Evaluation

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

In our thriller we use some of the conventions used in read media products. We firstly have the crime, which is the main theme of our thriller, and it is the murder of Karishma and Tobi. We also have the villain and the innocent people, as real life media products include as well. However in our thriller we do ont really have a "whodunit" theme, as we make it clear from the beginning exactly who the murderer is. Therefore we do not have clues as to who it was, and they do not have to work it out themself, and this is something that other media products do include.
We leave the ending on a cliffhanger, the audience have probably already discovered what he is going to do, but we leave it as a "will he, wont he" cliffhanger. He is about to go and do anpother murder, however we do not show this, we just show him preparing himself for it. The music we use is tense and creates tension and suspence.

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

We represent teenagers in our thriller. All of our characters are teenagers and we use one of them as the murderer. This is also stereotypical, as it is suggesting that all teenagers, are involved in gangs and knife/gun crime. We have three typical teengaer girls, who are all friends, and two teenage boys where one wants to get rid of the other one, so he can get with his girlfriend. We focus a lot on teenage life, and how their life is portrayed.

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

Warner Brothers may want to distribute our film as it is a thriller, and they distributed Alfred Hitchcocks films, who was well known for making thrillers.

4. Who will be the audience for your media product?

We have decided that the target audience for our thriller is teenager from the age of about 15 and above. This is because the characters are teenagers, so they can relate to the social realism that we have attempeted in our thriller. It can also be watched by adults as well as teenagers, however the main target audience is teenagers.

5. How did you attract / address your audience?

To attract our audience we used tense music that created alot of tension and made the audience want to know what was going to happen. We also also see the victims, with the murderer following them, this requires the audience to use their imagination as to what could happen. They will then be interested in watching our thriller to see what the actual outcome was.

6. What have you leant about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From doing this project I have learned exactly how to film using a camera, and how to edit footage that we film. I have learned how to edit using apple mac, and how to cut out scenes, add transitions, effects and music. All in all I have learned alot about the technology of filming and editing in media.

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

We have improved so much since our preliminary exercise. The footage we produced is alot more complex than opur preliminary exercise was. Our camera techniques have also improved, for example our camera is now more steady than it was in the preliminary exercise. I have also learned alot about editing, and including transitions and music to make our thriller look alot more professional. I now know a lot more about different camera techniques, such as jump-cuts and panning shots, and now understand how to use these in my thriller and why they are useful, and how they change a mood, and ouline emotion of certain characters. However during the preliminary exercise I did not really know a lot about this side of the media filming.

Storyboard

We changed or storyboard when we started filming. We took out two scenes that were on our storyboard and decided that we didn’t need these in our thriller as it would make it too complex and take up too much time. Therefore we took out the two scenes that had the least relevance to our thriller and did not film these. Our original storyboard is now no longer the same as what we have filmed for our thriller. However for the rest of the scenes we have followed our storyboard.

Shot distances.
We used a mixture of all different shot distances throughout our thriller. For example when we wanted to show a lot of emotion from one character, we used a long shot to show their whole body language, and this told the audience how they felt. If we used a close up this was also to emphasise a certain emotion of a character.

Shooting appropriate material.
Before we actually started filming we made sure everyone knew exactly what they was doing and when they needed to do it. We also made sure that everyone had an understanding of exactly was going to be in each frame. The opening scene is of me Karishma and Tobi all walking into the fair, with Edwin following us. This for one, introduces the characters, it also sets the scene of where we are and the mood we are in. And it also asks the question straight away; “why is Edwin following us?” We then show us actually in the fair, and Edwin is still chasing us. Later on we show Karishma and Tobi going on a ride and Edwin follows them on to it. However only Edwin comes of, this is to outline their murder. Then we show their funeral scene and how Ian is in the way of Edwin getting “close” to me. It then goes to Edwin’s house and we show him with a knife, showing that he is now ready to kill Ian as well.

Editing, transitions and effects.
We use mainly straight cuts and jump cuts, as this is more natural. However thrillers are not calm, so we want ours to be catching as create tension as well. The editing is at a set pace as this helps us create suspense and keep the audience interested. We also use cross dissolve and fading transitions between some shots to show how moods change as well as the setting does. We also used rain affect on the funeral scene, to show that it was a dull and unhappy day.
Mise-en-scene.The murderer wears black and gray to show a dull, mysterious, suspicious character. I wear black at the funeral as this connotes death and grief. However at the funfair scene I am wearing a more colourful top to show I still have life.
Mostly everything in our frame was there for a reason. For example the graves at the graveyard, to symbolise the fact that two people have died, I am at their funeral and am grieving over their death.

Using sound with images.
The only sound we have is music. This is put over all the natural sound, so we can no longer hear the natural sound of talking and cars ect. This music is a heartbeat that gets faster and gains more beat as it goes on. This is to build up tension and create suspense. We introduce our characters and the scene starts of with a slow, steady heartbeat. As we reach the climax of our thriller the music gets faster, then as we reach the end, and predict what will happen it gets slower again.

Steady shots, and framing a shot

Keeping a steady shot

It wasnt too bad to keep a steady shot while filming. This is because if we needed too we could use a tripod in order to keep the shot still and steady. At first if our hands were a bit unsteady then we just kept practicing keeping a steady shot, and it time it got better and more balanced.

Framing a shot

We had already planned before we started filming exactly what we wanted in each frame. We had decided what shots we were going to use, and when we was going to use them. For example using a panning shot to set the scene and show where we are. Also when we was going to use close ups to show the characters expressions or mood. We want to keep the audience interested so we used many different frames for different shots.

Planning

Planning

Research – Target audience
Our target audience was mainly teenager, as it was based about teenagers. However adults could also watch it as well. Our research was mainly based on our peer group. And we done our research by doing a questionnaire, asking what films they enjoy watching, and what they expect to see in a thriller. We considered teenagers and their behaviour while planning our thriller.

Change of plan

We have decided we are no longer going to film the Burger King scene and the trainstation scene. This is becasue firstly, we have run out of time to film and still need to edit. And secondly we already have enough footage to use for our thriller.

Props and Filming

During the Easter holidays we forgot our equipment; therefore we couldn’t do any filming during the Easter holidays. However this worked well for us as it was hot and sunny during the Easter holidays and we needed it to be dull and raining when we done our filming in the cemetery. Therefore when we went back to school and the whether was raining we done our filming in the cemetery. Filming the funfair scene we needed and extra person to help us direct. We already had five characters in our thriller, which all needed to be filmed. So Alma Futu came with us why we filmed this scene to help us direct what we were doing.

The props we used included; knife, clothes/costume, and a black jacket. The knife was used for Edwin to hold to show that he was going to kill Karishma and Tobi. We thought a lot about our costume and what we were going to wear for each scene. For example for the funeral scene I was wearing black as this can be used to symbolise dark/murder/mysterious/death. And also because people wear black at funerals. Te black jacket was used to represent the villain and the murderer.

We all contributed to the work as a group. We all met up and decided on what we wanted to film, how we was going to film it and also costumes. We all came up with ideas and said what we thought would work well, and what we thought wouldn’t work well. Then we all decided how we wanted our thriller to look and what we wanted to include in it. We followed by our storyboard, apart from two scenes which we decided to take out. We took them out because there was too many scenes and they were too complex for our thriller. It also took up too much time as we already had enough footage.

Editing everything

On the 1st May in our media lesson we edited everything we had filmed, and put it all together. We got rid of so much footage that we really didnt need, and wasnt really making a difference to our thirller anyway. We put all of our transactions in and linked all the scenes together. The footage we got rid of reduced our filming to just over 2 minutes. All in our our filming looks so much better now we hav got rid of scenes that we didnt need, and now it all links together and now its in order it looks good and makes sence.

Questionnaire Evaluation

In our group we decided to do a questionaire and distribute it out to students in our school, the following questions were asked;

How old are you?
Responses; ten people are aged 16-20
Are you male/female?
Responeses: five male and five females
How often do you go to the cinemas?
Responses; three people: once a month/two people: not that much/one person: 3/4 months/four people: occasionally
What genre do you prfere?
Responses; three people=comedy/ two people=action/ five people=other
How many times do you go to the cinema a month?
Responses; eight people siad 1-3 a month and two people said 4-6 a month
What was the last movie of thriller you watched?
Responses; three people watched white chicks/two people watched i am legend/ two people watched the heartbreak kid/ three people watched Quantum of solace

Filming

When we was filming the fun fair scene we had to make sure the beginning was filmed before the sun had set, because otherwise it would have been too dark to even see us on the camera. By the time we actually got into the funfair it was alot darker, however there was alot of light for us to see, and be seen on the camera aswell. Also people kept walking right through our shots therefore we had to keep stoping and cutting the scene and wait for them to pass, so we were the only ones in the scene. And also, we had nearly finished filming, and the battery on the camera rand out. We had to leave the camera off for a little while and then turn it back on a few minutes later, in order to film the the last scene. However, all in all our filming went well, and we done everything we planned to. Throughout filming in order to keep the camera steady we used a tripod, and this kept all of our filming steady.
When we filmed the graveyard/funeral scene, everything went well. We had a run through without filming. of what we wa going to do, so when e actually did film everyone knew what they was doing and it run smoothly. We wanted to add a raint effect to this scene, and on the day we filmed this scene it had been raining so it worked well.

Editing

We we now be filing all the footage we have in our media lessons, and at any other times we can. We will put all our scenes together and edit what we do need, and take put what we dont.

Filming

We filmed another scene on 27/04/09. This was the second scene we have now filmned. The scene that we filmed was the graveyard scene. We wore black and dark colours to symbolise the death of Tobi and Karishma. We used as many different camera techniques as we could, where they were relevant. When I was crying around the graves for example, we used a point of view shot. We also used a panning shot to to show where the scene was set. When we was filming, the weather was cold and dull. This was lucky because it fit in to the scene in which we was filing. The weather helped to set the mood. I was at a graveyard mourning over the death of my friends, and the weather was dull. This helped as it outlined sadness, and symbolised that my mood was also sad and dull.
We filmed the graveyard scene and are going to now edit this during lesson time. We have to finish filming the last scenes later in the week and edit these as well. Then we have to put all of our work together to make the opening to our thriller.

Meeting and costumes

Our group met up before we started filming and eceided on costumes for our scenes. Becasue Edwin is the killer, we decided to put him in a grey jacket, and the coller hid some of his face, to make him look more mysterious. Karishma had a blue and white top on, that signifed the sky and heaven, as later on in this scene she was going to die. Tobi, who was also going to die, wore a grey jacket to symbolise a gravestone. And I had a more colourful top on to show that I still had life. And then Ian had a plain jacket on, as this is neutral and nothing was going to happen to him. We filmed at aroun four in the afternoon, as the sun was setting around this time. And we also got some footage when it was a bit darker, when the two characters got killed.

Media Lessons

For the past couple of weeks we have been working on our filming. We have finished the story board and began filming some of our scenes. My group has filmed a few scenes and in lesson we are now working on editing the footage we have already got. One of the scences is the "fairground" scene and at the moment we are editing this and cutting out what we dont want and linking it altogether. We are following our storyboard and our plan, then when we have all of the scenes we are going to edit them altogether and put them in the order we want them in.

Love Lock Down - Idea For Our Thriller

Cast
· Cameron Thomas (Edwin)-(guy who is in love with Sarah Jane)
· Sarah Jane Osborne (Jordan)-(main character)
· Cassandra Phillips (Tobi) -(friends with the Sarah Jane)
· Madison James ( Karishma) -(friends with the Sarah Jane)
· Quincy Johnson (Ian)- (Sarah Jane’s boyfriend)

Instrumental
· Love lock down –inspired by Kanye West --> Piano-Garage Band


Reality
· Cameron Thomas is working at Burger King
· Sees Sarah Jane Osborne and Quincy Johnson walking in the mall
· Mid-shot-squirting ketchup on burger
· Ketchup bottle breaks
· Goes to wash the ketchup off his hands
· Steam of water comes up
· FLASHBACK


Flashback
· Flashback in black and white
· Cassandra Phillips and Madison James picking/mocking Cameron Thomas on the train
· Cassandra Phillips and Madison James say bye to their friends (Sarah Jane Osborne) and Quincy Johnson
· Scene night- Cassandra Phillips and Madison James walking down the street looking back while linking arms
· Silhouette figure of Cameron Thomas (low key lighting will be used to produce a sharp contrast of light and dark areas on the silhouette.)
· Close up on hand raised in the air (Cameron Thomas)
· Close up- Cassandra Phillips and Madison James screaming
· Cassandra Phillips and Madison James on the floor dead
· Ribbon


Reality
· Still washing his hands
· Low angle mid-shot- looks at his hands (Cameron Thomas)
· Begins to wash vigorously
· Steam forms
· FLASHBACK


Flashback
· Black and white
· Graphic match-steam
· Panning shot- grave yard shown
· Cameron Thomas standing on the other side opposite of Sarah Jane Osborne
· Approaches Sarah Jane Osborne
· Wants to comfort her but scarf blows away
· Turns to pick up the scarf
· Sees Sarah Jane Osborne with the other guy (Quincy Johnson) walking and cuddling


Reality
· Puts his hands in his pocket
· Takes picture out of the boyfriend (Quincy Johnson)
· Takes picture and throws it in the fryer/burn/stabs knife on the picture
· Mid-shot-him sitting down (in a room)
· Red candles, roses, red cloth, lights around the table (a shrine)
· Holds picture of Sarah Jane Osborne
· Holds picture and her scarf (to remember her smell), hair (softness)
· Close up on shrine- Sarah Jane Osborne picture, scarf, hair
· Close up- on Sarah Jane Osborne applying makeup on in the mirror
· Silhouette goes past
· Sarah Jane Osborne turns around shocked/scared
· Breathes really heavily
Close with closing credits

After we had finished our preliminary exercise, we then started to plan and look at what we were going to do for our “Thriller Action movie” that we’ll be directing. We came to the conclusion that our “Action Thriller” will be called “Love Lock Down”.

Preliminary Exercise - Video

Preliminary Exercise

For our preliminary exercise, we got given a sheet with dialogue on it in order for us to shoot a practise video to practise shooting in different camera angles. This will mean that we will be able to apply the techniques that we used in to our “Thriller Action Video”. The director for our preliminary video was Tobi Adewusi and, the actresses were played by Karishma Bhandari and Jordan Ward. Our story line was about (Jordan) a girl who was being abused by her partner and, her friend (Karishma) was telling her to run away before the abusive partner gets back. We decided to shoot our video extract in school in the common room. We chose to film in this place because it was quite, small and the lightening was good. The first time that we filmed the video some problems occurred as the camera wasn’t functioning properly. As we realised this after we had finished filming our video. This therefore meant that we had to re-do our video a second time. The second time that we recorded our video we came across some complications as, when we finished watching the video that we recorded, we realised that the image was showing but there was no sound to it. Due to the error that occurred again we decided to shoot our video a third time. The third time that we shot our video it came out perfectly which meant, that it was ready to be edited. As we were satisfied with what we recorded, we then went on to edit our video. First we connected it to the computer and went on to edit film. Since we filmed more than we had to it made it easier for us to edit it and put it together. During the time of us filming we, also decided that it will be best to film over anything that we mistakenly done as it makes it easier to edit. We also decided to film in chronology order for the film as we also thought that it would be less complicated for us. As we were editing our film it was a bit difficult however, we got the hang of how to edit really quickly. After we finished editing our video, a problem arose within the opening title and our fist two scenes as; they would speak but not show an image. This therefore meant that we had re-connect the camera again to the computer and import the first two scenes again and our opening scene. Another problem also occurred in our film in one of the scenes. This scene was when Karishma went to shut the door the scene quickly jumped on to the next scene. Also when we filmed her walking, the camera angle that we placed it at, we wasn’t satisfied with it, so we imported those two scenes in again and re-done it. In our preliminary exercise we used various different angles and camera shots to make our video look more realistic. We are all happy with the end result (Tobi, Karishma, Jordan).
Below is the finishing video that we done in our media class. Hope you enjoy it.

Shadow of a doubt

The music starts with merry widow and is a sound bridge.
There is a dissolve from the wealthy people dancing to a industrial scene. And the music changes to show the two differences between the two places.
There is a burnt out car dumped at the side of the river, this shows that this area is industrial and a run-down area.
A long shot is used down the run down road and shows children playing in the street. To us they look poor.
The music then gets more dramatic and there is another dissolve to show a man in the building, lying on the bed.
The man on the bed is smoking a big cigar, and he is smartly dressed. In this scene low key lighting is being used and this causes shadows in the room.
The camera then moves around his room to tell us a bit about the character and his surroundings.
There is a close up if some money on the floor , and this shows us that he don’t care about the money as it is just lying around.
We can tell he character is calm by his facial expressions and he ins’t really interested about what the woman is saying to him when she enters the room.
The blind then comes down, and he all f a sudden comes alive in the dark. This makes us think that he is a villain, there is sinister music as well that adds to the effect of him being a villain.
He then smashes a glass, and this tells us he is angry and violent. He has gone from lying on the bed with no energy, to anger and smashing glasses.
There is some piano music to create tension as the other men follow him, however they pretend they don’t know him.
The high angle shot that is then used makes them look powerless. There is a silhouette of Charlie looking down on the men that were chasing him.
We can see a comparison from where Charlie is - a run down industrial area, to Santa Rosa – a bright, sunny, more posh and more pleasant area. The music used when filming Santa Rosa is softer and calmer compared to the sinister music used in the industrial area.
Charlie was lying on the bed in the same way uncle Charlie was, however uncle Charlie’s room had a darker light, where as Charlie (niece) room was more lighter.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was born in 1899. He made his first British sound film in 1924 and he was a leading film director in Britain. In 1928 he made and directed "Blackmail" and by 1939 it was a hit in Hollywood. However his first Hollywood film was called "Rebecca" and this won an oscar for best film. He made 52 films throughout his career, which lasted a total of 50 years, and his last was "Family Plot" in 1976. Between 1940-1976 he was mainly in America and he became the best known director.

Thriller Conventions

• A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily).
• A complex narrative structure with false paths, clues and resolutions.
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
• A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
• Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
• Themes of identity.
• Themes of mirroring.
• Themes of voyeurism.
• Protagonist with a flaw which is exploited by the antagonist.
• Titles often respect an aspect of the protagonist / antagonist's psychological state.
• Often a scene near the end of a film in which the protagonist is in peril.
• Mis-en-scene which echoes / mirrors the protagonists plight.