Question 1
"In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?"
Used
Conventions
In
our Thriller piece we have used the convention of binary opposition. There are many examples of binary opposition in
our piece so we have selected just two. The first is the where we have established a young
female protagonist and an older male antagonist. This is stereotypical in most
films but particularly in Thriller films as this is what the narrative is often
based around.
On
the right, you can see our antagonist watching our protagonist who is skipping
along in the background. The antagonist’s face is always concealed and hidden which
helps the audience to experience the voyeurism too. This shot from our Thriller
opening reminded us of the beginning in the film, Silence of the Lambs. This is
where we can see the protagonist, Clarice jogging through a sinister-looking
set of woods. Although an antagonist is not presented in this part of the film,
the movement of the camera as it follows her on her journey was a similar style
to that presented in our piece.
Another
example of binary opposition is light and darkness. At the start of our opening,
the protagonist can be seen walking and skipping along in the afternoon sun,
but by the end of it, it is nearly pitch black. The switch in lighting of our
product is much alike the film From Hell. This film is about the infamous Jack
the Ripper but key parts of the film rely on the progression of time, from
light to dark. For it was at night that his victims were mutilated.
The
second Thriller convention that we used was the use of the enigma code. This is where the media text presents questions to the
audience to figure out/guess at without revealing the answer. This effectively
draws them into watching more where the answers are often slowly unraveled during the plot or suddenly revealed at the climax. We used this convention in
the form of the establishment of the protagonist and antagonist. Questions that
we wanted the audience to be asking themselves are things such as; Why is the
girl on her own? Where is her family? Who is this stalker? Why is the girl
still out when it is getting dark? What is going to happen if the two
characters meet? etc. A good example of the enigma code in a real media product
would be in the opening of Se7en. This opening consists of extreme close ups of
the antagonist creating his ‘murder diary’. We can only tell this because we
have watched the whole film and we know what happens at the end. When filming we noticed that we had made a two continuity errors. These included the appearance of two teddy bears that the girl is holding instead of one in the other shots and a scene where she is accidentally wearing gloves. After fixing these problems, when it came to editing, we decided to keep these errors in. We felt that our piece was more effective with them in and created a dream like state, where everything seems odd, out of place and not quite right. The sense of
mystery draws the audience in and this is what we replicated in Into the Woods.
Developed
Conventions
A convention that we have developed is isolation. Isolation is
explored and developed in our piece as the camera follows a girl, who is alone,
as she travels into a set of woods. This convention is only developed when we
introduce our antagonist. It becomes developed at this point because although
the girl is alone from her perspective, she isn’t from other views. The
convention of isolation is turned on its head because in actual fact, the girl isn’t
alone at all. In the scene to the right, she is technically with a teddy bear,
the antagonist and us, the audience. This convention is shared in the Thriller
film Silence of the Lambs. Clarice, the protagonist, is running through the
woods alone or ‘isolated’. We can hear in the background the noises of birds
and animals and due to the suspenseful music, we are suggested that someone or something
else is out there watching her.
Another developed convention was age.
We decided to push the boundaries with the choice of our protagonist. We did this because most Thriller films
use an adult protagonist. An example of this in a real Thriller film would be a
scene from Untraceable. In this film, the main protagonist is an adult female
FBI agent. Towards the climax of the film, the young daughter of the
protagonist is stalked by the murdering antagonist. This is replicated in our
piece as we used a young female child. We developed certain stereotypical conventions
related to this age and gender. Themes and conventions such as vulnerability,
ignorance, innocence and weakness arise and this is contrasted by her on screen
counter-piece. 
A
final developed convention would be the setting-
the woods. In every shot of our
piece, the woods are in the background or being looked through to finally
ending up inside at the very end. We have used the woods because everyone sees
it as a stereotypical place for bad things to happen. With the use of the
camera, we show that the woods are very dense and full of trees
so visibility is poor. The distance and isolation from anyone is suggested
to be extremely long which makes it very lonely and secluded. It makes the
audience question why the child is out there and this is something that we
should have addressed as nobody really knows if she is allowed to be there. We
can link this to the film The Blair
Witch Project which also takes place within a forest/set of woods.
In this Thriller, three student film-makers adjourn to this location to
document the local Blair Witch legend. The location and setting is a very
important part of both of these story lines. If our product was set in a park
or an urban area it would not feel as sinister or scary because the sense of
being watched/stalked seems less realistic. The differences in visibility of
these two areas also differ and the lack of it in our Thriller was an aspect we
wanted to keep.
Challenged
Conventions
One convention we decided to
challenge was the type of music/non-diegetic sound. Usually in the beginning
of a Thriller film, the music either establish the scene/location or is used to
set the tone of the rest of the film. In our piece, we have challenged this to
the extent that the audience is slightly confused. We used a version of the
song Teddy Bears Picnic which is a nursery rhyme that many children learn at a
young age. This has been done on purpose to link the location and what the
protagonist is doing throughout the opening. Whilst this version of the song
does sound creepy and does build suspense, it is definitely not expected from
the Thriller genre. An odd choice of music was used in the beginning of Alfred
Hitchcock’s, Rear Window. This music sounds very jolly indeed and this greatly contrasts
the stereotypical effect and rules that the opening music should have. This was
one of our favourite features of our film and makes our piece unique and
memorable.
Here are links to both videos so you can hear the music yourself:
Into The Woods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28OZdYSmU1Q
Rear Window: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ncHqP_CsrY
Here are links to both videos so you can hear the music yourself:
Into The Woods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28OZdYSmU1Q
Rear Window: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ncHqP_CsrY
Another convention that we
challenged was the type of props we used. Drugs, weapons, blades,
machinery, ropes, and mirrors are just some of the many props we expect to see
in the Thriller genre. Once again we completely took the audience by surprise
as they see teddy bears and a picnic cloth. The great effect of doing this
ensures that an even scarier mood is set as the audience feels the props are out
of place and shouldn’t be there. In the opening scene of A Woman In Black,
dolls and toys are seen being played with by small girls and accompanied with
the odd music presents an extremely Thrilling opening. Question 2
"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"
Below is a link to my answer to Question 2 of the evaluation. It is in the form of a Prezzi!
http://prezi.com/9br8huphv1lm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Question 3
"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"
Below is a link to my answer to Question 3 of the evaluation. It is on the website WikiSpaces!
http://nfgssilver-intothewoods.wikispaces.com/
IF THAT FAILS TO WORK; HERE IS THE ANSWER ANYWAY
Into The Woods would be projected at an international market, mainly the UK, Europe and Australasia. While the film would not be one aiming to achieve Oscar awards, it does promise to be a title you will at some point watch. We believe that Silver Studios would use vertical integration when producing Into The Woods using the company’s quality areas of expertise including screen writers, production team and editing suites. Silver Studios would be likely to synergise with other companies too such as Village Roadshow Pictures, co-producer and financer of over 70 major Hollywood titles, Columbia Pictures, a renowned motion film industry company and Momentum Pictures, a UK distribution company.
Silver Studios would synergise with Village Roadshow Pictures due to its ability to self-distribute its filmed entertainment through affiliates in several territories around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Village Roadshow Pictures have been responsible for films such as Sherlock Holmes, The Matrix, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I am Legend and the Great Gatsby.[ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ]Silver Studios would synergise with Columbia Pictures due to the financial and distributional advantages of the conglomerate. Columbia Pictures have been involved with the distribution of Panic Room, The Grudge, Angels & Demons, The Karate Kid and Django Unchained. This company would be able to place Into The Woods into all cinemas across the country with around 3-5 screens.[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Columbia_Pictures_films ]Silver Studios would synergise with Momentum Pictures due to its experience in the genres seen and associated with Into The Woods. Insidious 2, Justice and The Crazies are well known titles that Momentum have produced. [ http://uk.eonefilms.com/about-us ]
Into The Woods has the potential to have sequels but can also be successful as a stand-alone film. Into To Woods is certified at 15, because of the nature of the plot and the grisly violence and horror.
After cinema release, the film would be available on DVD, Blu-Ray and media services such as Netflix and Lovefilm. As the film is of a crime/horror genre, it will not be shown in IMAX cinemas or have a 3D format as it is deemed inappropriate. The film does contain a rape scene but as this is not seen on screen, can only be a 15 age restricition. The film would have more late night viewings as it is more suitable to older teenagers and adults.
Please view our promotional film poster on our Blogger page here:
http://nfgssilver.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/main-task-promotional-film-poster.html
Question 4
"Who would be the audience for your media
product?"
The following profile is of a person that is an ideal
target audience member of our product:
Name: Jessica Tinkler
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Class: Working/Middle Class
Location: Newcastle
Bio: Since she was small she has loved swimming and was
a member of her local swimming club until she gave it up. Jess is very much
into music (especially alternative rock/punk). She has been to Reading three
times in the past; twice with her set of friends and once with her elder
brother Tom (aged 22). She enjoys spending time with her boyfriend who also has
similar music taste. Jess is currently a cleaner at her school whilst her
boyfriend works in a small music shop in town. She likes to watch films at the
cinema but she only does so from time to time usually with her boyfriend. Both
love to order takeaway and settle down to watch all types of movies at home. Jessica
often spends her money on music band merchandise like T-shirts and wristbands
etc. but is currently saving up for her first car. She owns an iPhone 4S and
uses it for socialising mainly on sites such as Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram
because her parents have Facebook. Her bedroom is covered in music, TV and film
posters and her bedroom isn’t always the tidiest. Jess is the only female
within her peer group to own a games console. She uses it when her boyfriend
comes round but is also known to play it extensively when she gets into a game.
Alike her brother, Jess was brought up as a catholic but does not attend
church.
This is her Instagram page: http://instagram.com/xfakeyourdeath
Question 5
"How did you attract/address your audience?"
PLEASE SEE THE COMMENTS SECTION ON THIS VIDEO FOR MY ANSWER!!!
Question 6
"What have you learnt about the technologies from
the process of constructing this product?"
After constructing my thriller
opening, I have learnt and developed many skills with many different aspects of
new technologies.
Another aspect of the Mac computer
was getting used to the different keyboard layout. I personally use keyboard
shortcuts often such as CTRL + C to copy, CTRL + V to paste and CTRL + N for a
new window when on a web browser. However, due to the format of the computer
these shortcuts are different on the Mac. Instead, the command button must be
used along with the shortcut. At times, this was frustrating during the
research stages because I was pressing the wrong buttons when wanting to
achieve a shortcut. I soon overcame just by using the computer more often.
The next technology I used was Blogger. I had not used Blogger before to make
posts but I had used it to view other people’s blogs. When setting up a Blogger
account, I had little difficulty in doing so as the website was very beginner
friendly. The GUI is easy to use and when posting, was very similar to using a
word processor like Microsoft Word. One feature of Blogger I have found
difficult to use is when inserting images around text. The areas in which you
can move an image around in are very limited causing images to look out of
place. This is important because I want my blog to look professional. To
overcome this, in most posts you will see the images are often to one side and
are of similar size. Although this can be at times this can be a disadvantage,
especially when there is little text and lots of images, doing this makes it more
aesthetically pleasing. Creating the layout and style for my blog was a bit
more complex but the menus and well displayed windows helped me to create a good
looking blog. I particularly liked the level of customisation. I chose a simple
template and adapted it to how I wanted it to look. To match my companies name
(Silver Studios), I chose a silver/ grey theme and background for the blog. To
some this may seem dull so to enhance the page, I chose blue, green and purple
for some text and outline colours. I soon learnt that the layout is significant
in establishing a good looking blog. I made sure that other than the posts
(which are central to the blog), there is not much text when looking at our
blog. The Silver Studios logo and the Twitter and YouTube buttons are most
eye-catching and prominent which is good as we don’t want the viewers to be put
off by a large amount of text. This also adds to the professional look of the
blog.
Despite having used a tripod
before, using the Velbon DF 60 tripod was a different story. This part of the
production process was particularly difficult as I had to figure out how each
of the three cameras fitted on the tripod safely. This meant getting used to
screwing and unscrewing the brackets in which the camera sits in before placing
it on top each time. Although this was time consuming, it was worth learning as
it ensured the best quality footage when using at the same time as keeping the
cameras safe and stable. Once this was done, I had to learn which screws did
what. For example, the two screws next to handle on the tripod allowed for
lateral and vertical movement. I had to learn this well as I performed many
panning shots within the production stages. Tasks such as extending the legs on
the tripod were easy to execute and self-explanatory.
During the research, planning and production of our
product we used Twitter and YouTube. Before, I had used these two websites very
often and I would consider myself to be an expert in using both of them.
Setting up a Twitter account for Silver Studios was very easy as I had done it
before in the past. After the initiation of the Twitter page, I immediately put
our company logo as our display picture, added a cover image to make our page
look less plain and more interesting as well as completing a biography. In
doing so, I made sure that the viewers could get lots of information about us
and our company in many different forms, whether it was text, images or links
to videos on the YouTube page. I had also configured our Google account to post
on our Twitter page whenever we uploaded anything to YouTube. One element of YouTube I was not so familiar
with was the use of tagging and annotations in our videos. Although I knew
these features existed, I hadn’t used them before. However, my partner had used
these and showed me how to do this. It was not too difficult to use as when
tagging/annotating a video there is a timeline, on which you can add speech
bubbles and notes and even use them to link to other websites and videos on
YouTube. I was familiar with timelines and adding things to them as I have had
video editing experience before this. I had soon familiarised myself with this
element and successfully analysed the preliminary task with the use of these
features.
When editing, I used a program called Serif
Movieplus X6. In the distant past I had used an older version of this program
called Serif MoviePlus X3. This meant I had to familiarise myself with the
video editing software again and learn the new layout and features. There were
not any main issues with the program other than it sometimes could not handle
too many other programs open at the same time. Whether this is down to hardware
or software issues is still unknown. This sometimes proved to be difficult when
viewing video files in a different window to Serif. In addition to this, I got
to learn and use aspects of the program that I hadn’t used before. These were
things such as lighting and opacity settings which were important in the
production stages. It also allowed me to play around and see the differences
between different filters, contrasts, saturation levels and hue levels.
Survey Monkey was a website that I had not used before at all and was not particularly comfortable using. I had not used anything like this before and so I was quite intimidated by it. When creating my target audience survey, I found the website to be frustrating to use due to the lack of help it gave me about how to use it. I disliked the layout and structure in the processes of making the survey but I managed with some help with my partner to make one. Those who tried to respond to the survey through links that we sent out via email had difficulties too. They reported back to me that the link that had been sent out was broken and didn’t work. The screen that came up suggested that the link had already been used to answer the survey and I had to send new ones out.
Prezi is an online presentation website which I also
had not used before. This has lots of creative and interactive features unlike
programs I had used before such as Microsoft PowerPoint. This website allowed
me to create a presentation in Question 2 of the evaluation where I analysed my
final Thriller piece. This website was exciting to use but took me a very long
time to get used to and use. Even when I felt comfortable using it, it was very
time consuming and slow to use. The features such as copying and pasting
graphics and images into the presentation were not clear or easy. For example,
it took me a while to realise that to copy and paste a graphic, you needed the
click on the “add to my collection”, then access “your collection” and insert
it back into the presentation. Also, I found that when I wanted to select an
item and move it, it moved everything else too. This was particularly annoying.
However, I would be more than happy to create another Prezi due to its unique
and advanced presentations.
One camera that we used during the productions of
our product was the Cannon Legeria HF R16 camcorder. I had not used a camcorder
before and I had lots of fun using the type of camera. I was not used to using
a camera that had a movable LED screen that could twist and spin in different
directions. Also, this camera was very small compared to those I had previously
used. This camera didn’t have many buttons on it and it took my partner and I a
decent amount of time to get to grips with the technology. For example, I now know how to access the
viewing gallery where all the video and picture files are stored. I can also
change the quality and style of the video footage and can manipulate the
framing of the shot with the function on the camera.
The two other cameras were my own and I had used
them to a fair extent before. The first one is the Sony Super HAD CCD. I had no
problems with using this camera at all as it is my own and have been using it
for many years. However, my partner had a different experience with it. The
second camera used was the Cannon EOS 500D which is own by a relative. I had
also used this camera before but not to the extent as the first one. I had to
use the manual to understand how to use certain aspects of this camera such as
how to import the video files onto the computer and also how to focus the lens
whilst filming something. I also asked my relative about it of which they gave
me some tips and advice when using it.
Question 7
"Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"
The preliminary task was a very useful task as it
helped us to understand the processes of making a media product as well as
using equipment which could be used in making a real Thriller film.
The planning of the preliminary task was essential
because it helped us to prepare for the planning for the main task. The
planning included the animatic storyboard; the selection of actors; the
selection of location; the script; and the list of camera angles and shots. It
also included research of other similar products.
The first few attempts at filming were either paused by bad weather or due to a change in the plot. However, when it came to filming the new plot, we had already experienced certain problems and we knew how to overcome them. For instance, one problem we had was with the lighting. Previously, we had filmed on two different days and the light and sky were completely different. We made sure that when we filmed for the final product, we did this on one day. Also, we checked that this day had decent weather so there weren’t any issues when filming. We were very strict on time as we knew how long it could take to film just a fraction of the story. In order to optimise the amount of film we got, we used multiple cameras from different angles.
Here is the annotated video of our preliminary task!
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