There is a reflection in the first shot where you can see the camera and the rest of the group filming. You can also see this in other shots. When filming the thriller, we were careful to try and avoid this, and refilm when you could see any reflections. The camera is also titled slightly in the first shot because we didn't know how to set up or use the tripod at first.
The match on action of opening the door was good and looked realistic, as did the chair. However, the position of the camera meant that you could see too much of Adam and not enough of Emerald.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Compared to real thrillers, and ones we have analysed, our film uses a lot of similar techniques to try and build suspense. -In Seven, one of the camera shots is looking through a gap in a cupboard, looking in on a person. This suggests that somebody is looking in and keepng an eye on that person. Our film uses this technique a few times; firstly when our main character is unlocking the door, we have a shot from behind a hedge and a bin. We also use a shot from the same place again as she is coming out of the house, and during the end scene, we have a shot from inside her car, following her as she walks towards it and opens the door. This alerts the audience that the car is dangerous and somebody is in there waiting. -In Seven and Jaws, the killer is not seen later on until the film. There is evidence that they are there, and you see the effects of what they have done, but you don't actually see them in the opening. Even though we don't have a killer, we do have a kidnapper, and you don't see them at the start, you just know there is somebody there. In Seven, one of the victims, who is important to the film, is female, and another murder victim, who is given the chance to survive or kill herself, is also female. And in Jaws, the first victim is female. This shows that in most thrillers, they choose to use female victims more often. We decided to continue with this, and also the 'hero' and 'villain' would be male as well. However, what we did differently to other thrillers was the fact that it wad an 'everyday' location and characters. It wasn't in a city like Seven, the main character wasn't in the FBI like in Silence of the Lambs, and the victim wasn't killed like in most other thrillers. Codes and Conventions we Decided to Use: -Heroic Romance; our hero (who isn't introduced in the opening sequence), is an 'ordinary' person (the husband of the victim). However, they are forced to act in completely different circumstances than they are used to in order to save their wife. We used this idea because the normal location and charcters, make the story more believable and realistic, which we think built suspense more effectively. -Partial Vision; you never actually see the villain. All you see is their effects on the victim; they are on edge, and they seem to know there is something wrong, and when they are taken, you still don't see the villain. You also don't see what happens to the victim, all you see is them disappear, this means the audience could think of different things that could have happened, and want to watch the rest of the film. This also links to The Question/Answer Model as it leaves the audience asking questions and making their own answers waiting to see what has happened. -Concealment and Protraction; you only really see half of the story; the phone rings but don't see or even hear who is on the other end, all you see is that the person answering it doesn't know who's there or why they are ringing. -You don't see who bangs on the door, or why they have, you just see the effect on the character, as they try to leave the house. -At the end when she is taken, you don't know whether she has been taken or killed, and you don't see who done it, just that she is gone, but everything else stays the same. -Mazes and Labyrinths; the hero of the film has to solve problems and do things they wouldn't ordinarily do in order to save his wife. I think apart from a few things, our opening scene was successful. The people I asked to watch it said that it built suspense, the music went well with the atmosphere of the film, and that in general, the film was enjoyable to watch. The only things that weren't that good about the film were the phone shots, and the opening shot of the wheel coming onto the screen. These weren't that good because in the phone shot; it jumps, and the actor didn't give off the idea that they were scared or annyoed when they answered it. And the shot where the wheel comes in; the wheel didn't go far enough onto the screen, but it was the only shot without any mistakes.__________________________________________________________________________________
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups? In other thrillers, such as Jaws, it suggests that, in general, female characters are more vulnerable than male ones (it is the female character who is in more danger during the opening scene, and eventually killed). We decided to use this idea, and used a female character as the victim in our thriller. We decided this because we thought a male character would be more likely to do something about the situation, and act out, which is also shown in other thrillers, such as Seven (one of the male characters lashes out when somebody walks into him, and throughtout the film, he acts out directly during a lot of the scenes; like at the end of the film when he kills the murderer they've been chasing out of anger.) Seven also continues with the idea that female characters come across as more vulnerable, as one of the character's wife is unhappy, and confides in another charcter about her worries and problems. She is also eventually killed. We used other thrillers and stereotypes to help us make the decision about characters, and that both the hero and villain in our film would be male. Social Groups Unlike in a lot of other thriller opening titles, nobody is seen being killed, and nobody is killed. However, the way it has been filmed and edited, even though the victim is only taken, it suggests that she could have been killed. I think this is more effective, as it is a more psychological way of building tension, and it leaves the audience wanting to know more about what's happened. We kept the villain hidden all the way through the opening sequence. This was because we wanted to keep the suspense up, and it allows the audience to picture the villain however they want. During the rest of the film, we planned to have a male villain that isn't seen until near the very end of the film. They would appear as a normal person, but later you realise that they were the kidnapper. This is so the audience still don't know who he is, even though they've seen him, so this keeps them guessing and picturing who they think he is right until the end where it is admitted.
Question 3: What media institutions might distribute your product and why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Our film would probably be shown at film festivals, and would be classed as an ‘art house’ film, as even thought a lot of high budget and popular films have similar elements, the way ours has been filmed and planned out, it probably wouldn’t be mainstream or be in the cinema.
If the film were to be distributed, it would only be limited release, or only available as download. There are a few possible film companies that could distribute this film; Lionsgate, Overture Films
Lionsgate is probably the most suitable, as they have released other thrillers such as; American Psycho, Buried, Horsemen, The Next Three Days and War. They also release many British thrillers, such as Harry Brown, V for Vendetta, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Rock N Rolla. These films, especially Harry Brown and Rock N Rolla, were popular among people our age.
This is the Harry Brown trailer. It uses some of the same techniques as our film, such as the dark lighting, and not seeing who or what things are, to create tension. It was also distributed by Lionsgate, and shows why Lionsgate might be most suitable to distribute our film.
Some of these films received good reviews and were all fairly low budget, and some of them were independent films.
These means that if the film were to be distributed, Lionsgate would probably be the best to distribute it, as they have done a lot of thrillers, and helped them make quite a lot of money.
Overture Films have also released some thrillers, one of which is Law Abiding Citizen which was a very successful film. The Crazies was also produced by Overture Films, and was also quite successful, however, these films weren’t really independent, and so, they probably wouldn’t be suitable. They also don't release as many British thrillers as Lionsgate.
Question 4: Who would be the target audience for your product?Our target audience were people our age. We decided this using the questionnaire results, as most of which were 16-19, and said they would watch a film about a kidnap. We also found it easier to make a film for people our age, as if we liked the idea and the film, it would probably apply to others our age.
This short interview is with somebody in our target audience. I think it shows the film was effective because he said he enjoyed it, and that our methods were quite effective in building tension. However, he also points out some things that weren't as good, which were mostly because of problems we had with the camera or actor. It also gives a brief idea of who our target audience is.
We had some problems with mise-en-scene and the actor for a few of the shots. Most of the problems came from the location, as when we went to film, there were limitations and other problems, such as the two front doors, and the way the path went around the house, and wasn’t long enough to put in the shots we had planned.
Problems with mise-en-scene:
The way the house was laid out caused most of the mise-en-scene problems, as we had to change camera angles and positions, but sometimes they were still hard to follow, and the sequence where she walks into the house was made more difficult because of the narrow corridor.
·Because there were two front doors, we had to add shots and in the finished film, some of the people who watched found it quite confusing as they thought they had gone to a different part of the house.
The narrow corridor in the house made it hard to position the tripod and the camera, so on some of the shots, the camera had to be hand held. This meant that in some of the shots, the camera moves slightly.
Problems with actor:
There weren’t many problems with the actor, and most of the shots were retaken and normally worked after a couple more tries. We used the same actor, even when we changed the location and had to re-film. We didn’t have any major reliability issues with her. However, there were some problems;
·The second time the phone rang, she was supposed to answer the phone with a more aggressive tone of voice, and approach the phone angrily. However, she wouldn’t raise her voice and we had to retake the shot several more times than we wanted to.
·One of the shots needed her to turn around quickly towards the camera and act shocked, but when she turned towards the camera, she sometimes laughed or her expression wasn’t quite right, and we had to retake this shot more times than we wanted as well.
Problems with sound:
We didn’t have many issues with sound because we weren’t relying on the sound of the filming that much, and the music we chose for the film suited it quite well. But we did have some problems where we needed the sound of the filming;
·When the car is pulling up, you can hear the driver asking if they should go, and the person filming telling them when to go and stop. We had to edit these parts out se we only had the sound of the engine.
·One of the scenes, there is supposed to be a loud bang, but the camera was too far away from the person banging on the door, so, even though we could hear it, the camera never picked it up, and we had to add a sound effect of a door slamming afterwards.
·Because we were filming around Christmas, a van playing Christmas music quite loud was driving around and holding up cars, so on some of the unused shots you could hear music and car horns. We had to stop filming sometimes when it was driving too close to our location.
Problems with lighting:
We filmed at Christmas, so the house we were filming at had Christmas lights, which we thought would be a problem; but, because the lights were blue, and because of how we filmed some of the shots; the lights added to the effect of the thriller, and made a quite eerie and low-key lighting effect. However, we did have some problems;
·When she walked into the kitchen, the lights we decided to turn on to keep low-key lighting, but from the angle we filmed it at, you couldn’t really notice the change in lighting.
·The light on the outside of the house came on when we started filming, so we decided to keep it on, but on some of the shots, it went off.
·All of the lights caused reflections where you could see the rest of the group, so we had to position the camera and stand out the way to avoid this.
Some of the shots that caused problems were;
The second time they answer the phone- this shot caused us problems because the actor was making mistakes on this shot: they let the phone keep on ringing but still picked it up, rather than answering it. Sometimes she didn’t speak when she picked up the phone, when she was supposed to say hello, and there were no good, continuous shots of her answering the phone, and then hanging up and putting it back down. This meant that during the final film, there is a small section where it jumps quite badly, and we couldn’t fix it.
The shots where she opens the door- this caused us problems because we had to move location. The new house we went to had two front doors. This meant we had to add and take away shots, and in the film, some people had to watch it twice, because they thought that they had moved to a different part of the house.
We had to add and take away or replace some of the shots as well because of the location;
The shot walking to the front door was supposed to be a continuous line of 3 shots, but because of the path, we had to use two shots of her walking, and then a shot from behind a bush looking in at the door, showing the actor walking towards and unlocking it.
Because of the two front doors, we had to add a few more shots, and rearrange the order that they were supposed to be in as well; originally, she was supposed to go in, turn the light on, and look back out. But instead, we had to have her unlock the first door, look back out, shut that door, then go through the second door into the house and turn the light on.
However, some of these shots, especially the one from behind the bush, we think look quite good, as it looks as if it’s being filmed form the kidnapper’s point of view, and the fact that there are silhouettes of the bush and a bin at the bottom of the screen, it looks as if the victim is being spied on.
Editing and Effects;
When we were editing our film, we noticed some of the shots were either missing, or what we thought we were good, useable shots when we filmed, didn’t follow on well from the previous shots. To fix this, we used still images of key scenes;
1.Where the wheel pulls up to the drive- the car is important, because it's where she is taken from, and it shows she is going towards danger driving up to the house.
2.The close-up of her putting the key in the lock- represents her walking into danger, as she eventually has to leave the house because she believes somebody is in there.
3.The shot of her looking back out after she has opened the door- it makes it seem like she is aware somebody may be following her, or something strange might be about to happen, and she is looking out for it.
4.Her putting the phone on the table- the phone is key because it is the only warning she gets that something is up. It's also the reason she tries to leave the house.
5.Her getting back in the car- it relates to the first shot of the car and links them together. However, it also represents how much danger she is in, because it breaks up one of the faster sequences of the film.
6.The shot where she is taken and screams- this is the end shot. The way it pauses is a bit like a photograph, as it is the last you see of her before she is taken, and signifies the end of the opening. When it fades to the shot of the car without her in it, this shows that something has happened, without telling the audience what. It leaves mystery as you don't see what happened, only that she isn't there anymore, and this could make the audience want to know what has happened, and where she is.
We used Photoshop to edit these still images and make them black and white, and darken them a bit. When they were finished, they looked quite sinister, and effective in the film.
These shots faded in quickly, and we put our credits over them. We also had the slower, creepier music over these images, to add to the effect and increase the impact on the viewer, as we intended them to be quite creepy and dramatic.
How we edited these shots:
We took the original shots and put them into PhotShop. We then went on image adjustments and desaturate. This put them in black and white, we then lowered the brightness and increased the contrast to make the images darker and more eerie.
The last shot then fades to a shot of an empty car seat, which creates mystery for the viewer, as it conceals what would of happened, as you don’t actually see her get taken, but you know she has been, and it slows down the pace of the last part of the film, which is quite fast paced. We also have unnerving music during this and during the credits after this shot.
These images and fades were the only special effects in our film. We decided this because we thought that overuse of effects, and complicated effects, would make the film look quite ‘cheesy’ and lessen the suspense.
Overall, we found Premiere quite easy to use, after we had time to get used to it. The only problems we had, were with the tape and the tape player, as it wouldn’t play a few times, which meant we couldn’t import shots from the tape.
Problems with equipment;
The only problem we had with the equipment was the tripod, which wouldn’t move properly, so on some of the shots, the camera jumps. It also wouldn’t fit were we wanted to put it for some of the shots.
Question 7: Looking back at your premilnary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think our camera skills improved from the preliminary task, as I found it easier to find and choose which shots to use, as there were less mistakes, and we knew more about editing and what we wanted to film. The only difficulties we had were with the actor on some shots, and because of the location and equipment; the tripod wasn't very good and jumped around for a few shots. The location also meant we had to take out shots and add new ones, but other than that, we didn't have any problems that we had from the prelim. We also found it easier to come up with ideas, storyboard them, and then sticking to the storyboard. We also found it easier to think of ways around problems that we couldn't avoid, and editing out any problems we missed. I also found that the final film was much better than the preliminary task; -The editing and continuity was better, and you could follow the film more easily. -There were less mistakes than in the prelim If we were to do the film again, we would probably take more care and time to make sure the shots went together, and check possible locations before we went to film there. This would make sure that some of the problems and errors that we had wouldn't happen again, and would make the final thing easier to edit, and look better when finished.
7/12/2010- Started filming at Elliot's house. Got the first few shots done.
8/12/2010- Decided to change location because we couldn't film when we wanted to, and location caused some problems because it was by a main road.
14/12/2010- Restarted filming at Andy's house. We also finished filming.
15/12/2010- Started uploading and capturing footage from or tape on Adobe Premiere
3/1/2011- Starrted editing after the holidays
10/1/2011- Finished putting clips in, started to add titles and finding music
13/1/2011- Finished putting music and titles into film, finished the film completley.
