Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

My final media product uses conventions of real media product throughout including smooth transitions between the present time and the flash forward and the non-diegetic sound.

Flash backs are commonly used to narrate a thriller genre therefore I decided to attempt to challenge the usual conventions and use flash forwards. However this is not very obvious but I wanted to create a lot of mystery in the first two minutes to make the audience want to continue watching in order for it to make sense. This is a far more complicated narrative structure to my preliminary task because I wanted a story to able to evolve from my two minute opening, instead of a simple conversation which was used for my preliminary task.

This is an example of a flash forward scene from my opening production

This is my main character in the film's 'real time' during her interview







This is my narrative structure. I included my flash forwards as I wanted to make the audience aware that something bad was going to happen to the cousin but they wouldn’t understand straight away therefore wanting them to continue watching to find out.

The characteristics used within a stereotypical thriller film normally have more antagonists than protagonists and the ‘hero’ character usually prevails through all. I have used the normal conventions of this idea but developed on it by using two girls and having the native character becoming the victim and the previous villain becoming the hero. I have chosen my characters to be female however as the antagonists will be male and I wanted the contrast of sexes to challenge the usual conventions of thriller films.

This is the main protagonist, played by Liam Neeson, in Taken (Pierre Morel: 2008) He is shown as the stereotypical strong male hero.

Jodie Foster plays Special Agent Clarice Starling, the protagonist of The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme: 1991) She is an atypical protagonist for a thriller, which is what I wanted to achieve.

This is the protagonist (Liam Neeson, standing left) faced with the antagonists’ gang members. This appear intimidating due to their extreme difference in appearance to Liam Neeson. This is what I would like to achieve in my product.

(Taken: Pierre Morel – 2008)

Evaluation 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film is based in a country town, similar to the towns in our surrounding area, and the trouble began in a bigger city like London. I have chosen to set the majority of my film in the country, as I would want to attract the middle class teenager/young adult audience. I have included the harsher side of London to outline the towns’ extreme contrasts that will come together throughout the film. This would help my film represent more social groups which are involved in today’s youth. The main social group I want to target is young adults between the ages of 15-26, this is because I think they should be around sixth form/college/university age and this is the age that thriller film stereotypically attracts.

In my preliminary task, even though I was meant to appear as a teacher, and my partner as the student, this was unclear and I don’t believe it worked as we did not correctly characterise ourselves.

My film’s main character is a young female, aged between the ages of 17-19. This is clear by the way she sits whilst being interviewed, her clothes, and the way she speaks. Her previous social group is a rough image from a city that would appear as a gangster image.

The contrasting character is her cousin, who is a mature teenager who has a clean record and is completing her education. Her outfit shows this by contrasting Katie’s puffer jacket and hoodie with her smart black jacket and neat jeans.

The contrasting social groups help me represent a larger section of today’s youth. I have presented them through the character’s clothing, attitudes and speech. When Katie is seen in the same scene as Rachael, Katie is wearing a puffer jacket which contrasts to Rachael’s subtle jumper.

By including Rachael’s car into the filming connotes that she is able to afford to drive and buy a car which contrasts to Katie who has to phone Rachael in order for her to go home. They are both seen with phones however Katie’s is not seen close up but Rachael’s in a BlackBerry which connotes that she is wealthier than Katie.

I feel I have represented my contrasting social groups through clothing and props that are seen being used by the different characters.

Evaluation 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe my film is aimed at a mainstream audience, as it would involve people of all age, both genders and different backgrounds. It will also be a thriller film, which already has a large mainstream audience as a genre.

There are many world famous film institutions such as:

Columbia Pictures

Paramount

DreamWorks

Twentieth Century Fox

These sorts of institutions produce thousands of films a year. I would not want to use these institutions because they are too international for my film as it is extremely British therefore I would want it to be produced by a British based company.

 However for my film, I would want an English based institution to produce to reinforce its location and background. I have researched into the institutions that produced “Slumdog Millionaire”. Even though this is a very different genre to my film, it brought a lot of success to Britain and was extremely popular.  One of the institutions was “Film4”. I would want them to produce or help produce my film because their target market, which is channel 4’s, is very similar to who my film is directed to; teenage to young adults of both genders. This could help me advertise my film also as Film4 already has its own television channel which the advertising could be shown on and it already has a well-known reputation. I believe Film4 would be the best institution that might distribute my product.

Evaluation 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The intended audience of any film is important to consider from the very start of production. I asked people of my target audience to answer a short questionnaire to help me decide certain aspects of my film, as it is important to include what they want to see otherwise they may not be interested.

These are the completed questionnaires a small selection of my audience completed. I used a lot of their ideas and included them into my opening, as I believe the audience’s views are very important when creating a film.

I have filmed these opinions in a relaxed environment, instead of a professional one because I wanted it to appear more natural, relaxed and honest rather than controlled and prepared.

The audience I want for my film is teenagers to young adults of both genders, between the ages of 15-26. I have said this because this is the typical audience of the thriller genre therefore this is the audience I will be focusing on. To incorporate the intended audience into my film I have made the two main protagonists the same age as the audience in order for the audience to connect with them. I have also made them female so that my female audience can place themselves in their shoes and the male audience can be made to feel as if they wanted to protect them or maybe even be attracted to them. I have given my audience great thought when creating my film from the very beginning.

Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

When I was researching into my audience I discovered that in order to attract and address my audience, I will need to do what they want to see on my film. I watched a lot of different thriller openings such as “the hand that rocked the cradle” and “Taken” and took a close note on what I believe appealed to the intended audience. I then asked what my audience wanted on my questionnaire to be sure I knew what I needed to create. An answer I got was that my audience liked mysterious thrillers, this encouraged me to include the flash forward sequences to create a confused atmosphere as the person who was featured in the flash forwards was also featured in the very last section of the opening and introduced as the main character’s cousin. This makes my audience want to continue watching in order to find out why she gets kidnapped and what happens to her.

Another key aspect of attracting and addressing my audience I found was in the non diegetic music that was used. In well known thrillers, a good build up piece of music can stick in people’s head and make them get more involved within the film. This is why I research thoroughly into finding my non-diegetic piece. I did not want lyrics as I did not want it to take over the dialogue that was occurring. Instead, I found a steady track which built up steadily throughout the track which I believed perfect for my piece. It is also covered by copyright because on the YouTube track information it said:
“This music is free for all film makers to use. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their interest & very kind comments. I am very grateful for these boosts.

The splendid photograpy is from Kristin Maling on Flickr.

All the very best on thanksgiving,
Padraic"

I made sure I found this out before using this piece of music, and I have added her name to my credits.

Overall, I have found that in order to attract and address my audience, I needed to focus on the aspects of a film that appeal to my audience; sound, location, characters and narration. As well as this I found that by using techniques which are commonly found in thrillers so they can relate to them.

Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology has been virtually important throughout this project. Actually using the camera was the first stage. I believe I experimented with different angles and distances with each shot. I used extreme close ups as well as extreme long shots which I believe added varity to my opening and made it more interesting to watch. In my preliminary task I did not experiment with different shot techniques. I used simple medium shots with an over the shoulder shot. This has shown that my progression has been positive throughout this course as I have improved with using the camera.

The editing process of my film proved to be the challenge within this project. I spent many hours out side of the lesson editing my footage to make sure it matched what I believed I wanted to achieve from my storyboard. Due to the over time I put into my product I was able to finish a week before our deadline. In my preliminary task, because I was in a pair, I didn’t have a chance to do much of the editing myself and to get used to Final Pro. As I did this project completely solo, I was able to experiment with Final Pro myself and learn how to use it on my own. This proved successful as I was very impressed with my final product. I edited non-diegetic sound into my piece, and altered the volume of both the non-diegetic sound and the diegetic sound when appropriate. My favourite section of editing was when my character, Katie, gets into her cousin’s car. I have edited he footage so it comes a match on action shot which flows brilliantly and reinforces my continuity editing without any discontinuity errors.

In order for all my coursework to be presented properly, I have been blogging. I have never blogged before and therefore this is a new aspect of technology which I have never used before. I wasn’t used to it at the beginning of the project however as my product progressed, I became better at blogging all my activities. I believe I have done the right number of posts to suit my two minutes opening as I didn’t want to blog too little, therefore missing information out, yet I didn’t want to blog too much with too little information on each post. I am happy with the presentation of my blog also and believe my ICT skills have been demonstrated well throughout.

The background I have used on my blog reinforces my genre of thriller as I wanted my blog to match my two minute opening.

I have also made my blog archive bigger and more accessible for the examiner to see all my posts over the months.

Evaluation 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In my final product, I conducted a lot of research and planning into every decision I made. However I did face a problem with my mise-en-scene with my interview room. The problem was that it appeared too light and friendly when it needed to appear dimmer and more sincere. If I was going to film it again I would make this change. This was similar to the interview scene in my preliminary task however the scenarios were different; my preliminary task needed a lighter, more relaxed atmosphere which contrasts with the atmosphere I needed for my final product which should have been more sincere however I did not manage to create this atmosphere successfully.

In my preliminary task, me and my partner also used an interview scene to show our over the shoulder shots. However I didn’t want to use over the shoulder shots in my opening section to show my interviewer because I did not want any attention taken away from my own main characters.

The editing in my preliminary task was done well, especially the match on action with opening the door and leaving the interview area. This inspired my match on action editing in my final product which turned out to be my best section of editing in the two minutes of footage I edited.

My narrative in my preliminary task was very basic, with only a few lines of exchanged dialogue. I wanted my final product to have a complicated narrative because in my questionnaire, the people I asked preferred a mysterious thriller film to an obvious one therefore I wanted to confuse my audience in the first two minutes so they continue watching it throughout. However this may of become too confusing for my audience because I did not want to use unnecessary titling to explain the situation, for example “4 months earlier” as I believe they appear unprofessional.

The filming of my preliminary task reinforced knowledge of certain basic shots which I was able to without difficulty in my final product. The issues we faced also in the preliminary task I was able to avoid for my final piece or to adapt to make my product different and better, therefore making the best result I could have achieved.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I believe I have improved a vast amount since then. In my preliminary task I was with a partner and we just experimented with a limited range of techniques including match on action, simple camera shots and a slight different range. We also faced issues with lightening which shows we did not consider our mise-en-scene thoroughly enough. Our problem with the lightening was that we filmed me with the sun directly shining behind me which made me unclear and dark to the camera. However I have used this technique to help me in my final product as I filmed Katie appearing from the light behind her as she walked down the stairs. This is because I wanted Katie to appear as a silhouette until she was closer to

My first personal reaction for my product

When I first played back my product to myself I was immediately aware of how loud my non-diegetic sound was. This was striking and I did not like it however I was pleased that I took away the non-diegetic sound when I included diegetic sound and speech, this prevented it becoming more of a music video than a thriller film and I was happy with this.

My actual filming I was happy with as I believe my shots were steady and focused throughout. I was unhappy with my mise-en-scene in the interview room as it was too bright and clear for the atmosphere I wanted to create. If I could re-do this, I would of made the room dimmer and seem more sincere.

My mise-en-scene when Katie walks down the stairs out of the police station worked well as I wanted the light behind her so she appeared to be a silhouette until she became close enough to the camera to be seen.

The match-on-action in my piece worked fantasically and my favourite section was with Katie entering her cousin's car. This flowed brilliantly and was a clear example of continuous editing.

Overall I am quite impressed with my final piece although there are some downfalls but I have addressed them and will not carry on these mistakes onto A2

FINISHED

I believe I have now produced my final edit of my opening sequence.
As it is a week early, I will return to it throughout the week to ensure that it is finished to my high standards.
I have added all my titles credits successfully, and believe they are well incorporated into my sequence.
My first title is of my candidate number, centre number and name for the examiner. After this is when my film begins. It is obvious when it starts because the non-diegetic begins and my first title credit appears.

I am happy with the final outcome of my two minute opening and I hope people agree with me when they see it.

Non Diegetic Sound Issues

I have taken the decision to mute my non diegetic sound during my interview scenes and any dialogue uses as my opening was becoming dominated with the thrilling music. I didn't want this to be the case so when it was brought to my attention by my teacher I quickly made these edits and editing the music all together so that it remained to flow.

Incorporating my credits into my film

I have selected a typewriter edit to get my credits on to the screen. The reason I have done this is to re-enforce my title of 'The Statement' because it is about telling a story which can be done upon a typewriter.

All my credits are the same font, same size, same colours and stay on the screen for a minimum of 4 seconds so my audience would be able to read them. I made these decisions due to the research I carried out on thriller films and they used the same similar things.

Edits to my credit titles

I have chosen to edit the following title:

5.  Music from Padraic on YouTube    to    5.  Music from Padraic


I have done this to make the appearence of my titles look more professional. I believed referring to YouTube in my opening titles looked unprofessional and if it was to be released, YouTube may of been unhappy as I did not ask their permission to use their name in my titles.

All filming completed

All my filming got completed on Thursday (3th February) and now the script is not visible within any scene in my opening sequence.

I am very grateful for my actors for helping me re-film my interview sequences. They were both very professional which helps my filming get finished quicker and the end result be better.


I am happy with the result of my filming. Each section of filming I did, my actors knew exactly what they would be doing and how they should act due to my storyboard, shooting scripts and narrative structure. Each of my actors knew what was involved in their character which made them easier to act and gave me a better result.

Mixing Non-Diegetic sound with Diegetic sound

When I have used dialogue throughout my opening, I have left the non-diegetic sound running quietly in the background to leave it to build the tension. At the end of my two minutes is the only time I have lowered the diegetic sound for the non-diegetic sound to take over. I have chosen to do this to add suspense to the car pulling away as the audience has seen that the driver gets kidnapped but they do not know why or how, this adds to the tension I want to enforce with the music.

On Final Cut, I have lowered the diegetic sound, and enhanced the non diegetic sound to leave the two minutes opening on a high suspense level. This is a screen print of how I have done it.

Adding titles and editing sound

I have now added my non-diegetic sound to my opening sequence with the clicks of filming I have done. I am now working on making the sound louder and quieter at the right times as you can see on the screen print above.

I am also now adding the titles I pre-arranged on top of my filming so they appear over the top of the filming. This applies to every title apart from my first one which is on top of a black background as it is at the very beginning. This is to prevent my opening beginning too quickly and the audience missing the first few seconds.

More filming

 I am taking out a camera on Thursday the 3rd of Febuary to re-film my interview scenes because the script is too obvious and looks very unprofessional.
When I noticed this error, I thought it would go past un recongised and I would be able to make it look like a piece of the set however it is clear Katie is reading from it and it affects my whole mise-en-scene.

I have also taken out an over the shoulder shot of Katie from within the car because you could see me filming in the background (reer view mirror). Instead of re filming this, I have realised I do not need this shot and I have taken it out and my opening still flows nicely.

Filming Completed

I managed to finish all of my filming today (Friday 28th January)
In total my filming took 3 days to complete (14th, 21st and the 28th). This is due to the changes of locations and when my actors were able to be free at the same time.

 This is a photo of me filming in the back of Rachael's car. This proved one of my hardest shots as the tripod was not able to stand up so I had to hold the camera steady whilst the car was driving.

These photos are in Audley End where I filmed Rachael after she had been kidnapped. The weather was clear and the lighting was good for a focus on Rachael's face. It was also quiet enough that no one disturbed us whilst filming.

When I filmed outside the police station, I phoned up the station before hand to warn them that I would be directly outside with a camera and explained why I was doing that. I left them my number in case they had any issues during my filming and thanked the policemen outside when I left.

The front door I filmed is outside my actor's house therefore we had full permission to use it.

I ensured I had permission to use all of my locations to avoid getting into any trouble and having to delete my footage.

Change of Location

I needed to change the forest scene of my filming due to the time we had to film and where my actor could get to. I changed it to Audley end because of the trees could be seen as a forest if filmed at the right angle. I needed to go to the location and make sure there was a spot where I could do this without the camera seeing the surrounding areas which looked to central for my ideal location.
The location of this shot is where Rachael has been placed when kidnapped which is shown in the flash forwards in my opening two minutes during Katie's interview.

This is the photo I took when researching my location before filming my sequence. I will make sure not to get the fence in the far left of the photo in the shot as this would make the location seem less remote than intended.

 This is a photo of the surrounding areas in which I filmed in. As you can see, it is an open space, so it wasn't ideal for what I wanted originally however I believe I have been able to make it work by focusing on a single section.

All change again...

Due to my actor being able to film with me today, all things can remain the same :)

Changes

Due to one of my actors letting me down, I have to change my hollywood narrative structure of my film to make sure it will make sense as I have to film my last 1/8 of filming.

I have created a synopsis for my film also, this is what would be shown on the back of the DVD case when it would get released.

Synopsis

Katie Smith (Katherine Looker) has finally been given her excuse to move away from her dangerous life on the street and migrate south to live with her remaining family, her cousin (Rachael Hermitage). However, the excuse is the reason she will now live her life in fear. And she needs to.

Five years previous, Katie witnessed a horrific crime which results in her statement being responsible for justice. But when you prosecute against the leading gang of the city, they will find you. Even with their leader now in prison, it has begun their mission to discover the whereabouts of Katie Smith. And they succeed.

When mysterious disappearances of all her friends from her old life reach the national news, Katie becomes to realise that she won’t be able to hide forever.

Betrayal hits a record level high as the gang get closer and closer to Katie and gets the next best thing. Her cousin. Tension, suspense and action run side by side as Katie fights for her cousin before it’s too late.

I have created this because I need to include that supporting roles within the films are getting taken and killed as well as her cousin.

Although this is a big problem, I have to be able to work around it and adapt my storyline to support this. This is an issue most film makers face with actors however it must not be able to ruin a film.

Audience interaction with my film

Results from my questionnaire showed that all the people I asked wanted 2 protagonists within a thriller film. This is the reason I have only two main characters which the audience would relate to. The others that would be in the film would be either antagonists or supporting roles to the protagonists.

The element of mystery to my opening sequence has been influenced by my questionnaire as they all answered that they prefer mysterious thrillers to obvious ones. This means that my opening which involves flash backs and present activity would confuse my aaudience and make them want to watch more to find out what is happening.

75% of the people I asked prefered a location of a city fo a thriller. This is why I have used town shots in the opening sequence to create that atmosphere.

My answers to my questionnaire were split 50/50 with what sub genre they prefer from a thriller between Drama and Action. Therefore I have decided mine would be a well combained mix.

The gender of my protagonists (female) are like this because even though 50% of the people I asked didn't think this was important, I do. By choosing female it allows a female audience to relate to them and a male audience to feel protective for them and even be attracted by them.

Overall my target audience has affected a lot of my decisions for my opening sequence.

My non-diegetic music

I searched the internet for copyright free music and I have decided on using this clip from youtube.

I know it is okay to use this music because in the description of the clip this is written:

"This music is free for all film makers to use. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their interest & very kind comments. I am very grateful for these boosts.

The splendid photograpy is from Kristin Maling on Flickr.

All the very best on thanksgiving,
Padraic"

This covers any copyright issues.

The beginning of editing

I have now begun to edit the clips of filming I have filmed in Final Cut Pro.
I loaded all the clip from my SD card I used in my camera, and moved them into final cut pro. Now I need to arrange them, cut them and edit sound in each section and add the non-diegetic sound. I'm looking forward to arranging all my footage to bring my two minute opening together.

Credits

I have Storyboarded 7 credit titles to appear throughout my opening sequence:

1. A Vinyard Production
2. Katherine Looker
3. Rachael Hermitage
4. Charlie Collett
5. Music from Padraic on YouTube
6. Director Emma Vinyard
7. The Statement

Number 5 is the one credit I am unsure of as it has no real information but I do not have any of the music I have chosen therefore I will put the name that the person signed off the clip information as.
I have chosen to place the director's name last because the title sequence begins with 'A Vinyard Production' which would get my surname recongised by fellow media industries but I believed if I really produced an entire film on my own as a director, I would want my whole name mentioned also. By putting it second last to the title means it is the last credit that the audience will see, therefore they would remember it.

Props

The props I will need for filming are:

Rachael's car

Katie's phone

Rachael's Phone

A hooded Jacket for Katie



I am very glad that not many props are needed therefore my filming will be easier to complete.

Location

An added location is outside the police station where I need to shoot Katie getting into Rachael's car.
I have found this image on Google maps and I know the location well.

Final Storyboard

My first shot of my opening film is a black screen with credits as I want to get the audience's attention before beginning for a duration of 4 seconds to match previous opening credits I have researched.
 My second shot will begin with Katie in the interview room with the voice of Charlie throughout the dialogue. It will be a 'Noddy shot' with Katie on the right side of the frame. It will be a medium close up just of Katie with quiet non-diegetic music under the dialogue.
 My sixth shot (I have edited the order) will be a slow zoom of Rachael tied up within a forest surrounding, a flash into the future. It will begin a medium close ending in an extreme long shot with louder non-diegetic music and no dialogue.
 My fifth shot will be back to the same interview scene as shot two with the same details.

My third shot is a medium shot of Rachael being dragged out the frame after her entering her front door. Either one or two people will grab her. Louder non-diegetic sound will play along with the diegetic sound of Rachael screaming.

My fourth shot is an extreme close up of Rachael's phone on the floor with Katie calling. The non-diegetic sound will be playing as well as the ringtone as the phone rings.

My seventh shot is the same shot as my second and fourth with the same details.

My eighth shot is a medium close up of Katie getting up from her chair in the interview room and leaving towards the door. This will end the interview shots and joint dialogue between Charlie and Katie.

My ninth shot is Katie entering the frame at the top of a flight of stairs with the light behind her as she appears as a silhouette. This will be a long shot and as she walks down the stairs it will end in a medium shot with her on her phone speaking.

My tenth shot is a long shot of Katie to the left of the frame on the other side of the road behaving impatiently.

My eleventh shot is the same long shot of Katie towards the left of the frame and react as Rachael's car pulls up.

My twelfth shot is from a different angle of Katie - long shot - to continue match on action of the car door opening.





 My thirteenth shot is a medium shot of behind my two actors from inside the car. It is of Katie getting in the door to complete the match on action.

My fourteenth shot is inside the car, a medium over the shoulder shot of Rachael whilst she speaks dialogue.

My fifteenth shot is a reserve over the shoulder shot of fourteen of Katie speaking dialogue.

My sixteenth shot is a close up of Rachael's number plate as she pulls away, ending in a long shot as the camera sees her driving away.




I have numbered my comments wrong after the sixth one due to the edits I made when rearranging my shots at the beginning. I'm sorry about this.
I will carry my story boards and shooting script with me when filming every section to ensure these are followed closely.
It is obvious I have over looked and reviewed my story board because of the edits I made at the beginning of my opening. I felt it would make more sense to the audience if they saw Rachael getting captured firstly before the shot of her in the forest. I will make it obvious it is a flash forward by showing Rachael later in the opening in different clothes to show a different time.

Actors I have chosen

The actors I have chosen are:

Charlie Collett
18 years old

 Rachael Hermitage
17 years old

Katie Looker
17 years old (18 when I will of completed filming)








I will feature in it myself but not directly. This is because I need someone to kidnap Rachael and the times I plan to film does not match any one else who would be able to make it. So I thought I'd step in.