What Kind Of Institutation Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?
The institution which would distribute our media product would be Paramount Pictures. This is a massive company known in media. Releasing hundreds of films all year round, they would be the type of production team a thriller film maker would rely on to make it big. They are a global distributor and release all genres of film, including Thrillers.
To make our thriller as successful as possible, the biggest and best distributor should be, not only to hit a maximum audience but for the paramount logo to advertise the film during cinema screenings, television breaks and other commercial times.
Paramount has a well known recognisable logo. It has been successful distributing thrillers such as "The Godfather", "Transformers" and many more. By the wide range of films they have distributed and for the amount of years they have been running successfully for, their knowledge on the subject will be great and know exactly what to do to make our thriller as big as it could be.
It has been running since 1910 and is based in Hollywood. This name is very familiar to the filming company proving them to have the correct resources and people to make our film great. They will have many connections including advertisement companies. The main way to make our film a new “must see” advertisement should be carefully monitored. The look of it, the time the adverts appear and how people will interpret it will be vital in making our thriller popular.
If we chose to use a smaller company, the threat of them going bankrupt will always be there. Paramount Pictures is a company worth billions of dollars and is America’s biggest distributor. They make a huge turnover of hundreds of millions each year by investing in films with that “something different.”
Paramount is a safe choice of distribution, ensuring success for our film by making it global.
As well as this, we also made the male character much more dominant than the female. He is shown to be powerful and have authority during the scenes which we have shot. In real life, many organisations have been set up to stop men from hurting women. Although it would be sexist to assume men are worse for violence than women, when illegal issues are discussed, the male is always presumed as the villain and the woman is seen as the victim.
Domestic violence is usually performed by a male. Although people would think of me as sexist to state such a thing, statistics online support the accusation. We stuck to thriller conventions and chose to make the criminal in our piece a male.
The film opening which we have created is a conventional Thriller. Things included such as change in pace, sense of mystery, atmosphere of tension, variety of shot types make the piece more interesting to watch. Everything we put into our thriller was relevant and the story line but had things which would shock the audience such as a religious man committing a sin as big as murder. This would be a jaw dropping piece of information for the audience to interpret due to the fact that the character should be living a sin free life.
When our Thriller opening is compared to other Thrillers currently in industry I feel it sticks out in the fact that it shocks much more than some other Thrillers do, however it fits in conventionally. This is important so that the large audience Thriller films attract aren’t disappointed when they want the “edge of their seat” feel in the cinema.
The The audience for my media product would be people above the age of 15. The BBFC have created the different ages of films and what each film should/should not contain in them to be the certain age rating. This is designed to guide parents of what films would be suitable for their children and if not, why not. No one should be sat in a cinema and not enjoy the experience to the extent of wanting to leave. The BBFC age rating shows everyone the fair age rating of each individual film for the protection of children.
“Suitable only for 15 years or over
No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language and one use of very strong language, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and undetailed sex activity.”We attracted our audience by handing out questionnaires with a variety of different question types on. We wanted to get the maximum amount of feedback and so printed out 20. We thought this was a good amount of responses to take into account in determining how to create our Thriller.
Limitations:
Although a 15 classified film can include things such as mild violence and light sexual scenes, a limitation is that a film classified as an 18 could include a lot more to create dramatic tension and an atmosphere representative of a Thriller.
"Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with strong sexual activity is also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context."
By being able to film things such as very violent scenes, we could have made the "psycho" man to be a lot more disturbed than expected. By us filming the scenes in a way where little violence was shown, we thought the audience could make their own assumptions as to what he does to the girl. Although many members of the audience could have great imaginations, some people don't like having to sit and solve problems throughout a film. If, in our two minute opening she showed something such as the man hitting the girl, the audience would be more disgusted in him due to seeing the direct contact he forced on her.
We asked the question “What type of music do you think should be played in a Thriller?” The results were very varied however one type won by a staggering amount. Eerie music was by far the most popular by almost two thirds of the votes. It was obvious that the audience we were aiming for wanted music to set a strong scene of tension and make them feel a little bit freaked out.
“Calm” music got no votes, showing the audience wanted at least one type of music to cause a little anxiety. Classical was the second most popular. Knowing this, we decided to mix classical and eerie music together to get a result of the two.
Problems we faced
We were limited to our own age group at school.
AUDIENCE PROFILE
Teenager of 17/18 years old.
Male
Watched 2 films per week, usually a Thriller film four times a week.(Out of the genre’s he watches -Thriller films the most!)
Enjoys going to the cinema regularly, uses internet sites such as “Youtube” to watch film trailers, which are soon to be released.
Usually goes to the cinema with a group of boys from school.
Enjoys an exciting film and feeling the pressure during a tense scene.
Attends college and has had further post 16 education.
Stereotypically an average teen. Not well known throughout college or popular, but not a “nerd” who’s always studying. Enjoys socialising with friends in spare time. Thriller films often come up in conversation.
How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?
We added shocking images such as a Deer’s head to grab the audience’s attention. By the photo being so barbaric, the audience will do a second glance to see if the photo really is of what they thought it was. This was easy to get hold of due to Henry’s hobby of Deer shooting.
Things we included during editing:
When showing people our creation in the media room we got a lot of great comments back! This was important to us. To get feedback at all is a way to improve a media production for next time. What the target audience say is vital to whether our Thriller opening could make it in the industry in real life. Luckily, everybody we showed liked it and gave us great comments about how we effectively created the mise-en-scene and the story line was strong. They said it enraptured their attention and made them feel nervous, demanding them to keep watching to see how it ended.
The image shows Henry walking out of the door after locking the girl up inside and leaving her. It is unclear to the audience whether he left her alive or dead, as no violence or the tying up of the girl has been included. We felt that sometimes, it is scarier to imagine what has happened to the girl rather than actually see the footage of the psycho character causing physical harm. Luckily the two images work very well together as the long shot of Henry fits perfectly inbetween the close up of the hostages eyes, giving the over lapping of these two photos an effective look. If one of the images became blured or unrecognisable due to the over lapping, it would be pointless to include it as it would only confuse our audience and make our Thriller opening look unprofessional.
In total, 4 interviews were done. We made sure that we interviewed two boys and two girls to that the results we recieved back were even and fair. We then uploaded our interviews onto Youtube so people could see them and "like" them or add a comment which could consist of constructive critisism which could help us improve our questions.
Feedback we got through interviews.
Before I was asked to do this task, I hadn’t even been able to turn on a video camera without asking for assistance. During this task I felt as though I was thrown in the deep end and needed to learn how to use one fast! I researched things on Youtube such as how to film effectively. I watched many videos explaining so I could have a basic understanding of how the camera would work and how to operate it. This made me feel much more relaxed and turned by attitude from panic to excitement. Whilst doing our prelim we practiced many more challenging shots such as a steady pan. I discovered the importance of using a tripod throughout filming the hard way after recording some scenes by holding the camera to see how steady it would be. The result was unfortunate and disgraceful when compared to the same scene done whilst on a tripod. I also practiced doing a steady zoom and managed to get the hang of this quickly and ended up using many of them in our Thriller opening when zooming in on the bible. I carefully placed the roseary beads onto the ten commandments of the bible. I made it so that when the camera zooms in, the most visable commandment which the audience will look at will be "thou shalt not kill" creating the mystery as to what the religious man would do to the girl whilst still trying to keep his beliefs and loyalty to God.
Imovie was a lot simpler than I first thought! When watching people edit before I had any of my own experience, it looked extremely worrying. However, shortly after having a play on the mac during our prelim editing I soon got to grips with what it was I needed to do and how to use it effectively to make our media run smoothly.
The most challenging part I did during editing was figuring out how to use Final Cut and detaching the audio from it so that the clips together make a really dramatic effect when watching it back. I thought to make it look even better and more dramatic was for Henry to close the door in slow motion, and so changed the speed of the clip towards the tortoise to ensure a slow finish to our Thriller opening.
By adding fade to blacks (or whites) between different clips, ensured a smooth finish to our opening. There were no jolts in the filming as the black screen polished off the production and dramatised the building of tension but a quick flash of black before seeing a distressing clip. The careful allocation of where the fade to blacks went made the audience wonder how far into a violent scene they would see before they got cut off. By repeatedly surprising your audience they are more than likely to become more and more determined to see the end.
Wordle: This is a programme which allows you to make "word clouds." They are aesthetically pleasing to look at and are very eye catching inbetween text. You can chose your own colour, style and direction the words face.
Final Cut: This programme allows you to put a moving image over the top of another moving image to create a special effect. I decided to go onto the programme and have a go to see whether I would be able to work it effectively. I put the image of the girl unconscious in the chair over the top of Henry locking up the warehouse leaving the girl inside. After this, I detatched the audio on the images so they are ready for when they are put onto Imovie and the sound track is added. By using this software, it allowed a professional finish to our Thriller opening.
Prezi: This is a form of power point which I used. It's a much more interesting technique to use on blog as the viewer interacts and controls the speed and rate at which the prezi goes. They are in control of how far into the presentation they go and at what rate they read it. It is a software most people find hard to control due to it being a quite unknown technology. However I found it a personal challenge to look how to control it and use it effectively to answer a complex question.
Imovie: This is the software which played the biggest role in editing our Thriller opening. By it being so popular, some people who are owners of apple macs were already familiar with the technology and able to use it. I have never used a mac before and so the experience was completely new to me. I soon came to grips with the software and was able to edit effectively after researching into it. We included techniques such as flashbacks, to put the audience's focus on religion and how the psycho character reacts to the written laws of God.
Garage Band: The software where we merged copyright free tracks together. To begin with we looked at the ready made tracks which garage band had but found them to be over used and not work effectively when syncing them to our Thriller opening. Instead we found the tracks off a website, ensuring they're copyright free and adding a sound effect in two places of our opening to highlight the most dramatic peaks. The software was easy to use and allowed us to make a new track quickly and simply.
Garage band also allows you to fade out the music during the end of the piece. This sounds much more pleasing to the ears than having a sudden stop at the end of our opening. It also signifies to the audience that they are reaching the end of the Thriller. If there was a sudden cut off in the music, the audience would feel let down by the fact that they were unprepared for it. Fading the music out gives subtle hints to the ending of the piece and is an additional effect to make our Thriller sound better and shows we have thought about every detail to improve.
Google, youtube, facebook and networking sites: Google was the most common search engine which I used throughout creating my blog. It allowed easy access to things such as "wordle" and "prezi." By uploading our prelim and Thriller opening onto "Facebook" we got feedback from our peers to see what they think of our Thriller opening and whether it did the job it was supposed too, and entertained them, giving them the "on edge" feel which a Thriller should create. Youtube also allowed easy access when uploading our prelim and Thriller opening onto blog. It was quick and easy and we could check the feedback given to us from youtube.
As well as using how to use all of these programme, we also managed to upload our Prelim and final Thriller Opening onto Facebook and Youtube to get comments/feedback from people online to see whether they enjoyed what we had filmed and how, if next time we could improve, and whether they think our Thriller fits the conventions it should do.
During editing I learnt how to:
Fade to blacks/fade to whites
Speed up clips/ slow down clips
Change the contrast of the clips i.e. old world etc
Making the soundtrack on garage band
How to film a steady shot
How to cut clips to make them the right time scale to fit in
Using final- This was used due to the simplicity of imovie. I found I couldn’t do all of the things I could see in my mind and wanted to use a more complex programme to ensure the best possible result. By putting a picture over a picture I find it adds much more dramatic tension and was commented on several times by people who had watched our Thriller, saying it was a very effective technique and finishes off the piece perfectly.
Add special effects
Smoothing the motion of a clip if it looked jolty (stabilisation)
How to learn transitions
Import/export footage and sound
Using mp3 files
Freeze frames
Tripods, number of takes, lighting (natural), avoiding problems which will show on the footage i.e. shadows
Doing a smooth zoom and how to do it effectively.
Title sequences
180 degree rule- If this is ever broken the audience think that the actors keep flicking from left to right and back again. This will make them feel dizzy and not understand the conversation due to the constant moving of the camera.
Continuity errors- This was one extremely important element to monitor! If this was not done correctly, the whole Thriller opening could have been ruined due to the audience being unable to follow the story line at all. If somebody went through a door but then on the other side the door was closed although the audience never saw them close it, this would not make sense. It would make the whole production look very unprofessional and would cause us as a group to be very disappointed in the piece.
During our first few months of media when we first made our blog, I didn’t fully understand the concept of how easy it would be to use and update because I was so used to the concept of pen and paper. Posting all of my coursework on a blog instead of filing it in a folder I found much easier. I found I could keep up to date easily and I could complete work much quicker with it looking even neater than something hand written due to how easy it is to delete a mistake and not have to scribble it out and start again.
I like the idea of everybody having their own website of coursework, and by following people it encourages people to add to their own when they see the amount of updates their friend has done. The only criticism I found with blogger was that people could copy work easily but change the odd word to make it look different. This I found to be annoying due to having to sit and think of ideas for layouts and picture uploads, to then find other people doing things too similar for coincidence.
I like how you can scroll down a blog and see every post a person has ever made and being able to see good and bad examples of blogs to help keep me on the right track and posting successful blog posts. I also enjoy discovering and practicing the different elements to media. Prezi is very challenging to upload onto blog, due to it taking a long time to download off of the website and save into my documents and then after several attempts of uploading it on blog as a video, it has been unsuccessfully posted. This will need immediate assistance so that I can discover how to upload it successfully.
Another success of blog I find it impossible to ruin. Paper work is easily lost, ruined in the rain and claimed to be eaten by pets. None of these disastrous things can happen to us on blog because everything is already posted and online. It can be accessed on any computer from anywhere in the world and can never be lost unless deleted!
You can also edit posts to improve them. This is a very helpful element of blog due work being upgraded by working in spare time when convenient rather than tying us down all night to complete a certain post, it can be left and done when appropriate to me. It also saves your work whilst you are busy typing away. This is such a good idea to do on blog due to how prone computers are to crashing regularly! By having a copy already saved on your personal blog home page, there is no need to have to sit and retype all of your work again.
Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Think You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?
THRILLER OPENING: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r155_ZyXPh0
Our Prelim filming was completed within one hour. We got one lesson to finish it and then it needed to be uploaded onto the mac ready to edit. I stayed in the same group for doing our prelim and our Thriller opening. I believe we got on very well and worked hard together as a group resulting in a success.
The story line for our Prelim was an agent handing in his letter of resignation and having to be killed to make sure that he doesn’t repeat any top secret information to the wrong kind of people. Two characters take part in it. The agent and the agents boss who kills him.
You don’t see the agent get killed or even see a gun. We thought that it would be more effective to have a sudden black out and then the sound of a gunshot. The audience will know what has happened but it would be a complete shock due to only seeing Henry (the boss) only reaching into his pocket to get what could have been something as innocent as a pen.
Lighting: Natural light was the only thing available when filming our prelim. No other resources could have been found within school to improve or change the lighting in any way.
Location: When filming our prelim we were restricted to one location. Due to it having to be done within one hour of school time, we were forced to locate the prelim in a chosen area of school.
Shooting: The prelim is only supposed to be a quick piece to learn about how to use a video camera effectively without problems such as continuity errors, breaking the 180 degree rule and remembering the rule of thirds in a shot.
Editing: A restricted time was given for us to edit our prelim to a high standard. It was during this time I first discovered Imovie and how to use it to my advantage to gain a positive impression of the software. By doing a prelim, it was easier to plan effectively and discuss media terminology such as camera shots, ideas on editing and musical pieces.
Lighting: Natural light was the only thing available when filming our prelim. No other resources could have been found within school to improve or change the lighting in any way.
Location: When filming our prelim we were restricted to one location. Due to it having to be done within one hour of school time, we were forced to locate the prelim in a chosen area of school.
Shooting: The prelim is only supposed to be a quick piece to learn about how to use a video camera effectively without problems such as continuity errors, breaking the 180 degree rule and remembering the rule of thirds in a shot.
Editing: A restricted time was given for us to edit our prelim to a high standard. It was during this time I first discovered Imovie and how to use it to my advantage to gain a positive impression of the software. By doing a prelim, it was easier to plan effectively and discuss media terminology such as camera shots, ideas on editing and musical pieces.
Our prelim was acceptable, but looking back at it now I see a large room for improvement. During the time of filming most of us had never used a video camera before and the whole thing was a new experience to us.
We used many different shots during our prelim
This long shot was taken from the top of the stairs. Kingston is below the level of the camera, showing him to be vulnerable, reflecting upon his decision to resign from his job. He then becomes level with the camera, showing us that really he is brave to do so due to him knowing that he will most likely end up dead for doing it.
This close up taken from the floor puts concentration on the characters feet, it connotates the idea of Kingston “walking to his death” and adds tension for the audience watching as during this moment they are unsure as to where he is walking.
The mise-en-scene could have easily been improved as I feel that is obvious we are filming in a school and an agent and a murder would not occur in a local school, but in a spy head quarters.
In order to make Kingston walking through the door make sense, we needed to shoot a behind and in front shot to show what he is doing from two angles so that he doesn’t just suddenly transform from before the door to after the door. Him walking through needs to make sense to the audience. This was our first attempt of filming the door from both sides without making a continuity error and it worked very well!
We put the tripod as high as it would go and I stood on top of a chair in order to get this extreme long shot. We customised it to make it look like a CCTV camera had recorded Kingston walking down this corridor. This looks effective as it gives the audience a point of view shot from the camera, even though it isn’t really there.
A limitation of our Prelim was that during this scene we ran out of time to do a take without the actors laughing in the scene. We did 20 takes on this scene but found the new experience exciting and caused the actors to laugh a lot during filming throughout of the prelim, causing it to look unprofessional.
Thriller Opening:
This shot took a long time to produce. We used natural light and pulled the curtains in Henry’s house to leave a gap of light shining on the bible but keeping the corners in the dark. We thought this light looked very effective and made it mysterious by the bible being the only thing lit up in the shot.
Filming the credits needed to be done in a better light source than our opening bible shot. We did this in front of a large window to allow lots of sunlight inside to shine upon the book. This makes it easy to read and the effect of the shadows made by the hand at the top of the shot works well by hinting to the audience that someone in the room is reading the bible and are obviously very religious. Our first attempt looked unprofessional because we wrote onto a page in a red sharpy pen, rather than text being formatted through the computer and made to look like a real bible. Our second attempt look much more realistic and believable from the audience's point of view. These things such as religious illustrations and the credits in a bible, hint the personality of the main character in the first few seconds of our opening.
The acting during the Thriller opening was much better than through the Prelim. During the most dramatic scene, we had managed to shoot a very effective mid shot of Henry and I, just as he put the needle into my neck to knock me out. This makes our video look so much more professional and aesthetically pleasing by the acting being convincing.
This final shot was what I made on Final Cut, Henry locks the door without a care in the world whilst I lay inside the place dead. I slowed this shot right down to ensure a very dramatic finish to our Thriller Opening and to shock the audience one last time before it ends.
The importance of our ending it that you don’t see what he does to the girl inside the place he has locked her up in. This causes the audience to use their imagination as to what could of happened and gets them to wonder “what is the religious man capable of?” A big climatic finish is a key convention to the Thriller genre.
During filming, we discovered that the windy conditions of the day caused the tripod to wobble whilst on the ground causing the shot to look unstable. We tried holding the tripod which seemed to work but natural shaking of the hands also affected some of the shots. After stabilising the shots which needed tweaking the end result was far better than we imagined it to be.
To improve next time, extra care should be taken during filming to ensure the shot is as steady as possible and that not actors laugh or smile. By doing this it will help to make our filming look as though it was professional.
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