Evaluation Question 7

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

What did we learn from our continuity exercise?
From our continuity exercise we learnt a few things. For instance we learnt different shot types such as the Closeup Shot, Tracking Shot and Over the Shoulder shot. The ability to use these shots and understand them allowed us to use them effectively in our final product. Another technique we learnt to use was the 180 degree rule. This rule is used so that it doesn't make the screenplay seem confusing to the viewer in terms of how the character is moving. Finally we learnt the basics of editing in terms of cutting scenes. This was a prominent feature in our final opening and so this technique was useful to us in the continuity exercise.

What mistakes did we make during the continuity exercise and how did we learn from this? 
During the production of our continuity exercise, we made a few mistakes that slightly changed the overall end product. For instance the dialogue was quite hard to hear due to the ambient noise created from the surroundings and also due to the microphone quality on the camera. Next we didn't use the 180 degree properly as we broke it a few times during the exercise. This meant that the actor appeared to be walking the wrong way and this could be confusing for the people watching it. The actors also had slightly different clothes on in each scene due to the filming taking over a few days. 
From these mistakes we learnt how to effectively use the 180 degree rule and the proper effect it has on the viewer. 

In the full product, how did we ensure we didn’t make the same mistakes?
In the production of our full product, we looked at the mistakes we encountered in our continuity exercise and considered this when creating our final piece. For example we recorded footage various times. This allowed us to be flexible with the final production as we had lots of shots to use. Furthermore we used the same clothes during the filming stage as this makes the product more fluent and realistic.

How could we do better next time?
To do better next time we could have recorded the footage multiple times as we found that we were quite limited with what we could produce with the material we had. We could also have considered the 180 degree rule more and therefore used it more effectively.   

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Interview of Audience Member

The Soundcloud link below, is an interview of an audience member's opinions on our Thriller opening. During the interview, they listed the strengths and weaknesses of our product and how it could be improved.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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


Titles and Credits
For the titles and credits used in our opening to a Thriller, we used a few different programs. For some we used Adobe Photoshop as this could handle multiple photos and text. For the first and last titles we used Final Cut Pro as they were both moving images and so this program was the most convenient and easiest to use. Furthermore we have experimented with many various font types from the website Dafont to find the best one to fit the opening. We carefully selected the fonts that we felt went best with our theme of suspense and tension and we feel as if we have conveyed this well.

Characters
In our Thriller opening we have three characters. We have a Protagonist, an antagonist and a victim. The antagonist is presented as a powerful and dominant figure who has total control over the helpless victim. Throughout our opening, the victims and antagonists faces never appear as this creates suspense and an enigma. The protagonist is made to be the hero in the situation and is trying to rescue the victim by following the instructions of the Antagonist.

Costumes

Costumes is an important part in our opening. For instance the Antagonist wears black robes with a top hat and this gives connotations of death and violence. The victim wears normal clothes with a sack on his head to make him look like he is doing this against his own will. The Protagonist also wears normal clothes as this makes the detective seem undercover and inconspicuous. 

                                                       
Enigma
In our Thriller Opening, an Enigma is present throughout. For instance two of the three characters faces are not shown as this adds suspense and confusion to the piece. Furthermore by not showing their true identities this makes the opening more intense for the audience and makes the piece more interesting and exciting.

Sound
The sound we used in our opening was from one of our groups members playing guitar. The instrumentation used creates the suspense and unknown feel that was intended when creating a thriller. In addition the music changes from a calm acoustic guitar, to a more intense guitar when the Antagonist is shown on screen. This immediately conveys to the audience that he is evil. The music used is also an example of an ostinato as it repeats itself over the entire opening. 

'Captive'- Final Thriller Opening

The video below is our final thriller opening called 'Captive'

Rough Cut

Costumes and Props

Costumes

Protagonist

The Protagonist's costume in our Thriller opening is shown above. 

Victim

The Victims costume in our Thriller opening is shown above.

Antagonist

The Antagonist's costume in our Thriller opening is shown above.

The props that are used are included below:

Protagonist 

Box, mobile phone

Antagonist

Hat, long coat, top hat

Victim

Sack

Other props include a rope and chair.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule
Tuesday 2nd December- 1:20pm- 2:20pm 
Shooting running scene through woods.

Location: Forest
Props: None
Shots: Closeup, Long, Low Angle
Costume: Blue jeans, Blue Nike shoes and Hoodie
Actors: Dan Rogers


Wednesday 3rd December- 9am- 10am
Opening to part in the Stanier Hall

Curtains opening, walking through auditorium, writing the note 

Location: Stanier Hall, Wem 
Props: Chair x2, table, rope, sack, stick, hat, note, pen, portable lights x3, two cameras with tripods
Shots: Establishing Shot, Closeup shot, Several angle used
Costume: Top hat, Long jacket/robe, Black trousers.
Actors: Dan Rogers

Wednesday 3rd December- 2.20pm- 3.20pm 
Carrying on filming in Stanier Hall

Tying up Steve, hitting Steve, taking bag off Steve, shot of light

Location: Stanier Hall
Props: Camera x2, tripod x2, portable lights x3, sack, chair, table, rope, stick, hat
Shots: Over the Shoulder, Closeup, Medium shot
Costume: Top hat, Long jacket/robe, black trousers, 
                    Sack, red jumper, blue jeans and pumps 
Actors: Dan Rogers and Steve Floyd


Tuesday 9th December- 1.20- 2.20pm
Shooting scene of wires leading up to chair

Location: Stanier Hall, Wem
Props: Camera, tripod, portable lights x3, sack, chair, rope
Shots: Closeup, Tracking Shot
Costume: Sack, red jumper, blue jeans and pumps
Actors: Steve Floyd


Friday 16th January- 10.20- 2.15pm 
Finalising Stanier Hall Shots

Location: Stanier Hall, Wem
Props:  Chair, table, rope, sack, hat, portable lights x3, two cameras with tripods, wires and dolly.
Shots: Closeup Shot, Over the Shoulder Shot, Tracking Shot, Dolly Zoom.
Costume: Top hat, Long jacket/robe, black trousers, 
                   Sack, grey jumper, blue jeans and pumps 
Actors: Dan Rogers and Steve Floyd


Thursday 22nd January- 9.20- 9.50am
FInalising scenes

Location: Studio
Props: Dolly, Camera, Tripod and Wires.
Shots: Closeup Shot, Tracking Shot
Costume: None
Actors: None

Friday 23rd January- 10.30- 11.45
Finalising scenes

Location: Forest
Props: Box, phone
Shots: Mid Shot, Tracking Shot, Over the Shoulder Shot, Establishing Shot
Costume: Blue jeans, Blue Nike shoes and Jumper
Actors: Dan Rogers  

Shot List

The image above shows our shot list for our Thriller opening, Captive. This will be used to demonstrate the order that each shot will be taken and also the timings of each individual shot.

Animatic

Animatic for Captive

The link below is the Animatic for our Thriller opening called 'Captive'. To create this we have taking the individual images from our storyboard and combined them so that they move along in order of the plot.

Location

For our Thriller opening, we have two different locations that we will use to shoot our scenes at. The first location is a Hall with a stage and we thought this location would be appropriate as it fitted the storyline perfectly. 

The second location we have selected is a woodland area as we thought that this would give a dark feel to the opening as woods have connotations of obscurity and evil. 

1st Location- Main Area of Shooting

Other area of shooting

In this photo we are going to be shooting a scene that contains a box buried underground, hence the hole in the ground.

2nd Location- Main Area of Shooting

Other Angles of Location

Here we have some other angles of the location including a POV shot from one of the characters and a low angle shot. These types of shots will be incorporated in our Thriller opening and this shows an accurate representation of this. 

Final Storyboard for Thriller Opening

The following images below are our final scanned storyboard to the opening of our Thriller Movie. All the images are listed in order of the shots. 

Thriller Survey Results

Here are my results from my survey about personal preferences and people's way of thinking about Thriller Movies. By using these results I can take into consideration the opinions of the viewers and therefore make my opening more successful.  

From the first question, I can conclude that all the people who participated in the survey watch Thriller Movies.

For the next question there are mixed reviews for how often they watch Thriller Movies. Two out of the three people said that they watch Thriller Movies 1-2 times a month with the last saying they watch them 3-4 times a month.

The next question was about putting the listed films into order of personal preference. The two films that were the most frequently selected at the top were Inception and Bourne Ultimatum. The film that was at the bottom every time was Vertigo. This could be because of the age of the film.

Question 4 asked about where people watch Thriller Movies. The two highest answers equal in score were DVD and Cinema. I was quite surprised at this as many people use the internet and online film companies to stream films.

 Here, viewers were asked to choose their favourite director. The director with the highest votes was Christopher Nolan who directed films such as Inception and Dark Knight, two huge Thrillers.

Question 6 was one of the questions that was going to help me with deciding on how to produce my opening as it showed what people enjoyed seeing in a Thriller. The results revealed that the most popular sub-genre was action. This is the most probable route I will take with my Thriller opening.

Finally, the last question asks for feedback from the respondents about what they think makes a successful Thriller. Comments include "Mystery", "Suspense", "Action" and "Sound Effects". I will be taking all these into consideration when I create my production. 

Thrilller Opening Plot

Captive

Characters

. Danny Myles- Antagonist

. Detective Hunter Hudson- Protagonist

. Victor Razzal- Victim 

Plot

Danny Myles is a former stage director who turns his abandoned theatre into his own personal torture studio. Myles' fondness of creating misery to people's lives can be linked back to his miserable and abusive relationship that he had with his father and a key reason as to the destruction he creates. A part time bomb maker, Myles deals with his sufferers by using various different harrowing methods to portray his dominance over the innocent. 
 Only one man stands in his way. Detective Hunter Hudson, a retired detective of the Metropolitan Police, follows clues left by Myles to try and save innocent people under the control of the deadly criminal. Armed with just a letter from an unknown source, Hudson must find out where the next victim of Myles' lays before its too late.   

Logo

This was the logo I created using photoshop. I made it by using a background image of a piece of film with dark paint splatters. I also used an image of a white Tiger as I thought it would make the whole movie title more interesting. Finally I used a font that I got off the website called "Dafont" and had the font colour in white as it blended well with the background image.

Creating a Protagonist

My characters name is going to be 'George Watts' and he is a successful businessman who lives and works in the heart of London during the 1970's. He is a very intelligent and successful gentleman who owns his own banking corporation. He has ambitions of expanding his empire of banks by any means necessary.

Mise-en-scene
Costumes and make-up: Mr Watts always wear an expensive grey tailor made suit, with a black bowler hat and a tanned leather suitcase to carry all his important documents in. He also has shiny black leather shoes that he has polished everyday. He wears make up to cover up a 4 inch scar from a brawl he got into whilst in London at night. The costume and make-up used show the character to be quite a menacing and important figure.   

Props: One of Watts's most significant props is his black leather bound walking stick containing a sword. Reasons for carrying this weapon is unknown. Inside his coat jacket contains a revolver that when questioned insists is only used for self defence, but real reason is also unknown. The props used by George Watts adds uncertainty and suspense to his character and makes the viewer asks questions as to why he has these certain weapons.

Proxemics: Due to Watts being quite an important person he stands away from most of the public as he see's himself to be of an upper class. The only people who stand close to him are two huge bodyguards either side of him. This shows him to be an important and careful character.

Location: The main location will be in the business district of London and on occasion the poor suburbs as crime is rife here and so Watts can get away with crime. This gives a dark and evil feel to the character.


Lighting
The lighting in the city will be dark from the overcast sky and the shadows created by the skyscrapers. Furthermore the suburbs of London will be dark as he will be here at night and the only lighting will be from artificial lighting from street lamps. This overall darkness presents Watts so be a malicious and unpleasant man.

Camera Work
Many of the shots used will be Point of View shots as this will clearly show the expression of the characters face. Furthermore there may be a few shots from a lower angle as this will make Watts seem higher and therefore more significant and powerful. An over the shoulder shot may also be used when having a conversation with another character. The visual hierarchy will also be used as Watts will be the main focus throughout the scene and also have the most screen time.

Sound
Accent: George Watts has a strong cockney accent as he was born and raised in Hackney, London and he uses a lot of cockney rhyming slang such as "Ann Boleyn" (Gin). His accent adds to the whole London setting. This is known as diegetic sound.

Volume: The character will be quite a quiet character when he is in a good mood but can turn very aggressive and loud if someone crosses his path.

Sound Effects: When Watts is walking with his bodyguards the music is quite fast paced and tense as if something bad is about to occur and this as an example of non-diegetic sound.

Acoustics
Where the character is at a certain time will depend on how much echo there is in the setting. For instance if he is in a big hall there will be a lot of echo as opposed to him being in the city where there will be very little.

Another example of diegetic sound is the background noise regarding the setting. For instance if he is in the busy city there will be people talking on phones and also traffic rushing past possibly beeping their horns.