Evaluation - Question 7

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

From looking back at my preliminary task to my actual thriller i believe i have learnt many things.
These things range from my editing skills to my camera skills and my acting skills, if i didn't choose media for an A level i would not have the skills i have now. I learnt how to use advanced editing software to make a thriller film. Looking back at my prelim i did not use the wide range of editing techniques as i used in my actual film, this means that during the course i learnt how to use far more advanced editing techniques and so because of this i am able to produce a great thriller film.
My camera techniques wasn't as good in my prelim as they was in my actual thriller, this is because by the time it came to filming our thriller i knew how to use the camera properly and to a professional standard.
I also used a range of techniques which helped my thriller film look more realistic and more advanced, whereas in my prelim it looked very basic and had amateurish filming.
The picture below shows my Thriller and the range of filming we used, it looks dark and the individuals foot makes the film more tense.

Whereas our preliminary task filming was very basic and we didnt use that much advanced editing or even different camera shots.

Evaluation - Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies i used were as follows, Blogger, Final cut express, mini DV digital cameras, mobile phones (with cameras), Google, Wikipedia and Survey monkey.
Firstly i am going to talk about my experience with Blogger, i used Blogger because this is what the course required, Blogger is a online blogging site in which i had to update daily like a diary, this was first updated with the description of the course and what we had to do during the course. Then we watched films during our first few lessons and which we had to write up about them and what we liked about them etc.
I also used another software called Final cut express, this is where we created our actual 2 minute of our thriller and also we used this software to create our titles, before i started my course in media i had never used Final cut express before and so it was completely new to me, it has various editing effects that we used for our thriller. It also allows you to capture clips that are on the video camera that you have plugged into the IMac.

To create my thriller i used a mini DV Digital camera, this is the camera we used to capture all of our footage of our thriller film. I found these very easy to use, and because they have microphones on them we did not need to use an extra one as the sound from the camera was enough for our thriller.
During my blogging i had to use wikipedia to help me find useful information about some film directors which include Alfred Hitchcock, i also used wikipedia to find out information about the films i studied during media and without this source i would not of known all of the casts names in the films.
Finally the last piece of technology i used was surveymonkey, this is where you create your own survey and then you are able to share it on social networking sites or to your friends email addresses where they can fill out your survey and give feedback. I used surveymonkey because i had to get feedback on what other individuals would like to see in my thriller and what genres they enjoy the most.

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
My thriller attracts the audiences attention because the music is very catching and so makes the audience not want to take their eyes off of the screen, the music plays a big part in my thriller because it makes the audience feel like something is going to happen constantly through the thriller.
I think my audience would want to carry on watching my thriller after my initial 2 minute opening because they would want to know what happens to the girl after the man grabs her, and who was the mysterious man, also it makes the audience think to themselves what else is going to happen during the film.
My film ends on a cliffhanger which attracts the audience to want to carry on watching it, cliffhangers are very useful especially in an opening scene of a thriller movie because this means that it engages the audience an so makes them want to carry on as it makes them have the desire to find out what happens next or even at the end of the film.
We filmed our thriller at night time in a non busy road so this means because of the location we filmed in could mean that the audience would want to carry on watching because they do not know what is going to happen next as no one was around and so someone could just appear, which creates suspense.
The main character in my thriller is a young female, she seems very vulnerable who is on her way home from school. I believe that because we based it on a young aged female, the audience could relate to this young female as we have all been walking home alone in the dark and this creates a sense of fear that it could happen to you.

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

To find out the target audience for our thriller we had to create a survey on survey monkey and people had to fill out the survey so i could collect the results together.

This was just one of the responses i gathered out of my 6 questions i had, as you can see by this question this helped us to figure out what type of thrillers people like and so with this information we had to think outside of the box and create a unique thriller which people will enjoy.

We then thought because the main character is a young 17 year old girl then our target audience will be around that age because people of the same age group will want to watch it because it is basically about them. So we finally came up with our target audience being around the ages of 16-25, we also came up with the idea that this age group are the main ones who visit the cinema and so will want to watch this film if it grabs there attention.

We also filmed a group of people which told us their favorite thrillers and answered some questions we asked them, this helped us further into finding our target audience for our thriller.

 

Evaluation - Question 3

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

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

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your  media product represent particular social groups?

We had 1 main character and 2 other characters in our thriller, the age groups were very diverse they
ranged from the 17-50 years of age, the main character was a girl and then the other two were men so it had different genders present.
Some may say that our thriller is very stereotypical as we have a young vulnerable girl as the main character, but everyone has there own opinion and we cannot argue with that. We didn't intend for our thriller to be that way it is just the way it comes across.
The image below shows a young vulnerable girl walking through the streets at night, this is part of our thriller and shows the particular age groups we have in our thriller, she is a teenage girl and so represents most of the teenage generation walking alone of a night, this means that the teenage viewers can put themselves in her shoes and would mean they are more engaged in the film.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

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

The Nightwalker

This is our final thriller, by Lucy Green, Ellie Moore and Sydnie Howlett.

Animatic

Risk assessment sheet

Programme Title - Nightwalker

Client - Robert Clack School

Writer - Ellie Moore, Sydnie Howlett & Lucy Green

Producer - Sydnie Howlett , Lucy Green & Ellie Moore

Director - Sydnie Howlett, Lucy Green & Ellie Moore

Major Issues - We are filming along the street & the possible risks are; 

•  Traffic
• Weather
• Permission of private property
• Theft
• Safety(Knowing where everyone is)

Solutions - The solutions for these issues are;

• Having a lookout to watch over the traffic, parking cars etc.
• Check the weather before going out to film, so that the camera does not get ruined.
• Having 2 people with the camera at all times 
• Regular contact

Contacts - The people we can contact in case of any emergencies are;

• The School
• Parents
• Friends

Emergency Services - The local emergency services avaliable are;

• Metropolitan Police at Dagenham East
• Queens Hospital

Planning of the titles

A Film By - SEL Productions
Male Actor - Frankie MacFarlane
Female Actor - Ellie Moore
Music By - Mobygratis
Editing By - Lucy Green, Sydnie Howlett & Ellie Moore
Director of photography - Lucy Green
Costume By - Ellie Moore
Director - Sydnie Howlett

Format of the titles

Media Studies (OCR)
AS Coursework G321
Robert Clack School 12127
Lucy Green (1)
Sydnie Howlett (2)
Ellie Moore (3)

Health and safety Risk Assessment

• No filming in inappropriate locations
• Check safety of locations e.g. Roads
• Minimise risk of theft of equipment
• When filming on location ensure teacher or a responsible adult know where you are and that they have a telephone number and when you will return
• Check all equipment is working before you leave
• Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary
• Always film with at least one other person
• Ensure you have the permission of those you are filming

Storyboard

Below is our new storyboard:

Changes to our thriller

We have decided to change our thriller again as it was very basic and we did not think we would recieve a very high grade with this Thriller video, so now we have changed the plot of our thriller and the settings so it will be set in a park, late at night so it looks more realistic and scary.

Thriller script

Below is our script to our thriller.

Moby Gratis

We applied for music off of www.mobygratis.com and this is the acceptance letter we recieved.

In the making of our thriller

Below are the screen shots of the making of our thriller:

Settings and props

These are the props that are going to be included in our thriller:

Settings:
It is going to be mainly set in the Robert Clack school building, but at one point we will need to use an outside shot.

Art of the title

A compendium and leading web resource of film and television title design from around the world. We honor the artists who design excellent title sequences. We discuss and display their work with a desire to foster more of it, via stills and video links, interviews, creator notes, and user comments.
Featuring opening title design for film and television from Croatia, New Zealand, Serbia, Russia, the United States, Brazil, England, France, India, Japan, Italy, Chile, Mexico, Yugoslavia and Egypt.

Filming our thriller

Today we filmed our thriller again, we had to change a few bits as we decided we did not have enough time to use all 3 girls so now we are just using one.We are also not using the dressing up theme and we are just using a casual theme.
We have filmed the first bit of the thriller so far, and we are going to be filming much more next week and editing our piece to get it finished by the deadline on friday.

Introduction to filming our thriller

We decided to change our location of our thriller today as we believed it would be more convenient for all of us, so the thriller is now going to be mainly set in the Robert clack school building instead of a house setting. This change ment that we had to do a lot of rethinking into our basic story line and we decided we are sticking to the same story line, but just in a different setting.

Ident for my thriller

Below is my Thriller ident:

We decided to our ident will be 'SEL productions' this stands for each starting letter of our first names.

Survey monkey results

Below is my survey monkey results:

thriller interviews

Below is our thriller interview:

Storyboard

Below is my storyboard for my Thriller 'Phonecall'.
Our thriller is about 3 girls and 1 man whom is the killer, they each receive a mysterious phonecall, in which we do not know who the man is actually on the phone to.

Treatment for my thriller

Our Thriller name is - Phonecall!

Outline of idea's:
1 man - Who is the killer/murderer
3 girls - 2 innocent, 1 not
1 phone call, to one girl

The resources that we will need:
4 mobile phones
1 male, 3 female actors
3 bedroom settings
3 front door settings

Justification of ideas in relation to the genre:
Mystery
Mysterous phonecall
Young naive protagonist

Thriller survey

Below is my thriller survey, please take a few minutes to fill in this survey.
Click here to take survey

MISE EN SCENE

Is a French term meaning 'what is put into the scene or frame'. A simple shot of a tree can be made to look threatening by stripping of its leaves, adding a creature or some lightening and shooting it in darkness.
The same tree can be given a different look if it is surrounded by children and shot in a sunny light.

Settings
The settings used in a film are very rarely just backgrounds to the characters' dialogue and we will often see shots of places without any action taking place. Settings can also be used to manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then the action turns out different.

Props
Props is the term we give to objects in the setting which play a part in the action, rather than just being part of the background.

Costume
Costume plays a large part in the mise en scene because it can be an instant indicator to us of a characters personality social status and their job. It also tells us whether the film is set in the present and what society or culture it will centre around. It could also provide a clue to part the part the character will play in the action.

Make-up

In the early days of the cinema, makeup was used to highlight facial features as black and white film stock could not register detail very well. Some certain genres traditionally use make-up more than others.

Consideration of target audience

Target Audience -

Age -

• what age group of people go to the cinema?

Gender -

• What appeals to women?
• What appeals to men?

Women:

Physcological

Music

Story

Interesting Characters

Men:

Fighting

Gory scenes

Horror

Being drawn into the film

If known stars are presented in the film

Thrillers on currently in the cinema (24th January 2012) are:

Haywire - released on the 18th January 2012



The analysis of a past students work

Hide and Seek -
This is one of the AS 2011 media studies thriller videos:

Format of video:

At the beginning of the video they have placed their school they attended and the course number, then the next part they had their full name and their candidate number.

They also used 'Livetype' for their logo animation at the beginning, the titles were presented in a animated format.

They also had to use non copy-right music, this is because they would have had to have payed to use a 'well known' piece of music, the website where they got the non copy-right music was from www.mobygratis.com this is a well known music site and has non copy-right music on there, they had to ask the owner of the music for their permission to use the music and if they replied telling the individuals they can then they were allowed to use it.

Thriller Openings

Momento:

Conventions –

• Weapons
• Enigma – When the Polaroid goes backwards

Camera –

• Close up shot

Editing –

• Black and white scene – this resembles a dream or a flash back

Sound –

• Depressing, slow music

Mise-en-scene –

• Black and white – which means a dream or flashback
• Also this scene is very dull and dirty

Brick:

Conventions –

• Curious character
• Flash backs

Camera –

• Out of focus at the beginning
• Zoomed

Editing –

• Short sequence
• Graphic match – Bracelets and the past

Sound –

• Lively music

Mise-en-scene –

• Dull colours

Zodiac:

Conventions –

• Curious car driving around
• Weapons in scene
• Man killed for no reason

Camera –

• Long shot

Editing –

• Didn’t see the man with the gun, so they edited him out

Sound –

• 3 different types of music
• Digetic and non digetic sound, the song resembles the film

Mise-en-scene –

• Town setting, dull and dark

Cliff-hangers

Cliffhangers are sometimes, although not always used.

Often feature a main character in a precarious or difficult situation or confronted with a shocking revelation.

This can entice the audience to keep watching in order to see how the situation resolves itself.

For example – The Italian job (1969), Gives a witty example of this in its famous ending.

Red Herrings

A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance, an example of this is source code.

For example – in ‘saw’ two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead. Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murder, until it is discovered at the end that the third person in the room is not actually dead, but is in fact the killer.

Enigma's

This refers to a puzzle, something mysterious or inexplicable or a riddle or a difficult problem.

In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes.

Formula's and Devices

Use of continuity editing

The clear establishment of cause and effect plotting which establishes character motivations and helps tell an interesting story which proceeds logically and steadily.

The Physcological thriller

An example of this is 'The mind, conflict and the past'

The suspense created by the physcological thrillers often from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds either by playing deceptive games with other or by merely trying to demolish the others mental state - e.g. Notorious.

Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them, e.g. Spell bound.

Rope (1936)

This tells the story of two young, wealthy men, Brandon and Philip, who strangle and murder a friend of theirs just to see if they can get away with it.
They then invite other close friends (including the murdered mans parents) to there apartment for dinner, whilst hiding the body in their sitting room, just to see if they can get away with it.

The suspense is created through the body in the chest box.

Suspense and Shock

Summary of Children of men - Children of men is a 2006 British-American science fiction film loosely adapted from P. D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. In 2027, two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Illegal immigrants seek sanctuary in England, where the last functioning government imposes oppressive immigration laws onrefugees. Clive Owen plays civil servant Theo Faron, who must help a pregnant West African refugee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) escape the chaos.


An example of Shock is - 'Imagine a scene in a film similar to this (classroom, students, teacher). The camera reveals that there is a bomb under the table to the audience but we students are aware of it.


Summary of Sabotage (1936) - Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent. It should not be confused with Hitchcock's film Secret Agent released the same year, or his 1942 film Saboteur.


An example of Suspense is - 'Now imagine the same scene except that instead of the camera revealing the bomb under the table, it without any warning explodes and kills all present'.

Chuck Jones - The rules

The Rules - Chuck Jones

• The Roadrunner cannot harm or upset the coyote except by going 'MEEP, MEEP'.
• No outside force can harm the coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.
• The coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic.
• No dialogue ever, except 'MEEP, MEEP'
• The roadrunner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called the roadrunner.
• All action must be confined to the natural environment of the 2 characters. The southwest American desert.
• All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical convenincies must be obtained from Acme corporation.
• Wherever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy.
• The coyote is always more humilated by his failures than harmed.

Do films follow rules?

• Some film makers will claim that there are no rules or that rules are there to be broken.
• However, most would agree that there are certain conventions that mainstream films observe in order for them to be acceptable to the mass audience.

Thriller Conventions:

• Young naive character
• Resourceful character
• Antaganist/Villan
• Suspense
• High tech gadgets
• Mysterious phonecall
• Fast pace action scene
• Flash back
• Hero mostly wins
• Cant kill children
• Hero always meets a girl
• Mystery that needs to be solved
• Curious character
• False hero
• Reason for conflict
• McGuffin

Normal opening to a Thriller

Scene setting - Normality - Isolated - Vulnerable

Point of view shot - Camera moving - Element of mystery

Introduction of discordant non - digetic music

Viewer anticipates what will happen

People scared - (Vulnerable people audience identify with)

Element of mystery.

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is a plot element that catches the viewers attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction. The aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is. In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.

'We have a name in the studio and we call it 'MaGuffin' it is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories its always the papers.' - Alfred Hitchcock

The Thriller - Alfred Hitchcock

The aspects of the thriller - Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense whose films came to be the benchmark for 'Psychological' thrillers.
Hitchcock was knows as the master of suspense.

"The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them"
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"
- Alfred Hitchcock

"Under the strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock often began with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander, were the accused to contact the authorities, no doubt the case could be promptly solved but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardising life and limb"
- Rick Altman

The Thriller

What is a Thriller?

• Physco
• The birds
• Paranormal activity
• Point break
• North by north west
• 127 hours
• Source code
• Saw

'Thriller is a very difficult genre to pin down because it covers such a wide range of films, Thrillers are films of suspense that are supposed to instil the terror into the audience' - Susan Hayward, Key concepts in Film Studies.

Different categories of thrillers:

• Spy Thrillers
• Political Thrillers
• Conspirisacy Thrillers
• Legal Thrillers
• Phycological Thrillers

"When you enjoy something you must never let the logic get too much into the way. Like the villans in the James Bond film whenever Bond breaks into the complex - 'Ah Mr Bond, welcome, come in, let me show you my entire evil plan and then put you in a death machine that doesn't work' " - Jerry Seinfield.

Film Language

Camera framing
Camera framing is what we actually see within the frame of the camera screen, we concentrate on how far the camera is from the subject and from what angle the shot is taken. There are different types of shots these are; Long shot, Close-up, Point-of-view shot and Mid shot. Different types of shots are used in combination to give you information about where and when something is happening.

Camera Movement
Camera movement is used in the same way that framing is used to enhance out involvement in the film action, as the way the camera is moved can be used to direct our attention to a particular viewpoint.
Camera movement includes:

• A panning shot - this is where the camera moves slowly across from side to side from a fixed axis
• A tilt shot - this is where the camera moves up and down from a fixed axis
• A crane shot - this is where the camera is mounted on a crane moves around at a distance above ground level
• A tracking shot - is where the camera follows the action
• A rolling shot - is where the camera moves diagonally, which makes the image askew