Research for our ideas and film opening.

 

The group all did various research into what type of genre would be selected for the idea of our film. Various youtube clips, openings helped choose the genre which was selected. After choosing the genre we did more research into what would be needed for a film of this genre, props,setting, use of camera.


The use of a group chat helped the communication to be a lot better, sharing different views and ideas through the chat was a good way to connect together. The conventions research was key to how our film was going to be planned out, the questionnaire also helped get ideas of what people expected from our genre chosen.



Looking at different films and the characters in those films we focused on their behaviour and how they were dressed and noted it as it would be a key factor to our film.

Evaluation Question 2- How Does Your Media Product Represent A Particular Social Group?

Our film contains only two characters, both of which are aged within the brackets classifying them as teenagers.

The boy is represented as being a teenager by the clothes he wears and his style of wearing them. The boy is dressed in an iconic black hoodie which perfectly matches the stereotypical image of a teenager; this is complimented by the jeans he wears which secure the audiences judgement into making sure that he must be a teenager or young adult. On top of this the character always has his hood up therefore hiding his identity from view from either the female character as well as the audience both portraying the stereotypical image of teenagers so hated by media as well as an hidden and mysterious character.

 

The female within our movie has been represented as a teenager also by the clothes she wears, her make up style and her actions. It is known that most modern representations of teenagers are depicted not only as social recluses but also drug and alcohol abusers. Our film implies the abuse of drugs both through the title of the film as well as the substance being consumed at the beginning of the film. Her style of makeup is also modern and clearly represents the time of the filming. Her clothes also reinforce both the time in which the movie is set allowing the audience to identify the year as well as the stereotype of skinny black clothing which is quite revealing when compared to the clothes of other countries. The female character within our film is similar to characters such as Hedy from “Single White Female” , while not impersonating  the antagonist or male character the female of our film definitely grows an unhealthy addiction to the male character as does Hedy from SWF. In both films the females represent an unrelenting force with a hidden agenda while remaining incredibly obscure and dangerous.

Evaluation question 1-In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use,Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlFzYzZzDpk&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=mrwaffleeyes



-This is an extreme close up which is common to see in this genre. This is due to the fact that these shots reflect the protagonist’s actions and feelings or give you an insight to what the character is going through which can include the audience.

- The title sequence for our film fits in with typical psycho thrillers as we have used a plain black background with white writing to put emphasis on our title.

- Swimming pools are common is psycho thrillers, or use of water as the main character always see's something in the pool and once in nothing is there, this always add's suspense and make the scene more tense, we added a similar scene to our film it adds the same effect.

 - Wood scenes are also a big part of psycho thrillers, usually the protagonist gets caught up in following or being followed in scenes involving woods. This always creates tension between the film and the audience, as it was used for our film it adds the effect of wanting to know what is going to happen next the use of sound is also key as it helps to create and add more of an effect to the film.

- This setting was used in our film due to the fact that there was lots of empty space. This seemed to link in to the protagonists thoughts as she felt lonely throughout our opening film which was reflected in this green space at Ashton Court. It also created suspense due to the sense of abandonment, as well as this the scene was close to where we lived allowing it to be a viable and local filming area.

- This shot here is the antagonist walking through a door in a car park, this low angle along with low key lighting add's more suspense as you cant see the face and don't know where he is going. This add's more confusion for the protagonist in this scene as she's unsure of where he has gone. 

- The protagonist still unsure of where the antagonist is, looking around for him unaware of that he is right behind her, it adds more and more suspense being a viewer of this as you see him and the protagonist can't. This also shows the effects of antagonist, its like he's there playing mind games causing confusion for the protagonist. The confusion created makes the protagonist wonder more where he has gone, the effect of this shows how the character is alone and unsure of what is going on.

- The antagonist in this scene shows the effect he has on the film with it appearing to be a body floating on the water possibly unconscious/dead this affect is used commonly as it make the protagonist commit to saving some but to discover there is no body in the water. This causes masses of confusion and worry to the protagonist as they are still not sure of who it is as its someone anonymous. 

-This shot of Ashton court when the antagonist is walking down the path. The surroundings add effect the tree's with no leaves, looking dull and nobody around adds more suspicion to the scene this was effect as it made the protagonist more intrigued to follow him.  

Evaluation Question 7-Looking Back At your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It to The Full Product?

While editing and filming our continuity task we ran into some difficulties that we tried to overcome in different ways, for example showing continuity was challeneging at times so we had to do a couple of re-shoots. But through this it made the shooting of our film opening task easier as it gave us an in site of how things will look when being edited.
Using the 180 degree was useful and having taken it into account as a group, we think its good that we tested the rule while filming our continuity task as it gave us more experience when shooting our film opening and was also an option to consider if you we wanted to include it.

We found match on action easy to incorporate into our continuity exercise, we showed it here when the character walks through the door, we showed him opening the door from outside the room, then continued to showing him, from the same period of time continuing into the room from a angle shot from inside the room. Through this we learned that match on action was an important part of filming that added to the fluency of the viewing experience we used it effectively in our film opening task right at the beginning, in the same way showing a character walking through a door.
Within our task we focused on continuous flow and correct placement of cameras to enable our short film to meet the standards set.

As a group we discovered that the audio on the camcorder wasn't great and often picked up a lot of back ground noise rather than any dialogue which meant a lot of music was involved rather than any dialouge, this also meant we had to re-shoot scenes in quieter conditions. Audio continuity was also an issue due to background noises effecting the flow of the film and continuity, but it worked well in some situations as it fitted into some of the scenes but was a problem at times and we dealt with it as a group by overlaying music over it.


Camera movements were used in set positions, using a pre-planning technique we could effectively and quickly set up scenes and camera angles to take advantage of the small amounts of time where a scene was isolated and empty.

Evaluation Question 3 - What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

The movie will be a low budget art-house film which would be aimed to venue in art house cinema.

The film will be reminiscent of Richard ayoade. Our actors will include medium budget actors such as Maisie Williams and Evan Peters as our main characters. The film will be hosted on Film4 with the budget £3.3 Million to create and advertise. Our distribution company will be Artisan Entertainment as they are known from distributing low to medium budget movies.

A marketing campaign much like the Blair witch Project would be utilized to create the greatest effectiveness with the amount of funding we have limited ourselves too. Using posters much like the Blair witch project in several major cities and accompany these posters with a social media tag such as a # would help raise enigma and engage an audience for the release of the film. It is also a way of getting interest as social media is such a big thing on the world its recognition would spread pretty fast.

A BAFTA Award would be an award that would be most suiting to the films genre and low budget. Our film would be released in late autumn as we feel this would be a time most suited for the release of the film due to the longer nights and the atmosphere of suspicion due to events such as Halloween. This would also attract more people as they like to experience as thriller or fright to get them into that mood for that time of year.

Our film will be shown within art-house film cinemas due to the niche audience which the film may attract. Another idea to promote the film would be showing the film in outdoor areas where the atmosphere of the surroundings can match the atmosphere of the film. This would bring more tension and attract people as it has that suspense to it, would make it interesting and attract people's attention as they would wonder what it would be about.

                                                                    

- Maisie Williams would be the female character wanted to fit the role of the female who is following the anonymous man, her acting style appealed to us to suit the role after being in other big films and t.v series we believe she would be amazing for this role. Also having the young look would help as our film is mainly focused on teenagers.

- Evan Peters would be one of the main characters, we believe he would fit the role of the anonymous character, he's a very good actor and would suit that role. After featuring in other big t.v drama's and had big roles in other films his acting experience and skills would credit our film hugely. His young look would also be a benefit due to our film focused on teenagers.

- Richard Ayoade would be the director of our film, his style would appeal very similar to what type of film we have created. The films he has directed and the type of atmosphere or scene he can create would really benefit our film.

- Film4 is the channel which our film would be showcased on.

- BAFTA award that our film would be in contention of winning

Psychological Thrillers

What are psychological thrillers?
Psychological thriller is a fictional thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states.^[1] In terms of classification, the category is a subgenre of the broader ranging thriller category,^[1] with similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of sometimes having a "dissolving sense of reality", moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.^[2] Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action, and horror, particularly psychological horror. They are usually books or films. - Quoted from Wiki.

Films-Pulp Fiction;The silence of the lambs;The shining;Mr Brooks;Inception;White noise;se7en;Vacany;Memento;American Psycho;Fatal Attraction

Actors/Actresses-Uma Thurman;Bruce Payne;Danny Trejo;John Travolta;Wesley Snipes;Jessica Biel;Jennifer Jason Leigh;Christian Bale;Dustin Hoffman

Elements-

Action and psychological aspects both are used to add to the suspense.

With a psychological thriller the conflict is through the mind, skills, and wit of main characters, reversing the more normal thriller “plot over character” expectations ie. a psychological thriller reader needs to understand the character, character can be slightly more important than plot.

Psychological thrillers often deal with common themes such as death, reality, perception, identity, existence or purpose, and one or two of these themes should be wound through the film.

Target audience-

• The target audience of many psychological thrillers are 18+

• This is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers

• There are usually warnings on the back of the DVD cover which states why it is rated as it is e.g. contains extreme violence or sexual scenes

Final Cast Crew

Actors/Actresses:
Beau
Annalise

Directors:
Lucy
Remy

Camera crew:
Remy
Lucy

Producers:
Lucy
Beau
Annalise
Remy

Editors:
Remy
Lucy
Annalise
Beau

Half term filming

Before the half term began as a group we decided and agreed as group that we should meet up and then go out to our planned destinations to finish our filming. 

We met at temple meads and then got the bus as a group up to Leigh woods where we did a couple takes of shots of our scene in the woods. after we were happy as a group on the clips we had taken we moved on to our next destination which was at Ashton court.

This was good as a group as it allowed us to work together and make decisions as a group not individuals.

It was good organisation and communication between the four of us as it showed that we wanted to get our filming done and get it sorted so we could get everything else ready for our film as well.

The communication was key to knowing what was going to be needed for example props, if an extra camera would be needed or not. This helped us as a group to get on with our task a lot easier.

Evaluation question 5 - How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Our film is aimed at those 15+ towards the age of 35, here are the different ways we attracted them in through our film, and why it helps in attracting then in.




Generic Conventions:
We used generic conventions to draw in the younger viewer as they will link certain things in the film (e.g location, clothing, music and language) to a certain film genre, and help them decide if the film is something they want to see. Through the use of generic conventions aimed at the target audience of youth/those in urban areas you can get across what type of film the film is most likely going to be, without having to explain much. though the use of lingo that's understandable by younger generations we have created another pull factor as it closes itself within a age bracket as older or younger ones may not understand. The behaviour of both characters help to cement the generic conventions we are trying to portray, the actions of the protagonist show how some get caught up in the moment of being young and doing what they want by being reckless. The following of the antagonist shows how some people can react to have certain things in their system and how it affects people differently.





Mise En Scene:

The Mise en scene is directly linked to generic conventions due to the clothing used, the locations and the gestures done by characters. By wearing clothing such hoodies/coats, leggings and jeans the clothing linked to this subculture involved in youth/teen activity is covered. Similarly in the film ‘the ring’ the main character is shown wearing the style of clothing just actions are different, reinforcing this stereotype of all. By doing this realism is created, attracting a wider audience. Location has also helped attract an audience by setting it in a urban area of the city, making it understandable for our target audience.








Music and sound:

The use of non-diegetic sound helps realism be a known presence even more due to the fact that it engages the audience as they can almost feel as if they are there. The use of diegetic sound also adds the effect of building more tension and gets the audience engaged more, this also links in with the use of a sound bridge which helps create emotions from the audience as well as the protagonist in the film. The volume of sound also plays a role in the mood and atmosphere of the film, it can make the audience suspicion or mysterious thought grow more.



Cinematography:

Our use of filming has helped attract our target audience, by using multiple close ups, mid shots, low angle shots and fast paced editing we managed to add excitement and suspense. This use of close ups creates a feeling of awareness for the audience whilst prompting an emotional response, regarding the on screen character as you can see their current emotions. The use of lighting also helped to captivate an audience, filming at day but in dull conditions (in low lighting) leaving the audience curious to the future happenings in our film. After receiving feedback from both our target audience and other audience members it is clear that our use of filming and editing was good regarding our film genre as by using simplistic effects, transitions and sounds we managed to create a fast paced, entertaining and suspenseful film opening, also reinforcing the unique selling point (USP) of our film.


 Editing:
We kept the editing simple throughout the film as to try and show this was an indie film. We used face paced jump cuts to keep the film at a pace and the viewer on the edge of their seat, we also kept to a pace that was understandable. In feedback after the film people said the time certain things were on screen were a good length for them to view the shots, they had a clear understanding of what was happening. We kept the editing simple because in other films the use of effects and transition is kept simple, we used fades and jump cuts alot to show continuity. We didn't feel the need to use CGI as this would take it away from the genre we were trying to portray.

USP: The USP of our film is that its a dramatise version of realistic events that happen in some urban areas, the actual storyline doesn't stray far from realisty like some films do and also the emotions the characters show through the events that unfold will help connect with the viewers.

Evaluation question 6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?

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

The handheld style of recording without a tripod allowed us to add to the effect and atmosphere of certain scenes.

The camera can also capture film in larger. RAW footage which doesn’t compress the footage and maintains maximum quality.

We used the ability of manual focus to create artistic effect in several scenes.

The zoom allowed further scenes to hold quality and therefore viable for use within the movie apposed to poor-er quality cameras who may lose quality at range.

The tripod also was able to reach shoulder heights and was incredibly useful for over the shoulder shots due to its height and ease of rotating and angling.

The tripod was also equipped with a built in spirit level which allowed the camera user to level the easily and fast.
The tripod provided stability which increased the quality of steady and motionless scenes which showcased certain movements.
But the tripod broke and restrained its full capacity as the camera could no long rotate at speed due to the impairment.
The tripod was also less stable when fully extended and took up a lot of ground space which limited where we could place it and altered the expected plans.

The size of the camera made it very useful to carry around and use when neccessary, using this camera without a tripod enabled us to add a steady cam effect if needed or wanted to be put into our film.
This camera was used for our low angle shots during our film which helped as having two cameras gave us more options of shots too choose from. The low shots helped add more suspense to who the antagonist was in our film opening.
The problems of using this camera was that the battery power would sometimes cut out quikcly, so we made sure we had a fully charged camera before every trip we went out on.



This programme was used to upload our continuity task, it was accessable for our group and also a way to get feedback on the video from other people who use YouTube. Also allowed us to get feedback from others within the media class, also other people too see what they thought of the task. Problem we had is that we were unable to show case it in school as the website is blocked by IT. But the programme was useful as it allowed us to show our task and get feedback from others.
We also have uploaded our film opening onto YouTube which has also enabled us to share our film with others who study the same subject and doing a smiliar thing, getting feedback from fellow students and university students helped us re-edit or change certain things in our film which could have made it better.

This programme was used for the sound in our continuity task, we determined the sound on the basis of the emotions shown in the film, it helped express the emotions, so it was a good use of a sound bridge. We looked at different sounds available on the programme and how we could use them to good effect in any scene possible.

We used Facebook as our source for communication as well as exchanging numbers, we posted links, had debates and discussions about how/what we could do, also ideas were shared within our own group chat which was created. As well as sharing stuff we discussed days to meet up and do our filming or editing etc..
We also shared our continuity task and film on FaceBook, it showed our film to wider audiences which got people interested and had them questioning the plot, what the film was about and other questions like that.

Imovie was the programme used to edit out continuity task and our film. This software was useful as we were able to add all sorts of effects to jump shots into different scenes. Using this software was very good as the group on a whole learned new or more skills on how to edit scenes. The use of audio and clip adjustments helped us to make changes during the film, it was something useful as not all of us knew that it had things where we could change sound, speed of viewing, different colours and things that could change the scene. The problems which did occur were minor as we managed to figure out how to adjust the sound in certain areas of the film.


 We used a phone for our underwater scene, this was useful as it was waterproof and not damage was caused to the phone. The quality of the shots were good and gave us extra help towards our film and being able to shoot underwater gave us another view/angle for the scene. There were no problems using the phone and was an extra help for our group.

Blogger was the website used to create my blog, it was useful and easy to use and understand even though there was a little difficulty of trying to upload pictures that was quickly over come and using blogger was a nice experience and easy to use.

Tumblr was another site used to creat blogs, some people in my group used tumblr and found the experience interesting and good. They also had the same problem not being able to upload pictures at times but that was pushed aside as well. Tumblr is heavily pictured based blog which also encouraged the high usage of photos for the blogs.

Props or costumes needed for filming

For our filming we needed props and costumes for the scenes and characters.
The list consists of

• sharp knife
• fake blood
• Drugs
• Protagonist-Black Jumper, Black leggings and white shoes
• Antagonist-Black coat, Blue jeans and trainers.

These were the items needed for our film and were all used.

Locations:

• Ashton court
• Leigh woods
• Swimming pool
• Sixth form

Story Board

This was the fully completed story board, it contained all information going from camera angles and shots; props; setting; sound and what editing techniques we could use after it had been filmed.