A week behind

After returning to collage due to a week off because of a serious illness effecting my attendance to collage, i have been thinking of some more ideas which could lead to improvement in our project. These changes will be posted in due course with other changes i have made.

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

We took this idea from other thriller films, the conventions from other media products are tense music, and a lot of suspence. We used a range of ideas from other media films such as close ups, hiding of the face to create suspense and the unknown. On another post on our blog it shows all of our research into thriller sequences and different ideas we have had. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents a lot of different social groups because of the change in scene and enigma. We feel that this sequence represents one particular social group which is people who feel alone and don't know how to talk to people, as the whole way through our film our main actor is always by himself. 

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

We think that our media product would mostly appear in the cinema and then appear on DVD, this is because this is the type of film that people would want to see because of the thriller genre, and also the tense atmosphere, it would attract a vast majority of people and a variety of different age groups.

There are a lot of simularities with our thriller, with films today, take Body Of Lies for example, we think that this film relates to our thriller the most, and has the same basic story line as ours. The qualities that both our thriller and Body Of Lies have are:

* Up to date thriller set in the present

* Tense thriller

*Keeps the audience asking questions

*Same tense music ( heart beat)

*Creates enigma throughout the film

This is the reference to Body of lies so that you can compare ours to there's http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/film_info/m11336/Body_Of_Lies

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience that we think would suit our media product the best would be, people of the age of 15 and over, this is because they would understand our film and get to know the situation quicker as the film graduates, also the situation that we have tried to create, the audience would understand how the film is coming about, we know this because we used a brief case in our product, and when we had our feed back from other people aged 15 and over they were asking questions about it such as, Why has he got a brief case?  Why he is running with it? Why can't we see his face? which proves that the idea has worked.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by using suspence in our thriller, we used a wide vast 

of different teqniques  such as the use of the brief case which creates the unknown towards the audience. We used lots of different camera angles to create a rapid pace in the thriller, which would make the audience want to know what's going to happen next. we also used a contrast in the music going from a slow walking sound to a fast running sound back down to a steady build up sound.

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

We learnt how to use new windows on the Mac, such as photo shot, where we changed the colour of the pictures that we uploaded and used , also cropped them, i thought that this programme was complicated to use at first but we all got the hang of it in the end. Final cut was another one that we used, this one was the easiest to use because it was easily set out and we all got the hang of it straight away, we created our anamatic story board and also our final piece on final cut. However, we started to build our film on imovie but then felt it wasn't working out so we changed to final cut towards the end of the project deadline.

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

We feel as a group that all of us have progressed from beginners to a higher standard student in this course. We also feel that the programme's on the imac's have inspired us all to try new harder things in the build up to a project. We think that we have learnt a lot more about camera movements, camera angles, camera shots, the set up of the tripods and dolly etc, and finally just the general purpose of using the camera for filming and photographs. We have also learnt a lot about each other for example working in a group together and not individually, we have also worked with other people in other tasks that have been set. As a group the people we have worked with for this particular task we wouldn't normally have worked with.  

This is to prove that our music from our thriller is not copyright.

Thriller

Animatic Final blog

Final desisions

We have decided to film our final sequence at the old rectory in wem, we feel that this hotel is a real good venue for featuring our thriller.

As there is a lot of stairs and great grounds to film, also its nearly oposite the school so there isn't any poblems in getting there. 

In the end we chose to film it with know one else in the shot except the person acting it out (Sam Harris) because we felt that it would give to the tension.

Risk assessment

This is our risk assessment of which i have completed, i found out that where we were filming, there were very limited amount of risks of which we had to consider, as the building is a public house, and has already been risk assessed for the public to use. 

Our Thriller plans

This is our first plan of our sequence on the blog as we have had notes on here but not as such fully planned out sequence like this is.  We have decided that for our sequence we are going to be using a male for our lead role instead of a women so it shows more of a distinct look about the posture and attitude.  

Start:-

Our thriller will start with a close up of an object/ person/ shadow in a mirror, with a close up of a weapon that has been used (so it has blood  on it etc).

Music:-

Our music will be violins starting off slowly then ending up fast to build an enigma and start up suspense, a person will then walk past with a low camera angle so its just on there feet, they begin to run to show that they are either running to something or away from something (its up to the audience to make up there own interpretation of it) so it looks like there in a rush. The violin music then starts to pick up and go faster, all of a sudden it goes silent, the person looks down at his watch signifying there's not a lot of time left to do what needs to be done (close up of watch, breathing is very heavy, showing a sign of tiredness). The noises of a ticking clock are beginning to be heard, he then slides a note out of his pocket.

Camera:-

A close up of the note appears (with the audience not knowing what is going on and they don't know what the note is) the ticking noise again begins to go faster. We will use a cut shot to the hand with the note in it, then a cut to the back of his head then to his eyes. He reaches his destination and again shows he is out of breathe with a panicking posture, the ticking noise is still heard.  A close up is shown of the building door, high angle shot of him sprinting up the spiraled stairs, which then cuts to a low angle shot when he reaches his room, he looks at the suspicious note (which the audience still do not know what it is), it then cuts to the room number on the door. (Leaves the audience on the edge wanting them to carry on watching). 

Music:- 

The violins begin to start, a close up of his hand about to open the door leading to his room. Which then leads to a black out then roles on the titles.

This plan will certainly leave the audience on a cliff hanger and hopefully they will enjoy the suspense and enigma of it, which is built up by the music and finishes on the music so it finishes where it starts (like a circle). 

This sequence is very up beat and fast showing that something very strange is going to happen as everything is going on at once.   

Story Board

Our Thriller planning

We have thought of a few places where we could film our thriller, we feel that we need some where really quiet or really packed but the problem with filming somewhere really packed is that there are two many people and they might get in the way of our film sequence.

If we did use somewhere quiet then we feel that the music should be very slow but have that feeling of suspense building up so that people don't know what's happening but want to watch on to find out what is happening.

However, if we used a very full place with lots of people then we would probably use up beat music so the audience doesn't know what is going on and they don't know who they are meant to be looking at, so even though we would use fast music that would still create an enigma and its a big contrast to using a quiet location.

Our location must go with the theme of our sequence which we haven't got sorted out, but we are thinking weather or not we should film it in a really posh hotel some where or in a grubby flat which also contrasts with the posh hotel:-

• Albrighton hall- Its a big tidy place with lots of facilities that we could use.
• Hawkstone Golf Course- Again its very big and we could make use of the people who come in.
• Tern hill- A lot of spiraled stair cases which would be helpful we our stair filming.
•  Travel lodge- They have a lot of rooms and spaces which is again useful for our kind of sequence.
  
• Albrighton Hussy- We could use the great big reception area for the switching over of brief cases and so on.
• Lord hill- Great bar area and floor space.
• The castle (Tern hill)- They have some very nice rooms and some great stairs outside, this is situated on a main road which could help or hinder depending on the way we want our piece.
• Old Rectory- There is so much space and the grounds would be great as well as the stair cases.
•  Rowton Castle- The grounds again are brilliant for chases and also the inside is massive.

When we first started to think of plots and ideas we came up with a few but they we trailing off onto different things and didn't really go well with anything we had originally:-

• Mystery
• Codes
• Cliff hangers- leaves people thinking
• Single striking image
• Reflections
• Business people dealing with something (creates suspense and enigma)
• Text messages

Thriller Research

Defence of the realm

• Diagetic sounds which are being mixed in with non- diagetic sounds before you can see anything.
• The diagitic sound was the radio
• Close up of the notepad
• Photographs
• Camera noises

The Third Man

• Close up of musical strings
• Arcade footage
• Location footage held together by a first person narrator.
• Churpy sound track
• Bright lights which is abnormal
• Sound of running footsteps

Seven

• Flash device 
• Use of colour
• Suspense music used 

Marnie

• Close up of handbag (bright yellow clutch bag which stand out)
• Discription of woman 
• Over the shoulder shot and reverse shot
• Close up of handbag for the second time
• Two shot
• Quick music (violins) only in the first scene
• Production- University presents
• flicking paper like a book
• Romantic music as the film title roles up
• Can only hear her heels on the floor (when she first appears)
• Tracking shot
• High soundtrack to the sounds of heels creates a huge contrast.
• Hair really black, smartly dressed, gloves even though its hot.
• Carrying another bag in right hand
• Long shot- walking on a line which maybe suggests that she is walking into a trap.
• Cut to a different location
• Cut to an empty safe (empty shelf)
• Close up of the empty shelf in the safe.
• Classic reverse shot of the people
• Repeats the name so that the audience remembers her name.
• Paints the picture of her really well, suggesting he fancied her.
• Woman in the room has every idea of what they have been doing.

North by Northwest

• Mistery, suspense and anigma
• Lines and blinds suggest a trapped feeling
• Mirrors so you can see whats happening e.g face expressions (two faced).
• Use of different colours: red which suggests evil, passion, danger and blood.
• Performance of running and soundtrack.

Continuity Sequence

This continuity exercise was filmed by Jess waters and performed by Sam Harris and Roberta Martin all aged 16.

In the corridor shot there is to much head room therefore we need to make a longer shot so we can see the feet of the person walking and less of everything else going on above the persons head. The lighting is to dark for the camera there for it makes the scene look grainy and blotchy. Throughout the sequence we could of positioned the camera better to make the sequence look more professional filmed. At the end of the sequence there is to much of the shot left over after the room is left empty, so if we had the chance to film this again we would make our camera positions better and also make sure we fit the whole of the person in whilst walking down the corridor. We were very happy with the door shot into the office as it had some really great features including a zoom shot, it also fitted in very well when we cut to the office to see the person coming through the office so we flipped from going through the door to coming into the door. We also were pleased with our over the shoulder shots in the office as they worked in really well with the rest of the sequence.

Entry 1

We started by story boarding and considering the conventions of continuity editing so that the narrative was read by the audience the way the director intended-
Whole class story board.
Smaller groups
then we filmed the exercise
We then analysed a continuity sequence which we then story boarded then re-filmed.
We then discovered by going through the process that it differed because we had followed the rules of the story
board and it made a lot more sense following that, rather than just filming with not knowing the basic story line.
We did not think that we broke any rules during the filming of this sequence.

we then filmed some practice shots and we were given a list of essential shots to include and built a short narrative
around them, here are some examples of the sort of shots we use-
Point of view shot (POV)
Establishing shot
over the shoulder shot
Close up shot
Then we started to analyse continuity sequences in thriller openings and began to look at the way suspense was built and how enigmas was created.

Continuity Storyboard

This is the storyboard we used to help us with our continuity exercise, this shows that we have used them to help us follow this exercise sequence through.
This storyboard is the order in which we filmed our sequence therefore it shows that we have followed this storyboard and it means we have done it wright. Whatever the nature of moving image production, story boarding is vital. Essentially, storyboards are more or less basic cartoon versions of what each shot will look like when filmed and edited. In a box for each shot we drew the action, trying to make it as clear as possible for the crew where each character will be in relation to one another, the background and props. Most importantly, the shot type:-

• Close up
  
• Extreme close up
  
• long shot
  
• mid shot
  

Also any other movement:-

• Pan
  
• Zoom
  
• Tilt
  
• Track
  

It must be clear to the camera operator. Story boarding allows you to visually conceptualise the flow of the action and work through the important practical details.
If we were able to plan out our story board again we would change it by drawing the sequence better so it was more clearer and know what's happening more. I would also draw over the drawings in pen before scanning it on so that you could see them better.
For our storyboard to be better we would need more detail on what sort of shot and angles they are so that we could follow that instead of getting stuck on the type of shots and angles we used.

blog problem

we've accidently created a series of mini blogs which were having to piece together into one big blog. were copying and pasting all of our original entries so its easier to navigate. 

We have now successfully sorted out our blog problem which was stopping our blog from linking together.

Conclusion for continuity

Our preliminary continuity task is now finished, we produced a piece of film in which a character opens a door, walks across a room and sits down in a chair opposite another character and exchanges two sentences of conversation. There were three continuity principles that were observed they were :-
Match on action
Shot reverse shot
180 rule
We made sure that we used the technique of cutting from one shot to another and that it
matched the actions and the pace of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity although
we may have filmed the shots weeks apart. If a character begins an action shot and completes it in
the next, a visual 'bridge' is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to the other.

If we were able to change our continuity exercise in any we make sure our filming was of better quality
and we would make our angle shots more professional.
we would also try and film it outside of school so it didn't look like pupils had made it.
Overall we feel that our exercise went really well considering how long we filmed it in, we feel that our
storyboard let us down the most as it didn't look professional and the drawings wernt very good.