Title Sequence - Perception

Here is our final title sequence for our film 'Perception' 

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Candice Tyson- Title Analysis - Signs

The title sequence begins with a fade from black to this screen shown on the left. High pitch non-diegetic sound begins to play but very quietly. It straight away sets a negative mood rather than anything happy or exciting. The colours are also very dull and dark and this makes it feel moody. The sound also fades out as the text disappears.

As Mel Gibson appears on the screen the non-diegetic music gets slightly louder possibly to get the audience watching to really take notice that Mel Gibson is in the movie and to maybe show that she is one of the main parts of the movie. The font is large and central to the screen so that it is the only thing you look at when the writing appears.

The same non-diegetic music continues here and the idea of the person's name being shown on the screen is one of the main characters in the film continues. The font and size remains the same as the previous one showing maybe the equality of the two actors.

The screen then fades to black along with the non-diegetic music falling to silence. Then all of a sudden the film title appears in a larger font with non-diegetic sound playing louder than before with more instruments being played together to create tension- this is often done through the use of string instruments as they are high pitch and fast moving.


The non-diegetic music continues here however as the text fades out so does the sound to silence. The screen also goes black, the next clip appears slowly and calmly with low and droned music that is once again very quiet.







When this part of the title sequence appears it appears fast along with the non-diegetic music which once again is an orchestra of strings playing fast and high pitch. Drums are also Incorporated to create more of an excitement and suspense.




As the non-diegetic music gets more exciting so does the text as it approaches the screen it moves very fast from a very large scale to a smaller scale that fits the screen, almost like it being thrown at the screen. The overall affect of the blue background and faded out black background makes me think that the film may be something to do with a mystery and there is something to be discovered and that some things are hidden just like we can't see what is hidden in the black. The non-diegetic music also makes me think of a detective.

Candice Tyson- Evaluation

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

• The idea of a thriller film is to create suspense, tension and excitement for the audience watching.

• The conventions of a thriller consists of a few main characters such as - 
• A Protagonist- The main character and the audience is intended to most identify with this character.
• An Antagonist- A character or group of characters  that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend.

• At the beginning of the sequence it is made obvious that Gabby is the protagonist as she is shown as the victim after being hit over the head by a baseball bat and dragged along the ground. The Antagonist's (villains) are hidden through the use of their costume and the way the camera is placed. As a group we felt by hiding who the Antagonist's were left the audience questioning who the antagonists may be, this helps build the tension. Hiding the faces of the antagonists also causes enigma- a situation that is mysterious.

Antagonist's costume

Costume of Georgia, Livi and Gabriella

• Mis en Scene was an important aspect of our thriller film, as we had to make sure our characters we believable and fitted the characters personality and motive. For example the antagonists were put in baggy overall's with a hood and gloves so that all parts of the body were covered and no shape was revealed through their costume so whether it was a girl or boy was not obvious. Georgia, Livi and Gabriella were dressed in average clothing suggesting they were not rich nor poor. We purposely wanted the girls to be dressed this way as we wanted them to look like "average" college girls.
• The camera throughout our beginning sequence of Perception is placed in a way to hide the antagonists face. Many shots are close ups of their actions rather than full body angles. However, when it comes to the camera shots of the protagonist there are more close ups of the face to show expression, particularly at the end of the sequence when Gabriella opens her eyes and you can see the pain and fear in her eyes.

• These props add to the antagonist's character as they show the controlling manor that they have over Gabriella (protagonist).

• This is a photo of the make-up we put on Gabriella to make it believable that she had been beaten and also distressed as her make-up is rubbed down her face like she has been rubbing her eyes. 

• We used low key lighting to create shadows of both the antagonists and protagonist. This was designed to represent the inner darkness in the antagonists, not only does it show darkness but it also creates tension as it is not clear what is going to happen next. Low key lighting is often used in thrillers as it creates an atmosphere.

This is an example of a flashback from the movie '127 hours'. They are often used in thriller movies to contribute to time and space disorientation and this causes confusion to the audience. They are effective because they enable the audience to have an insight on the past of a character that maybe they don't know a lot about.
The difference between this flashback in '127 hours' and Perception is that the flashback in 127 hours is very clear however in Perception it is very distorted. Reasons for this could be that when the man in 127 hours goes into his flashback his mind is calm however in perception Gabriella has been hit over the head by a baseball bat so her visions are not clear and extremely distorted.

The Dissapearence of Alice Creed:

We were inspired by some of the camera work used in 'The Dissapearence of Alice Creed' for example the shot shown on the left is a screen shot of when the van travels to the left of the camera while the camera tracks to the right of the van going in opposite directions. We felt this looked really effective as normally the camera would go in the same direction as the vehicle however the change in norm keeps the viewer gripped to what is taking place on the screen.

 
This is a screen grab of the part of our sequence where we used the inspiration of 'The Dissapearence of Alice Creed' to create one of our own shots while our three main actresses walk through the mall.This shot gives variety to all  the rest of our shots and makes our thriller more interesting.

The shot shown on the left if an extreme close up of the actions of the antagonist in 'The Dissapearence of Alice Creed'

We decided we would use similar shots in our own thriller as we felt that emphasising the actions of what the antagonists do is a very important aspect in our thriller. It also emphasises the way in which they do things like the agression shown in their actions.





















9 Frame Shot Sequence:

Analysis of 9 shot sequence:



2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Stereotypes:

Male stereotype- 

• Male characters not only in thriller films but in other genres of films such as horror are often presented as the 'bad guy' or antagonist. They are often presented as being powerful and dominating over female characters and that females fall at a lower standard to the male characters. However in Perception the antagonists are not revealed, this causes enigma and leaves the audience questioning whether they are male or female. 

Female stereotype- 

• Female characters in the majority of films are often presented as the victim and vulnerable to other male characters in the film. Although times have changed and some female characters are not presented as a victim for example Lara Croft, there is still a lot of stereotyping with gender. Even though Lara Croft is not presented as a victim she still wears raunchy clothing which supports the stereotype of a female being a sexual object. In perception the female character supports the female stereotype of being a victim, she is beaten up and left with flashbacks of the moments with her friends which also use female stereotypes particularly in the flashback of the girls getting their make-up done. 

How have the antagonists and protagonist been represented through the use of mis en scene, editing and camera work?

Protagonist- 

• It is made clear from the beginning that the protagonist is a young female supporting the female stereotype of being a victim. Many of the camera angles used in the sequence show Gabriella from a higher angle to show she is below the antagonists and they are looking down on her as the more dominating characters. In addition most of the shots shown of Gabriella are of her on the ground showing lack of power and vulnerability, many being close ups to concentrate on the blood and facial expression of Gabriella- this causes the audience to sympathize and feel sorry for her. When the shots change go from the dark scene to the flash backs the angles tend to change and Gabriella is shown to be equal to her friends. This variation shows the power that the antagonists have over Gabriella in contrast to her being equal to her friends in the other clips.

Antagonist- 

• The antagonists' gender was hidden from the beginning to create enigma for the audience. In the majority of the shots when the antagonists are on screen their head we often didn't reveal as this keeps the audience questioning who they may be and helps build the tension. However in shots like the one shown on the right, we would have the camera facing the antagonists from the back still making sure to hide their identities. Many of the shots were created with low key lighting as this is a main convention of a thriller and helps create the dark atmosphere we wanted to create.
• At the beginning of the sequence when the antagonists hit Gabriella with the baseball bat the distorted diegetic sound was in place to represent the force and power that the antagonists have over Gabriella. This force and power is shown throughout the sequence by the way the antagonists behave by dragging the body along the ground and even in the way they close the boot in an almost aggressive manor.

Who can relate to the character and how is these characters represented?

• I think that our audience would be most able to relate to the protagonist in our sequence and I think this because our protagonist represents a character that appears to be a bit of an outcast to her friendship group- particularly when the two friends are getting their make-up done and Gabriella is left at the side to watch. She also represents someone that is trapped and alone and I think that everyone has experienced the sense of hopelessness and loneliness before and so relating to this character is made easier because the audience can then sympathize with the way Gabriella may be feeling.

Audience feedback to thriller film:

• This screen shot shows what I sent to a few of my friends to gather feedback on my video to find out whether they thought it would matter if the antagonists were male or female. I asked this question in particular to find out if stereotypical views on gender are still around.

• This comment shown on the right shows that Tori does not have a stereotypical view of gender as she says females would make better antagonists. Normally in films females are shown as the victims so it was interesting to find out that someone had gone against this and said that no females would make the better antagonists in this sequence.

•  This comment also shown on the right made by Amy Gane shows how she doesn't think gender is relevant when it comes to what gender the antagonists are- also going against gender stereotypes. Similar to Tori, Amy thinks that females would best play the antagonists.

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

What kind of institution would best suite the distribution of my film?

• When researching independant UK distribution companies I came across Safecracker Pictures which I felt would be a suited company if our film was to be distributed. Safecracker Pictures have a passion for independant film and a commitment to support creativity. 'The Safecracker team are specialists in delivering maximum media coverage and awareness, including multi-platform digital sales, and have a large marketing and publicity department who handle all releases. It is fast becoming one of the UK's leading supporters of UK and International filmmakers in both narrative feature film, documentaries tv programming. It aims to aggressively increase market share by combining classic library titles with critically acclaimed new releases'. I felt that as Safecracker are able to deliver maximum media coverage this can be hugely beneficial to our independant film and to make it popular.

How will our film be distributed?

• A good method of distributing a film is to release it into the cinema on a Friday as this is a peak time for people to go out to the cinema as it is the beginning of the weekend. You are more likely to get more people watching a new release film on a Friday than a week day as the cinema tends to be quite empty during the week due to people working and teenagers at school or college. However, from experience I found that Wednesday's are one of the busiest days at the cinema due to 2 for 1 on Orange. So from this I would choose to release our film on a Wednesday as I feel it would be most successful in drawing attention.
• A film festival would also be a good way to show the film before going into the cinema as it would show how popular the film is before spending all the money to show the film in the cinema.
• As our target audience is mostly female above the age of 15 so mainly teenagers, Lovefilm or Netflix would also be a good way to distribute our film as these websites are very popular among teen girls and are now a lot more easily accessed through other devices such as smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

GENDER-

• From my point of view I would think that it would be mostly females that would be attracted to our film and reasons for this is because the main characters in the film are female and this often affects how someone views a film. Often if men see a film consisting of mainly females they automatically assume that its females that the film is aimed at so aren't as interested as they would be if the film consisted of mostly males. Another reason for why I think our film Perception is aimed at females is because it is easier to relate to a character of the same gender as yourself, so this will of course attract females to our film as they should be able to relate to how the characters feel. 

AGE-

• A motion picture rating system is designated to classify films with regard to suitability and I felt for our film a suitable age rating would be 15+ as the film contains some violence and would likely to have bad language used throughout. I asked the question to a number of people what age group they think would be most suited to our movie and here are how people responded:

4321 Trailer:

• This is the trailer of the film 4321. When thinking of ideas for our opening sequence we thought of different films we had seen that inspired us to make a sequence similar or that we liked some of the ideas from. The main aspects from this film that we used in our own was the the group of female friends being the main characters. In 4321 there are a group of four female characters, the difference in our film is that our group of female characters only consists of three people. What we liked about the female characters in 4321 was the fact the girls broke the gender stereotype of the females always being the victims in films. Instead they took quite a masculine role and throughout carry weapons and take part in what would be seen as masculine activity. This inspired us and we decided we would also break the gender stereotype and use females instead of males as the antagonists- this is not shown in our beginning sequence to keep the audience questioning who the antagonists are. We thought by hiding the antagonists face this may make the audience automatically assume that the antagonists are male due to stereotypes.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Feedback on film:

Did you feel like you could relate to any of the characters in the opening sequence?

Jess's Reply:












Is there anything you feel that could have been improved in this opening sequence?

Jess's Reply:











What age rating would you give the film and why?

Jess's Reply:

Who do you think is likely to be attracted to this film and what attracts you?

Jess's Reply:

How we attracted our audience:

Setting-

• We chose this setting of an ordinary house to make it easy for the viewer to relate as it is a setting they will come across everyday. We also used other setting such as the shopping mall as these are also everyday settings.

Characters- 

•  we chose to have three female actors as we aimed to attract females to our film in particular teen girls. In the title sequence they appear like three average girls and this makes it easy for other teenage girls to relate. The way Gabriella appears to be left out also helps other teenage girls to relate as most teenage girls have experienced or been in a similar position to this.

• By covering the antagonists in overalls and having their identity hidden creates enigma for the audience and this automatically attracts whoever is watching as they want to find out who the antagonists are.

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

Video about learnt technologies:

Transcript:

• There were 5 main pieces of technology that I needed to learn how to use in order to make my 2 minute thriller sequence.The first was a video camera, it seems quite straightforward however learning how to do the white balance and even remembering to do the white balance was a challenge. The camera was the main key of our thriller as it enabled us to film each part in a way that keeps the audience gripped to the action taking place on the screen.

• Lighting was also an important part of our thriller as it helped us create the atmosphere we needed. This was mostly done through the use of low key lighting to attract attention and also to add to the dark atmosphere of the thriller. In a lot of films and TV shows the lighting often appears to be natural however what is not shown is that the lighting is not always natural and is set up around the cameras.

• The next was learning how to use final cut pro on the Macs. Getting my head around how to use the Macs was the starting point, once I had a bit more experience on these it made it easier to learn new things about final cut pro and how to cut down and edit our film. The editing of our film was the most important part is it enabled us to make our film appear in the way we wanted it to look.
  
  
• When it came to adding sound to our video we needed to firstly learn how to export sound effects from garage band to final cut pro- this was the simple bit. Not only did we need to use garage band sound affects but we also needed to create Foleys to make our film more effective and real. This meant learning how to use the voice recorder, which was quite challenging in the beginning, however became easier towards the end.

• It took me a while to get my head around how to work blogger, however once I had learnt the simple steps on how to use it I found it was a good way of presenting my work for the planning and research task.  It enabled me not only to write the important information but also enabled me to upload videos and pictures to make the blog more interesting.

Other technologies learnt from the process:

• Other than the key technologies there were also additional things we needed to learn in order to make a successful thriller. We had to learn how to make our flashback shots fade to white to show people that it was a thriller, in addition to this we also needed to learn how to make the shot appear distorted and unclear to show the mind of Gabriella after being hit over the head with a baseball bat. Once the effects were added our thriller movie started to look more realistic. What was very time consuming was adding the title sequence over the top of our finished film as we then had to figure out how we wanted out credits to appear on the screen in a font that would go with our thriller etc... Once we had figured out how to add the credits and where, this process became very easy and quick once we got into it.

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

Preliminary Task:

http://foundationportfolio1336.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/final-video.html

Final Task:

http://foundationportfolio1336.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/title-sequence-perception.html

Comparison of camera work:

Preliminary

 The development between the preliminary task and the thriller task is very clear as both the framing and lighting was not very good in the preliminary task. His face was not lit very well and so his facial expression wasn't as clear as it could have been. Also part of his head is cut off as well as his chin making the camera shot look lazy and like it hasn't been thought about. However, in the thriller task the shots were thought out a lot more and  the shots were carefully framed  as well as the lighting being placed in the correct areas.



Thriller Task

Mis en Scene:

Thriller Task

Preliminary Task

• The costume worked in both the thriller and preliminary task as the costume were both planned and well thought out. However, things like lighting were not thought about in the preliminary task and we used natural lighting or the ceiling lighting as we were lazy in lighting our settings. Once we had realized how important lighting was in filming we then made sure that in our thriller we had lighting as it also helped create the atmosphere we wanted.

• Props and make-up were also used in the thriller sequence to add to the atmosphere and character of the actors. There was a gun prop in the preliminary task however this was not realistic and the character holding the gun didn't seem to fit the sort of person that would own a gun. In the Thriller task the baseball bat was a lot more realistic and fitted with the rest of the characters costume and manor. 

• Another thing we learnt was about how sound can change the whole atmosphere of a film. When choosing the sound for our thriller different sound tracks would change the mood of the thriller depending on the instruments or tempo etc... We didn't use many sound effects in the preliminary. However in the thriller we used both diegetic and non-diegetic sound as we realized how important this was to our thriller. We also created foley's to make the sound even more realistic.

Editing:

Thriller Task- fade in from white

Preliminary Task- match on action



Thriller Task- graphic match

• The editing in the thriller task was a lot more time consuming and technical than the preliminary task. The editing in the preliminary task was simple to carry out and are the simple techniques that are used in filming everyday that we don't even notice when watching a film or TV show. For example a match on action- we used many of these in the preliminary task. With a lot of playing around on final cut pro we managed to create the technique of a graphic match and also worked out how to do a fade in from white to create distortion.

Overall:

I feel that our thriller sequence improved significantly from our preliminary task, not only did the camera work improve but so did the overall storyline, editing and mis en scene. We had a limited amount of time to think of a storyline when it came to our thriller and this was quite challenging, however what we found was that even though our filming didn't  go exactly to the plan of our storyboard we still got things to work. For example the main location of our thriller we had to change last minute as our previous location was no longer available. This was quite an important thing to learn as it made us aware that some things don't go to plan and you have to improvise along the way.

 

Our thriller task was different to our preliminary task as in our prelimnary task lighting and sound were not important and the camera work was what we focused on the most. However when it came to our thriller the lighting and sound became the most important aspects of our thriller as it made it all come together. Our preliminary task also used very minimal editing skills so it took a lot of quick learning when we came to edit our thriller task. The lighting and editing was what improved the most from our preliminary task to our thriller, in particular the sound as we learnt how much difference a little bit of sound can make to a film.

 

Charlotte Hudson- Evaluation

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

Conventions of a Thriller:
(the black conventions are the conventions with links)

• Protagonist- The more dominant character, can be a villain but is a lot of the time the victim (in the link the woman is the protagonist, as the film is based around her and her beating the killers)
• Antagonist- Likely to be the villain causing suspense and can also be a Protagonist as well (in the link the males are the protagonists as they've captured Alice Creed)
• Enigma Code- Holds back information, the audience ask questions
• Action Code- Tells the audience something will happen
• Binary Oppositions- Multiple opposites within two characters for instance good vs bad
• Unrestricted Narration- Audience knows more than characters causing dramatic irony
• Restricted Narration- Audience knows the same or less that the characters
• Suspense- Keeps the audience hooked and constantly questioning 'Whats going to happen?'

• Our Thriller opening was influenced by these conventions, it was made clear who the protagonist character was (the victim) from the very beginning. However the killers were made to not be as obvious to the audience until we used editing to create a graphic match(2) to enhance and highlight who the killers are at the end of the opening. By not making it obvious who the antagonist killers were this kept an element of enigma throughout and suspense as the audience questioned who the killers were. We also restricted narration, as although our opening was using the victims flashback, the victim knows the same or less than us because we are using flashbacks to work out who the killers are.  

• Mise en Scene was used to keep suspense throughout as during the 'action' scenes the costume used was big boiler suites to hide who the killers are and also to hide their gender(1). This also showed a contrast to the costumes in the flashbacks and by doing this means the audience don't instantly connect the characters in the flashbacks and in the 'action' scenes. However this is different to most thrillers as usually the antagonists character is shown to highlight fear etc for instance in the Dark Knight. 

• Lighting was used to create and enhance the change in scenes and action for instance flashbacks were bright with light rays editing effect(4) placed on top to distort the characters and we used three point lighting to eliminate shadows. The lighting during the action scenes were darker and we used low key lighting that enhanced key moments and creating shadows for specific shots (when killing the protagonist)(5), the lighter lighting mainly highlighted the victim and objects used to kill her. 

• Like most thriller films non-diegetic sound is a main feature, however many thrillers use their sound to heighten danger and fear for instance in cape fear they use strong orchestral sounds to heighten fear. However our opening creates sense of confusion and underlying fear but the non-diegetic sound helps to not make an instant connection between the protagonist and the antagonists. The diegetic sound creates elements of fear as the sound at the action scenes is enhanced for instance when we use a CU shot of tape(9), the sound and camera work work together to highlight a planned murder. The diegetic sound when in the flashbacks is all distorted and blurred like the memories, this highlights that the protagonist is confused. We also put in limited amount of dialogue as we thought it created more tension and atmosphere without dialogue. We use MOA to try and connect the murderers and the girls in the flashbacks for instance the MOA of passing the coffee cup and the MOA of slamming the door shut(7&8), the audience question if its the same hand, the same character. 

• Our opening story and plot is non-chronological and we use ellipsis because we don't show the reasons why the girl is being killed etc and this creates the audience asking questions. We also use objective camera work as most of the scenes are observing and the audience see events unfolding. The structure of our opening is dis-equilibrium as we see different parts of the film in the opening; for instance the killing and early moments in the film all muddled together through flashbacks and moving back to the killing. We used this type of opening because we enjoyed and were influenced by the thriller film 4.3.2.1. (watch up to 1:28 and ignore the fact its in Russian).

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• For our thriller opening we used three female teenage actresses. We didn't use the opening to show a class divide as they are all friends, they seem like normal middle class teenagers. So I guess by doing this we were attracting more of the middle class audience but we also didn't show a divide in ethnicity. Therefore not discriminating a religion; for instance if the victim was Asian the opening may have come across as victimizing a different ethnic group. So we kept all the females White British. However I'm sure some people may say that by doing this we are causing a divide between ethnic groups as we didn't have variety of characters. 

• We are representing a group of girls, 2 girls are best friends and bring the victim into the group. The victim is from a different background and is isolated by the other two. By using this as part of our plot we are connecting to the teenage girl audience as this is an everyday way of life as there is constant bullying and isolation between groups of girls at school/college. So this film is showing an extreme case of girls lives- here by connecting the audience as they may be in the same situation being isolated in their friendship group. It shows how teenage girls group themselves and they are cruelly calculated.

• As well as this, when creating our synopsis we decided that if the film continued past the opening the audience would have found out that the victim was in fact a murderer and therefore the girls were getting revenge on her as she had killed one of the girls family members. So we also used teenage crime- female teenage crime to connect the audience and keep the gripped. 
• Our opening is very different from another thriller Spring Breakers, the girls in this film are used as sex objects by wearing minimal clothing and presented as being sexy and older that their age. Although the females are also the antagonists, they are not acting as a typical group of teenage girls, they are the male fantasy version (unlike ours). The certificate of Spring Breakers is 18, and by having this certificate the sexual content and language is very advanced and provocative unlike a 15, therefore we are definitely attracting a younger audience and more females than males.

Camera work, editing, sound & mise en scene to create our social groups etc

• To create the isolation between the victim and the antagonists we positioned the antagonists together and used mise en scene to show the divide; for instance their body language and facial expressions, they look at each other and laugh at the victim. The camera work also highlights this, as we used a P.O.V and MCU shot from the victims perspective of the two laughing. When the girls are sitting in the cafe the victim is on the other side of the table, showing a divide between them. 
• We constantly positioned the antagonists next to each other and had the victim always at the end, she never stuck to one characters side as that demonstrated she was not as significant to the antagonists as they were to each other. Highlighting the isolation. 

• Sound we used laughter of the two girls, and the tiniest piece of dialogue from the victim near the end but majority of the time you see the antagonists looking at each other and looking as if they're only talking between them and the victim just watches and occasionally joins in. 
• The MOA of one of the antagonists passing the cup shows the power and dominance of those characters as the victim does whatever she has to to fit in. The following shot shows the antagonists boredom and how she is really uninterested in the protagonist (this expressed by body language). 
  
  
   

Stereotyping & why we chose females

• By showing the females like this, we were stereotyping teenage females as being bitchy, nasty and spiteful. This view of teenage girls is felt a lot by many different teenagers as today girls can be nasty and to make this as realistic as possible we had to show a variety of teenage girls and bitchy is one of them.
• Finally we have used females for our opening because most thrillers and other genre of films, males are mainly the main characters and the villains who are torturing women and expressing power and dominance over women. So by having all female cast we are showing that females aren't all weak and dominated by males. They too are just as dangerous as men and easily are out for revenge just as much as males however it is not as common. Therefore we wanted to go against the stereotypical thriller film and by doing that connected to more female audiences. 

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

• Kind of institution that would distribute my film: Whilst searching for British Independent Film Company, i decided that the type of film company that would distribute my film would be Metrodome Distribution as it has a wide range of thriller films of all ages. Many of the films that are distributed by this distribution are mainly on DVD and i feel that this would be the best as i would aim it for more DVD distribution than Cinema. A lot of their films released on DVD are aimed at the 15+ audience.
• Why: Although many females go to the Cinema, many girls like to have 'girly nights in' so would prefer to rent films to have a night in etc. As well as this, Microsoft now says that Xbox live members spend more time watching TV, music and films on live platform instead of playing games. As many game institutions are aiming their games and consoles at female audiences and also changing for family use etc they have also made the interface no longer solely about games. The interface is now equal for film on the home screen and more films are being recommended.
• The use of Netflix and Love Film is popular with the female audience and i therefore feel that my thriller would be successful online rather than in the cinema. These sites are also put on the home screen on the Xbox as well so will also grab the audience. 

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience for our thriller opening was aimed at 15+ and females. The film was mainly aimed at females through having mainly feminine cast, however this may attract the male audience simply because the actors are female. 

• When i uploaded the opening to be watched the audience, i mainly got feedback from females and attention from females, i was told by males that they had viewed it, however it wasn't made public unlike the female audience. This instantly suggests to me that it grabbed the female audience mainly.

• When speaking to the audience, I asked what other films were their particular favourites in the thriller genre. One audience member said 'The Strangers' which was also certified by the BBFC as being a 15, so here the similar certificate age we were trying to represent was clearly being represented in our opening. When watching the trailer of 'The Strangers' i noticed similar ideas and aspects that we have in our opening, for instance the use of mise en scene with the masks over faces to hide identity is similar to our boiler suites. And the use of sound, by having subtle music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxNEFSBVgGI

• Another audience member also said they enjoyed the thriller film 'Shutter Island', again having the same certificate age, which again shows we picked the correct age range for our opening. When looking at the trailer, there are elements of our thriller. Mainly the use of the audience asking questions as there is confusion throughout the opening. So we again had created an effective thriller opening in this respect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iaYLCiq5RM

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Attracting our audience 

• We attracted the audience by using flashbacks, the edited effect of the flashbacks being distorted and bright glows meant that it made the audience concentrate and seemed interesting 

• When speaking to some of the target audience they instantly mentioned they liked the contrast between the killing scenes and the flashbacks as the flashbacks (by the effective editing) looks like memories from the victim and therefore was very effective and grabbed the audience. The flashbacks were also more scenes of where many females enjoy spending time and this shows that the female audience was targeted.

• The use of mise en scene was very important as well to connect the audience, so we used natural settings, settings that are very day-to-day life for a lot of females aged 15+, for instance cafe's and shopping malls. Therefore it made the film and action more real and kept the opening girlier than other thriller films and became more interesting for females and caught their attention more

• Another mise en scene used to connect the audience was their costumes, their costumes are in fashion for the time period the film is set in. They are all wearing fashionable clothes, but all show different types of fashion and therefore attracting different members of the female audience.

• The boiler suites in the other parts of the opening are more manlier and different for women to wear, however women wearing the boiler suites aren't used seductively. For many men, females in boiler suites and bikini's are many men's fantasies however the suites are worn for a different purpose and aren't tight fitting, and therefore connects more to the female audience as they aren't being used for sexual reasons and not just used as an object. 

• Another member of the audience also commented on the non-diegetic sound, they said it was subtle yet eery and therefore created an atmosphere that grabbed the audience, whereas many males would prefer non-diegetic sound to be louder, more action and more violent.

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

• We used a camera similar to this, it was rather straight forward to use and quick to work out. However, remembering to set the White Balance wasn't always easy, so the need to re-shoot shots was a bit of a pain sometimes but was necessary as the quality of the camera makes a massive difference to the production as a whole. Using the tripod was easy enough with the camera, (setting up etc) wasn't a problem, just in some of the places we shot in there weren't always enough space which caused a problem in occasions, so the need of hand held shots was sometimes used as a result. For instance in the Cafe. But overall camera work and usage was good. 

•  Lighting was also another piece of technology we used. We used two types of lighting: smaller scale lights that were bright but weren't harmful to look at (smaller version of the image on the right-hand side) and then a big high voltage dangerous light (similar to the light on the left-hand side) which was very effective when creating the shadow at the killing scene. When shooting the flashback scenes we picked the shopping centre for instance that used a lot of bright lights so therefore creating a good effect, and when the girls walk into the cafe again we are using natural light, so the smaller lights weren't always necessary but we still used them effectively in the cafe and at moments in the killing scenes (for instance when she's in the boot) there is a slight lighting effect. 

• When editing the film and putting all the shots together we used Final Cut Pro, at the beginning this caused some confusion and difficulty. However after a few goes and copying other members of the group, it became very simple and quick to use. Cutting clips wherever necessary and creating a flow between shots.
• When putting effects on top of particular shots caused confusion and took many re-tries to get correct, but after many tries we found the effective effects and found the process easy, putting the effects to different percentages and strength etc. 
  
• Another piece of technology we used on the Macs was Garage Band. Again this caused problems at the start as it was another new piece of technology. We found that not a lot of the sounds created on Garage Band were very effective, but we found our non-diegetic sound on there which was very helpful after long hours of searching! And we found a loud 'hit' sound for when the victim is hit over the head and this created a lot of atmosphere and worked well we thought. But as we found not all of the sounds effective, we decided to create our own foleys. 
• To create our own foleys we used one of the new voice recorders, and recorded our laughter for the cafe scene and footsteps etc to create suspense. However again this caused issues as although we were making the sound ourselves, it didn't sound very effective and didn't fit in the opening very well. So we only used the laughter voice recording in the end and took another search on Garage Band. But in the end we learnt how to heighten the sound we created when filming. So a lot of the blurred sounds you hear and scuffling when dragging the body is the heightened sound created naturally through filming and this proved to be very effective. 

• Finally we have been using blogger throughout, at first it was rather confusing and difficult as bits of text wouldn't go one way and images wouldn't move or were in the wrong place but over time i was able to deal with it and manage it instead of being angered. Blogging has been fun to do and has been useful to keep a track on the work being done. Sometimes it is more tedious then others but overall has been a fun site to use and after many posts, it has become very easy to use. 

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

Creating this opening, i noticed how my knowledge and ideas have increased. Before i was more interested in the easier option and how to get the specific clip done quickly without any hassle. Editing was never really a focus, except having to get the specific shots needed (MOA, SRS and 180* rule). However this time, i was more interested in creating more difficult and powerful shots to get the best effect. 

• The camera work has become more in depth, for instance the importance of an establishing shot to create atmosphere, there was more thought into lighting to enhance the shot and then they worked together to create an atmosphere instead of just for instance putting the camera in front of a house in broad daylight as it wouldn't create as much of an atmosphere. The 'establishing shot' in the prelim is of stairs and this is a less interesting and boring scene and the camera isn't very sharp. 

• Vision editing was used more and the idea of editing shots became more important to create specific shots, e.g. the flashbacks. We wanted the flashbacks to be obvious and look really different from the other killing scenes, so brightening the shots adding a glow and a bit of distortion helped to show the contrast between the present action and the flashbacks. Therefore my editing has developed as i now know how to create the effects (glow) and how to enhance them and I'm also able to use them correctly for the specific shots and the specific idea. 

• Sound editing has also developed since my preliminary task, i now am able to heighten the sound on my clips when it's necessary, for instance on the flashbacks we heightened the diegetic sound of the shopping centre so it became distorted noise and mumbling this helped create the effect of flashbacks. The use of folleys became easier and picking them off garage band, however we found our use of the folleys we made ourselves weren't as successful as imagined but luckily we had hardly any dialogue so it wasn't necessary. 

• I feel that my continuity editing was already successful enough but i have just improved by noticing where more MOA's can be placed, the need for an establishing shot and keeping the 180* rule. But i feel like the editing was one i didn't really have to focus on as much to develop unlike the others. 

• I have learnt that the need to completely tell the story in the opening is not necessary, the idea of keeping the audience thinking creates a more interesting and complex opening. I learnt that constructing a story can be done in many different ways, for instance showing different points in time and using MOA's to link characters together and this therefore carries the story on as you can link characters together. The MOA's in my prelim were good but the shot was not the best quality. The use of graphic matches also help to carry on stories and linking characters too. 

• Characterisation has developed since my prelim task as i have noticed that all areas help to create characters, and that its not just Mise en scene that helps create a character. You can use shot reverse shots and P.O.V shots to help create characters, for instance when we showed that the antagonists are closer friends, we used a P.O.V shot to show them from the protagonists view. Plus body language and placing of the characters help to characterise them as we have the two antagonists constantly next to each other whereas the protagonist drifts from side to side. In my prelim, the shot reverse shot was effective, however the lighting was not very good as one character's face was lit well whereas the other had shadow on her face and therefore made the shot not as effective. 
  

Overall, many things have developed through the course but for me I feel like working in a group for me has developed as before i was more about working by myself, however by the end of the coursework i found working in a group has become easier (but sometimes i feel like i need to work harder at this).
As well as this i feel that my overall knowledge of editing has developed massively and this has therefore made a massive difference to the task in hand as i have been able to make an average shot more advanced and more appealing to they eye. By doing this we have hit many of our targets that we made at the begining of the course. I feel like this is a good thing to develop as portraying the story isn't always easy and effective if you haven't edited correctly etc, so by developing this skill stories you want to portray have become easier to create.
I also now have more of an idea how to use garage band (which is very useful) whereas before starting our thriller opening i had no idea as in the prelim i was never shown (as i was away) and therefore never used it in my prelim. So this time i learnt how to use it in a short space of time and i feel it made a massive difference to our opening as it's a vital piece of creating a realistic opening and setting the mood and atmosphere.