Evaluation; Part 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?

Evaluation; part 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

While creating our final thriller, we learnt how to use a range of different technologies, some of which are familiar, and others we weren't. Some of the resources we used include; Blogger, mini DV digital camcorders, Youtube, mobile phones with camera phones, and Google.

We used both Google images and the web search to research different thrillers. 



We used Blogger to  post everything we do to do with the thriller.

 

We used YouTube, not only to research other thriller openings, but also to upload our own thriller.

Evaluation; part 5

How does our Thriller opening appeal to our target audience?

 People would want to watch our thriller as it is a typical revenge seeking film that has a real life story behind it. I think after the initial opening, the viewer would want to continue watching to find out what happens and if the policewoman ever does reach her ultimate revenge of killing her husbands murderer. The type of audience that will want to watch this thriller are the type that like a gory drama.

Our target audience are 15- 19 mainly because we don't think out thriller is suitable for under 15 because the thriller has violence, strong language and sexual references. our thriller have young actor; so it might not appeal for anyone above 19. Also our is'nt at the same standards are 18 and above thriller so it may not appeal to the older audience  

Evaluation; Part 4

Who would be the main audience for your media product?

The audience for our thriller would be anyone over 15, as the thriller could feature more violence and  strong language further on in the film. Young people aged 15 to 20 would be the main age range we would attract to watch our thriller as it is a fast pace revenge story with a femme fatale main character which could be an advantage to attracting a young male audience.

By looking at the surveys we did and the research we collected, we noticed that the most common things that people think make a good thriller include; suspense, confusion, mind games and death. 

Evaluation; Part 3

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


Our film is a small budget thriller, so the likely-hood of a large studio such as Vue Cinemas and Cineworld are very slim as our thriller doesn't feature famous actors or have a well known director. However a UK based  Art House exhibition chain such as The Curzon, Everyman or Picture House cinema might pick up our film. Films such as Rush Hour, have  distributed the trailers via television and Youtube, before showing trailers in cinemas.

Small british film like kidulthood that didn't have any major stars staring init but made it into cinemas nationally and sold millions of prints on dvd. This is why kidulthood is a great example of small films like ours which proves we have some chance of being picked up by a small dependent distribution company such as Metrodome.

Evaluation; part 2

Hows does your media product represent particular social groups? (gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity etc)

Our thriller shows women as having a higher status and being more powerful then men, being violent and angry in a high position of authority, and this is a contrasts with the patriarchal image we associate with high octane films. Our cast were young, ranging from 16 to 21 , so it was hard to show representation between ages. I don't think our thriller showed young people in a negative way at all as it was a story line based around a widowed policewoman looking for revenge and didn't really type adults in general as 'evil'. Our thriller didn't really challenge any stereotypes, although we portrayed the female as having the higher power and being more organised and clever about the way in which she was plotting her revenge.

Thelma and louise the female characters have agencies over the male characters. These goes against Laura Mulvey's theory that traditional hollywood movies the male characters have agencies over the female.

evaluation part 1

In what way does the media product use, development forms and conventions of real media products?

Typical thriller conventions include usually being set in urban areas, but as we couldn't film in the usual city, we settled for our suburban area in Dagenham.

This thriller is a great example of a thriller filmed in a urban area. we would of love to be able to use the city the reason we didn't is because getting to london every day when we needed to film will be very costly. Another reason we need permission to film where ever we wanted to film, and getting permission in any big offices in London will be very difficult maybe because they don't want students running round filming and getting in there way of their work.   

Settling with Dagenham wasn't really a bad thing after all because our thriller turned out great. Maybe not travailing far was a good thing because it was so easy to film in our own area made us want to film our thriller more. 

We used a point of view shot, and clearly portrayed the antagonist and our plot follows the antagonist rather than the protagonist, kidnapping, dramatic music, tension and suspense, low key lighting, faced paced editing, revenge seeking and extreme closeups.

Final Film

Here is our final Thriller opening, called 'Independent Law'.

Blackouts and Gradual Sound

During our thriller opening we used blackouts to create tension and build suspense for the audience. We used one when Shelby walked into the living room and as she switched on the light we made the film black out and combined it with a scream off youtube. 

Gradual sound and a blackout

    

Blackout

Blackout and scream

Editing

Today we finished editing and reviewed our footage to make sure we hadn't missed anything out. However we had a continuity editing problem. One thing I  noticed was that in one shot, you see Shelby walking over to Drilon from his point of view, but in a later shot shortly after, you see her walking again; making it look like she had walked back on her self. To fix this problem, we cut the second shot so it looks like she am only just coming over to him and it flows much better.

Editing

 In lesson and any spare time we have, Shelby, Emma and I have been adding the final touches to editing our thriller opening. To emphasise the shot of Shelby killing Drilon, we reversed the action and then replayed it the correct way- however after watching it we decided to cut this out. Also to emphasise the sound of the iron pole hitting the floor, we stopped the music just as it was hitting the floor so you can hear the clinking and echos of when it falls.

Thriller Update

This week during lessons  Shelby, Emma and I have been inserting titles into our thriller opening. We included titles such as the names of the actors, director, producer ect. 

Editing

After we have finished filming every thing, we began to upload all our footage and started editing our work. Watching majority of it back, we noticed that the camera took away most of the light in the darker scenes, so as we put a black and white filter on some of the shots. We also blacked out some of the footage due to the acting and We didn't have enough time to film again  

Titles, Idents, and Imagination

After much thought and consideration, we have decided to call our thriller 'Independent Law' as the title reflects what the film is about- a rogue police officer who takes the law into her own hands to avenge the murder of her husband.


We also took some time to think about what we were going to call our production company. After much use of imagination, we came up with 'SEAscape Productions'. SEA being Shelby,Emma, Ahmed. We all thought that  SEAscape would be a nice name, and Emma thought that when creating the ident, we could incorporate blue into it to reflect the blue of the sea.

Filming; Day 4

Today, we filmed the final scene of Shelby circling Emma's photograph on the Wall of Victims. Due to regular use of the camera and consistent filming, todays shoot only took 4 minutes and we got all the takes we needed.

Filming; Day 3

Today, Emma, Shelby and I got straight into filming the 'linking' shots- the shots that link Shelby walking down an 'alleyway' into the shots of Shelby walking round the corner and ready to murder Drilon.
As a result of consistent filming and regular camera usage, as a group we have developed a better approach to filming for our thriller. One person, usually me or Emma, sets up the camera while the others get the actors ready for the shots, this may include make up, hair and costume fixtures. The more we film, the less we have to stop due to outbursts of laughter, camera problems and or wardrobe problems, making the filming process easier, quicker and stress-free. 

Filming; Day 2

On Friday, Me, Emma and Shelby met with our other co-actor, Drilon, and began shooting the main scene of our thriller.To film the scene we had to spend apporximately half a hour/40 minutes putting the two main characters through the 'make-up' stage. For Drilon's make up, as he was the victim the policewoman was murdering, we used alot of fake blood, a fake wound and my eye makeup to create real looking cuts, bruses and a black eye, to make it seem like he had been beaten up. We then used handcuffs to attach him to a pole on the wall, and tied him to a chair with some rope. Emma did a great job on making Drilon look like he'd taken a beating and i had to tieing him up, making sure not to cut off circulation or making the rope too tight. Shelby was the policewoman, her make up was very subtle; dark eye make up and slight blood on my face to make it look like she wiped her face after 'tidying' up. Emma used some of the fake blood on my shirt and grabbed my arms and parts of my shirt to make it look like the previous murder victims had grabbed at me frantically. Once we started filming, the time passed quickly

Emma attaching the fake wound to Drillan"s face

The fake wound

Giving Drillan a black eye

Ahmed tying Drillan to a chair

My bloodstained shirt

Myself standing at the end of an alley way

Call sheet

SEAscape Productions Thriller; Call sheet

Date	Location	Cast	Crew	Props	Costume
30/1/12	House	Shelby, Ricky	Emma, Ahmed	Keys, wallet, mobile phone, vase, decorative pebbles.	Shelby: black trousers, white shirt, coat, police hat. Ricky: hoodie, trousers.
04/02/12	Gym	Shelby, Drillan	Emma, Ahmed	Chair, handcuffs, rope, iron pole	Shelby: black trousers, white shirt, police hat. Drillan: Shirt andtrousers.
08/02/12	Backstage area	Shelby	Emma, Ahmed	Iron pole	Shelby: black trousers, white shirt, police hat.
10/02/12	Backstage area	Shelby	Emma, Ahmed	Pen	Black trousers, White shirt, police hat.

The locations we are planning to use to film for our thriller are dark, dingy spaces. We wern't planning to film in school but at the last minute didn't get permission for the warehouse we were originally going to use, so we walked around school to look for possible locations. We discovered a 'backstage' area, a rarely used gym which would be perfect when we block out the windows with black card.

Stairs Backstage



Gym



emma checking out the gym



Gym



Gym





Backstage corridor