EVALUATION - QUESTION 7 *

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I can really see the great difference from that to my final version of my thriller. I have learned many techniques and uses of software; from editing and constructing picture images to sounds and transitions.

In the preliminary we first began with storyboards, so when it came to the real thriller we know more what we were doing with the storyboards. Many tasks were given to follow in the first task of the preliminary, however when it came to the real thing it was all up to me I guess. This gave me space and freedom to come up with anything I wanted, but on the other hand this meant you were alone and had to do it all on your own. As I had to come up with all the thinking about how I was going to do it.

The editing part was the hardest, as I’ve never really used final cut pro before, so I had spend extra time figuring things out which took more of my time up. But that little bit that I had learned from the final part of the preliminary whilst making titles and editing sound using soundtrack pro; using several sounds and effects from the software, helped me a lot otherwise I would’ve been totally confused.

The importance of the 180 degree rule was also taught in lesson, which is only filming within 180 degrees of the camera, and if you go past this it will confuse the viewer as objects and characters in the shot will be on reverse sides and you don’t want to do that, as it looks very wrong and unprofessional.

Producing the prelim also played a big role in the end, as it was the first steps to beginning the thriller. From that I had learnt to check the focus of the camera and not zoom whilst moving, as doesn’t look very nice went put together, also I had learned to slowly move the camera and set it up before you start shooting, as it becomes more convenient whilst filming. I had also learnt to record more clips (2-3) clips, as the more the better! So you can choose the best one whilst editing. So in the final version I had several versions of every shot and I had picked the one that fitted the best.

The importance of the match cut, was taught to us in the prelim, and I had took that advice into my real version of my thriller. This match cut really helped my opening with a flow, so it didn’t seem jumpy from one shot to another and baffle the audience.

EVALUATION - QUESTION 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

EVALUATION - QUESTION 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

EVALUATION - QUESTION 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

EVALUATION - QUESTION 6

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

http://prezi.com/0yy6iqga2jon/evaluation-q6/?auth_key=ffc1c8d5c1172912e432743ab6399480b5bdbe9c

EVALUATION - QUESTION 3

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

EVALUATION - QUESTION 1

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

Ruff Cut response

Well done Mostafa - you've responded really well to the drama of losing the rest of your group.

The sequence works well and so do the titles (although you do have a stray co-producer credit)

Think about:

1. Adding some effects on the titles
2. Possibly losing the last part of the sequence.

Now you need to work on the sound - should dub in a threat on the phone as well.

Keep going - you've recovered this project well.

Rough Cut

Planning - Costumes & Props

Planning - Location

During locating, reviewing and confirming our location, we have chosen Tony's office. We have visited the place to see where we could be filming, and the environment in which we will be filming in, if it's right for the thriller. We feel that this location is the right one, as it does feel like an environment a detective officer will be working in, as this helps to set the mood of the thriller.

completed prelim without sound

Here is our completed prelim without sound

Completed prelim with soundtrack

This is our completed soundtrack with the added soundtrack

Intertextuality

The notion of the term 'Intertextuality' suggests when similar scenes are used in other films, as some may like the way it is set up or maybe the structure. On the other hand the audiences at times  may realise the mood of the film through a specific scene. However this may be shown through by mise en scene, camera shots or editing etc.

In lesson, we spent time looking at films such as; Fatal Attraction and White lies Beneath, as they all show concepts of intertextuality as they all used the aspects of the famous shower scene in Psycho.

In the film White lies Beneath we see that the man has drugged his girlfriend so she is unconscious and played as a paralysed character.

They showed  this by using the same white clinical bathroom and the same white bath, same white tiles, white shower curtain and the shower head. These ideas and themes used has all been borrowed from the original Psycho film. In addition another aspect borrowed from Psycho is the the noise from the shower being turned on and the noise of the water hitting the bath and creating a rain like sound. This then creates a subliminal mood for the audience as the  the director is trying to imitate the same mood as in Psycho. So this designs an audio reference for using the shower for the scene. Also an exact ariel shot is applied to emphasise the shower head being used.

Research; Target Audiences

The different types of genre/sub-genre all appeal to variety of different audiences.   

Friends With Benefits (2011)

Genre: Romance/Comedy Thriller. 

I think this film is mainly aimed at a female audience as romance usually attracts females. Also the lead star Justin Timberlake is used intended to attract females, as he is well known singer as well as actor.  The age group this film intends to attract would be around the ages of 15+ as it looks really funny and romantic.

The key factors which indicate that Friends With Benefits is a romance/comedy thriller are:

- The colours that are used which are bright and clear.

- The two leading stars look happy, and Justin Timberlake looks across to Mila Kunis which may demonstrate their special relation in the film. 

- The title colours used are kept neutral with sky blue and white.

Audience for thrillers

Killers (2010)

Thrillers draw most of their audience from sub-genre's within thrillers. Most thrillers are aimed at 1 to 18 year olds because of the mature content. Action genre appeals more to the male audience whilst romantic thrillers attract and are aimed at a more female audience. Physiological and fantasy thrillers can vary depending on the story line and actors within the film itself. The age group for thrillers will always be 15+; however in my opinion thrillers are the most interesting genre as they have the most sub genres and can vary.

Black Swan (2010)

Match-Cut Practise

This is our storyboard we created for our match-cut practise video, we firstly made this so we have a plan of what to do whilst filming.

Title Sequence for the film Unforgiven

Working within Genre

Its great you  posted  your views/understanding on Genre but remember that you are working on film openings. and if you could look to extend your work and focus on the area that you are working in that would be better. So  extend your post on genre, consider in some more detail the different subgenres of thriller films that were discussed in class keep focused on film rather than discussing music. Ideally your blog shows the journey of research and planning that you are on in the process of making your film opening.

Research; Genre and Sub-Genre definitions

The word Genre is a term which is used to describe a category of examples that include: the style of music or the type of film e.g. an action film, drama film, comedy film, classical music rap music , indie music etc..

The word Sub-genre is a term to describe subdivisions of the term Genre, for example you can have rap music as the genre and UK rap music would be its sub genre, 1960s classical music would be the sub genre for classical music and a rom-com (romantic comedy) falls under the genre of both romantic and comedy.

Media health and safety lesson

During our lesson on health and safety we learnt how to use the JVC camcorder successfully as well as safely.

Camera

Firstly we were shown how to put the camcorder onto the tripod properly to avoid damage to the equipment.We were then given the overall breakdown on what the buttons do. We were told that the reed button on the right starts and stops the recording.We were told that the WZ button is used for the zooming in and zooming out whilst filming. Then we were shown how to take different types of shots.

Two examples were the  pan shot and the track shot these shots were rated as more difficult compared to the usual over the shoulder shot, which is created  by using two people. 

 Tripod

Memory Card


After experimenting with the different shots we were taught how to put in the memory card as well as the battery to avoid breaking the chips. safely so it does not break.

The Remake of the Scene from Killers Storyboard

To remake the scene from Killers we watched the clip several times. Then we used the storyboards to draw the extract same shots from the original scene. Soon after we were ready to record and re-create the scene.

The first 6 scenes of the remake

The second 6 scenes

The final 4 scenes

One of the main problem we faced was props. In the movie the couple we sitting down at a table with things to fiddle with but in our we had to stand. We had to improvise and make it seem it's just two people having a conversation. Another was that we didn't have a female actor to act as the wife. We made sure we recorded a shot more than once so that way we would have a better chance of getting a better shot. We each took turns on who would work the camera and we all contributed on where the camera should go. At the end we managed to get all the shots we needed and we did it before schedule.

When we went back to the mac room we put all of our shots on the group hard drive so later on we canuse Final Cut pro to edit the scene and see what we've come up with.

How to convert a normal movie file into mp4 format for blogging

1. Open the program MPEG stream clip 

2. Drag the video file into the box with the blue dots.

3. Once that is done click "file" and scroll down to "Export to MPEG-4"

4. Once this is done you should get a screen that says this 

5. once you see the screen above click on "presets" and make sure that it says blogger in the following screen 

6. Once you see this screen click load then it takes you back to the screen in (step 4) click make mp4 and the jobs done !

killers Remake

This is our editing remake for the movie killers we edited it using the program final cut pro. when that was done we streamed the clip into mpeg streamclip before converting it to an mp4 file . this format is used to upload videos onto blogs.

Two Shot

Low Angle Shot

This is a low angle shot. This is used to create a sense of power.

Close Up Shot

This is a close up shot

Point of View Shot

This is a point of view shot.

Long Shot

This is an example of a long shot.

Medium Shot

Conventions of an film opening

In today's lesson, we've been introduced to different types of structures to film opening. 

Basically there are 3 main types; the discrete title sequence, the title sequence where the titles appear over a black screen, following that the film begins, and the title sequence which then shows over the beginning of the film. We have also learned that film openings usually introduce the production company, as well as the introduction of the distributors company logo, as they regularly show a title sequence, so the mood and tone of the film is distinguished through the use of music and sounds etc.. 

Also discrete title sequences are individually edited sequences which are different from the film opening. They usually have a distinctive style and are heavily edited, as they carry the film title and almost all of the opening credits. An example of this would be as it doesn't actually have a storyline or images to make it obvious to the audience. However the opening may have random pictures which may relate to the actual film, but this is unsure. Although the credits and cast names still remain constant. This is clearly shown in the film "Se7en". This on the other hand leaves the audience clue-less of why these specific pictures are being shown, as well as the unknown narrative which creates the convention of a discrete title.