Finalised Product

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

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

Evaluation Question 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As our media product had to be a film of a thriller genre, our first thought was to aim towards the age rating of either 12 or 15 as children younger than this might find the film complicated or even scary in some cases. As our film is a thriller, we needed to aim towards an audience who seek excitement whilst watching a film and who are kept on the edge of their seats.

              

As we started to shoot our film we had the age rating of either 12 or 15 in our heads but weren’t sure which one to go for. However, once all of the production of the film was complete we decided to keep it at the age rating of 12. We did this because the content that is incorporated in our opening sequence isn’t as strong as some that may be seen in a film rated 15, for example in the fight scene there is no blood seen at all by the audience. Also, no strong language is used in our scene. If we had chose to stick with a PG or U film then the content may be a bit too strong or even scary for some of the audience. If we had chosen to stick with an 18 rated film then we would have to incorporate different effects such as blood which is hard to make look real and isn’t really necessary, also strong language isn’t needed in our sequence either. Arguably our film could also be rated a 12A film but yet again may scare some of the younger viewers of the film or even confuse them.
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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 12 by the BBFC is the film 'Source code'. The film is rated 12 as it does not contain any strong violence, bloody scenes or any other unsuitable scenes for people above the age of 12. However, it does contain mild strong language which would be unsuitable for younger viewers. The opening sequence to our film is similar to this film as it doesn't contain anything unsuitable for people over the age of 12 but has aspects that may be unsuitable for those younger than this age. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 15 by the BBFC is the film 'Shutter Island'. The film is rated 15 as it contains some strong violence, bloody scenes and unsuitable scenes for people under the age of 15. There was no need to incorporate strong violence or bloody scenes in our sequence and also would have been hard to do with no budget. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 18 by the BBFC is the film 'Seven'. The film is rated 18 as it contain many scenes of blood and gore, although only one murder in the film is seen on screen, the aftermath of many others is shown which is quite graphic and unsuitable for those who are of an age younger than 18. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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When it comes to social profiling, it is questionable about which group our film would fall under. It contains characters that some of the audience for both ABC1 and C2DE profiles could relate to. For example, those who lie under the ABC1 profile may be able to relate to Rob Thompson by seeing how he lives and the sort of career he has denoted by his clothes. On the other hand those who fall under the profile of C2DE may be able to relate to the stranger in a way that they may find it hard to find work and make money. However, if we look at which profile would most probably prefer our film, it would have to be ABC1 as they would most probably find it more exciting than those in the C2DE profile who may find it predictable and may even see it as unrealistic.

After our film was completed with all the post production done, we had a look at whether we thought our product was suitable for our initial target of a 12 rated film. We decided that it was a suitable opening sequence that would keep the audience excited but not scare them or incorporate inappropriate content. 

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

One way in which we constructed our film, in order to achieve our target audience, was via the gender of our cast. The cast is completely male, but this was not intended to achieve our target audience, but because the gender of our group and our planning for the opening sequence. The female gender in this clip is not represented in the clip, however not by choice, this does not hinder the idea of females watching the clip, but just favours the older, male gender. We included violence and some mature, psychological themes which would attract an older possibly male audience. such themes as reality and death are usually unsuitable for younger audiences, which is why we have aimed at around 15+. Typically, the themes we used would make a real media product rated at around 15+ by the bbfc for cinematic release.

The score which was used on top of the opening sequence was generally quite gritty, similar to that of such films as "Se7en" which also was a psychological thriller. Another convention which was used was the setting of a dirty alleyway, for the fight scene between Rob Thompson and The Stranger, typically used in modern stalker/ thriller films and highlights this place to be dangerous, connoted by its ill-kept manner. all of these themes and conventions are typical of the thriller genre, and meets the expectations of a thriller audience.

Not much discernible feedback was given to us when our media product was uploaded it to such mediums as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but however some criticisms were made. The general consensus was praise by those we know. However one person stated that at the very end of the clip, as rob runs to find the stranger "you can't really see the path properly... you can just see leaves at the end where he walks out" this does not make it clear wether the stranger has disappear and a proper point of view of Rob isn't greatly achieved due to the obstruction of the bush.

Another, female viewer deemed that some parts of the clip "scared" her, because of the inclusion of violence and a quick "jump-scare" as the stranger appears in Robs mirror. we found this helped prove that our target audience had been achieved as a female that wasn't part of the target audience found some parts of the clip distressing, whereas other male reviewers didn't.

Finally, another criticism  was a continuity error that had been spotted, because the film had been shot on separate days and hadn't been noticed in post production, when Rob looks out of the window a car is not parked, but as he runs downstairs, a car appears to be parked in the driveway despite the shots being within a few seconds of each other. The general praise that we received from showing the opening sequence was that the clip was "very professional" and "flowed brilliantly". Another specific piece of praise was that "The part where he is there and then not is very well done... well edited as well". we had to concede that some reviews may have been biased due to being given by friends and close family members.

We also used a group screening in order to get some feedback on our film. We brought some people into a classroom and put it on the big screen, they all watched it and filled out a questionnaire about the film giving their views, with which we got good criticism and praise

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

Before producing our final media product, we as a group had to use a range of different technologies during the process of creating our product.

First, we had to gather and organise information that we could use to benefit our products, this ranged from researching exactly what the thriller genre was to learning different types of the genre itself which we each placed on our group blog to present to other group members.
 After finding out exactly what genre is we delved deeper into the subject researching forms and conventions of exciting thriller films as well as opening sequences backed up by pictures and videos to show our understanding of the subject and how we could benefit from it, enhancing the range of our research to really create that thrilling feel you get from thriller movies.

Second, after gathering all the research we needed, we went onto to the next step planning exactly who would play what part and where we film everything. With the use of our phones we were able take pictures that we could directly transfer to our blog for all our members to view and give their opinions on the move not cutting anyone’s time. Apart from our phones we would come up with ideas and plans over Facebook since it was the social media that everybody had access to and gave us the capabilities to share videos and music links that we thought would be good to use for our product.

Third was the production. This had us use a range of technological devices to create our product, within our arsenal we had an SD camera which was portable due to its miniaturisation, it’s easy to afford price. Its user friendly interface allowed for auto focus, auto white balance and auto zoom which made the capturing of our product all the more easier.


However with its ups the camera also had its down, due to its cheap affordable price it lack quality footage leaving a grainy drained image as shown in our preliminary video.With an built in microphone the cameras not only picked up the casts voices but the unwanted ambient sounds around us as well, to counter-act this we chose moments where are setting was completely quiet and planned a limited range of dialogue to minimise this negative attribute.

Finally all that was left was our post production. This had us using mac laptops with a very handy programme called I-movie which helped with our post production. I-movie was a non-linear editing software that allowed the user to edit out of sequence non-destructively.

Since this product was a consumer audience programme it was user friendly, filled with pre-loaded sounds, scores, transitions and effects whilst being cost effective, free for mac computers and laptops. The downside to this was its limited compatibility to other camera not in its consumer audience and lack of a detailed sound resource meaning we had to source royalty free scores and sound effects from websites on the internet.

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

Post Production

Post production involved taking the raw footage and making it into a complete sequence. A great tool that we used for this was iMovie for the Apple MacBook pros. This program allowed us to splice the footage together and even delete some of the footage if the clip was too long. The advantage of this program was that it was incredibly user friendly and was multimedia, which meant we could include picture indents which were made on adobe photoshop, music that we obtained from royalty free websites and the footage itself.

It was at the point with review of the footage that we realised we needed to re film some parts of the sequence which was a big help and advantage in our final sequence.

With the help from our group we were easily able to fit the clips of footage together to make a flowing sequence. In some cases we need to shorten the clips to make such techniques as match on action. Moreover, as this process wasn't permanent like earlier forms of editing we could delete clips if the were wrongly edited and put them back in the sequence as they were.

Obtaining royalty free music was a pain but we achieved it by finding suitable scores and sound effects. Websites allowed us to test the sound before downloading them, which was an advantage as we could see if they fit before actually getting them, moreover iMovie allowed us to put these in the sequence parallel to the video which meant it was easy to correctly place the music in the right place to fit the mood and situation of the sequence.

The production idents were made via Adobe photoshop and were implemented into the start of the sequence to give a professional feel to the sequence and make it feel like a proper opening to a film.

Production process

For the production of our opening sequence we used a normal SD camera to film it and a tripod for stability of the camera in shots. The majority of the sequence was filmed withing Joes house and the rest the road outside it and a local alleyway. filming took around 5 hours over the coourse of two seperate weekends. filming on two different weekends was necessary as upon review of the shots we had taken we realised we had such problems as silhouettes in shots and sequences such as the walk at the begining of the sequence being too short.

A positive that can be drawn from the production is that despite being filmed on two different days the sequence still flows and looks well together. we managed to get the shots close to the script which was a major help when shooting.

Some negatives is the final shot ends with Rob looking to see what happened to the stranger, upon review we realised that we didnt reveal the whole path of where the stranger went, with an obstruction of a bush. moreover, filming at a house people were coming and going alot, continuity was disrupted where a car outside the house was there in one shot then gone a couple seconds later, but when shown to a wider audience noone picked up on it.
If we were to redo the shooting those would be the errors we would aim to correct.

Shooting schedule

Date: 09/03/13
Location: Front of joes house and Shakespeare road, alleyway
Times: 2pm-3:30pm
Shots: 1-14
Actors: Daniel and Joe
Crew: Billy (camera and direction), Regan (props and direction)
Costume and props: metal pole for Daniels character, glasses scarf hat and coat for joes character.
Equipment: camera and tripod
Potential issues: lighting may be an issue depending on the change in day, this could ruin continuity. Weather may change causing rifts in continuity.
Risk assessment: low - however we will be using a disused alleyway which may have some broken glass which we can clear beforehand.

Shooting Schedule

Date: Weds 12th March 2013
Time: 11:30am - 5pm.
Location: My House (Joe's house); Shakespeare road.
Shots: 15 - 27.
Actors: Joe(Me - as stranger) and Daniel(as - Rob).
Crew: Billy(Camera and Director) and Regan(Props and Production).
Costumes and Props: For Me: Big coat, Sunglasses, Scarf and Beanie hat; For Daniel: Briefcase, suit and tie.
Equipment: Camera and Tripod.
Potential issues: Family in the house - My family are likely to be in my house at this point of the day and may cause noise when the scene is meant to be silent; Space for camera - there may not be loads of space for the camera in some shots, for example, shooting at the top of the stairs.
Risk Assessment: Low - but we are filming a shot of Daniel(Rob) running down the stairs so he will need to be careful whilst doing it.

Casting Research.

In our thriller sequence, there are two roles to be portrayed by two actors, they are; Rob Thompson an everyday run of the mill person, and a mysterious stranger. There are four of us in our group, we decided to take photos of ourselves to see who would the two available roles the best.

Daniel Enos; (Rob Thompson)

Daniel was quite an easy choice to portray the role of Rob Thompson. Daniel looks a lot older than he actually is and comes across as very innocent. Daniel will also be able to portray the role of Rob Thompson as best as possible due to his facial hair giving off a mature aura that the rest of us may not have been able to achieve. As Rob Thompson is supposed to seem overpowered by the 'Stranger' we needed someone who wasn't as tall or overbearing as the Stranger but who still looked strong and Daniel was the perfect choice for this.

Joe Sheehan; (Stranger)

The role of the Stranger was much harder to cast, as he will have a large part of his face covered by sunglasses, a hat and a scarf. We needed him to seem very powerful and ominous so we decided to go with Joe as he is the prime candidate to fill this role with a rugby player build. Joe was also chosen because of the brief fight scene in the clip, we wanted it to look like a struggle, and if he was to get into that struggle with Regan or Billy, the scene would not look as believe able.

Billy Murphy; (Unused onscreen, Cameraman, Director)

Sadly as there are only two parts to be cast in our sequence we chose not to use Billy to portray either characters as we believe that Daniel and Joe are the perfect choices to portray Rob Thompson and The Stranger.

Regan McSweeney; (Extra, Producer, Prop)

Once again, with Daniel and Joe being perfect options for our two characters there wasn't much that I could be casted in, in our preliminary script drafts we toyed with the idea of having me portray Rob Thompson's flatmate, although we ultimately removed this character as we felt he was unneeded and the dialogue was a bit forced.

Aaron Sheehan; (Unused)

We looked in to using Joe's brother Aaron to portray the stranger, he has the qualities to be able to portray him very well although, using him would have been very difficult due to time constraints and schedule clashes.

Story board draft

These are the 8 pages and 28 shots in our first draft for our opening sequence. We will now look over them and see if there is any errors that need to be redrafted into another storyboard. This will link in with the script drafts that have been uploaded Aswell.

This first page of our storyboard depicts the beginning of our opening sequence. some of the good elemnts that i feel are in this page is the use of the tracjing shot behind Rob as he walks down the road. This gives that stalker feeling that we are trying to get across from the 'stranger'.

something that i believe could be added is some extra shots as he walks down the road as it seems very short and abrupt when he meets the stranger for the first time. something we could do to change this is  by adding more shots, i.e across the road following Robs movement or even from the front. also the very start includes a silhouette, upon practice this appears too dark and not good looking in shot and so may have to be changed.

this is the beginning of the fight scene between the Stranger and Rob. such elements as Match on Action, crosscutting and eyeline match have been incorporated within this fight scene to indepth show what is happening.

one things must attempt to do is create fast editing with this scene to make it feel like a real fight scene, to build tension simultaneously.

one of the good elements that we have inc,uded is the closeup to Robs tie. this links to later in the storyboard, and later in the sequence when we see another closeup to the tie again. 

this shows the eyeline match between Rob and the metal pole that he will use to disable his attacker. this also includes a crosscut between Rob and the stranger, helping to create tension in the fight.

we implemented here short shots of about 1-2 secs in order to get this idea of fast editing and tension within the scene

another technnique we used here to create tension was to do a cross cut between Rob reaching for the pole, the stranger and rob grabbing the pole and hitting him over the head with it.

something we must try to do is get this scene to run smoothly. a good technique for this between the grabbing of the pole and the actual hitting on the head is to employ a fade to black and a 2-3 second black screen with a fade to black on the other end. this would give the idea of an extended fade to black and slow the scene down, to show the importance of it.

this is the beginning of the montage sequence of Rob waking up and getting ready. somethings that we will include here are dissolve transitions to show a change in time period.

a good example of this is Rob changing his clothes, we envisage Rob opening a wardrobe and the sequence dissolving into Rob having got dressed and doing up his tie in the bathroom.

a technique that was also implemented in this section of the storyboard is another shot that gives a stalker feel.

a shot through a crack in the door of what Rob is doing allows us to in a way give the idea that the stalker is watching him just before he is seen by Rob himself, giving a sort of dramatic irony.

the end of the mirror technique is shown here to show that he has disappeared.

one thing that can be included here is a nother shot in the mirror to confirm to the audience that he is gone and help to further build tension in this scene.

next the scene cuts to another view of the stranger that shows him to be walking out of Robs house. this makes protagonist feel violated in his own home and would also make the audience uneasy, creating further tension in the sequence.

this is the final part of the sequence. it shows Rob running downstairs to find his door wide open. he then walks out to see that the stranger is gone. we plan to finish the sequence with a fade to black with Rob looking down the road with noone there with an over the shoulder shot, which ccuts to a reaction shot of him.

 

Script Drafts and finalisation

Like every clip no matter big or small all require a script. Though only two minutes me and my group came up with script drafts and a final script we could use for are two minute clip.

First Draft

All Black

Dead Silence

INT. ROBS ROOM. DAY

Montage of ROB getting ready for school. Alarm Clock goes off. Close up of tie being done up. Picks up bag and walks out of the doors.

Put Headphone on (Music Volume increasing into the score)

EXT. ROAD. DAY

ROB bumps into a strange looking man

*Music Stops Dead*

ROB

Oh sorry, mate

STRANGER

(GRUMBLES AND MUTTERS UNDERNEATH HIS BREATH)

EXT. ALLEYWAY. DAY

ROB is grabbed by the STRANGER and thrown into a nearby wall. (Fast Editing is used in this short fight scene)

Close up of neck tie, STRANGER onto ROB’S neck in a firm grip.

ROB grabs a nearby pole and hits the stranger.

STRANGER drops dead to the ground

ROB

What have I done?

(Dropping the Pole and staring at his hands)

ROB runs away leaving the body behind twitching

*Fade to black

Opening sequence begins

This is the first draft our group came up with for our Thrillers opening sequence.

Second Draft 

ROB stands at the front door and puts headphones on (Music Volume increasing into the score)

                   

EXT. ROAD. DAY

ROB bumps into a strange looking man

*Music Stops Dead*

ROB

Oh sorry, mate

STRANGER

(GRUMBLES AND MUTTERS UNDERNEATH HIS BREATH)

EXT. ALLEYWAY. DAY

ROB is grabbed by the STRANGER and thrown into a nearby wall. (Fast Editing is used in this short fight scene)

Close up of neck tie, STRANGER onto ROB’S neck in a firm grip.

ROB grabs a nearby pole and hits the stranger.

STRANGER drops dead to the ground

ROB

What have I done?

(Dropping the Pole and staring at his hands)

ROB runs away leaving the body behind twitching

INT. ROBS ROOM. DAY

ROB lies in bed sleeping waking up at the sound of an alarm clock within the room. Removing the covers he walks to the cupboard.

INT. ROBS BATHROOM. DAY

Stands in front of the mirror preparing for work as he does his tie he stops half way looking at a mark on the side of his neck.

ROB stops looking at the mark and moves back to look at himself in the mirror.

Staring at the mirror he quickly jumps back as he looks at the mirror in fear. The STRANGER standing behind him close to the bathroom door.

ROB

(TURNS AROUND TO FIND THE MAN NO LONGER BEHIND HIM)

ROB

JOHN…… YOU UP HERE?

(He asks hesitantly but quite loud)

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

JOHN

Nah!! Im downstairs eating cereal, why?

INT. BATHROOM. DAY

ROB

Nothing!!!! Must be my imagination, too much stress from the new project

(Uttering the last phrase under his breath)

*Fade to Black

We changed our first draft feeling that it lacked practicality and a build in tension causing it to look less like a opening to a thriller and more like a cheap action from a low budget movie.

Third Draft 

ROB stands at the front door and puts headphones on (Music Volume increasing into the score)

       

EXT. ROAD. DAY

ROB bumps into a strange looking man

*Music Stops Dead*

ROB

Oh sorry, mate

STRANGER

(GRUMBLES AND MUTTERS UNDERNEATH HIS BREATH)

EXT. ALLEYWAY. DAY

ROB is grabbed by the STRANGER and thrown into a nearby wall. (Fast Editing is used in this short fight scene)

Close up of neck tie, STRANGER onto ROB’S neck in a firm grip.

ROB grabs a nearby pole and hits the stranger.

STRANGER drops dead to the ground

ROB

What have I done?

(Dropping the Pole and staring at his hands)

ROB runs away leaving the body behind twitching

INT. ROBS ROOM. DAY

ROB lies in bed sleeping waking up at the sound of an alarm clock within the room. Removing the covers he walks to the cupboard.

INT. ROBS BATHROOM. DAY

Stands in front of the mirror preparing for work as he does his tie he stops half way looking at a mark on the side of his neck.

ROB stops looking at the mark and moves back to look at himself in the mirror.

Staring at the mirror he quickly jumps back as he looks at the mirror in fear. The STRANGER standing behind him close to the bathroom door.

ROB

(TURNS AROUND TO FIND THE MAN NO LONGER BEHIND HIM)

He walks out of the bathroom into the hallway

           ROB sees the man outside the hallway window and sprints down the stairs to find the front door open wide causing him to stare in both shock and fear at the door.

This script draft took the previous dialogue in draft 2 and scrapped it due to all of our group feeling that it just looked a bit cheesy especially at the piece of dialogue that says "Nah! I'm downstairs eating cereal, why?" which kind off took away from the movie and was in fact unnessary.

Final Script Decision 

ROB stands at the front door and puts headphones on (Music Volume increasing into the score)

       

EXT. ROAD. DAY

ROB bumps into a strange looking man

*Music Stops Dead*

ROB

Oh sorry, mate

STRANGER

(GRUMBLES AND MUTTERS UNDERNEATH HIS BREATH)

EXT. ALLEYWAY. DAY

ROB is grabbed by the STRANGER and thrown into a nearby wall. (Fast Editing is used in this short fight scene)

Close up of neck tie, STRANGER onto ROB’S neck in a firm grip.

ROB grabs a nearby pole and hits the stranger.

STRANGER drops dead to the ground

ROB

What have I done?

(Dropping the Pole and staring at his hands)

ROB runs away leaving the body behind twitching

INT. ROBS ROOM. DAY

ROB lies in bed sleeping waking up at the sound of an alarm clock within the room. Removing the covers he walks to the cupboard.

INT. ROBS BATHROOM. DAY

Stands in front of the mirror preparing for work as he does his tie he stops half way looking at a mark on the side of his neck.

ROB stops looking at the mark and moves back to look at himself in the mirror.

Staring at the mirror he quickly jumps back as he looks at the mirror in fear. The STRANGER standing behind him close to the bathroom door.

ROB

(TURNS AROUND TO FIND THE MAN NO LONGER BEHIND HIM)

He walks out of the bathroom into the hallway

ROB sees the man outside the hallway window and sprints down the stairs to find the front door open wide causing him to stare in both shock and fear at the door.

We felt like this was the best of the three drafts as it seemed to create the most suspense out of all of them, the kind of elements crucial to creating a successful thriller opening.