Evaluation- Ellie Tooth

1.In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4.Who would be the audience for your media product?
5.How did you attract/address your audience?

• Our targeted audience for our opening thriller was females. This is because they are able to relate with the character more.
• If we aimed it at males and continued to use a female character they would find it harder to relate and also wouldn't understand the problems that the character has had to deal with
• . Females come across a lot more sensitive and caring so even if they don't relate to the character they are more likely to feel sympathetic towards a female rather that a male. 
• The camera shots used help the audience to connect with the character. For example the as the the shot pans up the body you see the first shot of the characters face. 
• You see the character within the opening scene for the first time and you have no idea whats going on. The only thing you can see is that her mind isn't in a great place and this is shown in her facial expression. 
• You instantly see she has a scar on her face. It isn't clear to the audience why she has it as you know nothing about the character. This is to do with the order of the film. We've started with the end of the story at the begging of the film. I would say this is going to attract our targeted audience as it keeps them guessing like a thriller should do.

• We have shown certain props in the mise en scene in close ups to show the importance of them and it also gets the audiences attention 
• Showing the close up of the pills, gets the audiences attention and gets them asking questions such as, what are they? what are they for? what is she planning on doing with them?

• I think that the non diegetic sound is there to add the the mood of the scene. Adding this creates tension and attracts the audiences attention. I believe that the non diegetic sound starts in the right place and the camera pans up the body to revele her face and the scar on it. It could of started ear;ier as son as the door shuts which would create the same amouunt of tension but if we have put the non diegetic soundtrack any later it wouldnt of created the tension there is now.
• After there is some silence within the opening scene a non diegetic sound comoes in againcreatng more tension again after its been so quiet. The start of the sound is strong and loud straight away.
• The point of this is that it catches the audiences attention and then quietens out but gives you an insight into how she feels and whats going on her head.
• Its the type of non-diegetic sound that makes you feel a little confused, invlovees a lot of thinking and also that there's not long left.

Here you need to explain why your audience would enjoy your film. Select detail from your film to support your answer, including material on, for example, the story told through the narrative, the use of camera, the use of mise en scene, the use of character, the reference to certain themes or issues, and the use of sound.

Standard Blog Format – lots of visuals - still images and screengrabs, embedded moving image and hyperlinks.  All text should be written as precise bullet point responses and clearly structured around sub titles. 

6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7.Looking back at your preliminary task,what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

The Evaluation - By Ruby Boisvert

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

• We wanted to use a wide amount of Mise en Scene throughout of short sequence to convey a sense of suspicion and phycological emotions, For example we did things such as filmed her wearing black clothing representing a dull,dingy lifestyle showing the character representing inner darkness.
• An interesting setting depending on the plot of the story showing normally a dark dingy setting looking eerie and creepy. The thriller ‘Physco’ but instead of dark and dismal.We thought this at first but we wanted to show a different approach to a thriller film so we decided to use bright lighting showing the details in the screen and making it clearer for the audience. The scene being in a bath showing light and clarity.
• Also instead of using lighting to convey this we used a wide variety of conventions such as mirroring the protagonist to show reflection of victim and create anticipation through viewers of what is going to happen next through the thought in her face which shows a connection towards the audience that some teenagers can do this in the real world.

• Other conventions are Low key lighting making shadows such as silhouettes but again we didn’t use this is our sequence because we wanted our lighting to be filled so we could see the detail of what she is doing, For example looking through the cupboard and watching the water rush into the bath. 
• We have used a range of slow,medium and fast paced cuts to create suspense and ENIGMA to audience of what is going to happen to this timid girl.
• Different camera angles and different sized shots. such as low angle showing direction and straight angle when doing mirror reflection. Shot angles such as Long shots showing body movement of what she is doing and also close ups to show state of mind.
• We also used both tracking and panning to show footsteps and track of setting creating that suspicion and disorientated feeling. Then ending the scene on a pan into her face creating that end anticipation then a fade to black. This will make the audience want to know what is going to happen next.
• What could of happened? we did this through use of ECU to show panic in her face. 
• Films such as ‘physco’ has use of black and white filming which emphasises shadows. 
• The protagonist is the girl about to commit suicide and there is no antagonist in this opening sequence but there is in the story itself. eg the bullies that led her to feel this way.
• The sound in our opening was slow,pounding and slightly creepy conveying enigma and thrill inside.
• It was also slightly down,depressing and mind puzzling to create that tense atmosphere.
• The film 'Seven' we looked at closely as by watching the opening sequence it shows the end of the film. This is what we conveyed in our thriller to then back channel and create a clearer picture.
• We wanted to create a sense of thrill making sure the audience being on the edge of their seats. We did this by using track to create suspicion, fast cuts of the bath filling up wondering what she is going to do next.
• The opening titles of ‘Se7en’ are fast paced and dissolve quickly onto the screen with a mysterious soundtrack in the back ground and occasional close up shots to create enigma. We took inspiration from that using a sharp edgy font.
• Using a sharp font to convey thrills in the colour of black and white making it give a sense of tension and coldness with the words dissolving and fading from the screen.
• We thought this was effective to shock the viewer and making the film look more intriguing always making sure the text was in empty space.
• In our opening thriller sequence,not all of Todorov’s points are used, if we had more time we would of improved this by using flashbacks, for example doing the disruption of that order by an event.e.g the bullies taking the mick out of her. 
• Dramatic sound depending on what mood the makers want to create. 
• Use of dramatic parallel sound at opening of our sequence.
• stop of music then using own sound to enhance anticipation
• Ending the sequence with a mind puzzling soundtrack trying to convey a crazy,traumatic thoughts from character.

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• Age is a particular social group that this is extremely connected to. Many teenagers have troubles and problems when growing through that stage.
• We have tried to convey this by using ECU to show thought process and depth of thought. Here is an example:
  
  I think this shot is interesting because it shows the thought as a teenager could connect to this as you can tell she is going through a hard time. The anticipation in her eyes makes the audience question why she is being like this and who has done this to her. The ECU explaining the deep thought in her eyes as she looked confused and puzzled.
  This shot of the pills that the protagonist is hesitating to take is showing many different problems that the audience could think of. For example, illness's such as physcial, mental states. Looking through the cupboard is telling the audience that she is unsure on what she is doing but it doesn't look good seeing as there are pills involved. The connotations through this shot all prove to be negative. Behind this shot we used tracking to emphasise the Protagonist going to the cupboard creating anticipation.
  Use of Tracking shots - again slow paced showing what she’s doing step by step.
• This is representing how a lot of teenagers go through struggles as they are getting older by using slow paced cuts to show emotion and that they aren’t rushing, almost don’t care about anyone else at this point in time. 
• Our thriller is a negative representation of the teenage years because it shows
• bad thoughts(through ECU,MS) suicidal,depression and being hormonal.
• Ways in which we have tried to convey a teenager who has been having problems 
• Mise en Scene- Make up on face of a scar made by a previous accident which has stayed with her.
  
  We used this camera angle, making sure the we,as the filters didn't get in the shot to show the scar in a mirror reflection. We thought this would be more interesting to do rather than just a close up making it obvious we want the audience to know the scar is part of the story. Following on into the second mirroring shot when she lightly put her hand across her face and touches it giving the audience an idea. 
• We have tried to stereotype this girl with the use of clothes trying to emphasise that by what she is wearing indicates what type of girl she is, i.e not very colourful and happy.
• The character keeps herself to herself and doesn’t tend to have a big social group,only a few close  friends which is the boy at the door who understand her and is one of a few.
• We wanted to also convey this by showing that she’s not talkative i.e not replying to her friend who is banging from outside the door.
• Thrillers such as 'The edge of darkness'.
• An production team that would buy my film could be 'Coffee films' which like independent,indie short films or documentaries. 
• http://www.coffeefilms.com

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

Institutions,mainly indepedent distributers like Netflix,Duke of York and Film 4 which is a local distributer in Brighton and also film 3 are the ones I have found and researched which could distribute our media product. 

Below is the Netflix logo which does distribute Independent Films across the world, one being the United Kingdom and this is any genre of film from romance to thriller. One thriller in the top ratings on Netflix was named 'Case 39'.

Thats why our film would definitely be able to stream on this website.

It would be a good website to use for our media product because statistics show in 2003,earning 6.5 million profit  on revenues being $272 million.

Back in 2012 Netflix signed the first UK film deal ahead of the 2012 launch showing that they are interested in what Britain has to show.

The Duke Of York 

The Duke of York is independent cinema screenings that would distribute our media product with it being british and the film being british that would be a big bonus when coming to distribute as it was made in the country. It has been open for 100's of years and likes independent films although a lot of block buster films.

Film 4 is also a british distributor which again would happily distribute our film due to its british background. It has been backing a large number of films since 1982. They specialise in distributing all sorts of films and I think our thriller would fit right in to that category due to it's use of editing,sound,Mes and lighting which we hoped to have achieved. 

I would like our media product to be distributed through a website as there are a lot of advantages through doing this such as it being easy and quick to get access of the film,also advertisement is good as they put the top rating on the front homepage of Netflix and Film 4.

Here is an example of the top thriller ratings 

at the moment on Netflix.

If it was to get many views so this gets you're product out there and visible to the viewers. Also on Netflix the website is fast to use and there are no loading problems and to finish off it is simple and clear to use.

Ways of marketing this would be posters,billboards and banners around you're local area,advertisements on adverts in short slots as this is an independent film it could depend on the area, for example you can only view it in your local town.

Social networking sights would be a main priority for our independent film,could be shared by various people you know that could support you or could be icons on Facebook that could like you to a page and show you what it's about.

Also sights such as Twitter would be a great way to advertise through something called 'trending'. This mean it makes one word,phrase on sentence be shared and known by everyone on Twitter. This would be a great help to get the word out there about our film.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

With our sequence I feel the audience is targeted at mainly females as the protagonist is a female. Girls will feel they can relate more with the character rather than a boy because at this age many girls have problems.
 I think this mirror shot is especially good because it stereotypes a typical girl looking in the mirror, looking upset or confused wondering what is wrong with her.
Her imperfections which have made her feel this way in the first place are shown in the next mirror scene when she gently touches her face proving that she just wants the scar to go away. Many girls will have problems with scars and appearance problems overall so they can definitely relate to this sequence.

The age range that I have picked would be 18-25 year olds because the use of shots as seen below

 This use of this camera shot, close up, conveys thought and sadness as if she is looking in the mirror and hates how she feels. This can relate to many teenage girls and up to grown woman making them think they are imperfect.  So that is why when watching this sequence many woman will feel for this protagonist and feel they understand her clearly whereas males won't as much.

This low angle establishing shot shows the bathroom and how it is laid out. We chose to do a shot like this because it's showing the target audience how this is a normal average bathroom,nothing extravagant which makes the scene more realistic. We haven't made it spotless and positioned, we have kept it the way we saw it with bottles on the side of the bath and a rubber duck. We thought this was interesting because it conveys more of a typical bathroom that viewers will connect to with to their own.

 This straight angle medium shot is a good relation towards the target audience because they can feel they connect with her through seeing a clear shot of her face panicking, thinking too hard and being in pain. This will make women empathise her.

 We decided to make sure the protagonist wore her clothes when we did the bath scene. We did decide this because it automatically attracts the audience showing that she isn't thinking right and that she just wants to do something bad. The use of black clothing also attracts the audience because females are typically known to wear pretty,colourful clothing and this is more of a masculine,dull colour.

The use of a Extreme close up defines the panic running through her mind as she can hear her friend banging on the door. This is what we wanted to achieve because the audience will feel they are almost in her head feeling puzzled for her,really connecting.

 As the opening is the end of our story people will gather that through the last shot being left on a cliff hanger finding out whether or not she did commit suicide.

Even though Mean Girls has a totally different approach, it is still similar to what we were trying to convey in our thriller as many girls look up to this film and understand what teenage girls go through, the struggles and the feeling of always having to look good which this film portrays in which we tried to portray in ours to make females connect.

5.How did you attract/address your audience?
I feel that we attracted mainly female audience through use of diegetic sound being dramatic and hard to miss.
The sound then becoming more of a strong,hypnotic beat to bring the audience in.
The aspects of the film we expected people to empathise and connect with was mainly the close ups,medium close ups and tracking shots of the protagonist showing a lot of the scar on her face.
This makes the audience feel sorry for her and empathise for what she is going through.
Teenagers will definitely be attracted to this as from the teenage is the age that people tend to mainly get bullied in different ways such as cyber bullied,verbally,physically etc. Not only this but losing friends,family can also all be related to.
Also we made sure our sound was parallel to the sequence giving that vibe of enigma and mystery.

When doing this shot we were trying to portray a young girl who has been traumatised from something. We did this through a mirror reflection showing the stare into the mirror at herself. This can give the viewer more of an understanding that it is something to do with herself. Her own state.

Showing this with no dialogue was difficult to get the full effect but I think this came out better than I thought as it shows the intensity and thought through her facial expressions and dull emotions. 

We have tried to show this as her looking through herself as if she was nothing and meant nothing so didn't deserve to be on the planet. As if she wanted to make that permanent.
As she points at a scar on her cheek, we tried to make it a subtle scar through using make up, just so it's not obvious and in your face that,that is the reason she is upset because it's not the only reason.
This is an example of what we tried to copy but slightly different.

This shot proves and addresses to the audience what is wrong. This is shown through a medium shot leaving a lot of empty space as tracking into the mirror. We thought this was more effective than just showing her touching her face because even though there is no talking, the way she touches it and examines it shows how she feels about it.

Even though no dialogue is shown in this sequence, we wanted that to make it more mysterious, creating enigma towards the audience.

Using the bang on the door from her friend and then cutting back to her face, we wanted that face to show her thought, of why she didn't want to talk to anyone.

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

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

In the first frame of this sequence I screen grabbed our first shot of the extreme close up of the clock. I think this was good because it gave a sense of time changing the someone waiting. The angle is was well thought through, through making it a point of view shot from Lily. Overall I don't think I would of wanted to improve this because I like the angle and the way you cannot see all of the clock.

In the second frame, this was the close up of brads hand as he enters the room. From looking back I realise he doesn't pull the handle right down which could look confusing to some people as the transition from that shot to the next is disorientating, I realise now there needs to be a shot imbetween of him opening it right up.

This is shown in frame 3,that the jump from two to three is too confusing as if he is walking out even though he has walked in.

Frame 4 is an over the shoulder shot of the two characters showing the male characters expression on his face. This is an average shot but now having more experience I realise there is too much wasted space that is not needed in the shot and shows too much establishment which has no need to be in the plot.

Frame 5 is another two shot showing both characters and the females expression, this shot is again showing a lot of wasted space, but it shows a good amount of both characters and also portrays shot,reverse shot lets us see the dialogue from both characters. The continuity editing was shown throughout and we made sure that we kept a close eye on the 180 degree rule we made sure we didn't cross.

Frame 6 and frame 7 didn't quite go as we wanted them to, taking lack of shots we couldn't find any that flowed, as we took two different shots they change places in the second shot which looks confusing and forced/planned which we tried not to do so unfortunately that didn't flow although we are glad we showed this as it did shot match on action. 

Frame 8 shows the character of Lily, we made this a point of view shot from the boy Brad. This is interesting because it looks realistic from the audience point of view showing her in the centre of the shot and the emotions going through her face.

Frame 9 is finishing the sequence by the character of Lily walking out showing a two shot. I think this was successful because it shows the 180 degree rule from Brad sitting at the table and is a good shot size (medium shot) showing the right amount of information to show what she is doing. e.g walking out of the classroom door.

Overall I have learnt a variety of things such as shot size,angles, Use of Mise En Scene, editing such as fading,cutting,rendering and many other tools which have helped me hugely with our Final thriller piece. I feel the preliminary was a good thing to do because it taught me what to do and not to do to make my thriller a better sequence.

Opening Sequence Progress

1st

                                                                                                               

Taking on the comments given to us and what we thought would look more appropriate for a thriller film, we decided to make some changes. We decided to change the titles first as we thought that the font wasn't appropriate for a thriller. We also changed the positioning of the titles. We moved the titler 'On Edge' from the beginning to the end. By doing this we believe that it will create more suspense. 

2nd

We showed this version in class and continued to get more feedback. It was said that the titling was very minimalistic which worked well. We stuck with it being basic although we decided to change the font and also the positioning. There was a ripple effect used and it was seen as unnecessary so we decided to take it out. The reason for it being there was to show you are going back into her mind. 

3rd

Changes we would make - Ellie Tooth

If we had the chance to create our opening sequence again with titles, we would change the titles first. Looking at real thrillers we can see that the font in ours isn't appropriate for the genre of our film. I would also move the titles towards the end of the film. This is because you are given the title of the film at the beginning of the film and it doesn't create any suspense for the audience. I would of have the fotage first with the stars names along wih who produced it then as she closed her eyes use a fade to black with the title 'On Edge' in the centre of the screen or to the left or right but it still being in the middle.

Evaluation - Emily Tuite

THE EVALUATION

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

 

Look from top left to right across

• The first picture on the top left matches a thriller convention. This convention is called enigma. Enigma basically means mystery. I believe this has been created due to the camera movement being a tilt.The shot starts at the bottom of the characters feet, slowly moves up and stops for a short amount of time before revealing the face. This shot creates enigma because the identity is concealed and audience are left not know who the character is until the character reveals the face. The audience would be left asking questions of who the character is, male or female? and why is the character locking a door and standing facing away from the camera. If the camera had revealed her face straight away from the beginning of the opening sequence this shot wouldn't be as affective.
• The next picture along is a shot of the character holding a tub of pills. The connotations of pills/medication are negative. With illness, sick, hurt, pain, unhappy. These things are all negative and suggests that the character may feel some of these things but audience are unaware why the character might. Suggesting restricted narration. This shot is a use of iconography another generic convention. The pills create suspense and adds to the enigmatic feel of the opening sequence. This is created because audience aren't sure of what the character is going to do with the pills as well as why she has them.
• The next picture along shows a clear thriller convention or having a protagonist. This frame suggests that this character is the protagonist because she is the first character shown and also the first character to have there name shown by the credits, next to the character. Every thriller movies has a protagonist that is shown by camera angles, shots or the credits.
• The next shot along I have chosen because at the time of this shot on screen diegetic sound is heard at the same time as they character banging on the door. The sound is the boy banging on the door. This diegetic sound is used for realism and creating an unsettling mood. Also has the audience thinking why he is banging on the door and wondering who he is. This is another generic convention of a thriller because thrillers are made to get the target audience thinking. And this is what this shot does.
• The next shot along shows a good use of mise en scene. This frame shows the characters costume. The costume is shown to be a desaturated colour black.Using symbolic colours is a thriller convention. Black has negative connotations such as; dark, dull, sadness, unhappy, drab, death. This suggests to the audience that the character is unahppy and sad, linking with the iconography of the tub of pills this will imply that this character is very unhappy and in need of help but still audience are unaware why.
• The next shot along shows a close up and point of view shot of the boy characters on the handle trying to open it but not managing too. POV shots are very typical in thriller films because it helps suggest a feeling or emotion to the audience. In this shot panic and worry is suggested to the audience this helps to create suspense and tension. This is what is aimed for in thriller films.
• The next shot along is a extreme close up (ECU) of the protagonists chest. Her chest is shown breathing in and out very quickly for a short amount of time, this is to distort the audience and not so much confuse them but make them have to catch up and rethink things as to why she is breathing like this. Also this suggests that the character is upset or panicking about something but again creating enigma and suspense keeping the audience wanting to ask questions.
• The next shot along is represented as the starting frame as the second soundtrack starts. This sound track sounds very different to any others and suggests the protagonist is in her very own world and head space suggesting she is sick, ill and has thoughts she shouldn't be having. Also this soundtrack engages the audience and has them sitting and wondering what is going to happen next and creates suspense and enigma. Again having the audience wanting to ask questions is a typical thriller convention.
• The last shot along is the serif end credit of our opening sequence. Most thriller films don't have the title of the film at the beginning of the film and would show a small clip of the film typically the end of the film at the beginning and after the audience have seen this the title will be shown. Also most title credit is not in the middle of the screen in thriller films this is why we chose to do this. 

Thriller films tend to explore 'dark' themes and that is exactly what has been portrayed in my opening sequence. A theme of psychological/mental illness and suicidal thoughts.  

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

I believe my media product represents the female teenage social group. I think this because the protagonist is a young girl and teenagers undergo difficult emotional problems.

• My media product shows a negative representation of the teenage social group because the opening sequence shows to have negative thoughts in it such as;     

-negative thoughts
-suicidal thoughts
-not wanting to talk to talk to anyone. (boy knocking on the door)
-deep thought about her scar

• How have we created negative representation of the teenage social group?

-Mise en scene:

• The pills are an immediate negative representation. Pills have negative connotations of illness, sickness, medication, sadness, unhappy, mental illness, physiological illness and physical illness.

• The make up of the scar on her face has a negative representation and connotations such as pain, hurting, trauma, insecurities and no self confidence.

• The costume of the protagonist isn't very exciting and implies she doesn't take much care in her appearance. The costume is black and black also hold negative connotations.

-Camera: Extreme Close ups of the protagonist gives the audience an easier insight to emotion and trauma and pain she is feeling. She doesn't look happy therefor the extreme close ups are negative representations.

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


Distribution

Film4 logo

•   I believe that film4 would be an appropriate distribution company to distribute our film because it is a British production company  therefor would be an appropriate company to distribute our film because my opening sequence is and English thriller film.
• We know that film4 shows thriller films because on their website the headliner is 'Dannys Boyle's hypnotic thriller out now'. (see below)

http://www.film4.com/

• http://www.film4.com/

• I believe that our independent movie will do well being shown on an internet streaming site such as Lovefilm or Netflix. I found that on the Netflix website they show independent films aswell as large movies. This would be a perfect way for gaining audience.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiHome

• http://movies.netflix.com/WiHome

• Lastly I think that our film is perfect to be shown in an independent movie cinema because my opening sequence is an independent thriller movie. The Duke of York is an independent movie cinema and it is in the city Brighton. 
•  http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Duke_Of_Yorks/

independent movie cinema - Duke of York, Brighton

Promoting & Marketing

• Because my film would be made independently, the company wouldn't be able to promote and market using the expensive ways such as tv, billboards etc.
• Social networking sites such as; facebook, twitter, myspace and tumblr would be a great way to advertise our independent movie because of the minimized cost and effective ways in having people see our add.

• Facebook would be one of the best ways to promote because of the minimal cost and having a wide audience using the site. Facebook is also used by 18-35 year olds a lot. This is good because this is our target audience for our film.

• On facebook you can pay to advertise on having cover photos made, advertise on the side of pages, making your own facebook page and banners along side people posts.
• Twitter would be another good one to promote on because you can pay to have promoted trends so people would be able to see it easier. 
• Twitter would be good to keep audience updated on where the movies is being shown, where to see it, how much to pay to see it. Twitter is good on informing things to audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

• I feel our target audience is definitely 18-35 year old females. this is because of the genre of the film; as it is a thriller anyone younger wouldn't understand and due to the storyline anyone older than 35 may not be able to relate as well or may not be interested as the character is a lot younger than them.
• I believe this because firstly the character that is in my sequence is a female.
  
  Immediately attracting female audience. Because the female character hasn't been made to be a sex icon by wearing leather, showing cleavage and skin and not look sexy and seductive that would stereotypically attract men suggested by Laura Mulvey who thought of the Male Gaze theory. I feel it would attract females.
• Having a female character might make audience (females) feel connected with her. 
• The character in my sequence is going through a difficult time and is thinking about committing suicide, during the opening scene audience are unaware why she is feeling like this.  
• Audience might feel connected to her by understanding emotions that are portrayed in my opening sequence.

•  Our independent movie is certification '18' because our sequence implies suicidal thought, psychological illness and shows drugs. Not suitable for persons under 18.

What other films might you enjoy, if you like our independent movie?

•  Inception: I believe our audience will like this film because it has a similar narration to ours. The beginning of the film starts with the ending of the film. Therefor has a twist to the film. Its a thriller and has brilliant reviews. Also, Inception is not a film stereotypically made through the 'male gaze theory' made by Laura Mulvey. And start Leonardo De Capreo, a man stereotypically like by women. Suiting out target audience. 

Inception poster

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• I feel that using a female character would help to attract our target audience because females are stereotypically sensitive, sympathetic and understanding. Our female isn't typically dressed to fit the male gaze theory. This suggests that it would be more typically suited for woman more than men.
• Teenagers are also likely to understand what the protagonist is feeling and would feel they could connect with this character because teenagers undergo problems everyday such as; family break up, relationship break ups, loss of a sibling or friend, bullying, cyber bullying, education stress and fall out with friends causing teenagers to feel lonely and sad and some extreme cases depressed.
• Because woman are more sensitive it maybe that woman would be able to understand the trauma and emotion of the protagonist.
• The mid close up frame of the protagonist looking in the mirror at her scar on her cheek (indicated below in the red circle) I particularly feel target audience (woman 18-35) would understand.
  

• I believe this because woman are very conscious about the way they look and one thing they believe is an imperfection about themselves can make them feel self conscious and sad. As the character is looking at this on her face the audience will empathize with the character because females will understand what it is like to have or see something about yourself which you don't like.
• The tilt up the protagonist at the beginning of the sequence also helps the audience to feel connected to the character because seeing every part of the character helps you to learn about them and feel you can stat to understand them more. Also this suggests to the audience that the sequence is going to be about this character. Therefore the audience will want to take in everything about them and try to put themselves in the characters shoes. 
• Because the ending or the what would be in our film has been put as our opening sequence would draw in and attract our audience because they will be left with question they will want answered.

• The extreme close up of the protagonist face after the boy is banging on the door obviously worried about her and wanting to get in our stop something shows audience the pain and panic she is going through. Extreme close ups are used to suggest things to the audience and this is what this shot does. Audience will immediately feel sorry for her. Woman are most likely going to empathize for her. 

Audience Feedback - what you liked? what you didn't? how was this acted upon?

Feedback

• Above is a comment made from audience feedback. The bit i had taken into account was 'However, one of the transitions (the ripple) was fairly unnecessary'. Although we had been having mixed opinions on this we had decided to remove this transition because we felt it wasn't communication anything important to the audience and they had obviously felt the same. 

Feedback

 

Feedback

• We had thought about our shots carefully whilst story boarding and wanted the CU and MS to communicate what the protagonist was feeling to add to the atmosphere and so the audience would empathize with the character, we were told during our feedback stages that this had worked well. Which we were very happy about.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing  this product?
My video will not upload? Will be uploaded in acouple of days.


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

Look from top left to right, across

• The first picture from top left to right, across is the frame at the beginning of the shots which look fake and not so well acted or badly directed. These shots made the sequence seem comical when these shots where not meant to take to that effect, in comparison with our final thriller opening sequence we learnt from this mistake and tried to make all our shots more serious and not comical. As the atmosphere and mood we where trying to put across to our audience was a serious theme. If wew were not happy with a shot we had taken then we would redo it making sure our shots were fulfilling the effect we were trying to achieve.
• The next shot along on the right represents our extremely jumpy shots which we had no explanations for because it was purely bad editing. We tried our best to learn from this mistake and be careful not to make the same one, however we still did have jumpy shot in our thriller opening sequence but we tried our best fix this to the best we could by taking  another shot and putting it in between of the two jumpy shots where the protagonist in out thriller sequence was rumiging through the cabinet to find her pills. The shot we had added in made it less jumpy.
• The next shot along we had not added sound fx to exaggerate the girl waiting on the time to see the boy. So the message we wanted to put across here was not as strong as it could have been. However in the thriller opening scene we had made sure the bath running and the locking of the door and the banging on the door was exaggerated and louder. To suggest a stronger message such as she was alone and didn't want to be disturbed. She was running a bath but she wasn't looking prepared to have a normal bath and the panic of the boy character in reaction to whats going on. This created a bigger atmosphere and created suspense much better.
• Next shot along was to represent a good time of putting in a soundtrack to help make the transition smoother however we didn't do this in our preliminary sequence although this would have improved the scene. We learnt from this and added in two soundtracks into our thriller sequence. We had been told that the soundtrack was very effective from our feedback. From making this mistake in our prelim we learnt from this and were able to improve.
• The next shot along represents the dialogue and, the bad editing. At 00:24 it is heard that the director is saying 'cut' which should have been cut and edited out but wasn't noticed therefor we were unable to do this. However looking back at it we noticed this and attempted to fix this but we were out of time so we were unable to do this. But again we learnt to be more careful and look/listen for things like this in our thriller movie, the mistake wasn't made again.
• At the time the next frame was being recorded a terrible nose in the background could be heard, due to this the dialogue being said at this time could hardly be heard. Because of this we planned our location carefully so we wouldn't have the same problem and if it did happen we could take out the sound altogether and put the dialogue back in separately. We then decided we wouldn't have any dialouge in our opening thriller so the audience would know less about the characters and whats happening. This created enigma well, a generic convention of a thriller movie.
• The next shot is representation of the shots we have used in our prelim. We had not taken a wide choice during this, therefor we didn't have a wide range of shots in our piece. We had mostly used Extreme close ups (ECU), Mid Close ups (MCU). Because different type of shots can help to create and connote different things we took this into account and decided to use more shots and angles. This was to make our thriller sequence more effective so we could communicate to the audience exactly what we wanted. 
• The next shot is a shot from our thriller sequence. I have included this because I feel this makes are sequence a lot more interesting. In our prelim we hadn't experimented as much with shot but overcame this in our thriller piece. We had decided to use a tile and this shot is the beginning of this. Using a tilt helps the audience to learn about the character and keeps the identity hidden for a while untill the tilt reaches to the face, revealing the identity. The shots and angles made our thriller much more interesting than the prelim video.
• Finally, the last shot is to represent the different actors of our characters. We had chosen friends to act out in our prelim video, they had proved to be less confident to act out not fulfilling our characters traits. Although the had done well we had decided for our thriller piece we would pick our actors carefully to show the characters traits a lot better. We had chose Lydia Graham and Max Boisvert to act in our thriller piece. Both actors acted and put across out characters traits very well making it look less staged and more professional.

Title Sequence Research- Ellie

Sweeney Todd

As you can see in the opening title sequence they have kept the background very dull making it easier to show the text. The text is white which shows up best on the dull background. Although the moving imagine seems to be a pan across several images, they are a blur, making the text the main focus. The text is important in the opening scenes and is shown clearly by the white text. It is the only colour along with red, which is shown as blood. This gives you an insight into the film and what it is about. The positioning of the text is shown on a moving image but they have placed it in the dead space.

Seven

At the beginning of the opening titles, the first shot you see with an image in shown with a shallow depth of field. This shows only part of what is in the frame where as everything else is blurred. In this shot because the person is blurred leaving mystery for the audience to guess who it is and what they're looking for in the book.

     All shots used in this title sequence are shown  in a closes up. This is focusing on the movement of of whats happening and whats in the shot 

Old Boy

Title Fonts Research and Planning- Ellie and Emily

Nearing the end of our editing process will we need to add a title sequence. This communicates the title of the film and the main actors.

After looking at a veriety of opening thirller titles we have found that the most effective and most common use of title are used on  black background. The text is used in many different places on screen, but the title of the film is normallly center of the screen. As it is the main focus with the names of actors being put in the corner of the screen. If a title of the film was to be put at the side of the screen it may be because they are wanting you to know that it isnt straight to the point and the film isnt going to be right infront of you to figuire out. Its there to make you think. If a title isnt used on a black background its normally used within the shot where there is dead space. Limitless is an expection in this.  

Editing

When editing we had someone who didnt study media with us so that they could have an imput and for them to say what looked good or bad and what needed to be changed. Having someone who who wasnt a media student and was someone who  is the targeted audience for our film helped us as they said what they would look for in a thriller film. As we know what we wanted our opening to look like, they were able to help us as they were open minded about it.

Filming Day 1 By Ruby and Ellie

On our first shoot of filming we filmed all of our bathroom scenes. This is where most of our thriller opening takes place. We used various shot sizes such as close ups, long shots, extreme close ups. We also did some panning and we also experimented with the zoom. The natural lighting in the bathroom was good so there wasn't much need for extra lighting using the LED lights. Although we did add a few. LED lighting was used when ____ was sitting on the toilet.

 To get a birds eye view in the last few shots of our opening we decided to stand on the bath to get the height and also the shot that we wanted. We didnt have any other way so we had to imporvise. Luckily for us it worked and the shots and what was in the frame was perfect for what we needed.