Thursday, 28 March 2013
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Saturday, 23 March 2013
AS Media Evaluation Question 5
After completing our media thriller, the media students spent a day out at the theaters watching each and everybody's thrillers.We used this experience for an opportunity to get feedback on what our target audience thought about our very own thriller, 'The Withdrawn'.
Here are some of the responses we received from our target audience:
By interviewing members we can analyse what we learnt from the experience and by interviewing our target audience we can see whether they feel our thriller is a success and has met its objectives. Also we can use the feedback and constructive criticism to help guide us when creating any future media work.
Here are some of the responses we received from our target audience:
We also interviewed a few members of the cast of the thriller to get a view on how they felt about the entire experience. Here's what they said:
By interviewing members we can analyse what we learnt from the experience and by interviewing our target audience we can see whether they feel our thriller is a success and has met its objectives. Also we can use the feedback and constructive criticism to help guide us when creating any future media work.
Friday, 22 March 2013
Q2 - How does our media product represent particular social groups?
Representation is a likeliness to something or someone in a particular way or of something being of a certain nature. It involves a specific point of view. Different representations will have different messages and values, depending on the point of view of the person who makes the representation.
For the plot of our Thriller involves two young males who seem to be in an endangering situation in which they are seen trying to escape. Through two males being involved in this situation, this may begin to establish social representations based on Gender. Furthermore, these males are within their Youthful years, so this could widen the extent to which the presentation of social groups is highlighted through the characters representing age aside from Gender.
The way young males are perceived by todays society is that they commonly fall into danger, bad or troubling situations. These representations that link to age and gender is supported within our Thriller; through certain scenes where this is evident, such as the boys being tied up, on the run from a mysterious danger or entity and so on.
Through different shot types, the micro element of Camera within media allows these representations to be established and recognised by the viewer.
AS Media Studies Evaluation - Question 6
Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
AS Media Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
Q4 - Who would be the audience for the media product?
As a group, we attempted to integrate promotion of our Thriller film through social media sites such as Facebook. As Facebook is most likely used by the majority or all of our target audience, this was the ideal place to socially integrate our promotion and aim the boost the popularity of the release. Our priority target audience is as follows:
Above shows our official Facebook page including updates in order to keep people up to date in real time.
Aside from using Facebook, we also used Vimeo in order to reach out to audiences further in an attempt to garner larger audiences. By simultaneously using both of these networks for promotion, this would be likely to prove just as effective in reaching out to wider audiences.
- People with a particular interest in Psychological Thrillers
- Audiences who look for edge-of-your-seat action
- Enjoy following compelling plots accompanied with intriguing characters
Above shows our official Facebook page including updates in order to keep people up to date in real time.
Aside from using Facebook, we also used Vimeo in order to reach out to audiences further in an attempt to garner larger audiences. By simultaneously using both of these networks for promotion, this would be likely to prove just as effective in reaching out to wider audiences.
Thursday, 21 March 2013
AS Media Evaluation Question 4
The thriller genre in film has a wide audience; this is
mainly due to the various sub-genres within thrillers. The main elements of
thrillers are tension, suspense and excitement. The target audience for thrillers are those
who:
- Enjoy edge-of-their-seat action
- Enjoy tension and suspense
- Enjoy plots where a protagonist must overcome
various obstacles
- Have high anticipation and expectation
- And enjoy dramatic films
Thrillers tend to provide its audience with many emotions and stimulate their moods using giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror.
Since our thriller was a psychological thriller, the
intended target audience was very clear. It’s aimed at those who enjoy edge of
their seat drama with high action and an exciting plot filled with twists,
tension and suspense. As usual psychological thrillers are aimed at those of
mature age; this is because psychological thrillers often involve violence or
content that’s not suitable for you people. This sometime may be 15+ or even
18+ depending on how explicit the content is.
In order to capture our intended audiences attention, we created an official facebook page for the thriller. Here potential viewers could find out more about the film, offer reviews and keep up to date with the thriller.
The page can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Withdrawn/480919221962040
By creating a facebook page and spreading the word using our own personal facebook accounts, it increased promotion and we got more viewers as more people found out about the thriller. As you can see from above we created many statuses about our thriller to attract and engage potential viewers. We also received comments from what various viewers though of the film. Advertising and promotion are key concepts in the media industry as it can be a big factor in determining whether or not a product will succeed.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
This is a slide share that i created, this slide share also consists of other ICT methods such as Photovisi which i used to create a collage.
Ghgjmghmghf from Seb Man
As media studies Evaluation Question 3 - Prezi
Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Here is an Prezi presentation that I have assembled in order to answer question 3 of the Evaluation, Hope you enjoy it and find it highly informative of the steps we took.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Here is an Prezi presentation that I have assembled in order to answer question 3 of the Evaluation, Hope you enjoy it and find it highly informative of the steps we took.
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Here is a Prezi i created to answer question 3.
AS Media Evaluation Question 3
What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
Check out this prezi and find out exactly who and why:
Check out this prezi and find out exactly who and why:
Sunday, 17 March 2013
AS Media Evaluation Question 2
Representation can be defined in various ways, for example you can represent something or someone, or you can get a representation of someone by observing what they do. Representation differ according to personal point of views. Within all media products something or someone is always represented even if there's no intention for this. There are many areas of representation such as gender, age, social class, sexuality, ability/disability, regional identity and ethnicity. These areas can all be represented through different ways within a media product.
The plot of our thriller has clearly indicated which social groups are being represented. The thriller sees two youths on the run possibly in danger or trouble, thus, it's clear the social group being represented in our thriller is youths. Youths are known as young people in their teenage years. This social group relates back to a few areas of representation we looked at in media lessons such as age, class, ethnicity and gender.
The ways the youths are represented support various stereotypes in today's society. For example, young boy are seen as trouble, danger surrounded and up to no good. This stereotype s supported in the opening of our thriller as for example you can see the two boys are tied up and on the run. This supports the stereotype view of young people being up to no good. Another common controversial stereotype which is represented in the thriller relates to the ethnicity representation area. The two boys in the clip are both asian. From this we understand that they may be working class as it's common for only the white dominant people to be part of the upper middle class. The fact these two asian boys are on the run supports the stereotype that coloured people some times are targeted more often than white people. It also represents the fact that asian people are often victimized.
The micro elements of media have influenced how the youths are represented. For example, for a majority of the time the pair are shot from high angles indicating less power which represents that youths are powerless in society. The mise en scene such as the pair tied to trees in belts represents the stereotype that young boys are targets and usually creating danger or being apart of it.
The social group of youths have been represented in a negative aspect in our thriller as the action has supported negative stereotypes of youths. These stereotype are for example:
The plot of our thriller has clearly indicated which social groups are being represented. The thriller sees two youths on the run possibly in danger or trouble, thus, it's clear the social group being represented in our thriller is youths. Youths are known as young people in their teenage years. This social group relates back to a few areas of representation we looked at in media lessons such as age, class, ethnicity and gender.
The ways the youths are represented support various stereotypes in today's society. For example, young boy are seen as trouble, danger surrounded and up to no good. This stereotype s supported in the opening of our thriller as for example you can see the two boys are tied up and on the run. This supports the stereotype view of young people being up to no good. Another common controversial stereotype which is represented in the thriller relates to the ethnicity representation area. The two boys in the clip are both asian. From this we understand that they may be working class as it's common for only the white dominant people to be part of the upper middle class. The fact these two asian boys are on the run supports the stereotype that coloured people some times are targeted more often than white people. It also represents the fact that asian people are often victimized.
The micro elements of media have influenced how the youths are represented. For example, for a majority of the time the pair are shot from high angles indicating less power which represents that youths are powerless in society. The mise en scene such as the pair tied to trees in belts represents the stereotype that young boys are targets and usually creating danger or being apart of it.
The social group of youths have been represented in a negative aspect in our thriller as the action has supported negative stereotypes of youths. These stereotype are for example:
- Young boys are always in trouble
- Young boys are targets for others
This negative representation is common in real media, for example youths are negatively represented in films such as my brother the devil, adulthood and kidulthood. However there are many shows within real media which challenge this representation such as shows such as Eatenders as this shows how although teens are commonly in trouble, this isn't always the case, as they can be helpful normal individuals too.
The images above, created from photobucket, show how the social group of youths are being represented. We see a youth on the run, 2 youths tied to a tree and one knocked out on the floor. This is a negative representation as it supports the stereotype that teenagers are trouble makers and are always up to no good.Saturday, 16 March 2013
As Media Evaluation Question 4 - facebook page
Evaluation - wider audience
Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The thriller genre has evolved over time and throughout its evidently ambiguous span it has introduced and said goodbye to many features of the genre, the newest edition to the genre comes in the form of a technological discovery in better detail a camera technique/shot. The P.O.V shot now is used in many thriller films that bounce from one sub genre to the other such as the 'end of watch' which uses the P.O.V style to capture the action and its importance to building tension. Personally whilst watching that film i had felt part of it due to this build up of tension and as a group during the decision making for what our thriller would consist of we thought that the P.O.V shot would be a perfect capture.
The wider audience for thriller films in general require a chosen demographic age category for example, a Thriller/Horror would be visible for over 18's only but this does not mean it is just targeted towards people over the age of 18. The wider audience for thriller films can be targeted towards a lot of people and like everything else it all depends on the sub-genre. A action thriller would appeal to boys mostly due to the epic car chases and fierce camera angles but on the other hand psychological thriller could be aimed at all kinds of intelligent people who enjoy a good riddle despite Age, Gender or ethnicity.
This brings me onto the specified audience for our thriller and our sub genre was similarly a psychological thriller, although we have created the opening only the audience can tell through the disorientated cuts and merging shots that this is what it looks like, a psychological thriller. We decided to challenge the norms and conventions of a Psychological thriller through the title sequences were instead of using edgy and worn out fonts we used a normal modern one.
The specific audience we had targeted was a young group rather than a older one as this was potraying the struggle of two teenagers on the verge of escape after being 'withdrawn'. As a group we felt we would generate a much bigger and pleasurable audience group as they would not only sympathise with the characters but also empathy would play a part in the viewing of the film.
Here is a Facebook profile we created in order to target the specific young audience that we and our production, distribution companies decided to target.
Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The thriller genre has evolved over time and throughout its evidently ambiguous span it has introduced and said goodbye to many features of the genre, the newest edition to the genre comes in the form of a technological discovery in better detail a camera technique/shot. The P.O.V shot now is used in many thriller films that bounce from one sub genre to the other such as the 'end of watch' which uses the P.O.V style to capture the action and its importance to building tension. Personally whilst watching that film i had felt part of it due to this build up of tension and as a group during the decision making for what our thriller would consist of we thought that the P.O.V shot would be a perfect capture.
The wider audience for thriller films in general require a chosen demographic age category for example, a Thriller/Horror would be visible for over 18's only but this does not mean it is just targeted towards people over the age of 18. The wider audience for thriller films can be targeted towards a lot of people and like everything else it all depends on the sub-genre. A action thriller would appeal to boys mostly due to the epic car chases and fierce camera angles but on the other hand psychological thriller could be aimed at all kinds of intelligent people who enjoy a good riddle despite Age, Gender or ethnicity.
This brings me onto the specified audience for our thriller and our sub genre was similarly a psychological thriller, although we have created the opening only the audience can tell through the disorientated cuts and merging shots that this is what it looks like, a psychological thriller. We decided to challenge the norms and conventions of a Psychological thriller through the title sequences were instead of using edgy and worn out fonts we used a normal modern one.
The specific audience we had targeted was a young group rather than a older one as this was potraying the struggle of two teenagers on the verge of escape after being 'withdrawn'. As a group we felt we would generate a much bigger and pleasurable audience group as they would not only sympathise with the characters but also empathy would play a part in the viewing of the film.
Here is a Facebook profile we created in order to target the specific young audience that we and our production, distribution companies decided to target.
Friday, 15 March 2013
As Media Studies Evaluation Question 2 - Photobucket
Evaluation Question 2 - Representation
Representation in a media product is inevitable even if it is not placed and set on purpose. It represents and defines any chosen social group such as Class, Age, Gender etc and it focuses on how they have been presented and what they may be perceived as for example the stereotypical representation for teenagers is that they are careless and wild however this is radical as not all teenagers are like this. I used teenagers as an example as our own media product was filmed, directed and starred by all teenagers.
The plot of our Thriller had made it difficult for any of the audience to outline a social group other then Teenagers and young people seeing as the only other character apart from the two vulnerable protaganists was a mysterious character, this made sure that we had not known if the character was male, female, old, young let alone their class and position in society, all we knew was through the high and low angle shots that the two teenagers were much less powerful.
The social group our thriller represents is Teenagers and this is done through a mere two characters. The normal representation of teenagers is that they are wild and uncontrollable as discussed before and in some cases violent and anti-social. As a group we understood it would be difficult to represent teenagers as the stereotypical dominant ideology would given the situation and the context of the plot so we had decided to represent teenagers as vulnerable and problematic.
During the beginning of the Media course we had discussed some categories that social groups can relate to during a TV drama lesson, it is distinctive that there is a certain Class and status theory given across during our thriller, the two teenagers are powerless and one is even injured. The mysterious character remains annonymous throughout however it is actually very clear that he/she is much more powerfull and capable than the two. This is a clear link between the social group we have chosen to outline and Class as the protaginists are both weak compared to the ability of the mysterious character, another category that relates to the social group is Ethnicity. The two protagonists are Asian and this may explain why they have been found to be easy targets, the fact that the two are lower in social class immediately labels them as working class and therefore foreign or an ethnic minority.
Our representations of the social group 'Teenagers' is most definately positive as not only is it avoiding representing them as misfits in society and outlaws but it represents their struggle which in a sociologists point of view mirrors the younger part of societies struggle in society today. This is positive as it is giving a valid and un bias point of view however the fat that a group of teenagers had made this opening could be used to argue against that point. Another social group that i have forgot to mention is the Gender group and although it is strictly representing one gender it does this positively without harming the representation of another. Men are positively labeled as strong and adament as the two boys fight for survival and escape. However it can be argued that in doing so we are labeling and representing women as not having the ability or mind state to do so insinuating that men are more powerful and authorative.
There has been many technical aspects that have affected the way we have represented a certain social group. There have been a series of high angle shots that were taken from the tree as they track the two protaganists in their attempts to escape, The point of view of the camera is coming from the mysterious yet powerfull man who again is deemed to worthy of his/her opponents through the camera angles. Also the mise en scene of the two protaganists clearly shows that they are just two common people possibly ethnic minorities or even just simply young men who are struggling to come to terms with what seems to be the last chapter of their books.
http://s1310.photobucket.com/user/maseblm123/story/61415
As Media Studies Evaluation Question 1 - Camtasia
Evaluation question 1
Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our course work we had created a Thriller opening that covered a series of shots found common in a thriller opening. We had to make sure ours remained normal through following the conventions of openings and conventions of title sequences.
Our Media Product can be seen as a strict follower of all types of conventions when thinking about what is used and what takes place in a thriller. Firstly I will be discussing the conventions of film openings. There are many forms and conventions of Thriller openings but one thing the Film opening must achieve is the setting of the location, also the opening in many films is used to distinguish and introduce the characters, although the opening crucially should not give away the plot the characters must be identified. We as a group had looked at and analysed the opening of the thriller Arlington road which was a thriller that had our interest due to the series of distinguished and effective jump shots and action shots. We researched the Title sequence also but decided to challenge there idea of an edgy title sequence with a normal white text with black background Title sequence.
This brings me on to the conventions of the thriller genre films and particularly what we expect from a thriller genre film. Firstly we would expect to see blood in a thriller however this mainly depends on the sub genre, Displays of blood will be visible amongst a psychological thriller or even a horror thriller. Secondly the Protagonists should be a normal person in other words an 'average joe', this is an effect of the dominant ideology and its affect in media products protagonists never have a powerful role in society, we saw this in real media products such as 'My brother The Devil'. Also it is important that thriller genre films shall build tension through Jump cuts, Over shoulder shots, P.O.V shots and mainly importance can be outlined through low and high angle shots. For our personal thriller and media product we had chosen the sub genre of a psychological thriller, the conventions of a psychological thriller was that disorientated shots was a must to create confusion. Again we outline arlington road as it matched our sub genre, we highlighted a series of collateral shots that were mirrored in our prelim also which again was a psychological thriller. Inconsistent of again edgy title sequences with a disorientated font as well as size. At this point we decided not to be ambigous with our title sequence and remain consistent.
before even recording our media product we had to outline all conventions but we needed confirmation on the convention of the title sequences, we used many methods to get used to we wrote it down, put pieces together in order and much more. In a title sequence we expect to see the director and editor being credited as well as the distributor and producers. This is the order in which it is expected the title sequence should come in.
Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our course work we had created a Thriller opening that covered a series of shots found common in a thriller opening. We had to make sure ours remained normal through following the conventions of openings and conventions of title sequences.
Our Media Product can be seen as a strict follower of all types of conventions when thinking about what is used and what takes place in a thriller. Firstly I will be discussing the conventions of film openings. There are many forms and conventions of Thriller openings but one thing the Film opening must achieve is the setting of the location, also the opening in many films is used to distinguish and introduce the characters, although the opening crucially should not give away the plot the characters must be identified. We as a group had looked at and analysed the opening of the thriller Arlington road which was a thriller that had our interest due to the series of distinguished and effective jump shots and action shots. We researched the Title sequence also but decided to challenge there idea of an edgy title sequence with a normal white text with black background Title sequence.
This brings me on to the conventions of the thriller genre films and particularly what we expect from a thriller genre film. Firstly we would expect to see blood in a thriller however this mainly depends on the sub genre, Displays of blood will be visible amongst a psychological thriller or even a horror thriller. Secondly the Protagonists should be a normal person in other words an 'average joe', this is an effect of the dominant ideology and its affect in media products protagonists never have a powerful role in society, we saw this in real media products such as 'My brother The Devil'. Also it is important that thriller genre films shall build tension through Jump cuts, Over shoulder shots, P.O.V shots and mainly importance can be outlined through low and high angle shots. For our personal thriller and media product we had chosen the sub genre of a psychological thriller, the conventions of a psychological thriller was that disorientated shots was a must to create confusion. Again we outline arlington road as it matched our sub genre, we highlighted a series of collateral shots that were mirrored in our prelim also which again was a psychological thriller. Inconsistent of again edgy title sequences with a disorientated font as well as size. At this point we decided not to be ambigous with our title sequence and remain consistent.
before even recording our media product we had to outline all conventions but we needed confirmation on the convention of the title sequences, we used many methods to get used to we wrote it down, put pieces together in order and much more. In a title sequence we expect to see the director and editor being credited as well as the distributor and producers. This is the order in which it is expected the title sequence should come in.
- Production icon
- Distributor icon
- Production in title sequence
- Distributor in title sequence
- director executive producer
- Actor 1
- Actor 2
- Film title
- Actor 3
- Actor 4
- Actor 5 etc..
- Casting
- Costume
- Music supervisor
- Music by
- Edited by
- Production designer
- Director of photography
- Executive Producers
- Written by
- Directed by
The title of the film is argued to be the main thing and it usually comes after around the 7th or 8th Text on the sequence, usually t is there for about 3 to 5 seconds. In terms of how long all titles are on the screen it is usually for about 3 seconds but this can vary depending on the suspense and tension levels on a thriller opening. As discussed before we had analysed Arlington road and after deciding as a group that the conventions point towards a psychological thriller we had connected that to the fact that the title sequences were worn out and edgy to match the image as well as the sound of the opening.
To conclude we must look at our personal media product and how it compares to the actual pieces of real media such as with Arlington road and Psycho. Here are a few print screens of still shots from the opening of Arlington road and our very own Thriller. This will clearly show how we used intertextuality in our Thriller. I have used Camtasia to put together a slideshow style presentation that covers and compares our very own opening to Arlington Road, also i have recorded myself explaining whether or not we chose to replicate or challenge its conventional ideas.
Evaluation Question 1 - Forms and conventions
Forms and conventions
Forms and conventions of film openings:
Film openings conventionally fulfil the tasks of setting the location, introducing the characters and introducing the titles. There are generally four forms of film openings. These are
- Narrative
- Stylised
- Title sequence (titles on background)
- Discrete
Arlington Road:
Titles running throughout the opening of the film, film production company names, producers, directors, starring actors. Arlington Road also has a discrete title sequence, revealing cuts of street scenes, a road sign with the text 'Arlington Rd' written on it in an American street sign style.
Seven:
Seven has a discrete title sequence, revealing to the viewer a range of different cuts sequenced together to create an opening that effectively sets the opening mood and tone for the film. A discrete opening title sequence does not give away the plot of the film, but instead gives clues to the audience about the film. The items and actions shown hints that this film is of a dark, sinister nature and these sinister shots builds audience anticipation.
Donnie Darko:
Donnie Darko opens with a blank screen with white text, which gives the audience information about distribution and production companies, along side the director and possibly the writer. Once these titles have completed, a narrative opening follows to begin the film.
The Taking of Pelham 123:
The Taking of Pelham 123 features a stylised editing type opening sequence. We see examples of the stylisation through things such as the view of the street where the speed of time is increased substantially, and then it is immediately slowed as the character of Ryder (John Travolta) is viewed, which may create key ideas about this character; one being that he is one of the main characters of the film. There is also a lot of emphasised panning, with many pans that have increased paced to possibly create a fast paced mood as the film has entered it's opening sequences.
When watching a thriller film, we expect locations to be set, an introduction of the characters, and also the introduction of the the titles all during the opening minutes of the film. Within my group, we were particularly interested in the opening sequence to Arlington Road. It was obvious that it was very heavily edited and took many shots and a combination of stylising techniques to create.
To the right is a clip of the opening sequence of Arlington Road.
To the right is a clip of the opening sequence of Arlington Road.
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/NicBunby/codes-and-conventions-of-a-psychological-thriller-7899940 , by Nic Bunby
We worked in the psychological thriller sub genre. Above is a few slides discussing the conventions and themes of psychological thriller films.
As a group, we looked at Arlington Road as a way of trying to find some inspiration for our own Thriller opening. We used the concept of intertextuality to take particular aspects of the opening to Arlington Road and include them in our own product.
A list of credits we expect to see during the opening sequence of aThriller film in chronological order:
As you can see from this ordered list, the title conventionally comes 7th in the sequence. Titles are typically visible on screen for around 3 to 4 seconds. The titles match the image and sound of the opening through synchronised sound and image, with the titles appearing through sudden events typically accompanied by incidental sounds to create a steady and gradual buildup of tension. A type face that is modern, simplistic and clear is conventional of a psychological thriller opening with a title sequence.
A title from 'Shutter Island'. It is visible that a clear and basic type face is in use.
A title taken from Arlington Road. Again, the type face is conventional to psychological thrillers as a whole.
Comparing the type face of conventional psychological thriller openings to our final media product, it is evident that the conventionality is closely adhered to titles wise.
This is the film title from our Thriller opening. Furthermore, the main title for the film came 7th in the order of the title sequences. This also adheres to the conventionality of Thriller openings.
The characters were also introduced to the audience during the opening sequence, which is another reason why we can agree with the statement that our Thriller opening adheres to the conventions of Thriller openings.
Q1 - Ways my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Conventions of film openings
As us, group 44 created our own thriller, before we actually created our thriller we needed to understand the conventions of film openings, title sequences and thriller sub-genres.
Firstly, in order to come up with a successful thriller we needed to get through the conventions of film openings. This includes things such as setting the location, introduction of characters and introduction of titles. We have looked at films such as Arlington Road and My brother the devil, this as helped us dramatically as one major idea that we used in our thriller was from Arlington Road, as the beginning of arlington road was very mysterious, we liked this and this helped forward us the idea that we want to do a psychological thriller - this leads on to us the thriller genre, the thriller genre tents to include things such as the protagonist, tension building, quick cut shots and many shots such as OVS, CU, POVs and high, low angels.
The thrillers i looked at were Orphan and Dorian Grey. When i saw these two, i expected there to be very intense and dark scenes, i was correct as these thrillers did consist of that; these are almost the stereotypical assumptions that are thought of when talking about thrillers. By researching other real media this enabled us to have different perspectives of making our thriller, the real media helped us gather up our different ideas - we all researched different types of thriller which helped us combine all of them to come up with a final thriller of ours. The sub-genre we used for our thriller was psychological; we thought this type of thriller is also very popular and relevant to the audience nowadays. The conventions of our psychological thriller is mainly things such as the shots, one main shot used in these type of thrillers are Point Of View (POV) shots, this shot is usually used to represent the protagonist. Another convention is the titles, the title for thriller tend to be dull and mysterious which has certain effects on the audience, the shots are very quick as the thriller is to be kept sharp and simple therefore the effect of this is for the audience to try keep up with the shots whilst struggling to think the whole sequence through. One thriller i looked at which the same sub-genre is Paranormal Activity, this was also a psychological thriller, one thing i learnt is that the protagonist isn't shown, this is used to create tension, for me personally this worked therefore this helped me to pick our sub-genre easier, watching paranormal activity helped me notice that the titles came from a black background with a white title which created a contrast between the two, we then decided to use a familiar method.
The main conventions of title sequences is the sequence of the the credits and font to create a certain effect. The credits i expect to see in the titles were the actors names, music by and a few more, however this was wrong as the class activity proved to me, now i know there is a certain sequence for the title and that there are many more credits that i didn't know before for example 'costume by'.
The correct order for the titles is :
As us, group 44 created our own thriller, before we actually created our thriller we needed to understand the conventions of film openings, title sequences and thriller sub-genres.
Firstly, in order to come up with a successful thriller we needed to get through the conventions of film openings. This includes things such as setting the location, introduction of characters and introduction of titles. We have looked at films such as Arlington Road and My brother the devil, this as helped us dramatically as one major idea that we used in our thriller was from Arlington Road, as the beginning of arlington road was very mysterious, we liked this and this helped forward us the idea that we want to do a psychological thriller - this leads on to us the thriller genre, the thriller genre tents to include things such as the protagonist, tension building, quick cut shots and many shots such as OVS, CU, POVs and high, low angels.
The thrillers i looked at were Orphan and Dorian Grey. When i saw these two, i expected there to be very intense and dark scenes, i was correct as these thrillers did consist of that; these are almost the stereotypical assumptions that are thought of when talking about thrillers. By researching other real media this enabled us to have different perspectives of making our thriller, the real media helped us gather up our different ideas - we all researched different types of thriller which helped us combine all of them to come up with a final thriller of ours. The sub-genre we used for our thriller was psychological; we thought this type of thriller is also very popular and relevant to the audience nowadays. The conventions of our psychological thriller is mainly things such as the shots, one main shot used in these type of thrillers are Point Of View (POV) shots, this shot is usually used to represent the protagonist. Another convention is the titles, the title for thriller tend to be dull and mysterious which has certain effects on the audience, the shots are very quick as the thriller is to be kept sharp and simple therefore the effect of this is for the audience to try keep up with the shots whilst struggling to think the whole sequence through. One thriller i looked at which the same sub-genre is Paranormal Activity, this was also a psychological thriller, one thing i learnt is that the protagonist isn't shown, this is used to create tension, for me personally this worked therefore this helped me to pick our sub-genre easier, watching paranormal activity helped me notice that the titles came from a black background with a white title which created a contrast between the two, we then decided to use a familiar method.
The main conventions of title sequences is the sequence of the the credits and font to create a certain effect. The credits i expect to see in the titles were the actors names, music by and a few more, however this was wrong as the class activity proved to me, now i know there is a certain sequence for the title and that there are many more credits that i didn't know before for example 'costume by'.
The correct order for the titles is :
- Production icon
- Distributor icon
- Production in title sequence
- Distributor in title sequence
- director executive producer
- Actor 1
- Actor 2
- Film title
- Actor 3
- Actor 4
- Actor 5 etc..
- Casting
- Costume
- Music supervisor
- Music by
- Edited by
- Production designer
- Director of photography
- Executive Producers
- Written by
- Directed by
These are what we tend to expect from the titles on the screen generally. The titles are normally 3 seconds long each, it is short in order to not lose the attention of the audience, also if it is longer than 3 seconds the audience tend to get bored. The titles match the image and sound of the opening as things such as the font could create the same effect you intended to, a mysterious and dull font would usually match a psychological thriller.
Conventional openings for thrillers
This is a collage i created using http://pixlr.com, the first two titles are from Arlington Road and the bottom two are from our thriller - The Withdrawn, all of the four are from the actual sequence that is also shown above but with different fonts, size and location of titles.
This is a collage i created using http://pixlr.com, the first two titles are from Arlington Road and the bottom two are from our thriller - The Withdrawn, all of the four are from the actual sequence that is also shown above but with different fonts, size and location of titles.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Behind the scenes - video
The following is a video of the cast behind the camera talking about how everything went on.
Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
Aspects of appealing to our targeted audience:
Mise En Scene -
Actors -
Storyline -
Genre -
Location -
Action -
Sound -
Film name -
Production company -
Mise En Scene -
Actors -
Storyline -
Genre -
Location -
Action -
Sound -
Film name -
Production company -
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Q4 - Who would be the better audience for your media product?
The wider audience for thriller films in general
Thriller films have became more popular and familiar to this current generation, new methods of thrillers have been introduced such as POV movies, E.G. Paranormal Activity, this movie has become a hit as millions of people have watched it, this movie has trended the different technique into thrillers and has evolved the genre 'Thriller' which now attracts many million viewers as it excites and thrills them in many different ways. The main audience for thrillers these days tend to be at the age of 15-25, from my experience of watching thrillers in the cinemas i found out that young people prefer thrillers more as it's fully of action and pumps the blood flowing through you body as most young viewers would like.
The audience more specific to our sub-genre
Our sub-genre is a Psychological thriller, the audience for this type of thriller is usually for young people ages 18+, one main reason why this thriller is aged at this category is due to us Group 44 who came up with these ideas thinking it would relate to young people, psychological thrillers are also targeted at young people nowadays as they enjoy it more and have fun whilst watching it. Our thriller also doesn't include scenes that aren't suitable for people ages 15-17 therefore the younger audience could also enjoy this type of thriller, also our thriller doesn't include aggressive and physical scenes therefore this makes our thriller more emotional and creates the audience to question themselves about what is going on.
This is our thriller Facebook page - we created this in order to gain awareness and also interact with the audience to see what views and thoughts they have and could tell us.
This is a post on Facebook giving a link for our audience to see, they can also comment and like our status, this will help us indicate what direction our opening went, if we receive good comments this will suggest that our audience enjoyed our thriller.
Thriller films have became more popular and familiar to this current generation, new methods of thrillers have been introduced such as POV movies, E.G. Paranormal Activity, this movie has become a hit as millions of people have watched it, this movie has trended the different technique into thrillers and has evolved the genre 'Thriller' which now attracts many million viewers as it excites and thrills them in many different ways. The main audience for thrillers these days tend to be at the age of 15-25, from my experience of watching thrillers in the cinemas i found out that young people prefer thrillers more as it's fully of action and pumps the blood flowing through you body as most young viewers would like.
The audience more specific to our sub-genre
Our sub-genre is a Psychological thriller, the audience for this type of thriller is usually for young people ages 18+, one main reason why this thriller is aged at this category is due to us Group 44 who came up with these ideas thinking it would relate to young people, psychological thrillers are also targeted at young people nowadays as they enjoy it more and have fun whilst watching it. Our thriller also doesn't include scenes that aren't suitable for people ages 15-17 therefore the younger audience could also enjoy this type of thriller, also our thriller doesn't include aggressive and physical scenes therefore this makes our thriller more emotional and creates the audience to question themselves about what is going on.
This is our thriller Facebook page - we created this in order to gain awareness and also interact with the audience to see what views and thoughts they have and could tell us.
This is a post on Facebook giving a link for our audience to see, they can also comment and like our status, this will help us indicate what direction our opening went, if we receive good comments this will suggest that our audience enjoyed our thriller.
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Evaluation Of Mantaqaa's role
Mantaqaa was one of the main characters in our thriller.
Strengths: Since I worked on the swede and prelim I picked up a lot of experience in acting. I was able to shoot several scenes and express emotions and body language. Being with the group made me feel comfortable and work to the best of my ability.
Weaknesses: Some of the weaknesses I faced during acting included not giving it my all for example I didn't want to get myself dirty therefore I didn't take part in certain scenes.
What I would do next time: If I was to record another thriller opening next time I would take more risks and be fully dedicated.
Friday, 1 March 2013
Evaluation of Mazlum's role
Evaluation of Mazlum's role
Outline of my role: I was the director and the cameraman, my role was to shoot all of the scenes that we have planned for, I had to be in various amount of places and locations in order to get many different types of shots and from many different angles in order to portray a different feeling or thought.
Strengths: I was able to get into various amounts of potions and angles as I am a very agile person, I could also fit through small places whilst we were filming as I had to get through bushes in order to portray the POV of this discrete character in our thriller.
Weaknesses: One weakness of mine is that my hands are not very steady as it shakes quite a bit therefore we have had to redo some of the scenes, however by using the fig-rig it enabled me to have steady shots for scenes that we couldn't have used the tripod.
Research of Foley Sounds we could use
The different Foley sounds that we will use:
We will use foley sounds such as trees rattling - This will be used to build tension in our thriller, this foley sound would represent that the two characters are alone and that nobody is there with them which helps to slowly climax a scene.
Walking through twigs and leaves - This foley sound will mainly be used to show that discrete character in our thriller, this foley sound is used to represent how sly this character is as he isn't seen or spoken throughout the whole thriller.
Whistling - This foley sound will be used to represent a bird in one of our shots that we have taken.
We will use foley sounds such as trees rattling - This will be used to build tension in our thriller, this foley sound would represent that the two characters are alone and that nobody is there with them which helps to slowly climax a scene.
Walking through twigs and leaves - This foley sound will mainly be used to show that discrete character in our thriller, this foley sound is used to represent how sly this character is as he isn't seen or spoken throughout the whole thriller.
Whistling - This foley sound will be used to represent a bird in one of our shots that we have taken.
Producing the beat.
Here is Mazlum working on the track that will be going on our thriller, we all worked together to try get a good beat that would be appropriate for our thriller.
Research of Foley Sounds we could use
Sounds we can make and what they will represent :
A hand thumping on a table in a rythm and beat
This will represent a heartbeat and will be played throughout a series f shots which are specifically cut to enhance the meaning the sound gives to the shot/picture.
Whistling
This certain sound could be used to imitate the bird we have recorded as part of our video.
Foot thumping sound
This sound will represent the running actors in our opening and will also give it a better and clearer meaning. This adds to the thrill of the chase in our opening.
Powerpoint pitch for our Thriller
Here is a slide share of our pitch. a pitch was required for our thriller, in order to see what others think of it and if we needed to make any improvements. The feedback from the pitch helped us decide what our final plans would be.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)



















