Evaluation Question 2 (Gavin Fernandes)

Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Character 1- Protagonist (Janith) First character introduced
ANTAGONIST- 'unknown'

Protagonist is first introduced...
- Gives the audience a sense of what genre the film is.- The introduction of a villain gives suspense.



- Black hoodieconnotations: young, teenager, youth, trouble, danger.





- Camera angle at the point-of-view of the villain. Gives the audience a sense of discomfort as they watch the protagonist from the perspective of the antagonist. 

-Camera angle at the point-of-view of the villain. Gives the audience a sense of discomfort as they watch the protagonist from the perspective of the antagonist.

. Our protagonist was specifically chosen to be a male character. It adds a sense of dominance to the character which is contrasted with the female victim.
A male character conforms to a villain as a general stereotype to men is that they are more powerful and intimidating than a female. This as a result adds a mysterious atmosphere to the overall antagonist.
. The social groups represented in our thriller opening is age. The age of our protagonist is representing the age range of 17-20. We found that using an actor around the age group of 17-20 that it would be easier to relate to younger adults/teens.

Clip from our opening...

Can be compared to...

Evaluation Question 1 (Gavin Fernandes)

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways do your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (i.e. of film openings)

Here are 9 still frames for our thriller opening.

From top left to bottom left the frames are:

1) The production logo.

2) The distribution logo.

3) Shot of setting and idea of location.

4) Mid-Shot of protagonist.

5) Protagonist holding weapon with 'blood' stained on the weapon.

6) Names of the victims.

7) Producers credits.

8) Protagonist approaching victim and looking dangerous.

9) The title 'Closed Doors' fades in as protagonist is just about to hit victim.

Here is a video podcast of my analysis of how our thriller opening (Closed Doors) uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

Evaluation Question 7 (Zak Green)

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

Looking at both our preliminary task and our actual thriller opening we can clearly see that there was a lot of difference between the two.

Pre-Production

- Firstly for our preliminary task we were only given 20 minutes to come up with the concept for our task, this was difficult because it meant that we didn't have much time to come up with the perfect idea for the plot etc. Whereas for our actual thriller opening we had around 2 weeks of planning time which meant we could actually think about what we wanted our thriller film to be about and it also meant that we could create story boards and figure out what props were needed and who was going to do what job. 

-  Also for our preliminary task we were only allowed to film inside of the school premises which wasn't great as there weren't too many suitable places to film. However for our thriller opening we were allowed to film wherever we liked which was great as it allowed us to film in a dark garage which meant our thriller film could give a scary effect which we wanted

                                                       

- As for props for our preliminary evaluation we were only able to use whatever we had available in the school (which wasn't very much). Whereas for our thriller opening we had about 2 weeks to buy all the props we need, in our case that was the hammer that was covered with blood and the black hoody, if we didn't have that much time we probably wouldn't have been able to get these props and therefore our opening wouldn't have had the dramatic effect that it had.

- Finally for the preliminary task we weren't given any professional lighting which meant we only has the lights in the classroom to use. Whereas for the thriller opening we were given professional lighting such as LED hand held lights and camera LED lights, which meant that when we showed the names of the women on the wall they could be seen clearly despite the fact that the room was very dark.

Production:

- For our preliminary evaluation we only had around 40-50 minutes to film which meant that we had to rush it and we couldn't really make any mistakes as we probably wouldn't get it finished. Whereas for our thriller opening we had around 1 week to get it filmed however we filmed for about 5 hours. Having the longer time to film meant that if we made any mistakes then we had time to correct them, also it meant that we had lots of time to make sure everything was perfect before we started editing.

- Before we started filming for our thriller opening we had to do a number of things. Firstly we had to make sure that the antagonist looked like a murderer we did this by making him wear a black hoody, we also had to write all the names on the walls and we had to get the woman in position. Whereas for the preliminary task we had hardly any time meaning that we wouldn't have been able to get all these things ready.

- For our thriller opening we had around a week to film meaning that we could wait for the weather to be right to film in. In our case we had to wait for it to be a rainy day to add to the suspense. Whereas for the preliminary task we had to film it on the day meaning we had to use whatever conditions that were given to us.

Post Production:

- For our preliminary task we were able to use final cut pro to edit our work. However it was difficult as myself and many others didn't has past experience with the program, what made it even more difficult was the fact that we only had a lesson to finish and upload it. However for the thriller opening we had previous experience and we were given around 10 lessons to edit the work and upload it which was plenty of time and i think our work was successful.

180 Degree Rule:

-Our preliminary task followed the 180 degree rule because when both Gavin and Janith were sitting down opposite eachother the camera was positioned at the same place for the whole scene. This was vital because if the camera moved round to the other side of them then the audience would get confused because earlier in the film the camera was positioned somewhere else. 

                 

For our actual thriller opening we used the 180 degree rule when the antagonist is about to kill the woman because the camera stays in the same position for the whole scene.

                 

Finally when we filmed the thriller opening i felt more confident than i did when i filmed the preliminary task because i knew how to use all the equipment because we used it in the preliminary task

Conclusion

To conclude i think that the pre-production stage was the most important stage of the whole project. I think this because it meant that we could thoroughly plan out our opening to make it as successful as possible. If you compare the pre-production stage for our preliminary and the pre-production stage for our actual opening you can see that there was a clear time difference and this affected the final product.

 Preliminary task

 Thriller opening

Evaluation Question 6 (Zak Green)

Re do presontation from ferng027313

Evaluation Question 5 (Zak Green)

Evaluation Question 4 (Zak Green)

Evaluationquestion4 160406104112 from ferng027313

Evaluation Question 3 (Zak Green)

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

Distributors control and decide how films and other media products are distributed to audiences and how media products might be marketed towards them. In the film industry distribution control the circulation of movies in theaters and ways to watch movies at home such as DVD's, pay-per-view and television rights in general. Distributors are hugely important because they control and aid the marketing campaign which controls commercials, advertisements, magazine interviews, trailers etc. This is very important for films because it is an efficient way to get the reputation of the film round the world in order to get the most amount of money possible.

Examples of Distributors: 

Here are two examples of well-known distributors. The first one is 20th century fox which is one of six major American film studios. It is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles. The studio used to be a subsidiary of news corporation, but now it is a subsidiary of 21st century fox.

The next distributor is Paramont Pictures which is a film studio, television production company and motion pictures distributor, consistently ranked as one of the "Big Six" film studios of Hollywood. It has distributed several successful film series, such as Transformers, Mission Impossible and Star Trek.

Why distributors would be interested in our film

In my opinion distributors would be inerested in our thriller film because it is very exciting as it builds up a lot of suspense and would leave the audience on the edge of their seats as they wont know what it is going to happen next. Also due to the fact that the protagonist's face is not shown it will make it a mystery for the viewers as they will want to know who it is. Distributors should invest in our film if they are looking for a refreshing and different film that a lot of people should be interested in seeing.

One distibutor that i think could be interested in investing in our film is New Line Cinema as they have distributed a few thriller films similar to our one such as "Seven" which is also about a murder. The film "Seven was also very successful meaning that New Line Cinema should be interested in distributing our film as they will want the similar amount of success that "Seven" gave them.

Producers

Film producers prepare and then supervise the making of a film before presenting the product to a financing entity or a film distributor. Either employed by a production company or independent, they help the creative people as well as the accounting personnel. The producer is a vital part of production as they control and plan the foundations of the whole film.

Evaluation Question 2 (Zak Green)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our antagonist, Janith negatively represents teenage males in our thriller film opening as he is represented by a violent murderer. We conformed to the stereotype of male teenagers being violent, aggressive and cruel as at the end of the opening we get the feeling that he is about to kill another woman. 

Janith is an 18 year old teenager that as the audience see from the opening seconds of the opening is on some kind of mission (as we can see in the short clip below). It looks like he is going into the garage whilst holding a hammer which gives the audience an idea that he is going to do someone violent.

Janith isn't your average teenager because in the garage you can see a list of girls names with some of them crossed out telling the audience that he has killed them, this isn't something you would expect a normal teenager to do.

Mise En Scene

Another reason why Janith you can tell that Janith isn't your typical teenager is due to the clothing he is wearing, the fact that he is wearing a black hoody with his hood up indicates he is trouble and perhaps liks to spend a lot of time in gangs and fights. 

In other films involving some kind of male murderer the protagonist usually wears a black hoody as they are difficult to spot in dark environments and they indicate danger in a way. This is an example of a character from the thriller film "the da vinci code" and we can see that he is also wearing some kind of black hoody and it makes it almost impossible to see the left half of his face.

The dark lighting in the garage may also tell us a bit more about the personality of Janith. The fact that the lighting is dark may indicate to the audience that Janith is dangerous because in the dark it is hard to see what is happening and in this particular event in the opening there is a murder and this tells the audience that he is a violent and dangerous person

Camera Shots

Close Up Shot

We included a close up shot at the start of the thriller opening to show the blood that is on the hammer that the antagonist is holding. This close up shot is very important because the audience get to see the blood that is on it and it tells them a lot more about the antagonist. It tells them that the antagonist is probably a murderer and he is keen to kill more innocent people.

Here we positioned the camera behind the antagonist intentionally in order to show the audience exactly where he was walking towards and where the rest of the opening is going to be set.

Low Angle Shot

Here is a low angle shot where the antagonist was about to kill the innocent women. The fact that the antagonist is much higher than the women suggests that he is more superior compared to the woman and is in control of the scene.

Effects

One effect we included in our opening was that we made the names on the wall have a slight bit of white light flashing on them which gave it a dramatic effect

Evaluation Question 1 (Zak Green)

Closed Doors - Thriller Opening.

Shot List (Group Post)

Shot list from ferng027313

Location Final Idea (Gavin Fernandes)

This is our final idea for our location.

Mood Board (Gavin Fernandes)

Mood Board

Mood board from ferng027313

Location Ideas (Gavin&Janith)

My Ideas For Costumes

Here are my idea for the costumes we should use for our Thriller Opening:

Man - Killer:

I think that the man should wear a black hoody with the hood up so that it is difficult for people to make out who the person is. Even though black hoodies may seem a bit cliche i think it is the best option because it will make it clear to the audience that this man is doing something he shouldn't be doing. Stereo typically a black hoody indicates danger, teenager, gangs, etc. and that is something that we want to get across to the audience. I also think that the man should wear jogging bottoms which will link well with the hoody, in these jogging bottoms i think that there should be tears and rips to give the audience an idea that this person is dangerous. However if we were to go with business dress option it could be confusing for the audience to understand what type of background this character has come from and it might be weird for a businessman to be a murderer aswell.  

Woman:

In my opinion i  think that the woman should be wearing a dress because it shows to the audience that she is feminine and therefore the man is going to have the physical dominance over her. On that dress there should also be tears and rips to indicate that this woman has been abused by this man and has been left in a horrible state

Storyboard Still Frame (Zak Green)

Storyboard- Animatic (Gavin&Janith)

Production Logo Research (Zak Green)

For the research of the production logos i simply went onto google images and typed in production logos. Here are a few examples.

The majority of these production logos have a very dark background, which links well with thriller films as the colour black relates to danger and darkness. The black colour also helps build up suspense because the dark colour scares people more than the light. One thing that our logo should have which isn't in any of these logo's is the colour red as it relates with blood and in our thriller opening there is going to be blood in numerous shots.

All of the big Hollywood production company logos have a unique design with a catchy name and bright in order to catch the viewers attention, the majority are quite simple as well. For example the Dream Works logo only has clouds which is very simple but it is something that the audience will remember.

Here are a few examples of independent film production companies.

Comparing these production logos with the more well known logos we can see that there is a clear difference. The independent film companies are mostly black and white with no other colours, this is probably because they had a much lower budget and therefore went  for the cheaper option and went with a plain logo. Being realistic i think that our production logo with have to be similar to these.

Script For Our Thriller Opening

Script from ferng027313

Location Ideas (Zak)

Where i think the location of our thriller opening should be from ferng027313

Technical: Three Point Lighting

How can this help us? What have we learnt?

This information also tells us what all the different types of lights are good at

We can this information to see what type of lighting will work with each of the different scenes in the opening. For example for the part when the camera looks at the names of the women on the wall the lighting will need to be very bright so that the audience can actually see the names, this means that we should both the key light and the fill light as they produce the brightest light and it is impossible to use the back light as the names are on the wall and it is impossible to get the light behind it.

Technical: Sound Test

Doing this investigation we found out that the sound quality is much better when we used the microphone. In the clip where we didn't use the microphone the quality of the sound was much worse than the quality of the sound where we used the microphone. 

From this investigation we can tell that when we record our thriller opening we need to make sure that we use the microphone to ensure that the quality of the sound is the best that it can be. 

Technical: Rule Of Thirds (Group Post)

From this we can see that when we record our thriller opening we should do our best to make sure that we try to position things in order to make sure that it follows the rule of thirds. This is important because when the audience is watching it they will feel much more comfortable than they would if we didn't follow the rule of thirds.

Health And Safety (Gavin Fernandes)

Health and Safety

A massive part of filming is the health and safety of all the people involved in making the opening sequence. When we are filming our opening to a Thriller film the surroundings will be dark meaning that everyone involved has to be very careful of the area around and not get hurt in the process. To ensure that nobody gets hurt during filming in the dark we will ensure that the floor is clear of any dangers such as nails or anything that can involve us getting hurt in the dark. The only things we should have in the surroundings are the props that have to be included in the opening. We have to ensure this because so we do not step on anything sharp or trip on any objects laying around. Collectively we will definitely check for any potential risks before filming so it does not affect us whilst filming. We will have everyone look out for any dangerous hazard however I will be the one constantly ensuring and checking for any potential hazards to ensure that we are all safe. In our opening we will be using a knife so the the person using the knife (Janith) will have to be completely safe whilst using the object and ensure that no will will get hurt. Additionally by establishing these risks and factor that could have an affect on our filming we are making sure that we can do our filming in a quick and idealistic way, meaning we have maximum time to film and in the event of an accident we will be prepared and it will not be as much as a shock if an accident did take place. 

Timeline (Zak)

Improved from ferng027313