Evaluation Question 6

What have learnt about technologies from the proccess of constructing this film opening?

This plan of how we came about this question. We brainstormed the different points we were going to make and expanded on them.

To show off our creativity and technology skills we decided to use green screen to film us talking of what we have learnt about technoloiges whilst creating our film.

Evaluation Question 5

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

 

 

Here we were shortly interviewed about the ways in which we attracted our audience. When planning audience we clealry stated they were an essential part of our planning. Here is more on what we had to say after making our film.

 

Evaluation Question 4

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

This is a typical member of our audience. Because our audience is quite broad, we made sure we showed our film to both men and women, young and old. However, our protagonist is a teenager for the majority of the film (our film opening shows her in the present, then we move into her past) so younger teenage girls would be able to relate to her. These are grids we gave to some members of the audience to fill out to give us feedback on our film.

 

 

 

 

These are questionnaires we gave to some members of the audience to fill out to give us feedback on our film.

 

 

 

 After asking four different people who watched our trailer we decided to ask the audience to fill in a questionnaire on their opinions. In this the questions were as followed:

- Effectiveness of the overall film

- Effectiveness of the music

- Effectiveness of the actors and setting

- Likely to watch

After receiving this feedback we gathered all the data and placed it in the form of a bar chart.

 

From the bar chart we can conclude, overall the areas mentioned in the questionnaire were positive just as we hoped! This clearly suggests that our film opening was successful as we have met the audience requirements and provided them with a thrilling opening.

It’s evident that the most effective was the actors and setting. These are both are essential when producing a thriller/horror!

Evaluation Question 3

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

Here is a voiceover with picture we made on movie maker to talk about who we believe would best distibute our film. As young upcoming directors we researched many film distributors but came to conclude that Film4 would be the best for us.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

When choosing the protagonist for our film we decided to choose a woman in her late 30's as this was a similar convention in other films. We wanted to take a character who appeared to be very conventional and respectable and then gradually expose her seedy past.

 

This character is similar to those in many other thrillers and TV dramas, for example Last Tango in Halifax (2012) and the character played by Sarah Lancashire. They share many similarities such as they are both head teachers and appear to do everything by the book. However they both have secrets they don't want their families and work colleagues to discover.

 

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

 

 

Whilst watching a few opening Thriller films, we noticed that the titles were often one word. We therefore decided to follow this convention by giving our film a one worded title to create the effect of tension and mystery. We chose the colour red to make it stand out and because the colour red has connotations of danger and risk.

 

 

 

This is a shot of the main setting and location of our film opening. We chose this location because in the drive, there was a big enough space for us to move and pan the camera while filming and film several shots from different angles. This location was also ideal because it had the scope of the long gravel path around the house which created a superb crunching footsteps and creaky gate sound effect which are conventional sounds of the Thriller genre.

 

 

As our film is about a teenage son who is seeking revenge on his mum, we chose to stereotype his clothing. Therefore his costume was tracksuit bottoms, trainers and a hoodie.

 

 

This shot shows our main character dressed smartly in typical work dress. This stereotypes her to fit in with a career woman who works in an office. The colour black also foreshadows the dark nature of the film. We restyled the actor's hair and makeup to reflect our ideas of a conventional mid 30s suburban woman who has been quite successful in life. The mise en scene of the large, spacious kitchen and stylish accessories adds to the effect of the affluent lifestyle.

 

 

We decided to do several cut away shots to help increase the pace of our film opening. We wanted to create a sense of calm everyday life and so we focused on ordinary household objects. To create tension we juxtaposed these slow moving shots filmed on a tripod to keep the camera steady with the handheld chaotic shots of the boy running.

 

 

 

We chose to shoot our film opening around twilight to create a sense of fear and to build tension. We chose to do this because we noticed when watching other Thrillers most were filmed in the dark to make them more eerie.

 

We chose this special effect for the flashbacks because it gives the impression that the audience is in the mothers point of view and gives a slightly blurry picture as if she has tears in her eyes. It is conventional to show the transition between the verisimilitude of the clear shots showing the present time to the less clear images that show the woman's memory.



Coursework Diary

Lesson 1:
We chose our groups and decided we were going to base our coursework around the horror genre.
Lesson 2:
We brainstormed potential ideas for our coursework.

Lesson 3:
After evaluating these ideas we came with the storyline. However we realised our storyline fitted into the thriller genre more than the horror genre. We also asked friends and family of their opinions on our storyline. They were pleased!
Lesson 4:
We made a spider diagram on the different areas we would need to consider when planning. This was over a few lessons as this took longer than we expected.

Lesson 5:
We started storyboarding out our idea. This took longer than expected as working out the order was essential to help us with actually making the opening of our film.

 

Lesson 6: 
Whilst discussing our ideas we realised location was an important factor. One of our chosen locations was at a petrol station however after discussing this we found this was not be ideal.
Lesson 7:
The next lesson we carried on discussing location.We evaluated which would be they best one that suited our storyline. When deciding this we looked at key conventions of a horror film and deciding a house would be ideal as this would leave the audience feeling uneasy they can relate to it! By the end of the lesson we decided our chosen location would be Abbie's house as her house had the suited our requirements.
Lesson 8:
We decided to held auditions for our characters as we were determined to find the best actors!  We wanted a female protagonist who was a smart lady in her mid 30's working in a school shown through costume.This character would also show connations of a career driven individual. The other main character we wanted to be a sterotypical young teenage boy who dressed in tracksuits in juxstaposition to the lady as this would show to different backgrounds and leave the audience suspicious. By the end of the lesson we had come to conclude based on the auditions our characters would be Nick an Mrs Williams and they were proven to be the best in the auditions.
Lesson 9:
After deciding Abbie's house we visted and practiced shots just to ensure this was the right location. It worked very well. Here is a practice of what we did!

Lesson 10:
After uploading our practice shots at Abbie's we asked our teacher and friends to receive feedback. From this we concluded things we needed to add. Such as shots from different angles ect.
Lesson 11:
Our second location was the school. So practised shooting here as well.
Lesson 12:
We decided to carry out our risk assessment.

Lesson 13:
After discussing our storyline in further detail we decided to add a twist to make it slightly more thrilling.
Lesson 14:
We discussed the idea of flashbacks within our opening to add to the effect.
Lesson 15:
We researched what we needed for flashbacks. We searched for adoption papers and baby scans to prepare for tommorow when we were going to film the flashbacks. These are the ones we decided on. 

Lesson 16:
We filmed our flashbacks are they were short.  We used the sick room at school to represent a hospital and a dolls from the nursery for the baby. The complicated part was trying to film the doll and make it look real but thankfully we managed to pull this off!
Lesson 17:
We arranged a day to film. We planned everything we would need. For example:

-       Equipment (Cameras, tripods, )

-       Characters - Made sure characters knew what they were doing and when.

-       Mise en Scene - Ensured all character knew what they were wearing.

-      Availabilty of location (Abbies house and the school office)

Lesson 18:
We decided to film all in one go to avoid continuity issues. This went well, despite the bad weather! As the evening went on we became more familiar with what we wanted in the shot. For example no unneccessary headroom. 
Lesson 19:
 We uploaded our film opening onto the mac and started selecting what we wanted into a new project on IMOVIE. 
Lesson 20:
 In this lesson we decided to edit our film in Final Cut. This took up to a week.
Lesson 21:
 All the editing was complete! Now was the tricky bit ... adding sound! We used the website freeplaymusic for sound effects such as heaving breathing and footsteps. However we also used the natural sound from filming i.e. Car driving. We spent another week doing this!  
Lesson 22:
We mapped out our titles for the film.
Lesson 23:
We added our titles into our film. 
Lesson 24:
We reviewed our work and showed friends!