Evaluation Q6

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


While filming and editing our film we had to use different technologies ranging from cameras to computers and the different software.


 We used a mac computer to do the editing although at first it was hard to get the hang of how to use it, by using the mac we had access to final cut pro which was the software we used to edit the footage we'd captured.


We used a Sony VX camera to shoot out footage we needed, this camera can be used as either a handheld camera or you could place it on a tripod to make things easier for us we used a tripod, it also helped to keep the camera still and make it look more professional.


Final cut pro was the software we used to edit, this software was easy to use and had a lot of different features that helped us to make our film the best we could it had features such as cut and it allowed us to play around with the contrast, it also allowed us to add a soundtrack.


YouTube is where we uploaded our film so other people could watch it and give us feedback. YouTube is a free way of publishing out film and getting it recognized.

Evaluation Q7

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

From doing the preliminary task I learnt different skills and the use of different technologies, by doing the preliminary task it allowed me and helped me to progress and get better use of the equipment I had to use. I learnt that it isn’t all as straight forward as I first expected it to be, it took me a while to get the hang of how to use final cut pro and practicing was the best way. If I hadn’t of done the preliminary task I feel that the full product would not have turned out as well as it did.
It allowed me to play about with all the features and it helped me to understand how to cut and make sure it flowed and made sense. It helped build our knowledge of the equipment we would be using and other skills such as script writing and creating a shot list.Below are two pictures the first picture is of the preliminary task and the second of our final media product.The problems with out preliminary was that continuity wasn't right and it wasn't long enough which is something we took into consideration when doing our final media product.

Evaluation Q3

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

There are many well known distributors such as

• Universal Studios
• Warner Bros
• 20th Century Fox 
• Paramount Pictures 

Those listed are just a few all distributors do the same they all sell on films to cinemas, DVD, Blu-Ray, ect.



 A distrubutor is production company that reasles the film and distrubtes it to certain cinemas to be shown to the public, The production company is responsible for raising funds for the making of the fim to go ahead.
Universal Studios would be the best distrubtor to release our film as they have had success with other films much like ours. Universal would distrubte our film to DVD, Blu-Ray, cinemas, teleivision and film websites.


Childs Play and Tremors are 2 horror/thriller franchies which Universal have distributed, Both films were very successful as they went on to become a franchise, Much like our film Tremors and Childs play both have the element of surprise and confusion which is a key feature.

Childs Play is about a man who has to escape from a cop and hides his soul in an innocent looking doll named chucky. A little boy soon becomes the owner of the doll and the doll commits numerous murders. The budget for Childs Play was estimated to be $9,000,000













Tremors is about how a small town become aware that a strange creature is taking people one by one but no one knows what the creature is and where it is hiding. A seismologist come to town and notices tremors. The creature is living underground and can pop up without warning to take people. The budget for Tremors was estmated to be  $11,000,000

Evaluation Q2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The film ‘When a Stranger Calls’ is about a girl who is still in high school and is babysitting , when she receives pranks calls each getting more and more scary and threatening. It’s a psychological thriller much like our film ‘Hourglass’ is. ‘Hourglass’ is about  teenage girl who has to solve puzzles before the hourglass runs out each puzzle gets harder and more complicated as the puzzles go along.

 ‘When a Stranger Calls’ is similar to our film ‘Hourglass’ as both the main characters are female teenagers roughly 17-18 both films have an aspect of time to them ‘When a stranger calls’ is about not having enough time to escape from the house away from the person who is trying to kill her, time is most important when trying to catch the killer as she has to stay on the phone for longer than a minute so the police can locate where the killer is ringing from as shown to the bottom right and ‘Hourglass’ is about not having enough time to escape possibly her own mind and not enough time to finish the puzzles to escape from the room as shown to the bottom left.

Both characters in each film become more and more scared of their surroundings, and possibly of themselves at the end of both films the girls are delusional and perhaps psychologically damaged. 

The saw franchise are also other films similar to ours as they have the theme of time and puzzles. Our target audience of between 15-25 are attracted to the psychological aspects shown in all three films. 

Evaluation Q4

 4. Who would be your audience for your media product?

We picked a target audience of 15 plus as some of the scenes may contain violence. The guidelines from the British Board of Film Classification (bbfc) states that horror can be used as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised, although our film is not a horror and is a thriller it still contains some violence which bbfc states a 15 rated film ‘can contain strong violence but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury’

Our audience for our media product would be teens and young adults, once we had finished our opening sequence I created and handed out a questionnaire containing 5 questions to 6 people 3 of each gender in each age category 15-18, 19-25, 26-40, and 41+ who had watched our opening sequence.

The 5 questions asked are listed below.

•  Do you enjoy horror/thriller films?
•  What did you enjoy most about the sequence?
• Did the soundtrack work with the sequence?
• Why would you watch this film?
• Do you think it other people of your age would watch the film?

I found that many people in the categories 26-40 and 41+ were not interested in watching the film and did not enjoy the opening sequence mainly the females were not interested however the other people in the 15-18, 19-25 category were interested in watching it and enjoyed the opening sequence. 

After the first questionnaire we then asked what they thought worked well in our opening sequence all ages agreed that the soundtrack worked well with the sequence and that's what made them the most interested.


We also uploaded our opening sequence to YouTube where we had a positive comment that said ' Good use of camera angles and camera movement and i like the soundtrack it goes well with the sequence. I'd probably watch the whole film.' 

Evaluation Q1

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

Our opening sequence is based in a small room with blank walls nothing is seen in the room, most other thriller films are based in small rooms or large dark houses which is where the rest of our film will take place. We choose to do it in a small room to create the feeling of madness because if you were left in a small room for a large amount of time you would eventually go mad. This sticks to codes and conventions of a thriller movie. The room being blank and empty also helps to create wonder within the audience which is what thriller films are all about.

The title of our film is ‘Hourglass’ this isn’t an obvious title as to what the film will be about the only clue the title gives is that maybe it has something to do with time, the title in itself creates wonder much like the opening sequence which again is how thriller films are meant to be perceived, the title is bold which makes it eye catching.

The only prop we used in our opening sequence was a marker pen, by only using one prop in the opening sequence we again tried to create the effect of wonder and perhaps loneliness seeing as the girl and the marker pen are the only things in the room. Many thriller films start happy or calmly and build up to the danger or storyline our film starts straight away with the wonder of where she is, what is happening and perhaps may be seen as a danger because the main character is seen to be distressed and angry with someone or something.

When we edited we changed the contrast and made it brighter, as our main character has dark hair it made her look paler and more mysterious, by doing this the audience are wary of her, we made our sequence brighter instead of darker as most thriller films are made darker we felt that it was a better idea to work away from conventions when deciding on how the contrast should be. By reversing and brightening some of the frames it made it confusing and unclear or what was happening which is another feature of thriller films. The soundtrack we used is a fast tempo creepy beat which works well with the piece. In thriller and horror films the soundtrack is the most important micro-feature as it helps to create suspense and tension, the sound helps to create different emotions, it keeps we as the audience on the edge of our seats.

In conclusion our film sticks to mainly all of the codes and conventions expected of a thriller film as the sound and location are what is expected. 

Hourglass

Premliminary Task

Script

Hourglass

Shot List

Shot

Film Classification

Different films have different target audiences
The British Board of Film Classification (bbfc) rate all the films before they are released to the public if the film does not fit into the rating criteria it won't be shown, every film that is shown or is to be shown in the UK it has to go through this process. Each film is rated accorded to the contents in the film.

Each film rating has different expectations



For example 'U' is said to be suitable for 4 years and over, but anyone is welcome to see it. It may have some scenes that will upset small children but it is hard to categories what with upset them.


 'PG' is again suitable for any age but has more scenes that may upset some children, although children don't have to be supervised parents have to take into consideration whether they think the film is suitable for they're child.



  

'12A' and '12' are slightly different in they way they are used but the criteria is exactly the same. '12A' is gerally only used in cinemas and no child under the age of 12 is permitted to see this film without and adult. And '12' is only used for video works no child under 12 can buy or rent a film with this rating.





No one under the age of 15 is allowed to see, rent or buy a film rated '15'.





Again like 15 rated films no one under the age of 18 is allowed to rent, see or buy an '18' rated film.

To make our film for a selected target audience we should try and stick to the guidelines the bbfc do to make sure a film will be suitable for who it is aimed at

The hyperlinks posted are detailed facts about what can be included in each classification

Opening sequence analysis #2

(This isn't the original opening scene but I couldn't find the original and I thought this one worked well the soundtrack has been changed)

Jaws is about a great white shark who becomes a menace in a small town and some of the towns people try to stop it. Jaws was released in 1975 and it was directed by the well known director Steven Spielberg and had 2 writers, Peter Benchley and Carl Gottileb, it starred Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.


The clip starts with a girl running into the sea she's on her own which is never a good thing, she starts swimming with no one else around her, at little way into the clip the camera is under water which in turn makes us feed as though we are also under the water, we are looking up at the girl swimming which could show that something will approach her from under the water, the camera then moves to a long shot and we see she is far out in the sea and still swimming away. We then go under the water again and are looking up at her the camera moves up towards her body before fully coming out of the water when we see the girls face she looks happy until something pulls her under, we can from watching this small extract from the clip see that the camera could have possibly been the thing that then dragged her under.

Although this isn't the original soundtrack I think it works well with the extract. The non-diegetic soundtrack is slow and peaceful creating a calm feeling within the scene and the audience, when something grabs her from underneath the water the soundtrack increases tempo, the soundtrack remains the same throughout the clip until the last couple of seconds when the girl is dragged under the water it stops completely, the only other sound we here is the diegetic sound of the girl laughing and screaming happily.

The editing used in the opening clip works well as there are fast cuts and tracking to help engage the audience it could also be foreshadowing something bad will occur.

Questionnaire

What is your age?

_____

What is your Gender?

Male [ ]
Female [ ]

Do you watch thriller films?

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

Do you like thrillers films?

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

If a new film out is a thriller, would you go and watch it in the cinema?

Yes [ ]
No [ ]

What is your favourite thriller film?

_________________


Why is this film your favourite?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

How would you improve the thriller film of your choice?
-______________________________________________
-______________________________________________
-______________________________________________

Thank you for your time.



Designed by  Emma Urbaniak

Codes and Conventions

Thriller
The genre thriller is similar to horror they both use dramatic music to engage the audience, the non-diegetic soundtrack is normally one of the most important elements to thriller or horror films.
The stereotypical thriller genre uses shadows and dark rooms, and the plot usually takes place of a night. Not all thriller films stick to the conventions, Photobooth is one film that doesn't stick to codes and conventions as it is not filmed of a night and mostly takes place during the day, although the film doesn't fit this convention it does fit the convention of mystery. Quick cuts and slow panning is used to create the effect of panic, suspense and creates tension within the audience

Romance
The romance genre is easy to define as it always ends with two people falling in love normally the storylines are similar with either where the two people can't be together or they don't like each other to begin with, normally when romance is involved it is a hybrid genre for example romance comedy. The soundtrack is normally slow romantic music and normally the main instrument is the violin, one of the most known romantic films is Romeo and Juliet,  this follows the conventions of they aren't allowed to be together another film that follows this convention is Dear John

Action/Adventure
There is always a hero and a villain, and a love interest normally the hero has to save the love interest and in a normal stereotypical action/adventure film the hero is a man and the love interest is a women but in recent years heroines are becoming more and more popular, action/adventure films normally become a film franchise such as Indiana Jones which stars Harrison Ford, The Die Hard films starring Bruce Willis and The Bourne films starring Matt Damon are some film franchises that follow all the conventions of action/adventure. Normally the hero has a weakness for example John McClane in Die Hard is scared of heights and Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes.

Science-Fiction
Is normally filmed in outer space and in the future the Star Wars films are a prime example of sic-fi films. The Star Wars films follow all the codes and conventions of sci-fi films as they are set in outer space with future technology which doesn't actually exist in today’s world

Film Idea

Hourglass[1]

Opening Sequence Analysis #1

Opening Sequence from 0.30 seconds to 2 minutes 45 seconds

The film Signs was directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan and stars Mel Gibson, Rory Colkin and Joaquin Phonenix. Its about a family living on a farm and mysterious crop circle appear in their feild, the family has an encounter with Aliens  

The title credits are shown on a balck background with what seems to be a circle of blue light in the middle of the black, this is plain background as it allows the audience to wonder what the film is about as not much is given away. Throughout the whole of the opening titles only this is seen. The non-diegetic soundtrack is dramtic and creates suspense amd wonder.

When the opening credits end the dramtic music also stops, it starts with an establishing shot of the area, it can be establish that it is a family home from the props used such as the swing and then it cuts to a close up of a family picture. The close up of the family picture is then followed by panning to Rev. Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson) who wakes up suddenly he sits up slowly in his bed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286106/