Evaluation Question 7

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

When filming our preliminary task, we did not know much about planning or researching about our task, in order to to make it a successful product. However, when it came to our final product, we knew that we had to do a lot more planning and researching to appeal to our audience. This was because we had to conform to a certain genre, meaning everything we did had to be planned in detail.

Looking back on our preliminary task, it was obvious that we had a problem with consistency, as our footage did not flow nicely and this inevitably effected the standard of our filming. We were unaware of how to use the editing software correctly in order to cut at the right times, so that everything made sense to our audience. We also had no theme or genre to our preliminary task, which meant that it lacked purpose and didn't exactly make sense to our audience. This was something that we wanted to change, and so we did this for our final product.

During our planning stages, we decided to research other crime thrillers that we wanted ours to be similar to. To do this, we used the software media platform called 'YouTube'. On this, we looked up various crime thriller openings and came across 'The Call' and 'Taken'. We found these very helpful when putting together our storyboard, as we knew we wanted to have a similar plot to theirs, whilst still bringing aspects of uniqueness to it. Additionally, we used another software platform called 'Google', which helped me research the existing crime thrillers and also statistics on what our audience takes an interest in when it comes to crime thrillers. Researching our target audience was useful too, as we was able to manipulate the findings to include things that they would appeal to (such as costume, phones/props etc), to attract the right individual's.

I used various websites and found that 'The Call' and 'Taken' were very successful movies and the audience seemed to take a liking to the crime aspect of it. From looking at these thrillers, we knew that we needed intense non-diegetic sound, close-up shots to show the victims fear, point-of-view shots to make the audience feel as if they are the character themselves, and more. We also discovered that transition shots and special effects was not relevant to this genre, so as a result, we avoided including them. To look into this further, I googled statistics on what the most popular thriller genre is, and every website said that it was the crime thriller genre. This is because crime is kept quite hidden from the population, so to see it reenacted on television and in movies intrigues the audience. Furthermore, my group and I also googled what type of themes the crime genre often creates, and how.

From researching this, we knew what kind of camera-shots, angles, sounds, mise-en-scene and more to employ that the audience would want to see, in order for it to be a successful crime thriller. This enabled us to be a part of major production companies, and also have a chance to make our own merchandise, due to our carefully planned out props.

Unlike in our preliminary task, we wanted to make a storyboard for our final product. We felt that this was a good way to keep everything structured and organised, so that it was clear what our task was when we began to film. This avoided any confusion and enabled us to clearly show our ideas to the class during our initial ideas presentation. This particular aspect of our planning was very useful, as then we were able to get feedback from people who were part of our target audience. Some of the feedback was negative, so in order to improve, we made a comprise and changed some of our scenes in order to make our thriller realistic. Making it realistic was important to us, as crime is something that occurs everyday, so we couldn't make up a scenario that didn't seem like it would happen in real life.

We definitely feel that our specific shot types have improved since our preliminary task. During the first task, we only employed three specific camera shots which were: shot reverse shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule. However, during our final product, we were able to adopt close-up's, mid-shots, long-shots, extreme long shots, point-of-view shots, panning shots, high angle and low angle shots. This inevitably proved that we were able to use a variety of skills in order to make our thriller look to a professional standard, as our shots were more advanced. On the other hand, due to our antagonist and protagonist never making face-to-face contact during our final product, it did mean that we were unable to make use of the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot-reverse-shot. This was because there were never two individuals in the room at the same time. Looking back now, my group and I should of more thoroughly thought through the storyboard and planning of our crime thriller, in order to employ more techniques to acquire a higher grade.

After using all of the basic equipment and software during our foundation portfolio, I definitely feel more confident with it. I now understand how to use each feature of the camera's, iMac's, tripods and software's, as I used them all thoroughly throughout the year, and learned from my mistakes. Therefore I will be able to take this knowledge with me when I start my advanced portfolio.

I definitely feel that our end product was very successful in fulfilling the task-to create a thriller opening, as we carefully applied every single aspect, theme and stereotype of the crime genre that we possibly could. We were very successful at addressing our audience, knowing that they would be interested in the crime genre too, due to our extensive research and planning. Looking at other crime thrillers that we got inspiration from, I definitely feel that we did a good job at replicating it to a good standard, so that it looked like a realistic and successful product that interested the audience and put out the right kind of message that we was trying to create. After receiving a lot of positive feedback, and re-filming to get everything to a good standard, our target audience was able to agree that it is a successful final product, that reflected the crime thriller genre really well.

Evaluation Question 6

Click To Enlarge The Images

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

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

At the start of AS media, we thought that wanted to join an independent production company as they have a lower budget and would make it more realistic for us to go with them. However, after being able to use a high quality camera that made our product look more professional, we decided that it would be more appropriate to choose a Hollywood production company, as they are known for their top of the line equipment.

Hollywood movies are one of the most watched in the universe, due to their high standards, equipment and quality of filming. Their audience respond very positively towards their products and this is why we thought that we would best-fit in with them. New Line Cinema was the production company that we eventually chose, as they have many movies that have made big hits in the past. For instance, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Mask and The Conjuring. We felt that our crime thriller would fit in very well, as it is as intense as these films are. Additionally, the production company was only founded in 1967, making it quite new to the filming industry, compared to others such as Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox. We felt that this would make it much more realistic that we were to have them as our production company, as they are more likely to choose movies that require a lower budget, which is what we would need. This was also supported by the fact that they later became an independent film studio, which ultimately supported this.

When putting together our thriller, we were unsure on how we wanted it to be distributed. For instance, we had the option of making it a TV movie, a full motion picture, or make it to a standard where it would only be released onto the internet. After consideration, we came to a consensus that we wanted it to be a full motion picture. This is due to it being a very similar story line to extremely popular crime thrillers such as 'The Call' and 'Taken', which also posses the same aspects of mise-en-scene, camera shots and sound as ours did. Because of their similarities, we thought that our thriller would be acceptable enough to be featured in the cinema, as this particular story line statistically interests its audience. We also felt that due to the intensity of our thriller, it would be more effective if it was played on a big screen with large speakers, as this creates a more dramatic effect.

Because of our props that were incorporated within the thriller, we felt that there was a possibility that we could create some merchandise for our audience. For instance, our antagonists mask. People that watch our thriller might take a liking to the antagonist, and would therefore want to purchase a replica of the mask for annual holidays such as Halloween, or just for their own pleasure. This  is similar to what happened with the film called 'The Purge', as their masks are now available to be purchased online via large software's such as Amazon and eBay. This is an effective way to promote our product and form a connection with the audience.

Overall, my group and I felt that the best media institution to go with was an American one, such as The New Line Cinema, as they had a good reputation and attracted a wider audience due to their  high quality filming. This would also give us an opportunity to create some merchandise, based on our props (such as this mask) within our thriller. 

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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

From the start of our AS media course, we researched many different thrillers that were of the same genre as what we wanted to create. This ensured that we were able to make the best thriller opening, as we were able to pick out aspects of the already existing media products and chose which conventions we wanted to conform to, and which ones we wanted to convert from.

Looking at what other AS media groups did, we decided to upload our crime thriller opening into the social media platform called YouTube. This is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. This enabled us to appeal to a large audience.

Above is a storyboard of other crime thrillers that I put together. One convention that we decided to conform to was the idea of having a proletariat and protagonist. This creates the typical story line of good versus evil or good versus bad. We wanted to conform to this convention of the crime thriller genre as this is obviously the type of story line that attracts its usual audience for the genre. If we were to go against this convention, we may of lost our audience, as it's quite a crucial part of the crime thriller genre. To replicate this, we had a victim versus the intruder, which reflects real life crime, making it effective and realistic. 

Another aspect of our crime thriller that conformed to the conventions of the genre was our use of a cliff-hanger. Ending our opening just after the victim was taken is a good way to intrigue the audience, and it entices them to keep watching as the possibilities are endless as to how the movie ends. Ending our thriller in this way also cohered to the crime genre as it creates a fast pace atmosphere, which is a good technique to show off to the audience that the rest of this movie won't be boring, and will instead always keep them on the edge of their seat. We achieved this effect by using quick cut shots (cutting from the intruder breaking in, and then to the victim panicking and trying to hide), which ultimately built tension and suspense. One convention of our thriller that we did not conform to was the theme of investigation, we didn't want to create this kind of story line as we knew that it would be difficult and would be hard to find the right location in order to make it look realistic. Additionally, crime scenes usually have many people on site including; forensics, detectives, police officers and more. Because of this, we knew that it would be hard to find that many people to participate and therefore it wouldn't look professional.

In regards to the mise-en-scene, we mainly conformed to the genre in relation to the antagonist. When choosing costumes, we thought it would be best to stick to all black clothing in order to make it obvious to the audience that this was the bad person within the thriller. However, our protagonists clothing also consisted of a black top. This offered and interesting twist for the audience, as it could suggest that maybe the victim isn't so innocent after all. Although we did this, the top was also cropped which exposed the characters midriff, therefore cohering to the typical helpless girl in other crime thrillers. We felt that our choice in costume was both typical and unique, in order to attract our target audience and also offer a different and intriguing thriller.

Our next use of mise-en-scene within the thriller was props. Our antagonist was given a black mask that provided some mystery for the audience. We felt that a mask was effective, and offered a subtle link to other thriller genre's (horror and crime) such as The Purge (2013). We noticed within this movie that the masks kept us intrigued, yet scared; which is how we wanted our own audience to react. In this way, we conformed to the genre. However, one way in which we didn't was because we made the antagonist anonymous. In more modern thrillers such as 'SPLIT', and crime thriller TV series such as 'Criminal Minds', the antagonist is often shown from the beginning. Their face is usually not hidden as this is what makes them so interesting. The fact that this person looks so normal to the audience, when in actual fact they are completely mentally unstable, makes it much more intriguing. We decided to convert from this convention because it makes it clear to the audience that this will always be the bad person (due to the scary mask), therefore the story line will more or less be predictable. Therefore, by giving our antagonist a mask, it meant that the possibilities were endless as to who could be the culprit. The audience will then feel part of the thriller, as they would feel they are investigating it themselves.

Our last use of mise-en-scene was setting. At the beginning of The call (2013), it is filmed within a house. We loosely based our crime thriller on this film opening, as it was very relevant and similar to our own ideas that we wanted to create. Other crime thrillers, such as Taken(2008), was also filmed inside of a house when the main events took place. We decided to conform to this convention in regards to location, as it was a good way to keep the audience interested as they realise that the scary truth of home invasions can really happen to anyone. This helps us attract a large audience of all ages.

One other typical convention of the crime thriller genre that we did not conform to was the use of a male as the main character. Although it looks like a male due to the masculine features on the mask, our actual participant was a female. We wanted to steer away from this convention of the genre because we felt like it was too stereotypical to make the male the antagonist. This gives our thriller a unique twist, and we did this by using a mask that made the character anonymous. This is also similar to other crime thrillers such as 'The Purge'.

In regards to lighting, we mainly conformed to the crime thriller genre. Most existing products of this genre start off light, when things are good, and end dark after the crime has occurred. Examples of this is American Horror Story and Taken. We decided that this would be an effective technique to use within our crime thriller, as it is a good way to make the audience feel part of the film as if they are there too because it looks realistic. Additionally, it is a good way to reflect the events that occur during the light and the dark. Bright lighting would entice the audience to feel safe and happy, whereas dull and dark lighting would enable us to make them feel vulnerable and scared, therefore they are able to connect with the protagonist.

We employed quite a few camera shots, angles and movements within our thriller. When analysing other thriller movies, we noticed a significant  use of the close-up shot. This was effective at focusing on the fear of the victim, whilst also showing the anger and sinister expression on the antagonists face. Overall, this was useful when it came to making an intense scene, as it helps the character make a connection with the audience. The next camera shot that we used was the long-shot. This was effective because it showed the audience the antagonists costume, which was all black with a mask. This inevitably let the audience know that this was a dangerous intruder and helped conform to the crime thriller genre as he was wearing a stereotypical 'bad guy' outfit, therefore giving them the idea that a crime was about to be committed. 

Final Product- The Disappearance

Behind The Scenes- Titles and Font

Behind the scenes- Titles and font     

      

As you can see from the image to the left, we looked at various different fonts in order to find the correct one to fit the themes of our crime thriller. We used the software called iMovie in order to achieve our end result, as this was the easiest and most convenient way to do it. When looking at my titles and font research, it was much different from what we went with in the end, as it was too complicated to move these fonts onto iMovie. The font that we chose was the closest that we could get to the ones that we previously wanted, however, we still feel that it worked well.

Below, are images of our crime thriller title/font, the way it comes onto the screen and also a comparison to the psychological thriller 'The Black Swan'. We decided to use a black background as it suggests that bad things are going to take place within the thriller. The font is simple, yet effective.

We used a special effects font to make our titles fade away during the beginning of the thriller, which addressed everyone who took part in the thriller. Using special effects was effective because it brought it up to a more professional standard, as other thriller movies also do this. Such as a ghost thriller often has the fonts blow away to make it look like a ghost. 

Behind The Scenes- Directing

In the YouTube video above, it is clear that my group and I were able to voice our opinions and give directions to each other, in order to  make our thriller work well and look professional. As you can see and hear, Nikki and Libby were able to tell me where to stand and what to say, which was very crucial in the making of our thriller opening. As well as this, I also gave my own opinions as to how I should be positioned, and how Rhiannon (our antagonist) should act. Although we mainly gave directions as a group, we also incorporated a lot of Rhiannon's ideas (who was not in our media group), as it gave us an outsiders opinion that was much more objective; this was also helpful as she was within our target audience age group, meaning we were interested in her feedback. 

Positioning within the shot was important to us as we wanted to keep the focus on our vulnerable character, whilst still being able to incorporate her stereotypical 'girly' and vulnerable room that we created. This enabled us to stimulate and provide a safe environment for our audience, which we later manipulated to form our tense crime thriller. Directing was an important part of this process, as placing me in the middle of the room enabled us to put all of these things into action; as it incorporated an equal amount of the character and location. We did the same for our antagonist character as this created a flowing thriller opening that didn't distract our audience from our main themes and patterns that we came up with in our initial ideas.

Directing played a crucial role to us as it gave structure to our filming process. All being a part of this enabled our group to come  up with constructive criticism and come to a consensus on our decisions. Overall, giving everyone the role of a 'director' was helpful, as it meant we was all able to communicate and work well as a team.

Behind The Scenes- Editing

When it came to editing our thriller opening, we found it hard to become familiar with a piece of software called iMovie. iMovie enabled us to incorporate sound, crop our shots, shorten the clips, make them slow or fast and also gave us the option to change the saturation and contrast of the shots in order to bring some suspense and tension into the atmosphere of the video. Once we began editing, it became a lot easier to use and take advantage of every aspect of iMovie. The outcome was ultimately successful.

In the picture to the left you can see that we used the cropping tool. We took advantage of this tool because we realised that our shot was focusing too much on the antagonist background. For this particular scene, we wanted to build suspense and tension for our audience by using a close-up that showed the intruder looking around the vulnerable victims home. Therefore, we wanted more focus to be on the antagonists face, rather than their surroundings. To get some input from our target audience, we decided to go around our school and ask the individuals within our target audience age range which would be more effective, 90% of our 10 participants agreed that cropping the shot made this scene more effective as it brought more focus and attention to the character. 

For this shot, we used the colour and cropping tools. Once we analysed the footage, we found that the laptop was too bright, and was unable to capture the conversation between the victim and her boyfriend, which was a crucial shot that caused suspense as the victim then realises that it was a real, dangerous intruder in house. To fix this, we brought the contrast and saturation down, which made the writing more prominent so that it was visible to the audience.

Additionally, we used the cropping tool to put the focus on the couples conversation, rather than on the social media newsfeed in the background. Although the social media brought a sense of realness to the shot, we didn't want our audience to get distracted. Therefore this was a useful tool to bring focus and tension to the audience.

The next tool we used was the stabiliser. This was something that we took advantage of in quite a few of our shots as it gave them a professional look. When we took the shot of our antagonist walking up the stairs, we noticed that it was quite shaky. This was because we were recording with our hands, and not with a tripod. Due to the low angle we took it from, we were only able to hold the camera ourselves. To fix this we used the stabiliser tool on 33%, this meant that it took the shakiness away and made the shot look more professional.

This particular tool is called 'match colour' and was significantly important in the building of suspense within our thriller. It also brought a sense of continuity  into the shots. Match colour is an interesting aspect of the iMovie software, as it enables the user to make all of your shots a similar colour. To do this, you choose what clip that you want to replicate, and then you click on the second shot that you want to look the same as the other (in regards to colour, saturation and contrast). This enabled us to make the first portion of our thriller opening light, and the last portion of it dark. This ultimately aided in making the audience feel safe at the beginning (like the victim), and then later on, the pattern of darkness brought a sense of vulnerability and suspense. Therefore, this editing tool enabled us to to create a tension-filled crime thriller that enticed the audience to feel the same emotions that the victim does.

Additionally, we used a transition shot at the beginning of the opening of the thriller in order to ease the audience into the film. This was effective because it set a bright and calm atmosphere for the audience, which is what we wanted to achieve for the beginning of the thriller in order to trick them  into thinking everything would be okay.

Behind The Scenes- Filming

The only location we filmed in for our thriller was a house.We found filming here significantly easy and convenient. We were not only able to take advantage of artificial lighting and already existing props, but we were also able to film whenever we needed to, which was very helpful.

As you can see from this picture, we were filming inside of the house. This particular shot was taken in the kitchen, and we played with the lighting on the camera to bring some vibrancy to the shot. To film, we used the Canon c100 mk1 DAF with the EF 24-105 1:4 LUSM lens. This camera was particularly useful in the filming process as it had certain features that we were able to manipulate in order to make our shots look and sound more professional. We decided to go with a blue saturation and contrast,as this represented darkness and bad events were about to take place.

This feature is quite unique and we used it a lot within our thriller opening. The '7' button is able to put objects within the camera frame into focus. This means that no matter what goes on in the background of the shot, the camera will only focus on this one object. This was useful and effective because it meant that the main focus was on our characters and aided in building suspense, as we could make sure the close-up shots were clear, which helped build a relationship between the characters and the audience. We used this feature when the intruder finally entered the house.

The last feature of the camera that we used during filming was this microphone. This was important for us during filming as it was a high quality microphone that picked up the quietest of sounds in the shot. Because there was a lot of whispering incorporated into our script, this feature of the camera ensured that the audience was able to clearly hear the victim character. Therefore making our intense shots easier for the reader to hear.

During filming, we used this light as our artificial lighting. As it got darker outside, we found it hard to find alternative lighting  that was similar to normal daylight, so instead of using a yellowy lamp, we chose to use a LED lamp. This white lighting was realistic and made sure that our shots were bright and clear. This also avoided fuzziness in the shots and would of been a lot harder to use if we was to of chosen a different location to film.

Behind the Scenes- Sound

Sounds

As you can see in the image to the left, we used various techniques in order to make our sound effects stand out to the audience. In the clip on the top left, we had muted it. This was in order to make sure our sound effect did not have background noises such as creaking floors or talking from where the characters were given directions. This ensures that our thriller sounded professional. The next tool we used was something that fades the music out, so that it does not come to a harsh stop. This was useful when overlapping clips, as this soft and subtle continuation from one sound to another ensures that it all works together well and flows so that it comes across professional.

The second tool we used was overlapping sound clips and changing the volume levels. When overlapping sound clips, we had to ensure that they mixed well together so that it didn't sound like two completely different sound tracks. As you can see, we merged the sounds in order to achieve this. Another use of sound that we incorporated was our use of volumes. Some clips were louder than others which caused a dramatic effect for the audience and aided in the building of suspense and tension.

Music

When choosing music, we knew that we had to avoid copyrighted sound effects and songs. To do this, we used a software platform called 'YouTube'. On this, we searched for 'Royalty Free Music' and 'Copyright Free Music', this meant that we were able to use sounds that would not get our thriller removed off of social media. This was important to us as we wanted to appeal to a mass audience, and this would not happen if we used existing sound effects and songs by other people, as it would be taken down. Once we found the clips that we wanted to incorporate, we used the software platform called 'YouTube Converter'. This enabled us to download the YouTube sounds into iTunes, which we could then put straight onto iMovie when editing the thriller. Other sound effects that we used were on iMovie itself, and we mainly employed these to replicate loud bangs in times of suspense. 

Our thriller sound track was very similar to that of The Sixth Sense, as we felt that this movie was very effective with building suspense (as seen in my previous blog plost of 3 key moments of suspense). They incorporated high pitch sounds, deep and dark sounds and also silence. Although this thriller was of a different genre, we still felt that it was appropriate to adopt a similar sound track, as we wanted our antagonist to seem as scary as the supernatural is, making 'him' more unpredictable and dangerous to the audience.