Evaluation : Progression from prelim to final film Q8

 In our prelim, there was some shots of feet/legs but the door in the way ruined the shot as we could not see what was going on. The angle was too long, with the floor occupying most of the frame and the feet were too far back. The reflection on the floor made it look unprofessional.






In our final, we made sure there were no obstacles so we could get a clear, clean shots of her feet/legs. The legs/feet walked towards the camera so we could get a closer look.

 Our establishing shot of the buildings was quite unfocused and looked a bit blurry. We zoomed in and out on the building which to me seems basic and unprofessional.

 Changing the way, we wanted for our establishing shot, we panned left to right. The lighting was fantastic (as it was ambient lighting) and there were no people on that road during the time we were filming.

Her face was not completely in line with the framing as you can see her chin was not included.

We made sure her whole face was seen, focusing on her face rather than any other body part.

Evaluation: Media Institution Q4 & 5

This student Thriller film which I stumbled across on YouTube called "Asleep".  Sharing the same sub-genre of a suspense thriller, this short film has been able to attract a wide audience via YouTube, where it was originally posted. Since its release it has a had 11, 355 hits but for the creator of this films to receive such hits, the Internet has helped his movie launch to a wide audience. Some reasons why:

• YouTube is one of the worlds largest video sharing and wesites, and such videos can receive such views in such a short time.  They can e featured alongside other films, and that is where online users can see the film.
• People can leave comments below, which can be used for improvements next time or just to compliment the short film.
• They have links with iTunes, as they have used the sound "Don't Blow it" by Solaris.  If a viewer likes this song, they would be particulary enjoy the thriller.

In comparison, our fim differs from this student thriller film

•  An independent, budget student movie, set in london.
• The company "Kade pictures" is not an established, recognised company.
• It will be relased through social networking sites such as blogger and vimeo and possibly YouTube.
•  We have already had a private screening at the cinema "Screem on the Green" and later there will DVD's issued for each student.

Evaluation: Representations Q2

We are able to read a  character, simply by how they are represented in a film.   Stereotypes also help us tell how the characters will turn out to be because of pre-judged ideas for example a character darkly dressed behind a shadow connotes that she/he will be mysterious.The representation of the characters is obviously constructed, as the team working behind the filming would have decide how the characters will viewed, by aspects of mise en scene, camera & editing and sound.   However, in our short opening, we played around with the roles of our characters so that our audience will have varied interpretations of them.

Gender:

Urma Thurman, Kill Bill : Vol II

Like the many Thriller films that we have watched, males were predominately the villains as it seems to be the heavy duty job and needs strength, masculinity and courage (as these are some of the qualities of males)  Although there are some females who have played the role of seeking vengeance, like Urma Thurman in Kill Bill, it is quite rare to see a protagonist as a women carrying out roles that include killing. You would have least expectations of The bride (Thurman) of not taking her role seriously.  By looking at her image, she would be sterootyped as a 'dumb' blonde who is there to look hot and attractive all the time, but our expextationd would be switched around after we see her carrying out  tircks and drawing out swords and guns.

In our Thriller opening, our protogonist is a female instead of a male to carry out the hitman role, or in this case the 'The hitwoman' to shock our audience that a female is doing this.

Mise en scene - Clothing

When choosing what colour particular mise en scene should be, it is very imporatant. For our Killer, she has been dressed in Black which connotes her sercecry, evilness and darkness within her and her reddish dyed hair gives a tint of energy and strenghth. Although, she is supposed to have this tough image, we want her to be stylish at the same time, like most females would like to. So that when she goes outside, she looks like anyother girl.

•  Classic Ray-Ban 'Wayfarers'
• Used to conceal her identity as she prepares to leave the home and face the public.
• Gives a sense of 'coolness' and she would think of herself as an agent or a spy instead of a hitwoman.

• British footwear, Dr.Marten boot
• Protective and comforable, and because its black, the bloodstains can be easily wiped off and not visable.
• Product placement used to show that not only they are used for heavy duty jobs but also fashionable and stylish at the same time.
• Popularly worn, especially by women of all ages.

•  Black trench coat popularized by Burberry and Mackintosh.
• Black covered with components such as a belt, zips and studs to toughen up her image.
• There are pockets on the side, for her to retreive the 'Blood list' and keep it safe.

• Black skinny jeans.
• Worn in everyday use, no matter what environment.
• Easily can be tucked into her boot.

Evaluation: Audience for media product Q3

• Arayah, is a 17 year old teenager living in London whose main hobbies are shopping, and playing with her cat muddy.
• Every year, Arayah attends Glastonbury with her friends.
• She is also a part time model, but when shes not swaying down the runway, she watches movies (especially suspense thrillers) after she worked backstage on a movie set for her work experience.
• Her sunglasses and Blackberry are some of the things she cannot live without.

Our film has been targeted for teenagers, especially females who feel that looking stylish, whatever the problem is important..  I personally think that our film is set for the right target audience but if this was supposed to be a continuous film, this would have slightly changed because we would include other people.



Evaluation class response

Evaluation - Technologies

This is an animatic video we made, which is a technology time line, including how elements were worked together in the creation of the product. It is based on the journey we have had since the start of the project.

Evaluation: Technologies script

We used technology in three ways:

Research: 

The Internet was the central point and primarily used in our research. Search websites such as Google was used to find examples of thriller movies for our inspiration. Also, Art of the title sequence was used as it had a variety of different sequences we could look at and find how fonts are used to give an insight to what the film is about.

We watched Dvds, at home and class, for example 'The Stepfather', 'Kill Bill' and 'The Terminator'. 

A blog was created for us on Blogger, which we would use to post regularly about our findings and analyse thriller clips and our process of making our opening. 

We found Student Clips/ Videos that other media students have made and used them for inspiration and to get ideas from them.

There was clips of thrillers we could look at, for example certain parts of films like 'Psycho', where we found inspiration from the iconic shower scene, with a close up of the plug hole. 

Youtube was used to view thriller openings to research conventions and how we could use them in our opening such as mise en scene. 

Filming:

Since the animatic, we used still cameras to make a sequence using images. Since then we have used them to record our time filming for our opening. 

JVC digital tapeless cameras were the main aspect for filming our opening. In class we learned how to handle and use them, including the equipment so that we could use them effectively while filming. 

Editing:

Final cut pro is an editing software used to edit and create animatics/films. We transfered the clips/images we collected/filmed on our SD cards to our video drive and then imported them on final cut and organised them into a sequence.

To create our title sequence and font, we used Livetype, which includes many transitions and effects we could use for our opening.

To go alongside our opening, we created a soundtrack using Soundtrack Pro, which provides many sounds, music and sound effects we could chose from. In the end, we used piano music and sound effects such as water with relates to 'Psycho'. 

Both Livetype and Soundtrack Pro could be imported into Final cut in order to create the final product.

When the final edit has been made, we used a software called Handbrake which converts the final cut edit to mp4, so we then could upload it onto blogger. 

Evaluation: Audience feedback (Wordle)

This is a wordle we have created from the comments made when the whole class watched our thriller opening. These are the key words that came back, reflecting on the main aspects they enjoyed and what they thought of it. Included is also what they thought of the technical aspects. This feedback relates to our target audience as the class has the majority age of 16+, close to our target age of 15+. This gave us our first audience insight of what people at this age would make of our final product.

Evaluation: Conventions of Thriller title sequence Q1

Our sub-genre for our film was a suspense Thriller, so we need to assure our audience that it is one.  Intertextual references from other films such as 'The StepFather' and 'Psycho' will help our audience identify what type of sub/genre it is. From watching our short opening, you will be able to see references from other films.

Intertextual references from 'The Stepfather' and 'Psycho'

Tools



0:28 - Camera pans left to right, revealing
the tools involved in the incident

similarly in 'The stepfather '



With the camera panning smoothly, we get a point of view shot of the tools neatly laid inside  a bag.  Normality is established in this scene because our audience would not think of anything strange as these are used in everyday tasks until the camera focus' onto the bloody knife  besides it. We want our audience to adopt the persona of the killer, to see her 'daily' kit as if it something normal just like how people use a shaving or a make-up kit, as they peer over the tools. Similarly in 'The stepfather' bloody tools are dumped in the sink, which is not normal to see in everyday life.

Setting

 

The opening in our film  is an established shot, showing the location and where our chillings scenes will take place. Also in 'The stepfather' this has also been used, with a narrative which we also applied to our opening of Census. The houses used are quite similar as 'The Stepfather' looks as if its in a quiet, leafy suburban area of America whilst ours is a townhouse in a middle class area both with white painted houses.

 Lists

 When the killer looks at the list with blood stains used to cross out previous names, this has to be one of the most important scenes in our opening.  This is when the title 'Census' relates to this, as it means 'still counting.'  But in this case, the crossing out was to show the ending of another victims life. At the beginning of 'The Stepdfather', a man seen in a car also highlights/crosses out a name. However, this aspect has been used cleverly in our film, so that the killer has a souvenir of the victims blood.

Plugholes, water and blood

From the many Thriller films that we watched, the one thing that these films had in common is that they each had intertexual references from Hitchcock's 'Psycho.' Although, each film played with intertexuality in various ways we also used this iconic scene in our opening, just after the killer wipes the blood off the victims face, and goes to the kitchen to wash it off.  We followed the same sequence, of the close up on the plughole, the water swirling around it, mixed with blood from the victim.  I think this would help our audience realise that our genre is a Thriller, because of the intertexual references made.

Mirrors

Mise en scene, of course, played an important role in our opening, but most significantly, Mirrors.  In a normal house, mirrors are usually seen around the house, on walls to small compact ones lying around but we made sure those were out of sight until the last scene where we finally see the face of the killer as she puts on her glasses.  From watching, you should be able to see that the face of the killer was hidden, by leaving her head out of the frame, her hair hid the sides of her face and that her back was facing the audience most of the time.  We wanted to conceal her identity to connote that she is mysterious but at the same time for the audience to be curious,  making them want to know 'Who is this person?' 'The stepfather' also had mirrors, revealing David's face, although we did see him beforehand.  I feel using mirrors, the character can look at themselves and reflect on what they are doing.

Corpses

We wanted to put our audience in a calm but curios state by establishing normality throughout the first scenes of our opening to our film.  Everything seems normal, until the bloody knife is put on display, lists crossed out with blood markings but most of all, the corpse lying casually on the floor.  It would be strange for someone one to walk over a dead body, tidying/cleaning their belongings whilst someone is dead on the floor, then bizarrely taking swipes of blood on their face. We borrowed this idea from 'The Stepfather' as David goes along to do his daily routing of showering, shaving and making breakfast while his family lay cold dead on furniture and he walks out as if nothing has just happened.



Final edit

Font Analysis of title sequence

The text was bold so that it is more effective. We chose the colour to be white, so that it represents the victims of the killer, as they were innocent, and white interprets this. The effect we used was called 'mysterious zoom', and gave the transitions edge so it is interesting to view.
   The title 'Census' had an effect in which a red line would appear, crossing it out. This mimics the movement of the finger crossing the names off the directory with blood. This gives an insight to what the Census' motives are, but the viewers do not exactly know why they are murdering people, so (if it was a full movie) they would have to watch the rest of the film to find out.

Process of final edit

We found it very difficult to finish the final edit. We had to include music and titles and make sure that they work correctly together. During the process of adding the titles, we noticed that the transition of the names were too slow. They were not easy to read, so we tweaked them by using the freeze frame method so that they would run longer. We added the production titles before our opening to indicate the companies that would be producing the film in the first place. The transitions are quite quick, but we did not want them to run on that long.
   In all, the final edit is a success. It is a guaranteed improvement from the rough cut as we have fixed the jumps and zoom ins that were a problem before. The suspense scenes were captivating and worked well with the music and set the mood of intensity. The viewers (15+) will experience this and will be at the edge of their seat.

Rough cut vlog

Music ideas

We wanted something that resembles a sharp cut to link to the knife. We thought of adding some piano music to make it intense. The overall effect was to make it have elements of droning, to show intensity.
We did not add many sound effects as there was no use for them. Although, we added an effect as we wanted to have some sound for the water as it reflects the intertextuality of the psycho.

final cut screen shots

Below is the screen shots taken for livetype, final cut pro, soundtrack pro for the final edit.

Spotlight use

We used a spot light to make our scenes brighter if needed.

We used the following precautions while using the spot light:

• Attach pieces correctly
• Do not touch the bulb as it can be VERY hot.
• Avoid touching the front piece for a certain period of time as it is also hot.

The spotlight has different variations of light so you can change the amount of brightness.

Thriller Planning

The features we want to include are:

• Suspense
• Subgenre of Psychological thriller 
• Intertextuality 
• Various range of shots

If 'Census' was a full 2 hour movie...

Brief overview of how the opening would lead into a full movie:

1. Opening: Introducing the Census killer and one of their victims.
2. Police get suspicious.
3. An investigation is carried out.
4. Multiple new murders take place.
5. Investigations get more intense.
6. Motive of Census killer found.
7. Leading to a conclusion, is the killer caught?
8. Possible cliffhanger.

Mise en Scene sunglasses

In many countless Thriller movies (and other genres too) sunglasses are everywhere to be seen, and are no longer used for their purpose of protecting ones eyes from the sun.Glasses are worn from agents, models, killers to criminals cruising on the high way.  Here are some Thriller movies, in which sunglasses have been used to add that bad boy/girl, toughness but coolness to their image. The purveyor of sunglasses, Ray ban styles have been seen in these films. 

The Terminator

The Matrix

Men in Black



Blade

Apart from the tough image, sunglasses give can also be used to conceal an identity and to show that person wants to block everything in sight and set eyes only on what they plan to do. In our thriller opening, we have planned to use sunglasses so that the face (eyes) do not give away who the person is when they go outside

Census rough cut