Media Evaluation - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our primary goal was to create the opening to a new thriller movie. To create our final product, we had to go through several stages – planning (which consisted of seeking consumer feedback and coming up with an original film idea), filming and editing on iMovie.

                                                       The BBFC categorise their films into six main categories –                                                       U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 and 18. A traditional thriller tends to consist of a victim and the main perpetrator or ‘villain’ (sometimes - and going against convention - the main character in a thriller). The setting is usually dark and suspicious, but realistic, so that the audience can relate to what is happening and there is usually one object of particular focus in the shot, such as a weapon. Reaction shots of characters are also often used to add more depth to the scene.

One opening we studied was the unconventional ‘The Happening’. In this, there is no known villain. Instead, the killer is unseen, and acts in waves of mass murder, making it appear yet more random. Also, due to the demeaning way that the victims die, the viewer feels more empathy for the main characters in the story, causing you to feel more of a dislike towards the menacing, invisible killer. The scene makes heavy use of reaction shots, especially with two friends on a bench, who are the last people to be affected in this scene. The thriller theme is re-enforced by the viewer having no clear understanding of why any of this is happening, creating an heir of mystery, which is also linked into the ‘unseen killer’ theme. We tried to adapt the use of reaction shots (close-ups of the face showing emotion) and regular close-ups on important objects (i.e. the knife), especially with the bride character.

We also studied the ‘Psycho’ opening scene. In this, the victim is female, which goes with the typical ‘slasher’ theme. Over 60 individual shots are made, giving an effective, almost 360 degree view of the setting. Also, these shot changes get more fast-paced as the opening continues to put emphasis on the severity of the situation, creating (through the use of straight cuts) almost surgically precise view of a murder. This gives the impression that the murder was planned and done with clear intent. Like ‘The Happening’, we do not have a clear view of the murderer, but we get the impression that the murderer is female. Lastly, there is clear emphasis on the murder weapon; a less-than-professional-killer kitchen knife. We used a similar knife in our own production, and tried to re-create this technique, especially when the female character stabs the tree, towards the end of the opening. I have also noticed that our killer is also female (like ‘Psycho’) but this was un-intentional – we simply wished to go against the usual ‘male killer in a hooded top’ with an unconventional, female character, who (especially earlier in the scene) seems relatively harmless. This was our background knowledge, upon which we based our own opening…

Media Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Not only did we look into films in our research, we also studied representations. Religious, ethnic and social backgrounds were the starting point of our research, mainly to show us the ropes. We then took it further – looking into representation in film. For example, in one of horror’s sub-plots, the ‘teen slasher’, there are two main characters – the victim (usually a beautiful, young blonde girl) and the killer – a tall, dark, mysterious man wearing a hooded top (traditionally to hide some hideous disfigurement he feels ashamed of…).

We looked to less conventional thrillers when looking for inspiration for our own – we decided that we didn’t want to do the traditional bank-robbery or murder mystery thriller; not only would we -most likely- obtain less marks for something like this, we wanted to create something memorable, that would stand out to the audience. As such, we decided to create an antagonist who started as a happy bride (portrayed by our use of close-ups of the character’s facial expressions and her body-language) and changed to create a darker character, but also to create a feeling of transformation (perhaps in some ways similar to the killer in ‘The Silence of The Lambs’?). Also, the kitchen knife is a convention of the traditional female role.

In contrast, our -potentially- victim is male. You see him running and appearing in the background of some scenes. There is also a scene in which he is getting ready for the wedding, and the voice-over (his inner-thoughts) says that he “can’t do this”. You get the impression that he is vulnerable, especially with the close-ups of his unhappy facial expressions and when the camera appears to watching him; the audience is put into the place of the camera in real-time.

Media Evaluation - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The big decision here was whether to go with a big film institution like Warner Bros. or New Line Cinema (creator of the infamous ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and apparently with ‘The Hobbit’ now on the cards), or to create an ‘indie’ film, which is becoming more popular in today’s media industry. ‘Leon’, ‘Memento’ and ‘Moon’ are all popular and successful indie films, and while they lack the large (and undoubtedly useful) budgets of films backed by film institutions, they often make up for this with unconventional and unusual techniques that captivate the audience.

Thus, I think that our production should be an indie film, as (due to a far more limited budget) it would be more challenging, realistic to said budget, and would give us a more rich experience. I would also like someone like Baz Luhrman (director of ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Romeo + Juliet’) or Darren Aranofsky (director of ‘The Fountain’, ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and most recently, the highly-praised ‘Black Swan’) as I appreciate their unconventional techniques when composing a film. For example, Luhrman’s fast optical zooms in both ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Romeo + Juliet’ create and almost humorous tone out of a simple technique, whilst Aranofsky’s montage used to show drug-use creates a powerful, deeply moving effect that is still easy to understand.

After some research, I think that my Indie film company should be ‘Artisan Entertainment’, who produced ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Pi’, which are both thrillers, along with ‘The Blair Witch Project’, which, like our film, is set in the woods, and we may be able to adapt this idea.

Media Evaulation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Between our questionnaire results and looking at our actual product, we decided to make our film a 15, following BBFC guidelines. This limits us with who we can address and -potentially- gain a profit from. On the other hand, it gives us additional creative freedom when making the film, and allows us to add / keep more graphical content, which will be useful, especially with the knife theme which runs through our piece.

So, we can only sell our product to those of 15 and above, which still leaves a large gap in the market, with the people that most often using the cinema being teenagers. Looking back at our questionnaire results (which we obtained from a total of 31 people), it is clear that the rating we have given our film is perfect – almost all of the people we asked were between 11 and 16 years of age.

As for other films we have looked at, ‘Donnie Darko’ was a 15, ‘Memento’ was also a 15 and lastly ‘The Happening’ was also a 15. Thus, the film we are creating also fits in well with films that other, more experienced directors have made.

Some of the information I found that told me how the guidelines are set I found on this website - http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Media Evaluation - How did you attract / address your audience?

To attract our audience, we looked to our questionnaire results. We found that what most people wanted was action in the product. We tried to address this feature with the actions displayed by the characters – we had two running scenes (one for each character) which added pace to the piece. We also addressed their request when it came to audio – the people we asked wanted ‘intense’ music. Our theme music consisted of mixed evil and mysterious noises found on the internet and mixed in the ‘Garage Band’ programme.

Finishing our product, one member of our group posted our piece on Youtube and Facebook and asked for feedback. The general consensus was good – that we had done a good job in creating or thriller. Here are the sites we used:

This is a link to Youtube, where we originally posted our video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3OC4Q5Gfgw

This is a link to a 'Facebook' post, where we addressed the audience once again, asking them to voice their opinions and tell us how to improve -

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001028088930&ref=profile#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=124840460917770&id=704723435

Media Evaluation - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To create our product, we used two programmes. These were ‘iMovie’ and ‘Garage Band’. Garage band was not new to me, as I had used it in a previous year, but creating something for our thriller still wasn’t easy. We all had ideas (good ones at that) but finding the appropriate section on garage band proved to be harder that first thought. In fact, we didn’t even begin our search for a soundtrack on garage band – our original soundtrack was from a signed band, so we had to remove it. It was a strong blow to our product as we thought it went really well with the piece, and had trouble letting go of it. However, we eventually mixed together a few things (some found on Youtube etc.) and created a second soundtrack we were all happy with.

I don’t think any of us had used iMovie before, but we found that we picked it up quickly which allowed us to move ahead with our product. This is also an important note because we ended up making three final pieces (hopefully each was better than the last…) because the first two seemed to be missing something; we didn’t know what it was, but the whole thing just didn’t come together when we finished everything. Our tutor told us that it “didn’t quite make sense”, so we added in a few more scenes (we went and did some more scenes during our free periods and lesson-time) to fill in any gaps in the story-line.

Public Review - Facebook

Here's a link to our video (from Youtube) posted on 'Facebook', so that our friends and family could review what we had done.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001028088930&ref=profile#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=124840460917770&id=704723435

Our Final Product

Here's a link to our final piece, posted on Youtube by a member of my group.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3OC4Q5Gfgw

Media Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we started our preliminary task at the beginning of the school year, we didn’t have the widest knowledge of the things we were going to use. I hadn’t used Garage Band in quite a few years and I had no experience in iMovie. On the other hand, we had all used cameras, which meant that we got all of our filming done quickly.

When we started to edit for the first time (in the prelim. task) we didn’t use many transitions between shots. This may’ve made our production I little jumpy. We managed to pick up our game and added more effects for the final product. We also cut out more un-necessary footage from our clips which made it smoother. On the other hand, we filmed longer clips so that we had more room to edit specific sections.

We had to use Garage Band to create the soundtrack to our piece. We didn’t use this in our preliminary task, so we had to get to grips with it in a relatively short period of time. Also, we had even less time because we had two plans previous to using the Garage Band programme. Firstly, we were going to use the Macs in the music room, but we were unable to get hold of relevant cables to link them onto the keyboards in time, so we had to call that one off. We also had a song (as mentioned earlier) that went well, but we couldn’t use it because it was from a signed band.

All in all, I think my group and I adapted quickly to using different technology and computer programmes within media.

The Prelim - Then and Now

The first time we whent out with the camera, it was a joy. We got a variety of interesting shots and plenty of footage. Somehow, through doing all this work, we also had fun!

All was not as it seemed. Although we got a lot done, there was still a lot to do. We found that we didnt really have everything we needed and we ended up filming the same (or simelar) scene in two different rooms. I think this happened because we didn't really have much experience using the camera, but that wasnt all.

Looking back now, after doing both our Preliminary  task and actual coursework, I can firmly say we didnt plan enough. We found ourselves searching around forn as setting we liked when really we should've done all this before hand. I say this because, one man down to a vicious case of flu (that man being me, both one of the camera-men and an actor in the piece), we still managed to get a whole morning-to-midday's filming done in about two hours. This was all down to planning.

FINALLY - media ideas pitch