Thriller - Final Cut

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
For feedback for my media thriller opening, I decided to give out 2 questionnaires to one boy and also one girl so they could watch and then give me feedback on my opening. Both of them were of the white british ethnicity.

Questionnaire 1 -  Sam Kirkham       Male
Missing

1) Was the film easy to understand the narrative?

Sam gave a 4 out of 5 for the understanding of the narrative and said the reason being was because he could follow what the plot was setting out for the opening. He also mentioned that the reason for giving a 4 and not a 5 was due to the fact that during the middle of the action, he became a little lost as to where this girl was and why she was at this machine.

He did however, on second viewing become aware of where she was and what she was doing as he noticed that she was walking into the bus station. Although he hadn't noticed this the first time around. He did say that, that was the only thing he could fault with the opening production.

2) Did the sequence hold your attention?

Sam, for this gave this a 5 out of 5 as he said that he was swept into it and wanted to watch after the opening. He said the fade to blacks helped to keep him watching as it built the suspence of the action up and kept him on the edge of his seat. He also added that if this were the start to a film that he hadn't seen before that he wouldn't think twice about staying and continuing watching which I was extremely pleased with and actually didn't expect him to say.





3) How do you rate the camera work and editing?

Sam also gave a 5 out of 5 for the editing and use of the camera. The reason which he gave was he thought that the different angles that were present gave the film that extra tension and action; plus making it look professional.

With regards to the edit, he said that the fade to blacks were used brilliantly because as said above in 2, it created suspence which built up. He also said the use of the dissolve used here on the left was used well because it gave an insight to what was going to happen later in the opening while staying with what was actually happening.



4) How do you rate the standard of mise - en - scene?

Sam decided to give a 3 out of 5 for the use of mise-en-scene. At first he didn't understand what the question was asking but once I explained he gave 3 because he said he thought that we could have included the male character a little more which would have built up the tension even more. He also admitted that if we had a little longer of a shot on the girl when she discovers the poster then it would have been more understandable. He did however say the lighting looked and everything could be seen easily.

5) Is the production clearly the opening to a thriller?
This was awarded a 4 out of 5. He said because of the use of the titles and where they are located in the opening, it does look like one and not like a trailer. He said that he liked the idea of having the 'Night Fall Productions', a bit of action and then 'A Dean Morgan Production' at the start of the opening due to the reasoning that he has seen it in films he has watched. Another reason he gave was that he has seen trailers of films such as Life on Mars and Animal Kingdom compared to my opening, he said their was a disinct difference which was great to hear as an opening was the main aim.

6)Would the opening inspire you to watch the rest of the film?
The simple answer from Sam was yes. From one reason and one reason only and that was because it left him questionning what was going to happen after the ending of the opening.He wanted to know what happened to the girl but also what she had done; which was our groups aim in the first place actually.

7) Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
He said No!

8) Were there any aspects that you find offensive?
Again, he said no.

9) Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?

Sam explained to me that there was one specific part he found a little hard to get his head around. In the middle of the opening to the film, he said there was a lot going on which is where he became a little lost as to what was actually happening. The main parts where he was lost was when the girl was entering the bus station and also when she was at the machine; both of these mentioned above so I don't need to talk about them again.

10) What is the best feature/features of the production?
Samuel said that there were 4 main aspects of my production that were the best in his opinion.
Camera work - The different angles that I used to show the action



Editing - The use of dissolves and fade to blacks making it look ominous and enigmatic/mysterious, plus having it increase suspence.


Soundtrack - How the soundtrack intergrated with the action was 'excellent'. He also added that he thought this soundtrack was the only one that could go with my action in his opinion after I played him my other options I could have used.


Cliffhanger - The mysterious man at the end after following this girl was a strong ending as he wanted to know what was going to happen after that but in terms of having it as an opening the cliffhanger worked brilliantly.

11) Does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood and action?
Yes it fits in well with the action especially at two certain points of the opening. Firstly at 0:05 - 0:12 where he says that instantly you get the sense on the tension building up. He did also say that where the soundtrack is in this specific place it makes it seem that something is going to happen.

Secondly, he also points out the significant sound increase from the start of the film to the end showings of the opening which in his words 'makes me know that something will happen as the music get ever so slightly louder'

12) Rate the overall production
Sam said that he would rate my thriller opening a 9 out of 10 because he could see how hard I worked on it to make it look as professional and tension building as I could.

Questionnaire 2 - Hollie            Female


1) Was the film easy to understand?

From understanding the opening, Hollie gave a 3 out of 5. She said the only thing that was confusing her was that she couldn't work out why the girl was ripping this poster of a wall.

According to her she said that the rest of the narrative was understandable after this, it just why she was ripping it down.

After a couple more viewings of the opening she finally realised that she was running away from the 'Missing' on the poster and also at the end of the film. Perhaps the font on the poster wasn't big enough but once she saw it she couldn't believe how she could understand it first time around.


2) Did the sequence hold you attention?

Hollie said that the opening had her full attention and gave it a 5 out of 5 for this. She said it was mainly because of the female lead character as she found it easier to relate and also could imagine herself in that position.

Coincedentily, this may relate to 'The killing' as the lead who is a female character named Sarah Lund.






















3) How do you rate the camera work and editing?

She rated the camera work and editing as a 5 out of a possible 5 which I was absolutly thrilled by. after spending so much of my time working on it to get it right I am ecstatic that people are noticing it and thinking it works in my production. The reason for her high mark was due to the fact that the different transitions made it look like a proper opening to a film. She also said the use of the camera was used well as their wa a variety of different types of shots which kept her attention to the film.









4) How do you rate the standard of Mise - En - Scene?
This was given a 3 out of 5 for the use of mise-en-scene. She liked some shots, for example the shot above where the light just seems to bounce off her but some she wasn't as keen on such as the poster being found by the girl in the machine; ironically Sam also said this so if this was attracting audience then may not have been noticed. Other than that she said she couldn't find anything else wrong which I thought was good to hear but not being able to see something is understandably a 3 out of 5.

5) Is the production clearly the opening to a thriller film?

Hollie gave 4 out of 5 for this question. The reason being because of the titles which was the same as Sam so i'm happy in that regard. She also said the way sound built up showed her something was going to happen and it did with the cliffhanger. She did however say I could have put 'Edited by Dean Morgan' but from advise from our courses, i'm glad I didn't even if she thought it may have improved it.









6) Would the opening inspire you to watch the rest of the film?
Hollie said it would inspire her to watch on due to the simple reason that because of the female lead, it could relate more to her and to a female audience as well.

7) Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
She said No which I was extremely pleased with.

8) Were there any aspects that you found offensive?
She said no.

9) Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?
She said that the ripping of the poster was confusing but because I've mentioned that above I won't talk about that. Other than this she said 'it was fine apart from that' which again was really pleasing to her.

10) What is the best feature/features of the production?
Hollie said there were 5 main features which caught her eye.
Action - There was always something happening so you cannot take your eyes away from what is being shown.

Performance - 'Both of the characters in the film, especially the female, performed excellently and her facial expressions were great and made it look as though it was a real life situation.'

Editing - She said the fade to blacks were fantastic because the seperated the scenes well and created suspence.

Soundtrack - Hollie said for this and asked me 'Where did you find this soundtrack?! It sounds absolutly brilliant and I can imagine in a real film!' As you can imagine I was over the moon because other audience may also think this if they heard it.

Cliffhanger - She said it left her wanted to see what happened to the female, whether she is dead or alive or not.

11) Does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood and action?

Hollie said to me that the does work effectively and 'ties in well with the action' and also the eventual cliffhanger. She said it reflected the mood as being tense which is what she was feeling at the time of watching the opening. She also mentioned that it enhances the action to make it be more exciting to watch.

According to her, she said the best of the soundtrack happened nearer the end as it increased in sound which made her sit on the edge of her seat.

12) Rate the overall production
Hollie told me she would rate my film an impressive 9 out of 10 because she could imagine she this opening in a cinema.

After interviewing a male and female who represent my target audience, our film could attract our audience for females through the main female character; perhaps not as much for men through the isolated male figure.

We addressed our audience by focusing on a social problem of young people, particularly girls in foster care who go missing.

Evaluation - Question 6

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

In order to shoot our thriller, we had to use a camera. We used a canou SLR 1100D camera for this opening . This was a good camera in the sense it gave a clear outlook to the footage and we were able to experiment many different types of shots but it didn't lose the quality which was excellent as now we had different angles and footage which were of good quality which can be used. This also helped that as soon as we shot what we needed, we were able to check and see if it had to be done again or whether or not it was as good as we could get that specific shot.

Despite the positives, there were some stalls that we encountered. The main one being that if we used this camera, we needed to convert the footage and change it into the correct files so we could actually edit it and make it into a film which was time consuming. The other main problem was that of sound; once the clips had been converted, there was no sound with them so our diegetic sound had vanished but we solved this to record the sound using a voice recorder.

From using this camera, we've learnt that even if everything we shoot looks good and everything goes to plan, it can suddenly take a turn for the worse; in this case, us losing our sound so now we know to convert the sound or to ensure the sound has been recorded in the first place.

For our edit, we used the software Adobe Premiere Pro. Being introduced to Premiere pro for our preliminary tasks it was still relatively new in the sense that we hadn't explored every detail of it.

Through my time editing of opening sequence, I feel my skills have developed hugely. I now know how to create a film. I know how to upload soundtracks and how to change the pitch of the sound in times of mystery or times of excitement depending on the film. I have learnt how to input which parts of the footage I need and which parts I don't and also how to add transitions to perhaps build tension. Plus being able to add titles to make it look professional and a quality film.

Here is an example of a cross dissolve that I used in the making of my production. I also used transitions such as fade to black too.

                       

For our research into thrillers and having to produce case studies, we had to use Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB). This was a website which offered everything you need to know about any film you need including casts, ratings, reviews etc... you could also find trailers on there too.

Using IMDB I have learned many things about film in general. Firstly, films I may think are good are recieved in a completely different perspective to many other critics for example. They can be very harsh at the best of times and about very minor details so this taught me that the openings we create have to be spot on to look professional and entise people into wanting to watch them. Shadowed font for example will be picked up and said to be amateur.

It's all well and good using these technologies but without youtube; getting trailers and stills for case studies and work would have been a nightmare. For me, using youtube and seeing many different thriller openings opened my eyes when it came to constructing my thriller.

I learnt from this that my opening had to make people want to watch on and not have it turn into some sort of trailer advertising a thriller which can easily be done.

Youtube helped me dramatically when it came to case studies due to the fact it provided me with clips and for that getting certain screenshots. The screenshots that I used mainly were of many different camera angles showing how they show a scene/object. This helped me to realise that camera shots were very important and made me take more notice when it came to putting practice into an actual opening sequence.

There were also the simple technologies that I used, such as the memory stick. Without it, I wouldn't have been able get any sort of soundtrack onto my thriller. Without the sound, my piece would have turned into something which doesn't aim to provide suspence and any type of enigmatic feel so the memory stick is just as important as everything else that I used throughout this course.

Our group also used specific lighting for certain moments in our thriller; the flashback which used artifical light which in turn created a spotlight which was used to show that in this specific area of lighting is where the main action is taking place.

For our thriller planning, I had to use a scanner. This would be either to scan a piece of work from class or planning aspects, for example my storyboard which I scanned into my computer to put onto my blog.

Believe it or not, I had never used a scanner in my life so I actually learnt how to scan my work in so it was on the computer software.

Perhaps the most important technology out of the whole lot that I used during Media was my media blog itself. With all of my coursework ending up on this blog, it really was a major aspect of the course so everything we need is here in one place.

Using 'Blogger' I have learnt how to use a blog. I had never used any form of a blog in my life so it was all very new to me at the beginning but as the months progress you get the hang of it and understand how to use it and how to upload posts etc....

Blogger is also a benefit when doing work as I didn't need to lug around a ridiculously large folder as it is all stored onto this computer. Plus I could always look at what my classmates were doing on their blogs so I could use ideas on layout perhaps I hadn't thought of or potential ideas I hadn't thought of.

Tutor feedback also enabled me to revise posts that first time around I hadn't done right or could correct.

For our thriller planning, I needed to take location shots for possible locations my group could use; focusing on aspects of Mise-En-Scene and different camera angles so I could experiment different shot types so my stills camera was crucial for this.

When I went out and used it to take practice shots and shots of the location stating why this location could be where our thirller is shot, it helped me to learn that taking one shot from one angle isn't good enough as it just makes it seem monotonous. I realised that if I was to take multiple shots from various anlges, I could choose which one suited best and use that specific one. Being able to see what you have taken immediately after a shot is also a bonus as you can see if what you have taken has beem successful and if not try again but from a different angle. I took my location shots with this camera to help our group decide on what location to shoot in.

Evaluation - Quesion 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience in terms of the age group

For our thriller, it has been decided that there are specific aspecst towards target audience. The age for the opening would be around the teenage and young adult group (15 - 21). This would be because that the main character is portrayed as a teenager so it would relate more towards this certain age span. This would help the audience to understand and relate to the film better as they would be able to imagine themselves potentially in the position of the main character and know more about it.

This film could be compared with This Is England due to the fact that the main character is a young boy so would potentially attract the same teen/young adult audience.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Audience in respects to gender

Now that the age range for the thriller has been established, we can now decipher which would be the preferred gender to be watching the thriller. Due to the fact the lead is female and features more in the opening of it, it would be established that it's more likely that a female audience would go to watch it in comparison to a male audience who perhaps wouldn't.

We got the idea of a girl being the lead through inspiration from Kill Bill one, and the opening scene where the woman is vulnerable and helpless, but at the same time you can sense something bad in going to happen in the not so distant future.

Audience in terms of ethnicity

Due to the characters in our opening being white, it would be said that it is more likely that the white British public would watch this film. It wouldn't be expected other ethnic minority would want to watch this film due to the reasoning that there isn't any other form of ethnic minority in the film so it would only aim or target audience from the white british area.

If you were to compare any other films with the opening of our film, for example: Submarine.

This film consists of mainly white british characters who as a matter of fact have the two main characters being the leads so this would reinforce that only the white british are going to watch it.

This relates highly to our film too as we have in these pictures, two white characters being the leads in the respective films so have a white british audience is to be expected.

Media Interest

There is going to be media interest concerning the film made from us and also other films as well. If it looks at the different aspects of Mise-En-Scene, then if we take the flashback from Kill Bill one, it shows a woman being cleaned from blood using a hankerchief.
This helped to inspire our film as we decided to incorperate this idea into our film, using the black and white to symbolise the flashback itself and the wiping of the blood as well to show a form of abuse towards the character.

This compared to our usage of the scene...

 The wiping of the blood from the face of the woman character.

The aim from this inspiration was to create an intertextual reference between the film we created with the opening to Kill Bill 1 as this would help the audience, once they notice the similarities between them, to compare the two and to in a sense make them feel cleaver that they have realised they are similar. In turn this would flatter them thus adding to the appeal of our film and making them want to watch it because they have spotted this.






Another media interest could come from This Is England in terms of the costume used at certain times of the opening. In our opening, you see the use of a leather jacket at certain points in it, especially the last moment we see it for real.

 

 This can also link to this picture on the right of the hard gang who the main character joins. We can establish the link between the jacket used in our thriller to the leather jackets used here which portrays them as being hard-hitting and sometimes full of enigmatic feel towards them.

From the shot above and the shot from our thriller we can see the enigmatic feel, especially with our opening because this is the first time we witness the male character so we don't particualry know what he is about.

This in turn also applies in Essex Boys as the character on the left below played by Sean Bean wears his leather jacket which can show the enigma behind.

As mentioned the leather jacket also creates that hard-hitting character which is what we are trying to show our male to be as well as Sean Bean.

Social Interest

In terms of who would actually want to watch our opening sequence, we would hope that the blue collared workers (C1) and people who maybe haven't got excellent qualifications (C2) would watch this as they may be able to relate to them while still being relatively young.

They may also be able to relate due to the lifestyles they may share with films such as This is England; perhaps not exactly if we see the differences in what they do, but in vague terms.

Our film would consist of a small release perhaps in Cinema City for example towards these small niche groups as it is more of a focused film aimed at a specific audiences unlike more well known films such as Kill Bill maybe which has a much larger scale of people who would be interested in watching it.

However the small scale may include some people that know of some of these other films that can see aspects of them in our film.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

My thriller opening targets the demographic of age, gender, ethnicity and social groups which are of interest to these demographic. I think it would be distributed through companies such as FilmFour due to the reasoning that it is more focused on the independant british market other than anything else. This would be an advantage to distribute using FilmFour as it doesn't aim at any other audience other than british and our film is aimed for be a small release for the british public. I think companies such as StudioCanel would not be considered if I was attempting to get my film distributed because they tend to focus more on the European independant film market. Because my film contains white british characters it wouldn't appeal to other countries so would not use StudioCanel. 

If you look at the films or programmes that FilmFour have distributed, they use films/programmes like aspects of Skins from E4. This programme is aimed at a specified audience so reinforces the idea of our film being put through FilmFour. Another small example of us promoting our film and distributing it could be through Netflix as they also focus on the independant market which is great for us and our small release aims for 'Missing'  

Next, if we examine which cinemas would want to exhibit our film, I believe that there is only one candidate for our potential showing and that is showing our film at Cinema City.

The reason that I think Cinema City is the only cinema that our film can be screened in is due to the reasoning that that they are a picture cinema. They also are an arthouse cinema and very independant so looks at a certain audience. They take in very small niche groups, maybe such as young adults or a specific area of audience but this would be very influencial because we aim to release our film to a main type of audience. I wouldn't expect the film we produce to be distributed in a wide scale manner.

The reason we would not choose or expect other cinemas to distribute the film for example: Odeon cinemas or Vue cinemas is because these both attract a very large span of audience; the question that would need to be presented is would all of this large scale audience want to go and watch our film made for young adults and teenagers? Even that age group may not even go to see it because it would be an unknown thing for them.

Our film, for anybody to even consider watching it in the first place would need to be distributed using more technologies other than just screening it at a cinema.

 It could be put onto youtube as one example of how we could distribute it as nowadays audience are able to stream the films off of youtube and watch them on their own computers or laptops where ever they are. It would then result in the audience who are interested in watching it, actually being able to watch it at their discretion but also mean that the rest of the audience who are not interested then do not have to watch it so would keep tem happy.

Social networking sites could also be used for potenital distribution techniques. When people use facebook or twitter, they are able to see film clips from films that haven't come out yet. This helps as it offers a taster to potential audiences; if they enjoy what they see then it provides the oppotunity for them to decide if they want to watch more or not so using social networking sites is a major benefit. It also helps that many of the population especially of Britian seem to have an account on a social network there is a massive chance of many people watching them.

A last digital technology that can be used is the use of games consoles when offered new disribution techniques. Nowadays people prefer to stay in and watch film in the comfort of their own house. On consoles such as the Playstation 3, you are able to watch film on certain services. However on these services you can also advertise and distribute tasters or clips for your film to entise audiences and make them aware of your film, mich like the previous two methods.

If we also considered our future status as student film makers, we need to ask the question of does it offer any distribution oppotunities for us? If we use me as an example, 'Missing' was my first film that I had made and edited. The status that would then be given to me would help me perhaps to enter competitions. For example: First film competitions or Student film competitions such as Shorts.  It would help us to enter these competitions and have them up for awards consequently. This would offer a distribution opportunity due to the fact that many different and wide scale audiences in the UK would potentially watch these awards, and as a result see my film or parts of it. This in turn shows them and makes them know the film is out there and if they like the look to it they may go out and watch it.

Thriller - Rough Cut

From our thriller I was pleased about the range of shots that we used such as the close ups for example as these helped to show the tension and enigma to the film especially the close up at 0:26 of the poster which creates significance for the whole film. I also liked our use of the flashback at 1:40 - 1:55 which was inspired from the opening scene from Kill Bill 1 of the girl having blood wiped from her face from Bill.

However there are a few minor aspects to the film that need to be adapted and need small improvements. For example I need to increase the sound for the whole of my film and also need to try to create a soundbridge of the breathing of the first flashback. This would be from the start of the film to around 0:58 to help create suspence of the flashback. I have already attempted this but it wasn't successul the first time around.

Soundtrack

Possible soundtracks:

All This

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This piece gives a somewhat strange feel as it aims to get you on the edge of your seats at times but does like Moorland have moments of horror in it combined though with senses of thriller. This can be used but would need to be examined in oreder to get the exact clip from it

Moorland

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This soundtrack, perhaps not great does give moments of brilliant sound however has too many bits which make it more of a potential horror piece so thsi piece will not be considered

Penumbera

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This soundtrack had that mysterious feel to it and gave out a sense of the unknown which would be great for the thriller due to the fact our thiller aims to provide that mysterious feel to it. This is one of the top candidates.