Responses::

Several people within our target audience range told us that the sound effects were very good but they thought that at times during the piece it seemed like it was the film trailer instead of the beginning of the film. Tom liked the the contrast of the black and white scenes and the sudden change back to colour. Tom also enjoyed the acting skills; he thought it worked well and the idea for our thriller piece was a good one and very effective. Kathrin thought that the contrast in colour was a good use of flash back, she also felt that the camera angles that were used, were well filmed and made the film run smoothly.

"I love the music, i like the way it changes when the mood of the actors change."

"the different soundtracks used work well with the different scenes"

"the idea for the thriller works well with the genre"

"i like the way the flash back is in black and white, it makes it look like an old memory and it contrasts with the rest of the movie"

'Phright' - Evaluation.::

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

"The conventions that we used in our piece are as follows; over the shoulder, point of view,  two shot, long shot, close up shot,  low angle shot. We felt that these were suitable for our thriller because during the research process we found that most of the movie intros that we looked at had several of the shots that we had been researching. All the movies that we watched influenced us a lot when it came to the story line, the music, the shots basically everything. We found that most of the thriller intros were generally the same when it came to shots. They either had a point of view shot with no music or a a long shot with fast pacing music.  The movie intro that influenced us with our story line was 'Kiss Me Deadly' , we were really intrigued with the shots that they had and the tension that the shots created when they were ordered as they were. We wanted to make our intro as real as possible so we took a lot of time researching different types of music, shots, story lines and sets so we could get a more realistic and professional look as we could. We feel that we have successfully fulfilled that and we are really pleased with the outcome of this course."

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

"It represents the social groups of victim and murderer, this is done by building the tension in the opening by making the victim character to seem vulnerable compared to the murderer character. We made the murderer character seem the one in control of the situation by closely filming their facial expressions and making the point that they are chasing the victim so that they are viewed as in control and the victim is viewed as vulnerable."

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

"Cinemas would be the first place that we would distribute our product as it is more of a mainstream movie type product. We think this because of the story line we have made for it and also the way we have filmed the opening makes our movie more suitable to be shown in a cinema."

Who would be the audience for your media product?

"In our opinion, we feel that the most suitable audience for our product would be at the age 15 and over. The reason we decided this was because We felt that the content shown in our beginning credits would not be suitable for younger children, not only would thy get scared of it but they may not be able to follow the story line." 

How did you attract/address your audience?

"We attracted the audience by making our opening a cliff hanger. We did this by adding fast showings of clips and by ending the opening with lots of suspense and questions from the audience about what has happened and why.  This works well with our theme of a thriller opening as the suspense is evident from this.  The aim for our beginning piece was to give the audience as little  information as possible to them asking a lot of questions. The fast flashes create a sense of eeriness and makes the  audience feel as if that image is somewhat important. The music we used also helped in creating suspense in the opening scene; the use of a heartbeat and the the eery music adds to the setting. The aim of the music was to create a dangerous setting, and in the end we both feel like we have achieved that. "

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

"Whilst in the filing process we had a dolly that we were intending to use to create smooth running sequence for our beginning shoot, but the only problem was that our dolly was unsteady and the camera wouldn't fit onto it properly which meant that our 'smooth shoot' would have to have been created by someone with a steady hand.  We had a lot of camera troubles when it came to importing our 'Phright' footage onto the PC. Most computers either would recognise the camera or the camera would refuse to co-operate. Eventually, we managed to get our footage onto a computer but then we had further problems with that PC.  After spending two hours updating our blog, falling behind on our editing, we got our PC fixed and we could continue editing our footage.  After all of these problems we did manage to complete our piece. In our opinion, after the problems we had during the making of our piece we are not a big fan of the equipment we used."

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

"In the preliminary piece we found that the quality of the camera angles were quite simple and didn't portray  the full scene how we wanted it to. Compared to our final piece the preliminary is quite dull and boring. Holly found the preliminary to be plain and said that if she could go back and redo the piece she would have taken more footage. Which would then have given us a wider range of clips to use. We learnt that the more camera shots you use and the more footage you take the easier it is to create the full effect. It helps you to portray your movie how you wanted it to. In the preliminary piece we only went through it once which meant that we didn't really have a lot of footage to work with, if we had recorded it several times we would have  been able to edit a lot more and create a more exciting setting.  The dolly we used for our preliminary was easier to use than the one we used for the final piece which meant that some of our shots weren't as smooth as we wanted them to be, but after looking at the footage we both feel that it adds to the overall effect of our piece.  "

Our Thriler Soundtrack:

The site link shown on the bottom of this post will give us clarification that the music we have used in our thriller piece is copyright free. This is the site we used to get all of our music that we needed for our piece.

www.partnersinrhyme.com

Thriller Opening ::

Our  Completed Thriller Opening ::

EVENTS::

At the moment we are in the process of editing our thriller opening, so far it is going successful but at this moment in time there has been a technical difficulty with our computer. So we are unable to complete our editing. 

We deviated from our original story board and we feel that these changes have improved our final piece, as they link in really well with our thriller story.

Our Day Of Filming::

At the end of our filming session, both, Me and Kat were pleased with the footage we ended up with, having much more footage than we expected to have. We decided to add some shots to our story board as we thought that they would improve our whole story idea as they worked and fitted into our story quite well.  We also thought it to be a good idea as it made our thriller opening slightly longer which has helped us communicate the story idea to the audience.

Risk Assessment ::

At The Minute::

At the moment we are completing our risk assessment table which will be up very soon. What are also trying to do is cast the roles of the parts. Kat has already agreed to play the dead mother and has said that she has two friends, who are also in drama, are willing to take part as well so we now have our cast sorted. All we need to do at the minute is complete our risk assessment and cast!

xx

Animatic Of Thriller Piece::

As you can see below, we have created an animatic for our thriller piece. It took us a while to do it because everytime we came back to it each lesson the PC had moved it to a different location so it took us a while to find it. We also found it difficult finding the different sound effects especially the heavy breathing. Overall, we like how the animatic turned out and we both cannot wait until it is time to start videoing.

xx

Our Thriller Opening - StoryBoard::

This is our storyboard... Do You Like It? After thinking long and hard about the many different ways we could begin our thriller and we finally decided to go for a mysterious chase that then leads to the main plot.

xx

Kiss Me Deadly Intro::

The video above is the intro from the film 'Kiss Me Deadly', the very beginning of the video is the close up of the legs and this is what we are intending to do with our piece.  

Idea for our thriller opening ::

Idea and background story:

Main character is a young teenager, their mother's ex-lover is the murderer getting revenge on their mother.  The teen finds their mother whilst the murderer is still in the house, they see the murderer, the murderer sees them and that introduces the chase scene down the road and through a field.  Opening scene is a track shot of the teenagers lower legs running and then cuts to a flashback which is the realisation of why they are running and what from it then backs to the track shot of the opening scene and then pans out to a track shot of the murderer chasing the teenager and then ends on an over-the-shoulder shot of the murderer behind the teenager.  Fade to black.

xxx

Film analysing for research continued::

Defense of the realm - Opening credits

• Starts with a black background with the credits in white and a tension building soundtrack in the background - a simple but effective way to build tension.
• Through the showing of the credits the background gradually changes to a dark blue colour which is eventually identified as the night sky.
• Music soundtrack is then blended with a diagetic sound - which is a radio news report.
• Then a subtitle is shown which immediately states where and when you are.
• On the same dark blue background (night sky) a car drives across the screen.
• A above shot is then used as the car drives towards the camera.
• A close-up of the people who are in the car from the front windscreen.
• This immediately becomes a car chase which involves this car and a police car.
• The people in the car get out and run away and one of them is caught.
• A shot of the other man running across the screen.
• White light fills the screen.
• Immediately cuts to a crime scene with a torch close-up on writing.
• Close-up of a man/policeman in a car.
• Close-up of some photographs.
• Cuts to a group of men/policemen in a room discussing something or possibly a crime that is linked to the men in the first scene.
• Shot and reverse shot are used when the men are conversing with each other to show the person who is talking at each time.
• Cuts to men waiting for a lift and then conversing with another man that could be involved in what they are discussing.
• Another cut to some men in an office or factory workshop with close-ups of peoples faces.
• Over-the-shoulder and reverse shots are used frequently used in this scene whilst the men are conversing.

The Third Man - Opening credits

• Zoom in of a string instrument with the titles running over the top. (unusual and different use of the vertical/horizontal line device that is often used)
• Archive, location and film footage is used and mixed together with a first person narrator setting the scene of the time it is set.

Middle of the film

• Shots filmed on tilts changing from one side to the other.
• Music in background with dialogue above it.
• Loud footsteps in the background but all you see is the shadow of the person making them.

Se7en

• Shots of a book and pages turning cutting to shots of black with white writing (the credits).
• Close-up of a person writing (common technique for thrillers).
• Flash device.
• Weird, creepy and tension music in the background.
• Don't see the face of the person only their hands and fingertips.

Film Analysing for Research::

Marnie - Alfred Hitchcock (1964)::

• Dramatic/tension (violins) building music that moves to lighter, softer romantic music ( images look illustrated)
• opening scene and credits shown on pages of a book and pages turn to reveal the next. ( book technique indicates the film is a story)
• Starting scene back of woman - close up  of back ( camera follows behind then watches her walk away)
• Next scene is of a man describing a woman
• Another close-up  of woman's back and bag (still not seen her face)
• Close-up of suitcases being packed the a close - up of inside a bag then wallet ( several close-ups)
• Finally see her face (changed appearance)
• Close- up of key dropping into grid
• Over the shoulder and reverse shot 

• Genre indicated by words shown and the soundtrack
• Music then goes to more traditional thriller sound, anxious -  slows down again
• Music cuts - the extreme close up of the yellow handbag under arm of woman in tweed suit.
• bright yellow handbag- to stand out and show it significance
• Screen - filled but lighting suggests its morning and outside
• Only sound is heels/stilettos on the floor 
• camera and figure moving in unison (tracking shot)
• large shift in sound (contrast) loud violins to heels on the floor
• gradually figure and place that it is set is revealed. 
• clues given through hair outfits and props - enigma of who the woman is 
• Urban location due to background 
• walking along red line might indicate she is being funneled to something/ trap?
• Dramatic speech 'robbed' - links with woman makes you assume she's robbed something
• immediate cut to new set/place
• cut to empty safe - close - up, fills the screen
• Indication of office - door, files and safe, where he's stood and speech stops to show his importance 

Vertigo - Beginning Credits::

• Slow music played in the background
• An extreme close up of half a face (Girl aged around twenty - we don't see her eyes) - background is black
• Black and white image
• Camera zoomed into one eye ( possibly right eye)
• Black and white scene then changes to a red - could indicate death, blood, passion, hell, danger etc.
• The girl's facial expression does not change - eyes are the only thing that move > indicates she may be frightened, worried, lost, anxious etc.
• Title then appears from her eye starting from far away and then gradually getting larger. 
• Title then disappears and a spiral starts to enlarge while spiraling in her eye - signifying hypnotism, dizziness, a sense of falling into a black hole.
• Names start to appear while the spiraling graphic technique continues in the background. 
• The music is very dramatic and the volume increases at certain paints then decreases at others - signifying a shocking feeling or as if someone has jumped up behind you and frightened you. 
• The spirals are coloured but contrast between hot and cold colours to create a feel of awkwardness or anxiousness
• Then ends by going back to the girl's eye still in red 
• music increases to create suspense
• Then fades to black - don't know anything about the girl - create suspense enigma and tension

Pirates of the caribbean 2 please ::

The video below shows our final piece which is called 'Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 Please?'. The main aim for this piece is to try and create an area that the audience can relate to and can find familiar. While filming we found it difficult filming one of the scenes because in the scene there were two people in view which meant that we had to have a third member to move the camera! Thankfully Kat had one of  her friends come and help out who saved the day! After doing that scene we decided to do the Behind-The-Shoulder Shots which was also quite difficult to film when there were two people in the shot but we were able to start recording before we started acting. This also meant that there would be a lot more editing than we've done before. In the end, we both feel that the final video is at its best and we have learnt quite a lot about film making. We have learnt that instead of moving the camera back and fourth for each scene we should just film from one side and then repeat it from the other side! The only problem is we discovered this AFTER we finished filming! 

xxx

Our Continuity StoryBoard::

Here is our continuity piece storyboard::

As you can see, we are using a range of different shots including; Over the Shoulder, Close-Up, Long Shot, Mid-Shot and a reverse shot. The reason why we have decided to use these shots in the order they are in,  is to create a mixture of shot types to show the viewer where everything is in the shot and the direction of the scene and we felt that it was the best way to show the story of the continuity piece. We chose this continuity sequence because it gave us the opportunity to include several shot types in one short sequence.

A lovely thank you to an absolutely amazing artist, Kat! We love you!

xx

The Beginning::

Group 1 consists of the following people (in broadway voice) Holly and Kat! We are the one and only (in broadway voice)!

In the beginning, we started to consider story boarding and the conventions of the continuity editing so that the narrative was read by the audience the way the director intended. We started by doing a storyboard as a whole class and then went into smaller groups. In the smaller groups we filmed our continuity exercise and finished off by touching it up with iMovie.

We then analysed a continuity piece that is available on the A level media blog, which we then story-boarded and filmed our own interpretation of it. We discovered that a short opening piece can be made of lots and lots of small scenes, and they aren't as simple as the final project makes out.

After that, we then filmed a short opening sequence where we had to include a circular pan shot, track/pan shot, Point of View (POV) shot, Over the Shoulder shot and we also had to create an enigma with the piece. After finishing this piece we started to analyse continuity sequences in thriller openings and we began to look at the way suspense is built and how enigma is created.
We are now intending to create a continuity piece. The first thing we are going to do is create a storyboard and then begin to film our sequence. What we aim to do through this process is create an enigma of suspense. The main priority for this piece is to teach us how the scene of the piece is portrayed towards the audience.

xox