Final Evaluation - Stephen Neal

1.  In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Media Products?

Conventions
- We tried not to show faces fully, only partially and very quickly to maintain the enigma and mystery of the film.
- We made sure to leave a lot of mystery with our thriller, for example not using any ambient noises and only using a soundtrack to make sure nothing Is given away about the characters personal lives of origin.
- We made sure questions were raised and a mystery was put into our product, we wanted to use this as we had seen it used in the film Se7en’s introduction.

- However we wanted to be different to most other thrillers so we allowed the audience to see some characters faces however we then covered them so that they could not be distinguished from the other characters.

- The angles we used were sometimes strange and not expected, for example our very high angle on the protagonist. The same as within the Bourne ultimatum.

- We have used some quick cuts when the characters are meeting however we have also used long cuts to show the detail we wanted and the journeys they were taking.

- We used ambient lighting to emphasize the facial expressions of our characters.

- We gave the audience restricted knowledge of the characters to create mystery and enigma.

2.  How does your Media Product represent particular social groups?

- Our protagonist is a young male representing an older male, this would appeal to the younger age group and twenty to thirty year olds

- The “cultists” are teenagers which represents the negative stereotype of teenagers.

- Gender is represented equally within the cultists as there are both male and females within the group and all are equal.

- The protagonist is male however which gives him a power over the other characters due to his extra camera time.

- We have not included any idea of sexual orientation and have not purposefully placed any information regarding sexual orientation as it would not add to the film at this time.

- Only a British ethnicity is being represented within our film introduction as we only feature Caucasian teenagers within the introduction.

The protagonist

- We gave a shot of him looking up at the sky to emphasise and show the audience his troubled situation, but also to create enigma as we did not show why he was troubled.

- The enigma and mystery are common with thrillers as they help add to tension such as in Se7en
- We dressed him in typical British everyday clothes to make him easy to relate to but also someone who could be anybody and with unknown motives.
- We did this to make sure that the target audience would be able to accept the film as reality and not just a film.


3.  What kind of media institutions might distribute your Media Products and why?

Distribution

- I would attempt to get a well knows British distributer such as the ones above to get the most publicity however they would probably not accept a low budget film like ours.http://www.lionsgatefilms.co.uk/index_flash.php
- We would like a specialised thriller distributor to be able to sell our product as much as they can and in the best areas which only a specialised distributor would know.

- Some smaller companies may be interested with our film, such as http://www.dogwoof.com/

- They would be able to market the film to the audience we wanted to attract and show our film in the best areas for our genre.

- The smaller company would be able to distribute it to some cinemas and the right areas which would build the reputation of our film but would not bring a lot of revenue, however they would be the most likely to accept our film.

- The larger company would be able to put or film everywhere and generate more revenue from people watching, however it may lower their reputation from having the best film not lower quality independent British thrillers.
- We could use news usual forms of distribution, for example online downloads from our own website or websites such as youtube. this would save oney on paper, plastics and the DVD's whihc would be great if our film were to be completed and distributed to our target audience.
- There are many ways to access online products through websites and game consoles so we could get to a wide audience and grow our market share of the audience.


4. Who would be the audience for your Media Product?

- Our audience would be young teenagers to middle aged people as they are the most likely to watch thrillers


a scene from the film psycho

 - Out of a selected few people I found that the males tended to like films such as “Pshyco” and“se7en” whereas the females surveyed preferred the “Bourne” series of thrillers.
- We tried to encompass parts from all of these films to attract our set audience.
- Some of the people who have seen our film say that they liked the “moon shot” where our protagonist looks away into the night deep in thought as it helped show his trouble.
-  Mainly the thriller would be aimed at females as they would prefer our male protagonist and his deeper emotional stress whereas men would prefer to watch a more action packed thriller.

5. How did you attract / address your audience?

- The lack of sound creates mystery for our film and would attracts an audience through the intrigue

- The story gives the audience the knowledge of what areas the people come from, but nothing more which again gives mystery to the audience

- The angles, such as the high angle shot with Marcus would be a slight shock to the audience as they come out of nowhere and can shock the audience.

- The typical British clothing used by our actors gives them a universal appeal as they could be anywhere and anyone which would be good for increasing the realism.

(this can be seen in our anamatic with the length of shots)

- The facial expression used help the audience emphasize with our actors and actresses as they can see how they feel

- We used a crime and mystery theme to entice our audience to want to view more and see what is happening later on in the film.

- The sound we used beats along with the important moments in the film which can emphasize what is happening on screen with the actors to the audience.



The Lower Quality Camera



The High Quality Camera



White Balance





Sony Vegas Pro


















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

- We have done a better job with the camera with our framing from our original film introduction.
- Our angles and the shots we attempted to reach have been toned down as we did not have the skill to pull them off fully, as seen above with the very ambitious over the shoulder shot.
- The shot lengths have been reduced instead of our very long hallway scene with no movement.
- The continuity failure of the gun has not been repeated within the final film as we paid attention to smaller details.
- We fixed a problem with the 180 Degree rule when we had broken it so we rotated the shot to make sure that the rule was followed throughout.
- Our construction of story has improved as we no longer had to tell the audience what was happening as we could now do it with the non-dieagetic soundtrack.
- Our visual editing was better in the final production as in the preliminary we used many different software’s to make the film whereas we only used Sony Vegas Pro in the final film
- The titles that are in our final film are good and show the audience some of the future of the film and suggest possible settings.
- The duration of our shots has been fixed, as shown above we had a very long shot in our preliminary of the protagonist walking down a corridor whereas we have not done that in the final product. this is important as it is boring to have so much shown without any cuts and also breaks the tension required for a thriller.
- The various continuety errors, such as the gun, have been rectified within our final product.

Title Research - Stephen

Se7en

• The sound is parallel to the actions that are happening and are in time with the credits.


• The titles are placed into areas that are not being used and then the shot will move to cover the text.


• The font and text flicker and distort changing constantly. As well as this it is sharp and gives the impression of a sadistic and creepy film.


• Most of the time the font is kept in a black screen to start with before changing to an actual film clip which allows the title to be read, but then makes it harder for the audience to see.

here you can see the change in distortion to legible text.

• The extracts in the background only shows either extreme close ups or distorted views of things so that we, the audience, have to keep guessing at the mystery of the bigger picture and get a full view.

• The images are parallel to the font as they both give strange and distorted views to the audience.

8 Million Ways to Die

• The titles are always across the frame and cover up what is happening in the background.



• The colours stay the same so that it is not disjointed, they also represent a law enforcement colours to help give away some of the story.

• The font looks hand-written which makes it look as though it had just been written down and then used by the law again enforcing the impression of the law.

• The way the film follows the car while giving more information helps solidify the idea that there is a large crime element to the film and that the law will be involved.

• Parallel music to match the thriller genre.

Terminator 2

Terminator 2 Opening credits

• The flames give an idea of the story and what will happen later on.

• The font matches the forcefully images and parallel sound.

• The sound enforces the metal and flame noises.

• The titles always emerge from fire, relates to the movie.

• The terminator robot emerges from the fire with the music getting louder until it clamps down.

• The titles always draw the audiences attention due to their large and controlling font.

Lighting Trials

Here we have posted our trials of using the lights to try and experiment and work out what effects and styles we shall use within each shot of our thriller opening.

Side lighting

low Angle lighting

Side lighting (other side)

front lighting 50%

front lighting 75%

Silhouette long

Silhouette Close

After looking through these lighting techniques we have decided that the silhouette style of shot was very useful for some of our shots. It will be good to use as it obscures the face and makes it look very sinister.

Of course these photos were not taken for our film, thus they are not framed as we wanted to check the effect on the area around the protagonist or antagonist an the extras that will be in our film.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:

Locker Room:

Slipping on the floor.

Lockers falling if they are not secured.

Colliding with opened lockers.

To avoid the dangers we can make sure that the area we are filming in is secure and that the lockers are well fastened to the wall. We'll make sure that we don't leave locker doors open around where we are filming and will take care when moving around the area.

Police Station:

Danger of cars on the main road.

Weather Hazards.

We will film far away from the road so as to make sure that even if someone fell of the equipment was knocked over it would not fall into the road and cause a potential hazard. We received permission to film on and around the police grounds and use their sign, we shall post the letter up here later toady. 

Driving scene:

Other road users.

Traffic collision.

Pedestrian collision.

We will use a private road and will designate someone within our group to check for traffic before each take to minimize the risk or getting in the way of other motorists. We shall abide by all traffic laws and we will make sure the driver has the necessary qualifications and that any needs shall be filled, for example should the driver only have a provisional license we shall make sure there is an experienced driver within the car.

The Railway Station:

Falling onto the track.

Being hit by a train.

Open area, rain, slipping on the platform could cause damage.

Tripping up stairs.

Weather hazards.

We will not film over the set lines for safety on the platform to maintain their health and safety guidelines, as well as moving carefully around the area.

 

We have had a letter sent to the railway to ask for permission to film on there premises and are awaiting their reply. 

Bonfire:

Burning oneself on the fire.

Fire spreading onto other areas.

Clothing damage or damage to properties.

Potential damage to equipment.

Weather hazards.

We will take the utmost precaution when filming this scene and we will make sure to have sand and water nearby should we need to quickly put the fire out. we will put a small barrier around the fire to stop anyone getting to close and we will make sure that someone will always be ready to step in should anything occur.

Church:

Falling gravestones due to their age could be a potential hazard.

Tripping in the graveyard.

Weather hazards.


For these shots we shall make sure to keep away from any dilapidated areas and unmaintained areas to make sure we are away from any potential dangers. We will decide where we will film to make sure we are not near any possible tripping hazard, or to cause offense to anyone within the grounds. We will gain access to the area by talking to the reverend of the church and asking for his permission to film on the grounds, should we be denied access we can use a secondary location.

Equipment Necessary:

Fire safety equipment. – Bucket of sand or water, extinguisher.

Small Medical kit – plasters, bandage.

Florescent clothing for night time filming.

- Stephen Neal