EVALUATION | Question 6

This video outlines the general processes we went through. I'd like to add that we learned each software had a far greater depth than we covered above. For example i learned that after putting together a soundtrack in soundtrack pro from the huge database of resources that there were many ways to export it, we were sure to do it in stereo for our cinema showing. Final cut pro had many useful tools we couldn't have made the film without. I used the wireframe editing option to cut out edges of footage and to scale it. The blade tool was another favorite that allowed me to separate a clip on the timeline into 3 separate sections, i then changed the speed of the middle section to create the slowed down then sped back up again effect. Lastly i learned that the benefit of using these particular software packages was that they were all well integrated. I could import a title i'd made in liveType straight into final cut with out the need to convert or export it as a separate format.

EVALUATION | Question 8

This is a word bubble created out of things people positively commented on when we asked around for feedback after the screening.

Most of our feedback is derived from personal interviewing, a great way to get people initial reaction but on reflection i would have liked to have made more use of social networking sites like facebook for some written reviews.

We also took videos of some of our respondents, due to technical difficulties we're only able to show you this young mans response.

EVALUATION | Question 7

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

I think the work produced for our opening is far superior to what we created in the initial exercise. Our first attempt at putting together a short film was a card game exercise, pictured above. There are many things we should've done better in the sequence, for example, the camera work. You can see in the shot on the top left we had the idea of doing a high angle shot but we failed to think about the way Fabian (man on the left) was going to be cut off when he stood. The other shot is a section of a tracking shot, but we regretted not focusing it properly, loosing the detail in the hands and the cards that the shot was meant to be drawing attention to. You'll probably also notice that both shots from the card game are quite dark, partly this was because we left all but one light on above them to make the scene more dramatic, but it wasn't until we finished filming that we realized we had left the light sensitivity shutter on, only meant to be used in bright sunlight. A silly mistake fortunately we didn't make again.

The preliminary match cut exercise uploaded on this blog was an improvement, we still made slight misjudgments on the characters position in the screen but our lighting and angles where much more effective. I think one thing we didn't consider enough was the mise-en-scene. More appropriate costume for the teacher character would have established the relationship between the two and made the scene more comprehensive.

In our final film we drew upon our experiences and were able to create well considered, professional scenes.

EVALUATION | Question 5

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Knowing your audience is vital to producing, promoting and even distributing a film successful. The audience detail we originally wrote in our pitch was as follows..

Our target audience is aimed at working class people and those who are localized in an urban area. We believe our film will appeal to young adults aged 18-30, primarily men. We think this film will appeal to a broad age range because our protagonist is a young man, however this genre has proven popular with many older males who enjoy the fast paced excitement and the darker aspect of a film of this genre

The one thing that was really a little to vague was the age and while i still feel a film in this genre would appeal to an older male i think it would be better strategy to market it to a more youthful audience. My reasoning is simply that the younger generation is more likely to access the promotional material via new media outlets, announce the film across a social network, go with friends to catch the big cinema release and download the soundtrack on itunes. By marketing to this more specific age group i'm making sure that we achieve as much interest and revenue.

I made the montage above to familiarize you with our audience, This young man, Steve, looks to be about 22, He's just finished off study at university and has secured himself his first job, average salary but with no-one to provide for but himself he has a fair bit to spend on entertainment. He's familiar with the city and an urban lifestyle, That's how he's grown up. Over the years his circle of friends has grown incredibly large, fortunately he's able to keep in touch with them thanks to new convergent devices. He's always able to share his thoughts with someone whenever and wherever, online, via his phone or even his games console. Steve's always enjoyed the thrill and sense of adventure that comes with many of todays video game hits. But when all is said and done Steve is just like any other man that came before him, happy to sit down in front of the footie, pint in hand.

EVALUATION | Question 3 & 4

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/ address your audience?

I picture our film as being a big hit with a wide scale audience appeal. After consideration i think a distributor that would really be suitable might be Sony Pictures Releasing. Sony pictures is a long standing film and television production and distribution unit, Releasing being their distribution label. They've released a lot of successful films which stand out from the crown. For example District 9 was a huge surprise hit last year, despite its never-before-seen actors and , i think because of, it's unusual take and approach to an alien thriller. Another reason i think our film would benefit under Sony pictures is that they are one of the most well known multinational media/technology conglomerates around. As such they are well suited for the sort of multimedia publicity and release I imagine our film would benefit from. Given that our target audience (detailed in evaluation 5) are youthful we'll want to make full use of new technologies available today. Take a look at Sony's hugely successful games console and all round media centre- the playstation 3, it currently resides in over 3 million uk homes alone. When Star Trek released last year Paramount Pictures and Sony Computer Entertainment announced..

that a series of Star Trek movie promotions would be beaming to [PlayStation] Home users starting tomorrow. That includes "an exclusive video greeting" from Abrams and the newest Star Trek movie trailer, both hitting Home as of Friday.

Utilizing this network of users that share and access entertainment on a variety on new convergent devices will be key to promoting our film. Of course an old fashioned tv advert/ trailer would still be a great way to reach the largest amount of people. I imagine it would be shown post watershed during ad breaks of similar film showings to attract lovers of the genre and mature cartoons to appeal to the younger adult males.

There are also several more traditional Out Of House media forms that we could and should promote with. I think a billboard would be a great way to get a shot of our film to our audience, the emphasis is on action and the thrill so a large blown up image like below would capture the audience interest much better than smaller printed word adverts. We also considered taking out full page adverts in relevant magazines but we don't think it would be the best financial decision as most people don't pick up more than one hobby magazine a month.

Finally I'm sure that our movie would do best in the big cinema branches found in every city, particularly the likes of Odeon and Picture house like the one in the heart of Stratford pictured below. These branches would be a particularly good choice as they have student deals and are popular venues. Picture House cinemas currently have a partnership with e4 called "slackers club" especially for film lovers and older students. Their last free student screening was the action comedy thriller Kick-ass for example. I think these arrangements are great ways of generating interest and promotion by word of mouth.

EVALUATION | Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our protagonist is presented as a slightly cheeky ill composed young man. He represents a social group that is familiar with being looked down upon by those who consider themselves to have lived a wealthier lifestyle, but he knows just like many working class lads fighting to prove themselves in a city like this that his life has been rich and that wealth is something more metaphysical. We knew that by simply dressing him in a hoodie the viewer can begin to make assumptions as to his background, while not all of them positive this sort of stereotyping is widely used in the media. What is important in stereotyping a films protagonist is that you get people to question the stereotype by building upon the preconceived character throughout the story. I think we were more inspired by our own experiences and the knowledge that many people out there will be able to relate to them rather than another film when coming up with this character but you could say he stands as a polar opposite to many personalities seen in thrillers.

Take Tom cruise if the film Collateral for example:

The screen captured above is something i see as quite the opposite to the film we produced. The man above is moving steadily and assuredly in a crowd of people, quite different to the frantic sweaty escape of our hero. He's smartly dressed, and subtly hides himself behind those sophisticated shades, where as our guy comes over as exposed and certainly has a more casual attire. I suppose our film plays off professional characters like Tom Cruises' assassin in collateral, knowing the viewer is already familiar with them from other movies, allowing us to present them someone quite different.

EVALUATION | Question 1

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

Many of the thriller openings produced by my college and indeed seen in the cinema share similar traits. Filming conventions that have proven successful for the genre time and time again. In our film i think they're are several traits that really make this an action thriller, primarily it was the fast tempo soundtrack and solid editing but without some fantastic shots to work with we wouldn't have been able to set the pace at all.

What makes our sequence interesting to watch i feel is the varying distances and angles from which we filmed our protagonist. We had to make sure each shot showed built upon his situation instead of just repeating it, whether that was showing his movement alongside the canal or giving the viewer a closeup of his clothing.

Here's a high angle long shot, a mid-shot, and a very effective ground level shot all of which develop his position in the movie, revealing something new.

When we were editing the film we took a risk in making the running section considerably long, there was a concern that the viewer might lose interest but on the contrary i think this approach was a reliable method of building up questions in the viewers mind. They want to know who he is and why he's running so very hard and while it's not an approach taken by many films i'm sure you'll find a few of the very best thrillers do just that, for example, Memento which is a fascinating to watch because it is presented in such a non-linear fashion keeping the viewer entranced right the way through. So to get our audience interested we relied on the film convention that people love having questions that they can solve as they watch something through.

The editing was perhaps my favorite part, as already mentioned we used short clips or fast cuts, to set the pace for the film however i think the slow motion effect applied during the editing was one of our best decisions. We had considered using slo-mo when we planner our storyboard but we were aware that not many films we had seen had really utilized the effect, We reasoned that abuse of it might make the project look unnecessarily amateur, so, we gave it a purpose. The slow motion is there to emphasize the credits but i think what it does even more effectively is emphasize the speed at which our hero is moving. It's the contrast between our characters running and all those quick cuts with the slowed down footage showing the intricacies of his simple movements that make it particularly satisfying to watch.

And what would a title sequence be without the opening credits? Personally i was really pleased with ours! I think they were particularly well suited to our film because we really considered how best to implement them. We gave them a jittery movement that you gave you an impression of the state the protagonist is in after all his hectic running, and their speed meant they made a stronger impact and looked good when we complimented them with the slow down of footage. We also considered where to position them over the footage, take for example the first screenshot on the left below, if we had placed them up in the corner the viewer would have to treat the text and the characters movement as to separate things to take in, by combing them we make both more effective. In the second one we considered the way the character was moving and so the way their eyes would move across the screen, i think that was fairly important, we positioned our credits so that a viewer would be able to read them naturally and not have to constantly be darting their look back and forth across the screen. One of the classic film formula we used was putting in the title on black at the beginning, i think this makes a name more memorable, also the lack of video meant we were able to draw emphasis to the non-diegetic sound of his heart beat that we faded in and used as a sound bridge to transition into the footage, it was a good decision.

The final aspect of titles we had to consider were font style. We knew we wanted a sans serif style for an informal look and we went for something bold to leave a lasting impression, something that has always proven sucsessful in films, take for example Rocky or Fight club (see below). But that wasn't enough to make it an appropriate font, it need to reflect the, if you like, personality of our film. Which is how we decided on our font, with a slightly rugged edge, cracked in places or slightly skew-if- it really represented an aspect of living in London that our protagonist and many of our viewers will have grown up very familiar with. I think it's also a font that could be described as rebellious, which is certainly appropriate for our film and where i like to imagine it going, ( A sort of one man vs The Man story).

Three shots from the film Fight club that was very successful. Like us they also went with a bold font and considered the way it transitioned in relation to its surroundings, however this is an entirely bespoke sequence computer generated, quite different to what we produced but i like to think both worked well :)

On The Run STORYBOARD - (Animatic)

Our storyboard, with each frame thrown together in final cut for your viewing pleasure :)

First day of filming

Our first day of filming was, i feel, a huge success.

In 4 hours we were able to get a lot of footage filmed to flesh out our whole film in rough on friday ( the 5th ) as per our production schedule, with very few problems save our fingers being too cold to pack away the equipment at the end! We were really happy with the weather conditions, the solid cloudy sky meant there was plenty of light without us worrying about the atmosphere being overly bright and providing us with a lower chance of producing continuity errors next time we film, since it's the season for cloudy weather.

I enjoyed filming and from panning through trees to high angles over bridges, between us we got a variety of great shots! Well done team :)

Storyboard

After spending time together as a group developing our ideas and discussing how we want the story to unfold, talking about some of the techniques we want to use, i drew up this storyboard. I included notes along side the frame mentioning specific shot types and other important effects we wanted to achieve, however we will have to allow for changes during filming. It wasn't practical to draw out all the shot's we want to achieve but it should give you an impression of what we're aiming for!

Skills audit: Livetype and soundtrack pro

Today we were given an introduction to LiveType and Soundtrach Pro. Two professional grade software application that would obviously be need in the creation of our opening thriller sequence.

LiveType allowed to us to create titles that could easily be exported to our film in final cut. It included many features giving you the ability to change just about anything you wanted; Some of the things i enjoyed played around with were the transition effects, their was a huge range and adjusting them on the timeline gave you another degree of control over the way your text could appear, it was easy to adjust the speed and with many effects you had access to the character movements in all direction with a bit of simple tweeaking. This program allows you to change the whole text or apply different style to individual characters and i experimented with drop shadows, glows, colour tints, rotation. Each can be altered to a surprisingly high degree, for example the density of the glow or the angle and position on the x/y axis of the shadows.

Soundtrack pro

much like the other programs we used soundtrack pro is based around a timeline with different layers for seperate musical instruments, rythems and beats. It has an extensive database of souds from one off effects to background music loops and it's easy to place them on the timeline, overlapping different layers and dragging the mouse to simply extend and sorten the sounds. I worked out a way to fade sounds by dragging the corner of bars down and along itself, which worked well but i would like to spend some more time with this software if i get the chance as it's obviously a powerful tool with far greater potential than what i was able to produce with it today

[Above a little clip of a thriller-esque sountrack i was experimenting with during this skills audit - Nothing will show if accessing via a connection that blocks flash eg. the college internet, sorry can't be helped!]

I hope we are able to transfer the skills from this lesson onto our final production.

Pitching our idea

Pitch

I've uploaded our pitch on a site called scribd so it can be easily viewed at anyone's leisure, it includes our production schedule amongst everything else. Pitching was an informative experience where we were able to get feedback from people more experienced in the industry

Match Cut | Prelim Task | Holly

Unfortunately i was sick the day my group were editing the preliminary match cut we did together. Since it was important i prove i can edit for my teachers i was happy to go out and film again and instead i edited the clip above. It went well and i think the match cut opening the door works well. When filming the shot-reverse shots we wanted to experiment with point-of-view shots and so decided to use them instead of over the shoulder for the dialogue exchange since the task didn't state a preference. They allowed you to emphasize with the characters more than over the shoulder shots where you feel more like an onlooker. Over the shoulder might have given it more of a professional feel overall however that was irrelevant with this exercise. While the emphasis of this exercise was creating a match cut we were also told to be careful not to break the 180 degree rule, a new guideline we were introduced to that is common knowledge when filming. Simply put, when two characters are conversing and we imagine a line going straight through them both we mucst be careful to keep the camera over on one side. If you where to cross over sides the characters lose there left/right relationship and it can become confusing to the viewer or just uncomfortable to watch.

Match Cut Prelim

Creative Title Sequencing

You can click to view a larger version of this image or watch the full opening below :)

I think this title sequence is particularly interesting. It's for a documentary but is done to a very high standard to compliment it's theme.

The letters fly around as if blown by the elements along the harsh landscape, it is very organic and emphasizes the nature of Scotland. On the other hand the font itself is a more sensible serif which is a very suitable typeface for a documentary, connoting knowledge and history.

The most effective aspect of these titles in probably that the text, in comparison to the beautiful sweeping views of the land, is comparatively tiny. This emphasis on the size and scale on the country and the history of the country is what makes it, in my opinion, a really good title sequence!

Keeping up with Current Events

The inspiration for a thriller movie could come from anywhere but local and world news is always a fresh source of real drama, excitement and distress. So it's worth listening out and recording any news stories that could form the basis of our opening.

Saturday, January 30th: Woman killed in South Yorkshire flat 'drowned in bath'

A woman who was found murdered at her home in South Yorkshire was intentionally drowned in the bath, detectives believe.

What makes it a potential story?
♦ "I strongly believe she may have known her killer."
♦ "I believe the deceased let the killer or killers into her home. Her killer left after the attack, locking the door in the process."
♦ She was last seen leaving work at about 1800 GMT on Wednesday in her red Volkswagen Golf, which is missing.

Tuesday, february 2nd: Face-crook Jailed

Career burgular Roy Boodle, who stole £12 from a police station charity box and taunted officers via facebook, was jailed yesterday.

What makes it a potential story?

♦ He updated his facebook statuses while on the run, the image of him on the run makes for a good thriller moment.

♦ Also the image of him stealing from the police station in the first place, a scene that could be full os suspense.

Thursday, february 11th: Freed after using sword on intruder

A vigilante father who chopped off a dunken intruders ear with an ornamental samurai sword after they barged into his home and threatened to rape his wife, kill his two children and burn his house down has walked free from court.

What makes it a potential story?

♦ This is a dramatic story of heroism that comes from an ordinary man. This is perhaps the most effective kind of story. One second he was going about his daily routine and spending the evening at home with his family and the next he was defending his family against armed attackers (the report went on to say). It's a story that's a little bit more relatable to the viewer. In that if it could happen to him, they can imagine what it would be like if it happened to them, and the viewer get's drawn in. Not to mention that it must've been quite an adrenaline fueled moment, great for a thriller.

Skills, Audit, Editing

Today we had a lesson using the editing software Final Cut Pro to familiarise ourselves with some of the tools and techniques we will be using to create the opening to our thriller film. We completed the Bait tutorial in which I was able to use a wide selection of clips and audio found in the browser to to create a sensible sequence on the timeline to playback in the canvas. Making appropriate in and out points to shorten and lengthen a clip when necessary, such as removing cry's of "action" or to cut up a clip into several sections to create back and forth shots and manipulate the story. One of the things i was able to make was an effective match cut and i feel i have a lot more confidence in my knowledge of how to put a film together and the importance of editing structure. I also put a few transitions effects into the timeline when i thought it might benefit the story. Such as a subtle dissolve from an establishing shot of the outside to the inside to show their relation, an audio transition to improve the soundtrack fluidity and so on.

Below in a screen capture of my timeline.

(click to enlarge)

Evoking the word, in photos.

Trapped

I liked this shot. It didn't quite fit as any of the keywords we were given but i think it very effectively represents a trapped individual. With the emotive expression and the light barely reaching them.

Mystery

We took many photos of dark alleys and old building that all gave off a mysterious feel but i thought this photo was the most intriguing. Without a sign or any information as to why all we know is that these stairs are off limits. The colours also work well as the dark red and black band contrasts with the blue wall and light behind, emphasising the denoted message. Also because the stairway looks just like any other stair in our building it leaves you wondering "why this section in particular?" and that question opens up all sorts of curious thoughts.

Happiness

It's not hard to see why i chose this picture to represent happiness. Aside from the beaming smile i like the image of a girl and her bicycle with basket, it's very reminiscent of many older films and cartoons portraying sweet content girls, one in particular that comes to mind is Dorothy happily cycling along with her dog Toto in the wizard of oz.

City

This smokey city skyline is a good view of our surrounding taken from higher ground, giving us a fuller picture of our city. What i like about this shot is the 'white space' (although grey would be more accurate!) included keeping it balanced and creating distance and scale.

Calm

An unusual picture, i think it was the straight line of the pipe that interested me about this one. But it's would be fair to say that running water is often portrayed as calming and i think it works well along side the grassy rocks behind. This little spot certainly seemed far from the bustling city that surrounded us.

Anguish

Anguish is a great word! Here describing the devastation young Fabian feels when he returns to find what is left of his trusty bike. This picture is focuses just on the figure, His whole body showing his horror, and the bike, making it a view into a personal experience.

Suspensful moments in Collateral.

I was lucky enough to catch the thriller movie Collateral which had many good examples of suspense. I made notes on some of the things i noticed..

So the setting: The cab driver is waiting patiently in his car having just been asked to help a young man make some visitations around town. In this scene the cabby and the viewer are still naive as to the smartly dressed assasins intentions but suspicions start to rise with the films first clear build up of suspense. The cab driver is bathed in artificial street light but it has a warm orange glow and a non-diegetic songs begin to play. The music is a little wistfull, perhaps reflecting the drivers own lifestyle. but none the less a delicate and relaxed piano piece. But the film is edited so that this footage is cut up by clips of the assasin on his way to murder someone. As the shot changes the music is cut and all the watcher can hear is the sharp crunch of Tom Cruise's feet as he marches along to his victim. The light is still artificial but it's a colder harsher blue that emphasises the assasins stony dangerous face and contrats with the gentile cab drivers as the shots cut back and forth. This all leaves the viewer with an eerrie feeling that something more sinister is about to happen that will change everything.

[Above, the piano music that plays during the cab driver - Nothing will show if accessing via a connection that blocks flash eg. the college internet, sorry can't be helped!]

Music and lighting are two thing most often use to create suspense in collateral, take the scene towards the end with the steady drum beat and frigtening guitar riffs helping to create the scary atmosphere in the dark room, where the figure of the assasin is silloheted against the city night, a monster in the darkness. But mise-en-scen and camera shots obviously play an import part to. Another part of the film where the user felt nervous and anxious for a character in the film was when one of the vitims answered a call from one of his people saying he had a visitor. Diegetic sounds, strings getting louder, a close-up on the business mans sweating brow. And as he decends down the stairs to meet his murderous visiter the camera lingers on the top of the staircase, the viewer is given the impression that the man will never be able to come back up those stairs of his again.

A Definition of suspense:

Suspense (a vital aspect in any thriller) is created in the build up to a climatic event; tension and uncertainty give the viewer an apprehensive and anxious feeling that breeds excitement and can make for an enjoyable film experience, keeping the viewer engaged. A common technique used to create suspense in thriller movies is a "forced plateau", this is the film equivalent of "foreshadowing" in a book, It's an ominous image that suggests that a huge event is about to take place.

Screen captures from the opening of Deja vu

Amidst all the laughter and a joyous occasion a little girl drops her doll in the water and the camera lingers on this disturbing picture. It is a hint of what's to come and an excellent example of a forced plateau.