Media Evaluation Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main task?

Media Evaulation question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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

We gained the experience of using a camera form our preliminary task which we completed before starting the thriller film, as a practice for the real thing. This allowed us to try out different camera shots and angles, and film it steadily and successfully.

Using Adobe Premiere Pro was simple for me, as I had used software of which was similar to Premiere Pro for cutting music. The hardest part of using this software was being after to cut from one shot to another which had to be perfectly timed, which was hard and time consuming, but worth it in the end. Unlinking sound clips from the film clips was tricky to figure out as I didn’t want to mess up the film, so once I had figured out how to do it, it proved to be simpler than I had anticipated, although putting in sound clips in sync with the film clips was time consuming.

When filming, we decided to use a Nikon digital camera D5100 aka, a DSLR. We decided to use this because of the picture quality, although the high definition was immaculate, the sound quality was terrible and also we had problems with the camera focusing, and towards the end of filming the clips would come out blurry and out of focus, which turned out to be better for us as we included them in our titling sequence. After this we put all of the good quality clips onto Premiere Pro and edited them altogether, we found that some clips just didn’t work, so we decided to re film them, but this time using Tasmine’s Iphone5c. The picture and sound quality was much better this time and we managed to finish the film in just less than two hours.

Using different programmes to create the film was fun because we got to discover and explore new skills I didn’t know I had when editing because it’s harder than it looks! Using after effects turned out to be trickier than I thought, because after using Premiere Pro, I thought I could handle the other programmes, using mixcraft was easy as I already knew how to use it due to being a music student, so already had this experience, which helped the speedy process, whereas with after effects, I hadn’t a clue on what to do, but once I knew what to do, it was simple.

Media Evaluation Question 4&5. Who would be the audience for your media product/how did you attract/address your audience.

Media Evaluation Question 3. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Media Evaulation Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This voki represents the ethnic group for the thriller opening. The ethnic group would be white British,  as all of the cast are white British, this means they would be more likely to relate to the film whereas other ethnic groups may not understand the way the cast do things in the film, as they may be different to their everyday lives.

This voki represents our gender type for the thriller opening. This would be the ideal gender because, stereotypically boys/men are supposed to be the "stronger" gender, therefore enjoy thriller films more than girls. Even thoughthe female gender do watch thriller films, they are 'not supposed to like them'.

This voki avatar represent our age type for the thriller opening. We chose this age group because of the cast age again. The cast are teens so therefore the film would attract other teens.

Media Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Media Evaluation Question 1. from Lois Emily

Storyboarding

In order to create a successful thriller film, we created a storyboard which will help us along with our filming. When filming there may be a few changes to it, but this is just give us some guidance to the lines of the story.

Planning to film

As a group of four, we have to consider other people's lives, hobbies and jobs so in order to see when people are free or not we created a timetable/calender.

Creating our Pitch

To plan a thriller film we had to create a pitch to present to our producers, these are our ideas for the pitch.

We chose to have a genre of a psychological, horror thriller. We decided to do this as it would appeal to out target audience, the film would have a certificate of 15, as we wouldn't want any younger children watching and deciding to follow the actors footsteps. We aim to have a mass audience aged 15-18, we have chosen to have this as we feel that with a teen cast, it will attract elder teens/young adults.
The length of the film would be approximately 120 as this is the average time of a feature film, with the tag line of "Don't play her game; you'll lose". The audience would ask a lot of questions about 'what game?' 'Why will she lose?' Which will draw the audience in to watch the film where all their questions will be answered.
The title will be 'Hello' and plays a big, significant part in the part in the plot, as our protagonist will see this word everywhere she goes and will be haunted by it, which will start off her suspicions about how things are not of the ordinary.
Our first few scenes will be filmed at Eastwood Park, Hasland,  a street, and a house.
Our film is inspired by the film 'The Roommate' based on two ordinary girls with not so ordinary lives.

Potential Target audiences!

Textual Analysis of Buried Titles

Buried - 2010 Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Robert Paterson, Ivana Mino Genre: drama, mystery, thriller Rated: 15 Duration: 95 minutes Plot: Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap. Released: 29th September 2010 (UK) All of the titles appear to move upwards suggesting a feeling of travelling down through the ground. They are all on a black background suggesting the dark will be a prominent feature throughout the film. The title of the film appears swiftly as the word 'buried' scrolls up the screen. This makes it appear as if the camera is moving down through the ground. It is positioned on the bottom right of the screen and takes up approximately a quarter of it suggesting that the title closely links into the film itself. It is a yellow/brown colour linking to the underground/buried theme of the film. It is a basic, quite bold font that allows the audience to easily read it. The letters then fade as they travel up the screen. The photo of money appears to be cut into strips and is accompanied with small writing. This shifts in a diagonal movement from the bottom left-hand corner to the top right. The people's names are written in white and their role in the film production is in yellow. Both have the same font but the white is slightly larger suggesting the names are slightly more important.

Audience Theories

Uses and Gratifications: The theory was developed by Bumler and Katz. It suggests that audiences use any media text for various reasons as suggested below: • Diversion (Escapism) - escape from everyday problems and routine • Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behavior and values from texts • Personal Relationships (Social Interaction) - using the media for emotional and other interaction e.g. substituting soap operas for family life • Entertainment - Using the media as a source of entertainment • Surveillance (Information) - Gathering information from the media e.g. documentaries, weather reports We will consider why our audience will be watching our thriller piece and take this theory into consideration during production. Hypodermic Needle: According to this theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and believes into the audience who have little choice but to be influenced. For example, according to the theory, if you watch something violent you will be inclined to do the same violent thing. We need to take this theory into consideration when making our film. Our piece may have scenes of violence or stalking and we need to consider how this will affect our audiences. Active/Passive Audiences: An active audience is an audience that thinks about what they have seen on screen after watching it. What they see has the potential to affect them physiologically. A passive audience is the opposite of this and they do not think about what they have seen and it doesn't affect them afterwards. Identification and Sensitization: Identification - violence in the media releases tension and desires through identification with fictional characters and events (catharsis). Sensitization - violence in the media can sensitize people to the effects of violence.

Lighting camera shots

These are our lighting camera shots.

we took these photos to show how lighting can create a sinister effect on a film.

Titling Practice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B5W_wBjUbs

Ideas....

These ideas are for our first task which we have decided to base on a stalker. it will be the opening of a horror/thriller and here are some of our ideas and roles which we will take in to consideration before/during the filming process.

About Filming

My group worked really well together when we were filming and editing and we all supported each others ideas. When we were filming we decided to change the story to our film, so our storyboard did not really help us as we changed the ideas but they worked really well and we got the film done and we're really proud of it.

Camera shots.

This is a mid shot, which shows the audience the top half of the actor without showing the whole of the body.

extreme close up, showing detail.

Low shot, which could suggest dominance.

Long shot, showing the location, as well as actors.

Establishing shot, showing the location of the place that the film is set in.

Another long shot.

Evaluation of my As Preliminary Task.


http://www.slideshare.net/loisemilyyy/as-media-preliminary-task-evaluation-41248462

Barthes 'Narrative Codes'

In our preliminary piece we unknowingly used 4 of Barthes' narrative codes, which are;

• Action Code; this is used to indicate the next logical step.
• Mystery Code/Enigma Code; this is used to explain the narrative by controlling how much information is fed to the audience before revealing the end.
• Semic Code; this explains any signs or meanings which could relate to the narrative symbolically.
• Cultural Code; to make the audience understand the social and cultural context of the film.
• Code of Opposites; refers to a narrative that relies on binary opposites, eg.. black v white.

We used the action code when we showed Darby and Myself walking through the cupboard door, which shows the audience that we are going somewhere.
We used the Enigma Code when the antagonist (Darby) watches the Victim (Carmel) and the Protagonist(Myself) run away up the corridor, and then the attacker comes out and walks the other way with a dazed look on her face as if she is thinking of a way to get them back.
We used the Cultural Code as we set the film in a school which shows that we are educated and also the language we are speaking English.
We used Opposites symbolically as the antagonist was wearing dark/grey clothes which represented her as a dark, villainous character, whereas the protagonist was wearing normal clothes crossed between black and white, and the victim was wearing bright coloured clothes which showed her innocence and how normal her life was before the attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nUzzNwyWg&index=9&list=PL39RK5NuuAt3a16zRUidR-cUwfUqWe3_5

this is our finished Preliminary piece, it was so much fun to make :)