Jack Ball Evaluation

Thriller Project – Evaluation

After very thorough planning and deep research, me and three others produced a two minute opening of a thriller film together. Whilst using our creativity skills and imagination to produce our own movie, we also attempted to include many typical thriller conventions that you usually see in modern thriller films. Our aim from the start was to challenge and develop forms and conventions of real media products.

In our film there are several moments where it is clear that generic conventions have been incorporated into it. We used both certain camera shots and camera movements to achieve this. For example, we used numerous ‘point of view’ (POV) shots in order for the audience to see things from certain characters perspectives. One specific example of this is when the villain of the thriller spies on a meeting which is taking place. Additionally, we used camera movements like a tilt in order to reveal things gradually which draws the audience in and makes the film more exciting. This was used the main character steps out of her car

to go to her meeting. The events in our thriller opening take place in a backwards like order which creates a sort of ‘flashback’ effect – a scene is established to the audience and then they are shown how things led up to it. The shot of the opening is of several objects lying on the ground. As the audience sees this a sense of mystery is created as they try to work out what the objects are there for and what they are representing. Also throughout the two minute film there is music, which is non diegetic, playing on top of the footage which changes tempo at certain times in order to help create a suspenseful feel for the audience. One way of how we challenged the typical conventions in our thriller, is how the takes become shorter as the tension builds up. Furthermore, the way we pre

sented our titles/credits is an example of how we developed typical thriller conventions. Our inspiration for our titles/credits came from the film ‘Se7en’. Here is a picture of our credits whilst we were editing them

in Final Cut Express.

Here is the credits from the film "Se7en"

After watching the thriller movie taken, we thought that the idea of having a kidnapping plot is very effective in meeting typical conventions of thrillers. By using this as our plot we knew we could bring mystery, excitement and action to our piece. Here is a screen print from Final Cut Express which shows examples of the different shots and techniques we used in our kidnap scene.

We didn’t focus too much on representing certain social groups within our product however; it could be argued that it represents middle-class who are white British race. It could also be suggested that we represented gender in a stereotypical way due to the fact that we decided that our victim would be a woman – women are usually seen to be more vulnerable than man. If our thriller was to be produced by a Hollywood studio such as ‘Paramount Pictures’ then obviously a wider range of social groups could be represented which in turn, would increase the target audience’s interest.

I believe that our thriller could be produced by a major mainstream Hollywood studio because of all the typical and successful features that we took into account when making our piece – it shares characteristics with many other modern thriller films that mainstream studios have already made. If the film was to be produced then improvements would certainly be made as more money would go into the making of the film. For example, better settings like a famous city could be used. The thriller would be released for pure entertainment purposes however; I can see opportunities for sequels could arise at a later stage because of the nature of the film.

The audience for the thriller would mainly be males with a smaller number of females too from the age of twelve upwards. This is because instead of using, for example; blood, gore, violence and dialogue to create thrilling tension and suspense we used sound and different camera/editing techniques to create a ‘thriller feel’. As a result, our film is suitable for a younger audience, unlike other thrillers, though it has the same effect on the audience.

Before we could make our thriller opening, we had to attract and address our audience. We did this by researching the ‘Film Certification Guidelines’ and as a result decided our film would be a 12 rating. We also gave out questionnaires to gain more of an insight into what people want from a thriller film. One particular moment in the thriller opening which

would appeal to younger members of the audience is the shot of the kidnapper grabbing the victim as it is very sudden and not expected. A POV shot was used in this take which has the effect of making the audience feel more involved and as if they are there ‘in the movie’. This draws the audience in more to the film. This is a screen print from Final Cut Express which shows examples of the POV shots that we used.

The camera equipment we used was good however, use of a high definition camera obviously would have been better – this was never too much of an issue. We certainly made the best of what was available for us to use. The main problem we had when filming was the lack of charged batteries. We had to charge up a battery before we could commence with our filming which in turn, slowed us down. However, once we were over this hurdle, filming went well. I personally found the editing software, ‘Final Cut Express, very challenging at first. However, with the help of the rest of group and began to improve my skills and knowledge of the software. I am definitely more confident now when using the software. Another software we used for our music was ‘Garage Band’ which I found a lot easier to function. There were no problems with this. We took two different bits of music from a Royalty Free music website and then mixed them together to create a new piece of music.

As a result of our research onto other thrillers, we were aware that we had to have an effective contrast in the length of takes and we also had a better understanding of what effect different shot types had. I definitely feel extremely more confident with all the equipment.

Overall, I feel our project was very successful taking into account the few limitations we had. Obviously without these it could have been better but I feel we did as good a job as possible.

Media Evaluation Nick Hardcatle

Media Evaluation Nick Hardcastle

Discuss the ways in which our thriller incorporates generic conventions ide

ntity specific scenes.

In our thriller we did called Ocupation we used a some point of view shots. The first POV (Point of view shot) we used it looking through a window in to a business meeting to

ed.make it feel like somebody is being watched or somebody is watching someone else. Another point of view shot we used was when Hannah a member of out media group was coming out of a building and he being watched over some bushes to c

reate the feel she is being followed or watched. With our thriller we worked backwards because at the begging of the thriller it has a diary on the follow saying meeting at 4 O’clock and somebodys bag and

shoes on the floor. At the

end of the opening of the thriller it has the same shot. Inbertween those shots we showed how it was lead to having the diary on the floor as well as how Hannah was kidnapp

The thriller is a typical thriller because there is no gore on bl

ood in the thriller because that would of made it a horrer. There is some action on the thriller which creates surpence and making people feel like they are being watched.

We used the film Seven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY) to get some ideas from to make our thriller better. In the film Seven they have a diary with the credits on we used that to help us with our thiller. Another film

we got ideas form as Taken because in that film it shows somebody getting kidnapped and we wanted to use that in our thriller.

How does our media product represent particular social groups.

Our thriller was classes as a twelve A which means people over 12 can go and

see the film but children under 12 have to be accompanied by an adult if they want to see the film. The gender we tagreted was nay gender because the main character is a women and there our a few men in the thriller aswell. The film is for any race and any class also.

The gender was streyotyped with men bein

g domiant because Hannah was kidnapped by a man. But also it was a women who was head of a business meeting when styreotypical

ly it would be a man.

This links in to our target because women would not think they our being styeotyped. So this means the out target audeience is ethier women or men.

What kind of media institution might distribute your target audience.

Our thiller is similar to other typical thrillers because some thriller have a tpyicall kidnap in them like our thriller did. I think our thriller could be made in to a Hollywood film b

ecause it has a wide range of target audience which means many different people will watch the thriller.

The thriller would go straight into the cinimar b

ecause it is a typical thriller that the target audience would want to watch. Also there a lots of different people would want to w

atch the thiller and it is also suited to children because thereis no adult content in the thriller.

The thriller offers a plot which could decelop into a sequal because in the thriller Hannah gets kidnapped and the sequal could invole finding out who kidnapped Hannah and where she is. But that could just be in all one film to make the film more intense. The fil

m would be released because it would make some money because how big the target audience is.

We used mise en scene with the cloths because we had to dress smart to look like we were in a business meeting. We also used lighting equipment to make it lighter in the business meeting in the thriller.

Who would be the target audience for our media product?

The age of our target audience is a 12A because there is not much gore, blood or adult content on the thriller. The gender is any gender because male or female can watch the thriller. So I think there is wide range of people that would want to watch the thril

ler.

The film that is similar to our thriller is Seven because we had the idea of using the diary for the credits and also the title of the film. Another film that is similar to our thriller is Taken because of the idea of a girl being kidnapped but not knowing who kidnapped the girl. Alos the surpence of nor knowing who kidnapped the girl will be incoperated into our thriller.

How did we arract/address our target audience?

The age our thriller is suited for is a 12A because it has some scence that might scare some children and it si for any gender.

The thriller might sacre some young children because a women is being watched and if girls watch our thriller they might think they are going to get watched and also it might scare young girls when the women gets grabbed in our thriller.

The position the audience would put themselves in

is in Hannah’s positon because they would know she is being watched so they would be in a better postion the know that they our getting watched and od something about it. Another psotion the audience would want to put themselves in is the kidnnappers postion so the audience would know who the kidnapper is and why they are kidnapping Hannah.

The impact this has is that they know they are being watched so they can find out who is watching them and make sure they do not get kidnapped.

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The strengths of the camera was that it was good quality which made our thriller look better. Also the camera was easy to use when we know how to use it properly. The weakness was that the camera kept running out of bettery when we were suing it outside.

The problem we faced with the camera was that it kept running out of battery. We resolved this by charching the battery and geeting new battery to use. Also we did not use any new equipment.

We learnt how to adapt and edit the music so it would suit our thriller. Also we leant how to edit our thriller ot get rid of any blips and to make the thriller the length we wanted it to be.

Garage band helped us because we used it to edit a track we had so it would make more surpence in our thriller. Also it helped because we made the music suit our thriller better than it did.

Hannah Evaluation Photos

Hannah Evaluation Photos

Hannah Slaney Evaluation

Our thriller is from a typical thriller genre aimed at an audience of over twelve. We decided that our thriller would be a twelve certificate because it doesn’t include nudity, violence or language that would be used in a film classed as a fifteen. However it does include moderate physical threat. Our thriller incorporates generic conventions, by the use of flashbacks and the hand-held camera shots of looking through the window.



We did this to make it look like the female was being watched and this puts the audience in a privileged position as the character doesn’t realise that she is being watched we used the diary much like the movie “se7en” as we didn’t want our credits to be superimposed over the top of our footage, we wanted them to be incorporated into the film opening itself. The thriller we created is a typical thriller which would be shown in a cinema and then released onto a DVD. Other films have influenced our work including “Se7en” with the use of credits and “Taken” with the idea of someone being taken or kidnapped.






The social groups shown in our thriller opening show that all of the characters are male apart from the female character, which makes her seem vulnerable and insecure as the protagonist victim. The meeting scene shows the characters smartly dressed which gives the impression of a middle or higher social class. Gender particularly is represented in a stereotypical way with the idea that men are dominant and women are more passive and vulnerable. This is mainly shown by the number of male characters in contrast to the only female character which shows vulnerability. This links to our target audience of both men and women as they both appear in the movie and follows other films which use the same sort of conventions.
Our thriller is something that could be produced by a major studio because it uses classic thriller conventions to create a sense of tension and suspense. It is similar to the film “Taken” produced in 2008.



They both show the idea and storyline of a female being taken and kidnapped although this may not be as clear in our 2:00 minute thriller opening. Our thriller film would be released it gives more opportunity for franchises, sequels and merchandises. This could include the DVD itself but also the soundtrack to the movie. Other merchandise ideas could include a sequel to the movie or even novelty merchandise such as the diary featured in the movie. Mise-en-scene is a major part of any film particularly for thrillers as props and expression to show the atmosphere of the scene. We had to think carefully about this because at the beginning we set up a shot which showed the contents of the female characters bag. We had to think about what a female would be carrying in her bag and what was in the shot. The audience would also notice that the items in the first shot were then shown throughout the rest of the sequence showing the significance about the character.
The audience for our piece would be aimed at over twelve considering the guidelines of the certification restrictions. The style of the film is appealing to both female and male although people below the age of twelve may watch the movie once it has been released on DVD. The film opening we have produced is much like the film “Taken” This movie would appeal to the same sort of audience even though “Taken” is classed as an eighteen, they both share similar conventions such as hand-held point of view camera shots.
In our product there are scenes or points where some members would feel scared. This particularly is shown when the female character is walking back to her car and she is grabbed on the shoulder from behind. Some viewers may find this disturbing or unexpected as they weren’t expecting this to happen or may have experienced a time similar to this. This scene expresses the vulnerability of the female especially as she is the only female character at the start of the film which could show the significance of her presence throughout the film. Her significance is particularly conveyed at the beginning of the sequence when she steps out of the car and the tilt shot of her as she walks along the side of the building. The use of camera work in this section particularly addresses the audience by using hand-held point of view shots. This puts the audience in a privileged position as they are aware that the female character is being watched in the meeting. Point of view shots are also used towards the end of the sequence as the length of takes gets shorter to create tension. The audience are asked to put themselves in the position of the person who is watching the female character as she walks away from the meeting which allows the audience to witness the girl being taken. This encourages the audience to carry on watching as they want to find out what happens to the female character. The short takes indicate the build up of suspense and tension which is shortly followed by the character being pushed and then a shot of the things in her bag which was shown at the beginning of the sequence. The audience now know where the items came from and how they got there.
Since completing our preliminary task we have been able to learn and gain understanding about how the camera equipment and the computer software used to edit the footage. Strengths of the camera equipment were that the media department were able to lend out equipment such as cameras, tripods and batteries so that we didn’t have to provide our own filming equipment. Another strength to the equipment was that we were able to use the apple Macs which are good for editing and creating special effects.
When we started filming we had to check that all of the filming equipment was working correctly and that we had everything we needed. One problem that we did encounter was that once we received with a camera, battery and computer leads for it, we only found out that the batteries were out of charge when we came to film. Some of the time we were able to plug the camera into the main electricity supply but when it came round to filming outside we had to charge the cameras inside to make sure they were charged enough without being connected to the mains. We were able to use new equipment such as reflector boards and photography lighting to help us to create as much light as we could. The editing software we used was Final Cut Express on the Apple Macs.

At first I found it hard to understand the programme, so I watched the tutorial on the apple website to help me understand how to use it. I have been able to understand the cutting process and how to put music over the top of the footage. I was able to incorporate text into the film and keep it in a fixed position, shown at the beginning of our film.



We used a programme called garage band to create and edit our music as we had to use music that was un-copyrighted. With this programme we were able to converge pieces of music together and add extra beats and sounds. We had to time it along with our footage to add in extra sounds where we wanted them to mark an action or add to the atmosphere.
With our preliminary task we didn’t have much time for planning although for our thriller opening we had a lot more time to plan and develop our ideas. We had to discuss our storyline and genre of our film and how to achieve this through thriller conventions. We created a storyboard to show each shot that we intended to do. We produced a second storyboard accompanied with a voice over to explain each shot. This detailed planning helped us when filming as we knew exactly what shots we needed to do and we had to make time for everything to be completed. By producing a storyboard we knew exact shots we needed to capture which helped the process to be smoother. Through practice and precision our shots improved as we filmed the same shot a few times in case it was incorrect. We all gained more confidence and knowledge by using the equipment.

Hannah Evaluation Photos

Hannah Evaluation Photos

Evaluation- Karis

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our final thriller opening incorporates generic thriller conventions to establish its style and direction to the audience from the beginning. For example, our opening works backwards, establishing a scene then showing the lead up to it. It also includes a kidnap scene after a period of the protagonist having been watched and followed, which are all typical events in films of this genre. However, our thriller develops these conventions by creating a sense of mystery using a range of objects in the establishing shot, lying on the ground where they would not be expected to be. The effect of this is the audience become involved and begins to wonder why the objects are there and who they belong to, which they then go on to find out. The use of these conventions establishes that it is not a horror or action thriller, but a typical one with a twist. Our use of the diary at the beginning to establish the scene, for the credits and the film title indicates that we were influenced by the film Se7en. This is a screen print from Final Cut Express of editing the shots of the credits on the diary.
We were influenced by the turning of the pages, and shaky camera shots, both of which add tension to the scene, and create an air of mystery. The following clip is the opening to “Se7en” which inspired us to recreate the effect used.
How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our media product represents a limited amount of social groups, as our actors were all young and white, with male characters outnumbering female ones. If our film was to be made by a Hollywood Studio, for example Universal Studios there would be a larger range of people available to star in it, so more social groups could be represented, which would increase the appeal to the target audience. Gender is represented in a fairly typical way, as the female character appears to be vulnerable, as she is unaware that she is being watched and then gets kidnapped. This is similar to the film Taken where a young girl is kidnapped from what comes across as an innocent setting. This links to the target audience, as it is made up of mostly young people and the film is more relevant to them, as they can relate to the characters and their situations.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think our thriller would be produced by a major Hollywood Studio because it is similar to films produced previously on a larger scale, like “Taken”. However, to make it appeal to more people, the setting could be changed, for example it could be filmed in a more recognisable place, like New York or London. I think as it is a typical thriller, there would be no need to make it for an Art house or the internet only as it could go straight to cinema release for example with UK cinema chains such as Cineworld or Odeon . It also offers opportunities for sequels, as the storyline could extend or lead into other films, either with a similar storyline, or with the development of characters. It could also lead to merchandising deals, for example the diary could be recreated as a special "Occupation" deal with a company such as Filofax.

Who would be the audience for your media product? Our target audience is made up of mainly young people, probably under the age of 20, they are mainly male, as Thriller films are generally aimed at a male audience, however there is a minority of females that would also watch our type of film. Because the style of our film is a typical thriller containing a kidnap scene of a young girl, the appeal would be mainly to the male audience, however this can also appeal to the female part of our target audience as they could be looking for a film with a thrilling element. The films similar to ours which have already been released are “Taken” and “Se7en”, both of which we were inspired by. These films appeal to the same target audience as ours, young people who are mainly male and enjoy films with an element of mystery and tension.

How did you attract/address your audience? We decided by looking at the Film Certification Guidelines that our film would be a 12 certification, as it fitted the criteria for this, as there was not enough horror, violence or nudity to make it a 15 certification, therefore our main target audience would be young people, mainly older teenagers. The watching and kidnap scenes in our opening in particular, would terrify the female members of the audience as they would put themselves into the shoes of the protagonist and imagine if what was happening onscreen happened to them or someone they knew. The camera work in these scenes is mainly handheld, point of view shots, which make it seem more realistic, making the audience feel as if it is actually happening as they watch it. The female members of the audience are asked to put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, which also puts them in a privileged position as they are aware of the fact she is being watched. This is a screen print from Final Cut Express of editing the clips of the protagonist being watched, the first screen through the window, and the second when she is about to be kidnapped outside. However, the male members of the audience are more likely to associate with the person watching the protagonist as they see her in a vulnerable situation. The impact of this is that the audience becomes involved in the story and get a better viewing experience from the film as there is a strong sense of tension and the creation of suspense evokes emotion from the audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The camera equipment that we used was good enough to enable us to capture a fairly good quality length of footage, this could have improved by using a high definition camera, but I think we did well and made the best of what was available to us. During the filming process, the only real problem that we faced was with batteries for the camera as they kept dying, but once we had charged them properly, as they hadn’t been before, we were able to get on with filming which after that, went quite smoothly. We were able to improve the quality of our footage by using studio lights for our indoor filming, and light reflectors and diffusers for our outdoor filming, all of which I previously owned. I am very pleased with the improvements I have made personally with the editing software we used, Final Cut Express. Throughout this process I gained knowledge of how to use lots of various effects, particularly Superimposing which we used in our opening and this meant I could do a lot of the editing myself. This is a screen print of the diary credits, and on the second screen, the superimposing I learnt to do which we used in our film. We also used Garageband
to create our soundtrack, mixing pieces together from a Royalty Free Music website together, to make it right for us. I had not used this program before, so it took me a while to get used to using it, but after experimenting with it for a while, I am now able to create, record and mix tracks.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product? I learned a lot from the preliminary task but I feel I have personally improved in various areas. My use of specific shot types has improved greatly, especially the tilts and point of view shots. I think this has been mainly because of gaining experience with the equipment which I now feel more confident with. I am very pleased with the progress I have made throughout the Preliminary task and the main project as I am now much more confident with the equipment and the effects I can create by using certain shots.

Overall, I think our final media product is successful at fulfilling the task set as it is a suspenseful opening to a thriller film that would entice the viewer enough so that they would watch the rest of the film. I am very happy with our final project, and the improvements I have made personally with using the equipment and creating an effective final outcome.

Preliminary Task- Karis

Preliminary Task

Film Finished! 09/03/10

We have now finished all editing to our thriller opening including putting our music over the top of the footage. We have however, been discussing whether to change some our our clips of footage into a black and white effect to add to thriller feel of our film. However, we remain indecisive as we think this could give our film a more horror feel as to our objective thriller feel.

Our next task is for us to import our film onto a DVD using iDVD.

02.03.10

In yesterday's lesson we began using Final Cut Express to edit our footage, we arranged it all into clips and into the right order. In today's lesson we went back on this and began to cut our clips into how we want them. On thursday we have a day off timetable to finish our editing, and we are confident we will get it all done.