Q3: (Padlet) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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Q7: (Glogster) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in this progression from it to the full product? (Full screen)

During planning and research, we learnt a lot about the conventions of a thriller and how these allow the aid of tension and suspense found within. For research, we went thoroughly into: shot types and how they bring different meanings to the audience, the use of sound and how this may aid tension, editorial techniques and how thrillers should be kept at a fast rate to maintain tension and to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, also we learnt about mise en scene and what you would find in a typical thriller. All this including planning of what shots to use, where to film, what mise en scene we will integrate all helped in the process of making the production and emphasised it’s importance in thorough research and planning when it comes to the final product. We needed to know all this to alter the mood of the scene and project certain feelings towards the audience, in thrillers, we want the audience to feel on edge and also intrigued and to do this we had to research on how we can create this feeling.

Looking at shot types helped a lot since our preliminary, from knowing little about how meaning can be generated, to having a well grounded knowledge of key conventions. We used a varied amount of shot types; we made use of an extreme long shot in which we did not effectively use in our preliminary, this helped in establishing the setting and emphasised it’s isolated area to add tension. (Top picture shows preliminary, and bottom is our final production) We did not make use of this shot in our preliminary and so location is unclear.

We made clear use of extreme close up and close ups in our final production to bring tension and emphasize aspects in the scene such as the weapons; emphasizing it’s danger and making the audience feel the tension build, interesting them further to watch. This time round we used a panning shot instead of a tracking shot from our preliminary, we did this due to it was difficult to complete, without the shot shown being unstable. We have advanced from this and made sure that the shot was set up on a tripod, overall giving it a smoother flow. From the screenshot on the right of our preliminary, we tried doing a tracking shot handheld however, the shot was unsteady and it would have been much better if we kept Luke in the center of the frame to provide all attention to the character.

This time round, we used much more of a variety of transitions. We used flashbacks to cross cut between the present and past and provide a tension build, we also used crossfades and fades to white and black. We used these more effectively in our production than our preliminary, using it to provide a fast paced feel but also used transitions specifically to signify different things; fades to black to signify flashbacks (black was used instead of white to connote death), fades to white to signify the present and cross fades to signify time passing. We overall improved in our editing, with using straight cuts more effectively, to create a jagged effect to give distortions and to express an uneasy atmosphere.

We thought more about framing more in our production than when we were doing our preliminary. With the ‘Golden mean’, we used it in our production to attract attention to certain aspects in the scene; we used it for the knife to emphasize the weapon more effectively, to show it’s relation in the crime scene more significantly. In our preliminary however, we did not think much of the golden mean, as you can see some shots are distorted. With the rule of thirds, again, we thought about this more in our production with some scenes such as that when the innocent victim is being killed; we used this to attract more attention to the areas such as the rope. I also believe that we have improved in our continuity as a whole, in our preliminary, when Luke opens the door, the match on action is not used that effectively, however we have advanced in this when the Detective is walking through the crime scene; it flows more smoothly.

Storyboard

Classified - Final production

Q2 : (Prezi) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Character profile

The Detective:

Luke Crane playing as the detective will be dressed in a typical attire that reflects a detective job role; simple suit with a long jacket, we have chosen these clothing due to the audience will be familiar with the look as we see this type of clothing on famous detective characters such as Sherlock Holmes. Interpreting this into our opening thriller will benefit us as we don't have to explain too much on the characters job role and maintian the myterious nature of the film. Overall the audience should already be knowing of Luke's role due to his typical clothing of a detective, and of course reinforced with him walking around the crime scene investigating. We have chosen one of the roles to be a detective to reinforce our crime/thriller genre, we normally associate crime with a detective and so this character would work perfectly. Relating to the thriller conventions, we can see that a detective works perfectly to add mystery to the atmosphere, as we can put the audience into perspective of the detective as he is as unknowing as the audience watching on the scene shown.

The innocent victim:

Sam Payne will be acting as the innocent victim. The innocent victim will be seen as quite vulnerable and unknowing, we will do this by making him casually dressed with a white shirt. The white shirt will connote purity and innocence of the invidual and the casual attire will reinforce that he is almost unprepared on what will eventually happen. Adding an innocent victim into our film opening will allow us to heighten tension, in which is quite typical in a thriller, also the innocent victim adds anticipation as we can put the audience into perspective and make them feel as if the murder was actually nearing to them.

The murderer:

We, the audience will not see much of the murderer in the opening, however the murderer will be wearing some specific clothing such as a military vest and overall dark clothing. The military vest is to hint ideas of the persons past and what they might do as a living and the dark clothing will be used to connote aspects of death and anguish. The murderer is quite typical in a thriller as this character is key to increasing tension in scenes due to they bring danger in the most unsual and unexpected times, allowing us to include jumps into our thriller, making the audience intrigued into what is happening. Bringing aspects of danger to our thriller will keep action flowing.

Location Profile

The place:

Our location is an abandoned building down the slipe it is on the eastside of Bourne and it is a great place to film our thriller opening for many different reasons.

Why did we pick this location?

The main reason we picked this location is because it has been rundown for many years, so this means that nobody has been there for long time. This also means that there is a high chance that nobody will go there for a long time. In our opening  we will have a death of a character and we want to project that is a perfect place for a murder, this place would therefore be perfect to film due to it's deserted outer area, fitting our thriller narrative perfectly , as there is no chance of any body finding the body; it gives the feel of isolation and gives the atmosphere an inescapable feel . The place is desolate and it's rundown look will reinforce our thriller film with an eerie atmosphere.

Why will it be effective?

 The building is in a fairly remote area, there are two houses near by but that is it, the rest of the surroundings is just land, this is good as it gives a sense of realism; if there was a loud shout nobody would hear it. I feel like this location fits the thriller genre because it is an abandoned location, therefore it gives a sense of mystery to the location as nobody has been there before; it masks the history of the building. Also it is in a remote location, so there is nobody around, giving the location a sense of isolation which can give the audience a sense of uncertainty.

The rundown building can be used to manipulate and almost foreshadow the events that will be shown, it's unstable structure and rotting look can foreshadow an negative ending, and connote such areas of death. The overall look gives no sense of hope and this is what we need to create tension and keep the audience intrigued, as by outputting these connotations we can lead the audience to one point of view but then completely change on what they thought was about to happen, making the narrative quite distorted and mysterious.

This area can relate to our target audience, as this age group would be looking for excitement and scenes that are unpredictable to keep adrenaline flowing, so we are going to manipulate the area to make the narrative ambiguous, making those who watch to be on their edge of their seats.