of sequence as we wanted to make it apparent to our audience that he was making a move.
It was not a good shot as whilst taking it we could see the reflection of the camera.

so we decided to take the shot from an alternative angle to achieve a much more effective shot.

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

• Using shot from our preliminary and developing them to a higher quality,e.g idea of the footsteps.


• using a tri pod effectively to get a steady shotbeing able to use the cameras and developing our skills and understanding of that particular equipment


• being able to make shots flow as continuous and create meaning e.g. within our preliminary the character makes a short journey from the stair area toward a door within two shots.


• importance of storyboarding


• planning time better


• don't get distracted or over your head


• sometimes simple is better


• working in a group


• using certain software is harder then it seems
  
  

Iqra Evaluation

Question 1

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


Psychological thrillers are very popular among film industries and appeals to both mainstream and niche audiences. The approaches of reaching the two types of audiences have huge variations however the conventions are simple to recognise. They differ from thrillers of other types as they rely heavily on mystery. The characters in a psychological thriller have as much importance if not more than the plot itself. It is very important that the film contains a flawed hero experiencing some kind of psychological suffering, a vulnerable victim whose state of mind is being disordered and with whom the audience sympathise. It must include the use of music to create an atmosphere of tension and confusion, the use of shots specific to the genre such as close ups and focus shots to show the importance of individual characters.
We conformed to the conventions by using a character who was suffering from Schizophrenia, a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. We included menacing and unsettling music to create anxiety among the audience. There was no dialog included again conforming to the conventions. We introduced the characters and gave a bit of background about our lead girl, Leila. The word love was used to represent/reflect their relationship.
We also challenged the conventions. One way we did this was by having the murder take place during the day. In most films in this genre a murder is typically done under the cover of darkness, however we opposed this for two main reasons:
1- To show the boy was innocent, why would he kill a girl in broad day light?
2- To reflect the instability of Leila’s mind, why use a knife that big to kill you friend on a road in the middle of the day?
We thought that by using a balance i.e. conforming to some of the conventions and challenging others, we could capture audiences who are keen on this genre but give them something more by making them think about what they’re watching, so in other words keeping them locked in the world of the film.





Many psychological thrillers use repeated close ups of a characters face, to let the audience know that the characters facial expressions hold important meaning either in that very scene or of ones to come. We used close ups in our film to portray this. For example the picture above, shows a scene from our film in which a close up was used to allow the audience to make a decision regarding how they felt about the character.



Question 2


How does your media product represent particular social groups?


In the news, young people are often represented as being culpable for the rising number of deaths by knife and gun crime. In our media product we decided to reflect current affairs and tackle the issues surrounding knife crime in particular.
One of our main characters was a young teenage boy. We used the sartorial codes of stereotypical teenage gang culture by dressing our character, Nabil, in a hooded jumper. This was designed to reflect the public’s perception of adolescent males in today’s society. This decision was targeted mainly at a mainstream audience as it covered the plot of a typical teenage film. This part of our media product was inspired by Adulthood. We liked this film in particular as it exploits many of the characteristics of the teenage crime genre.






In the opening we decided to satisfy the audience’s judgments by giving the impression, that the young boy had murdered a girl, and therefore fulfilling their expectations. We then went on to show, at the very end, that the boy was in fact innocent and had no involvement in the murder and that it was just a case of being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. We thought that this was very effective as it plays on society’s fears and associations with teenage life and subverts conventional ideas about teenage ‘hoodies’



Question 3


What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?

In the film business, the term "distribution" refers to the marketing and circulation of movies in cinemas and for home viewing i.e. DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc. The primary agenda of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent, or "book", each film. Before the film can be distributed, the makers must decide two important factors:
1- How to market the film and;
2- the target audience
By the fist point I mean to ensure there is a full line of advertising materials available on each film which will help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience. The second point ties in with the first as marketisation strategies rely heavily on the target audience. For example if the target consumers are a mainstream audience a lot more money must invested to reach these viewers due to the fact that they are highly demanding. If the target was a niche audience the advertising would have to be a lot more defined because viewers in this category require specific needs which have to be met.
Accomplishing all of these factors is important to guarantee the biggest possible gross. Looking at our film it is obvious that it has more independent qualities than mainstream, due to the lack of available technology. There were some shots we wanted to include which would perhaps make it seem more mainstream such as layering shots to represent the two personalities of our schizophrenic character however as this could not be done we decided to use music to represent this.
Our film would be best distributed by an independent company such as Working Title’s sister branch WT2 or Entertainment Film which are specifically designed for this. It would be exhibited in cinemas such as Ritzy or Clapham Picture House which showcase low budget films for niche audiences.





This is the type of shot we hoped to achieve but unfortunately it could not be done.





Question 4


Who would be the audience for your media product?

The most obvious target audience for us would be between the ages of 15-25. Our immediate surroundings influenced our choice. Since we are ourselves students we felt that we knew what type of things that would interest other teenagers. We used primary data in the form of questionnaires to conduct our audience research.
The decision was made concerning the distribution. We thought that having a wide range of ages would allow us to have a bigger market to aim at and so get the largest possible audience. Having a narrow age range would exclude potential viewers.


Using this question we found that over 60% of the teenagers who took part spent their spear time watching TV or films. This was good information as it allowed us to decide which group of people were most likely to watch our film.

As consumers of the media ourselves, we knew that our opening had to be good in order for our film to be successful. The opening of a film is the key to capturing your audience. It is what causes them to spark an interest and so must introduce element such as secrecy and mystery to encourage audiences to continue watching the film to discover these answers. However this was not useful enough and so questions had to be asked about what kind of things people believed made a good thriller. Some of the answers included introductions to the characaters and plot/narrative.


This was another vital piece of information as it let us know that our audience had several expectations that we had to meet in order to get them interested. Furthermore, we also found out that our intended audience was demanding and hard to please.




Question 5


How did you attract/address your target audience?

As we were filming in a school, we were left with the choice of either choosing student actors or teachers whose talents cannot be called ‘acting’. As a group we decided to choose a cast that the audience could relate to and would appeal to the audience. When it came to deciding what the actors would wear, our target audience was always in mind and the difficulty came with finding a balance between what the sartorial codes said about the character and how they would be perceived by the audience.
With regards to the plot/narrative, we used a stereotypical story about teenage knife crime, and on the other hand challenged the stereotype so as not to bore the audience with yet another teenage knife crime film. We did this by making a girl the killer. I would say that this was a challenge as in most films it is the female character who is the vulnerable victim, however in our film we decided to portray the woman as the 'enemy'. Our film was designed to engage the audience by covering issues that were happening in their everyday lives.






Question 6


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this process?


Getting to grips with using the cameras and the Apple-Mac was surprisingly not as hard as I had expected. Although it took a bit of getting use to after a while it became quite straightforward. The hardest bit about the whole experience was making sure that the music blended well and had expert flow. This was done by splitting the audio clip where necessary and then dragging another clip next to it and so joining the two.



In the first shot where the girl is looking through the photographs we used soft strings to reflect the innocence and to create an atmosphere that put the audience in a state of calm. However i decided to change the music when she reached the final photo to indicate/communicate to the audience that something was unsual about the scene.




For clips where I wanted music but with sound effects I would have to place the clips one on top of the other and leaves gaps for bits where I wanted just sound effects or just music i.e. like in the picture above. The pitch of the music could be adjusted by dragging on the purple dots and sometimes even muting it where it is not wanted.




When at the end we were back to the fist scene, our initial idea was to choose a different piece of music . At first I felt that this might work but after watching the finished product a few more times I felt that something didn’t quite work. After a bit more analysing I realised that it was the music change at the end that was causing the concern. So at the very last minute I came to the conclusion that although the rewind effect was a good idea it needed something else to signify that we were back to where we started. So instead of using different music I thought using the same music as we did in the beginning would make it clearer to the audience and put them in the same state of mind as before.




We also learnt how to arrange the clips.


Question 7

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

When we were given our preliminary task we were told to shot a short scene in which two people had a conversation. The aim of this task was to get us use to the camera and get us started on using the Apple-Mac to edit. Before we began we were told to draw up a storyboard. Although it was clearly explained that we were to do something simple, my team as usual decided we wanted to make ours look as professional as possible. However this paid off because we learnt what type of shots we couldn’t do and those that had a great effect.
When we had finished filming we loaded everything on to iMovie and started arranging the clips and editing them were we needed to. This was a very useful learning curve as when we came to the final product doing this was one of the easiest parts of the whole task.
We also learnt how to split the video in two. This was useful because we could cut bits that we didn’t want out instead deleting the whole clip. It also meant that effects could be put between the two clips.






I personally found the preliminary task very useful because it allowed me first to get use to the camera, and second come back into the real world by making me realise that everything was not as easy as I first thought. It taught us how to use shots to create effects and how to use cuts effectively. It taught us how to work within a specific time frame (organisation) and how angles could create a whole new meaning. We learnt that sometimes the simplest shots such as over the shoulder shots were best rather than trying to do too much. By using the Mac’s and trying different things we learn how different transitions symbolise different things, like for example a washout could be used to show a transition back in time where as a fade in could be used to symbolise continuation. Other transitions included overlaps which could be used to show a connection between two things. Another useful thing about it was that we ended up using some of the shots from the first video in our final project, for example the footsteps.




As we were still new to the camera this shot appears shakey as we used a handheld camera. However it could be argued that this gives it a more realistic feel as this was what we were trying to achieve.






With this shot the camera was placed on the floor to prevent any movement. We did not use a tripod because placing the camera on the floor gave the illusion that the person was walking towards you. It also meant that we could just zoom in on the feet to make them appear closer rather than holding the camera and trying to walk at the same time as the other person.




Link to final product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLofCVKIzQ4&feature=related

Sanna Khan -Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

We were aiming to make the opening and title sequence of a thriller. During the course of my product research, I discovered that opening sequences need to quickly establish a sense of atmosphere.


Thriller genre conventions:

-A disturbed character with a flaw
-Vulnerable character
-Night-time setting
-Frequent low and high pitched sounds
-Slow paced music during beginning credits to create suspense

Usually in thrillers in order to create mystery there is a heavy use of close-ups where not so much is revealed to the audience. Therefore, the audience are forced to ask questions and gives ambiguity to the film.

Foe example, in Vertigo there are extreme close-ups of lips, nose and eyes.



In our thriller, we used this same effect where we do not see the killer’s face until we are mid-ay through our opening. We also used a vulnerable character and a disturbed character with a flaw. However, we challenged theses conventions by using a young innocent teenage girl as the criminal rather than the typical hooded teenage boy.

As well as this, instead of a night-time setting in order to create mystery. We used a morning setting which is seen to be quite unusual. However, we created mystery through our beginning shots of the boy’s face not shown so the audience begin to ask questions.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Teenagers in modern society are stereotypically represented as being associated with being guilty of a knife crime. Therefore, in our psychological thriller we used a teenage boy with a ‘hoody’ to support this representation. This is because we felt it would appeal to our target audience where they can relate to his character and make our thriller seem more realistic.





In contrast, we portrayed the girl as being innocent and a softer character. She has a close friendship and is unlikely to be associated in unlawful acts.





Q3, What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

United international pictures

-Jointly owned by Paramount and Universal - have higher production values due to their high income and invest in new ways of digital distribution.

-Paramount is a mainstream producer and can appeal to our mainstream audience through their high production values

-They acquire films by independent producers locally, internationally and regionally as well as mainstream. So we can appeal to our mainstream and independent audience

-One of the sixth major American movie studios so we can gain a greater audience

-investing in new digital distributions so they can compete with other major film companies. An example of new technology is D-BOX Technologies, Inc. (e.g The fast and the furious)so we can make our thriller more appealing and exciting for the target audience




’engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of motion systems for home theatre, video game, movie theatre, and commercial arcade sectors in the entertainment industry. Its patented D-Box technology allows for synchronization between the screen action of a movie or game and the motion generated’.







Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?


Audience Research




Using our results from our questionnaire we decided that our psychological thriller was made to appeal to a number of audiences in order to broaden our appeal. We tried to attract to a mainstream as well as an independent audience between the ages of 15 and 25.






We also found that some individuals preferred the storyline introduced during the opening of the thriller. Therefore, we decided to use photographs to illustrate the character’s connection with the girl killed and a flashback to the beginning to represent who was the killer.

Ways in which our Product research related to the making and ideas...




From The Shining,we decided to use a similar technique where both characters footsteps in order to connote that they are in the same location and I also decided to have both characters wiping off the blood from their hands to portray this same effect.






Instead of using reoccurring themes like Hitchcock, we decided to use a high pitched note to introduce the killer and show the girl's change in personality. As well as a rewind effect to indicate the significance of the previous shots of the marking of the calendar and the girl ripping the photo.


We used a technique from Michael Powell's Peeping Tom of a close-up of an eye in order to dehumanise our character. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7nwyk_peeping-tom-17_shortfilms


This was one of the difficulties we found as it was hard to zoom-in without having a blurred image.




This was the sort of image we were trying to acheive:









Cameras used







changes made from our original ideas...

We changed our idea of having the close-up of an eye and a mid-shot of our character at the very start.




This is because we felt it did not set a scene to draw our audience into as well as it did not fit our storyline where we wanted to include a rewind effect.


Therefore, I decided to use our character looking at photographs to portray to the audience her relationship with her friend who has been killed. Fortunately, we were then able to use a rewind effect to show her ripping the photograph to illustrate who was the murderer and to show a change in time from her memory to the present.







Q5. How did you attract/address your target audience?

At the very start of our thriller, we used a low note of a piano in order to create tension and lure the audience. Then we used a sudden high pitched note in order to introduce the killer and entice the audience.

We created mystery through the extreme close-ups of the killer’s shoulders, back and hands where the audience are unable to see the killer’s identity and the audience begin to ask questions. The extreme close-up of the girl’s eye dehumanises her face and indicates a change in time.
The use of footsteps walking towards the camera makes the audience feel more involved and possibly’ feel like a witness to the crime.
The use of the over the shoulder shot of the killer looking at the knife places the audience in the role of the murderer and feel more involved.

The use of pathetic fallacy, (The Shining) of the wind blowing when he is wiping the blood off his hands makes our thriller seem more realistic and builds apprehension among the audience.
The short pause before the title appears possibly, allows the audience to reflect on the killing and who was the murderer.


To target our mainstream audience we used stereotypical charcters 'hoded teenage boy'and to our independent we used a confused narrative storyline and used subvert genres of crime and schizophrenia.


Target audience feedback

After making our final film I gathered a sample group of our target audience and asked the following questions in order to see what improvements have to be made for our thriller to be more successful and appealing to our target audience.

1. How well does our thriller function as an opening?

2. What do you like/dislike?

3. How would we improve?



1. functions well as an opening-allows us to question what is going on-who was the killer- boy or girl, fake blood and shot was interesting and created an atmosphere

2.
likes...rewinding effect, was effective, not used in many psychological thrillers, unexpected and unique
dislikes...The photo scene at the beginning was to long



1. functions very well as an opening, sets the scene, establishes characters and cast straight away

2. likes... rewind, camera angles, sort of some liking about confusion-able to discover and make own interpretations, music was overall good

Dislikes...confusing storyline, maybe should be at a slightly more slower pace so the audience can have time to think about the storyline , the close-up of the eye is blurry

3. slower pace, better close-up of eye-needs to be more clearer

After looking at my audience's feedback i have found that the technical difficulties we had experienced with both the I movie HD and camera shots resulted in my final thriller having flaws.

* Close-up of eye
* blending the lower softer tone of music with high pitched sound to introduce killer

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the making of our thriller we had to make changes to our ideas from our storyboard. This was for a number of reasons. Firstly, our ideas of a split screen of the two characters footsteps.
This was because the Apple i mac HD did not have the software to do this.



Therefore, we decided just to have to seperate shots of footsteps.








These are the sites were we found our music...


www.soundsnap.com

www.incompetech.com.

what i found quite challenging...

Finding non-copyright music was quite hard as many of the sites had limited access. As well as this, blending the music from the start of the extract to the scene with the calendar was hard as they wre two diffrent tones and styles of music. However, i was able to solve this problem by cutting some music from the scene of the murderur and overlapping it with the photograph music.







In addition, the idea of the lift. This was because we had to hold the camera still as the lift changed floors and film without the sound of movement. However, we was able to cover this sound with our music with the apple mac system.


Q7 looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at our preliminary task...

* learnt how to use a range of camera shots with and without a tripod stand.
* filming the footsteps of our characters without have a shaky camera - made our actors/actresses walk towards the camera.

This also helped create a greater effect where the audience feel more involved and if the characters are walking towards them.

We also decide to place our title near the ending of our opening as a sort of cliffhanger so the audiences are left wanting to know what happens next. This is also because in our preliminary task we placed our title at the very start as we felt it did not fit in as well as if it was at the end.





However, we kept the same font and editing of how it appeared on the screen by type writing to give a sort of documentary kind of feel to relate to the killer storyline.

our project overall...

After making our final media product, i felt that having had included a rewind effect may have resulted in our opening telling our entire film's storyline. On the other hand, looking at our target audience feedback we found that many enjoyed the rewind effect because it created a sense of confusion which was seen as quite effective and interesting.

I also found that having the idea of the killer's face not been shown until the opening of the lift was very engaging because it created a sense of mystery and made the audience try to imagine what he looked like.

Finally, The finish Line!

Well well, after a very, very hard work out for my hands, my brain and my poor eyes, we have reached the end. After days and days of staring at a computer screen, i might need another trip to specsavers, but at least i have created a piece of work that i can be proud of. I should say 'we' as it was indeed a group effort.

The worst thing about editing and watching your own work is the critisism. I had watched the final clip at least 50 times, and each time i found something that i thought didn't look right and after editing that, something else would come up. So it became a cycle of watching, critzising and editing.

Now that its all finished and done, i still think theres some things that i could improve but i am quite happy about what we have created. For a first time thing, i personally think we did well. If i could change anything it would be the order of the narrative. Although i loved the idea of the schitzophrenic girl, i think that we should've not shown the scenes where the actual killing took place. If i could start again, my approach would be to arrange the clips in such a way that the audience is in a state of confusion until the very last moment.

What i have learnt from legends such as Hitchcock, was that the impact of imagination has a much greater effect then visual evdience. What is important though, with this approach is the exsicution. The moment of revelation must be dilivered in a way that leaves the audience speechless and keeps them engaged in the world of the film long after it is finished. For amitures such as ourselves this would have been too big a risk, and so sticking to the simpler route was a good dicision. This is not to say that we had taken an easy way out, infact far from it. We decided to be tactical and think about the time we had to get everything finished, and also restriction in both music and equipment wise.

Overall, the final piece came out good, and i hope that the hard work we put into it both as a team and as individuals is recognised. I also hope for happy examiner, hint hint Mr Examiner.

Good Work Team...Well Done!

=]

Iqra.

Music

With hindsight my biggest worry is that the music we found was perhaps not the best it could have been. The rule that only non-copyright music was to be used, was a difficult one to follow. We had made a mistake as a group as at first as we had not understood excatly what that meant. We found music made by users on sites such as youtube. We found three clips that we felt went smoothly with the clip as the pace matched the story and created the atmosphere we wanted. It was perhaps more engaging then the music we ended up using on the final piece.

However, although this created a panic at first, we had manage to find websites which had high quality music clips, and more imprtantly was copyright free! Some of these included freesound.org and soundsnap.com.

Before i had any experience with the editing software i thought it the magic tool that would solve all my problems. As i knew exactly what i wanted, my initial thought that i could finally make it happen via editing. What i found was that it was the complete opposite! Reality finally hit when i realised that it was definatley not as easy as it looked and a lot of hard work was to be involved. I struggled to get the hang of it at first, but after a bit of practice, and a tonne of useless clips later, i had become Hollywoods next best editor! Ok, maybe not that good, but i had got to grips with most of it.

What i found was the hardest part of the whole task was to make sure that the different music clips merged in a way that meant they changed over smoothly. At first i just put them exactly where i wanted them and watched what happened. I quickly realised that this was not at all what i was looking for, so instead i looped the clips together and examined that. This tactic worked better than the other approach but i still felt that something wasn't quite right about it. My solution after several other attempts was to put some sound effects in between to show a change in both scenes and music.

An effective decision of mine was to put the same music at the start and the end of the clip to show that we were back to the beginning. This also helped to make sure the audience got exactly what we were trying to show.

Iqra.

The last few days left...

After a long period of planning and filming, by Tuesday 31st March, we finally had finished filming and just needed to import our work on the computer. Then we just edited the last parts of our thriller and added music to our film for the last few days left before the deadline.

what we changed....

We as a group also decided to change our scene with the girl in the bathroom with tablets. This was for a number of reasons. Afeter taking the shot we realised that the lighting was too dim and did not have a connection with our storyline as we replaced the flasback with the boy wiping blood of his hands. As well as this,if we had inlcuded this in our opening sequence it would of exceeded the limit of 2 minutes.

music....

We as a group found that finding non-copyright music quite challenging. However, after hard reasearch we founf two websites that had the type of music we were looking for. Iqra found one of our music sounds from www.soundsnap.com and i found a heartbeat from soundsnap and a fast paced sound from www.incompetech.com.

Development of ideas

During the process of our filming, I found that some of our storyboard ideas did not show a clear link betwen shots and made an engaging appeal to the audience. Therefore, instead of having a direct shot from the close-up of the eye to a
mid-shot of the girl. I decided to show photographs of the girl and her friend to illustrate to the audience their significance within the opening sequence. For the flashback to show who was the murderur, I decided that instead of using a flashback of the killing, the girl ripping the photograph would clearly connote to the audience who was involved in the crime and to make it seem more realistic and believable. This also made the flashback flow better with the other shots in our sequence.

As well as this, i decided to use a link between two of the characters in order to make our opening more interesting. Therefore, i used two of the people at the murder scene cleaning blood of their hands.

In addition, i decided to use use more shots of the boy to connote his significance within our opening sequence. This included him crossing a date out on a calendar and going in a lift. This made our thriller more interesting and also to connote to the audience that he was going somewhere mysterious on that particular day. I believed this would make the audience begin to ask questions and be more engaged with our thriller. As well as this, by not showing his face it would create an interest amongst the audience. Along, with Iqra's idea of showing a point of view shot of him pressing the lift button. We as the audience can see from his perspective and would be more involved.

Shots

In the piece i wanted to include as many different shots as possible. Our idea as a team was to concentrate more on the type of shots and narrative equally. We felt that if s shot we intended to put in the opening was either to difficult or did not have enough effect, then it was to be replaced by something that did. Another tactic was that if we thought a shot would look good visualy, then we would find a way to fit it into the stroy even if was not apart of the original Storyboard.

Some of my best shots include the close of the eye. I felt that having an extreme close up of just one eye was more effective than having a close up of a pair of eyes as it gave the footage more quality and sophistication. Another, was the shot of the killer through the fence. Although this was a group idea, i felt that a slight angle on the camera would make the shot more visually interesting and it would also enhance a sense of realism.

In a shot where the killer was in a lift, we wanted to film him pressing a button. The original group idea was to have the shot from the side, but i thought that a shot directly from the persons point of view would be alot more effective and give the shots in out thriller more variation. Another idea of mine was to split one of the scenes where the killer walks out of the lift and heads towards the gates. My idea was to cut the video into three main sectors whilst editing and change the speed on each section. I thought that something like this would show we had a broad knowlede about skilled shots, and also show that we understood what people would want to see and enjoy watching.

Most of our ideas had started off from things we had seen on tv or in films. However, what i found hard to cope with once i had begun filming was how much harder it was to actualli use the camera and get shots just as i had imagined. My main shooting tactic through out the piece was to use shots that flowed, and looked good. This was based on a theory known as 'continous editing' or 'hollywood editing'. This involved alot of cuts and split shots but i felt it was worth the hassel.


Iqra.

As we near the end of the task, we have managed to keep upto date and overcome some of our earlier problems. Some of our biggest struggles included the actors. Our main actress was due to go on a Spanish exchange, as a part of her AS course. What we failed to realise was the time in which this was to take place. On the last few shots of the opening sequence, we felt that the shots were rushed and not up to our standards. After some hard thinking, we finally thought of some ideas in which we could use. We needed to have some shots without actually having the actress there yet passing it off as the same character.

My team mate, Sanna came up with some good ideas which fitted just what we were looking for. These included some over the shoulder shots, where the frame was to contain just, the characters hands and jacket. Another of the ideas included a shot where the 'killer' crossed out some dates on a calander. The thinking behind this shot was to make the peice more lengthy and to give the film more flow. Right now we are at the stage of shooting our final shot and finishing off the editing and music.


Iqra.

Recently we have been researching different types of sound clips to use in our thriller clip. It has been quite difficult due to the fact we can't use copyright music. However, we have found many websites were we can download music for free. Iqra also has been searching many sound clips from YouTube which we could use. Yet this has caused problems, as it has been my duty to try and find a possible way in which we could convert it to an mp3, allowing us to use it in our thriller sequence
Even though Iqra has found many sound clips I will also be researching even more sound clips to maximise our options.

After writing the previous chapter i have been able to find a programme in which we could convert the soundtrack that we found on YouTube to an mp3 file which could be used in our sequence, due to us not being able to use copyright material we were advised by one of our teachers to not use the sound clips, this meant I had wasted time finding the programme and converting each sound clip as you could only convert 1 at a time within a 45min gap. However as a group we decided it would be beneficial to go forward and find music that was not copyright. We found some music from such websites such as www.soundsnap.com and www.incompetech.com which we were able to use.

Also due to the fact the we needed a male actor which was first a student who was Tom but due to his frees not matching we decided as a group to go on and find a new male character, as group we thought it would be suitable if I was to take the role as it would be very convenient as I would be more reliable as my free's were identical to those in my group, which would reduced the stress on one actors part yet we still had to make sure that our other two females charters are efficient in there

As a group we decided it would be beneficial to prerecord some of the footage from the final piece. We felt that if we recorded some of the harder, more technical shots it would help us see errors and more importantly allow us to correct any mistake and improve the overall quality of the product.
We found that many of the shots we wanted to include were in fact difficult to achieve. As a direct result from this we decided we would change some of our main ideas such as, a split screen. As a part of our story we felt that a split screen of footsteps was constructive as it created a connection between the characters. However as this was not possible we decided to shoot the footsteps, but instead of a split screen we decided to dissolve the shots together as this still created the connection we desired.

During the practise we also struggled with extreme close ups. In the very first scene we wanted to include an extreme close up of an eye. However this was complicated as it was difficult to get focus on the camera. We then decided that we would have to change that idea and use two eyes instead of the one. When we tested this out it was much clearer but it lacked the effect we wanted. We continued to try to find a way to include the shot of the one eye, and after a long period of dead ends we manage to finally get the shot we wanted with the clarity we required.

So far we are still struggling to put all idea into practice due to the materials we are provided with. Although it may be time consuming we continue to find ways around the hurdles and if not find a new way!

Iqra.

What we plan to do today....

We hope to have taken shots with two of our actors as we are finding it difficult to select a time where they are both available. As well as this, we are going to start editing our shots and sequencing some of the scenes of our thriller.

For the scenes where blood will be shown, we have prepared a sample of red dye. We have also arranged to book the cameras during the afternoon.

Furthermore, we have decided to split roles between us. At the moment Iqra is researching music for our thriller, Nabil is finding methods of linking the music to our thriller and I will be editing and finding props.

However, we will all be taking part in filming as well as editing.

This was the shot we were trying to achieve.

what we have achieved so far...

We have built up our storyboard and analysed the variety of shots needed for our thriller.
Today, we experimented with the camera which proved to be very tricky. We found taking the shot of the girl looking in the mirror quite challenging, as we could not frame without Nabil being seen filming. As well as this, trying to get an extreme close-up of the girl's eye as sketched on our storyboard also proved difficult.

Hitchcock

Film Treatment

At sixteen, dealing with the death of a friend is hard to accept. For Lisa Murray, Sophie's death leads to a ground breaking decision. Having witnessed the brutal killing , the only way Lisa sees fit to deal with the event is to try and figure out the circumstances surrounding her friend's death.

A simple discovery leads to the frightening unravelling of the past. Soon Lisa is spiralling out of control, locked into a gruesome chain of events which she can't escape.

Increasingly she goes to treacherous lengths and striving to discover the truth.

Will she succeed or will she fail?

Hitchcock-The Birds

In this film we learnt about the importance of symbolism in a thriller. In this thriller Hitchcock explores the parallel reality between humans and birds. Throughout the film this idea is constantly repeated. For example, in the very first scene where lead female Melanie meets lead male Mitch, the connection immediately begins to build when Mitch says to Melanie, “you should be put behind bars” the bars of course referring to a birds cage. Not long after, in the car scene with Melanie and the birds we see the love birds tilting left and right with the bends of the road just like a normal passenger would. This is another visual hint between the parallel realities between humans and birds. Later we are told a story about Melanie jumping naked into a fountain, slightly odd, something that a bird would more likely do. When the main characters seal themselves in the house for protection from the birds, we find that Mitch is wearing green trousers and Melanie is wearing a green outfit. Being that the love birds are green, this is probably another hint that Mitch and Melanie are the human equivalents of love birds. When we see a shot of the love birds in their cage, we realise that is the same for Mitch and Melanie as they have just caged themselves in the house just like the birds.
This has really helped us because we found out that subtle hints can make a big difference and change the dynamic of a story. Also in this film we learnt that the use of primal fears such as the flapping wings of birds can have a bigger effect than explicit visual tactics such as costumes and gory details. Also Hitchcock’s creativity when it comes to arranging characters in the frame has been very useful. For example he arranged the characters at different angles instead of a straight line. This makes the image more visually interesting and decreases the level mise-en-scene used.

Product Research (part 2)- The Shining

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The fast editing of cuts between shots of the boy and the man screaming, repeating back and forth, relates to the anxiety both characters are experiencing and keeps the audience engaged. This could also suggest both characters can feel each others pain, which is seen to be out of the ordinary. The repeating screaming catches the audience off guard and terrifies them. This also helps to build to the climax where the room suddenly, turns silent as if in a state of shock. The boy is captured in a black background. This focuses on him screaming and may imply he is hiding in a dark place. However, the man is shown with a background. The audience are distracted and instead of focusing on the killing, they are also looking at the surrounding. This helps to gain the audiences focus when there is an empty surrounding after the killing. The audience are anxious to know who survived . After the killing, there is a sudden stop to the scream by an echo. There is a moment of silence. This could suggest, that the man is dead or possibly, the audience are reflecting on his death. Then, the diegetic sound of music begins as we see the killer raise up slowly, into centre frame, of the faded background. This suggests his significance within the film and his dominance over his surroundings.Then a close-up is used to dehumanise his face while he is looking towards the camera from a slanted angle. The audience are petrified as the camera moves backwards as he moves towards the camera with his axe. The audience are placed in a dangerous position of being one of his victims.

Auteur- Alfred Hitchcock

When researching Auteurs, we found that Hitchcock used reocuuring themes to illustrate to the audience their significance. For example, In 'The birds' reocuuring bird motifs was used to scare the audience as well as the characters.