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

By doing a preliminary task I was able to broaden my knowledge on camera shots and editing on imovie. Therefore I have improved since then and fed my new knowledge into my final product. For both my preliminary and my final thriller opening i made storyboards and shooting scripts to make the whole process more organised and made it a lot easier to get things started. I created a slide show that had our three main ideas on it, however we didnt use any of the ideas we first came up because when we presented our slide show the feedback we got from the class was varied and there wasn’t a favourite idea, so we moulded two ideas together and started planning from there. I then went on to create a spider diagram of location, plot, characters, shot types, props and costume. We thought that these 6 things were the most important things to consider when planning our opening as they would have a big part of creating a thriller and dramatic atmosphere. We didnt do this much planning for our preliminary and i think the planning we have carried our has had a big effect on the opeing and is a good standard. 

We had many strengths and weaknesses with our preliminary and looking back on it now they are quite obvious. Our strengths were we made good use of camera angles and shot types, our editing was good and we tried to make full use of the editing tools we were given, I also think the music fitted in really well with each clip. Our weakness’ however was probably the location as there was a PE lesson taking place in the background of one of our shots and the bright colours of the uniform made it stand out, although we worked around this and made it black and white and increased the contrast and put it in slow motion so they would move as fast and would blend in with the trees in the background. There was also an apple on the floor and when shotting we didnt notice it, it was only when editing it came to our attention however we were lucky that it was in all of the shots. i think the continuity of our preliminary was good as it flowed really nicely and was in time with the music. We tried to use the editing devices to our full advantage so this meant in all areas possible we edited. We made the whole preliminary black and white and made the contrast darker to make it look better and more professional, we also converted most of the clips to enable us to speed up or slow down the clips, as we didn't want anything to be sped up we mainly just used the slow motion tool. I think our match on action shot of Emily opening the door and walking through the door worked well and was very effective as it flowed really well without any sudden changes in camera work.


Throughout our preliminary we stuck to the 180 degree rule, this is when you keep the camera always at the same side so the audience isn't confused at any time of the movie. It was definitely a good thing that we were able to stick to the 180 degree rule, as it meant that when it came to filming our thriller we would of already had practise when using and sticking to it. However in our thriller the 180 degree rule wasn't much of a problem as most of our clips were stills, but the point in which the victim is being captured by the attacker i think we have kept well within the 180 degree rule. 

All in all i think our opening was quite successful. The feedback we gathered suggest this however there are a few flaws in it for example i think we could of used better music that wasn’t so repetative. I also think we could of done more with the titles because they wern’t very creative and a bit vague, however they still fitted in well with the thriller. Our strengths of our thriller is likewise with the preliminary the camera angles as we used alot of close-ups which are common in thriller films, we also used match on action and kept well with the 180 degree rule. We also used imovie to our full advantage and used all the editing quiptment provided. 

When shooting our thriller opening we were lucky with the weather because it was a dry day however it was a bit windy so it worked to our advantage and the wind fitted in well with the opening because it makes it more dramatic when in slow motion.

I feel that looking back on when we did our preliminary task in October we have improved our skills and increased our knowledge in shot types. The biggest difference bertween the preliminary and my final product is the amount of planning and thought that has been put into it and has definitely paid of. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We distributed a few questionnaires around, with 9 questions on them. we asked the questions that we thought were most important to ask as it was the main information we were wanting to get where we needed to be next which was deciding who our target audience was going to be. Once we gathered all the questionnaires we were able to see what people preferred to see in a thriller and what they didnt like so much this gave us a good insight into what our thriller could be about and therefore we could go fourth and start planning our thriller. Our research revealed that the majority of people were that took the questionnaire were our own age "15-17 year olds", they preferred psychological thrillers, they liked cliffhangers included in thrillers and preferred the movie to be in colour, most of the applicants told us that they mostly watched thriller films that had a certificate of 15 and they liked it to start with a flashback or a murder. 


I posted my finish product on  networking sites for people to see and to leave comments i.e. Facebook and Youtube. I found that this was a good way at receiving good feedback from a wide audience as Facebook and Youtube are both national and work on a world wide basis. The majority of the feedback was good and people said it flowed nicely together, however some said that the music was maybe a bit too repetitive but fitted well with each clip of the opening. The audience also agreed and thought that the heartbeat and heavy breathing contrasted well together and added tension and made the final product more dramatic. By finding out audience feedback we can see that our final thriller opening meets the needs and expectations of our audience.

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

I used various different programmes when making and planning my media product for blogger to post the research on the thriller genre and the different stages of planning I have done before my final thriller product was finished. This helped in the organisation of our thriller as we could put it all together. We could also look back on the different stages we example:

• Blogger: I used undertook to get to the final product.
• Search Engines: Such as Google, Yahoo and Bing helped us research the thriller genre, we could look at other thriller openings and take ideas and develop them to help us crate a high quality product.
• Youtube: helped us because we were able to search different thriller openings such as Se7en, No country for old men, and the shower scene from psycho. It also allowed me to search for videos of analysis’ that gave me ideas to put on my blogger. Youtube also helped me 
• imovie: We used imovie to create the final thriller product, I learnt various amounts of techniques such as adding transitions, slow motion and how to make clips go faster, I also learnt how to overlap and add music so it fits in time with each clip, They were all used very effectively. 
• Digital Camera: The digital camera was used to shoot the movie, and to take photos of stills. By using this we were able to get a lot of shoots and we were able to carry out camera angles such as close-ups long shots and medium shots etc. 
• IDVD: We used idvd to add an effective title screen to make it look more professional
• Photoshop: we used Photoshop to create a photo for our identity, (Luem)however once we made the picture we didn’t think it looked as good as we first thought so instead we came up with the idea of having an egg timer. 

Through the process of creating my final media product I have learnt many editing techniques to help me create a high quality opening thriller. I have improved from doing my preliminary. By experimenting with different transitions and cutting clips I have managed to improve the continuity of my final product and make it flow more smoothly. I have learnt how to add, change and overlap music to make the clip look and sound more tense and create suspension.. The part wear the killer captures the venerable victim we wanted a sudden change in music to make it more dramatic, so we made it so when the music goes quiet it would then and we would overlap a sound effect of a beating heart with another sound effect of someone heavy breathing.

By having my own macbook at home it gave me a head start at learning how to use one, I had already used Imovie in the past so I knew the basis of it however by using it again I was able to gain more experience about how to use one. I also already knew how to use iphoto and how to import and export the movie onto and off the Mac so it would work on other computers. 

Who would be your audience for your media product?

A form of research I did was look at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) from doing this research I was able to educate myself in how to classify a film and what classification my media product should be stamped with. It also determined what was allowed to be included in our thriller and therefore lead on to deciding what age group it would be most suitable for. I also took a look at other thrillers to gather an idea of what target audience they had. All of the thriller openings i had looked at were rated 15 and therefore we found out that none of them and drug use or were violent openings however each of them used conventions very differently to portray the thriller genre. For example in no country for old men the silence of each of the stills added suspense and tension and keeps the audience gripped on whats to come next. I think it was very effective that there was no music used in old country for old men because it would take away the tranquility and frightening silence there is at the beginning. Differently in Seven the quickness of each clip and the dark surroundings also add tension and suspense but in a very different way because it keeps the audience of edge with the jumpiness of the flicking between each clip.

I also sent out questionnaires with questions relating to different features of a thriller, it was significant that we enquire the age of the person so it would help us decide our target audience. I also asked what type of thrillers people most prefer to watch as it would expand our ideas into deciding what kind of thriller our opening would be i.e mystery, religious, psychological etc.

After doing our research we managed to get a good amount of information to start planning our thriller opening. We found out what is classified as a 15 rated film, and 18 rated film and a 12 rated film. We realised we didn't want a thriller that was too over the top however we still wanted to add as much as possible to make it have enough tension and dramatic suspense with in it so it good be classed as a good thriller opening that would be a popular choice from the audience.

Taking everything into consideration we decided to classify our opening as 15 years or over, because it seemed most popular and most suitable for the opening, by it being this particular classification it means that no one younger than 15 may see the film opening, it also mustn’t contain a few things for example:

Discrimination-The whole piece may not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs-Drug taking may be shown as long as it does not promote or encourage drug misuse.

Horror-Strong threat and menace are allowed however it must not be sadistic or sexualised

Imitable Behaviour- Dangerous behaviour for example suicide, hanging, or self harming is not permitted

Language- There may be strong language used, however aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unacceptable.

Our opening will not involve the majority of this, by using this film classification it lets us be very flexible with shooting and creating the video.

We also asked a rnage of people to complete a questionnaire so we had a good idea of what age range we aiming for and what people liked and disliked in a thriller.

Questionaire

1.  Are you male or female?

• Male
• Female

2. What age range are you?

• 12-14
• 15-17
• 18+

3. Do you enjoy watching thriller films?

• yes
• no

4. What type of thriller do you prefer?

• Crime Thriller
• Action Thriller
• Psychological thriller
• religious thriller
• mystery thriller
• other

5. Who do you like watching films with?

• Friends
• Family
• Other

6. Do you like Cliffhangers?

• Yes
• No

7. Do you prefer colour or black and white for a thriller?

• Colour
• Black and white

8. What certificate films do you tend to watch the most?

• 12
• 15
• 18

1. how do you expect a thriller film to start?
•  Flashback
• Chase
• Murder

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

I think that New Line Cinema media institution would be most suitable for my thriller opening because it has been involved with a lot of top thriller films such as Blade 2, Final destination, and Snakes on a plane. They also have been involved with numerous amounts of successful films that aren’t thrillers. Therefore New Line cinemas have a good reputation for being a part of popular successful films, they also have good knowledge and will know what the audience wants. 

at the age of 27 Robert Shaye founded the popular American film studios. It was based in America and therefore had a much bigger market as the majority of films were made in America and became great success.

New Line Cinemas is became owned by Time Warner’s in 1996 and then was later merged with a larger studio "Warner Brothers" in 2008.

New Line cinemas have also got a very large income so they will have enough money to fund up and coming films and make them top quality and successful. New Line Cinemas is also national so the film would be world wide and have a large target audience. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opening I represented two groups, a victim who represents a young venerable girl and a criminal who represents a kidnapper/killer/rapist. 

We represented the venerable female victim by dressing her in a school uniform to suggest she was only young. We also wanted convey the idea that it was a normal day. We dressed the killer in dark clothing which consisted of heavy boots, and a big coat with a hood to cover the face to enhance the idea of mystery, the killer also held some rope which was used as the killer’s weapon. The lighting also helps represent each character for example the lightning on the killers face is always dark to hide it and to add mystery into the thriller opening. However the lighting on the victim is very natural to show her vulnerability and her innocence to make it more intense. The location also has a big impact on representing each social group. The small empty alleyway and the clothes the killer wears both work together to suggest something bad is about to happen. Also At the start of the opening, the close-ups of the victim are situated in a isolated field surrounded with trees, which also adds to the vulnerability the girl is radiating. 

We aimed to represent people of a similar age to ourselves, and as the target audience was 15+ we thought the audience could relate a lot more to the thriller opening. 

We tried to represent the girl as a young, innocent, helpless girl not knowing what is going on around her at the time of the kidnapping and is unknown to the dangers around her. 

At the end of the opening it shows the victim after the attacker has committed the crime, she is left feeling small and she is forgotten about.

The person we chose to act this girl was Rachel Bland, we chose rachel because she had a drama background and she lived close to where we were filming so she would be able to get to the location easy. We chose stuart Randell to act as the attacker because again like Rachel he had a background of performing arts and therefore would be able to act as the attacker very affectively. 

The shots we did also contributed the the representation of each character for example by using high angled and low angled shots it could highlight power, importance or hopelessness . We used a high angled shot when filming the victim because it gives a sense of looking down on the victim and her hopelessness of what is about to happen to her. Whereas we contrasted with a low angled shot for the attacker to highlight his dominance of the role and aggression he is bringing to the opening. 

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

The main conventions of our thriller opening are:-

As part of my research i looked at some thriller openings to see what conventions they had used, to get some inspiration when starting to plan my own. i thought it would be very useful as i take ideas from them and develop them. 

 It is crucial that in the first few minutes of a thriller you are able to hook the audience in a way that will make them want to carry on watching the rest of the thriller opening, it needs to have an air of mystery to it so the audience feel like they need to keep watching to find out what happens next. The opening should also include titles, introducing the characters and the people behind the making of the thriller, such as the editor and director. Most importantly it should also include the main title of the actual film itself.



the conventions that are included in our thriller opening are very typical of what you would normally find in a thriller. For instance we used a series of close-ups because after doing my research i learnt that close-ups add suspense and tension. You can also get a good feeling of a persons emotions and thoughts by doing a close up of someones faces this can also add to the tension running through a thriller film.

A thriller that has influenced my thriller opening is "No country for old men" which is a typical western film opening that consists of 11 western landscapes each lasting about 6 seconds each. We took this idea and developed it into our own thriller. I also like the minority of pans that no country for old men has and again I took this idea and used it in my own thriller opening. I also liked the idea of having an eerie opening to represent the point of isolation and I think the few stills at the start we incorporated highlight this. We were going to have voice over, over the top of stills, telling a brief outline of what has happened to set the viewer up for what is about to come. However we thought it would make the opening too complex and as we wanted to create confusion putting some narrative in would prevent this. The sound at the start of No country for old men is vert tranquil and we want to take this idea and use it for our own because it adds tension of wanting to know why its so quiet and whats happened or whats about to happen.

Another film that inspired my thriller opening is Seven, the circling of photos and the close ups of writing particularly inspired me when creating our thriller opening. I thought it was a good way of creating confusion for the audience and made it more edgy.
When we were choosing the music there were a lot of things we needed to take into consideration as choosing the right music was key. The main thing was that it fitted well with the shots we had already got; we also wanted it to have a slow tempo but didn't want it to be too dramatic.

the shot where the victim is being caught we wanted there to be no music to change into a different sound clip to highlight the fact it was a key shot with our opening. We managed to get a sound effect of a heart beat and someone breathing and blended them together to create a different sound. We managed to put the original music back into the opening and it flowed really nicely.