Evaluation - Question (1)

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


As a member of The Fellowship I personally understand what we had created, and how it links to the thriller genre, and also the conventions that come with this genre. In many ways we have linked with other thriller films and what we personally would expect from a thriller film. Thriller films are supposed to be tension building, enigma filled, and to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Other aspects they should contain include:






Suspense
Tension
Excitement
High level of anticipation
Ultra-heightened expectation
Uncertainty
Surprise
Anxiety and/or terror
Adrenaline-rushing
Gritty
Rousing
Fast paced
Villain driver plot the hero must overcome
Stressful climax　
Sound

Forms and conventions of sound in the thriller genre.
Expected to be tension building and also to create suspense. In certain circumstances it can be eerie and create and unusual and generally a “thrilling” experience for the viewer.

How our final production conformed with this.
Throughout our production there is non-diegetic sound placed in the background and this continues throughout the whole production. It is an eerie style of music created by myself as I believed in some ways it relates to the opening scene of “The Shining”. The sound differs in volume through different circumstances, one being when the characters are exchanging dialogue the music is lowered but is never completely stopped to show the continuous motion and darkness of the thriller film created. We also increased the hyperbolic sound of certain parts, one being the footsteps when **** is walking into Michael's office and also when Michael is on the computer at the start of the film.

Effect hoped for.
I wanted to relate our film to great, well known thriller films like “The Shining” to create an eerie atmosphere for the viewers. I understood the effect of the opening scene of “The Shining” upon myself, and wanted to create the same “thrilling” effect.

Also the continuous non-diegetic sound played throughout the whole task keeps the audience fully involved and makes them feel constantly on edge and in a tense situation.

The hyperbolic sound emphasises the eerie atmosphere, as recognisable sounds are increased so the audience feel more vulnerable while watching the film, making them feel more involved.

Was it achieved upon the audience?

Mise-en-scene

Forms and conventions of mise-en-scene in the thriller genre.

In general, the mise-en-scene varies to what particular sub-genre of the thriller genre the film is. An example would be during crime thrillers certain aspects such as weapons, drugs, and other illegal aspects are obviously going to be involved. And also with thriller sub-genres such as technological thrillers, the viewer would expect technology, including phones, computers, and so on.



How our final production conformed/subverted with this.

Conforms: The general setting of the first scene in the computer room relates to the technological thriller. Also the props suggest technological aspects such as the phones and different computers used. Certain costumes from the crime sub-genre were also used such as suits, and generally rich clothing, such as the beige trousers on ****.

Subverted: As two different sub-genres are intertwined with crime and technological some aspects are missed on one, while the other conforms. An example would be how the setting is more technologically based rather than crime based due to the filming being in a computer room and an office.            

Effect hoped for.                                 Was the effect hoped for, achieved upon the audience?^

The mise-en-scene that was used was to create a familiar picture within the viewers mind to what they have already seen and so what they would expect to see from a similar thriller film. Similar uses of setting, props and costumes have been used to lead the audience into a false sense of security believing they know a similar thriller that they can relate to. But they have no idea of what to expect and the results of the film they are about to watch.


Camera work

Forms and conventions of camera work in the thriller genre.

You would expect to see jolty and disfigured camera movements which thrills the audience and increases the tension. They also expect to be unable to view the antagonist until further engulfed in the storyline and when it becomes more clear to them upon the narrative.

How our final production conformed/subverted with this.



Subverted: The slow pan movement in the first scene where Michael has entered the computer room contrasts with the majority of thriller films. With a thriller you would expect a jolty and disfigured scene but our scene contrasts with this.                                                           

Conformed: The use of a tracking shot on the character **** when he is going to speak to Michael about certain business follows him. There is a low angle focusing on his footsteps, and then shows his back. It never focuses on his face and you can never see this due to how we want to keep this character mischievous. He needs to be seen as unknown to the character in the film, as well as to the audience. A characteristic of a thriller film would be to create uncertainty for the viewer, and this is a convention that we have used.

Was the effect hoped for, achieved upon the audience?^

Effect hoped for.

With the use of the tracking shot we expected that the audience would feel a lack of uncertainty about the character and to create a dark atmosphere for them who are unaware of one of the characters. As they are unable to see **** face, the antagonist is unknown to the character leading to an enigma of, who is this character?

The use of the slow pan movement leads the audience to believe that the protagonist character is aware of his surroundings and understands how to deal with certain circumstances that occur. They are shocked to find out what then occurs.

Editing

Forms and conventions of editing in the thriller genre. 

With films within the thriller genre, certain editing techniques are expected. The use of match on action would be for the effect of being placed into the characters position and therefore feeling more involved with the events that are going to take place.

Also how jump cuts are expected, being abrupt and fast paced which also links with the transition devices which are also conventionally used which are quick between scenes to create a jolty experience for the viewer.

How our final production conformed/subverted with this.

Conformed: Within “The Corrupt Reality” we used match on action in the office scene where **** is leaving the room to feel the dominance of the character with him opening and then slamming the door from outside the door.

Subverted: We used a contrasting experience for the viewer to what was expected by not using jump cuts and fast transitional devices, but instead we used the opposite of slow transitional devices and just normal cuts.

Effect hoped for.

The effect we were hoping for upon the audience would be to create an experience where they feel more involved with the film, and almost located within the scene and to feel **** dominance and authority.

With the normal cuts and the slow transitional devices we wanted to lead the audience further into a false sense of security, expecting the film to have a happy atmosphere which then contrasts with the actual events. It emphasises the eerie atmosphere we wanted to create.

Was it achieved upon the audience?

Narrative

Forms and conventions of narrative in the thriller genre.

A thriller genre varies with sudden rushes of emotions and excitement with a slow moving narrative to create a more thrilling experience for the viewer. When the narrative is slow and then increases in pace, the film is a lot more unusual and the viewer is less likely to anticipate what is going to happen.

Another narrative technique that the viewer would expect, is to be in a position where the films narrative is dominated by the protagonist character. Then within time the antagonist character would be come slowly revealed to the audience.

Especially crime thrillers emphasise character development and complex narratives over action sequences.

How our final production conformed/subverted with this.

Conformed: We created a slow moving narrative with the viewer feeling comfortable with the protagonist character. Then we introduced the antagonist character and then increased certain other aspects with the narrative and started to increase the pace of camera work and so on.

We also used a narrative where the antagonist would be unrecognisable at the start and then slowly reveal more about the character and his position.

There is little action in our thriller film and it is more focused with crime thrillers where character development and finding out what the characters are like and involved with is more important than action sequences.

Subverted: The fact that character development is hardly introduced due to how we wanted to keep a constant enigma throughout the production.

Effect hoped for.

We wanted to create an effect upon the audience where they would be in a constant enigma trying to find out about the antagonist character and guessing what his position is etc. We wanted **** character to be slowly revealed to the audience so they could continue guessing about the character and what he represents. To make the audience guess and to question the film makes them more involved and encourages them to enjoy the film further.

Was it achieved upon the audience?

Evaluation - Question (7)

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


IDEA: Do a video of filming me and superimpose the questions on the screen when talking.

SCRIPT.

QUESTION: How did the planning stage help to make your final thriller film?

ANSWER: The question should pop up on the screen about now. But yeah, the planning stage played an extremely large part in building upon our knowledge of what was needed to create a structurally sound thriller film. The older posts on my blog (which should show up on the screen now) gives a more detailed understanding of the stages from what I have learnt. But I will be giving a quick overview now on how it helped us to create a higher level piece of work. There are over 30 blog posts so I will obviously not go into too much detail, but I will just run through a few of the most effective blogs upon our final film.

First would be the typical conventions you would expect to see within a thriller film. This gave us an idea of what to include and what was needed to be able to link to, so our film would be placed within the thriller genre.

Next would be the importance of researching different thriller sub genres. These helped the group to be able to understand what should be expected in certain branches of the thriller genre and so what to include.

Another important blog post was that of understanding some of the main camera techniques such as match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule. Understanding these basic functions was key for developing a great piece of work.

The researching of other thriller films placed on several posts was also great for beginning to understand the effect of other prestigious thriller films upon the audience, one would be “The Shining”. This then linked with other posts I made about thriller ideas I had for our final production.

The large post on my audience profile was extremely useful on finding out personally, what the people actually wanted to see in a thriller film and what those certain people were like. This gave me an idea about the target audience we should hope to reach and how to secure them into our target audience.

Obviously all the blog posts were useful but those are some of the most important blogs.

QUESTION: Has your use of specific shot types improved?

ANSWER: Due to being placed in the filming role in both the preliminary task and also the final film I can easily distinguish between the improvement in our final production compared to that of the preliminary. With the practice I had obtained and also understanding more about different media techniques and shot types, everything has become a lot easier. Due to being new to media studies at the start of the course, catching up and understanding key terms was a great necessity and I obviously became more familiar throughout the course, being able to improve my technique while filming certain shot types including match on action, aerial shots, close ups, over the shoulder shots and so on.

QUESTION: Do you feel more confident with the equipment?

ANSWER: One of the evaluation questions that I have answered shows how I am more confident with the equipment I used throughout the course. These certain types of equipment and technological devices included the camera, blogger, iMovie and mobile phones. I guess I have become more confident with the tripod and understanding how to use that more efficiently. But overall, confidence has been achieved throughout due to practice, and everyone knows practice makes perfect and that was most definitely the case.

QUESTION: How successful is your main product in fulfilling the task?

ANSWER: Well the question that we were first given was explained in detail about all the different technical skills that were needed. These included:

Effective use of editing: The whole editing process has been done with great care and also the transitional devices that were featured in the final film. The editing makes the meaning apparent to the viewer and the is appropriate with superimposing, credits, cuts and many more devices.

Effective use of equipment and what is being filmed: The use of the camera was controlled being used with a tripod to steady the movement. There is also a variety of different shot distances in the film including, close ups, aerial shots, medium shots and so on. Also the mise-en-scene in the film has been discussed and used for the best possible outcome including, the costumes, setting and props.

Effective use of sound: Sound has been used throughout including non-diegetic sound which was created by myself and implemented in the editing process but diegetic sound was also used. Hyperbolic sound was also used to emphasise certain scenes.

Evaluation - Question (2)

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
IDEA:

Interview Francois and Ed about how their product represents particular social groups. Give them script to read out after creating it.

SCRIPT:

Me: Lets get a quick overview about the characters you both represent?

Francois: I play Michael and he is a young adult male, with a lower middle class background, having an above average job with a secretary.

Ed: I play **** and he is a middle aged adult male, with a corrupt middle - higher class background, holding a position within the underworld, I.e gangs etc.

Me: How are you represented within the production?

Francois: As a professional individual with the mise en scene of wearing a suit throughout emphasising this. The tracking shot featured at the start with the security camera could maybe suggest how I am dominant (well think I am) before **** is featured.

Ed: The mise en scene of my character reveals very little, perhaps the cream coloured trousers suggests wealth. Also how the camera is placed when I am being filmed emphasises the fact on how I am mischievous and from the underworld.

How do you think this conforms to the stereotype linked with these characters?

Francois: With my respected job and how I take care in my appearance with the suit, emphasising my professional nature. Also the male attitude from my dialogue of trying to be dominant and to keep my authority when **** enters the room.
　

Ed: From the criminal underworld, I guess from what you would expect as a eerie and unusual character with the voice I display throughout. Also with how you can see my face, which again emphasises how I can almost be unseen by the camera due to where I have originated and the corrupt and illegal life I lead. I slither my way around. This is presented with certain camera shots as the aerial shot and also the overhead shot.

Me: And to finish, what effect does this have on the audience?

Francois: My character being presented this way helps the audience to feel sympathy with my character, to respect him and to be placed on his side against ****. He is presented to be confused and also tries to be dominant which the audience feel for because he has no idea of what position the unknown character is in, featured by my close up showing my reaction.

Ed: With my character, I am presented almost the opposite to Francois. The audience have a frustrated and angered opinion on me and how I speak to Francois, and how I am filmed to be very rude and potent, emphasised by the low angle of just my feet walking and also the slam of the door. The audience also have no real connection with me, as my facial expressions are always hidden, so they can not form a bond with me.

Me: Alright cheers guys, that’s all we have time for today, great production by the way.

Evaluation - Question (3)

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As our final production is completed, we can now see what market this would likely to fall in. In this, I mean, what companies are likely to produce it and is it similar to any of their other productions. This is the first question I will tackle.

As a quick overview, our final production is situated within the thriller genre, which then branches off in the sub-genres of a crime thriller and also a technological thriller.

Firstly, I decided to research a variety of the major production companies. I then slowly started to narrow my selection down to ones that had produced famous thriller films before, which shows they may be intrigued about similar productions. Below shows a variety of famous production companies and famous thriller films that they have produced:

Hannibal - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Jaws - Universal Studios

 

Vertigo - Paramount Pictures

Taxi Driver - Columbia Pictures

The Shining - Warner Bros. Pictures

Pulp Fiction - Miramax Films

Donnie Darko - Newmarket Films

 

The Silence of the Lambs - Orion Pictures Corporation

Next I need to distinguish why one of these companies should be interested in my production. A list of bullet points will portray just a few reasons for why I believe this:

• It is a thriller film and these companies have produced thriller films in the past
• The narrative is broad and includes more than one sub-genre which could increase the audience.
• It is a great storyline with certain features that are unique and which they could be interested in.
• It can be featured to a broad audience of over fifteen years of ages which increase the audience further.

The next stage would to narrow the production companies down further to companies that have produced similar films to “The Corrupt Reality”. The two I have decided to choose would be:

Orion Pictures Corporation - The Silence of the Lambs - This film branches off to a crime and psychological thriller. The focusing of crime can link to our production.

 

Miramax Films - Pulp Fiction - This highly prestigious film is also a crime thriller and can relate to our production through drug use and the underworld. 

Both of these films are highly prestigious which is shown on IMDB - “The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.”
　

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/

http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Circled and also squared in the final picture shows the rating both of the films have received and what position they are on the whole site of the "Top 250 movies”. It shows both are in the top 25 films which is extremely impressive.

Using production companies that receive such great reviews on their films shows that the films that they produce helps to represent the company in a prestigious manner. Therefore due to their already secured and built up reputation, to use them would help to increase the interest upon our film from the audience and their avid audience and support for the company. I feel that our film has what it takes to be able match these two films and to create a synergetic relationship between “The Fellowship” and the production companies. This would help to boost our popularity and equally boost the prestige and popularity of the the production companies. Obviously our film has no comparison to these two films at this current moment in time, but with the money the other two films had, we could match them.

Evaluation - Question (6)

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

I will be examining four main uses of technology that I used personally throughout the filming of our production, these will be:
Blogger - Uploading posts, pictures, videos etc.
The camera - Filming, zooming, pausing etc.
Mobile phone - Changing ring tone, caller name.
Apple iMacs - Editing with iMovie and also the documentary.With all of these, I will be making a short video to show what I have learnt.

Blogger
Blogger has been used throughout the whole filming stage of the production, and also throughout all the research before. It has been used to show what I had researched and just to update about how the filming was going, what I had managed to do and how I was working. I had two blogs, my personal blog and also the group blog. I learnt how to post blogs, add videos, pictures and also how to change the fonts, how to add links and many other things!

This video shows just a few of them and me explaining them to you:


The camera

We also had to use the camera throughout the whole of the filming project. We used this to film our production, and also to film are unique idea of filming the documentaries we created. I personally had no idea of how to use the camera, but I was placed as the key director and had to manage. After using it several times everything was very easy to use and I became very smooth with using it with the zooming, pausing and all the different camera shots such as, aerial, close up, medium, over the shoulder shots etc.

This video shows a few of the features on the camera used:

Mobile phone
This particular product may seem very inappropriate to display on this blog due to how the “whole” younger generation should stereotypically know everything about their phone. This is not the case. Throughout the filming I came across some difficulties such as changing the ring tone and also with changing a callers number. Overall though, I have become a lot more tech-savvy with using my phone and ALL of its features.

This video shows how to acquire those two features mentioned:

Apple iMacs
The different iMacs used played an extremely large part in the editing process of our production. With using iMovie we managed to edit, add, delete and use other different features to create a smoother and more professional production. We also used it with editing the documentaries we filmed and also separating the useful and disposable pieces of footage. It is very easy when you get the hang of it and was very useful! Certain editing techniques I used included eye-line matches, match on action, superimpose and so on.

This video shows how to use certain features of iMovie efficiently:

Evaluation - Question (5)

5) How did you attract/address your audience? - Evaluation

Now we understood what was requested and expected from our audience, we now needed to put this into practice. I provided a survey, which was handed out in various places to understand what the audience was expecting. I created over twenty questionnaires and handed them out in school, the workplace and also on the streets to strangers. This would give me a broad basis on which to our film on. In the survey certain heading included, lighting, sound, and storyline. But ultimately I left the questionnaire very open so people are not put off about answering it, and are also more keen to offer their own suggestions, rather than just answering what was placed in front of them. The part of the survey was:

This picture is one made on the computer rather than the original which I did by hand and then photocopied.

As you can clearly see by the image, only a few headings were offered and then the rest was open for suggestions. A large box was placed for suggestions and this was because I already knew in general terms about what people expected from a thriller film, but what I really wanted to know was personal opinions rather than forced ones from the questionnaire. The results were phenomenal and helped in almost every aspect when filming. The results are as followed (excluding the “Other suggestions…” which I will mention later):

Below shows the results of the 20 questionnaires in tally form. Some may add up to the number handed out due to some people ticking more than one box:

Lighting - Dark = IIII¤ IIII¤ IIII¤ II (17) Bright = (0) Both = III (3)

Sound - Fast = IIII¤ (5) Unusual = IIII¤ (5)
Slow = II (2) All = II (2)
Eerie = IIII¤ IIII¤ (9) Other = I (1)

Storyline - Tension building = IIII¤ (5) Crime orientated = IIII¤ II (7)
Action packed = I (1) Futuristic = II (2)
Unusual = IIII (4) Technologically based = IIII (4)
Gruesome = II (2) Other = II (2)

The results that are featured in bolt are the most highly ticked answers. These are what I will be basing my film around but other results will also be taken into account. Some of these results are what I was expecting including the dark lighting and the eerie music. But one result that I found slightly unusual was how the “Storyline” heading received various results. Most importantly a crime orientated thriller film has received the most “ticks”. As this is so broad and diverse on the ticks, several of these storylines will be collected together to reach out to a larger audience.

Next was focusing on the results from the “Other suggestions…” box, whereby people personally left suggestions on what they thought should be added into the film which I did not mention. This was a purposeful tactic, to try and find out what my audience really wanted to see. A selection of people actually decided to leave other suggestions but many were just adding on extra information from the recent headings. But three questionnaires caught my attention to what the viewer was suggesting and were very beneficial to me and my production. These next pictures are the other suggestions parts of the questionnaire that have been divided from the rest of the surveys:

　

　

Firstly, this suggestion is extremely important and gives our group a great idea to help base our film around. We need to feature enigmas through the film which will make the audience think! If they have to think about all the different outcomes, then they will be more involved and captured by the production.

With this suggestion, the basic importance is that I need to think of an idea, that nobody has done before which will be able to capture the audiences interest. If they have seen a similar film before, they will not want to see it again so we have to think of an entirely new idea.

The importance of this suggestion is that to be able to make a good film we have to think of an idea that will be able to make the audience relate to the production. If we do this, then the audience will obviously enjoy the film more, when experiences in their lives relate to what is happening within the film. This does not have to be exact reference to their lives, but should be able to cover a large audience and to make them think “what if this happened to me!?”.

Finally, I need to state how what I have researched has managed to wrought my ideas to create the best possible outcomes for the audience. I have created a Prezi to show the ideas that have been noted down to try and capture this audience:
http://prezi.com/4ayx0aa8adol/as-media-evaluation-how-my-ideas-incorporate-what-a-future-audience-suggested/

This link is my full Prezi document and is very revealing on the ideas I have received from the questionnaires.

This shows a screen shot of the Prezi:

Evaluation - Question (4)

4) Who would be the audience for your media product? - Evaluation
To create my audience profile I have analysed “Die Hard 4.0” which is in the same genre as the production we are going to create, an action/crime thriller. I took notes from what people were saying about this film because I can then link it to our similar thriller introduction. When I was analysing this film I understood before hand that the target audience was going to be separated by many factors including, age, gender and social class. When I was questioning friends and others, I noticed that the majority of people that were interested and enjoyed the film were of the age 15 - 24. This was then divided again into gender and it was clear that over 60% of people that said this film appealed to them were male, typically fitting the traditional convention that males prefer action thrillers rather than females. But with a 40% divide of gender, it clearly shows that women also enjoy action thrillers so they should not be ruled out of our final target audience when filming. Social class was less obviously divided with people from all different parts of the spectrum, enjoying the film.

Popularity of similar film - (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/)

But I didn’t focus singularly on “Die Hard 4.0” but also on the future production. By this I mean I asked questions based on what our final production would be like and what people would expect and enjoy. An example of a question included was “What makes you want to see a film, what will draw you in?” and one of the answers was very beneficial to our final production, “Action and enigmas! Everyone likes to be in a tension building film, keeping us interested. Some films I’ve seen lately have just not been up to the mark”. From this we can establish that we need a film that will make the viewer think and confuse them. If they think and are confused, then they are more likely to be interested, an example of highly prestigious, but confusing film, is “Inception”.

This screen shot shows an action thriller film, "Night Watch", and the percentage to baits to attendance. Squared with red shows how nearly half of the 158 people surveyed would attend it due to the genre/type of film. This shows the popularity that a movie like this can achieve, especially when there are 35 different answers they could of picked from. This helps our group to be 100% certain that we have picked the perfect sub-genre to base our final production on.

(http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/exitpolls)

I was also very observant of what the people were doing, wearing, eating and drinking when I was talking to them. This was solely for the reason that understanding our audience profile, will understand what they enjoy and then this can be used to our advantage by implementing it into the final production. I noticed that several people I asked were drinking “Red Bull” or similar energy drinks and from this you can identify that they are energetic and have a fast paced lifestyle. This shows that an action thriller would be a perfect film to draw in an audience because of its fast pace. Another thing that I picked up on was the groups they were in when I asked the questions. This shows how they are very friend orientated and love a social lifestyle. Another feature I noticed was how some of the people questioned were actually wearing clothing from particular movies, showing how some members of this particular audience have gone past the "FILM AS ENTERTAINMENT" (see below) stage but have moved on to the "FILM AS IDENTITY" stage. Are audience is avid and enthusiastic enough to be influenced to what films are presenting, showing their true love for films.

This shows the journey of interest of films.

(http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/7/j/Avids_report.pdf)

In conclusion, my production will be based on the audiences that are similar to that of “Die Hard 4.0” due to its close connection with the basis of the introduction of our final production. From that I am aiming for my target audience to be people ages 15-24, mostly male with the basis of appealing to females too. I will also make sure that our production doesn’t single out specific social classes and make it appeal to all people from different social classes so that the purpose of my production is effective. The questions asked about our final production will also help us to create a more vibrant and interesting environment for our target audience. These will include many different things including what I studied with what they were doing, drinking, eating and wearing. All of these can, and will be used to our advantage because understanding what they do and love will help us to draw them in further to our production. But we must remember as a group that "Avid identities are no more fixed than any other, and lifestyle changes…can have profound implications” (http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/7/j/Avids_report.pdf) . Analysing this statement in more detail shows that an avid thriller viewer can easily shift their opinions, helping us to realise that we are not restricted to our audience. But more and less people, from different ages, genders, social classes may become interested in what we our offering from what is affecting their daily lives. Putting it more simply is, we are not restricted to a specific audience. Below shows our typical target audience:

20th April 2012 - Media lesson.

Back after the Easter holidays, we have gone into our film project with full throttle, progressing excellently in today's lesson and managing to place all of our filming together. It is nearly complete, we are just adding the finishing touches and then we would have finished! These finishing touches include, editing and managing the soundtrack. Personally, in today's lesson, I edited and blogged our documentary from the last lesson, and started to use "Garage Band" on the Macs to try and create music for the film, but this is only in its early stages and we believe that the music I made at home, is probably going to be more useful.

Easter Holidays Update.

I thought I would make a small, yet important update throughout the holidays to sum up what I have been doing. Firstly, we finally managed to create and finish the last scene. We did not film this in Francois conservatory, we just used my dining area. There was also many changes to the script and storyboard but we will create a post on our group blog to show the changes. I also managed to create the music. It was a difficult process but I used my keyboard and guitar to make some unusual sounds which I personally believe, would be great for our production. We will be deciding as a group if the music I have created is worthy. I would attach it to this blog update but there is a problem with the recording and transferring it to blogger.

30th March 2012 - Media lesson.

During today's lesson we progressed further on the filming rather than editing that we had recently been doing. We understood that some shots had been left out of filming as we were going through the editing and we decided to film them today. We also carried on filming the documentary, and what we have filmed will make a great contribution to our project so far. The remaining shots to film are only the retirement party scene at Francois house. This will be filmed in the coming weeks as it is now the holidays!

23th March 2012 - Media lesson.

In today's lesson, as a group, we collectively researched what specific type of music we will be using for our final production. We looked at various films that we have studied before, such as "The Shining" and The Silence of the Lambs, to help with this research, but we also studied other media AS students blogs to find out what they used, and the effect of the music used. All three of us decided on using both diegetic and non-diegetic sound, for different effects.

The use of non-diegetic sound in the opening scene of "The Shining", creates a sudden involvement with the viewer and the film. The viewer feels engaged and already they understand that this film follows the thriller genre with eerie and unusual music, creating a unique atmosphere.

Then in "The Silence of the Lambs" with one of the last scenes whereby Clarice kills Buffalo Bill, with the use of diegetic sound. This is then exaggerated with the current events on screen, but overall it truly creates a tense and suspense filled moment for the viewer.

This video shows another media students coursework that we have been taking notes off and have really loved the use of music. The eerie non-diegetic sound links with that of "The Shining" and due to copyright issues, the music featured actually fits in incredibly well. We will use this to structure further our advancement in this field, and using a piano to create music, looks like the best possibility.

15th March 2012 - Media lesson.

Today, due to me being on my own, I had to continue with more editing and other projects that did not involve filming. I finished creating our new and improved costume board, with our new changes and also I edited all the film work we have produced so far. Overall the final production is looking very promising and I am pleased with what we have created. I also continued with the 'documentary' style blog, editing and then posting the video update produced yesterday, and also creating a further blog update for today. This will be placed onto the group blog.

14th March 2012 - Media lesson.

Due to the rest of my group being away, I have had to further our advancements in other fields rather than the filming side. Today, as I could not film, I organised all our filming work so far, editing it and placing it within different folders. I have also started to create new documents outlining the changes that have been made so far with our production, an example being the costumes and props we have changed. I tried to continue with the video blog for our group blog, and with difficulty, I managed to film several parts of the process solely on my own.

9th March 2012 - Media lesson.

During today's lesson we progressed thoroughly through many shots. There are only several shots to go and we are hitting our deadline currently with what we hoped to achieve within a certain time period. Today we completed all scenes between Michael Thornton and **** but with a change of actors playing the characters. With Michael we stayed with Francois playing that part but with **** we had Ed playing the part due to the difficulties trying to obtain the actor we would of hoped for and because Ed did not have a significant role, acting, in the production. We will create a blog in the near future showing our changes to characters and props after filming has been completed.

Francois (Left) as Michael Thornton and Ed (Right) as ****



7th March 2012 - Media lesson.

Ed filming Francois in one of the shots.

So today we have had a very successful session, filming many shots. All the shots filmed today were of one location, the computer room where Michael receives a mysterious call from an unknown number. We changed a few of our shots to what was featured in the storyboard, but all to help improve our production. We will make a blog on the group blog later on, explaining the changes we have made, but we expect to change other shots so we will do that after the completion of our final production. Also today we continued with the video blog, Ed being the documentarist today. We are changing our documentarist each lesson as we believe as a group that it would be best for all of us to take part in the video blog. So next time we expect Francois to be the documentarist.

2nd March 2012 - Media lesson

During today's lesson we progressed extremely well into our final production. We shot many of our scenes quickly, and efficiently with great techniques used. Another idea that we came up with, was as we need our blog to be in different formats, we have started to create a documentary showing the assessor what we have done that day. So we bring the video camera with us at all times, and every landmark of our production, we will film it to give the assessor an idea on our project. We also decided that we will make an "Extras" part on our blog which shows outtakes of our filming, which wont be too serious, but which will show the assessor on how we filmed our production, even if some humour is included unintentionally.

29th February 2012, Media lesson.

In today's lesson we all seperated and cooperated by sharing the work load with all of us doing different parts that helped the group. While I began on writing about the locations of our shots, Francois continued with the script and Ed began researching into a production logo. Team work will help us to create the best possible product.

Ed focusing on his research.

Costume for final filming - Secretary position

Blog entry after todays lesson.

During our media lesson today, as a group we continued to finish more of our animatic story board. We did this by writing a script on a word document and then from iMovie we recorded our voices over the on screen, still images of our story boards. In our script we wrote about what effect we are trying to create from the shot types and what editing we will use. To make it fair, all three members of our group are setting a routine for who will speak at certain shots for a collective, joint effort in creating it. Being united and working together also helps us to become more involved with the task in hand and the storyline that we are basing our filming on. We have worked well and we will be finishing it, swiftly tomorrow.

Audience profile.

To create my audience profile I have analysed “Die Hard 4.0” which is in the same genre as the production we are going to create, an action/crime thriller. I took notes from what people were saying about this film because I can then link it to our similar thriller introduction. When I was analysing this film I understood before hand that the target audience was going to be separated by many factors including, age, gender and social class. When I was questioning friends and others, I noticed that the majority of people that were interested and enjoyed the film were of the age 15 - 24. This was then divided again into gender and it was clear that over 60% of people that said this film appealed to them were male, typically fitting the traditional convention that males prefer action thrillers rather than females. But with a 40% divide of gender, it clearly shows that women also enjoy action thrillers so they should not be ruled out of our final target audience when filming. Social class was less obviously divided with people from all different parts of the spectrum, enjoying the film.

Popularity of similar film.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/)

 But I didn’t focus singularly on “Die Hard 4.0” but also on the future production. By this I mean I asked questions based on what our final production would be like and what people would expect and enjoy. An example of a question included was “What makes you want to see a film, what will draw you in?” and one of the answers was very beneficial to our final production, “Action and enigmas! Everyone likes to be in a tension building film, keeping us interested. Some films I’ve seen lately have just not been up to the mark”. From this we can establish that we need a film that will make the viewer think and confuse them. If they think and are confused, then they are more likely to be interested, an example of highly prestigious, but confusing film, is “Inception”.

This screen shot shows an action thriller film, "Night Watch", and the percentage to baits to attendance. Squared with red shows how nearly half of the 158 people surveyed would attend it due to the genre/type of film. This shows the popularity that a movie like this can achieve, especially when there are 35 different answers they could of picked from. This helps our group to be 100% certain that we have picked the perfect sub-genre to base our final production on.

(http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/exitpolls)








I was also very observant of what the people were doing, wearing, eating and drinking when I was talking to them. This was solely for the reason that understanding our audience profile, will understand what they enjoy and then this can be used to our advantage by implementing it into the final production. I noticed that several people I asked were drinking “Red Bull” or similar energy drinks and from this you can identify that they are energetic and have a fast paced lifestyle. This shows that an action thriller would be a perfect film to draw in an audience because of its fast pace. Another thing that I picked up on was the groups they were in when I asked the questions. This shows how they are very friend orientated and love a social lifestyle. Another feature I noticed was how some of the people questioned were actually wearing clothing from particular movies, showing how some members of this particular audience have gone past the "FILM AS ENTERTAINMENT" (see below) stage but have moved on to the "FILM AS IDENTITY" stage. Are audience is avid and enthusiastic enough to be influenced to what films are presenting, showing their true love for films. 

This shows the journey of interest of films.
(http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/7/j/Avids_report.pdf)

In conclusion, my production will be based on the audiences that are similar to that of “Die Hard 4.0” due to its close connection with the basis of the introduction of our final production. From that I am aiming for my target audience to be people ages 15-24, mostly male with the basis of appealing to females too. I will also make sure that our production doesn’t single out specific social classes and make it appeal to all people from different social classes so that the purpose of my production is effective. The questions asked about our final production will also help us to create a more vibrant and interesting environment for our target audience. These will include many different things including what I studied with what they were doing, drinking, eating and wearing. All of these can, and will be used to our advantage because understanding what they do and love will help us to draw them in further to our production. But we must remember as a group that "Avid identities are no more fixed than any other, and lifestyle changes…can have profound implications” (http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/7/j/Avids_report.pdf) . Analysing this statement in more detail shows that an avid thriller viewer can easily shift their opinions, helping us to realise that we are not restricted to our audience. But more and less people, from different ages, genders, social classes may become interested in what we our offering from what is affecting their daily lives. Putting it more simply is, we are not restricted to a specific audience. Below shows our typical target audience:

Blog about pitch.

As a group we created a pitch to present to the rest of our media class explaining our research and ideas, and conveying a draft which would collectively come together and create our final preliminary. We had several lessons, and using are time effectively we created a “prezi” presentation which helped to portray our ideas across in a more creative and attractive manner. Although it may have been time consuming, the final “prezi” product was definitely worth it, forming a happier and more interesting environment for the other pupils.
We received a lot of positive comments about our “prezi” including the layout, the theme and the general presentation. We had also set out different headings, grouping the different categories, making it easier for other class mates to understand our ideas, which we also received positive comments about.

But we also received negative comments, which in our eyes are still seen as positive because we can use these to improve, but these included how we had very sparse ideas on what our final preliminary was going to be. We did not have a heading for our final product so our ideas were not grouped, making it difficult for the audience to understand what we were actually trying to achieve with the ideas that we were presenting.

Overall, through the questions we received from the class, we hope to improve on our next pitch and final preliminary as we take their valued criticism on board and we will use it to our advantage.