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

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 04:12

By constructing this product, I have learnt many things that will, subsequently, benefit me greatly when filming further pieces; in every aspect from filming techniques, to shot types and their effects, as well as factors that make my product look professional (abolition of continuity errors etc). It was of grave importance when filming our particular thriller that we gained the necessary effects required when attempting to illustrate a character’s, through both low and high angled shots.

The professional level of the filming itself was paramount to its success, for example, we had to ensure that all shots were filmed using the tripod or track dolly in order to make sure all shots were smooth as well as adding interest, such as the shots used in the opening credits.

In this shot, the camera moved along a home made track dolly in order to create an interesting shot of the scenery. The effect we put on this shot also helps to create a gloomy atmosphere and therefore adds to the thriller tension needed.


 
Deciding to use a HD camera benefited our final product, as it gave clarity and a professional finish to our thriller. As well as this, we shot each scene several times and in several different ways to make sure we had plenty of options to use when it came to editing all pieces of filming together. Following the 180 degree rule was also important as it allows the audience to keep track of both location and situation, and despite finding ourselves going against this rule several times, we managed to notice in time and re-shoot that particular piece. Other professional techniques also came into play, as we made sure that pieces of filming equipment we were using were clear of the shots we were filming, like the 180 degree rule however, we noticed and managed to re-shoot in time. Being able to film all of our thriller on the same day was a great achievement, and also meant that we did not have to worry about the weather changing, our actors clothes changing or other such factors, all contributing to continuity errors; which would be noticed by the audience.

During the editing process, both my partner and I learned a lot since filming our preliminary tasks. We were able to discover what works for certain types of filming from transitions, to sounds effects. In the case of the thriller, we chose to keep transitions to “fade to black”, as we felt it was most professional, and “fade to white” when we had inserted a still to act as a “flash” and therefore adding to the dramatic effect aimed to be created. By playing around with other software (in this case, Final Cut), we were able to add an extra professional touch to our thriller, using layers over a panning shot of the victim.

We used “Final Cut” to create the layered we wanted to use as a way to complete our thriller to a very professional standard.



 
From creating the layers in final cut, the overall result was very successful, showing dominance and a sequence of events.


One thing we found difficult whist editing was ensuring that our thriller was not too long, as we had a lot of footage to use. On the contrary, we also had to put in enough to make sure that our opening made perfect sense, as well as creating the necessary feelings and atmosphere desired by our audience. When importing our music, we had to ensure we had the right section of the song to once more, create a tenser atmosphere, trimming the piece of music down fractions at a time and replaying with the thriller to test that the louder pieces of music came up in time with the piece of film after transitions. This was alike the voice over piece, which had to be cut down and placed to exactly the right point, finishing before the actors began to speak. The overall effect of the voice over would have been affected if it did not finish before the start of the flashback, making this a key element to the dramatic effect.





Here is our music piece after being trimmed and fitted into our thriller, within the programme we used for editing- “iMovie”.













Alike the other screenshot, this shows how we edited and fitted our voice over track into the thriller using “iMovie” once more.




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Delusion Shot List

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 04:11

Scene 1: Derelict Building

Shot 1: (T – ECU) Opening title of wooden beam with credits
Shot 2: (TRACK – Left/Right with T) T=Producer   Dereliction area to show setting – wood, rubble ext.
Shot 3: (PAN – Left/Right with T) T=Direc.   Shot of tops of buildings to emphasis setting and lighting
Shot 4: (L – T – PAN) T=Starring   Shot of driveway of setting with light effect through titles
Shot 5: (CU – T – PAN) T= Featuring   Shot of trees panning top/bottom with green hue effect
Shot 6: (T) Main title – Delusion with background image of both starring characters (effect on title)

Scene 2: Perpetrators Bedroom

Shot 7: (Zoom ECU) Zoom of pictures in perpetrators room “revenge cut out” (fade to black)
Shot 8: (CBCS) Diary shot in bedroom...”not long now??” turns page “today’s the day??” slow fade into perpetrators hand tearing the paper out (Slow motion for paper tearing)

Scene 3: Outside Perpetrators House

Shot 9: (M - ZOOM) Perpetrator burning the diary entries and pictures – Zoom onto flames once lit

Scene 4: Derelict Setting

Shot 10: (M) Aimee drinking from a bottle then throwing it in front of her (shot left/right)
Shot 11: (MBCS - ECU) Looking at perpetrator getting drugs out of pocket and shows to audience (in view)
Shot 12: (CU-High/low angle) Perpetrator throwing bottle on floor
Shot 13: Insert of pictures of Aimee...innocent... (M) Rule of Thirds – Kieran and Aimee hugging (fade to black)
Shot 14: (CU) Kieran and Aimee face – (PAN) – walk away
Shot 15: Insert x3 picture...innocent...interlinked with shot 14
Shot 16: (M-CU) Kieran putting drugs into bottle then pointing to camera (ECU)
Shot 17: (TRACK - PAN) Right/Left – Kieran holding Aimee up after being drugged
Shot 18: (L – Fade) Behind them walking down the drive...drugged
Shot 19: (TRACK – Right/Left – T) T = date/time with Aimee laying on the floor tracking across her body – Effect with Kieran’s eyes overlaying the shot

Shots:
L - Long Shot
M - Mid Shot
MBCS - Mid Behind Foreground Character Shot
CU- Close Shot
ECU - Extreme Close Shot
CBCS - Close Behind Foreground Character Shot
T - Titles

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

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 04:34

Creating my preliminary task was the first ever piece of media filming I have done, and therefore it was more about “finding my feet” with the technology, than creating an outstanding piece of work. I, personally, used the preliminary task as an opportunity to learn about both the cameras, including continuity errors and shot types, and the editing process, and feel that it was from this piece of work that I learned most of the basic skills that went on to help me with creating my thriller, such as effectiveness of shots such as shot-reverse shot, high and low angles etc… all of which I used within my thriller to create the necessary effects. However, on the other hand, conducting the preliminary task allowed me to notice errors I had made and also what I needed to do to improve my filming; which I feel I met within producing my thriller. For example, from carrying out my preliminary task, I was quick to notice the importance of planning in order to gain the shots needed within the time given. By creating the thriller, my knowledge of the camera became more advanced, learning about how to take still photographs and filming effects such as sepia and black and white, and by having a longer period of time to play on the editing software, I found more things that added to the overall affect of the piece. From this, I learned (in depth) how to do certain things, such as layering a still image behind a moving shot, trimming music pieces and separating the audio from a piece of film, which is something I did not have time to “develop” during the preliminary task.

All in all, I believe I have created a very successful thriller that is on par with professional alternatives in the film industry today. It gained very positive feedback from its audience, as well as older members of the public and professionals, such as my Media Studies teachers. Members of our audience appeared to display all the emotions we intended them too when planning our thriller, which leads me to believe that our brief has been met to a good standard. I believe that we picked an interesting subject, which has serious relevance to topics within the media, such as the news, at this present time, illustrating our USP (unique selling point). I feel that the theme tune we chose greatly effects what happens later on in the film, adding to all dramatical effects we wanted to feature, as well as the voice over adding an extra something to our thriller; different to many other thrillers of a similar standard out there. It also gave our viewers ideas of plot, without giving too much away and ruining the rest of the film for them.

If I was to recreate this thriller, I would focus more on the professionalism of our filming, as well as several more “tweaks” within the editing process, in order to make my thriller almost perfect. I would also spend more time in finding more professional actors, despite our actors pulling off the desired effect very well, just to add an extra professional touch to our piece.

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How did you attract/address your audience?

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 06:59

We aimed to attract our audience in many ways, by complying with the typical conventions, such as dark editing along with a disturbing atmosphere- reflected by not only the setting/location but the plot itself, which was interesting and kept the audience guessing the narrative throughout. The instrumental music we added during editing helps to create a very tense atmosphere, with sudden crescendo’s and presto/allegro’s adding to the dramatic effect that thriller’s are most famous for.




We took into account, when addressing our audience during the filming, the results of our questionnaire as it is important to ensure our audience gain what they wish from our thriller in order to make sure it is a success. For instance, many participants stated that they would not show a thriller to anyone under 15 years old; due to the often violence or gory features they share. It is easy to see also from the results that the most commonly liked aspect of a thriller was the aspect of crime associated with the main story line, as well as the thriller starting on a flashback. We decided to incorporate both these factors into our thriller in order to gain its overall popularity and success as a BBFC rated 15 film. Throughout the filming process, we had to make sure that each scene was suitable, and if not, re-plan the given scene and re-film it. We also, to fit with the BBFC guidelines, did not show the rape scene, but instead implied it; this added to the overall sub-genre experience of a psychological thriller.

Audience feedback is very important to us when evaluating our media product, and therefore we decided to create a video illustrating peoples view on the thriller itself; stating what they liked about it, what they would change and what they wish to see more of. By doing this, we were able to identify directly with the audience, as well as having our thriller compared to many professional versions. Possible ideas of changes or extra shots may be given, helping us to understand what we could do to improve.

INSERT VIEWER FEEDBACK VIDEO

The opening credits also help this affect, with slow pans both vertically and horizontally along with the simple font and gloomy effects on the shots- more than anything we wanted our audience to feel the same fear that our victim felt; growing worries, tension and suspense, as well as the inevitability of the portrayed outcome.






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Who would be the audience for your media product?

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 06:55


Deciding on a target audience was key to the success of our thriller opening, as we needed to make it both appealing and suitable for a specific range of people. The age group we decided to aim our thriller at was 15, as we believe it allowed us to contain typical conventions of thriller films without limiting who our film could be showed to too much. Referring to the BBFC aged 15 certificate helped us to regulate the content of our thriller opening by providing guidelines to abide by. The BBFC states that;



We decided to ask 30 people 1 question about what genre their favourite film was, as well as which genre of film they would chose to watch if they had a choice.



We also produced a questionnaire in order to gain the views and opinions of both peers and elders, which proved to be very useful when creating our thriller, as it gave use ideas as to what people typically like to see within a thriller. An example of my questionnaire is shown below;

Age: 15+
Gender: Male and Female
Other Media Products Consumed: CD’s, television, films and magazines

By conducting the questionnaire we were able to realise that the most popular type of thriller within the age group of 15+ was psychological, which greatly influenced our decision to create a successful thriller. Asking the audience to state their favourite thriller and a memorable moment from it allowed us to gain ideas about how to incorporate similar events within our thriller, but still by making it our own. The most anticipated factor looked for within a thriller was most commonly, crime; therefore we knew instantly what kind of narrative we needed to please a wide area of our audience.

A typical example of our audience;

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

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 06:49

For my thriller opening, I have decided to use "Universal Pictures” as my media institution in order to produce and distribute the thriller opening I have both shot and edited; founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, is one of the oldest American movie studios still in continuous production. I have chosen this particular institution due to their mass popularity and success all over the world both through films, as well as owning a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution dating back from the 1910's, not to mention their undoubted ability to make almost any film both enjoyable and profitable by people of all ages and cultures. They are known all over the world for producing films that are both timeless and reflect my thriller film opening through conventions, such as Jaws, The Bourne Identity and Van Helsing. "Universal Pictures" have not only diversed into the entertainment business for the interest of others, but they were also the first company to bring out Blu-Ray discs, as well as converging with Sony- with their first partnership films being classics, such as The Mummy, and changing film technology into the industry we know today. “Universal Studies” is also located in the USA, which greatly benefits us (the film makers) as our film is open to be distributed to hundreds of different countries all over the world due to the many connections the company has with influential people within the media all over the world, being extremely beneficial to low budget film makers as they can rest in the thought that their film will be made to be a success, and extremely profitable.


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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 06:47

Within our thriller, we aimed to represent people of a similar age to ourselves, on a level that everyone can relate too. By using a theme that is very popular within other types of the media at the moment, our thriller was easily relatable by people who live a similar life to ourselves. The idea of skipping school, represented victim as our female lead (Aimee Hunt) wearing a school uniform, to illustrate naivety and innocence, and drinking alcohol is activity that almost every teenager at our age takes part in at some point in their teenage life, raising the key moral we hoped for when planning our filming; the danger of spiking drinks. Being played by a female, the victim also agrees with typical conventions to thrillers. Not only this however, but we represented her as a weaker character, often doing what he said and letting Kieran influence her in many ways. We chose Aimee to play this vital part as we believed she had the key acting skills needed in order to make our thriller professional, as well as having all the key features regarding appearance in order to make it convincing; ranging from having a smaller physique to add to the idea of vulnerability and short skirts, typical to other girls of the same age. Portraying the victim as innocent was of grave importance to us, and we decided to portray this through using high angle shots looking down on her, as well as a detailed diary accounted voice over in order to let the audience relate to her as she talks about her ordeal. This was almost reflected completely when filming the perpetrator, as we dressed him in dark colours and used low angle shots to show his power.

 We chose actors of the same age as ourselves, firstly because they were easy to get hold of and more importantly to make our thriller more appealing and professional looking to the audience it was aimed at, a BBFC rating of 15. Our male lead and suspected rapist, Kieran Gabbitus, was represented at first as unidentifiable as the shots of him avoided contact with his face.









In these particular shots, the culprits face remains unshown, instead you can only see the hands; and this could be anybody. The dark clothing however identifies the person in the shot as being “bad”.















This added, also, to the overall tension gained from watching our thriller, as well as making the audience sympathise with the victim as to what happens later on. His costume was generally realistic to that of any other teenager. The dark colour of his clothing (black trousers and a black leather coat), follow typical conventions of thriller characters; with the culprit normally wearing dark colours to put forward his danger as a person.


Whilst filming, we aimed to ensure that when filming Kieran, we used a number of high-angled shots looking down towards Aimee, in order to show dominance. This was reflected when filming Aimee as we used low-angle shots to create the different affect, showing that she was beneath Kieran’s social power.




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

Filed under by Emma Phillips on 06:41

The task given to us was to create a two minute opening (approx) for a thriller film. For inspiration, we looked and studied other thriller openings, in order to give us ideas on all aspects of a thriller- such as conventions, camera angles, sounds etc. Thriller conventions suggest that thriller's should contain;
·         a dark atmosphere with no shortage of suspense and tension
·         include both a villain and a hero
·         very fast paced with recurrent action
·         faster editing when main plot events occur
·         a range of interesting camera shots
·         diegetic and non diegetic sounds, including music

As well as this, we have to take into consideration the age rating our thriller opening will be viewed too. This is important because if we were to film for a PG rated film; it would vastly limit the amount of typical thriller conventions that could be shown in our thriller opening. Due to this, we have chosen to film our thriller to fit a BBFC rating of 15, as we would be able to show the required levels of filming to make the genre of my piece of filming obvious. This way, we can also open our thriller up to a wider audience, without limitations. Also, by creating our thriller to be at a rating of 15, it will allow us to include the necessary language, shots, ideas and violence without going against the requirements allowed, and still being appropriate for our audience.

The first 2 minutes of a thriller are filmed with the intention to suggest a narrative, without giving away too much information. Here, the audience also has a chance to meet the main characters. Through editing, the plot normally starts slow paced, but when the action scenes take place, both the editing and shooting gets quicker in pace in an attempt to create/increase dramatic tension. Instrumental music will also, more than often, crescendo in order to emphasise the event in question. Normally, music (like non-diegetic sound) is added in during the editing process in order to add interest to the film, as well as adding to the overall effect. Within my thriller, music was added but also a voice over track to add a twist to the plot, as it was the victim talking about her experiences. Thriller films consist of many shots used to emphasise either the vast amount or lack of power amongst the characters. For instance, to illustrate weak characters, the camera would be positioned high angled facing down, and for more powerful characters, the camera would be placed at a lower angle pointing up.  


The use of a high angle shot here emphasises the power the culprit has over the victim. The culprit’s identity is also left unknown.












The use of long shots are common at the start of the opening, in order to establish location, time and setting. Also within in this scene, close ups may be used to show detailed facial expressions or reaction shots in a character, or significant detail of an object, once more giving an idea as to their personality and role within the thriller. Considering mise-en-scene during the filming of our thriller was very important as we needed to make sure our thriller was convincing to everyone who watched it.

We used a range of shots here to get ideas of locations, conventional to that of shots used in professional thriller openings. We felt that this location was perfect to film our thriller opening as it gives the impression of being derelict; illustrating the thought that no one could help the victim.



For research, we watched many opening scenes from films with a thriller genre in order to gain knowledge and learn about the many conventions (such as shot angles and types, characters and music), that we personally needed to consider during the filming of our own work to ensure that our thrillers were convincing.  The main example we watched that had the most impact on our filming was “Psycho”, as we liked the idea of a psychological thriller.



Seeing shots such as this one for example gave us ideas for shots and the importance of keeping the culprit unidentified from the audience. Also from this shot, we decided that using the rule of thirds is important for creating dramatic effect, and therefore decided to use it many times within our thriller.


Leaving an air of mystery to the audience greatly appealed to us when creating our piece, and in my opinion, we did manage to pull off a sub-genre of a psychological thriller. Professional thrillers gave us an insight into the making of such timeless pieces of film, as well as giving us yet more knowledge of conventions and helping us to widen our minds to our own plot ideas and unique selling points, as well as choice of music, and the type of atmosphere that needed to be created to ensure success. I decided to look on Vimeo for ideas from videos that people have already filmed in order to improve my thriller and gain knowledge and ideas for shots and scenes to not only boost the overall grade my thriller receives, but also make it more convincing and professional looking.






The angle of the wall in the shot makes it look interesting, as well as the worn out wallpaper adding a sense of an abandoned building that has many stories to tell. I also think that the constant lower case text, that also ranges in sizes, is also very interesting to look at, as well as adding a spooky twist onto the film. This will influence the openings on my thriller because my partner, Nathan Roe, and I believe it looks very effective and professional, and has the kind of opening our media companies would look for and enjoy.

After the main point within our plot had been decided, we researched given topics and case studies relating too it. For instance, we gained sufficient information to be able to know enough
of the “Date-Rape-Drug” to make it a convincing. storyline within our thriller, learning about its appearance and affects. By choosing such a topic, we were able to express the epidemic in a way that spreads awareness to all young people across the country- as well as creating a convincing thriller.  

The use of dark editing techniques makes the thriller more convincing.

The added interest in this shot is due to the colour contrast of the barn against the snow, and the light rays in the centre of the shot.

Contrast in colour here also works against the colour of the barn, as the frost on the branches also creates an atmosphere of fear.

The use of black and white effects adds to the intention that all these particular shots are in the past, acting as a flashback. It also helps to create an overall effect of tension, emphasising the darkness of the culprit through shadows and their particular outfit. Rule of thirds was also used here.



Using the rule of thirds allowed the audience to focus on a main point within the given scene. In this case for instance, the desired effect is gained due to the centre of the shot being the action.






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