Question 1

Question 1

In What Ways Does Your Media Product use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Question 5

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4

Question 4

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Due to the content of our psychological thriller I believe that the best target audience for our psychological crime thriller would be a male between the ages of 15 and 30 and would be categorised as part of a mainstream social group. I came to this decision as a result of the fact that psychological thrillers such as our are often slower as a result of more intellectually demanding content in the film, yet still contains the conventions of the overarching thriller genre in their tension caused by enigma and mystery and as a result may appeal to an older audience than other thriller sub genres. This is clearly demonstrated by the 1999 psychological thriller 'Se7en' in which the large majority of viewers were male and between the ages of 18 and 29. Therefore, due to the fact that many it is clear that the majority of viewers of the genre will be young adult males I believe that the age range of our film being 15 to 30 is appropriate as it not only matches with the audience of similar films but we aim to provide a more reserved film than 'Se7en' in terms of adult themes and as a result our overall target audience should be lower than that of 'Se7en'.

Therefore, our ideal audience profile would likely be a young adult male around the ages of 17 or 18 who enjoys mainstream media and would visit the cinema once every month to watch the latest thriller block busters, such as; 'Spectre' or 'Bridge of Spies'. They would also enjoy using social media in order to consume more content, likely consistently visiting popular sites such as; 'Facebook', 'Twitter', and 'YouTube' where they will browse pages concerning films and TV shows they enjoy, as well as watching review videos and trailers of upcoming and recently released films, which they plan on seeing in the cinema or may wait to be released on DVD due to their low amount of spendable money. They are also likely to have a Netflix account or other visit another similar media viewing website in order to spend their free time watching popular shows and films, in the thriller or comedy genre, with friends, family, or even on their own during relaxation periods.

Question 2

Question 2

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

In the opening sequence of our film we challenge a couple of conventions which surround teenagers in the media, The first being the challenging of the stereotype that young people are surrounded by crime and criminal activity, we challenge this through the actions of our characters in the film in which not only are none of the boys ever related to crime of any sort they are also shown to be participating in healthy activities, which are often considered to be a direct contrast to a life of crime. This is shown explicitly through the fact that 'Alex' is shown walking his dog, while 'Seb' and 'Theo' are shown riding their bikes to the quarry. These physical activities are used in order to defy the criminal stereotype as the characters implied to be concerned about their bodily health. This also helps challenge the convention of teenagers being unhealthily obsessed with technology as, even though 'Seb' and 'Theo' are initially shown to be watching television and using their phones, they are very willing to leave technology behind in order to go outside and further challenge conventions through the use of bikes rather than a car or bus, further showing challenging their reliance on technology.

However, the young adults in our film do not challenge all of the conventions of a stereotypical teenager. For example, even when outside of school, school is shown to be a significant part of the teens lives as the only reason the two boys know 'Alex' is because of "our chemistry class". This, therefore, is used to imply that the 'social circles' of the teens formed by school life as the only characters in the film are all in the same chemistry class and therefore conforms to the idea that much of teenage lives revolve around school.

'The Reaper' Final Cut

'The Reaper' Final Cut

Question 7

Question 7

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in the Progression From It To the Full Product?

So, during the time between our preliminary film and our final piece I believe that we have progressed quite far in terms of the overall structure of the creation of our film, this includes the; editing, camerawork, sound, and misc-en-scene, as well as the work done in the 'pre-production' period. 

Firstly, the camerawork, which as my area of focus in both productions, I think was greatly improved between the preliminary and final product. For example; most of the shots used in the preliminary film were all static, steady shots, making the film feel very fixed and almost uneventful, despite the action which was shown on screen, as the camerawork was simply not representing what was actually happening in the film. In the final piece, however, I made an effort to use a greater number of dynamic shots at appropriate points during the film, such as the pan and tracking shots as the boys left the house to basically mimic the movement of the boys and therefore putting the audience on the side of the two boys as they leave the house with them. Also, I tried to stray away from the constant use of steady cam shots that were used in the preliminary film. This is shown in the final piece as I used a couple of handheld shots, one example being the shot from behind a tree showing Joel walking his dog, which I used to place the audience in a sort of spying position and create a sense of potential threat for Joel's character. and another being the use of a handheld camera for when the boys find the body hidden in the rocks as it helped create a sense of instability and tension as a result of the movement of the camera. I also tried to make use of a wider variety of shot types as during the preliminary the only shot longer than a medium long shot was the single wide shot at the start of the film, so throughout the final piece I insured that greater range of shots were used, from the closeups of Theo piecing up torches to the extreme long shot at the start of the film, and the high angle long shot as the two boys enter the quarry to name but a few.

The changes to how we conducted our pre production was also a result of our learning from the preliminary piece as we found our storyboards to be largely lacking in content, and as a result many of the key shots I had to think up as we filmed, and although our final piece was still somewhat lacking in a fully detailed storyboard, and many of the final shot types and techniques were finalised by me during filming, the storyboard allowed the group to properly understand the development of the story and how it should appear towards the end of the project.

The editing in the preliminary was also heavily built upon, as during the preliminary we almost forced the storyline to contain the required media techniques: the shot-reverse-shot, eyeline match, match on action, and 180 degree rule. And as a result the examples in the film were shown to be quite basic and fairly obviously forced due to the smaller time of the film. However, during the filming of the final piece I was able to choose shots that placed into each of the techniques in a more natural way and therefore the techniques were more developed as I was able to build upon shots and use further techniques such as the 30 degree rule which was ignored in our preliminary film. I think the colour correction in the editing was also improved as in the preliminary we only used the correction for two of the outside shots and as a result most of the colour was almost out of place, like having a bright, well light bedroom for a thriller scene, for example, was obviously outside of the genre. Therefore, for the final piece I suggested using a hard light filter as well as decreasing the colour of a number of the scenes in order to better create tension and fit into the thriller genre because of the correct misc-en-scene.

I think the choice in soundtrack was also learnt upon as in the preliminary we used constant non diegetic music throughout the piece and, although it fitted well with what was happening on screen, I believe that reduction of non diegetic in the final piece sound was also a good choice as it allowed Theo, our sound editor, to better make use of diegetic sound such as the whistling wind, as well as placing the audience in the characters shoes as what the characters were hearing is what the audience would hear and that would help increase the tension. Also, the reduction in the natural sound was also a good choice on the part of Theo as the microphone we used picked up very heavily on the sound of the wind and it made cuts far more obvious as shown in the conversation between Joel and Seb in our preliminary in which the sound of the wind is so obnoxious it actually detracts from the actions in the scene.

Finally, the Misc-en-scene I think was also greatly improved upon as I think the setting of the old quarry far better matches the genre than the setting in the preliminary as we found that  having characters feel more isolated from the world is commonly used in the thriller genre to create tension and as a result having our characters next to a building and a car park may have detracted from the sense of mystery and as a result we decided to isolate the characters a bit further to increase the tension. Also the costume and props were greatly improved upon in the final piece as we realised that having a school uniform was probably not a young person might casually wear out so war focused on having clothes that we might wear ourselves for our characters so as to properly set the tone of the film.

Question 6

Question 6

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

During the previous year I have used a wide variety of technologies in order to produce our media product, including programs and hardware which was both relatively familiar and unknown to me.

Firstly, the use of Blogger in order to record our progression through the year was a learning experience for me personally, having never used the website before. However, having used it throughout the year I believe that I have become proficient at preparing, editing, and uploading blog posts so as to mark my progress through the course. As well as this, using Blogger over the year has helped me better understand the process of integrating a number of separate technologies with Blogger, including; Youtube, Prezi, and SlideShare, further expanding my understanding my understanding of Blogger and other similar blogging sites, as well as the use of HTML.

Moreover, during the process of recording my work on Blogger I also explored a number of ways of producing my content outside of the text post which is normally used. One of these 'outside' ways of producing my content- which i used for a number of posts- was Prezi. Having used Prezi only once prior to the creation of our blogs it was initially quite challenging to format presentations on the site. However, with time I have gained a better understanding of the site and its potential for presentations such as mine to the point which I now prefer to use Prezi over alternatives such as PowerPoint- which I used for my 'Investigating Thrillers' presentation in conjunction with SlideShare to upload the file to my blog- due to the fact that, although I had knowledge of both prior to using them, Prezi allowed my to present a better visualisation of my ideas.

I also used YouTube to present a number of my productions on my blog, including but not exclusive to: some of my evaluation questions as video essays, my questionnaires, and any practical films produced. Much like Prezi I had rarely used YouTube as a content producer prior to the creation of my blog and with use have found it to vastly more useful than other video uploading sites which were available. YouTube was also a useful in researching the techniques used in the opening sequence of our genre, specifically watching productions such as; Seven and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

For the actual production of any practical films which I was involved in I made use of the DSLR camera- the Canon EOS 1100D- which, although I had previously used on a number of occasions, I believe I have become far more experienced with this camera in particular over the past year due to the large amount of time I have spent using it. This enabled me to better demonstrate my knowledge of media and camerawork techniques as a whole in my final piece due to the use of the camera over the year as I gained a better understanding of both the mechanical side of the camera- in both the manual focus and the zoom of the lens- as well as the digital uses in controlling the exposure and auto focus of the camera.

Also, during post production of some of our films I have been able to expand my knowledge of two different types of editing software; Lightworks and iMovie. On the one hand, I was already fairly knowledgeable in the use of the iMovie, having used it through GCSE editing, yet I have still been able to become more confident in using the software after using it to edit most of my practical pieces including my 'Day in the Life', as well as in order to present my audience interviews. Lightworks, on the other hand, I had only used once prior to editing my evaluation questions in the creation of a short film outside of school and as  result it was initially more challenging to use than iMovie, having a greater amount of depth to the program. But, with time, I believe that overall I was able to understand the possibilities offered by using a more complicated program -compared to iMovie- as it enabled more precise editing and flexibility of effects which were not available in iMovie, and therefore despite the learning curve I believe was a better editing software to use.

Finally, we were able to use social media sites such as Facebook in order to make arrangements for meeting and filming our final piece. This was infact a vital part of our production process as we were able to coordinate days for filming on the moors in order to provide not only the most available time for each member of the group, but also allowed us to predict weather conditions for filming and thereby insuring that the misc-en-scene of each shots was not entirely out of place.

First Cut

Audience Interviews

Evaluation Question 3

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why? 

As we finish the pre-production of our film we can now gain an insight into the type of institution which would likely want distribute our product, and which distributor would best match the type of film we are producing, as well as targeting the correct target audience.

For our film, I believe it would beneficially to have a smaller, thriller focused distributor which has previously worked with independent film producers, such as ourselves, previously. Following this basic outline I found a number of institutions which may be a suitable match for the film we are producing, these are: Momentum Pictures, Altitude Film Distribution, Kaleidoscope Film Distribution, and Lions Gate UK. All of these institutions have previously produced films similar to ours, and are therefore likely to match or expectations for a distributor.

Momentum Pictures

On the one hand, Momentum Pictures appears to be an appropriate match for our film due to the fact that, prior to take over by Entertainment One, Momentum Pictures produced a number of films under the thriller genre; including large releases such as ‘The Woman in Black’ (2010) and ‘The Mechanic’ (2011) as well as number of slightly smaller releases in ‘Uwantme2killhim?’ (2013). Prior to the Entertainment One take over Momentum Pictures was thought of as ‘originally one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK’, this is also in line with our own independent film and makes this particular institution more possible due to its pedigree. However, following its acquisition by Entertainment One and, as of 2015, relaunch under its own banner of ‘Momentum’ the films produce appear to be leaning further from the thriller genre, this is exemplified by its two theatrical releases of 2016 so far; ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ and ‘Hard Sell’. This perhaps suggests that they may not be the best institution to produce a film of the thriller genre.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution

 In contrast to momentum pictures new direction, Kaleidoscope Film Distribution produces a large number of thriller films, including some of their newest releases ‘Grasslands’ (2016) and ‘Belly of the Bulldog’ (2015), suggesting that they would be very experienced in distributing a thriller film such as ours. However, most of the films which Kaleidoscope distribute are of a separate subgenre to our own thriller film as Kaleidoscope commonly ‘lean’ towards the ‘science fiction’ and ‘zombielike’ films, clearly demonstrated by two films I previously mentioned, both of which heavily focus on their ‘zombie’ side.

Altitude Film Distribution

Although Altitude’s majority of films are biopics or artistically focused they have acted as distributors for a few films with the thriller genre in the UK – Narcopolis and Spooks – as well as a number of thrillers released in France and Belgium, showing that they are open to the production of films of our genre. Also, in contrast to Momentum pictures the independent films which are produced by Altitude have a fairly small budget, which is closer to the aims of our film as it is likely to have a much smaller budget than the films produced by the other companies I researched.

Lions Gate UK

Finally, Lions Gate is a comparatively large distribution company - in regards to the other institutions researched – and as a result produces much larger budget films, as well as a greater variety of films, including a large number of thriller films in our subgenre, such as; ‘London Has Fallen’ (2016) and ‘Trap for Cinderella’ (2013). However due to the size of their company it would be unrealistic to expect support from such a large company in for a small independent film such as ours.

Overall, I believe that the most appropriate distribution company for our independent crime action thriller film would be ‘Altitude Film Distribution’ due to is experience with similar films as ours in both genre and film ‘size’.

Source Code

Source Code

Thriller Conventions

On the one hand, Source Code conforms to thriller conventions through the clear 'underdog' status of the protagonist. For example; the use of a high angle shot, looking down at the protagonist, implies the vulnerability of the character. Moreover, the misc-en-scene used also shows the protagonists vulnerability through the contrast between the two settings, whereas there is 'warm' lighting and suits in the office area, the protagonists setting has low-key lighting and he is seen with frost in his hair. The 'shadowy' misc-en-scene used around the protagonist alone is stereotypical of a thriller film, but the fact that he is clearly in a more 'dangerous' situation than those in the office emphasises his 'underdog' position.

A sense of tension is also created in this scene through thriller conventions, such as; the idea of a race against time, implied through the dialogue "the clocks only go one way here", as well as the use of fast cuts to create a sense of panic and confusion due to the unknown threat of the 'dirty bomb'. Tension is also created through the use of cross cutting as the characters are made to seem almost distant, this is reinforced through the change in effects on the dialogue, as in the 'office' the dialogue of the two in suits sounds quite clean, but when it cuts to the protagonist a 'radio' effect is added again showing the distance between characters.

However, Source Code goes against the conventional 'protagonist vs. antagonist' due to the suggestion of a second antagonist beside the -on its own fairly stereotypical- 'Bomber' in the suited man. This is implied through his his patronising dialogue, such as; "do you have any idea?" and "do you understand?", as well as his obvious disability which is (unfortunately) often used to 'mark' antagonists

Final Filming Location Photos

Storyboards

BBFC Certification

Film Pitch

Film Pitch

Editing as Punctuation

Editing as Punctuation

• "If [two characters] are in the same shot, I can say that they are united (by being in the same shot) or separated by the space between them..." - David Bordwell, Making Meaning.
• Meaning is subjective, it depends on the context and reinforces it.
• vulture.com/2014/01/best-punctuation-marks-literature-nabokov-eliot-dickens-levi.html
• Punctuation in literature is used to show what the writer is thinking
• Therefore, film 'punctuation' -types of cuts mostly- can be used to create the same effects.
• (acting is also a form of punctuation but comes under theatre more than editing).
• "My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three..."
• In literature this would stop the reader in order to add the casual detail of his mother's death.
• In film, this line could be interpreted as a cutaway for "(" then a flash cut for ",", mirroring how it seems on the page.
• A cut between shots can be used additively: 
• e.g "knife + a heart = 'sorrow'" - Einstein Sergei, Film Form.
• "Montage is an idea that arises from a collision of independent shots" or "a concrete word next to a concrete word yields an abstract image - Einstein Sergei, Film Form.
• Ellipses can be narrative, such as a sudden jump forward in time, or suggestive of something missing, like a scissors insert, or an abrupt ending.
• An 'editing ellipsis' can also be showing a passing of 'pure time' -shown through a abnormally long take, or freeze-frames on points of extreme importance (e.g death).
• Most importantly the insert of a vase between the shots of a happy woman to sad woman in Late Spring.
• "One morning, some weeks after her arrival at Lowick, Dorothea - but why always Dorothea?"
• Freeze-frame for narrative intervention (although a true 'narrator' isn't always necessary)
• A 'reverse' of the film is also defined as a sort of hyphen - Sliding Doors.
• Caesura in literature is used to show discomfort through the break in the line. In film, the insertion of 'wrong' cuts can also be used to create disruption, such as;
• Jump cuts between what should be a constant shot- discomfort.
• Split screen between characters near each other- distant created between characters who should be 'closer'.
• Dissolves when a straight cut should be- monumental.


• “It is that which at this instant, issuing out of a labyrinthine tangle of yeses and nos, makes my hand run along a certain path on the paper, mark it with these volutes that are signs: a double snap, up and down, between two levels of energy, guides this hand of mine to impress on the paper this dot, here, this one.” - draws attention to the fact that it is a medium.
• Replicated by media through deliberately obvious transitions, e.g fade to red.
• Sans Soleil draw attention to the medium through the used of black screens interjecting clips, suggesting it is part of a thought process. "If they don't see happiness, at least they'll see the black".
• "A shot presents us with the idea, or a sequence of ideas, and the cut is a 'blink' that separates or punctuates those ideas" - blink punctuates thoughts, so cuts guide the 'blink' and so suggest the progression of these ideas, creating abstract thoughts.

Investigating Thrillers

Investigating Thrillers

Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Evaluation

From the audience feedback it is clear that there was one area of improvement shown in our preliminary, this being the stability of the camera during the opening tracking shot. This is an area we were already aware of prior to feedback and simply required re-filming, something we will be aware of next time.

Title Sequence Conventions

Preliminary Diary Blog

Preliminary Diary Blog

Role

During the preliminary film production, my main role was cameraman, this included deciding which shots we should use and when. I also did some post-production including some continuity editing (shot reverse shot) and the overall colour and brightness.

Experience Filming

Overall, I had a positive experience filming. I think we worked well together as a team, although we were not always on the same page in some areas of filming it more of a positive experience as it allowed communication within the group.

Changes from the Storyboard

We made very few changes to the storyboard overall, only adding shots to the overall story line during filming in order to 'flesh out' the end product.

Changes for Future Filming Activities

If I repeated this practical the main change I would make would be to construct a better storyboard at the start of the the practical, so that it would include not only a idea of the story but include the camera shots as well as editing techniques which we plan to use in the final piece. This is due to the fact that a large amount of time was wasted during production was deciding which shots to use. I would also make sure we had more takes for individual shots as some, especially the stabilisation tracking shot, could have looked better with more time.

Developing of Skills

Although, I think camerawork is my most confident area of film, I would like to try the position of director as it would help in my overall knowledge of production.

Preliminary

Hitchcock Commentary

Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

Shot Reverse Shot

Where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

180 Degree Rule

The guideline that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another- or become a reverse angle.

Match-on-Action

Where the editor cuts from one shot to another that matches the first shot's action.

Eye-line Match

Presenting a character gazing into the distance then showing what the character is seeing.

Shot Types

Preliminary Planning

A Day in the Life

 

A Day in the Life

Shaun of the Dead, Opening Titles

Shaun of the Dead

The opening titles of Shaun of the Dead use repetitive rightward tracking shots as well as flat angle medium- long shots in order to present a almost 'storybook' style opening, as if the viewer is turning pages in a book. This is further unforced by the use of left wipe transitions.

The misc-en-scene used is also highly suggestive of the 'undead forces' as the characters body language is 'zombie-like' in nature, foreshadowing the events later in the film. For example the mindless mirroring of the cashiers.

The overall graphic style of the opening titles are also suggestive of a 'zombie film', the font used seems to be battered, with various holes in letters, implying something is not right

Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques

Analysis of the Thriller Genre

The Thriller Genre

First Post

1.)Picture

2.)Video

3.)What is Media Studies for?

Media is important to me personally due to its contemporary side, whereas other subjects do not focus on the present, due to medias presence in everyday life it is very useful to be able to convey meaning from what is shown, making it practically useful.

4.)Favourite Film, Director, and Actor

My favourite film is probably Slumdog Millionaire as it was directed by Danny Boyle, who's always amazing(and is my favourite director) the film also presents some very interesting themes.
My favoured actor is probably Gary Oldman, mainly due to hes performance in Leon: the Professional, as well as in Harry Potter