01/05/2012

Evaluation Question 7.

Comparing my Thriller to my Preliminary task. 
Thriller- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lD8Wl5_Zic 
Preliminary Task- 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nioJ8sXcqZI 

Since making my preliminary task I have gained a number of different skills using the computer and its applications, technology and the camera itself. 
My knowledge in using different camera angles and edits to put together a sequence that is interesting for viewers to watch, and having it in sync and relate to the music 
(Garage band, being one of the apps I learned to use)


This is a screen shot from my preliminary task of a side shot of one 
of the characters walking left across the screen.

For my thriller, I then took a similar shot and adapted it by taking it from further away,
 having two characters walk past, and by adding in two jump cuts as the characters
 walked left across the screen to speed up the shot.





Evaluation Question 6.

Evaluation Question 5.

Evaluation Question 4.


Who would be the audience for your media product?

After creating my survey on survey monkey before making my thriller, I found out that that most of the people that took the survey and frequently visited the cinema where aged between 16 and 21 on average. 
This also shows us that people under 16 did not go to cinema to watch thrillers as much as the other age groups, and this could be due to most thrillers involving violence and action etc, that they could end up having a 12A or 15+ certificate on them. 
Here is a screen shot showing the age groups that visit the cinema. 




Also by making this survey we found out through the same group of people, the different types of thrillers that were popular. The two most popular groups where Psychological and Crime, which both had the same amount of votes, and were the majority of votes overall which both of these fall into the same types of genre that our thriller is based around. 
Here is a screen shot showing what types the audience prefer.



Evaluation Question 3.

28/04/2012

Audience Feedback.





The overall feedback about our video opening was positive, 
but i was given some points that could have been improved.

20/03/2012

16/03/2012


I then started to explore using garage band to possibly put 
some music together to play in the back ground of our thriller sequence. 

13/03/2012

We then went onto www.mobygratis.com to find some 
uncopyrighted music to play over the top of our film. 

05/03/2012

Trial and Error
After filming all of our footage and editing it together, we found that it dragged to long and wasn't particularly attention grabbing or interesting. More footage is needed, so we are going to include a flashback.

27/02/2012


Screen Shot of all our footage being
 edited together on Final Cut Express.

20/02/2012

Filming Schedule.

All of our filming will have to be done in our own time, outside of school 
and ideally we want to start filming just as it is starting to get dark. 
Leaving us very limited time to get it all filmed.

07/02/2012

Opening Titles
we used an application called LiveType to 
create an opening production title for the opening of our thriller. 



Interviews,
A Brief interview to get some information from some of the public. 


26/01/2012

Consideration of Target Audience.

Questions asked when considering the target audience:
-what age group of people go to cinema more often?
-what appeals to women?
-what appeals to men?


Common things that appeal to women in thrillers are:
-A Psychological story, that they can get involved with to
 try and work out the storyline before its evolved.
-Music, sets the mood and atmosphere of the film.
-Interesting Characters, 
to themselves relate the character-Story, relate their life to the story.


Common things that appeal to men in thrillers are:
-Fighting, purely because boys are generally
 more involved with violence.
-Being drawn into the film and being able to put 
themselves in the heroes shoes in the story.
-Horror and Gory Scenes.


Both genders can also be drawn into certain films if
 stars that they are interested in are starring in new films coming out. 



Audiences are also drawn into the cinema by different kinds of offers, 
here is a screen shot of some of the offers available at the moment.

17/01/2012

Analysis of Past Students' Work.
This is one of the previous AS 2011 media studies thriller videos: Hide & Seek.

The opening format of the video includes the school that they attended and the course number. In the next part they put the full names and candidate numbers.
The used 'LiveType' to create their logo animation in the beginning and the titles were presented in a animated format. 

12/01/2012

Analysis of Film Openings.

Momento, Chris Nolan (2000)



Conventions-
Gun, Suspense created by seeing a flashback first and
knowing that he is going to die, Deserted place. 


Camera-
Lots of close ups throughout, zooms out showing us a
 long shot of the setting where they are. (deserted)


Editing-
Back and forth flashbacks, filmed and then
 played in rewind and black and white. 

Sound-
A loud escalating depressing, sad sound with the opening credits, non-diegetic.

Mise-En-Scene-
The image of the killing and the  music creating a gloomy atmosphere.
The colours are different in the present and past showing
the significant difference and setting between them.





Brick, Rian Johnson (2005)

Conventions-
Creepy atmosphere by no dialogue,
Opens with a death.


Camera-
Handheald camera, Close up out of focus, Over the
shoulder shot showing what the boy is looking at. 


Editing-
A graphic match is used linking the dead girls bracelets
 to a flashback of the same girl but when she is alive.



Sound-
Disjointed music playing in the background presenting
the boys thoughts and making the audience confused.
Sounds with in the disjointed music, that sounds like bells
which then use a sound bridge to go into a flashback.


Mise-En-Scene-
All blue colours used, creating an overall sad, depressing
atmosphere and mood over the scene, until it skips
 to the next scene, where the girl is also wearing blue bracelets.



Zodiac, David Fincher (2007)


Conventions-

No dialogue building suspense, Gun but an unknown killer,

 Quotes, ''lets go some place quiet'' which is a typical thriller spook.
They are in the middle of nowhere so it is out of 
the ordinary when people start turning up.


Camera-
Fixed camera, Shot/Reverse Shot, Starts with a long 
shot of the landscape showing us where the film is going to take place.

Editing-
Continuous, Skips forward to pass time.

Sound-
Chilled Romantic music playing in the background,
Sounds of the Fire Crackers foreshadowing the gun
 shots that happen shortly after. Background music dies down when 
dialogue starts, then starts again when something has happened.
The music playing is Diegetic. 

Mise-En-Scene- 
Fireworks and Celebrations, Happy atmosphere, 4th July.

08/01/2012

Red Herrings.
A red herring is the name given to another device which is intentionally
 used to divert the audiences attention from the truth or an item of significance.
can work with other devices such as enigmas, to create suspense.


For example:

in ‘saw’ two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead.
 Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murder, until it is discovered
 at the end that the third person in the room is not actually dead... but is in fact the killer.


06/01/2012

Cliffhangers.
Cliffhangers are sometimes, though not always used.
They are often always used particularly at the end of a series on tv
in order to draw the attention of the viewers and keep them watching. 
In thrillers, they often feature a main character in a precarious or difficult
 dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation. 
This keeps the audience interested and keep watching in 
order to see how the situation resolves itself.


For Example:
Strictly speaking The Italian Job isn't classed as a thriller
 although this is a classic example of a cliff hanger in its famous ending.





*Also suspense is built through the reckless,
 careless driving around the mountain edges.

03/01/2012

Enigmas.
An enigma is an unanswered question that refers to the puzzle,
something mysterious, or  inexplicable, or a riddle or difficult problem.

This is commonly something used in thillers as somethign the
protagonist has to try and solve or find out before the narrative is
resolved and before the end of the film.

02/01/2012

Narrative- Structure, Formulas and Devices.
Continuity Editing.
A clear establishment of 'Cause and Effect' plotting which makes 
the character motivations clear and helps tell an interesting story,
 which progresses logically and steadily. 
MaGuffin.
A MaGuffin, which can also sometimes be spelt as McGuffin, 
i s a plot device that motivates the characters, and moves the story forwards, 
but has very little relevance to the story and is often forgot about by the audience. 
*not to be mistaken with an enigma.



"we have a name in the studio, and we call
it the MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element
 that usually crops up in any story. In crook
stories it is always the necklace and in
spy stories it is always the papers."


-Alfred Hitchcock-