Navigation of my Blog, For the Moderator

Dear Moderator

Welcome to my individual blog! Thank you for taking a look around it, there is also a link to my groups blog on the right (underneath the 'labels' list) which I hope you also will enjoy looking at. You will also find a link to George's, Despina's and Natasha's blogs, who are the other members in my group, as well as our teacher's central blog called 'BLK FOUNDATION YEAR 12' which will allow you to view other student's blogs and other group's blogs.

My main labels I have chosen for my individual blog are research, planning, production and evaluation which are for my preliminary task and my main coursework task. Some of these posts were created before I was put into my group and all are done individually by me. 

I have posts from evaluating my preliminary and main task as well, along with the two sequences at the top, which I hope will be easy for you to view as they will stay at the top of my blog.

My group blog shows a collection of work our group put together and through our posts we hope you can get a feel of the stages our group went through, how we found our coursework task, what ideas we had and then see our progress to a successful finished product. Our opening sequence is also linked to my group blog.

Both blogs have easy navigation with clear headings for the labels and then some sub-labels included when wanting specific posts, including posts labelled with my name on the group blog as these posts were produced by me. It is also in date order to see the journey my group and I went through and how we've improved our media skills throughout our task from November 2009 to March 2010.  

Thanks again for taking the time out to view my blogs,

Ella May Wilkinson  

Candidate Number: 4895

Closing Post

As our coursework is now finished, and my teacher has signed off my evaluation, my blog will now be closed.

Hope you had fun looking around

Bye

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

Brief for Preliminary Exercise

To create a short sequence in which a character had to walk through a door into a room, sit down and half a short conversation with another charater. This task was to use continuity and make a seamless sequence.

Brief for Main Task

To create a two minute opening of a film, the film can be any genre and have any story line.

As I have only started doing media this year, the prelimnary task was the first time I’d gone through the process of planning, filming and editing. The prelim was a much shorter task and less was required for it so from this I learnt the basic process which was able to help me and aid me through our main task.

During the planning of the preliminary we had to produce paperwork such as storyboards, shot lists, shooting schedules and these processes were also repeated in the main task. I also learnt how to work in a group to make decisions and listen to everyone’s ideas, and then for the main task how to blog these ideas and the planning process. 

During the filming of the prelim we had to follow continuity rules learnt in lessons such as the 180 degree rule, doing match on actions, 30 degree rule and also how to show a conversation using shot reverse shots. We used all these techniques in our main task apart from shot reverse shot. I also got to use the equipment in the prelim and learn what each piece did, in the main task we had more equipment to look after so I had to take more responsibility of it and I learnt more about the setting up of the equipment and also the paperwork for taking the equipment off site.

During the editing in the prelim and main task I learnt that a lot of the footage filmed was not needed, this was so both had continuity and worked together as a believable piece of media. In the main task even though this was a very important part we also had to look at adding effects and creating titles so the prelim helped make the editing a slightly faster process. In the main task I also learnt how to use certain programmes not used in the prelim such as Livetype. 

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

Hardware

Pros

+ All hardware was quite small and had its own bag so it was easy to transport and take to shoots

+ Camera -Easy to use, and we had learnt how to use it already in the preliminary exercise

+ Good quality microphone

+ Tripod could change levels

Cons

-          Expensive so needed a lot of responsibility

-          Pag lights had risk of fire

-          I wasn’t that used to the camera so had to spend time learning to use it

-           Camera had settings we didn’t know how to use so we could have cut out some of the editing we did after if we knew how to use the effects before

Software

Adobe premier pro CS3

Pros

+ Editing our film was quick as we had used this programme for our preliminary exercise

+ We easy to apply the effects we used such as fade to blacks, ghosting

+ We were able to create our recording sign on it

Cons

-          Wasn’t able to make the our credits so had to use other programmes

Livetype on Apple Mac

Pros

+ Was a large variety of effects, fonts

+ We were able to change the speed of the effects and how long we wanted them to last

Cons

-          Had to export it to put it onto our sequence so wasn’t able to preview it with the film immediately

-          Was a new programme to all of us so we had to learn how to use it unline premier pro

-          Was quite a complicated programme to use

Soundtrack Pro on Apple Mac

Pros

 + Had a large range of sound effects and we used it for our heartbeat and typing on the credits

+ Wasn’t difficult to use

Cons
- Had to be exported
- Was a new programme to us so had to use a small amount of our time learning how to use it


Our Group Equipment

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

o   We chose the genre of thriller because many people enjoy this genre of film

o   We chose the theme of rape as it isn’t a common theme so people will be intrigued by it and drawn in by the fact it is a new type of film

o   We followed the classic narrative of a film but played about with the order, which attracts an audience which enjoy traditional films but are looking to try and something slightly new

o   We used flashbacks to give the movie creativity; people will want to watch a film that is slightly different and has a more creative side, and possibly more artistic side

o   Our opening contains a shock when the victim is attacked through her door, this shows the viewer that this film will be more than a film that taps into your emotion but it also is out to shock you and possibly make you jump when showing the rape

o   Suspense is used in the music and through the flashback showing how unaware the victim is that something is about to happen. The music builds up throughout the piece so the audience are waiting and are expecting something to happen. And the flashback shows the lead up to the attack not giving away exactly when she will be attacked.

o   We used continuity rules and to make our opening sequence make sense, and look polished this way audiences won’t look at it and find it too complicated to watch

o We created a facebook group for our screening to reach out to our age group

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

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE

Age- 13-30

Gender- Male or Female

Film Tastes- Thrillers, Psychological thrillers, Horror, Independent films

Target Audience

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

GPH is our production company- we focus on making films that are realistic

-          Situations of teenagers and young adults

-          Quite gritty films that get quite deep and involved into situations

-          Emotional films that look at the emotions of the situations and the deeper effects

-          Psychological thrillers, that are more intense

Example of a film it might produce

THIRTEEN 

DONNIE DARKO 

PHONE BOOTH 

Our films would first be shown at independent cinemas, and then possibly be demanded like paranormal activity. 

 We would then begin to show it at mainstream cinemas such as Cineworld and Vue.

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

Main Representations

AGE: young adults

GENDER: females

Also represent rape victims, rapists

VICTIM- YOUNG GIRL

Outgoing

Party girl

Independent

Likes to drink

Fashionable

Smoker

We used a normal young girl that many can relate to so this shows anyone can be a rape victim, rape happens to normal people. Our victim is similar to Effy from Skins, a well know character, people are able to relate to Effy who is just a normal teenage girl the same way we want people to relate to our main character.

VILLAIN- YOUNG MAN/RAPIST

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

• Our media product we decided to use a clear theme, which is rape but not a common one
• Our media product follows the genre of thriller and sub-genre of crime thriller, however crime thrillers normally focus on the criminal but ours focuses on the victim and how the police are helping our victim
• We use different methods in our film opening to show the conventions such as:

-settings

-costume

-music

-dialogue

SETTING- we filmed our opening at night time as this is when most thrillers are set, night time suggests danger and a sense of not being seen. So we thought to use a long path with cars around which creates lots of hiding spots for a killer 

COSTUME- we dressed our rapist/villain in a hoody as we were then able to hide the rapist’s identity, and give him anonymity. Also gives him the appearance he is a ‘hard man’ which is a character used in many thrillers 

We dressed our victim quite confidently and in a revealing dress to follow the theme of most victims in that they are naive and unaware to danger, also her heels suggest if she was being chased she wouldn’t be able to run

And we dressed her in a baggy hoody for the recording scenes

MUSIC-  we use two different soundtracks 

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/advanced_search_ext.php

We used this as it sounds like a typical track used to create suspense and signify danger, it builds up near the rape so our audience know something bad is going to happen

 http://freeplaymusic.com/search/advanced_search_ext.php

We use this to portray our victims situation, she is in hiding and as a victim, so we have music to make her seem innocent and also the music is sad and slow and we use it to almost pull on peoples heart-strings so they have sympathy for her.

DIALOGUE- short simple script which tells the victims story, she is telling the interviewee what happened in a factual way and doesn’t say much of her emotions but we see, like any victims, she has been affected by it and she has been troubled by the event.

Our film conforms to the classic 3 part narrative of a thriller 

·         However ours departs from Todorov’s Theory because we use flashbacks during our opening- so our film won’t be set in real time throughout.

·         Events won’t be shown in order and the audience already know she is in the safehouse (the victims journey) before they know the full details of the disruption.

·         Use of classic character roles in thriller- victim, villain and helpers of the victim

·         Our film is told in the view of the victim, we follow her story and we know her opinion of the event before it has happened.  To make it look more like an interview to a video we added a red recording sign and a border around it.

·        Similar to The Lovely Bones which is the story of a 14 year old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbour and she tells the story from heaven. It is similar because we also have our main character, the victim, tell the story to her interviewer as if she is telling it to the audience.

In this trailer we hear the main character, Susie, narrating the story of the film.

EVALUATION

Project blogging has now ended and from now on I will be posting my evaluation.

Screening

We just had the screening of our opening sequence! It was very successful and there was around 40 people there. Our questionnaire was filled in and we now have the audience feedback.

View on Props Used

These are images we use in our opening which all help to tell the story. Each one needs to stand out in our opening to help people understand who each character is and it also helps to show personality.
I think we chose a good use of props because they are quite simple and we were easily able to get hold of them but also they are effective.

Hoody- Our victim wears this in the police interview, it makes her appear small as it is a large hoody and also like she is not concerned about her appearance.



High Heels- Our victim wears these when she is walking home, it is meant to seem she has just been on a night out and also she stumbles in her heels as she has had a bit to drink


Cigarette- She will smoke these on her way from the cab and one of our shots is going to be a close up of her stubbing out her cigarette


Tissues- When she is in the interview room to appear nervous she will be ripping up a tissue and fumbling with it


Keys - We show her fumbling with her keys in the lock, she is drunk so she struggles to open her door and this is just before she gets pushed into her flat by the rapist


Balaclava/Hood- The hood is used to show the mysteriousness of the rapist and to make him look more menacing

Groups New Idea

New and Improved Idea.

After looking at our final sequence and speaking to our teachers, we decided to simplify our final idea by scrapping the scenes with the therapist, having less flashbacks (if any) and having less dialogue.


So, here's an outline of our new story for our new film:


There's a victim who after a night out, gets raped. She follows normal 'safety' rules by taking a cab home although the cab drops her off at the end of her road, before her block of flats. She's walking back to her flat along the pathway, lights up a cigarette, recieves a text and everything is quite normal. She stubs out the cigarette and walks through the door and up to her flat. As she's about to walk through the door, she gets attacked as a hooded man jumps her. The rest of the movie would be about her struggle overcoming the rape. The rapist has previously raped many other women and left a 'calling card' in the form of a funeral directors business card, showing that his victim will be killed soon. As she wants the rapist to be caught she's revealing her story on camera for the police but to protect herself, she's gone into hiding.


Here's what we'd include in the opening sequence:


The first 20/30 seconds is her talking directly to the camera in a video diary style, setting the scene from the night out. There will then be a fade to black before the flashback scene starts which will be similar to our test shoot where she walks up the path, has a cigarette, recieves a text etc. She goes to her flat, gets attacked from behind. The last 20/30 seconds of the sequence is her once again, talking directly to the camera about how she's scared, in hiding etc.

I thought this new idea was a very good one as it is much more simple and i feel it will look more effective as a opening of a film. Also our actor is better so i think this will also make the film more believable and realistic.

Rough Edit of Shots that Worked Well

Although many of our shots weren't successful all of the ones featured in this clip show a very good shots that we can now considering redoing and improving.

Test Shoot

We have done our test shoot and also have done the editing for what we have, these were some of our issues:

- Acting

- We forgot some props eg. glasses for therapist

- The lights in the flat took a while to switch on

- Therapist wasn't wearing shoes in some shots

- Swearing isn't allowed, have to change a shot

- A few shots were too dark [indoors]
 
Looking at our final edited test shoot we have decided that maybe we shouldn't use the therapist idea but still base our opening around rape. So we are now at the stage of thinking of new ideas separately and then discussing them in our group before our real shoot.

Target Audience

The theme of our movie is 'Psycological Thriller'.
For this theme i decided the target audiences would be

•  University students - they often watch movies in groups when they are bored so they will look for exciting movies that aren't similar to all the others out there or other recent movies and ours offers this
• Females- as the lead is a female it attracts females more than males. Also they can imagine themselves in the situation more and get more absorbed into the film
• People who enjoy psycological thrillers- our film follows this film but is different to other ones out there, so people will be curious to see how the 'rape' is carried off

Final Idea

Victim had an abusive stepfather when she was younger – due to this, she’s been going to therapy since a young age. She went ‘off the rails’ as a teenager and is a good time girl who parties and wears suggestive clothing. After a night out, she gets raped on the way home after being forced into her house by the rapist. She’s reliving the events that happened that night with her therapist who over time, has drummed into her head that due to her rowdy behaviour, she had this coming. However, although we will not show this during the opening sequence, eventually it’ll become clear in the film that the therapist was in fact, THE rapist.

My Ideas

I decided to focus on the themes horror and thriller, and using that theme i came up with three film opening ideas

My first idea was a very short idea but i thought if it was decided in our group we could then progress it further. I got the idea from this still in the trailer of univited. My idea was to use mystery and suspense, so i would have my character walking down a corridor towards a door, and it would be from their point of view. There would be digetic sound of footsteps and heavy breathing and also the use of shaky cam to show she is stepping carefully and the character is scared. When she reaches the door she looks into the keyhole of the door and she sees nothing for about 2seconds. Then the opening finishes with an eye coming up to the keyhole.  

COURSEWORK

MY COURSEWORK PROJECT STARTS HERE! -
there's a link in the links list to our group blog