Task 7-Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you fell you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?

The pre-lim that my group made has been uploaded in the blog below this one, so take a look!! 

The camera work in my pre-lim is very basic. This is because we had just started to use the camera, and it was the first task we were given. It was more of a task for us to feel comfortable in front of the camera and to get to know how to use it. The camera work in our thriller is a lot more advanced and complicated which shows my development in understanding how to use the camera. We have also learnt a lot more camera shots since the pre-lim and we learnt how they can be effective, so we had a lot more of an idea of what we were doing while thinking about the shots and which ones we wanted. Obviously we still used the simple shots in our thriller, but we also included some effective and eye catching shots. 

An example of a simple shot would be an ECU: (this is a screen grab from the preliminary task)

In our preliminary task we did not use any mis-en-scene, but in the thriller, mis-en-scene was used quite a lot. We thought about our casting for a long time, because we wanted our piece to be as realistic as it could be. While shooting the thriller in the pub, we used two lights, so we had to work on that for a while, setting them up etc, but the lighting didn’t have any meaning to it, it was just lighting to make the faces brighter. But in the pre-lim the lighting was very basic. 

We only used one prop in the pre-lim, we used a spray paint can. Whereas in the thriller we had quite a few props, to make the story line clearer and to add effect to the opening title sequence. 
Locations was very important for the thriller, but for the pre-lim we just used a set that was built in the studio, but it worked fantastically! For the thriller we used a restaurant, a car park, a cafe, and a kitchen, so it was a lot more complicated and professional than the pre-lim.

The editing in the pre-lim, is again very simple. I was just getting used to the editing program ‘final cut pro’ so i hadnt had any experience with it, and i wasnt really too sure what I was doing. In the other hand the editing in my thriller is alot more experienced, and effective. The pre-lim was just simple editing, whereas the thriller is a lot more complicated and has sections cut out, and boxes opening and closing the screens and it is alot more visual and interesting to watch. 

Again the sound in the pre-lim is very boring, it is just speaking because we were given a script to work off. Where as in the thriller we didn’t have a script to work off, and if we wanted speaking we had to make our own script. We could include anything we wanted. If we didn’t want sound we didn’t have to have it we could choose music instead. We didn’t include any speaking, we just use music and sounds of cars moving around etc. So it is a lot more active. 

We didn’t use any make up in our piece, it is all very raw and natural. With the costumes, we told the people what sort of character they were playing and we gave them some kind of idea what we wanted them to wear. For example, Theo was playing a pass over person, so we just told him to wear some clothes that might make him look a bit dodgy. This is sort of thing that he wore --


These are some of the photo of us filming our thriller at the cafe. 
We all did some filming each
so we all got a chance to use
the camera. We as in the pre-lim i was acting so i didn’t get the opportunity to use the camera, so it was my first time using it, and i really enjoyed it and picked it all up quickly. 

Preparation and organisation for our pre-lim was very minimal. We didn’t do much in advance, Alexandra and I just learnt our lines so we didn’t mess it up on the day, but that was all the ‘planning’ we did. Whereas for our thriller, months of planning went into it, we made 3 story boards, made a shooting schedule, sent out emails to get our cast sorted and a lot more. So this really taught my group and I how to organise it all and keep it up to date because we were really excited about our idea for the thriller so we wanted it to be as exciting and perfect as possible. I think that organisation is really really important because the more organised you are the less stressed you are and the more smoothly your shooting day is going to go. If you are un-organsied it will make you behind your shooting schedule and you might not be able to finish shooting in one day, which would be a big problem because each group only got a day to shoot. I feel that organisation is key to a good media project.              

In my pre-lim group there was me, Alexandra, Toby, Ellie and Louise. I think that we all worked well and we all did our bit in the group and no one was not doing something. Alexandra and I were acting in the pre-lim, Louise was continuity girl, Toby was filming and Ellie was doing the lighting. So everyone had a role and was happy with their role. So everything was perfect and organised and our pre-lim was shot quickly and promptly. 
For the thriller i had a different group, but i still had Toby in it. Because Toby and I worked in the pre-lim together we got on really well working in the thriller and I think that our group in the thriller worked a lot better. Maybe this is because we are also friends outside of the classroom and we get on well outside of school and we are quite close, but we all also had a role in the group and we stuck to it and we have had no problems so far! So all our communication skills and team working skills have improved since the pre-lim. 

I think that the pre-lim was a good starting point for us all because it gave us the experience that we needed for the thriller and I think it made us all more confident in using the cameras and editing. It was a really interesting and good task to start of the year. 

Task 6- Thrillers 2013 (playlist)

Evaluation task 6: 'What have you learnt about technologies from the process if constructing this product?'  We made pop ups on our thriller/opening sequence to create on the technologies that we used the construct the product.

Task 5-'How did you attract/address your audience"

Task 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our perfect audience member would be young (around the ages from 14-32) and into action packed, chasing films. If I had to draw a picture of this member of audience it would be a male, with brown hair and trendy clothing. My tribe would be:

I would say that my tribe would listen too very contemporary music in the charts, but they would also fish out some hidden hits that they would bring to the surface of the music industry. They watch a lot of funny series, maybe one like ‘entourage’ which i think is aimed at the age group that i am trying to target and they would watch films very similar to Shere Vice, like ‘The tourist’ which we earlier related our film too. I think that they would also go and see films like Batman which are very action packed and thrilling. I am not saying that our film is in the same category as Batman but that they are both action packed. 

The people that will come and watch our films are very sociable, have lots of friends, maybe some of them are very clever and do well at school, where as some arent too bothered about school. Some go to work and work in banks in London and have alot of money but still enjoy going to the cinema to see a film. 

For my secondary audience  I would say that they would wait until the film comes out on DVD to watch it...some might spend an evening at the cinema, but not very often. They would be a very homely person who doesnt really like going out that often and would rather sit infront of the TV with a fire watching a film. 

I think that the secondary audience would be around the ages of (35-50) and they might be a teacher, or doctor where they dont have much time to go to the cinema. Someone i have pictured in my head, is a doctor, with a family and a stay at home wife who can buy the DVD for the family. He has a very busy schedule and works all week and wants to stay at home on the weekend and relax.

I would say that our film would either be a certificate 12 or 15. Either of these would be suitable for our film as it means that the younger generation would be able to watch it and understand it. I think that if we rate it at a 12 it would be better than 15 because we don’t want to loose some of our target audience. 

Task 3

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

After doing some research on production companies we decided that we wanted to use one that is based in the UK. As our film is an action thriller film we were looking at companies that base their films around that kind of criteria. We came across a company called Studio Canal, which started of as a very small company that only produced european films and then was bought by Vivendi and Universal Studios. It is a film making and distribution company. The budget that we have may be small, so according to budget it could go either way, but we feel that we have a product that would fit very well with the type of films that Studio Canal makes. 

The Tourist:

    
The tourist is a film distributed by Studio Canal. It was distributed in 2010. So it is a very recent film. Stars int he film are Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Paul Brettany. The budget for the film was $100,000,000. The plot is that Elise (Angelina Jolie) sits next to an American tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp), on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted by police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole. 

One of the production comapnies that they used is Spy Glass. Spy Glass did a film called ’The Wanted’ which Angelina Jolie was also in. The budget for this film was a lot less and it was $75,000,000. These two films have the same kind of action/thriller plot which makes the films very similar and I think it is very interesting to see the difference in their budget.  Studio canal produced the film the tourist but it sent the movie of the Columbia pictures to distribute it.

Columbia Pictures is an America based film production and distribution company and it is owned by Sony pictures entertainment. So from this I think I can see that my opening title sequence Shere Vice, has the potential to be a high concept film. It has a story line that could develop into one that would fit nicely with these production and distribution companies. The only problem would be that you need a very high budget. 

We found a much small distribution company called Shadow Distribution. Shadow Distribution is a small film distribution company located in Waterville, Maine, USA, which is known for releasing unusual, specialised films. 
They released a film called ‘The Situation.’ This is a thriller about an American journalist, a CIA operative, and an Iraqi photographer against the backdrop of the bloody war in Iraq. This film is not similar to our story line for our action packed thriller but it is a low concept budget film so it shows us that is is possible to make a film on a low budget that is still good quality. Because our film could either go for a high concept distribution company or a low concept distributuon company I think that it is important to look at both and research both options. 


I think that our opening title sequence has lots of potential and it could turn into an A class, action packed, thrilling movie. I think that I would approach studio canal to produce my film, and Columbia Pictures to distribute it. This would obviously make the film a high budget film so I would need to find that budget but I think that the opening sequence is exciting and i think that people would buy into it and enjoy producing and distributing the film. 

Evaluation task 2

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

My thriller called 'The Bearing' has many social groups. There is seven main characters that are relevant in the opening title sequence and then there are two who are less relevant in the piece.

1. Maxim Baldry. Maxim is the character in the hoodie who looks shifty at the beginning of the piece and this stereotypically gives the audience the idea that he is not in a high social class and this also stereotypically gives of the idea that he is up to no good. You can also tell that he is being shifty by the way he is looking around and not in a certain place because he is worried that someone might see him, doing something that he shouldn't be doing.

2. Adam Grant. Adam is the character who drives the nice car, and wears the hat. He puts the hat on and covers his face with his hand to try and hide his identity. This shows that he is also doing something wrong as well as the fact that he is looking around vigorously to make sure that there is no one unexpected lurking around. By Adams costume you can automatically assume that he is in a higher social class with his 'country' hat especially.  This makes the audience start to ask themselves questions like why does he look so nervous? why is he covering his face up? etc.

3. Theo Baht. Theo is revealed when Adam leaves the cafe and you see that he is wearing a black beanie (hat) and dark clothes. This gives a negative representation of him because you can tell that he is up to no good with his dark clothes on. I think that Theo looks like he is higher class and he doesn't want to be seen in this operation so he wears dark clothes to try and disguise himself.

4. Kitty Birks. Kitty is only shown in the sequence for a second or two. She is a beautiful lady holding a baby who the audience would think is hers which shows a lovely motherly character. She is not dressed in dark clothes and does not look shifty. She looks happy with her baby. Because of all of this the audience would assume that she may play an important role in the film in some way. It is tricky to tell if she is involved in the plot or if she is in a higher class that the others, but the fact that she is shown in a restaurant with her child shows that she may well be in a higher class than the others.

5. Paul chesterfield. Paul is one of the men who passes around the package. Paul is wearing a hoodie too which again, automatically tells the audience that he is up to no good. He shakes hands with the chef while they do a sly pass over to show that they are doing this together and that they know each other which then tells the audience that this is definitely organised and that there is some kind of plan to this passing of the package. It is difficult to put Paul into a class category because you don't see much of him but because he seems to know the chef and had communication with him it questions to whether he is the one who has been organising this shift passing around. So therefore I would say he is middle to high class.

6. Habeib Fasai. Habeib is a chef from an African ethnicity working in a restaurant in the UK. This helps to put him in a stereotype and it tells the audience that he could easily be part of this plan as he looks powerful, large and in control. This may automatically make the audience scared of him. This scary and powerful stereotype puts the audience in their place and makes them understand that in the film he would not be the man to cross.

7. Hendrik Speelmans. Hendrik is the waiter in the sequence who takes the food out the restaurant. He is not part of the plot he just works there. He is a tall, and smart middle - upper class boy working so i doubt that he knows by serving the food to the man that he has got himself tied up in this scandal to try to poison someone. Hendrik is given a positive representation in the opening sequence because he comes across as just an innocent person doing his job.



 Alot of the characters dont show their face, you just see their back, or if you do see their face ti is only for a couple of seconds because they dont want to be recognised because they are doing something that they shouldnt be doing.

Task 1

Task 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge form and conventions of real media products? 

"In what ways does our film follow the rules of real thrillers...or not!"
Our media product is very similar so some of the films that we have researched leading up to the events of filming the opening sequence. 

The Bearing:
In the first image above (top left) you see a man in a hoodie who has just put a package in someones letter box. This man is wearing a hoodie to try and cover and disguise himself, also the only part of his face that is being shown are his eyes because they are looking around to show that he is doing something wrong.

In the second image you see a mysterious looking man sitting at a cafe where you see that he has just collected the package from the letter box. Then you see him leave it on the cafe table and he drives off. The man is wearing a hat and his hand is covering his face to try and hide his identity. In the third image there is a kitchen where someone is slicing some meat to represent the gore,danger and thrill of the film. There is also another pass over on the wheel of a car. In the fourth image you see someone pick up the package from the wheel of the car and someone walking into a restaurant kitchen. This shows two different locations to show that we had a variert of places where we shot to make it more professional. In the fifth and sixth image you are in the kitchen and you see the pass over of the package from a man to the chef which then tells you that this has all been planned out and people are being paid to pass this package around, which makes you think that it is definitely illegal. The final scene is the chef putting some pills from out of the package into someones food, there is a close up of the chefs face so you can catch his identity. Then in the eith and nineth image you see the pill being crushed and put into the soup and stirred around and served. There is a close up on the soup to show you the pills inside it and to create the feeling that the pills are not going to be something good.
This is the end of the opening title sequence and it reveals what was being passed arond all of the time.  

This is all a very stereotypical thriller opening where you dont see what is going to happen but it builds the pace and atmosphere of the film to get the audience excited and stuck to the film.

Our opening title sequence is a very quick and fast pace sequence with all the boxes moving across the page. It makes it mysterious and different. We originally looked at ‘Miami Vice’ which is where we got the idea of the passing something around because in Miami Vice they pass around a USB stick with important information on it. And then we looked at The Tourist because we wanted it to have an action side to it too. It is similar to The Tourist because they both show a selection of locations,you can see some dodgy looking characters in my opening sequence and in The Tourists. There is also a passing in The Tourist. You see someone pass a brief case which links to the passing of the package in ours. Because our thriller is action based and about a package being passed around we needed to find a film that is similar is some sort of way. We looked at a high concept film called ‘The Tourist.’

This film is an action packed film about mafias, bad guys, spy's etc which our film is also vaguely about. So if i had to say what film our opening sequence could be similar too i would say the tourist. ’The Tourist’:  

This is a break up of the film the tourist. It shows its story line and its relevance to our film. It shows spy’s, guns, love, action, ‘bad guys’ etc to show the stereotypical action film. 

You can pick up the story line that two people (Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp) are on a train making a plan about something. It shows you them kissing so it makes you think that they may have fallen in love, but you can tell that someone is watching them by the font of the picture and how it has been edited so show that you are looking through a camera watching them kiss.Therefore you know that these two people are 'wanted.' Then you have a mysterious brief case that is being passed from one hand to another, then the dodgy looking ‘gangsta’ character walking out of his plane. Then you see some spys of MI5 or MI6 people who are obviously searching for the people Johnny Depp is playing or Angelina Jolie. Then you have a scene with a gun, and then the Name and title of the film.

A thriller/action film always has to have a villain. However out thriller challenges the conventions of real media products. In many high concept movies where there is a villain he is well dressed and looks like he would have lots of money-like in the tourist:

But as for us in our thriller/action film we wanted to have a low key villain. For us it was not about what they wore etc because we are making a low concept film and we wanted our character to be mysterious and under cover and it isn't really relevant to the opening of the film because what is important is what is being passed around, not what the villain is wearing.
Our Villain: 














Another rule of a good thriller/action film is having a pretty woman in the film. We decided to follow this rule and we had a pretty, elegant and female touch to the sequence. 
Our pretty woman:

We used the tourist as one of our main focal points of research. It connects with our story board really well with the passing of the brief case and the similar characters, and the action packed film is what we would expect the rest of our film to be like. 

 
Normally in an action film there is something sneaky going on, that shouldn't be happening. In our sequence we had the passing of the package and in the tourist they have the passing of a brief case. By emphasising the thing being passed and just having that in the shot it makes it more of a centre of focus and more interesting. It makes you want to know what is in it and it draws the watcher in. I think it is impotant to emphasise important things to show that they are the focal point. 
Overall I would say that The Bearing and The Tourist are quite similar in their format, their stereotype and how they are created. We took lots of inspiration from it because it creates the same vibe as we wanted ours to create in our thriller/action film.

who would be the audience for your media product?

This would be the Twitter page of someone who loves going to the cinema and films. I made this twitter page based on our target audience. 

Music for opening sequence

At the begining we wanted to have an up-beat tempo type of msic. We wanted an up-beat genre of music to create excitement and tension because of what is being passed around. We found an upbeat type of music that we could use, and we put it with the sequence but it just didn’t feel right and we didn’t like it. We felt that it made our piece look tacky and it didn’t look professional.Because it looked low budget and unprofessional we decided to change the whole genre and go with something that is completley different. After a lot of research we ended up finding a sound track that was similar to indian/hippie style music. We liked the specific instruments in it because they seemed to increase the suspiciousness and mystery about the package. The beat of the song changes at specific moments in time which links with the passovers, empahsising how important that specific moment is. 

The only issue I think that we have with this type of music is that is it not a typical style of music that would be used in an opening title sequence. Because of this, it tends to give a vibe of some kind of TV show style music. 

However overall we agreed to go with it and gives on emphasise certain things in the thriller that we want to be key parts.

How to do the boxing technique

To start of,crop a box onto the specific clip that you want and then you clock on the following:
1.EFFECTS
2.VIDEO FILTERS
3.MATTE
4.MASK SHAPE




Once  you have decided what the general shape of the box is, you can then crop it so  that it is different widths of parallel or horizontal boxes. Also you can move around the box so you can decide where you want it.

Then you select the movement of the box. Such as being cropped from left to right, or swiping across the screen from top to bottom. This is done by pressing a small 'diamond' button. You then play the clip until you want the movement to stop and for it to move on. Then click the 'diamond' button again, then render the clip press in 'apple' 'R', the clip should then move the way you've selected it. There are green lines that show the duration of the clip, and where the movement starts and ends. The speed of the movement can be changed by either inclining(making steeper) or declining (making flatter) the green line. This will adjust the pace of the clip movement.