evaluation

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

My media products use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products. I did this by watching other thriller openings and getting ideas from them, for example I inter spliced the credits with pieces of film, which made it more interesting to watch. I used conventional and non conventional methods in my film, for instance I made the move with the film to create the effect that the writing was staying in that position on the screen. I also put the name of the film at the end of the credits.

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

My media product represents particular social groups by choosing a particular type of thriller, it is fast paced and attracts a teen  audience who prefer these sort of films. I originally wanted to attract a larger range of audience but in the end I focused on a single group. 

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

I would distribute the product though the cinema, as it is still the best place to get films known and seen by the public. So it would bring in the most revenue and views, after I would make a dvd and use retail to sell it. 


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


I have learn't about all sorts of technologies throughout the construction of this product, these include: adobe final cut, garage band, adobe after effects and blogger. with out all these technologies, I would have struggled to make the film. In after effects I used the motion tracker to place the credits in the film. I have improved my skills tremendously for these programs since the beginning of this course. 

Final film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4dJErXmHN4
This is our final film, since the rough cut it has been improved by: adding extra pieces of film to it thus lengthening it; changing the films location (because the new film firmly places it in England), The credits have been improved though the program adobe after-effects, this has greatly

Rough Cut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UruVSXlOCyU
This is our rough cut

Dummy Shot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBg8nGMIvZ0

Dexter

Dexter starts with a close up of a mosquito, drinking blood. Then the main title appears on the screen, it is the colour of blood. Then it zooms in on a man shaving, it is all close up shots so the viewer doesn't have much knowledge on what is going on. It is all very based around blood and death, after the shaving close up, it zooms in on someone cutting meat, then cooking it. It is very cleverly filmed because of the way the director has turned a every day routine into something sinister. All the actions symbolise the different ways that he kills people, the way he cuts though the fruit, meat and eggs, is like him cutting though flesh, the way he plunges the coffee peculator, shows a sort of plunging motion to kill someone, when he goes to floss his teeth it looks as if he's going to strangle someone, similarly when he is doing up his laces it looks as if he is strangling someone, or tying them up, and even when he puts on his shirt it looks like he is suffocating someone. all this gives the viewer a very good idea what this character is like even though he was only eating breakfast.

questionares

Do you watch thrillers?

James - Yes

Jimmi - Yes
Zan - Yes

What is the last thriller you watched?

James - Lord of the rings

Jimmi - Crank 2: High Voltage
Zan - Psycho

What is your favourite thriller?

James - The Shining

Jimmi - Burn After Reading + The Transporter
Zan - Psycho 

What do you think are the main aspects of a thriller?

James - Characters, a good antagonist

 Jimmi - Non-stop action, like bam-bam-bam to keep you on the edge of your seat
Zan - Suspense, twists, scary stuff

Do you think the music is important to a thriller and why?

James - Adds drama

Jimmi - Yes; Music adds a mood. If you add really fast paced music to a fast paced scene it just makes it more 'thrilling', without the music I just don't find it as good.
Zan - Yes because it builds suspense

What do you expect in a thriller?

James - Death

Jimmi - Well modern thrillers are usually some crazy guy running down the road killing people... But a good thriller should have a lot of suspense, a lot of action and good casting.
Zan - Scary stuff, creepy music


From the results of our questions we can see that most 16-19 year olds like lots of action, suspense an tense gripping scenes. 

production logo ideas

This is one of the ideas for a production logo. we also created haunted house productions, which features a drawing of a house, using yellow on a black back ground. we used adobe photoshop cs5 to make this. With the other logos we drew them out by hand onto photoshop..

This is the rough cut for the thriller opening, it needs lots of editing: the signs need changing to make it seem more Russian, the credits need to be put on the walls, using auto tracking and animation; some of the scenes need to be re-taken and lengthened; the music needs to be perfected; it needs an ending, the main credits scene needs to be re-taken and the camera needs to be steady.We used a simple hand held camera to do the filming. Then we transferred the tape to a mac book, and imported it into final cut pro, in which we cut and edited the film. we had to import he film onto a different program to do the more tedious part where the credits move along the wall.

We used garage band to create a sound track, This worked well with final cut and merged well with the footage. we used photoshop to create the logos. The film is set in Moscow Russia, instead of filming there we filmed it in Wem. Moscow was chosen because it is a good setting for a espionage action thriller, when we filmed it there was snow, people usually associate Russia with snow and cold weather so this added to the effect and made it quite a 'chilling' thriller. Snow makes people feel cold and the fact that this is not set in a warm environment make the viewer realise something is underhand. The interrogation scene was filmed in a conference room, but the lighting used made the atmosphere seem more sinister, plus it made the viewer use their imaginaion more and. The original soundtrack was greatly influenced by the Scarface soundtrack, but unfortunately this proved too synthetic for the type of film so it was replaced with another which was more inspired by the 'theme from shaft', it has a funky drum beat with a loud bass line.

This is The original animatic for the film, which includes the original story line.

dirty harry

Dirty Harry is a cop action thriller, in which Clint Eastwood stars. It is a classic 1970's film which was one of Clint Eastwood's best films along with his Westerns. It is about a serial killer and dirty Harry's (Clint Eastwood) task to hunt him down. It starts with a list of all the San Francisco police killed in action. then it cuts to a close up of an end of a gun. after a couple of second a slow drum beat stars, then it changes to a first person view though the sniper scope, the scene progresses as the target is followed, then the camera zooms out for an establishing shot of where the victim is. then as the viewer waits to see what happens, the music gets louder, then quiets down as it switches to first person, it seems that he's hunting her.

        Then he steadies his aim and shots, we see the victim get shot. then we see the first of the credits, Clint Eastwood appears on the screen the same time that he walks in to shot, in the credits the viewer gets the impression that he is a good cop from the way he solves where the killer was straight away, also the music used as he heads towards the building that he suspects the killer came from, is quite funky and fast. from the first couple of minutes the viewer can tell what the film is going to be about and place the film roughly in the year it was made because of the recording quality and the instruments used.

      The opening shows what is to come later on in the film, it is an action packed glimpse of what is to come, this tells the viewer what the genre is straight away so they know what to expect.

these are our storyboards for the thriller opening.

http://ellieas.blogspot.com/2010/11/final-thriller-opening.html?spref=bl
This is a link to our second and final continuity exercise. We decided to scrap the original lighting idea and used better lighting. This worked better and greatly improved the original one. There are a few small errors where the separate pieces of film hasn't completely fitted together perfectly.

Recce shots for thriller opening

This is an alleyway we found in wem, the red bricks give it the 'moscovin' look we wanted. and the almost narrowing lanes makes the feeling of nearing its end.

Another alleyway we found which overlooks a scrap yard

an empty park is wierd as a park usally has people in it.

A grave yard is quite sinister and deathly

possible locations:
. wem; church, park, alley, town hall, school, stairs, car park
These are the best filming locations that we could find in wem.

Thriller Openings- Mission Impossible

The opening of mission impossible is inspired by the old television series. it starts with a close up of a hand lighting a fuse. the fuse lasts all the way though the opening credits, the fuse is used because people associate fuses as being a count down to an explosion of some sort, with the similar style to the original series kept in mind, they show brief moments later on in the film for a glimpse to what exciting thrills lie ahead. in 0this it  The music is very stylish and fits perfectly with the style of the film, its fast and catchy. They used the original music but gave it a more modern twist to show it's age. I think that this really works well, as it wouldn't be mission impossible with out it. The clip is very fast moving and energetic, which sets the atmosphere for the rest of the film.

This is our first attempt at the continuity exercise, we tried to use night cam to add to the mystery. I do not think this worked well, because of the way the light was used.

Thriller opening Idea

Ideas
. action scene
. James bond type opening
. lots of lights and effects
. Flash back
. non-chronological order.
. the credits appear after the opening scene
. pre-haps alternating between a questioning/interrogation scene and a action scene.
. explosions
.  create suspence and grip the audiences attention.
. close shots, mid shots, extreme close ups, long shots.
. start with a establishing shot, then a close shot of what is going on.
production logo/name
. Laughing monkey productions
. picture of a monkey
. drawing of a monkey
. rough drawing of a monkey
possible names action thriller
. unknown enemy
. unknown fate
. narrowing lanes
. darkening lanes

More storyboards