The day you have all been waiting for- OUR MEDIA PRODUCT!

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of the real media products?
Our production is a thriller. So my group and I included thriller conventions in our production. In our thriller, we have included thriller conventions such as an protagonists and an antagonist, we have included a crime involved with the narrative. Thrillers convey unusal, extraordinary events that happens in situations that are ordinary. We included that into our triller product. We understand the the aspects of thrilelr conventions and we included them into our product.

2. How does your media product represent particular media groups?
Our media product represents the social gropu of teenagers. Our film shows how many teengers result in situations they may be in, which results to a deady actions

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our media product might e used as an example dor other media classes who will be doing the same project as us. This will be helpful to other media students as they can get ideas from our media product to help them in the process of making their own.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media film as I mentioned above will be other media studnts who aredoing the same project as us. However as we did reaserach the age of our media product will be viewed from the age of 15 and up due to the material used in our media product. As teenagers were represented in our media product it can attract a wide varity of audiences as the life of teenagers are being represented.

5. How did you attract /address your audience?
We attracted our audience by producing a questionnaire. In the questionnaire we asked questions such as age, gender, and qustions relating to media. The results from our questionnaire helped us to know what audiences prefer to watch in the media. By knowing this my group members and I were able to use the results of our questionaire and apply it to our media product. This is bascially making our media product enjoyable to our audience.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the process of constructing our product, we learnt how to use the camera, and how to use it connectd to the tri-pod, we also learnt how to use a iMac properly and he iMac software needed to construct our media product. As I did media in my secondary school I had a bit of knowledge of how to use a camera, however as I used a HD camera there was a few differnet ways to use the camera. On the other hand when my group members and I used the camera, tripod, iMac when doing our prelimary excercise this helped us to grasp how to use the equipment so when it came to doing our media product it will be a breeze for us. As we would know what to do. The prelimary excercise was like training for us, for the final test.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?
When doing my preliminary task it helped me alot in the process of my final product, as I learnt how to use different camera movements, different camera angles. Using the footage from my preliminary exercise, me and my fellow group members edited this. Editing my preliminary exercise it helped me to know how to use the software so when it came to editing my media product i would know what to do and how to add transitions, text, music and so on.

One last bit of filming

As me and Carla put the finshing touches on our film, we showed it to sir and it was approved. However i still had my doubts on the film as i wanted to add an extra bit into it. It came to me that we needed a simple scene to show that one of the actors had been killed, so it makes it clear to the audience.

On my way to the editing room I met up with Carla and she told me that she added a shot to our film to show that the character was killed. I will know go into futher detail of the scene as you will have to wait to see ou final piece, which will be added onto youtube and aso my blog.

So keep posted to my blog.

The title of our product

After long hours of thinking, and trying to decide what our film title will be. By inspiration of a fellow friend we have came up with the title. The title is 'When summer ends'. The reason behind this is becaus the flashback scences were filmed in the sun showing the summer season. However the other shots were filmed in a school/6Form. The summer then ends for the antagonsies victims. This is irony

Editing Process

Today me and Carla continued editing and we felt like we have finshed. Today we included some more transactions, clips to show the actors names, we added in more effects like fade out, flash, cross disslove and may more. We are very pleased with what we had done. We also searched for music, which took us a long time as we wanted to get the perfect sound to match our film, and i found one. I added the music in as Carla did not know how to do it. We then needed other opions so we asked our fellow friends, and class mates on their opions aswell, and the feedback was great and everyone loved it. Me and Carla felt we did good so we finally showed our work to our teacher. Sir gave us great feedback and told us two thing to chnage in our film and our film will be complete. We edited the two things sir suggested we did and were complete, well wer soon complete, we are left with one more thing to do..come up with the title of our film. As soon as we decide what our film title is goin 2 be, we will edit that into our film and then we will be COMPLETE. :)

Filming Process

Today Carla and I did some more filming with our two actors. Unfortunatly Hannah could not make it due to illness. Carla and I took it in turns to film the parts we needed to do. As itis a joint effort and we are working together. We used a varity of camera angles, camera movements. I accomplished alot today as we finshed the filming and it was just needed that we import what we filmed today and edit it. Today we filmed da shots of the killer and the victims encounter and the scene where the killer shows his plan to the udience who his next victim is.

Editing Process

Carla and I did ALOT of editing today. We arranged our shots in the right order, and we used differnt techniques throughout our film, we also used differnt transactions in between clips such as cross dissolves. We used black and white effects and even colour effects as one clip we turned it red (look out for it when we upload our completed c/w). Thats all the editing we done for the day, it may of sounded like not alot but it took us a long time and i guess even more time as me and Carla want our c/w to be PERFECT. But after today we have arrnaged to meet up agen and do some more editing.

Editing Process

Today Carla started importing our film on iMovie and started to do a bit of editing and I joined her later as I had other commitments at the time. When I joined Carla we edited the footage that we filmed, and we got alot of it done and we were very proud of our achievements. I am so hapy to be back and wit my group as I have high hopes for our film to be fantastic. Unfortunly Hannah could not attend today as she suffering from a tooth ache, but as my group members and I are supportive of another and keep eachover informed, Hannah was updated on the process we made today. Coomunication is the key when it comes to working in a group.

Filming Process

I am back from holiday and back in england. Today my group members and I did some filming in central park. The filming that we did was the flash back senes. Carla was behind the camera as Hannah, our two actors Gemma and Joseph and I were infornt of the camera acting. The weathe was ok but still abit chilly and breezy but we manged to film alot and we good the majority of things done.

Plannign the production - New Stroyboard

My gropu mebers and I, created a storyboard for our coursework however there needed to be changes done so this is out new storyboard:

We witness the encounter of four people, who shared a fgood riendship, but however it no loner exists. We see black and white flashbacks of how their frioendship used to blossom. After the flashback we will see him with photos of his ex-friends and it shows his plans to kill them.

When we have completedour coursework I will upload our completed film onto my blog. I hope u enjoy our film.

Filming Process

I am still away on holiday. However I am still keeping up to date with my gropu members. Today Carla and Hannah did some filming today with our actors Gemma and Joseph. They filmed some parts in Romford and central park.

As i will be away for a couple of weeks, i am going on holiday. My blog will not be updated very well during thesethree weeks. However I am keeping up to date with my group members thanks to the great invention of technology. While I was away my gropu members Hannah and Carla have done some filming. As soon as I get back from holiday i will then do some filming with my group members. My voice is still hear and I am involved in each process of the filimg even thought I am away.

Results

In conclusion our audience are citizens who enjoy a mixture between Crime, Horror, Physiological and Action. They are more interested in spotting clues to attempt to work out the plot of the story. However, shockers are appreciated and as are the suspense of the film.

(Produced by co-worker Carla)

Questionnaire

1. Gender

2. Age

3. What sort of thrillers do you enjoy to watch? (Crime, Horror, Action, Sci Fi, Spy or Physiological)

4. What appeals most to you in a thriller (The Story, The Cast, The Director, The Music or Other)

5. What do you concentrate more on in a thriller (The Protagonists, The Antagonists, Spotting Anomalies or Settings)

6. Do you prefer to: Sit and Enjoy the Film or Think and try to work out the plot)

7. You like the what? In a Thriller? (Supense, Shockers, Humour, Blood & Gore or Cliff Hangers)

(Produced and Conducted by co-worker Carla)

The Storyboard Our Film 'Virus'. 

Carla drew the storyboards for our group as Hannah & I are not that good at drawing. As carla did the drawings I decided to do my part & use my mobile and take pictures of the drawings. I bluetooth the pictures from my mobile to the iMac. Then using imovie we created out storyboard as a short clip. As it uploaded above. Enjoy. 

Virus

Untitled by Fleckk on Polyvore.com

Alfred Hitchcock

I will be giving you a short background information about Alfred Hitchcock, which iRecieved from the internet, on wikipedia.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) He was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship.
Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. He remains one of the best-known and most popular filmmakers of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock


We analysed the opening sequence of the film 'Shadow of a doubt'
The music is from the opera 'Merry Widow'

These are the notes that i took whilst watching the opening sequence:
-Film start of as cheerful, dissolves to industrial scene.
-Long shot down the street in a poor neighbourhood
-Introduced to main character without any form of speech.
-Shows a shot of a house
-See a charcter laying on the bed, the music dies down
-See a cigar, shows that he has power, has money, he is immacuatly dressed with a smart suit
-Low key lighting, with a light coming throught the window.
-The character has money laying around, even on the floor of this room he is in. This shows he does not care about the money.
-Land lady comes in speaking to him, he continues to lay there calm, seeming unitresting in what she has to say.
-His responses to her are calm.
-He comes alive in he dark, audience may question his character, the music is sinester.
-He drinks a drink and smashes the glass, he shows the anger inside of him, an shows he is violent.
-As he leaves the house the music gets louder and upbeat.
-As he walks across the street he looks very focused, music of a piaono starts to play, creating tension
-The chase in on to find him, music is upbeat
-High angled shot of the two guys showing they are not powerfl
-See a silhouette of him, representing mystery showing that he is powerful and these other two guys cannot harm him (Mian character is called Uncle Charlie)
-See a shot of the town, the music is now cheerful and peaceful. This place is called Santa Ross, its like a perfect subbuben lifestyle, completly opposite to the town we saw beforee.
-See an image of Charlie laying in the bed as the same way Uncle charlie was. Its a mirror image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhrV2NIlrC4
[Link is to-Opening sequence of 'Shadow of a doubt']

We then analysed another Hitchcock film 'Vertigo' (made in 1956)
-Begins with seeing a lady' lips in black & white, then you see her eyes then the colour changes to red, connation of the colour red is danger, love, happiness, anger but by the sound of the music we interpret it to b danger or anger.
-Two police men cahsing after a villan.
-See a hand first then see villan climbing up then the camera back tracks as we see the two police men following him, the music is very tense and very dramatic.
-When one of the police men drops of and hangs off a building he shows a reverse zoom of his point of view, looking down. Music played is harps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHn8PNGYaA
[Link is to-Opening sequence of 'Vertigo']

Thriller Conventions

In class today we discussed Thriller Conventions, to establish what aspect of a film make it a thriller. These are the notes the class made together.

-a crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not always)
-a complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions
-a narrative pattern of establishing enigmas (problems) which the viewer expects to be resolved
-a protagonist who is systematically, dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by an antagonist.
-Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situation
-Themes of identity
-Themes of mirroring
-Themes of voyeurism
-Protagonist with a "flaw" which is exploited by the antagonist
-Titles often reflect an aspect of the protagonist/antagonist's psychological state
there is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril
-Mise-en-Scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist plight
-Protagonist - is the main/central character of a story, the leading actor; it doesn't matter whether they are the hero or the villain.
-Antagonist - is the character that is opposed/ a rival against the Protagonist

Thriller conventions & "Se7en" opneing titles & "Shadow of a Doubt" - Alfred Hitchcock

I'm goping to explain the genre "Thriller" conventions. The thriller convention are:
-A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder but not always).
-A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
-A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas (problems) which the viewers expecs to be resolved.
-A protagonsit (the main character) who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist (the person aposing the protagonist).
-Extraodinary events happening in ordinary situations.
-Themes of identity.
-Themes of mirroring.
-Themes of voyeurism (looking at other poeple).
-Protagonist with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the anatagonist.
-Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state.
-There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
-Mise en scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight.

During class we anaylised the opening credits of the thriller "Se7en", these are the notes that were taken:

-The titles used were edgy and eye catching, as they didnt stay still, and had an shaking effect.
-There was good use of music.
-There is use of repetative images.
-The camera was not still its seemed to be movign about as if it was jumping around and shaking.
-Most of the shot dissolve into the next shot, a good use of transitions.

After that as a class we watched the first 10-15 minutes of one of Alfred Hitchcocks movies called "Shadow of a Doubt".
This film follows the thriller conventions perfectly. We see the protaganists from the very start and he is almost always covered in some form of shadow. During one scene shadow falls over his face and he almost comes to life, this therefore gives us the idea that he has darkness wihtin his character. The opening credits to this film are in stark contrast to the first scene we see. The opening credits are absed around a posh ball but upon asking my teacher about this he told me that the music come from an old opera and the music was called the "Merry Widow" which did have some releance in the film itself.

Research: Analysing other students thriller trailers

In the media lesson today we watched past coursework entries from students who did thriller trailers. We looked at te positive and negative things about the trailers. It also gave me and the other people in my group a chance to get ideas from these trialers.

The first trailer '8 Ball'
- It contained no dialoge, so there was no need to worry about the music and dilouge clashing or sounding awkard.
-Had a simple storyline
-The editing was very good
-A range of camera shots and good use of transitions between the shots
-The title of the triller was shown at the end of trailer
-The framing of the shots were good so that you could notsee the characters faces properly, giving the supense of how a thriller trailer should make you feel.
-The music used fitted the trailer very well

The second trailer 'Puppet Note'
-The acting was not good, and made the production of the trailer lack attention to the viewer(me)
-Good natural sound such as cars driving past
-Music fitted in well
-The editing was farely good
-Could of been more use ofdiffernt camera shots
-Could of been worked on abit more

Welcome - First Meeting

Hello there Im Shaunica and welcome to my blog. So for the next couple of weeks will be producing a thriller trailer for our Media Studies coursework. I'm in a group with Hannah, Carla and myself. So today was our first meeting and we were all very excited about the prospect our making this trailer. We came up a brilliant idea as soon as we all got together, which is always a good start.

STORYLINE:
-Person opens up an email and has to re-arrange the code. The code could possible read "By the time you have unscrambled this email, I will already be with you"
-Split screen of 4 people opening their emails at the same time.
-Goes back to one person, person falls on the Keyboard, KILLER scrolls down and reads your dead OR shows a youtube video of them dying.

MUSIC:
-Dramatic music - Instrumental
-Tense/ beating insturmental

LOCATIONS:
-School
-Home of the character
-Friends house (2)

PROPS:
-Computer at 6th form
-Laptop
-Fake blood
-Leather gloves

POSSIBLE TITLES:
-Dangerous Email
-C.O.D.E
-Death by Email
-The Email
-Anagram

We also drew a storyboard of how our trailer could possible look but this will be uploading next week.