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?

I learnt about 180 degree rule, match on action and shot-reverse-shot which has improved my knowledge of filming so it won't be jumpy and look more professional. I learnt why they have to be included in filming and how to use them which has improved my filming.
The equipment we had to use I have unnderstood better now and can easily use it. I use it correctly because of the knowledge I have gained by using it and being taught how to use it. I have learnt how to use lighting effectively, for example, for a thriller low key lighting is essential, using only one light. Also, experimenting with the lighting and I did a lot of panning with my lighting which has increased my knowledge. I have learnt the meaning of chiaroscuro and the importance of contrasting.





Furthermore, I have learnt that storyboarding and list of shots helps when filming because then you know what to do and being prepared for filming and what you are going to film and a storyboard helps with that. Scheduling is also important as it tells you and your group when they can film and then everyone participates. Also, it gives them time to other improtant things if they need to. Organised time is better to work with because if you just did it when you wanted to, it wouldn't be very productive because you might not get time to film and have a schedule plans things out for you so you don't have to worry.

Low-key lighting used in my thriller:

I have researched conventions of thrillers, such as low-key lighting and distortion, and incorporated them into my product. I have learnt that they are important to adding to the mood of a thriller and creates that tension that a thriller is meant to make. Also, that sound is very important in creating that tense atmosphere by using a dark ambient sound which is hardly heard but is very effective. Contrapuntal sound also is very effective as it contrasts with the images on screen making the audience feel uncomfortable. I have learnt this can create a very good effect though sometimes can not be effective.

Additionally, my knowledge of Final Cut Pro and GarageBand has increased compared to the beginning of my task.

I learnt how to research for audience feedback by doing a questionnaire. It helped my realise who my audience were and what are interested in. For example, I know that my audience mainly consists of teenagers and young people who enjoy thrillers and horror films. Adults like movies that make them think and that can connect to them on an emotional level and become hooked into the film, also they may relate it to their past, or even there children.

Evaluation, Question 6

What have I learnt about technologies in the process of constructing my film sequence?

I did not do media GCSE in high school so I was clueless on the technology used in AS media.

I've learn a lot about camera angles and different sizes of shots and how much it can affect the feel of a film. Such as Close Up shots are often used in thrillers, which I use in mine also, as it captures an emotion if it is a shot of a persons face and can reflect the feeling of the audience or have an effect on the audience. I've learnt that distance is an important factor as well as, for example, and Extreme Close Up shot can make an object seem very close but really could be far away. Also, the Extreme Close Up may make the audience feel uncomfortable because it invades private space and that really affects some people. Using a tri-pod helped with steady movement and keeping the camera from shaking and this is important because it looks more professional and a hand-held camera can look amature. But sometimes can be used in documentaries or in horror and thriller films to convey realism.

Paranormal Activity 3: Filmed like a documentary.










Final Cut Pro:
To edit our thriller, we used Final Cut Pro, which I had never used before. We used it to put our videos in sequence by 'log and transfer' and 'importing' and to edit our videos with putting effects on them to achieve a more thriller mood. At first, I found it complicated and got fustrated with it, but after I had used it a couple of times I understood it and used it more often, such as I used it recently to create a video for a music performance project. We learned how to add effects onto the videos, by just dragging the effect we wanted onto the timeline of where the video was. We used the effects of 'Bad Film' and 'Blur', also a Black and White tint. We tinted our titles in a faded red colour as well to add colour to our sequence. The effect of 'Bad Film' make the image flicker which adds to the intensity and had a thriller 'feel' to it. Also, 'Blur' makes the image blurry and distorted, which may be hard to figure out what the image is and thsi makes the audince feel uncomfortable because they don't know what they are seeing. This adds to the thriller genre because it is tense and thriller because they are not sureof what they are seeing. The Black and White tint idea came from the film Insidious. We liked the contrast between the red text and the black and white background. We thought it looked more creepy and eerie and created more tension for the audience.

For our soundtrack, we used Garage Band as we found it more effective than Soundtrack Pro. We have never used it before but found it easy to understand and use. We wanted to create a more subtle soundtrack using dark ambient sounds and then we added a piano riff on it because we found it and it sounded eerie so we used it, even though it wasn't our original idea. We listened to many different sounds within the sort of sounds we wanted and eventually layered our soundtrack with different instruments and sounds until we had completed our soundtrack.

My software knowledge has definitely improved as I didn't know how to use any of this software before. Also, the more I used, the more I could improve the quality and change the effects of some of the images. I haven't used any other video editing software yet but will do so in the future if needed. Our first draft was alright but obviously needed improving. We improved the red tinit because it was too bright to start with and faded it a bit by decreasing the saturation and added the 'Blur' effect onto some videos for more distortion.

Evaluation, Question 5

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The socio-economic classes that we plan to aim our thriller at are from C1, C2, D and E this is because the people in these groups may be able to relate better to the characters in the film, as our characters are also within those groups, so they may be able to see the realism and emotions within the plot.

Male and females are both able to enjoy the plot of a thriller and our thriller is genderless because so far it only contains shadows. This will automatically interest both teenage girls and boys. This has lead us to make our certificate 15+ (targeted at 15-22) as we feel that our story will be found interesting by those ages.

However we feel that an audience younger than 15 is not appropriate for our film because the plot is quite tense and has elements that younger audiences may find disturbing and therefore only older audiences will be able to handle the plot. For example, the threat we include in our thriller of a home invasion or threat of someone/something outside your house:














My primary audience is going to be people who love thrillers and are loyal to this genre. This may be some teenagers 15 and above and young adults. Also, they can relate to the setting and appreciate the fact that it is more psychological than gory or violent. People who can appreciate a thriller not being so typical and stepping outside some thriller conventions but still has that tense atmosphere and susprise they seek.

My audience will share the same interests and like to socialise. They like going out with their friends and this may include seeing a thriller film together. They are most likely to live in England and America and value things such as their social activitives and popularity. They may like the know things before others and are people that visity the cinema or watch films on TV and DVDs very often. They like to shop in places such as Topshop/Topman, New Look, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and other popular retail shops and like brands such as Starbucks and Costa. ASDA and Tesco are also popular places they like to visit, which would be a good place to distribute my product.

My secondary audience may be a younger audience who want to act too mature, such as pre-teenagers. They will most likely have much in common with my primary audience, such as liking to socialise, and be more scared of the theme of my product.


My tertiary audience will be a older audience, parents maybe or older couples who seek thrills and enjoy susprises. They may be horror fans and enjoy typical thrillers with the typical thriller conventions.

Evaluation, Question 4

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


The Thriller genre involves excitement, intrigue and mystery. People who like this will most likely watch thrillers. The types of people that watch thrillers are people who like to try and figure our the plot or twist for themselves but never quite gets there, a person who never gives up trying and will always give it a shot on working out what is happening but still loves the element of suprise.

Thriller films are viewed by most audiences especially teenagers who enjoy the action, twists, suspense etc. Male and females are both able to enjoy the plot of a thriller and our thriller contains the element of suspense as the antagonists are anonyms. This will automatically interest both teenage girls and boys. This has lead us to make our certificate 15+ (targeted at 15-22) as we feel that our story will be found interesting by those ages. We feel that our target audience will be able to relate to the story making them more interested, and will also enjoy things such as the twist within our film.


We chose to use Film 4 as it funds more horrors and thrillers and is quite popular. They do this to widen their audiences and profit their company more. It also invests in low budget films which would be right for us as my product is low budget, and this would appeal to them.

Films such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity use fottage that made it look like a documentary to create the realism. This is done on a low budget because not much equipment or settings are needed. This is very effective as it goes to show you don't have to have a big budget to make a thriller effective. Film 4 are most likely to fund films like these because of this.

A Co Production company would be useful as they may advertise DVDs more because Film 4 are not very good at promoting DVDs, just films on TV or online. A Co Production company, for example Studio Canal from France, could sell a film internationally, as well as Co Production Companies in America.

Using Film 4 can result in TV trailers and even online which will promote our product. Another method we could use it to set up a Youtube account and post it on Youtube and promote it to get recognision. We could also ask websites that specialise in film reviews are upcoming films and ask them to promote our product, such as www.totalfilm.com.

Evaluation, Question 3

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My media product doesn't necessarily have distinguished characters, as they are just moving shadows or even ones that don't move. They are meant to represent a being/presence. Because of this, it can appeal to all social groups as it doesn't have a specific one.

We used a range of different shots, such as Close Ups and Long Shots. We thought this would be effective as one second you may understand the image but then it changes to a Close Up which confuses the audience because they don't know what they are seeing. The Close Ups we took were more of hands and heads but we experimented with the lighting to make them look distorted and unrecognisable. We used panning in most of our shots but with the lighting instead of the camera as we found that more effective, starting from darkness then returning to it. The Long Shots were more to show the setting of where these shadows linger, which is in a family home. This makes it feel more real for the audience and may make them start to feel unsafe in their own homes, which is what we wanted to create by using these Long Shots.

We used Point of View shots throughout our product, like the audience found these shadows and that they are there in that house. It could be said that there is someone filming these shadows and the audience are seeing what the person behind the camera is seeing.

There is not much to do with mise-en-scene in our product as it is mostly shadows. The setting the audience can relate to as it is in a family home and this is where most of my audience will live.


The colours used in our production could represent evil. We use the colour red, which can be associated with blood, danger, menace and anger, and we use black and white which contrasts with the red, making them both stand out against each other and is very effective. The shadows can represent evil as they are invading a setting which is meant to be associated with good, and the shadows are turning it into a place of evil.

Evaluation, Question 2

How did you attract you audience?


Audiences that like thriller films are loyal to them as they enjoy them. They question our own safety and give the audience edge-of-your-seat thrills. Our product is more psychological, and our audience will like that as it questions our own sanity and makes people excited.


My thriller uses the convention of low-key lighting, using only one light, as audiences would expect of a thriller and the images fade out to black, creating darkness for a couple of seconds while the audience wonder what images they will see next. Also, the editing of the images is distorted to make the audience feel uncomfortable, which is meant to be felt while watching a thriller. However, I do not use CU shots or ECU shots even though they are conventional when it comes to a thriller, but I used LS and MCUs to show the whole shadow so the audience can see the whole image.


The BBFC guidelines for my sort of thriller were unclear, as it contains psychological threat. Originally, I would have rated my product as a 15 and I still would because, based on the films I have seen that include psychological threat are 15's, such as Shutter Island. The BBFC states that "At 15 there can be strong threat and menace", which falls into the category of my product.


I filmed all of my shots at home and in the garden to make it more realistic and make the audience feel a bit unsafe and my brother helped me as he was in most of my shots and wore dark clothing even though it was more of his shadow. This appeals to my audience because the point of a thriller is to make people feel tense and fill them with suspense and my product does this by using this location and what I filmed.

The visual techniques we incorporated were the use of low-key lighting and using only one light and the editing we used, which was mostly an effect called Bad Film which makes it flicker and on some of the shots we have blurring to distort it and make it unrecognisable which makes the audience feel tense as they don't know what it is they are looking at.


The idea for our thriller title sequence was inspired by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology. In 1913, at the age of 38, Jung experienced a horrible "confrontation with the unconscious". He saw visions and heard voices. He worried at times that he was "menaced by a psychosis" or was "doing a schizophrenia." He decided that it was valuable experience, and in private, he induced hallucinations, or, in his words, "active imaginations." He recorded everything he felt in small journals. Jung began to transcribe his notes into a large, red leather-bound book,therefore known as the 'Red Book', on which he worked intermittently for sixteen years.

Evaluation, Question 1

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

My media product has been compared to the Paranormal Activity films as it contains lots of shadows and silhouettes like my product. Also, the film Insidious was another film my product was compared to.

I used these films also as inspiration for my product, when doing my product I researched these films and looked at some screen shots of them. My product is similar to these screenshots as it is only shadows used in my production. I would say that The Red Book is more similar to Paranormal Activity. This is because in The Red Book there is only shadows and silhouettes such as in Paranormal Activity, where you don't see their faces, only see they presence, which is the same atmosphere we tried to create in The Red Book.












Insidious was an original idea for inspiration for out product because it has the element and atmosphere of something that is forthcoming and gets closer and closer. The start of Insidious was to the extent of our inspiration and the title sequence we thought was very effective, as the movie progressed, we didn't want our product to be that, so we just focused on the titles and opening with more shadows. We like the title sequence as it was in black and white, so we used that in out product and the soundtrack also inspired us for our soundtrack.

Our soundtrack uses ambient sounds with use of an eerie piano riff on top. We wanted it to be subtle as we wanted our audience to focus on the images, but also present enough to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. The film Insidious is more the inspiration behind our soundtrack but we also made it more original by adding the piano because it was eerie and really created that tense atmosphere. I listened to the Insisious soundtrack which starts off quiet, then loud violins are used when the title shows. We wanted our sondtrack to be more subtle than that because we thought it would keep the audience more tense as they don't know if it will crescendo or not. We also have put whispering into our soundtrack to make it more atmospheric. We used this idea from the film Knowing. The whispers in the Knowing title sequence is really effective and creates suspense, so we decided to use it in ours as well as we thought it would intensify it.


My product, I would say, it quite original and different as it is more paranormal rather than a plot that includes a serial killer or blood and violence, that is the only convention that I have disobeyed. Apart from that, the eerie shadows and the feeling of something creeping up on you adds to the tense atmosphere that thrillers create and my product does that. It is different because it is more of a psychological thriller which isn't an obvious choice to go for which makes it more original and different.
 

Film, Knowing Title Sequence

Knowing:

• Classic titles--Production companies, in association with...

• Appear as numbers then turn into letters, fade out randomly letters at once, insight into what the film includes

• Slow pace, titles in the centre of the screen to make the audience pay attention to the titles and build up tension because don't know what might happen next

• Soundtrack, non-diegetic, dark ambient sound with whispering voices, creates an eerie atmosphere

• Whispering crescendos when title of film appears, showing the importance of the title and make you aware that it is the title of the film

• Name of film in larger font to stand out more to the audience

• White text on a black background creating contrast