Final Sequence

Untitled from Matt Pike on Vimeo.

Copyright free Music

I understand that all the music used within the project has to be copyright free, The website where we got our music from is: http://incompetech.com/

Which has samples of music which is free to download with no copyright on the.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
There are many various parts to our opening that are often found in thrillers, there is a murder during the opening with the death of a random stranger, this was done to create mystery for the audience, making them wonder why someone would do that and if they had any motives behind the killing or not. This makes the murderer a powerful character, as with the addition of a masked face, the identity of the character is concealed creating an even greater mystery behind them. However, in the last shot of the murderer he is unmasked, not showing his identity but still wearing a hat on his head, this shows how casual he acts after committing a murder.
There is also a contrast in areas used, with the outside field where they are running quite happily in the bright surroundings, to the forested area which is drastically darker, showing a distinct contrast towards how safe the person who has just entered the area feels, with this strange unclear setting.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We decided to represent teenagers in the opening of our thriller so this way we could show a lighter side to the dreary news you hear in the media with all the negative impacts that they have been receiving. We decided to show the teenagers running through the fields showing innocence in them, but then when they split up how they’re actually quite vulnerable. The scene also shows how united teenagers are as well, when the teenager that carries on running notices that his friend is no longer running behind him, he starts heading back to find out where he has got to, portraying teenagers in a more positive light.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A distributor like Optimum Releasing would be the most likely distributor for my product as they have worked alongside the production company EM Media, who helps create films made in the east midlands, which is the place where we have filmed. This distributor would also have the necessary resources to be able to market the product and also get it into cinemas for the film to be shown nationwide, with a possibility of an international viewing if the film is proven to be successful.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience for this product was the male teenager market, as our sequence contains action during the scenes within the forested area, with the chase and eventual kill of one of the characters, which would appeal more to a male audience than a female audience.


How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted the intended audience by adding action to our sequence, with the chase through the trees which lead to the teenager falling over and then being trapped by the masked figure looming over him as he tries to get back up. I feel this attracted the audience we targeted because male teenagers are often known to like chases with action in them.
We also used a mask to conceal the identity of the murderer, this would have appealed to our audience because of the introduction to a horror-thriller style within our project, as from the research we did on our questionnaire we found the more popular films were those that contain a horror element within it.
Most of the design behind the mask was taken from the film The Orphanage, when looking at the design of the mask used there we decided it would have been a good idea to add a similar style to our mask, as it was quite creepy. Here is a link to the trailer for the orphanage, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trL-n4PzcIk , this trailer convinced us that this was the route we should take with designing our mask.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Firstly, I have learned to always have one or two extra batteries with me while filming, as the cameras we were using were unreliable and drained the battery quickly, causing the filming to take longer sometimes.
Also, I have been able to expand my knowledge on editing as I’d never edited two pieces of film together, but was able to incorporate colour editing skills I previously knew about into the project, but was able to gain a greater depth of knowledge as it wasn’t like changing the colour of a still image as the colour was constantly changing as the camera moved, meaning a different edit was needed in some areas.
Finally, I have also learned about the amount that gets cut out during editing, shortening all the scenes we had created, to give a better flow to the sequence, this meant we had to add in extra scenes within the opening to be able to make up for time lost.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learned quite a bit about all the content that needs to be put into a sequence just to get it to two minutes, which was harder than I thought it would have been, during the preliminary task the footage we created a conversation which seemed to be long enough on paper but then when it came to filming it took half the time to act it out than we thought it would have done.

Audience feedback
For the audience feedback I asked two people to give me feedback into what they thought about the opening and what could have been changed if I were to make any improvements.
The first person who looked at my work suggested that some of the parts in the forest could have had an increased pace to it, as the action was a little bit too slow for them. They also suggested that the scene where the masked person takes off his mask should be redone, so that the mask is thrown into the trees and not thrown at them , to fall on the ground outside of the woodland area.
The second person also mentioned that the pace in the woodland area was a little bit too slowly paced and that the sequence should have been sped up. They also mentioned that the ending could be made longer by having the killer walking down the long path to his easy, calm escape.
I also asked them for points that they liked the most about the sequence, both responded to liking the masked person, both saying they liked the mystery created due to not being able to see the killers face throughout the opening.
One of them also mentioned the ending, they liked the way that the previously masked person doesn’t answer the teenager who’s coming back to find his friend, they liked this because it added a lack of care within the character.

Filming - Problems

During the filming we've been finding ourselves with many problems to do with the camera, with the battery not being able to stay on for two hours.
Also, the camera has been popping up with a "please press reset" message after every 30 seconds of footage, meaning the footage that we try and record before the message appears disappears.

Editting Techniques

We are going to use straight cuts throughout the sequence, this way the action will be quicker paced then using transitions like wipes.

We're also going to add in a 2-shot of Stephen and James running in the direction of the tree'd area, this will show both of them running at the same time and the expressions on their faces.

Another technique going to be used is a shot-reverse-shot, this'll increase the pace of the moment where James see's the mysterious figure in the tree'd area.

Problems and solutions

We had a problem with the footage being too short within the draft stage of our opening sequence, to solve this problem we have decided to include Stephen as an actor to make way for an extra bit at the start of the sequence, creating more action throughout the footage.

Filming Schedule

We will be filming on every Monday lesson and Editting what we recorded on the Monday lesson on wednesdays lessons.

Props

We have decided to use a hat for the opening to go with the mask, adding a greater way to conceal the masked person's identity.












We also created a mask for the actor to wear with the mask, this way a sense of mystery is created to the person behind the mask, concealing their identity.
It also makes them look creepier, which is an effect we wanted to put into our sequence.

Setting Pictures

Here are some pictures that we have taken to decide where the best place to shoot our openning would be. We have decided to set our work within an area with lots of trees, to limit the views of the characters in our footage.

The more compact the area of trees is the greater the effect of the feeling that the actors have wandered into a wooded area.

Actors

The actors in our Openning are going to be as followed:

Matthew Pike - Man A (Shadowed Figure)

Chose this person because they have dark clothes and wanted to take part in the acting.

Costume: Dark coat, Jeans, plain shoes and a hat to cover his face with.

James Cook - Man B (Scared Figure)

We chose this person because they were eager to take part in the acting part of the project.

Costume: Ordinary Civilian clothes, the choice of this was to create the thought that this could happen to anyone.

Man A in the shadows, he's partially hidden by the trees.

Man B steps on a twig.

Camera will go back to the first image but Man A has disappeared.

Camera goes back to man B and he has a scared look on his face.

Close up on Man B's eye.

Extreme Close-up on Man B's eye.

Man B runs away in panic.

Camera moves to an image of the bushes rustling as Man A is running through them.

Costume Research

Trilby hats

We looked at Trilby hats, as we originally wanted to use the hat to cover one of the actors faces, but now we have decided to use one on top of a mask, this way we could save time creating the top of the mask.

Waistcoats

We looked into waistcoats to give an old fashioned weird feel into the character, but then when we decided to create a mask for the character the idea of having a waistcoat didn't work, so we had to abandon the idea.

Top Thrillers from IMDB

1) The Godfather (1972)

2) The Godfather: Part II (1974)

3) The Dark Knight (2008)

4) Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

5) Rear Window (1954)

6) Cidade de Deus (2002)

7) The Usual Suspects (1994)

8) Fight Club (1999)

9) Psycho (1960)

10) The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

(http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Genres/Thriller/)

Research and Thrillers

Conventions of thrillers opening sequences:
Thrillers often have long drawn out scene in order to create tension for the viewer, making them thinks what's going to happen next. The sound used is often eery to increase the amount of tension for the audience. The lighting is often used effectively to create dark settings, adding even more depth to the tension, also, it creates a feel of mystery.

Genre:
The main part of thrillers is to create a feeling of tension and mystery, sometimes the target to fear audiences is often introduced to thrillers. One of the main aims during the film is to make the viewer jumpy and tense, with a feeling of not knowing whats going to happen next, often with a use of cliffhangers between scenes.

Risk Assessment

There are relative few risks involved in our filming process but we will minimize any risks that may occur by ensuring that we do any filming on dry days so that we can see what we are doing, minimising the risk of falling and damaging the equipment. We will also film in the day rather than at night as it will be safer and we will also get better shots. We will also take phones incase anyone has an emergency.
This Risk Assessment was done by James Cook and Matthew Higginbotham.

Members of Group

The members of my group consists of -
Matthew Pike - Me.
James Cook
Matthew Higginbotham
Stephen Elliot

I have decided to work with this group because I see them frequently and have managed to work well with them in situations in the past.
We decided to make a questionnaire and brainstorm ideas for setting so far, we'll be doing the research at the next chance we get. We haven't had the chance to do so yet due to us feeling it would be a better idea to get an idea of what people like to see in thrillers before advancing any further.

We then moved onto making a questionaire to find out what people watch thrillers for and to see what people would like to see in a thriller.
Myself and James Cook went around asking people using the questionnaire, while Matthew Higginbotham wrote down all the answers that we were recieving. Unfortunately Stephen couldn't be with us at this time due to having an appointment elsewhere.

Here are the results we collected from the questionnaire:

What gender are you?
Male - 7
Female - 1

How old are you?
16 - 4
17 - 3

Do you like watching thrillers?
Yes - 6
no - 1

What thrillers have you seen recently
Slither - 1
The Spirit - 2
The Strangers - 1
Disturbia - 1
National Treasure - 1
James Bond - 1

How would you like your thriller to start?
Violence - 1
Scene Setting - 1
Mysteriously - 5

What type of setting would you want?
Woods - 3
Abandoned place - 3
Normal place - 1

What do you like to see in thrillers?
Scary scenes - 5
Violence - 1
murder - 1

What do you find scary about thrillers?
Dark settings - 4
Freaky hair - 2
Blood - 1

Is there anything that you inappropriate about thrillers?
Nudity - 2
Blood - 1
Happiness - 4

We have taken parts from the answers who had the most amount of people wanting them. We've decided to take the wooded area setting and make it dark and mysterious.

Also, we're going to come think of how we can give the thriller a scary side to it, as people seem to like the idea of this being an addition to our sequence.

Settings.

Firstly, we brainstormed possible settings that we could have to set the thriller openning in. Here is an image of the possible places we discussed.

Preliminary Task

For the start of the preliminary task we hads to come up with a few ideas on what the sequence was going to be about.

A list of the things we thought about were:

Settings:
Coffee Shop.
Classroom.
Sat outside on a field.
Home.

Costume:
Ordinary Clothing.
Suits.
Coffee shop workers outfits.

Actors for the group were chosen as:
Matthew Pike
Stephen Elliot

Camera Person:
Oliver Allcock

Props:
Chairs.
Table.
Coffee Cups.
Newspaper.
Hat.
Scarf.
Gloves.

For the costumes we looked at websites such as www.topman.com and www.burton.co.uk to see what kinds of styles we could wear for the preliminary task.

Jeepers Creepers 2 Opening Sequence

Jeepers Creepers 2 - Openning Sequence

White text appears on black background mentioning something gets to eat for 23 days. - Creates suspense as the audience don't know who/ what gets to eat for 23 days.

Pan on a Corn field. Mid-shot on boy in field.

Pan while older man is moving things around in the field.

Boy moving through field, pan on him while he's moving. This keeps the audience with the action thats going on.

2 shot of a Younger man working on a car, with a dog in the background, this shows ordinary life on a farm, with someone working hard trying to fix something. This is done to create a feel of realism to the film.

Camera goes to the family dog who starts barking at the scarecrows in the field, this gives the impression that the dog knows something that the human's don't yet know about.

Shot moves to one of the scarecrows in the field moving quickly, but then returning to normal, this is done so the audience knows something that they don't, creating a sense of power for the audience, because they know more than the characters in the film.

Scarecrow shadowed while boy stares at it and heads towards it to investigate what he's seen out of the corner of his eye.

Long shot on the Scarecrow as it launches into the area, showing the panic through the boy's body language as he realises what is happening, a long shot is used to show the whole of the scarecrow, and how high up it can jump, showing the power this being has.

Pan on the boy as he tries to run away, showing how scared he is during the scene.

The Spirit Opening Analysis

Black background with white text, wipe effect on text.

Shadowed figure with dialogue claiming to be death.

Phone ringing in the background during all of this.

Figure disappears and a heart rate monitor appears on screen, linking to the shadowed figures dialogue about death.

Misty landscape with shadowy figures.

White writing appears on floor.

Phone gets answer by shadowy figure.

Close up on the faces of 2 Shadowed figures talking to each other via the phone.

After phone is answered a white silhoutte of a figure is seen running through an area with white text fading into view on the middle of the screen.

Whole sequence is in black and white, but has a bold red tie on the main character.

Conventions for a thriller

A crime narrative, the story revolves around a crime (often a murder).
A complex structure, with false paths and resolutions.
False clues given throught the film.
Protagonist - Systematically disempowered, often drawn into complex or complicated situations.
Often a scene at the end of the film where someone is in danger, most of the time it being the Protagonist.