Evaluation

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


We understand what the thriller genre should consist of and have applied it to our opening by including elements of dark lighting, enigmas and suspense to make the audience want to carry on watching while feeling agitated along the way. When thinking about our thriller we considered films like 'Saw' and 'Shank'. The thing that these films have in common with our thriller is showing teenagers paying the price for their mistakes. Although they go to extreme lengths of punishment they still have the basic outline that our thriller portrays. We took the idea of the dungeons and dark places 'Saw' uses for their torture scenes and tried to replicate it to highlight the thriller aspects along making it frightening to watch.
The trailer of 'Shank' is shown below:







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

We have chosen to represent young people (teenagers) reasonably, unlike daily newspapers and films that go above and beyond in trying to dehumanise teens today. Although we have taken a stereotypical event for teens we have not just tried to glamorise the issue of drug use but instead show the dangers and consequences it has. Our thriller also highlights the recent increase in teenage drug abuse. The drug that has got the media in a frenzy is a legal drug called “Mephedrone”. Two teenagers have died from an overdose which emphasises the impact drugs have on vulnerable teens, it also doesn’t help the fact that it is available online which makes it easy to be purchased by the public.





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


Personally I can see our film being shown in digital cinemas around “hackney” and “Angel”, this is purely because they have the highest number of teenage drug abuse than anywhere else in the country so I feel that it is an ongoing issue and people would be more interested to see it than a place like Richmond. It can also be used for other media classes for other students to watch and evaluate our work or it can even be showcased to short film festivals which also allow us to show off our media product to other people. However as a group we decided to distribute our film on YouTube, it is popular with our target audience and also this is because as YouTube gets over 100 million hits a day, it enables our film to get a larger amount of viewers as people might not want to pay to watch our media product as it is made by amateur media students. Another way of distribution is through the ‘Microwave’ system films like “Shifty” have gained success and become familiar through this type of distribution and we hope out film will do the same. Viral marketing was another way of distribution, not only is it cheap it also brings vapid awareness to our film; it is the idea of sending someone a link which will then pass it on if they found it interesting and will hopefully lead in a chain and reach many people.



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


(Click link to see questionnaire)
I made a survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HKJXQ8Y to find my target audience. We collected the results and found that people from ages 15 to 21 would most likely be interested in our thriller, we feel that our film is a representation of teenagers so it is most relatable to this age group.

We chose to ask our target audience group questions about our thriller and record extracts of their feedback.



I created this illustration using www.wordle.net which includes comments from my research.




5) How did you attract/address your audience?

After distributing questionnaires which not only enabled us to identify our target audience but also give them a chance to include what they would like to see in our film. Our results informed us that we had to make a spy / physiological thriller. It was easy to make sure our thriller provided what they had asked for as we kept this in mind while coming up with our storyline.
Also by using clever shots like point-of-view it makes the viewer feel as though they are the protagonist as they can relate to certain events shown in our thriller. Our choice of location for the torture scene has had a successful affect on our audience as it makes the our film more gripping and interesting to watch. Overall we have used moments of shock and suspense which let us stay true to the thriller genre while making it appeal to our target audience.
As we have left our thriller opening at a cliffhanger this makes the audience want to carry on watching to find out who did it and what will happen next. By using young actors it makes the film more relatable to the teenage market, which is our target audience.




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

Blogger.com was a new experience for me, I never knew how and why it is used and after creating my media blog I have found that I have enjoyed updating it with new information. I had no previous experience in using the iMac computers or editing software, even recording on the camcorders was new to me because I never knew the rules and effort that goes into recording a short clip, for example making sure the frame is steady by lining up the vertical lines, also not crossing over the 180 degree rule so it doesn’t confuse the audience. Once we got familiar with the iMovie software we began using different transitions, adding music, cutting and arranging scenes and adding out opening titles, which are evident in our film and makes it more enjoyable to watch.
The iMac computers were frustrating to use at the beginning as we didn’t save our first preliminary task which meant we had to re-edit.
Surveymonkey was another site that I have learnt from media, it is an easy way to make a questionnaire, distribute it and collect answers, i will defiantly be using this in the future as I have done for my thriller questionnaire. I also created a montage including all the thoughts and ideas that went in to create our thriller using onetrue media. This is a quick, fun and easy process to making a video about anything by adding music and pictures. Other internet sites that helped us with our research are google, Wikipedia and YouTube which has enabled us to embed our videos and made it easier to complete our film.
The techniques I have learnt in media, I will take away with me and apply them, not only to other media projects but also into everyday life.



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

I have learnt about team work and organisation as well has filming and editing. Our preliminary task was a very basic and simple training exercise to get an idea of what our final product would be like. Our preliminary task included a few camera angles, no audio and no real storyline. When it came to editing our preliminary we only used straight cuts, so in comparison to this I feel we have come a long way as our thriller includes all the aspects of the thriller genre, we have paired it up with appropriate music to work alongside the torture scene and we have got interesting camera shots and transitions, such as dissolves and overlap. If I could go back and change one thing it would be our organisation and timing issues, as we missed our original deadline due to lack of planning it meant we fell behind and under pressure to get it done but as we continued to work as a team we combined our talents and overall I think we have done a great job.
An example to show how far we have come and how much we have learnt, I chose to incuded a framing shot from our preliminary task and a framing shot from our thriller.

(A poor framing shot from our preliminary task)


(A clever use of over-the-shoulder shot from our thriller)

FINISH LINE

It has been great working with my group to produce this thriller opening.

This blog has allowed me to take you on this sucessful journey.

Editing Part 2

At this point we have edited the party scene and put in music and special effects. We knew where we wanted the flashbacks to be as we thought about this when making our animatic, so when it came to editing, this process was easy. As the flash backs have a average duration of 4 seconds we felt that there was long lasting shots of our actress walking around the bed to get to the toilet, which made it dull. As a group we decided to cut out seconds of these long shots and add in transitions and effects; including dissolves to show a passing of time to make it quicker and bearable to watch. It is evident in our piece that we have used a ‘ghost trail’ effect to go alongside her point of view shot, this was to show the audience she is dazed and obviously had a rough night.

When it came to putting in our chosen music (blood deep) this was simple enough. However, many of our shots included background sound which was unavoidable when filming so we have had to ‘mute’ any of the unnecessary sound. We kept the alarm clock ringing, letterbox noise and party music played in the party scenes, to show we did think about deigtic sound when filming.

Other aspects of our editing choices we made were: making the party scene music louder by the volume levels to indicate a drastic sound change and shock the audience. Also we decided to make ‘blood deep’ fade in and get louder when the DVD becomes full screen instead of viewing it from the laptop, this was to make the audience feel part of the torture scene and more involved, instead of just watching it like the protagonist. The music gradually fades out and the title of the film appears.

Last day of filming

Today we finally shot our party scene at one of our group members house (Ryan).

Setting up for this scene we had to take into consideration the mise-en-scene, as we wanted to present a 'wild' party we avoided bright lighting, we filled some empty glasses and set them around the room, also we titled picture frames and nocked over ornaments to set the mood. Once everyone was on set it was difficult to get everyone energetic and keep this up until we got our shots.

Overall it went well, however once we watched it back we realised we could not use much footage because many of the scenes were empty, meaning there was not alot of people in the shot and as we wanted to represent a party it was not believable.

We only needed short flashback shots so this was not a disaster. We had what we needed and hopefully this will look good once we come to editing it.

Music

For our thriller i had to find appropriate music to compliment the torture scene.

As we can only used unsigned artists and songs this meant that we had to spend alot of time searching for the right music to use.

Sights that made our search easier are:

www.mobygratis.com

www.freeplaymusic.com

We finally found a song we could use called 'blood deep' and we feel it fits in with our thriller.

We are currently discussing to use one of the thriller conventions- the red herring effect as we feel that the overall film has a slow start and silent. To enable we engage the audience and make them want to carry on watching we are currently trying to find a 'jolly, carnival type' song to distract the audience to what is really going on and when the DVD begins, this is when 'blood deep' begins playing, helping to create a tense atmosphere.

Tick Tock

We missed our deadline of the 19th of March and at this point we still have not shot the party scene.

This has been difficult to organise as not everyone is available due to other commitments. Also we currently do not have a location to shoot this. We must shoot this scene in the weekend so we can edit next week.

Editing

The first thing we needed to do was edit our torture scene in order for the second scene to take place. As we decided to show the torture scene on the victim’s laptop, the editing need to be completed ASAP. Once this was completed we could go ahead and film “the morning after” scene at the victim’s bedroom. We made sure we filmed “baggy” to insure we had enough footage so we did not have to re-film; also we kept in mind to have a wide range of shots. As a group of four all members must be there when we edit because we must take into consideration everyone’s suggestions which may bring up some conflict within the group, however this only leads to a brilliant finished piece.

At this moment we have the "torture scene" and “the morning after” scene all edited and we are waiting to film the last party scene. We are going to use flashback clips from the party to indicate why the protagonist is so confused and unstable so we do not need alot of footage. Once we set a date to film this; we will quickly add this to our final piece, and then we will decide to add the finishing touches such as music and special effects.

Second day of Filming

Today we filmed at my house which is the scene where the character wakes up and receives a DVD which she watches. Once our entire group arrived on set we had to take into consideration the mise-en-scene; as we had originally planned to have a male actor and film in a male room, this did not work out when we changed the main character to female. We could not relocate so we had to get rid of the photo frames, clothes and toiletries and replace them with girl-like things to make it look believable. We started at a slow pace and gradually picked up when we got familiar with the room and where the camera should be placed to get different shots. As a consequence to our slow start the time was against us and it began to get dark quicker than we hoped. We filmed as much as we could although it is evident on film that the lighting has changed. We cannot re-film due to dead-lines and availability issues so we must do a great job on the editing.

Re-take

Due to lighting issues we had to go back and re-film because once we uploaded our filming onto the computers and watched it back, we found that it was really dark and will not show once we play it on the laptop. Although this was frustrating it had to be done in order to see it on screen, this was a quick decision made by the group and thankfully our actress was available to film the next day. This teaches us to be aware of all the aspects of filming including lighting.

First day of filming

Once we had chosen our location we had to think about lighting, where the camera will be and where the actress will stay. Once we made these descisions we began filming our thriller, this process was quick and easy because we was sure about what we wanted to show. Although our location was tight and it was difficult to get around, but also keeping in mind not to cross the 180 degree line, we made it work and got great shots.

Props and Cast

PROPS: We did not need many props for our torture scene; we only used a black mask for the torturer so we do not reveal his identity, some rope to tie the victims hands together and two torches to provide light as we do not want any natural light, to give the feel of a dark and scary dungeon-like place. The actress will be sitting on a red chair to represent danger.

CAST: We originally decided on a male actor but due to reliability and availability issues we chose a female drama student that will be committed to filming and would be familiar around the camera. For our party scene we decided to have a large number of teens so it relates to our target audience and make it look realistic.

Animatic

Our storyboard includes a general idea of the plot, this will help us when filming as it is a guide line for our thriller.

Once we completed our storyboard we took pictures of each shot and edited how long each shot should last.

We then put it together in a short clip, unfortunately the video lost its quality once we put it on YouTube but

it still gives a clear outline of what our final idea will look like.

This is our animatic:

Target Audience

From the results we gathered we come to a conclusion that our target audience is between the ages 15 to 21 and a combination of male and female, who preferred spy and psychological thrillers. Although these are the result we found we decided our opening should include other aspects to make it appeal to everyone. As it is a thriller it must include the typical elements that make a thriller, these are moments of shock and suspense to keep them focused and interested. Most people stated that they do not support teenage drug abuse so we decided we want to highlight this view in our thriller. From our last question we got a variety of opinions, the majority of answers we received were that they do not believe that teenagers are portrayed truthfully in the media. Shows like 'Skins' exaggerate the behaviour of teenagers and takes away the reality that not all teenagers go to the extremes that the show portrays. We decided as a group that we do not want to show another crazy episode of 'Skins' but make it truthful to the thriller theme and make it relatable to our target audience.

Our questionnaire

In order to find our target audience we needed to get a sample of people to fill out our questionnaire which enabled us to make sure the right people will watch and like our thriller.

To fill out the questionnaire please select the link below.

Questionnaire.

OR view it below

1) Please circle the age range that applies to you

15-21 22-29 30-40

2) Please circle your gender

Male Female

3) What thriller movies appeal to you the most- Please circle your answer?

Action Natural Religious
Legal Psychological Spy
Political Scientific Medical

4) Think of your favourite Thriller film and its opening scene, what characteristics made you want to continue watching?

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5) Do you believe that teenagers are represented fairly and truthfully in the media today? Please circle
Yes/No If the answer is no please explain why

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6) What are your beliefs on teenage drug abuse?

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