Q.07. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I’ve learned a great deal regarding camerawork and editing while doing our coursework.  Some of what we used in our preliminary tasks, we also used in our opening scene. An example is match-on-action. In our preliminary task, we used it when shooting the scene of me opening the door.  In our opening scene, we use match-on-action to show continuity of the character travelling in the woods.

We also used shot-reverse-shot in both. In our preliminary task, we used this in a conversation. This shows two people talking to each other. On our opening scene, we used it when the character was walking in the forest and someone was following him.  We used shot-reverse-shot to show that someone was following. If we had used a normal view, the audience wouldn’t have noticed that someone was following the character.

In our preliminary task, we also used the 180 degree rule. This is to avoid confusing the audience regarding the position of the characters.

           We did a lot more editing, in comparison to our preliminary task. One is the flashback scene. This is just a normal scene that we shot. However, by editing it and making it black-and-white, we made it obvious that it’s a flashback.

                Another scene where we used our editing skills is the scene with the character waking up. We made the screen a bit blurry, and made two shots overlap each other. This helped make the effect that we were looking for, and made it clear that the character is groggy and just waking up.

               

                We also used a number of shot types. Some are long shots to establish the scene, medium shots and close-up to make the audience focus on an object or the character. We also used different shot angles like low, high, or tilted. One instance is the scene with the mugging. When the shopping bag fell on the floor, the camera closed-up on the bag and the camera angle is low and tilted. This made the audience focus on the shopping bag. Furthermore, the tilted long angle shot connotes that the victim has fallen down on the floor.

                Another scene which shows a different shot type and angle is the establishing shot of the scene in the woods. When entering the forest, it was a long shot in a high angle. This allows the audience to have a good look in the location of the scene.

Q.06. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the course of our film, I was able to gain new skills regarding new technologies I used, like Imovie HD and Garageband. I was also able to improve my skills with the camera. I also used computer programs and internet websites.

                

To edit our film, I used Imovie HD. I was especially impressed with the special effects that were available in Imovie. This helped us make our film better, and allowed us to easily send a message to the target audience. Another aspect of Imovie that I was able to learn is title. Imovie can create titles easily, and a wide range of titles is available.

I also learned how to use GarageBand. This program allowed me to mix and match sound clips, and compose the one that goes well with our film. There are a huge range of instruments available like guitar, piano, drums, etc. Also, we had to make the sound and movie in sync. Therefore, I became really familiar with GarageBand and the timeline for the sound. Additionally, to import the sound and fit it into our film, we exported it from GarageBand to itunes, then from itunes to Imovie.

I also used online sites like Blogger. I used this for the documentation and evaluation of my film. Another site that I used is YouTube. This helped me look for movie thriller, which I used as reference for our film. This helped us greatly in producing our film, and also on how to appeal to the target audience.

Q.05. How did you attract/address your audience?

                We focused our film around the theme of violence and villains. Focusing on a character that seems good but has a criminal past and another character who was a victim in the past but turns into a villain/criminal. These themes are one of the conventions of thriller films. Additionally, the mugging scene and the attack scene on the woods later focus on violence. Therefore, this would attract audiences who like violence.

                Another thriller convention is the twist of the characters. The change of the character’s standing appeals to some audience. Like the one in our opening scene, where the mugging victim became the attacker.

                Another convention is camerawork. We used a whole range of shot types and shot angles. This is to unsettle the audience. Furthermore, the different point of views allows the audience to see what’s happening from the victims and the attacker’s point of view.

                Another convention is the use of lighting and shadow. We filmed in the afternoon and in the forest to allow the scene to look dark and depressing. The atmosphere created by this lighting is suitable for the attack.  Furthermore, the shadow provided by the trees in the woods, adds to the feeling of isolation.

                Furthermore, the non-diegetic music playing when the shot was from the point of view of the attacker in the forest gives the audience an uncomfortable feeling, which creates tension.

                Also, to appeal to our target audience, we looked at thriller films and used some them as a base. Therefore, our opening scene has some similarities to the film “Die Hard 4.0”. One is the character’s appearance and work. Bothe characters have a fairly normal appearance, which made both characters look like someone who wouldn’t break a law. The twist is that they actually have been on the wrong side of the law. This is where the similarities end. As their crimes is entirely different, one being a hacker and one being a mugger.

                Additionally, we used our questionnaires to appeal to the target audience.  From the questionnaire, our target audience expected thriller films to happen in isolated areas like in the woods or alleyways. Therefore, for the attacks, the location is in the woods and alleyways. However, to show a contrast we started our opening scene in a crowded area as opposed to an isolated and deserted area during the attack.

                Furthermore, we based the costumes of our character based on the questionnaire results. Most people said that dark clothes and hoodies are what an attacker should wear, while bright casual clothes should be the victim’s clothes.

                Also, to see how effective our opening scene is, we asked our peers for their opinions. Overall, they said that our film was good. We used the correct conventions. They said that the editing and music was particularly good, which appeals to our target audience.

Q.04. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Film Certificate
We aimed our film at the 15 certificate. This is because in our film, there are violence and certain strong language. However, the 15 certificate accepts these, as long as the violence and strong language are discreet and brief. Furthermore, weapons like knives and other lethal weapons are unacceptable for this certificate, but weapons like a bat is allowed. Therefore this certificate is perfect for out film.

Target Audience
            Our target audience would be teenagers aged from 16-20. Our target audience are people who like action and thriller films and watch them with friends. Also, they are into listening to pop rock and possibly techno music. Additionally, they shop for their CD and DVDs in HMV. Some examples of the films they like are Die Hard, Mr and Mrs Smith, etc.

They would see our film because it contains action and thriller elements. Furthermore, the main character is a seemingly normal person, which they can relate to. However, they will also be pulled in by the past of the character, and will be surprised by his secrets.

Q.03. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Film 4
            Film 4 focuses mainly on broadcasting blockbuster movies. Also, changes movie themes from time to time, like from action to romance to thriller to horror, etc. Our movie could be shown in here. Furthermore, Film 4 shows a lot of thriller films like Hitman, Die Hard and lots more.

20th Century Fox
            20th century fox is an American film studio. Our film appeals strongly to people aged 17 to 24, and will therefore be perfect to be produced by 20th Century Fox. They have produced popular films like x-men, avatar, die hard, star wars, etc.

Odeon cinema
            Odeon is a British chain of cinemas, and they are all around Europe. Ours could be shown in our local Odeon in Guildford. This would be quite popular, as our intended target audience are aged 17 to 21, and there are a lot of A-level students around Guildford.

             However,  because our films have limited budget and reputation in the film industry, it would be impossible for our film to be exhibited by them. Instead, our film could be shown in film festivals, for a start. If we get good feedbacks from the audience, it would then be a possibility for bigger institutions to exhibit our film.

Raindance Film Festival

            Raindance is a film festival that is independent, which operated in cities like London, Vancouver, New York, Berlin and others. Therefore, low budget films like ours have a possibility of being exhibited her. This would promote our movie, show that it’s appealing and good, and will allow our film to be shown in cinemas and TV.

Q.02. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our main character in our film can be compared to Matthew 'Matt' Farrell in “Die Hard 4.0”. Their physical appearance are also the same in terms of body stature, they’re very different in comparison to the usual characters used in thriller films, which are mostly heavy muscled men. They also dress similarly, wearing dark coloured polo shirts rather than shirts that show muscles and which portrays toughness and a fighter.

In terms of their role in the film, they’re also the same, people who’ve gotten in the wrong side of the law. While Matt in die hard is a hacker, the main character in our film used to mug people in the streets and beat them up.

However, they also have some difference. One is their attitude towards violence. While our character is used to violence, from mugging and beating up people, Matt from “Die Hard 4.0” tries to avoid violence, as shown in his attitude to the shooting happening around him during the film “Die Hard 4.0” where he didn't know what to do.

Another difference is the setting. While Die Hard was set in the city with a lot of people around, our film was set in the forest where there wasn't a lot of people and the place was isolated.

Q.01. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Title of the film – We developed an idea from a thriller film that we researched, which is “Die hard – With a Vengeance”. The title of die hard came in with a sound like a single explosion. In our opening scene, we made a sound effect for each of the letter of the title coming in.
2. Setting/Location – Regarding location, we made use of one of the most common place for a thriller film, the woods.  The sense of isolation and the appearance of the woods, dark and lonely, helped us create tension to appeal to the audience.
3. Costumes and props – For props, we made use of work clothes and a bike. The character pushing it and walking through the woods alone gives the audience a sense of isolation and creates tension.
4. Camerawork and editing – The tilted camera and the black-and-white colour of the shot is one convention of thriller films. This creates tension and a sense of uneasiness. This also helps the audience get a feel of what happened to the character.
5. Title font and style – The font of the title are done in big, clear, white letters. We challenged normal thriller, which uses fonts in bold capital letters. This simple font and style combined with the sound effects combines really well to catch the audiences’ attention.
6. Story and how opening sets it up – The film opens by a seemingly person gets off work and goes off. This helps show the difference when the character enters a attack or struggle.
7. Genre and how opening suggests it – Another common convention of a thriller film is violence of an attack. The bat connotes this violence well, especially with it pointed to the character. The distorted colour also adds to this, thus creating the tension needed in the scene.
8. How characters are introduced – The character introduction is done very clearly, with an attacker and the one who gets attacked. One of the main conventions of thriller films is that the main character gets attacked, assaulted or tortured by an attacker. The opening scene shows clearly who is which.
9. Special effects – We used a black-and-white shot effect for a flashback. A flashback is one of the conventions of thriller films. Furthermore, by taking  the shot from a high angle and making look like a CCTV camera, this makes it look like the character onscreen is being watched or followed.

Questionnaire Results

Which of these Thriller films have you seen?

            According to our questionnaires, some of the thriller films that people have seen are these four. The top 2, both with 6 people, is Die Hard 3 and Jaws.

What locations you associate with thriller films?

            The top location associated with thriller films is the woods. The second one would be alleyways. When we asked them why, they said that because the place is abandoned and isolated.

What genres of music are usually associated with thriller films?

As for the music, the top one associated with thriller films is classic music. Furthermore, they said that it would be fairly slow beat and then changes to a faster beat when nearing the climax.

Costumes and Props Research

                In our film, the attacker will use a bat to attack people. We considered a baseball bat and a cricket bat. A baseball bat would have been better, however, only a cricket bat is available to use. Therefore, we will use a cricket bat in our opening scene.

                These are the costumer that we are considering for the victim in our opening scene.  We think that bright coloured clothes are suitable for a victim. Furthermore, the casual look allows the victim to blend in with the mise-en-scene.  The more formal clothes is for the victim that just got off work and is about to go home. We’re deciding whether a jacket over the work clothes would be more suitable. However, whether a jacket is suitable or not will depend on the weather.

We decided that the attacker should wear a hooded jacket. Furthermore, the dark colour is suitable for the attacker. Furthermore, the contrast between the dark clothes of the attacker and the bright clothes of the victim will give the audience an idea of what’s about to happen.

Location and Setting Research

Thriller films normally use places that are out of the way, and therefore have few or no people around.

Woods

Woods provide the setting for a thriller film perfectly. The deserted and isolated atmosphere that this place gives provides the perfect atmosphere for thriller films. Fursthermore, for an attack to happen, somwhere isolated and where thereisn't much people is mre suitable than a crowded place.

Graveyard

Graveyard has a lonely and isolated atmosphere. Furthermore, there are rarely a lot of people in graveyards, so an attack could happen here. However, graveyards would be more suited to a horror movie, unlike our thriller  movie.

City streets

City streets provide a lively or crowded atmosphere. This is mostly used in thriller films to show contrast between two locations, therefore increasing the tension. Therefore, we could use this in a thriller movie and then change the scene into a more isolated place to catch the audiene off-guard and surprise them.

Alleyways

Alleyways give off an isolated atmosphere. Furthermore, unlike other locations this is closer to the city, showing the difference in atmosphere more clearly.

Questionnaire

We will use this quetionnaire to get our target audiences' opinions. Whis way, we can appeal to the right preferences of our audience to draw them in successfully.

My group...

I will be working with my partner, Max Baranowicz. We both will act while the other one handles the filming. For our thriller films, Max will handle the filming and bits involved in it. I will mostly focus in editing the clips and adding effects to theem. We decided on our jobs depending on our strengths.

Evaluating the Preliminary Task

I was asked to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character, with which he/she exchanges a couple lines of dialogue.

I prepared for this task by doing a storyboard. This storyboard showed what will be on each shot. This also detailed the type of shot and camera and character movement. This pretty much shows what happens on each shot.

We used three shot techniques to make up the film. One is match-on-action shot. In this shot, I was the actor on camera. We took a mid-shot showing my upper body, and an extreme close-up of my hand pushing the door open. This makes the audience know the character, and the extreme close-up makes the audience focus on my hand opening the door. The framing in this shot is focused on the character and the setting. The mid-shot showed where the character is in the room. Also, in this shot I was positioned in the centre of the shot, making me the focus of the shot.

 

The second technique is shot-reverse-shot. In this shot, I was one of the actors on screen. For this, we used over-the-shoulder shot. We used this shot to clearly show a conversation and who was speaking. The framing in this shot focused on the two actors on screen. However, the framing also included people behind the actor. On this shot, the actors were positioned in the centre of the screen, with only a bit showing the background.

 

Next was the 180-degree-rule. We used this rule so as not to confuse the audience. We use a long shot of the actors on screen. We used this shot to show the dialogue exchange between the actors and to clearly show the position of both actors. This shot also helped to prove the 180-degree rule, as the actors are clearly shown and they stayed on the same side of the screen even though the shot angle was changes. In this shot, the actors were positioned in the centre of the screen, opposite each other.

        

          The final result was good. I was pleased with it, because the transition between the shots was smooth.  Also, because we were able to use every shot, the editing went smoothly and only needed little work.

          On the other, we could still improve it.  For one, we could move the camera closer when we did the shot-reverse-shot. This way the only focus would be the actor, and the people in the background won’t be shown.

          As a group, we worked fairly well. We divided the work evenly. This way we were able to work efficiently as a group, which made the final result better.

          I also got used to editing using Imovie. Now I feel fairly confident I can do better editing next time. I was also able to use many shot types, and I got confident in using the camera better.

Comparison of Horror Films

            The films “An American Werewolf in London” and “28 Days Later” are defined as horror films. This can be proven by a number of things.

            One of the most common conventions of horror films is their location. The film “An American Werewolf in London” is set in a rural and isolated place. “28 Days Later” on the other hand is located in a laboratory. Furthermore, later the character wakes up in a familiar location, London, except that instead of being packed with people no one is around. Though these films differ, they give the same feelings: isolation. In “An American Werewolf in London” the two characters were strangers in a strange place, and later on they walk the dessert alone. On the same note, “28 Days Later”, the character are in a strange laboratory, and later on the character is alone in London.

            Another common convention in horror films is the characters. In both “An American Werewolf in London” and “28 Days Later”, there are 2 kinds of people the ‘normal’ and the ‘strange.’ For example, the two American in “An American Werewolf in London” and the people inspecting the laboratory in “28 Days Later” would be the ‘normal’ people. The strange people would be the people in the pub for the “An American Werewolf in London” and the enraged monkeys in “28 Days Later”. This shows clearly the contrast between the characters.

             Both films also used symbolic icons. In the film “An American Werewolf in London”, they used werewolves and “28 Days Later” used the enraged monkeys and violent images on the screen. Both of the icons on these films appeal to the fear of the targeted audience.

Gangster genre...

            Gangster films, like “Lock Stock” and “Reservoir Dogs”, can be identified by the conventions used. One of the easiest conventions to see is mise-en-scene. This includes costumes, setting, lightings and others.

            “Reservoir Dogs” can be easily identified as a gangster films. This is mainly because of the costume. The characters wear sunglasses, dark formal suits. This is the most common clothing worn by gangsters and in other gangster films. Furthermore, the setting is in a corner of a restaurant and later the walk outside into a rural area.

            The other film, “Lock Stock” uses different clothing for the characters. The characters wear dark casual clothing. This clothing is worn mostly by lower ranked gangster. Unlike the characters in “Reservoir Dogs”, they are in a back alley. This means they’re dealing in illegal dealing. This is shown clearly when they were chased by cops later on.

The Film Industry

Warnerbros.com/main/homepage.html

            Warner Bros’ homepage for The Dark Knight provides information regarding the film. Some of the information provided is a synopsis of the film and the casts. The release date is also included.

 

This homepage also provides the users with a trailer of the movie. Additionally, images from the film are included and can be seen by viewers. This information publicises and advertises the film at the same time. This helps attracts audience to watch the film and therefore raise profits.

Dark Knight’s homepage shows all the important details of the film, and whatever else is needed for the viewers to watch it in the theatre or buy its DVD.

            Furthermore, this homepage also has links to other features films. It also shows a list of films by genre, year or casts.

Warner Bros Studios (http://www2.warnerbros.com/wbsf/#/home/)

            Warner Bros Studios has a 110-acre facility, which has 30 sound stages plus a 20-acre back lot that can double as any place.

            One of Warner Bros’ principal structures on the lot, Stage 16 the largest sound stage at Warner Bros. and one of the tallest in the world, was completed in 1935. That same year, the entire structure was raised 30 feet, using hand jacks and a lot of labour, to accommodate an elephantine musical, Cain and Mabel.

            During 1990, Warner Communications, Inc. and Time Inc merged to form TimeWarner, Inc. - one of the world's largest communications and entertainment companies. In June of that same year, the company acquired the entire studio lot and celebrated its rededication as Warner Bros. Studios.

In 2001, Warner Bros’ parent company Time Warner Inc. merged with America Online, Inc. to form the world's foremost media and Communications Company.

Other companies

            Warner Bros is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Furthermore, Warner Bros owns a number of other companies. Some are Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc and Warner Bros. Distributing Inc.

Thriller Genre

Thriller genre can be recognised by their conventions. I looked at two thriller films, insomnia and memento, to identify these conventions.

One of the conventions present in both films was shot in dark and deserted places. Another is that the shots were at odd angles, making the audience feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, the effects used, like the blurred vision and the time rewinding back, was really bizarre and out of place, to show that something isn’t right. This feeling that something isn’t right was reinforced by the strange scenes shown at the start of both films, like the man who was wiping the blood and the man who was shot and was on the floor. All these things help create tension.

These are the conventions used in the films “Insomnia” and “Memento”.

Psycho Connotations

            The film “Psycho” uses connotations to affect the reaction of the audience. Here are some of the connotations used.

            The first one is the opened eyes of the character. The opened eye, which was right after the struggle/fight, strongly suggests death. Especially the opened eyes, strongly connotes the life of the character leaving her body.

            The second is the blood. Blood normally connotes violence or death. Furthermore the colour red is associated with anger. Anger normally leads to violence or even death. Therefore, this connotation shows violence, death, or in the extreme case death.

           The third connotation is the naked woman. This nakedness shows openness and vulnerability. Most people use clothes to cover their body, almost like a protection. Therefore when these are removed, people normally feel defenceless.  Furthermore, the fact that the character that’s naked is a woman reinforces this vulnerability and defenceless state.

            These connotations help the director increase the tension in the film. Like the vulnerability strongly suggests that the character is open and vulnerable to attack. This helps in horror and thriller films. By using connotations like these, directors can increase tension and can also scare and surprise the audience more.