Monday 29 June 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
evalution
The first thriller film that we watched was the shining. This film follows typical thriller conventions; it about a man staying in a hotel with his family but is then possessed by a ghost asking him to kill his them. The reason why we watched this was to see an example of what a good thriller film is, so we can see what rules and convention we had to include in our thriller work. I believe that my thriller opening used this film as a very good example because it contains all the right elements. The title of our media video is called Vengeful Vixen, it an eye catchy title that plays around with alliteration and will guarantee to attract the audience by giving the need to see the film. Our thriller film features a set that creates a thrilling atmosphere and keeps the location mysterious, we used long shot to give the sense of location. Like the character in the shinning jack Torrance, my main character is also a very possessed and troubled person that is trying to kill someone. We also use diegetic sounds like the heart beat and human breathing together they creates a sense of thrilling tension that is very realistic throughout the opening. The jump cut to the kitchen where Lora’s character is washing the knife is directly linked to the previous scene through the music, which continues in the back ground as non-diegetic sound. We used a number of different shots, for example a low level shot that keeps the characters mysterious and hide their identity. We also used a medium close up to show the fear of Elliot’s character.
In our first media task we produced a short film about two people playing card. This preliminary task was very useful because we first learnt how to story board. This is an exercise that helps you plan your work, from the number of shot you would use, the timing of the scenes and how it will be edited. While filming the card scene we learnt how to direct the scenes using different variety of camera shots and angle shots so that it can convey and be very effective to the film. In a previous media lesson we were taught how to edit videos. We did this by editing scenes from a video about a boy sitting in a café. Using match cut, in and outs we manage to place the film in order so that it makes sense.
Representation of woman in our thriller film is represented through Lora’s character, she
shows a conventional view of a woman who is trying to gets revenge on a men who has cheated on her ,she kills them in the most strange and horrific way. Her violent and vicious approach to Elliot’s character is shown through different camera angles.
Elliot’s character is represented as a man who has been beaten down and has lack of man power. We use camera movement (tracking) to expose his character and used medium close ups to show the way his struggling. To make the shot more effective, we used celled tape and ropes as props to tie him up so that he can feel captured .The characters costume of shorts and a t- shirt also adds to the effect because it shows that he has been stripped down from his formal clothes and dignity, the sweat also emphasize that he is really scared. . This man power is undermined by Lora’s character because she is not portraying the conventional stereotype of a man abusing a woman. However it shows Lora’s character to be a dominant woman seeding power over the man.
I think that my film is god enough to be made into a Hollywood film because it has the possibility to be a blockbuster. However because it is made in the united kingdom it is likely to be a small UK release that is shown on independent cinemas9spiderman like view and the screen. The reason why I think that this might be the case is because our thriller film doesn’t have special effects that a Hollywood film will have. Hollywood makes the best movies in the industry; high quality movies like super heroes films (Spiderman) have unbelievable special effect that have a wow factor to automatically draw the audience. We can also see from this film that a lot of money was used in to produce these films. Even if our thriller film is good unfortunately it still wouldn’t be good enough to be a high Hollywood film as it has a low budget film with low special effects. The kind of special effect that we use in our thriller fill is the use of lighting and editing. This film can benefit people who don’t have money to spend in the cinema as the film can also be shown on internet sites like you tube. The audience for my film would likely to be teenagers of both gender and women because they will be able to relate to the film, as it about a woman being in a relationship and getting her heart broken. Furthermore teenagers will also be attracted to this film because the characters are in the same age group. Films like high school musical are films that attract many young generations as the characters are also young. I will like people from every social class to see this film and enjoy it because it a film that will relate to anyone no matter what social class you come from, by this I mean that every women can get they heart broken and feel to set revenge. if this film was aimed at all social class it will gain more audience and make profit.
Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be one main way of attracting young people as we know that many young people use this site daily. I will use media techniques like newspapers and magazines as method of advertisement. Newspapers are things people read everyday and get information, magazine can attract our target audience (younger generation) as a lot of young people read magazines like reveal. When we went to watch it in the cinema the audience reaction was really good I dint expect people to like our films as much as they did .people in my class also watched the video and their really like it they gave as a lot of comments and showed us what we could improve on if we could do the video again. One comment of improvement was to not make the footstep sound too long.
My conclusion is that although making this thriller was hard work and stressful because not everyone agreed on the same idea as there was four people in the group. We finally manage to become a group and work together to produce this piece. I am proud to know that I was part of making the video.
In our first media task we produced a short film about two people playing card. This preliminary task was very useful because we first learnt how to story board. This is an exercise that helps you plan your work, from the number of shot you would use, the timing of the scenes and how it will be edited. While filming the card scene we learnt how to direct the scenes using different variety of camera shots and angle shots so that it can convey and be very effective to the film. In a previous media lesson we were taught how to edit videos. We did this by editing scenes from a video about a boy sitting in a café. Using match cut, in and outs we manage to place the film in order so that it makes sense.
Representation of woman in our thriller film is represented through Lora’s character, she
shows a conventional view of a woman who is trying to gets revenge on a men who has cheated on her ,she kills them in the most strange and horrific way. Her violent and vicious approach to Elliot’s character is shown through different camera angles.
Elliot’s character is represented as a man who has been beaten down and has lack of man power. We use camera movement (tracking) to expose his character and used medium close ups to show the way his struggling. To make the shot more effective, we used celled tape and ropes as props to tie him up so that he can feel captured .The characters costume of shorts and a t- shirt also adds to the effect because it shows that he has been stripped down from his formal clothes and dignity, the sweat also emphasize that he is really scared. . This man power is undermined by Lora’s character because she is not portraying the conventional stereotype of a man abusing a woman. However it shows Lora’s character to be a dominant woman seeding power over the man.
I think that my film is god enough to be made into a Hollywood film because it has the possibility to be a blockbuster. However because it is made in the united kingdom it is likely to be a small UK release that is shown on independent cinemas9spiderman like view and the screen. The reason why I think that this might be the case is because our thriller film doesn’t have special effects that a Hollywood film will have. Hollywood makes the best movies in the industry; high quality movies like super heroes films (Spiderman) have unbelievable special effect that have a wow factor to automatically draw the audience. We can also see from this film that a lot of money was used in to produce these films. Even if our thriller film is good unfortunately it still wouldn’t be good enough to be a high Hollywood film as it has a low budget film with low special effects. The kind of special effect that we use in our thriller fill is the use of lighting and editing. This film can benefit people who don’t have money to spend in the cinema as the film can also be shown on internet sites like you tube. The audience for my film would likely to be teenagers of both gender and women because they will be able to relate to the film, as it about a woman being in a relationship and getting her heart broken. Furthermore teenagers will also be attracted to this film because the characters are in the same age group. Films like high school musical are films that attract many young generations as the characters are also young. I will like people from every social class to see this film and enjoy it because it a film that will relate to anyone no matter what social class you come from, by this I mean that every women can get they heart broken and feel to set revenge. if this film was aimed at all social class it will gain more audience and make profit.
Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be one main way of attracting young people as we know that many young people use this site daily. I will use media techniques like newspapers and magazines as method of advertisement. Newspapers are things people read everyday and get information, magazine can attract our target audience (younger generation) as a lot of young people read magazines like reveal. When we went to watch it in the cinema the audience reaction was really good I dint expect people to like our films as much as they did .people in my class also watched the video and their really like it they gave as a lot of comments and showed us what we could improve on if we could do the video again. One comment of improvement was to not make the footstep sound too long.
My conclusion is that although making this thriller was hard work and stressful because not everyone agreed on the same idea as there was four people in the group. We finally manage to become a group and work together to produce this piece. I am proud to know that I was part of making the video.
In our first media task we produced a short film about two people playing card. This preliminary task was very useful because we first learnt how to story board. This is an exercise that helps you plan your work, from the number of shot you would use, the timing of the scenes and how it will be edited. While filming the card scene we learnt how to direct the scenes using different variety of camera shots and angle shots so that it can convey and be very effective to the film. In a previous media lesson we were taught how to edit videos. We did this by editing scenes from a video about a boy sitting in a café. Using match cut, in and outs we manage to place the film in order so that it makes sense.
Representation of woman in our thriller film is represented through Lora’s character, she
shows a conventional view of a woman who is trying to gets revenge on a men who has cheated on her ,she kills them in the most strange and horrific way. Her violent and vicious approach to Elliot’s character is shown through different camera angles.
Elliot’s character is represented as a man who has been beaten down and has lack of man power. We use camera movement (tracking) to expose his character and used medium close ups to show the way his struggling. To make the shot more effective, we used celled tape and ropes as props to tie him up so that he can feel captured .The characters costume of shorts and a t- shirt also adds to the effect because it shows that he has been stripped down from his formal clothes and dignity, the sweat also emphasize that he is really scared. . This man power is undermined by Lora’s character because she is not portraying the conventional stereotype of a man abusing a woman. However it shows Lora’s character to be a dominant woman seeding power over the man.
I think that my film is god enough to be made into a
Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be one main way of attracting young people as we know that many young people use this site daily. I will use media techniques like newspapers and magazines as method of advertisement. Newspapers are things people read everyday and get information, magazine can attract our target audience (younger generation) as a lot of young people read magazines like reveal. When we went to watch it in the cinema the audience reaction was really good I dint expect people to like our films as much as they did .people in my class also watched the video and their really like it they gave as a lot of comments and showed us what we could improve on if we could do the video again. One comment of improvement was to not make the footstep sound too long.
My conclusion is that although making this thriller was hard work and stressful because not everyone agreed on the same idea as there was four people in the group. We finally manage to become a group and work together to produce this piece. I am proud to know that I was part of making the video.
Thriller evaluation By Oneme
My thriller is called Vengeful Vixen. It is about a woman who gets revenge on men who have cheated on her in the past and she wants to get revenge on them in the most horrific way. The thriller does not show the conventional stereotype of a man kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage, on the other hand, it goes away from that conventional stereotype, it is a woman abducting a man, and this adds a great effect to my film, which makes it enjoyable to watch. Furthermore, I use digetic and non-digetic sounds together that creates a sense of tension throughout the opening. For example when the perpetrator Lora is walking down the steps we use a non digetic sound because we use her real footsteps and intertwine it with our soundtrack which is the digetic sound. This allows the audience to be on the edge of their seats because they want to see what happens next.
I think a small independent UK release or even my media product being distributed across the internet would suit my film. I came to this conclusion because the film we have done is different from what Hollywood does. Hollywood show films like James Bond and the Dark Knight where the heroes, do incredible stunts. In addition, they have films that have sensational special affects, which draws the audience’s attention like transformers. On the other hand my film even though it is a thriller it is different because are one does not have those Hollywood special effects instead we use things such as the shadow of the characters which is used to great effect also we make the shot of the vixen washing up the knife, to add tension to the film. My style of film is not really for the big cinemas it is better to be shown on internet on sites like YouTube and in independent cinemas, like the Dalston Rio because it will attract a niche audience because of its diversity. Furthermore, it allows people who enjoy watching films at home to watch a low budget film that is free to their liking.
My film represents the younger generation more than the older generation. In this modern era, there is a lot of conflict between young people, which leads to people unfortunately loosing their lives. In my film, we tried to convey this by showing one way, in which someone takes revenge out on someone and uses a knife to kill him or her as we see on the streets today. Moreover, we wanted to show why young people might carry knives and their feelings towards the person they might want to hurt. Our film also represents the young generation because the people who star in this media product are two young people who are in their teenage years and this is an insight into the real world of youth violence. Our film also throws out the stereotype of male dominance and it shows the female who now is dominant, this leads to a wider range of female viewers because women will watch it because they might want that sense of control.
In my point of view, I believe the audience for our film would be 16-25 because those ages are towards late teens and early adult years. Furthermore, when you are at these ages you are always likely to have the internet and that is the kind of institution we wanted to distribute it on. Moreover, this audience is more likely to have a relationship breakdown and wanting revenge on their partner because they have done something bad to them. We use this but emphasise it a bit more in our thriller by showing the women killing the man that abused her trust. Sandra is 21; she is at university and studies media, she likes to spend time with her close friends watching movies on the internet. There is also no cinema where her university is based so she really only has her computer.
The audience for my film would likely to be teenage girls and women because the film is transmitted to attract them because my media product is about a woman who is in control and I think women would like to watch that. I would market our media product by putting trailers on internet sites such as YouTube that would get a lot of coverage because many people go on that site. Furthermore, I might use the method of advertising it on more niche TV channels such as E4 a channel, which attracts many teenage viewers, and my film might interest them. Moreover, as the main character Elliot, a teenager, people can relate with him because he is in their age group and this allows us to get more viewers. Advertising could also be done on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace that many teenagers have nowadays, this precisely, allows us to target our audience. We could also go through the process of advertising it on major food hotspots such as KFC or McDonalds where people can enjoy their food and also see our film and go hmmmm! This might be a great film to watch while I am on my computer at home.
My product is similar with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because in the opening you see the same car going up to the house and in that car, are all the main characters. In comparison, my thrillers opining you see the kidnapper and the hostage who are the main characters and we follow them the whole way through. To add effect we used various shots to show Elliot’s (the hostage) state of mind. We used a medium close up to show his face and we managed to add sweat to add tension this was a good affect to use because you saw he was really frightened and petrified because he didn’t no why he was their in the first place. Moreover, we used a point of view shot, which showed Elliot looking dis-orientated and this allowed the audience to feel his anguish because they where looking at it from his point of view.
When we went to watch it in the cinema I was worried about what people’s view would be of our work and so where the others that where in my group. At the start everybody was still talking about the one they had watched before but went the high- angle shot of Elliot came along where he was tied up the volume toned down so they must have been intrigued by what they where viewing. After our thriller was shown, we got great reviews from the people that where sitting around us. For example a girl that sitting next to me said ‘I liked that point of view shot it made me think what if that was me’ those comments people made, made me feel very humble because we knew all the work we put in came to something excellent in the end.
While we where making our film we stumbled across technology I would not always use, such as the Mac computer and the logging and capture programme. All the software looked vey complex to me and I thought I would be needing help all the time with it. When the teacher then showed us how to use these things, I was very happy because now I knew how to use these complex instruments. Using final cut pro and soundtrack pro was great experience and learning curve because I had never used something like this before and I was surprised at the different things it could do. For example, when my group and me where on soundtrack pro we learnt how to use the different beats and sounds which we then put together in a sequence to create our soundtrack. This enabled us to be creative with our editing and sound and it allowed us to create a great piece of work.
Looking back on the preliminary exercises we had done, that helped us to produce our media product because we took the mistakes from those and bettered them. Such as we were able to make our match cuts sharper so it intertwines with the next shot smoothly. I also got my head around the film making process which I thought at the start was going to be easy but it was not. It took a long time to get the right shots we needed and when we even looked back, we where still missing some shots but we got their in the end. It was also meticulously long, for example, all the storyboarding and making everything organised but to me it was all a learning curve and I enjoyed it immensely.
To conclude, my experience of making this media product was exciting and stressful at the same time but overall I enjoyed it. It allowed me to use things I do not use on an everyday basis. Furthermore, it came out excellent in the cinema, it got rave reviews from the people sitting around us, this made me quite proud of me, and my group because it meant all our hard work paid off.
I think a small independent UK release or even my media product being distributed across the internet would suit my film. I came to this conclusion because the film we have done is different from what Hollywood does. Hollywood show films like James Bond and the Dark Knight where the heroes, do incredible stunts. In addition, they have films that have sensational special affects, which draws the audience’s attention like transformers. On the other hand my film even though it is a thriller it is different because are one does not have those Hollywood special effects instead we use things such as the shadow of the characters which is used to great effect also we make the shot of the vixen washing up the knife, to add tension to the film. My style of film is not really for the big cinemas it is better to be shown on internet on sites like YouTube and in independent cinemas, like the Dalston Rio because it will attract a niche audience because of its diversity. Furthermore, it allows people who enjoy watching films at home to watch a low budget film that is free to their liking.
My film represents the younger generation more than the older generation. In this modern era, there is a lot of conflict between young people, which leads to people unfortunately loosing their lives. In my film, we tried to convey this by showing one way, in which someone takes revenge out on someone and uses a knife to kill him or her as we see on the streets today. Moreover, we wanted to show why young people might carry knives and their feelings towards the person they might want to hurt. Our film also represents the young generation because the people who star in this media product are two young people who are in their teenage years and this is an insight into the real world of youth violence. Our film also throws out the stereotype of male dominance and it shows the female who now is dominant, this leads to a wider range of female viewers because women will watch it because they might want that sense of control.
In my point of view, I believe the audience for our film would be 16-25 because those ages are towards late teens and early adult years. Furthermore, when you are at these ages you are always likely to have the internet and that is the kind of institution we wanted to distribute it on. Moreover, this audience is more likely to have a relationship breakdown and wanting revenge on their partner because they have done something bad to them. We use this but emphasise it a bit more in our thriller by showing the women killing the man that abused her trust. Sandra is 21; she is at university and studies media, she likes to spend time with her close friends watching movies on the internet. There is also no cinema where her university is based so she really only has her computer.
The audience for my film would likely to be teenage girls and women because the film is transmitted to attract them because my media product is about a woman who is in control and I think women would like to watch that. I would market our media product by putting trailers on internet sites such as YouTube that would get a lot of coverage because many people go on that site. Furthermore, I might use the method of advertising it on more niche TV channels such as E4 a channel, which attracts many teenage viewers, and my film might interest them. Moreover, as the main character Elliot, a teenager, people can relate with him because he is in their age group and this allows us to get more viewers. Advertising could also be done on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace that many teenagers have nowadays, this precisely, allows us to target our audience. We could also go through the process of advertising it on major food hotspots such as KFC or McDonalds where people can enjoy their food and also see our film and go hmmmm! This might be a great film to watch while I am on my computer at home.
My product is similar with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because in the opening you see the same car going up to the house and in that car, are all the main characters. In comparison, my thrillers opining you see the kidnapper and the hostage who are the main characters and we follow them the whole way through. To add effect we used various shots to show Elliot’s (the hostage) state of mind. We used a medium close up to show his face and we managed to add sweat to add tension this was a good affect to use because you saw he was really frightened and petrified because he didn’t no why he was their in the first place. Moreover, we used a point of view shot, which showed Elliot looking dis-orientated and this allowed the audience to feel his anguish because they where looking at it from his point of view.
When we went to watch it in the cinema I was worried about what people’s view would be of our work and so where the others that where in my group. At the start everybody was still talking about the one they had watched before but went the high- angle shot of Elliot came along where he was tied up the volume toned down so they must have been intrigued by what they where viewing. After our thriller was shown, we got great reviews from the people that where sitting around us. For example a girl that sitting next to me said ‘I liked that point of view shot it made me think what if that was me’ those comments people made, made me feel very humble because we knew all the work we put in came to something excellent in the end.
While we where making our film we stumbled across technology I would not always use, such as the Mac computer and the logging and capture programme. All the software looked vey complex to me and I thought I would be needing help all the time with it. When the teacher then showed us how to use these things, I was very happy because now I knew how to use these complex instruments. Using final cut pro and soundtrack pro was great experience and learning curve because I had never used something like this before and I was surprised at the different things it could do. For example, when my group and me where on soundtrack pro we learnt how to use the different beats and sounds which we then put together in a sequence to create our soundtrack. This enabled us to be creative with our editing and sound and it allowed us to create a great piece of work.
Looking back on the preliminary exercises we had done, that helped us to produce our media product because we took the mistakes from those and bettered them. Such as we were able to make our match cuts sharper so it intertwines with the next shot smoothly. I also got my head around the film making process which I thought at the start was going to be easy but it was not. It took a long time to get the right shots we needed and when we even looked back, we where still missing some shots but we got their in the end. It was also meticulously long, for example, all the storyboarding and making everything organised but to me it was all a learning curve and I enjoyed it immensely.
To conclude, my experience of making this media product was exciting and stressful at the same time but overall I enjoyed it. It allowed me to use things I do not use on an everyday basis. Furthermore, it came out excellent in the cinema, it got rave reviews from the people sitting around us, this made me quite proud of me, and my group because it meant all our hard work paid off.
EVALUATION BY LORA
Thriller Evaluation
Our thriller opening is called ‘vengeful vixen’ and starts off with a male victim being held hostage in a dark room. Many non-diegetic sounds are used here to add to the spookiness and confusion this scene should convey. A thriller opening is supposed to evoke feelings of suspense, worry, surprise or excitement. We had to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film. We see shots of the female murderer between the suspense-filled shots of the distressed male. Our aim was to create suspense for the audience especially as it gives out the feeling of ‘what happens next’.
Our media product uses conventions of real media products slightly, as we were able to make the comparison between ‘the shining’ and our thriller opening. One of the differences was that from the beginning of the shining it follows the character all the way through, even as he transforms into a murderer whereas our thriller opening just starts off showing the woman in the act of murdering her ex-boyfriend and later delves into how she turned out the way she is.
There are two main characters in our thriller opening, A man and a woman. The man is tied up to a chair in a dark room, with duct tape over his mouth and the woman is preparing to murder her helpless victim. As a group we decided to turn the tables on the stereotypical view in media of the helpless female victim and the powerful male figure, and made the male character appear helpless and gave the female character a more superior role as the serial killer. Also, both our characters are black and in their mid 20’s which is a unique concept as most of the time in thrillers the characters are white and middle-aged.
I think if our thriller was to be distributed it would be be a small independent UK release, perhaps only showing in cinemas around London where ethnic minorities are more likely to watch the film as the themes and characters may interest them. If it was a big hit then I think it could make it around the world, showing people who are unaware of black british talent what we are made of.
Our audience would be 15-30 year olds, people who live in inner city urban areas, especially as our aim of the film was to deviate the stereotype of black British films as the characters doing drugs, dealing with teenage pregnancies, gangs and show that there could be another side to these kinds of movies. The type of people that might watch this could range from unemployed to high-paid working class people.
Advertising would involve all types of media marketing methods such as billboards, TV trailers that would be shown on channels such as MTV, MTV Base, Channel U, Trouble, BET and other channels that would be popular amongst our target audience. Radio advertising would also be used, with our audio trailer airing on stations such as Choice fm, kiss 100 and capital fm. The film would star people that have been in other UK films such as kidulthood, Adulthood, Bullet Boy and life and lyrics.
Whilst filming our thriller opening, I learnt how to use a video camera and also how to download it onto the computer and use log and capture using final cut pro. I also learned how to cut scenes, alter the speed, add effects and dissolves in final cut pro. Livetype enabled me to learn how to add text for the credits and Soundtrack helped me to learn how to add sound and background music to our piece. Also, using the internet to keep a blog has enabled me to reflect on what I have done and therefore improve my memory for if I had to do it again.
Our match-cut exercise allowed us to experiment with everything before we had to apply it to the real thing. This helped us alot as when we were making our thriller opening everything was not brand new to us and we were familiar with a lot of things which helped us work quickly and efficiently. We followed our storyboard, but along the way we encountered many ideas on the side which helped us develop our original idea. This also occurred during the editing process where we used effects to improve our product.
Our thriller opening is called ‘vengeful vixen’ and starts off with a male victim being held hostage in a dark room. Many non-diegetic sounds are used here to add to the spookiness and confusion this scene should convey. A thriller opening is supposed to evoke feelings of suspense, worry, surprise or excitement. We had to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film. We see shots of the female murderer between the suspense-filled shots of the distressed male. Our aim was to create suspense for the audience especially as it gives out the feeling of ‘what happens next’.
Our media product uses conventions of real media products slightly, as we were able to make the comparison between ‘the shining’ and our thriller opening. One of the differences was that from the beginning of the shining it follows the character all the way through, even as he transforms into a murderer whereas our thriller opening just starts off showing the woman in the act of murdering her ex-boyfriend and later delves into how she turned out the way she is.
There are two main characters in our thriller opening, A man and a woman. The man is tied up to a chair in a dark room, with duct tape over his mouth and the woman is preparing to murder her helpless victim. As a group we decided to turn the tables on the stereotypical view in media of the helpless female victim and the powerful male figure, and made the male character appear helpless and gave the female character a more superior role as the serial killer. Also, both our characters are black and in their mid 20’s which is a unique concept as most of the time in thrillers the characters are white and middle-aged.
I think if our thriller was to be distributed it would be be a small independent UK release, perhaps only showing in cinemas around London where ethnic minorities are more likely to watch the film as the themes and characters may interest them. If it was a big hit then I think it could make it around the world, showing people who are unaware of black british talent what we are made of.
Our audience would be 15-30 year olds, people who live in inner city urban areas, especially as our aim of the film was to deviate the stereotype of black British films as the characters doing drugs, dealing with teenage pregnancies, gangs and show that there could be another side to these kinds of movies. The type of people that might watch this could range from unemployed to high-paid working class people.
Advertising would involve all types of media marketing methods such as billboards, TV trailers that would be shown on channels such as MTV, MTV Base, Channel U, Trouble, BET and other channels that would be popular amongst our target audience. Radio advertising would also be used, with our audio trailer airing on stations such as Choice fm, kiss 100 and capital fm. The film would star people that have been in other UK films such as kidulthood, Adulthood, Bullet Boy and life and lyrics.
Whilst filming our thriller opening, I learnt how to use a video camera and also how to download it onto the computer and use log and capture using final cut pro. I also learned how to cut scenes, alter the speed, add effects and dissolves in final cut pro. Livetype enabled me to learn how to add text for the credits and Soundtrack helped me to learn how to add sound and background music to our piece. Also, using the internet to keep a blog has enabled me to reflect on what I have done and therefore improve my memory for if I had to do it again.
Our match-cut exercise allowed us to experiment with everything before we had to apply it to the real thing. This helped us alot as when we were making our thriller opening everything was not brand new to us and we were familiar with a lot of things which helped us work quickly and efficiently. We followed our storyboard, but along the way we encountered many ideas on the side which helped us develop our original idea. This also occurred during the editing process where we used effects to improve our product.
BLOG by LORA
Blog
Editing tutorial
Today we did our introduction to editing by using final cut pro to match cut BAIT- the little boy in the cafe. Even though we were instructed by a teacher step by step I found it much easier than I expected for some reason. Each person in the class put the different scenes in different orders but they all somehow made sense. The teacher then showed us the original version and how it all fitted together.
Intro to cameras and risk assessment
We learned how to use all the functions of the camera including the record button, rewind, fast forward and also how to position it correctly onto the tripod. We learnt about the 5 second rule, which means we have to press the record button and then wait 5 seconds before we say action for editing purposes.
First filming exercise
We were given 1 prop to use which was a pack of playing cards. As a group we brainstormed and decided that we should use a room and just the two male characters (oneme and Elliot) playing a game of cards while a female character (ginette) walks in with a briefcase containing a prize. Oneme wins but Elliot attacks oneme and then walks away with the prize money. When we actually filmed it the main difficulty we had was finding a location as we had to use the college and were getting too many complaints from a particular moany teacher lol. Next was editing, we found this surprisingly easy as each member of our group had listened enough when we had the tutorial and knew exactly what we had to do.
We added special effects such as speed alterations as we had extra time to spare. When everyone in the class got together to watch everyone else’s work, we got a positive feedback as everyone was in stitches of laughter at the way oneme was on the floor and how elliot was running in slow motion due to our use of effects. As this was a practice for the real thing we decided to go that extra mile just for laughs. Personally I think ours was the best :).
Brainstorming the thriller genre and all the sub genres
At first, I personally thought that thriller and horror were the same thing. But today’s lesson enlightened me and my fellow classmates. Thrillers don’t particularly have to be scary but just need to contain some action and create suspense. Horrors are just scary movies such as Saw, for example. This lesson helped me develop my understanding of all the different genres of movies whereas before I was a bit confused.
The thriller movie-the shining (watched in class)
Today we watched a thriller by Alfred Hitchcock called "The Shining". The movie was about a family who head to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil spiritual presence influences the father (Jack Nicholson) into violence, while his gifted son who has "the shining" sees disturbing events from the past and future which occurred in the hotel.
This gruesome thriller is quite a popular movie which enabled it to be remade successfully.
Before we watched it, Andrew outlined what makes a thriller. This helped me alot as I didn't know the difference between a thrill and a horror movie.
This enabled us to develop ideas for our thriller opening, by looking at what a thriller should contain.
Preliminary task
Our preliminary task was like another practice. This time our idea was that Oneme was late for a meeting with his ‘boss’ for a dodgy deal. Elliot ‘the boss’ beats up Oneme in the end. Our ending scene of the over turned chair and the noises of him getting beaten up in the background was very effective as it made the whole class laugh like the last time. Lol I don’t think our group can help but add that humorous flair due to our imaginations.
Brainstorming-again
We finally brainstormed our endless ideas for our thriller opening. We had so many ideas it was unbelievable :o. One of our ideas was a man who received a phonecall from a phonebox and was branded ‘the chosen one’ and he had to save the world, but we realised it had already been done in a film before and with our 4 magnificent brains we could think of something much more unique . After many potential ideas, we came up with our storyline..A woman who kills her ex-boyfriends who have cheated on her/treated her badly. In our thriller opening we would show her latest victim tied to a chair, while she prepared her murder weapons. This would create suspense as well as a feeling of “oh my god, what will happen next” amongst the audience. We then got told that we would have to pitch our ideas to judges.
Pitching to the judges
In lesson today, we had to pitch our ideas for our thriller opening to 4 teachers- Tony, Marisa, Mickey and Andrew. It was a bit like the X factor lol. It took a lot of persuasion and we had to really make the judges get into our idea and make them want to ‘fund us’. I got a real feel of what it would be like to be a real life movie maker, and in the end the judges liked our idea. It was interesting hearing my other classmates’ ideas and most of them were funny because of the judges reactions or just the storylines in general. It was very interesting finding out other peoples creativity and after we received some constructive criticism we managed to make our idea better.
Our first day of filming.
Today we started filming our thriller opening after much preparation. We decided to get our shots of the victim (Elliot Bonney). We got a dark room and used a spotlight . We put duct tape over Elliot’s mouth and tied his hands behind him with rope. To create a ‘sweat’ effect we used Vaseline and water on elliot’s face and arms. This was really effective as it looked like he was really sweating. Elliot wore a t shirt ,three quarter lengths and socks he was originally wearing underneath his clothes as this made it seem like he was stripped of his outside clothes. We got shots of his shadow, made by the spotlight along with panning shots of his face from different angles. We also got quick shots of his face from different angles along with shots of the rope. Our original idea was to get a bird’s eye view of Elliot, but this was tried and failed as we needed a high place to film from and the highest place that we had was a table, which was unsuccessful. But overall, me and my group worked well as a team, making sure that everyone had their say and had a chance to use the equipment. Today was a successful filming experience.
Second day of filming.
We decided to film the features of the killer today. We wanted to capture shots of the weapon, and also the woman’s high heeled boots walking. We needed an effective setting, so we chose two locations. A sink in a changing room in college and a small kitchen in college. We had a slight problem though, the changing room had no electrical sockets so we had to use a big heavy battery for the camera. Another problem we had was we had to deal with another particularly rude and moany teacher, who wouldn’t let us have enough time to get our shots. When we filmed in the changing room we used a toy gun whereas when we filmed in the kitchen we used a shiny bronze silky cloth to represent the woman’s femininity, and a butchers knife as the weapon. The spotlight combined with the cloth gave a really good effect. We also tried to film our idea of the victim getting a phone call from ‘Mumzy’ and the killer rejecting the call, to show the killer is in control and is in possession of his phone. When it came to downloading the shots to the computer, in the end we scrapped the gun scenes as we thought shooting someone is boring and quick( lol) and the killer should stab him instead, also it was due to our insufficient scenes thanks to the moany teacher. We also decided to re-film the mobile phone shots, as they were too blurry.
Another day of filming.
We decided to have an exciting location for our killer’s boots. Our Media teacher suggested a building across the road from college, which we had to pay like £2.50 for (loooooool) and it was a café, but we went exploring when we shouldn’t have and discovered that upstairs there was an abandoned factory-like gallery. As soon as we saw it we knew it was the right location. Even though it was a very scary place to be, we got all our correct shots, such as the killer walking towards a dark segment of the room, the killer opening a door and going down stairs, and also we captured shots of the paintings which gave it an eerie and mysterious feel. We realised that the paintings also may give the audience some clues as to the killer’s background, especially as one of the paintings was of a woman looking out of the window at a womb floating in the sky, maybe suggesting infertility or maybe she had an abortion/lost a baby. Another painting was of a woman performing an operation on a man, which showed overpowerment.
Editing.
We downloaded everything to the computer, and log and captured our footage. Everyone in our group managed to master it, which was helpful as we worked really fast and well. In the last days of working, nearer to our deadline, we alternated the people in our group to sort out the soundtrack, effects, credits etc. The highlight of the last day was the last 15 minutes when we were just gathered around the computer and finally…..WE FINISHED we felt so accomplished and it felt like there was a big weight lifted off our chests.
The viewing.
We went to a cinema called ‘Vue’ to watch everyone’s end thrillers. We got a good audience reaction.
Editing tutorial
Today we did our introduction to editing by using final cut pro to match cut BAIT- the little boy in the cafe. Even though we were instructed by a teacher step by step I found it much easier than I expected for some reason. Each person in the class put the different scenes in different orders but they all somehow made sense. The teacher then showed us the original version and how it all fitted together.
Intro to cameras and risk assessment
We learned how to use all the functions of the camera including the record button, rewind, fast forward and also how to position it correctly onto the tripod. We learnt about the 5 second rule, which means we have to press the record button and then wait 5 seconds before we say action for editing purposes.
First filming exercise
We were given 1 prop to use which was a pack of playing cards. As a group we brainstormed and decided that we should use a room and just the two male characters (oneme and Elliot) playing a game of cards while a female character (ginette) walks in with a briefcase containing a prize. Oneme wins but Elliot attacks oneme and then walks away with the prize money. When we actually filmed it the main difficulty we had was finding a location as we had to use the college and were getting too many complaints from a particular moany teacher lol. Next was editing, we found this surprisingly easy as each member of our group had listened enough when we had the tutorial and knew exactly what we had to do.
We added special effects such as speed alterations as we had extra time to spare. When everyone in the class got together to watch everyone else’s work, we got a positive feedback as everyone was in stitches of laughter at the way oneme was on the floor and how elliot was running in slow motion due to our use of effects. As this was a practice for the real thing we decided to go that extra mile just for laughs. Personally I think ours was the best :).
Brainstorming the thriller genre and all the sub genres
At first, I personally thought that thriller and horror were the same thing. But today’s lesson enlightened me and my fellow classmates. Thrillers don’t particularly have to be scary but just need to contain some action and create suspense. Horrors are just scary movies such as Saw, for example. This lesson helped me develop my understanding of all the different genres of movies whereas before I was a bit confused.
The thriller movie-the shining (watched in class)
Today we watched a thriller by Alfred Hitchcock called "The Shining". The movie was about a family who head to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil spiritual presence influences the father (Jack Nicholson) into violence, while his gifted son who has "the shining" sees disturbing events from the past and future which occurred in the hotel.
This gruesome thriller is quite a popular movie which enabled it to be remade successfully.
Before we watched it, Andrew outlined what makes a thriller. This helped me alot as I didn't know the difference between a thrill and a horror movie.
This enabled us to develop ideas for our thriller opening, by looking at what a thriller should contain.
Preliminary task
Our preliminary task was like another practice. This time our idea was that Oneme was late for a meeting with his ‘boss’ for a dodgy deal. Elliot ‘the boss’ beats up Oneme in the end. Our ending scene of the over turned chair and the noises of him getting beaten up in the background was very effective as it made the whole class laugh like the last time. Lol I don’t think our group can help but add that humorous flair due to our imaginations.
Brainstorming-again
We finally brainstormed our endless ideas for our thriller opening. We had so many ideas it was unbelievable :o. One of our ideas was a man who received a phonecall from a phonebox and was branded ‘the chosen one’ and he had to save the world, but we realised it had already been done in a film before and with our 4 magnificent brains we could think of something much more unique . After many potential ideas, we came up with our storyline..A woman who kills her ex-boyfriends who have cheated on her/treated her badly. In our thriller opening we would show her latest victim tied to a chair, while she prepared her murder weapons. This would create suspense as well as a feeling of “oh my god, what will happen next” amongst the audience. We then got told that we would have to pitch our ideas to judges.
Pitching to the judges
In lesson today, we had to pitch our ideas for our thriller opening to 4 teachers- Tony, Marisa, Mickey and Andrew. It was a bit like the X factor lol. It took a lot of persuasion and we had to really make the judges get into our idea and make them want to ‘fund us’. I got a real feel of what it would be like to be a real life movie maker, and in the end the judges liked our idea. It was interesting hearing my other classmates’ ideas and most of them were funny because of the judges reactions or just the storylines in general. It was very interesting finding out other peoples creativity and after we received some constructive criticism we managed to make our idea better.
Our first day of filming.
Today we started filming our thriller opening after much preparation. We decided to get our shots of the victim (Elliot Bonney). We got a dark room and used a spotlight . We put duct tape over Elliot’s mouth and tied his hands behind him with rope. To create a ‘sweat’ effect we used Vaseline and water on elliot’s face and arms. This was really effective as it looked like he was really sweating. Elliot wore a t shirt ,three quarter lengths and socks he was originally wearing underneath his clothes as this made it seem like he was stripped of his outside clothes. We got shots of his shadow, made by the spotlight along with panning shots of his face from different angles. We also got quick shots of his face from different angles along with shots of the rope. Our original idea was to get a bird’s eye view of Elliot, but this was tried and failed as we needed a high place to film from and the highest place that we had was a table, which was unsuccessful. But overall, me and my group worked well as a team, making sure that everyone had their say and had a chance to use the equipment. Today was a successful filming experience.
Second day of filming.
We decided to film the features of the killer today. We wanted to capture shots of the weapon, and also the woman’s high heeled boots walking. We needed an effective setting, so we chose two locations. A sink in a changing room in college and a small kitchen in college. We had a slight problem though, the changing room had no electrical sockets so we had to use a big heavy battery for the camera. Another problem we had was we had to deal with another particularly rude and moany teacher, who wouldn’t let us have enough time to get our shots. When we filmed in the changing room we used a toy gun whereas when we filmed in the kitchen we used a shiny bronze silky cloth to represent the woman’s femininity, and a butchers knife as the weapon. The spotlight combined with the cloth gave a really good effect. We also tried to film our idea of the victim getting a phone call from ‘Mumzy’ and the killer rejecting the call, to show the killer is in control and is in possession of his phone. When it came to downloading the shots to the computer, in the end we scrapped the gun scenes as we thought shooting someone is boring and quick( lol) and the killer should stab him instead, also it was due to our insufficient scenes thanks to the moany teacher. We also decided to re-film the mobile phone shots, as they were too blurry.
Another day of filming.
We decided to have an exciting location for our killer’s boots. Our Media teacher suggested a building across the road from college, which we had to pay like £2.50 for (loooooool) and it was a café, but we went exploring when we shouldn’t have and discovered that upstairs there was an abandoned factory-like gallery. As soon as we saw it we knew it was the right location. Even though it was a very scary place to be, we got all our correct shots, such as the killer walking towards a dark segment of the room, the killer opening a door and going down stairs, and also we captured shots of the paintings which gave it an eerie and mysterious feel. We realised that the paintings also may give the audience some clues as to the killer’s background, especially as one of the paintings was of a woman looking out of the window at a womb floating in the sky, maybe suggesting infertility or maybe she had an abortion/lost a baby. Another painting was of a woman performing an operation on a man, which showed overpowerment.
Editing.
We downloaded everything to the computer, and log and captured our footage. Everyone in our group managed to master it, which was helpful as we worked really fast and well. In the last days of working, nearer to our deadline, we alternated the people in our group to sort out the soundtrack, effects, credits etc. The highlight of the last day was the last 15 minutes when we were just gathered around the computer and finally…..WE FINISHED we felt so accomplished and it felt like there was a big weight lifted off our chests.
The viewing.
We went to a cinema called ‘Vue’ to watch everyone’s end thrillers. We got a good audience reaction.
Thursday 26 March 2009
EVALUATION
AS MEDIA THRILLER EVALUATION
My media product that I did was an opening to a thriller movie. Openings of movies are important because it lets you no what the movie is going to be about. I see that some of the conventions of a thriller I have used. Thriller openings usually contain suspense in which that can be approached in many different ways. The location in thriller opening is important because it sets the scene. Props can also be important Conventions of a thriller. These are objects which can make affect meaning in the movie. Thriller films are usually shown from to character points. The first being of the protagonist, which involves the audience more and creates empathy for the character. The other character point is the villain which can lead to empathy for the villain. Events in the storyline enable the film to progress and allow the audience to guess what’s going to happen next. The dialogue in thrillers never contains a complete explanation or plot, to give it pace, and maintain the mystery which is essential in building up suspense. In my film I was the protagonist the audience were more focused on me whereas Lora was the villain she was the one causing suspense and empathy. Also are film didn’t have dialogue however we used background music. We used breathing and heart beats for me when I was struggling in the rope and used footsteps for Lora as she was getting closer. We had background music on top this put pace to be thriller and created a mystery.
From my other preliminary tasks that I have done, I have seen I have made major improvement in my work. I have seen I have learnt a lot through those exercises and was able to produce them in the making of my thriller opening. I have been able to use a more variety of shots rather than a few. I have seen that filming is very important during the process. You have to make sure you have filmed quite a lot of shots because when you come to put it on final cut pro some have either been filmed wrong, filmed to short or long or either you don’t like it. My group took loads of shots but in the end we didn’t use all of them we ended up mix and matching quite a few of them. I also found out that match cutting was very important because it helps to make the film make sense and easier to understand what their doing from different views. My group used match cuts when Lora was walking into hall way then opening the door. This match cut worked well because we were able to see where she was coming from and what she was going to do. Also I found final cut pro quite easy to do because I was used of it through the other preliminary tasks when using it. Also blogging, we had to record everything we done. We had to use the internet a website called blogger and had to write what you done every lesson. I found it all right because you can go back to it if you need to remember what you done in a lesson.
Our thriller opening is mainly for 18+ the reason for this is that children younger than that will be seeing and hearing things they do not want to hear. It may also represent other social groups like 15 -16 because they might want to see a bit of action and may look up to the films Also 30+ the reason for this is that it may be suited and that they are more know ledged and will be able to understand things easier also it will more likely be suited to middle class people because its natural for them to watch it. In addition, when producing the film we challenged stereotype, instead of a woman being a victim it was a man. That was quite useful because it related to our title Vengeful Vixen.
Our thriller opening will more likely to be located and distributed in U.K cinemas. The reason why I say that is because we made it in the U.K and its more suited to U.Ks rather than others from America etc. Also it seems smaller budget and more people will view it that way.
Our audience for our thriller is mainly teenagers, 15+. The reason why I say that is because people younger than that would want to be seeing explicit scenes e.g. blood, killing. There may also be swearing which won’t be good for younger children. Adults may also watch it as well if their into the thriller genre. It will be unlikely for elderly to watch it because so much will be going on and they might not be able to understand it. Both genders are likely to watch it because it features both genders init. The film is more like for someone who goes to college/work, likes watching thriller films and likes going out.
Our film will have a star person like a celebrity who is starring in it. They will get shown in the film and they will be well known which will make people want to see it. In addition, the way we produce it will help attract the audience. We will have producer and produce it over many industry’s e.g. TV cinemas, internet which will make more people see it. TV because basically everyone watches TV. Cinemas because people go to a cinema to watch films and when they see a preview of our film and if they think it looks good they will go to watch it. And internet because that’s worldwide and anyone will be to see it. Also the genre of it our film fits the genre so when people see it they will no it’s a thriller. Also at the beginning of the film it starts black then has a tracking shot which leads into the person. The way it starts shows it’s a thriller so it’s likely to catch peoples attention. Also the different range of shots we used close ups of the victim and the slow motion affect. These all helped it to verify the genre.
Through the process of the making of the film I see that the technology has helped a lot. Firstly, on the practical we had to film in many different places to get the right affect. When we filming we had to use props to make better affect. In addition, we had to make sure that the people being filmed wore the same clothes so it looked more realistic. We also had to make sure we had a load of shots and took 5 seconds before recording. The reason for this is because when we were uploading the clips on to final cut pro we had to do mark in and out point on each clip. In addition, while using final cut pro we had make each clip shorter to fit the length on our film. Our film ended out being 1min and 41 seconds but still was roughly aright. During the process, we used final cut pro. It was easy for me because I had used it before we had to upload all the clips then use mark in and out points for them. We then put all the clips in order and saw how it runs through. Final cut pro was able to make our thriller better we were able to use effects etc to help it look good e.g. fades, dissolves, slow motion. We also used live type pro. We used that for the credits and film name Vengeful Vixen. The reason why we used live type because we were able to make vengeful affect which went well with our film. We also used soundtrack pro for the sound. Here was a variety of music sounds we had to choose from for our soundtrack. We used a mixture or soundtracks e.g. heartbeats footsteps to create affects. We also used background music to create the scene. The use of blogging allowed me to keep a record of what we have done to make references to when looking back to things we still required to perform in order to make a good thriller opening. Also we were able to release it on vimeo and on our blogs which illustrates to growing affect of the internet in our lives and how even amateurs can still put something out there to entertain audiences.
My media product that I did was an opening to a thriller movie. Openings of movies are important because it lets you no what the movie is going to be about. I see that some of the conventions of a thriller I have used. Thriller openings usually contain suspense in which that can be approached in many different ways. The location in thriller opening is important because it sets the scene. Props can also be important Conventions of a thriller. These are objects which can make affect meaning in the movie. Thriller films are usually shown from to character points. The first being of the protagonist, which involves the audience more and creates empathy for the character. The other character point is the villain which can lead to empathy for the villain. Events in the storyline enable the film to progress and allow the audience to guess what’s going to happen next. The dialogue in thrillers never contains a complete explanation or plot, to give it pace, and maintain the mystery which is essential in building up suspense. In my film I was the protagonist the audience were more focused on me whereas Lora was the villain she was the one causing suspense and empathy. Also are film didn’t have dialogue however we used background music. We used breathing and heart beats for me when I was struggling in the rope and used footsteps for Lora as she was getting closer. We had background music on top this put pace to be thriller and created a mystery.
From my other preliminary tasks that I have done, I have seen I have made major improvement in my work. I have seen I have learnt a lot through those exercises and was able to produce them in the making of my thriller opening. I have been able to use a more variety of shots rather than a few. I have seen that filming is very important during the process. You have to make sure you have filmed quite a lot of shots because when you come to put it on final cut pro some have either been filmed wrong, filmed to short or long or either you don’t like it. My group took loads of shots but in the end we didn’t use all of them we ended up mix and matching quite a few of them. I also found out that match cutting was very important because it helps to make the film make sense and easier to understand what their doing from different views. My group used match cuts when Lora was walking into hall way then opening the door. This match cut worked well because we were able to see where she was coming from and what she was going to do. Also I found final cut pro quite easy to do because I was used of it through the other preliminary tasks when using it. Also blogging, we had to record everything we done. We had to use the internet a website called blogger and had to write what you done every lesson. I found it all right because you can go back to it if you need to remember what you done in a lesson.
Our thriller opening is mainly for 18+ the reason for this is that children younger than that will be seeing and hearing things they do not want to hear. It may also represent other social groups like 15 -16 because they might want to see a bit of action and may look up to the films Also 30+ the reason for this is that it may be suited and that they are more know ledged and will be able to understand things easier also it will more likely be suited to middle class people because its natural for them to watch it. In addition, when producing the film we challenged stereotype, instead of a woman being a victim it was a man. That was quite useful because it related to our title Vengeful Vixen.
Our thriller opening will more likely to be located and distributed in U.K cinemas. The reason why I say that is because we made it in the U.K and its more suited to U.Ks rather than others from America etc. Also it seems smaller budget and more people will view it that way.
Our audience for our thriller is mainly teenagers, 15+. The reason why I say that is because people younger than that would want to be seeing explicit scenes e.g. blood, killing. There may also be swearing which won’t be good for younger children. Adults may also watch it as well if their into the thriller genre. It will be unlikely for elderly to watch it because so much will be going on and they might not be able to understand it. Both genders are likely to watch it because it features both genders init. The film is more like for someone who goes to college/work, likes watching thriller films and likes going out.
Our film will have a star person like a celebrity who is starring in it. They will get shown in the film and they will be well known which will make people want to see it. In addition, the way we produce it will help attract the audience. We will have producer and produce it over many industry’s e.g. TV cinemas, internet which will make more people see it. TV because basically everyone watches TV. Cinemas because people go to a cinema to watch films and when they see a preview of our film and if they think it looks good they will go to watch it. And internet because that’s worldwide and anyone will be to see it. Also the genre of it our film fits the genre so when people see it they will no it’s a thriller. Also at the beginning of the film it starts black then has a tracking shot which leads into the person. The way it starts shows it’s a thriller so it’s likely to catch peoples attention. Also the different range of shots we used close ups of the victim and the slow motion affect. These all helped it to verify the genre.
Through the process of the making of the film I see that the technology has helped a lot. Firstly, on the practical we had to film in many different places to get the right affect. When we filming we had to use props to make better affect. In addition, we had to make sure that the people being filmed wore the same clothes so it looked more realistic. We also had to make sure we had a load of shots and took 5 seconds before recording. The reason for this is because when we were uploading the clips on to final cut pro we had to do mark in and out point on each clip. In addition, while using final cut pro we had make each clip shorter to fit the length on our film. Our film ended out being 1min and 41 seconds but still was roughly aright. During the process, we used final cut pro. It was easy for me because I had used it before we had to upload all the clips then use mark in and out points for them. We then put all the clips in order and saw how it runs through. Final cut pro was able to make our thriller better we were able to use effects etc to help it look good e.g. fades, dissolves, slow motion. We also used live type pro. We used that for the credits and film name Vengeful Vixen. The reason why we used live type because we were able to make vengeful affect which went well with our film. We also used soundtrack pro for the sound. Here was a variety of music sounds we had to choose from for our soundtrack. We used a mixture or soundtracks e.g. heartbeats footsteps to create affects. We also used background music to create the scene. The use of blogging allowed me to keep a record of what we have done to make references to when looking back to things we still required to perform in order to make a good thriller opening. Also we were able to release it on vimeo and on our blogs which illustrates to growing affect of the internet in our lives and how even amateurs can still put something out there to entertain audiences.
finished thriller
Last friday me and my group finally finished our long awaited media thriller which took alot of time and stress to complete and we did and finished it to the best of our ability. This was a huge step for us because when we where making the practice ones hey where much below average and it is as if we did not put any effort in at all even though we did. Now, with our main thriller the editing is much better, the soundtrack is way more skilled and choreographed and the lighting is supreme. The main thing I personally like about my thriller is the lighting we had used to portray the movement and events which where going on throughout the short film. The main character who was me elliot, my facial expressions where shown wonderfully and the sweat which was on his arms where clear because of the lighting and that made it better. Furthermore when we see my shadow at the start it entices the audience to see what is happening and persuade them to watch on. Overall i think our thriller fim is great viewing and the most important thing is that we got it finished to our liking.
4th Feburary
On the 4th of february we continued filming for an opening of a thriller movie which lasts 2 minutes. This was a very productive filming session where we filmed the second character in our story line and what their role is in the story. We used many props such as fake blood and a light brown cloth which shows reprsentation to an enourmous affect. We once again also used a spotlight to set he scene instead of a normal light which would not be as effective. We used various shot types to show what was going on.for example we used point of view shot for the character. A close up of the brown cloth and the object that was inside it. Furthermore we used medium shot of the villian cleaning the evidence away. For me and my group this was a productive lesson because we mangaed to get most of what we needed and with a bit more filming time we will be able to start editing and making our opening of a thriller into a spectacle.
wednesday 28th january
On wednesday the 28th me and my group started filimng our opening to a thriller movie. we used alot of equpment including the tables to get the shots we needed. We used the spotight to emphasise our character and set the scene. This was important because he is the vocal point of the story we are trying to display. Furthermore the group combinded well and we used each otthers ideas and we put them into practice and i personallly think that went well. Th e filming was also excellent because everybody in my group used the camera and we worked well as a team and a unit and i am very pleased with that.
Sunday 22 March 2009
audiences reaction to our media product
Our media product was shown in vue cinema like the rest of the AS media groups. Our film got great reviews and great reactions because of its diversity to other films that where shown that day. When are one was finished their was a great cheer and people that where sitting around me said that my one was the best one I had seen so far, that made me feel good inside. Many people said they liked the different shots we used to show elliot (the hostage) and his state of mind so it makes the audience sympathise with him and what he was going through. They liked the shot where the camera was behind him and it tracked from his hands to his head and it showed him sweating prefucely. Overall I think the audience liked it because its different and it was not like other peoples product that was shown in the cinema that day.
Wednesday 4 March 2009
monday 26th january
In this lesson we started planning for our horror film. We came up with ideas what we were going to do. We had loads of diffent ideas e.g stalker, kidnapper, killer etc. We slightly decided to do kidnapper and started planning it. We started planning what its going to be about and whats going to happen in it. We also thought wat type of shots were going to use e.g close ups etc. We basically had an idea at the end of the lesson but we were going to carry it on the next lesson.
Monday 15th December
In this lesson we uploaded our mini clips onto the blog. While we were doing that we were answering about our clips and how we developed it. We then watched our clips again but on the blog. We saw what we did and what we need to do to improve it. We then went back to class and watched some horror films to the end of the lesson. This was to help everyone improve for the future.
wednesday 10th December
On Wednesday the 10th we watched our mini clips we made. This was a good thing because we were able to see others peoples work and ideas. This made me look back over our work and see all the advantages and disadvantages of our work. Me and ma group saw that our mini clip could of been inproved so next time i would be able to make a better job of it.
Monday 2 March 2009
We finally finished our thriller!!
Last friday me and my group finally finished our long awaited media thriller which took alot of time and stress to complete and we did and finished it to the best of our ability. This was a huge step for us because when we where making the practice ones hey where much below average and it is as if we did not put any effort in at all even though we did. Now, with our main thriller the editing is much better, the soundtrack is way more skilled and choreographed and the lighting is supreme. The main thing I personally like about my thriller is the lighting we had used to portray the movement and events which where going on throughout the short film. The main character who was elliot, his facial expressions where shown wonderfully and the sweat which was on his arms where clear because of the lighting and that made it better. Furthermore when we see his shadow at the start it entices the audience to see what is happening and persuade them to watch on. Overall i think our thriller fim is great viewing and the most important thing is that we got it finished to our liking.
Friday 27 February 2009
Thursday 5 February 2009
Filming on the 4th of februaury
On the 4th of february we continued filming for an opening of a thriller movie which lasts 2 minutes. This was a very productive filming session where we filmed the second character in our story line and what their role is in the story. We used many props such as fake blood and a light brown cloth which shows reprsentation to an enourmous affect. We once again also used a spotlight to set he scene instead of a normal light which would not be as effective. We used various shot types to show what was going on.for example we used point of view shot for the character. A close up of the brown cloth and the object that was inside it. Furthermore we used medium shot of the villian cleaning the evidence away. For me and my group this was a productive lesson because we mangaed to get most of what we needed and with a bit more filming time we will be able to start editing and making our opening of a thriller into a spectacle.
Thursday 29 January 2009
Monday 8th December
on monday the 8th of january we had to use our editing skills by editing the game or cards which we filmed. Mickey gave us a bit of help with this then after we all had to do bits our self. We saw quite a few funny shots and had quite a few laughs. We didnt finish editing it all in the same lesson so we had to cum to workshop to finish it off. I found that quite effective because we were able to have more time and add more effects in to make it look good.
Wednesday the 28th of january
On wednesday the 28th me and my group started filimng our opening to a thriller movie. we used alot of equpment including the tables to get the shots we needed. We used the spotight to emphasise our character and set the scene. This was important because he is the vocal point of the story we are trying to display. Furthermore the group combinded well and we used each otthers ideas and we put them into practice and i personallly think that went well. Th e filming was also excellent because everybody in my group used the camera and we worked well as a team and a unit and i am very pleased with that.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
last lesson we had the opportunity to watch last years opening of a thriller movie.We saw a lot of good and bad examples.This really helped me because it inspired me to see what me and my group have to do in order to achieve a great opening of a thriller movie ,that will give as a good grade.The other examples that we saw were not that good but they help me to see what i should not include in my proget to avoid achiving a low grade.
there was an example that really inspired me because the used of camera very good,including some very good shots from diffrent angles ,long shots cose up and the way the piece was formed and edited showed that a lot of hard work and consideration went into achieving the piece.
there was another example i really liked because the story was very simple but still it created tension and gave us the audience a sense of a realistic thriller movie.
This really got me thinking that in order for me and my group to achieve something this good we have to work hard.
there was an example that really inspired me because the used of camera very good,including some very good shots from diffrent angles ,long shots cose up and the way the piece was formed and edited showed that a lot of hard work and consideration went into achieving the piece.
there was another example i really liked because the story was very simple but still it created tension and gave us the audience a sense of a realistic thriller movie.
This really got me thinking that in order for me and my group to achieve something this good we have to work hard.
Wednesday 14 January 2009
in todays lesson
In todays lesson we learnt how to use the soundtrack programme to add a new dimension to our short movie. I was really impressed by how much beats and percussions there was to choose from and this lead our group to make a good soundtrack for our short piece. We only used two soundtracks,we kept the sound short and sweet and not too complex just like our short clip this was good because it sounded good in the end. This session was a big step for me because i had never used the soundtrack programme before and when i learnt how to use it it was very satisfying knowing now that whwn it comes to the main movie I know how to develop it and make it the best it cn be.
I was not present on the day of the video shooting,therefore in today lesson i helped my group to edit the video. This was very helpful because i had the opportunity to see what the group was able to do in my absent and to see what they were able to achieve as a group. Although wans't in for the lesson,when editing the video i felt like i was involve with the making of the video . In this lesson we had the chance to put the video scenes together in order to get a very good story that made sense and we also added soundtrack to the video.In my opinion adding the soundtrack really made the whole video come into live,it made the scene more lively and entertaining to watch. to sum up today lesson, i believe that a group has to work together in order to produce a high quality piece.
Tuesday 13 January 2009
in yesterdays lesson
In yesterdays lesson we got a chance to edit the small film we had filmed and make it into a short clip. when we got into the editing room we had a bit of trouble starting up but we eventually got there in the end. Firstly we had to go through our film on the camera and see what bits we wanted and how much we wanted of it. This lead us to the clips that we had done on the right hand side, so we could in and out those clips at appropriate intervals. Eventually we managed to do that and we used matchcuts to make our clip more effective and make it look like a proper film. We used a short sound effect towards the end of the clip so that it sounds and looks much better. Then we watched the clip through so we could see the wonderful short film we had created and we enjoyed it. This session was a real help because it allowed me to use final cut pro in a more challenging way and this helps me in the future when me and my group do our thriller.
Sunday 11 January 2009
wednesday 7th of January
On wednesday the 7th me and my group made a short film which we had to include matchcuts when we edit and we had to use different points of view. I found this excersise very satisfying because i used the camera to film other people in the rest of my group and found this very helpful because now we could all use the camera effectively and learnt the technicality of the camera and I managed to master it in the end. Moreover we used various camera angles so we could show different points of views and make it easier to matchcut when it comes to it. We also got a a4 size sheet of paper where we wrote down the things that we where going to do in the short film. I and the rest of my group found that helpful because then we could refer back to the sheet for guidance instead of improvising and doing it on the spot and making mistakes. For me this lesson was a real help in the progress of our thriller film that we are going to do.
Monday 5 January 2009
In today lesson we watched a documentary called "watching". This documentary helped me to see various different of film openings,there were two different views of how a film should begin . a director called Jean Jacques believed that a film should start slowly and gradually build up to the moment because if a film begins with a interesting shot [bang], the director will not know what to do with the rest of the film, therefore the rest of the film will not be that interesting. In the other hand another director believe that the first moment of a film should begin with "boom" that attracts the audience.
In my opinion i think that a film should have a good beginning that make the audience feel that they dont know enough yet but still have enough information to help them know what is happening.
Watching
In todays lesson we watched a documentary about openings of movies. This documentary was called Watching. We had to research about openings while answering questions to it. In this documentary we were shown many different types of openings to movies which included some that had a slow gradual build up to excitement and some that had excitement rite at the start. We were then able to see different techniques we can use for our openings for our thriller project. While analysing the documentary we looked quotes from Thomas Sutcliffe and Jean Jacques Beineix and had our view on what they said.
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