thriller evaluation!!

In our final work, we were asked to create a two minute opening thriller of our choice. This involved planning, filming and editing. The first task was to plan and brainstorm different ideas, which we thought of as a group, during this task we came up with different ideas which we brainstormed in detail. For instance the different locations, like the park, the city, a club and even a library. As well as thinking of the different narratives, costumes and characters. Furthermore as a group we discussed potential storylines for our opening thriller such as a chase, a dream, a search and revenge. After planning and discussing different ideas, we based our thriller opening on revenge, where a character seeks revenge to the anonymous killer of her mother.

My media opening challenges the forms and convention of a real film because of the stylized effects used in the opening and at the end of the sequence. The overdrive effect used gives an eerie and uncomfortable mood which puts the audience on edge when watching it. For example at the beginning of the first sequence you see several shots with different effects, like the blurred close up shot of the attacker’s hands reaching for her pocket.This shot puts the audience on edge because the effect used and the slicing sound, makes the audience question what is about to happen. In addition the repetitive images shown in the film allows the audience to take in and understand the storyline but at the same time, it leaves them wanting more. Like the meeting point where the attacker attacks the victim, this is shown at the beginning; this leaves the audience with a cliff hanger because they do not know what happens until the end of the sequence where you see the vulnerable victim screaming because the attacker has grabbed her.

Furthermore in this work we used forms of convention used in real products like a company logo of the distributer. For instance in our opening sequence we have a flower shaped logo called J.A.D.S Inc Production. As a group we wanted something which represents each member, so using initials was the easiest way of creating a name for our logo. Furthermore I think the first scene of my thriller opening grabs the audience attention with its tense sound and effects.

Looking back at past projects like the ‘thumbs war’ match cut lesson, I have learnt and progressed from that project. As we extended our skills and knowledge when filming, we captured various shots like a low angle shot of Dominique the victim, walking in to the park, also match cutting shots which made the images flow, we did this when editing. Furthermore I learnt how to use sound in more detail, as I experimented with the sound after editing the shots, we as a group had to create a tense soundtrack which fitted with our film sequence. The duration of making the soundtrack was long as we experimented with a lot of instrument like the piano, brass, drums, vocals and many more. However the longest part of the whole project would have to be editing because we had to match cut shots to create a flowing sequence, we also added different effects like solarise and negative to create something unusual. I noticed that the final project took a lot longer than the thumbs war project because we finished that project in three days, whereas the final project took weeks to complete. In this project I learnt how to cope under pressure, I also did things I need thought I would do like filming nonstop in the cold and rainy weather.

My media product represents women in society because in this film the victim is a woman and the attacker is a woman. We tried to convey power amongst women by using female characters rather than the usual male attackers. By doing this, it challenges stereotypes, which viewers would find unusual. We also portrayed the dominant and powerful women who takes role as an attacker but still had the ‘weak’ stereotype. We also challenge race by not using a white woman as the weak character.
I think this film would be distributed in small UK ‘art house’ cinemas, like the film ‘Kidulthood’. Also as this is a low budget film, the distributer would also release this on the internet to get recognition then releasing it on DVD. The film audience for this film would be working class people from the ages of 15-25, male and female who are interested in thrillers. The reason for this is that the viewers can relate to films that are about revenge and the majority of people like this type of thrillers.

I would attract the audience by making trailers for my opening thriller’ An Eye for an Eye’, which is seen on TV, internet and other video sites like Vimeo and Youtube. Also on social networking like facebook and MySpace. Through marketing it attracts bigger audiences which would bring more money. Also through marketing in can widened potential audience around the world because social networking is known worldwide, even if the film is released in a small UK cinema it could still bring money through the internet as people can download the film.

I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. First of all the filming process allowed me to experiment with the camera, allowing me to become a lot more creative in the shots I took. I believe good camera shots allow the story to become to come alive as the emotion of the characters is transpired in this way. For example a close shot of the victims face when walking pass the attacker, shows vulnerability and the feeling of insecurity because of her up tight facial expression. Moreover the camera allowed us to test different shots like a low angle shot of the victim walking through the park, a behind the bush shot which a high angle shot, I believe the different angles signify hierarchy, showing who is in control and who isn’t.

Furthermore I learnt how to use the features in the Mac computers like final cut pro and the soundtrack when editing. This widened my knowledge because it allowed us to create a film sequence when using the features in the Mac. Using final pro cut was an amazing experience because it allowed me and the group to become creative with the shots we captured when filming, also allowed us to play and experiment with the sound, and affects which was fun.

Last of all I believe the internet was very helpful because it allowed us to use sites like blog spot to record are days in media, also allowing us to record the filming process. In addition the blog spot was very useful because you could access other members of your group’s blog to see if you’re up to date with everything. In addition the internet also allowed us to release our thriller movies on sites like Vimeo and the blog site, where other media groups could watch your thriller and give feedbacks.

Eye for an Eye

Final changes!!!!!!:)

On Thursdays morning I found out that our film was not finished, because Tony had sent the group an email to inform the group, the changes we needed to do to our film. We started to panic because none of my group members could edit the film on that day and the last day to edit was Friday and on Friday people had appointments and lessons that day. So we decided to come in at Friday lunch time to finish it off changing the titles and names, as well as putting our soundtrack on final pro cut.First the soundtrack did not fit in with the film when we placed in on final pro cut, so we had to edit the soundtrack again to make it fit. In addition we also added more titles to our film such as camera work, cinema photography and more. After making all the changes we finished our film and we were happy with it and ticked our name off the wall as finished group. :)

Final film!

We have finally completed our film today, adding the soundtracks, and credits. It took a while to complete the film, when adding the soundtrack because we experimented with a lot of unusual and abnormal sounds, which at the end fitted with our film. We used effects like FX, DJ, percussion, piano and many more. Plus we decided not to use Columbia pictures because we couldn’t add their signature opening into our film because it was copy righted, which we are not allowed to use.

So we decided to use our logo as the production company which is a colorful star with our initials in each side of the star. Today we faced many difficulties, like at the last minute of editing we could not find our film, which we thought we lost, we started to panic but we found it at the end because we realized that we renamed the film to something else. Overall I think my group worked really hard to complete the film today and I am very happy with the work we have produced. :)

First lesson back from half term!!

Today we continued to edit our film, adding titles, features and a Production Company.As well as creating a logo for our production name, we decided to use Columbia Pictures Company as our production company.Also creating a logo for J.A.D.S Inc production, we decided to call it this because we wanted include each member of the group in our the production title, so by taking the first initial of our names, we came up with J.A.D.S Inc. In addition we created a star logo for J.A.D.S, we used a funky star as our logo. Today we have finished editing and adding the titles and next lesson we plan to make a soundtrack for our film and hopefully finish the whole production. 

Half term Monday

Our group had to come in today to try and finish our editing.

So we started off by adding more shots from the other lesson, also more effects, we did this for few hours. After finishing the editing we found out we only had 16 second of film and we was shocked because we had spent hours editing and we only came up with 16 seconds of a clip.
So we called Micky and asked him what we can do, so he played around with it by trying to add more shots to what we already had, this took about half an hour and he decided that it wasn’t going to work, so he called Rebecca, Mary and another media teacher, to look at our first sequence, they all thought that our first sequence was good however it was too short.

So after they had deliberated, Mary told us that the only way we can make our sequence longer, is too use the first sequence as the title and add the normal shots after, as the first bit of the actual film. So the teachers left us to do that, spending an hour adding shots, we called Micky to see what we had done to it, he was happy with what we got, he then told us to add the title and the features, we gave it ago by playing around with the writing, we found several writings for the title which we found suitable for our sequence. We then decided to leave it for when we come back because we had spent 7 hours editing.

Filming for the 2nd time-11.02.2009

Our group decided that we didn’t need the library to film the shots we wanted of Aiko, so instead we used one of the media rooms where they had black curtains and a computer where we can film. So we had set the room and the cameras and light as we wanted to and took several takes of the mystery person (Aiko) on a computer searching important information of the victim (Dominique).

While we were filming Andrew had played around with shots by adding effects and other short shots, after he had done this he called me and Dominique to see what he had produced. He came up with a good idea, I liked the effects he added and the pace of it became faster. He then took of the things he added and told us to add shots and effects to our story line, so we gave it ago adding shorter shots to what we already have and it looked good.
After that we went back to class room where Shanice and Aiko was filming and continued to film.

Editing-9.2.09

In this lesson we went to the library to shoot Aiko scene where she is searching information about Dominique who is the victim of this story. When we arrived in the library, it didn’t look as old as it did outside, and it was too bright which change the mood. So as a group we decided not to film out in library and stick with the stuff we got.

We headed back to college and explained to tony what we thought, so he advised us to edit the shots we already have and see what we can film to add to the shots we got. so we put a couple of shots together and left it for the next lesson.

Back to lesson after snow days- 4.2.09

We missed Monday’s lesson because of the weather. It was snowing pretty badly so the college decided to close it for two days.

In this lesson we decided to stay in college to upload the shots we took when we filmed the week before, in the computer/ editing room. When we uploaded the shots we had over 40 shots of the day, I think this is because we took 4 takes for every shot to give us more options when choosing in the editing process.
After Uploading each shot we watched through them to see what ones where good. It was also funny watching what we had filmed because you could tell that everyone was tired towards the end by looking at their facial expression, especially Dominique who had to shoot 4 takes for every shot.
The second half of the lesson we decided to go to Essex road to take pictures of the outside, to show Tony how it looked, and hopefully we could film inside next lesson. After taking the pictures we headed back to college and it was time for lunch.

First day of filming-28.1.09

Today was our first time to film; the weather was terrible, it was raining all day. As I got to college Dominique and Shanice had collected the camera and tripods for the day. So we made our way to Essex road to film in the library, the weather was of putting we wanted to head back to college but we decided not to.

When we arrived at Essex road, the library was shut and we didn’t know this, I was angry and disappointed that the library was shut and on top of that the weather was helping. But I put my feeling behind me because I wanted to get things done because we planned to film in previous lesson. So we decided to walk around and we found a park, and it lightened everyone’s face because the park had this atmospheric mood, from the trees, to the rocks and the gardening done to it, plus the weather had helped bring a spooky mood. So we walked through the park and found a long pathway which led to Kids Park and houses. For that reason we didn’t film to plan and used our initiative to film outside because believed we would have got something out of the location.

The first thing we filmed was of Dominique coming out of her house, we used several shots like long shot of her walking out, mid shot and many more. After this we came up with different shots of her walking out the house, from a back view of her walking to a shot of her through the fence. We also used panned while she was walking. During the filming we captured interesting shots through the park, using different angles, also using the things around us, like the rocks and the bushes.
Towards the end it got really tiring because we filmed for 3 hours nonstop and it was raining throughout the times we were filming. On top of that people kept delaying our filming because they wanted to know what we were filming for, also walking pass the camera while we was filming. Overall the whole day was fun and the end of it we looked a mess which was pretty funny.

Production sheet

On the following Monday we decided to stay in and do a production sheet, where we had to plan and decide the days we were filming and the roles for each member of the group. For example we decided to book the cameras for Wednesday’s lesson, so we could film. Also decided to make Dominique the main character and her role was the victim. We weren’t sure who would take the role as the attacker and decided to wait until Wednesday lesson.

Pitching our ideas 21.01.09

In Andrew lesson we carried on planning our thriller openings. As a group we pitched more ideas, coming up with fresh storylines, however some of the ideas did not work because it was to complex and others which we could produce because of the location. For example an idea that we came up with was bed scene with two characters, we all agreed to do this but as a group we did not have access to a bed so we could not do it. We tried to think of public location where we can do the scenes like IKEA but it was a bad idea.

In the second half of the lesson Andrew told the class that we had to pitch our final idea in front of Marissa, Micky, tony and Andrew, who were going to judge and give each groups feedbacks on their idea. We had to present our storyline in front of the class and the judges, also presenting the location, characters, and the shots. After we presented our ideas the judges gave us feedbacks, good and bad feedbacks. For example all the judges liked our storyline; however they thought that we should film in the library instead of the two locations which walking scenes were outside and an indoor scene. They thought that we should find an old library to give an atmospheric mood to our story line.

After listening to all the feedbacks, we gave ourselves homework until the next lesson, and that is to research old library’s in the city.

Ideas 19.1.09

In this lesson we watched past exam thrillers, done by AS students. We watched several clips which gave the class ideas on what they can do for their thriller opening. As we watched the opening of the thrillers we annotated the good and bad points we saw in the clips, also discussing it with the class.
After watching the thriller clips, Tony asked each group to brainstorm a story ling of an opening for a thriller. As well as brainstorming the mise -en -scene, costumes, location, characters and planning the days we wanted to film. As a group we found it difficult to think of ideas because everything we thought of has been produced by past students. So began to think of existing opening like a chase or a murder scene, and change it into our own ideas.
At the end of the day we came up with 3 good ideas which we could use for our opening, and one of them was based on a couple, where the girlfriend dreams of her boyfriend leaving her and as she tries to get him back, in her dream she doesn’t know in reality she is harming him and at the end we see her boyfriend dead on the bed. We thought this we would leave the thinking that she had killed him.

Second practise film!

In the second practice film, we were given a task to film two people meeting. My group decided to film two girls meeting for a thumbs war match. I thought this practical went well and I am happy with the end result.

In this practical I learnt new things as an individual and as a group. The one thing we us a group learnt from this practical is timing, we learnt that it is important to time ourselves well, so we are not rushing when filming shots. When editing we realized we didn’t get enough shots which we thought we did, leaving us with minimum choice of shots when editing. I believed we followed the forms and convention of a real film because we used camera shots well, and music to create a theme for the audience to understand what was going on. We used several shots in our footage like long shots, close up, extreme close, panning and many more to convey an atmospheric mood of two characters. We also edited the footage we shot well, because we match cut shots which made our film flow.

In general my group and I were satisfied with the filming and editing because we worked as a group which made it easy to shoot scenes, also making it fun. Plus the class found our film interesting because of the theme we choose.

Filming on wednesday!!

Andrew lesson started off by him telling us that Marissa would be coming in the lesson, to do a match cut activity. Shortly Marissa came into the lesson and she asked the class if we remembered the lesson we had on match cutting last year, the majority of class said yes they still remember, so she went on to talk about the a task she setting us, and that is to work into two’s and to match cut the scenario given to us in a sheet of paper, which is ‘A man who is on the computer whilst chain smoking, who then transfers his files from the computer to a CD and posts it in the letter box.’ Me and my partner Vicky decided to use several shots in one action, for example when the man is picking up the envelope, we used a panning shot and using different angle to match cut the action. We found this task difficult because it was hard to keep match cutting every scene. After doing the task Marissa showed us the teacher’s version of the scenario given to us, she showed us the clips twice and then pointing out the match cut used in the scene.

Andrew then gave us another sheet of paper with another task in it; the task asked us to film a scene of two people meeting up. So he asked every group to plan and give different ideas on how we are going to be filming after break. So my group and I came up with several ideas like two lost friends meeting up, blind date and many more, but we decided to do something unusual and different so based our film on a thumb war battle between two people.

After the break we started shooting our film, so we located ourselves downstairs in the hall to film our first shot which was me entering the college, we used several shots like panning and tracking. Also a long shot outside to show where the setting is was. Overall I think the filming went well today because we had fun, also tried to match cut scene in our film.

Analysing thriller clips

After writing our film evaluation in the computer room, tony asked the class to go back to his class room, where we would be analysing thriller clips in our groups. Tony then gave the class a piece of paper and asked each group members to pick what part of the film we wanted to analyse ,this involved analysing the lighting, use of camera (movement, angle, distance), music, editing, setting and location. I picked to analyse the editing in the thriller clips, I found this easy to do because I noticed the two thrillers we watched had a lot of editing done to them like special effects to create atmospheric mood.

The first thriller clip we analysed was Arlington road, I didn’t really know anything about this film, but from the title I knew it was going to be a suspenseful story. When the opening to this thriller, I noticed that the directors had played around with the pictures, by using special effects like fades, negative pictures, black and white effect and solarised pictures. Using special effects created nervousness to the audience. After watching the clip twice tony asked the groups to share what they have collected when watching the thriller, my group said they he used a lot effects like flashing lights and dark colours like red and black, also they pointed out that there was a lot of shaky movement in the camera. Plus the use of shots like close ups, mid shots, zooming, panning and many more. In addition we thought the music was abnormal because it had sounds of screaming, mumbling, and heavy breathing. Overall I think this clip was scary because of the special effects used like the sound and flashing lights.

The second clip we watched was Collateral; this was different to Arlington road, because it was set in a different environment which was the airport. The collateral used fewer effects than Arlington road. In this clips the music and the camera movement was the most important. They used heavy based sound like beating music, also created a busy atmosphere by hearing people talk over each other while the music was playing. Furthermore the use of different camera shots like close ups, to see the characters emotion. Also a bird eye view shot to show a busy environment in the airport. I noticed that it was up tempo so the shots were really short and they have used slow motion.

We didn’t have the chance to watch the other three clips because we did not have enough time but they were ‘28 days later’, ‘The shining’ and ‘What lies beneath’.