Question 7

AS Media Evaluation Question 6

Question 6

AS Media Evaluation Question 5

After completing our media thriller, the media students spent a day out at the theaters watching each and everybody's thrillers.We used this experience for an opportunity to get feedback on what our target audience thought about our very own thriller, 'The Withdrawn'.

Here are some of the responses we received from our target audience:

We also interviewed a few members of the cast of the thriller to get a view on how they felt about the entire experience. Here's what they said:

By interviewing members we can analyse what we learnt from the experience and by interviewing our target audience we can see whether they feel our thriller is a success and has met its objectives. Also we can use the feedback and constructive criticism to help guide us when creating any future media work.

Q2 - How does our media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is a likeliness to something or someone in a particular way or of something being of a certain nature. It involves a specific point of view. Different representations will have different messages and values, depending on the point of view of the person who makes the representation.

For the plot of our Thriller involves two young males who seem to be in an endangering situation in which they are seen trying to escape. Through two males being involved in this situation, this may begin to establish social representations based on Gender. Furthermore, these males are within their Youthful years, so this could widen the extent to which the presentation of social groups is highlighted through the characters representing age aside from Gender.

The way young males are perceived by todays society is that they commonly fall into danger, bad or troubling situations. These representations that link to age and gender is supported within our Thriller; through certain scenes where this is evident, such as the boys being tied up, on the run from a mysterious danger or entity and so on.

Through different shot types, the micro element of Camera within media allows these representations to be established and recognised by the viewer. 

AS Media Studies Evaluation - Question 6

Question 6 

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

AS Media Evaluation Question 1

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

Q4 - Who would be the audience for the media product?

As a group, we attempted to integrate promotion of our Thriller film through social media sites such as Facebook. As Facebook is most likely used by the majority or all of our target audience, this was the ideal place to socially integrate our promotion and aim the boost the popularity of the release. Our priority target audience is as follows:

• People with a particular interest in Psychological Thrillers
• Audiences who look for edge-of-your-seat action
• Enjoy following compelling plots accompanied with intriguing characters

To achieve social integration and interaction with existing and potential audiences, we created the official Facebook page of our film 'The Withdrawn', our Psychological Thriller film release.

Above shows our official Facebook page including updates in order to keep people up to date in real time.

Aside from using Facebook, we also used Vimeo in order to reach out to audiences further in an attempt to garner larger audiences. By simultaneously using both of these networks for promotion, this would be likely to prove just as effective in reaching out to wider audiences.

AS Media Evaluation Question 4

The thriller genre in film has a wide audience; this is mainly due to the various sub-genres within thrillers. The main elements of thrillers are tension, suspense and excitement.  The target audience for thrillers are those who:

         -  Enjoy edge-of-their-seat action

         -  Enjoy tension and suspense

         -  Enjoy plots where a protagonist must overcome various obstacles

         - Have high anticipation and expectation

         - And enjoy dramatic films

Thrillers tend to provide its audience with many emotions and stimulate their moods using giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror.

Since our thriller was a psychological thriller, the intended target audience was very clear. It’s aimed at those who enjoy edge of their seat drama with high action and an exciting plot filled with twists, tension and suspense. As usual psychological thrillers are aimed at those of mature age; this is because psychological thrillers often involve violence or content that’s not suitable for you people. This sometime may be 15+ or even 18+ depending on how explicit the content is.

In order to capture our intended audiences attention, we created an official facebook page for the thriller. Here potential viewers could find out more about the film, offer reviews and keep up to date with the thriller.

The page can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Withdrawn/480919221962040

By creating a facebook page and spreading the word using our own personal facebook accounts, it increased promotion and we got more viewers as more people found out about the thriller. As you can see from above we created many statuses about our thriller to attract and engage potential viewers. We also received comments from what various viewers though of the film. Advertising and promotion are key concepts in the media industry as it can be a big factor in determining whether or not a product will succeed.

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

This is a slide share that i created, this slide share also consists of other ICT methods such as Photovisi which i used to create a collage. 

Ghgjmghmghf from Seb Man

As media studies Evaluation Question 3 - Prezi

Question 3 

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

Here is an Prezi presentation that I have assembled in order to answer question 3 of the Evaluation, Hope you enjoy it and find it highly informative of the steps we took.

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

Here is a Prezi i created to answer question 3.

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

AS Media Evaluation Question 3

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

Check out this prezi and find out exactly who and why:

AS Media Evaluation Question 2

Representation can be defined in various ways, for example you can represent something or someone, or you can get a representation of someone by observing what they do. Representation differ according to personal point of views. Within all media products something or someone is always represented even if there's no intention for this. There are many areas of representation such as gender, age, social class, sexuality, ability/disability, regional identity and ethnicity. These areas can all be represented through different ways within a media product.

The plot of our thriller has clearly indicated which social groups are being represented. The thriller sees two youths on the run possibly in danger or trouble, thus, it's clear the social group being represented in our thriller is youths. Youths are known as young people in their teenage years. This social group relates back to a few areas of representation we looked at in media lessons such as age, class, ethnicity and gender.

The ways the youths are represented support various stereotypes in today's society. For example, young boy are seen as trouble, danger surrounded and up to no good. This stereotype s supported in the opening of our thriller as for example you can see the two boys are tied up and on the run. This supports the stereotype view of young people being up to no good. Another common controversial stereotype which is represented in the thriller relates to the ethnicity representation area. The two boys in the clip are both asian. From this we understand that they may be working class as it's common for only the white dominant people to be part of the upper middle class. The fact these two asian boys are on the run supports the stereotype that coloured people some times are targeted more often than white people. It also represents the fact that asian people are often victimized.

The micro elements of media have influenced how the youths are represented. For example, for a majority of the time the pair are shot from high angles indicating less power which represents that youths are powerless in society. The mise en scene such as the pair tied to trees in belts represents the stereotype that young boys are targets and usually creating danger or being apart of it.

The social group of youths have been represented in a negative aspect in our thriller as the action has supported negative stereotypes of youths. These stereotype are for example:

• Young boys are always in trouble
• Young boys are targets for others

This negative representation is common in real media, for example youths are negatively represented in films such as my brother the devil, adulthood and kidulthood. However there are many shows within real media which challenge this representation such as shows such as Eatenders as this shows how although teens are commonly in trouble, this isn't always the case, as they can be helpful normal individuals too.

The images above, created from photobucket, show how the social group of youths are being represented. We see a youth on the run, 2 youths tied to a tree and one knocked out on the floor. This is a negative representation as it supports the stereotype that teenagers are trouble makers and are always up to no good.

As Media Evaluation Question 4 - facebook page

Evaluation - wider audience

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

The thriller genre has evolved over time and throughout its evidently ambiguous span it has introduced and said goodbye to many features of the genre, the newest edition to the genre comes in the form of a technological discovery in better detail a camera technique/shot. The P.O.V shot now is used in many thriller films that bounce from one sub genre to the other such as the 'end of watch' which uses the P.O.V style to capture the action and its importance to building tension. Personally whilst watching that film i had felt part of it due to this build up of tension and as a group during the decision making for what our thriller would consist of we thought that the P.O.V shot would be a perfect capture.

The wider audience for thriller films in general require a chosen demographic age category for example, a Thriller/Horror would be visible for over 18's only but this does not mean it is just targeted towards people over the age of 18. The wider audience for thriller films can be targeted towards a lot of people and like everything else it all depends on the sub-genre. A action thriller would appeal to boys mostly due to the epic car chases and fierce camera angles but on the other hand psychological thriller could be aimed at all kinds of intelligent people who enjoy a good riddle despite Age, Gender or ethnicity.

This brings me onto the specified audience for our thriller and our sub genre was similarly a psychological thriller, although we have created the opening only the audience can tell through the disorientated cuts and merging shots that this is what it looks like, a psychological thriller. We decided to challenge the norms and conventions of a Psychological thriller through the title sequences were instead of using edgy and worn out fonts we used a normal modern one.

The specific audience we had targeted was a young group rather than a older one as this was potraying the struggle of two teenagers on the verge of escape after being 'withdrawn'. As a group we felt we would generate a much bigger and pleasurable audience group as they would not only sympathise with the characters but also empathy would play a part in the viewing of the film.

Here is a Facebook profile we created in order to target the specific young audience that we and our production, distribution companies decided to target.

As Media Studies Evaluation Question 2 - Photobucket

Evaluation Question 2 - Representation

Representation in a media product is inevitable even if it is not placed and set on  purpose. It represents and defines any chosen social group such as Class, Age, Gender etc and it focuses on how they have been presented and what they may be perceived as for example the stereotypical representation for teenagers is that they are careless and wild however this is radical as not all teenagers are like this. I used teenagers as an example as our own media product was filmed, directed and starred by all teenagers.

The plot of our Thriller had made it difficult for any of the audience to outline a social group other then Teenagers and young people seeing as the only other character apart from the two vulnerable protaganists was a mysterious character, this made sure that we had not known if the character was male, female, old, young let alone their class and position in society, all we knew was through the high and low angle shots that the two teenagers were much less powerful.

The social group our thriller represents is Teenagers and this is done through a mere two characters. The normal representation of teenagers is that they are wild and uncontrollable as discussed before and in some cases violent and anti-social. As a group we understood it would be difficult to represent teenagers as the stereotypical dominant ideology would given the situation and the context of the plot so we had decided to represent teenagers as vulnerable and problematic.

During the beginning of the Media course we had discussed some categories that social groups can relate to during a TV drama lesson, it is distinctive that there is a certain Class and status theory given across during our thriller, the two teenagers are powerless and one is even injured. The mysterious character remains annonymous throughout however it is actually very clear that he/she is much more powerfull and capable than the two. This is a clear link between the social group we have chosen to outline and Class as the protaginists are both weak compared to the ability of the mysterious character, another category that relates to the social group is Ethnicity. The two protagonists are Asian and this may explain why they have been found to be easy targets, the fact that the two are lower in social class immediately labels them as working class and therefore foreign or an ethnic minority.

Our representations of the social group 'Teenagers' is most definately positive as not only is it avoiding representing them as misfits in society and outlaws but it represents their struggle which in a sociologists point of view mirrors the younger part of societies struggle in society today. This is positive as it is giving a valid and un bias point of view however the fat that a group of teenagers had made this opening could be used to argue against that point. Another social group that i have forgot to mention is the Gender group and although it is strictly representing one gender it does this positively without harming the representation of another. Men are positively labeled as strong and adament as the two boys fight for survival and escape. However it can be argued that in doing so we are labeling and representing women as not having the ability or mind state to do so insinuating that men are more powerful and authorative.


There has been many technical aspects that have affected the way we have represented a certain social group. There have been a series of high angle shots that were taken from the tree as they track the two protaganists in their attempts to escape, The point of view of the camera is coming from the mysterious yet powerfull man who again is deemed to worthy of his/her opponents through the camera angles. Also the mise en scene of the two protaganists clearly shows that they are just two common people possibly ethnic minorities or even just simply young men who are struggling to come to terms with what seems to be the last chapter of their books.





http://s1310.photobucket.com/user/maseblm123/story/61415

As Media Studies Evaluation Question 1 - Camtasia

Evaluation question 1

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

For our course work we had created a Thriller opening that covered a series of shots found common in a thriller opening. We had to make sure  ours remained normal through following the conventions of openings and conventions of title sequences.

Our Media Product can be seen as a strict follower of all types of conventions when thinking about what is used and what takes place in a thriller. Firstly I will be discussing the conventions of film openings. There are many forms and conventions of Thriller openings but one thing the Film opening must achieve is the setting of the location, also the opening in many films is used to distinguish and introduce the characters, although the opening crucially should not give away the plot the characters must be identified. We as a group had looked at and analysed the opening of the thriller Arlington road which was a thriller that had our interest due to the series of distinguished and effective jump shots and action shots. We researched the Title sequence also but decided to challenge there idea of an edgy title sequence with a normal white text with black background Title sequence.

This brings me on to the conventions of the thriller genre films and particularly what we expect from a thriller genre film. Firstly we would  expect to see blood in a thriller however this mainly depends on the sub genre, Displays of blood will be visible amongst a psychological thriller or even a horror thriller. Secondly the Protagonists should be a normal person in other words an 'average joe', this is an effect of the dominant ideology and its affect in media products protagonists never have a powerful role in society, we saw this in real media products such as 'My brother The Devil'. Also it is important that thriller genre films shall build tension through Jump cuts, Over shoulder shots, P.O.V shots and mainly importance can be outlined through low and high angle shots. For our personal thriller and media product we had chosen the sub genre of a psychological thriller, the conventions of a psychological thriller was that disorientated shots was a must to create confusion. Again we outline arlington road as it matched our sub genre, we highlighted a series of collateral shots that were mirrored in our prelim also which again was a psychological thriller. Inconsistent of again edgy title sequences with a disorientated font as well as size. At this point we decided not to be ambigous with our title sequence and remain consistent.

before even recording our media product we had to outline all conventions but we needed confirmation on the convention of the title sequences, we used many methods to get used to we wrote it down, put pieces together in order and much more. In a title sequence we expect to see the director and editor being credited as well as the distributor and producers. This is the order in which it is expected the title sequence should come in.

1. Production icon
2. Distributor icon
3. Production in title sequence
4. Distributor in title sequence
5. director executive producer 
6. Actor 1
7. Actor 2
8. Film title
9. Actor 3
10. Actor 4
11. Actor 5 etc..
12. Casting
13. Costume
14. Music supervisor
15. Music by
16. Edited by
17. Production designer
18. Director of photography
19. Executive Producers
20. Written by
21. Directed by

The title of the film is argued to be the main thing and it usually comes after around the 7th or 8th Text on the sequence, usually t is there for about 3 to 5 seconds. In terms of how long all titles are on the screen it is usually for about 3 seconds but this can vary depending on the suspense and tension levels on a thriller opening. As discussed before we had analysed Arlington road and after deciding as a group that the conventions point towards a psychological thriller we had connected that to the fact that the title sequences were worn out and edgy to match the image as well as the sound of the opening.

To conclude we must look at our personal media product and how it compares to the actual pieces of real media such as with Arlington road and Psycho.  Here are a few print screens of still shots from the opening of Arlington road and our very own Thriller. This will clearly show how we used intertextuality in our Thriller. I have used Camtasia to put together a slideshow style presentation that covers and compares our very own opening to Arlington Road, also i have recorded myself explaining whether or not we chose to replicate or challenge its conventional ideas.

Evaluation Question 1 - Forms and conventions

Forms and conventions

Forms and conventions of film openings:

Film openings conventionally fulfil the tasks of setting the location, introducing the characters and introducing the titles. There are generally four forms of film openings. These are

• Narrative
• Stylised
• Title sequence (titles on background)
• Discrete 

Arlington Road:

Titles running throughout the opening of the film, film production company names, producers, directors, starring actors. Arlington Road also has a discrete title sequence, revealing cuts of street scenes, a road sign with the text 'Arlington Rd' written on it in an American street sign style. 

                Seven:

Seven has a discrete title sequence, revealing to the viewer a range of different cuts sequenced together to create an opening that effectively sets the opening mood and tone for the film. A discrete opening title sequence does not give away the plot of the film, but instead gives clues to the audience about the film. The items and actions shown hints that this film is of a dark, sinister nature and these sinister shots builds audience anticipation.

Donnie Darko:

Donnie Darko opens with a blank screen with white text, which gives the audience information about distribution and production companies, along side the director and possibly the writer. Once these titles have completed, a narrative opening follows to begin the film. 

The Taking of Pelham 123:

The Taking of Pelham 123 features a stylised editing type opening sequence. We see examples of the stylisation through things such as the view of the street where the speed of time is increased substantially, and then it is immediately slowed as the character of Ryder (John Travolta) is viewed, which may create key ideas about this character; one being that he is one of the main characters of the film. There is also a lot of emphasised panning, with many pans that have increased paced to possibly create a fast paced mood as the film has entered it's opening sequences.

When watching a thriller film, we expect locations to be set, an introduction of the characters, and also the introduction of the the titles all during the opening minutes of the film. Within my group, we were particularly interested in the opening sequence to Arlington Road. It was obvious that it was very heavily edited and took many shots and a combination of stylising techniques to create.


To the right is a clip of the opening sequence of Arlington Road.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/NicBunby/codes-and-conventions-of-a-psychological-thriller-7899940  , by Nic Bunby

We worked in the psychological thriller sub genre. Above is a few slides discussing the conventions and themes of psychological thriller films.

As a group, we looked at Arlington Road as a way of trying to find some inspiration for our own Thriller opening. We used the concept of intertextuality to take particular aspects of the opening to Arlington Road and include them in our own product.


A list of credits we expect to see during the opening sequence of aThriller film in chronological order:

Production icon

Distributor icon

Production in title sequence

Distributor in title sequence 

Actor 1

Actor 2

Film title

Actor 3

Actor 4

Actor 5 etc..

Casting

Costume

Music supervisor

Music by

Edited by

Production designer

Director of photography

Executive Producers

Written by

Directed by

As you can see from this ordered list, the title conventionally comes 7th in the sequence. Titles are typically visible on screen for around 3 to 4 seconds. The titles match the image and sound of the opening through synchronised sound and image, with the titles appearing through sudden events typically accompanied by incidental sounds to create a steady and gradual buildup of tension. A type face that is modern, simplistic and clear is conventional of a psychological thriller opening with a title sequence.

A title from 'Shutter Island'. It is visible that a clear and basic type face is in use.

A title taken from Arlington Road. Again, the type face is conventional to psychological thrillers as a whole.



Comparing the type face of conventional psychological thriller openings to our final media product, it is evident that the conventionality is closely adhered to titles wise.

This is the film title from our Thriller opening. Furthermore, the main title for the film came 7th in the order of the title sequences. This also adheres to the conventionality of Thriller openings.

The characters were also introduced to the audience during the opening sequence, which is another reason why we can agree with the statement that our Thriller opening adheres to the conventions of Thriller openings.

Q1 - Ways my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of film openings


As us, group 44 created our own thriller, before we actually created our thriller we needed to understand the conventions of film openings, title sequences and thriller sub-genres.

Firstly, in order to come up with a successful thriller we needed to get through the conventions of film openings. This includes things such as setting the location, introduction of characters and introduction of titles. We have looked at films such as Arlington Road and My brother the devil, this as helped us dramatically as one major idea that we used in our thriller was from Arlington Road, as the beginning of arlington road was very mysterious, we liked this and this helped forward us the idea that we want to do a psychological thriller - this leads on to us the thriller genre, the thriller genre tents to include things such as the protagonist, tension building, quick cut shots and many shots such as OVS, CU, POVs and high, low angels.

The thrillers i looked at were Orphan and Dorian Grey. When i saw these two, i expected there to be very intense and dark scenes, i was correct as these thrillers did consist of that; these are almost the stereotypical assumptions that are thought of when talking about thrillers. By researching other real media this enabled us to have different perspectives of making our thriller, the real media helped us gather up our different ideas - we all researched different types of thriller which helped us combine all of them to come up with a final thriller of ours. The sub-genre we used for our thriller was psychological; we thought this type of thriller is also very popular and relevant to the audience nowadays. The conventions of our psychological thriller is mainly things such as the shots, one main shot used in these type of thrillers are Point Of View (POV) shots, this shot is usually used to represent the protagonist. Another convention is the titles, the title for thriller tend to be dull and mysterious which has certain effects on the audience, the shots are very quick as the thriller is to be kept sharp and simple therefore the effect of this is for the audience to try keep up with the shots whilst struggling to think the whole sequence through. One thriller i looked at which the same sub-genre is Paranormal Activity, this was also a psychological thriller, one thing i learnt is that the protagonist isn't shown, this is used to create tension, for me personally this worked therefore this helped me to pick our sub-genre easier, watching paranormal activity helped me notice that the titles came from a black background with a white title which created a contrast between the two, we then decided to use a familiar method.

The main conventions of title sequences is the sequence of the the credits and font to create a certain effect. The credits i expect to see in the titles were the actors names, music by and a few more, however this was wrong as the class activity proved to me, now i know there is a certain sequence for the title and that there are many more credits that i didn't know before for example 'costume by'.

The correct order for the titles is :

1. Production icon
2. Distributor icon
3. Production in title sequence
4. Distributor in title sequence
5. director executive producer 
6. Actor 1
7. Actor 2
8. Film title
9. Actor 3
10. Actor 4
11. Actor 5 etc..
12. Casting
13. Costume
14. Music supervisor
15. Music by
16. Edited by
17. Production designer
18. Director of photography
19. Executive Producers
20. Written by
21. Directed by

These are what we tend to expect from the titles on the screen generally. The titles are normally 3 seconds long each, it is short in order to not lose the attention of the audience, also if it is longer than 3 seconds the audience tend to get bored. The titles match the image and sound of the opening as things such as the font could create the same effect you intended to, a mysterious and dull font would usually match a psychological thriller.  

Conventional openings for thrillers

This is a collage i created using http://pixlr.com, the first two titles are from Arlington Road and the bottom two are from our thriller - The Withdrawn, all of the four are from the actual sequence that is also shown above but with different fonts, size and location of titles.

The making of our thriller opening

Behind the scenes - video

The following is a video of the cast behind the camera talking about how everything went on.

Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Aspects of appealing to our targeted audience:

Mise En Scene -

Actors -

Storyline -

Genre -

Location -

Action -

Sound -

Film name -

Production company -

Q4 - Who would be the better audience for your media product?

The wider audience for thriller films in general

Thriller films have became more popular and familiar to this current generation, new methods of thrillers have been introduced such as POV movies, E.G. Paranormal Activity, this movie has become a hit as millions of people have watched it, this movie has trended the different technique into thrillers and has evolved the genre 'Thriller' which now attracts many million viewers as it excites and thrills them in many different ways. The main audience for thrillers these days tend to be at the age of 15-25, from my experience of watching thrillers in the cinemas i found out that young people prefer thrillers more as it's fully of action and pumps the blood flowing through you body as most young viewers would like.

The audience more specific to our sub-genre

Our sub-genre is a Psychological thriller, the audience for this type of thriller is usually for young people ages 18+, one main reason why this thriller is aged at this category is due to us Group 44 who came up with these ideas thinking it would relate to young people, psychological thrillers are also targeted at young people nowadays as they enjoy it more and have fun whilst watching it. Our thriller also doesn't include scenes that aren't suitable for people ages 15-17 therefore the younger audience could also enjoy this type of thriller, also our thriller doesn't include aggressive and physical scenes therefore this makes our thriller more emotional and creates the audience to question themselves about what is going on.

This is our thriller Facebook page - we created this in order to gain awareness and also interact with the audience to see what views and thoughts they have and could tell us.















This is a post on Facebook giving a link for our audience to see, they can also comment and like our status, this will help us indicate what direction our opening went, if we receive good comments this will suggest that our audience enjoyed our thriller.

Personal research for our thriller (needs finishing)

List of titles for our triller (needs finishing)

Evaluation Of Mantaqaa's role

Mantaqaa was one of the main characters in our thriller.

Strengths: Since I worked on the swede and prelim I picked up a lot of experience in acting. I was able to shoot several scenes and express emotions and body language. Being with the group made me feel comfortable and work to the best of my ability.

Weaknesses: Some of the weaknesses I faced during acting included not giving it my all for example I didn't want to get myself dirty therefore I didn't take part in certain scenes.

What I would do next time: If I was to record another thriller opening next time I would take more risks and be fully dedicated.

Rough Cut

Rough Cut Feedback

Example of our track for thriller.

This is an example of our track that will be on our thriller.

Evaluation of Mazlum's role

Evaluation of Mazlum's role

Outline of my role: I was the director and the cameraman, my role was to shoot all of the scenes that we have planned for, I had to be in various amount of places and locations in order to get many different types of shots and from many different angles in order to portray a different feeling or thought.

Strengths: I was able to get into various amounts of potions and angles as I am a very agile person, I could also fit through small places whilst we were filming as I had to get through bushes in order to portray the POV of this discrete character in our thriller.

Weaknesses: One weakness of mine is that my hands are not very steady as it shakes quite a bit therefore we have had to redo some of the scenes, however by using the fig-rig it enabled me to have steady shots for scenes that we couldn't have used the tripod.

Research of Foley Sounds we could use

The different Foley sounds that we will use: 

We will use foley sounds such as trees rattling - This will be used to build tension in our thriller, this foley sound would represent that the two characters are alone and that nobody is there with them which helps to slowly climax a scene.

Walking through twigs and leaves - This foley sound will mainly be used to show that discrete character in our thriller, this foley sound is used to represent how sly this character is as he isn't seen or spoken throughout the whole thriller.

Whistling - This foley sound will be used to represent a bird in one of our shots that we have taken.

Producing the beat.

Here is Mazlum working on the track that will be going on our thriller, we all worked together to try get a good beat that would be appropriate for our thriller.

Research of Foley Sounds we could use

Sounds we can make and what they will represent :

A hand thumping on a table in a rythm and beat 

This will represent a heartbeat and will be played throughout a series f shots which are specifically cut to enhance the meaning the sound gives to the shot/picture.

Whistling

This certain sound could be used to imitate the bird we have recorded as part of our video.

Foot thumping sound

This sound will represent the running actors in our opening and will also give it a better and clearer meaning. This adds to the thrill of the chase in our opening.

Working on the blog.

Djamel and Masum editing.

Working on the blog.

Mazlum Working on the blog.

Working on the blog.

This is Montqaqaa working on the blog. 

Powerpoint pitch for our Thriller

Here is a slide share of our pitch. a pitch was required for our thriller, in order to see what others think of it and if we needed to make any improvements. The feedback from the pitch helped us decide what our final plans would be.

Behind the scenes - video

The following is a video of behind the scenes of our production including actions of what we think about starring and making the thriller.

Planning the Editing

Planning the Editing:

After filming it was crucial that we give ourselves enough time to edit seeing as we had nearly 26 videos and shots and an overall of 10 minutes of shooting, so we had a very long process ahead of us and we sat down as a group to come up with ways that will simplify this and make it quicker and easier.

So firstly we had renamed all videos so we can easily identify the order of our opening. Secondly we had put them together and and in chronological order, this meant we had now 6 minutes of footage which was planned and the next step we had pre planned was trimming and cutting to make sure our shots are timed perfectly.

Risk Assesment

Risk Assesment:

Seeing as we were filming in unsupervised conditions and the fact that we were located far from college, we as a group understood even before the planning that we must take crucial risk assesments to prevent any sort of mis-conduct or injury. We as a group decided very early on that we would film in Regents park and during College hours so it was vital that we had as a group decided to take some safety procedure.

Firstly we had organised ourselves and decided what equipment we would take, after this we had signed forms that gave us an understanding that we as individuals hold full responsibility for any sort of damage to equipment.

Secondly as you can see on our blog we had to check for weather forecasts for when we were filming and although it had said it would be raining during filming this had not happened and the safety procedure we took was  umbrellas to hold over the camera man and equipment for protection and prevention of water damage.

Finally as the contaxt of the opening is two of us escaping it was sure that we would be running and the specific location in regents park meant that it was possible for us to slip and fall however we prevented this as we decided to run slowly and remove any moisture or mud from the soles of our shoes.

Evaluation of Masum's Role:

Evaluation of Masum's Role:

Outline of my Role:

I along with Mantaqa had been assigned to the two major acting Roles, We both played escapees from the capture of the mysterious man. We were both tied up and it was up to me to untie myself and then Mantaqa, after this we had run as we had seen the mysterious villain but things did not go to plan. We had seperated and the clear ending is that neither I or Mantaqa survive or Escape.

Strengths:

It must be understood that neither me or Mantaqa are trained Actors so it was up to us to research and put as much effort and emphasis on our roles. Firstly i think the fact that our opening did not require any speech had actually helped us to achieve better acting roles as all we needed to do was simple movements of desperation, I think this was my strength and the fact that I had used my research actually helped me to perform much better.

Weaknesses:

When recording and acting we must understand to be proffesional and not to look directly into the Camera, i feel that because our opening is brief this was my one weakness as it occured often however i had got myself together and performed well. Obviously those errored scenes were cu out and replaced by a better performance.

The making of our thriller opening

The following images show a collection of photos we took when making our thriller:

The Filming - Group Roles

Group Roles: 

During the planning of our opening to a thriller we had to assign everyone to their roles, Masum along with Mantaqa had been assigned to the acting roles and the basic outline of the opening was us both trying to escape after we had been captured by a mysterious person who not even the audience could identify. This particular aspect highlighted our creativity, Mazlum was assigned to being the main camera man and Djamel played the anticipated role of the mysterious and unidentified man in his approach to capturing both me and Mantaqa, Djamel had not only took this role but also he stood as the main editor assisted by the remainder of the group of course.

Editor: Djamel

Director: Djamel

Camera man: Mazlum

Actor 1: Mantaqa

Actor 2: Masum

Pitch Notes

Storyline

Our thriller opening is simple but effective. It's in non-chronological order as the opening shows a sequence that's actually in the middle of the sequence. The opening starts of with 2 men tied up in a park. Slowly one manages to escape and then free the other. The two begin to escape in search of security and freedom but soon realise someone is after them. They continue to run but one falls and soon disappears. The other, unknowingly, continues to run, however soon realises that his companion is missing. He stops in confusion and begins to spectate his surroundings in search of his friend. However the man is still on the hunt for him and soon the predator meets his prey as he unleashes a vicious attack on him, closing the opening sequence.

About the thriller

The title of our film is 'Escape'. This is a working title and we decided on this as it's simple but effective. This is because our film is based on somebody escaping and therefore the title indicates what the film is about without giving too much away.

Our thriller falls under the crime thriller sub-genre as the film will look at the story behind the criminals and it will be in their point of view.

Location

Our opening will be shot at a single location which is at Regents Park. The group discussed various possible locations but came to a agreement that Regents Park was the best location. We felt it was the best as it's ideal to shoot an escape due to the great open space, quiet and isolated area and because we knew we could add various foley sounds due to the surroundings.

Props

We will use several props and costumes in order to make the opening more realistic. Djamel who plays the role of the man aiming to capture the escape duo will wear a suit as it expresses power and authority. The escaped pair will be wearing rough clothing which reflects their hardship and struggle in attempting to escape.

Sound

We will create our very own soundtrack and use it as a non-digetic soundtrack for our opening. We decided to create our own rather than use a downloaded clip as because we learnt from our prelim examiners will prefer this and may get us more marks. We will create foley sounds such as trees moving and footsteps to add effect and it is also digetic sound.

Production schedule

On the first day of recording (08.02.13) we will begin to record our opening and will hope to capture all that is required by the end of the media lesson (12.02.13). We feel that recording isn't the major issue therefore we aim to do it as efficiently as possible. We learnt from all our previous filming experiences editing and timing in relation to editing was our problem.Therefore we feel it's a sensible decision to leave a large time gap to edit our opening.

Risk Assessment

We listed all our possible problems that w may face during production and designed a contingency plan so that we have pre-prepared solutions if those problems do arise. For example if it does rain, shooting will not be stopped but instead we will just use a large umbrella.

Editing

We will edit our opening using the software known as 'Final Cut Pro'. The group have had many opportunities to use this software and have got the jist of it therefore feel it's the best software to edit the opening as we already have the knowledge on how to do so.

Target Audience

Our target audience will be adults over the age of 18 as the story line is very serious and the film will include explicit and scenes not suitable for children. The film will be mainly aimed at those who love a good old suspense filled thriller.

Discussion of ideas

A brief video of the discussion between the members of group 44, raising ideas for our Thriller opening.

Filming preparation - weather forecast

Filming preperation - weather forecast

We as a group have come to a decision to actually film on Friday the 8th of February and in order to prepare it is crucial that we understand and have a clear idea of what the weather will be like so we can be sure of any safety procedures or further risk assessments that we might need to undergo.

So we have firstly researched though google what the weather may be like and we have come across the United Kingdom weather website:

http://unitedkingdom.meteoconsult.co.uk/united-kingdom-weather/weather_forecast_united_kingdom_7.php

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_weather.html

According to both websites it seems as if we will be filming in the rain however this is only a possibility but of course we must take safety procedures just incase so perhaps we may discuss this further but for sure we will be taking umbrellas with us to the location in order to protect any equipment from damage.

Schedule of making our Thriller.

Friday 1st Feb - Planning, Taking photos for storyboard.

Tuesday 5th Feb - Pitch Presentation

Friday 8th Feb - Filming

Tuesday 12th Feb - Filming

Friday 15th Feb - FILM ALL DAY - INCENT DAY

Tuesday 26 Feb - Editing

Friday 1st March - Editing

Tuesday 5th March - Editing

Friday 8th March  - Deadline

Video of our Prelim

Prelim Evaluation: What we would have done different next time.

What would you do differently next time?

This effort has to be a success in terms of the work put in by our group members however perhaps next time we might focus more on the Mise en scene and also maybe put emphasis on the sound as they would both help create meaning which is important amongst a thriller opening.

Prelim Evaluation - What wasn't successful.

What wasn't successful?

I feel we still had a few minor mistakes in our video which came down to how focused we were and you have to consider our lessons whilst filming were in the afternoon when we are at our tiredest point of the day. Also i feel we were not successful when it came down to the filming as i stated before minor mistakes like looking into the camera directly made it originally unprofessional however after editing our video we removed these mistakes and in term of mistakes we had none.

Errors that occurred during filming included the fact that we failed to maintain the 180 degree rule as we broke it in one of the scenes. Other failures included factors such as our dialogue wasn't too loud and clear for the camera to pick up and we didn't stick entirely to our initial storyboard. Also during the editing process of our prelim we failed to create our own soundtrack and add it to sequence, we instead settled for a youtube soundtrack. This may not have been a great choice as examiners prefer for students to create their own music rather than use material from others.

However despite this, we learnt various lessons from it and now know what needs to be done, changed and improved when we create our final sequence for examination.

Prelim Evaluation: What we have learnt from making the Prelim.

What have you learnt from the making of the prelim?

As a group as we said before we think our camera understanding has improved very much even though mazlum was our key camera-an. Watching him record certain shots such as the difficult over-shoulder shot has put confidence in our groups recording ability. This prelim has highlighted the importance of mise en scene as we realise how much it helps in creating meaning. Also our editing proved to be crucial in the end as it not only took out some recording mistakes but also it created and gave the sequence some sort of meaning and tension.

However, once we have filmed the prelim and started editing I have realised that we have broken the 180 degrees rule, it is good that we have noticed as we will not break it again during our filming for our real thriller, I have also learnt that it is not as easy to film in very small places to get the perfect shots therefore we will have to work in a very spacious locations where we could work comfortably.

Prelim Evaluation: What was successful

What was successful?

Overall as a group we feel that the prelim had helped us better and enhance our practical knowledge and skills on filming and in particular our understanding of the effects of different types of shots, We had most definitely improved our professionalism when it came down to the mise en scene and certainly our personal performances in the videos were much more better. Furthermore in terms of success i think that by assigning one person to each role such as camera man and also Editor we had achieved more in a shorter amount of time compare to our previous project ' scarface ', this was because of the fact that we individually could focus more on what our job was in the group. So in terms of Camera shots i feel that although you could outline some mistakes overall the camera shots were much improved, this may have happened because of our revision of the many types of shots before even planning our prelim, Mazlum had understood all the shots we were in need of which brings me on to the Editing which we all assisted Djamel in, Djamel and us highlighted the mistakes we had made and through editing he had fixed these mistakes to make them look just about alright.  

Photos of us working on our Prelim.

Pictures

During the process of our work, once we have finished filming our prelim we started editing...

Student film opening analysis

Student film opening analysis

 

 

We can analyse film openings in terms of the four micro elements; camera, editing, mise en scene and sound. "Succubus" a Thriller opening created and shot by a group of students, that uses intertexuatily to create the conventions of a Thriller film. It borrows aspects from the well known 1960 American release "Psycho" by using elements from the famous shower scene.

What happens?

We are shown a young man taking a shower within a changing room. A few moments after, we are shown a young woman walking slowly through a corrider. We are again shown a shot of the man continuing to take a shower, and again, we are shown the woman slowly walking through another corrider. She arrives at a door, proceeds, and enters the place where the man is having a shower. She removes her cardigan, removes her hair band, and then reveals a knife, which reveals that an act of violence is due to occur. The man is unaware of the woman as his view is obscured from the entrance to the changing room. The woman opens the shower cubicle and immediately stabs the man by surprise, several times, resulting in the murder of this man.

Camera 

During the beginning of the opening, we are shown a close up shot of the shower knob, which is turned by the hand of the man, indicating that a shower scene is going to be established. We are then shown a wide shot, which reveals the man to be inside the shower cubicle of what seems to be a changing room. This establishes the setting of the scene. We are then shown a behind wide shot of a corrider, where a woman is shown walking into the frame, and then walking down the corridor. This may suggest that she is travelling to a certain place in the building the scene is set in, possibly for a particular motive. We are then shown a close up shot of the shower head within the shower cubicle, and then the shot returns to the wide shot of the changing room, and the cubicle is shown to have steamed up, partially obscuring the mans view of the outside, in addition to his obscurity of view of the changing room entrance, and this builds emphasis on the fact that his view is blocked from the outside, which will allow the tension in the build up to increase as is revealed a few moments later to the audience. The close-ups throughout the scene increase the tension and draw the audience into the two characters.

Editing

At the start of the clip, we are shown an opening title, being the production company's name "Lionsgate Films".  The cuts have a particularly longer difference in time between them, which creates a slow-paced scene, and lengthens out the time it takes for each event to occur, from beginning to end. This has the possiblility of creating more tension within the audience, on top of the already created tension from the close ups throughtout the scene.

Sound

The natural ambient sound of the corridor has been enhanced, to possibly capture the audiences attention by allowing them to not only see the corridor, but also hear the ambience clearly, creating realism and the feeling of 'being there'. As the woman walks down the corridor, there is a slight undertone of sound, which may intend to suggest to the audience that there is a build up. Furthermore, music has been edited in during when the knife has been revealed to be in the possession of the woman, building into a crescendo alongside the building tension on screen. When the knife is lifted and about to be lunged into the man  in the shower, a hightened sound has been inserted in order to link the sound to the action.