Evaluation- Kate

 Katherine Williams

Evaluation Commemorate.

 

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

The main conventions of a successful Thriller are :

-Suspense , Mystery, Realism  , Dark , Connection, Twist, Atmospheric, Fast Paced ,Exciting -Engaging Audience.

-Thrill the audience by exploring dark themes , however avoiding science fiction as this would make the film a horror NOT a Thriller.

-Keep the audience guessing - The Enigma Code (holding back information from either the character or the audience).

-Enigma- create mystery adding to the audience's feelings.

-All successful Thrillers illustrate the chronological order of  : Normality-Equibilum , Disruption-Des equbilum and Restore-Closure. ( this is known in the media world as Todrov's Theory)
( with collage app show these through opening norm and disruption)


Editing Conventions of successful Thriller :

-Continuity editing used for sense ,flow coherence and realism.

-Parallel cutting used to connect 2 characters or places simultaneous action.

-Cross cutting used to connect 2 or more characters and to create SUSPENCE.

Camera Conventions of a successful Thriller:

-Tight Framing to restrict view - called Restricted Narration -i.e  where only parts of the body is concealed with ECU - adding suspense and to the audience - this will add mystery - it can be used to disguise characters of their identity- creating an enigma Code. 

- Canted - Distorted P.O.V shots - Personal and more dramatic - also excitement for the audience.

-Hand held Camera - Realism


Sound Conventions of a successful Thriller:

-Diegetic Realistic sounds - Cars and Walking

- Non Diegetic / Foley - Add sound fx

-Added Sounds for suspense


Our Product : Commemorate

For our Thriller Commemorate we aimed to use as many of the key words  in just our opening to engage the audience and leave them wanting more.
The Key aspects we have incorporated  are :


-"Exploring Dark themes" : The Storyline for our Thriller is very dark and a topic that has been in the news very recently , we thought that this would be an interesting idea - By this I mean the shootings in America ,Although it is a tough topic and we are in no means making light of the subject we were just exploring ideas through the current world news - to create the realism.

-Mystery and Enigma code : The Gunmen are our real Enigma as the audience is unsure of who they are and  if they belong to the school or are outside visitors - We intended the gunmen to be Teachers however this was unclear to their costume and age .This scene would look better if the Gunmen were older and if it was more obvious that they were teachers I.e Props , maybe less obvious bad- guy clothing such as Smarter trouser wear and shirts instead of t-shirts -This would all work in to create a over all good mise en scene for our thriller.


-This was picked up by our class evaluation


The costume fitted well with the school setting, however the Converse of the shooters seemed a bit out of place.
-Scott- TeamGimli

This Photograph from filming day 1  indicates the issue- We needed to of thought more about the gunmen's costumes and to create a balanced Mise en scene.

Our Thriller Opening already has started to show Chronological order of the 3 steps - Equibilum   and Disequbilum  and then what is seen as Closure - but this is a twist to have the audience guessing again - the story line is still In des equibilum.

Our Order

1. Equibilum - Late for school - Driving down to school.

2. Des equibium - Gunmen shooting in school causing chaos .Carrying on into the next part of the opening after the title page.

Editing: Commemorate


-Commemorate consisted of Continuity editing - to create realism. As a group we wanted our Thriller opening to be as realistic as possible and flow making it easy for our audience to follow.

-Our feedback from our target audience agreed that this worked well.

The variety of shots is really good and so is the continuity. The shot where the two girls look up and see the boys is especially good. Overall a good opening, which is intriguing and sets up the story very clearly, without giving too much away.
-Stella

 

Camera : Commemorate

- While Helena and I were filming on the second day of filming (the day in which Max was unable to attend) we discussed how important it is to keep the set up of the camera tight as to bring all focus on the character in shot for example tracking the car going down to the school and tracking the character out of the car and into the school.

-ECU were used to distort the Gunmen's identity - to create an atmospheric feel to the shots impacting on our audience's emotions and adrenalin  .

-POV shots where a last minuet idea  - we agreed it would add to the enigma of the thriller and  whole setting creating it to be more  mysterious and realistic. We wanted to take full advantage of the setting around the outside of  school as we wanted it to create a great impact on the audience.

-Feed back from audience agreed with our camera work!.

 Good POV shots, 2 shots and panning worked very well with this, the posh school type also added great effect.
-Dan Johnstone

Sound:Commemorate

- Our first initial Idea was to have no sound at all until the shooting and screaming then fade to black with our title "Commemorate" - this was inspiration from an episode of BBCs "Sherlock"

http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/videoweed.php?id=88b63bab0439b - No copy on youtube found this link is from Project Free TV.


However when it came to adding sound we found that the our opening it did not fit with the all round image of our thriller - so instead we used non diegetic atmospheric background music creating the sound of ticking of a clock indicating that the character is late and on her way to a school - Foleys were used to emphasise this also , the Foleys consisted of a school bell ringing and children talking - indicating a school environment. However once again while finding the right sound we realise that we could of put even more emphasis on it , It is unfortunate that we didn't have enough time to create the music ourselves but I believe that the sound we found on the internet worked just as well.

http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html - The website that we used

Our own Foleys that we created where
-the sound of the car driving up to the school
- sound of doors opening
-walking
-door opening in second part of the opening
-phone vibrating.

Our only problem with these were matching them up so they fitted with the onscreen image we found that the walking was the most difficult , to over come this we needed to making the Foleys at the same time as our filming . We found that when we speeded up the pulling scene we needed to speed up the  sound that went with it.

The Foleys we copied from the internet were:
-background ticking sound
-school bell
-children noise in background
-shooting
- scream

The Copied Foleys I found were a bit too unrealistic - I liked the background music and the school bell also the Children's voices , but I think that the screaming would of had more emphasis and a better effect if we had made them ourselves , unfortunately we did not have time to create them , also like our walking it was out of time.

-Our Target Audience shared their honest opinion of our use of Foleys , We have taken this into account

The use of music at the beginning is effective and builds tension, but more diegetic sound could be used to build the tension even more, for example the sound of footsteps on the stair could be emphasized more to create atmosphere. Also I'm not sure if the shooting sound effect works. The shooting sound does but the screaming doesn't really work as it sounds likes a computer generated sound clip, and doesn't really sound realistic.
-Stella


The sound fitted well and was synced in-time if many Foleys were added. The music at the start built suspense but felt a bit more Horror than Thriller; however, given the event of the shooting it could be appropriate.
-Scott

Nice fading mixed with creepy music added a mysterious feel and the titling was a good titling.
-Dan Johnstone


Reviewing Thrillers

-For homework we were asked to review and annotate 4 thriller openings for inspiration I reviewed

-Stormbraker

 

 

-Oceans 13

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Sweeny Todd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-No Country for old men

 

 

 

 

Out of the Thrillers I reviewed Stormbraker inspired me with the setting of a school and how everything he says that boring about his life is a lie its the opposite , this inspired me even more to use a school setting as its uncommon that something like a shooting would take place.
The titling for No Country For Old Men is very similar to Commemorate its simple and creates an impact.
http://foundationportfolio1343.blogspot.co.uk/2013_02_01_archive.html

 

 

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

 - Commemorate has a clear demonstration  of "class" , it represents middle to upper class.

- We wanted this to come across clearly in our opening.

-To make it clear our props and setting  we used indicated an upper class private school.

 

-Our Setting Brambletye Private School

                                      

- The Car :The make and generation of the car shows wealth and would fit in well with the private school.

Good - the Volvo is good as this does appear to be a private school which suggest kids from a affluent background so you want an expensive and relatively new car as the car being driven by the parent - it is all part of the characterisation of the pupils.
-Andrew Mann - Comment on Blog post

-I put together the costume at last minuet as we had to change gender of the main character
-for young Olivia her costume was a basic  smart school uniform.

The costume fitted well with the school setting
-scott
- Even smaller detail we wanted to connect with middle class even in part 2 of our opening

- The use of a Blackberry phone shows wealth and modern technology , also the setting for the second part as the room has a balcony and interesting scenery


-We filmed outside Brambletye school we asked for permission from the head teacher I wrote a letter and sent e-mails we had difficulty finding time to fit in with the school we intended to film both inside and out , however we couldn't find an appropriate time to film in the school .

- I connected the time period of the school with my neighbours house we filmed the inside and shooting scene in her hall way , we were very pleased with how well they linked together! .

 

 - Our opening also represents the main character as Female. The lead character in all of the films I reviewed on the blog were Male , at first this was not intended in our film but now we see it as a good thing as it makes it more  unique and interesting  , I also found it easier connecting props , costume , hair and make up  to a female character making the mise en scene of the character more connected.

 

-The lead character is represented in a good light , you don't get to find out much about her or her identity , only in the second part of the opening can she be her self / dress how she wants . Her room setting doesn't give much away about her. All the audience can tell is that she's a teenager , feminine. these are shown from her costume and environment setting

- We have represented our lead character the way we have because it is different to have a very feminine lead character in a thriller , most lead female characters are presented as having a very masculine hobby or dressing in a masculine way. - "Lara Croft Tomb Rader" and "The Girl With the dragon tattoo".

- We have not made it clear to where she stands with power as she is a school girl and has no power.

 - Something that would of made our thriller even more interesting is if our gunmen were female , this would of added more controversy to our plot as a female would be less suspected as a killer and it is unknown in the film world, I can't think of any thrillers in which the killer has been a Female , however we didn't think of this at the time  yet it would of been a great idea.

 

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

 Marketing Commemorate

                                       "The Invisible Art"                              


-Our Film Commemorate would be distributed by a British independent distributor.

-Well know in the media world British Independent distributors are:
-Metrodome Group plc is a London based publically traded company that owns, manages and distributes film, TV and digital content. The Company operates through two divisions: Metrodome Distribution (features films and home entertainment in the UK) and Hollywood Classics. The Company's library of rights includes over 300 feature films."


(Here is a link of a trailer for one of their films " St Georges Day")

http://www.metrodomegroup.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-a-royal-affair-for-retail--rental-metrodome-8229156.html  Film Review of a Metrodome disputed film.

-Another British Film institute that might distribute our film is "Momentum" 

"Momentum Pictures (also known as Momentum) is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year, with several dtv releases.
Momentum's most successful theatrical releases include the Oscar, BAFTA and BIFA-winning The King's Speech, Amélie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation, Control, Downfall, The Young Victoria, Defiance, Milk, Let the Right One In, The Illusionist, Just Friends, District B13 Ultimatum, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Law Abiding Citizen, Glorious 39 and P.S. I Love You.

The studio has also released several family films, such as Hoodwinked, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Arthur and the Invisibles, Just Visting and Igor, as well as the home video rights for popular TV series Creature Comforts."

 ( A video of "Momentum Pictures" title credits)

 Entertainment is the UK’s leading independent distributor. The company was founded in 1978 and has showed continuing growth and success since that time distributing a wide range of product and building a significant film library. Highlights for the company have been the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, one of the most thrilling epic adventures in motion picture history, which at its culmination garnered a fantastic seventeen Academy Awards®. In fact, since the millennium the company’s releases have totaled a remarkable thirty-eight Oscar wins and twenty-two BAFTAs ,encompassing a diverse range of genres ,including Traffic, Gosford Park, Million Dollar Baby, Brokeback Mountain, and The Departed, which earned Martin Scorsese his first Oscar for Achievement in Direction, and The Reader, which won Kate Winslet an Academy Award® and a BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

 ( Vintage  Entertainment titles)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-These type of film institutions take on low budget films so would be perfect for a smaller films.

 

How will the film distributors advertise / Promote Commemorate?

Print Media:

-Newspapers

 -Interviews with the cast

-Reviews
-personal stories from the cast

-Prizes relating to the film i.e visit the set

-Gossip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/film+tone/reviews -Guardian Film review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media

-Magazines









 http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/tv-news

-Specialised Magazines

 

 (Commemorate hand Made front page magazine-kate)

 http://www.empireonline.com/   Empire Film Review

 

https://www.magazinesdirect.com/categories/womens/tv-and-music/

Public Advertising:
-Posters





Grab the attention of the passing Audience - Appeal to the target audience

- Bright /Bold Colours
- Big titles
-Actors
-Reviews 









-Billboards (expensive)

 -Same idea as a poster but bigger
-drive by

-shopping centres

-popular places

 

-Social Media

-Facebook (Free)

- Word of mouth

-Grabs attention

-Share with others

-Keep informed about releases  

-Other films that the audience might be interested in









-Twitter(Free)

-MySpace(free)

-Blogger(free)

-Spotify(Pay)

 

Merchandise/ online / in store ( Very Expensive) :

- Collectables

-Children's toys
-Print Media 
-Fancy Dress
- House Hold
- Video Games
-Board Games

 

 http://www.wbshop.com/category/wbshop_brands/harry+potter.do 

However

-As our film would be a small production these types of posters and  merchandise are very expensive for the distributors , so in all the best form of public advertising is through newspapers  even local newspapers and  

Film Festivals

A Leading part of independent  Film distribution is Film Festivals, where they show the film and get feedback , larger distributors may even take the film on.

 

What is a Film Festival ? - Jane Williams Interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Film Media :

-Trailers

-Various interviews with the lead  actors in different countries



-The Ellen Show USA
Ellen DeGeneres Interviews the cast of  Dark Shadows


-Radio News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19730078
-Radio Interviews




-Radio1 interview with  Rupert Grint
Hosted by Scott Mills Radio1 DJ.
 -Gets the listener interested in the actors - personal connections

-Online Trailers

 -Lasting for around 2 minuets
-bold music
-catchy headings
-shown in cinema before a film
-shown in adverts in between shows

 

 

 

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

 "Commemorate"

-Our product Commemorate is easy to understand yet very dark theme. Our target audience would be aimed at :

- ages between 11-17+
- certificate  15.

The Film would appeal to teenagers.
-Stella

The stereotype of  our audience :

-Female - As the film has no fast car chases , no gore and a simple storyline.

-Young - Our Character Olivia is young so the audience can relate to the character.

-Lifestyle .- none in particular however maybe the audience member more into faster paced films rather than romantic comedies.

-I have gathered together a few questions to ask a  member of the target audience.

-Here is some general background information about my chosen audience member.

-Gender :Female

-Age: 17

-Occupation : Full time college student

-Preferred genre of film : Dramatic  , meaningful and easy storyline.


The Questions that she will be asked

- Over all what certificate do you think Commemorate will be if it was fully produced?

-Do you feel that you connect with the character ? If so why ?

-Does this film fit in with the target genre?

-What was your favourite part?



-Where do you think we could improve?

-Is the storyline easy to follow ?

 

 

 5.How do you attract / address your audience?

 section 1 - Equibilum        

Late for school

-something the audience can connect with.

-addresses the audience as nothing abnormal.


 Section 2-Des Equibilum
Shooting at school

-shocking new theme and ties in with current news.
-use of sound
-uses audiences emotions
-attracts the audience uses suspense

Quoted as favourite part by audience feed back from question 4 video.

Section 2-Des Equibilum
receiving text about school reopening
- again Shocking
-Use of Ellipsis
-Connection with Audience and causes suspense

- Our sound has a leaving effect on the audience - However the sound is where we have been told we need to work on - I agree as we needed to add extra emphasis in the sound of the shooting and the screaming

-The theme to our storyline is shocking and as it is  lead issue in the USA - Shooting in schools

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

-We use our lead character to connect with the audience as our target audience is selected to be a similar age to the character - 15+
(Own Videos failed to upload)

My Script

We attracted our audience by using lots of point of view shots ,such as when the main character is in the car driving down to the school . we used point of view shots to add emphasis on the character so that it would reflect on the audience adding tension.
Another point of view shot we used was when the two young female characters were hiding and watching the gunmen walk down the stairs , we thought this would create extra suspense and tension.
We did create some restricted narrative , however this is resolved by our use of foley sounds. going back to question 1 the gunmen is where we needed to work on our mise en scene.

 

 

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

The technology we used for Commemorate :

HD Camera- We used the HD handheld camera to film our whole film, I found it very easy to use and is very high quality , Battery life was also very good , we had no problems. 

Tripod- The tripod was used to ensure that our camera was still while filming the still walking shots , the tripod was very simple to use.















































Blog - Blogger has been used since the start , I really enjoy using blogger to create our blogs for media.



















Mac- We used the Apple mac to upload our videos to final cut and grageband also to our blog .








Camera -We used a Nikon d3100 to take record of us filming so that we would be able to create blog posts easier about what we have been doing with our allocated time.







Final Cut-We used final cut to edit our film together , I personally found final cut really difficult to use , I need to practise more , out of our group Helena was the best at editing.

Garageband-Garage band we used to create the sound for our final film , we created all of our foleys and off screen music through garage band.

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

"Only Way Is Sussex" and "Commemorate"

- In  December 2012 as a group we produced our first film "The Only way is Sussex" , we based it around the popular scripted reality TV dramas such as "Made In Chelsea" and "The Only way is Essex"

- I was there for the planning lessons up to the day we had to film where unfortunately I became unwell and had to go into Hospital , So I personally don't feel I had my part In the creation of this task , However I made up for it in our planning lessons by helping create the dialogue and shot sizes.

- Since "The only way Is Sussex" it is clear that our filming techniques are better and our use of final cut has become allot smother also the sound quality and use of setting, these features I am happy to say that I was apart of and as a group we have benefited from working together as a group and sharing thoughts while editing.

-Over all our framing has become allot neater for example -

This split screen contrasts commemorate and only way is Sussex simple standard shot , commemorate uses the whole space and is straight in the middle.
The only way is Sussex is at a canted angle and does not use the whole space.


-we have also created more interesting shots such as using high angle shots also developed the set up of certain scenes such as the pulling scene , we practised in class twice with two different ways the first in one simple move the second in lots of single shots. The second time worked allot better than the single moved , if we hadn't practised it the scene wouldn't of worked.

<practise 1
                                                 final >















-when it came to creating Commemorate we had learnt in class how to use different sound types , in T.O.W.I.S we hadn't learnt how important sound is to a film , when looking back at t.o.w.i.s , there are many things that we could of done better how ever at the stage we were still figuring out how to use everything.

-Same as sound our titling has changed, for Commemorate we had viewed different TV Thriller dramas to get different interesting ideas ,for Commemorate our titling was set out as black screen with white text scrolling across the bottom this form of titling was allot more original than ours for t.o.w.i.s , the titling we used for that was found from final cut and had already been produced.

- Our Blogging has become allot more interesting , we now have pictures , experiments , video experiments , collages and reviews of TV shows and other Films. The experiment I enjoyed creating the  most was the Blood Handprints although we didn't get to use them  , I feel it was still beneficial to our blog .The experiments of the pulling scene really helped us create a flowing sequence to the scene , we experimented with the pulling scene twice the first time we did it in one shot , the second time we used lots of shots from different angles. for the actual film we used lots of shots so then it fitted together well and created a more natural and exciting scene for the audience.