Evaluation final final final
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7 May 2011
6 May 2011
Evaluation
Evaluation
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?
Voices are a thriller which goes by all the codes and conventions of the genre. The thriller starts with a young girl acting very possessed and has blood on her face. The main convention we decided to use was not to show viewers everything. The knock at the end of the video leaves the audience with a cliff-hanger, which we see in many thrillers to keep the audience guessing such as Inception (2010). We also added twists so that the thriller could have a good story line, this way the audience is engaged in the clip. These included the mother being very angry towards the girl and not giving her a chance to clean her room. Also, the girl drawing pictures of her killing her mother is a very typical convention of a thriller with children involved. We go into a flashback when the mother finds the pictures in the daughter’s bedroom and we see the mum being suffocated by the girl with a pillow.
We decided to have some sort of criminal like actions from the girl so that she portrays an image of being possessed. Our idea was very unique and it is very difficult to find another thriller with around about the same story line. The closest I could find was Orphan (2009) the main differences between our thriller and Orphan are that the girl is not actually a child and that she is trying to kill the children in our thriller the girl is trying to kill the mother.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Voices stereotypes both males and females. At the beginning of the video we have the young girl possessed. She is portrayed as being very demented through actions i.e. scratching the wall. The blood on her face indicates that she has killed someone and strengthens the features that make her un-child like. Dressed in a red cardigan and black trousers we can tell that this girl is not very feminine. Using a young female to play this role makes the audience identify straight away that this girl is not ordinary. This is because the average girl would probably be wearing light colours such as pink or white our character is dressed in dark colours and the way she acts very animal like suggests she is not normal.
The family is represented as a middle class family who are White British origin. The mother Franky is shown as being the authoritative one in the family as she is the one who enters the daughter’s room and tells her off for everything she has done wrong. The father on the other hand is shown as the head of the family as he makes the final decision on what the girl should do. As he leaves to get in his car he says “Bethany do as your mother tells you” this shows that he agrees with his wife and Bethany now has to do what she was told.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Voices are an English independent film therefore it is very unlikely that it would be funded by major Hollywood film studios such as Warner Brothers or Paramount. The UK Film Council would be the best organisation to fund our production. They fund low budgeted films (around 50%). Voices would attract the attention of the UK film council as it uses British actors and it is also set in London, Harrow.
Our thriller could also be broadcasted on film four or ITV. The BBFC rating of 15 that we decided for our thriller allows it to be shown on TV. This allows the movie to be shown on late night television, which will publicize our film more and bring more audience at the cinema.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our initial target audience were teenagers and adults from 15-50 year old. We decided on this because we have a young girl in the clip, which means teenagers of her age, could relate to her and we also included a man, who is around the age of 50 so that we could have an older audience engaged as well.
We aimed to achieve a BBFC rating of 15 with Voices; this allows our thriller to be shown to a wide range of audience excluding very young children. We found from our research that Voices would not have been suitable for children as it involved a scene with killing which would be very difficult for a child of 11 to understand. Making our thriller a PG or a 12 certificate would not have been suitable as if we continued to film the whole movie it would probably be very graphic and most likely give children nightmares.
The BBFC rating for James Bond is 12 so we used this as an example to try and push our thriller as far as it could go so we could get a larger audience.
5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?
We found from our research that viewers preferred thrillers set in normal locations such as Harrow. The main thing we learnt from our research we learnt that children being the protagonist attracted a large audience. From these findings we decided to use a teenage girl in our thriller to fulfil our audiences’ expectations. Some people also said they like to have tense music, which sets an atmosphere in the scene. Baring this in mind we included very tense and creepy music.
We used our actors to relate to the audience so for example, the young girl in our film related to other young girls in our audience. The old man also bought in audiences from the older generation. To grab the attention on the audience we had one villain and it wasn’t clear if the was a hero/heroin as we didn’t give everything away.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
Being the camerawoman I had to learn the in’s and out’s of the Canon XM2. I had a few problems trying to understand how to do a pull focus but it never worked, as we wanted to. We did a few tests but in the end we decided not to use them. This was because if you turn the lens too far or too little it would not focus as you want it to, so you have to do it very slowly and carefully.
I also found when shooting outside (the opening boot seat) we had to do a few test runs as the camera had to adjust to the light. the first few times the shot was coming out white, we could see our actor as the boot was closing again. After a few times of doing this, the camera was adjusted to the light and we could finally shoot.
Also whilst shooting that particular shot, we were on a main road so the noise of the cars overpowered the text of the actors. So, to fix this, in the editing suite we had to tone down the background noise and turn up the dialogue on Final Cut Pro.
We also had to learn how to cut and edit shots together so the continuity was correct. I learnt how to do this on Final Cut Pro by capturing each individual shot before hand and then putting them all together. A few problems we found with this was that some members in our group didn’t know how to use a Mac so we had to start from scratch and that took up some of our time in the editing suite.
When shooting the house scenes we decided to use an external sennheiser gun mic so it would pick up the sound of the papers scrunching. The problems we found with using the gun mic was that we had been given it with hardly any battery left so it turned on then turned off after 2 minutes of being on. I had to put on headphones to hear what sounds where being picked up from the mic so I knew whether we needed to turn it down or get closer.
I also used search engines such as Google to search certain websites to find actors or to help me understand media terms.
Also over the internet I learnt how to blog on a website called blogger.com. This was useful as we had to post all our research documents on to a blog page. This was done by going to ‘new post’ on our home page and copying our text onto the box and posting it.
This didn’t prove difficult at all. Some people including myself had already had there own blogs up before hand which gave me a head start on how to add new blogs and add videos and other things which make our blog more exciting.
We put up our video on YouTube through a YouTube account. This was done by logging into our account and simply adding a new video. We then had to transfer the video from YouTube to our blog and this had a very long process attached to it. We had to copy the coding of the YouTube link, start a new post and edit the html and paste the YouTube link on that.
7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full products?
Whilst we were planning the preliminary task we had very bad communication problems with each other. Eventually we decided to go with one idea and stick with it. We had some problems planning what shots we needed as we hadn’t drawn a storyboard and all we had was the script in hand.
We tried to get as many shots as possible so we could get a good continuity in editing. The camera and tripod didn’t prove to be a problem as we learnt how to use them before hand. When we started to edit our sequence we had a few problems with continuity. Some of the shots we took didn’t make sense and that lead us to re-shoot. The next time we did it we had a list of shots we needed this was to make sure our continuity was good.
During the actual filming for the thriller production we faced fewer problems as everyone in the group knew what they were doing and we had completed all of the research documents, project schedule and script development.
We had the correct actors, props and locations to create a professional thriller opening. We shot scenes from different angles so we had choice when we got in the editing suite.
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of our thriller sequence. My group worked very well together and we got through things quickly and efficiently. We are a lot more confident with all the filming equipment and we also learnt how to blog which we are still doing to this point.
Detjona Borizani
1912 words
25 April 2011
20 April 2011
14 April 2011
Actor Consent
Actor / Contributor Consent form
With reference to the following production:
Produced by: Marcia precious
* In consideration of the sum of £…50……now paid to me (receipt of which is hereby acknowledged), I agree to the recording and copying and / or broadcasting of the performance / interview / contribution given by me to you on …04……./…02……./2011……. This agreement allows ‘unlimited’ future copying / broadcasting of the said material without any further payment.
* In consideration of the non-remuneration agreement between myself and Harrow College Media Productions I consent to the interview / contribution given by me to you on …04……./…02……./…2011……. giving over ‘unlimited’ rights to the above named production company. This agreement also allows ‘unlimited’ future copying / broadcasting of the said material without payment.
* Delete / fill in as applicable
This agreement enables the above named producer / production company to exploit the performance / interview / contribution, which I hereby give my consent, in any contemporary or future audio-visual media throughout the territories of the United Kingdom
Name (Please print): Naila nurudin Date: 04/02/2011
Address: 53 Maple Avenue
West Drayton
middlesex
ub7 8lt
Contact telephone number: 07986 441 324
Signature: N.P.H.nurudin
Permission Of Access
With reference to the following production:
In consideration of the request for audio / video recording as follows:
Location: st Johns wood
Date: 5th February 2011
Time: 10:00
Please tick / fill in as applicable:
ü Permission is given
¨ Permission cannot be given
¨ Permission is given subject to the following conditions:
Name (Please print): Julie Lang Date: 5th February 2011
Position: House owner
Address: 37 Dolfnew Avenue
st johns wood
Middlesex
Nw6 4zf
Contact telephone number: 079839944657
Signature: J.M.Lang
Risk Assessment
Production title: Voices
Location address: st johns wood/park
| Area of consideration / concern | Procedures / actions to be taken / regulations to comply with |
| Rain whilst shooting outside | Wait till the rain clears up before taking camera equipment outside. If rain does not clear up book to shoot for another day. |
| Moving Camera equipment from different locations. | Make sure all equipment is wrapped up safe before moving. Spread the equipment carrying evenly between each team members. |
| Long hours of filming | Make sure we take breaks in between shooting. |
| Camera cables | Be very careful of all the wires tangled on the floor. As someone could trip and injure themselves whilst damaging equipment. |
| Infant children on set | Make sure they do not touch any camera equipment. Make sure all crying is not caught on film. |
Minutes From Meeting
Production:
Production team: Group 4
Date: 4TH February 2011
Those present: Irfaat, Marcia, Courtney and Detjona
Apologies for absence: None
Matters discussed:
2) Props and location: how to get to the location from where we live. How are we going to travel from one location to the other? Who is carrying what? Find fake blood or a substitute. How long can we use the location for?
Action taken / to be taken (and by whom):
1) Replacement actor found, called all actors made sure they knew what was happening, what time they had to be there and what they had to do.
8 April 2011
6 April 2011
Textual Analysis
Textual analysis
Saving Private Ryan
Courtney Lang
The clip starts with the opening credits which are in the centre of the screen and in front of a black background. The theme music which is played by trumpets can be heard and sound very calm and peaceful which contrasts with the action packed film. The music fades for a couple of seconds and then as the title of the film is seen on screen the military sound re-appears.
The black screen fades up into a close up of the American flag and the theme music fades into diagetic sound of the flag moving in the wind. The theme music is suddenly heard again as the camera then cuts to a rear view medium close up back view of a man’s feet whilst walking awkwardly. There is a rear pan up the man’s body to reveal that he is walking along a path through a park of some kind. The camera then cuts to a medium long shot of a group of young and old people walking behind him looking concerned indicating that they are his family. There are several shot reverse shots and a medium close up of one man taking a photograph of the scenery, connoting there is some significance in the location and he wants to remember that. A side tracking shot of the man and the group behind him leads into a medium close to reveal that he is in fact an elderly man. In the background there is a beautiful landscape of the sea and Diagetic sound of a sea breeze can be heard and also seen blowing through the man’s hair. The camera then cuts to a long shot of the same American flag and a French flag high in the air and blowing in the wind connoting that the two countries are in the war and the memorial ground indicates all the deaths.
The camera then cuts back to the man again as he slowly starts to walk forward in a medium close up. His facial expressions depict that he is nervous or scared. As it cuts to a long shot tracking to the left of the man continually walking forward a gravestone shaped as a cross comes into focus. The man is looking around which connotes that he is looking for a certain grave to visit. There is a tracking crane shot Right to Left to reveal a whole entire field of the same gravestones showing that many hundreds of crosses to represent how many people were killed in the battle. The man sighs out loud which tells us he is near the gravestone he has been looking for. The man falls onto his knees in front of the gravestone and the sound of crying connotes that he is grieving thinking about his life and remembering those who he fought with in the war and died which we later discover was an emotional journey. In the background the other members of the group are seen running up behind him to comfort him.
Dialogue is used for the first time when the man who was taking photographs before puts his hand on the man and says “Dad” which connotes that the group trailing behind him is actually his family members. There are numerous camera shots of the lines and rows of gravestones which continue to reveal that so many people lost their lives in the war. The camera zooms right in to the man’s face and the theme music increases building tension. The sound of the choppy sea can be heard also gradually getting louder as the camera is in an extreme long shot focusing on the man’s beady eyes.
The camera cuts to the wavy dull sea with big pieces of metal which are used to hide behind and connotes that a war is going on and depicts that these are the man’s memories that we are being allowed to view. There is a pan down to reveal how many of these giant metal pieces are lying on the seabed close to shore. The date appears near the bottom of the screen “June 6, 1944” which shows that we have gone back in time. “Dog Green Sector Omaha Beach” anchors the location of where the clip is set. There is a high level shot of a metal boat full of soldiers bursting through a massive wave. We then see a side view of the boat and that reveals that there are many other boats in the distance which indicates that a battle is about to commence.
A close up of a man’s grubby hand shaking badly which connotes that he is really scared. As the camera pans up to show the man taking a big gulp of his drink we discover that we are in the boat with all the other soldiers. There is a close up of the man’s face scanning in front of him which shows that he is looking for something. As the camera zooms out from his face all the other soldiers are seen throwing up everywhere which is really sad as people can tell that they are shocked, anxious and scared. The man driving the boat shouts out to warn the soldiers that they are “30 seconds” away and when he says “God be with you” shows that something bad is about to happen to these courageous soldiers and they need God’s protection as they are about to face their fate. There are a number of shots with different people giving out the instructions. “I’ll see you on the beach” connotes that he is in charge of this boat load of soldiers and wants to see them safe.
We start to hear some enhanced Diagetic sound of bomb and gun noises which symbolises a war is happening on the beach. Several soldiers in Close up make the sign of the cross and kiss their rosary necklace. The audience sympathise with this as they can see that the soldiers are extremely nervous about what is ahead of them. The Diagetic noise of a whistle being blown is heard and a extreme close up a wheel handle is seen spinning very fast as the door falls open. A low angle shot shows many of the soldiers at the front being shot before they even got off the boat. Enhanced Diagetic sounds of gun shots are heard as there are medium close ups of men being shot in their head and body. They all collapse to the floor of the boat, unable to even make it out onto shore. We then see an over the shoulder shot of the enemy who is shooting down to all the soldiers. Images of the men under water being shot and dying adds dramatic effect and creates tension.
Miscellaneous Paperwork
Media Production
Production title: Voices
Recording format: 16:9
Date:5th February 2011
Start time: 10:00
Wrap time: 14:30
Location address & directions
18 O’neill house
Cochrane street
St Johns Wood
London
NW8 7NU
Contact Nos: 07983994657
Scene / shot Nos to be recorded.
Sc 1-3
Sc 2-1
Sc 3-8
Sc 4-1
Sc 5-5
Sc 6-3
Sc 7-4
Sc 8-7
Sc 9-2
Sc 10-7
Equipment required
Camera
Tripod-Faulty
Gun Mic-Faulty
Props / costume / required
Pillow
Teddy Bear
Fake Blood
Knife
Drawings
Colouring Pens
Pyjamas
Production crew & contact Nos
Courtney Lang-079839944657 Marcia Preciosa-07919383412 Irfaat Nurudin-07946533808 Detjona Borizani-07817923437
In Depth Interviews
Interviews
Name: Najma Nurudin
Age: 18
What do you like about thrillers?
I like the fact that most of the thrillers are different to other movie’s .thrillers bring fear and anticipation in us in a different way than other movies. I also like the fact that most thrillers have twists in the end which i really look forward to seeing in movies because if it’s the same old ending the movie’s become predictable and really boring. I also like the fact that thrillers are not only horrors like others think there are psychological thrillers which are my favourite because they make you think about what happens.
What is your favourite thriller and why?
My favourite thriller at the moment is ‘’Saw’’. The first one was by far the best as it really made me evaluate my life after watching it. I do not think that the sequels lived up to the first one as they tried to make them similar but different to the first one but did not succeed in doing so. Also the publicity and the hype about the last movie caused them to make more and more which were then not as good as the first. The reason i like ‘’saw ‘’ in particular because there was gruesome murders that were not expected and also tension and anticipation in most of the film especially at the end when you don’t know whether they would live or die.
What do you find particularly scary or thrilling in a thriller?
Well I seem to be more scared of the unusual things in the thrillers. While most people will find gruesome and untimely deaths in thrillers scary I find them funny. I was more afraid of the little doll on the bike in ‘’saw’’ as its eyes seems to stare into my soul. The reason being so is that because you try to remind yourself that it is just a movie you still get captivated and think that is reality. Another movie which scared me senseless was ‘’chucky’’ it especially creped me out as I had a doll which was about the same size as chucky at the time and every time I went to sleep I used to think it would come to life and kill me *laughs* I think that if the thriller is realistic and can happen in everyday life especially if it relates to you it will scare you more.
If you were to make a thriller who/what would you star as the monster/bad person?
Hhhhmmmmm, I think most thrillers are middle age men killing people, but if i was to make a thriller I would make it completely different like add something really unexpected as the killer like a spoon or some sort of animal like a horse. I think that the spoon would defiantly surprise viewers and if done properly can really make the audience fear there cutlery *laughs* but on a serious note something unusual and scary that has never been done before.
Do you prefer thrillers to have a happy ending?
No way, happy ending are boring especially if it’s a thriller/ horror their needs to be excitement and death or a twist at the end. Otherwise thrillers will not give a thrill as they will be predictable.
Name: André Williams
Age: 16
What do you like about thrillers?
I used to be a big fan of thrillers when I was a little boy but now I’m older they don’t thrill me and scare me so you could say that I don’t like thrillers . If I had to pick something I would say I like all the killings.
Anything else?
I like the fact that all the girls die first and all the guys live and kill everyone.
What is your favourite thriller and why?
My favourite thriller is the godfather. I love all that kind of stuff like gangster mafia killings and that and how the guy put a horse’s head in the other guys bed to teach him a lesson. If all thriller movies were like that I would watch them more. I especially hate all the confusing thrillers like ‘’inception’’ it made no sense and was really boring the only good bit was the bit in the car when they all got shot at.
What do you find particularly scary or thrilling in a thriller?
I’m a grown boy now so I don’t really find a lot of things scary especially movie’s because I know there not real. The only one that kind of scared me was paranormal activity because apparently it was based on a true story and there were really jumpy bits in it like at the end when the boyfriend’s body is chucked at the screen. I totally didn’t expect that. We went to watch it in the dark as well so by the time we got out the cinema it was like past midnight totally dark and we had to walk all the way home because the busses and trains weren’t working it was only like a half hour walk but there was like 5 boys all together and we were all scared.
If you were to make a thriller who/what would you star as the monster/bad person?
I would star myself because I am a young black man it would be totally stereotypical and everyone would expect that which I guess would get rid of the element of surprise. But I would like film it in the ghetto with like all the gangs and stuff because no one has done that before and I think loads of people like me like people from my generation would come and watch it because it can relate to them. The ghetto is a scary place so why not film a thriller there right, like all the thrillers are like in haunted castles and places like that which are already really scary like the ghetto. I think that it would be a really good film and loads of people will come and watch it.
Do you prefer thrillers to have a happy ending?
Naaaahhh happy endings are like for comedy’s and romance movies and stuff why would you have a happy ending in a thriller that’s just so dead. If I made a thriller in my ending everyone die’s, the good person, the bad person, people walking by they all die. That would be the best ending to a movie I think.
Thank you for your time.
4 February 2011
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