Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

looking back and reflecting on the preliminary task task I feel as if I have learnt much about the development process for creating a low budget film. I was unaware of how much it me and effort needs to be put into make only the first two minutes as I thought this would be a relatively easy to task to complete, I could not have been more wrong as it took me twice as long i thought I would and by the end I was still not completely satisfied with my final product. I have also learnt a variety of new skills and managed to develop them through the preliminary task to the final edit, these skills are filming ,editing and directing. The preliminary task was the first time I had ever used most of these skills I had never completed a task like this before, I feel as if the preliminary task only introduced these skills to me and I did not feel as if i used them very effective as my role in my group was very limited and I only managed to film and edit small part for the preliminary Task. once we start the real task I was able to test out and practise the camera and editing software, I feel this really help as I was able to gain a better understanding of the equipment and software to the point were I was confident enough to create my thriller.

Question 6

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My thriller would most likely be distributed by an independent film distributor; there are several reasons for this firstly my film is mainly aimed at a UK audience this is due to it being filmed and acted with people in the UK. Also my film would not be of a high enough standard to be distributed globally as the budget for my film production is practically nothing, this means that everything included in my film would have to be very low cost as it would be paid by me.

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My thriller would most likely be aimed at young adults and teenagers as the thriller genre is most popular with these age groups. I would say teens are the youngest audience as there are themes contained within the film that would not be suitable for children. I would give my thriller an age certificate of 15 as my film has many themes unsuitable for children such as murder but a lot of these themes are suggested and implied instead of being graphic meaning it is appropriate for teens.  I think a 15 age rating is best as any certificate higher would begin to limit the size of my potential audience, thriller are extremely popular with teens and so it would mean I would lose a lot of viewers. My thriller is not particularly aimed at any specific class or status as this would also contribute to decreasing my thrillers audience, although my film may be most relatable to those of a lower class and status as the film is based around the lower class.

Question 3

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

I have learnt so much from various technologies throughout the process of constructing my opening sequence. I believe that it has helped to developed my skills, to the point where I feel as if I have the necessary understanding and experience to do a similar project with high levels of confidence.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My thriller uses representation for most characters in different ways, firstly character outfits where essential in helping me to portray each individual character. I chose to use outfits which would be considered normal as I did not want the characters to stand out; also I wanted to show them as being ordinary people. The acting was also key in helping me to represent each character, for the main character (jack Renshaw) I tried to make him come across as mysterious, aloof and withdrawn from society this was shown by him being very separated from everyone else around him. Sean Gordon the character seen delivering the gun is shown to be represented as a someone who commits criminal and illegal activity this is clear from his behaviour during the exchange he is very careful to keep himself hidden by having his hood fully covering his face and not staying longer than necessary, the gun is also a massive indication that he is a criminal.   

Question 1

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

During the production of my thriller I tried to replicate the themes and conventions used in the opening scenes I watched for research, I tried to make it obvious from the start that my film was a thriller by opening with a high intensity scene with one of the characters being shot, this straight away tells the viewer what the nature of the film is going to be like and also raises many questions such as; who were they? Why was he shot? What did he do? These are the sorts of questions that the viewers will be thinking while watching my thriller and this will make them want to continue watching to find out the answers. A few of the conventions of thrillers I found difficult to include or was unable to use this is due many reasons for example I was unable to use plot twist as I was only making a opening scene not an entire movie and you would rarely ever see a plot twist within the opening scene of a film, other conventions I was challenged by was sound, sound is a key part in creating and building tension in a thriller and if done properly can be very effective, this was difficult as all music and sound had to be non-copyrighted and free so I had to search through the vast selection of music and sound to find the ones that matched the thriller genre and was of high quality.

Final Edit

First Draft

First Draft

This was the first draft for my thriller, I uploaded it to you tube and then Asked members of my class for their initial thoughts on my opening. once they had time to think about what they thought i then asked for feedback, this was so that if there was anything that could be improved i would be able to go back and redo it. they also gave positive feedback and highlight what i did well, this was helpful as i could try and use the positives to improve on the negatives.

Potential Improvements

• Re-film certain scenes with a camera stand
• change the text used for "a Richard turner film" as it does not match the theme.
• trim down video between 1:05 to 1:45 as there is a lot of unnecessary scenes that take up a lot of the video.
• Aim to get the opening closer to the two minute mark.

Shot types

when filming I set out to try and challenge my photography and filming skills, i did this by this by trying to include as many different shot types as possible.This was to see if i was able to capture these shots and it would also give me a better understanding of how they are used. this would also give much a much greater range of shot types enabling me to select the best to use in my production. 

This is an over the shoulder shot. This is when a shot is taken from behind the shoulder and is used to show you the perspective of the character. It is also frequently used in shot reverse shot as it helps to establish who is talking and who they are talking to.

This is an establishing shot. used to show the location were the following scene is going to take place.

This is a POV shot. POV stands for point of view and is used to show exactly what the character see. once a POV shot is shown it will often show the character after to show it was the perspective.

This is an extreme close up, this has been used to show an object of high importance and is supposed to make the viewer focus on it.

risk assessment

Risk Assessment 

there were not many risks to consider during the construction of my media opening sequence. although the few risk the were present i had to take into consideration and try to prevent and reduce them.

risk	Description	prevention
Weather	Equipment becoming damaged through rain or other weather.	There a number of ways of reducing this risk first being to plan around the weather and select specific days to go out and film. Also if I was had to film on a day was there was going to be poor weather I would cover the camera so that it does not get damaged.
BB gun	A prop that was needed For the production of my film was a BB gun. These are very dangerous and can be very painful when fired.	On the BB gun there is a safety switch witch when put on will block the gun from firing this means that you will be unable to accidentally fire causing an injury or damaging any of the equipment.
Roads	The filming was based outside and require a lot of travelling by foot and so it was important that we were cautious near main roads.	While this may be a very obvious risk it still needs to be considered, firstly make sure that you cross at lights and zebra crossing when they are available. And we also made sure that we were careful when near roads .

Questionnaire

    Gender

Male                                        15
Female                                     10

   How old are you

Under 10's                               4
10-20                                     11
21-31                                      6
32-42                                      3
43+                                         1

   Which is your favourite type of thriller?

Crime                                            9
Psychological                                 6
Action                                           7
Horror                                          3

      Do you prefer more or less dialogue?

More                                            7
Less                                             18

   Do you prefer to see a person killed or have it implied?

Get killed                                     11
Implied                                        14

   Which movie title do you prefer?

paid to kill                                    3
targeted                                       6
The hit list                                   12
convicted                                     4

     Do you prefer fast or gradual build up?

Fast                                             6
Gradual                                       19

   

   
  
    What do you think is the best source of tension?

Music                                           9
Foreshadowing                             4
Lighting                                        2
Camera work                               10

The information gathered from my questionnaire have allowed me to see what particular feature my target audience would prefer to see in my movie thriller. firstly the questionnaire was mostly answered by males and people aged between 15-20, this means that most of result will be from these people so i will make these my target audience. next I found out that the most popular type of thriller is  crime with action not so far behind. I also found that people do not enjoy a lot of dialogue it may due to it being hard to follow or some people may find it to be unnecessary whatever the reason I will aim to use a minimal amount of dialogue. i also wanted to find a suitable title for my thriller, so i asked which title they preferred out of Paid to kill, Targeted, The hit list or Convicted. The hit list was by far the most popular and so this is what i will call my thriller. the last to questions were both linked to tension as this is one of the main conventions for a thriller and i wanted to know which ways were best at providing it.

research

What is a Thriller?

 the thriller genre is a very broad category which contains many sub genres such as crime,psychological,horror and many others. thrillers are films that use suspense to build tension,the usually leave clue to events that take place later in the film his is done by foreshadowing. some of the most common moods and feelings felt by viewers when watching thrillers are anxiety,shock, anticipation.

Conventions of a Thriller

• generally plot twists
• suspense
• high intensity
• cliffhangers
• foreshadowing
• a lot of action involved

Popular thrillers

• Shutter Island
• The Sixth sense
• Batman the dark knight
• Now you see me
• The shining 
• Memento
• The usual suspects 

Trailer

It is essential that when making my opening scene for my thriller I do not make a trailer instead. To make sure this does not happen I will be looking a one thriller movie trailer and will point out the differences between opening scene and trailer. From this I will know what not to include in my opening scene so that I do not end up with a trailer.

The wolf of wall street

There are many different aspects of this trailer which separate it from an opening sequence. In trailers there is no particular order to the sequence of clips these are all selected from random areas in the film and sometimes the clips are not even in the film, in opening sequences the order of clips is normally chronological . Trailers are made to attract the attention of potential viewers by showing most of the action scenes in the film, they often avoid showing important scenes from the film as this can spoil the film and put potential viewers off from watching, a movie opening scene can often be very slow as it has to build up the story and introduce characters to viewers whereas with trailers this does not have to be done.