Sunday, 6 March 2016

FInal Edit - Final blog upload



Thank you.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main target audience for the thriller genre of films is usually 15-50 year olds I found after researching into audience statistics. The average age rating for thriller films is a 15 certificate so the target age would not be under this, also after the age of 50 it is know that suspenseful, tense films will not appeal to the majority of elderly people. This has therefore given me an idea of what age range my thriller should be marketed at.

In terms of gender it is known that both males and females watch thriller films and there is not really an imbalance when it comes to one gender enjoying the genre more than the other. However males usually enjoy the action, suspense or horror side of films as they enjoy the adrenaline rush, and even though females are known to like this too, they are also known to prefer the enigma side of the thriller and the mysteries a thriller plot can present.
Therefore my audience for my thriller would most likely be both male and female and in the age range of 15-49 year olds.

These are the statistics I found when researching online however Guy and I then proceeded to Hand out a questionnaire to the public to do our own personal research and figure out what we could.  We asked who we could about wether they watch thriller films and the results came out as 8 for 16-21 year olds, 1 for 22-30 year olds and 2 for 31-49 year olds, These results allowed us to decipher that the 16-21 year olds are the most frequent watchers and most popular audience of thriller genre films.

www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/18    
www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15   These are websites that say about what to expect when watching a 15                                                                   or 18 rated film



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

The thriller we created adhered to many conventions of a thriller movie and in turn also opening sequences of movies in general, however also challenging a few during construction.

The first convention utilised in the thriller film would be the mystery presented and the introduction of a location/setting to the audience. The camera is laced so that it is a wide shot of much of the surroundings beyond the rooftop, with a character being in the shot but not being able to be identified. Both of these are great examples of conventions, with the mystery character being commonly used in thriller movies to set up a narrative enigma, using this within my thriller I thought would really add to the effect it had as a thriller and the professionalism it carried with it. Also the setting up shot of the setting is used lots as a convention of an opening sequence meaning utilising it was a good choice to make the thriller seem as real a media product as possible. Both of us feel that the shot showing the skyline of the city is similar to david fincher's skyline shot in his thriller film although maybe not as professional. The Character standing at the edge of the roof looking over the city is also akin to the opening of a film like Batman or Spiderman.




One convention we challenged would have been that in most thriller films you usually get to see the crime or murder committed, granted this is not the case in all thrillers but it happens enough the majority of the time that it has become convention. Guy and I however did not want this as we really wanted to push the idea of a narrative enigma being present throughout the entirety of the piece and did not want the viewers to realise or understand the ultimate fate of the characters they were witnessing on screen until much later on in the movie. We felt something happening to the characters with the first three minutes of the film defeated the purpose of the thriller genre entirely and instead kept the suspense and tension to subsequently keep viewer guessing. You can see the hooded man follow the man in the suit, but what happens next would not be revealed until much later and that generates masses of suspense and atmosphere in the film adding heavily to the verisimilitude.



















Evaluation -- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the thriller opening sequence using male characters instead of females was a conscious choice. After researching we did find that 90% of murders between 1976 and 2005 were committed by men, therefore leading us to think that using a woman would not be accurate enough, furthermore we also did not want to stray too far from stereotypes as we feel those are the best things to keep to if we want to use accurate conventions of a thriller film, so this is our social group represented in the opening sequence. However on the other hand we did want to challenge the typical "hooded stalker" goes after the female by replacing the female with a male character instead.

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

https://prezi.com/ys3ciouuk6rw/present/?auth_key=xt237qv&follow=keph7tkyt8y_

Evaluation - What kind of Media institution might distribute your product and why?

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Monday, 8 February 2016

Evaluation final - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Sunday, 7 February 2016

Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in your progression from it to final product? - Draft

Looking back at the prelim task i can see the difference in how professional my final product looks in comparison. I feel every aspect has improved, with camera and shots being utilised to a fuller extent and even a background soundtrack mixing with the ambient sound which was never even thought of to be incorporated into the prelim. Also I learned how to use the Adobe Premier Pro a lot better than when i did my prelim.  I have learned a lot and progressed by a massive amount and i feel this allowed me to create the best final product i possibly could.

Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups? - Draft

In the thriller opening sequence using male characters instead of females was a conscious choice. After researching we did find that 90% of murders between 1976 and 2005 were committed by men, therefore leading us to think that using a woman would not be accurate enough, furthermore we also did not want to stray too far from stereotypes as we feel those are the best things to keep to if we want to use accurate conventions of a thriller film, so this is our social group represented in the opening sequence. However on the other hand we did want to challenge the typical "hooded stalker" goes after the female by replacing the female with a male character instead.

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for our thriller product? / How did you attract/address your audience? - Draft

1)
The main target audience for the thriller genre of films is usually 15-50 year olds I found after researching into audience statistics. The average age rating for thriller films is a 15 certificate so the target age would not be under this, also after the age of 50 it is know that suspenseful, tense films will not appeal to the majority of elderly people. This has therefore given me an idea of what age range my thriller should be marketed at.

In terms of gender it is known that both males and females watch thriller films and there is not really an imbalance when it comes to one gender enjoying the genre more than the other. However males usually enjoy the action, suspense or horror side of films as they enjoy the adrenaline rush, and even though females are known to like this too, they are also known to prefer the enigma side of the thriller and the mysteries a thriller plot can present.
Therefore my audience for my thriller would most likely be both male and female and in the age range of 15-49 year olds.


2)
When creating the thriller opening our target as I have said is of course viewers of thriller films. These audience members will be seeking a film that fits all or most of the conventions found in typical thrillers. Therefore this led Guy and I to attempt to tick all the boxes of a thriller film. We wanted to incorporate the suspense and tension that is so integral to making a film fit the thriller genre.

One of the main things we wanted to ensure was in the opening sequence was a sense of ambiguity with the characters. We did not want any dialogue or much to establish who they were as characters. We felt that audience members would respond well to a narrative enigma being established with the characters. This was intended to get viewers interested in the movie and feeling a sense of suspense with who these characters were.

Another important thing we incorporated was a tension filled atmosphere as with a thriller this was extremely important to get the audience feeling a sense of dread throughout the whole film. Location was the most important thing to create a dreading atmosphere and add to verisimilitude of the whole opening.

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

Lionsgate is one UK film distributor that i have discovered that i believe would be an ideal fit for distributing the thriler Guy and I created. I discovered they have already been the UK distributors of the Tom Hardy film, Locke which was a small indie thriller by little known british creators. The film only had a small budget of £3 million which shows a massive distributor like Lionsgate who are producing massive big budget films like Hunger Games or Kick Ass are willing to put out smaller films into the world. This is why I think that Lionsgate would maybe be willing to distribute and if were willing would be the perfect company to distribute our Thriller movie.

Monday, 1 February 2016

Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? - Draft

For the construction of this product Guy and I were forced to utilise different forms of technology to successfully create the best final product we could. Alot of the technologies used were initially alien to me personally, from the Nikon camera to the editing software used, but over the course of the production i became familiar with them and learnt alot about the new technologies presented to me.

The Nikon camera was a completley new piece of equipment to use for and Guy. It took a while to get used to filming with it and making sure it was on the right settings and we capturing all our shots with the right amount of focus and lighting etc. I personally had had experience with using the camera already when filming part of the preliminary task however that was very minimal amount of time so was no where near fully capable with it. Over the time we spent at the location filming Guy and I both got more to grips with the camera and in the end we very able in using it to full effect. Therefore this meant when we had to return later on in the filming process to get more shots we could easily dive right in and use the camera with ease.

Something we also used to coincide with the camera was the tripod. This was no where near as difficult to get to grips with as the Nikon and was very simple. However I learned that it definitly made for creating better more steady and more proffesional looking shots. I saw the difference as in my prelimoinary task I didnt utilise it as much and seeing it used extensivley in the final thriller edit made a massive difference.

Adobe Premiere Pro CC was the editing software Guy and I used to put all the incredible shots we took with the Nikon together for all 3 drafts and the final edit. This as with the Nikon was completely new to me and to Guy and we were forced to have to figure it out with virtually no knowledge already about the software. However with the help from the teacher and continuous use of it we eventually understood it and managed to edit, what we believe to be, a very good thriller opening sequence.


Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Evaluation - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Draft

The thriller we created adhered to many conventions of a thriller movie and in turn also opening sequences of movies in general, however also challenging a few during construction.

The first convention utilised in the thriller film would be the mystery presented and the introduction of a location/setting to the audience. The camera is laced so that it is a wide shot of much of the surroundings beyond the rooftop, with a character being in the shot but not being able to be identified. Both of these are great examples of conventions, with the mystery character being commonly used in thriller movies to set up a narrative enigma, using this within my thriller I thought would really add to the effect it had as a thriller and the professionalism it carried with it. Also the setting up shot of the setting is used lots as a convention of an opening sequence meaning utilising it was a good choice to make the thriller seem as real a media product as possible. Both of us feel that the shot showing the skyline of the city is similar to david fincher's skyline shot in his thriller film although maybe not as proffesional. The Character standing at the edge of the roof looking over the city is also akin to the opening of a film like Batman or Spiderman.




Final edit - Audience feedback

Positives
+ liked inserts, such as window shot.
+ liked the soundtrack playing along with the scene
+ enjoyed the mystery set up - thought it was  a good enigma
+ Titles were creative
+ Ambient sound used well: Footsteps/clothing shuffle

Negatives
- David and Guy title maybe a bit informal - include last names?
- Wobble of the camera in early long shot on roof

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Thriller - Bird sounds

We felt the window insert shot was really good aesthetically but lacked in any substance so came up with the idea that as we were adding more ambient sound anyway we would add bid sounds. After doing this we felt it added to the verisimilitude of the scene greatly.


Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Thriller - Third draft improvements

The main improvments made to the third draft were the inclusion of ambient sound and a few shots cleaned up to make it all more seemless and akin to a finished product.

 Some shots now including ambient sound within this draft



Thriller - Third Draft

Thriller - Production comapany Logo sounds

For the logo we wanted to imitate opening production logos like paramount or universal. We wanted to have the logo animated in some way but with appropriate sound to add an extra effect to it.

From the first video which included several sounds, we chose to go with Horror loop 2 at 4:47 as we thought this had a very effective and demanding sense that we thought would bring in the first title "legend" with an extremeley powerful presence which is what we wanted.

Also for the second one we used a few seconds from it to bring in the word "entertainment" we really wnated it to contrast the first sound that legend carried with it. This therefore gave a finishing effect to complete the title and move on with the opening sequence.




Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Thriller - First draft audience opinions

Thriller opening - production company review

We decided to ask peers their opinions on the the name of the company to see if it was the right choice
Emily Brookes: "I am very impressed with it and it looks very proffesional, the music also fits well with the title and makes each word and the name in general stand out more"

Finley O'Neill: "I like the concept of the title and thought it was done to a proffesional standard, the sound effects work well and the transitions flow very nicely."

Thriler opening - Production company


This is the main production company we created for our Thriller opening sequence, we thought this sounded proffesional and sounds like it could be legitamate. 
This therefore makes the following footage seem a lot more proffesional in itself as a result.