Thriller

Prelim

Our prelim gave us the opportunity to practise with the cameras in order to do our thriller at a later date. So we had more experience for our thriller to be at higher standards, showing all different types of camera angles. Our prelim could be improved by having longer shots so that the continuity flows also making it easier to edit. We would also use a tripod to keep the camera still, stopping it from shaking.  We would try and get her whole body and head in the shot when she is walking through the door, as we cut her head off. On top of this we may have moved the credits to the end of the piece, so it doesn’t just cut out and maybe enhance them to make it look more interesting. Overall I think if we had the chance to re-do that piece we would do much better and hopefully see a big improvement.

Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We used many different camera shots which is common in thrillers:

• Birds Eye View- We decided to use this insignificant shot on the credits to make the audience to support the idea that the movie is about a individuals life from when she was a child to an adult. We interpreted crayons, and all different types of crayons.

• Low Angle- We used a low angle shot, to try and make the dolls seem powerful, and bigger than they are and doesn't give much detail of the surroundings making it concentrate on whats happening.
 
• Close ups- We used this to concentrate mainly on the doll and not on backgrounds, showing expression on the face even though we no its only a doll.

• Canted Angle- This is popular in thrillers as it is seeing what the character sees, we used a hand held camera for this.

Partial Vision:

We decided to use partial vision, by making it unclear what Cesca is doing making the audience ask questions. It may of made the audience think there was a unknown character watching her which they hadn't been introduced too. This could also of made a stalker impression, as it was clear it was in her house and bedroom.

Heroic Romance:

Many thrillers follow this convention as it is easy for the audience to relate too. The narrative of our film follows this as our character tries to overcome any issues later on in the film proving she is an ordinary person, yet it becomes uncapable for her and is thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

We made spider diagrams of our ideas for the thriller:

Q2. How does your media product represent social groups?

Our film could be compared to home alone, as we use children to be the vulnerable however end up in the situtaion where there causing trouble. Our thriller makes people see chrildren been seen as naughty, cheeky, scary, unpredictable rather than cute and innocent.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If our film was to be able to be instituted we would hope that Film4 would distribute it as they well advertise any well known films, or ones that haven't been able to hit the big screen for example :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8SnZmUjhAA&feature=related 

 Which if we had the chance to be able to film i don't think we would be able to fund it sufficiently to make it get there however film4 focus on distributing films by unknown film makers if they are known to succeed. I would prefer it to be on film 4, rather than the cinema as unless it was advertised well it may not get many views as it is aimed for people aged 15 and over. As we dont think it would appeal to an older audience. Also if it was distributed on film4 it could be played more than once, with advertisements about the film being shown throughout the week. This would stop any illegal copies being made, and illegal downloads as it wouldnt be ont he internet. This way people of all ages have the option whether they want to watch it and then have the option on whether they would like to buy the film from perhaps blockbuster. I also prefer the idea of our film being on television instead of the cinema as i prefer having the thrill that the audience enjoyed the thriller than making money out of it.


http://www.film4.com/features/article/online-movie-distribution


They have only just recently distributed a new film which has made it to the big screen called '127 hours.' Our film maybe an appeal to film4 as they like to use British ideas and actors which we would prefer to use. Also our film is unusual as it doesnt follow all codes and conventions of usual thrillers making it standout from competition.


Q4. Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Presentation powerpoint

View more presentations from beckymedia.

• I belive that our thriller would appeal to both females and males
• I also think that it would relate more to teenagers than young adults Our thriller should no be viewed by young peope as we use a young girl for the opening of our thriller making it easy for a child to relate too.
• However even though we have aimed our film at teenagers, it doesnt stop those that are older and wanting to watch it.

Q5. How did you attract/adress your audience?

• We decided to make 30 questionnaires and hand them out around college as this is the target audience we propose to watch our film.
• However we did try and include teahcers as well as students to make it not seem biased.
•  We did this to find out what aspects of a thriller to include in our media product in order to attract this target audience.
• On top of this we analysed other thriller oppening to get the idea of what codes and conventions would be suited in the oppening of our thriller.

Questionnaire:

• Leading on from this we collated the data by making a tale chart
• Then we proccessed them on microsoft excel turning them into bar charts and put them on our blog
  
  

Q6. What have you learned about technologies from the proccess of constructing this product?

+

What have you learned about technologies from the proccess of constructing this product? on Prezi

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to full product?



Audience Feedback

For our audience feedback on the editing and filming we decided to produce a questionnaire of fifteen questions and hand them out to 25 people that have watched our thriller.

Our Questionnaire:

1. Did you find our film entertaining?
1 2 3 4 5

2. Would you watch our film from seeing the trailer??
Yes No Maybe

3. Would you suggest our film to a friend/family?
Yes No

4. Do you think our film built up tension and suspense well?
Yes No

5. Did you think our film was:
Not very good Good Very Good Excellent

6. Did you think our continuity worked well?
Yes No

7. How successful did you think the sound was:
1 2 3 4 5

8. How successful was the lighting when setting the mood/atmospehere?
1 2 3 4 5

9. How good do you think the camera angles were :
1 2 3 4 5

10. Did you think the editing skills and techniques were of a high quality?
1 2 3 4 5

11. Did our film live up to your expectations of a thriller?
Yes No

12. Did you find you could predict the ending?
Yes no

13. Could you compare our film to other thrillers?
Yes no

14. Do you think our thriller fitted all the codes and conventions needed :
For example graphics, sound, lighting, editing.ect…
Yes No

15. Did you think the graphics and titles were effective?
Yes No

Results:

This shows that the majority of people found are film entertaining, this is good as even though we want to leave the audience on edge it gives me the impression that they would watch it again, well watch the rest of the film.

This shows that the audience may have to watch more before or maybe no more about the film before watching the film. This gives the impression that they didnt find that much out in the trailer maybe making people uncertain of whther they would watch the rest of the film. However, it is pretty much even that most people said yes compared to the no's and maybes.

The majority of the population of the audience after watching the trailer, they would recommend it to a family or friend those that said they wouldnt may not because of the age of the family or may no that they are not in to thrillers so this wouldnt be the film for them.

From this is shows that the audience were unsure on whether it built up tension or suspense, but overall the majority of the audience though it did. This makes me believe that if we added more twists it may make more of the audience want to watch our thriller.

I think overall that we got positive feedback for this question, having mainly goods, very good, and excellent. So even if it wasnt as efficient as most of the audience would of expected they were still pleased with the trailer, from this i can tell that they may suggest this film to others to watch.

Maybe with some editing we could change these reults making everyone think it flowed well. However i think that it did have good continuinty and wouldnt want to change it so much as i think it buildt tension well.

Before people answered this question we knew that the sound could be improved and was surprised to see such good feedback. However if we were to make it into a full film i would change the music. as i feel it repeats itself too much.

Again with positive feedback on the camera angles, I think that we did show a range of different angles steadily but maybe i would show a few more difficult shots.

I think the audience were mainly pleased with the editing as we did use a range of different edits including a ghosting effect. If we could edit it again maybe we would use a few more edits and try and simulate the editing with it.

Overall i think the audience were happy with our thriller, however they only watch the trailer for it so may prefer it if they saw the whole thing.

All of the audience agreed that they couldnt predict the ending making it seem that we had a twist which we did, so i think it may surprise more of the audience to come.

The audience found that our film was different to others as we used a little girl as a murderer compared to the stereo-typicall male villan.

I think the audience were happy with our graphics and thought that it did fit into the codes and conventions nessecery for our thriller.

I think the audience were pleased with the titles as they were quite effective because they linked in with the topic of the thriller, as it had the child-like theme.

Edit decision list

Shot Number	Shot Description/Other Essential Information	Type Of Edit
1	Opening titles “a film by:”	Text
2	Opening titles – group names	Text
3	Plain shot of white	Strobe light flash
4	Door	Extended time
5	Movement with doll	Speed up time
6	Dancing with doll	Slow down speed
7	Worms eye view of clowns feet	Black and white
8	Throw doll	Black and white
9	Plain shot of white	Strobe light flash
10	Throw doll on floor and zoom in	Black and white
11	Rearranging toys	Black and white/slow down
12	Picking toys	Black and white/fast speed
13	Plain shot of white	Strobe light flash
14	Pulling leg	Ghostly effect/Black and white
15	Plain shot of white	Strobe light effect
16	Pulling sheet	Black and white/Ghostly
17	Craig’s name	Speed up
18	Picking doll	Black and white/speed up
19	Drawing house (caption)	Speed up
20	Dead bear	Black and white/crop/zoom
21	Mirror	Black and white
22	Plain white sheet	Strobe light flash
23	Becky Huggard’s name
24	Teddy
25	Walking out of door
26	Stairs
27	Photo album
28	Rebecca Durrington’s name
29	Plain white shot	Strobe light flash
30	On landing
31	Stairs from behind
32	Rebecca Ishaque’s name
33	Throwing teddy
34	Title	Text
35	Title	Text