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

Following the preliminary task I learnt a variety of methods and aspects that enabled me to make my final film to the standard I intended for it to be. We were all set a task in which we were asked to make a film with certain components and aspects of film making as listed below and we had to follow this to make a short film. As this was our first time or certainly my first time at editing I quickly learnt the basics of editing shots together to make a final piece, however as apparent at the end of this short film I also realised that when exporting the film I should have rendered it so it was to the end of the film rather than having it longer as it then meant there were 20 seconds of just a black screen, this is also why the preliminary task was so useful. Moreover it is noticeable that in the transition from the preliminary task to my final piece, my final film 'Rose' had much better quality in terms of film making, editing and actual quality showing the progression from the start of the year to now.

Preliminary task requirements:

Character opening a door.

Crossing a room.

Sitting down in a chair opposite another character.

Exchanges dialogue.

Match in action

Shot reverse shot.

180 rule.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

I have learnt a lot about the different technologies used to create media products such as learning how to use adobe’s premiere pro software to edit films. I have also learnt a lot about cameras while making my film as I had to use a lot of different cameras and use trial and error in order to get my film up to a standard that i was happy with. The main things about cameras that I have learnt about cameras are the frames per second and the aperture. This is because my film was made in slow motion. The first camera that i tried using for my film was a Nikon d3300. I was happy with the quality of footage from this camera however when I tried to edit the footage I found that the slow motion didn’t work very well. After researching this problem Ifound out that it was because the camera i was using could only do 62 frames per second which wasn’t enough to pull of a good slow motion effect. The next camera i used was a Sony z7 which could do anywhere from 12 frames per second up to 10,000 frames per second. I decided to use this camera however while using it i realised that the higher the frames per second i used the darker the footage got due to the frames moving to fast for the light to get through. To counter this I had to turn up the aperture on the cameras and I had to light my entire scene very brightly.

 

 

Pictured above is an example of a sony Z7 which is the camera I used to film my opeing sequence.

 

Other cameras that I used included:

 



 

The fist camera which I tried to use was the JVC evorio. Unfortuantely I did not use this camera because I could not pull focus on it or zoom very smoothly. It was also very grainy in low light and only didn't film at enough frames per second for my film.



 

 

 After using the JVC I moved onto using the Nikon D3300 which I much preffered to the JVC as it alowed me to pull focus and zoom much more easily. It was also much less grainy in low light. Unfortunately this camera also didn't have enough frames per second for my film.

 

 

 

 



Another form of technology that I learnt to use when making my film was Adobe's premier pro. Premiere Pro is a piece of editing software created by Adobe. At first I found this software very hard to use as I had very little experience with editing in the past. However, with help and support from school staff and other students who were more experienced with editing than I was, I soon got to grips with it and I learnt a lot about how to use it. Looking back on the initial planning for my film I now realise that I was quite optimistic with what I thought I could do due to the fact that I wanted to have a film that was in reverse speed and slow motion having never edited before. Despite this, with I did manage to create the film that I originally planned to make which I am quite proud of as I thought that I might have to change the premise of my film as it would be too hard to produce. While using premiere pro I learnt how to edit clips that I had filmed together, import and edit audio to use with my film, integrate titles into my film, use video and audion transistion such as crossfades and constand gain and to use reverse speed and slow motion.

 

The picture above shows the general layout of Adobe's Premiere Pro editing software which is what I used to edit my film.

 

 

When looking of ways to gain an audience I decided to use social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter and spread my film around the internet. When doing this I learnt how to upload a video onto YouTube, how to make annotationms on YouTube, how to upload a video onto Twitter and how to upload a video onto Facebook.

 

 

 

Another piece of software that I used while making my film was PowerPoint. When trying to put screenshots of my film onto my blog I discovered that I wasn't able to upload any of my screenshotteed pictures onto my blog. To overcome this I realised that I had to save all of my screenshots onto powerpoint and then I had to upload my screenshots onter my blog as Jpegs.

 

For research purposes I would often use IMDB to find out information that I needed about films. IMDB uses reviews from a wide range of people including users of IMDB and critics reviews from Metacritic. IMDB has information such as Cast asn Crew, Date of Film's release, Budget. Box office,etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to use my blog I had to pick a sufficient convergent device. At first I tried to use my lenovo tablet but I found it very difficult to upload pictures and imbed videos. Next I tried using a MacBook Pro which I found very difficult to use as I am not very familiar with apple products. In the end I used a standard Toshiba Satellite pro Laptop which I was much more familiar with and found much easier to use.

 

 

 



How did you attract/address your audience?

 

 

 

 

When thinking about attracting my audience I knew that I would not be able to release it through cinemas and or on DVDs for mass consumption because my film hasn't been backed by a distribution company. After taken this into account I decided that the only way that I could distribute my film by myslef would be through Social Media sites. So I uploaded my film onto YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to try to show my film to an online audience. Shown above is the opening sequenec of my film with optional annotations which anyone viewing my blog can use at their discretion.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think that my audience could be anyone who is already familiar with the psychological thriller genre. I do not think that there would have to be an age limit on my film as I think that my film would qualify for an age certificate of 12a. This is because although a death scene is shown there is no blood. The violence in my film isn't as visceral as visceral as violence in other films such as "Se7en". The fact that my film's certificate is a 12a means that any person of any age can watch it. This widens my audience to appeal to the fourth quadrant.

 

In order to research how popular the thriller genre is I used IMDB's top 250 film list. IMDB is the biggest database of films on the internet and it is used by million of people everyday. IMDB have a top 250 film list which is a list of the top 250 films voted by the sites users. I think that counting how many film in this list can be regarded as thrillers is agood way to see how popular the thriller genre is because the general public are the people who vote for the films.

 

Below I have listed IMDB's top 25 films from the top 250 list.

 

From the top 25 film list I counted that 5 of the films were thrillers. These films are The Dark Knight, Inception, The Matrix, Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs. This means that 20% of the films in the top 25 list are thrillers which is a large majority and as this list was voted for by memebers of the general public I believe that my film could appeal to almost anyone within the set age range.

 

 

	1.The Shawshank Redemption(1994)
	2.The Godfather(1972)
	3.The Godfather: Part II(1974)
	4.The Dark Knight(2008)
	5.Pulp Fiction(1994)
	6.Schindler's List(1993)
	7.12 Angry Men(1957)
	8.The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(1966)
	9.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003)
	10.Fight Club(1999)
	11.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)
	12.Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back(1980)
	13.Forrest Gump(1994)
	14.Inception(2010)
	15.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest(1975)
	16.The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(2002)
	17.Goodfellas(1990)
	18.The Matrix(1999)
	19.Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope(1977)
	20.Seven Samurai(1954)
	21.City of God(2002)
	22.Se7en(1995)
	23.The Usual Suspects(1995)
	24.The Silence of the Lambs(1991)
	25.Interstellar(2014)

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

- Producers and Distributers

If I was given the chance to actually produce the film for mass apeal I believe that there would only be a couple of companies who would be able to help me to produce and distribute my film. From the sequence that I have made so far for my film, I believe that it would appeal to British companies such as Working Title, Momentum Pictures and Film4 as my film is British and all of these companies have produced films that are similar to mine. However I chose to use Working Title over Momentum Pictures and n Film4 because Working Title is not an independent company as it is owned by universal. I believe that it would be better to use Working Title as it is a bigger company than Momentum and Film4 and I think that it would allow me to have a higher budget and to have a wider distribution network.

 

 

 

Working title thriller films include:



 

As shown above, Working Title have produced many successful thriller films, especially in the case of "Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy", which topped the UK Box office for three consecutive weeks and was nominated for 3 Acedemy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Actor in a Leading Role.

 

 

 



Film4 thriller films include:

 

 

 

 

Shown above are some of the thriller films produced by Film4. Unfortunately I did not choose Film4 to produce my film because I don't think that they're thriller films have been as successful commercially or criticaly as Working Title's thriller films.

 

 

-Distribution and Promotion

I believe that with the right research and promotion it is definately possible for my film to be a critical and financial success. I believe that even though my film has a low budget, it still has potential for financial success. i believe that there are many films that have been made which prove that budget is not directly proportional to finacial success. For example, the film "El Mariachi" directed by Robert Rodriguez has a budget of a mere $7,000 and it made over $2,000,000 at the box office. Another evample of this would be the film "Paranormal Activity". "Paranormal Activity" directed by Oren Peli had a budget of $15,000 and it made over $190,000,000. In order to distribute my film I would directly advertise to my target audience by using websites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes and also by using social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and on YouTube. I believe that this in turn could then be spread to more and more people, this could mean that my film could gain more interest or even gain a large following. I believe that if film copanies gain interest in our concept they may decide to try to contact us in order to aid with the production, distribution and promotion of my film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

Above on the far left is Francesca Wallace who is the protagonist in my film. During the pre production stage of my project I had to think about who would be the protagonist in my film. From the research that I did into characters in thriller films I realised that they were mostly males. I believe that this is due to the fact that men are stereotypically seen as physically and mentally stronger than females. Having taken this into account I decided that it would be best to conform to the genre stereotypes regarding gender representation as I wanted to give my thriller a very authentic feel. The actor I chose is called Francesca Wallace. Francesca is a young female in her teens. In my film she has no dialogue and she is killed right at the start of the film. This means that I have conformed to the general gender stereotypes of the thriller genre.

The picture above shows the actress Famke Janssen in a screenshot from the film "Taken 3". In this film Janssen conforms to all female stereotypes in thrillers. She is weak and vulnerable and in this film she basically acts as the "damsell in distress". She is captured in this film which makes the malprotagonist hunt down her captures. I think that this film serves as a perfect example of how most female characters are shown within this genre.

 

The picture above shows Jodie Foster in the film "The Silence of the Lambs". She is an example of a character in a thriller who does not conform to stereotypes for a number of reasons. Firstly, she is a female protagonist. This is very odd for a thriller as they are mostly dominated by male characters. Secondaly in this film the antagonist is a male character called "Buffalo Bill". In the film Foster's character arrests the male antagonist essentially dominating which contrasts most stereotypes. Despite this I did not want to base my female chaeacter on Jodie Foster's character as I wanted my film to have a very authentic thriller feel.