The Finished Product...

Audience Feedback

Here is some feedback posted onto Facebook, after we posted a link to our own personal pages.

Here is a video about what some other people thought...

#Evaluation 7 - What Have We Learned Since The Prelim Task?

So what have we learned since our prelim task? Here are all three members of rolling productions with our views on how we've improved.

#Evaluation 6 - The Technology We've Used...

Here is a prezi about how we used technology to make our film.

#Evaluation 5 - How Did We Attract Our Audience?

To view the tags on the video, please enable tags on youtube, then the tags that are added onto the video will be visible.

#Evaluation 4 - Who's Our Perfect Audience Member?

Who is our perfect audience member?

We have come up with several people that may or may not watch our film.

Overall we thought this is what our ideal audience member would look like. Pretty, clever but not too 'nerdy' or 'dumb', but a really cool average teenager.

Here's an example of someone we wouldn't expect to want to see our thriller film. She is a really cute, young girl, who might be scared or easily frightened. She may prefer to watch a rom-com or something less scary.

This is someone who is a very tech savvy teenager. She is popular and kind. She would be the type of person who would see our film then tweet about it, however she would not be the perfect audience member, although she would come very close to being the perfect member of an audience for us!

This wouldn't be our perfect audience member as she wouldn't have the right personality to view our film the way we want it to be seen. She is a bit nerdy (hence the glasses) and may think that the film is a bit silly, or may be easily frightened by whats going on on screen.

This person may enjoy our film. She is a typical urban girl, who likes thrillers although she wouldn't quite make it to be our 'perfect' audience member because she may not understand it properly, as she may see things in a darker way, or maybe think things are funny when they are not due to her background.

(Boys might be our perfect audience member too, but I live in a house full of girls!)

#Evaluation 3 - Directors Commentary

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

- A media institution that might distribute our film would be one that is supportive of smaller, independent thriller films, as well as the big blockbusters. I think that 'Entertainment Film Distributers' would be perfect to distribute our film, as they are based in the UK, and they are an independent film distributer.

This distribution has had some very successful films, such as jaws, and St Trinian's, and even though all the films they distribute are very different, they are mainly successful, so I feel they would be able to distribute our film in a way that it would be also very successful.

# Evaluation 2 - Do Our Characters Conform to Stereotypes?

Above is a picture of our main character (top), and the main character(s)of inception, but we will be focussing on the female character in the inception picture. Both of the characters (from our film and inception) are dressed in dark clothing, and both ladies have sombre looks on there faces. I think the two characters have a very similar appearance, in the way they dress and the way they look, even their hair is similar. I think we may haven't conformed to the stereotype, because although our character is dressed like the bad woman in inception, our main female character is not a 'baddie', which adds a bit of a twist into our film.

#Evaluation 1- How does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Title of the film: We chose the title 'Cynical' because we felt it sounded like an iconic name, that would stick in someones mind upon hearing the name. Also because the word means the mistrusting of others, which is what the storyline is based on.

2. Setting: We filmed outside for several different reasons... . We thought the drive would be good, as it looks like they are lost, creating a feeling of suspense. We used the outside stairs that we did, because of the bars that are there for railing, as they make it look like one of the characters is trapped, almost like she's trapped in jail.

3. Costume: We used the costumes we did because we thought they would make the characters look more effective (Jay in a dress) to make her look sad, as black is a colour with negative connotations. We dressed Jenny in a typical dress that young girls of her age do, as it makes her look more innocent in everything and more vulnerable. We dressed Robert in smart clothes, to make him look powerful compared to the rest of the cast.

4. Camera work and editing: We used a wide range of shots in our project, including a few extreme close ups to show the emotion on the characters faces. The extreme close up of Jay's eyes is really effective because its shows the emotion in her eyes and her holding back the tears. I also found the subjective shot effective because it looks like Jenny is trapped in a room, and that she's visibly distressed about something.

5. Font and Style: We chose the font that we did because we thought it was simple and subtle and would make the titles clear to the viewers who would be easily able to read them. The font is slightly different between the main title and the smaller titles, this is so that the main title stand out more and be more recognisable. 

6. Story/Narrative: Our final product is slightly different to what we planed, because when we put together the planned footage, in the planned sequence, we didn't think it was effective enough, so we switched it around, and subsequently altered the storyline. It is now the opening to a film about a break up, and then stalking.

7. Genre and suggestions of it: The genre of our film is thriller, which we attempted to re create by using a variety of techniques. We used eerie sound effects, like gun shots that are reverberant and other distant background sounds like children talking over an eerie shot. We also used colours that are related to thriller, such as black and grey, then we made the colours contrast against each other a lot so it looked scarier.

8. Characters: We used 3 characters in our film, a man, a young woman, and a young girl. We cast the people to play them because we thought they suited the roles. Jenny was perfect for the role of the young girl, because she could play the role, and could do what we needed her to do in a very good (almost professional) way. We chose Robert to play the man, because we thought he would be able to be quite a strange and eerie person to have play the role. We chose Jay as the young woman because she is very good at acting, and she has a very strong presence. She is also very mature so we knew she would be great to work with. 

9. Special FX: We used a number of special FX. Including greyscale to add to suspense and make things seem a little less clear. We used a lot of slow motion effect to make it feel a lot more slow moving, and that its building up more. 

#32 Final edit - CYNICAL

#29 Rough edit

Here is the rough edit of our opening, we still need to play with sound, and add a couple of shots to complete, but we are happy with this!

#28.5 Proof of editing

Here are screenshots of the editing process, which we added sound and effects to go with the images, and then we added visual effects, like the colouring of shots, and we also made some shots into slow motion shots.

#27 Costume and props

All costume will be brought along by the actor/actresses. They will arrive dressed in clothes that we have specified, or very similar, and no props will be required.

#26 Casting Our Film

The Cast
Mr R Peck - We plan to use Mr Peck as the man in our film, as he looks like he could pull off the spooky sort of thing!

Jay Jones - Jay would play the woman in our film, as she has previous experience with media and drama, and would portray the part really well.

Mr Richardson's daughter!- We think Jenny (his daughter) would be brilliant at playing the little girl in our film, because she is the perfect size for the part, and there are many other things that make us believe she is perfect for the part!!

#25 Risk Assessment

There may be the following risks in our filming:

Outside

• There may be a risk (when filming on the stairs outside) of falling, or slipping down/up the stairs, which can be prevented by taking care on the stairs, and looking where we step/the characters step. If this happens, we use first aid skills and take the injured to the medical centre. This is a likely occurrence.  
• Tripping/slipping is a risk. This can be avoided by taking care, and watching where we/the characters step. If this happens we will use first aid and seek further help. This is fairly likely.
• Splinters. If a splinter makes its way into someones hand, we will use tweezers and plasters to remove it or send them to the medical centre.

In the bedrooms

• Banging head on shelf. This is likely to occur if our actress sits up to fast without being aware of the presence of the shelf. We will try to avoid this by making her fully aware of where the shelf is, and try to cover the corner to avoid injuries. This is quite unlikely.
• Risk of camera/equipment falling. This is highly unlikely, but we will be wearing wrist straps to avoid this, and if it does happen, we will seek further help.
• Falling out of bed. This is unlikely, but in the event, if medical help is required, we will seek it immediately. 
• Use of props resulting in injury. We will be using knives and scissors in some parts of our opening. To avoid injury, will will supervise these items and ensure nobody enters the room will the risk is there, to avoid cutting or stabbing etc. If a minor injury occurs, we will send them to the medical centre, if the injury is major, an ambulance will be called for, to ensure immediate medical attention. This is highly unlikely, but if it does happen, consequences may be severe and life threatening.

#24 Planning film locations

We are planning to use the following places to film our opening:
- Bedrooms in Hopeman House
Here is the email saying we can use this location, and us asking permissions

We are using the bedrooms in Hopeman because of the ease and the fact that they suit our film quite well. It is easy because we can use our own rooms, and as there are 3, that is 3 different locations already, and each is slightly different. One is quite dark (so will be used as the little girl's room), whereas another is quite light and bright, so will be used as the womans' room, as it suits what we want. Another room is bigger, and will be used as a dark, spooky room where the man is breaking the dolls, and we can use the desks lights to focus on a point and still keep a dark background. Also this room is downstairs, so means no men have to walk around the house!





-The steps outside the dance studios, and parts of inside (doorways etc.)

We chose to use the steps outside dance, as we think the location is great. It's quite a dark place, with dark walls on the outside, so will add to the eeriness of our scene. There was an email following that granted the permission from Mrs Dabell.

#23 Shot List and shooting script

Here is our shot list and shooting script for our opening of the film, it includes all the shots we will use, along with the image, and dialogue.

#22 Animatic of Film

here is the animatic to our opening sequence, the soundtrack may change or be added to etc...

#21 Plan of Sound

*also we would use a sound effect of a women screaming in shot 3.

#20 Storyboard

here is our storyboard, we will also add our titles to it, and sounds etc., when we make our film...

#19 Investigating Narrative Theories

There are 4 main narrative theories...

Propp - He started analysing over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920's. He proposed that it was possible to classify characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. Films like 'Star Wars' fit this theory perfectly, but many more recent films do not. This model is thought of as useful, but highlights the similarities between stories that are actually quite different. Propp used 8 different character roles in his theory: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father.

Todorov - Suggests that most narative starts with a state of equilibrium, in which life is normal and protagonists are happy. This equilibrium is then disrupted by an outside force, then this has to be fought against to regain the state of equilibrium. This is easily applied to many films, as a basic storyline. Equilibrium-->Disequilibrium-->New equilibrium
 
 


Barthes - Suggested that narrative worked with 5 different codes, which activate the viewer/ reader to make sense of it. He also used denotation and connotation to analyse images. The 5 codes are: Action (shoot outs etc.), Enigma (riddle or puzzle), Symbolic (connotation), Semic (denotation) and Cultural (gangster/mafia etc.).




 Levi-Strauss - Examined how stories unconsciosly reflect the values, myths and beliefs of aculture.These are expressed in 'binary opposition'. This is a conflict between opposites. A few examples are: weak vs. strong, male vs. female, good vs. evil, man vs. machine etc.
 
I think Barthes theory would best suit out film, as it suits the code to do with symbolism, symbolism of loneliness etc. Todorovs would be the least relevent to our film, because there is no equilibrium at the start of the movie.






#18 Storyline for whole film

Here are my ideas for the storyline of our film, I did it on paper because the internet crashed!

#17 Key Elements to Include in our opening

So what do we have to put in?

I did this as a spider diagram as I found it easier that way!

#16 Institutions to help with film

Upon researching popular film institutions in the UK, I discovered that the following are the most famous in Britain:

BBC

Film 4 

There are also several others!

These companies would help fund the cost of production, as long as the budget isn't too extreme, they will do all they can to help fund your film if it's worth it!
One of the most popular film distributers world-wide is 'Dreamworks Home Entertainment', which makes films ready for cinemas and home dvd's etc. The popular UK distributer is 'Vertigo Films'.
Exhibiters are the ones who actually show films in cinemas, and decide which cinemas to screen the films in, sometimes according to size of the cinema and the audience that would go the cinema, and how much the film would make.
Home exhibition is when we watch DVD's/Blu Rays and youtube clips etc.
LoveFilm and Netflix are examples of exhibitors!

#15 How to categorise films

The graph above shows the age groups that view adult film (rated 15+) GAP is what is predicted to view, and universe is the actual viewing. It shows the people that they are aiming the films at when they are being produced, etc. This is categorising by adult age groups.

This graph shows the age groups of people who go to view family films, so those films rated 'U', or 'PG'. This is the reason this graph goes down to the age of 7, rather than 15, as 7 is the recommended age for the viewing of films rated 'U'.

This is how they categorise films into age groups, by looking at these charts, and seeing who really goes to see what!

These graphs were from the following link...

http://business.pearlanddean.com/audience_profile

#14 Perfect audience member

This is what we think a perfect audience member may look like, with a few annotations around! (She wouldn't necessarily be ginger, its just because I don't have any other coloured pens for hair...

we looked on the recommended website (uktribes) but we couldn't find what we needed, so Olivia (my colleague) and I sat down and talked about what our perfect audience member would be like!

#13 Audience research

Here is our audience research, we asked 4 questions to 4 different people, about things to do with thriller movies.

#12 Moodboard

Above is the moodboard I created to think of ideas of what we should put in our video. I think loneliness should be a key theme, as it often leads to a bad situations, or extreme paranoia (a common feature of thriller films). I put a picture of someone alone in the middle of a forest because being alone in a forest is scary, so being alone in a forest, in the dark, would be a really scary situation, therefore I think it should be in our film. There are several other people on their own on my moodboard, but in slightly different situations, because I feel all those situations could be incoorperated into a thriller. Also, there's a close up of an eye, as we could show an eye of someone who is scared, to show the 'fear in their eyes', and to create suspense. I've placed a couple of pictures that are stereotypical thriller items, so the crow and the graveyard, which for me just has to be in a thriller, as it may be an element of foreshadowing (with the graveyard), and the crow, well they're just always in a graveyard, and make their scary call. I've got an image of someone crying because it creates fear, and emotion to viewers. Finally the  image of the knife is there to create suspense and foreshadow a possible murder or injury.

#11 Key Shots from another film in genre

Above are my 9 selected shots from the title sequence of 'Skyfall'. Each is labelled with the time through the titles (according to artofthetitle.com) and below is an explanation and what we could use from them. All of the shots have dark colours, other than a few red ones, all others are dark, cold colours.

0.01 Shows a low angle shot of James Bond's body sinking down into the water. This could be used similarly in a film we could make, but show falling from the sky, using the same sort of low angle shot.

0.16 Shows someone grabbing onto Mr Bond's hand, a close up shot. We could use this shot as someone reaching out for help from someone, or someone grabbing someone to hurt them etc.

1.00 Establishing shot of a graveyard, where guns and daggers are falling, which we could replicate, but minus the guns and daggers, to create an eerie scene and suspense.

1.11 Another establishing shot showing a house and dead trees, that are all red, and a few red clouds/patches of mist swirling to create suspense. We could do similar by using a smoke machine (but obviously that wouldn't make it red)

1.23 Zooming into an extreme close-up of an eye, which then dissolves into another title. We could use this to introduce a point of view shot, like we're going in to see what someone is seeing with their eyes.

1.27 An extreme long shot, showing a person amongst many pillars and large shadows. This would be effective in a film we would make, but could possibly be used with trees, and would have a similar effect

1.33 A crane shot, where bond is in the middle and his shadow is rotating around him. This creates a sense of mystery, that would be great to use in one of our projects, and also just looks really cool!

2.00 A focus pull onto a gun, which is really effective because it makes us feel more vulnerable, we could also use this in a project.

2.50 Another establishing shot in a graveyard, which is shown in black and white, but mainly black. This creates a real sense of suspense and fear.

#10 Textual analysis of opening sequence

Pretty Little liars.

I chose to base the textual analysis on the opening titles of pretty little liars, a TV program, which I believe in some ways, is similar to trust, and the titles contain quite a few things to write about.

I will start with the camera angles/cinematography, as this is quite simple. Almost all the shots are extreme close ups of actions of the other girls getting someone ready to be buried in their coffin. For example, there are extreme close ups of applying mascara to an eyelash, of the lips having lip gloss applied, nails and nail varnish etc., which I think is good because it adds suspense, as if you were to see these titles for the first time, you wouldn’t really understand that the girl having makeup applied to is actually dead, until someone closes the eyes, which again is another extreme close up.

After the series of 5 extreme close ups, we zoom out to a close up, of the arms being crossed, which is a symbol of the end, so this is effective. In the same shot, after no camera movement, the coffin lid is suddenly shut, causing suspense, and fear.

We then zoom out yet again to see a mid-shot containing the 4 main characters in the program where there is a camera tilt from the coffin up to the girls, and then back in to the middle one for her to put her finger to her lips, and say ‘shhhh’.

Next up is the sound. Anyone familiar with the program will instantly recognise the catchy theme tune (called ‘secret’) to the program and be singing it for hours! This has a fairly slow beat, and sounds quite eerie to listen to, as it almost sounds like whispering, like someone is lying, which may be why the show’s producers chose to use it for their show, as it does go with the show very well. It helps to build up suspense for the program when it begins.

As well as the soundtrack, there are a couple of sound effects that really add to the suspense and tension of the sequence. The first sound effect we here is when the coffin lid closes, when we get a delayed, very quiet echo-y thud, which makes it sound like there’s almost a ghost like presence around.

Another sound effect is when the main character says ‘shhhh’ at the end of the sequence (but just before the title comes onto the screen), which the sound then carries on over to the titles, ‘Pretty Little Liars’, which then makes the word liars stand out with the ‘shhhh’, making her seem like the main liar.

            The editing in the title sequence is quite subtle and simple. Between all of the extreme close ups, there’s no fading out, just simple fast transitions, that have been jump cut. We know this because when makeup is being applied, makeup is already on, so there must’ve been a jump. Similar happens with nails, hair, etc.

The shots have been edited to change with the music, so every 3 beats of the music, the shot changes, which helps with the general flow of the title sequence, and means that it’s well paced, so we can see what’s going on, but we aren’t waiting for too long for shot changes.

The only different transition between shots is when after the coffin lid closes, there’s a flash of yellow/gold and then the shot of the girls, which may reflect on the dead person’s personality.

            The Mise-en-scene in this sequence is fairly simple but effective. The lighting is the same most the way through, with dark edges of shots, then illuminated centres in the shots, drawing our eyes to the middle of the screen, making the skin look paler.

The sequence is set in a coffin/funeral parlour, then outside in front of a dark stormy sky, which may portray anger and fear.

All of the girls are wearing dark costumes, to show sadness, and darkness inside. This may create a sense of evil.

Finally the colours used are all very dark, as would be expected with a death scene.

#9 Graphic breakdown

This is the graphic breakdown we did, which we used the opening sequence to 'the conjuring', as it is an independent thriller, like trust is.

#8 Research on thrillers.

Common thriller films include...
and many more!

These types of movies can be identified by the following traits...
-Suspense

• to give the veiwer the feeling of fascination to the movie, with excitement and mixed aprehension.
• Gives veiwer on-edge feeling.
• Suspense is about conflict and the obstacles between the protagonist and his goal.
• suspense is often mixed with hope and fear.

-Themes and characters

• Themes: ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, mind games, kidnapping, stalking, death traps and paranoia.

-Main elements

• The protagonist is faced with death, either his and/or her or someone else's.

-he's faced against a problem (usually death), sometimes an escape or a mystery. Most emphasis on the movie is placed on the protagonist.

• The force of the antagonist's must initially be stronger/wiser than the protagonist's.

-This makes the protaganist have to fight, and be fearfull of the antagonist.

• The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that cannot be put down.
• The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
• The film's narrative construction is overpowered by the protagonist's point of view.
• All action and characters must be credibly realistic or natural in their representation on screen.
• The protagonist and antagonist may battle, themselves and each other, not just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.
• Either by accident or their own curiousness, each character is dragged into a dangerous fights or a situation that they aren't prepared to resolve.

#6 Picking film brief

This is the trailer to 'Trust' which is a film in the independent thriller category, which we would like to re-make for our re-make task (#7). We would use a variety of different cast members to make up the parts, including maybe a couple of staff members to play the parts of the parents, or other adults in the film. We would also change a few of the camera angles to see what we could do with the trailer, that would make it individual from the real one.

#5 Jelly Baby Task

Here is our jelly baby task, for which we used 5 different shots!

#4 Prelim task

It may not be fantastic, but here it is, the Rolling productions prelim task.

#4 Shot Library!

Here is the shot library my group produced!

#1 Logo

here is the company logo

Hiya! This is my first blog post! Yay