Evaluation Activity 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

                                                 

 

 Name: Chloe Brown

 Age: 16

 Likes:

 Music: My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy

 Films: Twilight, One missed Call and Inception.

 TV Programmes: Misfits, Skins, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 Social Networks: Twitter, Myspace, Tumblr and Bebo.

Dislikes:

Music: Rap Artists, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus.

Films: High School Musical and Snakes on a Plane.

TV Programmes: Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Harry Hill.

Social Networks: Facebook and Last.FM

Bio: Currently studies at Wolverhampton school of Performing Arts, where she boards for most of the school year. She enjoys going out on a Friday night with her friends. Her boyfriends name is Mortimer and they are attending the same school, although he is 22. Chloe and her friends say that their style is 'grunge', which is who this video may be aimed towards more. Chloe has one sister and two brothers which she is very close too, however being at a boarding school she wishes she could see them more. Too earn extra money, Chloe works in a local corner shop. She says that she enjoys her work however would like a little more pay. When she is not busy working she is at the cinema watching the latest blockbuster movie. Her favourite genre of film is thriller, although when she is with her boyfriend she likes to watch a gory horror. Overall, Chloe is a very stereotypical person who would be most likely to watch our thriller.

Name: Gerald Fletcher

Age: 18
Likes:
Music: Chase and Status, Wiz Khalifa and Girls Aloud
Films: Fast and the Furious, Shrek and Harry Potter
TV Programmes: Top Gear, Waterloo Road and Family Guy
Social Networks: Facebook and Twitter

Dislikes:
Music: Justin Beiber and Kylie Minogue
Films: Chronicles of Narnia, Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Carribean
TV Programmes:  Coronation Street and American Dad
Social Networks: MySpace and Bebo





Bio: Currently training to be a chef at Leith's Cookery School London, where he is doing his final year of intermediate level cooking course. He enjoys spending time with his friends when he has time out of his studies and his favourite hobby is hockey. Gerald's life long ambition was to become a professional hockey player, however he knew that cooking was his forte. Gerald's relationship status is single, however wants to get a girlfriend in the near future. Gerald has one sister called Mandy who he does not see very often as she now lives in Greenland, with her husband Mark. Gerald hopes to start a part time job in a Bar/Restaurant as a waiter to earn money for his advanced cooking training fees. Gerald enjoys watching a thriller movie, however his favourite genre of film is Comedy. Gerald is a likely viewer of our thriller because he enjoys watching thrillers and is the right age range for the film.

James Kinsella-Brown

Evaluation Activity 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?





Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided to compare our villain to Michael Myers. This is a character from a successful series of films called 'Halloween' where he stalks and murders various innocent people. Some of his attributes have been reflected in the character that we have created and used in our film opening. Despite this there are various differences to suit our thriller as I will explain below:

Similarities

-The main similarity is the plain white mask that reveals nothing about the characters emotions and creates the idea that during events such as murder, their emotions are not effected.

-They both have a weapon that can be commonly picked up from an everyday environment.
-The clothing used in both characters is dark which shows a mysterious side to the character. If the person was shown in coloured clothing then it would give them a sense of identity and emotion. Showing our character in dark clothing, like Michael Myers makes him seem emotionless and more to fear.
-The role of both characters is very similar which is to chase victims.
-The motives of Michael Myers are never fully revealed which makes it more scary for the audience as they feel like he is out of control. Although the motives of our antagonist may be revealed slowly throughout the film, it is important to keep them unknown for a while to create a sense of mystery towards the audience.
-Both villains are played by male characters. This is due to the fact that a male character is more dominant and the audience will fear a larger genuine fear from being chased by a man.

Differences
-Michael Myers is seen walking very slowly during scenes yet always keeps up with the victim whilst the villain in our thriller seems to have a more realistic approach to chasing the victim. For example our villain is not seen to have any extreme abilities and has to run to keep up with the vulnerable character.
-Michael Myers wears a boiler suit which seems like hes dressed for the occassion whereas our character, although a similar style, is seen wearing clothes that a human wears. This helps make our character look like he has normal human attributes which will make the audience question what his motives are.
-Although both have weapon's that can easily be picked up, our character weilds a crowbar rather than a knife. This is larger and recieves more attention from the audience.

Thomas Steer

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

Title of our film: We found that coming up with a name for our thriller was a lot harder than we expected. As a group we brainstormed lots of different thriller names but we found that none of them really fitted with the storyline of our thriller. We moved on to deciding what props and costumes were going to be used and as we decided on the antagonist wearing a white mask we decided to call our thriller "Blanc" which means white in French. We thought that the name "Blanc" fitted our thriller well because most people associate thrillers with dark colours however in our case we chose white (Blanc) which is known as a pure and innocent colour. 

Setting/Location: Our opening to our thriller has two locations which are both in Shenfield woods. It starts by a lake where our our character is sitting looking innocent and vulnerable which straight away gives the audience the impression that something bad is going to happen. To make our character look vulnerable we used a range of shots down by the river such as a over the shoulder shot of him playing with a rock. As he is playing with a rock it makes him look nervous. The second location was a forest where the chase scene took place. Both the antagonist and protagonist are running through the forest. Rapid editing was used to make the chase look realistic and scary. 

Costume and Props: When we had to decide on the props and costumes we tried to be as original as possible. We wanted to avoid knives and other similar weapons as they are overused. When picking costumes we wanted the antagonists appearance not to be revealed to the audience so we decided to use a mask. The mask which we chose was a really simple white mask which looked effective. To make the mask stand out our villain wore a black outfit. When the outfit had been put together we felt it looked very creepy. The weapon that we decided on was a crowbar as it matched the antagonists appearance. As for our innocent character we picked a simple black outfit which did not reveal to much about his personality.   

Camera work and Editing: Before we went out filming we planned most of the shots so that when we arrived at the location we could get straight into it. As a group we decided that we needed to get as many different shots as possible so that when it came to editing we had a wide variety of shots to choose from. We had no problems editing the thriller as we used our own editing software which we were familiar with, this meant that the editing process could be completed quickly and professionally.

Title and Font style: Choosing a font style which could be used in the introduction to our thriller was fairly simple as we used the same font as the title. This font fitted perfectly with the mood and was a very unique styled font. The way in which the opening titles appear on the screen was a long process to edit as masking out the tree took a long time. The titles slide out from behind a tree and then slide back behind it before the end of the clip. As a group we thought that the text sliding out from behind the tree was a unique and suitable method to use.

Story and how the opening sets it up: The opening shots make the thriller seem calm however the soundtrack which is being played is creepy which straight away makes the audience think that something bad is going to happen. The antagonist follows the victim in the opening few scenes without the victim realising, this creates an enigma for the audience.

Genre and how the opening suggests this: As the genre of our film is a thriller, we wanted to get the genre across to the audience as quick as possible by the way in which we filmed it, the costume and props which were used and the soundtrack which creates suspense and is very creepy. During the chase scene the music speeds up and so does the speed of editing to creating tension which also helps the audience recognise that they are watching a thriller.  

How characters are introduced: The characters were introduced in ways which fitted with the filming of the thriller. For instance our victim is introduced at the start of the thriller and the way in which he is acting sets the mood. The antagonist appears at different times throughout the opening of the thriller this makes it seem like the villain has supernatural powers which gives him an advantage over the victim.

By Alex Cirino

The Editing Process

BBFC Rating For Our Film

After viewing our thriller and receiving feedback from our YouTube audience we decided to evaluate it and choose a suitable film rating. We looked at the BBFC rating system and decided as a group that it should be a '15'. We chose our thriller to be a '15' because it contains violence and strong language however the scenes are not explicit enough to make it an '18'.

As a group we watched a few other thrillers which helped us to pick a film rating. The thrillers we watched were The Crazies '15', The Strangers '15', Taken '18'. We compared our film idea to the listed thrillers and realised it was not as violent as Taken but was just as creepy as The Strangers and The Crazies. 

Change of Costume

After a having a group meeting about the first video, we noticed several things that we could change. One of the main problems we had with the film was that of the costume. We felt it wasn't believable to have an outfit like that as it looked to far fetched and the quality of the outfit was exposed during filming. James told us about a coat he had which we could use, he said he would wear black trousers with his outfit. We decided to keep the mask as we still though this was an effective prop. Below is a picture of James in his new outfit.

Tom Smith

Diary Of Filming Day 2

With a day set for our second day of filming we had high hopes, plans and high expectations. As detailed in our previous blog, we didn't think the quality of the film was as good as we could achieve so we decided to re shoot it.

We had decided on our costume change but kept just about everything the same. This time however Tom Steer didn't come too filming, but the rest of the team was there. The day went much smoother as we had detailed plan of each shot we needed, and how we wanted them done. This had a massive effect on the filming as it was much more productive and slick.

Another improvement on the last time we filmed was our ability to change our shots and discuss what would be best for the film. By each of us having a positive input we managed to get a wide variety of shots that individually, we wouldn't of thought of. Alec's acting was again just what we wanted so that again made the day more productive.

We also managed to film the second bit of our thriller in the bedroom. We got a lift back to James' house and used his room as he had a window looking down at his garden. We got the second half shot within an hour, bringing the total days filming time to 5 hours. By taking more time, we managed not too rush our filming and got our thriller filmed effectively. It then took Alex 2 days to edit the initial clip and it was then totally finished by Saturday.

Here are some photo's taken throughout the course of the day.

Tom Smith

Diary Of Filming Day 1

We attempted to begin our thriller's filming on 1st April. The weather for this day of filming was good as it hadn't rained, and it wasn't too cold, so our filming skills weren't affected. However this first day did not go as planned to start with. James had to be kept behind by a teacher, so we had to postpone filming for a little bit, whilst waiting for James to come. When we began to start filming, we discovered that the batteries we had to chosen to use, didn't work properly with our camera. We didn't know why, but we found out that the batteries were being used up in about 10 minutes, so we had to go find some more batteries and buy loads, so we had enough for the whole day. Once filming got under way it went rather well, we got all the shots we had put down in our plan. We didn't have time to film the bedroom scene in the second half, so we only filmed the woodland chase scene.

After we had filmed, Alex edited it and put it on Vimeo for everyone to see the finished product, which we had mixed emotions about. We decided that some of the shots looked really good, but others could have looked better. We then ultimately decided that we would have to film again as several bits of the film could be improved dramatically on. We tried not to be too disappointed with the outcome as we knew it was only half of our thriller, but as a group we had a meeting and decided we must reshoot and several changes must be made.

Tom Smith