Evaluation :)

In our media product, we used, developed, and challenged several of the Thriller conventions. First off, we used a crime at the core of the narrative. This was the murder of our dead girl and it was all centered around the past and revenge. We also used a complex narrative structure. We see quick shots of the after-murder stage and we don't quite get why the girl was murdered, which adds a bit to suspense. Therefore this is typical Thriller material. We challenged the next convention which is establishing enigmas which are expected by the audience to be resolved. We don't know why the dead girl was murdered, and we don't know why she wanted revenge, therefore it is different from a typical thriller film. We also challenged the fact that the protagonist should get in trouble with the antagonist. We didn't really have an protagonist because in their own little way they are both evil and seeking revenge. Therefore, I believe we have developed on the thriller genre as there wasn't a protagonist. As well as this we have used themes of mirroring. Basically we have used this in our thriller as both antagonists are as bad as each other. They are both out to kill each other and they kind of reflect on each other as friends. In terms of themes of identity, we kind of see that our murderer is a murderer when we see the flash backs of her stealing the necklace from the other girls dead body, and running off. On the other hand we don't actually see her murder the girl, so therefore we might not be able to see she is a murderer. We have also used the fact of both girls having a flaw. Their flaw would be jealousy, which in some way is exploited by murder, and revenge. Obviously, because we don't have a protagonist, the mise-en-scene does mirror/reflect the antagonists plight. It does this by the location of the church, and the darkness of the clothes the murderer is wearing. The black reflects on the murder she has commited and the church also does this.

For our media product, our audience would be women and men, aged from 15-40. The type of people in which would go to see this would be interested in latest thrillers, people who have seen similar films before, for example, The Ring, where a dead girl comes out of the TV to get revenge on anybody who finds her. We attracted/addressed our audience by using the similar idea of the dead girl seeking her revenge, and using fast and jumpy cuts to make them jump. We also showed Grace turning round slowly which created suspense waiting for something to happen. This would attract the audience because they would be on the edge of their seat waiting for something to happen and the typical thriller audience loves that kind of stuff.

I have learnt quite a lot about technology from constructing this product. I have learnt how to use the camera steadily and smoothly to make our film look better. In terms of the editing side, I have learnt how to use iMovie (previous version) and how to import certain scenes from the camera. I have also learnt how to cut and shorten my clips and learnt much about the use of transitions and effects. I found using the technology was very simple as I have had past experience with camera work and using editing software.


A scene from our preliminary task 'Happy Homework'.


Looking back at our preliminary task, we have learnt from our mistakes in terms of continuity. In our preliminary task, during a conversation about me needing the homework, on the next scene the camera has moved and we have changed position. If it wasn't for completing the preliminary task we wouldn't have realised this mistake and our Thriller could have been worse off. We also used pretty childish transitions in the preliminary task for example the circle in and the music we created our self (inspired by star wars and Tara!) The 180 degree rule was also not completed to a satisfactory standard therefore we gained some perspective on how to improve it.

Our media product represents young girls and conflict between them, and how easily it can get out of hand, and can turn fatal. This is a bit stereotypical as girls are considered to have fights and conflict, yet be very close friends. Our thriller shows young girls to be over-reactive, holding grudges, and close friendships (in the past). Women are more prone than men, to believe that deceit is being planned behind their back, even when these accusations are false.

I think a small media institution would distribute our media product as it was not planned to be a big hollywood buster! Also I like to believe that it is not like a typical Thriller to be shown in the cinema, therefore it could be a film to be shown on the internet, which could save a lot of money for budget as advertisement would not be a great issue. I think the audience it would attract for viewing would be smallish. It's not quite like Psycho, but it will keep the audience on the edge of their seats!!

In conclusion, we are happy with our finished media product and we have learnt a vast amount about editing, camerawork, and different shots and angles. We have gained perpective for the coursework we have to do next year, and with work comes bigger, stronger, and better ideas.

Posted below is our final Thriller cut. I hope you like it.

This is R3v3ng3.

Discussion of Appropiate Technical Competencies

Holding a Shot Steady

To be honest, this wasn't the easiest of things to do! Although we had the tripod, when we was panning and tilting the camera it was hard to make it look smooth because our hands are wobbly and the tripod kind of jolted round. It was difficult but in the end we got it pretty smooth.

Framing a Shot and Shot Distances

We found this rather easy! We had great ideas of how we was going to frame our shots and used the following shots:
Close-up (to emphasise a certain expression i.e. sadness, anguished look.)
Extreme close-up (to show the necklace, expression of eyes, and smile.)
Mid-shot (to show BODY LANGUAGE)
Dutch Tilt (to show that Grace is possibly ill, and not thinking straight about what she just done!) Point Of View Shots (to show her timidness, high angle, looking down, shows shes weak.)
Establishing shot (necessary for the beginning, sets the scene)
Pans, Tilts. (to show off setting)

Shooting Appropiate Material

We used a back-drop of the church because it symbolises death. The close-up of the necklace was a heart shape! This shows love/friendship and the way that Grace is holding the necklace she is kind of fiddling with it showing shes messing with friendship/love. The lovely bush behind the bench is green, in which we can gain connotations of sickness! The frame looks rugged, old, ruined, which gives a sort of eeary effect and its dark which shows DARK times.

Editing (Transitions) and Effects

We used a cross dissolve mainly to go from what is happening to what has happened, and it gives a ghostly kind of effect. We use this going from the frame to the scene, from the dropping of the frame to the smashed frame, and from Paris standing there to her jumping out towards Grace. At the beginning we faded it in because it looked a hundred times better and goes from dark to the light, which is also a bit symbolic. The fun scene and murder sniplets are in black and white to show that it is the past and that again, it's dark times.

Also, for the part where Grace turns around, the duration of the shot is long, creating suspense. When Grace is running away and Paris is appearing, the duration of the shots are fast to show that there is panic and its fast!

Mise-en-Scene

The girls were kind of contrasting. Grace was wearing black, showing murder, death, and mourning of dead girl Paris. Paris on the other hand is wearing white, to show her innocence and ghostly look. In terms of performance, Paris had to look angry and revengeful. Grace had to look upset, sad, and in distress. When filming the fun scene, we had to film it on a bright sunny day which showed a happier time. We tried very hard for the weather to be bad and dark on the day of filming the church scene however we can't predict the weather can we!? The necklace Grace is wearing is what Paris was wearing and shows friendship/love of them both (awww).

Using Sound With Images

The non-diegetic music we hear playing is the piano song. Its in a minor key and reflects on the sadness with times of looking back and deep thought. The heartbeat noise also shows heart racing and leading to the murder we see! The only diegetic noise we hear is Grace's scream which shock the neighbourhood! We don't see what happens after Paris jumps at Grace but the sign 'Is There More to Life Than This?' comes up. We used this with the scream because there is more to life than slaugther! Not knowing what happened to Grace adds to mystery and suspense.

Graphic Match

The graphic match we used was the picture to the moving scene! We used this because it looked like Grace was looking back into the past time and it's what she remembers in her mind. Its almost like the memory is kept alive.

OUR THRILLER IS COMPLETED !!

Today our Thriller was completed at long last. We tidied up the shots and added our music. We ordered the music from www.akmmusic.co.uk due to the fact that the Moby Gratis site did not give us the music we had ordered in time. However for this website we used we had to pay but the service was alot better and we got the music straight away!

Editing

We have now finished all our filming for our Thriller and we have now started to edit.

Firstly we uploaded our scenes from the camcorder to iMovie on the Mac, then we started to edit our movie.
We've just finished our first cut, which is looking pretty good but needs some improvements. During the process of creating our first cut we have looked at various transitions and special effects and have a good idea on which ones will look awesome...

Tomorrow we will be improving our Thriller!! Over the course of the week it will be looking better and better.

Jessica also signed up for the Moby Gratis site for our song. However it hasn't come through yet. Since we have not got long left at all to complete our coursework, we might have to create our own song using GarageBand on the Mac. That should be okay because we all had a mess around on GarageBand and we know how to use the program well. Plus I have great knowledge of the program as I use it in another subject.

We decided not to show the pan and tilt up of the sky at the beginning fading into the dark scary sky for two big reasons.

1) Short on time for video space.
2) The weather was unfortunatly lovely that day!

We are going to add a heartbeat sound also soon into our Thriller.

Filming

Over the course of the Easter holidays, myself, Jess, and Tara have been filming!!

We decided to use the church shown in my blog as the location and we also used a park near where Jessica lives.

Our actors involved a girl called Grace as our murderer, a girl called Paris as our dead girl, and myself and Tara were extras for the fun scene.

Now we are going to start editing when we get back to school Monday. We all really enjoyed filming and I hope you enjoy our film when its complete!!

We have experienced a couple of problems however with our location. There is not much of a gap between the bench and the road, therefore our mid-shots are hard to film because we could of got run over!!!

We managed to change a few of the shots which compromised the storyboard! (UH-OH!) However we think it looks better this way. The only big change in the filming was the mid-shot of Grace on the bench where we had to instead film her at a diagonal angle. Also, we decided not to film the sky but to film the cross at the top of the church, representing of course the lovely classic DEATH.

Location!

Here are our pictures of the church we will be using in our thriller. We are using a church to symbolise the death of the girl. It also gives an eery effect. It also represents mourning.

Tuesday 31st March 2009

On Tuesday we practiced some different shots and angles that we could use for our Thriller. We experienced some problems whilst panning and tilting the camera as it does not stay very smooth. 

We are also experiencing some problems with the times as normally when one of us are free during the week the other has lessons! Therefore we are going to take the camera out during the Easter holidays giving us 2 weeks to complete our filming.

We have now also found somebody else to play our dead girl ... Stacey Reading!