dvd extra. Karel Tope

Lamar Fergus-Palmer Evaluation

The opening sequence of my filmThe opening sequence for my Thriller challenges the conventions of real media products by showing that the effects of a night out can be severe. Also going against the stereotypical “Good Night Out”.
By having the central character as a female, my thriller challenges the social norms of male killers and male dominance in film.
As apposed to other schizophrenia-based films, my thriller opening also starts with a dead body and the culprit realization, rather then the actual killing.
The film also varies between actual time and flashback, a common use in thrillers, this allows the film to show one persons train of thought as two different perspectives creating suspense and fear. The opening also conforms to typical thriller openings, there is a death and the culprit is know although there reasons aren’t, this opens lot of pathways in which the film could go and would make the audience want to see more.
The opening also creates the feeling as thought the culprit is innocent and is not in control of their actions, this makes the pivotal character seem like a victim although they are clearly the villain of the film. Therefore the thriller opening could be seen as split between conforming with the norm, and going completely against it.


My opening is representing the youth of London, mainly the ones who like to party and drink alcohol, coming home in the early hours of the morning. It shows them in a bad light, as the thriller shows a tragedy from the night before. It shows young people as not having a care in the world and being a little bashful (as shown in the flashbacks) not stopping until something goes wrong. It also represents young black girls as heavy partiers who dress their best to go out and are loud when they go home. The actual status of the characters is working class, but because of where they have gone, they have dressed up and look middle/upper class. They are shown as working class by crashing out on the streets with no recollection of what happened. The opening also represents these characters as dangerous, unpredictable after a few drinks, making the audience feel wary of walking past a pub or a bar at night for fear of the event happening to them. This film represents anti-social behaviour and youth who are involved in it, who, stereotypically go out to have a laugh, but often end the night with a disaster.


My thriller would be a big Hollywood Blockbuster. It would be distributed around the world by one of the “Big 6” most probably Warner Brothers as they tend to specialize in distributing good thrillers. There would be a large amount of promotion for it, as to make a large profit by attracting the largest crowd possible. It would be shown in over 2,000 screens worldwide, due to the demand for it but would be premiered in each country, thus creating an even bigger hype for the film. There would be small clips “leaked” to online sites such as you-tube and trailers shown online and on television. There would also be a DVD release and a Blue-ray Release. This is due to the nature of the storyline, following a young woman as she tries to find herself but all the while damaging the ones she loves, it is a typical thriller but with a gory twist. This is what is in demand by the public and although the producers are new to the industry, I feel one of the big 6 would want to be involved in such a project as they could see a handsome profit being made. This would help increase sales and publicity making the film a success.


The target audience for my thriller is 16+. This is due to the gory aspects of the thriller but also due to some of the nature, humour and dialogue of the film. The film is based on a typical upbeat working-class teenager who ,through experiencing adult problems, and mental medical issues, is turning into an insane adult. It follows her story how she copes with her problems. The film would appeal to teenagers, who could relate to the teenage problems. Adults who remember their childhood problems and want to see how another dealt with them, but also want to see a youngster deal with their current problems. Working class, who would know how it is to be in the low hierarchy. Middle and Upper class, as they like to see how the lower class live. Females who have always wanted to be in power and will also feel the pains of the main character. For males, the main focal point will be the gore and blood as she kills her friends and family through the film. the film is also aimed at couples as the storyline follows the characters love life and couples tend to go and watch thrillers together to share the fear. My typical target people are “A young couple from Brooklyn who live on social benefits but enjoy going cinema together, they would spend slimly but splash out on rare occasions.”


To attract my audience I would use much advertising. There would be Trailers shown on all major channels, would try to get at least one “ Star” to play a leading role. The film would have its own website, allowing fans and interested parties to view the previews before hand and have special one off offers on TV shows and radio. The film would be advertised on billboards across the globe, but money would only be spent focusing on the main areas and popular places where the adverts would be seen. The advertisement would also be shown on the side of busses. Special merchandise would be available in shops as there would be signature objects from the film. There would also be a game for the major systems (PlayStation and Xbox) which would include clips from the film. The film could also be written as a book from which is written in first person from the central character’s point of view. The advertisements would show the main character and a bleak background with the faces of her friends in the shadows. As I mentioned before, there would be some footage purposely “leaked” to the Internet, but not a finished copy. This with the intentions of getting people ready and hungry for the film.


In the making of this film, I learnt that the quality of the film can be dependent as much on the quality of the editing, as much as the quality of filming. The quality of the film has to be top class as the slightest mistake could wreck a whole day’s shooting. It has been interesting to see how the effects in films are made and how editing can be used to show flashbacks and cut from one movement to another. It has also been useful to learn of another PC music studio other than Logic Pro and how soundtracks are a vital part of film. I also have come to see how hard it is to record diegetic sound from through a camera without the correct equipment. I have learnt how to blog and even though I have had difficulties with it, I have come to see how it is useful for recording my work.


Looking back, I think I would have allocated alot more time to filming as, if you film well, editing becomes easier. There were times when there was only so much I could do without re-filming and this was fustrating. Also, plan on how to get around the natural lighting issues, since I didnt have the necessary equipment, the first days shooting in the dark was pointless and a waste of thime, I would research better and make sure I used my time wisely. I doubt i would have changed the storyboard but the editing would have been more professional and the cut credits would have been more definitive.

evaluation karel

Evaluation

My opening sequence for our thriller uses the conventions of real thriller films. It uses conventions such as:

• An Exotic setting(deserted location)
• Non-diegetic sounds
• Thriller atmosphere
• An establishing shot
• Close-ups
• flashbacks

The opening of my thriller is very thrilling and it has an establishing shot to indicate to the audience the location where all the action might possibly be taking place. The non diegetic soundtrack creates tension and a haunting atmosphere. We also used extreme close up to create a great impact on the audience and also to add tension. These are all forms of conventions that thrillers use to create a scary frame of mind for the viewers. Our opening also slowly progress to the exciting bit which allowed the audience time to develop anxiety and make their own interpretation. “events in storyline enables the film to progress and allows the audience to second guess what will happen next…the dialogue in thrillers never contains a complete explanation of events or plot in order to give it pace and maintain the mystery which is essential in building up suspense.” Hhtp://latymermediathriller07.blogspot.com/2007/09/common-thriller-conventions.html I think this definition of what makes a good thriller can be said about my opening thriller because it involves all these aspects.

Example of a thriller looked at in class: “The Shinning”

The film “The Shining is a great example of a thriller that contains all the conventions of a thriller. In the shining there is change of camera angle which immediately creates a creepy atmosphere and there are points of view of the villain, there are lots of flashbacks, and quick cuts. All these techniques used makes the audience think and it also creates a thrill. These influenced my decision about my film opening because it made me think of all the elements that make a successful, thrilling and exciting opening that people would want to watch. Therefore I applied examples from “The Shining” in order to create a exciting opening for my thriller.

The opening sequence of “The Shining keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and gives them something to look forward to rather than having instant arousal. According to the director Jean Jacques Beineix the risks of instant arousal is that “you wouldn’t have anywhere else to go”; as a director you would not be living up to the audience’s expectations. As a director for the opening sequence of my thriller I avoided instant arousal because this means that the target audience would have more to look forward to after the opening sequence. I also believe that the opening of my thriller makes the audience feel that they don’t know nearly enough yet as was shown by the feedback that I received from people that had watched it.

Due to the fact that mise-en-scene creates the effect of suspense for the audience; our use of mise-en-scene makes the audience think about what could of happened and it also enables them to ask questions. For example: when the audience is introduced to the very first character, a wide and high angle shot is shown of her laying on the pavement with rubbish beside her; a similar description can be said for the second character who is seen dead beside a bin with her shoes on the floor and blood on her clothes. “Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they elicit: fearful and excitement, if it thrills then it is referred to as a thriller”. Following this definition I can clearly say that my opening sequence is thrilling and keeps the audience on edge. (Google: what is a thriller?) In addition our opening makes the audience ask questions such as, did the victim’s friend kill her? What happened? And why did it happen? It also creates anxiety for the audience because when the dead body is first revealed to the audience before it’s revealed to the villain, it makes them anxious to want to know how the villain would react. I think we lived up to the audience’s expectation because the villain was in the same confused state as the audience is supposed to be and found the situation ambiguous.

My media product (thriller opening) represents particular social groups such as young teenage girls that likes to go clubbing or parties. It represents such group because the characters in our thriller opening are young girls at the age of 17. In addition it represents such groups because young teenage girls are vulnerable and are sometimes unaware of the bad things that can possibly happen on a night out, therefore our thriller opening represents awareness for teenage girls.

The kind of media institution that might distribute my media product is big Hollywood block buster or a DVD release because I think that it would be good enough due to the fact that it uses thriller conventions and it is enjoyable. The audience for my media product would be from young teenage audience of the age of 15 years old onwards. This is because of the fact that our opening revolves around a party scene and this would attract young people because of the fact that they like going to parties. A typical person that fits into our target audience would be 17 year old Tope that does ordinary stuff at day but enjoy going party and getting drunk and not remembering what happened. I would market my film through the genre because of the fact that people enjoy watching films that are thrilling and full of excitement. I would advertise my film on Billboards, the internet and also trailers. This is a very easy way of getting peoples attention because such forms of media are everywhere around especially billboards and posters on buses.

My experience using the digital camera

I gained great experience of how to use a camera and how to use different angles and shot type to create different atmosphere. Due to the fact that I did most of the filming it was fun and I enjoyed it because I was exposed to doing something different and this helped me to gain great insight of what it is like to be a camera person.

Final cut Pro

At first I found it hard to get use to using to final cut because I found it very complex. However after doing independent work on my own in the editing suite I found it really easy and it was very fun which opened my heart up to other things that I might want to do in the future in the media industry.

I used final cut to edit clips for our thriller and to add transitions and other effects. Final cut was also used to import clips from the camera. I also used it to capture and log the footage from the camera onto the computer.

Live type

I used live type to create the credits for our opening thriller. On live type we were able to change the size of the font, the colour and we were able to choose different designs. The type of design for the font that we created was creepy; the font was a cracked typed font which also added meaning to our film. Live type was also used to shorten the speed of the credits. As a group we wanted the credits to be

Soundtrack

I used soundtrack to create the non-diegetic sound for our opening sequence. We also used soundtrack to fade in and out sounds so that it could match what was taking place in our opening film. The type of sound that we used was inconsistent, the beat and rhythm changed, however this was good because it compliment our film and it was in perfect time as the credits.

I used the internet to do various researches about thrillers and what the conventions of thrillers were. I also used the internet to blog the process of my practical work that was taken place each time I had media. In addition to this, we used the internet to upload the opening of our thriller so that others could view it. We also did the same process and uploaded it onto vimeo. Doing this has widened the potential audience for my product.

Looking back at my preliminary task the things that I feel I have learnt in progression from it to the full product is how to work well as a team and to give people an equal chance. I have also learnt the necessity of taking leadership if individuals are not willing to make sacrifices in order to have a successful product and in order to achieve the best grade for ones self. My knowledge of how to use media terminology has developed immensely, in addition to this my overall knowledge of media on a practical scale has progressed up to the final product which makes me feel great due to the outcome of my thriller opening. Overall I have learnt the great importance of camera angles and camera shots and how effective they can be.

Looking back at my match cut exercise I have learnt a lot about the film making process. I have learnt that a successful film starts off with an idea then that idea is developed into a plan and then from a plan to a story board then a pitch. After this process has been successfully achieved then the practical begins; by starting off with filming then editing which final adjustments are made.

Thriller Evaluation

My thriller used the conventions of real media products in terms of characters, props and editing. My thriller used the convention of beginning a thriller with the ending. This is known as the ‘favourite trick of Film Noir’. However we also challenged the conventions of a real thriller because you normally have some sort of stalker. Instead we just have two innocent characters with no villain. The only suspected villain is the character who wakes up and finds her friend dead. The only reason she is suspected is because she has blood on her hands. Before I made my thriller I watched a BBC documentary called ‘Film Openings which was presented by Thomas Sutcliffe. ’ The documentary said that ‘a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know too little’. My thriller follows this convention because we give just the right amount of information. In addition, my thriller stuck to the genre of thrillers. This is because my thriller is quite mysterious.

My thriller opening consists of two main characters both of which are young women between the ages of 17-22. My film represents their social group as people who often go out partying. This is because within the flashbacks we see them walking and laughing. They are dressed up wearing heels etc so they are obviously going to some sort of event/occasion. This relates to them being victims because they are innocently going out to enjoy themselves.

The media institution that is most likely to distribute my movie would be a Hollywood blockbuster, which is located all around the world. This is because our movie has all the conventions and characteristics of an actual thriller. It wouldn’t be a DVD releaseonly, because I want to know whether or not the audience likethe film. In order to find this out it would be best for it to come out in cinema first and see how many people go to see it and find out whether or not people enjoyed it enough to go and buy it on DVD. Idonot think it should be made for TV because it does not fit under the category of documentary/short film.

The audience for my media project would be teenagers preferably from the age of 16 upwards. This is because they are the age group who will be able to relate to the film because they go partying and enjoy nights out. There is no particular race that the film is for, this is because all young women from every race tend to go clubbing. We decided that the thriller would be marked as 15+ because people from that age may be able to relate to the film e.g. partying. Also I think it is better because have a wider audience. The opening is not too gory and does not contain any inappropriate scenes so there is no need to mark it as an 18. In addition, the setting of my film hasn’t shown what race lives in that area. Regardless of the fact that both characters in the film are black, the audience the film will appeal to is mainstream. This is because of the clothes that the characters are wearing, they are quite nicely dressed.

In terms of advertising, I would advertise on buses because buses travel to many different areas so wherever we may not be able to go and advertise the bus can do it for us. However, uses a bus allows the film to be advertised in only a certain country e.g. London.

I would also advertise online with trailers i.e. on YouTube and face book. This is better than advertising on just buses because these sites will allow the film to be advertised globally.

I would advertise online because many people go on these sites so the film will be getting a lot of publicity. In addition, there will be posters posted in cinemas and in magazines, which will say coming soon. This is because we are telling the audience in advance. The film will also be in previews in the cinema.

Here is a poster I made for the film. This could be seen buses. magazines and newspapers.

The trailer for the movie would consist of some of the most exciting parts of the movie. Most trailers show the most exciting parts of the movie e.g. explosions car chases, and killings. This is because these bits engage the audience and attract them to want to watch the film. However, I would not put all of the exciting parts of the movie into the trailer because putting all of the exciting parts would leave the audience with nothing to look forward to. Here are some examples of thriller trailers.

Before we made our real thriller we made a practice thriller. We had to follow a sheet that said ‘a character opens a door, walks into a room, sits down opposite another character and they share a few lines of dialogue’. We decided on where we were going to film and went out to film.

The practice thriller influenced my thriller in terms of camera shots. In our practice thriller we did a lot of match cuts, which I thought, looked really good. This led us to creating match cuts in our actual thriller. Also I learnt that location mattered a lot. In our practice thriller we used a very open location where many people were, this taught us that the location for our actual thriller had to be somewhere that was not so open and somewhere where people didn’t go. This is because in order for us to film, our location has to look the same throughout. We can’t film one day with no cars on the road and film another day and have 3-4 cars in the same shot. Our practice thriller also taught us that we shouldn’t make our thriller to complicated because it takes a lot of time. E.g. trying to film a character across the road when there are cars passing by.

During the making of this film, I came across a lot of new technology. Some of which are:Final cut Pro-

This is what the professionals use. This programme is what we used to edit the film. When we had finished filming we loaded our filming onto Final cut Pro, logged, and captured it. Log and capturing is splitting your film up into bits so you can place certain clips anywhere you want. Final cut Pro is where most of the work is done. It has special effects such as fading in, out and sliding.

Final cut Pro is rather easy to use once you get the hang of it. Also, it is not too complicated.

Another programme we used was Live type:

This programme was mainly used for our credits Live type. Live type can be tricky at first but it is very useful. You can write your text onto a coloured background or you can write it onto you film.

My group decided to write our credits on a black background as it gives more of a thrilling effect. We also added faded white lines in the background to add a thrilling effect.

The animation that Live type provides was also very useful and there is a large range to choose from. Here are some of the animations available to use:

We decided to use the font cracked because it looked rather thrilling and it stood out well.

Along with the new technology I came across I also came across a lot of new equipment. The main equipment that was used were:

- Camcorders (Canon XM1)

- Tripods

- Batteries

- Lights

Looking back. I can say that I have learnt that the process of making a film requires a lot of time, effort and planning. I learnt that film writers must write a pitch before their film can be created. Their pitch must persuade filmmakers that their film is good enough to be created and also get money that is needed to make the film. I also learnt there are many different types of shots within a film and these shots make a big difference. Shots such as close-ups add so much detail to whatever is on screen.

Overall I thought my thriller was a success. We managed to stick to the concept that it was just an opening rather than a whole film. Also, I learnt a lot during the process. If I were to do it all over again some changes I would make are:

-My location because I would like to try something a bit more complicated

-The time we film, even though the first time we filmed in the dark didn't work out, I would like to try and make an attempt at it.

However I would keep the concept of my thriller because it leaves the audience with a lot to think of. Also, the concept of my thriller can be filmed in many different locations. I would keep the numbers of characters as 2 because it makes things a lot easier.

Evaluation

My Thriller develops or challenge forms and conventions of other real media products because it is Thrilling, keeps people at the end of their seats and wanting more, it is spontaneous and also it has a strange story line towards it. For example, the film ‘Kiss a girl’ has unexpected twists throughout the film. The use of the camera works also relates to real media products (Thrillers). For example, in The Shining there would be close ups to shows emotions and trances, which also takes place within our thriller to shows the actor emotions and confusion towards the audience as well as it brings tensions whenever the close up is used due to the unexpected shot. There is also use of sudden zooms within ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Night Before’ which helps to bring an unexpected focus on the audience, including towards the end of our thriller, which brings uncertainly as the audience would be unaware of who the killer would be, which therefore relates to the conventions of a Thriller ‘keeping people at the edge of their seats’. The sounds used within both of the thrillers consist of diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound as well as dialogue. However, there is less dialogue in our thriller and more non-diegetic and diegetic. For example, there is use of dialogue within the flashbacks of our film to bring a sense of realism into our thriller as Tope starts to realize what had happen ‘the night before’. Towards the end of the film we played non-diegetic sound of a heartbeat to help bring out tension as tope feels uncertain about the situation. For example, the point of shot was used and then Tope saw Karel lying on the floor dead. The heartbeat used at the start if the point of view shot helps to increase tension for the audience as well.

Our Thriller represents particular social groups because it is based round certain age group however, it would also consist of a variety of ages. The actors (Tope and Karel) are 16, so therefore our thriller may relate to other teenage girls that likes to go out clubbing and who likes to have fun. However, this thriller shows the consequences of having a good night, as Tope and Karel had shown perfectly throughout the thriller. Within our thriller there are two actresses throughout as the majority of the time girls are most likely to be a victim towards these sort of crimes E.g. rape, death etc, and out thriller brings awareness about the situation. Tope and Karel are working class girls and most of the crimes are committed between working and underclass girls. However it is unlikely to happen to upper class girls as they would go to prestigious places and more likely to get a limo back where girls from under /middle class are less likely to get into a cab if they spent all their money on alcohol. There is no use of sexuality within our thriller as it is mostly based on death and friendship.

Our movie might be distributed in a big Hollywood Blockbuster around the world, as it contains all the conventions of a Thriller. For example, Music, setting (a run down place) and the most important one a twisted story line. When looking at ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Night Before’ they both consists of the typical conventions of a Thriller, including the twisted story line, which grabs the audience attention and makes them to continue to watch more and makes them want to know more. Our thriller would also be different to the other typical American thrillers. When advertising my thriller I would be using big Billboards to help to distribute the film and it would help to grabs people attention. I would also make up a catching Tag line to grab the audience attention as well.

The audience for the Thriller would be 15+. This would allow us to have a wide range of audience, which would very from young to old, and also the young and the older would be able to relate to it because it might has happened or they no something that it has happened to. The younger audience would also be able to relate to the young actors. For example one of the actresses is called Tope and she is 16, she likes going clubbing and chilling with her friends (which most girls like to do), she is currently in full time education, however she does part time work. This shows a typical stereotype of a girl during her teens. The audience would therefore be mainstream instead of niche as it would be able to attract the interest to people with different ethnic groups as well as age and gender. The Thriller would also help to raise awareness throughout our thrillers.

To attract my audience I would be using different strategies to grab a mainstream audience. This would include different marketing types. For example, I would be using stand ups in a video rental outlets ‘Blockbuster’ to help to promote my thriller. The stand ups would include paperboard life images of figures from my actually thriller to give the audience as sense of excitement. I would use film posters, which would be distributed in and outside of cinemas, on the buses, streets and shops. This would help garb peoples attention, as the film poster would be in the most common place where people are able to see them. In addition, I would use paid advertisements. For example, Newspaper (The Sun) as a variety of ages reads it, and magazines (young voices, Bliss, Racing magazines, wrestling etc.) to advertise my thriller as it would gather a bigger audience, including different ethnic groups and genders. I would also do merchandising, but the area I would cover is promotional giveaways. For example, branded drink cups, and food combinations at fast food restaurants. For example, McDonalds, Burger King and more. This would help to promote my film and help to gather the audience attention towards the film.

Within the process if the filming I have learnt new things during the process; I learnt how to use Final cut Pro, Live Type and Soundtrack Pro. When using Final Cut Pro I learnt hot to put scenes together, cut scenes, add effects and how to change the contrast (however we did not the last one to our thriller) within Live Type I learnt how to make credits for our thriller and how to choose effects and font. I also learnt how to import credits from Live Type to Final Cut Pro. Also when it came to making a soundtrack for our thriller we had to use Soundtrack Pro. Within Soundtrack Pro I learnt how to add in sound effects. For example, the heartbeat. I also learnt how to fade in the Diegetic with the non-diegetic sound which would make our thriller alike with the Hollywood Blockbuster institution, as it is professional. The other part of our task in media was to Blog the filming process which we had to keep track of. The site is www.blogger.com to view my blogs. Within the blogs I wrote my understanding of the process and what I and my group had done, however I also showed some of the problems that took place within our practical. For example, we had to re-film again. After we had finished our thriller we had then had to upload it on our blog before we done but before we than this we had to up-load it on vimeo... (www.vimeo.com).

When looking at our match cut exercise we had to go through a film making process which includes, storyboarding and planning, to filming and editing and then post of production which we placed on the blog. When it came round to do the storyboarding and planning, I first realize that without these as central elements there wouldn’t be a thriller. So we came together as a group and discuss our location and our narrative in which we were then able to do our storyboard. When we had to complete the storyboard we then had a ruff idea on the different type of camera shots we would use and what affect that would have on the audience. When it came to filming, I learnt how to set up the camera and how to film different shots with it. Moreover, when it came to editing I learnt how to use different programmers to edit certain parts of the film that would be able to create the conventions or the thriller. Also when it came to the post-production we had to upload it on viemo before we could put it www.blogger.com Viemo would also allow us to upload it on www.facebook.com or www.youtube.com. I tried to upload our video on facebook; however, I was unable to do it.

Cinema

On the 12th of March, the whole media students went to the VUE cinemas in Angel Islington to watch our Thrillers in which we made. Everybody who was there was enjoyed watchin the Thrillers and also gave a postive feedback, towards every Thriller after the clip, which involved chapping ther hands and shouting. When it came to our Thriller, everyone enjoyed it which was shown by the clapping at the end of it.

Thriller

12/03/09

Today we were lucky enough to be able to watch all of the media students work in the cinema. This was good because it allowed me to hear what people thought of my thriller and I also got to see what work other people produced.

One film I thought it needed mending was love me not. I thought them putting a list of credits at the end made their film look like a short film rather than an opening. Also in one shot their tripod and bags for lighting could be seen. This was very bad, it relates to mise en scene-what can be seen in the shot.

Another thriller we watched was ‘vengeful vixen’, I thought this thriller was okay but looked really cheap. The thriller looked as though it had been shot in the college. Most of it was edited by computer so much film was not required. Also some of their shots were repeated.

 Another thing I looked out for was sound. The soundtracks of most of the thrillers were good because they added intensity and suspense to the film. However some non-diegetic sound was badly used because it didn’t mix well with what was on the screen. As for example one film showed a knife being picked up but the non-diegetic sound sounded as if seven knives were being picked up. Also many thrillers used a voice over as for example one thriller showed a radio and they had voice over with a mans voice and he was saying the news which related to one of the characters in the thriller.