Evaluation Question 6 & 7

This is my Evaluation Question 6 and 7 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? and, Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main task?
I will make this a blog post.

Over the course of creating my thriller opening with my group, I have learnt to use a various amount of different sites and programs to not only complete my evaluation but to complete my thriller opening. Firstly, my group and I had to become familiar with Premiere Pro, an editing software that is simple to use once you know where all the tools are and how they work which can offer a various range of features which are useful to create multiple effects. We learnt how to use the crop tool where we could fit the different clips to certain points in our thriller. We used the ghosting tool which kind of blurs the camera to give it a supernatural feel. We decided to use transitions such as fading in and out at the end of clips to make the production run smoothly. We also used to saturation tool to make clips of our thriller gloomy and very suitable for the genre of our thriller.

In addition, we used Mix-Craft, another editing software but this time for music. We was able to create our own music on this program to gain better marks and avoid using any copyright soundtracks. My group and I had to spend a lot of time working on Mix-Craft, as to begin it is was a difficult to figure out just how to use it, but over time we grasped it enough to make a soundtrack for our thriller. My group and I gained a huge learning experience from making our thriller as before our media course we had never been faced with the challenge of using editing software to create something that was worth a huge chunk of our course and were complete beginners at the start. 

We also had the opportunity to work with some of the best quality cameras our school could offer, along with additional pieces of equipment that I had never heard of before. We had previously used a camera and a tripod for our preliminary task but I feel as though, we didn't use it to its full extent and therefore, our thriller was the true test of what we could do to enhance our thriller so it could gain the best possible grade. We used a Nikon DSLR camera to shoot our thriller opening. By using such a high quality camera we are now able to frame a good shot and have to produced to a very high resolution. This definitely paid off in our final product. 

In regards to our preliminary task, our biggest mistake was our time management. Unfortunately, this was the main factor for why it was of such a poor quality. The filming was left till the last minute and we were still editing it on the day of the deadline, therefore I believe it was not mine and my group’s best efforts as we did not quite know what we were challenged with. The ideas of the preliminary task changed that many times that I am unsure of whether the end result matched the original plans, this was another factor that put us down on time management. However, in contrast, when it came to planning and filming our thriller we were better prepared and knew exactly what to expect and myself and my group are very proud of the product we have produced.

I think the editing and learning curve of using the editing is what we did best at when making our thriller. After going through stage of not knowing if we would meet the deadline, we finally achieved it and was able to produce something we could be proud of. We spent multiple hours trying to understand how the different programs work and even though, we are not experts just yet, we were able to excel in completely our thriller.

I definitely think that my group and I made huge progress from our preliminary task to our thriller opening, as you can just tell from the quality of videos. We have learnt a various range of different camera skills and editing techniques that we will be able to use to produce something better in the future.

Evaluation Question 5

This is my Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your  audience?
This is presented in a Piktochart presentation.

Evaluation Question 4

This is my Evaluation Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?
It is presented on Bubbl.com which allows you to create a mind map.

The gender that we aim to attract as our target audience is both genders as it is not your stereotypical thriller for just girls or just for boys. The story line to our thriller will interest both genders and will not favour the likes of a specific gender. The ethnicity of our target audience will be any race and will invite any individual from any culture to watch the film as it does not want to focus on just White British. If we continue to show the rest of the film, we would probably include a character from a different ethnic background to promote diversity within our film.

Evaluation Question 3

This is my Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?
It is presented on a website called 'Pixton' which allows you to create a small comic strip.

Films made by Blumhouse Productions that are similar to my thriller are:

• Paranormal Activity 1,2,3,4
• Sinister 
• Insidious Chapter 1,2,3

Evaluation Question 2

This is my Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
It is presented on a PowerPoint presentation that has been embedded onto Slideshare.

Evaluation Question 1

This is my Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? It is presented on a Prezi Presentation.

Our Media Thriller

This is our final media product, which is uploaded onto YouTube. It is easily found on the 'Tupton Hall Media' channel.

Issues we faced when filming our Thriller Opening

Over the past couple of weeks we have been filming our Thriller Opening for our main task and have been challenged with various different issues and problems which has made my group and I be proactive and productive to ensure that it does not put us at a disadvantage to get our Thriller completed for the deadline that is set for Friday 6th of March.

Technology: One of the problems we have faced when it has come to meeting up with my group and filming our Thriller is the struggle with technology. We were using a camera that did not pick up the dialogue of the characters in our opening because we did not realise that we would need an additional microphone to enhance the sounds that were being made.

Actors and Characters: This is one of the biggest issues that my group and I have had to deal with when filming our Thriller. After a lot negotiation and changes we have finally decided on the two mains actors for the finished product. On our first attempt of filming and watching it back to edit, we found that it did not work and that our grade would be effected by how poorly it turned out so we had to start again from scratch and this is when we decided to bring one of our friends in to help out and be one of the actors and change aspects of the Thriller.

We had an overall idea for our Thriller, as our pitch states, but when it came to filming we found that it would be a lot more difficult to create the product that we wanted so instead we kept our initial plan in mind and just tweaked little parts of it so it was more achievable for us.

So far, filming has been going well and I would like to say that we are at a good pace with our post-production too. I hope we can make it to deadline day with a finished product that is a promising item to get a good grade for our AS Media course.

Regional Identities - Stereotypes

Marketing and Promotion of Films

It takes millions of pounds/dollars in order to make a film, the studio then spends millions more on promoting the new film to audience through the use of adverts and posters. Marketing a large film is a very expensive job, more commonly when a film has a limited shelf life. Many movies have to be popular on their opening day and weekend, otherwise they tend to be forgotten more easily and the studios lose millions that they invested into the movie.

Most popular and blockbuster films already have an audience waiting to watch the film. Studios can afford to use a large budget for the film because they already know that people to are eager to go and see it - this is often caused by media texts that already have an audience. This is why remakes and sequels are so popular because these types of films already have a large fan base. Many studios put out films that fail, in terms of the amount of money they earn from an audience, and studios lose out on a huge profits that they usually make from other popular films they have brought out previously.

Many different films have various different shelf lives. This means that some films will be shown on cinema screens for 6 months or only a few weeks. The marketing of the film has to happen at the right time to entice an audience into the cinema and keep them coming. Many studios will begin the marketing for the film six to eight months prior to the film coming out to create anticipation for when the actual film comes out. However, in a usual case, many films do you not start their marketing and promotion process until around 3 months before the release of the film.



Source: http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/bbustermovies/movies.php?pageID=market


This can relate to our Thriller as if we were to create a full film and have professional companies to create our film into a blockbuster then it is important to have the knowledge of the marketing and promotion of films and how to ensure that a film is successful and makes a profit within its first week of release.

Alfred Hitchcock - Famous Director

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer - often nicknamed 'The Master of Suspense', he pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else."

• He was born 13th August 1899, in Leytonstone, London.
• He died 29th April 1980 aged 80, in Bel Air, California, USA.
• He married Alma Reville in 1926 until he later died in 1980.
• He and his wife had one daughter named Patricia Hitchcock.
• He produced films such as Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo and North by Northwest.
• He also wrote a book called Hitchcock on Hitchcock.

Thriller Opening Storyboard

This is my groups storyboard for our thriller opening called She's Back...

The storyline is set out which we will follow when it comes to filming the project and in post-production. 

Thriller Opening Ideas

This is my groups initial ideas for the opening of our Thriller film, ideas may change or develop but this is our main outline for the story we are trying to portray. 

Audience Theories

Uses and Gratification Theory - Blumler and Katz

This theory focuses on the reasons why people use to media as opposed to what affect the media has on people and how to have an impact on what people believe is socially acceptable. The uses and gratification theory decides to concentrate on what people do with the media and the reason why they use it, there are different aspects that the uses and gratifications theory identify as reasons for people to use the media.

Diversion: To escape from everyday life and enjoy the stories that are happening in the media, simply for enjoyment and relaxation.

Social Interaction: The public use the media to gain an insight to circumstances of others, help with carrying out social roles, it can identify with characters and gain a sense of belonging.

Personal Identity: Makes it so individuals are able to create their own identity from characters and can learn different behaviours and values. It can also reinforce own personal values which an individual may have forgot.

Surveillance: To seek/gain new knowledge and information. To find out about relevant events and conditions in their surroundings and society but also around the world. It can be used to satisfy curiosity and general interest.


Hypodermic Needle Theory

The hypodermic needle theory implies that the media can have a direct, immediate and powerful on the mass audience. The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and unofficially by  injecting them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired reaction.

The hypodermic needle theory suggest that it can put thoughts and ideas into an individual's head and encourage them to do what is not socially acceptable and will play along with these beliefs which can make them commit crimes and become a negative member of society.

Images of violence and deviance will be 'injected' into an audiences brain and through consistent promotion, it can have an influential effect on a large amount of individual who begin to believe that these acts were becoming the social norm and began to replicate the acts and practice them in society. This can result in people committing crimes and ending up in jail.

Media theorists have classified the "War of the Worlds" broadcast as the archetypal example of the Magic Bullet Theory. This is exactly how the theory worked, by injecting the message directly into the "bloodstream" of the public, attempting to create a uniform thinking. The effects of the broadcast suggested that the media could manipulate a passive and gullible public, leading theorists to believe this was one of the primary ways media authors shaped audience perception.

The cultivation theory can also link with the hypodermic needle theory as it also promotes that the media can have a powerful effect on an individual and over a long period of time it can change a persons perception of reality.


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These theories can link to our Thriller Opening because if we decide to include violent acts within our scenes then this can promote violence and can make the audience believe that committing crimes and being violent is a good thing for society and change their perception of the social norms.

British Board of Film Classification

"The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-government body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/DVD's since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984." - http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc

To ensure that children are protected from inappropriate content within films and to give information regarding the content of a film, the BBFC examines the film and gives it an rating as to which age range is appropriate to view a particular type of film. This is to ensure the highest possible rate of protection to film viewers.

In the opening of our Thriller, we are aiming to reach the target audience of 15 year olds+ , therefore no-one under the age of 15 is allowed to view the film as its content may be inappropriate.

Any of the following are what you may view in a 15 rated film:

- strong violence
- frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
-  portrayals of sexual activity
-  strong verbal references to sex
-  sexual nudity
-  brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
-  discriminatory language or behaviour
-  drug taking


In our Thriller opening, there will be a scene of death and the hypodermic syringe model would argue that if younger people watch it will develop the idea that murder is normal and it puts ideas into their head. Also, the cultivation theory would argue that over time, the idea of murder is a norm and it becomes socially acceptable.

Editing - Kuleshov Effect

Kuleshov experimented with different pieces of footage which he cut up to see how it would achieve a different reaction from the audience depending on how the footage was edited and the sequence it was put in. It was used to see how the audience would react to the reaction of the male in the film that was shown to them and if the audience believed that the males expression had changed each time he was shown something different, when in a matter of fact, the same footage of the males expression was shown each time. This shows how powerful this technique is to influence the minds of the audience.
Political film makers used this technique for Propaganda purposes, to give a powerful influence on the public so it puts them at a higher advantage in the general election.





This can be an important aspect to be included in our Thriller Opening as we know how to use a cut away properly to cause an effect on the audience.

Representation of Disability

In film and television, you see many different types of characters that suffer from a disability and they can play a range of different roles, however only 2.5% of people that we see on our televisions are disabled. Disability is one of the least shown issues regarding television diversity next to things such as the role of women and age differences. In contrast, all three categories are still very under-represented. There is many differences when it comes to representing disability. For example, during the great war, newsreels were recorded of the rehabilitation of visually impaired and physically disabled servicemen on the front line that have been presented on the big screen.

 However, on the opposite hand, cinema's and film makers have failed to engage with genuine and experiences of individuals with such disabilities. Nevertheless, disability has provided us with the knowledge to positively develop our language and social attitudes towards disability. Many film and television programmes present disability in various different ways, under several stereotypes. They represent disabled individuals as pathetic or pitiable, sinister or evil, a burden, the super cripple, an object of curiosity or violence, an atmosphere, non-sexual, laughable, his or hers own worst enemy and unable to participate in daily life. These stereotypes come from a study, Paul Hunt conducted in 1991. The first disabled character was portrayed by a disabled actor on British television for the first time in 1992, in a BBC Soap. Amputee Donald Gray gained his successful acting career in the 1950's. In the 21st century, TV drama has made room for bold portraits of disabilities as diverse as motor neuron disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions. But with most parts still played by able-bodied actors, disabled actors and film-makers continue to fight to tell their own stories.

 Unlimited features work made for and by people with disabilities to ensure that diversity is maintained throughout the film and television industry. For example, young actor Grace plays Janet Mitchell in EastEnders as Billy and Honey Mitchell daughter and she has down's syndrome. Janet's character is represented and causes different emotions between her parents. Honey cannot come to terms with her condition and finds it very difficult to cope with her down's syndrome making her as a stereotypical 'burden' to her mother. However, Billy loves his daughter and wants to care for her and is also very protective over her due to her condition. This destroys the stereotype of an individual suffering with a disability.

     - Janet Mitchell

Textual Analysis of 'Se7en'

This is my textual analysis of the opening to 'Se7en'.
I initially wanted to use a Prezi presentation to document my ideas but due to having issues using the Prezi software, I had to use PowerPoint again to note down my ideas.

Barthes' Narrative Codes

Roland Barthes' Narrative Codes

 

Action Codes
The audience recognises action codes within media texts as it is used to predict what will happen next after following a logical step. It also advances the narrative (story). For example, when a character packs a suitcase, the logical step after this would be to leave or go somewhere else. In our preliminary task, the protagonist walked up to the door and using action code, the next typical action was him walking out of the door.

Mystery Code/Enigma Code
This code is used to explain the narrative of a film by having control over what information and how much information is exposed to the audience. It grabs the audience's attention by setting up conflicts between characters, but it is then restored during the course of the narrative. In our preliminary task, if you carry on watching, you would find out what the documents meant and what mistake the antagonist made.

The Semic Code
This code is all about signs and meanings in a text that explains to us about the narratives and the characters. In our preliminary task, we unfortunately didn't use the effects of the semic code.

The Cultural Code
This code is used in order for the narrative to make sense to a culturally and socially aware audience. It makes reference to aspects from reality that the audience can relate to. It helps you understand the background of a character. In our preliminary task, the setting was based in an office/meeting room environment and made to look like a formal matter so it gives the indication that the characters could be middle class.

Codes of Oppositions
This code refers to a narrative that relies on binary opposites. For example, black v white, hot v cold, war v peace. In our preliminary, we have shown the opposites of male v female and to change the stereotypical representation of gender, the antagonist was female and she over powered the protagonist which was male.

Conventions of a Thriller Movie

Conventions of a Thriller Film

A thriller film consists, typically, of conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist characters when the stability of the film is disrupted. The story's climax progresses through a sequence of events and when the story is resolved, the balance is restored. The direct focus of the protagonist is to create peace and to settle the situation but the focus of the antagonist is to disrupt and destroy the protagonists intentions. 

-Lighting

-Camera angles/shots

-Non-diegetic music to create tension

-Black and white shots

These are just a few of the conventions that are used in mind when making a thriller film.

Thriller film makers are very good at creating a storyline to their film to something that could happen in a real life situation, to make the audience feel like it could potentially happen to them, which makes them scared but always draws their attention.

In regard to the characters within a thriller, there is stereotypically a male playing the role of the protagonist, who is very brave and desperate to restore justice. The antagonist's identity is very often kept anonymous until towards the end of the film. This draws the audience in and makes them want to watch more to see what happens. The story behind the antagonist is that they are out to seek revenge on events that have happened in the past.

Having the right music is essential when creating a thriller. It is used so the audience can understand the mood of a scene, it can build up the climax and also add in tension and suspense. 

The camera shots in a thriller are very expected and stereotypical. They famously use a large number of close up and extreme close up shots to show the emotions of both the protagonist and the antagonist. Close up shots can also encourage the narrative of the story. However, shots of the antagonist will be short, over the shoulder, or just the shadow. This is to protect their identity and cause a sense of mystery. 

Mise-en-scene is very important and it sets the whole film up. It depends on having the correct type of location to help the audience establish the genre, it uses low lighting to cause effect and the make-up and hair styles are good for representing the characters. Thrillers are famous for using black and white or grainy effects for their movies and they also use costumes to distinguish between the protagonist and the antagonist characters.

Taken is a very popular thriller movie, as well as things such as Batman.