My Thriller

Prelim

Prelim:

This is our prelim. All the shots that we did were very shaky because we didn’t use a tripod properly. This looks very unprofessional. As Victoria walks through the door, the shot is very badly framed. The top of her head is cut off as she walks closer to the camera. Victoria stands still for no reason and the sequenced looks staged.  We should have raised the tripod and positioned the camera further away to prevent this. We should have demonstrated a match on action by shooting a close up of her hand opening the door. We have followed the 180 degree rule within the prelim when Victoria and I are talking, although the shots are poorly framed. We have taken all these points into consideration when filming our thriller and learnt from our mistakes. We have learnt that we need to use the tripod properly to make the shot better and also we learnt that framing is very important to a shot, if a shot is not frames properly then the shot looks poor and unprofesstional. We have also learnt that continuity is very important otherwise the shots just don't look right together and looks poor.

Evaluation

Evaluation:

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We looked at other thrillers such as Red Eye, Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Fight Club, Jaws and Pulp Fiction. We decided to make the female the hero in our thriller like in the filme Red Eye and Silence of the Lambs because we wanted to take away from the stereotypical male antagonist. We kept the identity of the villain hidded because we wanted to create tension throughout the film. In our research, we found that our audience would prefer the villain to not be shown untill the end of the film. We also used a child. None of the films that we watched used a child so we chose to because in our audience feedback, they said that they would like to see a child as it would make the film seem creepier.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3: What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

evaluation

                                       

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

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

Media Evaluation 2 on Prezi

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

 

Preliminary Task on Prezi

Interview:
E: Emma              S: Sasha

E: Did you enjoy the opening to our thriller?
S: Yes I thought it was very interesting

E: Did you think the music created suspense?
S: Yeah the music was really creepy

E: What did you think about the graphics used?
S: I thought they looked a bit predictable for the genre.

E: Did you think about the kidnapping theme?

S: Yeah I thought it was good because its different from a serial killer thriller

E: Would you watch the rest of the thriller?

S: Yeah, it seems liek something I would watch

E: How do you think our thriller could be improved?

S: The graphics could have been less predictable and you could have used more range of transitions between the shots.

Section 12: Analysis of Completed Thriller

Narrative Structure:
Linear narrative
First scenes show the characters, this introduces the audience to the characters and the audience knows that the film is about them.
 Thriller Codes and Conventions:
Concealment and protraction of the killers face. All you can see in the opening shots are ones of the killers body.
This makes the audience question who the killer is and what they are doing. The audience also
questions what has happened to the little boy and where he has gone.
Camera Work:
Low angles show the child's point of view.
High angles show an adults point of view, either the mother or the killer.
The camera inside the cupboard and behind the door makes the audience think that maybe
there is something in there and then a reverse shot shows that there isn't anything there.
Sound:
Isolated piano notes makes the atmosphere seem creepy. The music is uneasy and it building suspense.
The audience can hear the character (Lisa) counting, this show what game the two characters
are playing instantly so the audience can relate to what is happening.
Editing:
Shots cut from scene to scene at a fast pace to create suspense for the audience.
The writing in the graphics that we used were in red. We did this because red can be
associated with  blood, anger and love.
Mise-En-Scene:
Couches and cushions, pictures of family but can't see the people in them. Shows a family home/envirnoment. Kitchen, oven etc - Family life. Clothes, normal everyday clothes - represents the heroic romance convention, normal family but something extraordinary happens
Graphics:
Red lettering - represents blood, anger, love etc.
Creepy font, adds to the atmosphere.

Section 11: Audience Feedback

Questionnaire for target audience:

1)      Did you understand what the storyline was from watching the film? 

Yes             No

2)      Did the music create suspense?

Yes              No

3)      Were the graphics appropriate to the thriller?

Yes             No

4)      Did you feel the kidnap theme was a good choice if not which theme would you prefer?

Yes              No (please state other)

5)       On a scale of 1-5 how much suspense was created?

1       2       3       4       5

6)      Would you want to watch the rest of the film after watching the opening scene?

Yes                 No

7)      Which famous thriller do you think is most similar to ours?

8)      Do you think that any of the characters on show are the hero or villain?

Yes   (which character)                         No

9)      Was there a wide range of camera angles used?

Yes                No

10)   Was the thriller entertaining?

Yes         No

11)   Did the thriller match any of the codes & conventions?

Yes (which codes & conventions)                       No

12)   Did you relate to the characters?

Yes          No

13)   Was the framing of the shots good?

Yes          No

14)   On a scale of 1 to 5 how much did you feel the fits into the thriller genre?

1             2             3             4           5

15)   How could the thriller be improved?

 This graph shows that most people understood the storyline of our thriller. One person didn't understand the plot.

 This graph shows that most people thought that the music created suspense.

This graph shows that most people thought that a lot of suspense was created.

This graph shows that most people would watch the rest of our thriller after watching the opening scene.

Section 10: Video Log Sheets

 Log Sheets:

Edit Decision List: 

Section 9: Production Schedule

Production Schedule

Paperwork	Date Started	Date Completed	Group Members
Thriller Research	4th November	30th November	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Treatment	30th November	2nd December	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Synopsis	30th November	30th November	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Character Outlines	3rd December	6th December	Senga, Emma
Shooting Script	6th December	9th December	Senga, Kelly, Emma, Ryan
Location Sheets	7th December	8th December	Senga
Storyboard	13th December	13th December	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Graphs	7th December	13th December	Emma

Construction

Location	Data Started	Data Completed	Group Members
Outside house	16th January	16th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Living Room	16th January	16th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Hall way	16th January	16th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Stairs	18th January	18th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Landing	18th January	18th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan
Bedroom	18th January	18th January	Kelly, Senga, Emma, Ryan

Equipment

• Camera
• Battery
• Tripod
• Battery Charger

Cast

Actor	Part	Name
Josh Nuttall	Child	Josh Nuttall
Lisa Nuttall	Psycho Mother	Lisa Nuttall