evaluation question 7

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 the preliminary task, which I have previously posted on the blog, I am able to see how much we have improved as a group from there to our Thriller opening. When filming our preliminary task we were lacking on knowledge of how to get good creative shots, the best areas to film and some other stuff. 

While filming our preliminary task we filmed it during school time, due to this we struggled to find areas around the school which was quiet and areas where the background sound didn't effect the sound of our continuity. From this, we took it into consideration when filming our full product by ensuring that we filmed on a location where background sound would not effect the overall piece as it was filmed in an area near a road.

During the filming our preliminary task we lacked on creativity of shots, due to this we stuck to basic shots such as close ups, pan shots, medium shots and high angles. After filming the preliminary task we decided that we would like to include a more range of shots, so we decided to sit down and discuss the possible shots. In the full product we used a 360 degree shot, which is a shot we never would've thought about using before. We also included shots such as ECU, high angle pan and a high angle shot filmed through the banister. Due to this we are able to see how much we have learnt from the preliminary task to the creation of our final piece.

The use of the close ups, extreme close ups and pans of jasmines body within the final piece helps build the narrative and helps to symbolise her death. 

Throughout the making of the preliminary task we were also lacking on editing techniques, However we made sure to include a wider range within our final piece. We used editing techniques such as speeding up within the 360 degree shot. The use of editing techniques within our final piece helped to build a stronger narrative and helped to piece our opening together, unlike in the preliminary where we used jump cuts.

                                           

Within our preliminary task we didn't really use any sound other than the diegetic sound of the dialogue. Due to this, the piece didn't really look that good as we had no non-diegetic sound to tie it together. Due to this we made sure we included non-diegetic and diegetic sound within our final piece. Within our final piece we used high pitched music which intensified the thriller theme throughout the film. The use of the high pitched music worked along side the shots of jasmines body which then created tension throughout the piece. We used a song called 'jealousy' which helped draw the narrative of the film together. From the making of the preliminary task we realised how important sound is when making a film/ opening and due to this we ensured we used music and sounds which helped build a narrative and helped create tension. Another thing we decided to do was to remove the sound from the background of clips as from the making of the preliminary task we realised that background sound can mess up the sequence.

Overall I feel like we have learnt a lot from when we made the preliminary piece in terms of camera shots, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. 

evaluation question 6

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

Question 6 from Caitlin Elward

evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

our media product was made with the intention of attracting an audience of teenagers. This was done through the narrative, characters, editing and sound.

Throughout the making of our thriller opening we had to make sure that it was suitable for our target audience and because of this we focused on a topic that would be relateable to the audience. We then decided to focus out narrative on jealousy. We thought this topic would be the most relateable topic for teens as you normally find that jealousy is a re-occurring issue within their lives as they may go through it within friendship groups and relationships. Jealousy and friendship are the two main topics within our opening as we felt like they would be the topics that are the most likely to attract our audience as they are topics they are able to relate too. 

The use of characters plays another part within attracting our audience. We decided to use the group as the characters (Hannah, Josh and Jasmine) within the film as we felt that if teenagers portrayed the characters within the film it would be easier for the audience to relate to than if it was someone who was older. We felt that by having people who are the same age category as our target audience it would make the opening more realistic. 

The non-digetic music used at the beginning of the opening, which is 'Jealousy' by Frankie Miller, is not something you would typically hear within a thriller as it isn't eerie or creepy. However, we chose this song as its lyrics fit closely into the narrative of the film which then gives the audience an idea of what the film may be. Due to the song not being a typical convention of a thriller I do feel like it helps to attract the audience. I think this is due to the fact that they may be expecting to hear eerier music at the start of a thriller, instead they here this rock type song which then draws their attention to the opening as they will then want to know what the opening is actually about. 

We then used another track throughout the opening ' G321-Thriller opening music choice 3.' This track is a more conventional of a thriller. This track consists of music which is slow and high pitched, giving the eerier theme to the opening. This track is mainly played when there is shots of Jasmines body, we thought this would fit well and attract the audience as it entices them to find out more as the music gives the idea that something isn't right with what has happened. 

We used a variety of editing techniques while making our opening to ensure that the audience is drawn to the film. We used fast paced and quick cut editing within our piece as it builds suspense throughout. While editing we included some black outs after the body is shown as we felt like it would draw more attention and curiosity to the film. 

evaluation question 4

who would be the audience for your media product? 

our audience for our thriller would a teenage audience of males and females. This has been decided from the results I received on my survey. We wanted our target audience to be teenagers, as being teenagers our selves we enjoy thrillers. Therefor we thought teenagers would be the best to target for our opening.

We chose teenagers as 90% of my results were aged 13-18 and the remaining 10% were aged 19-24. We also chose teenagers because as mentioned we are also teenagers. Therefor we thought that the topic we chose would be something they could relate too. 

I also asked in the survey what their favourite sub genre of thriller is. From this question I was able to see that my audience would prefer either a crime thriller or a horror thriller, as I received 30% on both of them. We opted for the crime aspect on our thriller. Throughout the thriller we played on the sub genre by giving subtle hints to what may of happened to jasmine through the use of camera and mise-en-scene. Leaving the audience question, was she murdered? did she commit suicide? is the death staged?

These are the type of questions we want our audience to ask as it draws them into that crime aspect of the thriller and draws them in to watch more. 

evaluation question 3

what kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

PRODUCTION

As previously mentioned in a earlier post, we were interested in our production company to be Film 4 productions. As a group we sat down and discussed the possible production companies that we could use. Through this discussion we decided that film 4 would be the best option as they are known for their development of successful films, including those of the thriller genre. 

Film 4 have produced many films such as The Inbetweeners and Frank, as well as some thrillers such as The double and In fear. 

Film 4 which was made by Channel 4, have produced and co-produced many films, where some of them have gone on to win Academy Awards and BAFTA'S. Due to this we thought they would be a suitable production company as they have made successful films, making them a good choice to produce our film. 

Film 4 is an independent British film production company, therefor this makes it more of a suitable company to produce our film as it would also be more easy for us to access them than a production company from the Big 6 in America. 

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution of a film is an important part in the success of films. Due to being teenagers and our target audience being teenagers whom use the internet on a daily basis we thought it would be suitable to use online platforms as our primary distribution for our film. Due to the fact our target audience use the internet on a daily basis we thought this would be the best platform to distribute our film on.

Our film would be distributed onto various online platforms and movie streaming sites, and the most popular streaming site that is used often by teenagers is 'Netflix'. Due to the fact that the majority of teenagers use online streaming sites we felt that this would be the best way to distribute our thriller. Another online distributor that we thought of was BBC Three, which used to be something you could access on the TV, due to it being online we thought it is most likely attracting a wider teenage audience therefor making it a suitable distributor for our thriller. 

Through discussing, we decided that we did not want our thriller to be distributed through the use if main stream cinemas as it is of a high cost and the viewing of our film may not be successful.

MARKETING

Marketing is another vital part in ensuring that people know of new films and products are coming out to make sure that the success of people viewing it is large.

When considering our target audience for our film, We thought that social media and web based advertising would be the most suitable and the best way to market 'Jealousy'. By using social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube and websites that are popular and often used by our target audience it would ensure that they would be aware of our film. Due to us not having a High budget we thought that low budget advertising would be the most affordable and the most effective way to market our film. 

evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

evaluation question 1

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

audience feedback on our final piece

As a way to receive feedback for our thriller we decided to show our thriller piece to 12 people in our school who fit into our target audience. After they had watched the opening we got them to fill in our survey on survey monkey. You can see the results below:

QUESTION 1
Did you enjoy the piece?

From this question, we were able to see that everyone we showed the opening too enjoyed it as all 12 of them said 'yes' meaning there's 100% on yes.

QUESTION 2 
Did you understand the narrative? what did you think it was?

''i'm not sure, something about jealousy/misunderstanding/cheating''

''From the pictures i got the context that the three characters grew up as close friends, perhaps both girls had an attraction to the bot so there was always unspoken tension between the girls even when one was the boy''

''i think it was about friendship that ended badly due to the two women falling in love with the man''

''Exploring the serious effects that jealousy can have on people and relationships''

''I think so? the girl on the floor has taken an overdose because she was jealous of another girl''

From these responses we were able to see that people understood the narrative and that it was about jealousy. The comment that mentions jasmines character possibly taking an overdose shows us that the enigma we wanted to show of whether jasmines character overdosed or if she had been murdered worked successfully as it has left people questioning what happened.

QUESTION 3 
Did you like the editing that we used? What did you like the most?

''I did, I liked the lack of speech and the close ups and panning shots''

''The shot of the pictures was a nice way to get context without an long winded backstory. The shot of the two eyes implicitly suggest a connection between the two characters without explanation which was effective. The best shot of the girl with the drugs being allued to set a presence over the main narrative which set tension for the piece well.'' 

''yes....because it showed the situation now & the preceding crucial event that lead up to the current situation.''

''I did like the editing, the cut aways to each different person were very cleverly placed''

''I loved it. It flowed very nicely and was used in a great way to create suspense''

From these comments we were able to see that people did enjoy our editing and that they thought it was appropriate. We were also to see that the use of the photo montage at the beginning was successful as people said they enjoyed it.

QUESTION 4 
Did you feel that our choice of sound was appropriate?

''Definitely! It added a sense of eeriness to the piece whilst grasping the spectator's attention''

''Yes! i liked that the word jealous was emphasised by the word 'jealous' in the intro song''

''The song was about jealousy which helped set the tone of the piece (bit of an obvious comment). The sound being one continuous track helped unify the piece. Personally the piece would have been better if it was all silent besides the music as the added subjectivity would have added more tension.''

''Yes however there was a slight part when the music stopped and I thought it was a glitch.''

''I thought the soundtrack was great. The use of the phone ringtone too also gave it a more realistic edge to the piece.''

From these comments, it is obvious to see that the use of sound within the piece was effective and that the intro song 'jealousy' helped people to understand what was going on within the piece. Somebody stated that the choice of music added to the eeriness of the piece, which is good as it is what we wanted to achieve. One person did comment about how the music stops at one point and they thought it was a glitch. This is something we picked up on while fine editing, Due to this we would make sure it doesn't happen in the future.

QUESTION 5 
What was your favourite part of our piece?

''The bit of dialogue in the middle it was just enough to help me to understand the piece a bit more.'' 

''The way the pictures were used to set the context of the narrative''

''I like the editing when it got progressively closer to the eye and then back out to the male''

''Close up view points e.g. of eyes through glasses lenses''

''The intro was edited well, again i liked the end scene in the garden with the pan around jasmine''

''My favourite part was the bit with the eyes''

From these comments we were able to see that the audience had a range of opinions on what shots were their favourite. The majority of the audience said they enjoyed the photo montage shot or the part with the close ups of the eyes. People said they enjoyed the photo montage shot as it helped to build the narrative of the piece. People also said they enjoyed the shots of the close ups of the eyes as t is an unusual shot.

QUESTION 6 
If there was something you could change what would it be and why?

''I would maybe say a bit of the narrative in words on the screen so people aren't left to make their minds up and come up with the wrong scenario''

''Wouldn't change anything''

''I would maybe add some more clips, or change some of the scenes to make the story a bit clearer (maybe its just me who doesn't understand)'

''Maybe the shadow on the front of the credits at the start of the video to make it a little easier to read - but other than that everything worked really well! Really enjoyed it :)''

These comments here about what the audience would change is quite interesting. These comments would be something we would take into consideration if we were to make this again. However I don't agree with putting the narrative on the screen as I don't thing its suitable to do so as it is only an opening and we wouldn't want give the narrative away straight away.

QUESTION 7
Do you have any other feedback?

THIS QUESTION WAS AN OPTION FOR PEOPLE TO ANSWER. FROM THOSE WHO DID RESPOND HERE ARE THEIR COMMENTS:

''It was a very good video, well done''

''Great work for an AS level piece''

''The film really captured my attention and was well put together''

''Ti liked the idea, the editing an the video. It shows that you are creative and have much knowledge about film editing''

Groups final thoughts on the final edit

As a group, we all sat down and decided to discus the final edit of our film. We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the edit and what we would improve if we got the chance to make another in the future. I feel as if throughout the entirety of the opening the narrative is clear and our skills combined have been shown quite well.

At the beginning of the film, while planning and discussing, we found it quite difficult as a group to merge ideas together and make a strong narrative. However, after looking through some more things and discussing even further we then came up with a solid narrative. 

After the making of our first draft we were able to see and identify any shots that didn't work, enabling us to see what would need to re-film. From making the first draft we were able to see any continuity errors which would then allow us to go back and change them for the final edit. 

At the beginning of the edit we use a juxtaposition from the use of Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites. This is shown through the use of the collage going against the dark and death of when the camera pans across the body in the garage, showing the binary opposites of life vs death / life vs friendship. As a group, we thought the use of the binary opposites was a good way to entice the audience in, as it makes them question why the dead body is there after seeing the collage of photos with the person alive. 

One of my favourite parts of the final edit is the shot where you see the glasses on the floor of the garage and you are able to see the chair swinging in the background. The chair being seen swinging in the reflection in the glasses wasn't an intended shot as it was just meant to be a shot of the glasses. However I personally feel like it adds tension to the thriller. When I brought it up to the group in discussion they all agreed and also said it adds tension to the opening. 

As a group, we feel like the 360 degree shot is really effective within the opening as it ties in the feel of jealousy - Jasmine was the one who was jealous and now, since she is dead, its as if the jealousy has been passed onto Josh, this is shown through the zoom in on jasmines eye and the zoom out on Josh's eye. However we did notice that when the camera is zooming into jasmines eye, it is not central.This is due to the fact that we do not have the correct equipment which would allow us to steady the camera and centre it. 

Another thing we noticed with the 360 degree shot is that when we are doing the 360 shot it isn't steady, once again this is due to the lack of equipment. Where as if we had the money we could use a track to make it more steady. However, we feel as if the unsteadiness of the 360 degree shot adds into the narrative, showing the unstable relationship and the lack of control to keep the relationship steady.

The music is an something that we all agreed plays a very important part in the opening. This is down to our main song being ''jealousy' by Frankie miller. The song clearly denotes what the films narrative is to the audience. The song is brought in and out throughout the opening, reinforcing the narrative of jealousy. The way the song is brought in and out of the opening also allows the audience to see that this is a continuing theme throughout the film.

Overall, the final edit of the film successfully portrays the narrative of the film. This is done mainly within the photo collage which we took inspiration from the tv drama 'The missing'. 

actor casting / profile

While planning our story line to our opening, we had to pick people who we thought would be the best and would be available when filming. Due to this we thought it would be best to have our own group as the actors as it would make it easier for us to film when needed. 

The cast for our film was:

JOSH EAST 

AS

JOSH 

Josh had the part in the opening where he acted as the 'evil' character through the use of the theory of binary opposites (good vs evil)

As josh was the only male within our group we thought it would fit best to have him play the antagonist.

JASMINE GREENE

AS

JASMINE

Jasmine had the part in the opening of acting as the possible ex of josh and the person who has been harmed, acting as the 'good' character who has possibly been hurt by the 'evil' character within the use of the binary opposite theory (good vs evil)

HANNAH MARTIN

AS

HANNAH

Hannah played the role of Josh's girlfriend, whom may of caused the issues between Josh and Jasmine. Within the film it is not evident whether Hannah is the good or evil character within the binary opposite theory. 

Inspiration..

For the opening we researched into ideas for the narrative, we all included ideas and we all took inspiration from different films and programmes which all consisted of the same narrative and story line.
Josh took inspiration from the film 'Double Jeopardy' where the story line is of a woman who runs away with another man after being framed for the murder of her Husband. Josh took inspiration from this as Jealousy is evident from the fact her Husband has staged the murder. 

I took inspiration from the film 'Safe Haven' which follows a similar story line to 'Double Jeopardy' But the Husband of the Woman who ran away, comes to find her. Once he finds her, he gets jealous as she as made a new life to forget him, this then causes conflict between them both. From this I also took inspiration from the jealousy shown in the film.