"I like how simon uses his natural hard persona to convey a proper nawty terrorist Love it!"
"love the way in which the actor is shot and the close up's !!"
This is some of the feedback my group were given and as you can see it has appealed to the target audience.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
We only used non diegetic sound in our thriller to help build tension. We tried to match up the dialogue with the soundtrack to help create suspense.
We tried to have a moderate pace for our thriller as it keeps the viewer interested as there are lots of things going on, however not so quickly that the viewer can not take it all in. A lot of other thrillers would also keep a quick pace for the same reasons. Our style was focusing up close on what was happening in our sequence to draw the audience closer to the action.
Our titles were representative of a thriller as they displayed bold and serious style font. We kept the font at the bottom right hand corner of the screen to keep continuity. This helped created the mood of the film as it was in a serious style.
A lot of our choices made were made so they that would fit the style of the thriller genre. For example filming most of the shots extremely close up to increase the intensity.
We tried to have a moderate pace for our thriller as it keeps the viewer interested as there are lots of things going on, however not so quickly that the viewer can not take it all in. A lot of other thrillers would also keep a quick pace for the same reasons. Our style was focusing up close on what was happening in our sequence to draw the audience closer to the action.
Our titles were representative of a thriller as they displayed bold and serious style font. We kept the font at the bottom right hand corner of the screen to keep continuity. This helped created the mood of the film as it was in a serious style.
A lot of our choices made were made so they that would fit the style of the thriller genre. For example filming most of the shots extremely close up to increase the intensity.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
Task 1: In what ways does your media product use, develope or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In the beginning of most films a title sequence occurs. We up held this convention by employing the same methods in our sequence.
For this scene we tried to create tension and suspense by using a clock to show that there is a race against time. At this point we do not know what we are racing against, but we do know there is a time limit and this is already creating suspense. This is conforming to the convention of the thriller which creates drama.
We made this shot looking upwards and we only got the actor half in screen, this is to suggest there is something hidden about him and what he is doing. This conforms to the thriller genre especially exemplified by hollywood as you will often see the antangonist commiting or attempting a crime in the opening sequence. 
We used extreme close ups of the bomb so the viewer can not fully see what is happening. By keeping most of the shots extremly close up we kept a sense of claustrophobia and brought the audience closer into the action. This reinforces the conventions of the thriller which aim to build a sense of tension in the opening sequence.
This is the final shot we used before the main title. You only see half of the subjects face and he is looking for something. This conforms to the Hollywood style film.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Task 2: How does your product represent particular social groups?
Our Product is about terrorism. It represents social groups such as extremists and terrorists. Our Thriller shows a man constructing a bomb and then placing it in a teddy bear. The man then walks into a busy street and the shot ends. Similar films include Vantage Point. This film is about an assassination attempt on the president of the United States is detailed from five unique perspectives. As the president arrives in Salamanca, gunshots ring out. An American tourist has captured footage of the would-be assassin on videotape, and now, as the stories of the other four witnesses unfold, each essential piece of the puzzle quickly falls into place. Only when all of the stories are told will the chilling truth to this shocking crime finally emerge. The particular social group that we represent all shares the passion of blowing up other innocent people as they are not obeying their extreme religious beliefs. This social group is usually represented in their clothing, for example a terrorist in a busy place will not want to draw attention to him so he will wear normal looking clothes.
Typically in the media terrorists are portrayed as an Arabic man. In the picture there is an Arabic man dressed in an army outfit, holding a religious item. The man also has an RPG on his back. In our product however we used a more eastern European looking terrorist and instead of dressing him in stereotypical terrorist clothes we dressed him in normal clothes. This was because when you’re walking down a normal street you do not want to attract attention to yourself. The second picture is of a man in Munich. From what we can see he is wearing a dark jacket and a balaclava. This is more similar to the terrorist we use in our product as he is wearing less stereotypical terrorist clothing.
The Stereotypical terrorist (Arabic, Balaclava) is usually displayed in media. We do not use the stereo type in our film; instead we went for a more eastern European looking person. We did this as we thought it might not be politically correct to use a stereotypical Muslim. Terrorists are generally represented as extreme Muslims; in the media you will always see them represent a terrorist by wearing some form of Muslim clothing. Terrorists also tend to be Middle Eastern. The media represent this in the news, for example Jihad. In our product we subverted this by using a white European male because not all terrorist groups are Middle Eastern. For example the IRA which is a terrorist group based in Ireland.
Task 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Lionsgate are particularly male orientated films. For example films like saw are aimed at 15-24 year old males. This is because most people who go to the cinema are 15-24 year old males. As our film does not include massive wide shots from a helicopter and CGI effects so I think a suitable institution would be Lionsgate. Lionsgate produces films that do not always go to the cinema however they do have some famous actors in their films. I looked at other film institutions such as Paramount Pictures however this looked a little to ambitious for our film as there are a lot of CGI effects which we would not need. However i also looked at some British independent film companies such as Coffee films but i thought are film would benefit from the production values and distribution offerred by Lionsgate.
Lionsgate have made the saw series of films, which started out as low budget films on independent production and distribution team. I believe that as we are making a relatively low budget thriller set in England that might appeal to more of a niche audience and may only have a limited exhibition in America that Lionsgate would be a suitable institution to distribute our product. They have proven themselves capable of making quality films on a low budget which still do well at the box office and on domestic DVD sales. I feel that as our film will probably have a platform release and grow through word of mouth advertising we would complement each other. Lionsgate look for quality films with in the thriller/horror genre that is liable to make money, if not at the box office then on DVD sales and I believe our film to be a quality thriller product suitable for them to make money on.
Task 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is people aged anywhere from 15 to 30+ . Other filims such as vantage point and Munich appeal to an audience who enjoy exciting, thrilling flims. We see our thriller as a more mature approach to scaring people as we are using a real life fears and problems which can make the film more intellectual so that older people will appreciate it more and enjoy it. The main target audience for thriller/horror's are thrill seekers who enjoy acitvities such as roller-coasters they would enjoy our film as it is mostley about tense situations. The age range of this group is mainly 15-24 year old males but we feel our film would target the older age groups and would go to 30+ as i previously stated. This is because our film deals with terrorism and terrorism is often in the news. We also used an older actor who would appeal to this age range in much the same way as Syriana used George Clooney. Therefore we were attracting a secondary audience of 25+ male and female's who would enjoy a film with serious issues.
A typical fan of the horror genre is someone who enjoys music, possible heavy metal as it is often featured in the genre. A fan of heavy metal fan would sometimes have a girlfriend who he would also bring along to the cinema. 15-24 generally have disposable income because they are either in education or working, many are still living at home with there parents or in university accomidation, therefore the majority have more money to spend on certain activities.
A typical fan of the horror genre is someone who enjoys music, possible heavy metal as it is often featured in the genre. A fan of heavy metal fan would sometimes have a girlfriend who he would also bring along to the cinema. 15-24 generally have disposable income because they are either in education or working, many are still living at home with there parents or in university accomidation, therefore the majority have more money to spend on certain activities.
Task7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
The planning and preparation of our basic preliminary task consisted of learning how to set up a camera and tripod. We also got taught the basics of how to use final cut pro. We got taught different type of shot techniques and had about half an hour to prepare. During the shoot we also had to set up the lighting so that it suited the conditions and we were given a script to work with. We were given half a day to edit on final cut at the end. On our actual shoot we had to prepare and plan in further detail in order to create the right effect for our finished product. One of the areas we had to concentrate on was setting up the right mise en scene. We set up a set which was made to look like a small bedroom in bad condition. We also printed out pictures and maps of London and stuck them against the wall. When the set was finished we started filming. For the external location, we used the high street of Guilford. We were influenced by the opening scene of the joker in the dark knight, and we wanted to create a similar type of tension. We used a hand held camera for this and we followed the subject.
Our basic preliminary brief was much more basic than our main task, for example in our preliminary task we were given a brief and told what to do. In our main task we continually revised and rethought are narrative until we got it perfect. For example, we did not use much of the original storyboard in the final piece at all, as our idea and concept changed quite late in the process. We were well prepared for our shoot day as we had all the props we needed and wanted, as well as an actor and a location. It could have been better if our storyboard was closer to the finished piece. I produced my group’s second storyboard as well as drawing it. It was a lot more complex compared to the preliminary task, but also went into greater detail. I feel my film making skills have improved considerably since the preliminary task. For example I am now confident in controlling the camera and also setting up the lighting so that it suits the atmosphere that we are trying to create.
In our preliminary task we did basic shots such as over the shoulder and wide shot. In our thriller we did more complicated shots such as point of view shots and extreme close up’s. Our skills were greatly improved in the quality of work we produced and our knowledge of what was effective in trying to achieve tension in our thriller. For our shot choices we used extreme close ups of our actor building the 'bomb'. We also used point of view shots and gave the effect of depth of field with some of the shots. For our external shots we followed the subject by the method of tracking. We found that playing with the focus of the camera worked well with our shots as it gave the effect of panic and confusion. Some of our shots could have been improved however. For example I felt that we could of had more shots which were not extreme close ups. I think if we had more wide shots then it would have given the audience more of an idea of how the room was meant to look. For example the bed was dirty so we could have had more shots to show the filth and squalor that the bomber lived in to show his tortured mind.
We chose to use the studio as we could build the set of how we wanted it to be and have complete control over the lighting and camera angles. As this was no ones actual room, it meant we had more freedom to do what we wanted. This would of been good for our mise en scene as we would have more control over the shots. I think we could have had more shots of the room to emphasize that it was a small, dirty, dingy flat. We used Guilford high street as we wanted a busy area with lots of people that looked like it was in a city centre. This was meant to show the audience that the suicide bomber could do a lot of damage and kill a lot of people. Some challenges we faced when we went to Guilford were people staring at the camera and making it really obvious it was there, however the final shot worked well because we overcame this and we did a long tracking shot which then did a close up on the face.
For our props we used a 'bomb', which was constructed by me and was made out of a Interior of a mobile telephone, Some marzipan which was meant to look like C4 explosives, some wires and a ripped up memory stick. In the room we had a laptop on the desk and some documents, some pictures on the wall, a mattress and pillow and a teddy bear. We built up tension from these as we did extreme close ups on the pictures we had on the wall and cutting open the teddy bear. For the costumes we used fairly normal looking clothes E.G - Jeans and a jacket. We aimed to try and make the situation look as realistic as possible. We tried to reflect all of these props with the mise en scene and on the bomber to show that he had a suicidal and fractured mind.
In the preliminary task we only shot diegetic and ambient sound. In our thriller we used no diegetic sound, however I wrote the soundtrack. When I was writing the soundtrack to our thriller I was thinking of Hans Zimmer’s version of the joker music. With that in my mind I tried to re-create a similar sound. When constructing the sound I chose to use pitch bend so that the sound was manipulated into going into a higher pitch. This particular sound I felt created a sense of tension and created suspense. For the impact sounds I used a bass drum and added loads of effects including reverb. I also EQ it so that there was gain on the lower frequencies and a cut on the higher frequencies. I thought this would create tension as I was trying to match the sound with the dialogue to make our thriller more effective. We felt that by matching up some of the tense musical sounds to actions of our actors hands we would build tension without the need to show his face or here any diegetic sounds.
Before this year I had never used final cut pro and so it was a new and exiting new experience. I learnt so much during this whole experience of making our 2 minute main task. I have learnt how to log, to speed things up and create a narrative from a series of logged shots, I have also learnt how to use the camera and produce quality shots that you see in our final product. In the program Final Cut Pro we created titles. We looked through all the fonts to try and pick an appropriate one for our thriller. In the end we came to a decision as a group what font we should use.
Our basic preliminary brief was much more basic than our main task, for example in our preliminary task we were given a brief and told what to do. In our main task we continually revised and rethought are narrative until we got it perfect. For example, we did not use much of the original storyboard in the final piece at all, as our idea and concept changed quite late in the process. We were well prepared for our shoot day as we had all the props we needed and wanted, as well as an actor and a location. It could have been better if our storyboard was closer to the finished piece. I produced my group’s second storyboard as well as drawing it. It was a lot more complex compared to the preliminary task, but also went into greater detail. I feel my film making skills have improved considerably since the preliminary task. For example I am now confident in controlling the camera and also setting up the lighting so that it suits the atmosphere that we are trying to create.
In our preliminary task we did basic shots such as over the shoulder and wide shot. In our thriller we did more complicated shots such as point of view shots and extreme close up’s. Our skills were greatly improved in the quality of work we produced and our knowledge of what was effective in trying to achieve tension in our thriller. For our shot choices we used extreme close ups of our actor building the 'bomb'. We also used point of view shots and gave the effect of depth of field with some of the shots. For our external shots we followed the subject by the method of tracking. We found that playing with the focus of the camera worked well with our shots as it gave the effect of panic and confusion. Some of our shots could have been improved however. For example I felt that we could of had more shots which were not extreme close ups. I think if we had more wide shots then it would have given the audience more of an idea of how the room was meant to look. For example the bed was dirty so we could have had more shots to show the filth and squalor that the bomber lived in to show his tortured mind.
We chose to use the studio as we could build the set of how we wanted it to be and have complete control over the lighting and camera angles. As this was no ones actual room, it meant we had more freedom to do what we wanted. This would of been good for our mise en scene as we would have more control over the shots. I think we could have had more shots of the room to emphasize that it was a small, dirty, dingy flat. We used Guilford high street as we wanted a busy area with lots of people that looked like it was in a city centre. This was meant to show the audience that the suicide bomber could do a lot of damage and kill a lot of people. Some challenges we faced when we went to Guilford were people staring at the camera and making it really obvious it was there, however the final shot worked well because we overcame this and we did a long tracking shot which then did a close up on the face.
For our props we used a 'bomb', which was constructed by me and was made out of a Interior of a mobile telephone, Some marzipan which was meant to look like C4 explosives, some wires and a ripped up memory stick. In the room we had a laptop on the desk and some documents, some pictures on the wall, a mattress and pillow and a teddy bear. We built up tension from these as we did extreme close ups on the pictures we had on the wall and cutting open the teddy bear. For the costumes we used fairly normal looking clothes E.G - Jeans and a jacket. We aimed to try and make the situation look as realistic as possible. We tried to reflect all of these props with the mise en scene and on the bomber to show that he had a suicidal and fractured mind.
In the preliminary task we only shot diegetic and ambient sound. In our thriller we used no diegetic sound, however I wrote the soundtrack. When I was writing the soundtrack to our thriller I was thinking of Hans Zimmer’s version of the joker music. With that in my mind I tried to re-create a similar sound. When constructing the sound I chose to use pitch bend so that the sound was manipulated into going into a higher pitch. This particular sound I felt created a sense of tension and created suspense. For the impact sounds I used a bass drum and added loads of effects including reverb. I also EQ it so that there was gain on the lower frequencies and a cut on the higher frequencies. I thought this would create tension as I was trying to match the sound with the dialogue to make our thriller more effective. We felt that by matching up some of the tense musical sounds to actions of our actors hands we would build tension without the need to show his face or here any diegetic sounds.
Before this year I had never used final cut pro and so it was a new and exiting new experience. I learnt so much during this whole experience of making our 2 minute main task. I have learnt how to log, to speed things up and create a narrative from a series of logged shots, I have also learnt how to use the camera and produce quality shots that you see in our final product. In the program Final Cut Pro we created titles. We looked through all the fonts to try and pick an appropriate one for our thriller. In the end we came to a decision as a group what font we should use.
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