Screenshots

This is a Prezi document containing screenshots for the evaluation:
http://prezi.com/taeadkf5-scu/present/?auth_key=jamzwmr&follow=bymo3h-5lcp3&kw=present-taeadkf5-scu&rc=ref-38841857

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

I have been able to show that I can use match on action correctly. I understand shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule however I was not able to show this in The Red Book as it didn't need it with shadows

.

I have been able to learn how to use the equipment such as the cameras, and the mac software correctly. I now know how to correctly storyboard my ideas with detailed caption in each image. I have learnt how to work in a team more and we have all worked well when it came to getting the filming done in our own time. I now understand the conventions of thriller films. I can list the connotations as well, which before I couldn't of been able to do as I didn't know what connotation was. I have learnt a lot of new key terminology such as low key lighting, which i know is a key feature when creating a thriller. I can now say that I have learnt the importance of planning. If we hadn't of planned The Red Book, we would of struggled to know what we needed to do. When we started I didn't know how to use final cut pro at all but now i can say that I can use Final Cut Pro without needing the help from a teacher. I have learnt how to edit videos so they look effective. I have also learnt the wrong things to do when it comes to editing, as when we first started some of the videos didn't look right with the editing I had done.

6)What have I learnt about technologies in the process of constructing my film sequence?

Throughout the process I have been able to learn many new skills involving the camera. I have learnt what a high and low angle are and what their effect is on the audience. I have learnt the importance of keeping the camera steady. I also have learnt that making a title sequence isn't as easy as I thougth it would be. Before I started I didn't know anything about final cut pro. The most I had used to make a short movie was movie maker, so using final cut pro has been a challenge. I had to learn how to add all the effects onto the sequence. We used effetcts like fade in fade out which allows the shot to come out smothly instead of jumping onto the screen. To show that the sequence was a thriller I had to learn hw to use colour correcter 3 to turn the text into red. This was a challenge as it was hard to make the red excatly the same in each shot. To make the red stand out we changed all the shots into black and white. I did this by inserting a tint ont the clips. I also had to use how to add an vignette into some shots so the focus was only on the shadow as some shots we ended up filming a brickwall or a football, we didn't notice at the time however an audience member would pick up on this. I also had to learn how to use garage band to create our soundtrack. I found garage band really easy to use. The only tough bit was finding the right sounds we wanted for the soundtrack! I had to learn how to precision editing. I did this by using slow motion to create effect. It allowed the audience to capture more detail. I also used slow motion on some of the whipsers which meant it sounded scary and not human. As i was the editor for The Red Book, I felt like i edited it to the best of my ability. Considering at the start i didn't even know how to insert a video, I now feelk confident with editing. There is still a lot  I could learn, however I am happy with the editing I did in The Red Book.

5) Who would be the audience for your media product?

I would say that the lower socal groups below C1 would more be interested in The Red Book, as not many higher social groups would maybe appreciate thrillers as much. The Red Book would probably appeal to thriller fans more than say rom com fans. This means we are able to appeal to a certain target audience easily. For example The Sixth Sense is a psychological thriller.

We could get thriller fans to tell us what they like about the film, then we could incoorparate that into our production. Because we don't have characters in The Red Book people can allow their imagination to give the shadows a personality. To make the prodcution appeal to both genders, we would need maybe a couple of deaths both male and female. In thriller's there is normally a death, which relates back to the point about souls. The film would be a national film which mean there would be a variety of different thriller fans. I would say people don't need to follow a religion to enjoy The Red Book, it appeals to most religions. To do this we could have different characters who are comminting the crimes who have different beliefs. This would allow us to show that religions have different beliefs when it comes to peoples souls. The Red Book isn't one of these films where there is named brands or hasn't got expensive houses or anything like that. The Red Book is set in any average household which means it makes it more scary as more people will be able to relate to it. Using an average household etc means people feel like they are apart of the story instead of wishing they lived in a big house.

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

- Many psychological thrillers have a wide and exisiting audience so this would be the audience we would be most concerened about. To get them interested in The Red Book the trailer could be played at a cinema with other thriller films to gain their interest. We would try and make The Red Book a low budget film, this is because the audience might not know what to expect, whereas a mainstream film may be predicatble. We used our own production company "ACM" which would keep costs down as we wouldnt need to hire well known actors which would keep costs down. We choose Film4 as they have been known for investing in low budgets UK films in the past. Because we are an unknown production company we could apply to be lottery funded. 28 Days Later was a lottery funded thriller.

. To make the film well known we would need posters and leaflets which would attract people. We could make a trailer which would be shown on tv and in the cinema. This would mean we would be creating a larger audience for The Red Book. To market The Red Book, we could come up with marketing campaings to draw more people in. Such as maybe a haunted hause or ghost flashmob to promote The Red Book.

3) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

- The Red Book has a lot of male shadows which means the male gender are represented more in the sequence. They aren't sterotypical though as we used shadows instead of real people. We used all different ages for the shadows which shows ages are represented but are all the same and should be treated the same. Because we used shadows in our sequence sexuality, regional identity, physical ability and disablity aren't really a feature of The Red Book as the shadows could be anyone, so shows everyone as the same. To show that everyone is the same we used close up shots on the shadows. We also used low angle to show some of the shadows had power. Most of the shots were at a neutral angle however. Because we only needed shadows we didnt use shot reverse shot as there was only one shadow in each frame. This allowed the audience to focus on one shadow at a time. Mise en secen wasn't an important factor in the sequnce because we were using shadows instead of characters. To show that the shaodws were more bad instead of good, we coloured the text red. Red is accosiated with danger and blood.

2) How did you attract your audience?

Watching other thriller films we was able to see what people like to see in thrillers. They like to have an adrenaline rush which allows us to change the pace of the sequence which changes the speed in which people get excited. We used shadows to insert the theory of ghosts and spirits. We decided that our BBFC'S certificate is 15 which allowed us to create the sequence for an adult audience.

This meant we were able to create more scary images which we wouldn't of been able to use if children would be watching it. Most psychological thrillers are rated at a 15 because of the content. As we just used shadows we didn't have to worry too much about Mise en scene. Shadows don't need costumes or make up which allows the audience to explore their imagination. Because shadows appear everywhere we didn't need to have a specific location which allowed us all to go out and film without it being noticed in the sequence. For props we used a knife to show people's souls as not everyone's soul is good. We wanted to show good and bad not just bad shadows. Because there wasn't much mise en scene this interested the audience as they didn't know what was going to happen or what they were going to see. If for example we had a location, the audience would maybe looking for specific features of that location e.g London- Big Ben or the London Eye.  We don't have a main character or any characters which means our shadows have their own individual power. Each shadow can mean something different. It allows the audience to create their own character instead of following the main character. This means they are able to attach themselves to the shadow as they are using their own imagination and the shadow can be whatever they choose it to be, whereas with a main character they have to follow their storyline, even if they don't like it. Our sequence doesn't really have a theme as it is based on ideas from Carl Jung. However if I had to choose one, I guess it would be that people are responsible for their actions, no matter how evil their soul may be. I posted the video onto Facebook which allowed me to receive feedback. Unfortunately only three people responded but this is what they said: 

  

To make it feel like it was shorter we could of done a fast past sequence which would make the pace speed up.  

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

- The Red Book is a psychological thriller so there are a lot of similar films. Such as Insidious, Woman In Black and Paranormal Activity and sixth sense. This is the title sequence to insidious, it is simple and uses simple black and white images which we liked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1e1feo4DUk

This is the title sequence to sixth sense. We also liked this because of its simplistic nature. It makes people senses more alert which is the effect we wanted to create.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sixth+sense+opening+sequence

Most psychological thrillers use the senses as a major part of the film. They make people more aware. They do this by removing sight or sound, which makes the senses more alert. In The Red Book we used dark shadows throughout to make people feel uneasy. When you play with the senses, people feel uncomfortable. This is what we tried to do throughout the red book. Creating an uneasy feel for the audience. For example in Insidious although there are no shadows objects move in the shot, which makes people alert and uneasy at the same time as they are looking at for objects moving which creates an uncomfortable feel as the audience don't know what will happen next. When it comes to psychological thrillers many people associate that with Ghosts, and spirits. We was able to follow this as we based our ideas Carl  Jung.

He wrote that shadows were people's souls ' People will do anything to avoid facing their own souls. We used shadows throughout the sequence to show the souls off living and dead people.
Using shadows means the audience don't know if the shadows have been created by humans or ghosts which follows the psychological thrillers.

 The music is an important piece of any film. Our music gives an uneasy feel. We made it quiet so people's senses were alert throughout. We created suspense by using low drones. We used whispers throughout which created suspense. Lots of films use music to create suspense. For example in Jaws, when the shark is approaching we get the famous low drone familiar music which makes everyone aware that the shark is coming and wants food.  We overlapped and changed the speed of the whispers which made people really have to listen to what was being said.  To make The Red Book original we decided to write our titles instead of typing them. This way it allows us to write in our original font, and means we aren't coping any other films.

This is our final title sequence. We aren't allowed to edit anymore of it. If I could I would tried to make the sequence more tighter so there wasn't too longer pauses between shots. I would touch up some of the colours on the writing, as they aren't all the same colour red. Overall I am happy with how The Red Book turned out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpr6PVE3SJQ

For our titles we decided to write the titles instead of typing them on screen. We did this so our titles were original as most people type the credits so we wanted to me different. We used gothic like writing. As we filmed he credits we moved the light around which makes the credits look unusual. We moved the light around, which makes the image disorientating. Makes people senses work harder.

This is our storyboard. It isn't very clear in the picture so I will write what it says.
Box one: Film 4 logo, followed by text; Film 4 presents..., this has been hand written on a whiteboard , edited with red background, black writing 'bad film' filter put on.

Box two: videos of shadows and silhouettes. No particular story or order. ' bad film' over every clip.

Box three: an ACM production- same effects as film 4 presents... Followed by more shadows and silhouettes.

Box four: names of group. Each divided my shadow clips etc. same effect as other writing.

Box five: more shadows and then The Red Book at the end. Whispers saying the red book at the end. And whispers over other shadows quotes from Carl Jung.

Other details:
- all videos have ' fade in and out' transitions
- all non diegetic sound because of soundtrack
- all shots are MCUs, LS, or MS
- all writing has been edited with a red background

Here is a spider diagram full of our ideas.

Sequence Problems

We got our teacher find our 2 minute marker. So we was able to know how much more footage we needed.  We saw we still had about 40 seconds left to film so we went away and got lots of different videos. However we have recently discovered that the marker was actually put onto five minutes instead of two minutes, so we actually already had the right amount of footage. This meant we has to get rid of lots of videos and shorten our soundtrack, so it could fit.

Soundtrack Problems

We lost the main piano part in our soundtrack. When we looked on garage band, the piano sound had gone, and all that was there was a low drone sound. However it wasn't actually playing any sound. We couldn't find the piano part again, however after looking in the trash bin, we managed to find our old track we had first made which we was able to insert into out track and now have the piano part back. 

Order of title sequence- research

The Departed: 

-Initial Entertainment group

-Warner Bros

-Presents...

-Warner Bros in association with different production groups

-In Boston some years ago!

Narc:

-Paramount

-Lions gate films

-Splendid pictures

-In association with splendid pictures

-Director

-Production companies

-Distributors

-18 months later...

Shutter island:

-Paramount

-Paramount pictures presents

-In association with production groups

-Shutter island

-Boston

Mirrors:

-20th century fox

-Regency

-Production groups

-Director

-Main actor

-Mirrors

-Actors and actress

-Casting directors

-Costume designers

-Music

-Special effects

-Co producer

-Film editor

-Production designer

-Director of photography

-Ex producer

-Producers

-Screenplay

-Director

We looked at different fonts from different films, to see what other thrillers use. Here is some ideas we found. These are from Paranormal activity, sinister, seven, insidious, the woman in black and the sixth sense. These are all very similar fonts, even though they are plain, they are edited in such a way that it doesn't  matter that the font is plain.

The Godfather

The opening begins with a very slow jazz soundtrack, which is typical of thrillers. A plain black background, which connotes wealth, death, mystery, and evil, is contrasted with white writing, which has connotations of coldness, fear, reverence, and again, death. The writing simply says 'The Godfather' with puppet strings attached to the word 'father'. This symbolises the control that the godfather in the film has, and, as the audience will discover, how he controls people below him like a puppeteer controls his puppets.

The title disapears and the audience is left with a black screen, emphasising the connotations of the colour black, and also adding mystery and suspense - we don't know what will follow. A male voice-over begins in an italian accent with the line "I believe in America", suggesting where the film is set, and we fade in to see the man (Pacino) who is speaking. The camera begins with a close up as he talks to the camera and the camera zooms out very slowly whilst he tells us about his daughter's rape. This is a thriller signifier as we instantly know a web of crime and corruption will be involved in the narrative. The mise en scene at this point is all dark, with only the man's collar being the only colour of white, reflecting the title screen with white contrasting with black. As we zoom out, however, we discover with the technique of an over the shoulder shot, that the man is infact talking to someone else. The shot now reveals brown mise en scene - a wooden table, with a couple of papers on, making it seem to the audience like some kind of office. The camera stops zooming out, and Pacino begins to cry, and is given a drink by another man (presumably alcoholic) which shows the audience the flaws of the protagonist - his emotion for his daughter, and his drinking habit. This sequence also reveals that our first thought that there was only one person present was incorrect - there are at least three men present, but it is still unknown where this is set and who the men are. The camera then tracks to focus on a close up of the two men whispering to each other, but we are unable to hear what they say.

The Woman In Black

Woman in black opening scene

The opening scene in woman in black is very gloomy, and dark, there is also a lot of different camera angles. They are making the audience feel nervous, and anticipating the rest of the film.

At the start of the opening scene there is an extreme close up of a little pretending to tip tea into a cup and then a switch to another extreme close up of the girl giving it to the doll. As they are using teapots and cups and saucers, it gives the impression that the film is set in England as that is what country’s represent England with and also that’s where teapots are made, so it says to the audience that it is an English film set somewhere in England.

We also know that the film is trying to represent the time period, as we see that the dolls are very old fashioned and antique in our period of time, it shows that they are wanting the audience to go back to the 1930’s as all dolls are said to be antique if they are below the 1930’s. So this gives the impression to the audience that the film is going to be in the early 1930’s, late 1920’s. We can also tell from the clothing that the children are wearing that is set back in time too.

As the film has the extreme close up of the teapot and cup, the music is very low, slow motioned and has a very funeral sound to it because of the bells, its gives the effect to the audience that it is going to be a film about death, so we get to know that the film is a in the horror/thriller genre. We also get a mid-shot of the three girls turning around and staring at nothing, this gives the effect to the audience that there is also going to be so paranormal features within the film, such as ghosts, as the girls once they’ve stared at nothing, look at the window start walking and crushing their dolls on the way, which tells the audience that it has a very hypnotic sense of genre to it too as they walk out of the window.

When the girls stare at nothing we can tell that there’s a ghost there, which tells the audience that there’s an evil entity present. As the girls have been put in a type of hypnotic state to kill themselves, it makes the audience feel sorry for the children, and make you go against the ghost which makes the audience think of the ghost as the antagonist. It’s the bandit of the film because the entity makes the girls kill themselves; this tells the audience that the ghost is going to go around killing people for some sort of reason that will be shown later on in the film.

For our soundtrack we have decided on a low drone sounds. However at the same time we decided on a piano piece which makes the audience feel uneasy. The soundtrack plays quietly so the focus is on the screen. This is then only sound heard however. Right at the end we have a scream like sound which makes the audience jump as they don't know it is coming.

We decided to use lots of different shadows. We used to low key lighting. We used different angles to make the sequence more disorientating. We tried to film shadows showing crime to connect to the ideas of Karl Jung about shadows. Below is some example of images similar to shots we have taken.