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

My media products challenges the conventions of a real media product in a unique way. Through its mise-en-scene for example. A typical thriller is normally set in open landscapes, dark forests or abandoned warehouses. one half of our media products is set in a populated place with a lot of lights, surrounded by trees and animals, this is unlike the conventions of a thriller and so challenges the conventions of a typical thriller.

However the second half of our media product uses similar techniques of a realm media product. Our cinematography includes long range shots to suggest to the audience how the main character looks so vulnerable in such a open space. Our mise-en-scene for the second half is much darker, open and lifeless which suggests something completely different to the first half. We did this to try and develop on the typical conventions of a thriller and to make our media product something differently and create a false image of what is going on and make them think differently.

Here is a screenshot of the location for the second half our media product. As we can see its very similar to real media products, a wide open location with not a lot of light and not much to it, this is very similar to a real media product "The Hills Have Eyes". The screenshot below is one taken from a part in "The Hills Have Eyes" it makes you feel that the character is alone in the dark where they could be anything, this is typical of a thriller conventions as thrillers are designed to make you think of what is going on and what could happen. This is a great example of how they do this through their mise-en-scene and cinematography. With our media product we designed ours similar, to make the audeience think of what is going on and what could happen, following similar conventions of a typicla thriller but yet challeneging them to try and create something unique and interesting.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents particular social groups in a specific way, one being the main character. Through what clothes he is wearing and how he acts, this represents a particular social group of how a teenager is seen as wearing hoodies, low jeans and looking pretty messy. Furthermore through the environment we have used represents the type of social groups that may be seen in these places. Late in the evening and hanging around town is typical of groups of teenagers with the hoodies up, our character represents a teenager criminal and this is also seen from the diegetic language used in our media product. This represents particular socials groups such as teenagers, criminals and others that would watch it. Many people assume that a teenager with their hood up and hanging around town must be up to no good and is a criminal, we used this in our media product to suggest to the audience that our main character is of that social group, however of course it is not true that he is a criminal but to the audience we do get this impression.

Through our music we also represent a more younger generation, we used a drum and bass remix in our media product and this is very popular with older teenagers, like that in our media product. This represents a older social group of around 15+ as they are a lot more likely to be able to relate to this, through the clothing and music, the way they talk to their friends and the type of place they hang around. 

Here is two screenshots of both the actor in our media product and a real media product, this gives us an example of how we stereotyped and how well they compare and represent social groups. the one on the right is the typical stereotype and the one on the right is what our actor looked like to represent this type of social group. As we can see they are both with their hoods up, are of young age and in both films uses popular music of young teenagers, this works well to respresent social groups of teenagers. Both our media product and theirs main social group are older teenagers who can relate to what going in the media products through the characters, music and narrative.

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

The type of institution that would distribute my media product would be not such a well known institution and one that specialises in smaller movies. When looking at top thriller media products I found that the institution that distributed  the popular movie "The silence of the lambs" was an institution called Orion. They are best known for their old classic styles of thriller movies which we have based ours on. Orion are known for their hollywood quality movies set on a low budget but yet not making many blockbusters, furthermore they are well known for their good work on thrillers. I believe my media product to be set on quite a niche market of young teenagers that would enjoy thriller and it seemed logical that as Orion specialise on small market thriller at a good quality it would be best for them to distribute my media product.

Who would be the audience of your media product and why?

The audience for our media products is like to be late teenagers, this is for several reasons. By the narrative of the story is something that is more common with teenagers aged from around sixteen to nineteen, they are a lot more likely to understand what is going. The actor is also a late teenager and many other teenagers would be able to relate to him. Through dialogue and clothing is quite typical of a late teenager who would be able to relate  to it well. If i was to give my media product an age certificate I would have though it to be a 15+, this is because of the drug reference, language and what would happen in the rest of them media product, being a kidnapping and further violence. I believe an older audience would be able to follow what is going and would be able to pick up on what is going on during my media product. Typical thrillers are normally based from late teenagers to old couples, many people enjoy watching thriller movies because of the suspense that is created and the mystery of the story. Thrillers are quite a broad audience until it starts going into more sub genres such as sci-fi thrillers where different people would be interested. We would like the audience to be more aimed at late teenagers as what happens in the narrative is something that can easily happen in late teenagers lives.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience through similar ways to that of top media institutions. We used questionnaires in order to find out what part of thrillers they like and what they don't like. Through using questionnaires we also was addressing the audience by getting them more aware on our media product, we also distributed different posts on our individual blogs about our media products which was as great effective way of attracting and addressing an audience.

We also used a popular method that top media institutions use which is a focus group, this is a method to get a more specific opinion from well experienced thriller fans. We understood what they liked best, what works well in thrillers and what doesn't work so well. Through this we managed to address a more smaller market to get their opinion, after we had done this we distributed questionnaires to get a wider opinion on thriller. Through my focus groups and questionnaires it allowed me to attract my target audience and to get them aware of what is happening, I also got to found out what the majority of people enjoy about a thriller and from this I incorporated this into my media product.

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

Constructing this media product has helped me to learn a lot more on different technologies. The editing software we used on the Macs known as "Final cut express". By constructing my media product I leant how best to use this software, how to create the best effects and manage different videos clips as well as music samples. I also learnt how best to use a camera and many different effective camera shots that can be used. I also used a tripod which helped greatly to create the camera steady when filming. Here is an example of the tripod we used, with out it our shots would not have been steady and they may be quite shaky.

These three different things have all been learnt only because of constructing my media product, I learnt how to use these things effectively to help construct my media product. The editing software was a great help to creating my media product as it allowed me to create effects such as fade transitions to make my media product run smoother, to dim the sound of the wind hitting the camera and to make effects such as "echo" which created an effect that made things be seen as if in a drunken state which was a great effect for our media product. Here is an example of the shot before we increased the lighting and added the echo effect. On the right is the shot after we added the effects, we can see theire is a difference and it helps to create the illusion for the audience on how the main character must be feeling and what is going on.

Without the help of final cut express I would not have been able to make our media product look professional and run smoothly, it helped great with adding titles, continuity and differerent effects. We often used the colour editing part to increase certain colours throughout our media product, this was to attract the audience's attentions and to make things stand out. For example when the main character starts to dial the numbers on his mobile phone we made the phone stand out and we reduced the reflection of the camera behind it. Here is a screenshot of the colour editing software we used often for great effects. To the right of the colour screenshot is evidence of us using final cut express to edit out media product, you can see how we learn about changing the audio and how we positioned differerent fade effects to help make the ransition from differernt shots run smoother.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I can see I have developed in many different aspects. One being the quality of my editing skills significantly improving. For example with my preliminary task I did not know how to place titles or music into my media product and now I know how to do both these effectively. I can see I have learnt how to make a video run smoother through different effects such as fade in to drip dissolve, these different effects make my media product look a lot better and professional. Here is the example of the lighting in our preliminary task, as we can see its not great and it not quite as bold as our full product. Below this screenshot is a shot from our final media product, as we can see colours are more vibrant as we learn where best to position ourself to take full advantage to get the best quality pictures.

I have also learnt how best to use a camera for things such as cinematography. With my preliminary task i used very basic shots such as close ups and 180 reverse shot. I have developed from this and used many more different shots. I also learnt how best to film certain things and where to position the camera to get the best of the lighting available and for things such as protection from the wind. I believe I have learnt a lot in progression from my preliminary task to the full product. I learnt how best to use music in a video sequence and how to control it so it fits well with that is going on. Many different techniques to improve the quality of my work from cinematography to editing skills.

Titles

Throughout our video we added different titles. For example at only 6 seconds in we have "Frankie Duck" this is the name of actor we see throughout and we thought it would be important to add. at about 20+ we have a title showing "produced by James Lilley and Frankie Duck" this is to let the audience know that we produced it and makes it look more professional. Before the video starts we put a main titles with the name "Rush", we believe this to be an appropriate name for our video as it works with the narrative. The titles are all edited to fade in and then fade out, this makes it look better. We used the same colour, font and size for each of the titles so it fits well and there isn't any mistakes.

At the end of our video we contain 4 titles, this is "Special thanks to James Bradford" as he was the masked man and we couldn't have filmed that shot without him we had to thank him. we also added "Ewok Productions" this is the company that we are supporting and we got some ideas from them. We contained the youtube account name because it is thanks to them that we could use the music. We added the title "Rush" again, this makes people realise why we chose this and creates a feeling of what could happen next.

Finished Editing

We finished editing on the 17th, we used two weeks worth of lessons and time after school and lunchtime to try and perfect the editing as best as we could. We used multiple effects to make our video look better, for example we used many different fades to make the transition from different shots look better, it gave the video a better rhythm to it and make it better to follow. Finding the right music was hard because it could not be copyrighted, we spend a lot of our time, (about 3 hours) trying to find the bets music we could, eventually we found one and emailed them if it was fine to use. We used other effects such as echo on light fades, this can be seen in our last show where the camera slowly zooms back and reveals the masked man. it gives the shots a more unconscious look to it and helps viewers to release what is going on.

Filming Finished

Our filming consisted of three parts, each were successful got getting the shots we needed. However we did not quite stick to our original narrative due to certain restrictions, mainly due to our location. Our first part of filming worked very well, we had a good amount of light and I believe we picked a great place for our cinematography, it allowed many different camera shots. There is only one shot where I am on the phone where there is some wind, this is quite annoying as it takes some focus away from the main character, we managed to edit this slightly so its less harsh but it is still quite noticeable. 

The second part of filming was not as great, we filmed on top of Waitrose were we got some really good shots, including close ups and long shots. There is light from the lamp posts and this helps with what is going on with the story, it creates a dark, open mysterious feel to it. This is what we was hoping for. However it was when we was getting the last few shots that the camera had low battery, we tried to get the last few shots but they record properly and we could not use them.

The third time we went back to the car park to finish off the filming, it was much better as we wasn't rushing to try and get the shots in, we got a good variety of shots this time with a good long shot and point of view shot. The wind does not interrupt with filming and the chosen soundtrack fits nicely with our recording. We also improved some of our older shots as we didn't have to worry about time restrictions and there was less interruptions. 

Permission of Soundtrack

We asked for permission if we could use the soundtrack for our video, me and my partner emailed them to check if it would be fine with them if we could use it. We emailed them saying "Hello, me and my partner wanted to ask if we could use your song "Reach" as part of our video for media studies at A-Level, it would be for educational and non commercial use."

 

We asked:non commercial use and for educational purposes only?

Soundtrack

Me and my partner finally found the perfect song to our video, it fits in nicely with the narrative and how the song works with different camera shots and angles. It fits well with what going on in the story and creates a deeper development of mystery, exactly what we was hoping to achieve. the song we used was by Skrein - Reach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1b_F1R-eZg

Props

In our film we only used one prop, this was my mobile phone as I ring up my friend.  We only used on prop because we wanted to focus the attention on the main actor, this is to make people try and focus and follow on what i am doing. Building up the story of whats happening.

                                                                    Mobile Phone

Actors

In our film we only had one actor and one masked actor, this was James Bradford which you see at the end. This is when I am on the floor and he walks towards me and drags me away.











Frankie Duck

Evidence of Filming

This is a shot of us filming 

Questionnaire

My questionnaire asks people for their opinions on thriller, there results show that the people i asked did like thrillers. With using their answers we can decide on what people prefer to watch, the more generic things they see in a thriller. This is things such as the location, they are more desolate places such as forests, warehouses and then other more populated places such as the city. We asked why they like their favourite thrillers and what makes it so good to them, using this information we can incorporate it with our filming with things such as location and narrative. We asked why they want to watch thrillers and this can help for how we structure our filming, we know what our audience want to see. Looking at the results I can work out that people like thrillers that make you think about whats going and creating a good sense of mystery. Many people like different types of thrillers from crime to violence and we have decided to have a more mystery type of thriller, we want people to think about what is going on and what could happen later.

Questionnaire Results

Charlie Canty

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?
                  Yes                      

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?

Industrial estates, somewhere in London, woods

What makes you want to watch a thriller film?

They have got a sense of mystery about them and you have to follow them and understand them to know what happens

                            

Which type of thriller do you like? (crime, religious, disaster, violent)

Crime

What is your favourite Thriller film?
Die Hard 4.0

Why?
There is a lot of action and suspense 

Frank James 

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?
                    Yes

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?

In a field 

What makes you want to watch a thriller film?

Surprises you and contains violence 

Which type of thriller do you like? (crime, religious, disaster, violent)

Violent

What is your favourite Thriller film?
Seven 

Why?

it is scary and has you on the edge of your seat the whole time 

Josh Leek

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?
                    Yes

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?

In a field, dark locations, warehouses.

What makes you want to watch a thriller film?

A good storyline

Which type of thriller do you like? (crime, religious, disaster, violent)

Violence

What is your favourite Thriller film?
The Hills Have Eyes

Why?

Dont know whats going to happen next

Jacob Harris

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?
                    Yes

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?

The city 

What makes you want to watch a thriller film?

Having to think about what happens, psychological 

Which type of thriller do you like? (crime, religious, disaster, violent)

Crime

What is your favourite Thriller film?
North by Northwest

Why?

Certain scenes, makes you thinks about the storyline

Ned Harvey

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?

                    Yes

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?

Japan

Which type of thriller do you like? (crime, religious, disaster, violent)

crime

What is your favourite Thriller film?

State of Play

Why?

good storyline

Changes to Narrative

We had a change to our narrative for several reasons. Our locations are in different places and is difficult for us to get to and record. Our locations were initially in Wimbish and Swan Meadow and Waitrose in Saffron Walden. However we are going to be sticking to Waitrose and Swan Meadow because its hard for several of us to get to Wimbish and there would have been a good chance of us getting told to go. We can still be able to record what we wanted to do in Waitrose car park as it still has the desolate open location we need. We finish with a masked man walking towards me and grabbing me by the hand and pulling me away, instead of gaining consciousness in Wimbish and wondering how we got there. Our new ending creates a better narrative and will make people think whats going to happen next. Also we needed to stay within the time limit, if we did have the Wimbish scene we would have run over the limit and by finishing at Waitrose car park we will still be able to finish within two minutes. Our ending works well with the beginning of our film, because straight away at the beginning we see me running but the audience don't know why or who I could be running from. IT finishes with me getting dragged away and this makes people think that it must be who i was running from and what could happen next.

Questionnaire

To get an opinion from my target audience i am going to ask them to complete a questionnaire so i know what to include in my film and what will grab the audiences attention. I am going to ask people to fill out my questionnaire who like the genre thriller, i will also make sure that they are a certain age range which will be 16-30 year olds. I know from my own knowledge that this is the age range which people usually watch thrillers. The people I am going to ask to complete it will be thriller fans between 16-30 years old. I have also chosen this age range because audiences are attracted to the film if the main characters are the same age as the audience.

These are the questions which will be on my questionnaire. I will ask 10 people to fill out my questionnaire. 

Do you enjoy watching thriller films?
        Yes                       No

What location do you think of when thinking about the genre thriller?
________________________________________________________

What makes you want to watch a thriller film?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your favourite Thriller film?
______________________________________________

Why?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Location

Me and James have decided to record in two different locations these will be the Swan Meadow, and top of Waitrose in Saffron Walden. These are some of the pictures we took whilst recording. 

               This is a picture of our opening scene, where we see Frankie running towards the camera 

 This is a similar shot to the first one instead it has been turned 180*, which means that Frankie will be                running away from the camera 

This is a shot of our location at the Swan Meadows, in this scene we see Frankie running away from something 

Narrative

Storyboard

Genre Decision

Me and James decided that we will be basing our task genre on a thriller, this is what interests us the most, we both picked 3 popular thrillers from around the 1970, we want our thriller to be more based on the conventions of a old style thriller rather than a modern. We both think that it will be more interesting to film with a more classic thriller storyboard.

Definition
A genuine, standalone thriller is a film that provide thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.

I got this information from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

The Hills Have Eyes Title Sequence

00:14 Peter Locke Presents
00:18 A Film by Wes Craven
00:23 The Hills Have Eyes Title
00:25 Starring Susan Lanier
00:31 Starring Robert Houston
00:33 Staring Martin Speer
00:38 Also Staring Des Wallace
Russ Grieve
John Steadman
00:45 Also Staring James Whitworth As Jupiter
00:48 Also Staring Virginia Vincent as Ethel Carter
00:50 with Lance Gorden, Micheal Berryman
James Blthye, Cordy Clark
Brenda Marinett
00:57 Casting Gus Schirmer
01:00 Music By Don Pecke
01:04 Directer of Photography Eric Suariem
01:08 Produced by Peter Locke
01:11 Writen and Directed by Wes Craven

The Exorcist (1973)

The Hills Have Eyes

A Clockwork Orange