Evaluation- Question 7

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 the filming process of my preliminary task, I was rushed for time and only had limited shots. I learnt from this that I should take a variety of different shots and preferably take more shots than I need. When I moved on to filming my Thriller, I had this in mind and took more shots than i needed and filmed on multiple days, so that we had more content and therfore more choice when editing the film. 

I was also more aware of the natural lighting that we used when filming. This is because when we filmed the preliminary we didnt consider how well lit the shots were, however when we moved onto the editing stage we realised that one of the main scenes was poorly lit and lessend the quality of the film. Here is a screenshot of the scene I am reffering to:

However when I begun filming my Thriller i was more aware of the consequences of poorly lit shots, so i ensured that all shots we took were well lit and didn't lessen the quality. We re-filmed one shot a few times because to begin with it was too dark and you couldnt see the actor's facial features. Here is a screenshot of the scene once we had turned specific lights on:

Planning 

The preliminary task and all of the planning involved with it, helped me to understand that to create a high quality film you have to plan as much as possible. Because of this we ensured that we had our storyboard done before we started filming and we looked around the area that we were going to be filming in to ensure that we were using the best possible location (Location Recce shots). I also created a questionnaire and emailed it to all students in sixth form in the hope that they would complete it. I managed to get 46 resposes to my survey, which allows me to get a general feel of what my audience would like to see. However because i sent it mainly to sixth form students I do understand that my results may not be that varied because they are all around the same age. Having said we did bare in mind that we were creating the thriller for  ateenage audience.

Evaluation- Question 6

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

Evaluation- Question 5

 How did you attract/address your audience?

In the audience questionnaire that i conducted I was able to observe that 95% of the people who answered my survey were between the ages of 16 and 20. With this information I was able to plan my Thriller around the results gathered. The results for the gender question were 50/50 so I didn't plan my Thriller specifically for one gender. Because I had feedback from a younger audience I decided to cast younger actors, because this would attract our specific audience most. We casted a female and male as the protagonists, I think that this was a good idea because we would be able to capture the attention of the younger viewers if they were of a similar age.

 We were able to get feedback from our audience on our finished thriller. The feedback we got was a mixture of positives and negatives. A positive was that the music and sound was effective in creating tension, as well as that we were told that the cues in the music were well timed which made it look and sound like it had been made to a high quality. However someone said that we should have used different colours for the titles in order for it to suit the character more. We maybe should have made the connotations and implications of the colours in the titles more clear or changed the male characters costume etc. Another bit of feedback that we received was that the suspense was great as it left you unaware of why the character was cutting hair etc. Our choice of actors was also praised because it allowed us to build more tension through instructing the actors on what to do, we were told that we used a wide variety of angles and shots and it created good representations. These comments suggest that our consideration of the feedback from our questionnaire was good and that we had our audience in mind when creating the thriller.

Evaluation- Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My results from the survey that I carried out showed 95% of the answers were from people aged 16-20. These results allowed me to plan our Thriller based on the answers that we received. As a result of this and the fact that the results allowed us to create a Thriller specifically for this age range, we would set the age certificate as a 15. I did some research into the age certificate, using the bbfc website. ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15) This website said that rated 15 movies usually include discriminatory behaviours and I think that if our Thriller was a full film we would see this behaviour, specifically sexist behaviours. It also noted that strong violence is allowed in 15 movies, again our Thriller would display this specific activity if it were to progress into a full movie. For these reasons, I decided that the 15 rating would be most suitable for our Thriller- 'CUTS'.

We casted teenagers in our Thriller as we wanted a younger audience and younger actors would keep the audience interested. The results also showed that there was an equal amount of boys and girls who answered my survey.

Results from 'How old are you?'- shows 95.65% aged 16-20.

Results from 'What is your gender?'- shows 50% Female, 50% Male.

Evaluation- Question 3

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

I would choose 'The Works UK Distribution' to distribute our media product- 'CUTS'. I would choose 'The Works' because they aim to release distinctive and exciting films, I think that my Thriller portrays some of
these features as it is tense and exciting. The works distribution company has released films such as 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'My Summer of Love'', both of these films are low budget yet are produced to a high standard and are enjoyed by their audience. They have also distributed films such as 'Emperor' and 'Rosewater', both of these films are dramatic and thrilling. I think this company would be interested in our Thriller, because we have produced it to convey typical and distinctive features of a Thriller movie and we aimed to make our production individual and unique.  On their website (www.theworksfilmgroup.com) they say that they specialise in independent feature films, I think that 'CUTS' would fit into that category. Our Thriller aims to create a tense and uneasy atmosphere and we hope that it is thought provoking, which is something that I think 'this works' distribution company would look for.

Evaluation- Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender is very stereotypically represented in our Thriller, because the male protagonist is shown using forceful and is portrayed as dominant and controlling. The girl featured in this film is attractive and is a typical teenage girl, this helps to represent her as a typical victim. The way in which the male smells the females hair suggests that he has control over her and she just allows him because she is weaker. These are typical representations of woman and men (men being more dominant and woman being the weaker sex.)

Evaluation- Question 1

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

Conventions of Thrillers:

• Suspense
• Male protagonist
• Antagonist
• Crime/Mystery
• Low key lighting
• Tension music

Conventions of an opening sequence:

• Title sequence (Production company, Cast names etc)
• Soundtrack
• Narrative
• Introduce key characters
• Enigma

Screen shot of a black and white shot.

My media product uses typical Thriller conventions such as tension building and music to create tension and build suspense. I also used some effects on the video, I used a black and white effect this is present in many Thrillers, for example 'Casino Royale'.

It is typical of a Thriller opening scene to have opening titles, we tried to include as many as possible. These included actors names, producers and who the film was by etc. I created the original Title sequence on After Effects, I used four colours throughout my titles: Red, White and black. I chose to use these colours because they all contrasted nicely against the backgrounds, and the colour red has connotations of danger and it is an intense colour. These connotations fit in well with the uneasy feel to my Thriller.

Screen shots of a few of the titles we included in our opening sequence:

Some opening sequences have short bursts of speech to build tension or to add to the plot and intrigue the audience. We decided to include some audio in the style of a news reporter, this worked effectively in adding to the plot and adding to the suspense of the opening scene.

We chose to cast a male protagonist as we needed a character who could be portrayed as intimidating and who would be able to create an un-settling atmostphere. This is a convention of a Thriller and we decided that it would benefit our film to include it.

Male protagonist

Final edit upload problem

On the day of the final edit upload, I went to export it and upload it. I rendered the video and then went to export, but once I played it back and watched it I realised that it changed the positioning of some of the Titles. Specifically the 'Marvellous Movies' and 'a film by Millie Ford', these were both positioned in the middle of the screen, but once I rendered them they moved either half off of the screen or to the top. I moved them back to their original position, but once I rendered them they moved back. I spent two hours trying to fix the problem, but I didn't know how to. In the end I managed to secure the central position of the 'Marvellous Movies', but I was unable to move the 'A film by Millie Ford' into the middle again. I was disappointed because the name 'Ford' was in a white font that I couldn't change and where the program moved it to the background was quite light so the letters weren't as bold as they were in the original position. I asked for some feedback on this issue from some of my classmates and they informed me that it didn't look as bad as I thought, but because there was no wast of fixing it to my knowledge i had to leave it and upload it to YouTube in order to meet the deadline.

Here is a screenshot of the issue I have mentioned above:

Final Edit

Editing 21/01/2016

 Today I realised that we were yet to film the audio to go along with the clips of  George walking across the room to the door in the final scene. I filmed the audio on the Canon 700D and I was able to get one of my classmates (Harriet) to walk in the same pattern as George walks in the video. We filmed this in the corridor as there was no one else there and it made the audio loud. I then went on to upload the audio onto my computer and rename it and import it into Adobe Premiere Pro. I put it in the correct position of the film and continued with the rest of my edit.
I then continued to trim and fit the clips to a better standard. For example I decided to change the length of time that one of the titles stayed on screen for ('in association with Misfit Productions), I lengthened the title in order for it to stay on for longer. Originally I had it flash on and quickly off of the screen, but then decided that it didn't look good and changed it.

Editing 20/01/2016

•Put the music at the same time as the Audio
In today's editing session I managed to get quite a lot done. Earlier in the lesson Abi and I recorded the voice audio, so in lesson imported it into Adobe Premiere pro and moved it around and eventually  timed it with the scene of George's character and Amy's character on the field. I then found a clip of the door creaking and swinging in the wind that we had filmed when we shot the scenes of the male character in the workshop, the sound was very clear and sounded slightly creepy. I decided to add it in at the end of the film, because it would create a sense of mystery and encourage the audience to think for themselves about what will happen.

Originally when I imported the audio of the news report I got rid of the music and just had the audio by itself, but then when I listened to it back it didn't flow and sounded bad. So I re-imported the music (drummer boy hip low beat) and had it playing at the same time as the audio. This improved the overall quality of the clip and scene.

I then started to cut up the scene where the male character is walking into his workshop and add the shots of his sitting on the bench nervously looking and multiple different girls sat next to him. I put the bench shots in black and white because it clearly separated the scenes and because black contrasts against white, it represents the contrast and difference between George's character and the female characters. The black and white filter also helps to create a strange and uneasy atmosphere, because they are dull colours.

I also imported the clips of the hair layed out on the table spelling out 'CUTS', I cut up this one clip as it was just a pan from the first letter to the last. I cut it in between each letter once the camera had shown it and inserted it throughout the shots of the male character getting the hair out of his bag. 

After effects and creating Titles

I decided to create my Titles on after effects, because someone had recommended it to me. I had to learn how to use it first though, because I had never used the program before. I used the font 'Copperplate Gothic Bold' for my production company names- 'Marvellous Movies' and 'A.M Pictures', however I put 'A.M Pictures' in a bold font as it separated the two companies and added some depth to the logo. I chose to keep the 'Marvellous Movies' in a plain non-bold font, because I wanted to keep it simplistic and it looked more professional without it being bold.

I decided that I wanted to keep a red theme throughout my titles, but a deeper red rather than a bright coloured red. I chose the colour 'red' because it is associated with danger and often represents intense emotions. These connotations seemed to fit in well with the overall feel of our Thriller, we wanted to create a sense of danger and uncertainty and I felt that the colour red helped to create that feel. When I created the 'A.M Pictures' logo, I knew that I wanted the two words to be different colours because against a black background it would stand out and look professional. I chose to put the 'A.M' in white and the 'Pictures' in a deep red colour. The two colours complimented each other and made the logo look of a high quality/standard. When it came to choosing the colours for 'Marvellous Movies' I chose to go with Blue and Red, because both of these colours complement each other and together with the font it helped make the logo look professional. As I previously mentioned I wanted to keep a red theme and that it why I chose red for the second half of the logo.

Once I had finished these two Titles, I decided to create the rest of the titles on Adobe Premier Pro where I was editing our video. I made this decision based on the fact that After effects was too time consuming and I was more comfortable with the Premier Pro software.

Below is the video of the two titles I made on After Effects:

Thriller- Planning Title Sequence

The first Title to appear in our Thriller will be the production company 'A.M Pictures', this is a made up company. This will be in a bold serif font. 'A.M Pictures' will be positioned in the centre of the screen in a large font and then 'presents' will appear underneath in a smaller font.

A.M PICTURES

PRESENTS

These title will then transition off screen and the next will appear, in a large serif font. This title is again a made up name of a movie production/ distribution company. 

MARVELLOUS MOVIES

The next titles to appear will be 'A film by...' And 'Screenplay by...', these will be in serif fonts and will be in red and white.

A FILM BY MILLIE FORD 

Screenplay by ABI GLYNN 

In association with Misfit Productions will then appear on a black screen, In red and white writing.

In association with 

MISFIT PRODUCTIONS

The next part of the titles will be of the actors names and producers etc.

 Starring JOHNNY BAILEY

AMY SLOAN

Produced by DAVID AVERY

The title of our thriller will the appear on the screen and then finally followed by the director.

CUTS

Directed by ANGELINA HUNT 

Recording Audio

Abi and I decided that we should add some audio to our Thriller in order to build the storyline and to create tension. We came up with the idea of having a news report, informing the public of a supicious man and a girl that has been reported missing. We decided that the audio of the news report in the background of the video where the male character is forcefully pulling the female across the field, we chose to use this idea because we thought that it would help to build tension and create a sense of mystery, which would allow the audience to think for themselves about what is happening.

We began by writing the script for the audio.
The script:

"A young white male has been spotted carrying out suspicious activity in the Yorkshire region.
After the disappearance of three young girls earlier last week, Yorkshire police are now asking for anyone who has any information or intelligence to come forward."

We went into the Media studio to record the audio, because it is quiet. We used the Canon 700D to record the audio, we recorded a few times at first just to test how near or far we should be away from the camera for the quality of the audio to be good. I recorded the audio and Abi read the script. We were able to record a clear and realistic news report.

We then went back into the classroom to upload it and rename the files, so that once we had imported it to Adobe Premiere Pro we would know which order to put the clips in. Once I imported the clips we trimmed them to fit the video and ensured that we had placed it in the correct position.

Editing shots the Bench shots

I found the videos that we had previously shot on a bench, I started by renaming the files.
Here is a screenshot of the videos once they had been renamed: 

I then imported them to Adobe Premiere Pro and began to edit them. I trimmed a lot of them, because some of the shots were really long and we only wanted short snippets of them. When I looked back at these shots, I realised that some of them had quite high exposure, especially the close up ones of George. So now I know for future reference that I should always set the white balance properly and ensure that my clips are not really bright when filming and if so I should adjust the settings. However in next lessons editing session I think I will put the clips in black and white, so the exposure won't matter as much.

Music on freesound and Editing audio 01/2016

We used 'freesound' to find some copyright free music that we could use in our Thriller. We found one called 'Drummer boy- Hip Low Beat', we chose this because it is the type of music that is really good at building tension and creating suspense. We decided from the beginning that we were just going to have one piece of music throughout and then just layer it with the audio that we had recorded ourselves. We played the music over and over and it flowed nicely and so we downloaded it and imported it into Adobe Premiere Pro.
Here is a print teen of the music we chose to use on www.freesound.org.

I had to insert an audio transition called 'exponential fade' in order for the music to fade nicely from one shot to another. 

An image of the audio transition

Editing 14/01/2016

Once we had filmed, we went back to media to continue editing. I first imported all of the clips that we had filmed today and renamed them so  that they were easier to identify. I then imported them to the Adobe Premier Pro file and put them in order after the clips that i had already edited. I started by first playing the film through with the clips in order but not yet edited, just to see where I needed to edit. I then went on to trim a number of the clips and either lengthen or shorten some of them. This allowed me to ensure that the shots flowed smoothly. I spent the entire lesson concentrating on perfectly the clips in the workshop. I also imported of the audio recorded with the clips, but I only used certain parts- the sound of the scissors cutting the hair. This was particularly challenging to sync the sound of the scissors with the clip of the scissors cutting the hair. I eventually synced the clip and audio and then I went on to insert the music throughout these shots. I had to edit the music to go quieter when the diegetic sound of the scissors was playing because you couldn't really hear it about the music.

Filming 14/01/16

Today we had to finish filming as we realised that we were missing some clips. We filmed in TE4 because it is a workshop and fits the Thriller genre. The props we used were: Scissors and (Brown) Hair extensions, along with George's costume of a Black trench coat, black jeans, black turtleneck jumper and a black bag. The first shots we filmed were the ones we will use as quick flash inserts: we filmed a pan of the workshop and we decided to arrange the hair into the letters of the word 'cuts' as it the title of our Thriller opening.

Here is an image of the hair arrangement:

When we filmed the shots of the hair arrangments we were unable to achieve the shot that we intended to, as the tripod was not tall enough to fit the entire word in. So we had to put the tripod on one of the worktops in order to get the whole word in shot.

Here is an image of this:

Title planning

The font we chose to use is called Trajan Pro, because it looks proffesional and adds a high quality feel to the Thriller.

First Draft

Draft Titles 15/12/15

Font: Copperplate Gothic Bold

First draft titles

Filming 10/12/15

Today was the first day of filming. The weather was overcast, which is what we wanted because we thought that it would help us to create an eerie atmosphere. We completed all of our outdoor filming and managed to incorporate the interruption of rain to our production. We got a shot of the rain bouncing off and into a puddle and then had George come into shot and walk through the puddle, we chose to do this as once edited it would help to set the scene. 

The problems we faced were minor and were easily solved. For example our location was littered and ruined the mise en scene so we cleared it away and continued with our filming. The second problem we faced was with Amy and George because they were un sure on how to perform a certain scene where George grabs her forcefully, however once we had conferred and re assured them, they were comfortable and performed it well. Abi and I took it in turns to Film and direct as we were aware that we had to evenly split the jobs. We helped each other by assisting with the set up of the equipment and we consulted each other with each decision we made. For example, when George wasn't sure where to stand, together we made the decision for him to be completely out of shot to start with and the walk into the shot. We made this decision because we thought it would allow his character to make more impact to the production and emphasise his role in the film, because he would be starting it.

We helped ourselves because we had already drawn a storyboard with specific shots on. As a result of this we were able to limit the time in which we spent filming because we were not making it up as we went along. 

Location shot of George Bartram and Amy Jowett:

Here is an image of Abi and I setting up the Tripod:

Here is an image of Abi and I reviewing a shot that we had just taken:

I was filming a shot of George walking onto the scene, but just of his feet. Because the tripod does not go that low i was struggling to get a steady shot, so I used Abi's foot to rest the camera on in order to get a steady low shot of George. 

Here is a image of us getting the shot:

Props

Our Thriller require minimal props, but the main props needed are essential in order for our film to flow.
A backpack is needed because the male protagonist will need to store another prop in there. It also adds to his character as it leaves the audience to guess what he keeps in his bag.

The second prop needed is hair extensions, these are essential for our thriller, because the whole storyline is based upon the male protagonist's obsession with hair and one of the most significant scenes will be him cutting up the hair in his workshop. We do not require a specific hair colour, but either brown or blonde would be best, because the female characters in our thriller either have brown or blonde hair.

The third prop that we will require is scissors, it is very important that we have this prop because we will need it to film one of the most intriguing scenes: where the male character is cutting up hair. We also need them so record some diegetic sound of them opening and closing in order to add some sound to our film.

Risk Assessment

Risk: Production member tripping over some of the equipment.
How to prevent: Ensure the production crew and actors are aware of the equipment and ensure the equipment is is tucked away if possible.

Risk: The camera falling off the tripod and hitting someone.
How to prevent: Ensure that the camera is secured onto the tripod firmly

Narrative

This is an image of our original, less detailed narrative: 

Our narrative is as follows: 

The opening shot of the Thriller will be a low angle shot of feet walking aimlessly towards an empty film. The angles will vary with this scene from head on, to the side and over the shoulder shot showing the male character walk onto the field. It will the cut to a shot of a male character standing will a female character on the far side of the field. The female will have long hair  which it what draws the male to her. Throughout this scene there will we flickering shots of close up shots of the male character with a handful of a woman's hair smelling it and various signs in his workshop/office at home. The narrative is kept simple as it is only the opening of the Thriller, so we want the audience to think for themselves as to what happens next. There will then be shots of the man cutting off women's hair. The opening scene will finish will a close up of a females mouth and then the male character suddenly covering her mouth.

Actors and costume

Filming schedule

The date that we have chosen to film is Thursday 10th December, we have booked the camera, tripod and some lighting.

Test filming shots

We took 3 test shots of my hair blowing in the wind, to see which looked the most effective. I faced different ways each time to vary the shots.

 

Shot 1:

 

Shot 2:

 

Shot 3:

 

 

Storyboard

In lesson we drew a storyboard outlining the basic scenes that we will include in our production.

Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire on Survey Monkey. The link to the questionnaire is: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N9KTJ7Q

The results from this questionnaire help us to gather a general opinion of our Thriller opening and allowed us to make decisions based on the feedback we were given. The questions we asked were about the narrative, lighting and general questions regarding our ideas and the Thriller genre.
I got results from 46 people.
Here are some graphs created from my questionnaire results:

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Brainstorm

Here is an image of a brainstorm that Abi and I created prior to filming and in our planning stage.

Location Recce Shots

In Tuesday's lesson, Abi and I decided to go out and take some test shots and shots of the location that we will film at when filming our final piece. We took multiple images of the location, but we then decided to practice some specific shots to see if they would work effectively when we come to filming. For example, we found to locations where reflections are easily captured as we will incorporate these shots into our final film.

Reflection shots:

Shots of the location where we will be filming:

We also took images of props that we will incorporate into our filming as part of the mise en scene.

Images of props:

We took a couple of shots to test the angles and lighting in that specific location:



Analysis of previous students Thriller (Grade A)

Strengths and weaknesses of 'Torn.'

The film begins with a pan of a house, which leaves the audience curious.'Blue Moon Cinema' then appears on the screen, this makes the film look more professional.

Here is a screenshot of the Titles:

It then shows a male character opening the front door of the house, and then cuts from a close up of the character to a clip of a doll and then back to him. This fast editing helps to make the production look high quality and shows that they have used a range of editing. Title continue to appear whilst there are different shots of the character collecting his newspaper whilst he walks round to his garage. Throughout these shots the fast cuts to the shot of dolls continue to play. This is good because it helps to create tension, which is typical of a Thriller movie. As there is a close up of his hand opening the door the cuts to the doll begin to happen more frequently, this again shows a good variety of editing. The film uses a wide variety of shots and angles, for example: Close up, extreme close up, pan, over the shoulder shot and long shots.

Here is an example of a close up shot within the production:

'Torn' video: