Final Piece with youtube tags

Evaluation

Question 1


CONVENTIONS USED.

  


One of the ways that we used the conventions of real media products was when we did our credits. The example that we have used are in the credits in the film "Inception". The credits from that and the credits from ours reflect the subject of our piece and of the film Inception. They are both in black and white, and they both show confusion as we don't want the audience to really know what is going on at that stage in the film. We wanted our credits to not give away anything, which is the same with the Inception credits.

 

Another way that we used conventions is that we showed suspense, which is common in thriller films. In the scene in our thriller we have our main character walking along a long straight road. It is not clear as to why she is doing this, which creates mystery for the viewers. We used a scene from "The Da Vinci Code" as an example. There is a scene where an old man is in the middle of a art gallery naked and dead, and hes been spread out. The viewer has no idea why he has or the relevance, but as you watch the film it all becomes clear. We did the same for our thriller.

 

CONVENTIONS DEVELOPED.


We also developed the usual conventions by having a female, young protagonist. Our example of this being done in another film is the film "Black Swan" In the film she is a young female. This is not common in horror films, normally they are middle aged men. We didn't want to use the normal horror convention for this and decided to make our different from all the others. It also meant that we had the target audience that we wanted.

Another thriller convention that we challenged was the fast that we used cross cuts between flash backs and flash forwards. Normally in a thriller film the cross cuts go between two plot lines.We decided not to do this. An example of this in another film is "Inception". Our thriller film goes in between the past and the present. From the screen shots you can see the present (when she is walking along the street) and the past (when she is trapped in the cellar) In the film Inception you see the past and the present. The two shots show this. We thought that it would be a good twist for our thriller and would be more exciting for the people watching our film.













CONVENTIONS CHALLENGED.

We challenged the normal thriller genre by adding in a twist of thriller to our piece. In the screenshot of our film you can see that our protagonist is trapped and isolated, which is also something that happens to the girl in the film "The Ring". We decided that by twisting in a mix of horror we would be able to grip our audience more and also get them to pay attention. Because our opening two minutes don't give away much, we thought that by getting their attention would be vital if we wanted them to want to watch more.

 




Another way that we challenged the typical thriller conventions is by having our protagonist that had a physical injury. Normally if the protagonist has an injury its mentally, but we have challenged this. Our example is from the film "Se7en". We decided to use this because he a very able bodied man, and is a strong character. Our main character has a limp, and you don't find out in the opening how she has got it or why she has the plaster on her arm. This also creates mystery as the audience will want to know how and why she has those injury's.

Question 2.

Caroline Anderson - Question 2 on Prezi

Question 3.


 http://nfgsnorthstar-noone.wikispaces.com/


Question 4.

• Our ideal audience member would be a 20-25 year old female. She is middle class, and lives in a flat with a couple of other housemates, all female. She is currently doing an apprenticeship  at a law firm, which she takes seriously. The course is 2 years long, and she is in her final few months. She feels the pressure to impress her boss because at the end of her course, only 3 people will be hired out of the 20 people she is currently working alongside. She enjoys going to the cinema to see films, but also enjoys buying them on DVD when the are released.

• She goes to the cinema at least once a week, sometimes with her flatmates, but sometimes alone. She enjoys films that play with your mind, and films that leave you wanting to see more. One of the last films that she saw and really enjoyed was the Da Vinci Code. 

 

• She studied Religion at university, and also enjoys films with a religious theme. 

• She enjoys coming home of an evening, sitting down, having a glass of red wine and watching a film on DVD. Most of her housemates go out to the bars and pubs, which she doesn't mind as it gives her a chance for some peace and quiet and to enjoy her film in peace.

• She likes watching T.V programmes like Whitechapel, as she feels that they play with your mind and you have to pay attention to little details to be able to make your own choices about the storyline.

• Although she currently lives with her flatmates, she hopes to find a place of her own soon, so that she will have more space. She doesn't like living in a mess, and does struggle to live with so many people.

Question 5

Here is our media piece that is on youtube. Tags have been added in to explain the different costumes, lighting, camera angls and general Mise En Scene that we used.




Question 6

This is a picture of me using the camera to film a scene. I had to learn how to use the camera's because for our preliminary task i didn't get to film as i was starring in it meaning that i had no experience with how to use the camera's. I learnt how to film with the camera's and also how to take pictures. Also by using the tri-pod i learnt how to make sure that the camera was steady and that it didn't jog. It made it easier to film our scenes.

This is a picture of a scene that we filmed. It was a close up shot of the phone ringing. I learnt how to do close ups on the camera, which worked well for the effect that we wanted. It looked very dramatic which is what we wanted.

This is a picture of when i was creating my Prezi for my evaluation. I learnt how to use prezi by looking at youtube video's to help me and also by listening to other people in my group about how they learnt how to use it.

I learnt how to use Final Cut Express by playing about with the Macs. I slowly started to pick up how to to different things and how to make different effects on our media piece. At first i wasn't comfortable using the macs as i didn't understand fully what i had to do or how to use them, however after a few weeks of using them i started to pick up different things, like how to add in music, how to use cross fades, how to lighten or darken the scenes, and a lot of other things. In our preliminary task we rushed through it meaning that we didn't experience how to properly use final cut express. After using it for our real thing i now feel comfortable on how to use the Mac's and how to use Final Cut Express.

We decided that for our media piece we were going to use the Mac laptop. We did this so that it would enable us to use it whenever we wanted and also meant that we could take it with us when we filmed so that we could transfer our footage onto it straight away and see what it would look like. By doing this we thought that it would be easier to see what looked good and what didn't and would mean we would know if we had to re-film or not if it didn't look how we wanted.

This is a picture of Final Cut Express, the piece of software that we used to create our opening thriller. it shows the different clips that we used, how we put them in place and the use of the cross fades. It also shows the title's to our film, where we used the broken television effect with the credits going on top.

Question 7

this is our preliminary task, that has been annotated. We annotated it to show all of the things that we did and how we felt we improved on them through out the making of our actual piece. this includes things like how we didn't use a tri-pod, making the camera shaky, and also the fact that we didn't use good camera angles.

COMPLETED FINAL PIECE

rough cut film with speech

This is our film with the speech. We still haven't finished as we want to add a prayer over the top at the end, as in our research the results showed that people wanted a religious theme.

rough cut film without speech

This is the first rough cut of our film. This is without the dialog in which we included.

Progress Report

In todays lesson we started to edit our clips and learn how to add in the credits. We also put the music on top of our clips to see if it went well. We don't need permission to use the music that we wanted because we discovered that the music wasn't actually made by the person on youtube, but by another person.

We also looked into another possible place to film a scene, which is a warehouse in Saffron Walden. We think that it would be a perfect location to shoot some scenes.

Problems with the music.

After looking on the mac at the music, we saw that the sound quality wasn't very good and that we would be down marked for the crackly distortion. We found another youtube video that had a little girl singing, but the clip was only 27 seconds long, meaning that we would have to put it on a loop. After looking into this possibility we noticed that this wouldn't sound very good.


We then started to look again for another clip that we could use. We found one that was 3.01 minuets long, which was the correct length that we needed. We then proceeded to email the musician who created the music to ask for their permission to use their piece in our thriller. The email will be in our next post.

Filming schedule

1.30-2.00; LEAVE SCHOOL. (Drive from Newport Heydon)

2.00-2.15; Safety check of the Cellar

2.15-2.30; (5 mins of eahc 3 shots) Close up, Long shot and tracking shot of hand

2.30-3.15; LUNCH.

3.15-3.30; Safety check of the road

3.30-3.40; establishing shot of road

3.40-3.50; long shot

3.50-4.00; framing shot

4.00-4.10; mid shot

4.10-4.20; zoom on the phone

4.20-4.30; over the shoulder shot (to see phone)

4.30-4.40; over the shoulder shot (to zoom on phone)

4.40-4.50; long shot

4.50-5.00; extreme close up

5.00-5.10; close up profile

5.20-5.30; BREAK

5.30-5.45; screening of TV

5.45-5.55; check footage 

6.00; LEAVE CAROLINES TO GO HOME

6th January 2011 lesson.

 In todays lesson;

 Paige; Finished doing the animatic storyboard which she started last lesson, uploading it to YouTube and embedding it into a post. She had trouble doing this and she didn't export in Quick Time conversion but then it worked. She also uploading a picture of the storyboard in shots to the blog.

Miles; Wrote up the risk assessment for filming our final film.

We both then looked at the shots on the storyboard, seeing what type of shots we are using, which we will then write a shot list when caroline is here.

Planning for our Thriller.

Costume.

We have decided that we want our costumes to be very simple. The person that we have asked to be in our thriller will not be wearing any shoes, and will only be in a very simple, white cotton dress. We have done this because we think that this creates effect and will cause the audience to wonder what is going on and will make them want to watch the rest of the film.

Cast

We wanted to keep our thriller very simple, so we have decided that there will only be one person in our thriller. We have done this because we think that it makes it more mysterious for the viewer and doesn't give too much away in the opening scenes. We have asked Amelia Quinn to star in our thriller as we think that she is perfect for what we want to film.


Music

From an earlier post you can see the music that we have selected to feature in our thriller. We have already asked for permission from the person who created the music (they had no copyright on it) and they agreed that we could use it. The music is very creepy, and is a children's nursery rhyme. However, we have recently realised that when we put the music onto the Mac, it sounds very crackly and doesn't sound very good. Although it could be seen as quite a good effect, we realised that we would probably be down marked for the fact that the quality of the sound isn't very good.

Camera shots

We have already decided the different camera shots that we are going to use. We want the camera to be over her shoulder, as we don't want the viewer to ever see her face. The camera will also be tracking her. We also want to have a point of view shot, where the character is in the cupboard and you can see them frantically looking around trying to see where they are and how they could escape. We have come up of a plan of the different shots we would use, and when we are going to shoot them.

Location

The location has already been decided. We also showed this on a earlier blog. We will film our thriller down a long country road, that has tree's either side. The character will be walking down the middle of it, to show that they have just been somewhere and are walking to get away. The road is very quiet and there aren't many cars that go up it.

response from email

This response states that we have permission to use the music which the user 'g1o2r3d4o5n6' created on youtube. Once we have created our opening thriller, we will then post it on youtube, making sure the user 'g1o2r3d4o5n6' see's the finishing result, and the way we used there product.

Permission for music.

The music that we wanted to use in our thriller is on our blogs (Hush Little Baby Nursery Rhyme) is from a un-copywrited youtube user. We emailed them to ask them if we could use their music for our Thriller film. This was the email that we sent:


We are currently a media students at Newport Free Grammar School in Essex, and we have been put into groups to complete an AS level project. The theme is to create the opening scenes to a "Thriller Film". We were looking for some music, and we came across your "hush little baby" video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ut1mYp0GL8

We need to ask for your permission to use it in our Thriller Film project. We would be grateful if you could allow us to use it, and send us a message back letting us know.
The thriller will also be posted onto youtube, so if you would like links to it to see how your music was used, we would be happy to link you the video. Thank you for your time,

Caroline Anderson, Miles Papier Bantick and Paige Reed.
AS media students.


We will post a future blog about the response that we get.

Evaluating Prelim.

For our preliminary work, we were told that we had to shoot a couple of scenes that included some speech. We decided that our short story line would be that Miles was a police officer who would be questioning me, Caroline about a crime that i had commited.

First shot.

Second shot.

We decided that we wanted to try and use as many different camera angles as we possibly could, without disrupting the 180 degree rule. We then came up with a storyboard that could tell us where we were going to be standing/sitting, what type of camera angles we would use and what speech we would say. After we had done this we then took a camera, chose a location to shoot and then started to film.

Third shot.

Fourth shot.

Once we had all of the footage that we needed, we went onto the Mac's and started to edit our piece. As we were doing so, we noticed some errors that we had made and some things that we would need to work on for our actual piece. The first thing that we noticed were how jumpy our cuts were, there were a few gaps where we hadn't put the cuts close enough to each other meaning there was a few seconds of black in between two shots.

Fifth shot.

Sixth shot.

Another thing that we noticed was that by using sometimes the camera handheld instead of on the tri-pod it meant that there were times when Paige was holding the camera and it was shaking, meaning that it looked very unprofessional and didn't look very good. Next time we could make sure that we use the tri-pod at all times to reduse this, or make sure it is obvious when we want the camera to look like it is hand held, i.e if we are doing a point of view shot.

We also noticed that some of the sound was distorted. This wasn't because of how we had shot the scene or the camera's, it was because we hadn't thought through properly how loudly we should speak so that we could be heard. When we go to film our real Thriller opening scenes we should make sure that we are clear on how loud we need to speak and how to make sure that the sounds we want in it are heard.

Another factor that meant our preliminary wasn't as good as it could have been was the fact that we were pushed for time. When we do our real thing we should come up with a timetable so that we know how long we have and how long we should be spending on shooting the scenes and editing in sound and effects. I think that when we do our actual Thriller opening, we will be a lot more prepared and will understand how to use the camera's better and what we actually can do to make sure that everything we film is how we want it to be.

Here is our preliminary task that we put on youtube:

Music for thriller

We want music to be playing throughout our thriller. Some potential songs are:












When we were looking at the music, we noticed that in the first clip "hush little baby" that it was very crackly and that you could not really hear it. Although this would be a good effect, we realised that we would probably be down marked for it.

Analysing Thriller Films.

Inception 


     Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4 to watch the opening clip.

The opening scene contains very tense non-diagetic music. The music shows us that something important is about to happen and gets the viewer interested. This music is played over the opening credits when we can see who distributed the film.

The music then suddenly stops as you see the water from the sea crashing over rocks. This immediately changes the mood of the film, from the dramatic 10 seconds with the music to a more calmer feel. There is then a close up on a man who is lying in the sea, in his clothes. The camera flashes to a boy playing on the beach, and then goes back into the close up of the man, starting to look up. The camera then cuts to a two shot, of the little boy playing on the beach being joined by a little girl. The camera cuts back to him, then to the children, and then back to him.

It then goes to a high angled shot, of a man with a gun looking down on him as he is lying face first in the sand. There is a zoomed out shot of a guard starting to walk into a building, then a match cut to a totally different scene.

 The camera then starts to zoom in so that we can see what is inside the room. The camera then cuts to the back of a man who is sitting down. We then see that the man who was found in the beach is being carried in,
in chains. The lighting is very dark and glum, to show that there is something sinister about the place.

The camera tilts upwards so that we can see the man being given some food, and we can see what it is.

Se7en

Location for thriller.

Here is the location for our thriller film. We thought that this would be a suitable location as it is a single, straight road, that not many cars go up. Also the tree's on either side going along the road adds to the spooky effect. We thought that this location would be perfect for the idea that we have come up with for our thriller film.

Thriller opening ides.

1. KIDNAP
  Caroline was just a normal girl, who stuck to a routine day in day out. That changes when she gets kidnapped coming out of school in 1996. 10 years later, its still not been solved and her sister wants to solve the investigation and get revenge, as nothing has never been the same. By herself, she slowly starts progressing as she finds out clues and thinks of why her sister would get in the car that took her. After years of investigating, she finds out some home truths, and discovers something in which she wish she never did...

2.CRIME
   the car-park has always got someone minding it. But the night which no-one is working, and the CCTV camera's break, a murder takes place. On the 6th of November, Caroline, mother of 2 children, gets murdered whilst putting shopping into her car. why her? why the night which everything breaks? DCI Miles has to investigate to find out who did it and discovers that it was planned all along.

3.KIDNAP 2
  No one heard her scream. No one came to help. No one listened to her cries and tried to save her. Now shes back. And she wants revenge. Did you hear her scream? Did you help her? If not, you're next.
 

Premiliniary Work

We have started getting used to the camera's and how to create all different types of shots by creating a shot film. We were told that we had to make sure that the film included different types of cuts and camera angles, and also a little bit of speech. The different camera angles that we used were:
High Angle shot
Over the shoulder shot
Point of view shot
Tracking
Close up

We thought that by using a range of shots we could look at which ones worked best for us, which ones we liked and which ones we didn't like. It also gave us the chance to work with the camera, know how to use it and also get used to using the tri-pod and seeing the different effects we could make the camera have (by using the tri-pod and hand held)

Hero's.

There are many types of "Hero's" in films. You have your typical Hero, the one who you can tell from the very start is destined to do well and will always save the day. Then you have the Hero's who don't always seem like they are going to do very well. They have a lot of things against them, and they are loners.

One example of this could be the Hero that everyone thinks is a failure. They have lost their wives, their kids, they drink, they live alone, they are in a dead end job struggling to see any positives in life. Then, they triumph in the film showing that although you may have things working against you, you can always pull through.

You then have your comical Hero's. A prime example of this could be in the film: "Johnny English". He is seen as a joke because he doesn't quite have the understanding that all the other Agents have. He does hilarious and silly things that make the audience want to see him succeed even more, because they want to prove to the people that doubted him.

An example of the typical Hero could be the Batman. Throughout the whole film there is no question of doubt that he is the Hero, and everyone (from out even hearing or watching the film before) knows that he will succeed and will save the day.

The 180 Degree Rule.

The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. if the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.







This is a short video clip explaining the 180 degree rule.