Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
The opening to any film is probably one of the most vital parts, as the audience must be instantly drawn into the film to help maintain their interest and to make them want to continue watching the rest of the film. Also I personally feel the best film openings are the ones which don't give away too much detail, (i.e Seven, Inception etc.) and instantly leave the audience with questions which they want answering, so therefore they will stick around to watch the rest of the film to find the answers to these questions. This can be done through a variety of different filming techniques (camera angles) or through aspects related to editing such as jump cuts etc. I think that the more exciting but secretive a film opening is the more people will want to continue watching.
The most common forms and conventions seen in the opening sequences of thriller films are:
In our opening sequence we followed most of the typical conventions of a Thriller film. At the start of the sequence we included opening titles in the form of production companies and studio names. The design of the titles follows typical thriller conventions as they appeared on a black background. Throughout the opening sequence we added credits (i.e. the actors names, names of the directors and producers). We added the film title at the end of the clip, as we felt that this had a better effect when drawing in the audience. We kept the font black as we felt that not only did it stand out against the background but it fitted with the dark nature of our thriller opening sequence. We had the credits slowly fading in and out which almost represents a sort of uncertainty about the sequence of events. This overturns the typical thriller convention surrounding credits as they normally appear on a black background. We also decided to mix the events and titles as seen in many thriller films (i.e. Seven, The Crazies etc.) as we felt that it created more suspense and followed typical thriller film conventions.
Our sequence also included the introduction of a protagonist, again a common thriller film convention. To do this we decided that by not showing the face of the protagonist, this would draw in the audience as they would have questions about who the protagonist is and what they have done and why. This draws in the audience as by watching the rest of the film they would find the answers to the questions they have. We used a mixture of mid shots and close up shots to film the protagonist as well as tracking shots to follow their movement and this meant that we could keep the identity of the protagonist secretive. Inception has a protagonist whose identity is secretive during the opening and start of the film and we don't know much about him. We also included a fast paced section towards the end of the clip where the whole sequence is rewound, helping to show how the film would then go back in time, and everything leading up to the events in the opening sequence would be shown. This effect helps to draws the audience in and helps to maintain their interest, as they will want to see what happened in the lead up to the events that occur in the opening sequence. This is supported by the secretive nature of the opening as this again maintains the audiences interest as they want to find out who the protagonist is.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The protagonist in our opening is dressed to look like an ordinary person, giving a psychotic feel to the character. This again draws in the audience as they would want to know what has happened to cause an ordinary looking person to become a crazed killer, and therefore makes them stick around to watch the rest of the film, in order to understand events. When filming the protagonist, we used close up shots and side on views so as not to reveal too much of the face, again helping to draw in the audience. We also used low angle mid shots when filming the protagonist so that we could only see the body and not the face, creating quite a secretive character. We also had the protagonist spinning a knife on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. The sound of the knife spinning fits with the horror theme and again shows the protagonist to be quite psychotic. Little editing was used on the clips showing the protagonist, except from a fade into the Martini bottle, to break up the clip from the titles. We also cut down a few of the clips as they were a slightly too long. In some clips of the protagonist we increased the speed/duration as some of the action was a little slow and we originally struggled to cut down the length of the clip. The killer in the film Seven links to this character as they also targeted victims and brutally murdered them.
The girl character who was hung in the dining room had to appear dead, but this was quite hard to make it look realistic enough. We aimed to create an innocent and vulnerable looking character of a young age and therefore had the actor in a dress and tights with her hair in plaits with red ribbons. We also applied white make-up to her face to make her pale looking and applied purple, blue and red tones to her neck to create the mark from the rope. In order to make the death look realistic enough, we decided to use a tilt shot which tilted down to reveal the girl hung from the chandelier. We also combined this with close up shots of her eyes and face which again help to represent the innocence of the character and make the murder seem cruel. This helps to draw in the audience as they will wonder what the reasons for the girls murder are. When editing we added the additive dissolve effect to create a camera flash accompanied by a camera sound to represent crime scene photos being taken. We chose to do this as we felt it fitted with the horror/crime style thriller. The sounds used in this section of the sequence was the horror style music playing in the background, as the chimes in the background music sound like the sound from a child's music box but with more of an eerie effect to it.The use of the young child character helps to represent an element of fear and vulnerability.
When creating the mother character we aimed to create a character with domestic, family home elements in the costume and also used the location to make this more obvious to the audience as we placed this characters murder in the kitchen. Also to represent this domestic character we looked into the costume and used an apron, plain white t-shirt and plain trousers (without rips etc). Again we used the same make-up style (white to make her pale, blue for the lips etc) and covered the white t-shirt in fake blood and added rips to make the murder look more gruesome and therefore clearly link into the horror sun-genre. We also wanted to show strength from this character ad create the effect of a struggle between the protagonist and the mother. To do this we moved objects to make the room look messy and added red smudges and hand prints on the work surfaces to make the sequence more realistic and believable. When filming the mother, we mainly used close up shots combined with high angle shots, presenting to the audience how this character has been victimised. The close up shot of the characters face again creates the effect of another innocent character who has been brutally murdered, leaving the audience to wonder why and what drove the protagonist to murder a family. We again used the additive dissolve to reflect camera flashes accompanied by camera sound to give the effect of crime scene photographs being taken.
The Father character again had to have an innocent look about him in order for use to attract the audience and make them question why this character was murdered. This time we wanted a less gruesome murder, to show the short lengths the protagonist had to go to in order to commit the murder. We had the actor dressed casually in a top and joggers to show the normality of the character but prove that they way you dress doesn't always reflect your personality or actions (especially in the case of the protagonist). Here we decided not to use the camera flash or sound as the killing of this character was taking place, where as the other 2 characters were found dead. We used a close-up shot to film this character so that the audience could focus on his face, making it clearer to the audience what had happened. We also used the same eerie music in the background for this part of the sequence as we felt that it was reflective of the events that occurred in the sequence. During editing we changed the speed/duration of the clips and cut it down slightly in length. We used straight cuts and didn't add any dissolve or fade effects as we felt that the murder and its brutality were reflected better through the use of a straight cut.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our thriller would be both males and females between the ages of 15 and 25. As our media product is a horror thriller, the content reflects the age range at which our thriller is suitable for. Many horror films have a 15 rating, such as The Reef (2010 - directed by Andre Traucki), The Devil Inside (2012 - directed by William Brent Bell), and the Paranormal Activity Series (2007, 2010 and 2011 - directed by Oren Peli). Through secondary research into the thriller genre, I found that horror thrillers tend to be aimed more at males due to the way they react and how they cope with the events included in a film. However, around 45% of cinema admissions to horror films are still female, and therefore proves that we would be right to target both males and females with our media product. Most horror movies are made for the viewing age of 17 - 30. The people in this age group still enjoy going out on the weekends to get away from the pressures of school and work and this age group makes up a large percentage of the cinema audience. This is shown by the graph below, which states that over 40% of the cinema audience are aged between 15 and 24 years.
When considering our target audience, we also considered the plot and decided that if we targeted a younger audience they might struggle to understand the plot. Below are rough guidelines for a 15 certificate film:
Our media product follows most if not all of these guidelines. For example, even though it does include dangerous behaviour (hanging etc.) little is seen of the body. Also our thriller opening includes the result of violence as we see the 3 murdered victims, but the images aren't overly gory and aren't shown for long. Also no drug taking or strong language is used in our sequence. Therefore our opening sequence is suitable for our target audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of creating this product?
I feel that throughout creating our media product, I have learnt a lot surrounding the technologies involved in its production. Firstly, I have learnt how to film effectively using the equipment provided, such as the Cannon HD camera. To be able to film effectively, I had to know how to use the camera and how it attached to the tripod. I learnt that before pressing the record button, every time you wanted to film footage, you have to press the shutter button in order to focus the camera on the object/area you are filming in order to make good use of the cameras HD filming capabilities and to record clear footage. When we began the editing process, I had to learn how to use the Adobe Premier Pro software in order to editing all the footage we had together. I learnt how to import the footage and use the time line to piece the footage together to create the opening sequence, how to add audio tracks to play alongside the footage and how to control the audio volume on both the footage and the audio track. On each of the footage clips (on time line view) there is the audio volume level shown below the picture representing the clip, there is a yellow line which if moved up or down it will increase/decrease the volume from that clip. We altered the volume levels on the visuals and the background audio when editing to make sure that any unwanted background noises from filming couldn't be heard, making the audio track we added clearer and the only sound heard at certain points during the sequence. I also learnt to add another sound clip it has to be placed in the audio 2 part of the time line. In total we added 2 different audio tracks, (the eerie audio track and the camera sound for the still parts of the sequence). I also learnt how to change the speed/duration of footage as some of the footage we had was a little slow. Changing the speed/duration requires trial and error by changing the playback length of the selected bit of footage but is simple to do. When adding the titles, I found this process quite difficult, as the whole group found it hard to figure out how to make them fade in and out, as well as how to make them look interesting. Eventually we figured it out and added them to the time line. I also learnt that to add effects such as fading in and out, we had to add the additive dissolve video effect over the top.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
By comparing the final result of our preliminary task with the final result of our media product, I can see the progress that I have made. When filming footage for the preliminary task, we encountered problems with lighting. As we had decided to use this as chance to practise filming part of a thriller, we wanted the location we had chosen to be dark. However, this made the footage hard to film with the little Panasonic cameras, as it wasn't clear enough. It worked well to hide the identity of the person in black following the girl but made the rest of the footage hazy and unclear. Even though we attempted to use the light reflector top reflect natural light from the windows, we still found the footage to be too dark. We also encountered problems with setting the white balance every time we filmed sections of footage and found it hard to film clear sections of footage as if we used the zoom function, the quality of the footage became hazy and unclear. Also the filming process was slightly rushed. We used some camera movements and angles such as close-ups, pans etc. and followed the 180 degree rule, but not a lot was used to make the final preliminary product interesting or effective. The location we filmed in could have been used quite effectively, but little planning was put into what we were going to do and therefore we could produce an effective sequence. When we edited the footage we had filmed, we added a couple of fade effects but didn't spend much time making it interesting or considering what we could have added to the footage, possibly due to fact that we rushed to complete it and found the Adobe Premier Pro software hard to use at first.
Through the progression from the preliminary task to the final product, I learnt that planning and time is key to producing a better quality and more effective final media product, and for the final sequence we made sure that we used our time more effectively. I learnt more skills around using the filming equipment and how to successfully film clear footage where aspects such as the lighting hasn't affected the clarity of the footage, as well as learning more about the editing software and how it can be used effectively to create a professional looking video. I learnt how to add effects, titles and audio tracks as well as changing the speed/duration of footage. Also, we learnt that choosing the Cannon camera meant we could film in HD and this enabled us to achieve better quality footage, as shown below. Overall I feel that I have developed my skills considerably to be able to contribute effectively to the production of our final media product, and feel I have learnt new skills/techniques from all aspects of planning right through to production of our final piece.
The opening to any film is probably one of the most vital parts, as the audience must be instantly drawn into the film to help maintain their interest and to make them want to continue watching the rest of the film. Also I personally feel the best film openings are the ones which don't give away too much detail, (i.e Seven, Inception etc.) and instantly leave the audience with questions which they want answering, so therefore they will stick around to watch the rest of the film to find the answers to these questions. This can be done through a variety of different filming techniques (camera angles) or through aspects related to editing such as jump cuts etc. I think that the more exciting but secretive a film opening is the more people will want to continue watching.
The most common forms and conventions seen in the opening sequences of thriller films are:
- Opening titles and/or credits over a black screen
- Mixing of events and titles - often common to see a short clip of the start of events before the first title
- Mixture of camera angles/movement (close up shots, location master shots etc.)
- The introduction of the protagonist
- Editing techniques (jump cuts, fast paced)
- Low key lighting & Non-diegetic sound (often in background)
- Drawing in the audience
- Audience often taken straight into the action/events
In our opening sequence we followed most of the typical conventions of a Thriller film. At the start of the sequence we included opening titles in the form of production companies and studio names. The design of the titles follows typical thriller conventions as they appeared on a black background. Throughout the opening sequence we added credits (i.e. the actors names, names of the directors and producers). We added the film title at the end of the clip, as we felt that this had a better effect when drawing in the audience. We kept the font black as we felt that not only did it stand out against the background but it fitted with the dark nature of our thriller opening sequence. We had the credits slowly fading in and out which almost represents a sort of uncertainty about the sequence of events. This overturns the typical thriller convention surrounding credits as they normally appear on a black background. We also decided to mix the events and titles as seen in many thriller films (i.e. Seven, The Crazies etc.) as we felt that it created more suspense and followed typical thriller film conventions.
Our sequence also included the introduction of a protagonist, again a common thriller film convention. To do this we decided that by not showing the face of the protagonist, this would draw in the audience as they would have questions about who the protagonist is and what they have done and why. This draws in the audience as by watching the rest of the film they would find the answers to the questions they have. We used a mixture of mid shots and close up shots to film the protagonist as well as tracking shots to follow their movement and this meant that we could keep the identity of the protagonist secretive. Inception has a protagonist whose identity is secretive during the opening and start of the film and we don't know much about him. We also included a fast paced section towards the end of the clip where the whole sequence is rewound, helping to show how the film would then go back in time, and everything leading up to the events in the opening sequence would be shown. This effect helps to draws the audience in and helps to maintain their interest, as they will want to see what happened in the lead up to the events that occur in the opening sequence. This is supported by the secretive nature of the opening as this again maintains the audiences interest as they want to find out who the protagonist is.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The protagonist in our opening is dressed to look like an ordinary person, giving a psychotic feel to the character. This again draws in the audience as they would want to know what has happened to cause an ordinary looking person to become a crazed killer, and therefore makes them stick around to watch the rest of the film, in order to understand events. When filming the protagonist, we used close up shots and side on views so as not to reveal too much of the face, again helping to draw in the audience. We also used low angle mid shots when filming the protagonist so that we could only see the body and not the face, creating quite a secretive character. We also had the protagonist spinning a knife on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. The sound of the knife spinning fits with the horror theme and again shows the protagonist to be quite psychotic. Little editing was used on the clips showing the protagonist, except from a fade into the Martini bottle, to break up the clip from the titles. We also cut down a few of the clips as they were a slightly too long. In some clips of the protagonist we increased the speed/duration as some of the action was a little slow and we originally struggled to cut down the length of the clip. The killer in the film Seven links to this character as they also targeted victims and brutally murdered them.
The girl character who was hung in the dining room had to appear dead, but this was quite hard to make it look realistic enough. We aimed to create an innocent and vulnerable looking character of a young age and therefore had the actor in a dress and tights with her hair in plaits with red ribbons. We also applied white make-up to her face to make her pale looking and applied purple, blue and red tones to her neck to create the mark from the rope. In order to make the death look realistic enough, we decided to use a tilt shot which tilted down to reveal the girl hung from the chandelier. We also combined this with close up shots of her eyes and face which again help to represent the innocence of the character and make the murder seem cruel. This helps to draw in the audience as they will wonder what the reasons for the girls murder are. When editing we added the additive dissolve effect to create a camera flash accompanied by a camera sound to represent crime scene photos being taken. We chose to do this as we felt it fitted with the horror/crime style thriller. The sounds used in this section of the sequence was the horror style music playing in the background, as the chimes in the background music sound like the sound from a child's music box but with more of an eerie effect to it.The use of the young child character helps to represent an element of fear and vulnerability.
When creating the mother character we aimed to create a character with domestic, family home elements in the costume and also used the location to make this more obvious to the audience as we placed this characters murder in the kitchen. Also to represent this domestic character we looked into the costume and used an apron, plain white t-shirt and plain trousers (without rips etc). Again we used the same make-up style (white to make her pale, blue for the lips etc) and covered the white t-shirt in fake blood and added rips to make the murder look more gruesome and therefore clearly link into the horror sun-genre. We also wanted to show strength from this character ad create the effect of a struggle between the protagonist and the mother. To do this we moved objects to make the room look messy and added red smudges and hand prints on the work surfaces to make the sequence more realistic and believable. When filming the mother, we mainly used close up shots combined with high angle shots, presenting to the audience how this character has been victimised. The close up shot of the characters face again creates the effect of another innocent character who has been brutally murdered, leaving the audience to wonder why and what drove the protagonist to murder a family. We again used the additive dissolve to reflect camera flashes accompanied by camera sound to give the effect of crime scene photographs being taken. 
The Father character again had to have an innocent look about him in order for use to attract the audience and make them question why this character was murdered. This time we wanted a less gruesome murder, to show the short lengths the protagonist had to go to in order to commit the murder. We had the actor dressed casually in a top and joggers to show the normality of the character but prove that they way you dress doesn't always reflect your personality or actions (especially in the case of the protagonist). Here we decided not to use the camera flash or sound as the killing of this character was taking place, where as the other 2 characters were found dead. We used a close-up shot to film this character so that the audience could focus on his face, making it clearer to the audience what had happened. We also used the same eerie music in the background for this part of the sequence as we felt that it was reflective of the events that occurred in the sequence. During editing we changed the speed/duration of the clips and cut it down slightly in length. We used straight cuts and didn't add any dissolve or fade effects as we felt that the murder and its brutality were reflected better through the use of a straight cut.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our thriller would be both males and females between the ages of 15 and 25. As our media product is a horror thriller, the content reflects the age range at which our thriller is suitable for. Many horror films have a 15 rating, such as The Reef (2010 - directed by Andre Traucki), The Devil Inside (2012 - directed by William Brent Bell), and the Paranormal Activity Series (2007, 2010 and 2011 - directed by Oren Peli). Through secondary research into the thriller genre, I found that horror thrillers tend to be aimed more at males due to the way they react and how they cope with the events included in a film. However, around 45% of cinema admissions to horror films are still female, and therefore proves that we would be right to target both males and females with our media product. Most horror movies are made for the viewing age of 17 - 30. The people in this age group still enjoy going out on the weekends to get away from the pressures of school and work and this age group makes up a large percentage of the cinema audience. This is shown by the graph below, which states that over 40% of the cinema audience are aged between 15 and 24 years.
Horror movies give excitement and suspense in the lives of
movie goers, and this helps to draw in this age group. However we decided that 15-25 was a suitable age range to target, as our media product is no worse than films such as The Reef, The Devil Inside and the Paranormal Activity Series shown below.
When considering our target audience, we also considered the plot and decided that if we targeted a younger audience they might struggle to understand the plot. Below are rough guidelines for a 15 certificate film:
- The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
- Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. Promotion of drugs which are easy to obtain are unlikely to be allowed.
- Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic.
- Dangerous behaviour (i.e. hanging, suicide and self harming) can be allowed provided the detail of such is low so that it cannot create too much of an impression on the viewer.
- Frequent use of strong language can be permitted, although very strong language needs to be restricted and would have to be seen as reasonable in the context. Frequent usage of very strong language would be seldom allowed.
- As long as the film is appropriate for 15 year olds, no certain themes are prohibited.
- Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. The same applies to references.
Our media product follows most if not all of these guidelines. For example, even though it does include dangerous behaviour (hanging etc.) little is seen of the body. Also our thriller opening includes the result of violence as we see the 3 murdered victims, but the images aren't overly gory and aren't shown for long. Also no drug taking or strong language is used in our sequence. Therefore our opening sequence is suitable for our target audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of creating this product?
I feel that throughout creating our media product, I have learnt a lot surrounding the technologies involved in its production. Firstly, I have learnt how to film effectively using the equipment provided, such as the Cannon HD camera. To be able to film effectively, I had to know how to use the camera and how it attached to the tripod. I learnt that before pressing the record button, every time you wanted to film footage, you have to press the shutter button in order to focus the camera on the object/area you are filming in order to make good use of the cameras HD filming capabilities and to record clear footage. When we began the editing process, I had to learn how to use the Adobe Premier Pro software in order to editing all the footage we had together. I learnt how to import the footage and use the time line to piece the footage together to create the opening sequence, how to add audio tracks to play alongside the footage and how to control the audio volume on both the footage and the audio track. On each of the footage clips (on time line view) there is the audio volume level shown below the picture representing the clip, there is a yellow line which if moved up or down it will increase/decrease the volume from that clip. We altered the volume levels on the visuals and the background audio when editing to make sure that any unwanted background noises from filming couldn't be heard, making the audio track we added clearer and the only sound heard at certain points during the sequence. I also learnt to add another sound clip it has to be placed in the audio 2 part of the time line. In total we added 2 different audio tracks, (the eerie audio track and the camera sound for the still parts of the sequence). I also learnt how to change the speed/duration of footage as some of the footage we had was a little slow. Changing the speed/duration requires trial and error by changing the playback length of the selected bit of footage but is simple to do. When adding the titles, I found this process quite difficult, as the whole group found it hard to figure out how to make them fade in and out, as well as how to make them look interesting. Eventually we figured it out and added them to the time line. I also learnt that to add effects such as fading in and out, we had to add the additive dissolve video effect over the top.
Some of our footage was a little long in length and needed cutting down. To do this I used the razor tool and clicked directly where I wanted to cut off the unwanted part of the clip from a selected piece of footage, then I clicked on the unwanted bit of footage and press the delete key.I also had to learn how to render the footage so that the file is suitable to be uploaded onto YouTube. During this process I had to make sure that it was set to covert to wide screen so that it would be displayed this way on YouTube. Once the file had been correctly rendered, it was uploaded onto YouTube. Finally I learnt how to embed the uploaded video onto my blog post through the HTML view on the blog post editing screen.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
By comparing the final result of our preliminary task with the final result of our media product, I can see the progress that I have made. When filming footage for the preliminary task, we encountered problems with lighting. As we had decided to use this as chance to practise filming part of a thriller, we wanted the location we had chosen to be dark. However, this made the footage hard to film with the little Panasonic cameras, as it wasn't clear enough. It worked well to hide the identity of the person in black following the girl but made the rest of the footage hazy and unclear. Even though we attempted to use the light reflector top reflect natural light from the windows, we still found the footage to be too dark. We also encountered problems with setting the white balance every time we filmed sections of footage and found it hard to film clear sections of footage as if we used the zoom function, the quality of the footage became hazy and unclear. Also the filming process was slightly rushed. We used some camera movements and angles such as close-ups, pans etc. and followed the 180 degree rule, but not a lot was used to make the final preliminary product interesting or effective. The location we filmed in could have been used quite effectively, but little planning was put into what we were going to do and therefore we could produce an effective sequence. When we edited the footage we had filmed, we added a couple of fade effects but didn't spend much time making it interesting or considering what we could have added to the footage, possibly due to fact that we rushed to complete it and found the Adobe Premier Pro software hard to use at first.
The use of the dark room was effective in hiding the identity of this character.
However, the darkness of the room did affect the quality of the footage.
The HD camera enabled us to film better quality footage.
More detailed planning combined with time taken over filming each
piece of footage helped us achieve better results.
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