Overall Feedback

After uploading our thriller opening to youtube, we decided that we should get some feedback from our target audience. We decided to upload our thriller opening to Alicia's social media; Facebook as Alicia has many people on her Facebook that our thriller appeals to. Here are some of the comments that we received:

"Very good! I enjoyed watching."

"I loved the music, it is atmospheric."

"Loved this!  I would say the boy seems like he is being interviewed etc, he needs to be a bit more relaxed, seriously well done!."

"I would say the first piece of music should've started before the first scene begins to create a relaxed atmosphere before the audience has a chance to make assumptions. I think their should've been a bigger pause between the second bit of text we see at the beginning and the first scene, as this allows the audience to really take in and think about what they just read."

"I couldn't understand what they were saying and I didn't get the sense of urgency at the situation. Acting is about embodying the characters - I think your actors needed a little more time to get into their characters."

Getting this feedback from our target audience is very important as it has allowed us to see things that are needing to be improved next time as we are continuously looking to improve it. I feel that we have learnt a lot during this experience of making the thriller and although it isn't perfect we know things that worked well and what didn't work well for next time. The target audience has been very important throughout the process of making our thriller and their opinion has been very important when evaluating our choices. 

Evaluation: Question Seven:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at our preliminary task I feel that we now have a lot more knowledge about all of the aspects it takes to make a thriller opening and how to plan to make I successful. I feel that with our preliminary task we didn't plan very much and jumped straight into it with filming and had very little knowledge about camera angles, mise-en-scene, sound and editing but however, I feel that we have grown in knowledge and improved and leant new skills and techniques to create a successful final thriller opening, taking into consideration the target audience and a range of conventions.

 Filming - I have learnt that to be able to make a successful thriller opening you need to plan step by step what you're going to do and make sure that each member of your group takes charge of something to make sure that everyone has something to do. I feel that I have grown in confidence when it comes to filming as at the start and during the preliminary task I was unsure about how I could move the camera and still make it continual. Also, I have learnt a lot of new camera angels and how to put these together to make a scene look more effective and professional. In the preliminary task we had basic knowledge of camera angles, shots and how to edit, which is why there is a huge improvement from our preliminary task to our thriller opening. Our thriller opening shows a wide range of shots and sophisticated editing to make it look a lot more effective then before just have one shot before changing to the next scene. Some of the shots that we used in the preliminary task are hard to distinguish with what they actually are. However, in the thriller opening the shots are clearer to see between and to point of what shots what. I feel that we have improved immensely with our camera skills and the improvement in the height and position is evident in the difference between then and now.

Mise-en-scene,sound and camera work - In our preliminary task we had little idea about why mise-en-scene and camera movements were important. However, now we have a vast range of different shots including close ups, mid shots, beind the shoulder shots, point of view shot and high angle shots. We understand now that mking the shots continuous is very important in the making of it because the lighting has to be the same between the scenes which we didn't do in our prelimiary task. I feel that we have also developed in knowledge of why sound is so important and how sound itself can bring so much suspense.

Overall, I feel that their is significant development between the preliminary task  and the thriller opening as it is very evident. I feel that my knowledge about everything that comes together to make it successfull has improved very much. The difference between the shots, sound and camera movement has improved immensly, which my group and I are very happy about.

Evaluation: Question Six:

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot during the process of constructing the end product of the thriller opening. I feel that I have gained many skills and techniques when filming, the editing, distribution of films and the process of working with a group to come up with ideas.

Filming / camera skills:

 Filming was a difficult part of the thriller opening for us as we filmed a lot more than we had planned as when we got back to school to start editing the shots on several occasions weren't as good as what we wanted and also the lighting was poor in a few shots also. We each filmed our fair share of clips we tried to make it so that people who weren't acting in that certain scene did the filming. I filmed most of the conversation between the mum and dad, the mum walking into the living room, the kitchen and stairs shots. I have no experience prior to this using a camera professionally so at times I found it hard keeping the camera still to make sure that it didn't move but I got the hang of this relatively quickly. I was able to build my skills and knowledge on what the right way to hold a camera was and changing angles to be able to adapt the acting as some parts were different to what we had planned originally in our storyboard. I had to make sure that the camera was focused so that the shot was in good quality and that the different angles that I used flowed from shot to shot making sure the camera was in landscape each time I filmed.  In the first couple of scenes and in the ending barn scene we used Alicia's camera as t was high quality and looked very good when used outside. However, in the inside scenes we used the school camera which was a cannon professional digital camera to enable that we got the best picture that we could. I do feel that the quality of Alicia camera is slightly better than the school but the difference wasn't to much to worry about. We also used the flash on the camera in several shots as they were particularly dark than the other shots that we had so that we didn't need to edit the lighting which can look fake and not real light. Overall, I have learnt a lot about filming and what it takes to make sure the shots are continual and the focus makes it look as high definition as possible.

Editing: 

Editing for us was quite a difficult and time consuming part of the process of making the thriller opening as most of us in the group hadn't before used the programme iMovie on the Imacs. Meaning it took us each quite a lot of time to come to grips with everything that iMovie had to offer and how to use it. When we got to grips with how to import footage from the camera to iMovie we started to look at all the features that it had to offer and we started to see what they had to offer. We liked the different effects, transitions and fonts that it had so we were able to edit our shots to make them flow and make the titles our own to make them fit what we wanted.  As well as iMovie we used a free legal downloading  site to download songs from YouTube onto iMovie which was an easy way to get the music that we wanted.



Alicia who has previous used iMovie showed us how to stabilize videos which we found very useful as a few of our scene were very shaky so this enabled it to look a lot more professional. Each of us took time to edit different sections of the opening, although Demi and I did the importing of the clips, sound, placement of the titles and the transitions. Alicia and Amy did many of the amendments and edited a fair amount of scenes. I learned a lot of skills to do with editing over time including adding slow motion to clips, making clips lighter and darker to make the shots more continual if the filming wasn't all the same, adding titles, sound effects and other parts of iMovie that I hadn't previously used before. We each had a part of the opening that we took charge of but we did get help and guidance from the other members of the group at every stage. I was in charge of the soundtrack throughout the opening sequence making sure that the music suited the shots that we had which enabled us to get across the right amount of suspense that we wanted. Also, it was important that the volume of the music wasn't too loud throughout because you needed to be able to hear the dialogue of the characters speaking so I took a long time figuring this out making sure the music was just right. I feel that I have overall, learnt a lot of skills from using iMovie on the iMacs and I feel that the choices we made as a group were right to enable the opening to all flow and fit together. Editing was a very important part of the opening to bring together all of the filming that we had to make it even more suspenseful with the use of sound effects and background sound.

 

 

Using blogger was a very important program that we used throughout the whole of the film making process. I used blogger to put all of our planning and research to enable us to see clearly what we needed to include and to also see the progress over time. I found Blogger easy to use due to its simple layout and icon tools and I was able to experiment with different backgrounds, fonts and image effects so that I could present my blog in a way that was individual to me but still showed all the necessary work my group and I had completed.

 

Analysing other types of media:

When I researched and analysed different thriller films it was ritual for me that I knew what to look for including the different shots, music and other key terminology to enable me to understand it to be able to use it in our own thriller opening. Also, while researching other thriller films I made sure to look into depth why the director chose different shots and what the effect was on the audience. I took a lot of time during the blogs thinking of other forms of media that I could use to make my blogs more interesting. I used Prezi a lot as I felt that it enabled me to write a lot of information with pictures to help explain it and it was an easy way to present to expand on creativity skills and analytic skills. I used pictures as evidence of filming throughout to back up what we did and explain why we chose to do certain things.

Overall, I have learnt a lot about ways to be able to construct our end product and have understood the steps that it takes to do this. I have learnt a lot of useful skills to do with editing, filming and using different types of media that I haven't before used.

Evaluation: Question Five:

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience is 18 to 25 year olds both males and females.

We attracted a large number of our audience by doing a questionnaire where we asked them questions about what they would want to see in a thriller film so we were able to interpret these suggestions into our thriller opening. As a group we found this very useful to be able to take there suggestions into consideration when we were making decisions about what the plot was going to be like and what the characters where going to be like.

We included many different things into our thriller opening to enable us to address and attract the target audience as this was one of the most important things when we created the thriller opening. The parts of the opening that we concentrated on most to attract the audience is:

Costume:

The costumes the parents are wearing is very smart, work clothes to show to the audience that they're back from a normal day of work and have been put in a more abnormal situation with the children missing. This shows the target audience that they're very normal and are being put in a situation that isn't normal that the audience may be able to connect and relate to at one point in there lives. The children however, are in very casual clothing to suggest to the audience that they're very vulnerable as they have been taken by someone that they don't know. This will make the audience relate to this and realise that the children are very vulnerable and alone and in need of help from someone.

Setting:

We had many different settings in the thriller opening.

1. The living room - The living room has natural light and is where the suspense of the opening starts to rise as the parents discuss where thee children are. This is a key scene for the audience as they start to realise that something is wrong with the children and keeps them gripped so they want to watch on.

2. The kitchen - Again the kitchen is a very key setting in the opening as it is where one of the firs clues is given to the mum and the audience where the children have left the note. Again, the light is very natural to again suggest the normality of the situation and that nothing is wrong at this point. The audience wonder where the children have gone and why they have gone so suddenly.

3. The front of the house - We used natural lighting to show the audience it was normal that she was getting home from work. We used diegetic sound this this scene to make the audience question what is going to happen an want to watch on.

4. The barn - The barn is the most suspenseful location that we used in the opening where the most drama happened and where the audience start to get questions as to where the children are. In the barn we used very dark lighting with sound effects of rain to suggest and get across to the audience that the situation that the children are in is very dangerous. This creates a lot of suspense for the audience and makes them want to watch on to find out what happens to the children.

Soundtrack:

We used two different soundtracks throughout our opening as at the beginning nothing dramatic and tense happened so we wanted to use a slightly slow soundtrack and then nearer the end when we wanted to build suspense we wanted a faster paced soundtrack. The music as a group we felt was a very important part of the thriller opening to connect with the audience and make them believe that the situation they're in is real and feel the suspense through the music. The first piece of music we used is the Mafia sound track and the second piece of music is the suspenseful cinematic background music which isn't really the sort of music that the target audience would normally listen to but we feel that the music with the thriller builds the right amount of tension for them to enjoy it and feel like they're there. I feel that overall the music worked very well when I edited it to fade and fit the scenes very well to make sure the music changed when it got more suspenseful and sounded ok. We also kept some diegetic sound at the beginning which I feel worked very well as it set the scene for the audience well. However, I would improve the way the music started as I feel that it started very abruptly and I would of eased it in a bit better. I feel that the soundtracks we decided to use represent our thriller opening very well and will make the target audience feel connected.

Props:

Props is one part of the opening that I would of liked to have improved as I don't feel that we used many props. I think however, the props that we did use were significant in the scene to make the audience think about what is happening and give them clues.

1. The mums handbag was the first prop that we used which was very important in showing the audience that she was coming back from a day of work.

2. The keys show the audience her age as it shows she is old enough to drive as at the beginning the audience are unaware of her age but they're able to gather an idea from this and that she has her own house as she opens it with her keys.

3. Can of drink to show that she is old enough to drink and connects to the audience as after work adults like to have a drink to relax after a long hard day so they will know how she feels. The audience also now know that she is a mum so they can also sympathise with her as well to understand the stress.

4. The note is a key part of the thriller which is a clue to the mum and the audience that something isn't right about the children being out. This makes the audience connect to the opening as they want to know why the children have gone out with there dad at such short notice.

5. A laptop to show that the mum is still working but relaxing at home. The audience can also relate to this happening to them as the scene seems very normal.

6. Phone which is another suspenseful moment when the mum doesn't get an answer from the dad suggesting to the audience that something isn't quite right about what is happening and that something may be happening that the mum is still unaware of.

Overall, I feel that we attracted the target audience well through the costumes, props and setting that we used to make the audience understand each character in a different way to help them understand them so they fee connected and want to watch on. I feel that we got a lot of input from the target audience which made us make sure that it was what they like so they could really get involved with the characters and enjoy it.

Evaluation: Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thriller opening is from the age of 18 to 25 year olds.

The ages range from a teenager to an adult and they enjoy similar media products as they re from near enough the same generation. My group and I thought hard about all the things that the target audience are interested in and why they would like our thriller. When we first looked into what the target audience would be of our thriller film we thought about the different things that the different generations do. Thriller films are mostly appealed for the younger generations as we found out when we did a questionnaire. They would enjoy these things listed below as they're of the generation that like the same things:

• Social Media
• YouTube
• Netflix
• TV
• Technology
• Phones
• Shops

Questionnaire results:

Most thriller films have the target audience of from the ages of 15 to 18 years old which made my group and I think that having the target audience be 18 would be the best selling point for our thriller.

My group and I felt that doing a questionnaire asking 10 questions to our target audience would give us some information about what they wanted to see in our thriller film. This helped us to see what age ranges want to watch a thriller film and what they want to see happen during it. In our questionnaire 95% were female, showing us that females are more likely to watch thriller films then men. However, we want to make sure that our thriller opening appeals to both genders to enable us to appeal to a lot more people. We also found that 59% were between the ages of 13 to 20 years old that liked thriller films which suggested to us the target audience that we should go with.

Another question that I found interesting to get a result from is the question where I asked what  they liked most about thriller films. The result that people liked to see  most in a thriller film is a plot twist which we looked into doing in our thriller opening. We didn't have a plot twist but we did look into doing a mystery to make the audience continuously ask questions as to what is happening. I feel that this was the right decision because plot twists are very stereotypical which we wanted to change to make original for our thriller opening.

The questionnaire that we did was overall extremely useful for us as we found out more about what the target audience wanted to see which then helped us to interpret this into our thriller opening.

A film that has the same target audience:

Gone Girl:

Gone girl has a very similar target audience to our thriller film as in Gone Girl it is a mystery throughout to find why and how the girl has gone missing. The similarities between both of these plots is that throughout the audience is left questioning what has happened to the girl/s and clues are given to help think of what may of happened to the people that are missing. Some obvious differences are that Gone Girl is about a relationship that has over time gone wrong with a lot of mystery as to why the girl went missing also this is due to things like domestic violence. However, our thriller opening is about two children that have been taken by somebody not going missing by their own choice. This is a very good example of a film related to the target audience for us to look at as the storyline and information is for a set target audience. The target audience for Gone Girl is for people that are young adults as it discusses issues in a relationship for her going missing which is the same for our thriller opening for the audience finding out what has happened to them at the same time as the characters.

Our thriller opening target audience:

Looking back at our final thriller opening, I'm happy that our plot implies the target audience that we wanted to get across. The questionnaire really helped us to connect with the target audience and understand what they wanted to see in the opening and then input this into our own. I feel that the characters are relatable to the audience as the age of our target audience 18 to 30 year olds will be able to connect and understand what they're going through better. This will therefore, attract the target audience and encourage them to watch the film and therefore the film will overall be more successful.

Overall, I feel that my group and I have considered most interests of the target audience and applied it to our thriller to help us to engage them and make them want to watch it.

Evaluation: Question Three

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation: Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group is a group of people that share similar characteristics. For example class, gender, age, sexuality, interests and ethnicity. Our target audience is 18 - 30 year olds as it I a thriller which usually appeals to the older people not children.

Gender:
Our cast is three girls and one boy which goes with the conventions of a real thriller film. However, unlike a conventional thriller film we don't have one main character we just have lots of different characters an there isn't one clearly in the opening that is the main character. However, the mum in our thriller opening is in it the most so some could suggest that this he is the main character. This goes against the stereotypical protagonist as a protagonist is normal a male character which goes against the conventions of a real thriller film. There many examples of films that have a female protagonist. For example, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates of the Caribbean. We decided to make the mum come into the house and be in it the most as she is the mum is stereotypical seen to look after the children after work to feed them. I feel that by breaking the gender stereotype of the female being the protagonist as it shows that females are as strong as men. The antagonist is still be to be known further on in the film. We decided that the two children will be the two girls as they're stereotypically seen to be the weaker sex. We feel that having both females and males is very successful as will be good for the target audience as they will be able to see both. I feel that we included the gender stereotypes of the genders well and had them like the conventional thriller. For example, the dad was more adamant that the children had been taken than the women.

Age:
We each played a character who are the ages of 16,17 and 18, however the age of the characters that we were playing ranged from 10 to 40. The children being young and the adults being around 40 years old. The reason why we had the adults being older is because they're more aware of things going on in the world but are unaware that something may have happened to there children. We wanted the children to be relatively young as when you are young you're very innocent and unaware of what is happening which links to what happens. This links to the audience as they worry about the children being in this dangerous situation. Children are more vulnerable when being taken as they can't look after themselves which creates a more tense, worrying atmosphere. We have both young and old ages to be able to go with the target audience so they will enjoy it and relate to it. Overall, I'm happy with the different ages and the way that they are represented to link to our target audience.

Ethnicity:

The race of our thriller opening is both black and white which represents the stereotype of a thriller film and shows a diverse ethnicity. However, in thriller films the characters are mostly all white. For example, Sixth Sense and The Butterfly Effect. I believe that having the race of both ethnicities shows ethnicity diversity which the target audience will appreciate. Now a days films show ethnic diversity which we showed in our thriller opening.

Class:

The class that is represented in our thriller opening is middle class as they live in a very nice area and have a nice sized house to live in. It is very obvious to the target audience that they're middle class because of the mise-en-scene and the costumes that they wear. The costumes that the parents wear are very smart to show that they have been working with the mum carrying props of a work bag to reinforce this as she walks into the house. The children are wearing casual clothes to show that the mystery of them being taken is even more out of the ordinary. Also, them being middle class is even more against the stereotype as it is normally the lower class that go missing as they may have a back story with being in gangs or there parents being involved in something. This makes them being a middle class family even more out of the ordinary for the audience as they start to worry about the children and why they have been taken. I feel that them being a middle class family reinforces the sense of mystery that we have in our thriller opening and this goes with and against the conventions of a real thriller product. There are many different examples of films that have middle class families in it that have problems. I know they're middle class by the way they dress and where they live. I like the way that we used class to add extra mystery to our thriller opening but I would however, like to add more props to make the audience sure that they're middle class and also a different class to show the difference between the mystery to add to it for the target audience.

In conclusion, I'm very happy with the way that we added age, gender, ethnicity and class to our thriller to add a sense of mystery to the thriller aspect of our opening. I think what we have done with these aspects will captivate our target audience and make them want to watch it to find out what happens.

Evaluation: Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Our media product is an opening of a thriller film that uses and challenges conventions of real media products. By developing conventions of the thriller genre into our own thriller it created a dark and suspenseful nature of our plot. This helped create uncertainty, mystery and worry throughout our opening sequence. We used the title arrangement, mise-en-scene, sound track, editing and camera angles/shots to develop our thriller sequence and make it appear more eerie and disturbing throughout. 

Using Conventions of Real Media Products:

We took a lot of inspiration from the conventions used in the titles and background sound of many thriller openings that I researched. For example ,we took a lot of inspiration from "The Butterfly Effect" title as we liked the way that the darkened non diegetic sound of the butterflies fluttering linked to the title to give clues to the audience as to what the butterfly effect may be that they will find out later on in the film. Our title "24 Hours Left" also has this effect as it makes the audience think about what the 24 hours has to do with the children going missing. Our opening title conforms to the conventions of a real media product as it is stereotypically a mystery and makes the audience question what is going to happen jus from the title.

We thought hard about this title as we wanted it to create the same mystery and questions as "The Butterfly Effect" title does and we decided to research time that it takes for children to be found after being taken. We found that if a child hasn't been found within 24 hours they're more likely to be dead than not. We took a lot of inspiration from how the background sound was used while the title was being shown and decided to use a heart beat sound effect while the quote was being shown to again make the audience think that it is the children who are in danger and makes the audience want to watch on to find out hat has happened to them. I feel that this worked very well as we decided to use the quotes at the beginning of the sequence to create suspense and a tense, eerie atmosphere before it has even started. Also, this helped us to use conventions of real media products to encourage the audience to watch the thriller. 

Furthermore, with the title of the thriller film that we chose we realised that it is conventional of a thriller genre to be very ambiguous so by finding a title that was proven to be correct through scientific evidence it helped us to create a mystery around the title to add the tension and make the audience want to watch on. Finally, the title of a thriller film in real media products is always clear to see as it is a very big selling point for the film so we made sure to make ours very visible and easy to read. We decided also to add an effect to the title to make it stand out more and create an uneasiness for the audience. Also, with the titles of the actors and actresses names they fit the convention of a real thriller film as there is male characters and females.

Quote used in The Butterfly Effect

Quote we used

The Butterfly Effect title

Our thriller title

We conformed to the conventions of a thriller in the aspect that we had long periods at the beginning of the thriller where we didn't have any dialogue which we felt that we didn't need to have speech just the music and the  acting to create a suspenseful acting.  This is used in many different thriller films as it makes the audience loo for clues as to what is wrong and what is going to happen. For example, when the mum walks into the house we didn't need any dialogue as we wanted to make the audience think that nothing was wrong and that it was a normal day for her with the audience and her unaware of anything that has happened. I feel that this overall was very successful and created the right amount of suspense with the background music.

Another way that we followed the conventions of a thriller is having the music throughout to create the suspenseful, eerie, mystery for the audience. Our thriller opening at the beginning was very normal and nothing suspenseful was happening so we decided to go against the thriller convention by having a soundtrack that wasn't very jumpy or fast which was very difficult for us. But we eventually found that the mafia opening sounded very good as it was very subtle and not very loud. The second soundtrack that we used in the background followed the conventions of a thriller more as it was a lot more suspenseful than the first as the second half of the opening as the second half is where there is when the action starts to take place. Also, some of the questions are starting to be answered for the audience as to what has happened to the children. I feel that the soundtracks that we used both apposed and went with the conventions of a real media product.

One of the most suspenseful scenes and very convention of a real media product for me is the scene where the parents are talking about the children unaware of what has happened to them. We decided to use shot reverse shots between the mum and dad to make it clear to the audience who they were and also to show them that they have no idea what had happened. The shot reverse shot that we edited together turned out very successful as I feel it is a very intense scene as the non diegetic sound starts to increase in the background and the audience start t become aware that something isn't right about what has happened. The mum is very doubtful that anything bad has happened to the children however, the dad is a bit more concerned shown though him raising his voice at some points to get this view across that the mum is displacing.  The shot reverse shots then follow onto a behind the shoulder shot of the mum walking into the kitchen to show the dad the note. This shot is also a point of view shot of the dad which we thought looked very good as the audience feel like they are there watching and figuring out for themselves what has happened to them. I like the way that the shots follow on from each other and I am very happy that they get a across that the tension and suspense is starting to rise that we wanted. If we filmed this again however, we would make sure that the behind the shoulder shot is a bit further up so part of head isn't cut out. But other than that I'm very happy with the way these shots turned out..

Although, I would say that our storyline all together doesn't' fit in the convention of a real media product as instead of it having high intensity throughout with lots happening we decided to make it less tense. For example, at most points we didn't have anything dramatic happening while the mum to enforce the fact that at this point she has no idea that anything has happened. However, aspects of our thriller do go with the conventions of a real media product as we have left lots of small clues, including the note and pieces f dialogue to suggest that something ha happened to them. Therefore, we wanted to make the audience question what has happened to the children and want to find out as the parents do. We added a few scenes at the end of the opening that definitely fit the stereotypical convention of a thriller as we used a flashback shot showing the children running away from who had taken them and then the final scene where the children are shown being tied up and had been taken somewhere by somebody. The audience then known what has happened to the children but want to watch on to find out who it is and if the parents manage to save them. The lighting is very dark to suggest that it is very dangerous and that something bad has happened. We also emphasised this with sound effects of the rain as thunderstorms also connote danger and makes the audience feel more worried. The props and makeup that we used in this scene also emphasise the fact that they have been hurt by someone and the audience instantly engage with it and want to find out why they have been hurt. The two girls also fit the stereotypical gender to be taken as they're seen to be weaker and the person people will assume as being a male as this is what stereotypically happens. I feel that by using the conventions of a thriller at the end made it more successful as the audience recognise that it is a thriller and that stereotypically things in a thriller always go wrong. The last shot that we had of the two girls screaming and trying to get away from the person, I feel that this is a good way to end it as it is a cliff hanger and makes the audience want to watch on. I feel that this turned out very well as it reinforces not only stereotypical thriller aspects but also the conventions of real media products.

Challenging conventions of Real Media Products:

I feel that our thriller opening challenged the conventions of a thriller film overall as our plot is very different to a real media product. For example, the plot that we have isn't very suspenseful and nothing is really happening to the characters, this is reinforced by the non diegetic music being very soft and not very loud and also there is no speech at the beginning. We felt that by doing this it was creating suspense in itself as the audience know that a stereotypical thriller has something bad happen in it and they're waiting for the same to happen in this one. We created suspense through clues throughout that the audience can pick out and try and sole it before the parents find out what has happened to them. Clues are very convention to a real media product as many thrillers use clues almost like a mystery to find out themselves. However, nearer the end of the opening we include many conventional aspects of a stereotypical thriller, as I've previously stated.

We also challenged the conventions of real media products through the choice of lighting that we had throughout except the last couple of scenes as in thriller film the lighting is stereotypically very dark. However, in the opening of our thriller film our lighting is very light and is natural lighting as we wanted to make it look as normal as possible so the audience think that nothing is wrong as everything is very normal. I feel that this choice of lighting is very successful as it shows the difference between the thriller aspects of the media (the barn) and the non suspenseful parts which is mainly the beginning of the opening. I feel that we made a good decision with the lighting as it shows the difference between the thriller parts and the other less suspenseful parts.

Our final Thriller Opening

Our final Thriller Opening Edit:

Today, we uploaded our final thriller opening to YouTube in class and shared it on our social media to get some feedback for when I come to do the evaluation.

Filming and Editing experience

Filming:

Filming took a lot longer than we originally planned as when we were filming we thought that it all looked very good. However, when we returned to school and started to edit the clips together we realised that many of the shots didn't flow very well and the lighting on several occasions wasn't as continuous as we wanted. This resulted in us having to film more times than expected to make sure that small parts were improved from the last filming instead of filming new footage each time. This made filming difficult for us as we had figure out extra time after school that we could all attend.

When we were filming we took a fair amount of time filming each day to make sure that we all had an equal amount to say that we filmed. Alicia, filmed mostly the first day, filming shots outside of the mum walking into the house and kitchen parts. I filmed mostly the second day filming when the mum is in the kitchen and her walking into the kitchen with input from Demi on a few shots in the living room that I found difficult to hold in one position for a long time. The third day was filmed again by me with Demi filming the mum and dad in the living room talking. The fourth day was filmed by Amy in the scene where the children were taken into a run down barn which is our most suspenseful scene in the opening meaning we had to make sure that the shots and angles were jus right. I feel that while we were each filming we had different ideas at the time of the different angles that would look better than planned. This made our filming more successful as we were continuously improving it each time that we shot something. For example, we decided to change the field scene as we thought that a run down barn would look a lot more effective and would enable us to use the shots that we wanted to use to make it look more suspenseful. The only part about filming that wasn't very good for us as a group was that we had to re film several times which made the filming process even longer than we had originally planned. However, we did make sure that we were editing as we went along so we weren't too far behind. Overall, filming went well and the shots that we did get I feel worked and looked very effective in the end.

Editing:

We each took our turns editing different parts of the opening, Demi was the main editor and I helped make improvements to what he had done and what could make it better and did so. Nobody, except Alicia had used the editing software meaning that it took us each quite a while to get used to where everything was and how to use it. When we did grasp how to use the editing software it was a lot easier for us to know what we want and then immediately after do what we thought would improve it. For example, a transition between the shots in the children running to show the increase in suspense. I was in charge of the music and I needed to look for a piece that wasn't too climatic and calm as our opening is very normal and at the start nothing much happens. One part of the editing that at the end was hard for us as a group was that we had used many transitions and sound effects meaning the time of our thriller was over 2 minutes so by the end we had to be very brutal about parts that we cut out and kept which some of us where indecisive about. This I because some of the scenes that we took out people in the group had taken a long time editing but we had to make sure that it was shortened but still flowed well. Overall, I'm very happy with the sound that I have found and how it flows with the dialogue and shots. We all edited the scenes together constantly giving suggestions that could improve it but we each had to pick out three scenes that we needed to analyse. Here are the three examples of some of the scenes that I edited.

1. I edited the shot where the mum walks into the kitchen which is a behind the shoulder shot to the high angle shot from the top of the stairs when she shouts for the children. I decided to make the behind the shoulder shot continual from her walking to her looking up the stairs by using a quick shot change of her looking up the stairs. I needed to add a sound effect of her heels which I found on iMovie as in the previous scene you could hear her heels and I wanted to make sure that it is continual. I inserted it and made the sound effect in slow motion to make sure it was in sink of when she walked. I am happy with the way this turned out as it sounds like it did before and it isn't an obvious sound effect. I had a problem when editing the stairs change of her walking to the low angle of her looking up the stairs as I wanted to make the shot last as long as I could of her looking up the stairs to make sure the audience could see that she didn't get an answer. The low angle shot that we filmed wasn't held for as long as we wanted so I decided to split the clip of when she was looking up the stairs and used a slow motion effect to make her move slower into the next shot of her walking to the fridge. I feel that this made the connection between the audience and what was happening better as they could clearly see that something wasn't right. When she walks into the house you can hear her footsteps very clearly but when she walks into the kitchen the footsteps can't be heard as well so I decided to look for sound effect of high heels to make the sound continual from shot to shot. I had to make sure that the sound of the heels were in sink with her moving so I decided to cut the clip down to make sure that the footsteps were more spread out and fit with her movement. I then added the background music that we had chosen previously and saw how it fit. I was overall happy with the way that the background sound fitted but the sound of the heels was very loud so I decided to decrease the volume of the heels so that the music could be heard and the heel sound was more subtle. I then added the name of the next actor that we were using "Idris Elba" in the bottom right hand side making sure that it was the same size and font as the ones I had previously made. Overall, I am very happy with the way these shots continued together and the sound that I edited with it.

2. The second shot that I edited was the establishing shot of the mum walking into the living room and sitting down on the sofa. When I first looked at the shot I realised that the shot lasted a very long time (30 seconds) so I decided that it would be best if we decided to split the clip to add a shot in between it to break it up. I decided that we could add a shot of her looking at the TV from a point of view shot to make the shot not as long. I feel that this was a very good idea as it made the audience know exactly what she was doing and what she was looking at that time. I decided to make the diegetic sound of the TV quite loud to make it look normal and what she would normally do. I feel that this made the scene look very natural. I then looked at the background music and decided that this would be a good place to change the music as when the dad walks in it starts to grow in suspense as they start to make the audience realise that the kids are gone. I cut the music and inserted the new music but I saw that the music stopped very abruptly which didn't sound very good so I decided to fade the music out and fade the music in when the dad walks in to make the audience see that this was a suspenseful moment. Overall, I was in charge of most of the music throughout and this was a key moment as the music was needing to be changed to something a bit more upbeat and suspenseful which is why I decided to edit this scene mainly. I am very happy with the change in music even though it look a long time to make the fades happen at the right time but I am happy with the way it sounds and the shot changes that I have made.

3. The third part of the thriller opening that I edited was the production names at the bottom of the screen throughout the opening, I imported all of the footage from the camera onto the computer and then edited all of the soundtrack throughout. When we were thinking of the names of the people who were going to star in our opening it wasn't too difficult as we had already researched different actors and actresses that we were going to put into it. However, the tough part for me was making sure that the size and font was right and I did this by looking at previous thriller openings and looking at the positioning that they had the names in. I soon realised that they were all placed at the bottom of the screen and were shown for no more than 4 to 5 seconds at a time. I choose a font that I liked from the iMovie titles then inserted it into the clips making sure they were all on for the same amount of time and the same distance apart. This took a long time to do but when it was eventually done I showed the rest of the group and they were happy with how it turned out. I made sure to add the actors and actresses names at the beginning and the producers at the end as this is what I saw most openings do in ones that I had previously researched. When I saw the titles all together I decided to show our teacher to see what she thought as I wanted to get some feedback on how I could improve it. Our teacher said that she liked it but I should look into making the titles smaller in size as they were filling the whole of the bottom screen and they stood out too much against the things that were happening that we wanted the audience to see. So we decided to make the titles smaller in size, so I made the fonts all smaller from 120 to 74 on all of them which looked overall a lot better and made them not stand out as much which is what we wanted.

The next part of the opening that I was in charge of was getting the sd card from the camera and importing all of the footage that we had filmed onto iMovie where I then put all of the clips in rough order of where they go so we could then all edit all of the footage to make the clips shorter and so on to fit. I feel that this was a very important part of the editing process as I needed to make sure that all the footage was in order so we could then go into editing the shots further.

The last part of the opening that I was in charge of was editing the soundtrack throughout the opening. (I have previously discussed in an earlier blog the different choices that we like and which ones we decided to use in the end). I found editing the soundtrack very difficult as when researching I realised that the non diegetic sound in thriller openings is very important in ensuring you create a suspenseful atmosphere for the audience. We decided to use the mafia theme song at the beginning of the opening as it didn't sound very jumpy and is what we wanted to get across to the audience as there wasn't anything happening at the beginning. I added the mafia theme song to the clips after the part where the mum walks into the house as I liked the diegetic background sound of the birds and the cars going past to set the scene. I felt that the soundtrack sounded very good however, it was very loud and didn't sound very effective with the scene as nothing was really happening. I decided that I needed to lower the volume of the soundtrack to make it so the audience don't concentrate on the music but do on what is actually happening. I did this with help from Demi as he knew how to lower the volume as he had been able to do this from the part where he added sound effects of rain in a later scene. The volume was then well done and looked effective but I know had to find a place in the opening where things started to get a bit more suspenseful where I could add the other soundtrack. I decided the part where the dad walks in to the living room is when it starts to get suspenseful so this would be a good place to cut the music and insert the other music.

I inserted the next piece of music that we had chosen " Suspenseful cinematic background music" and added this just before the dad walks in. I looked back at where the music changed over to see how it fitted and realised that the music stopped very suddenly so I decided that I need to fade the previous piece of music out to make the transition more continuous. As I previously said I have never used iMovie before so Demi again helped me to be able to do the fade and once he showed me how to I took over and found a place that the fade would look good from. I was overall very happy with the way that the fade sounded.  I then realised that the sound of the next piece of music was very high in volume so I decided to lower the volume again. However, I decided to have the volume slightly higher than the previous piece of music as I wanted to make sure that this piece of music emphasised the suspense that was starting to arise. The soundtrack sounded good but I realised that the you couldn't hear the mum and dad speaking very well so I decided to increase the volume of them speaking which sounded a lot better and made sure you heard them better. I had the soundtrack playing through out the whole of the rest of the opening but once Demi and Amy had edited the sound effects of a heart beat into the barn scene I decided to cut the music at the beginning of the scene where you see the children running. I feel that this looked very effective as the audience would be fully concentrating on what has happened to the children and start looking for clues as to who the person is that has taken them. I decided to again fade the music out to make sure that the ending wasn't to abrupt. Overall, I am very happy with the way the sound ended up and I'm happy with the volumes and the change in music that I had edited.

Overall, I am very happy with the things that I contributed to most when editing and I believe that the choices that I made, make it look more effective and add to the suspense that we wanted to create. I also helped the others  by pointing out things that they could do to certain shots and transitions to make it look more effective and continual.