Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Final Production
The Hunted
West Hatch High School - 16807
Miranda Simpson - 9365
I worked alongside-
Chloe Eustace- 3227
Friday, 27 February 2015
Monday, 23 February 2015
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Question 7
Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The purpose of a preliminary task is to get an understanding of how to use the different shots and angles as well as getting used to using the equipment such as the HD camera and tri-pod. Our task was to, in our groups, film a conversation with the people in my group in a classroom, using different camera techniques, cinematography and editing. This was so we all had a clear understanding of what needed to included in our sequences and how to position the camera etc.
At first, I found the camera and tripod difficult to use as every time the camera shot changed, I would either have to change the position of the camera or the length of the tripod, and as it was the first time I've used a tripod, it took me a while to get the hang of it. This is another reason why a preliminary task is a good idea as when it came to filming the real production, I knew exactly how to use the equipment, not giving us any delays.
Working with the different camera shots such as a long shot and close-up, gave me an idea of what i wanted to include in my sequence and what not. For example in order for me to use a close-up shot, i positioned the camera on the tripod at the same height as the two actors and i zoomed in so all that could be seen was their faces. This is used to show the actors facial expressions to emphasise how they are feeling. Another editing shot that I used was over the shoulder which only showed one of the actors as if it was in their point of view, I used this as the P.O.V shot is conventional to a thriller.
After we had finished filming, I uploaded the sequence to the computer, this was so i could play around with the editing software 'Final Cut Pro X' to understand how it works, also watching the sequence back allowed me to see what i did right and wrong with the camera angles and techniques, for example I realised as i was filming the mid-shot, I zoomed in a bit to much which could lead to people thinking it is in fact a close-up, these errors end up being positives as i know what to improve on for filming my thriller sequence, so in that instance i should of zoomed out some more, showing a bit more of the actors bodies and not just their faces.
What I did properly when filming my sequence was that i used less diegetic dialogue (of the actors speaking) and more non-diegetic sound such as eerie music, this was essential to include throughout the sequence in order to create the 3 S's; shock,surprise and suspense. Mise-en-scene of the actors clothing was important to represent the characters personality and age, for instance the victim is a young teen, so her body was completely covered wearing appropriate clothing. I decided this as the audience need to see the victims vulnerability, if what she was wearing brought attention to herself the audience wouldn't feel as sympathetic, miss-en-scene was irrelevant in the preliminary task. This goes she show that the technology does have a big impact on the sequence as it determines how conventional your thriller can be, without the eerie music and the low-key lighting the 3 S's wouldn't occur.
At first, I found the camera and tripod difficult to use as every time the camera shot changed, I would either have to change the position of the camera or the length of the tripod, and as it was the first time I've used a tripod, it took me a while to get the hang of it. This is another reason why a preliminary task is a good idea as when it came to filming the real production, I knew exactly how to use the equipment, not giving us any delays.
Working with the different camera shots such as a long shot and close-up, gave me an idea of what i wanted to include in my sequence and what not. For example in order for me to use a close-up shot, i positioned the camera on the tripod at the same height as the two actors and i zoomed in so all that could be seen was their faces. This is used to show the actors facial expressions to emphasise how they are feeling. Another editing shot that I used was over the shoulder which only showed one of the actors as if it was in their point of view, I used this as the P.O.V shot is conventional to a thriller.
After we had finished filming, I uploaded the sequence to the computer, this was so i could play around with the editing software 'Final Cut Pro X' to understand how it works, also watching the sequence back allowed me to see what i did right and wrong with the camera angles and techniques, for example I realised as i was filming the mid-shot, I zoomed in a bit to much which could lead to people thinking it is in fact a close-up, these errors end up being positives as i know what to improve on for filming my thriller sequence, so in that instance i should of zoomed out some more, showing a bit more of the actors bodies and not just their faces.
What I did properly when filming my sequence was that i used less diegetic dialogue (of the actors speaking) and more non-diegetic sound such as eerie music, this was essential to include throughout the sequence in order to create the 3 S's; shock,surprise and suspense. Mise-en-scene of the actors clothing was important to represent the characters personality and age, for instance the victim is a young teen, so her body was completely covered wearing appropriate clothing. I decided this as the audience need to see the victims vulnerability, if what she was wearing brought attention to herself the audience wouldn't feel as sympathetic, miss-en-scene was irrelevant in the preliminary task. This goes she show that the technology does have a big impact on the sequence as it determines how conventional your thriller can be, without the eerie music and the low-key lighting the 3 S's wouldn't occur.
Question 2
Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Throughout my sequence, 3 characters are used all together. The first one is a female antagonist, this is important to have an antagonist appear in a thriller film as with out it, our thriller wouldn't be as conventional as it could be, I decided that she should be middle class girl in her early teens, she was also dressed in all black, wearing a black hoodie with black jeans and black army boots, this was done so it would be more difficult for her to be seen by the victim and the audience, it was to create suspense as the audience wouldn't know when he was going to appear.
The second character is the female victim, it is essential to include a victim as without one the antagonist would be irrelevant. I presented her as a young girl in her early teens as well, wearing causal clothes such as a jumper and jeans as the sequence is filmed during the day. The costume that this character is wearing would appeal to the audience as it is appropriate for her age group, this tells the audience that she is young and vulnerable. This allows the audience to feel sympathy for her as she is isn't dressed inappropriately and diverging attention to her-self. The characters used were stereotypical as I wanted to create as I wanted to make an impact on the audience. I used a female victim rather than a male victim as I felt females would come across more scared and vulnerable than a male would because women are often portrayed as more sensitive then men.
I also used a female antagonist as I wanted to twist the audience's perspective, as conventionally you would expect to see a male antagonist because the female victim straight away becomes more vulnerable and gives the audience the impression that the antagonist is stronger and the victim would have less chance of being able to protect herself. The antagonist was the victim's best friend before they had their issues and differences, this is what makes the sequence more shocking then just a random male antagonist. These characters appeal to my target audience of 15+ as the story is twisted and scary which a feel a lot of teenagers like to watch as it is interesting to them.
The second character is the female victim, it is essential to include a victim as without one the antagonist would be irrelevant. I presented her as a young girl in her early teens as well, wearing causal clothes such as a jumper and jeans as the sequence is filmed during the day. The costume that this character is wearing would appeal to the audience as it is appropriate for her age group, this tells the audience that she is young and vulnerable. This allows the audience to feel sympathy for her as she is isn't dressed inappropriately and diverging attention to her-self. The characters used were stereotypical as I wanted to create as I wanted to make an impact on the audience. I used a female victim rather than a male victim as I felt females would come across more scared and vulnerable than a male would because women are often portrayed as more sensitive then men.
I also used a female antagonist as I wanted to twist the audience's perspective, as conventionally you would expect to see a male antagonist because the female victim straight away becomes more vulnerable and gives the audience the impression that the antagonist is stronger and the victim would have less chance of being able to protect herself. The antagonist was the victim's best friend before they had their issues and differences, this is what makes the sequence more shocking then just a random male antagonist. These characters appeal to my target audience of 15+ as the story is twisted and scary which a feel a lot of teenagers like to watch as it is interesting to them.
Question 1
Question 1-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Having conventions in a thriller is an essential element to include in a thriller film. An example of an convention is an antagonist, female victim, blood and diegetic sound. An example of a thriller which is popular and successful is 'Scream' this is because it contains a lot of diegetic sound of the victims trying to get away in fear hewing things such as screaming and heavy breathing. Also all the victims are female which is conventional as they can come across as more vulnerable, these are what makes the film scary and exciting. I tried to include as many of the conventions listed above when filming my own thriller sequence.
The plot of the sequence is about two girls that are best friends but they have an argument and fall out, one of the girls then becomes obsessed with the other and starts following her around, taking pictures of her and posting it around her room, the girl is then kid-napped by her. I decided that I wanted the antagonist as female as we wanted to make it a bit different and leave it on a twist. I feel that my thriller sequence defines the thriller genre as I used tried to create suspense and tension where possible, through the use of different camera angles such as a close up of the antagonist watching the female victim as she passes him on the road, this is where I zoomed in emphasising the fact that she has a knife in her hand.
In class, we studied the forms and conventions of the film 'Halloween', an example of a convention used is a P.O.V shot. This was the end scene, where the camera is shown to be in the antagonists point of view. This is where the antagonist is looking through the mask as he is about to enter the victims bedroom. This created tension as we as an audience could see the weapon in the antagonists hand so we knew as he entered the room that the girl was likely to be stabbed and murdered.
A hidden Identity is used as the antagonist wants to remain a secret. An example of a convention that I used in the thriller production is low-key lighting. This is used in the end scene as the antagonist is chasing the victim. This is used so the victim cannot see where the antagonist is and doesn't know whether she is safe or not. This is to create suspense for the audience as we worry for her life.
Using low-key lighting is conventional to the thriller genre because it brings mystery and worry to the audience, as a young girl is walking alone in the dark it makes you more aware that something bad is likely to happen. Another example I used was mise-en-scene of the antagonist having a hidden identity, this is conventional as it builds tension upon the audience as we don't know who or what the antagonist looks like, as the victim is a young girl it makes the audience nervous as to weather she would be able to protect herself.
One more micro-element I included was non-diegetic eerie music throughout, however some parts I increased and decrease the volume, this was to build tension for the audience, espiecally so the audience hear the sound of the antagonist walking towards the victim, this is an example where i decresed the eerie music volume so the footsteps could be heard, this build up suspense. and make the scene seem more dramatic.
I tried to include the 3 S's, shock, suprise and suspense in certain areas of the sequence, for example at the beginning of the sequence, it shows the antagonist sitting in a dark room on her laptop, looking at pictures of the victim on facebook, the pictures of the victim hanging on the wall, this shocks the audience as you would not expect to see this as it makes the antagonist seem obsessive and twisted, I also included a knife as part of the iconography, from which i zoomed in onto it to ephasise the the knife as the audience dosn't know what the victim is capable of, this generates suspense as the audience wonders whether the knife will be used on the victim or not.
An example of an editing style which i used was dissolve, towards the beggining, the two girls are sitting together laughing and taking pictures, this then dissolves to wear the victim is walking and the antagonist is watching her, adding dissolve was to emphasise that something bad was about to happen, as it dissolves it gives the audience a sense that the film is isnt going to be happy and fun anymore, asif all the good slips away. This was to generate supense as we wonder what the female antagonist wants to do to the victim. It also is suprising to the audience as you would not expect this to happen in broad day light in the subarbian streets.
I would say that my thriller sequence is conventional however there are a couple of scenes that are not to add tension and twist the audiences perspective, for example i used low-key lighting, a female victim, a knife as a weapon and dietic sound of eerie music, these are all examples of what you would expect to see in a conventional thriller. However, instead of typically having a male antagonist, i had a female one. This was to create more suspense for the audience as you would not expect to see a young female dark and twisted. This was done to make the audience wonder what the antagonist was capable of.
The plot of the sequence is about two girls that are best friends but they have an argument and fall out, one of the girls then becomes obsessed with the other and starts following her around, taking pictures of her and posting it around her room, the girl is then kid-napped by her. I decided that I wanted the antagonist as female as we wanted to make it a bit different and leave it on a twist. I feel that my thriller sequence defines the thriller genre as I used tried to create suspense and tension where possible, through the use of different camera angles such as a close up of the antagonist watching the female victim as she passes him on the road, this is where I zoomed in emphasising the fact that she has a knife in her hand.
In class, we studied the forms and conventions of the film 'Halloween', an example of a convention used is a P.O.V shot. This was the end scene, where the camera is shown to be in the antagonists point of view. This is where the antagonist is looking through the mask as he is about to enter the victims bedroom. This created tension as we as an audience could see the weapon in the antagonists hand so we knew as he entered the room that the girl was likely to be stabbed and murdered.
A hidden Identity is used as the antagonist wants to remain a secret. An example of a convention that I used in the thriller production is low-key lighting. This is used in the end scene as the antagonist is chasing the victim. This is used so the victim cannot see where the antagonist is and doesn't know whether she is safe or not. This is to create suspense for the audience as we worry for her life.
Using low-key lighting is conventional to the thriller genre because it brings mystery and worry to the audience, as a young girl is walking alone in the dark it makes you more aware that something bad is likely to happen. Another example I used was mise-en-scene of the antagonist having a hidden identity, this is conventional as it builds tension upon the audience as we don't know who or what the antagonist looks like, as the victim is a young girl it makes the audience nervous as to weather she would be able to protect herself.
One more micro-element I included was non-diegetic eerie music throughout, however some parts I increased and decrease the volume, this was to build tension for the audience, espiecally so the audience hear the sound of the antagonist walking towards the victim, this is an example where i decresed the eerie music volume so the footsteps could be heard, this build up suspense. and make the scene seem more dramatic.
I tried to include the 3 S's, shock, suprise and suspense in certain areas of the sequence, for example at the beginning of the sequence, it shows the antagonist sitting in a dark room on her laptop, looking at pictures of the victim on facebook, the pictures of the victim hanging on the wall, this shocks the audience as you would not expect to see this as it makes the antagonist seem obsessive and twisted, I also included a knife as part of the iconography, from which i zoomed in onto it to ephasise the the knife as the audience dosn't know what the victim is capable of, this generates suspense as the audience wonders whether the knife will be used on the victim or not.
An example of an editing style which i used was dissolve, towards the beggining, the two girls are sitting together laughing and taking pictures, this then dissolves to wear the victim is walking and the antagonist is watching her, adding dissolve was to emphasise that something bad was about to happen, as it dissolves it gives the audience a sense that the film is isnt going to be happy and fun anymore, asif all the good slips away. This was to generate supense as we wonder what the female antagonist wants to do to the victim. It also is suprising to the audience as you would not expect this to happen in broad day light in the subarbian streets.
I would say that my thriller sequence is conventional however there are a couple of scenes that are not to add tension and twist the audiences perspective, for example i used low-key lighting, a female victim, a knife as a weapon and dietic sound of eerie music, these are all examples of what you would expect to see in a conventional thriller. However, instead of typically having a male antagonist, i had a female one. This was to create more suspense for the audience as you would not expect to see a young female dark and twisted. This was done to make the audience wonder what the antagonist was capable of.
Friday, 23 January 2015
Rough Cut - Miss Georgiou
It is important to get audience feedback when in the production stage as it is good to hear the audiences response and get their opinions of what the enjoy and prefer to see in a thriller film. We can then take the publics points and views and try to include them in our thriller so the audience enjoy it and suit their wants.
We carried out a number of ways to recieve audience feedback. One of these included my group and I coming up with 10 random questions about what the public prefer to see and have included in a thriller that they're about to watch. We then asked the questions to quite a few people, videoing there answers. When the production stage was complete, we started to edit our rough cut of our thriller sequence, we tried to include as much of the audiences feedback as possible. After this was completed, our group uploaded the video to youtube to see the audiences comments and feedback of what they liked and disliked about the sequence. This was done to get an outside perspective of our sequence, and what we have to make changes on to improve it and it also benifets our production as it should hopefully improve it and make it more successful.
We carried out a number of ways to recieve audience feedback. One of these included my group and I coming up with 10 random questions about what the public prefer to see and have included in a thriller that they're about to watch. We then asked the questions to quite a few people, videoing there answers. When the production stage was complete, we started to edit our rough cut of our thriller sequence, we tried to include as much of the audiences feedback as possible. After this was completed, our group uploaded the video to youtube to see the audiences comments and feedback of what they liked and disliked about the sequence. This was done to get an outside perspective of our sequence, and what we have to make changes on to improve it and it also benifets our production as it should hopefully improve it and make it more successful.
Friday, 16 January 2015
Evaluation - Miss Georgiou
The brief of my thriller sequence is about a young, teenage girl who ha been having an online relationship with a man. She goes to meet him for the first time a few weeks after they had been speaking. However the location he gives the girl sends her in to the middle of the forest. This makes the girl Gemma feel vulnerable and abit scared. She begins to hear sounds and as she goes to ring her friend to come and pick her up, the antagonist appears, stabbing her to death. Gemmas friend begins to worry as she isn't speaking through the phone, her friend then comes to find Gemma but dosen't make it in time to save her.
My group members were Chloe Eustace and Elizabeth Lawrie, my role was the director, Chloe's role was the director of music and photography and Liz's role was the producer. My role as director I felt was the best idea as I like to give my opinion on what i think is right and should be done. I enjoyed this as i felt i learnt different skills such as taking charge and become more of a team leader. It also gave me more ideas during filming on what needed to be changed and improved on. We felt it was most appropriate fore Chloe to be the director of music and photography as she has had experience in the past so really knows what she is talking about, such as using the equipment aswell. Liz was the producer as she is good as she was good at advising us on how she felt our sequence would be most successful, she was good at controling the production throughout.
I think that all round we worked well as a group as our different strengths and weaknesses made us calaborate and interact well. I feel as though our thriller sequence was successful as we tried to include as many conventions as possible. For example, one of the conventions we used was low-key lighting which occured towards the end as the antagonist begins to approach the victim, it becomes darker and darker to the point the antagonist can't see where she is going and if the antagonist is still behimd her. We felt using this as one of our conventions would create suspense for the audience as we feel sympathy for the victim, from where she is in a scared, vulnerable state. Another convention we used was having the camera positioned in P.O.V. This tells the audience that we are in the antagonists point of view as he is watching the victim, this builds tension as we as an audience wonder who and what the antagonist looks like.
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