Simeon's Evaluation Q7

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learned In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

During our preliminary task we were all very new to new camera work and to editing. The main thing I learnt working with the cameras was how to get the right white balance, as this had been a big problem because we thought we could get away with having it the same through all our shots indoors. As we later found out lighting can differ inside so we had to adapt our white balance very often.

In both projects we had to do continuity editing because did some shots and retakes of scenes on different days. In our preliminary you can see that we didn't check where our errors were, but by the time we progressed to our thriller opening we were checking all over for errors in white balance, clothing and overall lighting.

Furthermore as we spent more time on the thriller project we began to utilise our time effectively and during our first editing session where we gathered all our clips and put them roughly into a timeline, we found areas to improve on and as a team we managed to find ways in which we could tweak these to perfection.

Simeon's Evaluation Q6

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

 

Before we began working on our preliminary task and our thriller opening project, I had not grasped the concept of editing video and audio and I did not know much about cameras and how to cleanly shoot HD film.

 

I have never used Final Cut Pro or any other software of editing before, let alone a Mac. This course has shown me clearly how to use the software and how to snip, clip and merge video clips and audio clips to a standard I would have never dreamed of. I have learnt the importance of naming clips and separating the ones I need from the ones I don't because later on in both the tasks my team and I found rummaging through all our nameless clips and retake clips near impossible.

 

I had never heard of white balance and what it contributed to shots and takes, but I soon found out that it changed the way we saw lighting and how important it was while we were editing and doing continuity editing. I also learnt how to use the tripod and how a stable camera can make all the difference between what kind of impression you are trying to make on the audience.

Simeon's Evaluation Q5

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

We attracted our audience by using references to dress code, which is a part of mise en scene, of the average teenager. Clothing brands such as Primark and new look are being worm by both our characters and this further gives the audience something to relate to. In addition to this the way both Jake and Kyle speak is the same dialect of what the majority of teenagers speak like, this was intentional as we wanted to engage them as much as possible.

Simeon's Evaluation Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience who this film would be directed at would be young males, more directly older teenagers. Both Jake and Kyle are in their late teens and so this would give young males something of a connection and something to relate to as they are of the same age and gender.

Simeon's Evaluation Q3

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

The difference between media production companies and media distributers is that: media production companies make the films and examples of these are Disney, DreamWorks, 20th century Fox, and Universal. Media distributors are the companies that distribute the films and try to get everyone to know about them, and they do this buy advertisement on billboards, selling by DVD, showings in cinemas, and now more recently it is more common for this to be done digitally such as through Netflix or gaming consoles or big TV companies for example Sky or Virgin and there separate movie subscription channels. Media production companies and especially big ones who need to make a big revenue will use these distributers to get as many people watching there films. These can be expensive to hire so we will need to possibly down grade and go for the smaller ones.
Now media distributors such as Momentum and LoveFilm, distribute films that are of a low budget such as our own.
On the other hand we could try distributing ourselves through services for example YouTube. By letting google put ads on our films we can possibly earn money that way as google or the advertisement firm would be paying us.

Simeon's Evaluation Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We represented the social group of teenagers through the characters Jake and Kyle, but we did not stick to the stereotypes associated with teenagers around there late teens.

Jake who as a young child seeing his father being murdered has lived with his mother since then. As he finds the clock he is curious to find out what happened, instead of being rebellious and getting into a fluster. This makes the audience have sympathy on him as his fathers killing had been at the back of his mind since he was young.

 


Kyle is shown to be a compassionate close friend of Jake, he chose to help Jake with packing and he also shows his compassion for Jake when he shows that he shouldn't worry.

Simeon's Evaluation Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before we began our thriller project all three of us (Greg, Keegan and myself) looked into professional thriller openings. I myself delved into a few but I noticed that in the openings of The Usual Suspects and Drive, one of the main areas mise en scene was the low key lighting.

Using low key lighting affects the atmosphere of the scene and creates suspense within the audience, and this suspense and willing to want to know more is what makes a thriller. As well as this I found that the dialogue that these characters had in The Usual Suspects and Drive was very limited. This also contributed to the affect these Thrillers were trying to obtain with there openings, it in a sense kept the audience guessing.

In our thriller opening, we took hold of these ideas and used them in the loft scene where Jake finds an old box with his fathers belongings in. We tried to keep the audience guessing by incorporating low key lighting when Jake was looking into the box, and the lack of description his and his friend's (Kyle) to keep the audience in a state of mind where they would not know the full story.

Keegan's Evaluation Q7

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learned In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Throughout the Preliminary Task, we didn't really consider the importance of white balance every time we changed location whereas throughout the thriller opening you can tell a huge different from the quality and how clear the shots are.

As you can see the shot above is a little grey and off colour whereas the shot below is much more clear and better quality. 

Also in the Preliminary Task, we had a few errors of continuity as the footage was filmed on different days, we rectified against this throughout the Thriller project by taking note of which clothing we had worn the previous day of filming.

The two shots above were filmed on different days and had no continuity errors apart from the obvious different length in hair.

Keegan's Evaluation Q6

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

At the start of this project, I had never used or even heard of Final Cut Pro before and that I only knew the basics of using a HD video camera. 

Final Cut Pro, for me, was the most I have learnt throughout this project. I am now able to edit clips together smoothly and add in sound and effects for it to look more professional and clean. I think the most useful thing I have learnt is that you should keep all similar clips together and all different medias, this will allow you to save a lot of time instead of rummaging through all the clips to find the specific one that you are wanting to add/edit.

Keegan's Evaluation Q5

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

We have attracted the audience by referencing the characters on modern trends that the audience can relate to such as the clothes that characters are wearing have been bought from local high street retailers which a large number of the audience also get their clothes from.  

Keegan's Evaluation Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that the target audience for out thriller opening would be teenagers and young adults as it is based on people of their age. This helps them to connect with the opening as some of the audience may refer to the actions taking place and the consequences after. 

Keegan's Evaluation Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

The main characters we have chosen are two teenaged boys called Jake and Kyle. Most teenagers are lazy and rather rude stereotypically whereas we have decide to show them as the more helpful teenagers that are rarely shown within thriller films.

The first teenager, called Kyle, is a friend of the main character (Jake) that the film is based around. Kyle is shown as a helpful friend that will happily help his friends if they were need. Kyle is also shown as a clever teenager which is shown when he takes control of sorting out the boxes in the loft. 

The second teenager and the main character, Jake, is played as a rather shaken person which may be because of his past of his father being murdered. Jake is also shown as a friendly, grateful person as he appreciates his friends help despite the silly question of 'Where's the loft?'. 

Keegan's Evaluation Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the thriller project, we have been looking at a range of different thriller openings such as Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Inception. I noticed that in the wide range of films, that a large number have a sense of darkness or very low lighting.

The Low lighting helps create the sense that a thriller should have, that being the deep suspense thought of anything could suddenly happen at any time and the mystery behind the story of what has happened. The suspense helps keep the audience involved with the rest of film by keeping them asking questions which cannot be answered straight away. 

We added a sense of darkness into our thriller by having low lighting on jake's face when he opens the box to find his father's possessions. The use of low lighting makes the audience wonder on how the character could possibly react and how it will have an effect on all the other characters in the same sequence. We also added a piece of music to this shot which has a dark atmosphere feel to it which helps create a sense of confusion and anger.