Keira's Evaluation - Section 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Thrillers are well known in the world of film for particular distinguishing attributes that set them apart from, say, a romantic comedy. For example the typical aspects of mis-en-scene usually follow these rules: lighting is low key, utilising greens, blues and greys to create a grim, bleak atmosphere (a good example being ‘The Matrix' shadows are often used as they can communicate a feeling of intimidation or threat to the audience.
Our thriller opening was set at night – immediately limiting the amount of light we had to film with. We tried to make the lights inside the house slightly dimmer than they normally would have been to keep with the conventions of thriller – using a filter over the redhead and picking which lights to turn on very carefully. We chose not to use any coloured gels (e.g. blue or red) as we felt these were not appropriate to the scene taking place and would only detract from the realism of our piece. Our class evaluation mostly stated that the lighting was ‘effective’ and ‘relevant’ although a little dark in some places.

The sound accompanying the action in a film can hugely affect the atmosphere and immediately alter the genre under which something falls. With diegetic sounds the main conventions are that dialogue is spoken clearly so the audience can follow the story but typically the male characters will have quite deep, intense voices. Louder noises (e.g. explosions, gun shots, screams) will usually be emphasised to create as much effect as possible in order to shock. Diegetic music if used will normally be of a popular song so that the audience can relate to the character (e.g. in ‘I Am Legend’ the protagonist often sings and plays a well-known Bob Marley song. Although this is not a traditional thriller-esque piece of music, it adds a sense of familiarity and involvement for the audience and when put against the zombie backdrop becomes quite chilling). As for non-diegetic sound, thrillers are synonymous with mostly orchestral music – ranging from the screeching, sudden and sharp sounds created by a violin in ‘Psycho’ to much more resounding, beautiful drawn-out chords that can provide an appropriate backdrop for a more sad moment. In scenes of pure action, however, it is more likely to hear computer-generated music with a combination of a lot of different instruments (almost always involving a drumbeat throughout to build tension).
In our piece, we have put a lot of emphasis on non-diegetc sound, with the background noises hardly noticeable through the music over the top. We did this to demonstrate how the antagonist would be feeling at this point – barely aware of other things going on around him as he struggles to do what he needs to do in what he knows is a limited time (we didn’t take the sounds out completely though because we still wanted it to be realistic). The music we used was done by a friend of my family who creates soundtrack music in his spare time. It wasn’t made specifically for our opening, yet we felt it fit the atmosphere perfectly; our class seemed to agree, giving very positive comments such as ‘music really worked’, ‘kept atmosphere going’. It is fast-paced, starting slower and building throughout gaining more musical motifs as a counterpart to the original melody. The instrument used is a keyboard (one with the ability to cheat a lot of other instruments’ sounds) and the music sounds quite modern. We chose to start it on the second shot as this is when he first enters the house and when the real action begins; it decreases in volume when the girl comes home to show that the man needs to be quieter, but then slowly builds back up towards the end. When the title of the film comes up the music changes to signify the end of the opening sequence, and to add interest to the title.

Speaking of titles, they too are something to take into consideration when creating the opening to a film dependant on the genre. There are a variety of different ways to present the title/credits to be thought about. For example, they can be completely separate from the opening, - either on a simple black screen or set against their own mini narrative which is related to the main story in some way. An excellent thriller example of this is in ‘Se7en’, (youtube clip 1). This is a useful device for filmmakers as it sets up the atmosphere for and gives you a feel for the rest of the film, even though it’s not always directly related. It also works well if you have a lot of credits to fit in so that the audience’s interest is sustained. Another interesting way of presenting credits is to incorporate them into the mis-en-scene (perhaps on books, written on walls etc.) this can be seen here, taken from the film ‘The Matrix' (youtube clip 2). This is less commonly seen in thrillers as it can be quite comedic, though if done well can be highly effective also.
We chose to put our credits layered over our opening as we didn’t want to interrupt the action. They are quite small and in the corner of the frame so as not to distract from what is happening, we also chose which shot to put each name on carefully so as not to ruin a really interesting or important parts of the opening.
Our title comes at the end of our sequence and is set out as having one word on each slide separated by shots we filmed of a clock (relating to the title – ‘No Time For Goodbye’). These shots are very quick and only give the viewers just enough time to take in what the slides say before cutting to the next (to sustain the tension). The font is fairly ordinary and coloured white on a black background as we didn’t want to seem to cliché by using a traditionally thriller-esqe font or the colour red but still wanted it to stand out.
The text itself jolts slightly and moves (we took the basis of this idea from ‘Se7en’) as we thought that was more intriguing and appropriate than a static, straight-forward title. The comments we got for the titles were along the lines of ‘cool and different’, ‘appropriate to piece’; although some people said they didn’t notice the credits. Had we had longer for the whole opening (say 5 minutes rather than 2), we would have definitely considered putting the credits and title in their own narrative as this may have improved the atmosphere. However, with that there would have been danger of trying to over-do it and making it look too complicated which would given less time for editing our actual footage (which is more important to us).


Costume and makeup can also be extremely important in creating effective characters with a possible need for realistic injuries or diseases etc. As with most genres, in thriller films the costume of a particular character can tell the viewers a lot about them – perhaps using darker colour for the antagonists and brighter, less threatening colours for the protagonists.
Not only this but the appearance is the soul thing upon which most people first judgements are made. This is utilised in the film world by shaping viewers’ perceptions through their style: do they look rich/poor clean/untidy trustworthy/deceptive. This can be particularly useful in thrillers that involve some sort of twist (as is common). For example, in ‘The Others’ the protagonist appears to be a perfectly innocent woman – she is attractive, dressed in reasonably smart clothes and is always looking washed, neatly and respectable. Stereotypically this suggests she can be trusted an so, as viewers, we have been lead to believe she is the victim of the scenario; however, at the end it is revealed she is to blame for the death of her children – completely flipping our perceptions around.

The costume for our protagonist stuck to the traditional conventions in that she wore a red dress – this both signified the fact that she had just been to a party (hence the drunken state) and, on a deeper level, that she was in potential danger. Moreover, the bright colour hints that she is the ‘good’ character. The antagonist on the other hand wore darker clothes and had a covered face (adding a sense of
mystery) – this was both for the purpose that he was committing a criminal act and needed to stay unknown, but also because this character will return later in the film, but the audience aren’t supposed to know it’s him until the end – therefore, he needs to be disguised.

Another important aspect of all film is the performance elements. The reason this may be particularly relevant to the thriller genre is because the audience need to become involved enough in the story to care what happens and form an emotional attachment – wanting the protagonist to succeed at the end. The antagonists have to be believable, threatening and in most cases frightening for a story to be successful enough to sell to today’s market. This believability is strongly liked with special affects and stunts, which are becoming increasingly popular due to society being more and more difficult to shock (something which is often very appropriate for thrillers). These kinds of cinematic techniques are usually seen in action thrillers, and they add a pace and thrill to a story that could otherwise be considered boring.
Obviously our budget for the opening was limited (non-existent, in fact) so creating realistic special effects would have been a lot harder and would have most likely ended up looking cheesy and fake. For this reason, our group chose a storyline that
wouldn’t involve a need for fancy tricks and instead communicated meaning through types of shots and mis-en-scene. Also by using no dialogue and mostly short shots we managed to limit the skill needed for acting down so that it wouldn’t affect the quality of our opening too much. However, the only affect we added to our shots was to make it clear that the protagonist is drunk when she comes home; almost every evaluation sheet filled in by our class commented on this effect, saying it was ‘good’ or ‘clever’.

Keeping the viewers interested in the film is possibly the most important thing to consider when creating a thriller. This can be done by giving the audience just the right amount of information – giving too much away will make the conclusion predictable, yet making the story too difficult to follow will automatically bore the majority of the public. Therefore, a choice between restricted and unrestricted narration is a key thing to consider; the more popular in thriller convention terms being restricted. This means that the viewers are only allowed to know the same amount as the main character(s) making you both identify with them more and be less likely to expect a twist in the plot. A good example of restricted narration is ‘Memento’, in which the protagonist experiences severe memory loss. The film has been edited in such a way that the viewers only see the parts of the action as he remembers them – switching between the chronological beginning of the story and the end, working towards the middle where the resolution takes place. This film is also an excellent example of enigma code – the way a story creates questions throughout the film (but particularly in the opening) to be answered later in the film; this is possibly the most important technique in sustaining viewers’ interest. Here is the opening sequence to ‘Memento’ (youtube clip 3).
In the first minute (or so) clear questions have been established: Who is the man holding the Polaroid? Why is the photo significant? Whose blood is on the walls and why? Who is the man on the floor? Why is everything moving in reverse? Etc. It’s such a shocking opening that you are immediately drawn into the story.
In our opening, therefore, we have raised enigma code by having no dialogue to explain what is happening (as it wasn’t needed). Also, the viewers ask questions such as: Who is the man breaking in and why? Why is he putting clothes in the bag – if he was just stealing things why would he choose things of such little value? Where did he hide when the girl came home? What’s their connection to each other? What happened after she left the room? Our aim was to leave these questions open to be resolved later (although we aren’t making the rest of the film). In our evaluation from the class this seemed to be the weakest point, however, as most people seemed unsure about where the storyline would go or how the film would continue: ‘plot a bit unclear’, ‘would have needed more after when it ended to make sense’. Evidently we have perhaps over used enigma code and it would have been better to wrap some things up more clearly before the end of our section.

Iconography is a very useful tool for making the genre of film clear. The kinds of iconography that have become synonymous with the thrillers are things such as guns, blood, knives, shadows, streetlamps, bars on windows, confined spaces, running water, covered faces etc. all of which aim to create a mysterious atmosphere or shock in some way. In our product we didn’t want to be cheesy by the antagonist having a gun just for the sake of it or using blood and violence where it wasn’t necessary; but we did stick to this iconography with the lack of light and enigma surrounding the man. One of my favourite shots is the one in the sequence of ‘door-opening’ shots, where he opens the bathroom door and we had angles the camera to film only his reflection in the door of the shower as this adds quite an eerie twist to what could have been a fairly simple and boring shot.
Lastly the setting of thrillers can vary widely depending on the story, but they tend to involve dark places, woods, police stations, crime scenes or threatening environments. However as the opening of the film was merely to set up the narrative we did not involve these sorts of places in our product. Moreover, we wanted to put across the point that sometimes your own home is not a safe place to be, and that is possibly more unsettling than any other kind of setting. This was recognised by our class, most comments using the word ‘appropriate’.

youtube clip 1:

youtube clip 2:

youtube clip 3:

Keira's Evaluation - Section 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The main social group to consider with our product is probably the difference in gender representation – we have made the female the victim and the male the intruder - a stereotype in itself. The girl is a typical victim in the way we have made her seem vulnerable (for example, the shot when she thinks she’s seen someone in the mirror and is momentarily frightened). Her costume consists of a dress and high heels which, again, make her appear more the girly, ditzy type than if she had been wearing jeans and a t-shirt. However, as a group we would argue that this was more to show the audience she had just been out with friends or at a party rather than to point to the fact she is a female victim (although that was also considered at the time of choosing costume). Her facial expressions add to the traditionally
feminine image in that she either seems confused or scared throughout, not acting logically and even laughing at herself at one point (when she feels foolish for thinking she’s seen someone in the mirror. Most of the shots of her are at eye level (though many are even point of view) because we expect the females of our audience to relate to her in some way and to feel the tension she would be feeling. Having said all this about her being the victim, however, for the rest of the film she is the protagonist (a fairly well-off, successful woman) which would put an entirely different spin on her character and if we were filming the rest of it we would alter the way we presented her to show she’s changed as a person since this night.
The male intruder is represented as being more focussed, stronger and far more threatening. Obviously we wanted him to be like this so that the audience would understand that he poses some kind of threat to the girl, rather than it appearing he was friendly. We did this with the music by starting it as soon as he entered the house as though it was his theme tune in a way – using the pace and the strong beat to punctuate his fast, urgent movements. The shots he is in are cut short and switch between different places rapidly. We left out unnecessary bits of movement between doors and around the room so that the audience were focussed on the action and so that the character seemed to know what he was looking for more (making him seem more intelligent than the girl). He is wearing dark clothing, to signify some toughness about him and kept most of his face covered for mystery. His movements are precise and steady (whereas the girl’s were uncertain and wobbling) to show a distinct
difference in the two characters. Another technique we used is to shoot many of the shots from a low angle (e.g. the second one in which he comes through the door and the part where he is packing the bag) as well as many of the shots being closer in than with the female character, so he filled more of the frame - making him look more intimidating to the viewers.
Another large social group we have targeted in this sequence is teenagers. The girl is supposedly 17/18 and has just returned from a party in a drunken state. This is a highly stereotypical representation, but is nevertheless true to the character and appropriate to the situation – it is a perfectly plausible reason for why she would be returning home late at night and not be aware enough of what’s happening to use common sense. We showed that she was drunk by using a series of point of view shots
with a handheld camera, where we literally just stumbled around whilst filming to give the desired effect. In post production we also added an iMovie effect called ‘ghost trails’ which gave the slower dragged out movement. She also walks unsteadily and looks generally not completely ‘with it’ and aware of what’s going on. The least obvious of social groups to discuss is that of white middle class Britain. We have only really shown this in the décor and size of the house, the girl’s costume and the fact the family seem to have a lot of material possessions. But this social group, in this section of the film, has still been represented as being fairly careless (girl coming home so late, the parents not being there etc.); however we have only really chosen this group as the focal point as that is predominantly the audience for the film and they need to be able to relate.

Keira's Evaluation - Section 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
There are three main stages to making a film: production (the filming, editing etc.); film distribution (dealing with the licensing, publication and printing of the film) and film exhibition (showing it to the general public). There is an abundance of different film developers in the UK alone, and the process of choosing a definite company would be lengthy and difficult. However, the first thing to decide would be where the film would be shown depending upon the type of film you’ve made and who its audience will be. For our film we think it would be most realistic to publish a small section (e.g. the opening, or a section from the middle) on the internet as a free download and asking the viewers to leave comments and rate as to whether they would pay to see the film in a cinema. This is because we believe the storyline has blockbuster-style film potential in its themes and style (detective story), but as new filmmakers it would be unlikely that any distributors would agree to a deal without us having provided some evidence that it would make any money. After securing this, we would attempt to make a deal with the
mainstream film distributors such as Lionsgate or Twisted Pictures (known for the thriller horror genre), or somewhere like New Line or Sony Pictures which deals across all film genres. The reason I mention New Line in particular is because we think our film would have a similar audience to that of ‘Se7en’ – it being a detective thriller with a twist in the storyline. We think that our film has potential to be taken on by one of these distributers because the themes and issues explored are similar to those in many blockbuster films, although not exactly the same. Obviously, there would still be a lot of discrepancies to be ironed out before it could be a truly successful storyline. We do not think our film would fit into the independent or art house scene as it would not be made in a stylised, artistic way.
If our film was taken up by one of these companies, they would then purchase the legal rights so they can begin distributing the product by making deals with exhibitors – it would be their responsibility to make sure the film is seen. This is where having a well established distributor would be of extreme use; cinema chains are more likely to take on a film if a reliable company which has fronted successful films in the past is selling it to them. It would be important to ensure that the release of the film in cinemas was not at the same time as another film of the same genre and similar themes, so as not to create competition. It would be useful to release it at a time when there are most people going to the cinema (i.e. school holidays, bank holidays etc.) and I think the best season would be autumn as the weather isn’t too cold that it means people just want to stay in, but not too warm that people don’t want to be sat in a cinema for the evening. The best day seems to be Friday for film release dates as that’s when most people want to go to the cinema – relaxing at the end of a hard working week.
I would want the marketing to predominantly be done through trailers (cinema and TV) as that is the most classic and effective form of distribution. The internet would be a very important tool in distribution as that is increasingly becoming (if it’s not already) the most popular piece of technology used by the majority of people in the UK. This could be utilised through online forums, trailers on YouTube and advertisements on certain websites (e.g. Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and other online social networks) that would all increase publication of the film. The style of film this would be wouldn’t suit having ancillary markers (such as merchandise which goes with the release) nor video games being made based on the plot as it would not become a franchise as it is just a one-off detective thriller.
Obviously all these kinds of decisions would primarily be considered by the distributor.
However, if it turned out the film would not be well received in the cinemas by the general public, the other option to consider would be selling the rights to a channel like Sky or Channel 4 so the film could be shown on television. Although this would obviously not make it as successful as going to the cinema, it would definitely be something to consider in the face of poor reviews from the free download.

Keira's Evaluation - Section 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?
We have decided the audience for our film would be both genders (holding stereotypical appeal for males with the action and thriller aspects, but by having a female protagonist this may attract more girls/women to want to see it) - we would ensure it was marketed to show both sides of this. We think the certification would be a 15 because it wouldn’t be violent or graphic enough to be an 18, but the storyline would be quite complicated and would include mild violence and language, which seems to fit the 15 classification best. (For full details, please see http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/c_15.php). I think our audience would
have enjoyed thriller films such as ‘Se7en’ and ‘Donnie Darko’ because they have similar themes. ‘Se7en’ in the way that it is a detective thriller where the audience have to try to figure out the story has it goes along, using restricted narration so they only know as much as the main characters. Also in this film, there is a juxtaposition of the two protagonists in their general lifestyle as there would be in ours. I also suggest ‘Donnie Darko’ as it has a teenage lead which relates to a similar audience.

Keira's Evaluation - Section 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
As our audience is 15 year olds plus, with the main targets being those of about 16-24, we would need to appeal to the younger generation mainly. We have done this in the following ways:
The story contains a lot of enigma code (e.g. why is the antagonist picking those
items in particular to put in the bag. It ends on a cliff hanger which would make them want to watch more. However, a criticism here would be that the story is not clear enough.

There is a hint that there might be relationships and a love interest involved as the girl gets out of the car of what we assume is her boyfriend, this is always a popular theme amongst teenagers.
The mis-en-scene combined with interesting shot angles has created a ‘good, pacey atmosphere’ (class evaluation) which would attract people’s attention.
The music is contemporary and would appeal to a younger audience.

Our opening is action-packed and fast paced (with the short shots and rushing character which sets up the rest of the film well and wouldn’t make our audience bored. There is also a shock moment when the girl looks in the mirror,
this aims to make the viewers jump and increase their adrenaline levels. We have related to the teenage side of our audience by having the teenage protagonist coming home drunk (an experience many of the viewers will share).

Keira's Evaluation - Section 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
For filming in the main task we used a camera, tripod, redhead light and a large torch.
As we have used all these in the preliminary exercise we knew how to operate this equipment, though there were still things to be improved upon. For example, the white balance was better in this task – we learnt from last time when there were a few off-colour shots that sometimes spoiled the effect. We also learned to use the
focus more effectively (particularly in more dimly lit shots) and always made sure the camera was set to automatic rather than manual – our storyboard didn’t require any strangely focused shots). We always used the correct terms (‘Speed’, ‘Action’, ‘Roll over’, ‘Lights on/off’, ‘Cut’) during filming to ensure that everyone knew what was happening and to abide by health and safety. The process of starting and stopping recording on the camera is fairly simple, and when we had time we watched the shots we’d just filmed over using the playback option; however we were always careful to get the tape back to the right place before recording again in case it went over our other footage. We found the tripod very useful as it
is simple to use and effective in holding the camera steady at any height or angle you require. For some shots, however, this wasn’t appropriate so we had to rely on holding the camera steady ourselves which isn’t always easy – particularly when you are at an odd angle or in an uncomfortable position.
For the editing we used iMovie and LiveFont. Finding iMovie the easiest to use by far, this is the editing programme we chose for cutting and putting together our shots. I personally had a much bigger part in editing than last time, which meant learning more of the processes. It was very easy to pick up quickly, and I found learning to use the special visual effects very enjoyable. We didn’t put in any fancy shot transitions, as our story doesn’t require the passing of time and is set in chronological order one after the other. We also felt some of these transitions would make the action seem less realistic and often comedic, which is definitely not the effect we wanted. However, as I have previously mentioned we did use ‘ghost trails’ which was perfect for the ‘drunk’ shots and we also had to speed one shot up so that we saved time. Our music was on a cassette tape, so we also had to learn how to transfer this on to the computer using a recording machine that was connected which, again, was a simple process once we had been shown how to do it. After all our shots had been edited together with the sound we just had to do the titles, with which we decided to use LiveFont which seemed to be the best option for creative credits. Again, this meant learning how to use the programme (which we were half taught and half figured out for ourselves) and we were altogether happy with how they turned out.
I have mostly learnt that practise is the most important thing in learning how to use various equipment, and it’s far easier to understand when you physically do it yourself rather than just watching someone else.

Keira's Evaluation - Section 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The main things I have learned are:
· Always carefully plan everything to the last detail as being organised saves a lot of time and allows you more time to experiment and re-film things if you need to. It is good to have schedule before you start to film so everyone is clear what you’re planning to get done that day; storyboards are an extremely useful tool for this – our storyboard this time was far more detailed and this helped no end.
· Film as many shots as is possible for each one as there are always things that can unexpectedly be wrong that you haven’t noticed, and it’s good to change the angle and shot size frequently just in case there is one which looks much better.
· In your complete film, the more interesting the shots the better it is to watch (to a certain extent) so I’ve learnt to be more creative when framing and composing shots. (My favourite 3 shots are here:



because they are inventive and add an eerie atmosphere).
· Music can add a lot of effect. We didn’t use it in our preliminary exercise, as the dialogue was very important and as it was set in a police station there wouldn’t have been any diegetic music; however, an underscore appropriate to the atmosphere could have worked very well. I have learned to always try music (particularly at key moments), but to be careful not to get too carried away with it.
· Lighting is something our group has had the most problems with. As both our exercises needed to be filmed in the darkness it was difficult to strike a balance between making the action visible and in-focus, and making it clear it’s nighttime. I think this has improved since our first exercise enormously as our shots are a lot clearer, but this is one of the things we could still get better at.
· Our continuity editing, according to our classmates, has always been a strong point. Though still this has improved through practise and particularly as we didn’t film everything in our thriller opening on the same day – we learned to have to make everything look exactly the same as previously. There is quite a lot more match-on-action in this product that our last as it’s longer and we decided to include a wider variety of shot sizes and angles, making the match-on-actions more interesting. As there is no character interaction, the 180 degree rule did not come into our opening very much; however, we were careful not to film the same character from 2 different sides in a row so as not to cause confusion. There is a sequence in the middle of our opening which uses parallel editing which we didn’t get a chance to use before. This was fun to put together and increased the tension very well as the man is still in the house and the girl starts to walk up the drive; this is another thing we have progressed to since the preliminary exercise.The final thing that I personally have learnt is to keep things simple. It is easy to get carried away with plotlines and messages you want to communicate and over-complicate things (often making them difficult to follow, meaning the audience loose interest). I have learned not to labour too much over the editing, and it is always best to ask the opinion of others as you can often get too caught up in your own work to notice little things that are out of place.

Hannahs Evaluation

ment">

Media Studies AS Level, Foundation Portfolio, Main Task Evaluation

In our product mise en scene has a big part. We first had to think of a setting which would go well with the whole idea of our film. We chose a house because this would be easily recognisable for an audience and means they would not spend half the time trying to work out where the characters are. We also were quite picky about our lighting arrangements as we wanted to keep it all looking natural and like it was night time rather than having the whole area lit up if we had done this we might as well have filmed in the day. When filming out side we used one torch so that the characters could be seen we used a black filter over the top so that the lighting was not too harsh and did not shine too much light on each character. When filming inside we wanted to keep all of the lighting quite natural looking. We used one redhead as the key light because the natural lighting was slightly too dark and cast the characters in shadow. We also did a lot of filming inside with the lights off and used very dim lighting so that the characters could be seen but they were not lit up like a light was shinning on them. We tried overall to keep quite low key lighting as to keep everything looking natural we didn’t want it looking like a Broadway show with too much lighting. We also wanted to keep it realistic looking and using low key lighting was the best way to do this.

We made sure that all the characters costume and make up was relevant to the story line. We dressed the burglar in dark clothing with a ski mask to help the audience recognise him as a burglar. We dressed the girl in a nice dress so that it was easy to see she had been out most likely to a party. We used quite fashionable modern clothes to indicate that this is set in present time and that these are quite young characters.

The enigma code is used quite a lot throughout our film we have left many questions un-answered and raised many questions for the audience to think about. We have not revealed too much of what is happening and ended it on a point that would leave the audience wondering what is actually happening and who these people really are. We wanted our film to raise many questions and for it to be quite mysterious and confusing.

The classic iconography that appears in many thrillers that has appeared in our product is mainly the use of darkness and shadows we have included a lot of quite dark shadowy shots because these are usually associated with thriller films and them being quite dark and mysterious looking. We have also used the stereotypical teenage girl that is used in most thrillers. Mainly they go home to an empty house or are left at home alone. This is quite iconic to thrillers because it creates suspense a young girl home alone poses as the perfect opportunity for something to happen to her. Also the covered face of the male character is quite iconic as its keeping his identity hidden this happens in many thrillers you don’t find out the antagonists identity till near the end or part way through the film as to keep the suspense and suspicions from the audience going.

We have used the typical protagonist of a young girl going home alone and something happening in our case there is someone in her house which is typical of thriller films. For example in Prom Night the young girl goes home to find someone in her house who has killed her family. In our case our protagonist is not sure whether she is alone or not but the audience no that there is someone else in the house with her. This creates suspense as the audience no that he is there but she does not. In prom night we see the protagonist hide under the bed but we do not see the antagonists face this is similar to what is happening in our sequence. However we do not see the antagonists face but we do get to see him around the house whereas in prom night the only piece of or antagonist that we get to see is his hands. Our antagonist is quite stereotypical as he is a male who is in a young female’s house when she comes home. However in prom night he is looking for her whereas in our sequence he does not expect our character to come home when she does he panics and hides. In prom night he is looking for the girl and she had to hide from him. However the characters a quite similar a young teenage girl who come home to find someone in her house or thinks there is someone in her house.

We have used the three stages of narrative

· The beginning showing our setting and our antagonist

· The middle sequence being him looking around the house, starting to pack things away, the girl coming home, her finding the things he has packed away

· The end being the girl leaving the room and the audience wondering as to what is happening and where the antagonist has gone.

Most of our peer evaluation includes people saying that it was quite confusing and raised many questions. This however is what we were aiming for with our product we wanted it to raise questions and make the audience unsure about what was happening. Our main strengths seemed to be the use of camera angles and how we had made it faced paced and you had to actually think about what was happening. However most people said that the music was too fast paced and needed slowing down.

In my media product we have presented the male character as a stereotypical male. He is dominant in the way that he is the character that is in control. He is more in control of the situation than our female character. He is represented as mysterious in the way that you never see his face throughout the whole of the opening sequence. This is done so that the audience will wonder who he is. They can see that he is obviously in control of the situation as he does not get caught and seems to get away with what he is doing. However he is not as in control as it might seem. He is caught off guard and has to hide nearly getting caught as he leaves things on the bed that should not be there. Here he is being represented as quite clumsy and forgetful and the first impression of him being quite an in control character is lost.

The camera work used for shots of the male character is mainly close up or tilted angle shots. These are to keep his identity quite mysterious and keep the audience wondering who he is and what it is he is doing. All shots with our male character in are also quite dark to keep the anonymity going and keep the idea of it being night time. Fast paced music has been used to represent that our male character is in quite a hurry and that he is unaware of things to come. We have included all of these conventions to show that our male character is the antagonist of the story.

We have used a young white male character to help appeal to a mature young audience. We have represented him as a stereotypical male with other conventions including clumsiness and unawareness. We have done this to make him less stereotypical but still recognisable as an individual character. However we have made him out to be like a stereotypical burglar. With him breaking into the house and the fact that he is wearing a ski mask to cover his face and that he is in shadow a lot of the time. We have done this so that the audience will draw to the conclusion that he is burgling the house as he breaks in which obviously means that this is not his house. We have used a male character because they are stereotypically the gender that would burgle a house rather than a female character.

We have represented the female character as a stereotypical teenage girl. She comes back from a party drunk and enters the house alone. This is a stereotypical thriller convention as it seems like a silly thing to do but it happens in many films where the teenage girl is left home alone in the dark this seems to please the audience more rather than if it was a male character doing exactly the same. She is young and pretty and also dressed up. We have done this because we wanted to represent her as a stereotypical teenage girl who is in danger but does not realise it herself. We have used mainly long shots and mid shots so that it is easy to see her facial expressions and we want the audience to see clearly what she looks like as she is the protagonist. Unlike our male character whose identity is hidden throughout the whole sequence.

In many shots our female characters will turn lights on this is so that we can clearly see who she is and that this is her house. Unlike our male character we want her identity to be noticeably shown in every shot that she is in so the audience can see that she is the protagonist. We have represented her quite negatively as she is drunk this puts a negative look on teenagers this also represents her vulnerability to the situation. She is represented as a typical teenager who has gone out and had a good time at a party however who has come home to something most teenagers would not.

We have used POV shots with a ghost affect on as she is walking up the drive to represent how she is not in control of the situation and how vulnerable she could be as she can not see where she is going properly. This will also help to appeal to teenagers as they no what it is like to not be in control when they have had a bit too much to drink. The sound is very faced paced to add to the idea that she is not aware or in control of what is happening she just seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Both characters have stereotypical conventions about them with the male being the stronger character and seeming more in control and the female seeming to be the weaker character and less in control seeming like she would be less able to fight back if the male character was to attack or harm her in anyway.

The audience we have aimed our media product at is late teen’s young adults. This is because it raises a lot of questions and a younger audience might just find it confusing and might not quite understand what is going on. It is also quite faced paced and younger audiences again might not like it as it has a more complicated faced paced story line. We have decided on late teens to young adults because they would appreciate the more faced paced storyline and the fact that it raises questions it gives them a challenge and makes it more interesting for them. Because it includes younger characters and touches on more subjects that young adults are more likely to appreciate like a drunk young girl and a young male skulking around her house they are more likely to appreciate and understand this piece than perhaps an older or much younger audience.

A real thriller that an audience of a similar age would have also enjoyed would be Donnie darko. This has the same elements of having the audience ask questions about a younger audience would find it confusing and an older audience might think it does not make sense and it is pointless. An audience of a similar age to the one for our product would have also enjoyed Donnie darko as it is quite mysterious and hard to work out which is also what our product is aiming to do. This audience is the best audience because they are young enough to appreciate what our product and Donnie darko are trying to do but both use young characters with particular storyline that’s difficult to understand which would challenge younger minds but not too young and appeal to people a similar age to the characters as they have more of an idea what the characters could be going through in both cases. In Donnie darko the point of growing up and how difficult it can be.

When using the camera I found it quite easy as I had similar cameras before. At first we had trouble working out how to record because we had forgotten which button we had to press. After we worked it out using the camera went quite smoothly. I did not forget to change the white balance every time the camera was moved and remembered that we were able to use the zoom if we were not able to get in close enough. When filming in the dark it was hard to get the camera at the right distance but after a couple of tries we managed it fine. The third time we filmed the camera we were given was not as good quality as the cameras we were given the first two times which meant the quality of our filming was not as good. I also found this camera needed manual focus to be used at lot and had trouble focusing in the dark when we had set up the lighting arrangements. We also were shown that we could film using different effects but the camera we were given did not have the affect we wanted on it (time delay) so we decided to do this in the editing suite instead.

We used three different types of software to put our product together. These were Imedia HD, Final Cut Pro and Live Font. First we imported everything into Imedia HD. We used this programme because we already new how to use it which made the process of putting our sequence together a lot faster. However we were slowed down by having to re film areas of our piece. After uploading all of our footage to Imeda we were able to cut clips down and piece them together to create our final product. We used a number of different effects which were easy to use and we found we did not have any problems using them. These included Ghost effect on the girls POV shots to help make everything look out of focus and wobbly as she is meant to be drunk. We also sped a couple of shots up because they were too slow. These included the car pulling up as when we watched the footage back the car pulled up extremely slowly.

We also used Imedia to add our music to our product. We first used a machine to record our music off a tape onto the computer we then imported it into Imedia. At first we had trouble cutting and pasting our music together and could not make it sound right. Eventually we managed to get it to sound ok but I was still not happy with the music on the final product. We then exported our product and imported it into Final Cut Pro to add the tittles into our film. We first created the tittles in Live Font as this had a wider selection of fonts and effects for fonts. We did not now how to use this programme and it took us quite along time to work out how to use it eventually we worked it out and created our title sequence. We then had to export each title and import them into Final Cut Pro. We had trouble doing this but this was because we were not saving them as a quick time movie. We then placed them in the place we wanted and then proceeded to add tittles to the rest of the sequence this being our names. We had to select where we wanted each title to go and how big and what colour we wanted them est. We had to be shown how to do this but once we were shown it was quite easy to do and took us no time at all to complete out product.

Using each of the programs helped me learn something new each time as I had not used Final Cut Pro or Live Font before. However once I had worked out to use them it was quite easy and was easy to shape our product to how we wanted it. As I did quite a large amount of the filming selecting the best shots was easier for me as I could see what I had done wrong in some shots and which shots looked better than others. I found using Imedia a lot easier than the rest of my group and grasped using it and worked out a lot of the shortcuts quite quickly. This meant I did a fair amount of the editing as I could do it quite quickly and new how to use the programme quite well. As I had done most of the filming I found I was quite critical about what should be used and what shouldn’t so that we used only the best quality shots in our final piece. As a group we worked extremely well together and helped each other learn how to use the different software so that we were all able to put our own input into the editing of our rushes and creating our product.

Our peer evaluation indicates that our editing was quite clear and sharp and didn’t contain any noticeable mistakes. They have also identified that the use of tittles was very good and liked the idea of the clock images flashing up between the tittles. Also that they were quite basic but this was effective because they did not take the focus away from the action. Overall they said that the tittles were effective and looked good. They also think that the music was too loud in places and seemed too dominating but I was not happy with how the music was in our final piece myself.

I feel that we have progressed immensely in this task from the preliminary task. We had to film three times but this time this was due to technical faults rather than us not knowing what we were doing. Everything ran a lot smoother as we knew how to use lighting to make things look more natural and when we were filming in the dark easier to see the characters outside. The first time we filmed outside the light we were given ran out of battery so we were no longer able to carry on filming. We were able to re-film out side and had learnt from our preliminary task that filming in the dark needed a strong light with a filter to make it look more natural looking on the character. So we used a white filter to make the light less strong which seemed to help.

Our continuity editing improved as we used mainly match on action this time as our film was quite fast paced and we wanted lots of close ups of hands in draws est. out match on action was a lot better this time as we had learnt from the preliminary task how perfect it needed to be. We made sure each shot was lined up perfectly with the next and tried to make them look flawless like they had not been filmed at different times.

We had a stronger story this time as we learnt from our preliminary that we needed a storyboard to work from and we needed all of our shots planned out to make it easier for us. We learnt from our preliminary that we needed a strong story line for our final piece to work. This is because our preliminary did not work because we had not thought out our storyline out properly. This time around we thought out our storyline and went thought every shot to make sure we new what we were doing and that we would not have to go back and re-film.

In my evaluation I wrote ‘’ One of the main things we need to include on our final piece will be to include more camera angles’’. In our final piece we made sure we used a variety of different camera angles and camera framing to make our piece more interesting and less samey. We even included a shot where we put the camera into the bottom of a plastic bag and let everything fall onto the camera.