Here is the final RE-Edit of our opening sequence.

Evaluation

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

When it comes to the open scenes in a film it needs to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film, so during the first 5 minutes of any film needs to really show the audience what is in store for the rest of the film or keep them guessing.  Some people may say that the best movies are the ones that keep you guessing – for example, "Final Destination" Released in 2000 and directed by James Wong. The audience knows what is going to happen but don’t know when it will happen and for me that makes a great film and makes me want to watch it over and over again.

When it comes to the form of a spy thriller the opening sequences tend to run roughly in this order -

•           Opening title.

•           Straight cut into action – mostly showing the major characters.

•           Fast pace cameras, multi camera angles.

•           Villains are introduced into the film.

•           Movie slows down to dialogue and to explain the storyline.

•           Cuts to a different location to start the story.

In our opening scene we followed some of the conventions, not all of them, but there was a reason behind it.  A typical spy thriller would start with straight action, but we opened with text explaining the story of the movie. It then cut into the film which is showing the titles I created in Adobe After Effects throughout. The name of the film was added right at the start of the film but this was because the logo fades into the film starting and this was because my character is called suspect 7 so he has a tattoo on the back of his neck which is a 7.  The credits when entering on the screen explode with shards going across the screen then fading out.  This added some form of tension to the audience as it creates a diversion so that it makes you look at the title.

How does your media product represent particular social group?

How does your media product represent particular social group? on Prezi

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

Evaluation Power Point     

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience of our Thriller is aimed at both male and female but naturally is more pushed towards the male audience as of the codes and conventions of the films.  The age range for our spy thriller is 12 to 35; this is because our main film is a spy thriller and includes mild swearing. It would also affect the age range depending of what is included in the rest of the film. For example, explosions, fight scenes, car chases etc.  Through further research I managed to find out that most people that go to see a film go for the actor/actress. As we are only doing an opening scene, not creating a full movie and do not have millions of pounds in funding we cannot get famous actors/actresses in to create major interest.  This is why I was mainly looking at the second option, which was the plot, as you can see the majority of our audience care about the plot of the film.  So creating a major plot will keep the interest of the audience for longer.

Spy movies produce thrill and excitement when watched, with this it help draw in the correct audience as most people want to be entertained.  In a personal experience I always like to come out of the cinema thinking “WOW” that was great, so that is why we decided to create a spy thriller.  We decided that 12 – 35 was the right age range for our target.  Below are some examples of spy thrillers with the same age range.

When we considered our target audience, we also did our research into the correct certificate, so we can get the rough guidelines on what we can have in the film.

Here are the guidelines for certificate 12 –

• ·         12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.
• ·         Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.
• ·         Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

Taken from - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification.  After looking at these guidelines again after filming I would say our film fits right into the category.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

When it came to filming our spy thriller we tried to keep it interesting and to conform to the codes and conventions of other spy thriller films, for example, the abandoned locations, secret agents, guns etc. When we were filming we were always trying to stick to these conventions to help attract and address our audience.  One of the conventions we stuck to was having a “Hero” and a “Villain” this is a key feature in any spy thriller and using this we thought it would help the audience understand the situation of the characters and the film.  Another convention used in a spy thriller is the location. This is extremely important to the audience as it sets the scene and atmosphere.  For our location we managed to find a burnt down/ abandoned warehouse, with just the framework of an old building.  This makes our scene look suspicious so it fits right into the spy thriller.  Our audience was mainly one sided as there were only male characters starring in it, this is mainly because spy thrillers are aimed at the male audience causing the audience margin to be halved.

This table is showing a recent survey from the film ‘Wanted’ Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. This graph/ table have been found on the pearl and dean business planner website which shows the male domination of views in action. As we can see from the table the highest age range for action thrillers are between the ages of 15 – 24.

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

Throughout the whole filming process I have learnt a lot about all the technology we used including more about cameras, camcorders and sound equipment.  First of all I have learnt how to use the HD camera college has for media students to use, the Canon EOS 500D Camera is a great HD camera and produces a magnificent image when shot outside, and the only downside to the camera is the sound quality.  For our reshoot we managed to borrow a £900 boom Microphone and sound recorder so we could get extremely good picture quality and sound.  When using the camera I learnt how to use the manual and auto focus, when we were filming; we never used auto focus as we always used manual focus so we could use the push and pull technique.


When it came down to the editing process I learnt how to use the basics in ‘Adobe Premier Pro’ so we could edit the footage we had shot.  I have learnt how to import footage into Premier Pro then put it into the timeline.  I also learnt how to import external sound track such as the separate audio from the boom microphone and the overlaying soundtrack.  When I was changing the volume of the audio tracks once they were lined up and in sync I used the yellow line on the actual soundtrack clip to increase and decrease the volume.  During the editing process we didn’t really alter the sound a lot as when it was all lined up we just deleted the sound recorded from the Canon camera and there was too much wind and background noise and we ended up just using the boom microphone and downloaded soundtrack.  When it came to learning how to do different effects in Adobe Premier Pro I didn’t learn many as honestly I couldn’t get along with the program as I am so used to using ‘Sony Vegas 11 Pro’ and the group agreed it was too hard and complicated to use, so when it came to editing the final piece we downloading the trail version of Sony Vegas and used that in school.  You can still do all the same effects and transitions in Sony Vegas as Premier Pro but Sony Vegas is much easier to navigate around so I suck to using that.  When it came to using transitions and effects we didn’t really use any in our re edited final piece as there was no need so we mainly stuck to straight cuts.  When I came to adding the Adobe After Effects titles it was very simple as I had made them with a black background so I added them into a new video line in Sony Vegas, then I changed the compositing mode to ‘Add’ which cut out the black background leaving just the After Effects sequence that I had made.

When we were looking at some of the footage it dragged on for a bit as we didn’t stop and start the camera when something went wrong we just let it run so we had to cut the footage up so we had the bits we needed for the open scene. For this I basically went to the section in the video on the timeline, clicked it so the black curser was over it and hit “S” this snips the video track into two. I continued to do this throughout the editing until we had all the clips we needed.  When the whole video was finished I did have to learn how to render HD footage in Sony Vegas as when I render videos in my own time they are always in SD so have never had the need for HD.  Rendering the footage was fine after a few trial and errors as I found when uploading the video to YouTube it was quicker to upload it as a WMV rather than an AVI as it took several hours in AVI format as it is uncompressed whereas WMV is compressed and took less time but we only lost a tiny bit of quality from the video.  When it comes to blogging I have learnt everything as before we started this course I had never used a blog in my life so I have probably learnt everything about blogging in my media lessons.  I have managed to learn how to add new posts, embed YouTube videos and pictures and how to format the blog to my own liking.

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

From looking at both the preliminary task and our final edit on the main task, I can clearly see the process myself and the rest of the group have made throughout the year.  When we were filming our preliminary task at the start of the year we used my JVC Camcorder that recorder in SD causing the footage not to be the best quality as it wasn’t shot in HD, whereas the rest of the footage throughout the year was.  When filming the preliminary task we had problems with lighting as the room it was shot in was “too” light for the camcorder, and the main problem with that was because I didn’t set the white balance on the camcorder.  So this problem could have been resolved but I didn’t know how to change it.  In our preliminary task we used quite a few camera angles such as low angle, mid shot, two shot, over the shoulder shot and a point of view shot.  When we were using the over the shoulder shots we originally forgot about the 180 degree rule, but when we were in the middle of shooting I realised so we had to redo the over the shoulder shots but it wasn’t too much of a big deal.  When we were set the challenge of filming our preliminary task we didn’t really think about it and we just filmed it right away.  This could have affected the structure of the filming but it all worked out in the end.  During the editing process the main effect we used was a layer mask, this was used right at the end to make one of our characters fade away. We also used sharp straight cuts to make it look like the computer screens turn off on their own and at the same time.






This is the example of our quick straight cut of the computers turning off.

This is showing the layer mask we used to make a character fade away.

When I look back at preliminary task and look at our final edit now, I have learnt that not rushing and taking your time to think about what you are wanting to product is the best way to getting the high grades and the best results.  Throughout the year I have learnt how to use ‘Adobe After Effects’ which has been really handy and when you know how to use it you can create extremely impressive videos, and with me liking to make videos outside of college I would love to add my After Effects skills in them.  Even though in our Final edit we used ‘Sony Vegas 11 Pro’, I have learnt the basic skills in ‘Adobe Premier Pro’ as I have learnt how to use it effectively to get the best looking videos possible and know the best render settings for HD footage.  In conclusion I feel that I have developed my skills in the editing process a lot more that I thought I would, as I knew how to do the basics but from doing this task I now know a lot more about the editing process and rendering.

Going from SD to HD has really improved the look of the Main task from the Preliminary task as it is a higher quality meaning better results.

From our Preliminary task to our main task we have put a lot more effort and time into it will Adobe after effects animated titles and using better sound equipment.  All of this will let us achieve better results.

Re-Edit of Main Task

At the beginning we all sat down and thought about what we could do to make the footage we had look better, as we were wanting to make it look less like a college and more like a random location.  This was very hard to do as there were signs all over the place making it hard to cut them out.  In the end we decided to completely re shoot, this included coming up with a completely new story line, new story board and a new location.  Our new opening scene makes a lot more sense when it comes to telling a story and it includes dialogue.  For the titles/ credits I learnt how to use Adobe After Effects and I made some titles to overlay the video and they looked more professional than the first main task as they were at the end of the scene making it look more like a movie trailer.

As we were borrowing the HD camera of school again we were also able to borrow a boom microphone and a digital recorder of a friend, so we were able to get the best quality sound as possible.

After doing the reshoot during our inset day, we sat down in our next media class and got to work editing the footage as from doing is we only had a week to re edit.  

This put a lot of pressure onto the whole group, (mainly Me, Ashley and Josh) as we had to completely start over so we could get our high grades we wanted. After I had downloaded a trial version of Sony Vegas onto the school computer I set Ashley to start editing the clips whilst I designed a ‘Suspect 7’ Logo and Josh and Phil got on with completing the story board.

Overall I feel that we managed to get the very most out of the final edit and all of us and I especially am very proud of it and I’m very glad that we re did the whole thing, even thought it was a rush to get it finished and a very stressful time. I feel it was very well presented and that it will push our grades up from the first task.

Main Task

When it came down to filming our opening scene for ‘Suspect 7’ all four of us found it hard to all come to a time we were free to film the scene.  Now only that but cause we were borrowing schools HD camera we also had to revolve filming time around when that was free.  In the end we found that filming over help term was the best solution, this would also give us a slight break before going back into college to begin filming.

On filming day we all met at my house and gathered everything we needed to film the opening scene.  These things included props, microphones, cameras and mise en scene.  After we gathered everything up we headed over to college to begin filming.  Once we were there, Ashley started to set up the camera and sort out the Bema that we were borrowing off a friend.  Whilst Ashley was doing that me, Phil and Josh had a wonder around college to plan our running rout and at the same time think about where the camera could be positioned and shots we could use.  This picture below that Phil managed to put together is the rout we ran when filming.

Our main task is based around a spy thriller, with a chase scene at the start of the film to get the audience on the edge of their seat right at the start of the film.  When I came to using the car it made our film look more realistic as most spy thrillers have fast posh cars in them, such as James Bond.  When it came to using the car we didn't really think about what it could be used for, we basically just put it in there just because we could.  This was a bad thing really as it made no scenes. Once we had the panning shot of the car it just vanished and it was never seen again throughout the 2 minute opening scene.  When we come to re shooting the scene we will make sure we do one of two things. Get rid of the car completely or use it more and write it into the storyline more so it has a meaning.

Another problem that was spotted out after the film had been rendered and put online is that Starring is spelt wrong as I forgot to put another “R” in it.  Another thing is that we had put the credits last and not during the open scene. This made it look to the audience like a movie trailer and not an opening scene.  So during the re editing process we will be changing the spelling, double checking it and making sure we have the credits during the scene rather than at the end. I may use after effects to make the titles.

When it comes to adding things into the piece we really want to add more effects into the piece so it looks more realistic and professional. These things could include slow motion or little effects using adobe after effects, these little extra things we could put it will really boost the look of the opening scene and keep people interested throughout the film.

When filming our main task we tried to add as many camera angles in as possible, without cramming everything in just because we could.  This was done to gain as many marks as possible and use them effectively.  Below are just a few of the shots we used during the Main Task.

	Tracking Shot – (0:27 – 0:31)
	Low Angle Shot – (0:52 – 0:54)
	High Angle Shot – (0:58 – 1:03)
	Long Shot – (1:04 – 1:07)
	Close Up Shot – (1:11 – 1:16)

In conclusion looking back at our main task I am extremely happy with the result even though there were a few mistakes, we are able to sort all of these out in the re edit.

Planning

Story Board

Before we started to film our short film we were in need of a story board, so we all sat down in a group and exchanged ideas is what we wanted to shoot, what angles, camera effects and locations.  During making the story board we were throwing shot types back and forth, and ended up using many; such as long shot, mid shot, high angle shot and many more.

These pictures below shows are story board we created; when we were filming we wanted to stick to this storyboard/plan and much as possible.  When filming we did go off track slightly, but this caused us to get better shot which turned out better than the ones we planned in the story board.

Chosen actors

When I came to casting, as a group we decided to just keep it within the group.  This is because if we were to get more friends into the film, we wouldn’t get as much done as there will be less motivation and more messing around. Also for the start of the film me and Ashley were able to make our idea of a car chasing a character possible as we had the help of Phil Dixon driving the car.

Chosen costumes

When we were thinking of costumes, we did start thinking of big black suits and black sun glasses “the typical agent”.  Due to none of us having any suits and if were to keep the suit idea we would have had to hire/rent them which would put all four of us out of pocket. So we all decided to stick to casual clothing and with this it will still fit into the film and not look out of place and randomly filmed.

Location Scouting

All four of us went out in search for a location to shoot our short film.  After looking around, as a group we finally decided that the school grounds would be the perfect place to shoot our film.  Our location is perfect as it is equal distance from each other’s homes.  This will make it a lot easier when it comes to filming as there is easy access to the site, and I can be used any day of the week.  When we were looking around the site we found it was perfect for building and items around the area. Such as the long drive way for car scenes and tall buildings for establishing shots.

Props

For our short film, we are needed of minimal props.  The main prop needed was a gun. Josh managed to find some cheap plastic guns, which we managed to spray black to look real towards the audience/viewers.  These guns would be used by Phil and Josh “as good guy” chasing the “bad guy” me.

Thriller Research Task

For my media research task I have watched opening scenes to two blockbuster films. (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY & I, ROBOT), these two films have the same style of opening theme but at the same time show completely different story’s and give the viewer a different feeling.

First off ‘Hell Boy’s’ open scene opens with hell boy as a young lad.  This starts the film giving the views the feeling of a normal life.  It then proceeds to fade into the CGI effects (Computer Generated Imagery) with an overlay transition of cogs. All of these images produced in the opening scene fit into the story of the film and the theme of it. (Cogs and fire which are sown to representing hell boy) During the opening scene it is giving the viewer the feeling of going down to hell, but with the light “orchestral” soundtrack which doesn’t imply it to be a horror thriller.  In this open scene there haven’t really been any camera shots apart from a point of view shot of the ‘Hell Boy’ looking at him dad at the start.

The second opening scene does the opposite to the hell Boy Scene. It starts off with CGI effects then right at the very end they use a high angle extreme close-up shot of a character waking up with an alarm clock going off, implying to the viewer that the opening CGI effects were a nightmare for the character.  The soundtrack of the opening scene sound underwater, it is very slow and makes the viewer feel intense.  During the opening scene it is showing what look like flashbacks of a car crashing into the water (which explains the soundtrack) to the viewer to try and tell a story.

Hell Boy Opening Scene

I, Robot Opening Scene

The Aim Of a Thriller Film

The aim for thriller films is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats all the time. The storyline in these films always include a problem. For example  ‘an escape’, ‘a mission’, or ‘a mystery’. No matter what sub-genre a thriller film falls into, it will always so the danger that the Character faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres.

Action Thrillers

this type of thriller would appeal to a younger audience compared to the likes of other sub-genres. This is because it involves a lot more guns, car chases and explosions and doesn't require much thought in some people’s opinion. These thrillers mainly attract a male audience although in some cases they have been aimed at a female audience, due to films like “Charlie’s Angels” and “tomb raider”

  

Horror Thrillers

These types of thrillers are mainly aimed at older people; this is due to most horror films being certificate 15 or 18.  This is mostly due to the content the film is portraying.  Due to the younger generation not being old enough to actually view the film it makes them want to see the film even more.  Horror films are most of the time aimed at a male and female audience.  Examples of horror thrillers include “Jaws”, “Psycho”, “Alien” and “The Exorcist”.

Psychological and Mystery Thrillers

Psychological and mystery thrillers mainly show the audience more mental or emotional footage rather than a real life situation or action packed car cases as you have scene in the other examples I have shown.  This would attract perhaps a female audience slightly more than a male audience.  Examples of psychological thrillers include “Shutter island”, “Phone Booth”, “Blue Velvet” and “Suspicion”.

There are many other sub genres of thriller like:

• ·         Comedy Thriller
• ·         Supernatural Thriller
• ·         Conspiracy Thriller
• ·         Disaster Thriller
• ·         Political Thriller
• ·         Religious Thriller
• ·         Techno Thriller
• ·         Erotic Thriller
• ·         Legal Thrillers
• ·         Spy Thriller

Classic Thrillers could include –

• ·         Se7en
• ·         Sherlock Holmes
• ·         Psycho
• ·         Hell Boy II
• ·         Alien
• ·         Hulk
• ·         Jurassic Park
• ·         And many more...

Famous Thriller Directors Include –

• ·         Alfred Hitchcock
• ·         Steven Spielberg
• ·         James Cameron
• ·         Quentin Tarantino
• ·         Martin Scorsese
• ·         Christopher Nolan
• ·         Roman Polanski
• ·         David Fincher
• ·         John Carpenter
• ·         David Cronenberg

Pre-Production

Before we started to film the Preliminary task me and Ashley created a shot list whilst Josh Mellors and Philip Creasy created a story board, we then compared documents and added improvements. When we had these two documents in place we then scouted for our location which was a room in the sixth form media block.

This is a graph of our shot list.  This shows every shot wanting to be used in our short clip.

Shot Number	Shot Type	Notes
1	Establishing Shot	Point of view shot down corridor
2	Low angle head shot	Shot of the good guy
3	Close Up	Close up of guys hand on the door handle
4	Long shot	of good guy entering room
5	Over Shoulder shot	From good guys perspective
6	2 Shot	Good Guy Walking towards the Ghost
7	High Angle Mid Shot	of Ghost
8	Low angle Reverse shot	of good guy
9 &10	Shot Reverse Shot	Exchange of dialogue
11	Mid shot	Computers turning off
12	Mid Low angle	Looking at good guy
13	Mid shot	Computers turning off
14	Mid shot Point of view	Looking at ghost fading out

This is a photograph of our story board which we followed when it came to filming, so that we got all the shots right and in order.

Production

All four of us had different roles when filming the short clip. Josh Mellors was the main actor in the clip; Philip Creasy was in charge of altering the lighting on the actors faces using a reflector to reflect the light from the ceiling lights to the actors face.  Phil wasn’t too bothered of playing the role of the ghost so we got another student to help us play the role.  Ashley to the role of a director, he coordinated shots and used slates (like a clapper board) to help us know what video track went where and to keep how many shots he had used.  I took the role in operating and filming, me and Ashley worked close together when filming so we were both happy with the shots.

Due to using a normal camcorder we couldn’t get the correct sound quality we would have wanted.  We found that the sound during the editing process sounded better, but when we produce or final piece we will be using HD cameras with a microphone input, so we can get the correct sound.  Mainly we will be using a boom microphone to pick up the actors voices more.

When me and Ashley took a closer look at the footage we found that the lighting in the clip wasn’t up to a professional standard due to us just using the ceiling lights and natural light.  All of the lighting was coming from above the actors causing an uneven shadow on their face.  We then decided that next time we would use more artificial lighting such as par cans or builders flood lights.  This will allow us to make a more accurate and even shadow on the actors and to bring their facial expressions to life.

Post Production

When I came to editing all four of our members took it in turns to edit the clip, so we had a fair share of experience. The four of us followed the storyboard and shot list to get all the clips in the right order.  Whilst another member was editing the three other members got together to discuss the possible improvements needed. Once the shots were vision mixed together I then went along and added all of the video effects, I then went onto YouTube to search for a non-copyrighted soundtrack for our video.  I then also added sound effects to help tell the story to the viewer on what is happening.

This screenshot is showing the editing process we went through.  We had to play around with the audio to get the right balance between the diegetic sound from the camera and the non-diegetic sound effects we added in the editing process.

After the editing process was finished we then rendered it to a High standard quality (960 by 540 pixels).  This was to give the film more of a professional feeling and with it having the black border; it makes the clip look like a professional movie trailer; which was the intention.

This is a shot of our short film being rendered in Adobe Encoder.

This is our final video.