Note to examiner

Thank you for taking the time for looking at my blog, I liked the challenge of making the film, I mostly enjoyed the filming part, I would definitely like to have another go at creating a short film next year in A2, I hope you enjoy looking through my blog and watching my film.

Final draft

Evaluation question 7-"looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"

Before A level I had never studied media, but now i'm glad that i have because its showed me that media is more than just filming, I've learnt about the effort and hard work that has to go into planning like making the script, storyboards and scripts. Before media I never heard of blogger and what it can provide, Starting the blog was an enjoyable task as we got the play around with the customisation options which is very easy to get used to. I enjoyed learning about how to create storyboards as I like drawing this was a fun task for me, It was good that the whole group contributed to the storyboard by generating ideas for different shots. The research was a very interesting section for me as i enjoyed finding out how big Hollywood blockbuster movies where made, I liked finding out how much it cost them and the equipment they used, so we could try to copy the shots they had but with less developed technology. I didn't really learn a lot about editing as one of my group was familiar with the Premiere pro software and it was quicker if he edited the majority of the film, I did get the chance to edit but it was very basic like cutting and adding a clip which I was okay with but after watching my group mate edit I felt like I learnt a lot from watching him. I have learnt how to create prezi's and how to embed and upload them to blogger, prezi's where a great way to present my answers to the evaluation question as they could zoom in to different sections and it made the answers less boring. I have also learnt how to embed you tube videos onto blogger, I didn't know how to do this until a fellow class mate showed me, it was a very beneficial skill to learn as it allowed me to embed videos so i could talk about them and how I got my inspiration from them. Overall I am happy with the amount of new skill i have learnt and hopefully they will benefit me in the future, but if there was one thing i could change is the amount of experience I had to edit as I had very little and think if I had more time then it would benefit a lot more for future independent videos I want to make.

Evaluation question 6-"What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product"

Before this as level media course i had never heard of blogger or how it worked, now i feel confident using the platform and getting my way around, i know how to edit any blog posts or change the layout of my blog and add a new background. the label feature on blogger is good because it allows me to organise my posts in to the respective category and then they are all under the same label. the customise feature is also good as it allowed me to completely change it to a thriller themed blog which is the theme of my opening.



I had never heard of premiere pro before my project and i took along time to get used to the program, but eventually i got used to it and it became very easy to edit clips. i was given a tutorial before sing the software which really helped. i am now happy with using this software and i am glad we used it to edit as it looks more professional.






We edited on an apple mac and I haven't had much experience with a mac before but i had briefly used one, so i only new the basics of them and how to navigate around the computer to find clips and to upload them into premiere.








I had never used prezi until i started this project and now I am confident with using the software and using the different transitions. i find it a better and easier way to present something than using power point. I like this software as its easy to edit and upload to blogger. I used the tutorials on the website and it was then easy to use the software.

Evaluation question 5-"How did you attract/address your audience?"

To attract my audience we used characters, editing and the story line. For the characters the audience was attracted to them because even though the audience couldn't relate to them, they could feel like them as the victims of the young girls. All the characters are stereotypical, they're genders are all linked tot the roles s girls have a lot of hair which is the target for the stalker. The stalker is stereotypical as he is a male which in films, the stalker is portrayed a lot as a male.
The editing in the film is fast paced in the build up scenes of the hair cutting. the editing in the CCTV attracts the audience looks very edgy and the black and white effect gives it more of a thriller theme.
The story line/plot is very strange and unique, the story line is quite realistic due to it being based on a true story, there was an article in the news paper about a man cutting girls hair on a train, we adapted the story line and made it so that we didn't have to film on a train we have to film on the train instead we filmed on the platform when there wasn't any people around .

Evaluation question 4-"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

After watching our product again, I feel that it is aimed at teenagers due to the actors being that age and anyone who likes psychological thriller films because the genre of our film is a psychological thriller. Our product would not be suitable for young teenagers or children because they might find it confusing and it really isn't suitable, the suitable age would be around 16 years and older.
Compared to another thriller like taken the audience would be different due to actors and genre. The target audience for taken would be young adults maybe early 20's these are the stereotypical target audience for action thrillers and the girl in the film is young so the audience could make a connection with her. In our film our audience might be able to make a connection with the victims who are all 16. The research I also carried out at the start of the year shows that my target audience would be 15-17 due to the majority people asked where in that age bracket.

Evaluation question 3-"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"

Evaluation Question 2-"How does your media product represent particular social gorups?"

For this question I decided to do it in the format of a prezi.

Evaluation question 1-"In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products"

Audience feedback

We showcased our film to pupils in our year whilst in assembly. After they had watched the film we asked some of them for any feedbakc they had on the film. Some of the thing they said are:-

• Good opening which is intreging and makes me want to watch more to find out what happens.
• Good use of editing for the cctv which was really impressive, and the slo mos really added a thriller effect to the opening.
• Could be improved by using a diffferent camera.

After tehy made this comment i told them about the restircted resources we were given at the start of the year.

3rd draft of film

2nd draft of film

I am happy with the progress we made and we got more shots. to improve it i think like we had to add more close ups for the murder board to make it more of a thriller.

1st draft of film

This was our first draft for our film and as you can see we haven't got a lot as we didn't film enough before we went down the college for the first time, this was a good start to our project though and i'm happy with it to begin with.

getting permission to use the music

After commenting on YouTube videos and emailing the band 'Pavement' who produced the song, if we could be granted to use their music in our thriller, we haven't had a response from all of these options.

Storyboard final draft

Storyboard 1st draft

Here is our first draft for out film,

Choosing a name for our product

Today me and my group brainstormed a couple of ideas for our film. Below is some of the ideas that we came up with.


After discussing with our teacher we decided that 'close cut' is the best name for our film.

Script

In our media film there is no dialogue at all, we thought this might make the opening more sinister and spooky. We didn't produce a script for our film because we didn't have dialogue.

Group roles

To make our product successful we assigned roles so everyone new what they had to do, Oliver was the editor as he had experience and good knowledge of the programme, I was the director as i had a good idea in my head of ideas we could shoot and what the narrative could follow and Alex was the producer. Even though we have our individual roles we will all work on the storyboard and shot-list.

Shot list

Prop list

the Props we used are:

• cork board
• string
• pictures
• plastic bags
• pins
• scissors 
• glue
• phones
• hoodies

Title sequences

A title sequence is the way the by which television programmes or films present the title, production and the starring actors. it usually starts or includes the text of the opening credits, it helps establish the setting and tone of the program.

Examples:

Above is the title for 'The Hobbit'.the typography is iconic to 'the hobbit' films and is used in all 3 films, the style of the typography is significant to the time its based in, the film is very medieval with swords and shields type of fighting and the font used looks like old and broken stone.

This is the title for 'TRON' a sci-fi movie. This title reflects the movie which is very modern and uses basic colours of black, blue and other simple colours, The way the letters are different parts makes this title interesting and engaging.

This is the title for 'wreck it ralph' a kids animation film. The typography in this title reflects the movie well as it is all about video games and this title looks like a old fashioned video game with retro pixel display .

British and American production companies

When researching the different production companies i came across this power point on slide share.







https://www.slideshare.net/JadeMelady/british-vs-american-films/3 -link to source

 

Differences between British and Hollywood film production

British films:

• Set in the UK
• Smaller budgets 
• Less popular actors
• Smaller audiences
• Narratives based on local issues e.g. poverty, violence and drugs
• Different cultures

Hollywood films:

• Animations
• Higher budgets
• Famous settings
• Big stunts
• CGI
• Famous actors

Exploration of theorisits

Today we looked at the 3 different theorists Propp,Todorov and Straus

Propps theory was to do with different charachters anmd their roles in films or books.
in outr film we have the antagonaist who im playing, hes a stereo typical stalker as he has a black hoodie and hes a male. We then have 3 victims and a target these are all girls which is again stereotypical as they are all teen females and they are all vunerable, in out film the target is the protagonist as later on in the rest of the film she finds out about him and tries to stop him.




Todorovs theory was to do with narrative and that everything follows a 3 part structure, at the start everything is balanced this is called equilibrium, this is when the stalker is pinning the hair on the board and is in his element. Next is a disequalibrium when the stalker gets found out and is then put under pressure and out of his comfort zone. Equalibrium is next again and is retored for the stalker as he achieves his goals of collecting his samples and leaves the audience an enigma code.

Struass believed in binary opposition throughout a films narrative this is where a film would display evident contrasts betweeen people or groups. For example:

• Good vs bad
• Boy vs girl
• Light vs dark 
• Cat vs dog
• Peace vs war
• Strong vs weak

In my film the main binary opposition is boys vs girls as the boy is targeting the girls for the hair. There is another binary opposition on strong vs weak as the stalker is potrayed as strong and the girls come across as vunerable and weak

A series of unfortunate events opening

After researching different openings we came across the opening sequence of a series of unfortunate events, we took inspiration from this opening and from the shots of the murder board which we tried to include in our opening as we needed more close ups of the murder board to make it more like a thriller.

Continuity evaluation

In our continuity exercise we lost an important scene we filmed which left a gap which didn't work very well. overall i am pleased with the way our small filming exercise worked out, In the scene when Ethan was on the phone we tried our best to stick to the 180 degree rule. we included a couple of close ups. When we are did our editing we used jump cuts to show Alex walking down the sheltered walkway in the quickest way possible. we used shot reverse shot when Alex and Ethan were talking to each other.

This is when we were trying to get a close up of Alex dialling the number to ring Ethan.

This is us when were editing out continuity exercise and putting all the clips together in order.

Casting

For our film we thought it would be a good idea top ask girls with different colour hair, we thought it would be a good idea to start with the girls in our media class. They all agreed to be in our film then we had to decide on whos was going to be the haircuting hooded charachter, in my group we decided that i was the mostr sinister looking boy to play him.

Editing 2

We went down the college again for the second time and edited the majority of our film and we have more specific shots we know we need to shoot in time to finish our opening.

Editing

Today we went down the college and started to edit our thriller opening, we found out what we need to refilm and what was missing to make it better, we realised we needed more close up's of the murder board so it looked more of thriller

Filming!!3

Today we went out and filmed at the trian station, this was ollie getting a shot looking in side the trainstation through the window. We had trouble looking at getting the correct shot through the window so we had to take a couple of tests shots but after a while we had an idea of standing back so we see more of the frame so it looks likes hes admiring from a distance.

Filming!!2

Today we finished the filming of the murder board scene, we took a couple extreme close ups of the board and we messed around with the lighting to get the correct so the silhouette stands out.

Filming!!

Today we got a couple of small shots done for the murder board scene, as we can only access that room in school, the photo above is a test shot to see how the shadows would look like with the lighting and we had experiment with the angle, I like this shot as the hooded character looks very creepy as he mixes with the darkness.

 This is Ollie in my group who was filming all the scenes as I was the one in the chair but after every shot we would watch it back and agree on it and think it was good enough we had to take 2-3 takes for each shot but we both finalised the shots.

Secret window essay

This scene was taken from the start of 'The secret window' it was written and directed by David Koepp. the film is a psychological thriller. The scene starts with the character 'Mort rainy' played by Johnny Depp inside a car, then we hear a voice and he starts to drive the car away, he stops the car and we hear the voice again, he then turns the car around and drives back from where he came from, as he drives away we see the motel sign, the angle then changes and we see 'Mort' then picks up keys from the motel lobby and drives to the end of the rooms ad breaks into a room and we see two people in bed and the camera pans out of the room.

                 The sequence opens with a sound bridge of a slow knocking noise, the sound can cause speculation as to what it is when it is not showing the wind screen wipers. The noise sound very similar to a heart beat and could be mistaken for it. We then hear a voice which is non diegetic, we figure out that the voice is actually Depps and he is speaking to himself he says "turn around. turn the car around and get the hell out of here right now." this shows us that Depps enemy in this film is himself. the voice is very chilling and menising. After Depp doesn't listen to himself he reverses his car toward the motel and a diegetic sound is used when his car comes to a stop and screeches, this reflects his anger and shows us hes impatient. When Depp breaks into the room all the sound goes distorted and muffled, what the audience hear at this moment is what Depp hears, but we can make out that Depp shouts "no" at the women in the bed who we find out is his wife.
                  Now looking at the use of camera, the sequence starts with a close up of Depp in this shot we can see his facial expressions ad emotions and that he is inside a car. As depp starts driving the car away the camera stays eye level to Depp which helps us focus on his angry expression, when the camera stays eye level to a character it is known as the "eye-line match", using the eye-line match means that the surroundings as very unclear and we are forced to keep eye contact with Depp. Eventually the car reverses away from the camera and the establishing shot is formed as we can now see there is snow on the side of the road which means its set in winter and we can see a red motel sign, it then changes into a medium shot of Depp walking into the reception area, in the medium shot you can see most of the room this suggests that he doesn't care if he is seen, the medium shot could have also been used to not show what the keys where for.
                  In this sequence the mise-en-scene is very important when it comes to understand whats happening and why.  The original setting is inside of the car with dark and low-key lighting, the lighting could portray the mood of Depps character, but as he puts his left hand on the steering wheel its not hard to notice the ring on his finger suggesting that he is married. Later on in the sequence when the car reverses and we reach the establishing shot we notice that there is snow on either sides of the road so we know that it is now set in winter time, In the establishing shot we can also see the red motel sign and the brake light are red, the colour red is normally incorporated with danger, this is probably telling us that it is a bad idea for Depp to return to the building as something dangerous might occur. Overall I feel that the main theme for this film is isolation, this can be reflected in the weather and the fact that it only includes four characters in the opening.
                 Finally moving on to the editing, the first half of the sequence is one long clip but as the sequence ends the clips get shorter building up the tension, there is a continuity error in the sequence when Depp goes in to intrude in the motel room the car door can heard closing but later on as the camera pans out the door is wide open.
                 To conclude I think this opening sequence explains alot of the acions which take place quite well, even though a first time viewer may not of seen the ring on their finger they could of guessed that he was in a relation ship with someone as the voice over says "Do not go back to her" . I believe that this sequence is very good at setting in motion the rest of the film and displaying the plot point of Depp's mental issues.

Music for our thriller

Today our group searched for music for our thriller film, we wanted music to do with hair so it would it our film,we thought about the music used in the thriller 'Insidious'
This was the song used it is very conttropuntal to the movie as its a horror and it isnt a sad song but the lyrics fit that scene perfectley as we can see a woman looking through the window from the garden.            

This is the song we've decided to use for our murder board scene as the song is talks about hair and we decided as a group that it would fit nicely.

Test shots

This was one of the test shots we took for our timelapse of the trainstation. we wanted out iemlapse to include alot of styuff in it so we found the right angle on top of the railway bridge were we could see the cars trains and in the background you can see the sky so we can also see it getting dark is when we will film our opening sequence

Names

It was quite difficult to come up with a name for our film as some sounded to comicy and some just didnt match the film so decided to do a mind map of all the names we could come up with, so after to talking to other pupils and our teacher we decided on "close cut"