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

Below is the link for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuvxEZfojww

At the time when we filmed our preliminary we had only a few camera angles and simple shots shots we had planned to use. But compared to our thriller we required a more diverse and more complicated angles and shots, for such reasons as portraying the panic of the protagonist with a shaky first person shot. As you can see on the left there is an screenshot of our preliminary which shows a simple mid shot of one of the characters.

Below is the link for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-lPSJ4OfYY&conte
xt=C492461bADvjVQa1PpcFO36Mn_T_ez-colvCc9FypWqbf3Ym72j0Y=

But as you can see in the image on the right we incorporated more complex shots into our thriller, this shot is a reflection in a mirror of the protagonist and a corridor behind him where the killer walks past. This shot required abit of planning as we needed to gain the correct angle for the shot, so as you now know we did more planning and put more thought into the shots before we did them.




Also another aspect we gained more knowledge is sound in our videos, for example in our preliminary video we wasn't really required to focus on our sound that much. But for our thriller it was a big thing we had to consider, so while filming we made sure we made the diagetic sounds very distinct so they would be heard over the opening music.The music choice was also a huge factor as we needed it to relate to the opening of the thriller so after thinking over some songs we had we found one which had lyrics which was parallel with what was going on in the opening.

So in a way we have developed a better way of thinking and planning the shots and sounds etc before jumping into filming them, this has helped us majorly with our filming as it kept us more organised with our filming and clips.

Evaluation Question 6) What have you learned from technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Evaluation Question 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

How we held the audience's attention in our Thriller
One way in which we held the audiences attention was by using a rather confusing opening which was a repeat of the protagonists's morning routine, this slight confusion would make the audience want to carry on watching to see how the story unfolds.The music we used also creates confusion as it is very contrasting to what you would expect from the usual conventional thriller, here is a hyperlink for the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q9cWAdIxE8U

The use of suspense
Another way which we held the audiences attention is the use of suspence, we did this by slowing hinting at the beginning of the final morning that there were a couple things different. We also showed the killer before he attacks the protagonist, for example I took screen shots of our thriller to show these moments.As you can see in the top image you can see the killer passing the bathroom the protagonist is in revealing he is in the house, this begins the build up of suspense. Then in the image below you can see the killer peering round the corner at the protagonist, at this point the build u of suspense would be at its highest just before the killer attacks him.




The use of cliffhangers

At the end of our opening we included a cliff hanger were the protagonist wakes up in an unknown location, the use of this in an attempt to keep the audience enticed to see what will happen next.

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

Media project

This slideshow was uploaded using Slideshare, I first created the
slidshow on Microsoft Office PowerPoint were I then uploaded it to Slideshare and then embedded it onto this blog post.

Evaluation Question 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Uk distribution company


Metrodome group is a London based publicly traded company that manages and distributes firms.Due to it being primarily based in London it is a perfect company for us as we too are based in the London area. They also handle the distribution of low budget films such as our own.

Where and how it ill be viewed

If we  were to release our film out in a cinema , we would use picture house as they primarily work with low budget british films like ours. Also  with this company being really large this means our film would be shown all across the uk.   

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

How gender is represented?

In our Thriller Gender can only be lightly touched upon cause there is not much you can say about the main character, except how he didnt act as a typical dominant male who would have put up a fight against the killer.But with the killer their identity is unknown so you cant determine whether or not they are male or female.



How is Age represented?
In our Thriller it shows an independent young person living alone, this in itself is very uncommon and highly contrasting to the usual stereotype of a young person. The same problem with the representation of the killers gender is also applicable for their age as it too is not known.

How is Class Represented?

The protagonist in our  thriller comes across as being well refined and organised, and this could give the  impression he  belongs in the  higher class of society. and by being attacked in his own home could give the impression that those in higher classes are vulnerable to those who are below them in society.    

How is ethnicity represented? 

Ethnicity is also another one which is not really represented in anyway, also again the killers ethnicity is too not revealed to the audience. 

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

The Conventions of Thrillers
On the right is an image of a mind map in my media book of the what conventions we think are in thrillers. In this mind map we cover a wide variety of points which range from aspects of thrillers such as enigmas, red herrings an dramatic irony to what scenes you would expect to see on a thriller film such as murder, kidnapping and car chase. We also included a couple of typical things such as a setting for a thriller, which would be an urban setting like a city, and actors like Liam Neeson or Matt Damon.

Types of Thrillers: Spy Thriller
                            Political Thriller
                            Conspiracy Thriller
                            Legal Thriller
                            Psychological Thriller








The use of conventions in our Thriller
In our Thriller we focused highly on the use of dramatic after the repeated mornings to create a huge feeling of suspense for the audience.We also added music which acts like a red herring as would create confusion as contrasts to what you would usually expect from a typical thriller.
We also didn't want to include any shocks as the use of a masked serial killer and shocks could have pushed our thriller more into the horror genre. If i had to catagorise our thriller in the list above id say it would belonged to the psychological thriller area, this is because of the attempts of trying to confuse the audience and throw them off as much as possible.

Thrillers which influenced us and which ours are similar to


Here you can see an image of Hannibal from Silence of the lambs, our influence of using a mask came from a couple of films but this one was the most notable. The main influence for it is the iconic memorable look which the audience would remember.

Our Thriller: The Routine

Here is our complete version of our thriller.

Rough Edit & Storyboard

 Rough edit for the opening of our thriller.

And here is the Storyboard for our Thriller:

Sound in our thriller

In our thriller to we added sound effects to emphasise the tense moments in our opening, for example we added a low frequency bass sound to emphasise his shock as he discovers a blooded knife in his kitchen drawer. This sound was edited on a program called Fruity Loops, and the sound was created by using the sound of a kick drum on the program and lowering the pitch to create a low bass sound.

Here is an example of what the programs user interface looks like. as you can see on the far left there are many instrumental sounds which can be selected and edited by changing the length and pitch of the sound.

How our film meets thriller conventions

The way our film meets the conventions of a thriller is how the film starts off really contrasting to what you would usually expect from a thriller, this done by adding a red herring which is joyful music in an attempt to throw off the audience and cause confusion by being unsure as to what the thriller is about.


Another convention is we based our thriller about a serial killer but by kidnapping the main character and not killing him we have steered clear of a horror genre.

Also we use a build up of suspence when you find out the killer is in the main characters house, and this suspence grows as you can spot the killer behind a glass door as the main character runs out of the kitchen to the front door. Also just before the killer attacks the main character there is a shot of him peaking around the corner of the door frame, this is the final inection of suspence until the point were you think the killer may reveil his identity but he still has on his mask.

Mise en Scene of our Thriller

The aspects of mise en scene in our thriller consist of lighting:

Costume:

Here is an image of the main character of our thriller and the costume which is worn through out his morning routine.  

Here is an image of the killer with his mask on.

Here is an image of the makeup being applied to the killer to make the surrounding area of his eyes  more dark creating a more sinister look with the mask on. We also made sure the killer was dressed all in black to create a mysterious facade for the killer.

Props:

The props we included in our thriller was a kitchen knife which the main character used in the morning to cut his apple. we also covered this knife with fake blood for when the main character finds it on the forth day. 

Our Film Editing

In this post I have screen shots of the process of editing our film on Sony Vegas

In this Screen shot you can see the first repeated day is complete and cut down to the appropriate length.

Here in this screen shot you can see us trying different zoom effects to make what the killer wrote on the mirror more obvious for the audience.

Music of our thriller

We chose to use this song which gives a rather happy and jolly feel to the film, this creates the contrasting effect to the genre to throw off the audience and to cause slight confusion as to what they are watching. Also the phrase:
"Everyday i seem to turn around
I'm on my back again
coz i know there's something
better than the tomb I'm living in"

This relates to the main characters repetitive morning and schedule and what gives the film its name.

What audience our Thriller appeals to

After looking over our thriller we came to the conclusion that it would be suitable for an audience which ranges between the ages of 12  upwards. We came to this conclusion because as the film features a moment where one of the characters gets attacked by the killer so we thought this featuring of violence. Also our film doesn't contain any major violence, drug use, sex or any other graphic images which means it wouldn't be rated a 15 or 18.

Completed Ident

Here is the finnished ident for our thriller .

Issues while filming

Before filming we encountered a problem of not taking out  camera before we went out filming. We solved this problem by using Laimonas Andriejauskas's camera to film our footage, but by using this camera we wouldn't be able to edit our footage at school on the imacs. We then overcame this problem by using some editing software which is compatible with the footage we shot.

Here is our animatic made of our storyboard images, this is what we used to base our filming on.

Ident Development

For our thriller opening I created an ident for the company that produces our thriller. In this case its called CCTF Productions, this name was gained from putting all the first initials of our names together. First I had to add a background effect called fog machine, I then added in the text which had an effect called cat eyes to fade it into the ident. I then created a logo which also fades in with the text, and for a final touch to make it look professional I added an effect called experience.

Here is a screenshot of me adding an effect to the text.

Chuck Jones - Looney Tunes

The cartoon sketches with Coyote and Roadrunner follow rather strict rules. One of the rules is that Coyote always has his contraptions and plans turn on him, also his parts and contraptions are always from the company called ACME as you can see in the picture on the left. Another one is how Coyotes is always beating by his contraptions in a way where gravity is his worst enemy. For Roadrunner his rule is that he can only say "Meep Meep".

Audience Research

Before filming our thriller we did some audience research to find out what aspects of thrillers people prefer.

The questionare above asks a question which tell us three words which best sums up a thriller. We then gathered the three words from all the twenty questionares and put them into wordle which give us the most common words used lager than the least used words. Below is the wordle we got.

Script of our Thriller

In our Thriller opening there is no script due to there being no dialoge. But intead we will use many diagetic and non-diagetic sounds, The non-diagetic sound consists of music which we have gained from an unsigned band called The 99's, the image below shows one of the members of the band conferming that we are allowed to use one of their songs. 

If there is any other additional music we will require we also signed up to Mobygratis.com so we will have and music from there at our disposal. Below is a screen grab from the Mobygratis website.

Filming Location

In this post there will be images of the location where we are going to film our thriller, the location is Chole Bencini-Harding's House in Plastow.

Bedroom where Protagonist wakes up.

This would consist of the shot where the protagonist moves to the bathroom.

Bathroom where the Protagonist brushes his teeth.

Where the Protagonist leaves after completing his routine.

Where the Protagonist makes and eats his cereal.

Another shot of the kitchen.

Call Sheet

Date of Filming: 29th January 2011
Location of filming: Chloe Bencini-Harding's House
Cast: Conor Wilkins & Laimonas Andriejauskas
Crew: Conor Wilkins, Chloe Bencini-Harding, Frankie Mcfarlane and Tori Weatley
Props: Bed, Alarm, Clock, Clippers, Knife, Towel, Fake Blood, Shower, Mirror, Mask, Cereal, Toothbrush and Tooth paste
Costumes: Protagonist in the sequence has a suit whereas the Antagonist wears all black and a mask

Conventions of a Thriller

The genre 'Thriller' is very hard to define as there are many rules and conventions to it. These  rules and conventions used are also claimed to be broken to make a good thriller. the image below shows the many conventions that go into making a thriller.

Conventions of Thrillers

Treatment Sheet

Name of our film: Routine

Outline of idea 
The beginning of the opening is the morning routine of a man who has OCD. the routine consists of him waking up, brush teeth, eat cereal, and leave house. This routine happens three times and on the fourth time things in his house are changed and moved and he then sees something written on his bathroom mirror. this then makes him aware someone is in the house so he goes to get a knife to defend himself but he is then attacked by the killer.

What Resources will we need?
2 actors
Houses
Knife
Tooth Brush
Mask


Justification of ideas in relation to genre
'Who dunnit' theme

Maguffin

A Maguffin is a device used by Alfred Hitchcock in his films.

A Maguffin is an object which the story evolves around and
motivates the characters. For example in a film where terrorist are trying to retrieve blue prints of a weapon of mass destruction while a group of spies prevent them from doing so. The  the blue prints in this film would be the Maguffin.

Suspence & Shock

In thrillers the use shock and suspence is quite common, but they are very differnt devices.

Suspence is the use of building up tension for the viewer, an example of building up tension is Sabotage by Alfred Hitchcock. In Sabotage there is a scene where a child is transporting a package containing a bomb across london, but the child is unaware of the bomb in the package. This is what creates the tension for the viewer, and the tension builds as the timer for the bomb continues to tick away. This is suspence.

Shock is use to give the viewer a scare, an example of shock is in Children of Men. In Children of Men at the begining the main character enters a cafe to buy a coffee where people are watching the news, the character then leaves the cafe. After leaving the cafe the character puts his coffee down to pour a drink into it, but as he pick it up the cafe he was in instantly exploads thus causing the audiense to jump in shock.

Red Herring, Cliff hangers & Enigmas

A Red Herring is a device which draws away the audiences attention from the truth. For example in a film where a man is being accused of being a serial killer where all the evidence points to him, but it turns out its not him.

A Cliff hanger is a device which i sometimes used, and it is when the main character in a dificult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation. This can entice the audience to keep watching to see of the situation they are in gets resolved.

An Enigma refers to a puzzle, something mysterious, inexplicable, a riddle or a difficult problem.In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is solved and the film finnishes.

Cinematography

Cinematography means the use of the camera, this is the different shots and camera movements used to film.

Types of Shots:

• Close up - This is mainly a shot of the face and neck, mainly used to show facial expression and emotion of the character.
• Extreme close up - This shot is used to focus on a small part of something. 
• Midshot - This shot is normaly comprised of the head to waist of a character. 
• Long shot - This shot is used to show a characters entire body.
• Extreme long shot - This shot is used to show the surroundings of the character.
• Point of view shot - This shot allows you to look through the eyes of the character.
• High angle shot - This shot makes the viewer look down on the character thus putting the character in a position of weakness and the veiwer in a position of power.
• Low angle shot - This shot makes the character look down at the viewer therefore making the viewer seem inferior to the character.
• Over-the-shoulder shot - This shot looks overe the characters shoulder to show what they are looking at.

Types of camera movement:

• Pan - The camera rotates from left to right
• Tilt - The camera tilts up and down
• Dutch tilt - The camera tilts on an angle to give a disorientation effect.
• Zoom - The camerqa remains still but the focus is adjusted to move either towards or away from the from the object.
• Reverse zoom/Contra-zoom - When the focus zooms in while the camera moves out (or vise versa).
• Free camera - A camera which is free to move around.
• Trackcamera - The camera moves fluidly along a set of tracks in a certain direction. 
• Dolly - A dolly camera is on a set of wheels so it can be moved in any direction.
• Crane - The camera is placed on a large crane arm which enables it to move around the set with ease. It also allows the camera to move quickly between on different heights.  
• Rolling shot - The camera moves diagonaly, making the image askew
• Handheld - The camera is held in a hand and can therefore move in any direction. The result is usually a very shaky picture. 
• Steady cam - The camera is worn on a weighted harness to keep it still and balanced, whilst allowing the freedom in hand held filming

Types of Thrillers

Spy - These thrillers would usually be based on a group if spies trying to prevent a maguffin from falling into the wrong hands.

Psychological- This type of thriller would usually be based on a story where the pritagonist and antagonist are preying on each others minds.

Legal - This type of thriller would usually be based around a court case where protagonist is trying to prove the antagonist guilty.

conspiracy - This type of thriller would be orientated around an enigma which would be based around a government.

political - This type of thriller which would be based around presidentual issues or assassinations.