Evaluation

Our media thriller challenges and develops media film conventions as it uses a broad range of shots to create a tense yet fast paced atmosphere. Starting with an establishing shot, you can automatically tell it is set in England due to the gloomy dark weather and the iconography such as bus stops and road signs. The quick cuts from extreme long shots to long shots make the film snappy and sharp which instantly shows it’s a thriller as it is snappy. The girl is walking at a mid pace which helps add to the momentum and build up.
As research we the film ‘The Shining’. This is a very famous thriller which uses shots to portray its genre. I learnt that to have a successful thriller you have to have a lot of long shots. This is to not only show the mise-en-scene but so you can capture what is going on behind the character on screen. This definitely creates a tense, Nail biting feeling.
Also as another source of research for our thriller film we looked at clips from Crime watch because we wanted to understand the shots they used to capture someone being followed. This was helpful as it showed thriller conventions such as short snappy shot lengths to build suspense. I learnt that to build suspense you needed to have the right music for the piece as this changes the mood of the scene; we applied this to our film as we had a fast paced soundtrack to help set the overall pace of the film.

Our thriller opening represents women as passive and vulnerable, as the young girl is being followed by a hooded boy. It also shows that women are more prone to being followed or attacked. The hooded person represents the youth of today, it shows that stereotypes of young men are not safe. It also connotes that men are more dangerous and powerful as they have more intimidation. The media social groups contrast dramatically as women and young girls are often in situations such as being followed so this represents them as the victim’s, whereas the males are represented as untrustworthy and dangerous.

Our product would be distributed to a small independent UK institution as it is very simple. The lack of different sets and mise-en-scene’s and simple story line wouldn’t attract to a worldwide audience as only English people would be able to relate to it. Also because the story line is a very common factor in today’s social society, so many English women would be able to relate to the lack of safety and trust between strange men on London’s streets today. It would not be a Hollywood hit as people from different countries might not be able to relate to it so it would be seen as unrealistic to them and perhaps boring. To create a worldwide realise you need a storyline that is more exciting and capturing.

The audience for our media product would be of a wide variety of ages. As although it does represent young women more it is does not have strong elements of youth in it. The language is understandable for all and the storyline can target men and women of different ages. Although it could appeal to both sex’s I think women would appeal to it more as they are being targeted and victimised so they would be able to relate more to it then men. They would also be working class people that tend to walk and use public transport more. In my opinion any normal working class or middle class person would watch this, for example ‘Rachel, 25, works in an office in central London’.

I would attract my audience by having as much advertising as I could afford. I would put my advertisements on buses and tube stations as the product has high elements of public transport. So people using public transport would be attracted and intrigued to see it. I would also advertise on billboards and TV adverts to get a more diverse and bigger audience. Myspace/facebook advertisements would be used as well as a lot of people use these sites and it would definitely attract a wider variety of ages and races. I would market the film using the storyline itself as I feel it would intrigue people to watch it and find out what happens.

During the process of filming I learnt to use many technical products such as camera work and working with sound and final cut pro. I found filming hard as I could not get a steady hand or good shots, but I enjoyed editing. This was because I found it easy and also fun to piece the product together. The end result was a team effort but I feel that my editing skills progressed highly in the making of this thriller. We used the internet and blogger to capture a daily diary of what we were doing, weather it was filming or editing. This increased my skills of evaluating as it helped me go over the process of each thing one by one.

From our preliminary film I learnt that the story line makes a big difference in creating a tense atmosphere. Our preliminary film was very intriguing and exciting where as I felt our final product lacked the certain element of suspense. I have also learnt that planning properly makes a big difference to your final piece and also to your group performance. The preliminary film was very well planned using a story board to mark each shot and what was supposed to be happening, this gave a clear outline of what we had to film. Whereas the thriller filming was not planned neatly meaning that we did not create a clear enough story board let alone a storyline that everyone agreed on. This meant that most of our shots when filming were decided on the day, which made everyone feel unorganised. It also affected us as a group as we did not all agree on the same things due to it not being planned properly.

Adverse Whether

It was snowing today, so we were unable to finish filming outside - instead, we jumped forward ahead of schedual and filmed our office scenes. I learnt a lot about the importance of camera angles, and the use of lighting.

Media Film Evaluation

Media Film Evaluation

In this evaluation, I will be examining the ways in which I feel my group was successful in creating our opening to a thriller. I will also be looking at aspects that could've been done better, and giving a general overview of the project.

From the start, we tried hard to convey certain forms and conventions seen commonly in media, whilst staying away from others. From day one we wanted to avoid the very cliche 'horror thriller' scenario. Instead, we took a different approach, giving our production a more 'urban' feel, we decided to focus on grabbing the audiences attention through mystery, rather than suspense.

Another focus of ours was to maintain a broad audience appeal, whilst we decided to focus slightly on a younger audience, it was important to us that the film be accessible to a wide range of ages, genders, races and classes. Using both a male and female lead was one way we attempted to convey this. We also played on popular stereotypes, such as using a vulnerable woman as the 'victim', and a hooded male as the main 'villain'.

Our film seems to contain characteristics often found in less well known areas of the media. Whilst still being able to maintain a solid fan base, we did not intend for our thriller to be shown as a 'big Hollywood blockbuster', rather, more suited towards a smaller 'cult' following. More obvious reasons for this choice were around budget, ie. we would be able to produce the film without too many financial worries. Costs aside however, we also felt that on a more personal level we would rather create a more middle sized project, a main reason being that we would be more freely able to decide which direction we wanted to take things, without obsessing over what would pull in the most sales at the box office.

A typical audience member would most likely be between the ages of 15-29, focused away from the mainstream. I can visualize the rest of the thriller as ending up fairly complicated, so viewers should be able to stay focused for a fairly long stretch of time. As far as marketing goes, we would probably try to aim our media campaign at a middle/upper class, although this would in no way prevent others from taking enjoyment from it.

Our marketing campaign would most likely be directed specifically towards our target audience, so, rather than having random billboards or mainstream adverts, we would mix advertisement in with magazines popular with our target audience, or perhaps at the beginning of a DVD that mirrors our genre. Another big intention would be to use the Internet as a medium to advertise through - as long as we were careful, selecting exactly how to reach our target audience, while maintaining a fairly low cost would be easy. Using these techniques, advertising is cheaper, and is directed instantly towards who we will be aiming our thriller at anyway. Of coarse, advertising this way, whilst cost-effective, carries with it downsides; we would potentially be inadvertently cutting out what might have ended up as a significant portion of our audience by approaching advertising in a selective manner. In the end though, despite the risks, I believe that we would ultimately end up saving more money than we would otherwise make.

Throughout this element of coursework, I have learnt a lot about both the filming, editing processes, and even quite a bit surrounding Internet media. For example, I was previously unaware of how widely used 'blogger' is, having never really dealt with it before. I feel it is safe to say that I was able to learn the most whilst editing - having never before dealt with Final Cut pro, or any sort of editing software really, my eyes were opened as to how much can be accomplished simply in the editing stage, and also to how time consuming it could be. Interestingly enough, editing was also the part of production I most enjoyed, I think partly because I seemed to be constantly learning new techniques to experiment with; ironically, there were points where this set me back in a way; I almost found myself veering off my task on several occasions, simply because I ended up getting carried away with all the effects and functions available.

Looking back at my first exercise with filming, I feel I have learnt a great deal about how to convey subtle elements through clever techniques. I realize now the necessity for good camera work, but also the sheer amount of work that needs to go into editing all the footage captured. I find myself frequently watching television as I normally would have, only continuously identifying different elements of camera work and editing, I enjoy this, as I feel it helps me identify a lot more with what I am watching, and also allows me to appreciate the work that is put in to produce even the most common and simple shows. If we had more time, I would have liked to be able to gain permission to film at an underground train station, and also perhaps pay a little more attention to the editing process.

Big Filming lesson

Today we decided to try to knock out most of our filming in one go - in my opinion we are really lucky with our setting, as Angel has quite a large variety of scenery. Whilst perhaps we started to lack in focus towards the end, in the the grand scheme of things we got a lot done, in fact, a large portion of the footage we need has been done in one go. Now all we need to do is get the footage onto final cut pro, do a ton of editing, and shoot our final scenes.

The Soundtrack

Not being completely happy with the soundtrack we had, we decided to have a go at making a new one - it came out alright, but still feels a bit like something is missing. Similarly to using Final Cut pro, Soundtrack pro also takes some getting used to, but looking at the tools we have at our disposal, I think it should turn out pretty nicely. Overall I feel we were pretty efficient with the time given to us this lesson, and hopefully in our next sessions using soundtrack pro we'll get even more done.

The editing process

So today we started editing - i'd used final cut pro before but hadn't really explored it properly - I was surprised with the extent at which it was possible to completely change the feel and mood of our film. Whilst being so new to the software set us back a bit, I feel that we made the most of our session and the time given, and am confident that from now things will run smoother.

Media evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

In this evaluation, I am going to discuss my thriller opening and how it fits typical conventions. I got the idea for my opening by seeing a video of a young girl being followed on Youtube called “Be my victim” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4JcmfSn3s . In many ways my thriller opening follows similar conventions of a traditional thriller. A thriller creates suspense, has a number of false plateau ‘s which builds expectation without reaching a climax. There is usually a naïve female character, who fails to detect problems which lead to scary or unusual events. This clip is from the shining, the female character is hysterical with fear while the man is breaking down the door. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVooUHN7j4. For example our lead actor is a vulnerable female. This idea came from the Shining, were the female actress was very isolated and had to deal with horrifying events.
We have a male character that follows the young female. Using the stereotype associated with boys who wear hoods, I managed to create tension and fear. This is evident when he begins to follow her and the music changes. In other ways our opening challenged real thriller openings. Unlike the Shining, our locations were very public, and the main action didn’t make the audience jump, or increase heart rate. The opening was very subtle to leave room for a further storyline. It also makes the audience question the male character identity, as he drugs her from the beginning.

My thriller opening portrays women in a position of weakness. It is also focuses on young adults. For example the phone distracts the young female. Although the audience cannot hear the conversation they assume she is talking about going out later, or something equally trivial instead of paying attention to her surroundings. Young women are so often seen as irresponsible. This made is easier to show her character, and the audience would aspect something bad to happen to her.







For many years Britain have portrayed young people negatively in the media. Boys who wear hoods have been seen as anti social, and a threat to society. Knowing that these stereotypes would be thought of as soon as the audience saw this character, made it easy to set up the plot. The end of the opening challenged conventions. He went into an office and sat at a desk. This shows that he has a job and doesn’t want to cause trouble. It also leaves the audience wondering who he is and why he would want to drug a young woman.



My film would be released in cinemas around Britain. Due to the growing popularity of British films I think people would be interested in watching it. Young people go to the cinema a lot so it will reach its target audience. I would also release the film internationally. This will make it more likely that the film will make money. It will also give people in different countries a chance to see British culture, and some of the problems our society face.

My Target audience are men and women. They would be in education or in a job. There is no set race as all young people can suffer from the issues addressed in the film. I also think that the realistic characters will appeal to the audience. Young people will be more likely to watch a film if they feel they can relate to the characters. For example 18 year old Sarah goes to college and enjoys going out on the weekend.

The actors will attract my audience. I would have billboards all around London. I would also make digital flyers that could be posted on Facebook and Myspace. On them I would have both the actors and a catchy headline that would make people think. I would also get people to write positive reviews about the film When people see the actors they will be able to relate to them because they look like their audience. I would also hold an official promotion party with some of the most known Dj’s and give out lots of freebies. Young people love a good party and they love getting things for free so that would insure a large turn out. As it is a local film a lot of promotion will be done through word of mouth. People in schools and colleges will be talking about the film they saw.

My thriller starts of with an establishing shot that shows mise en scene. There is a series of close ups that start to focus on the girl. Showing the audience this is who is going to be vulnerable. There is then a medium shot showing her walking out of the gate. As she walks down the road it shows the male beginning to follow her. He then follows her in a café. While she is distracted on the phone he puts a pill in her drink. He then goes back to an office and sends an email.



I have learned a lot from filming this thriller opening. Using a camera was a big challenge as I’m not usually good with that kind of equipment. I have gone from not being able to turn it on, to editing on the Apple Macs. Filming is much more then just being able to use the camera. Its about knowing how to frame a shot and making sure that you remember to allow 5 second either side of the shot. Throughout filming we had to battle bad weather conditions such as snow and heavy rain. While filming sometimes people walk through the shot or they stare into the camera. I found using final cut pro hard in the beginning. With help from other members in my group I learned to Log and capture, cut scenes and add credits. Soundtrack was the hardest to use because you have to create the music yourself. Lucky a group member does music and he composed our soundtrack. This created a lot of problems because the finished song didn’t fit the opening. We then had to discuss were the music needed to be more dramatic, and places were it needed to be softer and fade out.



After every filming session I wrote a blog on what happened. Writing these blogs gave me time to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go so well, and how the next session could be better. Having the Internet has even us an unlimited audience. I have learned a lot since the preliminary task. Learning how to match cut was useful because it was used a lot in the thriller opening. Looking back on that film I don’t think that the music was right and the framework could have been better.

Evaluation

Our media product develops and challenges different forms and conventions of real media products. For example we used camera techniques to show me being followed by somebody in our media product, such as over the shoulder shots and a high angel, extreme long, establishing shot, which we used in the opening of our film to show somebody was watching me from a high angel. As this shot was an establishing shot, not only did it show i was being followed, but also established the mise en scene of our film, showing clearly the environment our film was set it, which was the streets of London, outside our college. Our audience are immediently aware that our film is set in London as in our establishing shot, you can see red London buses on the roads, and British road signs, as well as British gloomy, dull weather.

The majority of other real media products also use high angel, establishing shots to show the mise en scene of their film, for example in the film 'The Shining' there is various high angel, extreme long, establishing shots showing the snowy mountains and beautiful scenery of the mise en scene, the high angel shots in 'The Shining' are also used when the actors are running outside, making them appear to look more venerable and isolated, which was the same affect on the girl in our high angel, establishing shot. the reason why we wanted to make the girl in our thriller look venerable, isolated and alone is to give the impression that she was being followed by someone and was in a dangerous situation.

The media social groups our media product represents are specifically teenage girls, and young women, aged between 13-25. This is because the main character in our film is around this age and is a female in a very common situation that many females find them selves in, which is being followed by a male stranger. Our film also represents some males as being dangerous and perhaps untrustworthy. The social class our media product represents is standard working class, this was conveyed through the mise en scene, as the area the girl was filmed in was not a high class, posh area and the clothes she was wearing were normal clothes, whereas if she was wearing an expensive designer suit, high heels and sunglasses, and walking in the streets of central London our character would have represented the high class social group.

The kind of media institution who might distribute our media product would be a small independent UK film company or our film would be realised over the Internet. This is because the story line for our film is quite simple, and our setting is fairly dull and boring, whereas if our film had a more exiting, dramatic story-line and was set in an interesting place, it would be more likely for it to be distributed around the world and be a big Hollywood blockbuster.

The audience for our media product would be teenagers/young adults, this is because in our film the two main characters are young, so therefore our film is more likely to attract young people, although, our film is quite versatile and can be watched by anyone, as it is not specifically aimed at young people, and does not have any overpowering elements of the youth of today, for example our film does not contain any colloquial language, that some adults would not understand or be able to relate too. A typical person who would fit into our target audience would be..'Sarah, 18, at university, and loves going to the cinema'

I would attract/adress my audience by making sure i have plenty of advertisments around the UK. I would do this by advertising my film through billboards, trailers in the cinema, tv trailers, bus stops, internet campaignes etc. I would also assure there is atleast one famouse, well known, actor/actress starring in my film, to attract people to watch it and also so people can assume the film is going to be succsessful as they know the actor/actress in my film is succsesful.

sountrack

Today we added a soundtrack to our clip. We tried to find a soundtrack that would help build tension and create an atmosphere. A boy in our group called nick made a soundtrack at home for our clip. I wasnt happy with the soundtrack as it was flat and didnt dramatise our clip or make it more interesting. 

Editing

All we had left to do was to thoroughly edit what we had filmed. We edited the different scenes and locations but we didn't know how it could all tie together. We then realised we didn't have any credits, which helped a lot as we used the credits to fill the change of scene.
We had 3 soundtracks that we wanted to use, but they all didn't fit or suit our film. So we had to edit the best soundtrack to fit the piece properly.

Cafe Filming

Due to the bad weather conditions and college play we missed out on a whole 2 weeks worth of filming. So during this time we edited the footage we had so far to perfection.
When we had got this sorted we realised we did not have time to go to Highbury and film in a cafe, so we decided to use the corner of the college canteen. At first i thought it would not work and would look tacky, but we didn't have a choice as we were running out of time.
When we had finished the cafe scene we decided to look at our footage to see if it was successful, to my surprise it was. It did not look obvious it was filmed in college which was good as we did not have anything left to film. The shots were very effective and ranged widely.

Third day of filming/Editing

On our next filming day we decided to start filming the end of the opening. We used an office in college as you can not see that its in college. Our plan was to film Nick walking into the office and writing an email saying he had got her, this didn't take long to film as we had planned out clearly the shots we wanted and the camera angles and movement. Which was different to our second day of filming as we had not planned out properly the shots we wanted, it worked out better having it planned as it was al lot quicker and the footage was a better quality.
After we had finished that section we decided to start editing this, this took longer then expected as some of the shots were wobbly.
We then planned our next day of filming which was set to be in a cafe in Highbury.

Second day of filming

We started our filming for the opening, we decided to do the start of it which meant we had to film around angel and in the college. We tried to get a variation of shots so that it would look interesting in our final produce, we ended up filming 5 minutes of footage. This was good as we had a wide variety of shots which was easier when editing as we did all we could. It then got very cold and rainy so we decided to head back to the editing suit and start editing what we had filmed so far. I felt this was a good idea as it made the editing process easier as we could vary it between filming. What we had filmed was successful as we had many shots to use although some were a bit dodgy. At the end of the lesson we decided to plan what we were going to do in the next lesson, this was so we didn't fall behind schedule.