Thriller Research Evaluation Question 7

7)Looking at the Preliminary Task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from the
Preliminary Task to full product (opening titles)?

From the Preliminary Task, we have realized what how much continuity matters in making a decent piece, but with the 1st task, we usually filmed a chunk of the 2 minute sequence all in one go, as moat of it involved an interrogation scene in one room. With the full product however, that was almost complete in one day, as we found it was best to get the piece done without breaks, or several day gaps in our daily timetable.
For the final products' sake, we definitely learnt from the preliminary task we we rendered out the piece incorrectly in lower quality.

We learnt the obvious of taking off the microphone on the cameras in order to not record audio during the preliminary task where we were laying around with the equipment; testing what different camera buttons/ switches did e.g. the auto/ manual focusing, shutter speed, viewing of videos menu etc.

With our brilliant idea of using my enthusiasm in creating simple synthesized sound/ tracks, we decided to do a silent thriller with the mic out the cameras to add to the eeriness and scope of the piece, so that anyone can guess it is a thriller by the spooky silence and the thriller-sounding electric piano track.

We have all learnt and done our bit with the editing stage of the products, and have developed an creative concept of when it is right to use hard cuts or fade transitions with the shots, and for what we did in the final product.
*The stuff we have learnt within software like Adobe Premiere is talked about in the Editing Stage blog

In the final product, there isn't as much mise-en-scene as we could of put in, but this is a concept we definitely improved on from the Preliminary, as in the final product, the case is a more obvious focus in the piece, and is the only object in the environment that has any significance (with more planning, we would of created more references in the piece in the settings e.g. more emphasis with wet, dark weather from the windows). The clothing is definitely an contribute towards the whole mise-en-scene as mentioned before in previous blogs, the black and white clothing fits in with the thriller theme.

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 6

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

Adobe Premier 
Even though this software is more advanced than the basic Windows Movie Maker, my peers & I found this software easy to use, and in some cases used some of the special editing function like the artificial lightning/ brightness adjustments for scenes that were much lighter than others.
(More is mentioned in an earlier blog of mine on my experience with this software)

FL Studio
In my personal free time, I have used this software to generate basic synthesized/ electrical music for the fun of making tunes & tracks that relate to my taste in video games. In creating an original 2 minute piece for the opening, I took effort in getting advice from m
y peers and friends outside of school who know more musical theory than me especially piano-based, and practicing a few chords and note combinations on a set of pianos in my school's music department. Eventually, me and my peers agreed on an eerie fitting tune based around a the D minor scale.

Decent HD Camera + Tripod + Lighting equipment
After using cameras outside of school with my friend's filming projects, I'm used to how to attach a tripod to the camera etc. It was also important I remembered to attach a mic to the camera for recording sound of which we detached when filming the opening titles, as we planned to have my music run in the background.

IMDb
I have come across and have learnt to use this website for the researching of thriller films that have helped me develop my understanding of thriller film concepts, as well as my peer research. This site was also a good start for looking at film reviews, and has generally made me more aware of the different films present, past and upcoming, and actor's filmography (other films they have been in).

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 5

5)How did you attract your audience?

We interviewed a friend, and I asked my parents in person what they would expect from a thriller (these are all on previous blogs).

Various shots throughout the opening titles help the audience become attracted to the enigma which is the briefcase by close up shots and long, birds-eye shots to give a sense of its surrounding and how it stands in importance. The isolation of the characters, and the blank surroundings e.g. the white corridors lead to focused primarily on the case which is being passed from peer to peer.

The change of pace in our main task was important at the end of the opening titles, as a way of keeping the viewer on edge when the screen cuts to blank to reveal the title of the film after the assassin reaches for the businessman who is trying to open up the briefcase. The change of pace is the amount of hard shot cuts to another shot like when the assassin's shadow flies across the floor to when it immediately shows the businessman turn his head in anxiety that hopefully makes the viewer a bit nervous as well or "on the edge of their seats".

From our research on thrillers with our peers, we definitely incorporated a thriller theme well with our black and white costume variation, and we hope that the end of the opening titles brought that anxiety feeling to the audience regardless of the setting we picked to film that had a green screen in the background by accident, but we can easily get away with simple, lazy mistakes like this, and state that it is a filming studio in the actual fictional setting if the film continued in production.

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 4

4)What would be the audience of your media product?

From watching films such as Psycho and knowing what my friends are like and our general male social group, the audience our product should target is a generic male and female teenage audience, as this involves us (the cast) who are obviously teenagers although if we got successful from pitching our film, we would get actual older adults to play our roles. From common knowledge, we all though that our age group if the most likely to visit the cinema on a weekly basis compared to an older individual who works and cannot find much time to visit the cinema as much.

This audience are used to anticipating to see 'scary' films that can fall into a horror or a thriller of some sort/ sub-genre; of recent years, films like the Women in Black and Skyfall have been seen and gossiped about in our age group for how 'scary' or 'cool' the film is. In some ways it's similar to the reason for teenager love for theme park roller coasters; the thrill and the suspense of it all which Resonance should deliver.

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 3

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

Unless some film company/ conglomeration/ director got interested in our opening titles for the film idea 'Resonance' with a good contract such as Universal or anything of potentially american influence, I would try applying for a sum of money through some company like the UK Film Council (set up in 2000 by the Labour party to promote the UK filming industry) that may be interested in financing a unique concept film with a assassin pianist, or even a high end independent filming company would do, but distribution would depend on their connections with cinema chain
s and all. With the success of thriller films like the Woman in Black, it wouldn't be a bad idea to promote an idea like ours to boost the impression of thriller films and general films in the British industry.

This second option is probably better as it feels better to produce a British Film with only British financing I think, but this is becoming more and more rare and shouldn't be expected to happen with the money that can be made through a global conglomerate.

On the other side of the course where I've been studying the British Filming industry, I became aware of MultiStory which is a local micro-budget company that I believe would take on a film idea like ours that could possible reach the typically high concept values of popular, more mainstream British films in the cinema chain. A small advantage with making a micro-budget film is that we would be outside the mainstream cinema chain like Empire cinemas, and will be still able to show our product at indie theaters that would allow the production companies with actors to have a Q&A session afterwards with the audience, so they can talk to the audience in person.

Thanks to the world we live in, we could even post our film on YouTube as a way of distributing the product for free, unless it came to a point where you can get paid for how many times a viewer clicks YouTube advertisements from if our videos actually starting to catch on. The use of the tag function and posting information/ updates/ advertisements on social media sites like Facebook would be a great way of trying to get our product out there.

 If we had the expense and begun a micro-budget company, we would start by buying a domain name for a site, so that we could post what our company does, the films we do, have done, and are coming, list of cast members etc.

An alternative to making a bit of money from efforts made with producing the product would be to join a streaming service online (Distrify for example) like what the micro-budget company MulitStory has done with films such as Verity's Summer where you have a choice to rent or buy the film, which won't make a lot of money, but then in our realistic cases, it is better than nothing, and anyhow, it seems to be catching on recently with making small films viral so it would be worth a shot.

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 2

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

Our products such as Resonance probably represent killers/ psychopaths in the light that they aren't as mad/ cold as you think, as we tried to get into the opening titles that the pianist was the killer. We also definitely represent businessmen as having an identical dress sense, and waiting around with patience in their posture and movement- a quite neutral representation.
We represented the businessmen as equals in their clothing, as a way of implying their potential insignificance to the case, that could hint at the reason for the assassin killing the guy for the case.

Overall, the characters in our opening titles aren't obviously developed yet to a grand extent hence the opening titles /very bland, so relating them further with a social group is tricky besides your stereotypical businessman in black and white, and an assassin that contradicts the cold blooded stereotype, but at the same time sort of represents psychopath.

Thriller Research Evaluation Question 1

1) What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

In both tasks, we've used the the concept of dim/ dark lighting very well to fit in with the stressful, eerie environment, as well a very contrasting choice of clothing in Resonance where the assassin (the supposed villain) is in black whilst the seemingly good guys are in white shirts and black ties- a formal businessmen look.

A way we have probably challenged a form in a typical thriller which is to have a character die in the opening titles, which I believe isn't too much of an issue, as how the potential film continues from that is unknown; maybe it focuses on around the character before he dies- we cannot be certain hence why we can get away with this, even if it looks like we've tried to space a whole th
riller film into the space of 2 minutes by killing something from the start.
*UPDATE- We recently re-filmed the opening titles, & made the titles appear before the assassin seemingly runs in to kill the businessman.

We have try developing on the character of the killer by making him not seem cold- blooded, and that there is a sense of morality and reason in this person, such as with the assassin in the titles for Resonance who we originally planned to reveal that the pianist was actually the assassin at the end by having the pianist leave the room with the assassin's hooded gear on the floor. Similar can be said for the detective who is shown walking to the interrogation with some form of emotion/ struggle before he enters the door with a cold sounding persona.

We've challenged the idea of a dark, spooky setting in the main task, as the settings are in bright white stairways and corridors, but keeps the tone of a thriller intact with the briefcase being of the only black objects in the area- hence visually targeted by audience throughout the piece as the enigma. The music I made also hints to a dark atmosphere under all the light in the setting.