Evaluation Final :)

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In our media project we tried to follow some normal thriller conventions rather than challenge or develop new ones. An example of one of the conventions that we used would be to not show the monster, this has been used before in several movies it was used well throughout the movie ‘paranormal activity’ and at the start of ‘cloverfield’ which showed the monster in the end contrary to the rest of the movie, not showing the monster or main antagonist in a movie adds tension due to the fact that it leads your mind to imagine what could be so terrifying or who could be so ‘messed-up’, also not showing the monster means that you can create a cheaper movie because you don’t have to spend loads of money on special effects or CG for example ‘cloverfield’ cost $25million compared to the thriller ‘snakes on a plane’ which cost $33 million to make. Below is an example of how a scene with the monster not being shown can create tension, it is a scene from the thriller movie ‘cloverfield’.

Another convention that we tried to follow in our media project is the use of quick snappy shots and edits this is used a lot to confuse and disorientate the audience in an action or chase scene the snappy shots mean that an audience can’t get a fix point in the location, which can create tension because the audience don’t know where they are and if the snappy shots are then followed by a long slow building shot it further confuses the audience and create tension because you don’t know what’s happening, also used a lot are quick changes between shots of the same thing which can also disorientate the audience. Below is an example of some quick snappy shots used in some movies.



•How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media project doesn’t really represent your average social groupings very well due to the fact that it’s not really set in the real world it set some time it the future which means that all the trends could have changed. But also it doesn’t show any social groups of people it only shows one of the characters in any detail in the 2 minutes that have been filmed and you don’t really learn anything about the character to put them into any sort of social group. Although it shows that the character is a teenage boy, which we slightly stereotype on by putting him in modern fashion with his hood up, it kind of gives some of the younger viewers of the film to relate to without thinking too hard about it, later on in the film you might be able to class people into different social groups better with the introduction of stereotypical characters such as evil scientists and the main protagonist. But in the introduction you can’t really see anybody else so it doesn’t give you much in the way of stereotypical character groups. Social representation has been shown well in films such as ‘Green Street’ or ‘this is England’. How you represent social class in films can determine how the tension builds in a scene, for example if you had a scene which shows a senior citizen approaching a group of youths hanging around a dimly lit street corner it will create tension more quickly than if you had a shot of two people discussing a crime or selling drugs. If you get social representation wrong in a film it could ruin the scene or movie for you. Below is a good and bad example of social groups represented in films.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?
During the planning process we had to decide who we would aim our film at, we decided that the audience for our media project would range from 15 to 50 year old people who like to watch a lot of thriller movies, which is a better start rather then filming a movie and then having to decide who it would be aimed at, it meant that we could film a movie with a specific audience in mind, but we also decided that it wouldn’t be really suited to the much older or much younger viewers as it is quite gory to watch and may have some more adult themes later in the movie so it wouldn’t be very suitable to take grandparents to watch or see on a family outing to the cinema. It is also more suited to people that like getting into the action straight away rather than letting the tension build slowly, it is also better suited to people who prefer action films as well rather than romances or other such genres also it is better for people who like how an opening sequence can set the scene but also doesn’t give much away that will foreshadow any events that may happen later on in the movie which lets you put little twist in the story line which the audience wouldn’t expect later on in the movie to shock them and keep them on the edge of their seats wondering what is going to happen next.

• How did you attract/address your audience?
We tried to attract our audience by keeping it very snappy to try and keep the audience guessing what was happening and to raise the tension in the opening moments of the film, we also didn’t show much detail to try and make the audience want to continue watching the movie to learn more about the storyline and characters. Another way we tried to keep the audience’s attention was that we also opened it with a heartbeat and some titles with some harsh and quick images of a dead person which were meant to attract the attention of the audience straight away, it makes you think ‘what was that about?’ and you want to watch to learn more about who this character is. Also after those opening shots of the dead character, rather than continuing slowly and attempting to keep slowly building the tension, we tried to start it with some quick, fast paced clips of a character running through a wooded area apparently being chased to try and get people in to the action straight away which can raise some tension but it also leaves us time to build the tension after that few opening moments .We also used different shots of the same moments to try and attract the audience for instance we used some first person shots alongside the third person shots in the same scene to make it snappier and also to disorientate the audience and keep them wondering what is going to happen next, this helps us build the tension because anything could happen at any time. Another way we tried to attract our audience was by somehow keeping it up to date with the youth of today by giving them a character that they could relate to rather than using some huge, big, action-hero-esque man that nobody can relate to easily without using their imagination loads.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt that adobe premiere pro is relatively easy to use but has quite a few flaws, like now and again it would freeze if you started working whilst it was still configuring or if you moved where the project was saved to the clips would stop working and you would have to start the editing process all over again, which could get you more stressed out each time it happens. Another bad thing about Adobe premiere pro is that it is hard to start using if you’re not used to that sort of stuff, if you have never done any editing before then it takes a while to learn how to do things on it but after you have learnt it is easy to keep doing it again and again. The cameras were the easiest pieces of equipment to use, from the off it is easy to learn what does what on them and they are extremely easy to set up and use quickly if you need to start filming quickly they are easy to use even if you’re not used to using camera equipment and haven’t done any filming before. All in all the equipment we used was really easy to use considering that I have never done much filming and editing before I started this course.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
There are several different possible production companies that I think would be perfect for our film to use to distribute our film, some possible choices would be 20th century fox, paramount pictures, because they have produced some highly notable thriller movies in the past and we have used some very similar conventions to some of the thriller movies that they’ve produced so could be interested in ours, also they are extremely big production companies so they would be able to help us get it distributed more effectively and also to more places and cinema screens.

Paramount pictures: cloverfield

Paramount pictures was the distribution company for the movie cloverfield, we have tried to use some conventions that were used to great success in the movie such as not showing the movie to start with and also trying to make it seem like it was videoed from almost a personal handheld camera, the budget for this movie was around $25million and its gross revenue was $170,764,026 if we had paramount pictures as our distributer we could raise our budget massively and make huge profit but also if we could raise our budget the film would be made into a more professional movie. Paramount pictures would also be a good distributer as they could distribute the movie in the millions and get it onto much more cinema screens then a smaller company the way that the 2010 movie ‘avatar’ succeeded was that they managed to get their movie onto screens in almost every city in the country and distributed into loads of different countries on DVD and Blue-ray as well which even though it would cost a lot, in the long run it would make much more profit then if it was only on a few screens and a few DVDs.

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on the media task, if I was given the chance to do it again one thing I would do is start and finish the research and planning stager earlier than I did so I could get everything done quicker and earlier. Also I think that I would start the filming stage earlier than we did which would give us much more time for the editing and evaluation stages, another thing I would do differently is put more time and effort into the editing stage then I did, I’m not very good when it comes to editing but I still think I could’ve helped out more and spent more time just smoothing things out and sorting out little errors that we had. Another thing I’d do differently is just have a play about with the different computer programs and pieces of equipment so I had some sort of experience with them rather than wasting time trying and failing to work out what did what. Another thing that I would do more effectively as a general thing would be to take more time when it came to time keeping and try to hit deadlines more effectively rather than being a little late with different bits, it would mean that I could take more time on the bits that needed more time put into them and we would be less stressed if things went wrong

Final edit :)

evaluation first draft (bullet points) :)

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? .It uses conventions rather than setting new ones. . Don’t show the monster. .Quick and snappy shots. .quick edits and different shots of the same things. . • How does your media product represent particular social groups? .our media project doesn’t really represent your average social groupings because : .its not really set in your average world. It doesn’t show any social groups of people. It only has a couple of characters in the 2 minutes that have been filmed and you dont really see enough details of the character to put them into a social group. I think later on in the film it might stereotype people slightly like evil scientists and other characters • What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 20th centaury fox. .Fox searchlight pictures. Because they have produced some highly notable thriller movies in the past and so could be interested in ours as they share quite a few of the same thriller conventionsas movies they have produced. • Who would be the audience for your media product? .The audience for our project would be 15-50 year olds .people who like to watch a lot of thriller movies, .but it wouldn’t be really suited to much older or much younger viewers, .people that like getting into the action straight away rather then it build slowly . Also how an opening sequence sets the scene and also sometime foreshadows events that may happen later in the movie. • How did you attract/address your audience? .We tried to attract our audience by not showing overly much and kept it very snappy to try and keep the audience guessing what was happening and to make the want to watch the rest of the film to find out, . We also opened it with a heartbeat and some titles with images of a dead person which were meant to attract the audience straight away. . Rather than starting slowly, we tried to start it fast paced to get people in to the action straight away. .We also used different shots to try and attract the audience for instance we used first person shot as well as some different shots in the same scene to make it more snappy. • What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? . Adobe premier pro is easy to use but has quite a few flaws. . Hard to start using if you’re not used to that sort of stuff. . The cameras are easy to set up and use quickly even if you’re not used to using camera equipment they are really simple and easy. • Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? . That the editing stage needs to have more time put into it. .That I need to take more care when timekeeping. .To film earlier rather than later. .To help more in the editing stages.

Props :)

In our opening scene we used several props to make our scene seem more realistic. we had to make sure there wasnt any continuity errors when it came to using the props and locations. One prop that we used was the NBC army kit,

It is usually used in nuclear, biological and chemical training for soldiers that pass through chetwynd barracks, we gained permission to use the equipment and outfits in the hanger area. We found them hanging up on loads of coat hangers along one wall and we decided that it would look really good as we needed some characters to look like army personel in the end we only used a few of the clips that we filmed of people in the NBC equipment.

Another prop that we used is the fake blood and injuries,

This equipment is usually used to train soldiers in first aid on the battlefield, we gained permission from the training staff who use the equipment to use it for our media practical project and we also got one of the training staff to apply it to the character, the image above is only a picture of the fake blood but there was other equipment used in the end we only used a couple of quick, snappy clips of the character with fake blood on their face to add more tension. we also used the fake blood to spray up walls which could add more tension to the scene we also gained permission to do that. below are a few pictures of where we sprayed it.

we also used a couple of plastic fake guns for the army characters to use to make it seem more realistic but we ended up not using those clips in our final edited clip.

We used this 4x4 several times whilst we were filming in the hanger, it is used usually to simulate a car crash, which is useful to us as at one point we needed to be able to film in a vehicle that we could possibly put fake blood in as part of the scene, we got permission off of one of the high-ranking people that live on the barracks to use this as a location. there are several possible safety risks such as the condition of the vehicle itself and a trip hazard that you can't see in the images but that we accounted for when filming by marking it out. we ended up not using the shots of the vehicle.

locations (:

In our opening scene we needed to find several different locations, so as I live on the local army barracks we would be able to use the wooded area and also a hanger with different things set up inside of it below is an image of a 4x4 that we used as a location for our opening scene.

We used this 4x4 several times whilst we were filming in the hanger, it is used usually to simulate a car crash, which is useful to us as at one point we needed to be able to film in a vehicle that we could possibly put fake blood in as part of the scene, we got permission off of one of the high-ranking people that live on the barracks to use this as a location. there are several possible safety risks such as the condition of the vehicle itself and a trip hazard that you can't see in the images but that we accounted for when filming by marking it out.

This is a mercedes it is one of the possible locations that we could have used, it is also used to simulate car crashes. We had the choice to choose between the mercedes and the 4x4 to use as our inside of a car location, in the end we chose to use the 4x4 as it seemed better suited to our needs as it was more 'beat up' and darker on the inside which gave wierd shadows and helped us create a feeling of tension at points. we also got permission off the high-ranking person to use this as a possible location for our opening scene. There were some possible safety risks near and around the mercedes such as, again the condtion of the car itself and some fake blood that had dripped off of the vehicle from when it is used for training purposes, we took care to make sure everyone knew where it was.

This bunker is one of the locations that we filmed in for our opening scene, it is normally used to training soldiers in stopping vehicles and checkpoint drills. we went inside it and filmed through the camoflage netting that covers it on top, it was again good because when we filmed out of it it looked like the 'creature' was watching the actor, which helped create tension. again we had gained permission to use the different set-ups found inside the hanger. there were possible saftey risks concerning the bunker, one being that the inside of it had sharp edges so we made sure to be careful when entering, exiting and moving about in the bunker also the floor inside was cluttered before we started filming so we made sure we cleared the floor before filming.

This is the training village set-up that we used as a location for our opening scene, it is normally used to train soldiers for ambush drills and room clearing. we used it for several shots in the scenes and found that it is quite well suited to a thriller movie as it has a lot of made up insides of rooms and houses that had fake blood plasted up the walls and on the floors (we added a little more then what we had st which again helps to raise the tension as you would wonder where it all came from and lets the imagination wonder and create scenarios. again this is a set-up inside the hanger that we had gained permission to use. There were less possible health and safety hazards than there were in the other locations but we still had a few trip hazards that we had to clear before we rehearsed and filmed.

This wooded area is another of our locations that we used, it is again used in the training of soldiers for different things. it is good as it offered loads of seperate places to film from which could help create tension as it shows the actor being followed by the camera which he doesnt know is there. Again we had to gain permission to use the training area. There were alot of different possible health and safety risks dotted around like trip hazards and big, sudden drops each one we found we made sure we knew where it was.

Questionairre :)

ues the image above is a picture of our questionairre. we asked what peoples favorite sub-genre of thriller is, what their favorite TV genre is, what age group we should target, what they like about opening sequences and more. We found that people's favorite sub-genres were a mix of disaster, horror and action and also that they believed the genre was aimed at a range between 15 and 50 years old and that it may not be totally suited to much older or younger viewers another thing we found out is that people enjoy how an opening sequence sets the scene and also sometime foreshadows events that may happen later on in the movie. we also found that people enjoy quiet and smooth introductions. we used these to help us decide what we were going to do for our opening scene.

planning continued :)

these are some pictures of our contiued planning the top left picture is an image of our storyboard which broadly outlines, with the camera angles, our plan for the opening scene of our thriller, at first it shows a scientist experimenting at a table with a microscope with a certain date and time in the bottom corner, then it blur to another shot with a red flashing light and an alarm going off at a later time and date it then shows some sort of team turning up with weapons or something close and surrounding the building, between this happening it cuts forward and backward in time showing headlines from earlier and later times and dates as a final shot its shows the camera falling to the floor and a body falling in front of the lens bleeding. we havent really decided much of the transitions yet but these will be decided soon.

the other 2 images are of some headlines that me and dougie created for our opening scene as it requires several different headlines saying different things from different times in the opening scene. we created them using the top logos of different newspapers and edited them in word.