When Summer Ends - Our finished production

TITLE!!!

We spent ages trying to decide what to call our Thriller and with a little help form our friends we dicided on - "When Summer Ends". This is because our flashback scenes look very much like summer and as the scenes set in the present are done in a school it also represnt the 'School Year'.

Evaluation of finsished production

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our production follows many of the conventions that are typically in a Thriller such as a crime at the centre of the narrative. Furthermore, we have a antagonist and many protagonists whose lives are directly linked and are trapped in a web of intrigue by the antagonist. Also we used mise-en-scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist’s plight to really demonstrate that we understood the genre of Thriller. Moreover, we used a convention which is typically seen in Hitchcock films which are also directly linked to the genre of Thriller. On the other hand, our production challenges the conventions of thriller with that fact that we have filmed in bright light conditions and our protagonists don’t really display a flaw that can be exploited by the antagonist as they are all confident and aren’t influenced by their peers.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our production represented 1 particular social group and that was teenagers. Our film followed the social and emotional anguish felt by many young people going through their teenage years. Many social groups were left out of our production due to our target audience. Our target audience was teenagers and upon the distribution of a questionnaire they said they would like to see: “a mixture between Crime, Horror, Psychological and Action. They are more interested in spotting clues to attempt to work out the plot of the story. However, shockers are appreciated, as are the suspense or the film.”

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product why?
I feel “Film4” would like to be evolved in the distribution of our media product as our film has a niche audience and this is what “Film4” specialise in. Furthermore, “Film4” specialise in “Art house” or “Independent amateur film” productions and this is another subject our production would fall into.

4. What would be the audience for you media product?
The audience for our media product would defiantly be teenagers. Our production only features teenagers and teenage problems so there are automatically people that the audience can identify with. Moreover, our questionnaire showed us that teenagers would be the main audience for a thriller showing psychological conflict and therefore would be the people that would go out and watch the actual production.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We addressed our audience’s needs by producing a questionnaire that would directly show us what our audience would want to see. We attracted our audience by sticking to the conventions, brought up in our questionnaire. This meant that when the production was actually completed we almost had a guarantee that it would appeal to our audience and people would want to watch it. Furthermore, when putting the actual film together we used a combination of clever camera shots and music to maintain our audience’s attention the whole way through our production and always kept them in suspense so it kept within what they audience actually wanted to see.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I had worked with film camera’s before so I didn’t really learn much from that side of constructing our production. However, working with the iMac and the iMovie proved very difficult for me. I had never used this software before so was completely lost at the start but as I familiarised myself with the software it became easier. By the end of my production I could manipulate iMovie to such a standard to produce a well edited film production.

7. Looking back at you preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?
I have learnt that things will go wrong if you become too compliant and think that everything is covered and you won’t have to change anything. Furthermore plan, plan and plan again! Moreover, make sure you have plenty of time to do everything you want to do and so you can complete the film with ease so you can get lots of editing. Editing is THE most important process and shouldn’t be overlooked as a thing you can just do at the end. Our whole group’s actual camera skills have improved greatly and the detail being shown in every shot is much better.

Editing

Due to me coming form a different school I couldn't take part in much of the editing side of our production. It was disappointing but couldn't be helped, so it was left in the very capable hands of my fellow groups members, Carla and Shaunica. I know they will do it brilliantly so i have nothing to worry about.

Finish filming..

Today my group finished the filming for the start of a thriller. I was unfortunately unable to attend due to extremem toothache... I know sad but true... Hopefully the filming all went well and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Production

During the production we used a variety of camera shots, angles and distances. We used mid shots (MS), long shots (LS), close ups (CU), extreme close ups (ECU), over-the-shoulder-shots (OSS). We used shots with camera movement which was mainly pan shots. I found the production a fun experience and enjoyed being behind the camera much more than being infront of the camera.

Filming AGAIN!

Today we re-filmed our film. It went really well, yet again and this time round I starred within along with Shaunica. Many of the actors that were orginally going to take place couldn't make it. We once again filmed over a local park and the shots we got went really well.

New Storyboard...

We witness the encounter of two people, who had shared a friendship which no loner exists, which we will see in a black and white flashback. After the flashback we will see him with a photo of the girl h just walked passed. Next we will see him arranging photos with one with an X on it, and his next victim.

"I knew everything was going to well!"

This title of this blog entry is exactly what i am thinking at this precise time... We had a wonderful filming session on monday and today upon having troubles with our editing we was speaking to our media teacher and upon me and carla saying the word "Trailer" he told us that infact we was making the first 2 minutes of the thriller not a trailer!!! Me and carla was gobsmacked and couldn't work out where we had got this idea from and the filming we had done was actually worthless... We sat and reworked the idea we had and tried to make it work and the stress levels started to rise. We have to the end of next week to have all the coursework done and we are now starting to panic. But carla has reasurred me that it will all be fine and i'm keeping my faith with her... We are now filming tomorrow and hopefully this should be ok.

Filming..

So today we actually did some filming and it went exceptionally well. We had 3 of the 5 actors there today and we (me and carla) gave them a chance to get to know each other and then took photographs of everyone becuase these shot would be used within the filming taking place later. Then we went and got the photos developed and then went and did the actual filming. We found a brilliant location in a local park and managed to film a number of good shots depicting the situation where 2 'friends' walk past each other. The shots came out really well and hoepfully everything will go to plan. We will start editing on wednesday..

Its a date....

Our group are actually starting filming! We are due to start filming this coming Thursday..
When we have doen it i will get back to you and let you know how it went....

Animatic

This is the animatic of our storyboard. An animatic is a series of pictures from our storyboard. This is what we hope our film will turn out like.

Our Preliminary exercise: COMPLETED

This is our preliminary exercise video.... Hope you enjoy it!

Lets jus see how this thing works!!

So, today me and Carla had some spare time so we though we would go off and find out how our camera works and practise some of the more difficult shots and get used to using the camera. I had some previous knowledge on how to use cameras like the one we will be using so I let carla do most of the behind the camera stuff so she could get used to using it. We worked really well together and manage to obtain a variety of clips. Carla was going to stay behind and edit it altogether so we can put it on here to show you. When it is done I will post it!

Moby Gratis

Yesterday Carla registered with Moby Gratis and choose 2 possible instrumentals for our group's thriller. She said that they may take a few weeks to come through but we trust her judgement and look forward to here what she has chosen.

The Results

Storyboard complete

Today i was on a trip but my group got in touch with me a let me know that they had completed the storyboard so I will blog it soon....

Storyboard in progress

Today we started to produce a storyboard for our Thiller trailer. Carla is good at art so we nominated/forced her to do the drawing of the storyboard! She started drawing out each shot so we could get a good plan of what our final production could look like. When the stroyboard is finsihed we will produce an animatic of our story board which is a series of pictures to show you what it all looks like together and to give you a vague idea of what the end product will be.

Questionnaire

Ideas...

Our group worked towards the planning of our thriller. Today we worked on some initial idea of the email being sent to various people. We also came up with the name : Virus.

STORY

An email is sent to 4 people, a group of friends so they all know each other, they instantly die and the words Virus detected appear on the computer screen. The antagonists has a group photo of all the friends, and we see his gradually tear off each person when they the suddenly die.

Preliminary Exercise - Shock Horror

So today me and Carla thought that we would prove that we could also edit and show off our amazing editing skills, but it failed majorly. All we wanted to do was take out a little "Bleep" where Carla had taken a snap shot photo on the camera so I thought we could extract just a peice of sound and we could but then it put Shaunica's talking out of sink. So we tried to adjust the sound but it really wouldn't work and we had spent 2 lessons in the editing suite and got nothing done infact I think we went backwards. I had to go back to Eastbrook for my next lesson so Carla said she would stay and re-edit the film at lunchtime.

Preliminary Exercise - The Editing

Today we edited our preliminary exercise. Shaunica tooke change of this part of the exercise as she already knew how to edit using the IMac computers due to taking another lesson whereby she has to use them. So, me and Carla sat with her and gave her any help she needed. Me and Carla then went to get something form the other room and when we returned Shaunica had watched the whole edited film full screen and had pressed the "escape" button and this had cuased the whole program to shut itself down and it had lost our finished project. So we had to re-do our entire editing process again. Shaunica even set herself a challenge that she would do it in 30mins and she actually did it in 15mins we only have a few little pieces to cut out now and improve.

Preliminary Exercise (TAKE 2)

Today we worked on our preliminary exercise and was due to edit it, although when we look at the footage we thought that it maybe wasn't upto a good enough standard to edit it and get a good enough exercise. So, our group (Me, Carla and Shaunica) decided to go and re-film our exercise. This time Carla did the filming and me and Shaunica did the acting. We changed the story line so it suited me and Shaunica actings better and we actually had a right laugh filming and we think Carla made a good job of the filming.

Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock

Welcome back.... During class today we watched the opening sequence to the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window". Once again it follow Hitchcock classical way of film and tells the story visually and not through the use of dialogue. We get many clues about the main character all through things we see. We find out his name, from it being written on his leg cast. We find out it is hot due to the fact he is sweating a lot and the fact he see a thermometer which has a very high temperature being shown. We work out that the character is a photographer as he has a number of photographs around his apartment. He photographs dangerous events and craves danger. He also photographs beautiful women (models) for gossip magazines due to a stack of magazines on his side board. the film has a lot of POV (point of view) shots as that story is mainly about the main character looking at of his window and watching everyone. Therefore is features voyeurism (looking at other people). The main character is the voyeur as he is the person watching everyone else.

Sorry guys/girls this is a bit late...

Hey... This blog is in reference to Friday 6th February 2009, I apologise for the rather late entry.
Today we worked upon our Preliminary exercise. The exercise had to demonstrate understanding of continuity and math-on-action (all the shots flowed together and made sense). Shot/reverse shot an the 180-degree rule.
Shaunica wasn't in today and neither was any of the people in Shelly's group so we formed a mini group of Me, Carla and Shelly. So in our little group Shelly wanted to do the filming but because I already had knowledge on how to use the camera so I spent quite a long while explaining to her how to use the camera. Then we started filming our scene with Me and Carla acting out a scene whereby I came into a room and had a conversation with Carla. We found filming a lot of fun and managed to produce a good piece of work. We still have to edit our short film but i think it will come together really well.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was possibly the leading director in the genre of Thriller and this blog is dedicated to the man himself!! Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born 13 August 1899, in Leytonstone, London. His film career started int the 1920's. Hitchcock made many film's here in the UK using the expressionist form of cinema he was shown in Germany. In 1939 Hollywood came calling and he went out there and made his first Hollywood movie "Rebecca" and this won the "Best Movie" Oscar in 1940. Hitchcock made his last film in 1976 , "Family Plot" and then died 29 April 1980. In most of Hitchcocks films he likes to present his characters in a visual way rather than through the use of dialogue. We then anaylised further the open sequence to "Shadow of a Doubt".

• The "Merry Widow" song that is in the credits continues when we get shown the first shot of the industrial area this is a 'Sound Bridge'.


• Most of the shots in the start of this film are edited using dissolves.


• Throughout the scenes of the industrial area and then a poor 'down town' street there is music and it get more dramatic as we see shots of a house, then a window in that house and then a man lying on a bed (which we find out later is the Protagonist - Uncle Charlie).


• The man is holding a cigar in his hand whilst laying on the bed and this porves he is sophisticated and has plenty of money. this is further conformed by pin-striped suit he is wearing.


• There is low key lighting in the room where this man is lying.


• The camera starts moving aroudn to show character detials such as lots of money, some of which is on the floor. This proves that he has money but does not care about it.


• As the blind is closed on him the music once again builds up and becomes much more sinister.


• Later in the clip we saw there is a high angled shot of the 2 men chasing the protagonist and this is also from the protagonists point of view which show the he has the upper hand.


• Then we can see some mirroring because we are then shown a total different place called Santa Rosa which is the opposite to the poor down town city we were just shown. It is the perfect suburban town with big white hoses, expensive cars, everyone look joyous and happy and the music that goes with this scene is very cheerful and light.


• We then see the same set of shot of the house, then a window then (this time) a girl laying on the bed the same way the man had done. This is mirroring the protagonist Uncle Charlie and his nice Charlie.

We then analysed the opening sequence of another Hitchcock film "Vertigo"....

• We see a woman's face and then a eye. This women must have some significant in the film later on.


• The opening credits are full of swirly patterns to reflect the feeling of vertigo.


• The same woman's face then reappears but then goes red which has connotations of passion and danger which also gives us some idea of what may happen later.


• The first shot we see is a close-up of a hand. This hand is then followed by a body of a main, then this man is followed by a police officer, then a detective. The action then starts with a chase and music the music builds up, pace wise.


• The detective is our protagonist and when he falls off the roof we see his fear of heights and this is shown using a "reverse zoom" whereby everything towards us and moves away at the same time.

We then anaylised another Hitchcock film "North by Northwest"...

• Opening credits are lines across the screen that then dissolve and become the side of a building.


• Unlike most of the other Hitchcock this film is heavy on dialogue at the very start of the film.


• We meet the protagonist who is a cocky, confident character. He has alot of women that he doesn't really care about. He has alot of money and a very good relationship with his mother, who is dominating character and this is present in most Hitchcock films.

Thriller conventions + "Se7en" opneing titles + "Shadow of a Doubt" - Alfred Hitchcock

Welcome back!!
Today I'm goping to tlak through the genre "Thriller" conventions. The thriller convention are:

• A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder but not always).
• A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
• A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas (problems) which the viewers expecs to be resolved.
• A protagonsit (the main character) who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist (the person aposing the protagonist).
• Extraodinary events happening in ordinary situations.
• Themes of identity.
• Themes of mirroring.
• Themes of voyeurism (looking at other poeple).
• Protagonist with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the anatagonist.
• Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state.
• There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
• Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight.

During class time we anaylised the opening credits of the thriller "Se7en", here are the notes I made:

• Edgy titles, they never stay still they are continuous moving or shaking on the screen.
• Very good use of music as it is full of high pitch squaks and sounds.
• There is repetative pictures and the camera is never still its seems to be shaking and jumping.
• Most of the shot dissolve into the next shot create this feeling of a bond between the pictures.
• Definatly shows the state of the anatagonists mind as it is not psychologically sound.

We then watched the first 10-15 minutes of Alfred Hitchcocks - "Shadow of a Doubt". This film follows the thriller conventions almos perfectly. We see the protaganists from the very start and he is almost always covered in some form of shadow. During one scene shadow falls over his face and he almost comes to life, this therefore gaves us the idea that we has darkness wihtin his character. The opening credits to this film are in stark contrast to the first scene we see. The opening credits are absed around a posh ball but upon asking my teacher about this he told me that the music come from an old opera and the music was called the "Merry Widow" which did have some releance in the film itself.

Research - Analysis of other student thriller trailers

Welcome back,
Today (28-01-2009) during our media class lesson we watched past coursework enters and look at the good and bad things about them.

"8-Ball"- Grade A piece of work due to it meeting nearly all of the criteria.

• This had very little acting and this made the thriller very good as it concentrated more on actually presenting to us a well edited and the meaning was apparent.
• It had no dialogue so there was no worries about the dialogue and the music conflicting.
• A range of camera shots were used and this is a convention of thriller trailers.
• Good use of trasitions between shots, there wasn't just straight cuts all the time there was whipes, fades and disolves.
• The music and the pace of the music fitted the pace of the film perfectly.
• A tripod was used throughout so all the shots were nice and steady.
• Thye framed all their shots really well so you couldn't see the faces of alot of the people adding suspence and mistery.
• It was a simple sotry.
• The ttile was at the end of the sequence which made it different.

We then watched a now so good one however it did have some good elements.... "Puppet Note"

• It did something called "Match on action" where there was a shot e.g. before someone was coming through the door one side then a shot coming through the same door but from the other side.
• The editing was very good.
• Music comes in late which is rather effective as it went with the pacing.
• It had good natural sound.
• HOWEVER, the acting was very poor and this affected the whole production.
• Although, there was a variety of shots however there could have been some more close-ups.

Welcome - First Meeting

Hey I'm Hannah and welcome to my blog. So for the next couple of weeks will be producing a thriller trailer for our Media Studies coursework. I'm in a group with Shaunica, Carla and myself (surprise surprise!) So today was our first meeting and we were all very excited about the prospect our making this trailer. We came up a brilliant idea as soon as we all got together, which is always a good start.

STORYLINE

• Person opens up an email and has to re-arrange the code. The code could possible read "By the time you have unscrambled this email, I will already be with you"
• Split screen of 4 people opening their emails at the same time.
• Goes back to one person, person falls on the Keyboard, KILLER scrolls down and reads your dead OR shows a youtube video of them dying.

MUSIC

• Dramatic music - Instrumental
• tense/ beating insturmental

LOCATIONS

• School
• Home of the character
• Friends house (2)

PROP

• Computer at 6th form
• Laptop
• Fake blood
• Leather gloves

POSSIBLE TITLES

• Dangerous Email
• C.O.D.E
• Death by Email
• The Email
• Anagram 

We also drew a storyboard of how our trailer could possible look but this will be uploading next week.