Images

These images are of lines we drew to mark out where we should place the different papers which had our titles on it.

Talal and Mr Meade filming our titles again to make them stand out more to our viewers as before it wasn't fully clear about our Thriller name.

The Sony camera we used gave high quality images and was easy to use.

This is the Tripod we used, it was very sturdy and made panning and using tilts effortless.

Synoptic day

Seeing as our group had filmed before the Synoptic day as we knew that because our main location is our media room it would be in use by other media students we used our time to edit what we previously filmed.

On this day we:

• Edited our opening using Imovie
• Noted down the scenes/parts we needed to re shoot
• Looked for our non diegetic music
• And planned any shots we missed out that could improve our thriller opening

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 7

We feel that we have developed our skills in filming, storyboarding and narration throughout the process of this product. We have learnt how to use the space given to us as in the preliminary task we had a lot of space to film whereas in our final product we did not so we had to have a good framing to get everything needed in particular shots. Some of our shots from the preliminary task were very steady because the camera was placed on the pod whereas in the final product you can see the camera moving because we could not use the pod in some places for example when we filmed through the blinds the camera was shaking.




Now we know how to edit shots and how imovie works. I am able to figure out what shot needs what kind of angle such as taking shots of the display we thought we should take a high angle shot as it would look better and zooming in from a long shot to a mid-shot. We used non-diagetic sounds in our preliminary task but did not use it in our final product this is because there was so much distraction in some shots such as the time when we needed to film the printer we had to edit it so that you can only here the printer and nobody else, we faced difficulties during our filming because we always had to find a time where there was nobody in the room as the room we used was where the rest of the students were editing there work. The flashback scene in our film was supposed to be non-diagetic sound but because of some difficulty with the camera we used at the time no sound got recorded. In our preliminary task we used shot reverse shot. We also used this in our final product where the flashback seen is shown. We have also shown match on action in our opening just as we showed it in the preliminary task. This is the shot/reverse shot from our priliminary task:



This is the shot/reverse shot from our final piece:

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 6

From the process of making our film I have learnt about different technologies when constructing this product. We used blogger, YouTube, imovie, cameras and still cameras for our product. We used cameras for our filming now I have learnt how to use high quality digital cameras which I did not know how to use before. Imovie was used to insert all our clips in and to edit. At first I found it quite difficult to use but with the help of other group members I got the hang of it and edited some clips in to our opening, by this I am now able to edit and make films.



We used YouTube to upload our preliminary task, test shots, other films openings for research and our own films opening.



We used blogger to post our research, storyboards, evaluation etc.

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 5

By having a stalker as our main character we attracted our audience a lot and as mentioned before using the social networking site we also attracted them, this is the unique selling point of our film as when our audience would look at the website that they use being shown in a film they would want to watch it. The music used is tense music with a high beat at times when it wants to create tension for the audience. The setting we used was good because it fitted in with our narrative it also creates a sense of realism as we have shown a room full of computers with the social networking site opened with different pages of different people and a board which displayed maps and pictures of people. This would alert the audience in a way to show how stalkers are and attract them because they might want to know how stalkers actually work there way through stalking people.

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 4

We gave out questionnaires by hand and through the internet by mail and a social networking site. By doing this research we were able to create pie charts to show what our audience were interested in. this made it very easy for us to establish who are target audience would be. Our target audience are late teenagers who are probably in the ages of 16 to 20 year olds. Our target audience are people who are mostly interested in using the internet and concentrate more on the narrative of a film then the music or the characters. By taking this into mind our opening mostly concentrates on the internet and our narrative is fairly realistic as to what might be happening in the society today which our target audience will be interested in.

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 3

A production company is a company which is responsible for the development and physical production of any media product. Our production company name is ‘Tass productions’. According to our storyline our opening is seen as an independent film but could also be seen as a mainstream distributed. Entertainment film distributers could be the distributers of our film as they are an independent company however as it could also be a mainstream film universal studios, working title or Lionsgate could also distribute our film as they already have distributed thriller films.



Institutionally our film is similar to The Talented Mr. Ripley which is distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 2

We have 3 characters in our film one of which is the main character. The main character is represented as a stalker. The other two characters in our opening are the police officer and the witness we used a witness who would look innocent and not guilty, we did this so that the audience can know who the right and wrong person is in the film. We used a social networking website which would attract our audience as everyone uses social networking sites, this would aware our audience the bad outcomes of doing what they use in everyday life and what it could lead to such as the stalkers stalking them without them knowing. In our product we show a lot of other characters which are the people on the social networking sites this is shown to us at the beginning of our opening and when the stalker is looking at them on the website.

Afshan Naeem-evaluation question 1

Our thriller opening is called ‘Deleted’. It is set in a room which is full of computers and is located in our school this is because we needed a room with a lot of computers as this was supposed to be in our set and we could only find an area to facilitate in the schools building. Every film has costumes and props and so for our opening we needed print screens of a website which we could not access at school and needed it to put up on the screens, also we needed maps and pictures to put on our display which is the opening of our thriller.

This is the display















We decided not to show our characters face as this would create more tension as to who the person would be so we had to use clothing on the character which would make him look intimidating. We decided to use a dark grey and black jumper with the hood on his head covering everything so his face cannot be seen. Further on in the opening we needed the flashback scenes of a police officer who does not actually look like one so we decided to use one of our school teachers and got her to dress as a secret police officer.















We used a wide range of shots such as close ups, long shots, extreme close ups, high shots etc.We kept in mind thriller conventions and for our opening we used a point of view shot here are some examples:

high angle shot



extreme close up



We had to do a lot of editing of shots during the process of putting all our shots together. Some shots were useless because we filmed the same shots 3 times. Going towards the end of the film we realised that some of our shots were too long and they would bore the audience so we decided to edit them and make them 2 or 3 seconds long. The first shot is used to suggest everything. We used the display as it shows the title of the film and also suggests what it could be about because of all the maps, pictures and addresses of boys and girls. Then it moves on to close ups of all the people on a website called ‘mateplace’ and the main character using one of the computers and is on a girl’s page, he writes down information of a girl, then prints out a map, he crosses out a boys picture then throws it in the bin. This all suggests that he is a stalker. Then we have the flashbacks of two people one woman and a girl talking and sitting in an office that is used to show what the character is thinking and so the audience know automatically that it is a witness who he had stalked once before to show that this was a flashback we used a sepia tone which is different from the rest of out shots. We used non diagetic sounds throughout the opening but in some areas such as the printer we used diagetic sound. We also used a special effect in the beginning of the opening where we introduce the character it is a fade in effect from a girls picture into the character.

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 7

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

• I am now very aware of the use of space (framing), such as, when filming the shot reverse shot, in the preliminary task we didn't make use of the space within the frame. We placed the camera further away from the subject and this created a blank empty space next to her face. Therefore, the positioning of the camera is vital.
  In the main task we made sure that our framing was tighter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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• When re shooting sound we knew sound would be not be a issue because in our opening we choose to use mostly non diegetic sound apart from one scene when the stalker screws up the paper as this adds to the theme of being a stalker (throwing away evidence). In our Preliminary task we used verbal communication and when we had to re shoot the backgrounds sounds were different (this applied for lighting to as the lighting of the room was different when we re shot) this made the continuity worse.

• The cameras we used in the preliminary task showed that in future we should always check to see if the battery was full/semi full and sound was working as this would save us from re shooting in the future.

• Also, getting actors and actresses was difficult as we wanted to use someone with the same time off as our group so that we could use as much time as possible with them this is why we only used three actors. The main problem with actors and actresses was getting them to wear the same clothes when we needed to them to film, as even if we had the same location, the same lighting and sound and was ready with the camera the continuity would not be right if they were wearing different clothes therefore, we told our actor the days he needed to wear the same clothes and we made him wear his hood so that his hair being the same length wouldn't affect re shooting.
  
  
  



• The availability of both the actor or actresses and locations proved that it would be a problem, as we had to re shoot allot of the preliminary work consequently, we had to pick somewhere simple, and that we had to choose an actor who we knew and gain access to most of the time (i.e using Talal who's in our group).

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 6

• 6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?
  
  
• When we worked with the cameras/equipment we had to not be afraid to place it in different, awkward positions as it would provide us with more of an interesting image.

• Also, the filming and editing process takes a long time with lots of organisation, as we always had to be prepared to re shoot seeing as, editing displays all the faults which often is not seen when filming. Additionally, when organising we had to make sure we had the right props in order to give a more realistic effect to our film opening.

• The most frequent use of equipment was the Sony camera and the tripod, they were both relatively straight forward to use seeing as I used them throughout the preliminary task. What I have learnt about technology is to make sure the camera is turned to its right settings because if its not then this waste film and time.
  

• Furthermore, we used a range of sites including, YouTube, Blogger, Itunes which helped use develop are ideas and expand our learning by providing us with new ideas. We used Imovie to edit our opening, YouTube to upload our video once edited and then uploaded it from YouTube to Blogger so that the group could see our film. Blogger was the central place for all are group to post ideas and write from their point of view which was good, it also allows us to other outlet to make are blog more interactive and interesting such as, pictures, links and videos. However, blogger was sometimes hard to use as it is on the Internet I couldn't save my work or copy and paste my written work from Microsoft Word. It also wouldn't let me layout my work how I wanted to.
  

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• We attracted our audience by using mid shots of the murderer crossing off young peoples faces which makes the audience relate to the victims. We used close ups, so that its easy for the audience to follow the plot (better continuity), which makes the opening flow better.

• We also, clearly displayed who the victims were (the end zoom shot on the board) and who the murderer was looking at the victims faces on the paper suggesting dominance and power). We used both male and female victims to subvert the gender stereotypes of women playing the victim role and males the aggressive role this would make both males and females want to watch our thriller.

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 4

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

Our audience research showed our target audience to be

• Late teenagers/ early 20's as they want to be scared (to push limits).

• Also they have been brought up into a technological environment with computers, televisions, mobile phones and therefore, can relate to the story line of using social Internet sites which will consequently impact on them more making them think about our film and how the narrative might affect them.

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 3

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

• Our media institution would be a Independent going on to become a mainstream institution such as, Lionsgate (American Psycho) and Miramax Films as they are know for popular thrillers. Also, to be compared to other films of theirs could be a good thing as it would give more publicity to our film (Deleted) which is a fee method of advertising.

• Furthermore, they are not too well know and so will reach our target audience and not everyone will watch it (such as, families) because its certificate 15. Also, the money for our film will come from their past films gross profit (i.e merchandise money). Our film would be advertised on Miramax's or Lionsgates website computers (as it is based around computer sites) and on television later on at night from about 8pm to 11.30pm to catch our target audience. Having not to much advertisement keeps the mastery and saves money.

• In our titles are actors/actresses names are placed on a map at the start appearing one after another. The names written on a map again reinforces the stalker theme in our film.

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 2

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

• Our opening displays social Internet sites at the forefront of the darker side of life (as it creates tension and is mysterious). We use computers/technology based equipment to make it more realistic and interesting for our target audience of late teenager.

• Our product also displays the isolated people outside of the circle, as excluded but able to gain information about other just from these sites (our opening will extend to lots of teenagers as they are the people who feel like outsiders from society as the media portrays them as deviant . We display this by having high angle shots of the stalker looking at the computer screen of the victims.

Sophie Teasdale Evaluation question 1

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

• Our product contains a range of shots (close ups, high angle wide shots etc.) this conforms to other thrillers. Also, like other Psychological thrillers we used non diegetic music of a heartbeat pace which should help create a narrative of a typical stalker. However, unlike other thrillers our opening uses more modern techniques which includes, using Internet sites to sustain our target audiences attention.
  
  
  

• We used close ups when wanting to draw attention to the object, as it slyly puts an image of violence in the audience minds e.g the high angled close up of the murderer crossing off the victims faces (which is also used in Se7en titles).

• Similarly, to other thriller openings our stalker does not reveal his face, we used high angled shots, over the shoulder shots and close ups (his hand on mouse) to create enigma.

• Also, we filmed our titles instead of editing them in after, as we could incorporate it in our opening, this saved us time on synoptic day when we did most of editing and it made our thriller opening more realistic (Like in Layer cake overlapping titles on objects making it seem more visual interesting). Yet, it went against the norms of a thriller film of cutting to black and then having the titles which made our thriller more unique.

Sadie Breed Evaluation - Q7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full task?
I feel that since our preliminary task we have learnt to compose our shots with more thought as we often had large spaces around the characters which could have been used more effectively.


I have also learnt the importance of mise-en-scene which was something we did not think about in great detail for our preliminary task. For our final task however we carefully chose the room so we could have access to a number of computers, something that we felt would show the character's obsessive side. We also thought about what would be up in the room such as maps of the 'victims' locations and pictures of them to create a sense of realism.

Also we have learnt how important continuity is for an opening. To achieve continuity we had to do a number of things such as having our actor in the same clothing every time we filmed, having the same items displayed on the white board and having all the furniture in the same place. A time where continuity was important was when we were filming the titles which we wrote on maps. To make sure the titles looked similar we marked out the exact position of where the maps were positioned so we could line each one up to create the same framing.

Sadie Breed Evaluation - Q6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of constructing our media product we have had to use many technologies we are unfamiliar with.
An example of this is iMovie. I have now learnt how to edit shots and put them together in the time line in a way that ensures continuity. Also, we learnt how to add music to the piece and how to loop it so all our opening had music. One thing we had difficulty with was taking away the diegetic sound from our scenes as we had decided to use only non-diegetic sound and we could not get the music to sound right with background noise.

Also, as we were using social networks we had to find a way of displaying these sites in our location (at our school). Also, as we did not want to breach copyright, we had to change the name of the social network. We did this using photo editing programs to change the logo and the url as shown below.

Also I have learnt how to use high quality digital cameras to record and feel confident about using different angles to get the desired shots.

Sadie Breed Evaluation - Q5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract our audience we first had to find out what their interests were and how we could draw them into the plot of our film. To do this, we conducted audience research which we sent out by email and through social networks to both males and females.

Our results to questions such as 'What type of music do you like to hear in films?' and 'What do you do in your spare time?' gave us ideas of what to incorporate into our film in order to keep the audience interested. Once we came up with a rough plot, we decided we should have the stalker pursue his victims through social networking sites and have shots of technology such as computers and printers as this would be a world our audience were very familiar with and therefore it would have the ultimate effect of putting our audience on edge.

The response to the question 'What kind of music do you like to hear in films?' was mostly 'popular'. We considered putting popular music in our piece but we found out we could not use copyrighted music unless we had permission from the artist. We decided that we would have to go with the next most popular answer and chose to use 'dramatic' music.

Another way we attracted the audience was with the age of our 'victims'. The ages of our 'victims' ranged from 17-23 which means our audience will find it easier to relate to them rather than having our victims older and alienating our audeince. Below are pictures of two of our 'victims' to illustrate this.