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.

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.

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.

Production - Miss Miller

Intro:

The purpose of allocating people to specific roles when filming is so that there will be a lot less work to do and is more chance of the production to run smoothly as someone isn't running round trying to get everything done themselves, a whole crew of people doing the job that they have been told to do and are good at is key for the production to being successful and quick. Me and my group have assigned each other roles that we think each of us will do well at;

We gave each person in the group different roles whist on set, we chose this by how well we thought we would fit into each role and our personalities. This makes filming and editing a whole lot easier as filming will run alot more smoothly then if each person was doing a bit of everything. We have chosen to have 2 people in our group to work on the editing. I wanted to be involved in this as i wanted to try and make the editing as conventional to a thriller as possible. Me and Liz are doing the editing as we our IT skills are good which is important as the editing wont take as long as someone with little skills.

Director- Miranda Simpson

I was chosen by my group to be the director of this sequence, I was happy with this decision because i like to take charge and get things done in my way. It also made sense as Liz and Chloe fitted into the other 2 roles really well due to past experiece. During my role as a director I came up with the script of the sequence and as we filmed i would change some lines for if any reason it didn't sound right or if any of the scenes needed to change position.


Producer- Elizabeth Lawrie

We decided to make Liz the producer as we felt she is a good decision maker, it was also due to the fact she came up with most of the narration of the sequence and so has made a big impact on to our group work. During the filming stage, Liz took control making sure that all of us were playing our roles correctly, saying what she felt needed to change to make the filming better.

Director of photography- Chloe Eustace

Chloe was made director of photography as we felt she is very good at using the camera and equipment, she also managed all of the technical equipment such as the tri pod and the memory card. We felt that me or Liz would not suit this role as we haven't had as much experience at using the camera then she has, it would be a bad idea for one of us to take charge as it would slow the production down. During filming she handled the camera throughout, changing the camera shots and positioning of the tri pod when it needed, i felt she was very successful in her role and would of struggled with out her.


Actors- Molly Johnson, Ronni Norman, James Myers.
Screenplay writer- Miranda Simpson
MES co-ordinator- Lizzie Lawrie
Editor- Lizzie Lawrie.

Conclusion:

I felt that overall we were all successful with our roles. However the production of the filming didn't start on a good note as by the time we got to the setting, it was too dark to film as we needed day-light at the begginning, also a couple of the actors couldn't make it so we had to do the best we can and film what we could. The next time we filmed i felt it went a lot better than before, we got a lot more work done and everyone was working well in their roles such as Chloe with the camera and me tweeking the script, making some small changes as we went along. If anything could have been done differently is if we had more time filming, if we did a couple more run thoughs i feel the finishing result would of been better but i am pleased with what we have created.

Opening Scene Narration - Miss Miller

Our sequence starts with two young girls, Holly and Gemma are on their way to a party. Holly is driving down a dark deserted road when her car breaks down, the two girls pull over and end up swerving into the forest. Gemma and Holly start to panic when they relise their phones have no signal, Gemma then gets out the car to try and find reception on her phone, from where the antagonist comes up from behind her with a hidden identity, stabbing her to death. Holly sees the happen and doesn't know what to do as the car door won't open, she then starts to panic. As Holly looks up she relises that the antagonist has gone. This is when the sequence ends, this way we end it on a cliff hanger as we wonder if Holly makes it out alive or not.

The opening sequence will contain all four micro elements which are cinematography, sound, editing and miss-en-scene. One of the cinematography camera shots used is the POV shot. This is used as the antagonist is walking towards the vicim in the forest, this is to build tension as we try to put the audience in the antagonist shoes. This helps to build a relationship with the victims as we sympathise for them. Another one we used is a reaction shot, this is as Gemma is being stabbed and Holly is watching in shock, this is to make the audience sympathise for the victim as she's a vulnerable young female. The sound we decided to use was upbeat music at the beginning, when the victims are listening to the radio in the car, as the break down the music starts to turn eerie giving the audience a sense that something bad is about to happen. As Gemma gets out of the car to retrieve phone signal, she starts to here noises such as dogs barking and owls howling as its dark she can hardly see anything, making her vulnerable and scared. You also here diegetic sound of the victim screaming for help as her friend is being stabbed to death. The setting for the miss-en-scene is in the forest, with low key lighting as it becomes dark very quickly. The two victims are dressed in party clothes with over the top makeup as they were on there way to party as it happened. All that is seen from the antagonist is the back off him as he walks away from the murder scene, his identity is hidden throughout to create suspense and make the audience wonder who and what the antagonist looks like. The facial expressions used come from the victim's friends as she starts to panic as Gemma is nowhere to be scene. We have also included editing shots such as a Jump cut, this is at the beginning of the sequence from where it jumps from subtitles to the antagonist standing still watching Gemma. By the end of the sequence, the camera shot then fades out telling the audience that it has finished, ending on a cliffhanger.

Risk Assessment - Miss Georgiou

It is important to consider risks before filming as it will allow my group and I to take the correct precautions to avoid the following hazards listed below;

Why is risk assessment important?

Risk assessment is important to prevent hazards and dangerous things from happening. Our group decided to film at night when its dark so it is important to use risk assessment to make our group aware and organised, such as bringing out flash lights and torches so we can see where we are going. This is essential as otherwise something bad could happen.

How has it assisted you with filming?

Me and my group took all of the safety pro cautions listed above which made our filming successful as there was nothing getting in the way of it. For example if we didn't have torches, over half of our sequence would be filmed in the pitch black and so would not be able to see anything. Wherever the camera went, the torch went swell which was a big help as it didn't seem too dark on camera. One of the days that my group filmed it rained, but luckily due to the risk assessment we remembered to bring an umbrella, which we held over the camera to protect it from damaging, if we hadn't brought one we would of had to stop filming which would of been another delay that isn't needed.

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Intro:

A filming schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting of a film production. The purpose of this is to make sure our group is organised, it informs the crew and actors where they are needed and at what time. It is also important as it is essential that we do not forget any equipment, if this happened it's likely we wouldn't be able to film which would be a disaster as we don't have a lot of time to complete the filming of our sequence.


Filming schedule:

Did you follow the filming schedule, make any changes?