Danny's Evaluation

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

Challenge
In our thriller one of the key conventions that we have challenged is the plot. We have done this by showing the fixation of the stalker and more so that the antagonist and protagonist are actually interacting in conversation. This is shown by the top picture on the right from our thriller, instead of just not talking to the antagonist the protagonist has been talking to him, this is shown previous to the picture in the thriller the antagonist says "are you ignoring me now" this insinuates they have been talking previous to this message and then she reply's saying "leave me alone" (as shown in the picture above) this shows the non-stereotypical behaviour of the protagonist. Whilst in the typical thrillers such as Sleeping With The Enemy the (bottom picture, right) the antagonist stalks his wife's every move without her knowing, also he doesn't tell her that he is stalking her therefore there is no contact between the two. In the clip he stalks her at a fair without her knowledge so this is the key difference between ours and Sleeping With The Enemy is the knowledge of the protagonist to whats going on.

The second convention that i have challenged is that of having the title at the end of the opening section instead of following the usual thriller schedule and having the title as a big impact opening. We decided to put our title at the very end to build the effects of tension and mystery. This was done by making the audience wait to know what they are actually watching so it makes them think until the title reveals the goings on in our opening. The musical score also very much helped because the music built up to make it even more effective. Whilst on the other hand the typical thing to do is have the title at the start. This is normally done by having a loud musical score that introduces the film straight away to the audience. This is exactly what happens in the example of The Sixth Sense. What happens here is this puts the audience into a fright and makes them nervous before watching any of the opening to the film



 Developed

In our thriller we aimed to develop the thriller convention of voyeurism. We aimed at developing it by bringing it into the modern day and changing it from the usual, taking pictures or following their victim. We have developed it to show the risks of social networks and how someone can know nearly everything about you, get pictures of you and know your whereabouts from the small space of a study and just using a laptop. We aimed to do this in our thriller by not showing the traditional shot of somebody holding a developed picture, for example in One Hour Photo. Then we developed it by bringing it into the digital age by using props such as laptops, tablets and smart phones. This showed how we have updated into the modern world to show the different ways of being voyeuristic. Another way we developed this was that of location. We showed this by our man not having to move from his location to gain any additional information due to new technology.






The second convention we think we developed during our thriller opening is that of the credits.For our credits we have applied affect that reveals our credits slowly which makes the effect of tension by making the audience wait to read what the titles say. Also our credits very much related to our thriller as we added a sound bridge of typing so that it linked to the technology aspect of our opening. Also we very much went into depth with by that the font is the same as to that of twitter, which is were he stalks his victim. Also the stalker types to stalk her so it goes along with the whole storyline of our film. Also our thriller credits where seperate so it added to the effect of mystery by hiding the antagonist. For example the credits in The Talented Mr Ripley the credits are superimposed and they partially hide his face the credits so they develop the character's characteristics  by showing he is a very hidden character. The font used in that opening is off the 1950 age which also relates to the film.





Used
The first convention that we used is the thriller sub-genre crime. This thriller convention is used frequently due to them overlapping quite a lot in thrillers. Some thrillers are based just around the crime and discovering the antagonist. But crime thrillers are much more intense and the audience are much more on edge and they get the audience to think the whole way through. Our crime aspect was that of stalking. The key way we did this was that of the pestering of messages from the antagonist to the protagonist to all of her different devices. Messages of constant "hello xx" are shown to the audience to show that he is non stop bothering her. They are shown on different devices also to show he is coming at her from loads of different angles. We used binary opposition to show the extent of the crime thriller. We showed it by having the two characters seperate and having a massive contrast in light and in props and location. The lack of lighting showed who the antagonist was and what crime he was committing.
A thriller that used this effectively would be that of se7en which has all the stereotypical aspects of a thriller for example a crime and a detective for example.This shot shows an early clip in the opening once the crime had been commited. It opens like this so that it gives the audience a judgement as to what the film is going to entail.

The second convention that we used was binary opposition. This is when two things are the complete opposite to one an other. this is used the whole way through our thriller opening. To show the complete difference and contrast between the antagonist and protagonist. In the first shot the antagonist is in his study we showed that he was an antagonist by the dark lighting and hiding his identity. Whilst in the second shot its the protagonist in her bright room, doing classic stereotypical teenage girl things with normal teenage girl props like fashion magazines. we used this convention to show that there is something going on between the two characters and to show some of their characteristics.

Another thriller that does this is The Da Vinci Code. It uses binary opposition when the lighting is all dark around the antagonists face hiding his identity showing that he is the antagonist. the protagonist has a bright spotlight on him clearly showing him showing that he is the protagonist






















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

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

The answer to this question is to be found on our Wikispaces page linked below.

http://nfgsmedia.wikispaces.com/Followed

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

The type of person that would watch our film is somebody who is young around 15-25 and very sociable. The person goes out quite often with friends going to the cinema and socialising in local bars, clubs and resteraunts. Also our audience likes going to the cinema with their family also. This person is probably in university or college and they feel like they can relate to our film this is why we made our film as up to date as possible. The person who would go and watch our film would also be very trendy and fashionable, she/he shops in popular high street shops like topshop or river island.

We chose as a group to certificate our thriller film #Followed as a 15 we did this because some parts of the film may be seemed as disturbing. Also making it a 15 we believed we could add content that would make it more of a thriller, then what you could do with certifying it a 12


5.
How did you attract/address your audience ?

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

Due to our thriller all being based around technology we were always using technology or filming technology being used because of #Followed being based around twitter. I am normally capable of using most technologies. With the technologies that we used i was already able to use twitter, apple macs and youtube. On the other hand i had never used the likes of blogger, prezi or final cut express or had the experience of using a video camera and tripod.

Twitter

This was one of the key pieces of technology that we used. This is because our whole thriller opening #Followed, is based around twitter. So we had to create twitter pages for each of the antagonist and protagonist, we then had to film at the correct times of arrival of messages and we had to make sure the noise of the message was easy for the camera to pick up and that it was clear. This was then where some problems occured, we had problems of messages not sending, noises not being loud enough and the filming not being timed correctly. I was fully capable of using twitter i was best at this technology then any other due to being an avid twitter user and knowing how to use each different section from tweets to direct messages.

Blogger

Another piece of software that we used was blogger. I had encountered blogger before when going on the internet so i knew what it was and what it was used for. But i had never had my own blog before and posted before. On the other hand I didnt find it very hard to get to grips with logging in and posting. As a group we were able to modify it so that its appearance was just how we wanted it to look. I feel the features of Blogger assisted and benefited our group to a great extent and assisted us to construct a successful account of our progress and actions for the planning and producing of our Thriller Opening. The ease of publishing work, uploading photos and the ability to embed videos promptly was important for us as a group to show things such as why we did things in our thriller, and analysing other thrillers. It was also very easy to show who did each post with tags and the topics of each post with titles. The text could be changed also with the themes all of this added to make our blogs look good and proffessional.

Camera/tripod

This was one of the hardest things that our group came up against whilst filming #Followed. No-one with the group had any previous experience in filming or using a video camera or tripod and this is where we found some difficulties. First of all, with the camera we didn't realise how key the standard of filming was to the final piece. Due to this we filmed in standard definition instead of high definition and because of this we had to re-film our whole thriller opening. On the other hand our problems with the tripod occured when docking the camera onto our first tripod it was wonky, therefore, we had to film some of the shots again. Another reason why the tripod was an issue was the legs had to be level to make sure the shot was straight. As you can see in the shot on the right, the camera is docked and level this shot was taken once we had realised what we had done wrong from the first time of filming and fixed it.

Final cut express

This was the editing software we chose to use to make the thriller opening for our film #Followed. Again no-one in our group had used this software before. This time before we actually made our thriller opening we practiced with the software when making our preliminary video. What we learnt from this was how key the transitions would be between each shot to make sure the opening looked clean. Once we finished our preliminary we found it much easier to use the basics of the software, for example uploading the videos into the software off the camera to putting them into position and cutting them. The things we struggled with the most was syncing the music with the credits and then getting the music to fit correctly with the video. But the more I used this software the more I felt I knew what I had to do to make the video work and look how I wanted, and I knew what we needed to do to change the certain things that needed changing. I think I would use this software again if making a video clip or different media clip.

Wikispaces

What we used wikispaces for was to create a page for our thriller opening #Followed. Previous to being told to use the website i had never heard of it. As a group we found it very easy to add pictures text and links to our page and it was very easy to use the site in general. I think we were able to use this site well due to all our previous work with the website Blogger.

Apple iMac

We used all these software's on Apple iMacs i found this quite easy due to me having an iMac at home. So my work pace was quite quick when navigating the internet and getting from software to software due to knowing shortcut keys on the keyboard. The keyboard is different to other computers on the iMac and because of this it does not have a # key which was key to our group due to our thriller film being called #Followed but my previous knowledge of Macs helped our group get around that issue quickly. The best thing about the Macs are that they could use the software final cut express with ease and this is what we edited our thriller on. Also they have iTunes which we used for the music used in our opening



 Prezi

Our group decided to include a variety of different programmes and technology to add to our Blog posts to make them more interesting; one of these programmes was an internet website, Prezi. Prezi is used as personal online slideshow creator, which virtually creates your slideshow in any way you want. I'm not very good at using this software because i havn't had any previous experience of it before we started using it in posts on our Blogger blogs. It was very helpful to use for our group because it let us show different ways of posting onto our blogs. For example i have used this software to answer my second evaluation question



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

From the preliminary i believe as a group we have learnt how to use the camera correctly depending on the scene and shot. Also we have seen the clear difference in standard definition and high definition, we made the mistake when filming so had to re-film our opening. This is our first attempt:

 and here is the much clearer HD version:

We also have identified the importance of mise en scene in giving a character a background and telling the audience about the character for example the props, lighting, clothing and location are all very important.

Finished Thriller Opening- #Followed

This is our official finished Thriller Opening.

Filming Progress

Whist filming we captured some photos of our filming set up.

This is the set up of the scene with the male character in his dark study using his computer/laptop:

Music Choice Update

We have decided to use the Tracks, Impromptu in Blue and Long Note Two as they are a perfect fit for the opening of our Thriller. Impromptu in Blue is a good composition for the protagonists scenes, as it is a lighter tune, but still has an unnerving feeling to it. Long Note Two fits in well with the antagonist clips as it has a darker more eerie feeling to it, which still has similar quality's to the first track, Impromptu In Blue, which means the transition between the two tracks is smoother, which is a benefit as it is an advantage to have well merging tunes, appropriate for our antagonist and protagonist.

First attempt at filming

This is our first attempt at filming our official thriller opening which we later found was filmed in standard definition therefore the quality was not as good. We will schedule another filming date to film in high definition and hopefully this will improve the overall outcome.

Font for Credit Sequence

We researched into what fonts would be suitable for our opening credits. As our film is based around Twitter, we researched what font Twitter uses and we found that the social network site uses either Arial or Georgia,  therefore we have decided to experiment with both fonts.

Here is an example of our title written in the two fonts-
#followed which is written in Arial
#followed which is written in Georgia

After consulting with the group we decided to use the font Georgia because it looks more traditional for a computer and links in with the Twitter font.

Availability for Second filming day

We are filming on the 31st January because on this day we all have at least a three hour free slot in the day we hope to get the second half of our filming done. Everybody will be available for this day because one of the production team is going to be the actor.
Timetables

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is the identification, evaluation and estimation of the levels of risk involved in a situation. We need to complete a risk assessment for our filming as we can be aware of them before any damage occurs. The two different risks that may occur in our Thriller opening is technological risks and physical risks. 

This is a grid of our Technological Risks-

Item	Risk	Risk Level	When	How to Avoid
iPhone	-When chucking onto the desk, risk of smashing, breaking phone and possibly glass. -Running out of charge.	- High as glass may be dangerous. - Less of a danger .	- Occurs at the start of the opening.	- Phone can have a case so less chance of breaking. Possibly not throwing down as fiercely. -Put on charge.
iPad	- Running out of charge.	-Less of a danger.	- After iPhone clip.	-In scene the iPad is on charge therefore will not run out.
Laptop	- Risk of laptop falling off bed as she sits down, or gets up. It possibly may break, and glass will shatter. -Running out of charge.	- Risk is at a medium level as laptop is more durable but still may fall and break. - Not a big risk.	- As she gets up and checks her iPhone.	- Put laptop securely in the centre of the bed and make sure, lead attachment does not get pulled and drag it off. -On charge during scene.
Camera	- Risk of camera falling off tripod. -Running out of charge. - Compact area, risk of tripod and therefore camera falling over.	- This is a medium risk as nobody is in danger, camera may just be damaged. -Low risk. - Medium as camera may get damaged.	- Throughout the whole of our Opening.	- Attach camera to tripod and make sure it is securely on. - Put camera on charge early morning till filming. - Make sure the camera is in an area with more space. Only one person around the camera at one time.

This is our Physical Risks-

Item	Risk	Risk Level	When	How to Avoid
Man’s Risk	-Trailing Wires from equipment, chair could get stuck and fall and male might be injured from the fall.	-High risk as it can cause injury to actor.	-Office scene that male appear in at the near end of the Opening.	- Make sure trailing wires are not placed around the chair legs and tucked away where the wires can be less risk.
Female’s Risk	- Furniture in bedroom, may cause injury by tripping female or falling in and breaking furniture.	-High as it can cause an injury to the actress, and also if broken furniture may cause debris on the floor.	- Bedroom scene. Before males scene.	-Make sure there is enough space for the actress to move around freely so no chance of a trip or fall.

Availability for First filming day

We decided to film our first day of filming on the 22nd January, due to the fact that we as a production company all have a free 4 hour slot in our day. In this first day of filming we hope to have the first 50% of our filming complete due to on this day we will have our actress available to be in the opening.
Timetables

Our Thriller Opening- Voice Overlay Storyboard

This is our final plan of our thriller opening including timing of scenes, descriptions of the different shots, and arrangement of credits. We plan to use this as a guideline for when we are filming our opening.

Shotlist

Shotlist for the opening of #Followed which will guide our scenes on set.

1. A shot of the Iphone vibrating on the table/desk. Notification pops up saying: "New message from @Ryannsmithh123: Hello Xx" Lasting 2 seconds.
2. A close up of the same notification appearing on an Ipad lasting 2 seconds.
3. Close up on the laptop screen showing Twitter and direct messages changes to (1) new message. -Lasting 2 seconds.
4. Shot showing Girl walking to pick up the Iphone from the desk lasting 5 seconds.
5. Camera pans to show the reaction shot of the girl when reading the direct message. -Lasting 2 seconds.
6. Over the shoulder shot of the girl throwing her phone forcefully back onto the desk with frustration. -Lasting 2 seconds.
7. Scene cuts to the male character showing another over the shoulder shot of him at his desk with an older laptop/computer.
8. Previous clip merges into this shot using a zoom to show the close up of the man typing and sending another message in reply. -Lasting 5 seconds.
9. A pan is used to show the chat between the characters - lasting 3 seconds.
10. Shot of documents/files shown on the computer screen, which includes various folders relating to the female - Lasting 4 seconds.
11. Ident of Tsunami Studios appears on a blank screen - Lasting 4 seconds.
12. Cursor clicks on a file, which shows different dates relating to the stalked girl - Lasting 3 seconds.
13. Name of Female Actress being typed on the screen on a white background
14. Female actress' name gets deleted by backspace and Actors name gets typed on a white background and getting deleted - Altogether lasting 7 seconds.
15. A close up of an open file on the computer screen displaying photos of the girl and chats on twitter - Lasting 4 seconds.
16. White screen showing 3 other actors being typed out and the deleted using backspace - Lasting 7 seconds.
17. The producers are then presented and typed on the screen, and again being deleted - Lasting 6 Seconds.
18. Director gets typed out and deleted on a white background - Lasting 6 Seconds.
19.  A twitter styled message pops up on the screen saying ' Leave me alone' for the girl - Lasting 3 seconds.
20. Final clip showing a fade in after the previous clip fades out, showing the title #Followed - Lasting 5 seconds.

Our Credit Sequence

In our credit sequence we will create a technological feel by having the partakers names that helped in the making of the film typed out onto a white screen and then deleted using a backspace delete. The font will relate to that used on twitter or a social networking site to link in to the technological aspect of our Thriller.

This is the order of our Credit Sequence-
Main Actress- Savannah Bradshaw
Main Actor- Sam Clark
Actors that appear in the rest of the film- Santiago Lopez, Jill Simpson, Nicholas Dryden
Producers- Aimee Kemp, Anna Higginson
Directed By- Danny Buckley

Credits

Style is key in the credits for the opening of thrillers in the opening credits that I looked at "watchmen" all of the credits are written in the same font. The font that is used is the same as that of what is used in a comic book. So this links the credits to that of the thrillers sub-genre of a comic book genre. This also shows to the audience that it's a superhero movie.

The credits in this opening are super imposed over scenes and pictures this is key because the credits for the actors introduce who plays who to give the audience previous knowledge before the film starts. Also because its super imposed the credits can show a very brief overview of the storyline and what each characters does.

The ordering and timing in "watchmen" starts off with the production companies first. the main production company is up for three seconds then one of the smaller companies involved gets two seconds. Then up next comes the producers and directors names who also get around 2/3 seconds each. Following this is the title of the film for 4.5 seconds, this being longer then any of the other credits, shows that this is the most important thing they wanted to get across in the credits. Then finally is the actors and they order it by doing just single actors per shot, this shows what actor plays what character with each actor being on screen for around 3 seconds.

The main characters are the only people in the credits. This is to establish that these are the lead roles in the film, and not to over complicate the opening they only put in a phew characters.

Dialogue in Our Thriller

In our thriller opening, we have decided not to include dialogue as we believe that it will be more effective and it will help build up the sense of mystery. We think there is no need for irrelevant dialogue because there is more important aspects of the 2 minutes such as showing the male's obsession and in contrast the victim's emotions. 






We've decided to look at Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window to show an example of an opening without dialogue and show how affective it can be without it. Without the need for dialogue Rear Window presents a descriptive and an informative first 2 minutes by setting the scene, introducing the main characters and giving an implication of what other actors will be presented in the film and why.
This opening is a good film to relate to our opening as they both have elements of voyeurism and watching particular people, this is why i feel our opening will be as effective as Rear Window without the dialogue.

Music Ideas

We are looking at finding a royalty free track to go behind our opening this is because if using popular music the song will be copyrighted meaning we will have to pay to use it. Music has a key importance in our thriller opening due to us not having dialogue its all about the movement of the camera and the music which will create the unnerving feeling in the scenes.

We have found a selection of copyright free tracks on the website, http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ , by selecting various 'feels' to find the appropriate and most effective for our Thriller Opening. We usually chose, eerie, unnerving, dark and suspenseful, and with the right combination we found a few tracks to consider.

The selection we have found are-
Impromptu in Blue- Kevin MacLeod
Sunset at Glengorm- Kevin MacLeod
Quinn's Song: The Dance Begins- Kevin MacLeod
Long Note Two- Kevin MacLeod
Awkward Meeting- Kevin MacLeod

It is obvious that Kevin MacLeod's compositions are alike, and all the most relevant genre of Music for our Opening. We are going to take great consideration as to which track, or tracks we will use for our Thriller when we have furthered our Editing Process.

Location-Danny

Location

Location is very key to any thriller so we thought long and hard, where to set our thriller. Its very important because it sets the scene to the film.
The first scene location in our thriller opening #Followed will be the girls bedroom. We chose this room because it was of quite a big size we could get a lot of light in through the big window (This was key for our binary opposition due to our light and dark aspect of the two characters setting). Also the room due to it being quite big showed the social class of the victim it showed that she was quite high in middle class, also due to the size we could fit in many props and different areas for the tripod to go to get different angles for the cameras shots.

The second location of filming is in a very small study. This shows that our stalker is at the very lowest levels of middle class due to the room being so small. Also the room has no natural light this helped for the use of binary opposition to show that he is the antagonist by the comparison of light and dark between the two characters. The lack of light is going to help us hide the identity of the stalker.

Props- Danny

The Man

The man will have a Laptop because technology is key in our storyline because it is a social networking stalker, also a laptop because this is how he is contacting the girl. The man will use a laptop because chatting to her is his main focus he wont have a tv on or music on he will just focus on their conversation because that is all that matters to him because he is obssessed by her. Another prop that he will have is his notebook, this will be used because he will use it to scribble down every little bit of infomation in which she tells him, the main effect we are hoping this will give to the audience is to the extent of how much he knows about her, by showing how full the notebook is and the dates showing how long it has been going on for. The pen he uses will just be a standard biro, this shows that he doesnt care of the quality of what hes writing as long as he has all of his information.

The Girl

One of her props will be her smartphone, we have chosen a smart phone because these give access to everything from social netowrking to a high quality camera everywhere and is easy to use and with them you can multi task. We chose her to be using a phone and not a laptop or computer because the conversation with himis not her key focus,she is getting ready to go out. Another prop that she will have is a hand bang and make up bag (filled to the top with makeup) this will give across the effect that she cares about how she looks and that she wears alot to try and give across that she is older. Also she will have boyband posters on her walls to show that she is a stereotypical teenage girl.

Costume- Danny

The Girl

The teenage girl will be getting ready for a night out so she will trying to make herself look as attractive as possible and also try to make herself look older then she is :

Make up- she will be putting on bright red lipstick and putting on mascara also she will be spraying hair spray and other cosmetics.

Clothing- the girl will be putting on high heels, putting onn ear rings and jewellery whilst wearing a short dress

The Man

It will be very dark in the scene in the scenes in which you see the man so you will not get to see much clothing :

Clothing: he will be wearing just normal everday clothing e.g a hoodie and shirt or jumper and shirt this is because he is viewed to be seen as very secrative in the opening we dont want to give much way to the audience yet

Thriller Conventions- Danny

One convention that is used in many thrillers is that of a binary opposition these are two similar things but which are opposite in meaning. One binary opposite would be a protagonist against an antagonist (good guy against bad guy). One example of this would be the conflict between Batman and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, this is stereo typically shown by the Antagonist having the upper hand at the start of the film, but then as the film goes on the Protagonist starts to find the antagonists Achilles heel or weakness and then in the end scuppers their plan or ends their wrong doing. Another binary opposite would be that of law enforcement v’s crime as shown in The Dark Knight Rises and in another film that we studied Se7en. This is use in the film Se7en by, detectives have to find out whom and why someone is committing all the murders.

Another Convention that is used in thrillers is that of Editing. Editing is normally key for thrillers because it sets the mood for the thriller it can add to intensity with the use of a fast cutting rate or can get your mind thinking with cross cutting to show you two things that are going on at the same time. Also lighting is very important in editing because this adds to the mood of the scene for example in the chase scene in the opening of The Da Vinci code everything was dark in the gallery this added to the mystery of the scene and made viewers be on the edge of their seats.

Mise en scene is another convention which is very important. The costume/make up in which each character wears can add to the effect and persona in which they give off to the audience, for example the priest in The Da Vinci Code he wears a traditional and old fashioned monks uniform which gives the across the effect that he is not a normal character as that is not the normal costume of somebody from modern times. To add to this his pale white skin and white hair with scars covering him shows he’s some sort of an extremist. Also props are very important in a thriller because they can tell you things about a person for example in the opening to seven there is a chess board laid out on the table what this shows in this scene is that this character is very lonely, so lonely that he is playing chess on his own.

Location is a convention in which is important to a thriller. Where in which something is going on is key to the storyline and plot of a thriller. In the film One Hour Photo the location of the man’s work helps him to stalk a family, it aids him in getting everything he needs to find out things like what they look like and where they live for example. Location is also important because some locations may be able to hide things from the audience due to lighting or proximity of actors this can add to the mystery of a scene.

Our Thriller Opening - Storyboard Image

This is a rough copy of our storyline set out in a storyboard format we have done this to help us out when filming our thriller opening so we know how long out shots need to be, what order they need to be in and what shot types we need. This will also just give us the basics of whats going to happen in the opening but we may change from what is drawn due to it not working when filming.