I planned my storyboard over 13 slides. I wrote down the shots and sound used within each slide. I got different shots and editing ideas from watching t.v dramas/thrillers such as Being Human. I also spent time watching the online version created for a younger audience, "Becoming Human". This was where I got most of my shot ideas. The use of slow motion, and walking into the camera were just two of the ideas I thought were good, so decided to include them in my storyboard.
I watched several YouTube video trailers of thrillers to get sounding ideas. Originally I was going to use dialogue in my film, but from doing research I thought that this would ruin the tension I was trying to build. I then decided that echoing the voices, and putting scary music over the top would have the same effect whilst including the dialogue I originally wanted. I got this idea from watching The Pillow Man - Little Jesus on YouTube. I wanted to give the audience a sense of the character's fright, so thought that including a point of view shot of her feet slowly getting faster, would help create this. I also think that including scenes of the killer burning pictures of the girl, will give the audience a sense of his hatred for her, creating tension. I thought that having a shot of her looking through the window during her journey back to the house would create tension, as because its switching shots to the killer, the audience know what is coming, where as she isn't expecting anything to happen. I decided to put scary music over the shots of her, and a high pitch noise when ever the camera switches to the killer, so the audience associate him with bad, and unhuman.
An establishing shot of the scene she will be walking through, was decided as the scene is filmed in an isolated location, where nobody will be. This will give a sense of her being alone and therefore create more tension and therefore the audience will be aware that the girl is on her own, and that there will be nobody to save her. The shot of her walking up the stairs will make the audience scared, as they know what is coming, and will be wanting to make her aware of this, but there is nothing they can do. Whilst she is being killed, there is only a shot of the bedroom door, with the sound of the girl screaming. I thought that leaving the killing a mystery will make the audience fear the killer more, as they are unaware of his actions until the end of the sequence. The ending shot of the ipod on the floor, relates to the first shot of her when she first walks out the door and puts her ipod in. I think this will create tension for the audience as the ipod is one thing that's related to everyday life, and most people own an ipod, so it could relate to, or happen to them (an everyday experience).
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Realising that the opening sequence is an essential part of my film as it introduces the audience, I felt the need to make the audience want to keep watching. I did this by following the girl on her journey; I thought that this would make the audience want to follow the rest of the sequence to find out what happens to her in the end. My film conforms to the stereotypical real film, as it starts by introducing the main character, followed by the title of the film.
Films that use a similar introduction to this would be 'The American.' The conventions of this film are similar to mine, as the opening sequence follows the main, innocent character on their journey before revealing the title of the film.
My film conforms to typical conventions of thrillers in a few ways:
It doesn’t reveal the identity of the killer; also it contains ‘spooky’ lighting. This makes the audience suspicious of who the killer could be, and also the spooky lighting creates a setting where bad things could happen.
Within my thriller, I do not use dramatic music as such, but the choice of music I made, I think suits my film, as the lyrics are associated with my film as they repeat that someone is coming to get them. The music also has an echo in a way that could resemble the voice of the killer, which would create tension for the audience. This conforms to the conventions of a typical thriller.
Also conforming to the conventions of a thriller, I use high angle shots. This makes the character appear more vulnerable which is key in a thriller, as it will make the audience scared for what is going to happen to the character.
My film also conforms to the conventions of a thriller by the setting. The graveyard location is mysterious and builds tension for the audience as this is an environment associated with death.
The opening of my thriller challenges the conventions of a thriller by filming in an environment with bright, natural lighting. This is not typical of a thriller. My film also doesn’t have the use of silence which is common in thrillers. I chose to leave this out as I did not have time to fit it in, and thought that it may be boring.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I think that my film represents the younger audience of teenagers aged 13-18 as the main character involved is of that age range. My film focuses on the social group of females. I believe it represents a typical middle class young adult, from the way I chose to dress her. I chose to dress her in typical fashionable clothing, which you would expect a woman to be wearing in the street on a normal day. Females are also associated with being victims in thrillers, as they are seen as vulnerable and innocent. Within my film, I only tried to represent this one social group, as my target audience was teenagers aged 13-18, and I thought that using a vulnerable looking, young female would appeal to them most, and relate to them. Mise-en-scene was important as I wanted to relate to the target audience as much as possible. I chose for the girl to be listening to her music through her phone, as many young teenagers have a music playing device. This would relate to the target audience, and also is a stereotypical representation of how older/younger generations view teenagers.
This is a picture of the person I chose to play the victim. I believe she has a vulnerable, yet stereotypical female look.Most thrillers chose to have the victim as a female, as they are typically seen as vulnerable.
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This thriller also has a young female as the victim.
I did some brief research into target audiences, and found that teenagers were one of the largest target audiences in the UK for thriller films. This is why I chose my specific target audience. Also as being a female teenager myself, I believed I would be able to adapt my films in ways to what I thought girls/boys in my age range would be interested in.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that may distribute my product, would probably be a low budgeted company such as ‘Universal Home Entertainment’ or ‘United International Pictures (UIP).’ Both these companies have distributed many UK films, and mainly consist of low budgeted films. I believe both these companies would be relevant to distribute my film, as it’s a first film, where the director has not had much experience. I believe that they would have a better chance of being funded by these companies, than larger ones such as Universal Pictures Fox Film Corporation.
I believe they have better experience with low funded films, and therefore would suit distributing my product.
Unconventional distributors distribute their products online; this could be a cheap solution for me to promote my film. My product could be marketed online through social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, this would be a good form of promotion as my target audience regularly use these sites.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My thriller initially was supposed to target both male and female, ranging from the age of 13-17. However, I feel my film may appeal to older age groups and mainly men, as men are generally more likely to watch thrillers as they can tend to be scary, therefore women do not find them appealing. Apart from this, the main character is a young female, which would attract a female audience as they can relate to the character.
I believe my film is alternative and would appeal to both female and male teenagers who enjoy watching thrillers.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I did a questionnaire within my class, I asked the following questions:
Would you rather the killer be a mystery or obvious?
The result of this question was 11/15 students would prefer the killers identity to be a mystery. I believe that conforming to this choice would attract my audience.
Would you prefer a couple of main characters, or a large cast?
The result was that the majority of students asked (9 0f 15) would prefer a couple of main characters. I believed that to address my audience, only having one main character would be suitable.
I used modern camera and editing techniques, such as handheld camera, and cross cutting. I believe that as a younger audience are more up to date with technology, this would address them more.I addressed my audience by having a young girl in a setting that most of my target audience would be familiar with (the house). I also filmed in a suburban setting, which relates to my target audience of teenagers as most of the middle class audiences live in such areas. I believe that filming in a graveyard would also appeal to them, as it is a mysterious location and teenagers are not familiar with this location, so would want to discover more about it.
If I a bigger budget was available, I would of chose to attract my audience by advertising on social networking sites, on radio stations that are associated with teenagers, and in cinemas.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt that technology can often be unreliable, as I had many issues with the editing programme crashing. I also learnt that lighting has a big effect on how the camera captures images. I overcame this problem by re-shooting certain scenes in different weather conditions. Ambient sound was often muffled by the camera not being correctly positioned, so again, I re-filmed these scenes by placing the camera closer to the sound I wanted to capture. One of the scenes I had this problem with was when the girl was walking out of the door.
If I had the chance to re-film the whole of my project on a bigger budget, I would choose to have a better camera. I believe this would give a better image and sound quality. This would probably attract a wider audience as they would not think that it was a low budget film, and therefore would probably be more entertaining. Also if given a bigger budget, I would choose to have lighting as this would enhance the final product. I’d also pay for a better location, or a set, so I could have the setting exactly how I wanted it to appear.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
With working in a group I do not believe that I had the chance to use the camera as much as I would have liked. I believe that I have progressed to my final product by gaining experience with using the camera and editing programme. I have learnt that I work better independently as I could things the way I wanted to rather than having to negotiate with others.
I have learnt the factors of what a thriller consists of, and how to portray my characters in certain ways. For example, how using certain camera angles can make a person appear vulnerable, or superior
I have learnt that small errors such as having the same weather conditions when re-filming parts of a scene are vital, as having different lighting would make it look fake and un-professional. Another thing I learnt, was to not catch the shadow in the filming of scenes, as when filming the boy going up the stairs in our preliminary task, we caught the shadow of the camera, and therefore had to refilm.
I have learnt how to stablise the camera using a tripod, as in the preliminary task, there were many scenes where the camera was shaky. I learnt how to pan with a tripod without it shaking, which is something we as a group could not achieve.
I believe that the placing of the credits have a impact on the film, as in the preliminary, they are not placed in a imaginative way, therefore this makes the film apear rushed.
Cutting scenes so they do not go on for a long period of time, and boring people, was something that I changed in my final product. I believe that this is because i had more time to come to terms with how the editing programme worked, and as working idividually, I spent more time using it and therefore gained more experience.
I asked people for feedback on my draft edit. I was told to add sounding in other than ambient sound, as in the slow motion sections, the sound doesn't match and sounds out of place. I contacted a local band and got permission to use one of their tracks to disguse the slowed down ambient sound. I also think this would be appropriate to the video, as at the beginning the girl puts head phones in, and the final shot is of the headphones. I selected my track as the lyrics are relevant to the story line, that someone is coming to "get them" and kill them.
Here are a few examples:
- "Your time is running out"
- "This is a blackout, And you’ll find out, it’s gonna come and take everything you love away"
Also I feel that the repeated "going out" will create tention for my film as the sounding speeds up and the voice is partly echoed/whispered. This also creates a spooky like atmosphere. The song that I will use is Save Our Selves (The Warning) - The Blackout. I contacted them to get permission via twitter, and print screened their reply giving me permission to use their track.
The final shot at the end, I, and others noticed, was a different lighting to the shot before. I need to refilm this in the same lighting so it doesn't look like it's filmed in a different location. I was also told that to end my final shot with a zoom of the headphones wasn't a very strong shot, so I may consider cutting this shot all together when re-editing. Others felt that ending with the film with the shot of the girl lay dead on the bed, would be more effective.
People I aksed for feedback, also commented on the amount of scenes I had edited in slow motion. They said that I had edited too many scenes in slow motion, which was not only making my film fairly long, but dragged a bit. To resolve this, I plan to take the slow motion edit off a couple of my scenes to speed the film up, which will hopefully make the film apear like it is no longer dragging.
I was told to add more titles, and do more research into titles as mine weren't very interesting. I could change the font, the colour, and the places within my film that they apear. To help me with this, I plan to watch youtube videos of thrillers to give me ideas. I also need to leave the title of the film up for longer, as people may miss it and not think the film is titled. I also plan to change the film name as people thought it wasn't imaginative enough.
From the girl running in the field, to the point of where she is running up the stairs, there is to much of a 'jump.' This leads people to wonder whether it is even the same girl/to how she got there. I therefore plan to film a short extra scene of her opening the door, taking off her coat, and then walking up the stairs as this will not mislead my audience.
One of the props I will need to use within my thriller is a car. I'm not yet certain if this will be available to me, so if not then I'll cut to her walking home, and miss out the car scene.
Ipod - I will need the ipod for the opening scene when she's walking out the door for the music to start throughout my film.
Bed - For the scene where the girl gets killed, there is a shot of her lay dead on the bed.
Candles - I plan to scatter candles around the bedroom that the killer is in to add more effect. I believe that it will make the room appear spooky, as it will give the room a yellow glow in stead of the lighting being the main lights, which wouldn't add much effect.
I only need 2 characters throughout my thriller. One to play a young girl, who I have chosen my friend Beth, as she has a young vulnerable look about her so thought she'd suit the role as she evenutally gets killed.
The other could be played by anyone, as their features are not actually seen within my thriller, only their shadow. My sister will play this role.
I planned my storyboard over 13 slides. I wrote down the shots and sound used within each slide. I got different shot and editing ideas from watching t.v dramas/thrillers such as being human. I also spent time watching the online version created for a younger audience, "becoming human". This was where I got most of my shot ideas. The use of slow motion, and walking into the camera were just two of the ideas I thought were good, so decided to include them in my storyboard. I watched several YouTube video trailers of thrillers to get sounding ideas. Originally I was going to use dialogue in my film, but from doing research I thought that this would ruin the tension I was trying to build. I then decided that echoing the voices, and putting scary music over the top would have the same effect whilst including the dialogue I originally wanted. I got this idea from watching The Pillow Man - Little Jesus on YouTube.
I wanted to give the audience a sense of the characters fright, so thought that including a point of view shot of her feet slowly getting faster, would help create this. I also think that including scenes of the killer burning pictures of the girl, will give the audience a sense of his hatred for her, creating tension. I thought that having a shot of her looking through the window during her journey back to the house would create tension, as because its switching shots to the killer, the audience know what is coming, where as she isn't expecting anything to happen. I decided to put scary music over the shots of her, and a high pitch noise when ever the camera switches to the killer, so the audience associate him with bad, and unhuman.
An establishing shot of the scene she will be walking through, was decided as the scene is filmed in an isolated location, where nobody will be. This will give a sense of her being alone and therefore create more tension and therefore the audience will be aware that the girl is on her own, and that there will be nobody to save her. The shot of her walking up the stairs will make the audience scared, as they know what is coming, and will be wanting to make her aware of this, but there is nothing they can do. Whilst she is being killed, there is only a shot of the bedroom door, with the sound of the girl screaming. I thought that leaving the killing a mystery will make the audience fear the killer more, as they are unaware of his actions until the end of the sequence. The ending shot of the ipod on the floor, relates to the first shot of her when she first walks out the door and puts her ipod in. I think this will create tension for the audience as the ipod is one thing that's related to everyday life, and most people own an ipod, so it could relate to, or happen to them (an everyday experience).
