evaluation 'FALT 94'

Flat '94'

For the AS Media coursework, we were asked to produce a two minutes thriller film over a time of approximately two months. After watching examples of thriller openings in class, such as, ‘Shinning’ and ‘What Lies Beneath’ we were given a clear idea of the conventions which were used in real thriller films. For example some of the conventions that were repeatedly used in the opening of real thrillers were establishing shots to show the location of action, time, setting and the atmosphere of the film. Also, there was a use of dark lighting to position the atmosphere of the thriller movie and titles were snap up in the opening of the thrillers to give information about the actors and the directors.

We also found out that in every thriller movie, there is victim and a villain with a basic beginning, middle, and an end layout to the movie keeping the thriller simple and clear for the audience when watching. We also learned that the plots in the films are usually very simple stories and they are performed by the effects and camerawork used. As a result, we tried to use some of the regulations and conventions of existing thrillers movies. Therefore, our thriller would keep in line with the quality of efficiently made thrillers.

The key motivation for our thriller opening was ‘What lies beneath’ this is because we wanted to create a strange mood in our thriller and we felt that ‘What lies beneath’ gives off an enormous amount of strange atmosphere.
Therefore, the things that actually demand us were the setting which was set in a house with an individual person. This created a nervous reaction around the film, also the noises that formed a self-conscious atmosphere, with the use of house, props and lighting. Also we thought that the emotion of bareness and being alone went really well. Therefore, we decided to use this theme in our thriller movie. As a result, we thought that all of the rules and conventions listed worked very well in the film. Therefore, we decided to work with the same theme when creating our thriller opening, using the basic method that was used in ‘What lies beneath’.

As a result, our thriller opening fits with the feature rules and conventions of a thriller movie. Our thriller also challenges real media products by using its conventions and rules, that it is not a clear thriller movie type until it is watched carefully. With real conventions such as, a range of camera angles, quick cuts, music creating tension, over emphasized noises, and the use of props.

Also, when creating the thriller opening there are many things to be thought before going ahead and filming, as a result, we needed to find out how is the media product we are filming going to represent particular social groups. Such as, teenagers, adults, and elderly people. Therefore, we have tried to represent a particular social group, by using a seventeen years old female actor; our particular social group was teenager’s age sixteen to seventeen. This is because, teenagers are more interested in going to cinema then adults. Therefore, our media product was linked to teenager, which means that there would have been more people going to cinemas to watch the thriller. As a result, this would have made our media product more successful.

We have used an adult killer and a female teenager as the victim; this is to show the diversity in gender. Also, female teenagers are more unsecure than male teenagers. We have used an actor that has a mixed origin. Therefore, our thriller is not aimed at a particular racial group. We also have not included any religious themes or props; this is because we didn’t want our thriller film to be aimed at a particular group and to restrict audience or viewers. Therefore, we have used an identifiable every day girl that had no significant of any religious people.

We would like to distribute our thriller movie worldwide, this is because we would like to prevent piracy and give everyone the same chance to watch the thriller on same day, such as, Indiana Jones was one of the films released like this. Therefore, this style of release prevents all piracy and illegal downloads. Also by releasing our thriller worldwide will maximize our profit of the thriller movie.

We would also choose to release it over the internet such as, on youtube, facebook, vimeo and myspace. This is becuse the social group we are presenting will have access to these types of social sites. Therefore, this would be one of the ways we will advertise our media product to the audience. We would also like to distribute our thriller movie in all cinemas; this is because everybody has their own choice of cinemas, also people would find it more accessible then going to one specific cinema.

Subsequent to researching many institutions and distributers we have chosen Maple Pictures to distribute our media product, this is because they have had many successful films and people may associate the name Maple Pictures, which has already existing movies that have done excellent on liberate. As a result, if our thriller movie is to be distributed under this name then people may use this association and think the similar about our thriller movie. Maple Pictures has had successful films, such as, Transporter. This film has done well under this name and also has stars such as some of the Hollywood’s major names.

Our media product would have the rating of 15; this is because it isn’t as scary enough to have a rating of 18. However, we wouldn’t want a 12 year old to see it because we consider if the movie was taken further then it would have had more violent blood and killing. As a result, we think it is not suitable for a 12 year old to observe. Also, the market for our viewers would be older teenagers, such as 15+ this is because they could identify and communicate the story of the movie. Also, this age would welcome the content and the plot of the movie. The class of our viewers may possibly be both working and middle class people. This is because our thriller is situated in a flat and the main character is a normal girl, therefore both upper class and middle class would watch this if they had a choice to. The audience we have chosen is normal rather than a niche market. This is because it is easier to appeal to a wider range of audience than to appeal to specific criteria of smaller audience.

A characteristic who would fit into our target viewers would be teenagers between sixteen to seventeen (16/17) years old. Who is in full time education at school or college and is interests in thriller movies. Also, teenagers who have spare time and likes to go out with their friends. It is very important to attract audience to go and watch the thriller; there are range of ways, such as, TV advertisements. This is because the majority of people watch TV and also we would choose to market it on prime time television because that’s the point where large amount of the public watch TV. Therefore, more people would see the advertisements and making attempt to go and see the thriller.

Another way we could market our media product is by putting a trailer in the cinemas when there is a well known movie that has a huge population of audience. This is because it would show to cinema lovers who go to the cinema every often to watch a movie. In addition, we would advertise it on social network or internet sites, this is because teenagers 15+ will use these types of networking sites as a result, this would have a big impact on the thriller. This is because our target audience who we have aimed our thriller would have access to all the networking sites such as face-book, and by putting a link to the trailer anybody will have the change to gain access to this trailer online.

In the period of our project we have learned a range of different types of technologies from the process of constructing our media product; this is because everything was new to us, when we first started our project. As a result, we went on in the process of everything we learned and found it useful for us coursework. When filming the footage for the media product we found that we had to use lots of different media techniques with the camera such as, recording, tripod, moving it, and angles.

When all the footage was filmed we then had to transfer it into an application called Final Cut Pro this is where most of the cutting and editing was done to produce the final clips of our media project. We establish final cut pro easy to use and simple to understand, this is because one of the technicians had showed us how do us it. After using final cut pro to edit our piece of work we then had to add sound tracks. As a result, to add sound tracks we had to use an application called Soundtrack Pro to produce the music that fitted our piece of work we have created. However, after the sound we had to create the moving image. This is where we used it to top it off and make our media project look like an already existing thriller. For this we used a program called live Type to make the titles at the beginning of the thriller opening. This was the basic Apple Mac program that we used to create the final product.

Last and final technological program that we learned and used was an Internet based site called Blogger. This is where we recorded everything we done in class like a diary. We also mentioned, what we did to film, and edit. After finishing the media product we have posted the website on the blogger so that people could see what we had created, also, giving people the chance to see others thriller opening.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that as a group we have done very well in both filming and time catching to match cut and editing. Looking back at my match cut exercise I have learned that group working is very important in media and also to film an opening or a movie it is very important that storyboarding and planning is made correct. Also, to make a media product successful the editing and soundtrack is very important in media.