Finished thriller film

Preliminary task

Preliminary task - Evaluation

The storyline to our preliminary exercise focused on an exchange of items between two characters so both characters are placated. Maddison is eager to gain possession of a crown to serve to her master while Corey is keen to recieve a sandwich he so dearly craves in return of his efforts to provide her with the crown and therefore she is not punished by her master.

I believe our storyline could have been more stringent and better related to the thriller genre as there are some aspects of our exercise that are rather comical and the action taking place is not clearly traditional to the thriller genre. An example of this is when the character talks to the sandwich, an inanimate object which is a comical element in the scene and gives the sequence an overall comical vibe.

Moreover, I believe our group complied to the technical aspects of the assessment criteria, effectively demonstrating our understanding of continuity editing. We were able to include all of the listed editing techniques focusing on making them as efficient as possible as well as being able to execute them to a high standard.

Match on Action

We used the Match on Action editing technique within our exercise from 44 - 47 seconds where Corey walks through the door. The camera was positioned within the room while he walks out of the door placed directly opposite. I believe we executed match on action to a high standard in the sense that we made it clear that Corey was walking through the same door he previously walked out of in the last shot based on the setting on screen. Furthermore the editing of this particular sequence was effective as it matched how he opened the door and what he was carrying with him as well as his clothing being the same as the last shot. Despite this, I believe our editing could have been of a better standard in which the door is in the same position to where the last shot left off as the door is near enough closed as he walks through contrary to it being opened to greater extent when he first opened the door.

Eye Line Match

We utilised the Eye Line Match editing technique within our preliminary exercise from 48 - 51 seconds. Maddie is looking away off camera to her left to imply that her attention is fixed on a character off screen. It then becomes evident to the audience when we see Leigh placing the throne on her head in the next shot that that is what Maddie is looking at. We performed the Eye line match effectively as even though the shots of the two characters were done separately and in different locations, it still seemed as if one was looking at the other and therefore the audience believe this while watching our exercise. I believe the execution of this shot was technically accurate although the camera could have been closer on Leigh placing the crown on her head so the audience get a stronger feel of her emotions at that point in time. In addition, the camera could have been in front of Leigh instead of at the side to execute the Eye Line Match to a heightened extent as the audience would be capable of relating further to the action on screen.

Shot Reverse Shot

The Shot Reverse Shot editing technique consisted of the majority of our exercise with the main bulk of it being a conversation between the two main characters. There are some aspects of our shot reverse shot that are of an extremely high quality and others where there could be improvements. I believe the speed of our editing was effective as each sequence of our shot reverse shot was quick and efficient and there was no left over baggage time in the editing which made the conversation appear naturalistic and not too structured so the audience believe the characters are having a genuine conversation. Furthermore, the editing was performed effectively where all the action from the previous shot matched that of the next one to small detail for example, while the camera was behind Maddie at 12 seconds she looks down towards the crown on the table and then at 13 seconds the camera as changed to facing her and she places her hands on the crown as she picks it up demonstrating our understanding of continuity editing and using match on action. We could have improved our shot reverse shot by placing the camera in exactly the same position on either side of the shot so that every shot was equal however I believe this may have been hard to execute and would be time consuming so it only proves as a minor improvement we could make.

180 Degree Rule

We done well not to break the 180 degree rule within our preliminary exercise. This could have easily been done when shooting our shot reverse shot sequence if we were to place the camera at one side of the conversation and then move it round to the other in a consecutive fashion as it would have looked as if the two characters had changed position while the conversation progressed. This would make our exercise look unprofessional and of a poorer quality and therefore I believe our group done well not to break this rule while recording our short preliminary film.

Sound

We could have implemented non diegetic sound to compliment the diegetic sound within our film as this would demonstrate our understanding of editing and clarity within film. We could have used suspenseful music to play over the main conversation which would relate our exercise further to the thriller genre and make the action more effective for our audience when watching. This is something to consider when we make our final thriller to improve the quality of our work.

Overall

Overall I believe our preliminary exercise was conducted effectively to demonstrate our understanding of continuity editing. We met all the listed editing techniques on the assessment criteria to a high standard although the execution of these techniques could have been slightly better. Despite this, I believe our work has prepared us for our final thriller production and we can implement any further improvements taken from our preliminary exercise.

Evaluation question 7: Looking back at the Preliminary task, what do you think you have learned in the process from it?

While progressing from the Preliminary task to our Final Film, there were many improvements and things learned from our preliminary film to aid in the success of our final cut. These improvements range from various different factors which relate to the effectiveness of a media text. Examples of improvements and edits fall under a variety of fields, these include;

- Cinematography
- Sound
- Location
- Execution of shots
- Mise en Scene
- Editing

Camera work

From the Preliminary task, I have learned how to more effectively use the camera to enhance the dynamics of a media text. Examples of this is the use of a high angle shot to show who is the oppressed in a sequence in our final cut whereas in our preliminary exercise we did not consider camera work and cinematography to represent certain things within the media.

Furthermore, I have learned from our preliminary task, how to use a wider range of shots in order to make the media text more engaging for the audience. In our preliminary task, most of the shots where simple shot reverse shots and the duration of each shot was potentially longer than it needed to be. I have learned that through a quicker pace of editing with a wider variety of shots, especially in relation to the thriller genre, it works effectively as the audience constantly have to work in order to keep up with the action and are therefore engaged and connected to the media product to a greater extent.

Location

While progressing from our preliminary task to our final cut, I have established that a strong use of multiple locations when filming can be effective as it allows the audience to uncover these different places while they watch the film which intrigues them as they constantly want to find out what the next location will be. Also, overwhelming and bold locations are effective as it provides the "wow" factor for the audience and a good location can force them to engage with the action on screen more thoroughly. While restricted to one environment in the media text, the audience have the capacity to become tiresome and become less focused on the action.

As you can see from the screen grabs above, we restricted ourselves to one location in our preliminary task that was not that powerful when considering the conformities of the thriller genre. However, in our final cut, we used large and powerful urban settings for some of our locations and therefore, our final media product would have a greater effect and hold on our audience overall.

Storyline

I learned from my preliminary task that storyline within the thriller genre can be really effective in sustaining an audiences' attention. In our preliminary task, our storyline was very week and not particularly engaging; and we learned how this could have a huge effect on our audience in the sense that if our storyline was not strong then it does not give them a reason to continue watch our media product. Based on this, we made sure to enhance the storyline when creating our final thriller in order to capture our audience.

There were more characters within our final piece and our product as a whole was much longer than our preliminary task which meant we could develop these characters to a greater extent which made our product as a whole a step up from our preliminary task.

Mise en scene

I also learned from my preliminary task that the mise en scene has a great effect on the quality of a media product. Progressing from this, we made sure that in our final thriller we had a strong mise en scene which would get the audience questioning different things about the content of our product and to further be enthralled by the media text within it. A noticeable difference between our preliminary and our Final product in relation to the mise en scene is costume. In our preliminary, we did not value or consider the effectiveness of costume and consequently our worked lacked taste and impact where there wasn't a clear distinction between our characters through factors such as; status, class and power.

 However, in our final thriller opening, we utilised costume where the oppressed character was wearing standard clothing whereas the character with authority was wearing a smart suit which suggests he has a higher status then the casually dressed character and he obtains more power. This is a result of us feeding the stereotypes of society.

Furthermore in relation to the mise en scene advancing from our preliminary task to the final edit, there were are more diverse range of graphics on screen which was more impacting then the ones within our preliminary task. This shows that I learned that impacting sequences and pictures within the media text are important in capturing our audience, this is especially in relation to thriller genre. Examples of the contrast between the extent of the graphics within our preliminary task and our final cut can be seen below:










Editing

In progression from the preliminary task to the Final thriller, I have learnt a huge amount about editing. I played an instrumental part in the editing of our film and thus gained a variety of skills in relation to editing. First and foremost, I learnt how to effectively use final cut express in order to edit our media product which I could not do when editing our preliminary task as we used more simplistic editing software such as the editing software found on the windows set up. Based on this, in transition from our preliminary task to our final thriller, the editing within our media product improved to a much more enhanced standard.

                 





What we also took into account was the speed and style of editing within our final edit to improve its quality in comparison to our preliminary task. In our preliminary task, the speed of the editing is quite gradual and repetitive which makes the text lack taste and effect as mentioned before. Furthermore, there are no advanced transitions in our preliminary task which alter from a straight cut. This limits the effectiveness of our preliminary task as the audience are not impacted to the extent they would be if the speed and style of the editing was varied.

However, in our Final cut, the speed of our editing was varied and on many occasions unorthodox. This allows the audience to not become tiresome of the long sequences without an edit. This is very relevant in association to the thriller genre where there is a lot of fast paced action and the speed of editing is the make or break in determining how the action within the film will impact its audience. Furthermore, in our Final Cut, we stylised the editing in various different ways using advanced editing techniques such as; dissolves, cross fades and fade ins/outs. This makes the overall look of the media text more appealing for the audience as these styles give indication to many different things such as time passing. This shows that I have learnt a significant amount about editing in the progression from my preliminary task to my final thriller.

 

Sound

I have learned a great deal about sound progressing from our preliminary task to our final cut based on the fact that in our preliminary task, there was no non-diegetic sound which absolutely limits the impact that our media text has on our audience. Progressing from our preliminary task, our Final Cut entertained a strong mix of both diegetic and non diegetic sound. Both the sound effects we used in correlation with our non-diegetic music aided the impact that our media text had on our audience. We were able to identify what our preliminary task lacked in relation to sound and learned from this through placing a wide variety of sounds within our media text.

Evaluation question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of constructing our product, I have learnt how to set up and use various different technologies which I would not have learned if I was not developing this media product.

Blogger

Although evidently one of the easier technologies, I have learnt how to effectively use blogger in greater detail than many other technologies throughout the process. I learnt how to create blogs to present written information that can all be stored in one place. Despite this, I learned that information can be presented in many different ways on the blogger set up such as importing pictures from different places on the internet from sources such as Google. More advanced factors of this technology is the ability to embed videos from around the web onto a blog post which again shows the efficiency of blogger where multiple videos can be stored in one place.

Cameras

During the process, me and my team used a digital video camera in order to capture the content within our film and utilised this technology for factors such as the animatic for our storyboard. Before this process, I did not use video cameras and thus it has allowed me to engage more with digital technology where I am now confident in using the different functions of the camera and being capable of recording film sequences by myself and further importing them onto a computer and making necessary edits where need be using different technologies on the computer.

Final Cut Express

Final Cut express was similar to blogger in the sense that it was one of the most used technologies used throughout the process of developing our media product. While doing our research and practice for our final film we used Final Cut to edit preliminary work focusing on specific aspects of Film e.g. sound, cinematography and mise en scene. We further used Final Cut to edit our final film and input all necessary features of our product to make it make it the best it can possibly be. I can admit to enjoying learning and using Final Cut because it has allowed me to gain skills in editing which I did not have before the use of this specific technology.

Popplett

I learned how to use Popplett throughout the evaluation of our media product where I used it to present information on one of the evaluation questions. I found that Popplett was effective as it allowed me to clearly present the information in a structured way that external viewers would be able to understand the content easily without confusion. Another positive aspect of this technolog is that its simplicity will allow me to use it in other aspects of life such as revision for my examinations.

Youtube

Although my first encounter with this specific technology did not come from the process of developing our media product, various features of this technology I have learned to use over the course of making our film. When researching into the thriller genre I learned how to embed videos from youtube to different places around the internet such as blogger. This is an effective tool on this technology as it allows people to see videos such as our final media product simply on my blog and not have to go and search for it around the web. This means that this technology is a enhancer of efficiency when on the web.

Exam Time

Similar to Popplett, I learned how to use the Exam Time technology to present information in an efficient and easy way to prevent confusion and a continuance of bulky paragraphs that can become tiresome and tedious to read and can appear quite dull. Again similar to the popplett technology, exam time can be an effective technology to use in other aspects of life again like revision for exams.

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract your audience's attention?

My group attracted our audiences' attention in various different ways through the use of our media product. We made certain that we considered factors from the previous question in relation to who our audience is and also general aspects of the film world; taking into account what makes a good film. There are different conventions of the thriller genre used in our opening. This is effective in attracting our audience as it allows them to identify it as a mysterious and conspiracy thriller which instantaneously engages their human instincts to solve problems and uncover truths. As well as this, other features of our film such as; characters, locations and narrative are all utilised to attract our audiences' attention.

How does our thriller hold the audiences attention?

An abnormal situation as an instant opening

The first visuals for our audience is a blooded character strapped to a chair partnered with a pulsing heartbeat in an abandoned looking setting which instantly engages the audience where they begin questioning different things in relation to our film. Examples of the enigmas sparked within our audience are; how the character got there, why the character is there, who has placed him there, and what he has done that has resulted in him being there. This shows that we have immediately attracted our audience through exploiting their human instincts to question and solve this type of scenario in order for them to have full knowledge of the circumstances of the situation.

However, on evaluating the visual content of our film, I believe that through a compilation of multiple shots of this character strapped to the chair from a variety of different angles, accompanied with cinematic booms for each shot, we could have supplemented the attraction we have on our audience with impact so that their intrigue is to an even more heightened degree. This would be something to consider if we were going to remake our film or could work as an improvement for future work.

McGuffin

Another technique used to attract our audience is the immediate introduction of the McGuffin which is the envelope in our media product. Similar to the very opening of our film, this conjures up different enigmas about our film. The audience automatically question what could be the content within the envelope, why the envelope is relevant, who is "VOODOR," and what the motives are of the person who has the envelope. This attracts the audience as they become involved in the film and are beginning to follow the envelope in relation to what effect it has on the character who is given it in our opening. Furthermore, the fact that in our opening the character who is given the envelope views its contents but the audience do not get to, makes them eager to find out what the contents are and instantly provides reason for them to continue viewing our film.

Locations

We attracted our audience by using well known locations such as Canary Wharf. The audience are interested in locations such as this as it gets them thinking about different factors such as formal business being conducted, and the massiveness of the buildings envelopes the audience while present on the screen where they can feel overwhelmed. Also, based on research on thriller genre and of our audience, it is clear that the use of modern, urban settings such as this in thriller films works as a success where the thriller genre is the most known genre to utilise Urban settings such as this. Furthermore, using well known places such as this allows the audience to clearly identify the location of the action as they are most likely to know that Canary Wharf is in London.

Characters

Based on our audience research, we knew that our main target audience was predominately males and thus the three opening characters within our media text were all male; with a planned introduction of a female star later on in our film to appeal to a wider audience with love interest as well as sex appeal, and thus exploiting human nature. However, focusing on the majority of our audience which are young adult males, we attracted our audience by introducing three different male characters and this would attract our audience because there is a strong chance that the people making up our audience could relate to one of these characters and as a result attracts them to watch the rest of the film.

 

Movie Night

At our school, me and my group held a preview night where we gathered a congregation of students to watch a blockbuster film although we showed them our opening before the film started in order for them to give feedback about what they thought. However, we saw this as an opportunity to attract our audience to our film where they begin to question if we will be turning it into a full piece of media to produce, exhibit and distribute.

Social media

We further used social networking to attract our audience by uploading our film to different social networking sites used heavily by our young generation. This helped attract our audience as they were able to view our product without going to great extents to do so as we placed it on sources that our audience members are most likely to use in everyday life.

Evaluation question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?