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

The thriller genre is incredibility popular genre. It consists of many different conventions such as mystery, horror, psychological element and many more. Thriller films usually include lots of tension and suspense in order to make the narrative of the Thriller films interesting and this is what makes Thriller films so popular. Thriller’s can cover a wide range of different sub genre. For example Thriller’s can be psychological, action, crime, conspiracy and much more.

 Many modern thrillers still stick to traditional conventions but add twists into the film to make it less predictable. Other conventions of the Thriller genre can also include scenes of death, violence, flashbacks and confusion. The opening to a Thriller needs to be gripping and interesting in order to keep the audience watching and must make them want to know what happens next. The opening is key to a thriller as it gives of the first impression of the storyline.

The common conventions of camera shots are shots such as close ups to show detail in expressions, long shots to show location, inferior shot to promote fear to the audience, slow pan to add tension and suspense and many others. The opening should give off an idea of the plot and also set the scene of the movie. The opening titles also give signs of what the thriller may be like such as the titles being dark and bland which is a connotation of a mysterious, horror like thriller.

Editing techniques used in thriller films are very edgy and fast such as straight cuts and fades to blacks which are often used to add dramatic tension and confusion. In the very famous thriller psycho there is a very effective and common convention shot used which was slow pan in the house from the kitchen to the newspaper. This shot was excellent as it created lots of tension and suspense

Our Thriller is going to be rated a “15”. This is because our Thriller contains some scenes of violence that may upset the younger viewer’s. It is not so much the actual violence happening in our thriller but our Thriller does suggest that scenes of violence have taken place. We have challenged these typical conventions by making our Thriller include some very good Thriller genre conventions, such as our slow zoom out of the victims face showing the blood and mess of the body. We used this because we felt it set a very high amount tension. An example of this is shown below as there are two images. The one on the left is from our Thriller showing the location of our Thriller.

The typical scene conventions of a thriller are generally dark abandoned place and with our location we felt this fit perfectly with our plot, which shows that we followed them because they have worked well in many great thrillers

location: derilict, abandoned, dark, untouched

Lighting conventions in thrillers are often dark and shadow like such as in the latest James Bond where at the start the scene is very dark and mysterious. In our thriller we adjusted the colour levels to darken the shots to fit with a conventional thriller.

 Also in thriller film there are common conventions of camera shots used which includes shots such as close up shots to show fear and expression in detail which adds to the tension This is a good way to make the Thriller more involving to the viewer as they can understand the emotion of the character more if a close up of their face is identifying this. These camera shots are used in a lot of Thriller films as it is a successful technique. So this means that we decided to use these shots in our thriller.

 An example below you can see two images. The one on the left has a still from our Thriller showing a close up shot of one of our characters and the other one on the right is a close up of one of the characters out of the Thriller film called “Psycho”. The close up from Psycho was taken during the famous shower scene. This shows that our Thriller has all the right conventions in order to make the opening very effective.

For our thriller we used the convention of flashbacks in a thriller to add confusion and tension. Flashbacks are used to show scenes in the past in amore dramatic and unconventional way which gives the audience a different perspective on the plot. And using these flashbacks in our thriller makes the opening that bit more interesting. Below is a screen grab of a flashback shot from our thriller. We also changed the colour levels on the shot to make sure the viewer knew it was a flashback and that it was taken at a different time and we did this using Imovie and changing the brightness and colour effect.

the colour levels on the shot below have been changed to make it more dramatic

Our titles were designed to be as suitable to the genre as possible. We did this by looking at the titles of other Thriller films and analysing what key features are included in the titles. We used examples such as the titles for the movie ‘seven’ and ‘The Happening’.

We came to the conclusion the main conventions of a thrillers opening titles where dark backgrounds and bold titles. This makes the titles stand out and gives the impression of a dramatic thriller

This is the case for most Thrillers so for our Thriller we decided to make our titles suitable for the Thriller genre. You can see our titles below and how we have made them very suspicious. This means that our titles will be suitable to the Thriller genre

Our Thriller opening was inspired from another Thriller film called “Seven”. This is because the opening in seven was made very successfully in order to keep the audience wondering what’s happening. The opening doesn’t show the face of the killer so keeps the audience guessing for most of the movie. In the Seven opening starts by showing a person dealing with pieces of paper, crossing out words, scraping of the skin on his fingers and much more. Throughout this opening scene most of the shots of the character are framed only showing his hands. This is to make the plot of the opening interesting and suspicious. As a viewer you want to know what is happening. Questions like who is the character and what is he doing give the viewer something to consider instead of the plot being given away.

In our thriller we added a twist to make it not as predictable as other thrillers. We did by having a reverse gender plot which we felt was very unconventional and we did this to make it a bit different to any other thriller. By doing this we feel it will make the viewer more on edge and make them keep wanting to watch. The character gender was only revealed at the end of the opening.

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

In our thriller we wanted to make it as dramatic and intriguing as possible. To do this the characters representation in our thriller were vital. We wanted the victims in our thriller to come across as unsuspecting and innocent by dressing them very casually and making them act very normal e.g. Smiling.  The thriller movie ‘seven’ has a very odd and confusing character which I found very interesting and thought was a very important part of the success of keeping the viewers interested. Also in seven one of the characters faces is not shown which we found unconventional and added to the tension in the film. We took this idea an incorporated it into our thriller. The clothing worn by the victims are very normal because we wanted the audience to think that it was an everyday person out. we felt that it made the killings more unsuspecting opening The women in our opening which is the killer, we wanted to make her seem very unfeminine to make the audience feel confused and mysterious. The clothing of her as well also represents an unfeminine like context. We did this by using a dark long mans coat, a hat to cover the hair of the killer and dark trousers and boots.

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

20th Century Fox is one of the six major American film studios. The location of the corporation is in the century city area of Los Angeles just west of Beverley hills.  The studio is subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation. The company was formed on may the 31st 1935 as a result of William Fox.

I would like 20th century Fox to develop my production as they are large business that has successfully produced some of the best movies of all time. Including the great thriller ‘The Happening’ which was very successful and Taken. Both these movies have fantastic openings due to them both using thriller conventions. In the happening the odd opening of the women killing herself is very dramatic and makes you want to watch on. Another reason to why this is that the company is financial capable of producing out of the ordinary concepts and will have the capability of supplying large sums of money for a film to be created. Also the company has masses of experience in the film industry therefore they know what is needed in a film to attract the target audience and know what is needed to make a great thriller.

 The pure size of the business also creates a lot of media attention therefore publisizing film is very efficient and common. However due to the size of the business and the realistic view of if they would actually take on my idea.

Q4. Who Would be the Audience for your Media Product?

A typical thriller audience are normally ages 15 upwards and they like to see different things in a thriller, they want it to be like a conventional thriller however they want it to be a bit different from the rest to make it stand out. The gender of the thriller audience’s a majority male but still with a large amount of female viewing.

To determine which age category this thriller opening would best suit. I used the official British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) website, where there is a guide showing the guidelines for each age rating and what is allowed and disallowed for each. 

 We compared our thrillers to others and did extended research into what makes an age rating what it is. We instantly knew we couldn’t make our thriller an 18 or r18 because of some legal issues such as violence which would not be suitable for under 18’s, so we specified it more around the age 15 mark. This rating appeals to a large amount of people while still being acceptable to a relatively young audience. We constructed a questionnaire and vox pop video for people around the school and parents to fill out in order for us to get an idea of what they expect from thrillers and the popularity of them. It also helped us determine what type of thriller and who to target it to. Below is one of the questionnaires we used.

 Using all our data from our questionnaires  we gained enough information and ideas as to what type of thriller we were going to produce, age ratings, music etc. overall we found out that people most want in a thriller is a twisted plot that is very unconventional and a good range of camera shots . For the flashback, we went with dramatic and tense, and the main track was slow and eerie.

We went on the bbfc website and checked that our thriller passes all the guidelines and it did  because it only contains mild scenes of blood and hints of violence. I was hoping that it would not be anything higher than a 15 because that restricts who can see it; however being more specifically we think our thriller is targeted between people of ages 15-18, so in other words mature teenagers. However, it is perfectly acceptable for it to be viewed by people 18+

The majority of people who prefer thrillers turned out to be males in our audience research, so with this considered I expect the majority of our viewers will be males, however I did not feel narrowing the market would be acceptable so it would be appropriate for females of this age too. Two different genders do not have a specifically acquired taste in that they are happy to watch a lot of things and a lot of them are happy to watch a similar film. To attract a audience

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To engage our audience in our thriller opening we felt we had to make it very different form any others that have been done. By Using the hidden and reverse gender of the killer we could engage our audience as they would want to see more to find out who was the killer we also tried to engage our audience by using props such as the bloody shirt, the tape and the spade. These all promote conventions of mystery and violence in the thriller genre. Another way we tried to engage our audience was using dramatic music within the opening. Below is one of the four sound tracts used in our thriller.

The flashbacks used in our opening where one of our key aims to attract our audience and we did this by using fire burning the writing and then speeding it up. This we thought was very effective as we couldn’t find any her movies that had done it recently and was very interesting and unconventional.

The editing used in our thriller was also key to attracting the audience as the short flash transitions and the fade to black/ white make the opening more dramatic and eye catching.

To attract and address our audience the questionnaire and the vox pop we did helped significantly. This is because the responses gave us good ideas into what the audience would like to see in our Thriller. For example the most popular camera shot that was answered on was our shots that disguised the gender of he killer. The audience wanted to see a reverse gender plot and for the killer to be disguised for as long as possible. The audience also wanted a good range of camera angles and we did this by using shots in our thriller such as slow zooms, wide angle shots, close ups, extreme close ups, inferior shots, handheld shots We did exactly that and showed the true identity of the killer at the end of the opening.

 I feel that we did a good job of addressing the audience that we selected by using the allowed level of conventions while still leaving room for manoeuvre to add more in. To address the audience, w posted our video on popular networking sites like Facebook, You Tube and Twitter. The feedback we received was mainly positive, but with some aspects on which we could have improved the opening if need be our questionnaire was the close up shot as you can see from the bar chart below.

On the internet we had feedback on our opening and was complimented on the diversity and range of our product. Also we got good feedback on how good we used different shot types. The only negative feedback we got was that it needed more dialogue to make it more clearer on what was happening.

Q6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the making of our thriller we encountered many different technologies. I did a lot of the editing and learned key editing skills such as to use quick flashes on imovie and how to change the colour levels. I felt that the skills I provided to the editing where good as we where able to make scenes more dramatic by changing levels and transitions and also the sound. During editing we used the schools programs to provider us with technologies needed to make our opening.

In the filming stage we used my own camera and the schools tripod. As it was my own camera I knew how it worked therefore I was able to adjust the camera’s levels to deal with the lighting conditions and did this by changing the lighting mode which you could adjust to suit conditions. I feel that I have learned not only how to be technically sound with a camera, but how to use it the most efficient way possible everything from saving battery life and positioning to how I could best capture mise en-scene and how to follow the 180 degree rule. To make sure we captured the most effective shots we had regular meetings on what shots would be used .I have also progressed with regards to using different shots in a practical manner.

I have also learned to adjust different levels on different shots to fit with the conventions of a thriller. In the making of our logo we used a programme called fireworks. I used this as it provided the correct tools to create a high quality image. I used tool such as blur and sharpen to make the logo more effective

Garage Band and Logic Pro

Garage Band is another program I used in order to create the soundtracks for our piece. What garage band does is it is used to take existing default tracks, or custom made tracks to make a piece of music. Similarly to Audacity, you can edit the track and merge multiple ones together to make one master track. That’s what makes garage band unique from Audacity, however both programs deemed as useful as each other. Now, as mentioned previously, Logic Pro is very similar to garage band in the fact that they are both used primarily to create tracks aside from just editing. Logic Pro is the program installed on the Macs in the recording studio, which is how I created the soundtrack played throughout the credits. Logic Pro, is in summary a more enhanced version of garage band and used mainly within recording. With these programs we where able to make a soundtrack using different instruments and also putting together sounds that had already been made. We where also able to change the key on pre recorded music to manipulate it into our soundtracks. An example of us using pre recorded tracks would be using a fire burning track in our main soundtrack

 

Imovie

Imovie is what we used to actually edit all the clips together. We improved our footage onto and Apple Mac and began editing them using Imovie. This program became the most essential and important when it came to producing our thriller, as without this there would be no transitions, no editing techniques, and we wouldn’t have been able to add anything extra to our piece such as logo’s, music etc. Imovie works very well with Garage Band as you could make the soundtrack then simply drag into Imovie ready for use. Imovie includes such editing techniques as adding colour effects, audio adjustments, fade-ins/outs, adjusting lengths, adding titles and so on. In summary, we used it in order to make our chosen footage into a piece of work.

YouTube

YouTube is the website that we used in order to exhibit our thriller. We took it from IMovie, put it on another production called iDVD which transferred it onto a compact disk, then installed it onto a computer. From there, I put it onto my YouTube account which can be viewed by anyone in the world. We used YouTube to exhibit our thriller  because it is immensely popular and it helps us gain feedback from a target audience. This incidentally helped us on what we did well and how we could improve.

Here we was able to add non diagetic sound, transitions, photos and titles

iDVD

IDVD is software used to convert a piece of video from IMovie onto a compact disk. This helped us get it onto a disk so that we could hand it in for it to get graded, and we could make any copies for ourselves as well. From getting onto a disk, we could then put in onto any computer to watch for our own amusement and for exhibition

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

Our preliminary task set the foundations for our thriller as it gave me a insite to what is needed to create successful piece of filming. The skills I learned from it was the 180 degree rule which we was close to braking. We also experimented in camera shots in our preliminary such as the handheld shot and close ups which where very effective and was then used in our thriller However, without doing this I feel our final media product would not have been of a good standard because there wouldn’t be as much experience to deal with problems such as low lighting conditions.

In the preliminary task we filmed basic camera shots such as medium, high and long shots to give us variation that could be put into a sequence. Because of experiencing this in our preliminary we where able to make better decisions on shot types and what shot types would work for our plot. When we edited the task we imported the scenes and cut the parts that we did not need It has given me greater awareness towards the consideration of the target audience and how it determines the outcome of decisions made during the production process. For example the preliminary project was good for me as both the preliminary and my final product were aimed at roughly the same age group, my preliminary was aimed at college students and my main project was aimed at teenagers with a BBFC rating of 15.

 During the preliminary task I was just getting used to using blogger and uploading and embedding materialbut when it came to my final product I can honestly say now that I’m confident using it which allowed me to use it quicker and I have found this process a lot easier. Due to our preliminary task, we created plans, storyboards and shot lists for our thriller opening as we found that it helped us a lot in the organisation of both of the products.

As well as a shot list and story board we create mood boards to help up with the type of shots that we wanted to include in our thriller opening and the type of props and costumes that we wanted to show, we also created a mood board of the type of location that we wanted to use, that would create the most dramatic atmosphere for our thriller opening, as this was one thing we did not plan for our preliminary task. Our preliminary production did use a small range of camera shots which were effective, and it was edited fairly crisply so there wasn’t much we didn’t need in there. On top of this, our dialogue was good and the short film looked realistic while still being succinct and straight to the point.

 I feel that looking back at our preliminary task we have improved in our skills a great deal, in the way that we frame the shots and the mise-en-scene that we created for each of the shots. For this production we put a lot more thought into the smaller details, such as what was in the background of each shot, making sure that nothing looked out of place, this is something that we didn't consider to much during the making of our preliminary task. 

The key skills I have felt I have learned overall is how to adjust to lighting conditions by changing camera settings and placement of camera. I’ve also learned how to use a wide range of camera shots to create a more diverse clip. Using these key skills I was able to apply them to my thriller opening by trying different angles and shots and also adjusting to get the best possible lighting conditions.

OUR THRILLER REACTION VIDEO

this is our reactions video

DAY OF SHOOT

At 8:30 am me and jamie webb caught the bus to thurlby and met at the horseshoe pub. jamie moulds lives in close to the pub so he biked down to meet us and so did joel howver he lives in bourne. once everyone was at the meeting point  all together we walked to our location, at around  9:05am it took us around 15 minitues to get there. once we got there we set up ll the equipment including cameras and props and began filming at 9:30am the equipment for the shoot was looked after by myself with the help of carrying it there by jamie webb. at 11am we took a short break and discused ideas. new ideas where filmed to help in the editing proccess. we then got back to filming at 11:30am and finished everything at 12:45 and packed away. the whether was very good to us as we managed to film important parts where good whether was needed such as the filming of the clouds. i personally thought the shoot went very well, we managed to shoot everything on our storyboard plus more. issues that we had was the trasportation. me and jamie where origanally biking to the location but due to jamie living in spaliding we only had one bike which was mine so we decided to catch the bus at the expense of £2.80. The biggest pootive to take out of the day would be the amount of footage we shot, we maged to film each bit 3 times to ensure that the footage was not effected by anything.

THRILLER INSITUTION

20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.The company was founded on May 31, 1935 as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915.

I would like the cooperation to develop my film as they are large business that has successfully produced some of the best movies of all time. Including the great thriller ‘the happening’ which was very successful and also taken. However I have to consider the size of the business and the realistic view of if they would actually take on my idea.

Thriller ideas presentation

Thriller ideas presentation

 

Below is all our 3 ideas for our Thriller that we showed via a powerpoint presentaion to our class to get their reactions on the ideas.

Idea 1 

•A stalker style thriller opening.

•Set in a forest.

•POV shots of killers perspective.

•Fast pace editing/music to juxtapose the fast pace scene.

•CU/EXU to show characters emotions.
Chase sceneVulnerable main character.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Idea 2

•From the criminals perspective

•Just murdered someone, getting rid of the evidence

•Polaroid pictures mapped out, general information about victim

•slow paced music, fast and slow editing.

•Having pictures of more than one victim and crossing off when he’s killed them.

•Monologue of killers voice

•Newspaper titles

•Integrated titles (not using Imovie)

•Dark scenes, black and white editing

•Washing bloody hands

•Mask to hide killers face, lighting to only show mouth talking

•Crimewatch style lighting (only shows specific body parts)

•

Idea 3

Set in a busy area (queensgate)

Film person stood still for roughly 5-10 minutes and speed it up-filmed in or outside queensgate as it is a busy place.

Mysterious setting

eery music

Mysterious character

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH

For our research we videod different individuals and asked them questions on what they expect from a thriller genre and what they think of our thriller and also what could be added. one of the videos was filmed early on through editing and the second video was filmed near the end, and by doing this we could monitor our progression by using feedback from other peers. After anaylsing these videos we came to the conclusion that they mostly expect violence, a confusing plot, quick camera shots , dark and dramatic scenes and weapons with the representation of violence. They thought that the plot of our thriller oppening was very unconventional and that our reverse gender twist was very much different to what they have seen before. with these opinions we changed some key points

 R18 - To be shown only in
specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex
shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years

15 rating – Suitable only for 15 years and over

12A/12 – Suitable for 12 years and over.
or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable
for them.

The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger
than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by
an adult 

 18 rating - Suitable only for adults

 PG Parental Guidance – General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable

Universal - Suitable for all. 

PRE LIM EVALUATION

Our Prelim task went well as this task gave our group a good insight into how to film a video correctly in order to make a good short movie. I believe that  after doing the Prelim task we could have made it a little better because of the new skills we learned along the way such as different shot types, we made the prelim task on time and was completed to a good standard.things we could of improved if we did it again would be things such as the sound in our Thriller. This is because at the moment we are editing our Thriller and we have got a great track that was made from one of our group members. So maybe if we created a track in our Prelim task then it would have made it even better. In our Prelim task we had to consider factors like camera angles, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and more in order to complete the task given. This was a big positive to our task as we constantly made sure that we were keeping to the guidelines of the task. For example one of the guidelines was to hold a shot steady were appropriate. Completing these guidelines would maker sure  that we would be in the chance of getting the highest marks possible. After completing the Prelim task we now know a lot more skills in Media that we can use in our next filming task which will be the Thriller. This means we will have a better understanding of the vital aspects of Media like camera angles, sound, mise-en-scene, lighting and much more. The pros of our task was the great balance so that we did not overflow the short movie with as many different skills as possible because if for example we had to much music then the task will not be very interesting and the plot will be distracted by the amount of music and no dialogue. Another example would be if we decided to add as many different camera angles as possible into the task. This would not have worked because the viewer would be confused with the amount of movement and not be able to concentrate on the real plot of the Prelim task.

PRODUCTION NAME

We all decided to call our production studios "Inner City Studios". So then we thought of a few different logo ideas and here they are:

THRILLER CONVENTIONS

There are three main codes and conventions which are shown in the opening of thrillers, they  make the audience ask questions and give a mysterious feeling to the audience.

Camera Movement/Angles. This convention helps to give a film its thriller genre, as different camera angles create different senses of body language and emotions. Thriller films also use Camera Angles such as facial close up shots and mid – range shots. An example of a close up was used in a film called Band of Brothers, in the film there is a close up of the mans face after he has been shot, showing that he is in pain. This helps to show tension, and helps the audience to feel as if they are in the film and gets them to start asking questions. Some Camera Movements also make the audience feel tense and also helps to make them feel like they are actually in the film. For example when the camera moves the camera about, they try to mimic the characters breathing. This can be shown in the opening sequence of The Bourne Supremacy, when Jason Bourne wakes up in his bed after a nightmare and begins to heavily breathe.

The other important convention that makes up a thriller is Editing, this gives films things like quick cuts. These quick cuts can also be seen in films such a psycho, when the women in the shower is getting stabbed there is a lot of fast cut, as it shows different angles of her being stabbed. This makes the film fast paced and makes it more tense


Sound;
This also contains very important elements which make up a thriller. For example themes and stings are shown in this era, as the different music themes produce a different mood and feel for thriller films. For example jumpy and and quite scary music which are played in each scene, can be named as themes/stings as they produce different moods and settings for thriller films. Another sound element which is very important is high pitched sounds/orchestral stabs such as screeches. For example orchestral stabs such as screeches are used in thrilling films such a psycho, when the lady in the shower is being stabbed. Psycho was written in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock .This adds suspense and horror/thriller to the film to give it its thrilling genre. Other sound elements which are used to give the films their thrilling genres are; diegetic/ non-diegetic sounds

PRE LIM VIDEO

last post didnt work so hopefully this one works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1fD__WgT8

Shooting Schedule for Thriller Shoot

 

Shooting Schedule for Thriller Shoot

26^th November 2011

Time.               Agenda.

9.00am                 Meet at the Horseshoe pub in Thurlby.

9.05am                 Walk to the shoot location.

9.15am                 Arrive at the set shooting location and set up equipment.

9.30am                 Start shooting footage (making sure we have at least 3 takes of each shot).

11.00am               Have a break to get some lunch look through footage at this point to see if we need to re-shoot any shots.

11.30am               Complete the second half of our shooting, re-shooting if necessary.

12.15pm               Pack all equipment away, check we have filmed all the shots we needed and check against the mark scheme.

27^th November 2011

our thriller opening.