By Mohamed Hashi TG14

Reverse Entertainment

social 25

BACK GROUND INFORMATION !

The point of the thriller production which my group had to successfully meet was to create and prepare, shoot and edit the opening two minutes of a new thriller including the titles.

The major part of our opening thriller is made up of a mixture of still close-ups and low angle shots which give s you an idea about for our first scene of the thriller .

The woods was the main location where we film our thriller scenes , this was one of the main convention that would be seen in a thriller film , the woods is a open space and this is what you would expect in thriller film .

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

As a group we supported each other within our roles in order to make filming run more successfully. As a group we had circulated a draft storyline and script and began shooting right away, members of the group pitched in ideas to the cinematographer, of different camera angles to use which aren’t shown on the storyboard created below. As we got onto the editing stage of the preliminary activity we then got onto selecting different cuts and edits as a group and we edited our different shots and added transitions, we even added copyright free music to make it sound more dramatic. I think our group work ready hard as we know each other very well, which made it easy as a group to work very successful.

Timeline of the preliminary

The role I had while doing the preliminary activity was the cinematographer as a camera man I guided the group and advised them to how to shoot and which camera angles would be good to create thriller opening scene to make it easier to edit. I also made sure I left at least a 3 second pause at the end of each clip to also make it easier to edit.

Over shoulder shoot is used

This is the list of different shots that I came up with the shoot then we agreed as group

Our preliminary task

Audiences feedback

The feed back from our audience was a good way to find out what the audiences would like to see in our thriller opening also it give idea to improve the thriller The audiences

take in to account what the characters wear (mise-en-scene) this plays big part

Audience feedback

The feed back from our audiences on face book helped us because it meant that people that join our face book group could comment on it and give their point view . However the use of face book was good advantage

What went well ?

I think our group are very well organised because our group leader lychelle kept track of what everyone was doing, as group we talk about who’s doing what in each activity to make sure where on schedule, on time with our planning so at where not fall behind, however as I’m the cinematographer I had to plan all the different scenes and the camera angles but I think a did good job, But there could have been some improvement on the camera work. I feel I have made significant progress since filming the preliminary task. At that stage i was not completely confident using a camera and could not achieve a completely steady shot. Since filming footage over a period of time for the opening my skills with the camera have developed . Although this is the area I struggled most with i still have a better knowledge of how to edit but my role wasn’t to edit in the group but that didn’t stop me sharing my idea with group as (Lychelle) was the editor because she was has previous experience in editing also she knows how to use the software well which made is easy for us to edit and check if we could improve the editing we did.

What I’d improve and my role as a cinematographer

I think our plans weren’t successful to begin with because we had too many plans and ideas, which made it extremely difficult for us choose the perfect suggestion. However having all these ideas made it easy for use to start; when we first got the preliminary activity and our expectations and outlines was really .I immediately started giving ideas for locations and which camera shot would be useful as I was the cinematographer it was my responsibility to plan all the camera shots needed for preliminary activity. . I drafted up the camera shot first and discussed it with the group once we came up with the final idea for the script I started to share with Lychelle (EDITOR) my final camera shots and angles so that she can apply it to the story broad .However in the preliminary I didn't use a tripod as result we didn't get the still shots that we wanted also this was shown in our feed back the audience talk about how the camera was shaky. Therefore we mad sure that in our final piece used a tripod to get more effective still shots .

my role as a cinematographer and what I've learn

I've learnt the importance of using a tripod to obtain a better picture when filming; I learnt that the codes and conventions of a genre are extremely important as they can teach you what sets your genre apart from a seemingly identical one. I learnt to always film some extra shots just in case when we get to the editing stage we find out that we haven’t got a sufficient amount of film time. I’ve witnessed how much a film can change from being an idea, to planning. I’ve also learnt how to use a HDD touch screen camera with tripod in the preliminary , also this enhanced and helped me to improve my skills in the final piece.

RESEARCH – WHAT FILMS WE LOOKED AT

The opening consists of:close up’s and intense close up’s whichtriggers the interest of the audience, dueto the fact that the face is excluded fromthe audience and all you see are thehands and dirt nails of the person. Thesound of the opening extract is tense andgives of a sinister feeling through the fastpace of the music.

The opening consists of:Again, close up’s and extreme close

up’s interest of the audience, dueto the fact that the face is excluded

fromthe audience and all you see are thehands and the photo fading backwards.The extract used high key lighting, andthe visual affects of the photo fadingmade us as the audience feel uneasy.

What would I see in a Thriller? 

Crime – murder generallyDark settingsTense musicShady antagonistMain character with flaws Vulnerable womenUrban settingsVariety of camera angles editing together – fast pace.

As a class, we watched examples of thriller openings, some of the thrillers we watched helped conduct us into thinking of background for our very own opening. We found that in most thriller openings they follow very comparable conventions.

Thriller opening research

We first watched 4 thriller openings to give us an helpful into the conventions of thriller opening and to give us an idea of what we could do to show that our thriller is suitable for a genre

• We made sure that we linked our thriller opening to memento and other thriller openings .

• used No dialogue very little dialogue

• Dark Settings• Characters with flaws• Vulnerable feminine figure• Faded titles and credits• Tense/Sinister music

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

The film opening incorporate a number of different generic conventions are used to give an idea how real media products are shown to make it a thriller film. The most important convention was the hold-up of showing a characters facial features, by doing this there was an enigma raised and the implication that the character maybe a villain. Limited dialogue:

As group we decided that a limited dialogue should be used in the opening thriller because to much dialogue will give the storyline and that's something we didn't want, therefore would took away from the tension and enigma we wanted to create , however this was challenging because we wanted to dialogue but we just used little dialogue ,also we made sue that we didn't reveal the story , helped us because it meant that we could cautiously

Use of tense music: This helped build tension for our audience

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

The media institution that would distribute our media thriller would be revolve entertainment because our media thriller is aimed at audience and its set in London , therefore this makes product more familiar to our audiences. The main reason I think Revolver should distribute because its a very well known British company and their very successful and working title are own by universal if our films is successful at local audience , then universal can step in and help to the distribution to make our film international .

Who would be the audience for your media product? our target audience would mainly be both male and female

between the age of 15 -25 because As we got filming we had realised not much violence was portrayed in our opening and we decided that 15 was good age as we felt is was more suitable to attract a wider audiences.

however when its comes to gender, class and races, our thriller opening which represents different ethnicity and races also both gender. Also think our opening represents teenagers and young adult as its relates to all ages and races however from the analysis of the questionnaire we chose our target audience as males and females aged between 15-25 as they are most likely to go and watch the film. We decided that we would appeal to both sexes making our film universal.

Therefore is aimed at a target audience of 15 and over, We have decided this because we think an audience of a younger age may find our film scary as it has a chilling feel to it and the storyline could happen in real life. Also, as the characters are young, the audience will feel they connect with the characters and can put themselves in the same situation.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Thriller questionnaire As a group we were given 10 questions and asked to make up 5 more questions

about people going to cinemas. the showed a pattern. Most participants  between the age 16-18  like going to watch thriller films at the cinema, but a small percentage showed that they would rather prefer to watch it at home. participants aged 25 and older liked watching films at home on DVD rather than going to the cinema it also showed that male over 25 preferred to watch action films rather than  thriller films. Other conclusions we have made from the questionnaire is that men prefer to watch thriller films than women,  women like to watch romantic comedy films rather than thriller films.

from the analysis of the questionnaire we chose our target audience as males and females aged between 16-25 as they are most likely to go and watch the film.

I feel an audience under the age of 15 would feel uncomfortable watching our film as they are maybe to young to connect with the characters and storyline. Also, as the storyline could happen in real life, they may feel scared to go out and the film may affect them in a bad way.

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

Face book is a well known social networking site which would be perfect for us as a group to put our work out there, this will immediately meet our target audience, as a majority of Face book users are aged between 15-25. Also our blog was great way for our audience so see the picture and all the idea and follow us on day to day up dates and communicating with our group members .

Technology

When making of my project I got to use a range of technology from Apple Mac's to video recorders. I learnt that by using the grid on the camera really helped in the positioning of objects and also the tri-pod is great for steady shots.

The camera we used was HD and is the latest in camera technology, making scenes more crisp and clear, however when finalised from the editing software it became slightly unclear at times. We used equipment such as Tripods to get high angle shots and to make the camera still. We also used a flashlight setting on the camera that helped us shoot scenes in the dark woods and in house. I feel very comfortable with the camera equipment than I did in the preliminary task, we slowly began to realise that different shots had various affects on the audience.

overall Overall, I feel my end product fulfils the task given and that it

includes creativity and careful thinking and planning. I believe everything fits together well and I am happy with the finished piece. If I were to start again and do things differently I would change things like the storyline and setting, but everything else I am happy with.