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.

Editing

Last week due to bad weather conditions we missed out on filming. We used the time to edit and also filmed some footage inside. We then also planned what we were going to do next lesson.

Notes on target audiencw

Second day of filming

Today we filmed at the college and in angel. We did the establishing shot again with the actress. We then did various medium shots, long shots, and over the shoulder shots. In the end we got over 5 minutes worth of footage which we began editing down when we came back. It was had filming because we had the rain and the amount of passersby constantly against us. We also had to wait for the roads to be clear each time we did a shot. When we want back to college to edit, we started to combine the scenes with cutting in and out at different places. Like in the first scene we gradually cut so it looked like we were zooming in a bit more each time. At the end of the lesson we planned what we would be filming next week. Filming is going well . 

First day of filming

The first day of filming didn’t go exactly to plan. Our actor wasn’t in so we couldn’t do all the filming of the beginning. We did film inside the college from a window, which will be a nice establishing shot. We also shot outside but didn’t get much footage because of police disruption. We did get a good shot of Nick in front of a street sign. While we was filming we also took pictures of each shot, which will make a nice storyboard. On Wednesday we will go further into angel and continue filming.

Making a pitch- futher planning

Today we continued discussing our thriller opening. Then we watched some openings that had been made by other students. Many of these were made interesting by the use of lighting, mise en scene and editing. This gave us more ideas and ways to make what we had better. We realised that our idea was simple and needed a twist in the plot to make it more interesting. We then came up with changing the story from being a stalker, to it being a secret investigator who looked like a stalker. As part of the opening involves filming in an underground station we need to get permission. This will not be possible to get by Monday so we are going to concentrate on filming the bits on the college site and near it. Our straight forward planning of one shot type needs to be edited so that we are using a range of shots in each scene. It’s important that we remember to film each scene at least twice to give room for editing later. Finally we presented the pitch to the class. This outlined the story, some of the shot types, and what affect we wanted to create. After this we want back to planning and should be ready to start on Monday.

Making a pitch

Today in class we got into our group and planned the opening of our thriller opening. We began by discussing our different ideas. Then we decided what would work best and started planning the shots. We choose a shot type for example close up, and thought about the effect it would have. This is an important part of planning because it helps build tension. This will help us stick to the traditional conventions of a thriller film. We also used a storyboard to plan each shot, and next to that an illustration. This helps us visualise what each shot will look like. While planning we decided to use two main locations, overground station and a house. This helped us to plan when we was going to film and at what time of day. I think that having this planning lesson was crucial as everyone know knows what we are going to do over the next few weeks. It also gives us mini targets so we can meet the final deadline.

What I have learned from the practice filming session

Our task was to film a member of our group reading a newspaper in a thrilling way. I was very unhappy with the camera work because it was wonky and unfocused. The most sucessful shots were an over the shoulder shot,and a slow zooming which was done gradually by stopping the camera and zooming in, and then turning it back on. The least sucessful shots were the establishing shot because it was not in focus and didn't show any background, and the final shot of the newspaper because it was shaky.
The editing was hard because the program was slow and took long to carry out commands. It was also hard rememmbering what to do. Once we had edited the film it did make sense though it highlighted how bad the camera work was. I learned that mise en scene is very important as it tells in the audience were the characters are. In our film we didn't think this through, and this was reflected in the end result. As far as suspense goes we failed. To create this we should have added some effects and maybe tried a diffrent location.
We forgot to leave some space at the top of the characters head, which made the scene look very squashed and amature. We did not use any conventions from real thriller films because we had not seen any prior to filming. I have watched one recently and I think that my next attempt will be better because I have watched a thriller. Time ran out so we didn't get any feed back from the teacher or the class. I think that the pratice was good because, i got used to the diffrent buttons on the camera and their functions. We also made alot of mistakes and discovered how to correct them, which will help prevent them when we next film. It has also taught me to think through ideas before filming because poor planning will show in the end result.