My Film

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

I have learnt many things from the technology I have used on how to construct a film. One of the main pieces of equipment that I had to use when filming was a video recorder. I needed to get used to how to work the video recorder and how to use the different buttons on it. This was fairly simple as it is like the video recorder that i have got at home but I know how to zoom in and pan using the camera stand. The other main piece of technology i used when constructing my product was the programme that we made our film on, Imovies. This programme was difficult to use at first but when you start to use it more often you find out knew things and how to put together your film. I found it simple to use and I did not have many problems when using it. I knew how to cut different shots to make the continuity editing look realistic as possible, also I knew how to add in effects and also different video transactions from one shot to another.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I had to come up with ideas on how to attract/adress the audience within the opening sequence of my thriller film. The main important thing is to have the right type of music that will set the scene of the film and that grabs the audiences attention which builds up tension and suspence. It would feel like it has something eerie about it and I found a piece of music that fitted this convention perfectly. Another way on how I made sure I attracted the audience was by including flash backs of a girl brushing a dolls hair. This attracted the audience as I changed the colour into black and white and the way she brushed the girls hair made the audience feel uncomfortable and ask questions on who this girl is.

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

My movie could be distributed by many media institutions. The reason for this is because there is quite a few movie companies that release thriller films but the main 3 companies I reckon that would distribute my film are; 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Spy Glass Entertainment. The reason why I think that these 3 institutions would distribute my film is because they are 3 well known companies that would like to show off these sort of new films that are coming through and they have pass history of doing this. But I would think that lower media institutions would be the ones to distribute my film as they have not got the pressure on them like the bigger institutions to ditsribute a high class film.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, it has helped me a lot to understand how to make my opening sequence of a thriller film look as realistic as posible and not to make anything look out of place or odd. One thing that I needed to edit to make my film look realistic was when Elise, Jemma and I were walking into the house at one point I was filming so I wasn't in the shot, then in the next shot I suddenly appeared. I needed to add something inbetween them two shots so the audience would not recognise it. Another thing that I noticed was that your ideas are always changing when your actually shooting your film. You will end up coming up with better ideas that as a group would think would look good so we had to adjust a couple of things. Another thing that I learnt from my preliminary task was the use of steady camera shots to fit conventions of a thriller. In the preliminary task we worked on this so this helped in our final product.

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

My media product uses different products within it. It uses the conventions of a typical thriller film for example using music that builds up tension and suspense and you can see this happening in most if not all opening sequences of a thriller. Another thing that Is common in most opening sequences is the use of not giving off too much information which leads to the audience asking questions. To not give away to much information you must use quite a lot of close ups to hide the surroundings or what’s around the close up. I used some close ups in my opening sequence, but this changed as I let my audience see some of the surroundings for example the house. So in this convention of a real media product I changed it slightly. A thing that I developed slightly was the use of my flashbacks that I used. I added in effects so that you could clearly understand that It is a flashback. I dimmed the colour of the shots and put them in black and white. Then to show that the girl is a ghost, I used a ghostly effect to make everything a little bit blurry.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When I planned what my media product would include, I made a questionnaire to find out what age groups and genders thought about thriller films. When collecting my results I found that people around different age groups like different opening sequences to a thriller film. On this note, when planning my film, I adjusted a few things to make my film attract a certain social group. At a younger target audience I realised that they liked modern day thrillers compared to older people that liked some olden classic thrillers. As I am young, I produced my media product to people around my age, 17-21, who like a lot of suspense and the use of flashbacks in their opening sequences. In my opening sequence, I included some flashbacks by dimming down the colour of the shot to black and white and also used a video effect of gohstly to make the movement a bit blury.Another way that I aimed my media product at a younger audience was by looking at thriller films that have recently come out in the cinema that attracted the views of younger people, for example paranormal activity. So I took some ideas from this film for my film to be based around. The main thing that my film is based on is the death of a teenage girl being murdered in her home at night, but when a new family moves in she comes back to leave messages around the house.

Editing Process

In my previous lessons I have decided to change some parts of my film. During our filming we recorded some speeches with us pretending to be news reporters reading headlines on the news. For example ' Breaking news, a young girl has been murdered in her family home'. I have included two speeches, one when the couple are entering the house, the screen cuts out with a fuzzy noise, and then when the estate agent is showing the couple around the house it cuts out again. This works well in my film I think because it lets me introduce more titles over the black screens and it fits in well.

My Film So Far

In my last lesson which was a triple lesson on Friday I continued to edit my thriller film. At the moment I have changed several things to what my original ideas were. The crucial elements that I have changed in my film is the order of what my opening credits follow and how it is brought across. My original ideas where to have flashing images of newspapers after some opening credits. Now I have got a flashback of the 8 year old girl brushing the dolls hair in between my opening credits. Another thing that has changed is the idea of the estate agent showing the couple around the house, it is still there, but no dialogue is used. Instead, there is a bed of music in the background while they are been shown around the house.

What I have done so far

So far in the previous two lessons I have been editing my thriller film to make it look professional. I have been adding in a couple of sounds mixed together to make my soundtrack for the opening credits. The sounds that i have used are cold wind and 'Timbre Guitar Strings' to create a effect to make it sound eerie with a bit of tension and suspence to drag the audience into feeling uncomfortable. Also, I have made my opening credits to introduce my film and to let the audience know who made the film. I have used fade out to make the words fade out and then the next set of words come into the screen. Also, during the opening credits it cuts out from the credits into a black and white fuzzy shot of Elise brushing a dolls hair in the mirror. In the next couple of lessons I need to put in the opening shots of the film into the stuff that I have already made.

Characters Description

Little Girl: To make the little girl look scary and ghostly we decided to dress her in a black top and black tights. These dark clothes make her appearance look a bit dodgy and also shows that she is a dark character.

Estate Agent: to make the estate agent look formal we decided to dress her in a business clothing. On the top half she was wearing a white blouse with a women's blazer. On the bottom half she wore a black skirt and high black heels and tights.

Jemma as Michelle: She is wearing casual clothes. You can see this as she is wearing a long top with a cardigan and then black tights with grey boots on.

Nathan as Marvin: He is wearing a buisness like long sleeve black jumper with black trousers and black trainers.

Props and Costumes

Costume

Nathan

- Trousers and Shirt (formal)

- Jeans and Top (casual wear)

Jemma

- Trousers Top and Cardigan

- Trackies and Top

Elise

- Black Dress and Platts

Extra

- Suit/Formal

Props

- Blood

- For Sale Sign

- Newspapers

- Clip Board

Location - Elise's House