Josh's Evaluation

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

Used

Cross cutting -
Through our research we have learnt that Thriller films cross-cut between two different scenes. For example 'The Da Vinci Code'. The scenes switch from a chase scene to the main character giving a speech. This make the audience feel that the two are linked and there is a connection in the film.

In our short clip we have tried to use this convention this in our film, we cross-cut between the computer programmer typing on his computer and the car arriving and other character getting out. This creates a sense of mystery and makes the audience realise that the two are linked. We used this technique as it was quite simple yet effective. It is a typical thriller convention and I believe that we made our product more effective by using it.

Shot Composition - 
In our Media product we have used a certain shot composition so we do not reveal the faces of the man in black. We thought that this was a very good technique to use as it creates mystery and tension. The audience would be questioning who the characters were and why the faces are not being revealed. When researching we found this technique in the film The Usual Suspects, the fact that the killers face isn't shown is a major factor later on in the film. The framing of our shots was the major part of the convention that we used to make the shots effective by not displaying the face of the man in black.

We used this in our opening because we believe it is a needed convention in a thriller as it creates a sense of mystery and tension. This is what we wanted to make make our audience feel initially so i believe it was very effective.

Developed

Antagonists and Protagonists

In our  production we had a protagonist and a antagonist. The computer programmer is the protagonist and the man in black is the protagonist, we know this because the computer programmer is the main character and the man in black creates antagonism.This is a typical thriller convention and by involving and developing it in our product we made it look effective. With our antagonist and protagonist we have challenged the normal versions because the supposedly victim in our clip is actually the antagonist in the main plot of the film the audience just assumes he is the protagonist, however, the real protagonist is the man in black.                                                                                                                                                                    

The protagonist in Dark Knight is Batman and the antagonist is The Joker. This is a typical film rivalry as throughout each Batman film Batman is trying to stop The Joker so the Joker is causing the antagonism. This is a great convention and it is most effective in all of the Batman films as without the rivalry there is no film.

Crime and Espionage

The Crime and Espionage displayed show that the audience get a sense that the character is being watched by somebody the whole time, another example of this is in the film 'Phone booth' as shown below. We decided to use different angles and shots for strange angles to make it as if the man in black and the computer programmer are being watch and that somebody is witnessing the whole thing. It makes our opening seem effective because the audience feel like they are watching them secretly and this creates tension because they don't know what is going to happen.

Challenged

Daytime

In a typical thriller its is usually dark as if to set creepy scenery such as the screenshot from 'Dark Knight' shown below, however, in our product the whole product was filmed in the day and it has many shots where full daylight is visible. We tried to make our thriller suspenseful and tense without the convention of darkness and I believe we achieved that. I also believe that it make it more realistic as people may think that daytime is safe but we are going against that. The main thought of our daytime filming was that we realised that people assume that the dark is always linked to danger so we decided to use daylight to make the audience realise it happens in the daylight because people usually feel safe in the daylight.

Delayed Action

The two screenshots below display a shot from the opening on 'The Da Vinci Code' and the ending of the opening to our production 'EDEN'. The point i am trying to display is that in 'The Da Vinci Code' there is a murder within the first two minutes of the film, however, in our opening there is no dramatic or shocking  action that happens, the build up makes the audience think there is going to be a murder, but then the audience see that the man knew he was coming and was prepared. The next shot cuts to the film title and then displays in a smaller font underneath '3 months earlier...'  this is showing that the action is yet to come.
 

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

Josh- How does your media group represent particular social groups? on Prezi

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

We chose to post our question 3 on wiki spaces because we are working on institutions and the first place we looked for information was Wikipedia, therefore we decided it was a suitable wiki to post on.

nfgsaltair.wikispaces.com


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

Our films target audience is a male audience between the ages of 12-25. We have included the factor of gaming in our film with one of the main characters and the guns and cars involved also attract a male audience. Although the film is quite unique, personally i would say that the matrix is a film that is similar due to the thriller suspense and also the computer based background involved.

 Our media product was aimed at particular social groups involving mostly age and gender. We aimed it at 12-25 age group because we believed they were the type of people that would be interested in our story line due to maturity. Also we aimed it mostly at a male audience, you can tell this by the cars, guns and computers all of which are usually male interests, however this may be a stereotypical way of looking at it because the film would also be suitable for a female audience. Also people 40+ may also be interested.

Our audience results showed the general consumption of films in different age groups. It showed that people in a variety of age groups are watching more than 1 film a week and with significant numbers in the 7+ category it could be as many as two films per week. It shows that the audience has experience and exposure to a range of film product.

There is no correlation between age and number of films watched per month. This could be because our sample of participants was very small, it included only 20 different people. 14 of our participants were under the age of 26, this was the younger end of our sample. This may have affected our results and prevented them from showing the correlation. However, our target audience for our production is 12-25 so we are not concerned about the skew towards a younger audience.

This table shows an example of the age group and gender groups we questioned for our research.

5. How did you attract or address your audience?



We annotated our main production on YouTube and displayed how we attracted our audience.


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

Throughout this year I have learnt many new skills such as how to use; Blogger, YouTube, Prezi, Final Cut Express, Apple Mac Computers, HD Cameras and Tripods. Below i will display in which
way we have used each of our new skills to create our product.

Blogger-

For Media Studies was that we had to start a blog as a group and post our work onto it. I had never written a blog before this course but now i am extremely comfortable with using blogger and think it is a very useful and easy to use site. I found that setting up blogger was very easy and posting was simple. In the blog your are able to tag posts for future reference, this helped me a lot in later stages of planning and especially for evaluating.

YouTube-

YouTube is a website which I frequently use due to me and my friends having our own account and creating a posting videos on it. I found it easy to set up an Altair account and upload the videos because of my experience with my own account. However i did not know how to tag videos and annotate them but thanks to this course i am now able to complete such tasks without thinking. I believe that YouTube is a great way to get feedback on your video quickly so we could make improvements.


Prezi-

Prezi is a presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas upon a virtual canvas. Prezi is distinguished by its Zooming ability, which enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. Prezi is new to me and it took me a long while to become used to it, but once I got used to it I felt that it is a useful tool.

Final Cut Express-

Final Cut Express is an the editing program we used on the Mac's to edit our film. I had never used this program before but I become extremely familiar with it and enjoyed the experience of learning to use it. I thought that it was an excellent a program to use for our course. I would be comfortable with using it in the future and look forward to learning more technical features of the program. 

Apple Mac Computers-

We used Apple Mac's for our course because they are needed to run almost all of of the programs we used to create our product such as, Final cut Express and Photo Shop. When i first used the Mac's i found it very difficult as it is completely different from a normal Windows system but over time i have got used to them and now believe they are better than Windows due to the fact that they are practical and are also able to run vital programs that Windows cannot. 

HD Cameras/Tripod-

We used Canyon HD cameras to film our product. I have some experience with using video cameras and I found it easy to use them. The Tripod is a very useful tool as it allowed us to use different angles and shots when filming our product. I have never used one before when filming anything and I think that it was extremely useful.

Audit

 

	Start	End
Blogger	1/10	10/10
YouTube	7/10	9/10
Prezi	1/10	9/10
Final Cut Express	1/10	9/10
Mac's	4/10	9/10
HD Cameras/Tripod	5/10	10/10

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



We annotated our preliminary production with ways in which we have improved in our final production since of preliminary task and what we used in our main production because of the use of it in the preliminary task.
In conclusion , I believe that we have been successful in progressing from the preliminary stage to the main task. I feel that we took on what we learnt and also used new features as well. We experimented more with lighting and different camera angles in our main video. Our editing went extremely smooth as we had experience with our preliminary which helped us to be prepared for the main editing. We also tried out some new editing techniques which we felt made our video better such as sound bridges and transitions. Overall I think we have learnt a lot from our preliminary and it helped us a lot.

Our Final Production

Screenshots related to prezi (josh's prezi, question number 2 on 'Josh's Evaluation')

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Screenshot 4

Screenshot 5

Screenshot 6

Screenshot 7

Screenshot 8

Screen shot 9

Film Title Logo

This is our final production film title logo.

Art of the title

Psycho

Psycho’s opening titles are very simple; it contains lots of wipe effects and after each wipe shows a different title. It involves black and white bars that spread across the screen from different angles and the titles follow.  However, these credits were groundbreaking in the 20^th century as it was the start of animated titles. Saul Bass (1920-1996) was the designer of these title openings and is still known as a genius to this day for his brilliance. He was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design.

Lord of War

The knockout title sequence to Lord of War is a first-person narrative where it shows you the life of a bullet from the bullets point of view. We are shown the life of it and we see how quickly it can be made and then used to kill. The first person POV reminds one of a first person shooter video game and never seemed suited to the subject matter however, I realised that the gaming correlation was part of the intent.

Loading Bar Research

This is an example of a potential loading bar we could use for our production. I believe this is a good loading bar to use as it looks advanced and proffesional that other loading bars we have found. Also the three [parts to it make it seem that it is a big download.

Filming timetable

Filming session 1- 29th January 11am-4pm

The weather on the first day of filming was mild however this didn't affect us in any way as we were filming in side. We did however rely some what on the natural sunlight to give us an effective back lighting.

Filming session 2- 31st January 10am-12.15pm.

On the second day of filming we had slightly wintery weather which did not help us when we wanted to use natural lighting. 

Filming session 3- 7th February 10am-2pm.

It was a shame that we had to film on the one day dedicated to editing, however, without the footage we would not have had anything to edit. This was all due to bad planning. The weather was wintery with small flurry's.

Progress Bar Research

This is one of the progrees bar's we have researched. I believe it is effective because it explain's underneith the bar that its is complete and that is what we want to appeal to the audience that is has finished. However it may be slightly too unrealistic progress bar for a computer programmer to have up. Maybe a more computer code loading bar would be more appropriate.

Script Ideas

Final production script

Computer programmer [Video Blog]- Hello people, i am terribly sorry for any proceedings as soon as the problems are amended. I will notify you when the game is working again so that you can get your fix.

[Hit man enters room]

Computer programmer- I wondered when you would show up.

[Computer programmer smirks]

Script idea No.2

[hit man is shown to be walking up some stairs, not made clear who he is going to kill]
       Focus switches to
[He is being Chased and so cuts the servers]

Opens with video log


Alright listen up players Eden will be down for the next couple of week s due to unforeseen circumstances. I can't tell you alot right now but it should all become clear in the future. [Transmission ends]

Audience research

This is a post displaying my audience research. To research I decided to use the method of questionnaires because I felt it was the most effective way to gain as much information as possible. I had gathered this audience research before christmas however, having had trouble creating graphs in Numbers (a Mac program), we eventually decided to transfer our file into Excel. We have since been able to create graphs and display results, as shown below.

This graph and table shows the general consumption of films in different age groups. This shows that people in a variety of age groups are watching more than 1 film a week and with significant numbers in the 7+ category it could be as many as two films per week. It shows that the audience has experience and exposure to a range of film product. There is no correlation beween age and number of films watched per month. This could be because our sample of participants was very small, it included only 20 different people. 14 of our participants were under the age of 26, this was the younger end of our sample. This may have affected our results and prevented them from showing the correlation. However, our target audience for our production is 12-25 so we are not concerned about the skew towards a younger audience.

15 out of 20 respondents expected a production company to be introduced in a thriller opening. In response to this we will include our production company logo at the beginning of our opening sequence.  13 out of 20 respondents expected actors and actresses to be introduced. From product research I have found that other films, such as ''The Usual Suspects' and 'Rear Window', have included actors and actresses introductions at the start of the film.  Therefore, I can see that I am getting the same results out of my audience research and my product research.  Which means we should prioritise the inclusion of the introductions.  18 out of 20 people believed that the scene should be set in the opening to a thriller. We hope to do this by introducing main characters,  location and plot.  6 out of 20 people decided they expected slow paced music however, 10 out of 20 people expected fast paced music. A further 2 respondents expected music with lyrics. There is a balance between the fast and slow choices, this could be because most thrillers include both as is appropriate.  We have decided to choose music that is both fast and slow to reflect our results, this changes the mood and suspense throughout the production. We may use the fast paced music for the more exciting parts and the slow paced music for the more suspenseful parts. 

 

We asked this question because we were intrigued as to what people most watched on television. Although these results don't necessarily have an influence on our production because they show that a lot of respondents watch comedy and that is not appropriate for a thriller. However, we've learnt that a quarter of respondents watch police dramas and almost half watch documentaries. Police dramas usually have police detectives, a similar character to thriller detectives. Also documentaries are about real life it gives them and us an impression of what the film should be like

This table shows that a massive 14 out of 20 people believed that it is not important for thrillers to be rated 15 certificate because it is mostly about how it's filmed and how good, exciting and original the story is. However, a small 6 out of 20 people believed that a 15 certificate was need in order to make a god thriller film because they believed that it allows the creators to use darker subjects and also make it more scary and realistic.

A massive 18 out of 20 people said that psycological thriller were their favourate, i believe this is because it keeps the audienece on edge and this is what the audience said they wanted in other results. Technological was also quite popular, 8 people said that they like this type of film. As a group we decided that we would make a mixture of these two main choices, that is how we started to develop our ideas for our film.

People expect many diffrent things from thrillers as people have diffrent favourates and opinions. However, people seemed to pic up on the fact most thrillers have fast paced action and cuts so some people selected that, In our production we will be using fast cuts and creating suspense We will build suspense by using fast and slow paced mysterious music and by using fast cuts. Also we shall include a plot twist for a bigger effect.

Many people selected very famous films as their favourate due to the fact it may be the only thriller film they have seen, however, most if not all films above our group have seen and having taken all methods of sound, shots and editing into account. We will use many features that are used in the films mentioned above.

15 out of 20 candidates believe that resolved endings are better than cliffhangers. The main reason for this was that they wanted to know what happens in the end, they dont want to feel like the film was left unfinished. Also many people exclaimed their hate for sequals as they believe there has not been many films that have better sequals than the orginal. 6 out of 20 candidates believed cliffhangers were better because they like the fact you dont know what is going to happen or how it ends because it allows them to create their own ending in their head. Others prefered cliffhagers due to sequals however this was not a very popular response.

Weather Report

Whether report for the day of our filming- 31st January 2012

We will be filming between the times of 10:00-12:15 so we will have good light from the sun.  The low temperatures will not affect us because we are filming inside. However if it had been raining we would not have the same effect needed by the sun.

Risk assessment

Potential risks
Risk 1- In order to film and get between the different scene locations we will be driving. This obviously comes with a health risk to the group.
Precautions- A precaution we will take to ensure group safety is to ensure everybody has their seat belts on when traveling.

Risk 2 - In our scene there are a lot of loose wires etc. These could be potential trip hazards to the group.
Precautions- To ensure nobody trips on the wires we will highlight the trip hazards ensuring everybody is aware of them and we will try and clear any unnecessary hazards.

Risk 3- In another one of our scenes we are filming on a road side. This could potentially mean a crash hazard.
Precautions- To ensure our safety we will have somebody looking out for vehicles and ensuring they are aware of our presence.

Our title font decision

We have researched a selection of similar fonts to see which would be the most appropriate for our film. Using our previous font research we decided that the best fonts were the simple block writing. The cubism effect makes it appropriate to the gaming aspect of the story.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Above are the 3 options we chose for our font title. As our group had mixed opions on which was the best font we decided the best approach was to ask the target audiecne and see which was their favourite font. From doing this we deduced that the most appropriate font was option 3 as we ruled out option 2 because it was to science fiction and not enough thriller and the target audience preffered option 3.

 Update
During the editing process we found out that we were unable to use the fonts that we had chosen so we reconsidered an came up with some new possibilities. This was our final choice of font.

http://www.1001freefonts.com/Discognate.php

Title Ideas

Most film title will refer to something that occurs in the movie or a message given by the movie for example 'Rear window' is set through the view of the back window of his apartment throughout. 'Inception' is another example, inception meaning 'the establishing of a starting point' is something that the film is based around what they are trying to create.
Another criteria of a movie title is for it to be individual, creative and make it stand out. The movie title needs to make it stand out among other films and not let it be mistaken for a different movie.

The main focus of our storyline is on the game created by the main character. He creates a game that is unlike any other and higher than life.

One of our ideas is 'Eden' meaning 'The garden of god' or 'A paradise'. This relates to the game because the game has become a paradise for its users and it is making the owners godlike because the game is beginning to control their lives.

Other ideas for the title which relate to the storyline are,

• The Game
• Utopia
• The idea 
• Infringement
• Eden's infringement/EDEN

 As a group we have decided that the most suitable movie title would be 'Eden' it has a clear reference to the story and it is simple and to the point. It is a title that could be easily recognized and memorable.

Character Analysis

The Usual Suspects

In this film there is a variety of very different, interesting characters including:

Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin) - This character is a very strange. He finds all violence funny and the very thought of himself being caught makes him laugh. An example of this is when they are in jail under suspicion of stealing a truck full of weapons and McManus just laughs about it as if he knows he is not going to be caught in anything he does.











Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro) - This character is very different to the others because he is very flamboyant and spontaneous, nobody knows much about him other than that he has a strong accent and a lisp and also the fact that he wears suits. This shows that he is unpredictable.




















Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) - He seems to be the leader of the group, you get the idea that he is a good guy gone bad because of his past of being a cop. However, all the way through you suspect that Dean Keaton is Keyser Soze. When you find out it is not him you then suspect that he is a good guy turned bad, turned good again because he is trying all the way through to make a break so he can be with his wife a live a normal life. Lastly he was always the man with the plan and always knew exactly what he was going to do next, this suggests that he is intelligent. The fact that you realise he is not a bad guy makes him more likable because you realise he is trying to be good again.













Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint (Kevin Spacey) - He seems to be a very trusting character that could never have done anything to hurt or annoy anybody. He seems so innocent and declares his very believable story to the police. However it is not until the end of the film you realise he is not what he seems and that the whole time he was pretending to be innocent and confused, although he was a genius. The whole concept of his character is reversed into this genius suddenly as he plays his way out of the police station and to freedom. The audience realises he was the one the police had been looking for the whole time, this is proof that he was not afraid of getting caught becaue of his self confidence.




















Officer Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) - This person is a very arrogant and strict police officer. He always thinks that he has worked it out and never doubts himself, he knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. This is shown by the way he treats the other police officers, he thinks he has more authority than the others  for example when he sends the other police officer out of the interview with Roger 'Verbal' Kint. Even though he is arrogant and unliked by the audience he is the good guy because he is trying to enforce the law on a very dangerous subject. The way that he questions Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint leads us to believe that he doesn't think he could possibly be Keyser Soze. However, at the end of the film we find out that he had the man he was looking for in his office and by looking at the board behind him he finds out that Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint was playing him the whole time. This shows that he is an over confident police officer that criminals get the better of.
























Se7en

Se7en has three main characters and one lesser character who has a big part to play in the story.

Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) - In this film Somerset is professional, he is the veteran detective. Somerset is leading Mills throughout the film and giving him hints and tips as if he is teaching him how to be the best. He has no family life and is tired of being a detective, in the film he agrees to do one last investigation. The 'one last job' is often used in films to create a sense of suspention because the audience don't know whether they will make it out of the criminal world. He is a very independent person who always knows what he is looking for and what he wants. It may have been the fact that he was independent and had no family life that made him such a good detective.

Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) - He is a normal character in this film, he has a normal life, a wife, an apartment and a job. When he meets Detective Somerset he's always trying to prove himself, to him to show that he is also a good detective. However, he does try and learn from him along the way. Although he has a normal life it does not mix with his job and in the end it is used against him. This shows his naivety. The fact that there is a classic veteran and rookie character means that they can show each other their lifestyles. Somerset teaches Mills not to be naive and that he should expect the worst from everyone because of the awful sights he has seen throughout his life. However, Mills shows Somerset that there is sometimes a silver lining and that life isnt as bad as first thought. An example of this is when Mills' wife invites him round for dinner.
















John Doe (Kevin Spacey) - This character is an evil genius because he always knows what he is doing and thinks that his plan would never fail. He is never afraid of anything, you can tell this by how calm he is when he gives himself up to the police and when he is in the car with the detectives. However, his intentions are not to be evil because he believes he is doing God's work. This is why each of his murders are linked to the 7 deadly sins.

Tracey Mills (Gywneth Paltrow) - She is a very beautiful character who is in love with her husband (Detective Mills) and lives a very normal life. She represents good and innocents. She is strong willed, we know this because she invited her husband's partner (Detective Somerset) round for dinner and doesn't listen to what her husband has to say about it. However, she is vulnerable and gets into trouble. She turns out to be a key part of the film in a 'damsel in distress' role.




















Rear Window

L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) - He is a slightly arrogant character at the start of the film, however we may only get this impression because he is frustrated due to his broken leg and him having to change his lifestyle because of it. He has to learn to become dependant because he is in  wheelchair. He was previously an independent professional. Throughout the film he learns to care for other people and become dependant on them. For example, he sends his girlfriend and his housekeeper over to see the murderer's apartment. The actions of his girlfriend and her bravery change Jeffries' mind about her. This is similar to 'Se7en' in which Detective Somerset becomes softened by another character.












Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) - She tries to prove herself to Jeffries throughout the film because he told her that he wasn't sure it was going to work out between them. She is beautiful and loves Jeffries. She gets into danger whilst trying to prove herself to him and he finds out how much he cares for her whilst she is in danger. She compares to Detective Mills and Tracey Mills in 'Se7en'.




















Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) - Seems to be a normal character however, Jeffries is sure he killed his wife. Jeffries was right, Thorwald had the motivation to kill but the action is still extreme and he ends up being caught.


















Silence of the Lambs

Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) - He is a very clever character who is also a psychopath. He tries to get into people's heads and carefully plans things in advance so he knows what his next move is going to be. He never panics and always makes Clarice believe he is on her side. He is very different to other villains because he is very upfront and open about who he is unlike other characters such as Roger 'Verbal' Kint's in 'The Usual Suspects'.















Leon

Leon (Jean Reno) - This character is a very strong willed character however he has a soft side to him. He is a veteran and professional killer who learns to love a girl as if she's his own daughter. He begins to teach this girl how to kill as she requests but realises that it is no life to live and in the end saves her so she can live a normal life. This character can be compared with Detective Somerset in 'Se7en' and L.B. Jeffries in 'Rear Window' because they are both teaching another character their skills and at the same time learning from them.
















Mathilda (Natalie Portman) - She is a very young character who believes she is grown up. She tries to be mature and act like an adult however glimpses of her childishness come through such as during the scene where she dresses up with Leon. She thinks she knows what love is and she repeatedly tells Leon that she loves him, however, he does not say it back in the same way. The reason for her wanting to be a killer was to get revenge on the people who killed her family but at the end of the film Leon avenges them for her. She is comparable to Lisa Fremont in that she learns to become more daring but also contains her vunrability.











Stansfield (Gary Oldman) - He is a corrupt cop who is crazy, he has he own gang and gets away with all his violent actions due to this. He is the killer of Mathilda's family and he knows that the she is still alive. He gets crazed on drugs, taking one capsule before each of his murders to give him the confidence to do it. He dresses in a lightly coloured suit and he cares about his appearance, this makes him look like a respectable cop which throws the audience off when the see the juxtaposition with his violent nature. He is also somebody that is not what you think.














These kinds of stock characters in thrillers are:

• A corrupt cop
• Somebody who's not who you think they are
• A veteran
• A rookie

My stock character is somebody who is not who you think they are. The character will be a computer programmer who appears to be the good guy because he seems to be challenging a big corparation and will be giving the world a million dollar idea for free. However, he is not all his seems and we find out that whilst on the run he has killed police officer. His idea of giving the world this free gift becomes complicated and he loses all perspective. Instead of being a million dollar idea it is actually going to cause anarchy. To reinforce this image we will dress him to look very casual and unthreatening.