Evaluation- Question 8 continued.

We have done a previous blog as a whole group, with video blogs of us all as a group talking about what we've learnt, how we improved from our prelim film to where we are now having produced out thriller opening. We talked about improvement in mise-en-scene, sound, camera skills and editing skills using Livetype, Soundtrack pro, Final cut pro and Handbrake. Here are a few comparisons and improvements we've made from our prelim to our final opening.

Prelim.     Thriller opening.

Here as you can see our prelim was shot in one of the common rooms in our college, so we didn't think to much or creativley about our mise-en-scene. However for our thriller we made a concious decision to film in an old dance studio which used to be a church as this has connotations with the Black Swan. They are both long shots, but in our prelim shot there are others in the background, for our thriller we have made sure everything is out of the way and as professional looking as possible.

Prelim.    Thriller opening.



Here we have two close ups of the main characters in each sequence, Reem in the prelim, and Eleni in the thriller. This is a perfect example of the improvement within props and setting. In the prelim we used a coat hanger as our weapon, and in the thriller in the second half of the bedroom scene, our main prop was the doll our character was obsessed with. Our choice of props have become more realistic and convincing, as killing someone with a coat hanger wouldn't usually happen.

Prelim.   Thriller opening.

Here we have used the same technique as we did for our prelim, which was to put the camera on the floor and created a more interesting effect for the audience. Having experimented in our prelim we realised this worked for us so we planned to use this technique in our thriller, which we did.

Prelim.                             Thriller opening.

Here are two shots which both included using a mirror. In our prelim as we didn't have much time to plan or think about it properly, we had things in our mise-en-scene which we didn't want such as bags, coats in the background, sink etc, however with the shot to the right which is in our thriller we made for everything was out of the way and only the lamp, the character and the writing on the mirror could be seen. Our editing of this part in our thriller took up alot of time as we included white flashes, overlapping and fast motion.



Here is an animation of some of our overlapping shots, an editing effect we used majorly throughout our thriller.

Using final cut pro, something we didn't know how to do when making our prelim, we overlapped nearly all our shots which gave it a creepier and more impressive effect. We went down to the bottom of the software and clicked on the symbol with the squiggly line, (shown to the left) which overlapped as many shots as you wanted, the most we went to was 3 shots at one point, but no more than that otherwise it'll get too confusing.

Here is a wordle of what i think teamwork is all about.

Working as a team is so important when it comes to creating something, especially something as hard as a thriller opening. You need to make sure everyone has a role to play, everyone is involoved and doing their best, fullfiling their full potential, otherwise it'll go downhill. Our team are organised, respectful and are always there for one another so we were always comfortable and safe where ever we were, whether we were planning, editing, filming and just discussing. I want to say thank you to Mary and Dan for helping us through it, and of course to Klaudia, Reem and Valeza (:

Evaluation- Progression: Question 8.

Evaluation- Question 7.

As well as the post we have done all together were we have made video blogs about the technologies, i have created a collage of all the technologies we have used, websites, software such as livetype, handbrake, soundtrack and final cut pro.

Evaluation- Question 7: Timeline.

Timeline of technology used during research and filming of our thriller opening:

• cameras
• learning how to use blogger and search engines (e.g. google)
• learning how to blog videos, pictures, links etc.
• more detail with cameras
• using livetype
• soundtrack pro
• final cut pro
• digital camera, tripod, lighting
• memory card and video drive

   

Evaluation- Audience feedback: Question 6.

When you know what the audience wants and likes, when you know what mood the audience is in, and when you know something about the audience, they become more interested in what you have to say.

Having uploaded our thriller to Facebook, this has allowed us to get written audience feedback from our collegues, as you can see from the image on the left.

 

I have asked people to share what they think of our thriller opening as part of audience feedback, which i have recorded. Here are some peoples opinions on our thriller opening. (More to come.)

Here is a survey i created with 7 questions about our thriller opening, which was answered by my seventeen year old friend Gabriella Pecqueur who doesn't go to same college as me.

Q- What did you like about our thriller opening and why?
A- I thought it was edited very well, it all moved smoothly from one scene to the next. It defiantly falls under the category of “thriller” – it was terrifying! I liked voices used near the end to add to the atmosphere, it was almost as though they were the voices coming from inside Victoria’s head.

Q- Which is your favourite shot and why?
A- My favourite shot was when Eleni was dancing and fell to the ground, then it cut to an extreme close up of her eyes, with the medium close up of her face imposed on top of it. I thought it was good because it showed a different side to the character and it helped to build the tension as it’s the first time we see her close up.

Q- Who do you think is the target audience?
A- Girls (stereotypically) although i think many guys would enjoy it too. Probably aged between 15-25.

Q- Did the music go well with the opening?
A- Yes! It was a good contrast, normally that music is associated with good childhood memories of a music box. It made the scene very eerie and sinister.

Q- Could you see clear intertextuality linking to other films?

A- Yes i could clearly see you were influenced by Black Swan, and other movies such as “The Orphanage” (Spanish film) as the children are linked!

Q- Were the titles clear? If not why?
A- Yes they were very clear.

Q- What could we have improved on if you could start over?
A- Although I understand its a thriller so to add to the tension it needs to be quite dimly lit, but maybe you could have made it a little bit lighter as sometimes its was a bit difficult to see. Maybe when Victoria looked in the mirror, her reflection could have showed something different, if that makes sense. Or not moved with her. Apart from that i think its very good! Well done!

Evaluation- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why: Question 4&5.

Having looked onto youtube at other peoples media thrillers from different schools i have come across many successful ones, with amazingly outstanding number of hits. My film is a low budget student video which will be released on vimeo, embedded onto a blog, facebook and may find its way onto youtube.

Other students media thriller:

This thriller wasn't an opening it was a trailer, so a sort of similar task to our one, and i have choosen to comment on it because its interesting editing, sound and good use of locations. I particularly like the titles aswell, as they used flickering just like we did. It received (so far) 20,242 hits which they should be so proud of! Here are some of the comments. Our thriller is an independent low budget production company, i.e: us. It will get cinematic screening and shared screenings amongst peers and maybe family. It'll get a DVD release of 200 copies.

Cinema we will view everyones thriller movies on the 5th of April, is below at 'the screen.' Other cinemas at which our thriller can be presented in:

I have envisioned a particular style of marketing for our thriller. As well as using social networking sites to promote it, websites and campaigns, TV adverts, leaflets and magazines would also help raise awarness of it. media which would promote it would be magazines such as sugar, shout, ok, grazia (mostly attracting females aswe said) but also premiere, film, empire, similarly TV adverts, adverts before highly rated youtube videos and adverts on the side of facebook all can boost ratings.

One of the main film magazines is Total Film, which advertises new films and stars, also information and advertising for the film. Most of the front covers like the one's shown below have a large image which shows the main characters in a film. They range from headshots to a longshot all of which make the film completly clear which is being advertised.They also like to cover some of the magazine title with the image this adds another dimesnsion to the page and it also look more professional, an example of this is in the Sherlock Holmes front page where he is looking directly into the camera as a figure of power, and on a shelf would gain eye contact and intrest the target audience. Also by the main characters being easily recognisable it will make people want to read a review and see what the film is like befire they watch it.

Evaluation- Who would be the audience for our media product: Question 3.

The typical target audience for our thriller is mostly females but with a wide range of ages, from 17 to 40. The type of audience we are trying to attract according to our thriller opening could be performers, dancers, artists and people who like supernatural movies. As the black swan is our inspiration it'll attract that type of audience, but our sceond half of the girl in her room could attract everyone, so no one specific. Here is a clip of the type of dancers we could attract.

Even though we have said we are going to attract more females, i have found a males perspective and opinion on the Black Swan, something similar to our opening, he talks about the camera, adventure you go through whilst watching it, the genre and loads more. He seems inspired by it and made me think, why not attract a male audience aswell?

I have created a typical audience member for our thriller movie, i've created a collage of her belongings, bag and overall personality. Here is her story: "Kayla, 22 years old, studies at Bird College for a dance degree, loves doing normal things such as going to the cinema, hanging out with friends, but is also a very hardworking, determind person who knows what she wants to do and be. She likes shopping at dance places, h&m, topshop and river island. Studying dance but also attending classes at pineapple weekly and has shows every so often. She watches dramas, thrillers, horrors and crime.

What her normal going out bag looks like:

-Blackberry

-Purse

-Ipod

-School ID tag

-Tissues

-Money

What her bag for dance training looks like:

-Ballet shoes

-Water

-Hair clips

-Cream

-Tape for ballet shoes

-Ribbon for ballet shoes

-Pouch for ballet shoes

Here is a wordle created about my lovely audience member.

Evaluation- Representation of Social groups: Question 2.

Representation:
-Deal in stereotypes
-Exaggerations and generalisations
-Useful for the audience to recognise

-All media representations are constructs

This shot has similarities and differences between them as we wanted our character o be isolated, freaky and have a hidden agenda. They are close close/mid shots of just the facial expression, however our shot has a bit of the mise-en-scene in the background. Both have fixed expressions to show something about the character, what they're hiding and what they're feeling.

This overlapping shot of Reems hand and my face shows the dominant character which is the abuser, as her hand has jewellery, bracelets and rings contrasting to the vulnerable child's face.

This shot shows the social group of dancers, performers and artists, however also our second half of the film attracts all audiences as she is an alone, mysterious girl who could be in danger. We have gone against the representation of colour as in the Black Swan she is dressed in black as she is evil, and white as she is innocent, but we have done it the other way around.

Our media teacher told us it would be a good idea to show our opening to people so that they can comment on it, and get audience feedback. This will help us know what we have done well and what we need to improve on, what people think of it and what they liked about it.


























Using a vintage old school camera effect i turned these normal photos into old loking ones which relate to our thriller 'Victoria'. Ballet collage:

Here is an animation i created from our shots to our professional shots from films: