1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Top left: Using focus pulling. This typically used in a thriller film as at first you are unable to make out what the subject is doing which creates suspense and also enigma. The audience may be asking at this point, “Who is she?” “What is she doing inside a cage?”. We didn’t use any extra lighting in this scene as the natural light was perfect. We used added non dietetic sound as again it created suspense and tension.
This focus pulling technique we created on the camera rather then in the editing suit. It was more difficalt doing it on the camera but we tried kept trying as this is the effect we really wanted for this scene so we didn’t give up.
Here is an few examples of focus pulling: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNKpjrxINos
Top Middle: This is where we used a tilt downwards on the female subject. We did this to show the audience that her feet and hands were tied up. this is to create enigma and suspense which is the main techniques needed in a thriller film.
Top Right: we showed the antagonist walking down the field. This looks like stereotypically a male protagonist (scary and big) dressed in un feminine clothes so show dominance towards the other character and to make him look more confident whereas the other character is small and female. We showed it in the middle of a field as it looks as if no ones around which is what we wanted to portray and this creates enigma as people will be asking “what are they doing in a field what looks like the middle of nowhere?”
Middle Left: Again we used focus pulling here and a point of view shot. This is to show she is maybe drugged and keeps passing in and out hence the focus pulling on the other subject walking towads her. This scene is now obvious that the girl is inside a cage, this creates further enigma for the audience. We did the focus pulling though editing on final cut whereas the other focus pulling shot was done on the HD camera.
Middle Center: This is the dragging shot where we had to re film a few times as we changed our minds. Again the lighting was natural lighting was perfect so we didn’t have to use any lighting. This is a typical scene for a thriller, a poor innocent girl gets drugged and dragged somewhere so when she wakes up she has no idea where she is. This creates suspense and enigma as the audience will be asking about where she is going and why. We have used a high angle so we are only able to see the feet of the characters. We have done this to again create enigma and so we are unable to see the face of the villen to keep everyone is suspense.
Middle Right: This is a point of view shot in the boot of a car. It shows the subjects point of view as they are lying in the boot. Again we used depth of field (focus pulling) to create the drugged effect. She does not know where she is and she keeps passing out. You are also unable to see the protagonists eyes or face as they are wearing a balaclava, this creates enigma as you are cant see the subject properly. We also used a canted shot as the girl is lying in the back of the car boot. this is suppose to symbolize she is weak and is unable to put her head up straight. We also used a foly a this point to make the sound of the camera louder and to make it more obvious that she is taking a photograph.
Bottom left: This is an example of where we did off screen sound. You cant see anything but you are able to hear a heavy garage door closing. This creates suspense and you may not be able to work out what the sound it to begin with but as the scene goes on it turns into on screen sound which then you are able to see. By having off screen sound it creates enigma for the audience. This is also dietetic sound as you can hear what both characters are hearing.
Another example of this would be if you heard a gun shot but you do not see anyone getting shot, this creates enigma as you are unable to establish who got shot.
Bottom Middle: Camera. We wanted to shoot at different angles in our short film so we decided to do this shot like this. This included the two characters in the same scene we focused in on the stereotypical victim and the backshot of the antagonist is slightly blurred. This is again to create suspense are you are unable to see the location and second subject clearly. This creates enigma.
Bottom Right: This is where we did our CCTV shot. We shot this like a normal scene and then changed it on final cut pro to make it look like CCTV. We actually shot it in night vision as it created this green color. This was very effective and they use this in thrillers to show a protagonist watching the victim in a cctv camera. We shot this as a high angle so it gives the illusion of the camera looking down and observing. Here there was a lack of sound. This is as we wanted to audience to only focus in on the girl and nothing else to create enigma.
The Main Conventions of a Thriller film is that in the opening it asks more questions than it answers (enigma) I think our film does this. Why is the girl in the cage? Who is she? Who is the person dragging her though the leaves? Where is she going?
At the Beginning of some thriller films, they do not reveal the identity of a character this it what we did. an example of this would be the dark night.
As you can see their faces are covered so you are unable to see the identity of these people. that’s what we did in our film to create enigma.2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our Protaginist Character (Jaz Bendell):
If we automatically presumed that the villain was a female character and say the victim was male then then I think that the audience would view the film differently. The male audience may not have wanted to watch the film as if we made the villain look male they may get into the film and watch more. By making the character look male it makes the person seem more intimidating towards the Female Character.
We used a girl as the victim as we thought it would be a more realistic way to do it as stereotypically the female is always the victim. Our opening represents the female gender in a helpless and stereotypical way. As the female gender is stereotypically the helpless and nonviolent. If we were making the whole film we decided we would make the female character change stereotypically as she is going to be trained to be an assassin.
We automatically assume the female is from a lower class as the clothing she is wearing is not posh. She has mud on her face which again represents her social class.
We decided to have a low angle when the subject puts a case over the victims head. This is to show the villain has power over the girl as the character is higher up and has more dominance over her.
In a thriller, the stereotype would be that the female victim is a female that is weak and variable. An example of this in a real thriller film is "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" this is a thriller where a girl gets kidnapped, a bit like our film. but in this case there is stereotypically male villeins and a female victim.
The Disappearance Of Alice Creed Tailor.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
By making a deal with apple i think would be the way forward.
Spike Jonze, who is an American director created a short romance film called I'm Here, which was premiered on Facebook and Sally Potter, a British film director created a film called Rage, which was all filmed on an iPhone and is available on mobile, online, digital screens and DVD. This goes to show you do not need to spend loads of money on distributing a film
The reasons with going with apple are:
1. We are mostly attracting the older teenage audience, and most people this age use iTunes quite frequently so this way we can attract this audience. The main audience we presume will still in education which means they are on the computer most of the time studying and listening to music probably off iTunes. So we thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to advertise and sell our film with Apple.
2. By doing a deal with apple, you are able to watch movies on any apple device, whether that is an iPhone, i pad or an iPod. This is good as it means you are able to watch a film where ever you are, which is perfect for what we want. You can also connect your computer and your t.v together so you can watch the movie on your television too.
3. I would also try and get a deal with Orange too, as on a Thursday you are able to download and watch a film of iTunes on them. so with this the students do not have to spend loads of money on it.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
We think our film would be suitable for 15 year old teenagers amd above. so we would classify our movie as a 15, which means children under 15 cant see it. Our main target audience i think would be 15-30 but obviously older people are welcome to watch it and enjoy it but i think that the language and themes would be quite modern if we were to continue with the film. I think this film is probably more suitable for the older teens.
we rated the film a 15 as if we were making a whole film the girl would be being trained to be an assassin. I think by this storyline that there would be violence and maybe some strong language, which would be unsuitable for younger ages.
I think that mainly girls and women would watch our film as the roles are not stereotypical, for example the villian character is a women. This may come to a suprise for some female viewers and they may want to continue watching.
I think that most viewers watching our film would have also watched:
Cat woman...
I think they may have watched this as the villian is also female, and i think women get more drawn to these films as they are not stereotypically correct.
5. How did you attract/adress your audience?
I think that our audience would like our film as one of our characters is not sterotypical. The audence is led to believe she is a man before she relieves her voice which instantly you are able to tell she is a woman. People would love our film as it creates LOTS of enigma. For example, 'who is that girl? what is she doing in a cage in the middle of nowhere?' and questions like 'why is she being dragged to a big garage? why is there a person taking a picture of the girl?' we wanted to make the audience ask questions to begin with, but as the story unfolds you are able to tell who is who and what is going on.
I showed the film to lots of people and here's what one of them said:
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Camera and Lighting
Before this project i hadn't used an HD camera before, i had used a normal camera but not a HD camera. At first i was a bit weary of using all the buttons, but when started using it i found it really fun. the qaulity of the camera was amazing and it picked up every detail.
This inst the exact camera we used, but it is similar.
Editing
To edit our movie together we used final cut pro, which i found hard to use at first, but it was great for adding cool effects such as our CCTV scene we had. We also added our titles on final cut too, we wanted them to be simple and plain to contrast with what we see on the screen.
Sound
To add in any sounds we wanted to use, includin diogetic and non diogetic sounds we used garage band. I personally loved this, as we were able to find lots of diogetic sounds such as car boots closing to add into our film to make the movie seem more realistic. There were so many to choose from!
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the prelim task i think i have progressed and learnt alot more about the Camera, Lighting, and The Editing Process.
Top Left: i learnt how to do a smooth focus pull using the camera which i didn't know you could do, i thought you had to do i in final cut (which you can do as well.) we did this to show the audience that she is going in and out of conceousness and doesn't know where she is. i did this to create enigma for the audience.
Top Middle: in our prelim task, we used shorter takes to create a fast pase, to show the woman being late for her interview. We used that technique and put it into our thriller opening. we did this to create tension and enigma where is she? why is she there?
Top Right: We used non diegetic sound throughout our thriller opening, this is to create tension. since our prelim our whole group as been more confident in using garage band and we know how to find and add diegetic or non diegetic sound onto our film.
Middle Left: I have learnt and become more confident in adding titles and actors names onto our film using final cut pro. I have learnt to only add these in dark places to make them show up. some parts of our film we wanted to put them, but we were unable to as the lighting was not correct so we changed it onto her hair as her hair is quite dark so you are able to read what it says.
Middle Center: Here we used a foly for a lock. We were able to record our own foly on a sound recorder and then upload it onto garage band and then add it to our film. This was a new thing to me as we didnt do it in our prelim task. But i became more confident in it when we started doing it over and over again with different sounds.
Middle Right: Here we did a point of view shot, where i sat in the boot of the car and filmed and the point of view of the girl. In this shot we were able to create the character through Mise En Scene (costume) i also did a canted shot as it showed the victim to be weak and unable to do anything. I've learnt how to construct a character by using aspects of mise on scene, sound , editing and specific camerawork. In this shot the villain is shown through a canted shot, reflecting their mental and physical status. The villain is holding a pillow case, which in thrillers are associated with suffocation, making the audience feel isolated like the young girl. In our preliminary we used certain features of a teacher to make the audience believe it is real; for instance, the setting was in a room surround by educational papers, timetable and a computer.
Bottom Left: Here, again we used folys of heavy breathing and a car boot closing. We again did this ourselves using a sound recorder rather than finding one one garage band. We did this as it enhances the sound to make it seem more tense.
Bottom Middle: Here is a good example of a match on action. We defiantly perfected this from our prelim task as in that we had a few issues where the actor was not walking the same spread ect. but this time we knew exactly what we wanted and how we were going to film it. i think since our prelim we have definitely become confident with producing match on actions.
Bottom Right: This is where we discovered we could play around with the lighting, as it was a pitch black room, we decided to make the subjects face only be lit up by the screen. this made things more sinister as you are unable to make out the persons face properly. We were unable to play around with lighting in our prelim as our characters didnt have a huge role. And we shot in rooms which were already filled with light, so it was difficult.
I feel i have learnt alot from our prelim and thriller task. I have now become confident in using the HD camera, the lights, final cut pro and garageband this is a step forward as before i started studying media i wasnt confident in using any of this equipment but now i am.
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