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

I believe that we have learnt a lot in the way of both editing and storyline. Our preliminary had no real storyline to it but we gave our final idea a good, if confusing and mysterious, story plot that progressed well. From the preliminary task we learnt how o use both the cameras and the Mac’s; playing around with what shots worked best where and how best to stitch them together. This made it so we were better prepared for this when the time came to do our final thing and, although we didn’t do as much as we perhaps could, we did better than we would have done otherwise.

When we planned our production we did it by each of us coming up with an idea and seeing which one we and the rest of the group preferred. In the end we went for a combination of my idea, the flashbacks and someone being attacked, and Duncan’s idea, an apocalyptic wasteland, to create the final idea. The next question was where best to film it. We first decided to film in the fields out the back of my house in Bourne but when Kirsty and I went to scout them out we discovered that there were winter crops in them which would not be good for our idea. This caused us to look elsewhere and Duncan suggested another bit of land about a mile from his house but when the car that was to get us there broke down we had to settle for his house in Pointon. This meant that we had to modify the storyboard somewhat in order to fit in with the new surroundings.

The next problem we encountered was that, due to the unorganised swap of filming place, we didn’t have enough footage to be able to stream it all together perfectly and, because of the snow, we couldn’t go back and re-film. We got around this by putting transitions in between certain clips to make it look like, though it didn’t flow, it wasn’t meant to.

I have learnt that there is a lot of time and effort needed in order to produce a thriller opening and, if I was to do it again, I would make sure I was a lot better organised as I know now that, even when something goes wrong, you can’t just wing it. You need to have a proper storyboard and you need to follow that storyboard. If I was back doing the filming again I would have been pushier with the others to make sure all the footage flowed together and that we had done every shot more than one time rather than just the odd few. This could have been done by actually giving one of us the role of director instead of all of us just trying to compromise and end up getting nowhere.

We would also have done well to have had a proper plan written up for each of us so that we all knew exactly where we were going to meet and what was going to happen rather than having it just in our heads where we were likely to forget it or misinterpret it and that it should have been done at least a couple of days in advance.

My group worked fairly well as a team though some were more motivated than others and more willing to get the job done in their free time. I think this is shown in our project. When coming up with our idea and doing things such as the questionnaire and storyboard, we all took on different roles in order to make it easier on each of us and we all worked together in the filming though Joe and Duncan acted and Kirsty and I filmed. Duncan was very much the director at this point too and I was the main editor.  

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

I had never used or even touched an Apple Mac before this project and it was I have learnt to use it and iMovie with a great amount of ease; not finding it very hard to use. I also learnt how to use the cameras and what shots are best to create certain themes  for example, a high shot can make the character appear venerable or weak where as a low shot would make them appear stronger or more dominant.

A challenge we came across when going out to film was when Duncan’s mum’s car broke down and we couldn’t get to where we wanted to be. This caused us a problem as that meant we were forced to do the filming elsewhere and, coupled with the snow, we had to get everything done in one day. I think we did well to get around this particular problem as we still came back with some decent footage despite the problems of before.

Our skills with the technology grew the more we practiced with it and it showed as we went through our project, cutting them together better and understanding what was needed to make it flow better. The Mac’s helped us out a lot along with the stand for the camera and the camera itself. The camera we used was fairly simple and easy to use making it easier for us to get the shots we needed. Facebook and Youtube were also helpful in showing the video to others and gaining feedback for it. One was "That is seriously good! I love the story line!! Well done =DD xx"

How did you attract/address your audience?

We used the conventions of suspense and mystery as a way of getting people to watch our film.  We also used a sound that fit the genre and edited it in an exciting way that added drama and mystery. Our narrative isn’t in chronological order, creating a sense of mystery that draws in the audience to what’s happening. When they wonder what happens they want to watch more which draws them into the film and narrative. We wanted the audience to be curious as to who the characters are, what’s happened and what’s going to happen as this makes people think and if we can get people to think about our thriller opening it shows that we have done a good job on it.

The content of our thriller would be changed according to the BBFC guidelines though with what we wanted to do it was already in the range of 15. The boys wanted a full out fight in the opening but we had to cut it down to make sure it stayed a 15; too much violence with blood would mean that we might have had to rise the category to 18 which we didn’t want to do as it would lessen our audience. We already had to raise it to a 15 from a 12 and any more would have lessened our audience significantly. Also, as we are all under 18 creating an 18 film would be hard and probably not very convincing due to the fact that none of us are likely to have seen many 18 rated films.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that it will be mainly older teenagers who will be the audience for our film and mainly male. This is shown through our questionnaires as it was mainly the males that said they liked to watch thrillers. However, everyone we questioned had watched a thriller though some more than others. We also used our questionnaires to find out what people wanted from a thriller which told us that the audience wanted mainly suspense and mystery in the narrative.

This also applies to other thrillers I have watched such as ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ where suspense really is used. We use a fair amount of mystery in the way that you wonder whether or not they live, who the girl is and what has happened. Another film that uses a lot of mystery is ‘Memento’. This is done by changing the story from chronological order and by not allowing you to know any more than he does as he works out who killed his wife.

I also put the video on both Youtube and Facebook and, though there are no comments on Youtube as of yet, there are many on Facebook. Most people say that they like it and that they would watch it but it seems to be mainly the male teenagers that have the most interest in it.

The BBFC ratings would also effect who our audience can be as we know that, depending on what we put in there, the rating will restrict who can watch it. Because we have included things like violence and ‘blood’, it is likely our film would be classified at 15 meaning that we have lost the audience of people under that age. But this is ok as I believe that people of above the age of 15 would be more likely to watch it. The BBFC says this;

‘Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.’

For the violence section of a 15 rated film and;

'Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.'

 For a 12. As we have an emphasis on blood we had to raise the age limit.

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

I believe that I would like to choose the company 20^th Century Fox to distribute my thriller opening. This is because it is a fairly large company that is well known by most of the world. They have also done films like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and the ‘Happening’, both of which are thriller films that have the same kind of feel to out own opening. Though they are located mostly in the USA they have significant pull in the UK also.

This would unlikely however as such a big company would be unlikely to take on such a low budget production such as ours. This leads me to believe that we would be more likely to get success from a smaller company such as an indie. When I explored the companies I found a British company called Coffee Films that seem to create thriller films like the one we did along with others like it. They would be more likely to take our project on and, although we wouldn’t receive as much press as with twentieth century fox it would still get us some audience that like watching independent cinema.

http://www.coffeefilms.com/

How does your media product present particular social groups?

We represented gender a lot in our opening in the way that our two main characters are male. With it being a post apocalyptic film it could be seen that the male half of the human race are more versatile than the female half and, while this can be seen as sexist, it’s likely true. We do have a female character however and she is used in the memory to portray a sense of goodness or happiness not seen in the sections with the other characters. This could be seen as a way of using the female figure to emphasise nicer times and, perhaps, times before the disaster. It could also be seen on the sexual side of things in that if there were little or no females left there would be no knew children and the human race would disappear. This in and of itself could make the female half of the race allot more precious than previously thought.

We also used the clothes worn to show both the fact that it’s cold and the characters; the use of hoddies being a way of showing the antagonist. This is seen in a very stereotypical way through the fact that Joe, the antagonist, wore a black hoodie to make him seem more menacing and, although this stereotype of people in hoddies are gangsters is bad, it worked well for us to get across the idea that the character wasn’t a nice person.

Also Duncan, our protagonist, has blonde hair where as Joe had dark hair. This emphasises the idea of good and bad; light and dark and helps distinguish the two different characters from each other in the way we want them to be seen. As light often shows the side of good and dark the side of bad, it is another way to easily separate the two from each other and show our audience who was who. In this way we are also being stereotypical but using stereotyping to help our audience get the perspective we are trying to show.

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

Our task was to produce the opening for a new thriller film. It was to be categorised from U to 15 but, due to the conventions of a thriller film e.g. suspense, tension, mystery and the physiological impact of such, it was more likely that it would be 15. Our addition of ‘blood’ would also put the age rating up as it would not be seen as appropriate by the BBFC for a younger rating.

For the first two minutes of a thriller film it is important for some sort of story to have been established whether it is perfectly clear to the audience or shrouded in mystery. Either of these two prospects can be achieved through use of different shots and camera angles that can create effects to work well with the narrative. For a mysterious story there might be point of view shots and other shots that don’t show the whole picture where as in a clear narrative when you want the audience to know exactly what’s going on then you would use shots that show the whole picture and didn’t jump around. It can also be changed by the mise-un-scene; the objects, setting and props giving you a sense of the story, for example if there was a woman in a wedding dress you would assume that she has been or is going to be wed. It would also have to have titles that include the name, the main characters and things such as special effects, editing and music.

The conventions of a thriller, suspense, tension, mystery and the physiological impact, could easily be manipulated or broken by a director for their own purposes. This can create an effect that is unexpected and intriguing. For example, in ‘Memento’ the story doesn’t go in chronological order but in a very mish mashed order that creates a sense of mystery thereby increasing the aspects of a thriller. It also makes you want to see what happens at the end to find out exactly why he lost his memory and who it was who killed his wife. This film influenced my own production as we decided not to do it in chronological order, like that. It also has aspects of ‘The Road’ in it from our original idea of it being set in a post apocalyptic setting.

We used different camera angles in an attempt to make it look effective and real. I believe that this worked well as it created effects that we perhaps hadn’t realised we could do before and that we were able to get some good shots despite the snow. We had some handheld shots and some point of view ones in order to get across the feeling of tension and being followed. We then mixed them up so that they were in a different order to what you would expect, a lot like ‘Memento’. This shows that watching the film helped us decide what storyline to use and how to put the shots together along with things like camera shots and music. This is shown as the music we use and the style we use is very much same as this film. The essence of the music especially gives an eerie feeling and extends it through the storyline.

In the end we moved away from making it truly a post apocalyptic film because it was too hard to get across to the audience with only the opening to a film. It is still supposed to be a kind of ‘disaster’ story but is more like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ with the aspect of snow on the ground. We chose to do it that way to make it both more believable and more achievable.