Audience Feedback

We had a group of our target audience watch our thriller and answer a few questions about it, this gave us a clear idea on how people interpreted our media product and what they thought our plot was about. It also showed us what people thought our strengths were and what we needed to improve on.

Name: Fiona

What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?  A criminal thriller

What do you think are the key strengths of this thriller and why? Good background sounds

How do you think this thriller could be made even more effective and why? More dialogue to establish story plot

Name: Laila Noeth

What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is? A criminal

What do you think are the key strengths of this thriller and why? Good sounds

How do you think this thriller could be made even more effective and why? It’s quite long, I didn’t really understand

Name: Tom Gass

What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?  Man goes crazy with sniper or is a assassin

What do you think are the key strengths of this thriller and why? Background sound, continuity

How do you think this thriller could be made even more effective and why? Maybe more actual activity, title font doesn’t fit

Name: Margot Wyatt

What do you think the basic plot of the thriller is? He has a gun and goes and shoots people.

What do you think are the key strengths of this thriller and why? Good camera shots and sounds.

How do you think this thriller could be made even more effective and why? Should show a storyline.

Name: Genevieve Clarke

What do you think the basic plot of the thriller is? Criminal living in a flat and is annoyed by neighbours.

What do you think are the key strengths of this thriller and why? Mise-en-scene and sounds are very effective.

How do you think this thriller could be made even more effective and why? Clearer storyline.

Evaluation task 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

For my preliminary task we used the editing suite as our location, the actors used in our prelim were inexperienced and we didn't experiment with shot types. We followed the storyboard given to us and we didn't have any freedom. We didn't experiment with things like panning or trying things like tracking shots or birds eye view shots. When we started editing our prelim, we had quite a view difficulties on learning how to use final cut pro so Matt explained to us all the necessary techniques to use in the program. However, didn't use anything like transitions, instead we just did basic cuts. Within final cut pro we learnt what the time line was, the bins on the left, what the two different viewers do along with in and out markers. Comparing this to the editing process in our thriller, we learnt only the basic tools needed and not all the different ones we used in our thriller. Whilst editing our thriller we added background sounds like a couple shouting and music playing from above. We also has a lot more freedom when filming our thriller because we were allowed to chose what we wanted to do, we used various shots like the shot looking down on Adam and the shot looking up towards the ceiling. This allowed us to broaden our knowledge on filming and it was a completely different experience to our prelim as we weren't given a sheet with exactly what shots we had to get.
In our prelim we didn't have any props, which was completely different to our thriller as we had to collect quite a few different props to create the right mise en scene that we wanted. With our location for our thriller we were allowed to pick where we wanted to film, instead of just finding any available room like our preliminary, and the way we were able to dress the set however we wanted to allowed to us to be as creative as possible.
In our thriller we had the choice to play with the lighting, we used red heads to keep the light natural through out the day and make it look consistent as the light outside was changing every hour. The read head lit through the window from outside, to darken the light we simply used a bin bag stuck to the window. In our prelim it was much more simple then this, we were just filming with the natural lights in the room. Unlike in our prelim, we used the camera in a much more creative way doing things such as panning and focus pulling.
Overall, I think I have improved all round, my favourite part of the process was when I was filming, I found this experience very enjoyable and it allowed me to expand my knowledge in this area of media. I was definitely able to deal with something going wrong better once I had experienced filming, the preliminary prepared me for a beginning look on what I should slightly expect during my thriller but obviously not as difficult. I definitely think I have improved my skills in this area.

Evaluation Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

Below is an annotated version of our thriller to give an inside look on why and how we created it, including technology used.

 

Evaluation; Task 5 : How did you attract/address your target audience?

Evaluation Task 4: Who would be the audience for your media product (film)?

Below is an image of 3 men who are around the age of 20-40 and are shown to be quite proffessional and therefore educated.

Our thriller is about a war veteran who has a turn for the worst in his life when he's left the army, ever since then his life just falls to pieces. In the end he goes on a 'man hunt' and near the end a psychological twist turns everybody crazy about the film. Thinking about our thriller we decided that our target audience would be obviously men due to woman not really being interested in this type of film, we thought that men aged around 20 to about 40 is a perfect age target for our thriller. When we sat down and spoke about our thriller and the type of people it would target is men who are educated, the reason for this is because when watching our film we want people to have knowledge of this happening to men but then within our thriller there's more exciting things happening do we want people to have knowledge of this happening to men that have left the army. The men who watch would be attracted to our thriller and these men would be interested in more psychological films rather then action, films like dead man walking is a perfect example. The way the movie attracts its audience is exactly how we want people attracted to our film. When it comes to economic stability, we would say more middle class; however, you don't need to be rich or poor to watch this film but knowledge about situations like what happens in our thriller is desired. Maybe that way our target audience can get more into the film and connect more to the character.

Evaluation task 3: What institution would distribute your media product?

For the product that we have created, we believe, is most definitely a low key film and would be made by an independent film company, There was nothing extravagant used and we liked how we kept it the way we did. A film that we believe is very similar to our product is Dead Mans Shoes, by Shane Meadows, Warp Films, the reason why we say this is because all the elements of the film is a lot like ours. The way it was filmed and the way they distributed it is how we would want to film and sell our product.

Warp Films is a British independent film company launched in 2001, they are now built up of Warp Records, Warp Films and Warp music Videos & Commercials. They are now expanding their business to other countries, starting off with Melbourne Australia. Some of their movies are shown below.

  

 

Production

The way our product was created is in the same way as dead man shoes, it was a low concept and we would have a low budget so it’s nothing like Hollywood films. Our film would have unknown actors which no one has really seen before and the area we would film it would mainly be kept within homes and very low key. Our production of our film would be filmed in ‘real’ locations, what I mean is we would do more filming in locations in England rather then working in the studio for most of the film. Reasons for this is because not only does it show an independent film but it makes the film more organic, what I mean is that it makes the film more real and breaks the story down to its core because of all the fundamentals working together and allows the audience to relate and connect to the film more.

Distribution

The way our media product would be distributed is through various media fields, such as, television adverts; Advertising on buildings or bus stops ect. Because our film company is very small and is independent this means that we would have to work out deals with other companies to distribute our product without it costing as much as what Hollywood pays to distribute. Because its only small we would work with companies like Optimum Realising, who Warp Films actually work with to distribute their films, as they are a small company and you would be able to afford it for good quality. 

Warp Films is the institution we picked for the distribution of our product because it’s a small film company and there for low budget films are made that are like our thriller. When it came down to thinking about this we instantly knew it would be a independent British film company because we looked at our product and we instantly pointed out key elements like it being filmed in a ‘real’ location, it not being filmed in a studio, it would have a low budget and so on. This is why Warp Films would be the best for distributing our media product.

   

Evaluation task 2: How does your product represent particular social groups?

There is only one character in our thriller; the social group that we placed him in was quite a dark, lonely, bad psychological state social group. The way we represented this was through low lighting to try and make it look like natural light and also we used quite a few close ups to allow the audience to get close to the character and feel his anger. We also used noises in the background like a couple shouting or loud rap music to show the area that he lives in and how it doesn’t exactly sound like the safest place to be which then lets the audience get to know him a little bit more and the dark side to him. This then effected the audience in a way that they felt sort of intimidated by him as he didn’t come across mentally stable due to him walking out of his home with a gun in his bag. It makes the audience feel worried and scared of him because of the darkness we represented his social group as. 

As you can see below, both shots represent a dark lonely social group, with the hoodies up and looking down.

 

    

Evaluation Task 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Thriller

Below is our thriller video, the final piece.

Editing process

When we were done with filming all the scenes we needed to it was time to edit. When we were thinking about editing it was all a lot to take in because it was quite over whelming. As we first sat down to begin editing it was quite hard for a few people as they just wanted to get straight into it as they had all these big ideas they wanted to translate onto the computer as soon as possible. Getting each others thoughts across to one an other was difficult because there would be one person controlling the mouse and having ideas thrown at you from every direction can be a lot. As our piece slowly and slowly progressed it started looking better each time, and because of how we finally understood how to communicate with each other it made the process a lot easier. Because we were able to communicate, our project was benefited as there weren’t any arguments. Mat and Guy were able to guide us in the right direction with our piece but was good in the way that they didn’t tell us what to do for every single step. Even though the editing process was very stressful it was also good because it not only built the relationship with our teachers and the people in our groups but also the fact that it helped us understand more about what goes into the editing process when people make films and how much time and effort is put into it. When we first started using final cut pro, it was hard for a few people to get the hang of it because they may not have used the programme before, this goes for me, once I had seen how to use it and techniques within it not only me but everyone else got the hang of it. Overall, the process was tiring and stressful but was still at the same time very fun. I liked understanding that area of media and how to create what we all created. I would definitely not change a thing with our media because it showed our hard work and was a great experience.

Myself and Fady recently found out that Julia in our group had left the school, we were very shocked and surprised but also a little but worried because we weren't sure how we were going to handle creating our thriller with just us two but because we ended up working quite well together so it was all okay in the end.

Changes to thriller

There were a changes made to the thriller on the shoot day, for example we decided to leave the part of the thriller where it was the main actor waking up at around 3 in the morning and then going back to sleep. The reason why we decided to do this is because not only was the thriller too long but that part wasn’t necessarily needed. Taking things like this out will add up to create a better and more effective thriller as it will keep the audiences eyes attached to the piece and not let them drift off. We also decided to push the furniture on the right side of the room, when you look in to the shot, more closer towards the bed our actor was sleeping on. The reason why we chose to do this is because we wanted to make the room look a lot more smaller and cramped and also feel quite claustrophobic. This , in my opinion, all added to the whole effect of what we were trying to achieve. Another reason to why we didn't want the room to look bigger is because we wanted to show that he wasn't the richest person and he is struggling in life. Over all there weren't that many changes we made because we wanted to stick to the original idea and not have massive changes, we believed that this was a good idea because it would then start to drift away from  our whole concept.

Account of shooting day

The overall day started off quite stressful, we were worrying if we had forgotten anything or missing anything vital. Before we left I quickly went and gathered some dirty plates from breakfast to make the whole vibe of the  Once we were sure we were okay we set off. When the day progressed onwards we started to get more relaxed and felt more comfortable, this was once we had started filming, before this it took us the whole morning to shoot, half of our shooting day. This is when we got very worried and stressed because we spent so long setting up everything that we thought we would run out of time. Luckily, once we started filming it all came natural to us and we were able to work smoothly thought the day.

There were changes done to the thriller once we had seen the location in person, these changes weren't big and were very adaptable to the thriller.

Shooting our thriller was a stressful experience due to all the worrying and if something small goes wrong you feel as if everything will. But once you overcome this feeling and work through everything together as a team you are able to accomplish so much in such ease because you know you all have each others back. We worked like a team should of on thew day and all took it in turns to do the tiring job of standing in the cold holding one of the dedo lights to doing the exciting job of directing and filming. If I was in a team like the one I was in at the beginning of being placed into groups then I would of been a bout a thousand times more stressed and worried but because we were able to develop our relationship over time, our shoot day was a lot less stressful then either of us thought it would ever be. We all enjoyed doing what we were doing so it made the experienced so fun and at the same time educational.

When we were filming a few things were getting quite annoying to re adjust, by this I mean the light, because we were using natural light as well this would radically change in the time from 1-6pm. We had to work more and more with the Dedo lights and it was frustrating at times because every hour the light would be completely different. However, I do believe that we did a good job of overcoming it, there are times were light is different but you learn from your mistakes and now we know how difficult natural light can be if your working over a 6 hour period but wanting your thriller to be over a 3 minute period. The experience was definitely something to remember, it helped me grow educationally and because we all enjoyed the process it was a very exciting day.